An interview with Wes Studi

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contents 33

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ON THE COVER

NEWS

LIFE

LIFE

To understand Wes Studi as an actor, one needs to only look at his life.

He was raised in a household that spoke only Cherokee, was sent to an orphanage to learn English, ended up in Vietnam at the height of the war and came back during the flowering of the social revolutions of the 1960s and early ’70s. On the cover, Studi attends the world premiere for A Million Ways to Die in the West in Westwood, California, in 2014.

By Wilhelm Murg. P.45

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Metro: regional transit

Sudoku / Crossword

Legal: Green the Vote

8

21 Food & Drink: Drew and Anna Mains, Patty Wagon Burgers, briefs, OKG eat: pasta

36

6

39

Active: Toby Keith

Health: community clinics

12

Chicken-Fried News

27

Community: The Bella Foundation

41

Commentary

Visual Arts: Jamie Pettis, Quilts and Color, Glitter Ball

Music: Gift Raps 2, Super Diamond, listings

14

28

45

Cover: Wes Studi

15

Letters

29

Buy This Holiday Gift Guide

48

Film: Suedehead, Creed

33

Performing Arts: Jackie, Alcoholidays

50

Astrology

35

Holiday Festivities Directory

50

Classifieds

Cover photo: bigstock.com.

LIFE 16

Holiday Services Directory

16

OKG picks

Mission statement Oklahoma Gazette’s mission is to stimulate, examine and inform the public on local quality of life issues and social needs, to recognize community accomplishments, and to provide a forum for inspiration, participation and interaction across all media.

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I-40 EXIT 178 | SHAWNEE, OK | 405-964-7263 Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 3

news metro

Ride along Area mayors go all-in for a regional transit system; voters are next to get on board.

When mayors from six central Oklahoma cities passed around the black marker to sign a historic agreement to create the Central Oklahoma Regional Task Force, leaders committed to developing the Regional Transit Authority (RTA).

Formed to decide and select the future of regional mass transit for the Oklahoma City metro area, the task force’s work also centers on the project’s competition, which likely requires voter approval.

Elected officials and government leaders pledged their support over the past decade with backing studies calling for commuter rail, robust regional bus service and streetcar routes in the metro.

The Association of Central Oklahoma Governments (ACOG) will oversee the RTA, which will be comprised of representatives from all six cities.

John G. Johnson, ACOG’s executive director, predicts that when the task force begins meetings, discussions will center on the public’s needs.

“It has to be a strong investment with the individual citizens of central Oklahoma in mind,” Johnson told Oklahoma Gazette.

In many ways, past discussions revolved around the public. Elected officials refer to a regional mass transit system as a quality-of-life issue for residents of Oklahoma and Cleveland counties. Investing in public transit would fuel economic activity by attracting new businesses to the area and create new jobs.

Additionally, alternative transit options cut pollution and improve air quality.

Once in place, a regional mass transit system’s impact would be visible on congested roadways, including Interstate 35. The area’s major interstate, which connects Edmond, OKC, Moore and Norman, is at capacity, said OKC Mayor Mick Cornett, who believes that’s a “wake-up call for the entire region.”

Alternative modes of transportation are vital but must be supported by the communities of central Oklahoma, Cornett said at the event, which featured mayors of Del City, Edmond, Midwest City, Moore and Norman.

“Ultimately, we want a system we can be proud of, a system that reflects the values of this community and brings thousands of jobs to central Oklahoma,” Cornett said at the Dec. 1 ceremony.

“Today, we stand united with these goals in mind.”

M A RK H AN COC K

By Laura Eastes

How did we get here?

A decade ago, ACOG released the Regional Fixed Guideway Study, a plan for the future of transit in central Oklahoma. It called for commuter rail development, bus service improvements and placement of a streetcar system in downtown Oklahoma City.

It also paved the way for key transit discussions by area leaders and assisted with the downtown streetcar plan earning a spot among the eight projects of MAPS 3, which OKC voters approved in 2009.

That same year, the Regional Transit Dialogue began with government officials, the public and business and community leaders discussing future development of regional transit. Those conversations continued and bred the 18-month Commuter Corridors Study, called CentralOK!go, released in 2014.

That study proposed a regional transit commuter rail system to connect Norman and Edmond with downtown OKC. Additionally, streetcars would take passengers from downtown to Midwest City and on to Tinker Air Force Base.

Santa Fe Depot would serve as the regional transit hub. The station, utilized

by Amtrak, is undergoing renovations via a combination of city and federal dollars.

The RTA is the next step in the

4 | december 9, 2015 | Oklahoma Gazette

Mick Cornett walks to his seat after speaking during a signing ceremony held in the historic Santa Fe Depot to designate it as a regional transit hub.

Regional Transit Dialogue process, and Johnson said the task force’s first step involves reviewing the recent proposal.

“They can either follow that or determine something different,” he said.

Going down a different path seems unlikely, as ACOG poured significant time and money into developing the possible plan and routes. The regional transit dialogue steering committee includes Cornett, Norman Mayor Cindy Rosenthal and Del City Mayor Brian Linley. Representatives from Edmond, Midwest City and Moore also participate.

Before signing the memorandum of understanding, mayors spoke about the critical need to bring mass transit to the region. Mayors in attendendance included Cornett; Rosenthal; Linley; Jay Dee Collins, Midwest City; Charles Lamb, Edmond; and Glenn Lewis, Moore.

“As we look at what’s happening around the country and where investment is going and where new growth and energy are going, it is in regions that work together,” Rosenthal said. “We have the opportunity to make central Oklahoma the most vibrant region in the country.”

How much will it cost?

The early December ceremony didn’t address mass transit system costs, though each of the city’s leaders committed $511,000 toward the RTA’s creation and federal funds add another $584,000.

While federal transportation grants are a possibility, the project needs taxpayer help. Johnson said recent legislation will help, as the RTA can draw tax boundaries by precincts closest to proposed rail lines.

Johnson foresees many questions from residents in those taxing boundaries.

“How is this going to improve my life? How will this impact my pocketbook? Is it useful for my lifestyle?”

Johnson said. “If someone is going to come and tax me, what’s in it for me?”

A regional transit system is likely a decade away, but the decisions RTA makes over the next year will shape that system and the region’s future.

All six mayors pledged support for a regional transit system, but the last leader to voice favor shared the heart of the issue.

“Ultimately, voters will determine when they are ready to vote for it,” Cornett said.

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Final push Green the Vote wants to appear on a state ballot but needs voters’ support now for that to happen.

By Laura Eastes

Beth Corcoran spent her fall visiting the Paseo and the Plaza districts. She talked with students on the campuses of the University of Central Oklahoma and Seminole State College.

She also dropped by Chesapeake Energy Arena on nights the Oklahoma City Thunder played, but Corcoran didn’t go for the game.

Her schedule revolved around community events and the opportunity to interact with residents, especially those registered to vote. Driven by compassion and a desire to treat her severe insomnia with medical cannabis, Corcoran collects signatures in hopes that voters can decide the fate of medical marijuana in 2016.

“Most people are very nice,” she said. “They will ask to sign, share their experience and why they want it legalized. Most people want to help.”

Corcoran is a member of Green the Vote, a statewide grassroots organization pushing to legalize medical marijuana through a petition effort to bring a state question before voters. Founded this year, it preaches medical marijuana can make a positive impact on a patient’s outcome. Its claims are supported by research and studies, which show medical marijuana helps patients suffering from a multitude of illnesses.

As of Dec. 2, around 43,000 Oklahomans pledged support for legalization, according to Isaac Caviness, president of Green the Vote. The movement needs 123,724 signatures by Dec. 29 for a state question to appear on the November ballot. The volunteerbased group is not worried but is eager, as only half of the petitions are in at the Haskell headquarters. Caviness suspected the volunteers have collected 80,000 to 90,000 Oklahomans signatures as of early December.

“We are doing something that is going to be great for the state, and it is a human rights issue. We have people in this state dying from illness that medical

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A Green the Vote medical marijuana petition sits at Organics OKC in Oklahoma City. marijuana can help,” Caviness said.

“This is an issue people should be proud to support.”

While Green the Vote finds support, volunteers share encounters with voters against the effort and others who express fear of signing the petition.

Proposed amendment

State Question 778 calls for amending an article to the Oklahoma Constitution with classifying marijuana as an herbal drug regulated by the Oklahoma Department of Health. The drug would be taxed at 7 percent with proceeds first going to pay for regulations. Excess tax funds would benefit the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s general fund at 75 percent, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs would receive 25 percent.

The proposed law would allow for municipalities to levy additional taxes to build and repair roads. Additionally, industrial hemp would become legal for possession, growing and selling.

With colder weather and fewer outdoor events, the group is now pushing for supporters to come to them.

On the group’s website, greenthevoteok. com, there is a list and map of more than 150 businesses hosting the petition.

“Our goal is to drive people to the website, where they can find the closest location for signing,” Caviness said. “We have plenty of people who want to sign.

We just need to get them there.”

In addition to Oklahoma, voters in North Dakota and Wyoming can sign a medical marijuana petition. In those states, the number of required signatures is significantly lower with 13,453 needed in North Dakota and more than 25,000 required in Wyoming.

Learn more at greenthevoteok.com.

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Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 7 11/23/15 11:58 AM

news health

Treating the forgotten Free community clinics serve critical populations in OKC despite implementation of health care reform.

About two years ago, LaVonne Monson wrestled with how she would pay for her prescriptions.

Diagnosed with hypertension, or high blood pressure, she visited the Oklahoma County Pharmacy, hoping to receive aid from the social service program. At the Midtown location, 1201 N. Harvey Ave., Monson shared that, after 17 years, she no longer had health insurance and desperately needed her medication. She was told about neighboring community health clinic Good Shepherd Ministries at 222 NW 12th St. “Before I came to this clinic, I prayed about my health needs and what to do,” Monson said. “It wasn’t by mistake that I went next door from the county pharmacy to Good Shepherd. It was supposed to be, and I thank God for the services I get.”

Now, Monson makes regular visits to the facility, which provides medical, dental and pharmacy services to uninsured Oklahomans. She comes for primary health care and participates in the patient assistance program, which meets her medical needs at a price she can afford — free.

“I don’t know,” responded Monson when asked where she would go if Good Shepherd Ministries or other community clinics didn’t exist.

“I probably wouldn’t receive care.

If I went to see someone and I got a prescription, I wouldn’t take it or make it stretch. I could visit the ER [emergency room], but I know my situations are not emergency,” Monson said as her eyes filled with tears. “That’s something I don’t want to think about.”

Uninsured Oklahomans

Monson is one of 578,336 uninsured Oklahomans, according to an October report from the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. For Monson, it’s not by choice.

She understands the benefits to insurance after working 17 years for SoonerCare, Oklahoma’s Medicaid program that provides health care to residents on public assistance, children, seniors and people with disabilities. It is a program she doesn’t qualify for, and she can’t yet apply for Medicare.

“The Affordable Care Act did not affect me,” Monson said. “I couldn’t afford it. When I went online to apply for it, the premiums were too high. …

G a rett fisbec k

By Laura Eastes

I didn’t want to say I made more or less money and get penalized. It was a catch22.”

At Good Shepherd, clinic staff saw little change after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. An overwhelming majority of the clinic’s clients are economically disadvantaged and come from backgrounds of no insurance.

With health care reform ongoing in the nation, free community clinics continue as the cornerstone of indigent services. That’s despite common misconceptions there would no longer be a need for free clinics after the full implementation of the ACA, said Terrisa Singleton, Oklahoma Charitable Clinic Association chairwoman, who explained that many Oklahomans fall in the coverage gap.

“There are a lot of people who don’t qualify for SoonerCare and they work but don’t get benefits,” said Singleton, who also is Delta Dental of Oklahoma Oral Health Foundation’s director. “There are many reasons why people find themselves in need of care from community clinics.

“In some cases, clinics are starting to change and allow [services] for the underinsured, people who have insurance

8 | december 9, 2015 | Oklahoma Gazette

Fred Loper treats a patient at Good Shepherd Ministries clinic in Midtown. but there is a gap between their ability to pay when the insurance kicks in.”

Part of the coverage gap centers on Oklahoma’s refusal to expand Medicaid under the ACA. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation report, an estimated 23 percent of the state’s uninsured would have been eligible for Medicaid if the state expanded its program. The decision by Gov. Mary Fallin jeopardized insurance for 144,000 adults. States can still join the expansion, and recently, Louisiana Governor-elect John Bel Edwards expressed support to expand Medicaid in his state.

The state reports that more Oklahomans are becoming insured. In October 2014, 17.74 percent of residents were uninsured, and 15.43 percent were without insurance a year later. Still, the percentage of uninsured Americans is 12 percent.

Longtime provider

Meanwhile, the number of patients attending Good Shepherd hasn’t decreased. Clinic staff estimated they will record more than 16,000 patient visits in 2015. Pharmacy records show 600

patients receive assistance and workers fill 2,000 prescriptions each month.

The organization traces its roots back to the late 1960s, when it was formed within First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City. In 1977, the ministries added an evening clinic at Chuck and Chris’s Bar in downtown. Originally, patients were homeless, but as word spread of the services, the clientele shifted. The makeshift medical clinic began operating a year later in its present location, but in a building that has since been razed.

“Historically, it was just a one- or two-night clinic,” recalled Fred Loper, the clinic’s medical director. “From the beginning, dentistry was always a part and we had a little in-house pharmacy.

It was a typical faith-based clinic with volunteers and very connected to the church.”

In 2012, Oklahoma City’s Butterfield Memorial Foundation awarded the clinic with a $7 million grant to expand services. The clinic went from part-time to full-time. At the time of awarding, the clinic served 914 patients in a year. continued on page 10

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Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 9 11/24/15 10:46 AM

news health With 26 staff members and hundreds of volunteers, the facility treats adults and children for chronic illness and wellness visits. Without the clinic, a majority of patients would go without care or visit the ER. “So many of our patients have gone for so long without medical care,” noted Loper, who said the facility most recently helped four patients with specialized medical treatments for Hepatitis C. It never turns patients away, but it makes referrals to specialists when appropriate.

Its dental staff and volunteers conduct dental cleanings and run a tooth extraction service each Monday night. The 16 appointments open that morning and book quickly, said Jeannie Bath, dental director.

Many of the volunteers are health students coming from nearby universities. That was the case for Bath, who was introduced to Good Shepherd as a freshman dental student in 1996.

“Most of the dental students and dental hygiene students are like me.

They were raised in the suburb and have a privileged lifestyle,” Bath said.

“They have no idea about the alternate universe going on right here. We see patients living in a whole different reality.”

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Like Good Shepherd, Crossings Community Clinic’s inception was very similar. Member of Crossings Community Church started the clinic in 2005 after identifying health care as a struggle for many in the community, said Steve Turner, executive director.

“It was a big issue for those that were unemployed and uninsured, but also those that had high deductibles and were medically vulnerable,” Turner said.

“We decided as part of an exercise of our faith, we wanted to serve.”

During the first seven months, the clinic staff, which included one volunteer physician, saw 412 patient visits in 1,500-square-foot rented space at N. May Avenue and NW 36th Street. Over the course of the next eight years, the clinic was housed in a rented former Wal-Mart building.

Earlier this year, the facility opened in a freestanding structure split with the church’s community center and built by church-raised funds as well as grants awarded by groups like Butterfield Memorial Foundation. The clinic at 10255 N. Pennsylvania Ave. includes eight medical exam rooms, a dental area, a vision room, a lab and offices.

Over the past decade, Crossings Community Clinic reports 37,000 patient visits for medical, dental, vision and counseling services, all at no cost to patients. Unlike other free community clinics, Crossings

requires appointments. Turner said appointments allow patients to meet with medical staff that can best fit their health needs.

College students visit the clinic daily to meet with patients. Additionally, St. Anthony Family Medicine Residency program volunteers at the clinic. In total, 425 volunteers make the clinic a reality.

The Affordable Care Act did not affect me. I couldn’t afford it.

— LaVonne Monson

Following the implementation of the ACA, less than 10 percent of the clinic’s patients enrolled in the Health Insurance Marketplace, said Turner, who stressed the clinic serves a critical role in the community.

“Those with health insurance usually maintain their health through constant visits with doctors on a regular basis,” Turner said. “Individuals who don’t have insurance wait until there is a crisis. We are treating patients when they are at a critical point of health or dental care.

“What we want to become is a primary care provider for our patients so they don’t have to wait until there is a crisis.”

Under the radar

There are many challenges that come with operating a free community clinic, including costs. Health care is an expensive industry with laboratory testing, equipment, treatment and medications costing large sums. Both Good Shepherd and Crossings report in-kind partnerships with local medical and health businesses. The donating public, along with volunteers, remains a large aspect of the success and future of free community clinics.

At Good Shepherd, the $7 million grant funds are dwindling and the organization looks for new revenue sources to tackle the annual $2 million operating budget. Fundraising is difficult when the clinic reaches the poor and forgotten, often not mixing with potential donors.

“People in our community don’t even know we are here,” said Pam Timmons, executive director.

For those who notice and utilize free community clinics, like Monson, it makes a difference.

“I really mean this,” said Monson.

“All the years I had insurance, I never received this type of care.”

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Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 11 11/24/15 1:15 PM

Chicken Crybaby U

“Stop crying, cry babies!” was, in essence, the message sent

by Oklahoma Wesleyan University (OWU) President Everett Piper to students, faculty and the world at large in a recent post to the university’s website titled “This is Not a Day Care. It’s a University.”

Prompted by those mean young adults at the University of Missouri who got their school’s president canned, Piper went on the offensive with an anecdote about a student who “actually” approached him to complain about a service. He actually did it! He approached him! With a complaint!

Well, clutch the pearls, President Piper! We at Chicken-Fried News sympathize with the poor, poor administrator who was victimized by this student who said he felt victimized by a mandatory school chapel service sermon.

Fried news TRIGGER WARNING! President Piper does not believe in trigger warnings.

Nor does he care if you feel bad or guilty or hurt. Oklahoma Wesleyan University is here to make men out of boys and, presumably, girls — not to coddle these members of Generation Whine.

So if you’re looking for a “safe place,” he said you should keep looking.

Those are bold words for the president of a school with 900 students, especially in a climate where students are actually concerned about safety.

TRIGGER WARNING! President Piper might be a former president if, say, 90 students decided OWU wasn’t safe enough and found a new college to attend.

MATH WARNING! That would be a 10 percent decline in the student body.

Got it!

She can sing, she can dance, and now, she’s a doctor.

That’s right!

Oklahoma City University (OCU) awarded Broadway star Kelli O’Hara with an honorary doctorate of humane letters at a late November ceremony in the very auditorium where she performed countless times during her days at the school, according to The Oklahoman.

Like many OCU students, she set her sights on the bright lights of Broadway. So after earning her Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance and opera, she traded OKC for NYC. Oklahoma lost a good one, but “Broadway’s golden girl” continues to make Okies proud — she recently won a Tony Award. (For those not into theater, think Big 12 championship title.)

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“I just always wanted to do what I’m doing so badly,” O’Hara said during the Nov. 30 ceremony, according to a school press statement. “You don’t know what to dream for and hope for when you’re just wanting to do it. If you hold on to that, and never forget that, you will win — your heart will remain peaceful.”

At Chicken-Fried News, we couldn’t be happier for Dr. O’Hara, and we expect more to come from the 1998 alumna. After all, OCU President Robert Henry reportedly told her, “As we say here at OCU, if you’ve got it, flaunt it.”

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to throw around thanks to his — hold on, let us get our reading glasses — millions of dollars from playing professional football and related endorsements. It must be lucrative work.

The foundation gave six grants totaling $113,030 to local schools and organizations, with all of the money going to sports. Douglass, John Marshall, Millwood, Northwest Classen and Justice Alma Wilson Seeworth Academy schools received funds for everything from weights and basketball equipment to an end zone camera system.

Oklahoma Cleats for Kids also received a grant. The former Miami Dolphin, New England Patriot, Denver Bronco and current St. Louis Ram was once just a Heritage Hall Charger, which is probably why he keeps giving money to Oklahoma City programs.

Since it was started in 2006, the foundation has given more than $800,000 in local grants. So far, there

are no reports of Welker going across the middle to deliver the checks or any resultant concussions.

New playcaller

Like a young coordinator taking over for a campus legend head coach, Sen. James Lankford is attempting to adapt Tom Coburn’s blitzing fiscal playbook for use in a modern era.

In a new report, Federal Fumbles: 100 ways the government dropped the ball, Lankford channels Coburn’s annual Wastebook, a thorough collection of excess, misuse and spending lowlights.

Though what qualified as true “waste” was up to Coburn’s own interpretation, his book was full of government ribbings that were often blunt and chuckle-worthy.

His last Wastebook, in 2014, highlighted a $10,000 project to monitor “how grass grows” and a $331,000 grant toward understanding

the “hangry” phenomenon.

Will Lankford’s Fumbles fill the Wastebook void? Few successors ever see the success of the original. Just ask Texas.

Lankford’s initial report calls out the overregulation of a llama farm and a more than $2.5 million weight-loss program for truck drivers.

Lankford has shown he can call the plays, but is he willing to jump in the scrum pile himself?

Alert neighbors

A 29-year-old Enid man was arrested last month after residents reported dozens of shots fired across the state’s ninth largest city.

Officers said Anthony “Tony” Jackson was tied to 42 “drive-by” scenes in the north central Oklahoma community, according to News9.com.

He’s accused of using a “small caliber handgun” as he cruised through Enid and fired into cars, injuring a family pet and shooting out windows in a mass vandalism spree that spanned more than five hours before Jackson was served with a “no-knock” search

warrant at his home, according to Enid News & Eagle.

It started earlier that day with a call to police after a manager at Jackson’s work, Safelite AutoGlass, discovered “an AR-15 rifle, a pistol, ammunition and a bulletproof vest” in a work van, the Eagle reported.

Jackson was subsequently fired.

Frantic calls to police started coming in around 5 p.m. Nov. 18.

The only injury reported was to the dog, which is expected to recover. Jackson was booked into jail on complaints of animal cruelty, use of a vehicle to facilitate intentional discharge of a firearm and reckless conduct with a firearm,” the Eagle reported.

NewsOn6.com also reported the only other run-ins Jackson had with law enforcement were for traffic tickets.

Alert witnesses reported the make, model, license plate number and color of Jackson’s vehicle, and he also was caught on surveillance video, which made his capture sort of like shooting fish in a … oh, never mind.

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Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 13

commentary

PR OVI DED

OKCPS too reliant on suspensions

By John Thompson

Discipline is the most emotional dispute in education. Recent Oklahoma City Board of Education meetings on the district’s new code of conduct have become angry. All sides are committed to the students, however. We can all agree that Oklahoma City Public Schools (OKCPS) has grown too reliant on suspensions.

Punitive policies feed the “school-to-prison pipeline.” Clearly, OKCPS needs more socio-emotional student supports, but it cannot now afford them.

Better professional development can reduce disciplinary infractions. Some even think that improved classroom management would solve most disciplinary problems. Better teaching can make a difference. The question is, How much of a difference?

I believe administrators often overestimate how much misbehavior can be decreased by improved instruction, but they are unquestionably sincere.

The lessons learned during our

bipartisan school improvement effort, MAPS for Kids, could be helpful. Having served on the MAPS Steering Committee, the latest school board meeting dispute seemed like déjà vu.

For instance, it was reported that 29 of the nearly 900 students at Webster Middle School are responsible for 40 percent of the school’s discipline problems (“OKC district Webster Middle School reports decrease in disruptive behaviors, Nov. 29, The Oklahoman). In 1998, on the eve of MAPS, the majority of infractions at my high school, John Marshall High School, were committed by 96 students. Had we enforced our rules, 36 of our 1,300 students would have been eligible for longterm suspensions of 10 days or more.

MAPS volunteers were shocked to learn that OKCPS needed another 1,200 alternative school slots. We recommended “Rolls Royce-quality” alternative education so it would not be seen as punitive. The voters agreed that “no child

should perpetually disrupt class merely because alternative schools were full.”

When OKCPS started expanding alternative education, Marshall saw an immediate difference. We improved more than any other OKCPS high school, soon posting outcomes comparable to Northwest Classen, the district’s highestperforming neighborhood school.

And this is another example where the Marshall experience is similar to today’s patterns. When principals felt empowered, they could draw a line on misbehavior before it spun out of control. The first of the year could be worrisome with school administrators fearing that they were disciplining too many students, but after their credibility was established, fewer suspensions were required.

Similarly, Webster began the 2015 year with more suspensions of one to five days but saw a drop in long-term suspensions.

Perhaps OKCPS should recommit to

MAPS promises of a high-quality early warning attendance system and Rolls Royce-quality alternative schools, but we must avoid unnecessary controversies.

So, I support the promising “restorative justice” program, while recalling that without adequate funding, it can backfire.

I would double the staffing of in-house suspension (ISS) rooms in neighborhood secondary schools. A teacher would conduct ISS class and keep order. A social worker/counselor or teacher would provide interventions. Disruptive students could then be immediately removed from class without being warehoused.

OKC could then unite and work together to adequately fund programs that provide comprehensive support to teachers and troubled students.

Thompson blogs regularly on national education issues at The Huffington Post, This Week in Education and School Matters.

PR OVI DED

Tax ballot violates state constitution

By Dave Bond

It’s time for public school teachers in Oklahoma to receive a pay raise.

According to one survey, over 97 percent of Oklahoma voters share this sentiment.

University of Oklahoma President David Boren has proposed increasing Oklahoma’s sales tax burden to the highest in the nation in order to provide $5,000 salary increases for every teacher in the state.

However, under this proposal, over 40 percent of the money from the tax increase would not go to teacher salaries, but to higher education and other programs.

Boren leads a coalition to put his proposal on next year’s statewide ballot.

The problem is the coalition’s ballot petition, Initiative Petition 403, violates the Oklahoma Constitution’s singlesubject rule. The state constitution limits ballot initiatives to one subject each, in order to prevent logrolling.

“Logrolling” is when you take something people generally favor, like a pay raise for hardworking teachers, and roll it up with something people do not generally favor, like a major tax increase.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has opposed logrolling in the past because, in the court’s words, “voters should not have to adopt measures of which they really disapprove in order to embrace positions that they favor.”

Boren’s proposed ballot measure contains at least four subjects.

The first subject is the pay raise for all 42,027 public school teachers in the state.

The second subject is the appropriation of funds unrelated to teacher salaries.

Forty percent of the funds from the tax increase would go to higher education and other areas, not to teacher pay.

The third subject is the levying of a “penny” increase — i.e., 1 percent — in

the state sales tax rate. This would accompany the existing state rate of 4.5 percent.

This increased state rate of 5.5 percent would be on top of county and municipal sales taxes. Oklahoma would then have the highest average combined sales tax burden — 9.7 percent — of any state in the U.S., according to the Tax Foundation, a U.S. tax policy think tank.

The fourth subject is a dramatic restructuring of Oklahoma’s state government appropriations process that could significantly restrict the Legislature’s “power of the purse.”

Under the proposal, the state Board of Equalization, an executive branch entity, could instruct the Legislature on how much money to appropriate to education.

If the Legislature didn’t comply, legislators would be prohibited from appropriating funds to any state agencies, even those unrelated to education.

Opinions expressed on the commentary page, in letters to the editor and elsewhere in this newspaper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of ownership or management.

14 | december 9, 2015 | Oklahoma Gazette

Considering these facts, Initiative Petition 403 violates the Oklahoma Constitution’s single-subject rule.

Fortunately, it’s still possible for Oklahoma teachers to receive pay raises and for 1,000 more teachers to be hired without an unconstitutionally logrolled tax increase.

We have outlined, on our website, an alternative action plan featuring over $617 million worth of inefficient or nonessential spending found in Oklahoma state government. Others have identified additional areas of potential cost savings that could also be considered.

The bottom line is that money currently being spent in these areas can and should be redirected to higher priorities, such as increased teacher pay and hiring more teachers.

Bond is CEO of OCPA Impact, Inc., a nonpartisan advocacy organization. Find the group’s alternative plan for increasing teacher pay at stophighertaxesok.com.

LETTERS Oklahoma Gazette provides an open forum for the discussion of all points of view in its Letters to the Editor section. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity.

Letters can be mailed, faxed, emailed to jchancellor@okgazette.com or sent online at okgazette.com. Include a city of residence and contact number for verification.

Blame W.

Tom Furlong wrote that, “Obama has saddled us with debt greater than all other presidents combined” (Commentary, Letters, “Social Insecurity,” Nov. 18, Oklahoma Gazette).

I have never heard a Republican criticize President George W. Bush for cutting taxes while launching two wars — wars that were paid for with Chinese credit debt, handed off to Obama.

Nor have I heard Republicans ask how, after eight years of Bush’s administration, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could have failed to foresee the collapse of the ponzi scheme Enron corporation or the 2008 economic crash, the most catastrophic recession since the Great Depression.

Never mind that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are commonly called “mistakes” and are considered by Middle

East experts as having created the conditions giving rise to ISIS. Obama was supposed to fix all that with Republicans in Congress opposing virtually every move he made.

— Nathaniel Batchelder, The Peace House Oklahoma City Tax cuts, stupid

Yes, Oklahoma, the inscrutable “thinkers” at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA) are at it again, this time railing against a badly needed sales tax hike to fund education, calling the proposed vote of the people an “unconstitutional money grab.”

They also weep buckets for the poor (uncharacteristically), noting that Oklahoma will have the highest combined state and local sales tax rate in the nation if it passes. What they oh-so-conveniently neglect to mention is that because we exempt a lot of services that other states tax, we rank 34th in total per capita sales tax collected, $636 versus $948 in Texas, $982 in Kansas, $956 in New Mexico and $954 in Arkansas (Tax Foundation). The $600 million in extra revenue from the proposal would take us to $786 per capita, exactly the national average.

That still leaves us below the national per capita average for income tax $899 vs. $730 for Oklahoma, and property tax,

$590 vs. a national average of $1,428.

You reap what you sow, and the past decade of foolishly slashing income taxes has cost the state over $900 million in revenues, about the same as the projected deficit this year, so it’s the tax cuts, stupid. We already rank near the bottom in per-pupil funding and teacher pay, and Gov. Mary Fallin and her ditsy crowd can’t wait to drive another nail into public education’s coffin.

OCPA, as usual, believes the state can somehow conjure up the $284 million to fund teacher pay raises without hiking taxes.

But here’s the rub; Oklahoma’s per

capita state and local spending (minus federal grants) of $6,396 is far lower than the national average of $8,186, and most surrounding states. We would have to raise total spending $1.37 billion to match Texas, $6.7 billion for Colorado, $4 billion for New Mexico and $5.36 billion to equal the inane Kansans, whose governor cut income taxes in 2012, then agreed to jack up the sales tax after the budget imploded, claiming it really wasn’t a tax hike.

Dear OCPA, please shut the $$^&(*% up and let the people vote.

— D.W. Tiffee Norman

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Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 15

okg picks are events

recommended by Oklahoma Gazette editorial staff members.

For full calendar listings, go to okgazette.com.

BOOKS Sara Cunningham Signing, in her very personal memoir How We Sleep at Night Sara Cunningham describes her journey to rectify her son’s sexuality with her own faith, 6 p.m., Dec. 9. Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 842-2900, fullcirclebooks.com. WED

Sunday, December 20th

53rd Annual Presentation of a Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols 9:15 AM and 11 AM

Thursday, December 24th Christmas Eve Service 4:30 PM Children’s Pageant Family Eucharist 10:30 PM Choral Prelude 11 PM Midnight Mass

Friday, December 25th Christmas Day Service 10 AM Holy Communion

Tamara Elder Signing, join the author as she talks about Little Song: The Life of Ataloa Stone McLendon, a biography of an important figure in Native American arts education, 4 p.m., Dec. 11. Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 842-2900, fullcirclebooks.com. FRI Fred Staff Signing, author of the Bass Reeves trilogy, Fred Staff is back to sign Rocha’s Treasure of Potosi, which follows Francisco Rocha on a journey to find his fortune.

3-5 p.m. Dec. 12 at Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 842-2900, fullcirclebooks.com. SAT Polar Express Party, The Polar Express party brings the popular children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg to life complete with pajamas and hot chocolate, 10 a.m., Dec. 12. Belle Isle Library, 5501 N. Villa Ave., 843-9601, metrolibrary.org. SAT Jessica Isaacs Reading, join Oklahoma Book Awardwinning poet Jessica Isaacs for a free reading of her works; Isaacs is a member for the coordinating committee for the Woody Guthrie Poets and is the founder of Dragon Poet Review, 2 p.m., Dec. 13. The Depot, 200 S. Jones Ave., Norman, 307-9320, pasnorman.org. SUN

FILM The Wonders, (2014, Italy, dir. Alice Rohrwacher) at age 12, Gelsomina must already care for and watch over her younger sisters and the family’s bee colonies, but their rural way of life and family structure are soon threatened by the arrival of a reality TV crew dead set on putting their lives on display, 5:30 p.m., Dec. 10. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 236-3100, okcmoa.com. THU The Forbidden Room, (2015, CAN, dir. Guy Maddin & Evan Johnson) this weird and non-linear ode to film joins a submarine crew aboard a vessel that has been unreachable for months who are suddenly joined by a woodsman no one knows, 8 p.m., Dec. 10 & 11. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 236-3100, okcmoa.com. THU-FRI

Christ the King

Orion: The Man Who Would Be King, (2015, UK, dir. Jeanie Finlay) this documentary tells the story of Jimmy Ellis, a world champion Alabama horse trainer who leaves smalltown life to pursue his dream of music superstardom, and who just so happens to sound exactly like legendary rock 'n’ roll superstar Elvis Presley, 5:30 p.m., Dec. 11; 5:30 & 8 p.m., Dec. 12; 2 & 5:30 p.m., Dec. 13. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 236-3100, okcmoa.com.

FRI-SUN

P R OVI DED

Join us this holiday season!

2nd Friday Art Walk Oklahoman landscape photographer Marvin Lee was best known for capturing the vibrancy of the world around us, making the commonplace and mundane seem anything but. He dedicated himself to showing others the magic apparent to him in a sunset, an old barn, a woman on a train. Experience a tribute exhibit dedicated to Lee at Norman’s 2nd Friday Art Walk 6-9 p.m. Friday at Shevaun Williams & Associates Commercial Photography, 221 A. Main St., in Norman. Call 329-6455 or visit shevaunwilliams.com or 2ndfridaynorman.com.

Friday Sicario, (2015, US, dir. Denis Villeneuve) this action drama tells the tale of a young idealistic FBI agent on a personal mission to the Mexico border to destroy the cartel responsible for a attack killed members of her team, 6 p.m., 9 p.m., and midnight, Dec. 11. Meacham Auditorium, 660 Parrington Oval, Norman. FRI Boruto: Naruto the Movie, (2015, Japan, dir. Hiroyuki Yamashita) this Japanese language anime provided with English subtitles centers on Naruto as the Seventh Hokage, as Hidden Leaf Village is planning to host the Chunin Exams to train new shinobi from the village and from their allied villages, 7 p.m., Dec. 13 & 14. AMC Quail Springs Mall 24, 2501 W. Memorial Road, 405-755-2406, amctheatres. com. SUN-MON

HAPPENINGS Holiday Light Spectacular, over the course of two decades this annual lights display has grown to more than 100 light displays spanning over a mile-and-a-half drive,

Christmas Eve Masses 4:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m., Midnight Christmas Day Mass 10:00 a.m.

New Years Eve Mass 5:00 p.m.

New Years Day Mass 10:00 a.m.

Confessions Saturdays 3:30-4:15 p.m.

8005 Dorset Dr.

(405) 842-1481 • www.ckokc.org 16 | december 9, 2015 | Oklahoma Gazette

PROVI DED

Catholic Church

including a 118-foot Christmas tree and dancing light shows coordinated to music, 6-10 p.m. through Dec. 30. Joe B. Barnes Regional Park, 8700 E. Reno Ave., Midwest City, 739-1293, midwestcityok.org.

Winter Shoppes, lots of very cool local businesses are bringing all your holiday needs to one awesome pop-up holiday outdoor shopping fest, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Dec. 10-13.

Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 445-7080, oklahomacitybotanicalgardens.com/events. THU-SUN NASA Talks: Mars in the Age of Space Exploration, as a Theoretical Investigator on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), Richard Zurek helped pioneer studies separating transport from photochemical effects on ozone change as observed from space; he will tell the story of the missions to Mars, including the discovery that Mars is a complex, diverse planet, 7 p.m., Dec. 10. National Weather Center, 120 David L. Boren, Norman, 325-3095, nwc.ou.edu. THU LIVE! on the Plaza, join the Plaza District the second Friday

Weldon Jack 2 Year Kumbaya This ain’t your father’s barber shop, and it ain’t your father’s anniversary shindig, either. Join the guys at Weldon Jack and The Society for a heart-warming evening, complete with food, drinks, live music, shopping and more. Buttermilk Southern Sliders, Prairie Wolf Spirits and Café Evoke will be on hand to help satiate all your cravings. Entry is free, and you can get three free drink vouchers with the purchase of a commemorative tin camp cup. The party starts 6 p.m. Saturday at 3621 N. Western Ave. Call 684-0028 or visit facebook.com/weldonjackokc.

Saturday

BI GSTO CK.COM

Star Wars Overnight No, you can’t pretend to be a 12 year old with a hormone disorder just to participate. Not that we asked, or anything. Join Science Museum Oklahoma for the world’s coolest lock-in, where guests can investigate the science of the Star Wars universe. Ever wonder about the physics of lightsabers?

Curious about why it’s apparently impossible to shoot someone with a blaster? Drag your offspring down to SMO, 2100 NE 52nd St. Checkin is 6 p.m. Friday. Prepare for the night of your life. Attendance is $35-45 per child; adult nonparticipants are $25. Call 602-3760 or visit sciencemuseumok.org.

Friday of the month for an art walk featuring artists, live music, street pop-up shops, live performances, and more, 7-11 p.m., Dec. 11. Plaza District, 1618 N. Gatewood Ave., 367-9403, plazadistrict.org. FRI Annual Winter Arts Festival, join Sandalwood & Sage, a community based retailer that specializes in mind, body and spirit products from around the world, for its Winter Arts Festival, featuring artists from many disciplines, live music, dream catchers, free samples of Organo Gold Coffee and Tea, free massages, wellness consultations and more, 6 p.n., Dec. 11. Sandalwood & Sage, 322 E. Main St., Norman, 366-7243. FRI Print, Print, BOOM, featuring live music from Shameless Friend, Askanse, Sardashhh and more, Print, Print, BOOM is the annual printmaking festival where you can experience an unforgettable evening learning how to make woodblock prints, meet printmakers, and check out some amazing limited edition prints for sale, noon-midnight, Dec. 11.

Downtown Main Street, 428 E. Main St., Norman. FRI

COME JOIN US THIS HOLIDAY SEASON SUNDAY DECEMBER 13TH 8:30 and 10:45am Adult Choir Cantana

SUNDAY DECEMBER 20TH 8:30 and 10:45am Worship 5:00 pm Christmas Caroling and Cookies

NEW COVENANT CHRISTIAN CHURCH (DISCIPLES OF CHRIST)

Holiday Open House, join Touchmark for holiday treats, youth crafts, and family holiday photos with Santa, 2:30 p.m., Dec. 12. Touchmark Coffee Creek, 2801 Shortgrass Road, Edmond. SAT Alpaca Holiday Pictures, pictures with Santa Claus are so last year, anyway; the Mustang Creek Alpacas are ready for their closeup, so throw on your gayest apparel and get ready to get snapped with cool continued on next page

12000 N. Rockwell Ave. Oklahoma City, OK 73162 (405) 722-7445 NCCCOKC.ORG Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 17

Wa rn er Br ot her s / P ROVI DED

continued

The Polar Express

Congrats Grads!

1,246 promises kept 1,246 dreams realized 1,246 lives transformed The Central community congratulates the 1,246 Bronchos graduating in our fall 2015 class!

U N I V E R S I T Y O F CENTRAL OKLAHOMA TM

Edmond, OK • (405) 974-2000 • www.uco.edu uco.bronchos UCOBronchos

18 | december 9, 2015 | Oklahoma Gazette

It just wouldn’t be Christmas without Tom Hanks’ digitally animated motioncaptured face dragging us ever-closer to uncanny valley. Based on the classic children’s book of the same name, The Polar Express tells the tale of a magical train that takes children on a wondrous adventure to the North Pole, where they see amazing sights and meet the Big Man in Red himself. Don’t miss this quintessential family holiday film back on the big screen 7 p.m. Tuesday at Harkins Theatres Bricktown 16, 150 E. Reno Ave. Tickets are $5. Call 231-4747 or visit harkinstheatres.com.

Tuesday camelids, noon-3 p.m., Dec. 12. DNA Galleries, 1709 NW 16th St., 525-3499, dnagalleries.com. SAT Drop-In Art, learn to tell stories and illustrate as you tapestrate with fabric quilt collages, 1 p.m., Dec. 12.

Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 2363100, okcmoa.com. SAT

FOOD Holiday Chef Time, Chef Jeff will prepare special holiday treats just in time for the season; guests will be able to sample his creations, 3 p.m., Dec. 10. Touchmark Coffee Creek, 2801 Shortgrass Road, Edmond. THU Cheese & Wine Benefit, if you thought you enjoyed cheese before, wait til you discover its perfect pairing, generosity; attendees will sample five cheese and wine pairings for $35, with all proceeds benefiting Positive Tomorrows, a non-profit elementary school for children without homes in Oklahoma City, 6:45 p.m., Dec. 11.

Forward Foods-Norman, 2001 West Main St., Norman, 321-1007, forwardfoods.com. FRI Uptown Cooking Class, step one, get pork chops; step two, stuff pork chops; step three, cook pork chops; step four, stuff self, 1 p.m., Dec. 12. Uptown Grocery Co., 1230 W. Covell Road, Edmond, 509-2700, uptowngroceryco. com. SAT Healthy Raw Vegan Recipes, join Victoria Singer for this demonstration where you’ll learn how to make some tasty and nutritious raw vegan snacks and the benefits thereof, 1 p.m., Dec. 12. Natural Grocers, 7001 N. May Ave., 840-0300, naturalgrocers.com. SAT Omegas, Oh My, learn just what it is about those tasty little fish fats that keep our brains, joints and hearts running smoothly and how you can get more of them inside you today and every day, 6 p.m., Dec. 15. Natural Grocers, 7001 N. May Ave., 840-0300, naturalgrocers. com. TUE

YOUTH Devon Ice Rink, see how well you fare in a nearly frictionless environment at this year’s Devon ice rink; open through Jan. 31. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 445-7080, oklahomacitybotanicalgardens. com/events.

Tape & Tunnels, get psyched for recyclables at the newest exhibit at SMO, where kids can experience an interactive wonderland with packing tape tunnels, bungee cord mazes, and cardboard clubhouses where they can climb, build and explore. Exhibit runs through March at Science Museum Oklahoma, 2100 NE 52nd St. , 602-6664, sciencemuseumok.org.

Santa’s Ocean Adventure, one wonders if Santa uses an angler fish to guide his gift-filled submarine; make ocean-themed gifts and take photos with a SCUBA-clad Santa, 10 a.m., Dec. 12. Oklahoma City Zoo, 2000 Remington Pl. SAT Crafts For Kids, it may not smell like pine needles, but it won’t wind up all over your carpet or half-eaten by your cat either; join Lakeshore so your little one can make an adorable holiday wreath, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Dec. 12.

Lakeshore Learning Store, 6300 N. May Ave., 858-8778, lakeshorelearning.com. SAT

PERFORMING ARTS Andy Woodhull, he is pretty funny on Twitter, so he is probably like 10 times funnier in real life; you should come watch his stand-up, because if he’s good enough for Conan he’s probably good enough for you… probably, 8 p.m., Dec. 9 & 10; 10:30 p.m., Dec. 11; 8 & 10:30 p.m., Dec. 12. Loony Bin Comedy Club, 8503 N. Rockwell Ave., 239-4242, loonybincomedy.com. WED-SAT Greetings!, if you’re looking for some on-stage holiday cheer that you haven’t already seen a billion times before, consider checking out Greetings!, a show featuring a protagonist who brings home his Jewish atheist fiancee to his very Catholic family for the first time, 7:30 p.m., Dec. 10; 8 p.m., Dec. 11 & 12; 2 p.m., Dec. 13. Carpenter Square Theatre, 806 W. Main St., 2326500, carpentersquare.com. THU-SUN Naughty & Nice & A Little Bit Nuts, come enjoy all your holiday music favorites, brought to you by the finest vocalists UCO’s Department of Musical Theater has to offer, 7:30 p.m., Dec. 10-12. UCO Jazz Lab, 100 E. 5th St., Edmond, 359-7989, ucojazzlab.com. THU-SAT A Christmas Carol, Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge was lacking in holiday spirit, so fate sent him three: the Ghosts of Christmas’ Past, Present, and Future; come see Charles Dickens’ classic ghost story brought to life onstage and leave the humbug at home, 7:30 p.m., Dec. 10-12; 2 p.m., Dec. 13. Rose State College, 6420 SE 15th St., Midwest City, 733-7673, rose.edu. THU-SUN

Jane Austen’s Christmas Cracker, join Reduxion Theatre Company for an immersive experience; participate in a Regency-era Christmas ball with food, music and a roster of classic characters including the hostess, Jane Austin, 8 p.m., Dec. 11-13. Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave., 297-2264, okcciviccenter.com. FRI-SUN Fruitcakes, mix together a batch of fruitcakes, three dozen Christmas trees, 10,000 outdoor lights, a chicken pox epidemic, two southern spinsters, an estranged old man, a lost cat named Tutti Frutti and a hog named Buster and you have the recipe for an evening of holiday cheer, 7:30 p.m., Dec. 11 & 12; 2:30 p.m., Dec. 13. The Stage Door Theater, 601 Oak Ave., Yukon, 405-265-1590, stagedooryukon.com. FRI-SUN Bianca Del Rio’s Rolodex of Hate, if your tree’s draped in feather boas, your baubles drenched in glitter and your fridge stocked with eggnog, this might be the comedy special for you; join season 6 winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Bianca Del Rio for an evening of raucously irreverent fun, 8 p.m., Dec. 12. Rose State College, 6420 SE 15th St., Midwest City, 733-7673, rose.edu. SAT Ragtime, join OCCC for this musical that follows three early-20th century U.S. groups: African-Americans, suburban white upper-class and Eastern European immigrants, and features historical figures like Harry Houdini, Booker T. Washington, and J. P. Morgan, 7:30 p.m., Dec. 13 & 14. OCCC Visual and Performing Arts Center, 7777 South May Ave. SUN-MON

ACTIVE OKC Thunder vs. Atlanta Hawks, OKC Thunder teaches the Hawks why not to try flying through a storm, 7 p.m., Dec. 10. Chesapeake Energy Arena, 100 W. Reno Ave., 602-8700, chesapeakearena.com. THU

Christmas Market, the art lover in your family deserves a gift as unique as she is; show you care with one of the small works available at the Christmas Market exhibition, featuring small works by local artists. The Purple Loft Art Gallery, 514 NW 28th St., 412-7066.

Dirty Santa Novelty Toys, artist Allin KHG makes some of the most unique and bizarre toys you’ve ever seen; delight your friends and family at this year’s game of White Elephant or Dirty Santa by showing up with one of these adorably macabre contraptions, on sale through Christmas Eve. Kasum Contemporary Fine Arts, 1706 NW 16th St., 604-6602, kasumcontemporary.com.

FLUX, enter the mind of artist Denise Duong through fantastical sketch murals on display this month. JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N. Walker Ave., 528-6336, jrbartgallery.com.

Mongolia, Oklahoma, a small show of landscapes and horse imagery from photographer David Joshua Jennings. Paseo Gallery One, 2927 Paseo St., 524-4544, facebook.com/paseogalleryone.

Retracing, featuring unique works in line and color by Christie Hackler, Beatriz Mayorca, Lisa Jean Allswede and Brandi Downham, brought to you by Fringe, a collective of contemporary women artists in the OKC area. Mainsite Contemporary Art, 122 E. Main St., Norman, 360-1162, mainsite-art.com.

Retro 75, Jann Jeffrey’s latest exhibit celebrates color and design through watercolor, glasswork, photography and more and runs through December. Jann Jeffrey Gallery, 3018 Paseo St., 607-0406.

Small Works Great Gifts, if you are puzzled as to what to gift your artistic loved one for the holidays, check out this unique show featuring small works during the holiday season; the gallery shows a wide variety of styles as well as mediums; oils, acrylics, watercolor, photography, pen and ink, pencil as well as sculpture and glass, and will also have gift certificates and lay-away.

Contemporary Art Gallery, 2928 Paseo St., 601-7474, contemporaryartgalleryokc.com.

MAR K HANCOCK

10th Annual Nightlight Run, see the Midwest City Holiday Lights Spectacular up close and personal on the only night when it will be open to foot traffic; don’t get too distracted by the lights though, this 5K is still a race, 5:45 p.m., Dec. 12. Joe B. Barnes Regional Park, 8700 E. Reno Ave., Midwest City, 739-1293, midwestcityok. org. SAT

VISUAL ARTS

Annual Ceramics Sale It is a universally acknowledged truth that doughnuts are an ultimate good.

Unfortunately, they also can go stale between now and Christmas. Instead, get your loved ones something else that also happens to be round, glazed and beautiful but keeps better than doughnut: handmade pottery! You might ask yourself, “But where?

Where do I find gorgeous handmade bowls and pots?” Find them at Oklahoma Contemporary Art Center’s Annual Ceramics Sale, happening now through Dec. 23 at its State Fair Park location, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., and at Showroom at Oklahoma Contemporary, 1146 N. Broadway Drive. Plus, your purchase proceeds benefit the For okg center’s ceramics program. For hours and more information, music picks call 951-0000 or visit oklahomacontemporary.org

Wednesday-Wednesday, ongoing

see page 43

Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 19

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life food & Drink

We got a stack of 1970s Playboys in a game of Dirty Santa. About the same time, [Anna] had gotten into the craft cocktail scene.

The right place and the right time have been instrumental to Drew and Anna Mains’ success.

— Drew Mains

By Greg Elwell

Buy a lottery ticket and you’ll have a better chance of winning than you will ending up like Anna and Drew Mains.

Owners, in full or part, of In the Raw Sushi, 200 S. Oklahoma Ave.; Knucks Wheelhouse, 103 E. California Ave.; and Rockford Cocktail Den, 317 NW 23rd St., the Mains are living proof that being in the right place at the right time — and having the right skills — can change everything.

Inside Rockford, the semi-opulent, chic, 1970s-themed cocktail bar, they are the picture of people with full plates. A few years ago, they were just bartenders at In the Raw, the Bricktown sushi joint where they met and fell in love.

How they ended up there is another story altogether — one that runs through Little Rock, Kansas City, several Outback Steakhouses, firefighter training school and the Waterford Marriott — but suffice it to say that was where fate seemingly intervened.

Drew should have found another job.

Previous iterations of In the Raw were failures, and the restaurant staff wasn’t getting paid.

“It was a train wreck,” he said.

But he stuck it out long enough to overhear a conversation that changed everything. The bank was about to start repossessing the restaurant’s assets. A new owner was needed if it was going to stay in business.

The Mains decided, with enough management experience behind them, to step up.

The first few months after taking over in October 2012 were rough.

Attempts to switch to a more traditional Japanese menu that focused on

Ga rett f is bec k

Unlikely moguls

For more In the Raw 200 S. Oklahoma Ave. Suite 130 facebook.com/ InTheRawBricktown 702-1325

Knucks Wheelhouse 103 E. California Ave. knuckswheelhouse.com 605-4422

Rockford Cocktail Den 317 NW 23rd St. rockfordokc.com 601-4248

Drew and Anna Mains at Rockford Cocktail Den, 317 NW 23rd St. exotic fish and sashimi were met with indifference.

“We threw away a lot of fish,” Anna said. “[Today,] our sushi chef, Ashley, really has a finger on what area and what the people want.”

They focused instead on doing American-style sushi — fried rolls, lots of sauces and cooked, as well as raw, ingredients — with a commitment to using quality fish. There’s a difference between pandering and giving the diners what they want.

Slowly but surely, they rebuilt In the Raw’s customer base and drew the attention of other business owners.

One of those were the owners of Brewer Entertainment Incorporated, which owns and operates Chevy Bricktown Events Center. They had planned to open a pizza place along the

canal, but the restaurant never came to fruition. Seeing the magic the Mains worked on In the Raw, they decided to approach them about taking over the other location.

And that’s how Knucks Wheelhouse was born. Again, their initial idea had been for wood-fired ovens, but that’s not what the space was built for, Anna said.

Instead, they thought about the area and what the Bricktown district really needed.

“We thought it should be a Sixth Street-type place, [like in Austin, Texas],” she said. “It’s a walkable district, so why not do big slices of hand-tossed pizza?”

Drew experimented with different types of cheese and doughs, eventually settling on one that uses COOP Ale Works’ Native Amber in it. Oh, and somewhere in there, they found out they

were pregnant.

So how did the owner of two restaurants — and a 15-month-old baby — get into the bar business? Playboy magazine.

When Grandads closed, the co-owner was looking for someone to help make the prime 23rd Street location work. Right place, right time? He met the Mains at a party and floated the idea to them.

“We had the idea that would become Rockford a few Christmases ago,” Drew said. “We got a stack of 1970s Playboys in a game of Dirty Santa. About the same time, [Anna] had gotten into the craft cocktail scene.”

They wanted a place that was comfortable, a little swanky, a little laidback and not too kitschy, aka Rockford.

How two overworked parents will survive running a mini-empire isn’t assured. But they’ve been lucky so far, right?

Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 21

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Patty Wagon Burgers 3600 N. May Ave. | @pattywagonokc | 917-1711 What works: The Taser burger and french fries are tip-top.

By Greg Elwell

I didn’t know Bryce Musick particularly well, but I can tell you this: He loved hamburgers.

Musick created Patty Wagon Burgers, 3600 N. May Ave., and operating it seemed to be his dream job. The eatery started life as a food truck parked by a mattress store. He was there every time I went by, eager to talk about his house-made special sauces and the care he put into all of his creations.

The young man valiantly fought brain cancer and passed away Nov. 28.

I send my deepest condolences to his family and friends.

I learned all this last week while visiting the restaurant for this review.

Patty Wagon continues on, and while it might feel unusual to some, I think it still deserves a review, even though I have a feeling he already knew how good the food is.

Maybe he would be most proud of his fries ($2.50), which he struggled to make in the food truck.

When he first served them to me years ago, he came out and shook his head at them.

“They’re not right,” he said, frustrated, and we talked about the difficulties of running a restaurant on wheels.

They are fresh, hand-cut, real potato fries, and they are excellent — crispy outside, seasoned right, with a creamy, almost mashed potato-like interior that wafts steam as you take a bite.

They’re right, Bryce. You nailed it.

When you visit, talk a bit with the folks at the counter. You should do this everywhere you go (if there isn’t

BLT

They’re right, Bryce. You nailed it.

p h otos by ga rett fis bec k

life food & Drink

What needs work: When it gets busy, there can be a bit of a wait.

Tip: The fries are big enough to share, unless you really like french fries.

a line) and find out what they like. The people working there know the food inside out.

When I asked about sandwiches, I was pointed to the BLT ($6.95). A BLT is a deceptively simple sandwich, which makes each ingredient all the more important.

As you might imagine, its main ingredient is bacon — thick-cut and crisp, but with a nice chew to it — and the sandwich is loaded with it.

If Patty Wagon makes money on this menu item, I don’t know how, because that was a lot of bacon.

Paired with fresh green lettuce and big tomato slices, it sits between two buttery pieces of wheat bread. Order it with the horseradish mayo; it’s wonderful.

But if you love burgers, those are Patty Wagon specialties. A single burger is $5.95, and a double is $7.50.

They are made with locally raised, grass-fed, hormone- and antibiotic-free beef and are stacked on dense, lightly sweet buns.

The gourmet burgers also are worth your attention. My favorite is The Taser ($6.95), a single patty marinated in a peppery sauce, with

Beanie Burger

pepper jack cheese and spicy mayo and all the usual fixings. It’s messy, but it’s not overly hot. It has lots of flavor.

One of the most creative menu offerings I’ve seen in a while is the Beanie Burger ($7.50). It’s just a normal burger topped with cheddar, bean dip, Fritos, grilled jalapeños and chili.

Yep, perfectly normal. And really tasty.

Musick will be missed in the back, where he used to work the grill, but his dream lives on.

Whether you knew him or not, it’s time for you to go and grab a burger and a basket of fries and enjoy the fruits of his labors.

And eat, and smile and celebrate his memory.

by Greg Elwell

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That card you keep meaning to use is back again for its sixth year.

Keep It Local OK’s 2016 cards are now in stores and available online, said co-founder Bryce Bandy.

With nearly 300 businesses participating in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, the utility has gone up, as has the price.

“Yeah, we went from $10 to $15 this year to help offset overhead and app development,” Bandy said. “You know, we thought it’s been five years, so you’re getting a lot more benefit out of it than you did the first year.”

He estimates about 26,000 cards were sold for 2015, and he hopes to see continued increases for the 2016 card, which features art by Tulsa’s Aaron Whisner (pictured).

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Amazonia closes

A bad location doomed Venezuelan restaurant Amazonia, said owner Einar Perdomo, who shut the doors last month.

But fans of arepas, empanadas, pabellón and cachapas need not fear, as Perdomo plans to reopen his business in the new year on Norman’s Campus Corner.

In addition to Venezuelan food, the eatery will offer a few Mexican favorites as well: tacos, quesadillas and others. And, getting back to his roots of authentic Venezuelan cuisine, he’ll switch from fried arepas (a sandwich made with fresh, thick tortilla cakes) to grilled.

Sandwich “Celebrity” ga re tt f is b eck

In a move designed to utterly destroy any meaning the word once held, Slaughter’s Hall chose Oklahoma Gazette writer Greg Elwell to design December’s “celebrity” sandwich.

The Winter Warmer, an openfaced sandwich that starts on two slices of potato bread — topped with braised Wagyu beef and sautéed mushrooms and onions and finished with horseradish sauce and a portion of fried mashed potatoes — is big enough to choke a dragon, and possibly even Elwell.

At $11, the sandwich is available through December, and $1 of each sale benefits Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, where more than 50 lead scientists work on finding treatments for heart disease, cancer, lupus and genetic disorders.

Imagineered by Elwell, the sandwich is truly the creation of head chef Jonathan Groth, who took over at Slaughter’s Hall in September.

“I went with a braised beef instead of rare roast beef,” Groth said. “It is from Wagyu shanks and freaking unbelievably delicious.”

CORNER OF CLASSEN & BOYD, NORMAN | 11AM-2AM | 405.329.3330 | THEMONT.COM Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 23

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food briefs

Carb coma Bears have the right idea.

While we’re all walking around, going to work in the cold and dealing with a 6 p.m. that looks like midnight, bears are in caves somewhere, powering through glorious, monthslong naps.

Thankfully, humans have come up with a solution: pasta. Eat a big bowl of noodles and then sack out.

You deserve it.

— By Greg Elwell Photos by Mark Hancock and Garett Fisbeck

Patrono

Stella

305 N. Walker Ave. patronookc.com | 702-7660

1201 N. Walker Ave. stellaokc.com | 235-2200

If it ain’t Italian, it can take a walk. Patrono is hard-core authentic. Diners have to speak Italian to order. A grandmother comes out of the kitchen and makes you eat a second helping. Everyone who works there is required to own or rent a mustache.

OK, none of that is true, except Patrono really makes authentic Italian food. Treat yourself to a bucatini all’Amatriciana and you’ll feel Italian, too.

The management at Stella would like to remind me, specifically, that this is not a dinner theater and my constant Marlon Brando impression attempts are, at best, disturbing. So, while I have to swear not to yell “STELLA!” over and over again, you can binge on a bowl of rigatoni with spicy pomodoro sauce and short rib ragout or a big chunk of roasted chicken lasagna.

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24 | december 9, 2015 | Oklahoma Gazette

Bella Vista Italian Kitchen 5801 S. Western Ave. bellavistaokc.com | 631-1717

How big a star is eggplant? It gets top billing. Heck, it gets the only billing in the big production of Eggplant Parmigiano: Live! Spaghetti barely gets a “with special guest” credit. Sometimes spaghetti misses meatballs. They were a team; unlike eggplant. But a job’s a job and spaghetti is a professional. If Bella Vista chefs want to showcase eggplant, they must know what they’re doing.

Rococo

Spazio Ristorante

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10600 S. Pennsylvania Ave. spazioristorante.com | 378-7735

With so many new restaurants opening, sometimes it’s easy to forget about some of your longtime favorites. But nobody forgets Rococo, especially in the winter.

Pull up a comfy chair beside the fireplace and enjoy a big bowl of the alwaysexcellent daily soup or carbonara-style fettuccine Alfredo with your friends, or your enemies, because taking them to Rococo is a pretty great way to turn enemies into friends.

Italian words are just fun to say: Scampi.

Vongole. Marsala. Cacciatore. Don’t you just want to pinch the air in front of you and shake your hands and shout, “linguine al pesto?” Then here’s some good news for you: Spazio Ristorante (which itself is fun to say) will let you come in and butcher the Italian language all day long. Pollo genovese! Vitello martino! Tiramisu!

Flip’s Wine Bar & Trattoria

Revolve Pizza Kitchen 100 W. Main St. revolvepizza.com | 600-6488

5801 N. Western Ave. flipswinebar.com | 843-1527

Vampires, werewolves and other assorted night owls (but not actual owls; that would be ridiculous) love Flip’s because the kitchen stays open until 1 a.m. And as long as you’re warming yourself up with a glass of vino, your body temperature can afford the hit of the pescatore salad with chilled spinach linguine, poached shrimp, crab, capers, scallions and more. Ask for extra garlic if the vampires keep hitting on you.

It might be best known for pizzas, but Revolve Pizza Kitchen doesn’t shy away from noodles, either. It might not be straight from Italy, but the Spicy Southerner combines your choice of pasta with spicy bourbon sauce, red pepper flakes, Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, chicken breast and bacon. Best of all, the spice of the dish will jump-start your digestive system, meaning you’ll soon have room for more pasta.

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Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 25

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life community

Ga rett fi s bec k

Dogged devotion The Bella Foundation helps pet owners care for ill and rescued animals and seeks public support to keep it going.

By Mark Beutler

About 10 years ago, a little dog named Bella became the inspiration for what is now one of Oklahoma City’s premier animal charities. Through the years, The Bella Foundation’s mission has remained the same: to help Oklahomans who cannot afford veterinarian bills to care for their pets.

“Our founder, Eric McCune, had just adopted Bella from a local shelter.

Unfortunately, she died only a couple of days later,” said Cherokee Ballard, vice president of The Bella Foundation.

“That is when Eric decided he wanted to do something to make a difference.”

Over the past decade, the foundation helped thousands of Oklahomans, and it recently adopted its 5,000th dog. At any one time, the organization helps care for around 200 dogs, cats and even potbellied pigs.

“The pets in the Bella Foundation family are loved and cared for in the homes of our foster families,” Ballard said.

Currently, the group does not have its own facility but hopes a business, community leader or local resident will help them find one.

“We would like to secure funding soon,” Ballard said, “or hear from a generous Oklahoman who loves animals and is willing to provide a building to us at no charge so we can continue to provide our assistance.”

First sight

Ballard became involved with the foundation as a reporter at KFOR-TV. She was asked to emcee an event, A Dog

Walk in the Park, and while she said she routinely received similar requests, that particular event really hit home.

“I am not sure how Eric found out I was an animal lover, but I immediately accepted the invitation and have been involved with the foundation ever since,” Ballard said of joining the organization in 2007. “In 2011, Eric sent me a picture of three schnauzers found in a box outside a veterinarian’s office. They were so tiny, so fragile and so sick. That picture was so heartbreaking, and it’s still on my computer to this day. I went to the vet’s office to see those little dogs and ended up falling in love with all of them. Two weeks later, those fuzzy-faced puppies came to live with my husband and me forever.”

After adopting the dogs, Ballard said she was asked to serve on the group’s board of directors, and that is a responsibility she takes very seriously.

“Whether it’s an animal in need of cancer treatment or a dog that’s been hit by a car, many pet owners face a grueling decision when emergencies happen and many times it comes down to money,” she said. “We see so many cases where pet owners are brought to tears, scared they might have to surrender their pets, or worse yet, consider putting them down because they can’t afford to pay for whatever treatment or help is needed.”

Recently, a pet owner contacted the foundation looking for someone to care for his pets while he sought medical care.

She said he wouldn’t leave his pets until he knew they were safe and would be well cared for.

Cherokee Ballard feeds a treat to Dexter Doodle Bug Daddy Boy at her home. She adopted the dog from The Bella Foundation.

“We were able to help him and really provided peace of mind, knowing his pets were going to be all right while he was getting much needed help for himself,” she said.

Many times, surgeries or treatments can cost pet owners thousands of dollars.

“We provide a much-needed resource for people when they are faced with a tough decision: Pay my vet bills or buy groceries,” Ballard said.

Financial support

The foundation receives backing from adoption events, grants, fundraising efforts and private donations, and every dollar it receives is put to good use. So far this year, Ballard said it has paid out more than $5,000 each month to help to heal and cure animals through its veterinary assistance program.

It also offers Bella Buddies, a program that dogs to schools to teach youth about responsible pet ownership.

“We are growing so fast and are really looking for big donors — people willing to give us more than $100 here and there,” she said. “Of course, every little bit helps, but we’d like to have those $10,000-and-up donors.”

She said anyone can give with a onetime or monthly donation and by telling friends about the foundation.

“We will take all the help we can get,” she said.

One of the foundation’s biggest fans is Oklahoma City musician and

The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne. Ballard said he and pop artist Miley Cyrus recorded a cover version of the 1967 Beatles classic “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and donated sale proceeds to the group.

“Wayne was going to be the recipient of our Top Dog award,” she added. “We were hoping to have him as our guest at our annual fundraising event.”

However, the late-October event, Barkside of the Moon, had to be postponed, Ballard said.

“We desperately need donations to help us continue our mission now and for the rest of the year,” she added.

“Oklahomans are so generous when it comes to helping animals and helping us help them. … We really need a place to call our own, a building where we can do our events, hold vaccination clinics, adoption events. That would be fantastic.”

Ballard and her husband Scott are the proud parents of the three rescued schnauzers: Jack Rabbit Slim, Sookie Scooter Boots and Dexter Doodle Bug Daddy Boy. They also have a Jack Russell terrier, Rudy Toot Tinger.

“I don’t know where these names come from,” Ballard said. “But I can’t imagine life without my pets. I also can’t imagine not being able to care for them.

For that reason alone, I’m forever grateful to The Bella Foundation, because every little life is amazing.”

Learn more at thebellafoundation. org.

Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 27

ja m i e p e t t i s / p r ovi de d

life visual arts

Wild heart

Jamie Pettis returns home to launch a new apparel line at a Saturday event.

By Jack Fowler

My Wolf Is at the Door 7-11 p.m. Saturday Graphite Elements and Design 1751 NW 16th St. graphiteokcart.com 919-0578 Free

A native Oklahoma artist celebrates a holiday homecoming with a Plaza art show Saturday.

Holdenville native and current Phoenix resident Jamie Pettis debuts her vibrant portraits and abstract expressionist paintings at My Wolf Is at the Door, opening 7 p.m. Saturday at Graphite Elements and Design in the Plaza District.

In addition to at least 12 new pieces, Pettis said her new line of Brazen Wolf Art and Apparel will be on display, something that has allowed her to be part of Oklahoma City’s bustling new arts scene, which she has had to appreciate from afar.

“It’s really cool to see what’s going on in Oklahoma City right now,” Pettis said. “Phoenix is ... getting there. I’m glad I’m there right now, but there’s nothing like coming home. And it’s been so cool to see OKC artists wearing my stuff and posting it online.

It’s been another way to stay connected

with this place.”

Pettis makes a point to periodically show her work in Oklahoma — her last local show was at Plaza’s DNA Galleries — and said the energy here is unlike anywhere else.

“Places like the Plaza and the Paseo and these pockets of towns that are focused on us and what we’re doing — that’s amazing,” she said. “I think Oklahoma City seems pretty concentrated and really supportive, and that’s not happening everywhere right now. It definitely feels good to come home and be a part of that again.”

Pettis’ work has undergone a maturation process, as well. Her portraits — vibrant, busy, pop-artinfluenced renderings of everyone from

28 | december 9, 2015 | Oklahoma Gazette

I think Oklahoma City seems pretty concentrated and really supportive, and that’s not happening everywhere right now.

— Jamie Pettis

her girlfriend to Russell Westbrook — have taken on new complexities of late, and she’s eager to show her new work.

“I’ve always been drawn to people, but still don’t think I know what I’m trying to say about them.

It seems that’s what I paint when I sit down to paint, though,” Pettis said when asked to describe her work. “I go through phases where I do other things, like my Growing Cities series I did last year, but it seems like people’s faces are what I’m attracted to. And the more of them I paint, I think the better and more complex they’re getting. I’ve been experimenting with some new techniques that I’m excited about, and I think I’m getting closer to figuring out what I’m trying to say.”

Growing Cities, a series of abstract, intensely-layered cityscapes Pettis created last year, integrated buildings from various American skylines into otherwise-nameless metropolises. The effect was wonderful, and she sold several of the series.

It’s her portraits, though, that are featured on most of Brazen Wolf apparel. Large-scale, heavily saturated close-ups of some of her subjects are emblazoned across the front of the T-shirts, which sell as quickly as she orders them. Pettis said they are another way to get her artwork into

Jamie Pettis debuts Brazen Wolf Art and Apparel Saturday at Graphite Elements and Design. the world around her.

“I’m really excited about the apparel line,” she said. “When you see somebody wearing art that you made, it’s really cool. It means you’re putting something you made out into the world and people are responding to it.

I love that.”

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Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 29

Modern art

Catherine Shotick

Early quilt makers inspired a fleet of modern artists, and Oklahoma City Museum of Art shows us how.

By Kerry Myers

Quilts and Color from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Through Feb. 7 Oklahoma City Museum of Art 415 Couch Drive okcmoa.com $10-$12

Quilts and Color from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, now on display at Oklahoma City Museum of Art, showcases the handmade quilt as a vibrant, inventive form of American art and expressionism.

“Quilts are among America’s most beloved objects,” said Catherine Shotick, the museum’s coordinating curator for the exhibit. “They have been recognized as symbols of the loving warmth of family ties since the mid-1800s.”

Collectors Gerald Roy and Paul Pilgrim, who began this particular collection in 1969, were heavily influenced by these 20th-century art developments.

Optical art, color field movement and color theory are just a few of the elements that drew Roy and Pilgrim to these beautiful, practical pieces of history. As they sought quilts, they looked for elements of traditional techniques and color relation. They believed that collections should be put together for a reason — perhaps to change existing views and ideas or present a different way to experience something.

“There were so many aspects of quilt making that we wanted that couldn’t be collected,” Roy told Oklahoma Gazette during an exhibit opening event last month. “It was our aim to collect within our own interests.”

Patchwork quilts naturally came into the fold, as they are abstract and their color provides more of an

30 | december 9, 2015 | Oklahoma Gazette

attraction than their images.

The exhibit is presented in six sections — gradations, mixtures, vibrations, contrasts, optical illusions and harmonies — and reflects the continuum of American quilting.

“We had to look for traditional quilts that employ white, which stops color interaction,” Roy said.

In many patterns with color blocking, white and black can be used to interrupt the flow of other colors.

Quilts and Color showcases works in which white is as instrumental in the design as any other color. White also is used to create contrast.

In quilting, cloth is manipulated to make it functional, and they said knowing how to sew is crucial. There are a great number of decisions made with each stitch.

The pieces in this collection were made from the 1850s through the 1940s. Quilts and Color exemplifies how women expressed themselves before it was socially acceptable for them to be artistic or show emotion.

Similarities between their designs and modern artworks are remarkable, especially regarding color theory, pattern and shape.

For proof, browse the museum’s permanent collection of abstract prints and paintings located on the third floor. It demonstrates how the quilters’ exploration of color relationships and patterns inspired modern artists of the 1960s. These exhibits are best viewed together to understand the complementary relationship between two completely different mediums of expression.

Quilts and Color also features interactive facets — a gallery guide connects both collections, and a design area allows visitors to create their own quilt square, which they can donate to a community quilt that evolves daily.

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Chill carnival Saturday’s Glitter Ball promises to deliver fun, dancing, community entertainment and seasonal camaraderie while raising funds for three local organizations.

By Ben Luschen

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With a widened scope and increased name recognition, Glitter Ball marks its repurposed return this winter.

The event began as a January party benefiting deadCENTER Film Festival and celebrating the birthday of Norman filmmaker Melissa Scaramucci. This year, in addition to deadCENTER, its beneficiaries include OKC Girls Art School and Sunbeam Family Services. The party starts 7 p.m. Saturday at Dunlap Codding, 609 W. Sheridan Ave. The mission of Glitter Ball is fun, and it’s an overstimulating night packed with entertainment, said Kindt Steven Myers, the event’s executive producer.

“There’s no heartstring story being told. There’s not a survivor onstage,” he said. “There’s no sad moments, where a lot of times those are involved in the fundraising process.”

Instead, it features art auctions organized by and benefiting Girls Art School. Proceeds from a special “golden ticket” raffle also will benefit the school, which is in its first year of operation after launching a successful pilot program.

It’s presented by Dunlap Codding law firm, and Myers said the event also doubles as the company’s holiday party. Last year’s glitter-filled, goldand-silver affair took a lot of setup and left a lot of cleanup.

“I thought I wouldn’t have a friend in sight at Dunlap Codding because of what all we did,” Myers said, “But in fact, Dunlap Codding called and said, ‘Hey, would you do that party again if we helped you sponsor it and we could help name some beneficiaries?’”

With new sponsors and entities involved, this year features a bigger budget but also a number of new sponsors and people investing in the event, hoping to see a return to the nonprofit entities involved.

“It allows one single night to impact three major organizations,” Myers said. “We have arts, we have

AARO N G IL ILL AND / PROVIDED

7-11 p.m. Saturday Dunlap Codding 609 W. Sheridan Ave. kindtevents.com/project/glitterball eventbrite.com $37.16-$189.53 21+

Guests dance at the inaugural Glitter Ball in January. family services and we have arts education, so I think it’s just huge.”

‘Organic feel’

Originally intended to be a one-off event, it soon became apparent that organizers found a winning formula that brought together a mixed demographic of “starving artists” and millionaires, said Myers, who organizes events through his KINDT Events company.

“Some of [the events], people say nice things about, and that’s lovely, but this was on another level,” he said. “People had such a fun and great experience that they felt like they were taken out of the city — they were in another state; they were in a different group.”

Alyx Picard, deadCENTER festival coordinator, said the event team will rise to the occasion.

“Last year, everybody had to expect the unexpected because we had never done it before,” she said. “This year, there’s a little bit of expectation, there’s a little more structure, but we still have those elements of surprise built in.”

Now that the holiday season has hit full swing, Picard said she expects ticket sales to increase.

“I think as it is getting closer, people are thinking about it,” she said.

Stephanie Peña, event co-organizer with Myers, said the first party, while successful, was mostly limited to deadCENTER community members.

The new Glitter Ball, however, is open to everyone.

And like its predecessor, this year’s event features suspended aerialists, igloos and a wide range of performers.

Entertainment includes cover bands and comedy from Spencer Hicks, as well as a number of surprises planned by event organizers.

This year, the party also doesn’t focus so much on Scaramucci’s age, but she’s OK with that. Instead, she’ll co-host with Lance McDaniel, deadCENTER arts director. Glitter Ball also is part of the Downtown in December series of holiday events and attractions that run through this month.

Myers said the ball will have an organic feel.

Peña hopes that’s part of the event’s appeal.

“It’s not a gala where there’s a plated meal and there’s not a program,” she said. “I think that it’s a draw that it’s kind of continuous.”

Glitter Ball tickets range from $37.16 (for dance party admission only) to $189.53 VIP, which includes a swag bag, VIP seating and a premium, dedicated bar. Find tickets at kindtevents.com/project/glitterball and eventbrite.com or in person at IAO Gallery, 706 W. Sheridan Ave. Arrive early for Christmas with Santa, a free, family-friendly celebration taking place before the ball in the Dunlap Codding courtyard, 609 W. Sheridan Ave. It includes crafts, an appearance by Frozen’s Elsa and other youth-oriented activities.

life performing arts

Double vision Jackie shatters an American icon and scrutinizes its faceted shards.

By Adam Holt

Jackie

There is no lack of theater in the Oklahoma City area. In any given week, you can find Shakespeare dramas as well as classics such as Death of a Salesman, Of Mice and Men and A Christmas Carol.

However, one theater company aims to bring newer and unfamiliar plays to the metro and a change in how they are acted. The Marshall Experimental Company, founded this year by Artistic Director Daniel Leeman Smith, will open with its inaugural production Jackie, which runs through Saturday.

The play is a piece by German playwright Elfriede Jelinek about the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

The Marshall Experiment Company’s production is only the second in the United States.

“We’re more interested in the psychology and the physical representation of what it means to have a body that has lived so incredibly public and so incredibly destroyed by the media,” said Katherine Wilkinson, artistic director of Gale Theatre Company in Austin, Texas.

Wilkinson, along with Smith, co-directs the production.

“It’s more like an art installation in Jackie’s mind,” she said. “We are looking at how the mind and body are affected by being an icon.”

Originally written as a one-woman play, the production will feature three women, one of which is Wilkinson, acting as Kennedy Onassis and interacting with each other. Smith said this relates to how everyday people present themselves in different situations.

“There were different masks that Jackie had that we all have. We all have a public face,” Smith said.

The twist of the actresses follows the spirit of The Marshall Experimental Company’s philosophy. One aspect of the doctrine is devised.

“Devised is essentially a way of creating theater in a space that is not

m a rk ha n coc k

7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday Oklahoma Contemporary 3000 General Pershing Blvd. marshallexperimental.org $8-$12

Katherine Wilkinson center, one of three actresses playing Jackie, works through Suzuki Acting Method exercises with Tonia Sina left and Daniel Leeman Smith during early rehearsals for The Marshall Experiment Company’s production, which runs Thursday-Saturday at Oklahoma Contemporary. hierarchical,” Smith said. “It’s improvbased and is a lot about combining different types of art forms and different ways of writing stories that don’t necessarily have to begin with a written play or written script.”

The most important facets of devised theater are actor collaboration and the secondary nature of the script.

Instead of the director and text being priority, it’s director and actors working together and the freedom to play with the script.

Full-body acting

“The most important voices in the room are the collaborators, not the playwright,” Wilkinson said.

Another emphasis of the theater company’s technique is the Suzuki acting method. Created by Tadashi Suzuki, a Japanese theater director, writer and philosopher, the practice asserts that awareness of body and its movements are of high importance.

Current American theater is heavily rooted in the ideas of Constantin Stanislavski, director and theater administrator at Moscow Art Theatre in the early 20th century. In its simplest form, it asks actors to look internally to portray a character’s emotion. The technique did involve physical actions, but it began to fade, especially with the advent of the close-up in film.

“Everyone began to work from here

The most important voices in the room are the collaborators, not the playwright.

— Katherine Wilkinson up,” said Wilkinson, pointing to her chest then toward her head. “[Suzuki] wanted to create a method that focused particularly on the lower half of the body.”

The Suzuki method involves multiple exercises and practices to enhance acting through motion and strengthen your core and lower body.

“It’s physically rigorous; really hard,” Wilkinson said. “It’s like running a marathon. It’s holistic arts training.”

Smith agreed.

“It’s entirely anaerobic. You tell a story with your body as well as the text,” he said.

Smith said though Stanislavski’s acting method is still important, American theater’s infatuation with it has diminished its overall quality.

“It’s something that, I think, in certain degrees has been abandoned by American actors who focus on emotions and emoting and the text,” Smith said.

“That is sometimes the only thing we focus on, and it can sometimes make a

play or piece of theater very sleepy and boring.”

The techniques taught at The Marshall Experimental Company and Wilkinson’s Gale Theater in Austin have more to offer than teaching the methods.

“They’re [the methods] predicated on the idea that all art forms should have a practice,” said Smith. “Actors can sometimes be the only artists that go to school. They learn a craft and then leave it, versus a dancer who trains every day.”

The theater and collaboration offers an atmosphere to practice an art that doesn’t lend itself easily to practice.

Wilkinson also cheers the positive points of collaboration.

“It’s also about creating communities,” Wilkinson said. “If you have a group of people that have a shared vocabulary, whether it’s Suzuki or anything, they have a way of speaking to one another and continuing making work together. Like in any field, the more you work together, the better it gets.”

Smith said the response he has received about the upcoming production is nothing but positive.

“People are really excited about something new and engaging. Audiences seem to be ready for it,” Smith said.

Tickets run $8-$12 and can be bought at marshallexperimental.org.

Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 33

life Performing arts

Alcohol, tolerance This couple uses a lot of both to get through Oklahoma City Theatre Company’s comic holiday production.

By Jack Fowler

Alcoholidays

It has been said that God invented alcohol so humans could get through his birthday party every year. If that’s true, then Oklahoma City Theatre Company’s Alcoholidays has a chance to be the most relatable play of the season.

Written by native Oklahoman husband-and-wife team Melanie Wilderman and Ted Satterfield, Alcoholidays follows Meg and Jacob as the couple hops from requisite party to requisite party, tipping back multiple drinks along the way as they numb the misery that comes with dealing with a frustrating assortment of friends, associates and kin.

It’s the latest home-grown production from OKC Theatre Company and runs through Dec. 20.

Managing director Christine Jolly said Alcoholidays tickets are selling quickly and guests would be wellserved to plan ahead.

The production’s opening weekend shows Dec. 4 and 5 sold out the intimate CitySpace Theatre, located inside Civic Center Music Hall at 201 N. Walker Ave.

Love-hate relationships

What can audiences expect? Call it a Yuletide story with a twist, said director Rodney Brazil.

“It’s definitely a comedy about the dysfunctions of Christmas, but instead of glossing over them in favor of something nicer, it celebrates them,” Brazil said. “It’s a story about how those dysfunctional things are something that can be appreciated, as well.”

We know the types of people who bring their pathologies to the party, too, he said. Whether it’s prying relatives, overly dramatic friends, drunken managers or people you haven’t seen in years (and for good reason), everyone is familiar with the social minefield any holiday party can

34 | december 9, 2015 | Oklahoma Gazette

PROVIDED

8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and Dec. 17-19, 2 p.m. Dec. 20 CitySpace Theatre Civic Center Music Hall 201 N. Walker Ave. okctheatrecompany.org 297-2264 $10-$20

Holly McNatt and Keith Ferguson are Meg and Jacob in Oklahoma City Theatre Company’s production of Alcoholidays.

It’s definitely a comedy about the dysfunctions of Christmas, but instead of glossing over them in favor of something nicer, it celebrates them.

— Rodney Brazil be, much less four of them in a row.

“Every single character in the show reminds me of someone I know in real life — either somebody I love, or somebody I love to hate,” Brazil said.

“The script really goes into all those personalities that you encounter, the old friends and family, the workplace environment, and [it] deals with how

we get through those situations.”

Stripped-down stagecraft

In keeping with OKC Theatre Company’s tradition of tackling scripts that demand stripped-down, New Yorkstyle stagecraft where cast members play multiple roles, Alcoholidays features two lead actors — Holly McNatt and Keith Ferguson — and a supporting cast that performs a rotating series of cronies, cousins and colleagues.

It’s a challenge, Brazil said, but a fun one.

“The tone of the play has a very sketch comedy feel, but because of the rotating cast, there’s a lot of vibrant colors, costume changes, large personalities,” he said. “After all, every party they go to is somebody’s home, so we move the set around a little bit and it takes us to a new place every time.”

To learn more about the show and OKC Theatre Company, visit okc.theatrecompany.org.

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Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 35

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Gridinn째10253 Fill the grid somedium that every row, column and 3-by-3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9.

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New York Times Crossword Puzzle answers Puzzle No. 1129, which appeared in the December 2 issue.

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97 Ammonium and others ACROSS 98 Subj. for Bloomberg News 1 Key word #1 5 Plants with intoxicating leaves 99 Puts in stitches, say 100 Food that’s an anagram of 10 Mosque no-no 98-Across 15 Key word #2 101 Washing the dishes, e.g.

19 Bon ____ 103 Plantation device 20 Songwriter Carmichael 105 Subj. with many irregularities 21 Minor snafu 22 Capital known for 300 years as 106 Shabby 108 Sound in “Eleanor Rigby” and Christiania 23 Ill-fated seducer in Tess of the “Yesterday” 110 Disdainful sounds D’Urbervilles 113 “Little” visitor to Slumberland, 24 1-Across + 15-Across

in old comics 26 Erupt 114 122-Across + 125-Across 27 What a driverless car drives 117 Holder of small doses 29 Pageant V.I.P.s 118 Former British crown colony in 30 Like some soldiers in the

the Mideast

American Revolution 119 TurboTax option 32 Farmyard call 120 As old as the hills 33 You may leave when it’s up 121 Petro-Canada competitor 34 Endnotes?

122 Key word #3 35 Portland, Ore.-to-Boise dir.

123 Looking for 36 Egg producer 124 Go well together 38 The “e” of i.e.

39 ____ Olshansky, first Soviet- 125 Key word #4

born N.F.L. player 41 Villainous DOWN 43 1-Across + 122-Across 1 California resort town 48 Workers on the board 2 V, in physics 49 It covers everything quite clearly 3 1997 Samuel L. Jackson film 50 Decepticon’s foe in 4 Pilaflike product

Transformers 5 Pot user?

54 Sewing case 6 Tic-tac-toe failure 55 Clio nominees 7 “Understand?”

57 S.U.V. alternative 8 Fellow students, generally 59 Moolah 9 Brings together 60 Bench warmer 10 Hook role 62 Final Four round 11 Successes in the game Battleship 64 ____ cards (items used in ESP 12 Sister brand of Phisoderm tests) 13 Elation 65 1-Across + 125-Across 14 It helps you get ahead 70 15-Across + 122-Across 15 Pardner’s mount 72 Acronym on the S&P 500 16 Glimpses 73 Galileo, by birth 17 Orioles’ div.

75 Take off, as a heavy coat?

18 He played Chaplin in Chaplin 76 Venice tourist attraction 25 Date 78 S.U.V. alternative 28 QB Bobby who purportedly 80 Golfer Ernie

put a curse on the Detroit Lions 81 Acted like 31 Germophobe’s need 85 Goldeneye or harlequin 33 Doesn’t pursue 87 Paul who won a Nobel in Physics 34 Mustard, but not ketchup: Abbr.

89 1962 Paul Anka hit 36 Stage prize 91 15-Across + 125-Across 37 Old TV adjustment: Abbr.

94 Coat fur 39 Radiologist, e.g.

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40 Biological blueprints 42 Makes up (for) 44 Lucius’s son, in Harry Potter 45 Fancy marble 46 Fidelity offerings, for short 47 Political insults, so to speak 51 Uncle ____ 52 Hershiser who was

Sports Illustrated’s 1988

Sportsman of the Year 53 Major ally?

56 Islamic mystics 58 Place for a bust 60 Figurine 61 Stemming from 63 Archenemy of Mattel’s He-Man

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66 Author Wiesel 67 Tournament organizer

since ’39 68 “Ha! I was right!”

69 Says, “Read you loud

and clear … over,” say 71 Rope in 74 Informer, informally 77 South American tuber 79 Recharge midday 81 Sandpaper and such 82 Creatures that may live

inside oysters – hence

the name 83 Cable’s ____ Classic 84 Springfield exclamations 86 Male lead in Disney’s

Frozen 88 Messy food order at a carnival 90 Witty Nash 92 ____ choy

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93 Common wedding-

reception feature 94 Kind of column 95 “Holy ____!”

96 J. Paul Getty and others 102 Literally, “breathless” 103 [You stink!]

104 Ho hi 107 Beast on Skull Island, informally 108 Low-lying area 109 Robert who oversaw the

acquisitions of Pixar,

Marvel and Lucasfilm 110 Ophthalmologist’s concern 111 Burkina ____ (African land) 112 Vending machine feature 115 Small songbird 116 Burns’s “before”

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38 | december 9, 2015 | Oklahoma Gazette

life active

Compassion caddie Country music superstar Toby Keith combines golf and charity to form a purposeful legacy.

Wearing sunglasses and a golf shirt, country music superstar Toby Keith looked relaxed as he sat answering reporters’ questions during a summer event inside the pro shop at Norman’s Belmar Golf Club. At one point, another golfer entered the pro shop and waved to Keith like an old friend.

Keith might have glanced back in reply. It was hard to tell with the sunglasses.

His deep voice never wavered, however, as the performing artist who has sold 40 million albums worldwide talked about two things he feels very passionately about: golf and helping children with cancer.

Keith cares so much about the two that he combined them, forming highly successful fundraising events. That’s why the 2015 Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee was holding court at Belmar, the club he owns. Earlier this year, he and his family hosted the third annual Schooner Fall Golf Classic, a collegiate women’s tournament that raises funds for OK Kids Korral, which provides a cost-free, convenient, comfortable home for pediatric cancer patients receiving treatment at area hospitals.

“I think every famous person has some kind of foundation or something they do.

It’s just, do you get lucky enough to find the one thing that really drives you, that you can focus on and say, ‘I can put my heart and soul into that’?” Keith said. “OK Kids Korral allowed me to do that.”

The giving

Keith got his start in the early 1980s playing the honky-tonk circuit in Oklahoma and Texas with the Easy Money Band, which he formed with a few friends, including Scott Webb.

“Me and [Webb] played together in the rough times, in the bar days,” Keith said.

By 2002, Keith’s music career had skyrocketed. His former bandmate and his wife Linda learned their 2-year-old daughter, Allison, had Wilm’s tumors, a form of kidney cancer. Ally and her family stayed free-of-charge at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, while she fought for nearly a year, finally losing the battle in 2003.

“At [Ally’s] funeral, my dad decided he wanted to start a foundation in her honor,” said Keith’s daughter, country music singer Krystal Keith. “St. Jude made [the Webb family] feel at home, and so my dad was

immediately like, ‘I want one of those here.’”

Keith’s early fundraising efforts went to help the nonprofit Ally’s House, formed in 2004 to provide financial assistance to Oklahoma children with cancer and their families. Keith gave the first $1 million to start the Toby Keith Foundation in 2006.

“You’re not supposed to outlive your children. Anytime a parent loses a child, it’s really devastating, especially cancer. I can’t cure cancer,” Keith said. “But I do know one thing that Allison’s mother said, that she couldn’t believe how well she was taken care of when she got to St. Jude.”

Oklahoma City did not have a facility like St. Jude, but the Toby Keith Foundation worked to fix that, raising money for years to plan and build OK Kids Korral. The $8.5 million, 25,000-square-foot facility opened its doors in January 2014 and features 12 private suites, a gourmet kitchen, a neutropenic wing for children with weakened immune systems, a movie theater, a game room, playgrounds and a chapel.

“It’s Ritz-Carlton meets Disney World,” Keith said.

Today, his foundation raises about $1.2 million per year. Juliet Nees-Bright, Toby Keith Foundation executive director, said in 2010, it cut ties with Ally’s House, which had become self-sustaining, to focus on the Korral.

According to the foundation, more than 1,400 Oklahoma children have been diagnosed with cancer since 2005. Cancer affects one out of three Oklahomans during their lifetime and is the second leading cause of death in this state.

Each year, OK Kids Korral hosts a reunion for families that have stayed there and formed bonds only people who have fought for their lives can know, Keith said.

“When you show up at the Korral, everybody in there has the same problems you have,” he said. “Everybody is in the same boat, and that’s therapy for them. So it gives them a comfortable environment, and they thrive in it.”

The golfer

An avid golfer, Keith said he plays every day. He bought Belmar a few years ago when it was struggling and transformed it into a first-class club, adding onto the clubhouse, installing a swimming pool and developing the residential lots around the course. Designed by golf course architect

p rovi de d

BY BRENDAN HOOVER

Toby Keith

You’re not supposed to outlive your children.

— Toby Keith

Tripp Davis, the par-70, 6,519-yard linksstyle layout is in immaculate shape and has some of the best greens in the state.

To help raise funds for his foundation, Keith started the Toby Keith and Friends Golf Classic 12 years ago, an annual weekend of golf and entertainment that has become one of the state’s highest grossing fundraisers. This year’s event in July raised $1.2 million. During the live auction, two bidders ponied up $70,000 each for a week’s stay at Keith’s house in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

About six years ago, Keith introduced his wife, Tricia Covel, to golf. She fell so hard for the game that in 2013, she and daughters Krystal and Shelly Covel Rowland started a women’s golf apparel

line, SwingDish. Earlier this year, Covel traveled to Germany to watch the United States win the Solheim Cup, the women’s golf equivalent to the Ryder Cup, at the invitation of her friend, U.S. Captain Juli Inkster.

“They’re both really good,” said Krystal of her parents’ golfing ability. “It’s a big rivalry in our house.”

Three years ago, Covel started the Schooner Fall Classic as a foundation fundraiser and a showcase for women’s collegiate golf. This year’s event also featured a college-am and raised about $160,000 and Oklahoma State University topped the 12-team field to win the 54-hole tournament. Kansas’ Yupaporn Kawinpakorn won top medalist honors.

Everything the foundation has accomplished would not have been possible without Keith, Nees-Bright said.

“I think just having his presence, coming by the Korral and visiting the families and interacting with the kids, it’s just essential to helping them be stronger and feel supported by everybody,” she said.

Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 39

IMMORTALIZE Your Claim to Fame

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40 | december 9, 2015 | Oklahoma Gazette

life music

Past, presents A tough upbringing motivates rapper Jabee to give back to his neighborhood.

By Ben Luschen

HuckWheat, Josh Sallee, Beetyman, Trash TV and Jabee with DJ Keilo and DJ Reaper 9 p.m. Dec. 18 51st Street Speakeasy 1114 NW 51st St. 51stspeakeasy.com jabeemusic.com Free 21+

Northeast 28th Street is Jabee’s own Memory Lane.

On a recent stroll through his old neighborhood near the intersection of Martin Luther King Avenue, the independent rapper spots the duplex where his mom took him and his family for shelter when they had no place else to go. He sees the driveway where Uncle Jerry was shot and killed. And he contemplates people — people like him.

Jabee, who recently returned from a European tour with Sweden’s Looptroop Rockers, hosts Gift Raps 2, the sequel to last year’s free charity concert that raised a truckload of food and goods for local families much like his own.

With a food or winter clothing donation, those wishing to attend this year’s event can see Jabee, Josh Salle, Beetyman, HuckWheat, Trash TV, DJ Keilo and DJ Reaper 9 p.m. Dec. 18 at 51st Street Speakeasy. The collected goods will be donated to City Care, a local nonprofit that helps tutor and mentor inner-city youth and feed and shelter lowincome families and the homeless.

When Jabee was growing up, he saw rappers on television return to their old ’hoods to pass out 1,000 free turkeys. But no rap moguls ever came to the east side of Oklahoma City, and TV cameras only came when something bad happened.

Even with his recent success, he said he’s far from being able to feed 1,000 families himself, much less afford his own turkey. What he does have is a platform to reach those who can help.

“That’s what this is about: just trying to pay back what I owe to people who have been there for me,” he said. “Not only that, but [it’s about] where I grew up and how I grew up. There are people I know who didn’t make it, that are locked up or dead or still in the same types of situations.”

Growing up

Jabee’s mother kept their small, twobedroom house so tidy, his friends thought they were the rich ones on the block. Rich in family, maybe.

Without any place to call home, a 12- or 13-year-old Jabee and his family were forced to take shelter at a place that belonged to the daughter of one of his mom’s friends. They had good times and bad, but he remembered that some of the holidays were their hardest.

He remembered one year when their car was broken into and no one got anything for Christmas.

Whoever stole their stuff took more than material goods: They took something from inside of Jabee. He didn’t like going to school anymore. He didn’t like seeing his mom work so hard.

He was frustrated.

The next winter, he was forced into a maturity beyond his preteen years after watching his mother go through a particularly stressful period.

“I just remember that Christmas, telling my mom, ‘I don’t really want anything,’” he said.

But that was not quite the truth.

Jabee had his eyes on a black Tommy Hilfiger beanie like so many other youth sported back in the ’90s.

His mother worked multiple jobs to make sure her children had a good, if modest, Yuletide. When he woke up that holiday morning, a new, black beanie waited for him. It was a knockoff, but he didn’t care.

Outside of the hat, Jabee didn’t receive much else: socks, underwear, a plastic dartboard he felt he might have been a little too old for. Still, he was thankful.

“I enjoyed it because I knew my mom had worked her butt off for that,” he said.

Giving back

While many local families eagerly count down each day to the holiday, Jabee said there are some in the city who would rather skip it.

“Christmas is a hard time because people start stealing, the prices get higher for stuff, it’s colder outside,” he said. “For some people, Christmas is a really happy time, but for a lot of people that I know or where I come from, it’s like, ‘Dang. It’s already Christmas?’”

g arett fisbeck

Gift Raps 2

Jabee

That’s what this is about: just trying to pay back what I owe to people who have been there for me.

— Jabee

Growing up, his family received free Thanksgiving baskets from the Jesus House or picked up a Christmas turkey from a local church. There were always churches, preachers, charities trying to lift up the people in the neighborhood, he said, but there was no one he could relate to that was trying to bring something positive to the community.

He had no Jabee.

Though once homeless, at no time in his childhood did he think he had it bad. It was all he knew. Each family he was around was either just like his or worse.

Today, the artist feels a strong need to tell his story through his music and help the people who can best relate to its message. He hopes his Gift Raps event becomes an annual sign of hope for those who grew up like he did.

“Even if I don’t rap, even if there’s other rappers, I want to be able to bring people in and stuff like that — even if we just have a party,” he said.

“Even if I’m not even here, I hope it’s something that we still do because it’s a way for me to continue to give back every year.”

Okl ahoma Gaz ette | december 9, 2015 | 41

p r ovi de d

life music

Super Diamond

Very ‘Cherry’ Super Diamond is no tired, cover-playing party band.

For frontman Randy Cordeiro, it’s a lifelong passion that honors a living legend.

By Ben Luschen

Bricktown NYE 2016 9 p.m.-1 a.m. Dec. 31 Chevy Bricktown Events Center 425 E. California Ave. bricktownnye.com ticketstorm.com 236-4143 $50-$400 21+

lunch & dinner 6014 N. May 947.7788 zorbasokc.coM 42 | december 9, 2015 | Oklahoma Gazette

As the calendar rolled into the new year, Neil Diamond spent December 1978 celebrating his return to the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with his Barbra Streisand duet “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.”

Thirty-seven years later, Diamond’s music still rings in New Year’s Eve. Super Diamond, a tribute band honoring the mastermind behind singalong anthems “Sweet Caroline” and “America,” is the featured performer at Bricktown NYE 2016 Dec. 31 at Chevy Bricktown Events Center.

Super Diamond is fronted by San Francisco’s Randy Cordeiro, known onstage as “Surreal Neil.” Cordeiro started singing Diamond songs solo in 1989 but admired his hits even from a young age. Neil Diamond’s Greatest Hits was his first 8-track tape.

As much as he loves the musician, Cordeiro said he is not an impersonator.

Super Diamond, which formed in 1993, does not settle for playing the Brooklyn songwriter’s hits as-is. Occasionally, even a Led Zeppelin riff sneaks into his set.

“We like to make it a little heavier, a little alternative, a little more hard rock, a little more psychedelic,” Cordeiro said. “A lot of the other bands we grew up liking, we like to kind of put those influences into the way we play Neil Diamond songs, so we don’t just do the songs straight up.”

Contrary to assertions made by Bill Murray in 1991’s What About Bob?,

Cordeiro insisted that the only types of people he has encountered in the world are those who like Neil Diamond and those who really like Neil Diamond but don’t know it yet.

There was a time, however, when the singer was seen by some as less than cool. Cordeiro said that the release of the single “Heartlight,” inspired by E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, was not quite rock ’n’ roll.

“He was wearing a lot of sequin shirts; people seemed to be making fun of that,” he said. “He seemed to have a lounge aura going on at that time in the early ’80s, so there was a backlash to his success.”

As with many other artists, Diamond’s musical reputation recovered as he took a break from the spotlight.

Cordeiro said part of the reason he started performing Diamond’s hits was because, unlike cover mainstays like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, songs like “Cracklin’ Rosie” were not performed by many people. He became hooked on performing the musician’s songs after he saw how people reacted to the music.

“It was just a really exciting discovery, just seeing Neil Diamond songs were making a lot of people happy, and still [do],” he said.

The band has played with Diamond himself twice. The singer also called Super Diamond his “adopted children” in a Today interview with Katie Couric.

Despite a slate of tribute shows dating back almost 23 years, Cordeiro says he never tires of honoring his first music hero.

“There’s such a variety of types of songs,” he said. “There’s three-chord rock ’n’ roll songs like ‘Cherry, Cherry’ and then there’s really complicated songs like ‘Love on the Rocks’ that have chords I’ve never played before.”

p rovi de d

FRIDAY, DEC. 11

Ian Moore, The Blue Door, Friday

Blind Date, Oklahoma City Limits. ROCK Elizabeth Speegle Band, The Martini Lounge, Edmond.

JAZZ

w es ley m a rs den / p rovi de d

Empire Grey, Riverwind Casino, Norman. ROCK Holiday Pipes, Sharp Concert Hall, Catlett Music Center, Norman. CLASSICAL Ian Moore, The Blue Door. SINGER/SONGWRITER Karen Khoury, Legend’s Restaurant, Norman. PIANO Lower 40, Thunderbird Casino, Norman. COVER Mama Sweet, The Deli, Norman. ROCK Tallows/Chase Kirby & The Villains, Opolis, Norman.

INDIE The Vandoliers/WAD, Blue Note Lounge. COUNTRY Wade Bowen, Wormy Dog Saloon. COUNTRY

Live Music WEDNESDAY, DEC. 9 4 Wheel Drive, Baker Street Pub & Grill. ROCK Grant Wells, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. JAZZ Harumph, The Deli, Norman. ROCK Holy Grail/Night Demon, 89th Street Collective. ROCK Maurice Johnson, R&J Lounge and Supper Club.

Sam Pottorff/Kenny Holland/Alex Lee, Diamond Ballroom. ROCK Scott Lowber/Will Galbraith/Ed VanBuskirk, Friends Restaurant & Club. COVER

THURSDAY, DEC. 10 Brent Saulsbury/Will Galbraith/Wayne Duncan, Friends Restaurant & Club. ROCK Country Music Group Therapy/Jabee, The Deli, Norman.

VARIOUS Daddyo’s/Noun Verb Adjective, Opolis, Norman. POP Dave Thomason Band, Grady’s 66 Pub, Yukon. COVER Mama Sweet, The Blue Door. ROCK Ryan Dorman, Wormy Dog Saloon. SINGER/ SONGWRITER

SATURDAY, DEC. 12 Aaron Newman Band, Tapwerks Ale House & Cafe. FOLK Avenue, Baker Street Pub & Grill. COVER Bo Phillips, Grady’s 66 Pub, Yukon. COUNTRY Darlin Darla, Rodeo Opry. COUNTRY

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DJ Six, Russell’s, Tower Hotel. VARIOUS

music

pick

Don and Melodee Johnson, Twelve Oaks, Edmond. JAZZ Elms/Forum/Jose Hernandez, Opolis, Norman. ROCK

A Blackwatch Christmas, Volume 5 Friday

From all the many hundreds of awesome and totally killer Christmas parties, one shall reign victorious. In fact, Fowler Volkswagen’s A Blackwatch Christmas, Volume 5 album release party isn’t just a party; it’s a multi-genre shindig that’ll knock your stockings right off, boys and girls. Oklahoma locals and album artists Samantha Crain, SPORTS and Sherree Chamberlain will be present to lead the compulsory sock-removal portion of the evening by providing free, live music. Did we mention admission is free? Because it’s free. The celebration starts 8 p.m. Friday at Stash, 412 E. Main St., in Norman. Call 642-0318 or visit fowlervwchristmas.com.

FIRE BAD/Killer Kicks/Red Cities, Blue Note Lounge.

ROCK Life of the Party, Russell’s, Tower Hotel. COVER Lip Service, Oklahoma City Limits. ROCK Lisa & Laura, Full Circle Bookstore. VARIOUS Lucky Duo, Mickey Mantle’s Steakhouse. COVER Mama Sweet, The Deli, Norman. ROCK Michael Hix, Riverwind Casino, Norman. POP Reckless Kelly/Uncle Lucius, Diamond Ballroom.

COUNTRY Ronnie Milsap/Risa Binder, Sugar Creek Casino, Hinton.

COUNTRY Santa Claus David Francis, Charles J. Johnson Central Park, Midwest City. CHRISTMAS

Santa Claus/Mrs. Claus/Santa’s Elves, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. CHRISTMAS

LUCKY/Shaun Suttle, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. COVER

Taddy Porter, Wormy Dog Saloon. ROCK

Mike Hosty, JJ’s Alley. ACOUSTIC

Trent Tiger, Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill. ACOUSTIC

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 16

Wino Browne, Newcastle Casino, Newcastle. ROCK

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SquadLive, Baker Street Pub & Grill. POP

SUNDAY, DEC. 13

Grant Wells, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. JAZZ Lower 40, Baker Street Pub & Grill. COUNTRY

Karen Khoury, Legend’s Restaurant, Norman. PIANO

Maurice Johnson, R&J Lounge and Supper Club.

Mike Hosty One Man Band, The Deli, Norman. ROCK

Scott Lowber/Will Galbraith/Ed VanBuskirk, Friends Restaurant & Club. COVER

Scott Lowber/Will Galbraith/Rick Toops, Friends Restaurant & Club. COVER Terror/Code Orange, 89th Street Collective. ROCK Tribute to Woodie Guthrie, The Blue Door. FOLK

MONDAY, DEC. 14 Invent, Animate, 89th Street Collective. ROCK Rick Toops, Friends Restaurant & Club. ROCK

TUESDAY, DEC. 15 Mama Sweet, The Blue Door, Thursday, The Deli, Norman, Friday

After the Burial, 89th Street Collective. ROCK Horseshoe Road Jingle Bell Jam, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond.

COUNTRY

Submissions must be received by Oklahoma Gazette no later than noon on Wednesday seven days before the desired publication date. Late submissions will not be included in the listings.

Submissions run as space allows, although we strive to make the listings as inclusive as possible.

Fax your listings to 528-4600 or e-mail them to listings@okgazette.com. Sorry, but phone submissions cannot be accepted.

Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 43

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Wes Studi

Studi’s ‘radicalization’ Shunted from an orphanage to Vietnam to highly politicized fights for civil rights, Oklahoma actor Wes Studi also blazes a trail for Native American filmmakers and actors.

By Wilhelm Murg

Wes Studi stars in the new Steven Paul Judd short comedy film Ronnie BoDean.

It centers around the title character, who is a combination of anti-authority Native American film hero Billy Jack — the returning Vietnam vet who knows karate — and that dude who walks into the bar with an attitude that you either deal with or you move out of his way.

Judd set out to create a cool Indian anti-hero who possesses as much nobility as any of Studi’s more “traditional” roles as 18th- and 19th-century Indians — only this is updated for 2015 and sets him in a world of beat-up muscle cars and cheap housing in contemporary Norman.

But what might be most compelling about the project are the reasons he agreed to do it.

“Steven and I talked about the portrayal of Native Americans, and we talked about how we were either portrayed as really good or really bad, but not a lot of in between, where life really happens,” Studi said during his recent interview with Oklahoma Gazette.

“He told me about this character, and I quickly saw that this is real life; we all have a relative who is like Ronnie BoDean. I felt like this really gets to the heart of the matter of what Indian life is all about in these here United States, and I liked the idea. And why not? It could build into something more, and it is being accepted very well.”

Studi’s involvement was a coup for Judd, who seems overwhelmed that such an iconic Native actor is playing the role.

“It was amazing. If you are a Native person, you know who Wes Studi is; you’ve seen him. He’s Magua, you know, ‘Why does Magua hate the grey hair?’ You know?” Judd noted, referencing Studi’s classic performance in Michael Mann’s 1992 adaptation of The Last of the Mohicans.

And “icon” is not too strong a word.

While there are many fine Native actors working today, including many of Studi’s contemporaries like Gary Farmer and Graham Greene, it was the string of monster hit films in the early 1990s,

including Dances with Wolves, Last of the Mohicans and Geronimo: An American Legend, that made Studi the face of Native America.

He even spent less than 60 seconds onscreen as Jim Morrison’s Indian vision in the 1991 movie The Doors and became iconic to a generation of stoners via VHS tapes.

“I was barely in it,” Studi said.

“I have tried to get it off my IMDB profile.”

Judd recently returned from showing Ronnie BoDean in Europe and has been hitting film festivals around the country.

The work also was shot so it could

be used as a TV show pilot or a demo reel for a feature film. It will be available for download during the week of Christmas.

Contemporary Native life, the idea of us getting out of leather and feathers and into jeans and T-shirts, that’s the one area that has been the least explored about Indians in film.

‘True light’

Native film has been going through a transition over the last quarter century, beginning with the release of Powwow Highway in 1989, in which Studi appeared in a small role. It was his first film.

— Wes Studi That also was the first Native American-made feature to show Indians as contemporary people living

continued on next page

Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 45

Je n Boy e r / P ROVI DED

cover film

cover film

Political change

To understand Studi as an actor, one needs to only look at his life. Studi lived a very common Native American story for people of his age. Born in Nofire Hollow, Oklahoma, he was raised in a household that spoke only Cherokee, was sent to an orphanage to learn English, ended up in the army in Vietnam at the height of the war and came back during the flowering of the social revolutions

of the 1960s and early ’70s that got him involved in some of the most famous takeovers and confrontations between the federal government and American Indian Movement, aka AIM, a vocal civil rights organization founded in Minneapolis in 1968.

Studi described himself as being “deposited at” the Murrow Indian Children’s Home, an orphanage for Indian youth in Muskogee, when he started school.

He said his family felt he could get a better education there than he could in a one-room schoolhouse, the kind that were still in operation in rural communities at that time.

“I had seen white people before; I knew they were different to a certain extent. I didn’t equate it with being a part of a different world or whatever; the language was what was different about us,” Studi said. “Most of my family was very mistrustful of [white people], and they told me to be mistrustful of them as well. I went into the world and learned English, but then I went home and I was speaking English in a Cherokee household, and it just didn’t work, so I had to relearn Cherokee. Then I went back to school and began to relearn English, and it was like that from then on.

“A part of my life after that was being totally surrounded by nonIndians, and many times, I was the only Native American kid in the class because we lived in small towns,” Studi continued.

“From there, I went to Chilocco Indian Agricultural School [in Newkirk], and there were some Cherokee students there.

They seemed to feel that we shouldn’t

Dances with Wolves

46 | december 9, 2015 | Oklahoma Gazette

The Last of the Mohicans

photos by Maura Dhu Studi / PROVI DED

in the modern world, as opposed to being characters from the 19th century or earlier. Since that time, as digital technology made filmmaking more affordable, a full-blown movement made of Native filmmakers who created their own statements on their culture, including Oklahomans Judd and Sterlin Harjo, as well as Chris Eyers, Jeff Barnaby and Sydney Freeland, developed, and it is a direct result of the activism Studi was involved in when he got back from Vietnam 46 years ago.

“Contemporary Native life, the idea of us getting out of leather and feathers and into jeans and T-shirts, that’s the one area that has been the least explored about Indians in film,” Studi said.

“These films show us as part of the real world today, and I think that’s an important thing not just for our youth, but even for those of us as adults and everyone and everything in between. It’s something we’ve talked about for a long time, making our own films that reflect a more true light of who we are in the world.”

speak Cherokee, so I didn’t get much of a chance to speak Cherokee there either. In any case, I have held on to the Cherokees’ language for the larger part of my life.”

Studi’s knowledge of both languages would come into play years later, after the political change in the Native community. In the early 1980s, he wrote two books for bilingual education for the Cherokee Nation: The Adventures of Billy Bean and More Adventures of Billy Bean.

The political change that would bring about bilingual education, teaching Indian children the language their parents were forced to give up, also is a direct result of 1960s social protest movements to bring attention to Native American rights.

After school, Studi joined the Army and served a tour in Vietnam with the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta. Due to the unpopularity of the Vietnam War, some people spat on, threw garbage at and taunted returning soldiers who had honorably served their country; it was a shameful moment in American history.

However, within Native American communities, often built around warrior societies, the majority of returning Indian veterans were welcomed and cheered by their communities as returning warriors.

“I think there was alienation, a feeling of having no appreciation from the general public, but the Indians took us back,” Studi said. “While the general public was extremely down on soldiers who were coming back — [shouts of ] ‘baby killer’ and all of that crap — it only added to an existing alienation we were all feeling. AIM was a movement that was taking shape, and it looked like it could be successful in what it was purposing to do, which was to start a dialog. This was a time of social unrest throughout the nation, and we had our grievances for much longer than the protest movements certainly had. It was quite a time to live in.”

‘Ordered out’

Studi threw himself into Native American politics. He joined AIM and, in 1972, was part of the Trail of Broken Treaties march on Washington, D.C., in

which protesters briefly occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs building.

“It’s kind of a comedy of errors,” Studi said. “We were denied entrance to the building as a group — they told us to pick our leaders and they would meet with them. But the D.C. police got involved because of the huge crowd around the building, a fight broke out at one of the doors and the police were overwhelmed.

The doors opened and everyone came in, spread throughout the whole building, and wondered, ‘What’s next?’

There was no plan to actually take over the building; it was just a big mistake.”

After the building takeover, AIM members returned to their communities and worked on local projects while they waited for the next big confrontation. During that time, Studi participated in the AIM takeover of the City Hall of Hammon, Oklahoma, where Indian people were systematically charged more for consumer goods than whites.

Then the call came for reinforcements during the takeover of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. The chief was making decisions without consulting the counsel and instated his own militia on the reservation to silence his enemies. To call attention to the problem, 200 AIM members occupied the small town for 71 days.

Studi was in a caravan of Native Americans that converged on Rapid City, South Dakota. While the FBI and U.S. Marshalls held a perimeter around the reservation, reservation residents knew the land, and people, supplies and weapons were being smuggled past the perimeter throughout the ordeal.

“We went inside, and then we were asked to go back out and bring more stuff in, and on the way out, we were arrested and spent a little time in their jail,” he said. “We were ordered out of the state by both the federal and the state authorities, so we were escorted to the state line, and off we went, back to Oklahoma. We continued to support them as well as we could.”

Studi began writing for Tulsa

Indian News, a mimeographed, legalsized newsletter about AIM concerns, where his first published his Billy Bean stories.

He also became involved with the American Indian Theater Company in Tulsa, which also was an echo from those days of social protest.

He was first noticed as an actor in 1984, in the Tulsa production of Black Elk Speaks. As it was one of the few, if not the only, Native American theater companies at that time, Nebraska Public Television came to Oklahoma to put casts together for some of their productions and hired Studi — Wes Studi for various projects, which lead to his moving to Hollywood to become the star he is today.

I think there was alienation, a feeling of having no appreciation from the general public, but the Indians took us back.

Authenticity

Studi’s authenticity cannot be questioned. When you see him as Ronnie BoDean, those experiences, living the rather taxing life his generation of Native Americans had to endure, inform his performance.

You can see it in every move, from the swagger when he announces to his opponent that he is about to kick his ass to the uncomfortable jokes he uses to cover up his poverty to the children in the film.

The irony of Ronnie BoDean is that while it is, without a doubt, the most lighthearted of all the contemporary Native films out there, it might also be the most subversive.

Studi and Judd have taken these experiences and ideas and boiled them down to 12 minutes.

These days, there’s a lot more to being an Indian actor than just getting shot off a horse.

Learn more about filmmaker and artist Judd in Oklahoma Gazette’s Nov. 25 cover story, “Andy Warriorhol,” at okgazette.com.

Learn more about Studi at wesleystudi.com.

Okl ahoma Ga z et te | dece m b e r 9, 2015 | 47

life film

provided

Suedehead blues An ex-felon fights against isolation and change in Mickey Reece’s new film. It premieres Dec. 19 at Oklahoma Contemporary.

By Ben Luschen

Suedehead premiere 8 p.m. Dec. 19 Oklahoma Contemporary 3000 General Pershing Blvd. allevents.by/5334569 $5

Though stylistically and tonally very different, the new movie Suedehead, directed and produced by local filmmaker Mickey Reece, finds some common ground with the 2000 blockbuster Cast Away.

Both follow men whose lives were flipped around by a single, traumatic event. Both deal with issues of isolation, loneliness and change. Both have memorable endings that let fate take over.

But while Tom Hanks and Wilson fought for survival on a desolate shore, Suedehead’s sarcastic cynic Kenny Walker, played by Mason Giles, must adjust to life fresh out of prison while stranded in the quiet halls of Northpark Mall.

Reece premieres his second film this year 8 p.m. Dec. 19 at Oklahoma Contemporary, 3000 General Pershing Blvd. His first, Me and Ichikawa, debuted May 2.

‘Historical’ venue

Reece said his projects are always a

conceptual product of who and what is available to him at the time.

“Rather than writing a script and trying to get all the stuff to make it happen, we look at all the stuff we have and write the script around that,” Reece told Oklahoma Gazette.

For Suedehead, he took advantage of an opportunity to gain full access to Northpark Mall. From that came the idea for Kenny Walker, a former goth rocker who hopes to pick up his life where it left off after a decade in jail. In addition to getting his old band back together, Kenny also is convinced he will be able to reunite with past love Jamie (Tennille McCallister), whom he wrote to frequently without reply while behind bars.

Kenny quickly finds out his transition to life back in the real world will not be as smooth as he hoped.

While moving back in with his parents, his mom (Brenda Stacy) finds a way to get her felon son a security job at Northpark alongside friendly do-right Mark (Jacob Ryan Snovel).

However, the security role is unable to subside Kenny’s inner jerk, and the character does not come across as overly grateful for his job or the mall. In reality, Reece said he could not have been more pleased with the northside mall and the building has an “historical place” in Oklahoma City.

48 | december 9, 2015 | Oklahoma Gazette

Unfortunately, some of the views of Kenny Walker are also mine.

— Mason Giles

“They were super cool. They turned off all the music for us,” he said.

“We didn’t have extras; we just filmed in the mall.”

Quantity versus quality

Reece said he usually tries to make his characters big and humorous. In Suedehead, however, Kenny is not the typical caricature of the sad goth audiences are accustomed to seeing, but a man with a harsh life perspective forced to face a cold reality.

“I really thought it would be funnier,” Reece said. “It actually kind of ended up being a little serious where you’re like, ‘Yeah, I’m for this, I’m going along with this goth. That’s fine.’”

Giles is playing in his first lead role as Kenny. John Selvidge, playing mysterious and shady Tommy

Portokoulos, is particularly strong in his role.

Reece said he most often tries to use non-actors in his films.

“Basically, it’s just a bunch of friends, you know?” he said.

“Sometimes, I’ll cast new people and they usually turn out really well.”

Reece was in the habit of making as many as three films each year, but he now wants to focus his output on quality over quantity. After just two movies this year, Reece said he hopes to spend all of 2016 on just one project.

“Doing the movies quick like that, it’s like it’s almost there like, you know, ready to swarm the film festivals, but it needs a little more time and care, I think,” he said.

If Reece has learned anything from Suedehead, it might be patience and calculation.

“Unfortunately, some of the views of Kenny Walker are also mine. So while editing this movie, I’m thinking, ‘Man, this guy is so me; I’m such an asshole,’” he said. “I really need to start being nice for a change.”

The premiere also will include free beer from Titswiggle Brewing Co. and stand-up from comedian Cameron Bucholtz.

Rocky truth Creed finds its own voice and victory as it fights to overcome its past.

Rocky is, at its heart, a movie about the American Dream. A regular Joe (not anything as noble as a plumber; a mob debt collector) gets a shot at the big time and works hard enough to prove he deserves to hang. It’s a movie about a working class shot-in-the-dark against a superstar who rose to the top.

Creed doesn’t have the ’70s undercurrents of youthful underrepresentation powering it. It’s a millennial story about someone lacking the helicopter parents and entitlement, someone inherently rebelling against these things. It’s a movie about stepping out of shadows, ignoring expectations and living for oneself. And it sings.

Creed follows Adonis “Donny” Creed (Michael B. Jordan, Fantastic Four), the illegitimate son of now-deceased heavyweight champ Apollo Creed, as he tries to become a professional boxer in his own right. Along the way, he recruits his father’s old rival-turned-friend, legendary boxer Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone, Rocky). This all seems pretty straightforward — stuff you’d get from previews or word-of-mouth, right?

I tell you this only so you see how well the film works on its own, regardless of how brushed-up you are on your Rocky mythos. I’ve only seen the first film all the way through, catching snippets of the rest on TV here and there, yet the gravitas of Creed’s callbacks never overwhelm the standalone narrative.

Director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station) spins and remixes the original Rocky montages and symbolism into Creed’s boxing Bildungsroman, balancing the tenuous struggle between fan service and personality.

His management of tone and creation of striking images, not to mention his harrowing script, warm your heart and raise its rate. I came close to weeping multiple times during the film, but I raised my fists in anticipation more than any other film this year.

Donny Creed earns his bona fides not by fighting in the peso-littered sawdust pits of Tijuana, but by embracing his identity. He begins the movie as an angry young man stifled by a life that isn’t his, and his journey echoes that of Stallone across a generational gap.

Accepting mentorship, finding love and facing personal demons head-on resist the ebb and flow of social trends,

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but for a young, black man surrounded mostly by a young, black community, the idea of fighting for one’s life takes on a little more edge.

Coupled with the Oscar-worthy performance of Stallone, whose Rocky mirrors and counterbalances Creed’s impetuous youth with the slow, careful macho of a man punched one too many times in the head, Jordan owns the screen.

His physicality — the guy is shredded like lettuce and throws himself at the performance like a berserker — and goofy, sweet buffoonishness (much like Stallone’s in Rocky) combine into a rich character we can’t help but root for. Tessa Thompson (Selma, Dear White People) as Bianca, Creed’s singersongwriter neighbor and eventual love interest, brings warmth and heat in equal measure. Their spats ring with truth, beginning with logical quibbles and eventually letting emotions reign. Her character — yes, hooray, she has one — also provides thematic resonance to the notion of a boxer’s profession being inherently temporary.

Beauty is captured between Thompson and Jordan in every scene

Scenes from Creed. they share, with a casual intimacy rarely seen in anything but the closest relationship studies.

But this beauty is only one side of the coin for Coogler. His work with cinematographer Maryse Alberti recreates the experience of modern gladiatorial combat from inside the ring in gorgeous one-shot sequences and perfect character reframes so you never feel out of Creed’s perspective whether he’s doling out punishment or receiving it.

Alberti’s cold, yet close-knit images of Philadelphia’s streets, gyms and nightclubs display a harshness that breeds cultural consanguineous behind its icons.

His identity isn’t his name, although he can accept his heritage. He is what his city, his community and his makeshift family helped him make. These leave legacies as tangible as any bloodline.

Contrasted with the similar story behind Creed’s ultimate opponent, these bonds drive home that despite the outcome of the climactic fight, Creed has succeeded. And how.

Oklahoma Gazette | december 9, 2015 | 49

P h o n e (4 0 5 ) 5 2 8 - 6 0 0 0 | E - m a i l : a d v e r t i s i n g @ t i e r r a m e d i a g r o u p. c o m

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

by ROB BREZNY

Homework: Review in loving detail the history of your life. Remember how and why you came to be where you are now. Testify at FreeWillAstrology.com.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) “Happiness sneaks through a door you didn’t know that you left open,” said actor John Barrymore. I hope you’ve left open a lot of those doors, Aries. The more there are, the happier you will be. This is the week of all weeks when joy, pleasure, and even zany bliss are likely to find their ways into your life from unexpected sources and unanticipated directions. If you’re lucky, you also have a few forgotten cracks and neglected gaps where fierce delights and crisp wonders can come wandering in.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) What state of mind do you desire the most? What is the quality of being that you aspire to inhabit more and more as you grow older? Maybe it’s the feeling of being deeply appreciated, or the ability to see things as they really are, or an intuitive wisdom about how to cultivate vibrant relationships. I invite you to set an intention to cultivate this singular experience with all your passion and ingenuity. The time is right. Make a pact with yourself.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Like Metallica jamming with Nicki Minaj and Death Cab for Cutie on a passage from Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, you are redefining the meanings of the words “hybrid,” “amalgam,” and “hodgepodge.”

You’re mixing metaphors with panache. You’re building bridges with cheeky verve. Some of your blends are messy mishmashes, but more often they are synergistic successes. With the power granted to me by the gods of mixing and matching, I hereby authorize you to keep splurging on the urge to merge.

This is your special time to experiment with the magic of combining things that have rarely or never been combined.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) I hope you can figure out the difference between the fake cure and the real cure. And once you know which is which, I hope you will do the right thing

rather than the sentimental thing. For best results, keep these considerations in mind: The fake cure may taste sweeter than the real one. It may also be better packaged and more alluringly promoted. In fact, the only advantage the real cure may have over the fake one is that it will actually work to heal you.

current story is this: Don’t tell everything! I realize this could be hard, since you are a good talker these days; your ability to express yourself is at a peak. So what should you do? Whenever you speak, aim for quality over quantity. And always weave in a bit of mystery.

about two feet in diameter. I’m guessing that you have made comparable misestimations about at least two facts of life, Capricorn. They seem quite reasonable but are very wrong. The good news is that you will soon be relieved of those mistakes. After some initial disruption, you will feel liberated.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) There’s a sinuous, serpentine quality about you these days. It’s as if you are the elegant and crafty hero of an epic myth set in the ancient future. You are sweeter and saucier than usual, edgier and more extravagantly emotive. You are somehow both a repository of tantalizing secrets and a fount of arousing revelations. As I meditate on the magic you embody, I am reminded of a passage from Laini Taylor’s fantasy novel Daughter of Smoke & Bone: “She tastes like nectar and salt. Nectar and salt and apples.

Pollen and stars and hinges. She tastes like fairy tales.

Swan maiden at midnight. Cream on the tip of a fox’s tongue. She tastes like hope.”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) Ducks are the most unflappable creatures I know.

Cats are often regarded as the top practitioners of the “I don’t give a f---” attitude, but I think ducks outshine them. When domestic felines exhibit their classic aloofness, there’s sometimes a subtext of annoyance or contempt. But ducks are consistently as imperturbable as Zen masters. Right now, as I gaze out my office window, I’m watching five of them swim calmly, with easygoing nonchalance, against the swift current of the creek in the torrential rain. I invite you to be like ducks in the coming days. Now is an excellent time to practice the high art of truly not giving a f---.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) I bought an old horoscope book at a garage sale for 25 cents. The cover was missing and some pages were water-damaged, so parts of it were hard to decipher.

But the following passage jumped out at me: “In romantic matters, Virgos initially tend to be cool, even standoffish. Their perfectionism may interfere with their ability to follow through on promising beginnings. But if they ever allow themselves to relax and go further, they will eventually ignite. And then, watch out! Their passion will generate intense heat and light.” I suspect that this description may apply to you in the coming weeks. Let’s hope you will trust your intuition about which possibilities warrant your caution and which deserve your opening.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) My old friend Jeff started working at a gambling casino in Atlantic City. “You’ve gone over to the dark side!” I kidded. He acknowledged that 90 percent of the casino’s visitors lose money gambling. On the bright side, he said, 95 percent of them leave happy.

I don’t encourage you to do this kind of gambling in the near future, Sagittarius. It’s true that you will be riding a lucky streak. But smarter, surer risks will be a better way to channel your good fortune. So here’s the bottom line: In whatever way you choose to bet or speculate, don’t let your lively spirits trick you into relying on pure impulsiveness. Do the research.

Perform your due diligence. It’s not enough just to be entertained. The goal is to both have fun and be successful.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Aquarian inventor Thomas Edison owned 1,093 patents. Nicknamed “The Wizard of Menlo Park,” he devised the first practical electrical light bulb, the movie camera, the alkaline storage battery, and many more useful things. The creation he loved best was the phonograph. It was the first machine in history that could record and reproduce sound. Edison bragged that no one else had ever made such a wonderful instrument. It was “absolutely original.” I bring this to your attention, Aquarius, because I think you’re due for an outbreak of absolute originality. What are the most unique gifts you have to offer? In addition to those you already know about, new ones may be ready to emerge.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) “The secret of being a bore is to tell everything,” said French writer Voltaire. I agree, and add these thoughts: To tell everything also tempts you to wrongly imagine that you have everything completely figured out. Furthermore, it may compromise your leverage in dicey situations where other people are using information as a weapon. So the moral of the

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus was a pioneer thinker whose ideas helped pave the way for the development of science. Believe nothing, he taught, unless you can evaluate it through your personal observation and logical analysis. Using this admirable approach, he determined that the size of our sun is

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Here’s an experiment that makes good astrological sense for you to try in the coming weeks. Whenever you feel a tinge of frustration, immediately say, “I am an irrepressible source of power and freedom and love.” Anytime you notice a trace of inadequacy rising up in you, or a touch of blame, or a taste of anger, declare, “I am an irresistible magnet for power and freedom and love.” If you’re bothered by a mistake you made, or a flash of ignorance expressed by another person, or a maddening glitch in the flow of the life force, stop what you’re doing, interrupt the irritation, and proclaim, “I am awash in power and freedom and love.”

Go to RealAstrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny’s expanded weekly audio horoscopes /daily text message horoscopes.

The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700.

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