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contents 31

34

19

NEWS

ARTS & CULTURE

Music

4

22

Cover: eSports

37

24

Easter Services

Mayday Parade, Nils Lofgren, Hip-Hop History Month

26

Culture: SUPER! BitCon

40

Music calendar

27

Culture: sock burning

41

Sudoku / Crossword

27

Youth: Indian Territory Days

42

Astrology

28

Fashion: Walk This Way

42

Classifieds

29

Visual Arts: G. Patrick Riley, Darci Dolls, Three-Day Southwestern Exhibit & Sale

32

Performing Arts: The Fantasticks, Kilgen organ

34

Arts & Culture calendar

4

ON THE COVER

In a back corner of Sunny’s Game Lounge, a group of young men hunch around three LCD televisions. New Jersey native Jason Zimmerman, known in the eSports world as Mew2King, is considered one of the best Super Smash Bros. players of all time. He has earned just south of $150,000 in his gaming career. Throughout the city, eSports and the gaming community are gaining momentum. On the cover: Johnny “Icychiller” Weaver plays Halo in his home in Wellston. By Adam Holt, P.22.

Cover photo by Garett Fisbeck.

Metro: Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma 5

Legal: booze and brews

7

Education: 1-cent sales tax

8

City: rehabbing homes

10

Chicken-Fried News

12

Letters

Food & Drink 15

Scratch Kitchen & Cocktails, Eats On 8th, Eat for Flint, food briefs, Uptown Uncorked, OKG eat: old faithfuls

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 | march 23, 2016 | 3

Life mission

Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma protests were met with a combination of bewilderment, resistance and tolerance.

T. Russell Hunter speaks to Oklahoma Gazette about recent Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma demonstrations in the Paseo Arts District.

By Brett Dickerson

“Stop the murder!”

“Six thousand babies are murdered in Oklahoma every year!”

These are not comments visitors at Paseo Arts District’s monthly First Friday Gallery Art Walk expect to hear. But on this particular Friday, they did. They also watched protestors march, waving graphic placards depicting alleged dead human fetuses.

Members of the Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma, an anti-abortion group, concluded a week of demonstrations across Oklahoma City’s core.

In the Paseo, reactions were mixed.

“The most important test to anyone’s commitment to free speech is whether or not they would defend the speech rights of individuals or groups espousing messages that listeners find vile, reprehensible or disturbing,” said Ryan Kiesel, executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma (ACLU).

The ACLU, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, has offices in the district.

Some gallery owners and merchants feared the anti-abortion group’s presence might ruin the evening.

By night’s end, however, it was apparent that it didn’t.

4 | march 23, 2016 | Oklahoma Gazette

So long as they are acting within their First Amendment rights, they have every right to be there.

— Ryan Kiesel

Free speech

Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma demonstrators manned each corner of the district’s central intersection at NW 29th and Paseo streets as they chanted and waved vivid photographic banners and signs. They handed out literature to passersby as they shouted, “Unborn babies have rights, too!” and “Abortion is murder!”

Some visitors shrugged it off or watched it as a form of street theater.

Others avoided the intersection. Some also shouted back. The usually mellow, artsy social event’s mood became tense.

OKC police arrived, parked patrol cars at the intersection and activated their red and blue emergency strobes.

Officers stood, arms crossed, near the demonstrators. “[Even so,] I had an amazing sales evening,” said Betsy King, owner of a shoe shop she shares

with clothier Marla Cook.

Her shop sits closest to the intersection where police lights flashed through the night.

“I was pleasantly surprised at how it did not affect my business,” King said.

She said they invited a police department representative to the district’s next merchants and gallery owners association meeting to advise them on what they could do regarding any future demonstrations.

Police explained legal conduct: Demonstrators cannot touch anyone, nor can they block anyone’s access to streets, sidewalks or shops.

King was philosophical about the possibility of any type of demonstration happening again in the district.

“I hope it doesn’t happen again, but if it does, we’ll roll with the punches,” she said.

Legal battles

Perhaps the biggest question that Friday night was, “Who are those people?”

They are members of Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma, said Katherine Hunter, wife of co-founder T. Russell Hunter. The group is part of Abolish Human Abortion (AHA), a national network they helped found. Its membership has grown to include chapters in several states.

They were not there to be belligerent, Hunter said, but to “change minds and hearts.”

“We approach people here. We want people to talk to us,” Katherine Hunter said. “We want information in the hands of people.”

Later, Norman native T. Russell Hunter spoke to Oklahoma Gazette about AHA. The group uses the terms “abolition” and “abolitionism” because it believes their cause resembles the pre-Civil War movement to abolish slavery.

“They were advocating for the least powerful members of American society back then, who were the slaves,” he said. “And we are advocating for the least powerful people today: the unborn babies.”

But few Paseo guests understood why the group was there beyond its

obvious opposition to abortion. Russell Hunter said AHA was protesting ACLU of Oklahoma.

Earlier this year, AHA filed a petition initiative that, if successful, would have put to a public vote its proposal to amend the state constitution to outlaw abortion.

The ACLU filed a legal challenge in the Oklahoma Supreme Court that said AHA’s proposal was unconstitutional because it would criminalize all abortions without exception.

The ACLU argued that week before the Oklahoma Supreme Court referee, Kiesel said. Its legal challenge said AHA’s proposal is “patently unconstitutional.”

“This court has explicitly and repeatedly held that an initiative whose enforcement would violate federal constitutional protections for reproductive liberty is invalid and cannot appear on the ballot,” the ACLU’s legal challenge asserted.

Russell Hunter said the ACLU’s supreme court protest essentially halted the petition initiative.

Kiesel told the Gazette the group’s petition should be invalid because the U.S. Supreme Court previously established that abortion was a legal medical right.

He also defended AHA’s right to protest, even if it protested Kiesel’s organization.

“So long as they are acting within their First Amendment rights, they have every right to be there,” he said.

But Russell Hunter said he sees an even bigger problem with the “incrementalism of our pro-life Legislature”: AHA equates abortion with murder.

“We push legislation that clearly says that abortion is wrong,” he added.

He said his group isn’t popular with what he called “pro-life” proponents, especially in the Legislature, which has “made too many compromises to allow some types of abortions.”

“We are for the complete abolition of abortion,” he said. “All incrementalism does is siphon off energy that is needed to end the practice of abortion.”

He said the pro-life legislative trend is pointless and lawmakers should clearly stand against all abortion instead of passing laws that make it harder for people to have the procedure.

Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma demonstrators hand out fliers like these to just about anyone who will take them. “We want information in the hands of people,” said co-founder Katherine Hunter.

PH OTOS BY B R E TT DI C KE R S ON / FO R T H E G AZE T T E

news metro

news legal

Voters await their opportunity to have their say on Oklahoma’s historically restrictive liquor laws.

By Greg Elwell

Editor’s note: Booze and brews is an Oklahoma Gazette series examining our state’s beer and liquor laws. This story is part three of three. Learn more online at okgazette.com.

There aren’t any good old days for alcohol in Oklahoma.

The state’s prohibition history is long and storied, which makes the possibility of real change even more enticing.

Senate Joint Resolution 68 (SJR 68), authored by Sen. Clark Jolley and Rep. Glen Mulready, recently passed out of the Senate and awaits the House of Representatives’ rules committee.

SJR 68 would put proposed changes to the Oklahoma Constitution’s alcohol laws to a vote of the people.

UNI_16-RP-45_Dashing_Dinner_Gazette.indd 1

Stephanie Bice

Senate Bill 383 (SB 383) by Sen. Stephanie Bice is still being written and revised, but it would provide the legal framework for new alcohol laws. And a pair of dueling initiative petitions push to ensure government gridlock doesn’t inhibit voters from deciding whether change is needed.

But to understand where we’re going, it helps to know where we’ve been.

Here’s a brief history of Oklahoma’s liquor laws, provided by the Oklahoma Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission (ABLE): “Oklahoma residents were in the moonshine business well before statehood,” said Joe Daniels, ABLE special agent. “Prior to becoming a state, Indian Territory was designated as ‘dry’ to protect the Native American

population from the evils of alcohol, but this just made a market for the product as illegal traders in the area made moonshine commonplace.”

Watered-down history

When Oklahoma became a state in 1907, it remained dry, so the moonshine business stayed booming.

After nationwide prohibition was repealed in 1933 with the ratification of the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, not much changed.

Oklahoma never ratified the 21st Amendment, but most other states did. Instead, the Oklahoma Legislature approved a beer referendum in 1933 allowing 3.2 percent ABV, or alcohol by volume, beer.

“Only the push to bring legal

GA ZE TTE STAFF / FI L E

Vintage laws liquor into the state in 1959 caused a major enforcement crackdown on the moonshiners’ and bootleggers’ activity, who were working somewhat openly across the state,” Daniels said.

It would be 26 years — 1959 — before it was legal to make and sell alcohol in Oklahoma, and even then, it was only in liquor stores.

Jump forward another quarter century to 1984. That’s when Oklahomans voted to allow liquor by the drink in restaurants and bars on a county-by-county basis.

The last 32 years have seen a literal and figurative seismic shift in the state.

On social media and in letters to the editor, residents share concerns and continued on next page

Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 5 3/16/16 3:21 PM

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news legal

6 | march 23, 2016 | Oklahoma Gazette

Friends socialize and sip beer at The Bleu Garten in Oklahoma City.

Liquor law timeline:

wishes for changes to Oklahoma’s liquor laws.

In an email to Oklahoma Gazette, tax attorney Tim Larason said he’s worried public consumption will take a hit.

“Is anyone looking out for the consumer? Oklahoma law presently allows ‘public’ consumption of 3.2 beer in parks, tailgate parties, festivals, etc.,” he wrote. “But strong beer must be consumed in private or in an ABLE-licensed facility, in some cases limited to over age 21. If 3.2 beer disappears, will consumption of beer in a public park or a tailgate party become a criminal offense? Will festivals be required to segregate beer drinkers from under age 21?”

ABLE Capt. Brent Fairchild said those questions don’t yet have answers.

“I cannot answer that, as SJR 68 wording has not been finalized and no amendments to SB 383 have been filed to date,” he explained.

Current laws still prohibit drinking strong beer in public places, and Title 37 has licensing mechanisms in place for serving alcohol at street festivals, but all that could change as proposed legislation moves forward.

When the Gazette asked social media users, Brandon Seekins said he wants direct shipment of alcohol from out-of-state vendors.

“There’s some stuff I just can’t find in stores here,” he wrote.

Lindsay Thomas, Audrey Dodgen and Jenny Heinrichs shared that they want to buy wine in a grocery store on Sundays.

“I want to buy wine where I buy the rest of the stuff I need for dinner, and I want it on Sunday,” Dodgen said.

Cold beverages should be available every day of the week, said

1907: Oklahoma’s Constitution is written to include prohibition.

Moonshining continued as it did since before statehood.

1919: Oklahoma ratified the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, creating nationwide prohibition.

1933: The 21st Amendment, ending Prohibition, was added to the U.S. Constitution. Oklahoma did not ratify it but approved a referendum allowing 3.2 ABV beer.

1959: Oklahomans repealed prohibition and established an Alcohol Control Board. The legislation allowed retail sales in package stores, but not liquor by the drink in restaurants and bars.

1984: Article 28 of the Oklahoma Constitution was passed, creating the Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission and allowing counties to decide on liquor-by-the-drink sales.

Rhiannon Mako.

“Because sometimes I want a chilled bottle of Moscato as a dessert on a Sunday,” she said.

Cold, strong beer; a level playing field for local breweries; personal small-batch distilling; and allowing children into liquor stores with parents also were requested.

November might seem far away for voters eager to modernize the state’s liquor laws, but what’s a few more months after suffering through more than a century of restrictions?

news education

Proposed solution More than 180,000 voters back a penny sales tax for public education. Leaders say the petition is an answer to the state’s dwindling revenues.

Tony Flores chose to stay.

During his five years of teaching in the Putnam City School District, he watched a number of teachers switch professions or move across state lines for better pay.

In February, Flores had a similar opportunity after a call from a Texas superintendent about a position at his alma mater.

“The petition was why I said no,” recalled Flores, who teaches music at Wiley Post Elementary School and was a 2015 finalist for state teacher of the year.

“If I leave, that’s one less person to fight.

That’s why I’m sticking around.”

Flores lends his voice as a supporter of the penny sales tax for education, known as State Question 779. The 1-cent increase would bring around $600 million a year to public education and guarantees a teacher pay raise.

A salary increase would help retain high-caliber educators who bring quality education into Oklahoma’s classrooms, Flores said.

By supporting the tax, registered voters can boost educational opportunities and student learning outcomes in districts across all 77 counties.

“You have to think about your own children and how you want the best education for them,” Flores said. “You want them to be the best prepared for life.”

Defining moment

University of Oklahoma President David Boren remembers recent comments by leaders at the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education.

The nationally recognized program trains students to enter elementary and secondary classrooms, but many of those teachers choose to start their careers outside of Oklahoma.

“We are producing the best and brightest teachers for other states,” Boren said to a crowd at an Oklahoma City town hall event for Oklahoma’s Children, Our Future.

The grassroots group oversees the initiative petition.

The fact that certified teachers feel they need to leave the Sooner State bothers the former governor and U.S. senator. Equally troubling is the funding for common education. To back his

Kandace Howell looks on as Leigh Love and Laura Tirrell sign a petition to support State Question 779, a 1-cent sales tax to help fund public education. remarks on school spending, Boren cited numbers as people in the crowd shook their heads.

In 2009, the state appropriated more than $2 billion to public schools at a time when Oklahoma had 641,721 students.

Six years later, state appropriations were $1.877 billion to schools with 688,306 students enrolled.

That’s a difference of about $160 million. Oklahoma led the nation in regard to slashing per-student spending, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“That’s not Oklahoma,” said Boren, who leads the petition effort. “That’s not who we are as Oklahomans. Those are not our priorities. We have to stand up and be counted. … Times like these, I think, are defining moments for our state. That’s the reason I got involved.

We simply have to do something.”

State Question 779

Now through May 16, Oklahoma’s Children, Our Future is collecting signatures to bring a 1-cent sales tax proposal to voters on the Nov. 8 ballot.

About 124,000 signatures are needed before the measure can appear on the same ballot during the presidential election.

If voters approve the proposal to

raise the state sales tax from 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent, an estimated $615 million would be deposited annually in the newly created Education and Reform Fund, an “off-the-top” fund that lawmakers couldn’t touch. The fund is an addition to the revenue allocated annually for common education, higher education and career technology education.

Common education would receive the largest distribution from the fund — an estimated $424 million to increase teacher salaries by $5,000 and distribute funding to schools struggling with lower test scores and higher dropout rates.

The fund sends $120 million to Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. The revenue is dedicated to student tuition only. CareerTech garners $20 million to increase workforce readiness and industry certification.

Additionally, the fund would allow school districts to apply for grants to enhance learning opportunities for early childhood, low-income and at-risk students. The State Department of Education would oversee the grant applications and the fund. An estimated $50 million would be allocated.

The petition has support from education leaders across the state, including Oklahoma State University President Burns Hargis, former

interim Oklahoma City Public Schools superintendent and former commerce secretary Dave Lopez and 2015-16 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year Shawn Sheehan. Business and community leaders, such as Oklahoma banker Gene Rainbolt, Sonic CEO Cliff Hudson and country music star Toby Keith, also support the initiative.

Education sales tax opponents worry it will have a damaging impact on the poor. If passed, Oklahoma would become a top state for having the highest combined sales tax burden in the nation.

However, Oklahoma is considered a low-tax state by Tax Foundation, which ranks it 17th lowest nationally in state and local income tax collections.

With no state property tax or local income tax, state revenues come from taxing personal income, sales, corporate income, motor vehicles, fuel and gross production (severance).

Beacon of light

Parents, teachers, college students and everyday Oklahomans sign the petition because they want to invest in public education, said Amber England, executive director of Stand for Children Oklahoma and a founding member of Oklahoma’s Children, Our Future.

“There is a lot of negative news about the state revenue crisis,” England said.

“This petition has become the beacon of light, hope that help is on the way.”

In the first month of gathering signatures, 180,000 Oklahomans signed the petition. Signature collections continue through the May deadline, when petition sheets are turned over to the state.

“We have a chance to make a huge difference in the future of children,” Boren said, “a huge difference in the lives of our teachers, who so deserve our appreciation and respect.”

Flores acknowledged other attempts to raise teacher pay by lawmakers and the governor; however, those efforts fizzled. It has been a relentless fight to find classroom funding and education support.

“We have waited and waited for our government to do something, and that hasn’t happened,” Flores said. “We have to stand up and do something. We can’t allow children to be left behind. We have to invest now to fix the future.”

Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 7

Ga r ett fisbe ck

By Laura Eastes

news city

Love labor

Breathing new life into historic buildings takes passion, commitment and dedication to strengthening OKC’s urban core.

By Laura Eastes

On a sunny March morning in the historic neighborhood of Heritage Hills, Brandon Swearingen worked feverishly to restore windows on an early 20th-century home.

He said historic window restorations are dominant architectural features for old houses. After glazing two panels, it’s easy to see the charm and distinct character of the window, which could date back to 1918, when the house was first built.

“My passion is here with these older houses,” Swearingen said as he admired his sweat equity.

Two months ago, the 30-year-old began work on the home located on NW 20th Street. The property was in shambles. A leaky roof caused water damage, and there were holes in outer walls and structural issues. It was previously listed as a dilapidated structure, and Swearingen purchased the property at a sheriff’s sale with the intent to restore the two-story home’s authentic elements and bring it up to modern-day living standards.

The three-bedroom home with two and a half baths should be completed in May. Swearingen said he plans to sell the property, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“If you do these homes right, they are gone before they are ever finished,” said Swearingen, who restores properties through his business, Brandon Swearingen Renovations, LLC. “In an average week, seven to 10 people will call or stop by to ask questions about the home. These homes have character. You are buying a lifestyle, and the locations are perfect for professionals who work downtown.”

‘Clearly fixable’

Last year, the fate of the NW 20th Street property was unknown after code enforcement officials placed it on the City of Oklahoma City’s dilapidated structures list.

As the city’s historic preservation officer, Katie Friddle viewed the code enforcement report for the historic home. The house was in a state of disarray, but wasn’t beyond repair.

“What city staff takes away from these jobs is that as bad as the houses

8 | march 23, 2016 | Oklahoma Gazette

seem, they are clearly fixable,” Friddle said. “It is not infeasible for someone who has an interest to take on a property, restore it and make it livable again. It can be done, and there is a value in fixing it.”

Friddle oversees Oklahoma City’s preservation-related activities and works closely with the Historic Preservation Commission. In 2015, a handful of Historic Preservation District homes were on the dilapidated structure lists.

The city requires a separate review on dilapidated structures in Historic Preservation Districts, such as Crown Heights, Edgemere Park, Heritage Hills, Jefferson Park, Mesta Park, Paseo, Putnam Heights and Shepherd.

Three properties, including a 1930s-era dwelling in Crown Heights, were saved from demolition.

Hidden jewel

Nine months ago, Sarah Bytyqi looked past the cracked siding, broken windows and yard debris at a vacant two-story house located on NW 40th Street. Once inside, she climbed over mounds of litter left by a hoarder tenant as she scoped out the interior.

Despite the neglect, the home still held its historic charm and aesthetic beauty.

With an extensive restoration, the dilapidated structure could be transformed into the home Bytyqi and her Edmond family wanted.

“It was just the perfect house for us,” Bytyqi said. “It was an opportunity. We knew the house was a good value, and we knew we could restore it, based on previous projects.”

Bytyqi and her husband Andi own Verbode, a real estate firm specializing in homes in OKC’s urban core.

Additionally, the couple buys and rehabs older homes to sell through their business, Lucky Investments, LLC. Promoters and investors of historic neighborhoods, the couple always searched for the ideal home for their family. The Crown Heights property was it for a variety of reasons, including mature trees, a large lawn, walkability to Western Avenue and the strong sense of community felt after visiting with neighbors.

With extensive interior restoration,

Ga r ett fisbe c k

u o y Do kc?

O INTEGRIS AND

MAYO CLINIC.

LAURA EASTES

Brandon Swearingen looks at a historic home he is restoring in Heritage Hills.

A historic home undergoes restoration in Crown Heights. the couple had a clean slate to design a house to meet their family’s needs.

They split a large bedroom into two, creating three bedrooms on the second floor. Downstairs, they moved the master bedroom and removed walls to create more open spaces. Authentic elements like the staircase, windows and a farmhouse-style back door were salvaged and restored.

“To tear the house down and build something new would have been a disservice to the neighborhood, in my opinion,” said Bytyqi, who reviewed old property records to research past owners.

C.B. Warr, responsible for many OKC houses in the 1930s and ’40s, built the home. From old newspaper clippings, Bytyqi learned the home was often a destination for social events and dinner parties decades ago.

Beginning this summer, the six family members will make their own history in the house.

Bytyqi encouraged others to consider investing in older homes before building new ones.

“We should be in the habit of restoring old homes, not building new, if we can avoid it,” Bytyqi said. “There is always room for someone to come in and fix something. If we can fix this

house, any house can be salvaged.”

Citizen involvement

City planners report an array of preservation projects underway in OKC. In addition to homes, there are notable redevelopment projects in downtown, such as the longabandoned Sunshine Laundry building and Main Street Arcade.

Also, the city is preparing its first historic preservation plan, called preserveokc. The comprehensive plan will outline policies and incentives to encourage preservation. Through public meetings, city planners hope to receive feedback on which places residents think should be preserved and why.

“I think this is the perfect time for us to do preserveokc,” Friddle said.

“This is so much growth, development and really cool preservation projects taking place across the city. There is an interest in revitalizing historic areas.

It seems appropriate to proactively look at how we are encouraging and approaching preservation as a community.”

The preserveokc kickoff meeting is 6:30-8:30 p.m. April 5 in Civic Center Music Hall’s Meinders Hall of Mirrors, 201 N. Walker Ave.

Are you a well-spoken, Gazettereading, idea-driven, local Oklahoma business-lover with the desire to help metro OKC businesses grow and succeed? Then we are looking for you!

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Chicken

Fried news

Poor papaw

Forget Kim Kardashian’s badonkadonk, which we’ve all seen a million times now. An Oklahoma college student and her sweet papaw almost broke Twitter March 16.

Kelsey Harmon is a softball player and student at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah.

Harmon’s tweet featured a photo of her sad grandfather eating one of the burgers he made for his grandchildren with the caption “dinner with papaw tonight... (heart emoji) he made 12 burgers for all 6 grandkids and I’m the only one who showed. (crying emoji) love him.”

Harmon’s sad papaw snap soon went viral and she received thousands of tweets and messages. Some were rude, but most were heartfelt statements about how important family should be to everyone and how people missed their grandparents.

Even Montel Williams sent love to Harmon and her grandfather, saying “Tell pawpaw Hi from me.”

It even inspired a hashtag, #WeWantPawpaw, from fans asking Ellen DeGeneres to invite him to her talk show.

People started making papaw memes.

One featured a cutout from Harmon’s

photo and said, “Papaw. Amazing burger chef. The Internet’s grandpa.”

One of Harmon’s cousins wasn’t so lucky.

“Papaw is ok guys I promise & he loves all grandkids equally, plz stop sending my cousins death threats everything is ok !!!!”

Harmon tweeted March 17.

Brock Harmon made up for his absence by visiting March 17 and having a belated burger dinner with him.

“GUYS DON’T WORRY!!!! I CAME TO PAPAWS HOUSE AND AM HAVING A BURGER!!!!!!!” he tweeted along with a photo.

Some people still weren’t impressed.

“They are cold and old now, too late,” @hadidgomez replied.

March 17, Kelsey Harmon sent out a note thanking everyone for their nice and sometimes sad responses. She expressed appreciation for and respectfully turned down offers of gifts or donations.

She ended the note by saying she never intended to become famous or get any attention and said, “Papaw is great. Please know he is loved deeply, and now widely.”

At press time, Harmon’s original tweet had 290,000 likes and had been retweeted 180,000 times.

Odd couple

Sen. Bernie Sanders is a democratic socialist with presidential ambitions who wants to send everyone to college for free.

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, is a staunch conservative who thinks mankind plays little role in climate change.

And apparently they are pretty good friends.

Don’t look for a whole lot of bipartisan legislation to come from these polar opposites, but it’s kind of heartening to hear that Bernie and Jim can put aside politics for a while and just be bros. “[Inhofe is] really, really conservative,” Sanders said during the March 13 Democratic presidential debate. “But you know what? He is a decent guy and I like him, and he and I are friends. You find the fact that just because you have very significant political

differences doesn’t mean to say you can’t develop friendships with good people.”

We at Oklahoma Gazette might throw snowballs at our hotheaded senator on occasion, but it’s nice to think we could probably get along with Jim over a tall glass of bourbon as long as we only talked about riding horses and how deep the Thunder will make it into the postseason.

New love

There was once a time Oklahoma City basketball fans would have been happy with trading in the city’s newly dubbed Thunder for the more familiar New Orleans Hornets, a team the city hosted for a few years while Louisiana recovered from Hurricane Katrina.

Everyone in the city loved the Hornets’ Chris Paul then. Now? Maybe not so much. During a March 9 game with the Los Angeles Clippers (Paul’s present-day team), the point guard dealt Kevin Durant, with whom the 405 has struck a new love affair, a truly low blow. Durant was playing tight defense on Paul in the last minute of the second quarter when the Clipper delivered a sharp blow to Durant’s groin,

connect to

Confidence at Central

U N I V E R S I T Y TM

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10 | march 23, 2016 | Oklahoma Gazette

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momentarily stunning the defender and freeing Paul up to sink a 20-foot jump shot.

How’s that for a man crush?

This is far from the first time Paul has been accused of bushleague play. Years ago, OKC fans turned a blind eye to the potential faults of their first NBA superstar. This makes current stars like fashionable Russell Westbrook and modest Durant — recently caught shimmying to Rihanna’s “Work” during pregame warmups — all the more delightful.

This might not end up being the Thunder’s season, but the possibility of their leaving in the near future is too much to bear. So please excuse us if we come off as the clingy partner.

Old days

We’ve all heard grandpa say, “Back in my day.” Sometimes, it’s followed by insightful information about what school was like eons ago.

For example, “Back in my day, we

walked barefoot 10 miles to school through a snowstorm!”

We learned Oklahoma school districts didn’t provide transportation, shoes weren’t required and blizzards were common.

Let’s think about this generation of kids in public school and fast-forward 60 years. In 2076, what will youths hear about school in 2016?

“Back in my day, there were 35 students in a single classroom and the teacher didn’t have a bachelor’s degree in education,” “Certified teachers were fleeing to cross the Red River” and “School budgets were slashed, music classrooms were boarded up and STEM was put on the back burner.”

That wouldn’t be the case for the 46,500 students at Oklahoma City Public Schools, thanks to support from district alumnus Cliff Hudson, Sonic Corp. CEO. Earlier this month, Hudson and his wife Leslie pledged funds to support all of OKCPS’ DonorsChoose.org projects, NewsOK.com reported.

DonorsChoose.org allows classroom teachers to post supplies, technology and field trip requests. Anyone can view

S U N D AY, M A R C H 2 7

//

home and exited his vehicle, Bruno ran toward him, barking. The deputy, who said he felt threatened by the dog, shot Bruno in the shoulder.

Sheriff Scott Walton said the deputy followed protocol by immediately calling a supervisor.

Before leaving the scene, the deputy also left an explanatory note on the Laymon’s door with the still-bleeding dog.

A follow-up Tulsa World report said Bruno’s front left leg was amputated. The Laymons said they considered putting the dog down and still might have to.

It’s a hard decision to make, they said, because he is a valued family member.

The sheriff’s office told Tulsa’s NewsOn6. com that it received multiple complaints about Bruno before the shooting, but the Laymons maintained the shooting was unnecessary.

The family told NewsOn6.com that it is considering filing a claim to cover the dog’s health care expenses. So far, expenses have surpassed $6,000.

the proposals and contribute. Districts across the state use the website.

The Hudsons are funding 108 classroom projects, which includes sports equipment, classroom iPads and supplies to benefit special education students.

Kudos, Hudsons!

Maybe 60 years from now, the comment will be, “Back in my day, philanthropists, community members and school foundations supported education funding.”

Down note

When the Laymon family returned to their home in Rogers County, they were greeted with a shocking sight: the family dog bleeding on their front porch from a gunshot wound.

Bruno, the family’s German shepherd, was shot by a deputy who was in the area to investigate another reported incident.

When he pulled up near the Laymon

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405. 272.3040 Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 11

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.

Reducing rights

Right to Farm (State Question 777) has nothing to with family farming or rights.

It’s boilerplate legislation written by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to protect multinational, largescale animal factories from reasonable regulation and, ultimately, legal action by family farmers and other neighbors.

The question is, what problem does Right to Farm solve? Who wants to farm and can’t do it? Nobody.

Right to Farm deregulates agribusiness and forever moves corporate farming beyond the reach of the law. Nothing would stop corporate factories from driving even more family farmers out of business with lower prices and turning them into serfs working their own land for the corporations rather than themselves.

If we’re not concerned about how animals are mistreated in those monstrous Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) with 30,000 hogs or 100,000 chickens or the hormones and antibiotics in CAFO meat, then we should worry about the destruction of water quality and quantity, property values and the health of our families.

— Jackie Gaston Yukon Health care

The state of Oklahoma is caught in the grip of a health care crisis. According to a nationwide survey conducted by Merritt Hawkins, Oklahoma ranks dead last in the U.S. in regard to physician access.

An almost incredulous 72 out of 77 state counties are deemed by the federal government to be chronically underserved.

While the lack of MDs and DOs

going into primary care upon graduation is a large contributing factor, it is one that could be heavily mitigated if members of the state Legislature had the political will to force modernization of the Oklahoma Nursing Practice Act. Due to archaic language in the law, nurse practitioners in the state of Oklahoma are not allowed to participate in a full scope of practice.

Even though they are allowed to own and operate their own clinics, they must work under the “supervision” of a doctor.

This “supervision” consists mostly of paying doctors thousands of dollars per year to do nothing except be available to take questions regarding patient care.

Furthermore, it ties nurse practitioners down to the doctor’s physical proximity.

The consequences are both predictable and alarming: Patients have to travel farther, wait longer and pay more for inferior treatment.

In an effort to address this issue, state representative Jon Echols recently introduced House Bill 2841, which seeks to amend the Oklahoma Nursing Practice Act to allow nurse practitioners to have a full scope of practice. This bill’s passage would help to expand accessibility, decrease public health costs and bolster positive health care outcomes for countless

thousands of rural Oklahomans.

Despite Representative Echols’ good intentions, however, the likelihood of this bill even reaching the floor for a fair vote is practically nil due to obstructionism on the part of two committee chairmen: Mike Ritze and Doug Cox. In full-practice states such as Colorado and Nebraska, data shows public health outcomes have improved since implementation, and there has been no decrease in quality of care provided by nurse practitioners operating alone rather than under the supervision of a doctor.

If our state representatives truly represent us, they will commit to passing HB 2841 so our state can walk proudly into the future of health care.

— Matt Wooten Bixby Choosing Trump

Reports from around the country of white high school sports fans chanting “Trump, Trump, Trump” and “Build a wall” at games against mixed-race high schools display Trump’s influence.

His insults and attacks follow naturally several decades of coarsening political speech on America’s radio and TV networks by Rush Limbaugh and his

ilk. To Rush, not just President Clinton, but his family were game for contempt, including 13-year-old Chelsea.

“You know Socks is the White House cat,” he said in 1993, showing Socks’ photo. He went on, “Did you know there’s a White House dog?” and showed Chelsea’s picture. Such savagery appeals to mean-spirited adolescent personalities but is generally corrected by parents and other adults till young people grow.

Fox networks apparently have not.

Ridiculed 24/7 by the shock jocks on Fox are liberal thinkers and social issues — feminists, environmentalists, labor unions, immigration reformers, defenders of voting rights, racial protections — and suggestions that government should rebuild the middle class its policies have helped to destroy. For 40 years, covertly and overtly, conservatives have cultivated a voting population religiously fundamental, nationalistic, racist, homophobic, anti-feminist, antienvironment, angry and poorly informed.

Now they appear shocked that their voters choose Trump.

— Nathaniel Batchelder Oklahoma City

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12 | March 23, 2016 | Oklahoma Gazette

June 4th Wines of the West 11am-4pm Sample some of Oklahoma’s finest wines in stores throughout our district.

405.235.7267

october 1st Stockyards Stampede “Keeping the West Alive” All Day Live Music • Kid’s Zone Local Craft Vendors Little Mr. & Ms. Stockyards City Pageant

December 3rd Cowboy Christmas Parade Beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, watch the longhorns parade down Exchange Avenue followed by antique cars, tractors and groups of all sorts. Take your picture with the famous Cowboy Santa.

office@stockyardscity.org Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 13

Do you worry about your child’s unexplained aching, stiffness, fatigue, or sleep trouble?

Could it be juvenile fibromyalgia?

If your child is 13 to 17 years old and is experiencing widespread pain or has juvenile fibromyalgia, they may qualify for a clinical research study of an investigational medication for juvenile fibromyalgia.

Go to BestPlacestoWorkOK.com to register Application deadline: May 20, 2016

(405) 605-6789 Partners: okc.BIZ, Oklahoma Gazette, OK HR, The State Chamber of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Center for Non-Profits, Greater Oklahoma City Chamber

Saturday, April 2nd from 9am - 5pm Seminole Municiple Park on Milt Phillips Car Show - 382-3640 • OBI Blood Drive • 5K Fun Run - 382-0731 Poker Run - 382-5690 All different kinds of food vendors Oklahoma grown and produced products & businesses Spend Saturday April 2, 2016 in the Seminole Municipal Park on Milt Phillips enjoying items made, produced, and sold in Oklahoma. Seminole’s Made In Oklahoma Festival, Business Expo, & Car Show will be open from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. We will feature over 100 vendor booths: including but not limited to handmade jewelry & clothes, soaps, candles, and furniture. There will be numerous food vendors and a blood drive. You will be able to look at cars, shop and eat all day long. The poker & fun run are open to anyone; if interested, call 382-0731 for the fun run and 382-5690 for the Poker Run. Please plan on bringing the whole family out for some quality time and see what all Seminole has to offer. Don’t forget to purchase your commemorative Made In Oklahoma or Car Show Shirt!

If you have any questions or wish to participate in the festival or car show, please feel free to call the Seminole Chamber of Commerce at 405-382-3640 or e-mail us at Seminolechamber@sbcglobal.net. The applications are also located on our website at www.seminoleokchamber.org/.

Sponsored by:

14 | March 23, 2016 | Oklahoma Gazette

To learn more, call:

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Photo finish

Scratch Kitchen & Cocktails makes gorgeous food that tastes even better than it looks.

By Greg Elwell

Look at those pictures.

Don’t eat them. Don’t lick them.

Oklahoma Gazette’s research and development team isn’t ready to unveil the new taste paper (Codename: Paster™) that will revolutionize the newspaper industry just yet.

bite and I knew there wouldn’t be any leftovers. Roll me out the door if you have to, but nobody leaves food this good behind.

Scratch is an interesting spot housed in the remains of a Native Roots Market, with plenty of exposed brick walls and large, vivid paintings artfully hung about the room. The wait Scratch Kitchen staff seems pretty well& Cocktails informed, especially about the restaurant’s core mission: 132 W. Main St., Norman | 405-801-2900 making everything, down to scratchnorman.com the condiments, from scratch.

When a Sooner State Board ($17) showed up at the table What works: Coffee-rubbed pork next to mine, I kicked myself loin and attentive service. for not ordering the enormous charcuterie platter of cheesy, What needs work: The tenderloin meaty and vegetable delights. medallions need seasoning.

That doesn’t take anything away from the Tip: Ignore the door on W. Main Street appetizer that did show and come in on S. Santa Fe Avenue. up: a big bunch of freshly baked wonders called Until then, you’ll just have to look Scratch Bread Basket ($9). Both are at those gorgeous food photos and read limited availability items, so order now! these dumb words while salivating over Supplies are going fast! images of coffee-rubbed pork loin from The Hawaiian roll is sweet and Scratch Kitchen & Cocktails, 132 W. dense, but the standouts were the Main St. Gruyere-topped croissant and the And here’s what’s crazy: It tastes slightly tangy baguette. The whipped even better than it looks. honey butter was a nice touch, By the time the pork loin ($22 especially for some of the drier bread. with charred Broccolini and Parmesan The Sriracha Caesar ($9) had no risotto) rolled up, I was already two need for more moisture. Big, crisp dishes deep into the menu, but one greens were tossed in a creamy, mild dressing with just a hint of heat.

The blanched asparagus added a nice component to a good, but not particularly memorable salad. When I go back, I’ll definitely ask if there’s a way to amp up the spice on my salad. It was big, filling and tasty, but when you add “Sriracha” to a name, I want a little more kick.

My feelings are a little mixed on the Scratch burger ($12, served with shoestring fries), which was tasty, but not as beefy as I hoped. Ground beef tenderloin is an interesting choice for a burger, if only because tenderloin is a pretty mild cut.

Everything about the burger is lovely — the brioche bun is buttery and substantial, the garlic aioli is mild but distinct — the only thing missing Et Tu, Brute? is that big, beefy burst from the meat. cocktail

Coffee pork loin

Sriracha Caesar salad

It’s a tasty sandwich, but given the options on the menu, it’s hard to choose a burger over Hawaiian pork ($11) or California Girl ($12).

Full of mild pulled pork tossed with Scratch barbecue sauce, Hawaiian pork comes on that sweet Hawaiian roll with a thick dollop of housemade slaw. It’s not terribly fatty, which is OK, because the sauce and the slaw give the sandwich plenty of juice to ease your eating.

The lunch special on one visit was a smaller portion of the dinner favorite tenderloin medallions ($24), which are seared medium slices of beef tenderloin served with oven-roasted vegetables and Burgundy mushrooms. It’s a good, standard pairing of ingredients, but it was lacking in flavor. Roasted carrots and potatoes are delicious, and the inclusion of a red wine mushroom sauce should have put the dish over the top, but it didn’t pop. It definitely needed more seasoning. From what others have told me, though, it sounds like I just got a rare off dish.

There was nothing off about that pork loin, though. Cooked just a hair under medium, each bite was an enticement to take another. The

creamy risotto underneath soaked up the drippings, adding a lovely texture with every fork full. The Broccolini had a nice crunch — the whole plate was a mix-and-match of wonderful tastes.

Coffee rubs can be overpowering, but this one brought the gentle flavor of the meat to the forefront. The pork loin tenderly melted away under my teeth and reminded me how wonderful that often-mistreated protein can be when it’s prepared by skilled hands. If you’re looking for a must-have entree at Scratch, it’s this one.

The restaurant is also known for its cocktails, so I treated myself to an Et Tu, Brute? ($9) of rum, lemon, housemade orange liqueur, heavy cream, orange juice, egg white, simple syrup and cherry bark vanilla bitters.

The drink had a slightly boozy bite but was mostly creamy and delicious with lots of citrus notes.

Now, stop gnawing on this week’s issue and get down to Norman. Until Paster™ is a reality, you’ll need Scratch to make food that can rival these beautiful pictures.

Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 15

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The end of H&8th Night Market as a monthly event last year could have been a blow to Oklahoma City’s booming food truck industry if Rick Vick Sr. wasn’t already building his own event.

Originally an adjacent spot for food trucks and family-friendly events, Eats On 8th Food Truck Festival & Night Market will stand alone this year with nine events scheduled for the last Friday of each month through November, starting 6 p.m. Friday.

“We got approved by the city to do nine markets because, with the potential of inclement weather, it might get cut down to seven,” said Vick, owner of The Galley Soul Food & More. “When it was announced last year that H&8th was no longer going to run their night market every month, we got a lot of calls from customers and food trucks, asking if we’d return.”

Mobile dining is a growth industry, but Vick said the only way to sustain it is for trucks to have enough events to serve customers.

H&8th wasn’t just a reliable gig; it was a way for many trucks to introduce themselves to new customers. H&8th returns in June as an annual event.

So Eats On 8th is back and bigger, Vick said. The footprint has grown from Eighth Street between Robinson and Harvey avenues to include Harvey and Robinson up to Ninth Street.

The first event of the year starts small with more than a dozen trucks, but Vick said he hopes it will snowball quickly as the weather warms up. Trucks appearing at Friday’s market include The Urban Taco Shop, Oklahoma Czech Delights, OKC Grill, Big Shorty’s, Yum Pig, Kona Ice and Trevino’s Mexican Street Beast.

Vick stressed that Eats On 8th

G A ZETTE STAFF / FI LE

OPEN MONDAY - FRIDAY 5PM - 2AM SATURDAY & SUNDAY 12PM - 2AM

6-11 p.m. Friday Midtown NW Eighth Street between Robinson and Harvey avenues Twitter: @EatsOkc Free

Kona Ice joins the Eats On 8th Food Truck Festival & Night Market. is for the whole family, with musical acts Kitty in the Middle and The Jah Mystics, a kid zone with blow-ups provided by Dilland Inflatables and pop-up vendors selling jewelry and music memorabilia.

A driving factor in setting up Eats On 8th was that Vick felt some trucks were being excluded from H&8th.

Even though he now has a food truck organization — Greater Restaurants of Oklahoma On Wheels, or GROOW — he said there is enough work to go around and he wants non-association members to serve at the event, too. “[H&8th] went out on a high note,” he said. “We’re building off what they learned and carrying on the mantle with the same level of responsibility and standards of excellence.”

He also hopes to increase customer satisfaction by addressing some areas he thinks other festivals fall short. Organizers will set up tables and chairs so attendees can sit and eat their food while watching their kids play.

And for those who can’t make it to the night market, GROOW recently signed an agreement with local Sam’s Clubs to put a version of Eats On 8th in the warehouse club’s parking lots starting April 2 at the 4101 N. May Ave. location.

Find more information about the festival on Twitter @EatsOkc.

Troubled water Eat for Flint, a benefit hosted by Kevin Durant’s personal chef, raises money to help people affected by Michigan’s water crisis.

By George Lang

Eat for Flint

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Ryan Lopez

Gar ett fisbe ck

Water is essential to life, yet an entire Michigan community cannot bathe, drink or wash their clothes using the water coming into their homes. Ryan Lopez, Kevin Durant’s personal chef, felt the need to do something for the people of Flint, Michigan, to get them through the ongoing public health crisis affecting the industrial city.

“I’m from Michigan, so it was weighing on my heart and I was thinking, ‘What can I do about this?’”

Lopez said. “I wanted to show that our state is aware of this, that we can come together like people came together for us when the tornadoes hit.”

Lopez put his skills to use. Eat for Flint, a benefit for residents affected by the lead poisoning of the Flint water supply, starts 5:30 p.m. March 30 at Kd’s Southern Cuisine, 224 Johnny Bench Drive. The event benefits United Way of Genesee County, which is distributing water filtration systems, water bottles and testing kits as well as underwriting efforts to replace plumbing and provide medical care for children impacted by the crisis.

Lopez said what happened in Flint took something fundamental away from its citizens’ lives. In March 2013, Flint city officials approved a measure to end its contract with Detroit’s water department and contracted with a new supply system sourced from Lake Huron. Unfortunately, the new supply will not be operational until June 2016, so as an interim cost-saving measure, Flint hooked into its emergency supply, the Flint River, without proper corrosion control measures being put into place.

As a result, lead from the financially troubled city’s decades-old water mains leeched into the supply.

“People are not able to take showers up there. They can’t drink out of the water fountains or their own faucet.

Kids are affected by lead poisoning,” Lopez said. “Every little bit counts. If we can offer a thousand water bottles to a thousand families, that’s huge for

Family Pack

people who can’t shower, can’t drink water and can’t boil water.”

Providing help

With Eat for Flint, Lopez hopes to make an impact where it is most needed. For $119, participants receive a four-course meal prepared by Lopez.

The event also features a silent auction.

“Each ticket will buy one thousand water bottles, so that’s a lot of water bottles going to the city of Flint,” he said.

News reports continue to indicate that Flint residents were victims of fiscal maneuvers that did not take into account public safety. On March 3, Detroit Free Press reported that as part of a $7 million state loan designed to release the financially troubled city from emergency management, the state barred Flint from reconnecting with the Detroit supply in order to “help ensure continued financial stability for Flint.”

While the city returned to the Detroit water supply in October 2015, once state officials acknowledged the extent of the crisis, lead deposits in residential, school and hospital plumbing had already done lasting damage.

“Someone was asleep at the watch,” Lopez said. “It’s a huge ordeal that must be fixed. For me, raising awareness about this in the state of Oklahoma is big. We can support and rally behind another community and give back.”

Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 17

by Greg Elwell

nd sa . w U ne GO th K rg ep on o d . u n n t i atio go r k o t pp form e a u t S in na o D

Park it Grab a patch of fake grass and pick up a horseshoe — Katiebug’s Shaved Ice and Hot Chocolate parked its second mobile shop at the new Katiebug’s Trailer Park, 399 NW 10th St. Katherine “Katie” Morgan, who started the business with her mother Melissa Morgan, said demand for their sweets has only grown. But following a food truck around can be tough for customers, so they found a spot to stay in for at least a year.

“The other trailer will still go to big events, like Heard on Hurd, the Myriad Gardens and On the Lawn,” she said.

While Oklahoma City has seen plenty of patios open, Morgan said they’re not particularly family-oriented. So the trailer park has vintage lawn games and AstroTurf to give customers a place to lounge, play and eat.

Morgan said there’s more fun on the way and Katiebug’s will host walk-up movies and possibly morning exercise classes.

She plans for the trailer park to be open Wednesday through Sunday.

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After months of waiting, Cultivar Mexican Kitchen, 714 N. Broadway Ave., opened just in time, said president and managing partner Gary Goldman.

“It’s been very busy,” he said of the new concept’s first week in business.

A heady mix of St. Patrick’s Day, NCAA tournament games and just being a new destination has the staff swamped.

Goldman built the “farm-to-fire” concept in Automobile Alley with chef Dean James Max focusing on craft tacos and “Not Tacos,” including burritos, bowls, quesadillas and salads made from fresh, local ingredients.

The bright space has drawn inquiries since the fall, when the sign went up on the building. Now open, the restaurant includes indoor and outdoor seating with plans for a rooftop bar opening later this year.

Rusty’s Custard Factory, 1000 E. Alameda Ave., in Norman celebrates 15 years of business Saturday with an anniversary party for the community.

Owner Rusty Rasmussen said there’s no way to make it a decade and a half without customers, so the factory will serve up free birthday cake concretes while supplies last and specials on other ice cream dishes. There will also be a drawing for free custard for a year.

The restaurant opens at 11:30 a.m. daily and Tinker Flying High Band performs 2-4 p.m. during the party.

Icy weather Burger and shake fans rejoice! Spring returned early and the Ice House cometh back to life after a long winter hibernation. Chef Cally Johnson of Park House said the burger stand, 101 Ron Norick Blvd., is now open for the 2015 season.

Serving up a version of the beloved burger available across town at Nic’s Grill, Ice House is known for excellent food. It’s open 11 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. weekends.

Unlike Nic’s, Ice House has a little more leeway in what it serves, including shakes, malts, beer and even dog treats. As always, water for the dogs is free.

Ga r ett fisbe c k

food briefs

food & drink

Corking success Uptown 23rd Street celebrates growth and prepares for more with its annual fundraiser.

CH OATE H OUS E PHOTOG RAP HY / P ROVI DE D

Cheever’s Cafe

Get Swirled with us ON THE PATIO!

OPEN DAILY 11AM - 2 AM CORNER OF CLASSEN & BOYD, NORMAN 329.3330 | THEMONT.COM

by greg elwell

Uptown Uncorked 7 p.m. April 7 Oklahoma History Center 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive uptown23rd.com $25-$65 (sponsorships available)

Sitting in a posh tea shop next door to a tony seafood restaurant a stone’s throw from a historic theater and a thriving bar scene, it’s easy to forget that Uptown 23rd Street used to be pretty down. If you’re Christina Chicoraske, who has spent a sizable amount of time on 23rd Street — first as a student at Oklahoma City University, then as an employee and now as the district’s executive director — you remember.

“I’ve been a part of this district since 2003,” she said. “I got to see it all happen.”

In this case, “it all” includes the culinary renaissance spurred by Cheever’s Cafe, Big Truck Tacos and Thai House Restaurant and the return to prominence of nearby neighborhoods.

To keep the rebirth going, the district hosts Uptown Uncorked 7 p.m.

April 7 at Oklahoma History Center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive.

In its third year, the annual event is a celebration of all things 23rd Street, with wine and beer from Byron’s Liquor Warehouse and food from the everexpanding roster of restaurants that keep popping up along the bustling stretch of road.

“Uptown Uncorked accounts for 40 percent of our budget,” Chicoraske said.

Salaries, marketing, a hefty beautification fund and identification signs are all dependent on the event.

Medians and sprinklers might not be flashy, but those improvements set the street apart from other city

thoroughfares.

Rather than a silent auction, this year’s Uptown Uncorked features a raffle with prizes including an Oklahoma City Thunder package, an Anytime Fitness membership, a personal class at Urban Teahouse and lots of swag from Byron’s — last year, the liquor emporium gave away a Pabst Blue Ribbon scooter/beer cooler combo.

“It raises more money for the district, but it also gives people a better chance to go home with something cool,” Chicoraske said.

For the people in surrounding neighborhoods, including Gatewood, Mesta Park and Heritage Hills, the prize is a district that is becoming more walkable and enjoyable.

“In the last year, The Rise has really catapulted everything else,” Chicoraske said of the mixed-use shopping center.

“Even finishing a parking lot makes a huge difference. Every step is making Uptown 23rd a place that more people want to visit.”

She said the opening of Pizzeria Gusto and The Pump Bar and the return of Open Streets OKC and a farmers market are big draws.

Another big addition in the last year is Korean fusion restaurant Chae, 1933 NW 23rd St., which Chicoraske said sets a marker farther west and shows there’s still plenty of room to grow. The restaurant will serve bites alongside Tucker’s Onion Burgers, Pizza 23 and Rockford Cocktail Den at the event.

Uptown Uncorked has three ticket levels: VIP tickets are $65 and include food, drink and entry to the event an hour early at 6 p.m.; general admission tickets are $40; and designated driver tickets are $25. Tickets are available at uptown23rd.com.

Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 19

Old-school Longevity is a good sign in a restaurant. You don’t want some fly-by-night operation making you a sandwich. A solid restaurant will stick around for years, sometimes changing hands, but always remaining focused on what made it so successful in the first place. Here are just a few of Oklahoma City’s longestlived eateries.

— By Greg Elwell Photos by Garett Fisbeck

Brown’s Bakery

Castle Falls

Jamil’s Steakhouse

1100 N. Walker Ave. 405-232-0363

820 N. MacArthur Blvd. castlefalls.com | 405-942-6133

4910 N. Lincoln Blvd. jamilssteakhouse.com | 405-525-8352

It’s hard to say who exactly invented doughnuts, but it probably wasn’t the good folks at Brown’s Bakery. But while it wasn’t the originator of one of our top three circular foods (pizza, doughnuts, cheese wheels), the crew there has just about perfected the art. Brown’s doughnuts are classics and you’ll need more than a dozen to try each variety.

And if your morning calls for something more savory, the sausage rolls are unbeatable.

Once known as Keller in the Kastle, elegant Castle Falls is the setting for a staggering number of engagements.

Romance-minded Oklahomans who don’t want to travel all the way to Europe have found the local castle a perfect place to pop the question for years. Even if you’re not ready to put a ring on it, Castle Falls is still a pretty classy joint in which to enjoy steaks, seafood and a few German classics.

In an old house at the corner of NW 50th Street and Lincoln Avenue is Jamil’s Steakhouse, where you can find lawmaker types and other food lovers eating broiler steaks and fried bologna sandwiches. You won’t need a lobbyist to buy you dinner either. This family-owned Lebanese steakhouse opened in 1964 and turns out food that is both delicious and affordable. If you haven’t tried them yet, Jamil’s cabbage rolls are a treat that will bring you back time and again.

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20 | march 23, 2016 | Oklahoma Gazette

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Junior’s

Jim’s Diner

Cocina De Mino

Don’s Alley Restaurant

2601 Northwest Expressway juniorsokc.com | 405-848-5597

7950 NW 39th St., Bethany jimsdinerok.com | 405-495-5105

6022 S. Western Ave. cocinademino.com | 405-632-0600

4601 SE 29th St. 405-677-9049

There’s nothing bad on the menu at Junior’s, a restaurant that has food, drinks and decor straight out of Mad Men, minus the casual sexism. But the main event has always been the Caesar salad prepared tableside by your server with a showmanship that only builds anticipation. Egg, lemon juice, olive oil and anchovy are whipped into a frenzy and stuffed with romaine leaves and Parmesan cheese for one of OKC’s best salads.

Step into yesteryear at Jim’s Diner and have a seat in those storied booths for classic diner fare from 1978. There’s nothing frou-frou or fancy about Jim’s — it’s all right there in front of you. Big breakfasts of eggs, bacon and pancakes are served up fast, and the chickenfried steaks and open-faced roast beef sandwiches are hard to beat. Best of all, there’s always a slice of homemade pie waiting at the end.

Don’t try to pretend you’re not into fajitas because no one’s buying it. Strips of beef and chicken, seasoned and seared, served on a scalding-hot cast-iron skillet with slowly melting peppers and onions —it’s a nigh irresistible combo. Tex-Mex might not be cool, but when it’s done well (as it has been for many a year at Cocina De Mino), it can pierce any hipster foodie facade and reveal the sour cream enchilada lover inside all of us.

The Mafia would like to extend a formal apology to Don’s Alley for any confusion caused by trial of head gangster Don Sally. While Don “Sally” Salvatore was a vicious killer bent on ruling the five families by any means necessary, Don’s Alley has remained a respected and wellloved restaurant in Del City. While both Don Sally and Don’s Alley are known for pork cutlet sandwiches, only one of them is spending life in prison for racketeering.

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Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 21

arts & culture cover

Virtual sport Video gaming gets serious as it morphs into a network of professional, dedicated eSports devotees.

In a back corner of Sunny’s Game Lounge, a group of young men hunch around three LCD televisions. The screens sit among a line of many against a red wall painted with video game characters. The Oklahoma City establishment offers an array of video games and consoles that guests play on an hourly basis.

Around 5:30 p.m. on a recent Tuesday, the men played Street Fighter V on Sony PlayStation 4 consoles.

Some use standard controllers provided by the lounge, and others bring large, heavy-duty, rectangular boxes with dedicated joysticks and large buttons that resemble upright arcade games of yesteryear.

“They come out every Tuesday, and they just like to get together and play,” said Sunny Summon, owner of Sunny’s Game Lounge.

Along with renting televisions, video games and controllers, the venue sells drinks and snacks and offers a community area so gamers can hang out with each other.

Sunny’s also hosts tournaments. To those new to the world of competitive gaming, or eSports, the prizes and number of participants can be shockingly large. In late February, Sunny’s hosted a two-day event with multiple tournaments involving Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. fighting game series. More than 300 participants from 14 states battled for a total prize purse worth approximately $7,000.

Twenty-seven-year-old New Jersey native Jason Zimmerman, known in the eSports world as Mew2King, is considered one of the best Super Smash Bros. players of all time.

He has earned just south of $150,000 in his gaming career, according to eSportsEarnings.com, a competitive gaming website. He also earns revenue from sponsorships.

To many, Zimmerman attending a regional gaming tournament is like Kobe Bryant entering a basketball oneon-one contest.

Throughout the city, eSports and the gaming community are gaining momentum.

Gaming evolution

Sunny’s is one of multiple area businesses bringing competitive gaming

22 | march 23, 2016| Oklahoma Gazette

Gare tt fisbe ck

By Adam Holt

Johnny “Icychiller” Weaver plays Halo at his home in Wellston. to local residents across the state. To understand how high stakes can be for the Oklahoma gaming community and for gamers who desire to play professionally, one must understand how big eSports is outside of the Xbox in their living room.

There have been competitions as long as there have been video games.

Oct. 19, 1972, a Spacewar! tournament known as the Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics was held at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Stanford University, according to “Today is the 40th Anniversary of the World’s First Known Gaming Tournament,” a 2012 post to Kotaku, a Gawker Media network gaming blog.

The lab was one of the few that housed a computer powerful enough to play the early video game. The winner received a year’s subscription to Rolling Stone magazine.

Amateur tournaments exploded in popularity after the advent of home video game consoles, especially Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Sega Genesis,

whose influence began in the mid1980s and lasted through the mid-’90s.

Tournaments happened with regularity at local department stores and movie rental establishments across the country. Players who could maneuver Sonic the Hedgehog to capture the most rings within a set time limit received gift certificates.

The Nintendo-Sega era began to bleed into pop culture about that time, too. In 1989, The Super Mario Bros.

Super Show! entertained 5-to-13-yearolds after school on weekdays with its Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda cartoons. That year, The Wizard, a film starring Fred Savage, told a story about three youths who travel down the West Coast to participate in a Nintendo tournament. Sonic the Hedgehog landed a TV series in 1993.

Then three things happened that changed gaming’s future.

First, gaming wasn’t a phase, as many never outgrew the pastime.

Consoles became fixtures in dorm rooms and apartments. The year 2000 introduced a new millennium and the first generation of adult gamers.

Second, consoles became more powerful and complex. So did games.

Jumping green pipes and collecting coins en route to saving a princess no longer satisfied. Three-dimensional graphics and complex characters with intricate storylines became standard for gaming systems such as Nintendo 64, GameCube, Wii, Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox. PC gaming markets also expanded.

During this time, a wildly popular video game genre called firstperson shooter (FPS) was born. The mainstreaming of the genre began on PCs with Wolfenstein 3D in 1992 and Doom in 1993. Classic Nintendo 64 James Bond game GoldenEye 007 hit the market in 1997.

The third revolution in gaming was, as with all media, the Internet.

Gamers could test their aim, fighting chops and strategy against others across the world. They could share tips or gloat after Call of Duty matches. Social media expanded gaming communities and sprouted competitive tournaments and organizations.

This isn’t just an American story.

ph otos p rovided

Call of Duty: Black Ops

The phenomenon spans the globe.

However, a content-rich chapter continues to be written in South Korea.

For eSports, particularly strategic battle PC games like League of Legends, Dota 2 and Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, the largest tournaments and prize pools are found in the east Asian country.

“They fill stadiums,” said Johnny “Icychiller” Weaver, perhaps Oklahoma’s best-known professional gamer, of South Korean eSports. “They have had events for up to $87 million.”

In Berlin, the 2015 League of Legends World Championships Final between the victorious SK Telecom T1 and KOO Tigers drew 36 million viewers, according to the organization’s website LoLeSports. com. (In comparison, The New York Times reported Major League Baseball’s 2015 World Series averaged 14.7 million viewers per game.) Both teams included five South Korean men. SK Telecom T1 took home $1,000,000.

Winning spirit

In Oklahoma City, the eSports

Halo 5: Guardians

community’s goals include establishing proper physical environments, networking and locally promoting eSports. Weaver helps do all three.

“My very first tournament was in 1992 at Blockbuster Video — Donkey Kong Country on Super Nintendo,” said Weaver, 31, who won the event.

“You had five minutes to get as many bananas as you could.”

He went on to challenge competitors in Mario Kart and GoldenEye 007 tournaments, familiarizing himself with the winner’s circle. He participated in Major League Gaming’s inaugural event, now a major North American eSports organization that hosts world championships for Call of Duty, Super Smash Bros. and others.

Weaver read about the event online and traveled to New York City, where the tournament, hosted in the basement of league CEO and co-founder Sundance DiGiovanni’s home, consisted of just over 30 gamers.

Weaver earns his living playing eSports. Initially, the majority of his income was earned through competitions, especially with the first three Halo games on Xbox.

However, after an accident left him with chronic back problems, he became a tournament organizer via his company Click Gaming.

“I do YouTube content for sponsors and host events, help with merchandise and distributing for them,” he said. “Most of my cash comes from out-of-staters wanting … knowledge on hosting LANs.” A LAN, or local area network, is the technological backbone of any tournament setup. Depending on event size, eSports competitions might house three to dozens of gaming consoles, each with their own screen.

Possessing equipment and network knowledge can make someone indispensable.

Similarly, HXC Gaming Events,

owned by Ricky McNeal, hosts tournaments and events while sponsoring gamers and sending them to prestigious competitions. McNeal helps players sharpen sports and fighting game skills.

“In order to get good, just like in basketball, baseball, you got to play against other guys who are just as good as you,” McNeal said. “If you don’t, you are going to be only as good as your brother and sister.”

He also wants one of his key events, Summer Madness, to become part of the biggest stage.

“We want to make Summer Madness a Major [League Gaming event],” he said. “Hopefully if it gets big enough, it will be added to a large organization like Capcom Pro Tour.”

Capcom bills itself as a premiere destination for competitive fighting games such as Street Fighter V. Oklahoma has a talent for playing eSports games. Weaver believes a Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII team named Ladykillers could go professional if it continues practicing and competing. The team includes Blake Borchers, 19, of Tahlequah; Cody Tinker, 20, of Inola; Tyler Grimes, 19, of Ottawa, Kansas (but soon moving to Tahlequah); and William Hetherington, 16, of Norman. They have made the rounds at regional tournaments and usually finished in the top two positions.

Success takes a lot of work.

“We practice most days for a few hours,” Borchers said. “We revolve our practices around Tyler’s work schedule.”

Competitive Call of Duty foregoes the “kill everyone” death-match game mode, instead favoring strategic modes with specific missions such as searchand-destroy, hard-point and uplink.

“For me, you have to have chemistry with your fellow players,” Hetherington said. “You have to build a bond.”

Coming together

An aspect often missing from competitive gamer teams is female participation. It wanes around middle school.

Del City resident Jennifer Hoffman wants to change that.

“I’ve played video games since I could first hold a controller,” said Hoffman, 24. She grew up with Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and GoldenEye 007.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a popular tactical, first-person shooter PC game, is her game of choice. She said she has experienced positive and negative interactions in its online lobbies.

“Some people start to harass me,”

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Hoffman said.

“Usually the ones who harass me are the ones that are doing worse than me. I have found that they don’t like to lose to a girl.”

Hoffman said she sees more women joining the gaming community but continues to encourage women to push forward and join tournaments.

“I will probably be one of the first girls who will try to compete against the guys if I can, if I’m on that same level,” she said.

She is creating a female gaming team.

One of its members is Holly Cherry, who dates Arnold Marquez, owner of RTZ eSports in Oklahoma City.

Marquez wants Cactus Jack’s Family Fun Center to become a premier eSports arena for the Midwest. The establishment is phasing out older arcade and ticket games to make room for stateof-the-art flat-screen TVs and monitors.

The arena will feature consoles from past and present as well as PCs. “It allows people who don’t have this expensive computer or this expensive console to play games,” Marquez said. “You can build a community on it. That’s why I do eSports.”

RTZ eSports also hopes to bring big-time gaming to Oklahoma and often works with local organizations to accomplish this.

If Oklahoma’s gaming community has a unifying theme, Marquez said, it’s teamwork. Whether setting up the state’s largest gaming tournaments or meeting with friends to play Street Fighter V, gaming always has been and always will be about coming together.

For more • Sunny’s Game Lounge: 1518 N. Rockwell Ave., 405-603-1803, sunnysgamelounge.com • Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman on Twitter: @MVG_Mew2King • Johnny “Icychiller” Weaver and ClickGaming.org on Twitter: @icychiller54 • HXC Gaming Events: hxcgaming.com • Cactus Jack’s Family Fun Center: 1211 N. Council Road, cjarcade.com, 405-789-9846 • RTZ eSports: rtz.tv • Major League Gaming: majorleaguegaming.com • League of Legends World Championships: lolesports.com

Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 23

March 24 | MAUNDY THURSDAY 8:30 am Morning Prayer | 5:30 pm Evening Prayer 7:00 pm Holy Communion | 8:00 pm The Watch March 25 | GOOD FRIDAY 8:30 am Morning Prayer 12:00 pm Good Friday Liturgy with Homily 5:30 pm Children’s Stations of the Cross 7:00 pm A Meditation on the Passion of Christ March 26 | The Great

Vigil of Easter

5:30 pm Holy Communion March 27 | EASTER DAY Holy Communion 7:30 am, 9:15 am, 11:00 am 5:00 pm

All Souls’ Episcopal Church 6400 N. Pennsylvania | OKC www.allsoulsokc.com

Join Us...

March 20th

March 24th

March 25th

8:30am and 10:45am Worship Service; 9:30am Sunday School

Service 7:00pm

Outdoor Prayer Labyrinth

Palm Sunday

Maundy Thursday

March 27th

Good Friday

Easter Sunday

9:30am Easter Celebration: Donuts, juice & milk; Photo area; An Easter Story puppet show; Goody bags and Easter Egg Hunt with candy filled eggs and prize baskets.

10:45am Easter Cantata “A Journey to Hope” performed by the New Covenant Choir.

New Covenant Christian Church 12000 N. Rockwell Ave. • (405) 722-7445 • NCCCOKC.ORG

24 | march 23, 2016 | Oklahoma Gazette

Christ the King Catholic Church 8005 Dorset Drive (1 block north of Wilshire halfway between Penn & May) www.ckokc.org

Palm Sunday

March 19th at 5 pm March 20th at 8 am, 10 am, 12:15 pm

Holy Thursday

Mass of the Lord’s Supper March 24th at 7 pm

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament follows Mass until 12 Midnight

Good Friday

Veneration of the Cross and Holy Communion

March 25th at 3 pm & 7 pm

Holy Saturday Easter Vigil Mass March 26th at 8 pm

Easter Sunday Masses March 27th at 8 am, 10 am & 12:15 pm

Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 25

p rovi ded

arts & culture

Play on SUPER! BitCon returns for a third year to State Fair Park.

By Adam Holt

SUPER! BitCon 10 a.m.-6 p.m. April 2, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. April 3 Oklahoma Expo Hall State Fair Park 333 Gordon Cooper Blvd. superbitcon.com Free-$10

Oklahoma’s largest gaming event, SUPER! BitCon, hosts its third installment April 2-3 in Oklahoma Expo Hall at State Fair Park, 333 Gordon Cooper Blvd.

This year’s expo brings a slew of new entertainment options along with usual event fare. The Escape OKC, a live escape game where people in a room must solve puzzles and questions to break out, is recreated in a semitrailer for this event.

“Inside, they’ve completely outfitted this thing with this fancy interior, where you do an actual escape room,” said BC Phillips, SUPER! BitCon cofounder.

Similarly, mobile gaming party bus All About Gaming loads up playable PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles. It will be parked inside the expo center.

This year’s guests are Phil Moore, known as the host of early ’90s Nickelodeon game show Nick Arcade, and Mark Turmell, designer and programmer for arcade hit NBA Jam. Both will participate in live interviews in what are being called Fireside Chats.

One big change to this year’s event is the convention passport, Phillips said.

“This year, the badge is the ID that says you paid, but it’s also your convention passport,” he said.

“You can take your badge around to various parts of the convention, and our volunteers will punch-card your

26 | march 23, 2016 | Oklahoma Gazette

Fans of all ages participate each year in SUPER! BitCon, Oklahoma’s largest gaming event. badge as you’re engaging in different elements of the events.”

A properly punched passport could win one guest a prize package worth $500. Volunteers also will place stickers on badges for participation in the event’s game show.

“We tried to maximize the badge as much as we can,” Phillips said.

Part of the reason SUPER! BitCon’s popularity grew so quickly is that it breaks the basementdwelling gamer stereotype.

“What we realized with this event is that it inspires everybody to come out of their shell and be a part of a greater celebration,” Phillips said.

“Now everyone is a gamer. Even grandma plays Bejeweled. There shouldn’t be negativity about the type of person who plays a game.”

Tickets will be on sale at the event.

Teens and adults cost $10; youth ages 5-12 are $5; and children under age 5, seniors over age 60 and active military and veterans with ID are free.

Admission passports also come with two coupons for 20 percent off purchases at Got Games in Del City and ThrillHouse Games in Tulsa.

A SUPER! BitCon pre-party is 7 p.m. March 31 at Dave & Buster’s, 5501 N. May Ave. Admission is free and open to the public. The party features live music, giveaways such as free SUPER! BitCon entry and a VIP package with a custom, playable Super Nintendo game featuring the expo’s mascot as the protagonist.

arts & culture

On fire

Ga re tt fi s be c k

Ski Island sock shunners come together to welcome spring.

BY MARK BEUTLER

It’s the time of year for no shoes, no shirt and no problems.

True, leather boots are still in style for manly footwear. But many Oklahomans see the onset of spring as the perfect time to shed shoes and socks in favor of flipflops and sandals.

Now, Ski Island residents take the concept and set it aflame. The inaugural Ski Island Sock Burning Bash is 5 p.m.

Saturday in the neighborhood’s Picnic Island, located in northwest Oklahoma City just west of Lake Hefner.

“The tradition of burning your socks at the first sign of spring is a maritime ritual for many, especially on the East Coast,” said Cordell Jordan, Ski Island Lake Club communications chairman.

“I thought this was a perfect tradition for us in Ski Island, so why not bring it

to Oklahoma?”

Sock burning, according to folklore, goes back to ancient sailors, Jordan said.

They wore the same socks all winter. By spring, they were so disgusting, the only civilized thing to do was cleanse them with fire.

This rite of passage ushering in flipflop season also is another way for the community to come together.

“As lake people, we were looking for an event to bring our neighbors together to welcome the springtime weather,” said Marilyn Gushwa, Ski Island social committee chairwoman. “This event is for Ski Island residents to get reacquainted with their neighbors who have all been holed up in their houses all winter.”

Going barefoot is not just a lifestyle, Gushwa said, but a way of life — one

From left Mike and Marilyn Gushwa and Steve and Kim Iraggi helped plan this year’s inaugural Sock Burning Bash. that resonates to her core.

“There’s no other feeling like the lake, with the wind in your hair and the sun on your back,” she said. “We visit our neighbors by boat. Every day from spring into early fall, we all do a ‘Ski Island Wave’ as we pass by in our boats or see a boater go by as we sit out by our docks with no shoes on.”

And Jordan said the “no shoes” rule also extends to “no shirt” — at least for men.

“There are few neighborhoods where you walk into your neighbor’s backyard in bare feet and shirtless and they invite you in for a drink,” Jordan said. “Most areas, you might get a call to the police,

but not here. Sometimes I run up to the E-Z Mart at the corner and forget I don’t have the proper clothing on. But it really is a way of life.”

The Sock Burning Bash also includes an island crawfish and crab boil and jazz and contemporary music. Right now, organizers said all Ski Island residents are welcome. If this year’s event is a success, next year, organizers might open it up to all metro sock-shunners.

“At Ski Island, we look out for each other and enjoy island living and the island lifestyle landlocked right here in the city,” Jordan said. “At the sock burning, my feet will be the stark-white ones probably getting sunburned.”

arts & culture youth CHEROKEE HERITAGE CENTER / PROVIDED

Learning territory Students learn about Cherokee life and arts at Cherokee Heritage Center’s Indian Territory Days.

BY ALISSA LINDSEY

Indian Territory Days 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m. March 31-April 1 Cherokee Heritage Center 21192 S. Keeler Drive, Park Hill cherokeeheritage.org 918-456-6007 Free-$5

Cherokee Heritage Center is inviting Oklahoma students to Indian Territory Days to experience Cherokee culture.

Indian Territory Days is 9:30 a.m.2 p.m. March 31-April 1 and features hands-on exhibits for public, private and homeschooled children in kindergarten through 12th grades.

They can learn about the Cherokee life in the 1890s through cultural stations where they can make art and participate in traditional games.

“Our mission is to preserve, promote

and teach Cherokee history and culture,” said Tonia Weavel, education director.

“It’s been a real treat to see thousands of children in my tenure here in 15 years have a really authentic Cherokee experience. I assure every school that you’ll go away knowing something more than you did when you came.”

Children can play games like Stickball, Cherokee marbles, blowgun shooting and Chunkey, in which they roll a disc and throw sticks to where they think the disc will stop, and listen to storytellers. “[A blowgun] was the first toy typically given to boys because boy toys were miniature weapons,” Weavel said. “It was a favorite of young Cherokee boys in all of our historical times, and it continues to be a very favorite.”

Children also will have a chance to try crafts such as finger weaving, loom

Students get firsthand experience with cultural arts such as finger weaving during Indian Territory Days. weaving, netting, pottery and basket weaving.

“In the 1890s, we were employing and using a written language,” Weavel said.

“So children will have the opportunity to hear the language, see the syllabary and practice writing the syllabary characters.”

To promote participation, the Cherokee Heritage Center staff give the students a list of 10 things to do at the center. If they complete seven, they are rewarded with the gift of a reproduction of an arrowhead.

Living history

The 1890s were peaceful before statehood and the roar of allotment came through.

Adams Corner Rural Village is

comprised of seven buildings that represent Cherokee life during that time, and the village offers self-guided tours and demonstrations like bow shooting and flint mapping, which is the making of stone tools like arrowheads.

The museum houses a permanent exhibit on the Trail of Tears and currently features a rotating exhibit called Cherokee Syllabary: From Talking Leaves to Pixels.

Almost 800 children are registered for Indian Territory Days from within about 150 miles of Cherokee Heritage Center, 21192 S. Keeler Drive, in Park Hill.

For more information or to register your, contact Tonia Weavel at 918-4566007 ext. 6161 or by email at toniaweavel@cherokee.org.

Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 27

arts & culture fashion

Clothing designers lend their threads to a local fashion show with a cause.

Cody Johnson and David Rackley

By Bailey Chambers

Walk This Way Fashion Show “One Swanky Party” 6 p.m. Saturday Farmer’s Public Market 311 S. Klein Ave. otheroptionsokc.org 405-760-1406 $40-$100

The Walk This Way Fashion Show “One Swanky Party” is sure to impress Oklahoma City’s art lovers, especially those who appreciate wearable art.

Since David Rackley became board president of Other Options Inc., each year’s show has been entirely different from the last. Even the venue changes; this year, it’s at OKC Farmers Public Market, 311 S. Klein Ave. Rackley said the party’s theme and the runway is reminiscent of a 1950s backyard barbecue. The models are

essentially integrated into the crowd, creating an interactive environment.

The food draws inspiration from midcentury American cocktail party hors d’oeuvres like fondue, but with a gourmet twist.

Aside from enjoying classic backyard party treats, guests can delight in clothing by up-and-coming local designer Cody Johnson.

“I’m a huge rookie,” Johnson said.

Although this is his first go-around with a fashion show, as a regular headliner at The Boom, Johnson is no rookie when it comes to putting on fantastic shows in grand costumes.

Johnson stepped into the world of fashion design sort of by accident. He began by sewing his own costumes for his performances. His designs were so stunning that other performers wanted to have Johnson make their costumes, too.

“My grandmother sewed,” Johnson said. “My sewing skills have picked up in the last year.”

Soon after, he was invited to showcase his work on the coveted runway.

“I told myself, ‘You never know what opportunities will come if you do this,’” he said.

He spends many hours daily finetuning his collections with just two serger machines. His creativity keeps him busy with new designs.

“I go to the fabric store every other day just to find new fabric,” Johnson said.

His collection in Walk This Way includes variations of kilts. Each piece exudes classic structure and conceptual vibes but are made with unusual fabrics and prints. Johnson said the 1950s era is a big point of inspiration but claimed

there is no true theme in his designs.

Walk This Way also honors the late Brian Palmer, a local artist who inspired the event’s overall theme. His wellknown artwork will be displayed over the fireplace. Jeffrey Hammons, a dear friend of Palmer, pays tribute through his designs, which are over-the-top, wearable versions of Palmer’s creations.

Renee Hilton, Maria Isabel and headliner Johnathan Kayne also showcase their lines Saturday on the runway.

Other Options, Inc. is a local nonprofit that provides food, resources, services and education to those at risk of or affected by HIV and AIDS and their families.

General admission tickets to Walk This Way are $40, and VIP tickets are $100. A table of 10 costs $1,500. Visit eventbrite.com.

Sat, Mar 26 DOWNLINK & DIESELBOY w/ MantiS and KriSpe thurS, Mar 31 YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND Fri, apr 1 AARON WATSON w/ Jon wolFe tueS, apr 5 DR. DOG tueS, apr 12 KURT VILE & THE VIOLATORS wed, apr 13 MELANIE MARTINEZ #CryBaBytour thurS, apr 14 JUDAH & THE LION w/ the Saint JohnS Tulsa, OK

★ 423 NOrTh MaiN sT.

TIcKETS & INfO: caiNsballrOOM.cOM 28 | march 23, 2016 | Oklahoma Gazette

Ga re tt fi s be c k

Fancy fun

Artist, unmasked Johannes Vermeer’s 17th-century masterpiece “The Milkmaid”

G. Patrick Riley exposes four decades of art evolution at a SWOSU exhibit.

By Ben Luschen

Patrick Riley Art Exhibition 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday through April 14 SWOSU Art Gallery Southwestern Oklahoma State University 100 Campus Drive, Weatherford swosu.edu 580-774-3756 Free

His works reside in the collections of Lady Gaga, the state capitol and Oklahoma Supreme Court. His masks have been used in productions at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. G. Patrick Riley puts works spanning his 40-year maskmaking career on display through April 14 at Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU), 100 Campus Drive, in Weatherford.

The Patrick Riley Art Exhibition opened March 8 at SWOSU Art Gallery as part of the school’s Visiting Artist Program.

Studying faces

Riley wasn’t always a maskmaker. He earned his master’s degree in art education from the University of Oklahoma in 1971, graduating as a silversmith and painter. As his career advanced, it became obvious that he would not become wellknown as a painter. There was too much competition.

G. Patrick Riley

He worked on a few leather masks in the 1960s before getting caught up in the back-to-the-land movement. Riley created sculptures using animal shells and bones, and his work became popular within that counterculture. Captivated by the psychology of human expression, he began making sculptures that resembled faces.

“A face is fascinating to study,” he said. “If you look at the face, you can usually tell what somebody is about.”

The study soon brought him back to his mask work, and his early pieces were well-received. Riley’s reputation as a maskmaker flourished after he was invited to exhibit his creations at Fairtree Gallery in New York City.

In the late ’80s, the Kennedy Center asked to display his work. While there, he collaborated with an African dance company to develop masks for a production at the venue.

“It changed my career,” he said.

“When I came back to Oklahoma, everyone wanted me to make masks.”

Another notable moment in Riley’s career came in 2010, when the Ford Center (now Chesapeake Energy Arena) commissioned one as a gift for pop icon Lady Gaga. Ford Center management asked Riley to create something Gaga could wear onstage, so he designed several concepts for them to choose from.

He said it was unfortunate that she could not be involved in the creative process.

“I would have loved to hang out with her, but they gave it to her,” he said. “My job was to build it.”

Teaching arts

Riley worked as an art educator at John Marshall High School before he developed his maskmaking skills.

“In Oklahoma, most schools didn’t teach the arts in 1964, just the urban areas,” he said.

Arts education and leadership blossomed after Oklahoma Arts Council was founded in 1965. It was an exciting time. In 1975, Riley became a full-time artist. His career eventually took him through Europe and to India, where he lived for a while before returning to Oklahoma to teach again.

He taught at Northeast High School before joining the SWOSU faculty, where he served several years as department chairman. The Patrick Riley Art Exhibition is a homecoming.

“Southwestern has always been very supportive of the arts, so I felt like I was having a good time going back to show my show there,” he said.

Staying home

Through the exhibit, Riley has connected with many SWOSU art students. Many of them, he said, will likely go on to teach.

Riley hopes to convince students to stay in Oklahoma. Many assume it’s necessary to move away to further their careers. Riley said his story is proof that artists can find success at home.

“We can keep our creativity here, and so that’s what I was pushing with them to let them know that can happen,” he said. “That’s what this show represents.”

Teacher attrition, especially in the arts, has long been a problem in the state, Riley said.

“People are always looking for, ‘Why have the arts?,’” he said. “This is one of those programs where you can really measure the difference, when an artist comes and talks to the kids that are going to stay in Oklahoma and teach about successful teaching methods and successful art methods right here in the state.”

The Patrick Riley Art Exhibition is funded by an Oklahoma Arts Council grant. Riley belongs to the council’s roster of teaching artists and participates in school residencies across the state.

Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 29

GAR E T T FI S B E CK

arts & culture visual arts

P hotos by Ga r ett fisbec k

arts & culture visual arts

Creature comfort

Darci Lenker’s doll-making hobby takes on a life of its own.

Darci Lenker of Darci Dolls sews intricate character dolls and sells them in shops around OKC.

By Ben Luschen

Local artist Darci Lenker’s colorful cast of plush animals and other characters has grown more intricate over the years.

She started making dolls for her children nine years ago. Her first was a simple bear. Nearly a decade later, her creations have morphed into figures full of personality.

Lenker said she can’t explain why her dolls became more ornate over time. She was not conscious of the process.

“They’ve gotten bigger,” she said.

“They used to be a lot smaller, and they used to have toy safety eyes.”

Darci Dolls are brightly colored or distinctly patterned, usually with button or fabric eyes. Zipper teeth might form a wide grin. She often hears her characters compared to the creatures in Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. or ’90s Nickelodeon show Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.

“I hear that a lot, but I have still never watched it,” she said. “That was between when I would have watched [Nickelodeon] and when my kids would have watched it.”

Lenker said when people, especially girls or young women, see Darci Dolls for the first time, they remark on how cute they are, usually with some kind of squeal. They are bought as often for adults as they are for children.

Lenker said she has made more than 1,000 dolls since she began seriously crafting them. No two look alike, and she often buys patterns online to get more variety.

“I try to buy small amounts of fabric so that I always run out and

30 | march 23, 2016 | Oklahoma Gazette

don’t accidentally make one [that is the same],” she said.

Hot commodity

After making dolls for her children, Lenker began sewing them as birthday presents for friends. Someone she knew had a farmers market booth and sold them for her.

When Lenker saw that people were interested in owning her characters, she signed up for farmers markets and art shows, including The Girlie Show, Deluxe Winter Market, Midsummer Nights Fair and Plaza District Festival.

They also can be found at The Okay See, 7 N. Lee Ave., and Norman’s Firehouse Art Center, 444 S. Flood Ave. Full-size Darci Dolls are $20.

I usually do an assembly line to get a ton done at a time.

It probably takes me two hours from start to finish for one.

— Darci Lenker Each character is handembroidered. Lenker keeps artist hours and is often up until 2 or 3 a.m. sewing new batches.

“I usually do an assembly line to get a ton done at a time,” she said. “It probably takes me two hours from start

to finish for one.”

The figures range from recognizable cats and monkeys to multi-eyed and armless creatures.

Recently, Lenker added dolls modeled after pop-culture and historic figures such as George Washington, Salvador Dali, Edgar Allen Poe, Frida Kahlo and others.

Lenker takes some requests, but most of them are her idea. She picks a subject based on a distinct look or an interesting personality. Not everyone can get a doll made for them.

“They have to be a cool person,” she said. “There will definitely not be any Trumps.”

One of her favorite creations — a series of two-sided Santa/Krampus dolls — was made last Christmas.

She has also taken requests to make custom dolls out of an old sheet or a beloved shirt and has crafted some pillows featuring her characters’ faces.

Other work Lenker said the dolls she made for her children when they were younger were not her first. She began sewing at age 7 or 8.

Lately, she doesn’t have much time to work on new Darci Dolls. She has an art degree from the University of Central Oklahoma and works on other projects, including painting

a fiberglass duck sculpture as part of a Norman Public Arts Board park project. She embroiders, too.

Sewing can be therapeutic for Lenker, but more often, she finds herself pressed against a pre-show deadline.

“Sometimes it can be a chore if I have a lot to do in a short amount of time,” she said. “Most of the time, it’s fun. The people have been a lot of fun because I haven’t been doing those for very long; just the last year.”

Find Lenker’s work at etsy.com/ shop/DarciDolls or facebook.com/ DarciDolls.

One of Darci Lenker’s creations

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Oklahoma Gazette

“Taos 2” by Cletus Smith

Summer Wine Art Gallery showcases renowned Cletus Smith and HR Kaiser works during its April 1-3 exhibit and sale.

By Jack Fowler

Three-Day Southwestern Exhibit & Sale 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m. April 1, art demos 11 a.m.-4 p.m. April 2-3 Summer Wine Art Gallery 2928-B Paseo St. summerwinegallery.com 405-831-3279 Free

A pair of Oklahoma artists will add a touch of the Old West to Paseo Arts District’s April art walk event.

Cletus Smith and HR Kaiser are the featured artists at Summer Wine Art Gallery, 2928-B Paseo St., and venue co-owner Jim Hiller said he’s excited to showcase two nationally renowned talents.

Summer Wine Art Gallery’s ThreeDay Southwestern Exhibit & Sale runs April 1-3 and marks the second of the venue’s quarterly openings.

“Cletus Smith is an Oklahoma legend,” Hiller said. “He’s been painting for 50 years, and he’s 75-plus years old.

He’s an extraordinary individual.”

Smith has been a mainstay of the Southwestern art scene for decades. He will show up to 35 pieces at the opening 6 p.m. April 1 during the Paseo’s First Friday Gallery Art Walk. Hiller described Smith’s work, mostly oils and watercolors, as vivid and emotionally wrenching.

“He primarily does landscapes, mostly of the Taos, New Mexico, area,” Hiller said. “He also does a few of Oklahoma and Venice, Italy, but his paintings are primarily of New Mexico, and they’re outstanding. The colors and depth are what makes a Cletus painting, and anyone who knows his work can spot one immediately.”

Smith worked as a graphic designer, illustrator and industrial designer for years while honing his style. His work is featured prominently throughout Oklahoma City, including several works

on permanent display at Integris Baptist Medical Center. “[Smith’s] composition, the colors, they’re all very natural. Anyone who sees a painting of his of a road with sage growing on both sides with mountains in the background knows if they’ve walked down that road or not,” Hiller said. “He really transports the viewer to another place.”

Summer Wine also will feature a three-dimensional artist: sculptor HR Kaiser.

We will have every piece of her recent cowboy series.

— Jim Hiller A nationally renowned bronze sculptor whose work has been featured in Western Art Collector and Cowboys & Indians magazines as well as several local publications, Kaiser will display up to 25 bronze sculptures, mostly of cowboys and Native Americans.

“We will have every piece of her recent cowboy series,” said Hiller. “She also has done several Native American series, and we’ll have several pieces from those,” he said. “Her work is absolutely wonderful, and she’s getting to be very well-known.”

After the Friday evening opening, the show is scheduled to run through April 3. Both artists will perform live demonstrations for guests — Smith on Saturday and Sunday and Kaiser on Friday and Saturday.

“We’d love everyone to come out and see these two outstanding Southwestern artists,” Hiller said. “It’s going to be a great show.”

Visit summerwinegallery.com for more information.

Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 31

MAR K HA NCOCK / FO R T H E GAZE T T E

ARTS & CULTURE PERFORMING ARTS

Fantastick force

Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma presents its own take on the undying off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks.

By Ben Luschen

The Fantasticks 2 p.m. April 9-10, 16-17, 23-24; 7:30 p.m. April 6-7, 13-14, 20-21; 8 p.m. April 8-9, 15-16, 22-23 Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma 1727 NW 16th St. lyrictheatreokc.com 405-524-9310 $35-$60

The world’s longest-running offBroadway musical is about to make its Lyric at the Plaza debut.

The Fantasticks, written in 1960 with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones, tells a tale of a timeless and innocent romance that has captured audiences’ attentions for decades. April 6-24, Oklahoma City theatergoers can enjoy the production at Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, 1727 NW 16th St. The show has become a staple in theaters around the globe. During The Fantasticks’ 50th anniversary in 2010, an article in The New York Times said since the production began, there had been 11,000 renditions in 3,000 cities in the U.S. and 67 countries.

Ashley Wells, director of the Lyric production, said part of the reason behind the show’s incredible run has been a relatable story. The Fantasticks tells of a budding romance between

32 | march 23, 2016 | Oklahoma Gazette

Nate Stukey and Arden Walker play Matt and Luisa in Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma’s production of The Fantasticks.

Matt and Luisa, fueled by their tinkering fathers.

Borrowing from elements of Romeo and Juliet, the two men pretend to quarrel as a way to bring their children together. Unsurprisingly, things go wrong.

Wells said many people can find some version of their younger selves in Matt and Luisa.

“I think it is just such an innocent, sweet love story that we have all gone through and felt,” she said. “There is that reminiscent feeling.”

The young leads in the Lyric production are college students Nate Stukey (University of Central Oklahoma) and Arden Walker (Oklahoma City University). It’s Stukey’s first opportunity to work with Lyric Theatre and his first professional production.

He said he could not have asked for a better show to start out in.

“I’m pretty excited to be working with this kind of talented cast and this talented director,” he said. “It’s just going to be something I’m going to remember for the rest of my life.”

Walker, a New Jersey native, said she appreciates how many theater companies in Oklahoma are willing to work with college students, giving the

young actors a chance to pick up skills at the professional level.

Lyric Theatre veteran Terry Runnels and Thomas Cunningham are also featured in this production.

‘Try to Remember’

Many will be able to relate to The Fantasticks story, but crowds also come for the familiar music. The song “Try to Remember” was popular enough to make the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965.

“I think my grandmother might be singing along in the audience,” Walker said.

Stukey said he is cautiously excited about performing beloved songs in front of an expecting crowd.

“It adds a little bit of pressure too since everybody knows the lyrics,” he said. “You can’t forget the words or anything like that.”

Wells said her vision for the show is to simulate the appearance of a barebones Shakespeare in the Park play. She said for the set they’ve created a gazebo with tree branches brought in from the outside and a soundscape that will make it sound like a park.

“I’m excited about the feel and the experience, hopefully, that our audience will get when they first walk into the Plaza theater,” she said. “It’s nothing

like we’ve had on that stage before.”

Most of the theater’s shows are heavily local, but this one especially is.

The Fantasticks isn’t bringing in any actors from out of town. The set was designed all in-house — nothing was rented.

Even the tree branches used for the set have hometown ties, as loose limbs littered Oklahoma City streets in the aftermath of last winter’s ice storm.

“We went shopping on the side of Kristin Chenoweth the road for sticks, so you might see local trees in the theaters,” Wells said.

There will be plenty of opportunities for the cast to come together during the production’s run.

Walker called The Fantasticks a true ensemble show.

“There’s so many different little bits that we all get to do together,” she said.

“I think it’s going to be really fun to develop that cast dynamic.”

Stukey hopes their performance bring audiences closer to them as well.

“I think there’s so many things in it and about it that we, as people, can relate to and connect to,” he said.

“I think that’s kind of the essence of theater in general, to find a way to connect to the material and to feel things because of the material.”

m a r k ha nco ck

Vital organ An important part of Oklahoma City broadcast history receives a sound restoration.

The Kilgen organ currently sits in the Crossroads of Commerce: A History of Free Enterprise in Oklahoma exhibit at Oklahoma History Center.

By George Lang

In April 1936, listeners who tuned into WKY-AM’s live broadcasts from the Skirvin Hotel could hear Ken Wright play the station’s Kilgen Opus 5281AB theater organ for the first time. Wright, a native Chicagoan who moved to Oklahoma City to become WKY’s in-house organist, continued to perform regular radio concerts for the next 15 years.

Times and musical tastes changed, and with more people gravitating to television in the early 1950s, organ concerts held less fascination for the public than they did two decades before. The organ was sold to the City of Oklahoma City in 1951 for $1,000 (one-thirtieth of its original cost). But with its 14 sets of pipes, 49 bells, four keyboards and six percussion stops, the Kilgen stood as a lesson on how Oklahoma City residents lived and enjoyed themselves in the days before rock ’n’ roll.

Now, at the tail end of an extensive restoration program undertaken by Oklahoma History Center (OHC) and the University of Oklahoma’s American Organ Institute, the Kilgen looks pristine, much like it did when it shipped from Kilgen Organ Company’s St. Louis, Missouri, factory. It is part of Crossroads of Commerce: A History of Free Enterprise in Oklahoma, an exhibit currently on display at OHC, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive, in the State Capitol complex.

For now, the Kilgen is silent, but that will soon change. While the

console now looks fresh from the factory, the internal parts and external pipes are still being refurbished with an eye toward performances in early 2017.

“We’re planning at least four concerts a year,” said Dan Provo, OHC director. “And for that, this console will be brought into the great hall of the history center [and] connected there. Then that will be the setting for concerts relating to silent movies, theater organ music and a whole variety of options and possibilities.”

It’s basically bringing back this part of musical history and everything that comes with it.

— Dan Provo

Historical gem

Compared to church organs, theater organs such as Oklahoma City’s Kilgen are extremely rare. Kilgen Organ built around 4,000 church organs but only produced around 250 theater organs that featured a greater variety of orchestral and percussion sounds than their sanctified cousins.

“The defining differences are size and complexity,” Provo said. “With a

theater organ, you’re representing an orchestra.”

Experts have told Provo that of those 250 theater organs, only nine are known to be in existence, and of those nine, only two are playable. Not only will the Oklahoma City Kilgen be playable, it will be fully restored from bass pedals to bells, possibly making it a truly unique artifact.

“When this one finishes its restoration and is installed completely later this year, it will be a very, very special instrument,” Provo said. “It’s basically bringing back this part of musical history and everything that comes with it.”

The Kilgen’s own history saw its share of crescendos and decrescendos.

After the city bought the organ from WKY, it spent the next few decades in storage at Municipal Auditorium, later renamed Civic Center Music Hall, until Arts Council of Oklahoma City President Jacqueline Carey raised $10,000 to renovate the organ in the mid-1970s. Following the renovation, Argentine-born organist Hector Olivera played a concert including a selection of Bach and the theme to Star Wars on the Kilgen at its unveiling in 1977.

It remained installed at Civic Center Music Hall until the facility’s renovation began in 1998. In July 1998, the Oklahoma City Council voted unanimously to spend $36,000 to move the organ and transfer ownership to OHC. The current restoration began

in 2015 after Bob Blackburn, OHC executive director, raised $500,000 to bring the Kilgen back to life. Kilgen Organ Company went out of business over 50 years ago, so without spare parts available, the American Organ Institute had to refashion many of the instrument’s components.

“Parts had deteriorated, and some connections were not done appropriately,” Provo said. “Since that time, we’ve learned a lot more about theater organs and their specific needs.”

The revitalized Kilgen will benefit from its new home’s museumlevel climate control equipment, which stabilizes the temperature and humidity inside the building.

Everything about the Kilgen organ will be restored to 1935 standards except the electrical system, which will be outfitted with modern wiring and light computerization for the control mechanism.

Provo said that it is something of a miracle that sounds from this 81-yearold instrument will soon fill the halls of OHC. “Sometimes, factors align to where the end result is a very happy one,” he said. “In this case, people recognized the importance of the instrument, wanted to hold on to it, wanted to preserve it as much as possible, wanted to find the best possible way to restore it and then provided an opportunity for the most people to see it and enjoy it.”

Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 33

arts & culture BIGSTOCK.COM

are events recommended

by Oklahoma Gazette editorial staff members.

For full calendar listings, go to okgazette.com.

BOOKS Stephen Harrigan Book Signing, author of the best-selling The Gates of the Alamo will sign his newest book about Abraham Lincoln during the early Springfield years called, A Friend of Mr. Lincoln, 6:30 p.m., March 24. Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 405-842-2900, fullcirclebooks.com. THU

ARTini Arcade Allied Arts’ annual art and martini fundraiser is back. Taste food and martinis by 12 popular Oklahoma restaurants and vote for your favorite martini of the night. Guest judges Graham Colton, Ryan Drake, Jason Grife, Spencer Hicks and Oklahoma Gazette food and drink reporter Greg Elwell will crown one restaurant Best ARTini and give awards for best dishes and creative integrations of the theme. ARTini Arcade features arcade games and a silent art auction, DJ, raffle, photo booth and Kendra Scott jewelry pull. ARTini Arcade is 7-11 p.m. April 1 at Farmers Public Market, 311 S. Klein Ave. Tickets are $75 and must be purchased in advance.

Visit alliedartini.com or the Allied Arts office at 1015 N. Broadway Ave., Suite 200 or call 405-278-8944. April 1

Connie West Book Signing, author of The house on 4th Street signs and talks about her novel which is set in Edmond, Oklahoma, 6-7 p.m., March 28. Best of Books, 1313 E. Danforth Road, Edmond, 405-340-9202, bestofbooksok.com. MON Book Signing, author Robert Milillo signs Disconnected Kids: The Groundbreaking Brain Balance Program for Children with Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, and other Neurological Disorders; his book shows parents how to use this drug-free approach at home, 6-8 p.m., March 29.

Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 405842-2900, fullcirclebooks. com. TUE Harper Lee: Reprised, OCU president Robert Henry and professor Robert Roensch host a retrospective of Harper Lee’s life and works, 6:30 p.m., March 30. Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 405-842-2900, fullcirclebooks.com. WED

FILM

Library of Cong ress / Provide d

Mountains May Depart, (CH, 2015, dir. Zhangke Jia) film shows the financial, cultural, and technological evolution of contemporary China through the eyes of one resourceful and optimistic woman, 5:30 & 8:30 p.m., March 24; 8 p.m., March 25. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa. com. THU - FRI

Susan B. Anthony Living History Day Celebrate Women’s History Month with historic social activist and education reformer Susan B. Anthony. Philadelphian Marjorie Goldman portrays the prominent suffragist. Performances are 11 a.m. Thursday for youths in grades nine through 12 and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday for the general public at Oklahoma History Center’s Chesapeake Event Center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive. Admission is free. Visit okhistory.org or call 405-5220765. Thursday

34 | march 23, 2016 | Oklahoma Gazette

The Club, (CL, 2015, dir. Pablo Larrain) a group of priests and a caretaker nun live together in an unexceptional seaside town spending their time in a host of activities, including gambling on greyhound races; a new resident arrives, one of his victims follows, leading to a first-act suicide that prefigures violent acts to come, 5:30 p.m., March 25; 5:30 & 8 p.m., March 26; 2 & 5:30 p.m., March 27. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-2363100, okcmoa.com. FRI -SUN Secret Agent, (US, 1936, Alfred Hitchcock) British intelligence fakes the death of Edgar Brodie to send him on a mission in Switzerland, where as Richard Ashendon he is to locate and kill a German spy, 8-10 p.m., March 25. The Paramount Room, 701 W. Sheridan Ave., 405-517-0787, theparamountokc.com. FRI Metropolis, (US, 1927, dir. Fritz Lang) a highly stylized futuristic city where a beautiful and cultured utopia exists above a bleak underworld populated by mistreated workers; privileged youth Freder discovers the grim scene under the city, he becomes intent on helping the workers and befriends the rebellious teacher Maria that puts him at odds with his authoritative father, leading to greater conflict, 8-10 p.m., March 26. The Paramount, 701 W. Sheridan Ave., 405-517-0787, theparamountokc.com. SAT

HAPPENINGS Art After 5, enjoy the Oklahoma City skyline along with live music, friends and cocktails on top of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 5-11 p.m., March 24. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-2363100, okcmoa.com. THU Boho Flower Crown, DIY workshop teaches basic techniques in making a floral crown with a variety of fresh floral and succulents along with any supplies you need to craft your own crown. The Plant Shoppe, 705 W. Sheridan Ave., 405-748-0718, plantshoppe.com. THU Plant Walk Series: Composting Made Simple, learn the basics of turning yard and kitchen waste into “black gold”; Allen Parleir, expert composter and foundercoordinator of Closer to Earth, explains this seemingly complex process in a way and

with options that will have you composting and gardening sustainably for years to come, noon-1 p.m., March 25. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-445-7080, oklahomacitybotanicalgardens.com/events. FRI FIRST Robotics, teams from across the country compete in the robotics competition designed to pair professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem and compete, March 25-26.

Cox Convention Center, 1 Myriad Gardens, 405-6028500, coxconventioncenter. com. FRI Industry Flea, an open-air market of artisans, shops and vintage finds, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., March 26. Industry Flea, 399 NW 10th St., industryflea. com. SAT All Paws on Deck, Volunteers of all ages are invited to join forces with fellow animal lovers by volunteering to spruce up Oklahoma City’s Animal Shelter, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., March 26. Oklahoma City Animal Shelter, 2811 SE 29th St., 405297-3100, okc.gov/animalwelfare. SAT Ladies’ Only Chess Club, chess club giving girls and women a venue where they can build and maintain social relationships with other chess playing girls and women; all skill levels are invited to participate, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., March 26. District House, 1755 NW 16th St., 405-633-1775, districthouseokc.com. SAT One Swanky Party, 5th Annual Walk This Way Fashion Show benefits Other Options, Inc.; event showcases 2002 Critic’s Choice Award and contestant on Project Runway season 3, Kayne Gillaspie along with Jeffrey Hammons, Maria Isabel and Luxx Bentley, 6 p.m., March 26. OKC Farmers Public Market, 311 S. Klein Ave., 405232-6506, okcfarmersmarket. com. SAT Deep Deuce Jazz Night, score special deals at local restaurants and boutiques throughout the district; finish off the night with live jazz at various restaurants and bars, 7-10 p.m., March 29. Deep Deuce, NE Second Street. TUE

GA ZETTE STAFF / FILE

FOOD Reds from the Rhone Valley: Louis Bernard Wine Dinner at Vast, wine dinner showcasing a selection of fine wine from Louis Bernard now based in the Gigondas region of the Rhone Valley; sample five wines while enjoying a fivecourse meal prepared by the Vast culinary team, 6:30 p.m., March 23. Vast, 333 W. Sheridan Ave., 405-702-7262. WED Taste of Yukon, 17th annual Taste of Yukon with over 20 different restaurants, you will be sure to find something that will satisfy your hunger, 5:307:30 p.m., March 24. Jackie Cooper Gymnasium, 1024 E. Main St., Yukon. THU Wine for the People: Australia, enjoy tastings of Australian wines presented by Thirst Wine Merchants and locally sourced fare prepared by our culinary team, 5:30 p.m., March 24. v2 events at vast, 333 W. Sheridan Ave., 405208-4347, vastokc.com. THU

Oklahoma City Dodgers’ First Look Fan Fest Grab a baseball hat, some sunscreen and your love for America’s favorite pastime and head over to Oklahoma City Dodgers’ First Look Fan Fest 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, 2 S. Mickey Mantle Drive. The event features an Easter egg hunt, a Dodger Dog eating contest, ballpark tours and more. At noon, Coyle and Shidler high schools face off in the OKC Dodgers High School Baseball Series. Admission is free. To register for the egg hunt and Dodger Dog contest, visit okcdodgers.com. Saturday

Eats on 8th, food truck festival and night market, 6-11 p.m., March 25. Midtown OKC, NW Eighth Street. FRI

Saturday Cooking Class, learn to make slow-roasted salmon with fennel and citrus, 1 p.m., March 26. Buy For Less, 3501 Northwest Expressway, 405-946-6342, buyforlessok. com. SAT

Weekly Farmers Market, shop goods from local produce, bakers and artisans, 9 a.m.- 2 p.m., March 26. Farmers Public Market, 311 S. Klein Ave., 405232-6506, okcfarmersmarket. com. SAT

Cooking Demo, learn to prepare stuffed chicken breast, 1 p.m., March 26. Uptown Grocery Co., 1230 W. Covell Road, Edmond, 405-509-2700, uptowngroceryco.com. SAT

Knife Skills, learn how to be more efficient in the kitchen by using your cutlery properly, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. & 2-4 p.m., March 26. The International Pantry, 1618 W. Lindsey St., Norman, 405-360-0765, intlpantry.com. SAT

Globally Gourmet, enjoy portobello and feta phyllo cups; Cuban pork shoulder with black beans; and a strawberry and Bavarian cream tart, 6:30 p.m., March 29. The International Pantry, 1618 W. Lindsey St., Norman, 405-360-0765, intlpantry.com. TUE

YOUTH

UPCOMING EVENTS AT FIRELAKE ARENA

Tape & Tunnels, get psyched for recyclables at the newest exhibit at SMO, where kids experience an interactive wonderland with packing tape tunnels, bungee cord mazes, and cardboard clubhouses where they can climb, build and explore. Science Museum Oklahoma, 2100 NE 52nd St., 405-602-6664, sciencemuseumok.org. WED -WED

BIGSTOCK.COM

Bringing Books to Life, storytime based off nature and the season; includes small craft; ages 2-5, 10 a.m.-11 a.m., March 23 & 30. Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-297-3995, myriadgardens.com. WED/ WED Science Overnight, guests crack the case by searching for clues, interrogating suspects and learning more about the science behind crime-scene investigation, 7 p.m.-7 a.m., March 25-26. Science Museum Oklahoma, 2100 NE 52nd St., 405-602-6664, sciencemuseumok.org. FRI -SAT Youth Art Class: What’s in a Name?, study the letters in their names and create colorful collages inspired by the works of exhibiting artist Summer Wheat, 10 a.m., March 26.

Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., 405-951-0000, oklahomacontemporary.org. SAT

APRIL

29

BRETT ELDREDGE THOMPSON SQUARE

Sensory Safari: Sight, explore the natural world with sensory activities and crafts, animal demos and more, 10-11:30 p.m., March 26. Oklahoma City Zoo, 2000 Remington Pl., 405-424-3344, okczoo. com. SAT Red vs the Wolf, the story of Little Red Riding Hood told from the wolf’s point of view; he is determined to tell the story as it really happened, of the true nature of Red Riding Hood and his own good intentions, 2 p.m., March 26; 12:45 p.m., March 29. Oklahoma Children’s Theatre, 2501 N. Blackwelder Ave., 405-6067003, oklahomachildrenstheatre.org. SAT/ TUE

Sisters Get Their Kicks on Route 66 In 2015, national outdoor women’s group Sisters on the Fly left significant others, children, pets and attitudes behind to explore this beautiful country of ours via vintage trailers and the Mother Road, Route 66.

Their trip resulted in a book containing stories of their lives and travels and over 500 photos. Authors Karen West and Susan FordWest host a book signing 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 23 at Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, in 50 Penn Place.

Visit fullcirclebooks.com. Wednesday, March 23

continued on next page

405-273-1637 • FIRELAKEARENA.COM 18145 OLD RANGELINE RD • SHAWNEE, OK @FIRELAKEARENA /FIRELAKE.ARENA Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 35

Bordeaux Wine & Cheese Pairing There are few, if any, regions in the world more associated with fine wine than Bordeaux, France. Sample bottles from across the region expertly paired with cheeses from around the world 6:45 p.m. Friday at Forward Foods, 2001 W. Main St., in Norman.

Admission is $40, and guests must be age 21 or older. Visit forwardfoods.com or call 405-321-1007. Friday Drop-In Art: Oil Pastel Drawing, join guest artists every Saturday as they interact with families to create extraordinary works of art inspired by the Museum’s collection, exhibitions and special occasions, 1-4 p.m., March 26. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com. SAT HOPabaloo Eggstravaganza, an Easter brunch with the Easter bunny and a day of fun, including afternoon Tiny Tot Egg Scrambles for kids ages 3-6 at the Children’s Zoo Grassy Meadow; and special Easter animal encounters throughout the Zoo, 11 a.m.- 2 p.m., March 27. Oklahoma City Zoo, 2000 Remington Pl., 405-424-3344, okczoo. com. SUN Art Adventures, children experience the world of art through stories and projects in this event series; this week’s story is Draw Me a Star

by Eric Carle, 10:30 a.m., March 29.

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, 555 Elm Ave., Norman, 405-325-3272, ou.edu/fjjma. TUE

PERFORMING ARTS Cowboy Bill Martin, comedian, actor, screenwriter, songwriter and Founder and CEO of nonprofit organization Cowboys Who Care Foundation, 8 p.m., March 23-24; 8 & 10:30 p.m., March 25-26. Loony Bin Comedy Club, 8503 N. Rockwell Ave., 405-239-4242, loonybincomedy.com. WED -SUN Cinderella, Tony Award-winning Broadway musical delights audiences with its contemporary take on the classic tale; be transported back to your childhood as you rediscover some of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most beloved songs, 7:30 p.m., March 23-24; 8 p.m., March 25; 2 & 8 p.m., March 26-27.

Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave., 405-297-2264, okcciviccenter.com. WED -SUN On Golden Pond, a love story about Ethel and Norman Thayer as they return to their summer home for their 44th year on Golden Pond; a beautiful reminder that life is good at summer home on the pond, 8 p.m., March 24-26. Jewel Box Theatre, 3700 N. Walker Ave., 405-521-1786, jewelboxtheatre.org.

THU -SAT Roast Battle Show, roast master Josh Lathe hosts the second installment of OKC Comedy’s monthly Roast Battle Show; this is Word Knuckle, 8-9 p.m., March 24. Dave & Buster’s, 5501 N. May Ave., 405-254-9900, daveandbusters.com. THU

36 | march 23, 2016 | Oklahoma Gazette

Picking up the Pieces, stand-up comedy show features Tracy Morgan, 8 p.m., March 25. Riverwind Casino, 1544 State Highway 9, Norman, 405-322-6000, riverwind. com. FRI Dope Comedy, competition provides comics a platform to perform in front of a live audience; five-minute acts with the best two competing in a 12-minute final round, 9 p.m., March 26. Ice Event Center & Grill, 1148 NE 36th St., 405-208-4240.

SAT

ACTIVE OKC Thunder vs Utah Jazz, NBA basketball game, 7 p.m., March 24.

Chesapeake Energy Arena, 100 W. Reno Ave., 405-602-8700, chesapeakearena.com. THU OKC Blue VS Texas Legends, OKC Thunder’s NBA D-League affiliate VS Bakersfield Jam, 7 p.m., March 25. Cox Convention Center, 1 Myriad Gardens, 405-602-8500, coxconventioncenter.com. FRI Go Girl Run, half marathon and 5K celebrating friendship and sisterhood, 7 a.m., March 26. Bricktown Ballpark, 2 S. Mickey Mantle Drive.

SAT

OKC Energy vs. Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC, professional soccer game, 7 p.m., March 26. Taft Stadium, 2901 NW 23rd Street. SAT Yoga in the Gardens, all-levels Vinyasa-style class, 5:45-6:45 p.m., March 29. Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-297-3995, myriadgardens. com. TUE

Honeybadgers, Blair Thurman’s works emphasize his broad range of media with neon being one of his main materials; exhibit is inspired by the design on a favorite T-shirt and is reminiscent of totem poles first created by indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-2363100, okcmoa.com.

In One Ear, a kaleidoscope of overlapping video clips in constant flux, ruled by a soundtrack broadcast on radio frequency 99.9 FM; David Steele Overholt chose more than 200 mostly '80s and '90s video clips to conjure nostalgia among the generations raised in front of the TV, as images from Saved by the Bell, Full House, Seinfeld and more comingle on the screen. Showroom at Oklahoma Contemporary, 1146 N. Broadway Drive.

James C. Meade Friends’ Lecture Series: Van Gogh’s Bedrooms, lecture by Gloria Groom, chairwoman of European Painting and Sculpture and David and Mary Winton Green curator at the Art Institute of Chicago; she looks at the way these paintings fit into the artist’s life, and the documentary, scientific and physical evidence pertaining to all three versions, 6-7 p.m., March 23. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com. WED March Featured Artists, Arden Barrett and Sally Burpee display works featuring acrylic landscapes, portraits, oil paintings and other mediums. The Studio Gallery, 2642 W. Britton Road, 405-752-2642, thestudiogallery.org.

Natural Impressions-Evolved, by Oklahoma City artist Stacey Dianne Miller who creates mixed media artworks with a primary focus in printmaking. The Depot, 200 S. Jones Ave., Norman, 405-307-9320, pasnorman.org.

New Blooms, debuting works by Brook Rowlands; display of aggressive expressive strokes, in often lush juxtaposition of vivid color, which creates the initial perspective plane of her compositions and transforms into floral forms. Kasum Contemporary Fine Arts, 1706 NW 16th St., 405-604-6602, kasumcontemporary.com.

Philip Van Keuren: Murmurations, although each work stands on its own the entire body of images is considered one work of art. Artspace at Untitled, 1 NE Third St., 405-8159995, artspaceatuntitled.org.

Photography Exhibit, showcasing Ron Brandon. 50 Penn Place Gallery, 1900 Northwest Expressway, Suite 113-R, 405-848-5567, 50pennplacegallery.com.

Posed & Composed: Portraits of Women from the Permanent, exhibition of twelve portraits by eleven American artists covers the period from just before World War I through the early 1980s; The paintings are not arranged chronologically, but according to commonalities in pose, gesture, color, composition, and subject matter. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-2363100, okcmoa.com.

Pry the Lid Off, immersive exhibition of artist Summer Wheat, explores history, revealing “the world behind the white kitchen wall” of Johannes Vermeer’s "The Milkmaid;" depicting the four rooms of the maid’s personal chambers and includes a variety of 2-D and 3-D media, from faux stained-glass panels made of mylar and mesh to silhouetted dishes and a peek inside imagined dresser drawers. Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., 405-951-0000, oklahomacontemporary.org.

Stone Family: Artist Lecture, featuring Linda Stone Callery, daughter of the late Willard Stone, 6-7 p.m., March 24. Gaylord-Pickens Oklahoma Heritage Museum, 1400 Classen Drive, 405-235-4458, oklahomaheritage.com. THU Ted West Exhibit, photographer from Oklahoma City whose photo collages draw on free association and creative accidents to create unusual stories. IAO Gallery, 706 W. Sheridan Ave., 405-232-6060, iaogallery.org.

The Banjo World of Steve Martin, exhibit features a look at the musical side of one of America’s favorite entertainers and features his private collection. American Banjo Museum, 9 E. Sheridan Ave., 405-604-2793, americanbanjomuseum.com.

Todd Beats Art Show, the exploration of how he chooses to manifest a visual expression that captures the depths and contrast of every day life; a sporadic assembly of moments that demand decisions, reactions and opinions, which are then loosely held together with extremely fragile rules and structures, so that we may derive meaning and purpose for our existence. 1219 Creative, 1219 N. Classen Blvd.

Western Skies, exhibit of artist Gene Dougherty; watercolors of cattle, horses, Indians and things that typify Oklahoma and the American West, painted in his unique, realistic style. Paseo Gallery One, 2927 Paseo Street, 405-524-4544, facebook.com/ paseogalleryone.

Provided

BIGSTOC K.COM

arts & Culture calendar

VISUAL ARTS Affinity Works: Home Lands, paintings by Michael Nicholson, who uses a technique combining on-site plein air painting with tradional studio painting. Oklahoma State Capitol, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd.

Ceramic Sculpture, Jean Keil, resident artist at In Your Eye Gallery, unveils her latest collection of ceramic pottery; an exploration of surface using texture highlighted with color on forms made with hand-building techniques. In Your Eye Gallery, 3005 Paseo St. #A, 405-525-2161, inyoureyegallery. com.

Forgotten, Isaac Harper aims to preserve what people once called their homes and show the legacy that is left behind by these families.

Artspace at Untitled, 1 NE Third St., 405-815-9995, artspaceatuntitled. org.

Paseo FEAST Save some room in your food-loving belly and a discerning eye for talent and prepare yourself for Paseo FEAST (Funding Emerging Art with Sustainable Tactics). During the dinner, five artists — Albert Bostick, Chelsey Branham, Jake Fischbach, Brent Greenwood and Brian Landreth — discuss their projects in the hope of winning a grant made possible by revenue raised via event ticket sales.

Paseo FEAST is 6-8 p.m. Tuesday at Lottinville’s, 801 Signal Ridge Drive, in Edmond. Tickets are $30. Visit thepaseo.com. Tuesday

For music calendar see page 40

Truth, Consequence

Mayday Parade

Mayday Parade and guitarist Brooks Betts make a return trip to Oklahoma City.

By Ben Luschen

The American Lines Tour ’16 with Mayday Parade and The Maine 7 p.m. March 30 Diamond Ballroom 8001 S. Eastern Ave. diamondballroom.net 405-677-9169 $23.50-$24.50

Baseball-sized hailstones forced cars to the side of the road. It was Mayday Parade’s harsh introduction to Oklahoma’s sometimes-brutal weather.

Guitarist Brooks Betts spoke with Oklahoma Gazette during an off-day on the Florida-based pop-punk band’s American Lines Tour ’16, which stops in Oklahoma City 7 p.m. March 30 at Diamond Ballroom, 8001 S. Eastern Ave. Betts recalls riding in a van six or so years ago somewhere between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The quintet peered out its windows as a funnel lowered from the sky. Ice bludgeoned the roof.

“We didn’t see anything touch down, but the whole time, it was swirling right above us, threatening to drop down,” Betts said.

Fortunately, no musicians were harmed, Betts said, but the incident

sticks out as one of the band’s more memorable and tense tour moments.

The American Lines Tour is a co-headlining venture with Tempe, Arizona, band The Maine. Both acts are still in the process of promoting 2015 releases: Mayday Parade’s fifth studio album, Black Lines, and The Maine’s American Candy.

The two rock acts started out as Fearless Records labelmates and performed gigs together over the years.

Earlier this year, they toured the United Kingdom before heading stateside.

Betts said both bands have many of the same fans. He also enjoys touring with The Maine because it’s a fun band to hang out with.

“On the other side of things, there’s no surprises,” he said. “It’s not like you have to warm up and get to know a whole new group of people, including crew, too.”

Nashville alternative band Better Off was scheduled to join the tour, but it indefinitely suspended all commitments after sexual assault allegations were made against fill-in bassist David Hobbs.

Betts said he never got a chance to properly meet Better Off, though they did perform one tour date together.

He did not believe their absence would

negatively impact the tour.

“They had their own things to deal with,” he said.

New music

It’s hard to judge fan reaction to Black Lines. From a traditional, numbers standpoint, Betts admitted it doesn’t look as strong compared to previous projects. Their last two records debuted inside the Billboard Top 12. Black Lines peaked at No. 21.

Even so, Betts said tour attendance is solid.

“There’s more people coming out than there was in the past,” he said.

Side project

Mayday Parade is always mindful of what fans want and expect, but Betts doesn’t let those expectations rule everything he does. In 2012, he began a side project called Truth or Consequence with Alexandra Kees and bassist Jeremy Lenzo. Their folk-country sound is a significant departure from the emo-rock sound Betts is best know for.

Truth or Consequence represents the music Betts attached to while growing up in the South. In a March 13 Facebook post, the trio announced it was preparing new material and ended more than three

years of silence following the 2012 release of its debut EP Second Fiddle.

“It’s something I was doing on the side because I want to be able to put out some music that has that sort of influence — more folky, country, bluesy — all those things I felt like we really couldn’t do with Mayday Parade,” Betts said. “I wanted an outlet for that, and in that way, it’s very personal and I feel like I can get away with a lot more storytelling, at least in the country sense.”

Betts said they have a lot of unreleased material. He didn’t abandon the project. Instead, he’s waiting for the right time.

Mayday Parade is nearing the end of its contract with Fearless Records, meaning it’s the perfect time for the Truth or Consequence vocalist to focus on other things while Mayday Parade negotiates a new deal or finds a new label.

There’s no target release date or estimated length for a follow-up Truth or Consequence project at this time, but Betts is eager to get new work out soon.

“I think the first release that we did was kind of to just get something out there to see how it is and how I feel about it,” he said. “I think it’s something we’ll definitely continue and maybe do a little bit more of.”

Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 37

Jon atha n W e i n e r / P r ovi de d

arts & culture music

arts & culture music

Grateful notes Guitarist Nils Lofgren cruises into town with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band The River Tour 7:30 p.m. April 3 Chesapeake Energy Arena 100 W. Reno Ave. chesapeakearena.com 405-602-8700 $36.50-$150

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s The River Tour makes its only Oklahoma stop 7:30 p.m. April 3 at Chesapeake Energy Arena, 100 W. Reno Ave. The band performs the entire 20-song double LP The River (1980) along with Springsteen’s greatest hits; shows on the tour have been lasting three and a half hours.

Guitarist Nils Lofgren is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band, which he joined in 1984, when Little Steven Van Zandt left the band to pursue a solo career. When Van Zandt returned in 1999, Springsteen kept both guitarists on board.

Lofgren is also famous for his work with Neil Young and Crazy Horse, having worked on the albums After the Gold Rush (1970), Crazy Horse (1971) and Tonight’s the Night (1975).

In the period between working with Young and Springsteen, Lofgren had his own band, Grin, which received high critical praise but, along with Lofgren’s solo albums, many of which are considered classics, never sold that many records.

While these albums have been out of print for decades, a massive 9-CD/1-

38 | march 23, 2016 | Oklahoma Gazette

KEVIN NIXON / CLASS IC ROCK MAG AZINE / PROVIDED

By Wilhelm Murg

DVD retrospective of Lofgren’s career, Face the Music, has just been released and even includes unreleased Grin tracks that were recently found in a basement.

Lofgren told Oklahoma Gazette that he spent two years reviewing everything he had ever recorded to pick the 209 tracks that ended up on the box set.

I walked out that night possessed with this almost uncomfortable notion that I had to get out of school and start being a rock musician.

— Nils Lofgren “For Fantasy Records to go get every single track I picked and help me put this box set together, with a 139page book of countless photos, posters, ephemera and sleeves, and with a lot of my dear musician friends weighing in with a description or a plug, it was really a beautiful, unexpected journey that makes me feel different now about my past, because it was largely extinct and forgotten,” he said.

Shaky ride

Lofgren started out studying classical

Nils Lofgren

music on the accordion, but there was an old guitar in his house that sealed his fate.

“As a teenager, I fell in love with The Beatles; it was their extra harmonies and more sophisticated chordings,” he said. “There was a beatup guitar in our home, and my brother Tommy started showing me chords, but it was just a hobby that I was crazy about for a couple of years.

“One night, I saw The Who — the original Who — at Constitution Hall. Then we ran across town to see

the Jimi Hendrix Experience at The Ambassador Theatre. I walked out that night possessed with this almost uncomfortable notion that I had to get out of school and start being a rock musician. I was like, ‘You can’t do that,’ but then I thought, ‘I have to do it.’

Here it is, 48 years later, I’m looking back and, wow! How lucky was I? I got to get out to LA and Topanga Canyon in 1968 and befriend Neil Young.”

Lofgren met the members of Crazy Horse when they toured through his

ERIC MARCE L / P ROVIDED

I’ve been very blessed to sing for people in great bands and with my own music.

— Nils Lofgren a lot of people learned from Danny.

I met them all at this nightclub, and three weeks later, I was in LA. Danny became a good friend. I joined Crazy Horse to make the first album.

“I always still regret that I never knew how to reach Danny or how to help him, but drugs and alcohol has taken out millions of people and it’s a deadly thing. One of the great musical losses for me was Danny. But making a whole album with him, rehearsing with him, crafting a whole record with him was just an amazing adventure. I still miss Danny, but I’m happy I got to spend some time with him.”

When looking back at his life, Lofgren said he knows he did it all, but it is still a little overwhelming.

“I’m grateful that I was scared enough to throw myself into a lot of situations when I was younger and get stuff like that done,” he said. “I’m still out with E Street. I’m going to make up the shows I had to postpone … I’ve started writing a new album, and of course, my live on the road in the UK CD, UK2015 Face the Music Tour, came out and I’ve got my box set to promote.

I’m very grateful. It’s been a great ride.”

Lofgren was a gymnast in high school and was famous for doing backflips during his shows while playing guitar; he even titled one of his albums Flip (1985). In 2008, he had hip replacement surgery. When asked which

is harder on the body, gymnastics or rock ’n’ roll, Lofgren laughed and picked rock ’n’ roll.

“Forty-seven years down the road, I’ve been beat up quite a bit,” he said.

“It’s mostly leaving home and the travel that gets you as much as anything else, but it is a champagne problem — let’s be clear. I’ve been very blessed to sing for people in great bands and with my own music. God willing, I will do it as long as I live and I have a bit of time ahead of me. I am grateful for every show and every moment.”

For more information about Lofgren, visit nilslofgren.com.

“We celebrate every day by just what we like to do and how we are,” he said.

“But it’s nice to have a whole month to show the people who don’t celebrate every day why we celebrate it.”

The organization plans to celebrate with a November event, but details are still being developed. Malone said he wants celebrations to include more than music, teaching youth about the true meaning of the culture and how it differs from pop culture depictions.

Oklahoma City’s Zulu Nation chapter is more than a year old, but member Keon Ellison said the progress it has made in that time is encouraging.

Some outsiders didn’t know how to interpret what it was trying to do.

“Looking at it a year ago, there was so much skepticism,” he said. “People were so unsure: ‘What is this? Are they trying to take over?’ And a year later,

Members of the Oklahoma City chapter of the Universal Zulu Nation hold a proclamation from the city designating November as Hip-Hop History Month.

MICHAE L G ENTRY / PROVIDED

hometown, Bethesda, Maryland. Three weeks later, he and Grin moved to Los Angeles and stayed at Young’s house.

Young had just released his second solo album (his first with Crazy Horse), Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969) after leaving Buffalo Springfield.

Lofgren joined Young’s band and played piano and guitar on After the Gold Rush, which also featured Crazy Horse, but the band was fired halfway through the sessions due to the heroin habit of guitarist Danny Whitten, the leader of Crazy Horse.

Young wrote “The Needle and the Damage Done” about Whitten’s addiction during this period.

Lofgren also guested on the eponymously titled first album by Crazy Horse, so he worked closely with one of the more shadowy figures in rock music who is more famous for his death than he is for his music.

“Danny was like a giant,” Lofgren said. “When I saw the first Crazy Horse tour at the Cellar Door, Neil would tell you Danny was his right-hand man. He was singing with that wavery, beautiful vibrato before Neil was, and

Fresh ink

A new proclamation recognizes November as Hip-Hop History Month in Oklahoma City.

By Ben Luschen

Stephen Cooper couldn’t share the good news, but he was itching to do so.

Cooper is the founder of the Oklahoma City chapter of the Universal Zulu Nation, a worldwide organization promoting peace and understanding through hip-hop culture. He emailed Mayor Mick Cornett’s office in early February, requesting the city to acknowledge Hip-Hop History Month in November.

When he got a call from Cornett’s office saying the mayor would issue a proclamation establishing the celebratory month in Oklahoma City, Cooper was thrilled. He told the chapter’s council members but didn’t want the news to get any further until they had the actual document in hand.

“It was eating at me because I was like, ‘Man, I want to tell the rest of the [members] about this,’” he said.

The second week of March, the chapter finally received a copy of the proclamation. It outlined the significance of hip-hop, the Universal Zulu Nation and the culture. It was posted on social media and shared hundreds of times.

Chapter member Lemuel Kelly said he felt like the city’s official recognition was overdue but he was nonetheless thrilled it came to fruition.

“I’m hyped up like a little kid at Christmas. For real,” he said.

Response from people outside the group has been positive, though chapter members said some interpreted the proclamation as an attempt by them to get the city’s permission to celebrate something they’ve lived for years.

Member Rod Malone said the significance of the proclamation is in sharing an understanding of the culture with the larger community.

to see where we’re at now and where we’re going, it’s a beautiful thing. We’re definitely making a lot of headway.”

Ellison remembers the days when clubs in Bricktown refused to book or play hip-hop music, he said. Since then, more positive hip-hop acts and events helped rehabilitate the culture’s image across the state. He’s proud to say hiphop has reached a point where it is not only tolerated in the city, but celebrated.

“It’s a sign of hope,” he said. “It’s a sign of real hope that all is not lost.”

Oklahoma Gazette | march 23, 2016 | 39

P ROVIDED

music calendar are events recommended

by Oklahoma Gazette editorial staff members.

For full calendar listings, go to okgazette.com.

WEDNESDAY 3.23 Grant Wells, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. PIANO Hodera/Looming/ Plainspeak/The Fair Gwen, First Pastafarian Church of Norman. ROCK The Central Jazz Jam, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond. JAZZ

THURSDAY 3.24 Brent Saulsbury/Will Galbraith/Wayne Duncan, Friends Restaurant & Club.

Helen Kelter Skelter This Oklahoma band isn’t done showing off the tripped-out rock of its 2015 self-titled release. The rock act performs 9 p.m. Friday at Blue Note Lounge, 2408 N. Robinson Ave. Admission is free. Visit helenkelterskelter.com or call 405-600-1166. The group also has a number of regional dates booked through the spring, including a May 7 stop at Pecan Street Festival in Austin, Texas. friday

ROCK

SATURDAY 3.26

Dave Thomason Band, Grady’s 66 Pub, Yukon. COVER

Blind Date, Oklahoma City Limits. COVER

David Morris, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. PIANO

Boogie Fever, Riverwind Casino, Norman. VARIOUS

Garage Band Jam, Bourbon Street Bar. ROCK

Bowlsey, Blue Note Lounge.

Johnny Boyd, The Blue Door.

Casey & Minna, Industry Flea.

VARIOUS

HIP-HOP FOLK

Stars, Baker Street Pub & Grill.

The Great American Jug Band, The Deli, Norman. VARIOUS

FRIDAY 3.25

Travis Linville/Mike Hosty One Man Band, The Deli, Norman. ROCK Tyler Lee, Bourbon Street Bar.

ROCK

Scott Lowber/Will Galbraith/ Rick Toops, Friends Restaurant & Club. COVER

Deuces Wild, Baker Street Pub & Grill. ROCK DJ Jason Daniel, Colcord Hotel. VARIOUS

MONDAY 3.28

Grant Stevens, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. PIANO

Joey Muha/Elijah Stavely, 89th Street Collective. ROCK

Beau Jennings/Sherree Chamberlain, The Blue Door.

Jahruba & the Jah Mystics, Othello’s Italian Restaurant, Norman. REGGAE

The Patron AintS, The Deli, Norman. ROCK

Big G, Remington Park. BLUES

Jeremy Studdard/Charley Sheffield, Grady’s 66 Pub, Yukon. COUNTRY

Annie Up, Riverwind Casino, Norman. POP

SINGER/SONGWRITER

Bleu Edmondson, Wormy Dog Saloon. COUNTRY Carter Sampson, Noir Bistro & Bar. SINGER/

SONGWRITER

Colt Ford/Haley Georgia/ Cold Water Country, OKC Farmers Public Market.

COUNTRY

Daniel Jordan, Fuze Buffet & Bar. ACOUSTIC DJ Six, Russell’s, Tower Hotel.

VARIOUS

Drive, Baker Street Pub & Grill.

ROCK

Electric Okie Test, Sauced on Paseo. COVER Empire Grey, Oklahoma City Limits. ROCK Frenchie, Grady’s 66 Pub, Yukon. VARIOUS Lee Mullen Band, Sliders.

COUNTRY

Meanstreak, Bourbon Street Bar. ROCK Mike Bone, Music Room OKC. HIP-HOP

Mike Steinel Quartet, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond. JAZZ Randy Cassimus, Full Circle Bookstore. ACOUSTIC Steve Crossley Solo, Bellini’s Underground. VARIOUS Tyler Brant, Othello’s Italian Restaurant, Norman. COUNTRY

40 | march 23, 2016 | Oklahoma Gazette

Tim Standford and the Exclusives Jam, Bourbon Street Bar. ROCK

BLUES

Copperheads, 51st Street Speakeasy.

COVER

Michael Kleid, Flint. VARIOUS Thom Bresh/Edgar Cruz, The Blue Door. ACOUSTIC

John Calvin/Daniel Markham, The Deli, Norman. ROCK Locust Grove/Longpig/ Numbers Game, Diamond Ballroom. ROCK Michael Kleid, Fuze Buffet & Bar. VARIOUS Riders Ford, Wormy Dog Saloon. COUNTRY Robby Ray, Full Circle Bookstore. PIANO

Thom Bresh/Edgar Cruz, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond. ACOUSTIC

TUESDAY 3.29 Caleb McGee/Electric Okie Test, The Deli, Norman.

VARIOUS

LUCKY/Shaun Suttle, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. COVER Powerman 5000/ Hed PE/Everybody Panic!, Diamond Ballroom. ROCK

Sex Snobs/Creep City, Opolis, Norman. ROCK

WEDNESDAY 3.30

Slick Rooster Band, Sliders.

Geoff Muldaur, The Blue Door.

COUNTRY

FOLK

The Stir, Noir Bistro & Bar.

COVER

The Central Jazz Jam, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond. JAZZ

The Weathermen, Tapwerks Ale House & Cafe. ROCK

Tech N9ne/Krizz Kaliko/ Rittz, Cain’s Ballroom, Tulsa.

Tyler Lee, Bourbon Street Bar.

HIP-HOP

BLUES

Zero2sixty, Remington Park.

ROCK

SUNDAY 3.27 Better Now/Lotta Tuff/Klamz, Blue Note Lounge. ROCK Brother Gruesome/ Little Big Bangs/ Youthesize, Opolis,

Norman. ROCK

Edgar Cruz, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. ACOUSTIC

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.

sudoku/crossword 1 It returns just before spring: Abbr.

4 Univ. parts 9 Black-and-white treat 13 Sends an invitation for 19 Cell material 20 Independently 21 Fur fighters?

22 Combs 23 Wooden arts-and-crafts piece 26 Fantasy land 27 “Fingers crossed!”

28 “Sprechen ____ Deutsch?”

29 Great American Ball Park team 31 Collector’s ____ 32 Quaint social occasion 38 Kind of poem 40 ____ Bo 41 “I almost forgot …”

42 Positive response 43 Work 45 “Hands off!”

46 Pre-euro coin 49 Shoelace alternative 55 Get the message, say 56 With equal frequency 57 Streak 58 Cigar type 60 “Borrowed” 61 Titter 62 Modern “Carpe diem” 63 Locale for phalanges 65 Cry that’s a homophone of 81-Across 66 Tool for reproduction 71 “Heaven and earth in miniature,” per a Chinese

proverb 73 Expressions of disgust 75 Sole 76 Marco ____ (shirt sold on

Rubio’s website) 77 Come to an end 79 Shenanigans 81 Barely make, with “out” 82 Appetizer 84 Section of a foreign travel guide, maybe

85 Hybrid outdoor game 87 Prepared 88 Fatty cut of fish at a sushi bar 90 Named, informally 91 Where, to Cato

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1 Self-help guru who wrote Life Code 2 Hoity-toity 3 Jake of CNN 4 Place for a throne 5 World Showcase site 6 Hang (around) 7 Take unwanted steps?

8 Line at the zoo 9 Elect 10 King, in Portugal 11 Series finale?

12 Image on the Connecticut state quarter 13 Grant portrayer on TV 14 Line of cliffs 15 Land in two pieces?

16 Ingredient that’s been left out?

17 Pertaining to Pennsylvania,

Ohio and West Virginia, e.g.

18 Spanish she-bear 24 One for two of four 25 Show (out) 30 “____ a real nowhere man …”

33 Complete reversal 34 Source of the names of two months 35 Trounce 36 Atlas Shrugged author Rand 37 Soprano Sumac 39 Think piece?

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I remember it was in the bleak December” 46 Leader elected in 1946 47 Prefix with tourism 48 Fossil-fuel residue 49 Still-life object 50 First name in cosmetics 51 Discoverer’s cry 52 Org. of the Argonauts and the Alouettes 53 Some natural-history-museum

displays, for short 54 Tributary of the Rhine 55 Substation?

58 The four seasons and others 59 Brown-and-white treat 61 Start of many a bumper sticker 64 Backing at a business meeting?

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107 Certain hosp. exam 108 Caught sight of 110 Ungraceful 111 Fixture in many a basement 116 Emulated one of Old

MacDonald’s animals 117 One that’s out of one’s head?

118 Response to “Who goes there?”

119 Poorly 120 Brotherhood and sisterhood 121 Neophyte, in modern slang 122 Cartridge filler 123 Convened

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74 Genealogical grouping, nformally 78 Bit of a joule 80 Average guy 82 French city said to have given its name to a car

83 Bit of gymwear 84 Start of a concession 85 Unoccupied 86 Start eating 87 Inner feeling 88 Court technique 89 Bobby in skates 92 “It’s f-f-freezing!”

93 Artful 95 Daddy

Account Executive / Advertising assistant Leah Roberts 0320

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New York Times Magazine Crossword Puzzle Don’t Sue Us!

96 Crime stories?

97 “Streetcar” call 98 You could have it in any color

you wanted, as long as it was black 100 Two Treatises of Government philosopher 101 Smallest slice of a pie chart, maybe 102 Must have 103 Scapegrace 104 Facetious response to

“Describe yourself in three adjectives” 109 Recipe instruction 110 Sticky stuff 112 Line at a wedding 113 Role for Keanu Reeves 114 Chatter 115 Ingredient in a white lady

Account EXECUTIVES Stephanie Van Horn, Saundra Rinearson Godwin, Elizabeth Riddle, Sarah Brigance Nathan Ward EDITOR-in-chief Jennifer Palmer Chancellor jchancellor@okgazette.com Assistant EDITOR Brittany Pickering Staff reporters Greg Elwell, Laura Eastes, Ben Luschen Contributors Mark Beutler, Bailey Chambers Brett Dickerson, Jack Fowler, Adam Holt George Lang, Alissa Lindsey, Wilhelm Murg Photographers Garett Fisbeck Marketing & Editorial Intern Kylie Kallsen Circulation Manager Chad Bleakley

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Sudoku Puzzle Medium

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New York Times Crossword Puzzle answers

Fill inn°2147456657 the grid so that every row, column and 3-by-3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9.

Grid medium

7

2

1 3 7 4

5 8 1

7

8 3

6

F B O M B

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2 4 3 1 5 3 4 6 7

L A U R A

M F A A R S C

www.print mysudoku.co m

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Print Production Coordinator Ashley Parks

Puzzle No. 0313, which appeared in the March 16 issue.

B L E D

L E A V E

M U S S

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O R R I N H A T C H O N L I N E C H A T

Q U I C H E V E A L M E A L Y

I M A G F O D O C O M R R I O U E T G S S U D S E A T S E A R M E R A A L O N E I N T E G O W A N T A C O I F O T E R I D A P P Y M E E E R S S

E R A D I H O E L D M A D G A E E R E A L G O S M A A L L E T S

T E N S E L O I E V A N A B C D

F O T O A R A I N B O F M E R C N O R E T T O T A S H O R N R L Y M O N A Y I I A I R N S T C A E A H E M S S T O F O L E S O N M O G E A I S T S P S I B A C A B R E T E E E R O N T E N T R A D I I A N S E L

G R U E L A D O S I M R I C H

A U T O S T R A D A V O I C E A C T O R

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Graphic Designer Anna Shilling www.okgazette.com Order mounted or ready-to-frame prints of Oklahoma Gazette covers, articles and photos at okgazette.yourheadline.com 3701 N Shartel Ave Oklahoma City, OK 73118-7102 Phone (405) 528-6000

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E L U D E

Okl ahoma Gaz ette | March 23, 2016 | 41

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

by ROB BREZNY

CANCER (June 21-July 22) When the young director Richard Lester got his big break, he took full advantage. It happened in 1964, when the early Beatles asked him to do their first movie, A Hard Day’s Night. Lester’s innovative approach to the project propelled his career to a higher level that brought him many further opportunities.

Writing of Lester’s readiness, critic Alexander Walker said, “No filmmaker . . . appeared more punctually when his hour struck.” That’s what I hope you will soon be doing in your own chosen field, Cancerian.

Do you understand how important it will be to have impeccable timing? No procrastination or hemming and hawing, please. Be crisply proactive.

Homework: Imagine that seven years from now you will want a new career or line of work. What will it be?

Write: Truthrooster@gmail.com.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) When Orville and Wilbur Wright were kids, their father gave them a toy helicopter powered by a rubber band. The year was 1878. Twenty-five years later, the brothers became the first humans to sail above the earth in a flying machine. They testified that the toy helicopter had been a key inspiration as they worked to develop their pioneering invention.

In the spirit of the Wright Brothers’ magic seed, Aries, I invite you to revive your connection to a seminal influence from your past. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to feed a dream that was foreshadowed in you a long time ago.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) As a young man, the poet Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) left his home in France and settled in Abyssinia, which these days is known as Ethiopia.

“I sought voyages,” he wrote, “to disperse the enchantments that had colonized my mind.”

You might want to consider a similar strategy in the coming weeks, Leo. From an astrological perspective, it’s going to be an excellent time both to wander free of your usual haunts and to disperse the enchantments that have colonized your mind. Why not find ways to synergize these two opportunities?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) “The task of a writer is not to solve the problem but to state the problem correctly,” said Russian writer Anton Chekhov. Whether or not you’re a writer, Taurus, that is also your special task in the coming weeks. The riddle that has begun to captivate your imagination is not yet ripe enough for you to work on in earnest. It has not been defined with sufficient clarity. Luckily, you have the resources you need to research all the contingencies, and you have the acuity to come up with a set of empowering questions.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) The good news is that if you eat enormous amounts of chocolate, you will boost your memory. Science has proved it. The bad news is that in order to get the full effect of the memory enhancement, you would have to consume so much chocolate that you would get sick. I propose that we consider this scenario as a metaphor for what may be going on in your life. Is it possible you’re doing things that are healthy for you in one way but that diminish you in another? Or are you perhaps getting or doing too much of a good thing — going to unbalanced extremes as you pursue a worthy goal? Now is a favorable time to figure out if you’re engaged in such behavior, and to change it if you are.

the answers. And then there are questions you don’t ask because their answers would burst your beloved illusions, which you’d rather preserve. I’m here to urge you to risk posing all these types of questions, Libra.

I think you’re strong enough and smart enough, and in just the right ways, to deal constructively with the answers. I’m not saying you’ll be pleased with everything you find out. But you will ultimately be glad you finally made the inquiries.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) If you are enmeshed in a jumble that makes you squirm or if you are caught in a tangle that stifles your self-love, you have three choices. Here’s how Eckhart Tolle defines them: 1. Get out of the situation. 2. Transform the situation. 3. Completely accept the situation. Does that sound reasonable, Scorpio? I hope so, because the time has come to act.

Don’t wait to make your decision. Do it soon. After that, there will be no whining allowed. You can no longer indulge in excuses. You must accept the consequences. On the bright side, imagine the new freedom and power you will have at your disposal.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) At one point in his life, author C. S. Lewis had a rude awakening as he took stock of the progress he thought he had been making. “I am appalled to see how much of the change I thought I had undergone lately was only imaginary,” he wrote. I want to make sure that something similar doesn’t happen to you, Virgo. You’re in the midst of what should be a Golden Age of Self-Transformation. Make sure you’re actually doing the work that you imagine you’re doing — and not just talking about it and thinking about it.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Here’s a proposed experiment. Sidle up to a creature you’d love to be closer to, and softly sing the following lyrics: “Come with me, go with me. Burn with me, glow with me. Sleep with me, wake with me.” At this point, run three circles around the creature as you flap your arms like a birds’ wings. Then continue your singing: “Rise with me, fall with me. Work with me, play with me. Pray with me, sin with me.” At this point, leap up into the air three times, unleashing a burst of laughter each time you hit the ground.

Continue singing: “Let me get high with you. Laugh with you, cry with you. Make me your partner in crime.” At this point blow three kisses toward the creature, then run away. (P.S. The lyrics I’m quoting here were composed by songwriter Fran Landesman.)

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) “There are questions that you don’t ask because you’re afraid of the answers,” wrote Agatha Christie.

I would add that there are also questions you don’t ask because you mistakenly think you already know

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) In getting energy from food, we humans have at our disposal over 50,000 edible plants. And yet we choose to concentrate on just a few. Wheat, corn, rice, and potatoes make up two-thirds of our diet, and 11

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other staples comprise most of the rest. Let’s use this as a metaphor for the kind of behavior you should avoid in the coming weeks. I think it will be crucial for you to draw physical, emotional, and spiritual sustenance from a relatively wide variety of sources.

There’s nothing wrong with your usual providers, but for now you need to expand your approach to getting the nurturing you need.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) “We teach each other how to live.” Poet Anne Michaels said that, and now I’m passing it on to you — just in time for the phase of your cycle when acting like a curious student is your sacred duty and your best gift to yourself. I don’t necessarily mean that you should take a workshop or enroll in a school. Your task is to presume that everyone you meet and every encounter you have may bring you rich learning experiences. If you’re willing to go as far as I hope you will, even your dreams at night will be opportunities to get further educated. Even your vigils in front of the TV. Even your trips to the convenience store to buy ice cream.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) In her poem “Time,” Piscean poet Lia Purpura wonders about “not picking up a penny because it’s only a little luck.” Presumably she is referring to a moment when you’re walking down a street and you spy an almost-but-not-quite-worthless coin lying on the concrete. She theorizes that you may just leave it there. It adds next to nothing to your wealth, right?

Which suggests that it also doesn’t have much value as a symbol of good fortune. But I urge you to reject this line of thought in the coming weeks, Pisces. In my astrological opinion, you’ll be wise to capitalize on the smallest opportunities. There will be plenty of them, and they — add up.

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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