The Proud Issue by Oklahoma Gazette

free every wednesday | Metro OKCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Independent Weekly | june 22, 2016

your guide to

events!

at th LGBTQ ese -friend ly eateri es P.18

pride month

P.24

film

civil rights, community health and resources P.4,6,8

THE

roundup P.29

& inside!

PROUD ISSUE

e. demoss

Pride Week

savor the rainbow

9.25” X 12.25” 4C

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inside

Cover Erin DeMoss Oklahoma City Pride Week runs through Sunday. Oklahoma Gazette’s Proud issue covers the LGBTQ+ community, news, health, special events, OKC Pride Festival and Parade and more! Read more inside.

OKG Proud housing and unemployment protections

OKG Proud Paula Sophia

OKG Proud HIV and AIDS and community health

12 Education Oklahoma Arts Institute 14 Chicken-Fried News 16 OKG Proud Commentary open letter 16 Letters

24 OKG Proud Pride Week events 26 OKG Proud Marina Mangiaracina 27 OKG Proud Megan Mullally

Arts & Culture

news

cover

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.

29 OKG Proud LGBTQ streaming films 31 Active Bricktown Beach 32 Active The Walking Veteran

32 Film Antlers 33 Film Finding Dory 34 Film deadCenter Film Festival photos

17 Feature taproom law

20 Review Tamashii Ramen 21

Briefs

38 OKG Proud Martha Wash

music

18 OKG Proud everyone is welcome

40 Event Dashboard Confessional 40 Pride Guide 43 Feature Darla Z 44 Live Music

22 OKG Proud Gazedibles inclusive bars

FUN

EAT & Drink

36 Calendar

45 Puzzles Sudoku | Crossword 46 Astrology

Gazette Weekly Winner! Aaron Tomasko

To claim your tickets, call 528-6000 or come by our offices by 6/8/16! For information on entering this week’s Gazette Giveaway see pg. 8

classifieds 47

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NEWS

Local steps

Freedom Oklahoma directs its focus on municipalities and nondiscrimination ordinances. By Laura Eastes

In a majority of Oklahoma cities, same-sex couples can legally get married, but they are still at risk of being denied services and could be fired simply for their sexual orientation. Outside Norman, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender couples buying or renting a home could be confronted with several forms of discrimination that married heterosexual couples do not face. In the event the LGBT community was targeted with an act of violence, the state’s hate crime law would not apply. Oklahoma is one of 14 states with a hate crime law that doesn’t cover sexual orientation or gender identity. These are the realities that LGBT Oklahomans deal with every day. Advocates and organizations like Freedom Oklahoma focus on advancing nondiscrimination protections for the LGBT community with an end goal to protect all LGBT people from discrimination in housing, the workplace and public spaces. “When people ask, ‘Why?’ I think what we’ve seen over the last few days is a real indicator of why,” said Troy Stevenson, executive director of Freedom Oklahoma, a statewide political LGBT rights advocacy organization. He spoke to Oklahoma Gazette four days after an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. 4

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Troy Stevenson said Freedom Oklahoma’s efforts involve working with local leaders to propose LGBT employment and public accommodation protections. | Photo Garett Fisbeck / file

the LGBT community. The Human Rights Campaign’s 2015 Municipal Equality Index pointed out Louisville, Kentucky, and Bloomington, Indiana, moved forward with ordinances despite unfriendly LGBT legislation at the state level.

Work ahead

“When you have a minority group who are targeted by hate crimes and violence, it is the duty of the government and elected officials to step up and show respect to that community,” he said. “I don’t think a city can protect everyone, but they can show a level of equality and acceptance through ordinances that can be a support rather than a source of discrimination.” In a state that witnessed an unprecedented number of anti-LGBT bills presented during the last legislative session, is there any hope for the equality movement? While state lawmakers proposed harmful legislation toward the LGBT community, the state’s largest cities have reviewed and enacted protections for LGBT residents. Norman City Council extended its city’s civil rights protections to include sexual identity and sexual orientation in late December. The ordinance enumerates LGBT protections in employment, housing and public accommodations. Five months ago, Oklahoma City Council added protections for LGBT citizens to its housing discrimination ordinance. Tulsa passed a similar measure in 2015. Oklahoma’s largest cities are in line with the rest of the country as the Human Rights Campaign reports a record number of American cities have equal rights policies. Norman, Tulsa and Oklahoma City aren’t alone in their strides toward nondiscrimination laws and relationship-building with

OKC housing protections were the first step for Freedom Oklahoma in efforts to work with city leaders on LGBT issues. Now, Freedom Oklahoma is pushing for an ordinance outlawing discrimination in employment and public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Stevenson argues many people don’t fully understand what types of nondiscrimination protections are or aren’t law. “If an employer said as bluntly as they could, ‘You’re gay and you’re fired,’ regardless of how someone feels about the community, I think they would be outraged,” Stevenson said. “I think the community would be shocked to find out [employment protections] aren’t in place.” Oklahoma is an “employment-at-will” state, which means employers can fire someone for any or no reason. However, federal anti-discrimination laws prohibit termination based on race, color, national origin, mental or physical disability, age, sex, genetic history or military services. Sexual orientation and gender identity are absent from the list. There’s no way to know the exact number of people terminated because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. In Oklahoma, some companies — including ONEOK, Chesapeake Energy Corporation, Devon Energy Corporation and Williams Companies — adopt discriminations prohibitions in their employment policies, ac-

cording to Equality Forum, an LGBT civil rights advocacy group that studies Fortune 500 companies’ employment policies. Without a public accommodation ordinance, LGBT citizens can be refused service at medical offices, hotels, theaters, restaurants, retail stores, public transit and more. Public accommodation provisions are essential, and without such measures, the LGBT community can be excluded from participating in society and commerce, argued Stevenson. Freedom Oklahoma plans to approach other municipalities in the metro and across the state to encourage placement of full human rights ordinances or protections in employment, housing and public accommodations.

Rights conversation

A call for an Oklahoma City human rights commission is part of Freedom Oklahoma’s efforts. Oklahoma City Council abolished its commission in 1996. Reestablishing a commission would allow commissioners to review complaints lodged against violations to the city’s housing discrimination ordinance as well as other civil rights grievances. OKC is one of the largest cities in the nation without a commission, which is frequently noted by Ward 2 Councilman Ed Shadid during council meetings. The idea of reinstating the human rights commission was brief ly mentioned during the June 14 council meeting, just days after the June 12 shooting in Orlando. Shadid proposed the commission operate as a mediator for resolving human rights issues. “It would be a very symbolic act in this particular time to establish a human rights commission,” Shadid said.

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NEWS

Transcending hate

Oklahoma City activist Paula Sophia Schonauer uses logic and compassion to confront intolerance. By Jack Fowler

Perhaps the people accustomed to living outside the constraints of “Normal America” are the ones who can see it most clearly. Maybe the distance clarifies things, like an astronomer peering at a constellation. Maybe it’s self-defense. It seems logical that a lifetime of fending off attacks would narrow the floor of one’s survival instinct down to a single plank that has been landed on for centuries: Know your enemy. In a combative culture, animosity has become a virtue. The political team one roots for is sometimes more important than winning percentages, and it can be embarrassingly easy to be swept up in the emotional torrent of any issue when it becomes Us versus Them. Paula Sophia Schonauer doesn’t work that way. When answering questions about issues that push the hottest of Normal America’s buttons, she’s magnanimous and diplomatic. When asked about a topic that would grind some conversations to a halt, her responses are measured, thoughtful and logical. The 50-year-old Oklahoma City professor and graduate research assistant made history as the city’s first openly transgender police officer, a move that was indisputably and bipartisanly brave. She also is an Operation Desert Storm veteran and a published poet who lost the 2014 race for OKC’s House District 88 by a scant 22 votes.

‘Here we go again’

When she was asked about the grisly, earlymorning nightclub shooting June 12 in Orlando, Florida, in which 49 gay, lesbian, queer, transgender and minority community members were murdered, her answers resonated with a kind of calm authority that sounded a lot like a person making sense. Maybe that’s because she has had a lifetime to think about it. “Obviously, I was shocked when I first heard it, but my second thought was, ‘Here we go again,’” Schonauer said during a recent telephone interview from Washington. “This is happening more and more, and I know that it’s easy for some people to say that this was an ISIS target or call it another radical Islamic attack, but the rhetoric of ISIS against the LGBT community isn’t much different from a lot of people on the Christian right. “We have plenty of American pastors going out and pronouncing that the LGBT community is evil, that it’s within a Christian’s duty to kill gay people. What’s the difference between that and some imam telling other religious radicals to do the same thing?” Schonauer recognizes that there are fringe elements within Christian and Islam religions but does blame an atmosphere of intolerance for breeding the Omar Mateens and Dylann Roofs of the world. “There are people who are true heroes

Paula Sophia Schonauer speaks at a May 24 protest for transgender rights at the Oklahoma State Capitol. | Photo Garett Fisbeck / file

in both religions. I know people of all faiths who offer the world love, acceptance and goodwill whenever they can,” Schonauer explained. “But we do have a history of people in both religions that have gone out and done things like this. I think the rhetoric that’s being thrown around at LGBT people throughout the country has fostered an environment of intolerance that encourages these kinds of actions.” Schonauer cited a June 1 Advocate article, “James Dobson: Be a Man, Shoot a Trans Woman in the Bathroom,” in which the LGBT news magazine called out conservative author James Dobson, who perpetuated transgender myths in a May 30 column on the conservative WorldNetDaily website. Dobson wrote, “If you are a married man with any gumption, surely you will defend your wife’s privacy and security in restroom facilities. … If this had happened 100 years ago, someone might have been shot. Where is today’s manhood?” Schonauer responded with frustration. “When those kinds of outrageous comments get tossed around, people on the fringe start wanting to make a name for themselves,” she said. “They don’t feel as isolated in their ideas, and they start to want to live up to what their leaders are saying, so they go do it.” When asked about the recent transgendered bathroom battle launched by lawmakers across the country, Schonauer again backed up and took a wider view. She sees it as a natural, almost sociological progression from the protracted debate over allowing gay marriage. “The beginning of all of this is the backlash from the marriage equality battle,” Schonauer said. “Marriage equality happened, so now organizations are just looking for another fissure in the culture wars to pry open. Boom; there’s transgender people, so that’s next. You jam a wedge into it and try to pry it open. It’s a great way to keep the culture wars alive and well.” Schonauer also said those same culture wars are an easy way to manipulate voters, a strategy that has obviously paid dividends to Oklahoma legislators. “The transgender debate has created this hysteria that’s really a solution looking for a problem,” she said. “It’s a smokescreen. It’s quite the distraction af ter the Legislature passes a budget that they’re not particularly proud of, when they don’t want people to look at what they’re doing in any detail. So they throw transgendered people — transgendered children, actually — under the bus, which is despicable in my opinion.”

‘Inner truths’

However, the problems facing Oklahoma go beyond social issues, and Schonauer addressed those concerns first when asked about the local political climate. “One of the first things we’ve got to do is diversify our economy,” Schonauer said. “When you’re so dependent on the oil and energy industry that a downturn causes a budget crisis for our state government where essential services are threatened, something is wrong.” Schonauer is also willing to let Democrats 6

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and Republicans share blame for the state of affairs in Oklahoma. “I really feel like both parties need to offer something that people really care about, but mainly, I think the Democratic Party needs to start being a real alternative instead of just trying to be ‘Republican light,’” she said. “There are some natural issues that the party could really rally people around, like living wages, unions, letting people organize the infrastructure that they need.

The transgender debate has created this hysteria that’s really a solution looking for a problem. Paula Sophia Schonauer “But right now, the debates have gotten so ridiculous that voting for an infrastructure budget to repair roads and bridges is called ‘socialism.’ We have to offer people an alternative to that.” Despite the mountain ranges still to cross for the slow-moving wagon train of Oklahoma progressives, Schonauer remains an optimist. She said she’d consider another run for office if she felt the community compelled her to, and she has high hopes for a state whose Republican party currently controls the government. In an interest of fostering those hopes, she said she’d like Oklahomans to know two things about their transgendered neighbors. “For starters, if you have an opportunity to hire a transgendered person and have them work for you, you’re very likely to have an extremely dedicated employee,” she said. “It’s really hard to find a job as a transgendered person, so we when do find one, we’re very grateful. We want to make sure we do well enough to secure our positions.” Her second answer should resonate with Normal America due to its kindness and logic. “The other thing I’d like people to remember is that when people start expressing their inner truths, that’s after a long battle of trying to conform,” Schonauer said. “It’s not an overnight decision. It’s not like a person wakes up today and says, ‘I’m gonna be a woman today and go into a restroom and threaten your daughter.’” She stressed that nobody’s threatening anyone. “I think the climate will change and the scariness will be overcome,” she said. “I think most Oklahomans are fair-minded people and they care about a person’s character first, and that’s why, eventually, transgendered people will continue to gain acceptance in Oklahoma. I don’t know; maybe I’m being Pollyanna. But my name is Paula.”

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NEWS

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Nohora Chandler administers an HIV test in her office at the Latino Community Development Agency. | Photo Laura Eastes

Troubling truth The increased number of youth and minorities contracting HIV challenges communities across Oklahoma and the nation. By Laura Eastes

Condom kits passed out during OKC Pride Week come with a strong message: Start Talking. Stop HIV. It’s a message Expressions Community Center decided to promote when it began offering free testing in its offices inside a tiny corner of Expressions Church, located on The Strip, Oklahoma City’s gay social district. The kit includes a condom, a lube packet and printed instructions on how to use a condom. They are wrapped with a health message, one that discloses the troublesome reality of America’s HIV epidemic. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in 4 new HIV infections occur in youth ages 13 to 24 years. “For people who grew up in the 1980s, HIV/AIDS was a death sentence,” said Jenny Archer, Expressions Community Center executive director. “Now, that’s not the case. That’s good news, but we have a generation growing up thinking HIV/AIDS is like a common cold. If they get it, they can just take a pill. Or they think, ‘It can’t happen to me.’” A laissez-faire attitude toward HIV infection poses a serious problem for the community as the disease and AIDS continue to destroy or damage the lives of millions of people worldwide. National HIV trends mirror those on the state level. According to the Oklahoma State Department of Health, 311 new cases 8

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of HIV were diagnosed in 2014, with more than 60 percent of the cases affecting the 20-39 age group. African-Americans had the highest rate of newly diagnosed HIV cases in 2014. “For younger people, the message is lost,” said Cher Golding, Oklahoma AIDS Care Fund executive director. “They see that they can take medication and be ‘fine.’” At the Latino Community Development Agency (LCDA), Nohora Chandler interacts with individuals in their 20s who know nothing about the virus or how to reduce their risk of contracting it. “It is different when you have the knowledge,” said Chandler, LCDA’s HIV program coordinator. “The last two individuals who tested positive were between the ages of 20 and 22. They didn’t know about AIDS. That’s what is different from older generations. Older people know about AIDS from the 1980s. Youth might know that HIV can affect them, but they never saw it take a friend, a partner or someone close to them.” The AIDS health crisis of the 1980s pushed the diseases forward on two fronts. One was medical research, which led to medical and prevention advances. Today, people with HIV have treatment options that can help patients live longer and healthier lives. The crisis also largely affected America’s perception of the disease, which helped spread the idea of safe sex and protecting

against AIDS. From 1987 to 1991, The America Responds to AIDS campaign, created by the CDC, pushed the public message that everyone is at risk. National ads asked, “Heard much about AIDS lately?” or “AIDS is scary, but a zit is real, right?” As the disease has evolved, and with staggering recent statistics involving youth and minority communities, the need for organizations providing services for HIVpositive and at-risk individuals is substantial. Oklahoma County, which had the state’s highest number of newly diagnosed HIV cases in 2014, is home to a variety of HIV and AIDS service providers.

Working together

Expressions Church visitors walk by a mural of blooming flowers with scissortailed f lycatchers hovering above. Archer, who began serving as the center’s executive director two years ago, explained the blossoms represent the center’s clients and the white, gentle birds represent the agencies helping those who seek services.

Many organizations in Oklahoma City use a 20-minute finger-prick test to determine a client’s HIV status. | Photo Laura Eastes

A local artist painted the mural on the exact location where free and confidential HIV testing began years ago after the church teamed up with Red Rock Behavioral Health Services. Since that initial partnership, the church has transformed into a community center providing outreach efforts to the LGBT community. “Expressions Community Center provides an overall umbrella for agencies to do what they do best,” Archer said. “We work together. We provide the space; they provide the services.” With the motto “Together We Can Make a Difference,” the center houses offices for agencies like LCDA, Red Rock and Guiding Right to provide free HIV testing and services. Other agencies, such as the state Department of Human Services, are located down the hall and connect individuals with services like housing, employment and medical assistance. Collaboration benefits those who visit the center, Archer explained. Before the expansion, if a person tested positive for HIV, they were handed a phone number or a phone call was made on their behalf for the next point of help. “Now, we walk them down the hall, where they can get help from a myriad of programs,” Archer said. Each month, around 500 people visit the location for services from the various agencies. Many are from Oklahoma City, but some come from outside the area. Social stigma remains a barrier to testing, Archer said. Some visitors could be tested at their physician’s office or at an HIV service provider in their community, but there remains a fear of being seen by an acquaintance. “They are too afraid someone they know will see them,” Archer said. “There is a stigma around anything dealing with sex.”

Education focus

The HIV test produces results in about 20 minutes. During those 20 minutes at LCDA, Chandler counsels the individual on risky sexual behaviors, using condoms and limiting the number of sexual partners. Sometimes, the conversation includes topics such as substance abuse, domestic partner violence and mental health. “It’s hard to talk about in 20 minutes when no one has talked to them before about this,” Chandler said. A negative test result comes with a cautionary message from Chandler. “I always tell them, ‘You are negative today, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be negative tomorrow,’” she said. If the results are positive, treatment starts immediately as Chandler and other LCDA staff begin referrals for medial care, case management and social services. “Our goal is to keep someone who is positive in care because then they are less likely to affect others,” she said. LCDA staff administer 600 to 700 tests a year at its SW 10th Street location and at mobile sites around the metro, including rehab clinics and churches. The nonprofit organization serves the city’s Hispanic continued on page 11

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NEWS Jenny Archer packs condom kits to be distributed during OKC Pride Week. | Photo Laura Eastes

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community and promotes HIV prevention services. Nationally, more than 1.1 million people (including 220,000 Latinos/ Hispanics) are living with HIV, according to a 2014 Kaiser Family Foundation report. CDC research suggests half of gay black men and a quarter of gay Latino/ Hispanic men are projected to be diagnosed with HIV during their lifetime. For Hispanics living in Oklahoma City, Chandler said there is an array of factors behind the alarming rates, including lack of awareness and education as well as the heavy stigma attached to HIV and AIDS. Some clients share a dislike of condoms. LCDA offers a sexuality workshop for parents. It’s designed to get them comfortable with talking about sexual health issues, including sexually transmitted diseases, with their children. “We teach them everything because their children are at risk if they don’t talk,” Chandler said. “That’s the problem. No one

is talking about prevention within the family.”

Community barriers

For nearly 25 years, the community’s financial support through OACF’s annual Red Tie Night has propelled the work of many HIV and AIDS organizations, said Golding and Michi Medley, OACF development and marketing coordinator. Millions of dollars have been raised by OACF, whose board later grants the funds to Oklahoma nonprofits like LCDA, Expressions and others. As OACF moves into the next 25 years, the nonprofit sees its role including advocacy, especially as new treatments help those with HIV and AIDS stay healthier and new infections continue to rise. “We have a place in the community where our voices could be heard,” Medley said. “We can let our legislators know the disease has changed and it remains an issue. “When you are talking about HIV and AIDS, there is an immediate wall, not with everyone but some people. We have to break down barriers.”

HIV testing in Oklahoma City Expressions Community Center

Oklahoma City-County Health Department

Walk-in testing 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 8

Monday-Friday

a.m.-noon Friday; call a location at 8

2245 NW 39th St.

a.m. to schedule an appointment that

eccokc.org

day. Visit occhd.org for information.

405-528-2210

OCCHD South

Latino Community Development Agency Walk-in testing 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday 420 SW 10th St. lcdaok.com 405-236-0801, ext. 123

Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma Oklahoma City Main Health Center 619 NW 23rd St. Edmond Health Center 3431 S. Boulevard, Suite 108, Edmond ppcok.org

2149 SW 59th St., Suite 104 405-419-4119 OCCHD West 4330 NW 10th St. 405-419-4150 OCCHD Gary Cox Partner Building 2700 NE 63rd St. 405-419-4200

RAIN OKC Office Testing 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday by appointment 5001 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Suite 100 rainoklahoma.org/hiv 405-232-2437

405-528-2157

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NEWS

e d u c at i o n

Brooke Kephart, a recent graduate of Canton High School works on an assignment at Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain. | Photo Laura Eastes

Artist discovery Oklahoma Arts Institute enters its 40th year providing notable learning experiences to youth. By Laura Eastes

Preceding the evening’s performance of Czech composer Bedřich Smetana’s “The Moldau,” a symphonic poem from Má vlast, conductor Timothy Long asked the musicians who had not played in an orchestra before to stand. Connor McCain was one of a handful of youth musicians who stood. In August, McCain begins his senior year at Moore Public Schools’ Westmoore High School. The bass trombone player is one of 100 Oklahoma high school students selected to train and perform in Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute’s (OSAI) orchestra this year. McCain learned about auditions for the institute, an intensive, two-week residential June academy for earnest and dedicated high school artists, through a f lier at a regional band competition. Youth ages 14 to 18 train under renowned artists from across the United States. Eager to improve his abilities and pursue music professionally, McCain auditioned. Since he arrived June 11, McCain’s music stand held music he never imagined playing as a high school player. His sheet music included three excerpts he was familiar with from a low brass section album by Chicago Symphony Orchestra. “It’s their job to make you better,” McCain said of OSAI faculty, including Long. More than 30 years ago, Long attended OSAI as a youth from Holdenville, a Hughes County town of about 5,000 people. Now, he resides in Brooklyn, New York, and has worked as a musician at The Juilliard School, New York City Opera and Boston Lyric Opera. “At school, for example, it is a teacher’s job to run a classroom and get you to pass the class. It’s less personal,” McCain said. “Here, when we finish up rehearsal, a bunch of us crowd around [Long]. He will sit and talk to us as we ask questions. One of the 12

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things he told us, which I think about a lot, living in Oklahoma, we sometimes underestimate ourselves. [Long] told us that really we are as talented as everyone else.” Like McCain, Long’s first time playing in an orchestra was in 1983 as a violin player at OSAI. An audience of 800 people inside Robert M. Kerr Performing Arts Center on June 18 heard Long relate his own OSAI experience. He arrived at Lone Wolf ’s Quartz Mountain Resort for OSAI knowing one other teen who enjoyed classical music. After the first day, he knew he had found a home at Oklahoma’s School of the Arts.

Alumni perspective

Benjamin Myers, poet Laureate of Oklahoma and Oklahoma Baptist University professor, attended OSAI two decades ago for creative writing. The poet credits the program, now in its 40th year, for instilling in him an appreciation of fine arts and a providing a launching pad for his career. “Being an artistically inclined kid from small-town Oklahoma, the best part of OSAI was being around other artistically inclined students,” said Myers, who was raised in Chandler. “I grew up in a world dedicated to high school football and little else. It was a new world for me to discover there were many other young people in Oklahoma interested in writing and other arts.”

OSAI inception

During his third year as governor, David Boren, now University of Oklahoma president, listened as arts leaders advocated for an Oklahoma School for the Arts, a program designed to educate and enhance the skills of the state’s artistically gifted youth. Boren endorsed the idea, and with a few days remaining in June — the end of the state’s fiscal year — he transferred about

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Oklahoma Gazette

Guthrie’s Zoe Ewbank and Norman’s Asha Chidambaram paint a scene from memory at Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain. | Photo Laura Eastes

$5,000 of unused funds from the disaster fund to the newly established Oklahoma Arts Institute, to be led by Mary Frates. In June 1977, 100 Oklahoma students arrived at a church camp near Tahlequah for the first summer institute, a three-day pilot program that provided intense training in five disciplines: poetry, printmaking, ballet, chorus and orchestra. Full-length mirrors were placed along cabin walls to create a ballet studio. The dining hall’s screened-in-porch became a printmaking workshop. Poetry reading and writing sessions took place under a large tree. Faculty included prima ballerina Maria Tallchief, former U.S Poet Laureate Donald Hall and conductor Judith Somogi. “We were excited about that first pilot program because it proved that we had fabulously talented young people in Oklahoma and there were artists who were willing to come to Oklahoma,” Frates said during the June 18 Oklahoma Arts Institute 40th anniversary dinner. Boren and Joy Hofmeister, state superintendent of public instruction, joined her as the event’s speakers. The talented youth and the interest of prominent artists propelled the institute onto a prosperous path. In year two, it relocated to Quartz Mountain Resort, situated on Lake Altus in western Oklahoma. Over time, the program increased student and faculty participation as well as length of stay and support. Today, Oklahoma Arts Institute is funded through a unique public/private partnership. Funding comes from Oklahoma Arts Council, Oklahoma State Department of Education and Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department as well as private donations. Each year in June, the institute hosts OSAI and welcomes around 270 students. Students study acting, ballet, chorus, creative writing, drawing and painting, film and video, modern dance, orchestra and photography. On October weekends, the organization accepts adults for Oklahoma Fall Arts Institute, a workshop retreat. For Oklahoma Arts Institute visionaries, much of what happens at Quartz Mountain was the intent when the camp launched four decades ago. Students appreciate the the diverse talent that sur-

rounds them in a natural setting. “I think one of the unique features about this experience is you don’t just come to study music, dance or photography,” Boren said. “Yes, you come to specialize in the field you are most drawn to, but you are with others from other arts disciplines. You realize there are so many creative ways in which to express the same constant and to do it with the same spirit of creativity.”

Challenges

The Oklahoma Legislature faced steep challenges when crafting the 2016-17 fiscal year budget. Oklahoma Arts Council was handed a 16.3 percent cut. The state’s tourism agency appropriations were reduced by 11.65 percent. In mid June, the Oklahoma State Board of Education approved $38.3 million in mandated cuts to the public school activities fund. Oklahoma Arts Institute was one of 13 line items to be reduced. Beginning July 1, the organization will receive $100,000 in funding compared to $349,573 appropriated the year before. For years, the institute has relied on support from private donors. Specifically, Oklahoma Arts Institute Foundation manages $6 million in endowment funds supporting the program’s future.

Confidence builder

With free time between dinner and practice before the June 18 performance, Connor and fellow students gathered at a wooden table outside the lodge. The institute offers what is absent at Connor, Taylor Dawkins and Tristan Van Allen’s schools. For one, students surround them with a shared passion for their fine arts discipline. Evening performances allow students to see the work of their peers. The trio explained that the faculty treats the high schoolers as colleagues. Student and faculty interactions closely resemble mentor relationships rather than teacherstudent relationships. Additionally, the faculty encourages youths’ passions. “The faculty talk about their past and how they were just like us,” said Dawkins, a senior at Putnam City North High School and a double bass player. “If they are that successful, I can be that successful too.” O kg a z e t t e . c o m | j u n e 2 2 , 2 0 1 6

chicken

friedNEWS

Discredit cards

News that state highway patrol officers are now equipped with devices allowing them to glean some information from bank and credit cards and seize funds from prepaid cards was met with widespread criticism. Several major media outlets reported on the purchase of the card readers by the Department of Public Safety (DPS), some suggesting officers could use the devices to seize money from personal accounts. According to Oklahoma Watch, department officials said in a June 13 news conference that some information being spread about the readers was inaccurate. Oklahoma Highway Patrol Chief Ricky Adams said the readers are only capable of freezing or removing funds from prepaid gift and credit cards, not personal bank accounts. Officers do not need a warrant to make a seizure, just probable cause that the funds are tied to criminal activity. Oklahoma Watch said the device vendor gets a 7.7 percent cut of seizures made. Use of the readers was temporarily suspended until DPS Commissioner Michael Thompson has the opportunity to learn more about the technology. The commissioner has said the department will likely continue to use the device in the future. Asset forfeiture is by no means a new concept. Police forces in the state and around the country have long been seizing drugs and cash believed to be tied to criminal activity. A bill by Sen. David Holt, R-Oklahoma City, allowing those who have had their funds unjustly seized to recover attorney fees from the state, was signed into law in April.

X-ray-ted pup

It looks like a mini dinosaur, maybe a Velociraptor, being scanned with high-tech radar from the safe confines of a concrete box. No! It definitely looks like the dog monster from Ghostbusters. Well, to everyone’s surprise, it’s neither, and the Oklahoma County sheriff wants to make something clear to courthouse visitors. “*DO NOT PUT YOUR ANIMALS THROUGH THE X-RAY MACHINE AT THE OKLAHOMA COUNTY COURTHOUSE*,” reads the caption accompanying the photo on sheriff’s office Facebook page. KOCO.com recently reported that deputies didn’t notice the tiny pet dog going through the machine until it was too late. Fluffy (name changed to protect the innocent) probably feared for his life as his carrier was hoisted onto the conveyor belt for a ride along with cell phones, purses and car keys. Thankfully, KOCO.com reported the x-ray machine emits radiation too low to cause any harm to cats or dogs. Again, *DO NOT PUT YOUR ANIMALS THROUGH THE X-RAY MACHINE AT THE OKLAHOMA COUNTY COURTHOUSE.* The post explained that animals are often allowed in the courthouse because they might be involved in cases or serve

as therapy dogs. Law enforcement asked that people please tell deputies about pets instead of putting them through the x-ray machine. Follow the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page for more commonsense tips like don’t drink and drive, don’t run over a police officer’s foot and don’t stop at the nearby convenience store after escaping jail.

Block-worthy posts

Social media has proven itself to be a useful platform in staying connected, posting content and sharing opinions. But it’s probably safe to say that 28-year-old Brian Carey might have abused that online freedom. Carey was arrested June 8 after allegedly making bomb threats to a pair of

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Oklahoma City malls, KFOR.com reported. He made the posts on the social media site MeetMe, which claims to help users “find new people nearby who share your interests and want to chat.” Part of Carey’s post read “Judgement [sic] day will come this week at the Penn Square Mall and the Outlet Mall.” And you thought your relatives from Wyoming were annoying on social media. Carey was arrested when a police gang squad unit found him at his home later that day and determined the threat was a hoax, according to KOCO.com. Carey was later booked into Oklahoma County Jail on a charge of making a terrorism hoax through social media.

Panty nabber

At Chicken-Fried News, we wonder if Howard Payton told police not to get their panties in a wad when he was confronted by law enforcement in early June. After all, isn’t that the response of fraternity guys who get caught during a panty raid in a women’s dorm? Well, according to KOCO.com, Payton’s raid turned out to be anything but a college prank. Oklahoma City University police approached 37-year-old Payton after watching video footage of a man stealing clothing items from a dorm laundry room. Those items turned out to be ladies’ un-

dergarments. When asked why he stole the undies, Payton told police they were for his girlfriend and he was doing “something stupid.” Police said Payton visited the laundry room twice in two days. During the second visit, he stuffed panties found in the dryer down his pants. The TV station reported Payton was arrested on two counts of petty larceny.

Soccer stunner

Rayo Oklahoma City’s first season has ended, and many wonder if the soccer franchise’s end is near, as well. The team’s majority owner, Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, was recently demoted from Spain’s top division, likely causing conf lict in the owners’ budget. According to NewsOK.com, earlier this month, Rayo Vallecano chairman Raul Martin Presa said owners weren’t looking to separate themselves from the Oklahoma City club, in which millions of dollars are invested. However, Vallecano was looking into what to do with the club and was considering selling its share to avoid profit losses. Rayo OKC minority leader Sean Jones

doesn’t seem to remember that. NewsOK.com reported that in a recent meeting with Rayo bigwigs, Jones said they discussed the idea of restructuring the brand and bringing in additional investors to split ownership percentages and help Rayo Vallecano own less. Rayo OKC managing partner Brad Lund told News9. com that the Spanish soccer club was open to selling part, but not all, of its shares to someone. According to Lund, Vallecano currently owns 65 percent of Rayo OKC. Lund did add that if Rayo OKC was to look for more investors, they would be from the Oklahoma City area. Regardless of what happens within the ownership portions of the club, Rayo OKC will resume play through the fall season, NewsOK.com reported. The team has a three-year commitment with the North American Soccer League and plans to fulfill it.

Healthy hoops

This might not be the incentive Kevin Durant is looking for.

After a deep run into this year’s NBA playoffs and falling to the Golden State Warriors, a team many have described as the best basketball team of all time, the Thunder (and fans across the state) are worrying that superstar Durant might pick up sticks and relocate to a larger city for a juicy contract. But rather than try to sweet talk #35 into signing up for another tour of duty with the orange and blue, Tulsa World reported that Gov. Mary Fallin, during a speech to the Oklahoma Press Association’s annual convention, said, “But if he’ll stay, I’ll make him a Cabinet person for health and fitness on my Cabinet.” Technically, Cabinet positions have to be approved by the Senate, but can you imagine anybody voting against KD? It’s surprising state leaders haven’t opened a Blue Ribbon Panel to investigate why Durant is so awesome just so they can compel him to appear at the Capitol and shake his hand. It would be pretty easy work for the state’s MVP, though. According to AmericasHealthRankings.org , Oklahoma is an abysmal 45th in the nation for overall health. Even a small improvement will make a huge difference. Because it doesn’t matter how out of shape you are; if Kevin Durant shows up with a ball and asks you to shoot a few hoops, you’ll do it.

O kg a z e t t e . c o m | j u n e 2 2 , 2 0 1 6

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NEWS

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

An open letter condemning LGBT violence and hate

Editor’s note: In the wake of last week’s tragic mass shooting at a gay bar in Orlando, Florida, the publishers and editors of Oklahoma Gazette, NonDoc.com, The Frontier, The Gayly and The Tulsa Voice worked together to craft an editorial that expresses our values in support of LGBTQ communities and in opposition to hate, whatever the form.

letters

Nobody should live in fear. Nobody should have to experience the horrific violence that unfolded in the early hours of June 12 inside Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It should not have happened. It should never happen. Yet here we are. No human deserves to die in a bloodbath of hate and terror and helplessness just to be blamed for it because of their sexual identity. No first responder deserves to step over corpses while hearing cell phones ceaselessly ring as family and friends desperately try to reach their loved ones. No police chief should ever have to stand in front of victims’ families and tell them what happened was the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history and the deadliest LGBTQ-targeted attack in our nation’s history. During Pride Month events — and any other day of

While the assault is a hate crime and a domestic terror attack, blaming an entire religion for any hate-fueled aggression is wrong. It also is dangerous and hypocritical.

the year — too many people say, “Gays shouldn’t f launt their sexuality,” or they should “keep it behind closed doors.” That early Sunday morning in Orlando, they were behind closed doors. And they were slaughtered. While the assault is a hate crime and a domestic terror attack, blaming an entire religion for any hate-fueled aggression is wrong. It also is dangerous and hypocritical. Hate is never OK. Oklahoma’s hate crime laws have no protections for gender identity or sexual orientation, despite both being included in the federal hate crime definition. Last month, Jose Vega said he was verbally and physically assaulted at a midtown Tulsa store. A man yelled racist and homophobic slurs at Vega even as he exited the store and walked to his car “because he was wearing a gay pride T-shirt,” according to KTUL.com. He was spit on and punched. “The entire time he came toward me he had his hand in his front area under his shirt and in his pants. So automatically I thought, ‘He has a gun,’” Vega said.

Peaceful revolution

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Love is love, Oklahoma Gazette, NonDoc, The Frontier, The Gayly, The Tulsa Voice

Recently, Starr was caught up in the Baylor University football team sex scandal. For two years, several Baylor football players were accused of sexually abusing more than a few women. Former university president Starr and former head football coach Art Briles allegedly covered up the scandal in order to protect Baylor’s highly successful football program. Starr was demoted and Briles was fired. How’s that for irony? Frank Silovsky Oklahoma City

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.

As a longtime Ted Cruz supporter, I’ve watched with growing frustration and fascination as our presidential race has twisted down an increasingly uncharted, shrill and visceral path. That said, I genuinely believe we’re in the middle of American families’ final attempt at a peaceful revolution against today’s political elites (both Republicans and Democrats). Af ter three election cycles (2010, 2012 and 2014) of complete betrayal by Republican politicians against the desperate voters who elected them, I now realize that my family and neighbors essentially view today’s presidential race in the following way: • Washington, D.C: Home of the “political mafia” that continues to loot, intimidate and silence American families with increasing boldness. • Hillary Clinton: The next political

In 2013, Jim Roth, one of the state’s first openly gay politicians, was physically assaulted by three men outside of an Oklahoma City bar after being publicly degraded with anti-gay insults. In 2012, an Oklahoma City man watched his car explode after it was vandalized during a nighttime attack. His shirt melted to his body and he was treated for first- and second-degree burns, reported News9.com. The word “fag” was spray-painted on the trunk of his car. No human should inf lict homophobic or transphobic hate — not slurs, not discrimination, not intimidation, not antiLGBT legislation, not assault, not battery and not murder. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, intersex, transgender and queer people are endowed with certain unalienable rights, that among those are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Just like everyone else.

Town pride

Godfather in waiting. • Donald Trump: A brash street thug with lots of money who promises to loot, intimidate and silence the “political mafia” on their own turf. While I don’t fully trust any of the candidates, for the sake of our families and our country, I sincerely hope our final attempt at a peaceful revolution actually works. Mark Heaton Oklahoma City

Karmagate

For about five years during President Bill Clinton’s eight years in office, then Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr

pursued damning evidence of alleged felonies committed by either President Clinton and/or his wife, Hillary. Armed with 100 attorneys and $100 million, Starr probed “Whitewater,” the “mysterious suicide” of Clinton aide Vince Foster, “Travelgate” and the suspicious activities of the Arkansas Rose Law Firm (former employer of Hillary Clinton.) Starr found absolutely no evidence of Clinton malfeasance in any of these probes. Until Linda Tripp “tripped” into Starr’s office with a stained dress belonging to Monica Lewinsky, Starr had no damning evidence beyond this so-called “sex scandal.”

Forty years ago, my wife and I lived on NW 16th Street near N. Pennsylvania Avenue. It warms my heart to see the district today. Cassie Stover, who did the mural of Will Rogers located in the Plaza District (Visual Arts, “In the paint,” Erick Perry, June 8, Oklahoma Gazette), is originally from Claremore. Bob Henry Oklahoma City

Correction

• Oklahoma Gazette’s June 8 Eat & Drink section story “Nocturnal market” by Greg Elwell contained an error. OKC Night Bazaar organizer Brian Gi is Taiwanese, not Thai.

EAT & DRINK

f eat u re

Ben Childers fills a growler at Anthem Brewing Company in Oklahoma City. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Tap dancing

Brewers across the state celebrate a new law that brings high-point beer sales to local taprooms. By Greg Elwell

August 25 is V-B Day — Victory for Brewers. While Senate Joint Resolution 68, which puts alcohol modernization to a vote of the people as State Question 792 this November, received attention this spring, another piece of legislation making a more immediate impact has been signed into law. When it goes into effect Aug. 25, Senate Bill 424, signed into law by Gov. Mary Fallin last week, gives Oklahoma’s craft beer makers the ability to sell fullstrength beer at breweries. Previously, they could only sell 3.2 beer. “It was a bill introduced in the 2015 session, and it was revived this year,” said Anthem Brewing Company brewmaster Patrick Lively. “It provides some more immediacy to the taproom issue.” The new law doesn’t entirely cut out the middleman, but it puts breweries on a level playing field with Oklahoma wineries and allows them to sell directly to consumers. Now, in addition to selling 3.2 beer, Anthem, 908 SW Fourth St., and other

state brewers can sell bottles, cans and growlers of full-strength beers directly to customers. “This means we can sell a larger portion of our portfolio,” Lively said. “We’re going to be able to sell more of our products.”

for beer production, with the taproom opening around Labor Day. The new law moves the taproom necessity to the fore, and Sanchez hopes to be pulling beers for customers by Aug. 25. If that sounds like complaining, it’s not. It might mean added work in the short term, but he’s thrilled by the change. “It’s a win-win-win for the state, for consumers and the breweries,” he said.

“As a drinker, you can’t get any closer to the beer than this. That’s what craft beer is all about.” A taproom is a playground for creativity and fun, Sanchez said. “Before, you could provide samples of strong beer, but now I can do a barrel or two-barrel test batch of something and we’ll be able to sell it,” he said. “That’s the real barometer of how well it will do.” Taproom sales of esoteric beers could turn a one-time experiment into a seasonal brew or even a staple beer. “Especially with our cask-conditioned ales,” he said. “We can make tiny tweaks here and there and make fruit- or herbinfused stuff. It allows us to do so many fun things and keep things really local.” Lively, who also is vice president of the Craft Brewers Association of Oklahoma (CBAO), said it is an exciting time for Anthem and for beer brewers and drinkers across the state. He looks forward to switching taps over to strong, cold beer. He said the new law won’t be the end of 3.2 beer for Anthem. Festivals and other public sales still require 3.2 or lower beer. Upper 90, brewed specially for OKC Energy FC fans, must retain its lowerpoint status for sale at games. When Aug. 25 hits, though, taproom transitions will happen quickly, Lively said. If the public votes to approve State Question 792 in November, Senate Joint Resolution 68 and Senate Bill 383 could be implemented in two years. That longer timeframe might be necessary for liquor or grocery stores to prepare for higher-point sales. “The ability for us to sell strong beer doesn’t take as much time,” he said. CBAO recently formed and Lively said it already accomplished some of the brewers’ priorities. That good feeling deserves a drink. Getting a strong, cold one in a taproom, though, means waiting just a couple months more.

Brewing tanks line Twisted Spike Brewing Co. walls in Oklahoma City. | Photo Greg Elwell

Spurring innovation

Though Anthem has seen a lot of success with beer sold through distributors to restaurants and liquor stores, he said, the ability of breweries to sell to consumers in-house motivates his business to innovate. “We’re going to be able to do more small-batch, one-off stuff,” Lively said. The change is welcome, said Twisted Spike Brewing Co. owner Bruce Sanchez, but it does complicate plans for his new brewery and taproom at 1 NW 10th St. “This changes things significantly,” he said. “It accelerates our plan to have the taproom available.” Af ter beginning construction in October, Twisted Spike eyed a July start O kg a z e t t e . c o m | j u n e 2 2 , 2 0 1 6

EAT & DRINK

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Irma’s Burger Shack owner Linda Lee works hard to help make staff feel at home. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

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Safe havens

Restaurants and bars have long encouraged staff to be themselves while serving others. By Greg Elwell

“If you’re a lawyer, you’re going to have to wear a suit and tie,” said Linda Lee, owner of Irma’s Burger Shack. “That’s not as true for waiting tables.” At 53, Lee has been out and proud of her sexuality more than half her life. She has also worked in restaurants more than half her life. Those two facts aren’t unrelated. “I came out when I was about 25 or so, but I had a girlfriend when I was in high school,” she said. Before she was comfortable putting a name to it, she moved to Oklahoma City from Woodward and began work at Rita’s Del Rio. “There were other lesbians and gay people there,” she said. “I didn’t have to hide anymore. I didn’t have to watch my

pronouns anymore.” Restaurants and bars, she said, were filled with people who accepted and even celebrated their lifestyles. “I think restaurants have been labeled as places where you don’t have to conform,” Lee said. The same is true at bars — for both employees and patrons — said HiLo Club bar manager Topher Sauceda. “We call ourselves a ‘stray bar,’” he said. “It’s a place where everyone is welcome.” Employees who find their way to the historic HiLo, 1221 NW 50th St., aren’t necessarily looking to discover themselves, but to find a place where they’re comfortable being themselves. “There are no judgments here,”

We call ourselves a ‘stray bar.’ It’s a place where everyone is welcome. Topher Sauceda

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Sauceda said. “Perhaps it is a stepping stone for people who are new to the idea, a place to see what it’s like to be accepted as who they are.”

Judgment-free

That’s a concept Lee experienced f irsthand at Rita’s and later at The Metro Wine Bar & Bistro, 6418 N. Western Ave., where she waited tables for 10 years. People might speculate about the sexuality of young employees, but everyone worked to create a good environment. “So when they do come out or whatever they want to do, they can do it,” she said. “Whatever your preferences are is way low on the totem pole in the restaurant.” When Chris Lower and Kurt Fleischfresser asked her to run Irma’s, 1035 NW 63rd St. and 1120 Classen Drive, she knew it was about the trust she built with them as an excellent employee and nothing else. “I’ve had to learn and grow in my time,” Lee said. “Things that wouldn’t f ly at The Metro could be loosened up a bit at Irma’s. You can have a piercing in your nose, your eyebrow and your lip, but you can’t have a chain running through them.” As someone who was helped so much in her journey by restaurants, she said she feels obligated to give the same assistance to people looking for work. “It’s my duty to do my best. If a gay person comes in, I try to hire them,” she said. “We have to have a good environment.” That’s what makes Lee proud. It’s about

living as who you are and being a responsible member of a team and of society. “I need you to be a really good waitress who’s a lesbian, not a lesbian who happens to wait tables,” she said. “In a culture where younger gays and lesbians feel a bit of entitlement, I want them to show up for work and show me what they’re proud of.” Lee said her mother, who was always accepting of her sexuality, would proudly introduce her as her lesbian daughter. And though she knew her mom was showing that she wasn’t ashamed, she corrected her. “I am a restaurant owner. I work my ass off,” she said. “The other thing is way low on the totem pole.” Sauceda said HiLo staff and clientele are diverse in their own ways, so sexuality doesn’t really matter. “Whether you’re a punk rocker kid or a homo kid or a straight kid who just wants to have a good time and love and be loved, this is the place for them,” he said. If everyone is a differently shaped puzzle piece, the HiLo is the puzzle where everyone fits. And with rooms both big and small, Sauceda said, it is a place where you can be seen if you want to or blend in if you don’t. That’s the great thing about the service industry, Lee said. People work odd hours, they come and go, there’s autonomy and a sense of camaraderie. It’s a good industry in which to connect with others like themselves. “We’re open arms here,” Lee said. O kg a z e t t e . c o m | j u n e 2 2 , 2 0 1 6

re v ie w

EAT & DRINK

Top ramen

Tonkotsu ramen | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Expertly cooked entrees puts Tamashii Ramen at the top of your must-try list. By Greg Elwell

There are two kinds of people in this world, and they both love soup. Divide the population of our planet any way you like — dog and cat people, men and women, rich and poor, toilet paper roll facing out or facing the wall — the one thing we agree on is that soup is delicious. Oklahoma City has long been pho crazy, but the past few years brought another much-loved soup from the Far East to our hungry metropolis: ramen.

bowl is also braised pork belly, marinated bamboo, green onion, a soft-boiled egg and a beautiful al dente noodle that adds a satisfying heft to the dish. Pork belly (aka chasu) is the meat of my dreams held together by little more than a sear on the griddle and the will to melt in your mouth. I foolishly avoided the miso butter corn ramen ($9.75) until recently because I don’t especially love corn f loating in soup. Well, I was wrong. The miso f lavor sets this apart from the tonkotTamashii Ramen su, but it’s just as delightful and inviting as its menu mate. 321 NW 8th St. Another version of ramen is facebook.com/tamashiiramen | 405-517-0707 dipping noodles, or tsukemen What works: Tonkotsu and miso corn ($12.75). These are thicker butter ramens are tremendous. noodles and all the fixings What needs work: Waiting for a table can served on the side with a broth be frustrating. so potent you just swish your noodles or pork belly in it Tip: If you’re looking for yakitori, you’ll have to go at night. before each bite. You can try to drink the broth, but be warned that the mix of pork and fish base will punch you Now comes the part I’ve been dreading because I hate this explanation, yet it must in the mouth with an almost overwhelmbe done. Restaurant ramen is so different ingly powerful salty flavor. from the 25-cent blocks of dried noodles “So I should order the ramen at a place and “f lavor packets” you get at the grocery with ‘ramen’ in the name? Great advice, store that it’s like comparing a Kentucky Greg. What’s next? Any recommendations Derby winner with a My Little Pony. You on breathing air?” can call both of them horses, but it doesn’t I know it’s not hard to guess that make them the same. Tamashii makes an excellent ramen, but So when you visit Tamashii Ramen, 321 it also has some dishes so enticing that I NW Eighth St., do not think for a second have ordered them in lieu of the ramen. Chasudon ($4.50 for a small, $8.50 for that your meal will in any way resemble a large) tastes like the karmic payback for Top Ramen. A bowl of tonkotsu ramen ($9.50) will being a saint in a former life. It’s a big bowl change your life for the better. Making the of rice covered in braised pork, special broth is a long-term process for Tamashii. sauce and truffle mayonnaise. Intensely flavorful and possessed of a It’s so delightful, I want to sing John creamy, luscious texture, the soup is a masMayer’s “Your Body Is a Wonderland” to terpiece. I have yet to see anyone take a it. The rice is a lovely base for achingly first sip of the tonkotsu without his eyes tender chunks of pork, and it soaks up the rolling back in his head. sauces to create a creamy, chewy, sweet And that’s just the broth. Inside the and salty umami hurricane in your mouth. Truly, that is enough to make Tamashii a destination for anyone. But then there’s a dish so unexpectedly wonderful I feel like I’m being pranked. Garlic fried rice ($7.50) comes out in a sizzling skillet. The eggs are beaten at the bottom of the pan, cooking into an omelet. Don’t wait; when it arrives at your table, start stirring it. The egg will mix with the rice, and the garlic butter will melt into it, leaving a seductively intense fried rice with crisp edges and concentrated f lavors. All of the above are available at lunch and dinner, but Tamashii recently rolled out a dinner-only menu of yakitori — skewers of pork, chicken, vegetables and seafood. The restaurant brought in a yakiChasudon tori chef from Japan to teach the staff how Photo Garett to cook over the tiny grill. Fisbeck 20

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Chicken liver yakitori | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Chicken thigh yakitori | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Garlic fried rice | Photo Garett Fisbeck

While some might go for the grilled pork belly ($3.25), I found the grilled chicken livers ($2.25) and thighs ($2.50) much better options. Not everyone enjoys chicken livers, but I think the skewer of grilled livers is a delicacy. Extremely tender, the fatty liver takes minimal chewing to give you maximum f lavor. The slightly mineral taste could put some off, but I’m a fan. The chicken thighs, which are dark meat and, thus, a little more forgiving on the mercurial grill, are more approachable. It’s

simple, but when grilled meat is done correctly, it doesn’t need much work to be good. With construction nearly finished on its patio, Tamashii is addressing one of its biggest problems: lack of seating. It turns out that when you employ happy servers and make delicious food, people will line up for it. No matter how long, the wait at Tamashii has always been worth it to me. I bet you’ll feel the same.

b rie f s By Greg Elwell

•Borrowed time

Patrons fill Sunnyside Diner. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

•Sunnyside up Sunnyside Diner is finally open. The much-anticipated eatery, 916 NW Sixth St., is the brainchild of co-owners Shannon Roper and Aly Branstetter and features a comfort food-driven vision of classic diner fare. The menu has elevated versions of classic breakfast food and a few that might be less known locally, including Eggs in Purgatory ($7.99), three eggs simmered in spicy marinara and served with Parmesan cheese and Tuscan toast. Roper, who made a splash in Oklahoma City with S&B’s Burger Joint and Hillbilly’s, said he has long-term plans for the eatery. Once kinks are worked out, the 6 a.m.-3 p.m. daily schedule might expand to include dinner. It could eventually become a 24-hour spot. “Not only were we able to make our dreams come true, but the love and support we’ve received from the community is more than we ever expected,” Branstetter said. “I’m thrilled to be a part of it.” Learn more at eatatsunnyside.com.

Savings and Loan Co. opens next week, said co-owner Scott Marsh. Originally slated for a November opening, the new craft cocktail bar inside Tower Theatre, 423 NW 23rd St., saw numerous delays from weather and construction. Marsh said he’s elated that it is finally ready to open and people can try the unique cocktails created by his talented bartending staff. Savings and Loan Co. is named for the space it inhabits; it was previously home to Beneficial Loans in the 1940s and ’50s. Downstairs is the somewhat unadorned and serious “savings” side that seats about 50. But head upstairs, which seats about 100, and patrons will find a A Canary Island cocktail at Savings and Loan more plush banker’s office vibe. Co. in Oklahoma City. | Photo Garett Fisbeck The venue’s focus is on craft cocktails and having a good time, Marsh said. At a preview event, bartenders poured Canary Island, a on the back burner for a few months, giving lavender whiskey sour, a Caprese 85 with a James Beard Award finalist Mackinnon refreshing bite and the flavor of a Caprese salad, and Railsback, featured in the 2012 docuand Mock Moon, a liquor drink that tastes like mentary Somm, a chance to visit Oklahoma a Blue Moon beer but has no beer in it. City. When it reopens, the Tower Theatre will “This isn’t actually a fundraiser for them, bring in a diverse crowd, and Marsh wants his but the fire did make it possible for them venue to be a comfortable space for everyone. to travel and promote Eric Railsback’s Lieu Dit wines with Max’s amazing food,” said The Metro owner LaVeryl Lower. The limited seating pop-up meal is 6 Bay town meets cow town at The Metro Wine p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $90 and feature Bar & Bistro Sunday as chef Max Mackinnon a six-course meal paired with 11 wines. and sommelier Eric Railsback recreate San Call 405-840-9463 to reserve a seat. Francisco’s Mason Pacific for one night only. A small fire in March put Mason Pacific

Fired up

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g a z e di b l e s

eat & DRINK

All welcome

Where do you feel comfortable? That’s really the point of most watering holes. Beyond the bartender and the alcohol, the true function of a bar is as a meeting place where we feel at ease. That’s why we chose these LGBTQ-friendly bars for Pride Week and the rest of LGBT Pride Month. By Greg Elwell Photos Emmy Verdin and Erick Perry

Copa

2200 W. Interstate 44 Service Road facebook.com/copaokc | 405-525-0730 If you want to dance and like your music loud or if you hanker to catch a drag queen show, find all of that and more at Copa, a bar that has become an Oklahoma City legend. Whether your preference is mild or wild, it’s hard to find a more diverse and welcoming crowd than this one. If you look better the less you’re wearing, stop in on Tuesday nights for the amateur strip contest.

Partners and PartnersToo 2805 and 2807 NW 36th St. facebook.com/partnerstoo.okc 405-942-2199

Partners and the adjacent PartnersToo are a lesbian dance club and bar but welcome all. Lovers of darts, Thunder basketball and beer pong will find that Partners is a great place to be whether you have a partner or not. It features live music, trivia and speed dating, too. Drinks (like the Thunder Up, pictured), dancing, a patio for lazy summer nights and an atmosphere that lets everyone know they belong might be just what you need.

ALL DAY, EVERY DAY OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK

EGGINGTONS-HUB.COM 737 W. Danforth Road, Edmond | 405. 285.1580

LIKE US!

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Alibis

1200 N. Pennsylvania Ave. 405-605-3795 Maybe it’s called Alibis because you’ll see everyone you know there. Though it’s especially hopping during Pride Week — Friday features live music and karaoke; Saturday has “lube wrestling,” a burlesque show and bobbing for sex toys; and Sunday features a Drag King show and giant paint Twister — it’s a year-round neighborhood favorite. If you’re looking for a drink to share (try a Sweet Poison, pictured), check out its signature fishbowl cocktails.

Now CATERING

Ledo Lounge

Tramps

Gushers Restaurant

Finishline

Dancing is fun and all, but so is just sitting down for a relaxing drink and a bite to eat with friends. If the bluster and boisterousness of other bars gets to be too much, you might prefer a stop at Ledo Lounge. Inside the famous Habana Inn, this quiet, classy bar is a good place to get a respite from the noise and enjoy a Lido Limon-ade ( pictured) in a laid-back, welcoming atmosphere. And if you do decide to boogie, it’s a quick walk to the dance f loor.

When people talk about Tramps, they might mention the packed patio or the interior that glows red like a homing beacon. But everybody will tell you it’s the place to be if you like drinks like the Liquid Marijuana cocktail (pictured) tasty, strong and inexpensive. It might be smoky inside, so be prepared. And it doesn’t accept credit cards, but there is an ATM inside. As the sign inside says, “Have a heart.” At Tramps, you’ll also have another drink.

Some bars are smoky, so if the haze gets to be too much, find your way to smokefree eatery and bar Gushers. Not only is this restaurant welcoming to all, it’s a good pit stop before charging back into the club for another loop around the dance floor. Prime rib is its specialty and its fried shrimp is popular (pictured), but Gushers also is well-loved for its late-night service and Saturday night breakfast buffet.

Put on your spurs and saddle up for a fun ride at Finishline. Another Habana Inn spot, this cowboy bar is a rootin’, tootin’, shootin’ (from a shot glass) nightclub where country mice and city mice get along with ease. There’s salt on the floor for line dancing and margaritas at the bar for lime drinking.

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ARTS & CULTURE

Lit up

Massive OKC Pride Week celebrations overshadow violence and fear. By Ben Luschen

Michael Clark wandered his way into a leadership role with OKC Pride Inc. four years ago. He has seen the community celebrate great victories and band together through heartbreaking tragedy during his time as the nonprofit LGBTQ rights organization’s president. Of those hardships, none were as shaking as the news that 49 people were shot dead and more than 50 others were wounded June 12 at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Clark said he and OKC Pride refuse to waver in the face of violence and hate. OKC Pride Week continues as planned, stronger than ever. A remembrance ceremony for Orlando attack victims is 7 p.m. Friday in the NW 39th Street Enclave, also known as The Strip, located at 39th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. “Pride began as a stand against violence and oppression. … No individual, organization or attack will drive us back into the shadows,” Clark told Oklahoma Gazette. “The recent events in Orlando prove that this journey is far from over. We welcome all to join us in support of the LGBTQ community.” OKC Pride Week is known for its annual parade, set for Sunday, but over the years, a variety of awareness events and concerts have turned it into a multifaceted, citywide celebration, Clark said. Private security and the Oklahoma City Police Department will help keep this year’s events safe.

Expanded focus

The 2016 OKC Pride Parade coincides with the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling affirming the right to marriage equality. Lee Burrus, pioneering former owner of The Copa, Gushers Restaurant and The Finishline, will be honored as this year’s grand marshal. The parade begins 6 p.m. Sunday on Classen Boulevard between NW 46th and 39th streets and then heads west down 39th Street past Pennsylvania Avenue and into The Strip, which also is the hub for many Pride Week activities. An estimated 40,000 people attended last year’s parade. Clark said he expects even more this year. “It’s big,” he said. “It’s the biggest parade in Oklahoma, and it just gets bigger every year. We already have as many parade entries as we had last year total.” Another popular draw is OKC Pride Arts Festival, which runs 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday along The Strip. 24

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Participants celebrate in the 2015 OKC Pride Parade. | Photo Garett Fisbeck / file

No individual, organization or attack will drive us back into the shadows. Michael Clark

Clark said organizers have space for 108 art vendors and he expects to reach capacity. Two things organizers are excited about this year are an expanded food court area and a bigger, better family fun zone. A shaded spot and beer garden for food, drinks and rest will be set up in the Angles parking lot, 2117 NW 39th St. Food trucks will park around the area beginning 5 p.m. Friday and throughout the weekend. The Pride Family Fun Zone runs noon-6 p.m. Saturday outside Expressions Community Center, 2245 NW 39th St. A moon bounce and youth-friendly games and activities will be provided. “We want to make sure everyone feels like there’s something for them,” Clark said.

Musical growth

Community effort

Clark said Pride Week has more than Clark was first approached about joining doubled in size since he joined OKC Pride. OKC Pride by a friend on the board who Part of that growth can be attributed to noticed he surrounded himself with many the introduction of a concert component friends in the LGBTQ community. He to the festival. started out as a volunteer coordinator. The “My first year involved, I think we next year, he became event chairman. estimated 30,000 attendees, and last year, OKC Pride is a true grassroots organization, Clark said. Anyone who I think we estimated 70,000 over the three days,” Clark said. “That’s a big difference.” wants to get involved can. OKC Pride always aims high with its Clark said he wants Pride Week to concert bookings and has brought in continue to grow while maintaining its headliners like The Village People, En homegrown sensibilities. Vogue and Taylor Dayne. “You go to some bigger cities across the This year’s Equality Concert headliner country and their pride celebrations are is First Ladies of Disco, a supergroup sponsored by all the big corporations,” he said. “In Dallas, they have 200 American including previous OKC Pride performer Martha Wash and Evelyn “Champagne” King. Anita Ward fills in for the third member, Linda Clifford, for the OKC Pride show. The group has previously performed over recorded instrumentation, but Clark said its 7 p.m. Saturday set debuts a live backing band and the launch of a world tour. (Read the Gazette interview with Wash on page 38.) A pair of R&B talents open the outdoor Equality Concert. Local multigenre artist Ieshia precedes R&B and soul singer-songwriter Blu Cantrell, who received two Grammy nominations for her 2001 debut single “Hit ’Em Up Style OKC Pride president Michael Clark expects this year’s OKC Pride Week to be the organization’s largest event yet. | (Oops!).” Photo Garett Fisbeck / file

OKC Pride Week and related events Wednesday • 3-7 p.m.: Grateful Day & Other Options Dunk-A-Drag-Queen, Finishline (inside Habana Inn), 2200 NW 40th St., facebook.com/finishline.okc, 405-525-0730 • 7 p.m.: OKC Pride Tacos & Trivia, The Boom, 2218 NW 39th St., theboomokc.com, 405-601-7200 • 10 p.m.: Pride Bingo, Alibi’s Club, 1200 N. Pennsylvania Ave., twitter.com/ali bisclubokc, 405-605-3795 • 11 p.m.: Grateful Day Drag Show, The Copa (inside Habana Inn), 2200 NW 40th St., habanainn.com, 405-525-0730

Thursday

Mon-Sat: 10am-7pm • Sun: 1pm-5pm

facebook.com/TheIndigoAttic 5012 N Meridian Ave. • (405) 625-4006

• 9 p.m.: Rainbow Party, Partners 4 Club, 2805 NW 36th St., 405-942-2199 • 10 p.m.: Pride Kick-Off Party, HiLo Club, 1221 NW 50th St., hilookc.com, 405-843-1722

Friday • 5 p.m.-2 a.m.: OKC Pride Block Party, The Strip, NW 39th Street and

LIKE US ON

Pennsylvania Avenue • 7 p.m.: Time of remembrance for Orlando massacre victims, Equality Stage (The Strip) • 8 p.m.-midnight: Equality Concert, The Strip

Saturday • 10 a.m.-2 a.m.: OKC Pride Block Party, The Strip, NW 39th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue • 10 a.m.-8 p.m.: OKC Pride Arts Festival, The Strip • 5 p.m.: Herland Sisters Pride Picnic, Herland Sisters Resources, 2312 NW 39th St., herlandsisters.org, 405-521-9696 • 6 p.m.: Love Is Love Marriage Ceremony, Equality Stage (The Strip) • 7 p.m.: King of Queen musical, Equality Stage (The Strip) • 8 p.m.: Brian Lynn Jones & the Misfit Cowboys, Equality Stage (The Strip) • 10 p.m.: Born in November, Equality Stage (The Strip)

Sunday • 7 a.m.: Freedom Oklahoma Equality Run, Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., myriadgardens.com, 405-445-7080 • 9 a.m.: Freedom Oklahoma Brunch, Flint, 15 N. Robinson Ave., flintokc.com, 405-605-0657 • 10 a.m.-midnight: OKC Pride Block Party, The Strip, NW 39th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue • 10 a.m.-4 p.m.: Pride Arts Festival, The Strip • Noon-6 p.m.: Best of Drag Show, Equality Stage (The Strip) • 6 p.m.: OKC Pride Parade, NW 39th Street, between N. Classen Boulevard and N. Youngs Boulevard • 6 p.m.-8 p.m.: Pride Parade hosts, Equality Stage (The Strip) • 8 p.m.: Church of the Open Arms Ice Cream Social, Church of the Open Arms, 3131 N. Pennsylvania Ave., openarms.org, 405-525-9555 • 8 p.m.-10 p.m.: DJ Kamiko Street Dance, Equality Stage (The Strip)

Airlines employees marching in the parade. That’s the kind of stuff we should have here.”

Honoring trailblazers

The recent Pulse massacre was more than an assault on clubgoers, Clark explained. It was an attack against what is often seen as the backbone of the LGBT community. OKC Pride occasionally receives criticism for setting its core events around The Strip, historically known for its LGBTQ-friendly bars, businesses and churches. Critics say pride should be about more than drinking and nightlife. Clark said those complaints are shortsighted.

“The gay community started in The Strip where the bars are because it was a place people had to go to be themselves because they couldn’t do so in the general public,” he said. “That’s why honoring that history is important.” He said it can be easy for some people, especially in the younger generation, to forget there used to be strict laws in Oklahoma against things like crossdressing. Drag performers could be arrested. “Usually, they’d just beat you with the nightstick and leave you in the alley,” he said. “The pioneers that fought that stuff are one of the reasons we keep [Pride Week] in that area.”

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ARTS & CULTURE

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Marina Mangiaracina is running for House District 99. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Transitional government

Oklahoma City Thunder blogger Marina Mangiaracina wants to help the state by running for District 99 Representative.

Building confidence

By Greg Elwell The poll on a blog post introducing Marina Mangiaracina to the readers of Welcome to Loud City (WTLC) reads, “Would you continue reading WTLC if you knew it was run by a transgendered blogger?” Four percent voted “Please, fire this clown.” Ninety-six percent voted “Who cares?” WTLC is a Sports Blog Nation (SB Nation) blog Mangiaracina started under her birth name, Zeb Benbrook. Zorgon, as he was known, came to prominence as a Thunder fan, wildly cheering at games and dancing

during breaks. Now she hopes to make a deeper impact on Oklahoma City by running for Oklahoma City House District 99.

Finding identity

“I couldn’t figure out how to represent myself personally or professionally,” she said. “I felt like I didn’t exist. I just retreated into myself.” That internal battle culminated when she was granted press credentials to a Dec. 28 Thunder game against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center under her birth name. That night, she blogged about sitting in a hotel room a mile away from the game, “consumed by fear and anxiety.” Her blog seemed to brace for the end as she worried that readers and her bosses would not accept a trans woman writing about Thunder basketball. “I was trying to buy male clothes, but I got so stressed, I couldn’t go,” she said. “It was a breaking point. I started seeing a therapist and going on hormones.” The original post is filled with doubt and self-recrimination. “All I’m doing here is trying to make myself a story, destroying what little reputation I have and alienating the majority of my audience,” she wrote. “But all of those things are better than continuing to live my life as a lie.” Luckily, Mangiaracina had nothing to fear. As the poll reflected, SB Nation and blog readers accepted her for who she is. “I’ve received nothing but support from Thunder fans,” she said. Because gender identity has nothing to do with loving basketball or studying the team, she said, they care about what she does, not who she is. Some of her physical changes, induced by hormone treatments, include softening Mangiaracina’s skin and spurring breast growth. They obviously cannot change her 6-foot-5-inch-tall frame or her wide shoulders, she said. But the treatments help her feel more feminine and more comfortable with her gender identity. “Hormones are the cheapest thing a trans person can do to test the waters,” she said. “There are two or three surgeries I’m planning to get: top, bottom and facial reconstruction.”

Mangiaracina’s path to public service and self-acceptance has been a long one. “I kept it repressed until I was 23,” she said. “I thought before that maybe I was a cross dresser. I was afraid of how negatively trans people are seen in society.” Her personal turmoil colored her younger years with depression.

Each change brings with it new confidence in who she is. Her passion for public service is genuine. She credits a work ethic and civic pride instilled in her by generations of family for preparing her to be a servant of the people. Her desire to run for public office was galvanized over the last several months as she watched Oklahoma lawmakers propose anti-transgender legislation and cut school funding. Her website, marinaforoklahoma.com, explains her ideology on subjects including the war on drugs, taxes and voting reform. Chief among her concerns are LGBTQ rights. Specifically, she is critical of the Oklahoma Senate’s attempts to mirror the controversial “bathroom bill” passed in North Carolina.

Mangiaracina described Senate Bill 1014 as an attack on people like her, who physically do not present as their gender identity. She said the bill addresses problems that don’t exist while discriminating against a class of Americans. Bills like the one passed in North Carolina and the one that stalled in Oklahoma’s Legislature this spring claim to protect women and children from sexual predators by banning people from using bathrooms that don’t coincide with their “biological gender,” despite a lack of statistical evidence of there being a need to create or enforce such a law, she said. On her campaign site, she said, “I will introduce legislation that specifically protects trans people’s right to use the restroom of their gender identity.” Equal rights are her No. 1 focus. “The LGBTQ population has no protections for equal housing, jobs or public services,” she said. “These are rights that are afforded to everyone, and yet this part of the population faces harassment.” Mangiaracina’s success as a writer — on Welcome to Loud City, Sports Illustrated Online, Dime Magazine and others — is owed at least partially to her education. She attended Classen School of Advanced Studies and received an international baccalaureate degree. “Classen is basically getting dismantled,” she said. Her stepping stone to a career, like so many other schools across the state, was caught in the state’s budget crisis, which she pledges to fight by increasing education funding, raising teacher pay and making college more affordable.

Independent voice

Running as an Independent, she doesn’t seek support from Democratic or Republican establishments. “I want to draw attention to how unfair the voting system is,” she said. “It seems candidates have to play to big money on one side or the other.” That’s another area her online success will help. Since its inception in 2008, she has grown the WTLC audience by leaps and bounds. The site has more than 150,000 likes on Facebook, and she hopes to harness her understanding of social media to spread her message to voters this fall. If elected, she said she will push for an optional preferential voting system, which would give voters a more nuanced voice about who they want to represent them outside of the predominantly two-party structure in Oklahoma. “Instead of voting for one candidate, you can list candidates in order of preference,” she wrote on her website. “Ultimately, this will allow for more political candidates and parties. This will allow more issues to be put onto the table, which will mean a more wellinformed and effective government.”

I felt like I didn’t exist. I just retreated into myself. Marina Mangiaracina

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Megan Mullally returns to Oklahoma for a July 30 performance in Norman. | Photo Eric Schwabel / provided

Summer roads

Oklahoman Megan Mullally returns home with a new comedy show. By Mark Beutler

The first half of this year wrote, and then the other has been a busy one for half comes from a couple Summer of 69: Oklahoma City-raised of friends of ours who are No Apostrophe Megan Mullally. The comedy writers.” Emmy-winning actress Adult humor is 8 p.m. July 30 finished shooting a film nothing new to Mullally. Riverwind Casino, Norman called Why Him? that hits A couple years ago, she 1544 W. State Highway 9 and actress Stephanie theaters Christmas day. riverwind.com She recorded a new album Hunt brought their Nancy 405-322-6000 and hits the road with her and Beth act to Lyric on $46-$66 husband, actor Nick the Plaza. One of their big Offerman, for their numbers was a song Summer of 69: No Apostrophe tour. called “Pussy and Weed.” The couple performs 8 p.m. July 30 at “Some of the songs we did at Lyric had people rolling in the aisles,” Mullally said. Norman’s Riverwind Casino, 1544 W. State Highway 9. “That is such a cool venue. But I have to “I always love coming home to admit I was nervous doing that show at Oklahoma City,” Mullally said in a recent home because we hadn’t played Oklahoma phone interview with Oklahoma Gazette. City yet and I thought, ‘Oh my God. Are “I was actually just there a few weeks ago. people going to leave because we have a I shot an indie film in Austin, so when it couple of dirty rap songs?’ I think two people left, and I was sort of expecting wrapped, I headed on up for a few days. When Nick and I do our show in Norman maybe 84 percent to walk out, so that was in July, we will come a few days early and good.” spend some time in the city.” Mullally and Hunt recorded a new The new show features adult humor and comedy album, which will be released later is not for young audiences. this year. “I certainly would advise people to not “It’s taking a while because we wanted bring their 7-year-olds,” she said. “About half of the show is material Nick and I continued on page 28

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Can you believe it, a dozen years of success in OKC! Rococo Restaurant & Fine Wine is turning twelve. Please join us for a special night of fun as we say a big Thank You for all the love and support over the years. Enjoy food and drink specials, live music and the always highly-anticipated toast from Owner/Chef Bruce Rinehart. Join Chef Josh and Chef Bruce along with his wife Amber and their two boys (in their best chef gear) as we celebrate amazing friends, staff and community partners that make this all possible. 6/22/16 6:00 - 9:00pm 2824 N. Penn Ave. • 528-2824 • Rococo-Restaurant.com

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ARTS & CULTURE

Megan Mullally’s husband and fellow comedian Nick Offerman joins her for the Summer of 69 tour, which hits Norman’s Riverwind Casino July 30. | Photo Dan Winters / provided

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continued from page 27

to put it out on vinyl and it’s very hard to get a record pressed,” she said. “Nobody wanted vinyl for 30 years, and now everybody wants vinyl and there’s only like three places left that will press a record. We have the cover art done and are getting ready to shoot a video, but much like Summer of 69, it is also not for children.”

Music education

Mullally said her musical tastes run the gamut, and she credits growing up in OKC for much of her eclectic style. “I listened to WKY, which was the big station when I was growing up,” she said. “It was really the only game in town. They had to play a little something for everyone. For example they would play ‘In-A-GaddaDa-Vida,’ and then they would play Frank Sinatra singing ‘Strangers in the Night,’ and after that, it would be some country song like ‘I’ll Change Your Flat Tire, Merle.’ So that really inf luences what I do in my shows now.” After all these years away, the Casady School graduate is still proud to call the city home. “I was just thinking last time I was there that it’s my favorite city to drive a car in,” she said. “I just feel so comfortable driving there. I guess because I know it so well. If I’m over at mom’s and I quickly want to pop over to my friend Rhonda’s, it’s not a big deal. I can be anywhere in about 10 minutes.”

Home politics

But Mullally said what surprises her most about Oklahoma these days is its politics. “I am embarrassed by some of the things coming out of my home state. I’m not going 28

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to lie,” she said. “I love Oklahoma City. I was raised there, I love going back to visit and I love all my friends there, but I see things in the news coming out of Oklahoma City and I’m like, ‘That doesn’t sound like any of the people I know.’ And I don’t endure what you guys go through there on a daily basis.” Mullally said she was stunned when she heard recent news of the Oklahoma Legislature trying to make it a felony for doctors to perform abortions. “My first instinct was, ‘You’re kidding me! What? What about Roe v. Wade?’” she said. “But at the end of the day, it’s all changing and it’s going to change no matter how hard people try to go back to the Dark Ages. I guess they can give it the old college try, like one last-ditch effort.” One of the most groundbreaking sitcoms that helped shape today’s society was Will & Grace. For eight seasons, she played gin-soaked socialite Karen Walker. The show has been off the air for a decade, but this year’s presidential election makes Mullally wonder who her former alter ego would support. “In many ways, Karen really is the future Mrs. Trump, don’t you think?” Mullally said. “I think Trump seems like Stanley Walker a little bit, right? I think Trump has the big money Karen would need, so unfortunately, I think that would be her choice. And like Karen, Donald Trump is very vocal about the money he says he has.” Politics aside, Mullally said this summer is all about touring and seeing the country. “Nick and I will rent a nice vehicle and just travel,” she said. “For us, it’s the summer of ’69. We’ll do a show every day or so and just have fun. Oklahoma City is our first stop, and we are looking so forward to coming home.”

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Queer film

Celebrate OKC Pride Week and LGBT Pride Month with our lineup of friendly films. By Keaton Bell | Photos provided

OKC Pride Week runs through Sunday, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month continues through June. With so many events scheduled, you’re sure to be busy. When you need a break from the festivities, stay in the spirit and relax with these notable LGBT-related films. Whether you’re in the mood for a powerful documentary or a campy classic, there’s something queer for everyone.

Pariah

2011, R, 86 minutes Available on Netf lix, iTunes and Amazon Lack of sexual and racial representation is a major issue in cinema, which makes Pariah seem like even more of a miracle as a result. It tells the story of Alike, a 17-year old AfricanAmerican teenager trying to embrace her lesbian identity while dealing with the disapproval of those around her. Adepero Oduye is spellbinding as the young lead in a film packed with emotion, humor and heart.

Paris Is Burning 1990, R, 71 minutes Available on Amazon

Madonna might have brought “voguing” to the mainstream, but Paris Is Burning first documented it and many other trends associated with underground drag culture. Groundbreaking at the time of its release, the documentary chronicles New York City’s “ball culture” in the 1980s by focusing on the group of African-American, Latino, gay and transgender communities involved in it. As hilariously entertaining as it is heartfelt, Paris Is Burning is essential viewing.

High Art

1998, R, 101 minutes Available on iTunes and Amazon Before she directed the much more commercial The Kids Are All Right, Lisa Cholodenko made High Art, which tells the story of a young female magazine intern who becomes romantically involved with a troubled lesbian photographer. A dark character study at heart, the film is a quietly brooding masterpiece.

Pride

2014, R, 119 minutes Available on iTunes and Amazon

Mon-Sat: 10am-7pm • Sun: 1pm-5pm

A common complaint is that depictions of gay characters in f ilm are minimal or stereotypical. That’s what makes a movie like Pride all the more joyous. Based on a true story, the comedy depicts gay activists in the U.K. working to help striking coal miners in 1984 Wales once they discover they both share common enemies in Margaret Thatcher, the police and conservative culture. Uplifting, hilarious and stylish, Pride is a glorious gem of a film.

The Wizard of Oz

1939, PG, 102 minutes Available on iTunes and Amazon The classic tale of Dorothy Gale getting swept away to the magical land of Oz by a tornado and having to find her way back home made arguably one of the most beloved movies of all time. Over the years, Dorothy’s escape from her sepia-toned hometown to the vibrant, rainbow-tinted Oz has been read as an allegory for the “coming out” experience. For others, the presence of gay icon Judy Garland and the film’s fair amount of garish camp give it resonance. It became such a staple of gay culture that “friend of Dorothy,” or FOD, was used in the ’40s and ’50s as a gay euphemism.

But I’m a Cheerleader

1999, R, 85 minutes Available on Netf lix, iTunes and Amazon But I’m a Cheerleader stars Natasha Lyonne as a “normal” high school cheerleader whose parents and friends think might be a lesbian and send her to True Directions, a gay conversion camp. The cult classic is sneaky in the way its biting satire deals with themes of sexual and gender identity, coming of age, labels and finding your voice in surprisingly thoughtful ways. Dated pop culture references and tacky ’90s aesthetic only add to its camp value. It also has a stellar cast rounded out by Clea DuVall, Michelle Williams and RuPaul. continued on next page

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Publishing sePtember 21, 2016 There is a lot to do, see and purchase throughout Autumn and Gazette gives its readers direction on where to find the best festivials, fashions, foods and more!

Featuring a 3 month calendar For all your Favorite Fall activities Submit calendar events at www.okgazette.com or email to listings@okgazette.com Please be sure to indicate ‘Fall guide’ in the subject line. We do not accept calendar items via phone. Deadline to submit items for our Fall guide calendar is Wed. aug. 31, 2016 by 5pm.

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ARTS & CULTURE The Hours

Tangerine

Beginners

Multifaceted female characters are a rarity in Holly wood, but The Hours stars three of the most compelling actresses of all time and gives them roles worthy of their talent. The film examines three women — Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman), a depressed ’50s housewife (Julianne Moore) and a modern-day book editor (Meryl Streep) — over the course of one day. Filled with forbidden romance and sexual repression, The Hours is a master class in acting and an incredibly beautiful portrait of frustrated female desire.

As outlandish as it is innovative, Tangerine is truly a one-of-a-kind movie. It tells the story of transgender sex worker named Sin-Dee as she tears through downtown Los Angeles on Christmas Eve trying to find the pimp who br oke her he a r t . Storylines feature SinDee’s friend Alexandra’s cabaret performance and a married cab driver’s dalliances with sex workers. Often noted for being entirely shot on an iPhone 5, Tangerine is truly marvel in how it breaks down sexual and racial barriers while still working as an uproarious comedy.

Too often, we don’t acknowledge that sexuality is a part of life and it’s not just saved specifically for the younger set. That’s exactly why Beginners is a minor miracle. A young man named Oliver (Ewan McGregor) loses his mother, and shortly afterward, his father Hal (Christopher Plummer) comes out as a gay man. While Oliver and his pursuit of a French actress might be the primary plotline of Beginners, his father’s exploration of life is much more fascinating to watch. The film itself is a delightful dramedy, but Plummer’s performance as late-blooming Hal is what truly makes it spark.

Carol

We Were Here

2002, PG-13, 114 minutes Available on iTunes and Amazon

2015, R, 118 minutes Available on iTunes and Amazon Portrayals of lesbians onscreen are typically cautionary tales that end in either death or sadness. But Carol doesn’t follow the path most traveled, particularly since it comes from idiosyncratic director Todd Haynes. Carol is about a shy saleswoman (Rooney Mara) who begins an affair with an older married woman (Cate Blanchett) in 1950s New York. Stylish to a fault, beautifully shot and achingly erotic, Carol is the sort of oldschool romance story that simply isn’t often told.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge

2015, R, 88 minutes Available on Netf lix, iTunes and Amazon

2011, Not Rated, 90 minutes Available on Netf lix, iTunes and Amazon Given the strides taken to help contain the deadly AIDS virus, it’s hard for a modern audience to truly understand the toll HIV and AIDS took when it began spreading in the ’80s. But documentary We Were Here does an exquisite job portraying the crisis at its height in the San Francisco area. Viewers get a firsthand look at the virus and how it affected a generation. The experiences are shown through the eyes of a political activist, an HIV-positive artist who lost two partners to the virus and a dancer/f lorist who supplied f lowers to funerals, among others. We Were Here is a powerful viewing experience.

1985, R, 87 minutes

Available on Netf lix, iTunes and Amazon Part of me doubts filmmakers intentionally imbued A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge with so much homoerotic subtext. But watching the lead character meet up with his high school gym teacher in an S&M leather bar and later tie him up in the showers to whip his bare ass certainly has me wondering. Nightmare 2 is about a teenage boy named Jesse whose dreams are haunted by Freddy Kruger, who wants to possess Jesse so he can continue his murder spree in the real world. It has been labeled the “gayest horror movie ever made,” with many reading Kruger’s need to enter Jesse’s body as a symbol for repressed homosexuality. From an emphasis on phallic imagery to Jesse’s disinterest of his girlfriend in favor of spending time with hunky friend Ron, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 is a classic.

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Tab Hunter Confidential

2015, Not Rated, 90 minutes Available on Netf lix, iTunes and Amazon Tab Hunter was the golden boy of Hollywood in the ’50s and ’60s, earning a name for himself as the charismatic romantic lead in f ilms such as Damn Yankees and Battle Cry. But as Tab Hunter Confidential shows, the actor led a double life as a closeted gay man while becoming a national sex symbol. Hunter reflects on his life and career, and the documentary features appearances by Clint Eastwood, John Waters and Portia de Rossi.

2010, R, 105 minutes Available on Netf lix, iTunes and Amazon

G.B.F.

2013, R, 92 minutes Available on Netf lix, iTunes and Amazon As the gay answer to iconic, straight-faced teen movies like Clueless and Mean Girls, G.B.F. is a cheeky comedy that does good by its LGBT characters. The plot is simple enough, about what transpires after a closeted gay student is outed by his classmates and becomes the highly coveted “gay best friend” by the most popular girls in school. And while that might sound problematic, G.B.F. has more on its mind than outdated stereotypes, serving up razor-sharp satire on everything from teen movies to social politics.

Laurence Anyways

2012, Not Rated, 168 minutes Available on Amazon The stories of transgender individuals are rarely told onscreen with as much pa ssion a nd warmth as Laurence Anyways. Directed by French w underk ind Xavier Dolan, it details a decade in the life of a woman and her relationship with a transgender woman named Laurence (living as a man) who expresses her need to live as her true self: a woman. Set in the 1980s and early ’90s, Laurence Anyways is an affectionate tale of love and desire that’s not only a beautiful portrayal of a transgender woman but also a passionate romance in its own right.

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act i v e

Bricktown Beach will occupy Third Base Plaza outside Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. | Photo Erick Perry

Landlocked shore

Organizers at Downtown Oklahoma City, Inc. brought the joys of a beach to OKC. By Christine Eddington

Downtown Oklahoma City, Inc. staffers Base Plaza outside Chickasaw Bricktown Mallory O’Neill and Jill DeLozier waited Ballpark, 2 S. Mickey Mantle Drive. “It’s important to note that funds for two long years to realize a dream. They needed the right moment to build a beach the projects of DOKC don’t come from in downtown. As of last week, that dream, taxes or the state budget,” DeLozier said. improbable as it might seem, is reality. “We’ve had people wonder how we can “We went to a national Main Street be building a beach when Oklahoma conference in Detroit, and an organization teachers are being laid off, but we are in had received the Southwest Airlines placeno way a state agency. The mission of making grant,” explained DOKC is to do projects just DeLozier, Downtown like this one, to make downOKC vice president. town a more vibrant and “They used it to build a The Hollows interactive place to be.” huge beach in the middle Bricktown Beach will be 9 p.m. Thursday of downtown Detroit.” open 24 hours a day through Bricktown Beach The duo was fascilate summer. DOKC will 2 S. Mickey Mantle Drive maintain and clean the nated by the project and downtownokc.com visited it several times a space, and security will be 405-235-3500 day to see how the public nearby, but aside from a Free interacted with it. little bit of programming, “We loved the impact the community can decide how the space will be utilized. a man-made beach had on downtown. It Bean bag toss, volleyball nets, beach had been built in a plaza, with beach chairs and umbrellas, some green space chairs and shade structures will be set and a bar,” said O’Neill, Downtown OKC up. Although there is no formal schedule district manager. “Depending on the time and Bricktown Beach is not a food truck of day, we’d see men in business suits court, DeLozier expects food trucks and taking their shoes off and rolling up their concessions at the beach sporadically. pants legs at lunchtime or moms and There is a free concert 9 p.m. Thursday nannies with children playing during the featuring Brooklyn band The Hollows. afternoon, and at happy hour, it was The evening’s opening act includes stupacked.” dents from the Academy of Contemporary Added DeLozier, “We didn’t want to Music at the University of Central copy what Detroit did exactly, but we just Oklahoma (ACM@UCO). couldn’t get it out of our heads.” July 14 features a free screening of Then it happened; the timing was right Disney hit Finding Nemo. The movie and the space was perfect. starts at 9 p.m., and concessions and food “We have been looking for ways to trucks will be available in addition to activate Bricktown,” O’Neill said. “The games and activities. “That’s it for the programming done heart of Bricktown is underused, and we want to change that.” by us, though,” O’Neill said. “It’s really Br ick t ow n-ba se d J E D u n n up to everyone to decide what they will use the beach for.” Construction deposited 15 dump-truck loads of sand weighing 123 tons on Third O kg a z e t t e . c o m | j u n e 2 2 , 2 0 1 6

act i v e

ARTS & CULTURE

Steady steps

Thomas Hudson walks from Las Vegas to Washington to raise awareness about the mistreatment of U.S. veterans. By Erick Perry

film

An American veteran is taking a trip across the country in hopes of lending a hand to his brothers in arms. Thomas Hudson, an Air Force and Army National Guard veteran, otherwise known as The Walking Veteran, is making his way from Las Vegas to Washington one step at a time May 2-Nov. 11. Walking from city to city, state to state, Hudson stops and meets with local officials to discuss the treatment of veterans in their communities. He also shares his testimony with veterans and civilians that he meets along the way. Upon reaching Washington on Veteran’s Day, Hudson will meet with congressmen to discuss issues affecting veterans the most, such as alleged mistreatment by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Hudson believes the on-foot journey provides a greater experience for himself and others than it would if he traveled another way like driving. Hudson’s goal is to spread awareness of his personal experiences and mistreatments while learning from others

System corruption

Hudson said a lot of mistreatment comes directly from a corrupted U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The way the system is set up, veterans do not receive health care that they need and deserve. He proposed transitioning the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs into a federal corporation. A federal corporation is defined as an agency established by Congress to perform a public service and is intended to produce revenue that meets or approximates its expenditures. In other words, Hudson wants the government to outsource hiring executives and work as a separate entity. He said many of the current issues derive from top executives

Thomas Hudson began his trek to Washington from Las Vegas May 2. | Photo provided

manipulating the system for personal gain rather than helping veterans in need. Hudson said if it became a federal corporation, large bonuses and incentives would be diluted and it could acquire top professionals who focus on the well-being of our nation’s veterans. Hudson said some of his most memorable experiences so far happened in Arizona. Several veterans shared their stories with him, and many shared similar complaints. “When veterans come up to me with curiosity about the walk, they are so eager to share those stories. They are hoping that once again, someone can make a difference,” Hudson posted to Facebook. “Veterans from the desert and from the mountains in Arizona have a common message, and sadly,

[it] is that they don’t have much trust in the [U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs]. When they see that the director that presided over the Phoenix [Veterans Health Administration] fraudulent appointment scandal received probation, while dozens of veterans had died waiting for care. They have lost hope.” Hudson said that he has met with several mayors, police chiefs and others to localize the discussion of these issues. He also has met with state officials, including Gov. Mary Fallin, with whom he discussed issues and complimented the hospitality he received from state capitol staff. Visit walkingveteran.com or email The Walking Veteran support group at volunteer@walkingveteran.com.

Buck shot

Kieran Mahoney’s Antlers draws inspiration from family hunting tradition. By Ben Luschen

The stuffed pheasants and mounted fish in Kieran Mahoney’s thesis film project for the prestigious School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City are not props. They are family heirlooms. Mahoney, a 23-year-old Oklahoma City native, came up with the idea for her 18-minute short film Antlers while she was a 15-year-old student at Classen School of Advanced Studies. In May, she watched her film, shot in Guthrie and Kingfisher, at its SVA Dusty Film & Animation Festival debut. Antlers makes its Oklahoma City premiere at a private screening 7 p.m. June 30 at The Paramount Theatre OKC, 11 N. Lee Ave. Though she now lives in the nation’s largest concrete jungle, Mahoney said her family’s (and especially her grandfather’s) bond with the outdoors made a significant impact on her. “This story was really inf luenced by everyone in my family,” she said. “Whether male or female, whether they like it or not, everyone got taken to go hunting except me. Hearing it from my mom and my uncles and my aunt about their first time going with my grandpa and how they either loved it and are still doing it or they 32

and serving as a tool in sharing their stories. “Some may wonder why not just ride all the way to Washington,” Hudson posted to Facebook. “That option would defeat the vision of why The Walk Across America is necessary. The answer is simple. … Attention.”

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hated it and never went again.” Antlers is the tale of experienced hunter Ford Blackwell (portrayed by actor Ross Riley) taking his son out on his first hunt. The catch? The man has hunted animals all his life. Looking for a change of pace, he takes up ghost hunting with the idea that the two are basically the same. Soon, a reality show crew joins them. The father thinks they’re showcasing his ghost hunting talents, but the filmmakers have less sincere motives. The dark comedy/mockumentary begins with the gruff, Southern father showing off his taxidermy. Mahoney collected most of the pieces from her family. The Dusty Film & Animation Festival is essentially the grand finale for graduating SVA film students, where they showcase their best works. The event screening was the official premiere for Antlers. Though SVA is based in New York, it is not unusual for students like Mahoney to film outside of their immediate surroundings. In addition to Oklahoma, student projects were shot in Kenya, Sweden and Trinidad. Mahoney remembers seeing a movie in last year’s festival that was shot in Tulsa. Though she always wanted to shoot her

Filmmaker Kieran Mahoney back row, center right on the set of Antlers with her cast and crew. | Photo provided

project in Oklahoma, seeing someone else pull off a shoot in her home state confirmed her confidence that she could do the same. “Okies have kind of this welcoming vibe, and when I was writing it, I was like, ‘There’s no way this can’t happen in the Midwest,’” she said. “In New York, you can’t find anything like this. I knew it was going to be kind of a journey both with finances and with organizing, but it was still worth it in the end because it ended up being the perfect place to shoot it.” Mahoney moved to New York after graduating high school. Such a location change can be a big step up for some, but luckily, she already had connections in the city.

“I just jumped into it,” she said. “My sister had already lived here for a couple of years, so she showed me the ropes.” She might now call the Big Apple home, but Oklahoma, its people and her family are indelible inf luences on her art and spirit. “My heart will always belong there just because New York is so common,” she said. “People kind of know what happens here, but when I moved here, some people didn’t even know [Oklahoma] was a state. I definitely feel more influenced with my writing from family and from Oklahoma.” For more information about the screening, contact Mahoney at kieranmahoneybear@gmail.com.

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film

Dory seeks her family in Finding Dory. | Photo Walt Disney Studios / provided

Floating Dory

Pixar relied too heavily on the success of Finding Nemo in its Finding Dory followup. By Jacob Oller

Finding Dory is like an aquatic Forrest Gump, with its lead (Ellen DeGeneres) stumbling from adventure to adventure and meeting various colorful side characters along the way, not without its charms but empty of the heart that made its predecessor, Finding Nemo, a mainstay for anyone with children. Much of this can be attributed to the series of increasingly jarring dei ex machina that shake loose any f ledgling attempts at emotion or character growth with sheer volume of unlikely occurrences. Things just happen to these characters to keep the story moving rather than because of their quest. The film is far too light and flighty to build up to anything. Loss or fear are undone randomly and rapidly, leading to a much happier and inconsequential adventure than we’re used to from Pixar. And for some viewers, that’s fine. The new side characters we meet along the way — including a pair of friendly, if territorial, sea lions (Idris Elba and Dominic West), a nearsighted whale shark (Kaitlin Olson, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and a grumpy octopus (Ed O’Neill) — almost make up for the film’s lack of depth. Each new encounter allows the creative minds at work to f lex a new unique angle on sea life and the continued lesson of self-love present throughout the two Finding films. Pixar has had consistent success establishing a world and its inhabitants, but less so in developing it in a sequel. Nowhere is this ability more apparent than in the opening short, Piper. A feat of technical wizardry starring some of the best animated water and feather physics I’ve ever seen, Piper brings us into the silent world of sandhunting birds on the tidal edge. In a few brief, gorgeous minutes, we understand the baby bird protagonist

and the various social lessons it learns in an elegant display just a bit too perfect for us to believe it was lifted from an Animal Planet special. Finding Dory often flounders without this pristine confidence because its protagonist is unreliable — not because she can’t remember, but because she’s not consistent in her traits or her f laws. At some points, she seems lost, helpless and completely incapable while at others she makes plans and commands her compatriots in an elaborate scheme (of her own construction) to, say, stop traffic on dry land. It’s frustrating when a character’s personality seems to f lit between two extremes. These traits undermine Dory’s power as a symbol of impotence. The main point is that Dory succeeds despite her handicap. When she discards it in order to prevail, what does that say to the relatively powerless kids watching her? In the first film, Nemo was able to work with his father to prove he was worthy of trust while his father proved his devotion. In this one, Dory remembers things whenever it is convenient for her to do so. Since most of the action takes place in the human realm, inside an aquarium/ sanctuary, the focus on the ocean contrasts to the dreary. This might have been exasperated thanks to lackluster 3-D effects, but with the original film’s lush reefs and dangerously inviting jellyfish lingering in recent memory, Dory wastes much of its oceanic potential. However, the sanctuary scenes look great and creatively involve the co-stars (each of which allows DeGeneres to shimmy her happy-go-lucky voice work into our hearts). The sequel revisits many of the jokes of the original in an inoffensive yet ultimately unf ulf illing way, making the case that Pixar should stick with originals.

Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954). L’Algérienne, 1909. Oil on canvas. Collection Centre Pompidou, Paris. MNAM-CCI. Legs du Victomte Guy de Cholet aux Musées nationaux, 1916, 2009. AM 2009-214. © 2016 Succession H. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

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Guests watch film shorts

Moving pictures deadCenter Film Festival wraps up its 16th year. By Gazette staf f

This year’s deadCenter Film Festival drew an estimated 30,000 movie professionals and fans to screenings, panels, parties and events at venues across downtown Oklahoma City. More than 100 independent featurelength and short films were shown June 8-12, and awards were presented June 11. Winners were chosen by an independent panel of industry professionals, including directors, writers, actors and producers, organizers said. Here are this year’s winners, along with a selection of Oklahoma Gazette photos from the event. See more at okgazette.com.

2016 deadCenter Film Festival award winners

Narrative feature: Hunt for the Wilderpeople Documentary feature: Tower Narrative short: Stutterer Documentary short: The Champion Oklahoma feature: Electric Nostalgia Oklahoma short: Even in Death Student film: The Duke: Based on a Memoir “I’m the Duke” by JP Duke

Special Jury Award winners Documentary: Life, Animated Special Jury narrative: The Land Special Jury short: Phil’s Camino

Kristofer McNeeley and Tava Maloy Sofsky talk to attendees during the festival’s Making Movies in Oklahoma Panel at the Clark Building in Oklahoma City. | Photo Emmy Verdin 34

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h film shorts during deadCenter Film Festival. | Photo Emmy Verdin

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The festival’s opening night party was on the rooftop of Oklahoma City Museum of Art June 9. | Photo Erick Perry

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Actor Wilson Navas at deadCenter. He portrayed drug dealer Jorge in the comedy O, Brother! | Photo Emmy Verdin

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calendar 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive, 405-521-2491, okhistory. org/historycenter. WED

These are events recommended by Oklahoma Gazette editorial staff members. For full calendar listings, go to okgazette.com.

Art Adventures, young artists are invited to experience art through books and related projects for children ages 3-5, 10:30 a.m. Tuesdays. Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, 555 Elm Ave., Norman, 405-325-3272, ou.edu/fjjma. TUE

BOOKS Kurt and Carol Leichter Book Signing, the pair discuss their book On God’s Polishing Wheel: The Life of Kurt Leichter, an account of Kurt’s life in Austria on the cusp of World War II. 6-7:30 p.m. June 23, Best of Books, 1313 E. Danforth Road, Edmond, 405-340-9202, bestofbooksok.com. THU Last Sunday Poetry Jam, featured poet John Selvidge followed by an open mic session, 2 p.m. June 26. Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 405-842-2900, fullcirclebooks.com. SUN

FILM Movie Night at the Market: The Royal Tenenbaums, (US, 2001, dir. Wes Anderson) an estranged family of gifted siblings comes together after receiving the news that their father is terminally ill, June 22. The Bleu Garten, 301 NW 10th St., bleugarten.com. WED Sonic Summer Movies: The Little Rascals, (US, 1994, dir. Penelope Spheeris) Alfalfa is wooing Darla and his “he-man-woman-hating” friends attempt to sabotage the relationship, 8 p.m. June 22. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-4457080, oklahomacitybotanicalgardens.com/events. WED

Monthly Film Screening: Pride Month, LGBTQ+ filmmakers are invited to bring their short film submission for discussion and critique 6 p.m. June 23 at IAO Gallery, 706 W. Sheridan Ave., 405-232-6060, iaogallery.org. THU Summer Movie Fun: Minions, (US, 2015, dir. Kyle Balda) Minions Stuart, Kevin and Bob are recruited by Scarlet Overkill, a super-villain who, alongside her inventor husband Herb, hatches a plot to take over the world; $2 movies and concession discounts, 9:45 a.m. June 20-24. Harkins Theatre, 150 E. Reno Ave., 405-231-4747, harkinstheatres. com. MON

HAPPENINGS The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Oklahoma’s 55th Legislative Session, a panel of education and community leaders discuss the most recent state legislative session and Oklahoma’s future over breakfast. 7:30 a.m. June 22, Oklahoma School for Science & Mathematics, 1141 N. Lincoln Blvd., 405521-6436. WED Concert on the Beach, Brooklyn-based folk-rock band The Hollows play on Bricktown Beach. Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, 2 S. Mickey Mantle Drive, 405-218-1000. THU 4th Friday in the District, block party featuring food trucks, live music and pop-up shops, 6-11 p.m. May 27, June 24 and July 22. OKC Farmers Public Market, 311 S. Klein Ave., 405-232-6506. FRI

Summer Explorers, a variety of week long summer camps for children ages 4-14 who love exploring the great outdoors, investigating science and discover dinosaurs, through July 25. Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, 2401 Chautauqua Ave., Norman, 405-325-4712, snomnh.ou.edu. MON

Dreamgirls Dreamgirls sets up in OKC 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Civic Center Music Hall. The musical features a trio of black female singers’ experiences from performing at the Apollo Theatre to releasing hit music and landing at the top of pop and R&B charts. The production also was made into a 2006 movie featuring Beyoncé Knowles, Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Hudson. The musical is now returning to Broadway. Shows are 7:30 Tuesday-June 30, 8 p.m. July 1 and 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. July 2 at 201 N. Walker Ave. Tickets start at $30. Visit okcciviccenter.com or call 405-2972584. Photo Lyric Theatre / provided Stars & Stripes River Festival, Fourth of July-themed festival features rowing, kayaking, dragon boat races and Riversport Challenge 500-meter kayak/5k run duathlon; enjoy the free family festival, try the attractions, listen to music and enjoy a fireworks show, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. June 25. Boathouse District, 725 S. Lincoln Blvd., 405-552-4040, boathousedistrict.org. SAT

Annual Gigantic Garage Sale, huge garage sale event presented by Pets and People Humane Society of Yukon, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. June 24-25. American Legion Yukon Post 160, 1020 W. Main St., Yukon. 405-265-1955. FRI SoonerCon 25, more than 100 discussion panels cover a range of fandom, literary and science topics, cosplay, art shows, gaming and more, June 24-26. The Reed Center, 5800 Will Rogers Road, Midwest City, 405-741-7333, reedcenter.com. FRI

Whodunit Dinner Theater: Victim of Retirement Show, enjoy murder mystery theater along with a buffet-style fajita offering. Ted’s Cafe Escondido, 2836 NW 68th St., 405-848-8337, whodunit.net. FRI

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Cinderella, summer performing arts day camp for boys and girls ages 6-17; campers put on a full musical production, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., June 20-July 1. Taylor Recreation Center, 1115 SW 70th St., 405634-1120. MON Kids Summer Cooking Camp, each day features a new topic including doughnuts, cookies, cupcakes and other delicious treats, July 11-15. Belle Kitchen, 7509 N. May Ave., 405-430-5484, belle-kitchen. com. MON Snow White, join Snow White as she escapes the evil queen with the help of a kind woodcutter, seven friendly dwarfs and a true love’s kiss, 10 a.m. and noon June 22 and 24, 10 a.m. June 23 and 2 p.m. June 25-26 Oklahoma Children’s Theatre, 2501 N. Blackwelder Ave., 405-606-7003, oklahomachildrenstheatre.org. WED

The Makers Fair, a craft market open to the public with items made by members of Joe’s Workshop, 1:30-6:30 p.m. June 25 and July 30. Joe’s Workshop, 13915 N. Harvey Ave., Edmond, 405-5310153, joesws.com. SAT

Eats on 8th, food truck festival and night market; family-friendly event with live music, a kid’s zone, pop-up vendors and more, 6-11 p.m. June 24 and July 29. Midtown, NW Ninth St. and Walker Ave., eatson8th.com. FRI

Be the Dinosaur, a state-of-the-art video game exhibit that turns the player into a virtual triceratops or a T-rex. Tickets are $2 for a 30-minute session. Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, 2401 Chautauqua Ave., Norman, 405-325-4712, snomnh.ou.edu. THU

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. June 25. District House, 1755 NW 16th St., 405-633-1775. SAT

FOOD

Freedom Oklahoma’s Equality Run Show your pride by taking part in Freedom Oklahoma’s 4th Annual Equality Run. The event starts 7:30 a.m. Sunday at Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave. Participants can choose from the 1 Mile Fun Run ($20), 5K Run/Walk ($45) and 10K Run ($50). And if that doesn’t pique your interest, the post-race brunch with smoothie and omelet stations at Flint, 15 N. Robinson Ave., should do the trick. Visit freedomoklahoma.org or sign-up at register.chronotrack.com/r/19069. Sunday Photo bigstock.com

Snow White Summer Camp, children’s summer camp held by Oklahoma Children’s Theatre; ages 11 and up, June 6-26. Oklahoma Children’s Theatre, 2501 N. Blackwelder Ave., 405-606-7003, oklahomachildrenstheatre.org. MON

Give Back Night, enjoy food and drink while supporting a great cause. A portion of sales are donated to Oklahoma AIDS Care Fund. Rococo Restaurant & Fine Wine, 2824 N. Pennsylvania Ave., 405-528-2824, rococo-restaurant.com. TUE Bread Making for Beginners, hands-on bread making class; learn to make the perfect loaf of bread, 6-9 p.m. June 28. Belle Kitchen, 7509 N. May Ave., 405-430-5484, belle-kitchen.com. TUE Earl’s 20th Anniversary Celebration, restaurant celebrates 20 years through June with weekly promotions, throwback pricing and prize giveaways. Earl’s Rib Palace, 405-843-9922, earlsribpalace. com. WED

YOUTH Okietales, dive into history with books and stories and explore a different topic from the wild West and cowboys to land runs and pioneer life, 10:3011:30 a.m. Wednesdays. Oklahoma History Center,

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Fiesta Friday — Noches de Verano Head to Calle Dos Cinco to hear Latin music, see the Mexican hat dance, eat street tacos and buy pottery. There’s no need to travel across the border; Calle Dos Cinco is located in Historic Capital Hill right here in OKC. On SW 25th Street between Harvey and Robinson avenues, one of the city’s oldest historic districts holds a family-friendly festival celebrating its multicultural roots. Fiesta Friday is 7-11 p.m. June 24, July 29 and Aug. 26. Admission is free, but you might be tempted to buy a pair of custom-made cowboy boots while you’re there. Visit historiccapitolhill.com. Saturday Photo bigstock.com

Jazz Camp, summer camp presented by UCO Fine Arts and Design for ages 15-18, June 26-July 1. University of Central Oklahoma, 100 N. University Drive, Edmond, 405-974-2000, uco.edu. SUN Science of Star Wars, call on your inner Jedi to examine unusual crystals, make a lightsaber, and even go for a ride on a hovercraft, June 27-July 1. Science Museum Oklahoma, 2100 NE 52nd St. , 405-602-6664, sciencemuseumok.org. MON Summer Art Camp: Monster Sculpting, ages 10-12 work with polymer clay to sculpt monsters of their own creations; learn the basics of sculpting and firing and the best techniques to paint their monsters, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. June 27-July 1. Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., 405-951-0000, oklahomacontemporary. org. MON

VISUAL ARTS

Summer Art Camp: Getting Crazy with Cave, ages 5-6 explore the art of Nick Cave; all media will be used to create large, vibrant sculptures, full-body masks, flower veils, button collages, clothing embellishment and more, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. June 27-July 1. Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., 405-951-0000, oklahomacontemporary.org. MON Summer Art Camp: Get Up & Moving with Dr. Seuss: Collaborative Camp, ages 5-6 experience storytelling and writing, singing, dancing, visual art and a wild and crazy good time; a creative journey to discover the artistic links between Dr. Seuss and Nick Cave, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. June 27-July 1. Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., 405-951-0000, oklahomacontemporary. org. MON Snow White and Too Many Dwarfs, summer performing arts day camp for boys and girls ages 6-17; campers put on a full musical production, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., June 27-July 8. NW Optimist Performing Arts Center, 3301 NW Grand Blvd., 405841-2414, . MON Jungle Book Summer Camp, children’s summer camp by Oklahoma Children’s Theatre; ages 7 and up, June 27-July 9. Oklahoma Children’s Theatre, 2501 N. Blackwelder Ave., 405-606-7003, oklahomachildrenstheatre.org. MON Kids Bowling, kids bowl free all summer; program designed to give back to the community by providing a safe, secure and fun way for kids to spend time this summer. Sooner Bowling Center, 550 24th Ave., Norman, 405-360-3634, soonerbowl.com. SUN

PERFORMING ARTS OKC Improv Summer Show, improvisational music and comedy from local performers. The Paramount Room, 7 N. Lee Ave., 405-517-0787, theparamountroom.com. THU Green Day’s American Idiot, two-time Tony Awardwinning hit musical; Green Day’s powerhouse album is brought to life in this electrifying rock musical of youthful disillusion, 8 p.m. June 23-25, 30 and July 1-2; 2 p.m. June 19 and 26. The Pollard Theatre, 120 W. Harrison Ave., Guthrie, 405-282-2800, thepollard.org. OKC Improv Summer Show, improvisational music and comedy from local performers. The Paramount Theatre, 11 N. Lee Ave., 405-637-9389, theparamountokc.com. FRI The Agony & the Agony, a once-promising playwright, he finds himself a virtual shut-in with only rejection letters to amuse himself until his wife meets a leading producer who also happened to have written his last rejection letter and he starts to write again; a series of events continues to complicate matters further, 8 p.m. June 24-25, July 1-2, 8-9 and 15-16; 7:30 p.m. July 7 and 14. Carpenter Square Theatre, 806 W. Main St., 405-232-6500, carpentersquare.com.

Oklahoma City Burlesque Festival Put a little razzle dazzle into your week with the 4th Annual Oklahoma City Burlesque Festival. The festivities start 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Lyric Theater, 1725 NW 16th St. Doors open 7 p.m. With over a dozen different performers showcasing all manner of burlesque, aerial acts and belly dancing, this is one festival you won’t want to miss. Performers include Oklahoma City’s Adèle Wolf, Cassidy Queerface, Mia May and Toxa Tarantula as well as many special guests from out of town. Tickets are $25-$50. Visit okcburlesquefest.com or call 405-445-1696. Friday-Saturday Photo Adèle Wolf / provided

Hardboiled Space Boogie: A Cowboy Bebop Art Show, art show paying tribute to the genre-defying classic Cowboy Bebop, featuring original art celebrating all things that make him unique along with live music, 8 p.m. June 25. 51st Street Speakeasy, 1114 NW 51st St., 405-463-0470, 51stspeakeasy.com.

Oklahomans for Health Volunteer Conference A New England Journal of Medicine study showed that 76 percent of doctors approve of it, and dozens of medical conditions it treats are listed. Oklahomans for Health is asking the public to help in its fight for the legalization of medical marijuana. The group is pushing for a state question. Volunteers interested in gathering signatures for the state question at polling places on Tuesday should attend a conference 6-8 p.m. Monday at 5601 NW 72nd Street, Room 178F, in Warr Acres. Visit oklahomansforhealth.com or the Oklahomans for Health Volunteer Conference page on Facebook. Monday-Tuesday Photo Garett Fisbeck

OKC Improv Summer Show, improvisational music and comedy from local performers. The Paramount Theatre, 11 N. Lee Ave., 405-637-9389, theparamountokc.com. SAT Sunday Twilight Concert Series, free concert every Sunday, 7:30-9 p.m. June-September. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-445-7080, oklahomacitybotanicalgardens.com/events. SUN In the Next Room, a comedy about marriage, intimacy and electricity set in the 1880s and based on the bizarre historical fact that doctors used vibrators to treat hysterical women. Civic Center Music Hall, CitySpace Theatre, 201 N. Walker Ave., 405-297-2584, okcciviccenter.com. THU

ACTIVE

Spring 2016 Show, featuring works in oil, acrylic, watercolor and mixed media; handmade jewelry and ceramic sculptures also are featured. The Studio Gallery, 2642 W. Britton Road, 405-7522642, thestudiogallery.org.

Dances With Brushes, longtime Norman artist Mitsuno Ishii Reedy began her career in mid-1970’s painting award winning portraits, still lifes, and landscapes for collectors throughout the United States. The Depot, 200 S. Jones Ave., Norman, 405-307-9320, pasnorman.org.

Lowell Ellsworth Smith: My Theology of Painting, featuring watercolor studies and Lowell Smith’s own words and observations, it introduces man, his methods, and his belief in the power and potential of creative energy. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org.

GeoEthics, Ying Kit Chan uses a wide range of media and employs environmental ethics alongside Taoist and Buddhist ideologies to examine our relationship with nature, form the mental impact of contemplation to the actions resulting in environmental degradation. [Artspace] at Untitled, 1 NE Third St., 405-815-6665, artspaceatuntitled.org.

Her and Me, after losing her mother-in-law, March Artus, to leukemia, Oklahoma City artist Marilyn Artus was inspired to create a body of work from the thousands of beads March collected during her lifetime; Artus uses the colorful beads to create brightly hued female forms to comment on gender and color. The Project Box, 3003 Paseo St., 405609-3969, theprojectboxokc.com.

Contemporary West I, a feature of large-format expressionism paintings by Mary Bechtol and Laurie Justus Pace. Kasum Contemporary Fine Arts, 1706 NW 16th St., 405-604-6602, kasumcontemporary.com.

In a Circle, Vikki McGuire creates a new way of looking at nature through her colorful artwork. Contemporary Art Gallery, 2928 Paseo St., 405601-7474, contemporaryartgalleryokc.com. Then and Now, Lynden Wilcoxson recalls an image with a creative use of acrylics which has a watercolor look. Contemporary Art Gallery, 2928 Paseo St., 405-601-7474, contemporaryartgalleryokc.com. Ring Around the Roses, artist Candice Anderson displays her beautiful, oil-painted roses. Contemporary Art Gallery, 2928 Paseo St., 405601-7474, contemporaryartgalleryokc.com. The Wild, Wild West, ink drawings and acrylic, mixed-media paintings illustrate Renee Lawrence’s fantasies of the open American West. Contemporary Art Gallery, 2928 Paseo St., 405601-7474, contemporaryartgalleryokc.com. Best of the West, exhibit showcasing artwork by Harold Holden and Christa Blackwood. JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N. Walker Ave., 405-528-6336, jrbartgallery.com.

Sailing at Lake Hefner, sunset sailing and sailing lessons aboard a full-size boat. OKC Municipal Marina, 4407 S. Lake Hefner Drive, 405-922-7787, SailorBrains.com. SAT OKC Energy vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC, professional soccer game, 7 p.m. June 25. Taft Stadium, 2901 NW 23rd St., 405-235-5435, energyfc.com. SAT

Brent Greenwood, Chickasaw and Ponca artist Brent Greenwood is featured in the Pop-Up Studio at Exhibit C. Exhibit C, 1 E. Sheridan Ave., Ste. 100, 405-767-8900, exhibitcgallery.com.

Bands on the Run 5K, Oklahoma City-based Stop the Violence hosts its second annual 5K event. DJ K-Ruck, singer Devin Lewis, jazz musician Gordon Lizama and rock band Kittie in the Middle at various points on the 5K course. Stars & Stripes Park, 3701 S. Lake Hefner Drive, 405-297-3882, stoptheviolenceok.com/registration. SAT

Matisse in His Time: Masterworks of Modernism from the Centre Pompidou, Paris, experience the full scope of Matisse’s extraordinary career through nearly 50 of his paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints dating from the late 19th Century to after World War II; including additional major works by Picasso, Renoir, Braque and others. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com.

Youth Sailing Camps, learn everything you need to know about sailing including safety, parts of the boat, stirring, knots and lines, upwind and downing sailing, and much more during these full-day weekly camps, June 6-Aug. 5. Lake Hefner East Wharf, 9101 Lake Hefner Parkway. MON Rowing Camps, half-day camps focus on rowing; full-day camps include rowing plus Riversport Adventures in the Boathouse District and whitewater rafting, through Aug. 5. Boathouse District, 725 S. Lincoln Blvd., 405-552-4040, boathousedistrict.org. MON OKC Dodgers vs. Round Rock, minor league baseball game, 7:05 p.m. June 21-24. Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, 2 S. Mickey Mantle Drive, 405218-1000, OKCdodgers.com. TUE

O. Gail Poole: Rediscovered Oklahoma Master, over the course of five decades, O. Gail Poole built, tore down and rebuilt his artistic style with breathtaking regularity, creating one of the most diverse bodies of work of his generation; a headturning collection of the master’s portraiture and landscapes. Gaylord-Pickens Oklahoma Heritage Museum, 1400 Classen Drive, 405-235-4458, oklahomaheritage.com.

Scattering Light: The Optics of Clouds, oil paintings by David Holland focus on how light interacts with clouds and also features educational components. Science Museum Oklahoma, 2020 Remington Place, 405-602-6664, sciencemuseumok.org. THU

where to wonder, where to wander, solo exhibition from Tim Stark; collection of works that bring to life the mix of blurry and clear moments whirling through the countryside between each stop. Mainsite Contemporary Art, 122 E. Main St., Norman, 405-360-1162, mainsite-art.com.

Charity Golf Tournament, Riverwind Casino hosts the four-person scramble tournament. Proceeds benefit Norman classrooms and children with chronic illnesses. The Trails Golf Club, 3200 S. Berry Road, Norman, 405-364-3790. MON

Handmade jewelry, handmade jewelry by Carol Egger. 50 Penn Place Gallery, 1900 Northwest Expressway, Suite 113-R, 405-848-5567, 50pennplacegallery.com.

Crossroads of Commerce, Oklahoma history buffs won’t want to miss this exhibit showcasing the growth and development of Oklahoma’s economy from 1716 to statehood, the Dust Bowl, the depression, and all the way to present day. Oklahoma History Center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive, 405-521-2491, okhistory.org/historycenter. Free Admission for Military: Blue Star Museums Program, free admission to National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is available for activeduty military personnel and their families, including the National Guard and Reserve through Labor Day, Sept. 5. Blue Star Museums is a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Art, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense and more than 2,000 museums across America, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org. Adult Summer Camp, Current Studio transforms into an art camp for adults with opportunities to learn new skills and crafts. Current Studio, 1218 N. Pennsylvania Ave., 405-673-1218, currentstudio.org. Jerry Piper, mixed media artist focuses on texture, design and brilliant manipulation of color. The Purple Loft Art Gallery, 514 NW 28th St., Suite 400, 405-412-7066.

Summer Block Party Current Studio hosts a block party 7-11 p.m. Saturday. Organizers transform the parking lot east of Pennsylvania Avenue between 11th and 12th streets for its summer celebration. The studio’s adult summer camp week projects will be on display. The party also features other art, music, poetry, games and food. Adventures in Stereo, Kali Ra, Gregory Jerome and Original Flow perform. Organizers encourage guests to bring chairs and lawn games. Admission is free. Visit currentstudio.org. Saturday Photo Gazette file

Calendar 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 405528-4600 or e-mail them to listings@ okgazette.com. Sorry, but phone submissions cannot be accepted.

For okg live music

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MUSIC

Disco domination

Martha Wash brings First Ladies of Disco to OKC Pride Week’s outdoor Equality Concert on Friday. By Keaton Bell

Equality Concert 7 p.m. Friday Main Stage, 39th Street Enclave (aka The Strip) 39th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue okcpride.org Free

As one-half of pop duo The Weather Girls (“It’s Raining Men”), a solo artist who scored multiple dance hits in the ’80s and the voice behind some of the most recognizable hits of the ’90s, Martha Wash has secured her legacy as one of disco’s reigning divas. But if you were to ask her which project she has cherished being a part of the most, she doesn’t hesitate before mentioning First Ladies of Disco. Inspired by James Arena’s book of the same name about female vocalists who pioneered dance music in the ’70s, First Ladies of Disco is comprised of Wash, Evelyn “Champagne” King and Linda Clifford. As three of the biggest stars to come out of the disco era, the women form the ultimate brassy, big-voiced super group. “My manager came up with the idea to put a group together using some of the ladies that were in the original book,” Wash told Oklahoma Gazette. Friday, the ladies headline OKC Pride’s Equality Concert 7 p.m. on The Strip at 39th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, although Anita Ward performs for Clifford this weekend due to a scheduling conflict.

Self-expression

With her dramatic soprano voice, Wash always knew her life would revolve around music. She started singing gospel in church when she was about 3 years old and went on to take choir lessons. She performed any chance she got. “I always knew I would sing; I just didn’t know what genre it would be,” Wash said. “People know me from

Martha Wash joins First Ladies of Disco for OKC Pride’s Equality Concert on Friday. | Photo Mike Ruiz / provided

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singing dance and disco music, but to me, it’s all the same. I think that I just wanted to express myself in whatever type of music I could try.” Her career reflects that attitude. Her songs dabble in everything from R&B and soul to pop and even a little rock, but disco is where she made her biggest mark. From her early years singing background for dance music act Sylvester to providing vocals to dance hits like C+C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now),” her impact on the genre is undeniable. But Wash’s love spreads beyond music and even most passionately into the LGBT community. She was introduced to gay culture as a background singer for Sylvester, a drag performer and preeminent gay icon of the time. “We played in a lot of gay clubs, and that’s where my fan base started. It’s just progressed over the years,” Wash said. “I’ve always been a supporter of the gay community and things that are going on with them.” With disco being the genre of choice for the burgeoning gay community in the ’70s and ’80s, Wash essentially provided the soundtrack for the movement. But ask her why she thinks her work had such an impact on a gay audience and she will say she thinks it goes beyond sexual orientation. “There are a lot of female artists out there, but I just think that what they sing or how they sing to people, it catches their soul,” Wash said. “I’m grateful that the music I’ve done has touched so many people. I’m grateful they still know who I am and can still recall a lot of the songs that I’ve sang over the years. The gay community has been my biggest fan base, and I definitely appreciate them sincerely.”

Rights fight

When the nature of Wash’s relationship with her gay audience is brought up, she can’t help but get fired up about her political beliefs. If gay individuals are to be held to the same standard as every other United States citizen, such as paying taxes, then it’s unfair to deny them basic human rights. “They’re being treated like second-class citizens, and all people are supposed to be equal under the law,” Wash said. “If you want me to be equal under the law, I’ll do it, but if you don’t want me to be equal under the law, then don’t take my money because I’m paying taxes for things happening that I can’t be a part of.”

Another element of Wash’s resonance has been her outspoken support of LGBT causes, primarily in the fight against HIV and AIDS at a time when the stigma against gay people was at a high. “Unfortunately, I was there when it first started, and there was no research going on at the time,” Wash said. “People were just trying to help each other survive.” She described it as a terrifying period, particularly because the public was so poorly educated on the nature of the virus. “People didn’t know what was going on; only that it had to be a ‘gay disease,’ which it isn’t. But at that time, everything was blamed on gay people, so it was scary,” Wash said. “I’m hoping really soon that we can eradicate this thing, but thankfully, people are managing the virus and living longer, healthier lives. That’s the good thing.” Keeping in tone with that more celebratory attitude, Wash’s Equality Concert during OKC Pride Week is sure to be especially joyful. While the First Ladies of Disco are no strangers to packed venues, Wash said there’s something special about Pride appearances. “I think by being outside, everyone feels

We played in a lot of gay clubs, and that’s where my fan base started. It’s just progressed over the years. Martha Wash

a little bit more freer to dance around and have fun as opposed to being stuffed under a roof,” Wash said. “You can get a little more wild this way, just having fun and being free.” The crowd is also a major plus, with the mutual love-fest between performers and fans a big reason for First Ladies of Disco’s success. “The crowds at these festivals are always very responsive and into the music, and when you put out the energy and the audience gives it back, everybody wins,” she said. If there’s one piece of advice Wash offered festival guests, it was to have fun regardless of who you are or how old you are. “Some of you may be too young to remember the songs, but that’s okay!” Wash said. “Just come out, have fun and enjoy yourselves. We love our OKC fans for supporting our music over the decades, and we just wanna give them a really good show.”

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MUSIC

Hands up

Chris Carrabba crafted the latest Dashboard Confessional album between Thunder playoff games. By Ben Luschen

Oklahoma City Thunder fans watched as Criterion, 500 E. Sheridan Ave., with the Golden State Warriors pounded away Taking Back Sunday, Saosin with Anthony at the team’s series deficit during May’s Green and The Early November. Western Conference Finals. He grew up cheering for Michael Dashboard Confessional frontman and Jordan, a transcendent sports star unlike guitarist Chris Carrabba, any other the league had an admitted fan of the seen. Watching greatness National Basketball is part of what draws him Association (NBA), was to the Thunder, a team Taste of Chaos featuring two of the among that army of Thunder faithful. world’s best athletes. 6:30 p.m. June 30 Another reason for his “The last two games, The Criterion I just sat there like, ‘I fandom is an interest in 500 E. Sheridan Ave. can’t believe it,’” he said. Kevin Durant. The 2013criterionokc.com The face of one of the ’14 NBA Most Valuable 405-840-5500 Player has been one of early 2000s’ first emo $46 bands to break into Carrabba’s favorites since radio recently made music headlines after the days he wore a Longhorns jersey for he announced Dashboard Confessional the University of Texas. was writing a new studio album, its first “He’s a big guy — a giant guy — who can since 2009. shoot like that but real graceful, almost Carrabba still found time to take in the like [Dallas Mavericks forward] Dirk [Nowitzki],” Carrabba said. “Human NBA playoffs, despite time demands readybeings just aren’t supposed to be coning new tunes and preparing for the Taste of Chaos tour, which stops June 30 at The structed the way he is.”

Dashboard Confessional readies its first album since 2009. | Photo David Bean / provided

Carrabba said he has an equal amount of respect for Russell Westbrook. “He’s getting stats that are like, ‘Point guards don’t get those stats,’” he said.

Scene revival

There was a time when bands like Jimmy Eat World and Dashboard Confessional dominated the mainstream music spotlight. Carrabba said the success they experienced became a wellspring for emo bands that followed.

The scene came on strong and fast — maybe too fast. He compared its rise and fall to the way the Golden State Warriors became an NBA power within only a few years. “People didn’t hate on Golden State last year, but now they hate them,” he said. A very different sound commanded alternative airwaves when Dashboard Confessional started out in the late 1990s. continued on page 42

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Creed, Limp Bizkit and Korn lead brash post-grunge and nu-metal movements, but that heavier sound was losing its novelty. Dashboard Confessional’s 2000 debut, The Swiss Army Romance, provided the emotive gear-change. Jimmy Eat World further defined the momentum shift in 2001 with the success of its fourth album Bleed American. The scene expanded into the mid2000s. Carrabba said he doesn’t know if it was too much commercialism in the music or too much general popularity, but whatever “it” was, there was a lot of it. “We were extremely popular in a counterculture scene,” he said. “Then we got too popular in the mainstream — I’m speaking only about my band — to maintain the counterculture fans. Then we became less popular in the mainstream because we went away and the counterculture picked us up again. It can be cyclical.” Carrabba said contemporary acts Sorority Noise, Julien Baker and Modern Baseball lead a second wave of the sound’s revitalization. “I see good results,” he said. “It’s a vibrant time after a dormant period where there [were] not a lot of bands playing that kind of music.”

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Last summer, Carrabba and company hit the road with Third Eye Blind. It was Dashboard Confessional’s first tour in several years. The band didn’t intend to make a new record, but the experience reawakened the group. “When we finished the tour, I was just filled with songs. We started writing and recording but not thinking we were making a record,” Carrabba said. “Then you look up one day and you have 20 songs and you’re like, ‘Well, what am I doing here if I’m not making a record?’” Carrabba has not set a firm timetable for a new project. The band waited this long, so it might as well make sure it creates a project fans will be proud of. “When it’s done, it’s done, and when it’s right, we’ll put it out,” Carrabba said. Dashboard Confessional released “May” on May 19, its first new single in seven years. The band’s return to touring has given a generation of fans a chance to experience something that might have eluded them in the past: Dashboard Confessional’s live show. Carrabba said many fans were a little too young to experience the act’s concerts in its heyday. The singer advised guests to arrive early to shows because that is when he mills around and gets to know fans. He wants to connect with the people who have given him so much in his career while he is refocused on Dashboard Confessional. “That’s where my heart is completely right now,” he said.

Darla Z started her career as an entertainer by opening for Willie Nelson at Zoo Amphitheatre. | Photo provided

ran into the promoter for an upcoming Willie Nelson show. “Bill told him I had written a country song and that it was gonna be a huge hit,” she said. “I stood up in the middle of this restaurant and sang the song, and he asked me right there to open for Willie at the Zoo Amphitheatre.” After performing for over 10,000 people at that concert, she pursued music with more force. “The next one I opened for was Wayne Newton, and it evolved to me performing in Vegas,” Darla said. There, she met Bob Rozario, Bobby Darin’s main conductor and pianist, who became a mentor as Darla’s career progressed. She became a fixture in the Vegas circuit, making multiple appearances, filming two televisions shows and even headlining the iconic South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa. While Vegas is certainly a highlight of Darla’s career, her favorite performances have been the countless concerts she has done in Oklahoma. Last month, she opened for the iconic Gap Band at OKC Jazz Festival.

f e at u r e

Iconic aspirations

Dauntless Darla Oklahoma paralegal Darla Z has made a name for herself as a writer and Las Vegas singer. By Keaton Bell

It doesn’t take a lot to get Darla Z talking. Within the first minute of our conversation, she’s already reminiscing about the time she met Frank Sinatra (“I was 21. I was so nervous that my lips were shaking.”), setting the scene and recalling details like it happened yesterday. Next thing you know, she’s discussing her set at OKC Jazz Festival, her early life in Stillwater and the time a light fixture fell on her head at a hotel in New Orleans. But you can’t blame her for her eagerness to share these anecdotes. When you’ve lived a life as varied as Darla, it’s hard not to. At first, Darla Zuhdi led a fairly ordinary life. She grew up in Stillwater and sang in church. She met her husband Bill when she was 19 and married him when she was 20. “I started working with him in law practice, and I was a legal assistant for years,” she said. “In doing that, I learned that I liked writing because I really loved writing briefs, which evolved into the Cat Detectives books.” Darla began writing the series about a group of mystery-solving, globetrotting cats in 2000.

“The Cat Detectives books are so rewarding to me because the motto of the characters is to always protect others, no matter how big or small, and to have integrity when they would travel the world, solving mysteries,” she said. “I think being able to impart that wisdom for the children is the most rewarding thing for me.”

Happy notes

No matter how much Darla loved writing and her paralegal job, she had an unfulfilled passion. She was driving with her husband one day when he turned to her and asked what made her truly happy. “I said that when I get on stage to sing, it’s just really something else because it’s such a special feeling getting to being able to make people sing and smile,” she said. Her husband encouraged her. She definitely had experience with music. Growing up, she sang with the Christian Women’s Club with her mother. “We always used to make the little old women cry when we sang together,” she said. Her first break came when she and Bill

Darla’s throwback style is akin to traditional vocalists like Jo Stafford and Connie Francis. Her wardrobe of gowns and silk gloves and her set list ref lects this aesthetic. Tunes like “Fly Me to the Moon,” “Unchained Melody” and “As Time Goes By” are sprinkled throughout one of her Vegas specials. While there are modern-day artists that Darla admires, she is the first to admit she’s an old soul. “When I was young, I would sing with my parents the music from the ’30s and ’40s to the point that I could compete neck-andneck with any old-timer,” she said. “With Sinatra, his phrasing and the way he handles a lyric is something every artist wants to replicate, so I study a lot of his music and the way he breathes.” Her love of yesteryear extends to her love of film. “I really want to make a movie, a masterpiece that affects generations instead of just another movie,” Darla said, mentioning that the project she has in mind is already written. “It’s the next progression toward my goal of making something that’s in the style of Gone With the Wind, which is my favorite film.” Her relationships with Academy Awardnominated directors like John Avildsen, her experience with screenwriting and her passion might also make her film dreams a reality. For now, Darla keeps herself busy performing and working with Bill at their law firm. At the core of Darla’s drive is her passion for what she does, whether it’s writing, singing or performing. “There’s always going to be stuff that comes along in your life or naysayers that’ll try and divert you,” Darla said. “But if it’s something you really love and stay focused on — you visualize it, you believe it, you say it and you focus on it — it’ll become a reality.”

w i n 2 t i c k e t s to

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live music These are events recommended by Oklahoma Gazette editorial staff members. For full calendar listings, go to okgazette.com.

Midas 13, The Alley Club. ROCK Mike Updegrove, Bourbon Street Bar. BLUES Old Bulldog Band, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond. ROCK Robby Ray, Full Circle Bookstore. PIANO The Fairweather, Blue Note Lounge. ROCK , INDIE

WEDNESDAY, 6.22

The Headliners, Oklahoma City Limits. COVER

Chris Knight, The Blue Door. COUNTRY, SINGER/

Willow Way & Saint Loretto, VZD’s Restaurant & Club. FOLK , SINGER/SONGWRITER

SONGWRITER

Four Year Strong/Nine Kills/Life Lessons/Old Misery, 89th Street Collective. ROCK Gordon Lightfoot, Rose State College, Midwest City. SINGER/SONGWRITER Maurice Johnson, The R&J Lounge and Supper Club. JAZZ Scott Lowber/Will Galbraith/Ed VanBuskirk, Friends Restaurant & Club. COVER Than Medlam, Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

SUNDAY, 6.26 Ben de la Cour and Andy Adams, The Blue Door.

FOLK

Brandy Zdan, Lions Park. ROCK Musicians Support Party Jam, Bourbon Street Bar. VARIOUS Sunday Jam Session with Tyler Lee & Friends, Oklahoma City Limits. BLUES

ACOUSTIC

Levi Parham McAlester native Levi Parham hits the stage one day before the release of his anticipated debut, full-length LP These American Blues. The Americana singer-songwriter’s previous album, 2014’s Avalon Drive, saw the breakout success of singles “Never Coming Home to Me” and “Ruby.” His show begins 8 p.m. Thursday at The Blue Door, 2805 N. McKinley Ave. Tickets are $20. Visit ticketstorm.com, bluedoorokc.com or call 405-524-0738. Thursday Photo Music Road Records / provided Citizen Cope, Cain’s Ballroom, Tulsa. SINGER/

TUESDAY, 6.28

THURSDAY, 6.23

James McCartney, The Blue Door. SINGER/

SONGWRITER

Ape Machine, Blue Note Lounge. ROCK Kyle Dillingham & Horseshoe Road, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond. VARIOUS The Garage, Bourbon Street Bar. BLUES , ROCK

FRIDAY, 6.24 Big G, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond. BLUES Despero/Station 5150, First Pastafarian Church, Norman. ROCK Jack Rowdy, Oklahoma City Limits. Country

Limber Limbs, Blue Note Lounge. ROCK , INDIE Meanstreak, Bourbon Street Bar. ROCK

SONGWRITER

Mama Sweet, The Depot, Norman. VARIOUS

The Browning, 89th Street Collective. ROCK , ELECTRONIC

WEDNESDAY, 6.29 Curtis McMurtry, The Blue Door. COUNTRY, SINGER/SONGWRITER

Maurice Johnson, The R&J Lounge and Supper Club. JAZZ Maxwell, The Criterion. R&B Scott Lowber/Will Galbraith/Ed VanBuskirk, Friends Restaurant & Club. COVER

Midas 13, The Alley Club. ROCK Rachel Platten, Frontier City. POP Chase Rice, Cain’s Ballroom, Tulsa. COUNTRY

SATURDAY, 6.25 2 Bit Palomino & Buffalo Rogers, The Blue Door. SINGER/SONGWRITER

Legends Night, Urban Johnnie. JAZZ

j u n e 2 2 , 2 0 1 6 | O kg a z e t t e . c o m

Live music 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 405528-4600 or e-mail them to listings@ okgazette.com. Sorry, but phone submissions cannot be accepted.

go to okgazette.com for full listings!

puzzles

VOL. XXXV-III No. 25

New York Times Magazine Crossword Puzzle ATTENDING PHYSICIANS

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By Finn Vigeland | Edited by Will Shortz | 0619 Across 1 Jump to conclusions 7 Off-guard 12 Medium 19 Has reservations 20 It may be waved from the top of a pyramid 22 Olympic group in red, white and blue 23 Result of shaking a soda too hard before opening? 25 Parts of many modern addresses 26 In ____ (gestating) 27 Homecoming giveaways 28 Herbert of the Pink Panther films 30 Limited 31 5 is a high one 32 Busy Apr. workers 34 Noted sexologist, in her infancy? 36 Yahoos 38 Common tidbits in fried rice 40 “Is That All There Is” singer Peggy 41 Any day now 43 Daniel ____ National Forest 44 Stocking stuffer 45 Heroine of The Rocky Horror Picture Show 47 Strike caller 48 “The paternity results are in … it’s the protagonist of a long-running BBC sci-fi show!”? 51 Bury 53 Masseuse’s stock 54 Messages you don’t want to send to your parents accidentally 55 Nosy person’s request 57 Watson’s creator 58 Element of one’s inheritance 59 Go to ____ 60 Cousins of gulls 62 Maiden name of Harry Potter’s mother 64 1970s-’80s Sixers star and friends? 68 Take out to dinner 70 Area with RNs 72 Disorder that the Ice Bucket Challenge benefited, for short 73 Certain Facebook reaction button 75 Collar 77 One of Spain’s Balearic Islands 79 Ones fully agreeing with you, metaphorically

Kind of pick “PU!” Controversial TV personality’s magical sidekick? “I’m not overwhelmed” Overwhelms, as with humor Ironically, small Starbucks size “Two thumbs up!” “Quién ____?” (“Who knows?”: Sp.) QB’s try: Abbr. Primal Fear star, 1996 Rimes of country Hurt a Bond villain? A little progress, idiomatically Quick smoke? Loving, as eyes Inits. at Grand Central Terminal Feds Fanny ____, Barbra Streisand role Quickly Sign on Lucy’s Peanuts booth … or a hint to this puzzle’s theme Broccoli pieces Four Corners tribe What’s played mainly for kicks? Mid-Long Island community Rahm Emanuel’s post-White House title Not onboard, say

Down 1 Make sense 2 “Ish” 3 Sports bigwig every February 4 Alternative to a cab 5 Resort area in northeast Pa. 6 12-Across’s skill 7 “____ moi le déluge” 8 Big name in audio equipment 9 Audio equipment 10 Jump-start of sorts, in brief 11 Eucalyptus lovers 12 Our Children magazine org. 13 Release 14 The PLO’s Arafat 15 Just below average 16 Resolve a dispute in a modern way 17 Has the lights off, perhaps 18 Detective’s assignment 21 “Butt out!” briefly

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12 21

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Account EXECUTIVES Stephanie Van Horn, Saundra Rinearson Godwin, Elizabeth Riddle, Nathan Ward Joel Scott

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Frequent James Franco collaborator Rock whose name sounds good? Certain notebooks Where The Princess Diaries is set & 65 Technological escalations The Hunger Games star, in tabloids Pattern for a forensic scientist Future dealings? Chip material Financial ____ Dickens nom de plume Beat Department head In fine shape Yemeni seaport Baseball VIPs

New York Times Crossword Puzzle answers

83 84 86 87 90 94 96 97 99 100 101 103 104 105 107 108 110 112 114 115

EDITOR-in-chief Jennifer Palmer Chancellor jchancellor@okgazette.com

Like many uneditable files “Cry me a river!” Tabloid twosome Stereotypically rowdy dudes 1961 Michelangelo Antonioni drama Awards won by Stephen King and Agatha Christie Successor to South Carolina’s Thurmond in the Senate Time to give up? Kentucky Derby winner’s wreath Abbr. on a cover sheet Furnishings More dangerous in the winter, say Comedy, e.g. Loopy little films? Down Under greeting Bad thing to lose Rolling in it Superlative finish Longoria of Telenovela She-bear: Sp.

T O O D L E O O H E C K L E O B E S E

S S W I T S O T O O P C H U E T W E S Y F I F F E T V E E E R N

B O N A H A R E

A R G O O D O R

E E G R G A

S I S I M O V I E N I G H T

O O R R I C E M N E T R H Y

I O U S E R E A Y E A S A A X E D

C L I M B

S E T

J A W B E F O B U N A B L E N D N A S Y A O U A N F E O W N E R H A R T E P H E A D E S A L A T T O N A T S R A S

U S H E R

V E N D O R S O X O B I

Assistant EDITOR Brittany Pickering Staff reporters Greg Elwell, Laura Eastes, Ben Luschen Contributors Mark Beutler, Christine Eddington Jack Fowler, Jacob Oller Photographer Garett Fisbeck Editorial & PHotography Interns Keaton Bell, Candice Macis, Hannah Meeske, Erick Perry, Emmy Verdin Marketing & Editorial Intern Ian Jayne Marketing Intern Diondra Ross Circulation Manager Chad Bleakley ASSISTANT Circulation Manager Duke Fleischer Art Director Chris Street

Puzzle No. 0612, which appeared in the June 15 issue.

A W N U R H I N F O L L S E E A C L O S Y O O H R O M E U M P S S S A B S P A S T A L W E E K E R A S E E N P O S T A R E L I I C A N P O S T

Advertising Director Christy Duane, cduane@okgazette.com Account Executive / Advertising assistant Leah Roberts

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Stumped? Call 1-900-285-5656 to get the answers to any three clues by phone ($1.20 a minute). Fill in the grid so that every row, column and 3-by-3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9. www.printmysudoku.com Grid n°1544731925 medium

Receptionist/calendar Arden Biard, Coordinator

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Certain airline alerts, for short Knight’s greeting Continues forward Topless? Plead not guilty ____ and aahs Moue Good listeners “Ask Me Another” airer Suborn Directed the rowers Matchmaking site that asks, “Do you keep kosher?” Land in South America “You sure got me pegged!” Strong appetite Latin love Bird so named because of its call

Accounts receivable Karen Holmes

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Marketing Manager Kelsey Lowe Accounting/HR Manager Marian Harrison

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Sudoku Puzzle medium

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VP, CORPORATE AFFAIRS Linda Meoli 69

First-class mail subscriptions are $119 for one year, and most issues at this rate will arrive 1-2 days after publication.

Associate Publisher James Bengfort

Oklahoma Gazette is circulated at its designated distribution points free of charge to readers for their individual use and by mail to subscribers. The cash value of this copy is $1. Persons taking copies of the Oklahoma Gazette from its distribution points for any reason other than their or others’ individual use for reading purposes are subject to prosecution.

publisher Bill Bleakley

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Please address all unsolicited news items (non-returnable) to the editor.

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S T O L E

T R O L L

M A X I M S

E L A T E

D E F E A T E D

T H A T S T H A T

N O W I D E P E E

Print Production Coordinator Ashley Parks

O C C U L T

N I C E T Y

G O A D S

Graphic Designer Anna Shilling

M I A M I

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M I R A

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Advertising/Marketing Design Coordinator Erin DeMoss

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 Fax (405) 528-4600 Copyright © 2016 Tierra Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

O kg a z e t t e . c o m | J u n e 2 2 , 2 0 1 6

free will astrology Homework: What experience do you deny yourself even though it would be good for you and wouldn't hurt anyone? Write a note giving yourself permission. Share at Truthrooster@ gmail.com. ARIES (March 21-April 19) "The past lives on in

art and memory," writes author Margaret Drabble, "but it is not static: it shif ts and changes as the present throws its shadow backwards." That's a fertile thought for you to meditate on during the coming weeks, Aries. Why? Because your history will be in a state of dramatic fermentation. The old days and the old ways will be mutating every which way. I hope you will be motivated, as a result, to rework the story of your life with flair and verve.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) "Critics of text-

messaging are wrong to think it's a regressive form of communication," writes poet Lily Akerman. "It demands so much concision, subtlety, psychological art — in fact, it's more like pulling puppet strings than writing." I bring this thought to your attention, Taurus, because in my opinion the coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to apply the metaphor of textmessaging to pretty much everything you do. You will create interesting ripples of success as you practice the crafts of concision, subtlety, and psychological art.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) During my careers as a

writer and musician, many "experts" have advised me not to be so damn faithful to my muse. Having artistic integrity is a foolish indulgence that would ensure my eternal poverty, they have warned. If I want to be successful, I've got to sell out; I must water down my unique message and pay homage to the generic formulas favored by celebrity artists. Luckily for me, I have ignored the experts. As a result, my soul has thrived and I eventually earned enough money from my art to avoid starvation. But does my path apply to you? Maybe; maybe not. What if, in your case, it would be better to sell out a little and be, say, just 75 percent faithful to your muse? The next 12 months will be an excellent time for you to figure this out once and for all.

J u n e 2 2 , 2 0 1 6 | O kg a z e t t e . c o m

By Rob Brezny

CANCER (June 21-July 22) My meditations have generated six metaphorical scenarios that will symbolize the contours of your life story during the next 15 months: 1. a claustrophobic tunnel that leads to a sparkling spa; 2. a 19th-century Victorian vase filled with 13 fresh wild orchids; 3. an immigrant who, after tenacious effort, receives a green card from her new home country; 4. an eleven-year-old child capably playing a 315-year-old Stradivarius violin; 5. a menopausal empty-nester who falls in love with the work of an ecstatic poet; 6. a humble seeker who works hard to get the help necessary to defeat an old curse.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Joan Wasser is a Leo singersongwriter who is known by her stage name Joan As Police Woman. In her song "The Magic," she repeats one of the lyric lines fourteen times: "I'm looking for the magic." For two reasons, I propose that we make that your mantra in the coming weeks. First, practical business-as-usual will not provide the uncanny transformative power you need. Nor will rational analysis or habitual formulas. You will have to conjure, dig up, or track down some real magic. My second reason for suggesting "I'm looking for the magic" as your mantra is this: You're not yet ripe enough to secure the magic, but you can become ripe enough by being dogged in your pursuit of it. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Renowned martial artist

Bruce Lee described the opponent he was most wary of: "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." In my astrological opinion, you should regard that as one of your keystone principles during the next 12 months. Your power and glory will come from honing one specific skill, not experimenting restlessly with many different skills. And the coming weeks will be en excellent time to set your intention.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) To celebrate my birthday,

I'm taking time off from dreaming up original thoughts and creative spurs. For this horoscope, I'm borrowing some of the BOLD Laws of author Dianna Kokoszka. They are in sweet alignment with your

astrological omens for the next 13 months. Take it away, Dianna. 1. Focus on the solution, not the problem. 2. Complaining is a garbage magnet. 3. What you focus on expands. 4. Do what you have always done, and you will get what you have always gotten. 5. Don't compare your insides to other people's outsides. 6. Success is simple, but not easy. 7. Don't listen to your drunk monkey. 8. Clarity is power. 9. Don't mistake movement for achievement. 10. Spontaneity is a conditioned reflex. 11. People will grow into the conversations you create around them. 12. How you participate here is how you participate everywhere. 13. Live your life by design, not by default.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Capricorn

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) No pressure, no

talk without the rocks," says aphorist James Richardson. Does that sound like a metaphor you'd like to celebrate in the coming weeks? I hope so. From what I can tell, you will be like a clean, clear stream rippling over a rocky patch of river bed. The not-really-all-thatbad news is that your flow may feel erratic and jerky. The really good news is that you will be inspired to speak freely, articulately, and with creative zing.

diamond. No grit, no pearl. No cocoon, no butterfly. All these clichés will be featured themes for you during the next 12 months. But I hope you will also come up with fresher ways to think about the power and value that can be generated by tough assignments. If you face your exotic dilemmas and unprecedented riddles armed with nothing more than your culture's platitudes, you won't be able to tap into the untamed creativity necessary to turn problems into opportunities. Here's an example of the kind of original thinking you'll thrive on: The more the growing chamomile plant is trodden upon, the faster it grows.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) The royal courts

of Renaissance England often employed professional fools whose job it was to speak raw or controversial truths with comedic effect. According to the Royal Shakespeare Company, Queen Elizabeth once castigated her fool for being "insufficiently severe with her." The modern-day ombudsman has some similarities to the fool's function. He or she is hired by an organization to investigate complaints lodged by the public against the organization. Now would be an excellent time for you to have a fool or ombudsman in your own sphere, Sagittarius. You've got a lot of good inklings, but some of them need to be edited, critiqued, or perhaps even satirized.

journalist Katie Couric is a best-selling author who has interviewed f ive American presidents and had prominent jobs at three major TV networks. What's her secret to success? She has testified that her goal is to be as ingratiating and charming as she can be without causing herself to throw up. I don't often recommend this strategy for you, but I do now. The coming weeks will be prime time for you to expand your web of connections and energize your relationships with existing allies by being almost too nice. To get what you want, use politeness as your secret weapon.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) "The water cannot

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Every now and then

you may benefit from being a bit juvenile, even childlike. You can release your dormant creativity by losing your adult composure and indulging in freeform play. In my astrological opinion, this is one of those phases for you. It's high time to lose your cool in the best possible ways. You have a duty to explore the frontiers of spontaneity and indulge in I-don'tgive-a-cluck exuberance. For the sake of your peaceof-soul and your physical health, you need to wriggle free of at least some of your grown-up responsibilities so you can romp and cavort and frolic.

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.

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

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