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free every wednesday | Metro OKC’s Independent Weekly | october 3, 2018

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After a near-death experience, the Donnay Building gets a new lease on life.

By George Lang, P. 21

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inside COVER P. 21 After a near-death experience, the Donnay Building on Classen Circle will undergo extensive renovations in 2019.

By George Lang Cover by Kimberly Lynch

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NEWS 4 Election race for attorney general 6 City Airbnb in historic

neighborhoods

of-state company

9 State Sonic Corp. is sold to an out- 10 Chicken-Fried News

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NEWS Mike Hunter (center, pictured with Brock Hunter, Cheryl Hunter, Rachel Hunter and Barett Hunter) is the Republican candidate for Oklahoma attorney general. | Photo provided

“Opioid manufacturers are the root cause of the ongoing epidemic,” Hunter said. “These companies knew the addictive qualities of opioids and still preyed on the suffering of Americans for decades.”

He also sees improving Oklahoma’s incarceration system as a priority.

Hunter beat Republican rival Gentner Drummond in the primary election by an estimated 300 votes. He will face off against democrat Mark Myles on Nov. 6.

Election

The underdog

OK law

Oklahoma Gazette takes a look at the candidates for Oklahoma attorney general.

By Nazarene Harris

The incumbent

Mike Hunter is a serious man. That’s a description that can be expected from someone whose job tasks include handling criminal and civil prosecutions, enforcing the laws of the state, overseeing a $38.4 million budget, managing over 100 employees and proposing legislation that would protect citizens.

Hunter will be the first to admit that his responsibilities as Oklahoma’s attorney general are not ones he takes lightly.

“This job is important and complicated,” Hunter said. “You have to have a broad understanding of Oklahoma’s government to make it work.”

That being said, it doesn’t take long for Hunter to reference one of his favorite movie lines mid-conversation.

Hunter is a self-proclaimed movie fanatic. When the professional 62-yearold smiles, one can’t be sure if he’s in the moment or recalling one of his favorite movie scenes.

When the topic is family, smiles are plentiful.

“My mother was a special woman,” Hunter said proudly at his campaign office in Oklahoma City. “She was an artist, a poet and a voracious reader. We had books tumbling out of our house.”

Hunter grew up on a cattle and wheat farm near Enid. His father died in 1986, and his mother died a few years ago. The fondness his siblings had for life on their farm allowed Hunter the opportunity to explore options outside Garfield County.

He initially had his sights set on a career in nuclear engineering but changed his mind upon learning about the safety risks of the industry brought to light after the death of Crescent chemical technician Karen Silkwood in 1974.

Hunter studied his favorite subject, history, at Oklahoma State University.

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In college, he found heroes in the great figures of U.S history. Among those, he said, are Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.

He added Frank Keating to the list when he began working as the former governor’s secretary of state in 1999. Hunter said his mother has always been first on the list.

He later earned a law degree from University of Oklahoma, where he met his wife Cheryl, an attorney and former member of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. The couple has two sons.

Before serving as Oklahoma’s secretary of state under Keating, Hunter was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

He served as J.C. Watts’ chief of staff from 1995 until 1999, during which time he lived and traveled between Washington D.C., Norman and Lawton.

Last year, he was appointed attorney general after Scott Pruitt was confirmed administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In his brief time as attorney general, he is most proud of attacking the state’s opioid crisis head-on.

“Eighty percent of opioid addictions begin with a prescription,” Hunter said.

“When I learned that, I used it as a starting place.”

An even greater heartbreak came when he learned that over 800 infants in Oklahoma were born addicted to opioids last year.

In May, he helped create and pass seven opioid addiction prevention- and treatment-related bills to the governor, who signed each one into law.

In August, he vowed to support the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations’ lawsuits against the country’s leading manufacturers of opioids.

If 62-year-old attorney Mark Myles wins Oklahoma’s general election race in November, he will become the state’s first black attorney general. The opportunity to make history, he said, is exciting. And the chance to change Oklahoma for the better is even more so.

“There’s enormous opportunity here to make a difference in the lives of Oklahomans,” Myles said.

As attorney general, Myles said he would make changes in the state’s prisons, health laws, environment, schools and streets.

He was born in Germany, where his father was stationed in the U.S. Army.

The family moved to Lawton when Myles was in the sixth grade. He spent his youth immersed in books and basketball, football and track.

“I was decent,” Myles said of his athletic abilities.

His campaign manager, Daniela Busciglio, tagged along to a local coffee shop where Myles met with Oklahoma Gazette for an interview.

“He’s being modest,” she said. “He had several letterman jackets.”

Myles smiled and shrugged.

“They’re gone now, but that’s OK,” he said.

Myles’ letterman jackets, along with other sentimental items like a congratulatory letter he received from his former boss at IBM, were stolen from his Mesta Park home a few weeks ago in a burglary he believes was political in nature.

“It seems that way,” Myles said. “Why wouldn’t they take my wife’s jewelry, the furniture, our fine dining ware? But it’s just stuff. Life goes on.”

Myles, the only Democrat who chose to run against Hunter, said he doesn’t have any enemies and has experienced nothing but kindness during his 77 Strong Tour, his mission to visit and campaign in all of Oklahoma’s 77 counties before election day.

After high school, Myles attended Oklahoma State University, where he studied economics and engineering.

Following college, he enjoyed 21 years with IBM until April 19, 1995, when the Oklahoma City Bombing changed his life.

Myles’ office was not far from where the bombing occurred, and the YMCA

building that was impacted by the bombing was where his daughter was scheduled to attend daycare.

“Just a few weeks before the bombing, we decided to keep her home a little while longer,” Myles said.

All of it, he said, hit too close to home.

“I didn’t understand how that could happen or why,” Myles said.

He poured himself into volunteer work with the Red Cross and felt closer to Oklahomans than he’d ever felt in his life.

“I was around these people whose lives were all about service,” Myles said.

“I walked away from the Red Cross wanting to be more like the people I volunteered with.”

Myles left IBM and went to law school at University of Oklahoma.

After working as a prosecutor and defense attorney, Myles said, he is ready for the job he has dreamed of for years.

As Oklahoma’s attorney general, Myles said he would bring some much-needed change to the state.

Mark Myles is the Democratic candidate for Oklahoma attorney general. | Photo Alexa Ace

His four priorities would be ensuring public safety, improving public health, gauging public trust and looking out for the public’s interest.

Specific goals he hopes to achieve include ensuring prison time for violent criminals while rehabilitating and releasing nonviolent criminals. He would redirect the money that would otherwise be used to house nonviolent criminals to fund teachers and schools.

Election day

The term of Oklahoma’s attorney general begins the first Monday in January and runs parallel to the term of the state’s new governor. Hunter or Myles will serve as state attorney general for four years.

The general election is Nov. 6. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 12.

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House rules

Historic neighborhoods’ requests for homesharing regulations shed light on past inequities.

By Nazarene Harris

Oklahoma City councilmembers addressed issues of home-sharing Sept.

25 amid a crowd of advocates and adversaries.

Community members from historic neighborhoods Edgemere Park and Heritage Hills requested amendments to a city ordinance that, if passed, would allow for home sharing businesses throughout the city to operate with relative ease. The amendments would, in theory, make it more difficult for residents of those historic neighborhoods to operate home-sharing businesses.

For months, Oklahoma City homeowners for and against the ordinance have spoken at city council meetings.

Tuesday’s meeting included remarks

by Jim Hopper and Jeff Penner with Oklahoma Hotel & Lodging Association; Eric Groves, who represents Edgemere Park; David Box, who represents Heritage Hills; and Cameron Spradling, who represents Airbnb owners in Oklahoma City.

“Our concern is neighborhood instability that would be created by too many or the wrong kind of home-sharing arrangements in our neighborhoods,” Suzanne Broadbent said.

Broadbent is a Putnam Heights resident who asked the council to add Putnam Heights to the group of historic neighborhoods that would have additional home-sharing restrictions placed upon them.

The “wrong kind” of arrangements, Box explained, could arise in the instance of Airbnb occupants looking to have a good time in a neighborhood they don’t belong to.

“There’s a whole other set of people who stay at Airbnbs,” Box said, “like a 6

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group of guys looking to have a bachelor party over a weekend.”

A party atmosphere inclusive of loud noise, overcrowded parkways, drinking and driving opportunities and the like are reasons residents expressed a desire to distance themselves from home-sharing operatives.

Shamefully separate

But Ward 2 councilman Ed Shadid said the historic neighborhoods’ desire to operate on a set of rules different from those governing the rest of the city brought back unpleasant memories of a different kind of separation.

“These are some of my favorite neighborhoods in the city,” Shadid said.

“But there’s also … a dark side to our city’s history. Anyone who was black wasn’t allowed to lease or own a home in Edgemere Park until 1975. When I hear a group of neighborhoods say they don’t want some of ‘those people,’ it evokes some of that hurt.”

Shadid referred to the following section of Edgemere Park’s charter created in 1927: “Said property shall not … at any time be leased, sold, devised, inured or conveyed to or inherited by … any person of African descent commonly known as Negros or any person of Mongolian or Malay descent. That said property shall not at any time be lived upon by any person whose blood is that of the races named above.”

Box said that while the community’s past beliefs are unfortunate, similar community charters existed throughout Oklahoma and across Southern states during the same time period.

Racism, Box said, has no place today within Edgemere Park or Heritage Hills.

Representing Heritage Hills residents, David Box addressed the city council Sept. 25. | Photo provided

Groves said the historic neighborhoods deserve additional regulations due to the fact that they are, in fact, historic.

“I’ve lived in Edgemere Park since 1974,” Groves said. “Our land was deemed HP (historically preserved), and as a result of that, a couple things happened. The neighborhood was afforded a layer of protection that’s not afforded to some other neighborhoods.

We also have different responsibilities.

We can’t change the exterior of our homes without going to the HP commission and seeking a Certificate of Appropriateness. Most of us don’t mind this though we’ve sure had our fair share of arguments over the years … about windows and garages and things. If Airbnb-type operations are allowed in places like Edgemere, it will be a fundamental change in the zoning district.”

Groves said that while neither he nor Box are outright opposed to homesharing businesses taking place in their historic neighborhoods, they are insistent that such operations come with additional restrictions.

These are some of my favorite neighborhoods in the city, but there’s also a dark side to our city’s history.

Ed Shadid Groves said their requested amendment calls for Edgemere Park and Heritage Hills residents who wish to operate Airbnb businesses on their properties to give notice to their neighbors about their desire to do so, to participate in a neighborhood hearing in which neighbors can voice any concerns they might have and to be present in their home during the duration of an Airbnb guest’s stay.

Current home-sharing requirements listed on the city’s website include only that the home listed for use is the homeowner’s primary residence, the property is zoned for residential use, the homeowner pay a hotel tax of 5.5 percent if more than one bedroom is used, the homeowner complete appropriate business tax forms, the homeowner obtain an OKC hotel-motel license for $24 and the homeowner maintain appropriate building codes if four or more bedrooms are used.

Currently, there are over 300 homeowners within Oklahoma City who share their homes through services like Airbnb. Several operators live in historic preservation communities.

Penner said he and Hotel & Lodging Association members would like to see even more regulations placed upon Oklahoma City’s Airbnb operations.

“We are respectfully asking you to add some teeth to this home-share ordinance,” Penner said to councilmembers. “I’d like to point out that less than 20 percent of Airbnb’s business is true home-sharing where the owner is present during the guest’s stay. Thirtytwo percent of Airbnb’s U.S. revenue is not being generated by middle-class folks but by multi-unit operators who rent out two or more entire home units.

Even more convincing is that this is the fastest-growing segment of Airbnb’s business.”

Penner went on to request that OKC Airbnb operations be regulated the same way hotels within the city are. He said regulations should enforce parking requirements, code inspections, tax collections and safety protocols.

Changing times

Spradling said proponents of additional regulations are living in the past.

“Airbnbs are good for Oklahoma City and for our economy,” he said. “I myself live in a historical home in Edgemere Park. I have never met my next-door neighbor. She is an absentee owner who leases out her house to three to four millennials every year. I have to deal with parties and an unkempt lawn. I would much rather she furnish her home and use it as an Airbnb.”

Regulation advocates are equally unaware, Spradling said, of who Airbnb guests are.

“I can tell you that one of our Airbnb owners keeps an Airbnb near a prosthetic center because he has a 54-yearold client who tragically lost a limb and has to visit the center five times a month. She does not want to climb stairs in a hotel or get on an elevator with her new prosthetic device. She wants to have the privacy of being in a homelike atmosphere where she can learn to walk again.”

Spradling warned councilmembers that national Airbnb representatives have fought against city regulations through lawsuits in other states and that they will not hesitate to do so in OKC if necessary.

Hotel & Lodging Association representatives said on Tuesday that if a lawsuit is brought against the city, they will offer their unwavering support.

City councilmembers voted to readdress the home-sharing ordinance during the Oct. 25 meeting.

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NEWS

S TAT E

Georgia-based owner Inspire Brands will buy Sonic for $2.3 billion. | Photo Bigstock.com

Sonic sale

With the sale of Sonic Corp. to Inspire Brands, Oklahomans hold tight to their memories and the beloved ice. By Nazarene Harris

On Sept. 25, Oklahoma City-based Sonic Corp. officials announced the sale of their company and its more than 3,600 Sonic Drive-In locations to Inspire Brands Inc., owners of Arby’s and Buffalo Wild Wings, for $2.3 billion.

The amount will include any debt accrued by the company, Sonic spokeswoman Christi Woodworth said. The deal will not be finalized until close to the end of the year when Sonic’s shareholders will receive $43.50 per share in cash.

According to business experts, the sale is by all accounts a good deal for shareholders and Oklahoma City-based executives. But across the state and on social media, Oklahomans whose childhood memories and daily routines involve the popular drive-in mourn the loss.

“It’s just kind of sad news,” said Jill Johnston Luker, who grew up in Davis.

“Growing up in a small town in the 1980s, going to Sonic with my family was the highlight of my week. We would go to nearby cities to grocery shop, and I always knew that if the place had a Sonic, then it was a legit town.”

Similar sentiments can be found on social media. President of Normanbased Fowler Automotive Group Jonathan Fowler asked social media followers to share their thoughts regarding Sonic’s Oklahoma departure using the hashtag #dontchangetheice.

Woodworth said Sonic will remain headquartered in OKC and will continue to operate independently after the buyout, but locals like Fox 25 news reporter Phil Cross expressed concern online.

“Sonic has been such a huge part of Oklahoma and OKC … and has given a lot back to this state,” Cross said on social media. “Way too early to tell what this means for anyone ... but what a shocker.”

Oklahoma Twitter user Makayla Smith said Friday nights at Sonic in high school are memories cemented in her mind forever.

“I met a girl today that said she’d never been to a Sonic,” Smith said on social media. “I’m sorry, but what did you do on Friday nights?”

On her 2005 debut album Some Hearts, Oklahoman Carrie Underwood paid tribute to Sonic.

“On any given Friday night, we’d drive a hundred miles between the Sonic and the grocery store,” Underwood sang on “I Ain’t in Checotah Anymore.”

“Laughing all the while with as many friends as I could pack in my daddy’s Ford, but I ain’t in Checotah anymore.”

How we Sonic

“America’s Drive-In,” as it is known today, was launched by World War II U.S. Army veteran and entrepreneur Troy Smith in 1953 in Shawnee, not far from Smith’s hometown, Seminole.

According to Bob Blackburn, executive director of Oklahoma Historical Society, Smith was born in Seminole in 1922. His father worked in the oil fields.

When Smith was 7 years old, he lost one of his eyes while playing with a BB gun.

Blackburn met Smith in 2009 when Blackburn was working on his book Sonic: The History of America’s Drive-In. “He was very humble, giving credit

to his associates who went into other states and made this Oklahoma company a national company,” Blackburn told The Oklahoman in 2009. “He was as excited seeing one of his associates succeed as he was to see his own stores succeed.”

Smith died in late 2009 at the age of 87, leaving behind his wife Dollie, daughter Leslie Baugh and son, Troy Smith Jr. At the time, Smith had eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

In 1940, before he enlisted in the Army, Smith married Dollie Twiggs.

Upon completing his military service, he returned to Oklahoma and set out to be his own boss. Smith worked as a milkman before opening a root beer stand he called Top Hat. While driving across the Texas-Louisiana border, Smith stopped at a local restaurant and was impressed by the way employees used personal intercoms to communicate with customers.

He took the idea home and incorporated it into Top Hat, which he renamed Sonic since he figured with the help of intercoms, customers and employees could communicate at Sonic speed, or the pace at which sound travels through air.

“The teenagers just went crazy,” Smith told the Associated Press in 2003. “They liked to say ‘Roger, over and out.’”

Smith decided that carhops delivering food on roller skates would complete the restaurant theme of 1950s diner meets speedy service.

In 1956, Smith negotiated his first franchise, which opened that same

year in Woodward. Early franchises cost $500, plus half a cent for each burger sold. To give Sonics across the nation a hometown feel, Smith gave franchisees liberty to customize their menus to fit local preferences, a practice that is still used today and will continue to be used, Woodworth said, when the company’s keys are handed over to Inspire.

According to pop culture online food magazine Thrillist.com, the most popular items on Sonic’s menu are the SuperSonic Bacon Double Cheeseburger, chili cheese tots and Sonic’s signature cherry limeade.

In Sonic’s 65-year history, the restaurant has offered customers 1.3 million drink combinations, Woodworth said. The company launched Sonic’s Limeades for Learning in 2009, and the philanthropic campaign has since donated $10.4 million to public school teachers across the nation.

Of the 278 Sonics in Oklahoma, 38 are located in Oklahoma City.

None of Sonic’s franchisees, Woodworth said, will be affected by the buyout since Sonic will become a privately held subsidiary, maintaining current management, employees and branding initiatives.

Sonic’s new owner oversees more than 4,700 Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings and Rusty Taco locations worldwide.

In Blackburn’s book, Sonic’s founder is portrayed as a man who believed in growth and viewed change positively.

“He believed in shared responsibility and shared profit,” Blackburn said.

“He believed in a collaborative process.”

While Sonic’s future will soon be in the hands of executives nearly 850 miles away, its roots are in the Sooner State, where memories of Sonic can never be replaced and loyal customers remain.

“If they keep that happy hour going,” Johnston Luker said, “they’ll have a lifelong fan in me.”

Sonic’s signature cherry limeade is one of the most popular items on the drive-in’s menu. | Photo Nazarene Harris

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chicken

friedNEWS Okie limeades

Airplane drunk

In Oklahoma City, we tend to arrest drunk people on the ground. They’ve had too much fun in Classen Curve, are out for a big night downtown or have put away too many and wandered out of the alcohol zone with a drink in their hands at a festival. They usually don’t come from the sky.

That all changed recently when Oklahoma City Police were called to Will Rogers World Airport to arrest a belligerent drunk on a red-eye flight traveling from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Orlando, Florida.

USA Today and KOCO.com reported that the Delta Airlines flight 2603 made an emergency landing at the airport after 29-year-old Derek Maas became aggressive and flight crew had to restrain him with zip ties. After being denied a drink but eventually receiving one, USA Today reported that he became violent and headbutted a male flight attendant. KOCO posted bodycam video footage of OKC police boarding the plane and detaining Maas, who was bleeding from his ear.

OKC police arrested Maas, who didn’t cause a fuss while being handcuffed and escorted from the plane, and charged him with public drunkenness. KOCO reported that Maas told police he drank five shots of whiskey before boarding the plane and asked police where he was after de-boarding the Boeing 757-200.

The last time Chicken-Fried News reporters had five shots of whiskey, we spent a lot of the night puking, woke up with inexplicable injuries and didn’t feel normal again for days. We don’t recommend it, especially if you’re going to be in a confined space, surrounded by strangers in a tin can 35,000 feet in the air.

Oklahoma news that almost broke the internet this week was the sale of Oklahoma headquartered company Sonic.

Before Oklahomans could process the breakup, but details emerged and it was thankfully determined that while the company was, in fact, sold to Arby’s and Buffalo Wild Wings macho parent company Inspire Brands for $2.3 billion, the fast food phenomena will remained headquartered in Oklahoma City.

Here’s a confession: The food has been kind of ... un-Inspire-ing. The ice, as we all know, remains topnotch. We’re not sure if it’s because there’s a Sonic around every corner in OKC or if its because there seems to be more fast food options in OKC now more than ever, but somehow Sonic has felt a little subsonic lately.

Business analyses confirmed that Sonic’s stock prices were low before the buyout but have risen ever since, making one wonder if desire is contagious.

It seems you never know how much you love something until it’s gone.

Had Sonic officials decided to leave the Sooner State altogether, CFN staffers certainly wouldn’t be giving the chain three out of five stars so much as we would be sobbing into our chili cheese tots.

While Sonic might not be the destination worth a long drive, it certainly hits the spot when you need a flavor jolt ASAP. And somehow America’s favorite carhops seem to occupy the childhood memories of us all.

How many of us remember taking a break from the summer heat to get a decadent scoop of ice cream from cool girls in roller skates?

We are a city on the rise, and while we’ve set our sights high, we’re not

connect to

Friendship at Central

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Chicken-Fried News knows what it’s like to be deprived of a frosty one. At the close of business on Friday, the CFN News Team marches downstairs to our walk-in cooler to grab some cold comfort to celebrate another week of snarking. One can only imagine the great gnashing of teeth, rending of garments and indignant adjustment of ascots and pince-nez when we learn that CFN intern and alcohol sherpa Wally forgot to reload the beer cave.

Well, if you walked into many grocery or convenience stores in the waning days of 3.2 ABV beer in September, it would not take much imagination. According to Fox 25, lovers of the weak stuff who ran out to get a case of Keystone Light to either enjoy the big game or pass a kidney stone often found empty coolers with maybe just a few cans of Bud Light Chelada rolling around.

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Beer brawling

“I think the beer brewers cut it off a little too quick,” said convenience store worker Greg Propes. “We’ve had some unhappy customers.”

Depriving Oklahomans of domestic beer is a sure-fire way to bring on the kind of violence normally reserved for some rural weddings or The Purge.

With that in mind, CFN barricaded itself inside our brew bunker and kept it cool. Wally, meanwhile, was locked out and had to contend with the marauding hordes. We hope he’s OK.

C

ready to give anything up just yet, especially our food.

So Inspire, while my Sonic might literally be your Sonic now, we’re still calling dibs on that happy building that warmly protects all of us Bricktown visitors strolling by below.

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145th & N. PENNSYLVANIA

EAT & DRINK

REVIEW

Chicken lasagna | Photo Alexa Ace

Penne thoughts

At its second location, Victoria’s The Pasta Shop delivers what has made it a Norman tradition.

By Jacob Threadgill

Victoria’s The Pasta Shop 3000 SW 104th St. victoriasthepastashop.com | 405-759-3580 What works: Chicken lasagna and marinara are good takes on a classic.

What needs work: The sauce should be finished in the pan with the pasta.

Tip: Try the pesto with the cheese-filled tortellini.

A commitment to fresh pasta has allowed Victoria’s The Pasta Shop to thrive at its Norman location for nearly 30 years. When it opened on Campus Corner in 1989, there weren’t the plethora of options there are now.

During that time, the store has doubled in size, and under current ow ners Chris a nd Shannon Roth, it

expanded to a south Oklahoma City location, 3000 SW 104th St., in 2014.

“You cannot beat that fresh pasta,” said Norman Victoria’s manager Cristi Miller. “It’s got a tooth to it that you don’t find elsewhere. [Victoria’s] success is determined by the success of the fresh pasta versus the dry pasta.”

Each day begins around 8 a.m. as kitchen staff start to prepare its seven fresh pasta types: spaghetti, fettuccini, black pepper linguine, whole-wheat linguine, tortellini and lasagna sheets.

When Victoria’s says it’s a pasta shop, that’s what it means. There are no entrée salads or sandwiches on the menu. Diners can choose from pre-selected pasta dishes, build-your-own-pasta or seven specialties, which include longtime house favorites like lasagna rolls (shrimp, spinach and cheese rolled up in strips of fresh lasagna; baked; and served with marinara and Alfredo sauce) for $10.99 or shrimp scampi for $9.99.

I’m not sure I’ve ever met a person who doesn’t love a good pasta dish, unless you are a hardline vegan or have an egg allergy like comedy perTortellini in pink sauce | Photo Alexa Ace

former and actor Jason Mantzoukas (How Did This Get Made? podcast, Netflix’s Big Mouth), where consuming raw or cooked eggs could be fatal.

I’ve listened to Mantzoukas detail the lengths to which he has had to go to avoid eating eggs on a couple of podcast appearances — WTF with Marc Maron and Doughboys (the comedy world’s ode to chain restaurants) — where the smallest details of the dish could render it dangerous for him. Something as innocuous as a candied pecan on a salad, which uses egg whites in the candying process, could send him to the emergency room.

I was a little surprised when the pasta arrived with the sauce on the side.

As I’m gingerly jogging through my early 30s, I’ve tried to adopt a flexitarian diet. I try to eat vegan or vegetarian two to four times per week and break the crutch of needing to eat 6 ounces of meat protein with every meal, but I simply couldn’t imagine a life without pasta.

My parents still like to tell the story of when I was a toddler and would only eat the standard plain pasta with butter at a local Luby’s. I enjoyed it so much that I once grabbed a handful of noodles, stood up in my high chair (shirtless, mind you) — and screamed “Noo-noos!” at the top of my lungs, much to my parents’ embarrassment.

That kid is still inside me. When I drove past the Victoria’s south Oklahoma City location a few weeks ago, my heart skipped a beat and I murmured “noo-noos” under my breath and

to no one in particular.

I was excited to try Victoria’s for the first time and was very pleased when it did not disappoint. The Oklahoma City location is in a relatively new shopping development, and its large windows and soft décor made for a very pleasant lunch experience. I honestly thought it might be counter service but was surprised when a waiter sat me in a booth and guided me through options.

I ordered the lunch combination ($8.99), which is a small choice of pasta with either a Caesar or dinner salad. I ordered spaghetti with pesto, and the server asked if I wanted traditional pesto or sun-dried tomato. I balked on the decision, and she offered to bring both out.

The salad to start was very well dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

I was a little surprised when the pasta arrived with the sauce on the side.

I assumed each half of the pasta would already have the sauce, as I noticed on a few of Victoria’s social media posts.

Miller seemed surprised when I told her that was the case.

“I wouldn’t think they would provide it that way,” she said.

I think pasta is much better when it finishes cooking in the sauce and gets thickened with a dash of starchy pasta water.

Nonetheless, the basil pesto was very good, and I ended up eating most of the more assertive sun-dried tomato version on bread. The Norman location changes its pesto daily, and guests can find the previously mentioned versions in addition to more inventive ones like caper dill or carrot, spinach and feta sauces.

I ordered a pair of dishes to go: chicken lasagna ($9.99) and tortellini ($9.49) covered in pink sauce, which is a mixture of marinara and Alfredo sauces. Fresh tortellini is a treat; it’s not often you run across it on a menu. The standard cheese-stuffed tortellini was very good on its own merits, but I found it to be unevenly sauced in the to-go container. I think they’re onto something with the pink sauce, but I regret ordering it with the cheesy pasta. I think the cheese would’ve been better accented with pesto.

The chicken lasagna was a real winner. The marinara sauce had plenty of good acidity from the tomatoes and a good mixture of spices. Oven-baked chicken is joined with ricotta and mozzarella cheeses to make a very good dish.

Miller agreed and said that it’s one of her favorites, as well.

Overall, I was very pleased with my experience. The hallmark of a good restaurant is one that sticks to what it does well. Victoria’s is an affordable way to get fresh pasta without the white tablecloth.

O kg a z e t t e . c o m | O C TO B E R 3 , 2 0 1 8

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f eat u re

EAT & DRINK

Oven fresh

Empire Slice House moves down the street but keeps its original recipe. By Joshua Blanco

Housed in the 16th Street Plaza District since 2013, Empire Slice House closed the doors at 1734 NW 16th St. and reopened Sept. 26 just a few doors down at 1804 NW 16th St. In its new and more spacious home, the popular New Yorkstyle pizzeria is planning a better way to service the dedicated customers who have remained loyal to the business since its founding.

Empire Slice’s owner, Rachel Cope, was working for different restaurants around the metro before she decided to open a shop of her own. Dissatisfied with what she believed to be a city with abundant potential for eclectic eateries, Cope realized something needed to change.

“When I was waiting tables, I realized there were really only two restaurants open after 10 p.m. with full service,” she said. “I wanted to try and create my own based on a lot of things I had experienced and seen that I felt were lacking here.”

Cope, founder and CEO of 84 Hospitality Group, leapt into the food scene with a store unlike anyone would expect to find in the heart of the city.

The result: a pizza shop brimming with its own flavor and style. Beaming with vibrancy and local flare, the restaurant truly is “like Frank Sinatra and David Bowie had a pizza baby,” as its website describes.

Move on up

However, if Empire Slice hoped to keep up with the rising demand, a change was in order. With the lease on its original site coming to an end, Cope decided to move her store to a more functional location. In July 2017, she began negotiating the shop’s new site.

One thing was certain: Given the choice, she was not leaving the Plaza District.

“I always pay homage to Home Slice Pizza in Austin, Texas, because I loved

the vibe of South Congress Street (where it’s located) and felt like the Plaza had the same vibe,” Cope wrote to Oklahoma Gazette.

Still, she wanted input from her team at Empire in materializing a new space that would be both welcoming and efficient.

The new layout includes a much larger patio, more space in the bathrooms and two additional ovens. In addition, 35 seats have been added to better accommodate the shop’s clientele. Easy E Slice Shop, Empire Slice’s sister store, serviced customers during the four days Empire was closed to ensure a smooth transition to the updated location.

Kyle Smith, general manager at Empire Slice, recounted the early days when the shop quickly descended into chaos. Hungry customers would crowd in, seeking shelter from the rain or cold weather outside, eagerly anticipating a hot meal fresh from the Empire kitchen.

Our hope is that it will continue to serve as a gathering place for OKC for years to come.

Rachel Cope Due to the building’s layout, employees would often have to venture through the entire restaurant, taking care to avoid running into folks on the way, just to carry out basic tasks. To address the issue, the kitchen and bar have essentially switched places in the new location.

“It was very difficult for servers to get through,” Smith said. “So it will just

be way smoother whenever it comes to running a shift. I think it’ll be nothing but positive changes for sure.”

Those concerned about losing the atmosphere of the pizza shop they have come to know and love are discouraged from worrying. Aside from a few upgrades in space and efficiency, Empire shouldn’t feel too different.

In fact, Cope made it a point to keep the original ambiance.

“The identity we’ve created with Empire is something we refuse to lose.

The new space will smell the same, feel the same — and when you’re listening, it will sound the same,” Cope said in a press release.

Smith confirmed the plans to maintain the spirit of the old shop.

“Everything is fresh and new and clean, but it’s still our same vibe,” he said. “It’ll feel like home whenever people walk in.”

Chefs, management and other employees transferred to the new store.

Smith doesn’t anticipate too many changes to his daily routine, either.

“Our hope is that it will continue to serve as a gathering place for OKC for years to come,” Cope said.

Packing the pachyderm

Those unfamiliar with Empire might recognize Ellie, the pink elephant that sits by the shop’s front entrance. Cope purchased Ellie at a resale shop in New York City, having “had no idea how iconic she’d become for our brand.” To some, she’s more valuable than all the pizzas Empire has to offer. When Ellie was stolen not long ago, she was returned the following day, but local news Visitors familiar with the old Empire Slice House location will find many familiar touches in the new restaurant. | Photo Alexa Ace

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The new Empire Slice House at 1804 NW 16th St. features expanded seating outdoors. | Photo Peter J. Brzycki

outlets weren’t wasting any time. Before the thief had a chance to give her back, tales of the missing pink elephant had already spread like wildfire.

Customers have since been on the lookout for any signs of another great elephant heist.

“One time, Rachel’s dad was actually driving through Nichols Hills with one of the new [elephants],” Smith said.

“Someone called me and they asked, ‘Oh my God! Did Ellie get stolen? I just saw her in the back of a truck driving through Nichols Hills if you want me to follow them.’”

Despite being a false alarm, there aren’t too many pizza joints catering to customers concerned with the wellbeing of an inanimate elephant.

But unique décor isn’t all Empire has to offer. Open until 2 a.m., except Sundays when it closes at midnight, customers can expect 20-inch pizzas and a seemingly endless supply of canned beer.

“The pizza is amazing,” Smith said.

“You’d think that I would be tired of it by now eating [it] every day, but I still eat it.”

The shop showcases pizzas with names like Notorious P.I.G. while preserving a ’90s hip-hop vibe, and it’s no wonder the shop has achieved a sort of cultlike status.

Steadily rising in popularity over the years, Cope and her team successfully managed to secure Empire Slice a spot on the list of Oklahoma City favorites.

“It’s been a joint effort on the management side for sure,” Smith said. “We just want to make things easier and quicker and just make sure that people are happy.”

Visit empireslicehouse.com.

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October 20 2018

The day will feature more than 50 authors from around the nation, plus panel discussions, presentations, story time and crafts activities, food trucks, and more!

Oklahoma’s inaugural Book Festival is completely free to attend!

Come one, come all to Oklahoma City’s Boathouse District for a fun-filled day celebrating books!

Oklahoma of Department

10am–5pm

okbookfest.org

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Center for the Book

Laurie Williams Attorney

Best of Books Bob Burke Chickasaw Nation

Friends of the Oklahoma Center for the Book Jayne Jayroe Gamble

Inasmuch Foundation Love’s News 9 The Oklahoman

Oklahoma Gazette Pioneer Library System

O kg a z e t t e . c o m | O C TO B E R 3 , 2 0 1 8

15

EAT & DRINK

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Sláinte mhaith

Matty McMillen’s new pub brings Irish cheer to its north Oklahoma City neighborhood. By Jo Light

Once Matt McMillen retired last June after 19 years as assistant athletic director of football operations at University of Oklahoma, he decided to shift gears.

Local restaurateur Hal Smith approached him with an idea for a new restaurant: an Irish pub in Oklahoma City inspired by McMillen’s Irish roots.

Matty McMillen’s Irish Pub at 2201 NW 150th St. opened Aug. 13 to great fanfare with the help of a full company of kilted bagpipers. Since then, the pub has continued to develop its ambience and refine its menu.

Outwardly, the pub itself is slightly nondescript, a large building in a growing development that includes several other restaurants, including another Hal Smith property, Neighborhood JA.M. Inside, it is spacious and decorated in deep greens and dark wood, along with Oklahoma City Energy soccer jerseys and scarves. Irish proverbs and sayings from McMillen himself adorn several signs and chalkboards. Is it kitschy? Yeah, a little, but that’s part of the place’s charm. I think I saw a photograph of Liam Neeson on one wall, too.

Throughout the rest of the space, there are high-top tables and booths and plenty of large-screen televisions for sports fans.

On a late afternoon midweek, several patrons gravitated toward the bar and chatted easily with bartenders as a mix of Irish folk and rock music played.

Altogether, it’s a newer, more upscale version of a pub you might find in Boston, Chicago or Dublin, but without the limited space, low ceilings and city grunge.

The pub’s managing partner Ross

Matty McMillen’s has a Kegs and Eggs brunch on weekends. | Photo Alexa Ace

Crain said its opening went smoothly, especially since the property was simply transitioning from a previous restaurant, Hollie’s Flatiron Grill. Some walls came down, fixtures were changed and pictures of McMillen were hung on the walls. The renovation took roughly a month and a half, he said, and much of the staff stayed on.

You put beer cheese on anything, I think it’s pretty good.

Ross Crain Although he has worked in bars and currently runs three of the Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill locations, Crain said he still did some research to figure out how to achieve the Irish pub feel.

“We went to some pubs in Chicago,” Crain said. “We went to look at some traditional, down-and-dirty, older Irish pubs.”

“Down” and “dirty” are fairly apt terms when it comes to older, more traditional pubs, which can sometimes be dives. Crain said they were aiming more for a “homey feel” and a relaxed atmosphere with Matty McMillen’s.

“It’s funny how you can put ‘Irish pub’ out front and paint it green and everybody comes in and starts drinking beer at three o’clock in the afternoon,” Crain said.

McMillen remains involved in the pub’s operation and even visited to help

EatEry & CoCktail offiCE @ thE Union Presents

celebrate Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day on Sept. 17.

The pub had another visitor during that party, Crain said. Former OU head football coach Bob Stoops came in and pulled a few pints alongside McMillen.

“He’s retired,” Crain said. “He wants to relax and have a good time. But the one thing he wanted to do was pour some beer. And I said, ‘Well, you gotta get a liquor license. We gotta get you on payroll so it’s legal. You guys retired; now you’re going back to work!’”

Gabe Ikard, former NFL player and current cohost of radio show Franchise Players on 107.7 FM, tweeted video evidence of Stoops behind the bar as he poured a Guinness on Aug. 29.

The bagpipers made another appearance at the pub’s Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day party, and Crain said he hopes to soon have even more live music once or twice a week. They’re also in the early stages of planning a trivia night.

For the menu, Crain said they’re seeking the delicate balance between what might be unfamiliar Irish fare and familiar, comfortable sports bar food.

Alongside the bangers and mash or corned beef and cabbage, patrons can order flatbreads, hamburgers and salads.

One of the most ordered items on the menu is a classic pub meal from across the pond.

“Well, I found out that in an Irish pub in Oklahoma,” Crain said, “if people don’t know what to eat, they eat fish and chips.”

Matty McMillen’s battered cod is served with a side of fries and tartar sauce. If you were walking down a London street and stopped by a fish and chips shop, you’d get something very similar, probably wrapped in newspaper for on-the-go munching.

At this pub, the meal comes on a fancier facsimile of newsprint. It’s still simple and familiar, and it’s easy to see why the dish would be popular. Drench that fish in malt vinegar, and it’s pretty authentic.

Crain also pointed out the stout-braised brisket sandwich as a personal favorite.

“I’ve been in the restaurant business for 26 years, and I think it’s one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had on a menu,” he said. “It’s really good. You put beer cheese on anything, I think it’s pretty good.”

On tap, McMillen’s has Guinness, both stout and blonde, as well as Smithwick’s and Harp — all Irish staples. It also serves twists on cocktails made with Irish whiskeys, like the Bob’s Hellcat Mule

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Ross Crain of Hal Smith Group | Photo Alexa Ace

(a variation on the Moscow mule) and the Hot Irish Mama (which mixes Jameson Irish Whiskey and jalapeños).

Familiar domestics are also available.

In addition, the menu includes an option to buy a round of pints for kitchen staff. Crain said they usually get a few rounds bought on busy nights.

The pub is currently not open for lunch except Fridays, although Crain hopes to expand its hours soon. It serves a Kegs and Eggs brunch on weekends.

And despite a namesake with a background in OU football, Crain said the bar is equally supportive of Oklahoma State University sports.

“We don’t want to alienate,” Crain said. “We want both sides in here having a good time.”

Crain said hopefully they will be able to grow and open another pub location in Norman or Moore in a year or so, building upon what they learn from their first pub and perhaps adding pool tables and dartboards. He said the menu will continue evolving as they find what resonates with Oklahoma City customers.

Crain also said that planning for St. Patrick’s Day has already begun, and he envisions it as a celebration over the entire holiday weekend, complete with an outdoor beer garden and other festivities.

“The biggest thing is it’s here, it’s fun, it’s casual,” Crain said of the pub.

Matty McMillen’s Irish Pub is open 3-10 p.m.

Monday-Thursday with extended hours on weekends.

Visit mattymcmillens. com.

left Housemade fish and chips right Guinness Stout is decanted perfectly at Matty McMillen’s Irish Pub. | Photos Alexa Ace

616 n. 5th St, oklahoma City, ok 405.601.2857 | theunionokc.com

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bOOk yOur aD sPace tODay! call 405.528.6000 Or email sPecialsectiOns@Okgazette.cOm O kg a z e t t e . c o m | O C TO B E R 3 , 2 0 1 8

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g a z e di b l e s

eat & DRINK

Beyond Tex-Mex

We love traditional Tex-Mex and its Okie-adjacent variants (let me bathe in complimentary cheese sauce), but there are a lot of restaurants in the metro area highlighting authentic cuisine from all over Central and South America.

By Jacob Threadgill with photos

by Alexa Ace and Gazette / file

Café Do Brasil

440 NW 11st St., Suite 100 cafedobrazilokc.com 405-525-9779

This Gazette reader favorite has been in Midtown since before it was a trendy district. Enjoy Brazilian food from the recipe book of owner Ana Davis. Its house-made chorizo is a hit during breakfast, and its dinner menu accommodates a lot of diets (vegan, glutenfree) in addition to delivering excellent seafood.

Café Kacao

Pupuseria El Buen Gusto

Compared to Café Antigua, Kacao takes its Guatemalan roots and amps it up a notch with other Central American and North American touches. Of course, it is famous for its weekend brunch, where diners line up even before its 7 a.m. opening time.

The national dish of El Salvador is the pupusa. Fluffy masa is stuffed with your choice of meat, cheese and beans and served with marinated vegetables and sauces. El Buen offers both corn and rice-based pupusas filled with a variety of pork preparations and exotic ingredients like squash flowers.

3325 N. Classen Blvd. cafekacao.com | 405-602-2883

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC COME SEE US!

6062 S. Western Ave. 405-636-1399

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Mamaveca Mexican and Peruvian Restaurant

Café Antigua

1903 N. Classen Blvd.

405-602-8984

2925 W. Britton Road mamaveca.com | 405-286-5535

This Norman favorite recently expanded to north Oklahoma City, where its Peruvian dishes are outselling its Mexican fare, according to owner William Chunga. Ceviche and lomito saltado are famous Peruvian dishes, but Mamaveca also offers dishes like tallarines verdes, which is a South American twist on pesto.

Classic Guatemalan cuisine is on display at Café Antigua, where its most popular dish, huevos motuleno (housemade corn tortilla layered with black refried beans, two eggs topped with salsa called chirmo, avocado slices and two types of cheese), is simply known to many diners as the No. 7 — even though the menu items aren’t numbered.

Naylamp Peruvian Restaurant

Zarate’s Latin Mexican Grill

With a lot of international and geographic influences, Peruvian cuisine is very diverse from the seafood of the coasts to meat and potatoes in the mountains. Naylamp, which now has a Warr Acres location, 5805 NW 50th St., offers everything from the classic pollo a la brasa to tacu tacu, a crispy rice and lentil dish topped with steak.

Founded by Peruvian expat Jorge Zarate, his eponymous restaurant has become a hit among Edmond diners over more than a decade with an expansive menu that includes dishes from his homeland and across Central and South America and the Caribbean. Enjoy an eclectic variety of dishes and its excellent complimentary salsa.

2106 SW 44th St. 405-601-2629

706 S. Broadway Ave. 405-330-6400

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8 Metro Locations | HideawayPizza.com O kg a z e t t e . c o m | O C TO B E R 3 , 2 0 1 8

19

WATERFALL FESTIVAL

310 S.W. 1st St., Moore, OK | 799-7663

Oct. 12th - 13th, 2018

Friday 9:00A.M.-6:00P.M. Saturday 9:00A.M. - 9:00P.M.

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Come join us at our Annual Waterfall Festival to benefit the Central Oklahoma Humane Society.

Stroll through the decorative gardens taking in the soothing sound of 10 different waterfall displays.

Spin our discount wheel as you walk in. Literally everything will be on sale. Help us help the Central Oklahoma Humane Society!

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cov er

ARTS & CULTURE

Circling back

The Donnay Building was saved from demolition, and now a bold plan will bring new life to the midcentury modern treasure. By George Lang

It’s a curious structure that almost looks like someone took extreme creative license in solving a puzzle. Take a different look, and it might resemble a tiny cityscape with multiple disparate buildings crammed into one odd-shaped block on a hillside, or a pop-art favela or an architectural glacier dumping out onto Classen Circle. But the Donnay Building , completed in

1954, is also uniquely beautiful in its own ramshackle way, exuding such exquisite originality that artist Greg Burns chose to capture its angular essence in one of his most popular paintings from the 1980s.

Now, after a near-death experience, this once-endangered property at 5114 Classen Blvd. is getting a new lease on life and a major facelift.

In January, Classen Circle LLC’s Josh Thomas and Scott Mueller purchased the Donnay from previous owner Red Oak Properties LLC for $1.3 million and are investing an additional $1.2 million in an extensive renovation that will include what Thomas characterized as “massive upgrades”

to neighboring Classen Grill, 5124 N. Classen Blvd. The renderings by Oklahoma City native Wade Scaramucci of London-based architecture firm Allford Hall Monaghan Morris amplify key elements of the building’s original design while modernizing the building with exterior updates and windows.

Scaramucci also designed the interior and exterior for an in-the-works medical marijuana dispensary located in the space previously occupied by The Drunken Fry until this summer and, before that, The Patio from 1954 to 2000.

Work begins on the dispensary Oct. 10.

The Donnay Building will still look like the Donnay Building, but with improved parking and long-needed repairs and upgrades. Thomas said he is proud to be part of preserving an important part of Oklahoma City culture so future generations can enjoy this unique part of the city’s history.

“Hopefully we create a spot for everyone to come out and have a great time. That’s our goal,” Thomas said.

“Hopefully, we took a lemon and we’re turning it into lemonade.”

Almost history

On July 7, 2017, the future of HiLo Club and the other tenants of the Donnay looked grim when Braum’s Ice Cream & Dairy Stores officials filed plans with the Oklahoma City Planning Commission to raze the building as well as Classen Grill and construct a new Braum’s location and parking lot in their places. In addition, Braum’s was seeking to rezone residential lots in the adjacent Helm Farm neighborhood for parking.

Lynne Rostochil, founder of Okie Mod Squad, a group dedicated to preserving midcentury modern architecHiLo Club has operated with few closures for 62 years in the Donnay Building. | Photo Alexa Ace

Renovations on the Donnay Building are expected to be completed in 2019. | Image Allford Hall Monaghan Morris / provided

ture in Oklahoma, sprang into action with a Change.org petition the next day.

She quickly amassed 13,000 signatures and the group helped stage protests on Classen Circle. Hundreds of protesters, including customers of the HiLo, Drunken Fry, Charlie’s Jazz-Rhythm & Blues Records and Classen Grill as well as Ward 2 councilman Ed Shadid, showed up for rallies outside the Donnay, waving signs at traffic through the area and chanting, “Save the Circle.”

The Donnay Building is as famous for the building itself as it is for the businesses that have been in it.

Lynne Rostochil The move to demolish the Donnay seemed tone deaf at a time when Oklahoma City’s development posture skews more toward reutilization and renovation of existing structures. The recent rise of districts like Midtown, 16th Street Plaza District and Automobile Alley — all formerly disused areas — pointed to a sea change in Oklahoma City’s priorities. Meanwhile, plans to raze the Donnay evoked the ugly old days of 1970s urban renewal under the Pei Plan.

Following steady pressure from protesters and little positive press for their plans, Braum’s withdrew its request for rezoning in October 2017. Shadid announced the move on his Facebook page.

“Almost no one thought it probable that the protesters would win, including continued on page 22

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ARTS & CULTURE continued from page 21

cov er

myself,” Shadid wrote. “Let’s all remember that as we look to other ways to improve our lives and city.”

Rostochil said the withdrawal and the Donnay Building’s subsequent purchase by Classen Circle LLC was an energizing experience for people working to preserve Oklahoma City’s midcentury landmarks.

“There are always disappointments, but there are also really great surprises like the Donnay Building,” she said.

“People are starting to recognize that midcentury modern architecture is an important resource here in Oklahoma City. It’s one of the things that makes our city distinctive.”

Moods for moderns

Rostochil comes to her passions for structures like the Donnay Building through blood ties. Her grandfather, R. Duane Conner, designed the iconic domed First Christian Church, 3700 N. Walker Ave. That building, along with Founders Bank at 5613 N. May Ave., is currently on Okie Mod Squad’s list of endangered properties.

But the Donnay rescue was an important victory for preserving that era’s innovative designs.

“The Donnay Building is as famous for the building itself as it is for the businesses that have been in it. It’s definitely a local icon — a quirky, fun, interesting building — and it definitely adds to our architectural landscape,” Rostochil said. “I think everybody remembers going to The Patio for lunch, and I just remember being a kid and looking at it and thinking it was the neatest building with all those different levels and stairs. It’s just such an interesting piece of architecture, and there’s nothing like it anyplace else.”

Oklahoma’s midcentury modern architects like Conner, Robert Alan Bowlby and Donnay Building developer Matt Donnay were inspired by the Time has taken its toll on the Donnay Building, which was completed in 1954. | Photo Alexa Ace

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teachings of University of Oklahoma’s Bruce Goff, himself an acolyte of Frank Lloyd Wright, and by the construction techniques that emerged during World War II. Wright’s designs such as Fallingwater in Stewart Township, Pennsylvania, and Bartlesville’s Price Tower set the example for using clean lines and angles to dramatic effect.

However, Wright’s buildings frequently suffer structural damage due to drainage issues that emerge from water gathering in angles and on flat roofs.

Those issues can also take their toll on buildings inspired by Wright’s work.

“Restoring any building of any vintage is going to present challenges, and midcentury architecture certainly falls in with that,” Rostochil said.

“The architects back then were experimenting like never before. They were experimenting with new designs, new materials — things like that. I’m sure those present challenges to today’s architects and renovators when restoring those buildings.”

As the Donnay undergoes construction through 2019, Rostochil said there is hope that the renovation will be just as successful as other recent revivals of beloved buildings from the 1950s and 1960s.

“You see it happening,” she said.

“The Tiffany was recently restored, and you see the renovation of Founders Tower. It’s a doable deal, for sure.”

I want it to be relevant for future generations, and I can’t see any reason why we couldn’t.

Chris Simon

HiLo culture

Of all the current tenants at the Donnay Building, none is more iconic than HiLo Club. Opened in 1956, HiLo is the oldest operating LGBTQ+-friendly bar in OKC, but while most patrons only know the bar area, that is just the “Lo” part of the HiLo.

First Unitarian Church of Oklahoma City

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his year marks the 30th anniversary of National Coming Out Day (Oct. 11, 2018) which celebrates those who have come out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ), or as an ally. According to the Human Rights Campaign, coming out as LGBTQ or as a straight ally is a critical part of the fight for LGBTQ rights. The service will feature coming out testimonials from members of our congregation as well as a presentation by Paula Sophia Schonauer who, in 2001, became the first openly transgender officer within the Oklahoma City Police Department.

“We had a fine dining Hi club with dining and ballroom dancing, and the HiLo that is downstairs now was the Lo club,” said Chris Simon, managing member of HiLo. Thomas said that the Hi part of the HiLo could make a comeback.

“We’re exploring those options right now with the architects and we’re seeing exactly what’s possible to make it what we want it to be,” he said.

Simon said he and his business partners were planning a possible move for the HiLo if Braum’s succeeded with its demolition plans. Now that HiLo will stay in the same location it has occupied for 62 years, it’s time to go Hi, and he has plans for the upstairs area.

“It could be a hell of a club,” he said.

“It’s been my hope that we could bring that back and truly have a Hi and a Lo club. It’s always been a dream of mine to try to realize that once again.”

Anyone who is a regular or has visited recently can tell there is much work to be done. Beyond the 1970 fire that gutted the bar, smoke has been a mainstay of the HiLo. Simon said everything is on the table for HiLo’s renovation plans, including a possible conversion into a nonsmoking establishment.

“There’s a whole generation of people who just won’t come here because they don’t want their hair to smell like smoke or their clothes to smell like smoke,” he said. “I get that, and I completely understand that. And a lot of those people still smoke, but they want to smoke outside.”

Simon has ideas for the place. The iconic Formica bar could be redone with LED lighting, and he believes there should also be a patio for those who still want to light up.

“It’s old and it’s been the same way for a really, really long time, and an update is a necessity for the future of the HiLo, actually,” he said. “I think at this point, the HiLo has a bright future.

I would like to see the HiLo modernized somewhat, so I’m looking forward to when we can close the club up and

New architectural renderings for the Donnay Building renovation include designs for an in-the-works medical marijuana dispensary. | Image Allford Hall Monaghan Morris / provided

actually do some renovation. I still want it to have some of the look of what it has been and what it is. I don’t think the HiLo needs to change its spirit. We can still be weird; I think we can still be the oddballs. I think that’s completely marketable.”

Having said all that, Simon is bracing for all that comes with renovating a 70-year-old building. He described the Donnay as “all rebar and cinder blocks,” which could make the renovation challenging at times, but if it all results in a new and supercharged HiLo, Simon is all in.

“For lack of a better term, I don’t want a shithole,” he said. “I’ve worked here for many, many, many years and I’ve seen the HiLo through a long time. The HiLo doesn’t need to radically change.

It just needs to be updated for the modern age. There’s no reason why you couldn’t have the same aesthetic touches with modern systems. I want it to be relevant for future generations, and I can’t see any reason why we couldn’t.”

Thomas said the HiLo has been an important part of the character of his building for decades, and if all goes according to plan, it will be for decades more.

“It’s one of the most important factors of the Donnay Building,” he said.

“The HiLo has so much rich culture to it, and we want to make it better while retaining that culture.”

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art

ARTS & CULTURE

Road trip

Oklahoma expatriate artists bring the diaspora back home with Truckload of Art. By Jeremy Martin

In the words of singer-songwriter Terry Allen, Oklahoma City will soon have the chance to see “significant piles and influential heaps of art work” hauled in from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Truckload of Art, an exhibit inspired

by Allen’s song of the same name, opens Friday at JRB Art at the Elms, 2810 N. Walker Ave. Following an opening reception 6-9 p.m., the artworks will be on display through Oct. 27. Artist Elizabeth Hahn, Truckload’s curator, said she got the idea for a freight-themed exhibition on the road between Oklahoma and New Mexico.

“I was driving back to Santa Fe in a truck, having just delivered my art, just thinking of that song and how that would be a fun thing,” Hahn said. “A lot of Oklahoma artists left Oklahoma for other places, and my idea was to wrangle them up and bring them back to Oklahoma so people could see what they’re doing now. That was the original premise, but it turned out that everybody I had in mind couldn’t do it. … It turned out to be more eclectic.”

In Allen’s song, a group of New York City artists decide to load “a big, spanking-new, white, shiny, chrome-plated cabover Peterbilt” with some of the East Coast’s most impressive creative works in order to ”cajole, humble and humiliate” their Los Angeles peers and “show “Gypsy Woman” by Elizabeth Hahn | Image provided

those snotty surfer upstarts a thing or two about the Big Apple.” But the plan fails catastrophically.

“There’s a big accident and it catches fire, and it’s all burned up, but it’s very funny,” Hahn said. “It’s supposed to be just kind of a conceited bunch of people that are shown their comeuppance. So that was the funny part about it.”

As Allen puts it, “A truckload of art is burning near the highway. Precious objects are scattered all over the ground.

And it’s a terrible sight if a person were to see it, but there weren’t nobody around. ... The smoke could be seen for miles all around, but nobody knows what it means.”

Not everyone Hahn discussed the show with had heard the song.

“I got a CD, and I took it to the gallery so they could listen to it and understand what the heck I was talking about,” Hahn said.

‘Three escapees’

While Hahn’s original plan to pack the exhibition with the works of Oklahoma ex-pats didn’t completely pan out, the show does feature former Oklahomans Michael Freed and Sallyann Milam Paschall along with Hahn, who received a master of fine arts degree from University of Oklahoma (OU) and worked as the director of ArtsPlace gallery in downtown Oklahoma City in the 1980s.

“We’re the three escapees that are in

the show coming back, and the others are just people I really like,” Hahn said. “I realized they don’t all have to be from Oklahoma.

Of course I’m going to throw myself into it because I did all the work.”

Freed, who has been working as an artist in Santa Fe since 1995, has a BFA in painting from OU. His works include charcoal drawings, mixed-media paintings and large, outdoor sculptures.

Paschall studied painting and sculpture at OU and eventually earned degrees in art, anthropology and geology and worked at a NASA laboratory in New Mexico.

“Patterns and marks and subtle happenings are the driver in my nonobjective work,” said Paschall in her artist’s statement. “As both a scientist and an artist, when the two sides of my brain work together, I can feel it. And the magic happens.”

Hahn said all the artists who relocated from Oklahoma to New Mexico have at least one similarity in their backgrounds.

“I just know that we all managed to do it when we lived in Oklahoma, which can be a semi-thankless task,” Hahn said, “but I always loved being in Oklahoma. Though I’ve been gone for 30 years, I come back all the time, and we’re just dedicated to what we do. We did it whether it was really appreciated or not, and now we’re kind of out here, and it’s an easier place to be an artist. You can say you’re an artist, and people say, ‘Oh that’s what they do,’ instead of ‘Are they homeless or delusional?’”

Abstract painter and collage artist Caroline Farris, who also earned an MFA from OU and taught art at Oklahoma City Community College for 25 years, still lives in Oklahoma, but Hahn said that many of the artists whose creations she’s bringing in from Santa Fe have no counterparts in the Sooner State.

“Max Lehman’s work in ceramics, there’s nothing like that there for sure,” Hahn said, “and Charlie Miner is a very well-known glass artist here that does cast glass, and he has a piece that I think is really going to be different from what I’ve seen in Oklahoma City for sure. So that’s going to be very fun.”

Lehman was born in Kentucky and lived in Arizona, where he was a member of Phoenix’s influential Movimiento Artistico Del Rio Salado multicultural arts cooperative before moving to New

“Carmen Miranda Cha Cha Bunny” by Max Lehman | Image provided

Mexico. His painted ceramic works draw inspiration from Mayan, Aztec and other indigenous iconography as well as punk rock and urban g ra f f iti.

Miner studied at Pilchuck Glass School a nd founded New Mexico’s Tesuque Glassworks in 1975. Many of his works are created through a process informed by bronze casting, which creates singular pieces w i t h stonelike textures.

The other artists included in the exhibition are glassblower Terry Baker and found object sculptor Geoffrey Gorman.

That’s assuming, of course, all the art in the exhibit makes the journey safely.

Hahn said she hopes to avoid the fiery end suffered by the fictional masterpieces in the song that inspired the show.

“We’re going to put it in the truck and drive to Oklahoma and hopefully have a better fate,” Hahn said, laughing.

“But anyway, we’re insured.”

JRB is open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. TuesdaySaturday and by appointment. Call 405528-6336 or visit jrbartgallery.com.

Truckload of Art Friday-Oct. 27 JRB Art at the Elms 2810 N. Walker Ave. jrbartgallery.com | 405-528-6336 Free

O kg a z e t t e . c o m | o c to b e r 3 , 2 0 1 8

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ARTS & CULTURE

List your event in

J. Christine Lanning and David Fletcher-Hall star in Jewel Box Theatre’s current production of Wait Until Dark. | Photo Jim Beckel / provided

ously rings right after that,” Taylor said.

Susy’s primary enemy is the “coldblooded killer” Roat, said Taylor.

“You never know when he’s going to stab someone,” Taylor said. “He’s like a little band that’s getting wound tighter and tighter and tighter, and you know it’s going to pop; you just don’t know when.”

t h eater

Suspenseful stage

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.

Submit your listings online at okgazette.com or e-mail them to listings@okgazette.com.

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Theatrical tension Jewel Box Theatre’s upcoming production of Wait Until Dark brings a suspenseful story of feminist agency to the stage. By Ian Jayne

Traditionally, there’s a moment just before a play begins when the house lights have been turned off and the auditorium fills with suspenseful anticipation. In Jewel Box Theatre’s upcoming production of Wait Until Dark, that thrill pervades the entire production and keeps audiences on their toes (and, occasionally, in the dark).

Wait Until Dark runs Thursday-Oct. 28 at Jewel Box Theatre, 3700 N. Walker Ave. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for students and seniors. They are available by calling 405-521-1786 or visiting jewelboxtheatre.org.

Originally a 1966 Broadway play written by Frederick Knott, Wait Until Dark made its way to the silver screen the following year, starring Aubrey Hepburn in the main role of Susy Hendrix, a blind woman who lives in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.

Frequent Jewel Box director Don Taylor has fond memories of the film, saying it was one of the first movies to scare him. The film adaptation was both formative for Taylor and faithful to Knott’s script.

“It’s almost word-for-word,” Taylor said. “Unlike most adaptations, there’s not a lot of difference between one and the other.”

Both film and play tell the story of Hendrix after she unknowingly comes into possession of a children’s doll filled with heroin.

“Her husband is given the doll at the Montreal Airport by one of the criminals that’s the mastermind, with the idea that he will take it to a little sick girl in a hospital in New York. She comes to collect it while it’s at their apartment,

but they can’t find it,” Taylor said.

Consequently, Susy finds herself alone, in her apartment, having to outsmart three dangerous criminals — Roat, Mike and Carlino — who are after the heroin.

“It’s two small-time con artists who have, for years, been conning housewives out of petty money. Then they meet Mr. Roat, who is more of a bigtime, very smart, on-the-ball kind,” said Taylor. “He’s hiring them to get this doll by just doing their regular con game, but of course it doesn’t go that easily.

They don’t realize how smart [Susy] is.”

Susy’s narrative of feminine agency against masculine villainy remains timely and relevant in 2018, over 50 years after its debut. The criminal trio underestimates her intelligence and abilities, and she exploits their ignorance to her advantage, employing keen powers of observation and her heightened other senses in her attempts to preserve her own life.

“She puts two and two together pretty well,” Taylor said.

Susy catches on to the fact that Roat is playing two different characters once she notices that they wear the same cologne and have an identical squeaky shoe, Taylor said. Although Susy is blind, the criminals don different costumes when they interact with her, which helps distinguish their performative identities for the audience, according to Taylor.

“She can hear them opening and closing the blinds, and so she knows they’re signaling each other outside, where there is a phone booth. She notices that every time the blinds are opened and closed, the phone mysteri-

Staging Wait Until Dark at Jewel Box has brought its own set of special considerations for Taylor, who has been at the theater for over two decades. After starting out as an actor, Taylor began directing shows over the past 11 or 12 years, he said. Wait Until Dark represents a break from his traditional approach, though, as Taylor frequently directs more comedic shows.

“Since I do so much comedy, I thought, well, it would probably be fun to do a drama and just try my hand at that,” Taylor said. “This was just one of my favorites, and we needed an October slot, a Halloween slot.”

Taylor saw the show when it was last performed at Jewel Box 12 years ago.

He loved the production and is excited to bring it to life now. As Jewel Box is a theater “in the round,” where the audience surrounds the central stage, Taylor said there have been several elements of staging designed to maximize suspense. One condition of working in the round is that actors must be kept moving, but the kinetic tension of Wait Until Dark ensures that movement is pretty constant.

“We have four doors at the Jewel Box Theatre. Two of them go through the audience. I’ve decided not to use those two,” Taylor said. “I’m only going to use two doors that are up on the platform and make the space smaller so that it psychologically traps the audience in this little studio apartment with the killers.”

Wait Until Dark will also incorporate strategic restrictions on the lighting in order to most effectively ramp up the suspense during key scenes. There are also other technical considerations: a burst of fire in an ashtray, a knife thrown and stuck into the wall. Taylor said Jewel Box was working on developing stage tricks in order to bring these effects to life in a realistic way.

Wait Until Dark serves up a slice of suspense appropriate for the Halloween season, full as it is of both tricks and treats.

Visit jewelboxtheatre.org.

Wait Until Dark Thursday-Oct. 28 Jewel Box Theatre 3700 N. Walker Ave. jewelboxtheatre.org | 405-521-1786 $25-$30

t h eater

from left Mary Gordon Taft, Jane Hall and Christine Jolly perform Low Society, a winning play from 2012. | Photo Carpenter Square Theatre / provided

Staged study Carpenter Square Theatre’s Best in Ten fundraiser features 10-minute staged readings. By Jeremy Martin

The plays presented at Best in Ten are shorter than average, but that doesn’t necessarily make them any easier to write.

The benefit show, which includes staged readings of the three winners of Carpenter Square Theatre’s annual 10-minute playwriting competition, is Oct. 13.

“To really have the characters be interesting and there to be a clear storyline, it’s really kind of amazing what they can do in 10 minutes,” said Rhonda Clark, the theater’s artistic director. “I always tell people who haven’t experienced it that what’s nice about a 10minute play is because it’s so short, you literally can remember the entire piece. … You can remember the entire plot very easily and the characters very easily because it’s not really common to have a huge number of characters in a 10minute play.”

The evening benefits the nonprofit community theater. Clark said the plays are selected based on their entertainment value for the patrons.

“It’s a fundraiser, so we want people to have fun,” Clark said. “So if people can put together a good comedy, we really like to showcase comedies, but

it’s really about the quality of the play and can the writer put together a complete story in 10 minutes or less.”

Clark added that many genres are represented in the submissions, including some plays that are hard to classify.

“We get comedies, we get dramas, we get issue-driven plays,” Clark said. “We also get some absurdist plays. … In recent years, one of the plays that we produced was based on a true story in the writer’s life working part-time in the oil field while he was going to college. And then on the opposite end of that, we had a play that took place at Christmas, and then we had a play that was about an old rock ’n’ roller.

There’s always a big variety. We never know what the playwrights are going to submit.”

Clark said directing staged readings of short plays also presents a few specific challenges.

“You’ve got to make sure that you don’t do a lot of reading of stage directions. You’ve got to trust your actors to

bring the script to life,” Clark said.

“You’ve just got to make sure that on one level, there’s nothing static about it even though the actors may just be standing at a music stand. … But with this kind of thing, it’s really the words. Really with every script, the words drive it all.”

The fundraising event will also include food and cocktails. A reception begins at 7:10 p.m., and the plays begin at 8 p.m.

“It really is just like a big dinner theater party,” Clark said.

A silent auction and a wine pull will raise additional funds for the theater.

“The wine bottles are wrapped up, so you don’t really know what you’re getting,” Clark said, “except we do differentiate between red and white wine so they can grab a bottle of wine for a certain amount. And it may be an expensive bottle of wine or it may be a cheaper bottle of wine. It’s a grab bag.”

To commemorate the theater’s 35th anniversary, Clark said, people will have the chance to speak about their history with Carpenter Square.

“It’s kind of a milestone, so I know I’ve been looking back at my experiences with the theater,” Clark said. “So I think it’ll be a night where we’ll be able to have some reminiscences. We’ll have

people that have been involved in the theater ever since its first season. So we’ll have a few minutes — we’re not going to take up a lot of time — but we’ll have a few minutes where people can speak about their involvement over the past 35 years with theater and what keeps them coming back, either as a director or an actor or a patron or whatever.”

The money raised at Best in Ten helps fund the theater’s productions and educational programs. In February, Carpenter Square plans to produce Jeffrey Hatcher’s experimental adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Clark said the theater company will schedule matinee showings for at-risk students and offer to lead workshops and discussions at local schools. Clark said Carpenter Square’s mission is always to build and foster local creativity.

“We really believe in the homegrown talent Oklahoma has both as writers and performers,” Clark said, “and this event is maybe a small way of celebrating both of those things in an evening.”

Visit carpentersquare.com.

Best in Ten 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13 Carpenter Square Theatre 806 W. Main St. carpentersquare.com | 405-232-6500 $35

from left Doobie Potter, Rhonda Clark, Vicky Wilcox, Terry Veal and the late Laurel Van Horn Jawarsky in Fish or Chicken? in 2013. | Photo Carpenter Square Theatre / provided

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Social shirts

Local retailer Shop Good sells hand-printed shirts featuring messages of Oklahoma pride. By Jo Light

Audrey and Justin Falk started with a “Free Tibet” shirt design hand-printed on used equipment in 2009. Now their brand Shop Good has grown into a large, light-filled storefront at 1007 N. Broadway Ave. in Automobile Alley.

Shop Good sells responsibly sourced, ethically made home goods and gifts, along with shirts and pullovers screen-printed onsite. Most are Oklahoma-centric, from the clean, bold design of “OKLA” adorning several tees to the colorful “I Like Russ” shirt, which features Thunder player Russell Westbrook in profile.

Other shirts have less OKC-specific designs but send a clear message about the store’s core values. “Support Public Schools” is emblazoned on one. Another carries a simple direction: “Give a Damn.” “[The shirts are fashionable as well as] a great medium for a message,” Audrey Falk said. “I think that was important to us too. We felt like we had a lot to say.”

Neither of the Falks is an Oklahoma City native, which might be a surprise since they have so fully embraced Oklahoma ideals and state pride.

They’ve lived here since 2005 and met through their work with nonprofits.

Justin Falk said they each experienced a “feeling of hopefulness” when they moved to the city.

“Especially when we were starting about 10 years ago, I think everybody felt like Oklahoma City was all potential,” he said. “It wasn’t a destination at that point, but we all felt like it could be.”

Audrey Falk agreed.

“It’s got an amazing sense of resiliency here,” she said.

Justin Falk, a graphic designer, said he pursued screen-printing as an interest somewhat randomly and taught himself how to create the designs and print the shirts.

“Right off the bat, I just liked the process,” he said. “Creating screens, the image transfer — you know, getting my hands dirty with ink.”

Home goods and gifts sold in Shop Good are responsibly sourced and ethically made. | Photo Alexa Ace

The work includes pushing ink through mesh stencils, one for each color in the print, and then drying it. Shop Good employees do the process by hand, one piece of clothing at a time. Every shirt has a different look and personality.

In the beginning, the Falks’ investment was about $500, they said, and the business got its start on secondhand printing equipment.

“We’d set it up in an old barn,” Audrey Falk said. “So we were using a garden hose. It was pretty rough-andtumble at the beginning. But it kind of fit our philosophy; pretty laid-back.

The goal at the beginning was never to start a store. We thought we would just be doing this as a side gig.”

After the barn, they moved into a shared space in the Plaza District, helping pioneer the retail in the neighborhood just as the area came into its own. They found mentors in other local shop owners. Audrey Falk said she liked their business being part of the young artist community growing there.

Following that, they moved to a small bungalow on Ninth Street downtown and then their current location on Broadway in November 2017.

Audrey Falk credits part of Shop Good’s success to the fact that its clothing often openly advocates for causes, and a part of shirt sales has always been donated to local charities.

“A lot of that is something that’s personally engrained in who Justin and I are,” Audrey Falk said, “but a lot of it is inspired by the culture of Oklahoma, that everybody pitches in to help their neighbor.”

Many of their contributions have been toward organizations that help local Justin and Audrey Falk started Shop Good with a used printer in a barn in 2009. | Photo Alexa Ace

children, including Positive Tomorrows, a nonprofit elementary school for children experiencing homelessness, and Special Care, a school that serves children with and without special needs.

Shop Good’s new “Support Public Schools” shirt is part of a campaign in partnership with The Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools. Five percent of the shirt’s sales will go to the foundation.

The Falks said they hope to someday host charity events and volunteer recruitments, getting even more handson in the community.

“I also think people are constantly looking for a way to connect, and T-shirts are a great way to do that,” Audrey Falk said. “You can portray things about yourself that maybe wouldn’t come up in an introductory conversation with someone. It gives people a good sense of who you are and what you stand for.”

Justin Falk said they’re also planning a new series of shirts depicting Oklahoma sunsets. They are complex, colorful designs, and each run can take up to a full day to print.

“You know a lot of love goes into them,” he said.

Although the process can be automated using mechanical presses, Justin Falk said Shop Good employees are not worried about how fast or how cheap they can make shirts.

“We really embrace the handmade side of it,” he said. “We really go for the faded, vintage look to our prints, which is really hard to reproduce on a large scale.”

Audrey Falk said Shop Good products

A special section devoted to wedding & event planning

Shop Good screen-prints its designs by hand one at a time. | Photo Alexa Ace

can be found in about 30 other stores in Oklahoma and they would like to go national someday. They are also considering crowdsourcing designs and including customers in their design process.

They have started a monthly “print your own shirt” event, where community members can take mini-lessons on screen-printing and leave with a shirt they make themselves. The lesson just requires participants to pay for the blank shirt.

“We really hope to always be encouraging our customers to do good,” Justin Falk said, “to live well and to do good; to think about the world and about people and what’s happening outside their circle.”

Visit shopgoodokc.com.

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29

ARTS & CULTURE Attendees at the Opus gala pose with Oklahoma Showgirls. The 10th edition of the biennial ball is Oct. 12 at IAO Gallery. | Photo provided

focus. It helps them understand about the arts because one thing about the arts is you may not be a performer or entertainer, but if you learn creative thinking in some form or fashion, it helps teach you to look outside the box.

You could be an accountant, and you just learn better.”

While many of the groups Allied Arts helps fund have limited scope, Gonzalez said they make an appreciable difference in their communities, especially for the youth.

It’s kind of like Allied Arts is a United Way for the arts.

co m m u n i t y

April Gonzalez

Arts-focused

Allied Arts holds its 10th Opus event to raise funds to help local arts organizations. By Jeremy Martin

If life is a cabaret, old chum, there might be less to love without the arts.

“Without the arts,” said April Gonzalez, marketing and public relations manager at Allied Arts, “the community culture would be very dry and stale. A lot of times, I think people think the arts come along on their own, but they struggle. Starving artists are everywhere.”

Allied Arts, founded in 1971, holds its biennial black-tie gala fundraiser Opus on Oct. 12 at The Criterion, 500 E. Sheridan Ave. The cabaret-themed ball, with its local entertainers, live auctions and other activities, takes significant time to plan.

“It’s the largest event that Allied Arts puts on,” Gonzalez said. “It raises the most money. … Having it every other year gives us the opportunity to gather items for auction, to get the talent ready, and it [has] a little bit higher ticket price than the other opportunities throughout the year, so I think it’s more special that it happens every other year.”

This year’s Opus will also feature an appearance by film and Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth, who Gonzalez said shares common priorities with Allied Arts.

“She’s very pro-arts and trying to elevate the education of the arts, so we’re very, very excited about it,” Gonzalez said.

The organization, which reports giving more than $66 million to nonprofit arts organizations since its found30

o c to b e r 3 , 2 0 1 8 | O kg a z e t t e . c o m

ing, raises funds for operations, education and special programs promoting creativity in Oklahoma City.

“It’s kind of like Allied Arts is a United Way for the arts,” Gonzalez explained, “and I don’t know that people get that. Sometimes I think they think we’re just an arts organization, but Allied Arts itself provides grants to all these organizations.”

The alliance provides aid to more than 40 arts organizations in the Oklahoma City area, including Red Earth, Science Museum Oklahoma, Carpenter Square Theatre, Oklahoma City Ballet and dozens more. According to the Allied Arts website, the funding “helps these organizations keep ticket prices low or offer free events so that more members of the community can experience the arts.” Gonzalez said these organizations perform vital services in their communities, and Arts Alliance’s main goal is to help them keep going.

“They help education opportunities with underserved youth,” Gonzalez said. “They connect seniors and veterans to health arts programs. … They bring in top-notch performances and exhibits … and they are a generous supporter that increases the quality of life for our community because when they have a flood or something and one of their buildings is in dire straits due to some dramatic occurrence, Allied Arts steps in and picks them up and keeps

them going. They take care of those kinds of things. … It really is a thriving institution to help all the smaller entities stay up and keep going.”

Allied Arts’ major fundraiser collects funds to support a variety of causes, but all the organizations that receive funding have a key similarity.

“Whether they offer some kind of healing opportunity because they help somebody that may have Parkinson’s or they may be ADD-oriented, or it could be educational arts,” Gonzalez said. ”It could be performing arts. Literally their common denominator is they bring some type of art to the community in various forms.”

Star power

Opus, now in its 10th year, offers auctions, a wine pull, a choice of a buffet feast or a sit-down dinner and live music and dance performances from local artists, many members of organizations that benefit from Allied Arts funding.

“These entities embrace the kids and the adults that come through,” Gonzalez said. “So one thing that I think is moving is when you see the performances of a lot of these people, again, they’re not privileged. They may be underprivileged, and it’s just exciting to see them be so happy to be a part of something and making a difference.”

Opus performers include actor Sheridan McMichael, singer Olivia Kay and performers from Oklahoma Showgirls, OKC Improv, Oklahoma City University, Kismet Arts Studio, Sooner Theatre and dancers from one of Gonzalez’ favorite acts to watch, Life Change Ballroom.

“These kids come to Life Change Ballroom,” Gonzalez said, “and it helps change their life. It teaches them to

“A lot of the organizations are small, and their funding is small,” Gonzalez said. “But their hearts take care of the kids. It’s just amazing what they do.”

Other organizations receiving money from Arts Alliance are larger and more established, but they still need occasional help to remain operational.

“Oklahoma Contemporary [Arts Center] is wonderful, pretty stable, does great things on their own,” Gonzalez said, “but they’re also a member because they’ve had challenges where they didn’t have the financial backing and Allied Arts has stepped in multiple times.”

Allied Arts recently added 13 new board members for a total of 109.

Gonzalez said these members help find new funding and new partners, but the alliance also makes efforts to acquaint them with its ongoing projects.

“We take them on a bus tour where they can actually go to some of the agencies and show what happens in the arts and how some of the kids excel,” Gonzalez said. ”It’s pretty exciting. In a lot of ways, it’s just very moving.”

This year, the organization reports having raised more than $3.5 million.

The Opus event typically raises more than $1 million on its own, but Gonzalez said the organization wants to reach new heights in 2018.

“We’re really trying hard to see if we can break a record to make as much as we can for the arts,” Gonzalez said.

“We’re hoping. We’ll see what happens.”

Tickets are $250. Visit alliedartsokc. com.

Opus X: Club Cabaret 6:30 p.m. Oct. 12 The Criterion 500 E. Sheridan Ave. alliedartsokc.com | 405-278-8944 $250

Edmond Pride features activities, performances and vendors in an accessible environment. | Photo UCO LGBTQIA+ Faculty Staff Association / provided

culture

Pride trend

Pride premiere Students at University of Central Oklahoma organized Edmond’s first Pride event.

By Daniel Bokemper

Oct. 20, Hafer Park plays host to Edmond’s first-ever LGBTQ Pride festival. Edmond Pride, an event orchestrated by University of Central Oklahoma’s LGBTQIA+ Faculty Staff Association (FSA) and the Student Alliance for Equality (SAFE), promises activities, performances and vendors friendly and accessible to all. Somewhat of an alternative to the atmosphere of more common Pride parades, Edmond Pride offers a more relaxed and intimate experience with an emphasis on cultural education and understanding.

Since its formation in 2016, LGBTQIA+ FSA considered a kind of event that would empower individuals in the surrounding community. In tandem with UCO’s mission of full-spectrum development, the committee considered how the festival could build upon the students’ curriculum. Johnathan Stephens, UCO’s director of undergraduate admissions and the president of LGBTQIA+ FSA, recalled the components that brought Edmond Pride to light.

“Part of FSA’s mission is to encourage student development and forge a connection,” he said. “We partnered with SAFE as a way of bringing together a big festival and allowing students a chance to experience that process. Given the background much of the faculty and staff have in putting together something like this, we’re able to partner with a student organization and give them the experience of coordinating and working with city officials to bring something like this event to fruition.”

Quieter celebration

In several ways, Edmond Pride goes against the grain of many Pride events throughout Oklahoma. For example, the festival is limited to a single day for the time being, and no alcohol will be served. Edmond Pride, in many ways, offers a chance to learn about a culture in a calmer setting than louder and more congested parades.

However, this less common approach to a Pride event doesn’t mean Edmond Pride is striving for anything less than empowerment, comfort and common ground. Many Pride events lack a setting for children to experience LGBTQ culture, but Edmond Pride offers inflatables for physical activity and a Drag Queen Story Hour involving content concerned with positive child growth. The festival also features a myriad of performers and speakers headlined by Trinity “The Tuck” Taylor of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Above all else, Edmond Pride is concerned with the education the festival can provide, the ability to eliminate stigma while encouraging understanding within a welcoming environment.

“The biggest factor of the festival is its use as a community resource,” Stephens said. “We wanted to build something that would be valuable for everyone, not just a subset of individuals.

Many people have a lot of questions, like ‘Why are there so many letters in LGBTQ?’ and ‘What does Q mean?’ We’re going to have several resources, like signs in English and Spanish that specify what gay, lesbian and transgender mean.”

Edmond Pride also echoes a historic step forward for the city.

“This is the first LGBTQ-centric festival Edmond has ever hosted,” Stephens said. “The process of creating Edmond Pride has been a chance to bring many community members forward and expose a lot of people to LGBTQ culture.

Even in Edmond, there are so many people that feel their community is underrepresented or under-celebrated, and we’ve gotten many positive responses from people who are excited to see this happen in the city they live in.”

Given the emergence of Norman’s first Pride parade earlier this year, Edmond Pride appears to be on the cusp of a growing trend throughout Oklahoma.

Though Tulsa and Oklahoma City have hosted large Pride events for several years, they can at times feel limited.

“I think it’s important to remember many people aren’t able to attend Pride events for a number of reasons,” Stephens said. “There’s also a sense of pride, appropriately, that emerges when your own city is hosting the event geared towards you and those you love and support. …

Edmond Pride is a great way to introduce yourself to pride that’s not going to overstimulate your senses.”

Edmond Pride offers accommodations for nearly every need: nursing stations, sign language interpreters and alcoves for those in need of a quieter space. Additionally, any location further from the main stage will still be able to experience Edmond Pride to the fullest through several activities.

Stephens feels the scope of Edmond Pride might broaden in the future, but its mission remains consistent.

“We’re hoping the first event goes well enough that people who were initially curious yet scared or intimidated now know that there are people here that are accepting and accessible,” Stephens said.

“We want to focus on the community and neighborly love for one another.”

Ultimately, Edmond Pride is an event designed to foster empowerment through celebration and education.

“It wasn’t a long time ago we experienced the legalization of marriage equality,” Stephens said. “As a nation, we’re becoming more supportive of the LGBTQ community, and it’s important that to some extent, people can be their true, authentic selves. People who are struggling need to see this support.”

Visit facebook.com/lgbtqiafsa.

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co m m u n i t y

ARTS & CULTURE

Welcoming Waterfalls

With its first Waterfall Festival, Garden Ponds & Aquariums Unlimited promotes outdoor relaxation and contributes to animal welfare. By Ian Jayne

There’s nothing more quintessentially Oklahoman than spending time in the outdoors — accompanied by one’s pet, of course.

This year’s first-ever Waterfall Festival by Garden Ponds & Aquariums Unlimited will provide Oklahomans with a wide array of options for all of their backyard needs while also supporting a good cause, with donations and a percentage of proceeds benefiting Central Oklahoma Humane Society.

Located at 310 SW First St. in Moore, Waterfall Festival will be open to the public 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Oct. 12 and 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Oct. 13. Entry to the festival is free, and visitors will be able to spin a discount wheel that will determine their purchasing discount for the day.

There will be something for everyone at Waterfall Festival: outdoor products from Garden Ponds & Aquariums unlimited and other vendors, fish races for kids and booths from wineries and fine cigars from Tobacco Exchange for adults.

Waterfall Festival grew out of Garden Ponds & Aquarium Unlimited’s annual customer appreciation days, said Lauri Lucas, who has co-owned the business with her husband for about 20 years. Previous customer appreciation days included sales and the everpopular fish races, but this year, Lucas decided to expand the idea.

“This year, I just decided to change Waterfall Festival features koi races and raises money for Central Oklahoma Humane Society. | Photo Garden Ponds & Aquariums Unlimited / provided

it completely,” Lucas said. “We called it the Waterfall Festival because that’s really what it was all along; it just took on a different name. Our goal is to inspire new people to enter the hobby and let people see how they can have waterfalls in their own backyard.”

The event is luau-themed, and attendees will receive a Hawaiian lei upon arrival; on Saturday, after dark, lighted pond displays and tiki torches will add ambiance. There will be live music both days, including guitarist Edgar Cruz and other local performers.

Lucas’ own experiences with pets shaped the idea to benefit Central Oklahoma Humane Society, and Lucas said she has always been drawn to organizations that help animals in need.

“I’m not a grandparent; I have granddogs,” Lucas said. “My children just have dogs at this stage in their lives. Pets are really important to us. A lot of our customers bring in pets, so we thought, ‘Let’s do a fundraiser for the Humane Society, because we had always heard about them, and they do really good things.’”

Several components of the festival will raise money for Humane Society, including a percentage of all retail sales and a charity raffle featuring three levels of prizes: a $900 Aquascape Waterfall Kit, two large statuary vases worth $300 from Statuary World and a Pond Max 3 LED Light kit worth $150.

Tickets for the raffle are $20 apiece, and Lucas hopes to sell 200, raising around $4,000 for Humane Society.

The fish races are pay-to-play, Lucas

said, and will also benefit the Humane Society.

“We have really small Japanese koi, and we actually have a raceway,” Lucas said. “It’s a tabletop raceway, and so we put a fish in each starting gate. Then we raise the starting gate and everyone yells and cheers.”

The winner gets to keep the fastest fish.

Lucas said that Garden Ponds & Aquariums Unlimited will also be donating gift certificates, T-shirts, pond plants and statuary. Local businesses will be donating items to mystery boxes, as well, and there will be an opportunity to play charity games like Plinko.

Attendees will also have the option to write donation checks directly.

“We know that when we send the donations that we raise to the Humane Society, they’re going to be utilized in a good way,” Lucas said.

Outdoor extravaganza

The different elements of the Waterfall Festival all converge at the point of outdoor relaxation for people and their pets.

“Everybody wants a waterfall; they just don’t know it yet,” Lucas said. “Anyone who has ever seen a koi pond with professional waterfalls, the minute that they do, they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh! I never knew that I could have this in my yard.’”

Lucas said that many are often surprised at the price point for waterfalls or ponds — generally around $3,500, which is comparable to many hot tubs.

According to Lucas, many customers go to Garden Ponds & Aquariums Unlimited looking for ways to make their yard spaces more relaxing so that they are able to de-stress at the end of long days.

“They go out onto the patios, they listen to the soothing sound of the waterfall, they watch the fish swim. It’s just something that is truly relaxing and a little bit of escape for them,” Lucas said.

In addition to serving as aesthetically pleasing focal points for a backyard, Lucas pointed out the functional elements of ponds and waterfalls and their thematic connection to pets. Lucas said that waterfalls can provide a constant supply of filtered water to dogs who are outside and can also serve as a splash pad for animals that want to cool off.

For Lucas, Waterfall Festival offers a way to improve backyard spaces and promote relaxation while also supporting the Humane Society.

“I think if Oklahoma City as a whole can realize that these are things that they can have that enhance our lifestyle and enhance property value, if it’s done right, it will be of interest to a lot of people.”

Visit gardenpondsunlimited.com/ events.

Waterfall Festival 9 a.m. Oct 12-9 p.m. Oct. 13 Garden Ponds & Aquariums Unlimited 310 SW First St., Moore gardenpondsunlimited.com | 405-794-3323 Free

calendar Food

are events recommended

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

Edmond Farmers Market buy fresh food from local vendors, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays. Edmond Farmers Market, 24 W. First St., 405-359-4630, edmondparks.com. SAT Paseo FEAST 14 five artists will present possible projects for funding to be voted on by the attendees of this dinner presented by the Paseo Arts Association, 6-8 p.m. Oct. 9. Picasso Cafe, 3009 Paseo St., 405-602-2002, picassosonpaseo.com. TUE

Books Kate Moore book signing the New York Times bestselling author will autograph copies of of non-fiction book The Radium Girls, about women whose lives were altered by exposure to the toxic substance, 6 p.m. Oct. 9. Best of Books, 1313 E. Danforth Road, Edmond, 405-340-9202, bestofbooksok. com. TUE

Observation Cooking Classes watch a local chef create a variety of cuisines and sample each course as it’s prepared, 6:30 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays through Nov. 11. International Pantry, 1618 W. Lindsey St., Norman, 405-360-0765, intipantry. com. TUE-THU

Lou Berney book signing the author will autograph his newest novel November Road about two fugitives on the run in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, 6-7:30 p.m. Oct. 8. Best of Books, 1313 E. Danforth Road, Edmond, 405-340-9202, bestofbooksok.com. MON Naomi Hughes book signing the author will autograph copies of her young-adult sci-fi novel Afterimage, 1:30 p.m. Oct. 6. Best of Books, 1313 E. Danforth Road, Edmond, 405-340-9202, bestofbooksok.com. SAT Tanya McCoy book signing the author and founder of the Oklahoma Paranormal Association, will autograph copies of her book Haunted Canadian County, 6:30 p.m. Oct. 9. Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 405-842-2900, fullcirclebooks.com. TUE Yousef Khanfar book signing the award-winning photographer will autograph copies of Invisible Eye, a collection of photos of women imprisoned for nonviolent crimes, 6:30 p.m. Oct. 10. Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 405-8422900, fullcirclebooks.com. WED

Film The Atomic Cafe (1982, Jayne Loader, Pierce and Kevin Rafferty) a filmic collage made from Cold War propaganda films, Oct. 4 and 6, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com. THU-SAT

Paseo Farmers Market shop for fresh food from local vendors at this weekly outdoor event, 9 a.m.-noon Saturdays. SixTwelve, 612 NW 29th St., 405-208-8291, sixtwelve.org. SAT

Youth Hair of the Dog Oktoberfest “We have spay/neutered, made healthy and found homes for around 400 dogs; we have rescued a few cats, a pig, two goats, 5 ducks, and 40 chickens,” reads the website for Annie’s Rescue Foundation, a Norman organization that also maintains a pet food pantry, hosts low-cost vaccination clinics and houses pets for displaced people. All you have to do to help, meanwhile, is sample craft beer from 11 Oklahoma breweries, eat food from local restaurants and enjoy live music at this annual fundraising event.

The ’fest starts 6 p.m. Friday at STASH, 412 E. Main St., in Norman. Tickets are $15-$20. Call 405-701-1016 or visit stashok.com.

FRIDAY Photo/provided

in the town of Presbyterian Church, 1 p.m. Oct. 3.

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum. org. WED

Happenings

Bonnie and Clyde (1967, USA, Arthur Penn) the infamous outlaw couple runs rampant in this American New Wave masterpiece, 1-2:30 p.m. Oct. 10. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org. WED

Chuckwagon Dinner and Dance Under the Stars enjoy a barbecue dinner with wine and beer and dance to live music provided by Stone Country, 6:30 p.m. Oct. 6. HarHar-Ber Village Museum, 4404 West 20th Street, 918-786-3488, har-bervillage.com. SAT

Bullitt (1968, USA, Peter Yates) Steve McQueen plays a San Francisco cop racing to get revenge on a kingpin; screening hosted by the Oklahoma Mustang Club, 6:45 p.m. Oct. 7. Cinemark Tinseltown, 6001 N. Martin Luther King Ave., 405-424-0461, cinemark.com. SUN

Czech Festival celebrate Czech culture with a parade, traditional food, music, dancing and craft beer 7:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Oct. 6. Yukon Czech Hall, 205 N Czech Hall Road, Yukon, 324-8073, czechhall. com. SAT

Last Men in Aleppo (2017, Syria, Feras Fayyad) a documentary chronicling battlefield rescue efforts in Syria, 7:30 Oct. 3, Oklahoma City University Meinders School of Business, 2700 N. McKinley Ave., 405-2085593. WED

Fall Industry Flea an open-air market of artisans, shops and vintage goods, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Oct. 6. Industry Flea, 399 NW 10th St., industryflea.com. SAT

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (197, USA, Robert Altman) a gambler and a prostitute go into the brothel business

Giles Symposium: Derreck Kayongo the Ugandan entrepreneur and human rights innovator will discuss environmental sustainability and global health, 7:30-9 p.m. Oct. 4 Free. USAO Te Ata Memo-

rial Auditorium, 1727 W. Alabama Ave., Chickasha, 405-574-1362, usao.edu/events/giles-symposiumderreck-kayongo. THU Herbal Medicine Kit Workshop lean to prepare your own herbal medicines with elderberry syrup, eucalyptus and other herbs, 10 a.m.-noon Oct. 6.

Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405445-7080, myriadgardens.com. SAT Indigenous Peoples’ Day a proclamation reading and panel discussion celebrating Indigenous cultures and people, 6 p.m. Oct. 8. Oklahoma City University, 2501 N. Blackwelder Ave., 405-208-5000. MON International Gender and Sexuality Studies Conference speakers deliver presentations about gender and sexuality issues in the fields of art, science and humanities, 3 p.m. Oct. 4. Skirvin Hilton Hotel, 1 Park Ave., 405-272-3040, skirvinhilton.com. THU Lost Lakes Haunted Forest the theme-park adds a frightening attraction for the Halloween season, through Oct. 31. Lost Lakes Waterpark and Amphitheater, 3501 NE 10th, 405-702-4040, lostlakeshauntedforest.com. FRI-WED LQBTQ Cloud a meetup and dance party for the LGBT community, 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Oct. 7. The Queen Lounge, 2306 N. MacArthur, 405-606-8616. SUN Norman Groovefest a celebration to promote human rights awareness and the right to peaceably assemble, featuring guest speakers and musical performances from Susan Herndon and Bella Counsel, Original Flow, Terry “Buffalo” Ware and more, noon-9 p.m. Oct. 7.

Andrews Park, 201 W Daws St., 405-366-5472. SUN Oafcon trade, buy and discuss comic books at this convention, now in its 11th year, 6 p.m. Oct. 6.

Embassy Suites Conference Center, 2501 Conference Drive, 405-364-8040. SAT Oklahoma Engaged Launch Party celebrate the start of a new public service journalism collaboration between KOSU, KGOU, KWGS, KCCU and StateImpact Oklahoma, 6-8 p.m. Oct. 9. [Artspace] at Untitled, 1 NE Third St., 405-815-6665, 1ne3.org. TUE Pumkinville see the Children’s Garden transformed into a New England-inspired Pumpkin Town filled with fall foliage, games, crafts and other autumnal activities, Oct. 5-22. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-445-7080, myriadgardens.com.

FRI-MON

Viva Las Sisu Casino Night Not directly translatable to English, “sisu” is a Finnish word describing an unrelenting determination and perseverance in the face of adversity. While that could turn out to be a very costly attitude at the blackjack tables in Vegas, it’s perfectly appropriate at a tax-deductible casino night benefitting Sisu Youth Services, a local organization offering emergency services and shelter to homeless teenagers and young adults. So let it ride, baby.

The games begin 7 p.m. Friday at IAO Gallery, 706 W. Sheridan Ave. Tickets are $60-$75 and include chips to get you started. Visit sisuyouth.org.

FRIDAY Photo bigstock.com

TokenCon a convention for board-game enthusiasts featuring panels, competitions and a library of more than 500 games, Oct. 6-7, Wyndham Garden Oklahoma City Airport, 2101 S Meridian Ave., 405685-4000. SAT-SUN Tombstone Tales take a tractor-drawn tour through Enid’s history taught by characters who appear from behind tombstones to tell their stories, 6:30-10 p.m. Oct. 5-6. Enid Cemetery, 212 W Willow Road, Enid, 580-237-4819. FRI-SAT Unlearning Racism a safe space for the discussion of struggling with racism and its impact, 6:15-7:30 p.m. Trinity Presbyterian Church, 2301 NE 23rd St., trinitypresbyterianchurchokc.wordpress.com. THU

go to okgazette.com for full listings!

Early Explorers toddlers and preschoolers can participate in fun scientific activities they can repeat later at home, 10-11 a.m. Thursdays, Science Museum Oklahoma, 2100 NE 52nd St., 405-602-6664, sciencemuseumok.org. THU Explore It! get your questions answered of what, why and how about the natural world we live in, 11:30 a.m -noon Saturdays., through Dec. 29. Sam Noble Museum, 2401 Chautauqua Ave., 405-325-4712, samnoblemuseum.ou.edu. SAT Gardening With Kids join county master gardener president and chair of the junior master gardener program for a lesson in teaching gardening methods to children, 6 p.m. October 10. Will Rogers Garden Center, 3400 NW 36th St., 405-943-0827, okc.gov. WED

Performing Arts Ad Astra Sings Holst’s The Planets the women’s chorus performs Gustav Holst’s symphony with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic 8-10 p.m. Oct. 6. Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave., 405297-2264, okcciviccenter.com. SAT Art of Rap hosted by Jim Conway, this monthly rap battle pits local MCs against one another for a cash prize, 9 p.m. Mondays. Hubbly Bubbly Hookah & Café, 2900 N. Classen Blvd. Suite K, 405-609-2930.

MON

Beethoven’s 5th OCU Symphony Orchestra plays the iconic symphony as well as Berlioz’s Rákóczi March and Bernstein’s On the Waterfront Suite, 7-9 p..m. Oct. 4, Thu., Oct. 4, 7-9 p.m. Oklahoma City University, 2501 N. Blackwelder Ave., 405-208-5000.

THU

Cliff Cash the nationally touring comic will perform, 8-11 p.m. Oct. 5. 51st Street Speakeasy, 1114 NW 51st St., 405-463-0470, 51stspeakeasy.com. FRI Comedy Fight League a roast battle pitting local comics against each other in competition, 8 p.m. Oct. 6. New World Comics, 6219 N. Meridian Ave., 405721-7634, newworldcomics.net. SAT East Meets West: An Evening of Chinese and American Dance a joint performance featuring students from the University of Oklahoma School of Dance and members of the Beijing Normal University Experimental Dance Company, 8 p.m. Oct. 3. Elsie C. Brackett Theatre, 563 Elm Ave., 405-325-4101, theatre.ou.edu. WED El Sisterna Fall Concert students from Orquesta Esperanza, Orquesta Alegria and Banda Promesa will play at this recital hosted by the after school music program, 6:30-8 p.m. Oct. 4. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-445-7080, myriadgardens.com. THU Electric Pizza graduate students present electronic compositions at this live concert, 7:30 p.m.

Oct. 8. UCO Jazz Lab, 100 E. Fifth St., 405-359-7989, ucojazzlab.com. MON The Most Happy Fella the University of Oklahoma’s School of Music presents this musical romance written by Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls), Oct. 4-7. Mitchell Hall Theatre, 100 N. University Drive, Edmond, 405-974-2000, uco.edu. THU-SUN Oklahoma International Bluegrass Festival an annual celebration of roots music featuring international and US artists including Tommy Emmanuel (Australia), Blueside of Lonesome (Japan), Bluegrass Martins, The Neverly Hillbillies, The Red Dirt Rangers and many more, Oct. 4-6. Downtown Guthrie, Wentz and Oklahoma Ave., 405-282-0197, offbeatoklahoma. com/. THU-SAT Sir James & Lady Galway the flautists will perform a wide array of traditional and classical songs, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 9. OCCC Visual and Performing Arts Center Theater, 7777 S. May Ave., 405-682-7579, tickets.occc.edu. TUE

continued on page 34

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33

CALENDAR

Oklahoma Medical Marijuana… In the Weed(s) Even a ( puff, puff ) passing glance through our compendium of articles attempting to explain Oklahoma’s ever-shifting marijuana laws will give you some idea of how disorienting it all is, and the confused antics of some of our legislators in response to the passage of State Question 788 indicates lawmakers don’t necessarily understand it all either. Hopefully this panel discussion with legal experts, activists and officials will help clear the air. Lunch will follow, in case you get the munchies. The session starts at noon Tuesday at Oklahoma City University School of Law, 800 N. Harvey Ave. Tickets are $10. Visit ocuintheweeds.eventbrite.com.

TUESDAY Photo bigstock.com

c a l e n da r

continued from page 33 When We’re Gone a pop-punk musical set in London during the 14th century plague, through Oct. 14, Through Oct. 14.

Lyric Theatre, 1727 NW 16th St., 405-5249310, lyrictheatreokc.com. WED-SUN

Active

Monarch Madness 5K and Fun Run run an internationally themed course mimicking the monarch butterfly’s 3,000-mile winter migration; wings encouraged, 8 a.m.-noon Oct. 6. The Oklahoma City Zoo, 2000 Remington Place, 405-424-3344, okczoo.com. SAT Open Streets in South OKC take advantage of motor-vehicle-free streets to walk, bike, run or skate; leashed pets, strollers, walkers and wheelchairs welcome, 1-5 p.m. Oct. 7. Wiley Post Park, 2021 S. Robinson Ave., 405-297-2756, okc.gov. SUN Walk with Ease Program an Arthritis Foundation-certified program designed to motivate people to get in shape and improve flexibility and stamina, 8:30 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Nov. 9. Oklahoma County OSU Extension Center, 2500 NE 63rd St., 405-713-1125, okiemgs.okstate. edu. MON-FRI ZERO Prostate Cancer Run/Walk run and/or walk to raise awareness and money to fight this disease that more than 1,600 Oklahoma men are diagnosed with each year, Oct. 7. Stars & Stripes Park, 3701 S. Lake Hefner Drive, 405-297-2756, okc.gov/parks. SUN

Visual Arts

The Garden Chronicles Plus an exhibition of paintings by artist George Bogart, Through Nov. 2.

Santa Fe Depot, 200 S. Jones Ave., Norman, 405307-9320, pasnorman.org. FRI Gayle Curry: Unknown Origins closeup microscopic images of cancer cells are presented as visual art at this exhibition, Oct. 4-Feb. 9. GaylordPickens Oklahoma Heritage Museum, 1400 Classen Drive, 405-235-4458, oklahomaheritage.com. THU Horsepower a dual exhibition by artists Kristen Vails and Dusty Gilpin featuring works juxtaposing horses and automobiles, through Oct. 20. Firehouse Art Center, 444 S. Flood Ave., Norman, 405-3294523, normanfirehouse.com. FRI-SAT Lost in the Faraway an exhibition of spontaneously created acrylic works by KB Kueteman, Oct. 5-28.

Contemporary Art Gallery, 2928 Paseo St., 405-6017474, contemporaryartgalleryokc.com. FRI-SUN One Thousand Tears multimedia artist Janet O’Neal combines photography, sculpture printmaking and painting in an exhibition of works exploring loss, grief and the healing process, through Oct. 13.

[Artspace] at Untitled, 1 NE Third St., 405-815-6665, 1ne3.org. THU-SAT Reina Williams workshop learn new painting techniques and classical styles in this two-day workshop for all experience levels, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 5-6.

Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., 405-951-0000, oklahomacontemporary.org. FRI-SAT Wonderful Watercolors Workshop learn about paint manipulation and other techniques at this class taught by veteran artist Connie Seabourn, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Oct. 10-11. Norman Santa Fe Depot, 200 S. Jones Ave., Norman, 405-307-9320, pasnorman.org. WED-THU

Autumn Pop-Up view new work from the studios of Anthony Dyke, Susan Morrison-Dyke, Suzanne Mears and Christie Owen, through Nov. 9. Nault Gallery, Midtown, 816 N. Walker Ave., 405-604-7947. FRI The Blind Rooms a multimedia experience created by the artist Juliacks in collaboration with University of Oklahoma students and combining audio narratives with visual and performance art, Oct. 8-Nov. 2. The Lightwell Gallery, 520 Parrington Oval, 405-325-2691, Norman, art.ou.edu. MON-FRI Chrome Chocolate an exhibition of paintings, mixed-media and video and digital art created by Vivian Beethe, Skip Hill, Keegan O’Keefe and more, through Oct. 14. IAO Gallery, 706 W. Sheridan Ave., 405-232-6060, iaogallery.org. FRI-SUN Cowboy Crossings Exhibition & Sale an exhibition of painting, drawing, and sculpture as well as saddlemaking, bit- and spur-making, silversmithing and rawhide braiding, Oct. 5-6. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org. FRI-SAT Darktoberfest a Halloween-themed group art show featuring work by Nora Bray, Jenn Varner, Matty Zoob and more, 7 p.m.-midnight Oct. 5. The Root, 3012 N. Walker Ave., 405-655-5889, therootokc.com. FRI

34

o c to b e r 3 , 2 0 1 8 | 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 528-4600 or e-mail to listings@okgazette.com.

Sorry, but phone submissions cannot be accepted.

go to okgazette.com for full listings!

EVENT

MUSIC

Primate primacy

Arctic Monkeys make the Criterion their Tranquility Base Oct. 10. By George Lang

Through a desire and willingness to upend its sound and confound expectations, Arctic Monkeys transcended its mid-2000s beginnings as a next-step post-punk band drafting in the slipstream of Franz Ferdinand and The Libertines. That fearlessness launched Arctic Monkeys and its leader, Alex Turner, into rarefied air in British rock music, putting the band at or near the level of forebears like Oasis and Blur.

The group came together quickly after Turner and guitarist Jamie Cook were both gifted with guitars at Christmas in 2001. As students at Stocksbridge High School in Sheffield, U.K., Turner and Cook quickly teamed with two classmates, bassist Andy Nicholson and drummer Matt Helders, and began gigging and building considerable online buzz with early demos. As those demos circulated online, BBC Music 6 began talking up the group and a bidding war erupted over who would get to sign the teenagers.

I think that was something I was trying to get away from, and perhaps I’ve returned to it now.

Alex Turner Early on, Turner was heavily influenced by The Strokes, the lower Manhattan band that led the charge of definite-article guitar groups in the early 2000s. That group’s ability to deftly toggle between aggression and lassitude, cool and discomposure, informed Turner’s initial run at Arctic Monkeys’ music.

“As much as they probably hate hearing this,” Turner told NME in 2011, “they were the band that encouraged me to rip the knees of my jeans and write on them in marker pen. I wrote on them in red ink, ‘I’ve got soul and I’m superbad!’”

Rather than sign with a major label, Arctic Monkeys went with Domino Recording Company, the home of Franz Ferdinand, Clinic, Blood Orange and Hot Chip. It was a canny move because they were able to establish indie cool while getting strong distribution.

That counted for a lot when, after two years of loud buzzing over the group’s prospects, Arctic Monkeys released Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not in January 2006.

Propelled by the omnipresent first single, “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor,” Whatever People Say I Am

became the fastest-selling debut album in the history of British music, outstripping the previous record set by Elastica’s 1995 debut. The album then proceeded to sell quintuple-platinum in the U.K. and win the Mercury Prize. While stateside sales were less bountiful — Whatever People Say I Am sold 300,000 in the U.S. — Turner’s lyrical acuity and the band’s ability to create instant earworms landed them on the American cultural radar. Time magazine declared Whatever People Say I Am album of the year for 2006.

Shortly after recording the album, Nicholson departed the group and was replaced on tour by bassist Nick O’Malley, who soon became a permanent member. Arctic Monkeys returned in short order with a second album, Favorite Worst Nightmare, in April 2007, led off by the propulsive first single, “Brianstorm.” Like its predecessor, FWN went to No. 1 on the British charts and quickly produced another hit single, “Fluorescent Adolescent.”

While the album didn’t quite cause the critical and commercial sensation that Whatever People Say I Am generated, it quelled any concerns that Arctic Monkeys might suffer from a sophomore slump.

Instead of rushing forward with a third Arctic Monkeys album, Turner took a left turn and started a new project with guitarist Miles Kane and AM’s producer James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco. The Last Shadow Puppets drew inspiration from mid-1960s British music, the louche oeuvre of French pop impresario Serge Gainsbourg and European films of that same era for its first album, 2008’s The Age of the Understatement. The grand, stringenhanced production and Turner’s emotional lyrics earned The Last Shadow Puppets the kind of critical praise Turner had enjoyed to-date with the Arctic Monkeys, but the sound was so distinctive on songs like the title track, “Standing Next to Me” and “My Mistakes Were Made for You” that LSP managed to establish a uniquely separate identity from Turner’s other band, which was about to take another hard turn stylistically.

Turner reconvened Arctic Monkeys in late-2008 in Joshua Tree, California, at Rancho De La Luna, the studio owned

by Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age. With Homme on the boards, the group recorded Humbug, a predictably harder take on the group’s sound informed by the band ingesting large quantities of Cream and Jimi Hendrix at Homme’s behest. Though much of Humbug reflected Homme’s harder and

sludgier tendencies, Arctic Monkeys proved it could still deliver utterly heartbreaking melodies with the second single, “Cornerstone.”

Perhaps the reception for “Cornerstone” set the tone for 2011’s Suck It and See, which saw a return to full production work by Ford and an emphasis on shimmering melodies, but it was 2013’s propulsive and darkly atmospheric AM that gave Arctic Monkeys its biggest album sales in years, stoked by the minor-key crunch of the ballad, “Do I Wanna Know?” The single made headway stateside on modern rock radio and, in some ways, served as a reintroduction of the group.

Arctic Monkeys went on hiatus after the AM tour, and Turner and Kane came back together for a long-awaited second Last Shadow Puppets album, Everything You’ve Come to Expect. By this time, Turner was a permanent resident of Los Angeles and all his projects were recorded in Pacific Standard Time, but he had not changed up his songwriting methodology much over the course of his career. He was dealing with writer’s block for the first time, so instead of picking up a guitar, he sat down at an upright piano and, inspired by Federico Fellini’s 8½, dealt with it by creating a stream-of-consciousness suite of songs about a lounge singer on the moon titled Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. Arctic Monkeys changed up its sound in the

Arctic Monkeys perform at The Criterion Oct. 10. | Photo Zackery Michael / provided

most consequential ways for the album, emphasizing slower rhythms and a vocal delivery on songs such as “Four Out of Five” that offered strong echoes of David Bowie in his “Space Oddity” period. But while it sounds almost nothing like Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, Turner told NME that Tranquility Base feels to him like the band’s debut.

“I can’t put my finger on exactly why I think that, but I have been saying it a lot recently,” he said. “It’s set in a completely different place, obviously, but there’s something in the lyrics that reminds me of something in that writing. I’m tempted to say that it’s something to do with how blunt it is. I think that was something I was trying to get away from, and perhaps I’ve returned to it now.”

Visit criterionokc.com.

Arctic Monkeys 8 p.m. Oct. 10 The Criterion 500 E. Sheridan Ave. criterionokc.com | 405-840-5500 $68

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EVENT

MUSIC

Queen Bishop Bishop Briggs performs at Tower Theatre on Sunday. By Jeremy Martin

Born in London and raised in Japan and Hong Kong, Sarah McLaughlin realized early on what she wanted to be when she grew up. She also realized she would need an alias.

“Oh my gosh,” said McLaughlin, now better known as pop star Bishop Briggs, when asked about Canadian balladeer and Lilith Fair founder Sarah McLachlan. “I knew from a really young age I would have to change my name if I ever pursued music, and I really never saw myself doing anything other than music for as long as I can remember. …

But yes, I was born in the ’90s, so she is queen forever and always.”

Rather than challenge the throne for Sarah supremacy, Briggs adopted a new name based on her parents’ home t ow n , B i s hop br i g g s , Scotland. Touring Europe in September gave Briggs the chance to visit her stage namesake, where much of her extended family still lives.

“I don’t know that they’ve ever seen me, really, outside of their living room, singing and d a nc i ng ,” Briggs said.

Not unless they watched her on American Idol or The Tonight Show or

Late Night or The Late Show or The Late Late Show, et al. Briggs, scheduled to perform Sunday at Tower Theatre, 425 NW 23rd St., said she copes with her relatively newfound notoriety by withdrawing from her phone and the internet during the songwriting and recording processes in an effort to recapture the mindset she had when she first started making music.

“It just is a lot of pressure if I’m getting inundated with email that’s work-related,” Briggs said. “I really need to go back to when I was growing up and writing music and writing poetry. I really didn’t have any outside forces that were involved in that.”

Liberating performance

Some of her most formative early performances, however, were not in Scottish family living rooms but in Tok yo’s karaoke clubs.

“I think that was one of t he big gest takeaways for me from karaoke was letting go of per fectionism,” Briggs said. “Engaging the crowd was like a big thing because you

have everyone you know there to just kind of have a good time and be involved and sing along. … The technique of singing is something that is kind of the cherry on top, but I think the other stuff is what makes you feel alive when you’re performing.”

The improvised, one-take nature of karaoke might have informed Briggs’ vocal performance on her first single, “Wild Horses” (not a Rolling Stones cover).

“I was heading out to play a show, and it was raining outside, and the producers that I was working with were feeling frustrated that they didn’t feel like we had gotten the vocal takes that we wanted,” Briggs said. “I told them we had about five minutes before I had to leave, and I just said, ‘Please give me a chance. I’ve got this.’ And so that was the vocal take we ended up going with.

The pressure of the situation really mirrored, basically, what that entire song was about, which is basically being in a pressure cooker of a relationship. … I think in terms of vocals it definitely created an urgency that I hope people connected to.”

“Wild Horses,” first released in 2015, peaked at number 21 on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart in 2017 after it appeared on an Acura commercial. The music-recognition app Shazam gave breakthrough follow-up “River” honorable mention in a 2016 article predicting future hits based on the number of users who wanted to identify it. The song (not a Joni Mitchell cover) produced by Mark Jackson and Ian Scott peaked at number 10 in September of 2016 and has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

‘With ‘River,’ it was such a whirlwind,” Briggs recalled, “even the creation of it. I mean, obviously, it’s been so surreal since releasing it, but actually recording it was really exciting too because it was the first song that I had worked on with these particular producers, and it really felt like me. I think a lot of time spent as a musician is just searching for yourself and really finding your voice and finding the things you want to say and the way you want to say it. So ‘River’ will always feel like such a liberation every time I perform it.”

Intimate celebration

For Briggs, singing a song live often returns her to the mind-state that sparked its creation.

“When I’m performing the songs, I really go back to where I was when I was writing them, and sometimes since then, it feels empowering to sing them,” Briggs said. “What I will say is in between the songs, I really release that emotion, and I can look around and feel so full of gratitude for where I am.

I do think it’s important to have those moments when I’m singing of anguish and sadness, but I think it’s important to release it in between Bishop Briggs brings her trap- and and soulinspired electro-pop to Tower Theatre on Sunday. | Photo Jabari Jacobs / provided 36

O cto B E R 3 , 2 0 1 8 | O kg a z e t t e . c o m

Bishop Briggs released her full-length debut, Church of Scars, in April. | Image provided

the music.”

Many of the songs on full-length debut Church of Scars, released in April, describe interpersonal and internal struggles and broken relationships, but her latest release, “Baby” (not a Justin Bieber or Os Mutantes cover), celebrates loving a man who makes up for his “fucked-up head” by being “so damn good in bed.” Briggs said she “never really thought [she] was going to release it” because it felt “so intimate.”

“I think they definitely have different energies for sure, and they are definitely talking about different things,” Briggs said, “but it really felt disingenuous to not release ‘Baby’ knowing the things that I was talking to my friends about … I feel that it was important to release to hopefully make others feel as though they can be honest with themselves as well.”

Regardless of the lyrical content, pretending she’s only recording songs for herself is a common part of Briggs’ creative process.

“I would say 99 percent of the time I tell myself I’m not going to release it, just because it takes off the pressure again off everything,” Briggs said.

Her version of “Never Tear Us Apart” (an INXS cover) was featured in the movie Fifty Shades Freed, released earlier this year, but Briggs said she’d wanted to cover the song for a long time after hearing the lyric “I’d make wine from your tears.” Briggs said the timing for her association with the films couldn’t have been better.

“I was very thankful that I joined the movie franchise when things got very creepy,” Briggs said. “That felt very fitted to my personality. So out of all the movies, I do think it was very ironic that it was probably the darkest one and the least sexual one. It was kind of funny.”

Visit towertheatreokc.com.

Bishop Briggs 8 p.m. Sunday Tower Theatre 425 NW 23rd St. towertheatreokc.com | 405-708-6937 $25-$75

LIVE MUSIC These are events recommended

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

On a Whim, Waters Edge Winery-OKC. COVER Shoulda Been Blonde/The Nobodys, Resonator. POP/ROCK

s U w o ll o F

on

facebook

Sonja Martinez, Partners. COUNTRY Twin Shadow, ACM @ UCO Performance Lab.

Wednesday, Oct. 3 The Breeders, Diamond Ballroom. ROCK Jason Scott, ACM @ UCO. SINGER/

SONGWRITER

SINGER/SONGWRITER

Saturday, Oct. 6 Brian Lynn Jones & the Misfit Cowboys, Remington Park. COUNTRY/ROCK John Paul White, The Blue Door. SINGER/SONG-

Juice Wrld, The Criterion. HIP-HOP

WRITER

Maurice Johnson, The R & J Lounge and Supper Club. JAZZ

Midas 13, Okie Tonk Café. ROCK

Paperback/Seasonal, The Root. ROCK Super Whatevr, 89th Street-OKC. ROCK Tenth Mountain Division, The Deli. ROCK

Thursday, Oct. 4 The Bad Plus, Tower Theatre. JAZZ Kent Fauss Duo, Whiskey Barrel Saloon. COUNTRY

Summerland/Lost Highway/Elecktra, Sauced on Paseo. ROCK/ELECTRONIC

Friday, Oct. 5 Brian Lynn Jones & the Misfit Cowboys, Remington Park. COUNTRY/ROCK Figure/Megalodon, Farmers Public Market. ELECTRONIC

Gabriel Hancock, Full Circle Bookstore. SINGER/ SONGWRITER

Jessica Tate & John Rouse, Bossa Nova Caipirinha Lounge. JAZZ

OKG

Miss Brown to You, Full Circle Bookstore. FOLK Read Southall Band, Tower Theatre. ROCK

facebook.com/okgazette

Reik, Diamond Ballroom. POP

Sunday, Oct. 7 Café Tacvba/Ruen Brothers. ROCK In Our Dying Hour, Sauced on Paseo. METAL Hosty, The Deli. ROCK

Kevin Gates, The Criterion. HIP-HOP Koolie High & the Tap Band, Ice Event Center & Grill. JAZZ

...all the cool kids are do ing it!

Monday, Oct. 8 Highly Suspect, Cain’s Ballroom. ROCK Jason Hunt, Sean Cumming’s Irish Restaurant. FOLK

Tuesday, Oct. 9 Country Clique, Friends Restaurant & Club.

COUNTRY

TWIN SHADOW WITH

THE IVY

Kyle Reid, Scratch Kitchen & Cocktails. SINGER/

SONGWRITER

Wednesday, Oct. 10 Cuco, Tower Theatre. POP Doghouse Swine/WMD, Red Brick Bar. PUNK Emmylou Harris, Brady Theater. COUNTRY Katie & the Elements, The R & J Lounge and Supper Club. JAZZ Mipso/Jason Scott, ACM @ UCO Performance Lab. FOLK

7p.m. Friday, Oct. 5 · $10 All Performance Lab tickets available at eventbrite.com

ACM@UCO PERFORMANCE LAB 329 E Sheridan Ave, Oklahoma City, OK 73104

Kyshona Armstrong Combining elements of blues, country, gospel, reggae and R&B, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Kyshona Armstrong’s music seems beholden less to any genre than to an overall ethos of emotional generosity and grace. Armstrong, who began writing songs while working as a music therapist, expresses upbeat optimism and haunted loneliness with the same conviction and contagious empathy, and her upcoming album For the Quiet, the Silenced and the Forgotten promises a soulful balm for everyone. The show starts at 7 p.m. Sunday at The Depot, 200 S. Jones Ave., in Norman. Tickets are $20. Call 405-307-9320 or visit pasnorman.org.

UP NEXT AT THE LAB:

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 528-4600 or e-mail to listings@okgazette.com.

Sorry, but phone submissions cannot be accepted.

Oct. 10: Mipso, with Jason Scott Oct. 27: Ester Drang, Husbands, Tallows Nov. 7: Molly Burch, with Seph(ra) Nov. 14: Mac DeMarco (solo) Nov. 18: Current Joys, with Love Seats and The Lunar Laugh

(405) 974-4711 | acm-uco.com

Metro Music Series Sponsors

SUNDAY Photo Andy Teo / provided

go to okgazette.com for full listings!

O kg a z e t t e . c o m | O C TO B E R 3 , 2 0 1 8

37

puzzles 1

New York Times Magazine Crossword Puzzle Sleep on it

By Natan Last| Puzzles Edited by Will Shortz | 1007

ACROSS 1 Outlaw 4 Electrical systems 9 2011 NBA champs, for short 13 Bahrain bigwigs 18 Flap 19 Up 20 Jesus, for one 21 Hawaiian island 22 Tease 23 Nissan Leaf, e.g.

25 “C’mon, we’ll be fine” 27 1991 Disney heroine 29 Like many Rolex watches sold

on the street 30 Establish a mood 31 Epithet for Leona Helmsley 34 Sunbeam 35 Persians, e.g.

36 Fishing tool 37 Fishing tool 38 Lovey 39 100 centavos 40 Took the trophy 43 Ear piece?

45 Admiring words 47 Gave drugs 48 Accra-to-Khartoum dir.

49 Buildup during vacation 51 Fishing tool 52 Troubles 53 Daughter of Anakin and Padmé 55 Right angle 56 Not on terra firma, say 57 Makeup of many a veggie dog 58 Watch chain 61 Like merlot and zinfandel, typically 64 Equal chance 67 Kind of court 68 Back cover?

69 Leather-clad TV warrior 70 In a footnote 71 Test that’s done in ink 73 Mary-Kate, to Ashley 75 Fictional creature whose name

is Old English for “giant” 76 Up on things 77 Grandiose 80 Command to a dog 81 Heist target 82 Tide detergent capsules 83 New Left org.

84 Basis for a raise 86 Qualifiers

87 Paroxysm 89 Simba’s father in a Disney musical 91 Jets can be found in one 92 Allow to 93 Churn 94 Mamma Mia! song that

begins “Where are those

happy days?”

95 British royal 97 It’s often served on toasted

white bread, for short 99 Cut 100 N.L. Central player 101 Builder of Israel’s first temple 106 Website feature resembling an odometer 110 Mate of a colorful bird 111 Hooch 112 Live 113 Western gas brand 115 Popular fruit drink 116 Debunk?

117 Sixth of 24 118 He might provide assistance

after a crash 119 French article 120 Bit of salon detritus 121 Collapsed red giant?

122 Marina sights 123 Item that disturbs sleep four

times in this puzzle

DOWN

1 Backyard get-together, briefly 2 “So long” 3 Lofty 4 Environmental advocacy group 5 Documentarian Burns who’s

the brother of Ken 6 Has a vacation day 7 Leave suddenly 8 Bunkum 9 Home to the 72,000-foot

volcano Olympus Mons 10 Moisturizer ingredient 11 1980s cartoon robot 12 Islamic sovereign 13 Nobelist Wiesel 14 Item lain upon four times in

this puzzle 15 Not farmed out 16 Chaac, to Mayans 17 Places 24 Domain 26 “Who’s on First?” left fielder

2

3

4

18

19

22

23

27

5

6

7

24

42

54

61

44

45

72

82

78

88

100

85

108

109

97

98

102

103

104

105

111

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

events are more likely 59 Georgia, in the art world 60 Doctor’s orders, often 62 Future plan for many an econ major 63 Home of the ancient Temple of Artemis 65 Flavoring in the Mideast drink arak 66 Cat-meets-dog sound 69 “Skylarking” band 72 Command at a surprise party 74 Popular game with 162 cards 78 Common download 79 “Wicked Game” vocalist Chris 82 Any of the four people

disturbed in this puzzle 84 Where Karl Benz debuted the

world’s first auto 85 16-ounce beers, slangily 87 Grammy winner Meghan

28 Jazz’s McCann 32 Start of the line that includes

“wherefore art thou” 33 Approaches 38 Tippled 39 Government study, informally 40 Government aid 41 Beating by a hole, in match play 42 Rock star known for his

360-degree drum set 44 Parts of Mr. Clean and Lex

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free will astrology Homework: At what moment in your life were you closest to being perfectly content? Recreate the conditions that prevailed then. Testify at Freewillastrology.com.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

Electra is an action-packed story written by ancient Greek playwright Sophocles. It features epic characters taking drastic action in response to extreme events. In contrast to that text is Marcel Proust’s novel In Search of Lost Time, which draws from the sensitive author’s experiences growing up, coming of age, and falling in love, all the while in quest for meaning and beauty. Author Virginia Woolfe compared the two works, writing, “In six pages of Proust we can find more complicated and varied emotions than in the whole of the Electra.” In accordance with astrological omens, I recommend that you specialize in the Proustian mode rather than the Sophoclean. Your feelings in the next five weeks could be as rich and interesting and educational as they have been in a long time. Honor them!

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Researchers in Maryland have created a new building material with a strength-to-weight ratio that’s eight times better than steel. It’s an effective insulator, and in some forms can be bent and folded. Best of all, it’s biodegradable and cost-effective. The stuff is called nanowood, and is derived from lightweight, fast-growing trees like balsa.

I propose that we make it your main metaphor for the foreseeable future. Why? Because I think you’re primed to locate or create your own version of a flexible, durable, robust building block.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

The U.S. Secretary of Defense paid an official visit to Indonesia early this year. The government arranged for him to observe soldiers as they demonstrated how tough and well-trained they were. Some of the troops shimmied through broken glass, demolished bricks with their heads, walked through fire, and bit heads off snakes. I hope you won’t try stunts like that in the coming weeks, Gemini. It will be a favorable time for you show off your skills and make strong impressions. You’ll be wise to impress important

people with how creative and resourceful you are. But there’s no need to try too hard or resort to exaggeration.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) I confess that i have a fuzzy self-image. With odd regularity, i don’t seem to know exactly what or who i am.

For example, i sometimes think i’m so nice and polite that i need to toughen up. But on other occasions i feel my views are so outrageous and controversial that i should tone myself down. Which is true? Often, i even neglect to capitalize the word “i.” You have probably experienced some of this fuzziness, my fellow Cancerian. But you’re now in a favorable phase to cultivate a more definitive self-image. Here’s a helpful tip: We Cancerians have a natural talent for inspiring people to love us. This ability will come in especially handy as we work on making an enduring upgrade from i to I. Our allies’ support and feedback will fuel our inner efforts to clarify our identity.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

“I am a little afraid of love, it makes me rather stupid.”

So said author Simone de Beauvoir in a letter she wrote to her lover, Nelson Algren. I’m happy to let you know, Leo, that during the next twelve months, love is likely to have the opposite effect on you. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, it will tend to make you smarter and more perceptive. To the degree that you expand your capacity for love, you will become more resilient and a better decision-maker. As you get the chance to express love with utmost skill and artistry, you will awaken dormant potentials and boost your personal power.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

Your theme in the coming weeks is the art of attending to details. But wait! I said “the art.” That means attending to details with panache, not with overly meticulous fussing. For inspiration, meditate on St. Francis Xavier’s advice, “Be great in little things.” And let’s take his thought a step further with a quote from author Richard Shivers: “Be great in little things, and you will be given opportunity to do big things.” Novelist Tom Robbins provides us with one more nuance: “When we accept small wonders, we qualify ourselves to imagine great wonders.”

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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Japanese entrepreneur Hiroki Terai has created a business that offers crying therapy. His clients watch short videos specially formulated to make them weep. A professional helper is on hand to gently wipe their tears away and provide comforting words. “Tears have relaxing and healing effects,” says an Okinawan musician who works as one of the helpers. Hiroki Terai adds, “It has been said that one drop of tear has the effect of relieving stress for a week.” I wish there were a service like this near where you live, Scorpio. The next two weeks will be a perfect time to relieve pent-up worry and sadness and anxiety through cathartic rituals like crying. What other strategies might work for you?

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

Fling out friendly feelers! Sling out interesting invitations!

Figure out how to get noticed for all the right reasons!

Make yourself so interesting that no one can resist your proposals! Use your spunky riddle-solving powers to help ease your tribe’s anxieties. Risk looking odd if that will make you smarter! Plunk yourself down in pivotal places where vitality is welling up! Send out telepathic beams that say, “I’m ready for sweet adventure. I’m ready for invigorating transformation!”

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

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you avoid Laux’s mistake. I’m quite sure that crucial insights and revelations will be coming your way, and I want you to do whatever’s necessary to completely capture them so you can study and meditate on them at length.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

As a young man, Aquarian poet Louis Dudek struck up a correspondence with renowned poet Ezra Pound, who was 32 years older. Dudek “admired him immensely,” and “loved him for the joy and the luminosity” of his poetry, but also resented him “for being so magnificent.”

With a mix of mischief and adulation, Dudek wrote a poem to his hero. It included these lines: “For Christ’s sake, you didn’t invent sunlight. There was sun dazzle before you. But you talk as if you made light or discovered it.” I hope his frisky tone might inspire you to try something similar with your own idols. It would be healthy to be more playful and lighthearted about anything or anyone you take too seriously or give enormous power to.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

In his book Till We Have Faces, C. S. Lewis writes, “Holy places are dark places. It is life and strength, not knowledge and words, that we get in them. Holy wisdom is not clear and thin like water, but thick and dark like blood.” In that spirit, and in accordance with astrological omens, I suggest you seek out dark holy places that evoke wonder and reverence, even awe. Hopefully, you will be inspired thereby to bring new beauty into your life. You’ll be purged of trivial concerns and become receptive to a fresh promise from your future life.

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.

A “Someone spoke to me last night, told me the truth,” writes poet Doeianne Laux. “I knew I should make myself get up, write it down, but it was late, and I was exhausted from working. Now I remember only the flavor.” I offer these thoughts, Capricorn, in the hope that they’ll help

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Libran astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson offers this observation: “When you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. [But] the most successful people in life recognize that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation.” I think Tyson’s simple wisdom is exactly what you need to hear right now, Libra. You’re primed for a breakthrough in your ability to create your own fate.

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