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INSIDE COVER P. 4 The concert business is a high-wire act for the promoters who make shows happen. Oklahoma Gazette spoke with some of Oklahoma City’s most prominent promoters to shed light on a business that, in real terms, is a lot like high-stakes gambling.

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NEWS

COV E R

Scott Marsh of The Jones Assembly said his venue has an extensive emergency plan it follows in case of weather or other incidents. | Photo Alexa Ace

Music gamble

Concert promotion is more of a risky business than most live music lovers realize.

By Jeremy Martin

They were warned about the heat, but in the end, that wasn’t the problem.

“I want to say it was about 107 [degrees Fahrenheit] all day long and super hot,” said David Fitzgerald, owner of DCF Concerts, recalling the 2011 Brady District Block Party The Flaming Lips were scheduled to headline. “The firemen came out there with their fire trucks and were hosing people down. There were heat warnings everywhere, but just all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this big microburst came out, and all of a sudden, it was 80-mile-an-hour winds. The trees were blowing and almost touching the ground.

It tore up the stage. It canceled the show, and it was one of those things where you looked on the radar for the weather forecast and it was all hot; I mean, there were heat warnings all week long, but there was no wind, no rain. Talk about a total surprise. All of a sudden, you see this big cloud get above you and you’re like, ‘What is this?’ and all of a sudden, it was this huge microburst, just a huge, like, mini thunderstorm, and there’s nothing you can do to control that.”

The storm caused the Lips’ lighting rig to collapse onto audio equipment, causing an estimated $800,000 damage.

Scott Marsh, director of operations, meanwhile, remembers booking a concert in Stillwater that “had some really great bands” that “all became really big,” including Manchester Orchestra and Delta Spirit. The show went on. The weather was fine, but still it “failed miserably” because Marsh overestimated how many people would buy tickets.

“I lost $100,000 that day of company 4

F E B R U A R Y 2 7, 2 0 1 9 | O KG A Z E T T E . C O M

money,” said Marsh, who worked for Levelland Productions at the time.

These are the horror stories that keep concert promoters awake at night.

“Promoting is a gamble,” Marsh said.

“You just never know. You look at shows and you do your best to make educated decisions on them. … You never know, but it’s always in the back of your mind: ‘Could I have done more?’”

Fitzgerald’s first show as a promoter, a 1989 Warrant concert, actually made money, but he would soon discover that wouldn’t always be the case.

“I learned it was easier to lose a lot more money than it was to make money,” Fitzgerald said. “This is a tough business. It’s kind of like legalized gambling. I put up all the money to promote a show and hope that enough people show up and buy tickets to cover the guarantee and the expenses.”

Max Baker Jr., who promoted the Warrant show with Fitzgerald, called it beginner’s luck.

“We made a lot of money, and we thought it was going to be great,” Baker said. “Then we founded a company, and the next three shows afterwards, we lost all our money and then some.”

Baker, who got his start booking small local shows in apartment complex clubhouses and at Diamond Ballroom “on Friday nights when they weren’t doing country line dancing,” remembers advice he got early in from Little Wing Productions’ Larry Shaeffer.

“He told us, ‘Why do you boys want to be concert promoters?’” Baker said.

“He’s like, ‘Here’s what I need. I need

$50,000, and we’ll go out here and burn it in the street, and then you’ll know how to be a concert promoter.’ I used to laugh and think that was funny, but that’s exactly what happened.”

Using a hypothetical Kiss concert as an example, Baker explained the process of booking a big touring band.

“Say Kiss calls you and says, ‘We want to play a day for $500,000; are you in?’”

Baker said. “So you agree, and they send you a performance contract that you’ve got to read all the way through, including the fine details. Now the $500,000 doesn’t include what goes on backstage — you know, meals, and for a touring group like Kiss, you might employ for the day 200 people, 100 people of their staff and 100 people local staff, and you have to feed them and stock the dressing rooms. … Then you have building rental, then you have labor, putting the show together, and then you have security, all these other plusses. … So say you’ve got $1 million in the show. At that point, before you even go on sale, you say, ‘I’ve got a $1 million debt here. What are my price points?’ That’s where you get creative. … Say you’ve got a $25 ticket all the way to a $1,000 ticket, and then you figure out, ‘Okay, to get that $1 million back, it’s going to take 8,999 people at an average of $150.’ … When most people go to a show, and they look out there and think, ‘Oh, man, you’re making a killing,’ they have no idea that you had to pay $500,000 for the band. You had to pay for security. You had to pay for labor.

You had to pay for cleanup. You had to pay for ticket taking. You had to pay for insurance. You had to pay for meals, and so if you don’t make that 8,999, it’s out of your pocket. You’re throwing a party, but you ain’t having any fun.”

Fitzgerald said most music fans seem unaware that every concert is a gamble with low margin for error.

“I think that people think that all shows make money,” Fitzgerald said. “I don’t think that the general public really understands that there’s a risk involved.

I don’t think they understand that there’s somebody out there that’s guaranteeing the band X amount of money per night, and we have to pay all the expenses and we’re hoping to sell enough tickets to break even.”

Even inexperienced concert promoters can be ignorant of the chances they’re taking, Marsh said.

“It’s an interesting business,” Marsh said. “It’s really fun, but you have to be prepared, and I think that’s where a lot of people get in trouble. … They go rent a venue, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, I got this money. I got $100,000.’ That’s great, so you pay for your artists, you pay for your venue, you pay for half the ticket sales, but what happens if you don’t sell out?

‘Oh, it’s for sure going to sell out.’ OK. David Fitzgerald of DCF Concerts promotes shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Wichita, Kansas. | Photo DCF Concerts / provided

You’ve got a show in February. What if there’s an ice storm? ‘Oh, there won’t be an ice storm.’ But what if there is? Are you prepared? That’s what you have to do. You have to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best.”

Stormy situations

Marsh said The Jones Assembly has a 25-30 page emergency management plan detailing how to handle Oklahoma’s unpredictable weather and other possible crises, but some of the rules for booking concerts are not so cut and dried. The unsuccessful Stillwater show, for example, suffered from Marsh overestimating the popularity of bands because he and his friends all listened to them, a mistake he called Booker Don’t Do This 101.

“You never book a band just because you love that band,” Marsh said.

Baker agreed.

“If you have a favorite band, do not book them,” Baker said. “You will lose your ass. You will end up disliking the band. The best thing I can tell a person, rather than book the band, take your $500 and go to Dallas or go to Chicago, and go somewhere else and have a good time and remember it for what it was.”

Considering Marsh got into the business as a music fan who wanted to see more bands in Oklahoma City, that rule can be hard to follow.

“I want Oklahoma City to be a music destination, a place people look to and just say, ‘Wow! That’s crazy that they get these shows,’ because that’s how I’ve always felt about Tulsa,” Marsh said. “I think growing up around it, you see it and you’re like, ‘Man, how did they do this?’ It’s always been something that’s been kind of magical to me how Cain’s [Ballroom] does what they do.”

Establishing Oklahoma City as a market for touring bands “on par with Tulsa,” is an ongoing effort, Marsh said, largely because agents are looking to hedge bets of their own and Tulsa has had more shows in the past. Many agents

Like many people in the business, Max Baker likens the process of promoting concerts to high-stakes gambling. | Photo Alexa Ace

are more comfortable treating Oklahoma as a single market and booking a single stop in Tulsa where there’s more historical data to draw from.

“We learned pretty quickly that, from the agent’s side of things, Oklahoma City was definitely looked at as a C market,” Marsh said. “It was looked at as something that that didn’t have a lot of traction, they didn’t have a lot of history in, not a lot of connection to, all those things. A lot of the early, especially in year one, a lot of it was gaining agents’ trust; you know, ‘Yes,

UNI_19-RP-033_Quarter Horse Opening.indd 1

I know you’ve played Cain’s. Yes, I know that you like Tulsa. Yes, I know, it’s also had all these great musicians. We’ve had great musicians. We’re a great city. We’re bigger. They’re two separate markets.’”

While The Jones Assembly, Tower Theatre, The Criterion and other venues are drawing bigger names recently, including Jeff Tweedy, Vampire Weekend and Death Cab for Cutie, Baker said the business has fundamentally changed because of large-scale operations like Live Nation, which he called “the

Walmart of music,” making it harder for independent promoters to survive.

“The vibe and the profession I signed up for really doesn’t exist anymore,” Baker said. “It went from everybody being sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll to very corporate. … If you don’t have $100,000 in your bank account to play, you can’t play. … Live Nation can kill the promoter because they may have 50 shows in a day, and 47 may lose on a Tuesday, and they’re not really worried about that because on Wednesday they put 47 more on sale. … The one thing that I see about people nowadays is they don’t have that passion. I got into this business because I love the music. I was a fan of the music.

I wasn’t even worried about the money until I had to start making it.”

Marsh said he gets “excited to think about what it looks like five years from now” when he considers Oklahoma City’s future as a destination and a home base for bands.

“It has always been my goal is to look at Oklahoma City as a pipeline,” Marsh said, “because we’re geographically put into a really unique position where we

have a lot of great markets within a 10-hour radius. If you draw a circle around Oklahoma City, you have a lot of great markets, especially for music. So it just always made sense to me, ‘Crossroads of America’ kind of thing. … Our greatest musicians typically move out of here.

They move to Nashville or LA or New York or wherever, wherever the big music markets are. How do we create a state where people want to stay?”

The Criterion, a 3,300-capacity venue in east Bricktown, recently sold out its Aug. 16 Vampire Weekend concert. | Photo Alexa Ace

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If First Christian Church is not declared a historic landmark, the building could face demolition upon sale. By Miguel Rios

The 32-acre property owned by First Christian Church is under contract to a buyer who will only complete the purchase on the condition that it be demolished. Ward 2 councilman Ed Shadid heard from a member of the church’s board that the interested buyer was concerned about the recent publicity surrounding a possible demolition.

First Christian Church, 3700 N. Walker Ave., was completed in 1956 and put up for sale exactly 60 years later.

More than 4,000 people signed an online petition asking Oklahoma City Council to designate the church a historic landmark, which would give the building some protection through a review process. Though it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, that designation does not protect the structure against demolition.

“The only time the National Register triggers any sort of review process is when there is a federal undertaking involved, when the federal government is doing work or funding the work,” said Katie McLaughlin Friddle, historic preservation officer.

The once-nicknamed Church of Tomorrow lies between two historic preservation (HP) districts, south of Crown Heights and north of Edgemere Park. Friddle said extending either of those districts to include the church, which is not single-family residential, would not make sense since the allowed use in HP is single-family residential.

“Usually our historic districts are a district for a reason. They have a cohesive identity as a neighborhood,” she said, “and so extending those boundaries to include something that’s not necessarily part of that neighborhood’s identity is not something, from a historic preservation perspective, you would usually do.”

A historic landmark (HL) designation would make more sense to apply to the church but would actually have the same process as designating something HP, Friddle said. She said the only real difference is that HP is a base zoning that includes allowed uses for a property, whereas HL is a zoning overlay that can be applied on top of base zoning and put on any type of property.

She said the process for an HL designation must be initiated by the property owner, Historic Preservation Commission, the planning commission or the city council. The process would be the same as with other zoning applications, with a commission review and recommendation to the city council, whose members would make

the final decision. Five votes are necessary to declare something HL; however, if the property owner formally opposes the zoning overlay, a supermajority of seven would necessary.

Ward 1 councilman James Greiner said he would be for preserving it if someone had a plan but said he does not support the practice of waiting until a property is being bought to declare it historic.

“All of a sudden, we say that this property is historic and we want it to have some sort of designation,” he said.

“I think the proper process is for it to have a designation of being historic before people are selling it. I don’t like the reactionary aspect of it because we can’t retroactively make something historic when the property owner doesn’t even really want it to be historic.”

Oklahoma City mayor David Holt said he is not too familiar with the situation but would be open to hearing both sides of the argument.

“I would want to hear everyone’s take on it. It seems a bit premature for me to know what I would do when I know so little about it,” he said. “I don’t think I’m leaning any way other than, of course, I respect the uniqueness of the structure and, of course, I would prefer for it to be preserved, but I also understand there’s counter arguments and I would be open-minded to hear all those perspectives.”

Shadid plans to introduce a historic landmark resolution for the property at the March 12 council meeting.

City history

Lynne Rostochil, granddaughter of the church’s architect, said the city council has the responsibility to start the process. “[The city council] can do it tomorrow if they wanted to; I mean, they’ve got the complete power,” she said. “I would say they even have the responsibility to do that with, not only this building, but several of our architectural and cultural landmarks here in Oklahoma City. I believe right now, there are only eight landmarks in the entire city, so this is something that I think needs to happen a lot more.”

Rostochil said First Christian Church should be a historic landmark for its distinctive architecture and its social significance.

“It’s significant for a variety of reasons; I mean, obviously the architecture. There’s nothing else like that anywhere — not in Oklahoma, not in America, not internationally,” she said.

“It’s a very unique and distinctive building, so architecturally, it’s very significant, but also culturally very significant for the role that it played during the Oklahoma City bombing.”

The church served as a gathering place for people from across the city after the bombing in 1995.

“It was the nerve center where everybody came, all the families came.

The media was congregated there.

People bringing donations took their donations there,” Rostochil said. “It was just the epicenter of an eventful, horrible, sad couple of weeks and really served the community well during such a sad time in our history.”

Rostochil understands an HL designation to the church will not completely prevent the building from being demolished. If owners want to perform exterior work, including demolition, to an HL building, it is subject to approval

by Historic Preservation Commission.

“What landmarking it does is … if an owner does want to demolish the building, it has to go through the HP commission and go through review before that can happen. It doesn’t mean the building is safe forever,” Rostochil said. “A demo permit could get approved and it could come down, but it just adds one layer of review. … It just is a little buffer and lets there be a conversation about it before something could be taken down.”

Shadid, who sued the city in 2015 to prevent the demolition of Union Bus Station, said he is fully in support of designating the church historic to add a layer of review.

His ideal outcome for First Christian Church would be something similar to what happened to the Donnay Building, which was to be demolished to make way for a Braum’s Ice Cream & Dairy Store. Community engagement and review processes played a big part in the company deciding not to demolish the building. Then local businessmen bought the building and invested money

First Christian Church, once called Church of Tomorrow, stands right between two historic preservation districts. | Photo Alexa Ace

in development rather than demolition.

“If you would have had a process where somebody ... has the demolition company out at the facility, goes down to City Hall, gets a demo permit, makes a phone call and then they start bulldozing everything within minutes like happened at Founder’s Bank, then you don’t get the opportunity for community involvement and people to come in and see if, you know, they might be able to make it work,” he said.

He also said the city has millions of dollars in community development block grants, which can help bridge the gap economically and make redevelopment projects work.

Rostochil said the building is a practical space that can be used for a variety of things.

“I can see it being used as an office complex; a business could convert that into some kind of office building.

Another church can come in, obviously. It could be divvied up and used for various businesses,” Rostochil said.

“I think the possibilities are endless, and it’s a practical building that has been well-taken care of. So I think it could definitely find new life.”

Rostochil attended the Jan. 29 Oklahoma City Council meeting to ask members to make the church a historic landmark. She said there was some confusion about what the council could actually do. Rostochil plans to go back to city council to make the request again, this time with the backing of a petition that has garnered over 4,300 signatures.

“There are a lot of people who do care about it who don’t know about the petition; it’s much bigger than just those ... people,” she said. “This is a beloved building much like the Gold Dome, and we would be a much less rich city if it was not here.”

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NEWS Camille Landry, owner of Nappy Roots Books, refers to northeast Oklahoma as “Ground Zero of the incarceration nightmare.” | Photo Miguel Rios

S TAT E

Beyond February

Black Oklahomans deal with deep, significant challenges that have faced them for decades and will continue to affect them disproportionately without criminal justice reform. By Miguel Rios

After the abolition of slavery, black Oklahomans continued struggling in the fight for equality. They faced Jim Crow laws, which suppressed their voting rights and segregated the state, until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 gradually began to dismantle those laws.

Though Jim Crow laws were overruled, years of court challenges continued to tackle institutional discrimination. Many of those discriminatory laws continue to have lasting effects on black communities.

Institutional discrimination

Camille Landry, a local activist and owner of Nappy Roots Books, said almost none of the advancements made during the Civil Rights era are still in effect.

“Voter suppression is almost as rampant now as it was during the days

where you could get lynched for registering black folks to vote, so it’s still an ongoing battle and one that we absolutely have to address,” she said.

Landry writes a guest blog for Oklahoma Policy Institute titled Neglected Oklahoma. In each post, she focuses on one issue and interviews an Oklahoman who struggles with life’s basic necessities. Issues she focuses on, like poor educational resources, poverty and mental health issues, affect minorities disproportionately. She said the biggest problem, though, is high incarceration rates, particularly in northeast Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma has the highest overall black incarceration rate, with one in 15 black males 18 years and older in prison, according to a 2016 study by The Sentencing Project. According to Prison Policy Initiative, black Oklahomans are also five times more likely to be arrested than white Oklahomans.

“Zip code 73111 has just about the highest incarceration rate in the state of Oklahoma; that’s where [Nappy Roots Books is]. The state of Oklahoma has the highest incarceration rate in the nation, and the United States has the highest incarceration rate of its own citizens in the entire so-called free world,” Landry said. “So that means that [we’re] really sitting now at Ground Zero of the incarceration nightmare.”

Landry said when people get released, they have often lost much of their support group and important assets like a car or housing.

Christopher G. Acoff, AKA Original Flow, was inspired to rap about societal issues and crime after witnessing it growing up in northeast Oklahoma. | Photo OKC Portraiture / provided

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F E B R U A R Y 2 7, 2 0 1 9 | O KG A Z E T T E . C O M

“Once arrested, people of color are also likely to be charged more harshly than whites; once charged, they are more likely to be convicted; and once convicted, they are more likely to face stiff sentences — all after accounting for relevant legal differences such as crime severity and criminal history,” The Sentencing Project study reports.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, an Oklahoma artist, has an exhibition titled Oklahoma Is Black at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., through May 19. She said discrimination of black people starts at an early age. One of her friends is a teacher who said her son gets punished in school for minor things.

“She tells me how her son’s teacher — her son is 7 years old, very sweet, the sweetest boy you’ll ever meet — will punish him for things that are very slight things,” she said. “We know that black and brown kids are punished more in school, are sent home more simply because they’re black and brown.”

She also has a friend who has been fired from various jobs for being black and gay, and another friend has had trouble finding a home because she is from east Oklahoma City.

“Black people deal with it in any type of way that you can, from small things to large things, from microaggressions to actually being fired from your job or having problems finding a job or getting housing,” Fazlalizadeh said. “So you’re constantly having to fight, not just stereotypes, but you’re constantly having to fight it in your everyday life — trying not to be looked at as a criminal, not be looked at as ‘bad,’ not to be looked at as ‘dumb.’ … You’re just trying to be a regular human being and live your life.”

and it kind of grew on me. … I wanted to shine a light on what was happening in the world, and I wanted to shine a light on my life and how I was receiving those things.”

After making music that reflected some of the crime he grew up with and issues within marginalized communities, Acoff said he would hear from people who went through similar things. One of his friends told him his music inspired him to leave a gang.

Realizing the impact of his work, Acoff started writing about other important issues like depression, mental anxiety and expressing his feelings as a black man without the fear of being seen as weak.

“The root issue, I don’t think it necessarily comes from outside; I think it starts from within,” he said. “Though it is colored by a lot of outside influences. I came from a terrible neighborhood, but I don’t do terrible things and then blame it on society. I was around prostitution, I was around a lot of gang activity, I was around all kinds of stuff, but I’m not a pimp, I’m not in a gang.”

Easing pain

Christopher G. Acoff, a local hip-hop artist that goes by Original Flow, said he grew up surrounded by crime and prostitution in northeast Oklahoma City. It was one of the things that helped shape his love of poetry and rap and helped him realize they could be powerful tools in combating discrimination.

“I gained a lot of my inspiration from that location because it was so much going on. It was prostitution, it was drugs, it was fighting, it was robberies, it was shootouts. It was like a Grand Theft Auto video game; it was something else,” he said. “The east side has definitely changed, but at the time, it was atrocious.”

He remembers when he was first immersing himself in poetry he did not have much direction about what to write. Though he witnessed crime often, one particular day made him reevaluate his writing.

“I started writing about things that I was concerned about like the world and my neighborhood and my life,” he said. “I started writing about this stuff,

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, a visual artist native to Oklahoma, has heard and encountered countless instances of blatant and subtle racism. | Photo Alexa Ace

There is not an easy, clear way toward substantive progress, but Landry said action and unity are crucial. She said people in favor of equity and justice must stand up, demand change and create change in their communities and the government.

“If you do nothing, you can expect to step backwards, and at the very least, with racism being such a soul-crushing thing, at least if you stand up and fight back, it is balm for your soul. Unity is one of the most important things. … We can’t afford to fracture,” she said. “I do have to say, however, that racism is not a concern just of black people or brown people. We are the victims, we are on the receiving end, but we didn’t make the system and we, by ourselves, cannot fix the system.”

CO M M E N TA RY

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

Reproductive wrongs

Smart and compassionate Oklahomans should fight proposed anti-choice legislation. By George Lang

In a cultural moment when the societal rights of women to not be subjugated, objectified or otherwise exploited is on people’s minds, Oklahoma lawmakers are attempting to do just that, reducing pregnant women to the status of what state Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane, called “hosts.”

Senate Bill 195, sponsored by state Senate president pro tempore Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, would create a law saying that life begins at conception and would provide fertilized eggs (even if they have not implanted in the uterine wall), embryos and fetuses with constitutional rights.

“The laws of this state shall be interpreted and construed to acknowledge on behalf of the unborn child at every stage of development all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this state,” the bill states.

Let us review. If one spermatozoa manages to fertilize a woman’s egg, that fertilized egg’s rights would be constitutionally identical to your 45-year-old next-door neighbor, your tax attorney or Wayne Coyne, but greater than those of the potential mother in question.

“I share the hope that one day abortion will be illegal in Oklahoma and elsewhere across the United States,” Treat told Barbara Hoberock of Tulsa World. “That day cannot come soon enough, and when it arrives, Senate Bill 195 prepares Oklahoma to immedi-

ately take steps to protect the unborn.”

There are no exceptions in the bill for rape, incest or the life and health of the mother. Meanwhile, state Sen. Joseph Silk, R-Br oken Bow, is the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 13, which would make abortion murder.

Silk’s bill, which even the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma sees as likely to be overturned in the courts, would send nurses, doctors or the woman who was pregnant to prison.

Now, I know there are many Oklahomans reading this who are thinking, “And your point is…?”

To those people, Silk and Treat’s respective bills are what they have been waiting for since Roe v. Wade became settled law in 1972. They want these bills to be contested and for one or both to go before the U.S. Supreme Court, where they hope that the high court litigation might result in overturning Roe. But first, let us consider Silk’s bill. Silk’s activity in the 2019 legislative session suggests that he wants producers of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale to base a character on him. He is also supporting | Image Bigstock.com

the so-called “constitutional carry” bill that would allow anyone, including your 45-year-old next-door neighbor, your tax attorney or Wayne Coyne, to buy and carry a gun without a permit or training.

In Silk’s ideal, Gilead-like world, the apocryphal “good guy with a gun” could barge into an abortion clinic and hold a woman at gunpoint if she were trying to obtain an abortion.

In addition, Oklahoma could become even more of a prison state. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, an advocacy group that studies the effects of mass criminalization, about 43,000 people were incarcerated in various Oklahoma prisons and jails in 2018.

That is roughly the population of Muskogee. With SB13, Silk is shooting for a population more in line with Norman, but perhaps “shooting” is a bad choice of words.

Beyond the fact that Silk and Treat’s bills could potentially force Oklahoma into expensive court battles when state budgets are already stretched thin, these anti-abortion bills are being pursued to sow political divides. This is nothing new: Anti-abortion legislation helps candidates curry favor in deep-red districts and get reelected, which allows them to do the bidding of political action committees pushing conservative business agendas. For Silk, SB13 is essentially a campaign activity that will keep him in office to support constitutional carry, which serves as insurance for the “A+” rating he receives from National Rifle Association.

Of course, all of this is terrible for Oklahoma, whether it is the potential increase in already over-the-top incarceration rates, pistols on belt loops at street festivals or the systematic subjugation of the majority sex. Our terrible, union-busting Right to Work laws

might be enough to entice some businesses to locate here, but retrograde social policies and legislation could cancel out the low cost of living and petrochemical-positive tax laws.

Oklahoma simply cannot afford any more laws ushering in new Dark Ages right now, because we do not have enough positives that can counterbalance them.

Florida, for instance, is often called the “gunshine state” because of its legislative fealty to the NRA, and there is even the Florida Man internet meme/Twitter account that proves Carl Hiassen’s novels are firmly grounded in reality. But Florida also has gorgeous beaches and generally good weather outside of hurricane season. Its U.S. senators are no better than Oklahoma’s U.S. senators, but our lakeside coastline does not count in a side-by-side comparison.

Not only are Silk and Treat’s bills likely to be in total conflict with federal statutes and will probably be struck down in court, they are bad policy for our people and will act like business repellant to many corporations shopping for new markets. But more than that, Oklahoma should not be on the wrong side of the current collective discussion on women’s rights. Under Treat’s bill, women who are raped would be forced to carry the children of their attackers to term, and under Silk’s proposed legislation, any attempt to end the pregnancy would result in prison or even a death sentence.

This is not who we should be.

Oklahomans with sense and compassion should ensure that it is not who we become.

George Lang is editor-in-chief of Oklahoma Gazette and began his career at Gazette in 1994. | Photo Gazette / file

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Purloined playthings

Hustler Hollywood in Tulsa was victim of a heist last week when a car drove directly through its entry doors and the robber absconded with about $300-$400 worth of lingerie and sex toys.

Police told KOTV that the suspect knew the store’s layout because he ran directly to the section to steal the items. It sounds like it might be one of the vocal critics of the store was too ashamed to go into the business during daytime hours and thought the cover of darkness might make his conscience feel better.

Before the grand opening of Hustler Hollywood in Tulsa, which received a visit from Mr. Hustler himself, Larry Flynt, the adult novelty store received the slippery slope argument from certain members of the community that its location near two other “sexually oriented” businesses would lead to a fully fledged “porno district.”

Perhaps Oklahoma City is to be blamed because the opening of the Hustler Hollywood in OKC in 2014 was the first in the region for Flynt’s company and, according to a company spokesperson, is one of the most successful stores out of the company’s more than 20 locations nationwide.

The Hustler Hollywood location in Tulsa received criticism for its location within a few miles of a school. Of course, the last thing we should be talking about is S-E-X in front of the C-H-I-L-D-R-E-N in a state that is one of seven to be targeted by federal officials for its high HIV transmission rate and has one of the country’s highest teen pregnancy rates, we said with enough sarcasm to break the ChickenFried News sarcasm meter.

As schools across the state promote abstinence-only sex education, health officials at University of Oklahoma said they routinely receive questions from students who think Mountain Dew is an effective form of contraception.

In the spirit of actual and proven contraception methods, CFN suggests that Hustler Hollywood wrap its store in latex after closing time to catch future intruders hoping to breach its entrance.

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Ninjutsu politics

When NBC’s extreme obstacle course competition American Ninja Warrior returns to film at the state Capitol in April, may we suggest that the show’s producers consider upping the difficulty by requiring competitors to complete a site-specific challenge? Rather than merely having them run across a spinning log or scale the infamous warped wall, why not have aspiring ninjas show off their real, ultimate power by dressing up like Oklahoma taxpayers and attempting to discuss their concerns and grievances with elected officials inside the Capitol?

While typical American Ninja Warrior obstacles require contestants to race the clock while battling gravity and other physical forces, Oklahoma voters attempting to talk face-to-face with state officials must first face recently amped-up security measures put into place by Oklahoma legislative leaders.

Public access to stairwells has been banned in the state Capitol and guard stations have been erected in hallways, the Associated Press (AP) reported earlier this month.

House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, said the measures had

nothing to do with the highly visible teacher protests that took place at the Capitol last year, but Rep. Harold Wright, R-Weatherford, didn’t seem so sure, reportedly telling AP that the additional security was intended, at least in part, to “provide for a little more decorum in the House” following “some of the issues that occurred last year.” If the 2018 midterms weren’t enough to convince lawmakers that they ignore angry constituents at their own peril, maybe seeing people parkour up the walls will get their attention.

Moat problems

Moats were regarded as one of the most important elements used to defend castles back in medieval times, but they don’t seem to be effective around modern homes.

At the end of January, ex-convict Raymond Lane Jr. ran a car into a

Coweta Police Department vehicle after a high-speed pursuit and left the scene. He had felony warrants for assault and battery on a police officer, possession of a stolen vehicle and leaving the scene of an accident. So he decided to go full Florida Man and declared he would never go back to prison, started collecting weapons and even dug a moat around half of his house with a stolen bulldozer. That’s right, Lane dug only half a moat, probably got a little tuckered out, and just piled a huge stack of dirt around the other half of his house. Give him a break; digging a moat is serious work.

Wagoner County Sheriff’s Office and Coweta Police Department both had search warrants for his home, but Lane was rumored to have a grenade launcher, so Cherokee Marshal’s Special Operations Team took the lead in executing the search. We assume two agencies swam the high-security moat and the other made the trek over the hazardous dirt piles. How else would they have gotten to him?

Like a scene out of a movie, they yelled, set off

flash explosives and even had a drone looking for heat signatures before they eventually blew the door open and set off tear gas grenades. Lane wasn’t there, but officers found narcotics, paraphernalia, ammunition and tons of stolen property, including a fifth-wheel RV he had been living in. The next day, officers made the trek/swim again and had to move some of the dirt to recover the RV. Then, about week later, Lane was found and arrested in Vinita, where officials found even more stolen vehicles and a potential accomplice but no moat — that is probably why he was caught, right?

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M A R I J UA N A

THE HIGH CULTURE

Growing industry

GreenGrow Expo offers educational classes and exhibits for patients, growers and distributors. By Matt Dinger

The Oklahoma medical cannabis industry will see its first major trade show this week at State Fair Park.

GreenGrow Expo is 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Saturday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday in Oklahoma Expo Hall and open to the public, age 18 and older.

Organizers expect more than 5,000 people to attend.

“The GreenGrow Expo is designed to serve both the curious individual, the new cannabis business owners as well as patients with OMMA cards,” said organizer Jay Wright. “Education is first and foremost at the expo. It’s all about the patients and the plant and to meet the faces and brands that are making up this new industry in Oklahoma. A big part of it will be people who are curious. People who are curious about 788 and its implementation and the dispensaries that are popping up, what that means for their local county and what that means for them. People who are curious about being in business, people who are curious about getting a card, people who already have their card, people who are already in business.”

Co-organizer Reese “Ric” Higbie met 12

F E B R U A R Y 2 7, 2 0 1 9 | O KG A Z E T T E . C O M

Wright about 15 years ago in another enterprise. They hope the expo becomes an annual event.

“People are so hungry for education, and it’s new, and there’s a lot of new businesses coming into the industry and stuff like that,” Higbie said. “So we just saw it as an opportunity.”

Higbie, an on-air radio personality in Oklahoma for decades, broke his neck in 2006.

“The doctor said I would never walk again, and I can walk, but it’s not great,” he said. “I use a walker and a cane occasionally to get around, but the bottom line was I’m just tired of opioids. They never give me any complete pain relief, so I was looking for other options. And so I’m trying to become a cannabis advocate or a patient advocate for cannabis.”

On Saturday morning, five doctors will also be on hand to provide free recommendations for VIP ticketholders on a first-come, first-served basis for the first 200 potential patients.

“All the rest outside of what we can do for free that day will be only $99, which is a lot lower than what is out

THC

there,” Wright said. “So that’s kind of a way to uplift the community and also get back to raising the patient numbers.

We’re going to guarantee 200. I’m a big under-promise, over-deliver guy.”

Local professionals in the cannabis industry and experts from other states with legalized medical and recreational cannabis will be on hand to lend advice.

THC can’t be at the show. They don’t allow smoking at the State Fair, so it’s not a big smoke-off.

Reese Ric Higbie “Not to come in and say Oklahoma doesn’t know what it’s doing at all, but to have people that say, ‘Man, we watched some people crash and burn in our state because of [lack of] compliance. And here’s what you could learn from that,’” Wright said. “So basically, taking the wisdom from early adoption states and bring that into Oklahoma so there’s less pain for entrepreneurs and more safe, legal access for patients.”

About 100 brands are participating, spanning industry specialties such as accounting, law, security, supplies and banking.

“Over 70 percent of them are strong

from left Lindy Wright, organizer Jay Wright and Albany Anderson of GreenGrow Expo | Photo Alexa Ace

Oklahoma brands, and 25 percent to 30 percent are national brands that bring a lot of value,” Wright said.

There will be a business-to-business VIP area for networking with a bar serving cocktails, Higbie said.

Due to state law, no live plants or dried cannabis flower will be available or for sale at the event, but growers and dispensaries will be represented.

“We’re trying to focus on education and the industry and just opportunities for small business in Oklahoma, and we’re not at all featuring anything that has to do with THC. THC can’t be at the show,” Higbie said. “They don’t allow smoking at the State Fair, so it’s not a big smoke-off. ... It is really, truly about education, the industry and patients.”

However, a virtual reality simulation of a commercial grow will be available so attendees can experience the next best thing to being there, Wright said. The simulation is included in the ticket price.

A shipping container environment will also be set up by Lucky’s Grow Supply to show how to grow in smaller areas. The expo also features live art and concessions.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if at Amazon and Walmart at some point it was available,” Higbie said. “I hope not. I want to keep it as a local business because it’s created a ton of new businesses and a ton of new jobs and it’s a really exciting industry. That local hook to it was important to us, so being local, being first and being big or as big as we could be at the time was important, so we’re excited. I hope we get a lot of patients.

I know it’s difficult because it’s difficult for me. I’ve got my electric chair charging in the wall right now and I’ll be rolling around all over that place. I hope they come because I think we’ve got a lot to offer. It seems like there’s a little something for everyone.”

“Warehouses are filling up and leases are going out and LLCs are being formed and taxes are being paid and the black market is coming into the open,” Wright said. “Everybody is benefiting from this in the state of Oklahoma, whether you voted for it or not.”

Day passes are available for $21, and a two-day VIP pass that includes entry to one of six expert-led classes is $42.

Individual classes are $49, or $99 for all three classes on either Saturday or Sunday. An all-access pass for both days of classes is $169 and includes a free VIP upgrade.

Visit greengrowevents.com.

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M A R I J UA N A

THE HIGH CULTURE

THC

Additional THC pesto can be added to cooked pasta and chicken for a simple and quick medicinal dish, along with the crostino with pesto, burrata and bruschetta. | Photo Alexa Ace

Medicinal kitchen

Cooking with cannabis goes beyond brownies with pot-infused pistachio pesto.

By Matt Dinger and Jacob Threadgill

Cooking with medical marijuana can be a preferred delivery system because it is easier on the lungs than smoking and the effects last longer, but it can be a difficult process to get started.

Everyone is familiar with the trope of pot brownies, but cooking with mari-

juana can be much more refined than mixing ingredients into a batter and baking. The folks at Guyutes, 720 NW 23rd St. — owner Jarrod Friedel, who has a medical marijuana growers and processing license, and chef Matt Pryor — have developed some medical marijuana

recipes outside their commercial kitchen that will cure your ailments without any cannabis aftertaste. First up is a pistachio pot-infused pesto crostino topped with burrata cheese and bruschetta.

The first step in cooking with medical marijuana is the decarboxylation process, which requires heat to separate the THC from the plant and make it ready to metabolize. It’s the reason you can’t eat marijuana raw and feel the effects — you must either heat it up by smoking, cooking it in a pan or cooking it in an oven with controlled temperature.

Friedel recommends breaking up the medical marijuana — 7-10 grams will be needed to make infused oil — either by hand or with a grinder. He cautions not to grind the flower into a fine powder. Lay out the marijuana on top of parchment paper on a baking sheet and preheat the oven to 220 degrees Fahrenheit. If the oven rises above 300 degrees Fahrenheit, it will burn the flower and rob it of its medicinal effects.

“I would get an oven thermometer and make sure your oven is actually at 220 [degrees Fahrenheit], and it’s not at 250 [degrees Fahrenheit] and not calibrated very well,” Friedel said.

He said to keep the flower in the oven

Making the infused oil Ingredients

1 cup of canola or olive oil 7-10 grams of decarboxylated medical cannabis

Instructions

1. Mix the oil and marijuana and apply low heat (140 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit) for 90-120 minutes. Do not let the oil exceed 200 degrees Fahrenheit or allow it to boil.

2. Remove the oil from the heat. Allow it to cool.

3. Strain the oil over cheesecloth into an airtight container for at least 45 minutes. Do not squeeze the cannabis flower.

4. Store any excess oil in a dark container in a cool, dry place. Refrigerate it to extend the shelf life to several months.

“If you go over 200 [degrees Fahrenheit], you’re going to burn your oil and it’s going to burn your weed and everything’s going to taste disgusting,” Friedel said.

continued on page 16

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THE HIGH CULTURE Pistachio pot pesto

M A R I J UA N A

continued from page 15

for two to three hours until it starts to turn brown, which means the THC and cannabinoids are being released.

“You can go up to over three hours, and the longer you go … that just means it’s going to be having more of a narcolepsy effect, so the longer you keep it in the oven, the higher sedative effect it’s going to have,” Friedel said.

THC is fat-soluble, which means oil, butter or ghee is the best delivery method for the medicine. Infused olive oil becomes the basis on which pistachio pesto is made.

Review

Marijuana edibles should always be eaten with caution because it is easy to eat too much. It’s always better to under-dose than to eat too much and have a bad experience. It can take as little as 30-45 minutes for cannabinoids to metabolize into the blood stream and as long as three hours, and the duration can last between four and six hours, according to Weedmaps.

The single crostino is actually about two to three doses, depending on a person’s tolerance level. There are 7 grams of medicine in one cup of oil, which equates to 1400 milligrams divided by 16 tablespoons,

THC

Ingredients

1 cup basil 4 crushed garlic cloves 1/3 cup of unsalted pistachios 1/3 cup of finely grated Parmesan cheese 2 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil 2 1/2 tablespoons of infused oil A touch of salt

Instructions which is 87.5 milligrams per tablespoon.

The recipe has 2.5 tablespoons and made eight servings, so each crostino has about 27 milligrams of medicine.

Weedmaps recommends an inexperienced person start with about 5 milligrams, intermediate about 10-20 milligrams and experienced can dose more than 20 milligrams.

I ate about half of a crostino, and it was hard not to eat more because there was no lingering “weed” flavor. I liked the robustness of the pistachio compared to the normal pesto nut of choice, pine nuts. You can use any nut of your choosing in the recipe, but pistachios don’t need to be toasted and aren’t a major allergen like peanuts.

It’s hard to go wrong with any dish that

Ingredients used to make pesto and bruschetta include basil, tomato, garlic, pistachios and THC-infused olive oil. | Photo Alexa Ace

is topped with burrata, which is made by mixing mozzarella and cream. There is an outer layer of solid mozzarella and an inner layer of soft buffalo milk and cream that is ooey and gooey. The tomato and basil topping complements the dish. It’s not a normal bruschetta because there is no vinegar. Pryor said they tried variations with balsamic vinegar but thought it overpowered the pesto, which is a nice touch because the pesto is the star.

For medicinal purposes, I found the pesto had a good body high that eliminated anxiety without any major head fogginess. It lasted about four to five hours. — Jacob Threadgill

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1. Add the basil, garlic, pistachios and Parmesan into a food processor.

Process until finely chopped.

2. With the processor running, slowly add the oil. Add salt as necessary.

Add a scoop of pesto to the garlic toast, then cut fresh burrata cheese into quarters and put it on top. Mix fresh tomatoes and basil to re-establish the basil flavor.

“If there is any residual marijuana flavor, [the tomato and basil will] help kind of just soften it little bit; you’re looking for the flavor,” Matt Pryor said.

The dish is finished with additional infused basil pesto with extra oil to make it runny for added color and medicinal effect. Additional pesto can be combined with cooked pasta and chicken for an easy and simple dish.

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Cajun taste

Locally owned franchise Sam’s Southern Eatery delivers good shrimp and oysters at an affordable price. By Jacob Threadgill

Sam’s Southern Eatery 2366 NW 23rd St. samssoutherneatery-okc.com | 405-605-5252 WHAT WORKS: The oysters and shrimp are seafood stars — they’re fresh and have plenty of flavor.

WHAT NEEDS WORK: The gumbo was extra greasy and lukewarm.

TIP: The fish is advertised as catfish, but it is Swai.

When in doubt, follow the crowd of customers.

I’ve driven past the Sam’s Southern Eatery at 2336 NW 23rd St. many times, but it wasn’t until I went past it midweek around lunch and noticed its parking lot was nearly full that it registered on my radar.

A few weeks ago, a reader asked my thoughts on the restaurant, which is one of four metro area locations of the Shreveport, Louisiana, founded chain.

The operation has expanded quickly since the first location opened in 2008 and now boasts 51 total locations in nine states, according to the company website.

I couldn’t find much information on the company’s main website, and messages were not returned to Oklahoma Gazette by time of publication, but the Midwest City Sam’s location website says that every location is independently owned and operated.

The 23rd Street location across the street from Shepherd Center opened a few years ago and appears to have attracted quite a loyal following for its jumbo shrimp, fish, sandwiches and chicken.

On my first trip to the restaurant, I ordered the oyster po’boy with a bowl of Sam’s gumbo ($6.99) and a green salad because I recently stumbled across a University of Maryland study that found that eating a salad along with

a high-fat meal mitigates a decline in artery function. Cardiologist Joel Kahn has even stated that an avocado on a hamburger can reverse the burger’s negative heart effects, based on a 2012 study from UCLA. I’m certainly not a doctor, but when I eat fried food or a meal with trans fats, I try to include salad or fiber to help balance things out.

When the server brought the food to my table, she said, “Wow! All of this for you?” I wasn’t anticipating the serving sizes to be so big, but they certainly don’t skimp on quantity for the price at Sam’s. The po’boy was nearly a foot long and split into two. In total, there were six fried oysters — four in the sandwich and two more piled outside, calling your name like Timothée Chalamet.

The fried oysters were the absolute stars and much better than ones I tried in a po’boy at Cajun Corner last year.

They’re huge — more than an inch in diameter — and taste fresh, like the ocean. The sandwich was piled high with tomato, pickles, lettuce and what I assume is its spicy tartar sauce, which is available in pump-action dispensers, along with cocktail sauce at the edge of the restaurant. I would have preferred a crustier roll for the po’boy, but the bun more than sufficed for the excellent oysters and tartar sauce. I noticed that the restaurant is serving La Baguette desserts. I think La Baguette’s baguettes would make a better sandwich, but I realize there is a cost for the owners to think about. I would rather have six good fried oysters on a solid but unspectacular bun than only four on a better roll.

The accompanying fries seemed covered in an Old Bay-style rather than a Cajun seasoning and were solid but not my favorite side item during two trips.

The green salad was mostly iceberg lettuce, so I didn’t get much in the way

of nutrition, but it was colorful with other ingredients. It could be a decent foundation for fried or grilled shrimp.

The gumbo was served in a huge bowl with rice on the side. It is loaded with chicken and shrimp, and at $6.99, I’ve paid more for a cup of gumbo at other locations. It was light red, which indicated to me that it wasn’t cooked with a dark roux, even though the film of grease on the gumbo said otherwise. It tasted well enough, but it was lukewarm at best and downright cold in some areas. It certainly wasn’t enough to make me stop thinking about those fantastic oysters.

I kept thinking about those oysters and returned a few days later to try more of Sam’s seafood. The restaurant advertises itself as home of the jumbo shrimp, so I ordered the five shrimp and one fish fried ($9.99). The shrimp delivered on its boast. The coating was spicy and adhered to the shrimp well, which indicated that it was done without freezing. Each shrimp was huge, nearly the size of a coaster, but the fish left something to be desired. It is advertised on the menu as catfish, but I was told by my server that it is Swai, which comes by way of Asia. U.S. catfish has better flavor. Like the rolls, I understand there is a business perspective at play with the fish. The

The oyster po’boy is huge and served with two additional oysters. | Photo Jacob Threadgill

plate also comes with two hushpuppies that tasted fresh and not like something out of a freezer.

My seafood platter came with two sides, and I ordered the green beans and red beans and rice after being told that fried okra had been removed from the menu. The red beans and rice was my favorite side item of the two visits.

Popeye’s is the only quick-service restaurant I know of that serves red beans and rice, and Sam’s is far superior. It tasted like the beans and gravy were cooked with meat, and there was a good bean-to-rice ratio.

Sam’s offers grilled varieties of all of its seafood and chicken, so you can enjoy it without the added calories. It has now been elevated into my rotation for delivering plenty of food at an affordable price. The next time I go, I’d like to try its chicken wings and would recommend ordering a seafood plate with oysters and shrimp.

Visit samssoutherneatery-okc.com.

Shrimp lives up to the restaurant’s claim of “home of the jumbo shrimp,” along with fish and sides of green beans and red beans and rice. | Photo Jacob Threadgill

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Beyond fast

New options make it easier to eat healthy when going through the drive-thru. By Jacob Threadgill

The trip through a fast-food drivethru window doesn’t have to be an unhealthy indulgence. What happens when you’re trying to limit your meat intake, stay healthy on a road trip or are too busy to go to a sit-down restaurant or make a meal for yourself?

The recent addition of the plantbased Beyond Meat burger nationwide at Carl’s Jr. / Hardee’s (depending on which side of the Mississippi River you’re on) and Oklahoma Del Taco locations is welcome news for those following vegan and flexitarian diets.

Taco Bell, which has long been a favorite for vegans for its easily customizable menu, is expanding its vegetarian options later this year, according to a company release.

Taco Bell’s menu can easily be turned vegetarian by substituting meat with black beans or its crispy potatoes, but black beans offer protein the potato doesn’t really provide. Trying to ensure

correct substitutions through a garbled drive-thru microphone can be a harrowing experience. I recommend using Taco Bell’s mobile app, where customization is as easy as a few pushes of a button. Taco Bell replaces all dairy products like sour cream and other sauces with a fresh and tasty pico de gallo by ordering an item “fresco style.”

The Crunchwrap Supreme ordered fresco style with black beans instead of beef is a satisfying Taco Bell option, but the Power Menu veggie burrito with guacamole is probably the best and most filling option for anyone on a vegan or plant-based diet at Taco Bell.

In a January press release, Taco Bell said it is also working to improve its recycling efforts and will make its beef sustainable.

In true reader service, I’ve tried the new Beyond Meat versions side-by-side against their meat analogs at both Carl’s Jr. and Del Taco and found that

the Beyond Meat versions won in a head-to-head battle.

Del Taco

The nation’s second-largest quickservice Mexican restaurant, with 580 locations in 14 states, unveiled the Beyond Taco at seven locations in the state in Edmond, Yukon, Norman, Moore and Oklahoma City. Beyond Meat, which is a proprietary blend of pea protein and oils that is GMO-, soyand gluten-free, can replace any protein on the menu in items such as burritos and nachos, but the company is heavily advertising the Beyond Taco and Beyond Avocado Taco.

Beyond Meat versions won in a head-to-head battle.

I grew up going to Del Taco in Southern California, but this most recent trip was my first visit since stopping by its OG location outside Barstow on a trip from Las Vegas nearly a decade ago. It seems its new parent company has placed an emphasis on freshness, and the server calls your name with every order like a Starbucks barista.

I tried each of the Beyond tacos ($2.49 each), which come in crunchy shells along with a soft taco of the traditional beef. Del Taco’s website says the Beyond Meat is flavored with ancho chili, onion, garlic, lime juice, oregano and cumin, and that came through in the final product. It had much more flavor than the beef, but the texture of the Beyond Taco was much more mushy, like it was cooked too long.

The Beyond Taco actually has more overall protein (19 grams) than its meat competitor but has higher sodium (510 versus 320 grams). The avocado taco is vegan-friendly because it is served without the sizeable amount of shredded yellow cheese.

The Beyond Meat at Del Taco didn’t exactly mimic the meat version in texture, but it blew it out of the water

in terms of flavor. I would not hesitate to order it again.

Carl’s Jr.

White Castle became the first popular fast food brand to introduce the plantbased Impossible slider to its menu, but it only offers it at regional locations.

When Carl’s Jr. / Hardee’s unveiled its Beyond Meat Famous Star earlier this year, it became the first nationwide quick-service restaurant to serve Beyond Meat. Burger King has offered a veggie patty that is as bland as the rest of its food for years, but Beyond Meat is different because it looks and tastes like a burger, holding up when cooked on a flattop or grill.

Just like at Del Taco, the Beyond version offers slightly more total protein (30 grams to 28) than the traditional Famous Star that has everything on it, including cheese. The hallmark of Carl’s Jr. burgers is the charbroiled flavor from the open flame on the grill. The flavor is more present on the Beyond Meat version ($6.49) than on the beef version ($4.49), and the Beyond Meat patty is much thicker than the beef one. To make the Beyond Famous Star vegan-friendly, order it without cheese and mayonnaise.

While I preferred the texture of the beef at Del Taco, the Beyond Famous Star at Carl’s Jr. won in a landslide. Not only was it more toothsome, it tasted better. You can add a Beyond Meat patty to any sandwich, chicken or beef, at Carl’s Jr. for a $2 upcharge.

Beyond Meat is available at retailers like Target, Sprouts Farmers Market and Natural Grocers on N. May Avenue.

It is sold at Carl’s Jr., TGI Fridays, Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar and The Press, 1610 N. Gatewood Ave. Impossible Meat is available at Tucker’s Onion Burgers, The Wedge Pizzeria, James E. McNellie’s Public House, Sunnyside Diner, S&B’s Burger Joint, Kitchen No. 324, Anchor Down, The Jones Assembly, Hopdoddy Burger Bar and Charleston’s Restaurant locations.

Del Taco started serving plant-based Beyond Meat tacos at Oklahoma locations at the end of January. | Photo Del Taco / provided

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The Beyond Meat Famous Star at Carl’s Jr. beat conventional beef in a side-by-side taste test. | Photo Alexa Ace

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Tatyana Fazlalizadeh: Oklahoma is Black 02/22 - 05/19 | Fairgrounds Learn more at oklahomacontemporary.org. oklahomacontemporary.org | 405 951 0000 | @okcontemporary 3000 General Pershing Blvd. | Oklahoma City, OK 73107

O KG A Z E T T E . C O M | F E B R U A R Y 2 7, 2 0 1 9

19

GAZEDIBLES

EAT & DRINK

Legacybuilding

To honor the final week of Black History Month, we are highlighting seven black-owned restaurants in the metro that opened in the past few years.

By Jacob Threadgill with photos

by Alexa Ace, provided and Gazette / file

Brielle’s Bistro

Big O’s Pork & Dreams

Cornish Smokehouse

Brielle’s recently celebrated its one-year anniversary by adding a full bar with beer and liquor to the restaurant, which means its selection of all-day breakfast and Cajun classics are bolstered with a good time. It has earned the reputation of delivering some of the area’s best étouffée in addition to serving homemade cakes, burgers, po’boys, gumbo and prime rib.

Another successful leap from food truck to brick-and-mortar came with the opening of Big O’s late last year. Affable owner Owen Wilson has taken his background as a youth counselor and paired it with his family’s hickory-smoked barbecue tradition to develop a unique operation. Big O’s works in conjunction with the DreamCAST Development Program, which partners with local schools to find deserving youths to mentor and help them achieve their dreams.

This family-run operation from husband-and-wife duo Chris and Nicole Cornish graduated from food truck to brick-and-mortar last year. It serves all of the classics — ribs, brisket, sausage and chicken — but it has a secret weapon: jerk sauce made with ingredients shipped from Jamaica. You can add it to anything, but it takes smoked fried chicken and wings to another level.

9205 NE 23rd St. 405-259-8473

285 S. Santa Fe Ave., Edmond porkanddreams.com | 405-432-4115

801 SW 119th St. cornishsmokehouse.com | 405-703-1300

come join us

FEB. 27 thru MAR. 17

“A sublimely touching love story that aches with emotional authenticity in each instant.”

- DC Metro

By To dd Almo nd Dire cte d by Ma an d Matth ew Swee t tthew Gard in er

Vegetable biryani 4621 N. May | OKC | 778-8469

Jump back to a time to when flannel was the height of fashion and mix tapes were the language of love. In collaboration with Signature Theatre, Lyric presents the regional premiere of a vibrant, funny and heart-warming coming-of-age love story. College-bound jock, Mike, and self-assured, Will, rush into summer love in small-town Nebraska. This lovely romantic comedy is inspired by ‘90s icon, Matthew Sweet’s alternative rock album, Girlfriend, and features an all-female rock band!

HURRICANE RUM BUCKETS!

ORDER NOW for the BEST SEATS & PRICES!

Ian Marcontell

Tickets Start at Just $25! Charge by Phone: (405) 524-9312 or Online: LyricTheatreOKC.org

MIKE

& MORE!

MARCH 5TH Jimmy Mavrikes

For group reservations & discounts, email Groups@LyricTheatreOKC.org today!

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SWAG GIVEAWAYS

Karaoke Service Wednesday & Thursday Nights Starting at 9:00pm 814 W. Sheridan Ave, Suite F Oklahoma City, OK

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Polk’s House

Tez Wings

Chef Paul’s Place

Vesa’s Soul Food

James and Shacopie Polk opened their restaurant in a vintage Valentine Diner just off 23rd Street in 2017. It delivers on its slogan of serving “gourmet food at an affordable price” with a menu that includes fixed items like burgers, fried fish and even steak. But Polk’s House excels with soul food on weekends and rotating daily specials throughout the week that range from Cornish game hen to chicken teriyaki and prime rib. Check its Facebook page for daily specials.

The city of Buffalo, New York, might have popularized the chicken wing and hot sauce combination, but Tez Wings is serving a Chicago variety. The wings are lightly battered and covered in a lemon pepper seasoning, and customers have the ability to add either mild or hot versions of Tez Wings’ sweet and savory sauce to the wings and fries. It recently added catfish to the menu and will use a food truck for event and catering opportunities.

This recent addition to Del City is a mixture of classic comfort food like chicken-fried steak and catfish but also so much more. Chef Paul offers Traveling Tuesday by taking cuisine from around the world like a German bierock hand pie, schnitzel or pad thai. The restaurant offers daily specials, sandwiches like its fried hamburger — a classic burger wrapped in a flour tortilla and deep-fried — and a Saturday buffet for $10.95.

After years of friends and family telling Travessa Burge to open a restaurant, she took the plunge in September 2017 by taking her Louisiana-born recipes to Midwest City. Burge readies the kitchen each morning before going to her other business, a nearby hair salon. She oversees the seasoning for Vesa’s excellent fried catfish, sides and her signature 7Up bundt cake. Check out its monthly soul food buffet the third Saturday of every month.

2319 N. Lottie Ave. polkshouse.net | 405-887-0539

3801 N. Oak Grove Drive, Midwest City 405-546-8777

217 S. Sooner Road, Del City 405-537-7901

8937 NE 10th St., Midwest City 405-455-6650

GRANDRESORTOK.COM

I-40 EXIT 178 | SHAWNEE, OK | 405-964-7777

O KG A Z E T T E . C O M | F E B R U A R Y 2 7, 2 0 1 9

21

ART

ARTS & CULTURE

Expressionist eggs

A Norman-based Japanese artist tells stories through egg statues in his latest exhibit.

“Hell in the Kitchen - Flame”

by Tomoaki Orikasa | Photo provided

By Jeremy Martin

As a mold maker and fabricator, Normanbased artist Tomoaki Orikasa has helped sculptors craft large bronze works displayed in the Oklahoma State Capitol, Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City, Missouri, and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York, but in his own work, Orikasa often draws inspiration from smaller, more delicate subjects.

“For some reason, I am attracted, drawn, to the egg,” Orikasa said. “I think I like the idea that egg is a daily food that people can relate to, and it’s also the symbol of life.”

Eggtion Figures, open through March 22 at Studio Six, 3021 Paseo St., is an exhibition of Orikasa’s sculptures of resin egg-shaped creatures engaging in human behavior using arms and legs made from multi-jointed copper tubing.

“Finding Serenity,” for example, features a delicately marbled multicolored egg striking a yoga pose. “Just Between You and Me,” meanwhile, captures two eggs mid-conversation, talking on a tin-can telephone.

“I started thinking about, ‘How can I tell the story by using an egg sculpture?’ a nd t hen I started putting on hands and legs of copper tubing, and then that’s kind of how I got started actually. … It’s really simple, and all the gestures accentuate the expression of what it is,” he said.

“Dancing in the Rain” finds an egg doing just that, holding up a leaf for an umbrella, and “Home Sweet Home” features a couple eggs hanging out in a nest.

Some actions performed by the eggs in Orikasa’s sculptures, however, are more abstract. “Waiting” features an egg simply holding its hands folded, presumably in anticipation.

“I’m sometimes using my personal feelings to express what I’m wanting to say,” Orikasa said, “and I also kind of imagined what “Waiting”

by Tomoaki Orikasa | Photo provided

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F E B R U A R Y 2 7, 2 0 1 9 | O KG A Z E T T E . C O M

the people who are eggs in that world would want to do, and I start making a good little story.”

“Hell in the Kitchen – Ice” depicts two eggs standing on an ice cube tray, one hugging itself with shivers. Its counterpart “Hell in the Kitchen – Flame,” meanwhile, finds two eggs — one orange, one red — standing precariously in a skillet.

This is kind of how it feels … to capture the gestures to tell the story about it instead of just saying it.

Tomoaki Orikasa

Capturing language

Working to help other artists create their own bronze sculptures, Orikasa said he is often impressed with the works, often inspired by Southwestern art imagery, but he began creating his Eggtion Figures series as a way to explore narrative storytelling in his work rather than attempting to recreate real animals or people.

“There are good sculptures out there,” Orikasa said, “but at the same time, I go, ‘So do I just want to depict what I see, or what do I do with my sculpture?’”

“Precious Moments” features an egg holding a smaller egg aloft. The title and the body language of the two subjects allows the viewer to infer the story and feelings being conveyed, but the resin eggs have no facial features to express their emotions. Orikasa — who came to the United States from Chiba, Japan, in 1994 to study business but became an art major at the University of Central Oklahoma instead after taking an introduction to jewelry making — said he has been using people’s body language and gesticulations for years to determine the meanings he doesn’t always glean from their w or d s a nd hoping that they’re

him away. …

I saw it in a mo v ie or something. I think it’s part of daily life.”

Occasionally, Orikasa draws inspiration from people-watching, and other times, he just tries to position his eggs in an unusual pose and create a narrative from that.

“Sometimes I’m just looking at people doing stuff, and I’ll get an idea from that,” Orikasa said. “And sometimes I’m just kind of sitting there, thinking about what I can do to make the piece more interesting, thinking about the posture of the piece and then playing with it. I also have a mockup that I can actually move around all the stuff before I actually get fixated on it. So I can kind of play with a doll and then I can say, ‘OK, this is interesting in the posture. Let’s see if we can make a story out of it.’”

Admission to Eggtion Figures is free, and Studio Six is open noon-5 p.m.

Monday-Saturday. An artist reception with Orikasa is 6 p.m.

Fr id ay. Visit thepaseo.org/ studio-six and oryartstudio. com.

able to do the same for him.

“I have a language barrier here speaking English,” Orikasa said, “and this is kind of how it feels … to capture the gestures to tell the story about it instead of just saying it. So that’s why these pieces don’t have any facial expression.”

Because the eggs have no facial expressions of their own, the viewer can project their own moods and emotions onto the works.

“They can interpret how they feel when they’re looking at the piece,” Orikasa said. “It could be sad, it could be fun or it could be angry. It really depends on the people who are actually looking at it.”

Even though Orikasa is the one to create these figures, he said he also projects his own emotions o nt o them, causing their meaning and significance to change with his mood when he looks at them.

“I’m enjoying what I’m doing, and I’m discovering myself by looking at the pieces. Sometimes I just kind of look at the piece itself and go away and come back and … it’s a little different depending on how I’m feeling at the time. … If I’m feeling down or even if I’ve got some self-doubt about the piece, “For You” by Tomoaki Orikasa | Photo provided it really looks awful, and it doesn’t speak to me at all.”

Sometimes the scenes Orikasa is attempting to express are rather complex, but he thinks viewers will be able to recognize common elements from their own Eggtion Figures experiences and use those to fill in the through March 22 story.

Studio Six “In the piece called ‘You Silly,’” 3021 Paseo St. Orikasa said, “[a couple] is sitting on a oryartstudio.com | 405-831-0245 bench, and the guy says something stupid, and the girl one is kind of pushing Free

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Sweet story

The musical Girlfriend uses a classic alt-rock album to examine young, gay romance in the early 1990s. By Matthew Price

A power-pop album originally written about a musician’s divorce is the musical impetus behind a love story featuring two gay teens from flyover country in Girlfriend. The musical debuts Wednesday at Lyric at the Plaza.

Matthew Sweet’s alternative-rock album Girlfriend has been called one of the best albums of the 1990s, with insightful lyrics and powerful riffs.

Writer Todd Almond, a fan of the album as a teenager, crafted the semi-autobiographical musical set in the early 1990s in Alliance, Nebraska.

In collaboration with Washington, D.C-area Signature Theatre, the production follows two recent high school graduates, Mike and Will, as they deal with summer love in a more secretive time. Director Matthew Gardiner is the associate artistic director of Signature Theatre, a recipient of the 2009 Regional Theatre Tony Award.

His predecessor in that job, Michael Baron, is now the producing artistic director at Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma.

Baron saw the production of Girlfriend directed by Gardiner at Signature and decided to bring it to Lyric for its regional premiere.

“The piece is one that I have really

from left Jimmy Mavrikes plays Will and Ian Marcontell plays Mike in Girlfriend at Lyric on the Plaza. | Photo KO Rinearson / Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma / provided

admired for a while, and the story is one that is actually rarely told,” Gardiner said.

Despite the LGBTQ+ community’s frequent involvement with musical theater, Gardiner said gay love stories without tragic twists aren’t staged that frequently.

“So few of our love stories are actually shown onstage,” Gardiner said. “To have a story that is just purely a love story between two boys growing up in the Midwest is a story that I don’t see often onstage and a story that I wanted to tell.”

Many young gay people in the 1990s, and in this story in particular, were afraid to reveal their feelings completely. Mike and Will instead share a mixtape of songs that hint at what’s in their hearts.

“I thought it was really cool to show how they are trying to put across all of these feelings in a sideways way,” Sweet told Los Angeles Times. continued on page 24

O KG A Z E T T E . C O M | F E B R U A R Y 1 9 , 2 0 1 9

23

ARTS & CULTURE continued from page 23

T H E AT E R

The furtiveness was often necessary.

“It was far more dangerous to be gay at that time; it was far more dangerous to be gay in that setting,” Gardiner said.

There weren’t many pop-culture role models for gay teens of that age at that time, Gardiner said. Often-aimless Will thinks he’s the only gay person in Nebraska — maybe even the world. Mike, meanwhile, a college-bound jock, struggles with sexuality and his relationship with his girlfriend.

“It tells very specifically the story of two boys falling in love in the ’90s. It was a time before the internet and a time before there were any real gay celebrities or icons or musicians that were ‘out’ in the way they might be today,” Gardiner said. “The boys are left with the CDs that they have or the music that they have, and I think what’s beautiful about it is that they’re able to take this music and place themselves inside of it.”

Sweet songs

Girlfriend opens Wednesday at Lyric at the Plaza, 1725 NW 16 St., on the theater’s Paula Stover Stage. It features an all-female rock band playing the music of Matthew Sweet. The musical features

nine songs from Girlfriend, one from Altered Beast and two from 100% Fun. “Not a word or a lyric of the songs was changed when Todd Almond put it into the play,” Gardiner said. “And I think that speaks to how universal Matthew Sweet’s music really is.”

In an interview with The Washington Post, Sweet said he liked how his music could be adapted to different relationships.

“When I read Todd’s script about two young guys falling in love, that seemed fresh,” Sweet told WaPo. “My best friend growing up was gay, and I liked that the album could be taken as speaking to any kind of relationship. To take this album, which was about real personal things for me, and make it work for these two other kids was so cool.”

Gardiner said he recognized adopting films and other stories and reframing them to reflect one’s own experiences.

“It’s interesting and sort of strange that Todd Almond picked this album to be about a gay love story, but I think about what films I connected with when I was in high school,” Gardiner said. “I had to sort of place myself into these straight heterosexual stories in order to feel like I was connecting or understanding where these characters were coming from. And I think that is a very normal occurrence when you don’t see yourself represented in art and in film and in music and so you sort of have to make

the connection in a roundabout way.”

Jimmy Mavrikes is making his Lyric Theatre debut as Will, a role he also played at Signature.

Mavrikes was recently honored with a nomination from theatreWashington for its Helen Hayes Awards. Mavrikes’ nomination for outstanding lead actor was one of eight nominations for Girlfriend, which also received nods for direction from Gardiner and Outstanding Production in a Musical.

Ian Marcontell will return to Lyric to play the role of Mike. Marcontell portrayed Sky in Lyric’s 2018 Summer at the Civic production of Mamma Mia! Girlfriend includes music direction

by Britt Bonney, scenic design by Misha Kachman and costume design by Frank Labovitz. Colin K. Bills provides lighting design, and the sound designer is Ryan Hickey.

Pride Night is 7:30 p.m. March 14, with a pre-show reception at 6:30 p.m.

“Representation matters, whether that’s sexual orientation or diversity or trying to tell as many stories as possible from as many viewpoints as possible,” Gardiner said. “And that’s why it was important to me to share this story, and I know for a fact that it affected many young people in an important way.”

Gardiner said he heard from many teens and others who were moved by his presentation of Girlfriend at Signature.

The American Spirit Dance Company Jo Rowan, Director

“It seems silly because musical theater has always been so linked to the LGBTQ experience, but at the same time, we don’t really see a ton of stories that are representative of our experiences,” Gardiner said.

While the piece has conf lict, Gardiner said Girlfriend is ultimately an uplifting tale. And while stories that focus on the gay experience like Angels in America or The Laramie Project are important stories, for young gay people, it can be terrifying.

“As a young person would, I feel like I would have been more ready to … see myself in that story,” Gardiner said, referencing Girlfriend and also the recent film Love, Simon. “That doesn’t make those stories have any less value, but there’s also value in a story that really celebrates what it means to be gay and to find what makes us more alike than different.”

Tickets to Girlfriend start at $25.

Visit lyrictheatreokc.org.

Girlfriend Wednesday-March 17 Lyric at the Plaza 1725 NW 16 St. lyrictheatreokc.com | 405-524-9312 $25-$65

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For Tickets Call (405) 208-5227 okcu.edu/tickets

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T H E AT E R

from left Richard H. Blake as Lorenzo, Frankie Leoni as Young C and Michelle Aravena as Rosina in A Bronx Tale March 5-10 at Civic Center Music Hall. | Photo Joan Marcus / provided

Borough in

A Bronx Tale deviates from usual musical storylines and focuses on a young man caught between his father and the mob. By Jeremy Martin

With roles in the musical stage productions of Saturday Night Fever, The Wedding Singer, Legally Blonde and, most recently, A Bronx Tale, actor Richard H. Blake has played several parts other actors made famous on the big screen. Now on a national tour following a 700-show Broadway run ending last year, A Bronx Tale: The Musical runs Tuesday-March 10 at Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave. Blake, who is touring in the role of Lorenzo, which he played 2016-2018 on Broadway, said portraying a character audiences are already familiar with from a film requires him to find ways to incorporate elements of the original performance into his personal vision for the role.

“You have to acknowledge that film role,” Blake said. “You have to honor that a little bit. People are expecting that. People are comfortable with that, and you don’t want to make them uncomfortable or make them try and start over from scratch. But you also have to make it your own. So there’s that fine line of finding a way to give them a handful or some semblance of the version that they’re used to and comfortable with and also infuse that with your own take on the role and your own ‘truth,’ as we like to say.”

Playing Lorenzo in the Broadway production of A Bronx Tale required Blake to audition and later rehearse for a small but discerning audience who knew the role intimately, including the

director, who not only directed the 1993 film adaptation but also played Lorenzo (and Travis Bickle and young Vito Corleone and Rupert Pupkin, et al.).

“Let’s not forget that that person is Robert De Niro, just one of our living legends, one of our icons of the industry,” Blake said of his director for the Broadway adaptation. “So it was definitely, on that first day, intimidating to walk into the room and go, ‘Oh god! I hope I don’t screw this up.’ Obviously, I had my work cut out for me because I’m playing a role that was made famous by a genius in the acting world, but the second we started working, honestly, they made us so comfortable. We had to trust that they cast us. They chose us, and they trusted us with this material. That right there sort of takes the pressure off.”

This is a musical for guys who don’t ever go to the theater.

Richard H. Blake

Tough guys

The story of a bus driver who struggles to keep his young son from falling under the influence of a powerful local mob boss in the 1960s, A Bronx Tale began off-Broad-

way in 1989 as a one-man show created

by Chazz Palminteri, who also played the role of mobster Sonny in the film and wrote the screenplay and the book for the Broadway musical. Blake said he was most worried about Palminteri’s opinion of his portrayal of Lorenzo.

“What was more intimidating to me was the fact that I’m playing a real person,” Blake said. “This story is based on Chazz Palminteri’s life, and Chazz is, obviously, very much a part of this production. He was there every day in rehearsals from the very beginning, since workshops and everything, and you want to do justice to this person who was a real person to Chazz. I play his father, and he and his father were the best of friends. He loved him more than anything, so you want to honor that man. …

Of all of [Palminteri’s] successes and all of the films and movies that he’s done over the years, this is his baby. This is the one that put him on the map, and also it’s the most dear to him because it’s his.

It’s his life and his story.”

Palminteri revived his one-man show on Broadway for the 2007-2008 season, but Blake said the writer and actor originally envisioned it as a large stage production.

“Chazz said he has always felt from when he first started that the best version of his story would be a musical,” Blake said. “He thinks of his story and the way that it is told as a fable, and fables work best with music.”

Composer Alan Menken’s music, influenced by 1960s doo-wop and jazz, evokes the era, but Blake said it isn’t really intended to lighten the story’s streetwise undertone.

“The movie was dark,” Blake said.

“The movie was gritty. Obviously, the musical version isn’t as dark, but this is real. These are tough guys. … I don’t think, in my opinion, that anything about the character should change

because at the end of the day, you just want to be honest. You want to be honest to who this person is. In my case, he’s a father, a loving father who wants the best for his son, and he sees his son having this path that he’s going down and there’s a fork in the road to make two choices and he’s struggling to steer his son down the right path. … This is a dramatic role even though we’re in a musical. … The show doesn’t become campy just because we’re in a musical.”

By showing tough characters making tough decisions onstage, Blake said the show appeals to people who might not normally relate to Broadway productions.

“This is a musical for guys who don’t ever go to the theater,” he said. “This is the show you come see. We get so many people who have never seen a show before in their lives. This is the one they come to first because it’s not a usual show, and then they’re like, ‘Oh my god.

This is great. I want to see more theater.’

That’s rewarding in itself.”

And in case you were wondering, Blake said he didn’t get much advice on singing and dancing from De Niro.

“He handled, mostly, the acting,” Blake said. “He’s all about authenticity.

He’s all about the details. He was at my haircut, combing my hair, making sure that it was exactly right. The way you unfold a wad of cash. That’s the stuff that’s invaluable because I wasn’t growing up in the ’60s. I wasn’t around these people, even though I’m familiar with the culture. … He really just knows how to make it authentic. … All the little things will add up to make you actually feel like you’re in the 1960s.”

His attempts to authentically portray Palminteri’s father have also helped Blake in his offstage role as a father to his own son.

“Lorenzo, the character I play, is the kind of father I would aspire to be,” Blake said. “So I’ve tried to, as I inhabit him, I try to let him inhabit my life offstage. I’ve spent countless hours with Chazz, offstage, just talking and learning and hearing about his father and going over pictures and stories and going over his bus route, all those things.

Just listening to Chazz talk about his father, the reverence he has for him informed me a lot about what kind of man he was. So I know if my son ever talks about me the way Chazz talks about his dad, I will have done the right thing.”

Tickets are $27.16-$96.90. Visit okcbroadway.com.

A Bronx Tale Tuesday-March 10 Civic Center Music Hall 201 N. Walker Ave. okcbroadway.com | 405-594-8300 $27.16-$91.47

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BOOKS

ARTS & CULTURE

Processing death

Local author Kim Ventrella’s newest book continues helping children explore different aspects of death. By Jeremy Martin

Working as a librarian, Oklahoma City author Kim Ventrella saw how often children want to be frightened.

“I figured being a librarian would be a good job to have along the way since it’s really hard to be able to support yourself as an author,” Ventrella said, “and you’re surrounded by books and get to see the types of books that kids are reading. …

Scary books are always one of the most popular books that kids are looking for because they like to be scared within the safe space of a book, which is nice because then you can be scared whenever you want to be, and if it gets too scary, you can just put it down and decide to stop reading. They’re also a great entrée into a more difficult topic so that you can kind of explore some of those difficult real-life issues within a fantasy world or some kind of fantastical spooky environment.”

Ventrella’s latest novel Bone Hollow, recommended for children in third through seventh grades and published

by Scholastic Press, for example, explores death.

“It does affect people of all ages, even if it’s just losing a pet, which is something that happens to probably most people when they’re young,” Ventrella said, “but it’s nice if you have a way to understand that, which is what a book gives you. Again, if you’re reading it and it is too much, you can just put it down, but if you’re able to keep reading it, it will give you a new vocabulary and a new way of understanding something difficult like death so hopefully when you face it in the real world, it will actually be easier for you and you’ll be able Oklahoma City-based author Kim Ventrella writes spooky books for children in grades 3-7. | Photo provided

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to deal with it in a more capable way than you would have if you’d never had the experience of reading the book.”

Bone Hollow is Ventrella’s follow-up to her first published novel, 2017’s Skeleton Tree, which also discussed death but approached the topic from a different angle.

“Both deal with loss in a different way,” Ventrella said. “Skeleton Tree is the story of a 12-year-old main character who literally has a skeleton begin to grow in his backyard, and as older readers will recognize right away, and probably younger readers too, it’s not just your average skeleton, but it’s symbolic of what’s happening to his family. His little sister is ill, and so throughout the story, his family’s relationship to this skeleton grows with his relationship with and understanding of death, so it’s a spooky story but it has a really serious issue at the heart of it.”

Ventrella said she’s not really trying to frighten young readers with her writing but appeal to their budding interest in the macabre to talk about a difficult topic.

“Skeleton Tree and Bone Hollow have spooky elements, for sure,” Ventrella said, “but they’re not actually intended to be scary.”

While Bone Hollow isn’t a sequel to Skeleton Tree, Ventrella said, it is a “kind of companion novel or almost a prequel” that “expands on the mythology surrounding death in a different direction” with different characters in a new setting. The new novel begins when young Gabe falls to his death from a rooftop after attempting to rescue a chicken during a tornado. Gabe doesn’t realize he has died until after he leaves his own funeral and meets the novel’s

unconventional Grim Reaper figure, a seemingly young girl named Wynne.

“He’s recruited to become what is almost like a death doula, basically,” Ventrella said.

“He’s like a death character that is really there to help people process the loss of a loved one, so it’s more about how he decides whether or not he wants to follow that path.”

The first story Ventrella can remember writing was her own take on Roald Dahl’s Edgar Awardwinning horror short story “The Landlady” about a bed-and-breakfast owner and amateur taxidermist who poisons and stuffs her guests. Like Dahl’s story, Ventrella’s version received its own award when she wrote it in second grade.

“I’ve always been into the creepy things; I don’t know why,” Ventrella said. “When I was 12, we had this assignment to make our own picture book, and my picture book was called The Wednesday Mourning Club — ‘mourning’ with a ‘u.’ It told the story of these five adults, and each chapter is how one of the adults lost one of their loved ones, and then they all come together and form this club to deal with their grief.

At the very end, the main character dies and the very last chapter takes place at his funeral. I was like, ‘Wow, 12-year-old self. Look at you. What are you doing?’ … Obviously, I’ve had this idea that I needed to process and deal with in some way through writing, and I’ve been trying to deal with that for a really long time. I guess it finally came out.”

When Ventrella worked as a librarian, she had several suggestions for children looking for spooky books, including Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book and Alvin Schwartz’s folk tale anthology series Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which is currently being adapted into a movie by Trollhunter director André Øvredal. Ventrella said a reboot of the book series to be published in 2020 will contain one of her own original short stories. While her novels are spooky but relatively tame in content, she said the story she wrote for the new anthology is more in the spirit of the original series, often remembered for Stephen Gammell’s gruesome blackand-white illustrations and frequently listed among the Office for Intellectual Freedom’s Top Ten Most Challenged Books due to complaints from teachers and parents about the book’s contents.

Ventrella said her editor was surprised by how gory her Scary Stories story is.

Though finding the right balance between too scary and age-appropriately spooky can be difficult and she’s

Bone Hollow, Ventrella’s latest novel, is available Feb. 26 from Scholastic Press. | Photo provided

interested in writing for other demographics, Ventrella said middle-grade children are a “perfect audience.”

“They’re still young enough that for the most part, they still love reading books,” Ventrella said. “They’re not super jaded about it. They’re still excited about it, and they’re also at the point where they can articulate really deep questions about the world. They have lots of questions and they’re able to really understand some complex stories and topics, but they still love reading. … They get really excited when they meet you.

They think you’re famous. Whenever you go to a school, they want you to sign little strips of paper for them.”

Ventrella and several other similarly minded authors offer teacher and student reading guides, writing tips and free Skype sessions with school classrooms through their website spookymiddlegrade.com. She is scheduled to sign copies of Bone Hollow 6:30-8 p.m. Tuesday at Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, and 1-2:30 p.m. March 9 at Best of Books,1313 E. Danforth Road, in Edmond. Visit kimventrella.com.

Kim Ventrella book signings 6:30-8 p.m. Tuesday Full Circle Bookstore 1900 Northwest Expressway fullcirclebooks.com | 405-842-2900

1-2:30 p.m. March 9 Best of Books 1313 E. Danforth Road, Edmond bestofbooksok.com | 405-340-9202

CO M M U N I T Y

Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma’s annual Chef’s Feast raises operating funds for the organization’s Food for Kids programs. | Photo Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma / provided

Care and feeding

Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma’s Chef’s Feast 2019 ensures that important programs continue to fight hunger. By Charles Martin

Federal employees just withstood the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. For 35 days stretching through the holidays and into 2019, Oklahomans who never considered themselves vulnerable to hunger suddenly faced empty pantries and depleted bank accounts.

“It is an unseen issue for a lot of people,” said Katie Fitzgerald, CEO of Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. “Our entire country got a wake-up call that most Americans live paycheck to paycheck. If there is a major disruption to that income, it doesn’t take long before people get to that place where they need that help. We had a large-scale distribution on Martin Luther King Day and had 755 households come through. We had federal government employees who’d worked for up to 25 years and were in tears coming to us because they never thought they would ever need that help.”

Hunger is a hidden epidemic in Oklahoma according to Fitzgerald, who said that 62 percent of Oklahoma’s public school student body is eligible for free or reduced lunch programs.

Oklahoma is also 51st in the nation ahead of District of Columbia for the lowest percentage of eligible students participating in a summer food program.

Chef’s Feast 2019, held 6:30 p.m.

Friday at National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., is a critical fundraiser for Regional Food Bank to help grow its Food for Kids programs. Fitzgerald said that 40,000 unique students are served through the

backpack program, the school pantry program, Kids Cafés, School’s Out and the Summer Feeding program. The annual price tag is roughly $2.5 million and serves 53 counties across the state.

“For those of us who haven’t experienced hunger and the economic insecurity that produces hunger, it’s hard to really understand the issue,” Fitzgerald said. “We live in this foodie culture where food seems ubiquitous, where people are purchasing food kits to arrive at their home at exorbitant prices that the people we serve could never afford to do.”

As Regional Food Bank’s mission grows, Chef’s Feast has evolved into a signature event drawing in some of the most talented chefs in the area. 19 chefs will be creating menus for this year’s Mardi Gras theme, all competing for the Foodie Favorite award. Elizabeth Speegle Band also performs live.

“Chef’s Feast is not a traditional gala,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s really fun, people are moving, there’s no long program, you get to eat and drink all night long. We show a little video so you can see the impact of the Food for Kids program, there’s a live auction and a big silent auction, a raffle with a lot of good items in it.”

The silent auction features original artwork including a backpack decorated

by Desmond Mason; vacation getaways to Cancun, St. John and Palm Springs; and suites for upcoming Kenny Chesney and Ariana Grande concerts at

Chesapeake Energy Arena. The silent auction is also extended beyond the event so those who are unable to attend Chef’s Feast can still bid online at chefsfeast.org.

Experiencing hunger

For those fortunate to have not experienced the difficulty of food insecurity, Regional Food Bank offers a hunger simulation at its volunteer center at 3355 S. Purdue Ave. in Oklahoma City.

Participants can sign up for sessions that will last 30-60 minutes, and Fitzgerald said they are able to accommodate groups large and small. Each participant is given a unique persona they adopt as they try to feed their imaginary family a set number of calories per week.

The simulation starts at a grocery store with a very limited budget and then moves to a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) office before concluding at a food pantry.

“We are simulating the struggle people have trying to provide for their family on a very limited budget,” Fitzgerald said. “You might get to the SNAP office to find that, even though you make very little, you still don’t qualify for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance. You might go to the grocery store and find that the cheapest food is the least nutritious food. If you are trying to get those calories, you are going to go for the cookies even though that’s really not what you’re trying to feed your family, obviously.”

Participants might opt to use their budget on better quality food like milk and various proteins, hoping to fill out the rest of their needed calories through donations at a food pantry, but not every participant will get there in time because of work schedules or not enough volunteers. So despite an enormous amount of effort, a family will still go hungry.

Operating in a largely rural state does

not make the job of the Regional Food Bank easier, Fitzgerald said, but years of experience have allowed the organization to fine-tune its operations so it can work more efficiently through stronger buying power, distribution networks with local schools and programs and collaboration with federal programs. Food and monetary donations fill most of the gaps, but Fitzgerald said there still is a long way to go to ensure every child in Oklahoma has access to enough food.

The Backpack program is the most expensive, according to Fitzgerald, and serves elementary school kids identified

by Food for Kids coordinators in participating schools as facing food insecurity and hunger. The School Pantry program is for middle school and high school students who can choose their own food they can also prepare at home. Kids Cafés and the Summer Feeding programs partner with various organizations to provide fully cooked meals for after-school and summer programs. Because of federal regulations, Fitzgerald said these meals have to be eaten on-site rather than taken home, so Regional Food Bank looks for partnerships with other organizations offering mentoring and programming to make it worth the family’s time to coordinate transportation.

“If you have 435,000 kids throughout the school year participating in a free or reduced program to get breakfast and lunch at school, what happens to those kids during the summer? They aren’t getting as much food,” Fitzgerald said.

“We work really hard with our partners to offer more than just a meal in the summer, like enrichment activities. It is ideal if it can be offered to every kid in the community.”

Fitzgerald said Chef’s Feast has been effective at raising both funds and awareness for the programs because it is designed to celebrate the innovation and diversity of our culinary world and highlight how significantly food can impact people’s well-being.

“It’s easy to forget that hunger is a very real problem,” Fitzgerald said. “It may seem decadent, but this event allows people to appreciate the beauty and importance of food, but also remember that a lot of people don’t have that. It’s a helpful way to make that emotional connection to the role food plays in our lives.”

Visit regionalfoodbank.org.

Chef’s Feast 2019 6:30 p.m. Friday National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum 1700 NE 63rd St. chefsfeast.org | 405-600-3193 $175

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CALENDAR ONES SHAU2N7 -JMAR 2

are events recommended

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

FE B

NY KEAT LEE, DANMEIDA A N N A S AL SU & DOUGIE

BOOKS Brunching with Books a book club meeting every other week, with reading selections chosen by group preference, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays.

Buttermilk Paseo, 605 NW 28th St., 405-605-6660, buttermilkokc.com. SAT

ELKIN ALEX 13 - 16

Mary Adkins book signing the author will autograph copies of her debut novel, When You Read This, 6:30 p.m. Feb. 28. Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 405-842-2900, fullcirclebooks.com. THU

MAR

WTIME MR SHRO20 -23

Oklahoma Voices hear featured poets read from their works at this monthly event, 2 p.m. the first Sunday of every month, 2 p.m. Dec. 2. IAO Gallery, 706 W. Sheridan Ave., 405-232-6060, iaogallery. org. SUN

FILM Capernaum (2018, Lebanon, Nadine Labaki) a 12-year-old boy serving a prison sentence for a violent crime sues his parents for giving him life, Feb. 27-28. Rodeo Cinema, 2221 Exchange Ave., 405-235-3456. WED-THU Cold War (2018, Poland, Pawel Pawlikowski) a music director courts a singer in 1950s Poland, Feb. 27-28. Rodeo Cinema, 2221 Exchange Ave., 405-2353456. WED-THU Fly Fishing Film Tour see movies about fly fishing at this global film festival, 6-10 p.m. March 2. Tower Theatre, 425 NW 23rd St., 405-708-6937, towertheatreokc.com. SAT Hollywood’s (Not) Gay? A VHS Happening see classic films and a documentary about the infamous Hays Code of ethical rules at this screening featuring commentary from film studies lecturer James Cooper, 7-10 p.m. March 2. Herland Sister Resources, 2312 NW 39th St., 405-521-9696, herlandsisters.org. SAT My Bloody Valentine (2009, USA, Patrick Lussier) a man returns to his hometown to discover he’s suspected of committing multiple murders in this slasher thriller, presented in 3-D, 8-11 p.m. Feb. 28.

The Paramount Room, 701 W. Sheridan Ave., 405887-3327, theparamountroom.com. THU

HAPPENINGS COOP 10th Anniversary Party celebrate a decade of COOP craft beer at this tasting event featuring barrel-aged vintage brews, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. March 2. COOP Ale Works Tap Room, 4745 Council Heights Road, 405-842-2667, coopaleworks.com. SAT Krewe de Banjo Mardi Gras a celebration featuring Cajun cuisine and live music from Debbie, Schreyer and her Dixieland Pick-Up Band, 6-9 p.m.

March 2. American Banjo Museum, 9 E. Sheridan Ave., 405-604-2793, americanbanjomuseum.com.

SAT

Life Imagined: The Art and Science of Automata see examples of mechanical proto-robots from 1850 to the modern day, Through Sept. 29.

Science Museum Oklahoma, 2020 Remington Place, 405-602-6664, sciencemuseumok.org. SUN-FRI Made in Oklahoma shop for goods from local business, artists, food trucks and wineries, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. March 3. Farmers Public Market, 311 S. Klein Ave., 405-232-6506, okcfarmersmarket.com. SUN Music Industry Networking Night a meet-andgreet event for musicians, promoters and fans, 7-10 p.m. Feb. 27. The Root, 3012 N. Walker Ave., 405655-5889, therootokc.com. WED Norman Mardi Gras Parade this family friendly parade, now in its 25th year, features live music, costumes and canines, 7-9 p.m. March 2. Downtown Norman, 122 E. Main St., 405-637-6225, downtownnorman.com. SAT Oklahoma Muslim Day at the Capitol join other advocates to discuss legislation with state representatives at this event hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. March 4. Oklahoma State Capitol, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd., 405-521-3356, ok.gov. MON Pecha Kucha Night see quick slideshow presentations by creative professionals who are limited to 20 slides at 20 seconds each, 6-8 p.m. March 6. Plenty Mercantile, 807 N. Broadway Ave., 405-888-7470, plentymercantile.com. WED Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes lobby legislators with reproductive rights advocates, 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Feb. 27. Oklahoma State Capitol, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd., 405-521-3356, ok.gov. WED Severe Weather Awareness Expo meet local weather experts and learn how to stay safe during severe weather and natural disasters, noon-4

RE SHOW U T A E F E TRIPL MAR 6 - 9 ON

MA

NE OKC Storytelling Project: Stories From Our Elders The need to celebrate African-American history will in no way end on Feb. 28, as this lecture series planned for the month of March makes clear. Presented by the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma and BlackSpace Oklahoma, this three-part series begins with Stories From Our Elders, exploring the ideas and traditions that are passed down in African-American communities and featuring guest speakers George Henderson and Anita Arnold with an introduction by Ward 7 councilwoman Nikki Nice. The series begins 10 a.m. Saturday at The Auditorium at Page Woodson, 600 N. High Ave. Admission is free. Visit blackspaceok.org. SATURDAY Photo provided p.m. March 2. Penn Square Mall, 1901 Northwest Expressway, 405-841-2696, simon.com/mall/pennsquare-mall. SAT

FOOD Northern Italy Wine Dinner enjoy a six-course dinner prepared by Chef Jonathan Krell and paired with five wines provided by Thirst Wines, 5-10 p.m.

Feb. 27. Patrono, 305 N. Walker Ave., 405-702-7660, patronookc.com. WED Unmask Hunger this chef’s feast benefitting the Regional Food Bank’s Food for Kids Programs features food, music and a wine pull, 6:30-10 p.m.

March 1. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org. FRI

YOUTH Academic Enrichment Reading Clinic children in grades 1-12 can receive free tutoring and homework help in reading, math and history and learn about nonviolent conflict resolution and success-building habits at this weekly clinic, 11 a.m.

Wednesdays through April 27. Nappy Roots, 3705 Springlake Drive, 405-896-0203, facebook.com/pg/ nappyrootsbooks. SAT Little Saplings toddlers and their parents can learn about gardening through songs, games and other activities, 10-11 a.m. March 5. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-445-7080, myriadgardens.com. TUE Mardi Gras on Myriad Street a celebration for children age 3-10 featuring crafts, tarot card readings, games and more, 2-4 p.m. March 2. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-445-7080, myriadgardens.com. SAT Reading Wednesdays a weekly story time with hands-on activities, goody bags and readingthemed photo ops, 9:30-10:30 a.m. Wednesdays.

Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405445-7080, myriadgardens.com. WED Seussville celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday at this party featuring face painting, games, snacks and appearances from the Cat and the Hat and Thing One and Thing Two, 6:30-8:30 p.m. March 1. Mustang Parks & Recreation, 1201 N. Mustang Road, Mustang, 405-376-3411, cityofmustang.org. FRI

PERFORMING ARTS Almost, Maine a romantic comedy written by John Cariani, directed by Matthew Alvin Brown and starring four actors in 19 roles, through March 2. The Pollard Theatre, 120 W. Harrison Ave., Guthrie, 405282-2800, thepollard.org. FRI-SAT Anna Karenina a high-definition presentation of the Moscow Operetta Theatre’s musical adaptation based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy, 7-9:15 p.m. March 3. Harkins Theatre, 150 E. Reno Ave., 405-231-4747, harkinstheatres.com. SUN

The Big Easy Supper Club enjoy a New Orleans style buffet dinner and live music from Kevin Griffin of Better Than Ezra, 6 p.m. March 3. The Jones Assembly, 901 W. Sheridan Ave., 405-212-2378, thejonesassembly.com/. SUN Concerto Gala a concert performance featuring OU School of Music students performing Mark Watter’s “Rhapsody for Baritone Sax and Orchestra” and Prokofiev’s “Piano Concerto No. 3, 1st movement,” 8 p.m.-midnight March 1. Catlett Music Center, 500 W. Boyd St., Norman, 405-325-0538, musicaltheatre. ou.edu/facilities/catlett. FRI Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Dr. Jekyll’s alter-ego Hyde is played by five actors in Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella, Through March 9. Carpenter Square Theatre, 806 W. Main St., 405-232-6500, carpentersquare. com. FRI-SAT Grand Hotel a Tony Award-winning musical adapted from the 1932 film about guests at an elegant Berlin hotel, March 1-10. Elsie C. Brackett Theatre, 563 Elm Ave., 405-325-4101, theatre.ou.edu. FRI-SUN

LELLAN JOHNMMACR 27 GEMENT IAL ENGA C E P S • - 30 N MAR 28 E MARTI

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OP AYS - ION BY 5 :30 N ES D T

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IN FR ESERVA $ 2 W/ R - LADIES GET MAN CE ) S R S DAY L PERFO TH U R FOR SPECIA ($ 2 WED

8503 N. ROCKWELL 239-HAHA(4242)

WWW.LOONYBINCOMEDY.COM

OKCU FILM INSTITUTE PRESENTS A FREE SCREENING OF

James Campbell and Friends the clarinetist will play compositions by Brahms. Bartok and Schickele, joined by cellist Adrian Fung, violinist Min-Jeong Koh and pianists Stephanie Leon Shames and Jonathan Shames, 8 p.m. Feb. 27. Catlett Music Center, 500 W. Boyd St., Norman, 405-325-0538, musicaltheatre. ou.edu/facilities/catlett. WED Joel Forlenza: The Piano Man the pianist performs variety of songs made famous by Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and, of course, Billy Joel, 5:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Othello’s Italian Restaurant, 434 Buchanan Ave., 405-701-4900, othellos.us. TUE Johnny Cash 87th Birthday Concert see a performance by Johnny Cash impersonator Philip Bauer, 8-10 p.m. Feb. 28. Tower Theatre, 425 NW 23rd St., 405-708-6937, towertheatreokc.com. THU L’Amico Fritz OCU’s Opera and Musical Theater department presents Pietro Mascagni’s 1891 operatic comedy, March 1-3. Oklahoma City University, Kirkpatrick Auditorium, 2501 N. Blackwelder Ave., 405-208-5000, okcu.edu. FRI-SUN Rob Lake: Magic Up Close the illusionist featured on America’s Got Talent performs close-up interactive magic tricks, 7 p.m. Feb. 27. Tower Theatre, 425 NW 23rd St., 405-708-6937, towertheatreokc. com. WED Symphonic Band Concert the University of Central Oklahoma’s Symphonic band performs works

by Gustav Holst and John Philip Sousa, 7:30-10 p.m.

Feb. 28. Mitchell Hall Theatre, 100 N. University Drive, Edmond, 405-974-2000, uco.edu. THU Twelfth Night stranded by a shipwreck in an unfamiliar land, Viola disguises herself as a young man while she searches for her lost twin in this comedy by William Shakespeare, Through March 2.

Shakespeare on Paseo, 2920 Paseo St., 405-2353700, oklahomashakespeare.org. THU-SAT

GO TO OKGAZETTE.COM FOR FULL LISTINGS!

Faces Places Oscar - NOmiNated dOcumeNtary

Wednesday, March 6 7:30 pm Norick Art Center 1601 NW 26th St Oklahoma City University FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC for more info: 208-5707, filmlit@okcu.edu

O KG A Z E T T E . C O M | F E B R U A R Y 2 7, 2 0 1 9

29

CALENDAR

List your event in 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 email them to listings@okgazette.com.

Sorry, but phone submissions cannot be accepted.

C A L E N DA R

Submissions must be received by Oklahoma Gazette no later

continued from page 29

ACTIVE Monday Night Group Ride meet up for a weekly 25-30 minute bicycle ride at about 18 miles per hour through east Oklahoma City, 6 p.m. Mondays. The Bike Lab OKC, 2200 W. Hefner Rd., 405-603-7655. MON Yoga Tuesdays an all-levels class; bring your own water and yoga mat, 5:45 p.m.-7 p.m. Tuesdays. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-445-7080, myriadgardens.com. TUE

VISUAL ARTS The Art of Collection an exhibition of outsider and anonymous artworks from theAnonyma Fine Art collection owned and curated by Emily Ladow Reynolds, through March 14. Artspace at Untitled, 1 NE Third St., 405-815-9995, 1ne3.org. THU Café Society: The Art of Collection collector and curator Emily Ladow Reynolds discusses her methods and motivations, 6-7 p.m. Feb. 28.

Artspace at Untitled, 1 NE Third St., 405-815-9995, 1ne3.org. THU La Luz y La Sombra (Light and Dark) an exhibition of photographs by Alan R. Ball, March 1-31. Contemporary Art Gallery, 2928 Paseo St., 405-601-7474, contemporaryartgalleryokc.com. FRI-SUN Monsters and Madonnas view a series of photographs created by University of Central Oklahoma students and inspired by the work of William Mortensen, through Feb. 28. UCO University Library, 100 N. University Drive, Edmond. THU Paseo Arts District’s First Friday Gallery Walk peruse art from over 80 artists with 25 participating business for a night of special themed exhibits, refreshments and a variety of entertainment opportunities, 6-10 p.m. first Friday of every month.

Paseo Arts District, 3022 Paseo St., 405-525-2688, thepaseo.org. FRI Pop Stars! Popular Culture and Contemporary Art an exploration of contemporary pop art inspired by Andy Warhol, Nick Cave, R. Luke DuBois and others, through Feb. 28. 21c Museum Hotel, 900 W. Main St., 405-982-6900, 21cmuseumhotels.com.

Dr. Seuss Day in the Gardens Not coincidentally, the birthday of children’s author Theodor Seuss Geisel corresponds with National Read Across America, and holy freaking crap, as Dr. Seuss would probably not say, do Americans need to pick up a book, even if it’s one full of monosyllabic rhyming. Celebrate the simple joys, colorful worlds and common human decency that have gotten innumerable bookworms hooked in the decades since The Cat in the Hat first appeared on the doorstep with games, story time and an appearance by a certain feline sporting a stovepipe hat. The party starts 10 a.m. Saturday at Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave. Tickets are $3-$4. Call 405-4457080 or visit myriadgardens.org.

SATURDAY Photo provided

SUN-THU

Roland Miguel exhibition view the artist’s oil paintings and pen-and-ink works, March 1-30. Paseo Art Space, 3022 Paseo St., 405-525-2688, thepaseo. com. FRI-SAT A Ship Named Atlast an exhibition of paintings and sculptures by multimedia artist and author Tammy Nguyen, through March 15. The Lightwell

Gallery, 520 Parrington Oval, Norman, 405-3252691, art.ou.edu. MON-FRI Skip Hill, Irmgard Geul, John Wolfe an exhibition of paintings and mixed-media artworks, March 1-31. JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N. Walker Ave., 405528-6336, jrbartgallery.com. FRI-SUN Suminagashi Marbling Workshop learn about the Japanese painting technique at this hands-on workshop led by Christine H. Mack, 1-4 p.m. March 2. Artspace at Untitled, 1 NE Third St., 405-8159995, 1ne3.org. SAT Symbiotic professional and student artists teamed up to create the works on exhibit, through March 14. Melton Gallery, 100 N. University Drive, Edmond, 405-525-3603, uco.edu. THU Westheimer Distinguished Visiting Artist Chair: Mildred Howard the mixed-media and sculptural artist creates works that explore socio-political topics such as sexism and racism in unconventional ways, Through April 7. Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, 555 Elm Ave., Norman, 405-325-3272, ou.edu/fjjma.

FRI-SUN

Mou n t Willia mso n , Sierra Neva da , f ro m M a n z an ar, C al i fo rn i a, 1 9 44 .

P ho to g ra p h by A ns el Ad ams Collection Cen ter for Creat i ve P h o to g rap hy ©The A ns el Ad ams P ub lis h i n g R i gh t s Tr u st

Attracting Bees to Your Garden Not too long ago, a workshop titled Getting Bees to Buzz Off might have been a more popular choice, but as the world’s bee population dwindles, we’re starting to realize that these little sting-y buggers are quite possibly instrumental in keeping much of life on earth, well, alive. Learn how to plant a garden that attracts and sustains a variety of bees and build a native bee house while there’s still time. The seminar begins 5 p.m. Saturday followed by the bee house workshop at Plant Wisdom Garden Center, 4711 N. May Ave. The seminar is free, and the workshop is $15. Call 405-942-4769 or visit plantwisdomgardencenter.com.

Submissions must be received

by Oklahoma Gazette no later than noon on Wednesday seven days before the desired publication date.

Late submissions will not be included in the listings.

Submissions run as space allows, although we strive to make the listings as inclusive as possible. Fax your listings to 528-4600 or e-mail them to listings@okgazette.com.

Sorry, but phone submissions cannot be accepted.

For OKG live music

see page 33

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F E B R U A R Y 2 7, 2 0 1 9 | O KG A Z E T T E . C O M

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EVENT

MUSIC

New .WAV

ACM@UCO’s .WAV Festival celebrates female artists and musicians with two days of performances. By Jo Light

Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma (ACM@UCO) hosts a diverse group of local and national artists in its femalecentric .WAV Festival this weekend.

The festival features performers at its main Bricktown campus, 25 S. Oklahoma Ave., Suite 400, and ACM@UCO Performance Lab, 329 E. Sheridan Ave. The ACM@UCO student organization Women’s Audio Vision (.WAV) is responsible for festival planning. .WAV has been a campus organization for two years, although this is its first year with its new and improved name. (The group held a Slay the Stage Festival last year.) .WAV student president Kate Carmichael is an ACM senior about to graduate with a degree in contemporary music production. She has been involved in .WAV since its inception.

She said the group and festival were both created to be a safe space for female members of the music industry, specifically those who work in studio or performance settings.

“Women’s Audio Vision was established by a girl that was a production major, as well,” Carmichael said. “And she made this band of other production girls because we all felt very left out in our classes and very talked-down-to.”

This wasn’t an issue with their teachers, she said, but with classmates or individuals they would encounter at shows. The organization is meant to foster a community of women who might be experiencing similar sexism within music business environments. They strive to empower each other and boost confidence. .WAV vice president Rozlyn Melton said she has been overlooked as a woman several times. At one event, she and her band were part of a lineup at a local venue. She said the other bands present ignored Melton and her manager, who was also a woman.

“Later, one of the guys came up to us and mentioned, ‘Oh, we just thought you were someone’s

girlfriend,’” Melton said via email. “This is why Women’s Audio Vision exists. We aren’t just someone’s girlfriend. We are people that love building the career that we are while just happening to be female.”

Carmichael said the group is open to essentially any female-identifying ACM@UCO degree student. They strive to be inclusive.

“If you’re managing a band or if you’re a singer or a musician in a band, you’re going to be in the studio setting too,” Carmichael said.

Carmichael encourages group members to ask questions of each other rather than settling for being overwhelmed or intimidated in a studio.

They also want to provide ways to talk about sexist behavior.

“It creates the place to be creative whenever you don’t have that sense of fear going on or sense of insecurity,” she said.

More inclusivity

While the ideas and goals of the group have stayed the same, there are a few other departures from last year’s festival. The lineups have expanded to include dance and art majors from ACM@UCO. Gallery space is available to artists and photographers at the fest.

The event is also benefiting a new local nonprofit.

“Last year, we did a donation-based event,” Carmichael said. “It benefited Women’s Audio Mission in California.

And this year, we’re benefiting Sisu Youth in Oklahoma City.”

Sisu Youth Services is a nonprofit organization that serves teens and young adults experiencing homelessness in Oklahoma City. Attendees of .WAV Festival are welcome to donate nonperishable packaged foods and drinks, including canned foods, snack cups, bottled water, granola bars and beef jerky. Gift cards to fast-food restaurants will also be accepted.

Jamie Caves, executive director of Sisu Youth Services, said the group was excited for the opportunity to work with .WAV. “With such an amazing lineup of musicians performing throughout the festival, Sisu Youth will receive a great deal of exposure and increased awareness about what we are doing to serve the community,” Caves said via email.

“This event is a meaningful way to increase donors, volunteerism and outreach to young people that may need our support.”

Sisu Youth Services operates with a predominantly volunteer staff. For those Chicago rapper Noname performs at a ticketed show Sunday at ACM@UCO Performance Lab. | Photo Chantal Anderson / provided

interested in helping the organization in other ways, sisuyouth.org has a list of current needs and a volunteer application.

“Also, we know that being a woman in the historically male-dominated music industry can be full of challenges,” Caves said, “and that aligns with what we stand for at Sisu Youth.”

Multi-genre lineup

This year’s festival features talented female artists during two days of performances. The lineups showcase a diverse mix of music styles and groups, including genres such as pop, folk, alternative, acoustic, blues, hip-hop and more. All groups are either female-fronted or entirely comprised of female artists.

Carmichael pointed out how important this representation is.

“Nine times out of 10, when I go to a show, it’s all guys,” Carmichael said. “I perform myself, so I’ll be watching and be like, ‘I could pull from this and that, but I can’t completely relate to it.’ I can’t relate to the song as much because I’m not singing from the same perspective they are.”

The headliner for Saturday’s performances is Oklahoma-born folk trio The Annie Oakley. It performs 8 p.m. in the Songwriting Room, 25 S. Oklahoma Ave. The group, known for its tight harmonies and storytelling lyrics, includes sisters Jo and Sophia Babb and violinist Nia Personette.

The Babb sisters echoed Carmichael’s sentiments about the significance of giving female artists a platform.

“So often, you see festivals that have 90 percent men lineups,” Sophia Babb said. “Especially in Oklahoma, we’ve had some festivals that are literally all men. And that’s just not a sustainable way to have music because you’re missing out on such a great part of the music industry and music community, which is women.”

Jo Babb said they know fellow female musicians in Tulsa who have expressed frustration about the music scene there for women.

“I know that just the fact that [.WAV Festival] is happening is unique in itself,” Jo Babb said. “That a larger organization is putting together something for women, going out of their way to be inclusive and diverse — not many places would do that. I feel really lucky to be in a city where that’s celebrated.”

Sophia Babb said they are looking forward to their Saturday performance and are excited to bring the band back to Oklahoma City after a long period of touring. The Annie Oakley plans to play a mix of old and new songs, including ones from its recently released album, Words We Mean.

“We’re going to get to spend the whole day listening to good music and then end it,” Sophia Babb said. “It feels like a celebration, almost.”

Indie rock band Me Oh My is among the openers for The Annie Oakley. Lead singer Megan Wiggins said that women in music are often undervalued.

Sophia and Jo Babb of The Annie Oakley close out the first day of .WAV Festival. | Photo Alexa Ace

“But we aren’t just women artists,” Wiggins said via email. “We are equal artists who deserve just as much recognition as the next band full of men. Same goes [for] women who are sound technicians. We know what we are doing; it’s what we do best and what we are passionate about.”

Sunday’s headliner is Chicago poet and hip-hop artist Noname, who has gained popularity in the last few years as an underground rapper and released her first full-length album, Room 25, last year.

Admission to all festival performances is free except for Noname’s ticketed concert 8 p.m. Sunday at ACM@UCO Performance Lab. Although that performance has already sold out, ACM@UCO might release additional tickets beforehand.

Carmichael hopes the .WAV Festival will not only help Sisu Youth Services meet food drive goals but will also inspire other female performers to jump onstage. She also wants local music and art fans to be entertained.

“You don’t have to go spend all this money and drive out of the city to see an act,” Carmichael said. “You have good acts here. You have amazing people here doing really hard work, honestly.”

Visit acm.uco.edu.

.WAV Festival Saturday-Sunday ACM@UCO 25 S. Oklahoma Ave., Suite 400 ACM@UCO Performance Lab 329 E. Sheridan Ave. acm.uco.edu | 405-974-4700 Free-$25

O KG A Z E T T E . C O M | F E B R U A R Y 2 7, 2 0 1 9

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EVENT

MUSIC

Floetry in motion

Marsha Ambrosius continues hitting high notes in her music career and sets her sights on scoring films. By Jeremy Martin

She gave the King of Pop “Butterflies” in 2001, and Marsha Ambrosius has been recording among royalty ever since, but she has never felt like she didn’t belong. And she isn’t planning on going anywhere.

“If there was a level of intimidation, I wouldn’t be even invited to the rooms that I have been so far,” Ambrosius said, “and that’s not an air of arrogance. It’s just being instilled with sureness and this awareness of a gift that I was given.

I wouldn’t have been able to tell Michael Jackson what to do for two weeks and have ‘Butterflies’ sound the way it did. … Even though he was that man, he sat me down and said, ‘Look. This is all you.

You created a moment that I want to recreate. Show me how.’ And I had to accept that for what it was at the age of 23. … It was absolutely an affirmation that I was on the right path to do what I was going to do. I’m not saying it got any easier for me with, you know, Earth Wind & Fire or Patti LaBelle or Dr. Dre or Kanye or we can list the names. My Wikipedia’s incredible, and that’s just up through 2019. I’ve still got things that I haven’t done.”

Ambrosius — who told Los Angeles Times she wrote “Butterflies” about “a boy [she] had a crush on that worked at

McDonald’s” — is scheduled to perform March 7 at Tower Theatre, 425 NW 23rd St. She has also collaborated with Nas, Solange, André 3000, Justin Timberlake and more, but there are still more marquee names she’d like to cross off her list.

“I haven’t sat down with George Lucas yet,” she said. “I haven’t sat down with Steven Spielberg yet. I put a big ‘yet’ on that because I do the things I want to do, and I’m working hard. Prior to even getting into those rooms, I was working hard.”

Nyla is most definitely, beginning to end, my current movie.

Marsha Ambrosius

Movie moguls top her current wish list, Ambrosius said, because she has always wanted to soundtrack films.

“John Williams has been my favorite composer since I was a kid, and I’ve always written music as vivid as that,” Ambrosius said. “I can see the Goonies skating down

the hill, riding their bikes on the way to the Fratellis.’ I’ve always looked at film like that. It’s the music that is massive. It’s the two notes that make you feel a level of dread that you’ve never felt, like a shark is going to come into your living room and kill you, like that’s a thing. But it’s what the music makes you feel.”

Formerly half of the duo Floetry, Ambrosius said her solo albums, beginning with her 2011 debut Late Nights & Early Mornings, score her own personal films.

“You can hear a certain chord or a string line or horn line, and you know whether this is going to be sad, happy,” Ambrosius said. “It’s going to be a twist and turn in the story, whether that was ‘The Breakup Song’ or ‘Far Away’ or ‘OMG I Miss You,’ it’s just evoking emotion. They’re all almost diaries of where I’ve been in my life at that place and time.”

New independence

Her latest, last year’s Nyla, finds Ambrosius in new territory, with a husband and young daughter, the album’s namesake, but still discovering material to mine from the interior. “‘Glass’ is me admitting to myself I had to love me more before I move on and feel the love that I had for my husband and my daughter,” Ambrosius said. “My heart just expanded completely, and the level of love that I still receive now is because of my family.

That’s the difference between the first album of being young and being fresh, new in the industry and having my first solo album. Now it’s learning all of those lessons and applying that to where I am now, and Nyla is most definitely, beginning to end, my current movie.”

Her current movie also has starring roles for her young family, both of whom are joining her on tour. Any complications that come from wrangling a toddler on the road aren’t as bad as leaving her at home, Ambrosius said.

“It’s not difficult at all,” she said. “It’s actually much easier because it gives me peace of mind. I couldn’t see me traveling without my daughter or my husband, so I’m thankful that we’re able to make it work. I’m still on mommy duties, and wife duties at times, and it’s still exciting.”

She chose to release Nyla on her own after leaving RCA, and she said she isn’t missing the record label because she has built an independent and personalized support system with modern tools.

“For me it’s no different because I have fans that have been working with me since open mics in the UK in 1996,” Ambrosius said, “so being able to connect with people now with the advances of technology and having a direct connect, whether that’s through Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.

Marsha Ambrosius — who has collaborated with Michael Jackson, Solange and André 3000 — is scheduled to perform March 7 at Tower Theatre. | Photo provided

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F E B R U A R Y 2 7, 2 0 1 9 | O KG A Z E T T E . C O M

Ambrosius released Nyla last year. | Image provided

Social media kind of gives you an inkling as to what people are saying and what people are doing, not necessarily publicity rollouts, if you will, that would be, you know, what your major label would have done. ... For me, it’s just being able to get to the fans directly and the response has been overwhelming, this tour being a result of that and everyone really showing up and showing out and most shows being sold out and people still buying the CD when they get there. So it’s like we’re going gold and platinum on the road selling our independent CDs as we go. So it’s been an amazing thing to be able to do at this point in my career to have that much more control than I did.”

Fans worrying Ambrosius’ contentment will dampen her creativity shouldn’t be concerned. Her movies still contain extreme close-ups, and human emotions are too complex to capture in fuzzy monochrome.

“There’s too much going on in the world for me to just concentrate on the sunshine,” Ambrosius said. “I think when I fell in love for real, that was the most terrifying feeling I felt in my life.

People are like, ‘What do you mean terrifying?’ It’s like then I knew it was absolutely real, and it scared me. And I use that as fuel to evoke a level of emotion that I hadn’t had been to. It’s holding on to it all, now that I have exactly what I sought out to do and who I’ve become because of it. How do I hold on to all of it? And that’s where the good music happens.”

Tickets are $35-$45. Visit towertheatreokc.com.

Marsha Ambrosius 8 p.m. March 7 Tower Theatre 425 NW 23rd St. towertheatreokc.com | 405-708-6937 $35-$45

LIVE MUSIC These are events recommended

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

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 27

Heartbreak Rodeo/Bottom of the Barrel/Boone Mendenhall, The Root. ROCK Heartbreak Rodeo/The Whiskey Gingers/Kyle Reid, Main Street Event Center. ROCK/COUNTRY Watermelon Slim, VZD’s Restaurant & Bar. BLUES

SUNDAY, MAR. 3

Felina & the Feels, Life Organics Cannafe. ROCK

Chloe-Beth/Elecktra/Amanda Cunningham, Sauced on Paseo. SINGER/SONGWRITER

Lez Jaaam/Boketto, The Deli. ROCK

Dave Mason, Tower Theatre. ROCK

Okilly Dokilly, 89th Street-OKC. METAL

Eliza Gilkyson, Norman Santa Fe Depot. FOLK

THURSDAY, FEB. 28

Kyle Reid/Jared Deck/Brad Fielder, The Deli. FOLK

Gouge Away/Tom Boil, 89th Street-OKC. ROCK

MONDAY, MAR. 4

Had Enough/Mörder, The Root. ROCK

The Damn Quails, The Deli. FOLK/ROCK

Holy Roller Baby/The Velvet J’s, Blue Note Lounge.

ROCK

David Dondero/Jeff Richardson, Opolis. SINGER/

SONGWRITER

Nothing More/Of Mice & Men/Badflower, Diamond Ballroom. ROCK

FRIDAY, MAR. 1

Jason Hunt, Sean Cumming’s Irish Restaurant. FOLK Meth/Voice of Addiction/Kinda Creepy, Mothership Connection. PUNK

Cavern Company/Mad Honey/McAllister, Trolley Stop Record Shop. ROCK

TUESDAY, MAR. 5

Dropout Kings/Outline in Color/Deadships, 89th Street-OKC. METAL

HARDCORE

SeeYouSpaceCowboy, 89th Street-OKC. METAL/

Noname Chicago MC Fatimah Warner’s 2018 album made many critics’ year-end lists, and Pitchfork called it “the stylistic lovechild of Common’s Like Water for Chocolate and Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun.” Unfortunately, if you want to see Noname when she hits OKC, you’ll have to put a little extra work in. The show is sold out, but tickets, if any become available, will be released online a few days before the show (i.e., check right now). Definitely stalk social media to see one of hip-hop’s most interesting rising stars share a bill with local trailblazers and openers Original Flow & the Fervent Route. Even without tickets to Noname, Flow’s a name to remember for future reference. The show is 7 p.m.-midnight Sunday at ACM@UCO Performance Lab, 329 E. Sheridan Ave. Tickets are $25.

Visit facebook.com/acm.uco. SUNDAY Photo Chantal Anderson / provided

Isaac McClung/Kauri/Sam Valliere, Blue Note Lounge. FOLK Jeff Tweedy/Buck Meek, The Douglass at Page Woodson. SINGER-SONGWRITER Jessica Tate & John Rouse, Bossa Nova Caipirinha Lounge. JAZZ

Trevor Galvin, The Blue Door. JAZZ

WEDNESDAY, MAR. 6 The Annie Oakley, Saints. FOLK Elvis Depressedly/Nights/The Cordial Sins, 89th Street-OKC. ROCK

Justin Moore, The Criterion. COUNTRY Kikagaku Moyo, Opolis. ROCK Max Stalling, The Blue Door. SINGER/SONGWRITER Stephen Salewon/Sophia Massad, VZD’s Restaurant & Bar. FOLK/ROCK

SATURDAY, MAR. 2 Amy Ray Band, The Blue Door. FOLK CharlestheFirst, 89th Street-OKC. ELECTRONIC Ciara Brooke, Bison Witches Bar & Deli. POP Dr. Pants/Jarvix, Sauced on Paseo. ROCK

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!

O KG A Z E T T E . C O M | F E B R U A R Y 2 7, 2 0 1 9

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PUZZLES NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE CROSSWORD PUZZLE

EVERYTHING EVENS OUT IN THE END | 0303

By Erik Agard Puzzles edited by Will Shortz

ACROSS 1 Solo partner 10 Multidecker sandwich 14 Stack at Starbucks 18 Word that follows “standard” and

means something nonstandard 19 Abundant 20 Nettie’s sister in The Color Purple 21 Likely inexpensive place to get

one’s hair done 23 During the time that 24 Baton Rouge school 25 Auctioneer’s cry 26 Brownish tint 28 Final: Abbr.

29 En ____ (chess move) 33 Jolly time 35 Sports rival of Union College, for short 36 Chemistry unit: Abbr.

37 Wee devil 38 Cry like a baby 40 Tourist activity in northern Scandinavia 44 Backpack filler 46 “I dare you!”

48 Make a quick move 49 Chinese dynasty ended by Kublai Khan 50 It’s groovy 52 Get to the bottom of 55 Lockup, to Sherlock 57 Villain’s hideout 59 Source of call-ups, in baseball lingo 61 Prefix with culture 62 Virgil described its eruption in the “Aeneid” 63 “You got it, boss man!”

64 Posting that blows in the wind 67 Serenaded 71 Odyssey 72 Has little excitement for 77 Florentine : spinach :: lyonnaise : ____ 82 Curry go-with 83 To be abroad?

84 Allen Ginsberg, e.g.

88 Baby beavers 89 Bird akin to the nene?

90 Arab country expelled from the

Arab League in 2011 91 Green, in a way 92 Word cried before and after “all” 94 Governing org. of soccer 96 Reaction of shock 98 Analytics fodder 99 Bottom-of-page design choice 103 Spanish muralist José María ____ 105 Actor Cariou 106 Place for a bouquet 107 Boston’s Mass ____ 108 Pb 110 Away from the wind 112 UFC fighting style 113 Get Wired again, say 116 Hotel visit 118 ____-Magnon man 119 Scarecrow portrayer Ray 121 “How lucky was that?” … or a hint to

the answers to the italicized clues 127 Seated yoga pose 128 Well-being 129 Seriously worry 130 What the Joneses may elicit

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Lake City 42 Dreadfully slow 43 List in the credits DOWN 45 Wearers of striped shirts 1 Bank offerings, for short 47 Calendar column: Abbr.

2 Fashion line 51 Part of a trunk 3 Fashion model Marcille 53 Worker often found on hands and 4 Documents that name executors knees 5 Tree resin used in fragrances 54 Mini maker 6 On the same wavelength 56 Jargons 7 AFL partner 58 Bled 8 Bullies 60 Not to be seen or heard by children 9 Grate on 65 Tower construction material 10 Charging station for a smartphone 66 Men 11 Rapper ____ Yachty 68 Infrequently 12 Sci-fi saucers 69 Howe nicknamed “Mr. Hockey” 13 Part of N.B. 70 Restrict with a string 14 Hula dancer’s adornment 72 Challenge for a stain remover 15 Subject of many conspiracy theories 73 Popular Japanese manga series 16 Knocking out of place

with a schoolgirl heroine 17 End a lawsuit, say 74 Counterpart of local channels 20 Musical ____ 75 Beginning 22 Speak indistinctly 76 Pranks, in a way, informally 23 Erase 78 Mini, for one 27 One of South Africa’s capitals 79 “How fancy!”

29 Oink-filled pen 80 Like a tidied-up room, now 30 Don who won an Oscar for 81 Bit of hair

Cocoon 85 Alternative to .net 31 Converted splits 86 Some Spanish babysitters 32 1400 87 Art-studio prop 34 Holiday marking the end of 93 Alternatives to nets Ramadan 95 HuffPo purchaser in 2011

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97 Make easier to eat, as an infant’s food 99 Clumsily drop 100 Finished 101 Like a set of measuring cups, typically 102 “Later, luv!”

104 Mother ____ 109 Role in Our Gang or Queen Sugar 111 To the Lighthouse novelist 114 ____ milk 115 Swatting sound 117 “Jeez, that’s hot!”

120 Man 122 The Sun Devils, for short 123 “No, you shouldn’t have” 124 Opus ____ 125 Iniquity site 126 Springs for a vacation?

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SUDOKU MEDIUM | N° 29649

Fill in the grid so that every row, column and 3-by-3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9. www.printmysudoku.com

Erik Agard, 25, is a professional puzzle maker from Gaithersburg, Md. He is the reigning champion of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. On average he finishes a Sunday New York Times crossword in a frighteningly quick five minutes. Last October he won $66,802 in a three-day winning streak on ‘‘Jeopardy!’’ This is Erik’s 32nd crossword for the paper. — W.S.

Stumped? Call 1-900-285-5656 to get the answers to any three clues by phone ($1.20 a minute).

SKULLDUGGERY LANE By Ingvard Ashby

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F E B R U A R Y 2 7, 2 0 1 9 | O KG A Z E T T E . C O M

NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE CROSSWORD PUZZLE ANSWERS

Puzzle No. 0224, which appeared in the Feb 27 issue.

M I A T A S

A B L A Z E

D E W I T T

M E T H O D

O N R I C E

C O U G H E D

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY Homework:Choose one area of your life where you’re going to stop pretending. Report results to FreeWillAstrology.com.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

In December 1915, the California city of San Diego was suffering from a draught. City officials hired a professional “moisture accelerator” named Charles Hatfield, who promised to make it rain. Soon Hatfield was shooting explosions of a secret blend of chemicals into the sky from the top of a tower. The results were quick. A deluge began in early January of 1916 and persisted for weeks. Thirty inches of rain fell, causing floods that damaged the local infrastructure. The moral of the story, as far as you’re concerned, Aries: when you ask for what you want and need, specify exactly how much you want and need. Don’t make an open-ended request that could bring you too much of a good thing.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Actors Beau Bridges and Jeff Bridges are brothers born to parents who were also actors. When they were growing up, they already had aspirations to follow in their mom’s and dad’s footsteps. From an early age, they summoned a resourceful approach to attracting an audience. Now and then they would start a pretend fight in a store’s parking lot. When a big enough crowd had gathered to observe their shenanigans, they would suddenly break off from their faux struggle, grab their guitars from their truck, and begin playing music. In the coming weeks, I hope you’ll be equally ingenious as you brainstorm about ways to expand your outreach.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

According to Edward Barnard’s book New York City Trees, a quarter of the city is shaded by its 5.2 million trees. In other words, one of the most densely populated, frantically active places on the planet has a rich collection of oxygengenerating greenery. There’s even a virgin forest at the upper tip of Manhattan, as well as five botanical gardens and the 843-acre Central Park. Let’s use all this bountyamidst-the-bustle as a symbol of what you should strive to foster in the coming weeks: refreshing lushness and grace interspersed throughout your busy, hustling rhythm.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) As a poet myself, I regard good poetry as highly useful.

It can nudge us free of our habitual thoughts and provoke us to see the world in ways we’ve never imagined. On the other hand, it’s not useful in the same way that food and water and sleep are. Most people don’t get sick if they are deprived of poetry. But I want to bring your attention to a poem that is serving a very practical purpose in addition to its inspirational function. Simon Armitage’s poem “In Praise of Air” is on display in an outdoor plaza at Sheffield University. The material it’s printed on is designed to literally remove a potent pollutant from the atmosphere.

And what does this have to do with you? I suspect that in the coming weeks you will have an extra capacity to generate blessings that are like Armitage’s poem: useful in both practical and inspirational ways.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

What is the quality of your access to life’s basic necessities?

How well do you fulfill your need for good food and drink, effective exercise, deep sleep, thorough relaxation, mental stimulation, soulful intimacy, a sense of meaningfulness, nourishing beauty, and rich feelings? I bring these questions to your attention, Scorpio, because the rest of 2019 will be an excellent time for you to fine-tune and expand your relationships with these fundamental blessings. And now is an excellent time to intensify your efforts.

In 1979, psychologist Dorothy Tennov published her book Love and Limerence: The Experience of Being in Love. She defined her newly coined word “limerence” as a state of adoration that may generate intense, euphoric, and obsessive feelings for another person. Of all the signs in the zodiac, you Leos are most likely to be visited by this disposition throughout 2019. And you’ll be especially prone to it in the coming weeks. Will that be a good thing or a disruptive thing? It all depends on how determined you are to regard it as a blessing, have fun with it, and enjoy it regardless of whether or not your feelings are reciprocated. I advise you to enjoy the hell out of it!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

Based in Switzerland, Nestle is the largest food company in the world. Yet it pays just $200 per year to the state of Michigan for the right to suck up 400 million gallons of groundwater, which it bottles and sells at a profit. I nominate this vignette to be your cautionary tale in the coming weeks. How? 1. Make damn sure you are being fairly compensated for your offerings. 2. Don’t allow huge, impersonal forces to exploit your resources. 3. Be tough and discerning, not lax and naïve, as you negotiate deals.

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Sixteenth-century Italian artist Daniele da Volterra wasn’t very famous for his own painting and sculpture.

The work for which we remember him today is the alterations he made to Michelangelo’s giant fresco The Last Judgment, which spreads across an entire wall in the Sistine Chapel. After Michelangelo died, the Catholic Church hired da Volterra to “fix” the scandalous aspects of the people depicted in the master’s work. He painted clothes and leaves over the originals’ genitalia and derrieres. In accordance with astrological omens, I propose that we make da Volterra your anti-role model for the coming weeks. Don’t be like him. Don’t engage in cover-ups, censorship, or camouflage. Instead, specialize in the opposite: revelations, unmaskings, and expositions.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

Michael Jackson’s 1982 song “Beat It” climbed to number three on the record-sales charts in Australia. On the other hand, “Weird Al” Yankovic’s 1984 parody of Jackson’s tune, “Eat It,” reached number one on the same charts.

Let’s use this twist as a metaphor that’s a good fit for your life in the coming weeks. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you may find that a stand-in or substitute or imitation will be more successful than the original. And that will be auspicious!

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

The Space Needle in Seattle, Washington is 605 feet high and 138 feet wide: a tall and narrow tower. Near the top is a round restaurant that makes one complete rotation every 47 minutes. Although this part of the structure weighs 125 tons, for many years its motion was propelled

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by a mere 1.5 horsepower motor. I think you will have a comparable power at your disposal in the coming weeks: an ability to cause major movement with a compact output of energy.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

In 1941, the Ford automobile company created a “biological car.” Among its components were “bioplastics” composed of soybeans, hemp, flax, wood pulp, and cotton.

It weighed a thousand pounds less than a comparable car made of metal. This breakthrough possibility never fully matured, however. It was overshadowed by newly abundant plastics made from petrochemicals. I suspect that you Aquarians are at a phase with a resemblance to the biological car. Your good idea is promising but unripe.

I hope you’ll spend the coming weeks devoting practical energy to developing it. (P.S. There’s a difference between you and your personal equivalent of the biological car: little competition.)

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

Cartographers of Old Europe sometimes drew pictures of strange beasts in the uncharted regions of their maps.

These were warnings to travelers that such areas might harbor unknown risks, like dangerous animals. One famous map of the Indian Ocean shows an image of a sea monster lurking, as if waiting to prey on sailors traveling through its territory. If I were going to create a map of the frontier you’re now headed for, Pisces, I would fill it with mythic beasts of a more benevolent variety, like magic unicorns, good fairies, and wise centaurs.

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

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

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