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By Miguel Rios, P. 4

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INSIDE

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COVER P. 4 Under its current president, University of Oklahoma unceremoniously eliminated longtime staff and faculty, attacked former president David Boren and ineffectively dealt with campus racism. It is also experiencing a shortfall in donations, leading many students and employees to wonder what it will take to correct course.

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By Miguel Rios Cover by Tiffany McKnight

NEWS 4 COVER University of Oklahoma

issues

8 STATE rape kit legislation 9 COMMENTARY 10 CHICKEN-FRIED NEWS

THE HIGH CULTURE

12 MARIJUANA House Bill 2612

reactions

16 MARIJUANA edibles recipe

17 MARIJUANA The Toke Board

EAT & DRINK

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19 REVIEW Brielle’s Bistro

20 FEATURE Geronimo’s Bakery 22 GAZEDIBLES pancakes

ARTS & CULTURE 24 ART The Melrose Sessions at

The Depot Gallery

Dog in the Night-Time at Freede Little Theatre

at OCCC

25 THEATER The Curious Incident of the

27 THEATER Chase Padgett’s 6 Guitars 28 COMMUNITY shipping container

house

29 CALENDAR

june 14

MUSIC 31 FEATURE Jacobi Ryan

32 EVENT The Deli’s 40th Anniversary

Weekend

33 LIVE MUSIC

FUN 34 PUZZLES sudoku | crossword 35 ASTROLOGY OKG CLASSIFIEDS 35 CORRECTION

COMING SOON

Trace adkins august 22-24

ep expo

october 25-27

native ink tattoo festial

A March 13 Oklahoma Gazette story (Arts & Culture, “Native sound,” Joshua Blanco) incorrectly identified Kellie J. Lewis as creator of Red Dirt Radio Oklahoma. Red Dirt Radio Oklahoma was co-created by Lewis and Collin Hudson.

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NEWS COV E R

Bleeding crimson University of Oklahoma’s weaknesses are highlighted amid staff reductions, low donations, racist scandals and poor responses from the top. By Miguel Rios

University of Oklahoma is going through a tumultuous period with the departure of more than 80 employees, donations down by at least a third from last year and multiple racist incidents on campus resulting in no disciplinary actions. Professor emeritus Alan Velie is the university’s longest-serving faculty member with more than 50 years under his belt and a career that has spanned eight of the 14 university presidents. Velie said OU improved steadily from its inception until former president David Boren came into the picture. Velie said his vision and hard work resulted in exponential improvements at a rate that had not been seen before. “When Boren came in, the rate of improvement changed dramatically,” Velie said. “He had a vision for the university. I don’t think anybody who was here could anticipate how he would be able to change it for the better, so everybody was thrilled. He made the students far better. ... He improved every aspect of the university. … He had a great bond among faculty and students; they loved him. Students were really proud of the university, and the faculty were very proud of what he achieved.” Boren served as OU’s 13th president from 1994 to 2018.

Secret search

After Boren announced Sept. 20, 2017 that he would retire, a committee was formed to find his successor, but the committee’s search was largely conducted in secret. Candidate names, interview questions and interview schedules were confidential throughout the process. Suzette Grillot, former dean of the

international studies college, along with other faculty members, released a letter/petition asking the board of regents for more transparency. The search continued in secret, though, until the university announced March 26, 2018, that James Gallogly would be OU’s 14th president. “I spoke publicly about the search process and respectfully requested some transparency in the search process, and that, I believe, led to some concern on the part of the new president,” she told Oklahoma Gazette. “I was very quickly then questioned about my outspokenness and kind of lectured about my outspokenness.” Gallogly was not available for interview.

Staff reductions

A former oil executive, Gallogly laid off six top administrators on his first day of work, July 2. A press release stated that the cuts aimed to “streamline reporting, bring in fresh, diverse perspectives, and improve its cost structure.” Some positions were consolidated, and others were restructured or eliminated completely. “During this time of change, we will continue to focus on academic excellence, student success, employee engagement and efficiency. These first steps are needed to help maintain current tuition levels and work toward faculty pay raises,” Gallogly said in the release. Nick Hathaway, who held several administrative positions during his 23 years at OU, was let go and his position, vice president for administration and finances, was eliminated. “[Hathaway] was fired summarily at 8 in the morning, told immediately to vacate his office and [by 10], they took down his email address,” Velie said. “Why would you simply treat him as if he’s done something wrong? It seems to be unnecessarily heartless. It not only hurts him, but it hurts the university because anybody who’s been there that long has a lot of friends.” In November 2018, roughly 50 more employees were terminated, including more high-level development administrators, and three research offices were closed. The next round of layoffs came in February, with 28 employees let go from the information technology and landscaping departments. Gallogly, who has never held a public office before, is the first CEO from a Professor emeritus Alan Velie is OU’s longestserving faculty member with a career that spans eight of the 14 university presidents. | Photo Alexa Ace

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Fortune 500 company to lead the university. He has been both critiqued and commended for trying to run OU like a business. “Gallogly’s been in business long enough to know that all businesses aren’t the same. Every business, even in the same field, has a culture of its own. He has to deal with it within the culture. I imagine he’s learned that lesson, but he learned it at the cost of hurting his reputation,” Velie said. “The [faculty] who’ve been around for decades are sorry he’s acted in such a heavy-handed way and treated people who’ve provided a good service as if they’re guilty of some crime.”

It seems like we’re washing all our dirty laundry in public. Alan Velie

Financial downs

Before officially taking office, Gallogly announced at a board of regents meeting that OU was losing $36 million a year as expenses outpaced revenue. He said debt at the Norman campus was “almost $1 billion.” In February, OU Daily reported that donations were down 41 percent compared to the last fiscal year. “As of Jan 10, according to an internal office of development memo obtained by The Daily, the university has raised $48,905,322 during fiscal year 2019, which started July 1, 2018,” according to the report. “At this point in fiscal year 2018, which started July 1, 2017, the university had raised $82,980,776.” According to a Feb. 27 OU press release, cash donations were only “31 percent lower than the same time last year,” though no figures were given. The release attributes the drop, which hap-

University of Oklahoma officials say combined donations and pledges have made the university cash positive. | Photo Alexa Ace

pened in December, to “a volatile stock market, changes in the tax code for charitable giving and significant press stories about OU.” And while donations are down, the release states that pledges total more than $55 million, which will “put the university on track to match the previous year’s giving.” “In general, cash and pledges combined are actually up year to date over last year (the month of December was cash-down only),” Lauren Brookey, vice president of marketing and communications, wrote in an email to Oklahoma Gazette. “Savings identified earlier in the year materialized in February.” Gallogly announced at the March 13 board of regents meeting that OU’s Norman campus and Health Sciences Center are now cash-positive. Sophomore Jamelia Reed said many students do not like the way Gallogly handles finances because of how strict he is and because he is so profit-focused. “David Boren was very progressive with how he spent university money. He was great at investing in projects that we weren’t for sure were going to work, but he really wanted to try,” she said. “[Gallogly] is more like, ‘What’s going to make us money in the end? What’s going to be beneficial for the university and the funding?’ ... With all the new changes to finances at the university, we don’t like [Gallogly].”

‘Culture of fear’

After Gallogly was named president, Grillot delivered another letter with more than 500 signatures. The letter congratulates Gallogly and again asks for transparency. While she was “lectured” on her outspokenness, the administration also questioned the value of the international studies college, Grillot said.

“There was a lot of questioning about the existence of the college of international studies, about our budget, about what the value of study abroad was, about why we have study centers, those sorts of things,” she said. “For many months, I was trying to deal with that, which I felt very much was kind of affected by this background of my having been outspoken.” Grillot stood her ground with the administration on various aspects of cutting the college’s budget, which she said directly led to her being removed as the dean. “I felt it was disproportionate and unfair and that it was harmful, particularly to students of color who are students of high financial need. The programs that were being cut were the programs that served them and the financial scholarships that served them,” she said. “I didn’t feel like there was a significant amount of support coming from the administration for those students or for international students. So I continued to resist that internally until the point where they decided to remove me.” Grillot was offered a “substantial amount of money” to resign, sign a nondisclosure agreement and leave the university entirely, but she declined. Instead, she was fired as dean but remained a tenured professor.

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“Because I have tenure, they also had to give me an option to just be fired and stay on campus, and so that’s what I chose because there was no way I was going to go away and not tell the story of what happened here,” she said. “What they’re doing is wrong, and what happened to me is wrong. They’ve done it to me and they’ve done it to others, and I’m not just going to sit back and watch them do these things.” Grillot is now pursuing litigation against the university for violating her First Amendment rights by retaliating against her. “It’s wrong what they do; it has created and continues to perpetuate a culture of fear on campus,” she said. “There’s a reason why everyone’s afraid. They’re afraid of retaliation.” Judy Gibbs Robinson, the former adviser for OU Daily, shared a similar story of perceived retaliation through a Feb. 20 Facebook post. An OU employee for more than a decade, she revealed her acceptance of a retirement incentive Jan. 4 “rather than return to a job that had become increasingly intolerable since [she] requested equal pay with a male colleague for the same work.” Gibbs Robinson wrote that she was ignored, so she filed a grievance that she lost due to insufficient evidence. “After filing a grievance, I was denied teaching assignments and relegated to

a section of the entry-level media writing course I once coordinated,” she wrote. “In Student Media, the director told me he wouldn’t level the playing field because he ‘didn’t have to.’ … Ultimately, the toxic environment proved too much. So I got out. I’m still mourning, still trying to understand how my career could have ended this way.”

‘Toxic environment’

Grillot also said the university has been a toxic place for the entire campus community. This semester alone, the university faced four racist acts on and off campus, none of which resulted in disciplinary action. “[Students] that reach out to me are still very concerned about the climate on campus,” Grillot said. “They’re concerned about their safety. They have been and they continue to be about their safety, about their well-being, about their mental health, about their stress levels. It’s been a toxic place, and people can feel it; it’s palpable on campus.” In January, two students posted a video on Snapchat wearing black face masks and using the N-word. A week later, an unknown person was seen walking around campus wearing blackface. In February, another social media video showed a former OU student hanging a noose around a stuffed duck and using the N-word. This month, screenshots

James Gallogly, a former oil executive and major OU donor, is the university’s 14th president. | Photo University of Oklahoma / provided

were leaked from OU College Republicans’ GroupMe that contained racist, misogynistic and violent comments. “After that, it seemed to be week after week after week of incidents, miscommunications or an unfulfilled statement,” said Reed, who is also a member of the Black Student Association (BSA) continued on page 6

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and co-director of Black Emergency Response Team (BERT). “It seems that we have gone down this slippery slope that’s now up to three months.” Brookey wrote in an email to Oklahoma Gazette that the university released its “phase 1 plan to the university community to address racial and cultural issues on campus.” It lists seven actions, including hiring a chief diversity officer, implementing additional diversity and inclusion learning opportunities, improving retention strategies through affirmative action plans and providing “safe and inclusive locations to meet and to build programs” that bring everybody together. “I made a commitment to examine our actions, policies and practices as an institution to ensure OU was working every day in a systemic and comprehensive manner toward inclusivity for all,” Gallogly wrote in a March 5 letter to the OU community. “We know that we have a lot of work ahead of us to change our culture to one that is fully open, diverse and inclusive.” Brookey and Gallogly have both said the racist incidents were not technically against their code of conduct and, therefore, the university could not take disciplinary action. Gallogly has been critiqued for weak responses that take no action. “David Boren was a politician so he knew how to talk to people and watch his rhetoric. [Gallogly] is coming from a standpoint of, ‘I can sign off on this and keep going about my day,’” Reed said. “If you’re looking into the public approval, Jim doesn’t have it.” BERT was created after the two blackface scandals happened. Where BSA is a social group to bring the black community together in fun, BERT focuses on trying to impact change by addressing scandals and talking with administrators. Reed said all the racist incidents have brought minority students together in solidarity. “The minority communities have come together, just recognizing we’re stronger as we support each other,” she said. “We offer each other support and advice on how to go about situations with the administration. It’s really just a camaraderie that’s been built. It was there before, but it was built on, like, ‘If y’all go to bat, we’ll go to bat for you as well.’”

Course correction

Velie, Grillot and Reed each offered different ways the university might be able to get back on track. Velie said it is crucial for Gallogly to make amends with Boren. The two had a public rift in their friendship, and now Boren is being investigated by the university through the Jones Day law firm for sexual harassment. “Everybody considers that anomalous, and that can only hurt the university. It seems like we’re washing all our dirty laundry in public,” he said. “The 6

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Suzette Grillot is pursuing litigation against OU for violating her First Amendment rights and retaliating by demoting her as dean of the international studies college. | Photo Shevaun Williams / provided

university community is unhappy about it because they liked Boren; they loved Boren. I don’t think that the university can get back on track until they make amends with the previous administration. People are alarmed, and this investigation of Boren is not helping at all.” Grillot, who called for Gallogly’s resignation at a Jan. 22 rally, said she stands by those comments and believes OU needs to be held accountable. “I do not think that Jim Gallogly should be the president of the University of Oklahoma, and I don’t think Kyle Harper should be the provost at the University of Oklahoma; I think he’s part of the problem as well,” she said. “A change in leadership should occur, but I also think it’s deeper than that. It goes beyond individuals. I said that at the rally; I’ll say it again now. It’s beyond just individuals; it’s a problematic institution in that there are just ingrained practices, some institutionalized patterns of secrecy and lack of transparency and silencing and marginalization and retaliation. All the toxicity that exists has to be rooted out, exposed and changed. That’s going to take a concerted effort on the part of, well, the board of regents and, of course, the community.” To Reed, demands of resignation seem too early. She said fixing certain situations take time, and she just hopes that the current administration can learn from its mistakes. “The important thing is that you learn from it and you try to prevent it from happening again. Most likely, it will happen again,” she said. “If [the administration] wants to ‘keep the peace’ and maintain a positive and affluent culture at OU, it’s going to be very imperative that they learn from the situation, learn how to handle it, make sure it’s known that it’s not OK for this to happen. … As well as understanding that it’s not the job of the minority to teach you these things, but it’s your job as the majority to take the time to learn because you are a university with minority services.”

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Standardized testing

Legislation is moving forward to create a uniform way of testing and tracking sexual assault kits. By Miguel Rios

Senate minority leader Kay Floyd authored three bills that work together to reform the way the Oklahoma agencies handle sexual assault kits, also known as rape kits. All three bills cleared the Senate and have moved to committees in the House of Representatives. If passed, they would implement a statewide system to track the kits, provide more training for law enforcement and standardize the state’s sexual assault kit. Floyd ran a bill in 2017 intended to set up a task force to look into sexual assault forensic evidence, but once she saw it was not getting enough traction, she began working with former Gov. Mary Fallin’s office. Fallin created the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Task Force in April through an executive order. “We met once a month throughout the year of 2018, and the final report was issued to the governor. … There were a lot of dedicated people who really wanted to see some change,” Floyd said. “Everyone wanted the same outcome. It just became a matter of us figuring out how to get there and making sure that that was doable and that everyone’s concerns were addressed. I think the task force did a remarkable job.” When Fallin created the task force, she also ordered a statewide audit of untested rape kits, which revealed there were more than 7,200 untested kits. The task force recommendations aimed to address the untested kits and implement ways to prevent future kits from falling through the cracks. Floyd’s three Senate bills are a direct result of the task force’s legislative ideas. Senate Bill 967 would implement a statewide electronic tracking system for rape kits. “The tracking system that’s been put into place by OSBI is a system that actually will track new kits as they are retrieved,” she said. “So when law enforcement investigates a sexual assault and a rape kit is taken, then the tracking system will start tracking it. … The second part of the tracking system will be to start tracking the backlog of kits, the untested kits. It’s not actually a backlog; they’re just untested.” Senate Bill 971 requires two hours of law enforcement training on how to handle reports with the new system 8

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through Council on Law Enforcement Education Training (CLEET). “Senate Bill 971 set up some additional CLEET training for law enforcement,” she said. “Since we’re starting in a new system, that’s going to help them get up to speed on that.” Senate Bill 975 orders Oklahoma’s three laboratories to use one standardized kit. Currently, the state’s agencies have three different kits, so having a uniform kit will make things easier for all parties involved.

The system is designed to track all sexual assault kits in Oklahoma ... in order to further empower survivors. Matthew Stillwell “That will be set up to where all of our labs use the same kit. They have to submit them within 20 days,” she said. “Once it’s received, it goes into the tracking system. That bill also talks about how the alleged victim is going to be given the information. They’ll be able to track their own kit at any point in time as well as law enforcement and the medical provider. That bill also says the kits will be kept for 50 years or longer or the length

of the statute of limitations, so we will not have kits that are destroyed in two or three or four years.”

Tracking kits

Matthew Stillwell, sexual assault kit administrator for OSBI Forensic Science Center in Edmond, received a copy of the system Idaho uses to track rape kits. He said it is being formatted for Oklahoma by the Office of Management & Enterprise Services (OMES). “The intent of the system will be to provide the sexual assault survivors with the ability to anonymously track the location and status of their sexual assault kits from the point of collection to the forensic analysis to the final storage and possible destruction,” Stillwell said. “There’ll be a serial number on the kit itself, and they’ll be provided with that number. … The system is designed to track all sexual assault kits in Oklahoma … in order to further empower survivors with information and also assist law enforcement with their investigations and crime prevention.” The tracking system, Stillwell said, will also help create transparency and foster public trust. The system will be rolled out in two phases. Once it is online, it will be tested by a select group of people to identify any issues that need to be resolved. After that, the system will be online for the entire state. The plan was to have it up and running this month. “We have set dates and timelines and they have come and gone. My hope is that the program, as it’s being developed for Oklahoma use, will be ready for me to review hopefully by the first of April,” Stillwell said. “We’re kind of bound by OMES’ timelines and constraints, so it’s very frustrating.” The three sexual assault bills, particularly the two that deal with the tracking system, Stillwell said, will help put some meat behind the system. “By passing those bills, instead of encouraging the criminal justice system to use the application, it will require them to use the application,” he said. “So those sexual assault kits that slipped through the Senate minority leader Kay Floyd authored three bills to change the way Oklahoma agencies handle sexual assault kits. | Photo provided

Matthew Stillwell was hired last December to serve as the administrator for the sexual assault kit tracking system. | Photo Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation / provided

cracks, that won’t happen again.” Though the Oklahoma and Tulsa police departments have labs to handle their own sexual assault kits, they will all be tracked through OSBI’s system. Law enforcement agencies outside the two biggest police departments will send their untested kits to OSBI. “That’ll put us somewhere in the neighborhood of two or three thousand kits [to test],” Stillwell said. Stillwell and Floyd both said they are anxious to get the tracking system up and running to improve the way the state handles sexual assault cases. Floyd said the technology has the potential to solve cold cases and connect the dots between past and present crimes as it provides new evidence for law enforcement. “What we’ve seen in other states is that, even some of the cold cases, when that evidence is put into the system, into the database, sometimes they find that these cases are serial rapists. They find repeat offenders, and they’re able to open those cold cases back up,” she said. “Let’s say you got a kit that’s 20 years old and that perpetrator has been arrested somewhere else on some other charge. If his DNA matches from the kit to that, then that person could be charged for that crime. … The more that victims feel like their story matters, [the more they’ll feel] that maybe there is a way to bring the perpetrator to justice.” The task force still meets every month, though now it serves under the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office.

CO M M E N TA RY

NEWS

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

Words matter Journalists need to be fair when describing acts of terror. By George Lang

Timothy McVeigh was a white nationalist, Turner Diaries-reading terrorist. He used a Ryder truck full of ammonium nitrate to kill 168 men, women and children on April 19, 1995, at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. As we approach the 24th anniversary of this massacre of our neighbors, friends and family, I am becoming increasingly aware that current college students and recent military recruits only know this anecdotally. They can choose their own adventure into a fact-based reality or a quasi-factual alternate reality built on an odious set of beliefs that validate McVeigh’s mindset and actions. I do not have that luxury. I spent over two weeks of my life in the shadow of that building’s ruins, reporting as rescue operations became recovery operations. The families and friends of those 168 lost lives, the people who survived the attack and those of us who bore witness cannot choose to ignore the truth.

WE’RE SOCIAL.

I am a watchman in the language police. I look for news stories that identify a white attacker as an “extremist” but an attacker of color as a “terrorist.” After the March 15 killing of 50 people at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, I read stories in publications such as USA Today that did not name the suspect, 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant. Some outlets referred to Tarrant as a white extremist but not as an alleged terrorist. This is a distinction with a difference. This month, an independent investigative collective called Unicorn Riot hacked the messaging app Discord, a chat client that is a favorite among white nationalists and, in particular, the white nationalist group Identity Evropa (IE). This is the group that has been stickering its logo around Oklahoma City, particularly in Midtown, 16th Street Plaza District and, most recently, Deep Deuce. In August 2018, a Discord poster identifying himself as “Dannion Phillips from Oklahoma” made arrange-

ments with the “local coordinator” for IE to pay his dues. Two months later, on Oct. 13, he posted several photos of IE stickers in the Plaza District. Then, on Jan. 3, 2019, the day a column I wrote about IE’s stickering/flyering campaign published in Oklahoma Gazette, “Dannion Phillips from Oklahoma” posted the following: “This is a tweet from an author at the Oklahoma Gazette who penned a smear piece against our flyering operations in Oklahoma City. This tweet has a picture of the article and he references us as racists.” The post included the hashtag “#cyberstrike.” On March 18, Huffington Post published a story identifying seven members of the military as members of IE. Airman First Class Dannion A. Phillips, who was stationed at Tinker Air Force Base as recently as last month, was one of those named members. It is entirely possible that the person posting as @DannionP

on Discord is not this U.S. Air Force airman. His identity could have been appropriated by someone else. Yes, this is a possibility; I am a firm believer in “allegedly.” Regardless, whoever this is tried to initiate a cyberstrike against me. The person posting as @DannionP is an extremist. Is he a terrorist? Not yet and, possibly, not ever. The attack in Christchurch is most assuredly an act of terrorism. Whoever committed this act against humanity is a terrorist and if alleged attacker Tarrant is found guilty, then he is a terrorist. Words matter, including the words posted on Discord. But when we discuss acts of terrorism in the media, their appearance or race should not slant whether they are just extremists or fullblown terrorists. It is their actions that determine who and what they are. George Lang is editor-in-chief of Oklahoma Gazette. | Photo Gazette / file

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Tulsa drift

The Fast and the Furious became one of the highest grossing film franchises in history as Dominic Toretto’s “family” turned from smallscale criminals into globetrotting thieves capable of superhuman feats, but its aims were much more small-scale. Perhaps a man in Tulsa watched too many of the films and wanted to create his own version of the Toretto family. Instead of trying to steal a bunch of DVD players while using a humble grocery store as a front like in the original film, Tulsa resident Kong Meng Vang used his Vang’s Dyno Performance shop as a front for what is considered Tulsa’s largest illegal marijuana operation. When Vang pleaded guilty to federal drug conspiracy and money-laundering charges last August, the plea agreement included the requirement for Vang to sell 21 of his high performance cars — many of which are not street legal — to pay back a $1 million criminal forfeiture debt, according to Tulsa World. Vang admitted to conspiring to bring 1,500 pounds of marijuana from California to Tulsa, which law enforcement at the time valued at $5 million. The public can bid on Vang’s collection of cars through April 1 at the website appleauctioneeringco.com, and it is quite the collection. It includes a 1999 Nissan Skyline GTR R34, which is not street legal and currently carries a bid over $63,000. There is a 1993 Toyota Supra Pro-Street, another car meant for track use only that goes so fast it has a built-in parachute. It is practically a bargain, currently going for $20,100. There is a lot in Vang’s collection, including a 2009 Nissan GT-R, a dump truck and a totally nondescript 2015 car that practically screams “I’m just trying to fit in and not get pulled over for shipping weed over state lines.” You’ve got a few more weeks to bid on Vang’s collection, which will allow the winner to hopefully live vicariously through the life of a criminal and hopefully without any additional crimes.

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Deep shirt

Oklahoma often rates worst or close to it in many quality-of-life categories such as incarceration rates, education funding and access to mental health care and substance abuse treatment, but — probably not coincidentally — our state is consistently one of the most reliable sources for stories featured in “wacky news” columns and segments across the country. We exported another “LOL” criminal case earlier this month via the Associated Press (AP) newswire when police arrested an Oologah woman on accusations that she used a T-shirt cannon to launch a package of contraband over the fence at North Fork Correctional Center in Sayre. If ever there was a time to break out the rarely used “I thought I was

at a Foghat concert” defense, this is probably it. Oklahoma Department of Corrections alleges the package contained glow sticks, airhorns and, of course, T-shirts reading “More than 1 in 100 Oklahomans (and nearly 4 in 100 black Oklahomans) are in prison or jail at any given time, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.” Just kidding, of course. AP reported authorities said the package actually “contained cellphones, earbuds, phone chargers, methamphetamine, digital scales, marijuana and tobacco.” Website The Smoking Gun reported that the accused contraband-catapulter, who was just released from state prison in January, has been charged with multiple felonies: introducing contraband into a correctional institution, narcotics trafficking and conspiracy. In the words of “Rock and Roll Part 2,” Gary Glitter’s inescapable sportsball anthem, “Dunduh-nuh-nuh hey!” mass incarceration doesn’t seem to be an effective solution to substance abuse.

Bad boys

Two years after Tulsa Police Department (TPD) cut ties with a Copsesque reality show, Oklahoma Highway Patrol is stepping in for its close-up. Oklahoma Department of Public Safety signed an agreement with Big Fish Entertainment that will last through

2020, with an opportunity to extend the deal for a second year. OHP troopers in Tulsa and Oklahoma City will film with Live PD starting Friday, a move it hopes will be good for recruitment and transparency. The self-described No. 1 show on Friday

and Saturday nights, “Live PD viewers get unfettered and unfiltered live access inside a variety of the country’s busiest police forces,” according to A&E’s website. It was this “unfettered and unfiltered” access that made TPD not want to renew its contract. Chief Chuck Jordan said the department felt it was not in the best interest to continue filming after a clip garnered the department some con-

troversy. He told The Frontier that officers did not like the way it represented Tulsa and the police department. Though, again, it was “unfiltered.” The controversial clip features breakout star Sgt. Sean “Sticks” Larkin, an admitted “full-time popo” and “part time CrossFitter” who became a fan favorite probably because of his piercing green eyes, young Bill Clinton aesthetic and Thanos-like jaw. In the clip, Sticks racially profiles a black man because he was wearing blue, which he called a “gang color.” Though the clip gained traction on social media and was critiqued by numerous people, Larkin’s charm landed him a recurring guest analyst spot for the show and an A&E show of his own to host, PD Cam. (It is basically the same thing but mainly told through police body, dash and helicopter cameras and surveillance video.) Mayor G.T. Bynum said he worried that the Live PD crew was “just standing there filming” while officers were in danger. “I’m not a fan of a TV show that is trying to feed off the difficulties are [sic] police officers face,” he told The Frontier. TPD was a part of the show’s first season. OHP will appear on season three, and though the Chicken-Fried News staff might join Bynum in not watching, we cannot wait to see which trooper makes it big.

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THE HIGH CULTURE

Challenging authority

HB2612 was signed into law by Gov. Kevin Stitt but has been questioned and now challenged in court. By Matt Dinger

Five days after House Bill 2612 was signed into law, it has a legal challenge. The petition was filed on behalf of plaintiff Leslie Ann Collum in Oklahoma County District Court on March 19. Collum is a medical marijuana license holder, registered nurse and the owner of Painted Nurse Apothecary, 3017 N. Lee Ave. She is suing Oklahoma State Department of Health and its interim commissioner, Tom Bates. The lawsuit alleges that HB2612, commonly called the “unity bill,” violates the Oklahoma Constitution. The law is set to take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns. The petition argues that the law’s provisions are vague and do not give commercial license holders adequate knowledge of what acts may subject them to disciplinary actions or what those actions might be. The law would violate due process because it is unclear what could subject Collum to lose her business license or how she could defend herself, the petition claims. The petition also argues that the law violates equal protection laws because Collum has a recognized disability and it singles out an entire class of people for different treatment. HB2612 should be permanently voided for vagueness, the petition claims. A temporary injunction and restraining order are requested until the court rules. “I’ve lived here all my life, and I’ve seen it time and time again,” Collum said. “It’s time to fight. It’s time to speak our voices. It’s time to put our feet down and tell the state we won’t put up with it. We aren’t going to take it. This isn’t what we wanted. It isn’t what we voted for. I thought [State Question] 788 was supposed to protect any state license that I held. So now safety-sensitive? Are you going to take away my registered nursing license because I’m a medical marijuana patient? Do you think I still don’t have the capacity to practice as a registered nurse? … If I’m a medical marijuana user and I use medical marijuana in my off time, not within, say, four to eight hours of arriving to work as you would see standardly if you were prescribed a narcotic and you were employed, so why do we treat marijuana differently from Oxycodone?” Cannabis activist John “Old School” Frasure worked jobs that would be considered “safety-sensitive” his entire life before retiring due to medical disability. 12

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M A R C H 2 7, 2 0 1 9 | O KG A Z E T T E . C O M

He was prescribed opiates and benzodiazepines for 12 years before turning exclusively to cannabis for treatment and does not like that provision of the bill. “If you handle medicine, you can’t get a medical marijuana card. That’s everybody in the industry of cannabis, isn’t it, because they all handle medicine? So now we’ve got everybody in the industry working with this product, processing this product, and you can’t have a card,” Frasure said. He also argues that any job could be interpreted to fall inside that exception. “Every job. Working at McDonald’s around all that fry grease. Flammable material. Knives. Safety-sensitive,” Frasure said. Another part of the law Frasure takes issue with is the requirement of a waste handler for discarded plant material. “When you go into a dispensary, if they’re a good budtender, they’re going to break that off and give you nothing but bud,” he said. “So at the end of the month, what have we got? We’ve got a handful of stems. Now you’re going to charge somebody $2,500 to have a disposal license to throw this handful of stems in a compost pile. Because what are you going to do with it? Hazmat? It’s stems.”

This isn’t what we wanted. It isn’t what we voted for. Leslie Collum

Unclear language

J. Blake Johnson, co-chair of Crowe & Dunlevy’s Cannabis Industry Practice Group, conferred with lawmakers about how proposed reforms would affect the industry. He said the need for additional regulation after SQ788 was undeniable but sympathizes with critics of HB2612, which he described as “an inelegant solution” that will create significant uncertainty within the industry. “In one of the very early sections of the law, it establishes the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority. Well, that’s already established, but it purports to establish it for the first time. And then it assigns to the OMMA certain enumerated authorities. Well, just a few sections later, it repeats most of those authorities and rights and powers and responsibilities, but it gives them to the Department of Health writ large, and I think, gives very, very broad

power to the department writ large. If the language of the bill uses both ‘department’ and ‘authority,’ then we should assume that there’s some difference between those. So where the authority of the OMMA and the department itself overlap, again, it’s not apparent to me to whom this authority is supposed to be assigned,” Johnson said. “It’s Section 14 that purports to more or less restate much of 788, and where there are differences, however slight, it creates a bit of an interpretive dilemma because we have two different sections of statutory law ostensibly governing the same activity. … It restates many of the same requirements that are included in 788 for licensing, but it appears to include a few additional ones. So, for example, it requires that before a license is issued by the department, the applicant must have obtained all relevant local licenses and permits issued by the municipality in which the commercial operation would be located. Well, first of all, many municipalities won’t issue those permits until you have a state license, but in any event, that’s an additional requirement that’s not included in 788.” Another area of the law concerning residency could create problems, Johnson said. The section states that commercial license holders have to have lived in

Leslie Collum, owner of Painted Nurse Apothecary, a medical marijuana patient and registered nurse, is suing over HB2612, also known as the “unity bill.” | Photo Alexa Ace

Oklahoma for the last two consecutive years or have lived in the state for five continuous years in the past 25 years. “So if I’m a 25-year-old who lives in Los Angeles, I was born in Oklahoma, but moved to California when I was 6, then for the purposes of the unity bill, I am an Oklahoma resident and I may own a medical marijuana license. If, however, I moved from California to Oklahoma in June of 2018, in anticipation of this reform, have already obtained a license and am already operating a medical marijuana business actually living in Oklahoma, I’m not a resident and I can’t be a licensed medical marijuana operator,” he said. “I think there are a number of sections where the language is at best unartful and imprecise, and I imagine that there was tremendous pressure amongst the legislators to get something out, so it’s difficult to fault them for some of those inefficiencies but they exist. And I do think that they’re going to generate confusion and potentially some dispute about how the law should be interpreted.” Read the bill at oklegislature.gov.

THC

GREEN GLOSSARY

GRINDER A marijuana grinder is essential for breaking down medical cannabis flower. Most grinders have at least two sections: a top area in which the flower is ground using small metallic bits or “teeth” and a bottom area in which the ground marijuana is captured. Do not use a coffee grinder — most do not sift, and the next time you brew up a pot, you will be brewing up “pot.”

HYDROPONICS a soil-free system for cultivating marijuana that circulates water and food to the plant’s roots in a controlled environment. While it requires some equipment and investment, the end results are often more reliable.

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Cannabis cooking

Impress and medicate with French-style halibut, vegetables and stoned mustard sauce. By Jacob Threadgill and Matt Dinger

Baking with cannabis can be tricky. If you leave the marijuana goodie in the oven too long or at too high of a temperature, it will lose its potency. Oklahoma Gazette has partnered with the minds at Guyutes, 730 NW 23rd St., to go beyond the ubiquitous pot brownie

Budder prepared with cannabis | Photo Alexa Ace

Budder

1 pound (four sticks) of butter 7-10 grams of decarboxylated cannabis

Instructions

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M A R C H 2 7, 2 0 1 9 | O KG A Z E T T E . C O M

1. To clarify the budder, melt it in a 2-quart saucepan on low to medium heat, being careful not to scorch it. Once melted, adjust the heat to maintain a low boil and cook off milk solids and water. 2. After 45 minutes, the butter should be clear with a lot of foam on top. Place a cheesecloth over a jar and pour the butter into it. Do not squeeze. 3. After the butter has drained, remove the cheesecloth and pour the clarified butter into another saucepan. Add the decarboxylated marijuana. 4. Cook it on low heat between 140 and 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Do not exceed 200 degrees Fahrenheit or let the butter burn. Continue the infusion for 90-120 minutes. 5. Strain the butter over another cheesecloth back into the jar. Allow the budder to cool or use it immediately.

The cream sauce is finished with mustard. | Photo Alexa Ace

and provide cooking with cannabis recipes that will deliver desired medicinal results in an elegant fashion. Guyutes owner Jarrod Friedel and chef Matt Pryor have teamed up to create medical marijuana-infused recipes without any unwanted aftertaste. This month’s recipe is halibut en papillote with seasonal vegetables and sautéed new potatoes. En papillote is a French technique but sounds fancier than it is. It is a dish (usually seafood) wrapped in parchment paper and baked. “I like the color of seared halibut, but it’s such a soft fish that it is hard to actually get that perfect texture and not have it crumble, especially for people that haven’t used it before,” Pryor said. “We decided to go with the papillote style just to make it easier for everybody else. That is something that you can use, and it doesn’t take too much time. It’s about a 15-minute cook.” 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 have to heat it up by smoking or in a pan or an oven with a controlled temperature. Friedel recommends breaking up the medical marijuana — 7-10 grams will be needed to make infused butter — either by hand or with a grinder. He cautions not to grind the flower into a fine powder. Put 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. continued on page 18

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“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 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 that oil or butter is the best delivery method for the medicine. Infused butter in the mustard sauce becomes the finishing element for the halibut.

Review

I like this recipe a lot because not only

is clean-up easy, but keeping the infused budder on the side leaves how much they want to add to the dish up to the diner. There is about 87 milligrams (43.75 milligrams per tablespoon of budder) of medicine total in the mustard sauce, which would be a very high amount to consume at once. I liked the inclusion of purple carrots, which, believe it or not, are one of the original colors of carrots, until they were genetically bred to become orange over generations. All varieties of carrots are packed with nutrients, but the purple variety is especially high in antioxidants. I drizzled two teaspoons of mustard sauce over the fish and dipped some potatoes into the budder and felt a very nice body high for about 3 hours and kicked in 45 minutes after the meal. It didn’t result in any head fogginess and reduced any anxiety, which is the reason I have a medical marijuana license. The remaining mustard sauce will keep in the refrigerator and can be used as necessary. —Jacob Threadgill

Halibut en papillote with seasonal vegetables and sautéed new potatoes | Photo Alexa Ace

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Halibut en papillote with vegetables

2 halibut steaks 1/2 inch thick 6 purple carrots peeled and blanched 8 ounces fresh green beans, blanched 1 shallot, thinly sliced 1 clove of garlic, thinly sliced 1 lemon, sliced 2 pounds new potatoes, halved and boiled 2 sprigs thyme butter salt pepper Parchment paper cut in two 12x17-inch sheets

Instructions

Stoned mustard sauce

1 cup heavy cream 1/4 cup dijon mustard 1/2 teaspoon sugar 2 tablespoons clarified Budder

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Fold the parchment paper down the middle. 2. Place half of a sliced lemon along the crease. Place 1 halibut steak on the lemon. Place half of the carrots, green beans, shallot and garlic around the fish. Sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Repeat with the other steak. 3. Fold in the edges of the parchment paper to make a seal while still leaving room for air. Place it on a baking sheet and into the oven. Set the timer for 12 minutes. 4. When the timer has seven minutes left, start the sauce and potatoes. For the sauce, add the heavy cream, dijon and sugar in saucepan over medium heat. Bring it to a boil and whisk constantly. Reduce the heat to a simmer and whisk until the sauce thickens. Remove it from the heat and whisk the budder into the sauce. For the potatoes, heat butter in a sauté pan. Add parboiled potatoes and thyme and pan-sear for three to four minutes over high heat. Finish it with a balsamic vinegar reduction. 5. Remove the fish from the oven. Carefully open the parchment paper and remove the fish and veggies. Plate the fish, veggies and potatoes and top them with mustard sauce. 18

M A R C H 2 7, 2 0 1 9 | O KG A Z E T T E . C O M

EAT & DRINK Crawfish étouffée at Brielle’s Bistro | Photo Jacob Threadgill

REVIEW

the holiday. Purple represents justice, green is for faith and gold is power. The restaurant recently added full liquor service to its offerings and has a few signature cocktails. There is the Cajun Lemonade ($7.50) that mixes lemonade with rum and some Tabasco for an extra kick and Mardi Gras Madness punch that blends grape, pineapple vodka and a splash of Sprite. It also offers a hurricane, bloody mary, margarita, Long Island iced tea and mimosas. The worst thing about Brielle’s Bistro might be the decision process. You have to decide if you want breakfast, Acadian or classic American food. The appetizers offer some intriguing options like crab beignets ($10.99), alligator bites ($11.99) and Gulf Coast crab queso ($8.99). I almost pulled the trigger on an order of lemon pepper wings but decided to order two entrees instead.

Louisiana love

Cooking with purpose, Brielle’s Bistro delivers excellent Cajun and Creole dishes. By Jacob Threadgill

Brielle’s Bistro 9205 NE 23rd St., Midwest City briellesbistro.com | 405-259-8473 WHAT WORKS: The meatloaf is moist in the center and crispy on the exterior. WHAT NEEDS WORK: The étouffée is tasty but leaves peppers and onions chopped. TIP: It serves breakfast all day.

Even some of the nicest restaurants in town can deliver technically correct but soulless food when it’s put together by a line cook who does not care about the food. Cooking with interest and passion is what separates the same ingredients. It’s why a dish cooked by a family member out of love is tough to beat; that intrinsic value elevates the dish. Everything at Brielle’s Bistro, 9205 NE 23rd St., in Midwest City is cooked with purpose and uses fresh ingredients, and it is delivered in the final product. Owner and chef Dwayne Johnson opened the restaurant just over a year ago and named it after his young daughter Brielle, who was born with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC), a rare condition that affects joints and muscles and restricts range of motion. She has already gone through multiple surgeries to alleviate the difficulties of the disease, and she will turn 2 years old later this year. “We wanted to build a brand not only

for her, but to raise awareness for AMC,” Brielle’s website says. The love of Brielle comes through in the final product in the menu that features all-day breakfast, Cajun and Creole dishes and classic American comfort food. I’ve had Brielle’s Bistro on my radar for quite some time. If you’ve read my column for a while, you know that I’m always looking for some great Acadian food, which includes both Cajun and Creole dishes. Both use similar spices and are often confused, but Creole dishes are more refined and are more “city,” while Cajun is a little more “country,” as Brielle’s website explains. I took the scenic route and stayed on 23rd Street nine miles until I arrived at Brielle’s, which is located in a strip mall just east of a Walmart Supercenter. I arrived just before 1 p.m. and was delighted to see the restaurant enter ta ining a healthy weekday lunch crowd (the restaurant is closed Mondays), but they still sat me in a booth swiftly. The decor leans heavy on a Mardi Gras theme, with plenty of purple, gold and green, which all have meaning for

The important thing to me is to have seafood stock or flavor throughout the dish, which Brielle’s delivered. Brielle’s top-selling items are its freshly fried catfish ($7.99) and gumbo ($7.50) while its Seafood Pastalaya ($11.99) and blackened pork chops with Cajun mushroom sauce ($10.99) are also strong contenders. When I was there, it also had a special of surf and turf pasta that had shrimp, crawfish and steak with peppers and onions in a cream sauce. I ordered crawfish étouffée ($7.50) and a meatloaf sandwich ($7.99) with a side of collard greens, two dishes that I’ve ordered at restaurants in prior reviews, and they more than held their own, if not exceeded other versions. Étouffée is one of my favorite dishes in the world, especially when combined with crawfish, which are delectably in season right now. The étouffée at Brielle’s is a little bit different than the

version I make at home but altogether still very tasty. I generally sauté and blend the holy trinity (onions, bell pepper and celery) before adding it to the roux, but Brielle’s serves the dish with the peppers and onions chopped for extra texture. It really doesn’t impact the final taste of the dish because all of the ingredients are in the final product, and the important thing to me is to have seafood stock or flavor throughout the dish, which Brielle’s delivered. A few dashes of Louisiana hot sauce and I was in the perfect spot, especially when paired with a nice dollop of rice and toasted French bread. Brielle’s offers its étouffée topped on blackened catfish for $10.99. I’m something of a meatloaf connoisseur. Where others might turn up their noses at the dishes that were likely overcooked by a family member or school cafeteria staff, I see the perfect opportunity to blend multiple meats for a succulent dish that is more than the sum of its parts. I’ve had meatloaf at Metro Diner and Polk’s House in this review space before, and Brielle’s version blew past them like beads whizzing past your head from a Mardi Gras float. The meatloaf portion in the sandwich was huge and topped only with slices of tomato and pickle. I could tell they used different meat in the mixture (using only beef tends to dry out), and it was wellmixed and seasoned and then grilled on the flattop. I added some ketchup and hot sauce to the sandwich and intended to take half of it home but finished it after I cleared all of my plates. Brielle’s Bistro is well worth the trip to Midwest City because whatever you might spend on gas is returned in its menu prices, which are extremely affordable, considering it’s serving fresh seafood. I look forward to making it part of my regular rotation and taking visitors to the area in search of some great Cajun and Creole dishes. Visit briellesbistro.com.

A meatloaf sandwich with a side of collard greens | Photo Jacob Threadgill

O KG A Z E T T E . C O M | M A R C H 2 7, 2 0 1 9

F E AT U R E

EAT & DRINK

Hamburger hub Geronimo’s Bakery thrives as an eastside hotspot for great burgers and sweet treats. By Jacob Threadgill

There are only a handful of restaurants in the Oklahoma City metro area still open and popular that have celebrated their 50-year golden anniversary. Opened in 1972, Geronimo’s Bakery, 1817 N. Martin Luther King Ave., is rounding the corner to joining the 50 club headlined by the likes of Florence’s Restaurant and Cattlemen’s Steakhouse. Raymond Richards founded the bakery, wrapped it in orange and black in support of nearby Frederick Douglass Mid-High School and named it in honor of one of his sons, Geronimo. Raymond’s other son Jeffrey took over the bakery in the early 1990s and credits the bakery’s success to keeping it in the family. “When something matters to you, you treat it better,” Richards said. “We come to work every day knowing that’s how we keep the door open, and we put out a good product. If you put out a bad product, people will go the other way. There are so many options out there now. I can’t afford to put out a bad product.” In addition to providing sweet treats like doughnuts, Geronimo’s is perhaps best known for its hamburgers. “When it opened, it was more of a full-fledged bakery with cookies and cakes than it is today. We still do all of that, but you have to order it [in advance],” Richards said. “About three years in, my mom came up with the idea to add sandwiches. Over time, the sandwiches have overtaken the bakery part.” Geronimo’s comes up in the conversation for best hamburgers in Oklahoma City, and Richards said he takes pride that when he Googles the term, the bakery pops up among the search results. Its eponymous burger tops grilled ham A cinnamon roll at Geronimo’s Bakery | Photo Alexa Ace

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on the quarter-pound beef patty. “Geronimo Burger was something my brother [Geronimo] came up with,” Richards said. “His girlfriend was pregnant, and she was craving it. She ordered ham on the burger, and he called it the Geronimo. It wasn’t on the menu [at first], but now it’s the best seller.” He said the key to the perfect burger is not to overload it with beef. If customers want a half-pound, they can order a double. “We don’t go with a big, fat, thick meat patty,” Richards said. “I don’t think it has any taste. We toast our buns, and everything is freshly made, and it’s just the right amount of meat; I promise you.”

Over time, the sandwiches have overtaken the bakery part. Jeffrey Richards Geronimo’s also offers fried catfish, chicken wings and strips and hot link sandwiches in addition to its assortments of baked goods, which are made fresh every day. An employee starts the baking process well before dawn to have them ready for 8 a.m. opening, and a large majority of the baked goods are already sold out by the noon lunch rush. If there are doughnuts available, Richards and staff will acquiesce those in search of a Luther Burger, an off-themenu item in honor of famed singer Luther Vandross, who liked the combination of a cheeseburger with doughnuts for buns. “In the evening time, you probably can’t get it because the doughnuts are

A hamburger from Geronimo’s Bakery

| Photo Gazette / file gone,” Richards said. “We’ve done it for about five years. It doesn’t really work for me. I don’t like mixing my sweets amazing thing. When I go there now, it and my meats. A lot of people like it. I’ve is the same as what I remember growing got guys who come in and want egg and up. [Richards] has customers that have bacon on it.” been coming in for decades. He keeps it Geronimo’s also offers what is in the same, simple, and people love it.” Richards takes the “If it ain’t broke, contention for the largest doughnut in don’t fix it” motto to heart. the city, The Big Texas, which he said is equal to about six regular glazed doughnuts. It sells for $2.75, and they make about a dozen per day unless there is a special order. “My dad named it that because everything is bigger in Texas, supposedly,” Richards said. “From when my dad was doing them, I’ve actually cut down on the size.” Frederick Douglass Mid-High School is located a few blocks south of Geronimo’s Bakery on Martin Luther King Avenue, and the bakery’s walls are lined with schedules of the school’s athletic teams. Although Richards is a graduate Geronimo’s Bakery owner Jeffrey Richards took over the store from his father Raymond in the early 1990s. | Photo Alexa Ace of Del City, he always makes sure people are “I’ve got some younger ones coming aware of big events and games at Douglass. up along, and they’re interested in “[Richards will] always put our big change, and I tell them that when their games [on the wall] and let people know time comes and they want to make some what’s going on,” said Douglass princichanges, that’s fine,” he said. pal Thomas McNeely. “It’s a hub. A lot Richards has watched as many of the of people will go in there and sit and talk surrounding businesses have come and about what’s going on at the school and gone over the years but is excited for the things of that nature.” future of the neighborhood. McNeely grew up near Geronimo’s “It’s changing for the better,” he said. at 15th Street and Kelly Avenue and has “I can remember a time when it was on fond memories of his mother taking him the downturn, but that was many years to get doughnuts in the morning. ago. Now it’s on the uptick. You’re seeing “They have the best doughnuts on more and diverse people moving into the eastside,” McNeely said. “It was the the neighborhood.” best food ever as a kid, but that’s the

O KG A Z E T T E . C O M | M A R C H 2 7, 2 0 1 9

GAZEDIBLES

EAT & DRINK

Sweet griddle

If you like pancakes but are looking for something more fun than the standard syrup and occasional blueberry or pecan, these seven restaurants have you covered. Try everything from pancakes with bacon inside to ones with marshmallow topping. By Jacob Threadgill with photos Gazette / file and provided

Aurora Breakfast, Bar & Backyard

1704 NW 16th St. shinewithaurora.com | 405-609-8854

The tiramisu pancakes are such a hit at this 16th Street Plaza District favorite that they were featured on Travel Channel’s Cheap Eats when it visited Oklahoma City last year. The fluffy pancakes are topped with Hoboken crème anglaise, almond cream, toasted walnuts, shaved chocolate and citrus zest. Be on the lookout, as Aurora is adding dinner service in the coming weeks.

Café Kacao

syrup.

One of the city’s most beloved restaurants offers unique pancakes topped with its signature lechera sauce. Wild berry uses seasonal berries and the blackberry-bourbon sauce that also appears on its Oreo and mango versions. It also offers Nutella pancakes with bananas and a Nutella sauce.

The Home Sweet Homa is the first item listed on syrup.’s menu, and it’s a unique take on the standard pancake. Despite the name, the sweet potato pancakes aren’t overly saccharine and exude nice warmth that makes them almost savory. Of course, there is plenty of sweetness from the marshmallow topping and syrup for a balanced dish.

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

1501 NW 23rd St. syrupbreakfast.com | 405-601-1354

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M A R C H 2 7, 2 0 1 9 | O KG A Z E T T E . C O M

Neighborhood JA.M.

Hatch Early Mood Food

The Third Wheel at Neighborhood JA.M. allows you to mix and match three different pancakes on one plate. The pineapple bourbon cakes top buttermilk pancakes with caramelized pineapple, pineapple bourbon sauce, bourbon butter and lemon cream swirl. The Looney Cakes are a version of carrot cake, Lemon Poppy tops poppy seed cakes with lemon curd and Prom Cakes are oatmeal and granola with bananas and more granola.

The pancake flight is the best way to try three of Hatch’s six nontraditional pancakes. Its Famous PanOKCake puts bacon in the batter with pecans and a bourbon maple glaze. It also offers Bananas Foster, Strawberry Dream, The King sans banana with peanut butter and bacon, Piña Caramelo and blueberry streusel with blueberry compote, crumbled streusel and cream cheese anglaise.

15124 Lleyton’s Court thatsmyjamok.com | 405-242-4161

ChiCken Tikka & Beef Tikka

1101 N. Broadway Ave. hatchearlymoodfood.com 405-609-8936

night

Metro Diner

Sunnyside Diner

This over-the-top diner parlayed its appearance on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives into becoming a national franchise. Its cinnamon roll pancakes pair cream cheese icing, candied pecans and cinnamon butter with the cinnamon and sugar swirled into the two fluffy pancakes. It also offers croissant French toast and fried chicken and waffles with strawberry butter for total indulgence.

Sunnyside offers four types of specialty pancakes at its three locations, including chocolate chip with chocolate syrup, lemon blueberry with citrus zest, banana Nutella and pineapple upsidedown cake. That last item caramelizes on the griddle with sugar as it cooks with a pineapple in the batter before getting topped with cherry syrup. Sunnyside recently added plenty of plant-based menu items as well.

3000 W. Memorial Road metrodiner.com | 405-437-3079

916 NW Sixth St. eatatsunnyside.com | 405-778-8861

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200 N. HARVEY | 405.600.7575 O KG A Z E T T E . C O M | M A R C H 2 7, 2 0 1 9

ART

ARTS & CULTURE

Beautiful collaboration

Norman artists Skip Hill and Douglas Shaw Elder’s collaborative work highlights Melrose Sessions at The Depot Gallery. By Jacob Threadgill

Norman-based artists Skip Hill and Douglas Shaw Elder started hanging out a few years ago to help foster the ever-important artistic community, but their friendship has done the near impossible and resulted in a successful collaboration between two artists that excel in different mediums. Elder, the executive director at Norman’s Firehouse Art Center, is a skilled wood sculptor, while Hill is an accomplished self-sustaining mixed-medium artist that emphasizes vibrant color. Their collaborative works and select individual pieces are on display through April 27 at The Depot, 200 S. Jones Ave., in Norman, with a second reception scheduled April 12. “Collaboration is difficult, and it’s why many artists don’t want to do it because it is about compromise,” Elder said, before referencing the Steven Pressfield (author of The War of Art, among many others) quote “The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and inspiration.” Hill and Elder met about four years ago as they both served on Norman Arts Council, and a friendship began to form over a mutual love of hip-hop and gin and tonics. Hill began going over to Elder’s studio off Melrose Drive a few times a month so they could do what Pressfield advocates do — encourage

each other and help strengthen the city’s artistic community, which they both feel is important for other inspiring artists. “We want to encourage other people, particularly those that approach us all the time and want to get involved,” Hill said. “Take a night off and make some art.” The first few years of gathering in Elder’s studio, the two artists worked on individual pieces until early 2018. “Skip doodles a lot and cuts things out and leaves them lying out,” Elder said. “I kind of stuck them up for perspective on some of my pieces, and he asked to paint on it. It was a $4,000 that I had spent four months on, so we found something else.” They eventually created 10 collaborative pieces, which are now on display as The Melrose Sessions. Elder is a U.S. Army veteran that received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Boston University and moved to Oklahoma to teach at University of Oklahoma before taking over at Firehouse Art Center in 2007. Hill worked in advertising before pursuing art full-time from a studio. He is in private collections around the world and featured at the Oklahoma state capitol’s art collection. He credits an appearance on OETA for jump-starting his standalone career. Elder said his relationship with Hill is like “two sides of the same coin.” While Elder has a fulltime job and the comfort of a steady paycheck, he also has less time to work on his pieces than Hill. “Skip’s work has more lyrical flow; I’m more academic,” Elder said. “I do an all-over process, where Douglas’ work is more subtle and kind of serene, landscape quality,” Hill said. When Hill first began to draw over Elder’s woodwork, they realized that the chemicals Elder used to stain and protect the piece washed out, and they figured out he needed to use water-based markers for it to survive the finishing process. Compromise was Douglas Shaw Elder and Skip Hill combined their artistic talent for a showcase at The Depot Gallery called Melrose Sessions. | Photo provided

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the hardest part of the collaborative process. While Hill had to get new markers, Elder had to get new woodworking tools. “One of things he learned quite quickly is that my chainsaw can’t Skip Hill,” Elder said. “It can’t make lines flow like his lines. That was a struggle for about four months. He’d be like, ‘Why don’t you do it like this?’” One of their finished collaborative pieces features a bright blue bird, which is a Skip Hill signature. He rarely draws two birds the same and does not intend for them to look like a specific species. “Typically, my birds aren’t flying; they’re typically resting, almost in consideration. So I typically look at the birds more as metaphors for us, people’s relationships,” Hill said. “If people can bring their own stories, it is more engaging. I want to promote questions and moods. I don’t deal with irony or try to be cute and smart. I strive for beautiful. That is kind of anti-modernism to be for beauty, but I am.” Hill loves to travel around the globe for inspiration and said he draws with an international flair, which has helped him get in private collections around the world. During a recent trip to Brazil, he spent two days in botanical gardens and brought back those colors and energy while working on the pieces with Elder. “I can draw so much here in our fine state, but it’s also nice to get the contrast

“Waiting for the Moon” by Skip Hill and Douglas Shaw Elder | Photo Skip Hill / provided

of viewing things when you’re looking at them totally new and alien,” Hill said. “The different experiences, environments and languages find its way into my work.” Hill is not a maximalist. He is fond of drawing with negative space. “I like the idea of loading up in certain areas and leaving other areas open, really to kind of let the eye rest and go back and forth between the more active areas,” he said. “The active areas work because of the negative space. It is every bit as important. It affirms the positive space.” Hill said after working with Elder, he is inspired to work with wood on his own but their impromptu Melrose sessions will continue in earnest. Visit pasnorman.org. Elder’s work is available at douglasshawelder.com and Hill can by found at instagram.com/ skiphillart.

The Melrose Sessions through April 27 The Depot Gallery 200 S. Jones Ave., Norman pasnorman.org | 405-307-9320 Free

The Chickasaw Nation Arts & Humanities Division

Mahota Studios 2019 Workshops

$100, per class, covers all class instruction and materials.

T H E AT E R

For more information, or to enroll, call the ARTesian Gallery & Studios at (580) 622-8040.

Good humans

OKLAHOMA LEGENDS, RUMORS & TALL TALES

In CityRep’s production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a teenage boy uncovers things about himself while investigating a dog’s murder. By Jeremy Martin

He woke up early, but Cameron Law was about to be late. On a trip to New York City in August 2015, Law was determined to see the award-winning stage adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, based on Mark Haddon’s best-selling novel about Christopher Boone, a 15-year-old boy whose quest to solve a dog’s murder helps him better understand his own neurodivergent behaviors. “I was like, ‘I have to go see this play,’” Law said, “and they do rush tickets where you can buy discounted tickets for $30 instead of like $105 or something, so I woke up early to get mine because people line up outside the theater to get there when the box office opens. So I got there at like 5 or 5:30 in the morning. … There was no one in Times Square. There might have been like five people, I don’t know, but the red chairs that they have out there, those were in carts, like they hadn’t put them out. I was walking through Times Square, and it was so quiet. … I just sat there and waited, and I got my ticket and I put it in my pocket. So it’s like 9:30, 10, and I go throughout my day, and then I’m hanging out in two of my friends’ hotel room. We’re talking and stuff, and they’re like, ‘Aren’t you going to see a show?’ And I look, and it’s like 6:45, and the show starts at 7. … I was like, ‘Time to run.’ I run down the stairs of this hotel, and I bolt out the door. I’m sprinting down the street, and I get to the theater at like 6:58 or something. I get in and I get to my seat. The rush tickets are there at the front, so I’m sitting on the front row between two guys who have to sit there while I’m, like, [gasping for air]. And I hadn’t eaten any-

Cameron Law plays Christopher Boone in CityRep’s production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time April 4-7 at Civic Center Music Hall’s Freede Little Theatre. | Photo MutzPhotography.com / provided

thing because I just kind of forgot that I had the ticket. … I expended all this energy now, and then the play starts … and from then on, everything that had happened that day was gone. And I was just there in Christopher’s brain. … Here’s the funny thing. Christopher and I are the same age. Based on the information, Christopher was born in 1999 just like I am, so when I saw it, I was Christopher’s age. It was like I was up there, pretty much.” The play, with Law cast in the role of Christopher, is scheduled to make its professional regional debut April 4-7, staged by Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre (CityRep) in Civic Center Music Hall’s Freede Little Theatre, 201 N. Walker Ave. Lisa Fairchild, cast as Christopher’s teacher Siobhan, also saw the play in New York in August 2015. “It’s the first time in my life I literally wanted a rewind button so I could start it over right then,” Fairchild said. “I couldn’t start it over right then, so I went downstairs, got a ticket for the matinee the next day. … Both times, I was just like, ‘I have to do this play.’ … I just knew I had to do it, and I put it out in the universe pretty loudly.” When CityRep artistic director Donald Jordan found out Fairchild wanted to be in the play, which he called

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continued on page 26

O KG A Z E T T E . C O M | M A R C H 2 7, 2 0 1 9

ARTS & CULTURE

OPENSTREETSOKC.COM

WALK BIKE

April 7th from Noon - 4 p.m.

Join us on NW 23rd in the Uptown District as we reclaim our streets for non-motorized activities! OKLAHOMA CITY UNIVERSITY - TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL

THATCHER HOFFMAN SMITH POETRY SERIES “The border is what joins us, not what separates us.” ~ A. Ríos

ALBERTO RÍOS Wednesday, April 3, 2019

OKLAHOMA CITY UNIVERSITY • KERR MCGEE AUDITORIUM MEINDERS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS • NW 27TH & N. MCKINLEY 10:00 AM & 8:00 PM POETRY READINGS

7:00 PM PUBLIC OPEN MIC

For more info visit: www.okcu.edu/film-lit 26

M A R C H 2 7, 2 0 1 9 | O KG A Z E T T E . C O M

“possibly the most significant” of this decade, he mentally added her to the cast list for the production he had been planning. “She is, in fact, one of the leading actors in this region of the country,” Jordan said. “She’s incredibly well-respected, and she’s extraordinary. And she just said to me, ‘Gosh, I love that play,’ and at that moment, she was cast. She just didn’t know it.” Law, an acting student at Oklahoma City University who will be making his professional debut, had to audition for his role, and he said he showed up “super early” to do it. Director W. Jerome Stevenson, who also works as artistic director at Guthrie’s Pollard Theatre, said he was immediately impressed with Law’s interpretation of the character. “I buy him,” Stevenson said. “I buy who he is, and I want to see this kid live out the story and see what happens. … We needed somebody who was inherently smart, somebody with inherent likeability, somebody who we could follow for two hours, even when we felt like they were drastically different from us, because the trick of the play is that he’s not. He absolutely isn’t. He’s very much like all of us in some way, shape or form.” The relationship bet ween Christopher and Siobhan, who narrates the play and whose instruction goes far beyond what “two plus two is,” forms the heart of the play, Stevenson said. “What she’s teaching him is are broader concepts of dealing with nuance in people, in dealing with understanding the difference between what you think makes a person good and what makes them human, which is kind of tricky,” Stevenson said. “It’s nuanced stuff for adults; it’s particularly nuanced for a 15-year-old, and when you take a 15-year-old who doesn’t have the benefit of understanding a lot of integrated social cues, it’s really complex and interesting to watch.”

T H E AT E R

SKATE

The cast and crew of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time | Photo MutzPhotography.com / provided

continued from page 25

Stylized movement

Choreographer Hui Cha Poos, founder and artistic director of RACE Dance Company, serves as the play’s director of movement. Though there are no traditional dance numbers, Christopher’s perception of events requires the actors to behave in a more stylized way at points. “Because of the way he sees the world differently, it’s so much more freeing,” Stevenson said. “We can play with actors lifting him up to represent flight, and we could play with what it would look like for him when he first goes in a train station, how overwhelming and how acrobatic it could get. … The story is so straightforward. It’s his perception of the world that makes it unique.” Rehearsing these movements has left Law — whom Fairchild described as “very brave” — with bruises. “I crawl around a lot,” Law said, “but I’ve got I’ve got some kneepads that have been very helpful.” But Law is not complaining. For him, playing the part of Christopher fulfills a dream that began in 2015 on that breathless night in New York City. “I didn’t really know how to explain it,” he said. “It’s just something you feel like, ‘I have to do this. … This is where I’m supposed to be. … I need to do this.’ And now I get to do it.” Though Christopher is never diagnosed in the play, CityRep has partnered with Autism Oklahoma and Oklahoma Autism Network to provide on-site information and resource guides about autism for parents and teachers. Tickets are $37-$42. Visit cityrep.com.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time April 4-7 Freede Little Theatre Civic Center Music Hall 201 N. Walker Ave. cityrep.com | 405-848-3761 $37-$42

T H E AT E R

Ax grinding

Chase Padgett does not fret about shifting genres in his one-man show, 6 Guitars. By Jeremy Martin

Chase Padgett will let you know right up front that his one-man show 6 Guitars might not meet your expectations. “I start the show off with this explanation,” Padgett said. “I’m like, ‘Hey, everybody, who’s originally from Oklahoma City?’ or wherever I’m at. ‘All right. Who drove in for tonight’s show? Yeah! Who’s ready for a concert? Well, bad news. This is not a concert.’ And what’s interesting is people show up to the show with certain expectations, but because the show is so unique, oftentimes their expectations don’t meet what is actually going to be given to them. But … people end up getting hooked into it really early on. Once they meet all the characters, I got them. For the next two hours, I got them. People who are hoping to see a concert, they’re not going to see a concert. If they’re hoping to see a standup comedy special, it’s not quite that, either. And it’s also not a play, and it’s not improv. It’s just a hybrid of all of those elements in a single one-man show, and if people are excited to see something they’ve never seen before but still somehow feels familiar from things they have seen before, then this is going to be an experience they’re going to appreciate, for sure.” The actor and musician is scheduled to perform 6 Guitars 7:30 p.m. April 9 at Visual and Performance Arts Center Theater at Oklahoma City Community College, 7777 S. May Ave. Despite its name, the show features Padgett playing a single guitar in six different styles — blues, classical, country, folk, jazz and rock — and embodying a different character for each style. It premiered at the 2010 Orlando International Fringe Festival, and Padgett said the Oklahoma City debut will be his 396th performance of the show, which has transformed “enormously” in the past nine years. “It’s still growing; it’s still changing,” Padgett said. “The overall concept is the same, and the overall, I guess you’d say, framework and final message of the show and the experience is the same, but the actual material itself has just evolved a lot over time. It’s very similar to what a standup comedian would say about their act, that jokes they’ve been doing for years just get tighter, better,

funnier; same thing with this show. The songs just get better. It’s just more seasoned and more tried and true.” Padgett, who studied improv at SAK Comedy Lab in Orlando, said some aspects of the show change every single time he performs it. “It’s mostly scripted, but there are a couple of interactions that are just purely crowd-based interaction,” Padgett said. “And then there’s a whole section of a song — it’s actually the closer for the first act — that is an improvised song in the style of rock for anyone that kind of catches my eye in the front row.” While studying music at University of Central Florida, Padgett worked as an entertainer at Universal Studios and Walt Disney World, jobs he said “absolutely informed” his performance style. “A lot of people don’t understand the education you get from performing in front of a crowd five times a day, seven times a day,

five to seven days a week is an education that cannot be replaced,” Padgett said. “There is a certain level of sense of the crowd, where they’re at and what they’re into, that can only be earned by being in front of a bunch of crowds over and over and over again. … That training really helped me sell the illusion of spontaneity even though I’m so familiar with it. That’s really what I think the ultimate goal of scripted work is: to make the audience feel like it’s happening for the first time.”

I also just love straight-up rocking power chords and lead solos, man. It’s a lot of fun. Chase Padgett

Stringing along

While he wants his performance to feel spontaneous, the music in 6 Guitars, which includes original and cover songs, is well rehearsed. Playing classical-style guitar, which Padgett said “felt very alien and weird” when he began, has required the most practice. “I certainly appreciate it, but it’s not necessarily the music that feels most at home,” Padgett said. “It definitely takes more work.” His own personal style is more of a “blend of blues, jazz and rock.” “I love the different chordal textures of jazz — your sevenths, your nine chords, your augmenteds and your fifths and whatnot,” Padgett said. “I also

just love straight-up rocking power chords and lead solos, man. It’s a lot of fun.” Padgett said his natural singing voice is bluesy, which made portraying a blues guitarist a natural fit, even if embodying an elderly African-American musician on stage was initially intimidating. “Here’s the funny thing, though,” Padgett said. “Demographically speaking, it most certainly is the furthest away from what I am as a human being, but for whatever reason, it’s the one that actually came out with least resistance and is consistently praised as the one that’s the best character of the show. … It’s kind of the crowd favorite. … When I first did the show, I was concerned about it, but I felt like if I play this character and all the other characters with truth and honesty and I say things as those characters that I personally believe in as well and I’m really giving them a grounding in reality, then I think audiences will resonate with that. And honestly, I think that has been the case. I have done this literally pushing 400 times, and never once have I had a person of color give me negative feedback about that character or, really, any character.” Portraying the character as a white man would be problematic in its own way, Padgett said. “If I don’t play the blues archetype character as an African-American person, then aren’t I kind of doing exactly what white artists in the heyday of blues and jazz started doing in bad faith, which is saying, ‘Oh, but we’re really the people who do this best’?” Padgett said. “I think you have to recognize that it’s predominantly — particularly in its roots and still to this day — an African-American art form, and to not recognize that by playing a character that isn’t AfricanAmerican, I think, is actually the greatest potential slight.” Ultimately, he said, 6 Guitars illustrates music’s power to bring different types of people together. “I argue that the message of the show is music is a unifying force that reminds us that humanity, much like music, is all kind of the same,” Padgett said. “We might have different voices, but we’re all kind of singing the same songs. We’re all singing about the human condition.” Tickets are $10-$15. Visit tickets. occc.edu.

6 Guitars 7:30 p.m. April 9 Visual and Performing Arts Center Theater Oklahoma City Community College 7777 S. May Ave.

Chase Padgett’s 6 Guitars features the actor and musician portraying six different characters playing the instrument in six different styles. | Photo provided

tickets.occc.edu | 405-682-7579 $10-$15

O KG A Z E T T E . C O M | M A R C H 2 7, 2 0 1 9

CO M M U N I T Y

ARTS & CULTURE

Contain yourself

An Edmond builder banks on shipping containers as a new housing trend. By Matthew Price

Intermodal containers made shipping more efficient in the latter part of the 20th century, but now many of the steel units are finding a second use as part of homes and businesses. Edmond developer Greg Roberts plans to bring a container home to Edmond in what he believes is the first use of the units for a structure in the downtown Edmond area. Shipping container architecture isn’t completely new to central Oklahoma; OK Sea, a multi-use development made up of shipping containers at NE Third Street and Oklahoma Avenue in Deep Deuce, opened in 2015, and 309 Monterey at 309 NW 10th St. incorporates shipping containers in its design. Roberts has been in real estate for more than 20 years and has lived in Edmond most of his life. “This container project is a fun, new thing that seems to be pretty trendy, and I think this will be the first container house in Edmond,” Roberts said. The container itself made a huge change in the shipping industry. The idea for an intermodal container came from former trucker Malcolm McLean, according to the book In Their Time: The Greatest Business Leaders of the Twentieth Century by Anthony J. Mayo and Nitin Nohria. According to the book, McLean, who started with one truck and grew it to a larger company, found himself behind the wheel again with the economic downturn of the 1930s. In 1937, he was forced into a long wait when delivering cotton to a New Jersey harbor. The inefficiency of the process bothered him, and he envisioned a better way to move containers from land to sea and back. It wasn’t until nearly 20 years later that McLean unveiled his invention, and even then he faced obstacles from shipping companies and longshoreman unions. But less than 15 years after unveiling his containers, he had built the largest cargo shipping business in the world. As these containers revolutionized shipping, there started to be a lot of them around. As such, people began to find other uses for them, including as portable showcases for trade fairs, according to CNN. In 1994, futurist Stewart Brand wrote his book How Buildings Learn from an office made out of a converted container, a process he highlighted in the book. And now, with tiny houses and “less is more” becoming big in real estate, the container home is right in the middle of it. “Watching the trends in real estate, everything’s going smaller,” Roberts said. “And so back in the day, a 4,000 28

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square-foot house was what everybody was dreaming for. Now, everybody is wanting more efficient, more technology and smaller and cooler. And that’s exactly what these things can provide.” The home will be located off Fretz Avenue and Boulevard Street on Hurd Street; while the address isn’t officially assigned at this point, Roberts expects it will be 226 W. Hurd St. He said he expects the home to appeal both to students and to the “millennial market” of young families. The Hurd Street home will be made up of three separate shipping containers. “It’s essentially going to be one 40-foot container across the back, and then there will be two 40-foot containers across the front, and they will make a T,” he said. The home will be two bedrooms with a “flex” room that could serve as another bedroom, making it overall a threebedroom, two-bath home. “We’re going to try to keep some of the container doors intact, like in the back bedroom, so that the interior of the unit has still got that industrial, hard feel to it,” Roberts said. “It will be … 960 square feet; it’ll be cool dropdown ceilings, and the doors and windows will be custom done for the unit itself. I think that the cool factor is going to set this thing apart from the house next door.” Roberts expects the project to be finished around June or July. While he has worked with customers for the past 25 years in custom homebuilding, his primary job is to buy and sell real estate. But the allure of the container home struck him as a particularly ripe opportunity. “This was just kind of a fun, new angle to get into, and I thought it sounded worth taking a risk, so we’re jumping into it,” he said.

Sun up

Roberts said it would be possible to set up a container home and run it through solar power, which might appeal to those with land in a more rural environment. “If we set it up properly, we could have this thing set up … to have it completely controlled by the sun,” he said. “We don’t have solar panels on this particular one, but they’re very easy to modify and add into.” Lake houses, secondary houses or even an additional structure in the backyard could be possible depending on zoning and other requirements, Roberts said. “There’s a lot of applications for this type of housing,” he said. “Think about a hunter’s cabin; drop it off on a 200acre piece of land and you don’t have to build a cabin. You just drop this thing

off, and you have the solar panels on it and it’s self-sustaining.” This first rental home is a bit of a test for what Roberts plans to be an expansion into container homes both in Edmond and elsewhere.

I think that the cool factor is going to set this thing apart from the house next door. Greg Roberts “It’s kind of the phenomenon that’s going on,” he said. “They’re just kind of stylish. … I think it’s the way the trend is going, smaller and more amenitiespacked.” If this goes well, Roberts hopes to expand. “There are definitely plans for more,” he said. “We’re establishing the foundation right now, putting the team in place with the architect and the container supplier, all the way down to the piering guy and the crane and the electrician.” Some of this is old hat to Roberts, but some container-specific construction elements are new. “I’ve never had to deal with a crane

Home builder Greg Roberts is hoping to complete his shipping container home in downtown Edmond by mid-2019. | Images Greg Roberts / provided

operator before,” he said. “There’s a definite learning curve.” He thinks this is just one of many projects that will spring up as part of what he described as an ongoing renovation of Edmond’s downtown area. “Mine will just be the first of many cool projects, but that’s all I can do at this point, just that one,” Roberts said. Having spent most of his life in Edmond, Roberts said he feels like now is a great time to get involved with a trendy Edmond project. “It’s fun to be part of the grassroots in downtown Edmond,” he said. “Edmond’s revitalization has been fun to watch, and to be part of that growth with a new, trendy, cool thing, it’ll be cool to get into the middle of it.” Visit gregrobertsteam.com.

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

BOOKS Book Club a discussion of Tara Westover’s book Educated: A Memoir, 9-10 a.m. March 31. Wholeshot Coffee, 2200 W Hefner Road #1, 405-242-4198. SUN

Conversations with Poet Alberto Rios the poet and Arizona State University-Tempe professor will read from his work, discuss his writing and sign books, April 3. Meinders School of Business, NW 27th Street & McKinley Avenue, 405-208-5351, okcu. edu. WED September Mourning meet and greet the music/comic book project will appear in-store and give an acoustic performance, 6:30 p.m. March 30. New World Comics, 6219 N. Meridian Ave., 405-721-7634, newworldcomics.net. SAT

$375 Microblading PERMANENT MAKE UP National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org. SAT

HAPPENINGS Across the Aisle a bipartisan discussion hosted by Women Lead Oklahoma and featuring OKC city council members JoBeth Hamon and James Cooper, 5:30-7 p.m. March 27. Sunnyside Diner, 916 NW Sixth St., 405.778.8861. WED Be Oklahoma Weather Aware learn to monitor severe weather conditions using tools and Oklahoma Mesonet and National Weather Service, 9:30 a.m. March 28. Oklahoma County OSU Extension Center, 2500 NE 63rd St., 405-713-1125, okiemgs. okstate.edu. THU Byron Berline Benefit Jana Jae, The Bonhams, Steelwind and more are scheduled to perform at this concert raising funds for the Double Stop Fiddle Shop in Guthrie, 7 p.m. March 31. Tower Theatre, 425 NW 23rd St., 405-708-6937, towertheatreokc.com.

DEL BAPTIST TEMPLE

$250 Eyebrows $250 Lip Line $250 Eyeliner $400 Full-Lips

JUVEDERM RADIESSE

BOTOX Always $11 Per Unit

Schelly’s Aesthetics Shoppes at Northpark, 12028 May Ave. 405-751-8930 Open Mon-Fri www.skincareokc.com

Friend Day

Sunday, April 7th 10:30am– Noon|Day Of Worship Complimentary lunch will be served 3326 SE 15th St. Del City, OK 73115 405.670.2900

Gift Certificates Available

SUN

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in Concert Before there was Stranger Things, there was Steven Spielberg’s E.T. (and The Goonies and Monster Squad and Freaks and Geeks and pretty much every good Stephen King novel, et al., but we digress). A secret friend with mysterious powers disrupting suburban doldrums? Check. Mother whose concern for her kids seems more like genuine pathos than irrelevant plot point? Check. Government agents in hazmat suits as villains? You get the idea. But John Williams’ Oscar-winning score performed live by a full symphony orchestra is worth the work of at least 100 arpeggiated synthesizers. Screenings are 8 p.m. Friday and 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday in Thelma Gaylord Performing Arts Theatre at Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave. Tickets are $19-$73. Call 405-594-8300 or visit okcciviccenter.com. FRIDAY–SATURDAY Photo provided What Lies Between Us activist and journalist Ayanna Najuma discusses the societal implications of Stephanie Land’s book Maid about her experiences as a domestic employee for upper-middle class Americans, 6:30-8 p.m. April 2. Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 405-842-2900, fullcirclebooks.com. TUE

FILM The Happening (2008, USA, M. Night Shyamalan) a mysterious environmental crisis sends a science teacher and his wife on a search for answers, 7-10 p.m. April 3. Tower Theatre, 425 NW 23rd St., 405708-6937, towertheatreokc.com. WED Meow Wolf: Origin Story (2018, USA, Morgan Capps and Jilann Spitzmiller) a documentary chronicling the beginnings of the Santa Fe, NM-based arts collective, founded with the help of Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin, 2-5 p.m. March 30. Factory Obscura, 1522 S. Robinson Ave. SAT The Postman (1994, Italy, Michael Radford and Massimo Troisi) a mailman delivering letters to the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda seeks his advice about life and love in this Oscar-winning film, 2-5 p.m. March 31. Oklahoma City University School of Visual Arts, 1601 NW 26th St., 405-208-5226, okcu.edu/ artsci/departments/visualart. SUN Walk Invisible: The Brontë Sisters (2016, UK, Sally Wainwright) the authors of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey struggle to publish their works in 19th century England in this biopic airing on OETA as part of their weekly Movie Club, 9 p.m. March 30. SAT The White Buffalo (1977, USA, J. Lee Thompson) Wild Bill Hickok and Crazy Horse team up to hunt the legendary titular creature, 2-4 p.m. March 30.

Music Industry Networking Night local musicians, promoters and fans are invited to socialize at this community meet-and-greet, 7-10 p.m. March 27. The Root, 3012 N. Walker Ave., 405-655-5889, therootokc.com. WED NE OKC Storytelling Project the final installment of this lecture series presented as a collaboration of BlackSpace Oklahoma and Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma is titled Stories to Build Community Spaces, 10 a.m. March 30. The Douglass at Page Woodson, 600 N. High Ave., 405-601-1989, facebook.com/thedouglasspagewoodson. SAT Oklahoma Arts Day learn to advocate for art access and education and enjoy live musical performances and visual arts demonstration 9 a.m.-2 p.m. April 3. Oklahoma State Capitol, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd., 405-521-3356, ok.gov. WED Roaring Twenties: The Age of ONEderful Nonsense a Jazz Age themed fundraising party for the Norman Arts Council with an open bar, food, a silent auction and live entertainment, 7-11 p.m. March 30. MAINSITE Contemporary Art, 122 E. Main St., 405-360-1162, mainsitecontemporaryart. com. SAT She Leads OKC a conference featuring women speakers discussing money, parenting, personal branding, mental health and more, 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. March 29. The Greens Country Club, 13100 Green Valley Drive. FRI Trans Friendly Game Night PFLAG Norman invites trans gamers and allies to meetup and play an extensive selection of board games at this community-building event, 6-10 p.m. April 2.

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CALENDAR C A L E N DA R

continued from page 29 Loot&XP, 2228 W Main St., 405-310-3230, lootandxp.com. TUE Women’s Triumphs - Women’s Struggles a discussion about intersectional feminism featuring a panel of activists including Sen. Connie Johnson, Sheri Dickerson, Nyla Ali Khan and more, 5:30-8 p.m. March 29. Nappy Roots, 3705 Springlake Drive, 405-896-0203, facebook.com/pg/ nappyrootsbooks. FRI

FOOD Brunch for Wishes enjoy food, drinks and games at a fundraiser for Make-A-Wish Oklahoma, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. March 30. The McGranahan Barn, 12310 Northwest Expressway, 405-698-2276, mcgranahanbarn. com. SAT Vanessa House Anniversary Party celebrate two and a half years of craft beer with a special tap list, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. March 30. Vanessa House Beer Co., 118 NW Eighth St., 405-517-0511, vanessahousebeerco.com. SAT Primrose Prix Fixe Dinner enjoy a three-course chef-created dinner in a former private residence converted into a restaurant, 5:30-8:30 p.m. March 28. Castle Falls Restaurant & Event Center, 820 N. MacArthur Blvd., 405-942-6133, castlefalls.com. THU Wine for the People learn about Argentinian and Chilean wines at this tasting hosted by Thirst Wine Merchants, 5:30-7:30 p.m. March 28. Vast, 333 W. Sheridan Ave., 405-762-7262, vastokc.com. THU

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. Saturdays through April 27. Nappy Roots, 3705 Springlake Drive, 405-896-0203, facebook.com/pg/ nappyrootsbooks. SAT Oklahoma KidWind Challenge teams will learn about physics, engineering, environmental science and policy while planning and building a functional wind turbine, converting wind energy into electricity, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. March 30. Science Museum Oklahoma, 2020 Remington Place, 405-602-6664, sciencemuseumok.org. SAT

PERFORMING ARTS Accademia Filarmonica the University of Oklahoma School of Music orchestra will perform highlights from Handel’s Messiah and Vivaldi’s “Win-

Traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony Japanese tea ceremonies are a ritual several centuries old, and Sand Springs-based tea ceremony instructor Yumie Farringer will be in Oklahoma City to make sure this ceremony, hosted by Japan America Society of Oklahoma, goes according to tradition. Tulsa World described her methods in 2018: “Nobody talks while she follows the elaborate steps of the ceremony and prepares the green tea. The idea is to appreciate the beauty of things that are simple and natural.” Have a calming cuppa 2 and 3 p.m. Saturday at 21c Museum Hotel, 900 W. Main St. The event is free, but donations and an RSVP are suggested. Email japanamericasocietyofok@gmail.com. SATURDAY Photo bigstock.com ter” and “Spring” concertos from The Four Seasons, 2 p.m. March 31. Catlett Music Center, 500 W. Boyd St., Norman, 405-325-0538, musicaltheatre.ou.edu/ facilities/catlett/. SUN Canadian Brass the internationally known brass quintet makes its fifth appearance, 7:30 p.m. April 2. Armstrong Auditorium, 14400 S. Bryant Ave., Edmond, 405-285-1010, armstrongauditorium.org. TUE Hiei’s Odd Hip-hop and Comedy Night an genre-spanning evening with scheduled performances by hip-hop artists including Nightmare Gang, OG Ozzy and Triple 8 and comics Caleb Collins, Bekah June, Will Davis and more, hosted by Hiei Enriquez, 7 p.m.-midnight March 29. The Root, 3012 N. Walker Ave., 405-655-5889, therootokc.com. FRI Kaleidoscope Dance Company the University of Central Oklahoma dance company performs modern and aerial choreography, March 29-31, March 29-31. Mitchell Hall Theatre, 100 N. University Drive, 405-974-2000, uco.edu. FRI-SUN March Madness Comedy Show stand-up comics Shuckey Duckey, Al James and Roddy Woods are scheduled to perform at this showcase hosted by Joel Runnels Jr., 7 p.m. March 30. Glass Lounge, 5929 N. May Ave., 405-835-8077, glasshouseokc. com. SAT Nicole Byer the standup comic and host of Netflix’s Nailed It! will perform, 7:30-8:30 p.m. March 27. Reynolds Performing Arts Center, 560 Parrington Oval, Norman, 405-325-7370, ou.edu. WED Nowruz Persian Music Festival musicians will perform “Rumi, Repentance of Pir-e-hangi,” the story of the poet Rumi featuring classical Persian music, 8 p.m. March 30. Sharp Concert Hall, 500 W. Boyd St., Norman 405-325-4101, music.ou.edu. SAT Parsons Dance the New York City-based modern dance company performs live, 7:30 p.m. March 28. OCCC Visual and Performing Arts Center Theater, 7777 S. May Ave., 405-682-7579, tickets.occc.edu.

Against the Grain an exhibition of artful furniture created from salvaged and reclaimed wood by Zach True Hammack, through April 28. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-445-7080, myriadgardens.com. THU-SUN Beach Scapes an exhibition of photographer Simon Hurst’s photos taken along the beaches of the Florida panhandle, through May 16. American Choral Directors Association, 545 Couch Drive, 405-2328161, acda.org. THU The Love of Color an exhibition of paintings by Oklahoma City artist Nancy Junkin, through April 28. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405445-7080, myriadgardens.com. THU-SUN Oklahoma Photographers exhibition view works created by NGHBRS, Sarah Black and Ian Spencer, through April 7. DNA Galleries, 1709 NW 16th St., 405-525-3499, dnagalleries.com. THU-SUN Roland Miguel exhibition view the artist’s oil paintings and pen-and-ink works, through March 30. Paseo Art Space, 3022 Paseo St., 405-525-2688, thepaseo.com. FRI-SAT She Persisted an exhibition of works by six female artists presented by Red Earth Art Center, through May 28. Science Museum Oklahoma, 2020 Remington Place, 405-602-6664, sciencemuseumok.org. WED-TUE

Skip Hill, Irmgard Geul, John Wolfe an exhibition of paintings and mixed-media artworks, through March 31. JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N. Walker Ave., 405-528-6336, jrbartgallery.com. FRI-SUN

Whiteout at Campbell Art Park an outdoor artwork made by hundreds of transparent white spheres embedded with white LED lights and animated in large-scale patterns, through March 31. Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., 405-951-000, oklahomacontemporary.org. WED-SUN

THU

Just Between Friends Public Sale Shop for maternity and children’s clothes, baby equipment, supplies, toys, books, games, musical instruments, baby gear and more at this consignment sale, which will hopefully help relieve at least one of parenting’s many stresses: empty wallets. Children are welcome, too, but now you’re just adding stress back into the equation. The sale is SaturdayApril 6 at Oklahoma State Fairgrounds, 3212 Wichita Walk. Admission is free$10. Visit okc.jbfsale.com. SATURDAY-WEDNESDAY, ONGOING Photo bigstock.com

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University of Oklahoma Symphony the symphony will perform Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture, Anthony Brandt’s Making Perfect, Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1, 8 p.m. March 28. Sharp Concert Hall, 500 W. Boyd St., Norman, 405-3254101, music.ou.edu. THU We Tell Stories a family friendly event featuring spoken word, rap, songs and storytelling with a live band, 7-9 p.m. March 30. The Basement, 2515 NW 16th St., facebook.com/thebasementokc. SAT

ACTIVE Heart Shine Yoga a beginner-level yoga class taught by Scott Bartel, 7 p.m. March 28. SixTwelve, 612 NW 29th St., 405-208-8291, sixtwelve.org. THU Jerk Clinic learn about an Olympic-style weightlifting method to improve overall fitness, noon-1:30 p.m. March 30. Twice Bitten CrossFit, 3901 N. Tulsa Ave., 405-505-7760, twicebittencrossfit.com. SAT

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.

Wheeler Criterium a weekly nighttime cycling event with criterium races, food trucks and family activities, 5-8 p.m. Tuesdays. Wheeler Park, 1120 S. Western Ave., 405-297-2211, okc.gov. TUE

VISUAL ARTS GO TO OKGAZETTE.COM FOR FULL LISTINGS!

For OKG live music

see page 33

F E AT U R E

MUSIC

Marketing passion

Local musician Jacobi Ryan let go of his stage name and embraced his work ethic as he plans to release a song a week this year. By Jeremy Martin

Not counting the other collaborations and EPs he has planned, Jacobi Ryan is on track to release a song every week this year, but several he has written might not be released at all. “I have probably 50 songs that need to be recorded,” said Ryan in a phone interview, while he was, not surprisingly, driving to the studio. “Right now, I have enough songs done to last through the whole year. They’re just not the songs that I want to put out. There are songs I probably will never release just because I’m not happy with them.” Ryan — the Lawton-raised hip-hop artist formerly known as Fresh — moved to OKC in 2013 after choosing to pursue a career in music instead of basketball. Over the past few years, he has learned to be more strategic about how he releases his music after struggling to find anyone to listen. “When I came here, I didn’t know a soul,” Ryan said. “The whole plan from the jump when I got here was to just do as many live shows as I could, and in 2014 … I dropped three mixtapes. After that I really didn’t drop anything else because the strategy was, ‘Don’t put out any more content until people are actually asking for it,’ because I noticed when I put out content, it was like pulling teeth to get to people to actually engage with it. … I didn’t blame them not engaging on them; I blamed it on me. I wasn’t good enough. I didn’t have good enough content. I wasn’t making good enough music.” In an effort to improve, Ryan estimated he has played more than 400 shows in the past few years and has been paid for “less than 20, easily.” Around 2017, people began asking about new music, but for reasons he said he will reveal throughout the course of the year through his music and on his weekly podcast, The More I Know, the More I Ryan releases “Viewer’s Discretion” Friday. | Image provided

Know I Don’t, Ryan could not afford to begin recording the approximately 80 songs he had written until August of last year. While he was too broke to go to the studio, Ryan, who has a background in financial planning, did research on marketing, reading Donald S. Passman’s All You Need to Know About the Music Business and strategy guides by digital marketing entrepreneur Gar y Vaynerchuk to develop a more deliberate plan. Beyoncé’s 2013 self-titled album, released with no prior promotion and with a video to accompany every song, served as a significant inspiration for his new strategy. “I’d seen my passion for business and my passion for art come together seamlessly,” Ryan said. “The art was in the business; the marketing was artistic. I knew also that as an artist in this time, in this day and age, it’s easy for people to overlook you or for people to just go to the next song because there’s an oversaturation of content, so I had to separate myself. … I didn’t want to waste a release. I didn’t want to waste a song. I wanted to make sure that it was all going to be a unified effort where I knew what the intention was.”

Failure is not the opposite of success. It’s a prerequisite of success. Jacobi Ryan His #52in365 campaign promises a new single every week of 2019. On his weekly podcast, Ryan discusses his life and work to offer more insight and context for songs such as “If You Gon Know Me,” “Hated” and “Lawton View.” By putting so much of himself into the world in deliberate, consistent doses, Ryan hopes to progressively expand his listener base before releasing his debut album in 2020. Ryan will also appear on Curriculum of the Mind, an upcoming album from hip-hop collective The Space Program. Ryan has several other collaborations and releases planned for 2019 in addition to his weekly singles. Though he said he was initially worried he would run out of material for all this music, he has since realized he can always draw inspiration from his experiences if he is honest with himself and his listeners. “I’m not really tripping on it

because I know everything I create is me,” Ryan said. “Everything I create is who I am, so I know it’s not going to be the same and I know it’s not going to be copying off anybody else. And I know it’s relatable to people who go through the same things, and I’ve seen people who talk about things, people who are real artists who talk about life, people don’t get tired of them. The only people who last long are the ones who do talk about real life.” Real life is imperfect, of course, and by making himself adhere to such a strict schedule, Ryan said he also hopes to give listeners and himself a better look at his creative process, flaws and all. “When you’re starting a new business, starting a new product, whatever you’re trying to do, create a new habit, you’re going to fail,” Ryan said. “You’re going to do wrong sometimes; you’re not going to do it the best sometimes, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just as a matter of learning from it, seeing how you could have done it better and then doing it better the next time. And that’s really what I want people to get out of this; it’s not about being perfect. It’s about figuring it out and not being ashamed of that. Failure is not the opposite of success. It’s a prerequi-

Jacobi Ryan, the hip-hop artist formerly known as Fresh, plans to release a song every week in 2019. | Photo SIKE Images / provided

site of success.” Ryan has rechristened himself to reflect his new clarity of vision and purpose. “A lot of Fresh was finding myself, trying to find what my sound is, just trying to make stuff work, and Jacobi Ryan is kind of what Fresh led to,” he said. “It allowed me to find myself; it allowed me to be confident in myself as an artist. It allowed me to really look at things as opportunities and not be as scared and just be a lot more of a leader. … I know what I need to do. I know the business now. I know what roles to fill in my team to make things happen. I know what I need to do for myself as a company because I don’t want to be signed to a label; I want to be independent, so I have my vision and I understand it thoroughly. … My life is just now starting.” Ryan performs regularly at Heart of Hip-Hop, a monthly showcase at Hubbly Bubbly, 2900 N. Classen Boulevard. To stay up-to-date on Ryan’s latest releases, subscribe to the email list at jacobiryan.com.

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MUSIC

F E AT U R E

left Ong, featuring former members of ’80s new wave band Video Fish, is scheduled to play The Deli Sunday. above Like most weeks, Mike Hosty is scheduled to play The Deli on Sunday. | Photos provided

Sorta ruby

Norman’s The Deli celebrates 40-something years of live music. By Jeremy Martin

Break out the question mark-shaped birthday candles; The Deli is 40-something. Friday-Sunday, The Deli, 309 White St., in Norman celebrates its 40th Anniversary Weekend with three days of live music, which the venue’s website proclaims it has been “serving up” since, um, 1973. “So it’s really not the 40th,” said booking manager Tobias Schiele. “It’s something like that. We’ve had this idea for a while; it just hasn’t happened yet.” Opened as Deli City in 1970, the venue and bar originally only served sandwiches. In an article titled “The Deli marks 40 years as live music showcase,” dated Jan. 6, 2012, The Norman Transcript’s Doug Hill wrote that musician Charlie Rayl was the first person to play on the restaurant’s newly built stage. Though Rayl is not scheduled to play this weekend, Schiele said the acts he booked for the anniversary celebration include musicians who have been

performing at the venue for decades. “The main goal was to try to get a sampling of all of the music from the last 40 years,” Schiele said. “I polled some of the older generation on who they thought should be included, and then I’ve got a pretty good wealth of knowledge going back to the early ’90s.” Acts such as Spacedog, The Ringos of Soul and Red Dennis & the Red Devils (featuring members of The Silver Tongued Devils) — all of whom are scheduled to play Sunday — have years of history with the venue, Schiele said, but they should have no trouble recognizing it, even if they have not been around in a while. Only a few notable changes have been made. “The Deli’s pretty much the same as it’s always been except for improvements in sound equipment,” Schiele said. “The bathrooms were directly across from the bar in the old days, and the place where the bathrooms exist now is where the

kitchen used to be. That’s an interesting fact. They moved those bathrooms in early 2000. Generally, it’s identical. Most people that used to come here back in the ’80s always stick their head in, their reaction is that it’s the same — smells the same, looks the same.” Ong, also scheduled to play Sunday, includes members Tony Ong and Mark Hancock, who played at The Deli in the 1980s in the “new wave punk” band Video Fish. Ong (the person) played in the band Boneyard before reuniting with Hancock in 1996 to form Ong (the band), which played its first gig at The Deli. Hancock said The Deli is essentially the same as it ever was. “It’s still the same little, little loud place,” Hancock said. “Whenever there was a band in there, they always turned it up is what I remember in the ’80s, ’90s up until now. I haven’t been there in a while, but everybody always turns up and just, you know, speakers to the wall, just rock, playing their stuff. It just always had this sort of freeform, ‘Do your originals; put on your show, and we’ll get into it’ kind of atmosphere.” Some of Hancock’s memories of playing at The Deli are of playing outside of the venue itself. “People would jam in there, and it’s kind of a small place, right? So they would have a guy at the bar with the door propped open and whatever, and people in and out, so from the stage, you can see the front door and people coming in and out all the time. Then there’s this big glass window, like, on the stage, and they’re out there, too, looking in at you. So you’re on this little display, right? So people could check it out before they come in and pay. … Probably the second time [the band Ong] played there, back in the late ’90s, we used to do a little wireless parade off the stage, where the guitar and bass player went wireless and I would follow them with a snare drum with a strap. We would march out there and out onto the sidewalk, and we marched A crowd waits in line for a weekend show at The Deli. | Photo provided

M A R C H 2 7, 2 0 1 9 | O KG A Z E T T E . C O M

back in. I tended to roll back up on stage, and I banged my snare drum against my lip, my little bloody lip.” Mike Hosty, who headlines Sunday’s show, said he first played at The Deli, which he called a “local-based treasure,” in December of 1990. “It was just a cool little dive bar,” Hosty said. “They had an old cooler in the back that you could sit on and watch the bands and an old deli counter that used to be in there. I could feel the icecold air coming out of the front door. It was dark. Everybody in there was having a good time, and the music was loud. That’s what attracted me to it.” When he turned 21 the following year, he began playing regularly at The Deli. In 1998, he began playing every Sunday night there as a one-man band, and he said he has always been happy to help new customers celebrate turning 21. “They’ll have their first legal beer at the bar, and I make up songs for them onstage,” Hosty said. “People come back year after year to get those songs. They write down stuff, and I just roast them onstage. It’s really fun for their friends. I’ve done hundreds and hundreds of those. … I had someone the other week that said it was their 34th birthday and they came when they were 21. They go, ‘You don’t remember, but you sang my 21st birthday song.’ I said, ‘You’re right. I don’t remember, but this is a new year.’ So I sang them a new one.” However old it actually is, Shiele said, The Deli’s mission remains the same. “The music comes first,” Schiele said. “The way the stage is set, the sound system, all that jazz — definitely music is the focal point. Although alcohol is a close second.” Friday’s show featuring My So Called band begins at 10 p.m., and admission is $10. On Saturday and Sunday, the doors open at noon and admission is $5. Only patrons 21 or older will be admitted. Visit thedeli.us.

The Deli 40th Anniversary Weekend Friday-Sunday The Deli 309 White St., Norman thedeli.us | 405-329-3534 $5-$10

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

OKCU FILM INSTITUTE PRESENTS A FREE SCREENING OF SPRING/SUMMER 2019

WEDNESDAY, MAR. 27 Dire Gnome/Bad Jokes/Plain Speak, The Deli. ROCK

Lil Baby/City Girls/Jordan Hollywood, The Criterion. HIP-HOP

THURSDAY, MAR. 28

Crobone/Acid Queen/Redwitch Johnny, Resonator. ROCK

Dawson Hollow, ACM @ UCO Performance Lab. FOLK Georgia Rae Family Band/Sarah Reid, The Root. FOLK Hot House Band, Othello’s Italian Restaurant. JAZZ Schat & the Skeleton Trees/Plainswalker/One Two Ten, Red Brick Bar. ROCK TGTG/Kite Flying Robot, Red Brick Bar. ROCK

FRIDAY, MAR. 29 Brian Lynn Jones & The Misfit Cowboys, Remington Park. COUNTRY Ciara Brooke & Salli, VZD’s Restaurant & Bar. POP Dababy/S3nsi Molly, Diamond Ballroom. HIP-HOP Hello Betty, Katt’s Cove. COVER The Indigos/TGTG, Saints. ROCK John the Franklin, Othello’s Italian Restaurant. ACOUSTIC

04.04.19

BRONZE RADIO RETURN

04.05.19

BROTHERS OSBORNE

04.09.19

ST. PAUL AND THE BROKEN BONES

05.07.19

OLD 97s + BOB SCHNEIDER

05.09.19

DWIGHT YOAKAM

05.16.19

ON THE VINEYARD FEAT. JACKOPIERCE + WAKELAND

05.23.19

JOHNNYSWIM

05.30.19

SON VOLT

06.18.19

O.A.R.

08.06.19

ANDREW BIRD

10.28.19

SOLD OUT

Atom Ray Funktet, Saints. FUNK Blue October, Tower Theatre. ELECTRONIC

JENNY LEWIS

NuBlvckCity St. Louis music collective NuBlvckCity, according to its Facebook page, “combines soul, hip-hop, jazz and R&B with live looping, an electric performance and storytelling.” The group will be in OKC to share a bill with likeminded OKC collective Original Flow & the Fervent Route for the third installment of Back to My Roots, which also features standout locals Sid Carter and Tig Blues and barbecue from excellent Krow’s Nest to soak up the boozy drinks available at The Root, which recently got its liquor license. The party starts 9 p.m. Saturday at The Root, 3012 N. Walker Ave., Suite B. Tickets are $5. Search for “Back to My Roots 3” at eventbrite.com.

Il PostIno/ the Postman (1994) Italy

DIR. MICHAEL RADFORD & MASSIMO TROISI

Sunday, March 31 • 2 pm Norick Art Center 1601 NW 26th St Oklahoma City University FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC for more info: 208-5707, filmlit@okcu.edu

TICKETS & INFORMATION AT

THEJONESASSEMBLY.COM

SATURDAY Photo provided

901 W. SHERIDAN, OKC

Jose Hernandez, Sanctuary Barsilica. ACOUSTIC Kent Fauss Duo, Coal Creek Vineyard. COUNTRY Kestrel & Kite, Full Circle Bookstore. FOLK Larry Carlton, Tower Theatre. JAZZ Lone Wild/Kauri/The Black Powder Charlies, 89th Street-OKC. ROCK

Tyler Lee Band, Alley Club. COVER Well Now Margery, Full Circle Bookstore. ACOUSTIC

SUNDAY, MAR. 31 Edgar Cruz, Othello’s Italian Restaurant. ACOUSTIC

Midnight Tyrannosaurus/Cromatik, OKC Farmers Market. ELECTRONIC

MONDAY, APR. 1

Raina Cobb & Friends, Belle Isle Restaurant & Brewing Company. SINGER/SONGWRITER

Eyehategod/The Obsessed, 89th Street-OKC.

Rainbows Are Free/The Lowdown & Out, . ROCK

Jason Hunt, Sean Cumming’s Irish Restaurant. FOLK

Stone Tide/Tribesmen/Off Brand, Bison Witches Bar & Deli. ROCK

TUESDAY, APR. 2

To Kill Porter, Your Mom’s Place. ROCK

Country Clique, Friends Restaurant & Club.

SATURDAY, MAR. 30

Ellisa Sun/Gabriel Maaliq, The Root. JAZZ

Aaron Newman Duo, Bedlam Bar-B-Q. SINGER/

METAL

COUNTRY

Kyle Reid, Scratch Kitchen & Cocktails. SINGER/

SONGWRITER

Bad Influence, Brewskey’s. ROCK

WEDNESDAY, APR. 3

Brandi Reloaded, Okie Tonk Café. COVER

OKLAHOMA CITY COMMUNITY COLLEGE 2018-2019 PERFORMING ARTS SERIES presented by the E.L. and Thelma Gaylord Foundation

All That Remains/Attila, Diamond Ballroom. METAL/

Brian Lynn Jones & The Misfit Cowboys, Remington Park. COUNTRY

HARDCORE

Cutter Elliott, Louie’s Grill & Bar. COUNTRY

POP/ROCK

Ghost Town Remedy/Creeping Toms, The Root.

Don’t Tell Dena/Electric Okie Test, VZD’s Restaurant & Bar. ROCK Helen Kelter Skelter/Psychotic Reaction/ Amplified Heat, Resonator. ROCK Isaac McClung/Giakob Lee, Bluebonnet Bar. SINGER/SONGWRITER

KLAMZ/Dire Gnome/Hang Dangerously, Blue Note Lounge. ROCK Lip Service, Whiskey Chicks. COVER The Lost End, 51st Street Speakeasy. ROCK Midas 13, Fuel Bar & Grill. ROCK Smile Empty Soul/September Mourning/Rise Among Rivals, Oklahoma City Limits. 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.

Stephen Salewon, Othello’s Italian Restaurant. FOLK

GO TO OKGAZETTE.COM FOR FULL LISTINGS!

T U E S D AY, A P R I L 9 • 7 : 3 0

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OCCC VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS CENTER THEATER • 7777 SOUTH MAY AVENUE

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tickets.occc.edu • Box Office: 682-7579 • www.occc.edu/pas Oklahoma City Community College

O KG A Z E T T E . C O M | M A R C H 2 7, 2 0 1 9

PUZZLES NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE CROSSWORD PUZZLE CODE SWITCHING | 0331 By Trenton Charlson Puzzles edited by Will Shortz

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EDITORIAL

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Brittany Pickering

VOL. XLI NO. 13 Oklahoma Gazette is circulated at its designated distribution points free of charge to readers for their individual use and by mail to subscribers. The cash value of this copy is $1. Persons taking copies of the Oklahoma Gazette from its distribution points for any reason other than their or others’ individual use for reading purposes are subject to prosecution.

ACROSS

SKULLDUGGERY LANE By Ingvard Ashby

S C A R Y

S T A C H E

C O N M E N

G O T H E

A B H O R

N I E T O

A G A M E O F T H R O N E S A G E O L D

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

F L A T R A T E L U N G P R E T E E N

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

P S A T S A N D M E N D E L B F F

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

L O R D O F T H E F L I E S S H A K U R

E T O U F F E E

S T E E P E N S

T O G I D O S

F A J I T A

S T O N E R

E N T R E

O V I N E

T I N G E

S A G E S

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY Homework: What’s the best joke or prank you could play on yourself ? FreeWillAstrology.com.

You need to be extra kind and super positive toward yourself.

possible. (P.S. If you don’t have a partner, have sex with your fantasies or yourself.)

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

CANCER (June 21-July 22) When he was twenty years old, Greek military leader Alexander the Great began to conquer the world. By age 30, he ruled the vast territory between Greece and northwest India. Never shy about extolling his own glory, he named 70 cities after himself. I offer his example as a model for you. Now is a favorable time to name clouds after yourself, as well as groves of trees, stretches of highway, buses, fire hydrants, parking spaces, and rocks. APRIL FOOL. I got a bit carried away. It’s true that now is a good time to assert your authority, extend your clout, and put your unique stamp on every situation. But I don’t recommend that you name entire cities after yourself.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

Kermit the Frog from Sesame Street is the world’s most famous puppet. He has recorded songs, starred in films and TV shows, and written an autobiography. His image has appeared on postage stamps and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Kermit’s beginnings were humble, however. When his creator Jim Henson first assembled him, he consisted of Henson’s mom’s green coat and two halves of a white ping pong ball. I mention this, Aries, because the current astrological omens suggest that you, too, could make a puppet that will one day have great influence. APRIL FOOL! I half-lied. Here’s the whole truth: now isn’t a favorable time to start work on a magnificent puppet. But it is a perfect moment to launch the rough beginnings of a project that’s well-suited for your unique talents.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Taurus businessman Chuck Feeney made a huge fortune as the entrepreneur who co-developed duty-free shopping. But at age 87, he lives frugally, having given away $8 billion to philanthropic causes. He doesn’t even own a house or car. In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to follow his lead in the coming weeks. Be unreasonably generous and exorbitantly helpful. APRIL FOOL! I exaggerated a bit. While it’s true that now is an extra favorable time to bestow blessings on everyone, you shouldn’t go overboard. Make sure your giving is artful, not careless or compulsive.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

Now is a perfect time to start learning the Inuktitut language spoken by the indigenous people of Eastern Canada. Here are some key phrases to get you underway. 1. UllusiuKattagit inosek: Celebrate your life! 2. Pitsialagigavit, piggogutivagit!: Because you’re doing amazing things, I’m proud of you! 3. Nalligijauvutit: You are loved! 4. Kajusitsiatuinnagit: Keep it up! APRIL FOOL! I lied. Now isn’t really a better time than any other to learn the Inuktitut language. But it is an important time to talk to yourself using phrases like those I mentioned.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

Now is an excellent time to join an exotic religion. How about the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which believes that true spiritual devotion requires an appreciation of satire? Or how about Discordianism, which worships the goddess of chaos and disorder? Then there’s the United Church of Bacon, whose members exult in the flavor of their favorite food. (Here’s a list of more: tinyurl.com/WeirdReligions.) APRIL FOOL! I wasn’t entirely truthful. It’s accurate to say that now is a great time to reinvigorate and transform your spiritual practice. But it’s better if you figure that out by yourself. There’s no need to get your ideas from a bizarre cult.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

Studies show that people who love grilled cheese sandwiches engage in more sexual escapades than those who don’t gorge on grilled cheese sandwiches. So I advise you to eat a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches, because then you will have more sex than usual. And that’s important, because you are now in a phase when you will reap huge healing benefits from having as much sex as possible. APRIL FOOL! I lied when I implied that eating more grilled cheese sandwiches would motivate you to have more sex. But I wasn’t lying when I said that you should have more sex than usual. And I wasn’t lying when I said you will reap huge benefits from having as much sex as

CLASSIFIEDS

If you ever spend time at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, you’ll get a chance to become a member of the 300 Club. To be eligible, you wait till the temperature ouside drops to minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. When it does, you spend 20 minutes in a sauna heated to 200 degrees. Then you exit into the snow and ice wearing nothing but white rubber boots, and run a few hundred feet to a ceremonial pole and back. In so doing, you expose your naked body to a swing of 300 degrees. According to my astrological analysis, now is an ideal time to pull off this feat. APRIL FOOL! I lied. I’m not really urging you to join the 300 Club. On the other hand, I do think it’s a favorable phase to go to extremes for an authentically good cause.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Scientific research shows that if you arrange to get bitten by thousands of mosquitoes in a relatively short time, you make yourself immune. Forever after, mosquito bites won’t itch you. Now would be an excellent time for you to launch such a project. APRIL FOOL! I lied. I don’t really think you should do that. On the contrary. You should scrupulously avoid irritations and aggravations, especially little ones. Instead, immerse yourself in comfort and ease. Be as free from vexation as you have ever been!

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

If allowed to do what comes naturally, two rabbits and their immediate descendants will produce 1,300 new rabbits in twelve months’ time. In five years, their offspring would amount to 94 million. I suspect that you will approach this level of fertility in the next four weeks, at least in a metaphorical sense. APRIL FOOL! I stretched the truth a bit. There’s no way you will produce more than a hundred good new ideas and productions and gifts. At the most, you’ll generate a mere 50.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

You don’t have to run faster than the bear that’s chasing you. You just have to run faster than the slowest person the bear is chasing. OK? So don’t worry! APRIL FOOL! What I just said wasn’t your real horoscope. I hope you know me well enough to understand that I would NEVER advise you to save your own ass by betraying or sacrificing someone else. It’s also important to note that the bear I mentioned is entirely metaphorical in nature. So please ignore what I said earlier. However, I do want you to know that there are effective ways to elude the symbolic bear that are also honorable. To discover them, meditate on calming down the beastly bear-like qualities in yourself.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

Now is a favorable time to disguise yourself as a bland nerd with no vivid qualities, or a shy wallflower with no strong opinions, or a polite wimp who prefers to avoid adventure. Please don’t even consider doing anything that’s too interesting or controversial. APRIL FOOL! I lied. The truth is, I hope you’ll do the opposite of what I suggested. I think it’s time to express your deep authentic self with aggressive clarity. Be brave and candid and enterprising.

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.

The weather is warm year-round and the crime rate is

CLASSIFIEDS

MUSIC

low on Pitcairn, a remote South Pacific island that is a 30-hour boat ride away from the nearest airport. The population has been dwindling in recent years, however, which is why the government offers foreigners free land if they choose to relocate. You might want to consider taking advantage of this opportunity. APRIL FOOL! I was exaggerating. It’s true that you could get major health benefits by taking a sabbatical from civilization. But there’s no need to be so drastic about it.

CLASSIFIEDS

HOMES

HEALTH

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O KG A Z E T T E . C O M | M A R C H 2 7, 2 0 1 9

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