Territory OKC Spring 2017 issue 10

issue no. 10

SPRING 2017

issue no. 10

13230 PAWNEE DR, STE 301, OKLAHOMA CITY 73114 CHISHOLMCREEK.COM | (405) 418-8590 |

519 NW 23RD ST, STE 105, OKLAHOMA CITY 73103 (405) 608-1923 | INTERIORGILT.COM |

FEATURE

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BURDENSOME BEAST TOWER CAPSULE

DOWNTOWN

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MASTERS CLASS Kelli Masters is an Oklahoma-based NFL agent, and she prefers to be known as an agent, not a female agent.

SPIRIT IN THE DARK COFFEE, BROADLY CONCEIVED SUN'S OUT, GUNS OUT BREAKING DOWN WALLS

MIDTOWN

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THE RITUALS OF JOY James Beard Award-winning writer Molly Wizenberg talks to us about food, family, writing and being a restaurateur.

THE COMMONPLACE READER

TOC UPTOWN/PASEO

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THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Jafar Ogaghi has been a tailor in Oklahoma City for 35 years; he's an American, from Iran, and he told us his story right before the first travel ban was ordered by President Trump.

BETTER TOGETHER AT EASE IN SAVASANA ORCHESTRATING LIFE

WESTERN AVE

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SMART HOUSE Onyx, a home theater company, is bringing much more of the future to "smart houses" than just a home theater system.

HITLER'S MIRROR SMOKLAHOMA OUTER BANKS DINING SWEET WINES, BUT NOT TOO

BACKSIDE POLARIS Spring fashion

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CONTRIBUTORS

BRITTANY PHILLIPS Brittany Phillips is a fashion and portrait photographer from California currently living in Oklahoma City. A self-taught photographer, Phillips has been shooting since 2011. With a love for travel, culture and obscure fashion, Phillips draws inspiration from whatever crosses her path. Her goal is to push Oklahoma culture through creative imagery that challenges its current norms.

L.J. HILL L.J. Hill is a licensed esthetician/makeup artist who has expanded her talents in the professional world for 10 years now. An education in business and constant strive to continue her studies has helped to build on the talent she has been blessed with at an early age. L.J. was mentored under the direction of two of the top artists in the industry, Candace Cory and Shirley Lee.

COVER Samantha Jane @SisterBrother Management TOC Brandon Smith

JORDAN HAYES Jordan Hayes is a writer at Beagle Design, a Visual Identity Studio based in Downtown OKC, focused on the fostering of relationships & nurturing of community throughout Oklahoma. His background in literature, along with a torrented version of the Adobe Creative Suite, have found him contributing small scale layout design and curmudgeonly text to Territory in the form of website design, written content, and the occasional print piece.

ANDREA LEMONDS Andrea Lemonds is a hair stylist/licensed barber instructor at Trichology Salon. Andrea studied at The Session School in London and has a passion for hair styling, cutting, and education. Her work ranges from but is not limited to bridal, London Fashion Week, editorials in The Oklahoman, and En Vie Magazine, and Schon Online.

TERRITORY:OKC MAGAZINE Published by Territory Media, LLC 3017 N. Lee Ave., Ste. A, Oklahoma City, OK 73103 territoryokc.com

Greg Horton, Vicar of Editorial & Wine Columnist vicar@territoryokc.com Deepika Ganta, Publishing Associate deepika@territoryokc.com

Trey McNeill, Publisher trey@territoryokc.com

Laura Rossi, Publishing Associate laura@territoryokc.com

Veronica Pasfield, Editor editorial@territoryokc.com

Garrett Davis, Publishing Associate garrett@territoryokc.com

Courtney Ann, Art Director & Style Editor courtney@territoryokc.com

Emily Hopkins, Arts & Entertainment Editor Beagle Design, Website Design Bayley Jackson, Graphic Designer Trace Thomas, Contributing Photographer

Koon Vega, Art Director koon@creativevega.com

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photo by Brandon Puffer

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Happy spring, fam! The world feels like a topsy-turvy merry-go-round lately, which is maybe why we are finding such joy in the early arrival of Oklahoma’s most glorious season. Patios are unfurling their umbrellas and loading piñon into fire pits all over town. New cocktails and dishes are awakening our senses with the bite of ramps and lemon. It’s a nice opportunity to try to shift into a more grounded state.

We’ve refreshed the Territory brand, as well, as our city has begun to shift. We hope you enjoy Territory’s lighter, modernized look. We owe a debt to graphic designers Koon Vega and the Beagle Design team. You will see similar evolution continue to happen on our web and social platforms, too!

In a sense, the Spring Issue begins and ends at Uptown’s Tower Theatre. The recent shows there were a wonder. After decades in disrepair, Jabee reinvigorated this storied stage with powerful lyrics and heartrending student sentinels holding “Our Lives Matter” signs. A couple of weeks later, Horse Thief brought it back home after a nationwide tour and sophomore release, Trials & Truths. We caught up with this merry band of brothers at a historic home in Heritage Hills. (Big thanks to our resident friends, who kept us going with snacks and Pimm’s Cups.)

We also staged a most evocative spring fashion shoot by Courtney Ann and team—photographer Brittany Phillips, make-up stylist L.J. Hill, and hair stylist Andrea Lemonds. From the moment we saw the blue banquettes in the basement of Nic’s new Midtown location, we knew a photo shoot there had to happen. International couture houses sent Courtney Ann the most current designs. Polaroid film gave us the intimate, voyeuristic feel we sought. Special thanks to Beagle Design, who guest designed that feature.

The issue also contains a photoessay of the Tower Theatre, which we commissioned from Brandon Puffer more than a year ago. Its Pivot Project developers graced the cover of our Fall 2015 issue, soon after they bought the property. We decided to capture the space before renovation began, so that no one would forget the enormous accomplishment of re-opening this National Historic Preservation landmark.

In between these features is a whole lot of heart and soul. Thank-you for continuing to renew our inspiration, OKC.

Veronica Pasfield, Editor editorial@territoryokc.com

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1125 Exchange Ave. Oklahoma City, 73108 (405) 702-0001 | vrlumber.com

BURDENSOME BEAST

Horse Thief on it's sophomore release & growing up

interview by Emily Hopkins We were going for an early ’70s Rolling Stones vibe when we asked Horse Thief to join us at a friend’s historic home in downtown Oklahoma City. Mick and Keith lolling about the mantels and long grasses at an English country estate in velvet smoking jackets served as our inspiration.

But it wasn’t that kind of day, and Horse Thief isn’t that kind of band. Horse Thief is the latest OKC-based group to rise to the international scene. Yet this merry band of brothers proved more inclined towards skipping across the well-tended grass—not quite as rock and roll as Mick and Keith stoned in a British pasture. Rather than regale us with punk stunts, band members politely removed their borrowed brocade, velvet and leather jackets and excused themselves for a quick cigarette out back. Absolutely none displayed as much chest hair as Keith Richards (okay, lead singer Cameron Neal did let a little ginger chest swag show).

What you see is what you get with Horse Thief: mellow, honest, up for whatever. Fresh off their sophomore release, Trials & Truths, they’re riding the uncertain wave of rising fame. But they certainly haven’t crested.

And—nobody’s more surprised than they are—their influence extends far beyond Oklahoma’s borders. Case in point: lead vocalist and guitarist Cameron Neal tells the story of a Chicago man who messaged him after the single “Drowsy” came out. It’s a song evoking images of needles and destruction: “I saw the heavens and I ran like hell,” Neal rasps. This man, whose wife had recently died of a heroin overdose, sent Neal a lengthy message about how he’d heard the song on the radio and was lifted from the pits of despair.

Attention from national music media has helped Horse Thief reach beyond Oklahoma. Spin magazine praised the band’s 2014 video for “Devil,” calling the song a “woodsy, tuneful” single that helps listeners “(d)iscover the menace and magic of their new, weird

America.” Touring, too, has helped Horse Thief reach new audiences. Since their first full-length LP, Fear in Bliss, dropped in 2014, the band has played support for Paper Kites, Midlake and two-time Grammy nominee Elle King.

“I met Cam and the boys at Willie Nelson’s Ranch, and the second you hear them live, you immediately want their album on repeat,” King said. “It’s the same thing when you meet them. I believe in them to no end, and I’m sure one day I will, reluctantly, be opening for them.” Not to be overly doting, King added, “they’re also total assholes.”

Trials & Truths debuted on January 27 to mixed reviews, common for second albums. Steve Lampiris of The Line of Best Fit says, “Trials improves upon Fear in Bliss in every way, so much so that the former almost feels like their true debut.” PopMatters’ Chris Conaton, on the other hand, asks, “So why didn’t the record move me more? Possibly it’s because many of these songs are so straightforward that they end up feeling a bit bland.”

Ironically, many critics drew the same conclusion with the Eagles’ (one of Horse Thief ’s major influences) 1973 sophomore effort, Desperado—now widely considered one of the most classic country/rock albums of all time.

Six years ago, Neal and bassist Cody Fowler moved from Denton, Texas, to OKC to attend UCO’s Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM@UCO); guitarist Alex Coleman, drummer Alberto Roubert and keyboardist Zach Zeller had already been playing together around their hometown.

Neal and Fowler were looking for band members, and the latter three answered the call. Things clicked. Less than a year later, and signed to Bella Union records, Horse Thief released its debut album.

Now, the band and its members are starting families and buying homes. They’re not kids anymore. Likewise, Oklahoma City has matured; as Fowler simply put it, “I feel like we’ve grown up with this city.” It’s obvious—both the band and its home have aged for the better.

Sam Bentley of Melbourne, Australia’s The Paper Kites agrees. On tour, the two bands were a perfect pair. Horse Thief ’s open, jangly alt pop play well against the Kites’ sweet harmonies and driving, plucking guitars (think Califone and The Oh Hellos).

"Horse Thief—strip away the fact that they party us under the table—their songs are musicality and brilliant.

There's a real tenderness and vulnerability in Cameron's lyrics—(heard) live, they just totally kick you in the chest.

We've had them on the road with us twice, which would pretty much make them our favorite band in America.

Anyone that asks us for music suggestions, we're always telling them about Horse Thief."

Post-cover shoot glow, I chatted with Horse Thief about growing pains, playing to near-empty rooms and the weightiness of sophomore releases.

There are about three years between your first and second releases—tell me about that.

Neal: On the first record, there was a lot of excitement around writing and recording together for the first time.

We wrote it six months after meeting. On the second record, we were processing the songs more to see what they meant to us. We didn’t settle for anything. We went into the studio with 36 demos, tracked 15, and ended up with ten on the album… Touring was a big thing, too. The first record, we weren’t touring at all while we were writing it.

On the second one, we were basically touring on and off for two years.

Fowler: With the first record, the pieces just fell into place. The first few things we wrote were what we went with.

Alex Coleman: The first record is pretty much a live album. We cut all those songs live on the floor. On the second record, we started just a lot of songs with Cameron singing, Berto on drums and built everything around that. It’s more of a studio record.

What’s it like being a band from Oklahoma as you’re traveling the world?

Neal: People are recognizing Oklahoma City a lot more than they used to. And maybe a lot of that is because of the Thunder. But it’s crazy that sports can be so tied into the arts and everything else in terms of making a city.

Cody and I moved up from Texas—I never thought I would live in Oklahoma—to go to [ACM@UCO]. Now, there’s a lot more bands; there’s a lot more art. There’s museums popping up. There’s theaters opening. Oklahoma is a huge part of my life. I almost feel more Oklahoman than I do Texan.

Roubert: Halfway through the tour you’re always thinking like, “Man, I’m ready to go home.” That’s why my parents moved here from Puerto Rico. Everyone’s so friendly. That’s just the culture here. It’s cool.

Fowler: And even the musicians here—we all know each other. You’ll get a call from someone in some band that you’ve seen twice and they’re like, “Hey, we have this continues on page 69

Creative Director + Stylist Courtney Ann Photographer Samantha Jane @ SisterBrother Management

Grooming L.J. Hill

Leather Jackets + Blazers The Wardrobe Modern Menswear

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T O W C A P

E R S U L E

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photoessay by Brandon Puffer History is often built from scraps; it is complex, contested, discarded and disjointed. The remnants of the past also help keep its bittersweet legacy alive.

When the Tower Theatre was purchased by developers Dave Wanzer, Ben Sellers and Jonathan Dodson, we knew a decisive shift occurred in the revitalization of Oklahoma City--it's why we put them and the Tower's iconic neon on the cover of our second issue, in the spring of 2015.

We asked photographer Brandon Puffer to document the space before renovations began on the 1931 structure. He captured a dirty (in more ways than one), eerie, oddly beautiful look at the Tower in disarray. Water sat in a deep, dank pool under the stage. Critters occupied the projection room. Boxes of flyers from the Tower's days as an adult movie theater sat in the office.

Looking at history this way requires that we piece together the various scraps of the past to build a coherent story, but it also gives us an honest, mesmerizing perspective of what was, what was important, what got left behind, and what we chose to renew.

That the Tower is still here to show us what the past was like and what the future will be is much closer to symmetry than irony. After all, what is a theater for if not to show us who we were, who we are, and who we hope (fear) to become? ~ Greg Horton

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DOWNTOWN Masters Class | Spirit in the Dark | Coffee, Broadly Consived | Sun's Out, Guns Out | Breaking Down Walls

MASTERS CLASS THE FIRST LADY NFL AGENT FOCUSES ON IMPACTING LIVES story by James Corley photos by Brandon Smith

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When Oklahoma City native Kelli Masters receives a text or email asking for advice about becoming a sports agent, she tells the senders—more than a handful weekly—it might look like a dream job, but it’s actually a calling. It's not something to do because you love sports or want to help athletes; you have to have a truly deep passion for it.

"It's going to be a sacrifice: personally, financially, mentally," she said. "If you're willing to make the sacrifice for a deeper calling, then let's talk. If you think it's going to be really fun and you're going to get to go to football games and have a good time, this isn't for you. There will be years and years of pain and sacrifice."

A commitment to excellence and a higher calling runs like a thread through Masters’ career. She’s won numerous awards in her field, and served on the Professional Responsibility Tribunal for the state for six years running.

Yet she took a winding road to get there. She remembers sitting in a law orientation at OCU when the professor asked for a show of hands. "How many of you are here to become sports agents?" All around the room, eager arms shot up into the air. She remembers wondering why anyone would want that job.

"It was not even on my radar," she said.

At that time, Masters was considering a career in journalism. As an undergrad, she was an intern with News 9 during a year that saw O.J. Simpson on trial for murder and the Murrah Federal Building bombed by domestic terrorists. She remembers that April day, when she heard the news and went straight to the station to help field information requests from desperate family members and media all over the country. A law degree, she thought, would help her ask better questions and form a deeper understanding of the issues. By her third year in law school, though, she wasn't even sure she wanted to finish.

"I hit a wall and felt really empty," Masters said. "I felt like I didn't know what my real purpose was in life other than to make sure everyone around me was proud of me and thought I was successful."

After some soul searching, she decided what was most important to her was to serve others and make a difference, and law would help her accomplish those things. A scholarship from her successful Miss Oklahoma campaign helped pay for the rest of law school, and she secured a job with a local firm to concentrate on non-profit law.

continues on page 70

Creative Director Courtney Ann Makeup L.J. Hill

"We make decisions every day; they sometimes lead us in the direction we plan on going, but sometimes they open new doors," she said.

Her practice put her in the same room with athletes interested in establishing charities and foundations to give back to their communities. She began to consider what more she could do if she was an agent.

"Here were these young people, very talented individuals, all of a sudden with all these resources and a platform most people only dream about, and they have an opportunity either to squander it or to make a difference and impact lives," she said. "If I can help influence athletes in this position to make an impact with their resources, how many more people can I help?"

She currently manages 26 athletes across the NFL, MLB, Olympics and MMA. She deals with anywhere from 30 to 50 issues on a regular basis, from estate planning, running foundations, dealing with contract negotiations and handling fines. She's on her phone constantly, fielding 200 text messages and 50 calls a day. She hasn't taken a vacation in about 15 years.

"Everything you do matters," she said. "Every conversation I have, even if it doesn't seem that meaningful to me, has a chance to impact someone's life with a ripple effect."

She is on NFL fields every Sunday during the season.

She traveled to Sochi for the 2014 Olympics and visited Haiti with some of her players on a mission trip. Her career is exhausting, but not without its benefits.

"The biggest reward is not financial or the glitz and glamor," she said. "It's when I made a difference in someone's life — a truly meaningful, long-lasting impact."

Her life as a sports agent has seen its share of highs and lows.

Masters remembers how new her business cards were when she met Gerald McCoy, Sr., at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes banquet when his son was still in high school. Years later, after Gerald, Jr., made a name for himself at OU as a standout defensive tackle, she got a call the first day agents could be contacted.

She courted the McCoys for months and even flew to El Paso for the Sooners' bowl game that season on New Year's Eve. Masters talked for hours with the McCoys in the hotel lobby as the calendar switched over to 2010. Even so, they weren't sure she was the right choice. She was still green and McCoy was a lock for the first round, where sliding a few spots could mean losing millions.

"You're right," she told the nervous parents. "I've never represented a player who's been drafted, but I know I can do this, and you know I can do this."

She convinced the parents to create a partnership between her and the other agent they were considering.

Working with someone who didn't want to work together was difficult and extraordinarily challenging, she said, but months later in New York, McCoy was chosen third overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Masters had her first world-class client.

"It was the fulfillment of everything I'd hoped it would be," she said. "You've worked really hard; you've sacrificed everything; you've made it."

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SPIRIT IN THE DARK Curtains up on the new OKCMOA Film Society story by Emily Hopkins photos by Brittany Phillips

It’s worth noting that film, both as a medium and an art form, is only about 120 years old. While fully born in the 20th century, film possesses a power just as timeless as any other classic artistic medium. Call it an accelerated learning curve, if you will. As Michael J. Anderson, Ph.D. put it, filmmakers are “the Matisses of today.”

“Like Matisse, they’re the ones who are reshaping the language of their art forms,” said Anderson, director of curatorial affairs at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. “There are a lot of filmmakers who are redefining what film means, whether it’s grappling with technologies or really thinking about their particular cultural contexts.”

These innovators are rising from the far reaches of the globe. For American audiences of the past, international cinema typically equated to works from France, Italy or Spain. But in the 21st century, as Anderson notes, places like Thailand, Romania and Argentina—countries that weren’t originally filmic hotspots—are leading the way with novel ideas.

Many world-class museums undertake astoundingly influential film programs, some with supporting member groups—New York’s Museum of Modern Art and The Detroit Institute of Arts are just two. In a recent member survey put out by the Museum of Art, half of respondents (10 percent of the 5,000+ membership base) said they’d be interested in joining a film society. While the museum has a robust film program, with dozens of screenings each month, it admittedly lacks the interaction and learning component that regulars crave. The museum’s executive staff has been tossing around this idea for a while, and the survey confirmed that the demand for a film society exists.

Like the museum’s Moderns program (a “club” of sorts for young patrons of the arts), the film society, available at the end of March, will function as an add-on to general membership. Society participants will enjoy exclusive screenings, filmmaker Q&A sessions, a general outlet for audience participation, and the cultivation of filmic knowledge, among other offerings. A “mini-festival” model also brings programming such as auteur retrospectives and works from particular areas of the world.

Organizers pride themselves on selecting groupings of films that both illuminate each other and shed light on current exhibitions. With the February opening of After the Floating World: The Enduring Art of Japanese

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Woodblock Prints, for example, selected screenings from Akira Kurosawa’s and Kenji Mizoguchi’s bodies of work were conjunctively scheduled. Film society members, too, will have a chance to select works to be shown.

“For us, the guiding principle is that the films we show are thoughtful in some sense,” Anderson said. “There are some that touch on major sociopolitical issues of our day, while others are more removed from the world but are still really interesting in the way they’re constructed.”

Nowadays, art house cinemas are few and far between, becoming scarcer the farther you get from the coasts, but Oklahoma City residents have a unique opportunity with the MOA and its film society. To quote a certain screenplay

by Tina Fey, “the limit does not exist.”

“Unlike pieces of art, with film there’s really nothing within the world of international independent film that we can’t have access to,” said Lisa Broad, Ph.D., interim assistant curator of film and video art. “Oftentimes, we’ll get films here that played in New York just a few weeks ago.”

Case in point: at the end of January, OKCMOA screened “The Son of Joseph,” a Franco-Belgian drama by director Eugène Green that emerged from the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival. Oklahoma City was one of only a handful of U.S. cities to show the film; not even Los Angeles, the epicenter of American filmmaking, got a shot. It’s that very fact that proves Oklahoma City and its Museum of Art are worthy players in the international creative realm.

(Above) Personal Shopper screens this spring.

Sign up for the film society newsletter at okcmoa.com/films or follow @oklahomacitymoa to stay up-to-date.

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MONLTHLY acoustic performances by oklahoma artists at KOSU in Film Row, PRESENTED BY Thespyfm.com 3/28 4/25 5/30 6/27 7/25 8/29 9/26 10/24

John Calvin Abney Ben Kilgore Kinsey Charles Kierston White Justin Joslin Massey Ben Freeman Carter Sampson

Tix | Info at citysessionsokc.com Doors @ 6:00, Show @ 6:30

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Official After Party at

COFFEE, BROADLY CONCEIVED PAUL ZIMMERMAN + LEAF + BEAN story by Jessica Valentine photos by Aaron Slagell

Buying a cup of Joe is more than just a commodity nowadays—especially when its brewing methods become increasingly more precise and elaborate. With a new generation engrossed in coffee culture, LEAF + BEAN’s new ownership seems to shed some light on why serving a cup of coffee means so much.

Paul Zimmerman, the new majority owner of Deep Deuce’s LEAF + BEAN, isn’t new to the OKC cafe scene.

In 12 years, he’s worked in almost every coffee shop in town from Elemental Coffee Roasters to Clarity Coffee, Café Evoke, Gray Owl in Norman, and more. He's also a founder of the now-defunct Nani dinner club.

A conversation with Mark Seibold —the now-silent co-owner of LEAF + BEAN—spurred a collaboration between the two after Zimmerman did some espresso machine maintenance for Seibold in January.

Zimmerman’s coffee consulting, training and maintenance company, Gambit, has allowed him to continue working in the local coffee scene after he left Clarity last fall to finish his degree at OU. Now, the 26-year-old California native says he’s ready to return to his roots and remain in OKC’s evolving craft-coffee culture.

You’ve been working in the coffee industry since your were 14. Why the caffeine buzz at such a young age?

The first thing that attracted me was the space. Coffee shops are just really weird in that they create these safe spaces for weird and different people to engage other weird and different people. After cross country practice in high school, as a 14-year old without a car, I would walk to the coffee shop and just hang out there in the afternoons until they ended up hiring me.

You believe coffee is the thread that connects people on a global level. Explain.

When you look at coffee as a global commodity, [you realize] when you spend money on better coffee, you’re investing in improving the conditions for rural continues on page 70

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stainless steel brewery equipment and an elegant taproom in one of the city's up-and-coming corners.

Irby, a Stillwater native, fell in love with craft beer during his college years in Colorado Springs. After returning to Oklahoma in 2006, he found the state was greatly lacking in the variety of offerings he had come to expect, so he started brewing his own beer at home to fill the gap.

His degree in economics set him on the path to banking until he was bitten by the brew bug. After moving back to Colorado to follow his dream, he landed a job as a shipping assistant for Boulder Beer in “pretty much the lowest position they had,” according to Irby. He quickly worked his way through the brewery jobs, eventually becoming a professional brewer.

After two years of brewing at Boulder Beer, Avery Brewing Co. in Boulder, Colorado, hired him. Irby spent four years at Avery refining his brewing techniques and helping with the brewery’s barrel-aging program before finally being lured back to his home state of Oklahoma by his business partners.

When it opens in early summer, Stonecloud will account for nearly 10,000 square feet of the 17,000-squarefoot building, with the remaining space divided between the new offices of Pivot Project and a 3,500-square-foot restaurant space with dining-room views into the heart of

SUN’S OUT, GUNS OUT

THE MUCH-ANTICIPATED STONECLOUD BREWERY TAPS COME ONLINE

story by Kris Kettner photo by Courtney Waugh

A brilliant neon glow from the Sunshine Laundry sign cut through the bitter cold as we entered the taproom of what will soon be Oklahoma City’s newest brewery. The once-derelict structure located at NW 1st and Classen is being repurposed as Stonecloud Brewing Company. The anticipation is palpable; founder and brewer Joel Irby joins us from a respected Colorado brewery. Maybe even more significant for hard-core beer folks: Irby made instant fans with the brews he served up at last year’s OK Craft Beer Festival.

Irby welcomed us into the taproom bar and onto the main floor of Stonecloud. The 88-year-old Sunshine Laundry building had seen better days when Joel and his business partners—Ben Sellers, Jonathan Dodson and David Wanzer of Pivot Project—purchased it in late 2015.

“There was a tree growing right there,” Irby said, pointing to a spot on the recently refinished floor.

At that time, the building had no roof and was overrun with wildlife and vegetation, as well as the occasional squatter. Soon, however, the space will be home to pristine,

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the brewery. The taproom, formerly the drive-thru dropoff for the laundry, hosts 19 taps, a number large enough to allow him to feature his flagship beers while also offering plenty of one-offs and experimental brews to keep fans coming back for fresh creations. Church pews will line the front wall of the taproom, providing plenty of seating, while a large garage door will give access to visiting food trucks.

As for the beer itself, Irby is still working hard on his one-barrel pilot system, dialing in his initial offerings. “It’s incredibly important to come out with great beers when you first start a brewery, but that’s the time when it’s also the hardest,” he said, as he talked through the challenges he faces with ramping up to his own full-scale brewery.

Learning how the yeast performs and nailing down his signature recipes won’t happen overnight, but it’s clear he’s committed to quality and meeting his own discriminating standards before anything makes it to a tap. While not written in stone, an IPA, a Belgian Wit, and a Stout are the most likely early releases from Stonecloud. Later focus will shift to barrel-aged projects and sours, something that craft beer lovers will be incredibly happy to hear.

1012 NW 1st St., at Classen. @StonecloudBrewingCo

Left: Jane Jones, Production Manager, Scott Cleaners; Middle: Lucca, Shelter Ambassador; Right: Tina Mauldin, General Manager, Scott Cleaners; Back: Amanda, OKC Animal Shelter

Scott Cleaners supports OKC Animal Welfare Shelter by sponsoring adoption events throughout OKC and an annual Warmth for Waggers pet supply drive at each location.

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BREAKING DOWN WALLS

story by Greg Horton photos by Ryan Magnani

AN EXPANSION IN PUBLIC ART, AND THE COOPERATION REQUIRED TO DO IT

After a series of debacles involving Film Row and Western Avenue, the issue of public art and art in the public space (not the same thing) has reached a point of increasing scrutiny. Oddly enough, all the negative fallout in both districts could have been avoided by following processes already in place. As Oklahoma City continues to grow, our common spaces will increase proportionately. In fact, the city has a public art revenue allocation of one percent of total budget built into all new construction projects that receive public funds. In other words, a new project means new public art.

Think of public art as a way of expressing how we feel about a place, especially how much worth or value we assign to our common spaces—not in the monetary sense, but maybe a little of that, too. The focus is not just aesthetic; the valuation actually acts to conserve spaces within the city for us to gather, spaces that aren’t left subject to the whims of “the market.”

Staci Sanger, the marketing director for Downtown OKC, Inc., discussed the value of public art from the perspective of creating common spaces of interaction.

“When you see art in the public realm, it makes you feel like you are supposed to be there,” she said. “Plus, it builds community pride and oftentimes sparks more curiosity and creativity, therefore spurring more art.”

The problem of defining what public art is happens to be an ongoing debate in city planning, urban development and artistic circles, but for the sake of what we are doing here, public art means visual or performance art that is at least partially funded with public money such as tax revenue. Complicating the issue, though—and this was the problem in both the Film Row District and Western Avenue District—is that privately owned buildings that utilize art to beautify the facility or promote the business are navigating a narrow path between public art and art in a public space.

At the risk of creating a metaphor that will fail when stretched too far, the common spaces of our city are like

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MIDTOWN The Rituals of Joy | The Commonplace Round Table

THE RITUALS OF JOY OKLAHOMA NATIVE AND JAMES BEARD AWARD-WINNING WRITER MOLLY WIZENBERG TALKS FAMILY, FOOD, ART AND LIFE story by Greg Horton photos by Molly Wizenberg

There are so many clichés associated with nicknaming Oklahoma—flyover country, heartland, tornado alley—it was a genuine pleasure to hear a brand-new name, and one that we can all embrace.

“Oklahoma is definitely ‘tater tot country,’” Molly Wizenberg said. She was speaking on her podcast, Spilled Milk, that she hosts with fellow author and food nerd, Matthew Amster-Burton. In fact, Wizenberg owns three restaurants in the Seattle area with her partner, Brandon Pettit. She also authored two books, A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table in 2010, and Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage, a 2015 New York Times bestseller about her first foray as a restaurateur.

Wizenberg was born in Oklahoma City, and she grew up here, but she said that her parents “sort of raised me to leave."

“My parents were originally from points East,” she said. “My father was from Toronto, Canada, and my mom

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from Baltimore. They moved to Oklahoma when my dad got a job there in 1974.”

Ordinarily that would mean she would have, like many of us, sat around a table at family dinner, and at least a few times a month, one-third of the plate would have been occupied with tater tots and ketchup. In the podcast episode mentioned, which is simply called “Tater Tots,” she admits that her parents’ “snobbery” affected her culinary experiences.

“I never have eaten tater tots, I think, even in the presence of my mother.” She means that she never ate them at home when her mother was present, but like nearly every Oklahoma kid, she did have them.

Why is the tater tot so important? Other than being the perfect food—an argument I actually have made while sober—they speak to an ethos of food that Wizenberg embraced young, and now applies to her role as an influencer in food circles. (Her blog, Orangette, is a James Beard Award winner, sort of the Oscars of the food world.)

When asked how she hopes her work contributes to the food scene, she answers in a way many of us appreciate.

“Mostly, I hope I can be an advocate for unfussy, unpretentious home cooking,” she said. “I’m a big believer in scrambled eggs and salad for dinner! It makes me immeasurably happy to hear that people, after reading something I've written, feel inspired to cook and find pleasure in the simple, often-invisible rituals of everyday life.”

That she walked away from a Ph.D. studies in cultural anthropology to pursue a food and writing career was never more obvious in our interview than in that answer. Rituals, after all, are the subject of much anthropological study, and the U.S. is terrible at maintaining cultural rituals. There are definitely minority communities that cherish their rituals and pass them to successive generations. But most

mainstream “rituals” are grouped around holidays, and while it’s possible that getting drunk on cheap beer at the lake on Labor Day weekend is a ritual, it’s certainly not one that passes something substantial to the next generation.

For many other cultures, though, rituals surround all aspects of life, including or especially eating. Wizenberg points out that food is common to all people in all places.

That alone creates a fecund climate for ritual to emerge.

“Just as we need food, we all need other people—even introverts like me!” she said. “It's not new news that kids thrive when they eat meals with their families, and it's the same for adults. In the States today, food can be a brutal battleground: certain foods are deemed ‘good,’ others are ‘bad,’ and we obsess over our weight and what we should or shouldn't eat, etc. It's easy to forget that food is also about pleasure, and about connection. Historically, it's a communal thing. We are healthier in every way—as individuals, as families, as communities—when we eat together, when we feed each other, when we have to sit down and really talk to one another.”

The rituals she values were shaped around the table, sans tater tots, in her family growing up. While food was important to the family, and her parents instilled a love for foods of all kinds in the young Wizenberg, the rituals were perhaps more important.

“I think the rituals around food were what they cared about,” she said. “We sat down to dinner together every night, as a family, and that was normal, no big deal. I now know how much work that takes. Food was the glue that held us together; cooking and eating together was a given. I want to, and am trying to, raise my daughter with the same vision that food is not a precious thing or something to

be fetishized, but rather something that's fun that we can enjoy together.”

Wizenberg and Pettit’s daughter, June—named for June Carter Cash—was born to in 2012. Having a child makes even the most experimental of chefs rethink their relationship to food and dining. There is a point in every parents’ life when they realize that some culinary battles will not be won. Chicken, French fries, and ketchup really are three separate dishes to a toddler, and you can try to add a green vegetable if you like, but it will simply become an art project until the child is ready to eat it. “I try not to anguish over what she's eating,” Wizenberg said, “and instead I try to just put good food on the table, give her the space to make her own choices, and enjoy her company.”

Wizenberg forms some of her thoughts about food and dining and connecting around loss as well as success in her books, both published by Simon & Schuster. In A Homemade Life, Wizenberg mentions poet James Wright, an artist who wrote eloquently about cancer, death, dying, and grief. She took a bold step several years ago when she decided to make her food blog a life blog, and I mean that in the best sense of the term. The loss of her father was devastating, and rather than compartmentalize her life into a bizarre taxonomy with two categories—food and etcetera—she chose to talk about grief and loss.

Last December’s Orangette blog post (orangette.net) reminisces about her father, and her Oklahoma upbringing: “Today it’s been 14 years since my dad died…. Burg would be 87 now, and I’m sort of glad I never had to see him diminished by old age—or, at least, not more than he was diminished in his last weeks, as cancer had its way with him. He would be glad to know that Mom and I now live a block apart, within sight of Puget Sound, and that continues on page 44

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THE COMMONPLACE ROUND TABLE SOURCING PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE FOR THE MOST THOUGHTFUL SELECTION OF BOOKS story by Emily Hopkins

Ben Nockels uninhibitedly prides himself on his common love for books and people. As Commonplace moves closer to occupying its 2,000-square-foot space at The Edge Apartments, anticipation grows. Nockels is the first to admit the limits of his literary knowledge, and has reached out to the community for expertise, recommendations and the simple joy of shared passions. The 8,000+ titles expected to populate the shelves will be a cumulative crème de la crème of OKC bookishness.

Nockels has chatted with 30+ people and counting, and taken their recommendations to heart. Placards throughout the store will note whose knowledge informed that book buy.

On a busy morning at Elemental Coffee, Nockels shared thoughts on why these unique points-of-view are worth the attention.

Allie Shinn, Director of External Affairs for the ACLU of Oklahoma: “Allie’s on the absolute leading edge of the issues that we’re facing in our country, state and city,” Nockels said. “She’s boots-on-the-ground, digging in, fighting for justice and combatting injustice on a daily basis.” (@alliepshinn) Allie on the book that’s on her nightstand right now: This Is An Uprising by Mark and Paul Engler. This book was published in advance of the election as a guide for activists on how to harness the power of non-violent resistance. Now, more than ever, this guide is a crucial read for all concerned citizens and those who wish to defend the values of the Constitution and one day ensure those values are extended to all. It was recommended on Facebook by Michelle Alexander, one of the most important civil rights leaders of our time.

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Sara Kate Little, owner of Sara Kate Studios: “When I first told her my crazy idea for a bookstore,” Nockels said, “her response was glowing. She represents the idyllic patron: thoughtful, tasteful, well-traveled and a lover of books.” (@sarakatestudios) Sara on books that have changed her life: Broken Open

by Elizabeth Lesser. A friend gave me the book and told me to try reading it, but that if it didn’t resonate with me at the time, the book would wait for me on the shelf until I was ready for it. Two years later, I opened it, and it was absolutely everything I needed to hear at the time. My copy is now worn to pieces from being flipped through, being read in the bathtub, scribbled in, etc, over the years.”

Colin Stringer, chef at Nonesuch: “Colin and I stood there talking for an hour and a half,” Nockels said. “It was really neat to see him get passionate all over again about the books that have informed his love of food. And no kidding — the other day he was in the store with this big bucket of raw milk. Like, ‘Where are you going with that, Colin?’” (@colinstringer) Colin on the book on his nightstand right now: Chanterelle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares: The Love, Lore, and Mystique of Mushrooms by Greg Marley. Maybe a book on mushrooms seems a little too niche for anyone not already a foodie, forager, or chef. However, the author sets out to demystify mushrooms and goes into great detail about the history and culture of mushroom-loving countries like Russia, Japan, and China.

continues on page 43

LUNCH | DINNER | BRUNCH | COCKTAILS | ROOFTOP PATIO PACKARDSOKC.COM | 201 NW 10TH STREET OKLAHOMA CITY 73103 | (405) 605-3771

Lunch: Tuesday–Friday, Dinner: Tuesday–Saturday, Brunch: Saturday–Sunday 42

1201 N. Walker Ave. Midtown District, Oklahoma City, OK 73103

The Commonplace Round Table from page 40

Kathleen Shannon & Tara Street, sisters & co-owners of Braid Creative: “When they came back to us with the branding presentation when we first launched, I stopped them at the first slide with tears in my eyes,” Nockels said.

“It was cool to see where (these sisters had) overlap and differences.” (@braidcreative) Kathleen on the books that have opened her mind: Daring Greatly by Brené Brown helped me understand that there’s connection and personal power in being vulnerable.

And I love how Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic talks about the mystery of creativity and how to cultivate (good) habits and attitudes, even when you’re not feeling particularly inspired.

Tara on five books she’ll never part with: It's the books from my childhood that I will never part with and that will always be on my shelf: Watership Down by Richard Adams, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, The Witches by Roald Dahl, East of The Sun & West of The Moon by Mercer Mayer, Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

NOW, MORE THAN EVER, THIS GUIDE IS A CRUCIAL READ FOR ALL CONCERNED CITIZENS AND THOSE WHO WISH TO DEFEND THE VALUES OF THE CONSTITUTION AND ONE DAY ENSURE THOSE VALUES ARE EXTENDED TO ALL. Sam DuRegger, Director of e-Commerce at Sonic Drive-In and founder of Woodshed Tea: “He’s now in corporate marketing, but Sam has also lived in a tent for a year,” Nockels said. “Sam is theologically astute, spiritually in tune and emotionally intelligent. He’s also a nomadic outdoorsman who just might fall back off the grid at any instant.” (@duregger) Sam on some favorite authors: Fredrick Buechner—no one speaks to the heart of practical theology (like him). GK Chesterton’s fiction becomes a metaphor for his non-fiction writings on how to practice our belief in a world of unbelief.

David James Duncan’s non-fiction takes inspiration from his time living in the wilderness, to speak to the importance of environment, space, reflection and reason. His fiction is filled with wit, joy, and tinged with tragedy.

Claire Ragozzino, owner of Vidya Living: “We were encouraged by her affirmation that we were on the right track in selecting titles that deal with the whole body, mind and heart—not just the physical heart, but that emotional core and center of who we are as people,” Nockels said. (@ claireragz) Claire on the books that have influenced her professionally: Wild Feminine: Finding Power, Spirit & Joy in the Female Body by Tami Lynn Kent, Healing with Whole Foods by Paul Pitchfork, Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy

by Mukunda Stiles, Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life by Dr. Claudia Welch.

Chad Reynolds, co-founder of Short Order Poems + Penny Candy Press: “Poetry is new to me,” Nockels said, “and I’m leaning heavily on Chad for his expertise. Poetry is at the center of who he is, and it has shaped his life and existence through and through.” (@_chad_reynolds_) Chad on his favorite book as a child: A Visit to William Blake’s Inn by Nancy Willard was one of my favorite picture books. Years later, when I encountered Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience in college, I felt a strange kinship with them that I didn't quite understand. It wasn't until I had kids that I remembered; my love for Blake was born out of this kids' book that celebrated language and image. Maybe it's why I'm a poet today.

Photo provided. More info at commonplacebooksokc.com 43

The Rituals of Joy from page 39

one night in August, when things felt hard and I needed comfort, I pulled out an old t-shirt of his that I’d kept all this time but never worn, a royal blue Classen Grill t-shirt with the logo on the back and the words “peaches and cream” written in four languages on the front. It still smelled like him, and I put it on and slept in it, and I felt better. Wherever he is, I hope he’s doing it up right, as he was in this photo (he’s on the left, with family friend Ed Fretwell on the right), drinking something boozy out of a plastic coupe in a swimming pool, eating well, and grinning about it.

The challenge for artists is to find ways to make connections with other humans, to find ways to communicate a thought or a feeling or moment—a shapshot from a life, framed as an anecdote or painting or poem. Wizenberg draws a parallel between the artist and chef, as well as the artist and the parent who cooks for her child.

“To me, art is about creating a feeling,” she said. “When I write, I hope I help my reader to ‘feel’ something, to feel something that they wouldn't otherwise feel. I hope, for instance, that I might help them to understand an experience that they may never have had. That's what art is for, right? To help us understand and feel what it means to be a person, in all its complexity and confusion? Am I getting carried away? Maybe?”

No. Not at all. She continued.

“In any case, food, though also a basic human need and so on, is also about feeling. We not only use cooking to take care of other people, but I think we can all agree that food also makes us ‘feel’ things—comforted, uneasy, whatnot. When we cook and feed ourselves, and the people we care about, we are reaching them on a level that's deeper than just nourishment. It sounds very pie-in-the-sky, I know, but I mean it. Food, like art, is an opportunity for understanding.”

Wizenberg credits her history teacher at Casady High School for teaching her to write well. Dr. Stephen Gens 44

passed away a few years ago, but she remembers him as the one teacher who pushed her the hardest, and built upon her critical thinking skills she learned at Westminster School. To be able to write well and think well are often gifts of teachers who care.

There are no new projects on the horizon for now, although she does say she want to write another book eventually. Wizenberg said for now she wants to focus on being a parent, co-hosting Spilled Milk, running the restaurants, and writing on the blog. These are the tasks that fill out her life and give her joy. The food scene, is such a thing exists, is tangential to that.

“I'm not, at this point, very interested in food or any food scene; I'm mostly interested in people and the way we live, and food is just a handy lens for looking at that,” she said.

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UPTOWN/PASEO The Making of an American | Better Together | At Ease in Savasana | Orchestrating Life

T HE M A K ING OF A N A MERICA N ONE TAILOR’S EPIC PAST AND DIGNIFIED PRESENT REMIND OF COMMONALITIES SHARED IN THIS NATION OF IMMIGRANTS

The Iran hostage crisis of 1979-81 has dominated American memories of the Iranian Revolution and colored our foreign policy since. Jafar Ogaghi was 21 when the revolution started in 1979, and because he came from a poor province in the east of the country—and likely because he was not political—he was allowed to emigrate.

His destination, like many of his Iranian counterparts, was Oklahoma City. But the climate created by the hostage crisis made his initial settling in uncomfortable and scary.

Ogaghi, a tailor in Oklahoma City since his arrival, is phlegmatic about the situation now, even telling the story with a tinge of humor to his voice.

“The treatment was not the best at first,” he said. We are sitting in the waiting area of his business, J&M Tailor Shop, on N. Penn, where he has been for nearly 20 years.

“People said terrible things.”

Ogaghi had no car when he arrived, so he walked most everywhere, and during a particularly heavy snowstorm that first year, he remembers people throwing snow and ice at him. When the hostage situation was resolved in 1981, the treatment improved he said, almost as if people immediately forgot it had occurred.

The context is lost on most Americans now, but the U.S. and Iran enjoyed a friendly relationship from 1953 to 1979. The U.S. helped install a dictator in 1953—the CIA has since admitted this—known as the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. His reign ended with the revolution in 1979, and it was American support of the shah and subsequent funding of Saddam Hussein to carry out a war with Iran, that has eradicated the previous goodwill.

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story by Greg Horton photos by Trace Thomas

Ogaghi got his English training at Oklahoma City University. The school was equipped with ESL classes because waves of Iranian students had been coming to the U.S. since 1953, financed by Iran’s post-WWII economic recovery, a result of renewed oil production. Exchange students were common in that 25-year period, and the burgeoning oil industry created ties to Oklahoma as well.

The transition was not without obstacles for Ogaghi, though. He had to have $3,000 to finance his trip to the U.S., and upon his arrival, he knew no one.

“I stayed two nights at the airport,” he said. “I didn’t know where to go, I spoke almost no English—I studied German in Iran—and I had no one to call.”

The idea of a young Iranian man staying two nights in an international airport unmolested is beyond imagining in the post-9/11 world, but it was Ogaghi’s introduction to Oklahoma City. A woman who worked at the airport finally took pity on him and called a friend. The man, also Iranian, gave Ogaghi a ride to a place where he could stay.

He does not remember the name of either rescuer.

When government officials in Iran asked him where he wanted to go, Ogaghi answered the only way he knew how: “I told them to send me someplace I could work.”

He comes from a family of tailors; his brothers and uncles are tailors. His first job—at six years of age—was packing boxes of clothing and doing other small tasks in his uncle’s tailor shop. Tailoring was the only trade he knew, so when he got settled in OKC, he took a job at Golden Scissor, an Iranian-owned shop near NW 36th and May, since closed. The family helped him learn continues on page 68

BETTER TOGETHER CO-WORKING AND THE POSSIBILITIES OF CLOSE COLLABORATION story by Emily Hopkins photos by Brittany Phillips

Situated on the cusp of Film Row and the Farmers Market District, StarSpace 46 is, in simplest terms, a co-working space. Entrepreneurs and freelancers pay a membership fee for the perks of a desk and office amenities. In turn, they’re daily (or weekly, as nobody’s keeping tabs) surrounded by some of the most forward-thinking minds in Oklahoma City today.

This is the breeding ground for the next computer genius, the next design innovator, the next person to create something that alters your daily life. There’s no hierarchy, no bottom line — only the willingness, and drive, to do something great.

“It’s not just a space to work. There are cheap offices everywhere,” said Tommy Yi, StarSpace 46 co-founder.

“Great ideas and businesses happen when you have a cross-collaboration of people with different points of view.

That’s what this is: a hub for community.”

It’s a brainchild that has evolved over a decade. Once known as OKC CoCo and The 404, this hub has since generated the likes of Monscierge, a hospitality technology brand with millions of funding dollars from Facebook and Google and touchscreens in every Hilton hotel. It’s home to the 26-year-old CTO of Nodecraft Hosting, which provides high-capacity gaming servers for people across the globe. Techlahoma, a grassroots technology community, headquarters here, and it once was the workspace of CooperHouse Creative, a branding and design studio.

Erin Cooper and husband Tim, after years of working out of their homes, decided to fully jump on the co-working bandwagon. Together with John and Sarah Brune Edwards, friends and local lawyers, on March 1 they launched Halycon Works, a co-working space on NW 30th St. in the Paseo. Interestingly enough, less than three miles away in the Plaza District is The Barn, another boutique co-working space.

A handful of co-working spaces in the entirety of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area may seem like a drop continues on page 68

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AT EASE IN

SAVASANA

CARDINAL YOGA’S TRINITY MAYS ON HER PATH TO FEELING GROUNDED story by Emily Hopkins photos by Lindie Beth Northup

Cardinal Yoga stands out in the same way it blends in.

There are no motivationally branded tank tops near the entrance, no slogans emblazoned on the walls and no mood music coursing through the air. There is, simply, Trinity Mays, all (maybe) five-foot-four of her welcoming you to class.

With blonde curls kept close to her face and glasses as red as the structure’s original wood doors, she exudes warmth, like a matriarch inviting you into her home for Sunday supper. She presides over a circa-1911 brick power station-turned-studio nestled in a less-gentrified corner of Uptown.

The Wednesday night Restful Yoga & Meditation class was small, myself and five other students situated with our mats in a circle. Our teacher, legs folded neatly beneath her, was at the helm.

It’s a position she’s become accustomed to over ten plus years. A student of the NAME Ashram near Boulder, Colorado, Mays has received formal training in both yoga

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and meditation and is currently apprenticing in the ways of healing touch.

This, and even her time in art school, is a far cry from the Sapulpa cattle farm where she grew up. Like many a small-town Oklahoma girl, she was raised in the southern Baptist faith, a Midwest characteristic as common as the appearance of brown eyes or straight hair. A “spiritual injury”—her words—caused her to turn away from religion altogether.

Yoga came to her as a form of exercise, the same way it does to many modern-day practitioners. But it also carried the added benefit of easing anxiety and depression, burdens she’d been beholden with for many years.

She found solace in the structure of chanting and in the rhythms of the mantra, and, finally, she felt grounded. Her self-hate toward her body had evaporated, and in its place, a soft cloud of calm.

“It was all about creating love and peace for myself,” Mays said. “It became a spiritual practice, where I was replacing negative self-talk with chanting or meditating

or journaling.” It doesn’t have to be all rainbows and unicorns, as she later put it, but a balance formed when she accepted that the present moment is the only thing that’s real. Getting very strict in her practice was too confining, and being too free-flowing didn’t keep her grounded.

“The past can take you back to depression, and the present can bring anxiety,” she said. “You find the present moment, which is your breath, because that’s what is real right now. Everything else is just bullshit that doesn’t matter.”

Mays, very clearly, is not some old fogy yogi (forgive me), though she was traditionally trained in tantric Shaivism at the Ashram. For those unfamiliar with the principal Hindu deities, Shiva, god of creation, destruction, regeneration and meditation, is worshipped by followers of Shaivism. Yoga was a primary practice for these ancient followers, a method to unite them (tantra, meaning woven together) with their revered Shiva.

While Mays was drawn to certain aspects of Hinduism—reciting mantras, namely—she says she changed other parts to work for her individual purpose.

When she throws around the word “spiritual,” she isn’t necessarily referring to religion. Her time at the Ashram served to broaden her perspectives, not to pigeonhole her in another granular mindset.

“We were honoring these deities that made no sense (to me) at first, and it was crazy because it was so different from what I’d ever done,” she said. “But for me, the realization is that God is everything. All of these religions and philosophies are talking about the Creator, about this ‘higher energy.’ It’s all the same. The main stories of all religions, to me, are the same.”

It’s that oneness that binds her practice and her interactions with her students. She draws inspiration from her Cherokee heritage, from the energy of the cardinal directions and from her grandmother, a woman who particularly loved cardinals and what they stood for.

In the Christian faith, cardinals symbolize rebirth and an everlasting spirit. The color red, representing creativity and vitality, is seen as an incredible force. Mays, too, has taken the strength from these ancient symbols and spread it throughout Cardinal Yoga’s wonderful old brick structure, remodeled for her by one of her students. In a turn

of happenstance, the building’s original accent colors happened to be a pure cherry red.

“It was a labor of love to remodel this with extreme historic preservation and beauty,” she said. “The energy has shifted from the more traditional to the more holistic and healing. It’s cool to have that idea behind it.”

Now 11 years into her teaching, Mays prides herself on combining traditions from both the ancient East and West to create a harmonious balance for her students, as well as an atmosphere that promotes compassion and community. With the small class sizes, she and other Red Cardinal instructors provide greater personal attention and can adjust positions to fit participants’ individual physical abilities. The concept of focusing on breath, on being in the present moment, is woven throughout.

And she and her students have quickly become a family, sharing hardships and triumphs and unique quirks. As one young woman declared to Mays, “Everyone needs someone who’s weirder than them, and you’re that person to me.”

Upon sharing that story, Mays hunched up in contemplation, then cracked a smile. “I’m probably that person in a lot of people’s lives,” she said. “I try to truly be myself at all times. I mean, it’s life, right? We can’t take everything so seriously.”

2412 N. Olie Ave. (405) 226-1177. cardinalyogaok.com

ORCHESTRATING LIFE story by Greg Horton photo by Ryan Magnani In an aged building on the western edge of Uptown, sounds both sweet and squawky filter out of the humble classrooms that comprise the sprawling El Sistema afterschool facility. Inside, kids earnestly saw and puff away at their instruments, trying their best to learn how to turn brass and wood and metal string into something musical.

Cities around the world have created El Sistema programs. Oklahoma City’s Sistema-modeled orchestra began in 2013. El Sistema literally means “the system,” but when Jose Antonio Abreu created the first El Sistema program in Venezuela in 1975, there was no system in place for underprivileged children to learn music. Today, more than a half million young people participate in Venezuela, and the numbers in the U.S. grow annually.

As Robyn Hilger, our city’s executive director, points out, “there is no system.”

All “El Sistema” orchestra programs tend to be organic, independent projects of local people. The Oklahoma City version began as an outreach of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church and the Wanda L. Bass School of Music at Oklahoma City University.

Abreu’s idea was to bring underprivileged children in Venezuela into a relationship with music, specifically Classical music, as a way of creating a different trajectory for their lives. Hilger talked about the “transformative power of music for children” served by El Sistema.

“Sometimes children cannot see what their lives can be,” Hilger said. “If you live in an environment with no beauty and no hope, it can lead to a poverty of spirit. The program provides a pathway to help them recognize their individual talents and uniqueness, and it trains them to endeavor at a high level. It’s not magic. It’s hard work.”

In fact, El Sistema Oklahoma does not offer auditions.

Most of their students had little to no formal music training when they signed on. The referral requests they send to partner schools—currently there are seven OKCPS involved—ask for students who will invest in themselves, in a rigorous process, and who need a sense of purpose.

Children come from every level of academic success, and Hilger said the diversity is good for the program.

The program is hosted by Trinity Baptist Church, located a short walk from OCU. The campus has been deeply woven into El Sistema since the beginning, and now the program offers a “learning lab” experience for music education majors at the Bass School of Music.

Kristen Swartley has been with El Sistema Oklahoma since its inception. She was working on her Master’s of Music at the time, having relocated to Oklahoma 52

City from Bolivia, where she had been working with an El Sistema-modeled orchestra after completing her music performance (flute) degree at Eastern Mennonite University. She is now the conductor for one of El Sistema’s three orchestras, but prefers small classroom settings.

“I’ve had some of my students since I started about three and a half years ago,” she said. “I love building relationships with them, helping them become autonomous

learners—learning to explore the other things they love in addition to music.”

El Sistema is not just a music-training program. The campus now serves 220 students between third and ninth grade, and in addition to the individual instrument instruction, theory, ensembles, and orchestras, the program offers tutoring, study time, recreation, and more.

The program works with the children and their families 146 days per year, five days a week. It’s a huge undertaking, including transportation, classes, funding, food, ensembles, orchestra work, tutoring, and other needs as they arise, with work carried out by approximately 50 volunteers, students, and part-time staffers like Swartley.

Hilger said they are hoping to create a system where the kids will return as teachers, and in the meantime a computer lab allows the students to connect to the Young Composers & Improvisors Workshop, a New York-based non-profit that promotes music composition in classrooms.

The hope is that the program will instill in the children a sense of accomplishment, as well as pride, self-discipline, and community awareness. Music is just the vehicle to make that possible. Swartley said, "They start knowing nothing, and they do their lessons, so they improve. That feeling of competence is very important, the ability to practice something until they can do it successfully.”

Information at ElSistemaOK.org.

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WESTERN AVE Smart House | Hitler's Mirror | Smoklahoma | Outer Banks Dining | Sweet Wines, But Not Too

SMART HOUSE COUPLE OFFERS AUTOMATION TO LOCALS THROUGH THE INTERNET OF THINGS story by James Corley photo by Lindie Beth Northup

Imagine getting home after a long day. It's already dark outside as you pull into your driveway. As the garage door opens, lights in your house spring to life, your favorite music calmly fills the main rooms, televisions pop on, and the thermostat lowers to a comfortable temperature—all because you parked your car at home. Your house could even start you a fresh pot of coffee, no scheduler needed.

Sound nice, but too far-fetched? It's certainly attainable, and that's just a sample of what J.D. and Jenn Upton, owners of Onyx Theaters, offer right here in Oklahoma City.

Their goal is to be as proactive as possible and bring the focus back to the user. J.D. streamlines the hardware towers that monitor and automate everything in the house so it all works the second everything is plugged in. Jenn fine-tunes the details and uses tools like cardboard cutouts of TVs to help homeowners really visualize what the finished product will look like.

They’ve taken a similar turnkey approach with the Onyx Experience Center on W. Wilshire Blvd. Visitors sit in a home-theater demo room, where the din of the outside world fades away. A door swings shut, the lights fade to black, and the curtains open in sync. As a movie trailer cues up, a 9.2 THX system blares the familiar strains of a cinematic score in crisp detail.

It’s got to be easier to say yes, when all you have to do is sit back and plan and enjoy. "It's not simple, but we make it simplistic," said J.D. Onyx is fully licensed by THX, the George Lucasfounded company that manufactures the surroundsound systems at most major theaters, and McIntosh, the sound juggernaut used by the Beatles. It’s a pioneer of the two-channel, fully analogue system.

"We're all nerds; this is our hobby," J.D. said. "We would all be doing this even if we didn't get paid, but the fact that we are is a pretty big benefit."

Onyx also keeps an eye on the power and Internet services for their clients and troubleshoots problems as they arise. Some companies monetize by establishing a need — things go wrong, so they come fix it. Onyx prefers to build systems that need as little maintenance as possible, to help create lasting relationships.

"The approach of having that long-term relationship is so much better to me than somebody constantly having to come out to my house to service the product," Jenn said.

J.D.'s fascination with technology began when he got his first turntable at age seven. He was interested in things being more convenient as a youngster, too; he made his light switch more accessible by attaching a string and stapling it up the walls and across the ceiling to the other end of the room. He started his first audio-visual company in high school and honed his knowledge and experience for several more years before founding Onyx with his wife.

Jenn admits she wasn't much of a techie — when they got married, she didn't have a TV and he had a theater in the living room — but her background in real-estate development added a personal touch to J.D.'s technical expertise.

"The most important part is Jenn," J.D. said. "What's really lacking in tech is a great translator."

They felt the user side hadn't been heard. Most audio-visual companies don't have an owner with a non-tech perspective, so Jenn helped the team strike a unique balance to get the best of both worlds.

"You can have really amazing equipment that does great things, but if turning it on and getting it to work is a frustrating process, nobody wants to use that system," Jenn said.

"We created a system where the user is number one, not the equipment."

The name Onyx was a potential boy name if the couple ever decided to have children, but they opted instead to found a business that they run more like a family. The couple wants to make sure their team of 10 is happy and healthy with the company. Scheduling is intentionally flexible so life outside work — soccer games, caring for sick kiddos, bucket-list items, passion pursuits — can be as much a part of their environment as the work itself. A customized lunch program from Whole Foods provides balanced meals for everyone in the office.

"In the tech world, it's very easy to forget to eat," J.D. said. "You get in the zone, and suddenly, several hours have passed." continues on page 70

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continues on page 62

HITLER’S MIRROR

ON WAR BOOTY, FETISH, AND THE STORY OF AN OKLAHOMA MUSEUM COLLECTION story by James Corley photo by Trace Thomas

On April 30, 1945, in Berlin, Adolf Hitler stood in front of his bathroom mirror in his Führerbunker. Allied Forces were advancing quickly on his position, with the Soviets nearly to his doorstep. German troops were cut off from defending the bunker, and Hitler believed his closest confidants, Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, had betrayed him. Just ten days after his birthday, Hitler knew his war was lost.

He applied shaving cream and shaved, trimmed his iconic mustache and washed his face. After taking one last look at himself, he moved to the next room where his new bride, Eva Braun, was waiting for him. Together they took cyanide pills, and Hitler placed a Walther PPK to his temple.

Russian soldiers pillaged Hitler's compound over the next few days before the U.S. 45th Infantry Division rolled into Berlin. By the time Lt. Col. Horace K. "Tony" Calvert got a tour of the place from one of the occupying Soviet officers, the bunker had been nearly stripped clean. He noticed the bathroom off to the side that still contained the mirror.

After prying it off the wall and posing with it for a photo, Calvert brought the mirror back to Oklahoma City.

It is now on display at the 45th Infantry Division Museum, a short drive from downtown at 2145 NE 36th St. "If this mirror could only talk," said curator Mike Gonzales, who has been with the museum for nearly 30 years. "It's the freakiest, spookiest artifact."

Before the museum's founder Major General Fredrick A. Daughtery convinced Calvert to donate the mirror in 1976, it hung in the retired lieutenant colonel's entryway

above a little table with flowers. Now, the mirror is just one piece of a whole exhibit of Hitler’s personal belongings. The collection is the largest on public display anywhere in the world, although there are larger private collections. The core elements of the collection are items removed from Hitler's personal apartment in Munich, where he had periodically lived since the early 1930s.

"The 45th Infantry Division was the first Allied unit to enter the city of Munich, and they made a beeline for Hitler's apartment, where they set up the division headquarters for the city," Gonzales said.

The division originally consisted of soldiers from Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, but by the time it shipped out for WWII, it had lost much of its regional flavor and included soldiers from all across the country, Gonzales said. However, Oklahomans still left their mark during the war, which is reflected in the collection.

A picture of mess Sergeant Art Peters, a division cook, lying on Hitler's bed posing with a copy of Mein Kampf appeared on the cover of Life magazine in 1945. The photograph, a copy of which is prominently displayed in the collection, was named the second-best photo from WWII, losing only to the legendary shot of soldiers raising an American flag at Iwo Jima. Among other spoils recovered from Hitler's apartment are the book from the photo, cocktail glasses, silverware, a cape and a tea-service set.

The 45th never made it to Obersalzberg, Hitler's private mountain resort in Bavaria, but plenty of Oklahomans in the 101st Airborne Division did. The collection boasts several souvenirs they recovered, including linens, fine China and 59

a chest that contained copies of Mein Kampf in several languages.

The collection paints a detailed picture of life for the fascist dictator and those around him. Nearly everything is branded with Nazi iconography—the swastika, German eagle or iron cross—and much of it has the initials "A.H." Gonzales said everything Hitler owned was a gift, either from the party or individuals. It's clear from the collection that the Nazis wanted to make sure no one could forget who was in charge, much like the many shots from Amazon's alternate-history hit "The Man in the High Castle" are plastered with swastikas.

Private First Class Jack Northstine was part of G Company of the 179th Infantry Regiment, a detachment in Munich that occupied the Führerbau, or "the leader's building.” It contained a large room on the second floor filled with cabinets containing the names and addresses of every single member of the Nazi Party in Europe. In the basement was a lavish sunken bath with hot running water—a rarity in the war-torn city—and a locker room filled with discarded Nazi uniforms. Before they could be captured, German officials had ditched the uniforms to

change into street clothes so they could blend in with the crowds, Gonzales said.

Northstine brought home a high-ranking Nazi political officer's uniform from the room. He donated it to the museum’s collection in the early 2000s. The ribbons on the uniform indicate the officer was a German front-lines veteran from the First World War. Gonzales believes the officer might have been in charge of the Führerbau or perhaps even the entire block of political buildings.

The museum has 26,000 square feet of indoor exhibit space on a 16-acre plot, which includes more than 70 military vehicles and equipment featured on the museum grounds. Just around the corner from the Hitler memorabilia is the largest exhibit of original artwork by cartoonist Bill Mauldin, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his body of work while attached to the 45th. Across the hall is a huge collection of military weapons ranging from the War for Independence all the way to the Vietnam War, including several one-of-a-kind pistols and rifles.

Free. Hours and info at http://45thdivisionmuseum.com.

Styled by Courtney Ann

SMOKLAHOMA story by Greg Horton photo by Trace Thomas On Saturday, May 6, The Criterion will be transformed into Oklahoma’s largest “smoking lounge.” If you have your fingers crossed for a legal weed smoke-in, uncross now. The second annual Smoklahoma Festival will bring together 32 cigar vendors at The Criterion for four hours, during which participants can smoke new and limited release cigars.

“The Criterion only allows smoking in the facility for two events each year: Fight Night and Smoklahoma,” Todd Naifeh said. Naifeh is the owner of ZT Cigars, the founding sponsor of the festival.

Smoklahoma is a ticketed event, and the ticketing is in four categories, including two for “companions,” meaning your partner who doesn’t smoke need not pay for smoking products. The companion tickets give them access to everything under the VIP or General Admission ticket, including the food and bar.

Republic National Distributing Company is also a sponsor, and they will handle the premium spirits at the VIP bar and General Admission bar.

“Both bars feature premium spirits,” Naifeh said. “We’re not pouring well liquor, and the drinks are covered by the price of the ticket.”

The VIP ticketholders ($250), of which there are only 150 available, and the general admission participants ($150/350 available) will both have a tasting section with flights of Bourbon, rum, and Scotch. A Balvenie 60

ambassador will be on-site with Scotches from the portfolio.

Food stations will be set up, and Ned’s Catering is handling the food.

In addition to the large cigar vendors that have become household names among the cigar-smoking set, there will be several boutique vendors, including Crux and Crowned Heads. Crux is making a special size of their popular Bull & Bear cigar just for the event. ZT Cigars will have them for sale in the store if there are any left after festival purchases.

Guests will receive a selection of cigars from participating vendors as part of their ticket price.

Among the big names in the business, Drew Estate, Rocky Patel, and Espinosa will all be at Smoklahoma, and Nish Patel, Rocky’s younger brother and a cigar maker himself, will be at the Rocky Patel table. Espinosa has also produced a cigar especially for the event.

“We’re excited about the event releases,” Naifeh said.

“There will be several first and limited edition releases, too.”

Information about the event and a link to buy tickets is at Smoklahoma.com.

Smoking Lounge | Personalized Lockers | Premium Accessories 2726 W. Britton Rd. | Oklahoma City, 73120 (405) 942-0070 | www.ztcigars.com

Oklahoma’s largest walk-in humidor, offering 1,800 selections please join us for the SMOKLAHOMA cigar event at the criterion on saturday, May 6th at 7 p.m.

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Located on 26 verdant acres in north Oklahoma City, along the east side of Classen south of Wilshire, one block east of Nichols Hills.

single-family & upscale apartment homes • walking trails & park elements garden & corporate offices • on site dining & amenities • resort pool & spa/fitness center private executive garage storage condos • discreet self-storage • pet friendly

David Bohanon JD, Developer-Broker | 9120 N Kelley Ave Ste 100, OKC 73131 | 405.850.0987 | dbohanon@blackstonecom.com

ACAD FILE: H:\3178\3178001\EXHIBITS\3178001-CONCEPT-WILSHIRE POINT-BANK.dwg, 10/28/2016 10:29 AM, Christie Stone XREFS LOADED: 3178001-bdy.dwg 3178001-topo.dwg

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Announcing Wilshire Point, East Nichols Hills’ new master-planned, mixed-use commercial and residential community.

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New exhibits showing through May 14

Hollywood and the American West

A Yard of Turkey Red: The Western Bandanna

The Artistry of the Western Paperback

Power & Prestige Children’s Gallery

Monday – Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Sunday, Noon – 5:00 p.m.

1700 Northeast 63rd Street Oklahoma City, OK 73111 (405) 478-2250 nationalcowboymuseum.org Clockwise from top left: 1. New Yorker. Paul Newman reading The New Yorker on the set of The Left Handed Gun. 1958. John R. Hamilton/John Wayne Enterprises.

2. Cowboy. 2015.002.001. John H. Thillmann Collection, Dickinson Research Center, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. 3. Four Warriors (detail) by Nockto-ist (Bear’s Heart), Southern Cheyenne, ca. 1875, Arthur & Shifra Silberman Collection, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. (1997.007.018). 4. Deadline at Durango. Cover art by Stanley Borack, 1950. RC2006.068.1.07763, Glenn D. Shirley Western Americana Collection, Dickinson Research Center, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

Territory - 2017 - Spring.indd 1

1/19/2017 3:28:33 PM

33 PM

TITLE WALL

DINING ON THE OUTER BANKS THE SPLENDOR OF THE WORLD’S CUISINES TUCKED INTO THE MOST DELICIOUS CORNERS OF THE METRO “Let’s go out for Indian food,” sounds like a simple idea.

But India is an enormous place, and its food traditions incredibly diverse. Saying “Indian food” is like conflating Philly steaks with Minnesota walleye and Louisiana Cajun.

All made in the same country, yes, but so very different.

Similarly so for most countries, and when we have an opportunity to eat authentically from a cuisine, it is a privilege indeed.

As we await the opening of some promising new restaurants in the city core—or find new ones need a little time to mature—we thought spring was a fine time to explore.

Following are some Territory favorites.

conventional, there are teriyaki and tonkatsu options, too.

4716 SE 29th St., Del City. —Greg Horton Halal in North OKC: Sheesh Mahal features food from the borderland between India and Pakistan. As such, it’s a fascinating menu of dishes that come from a region mainly divided along religious lines, not culinary ones.

The food is halal, making it a very rare eatery in Oklahoma City. The complimentary mint tea they provide is excellent, and so you know right away that anyone who cares to make complimentary items with such care will handle the rest of the meal the same way. Get the goat curry if it’s on the board. Just do it. You’ll be glad. Everyone seems to love the butter chicken, and it is delicious, but you can also find more exotic choices than chicken. Mutton appears on the board in the form of Daal Gosht, and for the less adventurous, the chicken tikka and biryani are excellent. 4621 N. May Ave., OKC. —Greg Horton

THE WESTERN BANDANNA

South Indian in Moore: Being South Indian and a foodie, I will tell you now that the South Indian cuisine at Himalayas in Moore is especially tasty (they also have North Indian dishes). A sizable Indian patronage regularly makes a 45-minute drive solely to binge out on dishes such as chicken tikka masala, naan, and biryani, a mouthwaterGuatemalan in Uptown-ish: Whether you know it or ing rice dish mixed with traditional spices, vegetables, and not, if you eat out in Oklahoma City on a regular basis, goat or chicken. you have had more meals cooked by Guatemalan cooks Vegetarian and lighter fare predominate in South Indian than any other nationality. We asked them cuisine—quite distinct from the naan where they ate Guatemalan food, and nearly and creamy curries of the north. South THAI FOOD THAT all we talked to mentioned El Rinconcito, Indian classics include dosas (savory EXCITES US? OH, YOU on N. May near 13th St. It’s counter service, lentil crepes) and idlis (fluffy white CAN GET A PASSABLE so take some time getting accustomed to rice cakes) dipped in spicy peanut, PLATE OF PAD THAI the menu before going in. The tamales are tomato, or coconut chutneys or soaked IN SEVERAL SPOTS IN remarkable, as are the soups, especially the in sambar (tamarind soup).

AND NEAR THE ASIAN Caldo de Res. Prices are ridiculously good, My parents rarely eat out—maybe too. Lengue can be off-putting to some, once or twice a year, if that—because DISTRICT. BUT THAI but try theirs for sure. The texture is more my mom cooks three times a day, FOOD THAT A NATIVE like roast beef than tongue, and the sauce everyday. However, for dining or CAN GET BEHIND? is worth the price of the dish. 1317 N. May catering, their favorite is Himalayas’ Ave., OKC. —Greg Horton fresh, authentic dosas with tomato chutney and sambar. It reminds me of my mom's cooking, Thai Garden on the South Side: So why has it been a very high compliment. 709 N. Moore Ave., Moore. — nearly impossible to locate Thai food that excites us? Oh, Deepika Ganta you can get a passable plate of Pad Thai in several spots in and near the Asian District. But Thai food that a native can Korean in Del City: Chae Modern Korean has become get behind—and what to order from the wider menu? Thai a cult favorite in Uptown, and rightfully so. With this Garden kept bubbling up as a recommended spot…that we being a story about food on the outskirts, though, let us never seemed to have time to visit. Stop that right now, all ask: When was the last time someone you know said, “Let’s of you who are similarly provincial. Territory’s Art Director go to Del City for dinner!” There is nothing wrong with Koon Vega told us a Thai restaurant can be partially judged Del City, but it’s not exactly the metro’s go-to location for by its beef panang, which we ordered at this clean, humble food. Korean House can help change that. restaurant north of the Integris Jim Thorpe center on S. Specializing in bulgogi and kimchi, Korean House Western Ave. Complex sauce that hits every flavor category, produces specialties worth driving across OKC for, includbeautifully fresh basil, expertly cooked beef slices. Also, ing the Chuksuk Bulgogi, featuring tender beef ribs order anything with shrimp—especially the fresh ginger served with chigae (stew). The menu ranges from very and scallion rice—a vision of simple perfection. 3913 S. approachable to very, very spicy, the latter of which is best Western Ave., OKC. —Veronica Pasfield experienced in the form of Soon Dae Kook, a spicy soup with Korean sausage. If your dining companions are more

The John Thillmann Collection of 19th century bandannas and photographs of American

cowboys is showcased in this colorful exhibition.

The collection, donated to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in 2015, allows the public the unique opportunity to view rare

examples of period bandannas, an element of

cowboy clothing that seldom survived hard use in the West. Such a collection of mostly unused

bandannas and scarfs has not been available to visitors at this or any other Western institution.

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SWEET, BUT NOT TOO story by Greg Horton photo by Jill Chen

As a regular presence at wine tastings around Oklahoma City, I get to see humanity at its best and worst, and the drunken middle, too. Being in those settings has helped shape my expectations for what people like and dislike when it comes to wine. One of the most frequent requests is for “something sweet,” often met with poorly disguised disdain, and I’m including myself as one of the judgey wine snobs.

However, it is possible to find delicious sweet wine, especially when the issue of balance is kept in view.

Balance in a wine is achieved when the characteristics complement each other, and for the sake of sweetness, sugar needs to be balanced by acid.

Why would you want a sweet wine? First, because you’re not a booze fundamentalist. Don’t act like that Old Fashioned you drink isn’t swimming in sugar. Secondly, sweet wines go amazingly well with spicy food, especially spicy Asian food, but I’ve also knocked back great Riesling with Mexican food, spicy German sausage, and even lamb and pork.

Finally, it’s almost summer, and sweet wines are super easy to drink on the patio or around the pool. The following is a guide of sorts.

Any wine shop can order and have these in stock in 24-48 hours, if they're not on the shelf.

Moscato d’Asti and Asti Spumante. These sparklers from north Italy tend to run sweet, but the crisp acid and effervescence make them easy to enjoy. La Caudrina is new to Oklahoma this year, and it has the potential to redeem the reputation of Asti Spumante. It’s available by the glass at Stella Modern Italian. The standard for years is Tintero, a true Moscato d’Asti, and you can find it by the glass at The Metro Wine Bar and Bistro. The primary difference between the two is the pressure inside the bottle, with Asti Spumante being under slightly more pressure.

Still Moscato, as opposed to sparkling, is harder to pull off. Two available here are exceptional: St. Supery and La Sirena, from Napa. The La Sirena is substantially drier.

Lambrusco. Another Italian sparkling wine, Lambrusco is what you give your guest who asks for a sweet red. They run the spectrum from rosé to red (purple, really), and from sweet to very dry.

Look for Donelli for sweet and Fattoria Moretto or Barbolini for dry. A very accessible line of Lambrusco is available from Cleto Chiarli, as well, and they tend to run from semi-sweet to sweet. Packard’s New American Kitchen has Cleto Chiarli by the glass.

France has a couple of different styles worth trying, most notably the BugeyCerdon, a region that makes light, sweet, sparkling wine with Gamay grapes. These are sweet, not semi-sweet, and they are incredibly easy to drink. Look for La Cueille or Domaine de la Dentelle.

The latter is available at The Pritchard.

Sparkling Vouvray. Chenin Blanc-based wines from the Loire Valley are not terribly common in Oklahoma, but Champalou makes La Cuvee des Fondraux, a demi-sec (semi-sweet) style that is delicious. The demi-sec designation applies to Champagne as well, and we do have few in Oklahoma.

Riesling. While there are some excellent domestic Rieslings, the full beauty of the grape is best appreciated with German wines. While the labeling system can be confusing, a good rule of thumb is that Kabinett tends to be drier, followed by Spatlese and Auslese in increasing sweetness. (Those are not hard and fast rules, though.)

Since we’re talking about sweet, look for Dr. Loosen, Selbach (The Pritchard), and Leitz. If you want to spend a little more, grab some St. Urbans-Hof or Dr. Thanisch and prepare to have your life changed.

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The Making of an American from page 48

Better Together from page 49

English to supplement his training at OCU. He married an American woman, and they had a daughter, Mina—he pays tribute to her with the M in J&M. Ogaghi started his own business in 1982—the same year he became a naturalized citizen—so he’s owned a tailoring business in the city for nearly 35 years. He moved a couple of times due to financial or real-estate issues, eventually purchasing the space he now occupies at NW 31st and Penn. It is a one-man operation built on hard work and fair prices. The prices are astoundingly good, in fact. We first heard about Ogaghi from friends who seemed a little agog at the pricing for such excellent craftsmanship and service.

“I charge based on time,” he said. He points to the hem of his pants. “It’s maybe 15 minutes, so I charge for a quarter hour. I don’t understand the shops where they take your clothes and say, ‘Come back in two weeks.’ This is 15 minutes, not two weeks.”

J&M has always been next-day service, or you can pay a little extra for same day. His prices are published in the shop and on his business cards. Hiding prices is not how honest business works, he insists.

As for the hard work part of his success story, Ogaghi is finally slowing down. Until last year he worked 9am to 6pm six days a week. When he turned 59, he reduced the hours to 10am to 5pm. The customers—he has many,

in the bucket, but it points to a larger societal shift at play. According to a 2014 study commissioned by the Freelancers Union, 53 million Americans — or 34 percent of the total workforce — are independent contractors.

That amount is expected to jump to half of all Americans by 2020.

“This is how people can work on different things and have different interests rather than being shackled to a desk for 40 years,” John Edwards said. His first job out of college, he noted, was constrictive and made him miserable.

Tim Cooper absolutely believes that this trend indicates a shift, not just a fad. CooperHouse doesn’t have full-time employees, he said. They don’t want full-time employees, and the contractors who work for them don’t want fulltime jobs.

Like StarSpace 46, Halcyon Works is set to be an incubator for talent and ideas. The Coopers, who will office full-time out of Halcyon, will consistently be on deck for members with marketing and branding questions.

The Edwards, likewise, will offer their expertise in business and contract law. Other local business minds, like Rachael Taylor of the Western Avenue District and graphic designer Chris England of Plenty Mercantile (who also designed Territory’s logos), will frequently be on site to provide additional insight.

“If someone has an amazing idea, we want them to feel like everyone here is pulling for them to succeed,” Erin Cooper said. “We have one rule, which is ‘treat this space like it’s your own.’ We want everybody here to be part of a community.”

Yi believes the city’s growing pains, to a certain extent, could have been avoided. Selfishly, he said, he wants his friends to stay in OKC, but within the last ten years he saw many of them leaving because jobs weren’t available to support their abilities. Now, these same people are executives at Apple, Expedia and Microsoft. These people, he said, are the very ones who should be helping to shape OKC today.

“These local innovators move away, meet their partners, have kids and end up calling different cities home,” Yi said.

“We need to be inspiring companies to make a commitment to OKC. If they stayed here and worked and made a point to be the change, there’s really no one to stand in their way.”

THE CUSTOMERS—HE HAS MANY, INCLUDING NOTABLE LOCAL CELEBRITIES—DON’T WANT HIM TO RETIRE. HE BEAMS WITH PRIDE AS HE SAYS IT, JUST AS HE DOES WHEN HE TELLS ME TO “GOOGLE THE BUSINESS” AND “GOOGLE MY NAME.” including notable local celebrities—don’t want him to retire. He beams with pride as he says it, just as he does when he tells me to “google the business” and “google my name.” A web search bears out his way of doing business; the reviews are glowing. They are the product of a life given to hard work and honesty.

Retirement is nearing, though, and Ogaghi is actually looking forward to it. What will he do? Visit his family in Iran, something he has done every summer for many years.

His mother is still living; she’s 77. His brothers and sister live there, too. In fact, the whole family lives in and around Tehran, and Ogaghi has been taking his daughters there on vacation nearly every year. The way that he bridges both worlds, nations deeply divided by politics and religion— two things he will not discuss—is a testimony to the ways in which immigrants have always found a way to embrace America without abandoning their heritage.

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Learn more at StarSpace46.com and Halcyon.works

TERRITORY AD PHOTO CREDITS Chisholm Creek & The Medallion Group-photos by Brandon Michael Smith & The Medallion Group-photo by Trace Thomas First National Bank-photos by Trace Thomas Interior Gilt-photos by Courtney Waugh Ketch Design Centrephotos by Courtney Waugh Naifeh Fine Jewelry-photo by Emily Hughes, makeup by LJ Hill Packard’s New American Kitchen-photo by Trace Thomas Scott Cleaners-photo by Trace Thomas Stella Modern Italian Cuisine-photo by Courtney Waugh Ur/Bun-photo by Trace Thomas, styling by Courtney Ann Vintage Reclaimed Lumber-photos by Courtney Waugh

Burdensome Beast from page 14

song we’re putting out and we want someone to come in and, like, shake a tambourine through a garden hose, and we just want to get you involved.” We’re all working with each other and want to help each other.

Coleman: Really, in the last two years…BRONCHO, Samantha Crain, John Moreland, Parker Millsap, John Fullbright…all those people are national and international names. We’ll be traveling in Europe, and people ask us about John Fullbright.

Writing while touring, is that difficult?

Coleman: We’d go out for a month and come back home, and I almost think we would all have this inspiration built up inside of us. We’d come back home and go to the studio and just jam for five hours. The bands we toured with, too, had a lot of influence on us. Not only musically, but personally.

Fowler: It might sound cheesy, but [playing with other people] helps you put into perspective what a band actually is. I consider these guys my siblings more than my friends.

I have an instinct of what Berto’s gonna play and what Alex is gonna play, and from that we’re able to really speak to each other without using any words.

What would you say the similarities and differences are between your two LPs? Neal: I think our first record is a good snapshot of where we were at that time, and I think this record does the exact same thing. It captures where we were as people, and as musicians, and as a band.

Trying to figure out how to maintain relationships while you’re traveling, trying to figure out if this is really what you want to do…all these questions come up when you’re not on the best tour in the world. We do go on amazing

tours, but we’ve also been on some tours where there’s literally two people in the room every night. You’re internalizing all that kind of stuff when you’re on the road. On the first record, none of us had experienced that yet.

Coleman: The first record was like a honeymoon record. This group came together in December of 2012, and we wrote all those songs leading up to recording in May of 2013. So that was almost like, you know, you’re in a new relationship and everything’s awesome. That inspiration was what came out of the first record.

Fowler: Almost like improvising something versus preparing a speech. The first record came in a wave of emotion, and the second one is a “thinking before speaking” sort of thing.

There’s a saying that “you have your whole life to write your first album, and you have 18 months to write your second album.” True?

Neal: That’s very true.

Coleman: And once we put something out, we’re always on to the next thing. We’re already writing for our third record.

Neal: And that’s something we didn’t experience on the first record. The moment this record came out, we were like, “oh finally.” We’ve been listening to these songs for three years and now that it’s finally out in the world we’re like, “Ok, cool. Let’s write the third record.”

Coleman: We’ve literally had every single emotion you can possibly have about our second record, too. We’ve thought it was the best thing in the world, we thought it was the worst thing in the world. We’ve just had too long to think about it.

Playing to an audience that knows you and is totally down with you versus playing to a near-empty room… does that heighten the emotionality?

Neal: Oh, absolutely. But we expect that. We’ve all played small rooms and we’ve all played sold out rooms— Coleman: —and trailer beds.

Neal: Yeah. But you have to keep each other humble and keep each other going. Even when there’s two people in the audience, we don’t play any differently.

Fowler: Exactly. Cameron said something that really stuck with me: “If there’s one person in this room that’s listening, then it’s worth playing the show.”

Lyrically, you have soul-searching songs like “Evil’s Rising,” and on the other hand you have tunes about getting away like “Santa Fe.” Talk about that range.

Neal: The lyrics are all over the place because [the second album] was written over two-and-a-half years.

There are examples of people with drug additions, people falling in love, falling out of love…all those things you’re going through when you’re in your 20s. Especially (in) songs like “Drowsy,” if you just tune out the lyrics, you’d probably think it was a pretty positive song. All I’ve ever wanted from the lyrics is to give comfort to people who feel uncomfortable.

Trials & Truths came out two weeks ago. What’s it like being in Oklahoma City where there’s this hype, and people were really waiting for it?

Neal: It’s crazy to see the shift. To see ourselves grow and become one of those bands that we used to look up to is crazy…. Now, we try to find bands that we truly love and give them the same opportunity that the bands we loved were giving us three or four years ago.

Horse Thief ’s sophomore album, Trials & Truths, is now available on iTunes, Spotify, and other major retailers. Follow @horsethiefokc for updates.

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Maters Class from page 27

Coffee, Broadly Conceived from page 31

For five years, Masters was the agent on the day-today grind with McCoy. She set up and ran his foundation. She took holidays away from her family to visit children's hospitals with him. She helped him find his first house and picked out furniture for him.

"Anything you can think of businesswise, personally or professionally, I was always there and always doing everything for him," she said.

But when it was time to begin negotiating his second contract, McCoy parted ways with her. He signed, at the time, the largest contract ever awarded a defensive tackle in NFL history without her.

"It was hurtful to suddenly not feel valued," she said. "At the end of the day, he saw me as expendable.

That was devastating."

She remains fond of McCoy and his family — "I would still do anything for them" — but her struggles didn't end there.

A couple of years ago, after a hard-fought battle against several other talented agents, she signed a high-profile player who now plays for the Seattle Seahawks. His coach called his parents a few days later and said, "I can't believe you'd let your son sign with a girl."

Masters was the first woman to represent a firstround pick in the NFL, and she continues to be marginalized because of her gender.

"I still get told I can't do something because I'm a woman. I can't believe in 2017 anyone still believes that," she said. "I would love to get to a day when this isn't a story."

She would prefer to be seen as a successful agent rather than just a female agent, but she is still impacting lives. She hears almost daily from women who want to be sports agents. Today, there are 20 women who represent players in the NFL, and the number is growing.

"If I have to go through getting ridiculed, getting put down and not respected so that women behind me can say they've never had to deal with that, then it's worth it," she said.

communities all over the planet. One of the great ironies of coffee is that it’s consumed in the U.S., Europe, and China, yet all those places lack the ability to grow it. Coffee only grows across the equator high up on the mountains.

Smart House from page 58

As technology continues to evolve and improve, the Uptons plan to keep Onyx out in front, chasing perfection.

Getting the first 90 percent is very doable; after that, it can be exponentially harder to achieve. If Onyx provides you a house that, in many ways, anticipates your needs, it wouldn't be so bad to let them sweat that last ten percent for you.

219 W. Wilshire Blvd., just west of Broadway Extension. onyx.us.

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You want to enrich coffee culture to OKC, too.

In 2008, when Chris Holliday and Melody Harwell started Elemental Coffee and Coffee Slingers, respectively, I think that they kind of kicked off a culture here. When Elemental started serving these really fruit forward citrusy coffees that are super juicy, they were exposing this city to a kind of coffee that ultimately is qualitatively superior. I think the coffee community in Oklahoma City is growing and progressing and that LEAF + BEAN is going to be another extension of that.

You’ve switched from serving Topeca to Seattle's Slate Coffee Roasters. What do you like about Slate?

Their company is based on principles I’ve adopted professionally, which is making the best coffee that's humanly possible and being really nice to people. In the past, I thought the more pretentious the coffee meant the more pretentious the business, but that’s not true. That’s one of the things I learned from visiting Slate in 2014. I’ve kept up with them since then because they do a damn good job of sourcing and roasting coffees and are just really great people. The coffee we’re getting from them is from Brazil, Ethiopia, and El Salvador.

What other major changes are you bringing?

Our downtown shop in Deep Deuce is going to be different than the drive-thru location on 36th and May. We’re going to serve Slate coffee at both, but the experience downtown is going to be a little more focused on presentation, and we’re going to have specials down here. Our drive-thru location is going to be really quick and really consistent so we can cater to our audience there.

Also, our new menu will only have about seven items— coffee, tea, espresso, espresso plus milk, beer, sparkling water, and apple juice.

Last but not least, light roast or dark roast?

There’s a lot of stigma around dark-roasted coffee. I think that there are certain coffees with more developed roast profiles that can taste really awesome. Slate roasts a little bit lighter, but they also have some more developed roast profiles that we’ll be serving out of the drive-thru because those coffees are more accessible and more recognizable; they’ll have chocolate and cinnamon notes to them. Coffees at our main location will also have some of that, but with more of a focus on berry notes. We just want to serve the best coffee we can find. Even with all the pretentious stigma surrounding coffee, at the end of the day, it’s just coffee.

Breaking Down Walls from page 35

a room in the house that a family shares. Since the space is there for the benefit of everyone, the means by which changes to the décor, furniture and amenities are made need some consensus, a way of guaranteeing that the space is respected by everyone affected.

Even in situations where a piece of art obviously improves the aesthetics of an area, there is a need for some sort of consensus, if only to allow for the smooth running of a city. Larry Dean Pickering has two pieces of art in public near downtown. Neither would be considered public art because they were both purchased privately and then displayed publically.

The first is a sculpture in front of Broadway Wine Merchants. It was purchased by Chris Salyer and then displayed on the corner of NW 8th and Broadway. The sculpture is striking, and only someone who hates metal sculpture—or Larry or Chris, possibly—would say it doesn’t add to the beauty of Automobile Alley. Because the sculpture sits on a public sidewalk, though, a revocable permit had to be secured so that the city could remove it—temporarily to permit construction or access, or permanently if the streetscape changed. It’s a compromise between artist, patron and government to ensure the smooth running of city business.

The second piece sits in front of Midtown Vets.

Midtown Renaissance purchased the sculpture to beautify the building before Dr. Leonardo Baez leased it for his veterinary clinic. Since the sculpture sits on private property, the rules that adhere to its display are different than art on a city easement, but there are still rules.

Back to the metaphor. Clearly, a city is too large to have a meeting in the family room to discuss all these things every time an issue arises, so a representative of our common interest is tasked to ensure that the best practices are followed. The Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs is the governing body, and Robbie Kienzle serves as the arts and cultural affairs liaison. As explained by Jill Brown Delozier, vice president of Downtown OKC, Inc., Kienzle’s a “one-stop shop” for artists and businesses interested in public art.

“She is incredibly sympathetic to the needs and interests of artists, businesses and city government,” Brown Delozier

said. “Just working with her all-but ensures an easier process of getting public art approved and placed.”

The problems associated with getting a public art project approved and completed include the different jargon employed by developers, civil servants, business owners, politicians and artists. Kienzle speaks the language of all interested parties, so that she can perform a complicated process of what amounts to cross-cultural communication, as well as what is suggested or mandatory. Kienzle works with the Arts Commission, which advises the City Council on matters of cultural expression and aesthetics. Public art projects have to get the approval of the commission.

“Artists don’t know what architects and developers know,” Kienzle said. “Why would an artist know the difference between a site plan and a floor plan? The verbiage can be very complex and confusing for people who have never worked around it.”

One example of a project that did everything right—if the parameters of “right” here can mean the public never heard of any related debacles—is Plaza Walls. Instead of going to the commission for every mural, the principals in Plaza Walls put together a proposal that received a go-ahead from the commission after a successful pilot program. The program was granted a five-year permit with the stipulation that the process undergo annual and semiannual review.

Central to the process is a document called a memorandum of understanding (MOU). They are standard paperwork for public art, and they can help prevent circumstances like the Bob Palmer mural being destroyed in the Western Avenue district. Kris Kanaly, one of the creators of Plaza Walls, said all their sponsored artists sign MOUs. “Our sponsored muralists and Oklahoma Mural Syndicate (OMS) sign an MOU stating the basic responsibilities of each party,” Kanaly explained. “Also, all artists—sponsored and unsponsored—sign a separate contract stating visual rights, commercial usage and the Oklahoma City (Visual Artists Rights Act) waiver required by the city.”

Respecting the rights and preferences of business owners was what has helped make Plaza Walls so successful; they took the time to talk to each other and work through the process. Business owners benefit from their district’s beautification, but they also accept a level of financial risk by investing in a district. The delicate balance between artist, district and entrepreneur requires regular conversations, many of which have already been had by commissioners, artists, politicians, and civil servants like Kienzle.

“Property owners and OMS have both signed the applications for the permits for the Plaza Walls Project to rotate murals on their buildings. OMS curates and manages all production as well as adhering to positive and community-oriented curatorial guidelines outlined in our permits with the city,” Kanaly said.

Semi-formal language, sure, but it communicates the core understanding: artists, businesses and oversight agencies have a responsibility to each other and to the public. The common spaces benefit us all, and they need protecting, both from too much and too little regulation.

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Dress | HanWen Kitten Heels | Tamara Mellon

Photographer | Brittany Phillips Creative Director + Style Editor | Courtney Ann

Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636

Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636 Polaris | Polaroid 636

HanWen Dress,Tamara Mellon Kitten Heels, Bryan Hearns Crop Top & Skirt, Laurel DeWitt plastic chaps, Marimekko Heels, Bryan Hearns crystal crop top, Laruicci Headphone earrings, Angelys Balek trousers, Elie Youssef Dress, Cedric Charlier button up from Consortium Boutique, Bryan Hearns bra and skirt, Tamara Mellon lazer cut boots, Bryan Hearns crystal crop top, Laruicci Headphone earrings, Bryan Hearns bra top, Laurel DeWitt Hot Shorts, Joanna Laura Constantine Chain Nail Choker, BlackSea Clutch, Elie Youssef Dress, Joanna Laura Constantine Door Knocker Choker, Tamara Mellon Heels, Tamara Mellon lazer cut boots, Bryan Hearns bra top, Joanna Laura Constantine

Hair Andrea Lemonds

Makeup L.J. Hill

Layout Jordan Hayes

Photographer Assistant Ryan Magnani

Model Eliza at Wallflower Management

Chain Nail Choker

The past resonates in the present to sharpen and quiet modern anxieties and experiences.

Especially in our digitally driven world, real intimacy is constantly attempted and yearned for, but often left unfulfilled.

Inspiration: the loose flapper fashions of early 20th century, captured by iconic French magazine, Gazette du Bon Ton (if not cabaret's afterhours glitter, for a more sequestered space).

Inspiration: the immediacy and intimacy of Polaroid (again making images into discreet objects, ones held in the hand or tucked away).

Inspiration: yearning, reaching, changing.

GOOD FRIDAY AT THE MYRIAD GARDENS 4.14 5:30 PM

EASTER EXPERIENCES AT I-35 & TECUMSEH 4.15 4:30 PM

6:00 PM

4.16 8:00 AM

9:30 AM

11:00 AM

5:00 PM

#JOURNEYON Wherever your journey takes you, we want to be there too!

Tell us all about it, and join the movement by tagging us in your adventures and using the hashtag. You just may win one of the many prizes we’re giving away all summer long!

@journeychurchtv