Celebrate VD

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ail t k c , co or e f t s a a D de i t f i g les g d n n i a s, s right e l p cou wn o d the ted d s n e a r te n i s i d

E. DEMOSS

BY GAZ ETT STAF E F P. 25

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contents 40

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ON THE COVER

NEWS

LIFE

LIFE

No, no, no, no, no. We didn’t mean that. Or maybe we do, depending on how you read our cover. Single, cultured, loyal, aloof, dating, apathetic, married, practical or even if you’re The Dude himself, Oklahoma Gazette wants you to enjoy Valentine’s Day. We’re sharing our curated list of films, events, drink recipes, gift ideas and eateries with you.

By Gazette staff. P. 25.

Cover illustration by Erin DeMoss.

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State: justice reform

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Education: savings accounts

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Education: myON literacy

Food & Drink: Bellini’s Underground, briefs, The Coach House, OKG eat: chocolate cake

32 Peforming Arts: Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean; A Midsummer Night’s Dream

9

Education: alternative paths

25

Cover: Valentine’s Day

10

Chicken-Fried News

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Culture: LGBT couples

36 Music: David J, Green the Vote, listings

12

Letters

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Culture: Singles Awareness Day

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Mission statement Oklahoma Gazette’s mission is to stimulate, examine and inform the public on local quality of life issues and social needs, to recognize community accomplishments, and to provide a forum for inspiration, participation and interaction across all media.

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OKG picks

Visual Arts: G Gallery & Glass Studio

34

Sudoku / Crossword

Film: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Alice’s Restaurant, The Choice 42

Astrology

42

Classifieds

Congratulations valerie blackburn

You’re Gazette’s Weekly Winner!

Your tickets will be waiting for you at the show’s will call.

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news state

Beyond arrest A bipartisan coalition proposes a ballot initiative to reclassify low-level offenses and redirect funds for rehab programs.

During her recent State of the State address, Gov. Mary Fallin called for an overhaul on how Oklahoma treats lowlevel offenders. To highlight the harsh reality of the state’s tough-on-crime approach, Fallin raised the issue of a stolen cellphone.

“A teen who steals someone’s smartphone today could be branded for life as a felon because smartphones cost more than $500,” Fallin said while surrounded by state leaders ready to start the 2016 Legislative session.

Does the punishment fit the crime?

Currently, an 18-year-old high school student who pilfers an iPhone from a locker faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Research supports that a felony conviction can become a lifelong stumbling block for obtaining higher education, employment and housing.

Fallin called for increasing the threshold for felony property crimes from $500 to $1,000. Additionally, the two-term Republican governor wants to lower the state’s mandatory drug possession sentences and give district attorneys discretion to file first-time drug offenses as misdemeanors. Her recommendation to lawmakers came on the advice of a 40-member task force of law enforcement professionals.

The proposal would prevent thousands of Oklahomans from becoming felons and would keep families together that are otherwise ripped apart due to incarceration, Fallin said. After applause from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Fallin continued.

“State prisons are at 119-percent capacity. We just can’t keep doing what we’ve been doing. It’s not working,” she said.

New approach

Fallin joins a chorus of Oklahomans calling for criminal justice reform. A year ago, former lawmaker Kris Steele began meeting with business, community and faith leaders from across the state to discuss rehabilitation efforts over incarceration for certain minor offenses.

The group calls itself Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform and includes leaders from Right on Crime, Oklahoma Policy Institute, American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Women’s Coalition, Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, Family & Children’s

Services and ReMerge. The Tulsa and Oklahoma City chambers of commerce also lend support.

“What we know needs to happen is that we need to have significant sentencing reform,” said Steele, who served as House speaker from 2010 to 2012 before becoming executive director of The Education and Employment Ministry (TEEM).

“We need to differentiate between the person that is truly dangerous and poses a threat to public safety versus the person that does not pose a threat … and could be better served through treatment, mental health care or supervision in the community.”

Through a ballot initiative,

What we know needs to happen is that we need to have significant sentencing reform.

— Kris Steele

Oklahomans for Criminal Justice seeks to reduce the number of people sent to prison. Dollars saved from incarceration are redirected to help low-level offenders through programs that address root causes of crimes.

Recently, the two ballot initiatives were submitted to the Secretary of State in hopes that Oklahoma voters will have the chance to decide criminal justice reform.

Steele, who serves as the group’s leader, said State Question 780 reclassifies certain low-level offenses, such as drug and simple property crimes.

The second proposal, State Question 781, creates the County Community Safety Investment Fund for county leaders to implement criminal justice reform, which could include rehabilitation services like drug and mental health treatment, job training and education programs.

The funds could be directed toward Oklahoma’s drug and mental health court programs, which divert certain nonviolent offenders from prison to court-supervised treatment.

If the petitions are formatted as

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Garett fi s bec k

By Laura Eastes

Kris Steele

required by law, the 90-day circulation period can begin. During those 90 days, registered voters can sign the two petitions. The coalition needs around 86,000 signatures to appear on the Nov. 8 ballot, the same ballot for the presidential election.

It’s time Oklahoma acted on criminal justice reform, said Meagan Gaddis, a continuing care coordinator at nonprofit ReMerge.

Studies show that Oklahoma incarcerates women more than any other state and has the second-highest overall incarceration rate in the country.

At ReMerge, staff work with mothers in a diversion program providing an alternative to incarceration.

Supporters believe passage of the two state questions would allow more Oklahomans to receive treatment and reduce rates of recidivism.

“It creates a whole new perspective for society to look at the social problem of addiction, how to reframe it and handle it in a different light,” Gaddis said. “Incarceration hasn’t had any positive effects for the problem. … [The reform] can provide treatment instead of [incarceration], which doesn’t work.”

Cost savings If implemented, the coalition affirms less taxpayer dollars would be needed, as fewer low-level offenders would be sent to county jails and state prisons.

“We can reduce our prison population,” Steele said. “We can make

better use of taxpayer dollars because treatment doesn’t cost as much as incarceration. Most importantly, we can achieve better results.”

Other efforts Oklahomans for Criminal Justice and the governor aren’t alone in developing solutions for the swelling prison population.

Rep. Pam Peterson, R-Tulsa, introduced legislation, the Justice Safety Valve Act under House Bill 2478, to allow judges to select lesser sentences.

Rep. Travis Dunlap, R-Bartlesville, proposed new criteria for expungement of convictions for nonviolent offenders and misdemeanors. Under House Bill 2397, records would be expunged after five years instead of 10.

In Oklahoma County, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce leads a task force to review the criminal justice system and examine problems in the county jail.

Steele said it’s a very different criminal justice conversation now than when he began examining practices as a lawmaker in 2000. He said state and local efforts complement each other.

“There is no silver bullet in solving this issue, and there are several pieces of the puzzle that need to be addressed,” Steele said. “I truly believe the ballot initiative has the ability to complement policy changes in the Legislature and any efforts made by any county.”

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news education

Debating ESAs Education savings accounts bring mixed emotions for state educators, school reform groups and parents.

Parents and their children walked down the hall of a former church building and passed colorful student art pieces and bulletin boards that shared Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy. After dropping children in the school cafeteria for arts and crafts, parents headed toward classrooms to meet with teachers for conferences.

Last fall, Positive Tomorrows witnessed 70 percent of families participating in parent-teacher conferences, a time when parents learned about their child’s progress in the private school serving Oklahoma City homeless youth in kindergarten through fifth grades.

“We provide that extra attention and a real in-depth look at their child,” said Susan Agel, the school’s president and principal. “That piece is very helpful for parents.”

At Positive Tomorrows, teachers educate 58 students while social workers assist their families with finding shelter, food, clothing and jobs. After meeting basic needs, parents are encouraged to take part in activities to enhance involvement in their child’s education.

School leaders believe parental involvement is a key indicator of a child’s success.

When Agel hears parents talk about education savings accounts, or ESAs, the comments are favorable toward the concept in school choice. ESAs give parents the option to design a custom education for their children at taxpayer expense. Proponents say they empower families to explore education options and make decisions that best match their child’s needs.

Two sides

For parents, determining what’s best for a child is a well-known lesson exercised when making decisions about food, toys, clothing and more. However, finances can limit many when it comes to school choice.

“The underlying message with ESAs is what it does for the parents,” said Renee Porter, who works for Scissortail Community Development Corporation, an economic development nonprofit corporation. The group operates ChoiceMatters, a program to inform parents of education options in Oklahoma.

“It gives every child out there an opportunity to find a quality education, whatever that looks like for them, and make a choice,” Porter said. “It is not about what type of school, but where that quality seat is.”

For the third consecutive year, Oklahoma lawmakers are reviewing proposals for ESAs. Rep. Jason Nelson, R-Oklahoma City, and Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, lead the efforts and call for the state to deposit revenue it would have spent educating a youth in a public school into a debit card controlled by parents.

The funds can go toward private school tuition, tutoring, textbooks, college entrance exam fees and extracurricular activities.

However, the school choice plan doesn’t impress most educators. In fact, among education advocates, the term “voucher” is used to describe an ESA. School vouchers are state-funded scholarships that pay students to attend private schools rather than public schools, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a bipartisan group.

“Overwhelmingly, Oklahomans don’t want their tax dollars going to private schools for vouchers,” said Alicia Priest, president of Oklahoma Education Association, which advocates for education reform and appropriate funding for public schools.

“One of the main reasons is there is no accountability. There is no creditable research that shows students participating in voucher programs improve their academic abilities.

“We do have proof, when properly funded, public education provides successful outcomes. We are getting more bang for our buck if we invest in public education for our students.”

Comparatively speaking

Currently, five states operate ESA programs. Arizona created the nation’s first program in 2011. Florida followed three years later. This school year, Mississippi, Nevada and Tennessee also enacted programs.

Of those states, only Nevada opened its ESA program to all students attending public schools. Last month, the program launched with 96 percent of the state’s students eligible.

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photos by Ga rett fi s bec k / fi le

By Laura Eastes

Clark Jolley speaks during a recent public forum about proposed education spending accounts bill at Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School.

However, ESAs are on hold due to legal challenges. A lawsuit brought by a group of Nevada parents and another by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada (ACLU) are still being worked by the courts. Parents said the program reduces public school funding below mandated levels. The ACLU opposes efforts to divert taxpayer money to religious schools.

Other states restrict ESAs for students with special needs. Arizona lawmakers expanded the program to adopted children, children of activeduty military personnel, students on Native American reservations and youth assigned to district schools with D or F ratings, as well as siblings of eligible students.

This school year, more than 5,000 students are using ESAs in those five states, according to The Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based libertarian think tank.

More than half of states across the nation offer traditional vouchers and tax-credit scholarships. The Sooner State offers Oklahoma Equal Opportunity Education Scholarships and Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarships for Students with Disabilities.

The Henry scholarship, a voucher for students with disabilities, faces legal challenges and awaits a decision by the

Oklahoma Supreme Court. Plaintiffs said the law violates the Oklahoma Constitution by allowing public funds to go to private, religious institutions.

The legislation

Called the Education Savings Account Act, House Bill 2949 would allow parents to apply for accounts that would hold between 30 and 90 percent of perpupil funds received through a state aid formula. The exact percentage depends on family income.

Funds could be transferred to an “eligible private school, virtual school or virtual coursework provider, or eligible postsecondary institution,” HB 2949 states.

The act, authored by Nelson, calls for establishing a toll-free telephone number and website to provide information about the programs, private schools and providers. Students must take course work in English, math, social studies and science. For special needs students, families can select an education programs.

ESAs would be available to new state residents and Henry scholarship participants. Youths who attend private schools or are homeschooled are not eligible. continued on next page

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The public listens during a recent ESA forum led by two state legislators who are proposing separate ESA bills.

Parents would apply annually and submit results of a nationally standardized, norm-referenced achievement test with renewal applications. Additionally, parents would be required to sign sworn statements to adhere to the law. The Office of the Attorney General would investigate allegations of misused funds.

Senate Bill 609, authored by Jolley, remains active after it was pulled last session. The bill is similar but doesn’t allow new residents to apply for ESAs and allows parents to enroll children in other public school districts and charter schools. SB 609 would allow parents to utilize 80 percent of per-pupil funding; 20 percent would remain at home districts.

Education proponents like Oklahoma Education Association voiced concerns over the proposals.

“When you take funding away from public schools to send a student — with tax dollars — to a private school, the public school still has to have heat and air,” said Priest, the leader of 35,000 retired and current school employees. “They have to have a teacher in the classroom. They have to have the building. They have to have counselors, librarians and take care of all the mandates that the state has placed on public education.”

The ESA legislation comes as lawmakers cut revenue dollars to common education and enrollment continues to climb. State formula funding for public schools remains $198 million below fiscal year 2008 levels.

Porter said Scissortail Community Development Corporation supports ESAs and said public schools will not be financially impacted.

“ESA bills are structured so that, while a student would no longer be in the school … a percentage would stay within the school,” Porter said. “The child is no longer there to be educated.”

She said ESAs alleviate school crowding by lowering class sizes.

Neither bill addresses situations

in which a family chooses an ESA, but later decides to return to their neighborhood school district, Priest said.

“The funding doesn’t follow back to the public school,” she said. “It’s already spent.”

An analysis by Oklahoma Citybased 1889 Institute, a state policy think tank that endorses ESAs, suggests ESAs might cover only a portion of private school tuition. For the 2015-16 school year, the average fifth-grader brought $3,079.60 to his or her school, based on the state’s perpupil funding formula.

Average private school tuition in Oklahoma is $5,853, according to private school information site PrivateSchoolReview.com.

“Covering this gap may be very difficult for many families,” Byron Schlomach and Vance H. Fried wrote in Designing an Education Savings Account in 2016. “Schools could help by providing scholarships. Some might go further and implement cost cutting measures to allow a reduction in tuition.”

Opportunities

Officials described a bright future for 25-year-old Positive Tomorrows if ESA legislation is signed into law.

The school operates on a $1.4 million operating budget. About $75,000 comes from government sources, such as the National School Lunch Program.

Supported by private donations, the tuition-free school serves a youth population in deep poverty. Last year, it turned away 75 children.

If parents brought ESA cards to registration, the school could expand to reach more children.

“When people think of us, they often think about who we serve and the sad stories,” Agel said. “When you walk the halls, you don’t get the feeling this is a sad place. You meet children who love to come to school. They have smiles on their faces. This is a real positive place.”

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news education

Reading joy A new literacy program comes with the community’s help through Oklahoma City Schools Compact.

Less than a month after school board members agreed to the Oklahoma City Schools Compact to improve student performance and achieve the district goals, thousands of students received their first look at what was in store.

The compact, a partnership among Oklahoma City Public Schools (OKCPS), the City of Oklahoma City and three community organizations, will first focus on literacy through its Citywide Literacy Campaign.

With the campaign, district officials rolled out a new tool to help teach youth to read: myON digital library.

The online, interactive library features thousands of e-books for students in pre-kindergarten to 12th grade. With myON, students can log in to their subscriptions at home, afterschool programs or any place with wireless Internet. The myON reader allows those without Internet access to download and save titles to read later.

The program operates like Netflix, the movie and television show streaming service, said Gretchen Jordan, a myON implementation manager working with OKCPS. When students create accounts, they complete a survey to test for reading comprehension. Also, students answer questions about what they like to read. Based on those results, myON tailors book lists.

“We really match students to texts,” Jordan said. “We know kids will read more when they are reading what they want to read.”

First launched in 2011, myON is primarily for school districts.

In August, the company reported 6 million students and educators logging into the system. That number has likely increased with the addition of more school districts and Indiana families. In January, the Indiana Department of Education announced an initiative to give all families and their children access to myON.

Removing barriers

Building reading skills takes place in the classroom, but practice must occur at home. Often, teachers and staff know students who don’t have home access to books. myON removes that barrier, as youth can access accounts on computers, tablets or parents’

smartphones. About 64 percent of Americans own a smartphone, according to Pew Research Center.

Unlike checking books out at a library, once a student gets to the last page, they can immediately begin reading another e-book.

“Students need enormous quantities of reading to become independent successful readers,” said Lynn Barnes, OKCPS executive director of prekindergarten through 12th grade academics. “Not just reading, but feeling successful at reading. In order for them to feel successful, they’ve got to log many hours of reading at school and at home.”

For younger readers, myON enhances e-book options with audio, and text is highlighted as youth follow along. Additionally, a dictionary helps students understand new vocabulary.

The program also offers Englishand Spanish-language titles.

Parents and teachers can log on to view progress, and teachers can set grade-level filters to ensure e-book results are age-appropriate.

At OKCPS, myON will benefit students who read above grade level by providing titles that might not have a place in the school library.

For those who fall below basic grade level, myON allows anonymity.

Students view electronic screens, unlike reading with traditional books with covers that might discourage or embarrass readers and further set them back academically.

District leaders predict myON will raise student achievement and ultimately close the existing achievement gap among student groups across the district.

“That achievement gap starts to close and they get confidence in reading,” Barnes said. “That moves them forward in becoming stronger readers.”

By next fall, students at 55 district schools will have access to myON. Currently, students at 24 schools use the tool through a pilot program.

Compact partnership

The Oklahoma City Schools Compact is a partnership with the city, The Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools, United Way of Central

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PROVIDED

By Laura Eastes

Young students read myON selections on their electronic devices. The program offers thousands of age-appropriate, customized titles for schools.

Oklahoma and Greater Oklahoma City Chamber. The groups are working together to solve specific challenges and strengthen education in the community.

Each of the five groups has two representatives on the compact’s advisory board. Additionally, advisory committees tackle various issues and recommend policy to the advisory board. The OKCPS board of education reviews those recommendations.

The compact’s goal is to create community ownership of schools.

With the Citywide Literacy Campaign, school and library officials also are working together to create a program granting all students cards for the Metropolitan Library System.

Barnes said more literacy initiatives will be introduced into schools as business and nonprofit leaders continue

to work through the compact.

Firsthand experience

Aurora Lora, OKCPS associate superintendent, encountered myON at another district before arriving in Oklahoma City in the last academic year.

In her experience, myON gets students excited about books.

Specifically, she recounted middle school boys enthralled by zombie novels.

Her former students didn’t want to put away their electronic devices; as a result, they were reading after school and on weekends.

Lora said OKCPS will see similar results, which will boost student learning.

“It is the key to us closing the achievement gap in this district,” she said.

INTEGRIS AND MAYO

CLINIC Justice Alma Wilson SeeWorth Academy sees success by teaching students to lead and encourage each other.

m a rk ha n coc k

Golden rule Students browse the library at Justice Alma Wilson SeeWorth Academy’s south campus, 3806 N. Prospect Ave.

By Brett Dickerson

Editor’s note: As discussions continue about discipline and whether there are enough alternative schools and programs to meet unique needs of some students in Oklahoma City public schools, Oklahoma Gazette explores alternative paths available that help students graduate high school with the skills needed to enter adulthood.

This story is part of an ongoing series.

Justice Alma Wilson SeeWorth Academy was launched in 1998 by its namesake to reach out and embrace youth who were having the hardest of times. The school still embraces that mission.

SeeWorth accepts any student who wants to complete their K-12 education. It might be an unusual model for a charter school, but it’s one director Janet Griggs takes pride in.

“I can always count on Janet Griggs to take a student that no one else is ready to take,” said Teri Bell, executive director of student support services for Oklahoma City Public Schools.

Under Bell’s direction, the district’s alternative education committee recommends programs for students in the district who have been suspended. It is a crucial juncture for youths left adrift in uncertainty, especially about their futures.

Some spend time in short-term alternative settings before returning to

their home schools.

However, some don’t want to return, and others might not be allowed to. SeeWorth public-charter alternative school might be the lifeboat those students need.

Once a student arrives at SeeWorth, they are expected to behave responsibly. Students there understand it’s their opportunity to finish school.

Its atmosphere is a unique mix of care and attention enhanced by the encouragement and leadership of its students.

Student leaders

Leadership Group members show positive leadership within the student body. Before being accepted into the group, they work hard to improve their grades.

Its president is Rubin Avila, who has been at SeeWorth for four years and knows firsthand the positive outcomes that can come from the program.

But he wasn’t always a positive leader.

“I’ve changed a lot. … When I first came here, if someone said something, I would get up in their face,” Avila said. “I’ve been to schools where you go to the office mad and they just send you home. Here, you stay with a counselor and talk.”

Group members are trained to reach out to students and foster immediate connections as they arrive at the school. Student leadership at

SeeWorth is key. The school has found success in training student leaders to encourage others to achieve from within instead of just to please adults.

Seeing potential

Many SeeWorth teachers also have found ways to nurture student potential. Music instructor and 12-year veteran Henry Rice is one of them.

He said that “seeing and inspiring potential” is how a teacher moves a student forward.

“Man, I just love to see potential, no matter how small it is,” Rice said.

Rice’s students practiced “I’m Going to Succeed,” a song Abreyanna Shealy wrote several years ago, in seventh grade, after she arrived at the school.

Comparing who she was then and is now, she spoke about how she changed since arriving at SeeWorth.

Her story is similar to those of many of her peers.

“I was disrespectful; I didn’t like to listen to anybody. I had a hard time understanding the truth sometimes, but I worked through it,” Shealy said.

“SeeWorth has helped me a lot with that.”

Another of Rice’s students, Shania Richard, summed up how many feel about the school.

“SeeWorth is my family,” Richard said.

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Chicken

Fried news

Jail best

You’ve heard the phrase “Sunday best” describing one’s “best” clothes to wear to church.

Well, now you’ve heard about “jail best” describing one’s nicest and cleanest clothes to wear to the county jail.

We at ChickenFried News learned of “jail best” thanks to Kenneth James Hodge.

The 33-year-old man was accused of home burglary in southwest Oklahoma City in late January, according to NewsOK.com.

Before his arrest, Hodge engaged in a standoff with OKC police. He allegedly “locked himself in the house, took a shower, put on fresh clothes, drank several cans of soda and put his dirty clothes in the washing machine before surrendering peacefully to officers,” NewsOK reported.

Like church, there are many reasons to look your best.

During police booking, a photo will be taken, which becomes public record — anyone can pull the arrest record and pic.

Oh, don’t pretend you’ve never laughed after viewing a celebrity mug shot on PerezHilton.com, The Lost Ogle or Okjailbirds.

That might have been what Hodge was thinking.

“Oh no! I am going to be arrested.

Grandma will see my photo in Okjailbirds when she gets her lottery ticket at the gas station. Gotta look my best.”

For all we know, Hodge was just really exhausted from the break-in and needed a little pick-me-up in the form of a caffeinated beverage.

Edmond are adding voluntary earthquake safety drills to students’ routines.

Meanwhile, we’re still waiting on the state to come up with a comprehensive tornado shelter system for our schools. Remember tornados?

Big, swirly winds that keep destroying our stuff? We’ve only been dealing with those forever.

Edmond students are taught to drop down, get under their desks and protect their heads when the earth starts shaking. It’s actually the same safety precautions kids in the 1950s were taught in case of a nuclear

Shaky safety

“What about the children?” is a common battle cry in politics, so it’s a little puzzling that Oklahoma’s governor and legislators are twiddling their thumbs when it comes protecting kids from the ground beneath us.

School administrators in

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Numbers game

Breaking news: Oklahomans are worried about the state economy!

In a recent News 9/News on 6 poll of more than 1,000 likely voters, conducted in partnership with SoonerPoll.com, almost a third of the responders identified the economy and employment as the biggest problem facing the state. It was the top response in the poll. Education funding was second with 17.3 percent.

It’s not a surprise to see financial concerns at the top of voters’ minds.

Open a newspaper to a random page and you’ll probably be reading about the threat of a nine- to 10-figure budget hole or state-funded programs on virtual life support.

In the same poll, nearly 40 percent of Oklahomans said common education

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attack, but it’s probably more useful in this context.

Why are these voluntary? Shouldn’t every school be doing this?

One potential problem: With so many earthquakes, kids might not have time to get off the floor and learn.

Where

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should be the state’s No. 1 funding priority. The next closest response was “not sure” at 19.7 percent.

Not sure or impossible to say? The state faces fiscal tragedy at a time when investment in several areas is sorely needed. Roads and infrastructure, corrections and healthcare all have pressing needs with a financial remedy.

How do you split a dollar that isn’t there? Let’s see the poll results on that one.

Pubic enemy

Marriage license applicants with “the gift that keeps on giving” might want to think twice about trying to tie the knot in Oklahoma.

It sounds absurd — because it is — but that didn’t stop a state lawmaker from proposing applicants be required to file proof that a licensed physician found them free of syphilis or “other

communicable or infectious diseases” before an application can be approved (Senate Bill 733).

“This new law would require you to file with the court clerk the results of this test which the whole world could see,” Attorney David Slane recently told News9.com. “It seems to me that would violate people’s real privacy rights.”

Chicken-Fried News writers aren’t attorneys, but it seems obvious that requiring private couples to enter sensitive health information into the public record would violate Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPPA, regulations.

“We have to look at that as a society whether we want people who have communicable diseases, they need to know if they have it, and I think this is a mechanism to provide them to do that,” Sen. Kyle Loveless told the TV news station.

He also admitted the bill

needs work.

Like, you know, addressing the privacy thing.

And, you know, the fact that people with treatable infections, like syphilis, once treated, would be free to marry, but folks with viral infections like herpes, HPV or HIV would be permanently banned from doing so in this state.

An estimated one in six Americans age 14 to 49 have genital herpes, according to the CDC.

Terrible turnpike

Residents of eastern Oklahoma County, which includes smaller towns like Jones and Choctaw, voiced their concerns at a meeting of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA) about a turnpike expansion that affects their quiet property.

“This is not why people move to eastern Oklahoma County,” said homeowner Amber Polach at the meeting.

Landowner Harold

Manwell, who owns 600 acres, is afraid the turnpike will cut through his property.

Homeowner Nan Burns said she “moved to the green belt, not to the truck belt.” Local citizens held up signs saying, “Stop the OTA landgrab” and “Forcing people to sell their property is theft!”

But not all residents are against the expansion.

Choctaw Mayor Randy Ross said the turnpike is vital for the economy of the community and will keep it alive, and U.S. Congressman Steve Russell, who owns land in Choctaw, encouraged those at the meeting to think of the needs of the community.

“Sometimes you have to balance the need for the country, the need for the nation, with the needs of the individual.

In this case, it could be my home,” Russell said.

OTA said it will work harder to communicate more clearly and listen to homeowners’ fears and will hold public hearings in the next few months.

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LETTERS Oklahoma Gazette provides an open forum for the discussion of all points of view in its Letters to the Editor section. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity.

Letters can be mailed, faxed, emailed to jchancellor@okgazette.com or sent online at okgazette.com. Include a city of residence and contact number for verification.

Semantic debate

Wilhelm Murg’s article (Life, Culture, “Reclaiming ancestry,” Jan. 6, Oklahoma Gazette) tells us, “The term ‘redskin’ comes from the early days of white settlement on the continent, when trading companies, colonies and some states put a bounty on Native Americans.”

This information was apparently supplied by Suzan Shown Harjo, the subject of the article, since she has presented it in many other forums in recent years.

Linguists consider the “bloody scalp” theory to be the least likely of all reported origins for the expression.

The origin of the term was extensively researched by Ives Goddard, senior linguist in the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in his paper, I am a RedSkin: The Adoption of a Native American Expression (1769–1826). The paper is readily available online at anthropology. si.edu/goddard.

Goddard makes the point that the expression, although widely considered disparaging now, was originally benign and had nothing to do with “bloody scalps or bodies of dead Native Americans.” It was a reference used by early settlers (and often by Native Americans) to describe the appearance of Native Americans.

Murg refers to this “definition” as though it were a settled fact. My

concern is that this unsubstantiated “history” of the word has been repeated so often that it is in danger of becoming accepted as true.

— Ethan Thomas Edmond Thank you

Thank you for the article written in support of teachers (Opinion, Commentary, “The truth about teacher pay,” Jennifer Chancellor, Dec. 30, Oklahoma Gazette).

— Eileen Mathena, Oklahoma City Public Schools teacher Yukon Not facts

Earthquakes. Extreme weather events, and drought.

Mental illness and the proliferation of prescription drugs.

The infestation of handguns and military-style handheld weapons.

These are the things that we need to be scared of in 2016 and beyond.

Not what Republicans, preachers and televangelists have historically taught us to fear.

Not dancing, rock ’n’ roll or rap. Not liquor-by-the-drink on Sunday.

Not hippies or atheists.

Not marijuana or LSD. Not Obamacare, welfare, food stamps or public transportation.

Not Obama.

Not Mexicans or Syrians.

Not refugees.

Not Muslims, or whomever is not your religion.

Not same-sex couples.

Not history, science or astronomy.

Not what right-wing radio jocks and Fox News tell you.

Not facts.

— Danny Smith Guthrie Chewed over

I never thought I’d see a cover story on veganism, but there it was in the Jan. 20 issue (Life, Food & Drink, “Giving up,” Greg Elwell, Gazette). While it had some good information and gave Ryan Parrott and Picasso Cafe their due, I have some issues with the piece.

First, there is a semantic problem. “vegan” is difficult to define because it means different things to different people. People who identify as vegan have a personal combination of concern in three interconnected areas: health, animal welfare and environment.

However, “vegan” does not necessarily equal “healthy.” One can eat animal-free and get sick existing on a diet of lots of processed, sugary and fatty foods.

“Plant-based” is a better term. The article misses the mark by not featuring Jimmy and Andrea Conway and their labor of love, Plant Based OKC. The Conways have been giving a monthly presentation, Nutrition 101, to standing-room-only crowds at a southside hospital and added a monthly forum at Rococo’s Northpark location.

Conway, a local orthopedic surgeon, reversed his heart condition by following the whole-food, plant-based (WFPB), oil-free diet featured in the popular documentary Forks Over Knives.

The powerful message is that the most common chronic diseases — heart, diabetes, cancer and others — are lifestyle conditions that can be reversed or prevented by adopting the WFPB lifestyle, and the Conways help mentor those who wish to try it. There have already been many success stories.

Second, the cover’s subtitle, “How to find healthy eats in this cow town,” really didn’t give much of a guide. It paints a picture that plant-based diners go into a fog trying to figure where to eat because there are only a handful of options. Not true. It’s not that difficult, and options abound.

Ethnic cuisines like Mediterranean, Asian and Indo-Pakistani are always go-to places, and plant-based dining options continue to expand. Many chefs like Parrott are happy to include WFPB cooking in their repertoire. Whole Foods Market was left out of the article; while it’s big and a chain, one cannot deny that picking up food from there is easy. Heck, Whole Foods’ four-pillar eating guide is a WFPB plan.

Third, chef Nicole Diaz says that the metro doesn’t have a vegan community.

Not true. She can look on Facebook and find Plant Based OKC, Vegetarians of Oklahoma, No Meat Athletes and Red Dirt Vegans.

OKC will change for the better as more people change their approach to the plate.

— Louis Green Oklahoma City Correction

A story in the Jan. 27 issue of Oklahoma Gazette (Food, “Food briefs,” Greg Elwell) included an incorrect address. The address of Klemm’s Smoke Haus is 2000 S. Broadway in Edmond. We apologize for the error.

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Nominate your favorite local musicians, venues and more for bi gstoc k.com

okg picks are events

recommended by Oklahoma Gazette editorial staff members.

For full calendar listings, go to okgazette.com.

BOOKS

Ballot opeNs March 2

Second Sunday Poetry Reading, featuring Oklahoma Poet Laureate Benjamin Myers, along with light refreshments, 2 p.m., Feb. 14. Norman Santa Fe Depot, 200 S. Jones Ave., Norman, 307-9320, pasnorman. org. SUN

okgazette.com

Story Time With Julie, kid-friendly storytime with the latest children’s books, 10:15 -11 a.m., Feb. 13. Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 842-2900, fullcirclebooks.com. SAT

Winners will be announced in Soundcheck Annual Music Focus Issue Publishing April 6th

Call 405.528.6000 for information and advertising opportunities

FILM 2016 Academy Award-Nominated Live Action Short Films, see live-action Academy Award short film nominees, 5:30 p.m., Feb. 11. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 236-3100, okcmoa.com. FRI 2016 Academy Award-Nominated Documentary Short Films, watch action Academy Award short documentary nominees, 8 p.m., Feb. 11 Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 236-3100, okcmoa.com. SUN 45 Years, (US, 2015, dir. Andrew Haigh) A married couple preparing to celebrate their wedding anniversary receive shattering news that promises to change the course of their lives; featuring Academy Award nominee for Best Actress Charlotte Rampling, 5:30 & 8 p.m., Feb. 12 & 13; 2 & 5:30 p.m., Feb. 14. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 236-3100, okcmoa.com. FRI-SUN James Herman Banning, a documentary about James Herman Banning, the first African American to fly from coast to coast across the United States, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Feb. 13. Oklahoma History Center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive, 521-2491, okhistory.org/historycenter. SAT 2016 Academy Award-Nominated Animated Short Films, before watching the Oscars, watch animated Academy Award short film nominees in one place, 2 p.m., Feb. 13. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 236-3100, okcmoa.com. FRI Damaged, celebrate Black History Month with this 1984 cult musical starring His Royal Badness as a kid from the streets trying to make it in the music biz, despite adversity from all angles, 7 p.m., Feb. 16. District House, 1755 NW 16th St., 633-1775, districthouseokc.com. TUE

HAPPENINGS Agency Speed Dating, networking and learning event for those looking for an internship, job or to meet industry professionals, 6 p.m., Feb. 11. Tapwerks Ale House & Cafe, 121 E. Sheridan Ave., 319-9599, tapwerks.com. THU

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Love Connection Party Are you looking for a love connection? Well, Saturday is your lucky day. FlashBack RetroPub, 814 W. Sheridan Ave., throws a singles party and hosts a game of Blind Date — one guy and one girl will select a date from three eligible singles. To participate in Blind Date, send FlashBack RetroPub a message through Facebook at facebook.com/FlashBackRetroPub. The party starts 8 p.m. Saturday. Visit flashbackretropub.com.

Saturday

Galentine’s Pop-Up Shop, support several female vendors and artists from Oklahoma City along with a photo-booth and refreshments, 4-9 p.m., Feb. 12. Bison Shop, 1745F4 NW 16th Street, shopbisonshop.com. SAT Live! on the Plaza, join the Plaza District every second Friday monthly for an art walk featuring artists, live music, pop-up shops, live performances, and more, 7-11 p.m., Feb. 12. Plaza District, 1618 N. Gatewood Ave., 367-9403, plazadistrict.org. FRI Tunnel of Love Haunted Attraction, originated in the early 1900s as a socially accepted excuse for couples to have physical contact; the Tunnel of Love is a mostly dark passage with hidden surprises around each corner. Guests will be given LED torch lamps and must navigate though the twists of this four-story building, 8 p.m., Feb. 12-13, The Sanctuary OKC, 12101 N. 1-35 Service Road, 237-2803, PR OVID ED

March 2–March 15

Story Time, children’s story time with the book, Love Monster and the Last Chocolate by Rachel Bright, 11 a.m., Feb. 13, Barnes & Noble, 6100 N. May Ave., 843-9300, barnesandnoble.com. SAT

thesanctuaryokc.com. FRI-SAT Sweet Sensations, learn how to make that special someone’s heart melt while sampling chocolate and a signature massage oil blend; discover what’s really going on in the brain and body when you entice all the senses and why romance really is a sweet science, 2-3 p.m., Feb. 13. Natural Grocers, 7001 N. May Ave., 8400300, naturalgrocers.com. SAT Monster Jam, Monster Jam trucks are custom-designed machines with 66-inch-tall tires and weigh a minimum of 10,000 pounds, 2 & 7 p.m., Feb. 13; 2 p.m., Feb. 14.

Chesapeake Energy Arena, 100 W. Reno Ave., 602-8700, chesapeakearena.com. SAT-SUN

Beetlejuice: The Photography of Artist Johnny Trammell Say it three times and you won’t forget. Beetlejuice: The Photography of Artist Johnny Trammell features a mixture of work from the Chickasha artist. The opening reception begins 7 p.m. Saturday inside Nesbitt Gallery, located in Davis Hall on the west side of the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma campus, 1727 W. Alabama Ave., in Chickasha. Admission is free.

The exhibit is on display 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday through March 11. Visit usao.edu/gallery for upcoming scheduled events.

Saturday-Wednesday, Feb. 17, ongoing

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b i gstoc k.com

Fairytale Takeover Saturdays in February, set yourself on a self-guided adventure at Myriad Botanical Gardens’ Crystal Bridge Topical Conservatory, 301 W. Reno Ave. Anytime between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., youth ages 5-9 can enjoy a fairytalethemed scavenger hunt and other activities with characters from the story. Walk-ups are welcome.

In addition to admission to Crystal Bridge, $1 donation is suggested for each guest. Visit myriadbotanicalgardens.com or call 445-7080.

Saturday, ongoing Carte Blanche, a fun party with all vinyl DJ’s, Carte Blanche; hear a variety of records ranging from Disco to Deep House Electronic, 9 p.m., Feb. 13. The Pump, 2425 N. Walker Ave., 702-8898, pumpbar.net. SAT Deceptive Orchids: Survival of the Trickiest, one-of-a-kind show of orchids displayed in a number of clever and whimsical ways that help illustrate their deceptive nature, Feb. 14-17. Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory, 301 W. Reno Ave., 297-3995, myriadgardens.com. SAT-WED

FOOD Cool Season Vegetables Seminar, get your gardens ready for cool-season crops; learn the best methods for planting onions, potatoes, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, peas and more, 1:30-3 p.m., Feb. 11. OSU Cooperative Extension, 930 North Portland Ave., 744-5398, oces.okstate.edu. THU An Italian Journey, chef Denise Onorati will take you on a journey through Italy with a menu including: cheesy bread, Italian bread soup, spinach strawberry salad with poppy seed vinaigrette, pork medallions with fennel onion sauce served with a classic risotto, 6:30 p.m., Feb. 11. The International Pantry, 1618 W. Lindsey St., Norman, 360-0765, intlpantry.com. THU Cheese, Chocolate, & Champagne, a special Valentine’s day course; enjoy cheese, chocolate and champagne with your special person and walk away prepared to create your own triple-threat pairings, 6:45, Feb. 12 & 13. Forward Foods, 2001 W. Main St., Norman, 321-1007, forwardfoods.com.

FRI-SAT Farmers Market, public market featuring locally produced fruits, vegetables, wines, meats, baked goods, clothing and more, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Feb. 13.

OKC Farmers Public Market, 311 S. Klein Ave., 2326506, okcfarmersmarket.com. SAT

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Friday, March 4

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Advertise your SPIRITED BUSINESS in Gazette’s

P R OVI D ED

continued

The annual focus issue celebrating PLACES TO GO, PEOPLE TO SEE and THINGS TO DRINK! Call your account executive at 405.528.6000 or email specialsections@okgazette.com to reserve your ad space today

Behind Closed Doors RACE Dance Company, Oklahoma’s first professional company focused on jazz, hip-hop and contemporary dance, crafted a show focused on sensual movement and human connection just in time for Valentine’s weekend. Behind Closed Doors, a burlesque-inspired show celebrating the physical form and sexual confidence, is 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday at the ACM@UCO Performance Lab, 329 E. Sheridan Ave. Tickets are $25 and are available at tickets.racedance.com. Guests must be at least 18 years old to attend.

Saturday Whodunit Dinner Theater: Final Idol, dinner and a comedic murder mystery play involving the audience, 6:15 p.m., Feb. 13. Ted’s Escondido Cafe Event Center Annex, 6900 N. May Ave., 420-3222, whodunit.net. SAT Kind Desserts, raw, vegan and gluten-free desserts; Learn how to feel good about indulging by swapping out traditional ingredients for healthier ones without sacrificing flavor, 3-4 p.m., Feb. 14. Natural Grocers, 7001 N. May Ave., 840-0300, naturalgrocers.com. SUN

YOUTH The Giver, when Jonas turns 12, he is chosen for special training from The Giver, who is the only person who holds the memories of real pain and real joy; Jonas learns the truth about life, 11 a.m., Feb. 11; 11 a.m. & 8 p.m., Feb. 12; 8 p.m., Feb. 13. Oklahoma Children’s Theatre, 2501 N. Blackwelder Ave., 606-7003, oklahomachildrenstheatre.org. THU-SAT We Heart Animals, how your love for the Zoo residents and make special treats for your animal friends, 2-3 p.m., Feb. 13. Oklahoma City Zoo, 2000 Remington Pl., 424-3344, okczoo.com. SAT Tiny Tuesdays: Snow, Snow, Snow!, join guest artist for a come-and-go, open-ended art making geared toward children ages 2-5, with a parent or caregiver, 10 a.m.-noon, Feb. 16. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 236-3100, okcmoa.com. TUE

PERFORMING ARTS Adele Wolf’s Burlesque & Variety Show, celebrate Valentine’s Day with the sultry art of the striptease and amazing variety acts; celebrate love and romance in a show complete with door prizes, photo booth, audience participation games and more at the 4th Annual Valentine’s Day show, 9 p.m., Feb. 13. Oklahoma Contemporary, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., OK, 9510000, oklahomacontemporary.org. SAT Avenue Q, Tony Award-winning musical Avenue Q is part flesh, part felt and packed with heart; a laugh-out-loud musical that tells the timeless story of a recent college grad who moves into a shabby New York apartment on Avenue Q, 7:30 p.m., Feb. 12; 1:30 & 7:30 p.m., Feb. 13; 1:30 & 7 p.m., Feb. 14.

Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave., 297-2264, okcciviccenter.com. FRI-SUN Mann ... and Wife, romantic comedy in which Henry Mann searches for the perfect date to his ex-fiance’s

1 6 | F e b r ua r y 1 0 , 2 0 1 6 | O k l a h o m a G a z e t t e

wedding, 7:30 p.m., Feb. 10 & 11; 8 p.m., Feb. 12; 2 & 8 p.m., Feb. 13; 2 p.m., Feb. 14.. Lyric Theatre, 1727 NW 16th St., 524-9312, lyrictheatreokc.com. WED-SUN Kinky Boots, the Tony Award-winning show of a shoe factory owner and Lola, a fabulous entertainer as they prove that when you change your mind about someone, you can change your world, 7:30 p.m., Feb. 10-11; 8 p.m., Feb. 12; 2 & 8 p.m., Feb. 13; 2 & 7 p.m., Feb. 14. Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave., 297-2264, okcciviccenter.com. WED-SUN Chad Daniels, standup comedy performance, 8 p.m., Feb. 10 & 11, 14; 8 & 10:30 p.m., Feb. 12 & 13 Loony Bin Comedy Club, 8503 N. Rockwell Ave., 239-4242, loonybincomedy.com. WED-SAT Metropolitan Opera Rising Stars, experience remarkable young artists on the cusp of extraordinary careers, featuring several young singers, accompanied by piano, in popular arias, duets, and ensembles by opera’s greatest composers, 7:30 p.m., Feb. 11. Oklahoma City Community College, 7777 S. May Ave., 682-1611, occc.edu. THU The Last Five Years, An emotionally powerful musical about two New Yorkers in their 20s who fall in and out of love over five years, 7:30 p.m., Feb. 11; 8 p.m., Feb. 12; 2 & 8 p.m., Feb. 13; 3 p.m., Feb. 14. Poteet Theatre, 222 NW 15th St., 609-1023, poteettheatre.com. THU-SUN God of Carnage, Tony Award-winning, side-splitting comedy, written by Yasmina Reza and translated by Christopher Hampton; a comedy of manners, where the masks come off and the darkside of parenting is revealed, 8 p.m., Feb. 12 & 13; 2 p.m., Feb. 14. The Pollard Theatre, 120 W. Harrison Ave., Guthrie, 282-2800, thepollard.org. FRI-SUN Willis Alan Ramsey Valentine Tour, bring your “Angel Eyes” for an intimate listening performance by the legendary singer/songwriter Willis Alan Ramsey, 7:30 p.m., Feb. 13. Norman Music Institute, 2795 Broce Dr., Norman, 292-8400, normanmusicinstitute.com. SAT Live LOVE and Laugh, a night of comedy and music for everyone, 7:30 p.m., Feb. 14. ACM@UCO Performance Lab, 329 E. Sheridan Ave., 974-4700, acm.uco.edu. SUN

ACTIVE Bart & Nadia Sports Experience 2016, health and fitness related booths offering information on nutrition, health care, exercise, sports activities and more along with sports and other fitness activities for kids, 9 a.m.- 5 p.m., Feb. 13. Cox Convention Center, 1 Myriad Gardens, 602-8500, coxconventioncenter.com. SAT

2016 Frigid Five Miler, 21st annual five mile run, 9 a.m., Feb. 13. Mitch Park, 1501 W. Covell Road, Edmond, 359-4630, edmondok.com/parks. SAT OKC Riversport Runderground 5K, 5K that takes runners through downtown Oklahoma City’s underground tunnels, 12:30 p.m., Feb. 13. Cox Convention Center, 1 Myriad Gardens, 602-8500, coxconventioncenter.com. SAT OU Women’s Basketball, OU Sooners vs. Texas Longhorns, 1:30 p.m., Feb. 14. Lloyd Noble Center, 2900 S. Jenkins Ave., Norman, 325-4666, lloydnoblecenter.com. SUN Yoga in the Gardens, all-levels Vinyasa-style class, 5:45-6:45 p.m., Feb. 16. Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory, 301 W. Reno Ave., 297-3995, myriadgardens.com. TUE

VISUAL ARTS 2nd Friday Norman Art Walk, any Normanite will tell you this monthly event is a can’t-miss, and come early if you’re coming at all; offering free snacks, wine, live music, and local vendors, Art Walk is the best Norman has to offer all in one place, 6-9 p.m., Feb. 12 Downtown Norman, 122 East Main St. FRI Beth Hammack and Pat Edwards, February’s featured artists showcasing works in oil, watercolor, acrylic and mixed media The Studio Gallery, 2642 W. Britton Road, 752-2642, thestudiogallery.org.

Brilliant: The Light Show, art exhibit featuring multiple talented artists and different mediums of art; hinges on the realization that all of our visual arts are indebted to light, be it in a natural or man-made source, direct or indirect, sunlight or heat lamp. JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N. Walker Ave., 528-6336, jrbartgallery.com.

Forever More, photography exhibit by Alan Ball; a blend of photojournalism, candid and traditional portraiture with a bit of fantasy and artistic creation.

Contemporary Art Gallery, 2928 Paseo St., 601-7474, contemporaryartgalleryokc.com.

Petroglyphs for Modern Cave Dwellers, during his studies abroad in Kyoto, Japan, Jack Eure painted watercolor landscapes in Zen gardens and studied Japanese aesthetic philosophy; the abstract, nonrepresentational canvases in this exhibition reflect wabi sabi simplicity, asymmetry and roughness. IAO Art Gallery, 706 W. Sheridan Ave., 232-6060, iaogallery.org.

Photography by Alan Ball, see the scenery and portrait photography of Alan Ball through February.

50 Penn Place Gallery, 1900 Northwest Expressway, Suite 113-R, 848-5567, 50pennplacegallery.com.

Public Narrative: Story of Self, Us & Now, three-part exhibit that focuses on the idea of public narrative and its movement from our internal psyche to the collective group. Mainsite Contemporary Art, 122 E. Main St., Norman, 360-1162, mainsite-art.com.

Seeing Red, a collaborative show featuring works from each individual resident artist at In Your Eye Gallery; each original piece will spotlight the romantic color red using clay, photography, acrylics and oils. In Your Eye Gallery, 3005 Paseo St. #A. Shades of Red, works by gallery artists in different shades of red. The Purple Loft Art Gallery, 514 NW 28th St., Suite 400, 412-7066.

The Banjo World of Steve Martin, exhibit features a look at the musical side of one of America’s favorite entertainers and features his private collection.

American Banjo Museum, 9 E. Sheridan Ave., 6042793, americanbanjomuseum.com.

Through the Eyes of the Lynx: Galileo and Microscopy, the second of two Galileo’s World exhibitions; the Academy of the Lynx, or Accademia dei Lincei, were responsible for the first published report of observations made with a microscope (Apiarium, 1625), as well as with the telescope. At the same time Galileo was making his telescopic discoveries, he was also experimenting with lenses to magnify the small. Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, 2401 Chautauqua Ave., Norman, 325-4712, snomnh.ou.edu.

bi gsto ck.com

fresh stART, art show displaying artwork by artists who are experiencing homelessness. Paseo Gallery One, 2927 Paseo St., 524-4544, facebook.com/ paseogalleryone.

Native American Bolo Ties: Vintage and Contemporary Artistry, exhibition explores the bolo tie's unique Western history and revival. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org.

Furrever Love Find true love — the kind that makes tails wag and children laugh — at Oklahoma City Animal Shelter’s Furrever Love adoption special event noon5:45 p.m. through Valentine’s Day at 2811 SE 29th St. All visitors receive a free, heart-shaped ID tag for their fluffy friends. Saturday and Sunday features holiday-themed decor and events like a dog kissing booth and opportunities to get pictures taken with your pets. Adoption fees are $30.

For okg Visit okc.gov/animalwelfare or call 297-3100. music picks

Wednesday, Feb. 10-Sunday

see page 39

O k l a h o m a G a z e t t e | f e b r ua r y 1 0 , 2 0 1 6 | 1 7

life food & Drink

P HOTOS BY GARE TT FI S BE C K

Fettuccine carbonara

A mushroom Marsala burger at Bellini’s Underground

Bellini’s Underground

Under Water

6305 Waterford Blvd. | bellinisokc.com | 848-1065 What works: Fettuccine carbonara and mushroom Marsala burger.

Hidden under the Waterford, Bellini’s Underground combines excellent service with classic dishes.

What needs work: Pizza dough needs more oven time.

Tip: The menu on the website is not complete.

Call ahead to check on specific dishes.

By Greg Elwell

“How is the burger?” is an odd question to ask at an Italian restaurant.

But this is Oklahoma. It’s hard to find a restaurant here that doesn’t have a hamburger in it. That’s not a bad thing, by the way. I like burgers. A lot. And that is how one ends up looking over a menu with cured salmon salad and a crab, cauliflower and almond casserole and choosing a cheeseburger.

But this is Bellini’s Underground, 6305 Waterford Blvd., so when I see “8 oz. house grind Black Angus beef on brioche bun,” the ears on my stomach perk up.

As a rule, I don’t go to Italian restaurants and order American fare, but I had a feeling this would be different.

When my server asked how I would like my burger cooked, I knew I’d made the right choice.

The mushroom Marsala burger ($10) is a beast. The patty is almost too perfectly shaped, but one bite lets you know it’s not some mass-market beef hockey puck. It’s incredibly tender and cooked to a perfect medium (as I requested). The mozzarella on top is melted just right for the cheese to wrap around the beef, like a hug that won’t let go.

The Marsala wine sauce and sautéed mushrooms add a slightly sweet kick of umami flavor that had me floating. It is hard to savor a burger when you’re eating it like someone is about to take it away, so I recommend you slow down and really give each bite its due.

Going to a fancy-pants Italian restaurant just for the burger isn’t wrong, per se, but that’s far from the only dish worth the trip. I think the fettuccine carbonara ($19) is one of the most gorgeous plates of pasta I’ve seen in a long time. The fettuccine is strewn with crisp, thick-cut pancetta nibs and peas in a Parmesan cream sauce, with egg yolk mixed in.

When I ate there, the yolk was served in the shell, and it’s a beautiful presentation. But, bowing to customer suggestions, new owner Diana Buthion said the chefs will be mixing the yolk into the sauce in the kitchen.

But if you take joy in a little DIY, watching as the sauce gains a rich, yellow tinge, just ask your server and you can get it done the old way. The flavor is fantastic — rich and creamy and intoxicating.

I’d had high hopes for the arrosto cavolfiore ($13), which is a whole roasted cauliflower head served over a cheese fondue. Roasting brings out a nutty sweetness in cauliflower, but as visually appealing as the whole-head approach is, the vegetable’s surface area isn’t enough to take full advantage of the technique. The cheese sauce also needed a touch more salt to really stand out. As it was, the appetizer was a little bland. Don’t fret, though — management said this particular dish is not long for the menu.

The sea scallops orzo ($26) is also packing it in. The basil-caramel sauce adds a sweet herbaceous flavor to three large seared scallops and the

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lemon confit, which I found addictive.

The scallops were cooked perfectly throughout, solid but not chewy, though they needed a little extra work to get out the remaining grit. The tomato orzo was OK, but couldn’t hold up against the other, more intense tastes.

In its place are plenty of Italian favorites returning to the menu, including veal piccata, Buthion said.

Since I go to Italian restaurants and order burgers, are you even a little surprised that I also got some pizza? It’s so hard to resist when it has a name like Burning.

If you’d like a whole pizza, it’s $18 (or just $9 during Thunder games) and $10 at lunch for a half pie with a small salad.

Burning — no surprise — has a little kick with spicy ground beef, red onion, poblano peppers, red peppers and jalapeño with mozzarella and

Burning pizza

cheddar cheeses. But this isn’t going to destroy your taste buds or set your tongue aflame if you’ve got a reasonable tolerance for spice.

The dough was a little bland, and the bottom of the crust needed some more time on the grill to brown up, but the toppings were on point.

A brief word about the wait staff: In a restaurant with a laid-back feel like Bellini’s, it would be easy for the servers to slip into a lower gear. While their approach is genial and friendly, what stood out to me was their level of focus.

Coffee cups do not sit empty. Finished plates are quickly spirited away. And when a burly gentleman with a beard wants to order a drink called a Park Ave. Princess, the waitress is kind enough to bring it to him (me) and call it a Dragonslayer.

Bless you, kind server.

food briefs

ga rett fisbeck

by Greg Elwell

m a rk h a ncock

Arrivederci, Warehouse

Chocoholics unanimous

PROVIDED

Inspiration is key to a great meal, said Cafe 501 Classen Curve General Manager Margaret Holloway. That thinking has led to a series of well-received chef’s dinners at the Oklahoma City and Edmond locations of the restaurant.

“Cocktail dinners are when we let our personality come out,” Holloway said.

“The challenge is you can’t get too far off the edge.”

On Tuesday, the Classen Curve restaurant, 5825 NW Grand Blvd., is doing a five-course chocolate lovers dinner with craft cocktail pairings.

“Sometimes we come up with the food and want to pair it with a drink, and sometimes it’s the other way around,” Holloway said.

“Wine has always been the standard for pairings, but liquor can have a broad appeal.”

Tasting dinners like this one help people try things they never would and find new favorites, Holloway said — people who think they don’t like bourbon walk in and come out loving bourbon.

The meal is $59 per person and includes chocolate beerchipotle BBQ ribs, airline chicken with mole sauce and vegetable saffron rice and a dessert called A Kiss Goodnight.

Reservations are available at 844-1501 and are required.

It’s a “dine at your own pace” meal, which means that the set menu will be served all evening long.

Oscar dinner Every third Tuesday monthly, Picasso Cafe, 3009 Paseo St., holds a vegetarian dinner with wine pairings. The Feb. 16 menu is full of Oscar-themed foods, said chef Ryan Parrott.

“If we’re doing Italian food or whatever, you stay in that genre,” he said. “This is a little more fun on the creative side. We pulled an element from the movies to inspire a dish.”

Because Matt Damon’s character grew potatoes in The Martian, Parrott is doing a dish of potatoes three ways. For The Danish Girl, he designed a Danish bleu cheese salad. Beverage manager Johnny Walker has the tougher task, Parrott said. After he comes up with the dishes, it’s up to Walker to find wine pairings that work.

Reservations are required and available at 602-2002. The meal is $23 per person with added wine pairings for $10.

Right now, the restaurant only does one seating for the monthly vegetarian dinners.

Bricktown mainstay Spaghetti Warehouse abruptly closed its Oklahoma City location, 101 E. Sheridan Ave., earlier this month after more than 30 years in business.

A statement from the company said, “We are working closely with everyone on our staff, whose hard work and dedication is appreciated and we thank them for their many contributions.”

But employees leaving the business Feb. 1 said they weren’t given any advance warning. The Italian chain restaurant was one of the earliest businesses of Bricktown’s resurgence and outlasted many competitors.

Spaghetti Warehouse’s statement said, “We are hopeful that in the near future, we can reopen Spaghetti Warehouse within the Oklahoma City market.”

No replacement businesses for the multi-story Bricktown location have been announced.

Award saison Tulsa-based brewery Prairie Artisan Ales made a splash year at this year’s RateBeer Best Awards in Santa Rosa, California, and was named one of the top 100 breweries in the world for the third time, said sales director Wes Morrison.

“RateBeer is one of the oldest online consumerdriven beer rating websites,” he said. “People can get a beer, drink it and get on RateBeer and give it feedback.”

User scores for Prairie’s beers played a big part in the five awards the brewery received.

Prairie Artisan Ales won awards for Best Brewery in Oklahoma, Best Beer in Oklahoma for Prairie Bomb! and a top 5 Belgian table beer award for Prairie-Vous Francais. OmniPrairie, the collaboration with Swedish brewery Omnipollo, was named one of the top new beer releases of 2015.

Stupid Cupid Lovers of music, bars, crawling and love might find the perfect confluence of interests with Stupid Cupid Pub Crawl 6 p.m.-2 a.m. Friday in Norman.

The fundraiser benefits Norman Music Festival. Tickets are $10 and crawlers earn a free T-shirt by buying a drink at every bar on the circuit.

Participating venues are Bison Witches Bar & Deli, Das Boot Camp, The Garage Burgers & Beer, McNellie’s Abner Ale House, Red Brick Bar and Opolis.

The tipsy tour down Main ends with an after-party concert featuring Jabee Williams, Carter Sampson and PVLMS. “We love bringing our community together through the free shows we’ve started hosting, and this is another way for us to give back to the bars that are also venues and participants during the three-day festival,” said festival board member Michelle Bui. Tickets and more information are at normanmusicfestival.com.

O k l a h o m a G a z e t t e | F E B R ua r y 1 0 , 2 0 1 6 | 1 9

life food & Drink

Au revoir

As The Coach House closes this weekend, plans are afoot to keep the apprentice chef program cooking.

David Henry, chef de cuisine, The Coach House

G ARETT FISB ECK / file

Henry graduated from the program in 2007. It changed his outlook on food.

“I worked in kitchens where you banged food out, just trying to get the orders done as fast as you can,” he said. “Coming to The Coach House taught me refinement and finesse.”

Henry was planning to go to the New England Culinary Institute in 2005 when Alain Buthion, one of the owners of La

Baguette, convinced him to meet with Fleischfresser and talk about the program.

Two years later, he graduated and worked on the Fire Room at Musashi’s, changing the menu at Sushi Neko and opening The Lobby Cafe & Bar at Will Rogers Theatre.

As chef de cuisine at The Coach House, he presided over a plethora of dishes and dinners.

“One of the best memories, foodwise, are the tasting menus. Doing smaller dinners in the back room were some of the most fun,” he said. “Last year, (Thirst Wine Merchants owner) Alex Kroblin brought in a winemaker and we did 12 courses for 26 people.

I just had a blast and broke out the modernist cuisine sort of stuff.”

Jonathan Groth, head chef, Slaughter’s Hall and WSKY Lounge One thing Groth knew is that he was done with advertising. He started thinking about what he really loved and what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

“It came down to football coach or

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chef,” he said. “I’ve always loved the kitchen.”

When he met Fleischfresser, he had never worked in a restaurant, but Groth went away with his name on the list for future apprentices and a few chefs who might take him on. One of those was Henry, with whom he worked at Lobby Bar before starting the program.

Like the others, Groth started as the chef garde manger — in charge of preparing cold appetizers and salads during the day — and moved up the ranks to pastry chef, grill chef, saute chef and, finally, sous chef.

“The Coach House is a really special place. It’s a shared experience, almost like boot camp is for the military,” he said.

“The guys and girls you’ve been through it with are bonded together.”

Even as he has moved on, Groth said he still feels Fleischfresser’s influence and support.

Vuong Nguyen, chef and owner, Bonjour Nguyen remembers his audition to get into The Coach House’s program.

“I thought I failed, but I got in,” he said.

There was no cooking.

Fleischfresser and Henry weren’t looking for a new head chef. They wanted someone who could listen and follow instructions. He broke down duck, chicken and beef tenderloin.

The Coach House wasn’t the beginning of Nguyen’s education, though. At the knee of his Vietnamese grandmother, he learned the lessons that would make him an ideal fit for the French restaurant.

Rather than pay for culinary school — a move Fleischfresser has talked many out of — The Coach House is a realworld learning environment of which Nguyen took full advantage.

“Kurt’s ideology is the same as mine.

Do the hard work, put in the time, and you’ll prevail,” he said.

That’s what led Nguyen to opening Guernsey Park; moving to his own restaurant, Bonjour; and helping design the menu at Gigglez Bar & Grill in Midtown.

He’s not finished learning from his mentors, or being one. At Bonjour, Nguyen is training two protégés of his own. And the family tree keeps growing.

MARK H ANCOC K

Dinner service at The Coach House

HEATHE R B ROWN / PROVIDED

Kurt Fleischfresser at The Coach House

G ARETT FISBECK / file

It isn’t easy for chef Kurt Fleischfresser to let go of The Coach House, 6437 Avondale Drive, the venerable French restaurant that will close after 31 years in Nichols Hills.

“But it would be more difficult for it to not go out in style,” he said.

Sitting in one of the dining rooms at Vast, the 49th floor jewel atop Devon Tower, Fleischfresser has the look of a man at peace. He was already an accomplished chef when he joined The Coach House in 1987, but his time there helped build a culinary family tree that has, in many ways, come to define Oklahoma City.

The Coach House Apprenticeship Program was based on the work of Fleischfresser’s mentor, Chicago restaurant Vichyssoise’s head chef and owner Bernard Cretier, who would bring in apprentice chefs to work their way up the ranks, learning each station and mastering new techniques while teaching the apprentice just behind them.

MA RK H ANCOC K

By Greg Elwell

Get Swirled with us Danh Do, most recent graduate, The Coach House MA RK H ANCOC K

On Jan. 24 and 25, Do took over the kitchen of The Coach House for a graduation dinner inspired by home cooking with classical French techniques: spoons full of pork soup dumplings, plates of five-spice duck bao, bowls of crab and grilled asparagus bisque.

It was a big change from his first day.

“It was nerve-wracking,” he said of starting at the restaurant. “You try to go in with an open mind, but it’s just awe-inspiring to see the guys who were already there, the attention to detail, the organization.”

At 28 years old, Do has a lot of learning left, but The Coach House gave him his most important tool: professionalism.

The Coach House is a really special place. It’s a shared experience, almost like boot camp is for the military.

— Jonathan Groth

“I learned to take pride in the quality of my work,” he said. “There is a laundry list of little things I’ll take away, but more than anything, I learned to be a professional in the kitchen.”

Do will stick around through Valentine’s Day weekend, and then he’s off to stage — kind of an unpaid internship/job interview — in a few restaurants across the country.

He won’t be the first to take what he learned in Oklahoma City to the rest of the culinary world, either.

“I don’t think most people realize how many chefs are connected back to The Coach House,” he said. “It’s a special thing we had.”

Chris Lower, founder, The Coach House; owner, The Metro Wine Bar & Bistro; partner, Pizzeria Gusto, Big Truck Tacos, Back Door Barbecue and Irma’s Burger Shack.

The history of The Coach House would not be complete without Lower’s

ON THE PATIO!

first restaurant, The Roosevelt Grill in Edmond, which opened in 1980. When oil prices tumbled, he sold it to Vince Orza.

Working with developer Richard Coyle, they renovated a recently closed liquor store in Nichols Hills, adding 1,500 square feet to the relatively small 2,000-square-foot space.

Fleischfresser was working at the Skirvin Hotel and had gotten some good press in a short time, Lower said.

The Coach House needed a new chef.

When they met, it clicked.

“I remember when he came up with the sautéed shrimp with cheddar cheese corn cakes,” he said. “It’s still one of my favorites and still on the menu.”

Even after he sold the restaurant to Fleischfresser in 2004, Lower ate there often.

“I’m still a fairly regular patron.

I spent 20 years of my life there,” he said. “There’s still a part of me in that building.”

And there will be again. Lower is working with the restaurant’s bar manager Kyle Fleischfresser on the next concept for the venue. He said creating a space that matches the food, wine and service is one of the most enjoyable parts of the business.

“We’re keeping the fireplace, and we’ll open the kitchen up,” Lower said. “It’ll be a mixture of old and new. That makes for lots of interesting possibilities.”

OPEN DAILY 11AM - 2 AM CORNER OF CLASSEN & BOYD, NORMAN 329.3330 | THEMONT.COM

Going home

Kurt Fleischfresser said the restaurant is booked up for Valentine’s Day weekend, and if he’s not in the kitchen cooking, he’ll be there to say hello. But that might not be the last hurrah. The Coach House could do a few pop-up meals and let guest chefs come in and play.

“It’ll be a chance for the old girl to let her hair down,” he said.

It was never supposed to be staid or stuffy, he said. But for the restaurant that was farm-to-table before the phrase existed, the public perception of a “fancy” restaurant became reality.

Customers came less often because it seemed too expensive, even while steakhouses charged more.

The Coach House will always be Fleischfresser’s “home kitchen”; the place he knows like the back of his hand; the dining room where his work, family and friends became one; a place where he saw his children grow up and apprentice chefs become leaders.

But even as the restaurant ends its run, there are more chefs for him to train. Vast might continue doing the apprentice program, though on a smaller scale, Fleischfresser said.

And with that, Oklahoma City’s restaurant scene breathes a sigh of relief.

RUSTIC ITALIAN FOOD AND ITALIAN WINE

Tues-Thurs 5PM-10PM | Fri & Sat 5PM-11PM Sun 5PM-9PM 1 block from Civic Center & OKC Museum of Art

Gift Cards now Available 305 N. Walker

patroNookc.com

405.702.7660

O k l a h o m a G a z e t t e | F E B R ua r y 1 0 , 2 0 1 6 | 2 1

Chocolate flours Multitasking is the future of romance. People are combining all sorts of things to save time: kissing and hugging, love and marriage… Some even go so far as to live in the same house. So with Valentine’s Day almost here, why not put together those classic gifts of chocolate and flours and just eat a big slice of rich, decadent cake?

— by Greg Elwell, photos by Garett Fisbeck and Mark Hancock

Inspirations Eatery & Events 2118 W. Edmond Road inspirationstearoom.com | 715-2525

Most tearooms are content to feed their guests tiny sandwiches and cups of oolong, but not Inspirations Eatery & Events. I mean, they will feed you those things. But they also want to inspire you to greater things, like ordering the chocolate cake. That might not seem like a lot, but when is the last time you were truly inspired by a dessert? You made a square pie once for geometry class? OK. Solid move. Respect.

Cuppies & Joe

Polar Donuts

727 NW 23rd St. cuppiesandjoe.com | 528-2122

1111 N. Meridian Ave. 946-7448

In 2004, the SETI project first detected the presence of a small, but deadly race of aliens shaped like miniature cakes.

Working with the U.S. government, cupcake shops, including Cuppies & Joe, were strategically opened across the country. Here, Oklahomans are surreptitiously trained to attack and destroy delicious chocolate effigies of the alien menace in preparation for the inevitable invasion.

How much potato do you like in your doughnut? If you answered, “None,” you are wrong. Please go to the back of the line. True pastry fanatics will know that Polar Donuts is the place to find that classic Spudnuts taste in Oklahoma City. Don’t worry; it’s not savory. But the addition of potato does make doughnuts incredibly moist and tender. And if you happen to order a cameltoe or a pimp hand from the case while you’re there, that’s OK, too.

Now RolliN’ Gazette

Call us today to book your next event!

Trevino’s | 387.3221 or 397.1866

r e h t e Tog b etter

Spend Day

Valentinheis'sYear!

With Us T

2 2 | F E B R ua r y 1 0 , 2 0 1 6 | O k l a h o m a G a z e t t e

7101 Miramar Blvd Oklahoma City, OK 73111 Reservations Recommended 405.478.1417 www.jbruners.com

LIKE US ON

ND Foods 2632 W. Britton Road 840-9364

The following is a list of things the ND in ND Foods could stand for, but doesn’t: Notre Dame, Neil deGrasse, Natural Disaster, Nap Disciple, New Drapes, North Dakota, North Delaware, Never Dry, No Diggity, New Delhi, Nice Deltoids, Niche Dragon and Numbered Donkeys.

It actually stands for Nick (son) and Dolores (mom), the owners of the sandwich shop with some of the city’s finest desserts. Now, Dig in.

The Mantel Wine Bar & Bistro 201 E. Sheridan Ave. themantelokc.com | 236-8040

There’s something kind of wonderful about a restaurant called The Mantel that serves up a molten lava cake. And, yes, I know that the mantle below the earth’s crust is spelled differently, but I still think it’s cute. More importantly, the molten lava cake is delicious. There’s that rich cake, just waiting for the fork to crack it open and release a slow, chocolatey eruption that will destroy the village below. Nature is beautiful.

Whiskey Cake

Ingrid’s Kitchen

1845 Northwest Expressway whiskeycakeokc.com | 582-2253

6501 N. May Ave. ingridsok.com | 842-4799

“If you’re only going to get one thing at Whiskey Cake…” is a dumb sentence to say, and even typing it makes my fingers ache. Ugh. No thanks. The menu at Whiskey Cake is stacked high with dishes you should try. The ramen’s great. The pork brisket steak is tip-top. The drink menu is a seasonal hodgepodge of wonderful choices. And when it’s all done, yes, you should get the Whiskey Cake.

This OKG Eat entry is brought to you

by Mouths®.

Mouths® — they demand you put something good inside them like an enormous brownie or a pile of delightful crumbly cookies from Ingrid’s Kitchen.

And, from the makers of Mouths®, comes the new must-have accessory, Napkins®! When you’ve got brownie crumbs on your Mouth®, try a Napkin®!

Happy valen-thai’s Day! lunch buffet M-F | 11am-2pm

LIKE US ON

O k l a h o m a G a z e t t e | F E B R ua r y 1 0 , 2 0 1 6 | 2 3

2 4 | f e b r ua r y 1 0 , 2 0 1 6 | O k l a h o m a G a z e t t e

I LLUSTRATIONS BY OKLAHOMA GAZETTE

life cover

m a rk ha n coc k

Valentine’s saint Some call it The Day Love Costs Money, Singles Awareness Day or even Nuzzle Buddy Day. Whatever you call it, we offer holiday treats you’ll enjoy.

By Gazette staff

Single, cultured, loyal, aloof, dating, apathetic, married, practical or even if you’re The Dude himself, Oklahoma Gazette wants you to enjoy Valentine’s Day. We’re sharing our curated list of films, events, drink recipes, gift ideas and eateries with you.

The b----

So you’re a b----. You don’t give a ---about committed relationships, rules or Valentine’s Day, and you want this weekend to go by quickly and avoid the idiotic, lovey-dovey people before they retreat back into their boring, khakiand-sweater-set caves.

Watch: Put yourself in the right frame of mind to survive this saccharine greeting card holiday with Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 (2012-’13).

Date: Kick off the party at 89th Street Collective, 8911 N. Western Ave., 8 p.m. Friday for Valentine’s Eve Goth Night featuring Kali Ra, The Choke, Esoterik, DJ Bone and Sensitive Southside Boi. Then make sure you

don’t have to leave your house until Sunday night.

Eat: You can’t have a TV marathon without a pint (or three) of ice cream from Roxy’s Ice Cream Social, 1732 NW 16th St. Cocktail: Gin Gimlet. It’s June’s favorite drink and you sort of like her and are curious about her choices (but make sure you get a backup in case June’s goody-two-shoes slurp doesn’t cut it). Don’t drink before blah, blah, blah — whatever. If you plan on imbibing, all you need is dry gin, which you can get at Byron’s Liquor Warehouse, 2322 N. Broadway Ave., and lime juice.

Gift: Valentine’s Day is all about gifts, and nothing’s better than a Sunday night out at The Drunken Fry, 5100 Classen Circle, so you can forget all about the holiday and its stupid traditions for another year.

Romantic realist

Yeah, yeah; this holiday was created as a marketing ploy to sell cards. Not so fast.

Your significant other will likely remind you that St. Valentine’s Day is a genuine liturgical celebration of early Christian saints named Valentinus. Lore has it Saint Valentine of Rome was imprisoned and put to death for performing illegal weddings and ministering to Christians.

(Seriously!) He signed his last letter, “Your Valentine.” And that’s where the card-giving tradition originated. Even so, you’re still a practical person, and your bank account is proof. What’s most important is that you spend quality time with the one you love.

Watch: Jack Nicholson plays obnoxiously rude Melvin Udall, who begrudgingly woos waitress Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt) with a little help from his gay artist neighbor Simon Bishop (Greg Kinnear) in the 1997 classic As Good as It Gets.

Eat/Date: Bricktown Brewery, 1 N. Oklahoma Ave. Tried and true, this microbrewery and restaurant opened in 1992 now includes six satellite locations. The downtown menu features seven Bricktown-made brews, pizzas with homemade tomato sauce, $3 sides, crafted burgers and even blueberryglazed salmon.

Cocktail: Try a three-ingredient Presbyterian: Mix a jigger of Scotch (or substitute bourbon or rye whiskey) with ginger ale and club soda in a Collins glass; fill with ice.

Gift: Swing into Buy For Less and pick up a bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates and ginger ale or club soda for those cocktails. continued on page 27

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KB, I love you To Infinity and Beyond!

My love, I think you’re hotter than Han

Thank you for being my little Bird!

Solo, smarter than Gore Vidal and funnier

- Booger

than Louis C.K. I love you. - MoonPie

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

ASK- Women in Technical

Sweetpea, Roses are Red, Mexicans

Studies: Much love to you all, and have

are Brown, I love kissing you all over town!

a splendid Valentine’s Day! - Celia

- Love Mamacita

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Ma chère Andrea, je t’aime de tout

Garrett & Tamara, Mark, Jacob

mon cœur...et ma vie, et mes joies,

& Isaac My whole world in 5 names

aujourd’hui, ça commence avec toi.

I LOVE YOU!!! - Amber

- Ton Kyle

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Jimmy - You’re the spark to my plug,

In the words of Pheobe Buffay,

piston to my cylinder & engine to my life.

you’re my lobster ! I love you more and

I love you to the moon & back! - Kelsey

more everyday! - Lacey

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Maria, we’ve dreamed of our love nest,

Vinton Jeff Bayne, you are the coolest

influenced by our passions and joy for life.

person in the world. I’m really glad I mar-

Soon it will be. - Love, Guillermo

ried you. P.S. Nice butt. - Tessa

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Miles King, you are the light of my life.

GW, I have loved you for over 20 years

I heart you. Will you be my valentine?

and I can’t imagine ever not loving you.

Circle YES or NO. - Love, Mom

You are my best friend! - Michele

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Jess, thanks for putting up with my

Jane --- The diamonds will be late again

shenanigans & doing my laundry. You’re

this year. But you outshine them anyway.

the best Jess I’ve ever met. - Love, Sarah

Love you. - Glenn

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Dearest AB & KB, KAW!

Yuliya I can’t wait for alone time with

Yours always. - GE

you Saturday. Have I told you lately how

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

much I really love you? I do. - Bill

Happy Valentine’s day, Groovy

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Momma! Thank you for being my mom,

Guinness, How I love our long walks

I love you! - A

and sitting on you during TV time.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

- Your sister, Maggie.

Boyfriend? That’s a funny way to say

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Batman, There’s nobody I’d rather

LIKE US!

Netflix... Anyway, Happy BDay to my fav Pisces’, Sarah & Arden! - Love, Blanca

drunkenly sing old country songs with.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

You’re my one true love. - Butter Biscuit

To my biggest crush in OKC.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Sadly you don’t know. I wish you could

MOM: Thanks for not grounding me for

just see! - J

life when I was a surly teen. Your patience

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

& love made me who I am today. - Jennifer

I luv to love to Kitty! - Mark

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Nick, I love you so much. Being away

Happy 26th Anniversary to my

from you makes my heart ache. I can’t wait

favorite people ever on the planet. I love

to spend my life with you. - Garett

you Mom and Dad! - Love, Leah Brooke

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Mom and Dad! Thanks for all the love

To my love of a man and our feline.

and support this semester! Keep sending

Meow with a Grrr. - Saun

good vibes and K-cups! - Love, Kylie

2 6 | f e b r ua r y 1 0 , 2 0 1 6 | O k l a h o m a G a z e t t e

life cover

Watch: The Big Lebowski (1988). Am I wrong?

Date: Nothing could ruin a night of bowling at the bar and alley inside Dust Bowl Lanes & Lounge, 421 NW 10th St. — unless Jesus Quintana shows up.

Actually, let’s hope he does.

Eat: Everyone has to eat, even The Dude. Savory sustenance can be found at local shop Jerky.com. Deep-fried peanuts are recommended, but there are a number of other couch-ready snacks available. The Dude doesn’t see anything wrong with Netflix and snacks on date night.

Cocktail: Don’t think you’re too good for a sweet drink. The Dude’s not. It’s always an occasion for a Caucasian, also known as a White Russian. Vodka, coffee liqueur and cream is the secret formula for abiding.

Gift: You know what you want. Go get it at Mansour’s Rugs, 7220 N. May Ave. They won’t let you take any rug in the house — without proper payment, that is — but if your current floor runner is gone or damaged, a sales associate will be happy to help you find something to tie the room together.

Urban cowboys

It sure is a fortunate time for folks who like to do their two-steppin’ without leaving the Big Town. Like a rhinestone cowboy, the urban cowboy relishes the glitz of a sophisticated urban lifestyle without leaving the Western wear at home. And there are as many options for pair of cowpokes as there are for a miss and mister or whomever else you want to hogtie.

I LLUSTRATI ONS BY OKL AHOMA G AZETTE

Date: Honor your partner and get ready for a toe-tappin’ pre-party at Finishline with country music and dancing inside Habana Inn, 2200 NW 40th St. After you’ve had your fill there, head home — or really just about anywhere — and ride that mechanical bull you rented from Fun Zone, okcfunzone.com.

If you’ve scorned your lover over the course of the night, this is your chance to win them back!

bigstoc k.com

To be read in the voice of Sam Elliott: Sometimes, there’s a man. And I’m talking about The Dude here.

Sometimes, there’s a man who appears indifferent.

He drinks alone. He bowls with his friends, his same friends. But underneath the indoor sunglasses and bathrobe is a romantic’s heart pumping with loyalty. He might not take that commercial junk too seriously, but who wants to be with someone who does that?

but maybe don’t emulate him too closely.

You should, however, take any opportunity you have to ride a mechanical bull.

Watch: The Last Five Years, Netflix.

Adapted from the contemporary musical, the film is a charming tale about a young couple’s relationship.

However, the tale skips around in time, with Cathy’s songs beginning at the end and Jamie’s songs starting at the beginning of their love affair.

Cocktail: For a nightcap, head home and create a red wine hot chocolate.

Combine 1-1/2 cups of milk with a 1/3 cup of dark chocolate chunks. Whisk constantly over medium heat for a creamy chocolate milk. Next, pour in 1 cup of red wine. Once hot, serve with coconut whipped cream on top.

Gift: Take your date out to Stockyards City and pick out a pair of boots from Langston’s Western Wear’s flagship store, 2224 Exchange Ave.

Date: Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive. Go into deep thought viewing The Modernist Spectrum: Color and Abstraction, but follow it up with playful selfies posted to social media.

The townies

Eat: O Bar at Ambassador Hotel, 1200 N. Walker Ave. Order an expensive bottle of wine with two glasses and split an order of Bardolino risotto in the upscale rooftop bar.

Gift: Stay cultured with tickets to a number of the live entertainment shows at Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave. During Valentine’s Day weekend, Celebrity Attractions presents the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, while Reduxion Theatre Company brings Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to the stage. For a counterculture event, CityRep Theatre brings Avenue Q to Freede Little Theatre.

Eat: Cattlemen’s Steakhouse, 1309 S. Agnew Ave., is a no-brainer — unless you order the calf brain for breakfast.

Cocktail: If you didn’t like calf brains, a Colorado Rattlesnake shot is the perfect palate cleanse. One part tequila; one part tomato juice; add a dash of Tabasco and black pepper. Wowzers.

For hipsters, Valentine’s Day is pretty much just another day. As some couples review back issues of Oklahoma Gazette to find hot spots to dine on Feb. 14, hipsters ate there Tuesday and already posted a thoughtful Yelp review. Instead, cultured couples choose to view an unparalleled art collection at an area museum, take in a movie and debate life’s meaning. Townies plan to glare into each other’s eyes, push back their side-swept bangs and use witty banter to express their love by saying things like, “When I found you, I found myself.”

continued on page 28

Watch: Urban cowboy is a fun theme for all real cowboys and honky-tonk masqueraders. John Travolta’s Urban Cowboy, circa 1980, is an iconic image,

O k l a h o m a G a z e t t e | f e b r ua r y 1 0 , 2 0 1 6 | 2 7

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So you procreated. It happens to the best of us. And while life is a miracle, Valentine’s Day isn’t quite so romantic when you’re trying to get your kid to eat those chicken strips he ordered and now refuses to try. But if you can wear out your spawn with a day filled by running around, maybe you can have a few quiet minutes at night to celebrate the holiday the way it was intended: falling asleep with your clothes on at 9:30 p.m.

Watch: Planet Earth, Netflix.

This 2006 BBC documentary series is gorgeous, fascinating and a perfect distraction for budding nature buffs.

Date: The Oklahoma City Zoo, 2000 Remington Place. Get wild at the zoo and let those kids run from exhibit to exhibit in preparation for naptime.

Eat: Pizza 23, 600 NW 23rd St. Nothing feeds a family as easily as pizza. And for mom and dad, Pizza 23 has a nice selection of beer.

Cocktail: Hit up local froyo mavens Orange Leaf for a nonalcoholic cocktail of mix-andmatch yogurt cups. (Save room for sprinkles, too.)

Gift: An annual family pass to Science Museum Oklahoma, 2100 NE 52nd St., is a wonderful way to tucker out those children on the regular. A Silver 6 membership gains entry for six people all year long for $145. That means you can let the grandparents take them while you get brunch.

life culture

Love is ...

Couples celebrate their first Valentine’s Day together since same-sex marriage was made legal in all 50 states.

By Mark Beutler

Gare tt fis bec k

This year’s Valentine’s Day holds special significance for many of Oklahoma’s same-sex couples. It’s the first time they’ve celebrated Feb. 14 since marriage equality became legal in all 50 states.

Some couples, like Bruce Hall and Mike Stuart, who celebrated their 21st anniversary as a couple Jan. 30, didn’t even consider marriage as an option until recently.

Other couples, like Edmond residents Debra Martin and Janette Thornbrue, didn’t wait for marriage equality to come to them. In 2013, they made a weekend trip to Iowa and tied the knot.

‘Pure joy’

Last summer, when same-sex marriage became legal everywhere, Martin and Thornbrue were elated.

“It was a feeling of pure joy,” Martin said. “And there was also a relief that my country and my state would finally recognize marriage equality for what it is: two people building a life together.”

Thornbrue agreed. She said she supports different beliefs and understandings and marriage for everyone is a human rights issue.

“At first, it was hard for me to wrap my head around it,” she said.

“Once I did, it was freeing and uplifting to finally see the movement of human rights being expanded to all Oklahomans.”

The couple has been together 10 years and said Valentine’s Day has always been special. But now, as a married couple, they are even more devoted. They both work, divvy up the household chores, care for aging parents and live a simple life.

“We like to watch movies, sports and sitcoms in the evenings or sit out on the back porch in warm weather,” Thornbrue said, “just the two of us or with friends.”

Living in what has become a notoriously “red” state in recent years hasn’t been easy, they say, but friends and family are mostly supportive.

“Now that we’re legally married, we both find it a little easier to walk closer together or hold hands

Debra Martin and Janette Thornbrue in their Edmond home briefly when we go out to dinner or a movie,” Martin said. “But the thought someone might confront us is still there in the back of my mind.”

Martin said she wants to thank Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin, a couple who helped initiate Oklahoma’s marriage equality fight.

“We deserve to be treated equally under the law,” Martin said. “Without those before us who fought the good fight, Janette and I wouldn’t have a lovely document from the state of Oklahoma declaring we are legally married.”

‘Ring and all’

“We really didn’t think we would be afforded the opportunity to marry as a gay couple in Oklahoma,” Stuart said. “A couple of years ago, Bruce and I doubted we would ever have this right in our home state. But we were amazed; after such a long fight for equality, it happened much faster than we ever expected.”

Over the Christmas holidays, Stuart said they decided to make it official.

“Bruce proposed to me on Christmas morning, down on one knee, ring and all,” he said. “We have always celebrated Valentine’s Day anyway, so this year is really not any different.

“The bigger picture is we now have the right to choose a date to get married

like any other couple.”

The couple married Jan. 21. They also shared the special occasion with friends and are planning a “21 years and finally legal” party.”

The life the two men have built together is a simple one. Most days, they go to work, do chores around the house and are involved in the community.

“We are just like our neighbors,” Hall said. “Out of bed early, off to work, and back together each evening.

We both have side incomes. I have an antique and collectable business, and Mike is a racehorse consultant.”

At the end of the day, Stuart said they make time for each other, whether that’s attending a play or musical, enjoying an evening in the Paseo Arts or Plaza districts or relaxing at home, watching TV. “We live by the philosophy ‘live and let live.’ We do not impose our lifestyle on others and hope they will respect our privacy,” he said. “By living this way, we feel it has afforded us the respect of others and set a precedent of how we have been accepted. ...

“Through the years, people who may have befriended or worked with us individually and didn’t know us as a couple have realized being gay doesn’t define us. It is just part of who we are.”

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life culture

Another day Valentine’s Day can be challenging for singles, but rebranding it might make it easier.

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For the average couple, Valentine’s Day is typically spent with flowers, chocolates and cozy dinners for two.

It’s a night of champagne, satin sheets and “I Got You Babe.”

But for the single person, it’s more like beer, a bag of pretzels and “Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses?”

Feb. 14 is quickly gaining notoriety among the uncoupled as Singles Awareness Day or SAD. In fact, statistics show a person in the never-been-married category has a better chance of singing the national anthem with the Dixie Chicks at a Duck Dynasty convention than getting hitched. OK, that statistic was made up, but the point is what’s important.

Finding a mate is difficult. And keeping one isn’t easy.

“I am spending my first Valentine’s Day alone since my divorce last year,” said newly single Tammy McKee, who reverted to using her maiden name.

“Recently, I’ve been considering how I’m going to handle it. Even when I was married, I never liked going to dinner on Valentine’s Day because of the crowds. So probably what I will end up doing is what I did for Christmas and just pretend it doesn’t exist.”

That means no decor, no cards and no chocolates.

“It also means I will be avoiding the Hallmark Channel at all costs,” McKee said. “I may end up going to a movie by myself, but definitely not a romantic movie. It is just one day, and then it will be over.”

Expert advice

Experts agree and say if you’re spending Valentine’s Day alone and feeling unloved, it is important to do something nice for yourself.

“It is just one day out of the year,” said Gale Llewellyn Hobson, a psychologist and medical director for Mercy Clinic Behavioral Health. “Just because the commercials make it into a major production does not mean you have to respond. But there are some steps you can take if that particular day bothers you.”

3 0 | f e b r ua r y 1 0 , 2 0 1 6 | O k l a h o m a G a z e t t e

mark hancock

By Mark Beutler

Tammy McKee considers taking herself to the movies at The Paramount OKC this holiday.

First, she said having a plan is always good.

“Maybe you can make a special meal you enjoy preparing for yourself or take a day trip to see something new. Go to a museum, a garden or a movie. Change your focus for the day. And it never hurts to buy yourself a pretty new pot of flowers for your home or office,” Hobson said.

It is also important to remember there’s a big difference between being lonely and being alone. Lonely is a state of mind, Hobson said, and a person’s thoughts can be redirected.

Meanwhile, being alone can actually be very satisfying.

“Even though you often hear people who are married are the happiest, that’s not necessarily so,” she said. “A new study just out reveals an unhappily married person is far less happy than a contented single person.

A single person has the option to learn about themselves and to work on issues from past relationships. So keep the perspective if you are single this Valentine’s Day that you can be moving forward to making the relationship you want in your life.”

Hobson said the first year of any loss is usually the hardest.

“The first year is probably important to schedule some of the day with a friend or family member,” she said. “And there are lots of single people out there. In fact, most all of us at some point in our lives will live without a significant other. It is important to view it as a time to reflect on the good in our past relationship and to cherish those memories. Some time to be sad during the day is OK too. Tears are very healing. Just mix that with some healthy food and exercise to keep the balance.”

Singles Awareness Day can be a good time to reflect on your life. Don’t be fooled into thinking you’re the last single person on earth, Hobson said.

“As you look around on Valentine’s Day and think everyone looks like they are in a couple, that can be very misleading,” she said. “Grab your brother or sister, a dear friend or an older neighbor who may need company and take them for a treat or go for a healthy walk. It really is all in your perspective.”

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Hot plate The Glass Date at Guthrie’s G Gallery & Glass Studio is a unique alternative to dinner and a movie. presents the OKC premiere of

By Ben Luschen

A couple months ago, Glenda Radigonda saw her first Glass Date marriage proposal.

The owner of downtown Guthrie’s G Gallery & Glass Studio, 110 E. Oklahoma Ave., Radigonda has been hosting her unique date night and small group event since she opened her shop six years ago.

In December, Ricky Thompson proposed to girlfriend Brittani Speegle over a dessert made by Radigonda herself. Speegle said yes.

That night is just one in a long list of memorable outings Radigonda has hosted for people from many different backgrounds.

“I have enjoyed every single Glass Date I’ve had in there, and it’s so fun because I have had all ages,” she said.

The gallery is closed to the public during Glass Dates. If the date is booked in the morning, Radigonda makes brunch. If it’s an evening gettogether, she makes appetizers.

The table is set and ready for her guests when they arrive. After they finish eating, guests move from the gallery into the glass-blowing studio.

Each person makes his or her own memento — a paperweight or a bottle stopper.

“They actually work the glass, and I’m right there with them to make sure nothing goes awry,” Radigonda said.

The couple’s creations go through a multiple-day setting process, so guests must wait a few days before they can pick them up. If guests are from out of town, Radigonda mails them.

Glass Dates don’t require romantic partners. Radigonda said she has

Brittani Speegle and Ricky Thompson work with hot glass at G Gallery & Glass Studio in Guthrie. hosted mother-daughter pairs, friends and even a bridal shower of 20.

Many guests, she said, come from outside Guthrie.

“A lot of people will make it into a weekend or a couple of nights because they’ll stay at a bed-and-breakfast and make it a whole fun getaway,” she said.

Dealing with molten glass at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, Radigonda has a few rules for Glass Dates.

Participants must be at least 18. No one is allowed to wear open-toed shoes. She also does not serve alcohol.

Still, the nights have been fun for many who have passed through.

Some even go on to take classes at the studio. A Glass Date, Radigonda said, counts as a student’s first glassblowing class.

Radigonda has been blowing glass since she first took an Oklahoma City Museum of Art course on it 12 years ago. The museum store now carries her work.

“It’s kind of a fun full circle,” she said.

Those interested in booking a Glass Date can do so at ggalleryandglass.com. The site includes a calendar of open dates and available food options. The cost is $170 for two people and $85 per person after that. With some exceptions, groups are limited to four people.

After a date has been booked online, it can be confirmed with a 50 percent deposit or by paying the bill in advance.

Feb. 12th through Feb. 21st The Civic Center Music Hall (405)848-3761 cityrep.com

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life performing arts

GARE TT FI S BE C K

Curtain call?

Yukon’s Stage Door Theatre could see its season end prematurely.

A dress rehearsal of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean at Stage Door Theatre

By Ben Luschen

Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean 7:30 Friday-Saturday Feb. 19-20 and Feb. 26-27, 2:30 p.m. Feb. 21 and 28 Stage Door Theatre 601 Oak Ave., Yukon stagedooryukon.com 866-966-1777 $10-$14

The Stage Door Theatre’s production of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean is so good, it might literally shut the place down.

The theater is based inside the Yukon Historical Society Museum and Art Center, a building that is in desperate need of repair, said Freida Penn, a member of Stage Door’s board of directors.

“The building is just falling down around our ears,” she said. “It’s over 100 years old.”

At one time, it was a school, and the site is still owned by Yukon Public Schools. The condition of the building is so bad, Stage Door can no longer keep its insurance to stay. Barring an extension on that insurance policy, Penn said Stage Door has been told it has until April to vacate the building, meaning Jimmy Dean could be its last show.

Penn called Jimmy Dean a “dramedy” and said while the play certainly has its funnier moments, the meat of the production is very serious.

It was written in 1976 by Ed Graczyk, and Stage Door’s production is directed by Denise Harris. The show follows an all-female fan club of iconic ’50s actor James Dean. Though the club gathers in the ’70s to observe the 20th anniversary of the actor’s death, flashbacks to the 1950s mean Harris has to essentially direct two casts.

“We’re working really hard to make the younger selves look like the

3 2 | f e b r ua r y 1 0 , 2 0 1 6 | O k l a h o m a G a z e t t e

older person,” said Penn, who added that the costuming and makeup were especially intricate in this production.

The cast took care to match mannerisms between older and younger versions of the same characters.

Penn said over the last couple of years, Stage Door has made efforts to push the envelope a bit from its traditionally G-rated offerings. Jimmy Dean certainly does this.

A transgender girl, formerly the only male member of the fan club, is brutally beaten in one scene after becoming so passable as a female that she “fools” one of the school’s roughand-tough football players.

Much of the production, Penn said, is about how things in our past impact who we are today and reaching out to new possibilities in order to grow.

“You either branch out into the world and live life or you get stuck and you have regrets,” she said.

Stage Door tries to keep a balanced schedule of offerings, but Penn said many of its edgier shows are among its most successful.

“They might not come out here for a G-rated show, but your theater people who really like the theater and are knowledgeable [will come out],” she said.

Stage Door is hopeful the city paid for its insurance on a fiscal-year basis, which would extend its time into June.

If not, it will have to end its current season prematurely. Two productions, Where the Lillies Bloom in April and Sordid Lives in June, are scheduled to be performed, but without a venue, they will be postponed.

Penn said the school system told Stage Door it can stay in the building as long as it has insurance and pays utilities. Stage Door is searching for a new building to call home.

Dav id Bricquet / RED UXI ON TH EATRE COM PANY / P ROVI DED

Dream theater

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

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Reduxion Theatre Company adds a ’60s twist to Shakespeare’s classic A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

By Christine Eddington

A Midsummer Night’s Dream 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, 8 p.m.

Feb. 18-20, 2 p.m. Feb. 21, 8 p.m. Feb. 25-26, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Feb. 27 CitySpace Theatre Civic Center Music Hall 201 N. Walker Ave. okcciviccenter.com 297-2264 $20-$35

Reduxion Theatre Company has summoned an assortment of lovers, lords, ladies, fairies and a donkey for your amusement and enjoyment this Valentine’s Day season with its production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“We like to give our patrons a date night in February,” said Erin Woods, Reduxion’s co-founder and managing director. “It’s an annual event for us.

We always do something romantic around Valentine’s Day, and usually it’s something by Shakespeare.”

Modern twists

“We love to take a classical script and then do something innovative and unexpected with it,” Woods said.

One unexpected twist to this classic comedy play is that it’s set in Athens in the 1960s.

“We want people to see the play as they’ve never seen it before,” Woods said. “The idea is that the play is about the spirit of youth, and the 1960s were largely driven by youth. There were so many changes within that decade — changes in culture, music, dress.

You’ll see everything from Mad Men to Woodstock.”

Jeffrey Meek, resident costume designer for Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, joined Reduxion to create an ambitious array of costumes for this production.

His work complements the scene design

by Oklahoma artist Aubrey Jernigan.

Reduxion’s interpretation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream might remind some of rock musical Hair, Woods said, but the script remains true to Shakespeare’s original story.

It’s a charming play with simultaneous storylines involving humans and fairies. The dreamlike flight of fancy follows events surrounding the marriage of Hippolyta and Theseus, Duke of Athens. There’s also a fullthrottle fairy feud underway between the king and queen of Fairyland, whose argument involves, in part, a fairy-child changeling. The comedy also highlights the adventures of four young lovers, a man with the head of a donkey and a gender-bending cast.

The cast features Reduxion company actors David Bricquet, Mariah Webb, Jessa Schinske, Nicholas Toscani, Mariah Warren, Caleb Yen, Leonard Jackson, Zoe Settle, Gracie Lewis, Katy Hirsch, Joanne Hoch and Abigail LaFont.

No puppeteer

Reduxion Theatre Company was formed in New York City by Woods and her husband Tyler in 2005 and has produced shows locally since 2008. Tyler is the group’s artistic director.

Erin Woods grew up in Oregon.

After attending college in California, she transferred to the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) to pursue a degree in theater.

“When I was little, I wanted to be a puppeteer, an actress and a business woman. I was raised on 1980s power movies like Baby Boom,” she said. “In a roundabout way, I’ve gotten to do those things, although not puppetry. I never learned puppetry.”

Tyler Woods was pursuing his second bachelor’s degree, this one in theater, at UCO around 1999. The two became friends, married in 2005 and headed to the Big Apple.

“We were doing great work in New York City,” Erin Woods said. “We produced shows in Midtown, right off Times Square. In those days, it was called ‘off-off Broadway,’ but now, it’s often called ‘independent theater.’”

But fate once again summoned change for the pair.

“Someone with deadCENTER [Film Festival] said, ‘Well, that’s great, but you know we really need something like that in Oklahoma, and there are so many theater companies in New York,’” Erin Woods said. “So we decided to come back.”

Tyler Woods applied for 501(c)(3) status, and soon, Reduxion was up and running as a nonprofit organization.

Today, the theater group is a fixture in Oklahoma’s performing arts landscape.

Last year, Tyler Woods earned a Governor’s Arts Award for community service.

Reduxion offers education opportunities in addition to each season’s roster of shows. Classics for Kids, 45-minute programs designed for 3- to 10-year-olds, delivers the Bard’s gospel to youths at schools and libraries.

“We’ll do at least 22 shows in libraries and nine in schools, and we’ll accept additional bookings until our schedule is full,” Erin Woods said.

“Theater has the potential to change lives because it’s about communication, person-to-person. … It’s about community coming together, and it can be an almost religious experience for people because it transcends the individual.”

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Gridinn°1352453723 diabolic Fill the grid so that every row, column and 3-by-3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9.

5

1 9 2 3 9 5 4 9 4 3 6 3

6

5

2

7 6 4 1

5 3

4

7

www.p ri n tm ys udoku.com

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New York Times Crossword Puzzle answers Puzzle No. 0131, which appeared in the February 3 issue.

P A R A M U S

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ACROSS

1 Aspect 6 They’re not tipped very

much nowadays 10 ____ Bay, former U.S.

base on Luzon 15 County center 19 Pope John X’s successor 20 Latin 101 verb 21 Italian fashion label 22 Weigh-station unit 23 Notice regarding voting in

a state legislature?

26 In ____ land 27 Fake 28 Prurient material 29 Cool, once 30 Pride : lions :: mob : ____ 31 Some G.I. duties 32 Suited to serve 34 Sign on the NSA’s entrance?

37 Something to chew on 38 Unchanging 41 Person of interest to the IRS 42 Explorer for England who

mistook Canada for Asia 45 Deg. for a teacher-to-be 46 Command and Control 49 Runs into 50 Biblical prophet 51 Spanish royalty 53 Nomadic northerner 55 Ace 56 Audition caution for

a movie with a cast of thousands?

60 One side in The Terminator 61 Mexican cigar brand 62 Squirrel away 63 Blue 66 Shoreline problem 68 Brings good news to skiers, say 70 See 45-Down 72 It ends in Nov. 73 Sporty car roof 75 Pickled garnish 77 Seinfeld role 78 Note on a watered-down

assault indictment?

81 Where to get a mud wrap 83 Numerical prefix 84 Abstain

85 Screen meas.

86 1914 battle locale 88 Chick magnets?

90 Some safari camping gear 91 Unable to get it, say 92 Houses 94 Feature of the Devil 96 ____ Hots 97 Offer of free pillow fill?

100 Second-largest moon of Saturn 102 Beauty 105 Many a bush plane, in brief 106 Thrice, in prescriptions 107 Center of a Scrabble board 110 Typically active voting

group, with “the” 112 Chum 113 Desert supermarket?

116 Stress, it’s said 117 Bewildered 118 Ex-Yankee Martinez 119 Buzzing 120 During whose reign Peter

was crucified 121 Formal letter opener 122 Panache 123 Cell towers for cellphones,

for example

DOWN

1 Steak cut 2 The Old Lion storyteller 3 Overhead items 4 Always 5 Break 6 Berry that’s much sought after?

7 Musical documentary/

biopic of 2015 8 Smears 9 Stick in the ground?

10 News sensation of 10/4/1957 11 Ocean State sch.

12 Ballet dancer’s support 13 10, say 14 Bag carrier 15 Ones doing demos, maybe 16 Bay Area newspaper 17 Suggest 18 Promos 24 Wedding expense 25 Computer command 33 Court stat

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setting, for short 37 Longtime Olympics

TV host 39 Conjugation factors 40 Mulishness 42 Squirreled away 43 Trysters 44 Witticism 45 With 70-Across, member of

Hollywood’s Frat Pack 47 Blathers 48 Old-timey footwear accessory 51 Dish that’s stirred

constantly when

being made 52 Neighbors of Fijians

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54 Guard 57 Soul singer Baker 58 Nadir 59 Herringbone, for example 63 Tried to avoid a tag, say 64 Defender of Troy 65 Clear, as a channel 67 Belt mark 69 Parlor piece 71 Held in high esteem 74 Super Bowl-winning

coach Carroll 76 Target of a curfew, maybe 78 Old Southwest outlaw 79 Title chameleon of a

2011 animated film 80 Fraternity letters 81 Throw a monkey wrench into

82 Concert VIP

0207

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86 Masculine icon 87 Poetic twilight 89 Low-quality material,

in a saying 91 Unsmilingly 93 Attacks 95 Opposing voice 96 Count (on) 98 “The best is __ come” 99 Impurity 101 Graceful bird 102 Hazard for high heels 103 1961 Charlton

Heston title role 104 Fort ____, Fla. 108 Penny ____ 109 Commuter option 111 Alternatively 114 Big name in

camping gear 115 Strands in a lab

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p r ovi de d

life music

‘Never say die’

David J, co-founder of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets, brings his career into focus with a master class and solo gig at ACM@UCO.

By Jennifer Chancellor

David J Master class 2 p.m. Feb. 18 Songwriting room, first floor ACM@UCO 25 S. Oklahoma Ave. acm-uco.com 974-4711 Free

Concert 8 p.m. Feb. 19 ACM@UCO Performance Lab 329 E. Sheridan Ave. ticketstorm.com 866-966-1777 $20

David J, co-founder of and bassist for seminal English post-punk acts Bauhaus and Love and Rockets recently spoke with Oklahoma Gazette about his memoir, Who Killed Mister Moonlight?: Bauhaus, Black Magick, and Benediction.

He hosts a Feb. 18 master class and performs Feb. 19 at ACM@UCO. The 58-year-old also shared anecdotes about recent studio work with 11-piece Detroit jazz band Theatre Bizarre Orchestra, his solo projects, his reaction to the death of his idol David Bowie and the possibility of finding studio time with The Flaming Lips. A condensed Q&A is below.

Read the full interview at okgazette.com.

OKG: What drew you to doing a class and concert at ACM@UCO? DJ: I was invited by the Flaming Lips; specifically, Scott [Booker], their manager [ACM@UCO executive director and CEO]. It sounded like a good idea to me.

I’ve been into the band for years. I first met Wayne Coyne when they played at the Hollywood Bowl. … He told me that they, as a band, were very influenced

by Love and Rockets. In fact, I might be going to studio with Wayne following this master class and my show, but he’s very busy and we’ll see. He said, “Let’s go in and do something crazy; we can pull time together.”

I’m up for crazy. I’m always up for crazy. He has a standing invitation to join me for the gig as well.

OKG: In your memoir, Who Killed Mister Moonlight?: Bauhaus, Black Magick, and Benediction, you talk about a run-in with

David Bowie and how you respected him for treating Bauhaus like boys in a band instead of the characters everyone else saw onstage. That humility and honesty, is it something you learned from him, or did that reinforce what you already believed?

DJ: That was always there, right there.

Pre-punk, it was there, but when punk came along, that was the reinforcement.

That was the confirmation like, yeah you’ve got to get real and talk about how things really are and express yourself as an individual.

You mention that story about Bowie, which is in the book, we were on the set … filming The Hunger [a 1983 vampire film starring Bowie] in our little area — Bauhaus’ area was adjacent to his dressing room, and that jukebox was just outside.

To reiterate the story, because you had the follow on it, which is new. I was just out there on my own, just downtime, and looking at this jukebox, which was great. It was stocked with all ’50s and ’60s tracks.

I became aware of this presence behind me, and then I hear this voice — “Do you mind if I pick one?” — and I turn around. It’s Bowie, in that blue sharkskin suit that he wore in the film.

And I said, “Please. Be my guest.”

So he deliberates and then presses whatever, A56. And it was “Groovin’ with Mr. Bloe” by Mr. Bloe. … There’s a harmonica part that I always thought was very reminiscent of the track off of [Bowie’s 1977 album] Low, “A New Career in a New Town.”

So, anyway, Bowie starts dancing in front of me, which is very surreal, I’ll tell you. He starts flashing that smile, and I’m nodding along and I said, “This reminds me of something.”

He goes, “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

And he doesn’t break a step.

I said, “It’s one of yours.” … “A New Career in a New Town,” and he just put his finger to his lips and smiled and carried on dancing. It was a beautiful experience.

Just recently, I got his new album [Blackstar] the day it came out. I always buy Bowie records when they come out, going right back to Ziggy Stardust. I set aside time to play the album; it was two days after, when I had a gig in Seattle.

I was staying in the house where I was playing, and they had this great bunker. … I’m going to go down there, put on headphones and really go into this world

3 6 | f e b r ua r y 1 0 , 2 0 1 6 | O k l a h o m a G a z e t t e

David J

of the Bowie record, which I did, and was knocked out by it.

And then the next day, I got to Portland, and he died. I wrote a song that night called “The Day That Bowie Died” and recorded it the next day. After I wrote the song, I played the album again on headphones and I had a completely different perspective of it, of course.

What just made me lose it was the last track, “I Can’t Give Everything Away,” where right at the end, he alludes to that same phrase — that “Groovin’ with Mr. Bloe” harmonica line.

It’s just the whole thing of what I think he was saying on that track — he knew he was dying; I know that for a fact — and “A New Career in a New Town.”

A new career and the new town; the new town is the afterlife, and the new career is whatever the hell he’s going to experience there. … I wept.

OKG: That gave me chills. … Do you have a release date for that?

DJ: Just as soon as we can get it out there.

I think I’m going to play the song live at the gig, a stripped-down version.

OKG: You’ve inspired an army of musicians that have come after Bauhaus and Love and Rockets. Do you feel a responsibility to teach or to mentor?

DJ: I think it’s really important to encourage — not just for musicians but anybody who has untapped potential or has potential that is not fully realized.

A beautiful thing about being a mentor — mentorship and teaching — is that in the process of it, I find that one learns a lot just by listening. It’s not a oneway street at all.

OKG: Is there a lesson that you’ve learned?

DJ: Yes: Be tenacious as fuck! No flowers will bloom from those seeds that have not been planted and not been tended. You

have to tend your seeds; you have to be a tenacious gardener. It’s really important.

You have to stick to it. Never say die.

OKG: What can people expect at your concert?

DJ: I’m going to bring along two players from my band … they’re going to color the songs, and the songs will be drawn from right across the board — several solo records, of course, and quite a lot of Love and Rockets tracks, and maybe a Bauhaus track or two and the odd cover. So, it’s drawing all across my career.

OKG: What’s next?

DJ: I’m working on an album … a completely separate project with an 11-piece jazz band in Detroit called the Theatre Bizarre Orchestra. We’re doing an album that’s an evocation of the Theater Bizarre and an event that’s been held in Detroit for, well, about 20 years now. It used to be completely underground and totally illegal and very dangerous. … They call it The Greatest Masquerade on Earth, and it really is.

This band is basically the house band, and I was DJing there the night after they were opening the gala. … We came up with this idea of me coming on and doing [Bauhaus song] “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” for them, but doing it like Calloway style, wind orchestra.

We had one rehearsal — well, soundcheck rehearsal — and then just did it, and it really clicked. Afterward, the band members came up to me and they said, “This cannot end here. We have to do more.” I agreed, and it became an album.

OKG: It really seems like no genre at all is off limits for you.

DJ: Nothing’s safe!

UPCOMING EVENTS AT FIRELAKE ARENA

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O KL A H OM AN S FOR H EALT H / PROVIDED

life music

An Oklahomans for Health benefit show at Blue Note Lounge

Green show

Oklahomans for Health is using a concert series to raise funds and promote the legalization of medical marijuana.

By Ben Luschen

Third Fridays with special guests CobraJab, Spliflifter and TurboWizard 9 p.m. Feb. 19 Blue Note Lounge 2408 N. Robinson Ave. facebook.com/BlueNoteOKC 256-3568 $5

Blue Note Lounge and Oklahomans for Health host a monthly concert series to raise funds for the nonprofit as it gears up for a petition drive to legalize medical marijuana.

The next Third Fridays concert at Blue Note Lounge, 2408 N. Robinson Ave., includes Oklahoma City-based doom metal and stonerrock bands CobraJab, Splifflifter and TurboWizard.

Doors open 9 p.m. Feb. 19, and showtime is around 10 p.m., said Justin Hayden of Oklahomans for Health.

The group plans to launch a 90-day petition process in the spring and will use the concert series to collect signatures and register people to vote, Hayden said. Until then, the shows will help raise money for the organization’s general fund, to hire a few part-time employees in larger cities to help lead operations. The nonprofit also hopes to expand its advertising budget as it considers possible billboard and TV ads.

Oklahomans for Health reached out to several area venues to host the series, and Blue Note offered to let the group host the events without paying additional fees. Organizers also found some acts for the series through the venue.

“We don’t really know that many bands yet because we’re still kind of a young organization,” Hayden said.

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Showing support

A January Third Fridays show featured The Bourgeois, Alan Doyle and They Came from Above.

Hayden said turnout for that show was a little lower than they hoped, but that he hopes the series builds some name recognition as time goes on.

Last year, Oklahomans for Health came just short of the 130,000 signatures it needed to push for an amendment to the state constitution.

This year, the group is changing its focus to state statutes, which would only require 65,000 signatures to put on a state ballot.

“We’re way more excited about this,” Hayden said. “The drawback is that it’s easier for legislators and for people to repeal state statutes.”

The organization will be running another petition simultaneously that would make it more difficult for the Oklahoma Legislature to overturn a statute, should medical marijuana pass a vote of the people.

Hayden has been working on a few of his own musical projects recently.

He said combining the promotion of local music with a cause like this seemed like a natural fit.

“I figured if I was into making music and trying to learn how to do that and learning the promotional side of that, I might as well combine it with supporting medical marijuana,” he said.

Bands that have participated in the series so far, Hayden said, have been enthusiastic about the cause.

“We don’t have the ability to really pay the bands, so they have to be willing to support [the cause],” Hayden said. “I buy them gas for coming down if they come from Tulsa.”

Find Oklahomans for Health at oklahomansforhealth.com.

Maggie McClure, Noir Bistro & Bar. SINGER/SONGWRITER

Abysmal Dawn/Brokenflesh/Against The Damned, 89th Street Collective. ROCK

Shine, The Deli, Norman. COVER

Randy Cassimus, Full Circle Bookstore. ACOUSTIC

Stoney LaRue/Robby VanVekoven/Will Porter, Diamond Ballroom. COUNTRY

Harumph, The Deli, Norman. JAZZ

Tallows, 51st Street Speakeasy. ROCK

Judiciary, American Legion Post 170, Midwest City. ROCK

The Dusty Rose Band/Guns Drums and Stee/Metal Headz, Oklahoma City Limits. COUNTRY

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

THURSDAY, FEB. 11 Brent Saulsbury/Will Galbraith/Wayne Duncan, Friends Restaurant & Club. ROCK

SATURDAY, FEB. 13 2AM, Baker Street Pub & Grill. ROCK Avenue, Tapwerks Ale House & Cafe. COVER Bad Influence, Newcastle Casino, Newcastle. ROCK Blind Date, Landing Zone. COVER

Chuck Whetstone, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. PIANO

Bullet for my Valentine/Asking Alexandria/While She Sleeps, Diamond Ballroom. Rock

Dave Thomason Band, Grady’s 66 Pub, Yukon. COVER

Cole Porter Band, Grady’s 66 Pub, Yukon. COUNTRY

Martin Sexton/Brothers McCann, Cain’s Ballroom, Tulsa.

FOLK

Dirty Little Betty’s, Blue Note Lounge. ROCK

Oakville, The Deli, Norman. ROCK Replay, Baker Street Pub & Grill. COVER

FRIDAY, FEB. 12 80z Enuf, Remington Park. COVER

DJ Jason Daniel, Russell’s, Tower Hotel. VARIOUS Don and Melodee Johnson, Twelve Oaks, Edmond. JAZZ Empty Bottles, The Deli, Norman. ROCK Jason Young Band, Riverwind Casino, Norman. COUNTRY John Carnuccio, Full Circle Bookstore. VARIOUS

Blind Date, Landing Zone. COVER Avenue, Riverwind Casino, Norman. COVER

Lee Mullin Band, Sliders. COUNTRY

Christian Pearson/Gary Johnson, Skirvin Hilton Hotel.

PIANO

Lip Service, Oklahoma City Limits. ROCK

Dayna Kurtz, The Blue Door. SINGER/SONGWRITER DJ SIX, Russell’s, Tower Hotel. VARIOUS Electric Avenue, Mickey Mantle’s Steakhouse. POP Duhbreaker, Blue Note Lounge. ROCK JB and the Moonshine Band, Wormy Dog Saloon.

COUNTRY Karen Khoury, Legend’s Restaurant, Norman. PIANO Lee Mullin Band, Sliders. COUNTRY

okg

Josh Sallee, 51st Street Speakeasy. HIP-HOP Kali Ra/The Choke/Esoteric, 89th Street Collective.

ROCK

Daniel Jordan, Fuze Buffet & Bar. ACOUSTIC

Yo La Tengo

Othello/Sweet Ascent/Earth Groans, 89th Street Collective. ROCK

Grant Wells, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. JAZZ

Martin Sexton, ACM@UCO Performance Lab. FOLK

PROVIDED

Live Music WEDNESDAY, FEB. 10

music

Judiciary at American Legion Wednesday, Feb. 10

pick

Texas hardcore band Judiciary released its new EP, The Axis of Equality, in January. The group now brings its 2016 Midwest tour, including a stint at Midwest Blood Fest in Louisville, Kentucky, to a close with a final stop in Oklahoma City.

State bands Shame, Iron Born and Sledge will join Judiciary. Doors open 7 p.m. Wednesday at American Legion, 8608 NE 10th St. Admission is $8. Find out more about Judiciary at judiciarytx.bandcamp.com.

Michael Kleid, Fuze Buffet & Bar. VARIOUS Midas, Brewskeys. ROCK Miss Brown to You, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond. JAZZ New Politics/Panic, The Vanguard, Tulsa. ROCK Out of Sane, Vik-Timz. ROCK

TUESDAY, FEB. 16

Zane Williams, Wormy Dog Saloon. COUNTRY

Pearson Jazz Trio/Grant Stevens, Skirvin Hilton Hotel.

JAZZ

SUNDAY, FEB. 14

Replay, Remington Park. COVER Scarface, OKC Farmers Public Market. HIP-HOP

Caleb McGee, The Deli, Norman. BLUES LUCKY/Shaun Suttle, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. COVER

Arlo Guthrie, Brady Theater, Tulsa. SINGER/ SONGWRITER

Shakers of Salt, Firelake Grand Casino, Shawnee. COVER

Raina Rose/Michael Fracasso/Rebecca Loebe, The Blue Door. SINGER/SONGWRITER

Carte Blanche, Rockford Cocktail Den. VARIOUS

Josh Sallee, 51st Street Speakeasy, Saturday

Cody Canada/Mike McClure/Dylan Stewart, Wormy Dog Saloon. COUNTRY Edgar Cruz, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. ACOUSTIC

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 17

Eliza Gilkyson, The Depot, Norman. SINGER/ SONGWRITER

Grant Wells, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. JAZZ

Hudson Falcons/Don’t Make Ghosts/Your Mom, Blue Note Lounge. ROCK

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

Karen Khoury, Legend’s Restaurant, Norman. PIANO

Harumph/Travis Linville, The Deli, Norman. JAZZ

Scott Lowber/Will Galbraith/Ed VanBuskirk, Friends Restaurant & Club. COVER

Mike Hosty One Man Band/The Red Devils, The Deli, Norman. ROCK Scott Lowber/Will Galbraith/Rick Toops, Friends Restaurant & Club. COVER

provided

MONDAY, FEB. 15 Rick Toops, Friends Restaurant & Club. ROCK The Patron Aints/Carol Morgan and Friends, The Deli, Norman. ROCK

Submissions must be received by Oklahoma Gazette no later than noon on Wednesday seven days before the desired publication date. Late submissions will not be included in the listings.

Submissions run as space allows, although we strive to make the listings as inclusive as possible.

Fax your listings to 528-4600 or e-mail them to listings@okgazette.com. Sorry, but phone submissions cannot be accepted.

O k l a h o m a G a z e t t e | f e b r ua r y 1 0 , 2 0 1 6 | 3 9

S C REE N GE M S / P R OVI D ED

life film

Undead Pemberley Pride and Prejudice and Zombies will please Jane Austen fans while providing a light snack for Walking Dead viewers.

Bella Heathcote left and Lily James right in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

BY GEORGE LANG

Practically the definition of “high concept,” Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (PPZ) succeeds as one of the rare titles that delivers exactly what it promises: It’s the classic Jane Austen romance with stumbling rotters infesting and infecting the landed gentry of Regency England.

Writer-director Burr Steers (Charlie St. Cloud, 17 Again) delivers a much better film than most would expect, partly thanks to a cast liberally plucked from the finest British TV shows, but also because Steers trusts in both Austen’s original text and Seth Grahame-Smith’s 2009 pastiche novel. This is a film that can be appreciated by both Austen fans and zombie mayhem enthusiasts.

PPZ stars Lily James as Elizabeth Bennet, the willful second-oldest daughter of landed gentleman Mr. Bennet (Charles Dance, Game of Thrones). Mrs. Bennet (Sally Phillips) is most concerned with marrying her comely daughters off to wealthy suitors, but Elizabeth will have none of that, considering her protofeminist stance against being treated as chattel and, well, the zombie war that has raged for a half-century.

Elizabeth and her sisters were all trained by Chinese masters in the art of knife-fighting and swordplay, speak fluent Mandarin and can easily best their male counterparts in splashing brains across the English countryside. This is why Elizabeth is none too impressed with dainty fool William Collins (Matt Smith, the 11th Doctor in Doctor Who), Mr. Bennet’s clergyman cousin and, due to patriarchal society, his next rightful heir. Mr. Collins wants Elizabeth to marry him, but he also wants her to give up her blades and stay in the kitchen.

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That will not do.

Collins is a stark contrast to Mr. Darcy (Sam Riley, Control), a socially awkward British colonel and expert zombie killer. Elizabeth cannot abide Darcy’s pride or his prejudice, yet they are such a fine match when it comes to disemboweling the undead. James, who played Lady Rose MacClare on Downton Abbey, makes a great, headstrong Elizabeth, while Riley is clearly channeling the awkwardness of Colin Firth’s Darcy from the 1995 BBC miniseries.

PPZ largely succeeds because Steers clearly understands the need to keep the English majors happy while delivering putrefied viscera for Dying Light gamers. If anything, Steers favors the Austen text a little too much — there are long stretches when all is normal at Pemberley and the characters’ actions aren’t deviating much from Austen’s novel of manners. But then Steers folds in the zombie violence so seamlessly that it all makes a certain amount of sense.

For Pride and Prejudice readers, it even clarifies why there was such an enormous military presence in Hertfordshire.

The most nagging problem with PPZ is the degree to which Steers appears to be holding back on the buckets of blood.

War-hardened acolytes of The Walking Dead will notice every time Darcy crushes a skull off-camera or there’s a cutaway when Elizabeth is cutting away. PPZ is PG-13, which is patently ridiculous for a zombie film. Was the studio hoping to score all that hot money from the teenage Pride and Prejudiceloving demographic? All these years of corpuscle-heavy bludgeoning on basic cable has raised the bar in terms of what

viewers expect of the zombie apocalypse.

PPZ is a wildly imperfect film that impresses for what it is, but also for what it is not. Imagine this material in less-capable hands, like those of Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg, the purveyors of down-market parody films of the early aughts, such as Date Movie and Epic Movie, who have lately been going straight to streaming services. It’s not unimaginable that PPZ could have landed with those kind of bottom-barrel swill merchants at one time, resulting in a total clown show. Just picture a worstcase scenario in which Darcy, à la Firth, comes out of the lake in his puffy shirt as fishy water pours from the bite marks on his torso.

Fortunately, Steers cares enough to keep things relatively highbrow, which makes the juxtapositions of Regency propriety and corpse butchering more surprising and genuinely funny. When Cersei Lannister herself, Lena Headey, shows up as an eye-patched Lady Catherine de Bourgh leading an army of ninjas, it takes the socially intimidating character from Austen’s original and gives her some real power of intimidation.

When it comes to the zombie war, Lady Catherine de Bourgh is most seriously displeased.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies will still give some English professors angina for taking liberties with a sacred text, but it is far more respectful of Austen than some direct adaptations and more appreciative of its charms than recent films like Jerusha Hess’ Austenland.

Whether it pushes people to read Pride and Prejudice or to play Resident Evil, PPZ has its oozing head on straight.

P R OVI D ED

Famous feast

Half a century after the world’s most storied littering arrest, Alice’s Restaurant remains an icon of hippie culture.

Alice’s Restaurant

Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant 50th Anniversary with Sara Lee Guthrie 7 p.m. Sunday Brady Theater 105 W. Brady St., Tulsa bradytheater.com 918-582-7239 $39.50-$79.50

Even with more than 18 minutes of humorous ramblings and folksy storytelling about the events that inspired it, “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” needed further depth before it could fit into a runtime appropriate for a feature-length film.

The song most synonymous with the legacy of Woody Guthrie’s son Arlo and the iconic movie it inspired, Alice’s Restaurant, celebrates its 50th anniversary as Arlo returns to his father’s home state Sunday for a concert at Brady Theater, 105 W. Brady St., in Tulsa.

Decades ago, Arlo stopped regularly

performing the song, saving it for special occasions such as this. He will perform the tune and other material from his 1967 debut album.

Alice’s Restaurant, the 1969 film co-written and directed by Arthur Penn and starring Arlo, is often as playful as the ballad from which it originated, but with significantly greater doses of reality, drama and social themes.

“Massacree” is an effective anti-war song, the short synopsis being that Arlo is refused from being drafted into the Army due to a large-scale littering incident in his past. But the song is a greater commentary on the sometimes-comical failings of judgment in bureaucracy and government.

Penn’s adaptation does an equally good job of illustrating the lack of common-sense thinking within society’s most rigid institutions. Arlo’s experience as he is inspected for the military is made more impactful by the added insights of young, nearly naked men herded up and prodded like cattle.

Each movie scene described within the song becomes more meaningful, especially when considering the arresting officer and sentencing judge were portrayed by their real-life inspirations.

When Officer Obie, played by William Obanhein, puts Arlo in jail, they re-enact what really happened between them only a few years earlier.

Alice’s Restaurant hits and misses whenever it steps outside of its base narrative. The movie offers a more substantive context for “Massacree,” even if that context is embellished to a degree.

It describes the church owned by Alice and her husband Ray. It gives viewers a clearer picture of Arlo’s established aversions to military service.

The most significant addition to Arlo’s folk tale is the up-close look at he and Woody Guthrie’s relationship during Woody’s dying days. Arlo rarely misses an opportunity to speak to and play music

for his ailing Kung Fu Panda 3 patriarch, who is stifled by Huntington’s disease. He is portrayed by a silent Joseph Boley.

Woody’s death came two years before Alice’s Restaurant saw its cinematic release.

The movie’s weakness is that it adds a little too much to the “Restaurant” pot. An unnecessary and fictional subplot involving a dirt-bike-racing artist weighs down the narrative. Arlo also denies advances made by female suitors, presumably to show viewers that he’s not like those other famous musicians they know.

At the time Alice’s Restaurant was released, there were two main things viewers wanted — and received — from the story: an in-the-flesh enactment of a wildly popular protest song and a too-real tribute to a legend told by his son.

Find or request the Alice’s Restaurant album, Blu-ray and DVD at local retailers or order it online.

Easy Choice

Another book-turned-film by Nicholas Sparks suffers due to formulaic storytelling.

The Choice

BY TYLER TALLEY

The Choice is the eleventh adaptation of a Sparks’ novel, and it, more than any other at this point, feels like a greatest hits package. I daresay it’s the Nicholas Sparks-iest Nicholas Sparks film to date.

That might be good news for fans of past films based on his work, such as The Notebook or Safe Haven, but for those who have come to fear getting dragged to these movies by a significant other, this will be yet another two-and-half-hour date night chore.

Let’s set the stage. First, we have Travis (Benjamin Walker), a handsome, smart, charming, talented good ol’ boy whose only real faults are that he’s (gasp) kind of a loner and (double gasp) agnostic. Enter Gabby (Teresa Palmer), a beautiful, smart, charming, talented, religious All-American girl who moves in next door and suffers

from a severe case of stubbornness.

Initial adversity turns into casual flirting as the two then embark on a whirlwind romance. As with any Sparks movie, it isn’t long before tragedy rears its ugly head and threatens their happiness.

Like many of the films based on the author’s books, The Choice suffers from its adherence to a tired formula.

Every narrative beat and conflict feels manufactured because it has worked in other films that came before. You can almost hear the filmmakers saying to themselves, “If it ain’t broke...,” which could work if the film actually had any sort of dramatic weight to it.

The Choice continually posits that life equates to the choices people make and each of these choices has consequences.

For example, the movie initially presents

its leads as star-crossed lovers. Both are in relationships when they first meet.

These relationships are ultimately inconsequential to the plot, as their respective partners are never developed to the point at which an actual difficult choice would need to be made. Instead of presenting difficult choices with uneasy, often messy answers, we get what equates to yes-or-no questions in which the choice made is always the right one.

No specific spoilers, but the titular choice doesn’t really come into play until the last half hour of the film, and when it does, the film comes to a screeching halt as it sinks into listless melodrama. Director Ross Katz does little to actually imbue any weight or tension into these scenes as the movie slowly limps along until the credits mercifully roll. It’s a shame, given the

dramatic potential that could have been truly moving if it was written better.

As a fan of many mindless action films, I completely understand why people flock to movies like this. The Choice is harmless fluff of the highest degree, a bona-fide guilty pleasure for those who want to escape into the story of a perfect, uncomplicated romance only truly threatened by forces outside of human control.

Think of it as cinematic cheesecake, something that is ultimately terrible for you with little to no nutritional value, but it sure does look good. For what it’s worth, this reviewer hopes you make the choice to opt for something a little more substantial when picking a movie for you and yours this Valentine’s Day.

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DANA HAWLEY / LIONS GATE ENTERTAINMENT / PROVIDED

By Ben Luschen

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

by ROB BREZNY

Homework: Want some inspiration as you compose your romantic invitations? Go here: http://bit.ly/LoveAd

Third, do what it takes to love someone so well that you’ll knock the lid off.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) “Love is a fire,” declared Aries actress Joan Crawford.

“But whether it’s going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.” I disagree with her conclusion. There are practical steps you can take to ensure that love’s fire warms but doesn’t burn. Start with these strategies: Suffuse your libido with compassion. Imbue your romantic fervor with empathy. Instill your animal passions and instinctual longings with affectionate tenderness. If you catch your sexual urges driving you toward narcissists who are no damn good for you, firmly redirect those sexual urges toward emotionally intelligent, selfresponsible beauties.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) “No one has ever loved anyone the way everyone wants to be loved,” wrote author Mignon McLaughlin. I think that may be true. The gap between what we yearn for and what we actually get is never fully closed. Nevertheless, I suggest that you strive to refute McLaughlin’s curse in the coming days. Why? Because you now have an enhanced capacity to love the people you care about in ways they want to be loved. So be experimental with your tenderness. Take the risk of going beyond what you’ve been willing or able to give before. Trust your fertile imagination to guide your ingenious empathy.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Fifteenth-century writer Thomas à Kempis thought that real love can arouse enormous fortitude in the person who loves. “Love feels no burden,” he wrote.

“It attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility; for it thinks all things lawful for itself, and all things possible.” As you might imagine, the “real love” he was referring to is not the kind that’s motivated by egotism, power drives, blind lust, or insecurity. I think you know what I mean, Taurus, because in the past few months you have had unprecedented access to the primal glory that Thomas referred to. And in the coming months you will have even more. What do you plan to do with all that mojo?

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Gemini novelist Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) was fascinated in “life with the lid on and what happens when the lid comes off.” She knew both states from her own experience. “When you love someone,” she mused about the times the lid had come off, “all your saved-up wishes start coming out.” In accordance with the astrological omens, I propose that you engage in the following three-part exercise. First, identify a part of your life that has the lid tightly clamped over it.

Second, visualize the suppressed feelings and saved-up wishes that might pour forth if you took the lid off.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Here’s the counsel of French writer Anatole France: “You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving.” What he says is always true, but it’s especially apropos for you Leos in the coming weeks. You now have a special talent for learning more about love by loving deeply, excitedly, and imaginatively. To add further nuance and inspiration, meditate on this advice from author Aldous Huxley: “There isn’t any formula or method.

You learn to love by loving — by paying attention and doing what one thereby discovers has to be done.”

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) “I do not trust people who don’t love themselves and yet tell me, ‘I love you,’” said author Maya Angelou.

She concludes: “There is an African saying: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.” With this in mind, I invite you to take inventory of the allies and relatives whose relationships are most important to you. How well do they love themselves? Is there anything you could do to help them upgrade their love for themselves? If their self-love is lacking, what might you do to protect yourself from that problem?

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) “Only love interests me,” declared painter Marc Chagall, “and I am only in contact with things that

revolve around love.” That seems like an impossibly high standard. Our daily adventures bring us into proximity with loveless messes all the time. It’s hard to focus on love to the exclusion of all other concerns.

But it’s a worthy goal to strive toward Chagall’s ideal for short bursts of time. And the coming weeks happen to be a favorable phase for you to do just that.

Your success may be partial, but dramatic nonetheless.

us, and fulfill us. Like what? 1. We clarify what qualities we want in a partner, and we make sure that those qualities are also healthy for us. 2. We get free of unconscious conditioning that’s at odds with our conscious values. 3. We work to transform ourselves into lovable collaborators who communicate well.

Anything else? What can you do to make sure love isn’t a lottery?

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) “A coward is incapable of exhibiting love,” said Mahatma Gandhi. “It is the prerogative of the brave.”

That’s my challenge to you, Scorpio. In accordance with the astrological currents, I urge you to stoke your uninhibited audacity so you can press onward toward the frontiers of intimacy. It’s not enough to be wilder, and it’s not enough to be freer. To fulfill love’s potential in the next chapter of your story, you’ve got to be wilder, freer, and bolder.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) “We all have the potential to fall in love a thousand times in our lifetime,” writes Chuck Klosterman.

“It’s easy. But there are certain people you love who do something else; they define how you classify what love is supposed to feel like. You’ll meet maybe four or five of these people over the span of 80 years.” He concludes, “A lover like this sets the template for what you will always love about other people.” I suspect that you have either recently met or will soon meet such a person, Aquarius. Or else you are on the verge of going deeper than ever before with an ally you have known for a while. That’s why I think what happens in the next six months will put an enduring stamp on your relationship with intimacy.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) “It is not lack of love but lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages,” said Friedrich Nietzsche. He believed that if you want to join your fortunes with another’s, you should ask yourself whether you will enjoy your conversations with this person for the next 30 years — because that’s what you’ll be doing much of the time you’re together. How do you measure up to this gold standard, Sagittarius? What role does friendship play in your romantic adventures? If there’s anything lacking, now is an excellent time to seek improvements. Start with yourself, of course. How could you infuse more camaraderie into the way you express love? What might you do to upgrade your skills as a conversationalist?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) “Love isn’t something you find,” says singer Loretta Lynn. “Love is something that finds you.” Singer Kylie Minogue concurs: “You need a lot of luck to find people with whom you want to spend your life.

Love is like a lottery.” I think these perspectives are at best misleading, and at worst debilitating. They imply we have no power to shape our relationship with love. My view is different. I say there’s a lot we can do to attract intimate allies who teach us, stimulate

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