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ON THE COVER

NEWS

For decades, America’s top-tier cities represented a handful of metropolitan regions that seemed to have a monopoly on innovation and culture. Cities like Oklahoma City lacked a seat at the table when it came to world-class entertainment and cutting-edge business. But not anymore. Story by Ben Felder. P.6.

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Election: HD85 results Cover: level playing field Culture: Oklahoma Contemporary and Elliott + Associates Architects Chicken-Fried News Commentary Letters

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LIFE

LIFE

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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.

OKG picks Food & Drink: deciphering Asian menus; Hugo’s Taquizas; Reds, Whites & Boots; food briefs; OKG eat: takeout Best of OKC Runoff Ballot Health: Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma Health: UCO rooftop gardens Community: Made Possible By Us Visual Arts: Jesús Moroles, What’s a Girl Supposed To Do, Exhibit C, Marc Barker and George Oswalt

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news election

p Hotos by M a rk Ha n coc k

Special win Chip Carter won the Republican candidacy for House District 85.

By Ben Felder

republican primary in House district 85: July 13 vote chip carter: 1,026 (37.08 percent) ralph crawford: 805 (29.09 percent) Matt Jackson: 536 (19.37 percent) amy palumbo: 400 (14.46 percent) *Unofficial results from Oklahoma State Election Board

Chip Carter’s political career has always involved working behind the scenes. But for the past few months, the former staffer for national and state campaigns found himself in the spotlight and on the ballot as one of four candidates in the Republican primary for House District 85.

“It is a completely different feeling being the candidate rather than being a staffer on a campaign,” Carter said a day after winning his primary race by eight points. “Last night, I was kind of numb and in shock.”

Carter’s win sets him up to face Democrat Cyndi Munson Sept. 8.

A special election in House District 85 was called following the death of Rep. David Dank, who had won reelection just last year.

After 20 years of the northwest Oklahoma City district being represented by Dank or his wife, Odilia, last week’s special election meant voters had to learn new names.

Like Carter, Ralph Crawford, a retired firefighter, was competing in his first election and finished second with 29 percent of the vote.

In a regular primary, Crawford would have advanced to a runoff against Carter since no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote — Carter won with 37 percent.

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In a special election, the majority vote recipient takes the race, even with a total below 50 percent.

Another Republican primary candidate was Amy Palumbo, a former prosecutor who had high hopes for the race after running for district judge last year. While she lost the race for judge, she had performed well in many precincts in District 85. She finished fourth last week with 14 percent.

Matt Jackson, who has run for state office before, finished third in the primary with 19 percent.

Carter said he celebrated the victory and got some rest but was ready to get back in campaign mode with another race less than two months away.

“I told my team to enjoy this and take a day or two off,” Carter said. “But we will hit the ground hard again as we get ready for the general [election].”

Many of the candidates in the low voter turnout Republican primary knocked doors and sent mailers, some of which advocated for conservative issues. Jackson even vowed he would file legislation to abolish the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature health care reform bill that is unpopular with Republicans.

But Carter said he tried to run a campaign that focused on more relevant issues, which he believes not only played well in the primary but will help him in the general.

“I think there are some candidates that wanted to really spend a lot of time on issues that appeal to some of the hard core right-wing voters, but those are issues that aren’t as appealing to the mainstream of the Republican party and the district as a whole,” Carter said.

“I feel like I started off the campaign

House District 85 Republicans debated before the July 13 special election.

chip carter

wanting to talk about education and the economy because that’s what was on my heart and the hearts of the voters.”

Carter, 45, is vice president of corporate communications and business development at Jones Public Relations, and while this was his first campaign as a candidate, he has been active in politics, including his work in the Right to Work campaign of 2001 that allowed Oklahoma workers to opt out of union membership. Carter also benefited from endorsements by Sen. Jim Inhofe and Gov. Mary Fallin.

Carter is an arguable favorite headed into September’s election, given the district’s Republican bent. But Munson, who ran last year against Dank, has nearly a year on Carter when it comes to knocking doors in the district.

“I have worked hard in knocking doors really over the last year and a half,” Munson said. “I think [Carter and I] both will put out a strong

ground over the next few months.”

Dank’s 56 percent of the vote total last year against Munson was a solid win and continued a trend of three of the last four District 85 races turning out as a Republican win in the mid 50s. (One of those years, Dank ran unopposed.)

However, in 2006, Dank won election by just half a percentage point.

Democrats believe the district is a winnable seat, not just because of 2006’s close race, but because this will be the first time in more than 20 years the Democratic candidate might have better name recognition than the Republican candidate. In a non-election year, a victory for Democrats in District 85 could also build momentum headed into 2016 when Democrats look to compete in a handful of urban districts currently held by Republicans.

“The voters in House District 85 are high-informed voters, and they know what is going on,” Munson said. “Just going out and saying that you are going to fight Obamacare or other liberal agendas isn’t going to work here.

“Chip Carter obviously has a lot of experience working on campaigns.

Obviously, he is politically savvy and can speak with a strong voice. But I’m confident in the message we have been sending, and I think this is going to be a good race.”

Both Munson and Carter have expressed respect for each other and don’t see the September election as already decided for either candidate.

“I do respect the fact that Cyndi has been out knocking doors, and I know she is working hard,” Carter said. “We are going to do the same.”

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G arett Fisbeck

Comeback city The playing field has leveled as more businesses and young professionals return to OKC.

Candace and Cory Baitz moved back to OKC after leaving for Los Angeles in 2003.

By Ben Felder

For decades, America’s top-tier cities represented a handful of metropolitan regions that seemed to have a monopoly on innovation and culture.

Cities like Oklahoma City, in the heart of “fly-over country,” lacked a seat at the table when it came to worldclass entertainment and cutting-edge business. Even simpler facets of urban life, such as specialty coffee and trendy boutiques, were things Oklahoma City residents only enjoyed when visiting larger cities.

But cities like OKC seem to have more in common these days with larger metropolises and cultural hubs in a way they never did before.

Portland, Oregon, is a specialty coffee capital, but Oklahoma City has its fair share of high-end cafes.

Silicon Valley remains the hub of tech startups, but app programmers and software creators are finding success in

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central Oklahoma.

Even Kevin Durant has shown that you no longer have to play in New York or Los Angeles to be a worldrenowned athlete.

“These smaller-but-major metros are now realistic choices for educated young people with big aspirations,” wrote Aaron Renn in an article for Governing about the opportunities smaller cities now have. “It’s no surprise, then, that Salt Lake City is home to a huge Goldman Sachs office.

Or that Apple has a large presence in Austin, Texas. Or that JPMorgan Chase & Co. employs more than 20,000 people in Columbus, Ohio.”

Renn was in OKC earlier this year to speak at the annual Mayor’s Development Roundtable, and his message was OKC had the opportunity to offer amenities that were once limited to America’s megacities.

“I can tell you that in 1992, moving from Chicago to Indianapolis would have basically been like being sent to Siberia,” Renn, who is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, said during his Oklahoma City speech. “You couldn’t get a decent meal [in Indianapolis], you couldn’t get a good cup of coffee, the type of life you could get in Indianapolis versus Chicago was just night and day. But Indianapolis today has more and better stuff than Chicago did in 1992.”

The urban playing field is much more level today, said Renn, as cities like “Oklahoma City, Columbus, Kansas City, Charlotte, Nashville are now in the game for development and business in a way [they] never were before.”

This shift helps OKC retain some of its younger residents or get back those who fled years ago for more

My rent alone in New York was more expensive than my entire monthly expenses in Oklahoma City.

— Danny Maloney

interesting places to live.

“You can do anything from anywhere now, and that wasn’t always the case,” said Candace Baitz, a development manager at David Wanzer Development in OKC. continued on next page

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After leaving the state in 2003 for Los Angeles and then moving to Chicago, Baitz moved back to Oklahoma City with her husband because they felt there were professional advantages here that they couldn’t find in Chicago or New York.

“Everyone I was in college with or in high school with, everyone left because they wanted something better,” Baitz said.

OKC’s population of young adults — aged 20 to 34 — has grown by 21 percent since 2000, according to U.S. census figures, which is the fastest growth rate of large cities in the region of states surrounding Oklahoma.

While a growing entertainment and cultural scene can be credited for some of that growth, there are also more professional opportunities here than 15 years ago, when the national economy was not as level as it is today, Baitz said.

Larger cities might technically offer more job opportunities due to their size, but those who have moved here recently say OKC seems to offer a growing economy that has been hard to find in other cities that are still recovering from the recession several years ago.

“When I looked at Oklahoma City, I saw a positive vibe and growth that we were not hearing in Chicago or even New York with the depressed economy,” Baitz said. “We said, ‘Let’s do it,’ and we decided to give Oklahoma City a shot.”

Tech hubs

As technology jobs continue to grow across the country, traditional tech hubs like Seattle and San Francisco have seen steady growth since 2000.

But small inland cities like Raleigh, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; Salt Lake City; and Indianapolis have each seen doubledigit growth in technology jobs during that same time period, according to research done by Mark Schill, vice president for research at Praxis Strategy Group.

Schill also reported that OKC ranked 44th in the nation as a tech hub when counting total jobs. Techrelated job growth here since 2000 has been fairly flat, Schill reported, but growth of STEM-related jobs — those related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics — posted a local growth rate of 15.5 percent.

OKC might not be a top-tier city for technology companies, but there are more opportunities locally than just a decade ago.

“Ten years ago, there was one tech hub, and that was Silicon Valley,” said Danny Maloney, co-founder of tech company Tailwind, which is based in Oklahoma City. “New York, Boulder, Seattle, Austin, the cities we consider tech hubs today, they weren’t even on the map. But you could easily argue that today, there are 15 to 20 tech hubs across the country.” continued on next page

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news cover Maloney co-founded Tailwind a few years ago in OKC and said there was an opportunity to build an innovative company in America’s heartland, despite being thousands of miles away from the coasts, which are home to more clients and capital.

And even though Maloney’s company eventually opened a second office in New York, he said OKC proved to be a great place to launch a technology startup.

“Obviously, cost of living is a lot lower here,” Maloney said. “There is no way we could have bootstrapped the company in the way that we did in a more expensive market like New York. My rent alone in New York was more expensive than my entire monthly expenses in Oklahoma City.”

Advances in shipping and cloudbased computing have opened the door to tech startups throughout middle America, and a cheaper cost of living has even given cities like OKC an advantage over larger markets when it comes to attracting employees.

When I looked at Oklahoma City, I saw a positive vibe and growth that we were not hearing in Chicago or even New York with the depressed economy.

— Candace Baitz 5308 N ClasseN Blvd. | OKC | (405) 848-6642 | Calverts.COm

“Rising rents and the difficulty of securing a mortgage on the coasts have proved a boon to inland cities that offer the middle class a firmer footing and an easier life,” wrote Shaila Dewan in an August 2014 article for The New York Times. “In the eternal competition among urban centers, the shift has produced some new winners.”

Seattle vs. OKC

Seattle and Oklahoma City highlight the shrinking gap between large and small cities. In recent years, sports teams and aerospace jobs have migrated here from Seattle in a manner that could have been unimaginable just a decade ago.

“Seriously, what’s really sticking in my craw about Oklahoma City is they seem savvier than we are,” wrote Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat in May.

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Westneat’s column referred to Seattle’s disdain for OKC, which wooed away the Oklahoma City Thunder — formerly the Seattle Supersonics — into a new market and a new era of success. But Westneat also highlighted this year’s announced relocation of 900 engineering jobs at Boeing from Seattle to OKC. The migration of a sports team and hundreds of jobs does not necessarily catapult the city to the same cultural status as Seattle. But those who follow urban affairs say the gap between large and small cities like Seattle and OKC is shrinking.

Room to grow

Part of Oklahoma City’s recent renaissance has included the arrival of dozens of new restaurants, many of which have elevated the local culinary scene.

But Baitz, who most recently lived in Chicago, says there is still room to grow.

“I heard someone ask, ‘How many more restaurants could we have?’” Baitz said. “I said, ‘Are you kidding? We could have dozens more. We can get better, but it’s definitely 10 times better than it used to be.”

Maloney said the opening of a New York office was partially to elevate Tailwind’s status with technology investors.

“There are some who won’t consider you without that New York address,” Maloney said. “Once investors know we have an office in one of the larger tech hubs, it makes it more likely for them to consider us for investment.”

Maloney also said the New York office gives Tailwind access to the talent pool in New York, which is larger than it is here. But the competition for talent is less in OKC, which gives each market its own advantage.

“It’s been easier and almost more natural building up the Tailwind brand locally,” Maloney said. “It’s been very easy to brand Tailwind in Oklahoma City as the type of company people want to work for.

We get a lot of the top talent locally.”

Baitz agreed that the less competitive market of Oklahoma City is an advantage for employees.

“Professionally, there is a lot more opportunity here than in bigger cities,” Baitz said. “If you’re ambitious here, it’s easier to get ahead.”

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Alley adjustment Comfort with change marks Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center’s move from the state fairgrounds to Automobile Alley.

By Brett dickerson

Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center’s decision to move from the state fairgrounds to downtown shows that it can embrace change.

Its children’s art education programs and adult art classes are meant to bring about change in the lives of the people who participate.

Its current space at the fairgrounds has many flexible spaces that morph into new configurations to meet the needs of the program or exhibition. Now, plans are underway to move from its flexible home at the fairgrounds to an even more flexible campus with two buildings, one of them new, at NW 11th Street and Broadway Avenue.

According to Donna RinehartKeever, Oklahoma Contemporary’s (OC) executive director, it will have 80 percent of its funds raised by late 2016, when it breaks ground on its new building as it remodels an existing one on the site.

The campaign to fund the building on the new campus is underway, with $13 million of the $26 million goal having been raised to date.

Why move?

“Location has become an issue because people don’t want to come to the fairgrounds for something like this unless they have experienced something like this before. The newcomers won’t come,” RinehartKeever said.

She gave an illustration of the reason its board decided to follow the suggestions of a 2011 study that recommended that they leave their current location and move close to downtown.

They have a make-and-take program once per month when parents

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and children can come to OC and make a piece of art. Normally, about 50 people participate. But recently, it tried hosting the same event at its new location, and according to RinehartKeever, about 350 people came. The difference was the location.

Organizers expect to have a larger impact on art education in Oklahoma City because of its new location once they move into the new spaces by 2018.

“We think 75,000 people per year will come through that facility,” Rinehart-Keever said. “We’re serving 1,000 children right now. We will be serving 4,500 by then.”

A warehouse that currently sits on the site that straddles NW 11th Street will be remodeled into a type of maker space that will allow for art education that is focused on pottery, painting, sculpting and 3-D computer-generated art.

The new building will have many flexible spaces both inside and outside that will allow for performances and exhibits of art that students have created.

According to architect Rand Elliott, the new building is meant to show that commitment to change has been a critical element in OC’s education success over the years.

Elliott was blunt about the degree to which change is at the core of the organization.

“The building changes every day, a person changes every day, the courses we offer change every day. That’s a very important part of it,” he said.

“And when you resist change, you die.”

New headquarters

Elliott has been investing creative energy into the revival of Automobile Alley since 1995. That was when he

M a rk Ha n coc k / Fi l e

news culture

bought an old, triangular-shaped building and turned it into the headquarters for his architectural firm, Elliott + Associates Architects.

Now, he is working on what will be a signature “gateway to downtown,” as he called it in a recent interview with Oklahoma Gazette.

Elliott is the architect for a campus that will be the new home of Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, centered on NW 11th Street between Campbell Memorial Park on Broadway Avenue and the railroad tracks, in 2018.

That gateway is a new building that will be the centerpiece of the 4.5-acre campus.

He calls the new building Folding Light because it is designed to reflect the changing angle of the prominent Oklahoma sun as it moves across the sky during each day.

Galvalume, a 55 percent aluminum-zinc alloy coated sheet steel, will play a large role in the variations of reflected light along with unique angles throughout the structure.

The existing warehouse close to the railroad tracks on the site will be refitted as a maker space that will be for creating pottery, painting, sculpting and other activities that create a lot of dirt and debris and require large doors to move supplies and finished art pieces in and out.

He referred to the activities of the maker space as being “the dirty arts” and the music, dance, performances and galleries in Folding Light as being “the clean arts.”

But there was another advantage in keeping the warehouse building.

“The thing that was so great was that there were economics in leaving this existing building, renovate it into a maker space and let it be the dirty arts. And then let [the new building] be the clean arts,” Elliott said.

Added accessibility for children and adults in OC by offering various art classes year-round is a key motive for moving. And Elliott was clear about the leadership that Christian Keesee, co-founder and board chair, has provided.

“Chris’ goal is to make art accessible for everyone, which has been an important point of view for this organization. And that’s very exciting, I think,” he said.

The exterior design of the new building is intended to serve more than just an aesthetic purpose.

e l l i ott + ass oc i at e s / p r ovi de d

oklahoma contemporary

There are five balconies designed into the exterior, one of which is 15-by-153 feet long, with a view to the outdoor performance spaces.

Elliott said that as Oklahoma experiences more and more 100-degree days, it is important to take into account the importance of shade. Rand has done that with the biggest balcony.

“It is on the eastern side of the building, and purposefully so,” he said. “If you spend any time in Oklahoma, you know that we have heat and wind. And so how do you handle heat and wind? You do it by shade and obstruction.”

That dynamic will unlock the flexible outdoor spaces even in the long, hot Oklahoma summers.

“The idea here is that if you want to come to Oklahoma Contemporary, there will be many opportunities for you to have an event in the evening.

It’s on the east side of the building, so that building itself is the shade for the event,” Elliott said.

In the new building’s interior, flexibility of any space is the intent, even when it comes to the freight elevator.

The first floor will be mainly for classrooms, of which many are flexible for multiple types of use.

The balconies and the library are accessed through the second floor, which will be administrative space. The fourth floor will house additional administrative offices and mechanical equipment.

The third floor’s performance spaces will have two main theaters, the “black box”-type theater accommodating around 300 seats, and the dance theater, which will hold about 75 seats.

According to Elliott, both spaces will lend themselves to wide variations of arrangement in order to adapt to the needs of the particular performances.

“We’ve been very focused on trying to make the experience at every level, whatever you do, to be a very interesting kind of thing because that’s really what art is,” Elliott said.

“You never know where art happens, how art exists. So it’s our goal to surround people and immerse them in spaces and experiences that maybe they never had before.”

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CHiCKEN CKEN Opting out

Remember the days of writing 20-page papers, single-spaced, front and back and no filler?

Well, four Oklahoma colleges would like to apologize to all of you for placing an “undue burden” on your liberties. Or at least we think they do.

Southern Nazarene University, Oklahoma Baptist University, Oklahoma Wesleyan University and Mid-America Christian University were told by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that they must abide with the federal contraception mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act. That “mandate” says that if those religious nonprofits oppose providing health coverage for contraception, they can write a letter and get out of it. That’s it. Fill out some forms.

In their case, they claimed the act of opting out was a “substantial burden” on their freedom. A lawyer defending the universities said the decision was a punishment for people of faith.

If they’re worried about coming up with an original opt-out letter, maybe they can copy off their friend’s paper? It always worked for us.

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FRiED NEWS Eating crow

Did you hear the one about how poor people are like animals?

If you spent any time on Facebook or Twitter in Oklahoma over the last week, you likely saw the heavily shared post from the Oklahoma Republican Party (@officialOKGOP) about the Food Stamp Program (actually called SNAP) and the National Park Service.

SNAP is “proud to be distributing this year the greatest amount of free Meals and Food Stamps ever, to 46 million people,” the post read, before going on to talk about the “Please Do Not Feed the Animals” signs in national parks, because “the animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves.”

How anybody could take that as comparing poor people needing food assistance (most of them children and the elderly) and animals is utterly beyond Republican Party Chairman Randy “Yes, I’m a grown man named Randy” Brogdon.

The offending post, since deleted, “was misinterpreted by many,” he said.

Stupid Okies. Can’t you see that when they compared poor people to animals, they were really comparing the two situations “illustrating the cycle of government dependency in America.”

No word yet on when they’ll write a post illustrating how stupid they sound backpedaling on dogwhistle political statements on social media. Be more like your uncles, guys — save that racist stuff for lengthy, poorly spelled e-mails.

Batter up

In a move that either makes the OKC Dodgers very happy or very nervous, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Oklahoma City is on the short list for new expansion teams or as a relocation spot for an existing franchise.

(Cue Mick Cornett sliding across the floor like Tom Cruise in Risky Business.)

But hold your horses, as the city’s executive manager of special projects said one of the things a new team would need is a new ballpark. That’s because The Brick only holds 13,000, while the smallest MLB stadium holds 31,000.

And we’re just going out on a limb here, but who would end up paying for that new attraction but the taxpayers?

Still, it would be fantastic to have a Major League Baseball team in our big league city — if for no other reason than to watch Tulsans seethe with jealousy.

Comments off

During his visit to Durant, President Obama announced a new initiative called ConnectHome, which would expand high-speed broadband Internet access for low-income communities.

While “teh interwebz” are easily — probably too easily — accessed by middle-class students, it’s still common for poorer households to live without a computer. And while the Internet does not ensure education ((cough cough Reddit), not having access can certainly curtail it.

The Choctaw Nation

in Oklahoma is one of 28 communities the Department of Housing and Urban Development will focus on connecting with low-cost, high-speed Web access through regional partnerships with Cherokee Communications, Pine Telephone, Suddenlink Communications and Vyve Broadband.

Just beware, Mr. President. Too soon, the commander in chief might be sitting at his own computer and scrolling through the comments sections of a tribal blog about a Kenyan usurper in the White House and wondering why he bothered.

Southern crossed

No, that wasn’t another of our ubiquitous earthquakes. That tremor you felt was the collective head slap from reasonable Oklahomans across the state when they found out a group of ... special folks planned to greet President Obama by waving Confederate flags.

Uh-huh, uh-huh, yeah, we really showed the Oklahoma Standard by waving the flag of the Confederacy.

Remember? Those are the guys who left the United States and then fought against them? And there was slavery involved?

Anyway, yeah, let’s show that to the nation’s first black president. Smart.

And the “Southern heritage rally” didn’t just show up in Durant, which, let’s be honest, isn’t exactly our best foot forward. No, there were flags waiting for Obama when he returned to Oklahoma City that night.

Fun fact: The Civil War ended in 1865. Oklahoma didn’t become a state until 1907. As Twitter user Chris Johnson (@okcjohnson) said, “It would make just as much sense for you guys to be waving the Texas state flag.”

Stay classy, Oklahoma.

Hungry bears

When you think of Oklahoma, one of the first things you think of is definitely not bears, but that might change soon.

Apparently, a bear relocation program in Arkansas is now affecting us. Bears that our neighbor released in its once-bear-rich mountains have begun migrating here.

KOCO.com reported that soon, it won’t be

strange to see a bear east of Interstate 35.

It offered this advice: “This summer, mother bears will have their cubs with them as they look for food, so bear encounters will be more likely. If you’re hiking or taking part in other activities in the woods of eastern Oklahoma, keep this in mind and don’t leave out food that could draw in the bears.”

It also reminded everyone that “it’s illegal to kill a bear outside the season,” which sometimes only lasts for one day and only takes place in four counties.

Though it seems unlikely, now that bears are wandering around Oklahoma, you should probably be prepared to meet one face-to-face. MountainNature.com suggests climbing trees, using pepper spray and fighting back, depending on the type of bear you’ve encountered.

We’re still waiting on the lions and tigers — besides that whole #tigernado thing — but we’re sorta feeling like maybe we’re not in Kans— er …

Oklahoma anymore.

Pinched palace

You might think it would be difficult to steal a $1 million house. Millionaires love security systems and living in fancy gated neighborhoods with rent-a-cops, after all.

But an Oklahoma woman recently proved that it’s only difficult if someone finds out.

The first thing you have to do is strike up a relationship with Norwegian boat racer Tor Staubo, who paid cash for his $1.2 million Grand Lake mansion and its furniture. Next, you date him for a year and then wait for him to leave the country. Then you forge a land deed and form a fake corporation to obtain control of the humble abode. Finally, you don’t get caught. Unfortunately, 61-year-old Betty Pitts-Cartwright, a former Oklahoma attorney, forgot about that last step.

On July 10, she pleaded guilty to “obtaining property by fraud” and perjury in relation to the stolen property, NewsOK.com reported.

Pitts-Cartwright and two accomplices — one of them her daughter — were caught when Staubo received an anonymous letter.

O K L A H O M A G A Z E T T E | J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | 1 5

COMMENTARY

Wage war on hunger, not the hungry

BY RODNEY W. BIVENS

Chances are good that when you think about what hunger looks like, you think of someone standing on a street corner, looking for a handout.

Odds are, you don’t conjure up an image of a single mom with two children, working full-time and living in the suburbs. Nor do you imagine an elderly man who lives down the street who rarely leaves his house or a child in your local high school.

The reality is that the face of hunger in Oklahoma today differs substantially from those Depression-era images of the gaunt-faced unemployed scavenging for food.

The majority of people served by Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma and those who rely upon government assistance programs like WIC (Women, Infants and Children) and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance

Program) are children living in poverty, seniors surviving on a fixed income and the working poor.

There is no doubt that the number of people experiencing hunger in Oklahoma has grown dramatically over the last decade.

Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma distributed 280,000 pounds of food during its first year of operation in 1980. We now distribute that much every two days.

Through a network of nearly 1,200 charitable feeding partners and schools, Regional Food Bank distributes enough food to feed more than 110,000 hungry Oklahomans every week.

To truly understand what it’s like to be hungry, look no farther than a school classroom in the metro.

There are more than 24,000 chronically hungry children who depend

on food provided by Regional Food Bank’s Food for Kids program to keep them from going hungry over weekends and school holidays. When asked what it feels like to be hungry, one child describes it as feeling like “her belly button is touching her spine.”

Another says that the “hunger in his stomach is louder than the teacher standing before him in class.” After the family dog had to be given away because they could no longer afford to feed him, another girl worries she might be given away too.

Parents and the elderly are much more reserved when describing how it feels to worry about where their next meal will come from. Coping with hunger by skipping meals is simply a way of life.

The issue should never be about where the food comes from. Our focus

should be about ensuring that everyone who needs food has access to it.

We all must recommit ourselves to creating an atmosphere of dignity and respect for Oklahomans who find themselves in a position of having to ask for help to feed their families. We must find the common good that unites us as a country and state and rekindle the “human spirit of sharing.”

Working together, we can make sure everyone has access to food. To do less is unacceptable. As Franklin D. Roosevelt stated, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

Rodney W. Bivens is executive director and founder of Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.

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.

Native children

The term Indian giver to the general public means to give something to another person and then to take it back, usually the term applies to the Indian.

Not so, when an Indian gives you something it is yours to keep. You may keep the item or sell it or give it to another person, we do not want it back.

I tell you this story because of something I read in The Oklahoman on July 8, in regard to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

In 1978, when the act was passed there was rejoicing in all of Indian Country because it meant that our children would no longer be taken away from their families and given to non-Indians.

Instead, the child would be allowed to live with a relative or at

1 6 | j u ly 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | O k l a h O m a G a z e t t e

least another Indian family rather than a non-Indian family.

Prior to the enactment of the ICWA, many Indian children living in non-Indian foster homes were treated as non-paid housekeepers and maids by their non-Indian families.

There was an incident in Wichita, Kansas, where the foster parent a non-Indian male sexually abused two brothers for years until one of them became old enough to fight back.

I am sure that many more abuses went unreported in the years before 1978.

Of all the treaties between the American Indians and the government none have ever been broken by the Indians. You have taken our land, our language, our culture and now you want our children again!

Who is the real Indian giver?

I have spoken.

— Gary Kodaseet, a Kiowa Oklahoma City Heathen rage

Ben Felder contends that the 10 Commandments monument “created a more divisive and hostile state for many Oklahomans, sending a message to some citizens that they are less than equal because of their religious beliefs.”

I won’t even waste time arguing that it doesn’t benefit a particular religion.

Ben says it is an affront to equality.

How can that be, when homosexuals, which the God of the 10 Commandments condemns, get special treatment for their unnatural sexual practices and call it marriage?

God is more than fair; He is merciful and gracious, and that is why America chose to base her principles on God’s reasonable and orderly commands.

They not only respect God and His creation, but teach us to respect one another, that is real “fairness.”

It is understandable that Gazette writers, homosexuals, gamblers, drug and alcohol abusers, adulterers and other licentious hedonists and atheists

would be “affronted” by the unfair rules of God that have kept America free and reasonably fair up till now.

Unless someone comes up with another standard of reason and respect for life, liberty and the pursuit of wholesome happiness, we will soon collapse into anarchy and violence, torn between the rival factions that are affronted by these reasonable Commandments.

And what if God is watching and decides to not bless America any longer?

— Michael Moberly Mustang

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Schelly’s Aesthetics

OKG picks are events

recommended by Oklahoma Gazette editorial staff members.

For full calendar listings, go to okgazette.com.

Schelly Hill, R.N. 405-751-8930

Shoppes at Northpark, 12028 May Ave.

Open Mon-Sat • www.SkincareOKC.com Gift Certificates Available

BOOKS Last Sunday Poetry Reading, poetry readings with an open mic opportunity, 2-4 p.m., July 26. Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 842-2900, fullcirclebooks.com. SUN

FILM

Sing-A-Long Sound of Music, Academy award winning movie in sing-a-long form; encouraging audience participation, costumes and fun, 7 p.m., July 24. Rose State College, 6420 SE 15th St., Midwest City, 733-7673, rose.edu. FRI Annie, (US, 2014, dir. Will Gluck) a young foster girl is taken in by a rich New York businessman, 8:30 p.m., July 24. Boathouse District, 725 S. Lincoln Blvd., 552-4040, boathousedistrict.org. FRI Singin’ in the Rain, (1952, US, dir. Stanley Donen) a musical comedy classic about a group of silent film stars who must transition to the talkies, 7:30 p.m., July 25. UCO Mitchell Hall Theater, 100 N. University Drive, Edmond, 974-2000, uco.edu. SAT The Wizard of Oz, (1939, US, dir. Victor Fleming) experience the technicolor classic on the big screen once again as Dorothy travels through the mysterious and colorful land of Oz to find the place she never thought she’d miss most- home, 9 p.m., July 29. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 445-7080, oklahomacitybotanicalgardens.com/events. WED

M A RK HA N COC K

The Princess of France, (AR, 2014, dir. Matias Pineiro) film circling around a young Buenos Aires theatre troupe as they prepare to record the comedy, Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare, 7:30 & 9 p.m., July 23.

Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 2363100, okcmoa.com. THU

Wittenberg Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park presents Wittenberg, a play written by David Davalos and directed by Rick Nelson, for the summer season. Wittenberg tells the story of Prince Hamlet as a senior at the University of Wittenberg while he struggles to come to terms with the realization that the sun does not rotate around the earth. Showings are 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at 2920 Paseo St. Tickets are $10-$15. Wittenburg runs through July 31. Visit oklahomashakespeare.com.

Thursday-Sunday, ongoing

HAPPENINGS

FOOD

The Wedding Show, KINDT Events and Tony Foss Flowers have come together to bring Oklahoma the first wedding show dedicated to wedding vendors from all aspects of planning- flowers, venues, bakeries, rental providers, and more- who are entirely LGBTQ-friendly, 1-4 p.m., July 26. IAO Art Gallery, 706 W. Sheridan Ave., 232-6060, iaogallery.org. SUN

Art After 5, enjoy the Oklahoma City skyline along with live music by Attica State, friends and cocktails on top of the OKCMOA, 5-11 p.m., July 23. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 236-3100, okcmoa.com. THU

Dance Lessons at Friends, country dance lessons and live country band, 7 p.m., July 28. Friends Restaurant & Club, 3705 W. Memorial Ave., Suite 604, 751-4057. TUE

Summer Cheese & Wine, try new wines perfect for the patio to help you get through the summer heat, paired with delicious cheeses, 6:45-8:15 p.m., July 24.

Forward Foods, 2001 West Main St., Norman, 321-1007, forwardfoods.com. FRI

Saturday Cooking Class, make a delicious grilled Tuscan bread salad, 1 p.m., July 25. Buy For Less, 3501 Northwest Expressway, 946-6342, buyforlessok.com. SAT Little Big Chefs, cooking class for parents and kids; make Pears Helena, 2 p.m., July 26. Uptown Grocery Co., 1230 W. Covell Road, Edmond, 509-2700, uptowngroceryco.com. SUN

eighteen by twenty-four: six studies in indigo

PROVID ED

Pennsylvania artist Kachina Leigh Martin’s exhibition eighteen by twentyfour: six studies in indigo will be on display through July 31 at The Project Box, 3003 Paseo St. Martin’s technique combines the ancient Japanese dying process of Shibori with digital images on handmade paper to create unique works of art. The Project Box is open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Visit theprojectboxokc.com.

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Wednesday-Saturday, ongoing

Athens Greek & American

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MON - SAT 11-8:30

Uptown Farmers Market Uptown Farmers Market returns to the Historic Uptown 23rd District 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday on Walker Avenue between 23rd and 25th streets. Over 20 local farmers, producers, bakers, artists and more will offer everything from fresh fruits and veggies to high-quality jams and spices. Families can enjoy live entertainment from local musicians and performers and a Children’s Fun Zone with face painting and exciting educational activities. Visit uptown23rd.com.

Sunday

YOUTH Photography Workshop, youth ages 9 to 19 who want to learn to take beautiful, inspiring photographs are encouraged to take part in one of two youth photography workshops; participants must bring their own camera; 9:30 a.m.-12 p.m., 1-4 p.m., July 22. OCCHD NE Regional Health & Wellness Center, 2600 NE 63rd Street. WED Comic Book Writing Workshop, spend an afternoon with DC Comic writer Sterling Gates as he takes you on a journey to become the most super you can be at comic book writing; it’s not a bird or a plane, it’s your awesome new high-flying writing skills, 4 p.m., July 23. Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library, 300 Park Ave., 231-8650, metrolibrary.org. THU Hooked on Fishing, Oklahoma City Parks and Recreation hosts a free fishing clinic for children ages 5-15; 8 a.m., July 25. Crystal Lake, 6625 S.W. 15th St., 297-3882, okc.gov/parks. SAT Youth Sewing Camp, a two-day session where kids age 10-18 can learn sewing basics and even make a few items of clothing, 9 a.m.-noon, July 27-28 Oklahoma County OSU Extension Service, 2500 NE 63rd St. MON-TUE UCO Outdoor Adventure Summer Camp, campers will experience everything the OAR Center has to offer, including paddle sports, land games, Project WILD activities, a lesson on basic camping skills and a day spent at the Adventure Experience Ropes Course, July 28-29. Arcadia Lake, 9000 E. 2nd, Edmond, 216-7470, edmondok.com/parks. TUE-WED

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M A RK HA N COC K

continued

Nature’s Fireworks Firefly Hike Fourth of July festivities are over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy nature’s finest fireworks 8-10 p.m. Saturday. You and your little ones can experience the spectacular sight of fireflies lighting up the sky on a hike through the woods led

by Martin Nature Center. Admission is $5 per person, and children must be age 6 or older to attend. Visit okc.gov/parks.

Saturday

PERFORMING ARTS

VISUAL ARTS

Bon Qui Qui, Mad TV’s Anjelah Johnson-Reyes brings her alter ego Bon Qui Qui to Oklahoma City; known for her famous stand up “Nail Salon” among others, 8 p.m., July 22. Rose State College, 6420 SE 15th St., Midwest City, 733-7673, rose.edu. WED

24/7 Art Exhibition, 24/7 is Oklahoma’s first 24-hour exhibition of visual, performing and culinary arts; seven visual artists will exhibit their work for three hours each at The Project Box throughout the night and day, 6 p.m.

July 24- 6 p.m. July 25. The Project Box, 3003 Paseo St., 609-3969, theprojectboxokc.com.

Big Fish, this new musical tale of reconciliation between father and son, based on the novel by Daniel Wallace, is certainly an experience that’s richer, funnier and bigger than life itself, 7:30 p.m., July 22-23; 8 p.m., July 24; 2 & 8 p.m., July 25. Lyric Theatre, 1727 N.W. 16th St., 524-9312, lyrictheatreokc.com. WED-SAT The Rajun Cajun John Morgan, stand-up comedy, 8 p.m., July 22-23; 8 & 10:30 p.m., July 24-25. Loony Bin Comedy Club, 8503 N. Rockwell Ave., 239-4242, loonybincomedy.com. WED-SAT Comedy Get Down, with a star-studded line-up featuring Cedric The Entertainer, Eddie Griffin, D.L. Hughley, George Lopez, and Charlie Murphy, Comedy Get Down brings live comic genius right to OKC, 8 p.m., July 25. Chesapeake Energy Arena, 100 W. Reno Ave., 602-8700, chesapeakearena.com. SAT

ACTIVE Nature Night for Adults, leave the kiddos at home for an evening of hiking, archery, games and more, 6:30 p.m., July 23. Martin Park Nature Center, 5000 W. Memorial, 755-0676, okc.gov/parks. THU Slide the City, grab your inner tube and your inner child and head downtown for the ride of a lifetime on a thousand-foot-long horizontal water slide, followed by a music, food, and fun-filled block party, 10 a.m.- 7 p.m., July 25. 800 N Shartel. SAT WWE Monday Night RAW, catch all the action live as WWE superstars beat the everloving snot out of each other for your entertainment, 6:30 p.m., July 27.

Chesapeake Energy Arena, 100 W. Reno Ave., 6028700, chesapeakearena.com. MON

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Artful Expressions, art exhibit featuring acrylic paintings from Oklahoma artist, Jerron Johnson. In Your Eye Studio & Gallery, 3005-A Paseo St., 525-2161, inyoureyegallery.com.

Audubon and the Art of Birds, view an extensive collection of the original “double-elephant” prints from The Birds of America, the work that made John James Audubon famous. Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, 2401 Chautauqua Ave., Norman, 325-4712, snomnh.ou.edu.

Cut, Carve and Shape Show, 3D work by metal artist Judy Gregg, glass artist Nicki Albright and ceramic artists Jeff and Debbie Kuhns. The Purple Loft Art Gallery, 514 NW 28th St., Suite 400, 412-7066.

Elaborate Collaborate Exhibition, more than fifty artists have provided a diverse selection multimedia artworks which will be available for viewing over the course of the exhibition and which will evolve over time. IAO Art Gallery, 706 W. Sheridan Ave., 232-6060, iaogallery.org.

Emphasis on a Colour Environment, art by painter and curator Amena Butler who investigates color and ways hues in differing compositions impact our environment. Urban Roots, 322 NE 2nd St., 297-9891.

Faberge: Jeweler to the Tsars, exhibit featuring more than 230 rare and storied treasures created by the House of Faberge; showcasing Peter Carl Faberge’s fine craftsmanship in pieces of jewelry and adornments once belonging to the Russian Imperial family. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 236-3100, okcmoa.com.

P ROVI DE D

Movie Night at the Market OKC Farmers Public Market is hosting a movie night Wednesday, July 22 with screenings of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

Thunderdome.

Come hang out at 311 S. Klein Ave. for live music from Bamboozle, street performances from Cut Throat Freak Show and Wonka Mike and food from St. Paddy Cakes’ food truck. Tickets are $5 at the door, which opens at 6 p.m., and the show starts at 7 p.m. Don’t forget to come dressed in your best post-apocalyptic gear for a chance to win a prize in the costume contest.

Wednesday, July 22

John Brandenburg Art Display, an explosive celebration of acrylic color on canvas created by a Normanite artist who draws inspiration from aspects of life both lofty and mundane. The Depot, 200 S. Jones Ave., Norman, 307-9320, pasnorman.org.

Ruth (Borum) Loveland, exhibit of artwork by Norman based artist who uses various media, colors and meticulous detail-oriented subject matter. DNA Galleries, 1709 NW 16th St., 525-3499, dnagalleries.com.

Seeking Monet, exhibit featuring works by Oklahoma painter, Beth Hammack and internationally recognized photographer, Catherine Adams. JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N. Walker Ave., 528-6336, jrbartgallery.com.

PROVIDED

Perceptual Art in Perspective is about how the observer interacts with shapes and colors; each person brings his or her own interpretations, and perhaps illusions, to the canvas. Paseo Gallery One, 2927 Paseo St., 524-4544, facebook.com/paseogalleryone.

Rebecca Twilley and Brandi Twilley, paintings and drawings exploring fantasy, fairy tales, heroes, mystical creatures, time travel, dark arts and Gothic times. AKA Gallery, 3001 Paseo St., 606-2522, akagallery.net.

Whodunit Dinner Theater Whodunit Dinner Theater has been killin’ it in OKC for 24 years, and it continues to do so with its hysterical new show Win, Lose or Die with a presentation at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Ted’s Cafe Escondido, 2836 NW 68th St. In this off-the-wall comedy, chaos and murder ensue after a hillbilly wins the lottery and each of his eccentric family members want a piece of the pie. Admission is $48 for adults and $24 for children and includes dinner, beverages and desert. Tickets can be For OKG purchased on whodunit.net or by calling 420-3222.

music picks

Friday

see page 55

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life food & driNK

Decoder ring Choosing the best food at Asian restaurants might mean stepping away from the buffet.

by GreG elwell

from left Michelle bui, Chris Nguyen and linda Phan enjoy a variety of food brought out

by Johnny Hy standing, owner of Hy Palace Asian restaurant.

PHoToS By MArk HAncock

There is a wrong way to eat Chinese food, and it starts with the buffet.

“The buffet is the American menu,” said Oklahoma City photographer Chris Nguyen, ladling out a serving of Cơm Chiến Cá Mặn Ga (fried rice with salty fish and chicken). At the massive tables in Hy Palace Asian Restaurant, 1133 NW 23rd St., the Lazy Susan is covered with sticky noodle dishes and clay pots filled with chewy tofu and vegetables.

Some might think of Hy Palace only as the Super Asian Buffet, but Nguyen and fiancee Linda Phan are quick to point out that almost every Asian family they know uses the expansive building for special events. They plan to have a wedding reception there.

They are first-generation Americans with parents who came from China and Vietnam. Straddling the line between their family heritage and their American upbringing, they are exactly the people you want ordering.

The steam tables might be stocked with the usual takeout fare, but the menu at Hy Palace is full of Chinese and Vietnamese gems they grew up eating.

And there are pitfalls.

Texture, said Michelle Nhin, is a biggie. She said the uninitiated are often put off by foods that are chewy.

“Tripe, blood sausage, cartilage,” she said. “My grandma loves the cartilage.”

She and Phan mimed the chopping of chicken, which leaves bones and connective tissue in the meat.

“When it says ‘chopped chicken,’ that means the whole chicken,” she said.

“Shredded chicken is pulled off the bone.”

Another word to look out for is hặp, which means steamed — especially with chicken, when diners might find that limp chicken skin is not their favorite.

Nhin grew up around her family’s restaurants — Hunan Garden, Nhinja Sushi & Wok and Park Harvey Sushi & Sports Lounge — and has seen her fair share of people

Prawns

You’ll say so long to old trays of chicken lo mein and sweet and sour pork and hello to fresh, delicious dishes. blanch at foods they don’t understand.

When someone orders fish, it’s okay to ask if it’ll be filets or chunks or a whole fish. Phan said there’s an etiquette to eating a whole fish.

“Eat one side first. You’re supposed to offer the cheek to the elder because it’s the best part of the fish,” she said.

Menus are full of dishes that will remind diners that what they’re eating was once alive, Nhin said. The connection to their food, making sure to use every part of the animal, is important.

“My grandma said you have to look the chicken in the eye before you kill it,” she said.

If you don’t like Clay pot at Hy Palace Asian restaurant

knowing your food came from an animal, it’s probably best to order the tofu.

The Buddhist diet is traditionally vegan, said Michelle Bui, a firstgeneration American born to Vietnamese parents.

Though Vietnamese beef noodle soup (pho) is pretty easy to navigate — stay away from tripe and tendon if you don’t like to chew — it’s rare to find a Vietnamese restaurant that can do what she considers traditional foods.

“Vietnamese cuisine is all about what’s fresh now and using local ingredients,” she said.

The names might be similar, but be aware when ordering appetizers that — much like the seasons in Oklahoma — spring and summer rolls are different creatures. Spring rolls (chả giò) are fried, while summer rolls (gỏi cuốn) have shrimp or pork rolled with fresh greens and rice vermicelli inside sticky rice paper. Both are pretty tasty.

Bui said she often wishes people would branch out from pho and try the vermicelli bowls, or bún, which incorporate noodles, bean sprouts, lettuce and other vegetables with grilled meats.

And stop trying to make bánh mì into other foods, she said.

“Bánh mì literally means bread,” Bui said. “There’s no bánh mì pizza.”

Nhin said the language barrier is always an issue. Restaurants don’t always care about menu typos — they’re too busy making sure their kitchens are up to code and the food is good.

Nguyen said a common misconception is about the word “pepper.”

“When you order salt and pepper pork, it’s not black pepper. It’s peppers,” he said. “And you’re not supposed to eat them.”

Still, it’s okay to make a few missteps, Phan said.

One way to mitigate the risk of a bad dish is by ordering several and eating the way it was intended — family-style.

No one expects you to polish off a plate by yourself. It’s food that’s meant to be enjoyed and shared.

With a little help from friends, you’ll say so long to old trays of chicken lo mein and sweet and sour pork and hello to fresh, delicious dishes, and your only fear will be not ordering enough.

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STERLING MERITAGE 750ML. . . . . $7.87 CASTELLO POGGIO MOSCATO 750ML $7.99 APOTHIC RED 750M . . . . . . . . . . $9.99 RELAX RIESLING 750ML . . . . . . .$10.33 K JACKSON CHARDONNAY 750ML .$12.89 JOEL GOTT CABERNET 750ML . . . .$15.97

SVEDKA VODKA 1.75L . . . . . . .

CAPTAIN MORGAN WHITE 1.75L .

CAPT. MORGAN SPICED 1.75L . .

CUERVO SILVER ESPECIAL 1.75L .

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CHIVAS REGAL 1.75L. . . . . . . .

NEW AMSTERDAM PEACH & PINEAPPLE 1.75L . . . . . . . .

TITO’S VODKA 1L . . . . . . . . . .

MALIBU RUM 1L. . . . . . . . . . .

PATRON SILVER 750ML . . . . . .

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VALID THRU JULY 25, 2015

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PHoToS By kEATon DrA P Er

SPIRITS BEER BUD LT PLATINUM 6PKBTL. . . . . . .$6.31 CROWN APPLE 1.75L. . . . . . . . . . .$39.50

Daily tacos

A selection of tacos from Hugo’s Taquizas

Tuesdays might be traditional, but Hugo’s Taquizas serves great food, including tacos, every day.

by GreG elwell

Only a fool waits for Tuesday to eat tacos.

Alliteration is awesome, amazing, acceptable, absolutely available as an alternative. But it’s no way to live.

You wouldn’t wait until Friday to put out a fire. Nobody says, “I’d like to get this malaria treated, but it’s not Monday.” We take care of problems on an as-needed basis, and your as needs to eat some tacos now.

In related news, let me tell you about Hugo’s Taquizas, 3409 NW 23rd St., which is a restaurant that sells tacos and taco-related foods.

On Tuesdays, Hugo’s sells its delicious, tiny little tacos for $1. On a non-Tuesday, the tacos are $1.50 or $1.75. So, if you’re on a budget, Tuesday is a great day to go. And if you just want tacos, lots and lots of little tacos filled with different kinds of meats, Hugo’s is a great place to go.

On a big board, they have a list of Carne Y Guisos — aka The Meats — divided up by color. Red are cows.

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It takes two giant tortillas to contain the tidal wave of meat, rice, beans, onions and cilantro trying to burst forth into your mouth.

White are chickens. Green are pigs.

You should try a little of everything.

That said, not every meat is available every day.

You probably can’t go wrong with carne asada (steak), so if you’re looking for a larger taco experience right off the bat, get a Tacon ($4.49) with asada. A Tacon is a taco stuffed in a pita. It’s a gyro taco with lettuce and tomato and avocado. There’s nothing wrong with this at all.

Some people like burritos, and by some, I mean all. When someone

WE ARE NOT CLOSING!

2 FREE PIECES OF PIE says, “I don’t like burritos,” it’s your hugo’s taquizas duty as a citizen of 3409 nW 23rd St. | 601-1244 Earth to report them to the authorities What WORkS: Giant burritos and tiny tacos because that person is from space and is What NeeDS WORk: The language barrier at the likely here to enslave counter can be a hindrance. the human race. Just tIP: Some meats, like carnitas and steamed pork, FYI. are only available Saturday and Sunday.

If you want to prove your loyalty to the planet, step up to the challenge of the 007-B even sure how to describe one. It’s a Impossible Burrito ($9.99). They will sandwich with fried potatoes inside. let you put up to four meats in this There’s chorizo, so it’s spicy. There’s a burrito. It takes two giant tortillas to ton of shredded lettuce and cheese. It’s contain the tidal wave of meat, rice, a mess, a giant, delicious, elbow-yourbeans, onions and cilantro trying to loved-ones-to-keep-them-away mess. burst forth into your mouth. It has If you are the sort of person who the circumference of a Coke can and goes to a taqueria for breakfast, hello. is about four times as long.

I’m glad we’re friends now. Let us It’s awesome. seal our bond with matching tattoos.

But perhaps you don’t have some But also, you might like to know that kind of burrito-based death wish.

Hugo’s serves lots of breakfast tacos You could instead get a quesadilla. and burritos but also kid-friendly The Campechana ($5.99) is a grilled favorites like pancakes (3 for $4.49) tortilla stuffed with carne asada and torrejas ($4.49), which they and chorizo with cilantro, onion describe as “Mexican French toast.” and cheese. It’s greasy and kind of Why French people are horning in on wonderful. this, I do not know.

It’s not always available, but the All I do know is that Hugo’s Tacos Dorados ($5) is worth seeking Taquizas is a heck of a tasty little out. You get five tacos stuffed with taqueria. The picnic tables are big mashed potatoes, deep-fried. Then enough to seat a crowd, and the prices they put cabbage and tomatoes and are low enough that everybody will salsa on top. Crunchy-creamy-freshget enough to eat. spicy. It’s exactly like the rap album I Most importantly, it serves tasty pitched to Death Row Records a few Mexican dishes you’re sure to love years ago. even if it isn’t Taco Tuesday.

The Pambazos ($4.75) ... I’m not

$8 VALUE WITH THE PURCHASE OF ANY 2 ENTREES & 2 DRINKS

EXCLUDES STEAKS • 1 COUPON PER TABLE • EXPIRES 8/03/15 NOW SERVING BREAKFAST SUNDAY, 8-11AM

THURS 11AM-8PM | FRI & SAT 11AM-9PM | SUN 8AM-7PM G

HWY 77 & MAIN, MULHALL, OK

405-649-2229 WWW.LUCILLESOK.COM

The 007-b impossible burrito

O k l a h O m a G a z e t t e | j u ly 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | 2 5

The patio bar of choice for okc’s most discerning tiki heads and toy robots.

New Restaurant • Pet Friendly Patio • Patio Dining • Dive Bar • New Bar • Neighborhood Pub • Bar Team

life food & driNK

Vinous variety The annual Reds, Whites & Boots gala raises money for Sanctuary Women’s Development Center in Stockyards City.

reds, whites & boots

2425 N. WALKER • PUMPBAR.NET

6:30 p.m. July 30 special event Center Cattlemen’s steakhouse 1325 s. Agnew Ave. redswhitesboots.com $65

When Christie Luna, Kelly Duckhorn and Paula Kornell first conceived the idea of Reds, Whites & Boots in 2009, no one predicted how successful the ministry they chose to sponsor would become. Duckhorn and Kornell are both deeply tied to Napa Valley wine culture; in fact, Duckhorn’s last name should be familiar to fans of Napa wines. The women wanted to combine wine and charity for a cause to benefit women.

Luna, who works for Glazer’s of Oklahoma, a wine and spirits broker, approached David Egan, director of operations at Cattlemen’s Steakhouse, about using their Special Event Center, 1325 S. Agnew Ave. Egan had just toured the newly opened Sanctuary Women’s Development Center, 2133 SW 11th St., in Stockyards City.

“Since it had been a church in its past, it truly appeared to be destined to be a sanctuary,” he said.

Cattlemen’s helped with Sanctuary’s first Thanksgiving dinner, so Egan was familiar with the staff. When Luna mentioned the wine tasting and charity to support women’s causes, Sanctuary seemed a natural fit. The first Reds, Whites & Boots was held that year, and with the exception of 2010, when it did not happen due to travel issues, Cattlemen’s and Glazer’s have hosted it every year since.

This year, the featured wineries

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are Pali Wine Co., Silver Oak Cellars, Toad Hollow Vineyards and Twomey Cellars. For the event, approximately 15 wines from the four wineries will be available to taste. Cattlemen’s will provide steaks and sides, and anyone brave enough to give it a go can dance to live music. “Boots” is in the name for a reason, so expect country music and dancing.

An auction to raise additional funds for Sanctuary is also part of the evening’s events. Some of the auction items are wine-related, including a trip to Silver Oak and Opus One Winery, two of Napa’s most famous wineries.

Sanctuary is a service of Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. The center, located in a former church, provides assistance for basic needs to homeless and at-risk women and their children. The center also provides counseling, case management and resources to help women move from homelessness and poverty to permanent homes and employment.

In 2013 and 2014, Sanctuary provided assistance to more than 1,600 clients.

Last May, Sanctuary opened a second location in Norman, a community where homelessness is less visible than in Oklahoma City. Jennifer Dennis-Smith, a spokesperson for Catholic Charities, said that couch homelessness is a problem in Norman. Couch homelessness is transient homelessness where someone lives with a friend or family member after losing the ability to live in their permanent residence.

Proceeds from Reds, Whites & Boots go directly to Sanctuary, and Catholic Charities has a sterling record as a charitable organization.

About 90 cents of every dollar goes to direct assistance, she said.

BIGSTock.coM

by GreG HorToN

food briefs M A rk HA n coc k

by GreG elwell

Nani

MA rk HAncock

Midtown is getting another new restaurant and watering hole this fall with the expected launch of Gigglez Bar & Grill.

Owners Marty and Casey Phillips are renovating the spaces previously held by Saturn Grill and The Candy Store, 1016 N. Walker Ave., for a restaurant, bar and twice-a-month comedy club.

“There’s really only one comedy club in the city,” Marty Phillips said. “I kind of enjoy it. It’s not just a bunch of drunks. You’ve got drunks laughing.”

As the city and the local comedy scene grow, he said Gigglez will be a good place for dinner, a drink and some laughs. The menu will take advantage of the pizza oven left behind by Saturn Grill while adding gourmet burgers and sandwiches.

The restaurant will also serve boba tea and smoothies.

In addition to a 10x13-foot raised stage, Gigglez will have a VIP area on the mezzanine, which can also be used as a meeting space.

Phillips said he hopes to open within the next two months, depending on construction and permits.

“We don’t want to open until we’re 100 percent ready,” he said.

Wine Self-appointed vine voyeurs at Wine Spectator Magazine have named a few Oklahoma restaurants to its list of the best restaurants for wine lovers.

Opus Prime Steakhouse, 800 W. Memorial Road, and Tulsa’s Polo Grill received Best of Award of Excellence distinctions.

Boulevard Steakhouse, 505 S. Boulevard, in Edmond and Museum Cafe, 415 Couch Drive, also were named Award of Excellence winners.

Opus Prime General Manager Billy Wilson said it has been on Wine Spectator’s list for the last several years because wine is an integral element of the restaurant’s culture.

“We taste anywhere from 200 to 300 wines a week,” he said. “It’s a passion and a hobby, and we get to roll it all into one. Wine, to me, is just as important as the food we serve.”

At Museum Cafe, Manager Lauren Garcia said it has a selection with more than 300 wines, including every varietal you can think of.

“We have about 20-24 by-the-glass options,” she said. “We also do wine flights so you can try 2 or 3 ounces of several different wines.”

SUSHI, APPETIZERS, ENTREES, SALADS, NOODLES, DESSERT

VOTE FOR US

BEST SUSHI

1201 nw 178th st • Edmond • 2nd & Western 285.8484 • thesushibarok.com

GAZETTE STAF F / FIlE

Laughs, quaffs

Fresh off being named two of Eater.com’s culinary Young Guns, chefs Andon Whitehorn and Colin Stringer will try to win over a tougher audience during an administrative hearing at Oklahoma City-County Health Department (OCCHD) next week to decide the fate of their private supper club, Nani.

The hearing is 9:30 a.m. July 29 in room 1102 of the OCCHD building, 4330 NW 10th St. It also is open to the public.

“The administrative hearing will determine if their case goes forward,” Whitehorn said.

If judgment comes down against Nani, Whitehorn and Stringer will decide whether or not to appeal in district court.

While some assert that the sanctions imposed by the health department shut Nani down, Whitehorn said they had already decided to take a break after holding a number of pop-up events in Oklahoma and Texas.

“This hasn’t stopped us from operating,” he said. “We’re just taking a summer vacation.”

O k l a h O m a G a z e t t e | j u ly 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | 2 7

lazy takeout Sweatpants feel so good. You slide into them and all your cares fade away. Except for one: You can’t go out to eat wearing them. As comfortable as they are, there’s a tear in the crotch and a suspicious stain on the leg. You don’t want to cook and nobody wants to see you rocking the drawstring. Time for takeout. Here are seven spots we love to go when we’re getting it to-go.

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

Lemongrass Modern Thai Cuisine

Mama Sinmi’s Chop House

253 S. Santa Fe Ave., Edmond 330-6888

2312 N. Macarthur Blvd. | 947-6262 mamasinmi.com

Thai food is one of the rare cuisines that gets better with age. Do your taste buds a favor and get some pad thai and evil jungle curry from Lemongrass Modern Thai Cuisine and take it home. There, you can chow down with a box of tissues at your side when the spice sweats hit and enjoy the burn.

It’s a delight to dine at Mama Sinmi’s Chop House, where the staff is so friendly and the food so good. But if you’re in a hurry, you’ll find its menu translates well to-go. Get the moin moin bean cake appetizer or go nuts on chicken jollof rice. Best of all, no one will be there to judge when you polish it all off yourself.

Taco Rico 3838 N. Lincoln Blvd 521-1330

Was Taco Rico originally co-owned by ’80s synth pop group Taco and ’90s Latin rap heartthrob Gerardo?

No, it wasn’t, and the cashier in the drive-thru is sick of you singing “Rico Suave” before ordering your food. Taco Rico isn’t about the music, man. It’s about delicious crispy tacos, smothered tamales and churros.

VOTE US

BEST

THAI restaurant LIKE US ON 2 8 | j u ly 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | O k l a h O m a G a z e t t e

500 NW 23rd St 405.524.0503

Donut Palace 900 SW Fourth St., Moore 408-3072

Real talk: Until you are age 70, it’s not okay to eat your donuts at the donut shop. They won’t kick you out — they’re too polite — but it’s a little unnerving to see a grown man polish off two dozen apple fritters and long johns in one sitting. Oh, is that just me? Nevermind. When you hit Donut Palace, you’ll want to get a box to-go just to avoid me.

Mandarin Chinese & American Restaurant 4401 SE 29th St., Del City | 672-3983 mandarinchineserestaurantgroup.com

Nobody disputes that Mandarin Chinese & American Restaurant in Del City is cozy and comfy. Still, is there any food we associate more with takeout? There’s just something magical about taking home a big container of mu shu pork, eggs Cantonese and a bucket full of egg rolls so big you’ll never need to leave the house again.

Ray’s Smokehouse BBQ

Mama Mo’s Pizza

1514 W. Lindsey St., Norman raysbbqok.com | 329-4040

501 S. Mustang Road, Yukon | 494-7979 mamamospizza.ok.mightypages.com

Everybody loves barbecue, and almost nobody can cook their own. That’s what makes places like Ray’s Smokehouse so important. It will pack you up a rack of ribs, chopped brisket, collard greens, potato salad and more messy, homestyle favorites for you to enjoy in your messy home. And takeout means never having to say, “Pass the napkins.”

“Always order too much pizza” should be a popular tattoo because it’s a universal truth. You’ll never be sad to have one more slice, especially from Mama Mo’s. And as it serves up an XXL pie, you’re sure to have enough for whatever sleepover, cram session, game night or Antiques Roadshow watch party you’re hosting.

VALID ON DINNERS UP TO $1199 ONLY. DISCOUNT TAKEN OFF EQUAL OR LESSER PURCHASE. LIMIT 2 COUPONS PER PERSON. NOT VALID WITH ANY OTHER OFFERS. EXPIRES 7/29/15.

VOTE US

BEST DESSERT SHOP & PLAZA DISTRICT RESTARUANT AT B ESTO F O K L A H O M AC I T Y.CO M !

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flavors change daily

LOCATED IN THE PLAZA DISTRICT • 1711 NW 16TH PIEJUNKIE.COM • 405.605.8767 O k l a h O m a G a z e t t e | j u ly 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | 2 9

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Oklahoma City’s original and longest-running readers’ poll, is back for its 31st year.

Who will have the top score?

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OKLAHOMA GAZETTE’S BEST OF OKC P.O. BOX 54649 OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 73154

P HOTOS BY M A RK HA N COC K

LIFE HEALTH

Soul food Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma looks toward a 50,000-square-foot expansion and a major increase in outreach programs.

A giant freezer storage area is part of Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma’s expansion project.

BY BRETT FIELDCAMP

Since opening its doors in 1980, Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma has provided a staggering amount of food and help to Oklahomans in need. With programs ranging from meals on wheels to school lunch distribution and assistance, in addition to the numerous feed sites around the state, the organization has become an integral part of Oklahoma’s efforts to combat hunger.

Now, as the food bank faces the challenge of a rapidly rising population and need (nearly half all of its food distribution since 1980 has been in the past five years), it has undertaken a massive expansion effort.

Thanks to a collection of large new grants and funding from several generous donors and groups, the organization is increasing its volunteer and charity programs and adding 50,000 square feet to its main facility in OKC.

Shopping around

“The facility expansion is part of a larger, long-range effort for the Regional Food Bank to increase the quality and quantity of nutritious food available to Oklahomans struggling with hunger,” said Dawn Burroughs, vice president of marketing and communications. “Part of those long-range plans include developing Food & Resource Centers throughout our 53-county service area in central and western Oklahoma.”

Food & Resource Centers are described as “client choice” establishments where people and families in need can browse and choose the foods they want in an environment similar to a common grocery store. These centers help give a sense of normalcy and dignity to the outreach program and allow people to take only the food they want and

need, ensuring resources aren’t wasted.

There are currently nine of these centers providing services to communities across the state, and the new funding and grants that have come with facility expansion will help develop up to fifty more over the next few years.

“The Regional Food Bank is always looking for ways to ‘shorten the line,’ meaning to get at some of the root causes of hunger in Oklahoma,” she said. “The Food & Resource Centers are a perfect model for providing resources and referrals for additional services available in the community. That’s where community collaboration comes in. By working together, we hope to bridge the gap for families who are struggling to make ends meet and help them identify resources that can get them back on their feet.”

Much of the new space at the main facility will be used as storage for those Food & Resource Centers and the many other programs and sites that the food bank operates, but there are a lot of other plans for the added area as well.

Help wanted

At least 30,000 square feet of the new space is allotted for work and office space for employees of the food bank and to train and coordinate volunteers, the backbone of the organization.

From the start, the expansion project has put an emphasis on volunteer-oriented work like mentoring and tutoring, and the organization plans to use a great deal of the new resources to that end. Programs like Kids Cafe hope to bring children to safe, helpful locations by relying on wellorganized volunteers to set up meal sites in areas like Boys & Girls Clubs, where there are plenty of fun activities and help for any children that need it.

It’s clear Burroughs is excited about these youth programs making a difference in many children’s lives.

“Some of our summer feeding sites also provide mentoring and tutoring, like Freedom School, where kids spend four hours every morning reading,” she explained. “When they start back to school in the fall, their reading skills are three and a half months ahead of their peers as a result. The reality is without food, children cannot learn, so the food provided at these sites is the foundation for the tutoring and mentoring.”

Hot, fresh

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the facility expansion for many in the organization is the new 6,500-square-foot full-production kitchen. The food bank estimates that in the first five years after completion, at least 1.25 million meals will be freshly produced for its programs.

According to Burroughs, having access to such a large and modern kitchen facility will open new opportunities and standards of quality for the entire organization.

“The production kitchen will allow the Regional Food Bank to control the nutritional content and quality of the meals produced and will allow after-school programs without the kitchen space, staffing or resources to have hot meals available for the children who participate in their programs,” she said. “We will also be able to meet USDA guidelines for the food that is distributed to children while reducing our overall expenses.”

‘Feeding hope’

The logistics of a construction and action plan of this size turned out to be expensive.

Dawn Burroughs

That meant that this organization that has helped so many people needed a bit of help of its own.

“The food bank has been extremely fortunate to have strong relationships with many major donors, corporations and foundations who support our mission of ‘Fighting Hunger … Feeding Hope,’” Burroughs said. “The funds have been raised through a silent capital campaign, and no funds have been diverted from operational expenses. We work hard to be good stewards of every gift and have an administrative and fundraising cost below 4 percent.”

The organization has countless donors and support and appreciation from the Oklahoma community, but as Burroughs said, it is grateful for more helping hands.

“The Regional Food Bank always needs three things: food, friends and funds,” she said.

Visit regionalfoodbank.org or call 600-3160 to volunteer or make a taxdeductible donation.

O K L A H O M A G A Z E T T E | J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | 3 5

Urban treat

M A RK HA N COC K

LIFE HEALTH

Carissa Jetto and Tim Tillman

A new community growing method at the University of Central Oklahoma nets more fresh food for students and faculty.

BY ANYA ALVAREZ

Carissa Jetto, a dietetics and food management student at University of Central Oklahoma (UCO), explored the idea of building a community garden last year. Since spring, Broncho Urban Gardens (BUGS) has established 17 swimming pool herb and vegetable gardens that sit atop the balconies of Nigh University Center at UCO. When Jetto began looking for a school to participate in her project, she connected with Eric Hemphill, a volunteer coordinator at UCO’s Central Pantry, which provides free groceries to university faculty and enrolled students. With Jetto’s idea, Hemphill saw an opportunity to grow food for the pantry and provide UCO’s students and faculty with fresh options.

However, Jetto’s original intent was to measure water use.

Jetto had watched a kiddie pool gardening method on YouTube while searching for a growing system that could be elevated. The unorthodox method called for soil and seeds to be placed in reusable fabric “grow bags” clustered into plastic pools.

“It is said that this system uses less water, no weeding and you can grow more vegetables per square inch,” Jetto said.

The scientific and curious endeavors spawned an urban garden as they also brought people together.

“We found a greater sense of community with students and staff,” Tim Tillman, Central’s sustainability coordinator, said. “While student engagement has been slow since it’s summer, we had a number of students help with physically building and

3 6 | J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | O K L A H O M A G A Z E T T E

planting the beds this past semester, and I expect we will ramp back up during the fall.”

Beyond providing food with fresh and healthy vegetables, Tillman said there are many other opportunities to gain from this experience.

“There are teaching opportunities for budding gardeners, stress reduction and community engagement,” he said.

“People are also not bound to being indoors all the time, and they receive the benefits of being active outside.”

What has surprised many people involved with BUGS is how many tools and resources are available to grow a garden.

“There are a number of resources available locally for anyone interested in urban gardening, including SixTwelve in the Paseo, Master Gardeners Association and our own program,” Tillman said.

Last year, the UCO-YMCA Community Garden Initiative netted 1,400 pounds of food, and it is expected that BUGS will reach that number with much less weeding, said Tillman. More importantly, the goal is to continue to build community support while providing healthy food options.

People involved with BUGS see an opportunity to spread the concept of this style of gardening to other communities as well.

“It is a simple, very low-cost alternative to a traditional raised bed and can survive almost anywhere. So why wouldn’t communities want to try it?” Tillman said.

Visit uco.edu for more information on Central Pantry and BUGS.

GA R E T T FI S B E C K

LIFE COMMUNITY

Michael Zserdin and Adrian Young

Make change A new online project seeks to create a community of local do-gooders.

BY BRETT FIELDCAMP

What if OKC had the power to dream, plan and enact change on its own? This is one of the questions Adrian Young and Michael Zserdin attempt to answer with Made Possible

By Us (madepossibleby.us), a new online community platform designed to connect progressive ideas with the means to become reality.

“The general goals are to ignite action — real, tangible action — for social good,” Young said. “We’ll do that by thoughtfully focusing on the ideas that resonate and mean the most to the very population that will help fund making them real.”

When asked about what will separate this project from similar crowdsourcing platforms like Kickstarter and GoFundMe, Young made it very clear that their goals are much different.

“The biggest distinction is that those are tools, the passive technology that allows an outside party, product, service or idea a way to try and get others to fund their need or dream or want,” she explained. “We are building an activation community to do, build, create and make things possible together, with us.”

In order to get that community rolling and building itself, the team set up a simple landing page encouraging visitors to share their ideas for how to improve our city with the hashtag #WhatIfOKC. The responses and shares have been steadily pouring in and piquing interests ever since.

“The breadth of ideas is impressive,” Young said. “We’ve seen ideas focused on homelessness, food insecurity and all-weather play areas for Oklahoma City kids as the most recurring themes.”

These issues and the people pushing them soon will be paired through the site with businesses and financiers that can help coordinate real, actionable plans. Marrying community planning and charitable action to that kind of business and financial sense is nothing new for Young, a former advertising executive and director of Western Avenue Association.

“I’d been conceptualizing a way to harness the power of a strong group and channel it towards community do-good efforts but wasn’t sure how that could work,” she said.

After meeting Michael Zserdin, things began coming together.

Described by Young as a serial philanthropist, Zserdin was already nationally respected and recognized for his many altruistic efforts and for running newAnthropy, a more traditional crowdfunding platform for charities and aid programs.

Together, they were able to use the respect and goodwill of their combined experience to develop this new concept in community outreach and start generating the early buzz needed to get ideas flowing in.

Young would clearly love to see this project take off and would even like to help expand it into more cities, but right now, she is confident they are introducing it in the perfect community.

“We know Oklahoma City is the right market to launch in, not only because of our loyalty and OKC roots but because this is the place where new and amazing things are made possible by this tribe of believing, driving, invested people every day,” she said.

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LIFE VISUAL ARTS

Monumental legacy Jesús Moroles is remembered as his students finish his work on Coming Together Park.

2912 Paseo Drive

sauceDonPaseo.com

521.9800

3 8 | J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | O K L A H O M A G A Z E T T E

On June 15, renowned sculptor Jesús Moroles died in a car wreck near Georgetown, Texas. Moroles was the first artist-in-residence at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (USAO) in Chickasha, and he was teaching summer classes there while working with students and faculty on Coming Together Park.

The one-acre park, when finished, was to be Moroles’ largest granite installation, a place for serenity, study and conversation for the campus and the community. The students and two faculty members will continue with the project with the help of Moroles’ studio in Rockport, Texas.

“Jesús had about 99 percent of the design work done,” said Kelly Arnold, USAO director of communications. “He would tweak it occasionally as his vision expanded and changed, but we have the overall design he intended.”

In May, Moroles led a five-week independent study project for USAO students and worked and spoke extensively with faculty members Layne Thrift and Jordan Vinyard. Because of his close work with students and faculty, the school is both heartbroken and committed to finish Moroles’ vision, Arnold said.

“He was doing a summer internship with nine students,” she said, “so those students, as well as others, will work with Professor Thrift and Professor Vinyard to finish the park.”

The studio in Rockport is providing advice and direction as needed.

“We have their full support in moving forward with Coming Together Park,” Arnold said.

The park will be located on the campus’ oval and will be open to the public. Moroles designed it with tables, benches, common areas and grassy knolls for quiet reflection or study. One of the components of the park that will be impossible to complete will be the smaller, individual granite sculptures that Moroles planned to make.

“We have only one unfinished piece,” Arnold said. “We are trying to decide what to do with it at this point.”

Right now, the plan is to auction the unfinished piece at an upcoming gala in tribute to Moroles. The event is

Jesús Moroles

scheduled for Sept. 10 at The American Indian Cultural Center and Museum in Oklahoma City, but the details have not been finalized.

“We are planning a benefit gala,” Arnold said, “but it will mainly be a tribute to Jesús. There will be auction items, the proceeds of which will go to the park and student scholarships.

We are thinking about auctioning the unfinished piece in hopes that it will be gifted to the university and those proceeds, too, would go to the park and students.”

The individual pieces were supposed to be on permanent display in the park, and like all the work Moroles did, they were to be made from granite. In an interview with Oklahoma Gazette in June, Moroles said he worked with granite because he had a connection with it and because “Granite was the most challenging thing [he] ever tried.”

The original completion date for the park was sometime in August.

Moroles was never more specific than that. Arnold said the target date is still in August, but the school is flexible with the deadline.

“We may not hit the date, but it’s still a goal we are shooting for,” she said.

Freddy Baeza, a USAO student who worked with Moroles during the May independent study program, summed up what many of his fellow students learned from Moroles: “He always told us there are no excuses why we shouldn’t be able to keep going, no matter the obstacle.”

The words and the lesson are poignant, and the students intend to finish the work.

M A RK HA N COC K / FI LE

BY GREG HORTON

GA RE TT FI S BE C K

Girl gloss

Melissa Jacobs

Melissa Jacobs explores her childhood and feminine identity in her Dope Chapel exhibit.

BY JACK FOWLER

What’s a Girl Supposed To Do Through Friday Dope Chapel 115 S. Crawford Ave., Norman facebook.com/Dop3chapel Free (by appointment)

So many times, artists try to tackle life’s heavy themes, exploring the innermost recesses of our collective soul through their brooding, introspective work.

Local artist Melissa Jacobs gives us a little relief from all that with her show What’s A Girl Supposed To Do, now at Norman’s Dope Chapel, 115 S. Crawford Ave. The show debuted July 10 as part of Norman’s monthly second Friday art walk.

Jacobs’ straightforward, emotive style could almost be called childlike, and to hear her describe her latest exhibit, that’s exactly where much of her inspiration comes from.

“A lot of what I was thinking when I really make any of my stuff is about what I would do when I was a little girl to have fun,” said the 35-year-old Ponca City native. “I’d draw, listen to Whitney Houston, Madonna and other pop music from the ’80s. I try to bring that feeling I had when I was little into my work.”

Jacobs has shown her art around the metro for years, gaining attention for her distinctive style, which primarily features female subjects drawn in clean, almost rudimentary lines and filled with solid, vibrant colors. Viewers shouldn’t confuse simple with simplistic, however.

Jacobs’ work is emotionally striking, unapologetic and powerful.

Her subjects stare back at the viewer confidently, almost brazenly. The thick, black outlines filled with solid,

I’d draw, listen to Whitney Houston, Madonna and other pop music from the ’80s. I try to bring that feeling I had when I was little into my work.

— Melissa Jacobs

primary colors have become her trademark, and Jacobs said What’s A Girl Supposed To Do continues to explore women’s themes.

“I like to create portraits of women that are based a lot more in emotional feelings and less of what I actually see,” Jacobs said of her distinctive style and subject matter.

“It’s more expressive, definitely, but it’s turned into real, personal style.

And the idea of what I felt as a little girl and what I feel now, that’s always in my work. Women’s identity is almost always a theme in my art, so I’m just bringing that to this show.”

Jacobs said What’s A Girl Supposed To Do is a mixture of old and new pieces.

“I’ve been working really hard,” said Jacobs. “There are a few new pieces in this show, but there’s some from the past, too. After having a show last month (at Tall Hill Creative), it’s a lot to have shows back-to-back in a month, but I will have some new pieces to show.”

What’s A Girl Supposed To Do will be on display until Friday and can be seen by appointment.

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Anniversary display Native artist Cale Chadwick helps Exhibit C celebrate one year of Native American art in Bricktown.

BY JACK FOWLER

Cale Chadwick exhibit 11 a.m.-8 p.m. daily through Oct. 31 Exhibit C 1 E. Sheridan Ave. exhibitcgallery.com 767-8900 Free

Exhibit C, 1 E. Sheridan Ave. — Bricktown’s first Native Americanowned gallery — recently celebrated its first year of bringing native art and culture to Oklahoma City. The celebration included an opening reception for the gallery’s new featured artist, Chickasaw mixed media artist Cale Chadwick.

Chadwick’s exhibit will be on display until Oct. 31.

“I’m inspired when I’m around fellow artists and when I’m in nature,” Chadwick said. “Mixing mediums, coupled with my unique style that leans toward surrealism, makes my art stand out from the rest.”

Chadwick is based in Oklahoma City and creates mixtures of painting, drawing and photography. She has won American Advertising Awards for her work in film and video.

She currently works for Chickasaw Press in the Chickasaw Nation department of history and culture.

Paige Williams, director of tourism for the Chickasaw Nation, said that preserving, celebrating and promoting the culture of Oklahoma’s southeastern American Indian tribes

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Cale Chadwick and her art is what Exhibit C is all about.

“Oklahoma offers a variety of experiences and entertainment opportunities for visitors from across the United States and the world to explore and learn about native culture,” Williams said.

“Having Exhibit C located in Bricktown presents the more than one million visitors already stopping in to Oklahoma City’s Bricktown district with the opportunity to embrace native culture, art and events while obtaining information about additional cultural tourism destinations in Chickasaw Country and throughout our state.”

In its first year, Exhibit C has featured work from several notable native painters, including Mike Larsen, Billy Hensley, Brent Greenwood and D.G. Smalling.

In addition to its rotating gallery of artists, Exhibit C hosts storytelling, live painting, jewelry shows and other events that celebrate native culture.

Exhibit C strives to promote native culture by acting as a tourism information center, using its gallery space to raise awareness of different native-themed cultural and tourist opportunities for those travelling through OKC. Visit exhibitcgallery.com for more information on the gallery and upcoming events.

M A RK HA N COC K

LIFE VISUAL ARTS

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MARK HA N COC K

It’s no secret that Oklahoma City is home to an impressive art community bursting with talent.

With support from organizations like Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, convenient access to more than 20 galleries in the Paseo Arts District and popular events like First Friday Gallery Walk and Paseo Arts Festival, OKC is not a bad place to have a knack for creativity.

Marc Barker and George Oswalt are early pioneers of the art scene in the city, and they each contribute to keeping the artistic spirit alive and well. The pair have been supporting the art community and showing their work in local galleries for decades.

Not only are they active proponents of art within the city, but they’re using their talent to gain recognition for its art community beyond state lines.

The Annual Delta Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture features handpicked work of the best artists from around the Mississippi Delta Region. Oswalt’s “Bedtime Story 2” and Barker’s “CloudScapes” will be on display as part of the exhibit at Arkansas Arts Center through Sept. 20.

In addition to being an opportunity for Barker and Oswalt to have their work showcased in a prestigious museum setting, having their pieces shown outside of Oklahoma encourages outsiders to take note of what Oklahoma has to offer.

“There’s that kind of stigma of the Okie, and we always felt like second citizens in Oklahoma City,” Oswalt said. “But I think that’s been driven out to a certain extent.”

On top of support from quality galleries, there is no shortage of creative muse for artists in the metro.

“Oklahoma has a beautiful life and beautiful cloud formations,” said Barker.

In his “CloudScapes” piece, Barker reveals his fascination with Oklahoma’s breathtaking skies in black-and-white oil paintings. For Oswalt, “the sky, the open spaces, and the capriciousness of the weather at times” provide him with an interesting mix of clarity and spontaneity that he translated into his vibrantly colored “Bedtime Story 2.”

SOUTH

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George Oswalt

“Oklahoma breeds a lot of artists,” Barker said.

The flow of creativity and individuality is obvious when you walk through the Paseo Arts District.

There are numerous organizations dedicated to preserving the arts, and countless creative minds are able to explore their talent as a result.

OKC is not on the same scale as major art cities like New York, Dallas or Santa Fe, but Oswalt doesn’t consider that a negative.

The only thing going against us is tornadoes.

— Marc Barker

“The great thing about Oklahoma is that you can forge your identity a little bit better than if you are in a big city,” he said.

For people searching for a city that offers room to grow, explore and improve, OKC is prime real estate.

The creative spirit in Oklahoma City has become a central part of the city’s character, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon, according to the artists.

“The only thing going against us is tornadoes,” Barker said.

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LIFE PERFORMING ARTS

Tracking laughs

MARK HA N COC K

Spencer Hicks has a decade’s worth of standup material, and he is finally gleaning it for his first album.

BY JACK FOWLER

Spencer Hicks Live 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 29 WIll Rogers Theatre 4322 N. Western Ave. 604-3015 Free 21+

When Oklahoma City comedian Spencer Hicks reflects on his time doing standup, he talks not only about the evolution of his material but also the growth of the OKC comedy scene.

“I’ve been doing this for 10 years now, and in my opinion, this is probably the best time for comedy in Oklahoma City that I can remember,” said Hicks, age 35. “I wouldn’t call myself the last man standing from those earlier days, but I’m proud that I’ve hung around this long.”

The culmination of a decade in the funny business is the reason Hicks said he’s recording his first live comedy album 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 29 at Will Rogers Theatre, 4322 N. Western Ave. “It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for awhile, for years now, actually,” Hicks said. “I just want to have something to show for all these years doing standup. I see it more as a cap on what I’ve been doing than a catalyst for anything new. I’m not expecting this to launch my career. I just want something that shows people that I was here once upon a time.”

If there are any local comedy fans

who didn’t know he was here, they haven’t been paying attention. Hicks has cultivated a reputation for his guynext-door vibe and wickedly, deceptively funny sets that he has honed in clubs and open mic showcases since the mid-2000s.

Hicks, along with fellow funnymen Cameron Buchholtz and BradChad Porter, founded OKC Comedy a few years ago. Its Funniest Person in OKC contest concluded last week. He hosts weekly trivia nights for The Lost Ogle, emcees several local events every year and is still a regular at the metro’s scattered comedy clubs.

His local success has translated into some national recognition, too. He has opened for household names like Rob Delaney, Paul F. Tompkins and Dave Chappelle.

“Opening for Dave was the highlight of my career,” said Hicks of his twonight opening gig at Rose State last winter. “I remember hearing Killing Them Softly (Chappelle’s landmark standup special) in my buddy’s car in college and thinking it was one of the funniest things I’d ever heard. I became a huge fan of Chappelle’s Show after that, so to open for him was a total thrill.”

Hicks said that all those years playing local clubs couldn’t have prepared him for the experience.

“It’s the most scared I’ve ever been doing comedy,” Hicks said, then laughed. “I’ve seen people like Jim Gaffigan, Bill Burr, Brian Regan.

They’ll bring openers with them or have openers, and I remember sitting in the crowd and seeing a guy walk out and thinking, ‘Man, this is not the guy any of us have paid to see. I automatically don’t like him.’ But some of those comedians, you leave there and you’re a fan. That’s what scared me to death, that I was going to be that person that no one came here to see. Everyone in this crowd knows I’m just here to take up space.”

Hicks was worried for nothing.

He did so well that Chappelle brought him back out on stage after his own set for another round of applause. He was relieved that he got laughs at all, much less did well.

“It was the greatest experience of my career, definitely,” he said.

It wasn’t the best experience of his life though.

Hicks, a new father, said having a family of his own now has altered his aspirations as well as his material.

“I think having a son definitely changed some things for me, at least internally,” Hicks said when asked where he wants to go from here. “Before I had the kid, going out and doing comedy was definitely easier, for one thing. It’s not a strain now, and I’m not going to quit comedy, but I’ve definitely slowed down.”

He said his material has evolved, too.

Hicks doesn’t mind comics who “work blue” or tell risqué jokes (he’s a huge Louis C.K. fan, for example), but he feels like any attempt at that kind of set might

‘I’m gonna tell rape and abortion jokes, and nobody can stop me’ ... that’s just not the stuff that’s taking up space in my brain these days.

— Spencer Hicks

be “forcing it” at this point in his life.

“When I first started out, I was definitely doing some dirtier stuff,” Hicks said. “I think it’s something a lot of comics go through. You tell yourself, ‘This is the last bastion of free speech; I’m gonna tell rape and abortion jokes, and nobody can stop me.’ Those jokes sometimes get laughs, whether for the shock value or because they’re just funny, but that’s just not the stuff that’s taking up space in my brain these days.”

Hicks said his set is going to be comprised of his favorite material gleaned from the past decade of making people laugh.

“It’s gonna be my favorite jokes,” he said, and grinned. “They might not be the jokes everybody likes the best, but it’s the stuff I like the most from the past ten years. I’m really excited about it.”

O K L A H O M A G A Z E T T E | J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | 4 3

Perpetual Motion Dance

Perpetual steps Perpetual Motion Dance hosts a festival to bring OKC’s dance community together.

BY TYLER TALLEY

Oklahoma Contemporary Dance Festival 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center 3000 General Pershing Blvd. perpetualmotiondance.org 951-0000 $10-$15

Perpetual Motion Dance’s ninth annual Contemporary Dance Festival takes place Friday and Saturday.

The event represents collaborative effort between professional choreographers across Oklahoma, Minnesota and Missouri and local performers in Oklahoma City.

It features performances by 37 local dancers selected by audition who will perform choreography by eight choreographers.

This year, the group includes alumni of the University of Central Oklahoma: Brandon Fink of MADCO in St. Louis, Allison High of Race Dance, Sarah Smith of Race Dance and Alana Murray and Katie Noble of Perpetual Motion Dance.

“It gives us a sense of pride and accomplishment to see our former students growing into such strong artists,” said Michelle Moeller, director of Perpetual Motion Dance.

Oklahoma Contemporary Dance Festival begins at 8 p.m. at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, 3000 General Pershing Blvd. Tickets are available via the group’s website or at the box office one hour prior to the show. Ticket are $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors.

Perpetual Motion Dance, a local dance company, began hosting the festival in 2006. Moeller, the company’s director since 2002, said that the festival grew out of an idea to provide OKC dancers performance opportunities outside of their respective studios or schools and help

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build a sense of community among the dancers. She added that the festival has only grown since it began nine years ago.

“We started with about 10 dancers and have grown to between 30-40 each year,” Moeller said. “We have worked with choreographers nationwide for the festival over the years, and while we still like to bring in two to three choreographers from out of state, we also feel it is very important to promote the artistic talent we have in the state.”

Planning the festival takes time.

“We select around eight choreographers at the beginning of each year. Then, in the spring, [we] audition dancers and cast them in different works that are age- and levelappropriate,” Moeller said. “We want dancers working with new people, breaking out of old habits and having new experiences.”

Moeller said that Oklahoma Arts Council (OAC) was instrumental in the growth of the festival and Perpetual Motion Dance. OAC has funded the festival every year since 2006.

“Oklahoma Arts Council has been receiving budget cuts each year via state appropriations, but they continue to support our organization and many others to the best of their ability,” Moeller said. “We will be using the grant funding for things such as theater rental, costuming, publicity and artistic fees.”

Moeller expressed the importance of dance in the art community.

“All the moments of joy, sadness, anger, boredom, impatience, struggle — they all have physical sensations and attributes, and I believe that is the foundation of dance as an art form,” Moeller said.

To learn more, visit perpetualmotiondance.org.

P ROVI DE D

LIFE PERFORMING ARTS

P R OVI DE D

Get down

The Comedy Get Down World Tour

The Comedy Get Down World Tour brings some of comedy’s biggest names back to Oklahoma City.

BY GREG ELWELL

The Comedy Get Down World Tour 8 p.m. Saturday Chesapeake Energy Arena 100 W. Reno Ave. 866-448-7849 $30-$85

When The Original Kings of Comedy debuted in 2000, it set off a ripple effect, bringing standup back into the mainstream and creating what Cedric the Entertainer calls “event status” for comedians.

Now part of The Comedy Get Down World Tour with Eddie Griffin, D.L. Hughley, George Lopez and Charlie Murphy, Cedric performs 8 p.m. Saturday at Chesapeake Energy Arena, 100 W. Reno Ave. The group came together for a benefit show in January. Lopez contacted a number of comedians to raise the funds necessary to erect a statue of Richard Pryor in Peoria, Illinois, his hometown. They raised more than enough money to build the monument. Perhaps more importantly, they had a great time together.

“We just said, ‘This is fun.’ We had a blast hanging out, so it seemed like the natural thing to progress into a tour,” Cedric said in a recent interview with Oklahoma Gazette.

One thing The Original Kings of Comedy did was transform live comedy into a special event.

“Before, you might get one big name,” Cedric said. “Now, you’re getting a multitude of your favorites showing up at once. And on arena tours, with the huge Jumbotrons hanging above the stage, there’s really not a bad seat in the house.”

The show, also called The Black and Brown Comedy Get Down, has

crisscrossed the country before heading into Oklahoma City. Next up is an international tour stopping in South Africa, Europe and possibly Australia.

Bringing standup into an arena setting isn’t always easy. Most comics work in front of more intimate crowds, so it takes hard work to get massive crowds laughing, Cedric said.

“It’s one of the hardest jobs out there to walk up to a microphone, just be yourself,” he said. “You’ve got to rein in that horse and grab hold of the audience. It can be tough to get 8, 10, 12,000 people on one accord, getting them laughing in unison. It can be a bit daunting.”

Luckily, he said, The Comedy Get Down is stacked with seasoned veterans.

“We all love being out there, watching each other perform,” Cedric said.

And when current events lead them to craft jokes on similar subjects, it’s fun to see whose joke comes out on top.

“When something big hits, like the Donald Trump news cycle the last couple weeks, everybody maybe has a point of view,” he said. “If too many people are doing the same joke, you fall back. You kind of quietly let the person who has the best joke have the joke.”

On any given night, though, it’s anybody’s show. Cedric said all the comics on the tour are “craftsmen of jokes.” Each finds a different way to keep audiences engaged and laughing until the lights come up.

Cedric also recently wrapped up the fourth season of his TV Land show The Soul Man and the film Barbershop 3.

He recently launched a new show on The CW called Cedric’s Barber Battle.

O K L A H O M A G A Z E T T E | J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | 4 5

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K E Y S T O N E S O U T H D A K O T A

R I M O M O B A N A C A M T R E E C R N H I D S C I P A A G A N U N D C D S I I A N E R I C B R I R S E N E N I D E A C O S T H Y O U S A S S

O M A H A R S T T A E L

T H E M A N O F T H E P E O P L E

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S D S

A H I E R R I O O R F E S S A N J A U M A P N E H D I L L

T H E G R E A T E M A N C I P A T O R

H A V E W H A M I T O S L O W I S H

A R I L

I D L I N E G S T A T B R L A E S S T R A S A N C A A T A M

H O M E O F M O U N T R U S H M O R E

A N I S

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By Patrick Berry / Edited by Will Shortz

across 1 Hamlet 5 Possible cause of red eyes 10 Collared one 14 Poker in a western 18 College sports’ ____ Valley Conference 19 Disease spread by bats 21 Nefarious 22 Casablanca role 23 Bird involved in French government affairs?

25 Fulminate 26 Come together 27 Leading the pack 28 Glittering ballet costume?

31 Brings up 34 Was nosy 35 “Prince ____” (Aladdin song) 36 Flipper?

39 Raced with runners 41 “You can stop explaining” 44 Tree with samaras 45 La Bohème song in which Rodolfo regrets saying too much to his lover?

49 Except for 51 Site of Italy’s Blue Grotto 52 Barclays Center player 53 “I’ll obey your medical advice!”?

57 Bath bathroom 58 Prey for a dingo 59 Coat of arms element 60 1969 Nabokov novel 61 Don Everly’s singing brother 63 Reaction to a slug 66 Guarantee 68 Harry’s 1948 Dixiecrat opponent 70 Horror film featuring Ghostface 74 Collared one 75 Miss Woodhouse of Hartfield 76 Stand-up comic’s need 79 Echo tester’s word 80 Car-care brand 83 Paul Newman title role 85 Lionel trains?

88 Mesabi Range excavation 91 Oscar winner Garson 92 Big butcher purchase 93 Group planning a hostile takeover of Swiss Miss?

98 “Here’s an idea …”

99 Facebook profile feature

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Plywood sheet Nail-removing tool Driveway sealant Become tainted Former SAG president Ed “That’s my last trip to the store, ever!”?

Indicates, as a gauge Letup Reserve One who’s pretentious as hell?

Study too much, say No-show in Hubbard’s cupboard Fictional resort in a 1988 #1 hit Washed up, careerwise Stands abuse?

Flexible Flyer, e.g.

Climber’s spike Wet blanket?

dowN 1 Florida city, for short 2 “Ain’t gonna happen” 3 “Dirty” dish 4 Track vehicle 5 Back again 6 Youth 7 Provides a hideaway for, maybe 8 Undisturbed, after “in” 9 Qualifying race 10 Breach of trust 11 Skirt 12 Having no flex 13 Entreaty 14 Buck, in old slang 15 More-than-adequate supply 16 Like Goodwill wares 17 “Dagnabbit!”

20 Half-witted 24 Classical performance hall 29 Utah Valley University city 30 Soft rock?

32 Dennis the Menace’s mom 33 Holiday Inn rival 36 Oil source for Asian cooking 37 Exploit 38 Lobbying org. formed in 1944 39 “Yeah, I bet,” e.g.

40 Intertwined 41 Digs in the Arctic 42 List entry 43 “Whatever Gets You ____ the Night” (Lennon song)

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46 Device once sold in a U2 Special Edition 47 Unwelcome bit of mail 48 Prefix with metric 50 Consume 54 The olden days 55 Actress in Selma, familiarly 56 Chi-____ (Christian symbol) 62 Sinful 64 Diez menos dos 65 Neck lines?

67 Law-school course 69 Network owned by Showtime 71 Children’s heroine with the dog Weenie 72 Runner-up in every 1978 Triple Crown race

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73 Perambulates, western-style 75 Source of four great rivers, in the Bible 77 Law & Order: SVU actor 78 Ruler entombed in the Great Pyramid 80 Sets (on) 81 Dressage gait 82 Western city named after a Shoshone chief 84 Card game from Mattel 86 Grimm figure 87 Hatch in the Senate 89 Important people 90 Tabloid show beginning in 1991 94 Given a start 95 Not working as a volunteer 96 Favored by fortune 97 Radio-era dummy 102 Religious doctrines

0719

New York Times magaziNe crossword Puzzle sTarT agaiN

104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 113 114 115 119

Cylindrical holder Lying flat Berkshire racecourse site Indistinct shape 1980s auto Dies down Blender setting Polynesian idol ____-by-the-Sea, N.J. Rat Pack nickname Multitude Coverage provider, for short 120 Particle in seawater

Stumped? Call 1-900-285-5656 to get the answers to any three clues by phone ($1.20 a minute). The answers to the New York Times Magazine Crossword Puzzle that appeared in the July 15 issue of Oklahoma Gazette are shown at left.

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4 8 | J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | O K L A H O M A G A Z E T T E

S HELLI E LEW I S / P ROVI DED

LIFE MUSIC

Ether eater Johnny Polygon takes on life and hip-hop from many angles.

BY GREG HORTON

Johnny Polygon with Alex Wiley, Ark Noah and Mike Turner 8:00 p.m. Saturday 51st Street Speakeasy 1114 NW 51st St. 51stspeakeasy.com Free 21+

Johnny Polygon is not so busy he cannot do voice-overs for a friend’s project for National Geographic. It is true that he basically lives in his tour bus, but he had the opportunity to help out a friend and fulfill some personal goals. In the videos, a few of which are available online, he does the voices for many of the animated birds in 50 Birds, 50 States, a children’s program that uses birds to teach young people about the states of the U.S. The Tulsa native and hip-hop artist said he has always wanted to work with National Geographic and wanted to do a cartoon.

“It kills two birds with one stone,” he said with a laugh.

The joke was just too easy, and Polygon is known for his ready laugh and quick humor. Born John Armour in Cleveland, Ohio, Polygon moved with his family to Tulsa when he was about 7 years old. He considers Oklahoma home.

“I hit puberty and lost my virginity in Oklahoma,” he said, a trace of a smile in his tone. “All my firsts were in Oklahoma.”

The list includes the first time he got kicked out of school.

“I got kicked out of every high school I attended,” he said. “I never went back.

I’m a horrible example for children.”

His laugh punctuates the declaration yet again.

Polygon’s brand of hip-hop is impossible to categorize, but his humor runs throughout, sometimes subtle and sometimes overt. He begins “Whoa Is Me,” a track from his last album, The Nothing, with the line “Warning, this is a love song. Sort of.” What follows is a straight R&B groove, not traditional hiphop. He is constantly blending genres, instruments, beats and layers of sound to create the musical equivalent of an ensemble piece.

His humor aside, Polygon’s persona in his videos can be far darker and more challenging than his affable demeanor in interviews and on stage. On “The Fall,” a track from his upcoming album I Love You, Goodnight, Polygon plays cultural prophet: “Worst thing to happen to your love life was the Internet … drown your phone, read a book or get a pet …” The lines are delivered over a black-and-white clip of a monkey swatting at a parrot. The imagery is funny, but Polygon will cover sex, death and drugs rather matter-offactly in the same song.

Underneath Polygon’s delivery and the percussion on “The Fall” is a haunting, minimalist keyboard composition played

by Gunar Underwood, a young man Polygon has never met face-to-face. That does not trouble him at all.

“He has been sending me music for a couple years,” Polygon said. “This time, the music really connected with

my songwriting. That’s the way albums are for me, music really. Sometimes a musician or a producer is just on the same wavelength with me.”

Polygon will be in Oklahoma City on Saturday as part of his Epic as Fuck tour, and opening for him will be another one of those serendipitous pairings that emerged from being on the same wavelength. Alex Wiley is a Chicago artist Polygon met while setting up for a show there.

“I was doing soundcheck, and I never do soundcheck with songs I perform live,” he said. “I saw this kid by the stage rapping all the words to the songs I was using for soundcheck.”

That a fan knew the words to Polygon’s deep catalog cuts impressed him enough that he met the young man. It was Wiley, of course, and the two have kept in touch. This will be their first tour together. The pair are playing nine cities, and Polygon refers to it as a pre-run for the upcoming Aug. 4 release of I Love You, Goodnight, a chance to test out the new material live.

Because he stays busy, he is never far from the fans, both literally and figuratively. He tours often and is a frequent user of social media, a vehicle that brings his supporters even closer.

“We are at a time in music and entertainment where an artist doesn’t need millions of fans to let him know that people care about what he is doing,” Polygon said. “Social media shortens the distance between fans and artists, so you can meet them online easily, even interact with them.”

Polygon goes a step further than most artists, though. He has started doing Bed & Breakfast shows. The first was in Dallas, and the latest was in Las Vegas.

Eight fans buy tickets on a first-come first-serve basis to spend the night with Polygon at a hotel. He does a show just for them, and they have breakfast together the next morning. It’s a bold step for an artist, but Polygon sees himself as a conduit as much as an artist.

“I think all music is already existing somewhere in the universe,” he said. “I barely take responsibility for the music I make. I’m like a vehicle for the people who can’t find it as easily as I can. If you take an apple from a tree and it’s delicious, you don’t praise the apple. The tree did it. I guess I’m just pulling things from the tree.”

The tour with Wiley will be Polygon’s second show in Oklahoma this year. He performed at Norman Music Festival in April, a show he called “one of the highlights of his career.”

“It was the main stage at a good time slot,” he said. “It was good to be back in Oklahoma, good to be on that stage.”

He is back in Oklahoma more since his father died last year. He likes to do shows when he’s in the state, but that’s not all he is here to do.

“Since my father died, my mom has all kinds of chores for me to do, even from a distance,” he said, “so I pass through more often.”

There’s more work to keep him busy, but he tells the story with a laugh.

O K L A H O M A G A Z E T T E | J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | 4 9

LIFE MUSIC

Oklahoma son

It is no surprise that John Moreland earns national attention. His music breaks your heart and lifts you up all at once; he’s truly a product of this red-soiled state.

BY GREG HORTON

John Moreland with Dawes 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 5 ACM@UCO Performance Lab 329 E. Sheridan Ave. acm.uco.edu ticketstorm.com $25

John Moreland writes sad songs. That observation seems to be the consensus of writers and reviewers when describing the Tulsa-based singersongwriter. Even The Wall Street Journal followed the conventional wisdom in its June 30 profile of the artist, titling the piece The Sad, Sweet Songs of Oklahoma’s John Moreland.

Moreland is actually a Texas native, but he has lived more than half his life in Oklahoma, graduating from Tulsa Union High School in 2004. His father’s engineering job took them to Kentucky from Texas before the family settled in the Tulsa area. His parents now live in Bixby.

As for the sad songs, Moreland has a pretty standard answer he now gives during interviews, including this one.

“I’m not super depressed,” he said.

5 0 | J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | O K L A H O M A G A Z E T T E

“That’s just the emotion that triggers the writing. I don’t typically have a good day and think, ‘I should write about that!’”

Subtle catharsis

Yet, in spite of the sadness in which Moreland’s songs are steeped, there is a melodic and lyric subtext that indicates that there is something hopeful happening, if not in the song itself, at least in the artist. The effect works much the way blues works, which is to say the point of melancholy or lament is not the lament itself; it’s the catharsis that follows.

Moreland admits that he writes songs mainly for himself, and as a confessed introvert, the process of playing those deeply personal songs on a stage is not just counterintuitive but often nearly unnerving.

“I get the irony of being an introvert who performs,” Moreland said.

“I’m getting more comfortable with it, but there are still shows where I’ll feel fine while I’m playing, but I’ll feel awkward between songs.”

The stock in trade of a singersongwriter is usually that narrative moment between songs when the most comfortable of the breed become raconteurs, entertaining the audience with a song’s backstory or telling a story about his or her own life that seems to offer a flash of insight. These moments are deeply satisfying to the uber-fan, furthering the false sense of intimacy that fandom or celebrity worship can foster.

On those nights when Moreland is feeling awkward, his solution is simple when this moment arrives.

“I just don’t stop between the songs on those nights,” he said.

“The playing in front of people — something just compels me to do it.”

That compulsion has Moreland currently playing shows across the U.S. He played at Tulsa’s famed Cain’s Ballroom with Jason Isbell early and a gig at Woody Guthrie Folk Festival early this month. He also has a show at ACM@UCO’s Performance Lab, 329 E. Sheridan Ave., on Aug. 5. After that, he heads to Europe in January, taking a short break from playing live in November and December.

Moreland has been playing in front of people since he was a teenager. In the early years, it was punk and hardcore, a dicey choice in his parents’ conservative Southern Baptist home.

“I discovered bands like Rancid and Green Day, and I delved deeper,” Moreland said.

In the late ’90s, evangelical and fundamentalist Christians would have described that sort of delving as darker, not necessarily deeper. It was the heyday of crossover acts, bands and artists who were trying to make a mark in so-called secular music while remaining stars in contemporary Christian music (CCM). Youth pastors commonly had handouts or posters for parents and teens that offered “Christian alternatives” to the bands the kids liked. Kids who liked punk only had a couple choices in CCM, including the most popular band, MXPX. It was this Washington-based band that Moreland listened to at home to avoid “freak[ing his] parents out too much.”

His tastes changed as he aged, although he was a songwriter even in his punk/hardcore days. The band was always a group of friends, and when he realized that the comings and goings of band members left him playing with people who were no longer friends, he struck out on his own.

Someone asked me after a show one time why I write antireligious songs. I don’t have an anti-religious agenda, though. I tried to explain that I was just a young, impressionable kid when I was in those churches and now I’m trying to understand it as an adult.

— John Moreland

National act

His first hint of national recognition came when three of his songs were featured on Sons of Anarchy, the FX network television program about a motorcycle club. Since then, he has been featured in The New York Times and Rolling Stone, in addition to the WSJ piece.

“I didn’t watch the show, so I didn’t have that moment of hearing my voice on television like other artists do,” he said. “My sister downloaded the episode the first time one of my songs was featured, so I did see it eventually.”

What the show did do for him was create some name recognition outside of Oklahoma.

“I’m grateful for the exposure, especially when I play shows and people know me because of Sons of Anarchy,” he said.

Additionally, it helped his relationship with his parents, at least in terms of how they viewed his music.

“The kind of press I’ve been getting the last few months, as well as the television notice, has made my parents excited,” he said. “I think for a long time, they were worried I was screwing around.”

Ironically, it was his father’s record collection that first exposed young Moreland to some of the biggest names in folk, Americana and roots singer-songwriters. Steve Earle’s Rich Man’s War, a 2004 meditation on the futility of war and the exploitation of the young and poor in light of Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza, struck a chord with him.

Even now, you can hear a hint of

O k l a h O m a G a z e t t e | j u ly 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | 5 1

LIFE MUSIC Earle’s post-Woody Guthrie anti-war songwriting in Moreland’s work. On the new album, High on Tulsa Heat — which came out in April— after warning that life will bring wolves to the door, Moreland cautions us that those wolves will “Make you leave all that you love to fight a war/And never tell you what you’re dying for.”

The track is the opening cut “Hang Me in the Tulsa County Stars,” and it features everything that Moreland is rightly known for: a raspy voice that is most often compared to Bruce Springsteen, thoughtful lyrics, simple compositions and hypnotic phrasing.

Moreland is captivating not because he is too complex but because he is heartbreakingly simple. You connect with him because like all the best singersongwriters, he doesn’t just tell us about himself; he tells us about the world by telling us about himself.

That ability is rare. Much of the music in the singer/songwriter milieu is introspective to the point of being narcissistic or it is narcissistic to the point of being trite — it’s ego masturbation before an audience. We come away knowing plenty about the artist — more than we likely want to know, in fact — but we don’t know much else. Moreland opens his soul, and in doing so, he offers us insight into different ways of being in the world.

In “Sad Baptist Rain,” a song about growing up Baptist and all the guilt that adheres to teens when they defy the taboos of conservative evangelicaldom, Moreland reflects on the enjoyment that somehow makes all the guilt even more confusing.

“The devil ain’t nearly as real as he seems/Your name is a number I see in my dreams/Your heart is a dangerous, beautiful thing…” This, by the way, does not sound like one of those sad songs that he is often accused of writing. This sounds like the affirmation of adolescent love in spite of the devil and in spite of religion that fails to understand adolescent love.

Singing praise

Justin Fortney, a singer, songwriter and musician in Guthrie and frontman for Stranded at the Station, has been a Moreland fan since he first saw him perform live before the release of his critically acclaimed album In the Throes in 2013.

5 2 | J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | O K L A H O M A G A Z E T T E

“It was one of those concert moments where if someone tries to talk to you, there’s a solid chance you’ll punch them because you don’t want to miss a note,” Fortney said. “It sounds like hyperbole, but there just aren’t a lot of folks writing songs this good.”

That is the kind of praise Moreland hears all the time, and not just from songwriters. The story of Rachel Maddow praising him effusively is now common knowledge — she said he should be a household name. But when songwriters who produce amazing lyrics are using all superlatives to describe another artist, what must this artist possess to engender such respect and admiration?

Fortney nails the sad song contradiction in describing Moreland’s work.

“He’s in that rare space as an artist,” Fortney said. “He can craft a special song, and he delivers it honestly with a voice that complements the poetry. God, he can break your heart with those songs, but he does it so well that you feel a bizarre energy from it. Maybe that’s one of the marks of a special songwriter.”

When it comes to musical inspiration, Moreland rattles off a cast of characters we expect: Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne and Guy Clark. It just so happens that all these artists were also excellent songwriters. Springsteen is too often remembered for the pop years — even though “Born in the U.S.A.” was a protest song, not an anthem — and not given appropriate credit for pieces like “Thunder Road.” The name that leads the list for songwriting, though, is Lucinda Williams.

“She has a lyrical simplicity that I think about and shoot for,” Moreland said. “I want some of that to rub off on me. There is a line in ‘Metal Firecracker’ where she sings ‘All I ask/ don’t tell anyone the secrets I told you.’

I think about it, and I just … wow!

I’m trying to get into that simplicity.”

Pay attention

Songwriting this good is always at least personal. The perspective comes from experience combined with a poetic sensibility. In spite of his lack of formal education in writing — although, he admits to leaning toward English in high school — Moreland writes with a command of language, metaphor and emotion. Some of that is due to his background, and some is just what

happens when you are alive and pay attention to what the world looks like.

“I think music has been a good place to work through some of these things,” he said. “Someone asked me after a show one time why I write anti-religious songs. I don’t have an anti-religious agenda, though. I tried to explain that I was just a young, impressionable kid when I was in those churches and now I’m trying to understand it as an adult.”

That process of contextualizing the religious experiences of childhood is often helped with creativity, whether or not we remain in the faith of our childhood. Moreland has not. He is reluctant to discuss spiritual things, and the songs do sort of speak for themselves if you are paying attention.

“I’m still spiritual,” he said, but the word was one we agreed on, not one that came readily to his mind.

“It’s weird to talk to people about it, though. I end up sounding like a hippie or something, but I do think there is more going on than we can see. I drift back and forth on this issue, but I don’t feel a need to pin it down. I’m open to whatever.”

Even on his most hopeful song to date, the title track to the new project, Moreland cannot leave the spiritual language out of the writing. “We got wrecked on love in the heavens above, now we’re back on broken ground,” he wrote.

He put the title track last on the album on purpose. He wanted it to finish off an album that he admits has one of the most “bummer tracks I’ve ever written.”

“It feels redemptive and triumphant,” he said.

And the track does, in the weirdest way. The experience of love can lead to loss and pain, even as it is capable of giving us the greatest joys and making us better humans. The risk humanizes us, and the pain is acknowledgment that we lost something deep and precious. Moreland hits the notes beautifully, painfully, and the longing in his voice is not just about his pain; it’s a shared experience, even if he wrote it for himself.

He will tell you he’s average when it comes to his degree of pain.

Even if that is the case, he is not average when it comes to writing and performing sad songs that help us find the joy of being fully human.

Stream High on Tulsa Heat at johnmoreland.bandcamp.com.

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Modern balance Success hasn’t gone to this country star’s head, but Garth Brooks’ influence still resides there.

BY GREG HORTON

Sam Riggs 9:30 p.m. Saturday Wormy Dog Saloon 311 E. Sheridan Ave. wormydog.com 601-6276 $7 21+

Sam Riggs talks about moderation and balance when describing his attempt to manage the way his career has taken off in the past two years. The country artist, who makes his home in Austin, went from being a relative unknown to seeing his name and picture in Rolling Stone, his song on ABC’s Nashville and his videos all over CMT. “It was surreal,” he said, talking about the Rolling Stone piece. “I read the article and I saw the social media response that followed it, and it felt like

Sam Riggs

a movie. At the same time, I was just overwhelmingly grateful to my fans for making this possible.”

Riggs was born in Florida. He grew up in a musical family in St. Cloud, a small town in the south central part of the panhandle. His mother and father played guitar, his grandfather played guitar and banjo and Riggs himself learned to play guitar and drums and started writing songs when he was in high school.

“Garth Brooks was a huge influence on me, both writing and performing,” he said. “He played every show like it was his last. The only separation between him and the fans was the height of the stage.”

Riggs also draws inspiration from Paul Simon and country artists like Alan Jackson, but Metallica, Three 6 Mafia and Rob Zombie also make his

list. Thanks to his wide spectrum of influence, Riggs avoids genre talk.

“Genres pigeonhole artists,” he said.

“One of the things I liked about Austin was that for me, it was an incubator that helped me find my own voice and my own style. The city doesn’t try to force conformity on artists.”

The move to Austin happened when Riggs was 19 years old. He became a welder after high school, but that career decision did not hold him.

“I wanted something bigger for my life,” he said. “I sold everything and moved to Austin.”

Riggs’ mother had relocated to Bastrop, Texas, and his cousin was set to start at Texas A&M, so Riggs felt that the family’s nearness would help with the transition. Meeting his future wife Natalie while she was a student at Texas Christian University solidified his

decision to make Texas home.

“I think moving at 19 ended up being a great decision,” Riggs said. “I was young enough to make some mistakes and recover from them.”

The mistakes he is making these days are hard to locate. The balance and moderation he talks about are a result of dealing with the sudden fame, not a reference to managing an out-of-control life. He seems genuinely mystified that things have happened so fast.

His band, Sam Riggs and The Night People, has sold more than ten thousand copies of their 2013 release Outrun the Sun, a remarkable number for an independent country band’s first album.

The touring schedule has been consistent with those numbers, and his ability to straddle the country-rock and Red DirtTop 40 divides gives him a very broad base of fans eager to hear more.

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N ATA L I E RHE A P RODUC TI ON S / P R OVI DE D

LIFE MUSIC

80’z Enuf, Baker Street Pub & Grill. COVER Fall Out Boy/Wiz Khalifa, BOK Center, Tulsa. VARIOUS Grant Wells, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. JAZZ

Damn Quails, Grady’s 66 Pub, Yukon. ROCK DJ R&R, Colcord Hotel. HIP-HOP Equilibrium, Belle Isle Restaurant & Brewery. JAZZ Forum/Shy, Low/Speak, Memory, 51st Street Speakeasy.

INDIE Gentry, Kendell’s Bar. VARIOUS Gentry Counce, Five Star Grille. SINGER/SONGWRITER

J.L. Jones, Five Star Grille. SINGER/SONGWRITER

Jason Young Band, Thunderbird Casino, Norman.

COUNTRY

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

John D. Hale, Wormy Dog Saloon. COUNTRY

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

John Fullbright, Myriad Botanical Gardens. SINGER/ SONGWRITER

Stardeath & White Dwarfs/Applied Music Program, Opolis, Norman. INDIE

Justin Echols Trio, Hefner Grill. JAZZ

Steve Crossley, Red Rock Canyon Grill. SINGER/ SONGWRITER

Raging Idiots/Lindsey Ell, Diamond Ballroom. VARIOUS

Tony Schwartz, Hefner Grill. VARIOUS

Rick Jawnsun, Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill.

ACOUSTIC

Travis Linville, The Deli, Norman. SINGER/SONGWRITER

THURSDAY, JULY 23 Brent Saulsbury/Will Galbraith/Wayne Duncan, Friends Restaurant & Club. ROCK Chad Dorman, Wormy Dog Saloon. COUNTRY David Morris, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. PIANO

Matt Blagg, Red Rock Canyon Grill. BLUES

Rockin’ the Box Music Fest, Downtown Music Box. ROCK Scott Miles, Five Star Grille. SINGER/SONGWRITER Speak, Memory/Forum/Shy, Low, 51st Street Speakeasy.

INDIE

Subseven, ACM@UCO Performance Lab. ROCK

Jantsen and Dirt Monkey, OKC Farmer’s Market. VARIOUS

Town Mountain/John Fullbright/Kyle Reid, Myriad Botanical Gardens. VARIOUS

Lucky Duo, Colcord Hotel. COVER Psychostick/Arkhon/Dark Water Prophecy, 89th Street Collective. ROCK Replay, Baker Street Pub & Grill. COVER The Nghiems/Jose Hernandez & the Back Magic Waters, 51st Street Speakeasy. INDIE Time Machine, Red Rock Canyon Grill. COVER

OKG

Superfreak, Riverwind Casino, Norman. COVER The Copperheads/Gum/Trap Queen, Blue Note Lounge.

ROCK

Kierston White/Camille Harp/Elizabee/Harumph, The Deli, Norman. ACOUSTIC

The Copperheads

Street Kings, Oklahoma City Limits. ROCK

Dylan Hammett, O Asian Fusion, Norman. ACOUSTIC

Justin Echols Trio, Hefner Grill. JAZZ

P ROVI DE D

LIVE MUSIC WEDNESDAY, JULY 22

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SATURDAY, JULY 25 Aaron Newman Band, Tapwerks Ale House & Cafe. FOLK

KALO/Katy Guillen and the Girls, Blue Note Lounge.

BLUES

Annie Up, Riverwind Casino, Norman. COVER Cara Black, Tommy’s. JAZZ

Kylie Morgan, Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill.

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Chasity Watkins/Holly Beth/Terry Wilson, Rodeo Opry.

COUNTRY

Life of the Party, Russell’s, Tower Hotel. COVER Lip Service, Belle Isle Restaurant & Brewery. COVER

Don and Melodee Johnson, Twelve Oaks, Edmond. JAZZ

Mayday By Midnight, Baker Street Pub & Grill. ROCK

FRIDAY, JULY 24

Drive/Charles Scott Duo, Red Rock Canyon Grill.

ACOUSTIC Four of a Kind, Sliders. COUNTRY

Rockin’ the Box Music Fest, Downtown Music Box. ROCK

Big G, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond. BLUES

FRNKIERO/Homeless Gospel Choir, 89th Street Collective. ROCK

Sam Riggs, Wormy Dog Saloon. COUNTRY

Bun B, Farmers Public Market. HIP-HOP Chase Kerby, Lower Bricktown Live on the Green.

SINGER/SONGWRITER Christian Pearson/Gary Johnson, Skirvin Hilton Hotel.

PIANO

Midas 13, Whiskey Chicks. ROCK

The Remedy, Five Star Grille. ROCK

Grant Stevens, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. PIANO

Trio Night feat. Lee Rucker/Steve Story/Stephen Schultz, Lottinvilles Restaurant, Edmond. JAZZ

Johnny Polygon/Alex Wiley/Ark Noah, 51st Street Speakeasy. HIP-HOP

V-Bradley & Company, Remington Park. VARIOUS

Justin Echols Trio, Hefner Grill. JAZZ

Wino Browne, Oklahoma City Limits. ROCK

Clint Scholz, Mad Cow Saloon. COUNTRY

MARK HANCOCK / FILE

Zac Lee Quintet, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond. JAZZ

SUNDAY, JULY 26 Adam and Kizzie, The Depot, Norman. BLUES Beau Jennings, Myriad Botanical Gardens. ROCK Diamond on the Rocks- A Neil Diamond Tribute, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond. COVER Earl Day, Hefner Grill. JAZZ Edgar Cruz, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. ACOUSTIC

MONDAY, JULY 27 Alan Orebaugh and Stupid Guitar Tricks/ NoiseBleedsSound/Zoot Suit, The Deli, Norman.

VARIOUS Rick Toops, Friends Restaurant & Club. ROCK

TUESDAY, JULY 28 Caleb McGee, The Deli, Norman. BLUES LUCKY/Shaun Suttle, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. COVER

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29 Aaron Newman Band, Baker Street Pub & Grill. FOLK Drive/Tyler Smith Solo, Red Rock Canyon Grill. ROCK Forever Came Calling/You, Me and Everyone We Know/ Seasons Change, 89th Street Collective. ROCK Grant Wells, Skirvin Hilton Hotel. JAZZ Maurice Johnson, R&J Lounge and Supper Club. JAZZ Scott Lowber/Will Galbraith/Ed VanBuskirk, Friends Restaurant & Club. COVER Stephen Schultz, Tommy’s. JAZZ Wink Burcham/Ali Harter, The Deli, Norman.

SINGER/SONGWRITER

Josh Qualls, Colcord Hotel. VARIOUS Mike Hosty, The Deli, Norman. ROCK Rockin’ the Box Music Fest, Downtown Music Box. ROCK

Stardeath & White Dwarfs, Opolis, Norman, Wednesday, July 22

Scott Lowber/Will Galbraith/Rick Toops, Friends Restaurant & Club. COVER

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 | J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | 5 5

Staff Analyst

life film

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Institutional change deadCENTER rebrands its ever-growing presence.

By GreG Horton

The Princess of France

Two Screenings!

Thursday, July 23 | 7:30 & 9 p.m.

Gemma Bovery

Encore Screening!

Friday, July 24 | 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, July 25 | 8 p.m.

Studio Ghibli’s

When Marnie Was There

Friday, July 24 | 8 p.m.

Saturday, July 25 | 5:30 p.m.

Sunday, July 26 | 2 p.m.

For movie descriptions and ticket sales visit

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deadCENTER Film Festival is getting a rebrand of sorts, but the changes will not negatively impact the annual festival. Shortly after the close of this year’s festival, the organization announced that it will rebrand as deadCENTER Film Institute. Kim Haywood, director of programming and education, said the move is about creating an umbrella organization that better reflects the mission of deadCENTER. “There are two components to deadCENTER,” Haywood said. “One is educational, and one is the festival itself. We will divide the responsibilities now between two separate directors.

One will oversee artistic development, and the other will act as a director of the business side of the institute.”

Lance McDaniel, the current executive director, will be handling the artistic development side of the institute, a role he has managed since the festival began.

From August to December, Haywood and McDaniel have made their way around the state, teaching film classes and doing presentations for students in every region of Oklahoma.

The institute is the logical extension of their commitment to educating Oklahomans about film and the film industry.

“We have been working with high school students every year for the last seven years, and now we are seeing many of those kids in college; many of them are in film classes or programs,” Haywood said.

McDaniel will oversee the

development of formalized educational programs for the institute. Some of the country’s larger film festivals offer intensives, much like master classes, in which 10-12 students work with experts in the field. Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, has one of the most respected sets of master classes, and a few notable Oklahoma filmmakers and artists have taken those classes.

Holdenville native Sterlin Harjo received a fellowship from Sundance Institute in 2004. He used the opportunity to take Sundance’s directing classes. Harjo’s newest film, Mekko, was featured at deadCENTER in June after premiering at Los Angeles Film Festival in the same month.

Chad Burris was part of the producing intensive at Sundance Institute, and he has used his experiences to help develop film in Oklahoma. He won the Mark Silverman Award for New Producers at Sundance Film Festival in 2007.

Haywood mentioned Harjo and Burris when she talked about deadCENTER Film Institute.

“We are thinking about a program similar to Sundance,” she said. “Screenwriting, directing and producing will be a big part of what we offer, and we do want to keep the classes small so that participants can get the most out of their time.”

The goal of the institute is to provide a well-rounded education for people in the film business. Haywood said that means the institute will also offer more tech-based courses,

M A r K HA N CoC K

Kim Haywood

We have been working with high school students every year for the last seven years, and now we are seeing many of those kids in college; many of them are in film classes or programs.

— Kim Haywood

including design and production elements. They will differ from those at Sundance in at least one very important way.

“We are going to try to include space for adult novices in the courses,” she said.

At larger festivals like Sundance, the educational programs are closed to novices, but deadCENTER has the opportunity to nurture what is still a very young film industry in Oklahoma. The festival has played an important role in developing a professional film culture here. What began as a small screening in 2001 has turned into an international festival that attracted 30,000 fans, filmmakers, actors and other professionals this year. Those connections are what the institute is banking on as it begins program development and selects instructors.

“We are fortunate to have a great list of connections within the industry,”

Haywood said. “Since the festival was started by and has always been run by working filmmakers, we have a great deal of credibility in the industry. Some of those connections have already shown interest in the institute.”

Haywood said deadCENTER has had a tremendous impact on the growth of film in Oklahoma but support from the community and the work of colleges and universities has also contributed. The institute will hopefully further the groundwork already laid by these institutions.

“We’ve had success in changing the culture already,” Haywood said.

“We want the institute to help make Oklahoma a more comfortable atmosphere for people to make a film.

We hope it will inspire people to make more films.”

The rebrand and new structure will help McDaniel focus on developing educational programs toward that end, while a new executive director will take over the day-to-day business operations of the institute. A huge part of the business side is fundraising, which can border on a full-time task depending on the size of the organization. deadCENTER is large enough now that fundraising can potentially interfere with program development if both tasks fall to one person.

On July 1, the institute began accepting applications for the new executive director position. The director will manage finances and fundraising, expand partnerships and build an endowment. Haywood said interviews will begin in August and a new director will be announced in early fall.

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life film

Capturing Mankiller A documentary on the accomplishments of Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller is being filmed as officials consider her for the $10 bill.

By GreG elwell

The director of a documentary about Wilma Mankiller said she might not have wanted a documentary about her.

“She was just so humble,” said director Valerie Red-Horse. “It was never about her, so I’m trying to honor her message.”

With funding from Kickstarter and PBS, Red-Horse is working with producer Gale Anne Hurd — best known for co-writing The Terminator and producing The Walking Dead — to tell the story of the Tahlequah native who became the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Mankiller is one of a handful of women being considered for the $10 bill. Rightly recognized as a leader and a best-selling author, she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but her greatest achievement was helping her tribe establish better relations with the U.S. government.

“What we saw in Wilma was mirrored in her work,” Red-Horse said.

“She always found the positive in the negative.”

Rather than dwell on the broken promises made to the Cherokee Nation, Red-Horse said, Mankiller was driven to see what changes would improve lives then and in the future.

And she had a truly cooperative spirit as well.

“She could move beyond the personal politics,” she said. “Rather than fighting, it was about how we fix things together.”

That’s what makes Mankiller’s life and legacy so relevant today and what spurred Hurd and Red-Horse to action. In a country divided by partisan politics and an us-vs.-them culture,

Valerie Red-Horse her career is a case study in working together toward a common cause.

Filming began in Oklahoma and included an interview with Cherokee tribe member Jay Hannah at Oklahoma History Center.

“Her legacy was reintroducing hope and self-determinism to people without robust economic opportunities,” he said. “That isn’t just native peoples. It’s a challenge that spans societies.”

Born into a family of poverty, Mankiller showed others how to lift themselves up, how to own their voices and forge their own path, Hannah said.

She was also an inspiration to Cherokee women like Red-Horse. Her perseverance helped drive many to pursue their passions no matter where they began in life.

Red-Horse, whose credits also include Naturally Native, True Whispers: The Story of the Navajo Code Talkers and Choctaw Code Talkers, said it’s important to preserve Mankiller’s lessons for new generations.

“It’s incredible to think of how much Wilma achieved,” she said. “She didn’t talk about her agenda. She didn’t talk about fundraising. She just rolled up her sleeves and did the work.”

And though they never met, RedHorse said she feels such a kinship with Mankiller that sometimes it’s almost as if she can hear her voice. She hopes the documentary will memorialize Mankiller and help continue her work.

Filming and editing will wrap up this year, as the completed project is due before 2016. Mankiller is expected to receive a national broadcast on PBS next year.

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Favorite things Sing-A-Long Sound of Music is a global phenomenon that celebrates the 50-year-old film with audience participation, props and costumes.

By marK BeUtler

Sing-A-Long Sound of Music 7 p.m. friday Hudiburg Chevrolet Performing arts Center rose state College 6420 se 15th st., midwest City myticketoffice.com facebook.com/singalongaokc $20-$50

It has become a worldwide phenomenon, selling out venues and thrilling audiences both young and young at heart.

Sing-A-Long Sound of Music hits the metro Friday at Hudiburg Chevrolet Performing Arts Center at Rose State College, 6420 SE 15th St., in Midwest City.

“This isn’t a showing of a 50-yearold movie,” said Oklahoma City event co-producer Joe Poe. “It is an audience participation event.”

Indeed, it’s much like karaoke for cinema nuts, as costumed fans belt out the words to the musical’s biggest hits, such as “My Favorite Things,” “So Long, Farewell” and “Do-Re-Mi,” in time with the film.

“It’s not about seeing a movie on the big screen or singing the songs to the movie. It’s about being surrounded by people with shared values sharing them with you,” Poe said. “It’s a night when the old truths are honored: a commitment to family, the treasure of romance and hope for a brighter future.”

The classic movie starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer turned 50 this year. After its release in 1965, it earned 10 Academy Awards nominations and won five, including Best Picture. Before becoming a screenplay, The Sound of Music was the final musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein and launched on Broadway in 1959. Both productions

Sing-A-Long Sound of Music audience members

were inspired by the 1949 memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, written

by Maria Augusta von Trapp.

The film gained new life — and a new generation of fans — in 1999 after the sing-along version swept the United Kingdom. Since then, it has been performed more than 10,000 times in 11 countries.

Poe said the film was restored to full-screen Technicolor, complete with subtitles so audiences can sing along.

Entry includes a vocal warm-up at 7 p.m. and a “magic moments fun pack” with props that participants can use during key movie moments. The film begins at 8 p.m.

Originally, the sing-along was planned for May 16 at Myriad Botanical Gardens but was rescheduled due to weather.

Poe said he has seen the film about 80 times, and at the sing-along, it’s almost like being part of the movie.

The event has sold out seven years in a row at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl.

In fact, Poe said attendees in the front boxes paid as much as $200 a seat.

“I paid $175 each for 12 tickets,” he said about the LA performances.

“And I don’t even really like musicals, except for The Sound of Music and The Wizard of Oz.”

O k l a h O m a G a z e t t e | j u ly 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | 5 9

Sweet debris

Trainwreck is a hilarious look at dysfunction.

By GreG elwell

Amy Schumer plays Amy Schumer in a movie about how difficult it would probably be to date Amy Schumer. And it’s great.

Anyone who has heard her standup act or watched her wildly popular and groundbreaking sketch comedy show, Inside Amy Schumer, has already met the heroine of her new movie, Trainwreck.

Amy plays a writer for a men’s magazine called S’NUFF who leads the kind of lifestyle that would be idealized by such a periodical. She drinks frequently. She smokes pot. She sleeps with a lot of guys, despite being in a relationship with muscle-bound Steven (played by WWE professional wrestler John Cena).

Her reckless behavior is modeled after her father, a multiple sclerosis patient beautifully played by Colin Quinn, while her sister Kim (Brie Larsen) has gone the other way.

All of this is place setting for the main course: Oklahoma’s own Bill Hader as a successful sports surgeon who falls for Amy’s charmingly charmless charms. She grudgingly returns his affections, and a movie lovemontage follows.

Most comedic romances are a foregone conclusion, but with director Judd Apatow at the helm of a Schumerpenned script, Trainwreck feels like it could go off the rails at any time. Part of that is down to the unflinching eye the film casts on Amy’s problems. She drinks too much. She gets too high to function. As much as she cares for Hader’s Aaron, she’s so uncomfortable with a real emotional connection that she sees every roadblock as an opportunity to give up.

If that sounds dour, then you don’t know Schumer. She’s someone who can mine humor from the bleakest terrains — check out her hilarious takedown of boy bands, music that glorifies butts and even the military’s issues with rape — and the wide-open landscape of a New York City romance gives her ample

6 0 | j u ly 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | O k l a h O m a G a z e t t e

Schumer hits all the right notes and goes deeper as an actress than she’s usually allowed to on TV. Her comedy is physical without losing the subtle touches. opportunities to pile on the laughs.

Trainwreck walks the line between serious and funny, sweet and offensive, poking holes in hoary old movie stereotypes.

Schumer hits all the right notes and goes deeper as an actress than she’s usually allowed to on TV. Her comedy is physical without losing the subtle touches.

Hader, who made his name on Saturday Night Live, makes an affable, believable leading man. As Aaron, he’s a smart, accomplished goofball who rightly wins over Amy. And the reality of their relationship is the reason it’s easy to worry about them as the rough patches begin to appear.

NBA all-star LeBron James is a scene-stealer playing himself. He’s not asked to lift any heavy dramatic loads, but he does a fine job as Aaron’s cheapskate multi-millionaire best friend.

Professional chameleon Tilda Swinton is hilariously hateable as Amy’s boss, and the able, seasoned comedic team of Jon Glaser, Vanessa Bayer, Mike Birbiglia and Randall Park keep the action moving with plenty of laughs.

It’s a surprisingly sweet film made all the sweeter by the contrast of a heroine who can’t understand why living her father’s dream life isn’t making her happy. She didn’t choose to be in a romantic comedy, but that’s what makes her a perfect fit.

p rovi de d

life film

p rovi de d

Within R.E.A.C.H.

A new film program by Inclusion In Art allows youth to make films for free while also bringing more diversity to the art world in Oklahoma.

By Kaley Patterson

When Nathan Lee and his two colleagues, Robert Skip Hill and Suzanne Thomas, founded Inclusion In Art, they wanted to show Oklahomans that there are minority artists within their state.

“After talking to organizations, it’s not a situation where they were omitting the artists; they couldn’t find them,” Lee said. “The artists of color were not applying for art exhibitions because they didn’t see artists of color. We discovered this wall of misunderstanding, and we were able to form an organization that serves as a bridge between those underserved artists and those organizations wanting more diversity.”

This summer, Inclusion In Art worked with Metro Career Academy’s STEM Academy by establishing Teen R.E.A.C.H., which is an at-risk youth film program (R.E.A.C.H. is an acronym for Resources Encompassing Art Creativity and Hope.) It includes students grades 6-12 and allows them to create their own independent films.

The students learn the three P’s of production: pre-production, production and post-production. Within those aspects, each student takes part in every detail that creates a film.

“They’re constructing their own stories,” Lee said. “They’re scouting for sites. They’re doing the whole thing. ...

They’re put into the position where they have to write, work together and create scenarios for the actors.”

This is the first year for Teen R.E.A.C.H., and the program has its 31 students divided into five groups based on grades. In total, there were five films produced and acted in by a group of six students. The films are all fictional and vary between comedy, drama and

Teen R.E.A.C.H. ran June 15 to July 10. Classes resume in September. supernatural thriller. Lee believes each film reflects the dynamic of the group and shows each individual’s strength.

“I have some students who are humorous,” Lee said. “It’s weird because each of these classes have a collective personality.”

According to Lee, during preproduction for one of the comedy films, the students posed the question, “How come African-Americans always die in movies even when they try to make good decisions?” So the students decided to discuss this question in a joking way within their film by adapting the Kenny scenario from South Park.

Each film will be available on DVD for the students, but Lee said that particular film will include a discussion from the students.

“They’re socially aware, and they’re socially conscious,” Lee said. “They’re looking for an opportunity with African-American and Latino actresses and actors by asking, ‘Haven’t we come further?”

Each of the finished films will be featured Oct. 24 at the In COLOR Film Festival. All of the students will participate in the Youth In Color roundtable to discuss their films and the production process.

Teen R.E.A.C.H. is currently free for students, and Lee wants to keep it that way. Inclusion In Art is running a fundraiser, $10 for Teens, to raise funds for Teen R.E.A.C.H. Donations can be made at inclusioninart.com.

Go to

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TWENTY ONE PILOTS Sunday, October 11 @ Diamond Ballroom

gazette’S WEEkLY WINNEr WILL bE aNNOuNcEd Each WEEk IN ThE TabLE Of cONTENTS Printed winners have 7 days to claim tickets O k l a h O m a G a z e t t e | j u ly 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | 6 1

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY Homework: Write a fairy tale or parable that captures what your life has been like so far in 2015.

Testify at FreeWillAstrology.com.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) The Latin motto "Carpe diem" shouldn't be translated as "Seize the day!", says author Nicholson Baker. It's not a battle cry exhorting you to "freaking grab the day in your fist like a burger at a fairground and take a big chomping bite out of it." The proper translation, according to Baker, is "Pluck the day." In other words, "you should gently pull on the day’s stem, as if it were a wildflower, holding it with all the practiced care of your thumb and the side of your finger, which knows how to not crush easily crushed things — so that the day's stem undergoes increasing tension and draws to a tightness, and then snaps softly away at its weakest point, and the flower is released in your hand."

Keep that in mind, Aries. I understand you are often tempted to seize rather than pluck, but these days plucking is the preferable approach.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) When I talk about "The Greatest Story Never Told," I'm not referring to the documentary film about singer Lana Del Rey or the debut album of the rap artist Saigon or any other cultural artifact. I am, instead, referring to a part of your past that you have never owned and understood . . . a phase from the old days that you have partially suppressed . . . an intense set of memories you have not fully integrated. I say it's time for you to deal with this shadow. You're finally ready to acknowledge it and treasure it as a crucial thread in the drama of your hero's journey.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) The ancient Greek philosopher Thales is credited as being one of the earliest mathematicians and scientists.

He was a deep thinker whose thirst for knowledge was hard to quench. Funny story: Once he went out at night for a walk. Gazing intently up at the sky, he contemplated the mysteries of the stars. Oops! He didn't watch where he was going, and fell down into a well. He was OK, but embarrassed. Let's make him your anti-role model, Gemini. I would love to encourage you to unleash your lust to be informed,

educated, and inspired — but only if you watch where you're going.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) Charles Darwin is best known for his book The Origin of Species, which contains his seminal ideas about evolutionary biology. But while he was still alive, his best-seller was The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms. The painstaking result of over forty years' worth of research, it is a tribute to the noble earthworm and that creature's crucial role in the health of soil and plants. It provides a different angle on one of Darwin's central concerns: how small, incremental transformations that take place over extended periods of time can have monumental effects.

This also happens to be one of your key themes in the coming months.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) A researcher at the University of Amsterdam developed software to read the emotions on faces. He used it to analyze the expression of the woman in Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting, the Mona Lisa. The results suggest that she is 83 percent happy, 9 percent disgusted, 6 percent fearful, and 2 percent angry.

Whether or not this assessment is accurate, I appreciate its implication that we humans are rarely filled with a single pure emotion. We often feel a variety of states simultaneously. In this spirit, I have calculated your probably mix for the coming days: 16 percent relieved, 18 percent innocent, 12 percent confused, 22 percent liberated, 23 percent ambitious, and 9 percent impatient.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) "What makes you heroic?" asked philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Here's how he answered himself: "simultaneously going out to meet your highest suffering and your highest hope." This is an excellent way to sum up the test that would inspire you most in the coming weeks, Virgo. Are you up for the challenge? If so, grapple with your deepest pain. Make a fierce effort to both heal it and be motivated by it. At the same time, identify your brightest hope and take a decisive step toward fulfilling it.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Actress and musician Carrie Brownstein was born with five planets in Libra. Those who aren't conversant with astrology's mysteries may conclude that she is a connoisseur of elegance and harmony. Even professional stargazers who know how tricky it is to make generalizations might speculate that she is skilled at cultivating balance, attuned to the needs of others, excited by beauty, and adaptive to life's ceaseless change. So what are we to make of the fact that Brownstein has said, "I really don't know what to do when my life is not chaotic"? Here's what I suspect: In her ongoing exertions to thrive on chaos, she is learning how to be a connoisseur of elegance and harmony as she masters the intricacies of being balanced, sensitive to others, thrilled by beauty, and adaptive to change. This is important for you to hear about right now.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) You're entering a volatile phase of your cycle. In the coming weeks, you could become a beguiling monster who leaves a confusing mess in your wake. On the other hand, you could activate the full potential of your animal intelligence as you make everything you touch more interesting and soulful. I am, of course, rooting for the latter outcome. Here's a secret about how to ensure it: Be as ambitious to gain power over your own darkness as you are to gain power over what happens on your turf.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) I'm a big fan of the attitude summed up by the command "Be here now!" The world would be more like a sanctuary and less like a battleground if people focused more on the present moment rather than on memories of the past and fantasies of the future. But in accordance with the astrological omens, you are hereby granted a temporary exemption from the "Be here how!" approach. You have a poetic license to dream and scheme profusely about what you want your life to be like in the future. Your word of power is tomorrow.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) A philanthropist offered $100,000 to the Girl Scouts chapter of Western Washington. But there

were strings attached. The donor specified that the money couldn't be used to support transgender girls. The Girl Scouts rejected the gift, declaring their intention to empower every girl "regardless of her gender identity, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation." Do you have that much spunk, Capricorn? Would you turn down aid that would infringe on your integrity? You may be tested soon. Here's what I suspect: If you are faithful to your deepest values, even if that has a cost, you will ultimately attract an equal blessing that doesn't require you to sell out. (P.S. The Girl Scouts subsequently launched an Indiegogo campaign that raised more than $300,000.)

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Consider the possibility of opening your mind, at least briefly, to provocative influences you have closed yourself off from. You may need to refamiliarize yourself with potential resources you have been resisting or ignoring, even if they are problematic. I'm not saying you should blithely welcome them in. There still may be good reasons to keep your distance. But I think it would be wise and healthy for you to update your relationship with them.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Over 10,000 species of mushrooms grow in North America. About 125 of those, or 1.25 percent, are tasty and safe to eat. All the others are unappetizing or poisonous, or else their edibility is in question. By my reckoning, a similar statistical breakdown should apply to the influences that are floating your way. I advise you to focus intently on those very few that you know for a fact are pleasurable and vitalizing. Make yourself unavailable for the rest.

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

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

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1 BEDROOM LUXURY CONDO approx. 900 sq ft. $850 a month

3013 NW 63RD ST. CALL 205-4876 FOR APPOINTMENT

HANDYWOMAN

Berkshire Hathaway Homeservices

www.berkshirehathawayhs.com

Claremont apartments oKC midtown, new appliances, hardwood floors.

studio 440 sq ft. $799 1 Bedroom 600 sq ft. $950 425 nW 12th 236-4465

• STATE-CERTIFIED DRIVER’S ED. COURSE WITH EVERYTHING PARENTS NEED • QUALIFIES TEENS FOR STANDARD DRIVER’S ED. AUTO INSURANCE DISCOUNTS INCLUDING UP TO 24% OFF ON AAA INSURANCE* AUTO POLICIES • LOW COST - HIGH AAA QUALITY - WITH LOTS OF LOCAL SUPPORT • 15 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE OFFERING COURSE • STOP BY ANY AAA OKLAHOMA OFFICE

Info@okclaremont.com • www.okclaremont.com

•...OR VISIT AAA.COM/TAKETHEWHEEL

EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing

•...OR CALL SHERYL AT (800) 222-2582

Act of 1968, which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin or an intention to make any such preference, limitation, preference or discrimination.

This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of this law. Our readers are hereby informed that all dwellings in our newspaper are available on an equal housing opportunity basis.

Lic. 2016-1611

Lic. OCC 13302

RealtoR® Office: 405.348.4422 cell: 405.245.1465 brendamend64@gmail.com

AAA OFFERS “TAKE THE WHEEL” PARENT-TAUGHT DRIVER’S ED. KIT

We Relax Massage

405.605.0858

*AUTO INSURANCE PROVIDED BY CSAA INSURANCE GROUP, A AAA INSURER.

1019 S Meridian Ave Oklahoma City I-40 & Meridian Open 7 days

Peony

Private Large 2BD/2Ba Over 4,000 sq. ft.

Library & Laundry room Some biLLS Paid $1975/mO. 601-446-5354

Day Spa

Check for daily specials

5005 N. Rockwell • 405.603.5300 Lic. 100895

Licensed & Certified? Call & Apply!

Chinese Massage LIC # - OCC. 13811

LASH TECHS!

Join our busy team!

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Open 7 Days

405-286-9710

7338 N May Ave. • OKC OK 73116

Lic. 03439

Brenda Mendoza

TEACH YOUR TEENS TO DRIVE

THIS IS A MODEL

Roofing - new & repairs Paint - interior/exterior and remodeling 722-7004

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Also, Next Lash Course on 9/6

HELP IS A PHONE CALL AWAY

405-525-2222

O K L A H O M A G A Z E T T E | J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 | 6 3

The BMW X3

www.cooperbmw.com

CRUISE THE ROAD. OR THE WEB. THE BMW X3.

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Jackie Cooper Imports, LLC

14145 Broadway Ext. Edmond, OK 73013-4120 . 866-597-5676 *Facebook, Twitter and Spotify are trademarked brands. All rights and regulations apply. ©2015 BMW of North America, LLC. The BMW name, model names and logo are registered trademarks.