IT’S NEVER STRANGE TO HEAR OKLAHOMA MUSIC ON KOSU. From The Oklahoma Music Minute every weekday to The Oklahoma Rock Show every Friday night to the latest and greatest independent artists played 24/7 on The Spy, local musicians of all genres find their voice, and your ears, right here.
Bartees Strange photo courtesy of NO EARBUDS!
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INSIDE COVER Oklahoma-owned businesses are coming back strong, with dozens of entrepreneurs opening their doors By Gazette Staff Cover by Phillip Danner
NEWS COVER Oklahoma Entrepreneurs Video Game Development 9 Commentary: Randy Tate 4 6
EAT & DRINK 12 Gazedibles
ARTS & CULTURE 14
Equity Brewing Co. Paramount Building 18 3rd Act Theatre Co. 20 OSU OKC Farmers Market 21 Dust Bowl Dolls 23 Calendar 16
MUSIC Oklahoma Guitar Pedals Outpost 31 Studios 28 Live music 24 26
THE HIGH CULTURE 29
Strain reviews
FUN 30 31
Puzzles sudoku | crossword Astrology
OKG CLASSIFIEDS 29
VOL. XLIII NO. 06 PUBLISHER | Bryan Hallman bhallman@okgazette.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR | Phillip Danner DIGITAL MEDIA & PRODUCTION COORDINATOR | Kendall Bleakley SOCIAL DESIGNER | Berlin Green ADVERTISING advertising@okgazette.com 405-528-6000 ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Saundra Godwin | sgodwin@okgazette.com Christy Duane | cduane@okgazette.com Melissa Griffin | mgriffin@okgazette.com ACCOUNTING/HR MANAGER Monique Dodd | mdodd@okgazette.com CIRCULATION MANAGER Patrick Hanscom | phanscom@okgazette.com CONTRIBUTORS Daniel Bokemper Brett Fieldcamp Trevor Hultner Evan Jarvicks Adrienne Proctor Josh Wallace
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Open For Business By Berlin Green & Phillip Danner Photos Berlin Green & Phillip Danner
TEXLAHOMA BBQ
Library 2807 N Walker Ave #5 library.clothing 405-252-0985
If you’re looking for an affordable place to find flawless fashion, Library is the place. Jessi Murray and Ãnna Frost aspired to create a fashion-forward business with a focus on sustainability, and they succeeded. What started out as a passion project in Jessi’s apartment grew into a flourishing Paseo business after she and Ãnna met on Instagram and brought their idea to life. Library OKC is a place where women can go to indulge in a shopping experience that is not only eco-friendly but
121 E. Waterloo Road Suite 8, Edmond texlahomabbq.com 405-513-7631 affordable and unique. With the Library’s system, you can reserve the clothes you want online, pick them up or have them shipped to your door. When you’re finished with your selections, simply return them and choose your next ones. You even have the option to purchase the outfits you love. Cleaning out your closet? Give them a call and you might make a little cash off your clothes. Library partners with Legacy Cleaners to keep garments fresh and extend their life. It’s fashion upcycling at its finest!
Founded by native Texans in 2015 (Brian is from Houston and Jennifer is from Amarillo) who transferred to Louisiana and then Oklahoma while working in the oil and gas industry, TexLaHoma BBQ was born. The couple started catering BBQ out of their home to make ends meet during an ebb in the energy field, eventually buying an existing barbecue joint from a widow after her husband passed, renovating it and building a new smokehouse. Seeing a gap in the market for Texasstyle barbecue, the couple added the spice of Louisiana and opened with one
Dead People’s Stuff While it’s not the Antiques Roadshow, Dead People’s Stuff is sure to take you on the antiquities journey of your dreams. Located in the renovated CAT space on Linwood Blvd, this shop blends vintage with a unique modern design intended to accommodate all different types of projects. Here you’ll find a plethora of exciting artifacts hand sourced from all over the world. Structural antiques like vintage doors, windows, and sconces line the space, 4
A U G U S T 4 , 2 0 2 1 | OKGA Z E T TE .COM COV E R S TORY
smoker serving only sandwiches. Since then, Texlahoma has been through six smokers and has added a car hauler converted into a food truck trailer. More expansion is planned (retailing sauces and rubs are being discussed), but get there early. Open Tuesday through Saturday, they shut the doors at 8 p.m. except on days when they sell out of their delicious meats.
deadpeoplesstuffok.com 1900 Linwood Blvd. 405-232-0759
complemented by handmade rugs from India, classic typewriters, photographs, art, and everything in between. If you’re looking for something different to add to your decor, you’ll probably find it here. The plant lover can even peruse a spectacular selection of greenery to add to their collection. From more extensive projects to simple decorative details, Dead People’s Stuff is a place where interior designers, builders, and shoppers of all kinds can truly feel inspired.
MOSAIC Mosaic is the newest dispensary to Western Ave. Neighbors to one of Oklahoma City’s famous dive bars, Cock o’ the Walk, and the indie record shop Guestroom Records, the owners of Resonant Cultivation get the relaxed vibe correct. Mosaic sets itself apart with a vibrant pastel geometric interior that immediately makes you feel comfortable. Local mural artists Sara Cowan and Kris Kanaly set the mood and an installation piece created by the team of Factory Obscura help unite Oklahoma City’s creative community into this retail cannabis experience. With the
Video Games Plus Video Games Plus offers a blast to the past with an impressive collection of quality classics. These guys have a passion for gaming and keeping the legacy alive, from more popular and recent formats to obscure vintage finds (Virtual Boy and Neo Geo anyone?) You can trust Video Games Plus to fix broken gaming systems of almost any type, give great tips on your favorite games, offer recommendations and provide impeccable customer service.
mosaicdispensary.com 3703 N Western Ave. 405-768-4944 interior set showcasing the visual branding of Mosaic, the regular flower drops from Resonant meet the same high bar. A commitment to quality products and a multi-sensory experience helps set a strong contrast from other dispensaries. In an overcrowded cannabis industry that often seems to forget about visual presentation, Mosaic is a well-branded concept. From its brick-and-mortar shop, social media, and product packaging, Mosaic has set a new standard of what can be done in the cannabis industry.
facebook.com/vgpokc 4551 NW 23rd St. 405-272-0747
OKC Soda Co.
If you’re looking for a different kind of soda, OKC Soda Co. might be your jam! This local craft soda company uses pure cane sugar and natural additives to create unique flavors. The Strawberry Milkshake tastes like a strawberry milkshake. And the Blueberry Acai tastes exactly as you might expect that might too. Most of their flavors tend to lean more to the “creamier” side, so expect more A&W than Barq’s from its root beer
1332 W Memorial Rd 1900 Linwood Blvd. okcsodaco.com 405-628-9543
and hits the mark with more cream than orange in their Orange Cream. On the other hand, this unique sensibility gives their lemon-lime citrus soda an entirely different dimension of flavor.
Smart Pots/
7000 North Robinson Ave. smartpots.com 405-842-7700
Ralph Reiger started sewing fabric pots in 1980 with the mission of making his trees and plants easier to harvest. Little did he know he would revolutionize growing of all kinds, forever. By 1984, his idea had blossomed both literally and figuratively into a booming business that supplies gardeners worldwide. Ralph’s Smart Pots help distribute water evenly throughout their containers, release heat and prune roots to help gardeners produce better, healthier plants which is especially helpful in the hot summer
heat. High Caliper Growing manufactures Smart Pots, Big Bag Beds and Root Control Bags right here in Oklahoma City but do their business throughout the world. Cannabis growers have been using them for decades to bring their cultivation to the next level.
High Caliper Growing
There is no system or format too off the beaten path to find its ways to the shelves of Video Games Plus, another advantage the shop has over corporate video game chains who put profit and business model ahead of love of the game. They may not be traded publicly on the stock market, but privately, the owners have been known to pull titles from their personal collections for sale to customers.
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OKC-Based Video Game Developer Works on Making Games and Growing Community During COVID-19 By Trevor Hultner Oklahoma City is not a place where you’re most likely to find a video game studio. The majority of the industry is based in cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, Austin or Montreal, but that hasn’t stopped James Simpson, the CEO of GoldFire Studios, from setting up shop here in the Metro. Simpson has been making games both apart from and under the GoldFire Studios name since he was in middle school. Things took off for the company when he graduated from OU in 2011. Now, after a decade and five crossplatform massively multiplayer online games under his studio’s belt, Simpson and his international team have their sights set on their first major game: Arctic Awakening, a “single-player, episodic narrative game” due out on PC, Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2022. “We feel that games as a medium are just uniquely positioned to really tell stories in a more engaging way than any other medium that we’ve got,” Simpson said. “But we also don’t feel like it’s been pushed anywhere near as far as it could be. “Ultimately, with this game, we’re trying to basically do our part to try and keep moving that forward, and taking storytelling and games further, in some small way.” In addition to game development for his own studio, Simpson also helps foster game development in the metro more broadly. He co-founded the Oklahoma Game Developers Meetup with the Techlahoman Foundation in 2013. “[We] set up a meetup page, you know, sort of tweeted out and posted on Facebook and whatnot, that we were going to have this meetup and see how it went,” he said. “And, we ended up having, I think 50 or 60 people show up to that first meetup. And then we’ve been meeting pretty much monthly.”
Screen Grab of Arctic Awakening by GoldFire Studios |
Photos provided
In this eight-year span, the Oklahoma Game Developers Meetup has rapidly multiplied; the group’s Discord server sits at six hundred developers, artists, programmers, writers and narrative designers currently. “There’s still not a lot of full time game studios, but there’s a few of them here in Oklahoma City and in Tulsa now. And there’s a growing number of hobbyists that are doing some really neat things,” he said. While typical meetup activities include talks by fellow developers on all aspects of game creation, as well as assorted workshops, including one where attendees had to create a game design document in 30 minutes or less, and days where the community can come together and play each other’s games, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the group to pivot. “We haven’t done an in-person meetup, I guess, since February of last year, and so we’ve been doing some online events,” he said. “But it certainly will be a boost, once we can get back to [meeting in person].” Likewise, GoldFire Studios used to
have a brick-and-mortar location, but when the pandemic spiked in late 2020, the team moved out and began working from home–permanently, for now. Luckily, the company was agile enough to do so. “We sort of had a leg up, because our workflows have always been built around part of the team being remote,” he said. João de Brito and Hakan Kamar, the Arctic Awakening team’s principal artists, live in Portugal and the Netherlands, respectively. Larger studios, Simpson said, may have had a more difficult transition due to the larger workforce and resources that couldn’t be managed as efficiently from home. Kamar, who answered questions over email, said the biggest challenge is doing sufficient pre-planning. “Currently the hardest parts have been the big areas we are fleshing out. Making sure everything works well together while keeping the game optimized can be difficult sometimes,” he said. “Working in a small team like this means that there isn’t much time or
manpower to test everything. So preplanning becomes very important to minimise the risk of having to redo a lot of assets after the fact we’ve realised it doesn’t work in the scene.” As far as Arctic Awakening is concerned? It’s full steam ahead for the team. GoldFire Studios plans to release the game on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One systems as well as on Steam for Mac, Windows and Linux computers sometime in 2022. According to Simpson and Kamar, the game derives visual inspiration from games like Journey, Abzu, Among Trees and Firewatch, while narratively Simpson has been inspired by games like the Telltale Walking Dead games, Life is Strange and Gone Home.
For more information on Arctic Awakening, scan the QR code with your smartphone.
For more information on the Oklahoma Game Developers Meetup, scan the QR code with your smartphone.
Screen Grab of Arctic Awakening by GoldFire Studios |
Photos provided
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NEWS OKGA Z E T TE .COM | A U G U S T 4 , 2 0 2 1
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OKG
COMMUNITY + MENTAL HEALTH
Spotlight The connection between mental health and addiction is complex. In an ongoing effort to support the health and safety of Oklahoma citizens and better serve our communities, we recommend the following resources to help you or someone you love who may be struggling with mental health or addiction issues. BH
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Healthy Minds, Healthy Communities
by Randy Tate
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released sobering data on the nearly 30 percent increase in overdose deaths rates nationally between December 2019 and December 2020. Oklahoma was not spared; we had 753 overdose deaths in 2020 alone – nearly a 22 percent increase over the prior year. Oklahoma also has the unfortunate distinction of being ranked 8th in the nation in terms of the number of people dying by suicide. In 2019, we lost 816 individuals to suicide, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and I fear the numbers could be worse in 2020 as so many of our neighbors were struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic. We were living in the midst of a public health crisis before COVID-19, and unfortunately things have only gotten worse. There are no easy solutions, no silver bullets. But access to quality mental health and substance use services is an essential ingredient. In our highly charged political environment, that is something everyone can agree on. That is exactly what the bipartisan Excellence in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Act of 2021 would do --ensure that anyone in need of mental health or substance use treatment can receive care at a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC), regardless of their insurance coverage or ability to pay. CCBHCs provide 24-hour crisis care and evidence-based services to anyone in need of mental health or substance use treatment services. They work in partnership with law enforcement to divert people in crisis from jails, reduce hospitalizations and emergency department visits and generate cost savings for taxpayers. CCBHCs also provide tailored services for veterans and service members. We are fortunate to have eight CCBHCs in Oklahoma already, and five more were recently awarded funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). CCBHCs in Oklahoma and across the country are dramatically increasing access to much needed mental health and addiction treatment. They are reducing wait times, with 50% providing same day access to care and almost all (93 percent) providing care within 10 days of initial contact, compared to the national average of 48 days, according
Randy Tate, CEO of NorthCare. He sits on the Oklahoma Behavioral Health Association Board of Directors | Photo provided
to recent survey of CCBHCs conducted by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. This means that people are getting into care when they are ready, which can make all the difference. In short, CCBHCs are making a difference. They are an important part of a comprehensive solution and one that we need to invest in for the long-term. The current federal funding model operates on a two-year grant cycle. But even then, the funding requires congressional
action for renewal, which creates uncertainty and potentially instability. Legislation has recently been introduced with bipartisan support to allow any state or territory the option to participate in a demonstration program. This change would create a sustainable path for expanding access to comprehensive mental health and substance use treatment through CCBHCs. This is the right approach at just the right time. We have to turn the tide on the overdose and suicide epidemic. And I believe CCBHCs are essential to that goal. I urge the Oklahoma congressional delegation, including Senators Jim Inhofe and James Lankford, to support the bipartisan Excellence in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Act. CCBHCs are saving lives and making our communities healthier and safer. They have proven their value and it is time to move to a sustainable funding model, one that ensures CCBHCs – and
the people who rely on them – can continue to make a difference. For more information, visit www.okbha.org scan the QR code with your smart phone.
“We were living in the midst of a public health crisis before COVID-19, and unfortunately things have only gotten worse.”
NEWS OKGA Z E T TE .COM | A U G U S T 4 , 2 0 2 1
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GAZEDIBLES
Millions of Peaches August is National Peach Month. As temperatures rise and the long hot summer days drag on, there may be no more quintessential summer staple than a refreshing peach beverage or dish. Here are seven delightfully peachy picks to ignite your taste buds and make your summer more flavorful. By Berlin Green Photos Berlin Green or provided
Ding Asian Fusion
Health Nut Cafe
Meridian Market
Ding is a pan-Asian restaurant offering Japa nese stea k hou se opt ion s, Americanized Chinese, and a fantastic sushi menu. Of course, no meal is complete without an order of tempura peaches. Juicy peach slices topped with cinnamon and served with a scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream.
Health Nut Café is a health conscience deli with six locations throughout the metro. They most recently expanded into their Automobile Alley location, adding a delicious and healthy twist to the area. Their menu boasts a variety of delicious smoothies, wraps, and other healthful fare. While it may not look ‘peachy,’ the matcha peachy smoothie is bursting with flavor and packed with nutrition, including matcha powder which gives it its green color and a boost of antioxidants.
Meridian Market and Food Collective is a unique concept centered around their Source Kitchen. This relaxed bi st r o -st yle r e st au r a nt of fer s patrons locally sourced food, coffee, and wine, as well as a retail shop featuring Oklahoma artisans. For something peachy, try their quail tips. This delicious dish features slices of quail grilled and topped with peach habanera monkey jam on a bed of sauteed cabbages.
6400 NW 39th Expressway, Bethany dingasianfusionokc.com 405-603-8858
722 N. Broadway Ave healthnutcafe.net 405-900-5222
2037 S. Meridian Ave. meridianmarketokc.com 405-604-0789
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC COME SEE US! Largest showroom in Oklahoma!
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4525 N. Cooper Ave. Oklahoma City, OK 73118 (405) 524-1111 marketsourceonline.com
Piatto Italian Kitchen 2920 63rd Street piattoookc.com 405-608-8866
From delicious housemade pasta and fresh Italian recipes, Piatto has become a staple for delicious Italian dishes. Their peach burrata salad is a perfect summer dish. This tasty salad of grilled peaches, prosciutto, buratta cheese on a bed of mixed greens and finished with a pesto vinaigrette is fresh and light, making it perfect for these hot summer days.
The Press
1610 N. Gatewood Ave. thepressokc.com 405-208-7739
The Press has long been known for their menu of comfort foods and modern ‘Oklahoma’ cuisine, and their peach cobbler doesn’t miss the mark. If you aren’t feeling dessert, treat yourself to an Okie Lemonade. This refreshing blend of peach lemonade, bourbon, and amaretto is mixed with cherry and lemon and finished with a Peach O. It might just be the perfect summer cocktail.
Smoked Out
6220 Northwest Expressway, suite B
smokedoutbbq.green 405-985-6328
If you’re looking for a great BBQ sandwich, Smoked Out is one of our favorites. Leroy Richardson operates the restaurant and catering business and prepares their homemade foods using a mix of family recipes and a few new ones that they’ve created on their own. Choose any amazing BBQ dish from their menu and complete your meal with a delicious peach cobbler or try their fried peaches - sweet peach slices breaded, fried, then coated in cinnamon and sugar, with housemade sauce.
things are
Coop Ale Works
4745 Council Heights Road Coopaleworks.com 405-842-2667
COOP’s Peach Pageant flavor is so subtle you almost don’t realize you’re drinking beer until you’ve entered the second half of it. At 4.1 percent ABV, this selection is a most sessionable choice, a Berliner weisse (if you couldn’t tell from the name, this one is brewed with peaches). To be honest, the peach is only slightly noticeable, but that doesn’t keep this one from being excessively drinkable.
heating up with El Huevo’s
new menu
Sandwiches and Burgers are back!
Bowl Game Strong!
Breakfast peeps, listen up!
sink your teeth into old-time favorites
try our FA JITA RICE BOWL or
our BIONICO is revamped and renamed
like the AMERICANO BURGER or
CABO RICE BOWL if you like a
meet the SWEET CRE AM PARFAIT
POLLO LOCO SANDWICH
little bit of everything
available daily until 2pm
and many more 3 5 2 2 2 4 T H AV E . N W, N O R M A N , O K 7 3 0 6 9 | E L H U E V O M E X I D I N E R . C O M
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Brewing Opportunity By Josh Wallace Photos Berlin Green
A little over a month after launching, the owner of Norman’s newest craft brewery said she can’t believe the reception they’ve received as they work to build a space for those marginalized and underrepresented through the power of beer. “It’s been unbelievable, I mean just beyond all expectations,” said Suzette Grillot, who co-owns Equity Brewing Co. “I knew that people were very supportive and encouraging along the way, we’ve always had great feedback from people as we’ve shared free beer for a year and a half and built a brand and really established ourselves as a company that is committed to social justice.”
EXPERIENCE FIRST FRIDAY GALLERY WALK Friday, Aug. 6, 2021 • 6-9pm
ARTS DISTRICT
In the Paseo Arts & Creativity Center at 3024 Paseo GALLERY 1 - Small group show featuring: Fryda Fernandez, Jesse Baggett and Matthew Ferree. GALLERY 2 - Tour de Quartz - A selection of student work from the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain. Featured August 6-28 Local and national art, great food, art classes and plenty of shopping!
#FirstFridayPaseo 14
405.525.2688 • thepaseo.org
A U G U S T 4 , 2 0 2 1 | OKGA Z E T TE .COM E AT & DRINK
CREATED BY WOMA N Grillot said the idea for the brewery came about in late 2019 as she visited a local brewery for beer donations for an event that she and a former business partner were hosting. After spending time in the brewery and going through a number of questions with brewery staff, Grillot said she learned that the state featured no all-women owned breweries, nor women head brewers, and wanted to change that statistic. “There aren’t any women in the industry really, or at least now, all womenowned breweries, and I thought ‘Well, we’ll just accomplish a lot of things here,’” Grillot said. “We’ll develop an amazing product that people always want and disrupt an industry a little bit
and make it more inclusive and develop the mission and educate the mission to bring more people into the craft beer world and spaces, but also have that social mission to change the status quo, so that there is more diversity, inclusion and equity, hence the name of our brewery, in this world.” Grillot said she immediately began learning how to brew the beer herself, something she had only limited exposure with from a friend while they were in graduate school, but that it was a lifelong passion for the love of beer that propelled her. Being head-brewer was important, as Grillot mentioned that few understand the importance of women in the history of beer, adding that the drink’s creation is due to women from thousands of years ago who were responsible for the food and drink of households at the time. “Women created beer and produced beer for the home and for their community and were always responsible for the beverage for many, many years until capitalism took over around 1500 or so and taverns became a money-making opportunity. So, women were kind of pushed out of beer,” she said. The brewery features several staples that are similar in style to what you might find in other taprooms, such as a saison, Kölsch, IPA and a stout, but taking a glance at the can labels or the beer names, and you’ll see that the message of equity is in everything the brewery puts out. Solidarity Saison, Collective Action Kolsch and Protest Porter are among the
beers offered, each with a name chosen specifically by Suzette Grillot, who is also a professor of International and Area Studies at the University of Oklahoma. “The names, I love to name things. I’m also a writer, obviously, as an academic and I love to title things. It’s just fun to play with words. I really like to use titles, or words, that are meaningful, and again, reflective of our social mission,” she said. “Whenever I create a new beer, I try to come up with something fun that’s reflective of not only beer, but something that speaks to our mission and perhaps also reflects a feeling I’m having at the time.”
More tha n just a beer company Since February, Grillot has been operating the business with her daughter, Hannah Grillot, and the two held the grand opening of their taproom on July 2. Keen to find and work with other women entrepreneurs, Suzette Grillot said she’s already made two great partnerships with local women, who added a dining option to the new taproom. After hearing about the amazing pastries of Soreeta Hines, of Brown Cow Bakeshop, Suzette Grillot said she reached out and asked Hines if she was willing to make something utilizing her beer. The end result was more than she could have imagined. “I can’t describe it, you’ll just have to taste these pastries, because they’re just amazing. The things that she makes and uses our beer to make them, it’s really remarkable,” Suzette Grillot said. Wanting to provide something savory in addition to the sweet, she said she also reached out to Brooke Rood, of Forage and Gather, and asked if she could provide the taproom with charcuterie boards for guests. Rood suggested setting up shop in the taproom, which
left the mom and daughter pair ecstatic. “I couldn’t have been more thrilled,” Suzette Grillot said. “Hannah and I were just in like permanent smile mode for like a week, that the space would actually be used by other people than just us brewing beer, other women entrepreneurs were going to come in and use the space.” Also located in the space is a small bookstore, the idea of Hannah Grillot, which features a curated section of books authored by women, people of color, members of the LGTBQ community, and others that Suzette Grillot said might have difficulty establishing their voice in the male-dominated publishing industry. In addition to the overwhelming positive response to the new taproom, demand has been high, as Suzette Grillot said she’s received numerous requests from restaurants and liquor stores to carry her beer, but they don’t currently have a lot of capacity to distribute much volume at this point. She said the brewery is currently working with a couple of restaurants in Norman and Oklahoma City to put her beers on their taps in the near future. “It’s a good problem to have, to have people wanting our beer but having to come to the taproom to get it. We hope to be able to provide more beer to the community sometime soonish,” Suzette Grillot said. “We are a beer company, but we’re more than just a beer company. I feel like I’ve made pretty good beer. I’ve had to work hard to learn how to make drinkable, good beer,” she said. “So, it is good to see and watch other people enjoy that and enjoy each other and develop a sense of community and belonging in our space. It has just been, just beyond anything I could have expected. I hope it continues.”
exp. 8/18/21
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A Hundred Years in the Making The Paramount Building Leads the Way for Entertainment and Drinks on Film Row By Brett Fieldcamp
Rodeo Cinema
The story behind OKC’s Film Row is well-known: In the 1920 s, the biggest movie studios built facilities along a stretch of Sheridan Avenue to house development labs, screening rooms, and distribution centers for their films. As the industry eventually evolved, so too did Film Row. Transitioning from Hollywood hub to heyday holdover to hipster hotspot, it left the district ’s cinematic histor y largely relegated to nothing more than its name. There is one structural survivor on the Row, however, that is entering a new era of interest while respectfully paying tribute to its filmmak ing roots: The Paramount Building. With a screening room and fireproof vault intact, the building has survived for a century hosting all manner of creative and welcoming spaces, all leading to its current resurgence as one of the leading lights of the exploding area.
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deadCenter
Core 4 Brewing
Rodeo Cinema
deadCenter
Core4 Brewing
One of the Paramount’s newest occupants that is already picking up the movie-centric reins and enjoying quick success is Rodeo Cinema, the most recent custodians of the building’s beloved screening room. Expanding into Film Row from their other location in the Stockyards, Rodeo Cinema jumped at the chance to be a part of the Paramount’s lauded history. “I heard that the old screening room might be destroyed or repurposed by something like a sandwich shop,” says theater manager Sean Peel. “I knew we had to do everything we could to save that piece of OKC film history.” Rodeo already has big plans for how to utilize the space and encourage audiences to come out for guest signings and Q&A events. “The Film Row location is going to allow us to screen bigger movies and for longer,” Peel says. “Also, it’s kind of a homecoming for our monthly VHSANDCHILL screenings. We showed films there for over a year working with the old Paramount Room bar, and coming back to this updated screening room is just fantastic.”
The “old guard” of the Paramount is undoubtedly the deadCenter Film Festival offices, led by Executive Director Alyx Picard Davis. Since 2018, their presence has helped to maintain the filmmaking legacy of the building while working to bolster Oklahoma’s standing within the national movie industry. “Because of the historic nature of Film Row, we really wanted to stay as close as possible,” Davis says. That proximity to the driving spirit of the film industry gave the deadCenter team the fuel needed to achieve some of the greatest successes in the now 20-year history of the festival and film education program, capping this year’s summer season with a major announcement that’s been years in the works. “We have been designated as a qualifying festival for the Academy Awards short film awards,” Davis tells us. “That’s been a huge goal for us and opens the door to more submissions, more opportunities for alumni filmmakers, and is really, really cool.”
Created from friendships and hobbies shared among members of venerable OKC blues-rock outfit Mojo Thief, Core4 made the jump from homebrewing between band practices to setting up shop inside the Paramount. Since Day One, they’ve let the space’s legacy of entertainment and creativity be their guiding star. “We truly pride ourselves on our core values of creativity, open-mindedness, resourcefulness, and education,” says cofounder Buck Buchanan. “We have an event nearly every day of the week, including trivia, bingo, and open mic nights. We have live music on the weekends and host a monthly local art show as well.” They also believe in using their location and standing to help raise the profiles of issues and groups that are too often ignored or overlooked outside of designated times and spaces. “We have also formed our monthly ‘Pints of Pride’ event. The second Friday of every month, we celebrate those in the LGBTQ+ community. We highlight local artists, musicians, and entertainers all while raising funds for local non-profit organizations.”
A U G U S T 4 , 2 0 2 1 | OKGA Z E T TE .COM ART S & CULTURE
(L) New Zealander Graham Hoete mural of Oklahoma legends Charlie Christian, Joan Crawford and Woody Guthrie. He also muralized Steven Adams on the opposite side of the Paramount building. (R) Kris “Buck” Buchanan & Kim Falk hold up a photo of the staff of the paramount building during the 1920s. Standing on the 2nd floor of the building while renovatation are currently underway | Photos Berlin Green
OK Cider
The Study
OK Cider
The Study
Peret’s Coffee
Currently Oklahoma’s lone cidery, the OK Cider crew has fully embraced the maverick spirit of the area. While producing cider sets them well apart within the state’s beer-saturated market, their use of various different beer yeasts makes them unique even within the larger world of ciders. “It gives us the opportunity to label our ciders as a beer style that most customers are going to understand,” explains co-founder Tim King. “The learning curve for us has been that we don’t know of anyone making cider in the way we are with the beer influence and styles we are making.” Like their neighbors, OK Cider is putting loads of effort into events and theme nights to bring out new drinkers, hosting a knitting group and a “vinyl night.” King’s sights are already set much further and wider. “We’re in talks to do some collaboration projects with cideries across the U.S. and spread our beer-inspired ciders and techniques to areas outside of Oklahoma.”
Also taking a stab at a largely untapped niche is the firmly wine-oriented new bar, The Study. With their singular focus, the tight-knit group of friends that conceived the space is able to shine a spotlight on wines-by-the-glass that no other bar in OK can rival. “From day one, we never planned to have cocktails as part of our concept, primarily because there are so many amazing cocktail bars in OKC already,” co-founder Megan Allen said. “We were purposeful in not wanting to dilute our focus and decided to steal from European models of being a wine bar only and nothing else.” Though The Study’s attention remains purely on the vino variety, Allen is quick to acknowledge the close friendship and support of the other bars, and even predicts that a “Paramount Pub Crawl” is sure to gain some steam in the near future. “Our co-location strengthens that bond in ways that many other bar owners may not get to experience.”
Opening this fall, Peret’s Coffee is already generating chatter just by the concept of “late-night coffee and dessert” and the mystery surrounding what will populate their menu and how patrons will respond. “We wanted a place to go after dinner where we could just sit, enjoy a tasty dessert, and have a nice conversation,” creator Morgan Mathis says of himself and his wife and co-founder Shea. “We wanted a cozy escape in downtown.” Morgan says he discovered a love for crafting fine coffee while on military deployment in Africa, leading him to develop the Peret’s concept as an outlet for highend brews and rich desserts, providing a perfect complement to the building’s wine, beer, and cider offerings. “It is funny how that has worked out,” he says. “When we started looking at Peret’s, we didn’t know the businesses going in around us, nor could we have hoped for such synergy.”
coming soon
Of course, the creative and risk-taking spirit of the Paramount wouldn’t be possible without some supremely cool and suppor tive building owners like Mark and Kim Falk. Since purchasing the building in 2014, and seeing the vast potential of the Film Row area, they’ve been encouraging their tenants’ most exciting ideas while working to preserve the heart and soul of the building and the bygone era from which it came. “ W hat alwa ys fascinated me about Oklahoma City was how much development occurs by local people with local ideas,” Mark Falk said. “It ’s all local people trying to develop their city.”
ART S & CULTURE OKGA Z E T TE .COM | A U G U S T 4 , 2 0 2 1
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Into The Unknown 3rd Act Theatre Company returns for Season 3
By Adrienne Proctor
Throughout 2020, the performing arts industry as a whole remained largely shut down. The first to go dark, Broadway has been off-stage since March of last year, and finally returns this month. Without an audience, a live performance is nothing but a rehearsal. And when actors can’t touch, their most intimate and moving scenes may as well be a video call. All pandemics aside, 3rd Act Theatre Company has continued to innovate and sustain a “find a way, make a way” attitude. 3rd Act continued live performance all through 2020, both with their Mainstage productions, Noire series, and their ever-popular Drunk Classics tour. In April 2021, 3rd Act produced the Oklahoma premiere of Bella Poynton’s Medusa Undone during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. This moving and deeply affecting story is a retelling of the
one who witnessed this production was breathless by intermission and speechless by the final bows. The care and consideration that 3rd Act took to produce this important work is further proof of their commitment to fostering safe spaces. 3rd Act has a unique mission; not only do they create thought-provoking works in a widerange of offerings, but they do so while upholding their commitment to creating safe environments for their performers and patrons. This conscious unlearning of toxicity that is so prevalent in the performing arts world puts 3rd Act in a class of its own. 3rd Act’s hit fundraising tour Drunk Classics is exactly how it sounds – a cast of real actors recites classic Shakespearean works to a raucous audience at rotating breweries in and around the metro. However, one actor each night must perform while drunk. The cast member to become inebriated
From nurses to firefighters; from business executives to electric line installers; a degree from OSU-OKC puts you on a path to a better career and increased earning power. In-person and online classes are available and both options are among the most affordable in the state.
ENROLL NOW FOR FALL AT WWW.OSUOKC.EDU
IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES 18
A U G U S T 4 , 2 0 2 1 | OKGA Z E T TE .COM ART S & CULTURE
Medusa myth. In this version, Medusa is a young sea nymph in the service of the goddess Athena. Medusa is brutally attacked by an arrogant god, her friend Poseidon. In the aftermath, Medusa is left devastated and alone. She’s cursed with eyes that kill and snakes for hair, and she’s trapped in her own rage. This beautiful commentary on assault and the aftermath is messy and raw. Tiffany Tuggle and Keegan Zimmerman gave performances of a lifetime, and every-
during the show is selected by audience vote. Attendees are also encouraged to sponsor improvised edits throughout the show. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen accomplished director/instructor/ actor Kris Kuss recite the tongue-twisting Hamlet line “If it be now, ‘tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come” shortly after mumbling “SHIT, this line” and
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Tiffany Tuggle (L) and Christine Jolly in Medusa Undone. | Photo by J. Christine Lanning.
nearly falling over. Drunk Classics tours twice a year and will return for the holiday season. Innovation was a requirement to continue live performance during both a worldwide pandemic and an unprecedented, across the “boards” theatrical shutdown. The Company produced socially distanced and masked productions, designing and making their own clear masks for the actors to wear on stage. This provided the ability for the company to keep work available to the theatre community throughout the summer and Fall. They’ve continued to follow CDC guidelines and actors remained masked in all Season 2 productions. When asked about the importance of continuing live performance, 3rd Act Board of Directors President Dakota Lee Bryant said, “It was an innate calling. We went dark for a matter of a month or two at the end of season one. But as we saw the potential to reopen, it became imperative to find the safest way back possible.” Bryant continues, “The type of theatre and atmosphere we strive to create at 3rd Act can only exist when we are open, and when we offer a place for the community to gather and to create. Thus, we knew we needed to be open.” When asked about their drive toward innovation during an unprecedented time, Bryant said, “Trial and error really had a hand in pushing us forward. We were able to examine not only what worked and didn’t work, but also what processes we could automate. With the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to find a way to keep our staff and artists safe. Our team drafted many new and updated hybrid procedures to help not only keep our space safe, but also equitable on time (through digital auditions and virtual rehearsal spaces). Innovation became a key factor. We, like all other performance art companies, have had to keep pace with a novel virus that seems to adapt as fast as we do.” Season three takes 3rd Act into un-
charted territory with its theme of UNKNOWN. Season three begins in August with The Complete History of Theatre by Matt Thompson and the theme will persist throughout the entire season, much like FAMILY for season one and POWER for season two. Each show is unique, and even the ones that are familiar will feel new. Following Complete History of Theatre, 3rd Act will produce The Red Lamp, Chagrin Falls, Little Women, Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, Shakespeare Conspiracy, Sherlock Holmes, and Hamlet with a Gender-Bent twist. Their main location at Northpark Mall is cozy and inviting, and seeing a show in their comfy bench seating feels like coming home. 3rd Act is a new theatre company, and they’re starting off right. They’re serious about their commitment to creating a safe working environment for artists, and all the work they do is work from the heart. Nothing gets past theatre critics; we see it all and know more than we let on. 3rd Act is changing the narrative, and it couldn’t come at a better time. Tickets for season three, UNKNOWN, are on sale now.
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For more information, scan the QR code with
your smartphone.
FREE CONCERTS celebrating 8 5 y e a r s o f To w e r T h e a t r e ! FREE with RSVP at www.tower theatreokc.com
**Editor’s Note** Adrienne Proctor is an ad-hoc board member of 3rd Act Theatre Company and a freelance theatre critic. ART S & CULTURE OKGA Z E T TE .COM | A U G U S T 4 , 2 0 2 1
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Market at Scissortail Park By Berlin Green | Photos Berlin Green & Phillip Danner
Wondervan Pops
Every Saturday morning from April through October, nestled at the edge of Oklahoma City’s Scissortail Park, you’ll find the sweetest of local markets. The OSU-OKC Farmers Market brings together over 50 vendors from all over the state to share their wares, ranging from freshly grown organic vegetables, free-range organic chicken, and beef to handmade soaps, spices, marinades, and more. The Farmer’s Market is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the corner of Oklahoma City Boulevard and South Robinson Avenue. A+H URBAN FARM ahurbanfarm.com Husband and wife team Amy and H.R. Reinke have a passion for growing food, and it shows. Located in the heart of Oklahoma City, they produce naturally grown seasonal produce and beautiful cut flowers. Among their offerings find delicious microgreens, sunripe tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, okra, fragrant floral bouquets, and so much more. ACADIAN FAMILY FARM acadianfamilyfarm.com Acadian Family Farm is a Certified Organic farm that makes the trip to OKC each weekend from Caddo County. Though they specialize in growing different varieties of sweet potatoes, they bring a wide variety of beautiful gourmet style-seasonal vegetables to the market each week.
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Vatsana’s
HANK’S SALSA CO. hankssalsa.com Hanks uses only the freshest ingredients to bring their customers greattasting salsa. Using 29 ingredients, their salsas delight the taste buds and give your dishes new life. Perfect with chips or on your favorite tacos, Hank’s Salsa is sure to become a favorite! LEAVEN FOR COOKIES @leavenforcookies (insta) Homemade cookies - yes please! Leaven for Cookies is a home-based bakery that specializes in creating freshly baked vegan sweets for cookie lovers and connoisseurs. Find freshly baked flavors like Rosemary Lemon, Snickerdoodle and Chocolate Crinkle, there’s something for everyone. WONDERVAN POPS wondervanpops.com After spending several years creating cocktails from behind the bar, Ben Pendleton decided to combine his desire for entrepreneurship with his love of popsicles to create Wondervan Pops. Brought to you out of a restored 1967 Ford Econoline Club Wagon come popsicles made with locally sourced allnatural ingredients in rotating flavors like Watermelon Hibiscus, Avocado Lime, and Strawberry Lavender Lemon to refresh your palate. WH Yardbirds whyardbirds.com WH Yardbirds follows organic practices to specialize in raising high-qual-
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Hank’s Salsa
Sage & Elm Apothecary
ity, free-range, pastured chicken. Based in Washington, Oklahoma, they use a rotation system to give their chickens never use antibiotics, hunger stimulants, or growth hormones, choosing to raise their birds as natural as possible. The result is fresh-tasting, delicious chicken. TINY BUBBLES tinybubblesokc.com You’ve seen a few Piaggio Vespas around town, but if you see a Piaggio Ape, it’s a decent bet that you’ve stumbled across Tiny Bubbles. Brandi and Jeremiah Esterline have adapted the postwar Italian vehicle to include taps. Want a chardonnay? A robust red? A round of beers? Tiny Bubbles is also for hire and they’re willing to fill the taps with your heart’s desires. Oh, and they also provide stellar charcuterie boards to round out the experience. SAGE & ELM APOTHECARY sageandelmapothecary.com “Apothecary” is an archaic word that essentially means “pharmacist” (thanks Romeo and Juliet) and Sage & Elm carries on that denotative legacy. Handcrafted soaps, natural toothpaste, deodorant, face masks, shampoos and conditioners are among just some of the wares offered. These apothecaries also pack gift baskets that start at $30 and go up from there if you’d prefer to test drive a curated combination of items to treat yourself.
Tiny Bubbles
PUBLIC COFFEE public.coffee A tiny coffee shop on wheels. Actually, a tiny house with a coffee shop inside on wheels serving up simple or complex brews, whichever you may prefer. While seating inside is (obviously) limited, a cup of coffee and one of the stellar baked goods offered up by Public Coffee provide a much-needed refuel while perusing the rest of the farmers market. Oh, and there’s hot chocolate and tea for those who don’t need their mornings turbocharged with caffeine. VATSANA’S vatsanas.com You’ve had hot sauce, but you haven’t really had hot sauce until you’ve tried Vatsana’s Seafood Hot Sauce. The namesake uses traditional Asian ingredients like fish sauce and roasted rice powder to bring out its powerful flavors. While the company considers the spice level a five out of ten, timid eaters might want to tone it down a little at first. Also available are Desvelados Hot Sauce (a salsa verde - more of your traditional Hispanic and American style of hot sauce) as well as dry seasoning for rubs and cooking.
Bowl Doll pours hours of time and energy into crafting a routine that, despite only lasting a few minutes, sticks with their patrons for generations. Cha Cha’s acts have ranged from direct parody, such as her Breaking Bad inspired performance to Nancy Sinatra’s “It’s a Pretty World Today,” to an expectation-subverting, green flapper bit to DMX’s “X Gon’ Give It to Ya.” “We’re theatre stripping, or stripping with a story,” said Perle. Some opt for feats of athleticism. Cat Carter, also known as the Bendy Broad, puts her stage name to the test. After “paying with her blood” to join the Dust Bowl Dolls courtesy of a ceiling fan during her debut at the late Drunken Fry, refined by years of practice through aerial silks, Carter is a standout with her handstands that feel like an eternity with her seemingly effortless poise. Monaco, on the other hand, uses her technical imagination to push the limits of her art. In addition to her oil derrick, Monaco has also fashioned a bra with functioning headlights and stuffed her lingerie with pasta in a comment on sploshing. For a performer to be successful at burlesque, they have to adapt. “There’s a lot of performers that fantastic on a big stage with custom lighting cues and thousand-dollar props,” said Elijah Farmer, the “Beethoven” and periodic prop for the troupe. “But what I love about us is that we can go into any bar, take a 10’ by 10’ space to perform and just kill it.” For the Dust Bowl Dolls, burlesque works its greatest magic up-close and personal. This made the pandemic particularly devastating, as it halted burlesque just as quickly as it
Back-to-Burlesque: The Dust Bowl Dolls Celebrate their 15-year Journey By Daniel Bokemper Photos By Jared Kinley at Light Box Studio If you wander into the Bunker Club or R&J’s late one night, you might catch Merry McGinnis Monaco spraying herself with an underwear-mounted oil derrick to the tune of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma.” For the last decade and a half, Merry and her burlesque troupe, the Dust Bowl Dolls, have been a staple of OKC nightlife. Their special blend of seductive, uproarious and insightful entertainment propelled them to be the state’s longestrunning act of its kind. The Dust Bowl Dolls weren’t necessarily founded on the show-stopping confidence their performances are dripping with. Merry was a trained opera singer but suffered from “terrible stage fright.” While attending the University of California Berkeley in San Francisco, she began taking burlesque classes. “I had been so afraid and anxious, but I felt like if I could dance and sing in front of people, I could do whatever I wanted,” Monaco said. After returning to Oklahoma, Monaco encountered entertainers producing off-kilter variety shows at the Blue Note and the HiLo Club in 2016. It was from this collective that the first Dust Bowl Dolls were formed, kickstarting an avalanche of personalities that shows no signs of slowing down. Even with the number of dancers that have performed under the Dust Bowl Dolls banner, there’s no open application. “I don’t want to sound mean, but you don’t just join,” said Panhandle Perle, co-owner and fixture of the troupe. “You wouldn’t approach your favorite band after a concert and ask if you can play with them. It’s a burlesque troupe, but it’s also a lifestyle.
We naturally acquire people.” A Dust Bowl Doll is not created, but found. Cha Cha Nova, for instance, began her career at pinup pageants and modeling for hot rod competitions. After catching the eye of Perle, Cha Cha worked as a stage kitten—an assistant that gathers clothing and other pieces of attire from the stage—before she was given her own set. This allowed her to further stretch the legs of her fiery persona. “Cha Cha Nova is my protector, mouthpiece and a love letter to myself,” she said. In the 21st century, the nature of a burlesque show has changed. Likewise, it’s not enough for a performer to just look the part. Each Dust
shut down every form of live entertainment. While they dabbled in live streaming, it couldn’t meaningfully replicate the feeling that proximity brings. “There’s something cool being that close to the audience,” said Monaco. “I don’t want to be touched, but I do want to be close enough to the patrons’ expressions and how happy they are to be here. You can’t be depressed around twirling nipple tassels.” Burlesque is a position of joy, but it’s a beacon of empowerment for many of the performers. Monaco recalled that in several larger clubs, the patrons were unclear what to make of the performance. Some felt the need to hit on the artists, if not “directly body shame them.” With the right management and venue, like the Bunker Club, a burlesque show becomes a reciprocal affair. “It’s not an escape. It’s an entrance to this awesome, hidden world of supportive women, men and an incredible community that’s so nice to us,” Carter said. The art works at a deeper, more personal level as well. Bucking stereotypes and ill-informed notions of beauty, the Dust Bowl Dolls put the fun back in sexy. For some, practicing burlesque has become an opportunity to heal. “I love being in this environment,” said Nova. “It is super positive to women of all different background and creeds. In a lot of ways, burlesque has mended my relationship with my body as a woman.” Personalities come and go from the Dust Bowl Dolls, but they’re never quite the same once they snap the garter belt. At their current speed, it’s likely the troupe will be a spark in the metro for decades to come. “This monster we’ve created is beautiful, and you’re going to love it,” Carter said. “We want to enhance someone’s confidence. Burlesque is about doing badass things while you can. You have just one life to live, so you might as well take your clothes off on stage while you can.” The Dust Bowl Dolls next performance, their annual back-to-school special, is on August 15 at 10 p.m. at the Bunker Club. Follow the Dust Bowl Dolls on Instagram. Scan the QR code with your smartphone.
ART S & CULTURE OKGA Z E T TE .COM | A U G U S T 4 , 2 0 2 1
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CALENDAR are events recommended by Oklahoma Gazette editorial staff members For full calendar listings, go to okgazette.com.
FILM Floating Films at Riversport OKC: The Goonies Floating Films are back at Riversport OKC. Floating Films are a great way for the entire family to hang out together. Bring a blanket or lawn chair and watch the film from the banks of the lower pond or rent a tube or raft for the full Floating Film experience!, Fri., Aug. 6. RIVERSPORT OKC, 800 RIVERSPORT Drive, 4055524040, riversportokc.org. FRI, Aug 6
SONIC Summer Movie Nights: Fantastic Mr. Fox Bring lawn chairs or a blanket and picnic, or enjoy offerings from a variety of local food vendors, activities, and entertainers. The fun begins at 8pm, films screen at 9pm., Wed., Aug. 4. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-445-7080, oklahomacitybotanicalgardens.com. WED
HAPPENINGS Cat Video Festival The world’s #1 cat video festival is coming back bigger and better than ever in 2021. Cat Video Festival returns to the “Meowyriad” Gardens in all its purrfect glory on Caturday, August 7. Open to feline fans of all ages, put on your cat ears and enjoy entertainment and cat vendors. CatVideoFest is a compilation reel of the latest and best cat videos culled from countless hours of unique submissions and sourced animations, music videos, and classic internet powerhouses. Activities include Cat Tarot Readings from OKC Vet Campus, Face painting by Kaleidoscope Arts, Wine & Palette Pop-in Painting, Crafty Paws, Sat., Aug. 7. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-445-7080, myriadgardens.com. SAT, Aug 7 Coffee & Cars Coffee and Cars OKC is the largest monthly gathering of car enthusiasts across the state of Oklahoma! Head to Chisholm Creek on the first Saturday morning of each month to share your passion for automotives. The event will be held at the property just north of Pawnee Drive and Cabela Road. Everyone is welcome and there are no fees!, first Saturday of every month, 8 p.m. Chisholm Creek, 13230 Pawnee Dr., 405-728-2780, chisholmcreek.com. SAT, Aug 7 Cookies and Cocktails 2021 Enjoy one-of-a-kind bites and/or signature cocktails created with our famous Girl Scout Cookies by local restaurants and bars! Guests will sip signature cocktails, sample treats from local restaurants, and have a chance to bid on raffle items. Local culinary experts will judge each entry and guests will submit their votes for the best “bite” of the night. We can’t wait to celebrate ten years of Cookies and Cocktails with you!, Proceeds from the 2021 Cookies & Cocktails benefit Girl Scouts Western Oklahoma’s higher awards and civic engagement programming. $60-$80, Fri., Aug. 13, 5:30-8:30 p.m. Camp Trivera, 2508 NE 50th Street, 4055284475, gswestok.org. FRI, Aug 13 Dancing in the Gardens: 90s Hip Hop All ages are welcome at Dancing in the Gardens. Join Myriad Botanical Gardens as they transform the Seasonal Plaza into an urban dance space. Beginning at 7 p.m., dance instructors from Race Dance Collective will give a hip-hop dance lesson. At 8 p.m., Dance to the 90s hip hop jams from DJ Ramal “Hometown Heat” Brown! He’ll crank up the hip-hop tunes to get the FREE dance started. Enjoy food trucks and 90s activities!. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-4457080, myriadgardens.com. FRI, Aug 6 LIVE! on the Plaza join the Plaza District every second Friday for an art walk featuring artists, live music, shopping and more, 6-10 p.m. second Friday of every month. Plaza District, 1618 N. Gatewood Ave., 405-426-7812, plazadistrict.org. FRI, Aug 13 Oklahoma Railway Museum Train Ride Come take a ride at the Oklahoma Railway Museum on our historic MKT mainline track. You will enjoy a train ride in our historic passenger coaches pulled by our vintage diesel locomotives. Train Rides are available for kids of all ages (0 to 99+) every 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month, April through September. Train rides last approximately 40 minutes. $5.00-$12.00, first Saturday of every month, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. through Sept. 4. Oklahoma Railway Museum, 3400 NE Grand Blvd., 4054248222, oklahomarailwaymuseum. org. SAT, Aug 7 Route 66 Blue Hippo Festival This two-day festival is themed around Edmond’s Route 66 icon, the Blue Hippo. Familyfriendly activities, performances, food, artists and all things blue, will take place at the Museum and in
Stephenson Park. Presented by Banc7 and sponsored by the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden., Aug. 6-7. Edmond Historical Society & Museum, 431 S. Boulevard, 405-340-0078, edmondhistory.org. FRI & SAT, Aug 6 & 7
Wonders and Wisdom Expo The Wonders and Wisdom Expo brings various Metaphysical vendors, Oracle and Tarot Readers, Holistic Healers, Performers, a Meditative Labyrinth, Classes, Artists, and Crafters together to share our wisdom and passions. Children 10 and under are free. Seniors, Military, Veterans, and Teachers’ tickets are only $5. Bring a sack or box of canned and dried food for the SISU Youth Services food drive and get a $1 off your ticket. $7, Sat., Aug. 7, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. and Sun., Aug. 8, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. State Fair Park Hobbies, Arts and Crafts Building, 3100 General Pershing Blvd., 405-2619225, facebook.com/wondersandwisdomexpo. SAT & SUN, Aug 7 & 8
events/7107. SUN, Aug 15 Dustin Sims Dustin Sims is a comedian from Oxford, Alabama. Best known for his Snapchat videos and ‘Talking to Myself’ series. His unique style of storytelling has accumulated him over a MILLION followersacross social media. Dustin’s raw comedy is mostly centered around bizarre life experiences that are guaranteed to keep you laughing! Also be sure to check out his podcast ‘Poor Taste with Dustin Sims’ on Youtube. $30.00, Sun., Aug. 8, 7:30-9 p.m. Bricktown Comedy Club, 409 E. California Ave., 253-324-0075, eventvesta.com/events/7105. SUN, Aug 8
Fusion TV, IFC, Worldstar Hip Hop, 9GAG, Reddit & MTV2. Wallace performs at comedy clubs and colleges all over the country with some of the biggest names, although his biggest accomplishment is $25.00, Thu., Aug. 12, 7:30-11:59 p.m., Fri., Aug. 13, 7:30-11:59 p.m. and Sat., Aug. 14, 7:30-11:59 p.m. Bricktown Comedy Club, 409 E. California Ave., 253-324-0075, eventvesta. com/events/7106. THU-SAT, Aug 12-14
VISUAL ARTS 8th Annual Central Oklahoma Native Art Sale Located at East End of South Building - Door “E”:, Baskets-Jewelry-Vintage
FOOD Grill It! Nothin’ beats fresh veggies from the garden that have been tossed on the grill. Their deepest flavor is enhanced. Learn tips & tricks from grillmaster Steph as she demonstrates how to grill a variety of vegetables—and take part in sampling the results!, Instructor: Stephanie Jordan knows her way around the garden and the grill! Steph combines her experiences as a personal chef, farmer and educator to create healthy and delicious food based on locally grown produce., $10 per workshop, $15 per couple/pair, unless otherwise noted. Or volunteer on a Saturday morning, and get in free!, Sat., Aug. 14, 11 a.m.-noon. CommonWealth Urban Farms, 3310 N. Olie Ave., 405524-1864, commonwealthurbanfarms. com/garden-school. SAT, Aug 14
ArtNow 2021 Organized by Guest Curator Helen Opper, ArtNow 2021 presents a dynamic group of
Oklahoma-based artists whose works respond to the complexities of contemporary culture, reflecting the Midtown Cool Down On the third Wednesday of June, vibrant diversity of contemporary art in Oklahoma., Mondays, Wednesdays-Sundays. through Sept. 13. July, and August, participating Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, 11 NW 11th St., 405-951-0000, oklahomacontemporary.org/exhibitions/ Midtown restaurants and bars will be upcoming/artnow-2021. THROUGH SEPTEMBER 13 | Sarah Ahmad/Photo provided. providing a special happy hour menu featuring over-the-top, tropical, or fruit-forward drinks from 4pm to 6pm A Midsummer Night’s Dream What Southwest & Pueblo Pottery-Beadwork-Rugs, Shawlsfor Midtown Cool Down., third Wednesday of every is better than Shakespeare’s whimsical Clothing-Paintings-Books-Native American, Southwest, month. through Aug. 18. Midtown OKC, NW Eighth St., comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream under Mexican Art & Kitsch and much, much more!, Buy-Sell405-235-3500, midtownokc.com. WED, Aug 18 the stars? Spread a blanket outside, in the brand new Trade. FREE TO PUBLIC, Fri., Aug. 6, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Shakespeare Gardens performance space. Good for Sat., Aug. 7, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Cleveland County Fairgrounds, all ages this summer!, first Thursday-Sunday of every 615 East Robinson St, 405.321.8961, clevelandcountyfair. PERFORMING ARTS month. through Aug. 15. Shakespeare on Paseo, 2920 org/Calendar.aspx?EID=1369. FRI & SAT. 6 & 7 The 39 Steps Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy Paseo St., 405-235-3700, oklahomashakespeare.org. A Life in Looking: The Creighton Gilbert Colspy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have The THU-SUN, Aug 5-8 lection Through themes of religion, architecture, 39 Steps, a fast-paced whodunit for anyone who loves OKC Comedy presents: Jake Flores & Avery allegory, portraiture, and humor, A Life in Looking: the magic of theatre!, Fri., Aug. 6, Sat., Aug. 7, Fri., Aug. Moore Stand up comedy show featuring Jake Flores The Creighton Gilbert Collection explores a collection 13, Sat., Aug. 14 and Sun., Aug. 15. The Pollard Theatre, (NYC,) Avery Moore (ATX,) with locals Chandler built on seven decades of expertise by this impressive 120 W. Harrison Ave., 405-282-2800, thepollard.org. Rhone and The Martin Duprass. Hosted by Cameron scholar, educator, and connoisseur., first TuesdayBuchholtz $12 adv, $15 dos, Tue., Aug. 17, 8-10 p.m. Sunday of every month. through Dec. 31. Fred Jones Jr. Art AfloatShowboat Concert Series Art Afloat is Rodeo Cinema on Film Row, 701 W. Sheridian Ave, Museum of Art, 555 Elm Ave., 405-325-3272, ou.edu/ bringing local artists together to take over the Brick2562823052, facebook.com. TUE, Aug 17 fjjma/exhibitions1/CreightonGilbert/. TUE-SUN town Canal every Thursday night, to be called the Art Afloat Showboat Concert Series., Thursdays. Bricktown Oklahoma International Dance Festival The Painters of Pompeii This historic presentation Water Taxi, 111 S. Mickey Mantle Drive, bricktownwaterpresents ‘ASSEMBLY’ by NYC dance company of the art of painting in ancient Rome will be taxi.com. THURSDAYS GREYZONE The Oklahoma International Dance presented exclusively at the Oklahoma City Festival (OIDF) presents “ASSEMBLY”, a world premiere Museum of Art before returning to Europe., Beethoven and Friends Guest pianists Heather dance performance, by New York City-based dance Wednesdays-Sundays. through Oct. 17. Oklahoma Conner and Jill Jantzen join Brightmusic Chamber Encompany and OIDF inaugural Artist in Residence, City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, semble in four concerts August 3, 5, 7, and 10 at First GREYZONE. Led by artistic director and choreographer okcmoa.comSAT-SUN Baptist Church in midtown Oklahoma City. Brightmusic Lindy Fines in collaboration with composer Sivan Jacoresponded to the pandemic with free virtual concerts Paseo Arts District’s First Friday Gallery Walk bovitz, costume designers House of 950 and Victoria streaming on Youtube and Facebook for the previous Peruse art from over 80 artists with 25 participating Yee Howe, and five stunning dancers. $10, Thu., Aug. 5, season, and we look forward to live concerts at this businesses for a night of special themed exhibits, refresh8-9 p.m. and Fri., Aug. 6, 8-9 p.m. Mitchell Hall Theatre, new venue, which has plenty of space for socially disments and a variety of entertainment opportunities, 6-9 100 N. University Drive, 405-974-2000, okdancefest. tant seating. The festival continues last year’s global p.m. first Friday of every month. Paseo Arts District, 3024 org/artist-in-residence. THU & FRI, Aug 5 & 6 celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday alongside Paseo St., 405-525-2688, thepaseo.org. FRI, Aug 7 a diverse array of other works by contemporary comRussell Peters Only a handful of today’s artists can A room with a View: Scenes of the Italian posers, women, and African-Americans like the king claim their success began with YouTube, and even Countryside Artists from around the world have of ragtime, Scott Joplin., Thu., Aug. 5, Sat., Aug. 7 and less, if any, having then been named alongside such long been captured by the enduring appeal of the ItalTue., Aug. 10. First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City, luminaries as Richard Pryor, George Carlin and Eddie ian countryside. Its sweeping vistas, at times sprinkled 1201 N. Robinson Ave., 405-232-4255, fbcokc.org. Murphy in Rolling Stone’s recently released list of the with ancient ruins, make for an enticing subject for 50 Best Comics of All Time. In comedian Russell PeThe Complete History of Theatre (abridged) artists in a variety of mediums. American artists in ters’ case, “success” may be a drastic understatement., 3rd Act Theatre Company, a 501(c)3 nonparticular traveled to Italy throughout the nineteenth Russell Peters started doing stand-up at the age of profit theatre company in Oklahoma City, century to study not only the great masterpieces nineteen at open mics in his native Toronto in 1989. He presents Matt Thompson’s The Complete of ancient and Renaissance art, but also to sketch spent the next fifteen years honing his craft at clubs History of Theatre (abridged), directed by Caprice and paint the campagna, or countryside, basked in a across Canada and the UK. In 2004, Peters gained Sorg, as the first Noire production of Season 3: UNbeautiful glow., Wednesdays-Sundays. through Nov. 7. critical and global $40.00, Thu., Aug. 5, 7:30-11:30 KNOWN. Performances are each Friday and Saturday Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405p.m., Fri., Aug. 6, 7:30-11:30 p.m. and Sat., Aug. 7, 7:30at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. The production 236-3100, okcmoa.com. Through November 7 11:30 p.m. Bricktown Comedy Club, 409 E. California stars a dynamic cast of local talent and includes Don Ave., 253-324-0075, eventvesta.com/events/7104. Taylor, Aldan Olds, Rachel Aylworth, and Taylor Reich. THU-SAT, Aug 5-7 General Admission: $25 (discounts available). 3rd Act Visit okgazette.com/Events/AddEvent to submit your event. Theatre Company, 12040 N May Ave., 405-593-8093, Trevor Wallace Trevor Wallace is a stand up 3rdacttheatreco.com. comedian and actor based in Los Angeles. Wallace Dry Bar Comedy LIVE! The wildly popular online series of specials that offer clean “Comedy for Everyone” is expanding to live shows featuring comedians who’ve become Dry Bar fan favorites. $25.00, Sun., Aug. 15, 7:30-9 p.m. Bricktown Comedy Club, 409 E. California Ave., 2533240075, eventvesta.com/
can be seen just about everywhere on the internet and has collectively built a digital thumbprint of over 300 million views since 2018. Wallace is also an original cast member of the wildly popular YouTube channel, All Def Digital, and has also been featured on Comedy Central, Buzzfeed, Unilad, Funny or Die, Super Deluxe,
Submissions must be For OKG received by Oklahoma Gazette no later than live music noon on Wednesday see page 28 seven days before the desired publication date. Submissions run as space allows, although we strive to make the listings as inclusive as possible.
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The Music at Your Feet
Photo Brett Fieldcamp
Our state is home to some of the most internationallybeloved builders of those little boxes that make your favorite guitarists go wild. By Brett Fieldcamp
Think of Jimi Hendrix re-conceiving the National Anthem at Woodstock with screeching feedback and blistering fuzz. Eddie Van Halen shredding a fortyminute solo soaked in saturated distortion, the sound whipping and phasing around you in an arena. You can see the guitars in their hands and the amplifiers at their backs, but what you might not see is what’s at their feet. Since Hendrix first began blowing minds in the late-60s with his early Fuzzface and Wah units on the floor, guitarists worldwide have scrambled to get their feet on the newest, best, and sometimes craziest effects pedals. For a few decades, this mostly meant turning to a small handful of tried-andtrue electronics manufacturers and incorporated producers like Vox, Boss, and MXR/Dunlop, or looking to hobbyists and one-man workshop operations knocking out just a couple dozen units in a year, like the now-fabled Klon. But right around 20 years ago, all of that changed as a sprawling, legitimate industry for boutique effects and pedal builders began to take shape, spearheaded undeniably by an Oklahoma guy named Robert Keeley. This year marks the 20th Anniversary of the small effects pedal company that Keeley started in Oklahoma City. Keeley Electronics burst onto the scene with players world24
wide praising the tones and quality inherent in his little stompboxes. The ever-growing operation kicked off a continuing explosion of boutique builders around the world, with Oklahoma still leading the charge, not just with Keeley, but now also with internationally-lauded producers like Walrus Audio and Old Blood Noise Endeavors based out of the metro. Oklahoma Gazette caught up with members of Keeley and Walrus, as well as small, Stillwater-based Pinstripe Pedals to discuss the pedal game in Oklahoma, and what makes our state such a hotspot for the craft.
Keeley Electronics By the late-90s, the “tech boom” had driven down prices and driven up availability for materials like circuit boards, capacitors, transistors, and all the other little components that can shape and drive a guitar’s tone when you pass the audio signal through them. This made for perfect tinkering for aspiring engineers like Robert Keeley. “I wanted to make amps, but it just cost too much,” Keeley said. “Pedals seemed like the best option.” The remarkably low cost of pedal manufacturing at the time wasn’t the only encouragement. Nu-metal and pop-punk had pushed guitar-based rock music back into the mainstream, and
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kids all over the world were discovering the instrument and turning to pedals as much cheaper alternatives for the kind of dense, crunchy distortion that usually required multi-thousand dollar tube amps. The demand for better pedals with more options, wider tonal ranges, and better customer service was growing every day, and Keeley first began addressing that demand by modifying existing pedals, tweaking the circuits to provide that more that players wanted from their gear. “I would just look at the circuits and then read online about how people were modding them,” Keeley said of his earliest interest in pedal modification, “and I’d think ‘well, I can do that!’” With a degree in electrical engineering and a lifelong love of guitars (two interests that he inherited from his father), Keeley proved to be a natural at fiddling with the circuitry in some of the world’s most popular mass-produced pedals, and with a particular talent for selecting high-quality, lowcost components for his mods, Keeleymodded pedals began circulating, showing up in stores, and quickly gaining major buzz among guitarists. Keeley Electronics had arrived as a serious player within the infant market of boutique pedals. “I loved the idea of building something from the ground up,” Keeley tells us. “I loved the idea of real American
manufacturing, and of making something right here.” Of course, he still needed to design and build some pedals of his own. “The earliest ones were the boost and the compressor,” he said. “They were just such easy, simple circuits, and there really weren’t that many other options for that kind of thing on the market at the time. Just talking to guitarists and players, it was obvious that they wanted something like that.” The policy of communicating with — and really listening to — clients and customers is still paramount, according to the Keeley team, and it has resulted in a number of successful pedals that began life originally as requests or collaborations with players, some of whom are significant names among guitarists. Keeley isn’t too quick to name names, but some of the highest-profile artists in music are well-known fans of these little boxes from Edmond. Nancy Wilson of Heart, Captain Kirk Douglas of The Roots, and even the ubiquitous Mr. Mayer are all Keeley users, as is the legendary Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead, a fact near and dear to Robert Keeley’s Deadhead, hippie heart.
Walrus Audio Just barely south of Keeley in north OKC sits yet another world-renowned bunch of pedal producers under the
Pinstripe Pedals Heading way up the turnpike now, all the way to Stillwater, you’ll find a much smaller, focused, and admittedly less f lashy operation in Pinstripe Pedals. Not as concerned with making wild or fiery tone-transforming dev ices, Pinstripe’s priority is helping to preserve and perfect your guitar’s tone. Owner, founder, and Nashville native Charlie Fox is all about “utility pedals,” little boxes designed to keep your signal clean and usable whether plugging into an amp or a computer. “Having come from Nashville, I could never really play to the level I wanted to,” Fox said with a laugh. “So that’s what really got me into pedals and gear.”
Twenty years on from modding pedals and tinkering with circuits, Keeley is set to move into a new purpose-built, stateof-the-art facility that will allow their operation to expand even beyond the roughly 1,300 pedals they’re already producing every week. So the next time that you see a guitarist steal the spotlight and rip a solo, look at their feet. There’s a surprisingly good chance that they’ll be standing over a piece of Oklahoma engineering.
SEPTEMBER 18
When he started designing and building products of his own, he also sought just to listen closely to what players were wanting. In a field flooded by then with effects, it was clear that there was a hole in the market for things like direct-boxes and guitar-focused interfaces. Working to fill that hole ended up being a smart move, as his little, handmade utility boxes have made it all the way from Stillwater to notable stages with players like Kenny Wayne Shepherd and members of Kelly Clarkson’s band. “We just started four or five years ago and now we’ve got dealers in Singapore and Australia and Canada. We’ve sold into 20 different countries worldwide.” And yet again, even while discussing his own global success, Fox is quick to point back to Keeley as the one that paved the way for the rest of the upstart builders to follow, not just in Oklahoma, but anywhere. “He’s the godfather. He’s really the reason that it’s not just Boss and MXR and Dunlop anymore. He just didn’t give up and kept going after it.”
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name Walrus Audio. Originally founded in 2011 by Brady Smith, who had learned the tricks and trade as an employee at Keeley, Walrus almost immediately set their sights on the kinds of fuzzy, psychedelic, driven sounds that had been dominating indie rock at the time. Entering into the market just as the pedal-crazy subculture was starting to hit its peak, Walrus Audio jumped straight from conception to the tops of every gearhead’s wishlist with their vintage-style tone-shapers like the Voyager and the 385 Overdrive. “Sometimes we’ll hear an album with a sound or effect that gets us inspired or see a band live that is using a unique instrument that gets our wheels turning,” said Creative Director Tyler Evans when pressed about how the team finds and comes up with new sounds and approaches. “We strive to have a great culture that makes a great experience not only for customers, but for our dealers. We also work very hard at making intuitive products that are easy to use and ready for extensive use on the road and in the studio.” Even though Walrus, and Brady Smith’s following pedal company, the Norman-based Old Blood Noise Endeavors, are very much their own animals with wildly differing sounds and aesthetics, even Evans has to acknowledge the influence of OK’s OG pedal man. “We all have roots in Edmond and OKC and some of us even went to school together, but Keeley is definitely a big part of the connection. He’s paved the way for a lot of people. If Brady had never worked with him, he may not have ever started Walrus and eventually OBNE.”
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Unconventional ‘Cuts’:
The Mystery of Outpost 31 Studios By Evan Jarvicks
Here’s a riddle: What makes tracks but leaves no footprints? A music studio. Of course, in a figurative sense, studios and music labels do tend to leave footprints. Whether as subtle as an album’s liner note or as loud as a marketing campaign, those footprints often mark a direct path to a music company. For Outpost 31 Studios, however, the trail winds through the woods and leads to a place more akin to a secluded cabin. Founded in Oklahoma City in 2019 as a combination record label and music studio, Outpost 31 is helmed by Kyle Mayfield and Kim Bastian, a couple of long-time music scenesters that happen to also love horror movies. While not all of the artists on the label’s roster dabble in the spooktacular, when a musician joins the family, they become part of Outpost 31 lore. “Our mission is to unite with passionate artists of all genres, of any status, and who like to do things a little bit differently, and give them a platform to be who they want to be,” Mayfield said. Over the past two years, the team has
produced new music releases for a diverse roster of artists that include nomadic indie duo TGTG, OKC chillhop artist S1m D., and multi-state darkwave project HVRGLOW (pronounced “har-gloh”). The latter recently released a limited edition remix double vinyl of its critically acclaimed debut with Outpost 31 that comes with an unmarked, allegedly haunted VHS tape of undisclosed contents. The newest project from the label is a Bandcamp-exclusive 22-track compilation called Quarantine Cuts which features a majority of the musicians involved with the music group. The first volume was released on July 16, and the second volume comes out next Friday the 13th of August. It’s not the first of its kind — Mayfield himself appeared as his musical alter ego Larry Chin on last year’s 23-track compilation The Oklahoma Quarantine Demos as well as on the prolific annual Fright Night Club Halloween music anthology — but there is a different flavor of sound, ego, and collaboration with Outpost 31’s new double album. “It started as an idea being tossed
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between Cameron Morris [formerly of Oklahoma Cloud Factory] and myself at the beginning of quarantine about pulling shelved songs from local acts and putting together some sort of quarantine B-sides compilation,” said Mayfield. “And as they do each time I have put together a compilation, it evolves and spirals out of my hands into the hands
of so many talented and loving people. “Before I knew it, this very cool, local, seemingly easily put together idea was now global, included new musicians, was not just shelved songs but now we were all creating from scratch and sharing session after session, track after track, and boom. All of a sudden this thing was so big we had to cut it into two records and reevaluate what it was supposed to be. That’s when it turned into
Kyle Mayfield and Kim Bastian of Outpost 31 Studos | Photos provided
Outpost 31 Studos | Photos provided
Album art for the compilation | Album artwork by Callie Fuller
its own creature.” As for how the creature sounds, Mayfield said, “a wide spectrum of genres and styles swarm your ears and take you on a ride that you will want to revisit again and again. Everything from indie rock, chill hop, experimental, electronic, heavy rock, folk, and two cover songs/bonus tracks done by new cover band Alanis Moranis (which is Wes Cochran from Brujo and myself).” If the idea of a member of OKC progressive mathabilly band Brujo joining the studio director to cover Looking Glass’s “Brandy” for a bonus track seems novel, it has nothing on the crossover mingling that peppers the track-
lists with fictitious monikers for the main course. Tracks attributed to “Raspberry Rooms,” “The Arrow Peak Revelation,” and more are secretly made by existing artists working together and masquerading under different names. As counterintuitive as it may seem, there is a method to Mayfield and Bastian’s madness here. In addition to conjuring the mystery and camaraderie of horror fandom, Quarantine Cuts is exemplary of Outpost 31’s anti-industry rulebreaking. As a new music business, it’s easy to become obsessed with the numbers and lose focus of the art. By releasing a fun compilation away from streaming platforms and with many of
its players kept anonymous, however, the studio keeps its goals in check. Never sell out. While some releases in the Outpost 31 Studios catalog are available on Spotify, others like Quarantine Cuts aren’t. This takes curious and diehard listeners from the label’s flagship offerings through its winding trail of footprints, leading to treasure troves of pure creativity where the music won’t fall prey to the rules of the beaten path. On Bandcamp, the music platform considered to be the most supportive of working musicians today, fans can pay as much or as little as they want for Quarantine Cuts and download or
stream it through the Bandcamp app. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Outpost 31 shares a similarly bold sentiment in signing new artists and bands. “It begins with their soul drive,” Mayfield said. “If they are passionate about music and have a great heart and soul, we are interested. We will not work with someone who doesn’t have the right intentions. Period. No matter how good their music might be.” For Mayfield and Bastian, music is not a product to be made and sold for financial gain, so it follows that their goals with Outpost 31 Studios would stretch beyond the ledger. Organic growth aligned with ethics and taste will find its way and the route will be all the more scenic for it, as Quarantine Cuts embodies. “It showed us that even when the world is falling apart and all seems lost,” Mayfield said of the project, “if we stick together and share love, we can overcome any messed-up situation this wild world is willing to throw our way. As the songs progressed and we began formulating the record, the journey it contains became clearer and clearer. A journey into the unknown world...We are so excited to share this comp with the universe.”
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JUST ANNOUNCED SEP 10 Lady A, Lloyd Noble Center
SEP 17 Earth Wind & Fire, River Spirit Casino SEP 25 Sheryl Crow, River Spirit Casino OCT 1 Santana, River Spirit Casino OCT 7 John Legend, BOK Center OCT 14 Watchhouse, Cain’s Ballroom OCT 14 The Wild Feathers, Tower Theatre OCT 22 Shinyribs, Tower Theatre These are events recommended by Oklahoma Gazette editorial staff members. For full calendar listings, go to okgazette.com.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 4 Jessica Tate, Sean Cummings Pub.
THURSDAY, AUG. 5 Acoustic Open Mic, Core4 Brewing. Hosted by Jay “Random Citizen” Clark
FRIDAY, AUG. 6 Hanson, Cain’s Ballroom. Live Music with Branden Scott, Core4 Brewing. Rodeo Opry 44th Anniversary Show, Stockyards Central. Night one
SATURDAY, AUG. 7 Coop Ale Works Beats & Bites: Cheap Trick, Riverwind Casino. Don’t Call it A Comeback: 85th Anniversary Party, Tower Theatre. Kip Moore, The Criterion. Live from the Lawn: Aaron Kamm and the One Drops, Scissortail Park. Roots reggae, Mississippi river blues, improv-laced jams, and soulful vocals
Old Dominion, Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Country
Rodeo Opry 44th Anniversary Show, Stockyards Central. Night two
SUNDAY, AUG. 8 Hanson, Cain’s Ballroom. Hosty, The Deli. Electric Sunday Twilight Concert Series: Shortt Dogg, Myriad Botanical Gardens. Funk/R&B/ Smooth Jazz
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 11 Gemini Syndrome, 89th Street-OKC. Alternative Metal
THURSDAY, AUG. 12 Acoustic Open Mic, Core4 Brewing. Hosted by Jay
“Random Citizen” Clark
Shakey Graves, Tower Theatre. Twiggs, Ponyboy.
FRIDAY, AUG. 13 Citizen Cope, The Criterion. Josh Abbott Band, The Jones Assembly. Pints of Pride: Goth Prom, Core4 Brewing. Randall King, Diamond Ballroom. Country Ray Wylie Hubbard, Tower Theatre.
SATURDAY, AUG. 14 Brokenflesh, 89th Street-OKC. Jason Boland and The Stragglers, The Spotted Hound Saloon. Live from the Lawn: Los Texmaniacs, Scissortail Park. Conjunto Tejano band with elements from
rock and jazz
Moneybagg Yo, The Criterion.
SUNDAY, AUG. 15
OCT 23 Charley Crockett, Cain’s Ballroom OCT 29 A Day to Remember w/ Asking Alexandria & Point North, The Criterion NOV 24 Read Southall Band, Cain’s Ballroom DEC 2 King and Country, Paycom Center FEB 22 Hippo Campus, Cain’s Ballroom FEB 22 Strfkr, Tower Theatre APR 20 Hippo Campus, The Jones Assembly
Hosty, The Deli. Electric Sunday Twilight Concert Series: Weston Horn and the Hush, Myriad Botanical Gardens. Rock/Soul
MONDAY, AUG. 16 Weedeater, 89th Street-OKC.
TUESDAY, AUG. 17 Kesha, The Criterion. Alesana, 89th Street-OKC.
Live music submissions must be received by Oklahoma Gazette no later than noon on Wednesday seven days before the desired publication date. Late submissions will not be included in the listings. Submissions run as space allows, although we strive to make the listings as inclusive as possible. Fax your listings to 528-4600 or e-mail to listings@okgazette.com. Sorry, but phone submissions cannot be accepted.
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Strain name: G13 Grown by: Gatsby Cannabis Co. Acquired from: Gatsby Cannabis Co. Date acquired: July 20 Physical traits: light to dark green Bouquet: earthy and sweet Review: This new spot might be the most unique dispensary concept experienced to date in the metro. Upon entrance, a mirror pulls away and, after providing your license, you’re welcomed into a speakeasy-style dispensary through a second entrance behind a moveable bookcase. The killer deals on all the flower inside allows you to sample a broad number of strains without breaking the bank. Hard to choose between all of their varieties of “chemical-free” flower, but the G-13 here is the winner. A hard-hitting chiller strain, this is one that is referenced in numerous urban cannabis legends for a reason. Whatever its origin, the care taken with this particular run brings out both its bold flavor and its powerful effects. A Peach Pie preroll to bring the lift back up once it wanes worked wonders too.
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Strain name: Topanga Wedding Grown by: Cvltivation Clvb Acquired from: Cvltivation Clvb Date acquired: July 20 Physical traits: light green with purpling on the exterior Bouquet: gassy and earthy Review: While labeled an indica, this one definitely gives a sativa jolt under the right temperaments that increases in pitch with consumption. Flavorful yet powerful, you can get a sense of both parents (Topanga Canyon and Wedding Cake) with this run. Cvltivation Clvb is just out of the sightline when you’re heading south on Classen Boulevard, which unfortunately means that it has been just out of mind on each cannabis shopping trip. The interior of the dispensary is meticulously detailed with a comfortable wait as the order is filled after being placed at the counter. In addition to sampling their flower (admittedly, the number of strains available are not broad but the quality of the Topanga Wedding is encouraging), patrons can also try uninfused versions from several
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PUZZLES NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE | DIG IN By Jesse Goldberg | Puzzles Edited by Will Shortz | 0801 1
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ACROSS 1 Certain music royalties collector, for short 6 Viva ____ (aloud) 10 Dirty look 15 Even once 19 Part of R.I. 20 Big exporter of saffron 21 Sci-fi intro to ‘‘forming’’ 22 Foul 23 ‘‘Enjoy the food!’’ 25 Sportscaster who memorably asked, ‘‘Do you believe in miracles?’’ 27 Crush 28 Emmy-winning FX series created by Donald Glover 29 ‘‘Curses!’’
88 Host’s offer at a housewarming 89 Spongelike 91 Focal points 92 ‘‘I enjoy cooking with wine. Sometimes I ____’’ 96 ‘‘Same here’’ 99 Word with noodle or nap 100 ____ lepton (elementary particle) 101 ‘‘The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for ____’’ 108 Stamps (out) 113 One of Abraham Lincoln’s is in the Smithsonian 114 ‘‘Welcome to the Jungle’’ rocker 115 Born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth 117 Cause of a smartphone ding, perhaps 119 Chef quoted in this puzzle’s italicized clues 120 Guitar part 121 Member of la famiglia 122 Letters on an F-22 Raptor 123 One given onboarding 124 1975 Wimbledon champ 125 Like voile and chiffon 126 What may make the grade 127 Direct
30 Challenger astronaut Judith 31 ‘‘With enough butter, ____’’ 34 Commanded 36 Fuel-economy authority, for short 37 Main artery 38 ‘‘A party without cake is ____’’ 48 Retin-A target 49 Healthful property of a beach town 50 Chicken or veal dish, in brief 51 Merit 55 Boardroom plot? 57 Hangout rooms 58 Pair of quads 59 The Powerpuff Girls, e.g. 60 Filmmaker with a
distinctive style 62 Affixes, as a cloth patch 64 Something that’s gone bad if it floats when placed in a bowl of water 65 ‘‘If you’re alone in the kitchen and you drop the lamb, you can always just pick it up. ____?’’ 71 Word mistakenly heard at a Springsteen concert 74 Under way 75 Beethoven’s Third 79 Reverse 81 Tons 82 Seriously hurt 86 Move quickly, informally 87 ____ o’clock (when happy hour begins)
1 Shady spot 2 Less-than-subtle basketball foul 3 Temporary road markers 4 ‘‘I don’t give ____!’’ 5 Pharmaceutical picker upper 6 Penthouse perk 7 ‘‘Coffee ____?’’ 8 Stone memorial 9 Suffix with exist 10 Actor Jason who was once on Britain’s national diving team 11 Four-stringed instruments 12 Financial adviser Suze 13 Dry with a twist 14 Milk: Prefix 15 NASA spacewalk 16 Try to win 17 Page who became the first openly trans man to appear on the cover of Time magazine (2021)
Stumped? Call 1-900-285-5656 to get the answers to any three clues by phone ($1.20 a minute).
SUDOKU MEDIUM | N°10825 Fill in the grid so that every row, column and 3-by-3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9. www.printmysudoku.com Grid n°10825 medium
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18 L.A. neighborhood referenced in Tom Petty’s ‘‘Free Fallin’?’’ 24 Coolers 26 Comedian Minhaj 28 How some bonds are sold 32 Himalayan legends 33 Fetch 35 Provided tunes for a party, in brief 38 Backbone of Indian classical music 39 Earth tone 40 Body sci. 41 Toon first introduced in the 1945 short ‘‘Odor able Kitty’’ 42 Neighbor of Oman: Abbr. 43 Japanese honorific 44 Florida attraction with 11 themed pavilions 45 ‘‘His wife could ____ lean’’ 46 Family name in Steinbeck’s ‘‘East of Eden’’ 47 ‘‘That’s it for me’’ 52 Exist 53 Outfit 54 Drink garnished with nutmeg 56 Quizzical responses 58 Part of NGO: Abbr. 61 Change from portrait to landscape, say 62 Neither red nor blue: Abbr. 63 Benchmark 66 Locks-up shop? 67 Any set of elements in a column on the periodic table 68 Japanese port near Sapporo 69 War zone danger, for short 70 ‘‘A Room of One’s Own’’ novelist 71 Mac 72 Gastric acid, on the pH scale 73 Tribute in verse 76 Classic Langston Hughes poem 77 First name in fashion 78 Saharan 80 Snacks that sometimes come in sleeves 82 Words to live by 83 The Cardinals, on scoreboards 84 Large Hadron Collider bit 85 Many a rescue dog 89 It’s not the whole thing 90 Mount ____, California volcano
93 Critical 94 Rank for a rear admiral 95 What the Unsullied warriors are on ‘‘Game of Thrones’’ 96 She turned Arachne into a spider after losing a weaving contest 97 Wags a finger at 98 Separate 102 Tough period of the school year 103 Bayt ____ (destination for a Muslim pilgrim) 104 Krispy ____ 105 Crooner Mel 106 Handy 107 Caffeine-rich nuts 109 Still alive, in dodge ball 110 Laissez-____ 111 N.J. city on the Hudson 112 Meal at which parsley is dipped in salt water 116 Serious divide 118 Candy-aisle name 119 Protrude
NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD PUZZLE ANSWERS Puzzle No. 0718, which appeared in the July 21 issue.
B G A M E
R O U S E D
A B A T E S
B B G Y U R E G O S W B I D U N A N G U N C B Y O N N O C O B E M I R S E N
T E D R T A T E A A R D E D O P O P I U T C A T E C U L T U P A T O L U N T W O T S H I G T Z A N Y E D E N D E N N O C O M I C L O I N T A R I N G B U N B R E R D O E L A S S S L I C R E E D I P A D S I T
U P T O
B R I M L R E A Y S H A W T O O K R E O A I D N O F P A T N E T E
M I M E O S
A C I N C H
G O N X A I W A L I O R L B L E D D U R M A A M
N O T S M C H O C T E O D I E L D M E E F G Y A D J O U S I E C E D
R E L L A A X K E N S T Y A N O C S O B H E O Y R M O M N R E T
A L O P E C I A W E T B A R D A F O E
B O T T L E D U P A N G E R
I P S O
D E A N
C O N A R T I S T
E L A N
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A V E R T S
T A S T E
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY - WEEK OF AUGUST 5 Homework: Tell me what subtle or not-so-subtle victories you plan to accomplish by January 1, 2022. ARIES (March 21-April 19)
Filmmaker Federico Fellini had an unexpected definition of happiness. He said it was “being able to speak the truth without hurting anyone.” I suspect you will have abundant access to that kind of happiness in the coming weeks, Aries. I’ll go even further: You will have extra power to speak the truth in ways that heal and uplift people. My advice to you, therefore, is to celebrate and indulge your ability. Be bold in expressing the fullness of what’s interesting to you.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
“Look for a long time at what pleases you, and longer still at what pains you,” wrote the novelist Colette. What?! Was she making a perverse joke? That’s wicked advice, and I hope you adopt it only on rare occasions. In fact, the exact opposite is the healthy way to live—especially for you in the coming weeks. Look at what pains you, yes. Don’t lose sight of what your problems and wounds are. But please, for the sake of your dreams, for the benefit of your spiritual and psychological health, look longer at what pleases you, energizes you, and inspires you.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
If you deepen your affection for butterflies and hummingbirds, I will love it. If you decide you want the dragonfly or bumblebee or lark to be your spirit creature, I will approve. You almost always benefit from cultivating relationships with swift, nimble, and lively influences—and that’s especially true these days. So give yourself full permission to experiment with the superpower of playful curiosity. You’re most likely to thrive when you’re zipping around in quest of zesty ripples and sprightly rhythms.
CANCER (June 21-July 22)
Life is showing you truths about what you are not, what you don’t need, and what you shouldn’t strive for. That’s auspicious, although it may initially feel unsettling. I urge you to welcome these revelations
with gratitude. They will help you tune in to the nuances of what it means to be radically authentic. They will boost your confidence in the rightness of the path you’ve chosen for yourself. I’m hoping they may even show you which of your fears are irrelevant. Be hungry for these extraordinary teachings.
problems. The deep ones also have access to rich spiritual resources that ensure their suffering is a source of transformative teaching—and rarely a cause of defeat. Have you guessed that I’m describing you as you will be in the coming weeks?
your head in enjoyable ways. You need a friendly jolt or two: a series of galvanizing prods; dialogs that catalyze you to try new ways of thinking and seeing; lively exchanges that inspire you to experiment.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
Professor of psychology Ethan Kross tells us there can be healthy, creative forms of envy. “Just as hunger tells us we need to eat,” he writes, “the feeling of envy could show us what is missing from our lives that really matters to us.” The trick is to not interpret envy as a negative emotion, but to see it as useful information that shows us what we want. In my astrological opinion, that’s a valuable practice for you to deploy in the coming days. So pay close attention to the twinges of envy that pop into your awareness. Harness that volatile stuff to motivate yourself as you make plans to get the very experience or reward you envy.
Blogger Mandukhai Munkhbaatar offers advice on the arts of intimate communion. “Do not fall in love only with a body or with a face,” she tells us. “Do not fall in love with the idea of being in love.” She also wants you to know that it’s best for your long-term health and happiness if you don’t seek cozy involvement with a person who is afraid of your madness, or with someone who, after you fight, disappears and refuses to talk. I approve of all these suggestions. Any others you would add? It’s a favorable phase to get clearer about the qualities of people you want and don’t want as your allies.
The next two months will be a propitious time for you and your intimate allies to grow closer by harnessing the power of your imaginations. I urge you to be inventive in dreaming up ways to educate and entertain each other. Seek frisky adventures together that will delight you. Here’s a poem by Vyacheslav Ivanov that I hope will stimulate you: “We are two flames in a midnight forest. We are two meteors that fly at night, a two-pointed arrow of one fate. We are two steeds whose bridle is held by one hand. We are two eyes of a single gaze, two quivering wings of one dream, two-voiced lips of single mysteries. We are two arms of a single cross.”
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
Virgo spiritual author Don Miguel Ruiz urges us not to take anything personally. He says that if someone treats us disrespectfully, it’s almost certainly because they are suffering from psychological wounds that make them act in vulgar, insensitive ways. Their attacks have little to do with what’s true about us. I agree with him, and will add this important caveat. Even if you refrain from taking such abuses personally, it doesn’t mean you should tolerate them. It doesn’t mean you should keep that person in your life or allow them to bully you in the future. I suspect these are important themes for you to contemplate right now.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
“People who feel deeply, live deeply, and love deeply are destined to suffer deeply,” writes poet Juansen Dizon. To that romanticized, juvenile nonsense, I say: NO! WRONG! People who feel and live and love deeply are more emotionally intelligent than folks who live on the surface—and are therefore less fragile. The deep ones are likely to be psychologically adept; they have skills at liberating themselves from the smothering crush of their
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
Poet Walt Whitman bragged that he was “large.” He said, “I contain multitudes.” One critic compared him to “a whole continent with its waters, with its trees, with its animals.” Responding to Whitman, Sagittarian poet Gertrud Kolmar uttered an equally grandiose boast. “I too am a continent,” she wrote. “I contain mountains never-reached, scrubland unpenetrated, pond bay, river-delta, salt-licking coast-tongue.” That’s how I’m imagining you these days, dear Sagittarius: as unexplored territory: as frontier land teeming with undiscovered mysteries. I love how expansive you are as you open your mind and heart to new self-definitions. I love how you’re willing to risk being unknowable for a while as you wander out in the direction of the future.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
Poet Ezra Pound wrote a letter to novelist James Joyce that included the following passage: “You are fucking with my head, and so far I’ve been enjoying it. Where is the crime?” I bring this up, Capricorn, because I believe the coming weeks will be prime time for you to engage with interesting souls who fuck with
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)
I gave my readers homework, asking them to answer the question, “What is your favorite rule to break?” In response, Laura Grolla sent these thoughts: “My favorite rule to break is an unwritten one: that we must all stress and strive for excellence. I have come up with a stress-busting mantra, ‘It is OK to be OK.’ In my OKness, I have discovered the subtle frontier of contentment, which is vast and largely unexplored. OKness allows me not to compete for attention, but rather to pay attention to others. I love OKness for the humor and deep, renewing sleep it has generated. Best of all, OKness allows me to be happily aging rather than anxiously hot.” I bring this to your attention, Pisces, because I think the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to investigate and embody the relaxing mysteries of OKness.
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 1-877873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700.
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY - WEEK OF AUGUST 12 Homework: Name what you’re most eager to change about your life. Newsletter@ FreeWillAstrology.com ARIES (March 21-April 19)
“Consecrate” isn’t a word you often encounter in intellectual circles. In my home country of America, many otherwise smart people spurn the possibility that we might want to make things sacred. And a lot of art aspires to do the opposite of consecration: strip the world of holiness and mock the urge to commune with sanctified experiences. But filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922–1975) expressed a contradictory view. He wrote, “I am not interested in deconsecrating: that’s a fashion I hate. I want to reconsecrate things as much as possible, I want to re-mythicize them.” In accordance with astrological omens, Aries, I invite you to look for opportunities to do the same.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
Anais Nin wrote, “I don’t want worship. I want understanding.” George Orwell said, “Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.” Poet Marina Tsvetaeva declared, “For as long as I can remember, I thought I wanted to be loved. Now I know: I don’t need love, I need understanding.” Here’s what I’ll add, Taurus: If you ask for understanding and seek it out, a wealth of it will be available to you in the coming weeks.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
The English idiom “playing hard to get” means “pretending to be unavailable or uninterested so as to make oneself more attractive or desirable.” Psychologists say this strategy often works, although it’s crucial not to go too far and make your pursuer lose interest. Seventeenth-century philosopher Baltasar Gracián expressed the concept more philosophically. He said, “Leave people hungry. Even with physical thirst, good taste’s trick is to stimulate it, not quench it. What’s good, if sparse, is twice as good. A surfeit of pleasure is dangerous, for it occasions disdain even towards what’s undisputedly excellent. Hard-won happiness is twice as enjoyable.” I suggest you consider
deploying these strategies, Gemini.
CANCER (June 21-July 22)
Painter John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) sometimes worked alongside painter Claude Monet (1840–1926) at Monet’s home. He sought the older man’s guidance. Before their first session, Sargent realized there was no black among the paint colors Monet gave him to work with. What?! Monet didn’t use black? Sargent was shocked. He couldn’t imagine painting without it. And yet, he did fine without it. In fact, the apparent limitation compelled him to be creative in ways he hadn’t previously imagined. What would be your metaphorical equivalent, Cancerian: a limitation that inspires?
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
According to Leo author Guy de Maupassant, “We are in the habit of using our eyes only with the memory of what people before us have thought about the things we are looking at.” That’s too bad. It causes us to miss a lot of life’s richness. In fact, said de Maupassant, “There is an element of the unexplored in everything. The smallest thing contains a little of what is unknown.” Your assignment in the next two weeks, Leo, is to take his thoughts to heart. In every experience, engage “with enough attention to find an aspect of it that no one has ever seen or spoken of.” You are in a phase when you could discover and enjoy record-breaking levels of novelty.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
Poet Brigit Pegeen Kelly wrote a poem I want you to know about. She described how, when she was a child, she stayed up all night picking peaches from her father’s orchard by starlight. For hours, she climbed up and down the ladder. Her hands “twisted fruit” as if she “were entering a thousand doors.” When the stars faded and morning arrived, her insides felt like “the stillness a bell possesses just after it has been rung.” That’s the kind of experience I wish for you in the coming days, Virgo. I know it can’t be exactly the same. Can you imagine what the nearest equivalent might be? Make it happen!
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
Ancient Greek philosopher Plato mistrusted laughter, poetry, bright colors, and artists who used bright colors. All those soulful activities influenced people to be emotional, Plato thought, and therefore represented a threat to rational, orderly society. Wow! I’m glad I don’t live in a culture descended from Plato! Oh, wait, I do. His writing is foundational to Western thought. One modern philosopher declared, “The European philosophical tradition consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” Anyway, I’m counseling you to rebel against Plato in the coming weeks. You especially need experiences that awaken and please and highlight your feelings. Contrary to Plato’s fears, doing this will boost your intelligence and enhance your decision-making powers.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
A biography of Nobel Prize-winning Scorpio author Albert Camus noted that he had two modes. They are summed up in the French words *solidaire* (“unity”) and *solitaire* (“solitary”). When Camus was in a *solidaire* phase, he immersed himself in convivial engagement, enjoying the pleasures of socializing. But when he decided it was time to work hard on writing his books, he retreated into a monastic routine to marshal intense creativity. According to my astrological analysis, you Scorpios are currently in the *solidaire* phase of your rhythm. Enjoy it to the max! When might the next *solitaire* phase come? October could be such a time.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
During the 76 years since the end of World War II, Italy has had 69 different governments. That’s a great deal of turnover! Is it a strength or weakness to have so many changes in leadership? On the one hand, such flexibility could be an asset; it might be wise to keep reinventing the power structure as circumstances shift. On the other hand, having so little continuity and stability may undermine confidence and generate stressful uncertainty. I bring this to your attention, Sagittarius, because you’re entering a phase when you could be as changeable as Italy. Is that what you want? Would it serve you or undermine you? Make a conscious choice.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
Capricorn actor Nicholas Browne testifies, “My heart is too full; it overflows onto everything I see. I am drowning in my own heart. I’ve plunged into the deepness of emotion, and I don’t see any way back up. Still, I pray no one comes to save me.” I’m guessing that his profound capacity to feel and express emotions serves Browne well in his craft. While I don’t recommend such a deep immersion for you 24/7/365, I suspect you’ll be wise to embark on such an excursion during the next three weeks. Have fun diving! How deep can you go?
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
In accordance with current astrological omens, I’m calling on author Byron Katie to offer you a message. Is it infused with tough love or sweet encouragement? Both! Here’s Katie: “When you realize that suffering and discomfort are the call to inquiry, you may actually begin to look forward to uncomfortable feelings. You may even experience them as friends coming to show you what you have not yet investigated thoroughly enough.” Get ready to dive deeper than you’ve dared to go before, Aquarius. I guarantee you it will ultimately become fun and educational.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)
In August 1922, author Nikos Kazantzakis wrote this triumphant declaration: “All day today I’ve had the most gentle, quivering joy, because I’m beginning to heal. Consciously, happily, I feel that I am being born anew, that I am beginning once again to take possession of the light.” On behalf of the cosmic powers-that-be, I authorize you to use these words as your own in the coming weeks. They capture transformations that are in the works for you. By speaking Kazantzakis’s declarations aloud several times every day, you will ensure that his experience will be yours, too.
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 1-877873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700.
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