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The history of banning popular literature BY LAURA EASTES P.23

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P.23 “I think one of the quickest ways to get a book read is to ban it,” said Leanne Cheek, teen reading selector and coordinator for Pioneer Library System. Works by J.K. Rowling and John Green share a common burden with well-known titles like Harriet the Spy, The Catcher in the Rye, The Grapes of Wrath, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Lorax and The Kite Runner. Each year, during the last week of September, the American Library Association celebrates Banned Books Week and the freedom to read. By Laura Eastes.

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NEWS history class. “We started at Pangea and made it to current time all within the school year,” Wright said. “We had a ton of information to go over and a lot of work, but I loved that class.” Wright said she wanted to take more AP classes, like math and science, but Star Spencer currently only offers English and history. Maalik Livingston, a Star Spencer senior, said his AP classes have fewer students in the classroom, which allows teachers to connect greater with students. Livingston said the homework and reading are challenging and take time, but, in return, he earns college credit. “If you get in an AP class, be ready to buckle down,” Livingston said.

Southeast’s approach

E d u c at i o N

Principal Mylissa Hall and students Daisy Barrios and Heidy Briones at Southeast High School | Photo Emmy Verdin / For Gazette

Raising potential OKCPS seeks to expand advanced placement courses in all high schools and opportunities for minorities and low-income students. By Laura Eastes

Convincing Southeast High School student Heidy Briones to enroll in advanced placement courses was easy. Before she began her freshman year, Briones asked a recent graduate how they secured college admission. The answer was simple: Enroll in the high school’s advanced placement courses. “If you have someone you look up to in high school, you will take the same path,” said Briones, now a senior, as she explained her approach to high school academics. By taking advanced placement, or AP, courses, students earn both high school and college credit as they experience higher academic rigor. AP classes stand out on undergraduate applications, and exam scores can translate into college credits, potentially saving students and their families thousands of dollars in tuition costs. In her fourth year of high school, Briones’ high school transcript lists AP courses in European history, Spanish, literature, U.S. government and art. Briones also participates in a concurrent enrollment program with Oklahoma City Community College, which allows highschoolers to take college classes. While Briones is still months away from earning her high school diploma, she said she feels like a college student. A year from now, she will most likely be a college sophomore. “I think I have more stress than an actually college student,” said Briones, who is a student council member and volunteers at The Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center. “I have college applications to fill out, and I am trying to find college scholarships while doing college work.” 4

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Reaching more students

U.S. high school teachers have taught AP, a program of the College Board, for more than a half-century, and Oklahoma City Public Schools (OKCPS) sites have offered AP courses for decades. Two years ago, when Katherine Hughes joined OKCPS as senior executive director of prekindergarten through 12th-grade schools, she brought extensive AP knowledge and a desire to revamp the district’s program. In 2009, the College Board recognized the longtime educator for success in expanding the Midwest City-Del City School District’s AP program. Over four years, AP course offerings expanded from 14 to 21 and AP student exam numbers doubled. The growth helped Hughes earn the 2009 AP Award for the Southwest Region. The award hangs in her OKCPS office. Hughes is determined to replicate that success with the state’s largest school district. Hughes said there are many academic and economic benefits for high school students who participate in AP classes and exams. After successfully completing an AP course, they have the confidence, motivation and competence to enter college, which correlates with the district’s goal to get students college ready. “When everyone truly understands that giving students this kind of learning experience is only going to make students and schools better, that’s when the culture truly starts to change,” Hughes said. Improving the college readiness culture is a two-pronged approach, she said. District officials added more AP courses at school sites and are working to establish AP pro-

grams at schools without them. Through a partnership with Equal Opportunity Schools, school leaders are identifying and actively recruiting students, including minority and low-income students, who previously missed AP enrollment opportunities. The Seattle nonprofit provides district leadership with a framework to close AP enrollment gaps. High school students are polled annually about career interests, academic goals and what keeps them from taking AP courses. Each student also is asked to share the name of a “trusted adult.” Counselors review surveys and academic records to determine which students are eligible for the program. The trusted adult is asked to speak with them about challenging himself or herself in an AP course. One year after following the Equal Opportunity School plan, the district reports the AP program grew by 275 students. Last spring, 1,718 students participated in the program, taking 1,882 AP exams across 24 subjects, College Board data shows.

Star boost

Star Spencer is a northeast Oklahoma County high school with fewer than 450 students, a majority of which qualify for free or reduced school meals. It previously offered few advanced level courses and students welcomed the district’s new approach. Star Spencer now offers four AP courses: U.S. history, literature, government and English language. Last year, the school offered three courses. Student Adriana Wright, the daughter of an OKCPS teacher, knew about AP courses and their advantages, including college credit, before Star Spencer unveiled plans to add them. With hopes of attending a service academy or an out-of-state university, Wright sought to build a college application that could contend with students across the country. Wright said she believes she learned more by taking the AP history course than students enrolled in the school’s honors

As an alumna and daughter of a former Southeast principal, Mylissa Hall returned to the south Oklahoma City school last year well-versed in the school’s long tradition of excellence in academics. With a majority of Southeast juniors and seniors enrolled in AP courses, school leaders expect students to challenge themselves and seek as many higher-level education opportunities as possible. “We would like to see the students with their associate degree by the time they leave us,” Hall said. “If not an associate degree, then at least the first round of credits for their freshman year of college.” Southeast offers 16 AP courses, including physics, environmental science and world history. This year, the school added AP human geography, the only course open to ninth-graders, which allows 13- and 14-yearolds to experience a college-level course. About 800 students attend Southeast, 64 percent of the population is Hispanic and an even greater percentage of students are eligible for free or reduced lunches. As Southeast added AP courses, it also increased student enrollment in those courses. In 2015, students took 340 AP exams. This past spring, the number of AP exams increased by more than a third, and 475 exams were completed. That’s a major change from when Chele Crosby started teaching at Southeast more than a decade ago. She said a handful of students took AP classes, which weren’t well publicized. To enhance district efforts to increase AP enrollment, Crosby organized Southeast’s AP Nights, evening events about the AP program for parents and students. Beyond the academic and financial benefits, Crosby tells parents about the confidence boost she sees in students who take her two AP classes. “Most of the students are first-generation college-goers,” Crosby said. “That confidence is key to making the transition from high school to college.” Southeast senior Daisy Barrios, an AP student, said she is confident about entering college and pursuing a pharmacy degree. “You feel more confident and you feel like you accomplished something during your high school career,” Barrios said. “You are preparing yourself for the future.”

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Gwen Evans right lost her son Nathan to suicide in 2015. | Photo provided

Hidden epidemic Data shows suicide rates among Oklahomans are on the rise. By Candice Macis

Gwen Evans described her son Nathan as a happy child, always smiling and an ideal Christian because he never judged anyone. The call she received Sept. 10, 2015, shocked her. A mom of a girl Nathan knew asked Evans if she was in front of him. As she was at the local library with her husband for a meeting, she told her, “No. I’m about three miles away.” The voice on the other end told Evans that 18-year-old Nathan had a gun and wanted to kill himself. Evans remembers frantically rushing home. The good-natured boy who often told her, “I love you,” said he felt worthless, like a failure and overwhelmed.

Rising numbers

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Brandy Woods-Littlejohn is administrative program manager for violence prevention programs at the Oklahoma State Department of Health. She tracks violent deaths via Oklahoma Violent Death Reporting System (OKVDRS), which shares data with the Centers for Disease Control, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Oklahoma Child Death Review Board and National Death Reporting Program. She said suicide is the second leading cause of death of people age 10 to 34 in Oklahoma. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows unintentional injury is the leading cause of death of people under age 45. Suicide is a growing concern among almost all demographics, she said. An OKVDRS report shows rates have steadily increased for 25-64 year-olds. From 2005 to 2012, death trends show suicides among Oklahoma veterans increased 34 percent. Between 2004 and 2008, Native American youth age 10-24 committed suicide at a 78 percent higher rate than their non-Native American peers, the data shows.

Firearm correlation

“We’re actually a family that believes in guns,” Evans said. She said her son grew up around them and the family always kept them locked up. One evening, the family forgot to lock up a handgun. It was left on top of the entertainment center. Her son, the tallest person in the house, saw the weapon as he walked past it, she said. Firearms are used in 60 percent of all suicides in Oklahoma, Woods-Littlejohn said. That number also reflects suicide trends across the United States. “Even as we’ve seen increases over the years in number [rate per 100,000], the percentage of firearm usage stays around 60 percent,” Woods-Littlejohn said. Michael Brose is CEO at Mental Health Association Oklahoma (MHAO), a statewide advocacy group that has grown substantially since 1993. MHAO offers resources and outreach programs, including suicide prevention training for the public and suicide screenings for teens and schools. Brose said that when a person experiences extreme distress like depression or an inability to cope with change, they can quickly move out of the phase where suicide seems like the only way out. He then urged people to envision that scenario if a person has ready access to firearms. “The CDC cites that if you have a firearm in your home, the chances of someone dying by suicide in your home increases three to five times,” he said. Brose said firearms are quick and efficient. OKVDRS data shows men kill themselves at a rate almost four times higher than women and more than half of men use firearms.

After Evans talked her son Nathan out of suicide in September 2015, she took him to the doctor. “Nathan didn’t want anyone to know because he was embarrassed and ashamed,” she said. “He didn’t even want to tell his sister.” Nathan refused to go to counseling. His doctor prescribed him Zoloft. As time went on, Evans said everything seemed fine. Despite not seeing a counselor, which Evans attributed Nathan’s refusal to a betrayal of trust from a onceclose relationship with a youth pastor, Nathan appeared happy. She said she asked her son questions and he always said he would never take his own life. On Nov. 3, 2015, Evans arrived home after leaving her son alone for 45 minutes to find Nathan’s body in the family office/ exercise room. At first, when she could not open the door, she laughed, thinking it was a practical joke. She said earlier that day, Nathan was very helpful and gave no indication that he planned to commit suicide. He had hung himself on a piece of exercise equipment. Evans talked about the stigma associated with suicide and said people tell her about their experiences only because they know what her family has been through. In her quest for more information, she learned suicide rates are rising and every 40 seconds, someone takes their own life. She now helps facilitate suicide prevention training. “I can’t say its 100 percent preventable once they get the logic in their mind,” she said, “but there’s a lot that could be prevented.”

Funding

OKVDRS data shows that “current depressed mood” is the leading circumstance of suicide, closely followed by “intimate partner problem” and “current mental health problem.” House Appropriation and Budget Chairman Rep. Earl Sears, R-Bartlesville, said Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services funding was cut, along with most other agency funding, due to two revenue failures this year. “We took some money from mental health to help balance the budget,” Sears said. “Right or wrong, good or bad, I’m just telling you that’s what happened.” Brose said if people can’t access needed treatment, either because it’s not available or they have to go on a waiting list, the chances of recovery are lessened. “The irony of that is you pay now or you pay later,” Brose said. Brose added if people with untreated mental illness are left to deteriorate, their likelihood of incarceration also increases. Brose said the largest mental health institutions are jails and prisons. “It’s the most expensive way to house people,” he said. “It’s also clearly demonstrated that it’s the absolute worst outcome. People are released and they’re not connected effectively with services,” he said.

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NEWS

mEtro

from left MSgt. Robert Skalla, Ashley Dickson, Barbie Smalley and Jessica Thompson will participate in Tuesday’s Neighbors Night Out event. | Photo Laura Eastes

Safer neighbors

Neighbors Night Out returns to the metro. By Laura Eastes

After northwest Oklahoma City resident Ashley Dickson of Neighborhood Alliance of Central Oklahoma (NACOK). Jessica Thompson called police about a safety concern, it was a relief to see an officer Each year, Neighborhood Alliance enshe knew step out of the patrol car. courages more than 450 neighborhoods Thompson and the officer had met at a to plan Neighbors Night Out events. Neighbors Night Out event for the Classen Communities host block parties, potlucks, Ten Penn neighborhood, which stretches ice cream socials or porch discussions. from NW 10th to NW 16th streets from “The parties take on the feel of the neighClassen Boulevard to Pennsylvania Avenue. borhood,” said Dickson, NACOK programs “It’s nice to see a familiar face in the and communications director. “They all neighborhood,” explained Thompson, have the same mission to create that closeClassen Ten Penn Neighborhood ness in the neighborhood.” Association vice president. “You feel comOn any given Neighbors Night Out, fortable because you know the police offiMSgt. Robert Skalla visits four to six cers. They’ve come to neighborhood events events. Skalla, who serves in police comand they look out for the neighborhood. I munity relations, answers their questions. think it has a positive impact in the com“The Oklahoma City Police munity, especially with what’s going on Department has a vested interested in between police and citizens.” neighborhoods that come together and For the third consecutive year, Classen look out for one another,” he said. “This helps to reduce crimes.” Ten Penn leaders host a Neighbors Night Out event. This year’s is 6-8 p.m. Tuesday Neighborhoods can register events with at McKinley Park, 1300 N. McKinley Ave. Neighborhood Alliance, which shares Like years before, police officers, firefightdetails with the police department. Each ers, elected officials and neighbors are division assigns neighborhoods for officers invited to the cookout. Over hotdogs and to visit. Most neighborhoods post about desserts, neighbors mingle, chat about the Neighbors Night Out events on Facebook area, ask officers questions and enjoy a or the Nextdoor. Some initiate a phone tree fall evening in OKC. It’s a family-friendly or send email invitations. The event with games and activities, like a Neighborhood Alliance can connect residents with their neighborhood leaders. piñata, for younger residents. Skalla said he has witnessed the chang“It is a great time to meet neighbors interested in making the neighborhood ing landscape of city neighborhoods. Capital better,” Thompson said. improvement dollars are flowing into conThe historic neighborhood joins nearly struction of sidewalks, residential street 100 other metropolitan repairs, city park updates neighborhood associations and library renovations. He and homeowner associasaid removing blight and Neighbors tions in Neighbors Night preserving city infrastrucNight out Out. The annual evening, ture, mixed with strong neighborhoods, will help happening Tuesday, brings 6-8 p.m. Tuesday further increases public “neighbors and community various metro locations leaders together to forge safety. nacok.org “We all ... want to live in relationships and build the 405-528-6322 social fabric of their comsafe, secure and clean Free munity,” according to neighborhoods,” he said. 8

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buSiNESS

NEWS

New threads

With its $4.3 million makeover, Skirvin Hilton hotel upgrades its style. By George Lang

When Gerald Rappaport made the move from Kansas City, Missouri, to Oklahoma City to take over as general manager of The Skirvin Hilton hotel, he asked his wife Nancy to stay in the hotel for a weekend. Rappaport, who previously served as GM of Hotel Phillips in Kansas City, would be overseeing a revamp of venue and wanted to get her take on the elegant landmark. “When I moved here a year ago, my wife stayed in the hotel one weekend and said to me, ‘I don’t understand why you’re remodeling. The hotel is in beautiful shape and the carpet is clean,’” Rappaport said of the historic building that first opened to guests in 1911. “Some hotels think about doing partials anywhere between nine and 12 years. You know, our hotel was really well taken care of, and it showed incredibly well for a hotel that was nine years old. I explained to her that we really wanted to stay ahead of the competition.” Less than a decade after The Skirvin Hilton, a distinctive, three-tower building at First Street and Broadway Avenue, reopened after almost two decades of disuse, the elegant downtown landmark is now wrapping up a $4.3 million renovation. Nothing structural changed during the project, but an extensive update in décor and first-floor accommodations gives the high-end hotel an edge in an increasingly competitive Oklahoma City marketplace, Rappaport said. “I think it started when we recognized that the hotel was approaching the 10-year mark and that it was time to start looking at a soft goods renovation,” he said. “And as new competition entered the market, we thought to ourselves, ‘Let’s do this sooner rather than later, pre-empt the competition and stay ahead of the curve,’ if you will.”

‘Protect and enhance’

“Soft goods” is a term employed in the travel and accommodations industry, and it mostly addresses textiles like bedding, window treatments, cushions, wallpaper

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and carpeting. When Skirvin Hotel opened under new owner Hilton in February 2007 following a $55 million renovation and restoration, it featured a classically lavish interior that evoked the venue’s storied past. But the heaviness of the lobby-level drapery and industry trends toward simplicity and clean design drove the hotel to undertake the textile overhaul. “The primary focus was to protect and enhance the integrity of the building and the customer experience, to make the hotel more relevant while retaining the historic integrity and all the while improving and enhancing the guest experience,” Rappaport said. “We started with all of the guest rooms and the desire to create something that was simple and clean and elegant and soft and comforting, almost spa-like. We used soft, subtle tones; the kind of coffee tones that you’d experience in a spa environment.” In this case, “clean” is not just a design term. Rappaport said the Skirvin did away with the heavy bolster pillows that adorned the beds for practical reasons. With the new design, every piece of fabric in the guest rooms can be laundered.

Renovations and enhancements to The Skirvin Hotel cost an estimated $4.3 million. | Photo Gazette / file

Red Piano Lounge

The lobby and Red Piano Lounge received more dramatic makeovers. After 105 years of service, the lobby’s original ceramic tile floor was retired in favor of black-andwhite marble, and the red drapes are no more, revealing the architectural greatness of Bill Skirvin’s details, including 29 handsculpted Bacchus designs along the ceiling. Appropriately, Red Piano Lounge now boasts a new red piano, along with peripheral bench-style seating that replaces some of the heavier pieces and opens up the room. “People [practically] live in our lobby now,” Rappaport said. “It’s beautiful and has great furniture and aesthetics, and it’s uncovered the beautiful Gothic design that was part of the original hotel.”

New soft goods — carpet, wallpaper and cushions — transformed The Skirvin Hilton’s lobby into a popular, comfortable guest area. | Photo The Skirvin Hilton / provided

Not all the upgrades are cosmetic. The Skirvin now uses the Hilton HHonors app check-in, which allows cardholders to check in digitally and select their rooms without visiting the front desk. Rappaport said about 10 percent of guests use the service, but while the majority still check in the old-fashioned way, the

idea is to provide a tailored service to everyone who stays at The Skirvin. “We think of ourselves as a hotel delivering a very personalized stay,” he said. “The biggest message is that we really, really pride ourselves on providing that boutique experience that you don’t get anywhere else.”

co m m u N i t y

The former Capitol Hill Library location closed this summer and moved to a temporary location while a new library is being constructed. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Future study

Construction continues at the site of the new Capitol Hill Library. By Candice Macis

Like many of the buildings in the Historic Capitol Hill district just south of the Oklahoma River, the Capitol Hill Library, part of Oklahoma City’s Metropolitan Library System, has its fair share of history. The three-level structure opened in 1951, and a $4.3 million update to the structure began this summer. Library manager Jana Hausburg said it was important to stay true to the original site of the branch at 334 SW 26th St., and the functionality of the library’s space is her main concern. “The space was extremely challenged,” she explained. “In the ’50s, they didn’t plan for computers. Why would they?” As construction continues at the new site, 327 SW 27th St., the contents of the branch have been temporarily relocated nearby inside Templo de Alabanza’s gymnasium, 330 SW 24th St. Hausburg said the library has operated out of the 12,000-square-foot space since late last year for good reason. The deep history of the building (It served as a fallout shelter during the cold war.) also brought with it a myriad of challenges. When the carpet was pulled up, asbestos had to be addressed on the 1950s tile, Hausburg said. “Heating and air would break all the time, and our maintenance crew would have to rebuild the parts in our shop because they don’t sell them anymore,” she added. Allocations from a 2007 $835.5 million, voter-approved General Obligation Bond Program finally allowed the expansion to move forward. “We had the money in the bank for a long time, but because we’re a part of Oklahoma City, there were other things that were a priority first,” Hausburg said. When she became library manager in 2011, she connected with Calle Dos Cinco at Historic Capitol Hill director Donna Cervantes. Through talking about needed work on the library, the two were able to

keep the building on the minds of city officials, Hausburg said. She said Ward 4 Oklahoma City Council member Pete White was interested and helped the project gather steam. Ease of function is the primary hope for the new library, expected to be completed in summer 2018. The former building was being used at its maximum capacity, and its design made it challenging to serve different customer needs, Hausburg said. She said the library struggled to balance the needs of adults, who wanted quiet, and children, who gathered in groups after school. “After school was out, we would have kids pretty much seated everywhere,” she said. The future library, designed by architects at MSR Design and Guernsey, will offer almost double the space, including a dedicated children’s space, a large meeting room that can be divided into an area for teens/tweens and four study rooms. Hausburg said the library recently incorporated a concurrent storytime and playtime for families with babies and children. The large meeting room will fill multiple roles. “People are always asking for a meeting space,” she said. The room is also large enough to act as a community space for school-aged children. Hausburg said Capitol Hill Library launched study and reading groups for them and the divided room will provide the space. Plus, it will keep noise levels down for patrons who might want to search online for jobs or just surf the internet in quiet. The soundproof study rooms will also help with this issue. The library plans to partner with the Oklahoma City Community College satellite campus, which is being built nearby. She said the combined resources will create a strong community anchor.

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Who are you?

Big league protests

Usually, when identity theft makes the news, it’s about credit card skimmers or foreign hackers stealing vast swaths of bank data. But a traffic stop by Edmond police this month found that it can be a lot more personal, KOCO.com recently reported. Kristina Marie Wilson, 35, was stopped in front of Edmond Memorial High School for driving 37 miles per hour in a school zone, police said. But instead of getting a ticket and being told to slow down, officers alleged they found drugs and money on Wilson, along with multiple IDs and credit cards bearing her face and different names, the TV news station reported. “It’s a big ring,” Edmond Police Department spokeswoman Jenny Wagnon told KOCO.com. “They fly in a female to a specific state for about a week at a time.” Armed with fake IDs, the woman was driven around town to different banks and withdrew as much money as possible from the accounts, Wagnon told the TV station. After searching Wilson, KOCO.com reported that police found cash and two receipts from Bank of America strapped around her midsection. “This one specific female, we can link to five states she’s been doing this,” Wagnon told KOCO.com. A pair of banks claim they lost more than $220,000 to Wilson’s alleged scam. The driver of the vehicle was released, however, because police did not have information linking him to the scheme.

Oklahoma City residents have discovered being a “big league city” has advantages. In addition to OKC residents getting to watch their hometown Thunder team play basketball, locals and players also get regular mentions in national press and related game revenue raises the quality of life, which helps the city attract more business. But being a “big league city” can also lead to some controversy. Thunder shooting and point guard Victor Oladipo told Complex Sports that Oklahoma City will definitely see protests similar to those of San Francisco 49ers backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who sits or kneels during the playing of the national anthem. “Because, at the end of the day, it’s a sport, and people are gonna be looking at some guys in the NBA to see what they’re gonna do as well,” he told Complex.com. Kaepernick is protesting racial inequality, especially regarding treatment by law enforcement. “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” he told NFL Media in an exclusive postgame interview. “To me, this is bigger than

football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.” With so many African-American players in the league, Oladipo said there’s almost surely going to be similar protests made by National Basketball Association players, which could put Thunder fans in an awkward position since Oklahoma is one of the most conservative states in the nation.

Jail hyperbole

If you ask Rep. Mike Christian about the Oklahoma County jail, the local politician likely will call it “a tower of terror.” With a description like that, we at Chicken-Fried News instantly imagined that spooky elevator ride at Disney World rather than downtown Oklahoma City’s 13-story detention center. You know, the one where riders are seated in an elevator that hurtles them up and down through a haunted Twilight Zone. Maybe we’ve spent too much time at Disney World. Regardless, we don’t actually think Christian believes the jail is haunted or resembles an amusement park ride, but he does feel the place is due for a makeover. Christian made it clear he was the one to deliver a redo on the jail during the Sept.

franchisse football watch partiees! Visit TWIN N PEAKS everry y OU away game for liive pre and post game coverage on 107.7 7 The Franchise.

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22 Oklahoma County sheriff debate, according to coverage from NewsOK.com. Christian is the Republican in the sheriff’s race facing Sheriff John Whetsel, a Democrat from Choctaw. “The Oklahoma County jail is a mess. It is a nightmare,” NewsOK.com quoted Christian. “And you know who’s responsible? My opponent. He’s 100 percent responsible. … He doesn’t care. … Enough is enough. He needs to retire and go home.” While Christian, who lives in south Oklahoma City, painted a bleak picture of the current sheriff’s department and jail, Whetsel focused on his experience in the seat and personal mission to make the county safer, NewsOK.com reported.

Fast and furious

Some city car enthusiasts probably feel like they’ve been pulled over by the fun police. Members of the Oklahoma Z Car Club and other private car clubs have used the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office training track for years to test out their cars’ capabilities as they whipped around orange training cones at high speeds, with permission from the sheriff. County commissioners, however, say no one sought their approval to use the tax-funded track. Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel recently said in a statement published on KOCO.com that the commission

In the meantime, local car club members will have to find an alternative site for their fun runs. Z Car Club members vented frustrations on the club’s Facebook group page. “This whole thing is about money,” one member wrote. “They didn’t give a damn about us before.”

Brain boost

raised concerns about the track’s use in August and car club activity has been suspended. Commissioner Brian Maughn told the TV news organization he was previously unaware of car club activities at the site and such use of the track requires prior commission approval. He also said the county could be held liable for any accident that occurred on the track, though Whetsel said each car club company carries at least a $1 million in liability insurance and waivers are signed by each participant. Whetsel told NewsOK.com that he is working to address the commission’s liability concerns.

State schools might soon be surfing the ’net at record speeds. G ov. Ma r y Fa l l i n launched the Oklahoma Connect and Learn Initiative, designed to bring broadband internet and new digital learning opportunities to schools statewide, this month. The governor’s team will include the state Department of Education, representatives from the Corporation Commission and other state agencies and a local school superintendent. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister recently told The Norman Transcript she is excited about

the partnership. “Now is the time to invest in our children’s future by providing them with the tools they need to succeed in a 21st-century education,” she said. At long last, little Timmy will have enough bandwidth to research the Land Run of ’89 and play games at the same time. Sorry, Suzy. Wikipedia is not suddenly a primary source just because it no longer takes half the period to load an article. In all seriousness, we at Chicken-Fried News know it is vitally important for all Oklahoma students to have the fastest and most reliable internet connection possible. Earth has never known a textbook as vast or powerful as the World Wide Web.

connect to

Central

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA TM

uco.edu

ucobronchos

uco.bronchos

UCOBronchos

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lEttErS

NEWS Oklahoma Gazette provides an open forum for the discussion of all points of view in its Letters to the Editor section. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Letters can be mailed, faxed or emailed to jchancellor@okgazette.com or sent online at okgazette.com. Include a city of residence and contact number for verification.

Chicken Little dunces

I see where Nathaniel Batchelder is still trying to sell the Chicken Little manmade global warming theory (Opinion, Letters to the Editor, “Motherly advice,” Aug. 31, Oklahoma Gazette). Can he, or anyone else, please explain how so-called greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (which comprises only 0.04 percent of the earth’s atmosphere) or methane gas (which can only be measured in trace amounts) could possibly promote global warming? Of course, this does not take into consideration that both of these gases can, and do, occur independently of man’s activities. On the other hand, water vapor (which can comprise up to 95 percent of the socalled greenhouse gases) is vital to all living organisms’ existence. Do the Chicken Littles propose to

eliminate water vapor too? Batchelder says scientists say we are now living in the sixth great extinction. Well, this is one scientist that believes otherwise as far as manmade global warming is concerned. I have a great many friends who are also geologists, and they concur with me. Geologists, perhaps better than anyone, are aware that the earth and its climate is constantly changing. There have been periods where the carbon dioxide content is estimated to be around 4,000 parts per million. Today, it is less than 400 parts per million. Of course, the scientific geniuses who

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are our politicians have seized on the invalid hypothesis that man is causing global warming and are using it as a vehicle to gain even more control of our lives and place more limits our personal freedom. Mickey McVay Oklahoma City

Steak, fish or lasagna?

Remember that silly scene in the movie Airplane when the two dinner options are announced as “steak or fish”? After consuming this dinner, many on board get deathly ill.

It turns out there’s a doctor on board and he asks the crew what they ate for dinner. When the stewardess replies “steak or fish,” the doctor says, “Yes, yes, I remember. I had lasagna.” Even in a silly movie, there’s always a palatable third option that doesn’t make you sick, right? This presidential election season is a bit silly too, with two options that sort of make you sick, and then there is that third option that doesn’t upset your stomach. Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is the only former state chief executive on the top of the ticket. His Libertarian running mate is also a former governor, Bill Weld of Massachusetts. They will be the only third party on the ballot in all 50 states. Johnson has reached double digits in polling countless times already. So please, when you receive a call from a pollster asking whom you would vote for this November, consider Johnson. And if they don’t give you Johnson as an option, ask why not. Look Johnson up, get to know who he is. Dig into his platform of fiscal responsibility and social open-mindedness. Or you can always go back to that overcooked steak or the fish that made the whole plane sick. Your call. Kimberly Sutich Tulsa

eAT & DriNK

All Mine, Nachos | Photo Garett Fisbeck

review

Itsa Spicy Meata Balla sandwich | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Seriously delicious

Gigglez Bar & Grill is a delightful restaurant with a quirky name. By Greg Elwell

Just call it GBG if saying “Gigglez” makes you giggly. That was the decision I made after several visits to Midtown’s restaurant, bar and comedy club. The food is great. The service is friendly. And those two facts are why hungry locals need to learn more about Gigglez Bar & Grill, 1016 N. Walker Ave. Owners Marty and Casey Phillips have quietly built a roster of culinary hits, thanks in part to menu guru and chef trainer Vuong Nguyen, who helped redesign the restaurant’s food offerings. Go ahead and laugh if you have the urge to, because nobody should ignore food this delightful. At $9, All Mine, Nachos is an appetizer that outdoes most bar versions of this happy hour staple. That is not to say a customer who has enjoyed a few cold ones Pineapple Express pizza | Photo Garett Fisbeck

won’t also enjoy this plate of nachos. They are satisfying and delicious in all the ways one wants nachos to be — salty, crunchy and covered with toppings. But there’s something else to them. Beyond a pile of tortilla chips covered in queso, Gigglez’ version adds melty mozzarella and then tops the chips with freshly made pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream, jalapeños and balsamic caramel. Adding regular caramel to a savory dish sounds crazy, but the balsamic caramel is buttery with a hit of the tang and deep, decadent flavor of the balsamic vinegar. Bar nuts can often be another ho-hum snack for drinkers, but Gigglez’ Three Guys Walk Into a Bar, Nuts ($8) are served warm and seasoned to perfection. Diners who order this from the Ticklez appetizer menu embark on a journey to joy. The bowl that is delivered to the table is full of mixed nuts that are roasted, oiled and tossed in a special spice blend with rosemary for an herbaceous kick that is both familiar and unexpected. These are wonderful.

is juicy, as are the tomatoes, and the spinach and pineapple Gigglez Bar & Grill add nutritional value and plenty of flavor. The finishing 1016 N. Walker Ave. touches of bacon and fresh gigglezokc.com | 405-602-2074 basil make this menu item irresistible. whAT worKs: The upscale bar apps and tasty brunch are no laughing matter. For a real kick to the, uh, tongue, order an Itsa Spicy whAT NeeDs worK: Smokey Biscuit should Meata Balla ($11). Gigglez be twice the size. makes its own meatballs and a spicy marinara, which are Tip: The bar serves a tasty pho on Thursdays, but once it runs out, it’s gone until next week. perfect when pressed inside focaccia bread with melted provolone. The homemade chili and the fresh, Another focaccia star is the thinly sliced jalapeños are what put Cheery pulled pork goodness that is Kermie’s Love Cheese Fries ($7) on the must-try list. ($10). Nguyen is well loved for his homeDon’t expect a mountain of french fries. made pickles, and he gave Gigglez owners The appetizer that arrives at your table the recipe to continue making crisp, tangy might not seem like a lot of food, but the cucumber slices that really add some zing thick-cut pub fries at the foundation of to the exquisite barbecue pork. this dish are some top-notch potato Like so many other restaurants across planks. The chili flavor isn’t overpowering the metro, Gigglez has expanded its hours or too spicy and is balanced nicely with to include a brunch service. But rather the melted cheese. than serve up the same old eggs Benedict Add a jalapeño for an instant burst of and omelets as everyone else, Gigglez’ heat and then put out the fire with a pull brunch gets a little crazy, including items of beer. with taro waffles, house-made chorizo and While I’m of the opinion that appetizbraised pork belly. ers are enough for anybody, those looking The Smokey Biscuit ($9) is a great pick. for a full meal will be pleased with the It’s a smoked gouda biscuit covered in decadent chicken-sausage gravy, but Gigglez menu. First up in the Hammin’ it Up Burgerz there’s a problem: It needs to be bigger. My Cousin Bennie ($12) is the owner’s category is the Have It Your Way, Dude ($8). favorite. This version of eggs Benedict uses Every place serves burgers, right? rolls of baked pizza dough as a base, adding Gigglez, though, makes its version with a pepperoni, ham, sausage, spinach tomabeef and pork patty. The flavor is familiar toes and olives under a pair of perfectly but just different enough to pique interest, poached eggs. Over the top is a delicious hollandaise sauce with Parmesan cheese and the kitchen staff knows how to prepare and basil. it so it’s perfectly juicy. Go whole hog (and chicken) and add bacon and a fried egg on It’s a gorgeous mess and more food top for $1 each. It’s the breakfast burger lovers need to know about it. There’s no way Gigglez should have a table open on we all crave. The restaurant, which opened in Saturday morning with this level of November, features a pizza oven left cuisine. Oklahoma City loves brunch and behind by the previous tenant, Saturn this innovative menu is exactly what we crave. Grill. That’s probably what makes Pineapple Be it Gigglez or GBG or whatever you Express ($10) taste so good. Pizza ovens decide to call it (I choose “delicious”), this get very hot very fast, which is key to a restaurant offers a heck of a meal. How properly cooked pie. This pizza is smallish, many more foodies can discover this but enough for two to share, with a zippy quirky eatery before everybody realizes pesto sauce under the cheese. The chicken the joke’s on them for missing out? O kg a z e t t e . c O m | s e p t e m b e r 2 8 , 2 0 1 6

F e AT u r e

eAT & DriNK

McLoud proud The small city just east of the metro is home to German fare, country cooking and loyal diners. By Greg Elwell

“Honey, I’m getting ready to bust a move.” That is how Donna Heins told her husband Wayne they were opening a restaurant. While some metro-area restaurants open and close their doors before people ever discover them, in McCloud, located 30 minutes east of Oklahoma City on Interstate 40, a new eatery is a pretty big deal. Clara Belle’s, 105 N. Main St., in McCloud opened seven months ago, and the Heins said their business increases weekly. The menu is eclectic, Wayne said. “Not being a franchise, we get to do what we want and figure out what people like,” he said. That is why one menu comes to hold diverse items like the Italian focaccia bread sandwich, the soft taco wrap and schinkenwurst (ham sausage) on a pretzel bun. Wayne’s German ancestry heavily influences some menu selections, including his homemade Bavarian sauerkraut. “Part of the fun is getting people to try new things,” he explained. “People might say they don’t like sauerkraut, but I tell them

it’s because they’ve never had anything but the stuff that comes in a can.” The same goes for the chili, which they jokingly call Heins 57, and old-style Usinger’s Famous Sausage brought in from Milwaukee. Clara Belle’s cooks real food, he said. It’s work, but it’s worth doing because the restaurant feeds its friends and neighbors, and they deserve it. Wayne said he’s particularly proud of the German red cabbage made using his grandmother’s recipe. People asked her to bring her cabbage dish to almost every event in town. Now he carries on the tradition for their customers. Donna said they wanted to offer the community an alternative to heavy, fried foods. “We fry nothing,” she said. “People are tired of all the grease.” It’s not all diet foods, though. Clara Belle’s serves pulled pork that’s cooked for 24 hours until its meltingly tender and tops it with homemade barbecue sauce. Donna also makes desserts, including

McLoud Café owner Que ZaRasvand talks about his eclectic menu. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Wayne and Donna Heins work in the kitchen during lunch at Clara Belle’s restaurant in McLoud. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

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signature lemon squares and Grandma’s Everything Cookies. Additionally, they created a small shopping area they call The Corner Market inside the restaurant. The couple even hosts special, countrythemed weekly dinners so guests can try dishes that otherwise aren’t so readily available in McLoud. Both work at the restaurant and at a few other “full-time” jobs. Wayne said he will next apply to work in a sleep study, just to get some more rest. For restaurant hours and more information, call 405-964-6338.

a side of beans, all prepared in-house. The fork-tender beef soaks up rich brown gravy, and when paired with homestyle mashed spuds, it creates a texture and flavor that evokes Sunday dinners with the family. And McLoud Café serves families. Clientele is fiercely loyal to their favorite eateries, and ZaRasvand depends on them. He serves about 250 people daily on weekends and about 170 daily through the week. For hours and more information, call 405-964-5576.

Café cooking

McLoud city clerk and treasurer Kay Heinz said residents of the town of more than 4,000 people are proud of the food served here. She brags about the community’s Chinese restaurant, Maple Garden, 316 S. Third St., and the all-you-can-eat catfish available Fridays at Curtis Watson Restaurant, 12610 S. McLoud Road, which passersby can spot from Interstate 40. Call 405-964-2225 for hours and more information about Maple Garden, and call 405-3862900 for hours and more information about Curtis Watson Restaurant. Small-town charm is what brought the Heins family to McLoud seven years ago and helped make Clara Belle’s possible. “We’ve been wanting to do this forever,” Donna said.

McLoud Café, 415 E. Broadway Ave., is just around the corner. Que ZaRasvand has owned the eatery for nearly 20 years, but it has served city residents since around 1950, he said. Much like Clara Belle’s, his intimate cafe does a little bit of everything to satisfy customers with “down-home country cooking,” server Donna Carroll said. Hamburgers are always popular with his regulars, ZaRasvand said, but he has added a few things to the menu to help expand customer palates. A gyro sandwich and salad might seem out of place among so much classic diner fare, but it has been well received, he said. So have the beef enchiladas with rice and beans, which helps sate hunger for south-of-the-border cuisine in a town with no Mexican restaurants. One dish he’s proud of is classic roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy and

Loyal diners

Great spot for GAME

DAYS

F e AT u r e

Owner Peggy Carty’s restaurant, Someplace Else, A Deli and Bakery, celebrates its 40th anniversary this month. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Place making

After 40 years in business, Someplace Else, A Deli and Bakery still creates some of OKC’s favorite sandwiches. By Greg Elwell

When she was asked why she and her husband chose to open a deli in Oklahoma City, Peggy Carty replied, “We were young and dumb.” Young, maybe, but with 40 years behind it, it’s hard to classify the decision to open Someplace Else, A Deli and Bakery, 2310 N. Western Ave., as anything close to dumb. Carty credits her husband, Dave, as the impetus behind the decision to start a restaurant. Originally from New Jersey, he was always puzzled by the lack of delicatessens here. After the pair met at Oklahoma City University, he wondered why nobody opened one nearby. They decided to change that. The initial reaction to the eatery was happiness, she said. “They were glad to see us here,” Carty said. “There weren’t many places around here for people at the school or the nearby businesses to eat.” The neighborhood has changed completely, she said. Nearby NW 23rd Street has transformed over the years into a bustling dining and entertainment district. “Every day, we see new people,” she said. The deli was Dave’s idea, but the bakery was borne of necessity, Carty said. “Getting bread from other places was really unreliable,” she said. “We couldn’t count on them to deliver, so we started making our own.” The cookies, some of Someplace Else’s most popular items, were originally made by Carty’s mother. But as the venue’s popularity grew, it became too much work to outsource them. Instead, they turned to an employee whose father sold them their oven, which is still in use today. “That oven must be 70 years old by now,” she said. “It’s ancient, but it still works. Same for our bread slicer, which was made in 1945; that stuff is built to last.” The equipment takes after the concept

in that way. Four decades later and delistyle sandwiches are ubiquitous. Someplace Else stays successful because of what hasn’t changed. “It’s personalized service,” she said. “We have employees who have been working here for 20-plus years. They know customers’ names, [and] they know what they’re going to order.” A few items have come and gone since the restaurant opened in 1976, but many others have become longtime customer favorites. Carty said the most popular menu items are the Reuben; the avocado, cream cheese and bacon sandwich; and The Hoagie, a signature mix of ham, salami, Italian ham, lettuce, tomato and peppers on a housemade roll. “I still eat The Hoagie,” she said. “My dad requests them all the time. I took them to his 92nd birthday not long ago.” Two popular newcomers are also two very different sandwiches. One features prime rib, a meat-eater’s delight. The other features vegetarian hummus. “We get lots of vegetarians in here,” Carty said. “In the beginning, that was an afterthought.” But when one spends 40 years working six days a week, it’s hard not to notice trends that shape the business. One way Someplace Else has kept so popular over time is that its prices rarely increase, she said. A much-loved item is the restaurant’s party sub, which comes anywhere from two to eight feet long and feeds a crowd for about $2 a person. As 23rd Street continues its renaissance, so does Dave and Peggy Carty’s Someplace Else. The business doesn’t have an official website or Facebook page. For more information, contact Someplace Else, A Deli and Bakery the old-fashioned way: by phone. Call 405-524-0887.

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eAT & DriNK B r i e F s By Greg Elwell

Photo provided

who can’t make meals for themselves, said Cristi Twenter, executive director. The program helps provide them nutritious sustenance while also boosting their social interactivity. Last year, the nonprofit delivered more than 50,000 meals. Visit edfestokc.com. Learn more about volunteering for Edmond Mobile Meals at edmondmobilemeals.org or by emailing Cristi Twenter at cristi@edmondmobilemeals.org.

Taste of Philippines Riverwind Casino hosts Wine of Fame in October. | Photo Gazette / file

•Wine of Fame

The inaugural Wine of Fame fundraiser is 7 p.m. Oct. 28 at Riverwind Casino, 1544 State Highway 9, in Norman. The food and wine event, sponsored by Toby Keith Foundation and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Anderson Properties, benefits OK Kids Korral and Sunshine Kids Foundation — two charities focused on pediatric cancer patients. Attendees can sample eight celebrity wines, including Miranda Lambert’s Crazy ExGirlfriend sweet white, Switzer Family Vineyards cabernet sauvignon, Duck Commander moscato, Jack Nicklaus’ Jack’s House chardonnay, E.L. James’ 50 Shades of Grey 2012 Red Satin, Rolling Stones Forty Licks merlot, Train’s Save Me San Francisco pinot noir and Dave Matthews’ Dreaming Tree sauvignon blanc. Wild Shot Mezcal is serving tastings of two of Toby Keith’s signature drinks.Ember Modern American Tavern, The Sushi Bar, Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill, Pearl’s Restaurant Group, Gaberino’s Homestyle Italian Restaurant, Legend’s Restaurant, Soup Soup Carry Out & Catering, Chips ’N Ales Riverwind, Whole Foods Market, Raspberries N Creme and The Melting Pot are serving tastes alongside the drinks. Tickets are $150. Visit wineoffame.eventbrite.com or call 405-271-6552.

Fair trade

Trading began 8 a.m. Sept. 23 as Trader Joe’s opened its first Oklahoma City store. Housed in what was once Crescent Market, the California-based grocer took over the newly renovated space at 6409 Avondale Drive, joining restaurants Provision Kitchen, Pops, Coolgreens and The Hutch On Avondale in Nichols Hill Plaza. Known for carrying a variety of Trader Joe’s brand gourmet foods, the new store will lack one popular item: Charles Shaw Wines, more commonly referred to as Two Buck Chuck for its $1.99 price tag, because Oklahoma law prohibits the sale of wine in grocery stores. Trader Joe’s is open 8 a.m.-9 p.m. daily. Visit traderjoes.com.

•Freedom fry

Oklahoma Innocence Project at Oklahoma City University School of Law hosts a catfish fry 1-7 p.m. Sunday at Saints, 1715 NW 16th St., to raise funds to help free wrongfully convicted Oklahomans. Guests receive unlimited catfish for $25. Local bands provide entertainment, and event proceeds benefit the project. Tickets are available at eventbrite.com. The group had its first exonerations in May when Malcolm Scott and De’Marchoe Carpenter were freed after 22 years in prison. Since its inception in 2011, thousands of people have requested assistance from the group. Visit okinnocence.com or call 405-2086161.

5805 NW 50th • Warr acres • 603.3997 2106 sW 47th • OKc • 601.2629 OpeN 7 days a WeeK Sunday-ThurSday 11am-8pm • Friday & SaTurday 11am-9pm 18

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•Delivering hope

EdFest rolls back into Edmond to raise funds for Edmond Mobile Meals 6-10 p.m. Oct. 14 at Festival Market Place, 26 W. First St. Admission to the family-friendly event is free and includes visits from 2 Brothers Bistro, The Flying Pig BBQ, Let’s Do Greek, Piled High, The Saucee Sicilian, Taste of Soul Egg Roll and Mim’s Bakery food trucks. Anthem Brewing Company, Bricktown Brewery and Mustang Brewing Company are pouring their craft brews, as well. For $5, kids can enter the Kidzone, which features inflatables, face painting, balloons and carnival games. Adults can enter a raffle for prizes such as Kendra Scott jewelry, a three-month membership to River Oaks Golf Club and more. Raffle tickets are $5 or five for $20. EdFest proceeds support Edmond Mobile Meals. Each weekday, the 42-yearold nonprofit feeds more than 200 elderly and frail and primarily homebound clients

Philippine-American Civic Organization of Oklahoma (PACO) invites metro residents to learn more about Philippine heritage, tradition, culture and cuisine at the annual Fall Taste of Philippines, 6-8:30 p.m. Oct. 8 at Mayfair Church of Christ, 2340 NW 50th St. Admission is $15 for guests age 11 and older, $7.50 for youths age 4-10 and free for children age 3 and younger. Tickets include 6-7:30 p.m. food tastings of classic Filipino dishes like lumpia (meatfilled spring rolls), chicken adobo (sweetand-spicy chicken) and chicken afritada (chicken and potatoes in tomato sauce). An entertainment program follows. Asia Society of Oklahoma, Inc. vice president Ira Burrough organized a menu ingredient list to help those with food allergies. Tickets are available by calling Burrough at 405-819-3652, Esther Moore at 405-525-2882 or Stephanie Moore at 405-414-6900.

Saints | Photo Gazette / file

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gazeDIbles

eat & DRINK

Fine China

The People’s Republic of China covers more than 3.6 million square miles, while the total landmass of our country is just a bit smaller at 3.5 million. If our cuisine is so varied by geography and ethnicity to include chickenfried steaks, lobster rolls and eggs Benedict, think how many regional Chinese dishes there are to try. Get to it, Oklahoma City. By Greg Elwell Photos Garett Fisbeck and Gazette file

Ding Asian Fusion

6400 NW 39th Expressway, Bethany dingasianfusion.com | 405-603-8858 The newest neighbor in Bethany is Ding Asian Fusion. From the owners of popular Edmond eatery Szechuan Bistro, this restaurant’s menu has heads turning and people talking. Try the the very spicy whole red snapper in hot bean paste or order the salt and pepper lamb rack. You can even go ultra-traditional with Ding’s delectable selection of clay pot meals.

Fung’s Kitchen

3321 N. Classen Blvd. fungskitchenoklahoma.com 405-525-8640 If life was truly a joke, Fung’s Kitchen would move from the Asian District to the Uptown 23rd District so we could make “Uptown Fung” puns. But until that change.org petition gets enough votes, Oklahoma City foodies will keep going to the Classen location for delightful dim sum service Saturday and Sunday mornings. It’s the perfect place for those with a taste for steamed buns and addictively delicious dumplings to get their weekly fix.

Dot Wo Garden

661 N. May Ave. dot-wo.com | 405-608-2388 Oklahoma Gazette’s 2016 Best of OKC winner for Best Chinese Restaurant, Dot Wo Garden is a seafood lover’s dream. Flip through the menu until you find Chef’s Specialties and feast on hot and spicy soft shell crab, bean sauce scallops and oysters with ginger and green onions. Dot Wo’s kitchen staff is just as skilled at preparing beef, chicken and pork. Be sure to order some of the restaurant’s special sizzling rice soup to start the meal.

New Owner & New Menu

8027 NW 23rd • Bethany • 405.789.7111

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Golden Phoenix Bistro

Mr. Hui’s

Egg Roll Express

Chow’s Chinese Restaurant

Burned out on all the usual places? Maybe it’s time to rise again off the couch and take a ride to Midwest City for dinner at Golden Phoenix Bistro. Serving both Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine, the restaurant is known for its Peking duck (pictured) and broken rice platters with a choice of grilled pork, egg casserole and Korean-style beef short ribs over the top. Vegetarians take note: Golden Phoenix Bistro also offers a tender Chinese broccoli with garlic sauce and a dynamite pan-fried tofu.

Despite its formal prefix, Mr. Hui’s knows how to have lots of fun. Specifically, Mr. Hui’s serves a lot of chow mei fun, a dish of stir-fried ultra-thin rice noodles with vegetables, eggs and meat. A popular street food, chow mei fun is the perfect meal on which to hone those chopstick skills. Those who opt for the Singapore version of the dish receive a heaping helping of noodles, chicken, beef, pork and shrimp seasoned with tasty golden curry powder. Have fun!

Whether Egg Roll Express diners are taking out or dining in, they can expect their food to arrive fresh, hot and fast. The menu is full of Americanized Chinese favorites, which is a very good thing. Diners always love egg rolls, sweet and sour chicken and moo goo gai pan as long as the restaurant making those dishes does them well. Egg Roll Express makes Chinese food so good you’ll eat it fast, too.

It’s easy to make friends at Chow’s Chinese Restaurant, where everybody is always asking people at the next table, “Whoa! What’s that?” The extensive menu at one of Oklahoma City’s most venerable Chinese eateries has diners rubbing elbows as they search for their newest favorite dish. Adventurous palates will want to pay special attention to dishes like salt and pepper squid tentacles and pork belly with preserved vegetables. But sticking with sesame chicken is okay, too.

7199 SE 29th St., Midwest City 405-455-3956

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ArTS & cULTUre

cov e r

Librarian Tricia Sweany stands by a banned books display at Kieth Leftwich Memorial Library at Oklahoma City Community College. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Read on

It’s Banned Books Week. Find a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird or Invisible Man and read. But first, take a look at the metro’s connections to challenged or banned literature. By Laura Eastes

At the Norman library, readers don’t always find the Harry Potter series out on shelves. The same goes for young adult novels written by John Green, who penned bestseller The Fault in Our Stars. The absence has nothing to do with bans or challenges by concerned citizens. Instead, readers find literary value as well as entertainment in such books, making it hard to keep the titles in stock, said Leanne Cheek, teen reading selector and coordinator for Pioneer Library System. “I think one of the quickest ways to get a book read is to ban it,” Cheek said as she worked at Norman Public Library West. Works by J.K. Rowling and Green share a common burden with well-known titles like Harriet the Spy, The Catcher in the Rye, The Grapes of Wrath, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Lorax and The Kite Runner. According to the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, a parent, school leader or concerned citizen fought for removal of those books from classrooms or school or public libraries. Sometimes they were successful. Each year, during the last week of September, the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week highlights challenged books, focuses on the harms of censorship and celebrates the freedom to read. Like the national organization, Oklahoma Library Association encourages

state libraries to do the same. At Pioneer Library System, with branches in Cleveland, McClain and Pottawatomie counties, patrons mill around displays highlighting banned and controversial books. Often challenged for subjects like violence, homosexuality, offensive language and sexually explicit material, the books spark discussion among visitors. “It is always fun to see the look on someone’s face when you start the conversation about why a book was banned,” Cheek said.

Banned in Oklahoma

Two of the state’s most celebrated authors and their works hold unique ties to banned and challenged book lists. Oklahoma City-born novelist, scholar and literary critic Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, which won the 1953 National Book Award for Fiction, has been banned from high school reading lists and schools in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Washington. Themes of black nationalism and Marxism are frequently cited in book challenges. In 2013, a North Carolina school board voted 5-2 to remove all copies of Invisible Man from school libraries. Tulsa-born author S.E. Hinton’s comingof-age novel The Outsiders has been challenged and banned for its depictions of gangs, violence and drug and alcohol use. The novel, which tells the story of two rival socio-economic teen groups —

poor Greasers and privileged Socials — in the 1960s, was challenged 15 years ago at a West Virginia middle school. Oklahoma communities also have stirred controversy. In 1988, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World was challenged as assigned reading at Yukon High School because of the book’s language and moral content. More than 50 years ago, an Oklahoma City group, Mothers United for Decency, objected to D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. The group created a “smutmobile,” which traversed the city displaying “objectionable” works, including Lawrence’s.

Close encounter

As the daughter of a librarian, Tricia Sweany, who now works in the Oklahoma City Community College (OCCC) library, spent much of her young life surrounded by books. However, Sweany first came to appreciate Banned Books Week after encountering a challenge while interning at a library during her pursuit of a master’s degree. The challenge against Alex Comfort’s The Joy of Sex illustrated sex manual was a learning experience. Library staff quickly responded and listened to the patron’s concern about children potentially coming across the book in the public library. Staff emphasized that the library offers a wide range of materials for the community but also understood not all materials were suitable for everyone. The book stayed in the library, but it was moved to a higher shelf. Now, as a librarian at OCCC, Sweany creates the annual Banned Books Week exhibit at the front of the south OKC college library. It features Beloved, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter and others. “It’s a really good teaching moment,” Sweany said. “People will stop, look through the books and they don’t understand why

Flyers around the Oklahoma City Community College campus show staff posing with their favorite banned books. | Photos Garett Fisbeck

the books were banned.” To entice students into the library, Sweany asked OCCC faculty and staff to help create fliers. This year, 23 of them posed with their favorite banned book in front of a pseudo police lineup and had their pictures taken. Students walk by campus continued on page 24

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fliers picturing First Amendment defenders “caught” with banned books.

Teaching banned books

As an elementary school teacher, Dr. Elizabeth Willner knew she needed to select reading that sparked student interest and classroom discussions. Since her students were boys and girls ages 10 to 12, Willner looked for literature that provided in-depth views on friendship, school life and real-life adolescent situations. For years, she assigned Katherine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia. “I would start the lesson with saying, ‘The next part we will read has a word in it and we’ve all heard it before. Let’s not make a big deal,’” said Willner, who has taught in Wyoming, Colorado and Indiana schools. “We read it and everyone was fine.” Following its 1978 Newbery medal, awarded each year to the most disting uished A merican children’s book, Bridge to Terabithia became a school and library staple. Woven into a tale about two friends are themes of mortality, child abuse, parental relationships and escaping the outside world. Those themes, along with offensive language, have prompted some parents to fight to keep the book out of children’s hands. Willner, an Oklahoma City University education professor, doesn’t deny words like “hell” and “damn” are used in the novel.

She believes good learning comes from reading about negative characters and troubling plots. Those topics encourage rich discussions in which students come to better understand the world around them. As a professor, Willner now inspires her students to teach from books like Bridge to Terabithia and Lois Lowry’s The Giver, also frequently banned. “Literature is both a window and a mirror for us,” Willner said. “We become a part of the world, not apart from the world.”

The law

Many look to the First Amendment as book challenges arise. That’s not a wrong approach, but courts have struggled and produced split decisions in book banning cases. While the First Amendment protects freedom of speech, it also places safeguards on the right to receive speech. Often, there are many factors to consider when examining a book challenge case, such as who initiated the challenge or removed the books and for what reasons, said Oklahoma City University law professor Mark Blitz. “There is a strong First Amendment principal that government should not be controlling access to what ideas people expose themselves to,” he said. “What’s not clear is how you implement that principal, if courts can implement that principal in an environment where libraries have to constantly make decisions about the content of their collections.”

The First Amendment and book censorship are of unique interest to Blitz, who wrote a legal brief in the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court case United States v. American Library Association. The court ruled that public library use of Internet filtering software does not violate users’ First Amendment rights. Additionally, the U.S. Congress can require public schools receiving E-Rate dollars to install website filtering software. In a better-known Supreme Court case, Board Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico, the court issued guidelines, in part, that ensured books can’t be removed from school libraries because a school board disagrees with the themes or opinions in the literature.

Challenges arise

Each year, librarians and library staff across the state undergo Oklahoma Library Association training for how to deal with book challenges. Librarians are encouraged to set library policies and establish plans to deal with patrons who are unhappy with books in the collection. Often, communication diffuses or clears up misunderstandings before they become written complaints. Public libraries strive to never remove books, but certain situations call for moving books to other sections or behind the counter. “Our goal is to make sure that anyone

rebel readers

to do to restoring the supremacy of equality, respect

Oklahoma Gazette asked Oklahoma City metro fine

1950s.”

arts leaders about their “best-loved” banned or chal-

and love over bigotry and hate. A work like Invisible Man can play a role in that effort, just as it did in the

Annually, the Oklahoma City Community College library features a display with information about banned or challenged books during national Banned Books Week. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

can choose a book they want to read and that nobody else can limit their choices,” said Cheek, chairperson of the association’s intellectual freedom committee. When an Oklahoma library is faced with a formal complaint, the state association stands ready to help. Depending on the case, the association aids with legal representation, media relations or embarks on a letter writing campaign. Three years ago, a Durant High School mother called for copies of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye to be removed from the southeast Oklahoma high school library. Cheek and other association members responded. “The librarian had a policy in place, and she stuck with it,” Cheek said. “They kept the book. It was a great example of how the process can work.”

The Lord of the rings book series by J.r.r. Tolkien Daniel Simon, editor-in-chief of World Literature Today,

and these six community leaders named titles provid-

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

ing powerful lessons on race, justice, friendship and

Danielle ezell, Oklahoma

one of the insidious forces that

overcoming unbelievable struggles. It’s time to read.

Women’s coalition executive

undermines the basic freedoms

director: “As a young reader, it

of expression that our democ-

lenged book. Often, banned books are worth reading,

Invisible Man by ralph ellison

opened my eyes to sexism and

published by the University of Oklahoma: “Censorship is

racy thrives on. Far from being

abuse that I had no personal

satanic, the characters in Tolkien’s trilogy confront

adam Ledbetter of

experience with. As an adult, it

moral choices in times of peace and war that can

Okc-based soul and R&B

saddens me that Walker’s story

teach us about the consequences of our own actions.”

duo adam & kizzie: “In

of child abuse and domestic vi-

Invisible Man, Ellison gave

olence isn’t that different from

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

a powerful and enigmatic

the harsh reality that many Oklahoma women face to-

voice to the forgotten. The

day. Only though finding their own voice and through

nameless narrator lives in a

their friendships do the characters in The Color Purple

dustrialization center (OIc) of

strange well lit nowhere and

find the strength to advocate for themselves.”

Oklahoma county, Inc. literacy

is, in fact, invisible. Through

Blair Lanning, Opportunities In-

coordinator: “Right and wrong

ness, [the narrator] lives in brighter illumination than

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

anyone else in New York. Since reading this, I have a

alyx Picard Davis, deadcenter

the way you hope it will. Follow-

growing self-awareness as a default. No matter what

Film Festival event coordina-

ing the crowd is the easy thing

the world says or thinks, the truth is the only freedom

tor: “Read the book. Allow

to do. If something is right, it

we will ever enjoy.”

Steinbeck to illustrate these

remains the right thing to do. Those of us living today

brilliant characters in your

may think we know everything and are doing every-

Okc Republican Sen. David Holt, board president

brain. Is the film good? Yes.

thing right. All one needs to do is watch the news

of Ralph ellison Foundation: “I would have hoped

Is the play good? Yes. Is the

to see that we are not better than those who came

that the racial issues addressed by Ellison were more

filmed version of the play

before us. We must continually strive to treat others

historical than current, but unfortunately, this year’s

good? Sure. But nothing com-

as we would like to be treated.”

presidential campaign has unearthed bigotry that has

pares to the first time you meet George and Lennie

been underground for a long time. I think regardless

between the pages of a paperback and bring them

of how the election turns out, the younger genera-

to life with a little bit of your imagination.”

the power of and precision of their own self-aware-

tions, of which I am a member, will have some work

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exists and is worth standing up for — even if it doesn’t turn out

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ANY CHALLENGE. ANY RISK. ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. We’re committed to recommending what is in the client’s best interest — not ours — and delivering our promises! The story of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. is nearly 90 years in the making, comparable to few and as unique in strengths as it is rich in history. Founded on the cornerstones of integrity, innovation, teamwork and empathy, Gallagher has built its legacy one success at a time. Today, our employees adhere to these same values, weaving them into their daily work. At Gallagher we know the importance of being a socially responsible company. That is why we strive every day to promote environmental, social and economic benefits to the communities in which we live and work. We believe in running our business with integrity and strong values, and pride ourselves in a culture that embodies both. Whether we are working to help our communities and the environment, or striving to always be an ethical company, Gallagher’s employees are making a difference around the world.

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introduction The besT places To Work in oklahoma

Publisher Bill Bleakley

orty outstanding Oklahoma Companies met the challenging qualifications to be selected as a 2016 Best Places to work in Oklahoma Company. We proudly submit their company profiles and salute their achievements. Companies are required to have 25 employees working in Oklahoma to be considered for eligibility. Small to medium businesses must have less than 250 employees, and large businesses must have over 250 nationally. Numerous businesses apply each year to Best Companies Group, located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which independently surveys, compiles and analyzes a comprehensive list of information.

From there, a list of finalists is created and BCG selects winners. BCG then notifies the winners and partners with Tierra Media Group to promote the honorees in this special publication, 2016 Best Places to Work in Oklahoma; okc.BIZ (the program sponsor); and Oklahoma Gazette. “Despite challenging economic conditions in our state, these outstanding companies have maintain strong workforces and high levels of esprit de corps among their employees. We congratulate all of them for their achievements through the promotion of health, wellness, training, green practices, community service and fun,” said Tierra Media Group Publisher Bill Bleakley.

produced by oklahoma GazeTTe and okc.biz company profiles by CHRiStiNe eddiNGtON If you would like to find out how your business can participate in 2017 Best Places to Work in Oklahoma, please go to bestplacestoworkok.com. To view comprehensive recipient profile listings, please go to okc.BIZ and to view this section online, please go to okgazette.com.

Partners

Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits Leading the way to building better communities through effective nonprofit management is at the heart of the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits. For over 30 years, the organization has been providing training, consulting, advocacy, membership, networking, recognition and more for Oklahoma nonprofits.

OKHR State Council As the official state affiliate of the Society of Human Resource Management, OKHR represents over 14,000 human resource professionals in Oklahoma. As an advocate of the human resource professionals, OKHR provides training, education, certification, networking and many other leadership opportunities. The organization also raises funds to contribute to the national foundation’s programs funding academic research, scholarships and more.

Greater Oklahoma City Chamber Making Oklahoma City a better place to live, work, play and visit is the primary job of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber. As a unified group of businesses, the organization works to enhance existing businesses while inspiring the growth of new companies. They are able to achieve these goals by having strong programs focused on economic development, community redevelopment, government relations, education and workforce development and tourism.

State Chamber of Oklahoma Speaking out and advocating for business is the business of the State Chamber of Oklahoma. The organization is a voice for business in the halls of the Oklahoma State Capitol and represents more than 1,000 businesses with over 350,000 employees. Simply put, with strength in numbers, the State Chamber has been speaking on behalf of thousands of Oklahoma businesses since 1926.

Thank you To our Table sponsors: BIS Delta Dental of Oklahoma Diagnostic Laboratory of Oklahoma Eide Bailly First Fidelity Bank NA Foundation HealthCare, Inc. Guardian Security Systems, Inc. High Plains Technology Center

INSURICA JE Dunn Construction Company Mercury Network Oklahoma City Indian Clinic Public Strategies, Inc Regent Bank Roderick H. Polston TBS Factoring Service, LLC Vox Printing O kg a z e t t e . c O m | s e p t e m b e r 2 8 , 2 0 1 6

rank in 2015

years on list

employees in state

% male

% female

executive team % male

executive team % female

% rate of voluntary turnover last fiscal year

edward Jones

135

eide bailly, LLP

Je dunn Construction Company

N/A

100

diagnostic Laboratory of Oklahoma

217

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

iNSURiCA

N/A

180 Medical, inc.

201

First United bank

290

Capital One Auto Finance

230

N/A

Mars Pet Care U.S.

146

Safelite AutoGlass

First Fidelity bank NA

131

encompass Home Health and Hospice

164

Cintas Corporation

143

100

Guardian Security Systems, inc.

N/A

145

100

CompSource Mutual insurance Company

N/A

company

rank in 2016

Large Companies

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edward Jones

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large business

U.S. Corporate Headquarters St. Louis, Missouri | edwardjones.com | Year Founded 1922 Company Leader Mary Maddux, financial advisor and regional leader | Status Private | Employees in State 539

he working culture at Edward Jones fosters respect, transparency and a client-centric focus. As a result, associates love working there. Financial advisors choose locations convenient to their family and community activities and set hours for that branch. It is understood that branch associates will make time for important personal activities while serving clients well. They work from anywhere using smartphones, laptops and firm-provided remote access. Financial advisors are paid to study for licenses and then go on salary while earning commissions and bonuses and receive subsidized benefits in their early years. They eventually transition to commission earnings supplemented by profitability bonuses and profit sharing and are even offered the possibility of limited partnership. As the last remaining partnership among major financial firms, Edward Jones now is owned by 20,000 limited partner associates. About half of all associates own a piece of the firm.

eide bailly, LLP U.S. Corporate Headquarters Fargo, North Dakota | eidebailly.com | Year Founded 1917 Company Leader Greg Jones, partner in charge | Status Private | Employees in State 71

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l arge business

ationally, Eide Bailly, LLP is a top 25 CPA firm with 1,600 employees and 29 offices in 13 states serving 59,000 clients and focuses on affordable housing, ag producers, closely held businesses, construction, dealerships, financial institutions, gaming, government, health care, insurance, manufacturing and distribution, nonprofits, oil and gas, renewable energy, tribes and utilities. The corporate culture statement is a downloadable bookmark and encourages employees to care for one another, conduct themselves with a high level of integrity, trust and support one another and recognize the importance of maintaining a balance between work and home life. Eide Bailly offers its employees wellness benefits, parties at the office, chair massages, casual Fridays, a healthy work-life balance and recognition programs. Thereâ€™s also a tuition-reimbursement program and financial support to help employees study for and take CPA exams. The company also makes sure to provide significant training for staff members, which means theyâ€™re confident and ready for anything.

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Je dunn Construction Company

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large business

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Kansas City, Missouri | edunn.com | Year Founded 1924 Company Leader Trent Wachsnicht, senior vice president | Status Private | Employees in State 76

E Dunn Construction Company is a 92-year-old business with offices from coast to coast. Ranked 10th nationally as a domestic general contractor, the company builds buildings with an emphasis on integrity, collaboration, wisdom, quality, sustainability and safety. What began as a small, family-run residential contractor in 1924 has become one of the top general building contractors in the country with approximate annual revenues of $2.7 billion and 20 office locations in the United States. Employees at JE Dunn can count on lots of fun and great perks and benefits. They enjoy employee and family night at Bricktown Ballpark, the opportunity to engage in community volunteer activities, skills training and development, paid time off to participate in nonprofit activities, and a progressive and collaborative office environment. All regular, full-time employees are eligible for JE Dunn’s annual cash incentive program, which shares company profits with employees based on their role in the company and individual performance.

diagnostic Laboratory of Oklahoma U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | dlolab.com | Year Founded 2001 Company Leader Bill Mosteller, CEO | Status Public | Employees in State 725

“A

s a health care organization, DLO organically has a culture of service. Not only does DLO serve its patients, they also serve each other, creating a family atmosphere,” said Bill Mosteller, Diagnostic Laboratory of Oklahoma CEO. More than 7,000 clients per year receive testing with a state-of-the-art core laboratory in Oklahoma City, two rapid response labs for emergency and same-day testing in Norman and Tulsa and 10 hospital laboratories across the state. DLO employees enjoy great benefits and perks including a matching 401(k) program, an employee stock purchase plan through Quest Diagnostics, paid holidays and vacation and a goal sharing plan through which they are recognized and rewarded. The company’s employees are on the go, and being healthy helps the individuals and the bottom line. DLO offers a comprehensive program called Blueprint for Wellness, designed to educate, motivate and reward employees to act and engage in healthier lifestyles. DLO employees also get lab benefits.

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large business

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. U.S. Corporate Headquarters Itasca, Illinois | ajg.com | Year Founded 1927 Company Leader Jerry Roberts, area president | Status Public | Employees in State 99

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large business

rthur J. Gallagher & Co. was founded in Chicago in 1927 by Arthur Gallagher. Already a successful insurance agent when he decided to build a business of his own, Gallagher pioneered the concept of risk management. He knew that by understanding his customers and helping them save money by identifying and reducing their risks, he would build strong relationships. The Arthur Gallagher consulting team helps clients design, implement and manage cost-effective benefits programs that reduce costs, improve workforce productivity, educate employees, mitigate risk and help attract, retain and develop top talent. Some of the best perks include a free vacation day within the employee birthday month, a flexible Friday schedule allowing employees to leave at noon every other Friday, flexible work hours, an annual company picnic, two floating holidays each year to be used in any manner the employee wishes and a social committee whose members build morale by organizing monthly events.

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iNSURiCA U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | insurica.com | Year Founded 1959 Company Leader Michael F. Ross, president and CEO | Status Private | Employees in State 177

NSURICA insurance management network is an independent insurance agency that specializes in core industries and business disciplines, from construction to healthcare, energy to education and beyond. “Having a fun and innovative workplace is critical to our future,” said Michael F. Ross, INSURICA president and CEO. “To sustain growth, we have to be able to demonstrate that working for INSURICA is an experience that young professionals simply cannot ignore.” Perks and privileges enjoyed by staffers include hourlong lunches, great benefit packages including competitive salaries, renovated office space with a great lunchroom and training facility that will accommodate all OKC colleagues, community involvement by company and colleagues, fun events each month sponsored by the Colleague Council and an annual holiday party. Add to that discounted tickets to various entertainment venues in and out of state, including a zoo pass, and INSURICA employees definitely have something to smile about.

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large business

180 Medical, inc.

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large business

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | 180medical.com | Year Founded 2002 Company Leader Ron Howell, CEO | Status Private | Employees in State 262

odd Brown founded 180 Medical, Inc. to help others in situations similar to his. After he suffered a spinal cord injury, he very intentionally created a company based on relationships, respect, compassion and a lot of fun. It’s called the 180 Way, and it guides every employee of 180 Medical, from the top down, in everything they do and every decision they make. Though the work is serious, the environment is casual. Employees wear shorts and flip flops to work all summer and enjoy halfday Fridays with a rotating schedule that allows employees to work 40 hours by noon on Friday then have the afternoon off. At five years, employees are gifted with a personalized bobble head that incorporates their hobbies and interests. Employees are eligible for a quarterly incentive based on a combination of company and individual performance. Managers are encouraged to have fun activities for their teams, like a quick game of Nerf hoops, dart wars with Nerf guns or special food/snack days with their team. And there’s a dance party at 9 every Friday morning in the billing department.

First United bank U.S. Corporate Headquarters Durant | firstunitedbank.com | Year Founded 1900 Company Leader Greg Massey, CEO | Status Private | Employees in State 619

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l arge business

irst United Bank opened its doors in Blue County, Choctaw Nation Territory, now known as Durant, on Oct. 2, 1900. Today, it is recognized as one of the largest, well-capitalized banking organizations in the Southwest region of the United States with assets of more than $3 billion. “Our purpose at First United is to inspire and empower others to spend life wisely, starting with our employees. We provide an environment that encourages employees to make their financial well-being, health and wellness, personal growth and faith a priority,” said Greg Massey, CEO. “When they lead their life to its fullest potential, they will then inspire and empower others along the way, creating rippling positive change in the world.” First United Bank offers employees many ways to do just that. A comprehensive wellness program includes an onsite fitness center for corporate employees and reimburses those who are not in close proximity to the corporate headquarters for fitness memberships. Flexible work schedules allow employees time to attend family functions and events.

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Capital One Auto Finance

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large business

U.S. Corporate Headquarters McLean, Virginia | capitalone.com | Year Founded 1988 Company Leader John Cook, Director, area market president | Status Public | Employees in State 440

apital One Auto Finance, a Fortune 500 company, is a diversified financial services company with more than 65 million customer accounts worldwide, and branch locations in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. It offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients. Employees enjoy a great work environment, which includes flexible work schedules, great benefits and a team-oriented culture. There are team fun days, associate engagement days and off-site town hall events, table tennis, pool and foosball tables and a video game console. Capital One encourages its associates to take responsibility for their health so they can enjoy the fruit of their labor for years to come. Associates receive gift cards for completing a variety of wellness related activities like annual health assessments. Since 2009, Tulsa Capital One Auto Finance (COAF) has been certified Gold Fit by the American Heart Association.

Mars Pet Care U.S. U.S. Corporate Headquarters Franklin, Tennessee | mars.com | Year Founded 1911 Company Leader Ronnie Taylor, plant manager | Status Private | Employees in State 146

ars Pet Care U.S. makes and distributes dry, wet, semi-moist and treat pet food. If you have a pet, chances are you know what the good folks at Mars Pet Care make: Eukanuba, Iams, Cesar, Whiskas and Pedigree are some of the companyâ€™s flagship brands. The Mars Pet Care Vision is simple: Make a better world for pets. In the process of making kitties and puppies happy, it also makes nearly 150 Oklahomans happy. Mars Pet Care employees enjoy generous vacation time and a nice retirement plan. The company gives everyone full benefits from date of hire, ample paid time off and annual variable bonuses. The Mars Volunteer Program begins on day one, too, and allows associates to support causes dear to them while pursuing their career goals with the company. Associates also enjoy tuition reimbursement, town hall meetings, peer mentoring, employee awards program, paternity leave, adoption assistance, lactation facilities, onsite personal development and stress management workshops, seminars and classes.

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10 large business

Safelite AutoGlass U.S. Corporate Headquarters Columbus, Ohio | safelite.com | Year Founded 1947 Company Leader Nathan Paul, district manager | Status Private | Employees in State 87

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11 large business

afelite AutoGlass is the nation’s largest provider of vehicle glass repair and replacement services with 6,800 MobileGlassShops™ and company stores in all 50 states. Founded in 1947, the Columbusbased company employs approximately 13,000 people across the United States. “At Safelite, we believe that happy, talented and engaged people create happy, loyal customers,” said Nathan Paul, district manager. Safelite employees love being a part of a large organization that truly cares about them and shows it. Safeliters band together to help the community. They volunteer at the food bank and other charities. Safelite works with its staffers’ schedule needs, allowing them to get their kids to school without worry. Add to that tuition reimbursement for associates who want to earn college degrees, two paid volunteer days each year for associates to volunteer their time at 501(c)(3) organizations and generous incentives and bonuses. Safelite also offers multiple discounts for fitness clubs and weight management programs.

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First Fidelity bank NA

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12 large business

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | ffb.com | Year Founded 1920 Company Leader Lee Symcox, president and CEO | Status Private | Employees in State 310

irst Fidelity Bank NA is a locally owned and operated national bank that has served the banking needs of Oklahoma and Arizona for more than 90 years. Ownership is shared by two Oklahoma families that merged their banking interests in 1992. Sure, First Fidelity employees enjoy competitive salaries and great benefit packages, but it goes beyond that. They are offered sophisticated training and career development, financial support for professional organizations they choose to join and generous paid time off. Every year, First Fidelity hosts Employee Appreciation Week, wherein each day is a fun surprise for employees and includes food and drinks, T-shirts and merchandise, drawings for concert tickets and more. Employees have a lot of fun with that, decorating their offices and taking team photos. There is also a quarterly luncheon at Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club recognizing employees that have been with the company for more than five years.

encompass Home Health and Hospice

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U.S. Corporate Headquarters Dallas | ehhi.com | Year Founded 1998 Company Leader Lisa Cahill, regional vice president | Status Subsidiary of a public company | Employees in State 611

ncompass Home Health and Hospice is one of the largest Medicare certified home health, hospice and pediatric services providers in the nation. Encompass provides skilled nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and additional services to more than 95,000 patients. Employees are equipped with a state-ofthe-art electronic medical records system, extensive training and development, career advancement opportunities, a comprehensive benefits package and generous paid time off. There are regular celebration ceremonies for Years of Service award recipients, and the companyâ€™s Encompass Rewards Program is unique: Employees earn points, which are redeemed for merchandise and/or services, for exemplary performance and conduct. The Encompass Cares Foundation provides financial resources to employees to go on medical mission trips and to assist if there is an employee hardship. Administrative time also is provided to work out in the gym located on-site or to attend one of the other wellness options offered at the clinic.

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13 large business

Cintas Corporation U.S. Corporate Headquarters Cincinnati, Ohio | cintas.com | Year Founded 1929 Company Leader Brad McNeese, Central Plains Region vice president | Status Public | Employees in State 377

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14 large business

intas Corporation provides highly specialized products and services to over 900,000 customers ranging from independent auto repair shops to large hotel chains. Cintas leads the industry in supplying corporate identity uniform programs and providing entrance and logo mats, restroom supplies, promotional products, first aid, safety, fire protection products and services and industrial carpet and tile cleaning. It operates more than 400 facilities in North America, including six manufacturing plants and eight distribution centers. The company plans monthly endearment events on a calendar in advance of the fiscal year, with activities such as shaved ice trucks, NCAA March Madness celebration, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day activities, Fourth of July cookouts, and “just because” days with nachos, root beer floats, popcorn or popsicles. The company offers an annual health screening with a 34-panel comprehensive screening, health history questionnaire and age- and gender-specific tests. Participants can receive discounts off their weekly insurance premiums for participating.

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Guardian Security Systems, inc.

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15 large business

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Tulsa | csg-guardian.com | Year Founded 1999 Company Leader Richard Ginsburg, CEO | Status Public | Employees in State 335

uardian Security Systems, Inc., a subsidiary of Central Security Group, remodeled its corporate offices and employee fitness center and provided every staff member with ergonomic chairs and desks that can be used sitting or standing. Central Security Group is a top 10 provider of monitored security and home automation services in the United States. The company operates Guardian Security Systems, Oklahoma’s largest security company for 40 years, and maintains a state-of-theart monitoring and customer service center in Tulsa. The company also provides affordable and convenient monitored security, home automation and energy management solutions that create more convenience, comfort and peace of mind. Among its many charms are its quarterly town hall meeting with the CEO and company leadership, a comprehensive and competitive benefits package, free healthy snack days, a casual dress code and lots of employee recognition. There is Starbucks coffee provided on-site at no cost to employees, and bonus opportunities abound.

CompSource Mutual insurance Company U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | compsourcemutual.com | Year Founded 1933 Company Leader Jason Clark, president and CEO | Status Private | Employees in State 359

ompSource Mutual Insurance Company is the leading provider of workers’ compensation insurance in Oklahoma and has protected Oklahoma’s workforce for more than 80 years. The company culture focuses on providing outstanding customer care experiences for its stakeholders, which is achieved with the support of a phenomenal employee base. In fact, employee commitment is one of CompSource Mutual Insurance Company’s six guiding principles. Whether it’s the robust benefits package, paid time off to volunteer, tuition reimbursement or parental leave, CompSource Mutual is invested in being one of the best places to work in Oklahoma. “We want employees to feel valued and to understand how each of them contributes to the overall success of CompSource,” said Jason Clark, president and CEO. All full-time employees are offered lucrative incentives such as a plan based on company performance metrics and individual performance levels. A custom employee recognition program also includes awards for exceeding standards.

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BP T W 2016 okC . BIz

16 large business

kc.BIZ recognizes contributions by companies and individuals that enhance and advance the business community in central Oklahoma. okc.BIZ endeavors to accomplish this through three annual programs: Best of Business, Best Places to Work in Oklahoma and Forty Under 40. All programs are available online at okc.BIZ.

Best of Business recognizes local businesses chosen by their peers in 24 categories. Votes are cast online throughout the year for their favorite suppliers and business partners. Best of Business honorees voted in the top five within each category receive an award at the annual awards luncheon.

3701 N. Shartel Ave. OKC, OK 73118 405.528.6000

recognizes Oklahoma businesses that represent ideal workplace environments through dedication, creativity and commitment to their employees. Through an employee participation survey, employers are graded and required to meet a minimum standard to be included in the honor. Companies that reach this benchmark are then ranked by Best Companies Group in large and small company categories. Information can be found at www. bestplacestoworkok.com

individuals who have made significant contribution to shaping the Oklahoma City landscape before reaching 40 years of age. The okc.BIZ Forty Under 40 program accepts candidates through a nomination process, with hundreds of potential honorees. After a stringent application, review and board-led deliberation, the honorees for each year are chosen and celebrated at an annual cocktail awards event.

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rank in 2015

years on list

employees in state

% male

% female

executive team % male

executive team % female

% rate of voluntary turnover last fiscal year

Foundation Medical Staffing

Public Strategies, inc.

100

Nextep, inc.

Allegiance Credit Union

N\A

Mercury Network

N\A

People Source Staffing Professionals

N\A

interWorks

Southern Oklahoma technology Center

N\A

Oklahoma City indian Clinic

Vi Marketing and branding

N\A

Regent bank

N\A

100

tbS Factoring Service, LLC

High Plains technology Center

100

Sunbeam Family Services

Swagelok Oklahoma | West texas

N\A

delta dental of Oklahoma

industrial Controls of Oklahoma, LLC

Vox Printing

Roderick H. Polston

N\A

Republic bank & trust

biS

Gemini industries, inc.

N\A

100

Foundation HealthCare, inc.

MONSCieRGe USA LLC

N\A

company

rank in 2016

Small/Medium Companies

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Foundation Medical Staffing

BP T W 2016 okC .BIz

small business

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Salt Lake City, Utah | foundationmedicalstaffing.com, a division of CHG Healthcare Services (chghealthcare.com) | Year Founded 1999 Company Leader Matt Rice, senior director | Status Private | Employees in State 29

s a corporation, Foundation Medical Staffing has specialized in temporary and permanent dialysis staffing services for medical facilities nationwide since 1999. The dialysis nurses, dietitians, managers and patient care technicians for whom Foundation finds assignments value the companyâ€™s dedicated efforts on their behalf. Foundation Medical Staffing is part of the CHG Healthcare family of companies. Wellness is a big priority at Foundation Medical Staffing. The company holds an annual Rock Your Body weight-loss contest and personal fitness goal program. Its Wellness Pays program allows employees to receive a discount on health insurance, and the Families in Fitness program promotes healthy living at home. Other wellness programs include a fitness journal, a healthy pregnancy program, smoking cessation and a patient advocacy service that is free to employees. A nurse practitioner visits the office each month for health coaching.

Public Strategies, inc. U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | publicstrategies.com | Year Founded 1990 Company Leader Mary Myrick, chief executive officer | Status Private | Employees in State 72

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s mall business

ublic Strategies, Inc. is a private, values-driven project management and strategic planning firm serving sectors such as education, faith, child welfare and family/relationship-building programs. Its portfolio includes the National Marriage Resource Center, Family Expectations and Urban Services. Under the leadership of president and CEO Mary Myrick, Public Strategies has grown from a one-woman operation to a comprehensive project management and communications firm. At the present time, 56 percent of the employees in the companyâ€™s workforce identify as part of a minority group. There are also free tickets to community events such as Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma productions and OKC Thunder and Dodgers games and company-paid or reimbursed incentives to maintain health and fitness, like gym reimbursement, weight-loss incentives and immunizations. Food trucks make regular appearances on-site, and there employee summer hours and competitive benefits. Add to that extended paid holidays, employee recognition programs and casual dress days.

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Nextep, inc.

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small business

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Norman | nextep.com | Year Founded 1996 Company Leader Brian Fayak, founder, president and CEO | Status Private | Employees in State 79

extep, Inc. is a professional employer organization (PEO) acting as an offsite human resources department for small- to medium-sized businesses and manages key employee-related functions such as payroll, employee benefits, tax and HR compliance and workers comp. Nextep provides everything a business owner needs for worldclass HR. Workspaces have sit/stand desks, and there is a break room with a PlayStation 4, a quiet room, a nursing room and a coffee bar. Nextep financially contributes heavily to benefits and employee development. It provides SmartDollar, a Dave Ramsey financial wellness program, for free, and employees can serve the community via Nextep’s paid community service program. Fun annual activities and events include its softball team, the Memorial Marathon, a family fun day, Dragon Boat racing, and a Christmas party with Santa gifts for Nextep progeny. Quality and contribution bonuses, employee referrals, employee client referrals and Christmas bonuses are also part of Nextep’s incentive program.

Allegiance Credit Union

BP T W 2016 okC .BIz

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | allegiancecu.org | Year Founded 1963

Company Leader Lynette Leonard, president and CEO | Status Nonprofit financial cooperative | Employees in State 80

llegiance Credit Union offers its staff a plethora of pertinent perks that include tuition reimbursement, a clothing allowance, a 401(k) matching program, holiday bonuses for both full- and part-time employees, plenty of vacation and sick time accumulation and a paid birthday holiday for each employee. Most impressive, however, is what 2015 Allegiance employee of the year Lynn Pahdoco calls “the most positive management style she’s ever encountered.” Allegiance’s promise of cultivating friendly people who give smart service has created an efficient, competent work environment that includes a spirit of innovation, creativity and community service. “While we are very intentional about providing the best service for our members, we are always mindful that we must provide the best work environment for our employees,” said Carol Gill, human resources director. “We have several employees who are embarking upon their third and fourth decade as an employee here at Allegiance. That speaks volumes and is the ultimate testament that perhaps we’re on the right track.”

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s mall business

Mercury Network U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | mercuryvmp.com | Year Founded 2008 Company Leader Jennifer Miller, president | Status Private | Employees in State 67

BP T W 2016 okC .BIz

small business

ercury Network is a leading provider of appraisal vendor management and workflow software to institutional lenders and appraisal management companies. More than 700 lenders and AMCs rely on Mercury Network to power more than 10,000 appraisal deliveries a day. That’s why Mercury’s perks are so spoton. They start with free food. There’s a fully stocked kitchen area for breakfast, lunch and snacks. Staff enjoys generous Christmas vacation: Two weeks fully paid in addition to normal paid time off. Add to that flexible work hours, fun stuff like a basketball court, a pingpong table, darts and workout machines, free Pilates workouts during lunch three days a week, a swanky annual party and a generous bonus plan averaging $300-$500 per month. An employer-sponsored employee assistance program is made available. Mercury also offers daily walking groups to offset daily desk sitting. To blow off steam, the company has indoor snowball fights.

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People Source Staffing Professionals

BP T W 2016 okC .BIz

small business

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | peoplesourceok.com | Year Founded 2002 Company Leader David Bozalis, owner | Status Private | Employees in State 26

eople Source Staffing Professionals provides temporary associates to companies that need help in all areas of business. It provides a wide range of staffing services to about 200 clients, including Hobby Lobby and Kimray, Inc. “My vision is to create and maintain a workplace where everyone would love coming to work because they are working with people who care for them,” said People Source founder and OKC native David Bozalis. According to staff, People Source has an “unbelievable owner that provides a great family environment.” It also has a host of great perks, including company-paid benefits, flexible working schedules designed around family, spot bonuses for great work, random lunches brought in for appreciation and incentive plans for the sales development and branch management. Staff earns service awards and luncheons, there is a sabbatical program, early departure and rotating schedules for time off and each staff member enjoys two additional paid holidays off.

interWorks U.S. Corporate Headquarters Stillwater | interworks.com | Year Founded 1996 Company Leader Behfar Jahanshahi, CEO | Status Private | Employees in State 94

rom servers and storage to development and visualization, InterWorks provides the best in full-spectrum IT and data solutions. Leveraging innovative technology from partners like Dell and Tableau Software, the company helps organizations across the globe build foundations for sustained success. “Ever since we began 20 years ago, we’ve made it a point to break away from stuffy corporate norms and let our employees define what we want to be as a company. This sense of ownership and camaraderie definitely makes for happier employees, ” said Behfar Jahanshahi, the consulting firm’s CEO. Take 94 IT professionals and add to that a laid-back work environment, company-sponsored events (such as barbecues, a huge holiday party, Oklahoma Freewheel, team meetups and sporting events) and free memberships to gyms and zoos. Additionally, employees enjoy in-office pingpong, pool tables, video games and snack bars, mix a dash of monthly massage, coffee days and frequent catered lunches. It also offers employees a health care FSA, dependent care FSA and group accident, group disease and group disability coverage.

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s mall business

Southern Oklahoma technology Center

BP T W 2016 okC .BIz

small business

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Ardmore | sotc.edu | Year Founded 1966

Company Leader David Powell, superintendent | Status Public | Employees in State 90

n August 1966, Southern Oklahoma Area Vocational and Technical Center (SOTC) opened as part of Ardmore Public School District I-19. It was governed by the Ardmore Board of Education through June 1977, when the district was formed into a separate vocational-technical school district (VT-20). Southern Oklahoma Technology Center recognizes that the success of local economic development efforts is directly connected with the area’s ability to supply the required, technically trained workforce. The center continues to serve high school students and adults. SOTC has a capacity for 760 students and served 749 students in 2015. At SOTC, work/life balance is a priority, and employees receive ample time off. Wellness Committee activities throughout the year have a $1,000 total budget. There’s a 403(b) employer-matching retirement plan, Certified Healthy Workplace Initiatives, an indoor/outdoor walking and jogging track, Christmas bonuses and a tuition reimbursement program, and the SOTC Board of Education pays for health insurance and offers dental and vision plans.

Oklahoma City indian Clinic

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | okcic.com | Year Founded 1974 Company Leader Robyn Sunday-Allen, CEO | Status Private | Employees in State 167

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s mall business

klahoma City Indian Clinic (OKCIC) serves more than 19,000 American Indians in central Oklahoma, providing culturally sensitive health and wellness services from talented and devoted employees. OKCIC is a unique organization serving Native Americans from more than 220 federally recognized tribes with a vision “to be the national model for American Indian health care.” Staff and their dependents enjoy a robust benefit package paid 100 percent by the clinic. There’s an annual performance bonus based on performance review score for qualified employees. The clinic offers a 401(k) after 90 days of employment. Staff meetings are conducted quarterly, and one is an annual off-site retreat with a motivational speaker. Benefits also include birthday leave and generous PTO (15-42 days) with rollover and cash-out options, Christmas bonuses, casual Fridays and administrative time provided to work out in the on-site gym or attend one of the other wellness options offered make OKCIC a great place to work.

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Vi Marketing and branding

BP T W 2016 okC .BIz

10 small business

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | vimarketingandbranding.com | Year Founded 1989 Company Leader Tim Berney, president | Status Private | Employees in State 60

resident Tim Berney’s company, VI Marketing and Branding, launched in 1989, after the media buying company he worked for went belly-up. Necessity is the mother of invention, and Berney took a leap, scored a few clients and struck out on his own. Before long, he had enough business to hire a staff, and the accounts just kept coming. The agency has done work for the The Oklahoma City Zoo, Little Caesars, Trane, Taco Mayo and many others. Colorado and Missouri offices followed. How do you keep 60 creative employees happy? Pay them well and make work fun. Add to that quarterly profit distribution, summer hours, sponsorship of employee sports teams and race entries, efficiency bonuses and soul-satisfying pro-bono and financial support for United Way, Variety Care and Destiny School for troubled teens and the picture becomes clear. The entire culture is built around the notion that work should include an element of fun. Staff programs include beer club and Family Feud contests. VI’s philosophy is to get the work done well — not work eight hours per day with your head down.

Regent bank U.S. Corporate Headquarters Tulsa | bankregent.com | Year Founded 1898 Company Leader Sean Kouplen, CEO | Status Private | Employees in State 60

egent Bank is a locally owned community bank founded almost 120 years ago in Nowata. Regent has since opened additional offices in Tulsa and Oklahoma City and is dedicated to becoming the state’s premier business bank. The same set of core values that guides the bank’s business practices guides how employees are treated. Regent Bank employees can count on a family-like atmosphere with coworkers, free snacks, holiday parties, an employee relief fund, fitness and wellness challenges and paid volunteer time during work hours. All employees are also eligible to participate in Regent’s stakeholders bonus program. When it comes to staying healthy, Regent pays 100 percent of health insurance premiums for full-time employees, offers lactation facilities for nursing moms and offers paternity leave. Free or discounted tickets to local family entertainment or sporting events and on-site personal development and/or stress management workshops, seminars or classes go even further toward helping staff maintain a healthy work-life balance.

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small business

tbS Factoring Service, LLC U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | tbsfactoring.com | Year Founded 2004 Company Leader Wood Kaufman, owner and managing member | Status Private | Employees in State 130

BP T W 2016 okC .BIz

12 small business

BS Factoring Service, LLC provides simple and flexible cash flow solutions with freight bill factoring. TBS also provides financial solutions to companies outside the transportation niche through TBS Capital Funding. “When customer service is how you differentiate yourself in the marketplace, it’s important to treat our employees like we want them to treat our clients,” said Wood Kaufman, TBS owner. Employees enjoy a generous bonus program based on company profitability, 100 percent paid health benefits, company picnics and holiday parties, regular employee appreciation events, great associate development programs and paid time off for community service. The list goes on: yearly on-site wellness checks for employees, TBS-sponsored sports teams, Holistic Wellness Lunch and gym access help staffers stay fit in more ways than one. TBS also offers tuition reimbursement to encourage its team members to further their education and paid training to gain the necessary knowledge in their fields to advance their careers.

www.allegiancecu.org 405-789-7900 Federally insured by NCUA O kg a z e t t e . c O m | s e p t e m b e r 2 8 , 2 0 1 6

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High Plains technology Center

BP T W 2016 okC .BIz

13 small business

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Woodward | hptc.edu | Year Founded 1982 Company Leader Dwight Hughes, superintendent and CEO | Status Private | Employees in State 50

igh Plains Technology Center is part of a network of 29 career technology centers in the Oklahoma Career and Technical Education system. The center offers dozens of full-time career programs, short-term day and evening classes and public access for meetings and training opportunities — from practical nursing to oil and gas industry training — to make career education a reality for high schoolers, adults and businesses and industries in northwest Oklahoma. The working environment at High Plains is family-friendly and life-friendly. Everyone has periodic emergencies and/or issues that need to be handled, and even with the wide variety of positions and tasks, staff schedules allow for flexibility so coworkers can willingly jump in to ensure everything runs smoothly when someone is called away from work. The company pays 100 percent of employee health, prescription, vision and dental insurance and teacher retirement system premiums and offers an alternate Social Security plan with contribution to an annuity.

Sunbeam Family Services U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | sunbeamfamilyservices.org | Year Founded 1907 Company Leader Jim Priest, CEO | Status Nonprofit | Employees in State 159

BP T W 2016 okC .BIz

14 small business

unbeam Family Services has provided help, hope and opportunity to people of all ages at all stages of life since founder Lizzie Swisher went door-to-door in Heritage Hills and Mesta Park neighborhoods and began collecting funds for a children’s home in 1907. Services include individual, child and family counseling; early childhood education like Head Start and Early Head Start programs; foster care family recruitment; and education, senior services and support to grandparents raising grandchildren. Employees receive a generous benefit package, including very affordable medical coverage for less than $20 a month. Sunbeam recognizes one or more employees each month, features a peer recognition program and offers paid time off awarded on longevity. Paid time off starts with 10 days per year, and Sunbeam closes between Christmas and New Year’s, providing paid time off so employees can rest and observe the season according to their customs. Qualified personnel are offered a salary, and financial incentives are available if they reach specified goals.

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Swagelok Oklahoma | West texas

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Broken Arrow | okwt.swagelok.com | Year Founded 1977 Company Leader Tim Barney, president | Status Private | Employees in State 36

BP T W 2016 okC .BIz

15 small business

wagelok Oklahoma | West Texas focuses on the sales and distribution of gas and fluid systems components, such as tube fittings, valves, tubing and gauges. Oklahoma Fluid Solutions LLC (dba Swagelok Oklahoma | West Texas) was founded in 1977 and has served as the authorized sales and service center for customers seeking the highest quality fluid system products and solutions in the industry. Founded in 1947 in Solon, Ohio, the privately held company eschews pressure for short-term results, developing a worldwide business worth $2 billion. Each year, its charitable foundations and trusts support more than 100 charities with donations of $3.5 million. In addition, Swagelok associates serve on over 70 local nonprofit boards. Swagelok employees enjoy a collaborative work environment that is relaxed yet professional, monthly birthday lunches, a quarterly associate incentive program for operations, extended time off benefits, bonuses for referring new hires, profit sharing, recycling and community outreach programs and its Giving Means Living program, which gives each associate $500 per year to donate to charity.

We like the feel-good aspect of helping people get jobs, this is what makes People Source Staffing the best place to work!

2925 United Founders Blvd. OKC, OK | 405.943.2600 peoplesourceok.com 52

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delta dental of Oklahoma

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16 small business

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | deltadentalok.org | Year Founded 1973 Company Leader John Gladden, president and CEO | Status Nonprofit | Employees in State 129

dvancing the oral wellness of all Oklahomans is part of the company’s not-for-profit mission. Delta Dental of Oklahoma has established itself as the market leader by providing quality dental benefit programs and superior service to its clients while offering dental plans designed to fulfill the needs of its constituents. The crew at Delta Dental enjoys employee appreciation week and lots of treats — ice cream day, holiday parties, coffee and smoothie day and hot chocolate day — offset with a team rowing event at Devon Boathouse and an onsite wellness area with treadmills, a bike, free weights and an elliptical machine. The company pays for flu shots for employees and their dependents. Many employees enjoy half-day and casual Fridays. The company holds an annual, sevenday celebration, Employee Appreciation Week, which is dedicated to thanking staff. Cultivating a positive workplace uplifts our employees and strengthens their resolve to deliver a superior experience to all of our customers,” said John Gladden, president and CEO.

industrial Controls of Oklahoma, LLC

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Tulsa | ico-llc.com | Year Founded 1980 Company Leader Michael Huckaby, manager | Status Private | Employees in State 80

BP T W 2016 okC .BIz

17 small business

ndustrial Controls of Oklahoma, LLC (ICO) is an industrial electrical contractor that furnishes electrical construction services to large corporate customers in the northeastern Oklahoma region. Its projects and expertise span everything electrical, from the smallest electrical measurement signals to the largest incoming power lines at thousands of volts. ICO is a place where people want to build their careers for the long-term. The company’s culture, programs and training are intentionally planned to help people reach and expand their full potential. Perks include a four-day workweek with flexible time off, an in-house educational system offers many career development programs, annual summer and holiday parties and paid time off to volunteer with community service partners, and practical programs like tool discounts, college reimbursement programs and safety recognition lunches. There is a wide array of incentives and bonuses available to employees at all levels. The company also has a robust matching retirement plan.

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Vox Printing

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18 small business

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | voxprint.com | Year Founded 1971 Company Leader LaVerna Reid, CEO | Status Private | Employees in State 67

or more than 46 years, Vox Printing has been a leader in the printing of materials — tray liners, placemats, coupons, direct mail pieces and newspaper inserts — for quick-service restaurants. Vox also prints promotional items like bag stuffers and pads. If Vox hits its annual revenue goal, which it has the last few years, employees receive a $1,000 bonus. One of the more unique perks is its company chaplain. A pastor visits each week for confidential mental, emotional and spiritual guidance. One hundred percent of employee health insurance premiums are paid by the company, and the vice president of production makes each employee a cake on his or her birthday. The Vox workout room is equipped with treadmills and weights, and employees’ families are welcome to use it, too. There are employee-led boot camp classes, a racquetball court that can be converted to basketball or volleyball court, a disc golf course and soccer and softball fields. There is also a playground and walking paths around the Vox campus.

Roderick H. Polston

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | irshelpoklahoma.com | Year Founded 2001 Company Leader Roderick H. Polston, president and senior attorney | Status Private | Employees in State 69

oderick H. Polston helps individuals and business owners who owe money to the IRS or state. It is one of the largest tax resolution firms in the country and successfully resolved nearly 2,000 cases in 2015. The firm has over 80 employees in seven offices spanning two states. Polston’s passion for his employees and clients does not stop at the front door of his office. Polston’s Servant Heart Foundation has donated thousands of dollars to causes in Oklahoma. Although the firm is pleased with the recognition it has received from its many business and legal accomplishments, the employees at Polston are most proud of giving back to the communities they serve. In addition to annual Christmas family donations, Polston’s staff enjoys celebrating one another through the Employee of the Month program and the Innovator of the Year award, wherein employees submit ideas to improve the firm. The top winner receives a trip to New York City, and runner-ups receive gift cards. Company happy hours and office or department potlucks add to the family feeling of the business.

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19 small business

Republic bank & trust

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Norman | rbt.com | Year Founded 1988 Company Leader Chuck R. Thompson, president and CEO | Status Private | Employees in State 156

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20 small business

he bank was established in 1988, and in the years since, it has opened locations in Norman, Noble and south Oklahoma City. It is the only bank originally chartered in Norman, which means itâ€™s the only one not owned by out-of-towners. Republic Bank & Trust is all about incentives. It has established a performance-based incentive (PBI) program, which compensates bankers based upon their individual job performance with a bank financial performance component included as well. Republic offers a referral incentive program for a variety of services that provide monthly or quarterly payouts to bankers for each qualified and sold referral. Republic has a merit-based program that allows bankers the chance to be recognized for exhibiting one or all of our core values of attitude, accuracy and action. Republic hosts an annual health fair in which employees can receive free health screenings and healthy lifestyle education. Bankers also have access to the professional, health and wellness reimbursement program. They also are eligible for discounts at local fitness centers.

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biS

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21 small business

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Edmond | bisok.com | Year Founded 1986 Company Leader Danny Rotelli, president and CEO | Status Private | Employees in State 87

IS is a full-service information technology provider and integrator of highquality document and data management systems. Since its founding in 1986, the company has continually kept pace with the ever-changing tech landscape. Employees love having the freedom to do their work without being micromanaged or made to feel like they’re in a corporate environment. BIS’ great benefits package, generous bonuses, company-owned mobile food trailer that regularly caters meals for employees, stress relievers like a pingpong table and video games, random parties, events, gatherings and product challenges that can award up to $1,500 for creative uses for BIS products and/or services open to sales, development and professional services make it feel far from corporate. “Our team members are our greatest assets, and we are committed to continuing to look for ways to make BIS a family-friendly place that our employees are proud to call their home away from home,” said Danny Rotelli, president and CEO.

Gemini industries, inc. U.S. Corporate Headquarters El Reno | gemini-coatings.com | Year Founded 1964 Company Leader David Warren, CEO | Status Private | Employees in State 107

l Reno’s Gemini Industries, Inc. was founded by William H. Smith in 1964 and offers a complete line of wood finishing products and support materials including varnishes, lacquers, stains, touch-up and repair, primers and sealers, urethanes, acrylics and exterior wood stains. Each Gemini product and service offers a promise exemplified in the company’s slogan, “Finish With Excellence.” Gemini is employee-owned. “Some of our best business decisions have come from employee-owners working on the floor of our manufacturing plant, because they are the ones who know what an impact these decisions can make,” said Jerry Nelson, Gemini human resource generalist. At the top of the list of programs that employee-owners love the best is the profitsharing program. Runners up include benefits like anniversary celebrations; annual golf, basketball, softball and bowling tournaments; company reimbursement for gym memberships and weight loss programs; monthly incentives; cash awards for reaching milestones; lunch-and-learns; a health fair with free flu shots; and a chili cookoff.

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22 small business

Foundation HealthCare, inc.

U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | fndh.com | Year Founded 1996 Company Leader Stanton Nelson, CEO | Status Public | Employees in State 112

BP T W 2016 okC .BIz

23 small business

oundation HealthCare, Inc. is an industry-leading surgical hospital and ambulatory surgical center management and development company focused on partnering with physicians and employees to create an outstanding patient experience while maximizing partner and shareholder value. Foundation HealthCare keeps things fresh with monthly birthday/anniversary celebrations, an executive cookout, a Thanksgiving potluck and Christmas parties. In the summer, employees enjoy casual dress. There are Oklahoma City Thunder tickets, Christmas bonuses and even a popcorn machine and shuffleboard court in the break room. Employees are provided flexible working hours along with a full benefits package including stock in the organization. There is also tuition reimbursement for those employees seeking to attain their college degrees and lots of opportunity to attend educational conferences and seminars. Foundation financially supports employeesâ€™ certification education and testing, resulting in many of its employees being certified in their fields of expertise.

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MONSCieRGe USA LLC U.S. Corporate Headquarters Oklahoma City | monscierge.com | Year Founded 2009 Company Leader Marcus Robinson, CEO | Status Private | Employees in State 38

magine yourself in a totally unfamiliar city. What’s the simplest way to figure out what local retailers, eateries and venues have to offer? If your hotel is smart, like the 1,500 MONSCIERGE-using hotels out there, it offers you the services of this innovative Oklahoma City company, which has built a platform and app that connects people with the information they need when traveling. The standout feature of the MONSCIERGE USA LLC workplace is its friendliness and flexibility. Employees set their own work schedules. There are cookies on Thursdays and surprise pancake days. The work is fulfilling and challenging, and MONSCIERGE will help employees further their educations. There are several lucrative bonus opportunities available to all employees. The Testimonial Letter Bonus puts $150 in an employee’s wallet when they receive a reference letter from a client. Performance bonuses starting at $500 are also available and compensate the hard work and diligence of the company’s employees.

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24 small business

O kg a z e t t e . c O m | s e p t e m b e r 2 8 , 2 0 1 6

Only amazing employees could help make First Fidelity Bank a

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Heathers: The Musical 8 p.m. Oct. 7-8, 14-15, 20-22, 27-29; 2 p.m. Oct. 16 and 23 The Pollard Theatre 120 W. Harrison Ave., Guthrie thepollard.org 405-282-2800

performing arts

$15-$30

Severe Heathers

Guthrie’s Pollard Theatre puts on an even campier musical version of the ’80s cult film. By Ben Luschen

W. Jerome Stevenson said he was just the right age to see the 1988 cult comedy Heathers in its original movie release. Yet, somehow, the film that helped launch the careers of Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and Shannen Doherty initially passed under the radar for the present-day artistic director at Guthrie’s Pollard Theatre. It wasn’t until Stevenson was much older that he saw the movie version, but that has not affected his love for the story or his appreciation of the real-life world it foreshadowed. Stevenson directs Heathers: The Musical, an onstage adaptation of the film, opening Oct. 7 at The Pollard, 120 W. Harrison Ave., Guthrie. It might be for the better that Stevenson was late to the Heathers party. The story might be more relevant today than it was in the ’80s. “When you look at it from 2016’s eyes, it’s really prophetic and in a lot of ways disturbing and telling and a cautionary tale,” Stevenson said.

School camp

In the film, students at a fictional high school are grouped into a social hierarchy ruled by three friends all named Heather. The Heathers invite Veronica (Ryder) to join their clique, but their rude and selfish behavior soon turns her off to the group. Veronica falls under the romantic influence of loner J.D. (Slater), who is later revealed to have dark and murderous tendencies. Stevenson said the rock musical adaptation by Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy also features a score that has become popular among young performers. The director still remembers the first time he heard the play’s opening number, “Beautiful.” “Your hands are sweaty and you’re a little nervous,” he said. “Things escalate and you’re like, ‘Wow, this is a real rollercoaster ride and I’m fully engaged at this point.’” Stevenson said Pollard decided on Heathers because it was looking for a darker, newer addition to its season. In the past, it has done Evil Dead: The Musical and other horror productions. Heathers seemed to fit that bill and was especially

Jared Blount and Hannah Finnegan play high school students J.D. and Veronica in The Pollard Theatre’s production of Heathers: The Musical. | Photo Joshua McGowen / provided

appropriate for the Halloween season. The film version of Heathers is a serious story with dark humor elements. Stevenson said the musical production plays up the campiness and lets the darkness take audiences by surprise. It takes the typical Mean Girls-type story and turns it on its ear. “It really kind of brings into question, ‘How are we complicit in this era of bullying? How are we complicit in this environment of violence and not listening to people when that’s so clearly what they need?’” he said. Stevenson had the Heathers script for a long time before Pollard finally decided to put on the show. When casting started for the musical, organizers found many young performers were already captivated with the popular 2014 Off-Broadway production. They had actors from across the state respond to the casting call. “When we announced the audition for it, there was a palpable energy and excitement about that,” he said. “When we held the audition, we saw lots of unique people — people we had never seen before.” Hannah Finnegan plays Veronica in the Pollard production. She previously worked with the theater in its 2012 Legally Blonde musical. Jared Blount was cast in the role of J.D. fresh off his turn as Johnny in this summer’s production of Green Day’s American Idiot. Emily Pace, Claudia Fain and Mariah Warren make up Pollard’s trio of Heathers. Stevenson said all the leads are incredibly strong actors well-suited for their roles. “They inherently get the environment that the show takes place in, but they also get the larger story, which is that the audience should really question whether or

not these girls are the villains,” Stevenson said. “I think we inherently think of them as the villains and that’s a little bit of a misjudgment.”

Common angst

Stevenson praised “Beautiful” as a textbook opening song that lays out exactly what the audience needs to know. He compared it to other great openers like “Tradition” in Fiddler on the Roof and the opening ballad in Sweeney Todd. The score also contains songs about high school insecurities and others containing overtly sexual jokes and romantic frustrations. “It really touches on that high school angst and really helps the audience understand, through the course of the evening, that it is not unique, that most people go through it,” Stevenson said. “You just feel like you’re alone because you don’t know how to communicate it.” Heathers will be a popular draw among Generation Xers who want to connect with the ’80s film in a new way. Stevenson said because of the complete and unfiltered picture the musical paints of the highschool experience, the production also should find an audience with current high school students and parents. The musical, he said, could open eyes to the legitimacy (at least as perceived by a teenager) of trauma and the high school experience. “It can be much more difficult to process this when you’re only 16 and everything is so urgent,” he said. “You don’t have the perspective of being 43 and realizing that this, too, will pass.”

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performing arts

arts & CULtUre

Good times Local performer Balthazar applies her dedicated character acting technique to her role as music icon Glen Campbell. By Ben Luschen

performing arts

Leslie Hensley’s Glen Campbell impression was honed on a farm in central Oklahoma. The local actress and performer, often known on stage as Balthazar, performs a one-night-only birthday show as the country music legend 9 p.m. Oct. 7 on Power House’s outdoor stage, 1228 SW Second St. She will be backed on the toe-tapping, intimate night of music by her band, The Country Music Voodoo. The event also benefits the annual Socktober national sock drive. Guests are encouraged to bring a new pair of socks for donation to a local homeless shelter. Hensley enrolled in vocal and diction classes to get down both the singer’s smooth tenor and speedy Arkansas conversational twang, but it was her experience on horseback and doing farm work in rural Spencer that she said rounded her role into shape. She keeps a “Glen journal” with her to make notes while researching the singer’s popular old television series The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour and other ideas for her show. The journal’s cover features

Leslie Hensley recreates Glen Campbell impersonation Oct. 7. | Photo Chris Larwig / provided

a portrait of Campbell and his usual, subtle grin so Hensley can study his smile. Hensley channeled iconic Queen frontman Freddie Mercury last year for The Boom’s popular and well-received rock

musical The King of Queen. Campbell’s strumming is a stark change of pace from the animated and athletic Mercury. Hensley is also known as a key performer and founder of local professional wrestling company BLOW (Balthazar’s Legends of Wrestling). “It’s going to be different because I’m a very physical performer and he doesn’t move at all,” she said. “It’s all about his music and his voice and the band and how great everything sounds.” If Campbell and Mercury have anything in common, it is a magnetic presence. “Their voices are very distinctive; they’re both very amazing,” Hensley said. “They own the stage, but in different ways.” Hensley said she fell under the Rhinestone Cowboy’s spell in 2004 when she saw him perform with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic at Civic Center Music Hall. Before the show, she liked what she knew of Campbell’s tunes but was not yet aware of how familiar she already was with his body of work. Hensley said The Country Music Voodoo band name is a reference to the magic timelessness of both Campbell’s music and the genre itself. She was captivated by the musician’s performance but was even more taken when he returned for an encore of “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes. “I was just like, ‘All right; I’m done. This is awesome; you are awesome,’” she said. The night was not over yet. She made it backstage after the concert and met Campbell. Hensley, like the country music

Cherokee conjurers Father-and-son magic duo Lost City Magic’s success is no illusion. By George Lang

Jeramy Neugin and his father Bobby were working construction in North and South Carolina in 2001, but in the days after Sept. 11, work slowed and the Neugins started looking for new things to do. What they discovered was something that had always been with them in the traditions of the Cherokee Nation. And that led to swarming wasps, scorpions and severed limbs. “While we were discussing what to do, we did what we always did, which was coin tricks,” Jeramy Neugin said. “Bobby suggested we try doing magic, and so we started. We went to learning everything we could, reading every book we could read. We learned as much as we could from historical archives. From there, we went to writing other magicians, asking them where to go, what books to pick up, what to learn and what to get. And so we went off of their suggestions, finding books and DVDs and how-to tapes on that, and then we’d go to libraries and look up every

bit of information we could find on magic.” As they delved into techniques and built the foundation for Lost City Magic, a successful touring act named for their hometown near Tahlequah, they discovered their own family’s rich tradition of magic and the role that sleight of hand played in Cherokee society. One of their own ancestors, a Trail of Tears survivor named Rebecca Neugin, was a conjurer. “It’s always been part of our culture,” Jeramy Neugin said. “The Cherokees were one of the few tribes that actually had magic

The Cherokees were one of the few tribes that actually had magic as part of their daily lives. Jeramy Neugin

Bobby and Jeramy Neugin perform as Lost City Magic. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

as part of their daily lives. Just like a medicine man or a shaman, they would have their own magician or conjurer that would go around and teach everybody how to do sleight-ofhand magic. It was actually part of a ritual where, if a boy wanted to marry a girl, the magician and the girl’s parents would go and visit the boy and he’d have to put on a show and have to fool them. The theory was if he was able to fool that magician, he was clever enough to care for the girl.” What Lost City Magic does might be historically accurate, but that doesn’t mean it’s overly reverent or stodgy. If anything, Lost City Magic specializes in freaking out audiences from Tulsa to Las Vegas. Bobby Neugin’s research often leads to some of the

glen Campbell & the Country music Voodoo 9 p.m. Oct. 7 Power House 1228 SW Second St. facebook.com/balthazar.hensley powerhouseokc.com 405-702-0699 Free (recommended sock donation)

star, was born in Arkansas. The two shared tales from their home state, and the musician gave her one of his CDs. Bear Rodriguez, a guitarist in The Country Music Voodoo, said Hensley has done a good job capturing the musician’s Southern charm. “Practices are always an event,” Rodriguez said, “so I can’t wait to see what it’s going to be like live in front of an audience.” Though Hensley, for once, won’t be bounding around stage for a character, she hopes to get across just as much expression with her words and a small, subtle grin. “He doesn’t have to do a whole lot on stage because he’s so talented at the guitar and his voice carries like butter,” she said. “He sings a song with ease, and all his fingers are going a million miles a minute.”

duo’s signature illusions. “He found an Indian legend about a giant wasp that had come to life and broken out of a mountain and attacked a village,” Jeramy Neugin said. “In retelling that story, the magician would take dirt from that mountain and make a swarm of wasps emerge from his hands. So today, Bobby will put dirt in my hands and I’ll make an actual swarm of live wasps come out.” Lost City Magic is not a slow-build act; the Neugins keep the action coming throughout their set, which often involves Jeramy Neugin getting his head set on fire or having a limb severed and live scorpions pouring out of the wound. Snakes often get a raw deal in their performances, getting chopped in half, but thankfully for the snakes and the reptile advocacy groups that care about them, they are healed by the Neugins in the end. The duo spectacularly entertains their audiences with each performance, all while maintaining a tradition that was all but forgotten. Because of that, Lost City Magic stands out in the illusionist community by delivering something that feels utterly original but is as old as Cherokee society itself. “What survives today are the stories, not the magic — they kind of killed that part out,” Jeramy Neugin said. “They were the storytellers and the historians. And so that’s what we were able to come up with, and it became our signature, that we’re the only magicians who can do that today.”

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arts & CULtUre

The This Is My Brave program gives people around the country the opportunity to break stigmas by sharing their mental health stories. | Photo provided

performing arts

Featuring a cast of 40 and a 19-piece orchestra!

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Courageous tales

Oklahomans share their stories to combat the stigma surrounding mental health. By Ian Jayne

This Is My Brave: The Show 7-9 p.m. Oct. 6 the Sooner theatre 101 e. main St., Norman thisismybrave.org/events $20

Some people who struggle with mental health might not be comfortable talking about it to a trusted friend, let alone an audience. Fifteen people from all over Oklahoma will break this taboo on Oct. 6 as part of the national This Is My Brave (TIMB) program. Last May, Stephanie Bond attended the Children’s Behavioral Health Conference in Norman, where she heard Jennifer Marshall deliver a presentation. Marshall is the co-founder and executive director of This Is My Brave, Inc., a nonprofit organization devoted to reducing the stigmas surrounding those who struggle with mental health through the power of storytelling. Bond, who also has a background in journalism and public relations, decided to put on a TIMB event in Oklahoma. “I applied and talked to Jennifer, and with my background, she thought it would be a good mix,” Bond said. TIMB performances are 7 p.m. Oct. 6 at The Sooner Theatre, 101 E. Main St., in Norman. Tickets are $20 and are available at the door or online. Sales benefit TIMB, Inc. Bond said National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Oklahoma and Bethesda, Inc., representatives will also be at the event for educational purposes. “With mental illness, especially here 66

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in Oklahoma… there’s a lot of shame, there’s a lot of embarrassment,” Bond said. “It’s one of those topics we still just don’t talk about in public.” Bond described mental health attention in Oklahoma as dismal, and he said the state ranks highest in many statistics regarding mental illness and ranks lowest in funding and services. By breaking the silence, TIMB storytellers create empathy and awareness. “Storytelling puts a face on particular issues that have in the past been … stigmatized, judged,” Bond said. “We automatically put certain judgments, connotations, meanings to that.” TIMB cast members will share stories via essay, narrative, poetry and music. “My biggest joy so far has been just meeting the people who have been so brave … to come out and audition,” Bond said. “These are people, for the most part, who have never told their story to anybody.” While TIMB demonstrates the strength required of those struggle with mental health, the event also includes their support networks of friends and families. “It takes a lot of resources — mentally, physical, financially — to cope with, to care for people living with mental illness,” Bond said. “Services are so limited here in Oklahoma, in so many ways, that the ones who are living with mental illness have to rely on family members.” TIMB takes place during Mental Illness Awareness Week (Sunday through Oct. 8). “I always encourage people to learn as much as they can about mental illness, talk to their legislators as much as they can,” Bond said. “Mental illness affects us all. We’ve all had issues with depression or anxiety; you don’t get to be an adult without it.” Visit thisismybrave.org.

performing arts

Bloody romantic

Austin Reid, OU drama performance senior, rehearses with stage blood for Let the Right One In. | Photo Sandra Bent / provided

Student actors at OU sink their teeth into vampiric love story Let the Right One In. By Lauren Dow

The University of Oklahoma University nated as especially being of interest to Theatre picked the right one to open the student audiences,” Holt said. season. A producer of theater productions in New York and London, Weitzenhoffer is Now it’s time for audiences to come in. a Casady High School graduate who disThe group opened its season with Jack covered his love of the stage as a student Thorne’s stage adaptation of Let the Right at OU. One In. Helmerich School of Drama at the After years of producing plays in New University of Oklahoma (OU) is the first York City, he shifted focus to London, amateur production in the U.S. to have where he owns six theaters in the city’s West End. the rights to perform the piece. Let the Right One In continues its run That’s where Weitzenhoffer produced 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 3 p.m. the original stage adaptation of Let the Sunday in Weitzenhoffer Theatre, 563 Right One In. Elm Ave., in Norman. It wasn’t his first experience with theBram Stoker’s horrifying vision of atrical vampires, though. vampires enters the 21st century in the He won the 1978 Tony for Most play, which is based on the best-selling Innovative Production of a Revival for novel and popular film of the same name Dracula on Broadway. Holt said the play represents the deby Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist. partment’s dedication to selecting chalThe production is rated R and recommended for college-aged and older audilenging pieces for the season that take ences. full advantage of the skills of designers, technicians and performers. Director Tom Huston Orr, the school’s James Garner Chair Director, said the “It’s a very difficult play,” she said, play is a beautiful and touching love story “challenging in its script, production reabout the struggles of growing up, how quirements and emotional content.” The school hopes it appeals to a wide isolated our adolescence is and the overaudience, both for the intense story and whelming desire to connect with the complex staging. someone. Let the Right One In runs more than “It’s not a vampire story so much as a two hours and is different from the rest love story that involves a vampire,” he said. “And a lot of blood ... and some heartof the group’s upcoming season in subject stopping frights.” matter, imaginative proWeitzenhoffer Family duction style and intenCollege of Fine Arts dean sity, Holt said. Let the Right Mary Margaret Holt said The entire production One In alumnus and benefactor team embraced the chalA. Max Weitzenhoffer lenge of the piece to bring 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday was integral to bringing the unusually charged and 3 p.m. Sunday the title to the group and story to life. Weitzenhoffer Theatre helping secure the rights “It is an intriguing 563 Elm Ave., Norman production in every for its production. theatre.ou.edu “Max [Weitzenhoffer] respect,” Holt said. 405-325-4101 brought the play to our $10-$35 attention, and it reso-

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Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Live comes to the metro Oct. 6. | Photo John Kasko / provided

Tiger beat

performing arts

It’s a nostalgic experience for those of us who grew up with Mr. Rogers.” Daniel Striped Tiger was a character in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe on the original program. His son, also named Daniel, is the main character of the new animated show. Naturally, kids would want to experience Daniel Tiger’s world Daniel Tiger’s in real life, Rapp said. Neighborhood Live “This is like the second generation Mister Roger’s Neighborhood, and onstage brings the PBS it’s even more exciting,” Rapp said. “Daniel favorite from small speaks directly to his audience, the stage screen to big theater. set is colorful and vibrant and by the end of the show, all the kids are usually up and By Jessica Williams dancing.” Daniel Tiger’s transition from TV to stage significantly expands children’s education to a social setting and helps Every generation needs a guru, or simply someone to teach them how to tie shoebreak the monotony of children staring laces. From the late 1960s to the early at screens. 2000s, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood “I’ve worked on children’s productions gently guided America’s youth through for about 15 years, and kids respond well life’s early challenges and mysteries on to their favorite cartoons being transferred to live shows,” Rapp said. “Live television, speaking to young viewers like intelligent individuals. shows like this give kids the chance to Now kids experience socialize with one another the evolution of the late because of their interacFred Rogers’ concept with tive nature.” animated Daniel Tiger’s The live show incorpoDaniel Tiger’s Neighborhood on the small rates music, brief segNeighborhood screen and in a stage show. ments and direct audience Live Daniel T ig e r ’s addresses. At the core of Neighborhood Live is 6:30 the show are themes and 6:30 p.m. Oct. 6 p.m. Oct. 6 at Hudiburg lessons preparing kids to Rose State College be their best selves. Chevrolet Center, 6000 S. Hudiburg Chevrolet Trosper Road in Midwest “The show is really Center City. about helping preschool6000 S. Trosper Road, “Now more than ever, ers know that what they’re Midwest City it’s important for kids to going through is normal,” danieltigerlive.com experience education she said. “For most kids 405-297-2264 through theater,” said dithis age, this is an impor$48-$73 rector and choreographer tant time to show them how to relate to others, Jenn Rapp. “This show is a great opportunity for kids to engage with and Daniel Tiger gives them the tools to understand their emotions.” their favorite characters in a more direct way.” Echoing Mister Rogers’ communal The TV show is a spin-off of Mister ethos, Daniel Tiger reinforces the imporRogers’ Neighborhood and follows much tance of human interaction, prioritizing of its original format. friendship and communication as building “The cartoon is aimed at kids ages 2 to blocks for future generations. 6 and takes the finger puppets from Mister “I think for parents, the most enjoyable Rogers to create a new show,” Rapp said. part of the show is watching their children “Every day, Daniel Tiger gets dressed, ties stay mesmerized and active,” she said. his shoes and invites kids into the town.

s e p t e m b e r 2 8 , 2 0 1 6 | O kg a z e t t e . c O m

performing arts

First shot

Two Oklahoma authors try their hands — and voices — at traditional audio play Not Worth Shootin’. By Kara Stewart

The past meets the present in broad, new comedy Not Worth Shootin’, which premieres Friday on Film Row. This audio play provides a new take on a classic forum. Not Worth Shootin’ follows the Baines family, the self-described Kennedys of fictional Scissortail, Oklahoma. “It has sex, it has alcohol, it has murder,” said co-playwright Gaylene Murphy. “It’s about greed in a small town and spoiled, ornery people.” The show is 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Individual Artists Oklahoma (IAO) Gallery, 706 W. Sheridan Ave. Not Worth Shootin’ stars a cast of 11, including co-playwright Linda McDonald.

Inspired by classic radio dramas of another generation, Not Worth Shootin’ goes live in front of an intimate audience Friday and Saturday at IAO Gallery. | Photo bigstock.com

True to the art form that inspired it, Not Worth Shootin’ happens with the cast working around a foley table, where shoes across the boards will announce a character coming or going and an effects board can mimic the sound of closing doors. “It’s a theater for the mind,” said McDonald. Mixing the old and the new, Not Worth Shootin’ is set up to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Playwrights Murphy and McDonald became friends in 1989 at the University of Central Oklahoma’s masters program in

creative writing. Three years later, they After three months of off-and-on work, began hosting a writing group on the the play that became Not Worth Shootin’ premise of meeting at least once per month was born. Set in a small town, the audio play to discuss their work. focuses on the lives of the Baines family, “Although we’ve been writing novels who have long owned and operated the local lately, we have both written a number of seed and feed store and bank. On the scripts and screenplays,” McDonald said. surface, they appear to be the town’s leading “I retired from that to work on novels.” citizens, but then the play begins. The women laughed when asked about “They definitely put the ‘fun’ in dysfuncthe inspiration for Not Worth Shootin’. tional,” Murphy said. “It actually started when I would travel Leading characters Darla and Jananne with work,” Murphy said. “I would listen are alienated sisters who, at separate to those books on tape, and I realized the times, were married to the same man, Chad. Now, Chad has diquality of listening to a vorced Lila (whom he left story really depended on the narrator.” Jananne for) and is dating McDonald replied, “I’m Misty, his son’s ex-girlfriend Not Worth glad you remembered,” and Lila’s sister. To add to Shootin’ then laughed. “I couldn’t the excitement, Effie, Darla remember exactly how we and Jananne’s mother has a 8 p.m. Friday and got started.” reputation for being conSaturday When confronted with stantly tipsy. IAO Gallery the realization that the auIAO, the show’s producer, 706 W. Sheridan Ave. diobooks did no justice to is an organization dedicated individualartists.org the old radio programs of to sustaining and encourag405-232-6060 previous generations, ing local artists in every $15 Murphy went to McDonald medium through monthly with an idea: creating an exhibitions, educational audio play that was based in the old radioprograms and community partnerships. style program without any of the conTickets are $15 at the door, with no straints. advance tickets being sold. The box office opens at 7 p.m. Local musician Jane Mays “The old radio programs, they used to be demure family events,” Murphy said. also will perform, and a cash bar is available. “We didn’t have to worry about that, so we “You’ll want to leave the kids at home,” could have fun.” the playwrights advised.

O kg a z e t t e . c O m | s e p t e m b e r 2 8 , 2 0 1 6

ARTS & CULTURE

1. Pick uP your FREE coPy of 2. read the book 3. come to the discussion

octobER 19th

C U LT U R E

Vicki L. Mayfield started her career as a nurse and marriage and family therapist and now works with bands. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Clash healer

Therapist Vicki L. Mayfield offers conflict resolution and therapy to local musicians and bands. By Adam Holt

As with any group of people working toward a goal, particularly a creative one, band members can find themselves at odds with each other. Simon & Garfunkel don’t necessarily care for one another, the feud between Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher is legendary and most of the Guns N’ Roses musicians only recently attempted to put aside their volatile differences for a reunion tour after two decades of estrangement. One Oklahoma City behavioral health professional seeks to calm the troubled waters that can engulf area bands and musicians. Vicki L. Mayfield, a therapist and registered nurse with a master’s degree in education, stages conflict resolution and therapy for bands whose inner tensions have led the melody astray. Mayfield is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She has owned a private practice for over two decades and also works as a nurse at St. Anthony Behavioral Medicine Center. 70

s e p t e m b e r 2 8 , 2 0 1 6 | O kg a z e t t e . c O m

Her foray into the psyches of musicians began when a client who is not a musician began to speak about her connection to a local band and how its conflicts affected her life. “During the course of our work together, she formed a relationship with a band, and she began to talk about that,” Mayfield said. “At first, it was just a topic she would get on, but then I noticed it began to become more of her life, and I just said one day, ‘Why don’t we bring the band in?’” The group, comprised of two men and two women, plus her client, began meeting with Mayfield. Though cautious at first, the band quickly made headway into the causes of the tension. “At first, it was real interesting because one of the guys was very quiet and one was very talkative,” Mayfield said. “When I saw them the second time, the quiet guy was very different. He was interacting. It was the same the third time. I could just see the progression to where they begin

to look forward to this.” Mayfield said the quiet client might be the most affected and improved member of the band. “He had never been in personal therapy,” she said. “What I’ve found so interesting is that for him, it’s given him an avenue to talk. He has started talking about issues about the band that he’s never talked about before.” Mayfield approaches sessions with music acts through two lenses: conflict resolution and therapy. “I look at conflict resolution as specific issues that we are trying to deal with,” she said. For example, one always arrived late to rehearsal, which frustrated colleagues. Therapy investigates personal trauma that contributes to negative behavior. Mayfield cited an example where a mix of the two approaches was used to help heal. One band member was addicted to drugs, which caused fellow bandmates stress and resentment, and they began to distance themselves from him. As Mayfield examined the trauma of the band member, the others rallied around him. “At the end of the session, [a fellow band member] said, ‘One thing I see that I can do is be more of a friend to you,’” Mayfield said. “He said, ‘I’ve been pulling away from you. I think you need me, and I apologize to you for not being more available.’” Mayfield said she draws techniques from her marriage and family counseling experiences. “It’s kind of like family work; a band is a lot like a family,” she said. “I really liked it. It inspired me.” Mayfield admitted that this opportunity fell into her lap. If her client had not spoken about her closeness to the music act, her practice would still focus on families and married couples. “At that time, it wasn’t like something I’d ever thought about,” she said. “I hadn’t thought about doing conflict resolution with bands.” As her time with the musicians increased and the positive effects of the work became obvious to her and her clients, she realized there was a need for this type of therapy. Knowing conflict resolution and therapy usually does not cross the minds of contentious musicians, she stressed that her sessions are a safe place where the goal is to make creating music and performing more enjoyable. “I don’t want anyone to feel attacked,” Mayfield said. “We do this in a group format, and I make sure that everybody participates and gets equal time.” She said the band that helped launch the new specialty of her counseling continues to see her and its members make strides in their relationships. “I think what they really realized was that this is a really good opportunity for them to work on issues that are causing the band conflict,” Mayfield said. “’Cause they all want to make music together. They have all been very clear about that.” Contact Mayfield at 405-620-4597 or by email at vmfield@gmail.com.

C U LT U R E

Galloping glory

Rodeo Hall of Fame Weekend gives a tip of the hat to champions. By George Lang

Rodeo Hall of Fame Weekend National cowboy & Western Heritage museum 1700 Ne 63rd St. loverodeo.org | 405-2250 complete weekend packages $145-$170 Rope ’N’ Ride Reunion and cocktail reception 5:30-7:30 p.m. Friday | $30-$35 champions Dinner 5:30 p.m. Saturday | $125-$150

A full decade before the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum opened its doors, the Rodeo Hall of Fame began honoring the achievements of barrel racers, steer wrestlers, bull riders and other exemplars of rodeo mastery. When the 61st annual Rodeo Hall of Fame Inductions and Awards Weekend inducts the new slate of honorees with a 5:30 p.m. Sept. 30 cocktail reception and a 5:30 p.m. Oct. 1 Champions’ Dinner and awards ceremony, it will uphold one of the museum’s most important missions. “One of the primary functions of our organization at the time it was founded was considered to be the honoring and recognition of rodeo champions,” said Don Reeves, McCasland chairman of Cowboy Culture at National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. “Our founder and benefactor, Chester Reynolds, had seen the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore and thought that there were a lot of other individuals that should be honored, and one of those areas was rodeo.” Since its beginning, the Rodeo Hall of Fame has inducted 381 rodeo legends. This year’s honorees include team roper Jake Barnes, steer wrestler Ote Berry, team roper Clay O’Brien Cooper, steer wrestler and educator Walt Linderman, bareback rider Dan O. “Bud” Monroe and barrel racer Jimmie Gibbs Munroe and bullfighter Wick Peth. The recipient of the Tad Lucas Memorial Award is paraplegic barrel racer Amberley Snyder, and the recipient of the Ben Johnson Memorial Award is world champion steer wrestler Jack Roddy. Members of this year’s induction class will participate in a question-and-answer session at 11 a.m. Oct. 1 at the museum. Linderman, the only posthumous honoree at this year’s event, won the National Finals Rodeo’s steer wrestling aggregate title, one of the most coveted awards in professional rodeo, in 1967 and

Steer wrestler Ote Berry will be honored during the 2016 Rodeo Hall of Fame Weekend. | Photo provided

was second place in the world rodeo standings in 1966, 1970 and 1971. In 1968, Linderman founded the first of several steer wrestling schools around the country. “This was early, 1968, and what he was trying to do was pass on from his family — a heralded rodeo family — that skill and how to do that without getting hurt,” Reeves said. “His contribution to the youth through putting on these steer wrestling schools across the country did a lot for the sport.” Reeves said Rodeo Hall of Fame Inductions and Awards Weekend is more than a celebration; it’s a kind of family reunion. Active and veteran rodeo champions hail from Washington state to Florida and all points in between, so for many of the retired riders, it’s a chance to see former competitors. “This is not only a time for inducting, but it’s also for past winners and people who worked with them through the years,” he said. “They relax and renew old friendships.” Following a dip in popularity that the P rofession a l Rodeo C ow boy s Association (PRCA) reports was the result of the 2008 recession, rodeo has bounced back in popularity and participation. The PRCA sanctioned 624 rodeo national events in 2015, and Reeves said the sport’s continued success has a lot to do with the rural-to-urban migration, which leads many former ranchers and farmers to find ways to preserve their heritage. “There are more and more folks who were raised in a rural environment or in a ranching environment who go off to the city where they can make a living, and for a lot of those people, this is a chance for them to get back to their roots,” he said. “It’s something that’s ingrained in the national identity of America.” Package tickets are $145 for museum members or $170 for general admission. Visit loverodeo.org.

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Valorie Curry stars as Talia in Blair Witch. | Photo Chris Helcermanas–Benge / Lionsgate / provided

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Fear sticks

A generation after the original, Blair Witch modernizes tech around a familiar legend. By George Lang

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Horror films predicated on the notion that everything on screen comes from a lost film crew, security footage or cellphone video date back to Ruggero Deodato’s 1980 gorefest Cannibal Holocaust, but the modern era for “found footage” filmmaking began in earnest with The Blair Witch Project. Returning to Burkittsville, Maryland,17 years after the original, Adam Wingard’s Blair Witch follows a belated search-andrecovery effort by James (James Allen McCune), the much younger brother of the original’s Heather Donahue. James was only 4 years old when video of his sister’s fateful expedition into the colonial settlement of Blair was discovered, and his hope is to find more answers or maybe even Heather herself. Blair Witch doubles the number of participants/potential victims as James brings friends Lisa (Callie Hernandez), Ashley (Corbin Reid) and Peter (Brandon Scott) along for the forest trudge and enlists shifty locals Lane (Wes Robinson) and Talia (Valorie Curry) as guides. It also beefs up the potential video sources by acknowledging the 21st century’s vast technological improvements, including ear-mounted cameras (providing the eye-level, firstperson experience), cellphone cameras and a quadcopter drone. Wingard, whose darkly funny 2013 horror film You’re Next positioned him as one of the leading figures of the horror vanguard, was an inspired choice to revive this story, but the essential structure of the Blair Witch concept preordains both the action and the outcome. The one major alteration involves the passage of time. The original Blair Witch Project popularized “found footage” movies shortly before reality television productions started minting money in the U.S., and they share some similarities: They tend to be cheap to produce, and most contain identifiable and recurring tropes. When The Blair Witch Project debuted in the summer of 1999, the scares were powerful partly because the film felt like an amateur video

project gone horribly wrong. The Blair Witch Project’s $248 million worldwide gross and the nearly parallel success of the Survivor TV game show franchise came because most people had not seen anything quite like them, but the structures they established became rigidly codified in the minds of both creators and audiences. In essence, once you witness either, it’s impossible to experience anything that follows in the same way again. For Wingard’s Blair Witch, the rules of the game are both a burden and a strength. To its credit, the new film offers loyalists a corrective after 2000’s Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, a critical and commercial failure that dispensed with the found footage concept in favor of meta commentary on the original film’s success. By going back to found footage, Blair Witch shows respect for the original’s structure. But because it casts actors with established careers and thus becomes suffused with the professional acting style that comes with them, the movie simply doesn’t project that feeling of “reality” so intrinsic to The Blair Witch Project’s success. Oddly enough, most of the super-creeps in Blair Witch come from that most overused horror technique, the jump scare. They come so plentifully during the first half, it’s enough to make viewers demand that the Maryland State Legislature pass a law against sneaking up on people. As the rocks start piling up into cairns and twineand-branch figurines surround the doomed videography crew, Blair Witch becomes legitimately frightening by tapping into the original’s sense of no escape. To Wingard’s considerable credit, the final sequence does real justice to the 1999 film’s legacy, so prepare to be shocked and exhausted. Blair Witch follows the original’s plot so closely, it’s more faithful to its source material than most legitimate Hollywood remakes. As such, Blair Witch is a test case on whether a “found footage” sequel that’s actually a self-styled remake can draw curious onlookers back into the woods.

Comprehensive medical care from left Judy Davis as Molly Dunnage, Sarah Snook as Gertrude Pratt and Kate Winslet as Tilly Dunnage in The Dressmaker | Photo Ben King / Broad Green Pictures / Amazon Studios

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The Dressmaker swings with multifaceted casting and complicated storylines. By Jacob Oller

Despite a woman falling asleep on my shoulder around the film’s halfway point, The Dressmaker is not boring. Nonsensical, perhaps. Spread thin over the sheer number of genres it wishes to cover, definitely. But never boring. The Aussie novel adaptation (whose Austen-esque Gothic sensibilities lead me to dub it a “Western of manners”) comes from writer and director Jocelyn Moorhouse and involves tailor Myrtle “Tilly” Dunnage (Kate Winslet) returning to her small town to care for her sickly mother Molly (Judy Davis). After an extended period of murky futzing about with various characters (like random trailer park hunk Liam Hemsworth as Teddy), we get to a premise: The dressmaker was banished from town 25 years ago when she was a child. So now it becomes a mystery (Why banished?), a tale of revenge (I’ll get them for banishing me) and a story of coming home (I’m back). But it’s also an adult parent care film, a Western and a multiplotted character drama with some slapstick thrown in for good measure. The Dressmaker wagers that its target audience might only get out to see one film in theaters this year, so it should just as well cram all the genres they love into its two-hour runtime. I admire the film’s ambition, but each component of it is so stark and effective that trying to appreciate all the weirdness jammed into it would be like jumping into a ball pit filled with potpourri and trying to appreciate each scent. With a plot so murky that it obscures the vibrant haute couture created by Winslet’s character, it’s best not to try to follow too closely but rather lean back and take in all you can. One or two plots might not make sense (like why Tilly makes beautiful bespoke gowns for townsfolk

she despises), but there are definitely pleasures to be had in the dry humor and kinetic direction. Death, destruction and violence is often quickly followed or follows a gag of the blackest humor. It might be an erratic film, but moments are still sharp. While Molly hams as much as possible, munching on scenery and mewling each line, Tilly is a well-tailored sexpot. Her love interest and former schoolmates (including Teddy, 26, and Sarah Snook as Gertrude “Trudy” Pratt, 29) aren’t close to Winslet’s charisma or age, so the intimation she was in primary school with them is somewhat jarring. The film also includes some backwardminded treatments of its fringe characters, unrelated to the setting’s time period and its more conservative view toward women and marriage. Hugo Weaving’s lonely policeman Sergeant Farrat sheriffs his catty town from inside the closet and becomes the butt of jokes for his predilection for women’s clothing without the dignity of one scripted joke to buttress what boils down to gay-bashing for laughs. Similarly, Barney, the mentally handicapped brother of Hemsworth’s character, serves the same use as special needs characters do in many movies: shouting inappropriately so the audience can smile warmly at this wretched creature as he becomes an important plot point because, as we all know, truth and wisdom come from the mouths of babes. The Dressmaker fits in so many characters and so much plot that half the actors work full-time babe-mouthing shifts. Anxiety disorders, dementia, learning disabilities and PTSD affect many in the community. On second thought, maybe that’s not so unusual after all.

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ARTS & CULTURE

Cultivating knowledge

Ag in the Classroom equips teachers with fun and engaging ways to learn more about agriculture. By Alissa Lindsey

A program that promotes the teaching of agriculture to Oklahoma schoolchildren is updating its curriculum to meet new educational standards. Ag in the Classroom (AITC) is a partnership of Oklahoma State Department of Education, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service and the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and seeks to integrate agricultural literacy in schools by offering necessary resources to teachers. “We try to provide hands-on activities for the [students], whether it’s cooking in the classroom to help understand where the food comes from or gardening outside to understand that there’s a process that the food goes through before it gets to the grocery store,” said Audrey Harmon, AITC state coordinator. The State Department of Education released new academic standards for English language arts and math this year

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and released new standards for science and social studies in 2014, according to the department’s website. “We’re constantly adding new lessons to the website,” Harmon said, “and we’re going through and replacing the Common Core standards or the past standards so that when teachers pull up a lesson, it has the standards on the side.” One of the Oklahoma high school graduation requirements is a financial literacy course, and AITC provides financial literacy flash cards and Crop-opoly, a game featuring specialty Oklahoma crops. AITC state coordinators travel across Oklahoma to provide free professional development workshops to educators. Another team member, curriculum writer and website coordinator Pat Thompson, is based out of Oklahoma State University. Thompson researches the background information for lessons for students in pre-K to 12th grade and provides

Josh Hargis, program director for AgVocates for Exceptional Individuals, addresses teachers at the AITC State Summer Conference. | Photo ODAFF / provided

activity ideas for teachers to use in classrooms. “It’s always fun to see the students and help the teachers in any way we can,” Harmon said. “They enjoy the food activities with recipes, which integrates math and science components, and teachers can integrate writing and social studies if they wish.” A new flipchart featuring recipes, games, crafts and activities called Fruits, Nuts, Veggies, Oh My! will be released to educators this fall and was funded by the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. “If they are participating in making the recipes, then they’re more likely to try new fruits and vegetables,” Harmon said. More than 7,000 teachers belong to AITC’s mailing list, and schools in every Oklahoma county participate in AITC.

“Over 30 years ago, agriculture leaders realized there was a disconnect between producers and consumers,” Harmon said. “AITC was started to help bridge the gap between the two by providing resources to teach agricultural literacy to students. The vision was for students to have a better understanding of where their food, clothes and shelter come from.” AITC meets at the State Fair Academy, where teachers bring classes to the Oklahoma State Fair to talk about agriculture and encourage them to visit the event’s agriculture venues. Beginning Oct. 1, students can submit entries to the yearly AITC contest, with entry categories for pre-K to 12th-grade students, and student winner are recobnized at Ag Day at the State Capitol in March. Visit agclassroom.org/ok.

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

Young Frankenstein, (US, 1974, dir. Mel Brooks) an American grandson of Frankenstein struggles to prove that he is not as crazy has people believe, he is invited to Transylvania where he discovers the process that reanimates a dead body, 7 p.m. Oct. 5. Cinemark Tinseltown, 6001 N. Martin Luther King Ave., 405-424-0461, cinemark.com. WED

size and also produces a delicious array of cheeses; enjoy an incredible line-up of pairings, 6:45-8:15 p.m. Sept. 30. Forward Foods-Norman, 2001 W. Main St., Norman, 405-321-1007, forwardfoods.com. FRI

HaPPenInGS

Market in the Park, craft fair with food vendors, live music and a barbecue cook-off, Oct. 1. Harrah Heritage Park, 1374 N. Church Ave., Harrah. SAT

Pops Arcadia Corn Maze, bounce houses, fishing, face painting, paintball, hay fort, pumpkin patch and more, Sept. 23-Oct. 31. Arcadia Corn Maze, 660 W. Highway 66, Arcadia, 405-642-4522. OK Nursery & Landscaping Convention and Trade Show, the most complete experience for growers, landscapers, garden centers and water feature builders, Sept. 28-30. Cox Convention Center, 1 Myriad Gardens, 405-602-8500, coxconventioncenter.com. WED -SAT Terror on 10th Street Haunted House, face your fears at the 12th annual event with new nightmares around every corner; take a guided tour of the home and learn the ghostly history behind the house of horrors, 7-11 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights Sept. 30-Oct. 25, open every night starting Oct. 26-31. Terror on 10th Street, 2005 NW 10th St., 405-232-1816, facebook.com/terroron10thstreet. FRI

Pryor Rendering Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre (CityRep) presents a young gay man’s coming-of-age story in the small Oklahoma town of Pryor. The musical drama is based on a book of the same name by Oklahoma author Gary Reed. Catch the show 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday and Oct. 7-8 or 1:30 p.m. Saturday-Sunday or Oct. 8-9 at Freede Little Theatre inside Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave. The Friday night showing is the production’s world premiere. Visit cityrep.com/pryor-rendering or call 405-848-3761. FRIDAy-SUNDAy, ONGOING Photo provided

BOOKS Let’s Talk About It Series, a discussion of Letters from the Dust Bowl by Caroline Henderson, with the discussion led by Carol Humphrey, 6 p.m. Sept. 28. Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 405-842-2900, fullcirclebooks.com. WED Book Signing, Bob Burke and Jim Priest sign Changed Lives: A History of Sunbeam Family Services; the dynamic history and people behind one of Oklahoma’s oldest nonprofits, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Sept. 29. Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 405-842-2900, fullcirclebooks.com. THU Author signing and book launch, author Patricia Loofbourrow signs her books, The Queen of Diamonds and The Jacq of Spades: Part 1 of the Red Dog Conspiracy, 1-3 p.m. Oct. 1. Half Price Books, 1449 W. I-240 Service Road, 405-680-8730, hpb.com. SAT Jay Upchurch Book Signing, author signs Tales from the Oklahoma Sooner Sideline, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Oct. 5. Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 405-842-2900, fullcirclebooks.com. WED

FIlM Winter Vacation, (CN, 2010, Li Hongqi) one of the most distinctive independent comedies to come out of mainland China, spends the end of winter break with a group of aimless teenagers and disaffected adults in a depressed corner of inner Mongolia, 5:30 p.m. Sept. 29. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com. THU Paths of the Soul, (CN, 2015, dir. Zhang Yang) filmed across a series of breathtaking Tibetan landscapes over the course of an entire year, Paths of the Soul follows a group of devout Buddhist villagers as they undertake a 1,200-mile pilgrimage to the capital city of Lhasa, 2 p.m. Sept. 25, 8 p.m. Sept. 29. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com. THU 19th Annual Manhattan Short Film Festival, Manhattan Short received 844 entries from 52 countries from which 10 finalists were selected and the judges of these films are you, the audience, Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com. FRI -SUN Passport to Global Korea: Poetry, (US, 2010, dir. Chang-dong Lee) a 60-something woman, faced with the discovery of a heinous family crime and in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, finds strength and purpose when she enrolls in a poetry class, 7 p.m. Oct. 3. Pegasus Theater- UCO Campus, 100 N. University Drive, Edmond, 405-974-2000, uco.edu. MON

American Cancer Society 14th Annual Cattle Baron’s Ball, fun-filled evening including live music by the Rankin Twins and headline entertainer Bo Phillips Band, along with dancing, gourmet cuisine and auction items, 7-11 p.m. Sept. 30. McGranahan Barn, 12310 Northwest Expressway, Yukon, 405698-2276, mcgranahanbarn.com. FRI Rock Island Arts Festival, art and craft booths, bands, performing arts, youth activities and more, Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Rock Island Arts Festival, 100 W. Chickasha Ave., Chickasha, rockislandartsfestival.org. FRI-SUN 2016 Garden Tour for Connoisseurs, tour remarkable home landscapes representing Oklahoma’s growing passion of landscape beautification and outdoor living, Oct. 1. Various locations in Oklahoma City, ok-hort.org. SAT Tour of Oklahoma’s Historic Black Towns, visit the town of Grayson for its Grayson Gumbo Festival, hear the history of the town and other facts from Mayor Leon Anderson, visit key sites and more, 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Oct. 1. Oklahoma History Center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive, 405-521-2491, okhistory.org/historycenter. SAT Grant Writing Workshop, tips and strategies for writing effective proposals for funding your work, 1:30-4 p.m. Oct. 1. Current Studio, 1218 N. Pennsylvania Ave., 405-673-1218, currentstudio. org. SAT Red Brick Nights, music, food and shopping in downtown Guthrie, 7 p.m. Oct. 1. Downtown Guthrie, Harrison Avenue and Second Street, Guthrie. SAT Exit 107 Live, free, family-friendly festival with food, music and entertainment, 1-6 p.m. Oct. 2. Newcastle Casino, 2457 Highway 62 Service Road, Newcastle, 405-387-6013, mynewcastlecasino.com. SUN

Eats on 8th, food truck festival and night market, 6-11 p.m. Sept. 30 Midtown OKC, NW Eighth St. FRI

OKCtoberfest, Oktoberfest-style craft beer festival; a showcase for beer, food trucks and live music, 2-11 p.m. Oct. 1. OKC Farmers Public Market, 311 S. Klein Ave., 405-232-6506, okcfarmersmarket.com. SAT Weekly Farmers Market, shop goods from local producers, bakers and artisans, 9 a.m.- 2 p.m. every Saturday. OKC Farmers Public Market, 311 S. Klein Ave., 405-232-6506, okcfarmersmarket.com. SAT Czech Festival, parade, music and dancing, traditional food along with craft booths and festival food vendors, Oct. 3. Oklahoma Czech Building, Fifth Street and Cedar Road, Yukon, czechfestivaloklahoma.com. MON

YOUTH Treasure Island, a storm at sea, a mosquito-infested jungle and a treasure cave filled with eerie ghosts, made with the help of the audience, creates the setting for this magical adaptation; some children become members of the treacherous pirate gang, while others join captain’s crew and in the end the audience must decide the fate of Long John Silver, Sept. 23-Oct. 7. Oklahoma Children’s Theatre, 2501 N. Blackwelder Ave., 405-606-7003, oklahomachildrenstheatre.org. FRI-WED Day Out with Thomas: The Ready, Set, Go Tour 2016, fun-filled event offers children and their families the opportunity to take a ride with Thomas the Tank Engine, meet Sir Topham Hatt and enjoy a day of Thomas-themed activities, Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Oklahoma Railway Museum, 3400 NE Grand Boulevard, 405424-8222, oklahomarailwaymuseum.org. FRI-SUN SportForward Adaptive Sports Camp, a multisport recreational event for local kids living with disabilities, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Oct. 1. Norman Optimist Club gym, 1005 Lexington St., Norman, 405-366-1177, normanyouthsports.com. SAT Galapagos Islands, meet-n-greet the stars of the Island Life exhibit — the Galapagos tortoises; walk will include insider information about the Island Life exhibit, plus a tour of Galapagos on display, 10-11:30 a.m. Oct. 1. The Oklahoma City Zoo, 2000 Remington Pl., 405-424-3344, okczoo.com. SAT Saturdays for Kids: Cowboy Up!, create a championship belt buckle and participate in other activities in honor of Rodeo Hall of Fame’s Rodeo Weekend, 10 a.m.-noon Oct. 1. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org. SAT

Animal Well Fair, ask-a-vet, memorial and photo booths, an adoption tent and more animal-friendly offerings, 3-5 p.m. Oct. 2. Westminster Presbyterian Church, 4400 N. Shartel Ave., 405-524-2204, wpcokc.com. SUN

Cooking with Kam, learn how to make great side dishes form local, seasonal vegetables, noon-1 p.m. Sept. 29. Park House, 125 Ron Norick Blvd., 405-2327275, parkhouseokc.com. THU Revelry Vintners Wine Dinner at Vast, dinner featuring Revelry’s finest wines paired with dinner prepared by the Vast culinary team, 6:30 p.m. Sept. 29. Vast, 333 W. Sheridan Ave., 405-702-7262, vastokc.com. THU Belgian Beer & Cheese, Belgium is the undisputed beer capitol of the world, with a diversity of styles made even more impressive by its relatively small

Modernist Mayhem: Ages 6-8, inspired by modernist works of art in the museum’s permanent collection, students in this workshop create oneof-a-kind paintings, 10 a.m.-noon, Oct. 1. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com. SAT Character Day, attendees are encouraged to participate in Character Day by wearing their favorite super hero or princess costume, Oct. 1. Orr Family Farm, 14400 S. Western Ave., 405-799-3276, orrfamilyfarm.com. SAT

PerFOrMInG arTS Fully Committed, one man struggles to keep all the plates of his work and life spinning in this hilarious one-man comedy, through Oct. 2. Lyric Theatre, 1727 NW 16th St., 405-524-9312, lyrictheatreokc.com. WED -SUN

FOOd

Amazing Apples: The Fruit of Temptation Cooking Demo, learn about amazing varieties of organic apples and tempt your senses with new, appleinspired recipes, noon-1 p.m. Sept. 29. Natural Grocers, 7001 N. May Ave., 405-840-0300, naturalgrocers.com. THU

Gazette / file

Scout Night, scouts learn about the museum collection and how to care for artifacts, what school was like in 1889, learn about politics in Edmond in Edmond People, Edmond Politics exhibit and more, 6:30-8 p.m. Oct. 3. Edmond Historical Society & Museum, 431 S. Boulevard, Edmond, 405-340-0078, edmondhistory.org. MON

Women Lead Presents State Question Forum, forums and presentation by League of Women Voters about ballot language and potential impacts and Q&A’s with representatives for and against each question; 776-Modifications to Death Penalty, 780 & 781-Criminal Justice Reforms, 789 & 792-Modifications to Alcohol Sales, 6-8 p.m. Oct. 4. Norman Public Library, 225 N. Webster Ave., Norman, 405-701-2600, pioneerlibrarysystem.org. TUE

Art After 5, enjoy the Oklahoma City skyline along with live music, friends and cocktails on top of OKCMOA, 5-9 p.m. October 6, 13, 20 and 27. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405236-3100, okcmoa.com. THU

Move the Needle For 96 years, U.S. women have had the right to vote. But, with women making up just 14 percent of the Oklahoma Legislature, not enough of them are voted for. Sally’s List is an organization working to change those numbers by recruiting and training women to run for office. Move the Needle, 7-9 p.m. Thursday, at The Hart Building, 726 W. Sheridan Ave., is an event to fund the initiative. Tickets are $96 and include heavy hors d’oeuvres, drinks, a silent auction and a raffle. Visit sallyslist.nationbuilder. com/_move_the_needle. THURSDAy Photo

Know Your Rights Markus Smith, a social sciences professor at Oklahoma City Community College, and Brady Henderson, legal director at American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, will discuss citizen rights when interacting with law enforcement. Their lectures will be followed by a short Q&A session. The public event begins 6:30 p.m. Thursday at The Parish, 1757 NW 16th St. The free forum is an all-ages event with pizza provided. Search for the Know Your Rights event page on Facebook to RSVP. Call 405-633-0454. THURSDAy

Paul Hooper, stand-up comedy; known for kicking the feet out from underneath conservative humor and finding the funny side to natural disaster, this young man is on the fast track to stardom, 8 p.m. Sept. 28-29, 8 and 10:30 p.m. Sept. 30-Oct. 1. Loony Bin Comedy Club, 8503 N. Rockwell Ave., 405-2394242, loonybincomedy.com. WED -SAT Doug Stanhope & Friends, comedy show presented by Black Mesa Brewing Co., 8-9:30 p.m. Sept. 28. ACM@UCO Performance Lab, 329 E. Sheridan Ave., 405-974-4700, acm.uco.edu. WED Heaven Can Wait, Joe Pendleton finds himself being checked in for the Hereafter by a Mr. Jordan when it is discovered Joe was called 60 years too early, the iconic Harry Segall comedy finds Joe in all sorts of trouble in his new body as a wealthy man about to be murdered by his wife, 8 p.m. Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 6-8, 13-15, 20-23, 2:30 p.m. Oct. 2, 9, 16 and 23. Jewel Box Theatre, 3700 N. Walker Ave., 405-521-1786, jewelboxtheatre.org. THU

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Photo bigstock.com / provided

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M E T R O P O L I TA N L I B R A RY S YS T E M P R E S E N TS

The Metro Library ONEcard supports academic success by simplifying access to library resources. With ONEcard, students from participating schools (currently Oklahoma City Public Schools) automatically receive free membership to the Metropolitan Library System upon enrollment. Using their student ID, students can: • Check out books and audiobooks* • Download free eBooks, eAudiobooks, magazines and more!

• Access online research materials for information and test prep

*ONEcard users can check out up to 10 print books and audiobooks (no DVDs or music CDs). There are no overdue fines for ONEcard accounts, but students are responsible for fees on lost or damaged books.

w w w. me t ro l ibrar y. o rg

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9/21/2016 5:54:04 PM

calendar Oklahoma State Cowboys vs. University of Texas, college football game, 11 a.m. Oct. 1. Boone Pickens Stadium, 700 W. Hall of Fame Ave., Stillwater, 405-744-7714, okstate. com. SAT

Flying Solo, mixed-media exhibit by Diane Coady incorporating silk, clay and paintings that tell stories of the self and weave together a personal narrative. IAO Gallery, 706 W. Sheridan Ave., 405-232-6060, iaogallery.org.

Rayo OKC vs. Fort Carolina RailHawks, professional soccer game, 6 p.m. Oct. 2. Miller Stadium, 1777 S. Yukon Pkwy., Yukon. SUN

Focus on Dark Art, group exhibit debuts a selection of new works from a signature group of artists who dabble in the realm of Dark Art. Kasum Contemporary Fine Arts, 1706 NW 16th St., 405604-6602, kasumcontemporary.com.

VISUal arTS Chandler Watson, showcase of Chandler Watson’s art. Urban Teahouse Uptown, 519 NW 23rd St., Ste 107, 405-606-7005, urban-teahouse.com.

Eighth Annual Improv Festival Oklahoma We need a number. Anybody in the audience? Okay. Eight. Now we need an event. You, over there. An improv festival?! Great! What about a place? Oklahoma; that’s perfect. Anyone attending the eighth annual Improv Festival Oklahoma, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Thursday-Sunday and 6 p.m. Saturday, at The Paramount Theatre, 11 N. Lee Ave., will enjoy much better improvisation than our attempt, including headliner duo Sheldon with Rob Belushi and Jon Barinholtz. Tickets are $10-$15. Visit improvoklahoma.com or call 405-4569858. THURSDAy-SUNDAy Photo provided

c a l e n da r

continued from page 75 Hairspray, it’s 1962, and the lovable Baltimore teen Tracy Turnblad has one mission: to dance on the Corny Collins Show; she is transformed from social outcast to teen queen and must use her newfound power to dethrone the reigning mean girl, win the affections Link Larkin, and integrate a TV network — all without denting her ’do, Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Oklahoma City University, 2501 N. Blackwelder Ave., 405-208-5000, okcu.edu. FRI -SUN

Christie Owen: Surroundings, a diverse collection of abstract 2-D and 3-D works inspired by everyday environments; materials and compositions in Owen’s body of work perpetually change in relation to time and her life experiences. Gaylord-Pickens Oklahoma Heritage Museum, 1400 Classen Drive, 405-235-4458, oklahomaheritage.com. Cloud City, large-scale art installation reflecting, refracting and rearranging the skyline of downtown OKC; walk inside the transparent and reflective installation made of steel and acrylic so that grass may appear overhead and the sky reflected on the ground, each module draws shapes from natural forms and is open through Oct. 16. Oklahoma Contemporary’s Campbell Art Park, NW 11th Street and Broadway Drive, 405-951-0000, oklahomacontemporary.org. Crossroads of Commerce, Oklahoma history buffs won’t want to miss this exhibit showcasing the growth and development of Oklahoma’s economy from 1716 to statehood, the Dust Bowl, the Depression, all the way to present day. Oklahoma History Center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive, 405-5212491, okhistory.org/historycenter. Da Vinci: The Genius, the most comprehensive exploration of Leonardo da Vinci’s work ever created; interactive experience immersing guests in da Vinci’s timeless brilliance through full-scale interpretations of the mastermind’s inventions and unparalleled studies of his iconic art. Science Museum Oklahoma, 2100 NE 52nd St., 405-6026664, sciencemuseumok.org.

Free Family Make+Take: Groundbreaking Make+Take, combine architectural art projects and light for a beaming good time; outdoor activities for the whole family include a variety of individual art projects, from wacky paper cities to pop-up architecture adventures, create chalk art masterpieces and sample free sno cones while face painters and a DJ keep things lively, 1-4 p.m. Oct. 2. Oklahoma Contemporary’s Campbell Art Park, NW 11th St. and Broadway Drive, 405-951-0000, oklahomacontemporary.org. SUN Hell on Wheels: Uniting a Nation by Rail, exhibition of the labor force that built the first transcontinental railroad reflecting the colorful diversity of the American West in the 1860s through a display of wardrobes. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org. Hidden Prairie, abstract artist Ginnie Baer plays with the reality of Oklahoma’s land and the fantasy of our subdivisions. The Project Box, 3003 Paseo St., 405-609-3969, theprojectboxokc.com. One-Woman Show, exhibit of Evelyne Boren’s bold landscape paintings, Sept. 22-Oct. 2. Acosta Strong Fine Art, 6420 N. Western Ave., 405-453-1825, acostastrong.com. Power and Prestige: Headdresses of the American Plains, original exhibition includes nine headdresses from Northern and Southern American Great Plains along with historical photographs, and other supporting artifacts including ledger art depicting Indian warriors and bonnets from the museum’s permanent collection. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org. Russell Hughes, oil paintings. 50 Penn Place Gallery, 1900 Northwest Expressway, Suite 113-R, 405-8485567, 50pennplacegallery.com.

Women at War, works of three renown artists: Ebony Iman Dallas, Gay Pasley and Edward Grady. Owen’s Arts Place Museum, 1202 E. Harrison Ave., Guthrie, 405-260-0204, owensmuseum.com. Yellowstoned, Jan Hellwege captures the emotions of the moment in her expressive Yellowstoned animal paintings. Contemporary Art Gallery, 2928 Paseo St., 405-601-7474, contemporaryartgalleryokc.com.

Oklahoma Community Orchestra, under the direction of Dr. Irv Wagner, featuring percussion soloist Lance Drege, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 4. Oklahoma Christian University, 2501 E. Memorial Road, Edmond, 405-425-5000, oc.edu. TUE

Drop-In yoga, yoga class in museum galleries, 5:456:45 p.m. Sept. 29. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com. THU Ride for Refuge, a noncompetitive, family-friendly cycling and walking fundraiser in support of The Spero Project and other local charities doing crucial work in service of the displaced, vulnerable and exploited; three biking routes and one walking route along the Oklahoma River Trails accommodates people of all athletic abilities, 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Oct. 1. Wheeler District, 1701 S. Western Ave., 405-6558455, facebook.com/wheelerdistrict. SAT

True Religion x Russell Westbrook, a deeper look into what drives Russell and how he relates to the world around him; view a variety of garments representing your authentic self, revealing what inspires you, closes Oct. 5. Nault Gallery, Midtown, 816 N. Walker Ave., 405-642-4414, naultfineart.com.

Where the Roads Lead, beautiful paintings by artist Cletus Smith that result as he finds inspiration in scenes. The Depot, 200 S. Jones Ave., Norman, 405-307-9320, pasnorman.org.

The Steve Reynolds Program, live talk show with guests, comedians and more, 9 p.m. Oct. 1. Opolis, 113 N. Crawford Ave., Norman, opolis.org. SAT

acTIVe

Syndrome Association of Central Oklahoma / provided

Watercolor Workshop, workshop taught by artist Cletus Smith, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Sept. 28-29. The Depot, 200 S. Jones Ave., Norman, 405-307-9320, pasnorman.org.

Classics 2, performance presented by OKC Philharmonic; Andres Franco as Guest Conductor, 8 p.m. Oct. 1. Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave., 405-297-2264, okcciviccenter.com. SAT

Wind Philharmonic: Concert I, “Firefly” by Ryan George, “Sun Dance” by Frank Ticheli, “Psalm for Band Op. 53” by Vincent Persichetti, “Geometrics in Sound for Band Op. 29” by Martin Mailman, “George Washington Bridge” by William Schuman, “Profanation” from Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah” by Leonard Bernstein and “Emblems” by Aaron Copland, 8 p.m. Oct. 4. Oklahoma City University, 2501 N. Blackwelder Ave., 405-208-5000, okcu.edu. TUE

Down Syndrome Festival & 5K The 5K run and awareness walk raising funds for Down Syndrome Association of Central Oklahoma is in its 22nd year. The 5K begins 8 a.m. Saturday at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, 2 S. Mickey Mantle Drive. The awareness walk, a single lap around the ballpark, begins at 9:30 a.m. The festival, including games, inflatables, a petting zoo and more, begins 9:45 a.m. inside the ballpark. Festival admission is free. Registration for individual 5K runners is $35. A team captain can register a team of runners for $21. Visit ds-stride.org/dsacofestival5k or call 405-600-9981. SATURDAy Photo Down

11th Annual Fiestas de las Americas Everybody will need a siesta after this fiesta! The free Fiestas de las Américas 2016, 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday on Calle Dos Cincos, SW 25th Street between Walker Avenue and Robinson Avenue, returns to Historic Capitol Hill. The day starts with Fiestas 5K Run at 7 a.m. before Parade of the Americas takes off at 9 a.m. from Capitol Hill High School, 500 SW 36th St., toward Capitol Hill Elementary School, 2717 S. Robinson Ave. The party also features an artist market, food court and the Friend of Fiestas Kid’s Zone with inflatables, rock wall climbing and crafts. Visit historiccapitolhill.com/fiestas-de-las-americas. SATURDAy Photo provided

The Color Run 2016, a colorful 5k for the whole family, Oct. 1. Remington Park, 1 Remington Pl., 405424-9000, remingtonpark.com. SAT

Edmond People, Edmond Politics, showcases a variety of political memorabilia and historic photographs that illustrate the many ways Edmondites have participated in local, state and national politics; political brochures, elections guides and even a Bellmon Belles dress with matching jacket complement the many posters on view in the Sign of the Times exhibit. Runs through Dec. 16. Edmond Historical Society & Museum, 431 S. Boulevard, Edmond, 405-340-0078, edmondhistory.org.

Save your Skin Run, 5k and 1-mile fun run hosted by Miles Against Melanoma; family-friendly event featuring raffles, food trucks, entertainment and vendors all while raising funds and awareness for skin cancer research, prevention, treatment and education, 8:30 a.m.-noon, Oct. 1. Mitch Park, 1501 W. Covell Road, Edmond, 405-359-4630, edmondok.com/parks. SAT

Fall Adult Classes, from budding talents to seasoned creators, artists of all skill levels can find their creative home with Oklahoma Contemporary this fall; develop skills and explore creativity in ceramics, 2-D and 3-D arts, fiber arts and photography, Oct. 3-Nov. 3. Oklahoma Contemporary, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., 405951-0000, oklahomacontemporary.org.

Screen Printing Workshop, two-day workshop taught by artist Bjorn Bauer; learn how to turn an image into a transparency, prepare and burn a screen and how to properly print your image, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 1-2. Artspace at Untitled, 1 NE Third St., 405-815-9995, artspaceatuntitled.org. SAT-SUN Street Pop Art Exhibition, featuring Ashley Smith, Cassie Stover, Tessa Raven Bayne, Tanner Frady, Dusty Gilpin, Jake Beeson, Sean Vali, Tony Thunder, Jason Pawley and Jacob Vega, Sept. 21-Oct. 4. DNA Galleries, 1709 NW 16th St., 405-525-3499, dnagalleries.com. The Colors of the Spirit, works of alcohol ink artist Kim Harrison; brilliantly colored abstract landscapes. The Purple Loft Art Gallery, 514 NW 28th St., Suite 400, 405-412-7066.

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When the Earth Shakes, learn about the science of earthquakes, tsunamis and tectonic plates; an immersive interactive exhibit exploring the world below our feet, though Jan. 2. Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, 2401 Chautauqua Ave., Norman, 405-325-4712, snomnh.ou.edu.

Submissions must be received by Oklahoma Gazette no later than noon on Wednesday seven days before the desired publication date. Late submissions will not be included in the listings. Submissions run as space allows, although we strive to make the listings as inclusive as possible. Fax your listings to 528-4600 or e-mail them to listings@okgazette.com. Sorry, but phone submissions cannot be accepted.

For OKG live music

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MuSIC

f e at u r e

from left Mack McKinney, bass, and Bat-Or Kalo, guitar and vocals, are two of the three members of KALO. The musicians spoke to the Gazette inside Oklahoma City Underground. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

For kicks

Rock and blues band KALO launches a crowdfunding campaign for an upcoming album. By Ben Luschen

KALO’s new album doesn’t have a name yet. The Oklahoma City blues and rock band named for its singer, guitarist and Israel native Bat-Or Kalo will decide those details after it settles more pressing matters, like making the album the best it can be. A prerelease campaign for the band’s upcoming album was launched in early September on Kickstarter, the online crowdfunding platform often used by bands, artists and creators for large-scale projects. KALO lists a $15,000 goal on its Kickstarter page. Its campaign runs through Oct. 7, with an album release date planned sometime in February. In the meantime, KALO plans on releasing a compilation album recorded live from New York City’s historic The Bitter End music venue before the end of 2016. The band’s last album, 2013’s Dear John, was also funded through a Kickstarter campaign, though one with a smaller funding goal. The new studio album is being produced by Trent Bell, guitarist for former alternative-rock outfit Chainsaw Kittens and owner of Norman’s Bell Labs Recording Studio. Dear John featured an easy, contemporary blues feel. On Bell’s watch, KALO shows off a decidedly more rock edge. Kalo described the band’s sophomore effort as a partial mixture of gospel and punk rock. The new album’s first single, “Isabel,” 78

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(available for digital download with at least a $10 Kickstarter donation) has Kalo delivering her familiar soulful vocals, but she’s backed this time by jarring, grittier riffs that set it apart from the band’s older work. Kalo said Kickstarter has been a godsend for small music labels and independent artists. She does not like the idea of selling herself, but she looks at the platform as an opportunity maker. “I do ask to create something that comes from me,” she said. “I think it’s really important to be creative and give someone a chance to do that.”

New journey

Kalo is in the United States on an O-1B artist visa. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services awards these visas to people who possess “extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics.” Making music is more than satisfying a creative itch for her. It’s a literal mandate. “I’m on a mission,” she said. Kalo moved to Oklahoma in 2009 as an exchange student studying classical and jazz guitar at Oklahoma City University. After graduating, she spent a short while in New York City before moving back to Oklahoma. A general sense of restlessness convinced the artist to leave New York. Her legs have a hard time keeping still when she knows it’s time to make a move. Kalo listened to her instinct.

“One day, I had the same feeling,” she said. “I was just like, ‘I need to go. I need to go.’” KALO formed its current roster, which includes bassist Mack McKinney and, later on, drummer Mike Alexander, after her return to Oklahoma City. She also began touring America’s Deep South for the first time while with her former record label. Elvis Presley’s impact in the U.S. is obvious, but the King of Rock ’n’ Roll made cultural waves big enough that his music even had influence on a young Kalo, born thousands of miles away and more than a decade after his death. Kalo’s exposure to Presley’s music helps explain her affinity for the blues and America’s other Southern sounds. It was a dream come true when she visited his Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee, but nothing in rock ’n’ roll prepared her for what it would really be like in the American South. Instead, her visit recalled Mark Twain’s words from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a book her father read to her when she was a child. “I could absolutely see it, the way it describes the sweat and the heat of Mississippi,” she said. “I could feel it, man. I couldn’t take a step there without sweating all on my back. I needed a new T-shirt.” Kalo said her experience in the South was critical to fully understanding her music and growing as an artist. The band’s upcoming album will be its first with Alexander on drums. In the years since Dear John, the band has been touring and playing a number of shows. Kalo said the band has

come into form. “When you travel, in my opinion, that’s the best way to learn,” she said. “You learn about the sound and you learn about the people and where it comes from.”

Reaching goals

McKinney’s introduction to KALO was after the band reached the prior Kickstarter goal for Dear John, and he was around in time to ship off the reward tie-ins to everyone who donated. The bassist remembers how excited people were to actually say they had a role in the album’s creation. “The people were just really, really happy to take a part in something,” McKinney said. “Whether it was a $15 donation or a $500 donation, people were just really excited. It took me a while to say, ‘You know, that’s a great idea,’ but I really think it is.” Anderson was out of town on the day of the Oklahoma Gazette interview, but Kalo and McKinney both stressed the importance of each member as a component to the unit’s updated sound. The new album’s rock edge might, in part, have something to do with McKinney’s influence. Kalo called him as a “punk rocker at heart.” Still, KALO is not shifting too radically from its core sound. “There’s always the blues roots,” McKinney said. “You can still hear some blues roots in a lot of the songs between guitar riffs and stuff like that, little things here and there.” “They’ve really adopted me as a stranger,” she said. “I’m very, very grateful for it.” Visit kaloband.com for a link to the band’s latest Kickstarter campaign.

I think it’s really important to be creative and give someone a chance to do that. Bat-Or Kalo

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Dream job

MC Chris releases his new album, mc chris is dreaming, Friday. | MC Chris / provided

Nerdcore rapper and original Adult Swim contributor MC Chris performs Oct. 5 at 89th Street Collective. By Ben Luschen

MC Chris’s new album is a literal dream place. I had a child, I had a wife, I had a come true. Christopher Ward, known home, I had all these things that I wanted, onstage as MC Chris, is often considered but I was still having nightmares. I just felt nerdcore’s figurehead. Nerdcore is a like my subconscious was trying to tell me subsect of hip-hop derived from and tarsomething. I went to a lot of therapy. I geted toward geek culture. wrote a lot of songs; some stuff didn’t make When MC Chris talks bling, he very it onto the album. It was an exploratory likely could be referring to Green Lantern’s process to dive into what’s going on that I wasn’t thinking about. Power Ring or C-3PO’s gold plating. In mc chris is dreaming, to be released Friday, the rapper hilariously uses The OKG: How were you introduced to Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger Nightmare on Elm Street? Was it as a kid? and other pop culture symbols to discuss CW: It think it was [A Nightmare on Elm some of his real-life stresses. His song “Fett’s Vette” can be heard in the Seth Street 3: Dream Warriors] at my cousin’s Rogen and Elizabeth Banks movie Zack house … in Lake Forest, Illinois. They’d and Miri Make a Porno. make deep-dish, ChicagoWard is also known for his style pizza. ... It was always contribution to Cartoon like an event to watch a Network’s Adult Swim. He MC Chris movie there. One night, we voiced MC Pee Pants in watched Freddy part with MC Lars Aqua Teen Hunger Force three, and I don’t think I’d and Mega ran and was a contributing seen a Freddy movie 8 p.m. Oct. 5 writer on Space Ghost: before. It just blew my 89th Street Collective mind. And what a great Coast to Coast. 8911 N. Western Ave. movie to start with, Ward performs an all89thstreetokc.com ages show 8 p.m. Oct. 5 at because it pretty much is 866-966-1777 89th Street Collective, the best movie of the $15-$17 8911 N. Western Ave. series, you know? It really During a recent Oklahoma had some good ideas. I Gazette phone interview, Ward talked about hope they make some more movies and that his album, tour, dream warriors, the nerdthey’re more like Dream Warriors. The core label and random pop culture topics. people who are getting chased really control their fears and become really powerful. Oklahoma Gazette: Where did you get the idea for this album, and how did it OKG: Would you say the line that develop? divides nerdcore and hip-hop has CW: I got married, had a kid and moved blurred in recent years? to [Los Angeles]. … I put myself in the right CW: I think you can kind of tell if a rapper

is a jock or if he’s a nerd. Most rappers are going to talk about their city’s sports team. Not a lot of rappers are going to have a song focused on Wolverine or something; they will make a reference. You’re seeing tons of ’90s animation references in hip-hop and some of the most popular things coming out this year are referencing things that were on Nicktoons and The Disney Afternoon and stuff like that. That’s not that nerdy, but it gives you a sense all that pop culture is fair game in hip-hop. Nerdcore is where it’s really concentrated. ... Every song is about a nerdy concept and every album is very conceptual and is usually about one particular thing. It’s something the more diehard nerds have attached themselves to and have stuck with for a really long time. OKG: Your show is Oct. 5 at 89th Street Collective. What can people who haven’t been to an MC Chris show expect? CW: Oklahoma shows are kind of funny because they always feel so familiar. I don’t mean like I recognize it from before like déjà vu. I mean it feels like family members are in the room. ... It almost feels like you’re doing theater in the round or you’re performing for a bunch of people at a family reunion or something. OKG: Have you seen the hit ’80s-flavored science fiction series Stranger Things on Netflix? CW: Yes, my friend [Randall P. Havens] plays the teacher [Mr. Clarke]. We were like best friends. I know he loves everyone saying they were like best friends with him now, but he and I were like best friends back in the early 2000s when I worked for Adult Swim in Atlanta. ... We were drinking buddies. We would go to Euclid Avenue Yacht Club in Five Points like every night. To see him kick ass on Stranger Things, I felt as proud as a father would be or a brother.

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Oklahoma Gazette

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

WeDneSDaY, 8.28 Amarillo Junction, JJ’s Alley. COUNTRY

Maurice Johnson, The R&J Lounge and Supper Club. JAZZ Miss Brown to You, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond. JAZZ Scott Lowber/Will Galbraith/Ed VanBuskirk, Friends Restaurant & Club. COVER

tHurSDaY, 8.29

UPCOMING EVENTS AT FIRELAKE ARENA

The Head and The Heart | Photo James Minchin / Grandstand Media & Management / provided

Birds In Row/Naturalist/Bystander, 89th Street Collective. ROCK

Garage Band Jam, Bourbon Street Bar. BLUES Hazed & Confused: All Things Metal, Blue Note Lounge. ROCK John Calvin Abney, The Blue Door. SINGER/SONGWRITER

The Fairweather/NoiseBleedsSound/The Indigos/ St Basic, ACM@UCO Performance Lab. ROCK

frIDaY, 8.30

The Head and The Heart Fresh off its pop-flavored major label debut Signs of Light, Seattle indie folk band The Head and The Heart heads into Oklahoma City as strong as ever. The sextet is known for serendipitously meeting at what must have been an epic Seattle open mic. The band’s following success, however, is no happy accident. The show begins 8 p.m. Tuesday at The Criterion, 500 E. Sheridan Ave. Tickets are $34.50. Visit criterionokc.com or call 405-840-5500. TUESDAY Photo James Minchin / Grandstand Media & Management / provided Stinnett Brothers, Bourbon Street Bar. BLUES

Chance Anderson/Ben McKenzie, Wormy Dog Saloon. COUNTRY

Superfreak as The Blend, Remington Park.

Chasing Jenny/Dignity of Lies, Oklahoma City Limits. ROCK

The Lark and The Loon, The Bluebonnet Bar, Norman. SINGER/SONGWRITER

Cute Is What We Aim For, 89th Street Collective.

Thrice/La Dispute/Nothing, Nowhere, Diamond Ballroom. ROCK

Dan Haerle, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond. JAZZ

Vanilla Ice/Salt n Pepa/All 4 One/Tone Loc/ Coolio/Rob Base, Cox Convention Center. HIP-HOP

ROCK

Jamie Bramble, Full Circle Bookstore. ACOUSTIC Josh Turner, WinStar World Casino, Thackerville. COUNTRY

Kip Moore/Jon Pardi, Diamond Ballroom. SINGER/SONGWRITER

Laney Gililland, Noir Bistro & Bar. SINGER/SONGWRITER

Levi Parham/Matt Haeck/Zach Schmidt/ John Calvin Abney, The Blue Door. SINGER/SONGWRITER

VARIOUS

SunDaY, 10.2 Blues Jam, Bourbon Street Bar. BLUES ScHoolboyQ/Joey Bada$$, The Criterion. HIP-HOP

Scott Lowber/Will Galbraith/Rick Toops, Friends Restaurant & Club. COVER SquadLive/Superfreak/40 Summers/John Arnold Band, Newcastle Casino, Newcastle. ROCK

Martha Stallings, Lottinvilles Restaurant, Edmond.

The Grahams, The Blue Door. FOLK

Meanstreak, Bourbon Street Bar. ROCK

Winter Wind Concert: John Fullbright, The Depot, Norman. SINGER/SONGWRITER

VARIOUS

Porch Mice/Astral Plane, Blue Note Lounge. ROCK Roy Clark/Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Bros, Grand Casino, Shawnee. COUNTRY Slipknot/Deafheaven, Chesapeake Energy Arena. ROCK

The Lumineers/Borns/Rayland Baxter, The Zoo Amphitheatre. ROCK

SaturDaY, 10.1 2AM, Baker Street Pub & Grill. ROCK 3Blau/Lookas/SNBRN/Party Thieves, Lost Lakes Ampitheater. VARIOUS Aaron Newman Trio, Red Rock Canyon Grill. FOLK

MOnDaY, 10.3 Band of Horses/The Wild Feathers, Cain’s Ballroom, Tulsa. ROCK

tueSDaY, 10.4 Parasites/Weak Boyz/Dead Words/Klamz, Blue Note Lounge. ROCK

WeDneSDaY, 10.5 Judith/Real Live Tigers/Blue Valley Farmer, Power House. VARIOUS Kevin Devine/Chase Kerby/Josh Jones, Opolis, Norman. ROCK

Bad Influence, Newcastle Casino, Newcastle. COVER

The Struts/Beware of Darkness/Hannah Wolff, Diamond Ballroom. ROCK

Cameran Nelson, Wormy Dog Saloon. COUNTRY

Trapt, The Criterion. ROCK

Dylan Hammett, Fuze Buffet & Bar. COVER Feathered Rabbit, Blue Note Lounge. ROCK Johnny Boyd, The Blue Door. SINGER/SONGWRITER Live At The Castle: Jabee/Salli, Castle Row Studios, Del City. VARIOUS

405-273-1637 • FIRELAKEARENA.COM 18145 OLD RANGELINE RD • SHAWNEE, OK FIRELAKE.ARENA 80

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Smilin’ Vic, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond. BLUES Stealing Saturn/Boss County, Oklahoma City Limits. ROCK

Live music submissions must be received by Oklahoma Gazette no later than noon on Wednesday seven days before the desired publication date. Late submissions will not be included in the listings. Submissions run as space allows, although we strive to make the listings as inclusive as possible. Fax your listings to 528-4600 or e-mail to listings@okgazette.com. Sorry, but phone submissions cannot be accepted.

gO tO Okgazette.COM fOr fuLL LIStIngS!

free will astrology

By Rob Brezsny

Homework: What most needs regeneration in your life? And what are you going to do to regenerate it? FreeWillAstrology.com.

inexpressible parts of yourself. You might discover secrets about how to attract more of the love you have always felt deprived of.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

CANCER (June 21-July 22) I’m not asking you to tell

What’s the difference between a love warrior and a love worrier? Love warriors work diligently to keep enhancing their empathy, compassion, and emotional intelligence. Love worriers fret so much about not getting the love they want that they neglect to develop their intimacy skills. Love warriors are always vigilant for how their own ignorance may be sabotaging togetherness, while love worriers dwell on how their partner’s ignorance is sabotaging togetherness. Love warriors stay focused on their relationship’s highest goals, while love worriers are preoccupied with every little relationship glitch. I bring this to your attention, Aries, because the next seven weeks will be an excellent time to become less of a love worrier and more of a love warrior.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

How will you deal with a provocative opportunity to reinvent and reinvigorate your approach to work? My guess is that if you ignore this challenge, it will devolve into an obstruction. If you embrace it, on the other hand, you will be led to unforeseen improvements in the way you earn money and structure your daily routine. Here’s the paradox: Being open to seemingly impractical considerations will ultimately turn out to be quite practical.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Is it possible that you’re

on the verge of reclaiming some of the innocent wisdom you had as a child? Judging from the current astrological omens, I suspect it is. If all goes well, you will soon be gifted with a long glimpse of your true destiny — a close replica of the vision that bloomed in you at a tender age. And this will, in turn, enable you to actually see magic unicorns and play with mischievous fairies and eat clouds that dip down close to the earth. And not only that: Having a holy vision of your original self will make you even smarter than you already are. For example, you could get insights about how to express previously

me about the places and situations where you feel safe and fragile and timid. I want to know about where you feel safe and strong and bold. Are there sanctuaries that nurture your audacious wisdom? Are there natural sites that tease out your primal willpower and help you clarify your goals? Go to those power spots. Allow them to exalt you with their transformative blessings. Pray and sing and dance there. And maybe find a new oasis to excite and incite you, as well. Your creative savvy will bloom in November if you nurture yourself now with this magic.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) One of your old reliable

formulas may temporarily be useless or even deceptive. An ally could be withholding an important detail from you. Your favorite psychological crutch is in disrepair, and your go-to excuse is no longer viable. And yet I think you’re going to be just fine, Leo. Plan B will probably work better than Plan A. Secondary sources and substitutes should provide you with all the leverage you need. And I bet you will finally capitalize on an advantage that you have previously neglected. For best results, be vigilant for unexpected help.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Attention! Warning!

One of your signature fears is losing its chokehold on your imagination. If this trend continues, its power to scare you may diminish more than 70 percent by November 1. And then what will you do? How can you continue to plug away at your goals if you don’t have worry and angst and dread to motivate you? I suppose you could shop around for a replacement fear -- a new prod to keep you on the true and righteous path. But you might also want to consider an alternative: the possibility of drawing more of the energy you need by feeding your lust for life.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Thank you for all the

entertainment you’ve provided in the past 12 months, Libra. Since shortly before your birthday in 2015, you

have taken lively and gallant actions to rewrite history. You have banished a pesky demon and repaired a hole in your soul. You’ve educated the most immature part of yourself and nurtured the most neglected part of yourself. To my joyful shock, you have even worked to transform a dysfunctional romantic habit that in previous years had subtly undermined your ability to get the kind of intimacy you seek. What’s next? Here’s my guess: an unprecedented exemption from the demands of the past.

in peace. Are you ready to take full advantage of this special dispensation? Please say YES YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES. Be alert for opportunities to rise above the lowest common denominators. Be aggressive about rejecting the trivial questions that trap everyone in low expectations. Here are my predictions: Your willpower will consistently trump your conditioning. You won’t have to play by the old rules, but will instead have extra sovereignty to invent the future.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

Are you able to expand while you are contracting, and vice versa? Can you shed mediocre comforts and also open your imagination to gifts that await you at the frontier? Is it possible to be skeptical toward ideas that shrink your world and people who waste your time, even as you cultivate optimism and innocence about the interesting challenges ahead of you? Here’s what I think, Scorpio: Yes, you can. At least for right now, you are more flexible and multifaceted than you might imagine.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

You Sagittarians are famous for filling your cups so full they’re in danger of spilling over. Sometimes the rest of us find this kind of cute. On other occasions, we don’t enjoy getting wine splashed on our shoes. But I suspect that in the coming weeks, the consequences of your tendency to overflow will be mostly benign — perhaps even downright beneficial. So I suggest you experiment with the pleasures of surging and gushing. Have fun as you escape your niches and transcend your containers. Give yourself permission to seek adventures that might be too extravagant for polite company. Now here’s a helpful reminder from your fellow Sagittarian, poet Emily Dickinson: “You cannot fold a flood and put it in a drawer.”

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

I believe that during the coming weeks you will have an extra amount of freedom from fate. The daily grind won’t be able to grind you down. The influences that typically tend to sap your joie de vivre will leave you

According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you can expect an unlikely coincidence or two in the coming days. You should also be alert for helpfully prophetic dreams, clear telepathic messages, and pokes from tricky informers. In fact, I suspect that useful hints and clues will be swirling in extra abundance, sometimes in the form of direct communications from reliable sources, but on occasion as mysterious signals from strange angels.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

You know that inner work you’ve been doing with such diligence? I’m referring to those psychospiritual transformations you have been attending to in the dark . . . the challenging but oddly gratifying negotiations you’ve been carrying on with your secret self . . . the steady, strong future you’ve been struggling to forge out of the chaos? Well, I foresee you making a big breakthrough in the coming weeks. The progress you’ve been earning, which up until now has been mostly invisible to others, will finally be seen and appreciated. The vows you uttered so long ago will, at last, yield at least some of the tangible results you’ve pined for.

Go to RealAstrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny’s expanded weekly audio horoscopes /daily text message horoscopes. The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700.

O kg a z e t t e . c O m | S e p t e m b e r 2 8 , 2 0 1 6

PuzzleS New York Times MAgAziNe CROSSWORD Puzzle Make a dash for it By Jeremy Newton | Edited by Will Shortz | 0925 ACROSS 1 Pranks with a roll, briefly 4 Casualties of streaming services 7 Updated one’s blog 13 Swap (out) 16 Navajo hogan, e.g. 17 Part of NATO 20 Forgo 21 Question from an owl? 22 Austin-to-Houston dir. 23 Chief 24 Actor Joaquin’s complete bio? 26 Start of a legalese paragraph 28 Figs. in an author’s acknowledgments section 30 “____ Wiedersehen!” 31 Hughes poem that mentions “the darker brother” 32 Troupe of lesser-known actors? 35 Reef-dwelling snapper 38 Unattractive fruit 39 2016 Olympics site 40 What swish shots miss 42 Word repeated in the postal creed 43 WW I battle locale 44 Schmaltz in kids’ films? 50 “The meaning of life” once sold on it for $3.26 51 Throw together 53 Certainly not wish to repeat 54 Get by 56 “I don’t mean to ____ …” 57 Like bibs and aprons 58 Sermon topics 59 Muhammad had 13 60 Birthplace of multiple saints 62 Slowly disengages (from) 64 Department store department 65 An airline now serves a Minute Maid beverage? 69 Whined like a baby 72 End of many a toast 73 Touch 76 Popular sans-serif font 77 Schools of thought 78 “Onward!,” in Italy 81 Unfiltered 83 U.S. detainment site in Cuba, informally 84 Question posed with feigned shock 85 Ushers in 86 Joint action

87 Some apartments for scaredycats? 90 Drank to excess 91 RV camper’s org. 92 [I’m devastated!] 93 Deli supply 95 Marauding group in Tolkien’s The Two Towers 96 Game of tag, basically 100 Record half that stirs emotions? 104 Exerciser’s target 105 “Shame on you!” 107 Dark force 108 European country slightly larger than Malta 109 Sandwich for a dieter? 113 Appear that way 115 Share 116 Volcano output 117 Slippery sort 118 Size up 119 Letters on some baggage to NYC 120 Word with sweet or sugar 121 Made damp 122 “Gangnam Style” singer 123 Winter D.C. hrs. DOWN 1 Channel that aired Felicity and Smallville 2 Curve-enhancing undergarment 3 Metallic shades 4 Certain Balkanite 5 Not as bright 6 ____ fly 7 Oomph 8 Factory watchdog grp. 9 Search far and wide 10 Home run territory, in lingo 11 Dark time, in poetry 12 Something that gets MADD mad 13 Smacks hard 14 “That is … not looking good” 15 Numbskull 17 Argument you may start in school 18 Cops, in slang 19 Sage swamp-dweller of film 25 The witching hour 27 Pat ____, three-time NBA. Coach of the Year 29 Discard 33 Inflexible

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Vp, corporAte AFFAirs Linda Meoli

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Where the heart is Colorful pond swimmer ____-pah Kerfuffles Event for snocrossers “You’re almost there” “So funny!” World News Tonight airer Talk show interviewee Aid for one going places? On edge Worry Kerfuffle Olive or avocado “How precious is that!” Actor ____ J. Cobb of 12 Angry Men 112 So last month 114 You thinking what I’m thinking?

Deli supply Brian of ambient music Offerings to hitchhikers “Challenge accepted!” Common newspaper feature not seen in The New York Times Chill, with “out” E.W. or S.I. One of the Trumps “I’m ____ Her,” 2016 political slogan Work of extraterrestrials? — not! Pops some pills, say “No joke!” Shortcuts into clubs Actor Williams of Happy Days Put together Guy into hip-hop

Stumped? Call 1-900-285-5656 to get the answers to any three clues by phone ($1.20 a minute).

SuDOku Puzzle MeDiuM

Fill in the grid so that every row, column and 3-by-3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9. www.printmysudoku.com

S L A M C I O S C A M P I

R E V U E

B E E R P U P E L A X L R P E O W B R I A T S C E E K R A C C A R A M E P U E S S R E F S S O

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

editor-in-chieF Jennifer Palmer Chancellor jchancellor@okgazette.com AssistAnt editor Brittany Pickering stAFF reporters Greg Elwell, Laura Eastes, Ben Luschen contributors Lauren Dow, Christine Eddington, Adam Holt Ian Jayne, Candice Macis, George Lang Alissa Lindsey, Jacob Oller, Kara Stewart Jessica Williams photogrApher Garett Fisbeck circulAtion MAnAger Chad Bleakley AssistAnt circulAtion MAnAger Duke Fleischer Art director Chris Street

AdVertising/MArketing design coordinAtor Erin DeMoss

Puzzle No. 0918, which appeared in the September 21 issue.

A S O N E

Account executiVes Stephanie Van Horn, Saundra Rinearson Godwin, Elizabeth Riddle, Nathan Ward, Joel Scott

print production coordinAtor Ashley Parks

NeW YORk TiMeS CROSSWORD Puzzle ANSWeRS B I C E P

AdVertising director Christy Duane, cduane@okgazette.com Account executiVe / AdVertising AssistAnt Leah Roberts

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receptionist/cAlendAr Arden Biard, Coordinator

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Accounting/hr MAnAger Marian Harrison Accounts receiVAble Karen Holmes

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Handy take-along Play-____ Modern airport amenity Soft wool source “Sure thing” Parts of airports and fashion shows Actress Kirsten Display clearly Goalie’s goal Locale painted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling Caught on, with “up” Junior, often Something starting something? Devices preventing off-hour openings of vaults Image on the Arizona license plate

MArketing MAnAger Kelsey Lowe

publisher Bill Bleakley AssociAte publisher James Bengfort

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

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

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