Spirituality in the “Twilight” saga
There are spiritual lessons to be gleaned from the fictional “Twilight” saga that has lots of folks abuzz these days.
The premiere of the feature film “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” again brings to reel-life the love story of Bella Swan and her vampire boyfriend Edward.
Beliefnet.com has a new posting offering Claudia Mair Burney’s perspective on the spirituality one can find in the popular tale of teen love and angst.
“I’m also a junkie for the Twilight Saga’s completely unrealistic love story. “Who acts like that?”, I ask myself, but I keep coming back. Deep down inside I knew who acted that way. Edward’s inhumanly perfect love and Bella’s passionate attachment to him echoed —don’t laugh—the sacred romance between God and me,” Burney wrote.
Check it out at “Spiritual Lessons of Twilight.”
Saturday, Beliefnet.com will feature a movie review of the new film by Movie Mom Nell Minow.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
You’re Doing It Wrong – Pop Culture Edition
I am a man who enjoys his pop culture. I watch too many movies. I mainline TV like heroin. I know more about the history of the WWE (nee WWF) than I do my own family. And I still read comic books, despite being old enough to be the aged scientist who accidentally bestows powers upon the hero.
But if I had to give it all up tomorrow, I’d be OK. I’d find something new to occupy my time. You can’t take this stuff too seriously.
Which brings me to “New Moon.” *Ahem*
If you are screaming and squealing when a trailer for a movie is shown, you are doing it wrong. If you are emotionally affected by the fact that the actor of the film, whom you will never meet and did not have a chance with anyway, is dating his co-star, you’re doing it wrong. If someone questions the quality of the film and you’re response is unmitigated fury instead of a rational explanation of its appeal, you’re doing it wrong.
Oh, Twi-hards, I cannot tell you how much I have looked forward to “New Moon.” I never saw “Twilight,” nor do I plan to. I will not see “New Moon,” either. I will also avoid the third film, which I assume is called “Mummy Boning.”
But I have been eagerly anticipating the release of “New Moon,” regardless, because when it’s finally in theaters, I won’t have to hear you scream about it anymore. I won’t have to put up with the incessant fast food tie-ins or the non-stop cycle of commercials for that movie. They will fade away and leave me in peace and quiet, enjoying (but not obsessing about) the pop culture that I so love.
Now if I could just tune out all the people who love “Lost,” I’d be in heaven.
Camping fee increase proposed at the Chickasaw National Recreation Area
The Travertine Nature Center at the Chickasaw National Recreation Area
Camping fees likely will be increased at the Chickasaw National Recreation Area near Sulphur.
The National Park Service is proposing a hike in camping fees. If approved, the following new fee rates will go into effect in the spring of 2010.
The proposed camping fees would be an increase of $2.00 for individual sites and $6.00 for group sites.
• Lakeview premium campsites with electric utility hook-ups will be $24.00 per night. (Buckhorn Loop D #24, 25, 26 & Loop C #4, 5, 6, 7 and the Point #20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
• Campsites with electric utility hook-ups will be $22.00 per night. (Buckhorn and the Point Campgrounds, and one site at Rock Creek Campground)
• Campsites without electric utility hook-ups will be $16.00 per night at the Buckhorn and the Point Campgrounds.
• Campsites without electric utility hook-ups will be $14.00 per night at the Cold Springs, Guy Sandy, & Rock Creek Campgrounds.
• All group campsites will be $30.00 per night. (Rock Creek, Cold Springs & Central Campgrounds)
One hundred percent of the camping fees collected are returned to Chickasaw National Recreation Area.
The fee increase will cover increased utility costs for electricity and provide additional revenue which will be applied to the highest priority visitor needs, park officials said.
The funds are used for maintenance, repair projects, public service programs, signage, and natural and historical resource preservation.
Before the fees can be raised, the park must solicit public input on the changes.
Questions and/or comments may be submitted in writing by mail to: Superintendent, Chickasaw National Recreation Area, 1008 W. Second Street, Sulphur, OK 73086-4814
Comments also may be submitted via email to chic_superintendent@nps.gov.
Include the phrase “Camping Fee Increase” at the top of the comments or the email subject line.
Comments will be accepted until January 15.
Millwood’s Henry ready for tonight’s return
By Ryan Aber
raber@opubco.com
I went out to Millwood’s practice for a bit yesterday and one of the firs tplayers out of the locker room was linebacker Trayvon Henry.
Henry has been suspended since the season’s third week after a violation of an undisclosed team (and school) rule.
Henry thought his senior season was lost but worked his way back into the good graces of Millwood’s administrators and coaches and, it appears, has done the right things since the problem surfaced.
While Henry didn’ t talk specifically about what happened, he did say he’s learned a lot from it and is more careful about the people he hangs around now.
Henry wasn’t able to return to practice until Wednesday and didn’t seem like he missed a beat, laying a brutal hit on a teammate during the practice.
“It’s great to be back,” a beaming Henry said before practice yesterday. “I’m excited about getting this chance. I didn’t think it was going to happen. I thought high school football was done for me.
“I’m glad I got a second chance.”
Henry remains committed to Kansas and said coaches there remained behind him during his time away. And he also remains committed to staying out of trouble.
“I’m not trying to have anything else happen that would mess things up for me,” Henry said. “I’m trying to get back into (concentrating on) school and football and get everything right.”
State forecast
STATE FORECAST FOR OKLAHOMA
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
FRI NOV 20 2009
.TODAY…PARTLY CLOUDY WEST. MOSTLY CLOUDY CENTRAL AND EAST WITH
A CHANCE OF SHOWER AND THUNDERSTORMS. HIGHS IN THE 50S TO NEAR
60.
.TONIGHT…MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF RAIN SHOWERS. LOWS UPPER 20S
PANHANDLE TO MID 40S EAST.
.SATURDAY…MOSTLY CLOUDY. SLIGHT CHANCE OF RAIN SHOWERS EAST.
HIGHS IN THE 60S.
.SUNDAY…PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS 30S AND 40S. HIGHS UPPER 50S TO
UPPER 60S.
.MONDAY…PARTLY CLOUDY. SLIGHT CHANCE OF RAIN SHOWERS EAST.
LOWS 30S AND 40S. HIGHS 50S AND 60S.
.TUESDAY…PARTY CLOUDY. SLIGHT CHANCE OF RAIN SHOWERS EAST.
LOWS 20S AND 30S. HIGHS 50S TO LOWER 60S.
Doctor Who: The End of Time Part 1 to debut Dec. 26
More info from BBC America about the air dates of the final David Tennant Doctor Who episodes. Note, the five-disc set containing all the specials comes out on my birthday, Groundhog Day 2010.
PRESS RELEASE
The finale to the era of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor, is one of the most eagerly anticipated adventures in the history of Doctor Who. As previously announced, the next special, Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars premieres Saturday December 19, 9:00pm ET/PT on BBC AMERICA. The final two specials, Doctor Who: The End of Time, Part One and Doctor Who: The End of Time, Part Two, will premiere over the holiday season starting December 26 on BBC AMERICA. Guest stars John Simm, Timothy Dalton, Catherine Tate, Lindsay Duncan and Bernard Cribbins join Tennant on his final journey. Doctor Who: The End of Time, Part One premieres Saturday December 26, 9:00pm ET/PT on BBC AMERICA. The End of Time, Part Two premiere date will be announced very soon.
Hazardous weather outlook
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORMAN OK
FRI NOV 20 2009
OKZ004>048-050>052-TXZ083>090-211100-
HARPER-WOODS-ALFALFA-GRANT-KAY-ELLIS-WOODWARD-MAJOR-GARFIELD-NOBLE-
ROGER MILLS-DEWEY-CUSTER-BLAINE-KINGFISHER-LOGAN-PAYNE-BECKHAM-
WASHITA-CADDO-CANADIAN-OKLAHOMA-LINCOLN-GRADY-MCCLAIN-CLEVELAND-
POTTAWATOMIE-SEMINOLE-HUGHES-HARMON-GREER-KIOWA-JACKSON-TILLMAN-
COMANCHE-STEPHENS-GARVIN-MURRAY-PONTOTOC-COAL-COTTON-JEFFERSON-
CARTER-JOHNSTON-ATOKA-LOVE-MARSHALL-BRYAN-HARDEMAN-FOARD-WILBARGER-
WICHITA-KNOX-BAYLOR-ARCHER-CLAY-
1150 AM CST FRI NOV 20 2009
THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK COVERS NORTHERN…WESTERN…
CENTRAL…AND SOUTHERN OKLAHOMA…AND WESTERN NORTH TEXAS.
.DAY ONE…THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT…
THUNDERSTORM OUTLOOK…
NO SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED THROUGH TONIGHT.
DISCUSSION…
AN ISOLATED THUNDERSTORM OR TWO WILL REMAIN POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON
OVER PARTS OF SOUTH-CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA. RELATIVELY LIGHT
WINDS AT ALL LEVELS… AND WEAK INSTABILITY WILL RESULT IN A VERY
LOW CHANCE OF SEVERE STORMS.
PROBABILITY TABLE…
VALID THROUGH 700 AM CST SATURDAY NOV 21.
PROBABILITY OF THUNDERSTORMS OCCURRING IN THE
NWS NORMAN COUNTY WARNING AREA…20 PERCENT.
PROBABILITY OF SEVERE STORMS IF STORMS OCCUR…LESS THAN 5 PERCENT.
OTHER HAZARDOUS WEATHER…
NONE.
.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN…SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY…
THUNDERSTORM OUTLOOK…
THUNDERSTORMS ARE UNLIKELY FROM SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY.
Capsule: Claremore Sequoyah at Tuttle
Claremore Sequoyah (9-2) at Tuttle (11-0)
When: 7:30 p.m. tonight
Where: Bill Hinkle Field
Key match ups: Tuttle defense vs. Claremore Sequoyah QB Cody Richardson. The offense runs through Richardson, who is a dual threat to run and pass. Stop him and the rest of the offense is in trouble. Trick is stopping him, which won’t be easy but Tuttle’s defense has had some tough tests this season against Clinton, Blanchard, Anadarko and others with talented skill players and they’ve passed them all.
The pick: Tuttle 28, Claremore Sequoyah 10
Capsule: Claremore Sequoyah at Tuttle
Claremore Sequoyah (9-2) at Tuttle (11-0)
When: 7:30 p.m. tonight
Where: Bill Hinkle Field
Key match ups: Tuttle defense vs. Claremore Sequoyah QB Cody Richardson. The offense runs through Richardson, who is a dual threat to run and pass. Stop him and the rest of the offense is in trouble. Trick is stopping him, which won’t be easy but Tuttle’s defense has had some tough tests this season against Clinton, Blanchard, Anadarko and others with talented skill players and they’ve passed them all.
The pick: Tuttle 28, Claremore Sequoyah 10
Ferris O’Brien talks about the return of 105.3 FM “The Spy”
“The Spy” is currently locked in a basement, but Ferris O’Brien promises to release it in three days.
Five years ago, 105.3 FM “The Spy” left the airwaves, replaced by a Spanish language station, and a great experiment in ultra-alternative rock radio was consigned to history. Now O’Brien, the morning disc jockey on The Spy, has bought the station from Citadel Broadcasting and the long dormant Spy returns to the airwaves Monday.
“I’ve been working on this at least since March — actually physically working on this deal,” said O’Brien. “But in all actuality, this has been something I’ve been thinking about doing, wanting to be doing, for the last 10 years.”
O’Brien, whose career in radio began with KDGE-FM in Dallas, eventually moved to Stillwater, where he was a key player on KSPI-FM, the stylistic precursor to KSYY. KSPI-FM changed formats in 2000, and O’Brien joined 105.3 FM when that station adopted a deep alternative format in December 2002, playing a diverse selection of underground British and domestic rock.
After KSYY changed formats in June 2004, O’Brien continued to work with Citadel, hosting a “Spy Radio” program on KATT-FM. But O’Brien said his dream has always been to run his own station, and he reached an agreement earlier this year to purchase the station from Citadel with his own money and investment from family members.
Since embarking on the process of buying the station, O’Brien has been collecting and programming the necessary equipment and reaching out to past colleagues such as former Chainsaw Kittens singer Tyson Meade, one of the regular deejays on the station. Meade, who now lives and teaches in Shanghai, China, is expected to return to The Spy with a regular show recorded half a world away.
In the meantime, O’Brien is filling his equipment with digital song files, ranging from classics by The Smiths and Talking Heads to local bands such as Pretty Black Chains.
“I’ve had the automation system for about two months, and I am still working on it today,” he said. “I lock myself in my basement, and my wife refers to it as “mad scientist syndrome.”
While he acknowledged that there are big risks involved in this undertaking, O’Brien said he thinks he can operate a profitable business while bringing a radio legend back to life.
“You know, I’m not in this specifically to get filthy, stinking rich, where I fill up a bedroom with 100-dollar bills and roll around naked. If that happens, that’s great, too. But if I break even and make a good living and can pay the bills and keep it on the air, I know I can do that.”
