Free admission to the Crystal Bridge
Check out Oklahoma City’s tropical paradise for free on Tuesday.
Admission to the Myriad Botanical Gardens’ Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory will be free on Tuesday to mark the attraction’s 20th anniversary.
The special exhibition “In Full Bloom: Twenty Tropical Years” is on display at the Crystal Bridge now through May 26.
The Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W Reno, are located in downtown. Admission to the outdoor grounds is always free.
Crystal Bridge hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 6 p.m. Sundays. Regular admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and students and $3 for children ages 4 to 12.
For more information, call 297-3995 or go to www.myriadgardens.com.
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Eye candy for all in “Wanted”
I’ve never read the graphic novel by Mark Millar and JG Jones, but I’m betting that the movie version of “Wanted” will be a hit.
Why? It’s got something for everyone:
See what I mean? I’m sold.
Plus, it’s got what my sister likes to call “Morgan Freeman-ness.” Always a good thing.
James McAvoy stars as Wes, a slacker who meets a mystery woman named Fox (Angelina Jolie, of course). She recruits him into the Fraternity, a secret society of assassins run by the enigmatic Sloan (Morgan Freeman, of course). The Fraternity trains him to unlock some wicked dormant powers that come in handy for the killing trade. Based on the trailer, it looks like a high-octane actioner with plenty of eye candy.
It opens June 27.
Click on over to Matt Price’s blog, Nerdage, to see more pics and read more about the movie and graphic novel.
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Monday Catchy Quote
A catchy quote from a movie, television show or other source to brighten the beginning of your week (shout out to loyal reader 3D for suggesting this quote):
Debi: So, is there a Mrs. Mysterio?
Martin: No, but I do have a very nice cat.
Debi: Not the same.
Martin: Well, you don’t know my cat, it’s very demanding.
Debi: It? You don’t know if it’s a boy or girl?
Martin: I respect its privacy.
-Click here to learn the source.
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Meryl Streep the “Dancing Queen”
Growing up, my dad was the biggest influence on my musical education, exposing my sister and me to hefty doses of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and other magical classic rock elixirs. My mother preferred the lighter side of music, and probably her most lasting contribution to my music background is passing on her fondness for the bubbly sounds of ABBA.
Yes, I’m known to occasionally and cheerfully imbibe the heady pop music of the 1970s Swedish quartet. And Mom and I aren’t the only ones who like a little “Dancing Queen,” “Does Your Mother Know” and ”The Name of the Game.” ABBA has sold hundreds of millions of albums worldwide. The musical “Mamma Mia!,” which features several of the group’s hits, has been a global smash since it launched in 1999.
The film adaptation of the musical will open in July, and apparently, Hollywood boasts some big-name ABBA fans. The cast includes heavy-hitters Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski.
Universal has launched the movie’s official fan site, www.mammamiafans.com, and released a new trailer. You can see it on Yahoo! Movies by clicking here.
The story centers on Donna (Streep), an single mother who runs a hotel on a small, fictional Greek island. When her daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) decides to get married, Donna invites her old friends, practical singleton Rosie (Julie Walters) and rich divorcee Tanya (Christine Baranski). The trio used to be in the singing group Donna and the Dynamos. (And the costumes they wear to relive those glory days are scarily kitschy.)
Sophie secretly invites her own trio to the wedding. In an effort to find out who her father is so he can walk her down the aisle, she reads her mother’s diary and comes up with three likely candidates: Harry (Firth), Sam (Brosnan) and Bill (Skarsgård). Judging from the trailer, wackiness ensues to the bouncy beat of ABBA.
For those who missed the chance to see the stage musical live as part of Celebrity Attractions 2005 lineup, the touring production also will return to OKC Sept. 2-7.
So, get out your dancing shoes.
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This week’s entertainment podcast
George Lang and I chat about the various movies opening today in the OKC area in this NewsOK podcast.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download
DVD review: “In the Shadow of the Moon”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
“In the Shadow of the Moon”
British director David Sington recaptures the sense of wonder and danger of the Apollo space missions in his earnest and visually dazzling documentary “In the Shadow of the Moon.”
The concept is strikingly simple: Tell the story of NASA’s moon missions through eye-popping archival footage and candid, close-up interviews with 10 of the surviving astronauts. The footage, much of it never used before, was carefully remastered.
The documentary chronicles the founding of the Apollo program, the fiery deaths of the Apollo 1 crew and the successful lunar orbit on Apollo 8. It lingers over the triumphant Apollo 11 moon landing, skims over the well-known near-debacle of Apollo 13 and shows later crews’ Lunar Rover joyrides.
Sington puts the space race in a cultural context. It covers the Apollo program and the astronauts’ reflections on it in less than two hours. The DVD includes more than an hour of bonus footage and interviews.
The absence of publicity-shy Neil Armstrong looms, and Oklahomans will miss Weatherford native Tom Stafford. Still, the documentary offers an amazing real-life star trek.
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Friday Featured Track
The song that has been on my brain the most this week:
- “Erin Shore,” The Corrs (from their 1995 album “Forgiven, Not Forgotten”).
The two major themes of my life this week have been Ireland and this lingering upper respiratory infection. I refuse to give the germ any more leverage over my life than it already has taken, so we’re going with an Irish theme for the FFT. Plus, to my knowledge, there are no really great upper respiratory infection-related songs.
I bought the debut CD by Irish rock-folk band The Corrs when I was in college, after the first single, ”Runaway,” got a bit of airplay in Oklahoma.
Nothing against the Corr siblings’ vocal abilities, but I was drawn to the six Celtic-flavored instrumental numbers. Among them, this sweeping four-minute-plus closing track, a love song to the Emerald Isle remains my favorite, with its lush melodies and passionate percussion solo.
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Sad week for movie fans
It’s been a tough week for movie fans, with three prominent talents passing away in the last few days.
Paul Scofield, the powerful stage and screen actor who won an Oscar playing Sir Thomas More in “A Man for All Seasons,” died Wednesday in a hospital near his home in southern England. He was 86 and suffered from leukemia.
He is survived by his wife and children.
Prolific writer Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote “2001: A Space Odyssey” simultaneously as a novel and screenplay with director Stanley Kubrick, died Wednesday in Sri Lanka, where he lived since 1956. He was 90 and had battled post-polio syndrome for many years.
He wrote more than 100 books on space, science and the future, some fiction and some nonfiction. He also is credited with coming up with the concept of using satellites to communicate; he came up with the idea in 1954, decades before they actually became reality.
He is survived by a brother and a sister. (He was divorced and had no children.)
Anthony Minghella, best known as the writer-director of nine-time Oscar winner “The English Patient,” died of a hemorrhage Tuesday at London’s Charing Cross Hospital. Minghella, 54, underwent surgery last week to remove a growth in his neck.
Minghella died five days before the British television premiere of his last film, “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency,” based on the popular books. He often adapted novels into screenplays and then directed them, as with “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” “Cold Mountain” and “The English Patient.” He also was an opera director.
He is survived by his wife and children.
My condolences to their loved ones.
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Blake on Country Weekly cover
Ada native Blake Shelton will appear on the cover of the April 7 issue of Country Weekly magazine, which will hit newsstands on Monday.
In the story, the country star gives an inside look of his house on his 1,200-acre farm in Tishomingo, according to a news release.
The story is titled “Love, Loss and Life,” and the cover promises his insights into his brother’s death and his tough divorce.
He also opens up about the ways he uses his down time, the importance of living close to his family and his relationship with fellow country hitmaker Miranda Lambert, according to the release.
“I mean it – I’m in my favorite spot that I’ve been in in my life. It’s real easy to lose yourself and lose focus in this music industry thing. I just feel like, all of a sudden, bein’ back in Oklahoma and four albums into this thing … I just love how my life is at the moment,” he is quote as saying in the release.
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Coming to a computer near you: “Jewno”
Allow me to pass on a bit of inventive hilarity that my colleague/pal George Lang forwarded to me. Please click here to share in a bit of spoofing fun titled “Jewno.”
Considering the popularity of “Juno,” the media attention slathered on scribe Diablo Cody (sorry, forgot the obligatory “stripper-turned-screenwriter” moniker), the subsequent backlash and the subsequent backlash to the backlash, it was inevitable that people with too much time and unharnessed creativity on their hands would begin crafting spoofs.
Word on the Web is that Rob Kutner, a writer for “The Daily Show,” came up with this parody of the “Juno” trailer, which will be nearly impossible to top.
The trailer for “Jewno” incorporates every Jewish stereotype imaginable, including references to bar mitzvahs, dreidels and pushy parents. But it’s so good natured and funny that it’s hard to imagine anyone getting offended by it.
Not only does it replace Juno’s hamburger phone with an edible bagel and lox phone, it features rewritten versions of both The Moldy Peaches’ “Anyone Else But You” and Mott the Hoople’s “All the Young Dudes” from the “Juno” soundtrack.
But that’s not even the best part: J.K. Simmons, who plays Juno’s dad, gets the good sport award for making a relatively extensive appearance as Jewno’s dad, complete with exaggerated accent.
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