Archive for August, 2008
What to do in Oklahoma on Aug. 31
Today’s featured event:
Get a live look and listen at “High School Musical” star Corbin Bleu, along with special guest Justin Stein, at 6 p.m. today at Frontier City, 11501 N Interstate 35 Service Road.
For more information, call 478-2140 or go to www.frontiercity.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on Aug. 30
Today’s featured event:
Hear former “American Idol” contestant and up-and-coming country singer Kellie Pickler at 6 p.m. today at Frontier City, 11501 N Interstate 35 Service Road.
For more information, call 478-2140 or go to www.frontiercity.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
Are you ready for some football?
OSU quarterback Zac Robinson (Associated Press photo)
I know it’s hard to believe, but college football kicks off this weekend.
My beloved Oklahoma State University Cowboys will start the season on the road, taking on Washington State at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Qwest Field in Seattle. The game will be televised on FSN.
For those of you who follow the Sooners, the University of Oklahoma plays Chattanooga at 6 p.m. Saturday at Owen Field in Norman. The game will be on pay-per-view.
Naturally, you can find out all about the Cowboys’ and Sooners’ preparations, and learn about how they did after the games, at www.newsok.com/sports.
My friend Stephanie Gonzales, shown here playing with the Oklahoma Centennial All-Star Band last year at the Oklahoma State Fair, will make her debut with the University of Oklahoma Pride of Oklahoma marching band on Saturday.
If you are watching the OU game from the stadium or on TV, keep an eye out on the Pride of Oklahoma marching band. My dear friend Stephanie Gonzales, a freshman trumpet player at OU, will make her debut with the band on Saturday.
Heading down to the Swamp, my husband’s University of Florida Gators will start their season at home in Gainesville against Hawaii on Saturday. (For those of you who don’t know, my husband attended UofF before moving to OSU, and he has many wonderful family members in the Gainesville area who are among the Gator faithful. We will be cheering along with them.)
So, sports fans, grab some snacks and settle in for what we all hope will be great season of football action. Even though it seems early, I’m stoked to have football back in my entertainment regimen.
-BAM
Friday Featured Track
The song that has been on my brain the most this week:
- “Death Will Never Conquer” by Coldplay, 2008 track from www.coldplay.com.
It’s less than a minute and a half long, but this piano-driven spiritual really sticks in your head. Drummer Will Champion, rather than frontman Chris Martin, sings on this track, and his deeper, not-quite-as-British voice suits the rootsy, Southern-gospel-inspired song.
When the hard soft rock band started touring this summer in support of its new album “Viva La Vida,” it also began offering “Death Will Never Conquer” on its Web site as a free download. It’s still available there if you haven’t checked it out yet.
The song isn’t included on “Viva La Vida,” but fits thematically. The band is performing a version of it in their concerts on the tour.
Coldplay’s Oklahoma City show was one of the dates that was postponed earlier this summer due to “production delays.” It has been rescheduled for Nov. 16 at the Ford Center. For more information, go to www.okfordcenter.com.
-BAM
Get the blues in Rentiesville
The annual Dusk Til Dawn Blues Festival will bring great live music to the small town of Rentiesville over Labor Day weekend.
This year, the event will pay tribute to Oklahoma bluesman D.C. Minner, who founded the festival with his wife Selby. Minner died in May at the age of 73.
The festival will include the music of 35 different blues bands, along with a children’s area where local percussionist Jahruba will teach children to play drums.
Festival hours are 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. today through Sunday at the Down Home Blues Club, 701 D.C. Minner in Rentiesville.
My colleague, George Lang, has the full story about the event, and you can see it by clicking here.
-BAM
“American Idols Live” rocks the Ford Center
My colleague, George Lang, reviewed the “American Idols Live” show Thursday night at the Ford Center.
Not surprisingly, he reports that David Cook proved once again that he deserves the title of “American Idol.”
His review will definitely be encouraging for fans of the show holding tickets for the tour’s next Oklahoma stop, Sept. 13 at Tulsa’s new BOK Center.
Click here to read George’s review.
-BAM
Don Cheadle wants to entertain, spark debates
Don Cheadle in “Traitor”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Just how safe is America?
Terrorism film “Traitor” starring Don Cheadle poses that question
NEW YORK - Don Cheadle believes the first goal of a movie is to entertain.
But if a movie also can stir up debate on real-world issues, so much the better.
“I like to try to smuggle in things for people to talk about when they walk out of the theater, because those tend to be the most enjoyable movie experiences I have, where I can go and sort of escape, whatever, and just let it be a ride, but I also leave kind of thinking and having a discussion,” Cheadle said in a recent interview to promote his new movie “Traitor.”
In “Traitor,” Cheadle, 43, stars at Samir Horn, an enigmatic Muslim American with a shadowy special forces background. Samir is nabbed in Yemen selling detonators to suspected terrorists and thrown into a rustic prison. He is visited by FBI agents Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce) and Max Archer (Neal McDonough), who offer him freedom in exchange for information.
Samir chooses to stay in prison, and he forms a friendship with a canny terrorist, Omar (Said Taghmaoui). They pull off a spectacular prison break and soon are connected with bombings in Spain and France. As the FBI agents embark on a globe-trotting pursuit, Roy starts to wonder if Samir isn’t quite what he seems.
“I thought this was a world discussion. Everyone’s talking about this to some degree, and especially in the United States, trying to focus on are we safe, how are we safe, what will we do to maintain a semblance of safety because how are you ever really completely safe. And this character was wrestling with all those things too: How far do you go? How much collateral damage is justifiable?” Cheadle said while talking to reporters at the W Union Square Hotel.
Famed for his Oscar-nominated turn in “Hotel Rwanda” and co-starring role in the “Oceans Eleven” franchise, Cheadle has become known for his charitable and socially conscious stands on issues such as the genocide in Darfur. But he said he doesn’t seek out issue movies.
“I’ve always been interested in politics and how we get to the places that we get to with the people leading us. … I think these things are finding their ways into movies more and more often because it’s what’s happening around us. It’s either that or like complete escapism, and they’re both definitely important. I mean, I can’t imagine that anyone would think the ‘Oceans’ series is relevant in any way,” he said with a laugh.
Cheadle liked the “Traitor” script enough to become a hands-on producer. The continent-hopping spy thriller takes several plot twists, and the biggest actually served as inspiration for the movie. Multi-talented actor Steve Martin came up with the big twist and first-writer director Jeffrey Nachmanoff (co-writer of “The Day After Tomorrow”) built on it. While casual filmgoers might find the comedic Martin an unlikely source for an espionage story, Cheadle said it makes sense.
“If you know about him you would expect it. I mean, he’s a pretty serious novelist and a playwright and an art collector. He’s not just the guy who’s the wild and crazy guy; he’s pretty deep in his game,” said Cheadle, who wore a black T-shirt, blue jeans and a ball cap.
Once the newly created Overturn Films agreed to take on “Traitor,” Cheadle set out to “dirty up” the project, which he said had been whitewashed and then languished at Disney.
“The subject matter that we’re dealing with, I said, ‘People have to get hurt, or it won’t feel like there’s any veracity.’ There has to be cost for everything that’s happening, and a real cost, or else also this character isn’t really weighing anything heavily. If people always narrowly escape, that’s really not what this is about. This is about somebody going ‘I’m putting others’ lives at risk, and I’m deciding to do that. And how do I now deal with the fact that I’m in my mind playing God when my faith tells me I have no right to do that,’” he said.
The hot-button issues of religion and terrorism are at the heart of the story. While his character is a devout Muslim, Pearce’s Southern-born and bred FBI agent is a declared Southern Baptist and preacher’s son.
Cheadle, who learned Arabic and researched Islam and the Middle East for the role, said the filmmakers were aware they were taking on sensitive topics. He recalled a spirited on-set debate among Muslim cast and crew about whether showing a plotting terrorist kissing the Quran was going too far or in character.
“They decided that, no, it makes sense that this character is claiming the religion for his purposes because that’s what people do. They always hide behind that when you want to do whatever you want to do, whether good or bad. ‘It’s not me, it’s God, I’m just God’s messenger, you know, crushing you so that I can have power.’ It’s like, ‘Really, is that what the religion says?’”
The debate extends to people who have seen and heard about the movie, too.
“We’ve gotten everything from this is jingoistic and too patriotic to this is … trying to humanize the terrorists. We get it all; we get all sides of it, which to me is like good. That’s a debate, and that to me what’s interesting about what you can do with this art form is inspire that kind of debate,” he said.
“But mainly you want to entertain people.”
-BAM
CD review: “Beer for My Horses” soundtrack
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Soundtrack
Original soundtrack “Beer for My Horses” (Show Dog Nashville)
Norman country music star Toby Keith and Tulsa comic songwriter Rodney Carrington co-wrote and co-star in the action-comedy “Beer for My Horses.”
As expected, both are featured on the soundtrack, but turn in only three of the 12 tracks, with several others in the cast contributing to the mix of scorching rock, rollicking country and pretty ballads.
The title song, the hit 2003 Keith-Willie Nelson duet, serves as the disc’s appropriate opener. Keith adds another duet with “Let’s Get Trashed,” a raucous pairing with his backing vocalist and fellow Oklahoman Mica Roberts.
Carrington offers his roguish, slyly melodic “Show Them to Me.” But his spirited rendition of the Isley Brothers’ “Shout,” the movie’s lone musical number, is missing.
Co-star Ted Nugent provides two of his hits, “Cat Scratch Fever” and “Stranglehold,” while David Allan Coe drawls his outlaw anthem “If That Ain’t Country (Part 2).” The trio Trailer Choir boosts the energy level with the rousing country dance track “Off the Hillbilly Hook,” while actress Gina Gershon seduces with the “La Di Da,” a siren song with a spaghetti Western vibe.
But some of the album’s best songs don’t come from artists who appeared in the movie. James McMurtry tells the sprawling tale of a rowdy family traveling to a reunion in Oklahoma in “Choctaw Bingo,” while the sister act Carter’s Chord, who is on Keith’s record label, croons the lovely “Song of Blue.”
- BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on Aug. 29
Today’s featured event:
SHAWNEE - Hear up-and-coming country singer-songwriter Shawna Russell of Okemah play her first headlining show in her home area at 8 p.m. today at the Sac and Fox Casino Heartland Amphitheater, 42008 Westech Road. The all-ages show is free.
For more information, call 275-4700 or go to www.shawnarussell.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
Eagles will make second stop at Tulsa’s BOK Center
The BOK Center has announced that the Eagles will play a second date at the new Tulsa arena, due to the overwhelming demand for tickets to the grand opening show.
The Eagles will play the first show at the new arena at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 6. Because fans were still clamoring for tickets to the sold-out show, another Tulsa stop has been added.
The band, which currently includes the lineup of Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit, will play its second and final date at the arena on Nov. 11.
Tickets for the second Tulsa show on their “Long Road Out of Eden” world tour will go on sale at 10 a.m. Sept. 6. Ticket prices are $187, $87, and $52.
They will be available online at www.bokcenter.com, by phone at (877) TULSA-CC, and in person at area Homeland and Reasor’s stores or at the Arby’s Box Office.
The rockers will play their current hits from their latest multi-platinum album “Long Road Out of Eden,” including “How Long” and “Busy Being Fabulous,” along with their classic favorites.
“The Eagles coming back to play a second date at the BOK Center is a huge accomplishment for the city and attests to the level of excitement and enthusiasm for both the band and the new BOK Center. We need to show the band a gratitude of thanks for returning for a second date in the form of another sell-out,” said BOK Center General Manager John Bolton at the arena’s Web site.
-BAM
