Wednesday Video Spotlight: David Cook
David Cook (Associated Press photo)
“American Idol” David Cook is back in Oklahoma, where he will perform tonight at Oklahoma City’s Diamond Ballroom.
He played a sold-out show Tuesday night at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa; the Season 7 champ lived in T-town before winning the reality TV show.
When I talked to Cook last summer, he mentioned that he sometimes longed for the days when he was playing Tulsa clubs.
“The crowds are a little bigger, and you … just have more resources available to you. But I don’t know, part of me actually kind of misses playing the Gray Snail (Saloon in Tulsa) on a Wednesday night,” he told me in a phone interview from the road.
Guess he made it back: Check out these YouTube videos of the singer/songwriter/guitarist’s post-show acoustic jam last night at the Gray Snail.
I’m also posting a couple of official videos from Sony BMG’s MyPlay and a few other goodies I found on YouTube.
It’s my first time to see Cook perform live, and if he’s half as entertaining onstage as he was on “Idol,” it should be a great show.
David Cook - Come Back To Me (Official Music Video) - Celebrity bloopers here
-BAM
Slideshow: Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s “Turner to Cezanne” exhibit
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, “La Parisienne,” 1874. (Photo courtesy American Federation of Arts)
Click here to see a NewsOK slideshow featuring a few of the nearly 60 paintings and works on paper in the Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s new exhibit “Turner to Cezanne.”
The exhibit, which opens Thursday, is absolutely gorgeous. Art lovers won’t want to miss it.
Thanks to photographer Chris Landsberger for helping me put together this slideshow.
-BAM
Video: Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s “Turner to Cezanne” exhibit
NewsOK videographer Brian Trumbly and I recently visited the Oklahoma City Museum of Art to take a sneak peek of the new special exhibition “Turner to Cezanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales.”
Check out Brian’s excellent NewsOK video of the exhibit, which features amazing works by Monet, Renoir and Sisley.
-BAM
Oklahoma City Museum of Art to cover “Turner to Cezanne” in special exhibit
Claude Monet, “Waterlilies,” 1906 (Photo courtesy American Federation of Arts)
From Wednesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
Works by van Gogh, Renoir, Monet accent city exhibit
Masterpieces by the likes of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh will be on view in the Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s new special exhibition opening Thursday.
“Turner to Cézanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales” offers a look at the diversity and scope of 19th and early 20th century European painting. The exhibit includes about 60 paintings and works on paper by Edouard Manet, James Abbott McNeil Whistler, Jean-François Millet and more.
“Turner and Cezanne were two of the most important artists of the 19th century,” said Oklahoma City Museum of Art Associate Curator Alison Amick. “They really used those two artists to kind of provide bookends. … It’s really a wonderful sampling of many of the key artists of the period.”
The exhibit represents many of the artistic movements of the 1800s and early 1900s, including realism, symbolism and Impressionism. It follows artistic trends from J.M.W. Turner’s romantic naturalism works to Paul Cézanne’s post-Impressionism paintings.
“You will really be able to get a sense for how artistically diverse the period of the 19th century was when you come into this exhibition,” Amick said.
The exhibit features a painting from Monet’s iconic “Waterlilies” series and van Gogh’s “Rain-Auvers,” which dates to just days before the Dutch artist’s 1890 suicide.
“(It’s) the chance to see many of these household names from a collection that’s very interesting and important and from a place that many people probably have not visited,” Amick said. “It’s also a collection that really doesn’t travel, so this is a very unique chance to see some treasures.”
The exhibit also includes a painting by Walter Sickert, whom novelist Patricia Cornwell has accused of being Jack the Ripper.
Many of the paintings in “Turner to Cezanne,” organized by the American Federation of Arts and National Museum Wales, have rarely been exhibited outside Wales. The prestigious museum has put the works on tour while its galleries undergo renovation.
“It offers visitors an opportunity to enjoy works not generally accessible in the community. The National Museum of Wales wholeheartedly shares this goal (with AFA) and was therefore delighted that the Oklahoma City Museum of Art became a venue for the exhibition,” said Oliver Fairclough, keeper of art at National Museum Wales, in an e-mail.
The exhibit represents a fraction of the 260 paintings and works on paper in the renowned Davies Collection. In the early 1900s, Welsh sisters Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, grandchildren of famed industrialist and philanthropist David Davies, traveled Europe collecting artwork.
They were among the first to buy works by Camille Corot, Honoré Daumier and Millet. Their collection also includes important British artists such as Turner, Sickert, Augustus John and Robert Bevan.
The sisters spent by 1913 what amounts today to $12 million building their collection, but stopped buying art when the World War I broke out, focusing instead on charitable ventures. They later turned their Welsh mansion Gregynog, purchased in 1920, into a forum for arts and culture.
“‘Turner to Cezanne’ is an introduction to modernism in art from the 1830s to the 1910s, but also the story of two extraordinary women,” Fairclough said.
On exhibit
“Turner to Cézanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales”
When: Thursday-Sept. 20.
Where: Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive.
Information: 236-3100 or www.okcmoa.com.
-BAM
Video: Twinprov “Transformers” rap
In honor of today’s opening of the smash-crash sequel “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” Oklahoma City comedians Twinprov (AKA Clint and Buck Vrazel) visited the NewsOK studios earlier this week to perform their hilarious new rap about the robots who are “more than meets the eye.”
The Vrazels and I also give a condensed version of our disparaging review of the sequel, which is louder, bigger and dumber than 2007′s “Transformers.”
Please enjoy.
-BAM
Movie review: “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
BAM ponders if Michael Bay is in league with the Decepticons: Sic him, Optimus Prime!
A version of this review appears in Wednesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman. 2 of 4 stars.
Movie Review: Toys don’t play as well in sequel
Unfortunately, the slogan “more than meets the eye” does not apply to the slam-bang action sequel “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”
Instead, director Michael Bay staunchly adheres to the credo “more is better,” making the follow-up to his 2007 blockbuster bigger, dumber and louder.
The film, like its superior predecessor, does have some escapist entertainment value. But after two and a half hours of robots, explosions, tanks, more robots, missiles, more explosions and still more robots, the fun wears off as repetition and sensory fatigue set in.
A coherent storyline might offset some of the mindless monotony, but it takes the movie an hour to get to that minor detail. Even then, the plot holes are big enough for Ironhide, Devastator or one of the 45 other featured Transformers to rumble through.
Yes, I know these movies are based on the expansive Hasbro toy line and cartoon series about Autobots and Decepticons, warring alien robots who transform into trucks, planes and the like. Yes, I understand the inherent ludicrousness of expecting high cinema from such roots. And yes, I know many fans just want to see big robots bash each other.
But there is something inherently ludicrous about a billionaire playboy fighting evil in a red armor suit or a rabble-rousing Iowa farm boy becoming a starship captain virtually overnight. Still, Jon Favreau and J.J. Abrams turned “Iron Man” and “Star Trek” into first-rate action movies with lucid plots, character development and big box-office results. Why not expect more from the Transformers?
If you haven’t seen the first movie, don’t even bother with the sequel, because Bay covered all the character development he was willing to give two summers ago. Instead, we’re dropped into a quick flashback to 17,000 B.C., where we learn the Transformers actually first visited Earth back in prehistoric times.
We then rejoin now-Maj. Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Tech Sgt. Epps (Tyrese Gibson), who are part of a secret government unit partnering with the Autobots (good robots) to root out the remaining Decepticons (bad robots).
The Decepticons hope to find any remaining shards of the Allspark, the powerful cube that was the object of the first film, to resurrect their leader, Megatron (voice of Hugo Weaving), who has been imprisoned at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean (rather than sensibly melted into a metallic puddle).
Meanwhile, less geeky (and less likeable) hero Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is pursuing a normal life: heading off to college, getting away from his more annoying parents (Kevin Dunn, Julie White) but holding on to his sexy mechanic sweetie Mikaela (Megan Fox).
But Sam has accidentally carried off a piece of the Allspark, and before he can finish his first-day classes, he’s having freaky visions of alien symbols and getting chased by Decepticons. With Mikaela and his irritating roommate Leo (Ramon Rodriguez) tagging along, Sam embarks on a globe-trotting race to save the world from the Decepticon’s planet-destroying plan, which includes elements stolen from “Star Wars,” “The Matrix” and the “Indiana Jones” films.
Some of the fight scenes, particularly one featuring Optimus Prime (voice of Peter Cullen) taking on three Decepticons, are engaging, in the rare instances you can tell which robot is which. And the film does have a few bright moments from Rainn Wilson as a rock-star professor and John Turturro as former Agent Simmons.
Of course, in the finest Michael Bay tradition, these two entertaining characters have to be offset by a pair of the most annoying individuals ever produced by a computer. Jive-talking, gold-toothed racial stereotype Autobot twins Mudflap (voice of Reno Wilson) and Skids (voice of Tom Kenny, who has never been this exasperating in any “Spongebob Squarepants” episode, no matter how outlandish) are so grating I found myself rooting for the Decepticons to destroy the whole planet just so I wouldn’t have to see, hear or otherwise experience them anymore. Imagine if the “Star Wars” prequel trilogy had featured Jar Jar Binks and Watoo in virtually every scene, and you’re approaching the level of obnoxiousness Bay has wrought.
But mostly, “Revenge of the Fallen” is as creative and interesting as watching a 7-year-old boy crashing together his overpriced robot toys for 150 minutes.
-BAM
“Idol” winner David Cook playing Oklahoma City tonight
David Cook is back in Oklahoma to play tonight at Oklahoma City’s Diamond Ballroom. I’ll be reviewing the show for you tonight. (Associated Press photo)
From Wednesday’s The Oklahoman.
“Idol” winner brings tour to city
Season 7 “American Idol” winner David Cook is back in Oklahoma performing, but his star has risen considerably since his days of routinely playing Tulsa clubs and bars.
Cook, 26, will play at 8 tonight at the Diamond Ballroom, 8001 S Eastern Ave. Doors will open at 7 p.m. The show is the latest stop on the 2008 “Idol” champ’s first solo tour.
For tickets and information, call 677-9169 or go to www.diamondballroom.net.
“The Declaration Tour,” featuring opener Ryan Star, continues through October. Cook took the tour to his old Tulsa stomping grounds Tuesday night for a sold-out show at historic Cain’s Ballroom.
The rocker, who grew up in Blue Springs, Mo., famously won a spot on the reality TV singing contest in 2007, when he accompanied his younger brother Andrew to an Omaha, Neb., audition. The elder Cook was pressed into trying out and made the cut.
At the time, Cook was living, playing clubs and tending bar in Tulsa, trying to establish himself as a singer/songwriter/guitarist.
His self-titled post-”Idol” debut album was released last fall and has been certified platinum. Forbes.com recently ranked Cook No. 8 on its list of top-earning “Idol” alumni. Since winning “Idol” in May 2008, he has reportedly earned $2 million.
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on June 24
Josephine Myers-Wapp and one of her woven works
Today’s featured event:
See amazing woven works by 97-year-old American Indian artist Josephine Myers-Wapp in the new exhibit “The Artistic Legacy of Josephine Myers-Wapp: The Weaving of Stories and Tradition.” The exhibit is on view in the East Gallery of the state Capitol.
Myers-Wapp of the Comanche Nation was born in Apache in 1912. She is an artist, educator, and specialist in American Indian traditional art, according to a news release.
As a child, Wapp learned the ways of the Comanche woman from her maternal grandmother, Tissy-chauer-ne. Her grandmother taught her to dig herbal medicines and gather clay from Cache Creek to use for cleaning buckskin. Wapp credits her grandmother as her artistic inspiration and the reason for her emotional connection to the arts.
In the early 1930s, Wapp went to Santa Fe, N.M., to attend a two-year teacher training course in American Indian arts and crafts. There, she learned both traditional and contemporary weaving techniques, including finger-weaving, as well as how to weave on treadle-looms and hand-frame looms. She also studied pottery under the instruction of Maria Martinez, a renowned potter from San Ildefonso Pueblo, N.M.
In 1934, Wapp returned to Oklahoma to teach at Chilocco Indian School in Newkirk. Chilocco taught American Indian children basic schooling with an emphasis on learning a trade. Wapp was the first teacher to introduce arts and crafts at the school.
During her summer breaks from Chilocco, Wapp attended the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University and earned her education degree. In 1962, she was invited to be one of the first faculty instructors at the newly-opened Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe. IAIA offers post-secondary education in the creative arts to American Indians from across the country. At IAIA, Wapp taught traditional techniques of art, including textiles, all types of weaving, costume and fashion design, beadwork, and native dance.
In 1968, along with ceramic artist and IAIA colleague Otellie Loloma, Wapp coordinated a dance exhibition at the Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City featuring IAIA students.
Wapp’s creations have been exhibited at the Indian Arts and Crafts Exhibition in Gallup, N.M.; the Scottsdale National Indian Arts Exhibition in Scottsdale, Ariz.; and the Center for the Arts of Indian America in Washington, D.C. In 1972, she exhibited her original clothing designs in the Auxiliary Fashion Show at the historic La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe.
Since Wapp’s retirement from teaching in 1973, she has continued finger-weaving at her leisure and constructed wall-hangings from naturally dyed wool. The Lawton resident remains active in the American Indian community, serving as judge, consultant, and presenter at a variety of workshops.
The East Gallery is on the first floor of the Capitol and open daily from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The exhibit will be on view through Aug. 23.
For more information, go to www.arts.ok.gov.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
Shawna Russell to be featured in TV special
Shawna Russell performs Saturday at Country Fever in Pryor.
Up-and-coming Oklahoma country singer Shawna Russell will be featured in a local TV special at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
Russell will be profiled on “Believe in Oklahoma: Most Fascinating Oklahomans,” a special produced and to air on KOCO-5 in Oklahoma City.
Jessica Schambach, nightly news anchor at KOCO, met with Russell during the recent CMA Music Festival in Nashville and interviewed the singer-songwriter on a number of topics.
The interview covered a wide range of topics, from Russell’s co-ownership of her record label, Way Out West, to her third single, “Fire in the Desert” from her 2008 debut album “Goddess.” The album was recorded in Oklahoma City.
The Okemah resident has been a working musician for most of her life, first singing in public at age 7. She performed last Saturday at the big Country Fever Music Festival in Pryor.
Other Oklahomans included in the show will be mother and daughter authors, P.C. and Kristin Cast; Congressman Dan Boren; KOCO “Eyewitness News 5 at 5″ anchor, Paul Folger; and Mike Gundy, current OSU football coach.
“I am amazed that they have chosen a small town girl like me to be in the company of the illustrious names who are included in this special.” says Russell in a news release. “I am truly honored.”
-BAM
Sugarland to star in first network TV special
Two-time consecutive Country Music Association Vocal Duo of the Year Sugarland will be featured in their first network TV special Aug. 3 on ABC.
“Sugarland: Live on the Inside” will air the day before the combo CD/DVD set ”Live on the Inside” hits stores Aug. 4.
Described in a news release as a “cinematic postcard from their tour,” the one-hour special will capture the high-energy live performances by Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush.
Filmed at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., by director Shaun Silva, the duo’s artistic and innovative live show comes to life with 20 cameras capturing some of their biggest hits (“Settlin,’” “Stay,” “All I Want To Do” and “Something More”).
Nettles and Bush exploded onto the music scene in 2004 with “Twice The Speed Of Life” (including the hits “Baby Girl,” “Something More”) and haven’t looked back since. They’ve sold close to 7 million records, received trophies from the Grammys, American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music, CMT Music Awards and the Country Music Association.
“Television music specials and performances become iconic. Who hasn’t seen replays of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan or Elvis’s TV special wearing his jump suit and giving away his scarf?” said Nettles in the release. “Even performances that I can remember as a child, like ‘Live Aid’ for example, really made such an impact. We are so excited to have our show on ABC and hope that it will be a moment that people will enjoy and remember.”
“We have overheard fans for years say, ‘I brought my friend to see the show, this is their first Sugarland experience’ with so much pride and excitement on their faces. It’s as if they can’t wait to share what they have discovered,” said Bush in the release. “This special is their new ticket that they can give to a friend. That is the most exciting part of this, imagining how far it will reach.”
Sugarland skyrocketed to superstardom, drawing fans from all genres and critics abroad with their albums “Enjoy the Ride” (“Want To,” “Settlin’” and “Stay”) and “Love On The Inside” (“It Happens,” “Love,” “All I Want To Do,” “Already Gone”). Sugarland is credited with co-writing all tracks from all three albums and co-producing the last two. Earlier this year they performed in six European countries, and are now headlining a U.S. tour that runs through the fall. Nettles performed for President Obama and both most recently appeared and performed on “Oprah.”
“Sugarland: Live on the Inside” is executive-produced by Nettles, Bush and Jason Owen.
-BAM
