Monday Catchy Quote No. 83
A catchy quote from a movie, TV show or other source to brighten the beginning of your week:
Lucius: You’re not gonna live forever.
Ricky: No one lives forever, no one. But with advances in modern science and my high level income, it’s not crazy to think I can live to be 245, maybe 300. Heck, I just read in the newspaper that they put a pig heart in some guy from Russia. Do you know what that means?
Lucius: No, I don’t know what that means. I guess longer life.
Ricky: No, he didn’t live. It’s just exciting that we’re trying things like that.
- Click here to learn the source.
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on Sept. 28, 2009
“Alice” by Matthew Moffett
Today’s featured event:
View “Dog Show,” an exhibit of pet portraits created by Tulsa artist Matthew Moffett, in the East Gallery of the state Capitol.
For many people, the animals we own become family members rather than just family pets and losing one can be just as painful. Moffett started to paint when one of his dogs died of a sudden aneurism and he wanted to commemorate his companion. When he wanted to memorialize his lost friend, he searched for an artist to create a portrait. Not satisfied with the available options for a pet portrait, Moffett decided he would give it a try himself.
The result was not only a portrait which captured the qualities of his beloved dog, but a whole new career was discovered as well. To date, Moffett has painted more than 1,000 pet portraits that are included in collections all over the world, including those of President Gerald Ford and former OU Coach Barry Switzer. His work is not limited to pet portraits; he is an accomplished painter of still-life, cityscapes, and landscapes as well, and he is the owner of a successful artist studio in Tulsa.
A former elementary art teacher, Moffett is currently the director and co-founder of the Tulsa Girls Art School Project. This nonprofit organization provides art instruction and supplies for underprivileged girls in urban elementary schools so that they can develop their own art style and have shows of their art work. All students manage the funds from their show sales in micro-bank accounts within the organization, from which they can buy personal art supplies, pay for shows or supplies and/or college savings bonds for their future studies.
Moffett received a bachelor’s degree at the University of Tulsa and studied Spanish at the Universidad de Malaga, Spain. With no formal art training, Moffett has developed a recognizable style of loose realism marked by bold colors and sweeping lines. He describes his paintings as visual prayers and says there is deep meaning within every work he creates.
“Painting should capture the viewer and take them on a journey,” Moffett says in a news release. “I believe that art is for everybody. Passion for art is something that we nourish and relish as a child and seem to lose in our adulthood. I am lucky because a series of events led me back to creating art and being an artist.”
Curated by the Oklahoma Arts Council, “Dog Show” will be on display in the first floor of Capitol in the East Gallery through Nov.1. The East Gallery is open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For more information, go to www.arts.ok.gov.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on Sept. 27, 2009
Taylor Swift (Associated Press photo)
Today’s featured event:
TULSA — Hear country starlet Taylor Swift, with Kellie Pickler and Gloriana, at 7 p.m. Sunday at the BOK Center, 200 S Denver.
For more information, call (866) 726-5287 or go to www.bokcenter.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
3D’s Need to See: Red vs. Blue Edition
3D here with your weekly movie recommendation. Loyal readers of the site will know that I have also been posting each episode of Red vs. Blue: Recreation every week. I thought that in honor of the return of my favorite character this week I would make my recommendation the original Red vs. Blue series set.
If you are unfamiliar with RvB, it is a machinima series, which means it is filmed using a video game engine (in this case the HALO games are used), done by a website called Rooster Teeth. The guys at Rooster Teeth started putting up funny videos set in this world several years ago, and they became immensely popular.
They did five seasons worth of the original series “Blood Gulch Chronicles,” which are available together in a box set with lots and lots of extras. Although the episodes were originally only a few minutes long and aired each week, for the DVDs they have been edited together into movie form.
“Red vs. Blue” is based around what my mother calls “guy humor,” which is filled with double entendre’s (and single ones for that matter), bodily function references, and, in this case, a truly epic amount of foul language.
In other words, it is not family entertainment. But for adults, it is one of the most consistently funny things I have ever seen. If you want to give a couple of episodes a try to see if it is your sort of humor, you can see all the previous episodes in the Rooster Teeth archives. Beware though, you may find yourself sucked into watching quite a few episodes, since RvB is pretty addictive.
—3D
College football weekend for Sept. 26, 2009
OSU quarterback Zac Robinson (Photo by Nate Billings/The Oklahoman)
It’s hard to believe that we’re already a month into college football season.
The Oklahoma State University football team plays Grambling State University at 6 p.m. today at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater. The game isn’t televised, which is a shame since Grambling’s famed marching band should be there. Fans who want to see the football or marching action will have to head to my alma mater to see it.
The Oklahoma Sooners are idle this week, so they won’t be playing any football but will undoubtedly be preparing for next weekend’s trip to Miami.
The Florida Gators, the defending national champs and my husband’s lifelong favorite team, will play Kentucky at 5 p.m. in Lexington, Ky. The game will air on ESPN2.
-BAM
Cross Canadian Ragweed, Flaming Lips pay tribute to Bettie Page
Bettie Page (Associated Press file photo)
In an interesting case of cross-genre coincidence, two disparate Oklahoma bands are paying tribute to legendary 1950s pinup model Bettie Page with their new music efforts.
As I mentioned here on the blog earlier this month, red dirt rockers Cross Canadian Ragweed tell the story of Page’s life and death in the song “Pretty Lady,” from the band’s new album “Happiness and all the Other Things.” Page died in December 2008 at the age of 85.
The song has a bluesy outlaw country vibe that seems to suit Page’s life story and makes the track my favorite on Ragweed’s stellar new album. You can see the band perform it live in this YouTube video:
Even better, see the alt-country rockers play it live and in person today at the Cross Canadian Ragweed Family Jam at Oklahoma City’s Zoo Amphitheatre.
Psychedelic rockers The Flaming Lips are other Oklahoma band illustrating the continuing influence of Page, who has a huge cult following. The Lips released earlier this week the video for their playful song “I Can Be a Frog,” on which Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs provides the animal noises. The video features a dancer with a distinctive Page look and sensibility:
The Flaming Lips "I Can Be A Frog"
“I Can Be a Frog” will be included on the Lips’ double-album “Embryonic,” due out Oct. 13.
It’s an interesting concurrence of ideas – and further evidence of Page’s lasting mark on pop culture – that two Oklahoma bands with such different aesthetics found inspiration from the “Pin-up Queen of the Universe” at practically the same time.
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on Sept. 26, 2009
Cross Canadian Ragweed
Today’s featured event:
Hear great music for a good cause at the Sixth Annual Cross Canadian Ragweed Family Jam featuring Ragweed, Tesla, the Toadies, Randy Rogers Band, Stoney LaRue and more. The music starts at 3 p.m. today at the Zoo Amphitheatre, 2101 NE 50. Gates open at 1:30 p.m.
For more information, go to www.zooamp.com
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
Friday Featured Track for Sept. 25, 2009
The song that has been on my brain the most this week:
- “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” Ann Wilson with Rufus Wainwright and Shawn Colvin, from Wilson’s 2007 solo album “Hope and Glory.”
This song has stuck with me all week, but it’s an even more appropriate choice for FFT since Tulsa’s Brady Theater announced today that Bob Dylan will perform there Oct. 24.
This sweeping, poignant rendition of the Dylan classic is the best track on Wilson’s 2007 album “Hope and Glory.” That’s saying something since it was one of my favorite records of that year. The Heart singer”s throaty, powerhouse voice has lost none of its potency, and it blends well with contributions from several talented guest singers on the album.
But nowhere is the mingling of vocals more harmonious or surprising than in this track. I would never have matched up these three performers, who all have such distinctive singing styles, but their voices meld beautifully.
-BAM
Remastered Beatles sell big
The release of remastered versions of the entire Beatles catalog has brought back Beatlemania, according to EMI.
On Sept. 9, EMI released the remastered albums along with stereo and mono box sets. The release date corresponded with the debut of the video game “Rock Band: The Beatles.”
According to Billboard.com, the Fab Four’s reissued albums are dominating charts worldwide. In North America, Japan and the U.K., sales totaled more than 2.25 million copies of the albums in the first five days on sale.
“Beatlemania has returned, with fans new and old embracing these beautiful albums in their re-mastered and re-packaged forms,” said EMI CEO Elio Leoni-Sceti in a statement printed by Billboard.com. “By putting the needs and desires of consumers first, the band are breaking new records around the world more than four decades after they first started recording.”
-BAM
Trans-Siberian Orchestra returning to Oklahoma City’s Ford Center this Christmastime
Paul O’Neill of Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Trans-Siberian Orchestra will return to the renovated Ford Center for two shows during the Christmas season.
The symphonic-rock holiday harbingers will perform at 3 and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 20 at the arena, the venue announced today.
Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Oct. 3. Tickets will be available at the Ford Center Box Office, all Ticketmaster outlets including Homeland, Suncoast, and FYE stores, by phone at (800) 745-3000 or online at www.okfordcenter.com.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra fuses Andrew Lloyd Webber-style theatrics, rock opera storytelling ala The Who, the classic arena rock sensibilities of Queen, the prog-rock tendencies of Yes and the hard rock/metal edge of the likes of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. The show will sprinkle in a wide variety of musical influences, from gospel and Celtic to Motown and jazz, according to a news release.
The concert will feature a 60-piece ensemble that marries a full orchestra and a full rock band with a dozen lead singers whose credentials include stints with wide-ranging star attractions like rock band Alice Cooper, R&B legends Kool and the Gang and Broadway stage hits like “Les Miserables.” The show also promises a ”sensory onslaught of lighting and pyrotechnics.”
“When I started the band, I wanted to take the very best of all the forms of music I grew up on and merge them into a new style,” said Paul O’Neill, producer/composer/lyricist for Trans-Siberian Orchestra, in the release. “I wanted a full hard rock band and a full orchestra and I wanted multiple lead singers, each with a different strength – a super group that could be able to go anywhere musically and vocally. Creating contrasting musical moods to move listeners emotionally as we tell a story – that’s the whole M.O. of TSO.”
Trans-Siberian Orchestra is scheduled to release its long-awaited album “Night Castle” on Oct. 27. The two-CD set will be the act’s first release of new material since 2004′s “The Lost Christmas Eve” and its first non-holiday rock opera since 2000′s “Beethoven’s Last Night.” The double album will include a 68-page full-color illustrated booklet.
O’Neill recently spoke to Billboard.com about “Night Castle.” To check out that interview, click here.
-BAM
