SheldonShirts.com tells where to buy “Big Bang Theory” wardrobe
In this TV publicity image released by CBS, from left, Kunal Nayyar, Simon Helberg and Jim Parsons are shown in a scene from the season finale of “The Big Bang Theory.”
The hit CBS comedy “The Big Bang Theory” closed out its third season a week ago, and some fans are undoubtedly already going through withdrawals.
In the fall, the show will move from Mondays to Thursdays to launch a new comedy block, according to The Hollywood Reporter’s Live Feed blog.
With its strong acting ensemble, colorful characters and witty storylines (including one this season that proved once and for all that Wil Wheaton is a force for evil), ratings for “The Big Bang Theory” were up 39 percent this season, the most by far of any show, according to the blog.
Another aspect of the show that I believe has been key to its success: the oh-so geeky chic T-shirts favored by brilliant but nerdy heroes Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki).
That’s where the fun and thorough website www.SheldonShirts.com comes in handy: Described as “T-shirt Nerdvana,” the site details the coolest shirts donned by Sheldon and Leonard over the show’s three seasons and where to buy them. It even lists discontinued shirts and retailers where similar shirts can be found.
In addition, the fansite highlight’s Howard’s (Simon Helberg) belt buckles, other cool stuff seen on the show (like the Periodic Table shower curtain) and favorite Sheldon quotes.
-BAM
Monday Catchy Quote No. 117
A catchy quote from a movie, TV show or other source to brighten the beginning of your week:
David: Well, you know what they say. You cannot make an omelet without breaking a few legs
DiNozzo: She’s never making me breakfast.
- Click here to learn the source.
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on May 31, 2010
Dale Robb of Sallisaw sets up his booth of decorative wrought iron pieces Friday in preparation for the Paseo Arts Festival. The final day of the festival is today. (Photo by Bryan Terry/The Oklahoman)
Today’s featured event:
Take in the works of more than 75 visual artists, live music and entertainment, two children’s areas and more at the 34th annual Paseo Arts Festival today in the Paseo Arts District, between NW 28 and Walker to NW 30 and Dewey.
Today is the final day of the festival; hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with music until 7 p.m.
For more information, call 525-2688 or go to www.thepaseo.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on May 30, 2010
Today’s featured event:
NORMAN – Listen to pop-singer-turned-country-star Darius Rucker at 8 tonight at Riverwind Casino, 1544 W State Highway 9.
For more information, call 322-6464 or go to www.riverwind.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
RIP Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper (Associated Press file photo)
Actor-director Dennis Hopper has died, according to the Associated Press. He was 74.
Family friend Alex Hitz tells the AP that Hopper died today at his Venice home, surrounded by family and friends. The actor had been battling prostate cancer.
Hopper’s wildly varied Hollywood career included included movies such as “Rebel Without a Cause,” ”Blue Velvet,” ”Apocalypse Now,” “Hoosiers” and “Speed.” It also included film flops like “The Last Movie” and “Waterworld.”
In addition, he appeared on TV shows such as “24,” “Crash” and “E-Ring.”
But the improbable success of the 1969 hippie-biker epic “Easy Rider” remained his biggest triumph. He not only co-starred but directed and co-wrote the film, which also starred Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson.
Hopper, Fonda and Terry Southern were nominated for Oscars for best screenplay.
To see Hopper’s IMDB page, click here.
Our thoughts are with his family, friends and fans.
-BAM
Can Greyson Chance patron Ellen DeGeneres revive the music industry?
Greyson Chance and Ellen DeGeneres
Her dancing feet on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and her role as an “American Idol” judge prove Ellen DeGeneres is a music fan. Now she is aiming for a more formalized role in the music industry.
She announced earlier this week on her talk show that she has started her own record company, eleveneleven. The first artist to be signed to the label is Edmond middle schooler Greyson Chance, 12, who was making his second appearance on her show. Greyson recently became a sensation on YouTube with his piano version of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi.”
Can DeGeneres make the leap from tastemaker to starmaker?
“She has talent, she has feel, and she has the platform. She’s the modern record company. Ellen is what a record company will look like in the future,” Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope, Geffen and A&M Records, told the Associated Press.
There’s no date for the album’s release, and a source familiar with the new label told the AP DeGeneres is in talks to distribute eleveneleven through a major record company. Eleveneleven is a partnership between DeGeneres and Telepictures Productions, the producer of her hit show.
“Her openness to music and her love of music has been a great aid in us really sort of breaking our artists and exposing our artists,” Antonio “L.A.” Reid, chairman of Island Def Jam, told the AP.
DeGeneres has shown interest in highlighting new acts, and that looks to be her goal with her label. For instance, Filipino singer Charice, another YouTube sensation, got a contract with Warner Bros. Records after appearing on DeGeneres’ show.
“She can break artists on the show. She has something that I wish I had,” Reid told the AP. “The fact that she’s always expressed such passion for music naturally attracts music lovers to her show.”
Before Greyson’s initial May 13 appearance on DeGeneres’ show, his video had notched 10,000 hits; it now has exceeded 30 million.
James Diener, head of A&M/Octone Records, said DeGeneres’ new label “represents a great opportunity to expose new artists.”
“There are tastemakers and people who lead cultural thought, who lead specific audiences, but there’s not as many that reach such a wide array, and are listened to and are watched and enjoyed by so many different subsets of audiences. I believe that Ellen is one of those personalities,” Diener told the AP.
“As more artists are developed and introduced by her to (the) marketplace … she’s going to develop even more credibility as a developer of new talent.”
Grammy-winner Maxwell also suggested another benefit: DeGeneres could be a more equitable record company owner.
“(She) clearly doesn’t need the money — she’s out here looking to do the art, and I love when people wake up to just do the artist, to represent and protect the artists out there, and I think it could be a really good thing,” he told the AP.
Reid told the AP that the quality of talent DeGeneres recruits will be key.
“I think her embrace of an artist and the attention that she can put on an artist only works if an artist is an amazing artist,” he said. “As with Oprah, when Oprah decides to give attention to a particular thing … it has to be an interesting topic, it has to be an interesting book. So it’s a great platform, but the product will have to be there, the artist will have to be there, the music will have to be great.”
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on May 29, 2010
Today’s featured event:
SHAWNEE – Come on and shine along with Collective Soul in concert at 7 tonight at Firelake Grand Casino, 777 Grand Casino Blvd. Doors open at 6 p.m.
For more information, call 964-7263 or go to www.firelakegrand.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
RIP Gary Coleman
Gary Coleman in 2008 (Associated Press file photo)
Gary Coleman, the child star of the hit 1970s TV sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes” whose later career was troubled by medical and legal problems, died today after suffering a brain hemorrhage. He was 42.
According to the Associated Press, Coleman suffered the hemorrhage Wednesday at his Santaquin, Utah, home, 55 miles south of Salt Lake City. A statement from the family said he was conscious and lucid until midday Thursday, when his condition worsened and he slipped into unconsciousness. Coleman was then placed on life support.
Utah Valley Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Janet Frank told the AP life support was terminated and Coleman died at 12:05 p.m. MDT.
With his sparkling eyes and comic timing, Coleman became a star at age 10 after “Diff’rent Strokes” debuted in 1978. He played Arnold Jackson, the younger of a pair of black brothers adopted by a wealthy white man.
Race and class relations became major topics on the show, along with the trials of growing up. Coleman’s skeptical “Whatchu talkin’ ’bout?” — usually aimed at his brother, Willis (Todd Bridges) — became an enduring catchphrase.
Coleman’s popularity faded when the show ended after six seasons on NBC and two on ABC. However, it lives on thanks to DVDs and YouTube.
Coleman suffered continuing ill health from the kidney disease that stunted his growth and had a host of legal problems in recent years.
Coleman told the AP in 2001 that he would do a TV series again, but “only under the absolute condition that it be an ensemble cast and that everybody gets a chance to shine.”
“I certainly am not going to be the only person on the show working,” he said. “I’ve done that. I didn’t like it.”
Coleman wasn’t the only former child star on the series to face troubles in adulthood. Dana Plato, who played the boys’ white, teenage sister, committed suicide in 1999. Bridges was tried and acquitted of attempted murder.
Coleman had financial and legal problems in addition to continuing ill health from the kidney disease that required dialysis and at least two transplants. His height reached only 4 feet 8 inches.
He continued to get credits for TV guest shots and other small roles over the years. But he told the AP in 2001 that he preferred earning money from celebrity endorsements. “Now that I’m 33, I can call the shots. … And if anybody has a problem with that, I guess they don’t have to work with me.”
Coleman was among 135 candidates who ran in California’s bizarre 2003 recall election to replace then-Gov. Gray Davis, whom voters ousted in favor of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Coleman came in eighth place with 12,488 votes, or 0.2 percent, just behind Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt.
“This is really interesting and cool, and I’ve been enjoying the heck out of it because I get to be intelligent, which is something I don’t get to do very often,” he told the AP.
But legal disputes dogged him repeatedly. In 1989, when Coleman was 21, his mother filed a court request trying to gain control of her son’s $6 million fortune, saying he was incapable of handling his affairs. He said the move “obviously stems from her frustration at not being able to control my life.”
In a 1993 television interview, he said he had twice tried to kill himself by overdosing on pills.
He moved to Utah in fall 2005, and according to a tally early this year, officers were called to assist or intervene with Coleman more than 20 times in the following years. They included a call where Coleman said he had taken dozens of Oxycontin pills and “wanted to die.” Some of the disputes involved his wife, Shannon Price, whom he met on the set of the 2006 comedy “Church Ball” and married in 2007.
In September 2008, a dustup with a fan at a Utah bowling alley led Coleman to plead no contest to disorderly conduct. The fan also sued him, claiming the actor punched him and ran into him with his truck.
Coleman was born Feb. 8, 1968, in Zion, Ill., near Chicago. His mother told Ebony his kidney disease was diagnosed when he was 2 and he underwent his first transplant at age 5.
-BAM
Friday Featured Track: Brooks & Dunn and Billy Gibbons do the “Honky Tonk Stomp”
The song that has been on my brain the most this week:
- “Honky Tonk Stomp,” Brooks & Dunn featuring Billy Gibbons, from the duo’s 2009 compilation album “#1′s…And Then Some.”
We’re wrapping up Brooks & Dunn Week here on BAM’s Blog as the soon-to-split duo of former Tulsan Ronnie Dunn and Louisiana native Kix Brooks are bringing their “Last Rodeo Tour” to Tulsa’s BOK Center at 7:30 tonight with special guest Jason Aldean.
Between Sunday night’s great TV special “ACM Presents: Brooks & Dunn – The Last Rodeo” to the anticipation about tonight’s show, it’s been hard not to have Brooks & Dunn on the brain this week. But all red dirt roads on this busy Oklahoma weekend seem to point to the musical partners, who are going their separate ways after their farewell tour this summer.
For instance, former-pop-star-turned-country-singer Darius Rucker is playing a show Sunday night at Norman’s Riverwind Casino. In the taped ACM TV special, Rucker shared how Brooks & Dunn were the first country stars who let him open for them when he made the transition to country. His first big country show took place – that’s right – in Oklahoma at Miami’s Buffalo Run Casino. In an interview this week, Rucker shared with me that Kix and Ronnie will always have a special place in his heart for giving him that first show.
In another strange coincidence, ZZ Top also is playing an Oklahoma show this jam-packed weekend: The Texas trio is headlining Pryor’s Rocklahoma on Saturday. ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons played on Brooks & Dunn’s 50th and final single as a duo: “Honky Tonk Stomp.”
In honor of country concurrences and Brooks & Dunn’s final ride through Oklahoma, do the “Honky Tonk Stomp.”
-BAM
Weekend Warmup for May 28-31
ZZ Top
Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer, has arrived. Here is a list of entertainment options happening around the state over the four-day holiday weekend (May 28-31). For more events, go to www.wimgo.com:
- PRYOR – Hear ZZ Top, Godsmack, Three Days Grace, Chevelle, Saliva, Sevendust, Fuel, Buckcherry, Theory of a Deadman, Saving Abel, Cinderella, Tesla and more at the revamped Rocklahoma today-Sunday at the Catch the Fever Festival Grounds, 1421 W 450 Road. Gates will open at 2:30 p.m. today and 12:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. To read The Oklahoman Entertainment Editor Gene Triplett’s interview with ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, click here. Information: www.rocklahoma.com.
- TULSA — Catch soon-to-split country music duo Brooks & Dunn, which includes former Tulsan Ronnie Dunn, when their “Last Rodeo Tour” stops at 7:30 tonight at the BOK Center, 200 S Denver. Doors open at 6 p.m., and Jason Aldean will open the show. Information: (866) 726-5287 or www.bokcenter.com.
- EDMOND — Listen to AJ Johnson and Why Not, The Chris Hicks Band, Edgar Cruz and more during the Edmond Jazz and Blues Festival at Stephenson Park, Boulevard and Fifth. Festival hours are 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. Information: 341-3321 or www.edmondjazzandblues.org.
Wanda Jackson (Photo by Jaconna Aguirre/The Oklahoman Archives)
- Hear Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma student bands play for free at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. today and 3 p.m. Saturday during the Big 12 Baseball Tournament street party on Mickey Mantle Drive in Bricktown. Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Oklahoma legend Wanda Jackson will close the party with a free show at 6 p.m. Saturday. Information: www.acm-uco.com.
- Taste outdoor cooking, participate in children’s activities and take in Western entertainment at the annual Chuck Wagon Gathering and Children’s Cowboy Festival from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63. Information: 478-2250 or www.nationalcowboymuseum.org.
- NORMAN — Sample tasty desserts, explore the galleries, including the new “Chocolate: The Exhibition,” and hear live music from 7 to 10 tonight at a free chocolate-covered celebration of the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History’s 10th anniversary in its current facility, 2401 Chautauqua Ave. Information: 325-4712 or www.snomnh.ou.edu.
Randy Rogers Band
- EUFAULA – Relish the red dirt sound at Cross Canadian Ragweed’s Fourth Annual Music and Mayhem Concert, featuring Ragweed, Randy Rogers Band, Wade Bowen and Mike McClure Band, at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Eufaula Cove Amphitheater, 399 Lakeshore Drive. Information: (866) 977-6849 or www.protixonline.com.
- TULSA & NORMAN – Celebrate the release of Shawnee singer-songwriter Samantha Crain’s new CD “You (Understood)” at 8 tonight at Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N Main, Tulsa. The show also will feature Turnpike Troubadours, Ali Harter and Zeb Dewar & the Fed. Information: (918) 584-2306 or www.cainsballroom.com. Or, hear Crain, Zeb Dewar & the Fed, Student Film and Brine Webb at a CD release concert at 9 p.m. Saturday at The Opolis, 113 N Crawford, Norman. Information: www.starlightmints.com/opolis.html.
- SHAWNEE – Catch Collective Soul in concert at 7 p.m. Saturday at Firelake Grand Casino, 777 Grand Casino Blvd. Doors open at 6 p.m. Information: 964-7263 or www.firelakegrand.com.
REO Speedwagon
- NORMAN & THACKERVILLE – “Keep on rolling” with REO Speedwagon, who will play at 8 tonight at Riverwind Casino, 1544 W State Highway 9, Norman. Information: 322-6464 or www.riverwind.com. The rockers also will play at 8 p.m. Sunday at WinStar World Casino, Thackerville. Information: www.winstarworldcasino.com.
- NORMAN – Listen to Darius Rucker at 8 p.m. Sunday at Riverwind Casino, 1544 W State Highway 9. Information: 322-6464 or www.riverwind.com.
- THACKERVILLE – Hear blues singer/guitarists Buddy Guy and Robert Cray at 9 tonight at WinStar World Casino. Information: www.winstarworldcasino.com.
The Lynda Tarpley Tappers perform at the 2009 Paseo Arts Festival. The tap dance troupe are annual favorites at the festival and will perform at 11 a.m. Saturday. (Photo by Paul Hellstern/The Oklahoman Archives)
- Take in the works of more than 75 visual artists, live music and entertainment, two children’s areas and more at the 34th annual Paseo Arts Festival Saturday-Monday in the Paseo Arts District, between NW 28 and Walker to NW 30 and Dewey. Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, with music until 10 p.m., and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, with music until 7 p.m. Information: 525-2688 or www.thepaseo.com.
- Pay respect to the troops at the 45th Infantry Division Museum’s Memorial Day Ceremony at 10 a.m. Monday at the museum, 2145 NE 36. The ceremony will coincide with the reopening of the museum. Information: 424-5313 or www.45thdivisionmuseum.com.
- ADA – Check out the rodeo action at the Cord McCoy Invitational at 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday at the Pontotoc County Agri-Plex Center. Information: www.cordpbr.com.
Red City Radio
- Listen to Red City Radio with Nothington, John Moreland and Spanish Gamble at 9 tonight at VZD’s, 4203 N Western. Doors open at 8 p.m. Information: www.vzds.com
- TULSA – Hear Broncho with La Panther Happens and Lizard Police at 10 tonight at Soundpony, 409 N Main. Information: www.myspace.com/soundponylounge.
- MUSKOGEE – Take in jesters, jugglers, musicians and other medieval-style performers, festive food and shopping for handcrafted items at the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival from10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday through Monday at the Castle of Muskogee. Information: (918) 687-3625 or www.okcastle.com.
Ghostlight Theatre Club’s [title of show]
- Catch the musical [title of show] at 8 p.m. today and Saturday at Ghostlight Theatre Club, 3110 N Walker. Information: www.ghostlighttheatreclub.com.
- Watch Reduxion Theatre’s staging of Shakespeare’s bloody revenge drama “Titus Andronicus” at 8 tonight and Saturday at City Arts Center Theater at State Fair Park. This is the final weekend for the show. Information: 651-3191 or www.reduxiontheatre.com.
- See the Oklahoma City Theatre Company’s production of “Top Girls” at 8 tonight and Saturday at the Civic Center’s CitySpace Theatre, 201 N Walker. Information: www.okctheatrecompany.org.
- BAM
