What to do in Oklahoma on Nov. 22, 2009
“Roman Fountain with Cattle and Figures,” by Nicholaes P. Berchem, from the exhibit “The Dutch Italianates”
Today’s featured event:
Take in hands-on art activities, face painting, live performances from the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and more at the Fall Family Festival celebrating the special exhibit “The Dutch Italianates” from noon to 4 p.m. today at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive.
For more information, call 236-3100 or go to www.okcmoa.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
RiffTrax team planning Christmastime theatrical event featuring “Weird Al” Yankovic
The RiffTrax team is, from left, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett and Michael J. Nelson.
The RiffTrax team of Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett will bring a Christmas rendition of their bad-movie-directed quips back to theaters this holiday season – and special guest “Weird Al” Yankovic will join them.
“RiffTrax LIVE: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza!” will be broadcast to movie theaters nationwide at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 16. The performance will be recorded for an encore event Thursday, Dec. 17.
Former “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ stars Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo) and Bill Corbett (Crow T. Robot), now of RiffTrax.com, will zing their wisecracking commentary at a wonderfully warped collection of Christmas short films, with the help of special guest Weird Al (pictured left).
The evening will feature a collection of new and old favorite shorts, including the bizarre animated “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” classic commercials and a musical short extolling the virtues of pork, according to a news release.
Movie theater audiences will be treated to five free digital goodies: a holiday song by the RiffTones, two downloadable shorts, an autographed digital photo of the guys and a Christmas desktop wallpaper. A URL and code will be revealed onscreen for viewers to get free digital goodies after the live event.
The RiffTrax events will be shown in four Oklahoma theaters: Oklahoma City’s AMC Quail Springs 24 and Cinemark Tinseltown, Norman’s Hollywood Spotlight 14 and Tulsa’s Cinemark Tulsa 17.
Nelson, Murphy and Corbett brought their first “RiffTrax Live” event to theaters back in August with a hilarious beatdown of “Plan 9 From Outer Space.” I attended the live show with friends, and it was great fun. The addition of venerable wisecracker Weird Al is sure to make the holiday show even more mirthful.
For more information, go to www.RiffTrax.com or www.FathomEvents.com.
-BAM
Q&A: The Cullen family of “Twilight: New Moon”
Elizabeth Reaser plays Esme Cullen in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” (Associated Press photos)
LOS ANGELES – At the recent “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” press day at the Four Seasons Hotel, Kellan Lutz (Emmett); Ashley Greene (Alice); Nikki Reed (Rosalie); and Elizabeth Reaser (Esme) were on hand to represent the benevolent vampire family the Cullens.
The four actors talked during a press conference about vampire makeup, their obsessions and the celebrity spotlight. This is an edited transcript from the press conference.
Q: How was it this time with a new director and a new story with a whole different kind of emphasis?
Greene: I think this go-around we were all a little bit more prepared, which was nice. In the first film, we were kind of all going, ‘What’s going on? What’s happening?’ And you know we had the support of the fans behind us. In the first one, again, we were going, ‘Oh, God, we hope they don’t hate us.’ And they completely embraced us, so going into the second one, I think it was a much more fun, relaxed experience, at least for me.
Lutz: Yeah, and it’s nice to have that weight off your shoulders. I mean, we all are stepping in and giving a face to our characters, which fans already have celebrities, actors, who they envisioned as Emmett or Alice or Bella. And it’s nice to have their support, so it’s a huge weight off our shoulders shooting ‘New Moon’ and then ‘Eclipse.’ And then also with having Chris Weitz who’s such a laidback, easygoing director who really had everything so organized. And it trickles down. When we feel at ease, you know, with knowing what the scene (is) and what he wants out of us and then allowing ourselves to go then to Chris and be like ‘I want to try it this way’ or ‘what do you think of this?’ And he’s so open to all our actors’ decisions. It’s nice to feel like an actor and not a robot. So it felt so easy.
Q: Does that mean Hardwicke was …
Lutz: Hardwicke was, I loved her. I’m not saying it like that.
Reaser: There’s a big difference.
Reed: They all have a different approach.
Greene: And I think Catherine was thrown into it just as much as the rest of us. So I think, you know, as the rest of us, she was kind of going ‘Oh, my gosh, what’s happening?’
Ashley Greene
Q: I wanted to ask Ashley about your wardrobe: Did you have any input into it because she’s so stylish? And was that you driving that car and how did that go?
Greene: It was me driving the car, I think which scared all of the producers. (laughs) Two takes and it was over.
Yeah, they definitely ask our input. We have a little bit of input in it. I don’t think it’s any secret that I really adore Audrey Hepburn, and so I asked that maybe they throw that in there a little bit. That and I think Jackie O was thrown in there a little bit. I loved it. I wanted to take my wardrobe home with me each day.
Q: Did you notice that you were reading, watching or listening to anything differently to get into your characters at all? And as your characters, do you think that since they’re so eternal, do they listen to new music. Do they change with the times or they are who they were?
Reaser: I think they do. I mean, I personally think that, you know, they’re trying to fit in to the human world. … (pause as problem with microphone)
So, I think it’s important to them, I mean in every way, that they look normal, that they have normal clothes and that they listen to music. I mean, they have a lot of time on their hands, too. They’re up all night, you know, so we work on our hairdos a lot.
Reed: We’ve found a way to like justify why we’re wearing like a lot of Nike and also why our hair is like totally flawless and our makeup. I mean, we always find a way to justify, like we’re up all night, so we have time for that. They want to be like contemporary and cool; we wear a lot of Nike. (laughing) Sometimes head to toe in Nike. We just love Nike.
Q: Following up on that, I’m just wondering since they don’t sleep, what do you guys do at night? What do you think about your characters about what they do at night?
Greene: Alice plans parties. Alice plans lots of parties.
Reed: I look at myself all night. (lots of laughter among them)
Reaser: I think Esme goes out and like tears apart a mountain lion every other night …
Reed: Yeah, we’ve actually discussed this.
Reaser: Yeah, and bears …
Lutz: Hey, that’s mine.
Reed: What does that Emmett do?
Reaser: You like bears?
Lutz: I do.
Reaser: I like mountain lions.
Reed: It’s funny because we’ve all become friends, and so it does in a sense like change your approach here, your character and the dynamic between all of our characters onset and stuff. And so Elizabeth and I became very close while shooting ‘Eclipse.’ We were housed right next to each other, and we were very isolated this time in Vancouver. I felt very isolated. So we decided that we’d tear apart mountain lions together. And we somehow found a way to like stand next to each other in certain scenes; I mean, a lot of it’s like left, you know, up to the actors, and it’s eenie, meanie, miney, moe.
Reaser: Why wouldn’t I?
Greene: Where we place ourselves it’s like a dance.
Reaser: At one point you were saying like you didn’t dig Esme.
Reed: No, no, no. I’m feeling at little bit funny about Carlisle.
Reaser: Carlisle. You have issues with Carlisle, and Esme you didn’t totally, you weren’t feeling her so much.
Reed: I just didn’t really understand. Yeah, she’s trying to crack the whip and I really didn’t understand why she thought she could do that. But we’ve come to an understanding.
Reaser: Yeah, we’ve found that we hunt together.
Reed: We hunt together. We don’t speak. We hunt.
Reaser: Yeah, like we don’t have all this chitchat. Like I think Alice and I hang out and we maybe go shopping and do all this girly stuff. This one and I, we just hunt.
Lutz: Am I a loner? Is that what you’re trying to say?
Reed: Yep, pretty much.
Reaser: No, sometimes you get to come.
Greene: You and Jazz can spar.
Lutz: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jasper and I.
Reaser: Yeah, you and Jasper and I are always hunting.
Reed: Remember that this is not a metaphor for anything. (laughing)
Nikki Reed
Q: In the last year and a half, all of you have been thrust into this celebrity spotlight. I’m curious you guys have such an avid fan base. Where do you think the public and fans’ right to know about your private life start and stop? It’s just a really blurry line nowadays.
Reed: I had like a really interesting start because the first film I did was marketed as being autobiographical. So there weren’t ever boundaries set, I feel, between me and the public or like between journalists and interviewers and myself. And so I’m still trying to find that honestly like, you know, the balance. I mean, I don’t know how these guys feel about that.
Greene: I mean, it’s a fine line definitely. I think it’s hard because the reason that we are here is because of our fans, and they want to know everything about us because they adore us and they support us. And so you do want to give them a little, but there is, you know, a certain point to where it’s normal for everyone to go everything about you. I mean, not all of my friends know every single thing about me; there’s different people that know different things. And so it gets a little tough there. And then on the flip side, you never, ever know what someone’s going to write about you. Like maybe an interviewer likes you and maybe they don’t, and so that’s where it becomes kind of tough because you do want to be open and honest but then you still have to protect yourself.
Lutz: I think it’s great to adopt a pet — a dog that bites. I mean, that’s where the paparazzi will stop. She has a lovely dog Marlow, which is kind of small but hurts. My dog, Kola, does not like anyone that she’s not friendly with.
Greene: Kola’s mean.
Lutz: Yeah, so the paparazzi stops at my front gate. And it’s usually kind of crazy have paparazzi step outside your house. And the coolest thing with the Vancouver guys are they’re respectable, and they will just ask for a signature or photo and let us go about and go and, you know, have a cast dinner away from set where we can feel human and we’re out of the white makeup and the contacts. And you know, it’s a double-edged sword. I mean, we’re blessed to be actors and have such a loving fan base. And the fans are always so great, and they’re giving us presents, which is so crazy ‘cause we’re allowed to work because of them. And the time they put into making dolls or buying gummi bears or anything like that, it’s very humbling. So it’s really nice to just have everyone who is respectful just understand that it’s a job at the end of the day. We aren’t really these characters in life. And just thank them for everything.
Reed: Also — like I don’t want to go on with this for too long — but it’s something that it’s really upsetting and also something that I’m fascinated with as well. It’s weird to be a part of this new wave, it’s kind of like a cultural phenomenon on its own, like this whole like online gossip situation. I mean, people have always been obsessed with celebrity, but there was a disconnect, there was a separation. People were on a screen, there were like even filters. Even like shooting like high-def and stuff, I feel like your success is almost determined a little bit now recently by like how exposed you are to the world, but yet you’re recycled really fast, especially women. Like you’re hot while you’re literally hot. (indicating her face and laughing) And then you’re out.
And so I think, I don’t know, like an ideal career for me would be to sort of slide under the radar so that I know that I’ll always work and people will always wonder. There’s like mystery still. There’s just no mystery anymore.
But then again, like producers actually cast like based on this. Like if you’re not known like in a small town like in, you know, Italy or wherever, they don’t want to cast you because they need to finance their films. We’re trying to figure it out. There’s a new system of law right now.
Lutz: I think that’s what’s really cool. Like we didn’t know what this would become in a way. We were just actors who fell in love with a script and within doing that, it’s not like a Marvel hero where you know Green Lantern or Captain America, whoever is that is gonna be famous right off the block. And with us, you know, we fell in love with our characters and kind of looked at this as just another job. I know for myself I didn’t know it was a book series. And you know, it’s just great to be a part of something for the reasons that we are a part of it.
Read more after the break.
Rascal Flatts to perform free West Virginia show today for Jamie Oliver’s TV show
Rascal Flatts (Associated Press photos)
Country band Rascal Flatts, which includes Joe Don Rooney of Picher, will perform a 30-minute acoustic concert this afternoon in Huntingdon, W.Va., that will be taped for “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.”
According to CMT.com, the episode of the celebrity chef’s TV show featuring Rascal Flatts is expected to air on ABC in February.
The trio’s free performance will take place at the Keith-Albee Theatre during a food festival in downtown Huntingdon featuring 30 local food vendors.
-BAM
BAM’s college football favorites for Nov. 21, 2009
OSU’s third-string quarterback Brandon Weeden led the Pokes to a 31-28 victory Thursday night over the Colorado Buffaloes in Stillwater. (Photo by Nate Billings/The Oklahoman)
It’s going to be a slow football season Saturday at the BAM household today.
My No. 12-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys already played their game for the week, with third-string quarterback Brandon Weeden leading the Pokes to a 31-28 victory Thursday night over the Colorado Buffaloes in Stillwater.
The Oklahoma Sooners will play the Texas Tech Red Raiders at 11:30 a.m. today in Lubbock, Texas. The game will air on Fox Sports Net.
The McDonnell family traditionally roots for the defending national champs, the Florida Gators, but we won’t get to watch today’s game. The Gators will play Florida International at 11:30 a.m. at home in Gainesville, but the game will just be shown on pay-per-view.
Still, go teams!
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on Nov. 21, 2009
Today’s featured event:
NORMAN – Hear Norman indie pop singer-songwriter Jacob Abello at 9 tonight at The Opolis, 113 N Crawford.
For more information, go to www.starlightmints.com/opolis.html.
For more information, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
Friday Featured Track for Nov. 20, 2009: “New Moon” newcomer Hurricane Bells
The song that has been on my brain the most this week:
- “Monsters,” Hurricane Bells, from “The Twilight Saga: New Moon Soundtrack.”
When the lineup for “New Moon” soundtrack was announced, the inclusion of indie-rock stars such as The Killers, Thom Yorke, Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver and St. Vincent drew tons of attention. One of the names that few recognized: Hurricane Bells.
But Brooklyn musician Steve Schiltz, the sole member of Hurricane Bells, has contributed my absolute favorite song on the soundtrack, the rollicking, fuzzy-guitar-filled “Monsters.”
For better or worse, the “New Moon” soundtrack fits the plot of the sequel, which centers on the breakup of human heroine Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). As a result, many of the songs are pretty downbeat. But not the blessedly bouncy “Monsters.”
According to EW.com’s Music Mix, Schiltz only got around to creating a MySpace page (www.myspace.com/hurricanebells) for Hurricane Bells about three weeks before the soundtrack listing was announced.
“Monsters” is one of several leftover songs he recorded under the Hurricane Bells name when they didn’t work for his main band, Longwave. His said his manager quietly got the song placed on the soundtrack, keeping it a secret even from the artist himself.
“I made a record myself without telling anybody. It’s a complete stroke of luck that one of the songs ended up being on the soundtrack,” he told Music Mix.
After Schiltz got an e-mail from Chris Weitz that the ”New Moon” director wanted to put the song in the film, Schiltz’s first move was to borrow a copy of the book “Twilight.”
Although Schiltz recorded his Hurricane Bells album without “Monsters,” I’m willing to bet he will be adding that song to the track listing. And I’m interested to see how far the “Twilight” phenomenon can take the obviously talented Hurricane Bells.
Check out this YouTube video of Hurricane Bells performing “Monsters” live:
-BAM
“Twilight: New Moon” sets midnight screening record with $26.3 million
“The Twilight Saga: New Moon” has set a box-office record for midnight screenings, according to the Associated Press.
Summit Entertainment estimated today that the sequel earned $26.3 million after opening in the wee hours of the morning, the AP reports.
If the estimate proves on-target, it would break the previous midnight record, held by “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” which earned $22.2 million in its early-morning screenings this summer.
The 2008 sequel “The Dark Knight” comes in third on the midnight screenings list with $18.5 million.
“New Moon,” the second film in the supernaturally popular “Twilight” franchise, opened at midnight in 3,514 theaters with a per-theater average of $7,476.
Paul Dergarabedian, a box-office analyst for Hollywood.com., says the record-setting midnight start “portends an opening weekend that could be one of the biggest of the year.”
-BAM
Reba McEntire to perform in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
Oklahoma native and country music star Reba McEntire will perform during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Thursday in New York City, according to CMT.com.
McEntire will be part of diverse lineup of performers at the parade; others include fellow country star Billy Currington, Italian crooner Andrea Bocelli, “You’re So Vain” songbird Carly Simon, “American Idol” finalist Katharine McPhee, rock band Boys Like Girls, “I Will Survive” singer Gloria Gaynor and Jimmy Fallon and his late-night band The Roots. Naturally, there will be giant balloons of characters such as Buzz Lightyear, Dora the Explorer and Kermit the Frog.
This year, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will follow a new route along 7th Avenue, not taking Broadway for the first time in its history. The parade will air at 8 a.m. on NBC.
For more information, go to www.macysparade.com.
-BAM
Billy Joel-Elton John Oklahoma City concert rescheduled for Feb. 25
Elton John and Billy Joel
The Billy Joel and Elton John Face 2 Face concert originally scheduled for Nov. 25 at Oklahoma City’s Ford Center has been rescheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25.
All tickets currently held for the originally scheduled Face 2 Face concert on Nov. 25 at the Ford Center will be valid for the rescheduled Feb. 25 concert. If necessary, refunds are available at point of purchase.
For more information, go to www.okfordcenter.com.
- BAM
