Cool Quote #2: Adam Beatty
Hanging out at deadCENTER is like being in Los Angeles except everyone is really nice.”
- Director Adam Beatty on the deadCenter film festival. He’s featured in the video below that I made about the festival.
OKC Transit Reminiscent of Oregon Trail
Photo courtesy of KansasCityConfidential.com
Photo courtesy of The Washington Post (2005)
The commute to OKC from Norman has been disastrous and frustrating thus far. I’ve been stranded in Oklahoma City, wasted hours of sleep and work, caught in the heat at the wrong bus stop, lost, and disrespected all in the name of making it to my internship on time.
On a normal day, it takes two hours and some change to make it to OKC (bus leaves Norman at 6:20 and gets to OKC at 7:30, then gets to the Oklahoman at 8:40).
To put this into perspective for some, If I was back on the East Coast, I could drive from D.C. to Philadelphia in a little less than two hours.
Coming from the Washington, D.C. area, public transportation is a normal way of life (not for me however). Most people in the area use the transportation, most notably the subway system (this travels to various places in Maryland, D.C., and Virginia).
A lot of people drive to a “pick-up center” and have a bus take them to the subway where they can ride to their destination: the nation’s capitol.
Rule #1: If Oklahoma City wants to keep people in their city and attract newcomers, the city needs to become more commuter friendly.
People have to work in order to live and everyone cannot afford to work and drive an expensive car.
Oklahoma City needs to devote some time into planning for the future. Part of that future is to make life as easy as possible for its citizens (who pay taxes by the way).
Oklahoma City could set an example for other cities. A light rail through Edmomd, OKC, Norman, and Tulsa would alleviate traffic, save consumers money, and conserve the environment.
HOV lanes, like in D.C., can also alleviate traffic as they incentivize people to car pool. These are left lanes that can only be used during rush hour time (8-5) if you have more than one passenger in your car.
It would also save people much needed time at a moment when people’s time is becoming more valuable.
In this kind of fast-paced society we are a part of today, society should be able to compensate for travelling costs (i.e., time with little monetary cost.
What kind of sense does it make to leave home (Norman) at 6 a.m. and get to work (OKC) at 8 a.m. (and that’s on a good day without traffic on I-35)?
On a sidenote:
Monday, the buses in and out of OKC were shut down because of the flooding OKC residents experienced.
On top of that, the Metro Transit web site is talking about cutting services and increasing rates in order to alleviate money lost, due to less than expected revenue from the city’s sales tax.
Yet in an article by the Oklahoman’s Bryan Dean titled, Bus routes, hatchery survive funding cuts, OKC’s Council members said a rebound in sales tax revenue has allowed the bus system to avoid reducing their services.
Well, which one is it? Are you cutting back services or have you rebounded? This is the unnecessary drama that commuters have had to deal with thus far.
Thoughts on film criticism from Elvis Mitchell
Saturday, I covered the deadCenter Film Festival in downtown Oklahoma City, and I talked for a bit with Elvis Mitchell, former film critic for the New York Times and host of radio program The Treatment and Turner Classic Movies show Under the Influence.
Mitchell was at the festival to be a part of a panel on film criticism, which followed a screening of “For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism,” which I reviewed here.
As a current/aspiring critic myself, I was eager to talk to Mitchell and get his perspective on the profession, which is steadily becoming a less viable source of income, thanks both to newspapers’ financial struggles and the egalitarian nature of criticism on the Web.
Mitchell was equal parts optimistic and glum. On the one hand, the ability for almost anyone to become a critic online opens up the playing field.
“The great thing about now is that criticism isn’t monolithic anymore,” he said.
On the other hand, with alternative weeklies increasingly becoming a part of larger corporations and with newspapers struggling to keep staff — especially critics who can be easily replaced by wire services — the ranks of employed critics are dwindling.
“The idea that a market like Detroit doesn’t have a film critic is kind of terrifying,” Mitchell said.
Although it’s becoming harder and harder to make money doing it, criticism has always been a risky financial source, Mitchell said, and if you love it, it’s more likely you’ll be good at it.
And, “If you’re any good at it, people will notice you,” Mitchell said.
Now that’s encouraging, even if there are plenty of other things to not feel so positive about.
You Get What You Deserve
The political economy in the country is just as bad as the economy. In fact, some think the former is worse.
Is anyone really surprised that the country is mad at Washington? All we see when we turn on the TV are issues that we do not feel affect us directly. And when there are issues that Americans want to be solved, what we get more often than not is political theatre and 1960s talking points.
Approval ratings are some of the lowest we’ve seen in many years and for good reason.
President Obama came into the White House, promising to change the way business is done in Washington and to be more transparent, and he has really only made progress on one: transparency. The problem with being transparent is that critics are going to see what you shouldn’t be doing and become upset as opposed to a president that might choose to be more secretive.
When it comes to changing Washington, the administration has not done that yet. The issues Americans are dealing with are not a result of the past 2 years (or even ten for that matter). All of these problems have been culminating as a result of multiple variables. Two being our dependence on cash (campaigns) and political, war-game tactics.
Truth is this year’s midterm elections will cost an estimated $3.7 billion. Those who have had more access to capital tend to win more often than not. This is a problem as this leaves incentive for the corruption of our representatives by special interests and groups with lots of money.
Until we change the way we see and understand politics, we should stop being surprised when politicians represent others as opposed to the people that elected them in office. We elect the people we deserve. Maybe some of this anger at Washington should be aimed back at the people who elected the representatives: the American public.
Alvin Green, with no political experience, won the S.C. Democratic Primary nomination for U.S. Senate against an established four-term Democrat. Established politicians are questioning if his win was legitimate. Or does he represent the "anti-incumbent" sentiments felt around the nation?
Using Our Resources
One of the oldest sayings is that the only thing constant in this universe is change. Every year, people complain about the newest generation. Most of the critique directed towards the newest generation (i.e., Generation X and Y) is that they are too entitled, they have no desire, everything has been given to them, they don’t know the meaning of a dollar and hard work, they are just too misinformed, blah, blah, and cry me a river.
Answer me this. Are we not as a people, a product of our environment and the society that we live in? This is not to say that the only factor in a person’s life is their environment and society, but there are multiple variables that result in why a generation is the way that they are.
Infamous professor of psychology and chief experimenter behind the Stanford Prison Experiments, Dr. Philip Zimbardo, says that we all are influenced by the many environments we are a part of throughout our daily lives and lifehood. We have been a part of institutions since we were first born (e.g., family, school, work, clubs/organization, etc).
To those people who claim that this generation is just not well prepared, I would like to say thanks for doing such a great job in preparing us. We didn’t create this world or choose to be a part of it, but we’re dealing with what has been given to us. And if we’re more fortunate than the last generation, so be it. We will use our resources and continue to make the life better for those in the present and future generations. Isn’t that a reason why we have kids?
Fact of the matter is, times change. Yes, back in the day, our parents used to walk to school. They had one pair of shoes to play basketball and go to church wearing, they ate dirt when they were hungry, they knew how to stretch $1 for two weeks, and all their belongings could fit into a handy sack. But this is the year 2010. We are in a recession, future generations WILL have to pay off our debt and mistakes, we are in the middle of two wars (Afghanistan becoming the longest war in American history since Vietnam), the Gulf region has seen the worst environmental disaster ever, and we have a dysfunctional political system.
On a more micro level, movies today cost $10 (you’ll spend atleast $20 if you want to have a snack and a drink), it’s $40 to fill up your gas tank, and media packages cost an average of $30 per month (i.e., cable, Internet, and multimedia phone charges). This world we live in is not cheap and it never has been. It’s not fair, it’s stressful, and this is the world we have to deal with.
This is a different generation. Fact is, we’re going to do things much differently than the last generation and the cycle will hopefully continue for many years. Politics, religion, and race is seen differently from this generation than from the eyes of our parents and their parents. Just watch the TV and see. Things are not want they used to be. So, don’t jump down our throats because of the world you’ve created for us. Maybe you should take a step back and evaluate what you did to contribute to why we behave and view the world the way we do. We want to be better than the last generation. We don’t want to be worse off and certainly not the same.
The great thing is that we are beginning to see a political constituency that is much more informed than past generations because of the technologies we have become so used to today. I’m tired (and I’m sure others are too) of feeling guilty for having a better life than others. I will feel this way no more. If I’m fortunate, there is a reason for that and I’m going to make the most of a rare opportunity.
At times, things for this country look bleak, but there is always hope in the next generation, particularly this one. For the nay-sayers that believe that there is no hope for this generation, they’re really saying that there is no hope for a future that they had a hand in creating.
A Change Gone Come
When I first heard the news all I could think about was Ohio St. and Michigan coming to Memorial Stadium and being swamped by the Sea of Red and the new rivalry that would begin. The Huskers going to the Big House and The Horseshoe and silencing the crowd with big hit after big hit and overpowering the Big 10 with all their speed. Why lie we all know the Big 10 is not known for their speed and Nebraska has made major strides to compete with the speed that the Texas’ and Oklahoma’s bring to the field every Saturday. And now they would be going to a conference where they could possibly have the fastest players on the football field. Can you say BCS bound??? But with all these positives I had to contact some of my former classmates and see what the feeling was around Lincoln.
I talked to a former Husker and several current Huskers and I was reminded of all the tradition that would be lost. The rich history of the Big 8 and the Big 12, all the battles that Texas and Nebraska went through just wiped away. And Oklahoma and Nebraska. I was only a student-athlete at Nebraska for a year but I began to hate Texas along with my classmates. I remember when we had Big 12 Indoor Track Championships back in 2008 in Lincoln and I couldn’t believe how raucous the Devancey Center was from the chanting from Texas and Nebraska. We lost the meet by one point and from then on I hated Texas and everything they stood for, well maybe not hated but I had a strong dislike for the ‘horns. All this would be washed away and probably forgotten with the next generation. But honestly our generation has kind of lost touch with what is used to be.
Nebraska and Oklahoma had some of the greatest games college football ever seen but when the division split hit they no longer played every year and more and more of the younger generation forgot they were even rivals seeing as Oklahoma has dominated the Huskers the past 10 years with the icing on the cake being a 62-28 drubbing in 1928. That was my first Oklahoma-Nebraska game I ever watched and I thought to myself “are we really rivals with the Sooners because they are beating us like a non-conference AA opponent.” The split division philosophy also causes less games between the hated Longhorns. The rivalry isn’t what it used to be between the two schools and we need to just face it and move in. It’s very tough to be someone’s rival when you don’t even play them every year like Michigan-Ohio St. do every year for the past 109 years! The Huskers will go to the Big 10 start some new rivalries and create new history.
I think the best part of this deal is recruiting. They can now steal the Big 10 schools recruits and they can even begin an OU-Nebraska rivalry game or Texas-Nebraska game to keep getting recruits in the area. I think the move is great for the Huskers and well needed. They can now be in a conference where revenues are shared and not dominated by that team down in Austin that just sucks up all the revenue.
I think the sport it’s going to benefit most is volleyball, think about this: Big 10 championship between Nebraska and Penn St. Can u say E-P-I-C.
deadCenter: Recap of Thursday’s opening night
Filmmakers Reilly Smith (left) and Ryan Bellgardt discuss cameras on the roof of the Oklahoma City Museum of Arts during the deadCenter opening night party. Photo by Nathan Poppe
She couldn’t sit through more than a couple minutes of the movie.
Oklahoma City resident Anna Welte quietly exited the IAO Art Gallery screening room during “Down in Number 5,” a short film about the difficulties of raising children with disabilities.
It opened the 10th annual deadCenter Film Festival on Thursday.
The movie hit too close to home. Welte’s sister has Down syndrome.
“The subject matter … isn’t talked about much,” Welte said. “And it’s not unless you deal with it on a daily basis that you have an idea or a clue how much of a struggle it is.”
deadCenter publicist Rob Crissinger said he was excited to have a film festival highlighting unique stories with a purpose. He said even the comical documentary “Biker Fox,” which premiered Thursday, follows a Tulsa bike enthusiast who cares deeply about wildlife conservation.
“It gives people a chance to talk about things,” Crissinger said. “And if you don’t like schmoozing you’ve got a great film to see.”
Photo Slideshow: LCD Soundsystem
I made a quick run to Dallas last night to take some shots of the electronic wizard, James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem.
-Poppe
Column: ‘Oklahoma’ can soothe the savage beast
Artwork by Nathan Poppe
This story ran in the June 9 issue of Look@OKC.
Tulsa native Jack Roberts watched in amazement as a potential coffee shop hire awkwardly turned a job interview into a World’s Strongest Man contest.
Roberts’ interviewee flexed his biceps to answer a question about character growth.
This interview was confusing and inspiring, but nonetheless it sparked Roberts’ writing process for “The Rock ’n’ Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher.” After three years of writing, Roberts migrated from West Hollywood back to Tulsa with his friend and “Duncan” director Justin Monroe to make a movie several muscles influenced.
Instead of staying in Los Angeles, Roberts and Monroe followed their ears in 2008 to Oklahoma in order to film a rock opus about karaoke stars.
And this gives me chills.
Cool Quote #1: Jack Roberts
What could be more awkward than a wannabe rock star relagated to a karaoke competition inside a city like Tulsa, Oklahoma that rock dreams don’t really amount to a whole lot (for a career)?”
-the Tulsa native about his deadCENTER film entry “The Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher”
I wanted to start a series only on the intern blog that just gives a little insight into a quotes that are interesting but don’t always make it into the paper. Let me know what you think of the idea.
