~ by Vick Silkenpen ~

This Filthy World
Even though John Waters is mostly revered (can one use that word in the same sentence with John?) for his offbeat film creations (like “Pink Flamingos”), who would have thought he can also pull off a one-man stand-up performance. With the direction of Jeff Garlin, Waters steps out on the stage of the Harry De Jur Playhouse in New York and proceeds to treat us to a rapid fire review of his childhood, films, opinions, censorship, wit, art, camp, trash, and vulgarity juxtaposed with vivid verbal images. The immaculately groomed and refined Waters stands and delivers never failing to use self-deprecation and never waiting to see if the audience picked up on the last reference before trotting out new ones in a manner that defies traditional comedic timing. The result is hilarity. As Waters states, “To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about.” This is one to watch with friends over to make a party of it.

The Last Mountain
Most of us are not that familiar with the practice of Mountain Top Removal or what affects it has environmentally or how our health is involved. Many of us became somewhat familiar with something being very wrong when we followed the deaths of numerous miners in a Massey Energy operation and we all have watched “Big Coal” maneuver opinion with “clean coal” ads and money. But the epicenter of this struggle to balance America’s energy needs with environmental harm is best encapsulated by the drama in Coal River Valley, West Virginia as locals wage a battle to save their precious remaining mountain from devastation. Bill Haney’s film educates us to the oft ignored practices of Big Coal as we follow Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. joining with a small group of dedicated Appalachians to expose Big Coal’s greedy shredding of their landscape into moonscape while poisoning water and leaving devastated communities behind. The necessity of direct action civil disobedience and the belief that America was founded on the democratic principle that no individual or corporation owns the air and water and it is our duty to protect them drives this documentary to some enlightening and eloquent moments.

An Education
Actress Carey Mulligan is red hot property now, but backing up to the film that initially demonstrated her super talents and landed so many award nominations is worth it. In a recreation of 1961 London, Mulligan plays a rather innocent teen that becomes entangled romantically with a worldlier and perhaps sinister man (Peter Sarsgaard). She seems very bright for a 16 year old girl but even though she has plans to enter Oxford, obvious trouble looms as Sarsgaard increasingly steers her and even her parents. Mulligan is so heartbreakingly convincing you have no problem knowing there are big roles ahead.

All of the reviews this time are concerning recent Oscar nominees. All of them left the ceremony with at least one Golden Boy and some left with more than one.

Midnight In Paris

If this screenplay had been written by anyone other than Woody Allen it would have ended up sappy and ridiculous. Owen Wilson portrays a young Hollywood writer (obviously Woody in a younger incarnation) who fully embraces Paris as a magical city that oozes art from its various pores of time periods. Wilson is most caught up with the Lost Generation of the ‘20’s and soon finds himself hobnobbing around Paris with the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Cole Porter, and he even takes up with a girlfriend of Picasso. This Allen fantasy recaptures some of his warm charm while giving us more than a few things to ponder concerning nostalgia, wish fulfillment, whimsey, and all the while smart and funny with a perfect cast.

Hugo

Awesome is a bit clichéd but it applies to this film about making films. Martin Scorsese may claim he did it for his small daughter to enjoy but we profit from the exercise. It is best to enjoy the beautiful images in full 3D splendor but it succeeds regardless. Set in 1930s Paris, an orphaned early-teen boy (Asa Butterfield) named Hugo lives in the walls of a Paris train station winding the clocks while trying to repair an automaton that his deceased father (Jude Law) was working on. An adventurous mystery ensues as Hugo encounters a toymaker in the station who was also one of the creators of cinema, Georges Melies (Ben Kingsley), following his financial destruction, an actual event.  There are so many levels here it is best to get lost and lose count.

Saving Face

It took the Oscar for Short Doc and it was deserved. We follow the heartbreaking trials of some Muslim Pakistani women who have survived having acid thrown in their faces by their husbands. In one case, we travel with a woman with a melted face as she endures a series of plastic surgeries that do not restore her to her former visage but yet they manage to restore her dignity. A Pakistani doctor from London volunteers his skills to try to help these women which he feels is his duty to right a tragic wrong in his culture.  The male perpetrators have mostly gone unpunished but we watch as a female member of their parliament passes a unanimous bill to fetch the crimes life sentences. While only 40 minutes long, it feels like a full feature.

Vendetti (c) with Mary Scribner (l) and Charlotte Stith (r) at Club 209 in Tulsa. Vendetti performed at the Arts Bar in the Brady District last month.) Photo by Robin Dorner.

By Robin Dorner
Editor in Chief

Last month, Tulsa’s “Arts Bar,” Club 209 hosted the outrageous, brassy comedienne Cheril Vendetti for a special one-night show. Recently having moved to the Tulsa area, Vendetti is a seasoned comedienne who has appeared in comedy clubs from LA to New York.

“I love Tulsa! You gotta go to Quick Trip at least ten times a day, right? Then ya’ gotta go over to Wal Mart on Admiral, right? To get your meds.”
The crowd roared with laughter, because we’ve all been there, right?

Vendetti’s brassy voice, big hair and classic Italian look (she has olive skin – I did not say she had a big nose!) will bring Oklahomans in at least for a look-see. One inside, the quick-witted songstress/comedienne will win you over with jokes and uproarious comedy.

This state is lucky to have this quick-witted, hysterical, progressive entertainer move in – let’s not let the likes of Sally Kern run her off!

Club 209 is a martini and coffee lounge located within the Brady Arts District in Tulsa. This arts bar strives to provide a venue for promoting local artists in a relaxed, non-smoking, diverse atmosphere. Hours are 7pm till 2am, Thu – Sun. Call (918) 584-9944 for info.

Drive

I could spend my time raving about the cool loner performance of Ryan Gosling as the James Dean-ish movie stunt driver by day who accepts jobs as a getaway driver for heists by night. In fact, all the performances from the stellar cast are flawless. But the real star of this film is the Hollywood debut of the Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn. The pace is absolutely perfect being slow and patient at the right points and then becoming a taunt thriller when it needs to.  The director is obviously the man behind the wheel and the result is a pulp noir heist film with a delicate control balanced with a dark violent style stuffed with an exquisite suspense and beauty. Refn always knows when to shift gears not only in the action but in the characters’ relationships with each other. As it tips its hat to 80’s action films it simultaneously provides us with an unforgettable tragic opera of the mean streets.

Wishful Drinking

This is when you should really be thankful for DVD’s in case you missed Carrie Fisher’s one-woman stage show or when it appeared on HBO. This biting humor memoir/doc of Carrie’s tabloid strewn life is a hoot from beginning to end. She has struggled with manic depression, pills, booze, over-the-top celeb parents, divorces, a guy dying in her bed, and has had just about everything thrown at her including a disastrous career packed with bad personal decisions. As she totters around on stage she hilariously lets us in on her bizarre childhood and what it was like to grow up as the daughter of America’s Sweetheart, and gay icon, Debbie Reynolds matched with a singer father (Eddie Fisher) who left her mom for Liz Taylor. We get to laugh with her at the absurdity of it all.

Vernon, Florida

I first came across this 1981 doc by Errol Morris in the early part of that decade. I have never forgotten it and it continues to have its influences even into docs of today. Morris originally traveled to Vernon (called Nub City by many) to make a film on why more insurance frauds for limb dismemberment than anyplace in the country were stemming from there. However, Morris soon dropped that idea when he discovered a wealth of off-the-wall eccentric characters and he just allowed them to be themselves. My favorite is the obsessed turkey hunter and his crazed quest for the “double gobbler” but you won’t soon forget others such as the worm farmer, the turtle herder, the sand jar couple and too many more.  Morris has correctly noted, “Ecstatic absurdity: it’s the confrontation with meaninglessness.”

All four concerts will be performed in St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, the finest acoustical facility for chamber music in Oklahoma City. The three evening concerts will be performed at 7:30 pm, and the Sunday afternoon concert will be performed at 4 pm.

Works of Bach include pieces for piano, cello, organ and a piano trio. Brahms works include a sextet, two quintets, a piano trio and two-instrument sonatas. The Festival will even feature a Brahms arrangement of a Bach composition.

The return of the percussive hit also brings some new surprises, with some sections of the show now updated and restructured and the addition of two new full-scale routines, utilizing props like tractor tire inner tubes and paint cans.

“Stomp has evolved a great deal since its first incarnation,” said co-creator Steve McNicholas. “Every reworking has involved losing some pieces and gaining new ones, but has always stayed true to the original premise of the show: to create rhythmic music with instantly recognizable objects, and do it with an eccentric sense of character and humor.”

Changes that can now be seen in the tour of Stomp are the biggest since the late 1990’s. “Paint Cans” evolved out of the “Boxes” routine in the Las Vegas show and “Donuts” is a piece that implements huge tractor tire inner tubes, worn around the waist on a bungee cord. For many years, the creators had looked for a Stomp equivalent of the Latin percussion instrument the guiro, a gourd-shaped open-ended instrument with ridges along the side that are rubbed by a wooden stick to create its sound. The climactic trashcan sequence “Bins” has been restructured to include a guiro-like new found instrument: strip-lighting recycling containers.

The young performers “make a rhythm out of anything we can get our hands on that makes a sound,” says co-creator/director Luke Cresswell. Stiff-bristle brooms become a sweeping orchestra; Zippo lighters flip open and closed to create a fiery fugue; wooden poles thump and clack in a rhythmic explosion. Stomp uses everything but conventional percussion instruments – trashcans, tea chests, plastic bags, plungers, boots, and hubcaps – to fill the stage with compelling and infectious rhythms.

Stomp is directed and created by Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas.

Stomp returns to the Tulsa Performing Arts Center March 6-11 for only eight performances and to the Civic Center Music Hall March 13-18, 2012 for eight performances.

Tickets for the Tulsa performances go on sale February 13th and may be purchased via phone 918.596.7111, 800.364.7111, in person at the Tulsa PAC Ticket Office or online at www.MyTicketOffice.com. Groups of 10 or more may call 918.796.0220 for a discount.

Tickets for the Oklahoma City performances go on sale February 20th and may be purchased via phone (800) 869-1451, (405) 297-2264, in person at the Civic Center Music Hall Box Office. Groups of 10 or more may call (800) 869-1451 ext. 220 for a discount.

Stomp is presented by Celebrity Attractions and is part of Celebrity Attractions 2011-2012 Broadway Season which includes Fiddler on the Roof, the add-on productions of Mamma Mia! and the Tulsa engagement of, Jersey Boys; The Story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

For more information, visit Celebrity Attractions’ website at www.CelebrityAttractions.com.

Staff Report

The 11th annual Respect Diversity Symbol Exhibit is scheduled for March 9 – May 9, 2012 at the Science Museum Oklahoma. Young people throughout Oklahoma are celebrating diversity in creative ways as they explore issues of cultural diversity, human rights, and global peace through the arts. The exhibit will feature approximately one hundred collaborative works of art and poetry by students of all ages.

One of the displays, “We Stand for the Weak, the Injured, the Silent and the Oppressed,” is a three dimensional hanging art entry inspired by an art integration diversity lesson and created by all kindergartners at Ranchwood Elementary School in Yukon. Science Museum visitors will have an opportunity to read a framed information card about the motivational factors behind this and all other contest entries on display at the Respect Diversity Symbol Exhibit. Teachers throughout Oklahoma who register to attend the exhibit’s gala will receive Multicultural Professional Development Points.

The gala for this exhibit will be on Tuesday, March 27, at the Science Museum Oklahoma, located at 2100 NE 52nd Street, OKC, OK. The event begins at 5pm with a program in the Eleanor Maurer Theatre. Lyn Adams, Director of the OKC Children’s Theatre and Jean Hendrickson, Executive Director of Oklahoma A+ Schools, will present awards to winning schools. Musicians from Westminster School, Seeworth Academy and Ranchwood Elementary School will perform.

Sponsored in part by Science Museum OK, Alhambre Designs, the Gayly, The Oklahoman, Cimarron Alliance, Loves, MetroFamily Magazine, Oklahoma Natural Gas, , Christian Mohamed Goldberg, Walmart Stores, the Jewish Foundation, ICelebrateDiversity.com and the Respect Diversity Foundation.
To learn about projects of the Respect Diversity Foundation call (405) 359-0369 or visit www.respectdiversity.org.

The Gay Agenda made its debut performance last month spending three days in Oklahoma City on the Plaza. Pictured are Randy Roberts Potts of Dallas (creator of The Gay Agenda) and friends Chrys Lemon and Jorge Docabo both of Washington, DC during the first “performance art” live artistic event of The Gay Agenda.

By Randy Potts

And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence.
And when ye come into a house, salute it.
And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.
And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
Matthew 10: 11-14

We are a rag-tag band, we who make up this project called “the gay agenda.” We have no permanent offices, no funding from any large organizations, no employees, no infrastructure of any kind. We are bound by an idea, and this idea is enough to sustain us. Following the writer’s dictum of “show, don’t tell,” we make no demands, no proscriptions, no bold statements. We are simply asking you to look at us in a way you may have never looked before. What you do with this new perspective is out of our hands.

We are possessed with good news and yet we do not beg you to hear it; we only ask you to watch as we live out our lives.

Our lives, like yours, consist of simple pleasures. On the weekends, we can be seen drinking coffee in the morning, eating breakfast, reading a paper curled up on the sofa with the cat. We rake the leaves in the front yard; prune the fruit tree in the back. We watch TV, work a puzzle, make a grocery list and pay the bills. We choose a movie to watch then sit together on the couch, perhaps with an arm around each other. If it is cold, we find a blanket. We get sleepy, we yawn; we decide it’s time for bed.

Our lives outside the home, like yours, are too varied to capture. Even so, our lives inside the home follow similar rhythms, similar dictates. For some of us, there are children to get ready for school, homework to help with, papers to sign for the teacher. For others, there is mother to care for; maybe she is sick and cannot leave her chair. Some of us live alone, maybe we have a dog or a cat; maybe we sing our favorite song in the shower as loud as we can because there is no one to disturb with our unpolished voices.

We are each, like you, different in our own way, and yet when we walk in the door and put down our grocery bags, when we take off our coat and put the keys on the table, when we take off our shoes, we look just like you.

There has been a lot of talk the last few years of a secret agenda, a gay agenda; a sinister plan to circumvent natural law and destroy society as we know it. We are asking for special rights, they say. We are asking for special protections, some say.

It is true that we have an agenda. It is true that we ask for rights. It is even true that we ask for equal protection under the law. In the world outside these United States, it is also true that these rights are special. Inalienable. Self-evident, even.

In all this talk, some have built a wall and made an “us” and a “them,” and we have continually asked that this wall be torn down. Robert Frost once said:
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down” …and we’re not sure what that something is, but we feel it too – we feel that this wall has not made us good neighbors. This wall makes no sense. We are just like you. We live next door. Come, and see.

What is “The Gay Agenda?”

• “The Gay Agenda” (TGA) is a roving performance piece that uses empty storefronts instead of a stage, featuring Randy Roberts Potts and his partner Keaton (or other couple) inhabiting a makeshift living room and engaging in an array of activities popular among gay couples: reading, checking email, cooking dinner, watching television and more. Viewers, who do not interact directly with the couple, can observe with their own eyes the uncensored truth of what lies at the heart of the struggle for equal rights among gay Americans: the desire to live in peace.
• “TGA” will bring a message of gay acceptance to people across the country—some who are non-accepting on issues of equality, or ambivalent, or who perhaps have never known or even met a gay person in their lives.
• “TGA” is a one-of-a-kind traveling immersive installation that gives curious viewers a glimpse into the lives of gay Americans and highlights what gay individuals are truly seeking: the ability to live their lives in quiet dignity.
• “TGA” highlights, in a very unique and very real way, the fact that gay Americans are no different from anyone else.
• “TGA” was personally conceptualized by Randy Roberts Potts

 

Trigg Hirsch pointed out that people with problem feet – extremely narrow or wide, differently sized feet, or abnormalities of one sort or another that make buying shoes difficult—can benefit from knowing how to make their own footwear.

The boot making workshop runs March 4-10, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. at Fire Om Earth Retreat and Art Studios, 872 Mill Hollow Rd.  Participants will create soft knee or ankle length flat-soled boots of suede or garment hide.  Instruction and studio use costs $275; materials are extra and estimated at around $100. A materials list will be provided at registration. Spaces are limited and pre-registration is required.

There is also a class March 12-16, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Trigg Hirsch will teach shoemaking, with participants creating walk shoes or flat-soled sandals.  Participants will learn hand stitching and machine stitching construction.  Studio use and instruction cost $250, with estimated material costs of $50-75. A materials list will be provided at registration. Spaces are limited and pre-registration is required.

Lodging information and registration are available by calling 479-363-9402.