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A Smooth Transition

By
Alaina Stevens
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It’s the first day of college. Students are trying to figure out where their first classes are, professors are passing out syllabi and the student activities committee is hosting a back-to-school celebration. With so many new experiences, freshman can get overwhelmed, but being prepared can help them adapt to college life.

The shift from high school to college is crucial and sometimes daunting, but there are several ways students can make it successful, according to a variety of college experts.

David Barron, executive director of enrollment management at Rogers State University, suggests that students should be aware of the differences between high school and higher education.

“High school isn’t college,” he explains. “There is a greater need for critical thinking skills. You’re expected to understand and remember what you read, draw your own conclusions, form opinions and be able to evaluate the ideas of others.”

Barron also says students should realize class sizes, study habits and the amount of classroom time is very different at a university than in high school. Because of these things, there is a greater need for the students to have personal responsibility, he advises.

“When students come to college, they have a tremendous amount of freedom,” he says. “No one is monitoring their progress or if they’re going to class, so they have to be responsible for their own academic progress. Those who are successful in college have to develop self discipline and work hard.”

Barron says finding the right balance is key, which includes becoming part of the college community. As you develop relationships or become part of the social fabric you feel accepted, which helps in the transition, he says.

“Make your own smaller group within the larger one,” he emphasizes. “Develop friendships, relationships and networks.”

Students should be aware of who they surround themselves with while attending a higher education institute, Barron adds. If a student surrounds his- or herself with people who aren’t concerned with being successful in college he or she is more than likely not going to thrive.

“The key for a lot of students is establishing a point of contact or a relationship with either an upperclassman, administrator or advisor,” Barron suggests. “Don’t be afraid to explore other avenues because college is where you get the most exposure to other cultures, experiences and different ideas than any other time in your life.”

Connecting The Dots

Missy Wikle, director of New Student Orientation at Oklahoma State University, says it’s important for freshmen to connect with the campus, their studies and people.

“The better the connection the student has the more he makes the college his home,” she explains. “It becomes more than just that place where they go to school. They feel more a part of the school.”

Part of connecting to the campus is utilizing the resources available to students when they’re having a difficult time adjusting to life at a university, Wikle says.

“Some students don’t struggle, but for those who do they should ask for help,” she advises. “You’re not saying you’re a failure if you have to ask for help. I think using the resources around them is probably the best way to have that successful transition.”

Being committed to an academic major is an important factor in succeeding in higher education, Wikle says. The students who really make that personal connection to continuing their academics are the ones who are committed to learning how to do well, she continues.

“Those students are the ones who will not only find the degree area that they’re interested in faster, but they’re so tied to it, it becomes a part of them,” Wikle explains. “Being connected to their major does help in being successful.”

Wikle also suggests that preparation is key. Students must understand that they will need to think about time management, study skills and budgeting.

“I think the preparation for the realities of college is really important,” she adds.

Taking the initiative and being responsible for their own lives are another way freshmen can make a smooth transition, Wikle states. It starts with the student taking that responsibility for his future and realizing he’s about to be an adult.

“There is a depth of learning that is expected that (students) may not have had before and realizing that that takes a lot more effort than it did in high school.”

Understanding It All

Lee Hall, director of Student Life at Oklahoma City University, says students need to learn early on to think and act independently. She also advises students to utilize what is available to them.

“It’s just simple things like understanding the syllabus, taking advantage of the professors’ office hours and really taking advantage of the services offered on campus that can help students successfully transition,” Hall says.

Understanding and learning time management is essential in college, according to Craig Hayes, executive director of Recruitment Services at the University of Oklahoma.

“In high school time is mapped out, but in college it’s different,” Hayes emphasizes. “I think the primary thing is students need to organize their time and make sure they’re taking care of things that are important in order for them to be successful. Taking the time to do that is an important tip for students.”

Not only should students figure out how to adapt to new academic schedules, but they also have to adapt to the social aspects of college. Hayes agrees with other experts on the importance of students being involved on campus.

“I tell students all the time, they should come to the University of Oklahoma to major in an academic degree program, not to major in student involvement. At the same time, students need to plug into the community and find other students who share interests, whether it’s academic or social. It’s important for students to get involved.”

Extensively researching the college of your choosing is highly suggested by Hayes. Students should do their homework on universities that they’re interested in attending, he says.

“Getting acclimated with the university before attending is essential,” he explains. “Learn the history, the traditions and the services available as soon as possible. This helps students adjust to the college, which makes them feel more comfortable.”

Ultimately students should realize there are resources and support networks within a university to help assist them in thriving in the college atmosphere, but it takes initiative to successfully transition.

Oklahoma’s Rowdiest Export

By
Natasha Ball
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If you’re driving along on an Oklahoma highway and you see a big, red farm truck on your tail, and if it’s pulling a fancy rig and sporting on its roof the most enormous set of longhorns you’ve ever seen, then it’s time to move over. Odds are it’s the internationally known cowboy and Shidler’s own One-Arm Bandit, John Payne, and his path isn’t one in which to dilly dally.

Payne’s on the road more often than not with his namesake One Arm Bandit & Co. show, which also features his son Lynn and daughter Amanda, and highway driving is nothing compared to the danger they face in the arena.

The show, performed at more than 40 events across North America last year, features Payne as he rounds up the largest and most wild of plains-roving animals, from mustangs to longhorn steer and full-grown buffalo, and drives them to the top of his oversized horse trailer. Then he blocks them in and stands with both feet on his saddle, his hat high in his left hand to salute the crowd.

Payne has also been known to run his horse in tight circles on top of that trailer, all while the truck drags them through an arena to the sound of a roaring crowd.

“I was a hardcore cowboy, and when I was putting this show together I impressed myself with a few things. I figured it’d impress other people, too,” Payne says.

Now the show is a 10-time winner of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s Specialty Act of the Year award.

But it almost never was. About 15 years before he got the idea that became One Arm Bandit & Co., Payne grabbed onto a live power line during a building project on his father’s ranch, which sent 7,200 volts coursing through his body. He fell 25 feet to the ground.

He lost his right arm below the shoulder in the accident, and he nearly lost his right leg. He was just 20 years old.

“I just couldn’t see myself as a fencepost for the rest of my life,” Payne says.

A life-long Oklahoman, Payne had grown up on horseback. After five weeks in the hospital, he learned to steer horses with his left arm. When he needed his hand for the bullwhip, he’d ride with his legs.

Payne’s love of a dare and what he calls “cowboy ingenuity” helped him turn his new physique from a handicap into the cornerstone of his award-winning rodeo show.

“I’d seen one rodeo act and it was horrible – I said I’d show up late just to miss it,” Payne says. “The guy dared me to come back the next year with something better.”

That was in 1987. Now Payne and his children split the country three ways, performing their death-defying stunts at rodeos and exhibitions from here to Mexico and back up to Washington state and Canada.

One Arm Bandit & Co. has performed for a variety of persons of note, including several governors, heads of state from as far away as Yemen and even royalty – namely, Prince Phillip of England. In late 2010, he traveled to Oman to perform for the sultan there.

“It’s the farthest away I’ve ever taken the show,” Payne says. “Once you go that far around the world, you can’t go any farther away without starting to come back again.”

For Your Entertainment

By
Paul Fairchild
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It’s standing room only at Tulsa’s Joe Momma’s Pizza. Dressed in black, all Western, sporting aviator sunglasses and a bolo tie, Simply Irresistible turns and faces his audience. Underneath the disco ball, the crowd, stippled with light, is already clapping.

He steps up to the mic. There’s no band behind him, but the music is there. On cue, he adds the vocals. And they are amazing. He owns his audience by his sixth note. A fixture in Tulsa’s thriving karaoke scene, he does not disappoint. His singing lives up to his name and the product comes as advertised.

Simply Irresistible – widely known as SI on the karaoke circuit – also plays the black hat in The Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher. The film, a product of Oklahomans Jack Roberts and Justin Monroe, follows a confused and hapless Duncan, played by writer Jack Roberts, through the bars and cafés of the Tulsa karaoke scene as he searches for love, himself and a place in the world.

The awkward but nuanced story chronicles Duncan’s efforts to step out from underneath his wildly famous father’s shadow and move past his father’s music to find his own. But Duncan doesn’t find his dreams on the big stage. He finds them on the karaoke stage.

The film’s faithful recreation of Oklahoma’s karaoke scene is fun and a quirky backdrop for the film’s more serious moments. But it also hints that while karaoke is a passing amusement for many, it’s much more for others. For many singers, the karaoke stage is a place to find themselves. It is a place to be a star. And it is a place to make an almost schizophrenic break from the real world, if only for just a few hours.

Made in Japan

What began as a small Japanese diversion in the 1970s became, over the space of a decade, a national obsession. Infectious, karaoke spread to other countries in the early 1980s. Nobody disputes that karaoke first hit American shores in 1982 at Dimples, an upscale bar in Los Angeles. From there it fanned out across the country, arriving in Oklahoma in 1985.

Nobody’s entirely certain, but karaoke veterans generally agree that the birthplace of Oklahoma’s love affair with karaoke was Tulsa’s Elephant Run. The level of certainty is the same for Oklahoma City, but the pros believe that karaoke first came to the city at Russell’s or Henry Hudson’s on 58th Street.

It’s fitting that Duncan finds himself on the karaoke stage. While his father made magic with musical instruments, Duncan’s not that good. He can’t even sing that well. And the karaoke stage, with its own brand of awkwardness – unless you’re a pro or haven’t had enough drinks – fits Duncan’s perfectly. He opens up and puts his heart into it. And it provides him with a safe way to pull out of his shell and engage the world.

“Karaoke is sort of like church. You go and release all of the stress of your daily life. All you’ve really got to do is commit. And that’s all anybody cares about. If you show up and commit, people will appreciate the fact that you gave it a go,” says Roberts.

For sure, there are more Duncans out there than hardcore karaoke veterans. To be good at karaoke means belting out a tune as well as its original singer. Being a karaoke superstar means performing – not just singing – a song better than its original performer. That’s a lot of pressure. It starts getting a little competitive. Especially if it is, in fact, happening at a karaoke competition.

“Pretty much every time I go, I feel like it’s a competition. Even though there may not be prizes, there’s always glory. There’s always glory. So when I’m performing up there on the stage, it’s always a competition,” says SI.

The film, shot in Tulsa and its surrounding suburbs, features an almost entirely Oklahoman cast. And a completely Oklahoman production crew, along with a totally Oklahoman soundtrack. It was even produced with Oklahoma money. The very fact that a film like Duncan Christopher could be shot entirely in Oklahoma testifies to the vitality of the state’s karaoke scene. And showing off Oklahoma’s karaoke scene is showing off Oklahoma itself.

“We wanted to shine the metaphorical belt buckle that is Oklahoma,” says Monroe. “There are stereotypes in Hollywood of Oklahoma being ‘too bumpkin’ or boring or a definite ‘fly-over’ state. Jack and I know a very different Oklahoma. A very alive Oklahoma. A very creative and artistic Oklahoma. This state is magical, and we knew that music would infuse itself into our movie.”

Roberts and Monroe are carrying Oklahoma’s flag around the nation and the world. The film has picked up major awards at five important film festivals, and only halfway through the festival season. The producers are hoping for more as they travel to Buenos Aires and London.

International and national acclaim is nice, but Roberts and Monroe have harbored plans from the beginning to debut the film in Oklahoma theaters first. They can’t go into detail about their plans, but Oklahomans can look forward to seeing Duncan on the big screen very soon.

It’s Showtime

Kari Brummet’s KariOkie Café & Bakery, only three years old, sees its fair share of lip-syncing characters on Thursday and Saturday nights. Located in Kiefer, it’s a little off the beaten path, but still a vital part of Tulsa’s karaoke scene. The cafe’s original location in Bixby was too small to hold the crowds. The new location holds 100 people, and performers enjoy a bigger stage.

Brummet didn’t fall into karaoke. She wasn’t particularly interested in it. But during a business trip to Detroit she was angered into it.

“Some friends and I ended up in a karaoke bar. A guy was singing Garth Brooks and I was appalled. It was the KJ (karaoke jockey) that was running the thing and he didn’t know the song. I went up and told him I needed to help out before Garth Brooks found him and killed him,” she says.

It was a good experience for Brummet, and after she returned, she hunted down some karaoke bars and became a regular at Remington’s in Tulsa.

Karaoke became her new hobby. She accumulated karaoke CDs, a good set of KJ equipment and eventually moved up to hosting her own karaoke night. After a few years, she decided to leave her career as a math teacher and open up her own karaoke cafe.

The KariOkie Café & Bakery serves no alcohol and is smoke-free. This, Brummet says, gives kids a place to do their karaoke thing.

“High school kids love to sing karaoke,” she says. “They don’t have to be asked or begged. They do it at the drop of a hat.” The cafe also sets itself apart from the competition by offering, along with a massive standard karaoke book, a selection of Christian contemporary and gospel music.

Pat Hyde, a manager at Oklahoma City’s Cookie’s, brought karaoke to the bar after years of performing at other clubs.

“I’d been singing karaoke for about 16 years at various places around the city and thought that it might go over really well at Cookie’s, considering that we have a good college crowd there,” says Hyde. “We have a lot of Oklahoma City University students in theater that come to Cookie’s to sing.”

Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays bring out the pros who grace the crowd with renditions of everything from Broadway show tunes to Led Zeppelin. But, Hyde emphasizes, newbies shouldn’t be intimidated by the regulars. Cookie’s gets an accepting crowd that appreciates any singers who give it their best. After all, those pros started out as newbies.

Cookie’s unusual venue contributes to the fun.

“Cookie’s is a little hole-in-the-wall neighborhood bar that, on most nights, is just a place where people can come and meet and have a drink or two and watch sports,” says Hyde. “But on karaoke nights it transforms into one of the hottest karaoke spots in the Oklahoma City area. During the summer, it’s standing room only to sing. The atmosphere changes from a neighborhood bar to a really hot, eclectic spot for karaoke.”

Fred Anderson has been a KJ at Tulsa’s Remington’s for 15 years. Tulsa’s karaoke veterans put his show easily in the city’s top five. He’s seen plenty of newbies grow into full-fledged performers. The key is an accepting audience, the kind of audience that doesn’t boo singers off the stage, the kind of audience that lets it go and hopes the next singer is better. That’s where first-timers need to be. After that, the rest takes care of itself.

“Once you get up and sing and hear people clapping, it’s in your blood,” says Anderson.

This is the kind of audience that nurtures Duncan as he moves out of his father’s shadow. It is the kind of audience that makes the city a welcoming place for a small-town boy. Those are the kinds of crowds that singers find in most of the karaoke clubs in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Sure, there are pros out there. The next American Idols are singing to these crowds. But in Oklahoma it’s not so much about winning as it’s about showing up, committing to the stage and singing your heart out.

“We’ve met people that treat karaoke like church,” says Monroe. “They go every single week. They have their own entourage that they bring in. They go up there and rock the stage, pour out their souls. Whether they’re great singers or not doesn’t really matter. As long as they commit fully to the music.”

The Gong Show

The hottest karaoke scene in Tulsa comes around on the last Wednesday of every month. Joe Momma’s Pizza transforms itself for Charity Okie, a karaoke fundraising event supporting the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Oklahoma. It’s SI’s favorite venue, where he likes to bust out his favorite crowd pleaser, Blackstreet’s “No Diggity.”

SI’s won a handful of Charity Okie contests, but he hasn’t won them all. Several of Tulsa’s karaoke regulars turn out for the event, and the competition is stiff.

Charity Okie founders Jonathon Bolzle, Wes Alexander, Bart Yount and Jon Schroeder do it up – fog machines, big screen projection TVs, the works. They want every performer, new or pro, to feel like a superstar on Joe Momma’s stage.

“It’s the best karaoke experience that someone can have here in Tulsa. We go over the top with lighting, fog and effects,” says Bolzle. “We try to make everyone’s performance as awesome as possible so they can have as much of a true to life performance as possible.”

Bolzle, a longtime karaoke fan, developed the idea behind Charity Okie after visiting a number of Tulsa’s karaoke clubs and deciding that they just didn’t deliver the goods. He and his co-founders began the search for the ultimate karaoke experience. Somewhere along the way, they decided to incorporate a charity.

“What the charity does is bring out people who might not normally enjoy karaoke and gets them to set their pride and dignity aside and do something for the cause. So we get a lot of people who’ve never done karaoke getting up there and doing it because they want to support the cause,” Bolzle adds.

The audience members vote for the best performers at Charity Okie with their wallets. Volunteers walk through the audience with buckets. Every dollar in the bucket is a vote for the performer on stage. The top three earners win prize packages. Those incentives, along with the good times, bring in enough money to support one child’s wish each year. And don’t forget the gong. Is a performer turning a great tune into a weapon of mass destruction? Pay $5 for the privilege of gonging them off the stage.

There are plenty of places to check out Oklahoma’s thriving karaoke scene – even if only for the spectacle. But as long as you’re there, you might as well step up to the stage. A little stage fright is normal. Having that much fun is not.

First-timers should take it from Kari Brummet: “It’s always the timid ones that have the best voices.”

Hit the Rewind Button

By
Chris Sutton
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People in their 40s, 50s and 60s are well into middle age, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to give up on their looks. Experts believe that many people have delayed cosmetic surgery because of the struggling economy and will delay no longer as things improve.

According to the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgeons, the number of people seeking anti-aging procedures such as facelifts and eyelid lifts is on the rise. Demand for noninvasive procedures such as Botox and fillers rose dramatically in the past two years.

The most popular procedures being done these days are liposuction, eyelid surgery, breast implants, nose jobs, facelifts and Botox injections. Following are brief descriptions of various cosmetic surgery procedures along with expected recovery times.

Liposuction, or body sculpting, removes stubborn pockets of fat such as saddlebags and love handles. The surgeon vacuums out the fat through a small incision. Recovery time: a few days, depending on how much fat is removed.

Eyelid surgery, or blepharoplasty, removes bagginess and tightens loose skin around eyelids. Swelling usually subsides in a week; bruising clears up in a week to 10 days.

Breast implants are saline-filled bags slid between your breast tissue and chest muscles or between your chest muscles and chest wall. Recovery time is a few days to a week.

A facelift stretches sagging skin up toward your scalp, tightening and smoothing it. Bruising fades in about two weeks; swelling may last longer. Recovery time for returning to your normal routine is two weeks.

Botox injections smooth frown lines and wrinkles around the eyes. The procedure paralyzes the muscles in the forehead. There is no recovery time, but the results are not permanent, usually lasting three to four months.

*Source: www.webmd.com

Predictions for 2011

Board certified plastic surgeons that are members of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) predict the following for 2011:

  • As the number of people having gastric bypass increases, the number of patients seeking body contouring (abdominoplasty, lower body lift, upper arm lifts) following dramatic weight loss will also increase.
  • Many women who have aging breast implants will replace them and have breast lifts.
  • The popularity of cosmetic surgery will continue to grow among minorities. Among racial/ethnic groups, cosmetic surgery is most popular among Asians, followed by Hispanics and African-Americans.
  • The popularity of cosmetic injectables (Botox, Dysport, Sculptra, Radiesse, Evolence, Juvederm, Restylane, Perlane, etc.) will continue to increase as products evolve and new ones are developed.
  • Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez have made a shapely rear-end the latest must-have accessory. This year, more patients will seek posterior body lifts, buttock lifts and buttock augmentations.
  • Liposuction will continue to be the gold standard in fat reduction, but there will be interest in experimental techniques for non-invasive fat removal (freezing, zapping, lasering) as a future alternative or adjunct to surgery.
  • As the popularity of non-surgical and minimally-invasive procedures continues to increase, surgeons and manufacturers will develop new techniques and products that advance science, produce better results and shorten recovery time.

Finally, the physicians of the ASAPS advise anyone considering cosmetic procedures to do plenty of research on risks, benefits and patient outcomes, especially if the technique or product is new to the market.

Cinderella and The Perfect Ten

Blame it on Carrie Bradshaw.

Despite stern warnings from orthopedic and podiatric groups, more women are having cosmetic surgery on their feet. Their goal? Looking good in sandals and Jimmy Choos, of course.

It all began about the same time Sex and the City debuted in 1998 and is becoming more popular as new procedures are developed.

The menu of cosmetic foot procedures includes a trademarked “Cinderella procedure,” a preventive bunion correction that makes feet narrower. Some women have foot fat removed, making high heels look and fit better; others have fat removed from their abdomen and added to the balls of their feet so heels feel better.

For sandal and open-toe shoe wearers, there is a Perfect 10 procedure to invisibly trim overlong toes or lengthen short, stubby ones.

Those who don’t want an invasive cosmetic procedure can opt for a “foot facial” that includes microdermabrasion, chemical peel and toenail whitening.

It should be noted that the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society and other medical groups strongly oppose any type of cosmetic surgery on feet. The human foot has 33 bones and many tendons, making any foot surgery potentially risky. These doctors believe potential risks of surgery to improve the appearance of the feet far outweigh the potential benefits.

Foot doctors also observe that many painful foot conditions are self-inflicted. A significant number of their female patients suffer from “high heel syndrome” caused by years of wearing shoes designed for sex appeal rather than foot comfort and support.

A recent study done by a doctor at the University of Southern California found that an astounding 88 percent of women wear shoes that are one or even two sizes too small for their feet.

Cosmetic Dentistry: A Reason to Smile

People with bad teeth once had few options other than not smiling in photographs. Today, thanks to development of sophisticated, high tech and affordable procedures, dentists can tackle almost any problem.

People who are confident about their looks are usually more successful in their personal and professional lives, and nothing boosts the confidence like a great smile. A full menu of procedures is available to give you the healthy, attractive smile that nature did not. Procedures range from gentle reshaping of chipped teeth to full replacement of teeth.

Development of better dental materials means treatments are more durable and natural looking. More dentists are using technologies such as lasers to perform cosmetic procedures in their offices without referral to a specialist.

The menu of cosmetic dental procedures available to today’s patients include:*

  • Inlays/Onlays – The use of porcelain or composite materials to provide filling for teeth with tooth decay or other structural damage.
  • Composite bonding – A composite material which looks like enamel is applied into a cavity or onto the surface of a tooth.
  • Teeth whitening – The most commonly recommended cosmetic dentistry procedure, bleach is used to whiten the teeth.
  • Dental veneers – Composite or porcelain laminates are bonded to the surface of a tooth to correct chips, cracks or severe tooth discoloration.
  • Dental implants – Replacement of missing teeth with prosthetic teeth.
  • Smile makeover – The dentist does a comprehensive assessment of your smile and makes recommendations to improve your “smile esthetics.”
  • Full mouth reconstruction – Treatments which correct functional problems with your bite, muscles, teeth or bone structure.

The internet is a wonderful resource for people considering cosmetic dental procedures. Websites of dentists who offer cosmetic dentistry give the latest information about specific procedures. Some websites offer videos and the opportunity to ask questions.

*Source: www.yourdentistryguide.com

The Resurrection of Bill Bartmann

By
Michael W. Sasser
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To Bill Bartmann, the image is both memory and metaphor.

There he was, a teenage high school reject, leaning against a parking meter outside a pool hall in his small Iowa hometown. In the wider world, things were changing, propelled by the energy of the 1960s. But in small town Middle America of the day, a dropout from a dysfunctional family who was already in the habit of eating from garbage dumpsters was headed nowhere.

But something happened that day outside that pool hall – something that would change everything.

“Walking down the street, literally right towards me, was the principal who had expelled me from school,” Bartmann recalls.

“He comes right up to me and asks me what I was doing and that he meant what I was doing with my life. I told him that I was working part-time at a packing plant. He told me that I was bright enough that I should go to college. Now, to that point, no Bartmann had ever even graduated from high school in the whole family tree. But he very seriously encouraged me and told me that he could help. He said I would have to take the GED, but that if I passed it, he would help me get into college.”

It was a seminal moment for Bartmann and a formative one for the development of the principle and philosophy that subsequently propelled him through some alpine-high times and desperately low ones.

“I want to instill in the hearts and minds of everyone I come in contact with that you are capable of doing more than you think you can,” Bartmann says.

“I look at is as exactly the same as me standing against that parking meter. And then an opportunity came along.”

The young Bartmann hardly seemed the type to seize that opportunity when it did come along in the form of one committed educator, particularly since hanging out on the street outside a pool hall was a major improvement on the youngster’s life to date.

“I just like to explain it as – we had a dysfunctional family,” Bartmann says. “My parents had eight children, and I think they loved us as much as they knew how. They just didn’t know how. They did the best job they could. With eight kids, though, just getting by took everything they had. There was not a lot left for bonding.”

Although Bartmann’s farming family was hardly The Waltons, he says that contrary to what others might have thought, he was neither kicked out of his house nor did he run away when he was 14 years old. He just left home, and his parents waved goodbye.

“People hear that and they think there has to have been a scandal or that I was some kind of anarchist and that wasn’t the case,” Bartmann says. “I was literally living on the street, and it was an upgrade.”

Bartmann crashed at friends’ houses, ate from dumpsters and was barely skirting by in life when a temp job working at a traveling carnival offered a first glimmer of opportunity. He accepted a job offer and spent the next two years traveling the country with a group of carnies. He grew up fast – and learned the first of the lessons he would carry with him.

“I learned early that there are some good people out there and also that there are people who can hurt you,” Bartmann recollects. “Your job is to learn to evaluate people quickly. At 14, I learned some skills that have served me well. I have a pretty good read on people.”

Bartmann returned to Iowa more mature but no more focused. He was involved with a gang and he washed out of both his hometown’s high schools.

The Fork in the Road

Bartmann took his old principal up on his offer and began working with a tutor to prepare for his GED.

“You have to be slightly brighter than a bottle of water to pass the GED, but for me it was hard. I passed it and for me, that was a new high water point. I’d actually passed a test.”

Bartmann’s mentor kept his word and the younger man graduated community college despite being on academic probation the entire time.

“A couple of things happened,” Bartmann says. “I came to the conclusion that I was not as dumb as they said I was and that I could learn – I just had to work harder than everyone else. I wondered how far I could go. What did I want to do?”

Growing up in poverty, Bartmann says he knew what it was like to feel powerless. It was also the era of Kennedy and of Nader’s Raiders.

“The psyche of the moment was that you could do anything and that you could control your own destiny,” Bartmann says.

So Bartmann parlayed some connections he’d made dabbling in politics to get into law school at Drake University despite initially being rejected by all 48 law schools to which he applied.

“They let me in and I was on academic probation the entire time,” Bartmann says.

After earning admission to the Iowa Bar, Bartmann entered a practice dealing with various consumer issues – yet another brush with the experiences of people struggling to control their own destinies.

However, fate would take Bartmann to Oklahoma when he and his brother invested in the Country Club Apartments off Highway 69 in Muskogee. The real estate project required the brothers to be on-site, prompting the relocation to Oklahoma, where Bartmann has spent most of his time since.

“We did really well,” Bartmann says. “It was really just timing and luck. We bought in the late 1970s and sold in the mid-1980s.”

Having succeeded in real estate, it was little surprise when a local bank, with whom Bartmann did business, asked him to intervene in a problem they were having with a client who was operating an oil field pipe manufacturing company. The bank thought it needed to foreclose on the loan, but Bartmann looked into the situation and had a better idea. Bartmann persuaded the company owner to sell it to him and received financing from the very bank that had been threatening to foreclose.

Initially, driven by oil market forces, the company did well and Bartmann earned his first fortune.

“Over the course of my ownership we grew the company significantly,” Bartmann says.

But market forces give and take and when oil prices dropped, Bartmann was in a bind. He had personally guaranteed more than $1 million in loans for the failed company and just as quickly as he had made a fortune, he had lost it.

Cashing in on Bad Debt

Around the time Bartmann lost his first fortune, he stumbled upon an advertisement placed by the FDIC seeking to sell bad loans.

“At first, I thought who would want to buy bad loans? But I investigated. So many banks in the mid-‘80s were going under that the FDIC couldn’t handle the inventory of bad loans. It was the first time that the FDIC had ever sold bad loans because they just couldn’t handle it.”

Bartmann saw an opportunity and took it. He and his wife became the first people in the United States to buy bad consumer loans from the FDIC. They paid $13,000 for a “box full” of bad loans. Utilizing an approach fueled by Bartmann’s impoverished background and from his belief in opportunity, he parlayed that box into $63,000.

“These were small balance consumer loans – the kind of loans people had for vacations and Christmas,” Bartmann says. “I thought that if you treated people nicely and not harshly, if you used compassion and logic, that it would work. That was certainly not how collection people had conducted business, but that’s how because of my background, I felt it should be done. People will do the right thing if given the opportunity.”

Bartmann continued going back to the same well for the next 12 years, buying loans first from the FDIC and then from the Resolution Trust Company, which was created in the wake of the national savings and loan failure. But he then found what he calls “the mother lode” – charged-off credit card loans. His became the first company to ever buy those types of bad debts too.

In 1986, Bartmann launched Commercial Financial Services, and until the company’s collapse in 1999, he presided over one of the most revolutionary and successful business ventures in recent economic history.

“From the very beginning, I have had the same philosophical approach – that these are customers and not deadbeats. These are people who needed some help.”

Tulsa-based CFS grew to employ almost 4,000 people with revenues in excess of $1 billion and earnings in excess of $182 million. Bill and wife Kathy graced the covers of magazines such as Forbes and Inc. They were listed individually on the Forbes 400 Wealthiest People in America list. One national magazine ranked them No. 25.

Bartmann’s approach to treating people and his belief in the value of seizing opportunities extended to CFS employees too. CFS provided 100 percent free health care to employees and their families – with doctors and nurses on site. Free day care was on site. Salaries were twice the industry standard and the company provided a 250 percent 401k match. Stories of CFS’s magnanimity abounded – company-wide trips on cruise ships and to the Bahamas and Vegas to watch Bartmann wrestle Hulk Hogan.

To Bartmann, it was only logical that CFS’s success meant personal success for employees.

“You treat clients with dignity and respect and you treat employees the same way,” he says. “I had 4,000 amazing employees who did great work and I practice what I preach. They seized the opportunity, did well, helped people get out of bad situations – they deserved the best.”

Fall From Grace

In 1999, Jay Jones, a CFS business partner, committed fraud and sent the company into bankruptcy. Even though Jones told prosecutors he had acted without Bartmann’s knowledge, admitted his guilt and was sent to prison, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft indicted Bartmann. Five years later, after a two-month-long trial where the government called 53 witnesses and produced more than 1,000 exhibits, Bartmann rested his case without calling a single witness or producing a single exhibit. The jury acquitted Bartmann on all counts. Only afterward did the bankruptcy trustee declare that CFS was not a fraud.

Bartmann does not speak ill of others easily and even though his excoriation was more publicized then his complete exoneration, he bears no ill will toward the government.

“I choose to think of it as the system working – they took their time looking through everything before they decided I had done nothing wrong,” Bartmann says.

“For every education, there is a tuition. In my case, that tuition was $3.5 billion. I look back on everything that we went through and I remember those days, but those days aren’t us. They are just things that happened along the way.”

Bartmann says everything he learned with CFS mirrored things he already knew but these are lessons it is always good to learn a second time.

“People are inherently good. We’re responsible for our own actions. People will do the right thing if given the opportunity. We get what we deserve.”

A New Day

Bartmann is turning those lessons into yet another opportunity. Just last year in Tulsa he launched his new company, CFS2, which duplicates the business and philosophy of the first CFS – only without any business partners this time. Also based in Tulsa, Bartmann says this is a “chance to do it all again.”

“The economic environment is different,” Bartmann says. “There is a lot more debt, so there is more inventory and it is less expensive to buy. On the other hand, some of it is less collectable because of the environment. We’re going to go at it the same way we did before, treating people with respect and helping them out of bad situations.”

Finding employees has not been a problem. Bartmann says 90 percent of the resumes the company has received are from former CFS employees.

“One guy left a higher paying job in Iowa because he wants to do it all again,” Bartmann says. “He might be making less money today, but he knows if he does what he needs to do, he will do well again.”

Dana Bell is one of the former CFS employees who is happily back with CFS2. The company director of training and development said that when Bartmann finally decided to launch CFS2, she knew she was in.

“Not one single doubt,” she says. “It’s been a roller coaster from the very beginning, but I had no doubt.”

Bell says that working for Bartmann is not for everyone – it requires complete commitment, long hours and total investment in the philosophy.

“It’s all about above average people pushing themselves to limits they didn’t think they could reach,” Bell says. “It is not for the average person. Bill is a very generous person when you deserve it. You’re not going to come here for a job for a year, make some money and then get a slight increase next year for doing well. Bill will reward you. But it isn’t just an individual thing. You’re also helping people and you have to work hard and have a heart. We’re also fast to identify and weed out people who aren’t cut out for it. That’s not cold. We worked on New Year’s Eve…this isn’t for just anyone.”

Bartmann says his goal is to grow the company fast and furious and to, once again, share that success with employees.

“I believe that the more you share, the more you get,” Bartmann says.

Asian Flavor

By
Paul Fairchild
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The collapse of Vietnam in 1975 created a wave of Vietnamese immigrants fleeing Ho Chi Minh’s oppressive, communist regime. Oklahoma opened its arms (much wider than other states) to them, and after a short time, a small community in Oklahoma City called Little Saigon sprouted up near Northwest 23rd Street and Classen, just west of the State Capitol.

Little Saigon’s early residents spoke no English. American customs were, at minimum, confusing. But despite those and other obstacles, what began as a small enclave of Vietnamese immigrants has grown into one of the most dynamic, diverse and energetic communities in Oklahoma City. Now known as the Asian District, it’s a celebration of dozens of Asian cultures, with the area’s residents numbering around 23,000. It’s the largest Asian community in Oklahoma, and its growing economy reflects its energy.

The district’s restaurants, unique retailers, markets, practices, boutiques and nightclubs make it a favorite destination for Oklahoma City residents and also bring in tourists from much farther away. On their own, the businesses in the Asian District might do fine, but together, gathered into the space between Nothwest 23rd and 30th streets on Classen, they do fantastically. Separately, its businesses sell whatever it is they sell. Collectively, they sell an experience – a bold, colorful, cultural experience that can’t be found anywhere else. And nothing waterproofs business like selling something nobody else has.

Visitors hear Asian accents and savor the smell of Eastern cooking. They see Asian architecture and walk through bright, red Asian gateways. The festival feeling of the Asian District goes on for blocks, an experience unbroken by chain stores. The District’s economic growth over the past few years may be the result of its totally home grown, entrepreneurial nature.

“I think what we see in the Asian District in terms of business growth and the redevelopment of that area is a great example of entrepreneurs starting businesses and growing something different. It’s indicative of that marriage of hard work and pioneering spirit, going out and giving it a try,” says Cynthia Reid, vice president of marketing for the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce.

The Gold Dome, the fifth geodesic dome built in the U.S., marks the southern entrance to the Asian District. It’s also a metaphor for the District’s success. Four decades after construction it was in disrepair and tagged for demolition. In 2003, Dr. Irene Lam, an optometrist, purchased and refurbished the building. It’s now an office building and a landmark.

Super Cao Nguyen, located in the heart of the Asian District, is the state’s largest Asian supermarket. It’s been meeting the demands of the District’s diverse population for more than 30 years, importing foods from more than 50 countries. Business, says the store’s owner, Ba Luong, has never been better.

“Business is pretty good here, especially in the Asian District. Everybody’s got to eat. The majority of the businesses here are restaurants, grocery stores or somehow food-related. We’ve all been able to weather the recession pretty well,” he notes.

Something must be going right. The Asian District is still seeing growth and expansion in less than stellar economic conditions. On the north side, it’s beginning to grow beyond its previous 30th Street border.

“The District highlights our cultural diversity in Oklahoma City. We can support and we do support many different cultures. It’s also a great example of citizen-led revitalization of an urban area. The city has done its part, but the citizens brought in all the new businesses,” says City of Oklahoma City planner Paul Ryckbost.

The city’s latest part, the District’s Streetscape Project, was completed last summer. Over the last decade, investment like this has provided new opportunities for the growth of existing businesses, too. It’s offered up a whole new way of doing business. James Vu, the owner of Kamp’s Market & Deli, knows. Kamp’s has long been a fixture in the district, but it’s seen a 100 percent growth in business over the last three years.

Kamp’s Market & Deli has been a favorite lunch spot for years, always crowded around noon. But Vu took advantage of a small city investment in the District – better street lighting – and invested his own money renovating Kamp’s. It now does double duty as a nightclub.

“Now we’re providing more nighttime entertainment, live music and other things. At one time, at night, this area was dormant. There were no streetlights in the Asian District. It wasn’t as safe as it is now. You drove through it at night to get from point A to point B. But I think because of the revamping, more businesses, including Kamp’s and the Grand House, are staying open later, offering some kind of nightlife outside of Bricktown or downtown,” says Vu.

It’s no secret that the Asian District is seeing a lot of prosperity in otherwise rough times. But there’s no secret to the District’s success, either. Lam invested in a building and brought more businesses to the area. The city invested in lights and gave interested entrepreneurs the opportunity to offer up an animated nightlife. There are examples like these, private and public, large and small, all over the Asian District. Together, the city and business owners created a fully immersive, branded experience that makes an unbeatable backdrop for business.

Says Reid, “What you can see in the Asian District is how the city’s investments – in infrastructure, in improving and defining the space excellently – catalyzed a lot of investment by the individual business owners. It’s clear that the people that live and work there are proud of that space. They’re investing in it. They’re attracting new customers. They’re bringing new people in. There are new restaurants, new retail shops. It’s proof that when you invest in an area, more investment follows that.”

Road Warrior

By
Michael W. Sasser
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When Bartlesville native Anatoly “Toly” Arutunoff was a toddler, his parents, like many, bet each other whether the youngster’s first word would be “mama” or “dada.”

Instead Toly’s first word was “car.”

Toly knows he isn’t the first person in the world to have uttered that as his first word, but he certainly remembers that his fascination with automobiles began early.

“I remember fondling cars at the age of 4,” Toly says. “I was fascinated by them. They were like these little spaces you got into that took you places.”

Over the next 60-plus years, that not entirely uncommon fascination evolved into a decidedly distinct life and career revolving around cars and old school street racing.

But much about Anatoly Arutunoff was unique from the very beginning.

Toly’s father was Armenian, his mother Ukrainian. They met, married and began their family in Czarist Russia. There, Toly’s enterprising father invented an innovative in-ground oil pump that made him a significant figure in the oil industry. Fleeing Russia, the family made its way to Istanbul, then to Germany. The crash of the German economy drove the family to the United States – to Bartlesville, Okla., of all places.

“That’s where the oil was,” Toly says. “My father had some connections in the oil industry and that’s where we ended up. I was the first person (in my family) born in the United States.”

Toly’s older sister had found her own path to exceptionalism, inventing a holographic art medium that was prized by the likes of Salvador Dali.

For Toly, though, it was neither oil nor art that captured his attention – it was cars. Or, rather, at first it was motorbikes.

“I wasn’t really old enough to have a license in school in Bartlesville, but I remember that I wasn’t the only one with a motorbike,” he says. “There would be 43 motorbikes in the parking lot at school. Well, there were maybe 15 people with actual licenses.”

Toly says he remembers cruising around the then-small town along with many of his friends and neighbors.

“We would ride around and occasionally get caught by one cop, Preacher John,” Toly says. “He would stop us and tell us to go home carefully and to tell our parents we shouldn’t be out driving. No one ever got a ticket and no one got hurt. It was amazingly innocent.”

Unlike his peers, though, Toly was acquainted early on with a very different lifestyle. His family had friends and contacts in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles and spent half of their time on the West Coast.

“We rented Harold Lloyd’s beach house and we had a house in Los Angeles that Vincent Price later bought from us. He actually found a secret room in it that we had never known about,” he recalls.

Toly’s family was close with Russian and European expatriate filmmakers and celebrities, including famed Austrian-born director Billy Wilder (Sunset Blvd.). His brother-in-law was friends with Robert Mitchum.

“There was a real contrast living half the time in L.A. and half the time in Bartlesville,” Toly says. “I’d be hanging out by the swimming pool in California one day and then in Bartlesville all bundled up against the cold a day or two later. But my friends in California were miles and miles away from me, so I would only see them every once in a while. In Bartlesville my friends were only 100 yards away. Both places had their pluses and minuses.”

Toly’s interest in cars only increased in his teens, and his parents were supportive – even helping him get a license when he was still underage. His parents got him a manual transmission ’51 Bel Air hardtop in California, and had Price not purchased their home, prompting a return to Oklahoma, a Jaguar was next in line. Instead, Toly got a more Oklahoma-friendly Lincoln. However, he tricked the Lincoln out with headers and dual exhausts, a supercharger and alcohol injection.

While the seed was planted as far back as early childhood, the real impetus to take to the streets to race was Toly’s purchase of a Porsche in Tulsa.

“When I bought the Porsche, there was this little form to fill out that made you a member of the Sports Car Club of America,” Toly remembers. “I figured, sure, I would do that – and then, okay, I’ll go race it. At the time all you had to do was take a little test on paper. You got a novice license and if they liked you, you could go race with the big boys.”

Toly’s racing career in earnest began in 1957, aboard his Porsche. He has been doing it ever since.

However, the speed enthusiast began in an era when the sport was very different. Rules, regulations and practice made the sport more amenable to actual, honest-to-goodness road cars, as opposed to the highly specialized, universal sameness of most cars in the major racing circuits today.

Toly’s entire relationship with the sport was and remains different than that found in many drivers in today’s widely known circuits such as Formula One and NASCAR.

“It was for fun,” Toly says. “People didn’t make money from it and it wasn’t a career for people. It was something you did in spare time because you enjoyed taking a real street car and seeing what it could do on the open roads.”

The young racer had intended to become an astronomer, then later flirted with the idea of working in public relations. But instead, he eventually opened a Ferrari dealership in Tulsa. Later he was approached to launch the region’s first Honda dealership. He did. Today Joe Marina Honda still has the old corporate name that Toly established almost 40 years ago. Toly also had Ford, Saab, Saturn, BMW, Volvo, Mazda and Sterling shops at one time or another.

One labor of love for the quintessential gear head was the building of his own road course, Hallett Motor Racing Circuit, not far from Tulsa.

But through his many business successes, it was road racing and automobiles that have been Toly’s real passion. In the 1970s he drove in two Cannonball Baker races. He competed in countless races in the United States and in Europe – races on real streets and without the generic sophistication of most modern circuits. In 1981, he also won the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) national championship, the President’s Cup – after starting in the 11th position on a rainy day, and received a letter from President Ronald Reagan. He raced against well-known figures in the sport such as Bob Bondurant, Phil Hill, Richie Ginther, Dan Gurney and Ak Miller, along with many others.

“After winning the President’s Cup and the national championship, I didn’t have to ever prove anything again,” Toly says.

From the very beginning, Toly has also collected unique and distinctive cars – including one-of-a-kind and ultra-tiny production vehicles, many of which are unknown except to motorist insiders. He still has many today. He and his wife Karen divide their time between Oklahoma and California.

Toly decries much of the bland sameness of auto racing today and the fact that part of the glamour of the sport is that it requires a great deal of money to even get a start in the sport.

“Even way back, I had a t-shirt printed that said, ‘Wide tires ruin racing,’” he says.

It’s a different landscape than when Toly started – back when sports car enthusiasts simply took to real roads, in real cars, just for the fun, camaraderie and experience.

Still, Toly says that a component of the sport called “High Speed Touring” has been bringing back the original essence of racing since it began in California approximately 15 years ago.

“I wish more people knew about it,” Toly says. “It has been spreading to many places. And car clubs have similar things. There are no trophies and they don’t keep official times – because it’s about fun. I would love to see more of it.”

It was that fun that had drawn a young Anatoly Arutunoff to automobiles in the first place. It’s his experiences in it that have made him one unique Oklahoman.

Hank, Don’t Fail Me Now

By
John Wooley
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In March 2009, Muskogee-based performer Jim Paul Blair and his band appeared in Durant with their first official presentation of Hankerin’ 4 Hank, a Hank Williams Sr. tribute show. Blair’s association with that country music titan, however, goes back much further. In fact, the connection was established – and broken – well before he was born.

“My mom was on the Grand Ole Opry when Hank made his debut,” explains Blair. “She was there all of that summer of ‘49, and then into most of ‘50, and she’d become friends with Audrey.”

Audrey was Hank’s wife, and “colorful” might be one of the milder adjectives to apply to her personality. As her husband’s star rose, Audrey got the idea that she had the potential to be a recording star as well, and, indeed, she ended up getting a deal with Decca Records – which ultimately led to the dissolution of her friendship with Blair’s mother, vocalist Ramona Reed, who was then performing on the Opry as Martha White.

“Audrey recorded (Hank’s composition) ‘Honky Tonkin,’ and one night on the Opry my mom sang ‘Honky Tonkin,’ doing it in a more contemporary, different style,” Blair says. “Audrey got all mad and upset. They kind of had a little catfight, and Mom got called in by (Opry co-manager) Jack Stapp, who told her not to do that anymore. That’s when she left the Opry and went to Dallas to work for Bob Wills on the Big D Jamboree. So it’s because of Hank that she left Nashville.”

Like the Grand Ole Opry, the Big D Jamboree was a popular stage show broadcast over a powerful local radio station. Throughout most of the ‘30s and into the early ‘40s, Bob Wills had enjoyed the same sort of arrangement at Tulsa’s Cain’s Ballroom, with clear channel giant KVOO transmitting his live Western swing – an amalgam of jazz, pop, hillbilly, blues and fiddle music – to much of the western half of the country. In 1950, however, Bob’s brother Johnnie Lee Wills was holding forth at the Cain’s, and Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys band had found a new home, at least temporarily, in Texas.

Ramona Reed found her own new home with Bob Wills’ band, becoming one of his Texas Playgirls in an association that would go on for years, even after Reed moved with her son from Texas back to Oklahoma, settling in Clinton.

“I grew up around Bob Wills music,” Blair says, “but the first song I ever remember taking a liking to, when I was three or four years old, was (Hank Williams’) ‘Hey, Good Lookin’.”

As a student at Oklahoma State University, Blair unsurprisingly pursued music, doing some playing with fellow student Garth Brooks, among others. Throughout most of the ‘90s, he worked as a singer and musician in Nashville. Then, like his mother, he returned to the Sooner State, where he continued to perform.

As he remembers it, the first time he assumed the persona of Hank Williams was during a New Year’s Eve 2002 show with his band, City Moon, at Ernie’s Country Palace in Yukon.

“I grabbed a jacket and a hat, turned on a fog machine, and we did about three Hank tunes,” he recalls. “It was just kind of our own little tribute. We’d been thinking about it for a couple of weeks, because that night was the 50th anniversary of his death.

“Actually,” he adds, “no one actually knows when he died. It could’ve been New Year’s Eve ’52 or New Year’s morning ‘53. But he was pronounced dead at six that morning.”

Following that special acknowledgement of Williams’ passing, the Hank persona lay dormant in Blair for several years, although he was intrigued by a musical play, Hank Williams: Lost Highway, that had begun at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium in the late ‘90s and had since been staged in theaters all over the country. He knew that the Muskogee Little Theatre was interested in its own production, but had concerns about casting it.

Then one evening in March 2008, Blair walked into a casino and watched an Elvis tribute concert.

“I don’t know if this should be off the record,” he says, laughing, “but when I found out they were paying $23,000 for that show, it dawned on me that I ought to just go at this full-bore. That’s when I got serious about it.”

Seeing a Hank show as a potentially powerful blend of art and commerce, Blair contacted Muskogee Little Theatre and offered to deliver a cast, including himself. They took him up on the proposition, bringing in well-known regional director Nick Sweet to helm the production.

“It was great,” remembers Blair, “because Nick turned me loose. He said, ‘You know what? You’re channeling Hank, and I’m just going to let you go.’

“I had zero acting experience, but I actually won Actor of the Year from the Muskogee Little Theatre. They call the awards the Milties. I got a Miltie. I was shocked.”

The Muskogee version of Lost Highway ran for eight sold-out performances in August 2009, with Blair joined by his band’s fiddler, Dana Hazzard. Hazzard is also a part of the City Moon group, which – with the addition of announcer Steve Cannon – becomes Williams’ band, the Drifting Cowboys, for the Hankerin’ 4 Hank engagements.

“We want you to feel like you’re in 1951 or ’52,” says Blair. “We’ve got the announcer, and we want the microphone to look real. I play a 1951 D-18 (Martin guitar). Hank’s D-18 is hanging in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. Hank played a 1944 D-28 on a lot of shows; I’ll sometimes use a ’54 D-28, I have a ’54 because Elvis had one, and I can’t afford a ’44.

“But we use the old standup steel guitar. We try to use vintage-looking instruments and vintage-looking amps. We don’t like monitors in front of us. If we’re doing the sound, we make it look clean up front, just like you would’ve seen back then.”

The authenticity extends to Blair’s performing suits, which were created by the famed Nashville tailor Manuel in the style pioneered by his father-in-law, Nudie. Hank Williams and many other country stars of his time proudly wore Nudie creations.

Hank was a year shy of 30 when he died. Blair is considerably older, but, as he says with another laugh, “Hank was 29, and I’m 49, but the thing I’ve got going for me is that he looked 49.”

In addition to Blair and Hazzard, the band includes Virgil Bonham on lead guitar, Mickey Flatt on steel guitar, Cliff Parrett on bass and Cory Wyatt on drums. And while they’ve been performing the Hankerin’ 4 Hank shows for fewer than two years, they’ve already had scores of engagements, including a tour in late ’10 that took them through Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and New Hampshire.

At this writing, Hankerin’ 4 Hank performances are set for the Woodward Arts Center on Feb. 19. The band recently played a gig at Oklahoma City Community College to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Hank’s first appearance in OKC.

There will, of course, be others. And each time, Blair says, he’ll do what he’s done from the beginning – just before taking the stage, he’ll stop for a moment and utter a simple phrase that may sound a little like a prayer:

“Hank,” he’ll say, “don’t fail me now.”

 

For more information on Hankerin’ 4 Hank, visit www.hankerin4hank.com  

The World Of Tomorrow

By
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Amid the depths of the Great Depression, Americans found a little brightness in the smooth contours and reflective surfaces of everything from automobiles to clothes irons.

Whether looking at these items for purchase in newspaper ads, on exhibit at the 1939 New York World’s Fair or in the home, people had a glimpse of a future built on efficiency, sound economy and, above all else, progress.

Philbrook Museum of Art revisits another time when the U.S. economy took a grim turn in American Streamlined Design: The World of Tomorrow. The exhibit opens Feb. 5.

Streamlining developed out of the effort to make ships, trains, aircraft and other forms of transportation perform better by reducing wind and water resistance. Scientific studies revealed that vehicles with smooth, continuous surfaces were generally more efficient and faster.

That approach was soon adopted into the design of goods for sale to the general public. American Streamlined looks at the scope of this revolutionary movement in consumer and industrial design in the office, living room, kitchen, bath and in recreation and transportation. It also looks at the continuing impact today.

More than 185 objects, from household appliances to children’s toys, will be on exhibit. The works of Raymond Loewy, Henry Dreyfuss, Walter Dorwin Teague, Egmont Arens, Robert Heller and others will be shown in items reflecting three decades of influence. The collection, which draws primarily from the Liliane and David M. Stewart Program for Modern Design in Montreal, Canada, and the Stewart Collection of 20th-Century Design, will be on exhibit in Tulsa through May 15.

Philbrook Museum of Art is located at 2727 S. Rockford Rd., Tulsa. For more, go to www.philbrook.org or call 918.749.7941.

Parent Tested, Kid Approved

By
Meika Yates Hines
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Audience-wise, the difference between a room full of preschoolers and a venue full of adults isn’t much – attention spans are fleeting, and you want to keep everyone entertained.

Musical taste is cultivated early, and for parents and children seeking salvation from the cookie cutter norm, the best musical refuge can often be found underground.

What started as a gift of music for a goddaughter has since evolved into Spaghetti Eddie! And Other Children’s Songs, a fun, energetic, educational and silly kid’s album that is fast accumulating an online children’s cult following.

As Oklahoma City musician Brendan Parker’s first shot at children’s music, the album was written with the intention to entertain children while refraining from driving parents crazy – a double whammy for moms, dads, grandparents and caregivers alike.

With two younger siblings who grew up in the Barney & Friends era, Parker remembers spending his early teens enduring a never-ending soundtrack of Barney’s whimsical voice.

“Just thinking about the big purple dinosaur makes me queasy. I heard those songs over and over and over, and that has led to me writing more parent-friendly things that you could listen to over and over and not want to pull your hair out,” he says.

“I’m at the stage in my life now where people are married and having children, so I’m around a lot of kids and I had a good mentality to write something that kids could relate to.”

Utilizing his wife and close friends with children as well as online communities such as Facebook and parent and children’s blogs as sounding boards, Parker is currently expanding on the album by performing at birthday parties, bookstores and family-oriented events.

With catchy songs that have already become local children’s favorites, like “Kitty Cat Town,” “Ways to Go,” “Pick it Up!” and the title track, “Spaghetti Eddie” offers a little something for everyone.

Having played in a band while living in LA, it has been since he’s been back in Oklahoma that Parker says he has put more time and energy into his music, particularly with Spaghetti Eddie.

“It’s been a lot of fun. Some parents have told me that they can listen to it without their kids in their car, which is a huge compliment. When the kids can learn and have fun and the parents are enjoying the music, I think everyone wins,” he says.

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