Yearly Archives: 2008

Ingram Hill review at Cains

Luke Harrington

The Saturday night Ingram Hill show is the sort that makes me wish I had been a little more familiar with the band’s music going in. Hill’s anthemia blend of 90’s alt-rock and 70’s southern rock is tailor-made to inspire simultaneous head-nodding and foot-stomping; and while I had no trouble doing either, I wish I could have sung along with the soaring choruses a little more.

Cain’s was sparsely populated for a Saturday night—at most there were about a hundred people in there, with no more than fifty standing around the stage at any given time—but the artists didn’t seem disappointed and didn’t hold back at all when they took the stage. The night kicked off with Montana native singer-songwriter Hana Pestle, who took the stage with just a microphone and a single acoustic guitar; once she started playing, it was obvious she didn’t need anything else. It was as though she was holding an entire orchestra in her hands—which was a plus, since it took a powerful instrument to back her strong, soulful voice.

The sparse crowd was supportive in its own way, with several fans yelling “Sweet!” and “Awesome!” which she yelled back, smiling and rolling her eyes. The songs she played betrayed influences that were all over the map, and in fact her covers ranged from Radiohead to Kris Kristofferson (both of which she pulled off effortlessly). She closed the show with an original called “The Red Death Ball,” based on Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death.”

It was a performance that had the crowd mesmerized, making it a tough act to follow—and, in fact, it was a little hard to shift gears from her nuanced, vulnerable performance to fist-pumping rock ‘n roll anthems. But when the Tennessee-based band took the stage, they threw themselves wholeheartedly into the performance, opening with their hit “Why Don’t You”—which easily put the crowd in the mood. As they continued playing throughout the evening, the standing crowd around the stage grew until almost nobody was sitting down in the back.

“It’s good to be back in Oklahoma,” said lead singer Justin Moore, decked out in a “Lionel Richie Fan Club” t-shirt and jeans. “Are any of you able to drive on the Muskogee turnpike without singing that [Merle Haggard] song ‘Okie from Muskogee’? Every time I see that sign I can’t get it out of my head.” The band powered through a set of their songs—plus a handful of covers, including songs by The Beatles and The Killers—pausing only briefly to jam out to a “half-assed reggae beat.” “If the show’s not going so well,” Moore told the crowd, “you go to the half-assed reggae beat, and things always improve. And if things are going well, you just go to the half-assed reggae beat, and things get that much better.”

But for the most part, the band simply played its songs to a small but very appreciative crowd (composed mainly of high school and college students), who sang along with nearly every lyric. I’ll have to download some Ingram Hill tunes, so that the next time they come to town I have something to sing.

Then maybe I’ll look a little less stupid nodding my head and stomping my foot.

Stars Go Dim: Power play

Luke Harrington

Those who still doubt the power of MySpace need to look no further than the Tulsa-based start-up band Stars Go Dim. The pop/rock group managed to build up a fanbase of over 10,000 people in early 2007 via the social networking site—even before they had released a single song.
“We started writing songs, and we knew it would be a long time before these songs came out, ‘cause we wanted to have professional recordings,” bassist Michael Wittig says. “So we came up with this idea, of building fans though from day one with no music. We started videotaping everything. These guys would be writing songs and I’d be in their face, annoying them, taking pictures and stuff. But we were releasing that stuff constantly, so all these people were watching the whole thing evolve, so when we posted our first songs in December of ’07—our first three released songs—we had like 10,000 MySpace friends, and 700 or so on our email list, ready to buy them the first day they were out.”

It’s a strategy that wouldn’t have even been possible a handful of years ago, but it should go without saying that it’s become increasingly common recently, as the Internet has made it possible to publish anything to an enormous audience “from your bedroom in your pajamas,” as lead singer Chris Cleveland puts it. And for Stars Go Dim, it’s been a phenomenal success. A quick look at their website or their MySpace page reveals a some catchy R&B-flavored pop that’s pretty impossible to dislike: swirling guitars, striding pianos, and passionate, soulful vocals. It’s music with undeniable appeal—and of course, that was the intention.

“We’re not trying to be cool,” says Wittig, “we’re not trying to wear tight pants and look cool. It’s about hit songs, and the maximum amount of people enjoying the songs. That’s what we’re trying to do here.” It’s a mildly surprising turn for Wittig—“totally one-eighty” from what he was doing before, he says. Of Stars Go Dim’s four members, three of them—Wittig, plus guitarist Joey Avalos and drummer Lester Estelle—are current or former members of the Tulsa-based Christian metal group Pillar, which has been touring and recording for the last eleven years (Wittig is currently working as a consultant for up-and-coming Christian rock bands). Stars Go Dim was a chance to go in a different direction—and jettison the record label while they were at it.
So far, it’s working: not only has Stars Go Dim received support from Tulsa radio stations like 104.5 The Edge, their music is also streaming through the speaker systems of The Buckle outlets nationwide. And when the release their debut EP (titled, aptly, Stars Go Dim EP) on Oct. 21, they’ll already have thousands of fans to buy it. Of course, it’s all just leading up to the album, Love Gone Mad (due out in March), which Wittig describes as an “accidental concept album.”

“We had these songs that revolved around love, so we built a concept album kinda backwards. [Switchfoot singer] Jon Foreman has a solo project, and I was looking at his website. It said ‘lyrics,’ and I clicked on it—and this thing opened up and it was scan of a real piece of paper with his handwriting on it. So I showed Joey [Avalos], and he was like, ‘How about if we make the lyrics for these ten songs, like, love letters between a couple?’” A novel will be launching alongside the album to complete the story of the fictional letter writers. “We’re trying to give you great music, and then a whole world to be involved in,” he says.


Stars Go Dim EP goes on sale on iTunes Oct. 21. It’s available for pre-order now at StarsGoDim.com.

Dr. Coburn says financial plan necessary

Staff Report

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) released the following statement today regarding a financial stabilization plan Congress considers this week:

“Taxpayers deserve to know that there is no guarantee this plan will work, but there is a guarantee that we will face a financial catastrophe if we do nothing.  If banks continue to fail and stop lending the average American could lose their job, be unable to secure a loan for a car, home or college education, and find their life savings and retirement in jeopardy.  Our economy depends on having liquid assets available for credit and lending just as an automobile engine needs oil.  If those liquid assets stop flowing, our economy will be seriously damaged and will require far more costly and lengthy repairs.” 

“This bill does not represent a new and sudden departure from free market principles as much as it represents an emergency response to congressional actions that have ignored free market principles, and our Constitution, for decades.  If anyone in Washington should offer their resignation it should be the members of Congress who peddled the fantasy of free home ownership without risk.  No institution in our country is more responsible for the myth or borrowing without consequences than the United States Congress.” 

“As much as members of Congress want to find scapegoats, the root of this problem is political greed in Congress.  Members of Congress from both parties wanted short-term political credit for promoting home ownership even though they were putting our entire economy at risk by encouraging people to buy homes they couldn’t afford.  Then, instead of conducting thorough oversight and correcting obvious problems with unstable entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, members of Congress chose to ignore the problem and distract themselves with unprecedented amounts of pork-barrel spending.”

“Taxpayers who want to ensure that this doesn’t happen again should send a very clear message to Washington that it’s time for Congress to live within its means and restore the principles of limited government and free markets that made this country great.  I will do everything in my power to ensure that this bill does not lead us down a slippery slope of European style socialism and slow economic growth.  I will also promise taxpayers that I will do everything in my power to block what I expect will be hundreds of attempts by politicians in Washington to continue business-as-usual borrowing and spending in the next Congress.  In a time of crisis, American families have to make hard choices between budget priorities.  So should Congress.  If politicians want to create new programs they should eliminate duplicative programs or reduce funding for less important programs.  The only way we can put this crisis behind us is for Congress to rejoin the real world of budget choices and consequences which, as we have seen in recent days, can be ignored for only so long.”

Reader Letter: Gaming revenue questioned

Helen Littledeer

The September 27, 2008, Tulsa World article entitled "Tribes hail bingo rules’ demise" contains a large error in the dollar amount attributed to the Indian gaming industry in Oklahoma. 

The article quotes the base amount of the class III gaming machines as the entire amount of Indian gaming in Oklahoma (2.4 billion per year).  Class III gaming machines make up approximately half of the number of gaming machines in Oklahoma.  The article states that Class III gaming proceeds are under compact with the state, that between 4 and 6 percent of the proceeds is given to the state, and that the 2007 amount given to the state was $71.6 million dollars.

Do the math.  If the 2007 amount of $71.6 million dollars represents 6 percent of the base amount generated by Class III gaming machines in Oklahoma, the base amount yielded is very close to $2.4 billion.  This number does NOT include the proceeds generated from Class II machines not under compact. 

The article states that the 52,000 gaming machines in Oklahoma are almost evenly split between Class II and Class III gaming machines.  A conservative estimate of 26,000 Class II gaming machines in operation 20 days per month, with an estimated net of $300 per operating day, yields a number close to $1.9 BILLION dollars more.

Does anyone know how much money is actually generated by Indian gaming in Oklahoma? 
 

To read the Tulsa World story click here 

"Oklahoma tribal casinos are hailing a decision by the National Indian Gaming Commission to formally withdraw a plan to redefine Class II gambling machines.

Some tribal officials said the proposed regulations would have crippled the state’s $2.4 billion-a-year industry."

Obama loves our servicemen, but not their voting rights

Brad O’Leary

Many assume that the presidential debates help the public discern where each candidate stands on the issues.  If only this were true.  It is a most unfortunate irony that, much of the time, these made-for-TV sparring matches accomplish little more than to enable a candidate to pull yet another layer of wool over the eyes of John Q. Public.  A case-in-point from last Friday’s showdown is Barack Obama’s professed honor and concern for our men and women in the military.  Me thinks he doth profess too much.

“[W]e honor all the service that [our troops have] provided.  Our troops have performed brilliantly,” Obama told the nation on Friday night.  “The question is for the next president, are we making good judgments about how to keep America safe precisely because sending our military into battle is such an enormous step.”

Obama may claim to care deeply about the welfare of our troops, and say that the decision over whether or not to send our servicemen and women into combat is one that will weigh heavy on his mind, but unfortunately these are just words and platitudes.  The real Barack Obama, as his record shows, thinks so little of our men and women in the military that he would rather see their votes suppressed than counted.  In fact, he would rather secure the voting rights of convicted felons than those of our troops serving overseas.

Specifically, Senator Obama is the proud cosponsor of the deceptively labeled “Count Every Vote Act,” a bill introduced by Senator Hillary Clinton of New York.  This legislation is designed to override existing state laws and extend voting rights to over five million convicted felons who have finished serving their sentences. 

In addition, the bill would require all 50 state governments to spend their taxpayers’ dollars notifying these convicted felons of their right to vote.  This is little more than a publicly funded “get out the vote” drive for jailbirds.  Of course, it’s little wonder why Obama and his fellow hard-left partisans in the Senate want this bill. 

As economist and best-selling author Dr. John Lott reminds us, “virtually all felons are Democrats.”  According to Lott, from 1972 to 1996, 80 percent of felons would have voted Democrat, 93 percent would have voted for Clinton in 1996, and felons in Washington State “voted exclusively for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry” in 2004.

Not surprisingly, a clear majority of American voters oppose Clinton felon-voting bill that Obama supports.  According to a Zogby America poll, 54 percent of likely voters oppose the bill, while only 36 percent favor it (the remaining 10 percent are undecided).

While Obama is busy fighting to get more felons in the voting booths, he refuses to cosponsor the “Military Voting Protection Act of 2008,” which is also currently pending in the U.S. Senate. This bill was introduced based on congressional findings that “the ability of the members of the armed forces to vote while serving overseas has been hampered by numerous factors, including inadequate processes for ensuring their timely receipt of absentee ballots, delivery methods that are typically slow and antiquated, and a myriad of voting procedures that are often confusing.”

In addition, Congress found that members of our armed forces, as well as other U.S. citizens overseas, requested nearly one million absentee ballots in 2006, but less than one-third of these ballots were received by local election officials.  Clearly this is a problem and needs solving.  But not in Obama’s America.

In Obama’s America, states would lose their ability to govern and all felons would have their voting “rights” restored and protected.  States would also be forced to spend scarce taxpayer dollars driving felons to the polls.  At the same time, America’s bravest who are serving overseas would continue to have their voices suppressed, and many would continue to be denied an opportunity to help decide who their commander-in-chief will be.

Friday night showed once again that Obama is certainly capable of talking a good game, but as always, the devil is in the details – and the details hardly reflect Obama’s carefully crafted sound bites. 

It is not a little ironic that a man vying to be commander-in-chief would work to secure the voting “rights” of convicted felons, but turn a blind-eye to the voting rights of the servicemen who might one day be under his command.

About the author:
Brad O’Leary is the author of “The Audacity of Deceit: Barack Obama’s War on American Values.”  To learn more about the book, and Obama’s true positions on the issues, go to http://www.barackobamatest.com/