The Downtown OKC Partnership was the recipient of the Southwest Airlines’ Heart of the Community Grant this past year, and they partnered with the Oklahoma City Parks and Recreation Department, SandRidge Energy, Project for Public Spaces, Common Works Architects, LINGO Construction, and many other stakeholders and experts to add placemaking elements and make Kerr Park more people-centric.
After hosting several community engagement workshops, gathering data from neighbors and citizens, and working with various partners on strategy and design, the enhanced space is now open. In this video, Jill DeLozier, Megan Lee, Elena Madison, and The Holey Kids discuss the transform of Kerr Park.
There was a kick-off party on Tuesday, which I attended to filmed these interviews. It’s been interesting watching the project develop. I was at one of the community meetings when Downtown OKC was gathering feedback for the park. I was told that I was probably the only person to have footage of the development from the beginning. I’m looking forward to seeing how Kerr Park grows from here.
When Jeff and I recorded at Kendall’s Restaurant for Tales Unveiled, I also filmed the session for a behind-the-scenes video. This is a 4K recording of our time recording for the fourth episode, Stirring Up Ghosts at Kendall’s Restaurant, and gives you an inside look what our creative process is like for the show.
This video is a Patreon exclusive. I’ve been brainstorming ideas for bonus content that I can release for supporters of the studio that can be exclusive without making others left out. If that makes sense. Anyway, check it out here. I’ve also added content to The Vault, which includes ad-free versions of the show.
With the female music and art festival, AMP Fest, happening in Film Row, Justin and Tobi Coleman of Revolve Productions, as well as Jason Qualls and Emily Madden, lead a tour of the district’s bar scene. We visit The Paramount Room, Bar Arbolada, FlashBack Retro Pub, Sanctuary Barsilica, The Jones Assembly, and Mary Eddy’s Kitchen x Lounge, as well as give shout-outs to other places in Film Row. This is the complete and comprehensive tour of our night where we learn interesting facts and the some of the history behind the places.
CHAPTERS:
– The Paramount Room at 00:45
– Bar Arbolada at 03:43
– FlashBack Retro Pub at 12:19
– Sanctuary Barsilica at 15:06
– The Jones Assembly at 19:30
– Mary Eddy’s Kitchen x Lounge at 34:34
Prefer a shorter version of the tour? Above is a 17-minute version with highlights from The Paramount Room, Bar Arbolada, FlashBack Retro Pub, The Jones Assembly, and Mary Eddy’s.
Over at Uncovering Oklahoma, I also published individual YouTube videos for those wanting to learn about one or two of the places.
Justin, Tobi, Jason, Emily, and I all had a great time. I took what I learned from the Deep Deuce Pub Crawl and set to raise the bar. For starters, I scheduled us to spend an hour at each place instead of 45 minutes. The extra time made the visits more relaxed and allowed me to get footage of everyone entering and leaving (in other words, transition shots). The transition shots was one thing Visit OKC had suggested to me for next time. I also made timelapse shots that I did in my previous Uncovering Oklahoma video, which was on Bartlesville. Other people and myself included, enjoyed the timelapses.
I didn’t plan or expect the overall video to be about an hour long. (For the record, the Deep Deuce one was 36-minutes.) We started the pub crawl at 4 pm and wrapped up around 10 pm. It took me part of Friday and all day Monday just to edit the main video. I spent Wednesday cutting it down as best as I could and got it to a 17-minute version. Then I made individual videos on the venues. (I also filmed a new Yes! Science! profile yesterday.)
While better than my last pub crawl video, I think there’s still room for improvement. I would love to have the hosts on wireless lav mics and the guest on the handheld mic, which I don’t have the equipment to do that yet. I may go down to two or three hosts to keep the pacing snappier. Maybe let one of the hosts hold a camera? I’m curious how that would look now. Anyway, as for where and when I’ll do the next pub crawl tour, I’m thinking maybe Midtown OKC or Downtown Norman in the fall. The Localities ladies have told me multiple times that they want to do another one.
I want to give a special thank you to all of the bars and restaurants for hosting us on the Film Row tour! My show is made possible by my Patrons on Patreon! If you want to get cool rewards while keeping this series independent, become a patron.
Dr. Sepideh Razavi is an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Oklahoma. After obtaining her master’s degree from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran, she decided to move to the United States to pursue a doctorate degree. She received her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the City College of New York in 2015 where she worked with Prof. Ilona Kretzschmar on the assembly and flow behavior of colloidal particles at fluid interfaces. She then joined the University of Michigan as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Prof. Michael Solomon’s lab and conducted research on the application of external fields to assemble anisotropic colloidal particles. Dr. Razavi joined the faculty at OU in 2018 and her research focuses on assembling soft functional materials.
“After receiving a distraught voicemail from a patron of the Tower Theatre, Sam and Geoff arrange a tour there. Geoff is particularly interested because of the stories from other local theatres such as the Pollard, Lyric, and Sooner Theatre. When the two arrive, they get a story they weren’t expecting.”
I’m personally enjoying the many shout-outs we’ve been including in the show. In this episode, not only do we discuss the hauntings of other theatres in the beginning, but we also mention The Bunker Club, which is where Aaron really did call me from to leave that voicemail, and we recorded the final scene at Scottie’s Deli, which leads directly into episode four.
Speaking of episode four, how about a title reveal? “Stirring Up the Ghosts at Kendall’s Restaurant” will be out on Friday, August 24th. The first part of the episode features Greg Elwell from I Ate Oklahoma talking about some haunted restaurants. Our chat with Greg has been recorded. We have the interview with Kendall’s scheduled for next week.
Tales Unveiled is a production of The Show Starts Now Studios and is produced by Dennis Spielman. The voice of Sam Saxton is Dennis Spielman. The voice of Professor Geoff DeRoot is Jeff Provine. Voice Mail from Aaron Sounders. Featuring Stephen Tyler as himself. For upcoming events at the Tower Theatre, visit www.TowerTheatreOKC.com. This episode is dedicated to Sarah Atlee, who died heroically saving the planet from a 150-foot monster made out of quilts.
