The real and imaginative adventures of Dennis Spielman

Tag: Norman Page 14 of 16

Katie Wilson

Katie Wilson Profile for Yes! Science!

Dr. Katie Wilson is a research scientist with the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies at NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory. After first visiting the United States in 2010 to complete an exchange program at the University of Oklahoma, Katie decided to leave her home country of England and return to the University of Oklahoma to pursue graduate school. Her research interests during both graduate school and now as a research scientist has focused on studying the impact of new weather data and technologies on forecasters’ decision making processes. She has enjoyed conducting interdisciplinary experiments with NOAA National Weather Service forecasters that combine knowledge and methods from meteorology, human factors, and social science disciplines to answer pressing research questions.


Stay connected with Yes! Science! by following on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. This series is supported via the Patrons of The Show Starts Now Studios. Became a patron to receive early access and bonus content.

Lindsay Ross - photo by Dennis Spielman

Lindsay Ross – A Hydrometeorologist Profile

Published a profile on Lindsay Ross, a hydrometeorologist. This was the first interview filmed for the new season so I’m glad to finally be able to share it.

Lindsay Ross has a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma, with minors in math and environmental sustainability. She attended graduate school at the University of New Mexico and received a Master of Science degree in Earth and Planetary Science with a focus on Paleoclimatology. She works as a hydrometeorologist at Vieux and Associates, Inc., a company that specializes in rainfall and runoff products/services serving wet weather, stormwater, flood, and water resources applications. Her duties include radar and rain gauge data quality assurance and control to produce Gauge Adjusted Radar Rainfall (GARR).

Prior to working in her current position, Lindsay worked at Weather Decision Technologies as a support meteorologist, and at the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality in database management for Air Quality. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, painting, and hiking. She is early in her career as a meteorologist, and hopes to continue work in data analysis and research contributing toward improvements in infrastructure and water resource management to help mitigate the impacts of extreme weather events such as flood and/or drought.


Stay connected with Yes! Science! by following on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. This series is supported via the Patrons of The Show Starts Now Studios. Became a patron to receive early access and bonus content.

Chicken Sandwich at The Winston - photo by Dennis Spielman

The Winston

A spinoff of Pub W, The Winston is a new addition on Main Street in Norman, Oklahoma as a more modern, contemporary version that’s bar forward as well as being more adventurous on food. Brandon Kistler, the Concept Head for The Winston of Hal Smith Restaurants, talks about this new restaurant and what guests can expect.

The Duck Wings at The Winston - photo by Dennis Spielman

Personally, Leslie and I both loved the spicy duck wings. So good. It’s nice to see new things spreading out in Downtown Norman. There’s a breakfast-focused restaurant coming soon next door to The Winston called Neighborhood Jam. I haven’t been to the Edmond location yet. Getting up to drive to Edmond (about an hour drive) for breakfast is not an easy task.

Norman Music Festival with Tune-Yards - photo by Dennis Spielman

Norman Music Festival 11 Interviews

While Norman Music Festival is over, the music doesn’t have to stop. In this week’s video, I’ve edited together a montage video of eight musicians interviewing other musicians at the festival on Saturday. Featuring Jarvix, Elecktra, Don Data, Sephra, Local Man Ruins Everything, Special Thumbs, GWIZ, and Limp Wizurdz.

I came up with the video idea on Saturday morning, so this was all done on the spot. This video was edited down from 30 minutes of raw interviews to a 10-minute highlight version. The completed collection is available here on Patreon. Since this concept worked out rather well, next year I’ll schedule interviews in advance and work to represent more genres.

Downtown Norman during the Norman Music Festival - photo by Dennis Spielman

Festival Recaps

Two of the area’s biggest festival, the Festival of the Arts and the Norman Music Festival, have passed. Actually, last week was jammed packed with stuff. For the festivals, this year, the weather was amazing. The Festival of the Arts only got rained out on one day, while last year the weather was just awful. I even got a little sunburnt at the music festival.

I had a great time at both festivals. For the arts festival, I filmed several local artist shout-outs. I even volunteered for a few hours there on Sunday. Then for the Norman Music Festival, I filmed b-roll on Thursday and Saturday. Thursday was interesting because it was the first time they did an outdoor stage that day, so it was busier than past years. On Friday, we had a date night at the arts festival, but on Saturday I was back at the music festival from Noon to 11 pm doing my press thing. I filmed the entirety of Jarvix’s main stage set for him, which you can watch below.

Before I went to the festival on Saturday, I was taking a shower when I was like, “I should I film interviews where bands interview bands. I got the technology to do that now.” When I did my Deep Deuce Pub Crawl video, I had this sound setup that worked well in the noisy environments and it worked great at the festival, even with a stage playing in the background. Because it was a last minute idea and I was doing a man-on-the-street on the spot thing, there wasn’t as much diversity as I would’ve liked to showcase, but the interviews were still great. Watch that video on Uncovering Oklahoma. I’ve also released the uncut interviews here on Patreon.

Me (Dennis Spielman) selfie with Shara Nova of My Brightest Diamond  at the Norman Music Festival

I want to wrap this story up by talking about My Brightest Diamond, who was one of the headliners at the Norman Music Festival. She was a major source of inspiration to my first fictional book I published a few years ago, The Crashing of Heaven and Hell. She was such an inspiration, I even dedicated the book to her. So of course, I wanted to give her a copy and personally thank her. I was lucky enough to meet her and talk to her for a bit. She was so nice and I’m so thankful she took the time to hang out with me. She said she would read it while on tour, so I hope she does like it.

On the subject of meeting your heroes, my friend, Jarvix, also got to meet Tune-Yards, who was was a major inspiration for him. You can read this article in the Oklahoma Gazette about his journey.

A final shoutout to my superstar supporter, Revolve Productions over on Patreon.

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