October 15, 2011

This issue is downright bacchanalian, and we make no apologies for basking in lush, hedonistic glory. TOGETHER IN TULSA: Anna Kathleen Casey on Hannah and Chris Middlebrook, and the party animal that is “Clonky the Clown.” GOODBYE TULSA:  Shawna Lewis on Elizabeth Ashwood Davis, a 34-year-old writer who died in her sleep. IMAGINARY OK: Author Steve Almond imagines himself as a rock legend looking back on his past. URBAN CHICKEN: Rebekah Greiman finds a few Tulsans fed up enough with food-source mystery to raise their own laying hens. POETRY: The Stringtown Prison Poetry Workshop presents a collaborative poem, “Stringtown Prison Blues.” VINTAGE SMITH: Mark Brown goes to Walla Walla, Washington, to find out why the hottest winemaker in America wears his love of Bob Wills and Woody Guthrie on his sleeve. DEVIL’S ADVOCATE: Sarah Fonder talks to poet activist Mary McAnally about editing a book of prison poetry. TENT MAKERS AND PROPHETS: An excerpt on Oklahoma’s role in the rise of evangelical conservatism, by Darren Dochuk. SPORTS ILLUSTRATION: Jeremy Luther pays tribute to a defeated, but not dishonored, college football team. THE DARKNESS CANNOT OVERCOME THE LIGHT:  Josh Kline explains why an Edmond-based website on capnolagnia – a sexual fetish based on the sight or image of a person smoking – is among the Internet’s oldest. A KILLING: Gordon Grice dissects a couple’s profound love through the incident of a gut-shot deer. LET THEM BEAT CAKE: Natasha Ball examines the not-quite-cakes of Kerry Vincent’s annual cookoff, the Oklahoma Sugar Art Show. TRUE TULSA DOUBLE FEATURE: Grant McClintock shares two photographs of local artist Dan Mayo–one from 2011, and one from 1987. That, plus the usual from design savante Carlos Knight and illustration wunderkind Jeremy Luther.