Record Store Day @ Guestroom Records In Norman

A man surely 10 years younger than me asked about the commotion down at Guestroom Records on Saturday night, and I told him it was "Record Store Day" as if he had just asked why everybody was wearing green on March 17.

I explained that every third Saturday in April is a day where local, independent record stores celebrate music, the unique culture of the indie record shop and its unique customer base -- in this case Norman, Okla.

It helps that one of Guestroom's two stores is in a college town. It rocks that it's on Main Street, which has boomed big time the past 10 to 15 years.

Back in the day, when I went to OU, we had Sound Warehouse. I'm not going to knock them; heck, they were way better than the corporate behemoths that followed. However, SW's massive inventory was canceled out by the white walls and uniformed employees.

For those of you who haven't been to Guestroom Records, it looks like a kick-ass record shop you'd see in Seattle, San Fran or New York. Heck, it reminds me a ton of Good Records in Dallas and a bit less so like the Tower Records on Lemmon Avenue.

Much of the art is done by hand, and the walls are plastered with classic posters and album covers. While the musical spirit of Guestoom is clearly steeped in today, it pays the proper amount of respect to the greats who paved the way: Bowie, Cash, The Ramones.

Furthermore, its proprietors seem to be super laid-back cool. When I asked about coming down to snap some shots during Record Store Day, the response I got was: "Man, come on down and spend the whole day with us!" What was doubly neat is that when I asked the man at the counter about the band playing, there wasn't an ounce of condescension.

"They're The Evangelicals," he told me.

While I'm a 38-year-old, approaching-middle age professional, I still felt a little embarrassed that I had to ask. See, The Evangelicals are one of Norman's best-known current indie bands. I'd describe their sound as one-part electro pop with some heavy punk influence.

Maybe I'm totally off there; you tell me. However, they were really quite excellent, and there was a crowd of at least 200 to 300 people there cheering them on.

In addition to the live music, Record Store Day at Guestroom also featured one-day-only store specials and plenty of food and drinks. Not just any drinks: They broke out the Pabst Blue Ribbon, which is perfect for a college town. One part cool, many parts cheap.

My kind of town.

This Record Store Day concept is nationwide, and the only requirement is that the store be at least 50 percent music retail, be operated in the state of location and I think be owned 70 percent by live, breathing individuals.

No corporate behemoths.

Why is this important?

Because the creative process in music starts with the individual. If one wants to become a singer-songwriter, one does this himself or herself. You learn an instrument, start a band, learn to write lyrics, buy a van, live together eating corn dogs and drinking cheap beer while playing live shows night after night in town after town.

If you want to become a pop star and you have the talent and the look, you just move to L.A. or N.Y. and let the corporations mold you into who they want you to be.

Today was a day to celebrate the hard work that goes into the music-creation process at a hyperlocal level and the locally owned stores that propel them into the marketplace. It was also a day to celebrate the color and character a store like Guestroom gives downtown Norman.

On a side note, I thought it doubly cool that Record Store Day comes exactly one week before the Norman Music Festival. This was like a cool warmup Saturday to the festivities scheduled for downtown next week.

By the way, early word on the forecast next week indicates that the weather will be GREAT. Bring sunscreen.

And make it a point to at least check out Guestroom Records.

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Car Burglaries On Rise In Norman (Tips To Stop Them!)

It's a rite of spring here in Norman: People go walking. Or jogging. Or running.

Regardless, folks get out and enjoy some warm spring weather. However, the Norman police department is offering some tips to make sure your car and what's in it doesn't fall victim to anybody with bad intentions.

Car burglaries are on the rise.

That encompasses not only burglars stealing things from people's automobiles, but also taking garage door openers from vehicles to gain entrance to garages (and anything accessible from there, ergo homes).

From Norman MPO Jennifer Newell:

"We have noticed many of the burglaries are occurring when cars are unlocked and people are leaving items such as laptop computers, I-Pods, checkbooks, wallets, etc. Many times, the suspects are going through neighborhoods trying car doors and if they are unlocked, they go through them to see what is worth taking. In some instances, they have taken the garage door opener, opened the garage and stolen items from there, as well. If they see something valuable and the door is locked, they simply break the window to get the items. Please do not leave valuables in your car."

Newell recommends neighbors watch out for neighbors. If you see that your neighbor has left his/her garage door open, give 'em a shout (or a phone call). And if you see somebody or a vehicle that seems suspicious, call police.

If I can relate a quick personal story, I heard a prowler (not necessarily a burglar) moping around my house some months ago. I called 911. It took less than one minute for a Norman officer to arrive. The officer literally drove by and scanned the area while I was on the phone with a dispatcher.

Why not start a neighborhood watch program on your block? It's easy as well. You can call MPO Jennifer Newell at 405-366-5267.

In an odd note, I did a Google search on preventing car burglaries, and did you know that an OUPD tip sheet came up first!? Read it here.

Other car burglary prevention links:

Tips from Mount Prospect, Ill.

Tips from a South Florida newspaper

And how about this from our neighbors in Mustang, Okla.: Read here

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Debate Over Employment Of Councilmembers Results In Ethics Policy

What happens when a Norman city councilmember's employer has business with the city? That's been the debate of Norman's leaders the past couple of months, and they decided 6 to 3 Tuesday night to adopt an ethics policy.

This new policy does not have the force of law as Ward 2 councilman Tom Kovach wanted. Kovach and fellow councilmembers Bob Thompson and Hal Ezzell wanted an ethics ordinance.

"We have seen in national government the idea of self-policing without consequence is meaningless and dangerous because it give a false sense of security and allows for wolves in sheep's clothing," Kovach said.

However, the primary debate among councilmembers the past couple of months has centered around employment. Even if a councilmember's employer's business with the city can be handled without actual undue influence on behalf of the councilmember, isn't there the perception of a conflict of interest?

"It only makes sense that if your employer had an issue before you, it would be difficult to make an unbiased decision since your livelihood might be affected," Kovach said.

Ward 4 councilwoman Carol Dillingham said she voted for a policy over an ordinance because the possibility of criminal or criminal-like sanctions against an ethics violator could discourage qualified and willing citizens from participating in city government.

Dillingham: "While I don't disagree with the thought of doing an ordinance, the Planning Committee, after lengthy study and advice by the City Attorney unanimously thought that it would be most appropriate, given the framework of existing city and state legislation to craft a policy rather than an ordinance that would help all on council and all of our many boards and commissions understand and recognize ethical issues, and by so doing increase our constant awareness of the importance of the highest standards for our conduct without imposing criminal, or criminal-like sanctions that would make it more difficult than it presently is to find folks to volunteer their time for council and boards/commissions."

The core of this primary debate, Kovach explained, was whether or not a councilmember's employment was an actual conflict in any and all cases where the employer would be doing business with the city.

Kovach underscored that he didn't believe there to be any existing conflicts of interest on the council, and Dillingham said: "I can say without hesitation that we have an engaged, intelligent, passionate council with the highest ethical standards and the will to roll up our sleeves and make Norman an even better place to live."

However, The Norman Files has been told off the record by multiple sources (not a million, but more than two, none of whom are councilmembers) that Mayor Cindy Rosenthal's employment with the University of Oklahoma is at least some of the impetus for concern about councilmembers and employment.

In previous news reports, Rosenthal has noted that because her professorship is tenured, she can feel free to oppose university efforts as she pleases. For those of you who aren't aware of what being tenured means for professors, it means "job security."

The debate over ethics and the Norman City Council isn't quite over either. Dillingham said there would be some work on amendments to the policy or, perhaps, the creation of an ordinance sometime in the future.

But the question remains: Is each and every instance that an employer and city councilmember interacts necessarily a conflict of interest? Leave your comments below, and you can always e-mail us at thenormanfiles@gmail.com.

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Norman Recycles 7 Million Pounds In First Year Of Program

It's been a year since the city of Norman implemented curbside recycling, and according to a report issued on Wednesday, half of us are participating.

The average household participation rate over a 12-month period from March 2008 to 2009 was 47 percent. June was the top month with 51 percent, and January had the lowest participation. Makes sense: January is cold, and people hate cold.

OK, I hate cold.

Waste Management/Recycle America (WMRA) collected 7 million pounds from Normanites in one year. That's 3,500 tons or about 300 tons per month. Not only is that 7 million pounds from which new goods can be made, but recycling also reduced the amount of waste disposed at the Norman landfill by more than 1,000 tons.

As for what WMRA is collecting, city officials said two-thirds of it is paper and the other third is comprised of containers made of plastic, aluminum, tin and glass.

Newspaper by itself comprised more than half of Norman's recyclables by weight. That's a lot of Transcripts, OU Dailys and Oklahomans.

Curbside items are collected weekly by WMRA and include newspapers, magazines, advertising inserts, junk mail, phone books, aluminum cans, clear-brown-green glass, milk jugs, beverage containers, detergent containers (stamped #1 & #2 on the bottom), clean food cans and lids.

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OU Tight End Jermaine Gresham Arrested On Seat Belt Warrant

Not every arrest is, well, an "arrest."

Take OU tight end Jermaine Gresham who was taken into custody on Monday because of a warrant for failure to pay a Feb. 2 seat belt ticket. Two weeks and a day later, Norman police arrest him because he neither paid the citation nor did he set a court appearance.

Bad Jermaine.

I could be totally off my rocker, but I seem to recall having much longer to pay a ticket, upwards of a month before the warrants came out. It's been a long time since I've gotten a ticket, so I could be wrong.

However, in the scheme of athlete-police encounters, this is about as innocent as it gets.

Read more on NewsOK.com.

***

As part of a continuous effort to revise what we're doing here on The Norman Files, we're going to start offering links each day to Norman-related stories, videos, sites, etc. Think of us as a blog and an aggregator.

So, some posts will be "just" posts and then one post per day will be the catch-all, with the big story of the day in Norman supplemented by links. I've seen other sites do this, and they're often the sites I come back to most often. Plus, this accounts for the fact that time is limited.

Besides, I do so much surfing each day, I highly doubt you'll find another site with a better variety of Norman-related links.

Links for April 15, 2009:

Corner Store on Porter robbed

Video report on robbery

Guestroom Records celebrates 'Record Store Day'

No. 9 Sooners Beat TCU (baseball)

Men's Gymnastics Seeks 9th Nat'l Title

Norman Regional Hospital among best employers

Recap of Norman council meeting

Child abuse prevention meeting

Soonerguys at Red-White Game

Nice Red-White recap from Palestra

Profile of talented local musician Dorian Small

and last but not least ...

French dude comments on Saturday night thunderstorm in Norman

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How Are Recessions Like Tornadoes...?

They both seem to find ways to avoid Norman.

Slate.com has great interactive map looking at when job losses happened in each county in the U.S.

You can't search for Cleveland, but if you put your mouse on just the right blue dot, you find that we gained 2,756 jobs from February 2008 to February 2009. And 3,100 from January 2008 to January 2009.

I'm sure individuals have had very bad things happen because of the recession, and things could get worse at any time. But it looks like if you want a place to ride out tough times, Norman's a pretty good home base.

(Anybody got guesses on who is hiring all those extra people? It can't all be Embassy Suites!)

*Yes, I'm aware of the tremendous jinx potential of this post.

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Tea Party Held On OU Campus

Oklahoma blogger Jason Fritts documented quite nicely the tea party at OU on Monday. For those of you who don't know what these 'tea parties' are all about: They are gatherings of taxpayers and voters who believe the federal government is overstepping its bounds relative to spending and power.

The concept is rooted in revolutionary history, of course, but ignited by Rick Santelli's cable television rant of a few weeks ago.

Jason writes that there were about 100 to 150 people in attendance, and he lamented that there weren't more folks in attendance given the population near campus.

To read his complete report on the event (with tons of photos), visit http://iam.jasonfritts.com/.

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Norman 'Tea Party' Set For Wednesday, 5 P.M. At Train Depot

You've probably heard about such-and-such 'tea parties' on talk radio and wondered, "What in the world?" Well, these are basically grass-roots movements state to state, city to city to protest governmental overspending and bailouts.

There's a big one set for Oklahoma City on April 15 (tax day), but did you Normanites know there is one scheduled for Norman? It's at 5 p.m. at the historic Santa Fe Train Depot, and the group's e-mail address is normanteaparty@yahoo.com.

To learn more about these tea parties and what they stand for, visit okcteaparty.webs.com.

And if you happen to go, please snap a shot or two or take a video and e-mail me at thenormanfiles@gmail.com so I can post to the site.

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Executive VP For Harpo Offers Advice To OU Students

Nice piece on the OU Daily's Web site on Monday regarding a Friday talk from Erik Logan, an executive VP for Oprah Winfrey's Harpo, Inc.

He talked to journalism students about what it takes to be successful.

Two of his secrets are not really secrets in the professional world, yet they are undisputable truths: First, one has to find something one loves. Second, one must work his butt off.

Believe it or not, the first of these two things is often difficult for people. I know plenty of people who have no idea what they want to do, and they're like 40. On the other hand, I know some people who would rather eat mud than work a 12-hour day.

Anyway, this guy was spot on and, frankly, a good read/watch for anybody wanting a professional vitamin.

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Norman City Council: Ward 1, 2 Meeting Set For April 20

City councilmembers for Norman's first and second wards are hosting a meeting at council chambers (201 W. Gray Street) next Monday at 6 p.m.

If you're not familiar with your wards here in Norman, here's a map. Ward 2 essentially encompasses southwest Norman around Lindsey Street and Ward 1 is southeast around Lindsey.

Your Ward 1 councilman is Bob Thompson, who owns the wonderful Midway Grocery & Deli on W. Eufaula Street. Your Ward 2 councilman is the newly elected Tom Kovach (took office in July 2008), and he's a customer service manager for an optics company.

On a side note, I worked with Tom 20 years ago at Homeland here in Norman, when I was in college. I knew at that time this guy was meant to lead people, to be in government in some capacity.

Among the topics of discussion will be:

• Norman Regional Hospital


• Neighborhood Watch Program and CAFEE


• Development of Voluntary Neighborhood Associations


• Stormwater Master Plan


• Ethics Police for Boards, Commissions

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Part Of Acres Street Closed Next Couple Of Weeks

A Norman street will be closed for a couple of weeks for sewer repairs, city officials said.

Acres Street is closed from Pickard Avenue to Berry Road for at least two weeks, weather permitting.

Drivers can use either Dakota or Hughbert streets as alternate routes.

Signs were to be placed by Action Safety Supply Company to assist drivers.

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Odds On Vista Restaurant Reopening Don't Appear To Be Good

Owners of the Financial Building in downtown Norman say they just about have some basic bracing up. In a Sunday story in the Norman Transcript, a construction project foreman said that the building strengthens for each floor that gets braced, meaning the overall structure can withstand higher gusts.

However, the owner of the space formerly occupied by the Vista Restaurant didn't sound terribly optimistic that the bar and grill would reopen. About 30 jobs were lost.

Take a tour of the inside, courtesy of the Transcript:

Financial Center close to stable
Uploaded by normantranscript

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How To Know If There Is A Burn Ban In Cleveland County

Because of the nature of my day job, which is also in news, there will be times that I have to step back from my hyperlocal blog efforts to take care of my primary duties. Last week, that meant wildfire coverage.

Thankfully, Norman wasn't affected.

The latest information I have is that the wildfires that destroyed dozens of homes in Midwest City and Choctaw were intentionally set. Furthermore, I have heard some unreleased and therefore unconfirmed details that would indicate that it was malicious arson.

However, it could have just as easily been started by a cigarette butt or a homeowner burning trash. The former should never, ever happen because cigarette butts should never for any reason ever be thrown from a car.

However, a lot of homeowners in the country are going to burn their trash. Normanites are going to grill or use the chiminea, too. So, we have to be aware of when a burn ban is in effect.

Thankfully, the Oklahoma Forestry Service has a site with color-coded maps showing which counties are under a burn ban and which aren't. You can visit it here.

And according to the map, Cleveland County is in the clear. For now.

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