The real and imaginative adventures of Dennis Spielman

Tag: Oklahoma City Page 21 of 60

Love in Film Row, Afro-Violet, Cafe 420

Premieres Thursday, February 2, 2021 at 7:30 pm CST!

It’s a new year and new season for my travel series, Uncovering Oklahoma.

For February 2021 episode, I visited several businesses in the Film Row area of Oklahoma City’s Arts District and asked them what they had for romance. Then I visited artist Tiffany McKnight in the Plaza District as she talked about her Plaza Walls mural, Afro-Violet. Wrapping up the episode, Apollo Woods guest hosts in Dinner Time with OKC Black Eats as he goes in the kitchen at Café 420 The Alkaline Plant-Based Stop to make some MushWings.

For 2021, I’m going to do videos differently by releasing them as monthly episodes with a variety of content. The main reason is it’s tough for me to get out with the COVID pandemic and with the busyness of my own work. I’m hoping that the bigger monthly episodes will give more publicity to all of the people and places featured with everyone sharing a single video.

While this is a different format, it’s not entirely new for me. When I first started Uncovering Oklahoma back in 2009, I did themed episodes that had three to five places. Then when I started pursuing the show full-time, I started out with weekly episodes that had two or three places. I switched away to individual videos because it was easier to share and maintain archives. Though, when I did guest-host episodes where we went to multiple places, those performed well.

The 2021 episodes are going to have a bigger variety compared to what I’ve done in the past. For starters in the February episode, there’s an artist interview and the behind the scenes kitchen segment, which previously would’ve been their own videos. Basically, I’m combining what I would’ve done in the month into one episode. The type of segments will vary going forward. For example, I’ll have musical guests talking about their music and performing one of their songs.

Eventually, I’ll feature more places outside the Oklahoma City metro area when the pandemic settles. Tulsa is just a hotspot and I don’t need to be traveling far. Some of the things I planned to last year, I hope I get to do this year. I want to get some multilingual guest hosts and feature business owners whose English isn’t their first language. I want to spend a few days in Hochatown. I also want to do more volumes with past guest hosts.

With the new season, I thought it would be fitting to have a new logo designed. Thank you to the folks at Design Pickle for the new logo! As you’ll see in the February episode, my episode branding (lower-third, colors, font, and credits), has been updated too.

I’m committed to releasing episodes in 4K (4096×2304) with English closed captions, though I’m switching away from HDR because the colors come out weird depending on the YouTube player and none of the social platforms support it. Moving forward, I’m making the first Tuesday of the month at 7:30 pm to be my release schedule. Thursdays are a bit crowded with local streaming content, but I did Thursday this month as I was filming Tuesday and editing all day on Wednesday.

On the subject of businesses in Film Row, I managed to feature all most everyone for the segment. The places I didn’t get this time around, Wild Mother, FlashBack Retro Pub, and 21c Hotel, I’ll get in future segments. I already have Wild Mother slated for the March episode as part of a spring theme.

That about concludes my commentary and news for the 2021 season. Thank you for watching this episode of Uncovering Oklahoma! If you enjoyed this video, be sure to like it and share it. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel so you’ll be notified when the next episode is released in March. Shoutout to my superstar supporters, the Keller-Kenton Family and thank you to all of my supporters on Patreon. If you love what I’m doing, be sure to join me on Patreon for extra content like a bonus interview with Tim King at OK Cider and the uncut session at Cafe 420.

Happy Adventures!

Behind the Scenes of Fieldworks: Beyond Measure with Pablo Barrera

Fieldworks: Beyond Measure with Pablo Barrera

Learn about Fieldworks: Beyond Measure, on view in Oklahoma Contemporary’s Mary LeFlore Clements Oklahoma Gallery, with Curatorial Fellow, Pablo Barrera (Wixáritari).

Organized by Barrera, this exhibition features works produced as part of a University of Oklahoma residency that invites artists, scholars, and students to artistically respond to the presence of humans in the American Southwest.  Watch this video I did for the gallery and explore the Fieldworks project’s diverse archive of objects, photographs.

Fieldworks: Beyond Measure

In this video I did for Oklahoma Contemporary, Robert Bailey and Todd Stewart discuss the new exhibition, Fieldworks: Beyond Measure. Fieldworks, an interdisciplinary residency, invites artists, scholars and students to artistically respond to the presence of humans in the American Southwest. Beyond Measure presents a selection from the OU Fieldworks project’s diverse archive of objects, photographs, texts, videos and more.

Thank you to Oklahoma Contemporary for commissioning me on this project! This video first premiered on Oklahoma Contemporary’s New Light blog and I’m sharing it with you today as it’s worth a visit.

Fieldworks: Beyond Measure is on display in the third-floor Mary LeFlore Clements Oklahoma Gallery at Oklahoma Contemporary through April 19, 2021. Reserve your limited access, timed tickets here.

Beaux Arts at 75 and Shared Lives, Distant Places at OKC MOA

For Uncovering Oklahoma, I visited with Becky Weintz at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art to check out two of the museum’s latest exhibitions for their 75 anniversary.

“Beaux Arts at 75” celebrates the interconnected history of the Museum’s Beaux Arts collection and the Beaux Arts Ball, an annual fundraiser organized by the Beaux Arts Society. The Beaux Arts Collection is comprised of 36 eclectic works, 21 of which will be featured in “Beaux Arts at 75.” An additional 7 works are on view in the Museum’s permanent collection galleries. The remaining 8 works will be on view beginning Feb. 20, 2021 as part of a new exhibition “Moving Vision: Op and Kinetic Art from the Sixties and Seventies.”

Featuring photographs given in honor of the Museum’s 75th anniversary, “Shared Lives, Distant Places” highlights contemporary photographers who employ different photography styles—documentary, photojournalism and street photography—to capture the global human experience, offering alternative ways of seeing and understanding the people, places and events that shape the world in which we live. The exhibition provides a glimpse into the everyday lives of people, conflicts and historical events around the world at various moments in time, and explores the working process of six contemporary photographers. The exhibition features works by renowned photographers Donna Ferrato, Peter Turnley, Kristin Capp, Alen MacWeeney, Gary Mark Smith, and Robert von Sternberg.

The Museum is currently operating with limited capacity and is open Wednesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, 12 to 5 p.m. Learn more at https://www.okcmoa.com


Thank you to my supporters on Patreon for their continued support to keep Uncovering Oklahoma alive! Supporters get awesome rewards, like early access to my episodes, as well as content from my other endeavors. Big thanks to my superstar supporters: Revolve Productions and the Keller-Kenton Family. Join today!

3×10 Relics of the 45th

Inspired by his fortune, Geoff invites Sam to visit with Michael Gonzales at the 45th Infantry Division Museum. The museum’s curator talks about his first encounter and the findings of paranormal investigators who have visited.

Subscribe to new episodes of Tales Unveiled via Apple PodcastsGoogle PlaySpotifyStitcher, or anywhere you enjoy podcasts. New episodes on Fridays!


Tales Unveiled is a production of The Show Starts Now Studios and is produced by me, Dennis Spielman. The voice of Sam Saxton is Dennis Spielman. The voice of Professor Geoff DeRoot is Jeff Provine.

We would love to thank Michael Gonzales for taking the time to share his stories with us about the museum. 

If you love what we’re doing, want us to keep being artist owned and patron supported, click here. In return, you can get bonus content, including early access to all my projects.

Behind the Scenes Commentary

Ghosts seem to love the theatre and I’m starting to believe any military related too. After having to reschedule due to the ice storm, we recorded this episode on Tuesday, I edited it yesterday, and finished it up today.

After the interview, we did get a brief tour of museum as in real life, Jeff did have to leave to teach a class. Seeing some of Hitler’s personal artifices was one of the creepiest things to see, especially his mirror. I kind of what to write a story about that mirror.

I recommend going to visit the museum for yourself as the have rather impressive collection. Jeff and I are planning to do one more episode, so we can end the season on Friday the 13th.

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