My World - Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum

("Sacred Rain Arrow") by Allan Houser

Saturday my Father and I visited Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum. A museum owned by the city of Tulsa and operated jointly with the University of Tulsa. The core of the art collection it houses was acquired by Oklahoma Oilman Thomas Gilcrease who was a fan of American art, especially that of the American west. It is loaded with paintings and sculptures by Frederic Remingon, Charles Russell, Thomas Moran, John Singer Sargent, and others. The museum has a no photography policy that I of course honored but their web site has a link to a sizeable sample of their collection. Below is one of my favorites.

("Meat's not meat 'til it's in the pan" by Charles M. Russell.)

An unexpected bonus was a special exhibit of the art of Allan Houser. Houser was a member Chiricahua Apache tribe and was born in Apache, Oklahoma. He was a prolific artist and art teacher who painted and sculpted. It turns out that he was a very famous artist, and I have just totally overlooked him my whole life. Below is a sculpture of Houser, done by one of his sons, on display at the museum.



If you live in Oklahoma you see this something like this every day.

The archer on our license plate is based on Houser's "Sacred Rain Arrow" sculpture on display at the entrance to the Gilcrease Museum.

Below is another work by Houser on the museum grounds. I apologize but I didn't note the name of the piece.

If you find yourself with a few extra hours in Tulsa I recommend the Gilcrease Museum.

For other views of the world we share check out "That's My World."

Ephesians 4:2

SuperPizzaBoy and Gramps



"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."

For other photo-verse combinations check out That's Baloney.

Suburban Critters

Ginger and Abigail.



Here in south Tulsa we have other critters besides the domesticated kinds.

I went on a run on my usual trail which winds through a long greenbelt through the heart of  south Tulsa. Somebody decided to make the landscape more to their liking. I am guessing that they were beaver. I didn't see the culprits.





Where there was once a small pond, the critters had made into a bigger pond by building a dam.



It didn't take them long, I run this route every few days.

A couple days later, on another run, the fallen trees had been cleared from the path but the dam was still there. However there were other signs of critters. On my outbound leg I thought this was a muddy stick on the trail. Coming back I saw that it was the leg of a deer.



Coyotes?

For photographs of animals from all over check out Camera Critters.

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving in Oklahoma was pretty  this year. I went for a run mid morning and the weather was beautiful.



Later we congregated at my Mother in Law's ("Nana") house for Thanksgiving Dinner.

SuperPizzaBoy. No, he didn't get turkey pizza but I don't think that he was disappointed.



My Dad, Gramps, down from Idaho.



Ada, from the office joined us this year.



Left to right, Nana and Sweetie getting everything ready.



We didn't have a whole lot to eat. Of course you don't see the side table where everything else is.



I hope that if you are somebody who celebrates Thanksgiving, that you had a good one. We certainly did.

For desert  I got pumpkin pie and a Dallas Cowboys victory over Oakland.

Thanksgiving Skywatch

Sometimes it is kind of hard to see but I hope that everybody has a Great Thanksgiving Day.

Check out Skywatch Friday for great views of the sky from all over the world.

Philbrook Museum of Art - Festival of the Trees

My Father, Gramps flew in from Idaho yesterday for a little Thanksgiving visit. He is a pretty easy guy to havearound. He likes to go to museums and look at stuff so yesterday he and I went to the Philbrook Museum of Art. It is always a good time to go Philbrook but they have their Festival of the Trees going on right now so it is a doubly good time to go.

Above is Gramps with a Southwest theme. It not only has a Mexican style hat it has Ojo de Dios ornaments on the tree. Ojos were all the rage in New Mexico years ago when I lived there as a very young Yogi.

Check this out, a blue Boy Scout tree and a green "Glovely" tree (made out of work gloves)



Here is a favorite tree. Made from cut up Christmas Story Books.



Upstairs they had gingerbread houses. Absolutely gorgeous.



Now let me clue you in on something about Christmas ok? Here is a little known secret about Christmas. Most people think that Christmas is on December 25. And, that is true to a certain extent, Christmas Day is December 25. But, there is a Christmas Season also that is associated with Christmas Day. Are you with me? Well here is the secret. The Christmas Season is over by December 15. In other words, all the little things that make Christmas fun is over by the middle of December. For example, if you want to see the Festival of the Trees at Philbrook you need to get your little butt down to Philbrook by December 13 because that is the last day! That is true of a lot of other Christmas Season stuff also. Get it done by the middle of December or you will miss out! All that is left is shopping, stress, and tears. Don't come whining to me, because I'll give you the big "Ayatollah So!"

While there at Philbrook we decided to check out their collection. Hey the Yogi's are thrifty and we are going to squeeze the most we can out of our $7.50 entrance fee. You bet. Also, for their regular collection you can use your camera. No flashes though!

They have some really really good stuff.



I've always loved this painting of an elegant socialite.



A medieval painting of Baby Jesus with a Lamb



Got to tell you though. You know why I love Tulsa? I'll tell you why. Tulsan's have built some great museums and stocked them with fine art but our wild cowboy, oilfield roughneck, outlaw, fun loving self always comes out. In the same gallery where one finds timeless and priceless medieval sacred art is a sculpture of an Art Deco Erte' like naked flapper girl riding a fish.



"Yee Haw"

"Twang" by George Strait

After going to an Alan Jackson concert I got intrigued by more traditional country music singers. It seems that they don't get any more traditional than George Strait. I had never bought a George Strait CD, and I still haven't because I checked his latest release "Twang" out from the Library.

I really liked it. The title track and "Hot Grease and Zydeco" are beer drinking songs. The last track "El Rey" is sung in Spainish, complete with horns. Completely unexpected. The rest of the songs are about relationships, mainly between men and women but one about a father and his son, and doing the unexpected like missing a business trip to watch his son's ball game. There are one or two sad songs but the CD is very uplifing after listening to it 4 or 5 times.

Mr. Strait has a very fine clear singing voice and a way of pacing himself. This cd has songs that can be listened to over and over again.

Other things that George Strait has include a hat, big ole belt buckle, and boots. I don't know if he a horse or not. Like Alan Jackson I doubt that Strait spends much time with a choreographer. He does have an extensive web site though. Check it out.

I highly recommend it. I give it three stars out of four. I might even buy a copy for myself after I turn the library's in. (Nope, I'm not going to rip the tracks into itunes from the library copy.) All my music is 100% legal. Stealing is stealing.

Next, maybe I'll see if I can check out a George Jones cd. Anybody out there have any recomendations for twangy music?

Saint Louis - Where to Eat

During a Fall Break Trip to Saint Louis in October we had a lot of fun covered in previous My World posts and now I'm going to tell you a little bit about where we ate. The Yogi's try to eat well on trips. Luckily Saint Louis has lots of great places to eat.

Of course, we start with desert. We love frozen custard. We were clued in by some friends to try Ted Drewe's Frozen Custard.



It's really good. I mean really really good. We went there a couple times. It is on old Route 66. I would give you the link to their web site but the site locks my PC up. So I'll spare you.

Ted Drewes Frozen Custard
4224 S Grand Blvd
(314) 352-7376

Saint Louis has a section they call the "The Hill" with lots of Italian Restaurants. The two we tried were wonderful. The one we liked the best is Cunetto House of Pasta.

My favorite was Cunetto on the Hill. They are noted for their house salad. It was great! It was as pretty as it tasted good.



 For the entree I asked the waiter what their customers liked the best. He recommended the Linguine Tutu Mare, pasta with clams, crab, and shrimp in a broth. It may be the best pasta dish I have ever had. Maybe, I'll have to go back and check it out again.

Before,


After,


Cunetto House of Pasta
5453 Magnolia Avenue
(314)781-1135
http://www.cunetto.com/

The Yogi's, at the least the two oldest of the three of us, love brewpubs. Tulsa, to my shame, has not had any for some time. Tulsa is a "Bud Light" kind of town. (Even the Garden of Eden had thorns) Anyway we tried the Saint Louis Brewery & Tap Room. The beer and the food were both great. Nothing like a brew pub for the visuals.



Saint Louis Brewery & Tap Room
2100 Locust Street
(314) 241-2337
http://www.schlafly.com/

You know something though. The best meal we had was at a place called Sweetie Pies. Do you watch Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network? Well if don't check it out some time. That is where we learned about Sweetie Pies. It is home style cooking and it is wonderful. It was the last place we ate on our trip and  was it ever memorable. Check out their mac and cheese.





Sweetie Pies at the Mangrove
4270 Manchester Avenue
(314) 371-0304

We give Saint Louis four stars out of four for food. Which is wonderful. The only places better, that we have been to, are San Franciso which we gave five stars out of four and New Orleans which, I don't know, gets maybe forty stars out of four?

After Sweetie Pies we loaded up and headed down I44 back to Tulsa.

Here is SuperPizzaBoy in travel mode.


He can do that for hours.

Sweetie was in charge of the camera.



For other views of our world check out That's My World.

Psalm 98:4 - Baloney Sunday Challenge

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

Psalm 98:4 (KJV)

For other photographs and scripture pairings check out That's Baloney.

Arts and Smarts, No More Fat Tires (no!), and What's up with our Schools???

It has been quite a weekend. My weekend started Thursday because of my work schedule. Sweetie and I along with some of my coworkers and friends attended the "Arts and Smarts" Triva Quiz and Art Show sponsored by the Autism Center of Tulsa. The arts part was a display of art by Tulsa area students on the Autism Spectrum. The blurry picture above was one of SuperPizzaBoy's contributions.

Our table came in fourth. Just my luck, the winning table was hosted by Oklahoma's hottest mommy blogger, the lovely, talented, and too darn smart for her own good,  Baloney. Below is a picture of her doing her victory dance.



It's a good thing she is not competitive or anything. Her hat is some sort of victory crown or something, I'm not sure. Anyway, we all had a good time. Sorry about the red eyes Baloney. They look better than my green eyes so you will just have to be happy with the red. Don't worry folks. She doesn't mind me poking fun at her. You see she is my Aunt, I call her Aunt B. She bakes cookies and everything an aunt is supposed to do. One of these days I'll tell you how she came to be my Aunt. As soon as I can think up something.

Aunt B hosts her own daily online trivia quiz. Check it out, its free, its fun.

Sweetie and I got home and I proceeded to drown my sorrow and shame on finishing fourth with my favorite sorrow and shame treatment specially bootlegged in from the People's Republic of Kansas by a friend. It's not a legal treatment in Oklahoma but that is a post for another day.

Anyway I finished my second dose of the medicine and I soon had hives all over me. I mean all over. No photographs, sorry, but you would thank me. Thanks to some quick thinking by Sweetie and antihistamine I recovered. I felt like crap but I recovered. So now the question is: No more Fat Tire? I'm getting depressed, Is the treatment for depression the same as for sorrow and shame? Can somebody out there in our medical community throw me a bone here?

You know, crap like this never happened when W was President. He kept a lid on it. Something to think about you liberal dupes. I saw a video by this English dude who said that O was going to Copenhagen in a few weeks and sign a treaty that is going to ban microbrewery beer. We are all going to have to drink Bud Light. Its true! Hal Lindsey says so. Its foretold in the book of Revelation. What if there is the slightest chance that it can happen? Wake up America!

So Friday, I was feeling a little puny so I tagged along with Sweetie. I'm practicing for my retirement. I plan on just following her around all day. Until the housework starts. Then I'm going to go to the post office or whatever old retired guys do when the work starts. What do you think of my plan? Its going to be a while before I retire. I mean I have a 6th grader with autism. So, give me another dozen years or so in the workforce. Enough to get the kid educated and out the door.

Anyway, Sweetie and I went to SPB's school to deliver his lunch. I was hanging around looking at the student projects displayed in the hall. SPB's class does a lot of interesting stuff. Miss Jo is his teacher and she keeps them busy. They dissected owl droppings and identified what they found. Miss Jo got the droppings from the Zoo. They feed the owls voles. So the kids got to identify the various vole parts. I thought that was extremely cool. Here is a display of the various kids owl dropping dissections. Miss Jo said that everything was clean and sanitary with no undue smells. The kids had a blast. They separated out the various vole bones and identified what bones they were. Cool!! I'm so jealous. I had a great 6th grade teacher but we didn't do anything like this. What you are looking at are the vole bones arranged on paper by the kids and then they drizzled Elmer's on them to stick them in place.




Another thing that Miss Jo had her kids do was "Cereal Box" book reviews. We had fun working with SPB on his. Basically the kids made a book review fit on a cereal box. You know, illustration on the front, summary on the back, characters on the side, setting on the other side. It was fun. Here is a picture of everybody's work. They had to make a name for their "cereal." SPB came up with "Frosted Mysterios." That's my boy!



No, SPB's isn't the one in front. His is the orange papered one. I just love this kind of stuff. Makes me want to be in sixth grade again, NOT!!! Maybe they'll have this kind of stuff at the adult day care center Sweetie promises to enroll me in if I follow through on my retirement plan. That'd be fun.

SPB has another teacher for Social Studies. Mrs. W. The kids are studying Egypt right now so the kids decorated the boxes below.



Anyway, you want to know what is up with schools these days? I don't know about all schools but at SPB's school the teachers are working their butts off teaching our kids all sorts of stuff. That's what.

So that's the report. How is your weekend going?

"The Year of the Flood" by Margaret Atwood

Hey, its sometime in the distant future. We didn't listen, we didn't do anything. Global warming turned to global heating, the environment is a mess. Corporations have taken over the role of the government. They even run the military. Genetic technology has exploded but not for any good purposes, they have spliced lions and sheep together. They have given human neurons to pigs. Is there anything worse than a smart pig? (Sorry a little obscure pipeline humor there.)

The divide between the haves and the have nots has widened. The haves live in ultra secure gated communities run by their employers. Life is good! Unless they lose their job. Then its out the gate with you and your family.

Out the gate is scary; it is chaos. Then there is the God's Gardeners. Led by Adam One. He has nine Eve's and a bunch of followers. They worship and honor God and God's saints. Saint Euell Gibbons, Rachel Carson, and Oklahoma's own Saint Karen Silkwood. They quote the Bible and sing hymns. They don't  eat meat, they are non-violent. They grow their own food.

This book is the story of the Gardeners. The book is fascinating. I give it three and a half stars out of four.

Check out the book's web site. Lots of good information there. You can calculate your carbon footprint. You can enter YouTube hymn singing contest!

Whomping Tree and a Smart Kid

I


My Son, SuperPizzaBoy and I were attending a function at a local elementary school a couple weeks ago during a beautiful Oklahoma Autumn day under a blue sky when we discovered this tree. I told him that it was a Whomping Tree, kind of like the Whomping Willow in the Harry Potter books.

SPB doesn't believe a word  I say any more, hasn't in years. He just walks up to the tree and laughs at me.

For views of the sky from all over the world check out Skywatch Friday.

Welcome Home Soldier

 

Fellow blogger Linda of 7MSN Ranch posted a link last Sunday to a series of videos of dogs greeting their owners upon their arrival home from Iraq or Afghanistan. The video above is just one of a whole bunch of similar videos. If you like to see soldiers returning home safely from war (Who doesn't? No matter what country they live in.) and you love dogs, these videos are a must see.

Do you have a dog? Are they glad when you come home? Do you think they would remember you after a year or two?

My World - Tulsa Cave House

Tulsa, Okahoma, like most cities, has many different sections. You got downtown where commerce and culture is concentrated, mid-Town where the yuppies, rich people, and cranks live and play, north Tulsa which faces many challenges and is the home of many hard working people. East Tulsa where most of the interesting asian and latin restaurants are, and the sprawling suburbs of south Tulsa, where I live. The most interesting part of Tulsa is west Tulsa. That is where the refineries, tank farms, and factories are and where the oilfields, moonshiners, and gangsters used to be.

It is also the home of the Tulsa Cave House. It was built in the 1920's as a chicken restaurant. But the legend is that there was a speakeasy in the hill behind the house, accessible by a tunnel. Supposedly it was the hangout of the local gangstgers, including Tulsa's own Pretty Boy Floyd. I just love stories like that. I do not care if they are true or not? Of course, the tunnels are now sealed and nobody can figure out just where the secret door to the tunnel used to be. Oh, there are ghosts also, you knew that right?

Check the link above. It leads to some links including photographs of the inside and information on the owner. You can get a tour for $5 each, by appointment. I have not toured it yet. Maybe son and I will do that one of these days.

The grounds of the house host a geocache named Yaba Daba Doo. Go check it out.

For other views of the world check out That's My World.

Little House on the Prairie and Wake Up America!

Saturday afternoon Sweetie and dropped SuperPizzaBoy off at a friends house and we went downtown to see the musical "Little House on the Prairie." Beforehand SPB asked me what it was. I told him that it was that show where at night everybody goes "Goodnight John Boy", "Goodnight Grampa." Sweetie just laughed at me. "That was the Waltons!" Oh, ok I thought it was the same thing. So I got laughed at again. Some people just don't respect their elders, especially when they are married to them.

People, would say, Oh, yeah, Melissa Gilbert is in it, wow! And I would say, yeah, she is, I'm really looking forward to seeing her. I had no idea who she is. Sweetie tells me that that she's the little girl who would run down the hill on the television show to Little Joe from Bonanza, except he wasn't Little Joe anymore, he was the little girl's Dad. I'll tell you what, Bonanza was a great show. How come we don't have a Bonanza Musical? What's up? All these Gen X types whining around about us Boomers hogging all the jobs and money. Well, hey you got a Little House on the Praire Musical. We have nothing. Personally I think Bonanza, F Troop, Gunsmoke, Johnny Quest, Combat, 12 O'Clock High, Love American Style, and I Dream of Jeannie would all make great musicals. I'll tell you what it is. It's a plot by Barack Obama and Sarah Palin to hip chuck us Boomers right of out of American culture. Glenn Beck talked about it last night. So you know its true

That reminds me. You know Sarah Palin is from Alaska right. Do you know that we bought Alaska from the Russians? Yeah, its true. Has anybody checked to make sure that our check cleared? If it didn't that means that Sarah Palin is a Russian! She may be a secret communist. Have your ever known a Russian that wasn't communist? I have never seen a copy of the cancelled check. Have you? You think that is a coincidence don't you? Don't be such a dupe. Remember how she used to brag about how close Russia was to Alaska and how she gained all that great Foreign Policy experience. That is because Alaska is Russia? Prove it is not. Wake up America before its too late!

Uh, sorry, I got a little carried away. Anyway, Melissa Gilbert doesn't play the little girl any more, she plays the Mom and does a good job of it. What I really liked was the choreography. Not only of the dance scenes but how the cast moved across the stage adjusting the set as the scenes changed. That was very cool.

The musical is well done. It's not flashy but it is well done and interesting. I give it 3 stars out of 4!

It Is Well With My Soul

"But, Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!"

From "It Is Well With My Soul" by Horatio Gates Spafford

Complete Lyrics.

Story behind the hymn.

Check out That's Baloney for other pairings.

U2 - "Thin Line on the Horizon"

Sweetie and I saw U2 in concert in Norman, Oklahoma last month. They played several songs from their latest album. We didn't have it so we had to get it. Sweetie got it first and I couldn't steal it from her until recently.

Their latest album is "Thin Line on the Horizon." It was released in February of this year I think and is their first CD since "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" in 2004.

The songs on the this CD are are more smooth than rock but still have a little edge to them. I have been playing it over and over and am still not tired of it. Bono has really developed a smooth voice over the years. My favorite tracks are the title track "Thin Line on the Horizon" and "White as Snow." The cd is not really single oriented though. The songs fit in with each other very well and seems meant to be  listened from front to back. Its the kind of music that one can just put on the stereo and lay on the couch and really listen to. (Who has time for that anymore/)

I give the CD a rating of four stars out of four. It is almost perfect.