Category Archives: Tulsa

A Week in Photographs

I take pictures  all the time. I carry my cell phone, an ipod, and my Nikon point and shoot with me everywhere.

#trees during my lunch walk in #downtowntulsa on a a freezing cold sunny day dodging the panhandlers and avoiding the spice addicts #tulsa #oklahoma #igersok #igerstulsa

I take walks at lunch. Generally about one or two miles and I go all over downtown. I always pay attention to my surroundings and nearby people and I’ve had to pay extra attention. We have a new crop of homeless people downtown. It has changed the complexion of downtown and how people perceive the homeless. The new, younger, more thuggish group is a lot more aggressive than the older people who were the most polite homeless people I’ve ever seen. There is a lot more drug dealing downtown and it is done right out in the open and the participants don’t seem at all concerned about who sees them. This is a disturbing trend.

#geocaching at the end of the road #westtulsa #tulsa #oklahoma #oklahomaskies

On another noon day I went out to west Tulsa to find a geocache. It was the first time I had been noon geocaching in a long time. The cache was on an abandoned road. How exactly does one decide to abandon a road? Anyway, it was fun.

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About two weeks ago I moved offices in our building from the 17th floor to the 5th. So my views to the west for sunsets is different. No more views of the refinery or the Arkansas River. Instead I get the above. I’m not complaining.

Late afternoon #sun in #downtowntulsa #quittingtime #tulsa #igersok #igerstulsa

But hey I got a different view toward the city center also. Everything always seems to work out.

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Got my teeth cleaned and xrays. No cavities!!! I hardly ever have cavities. The secret is regular flossing. I always floss the night before I go see the dentist.

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This morning I took the kid to school on my day off. After I dropped him off I parked on the Arkansas River and walked a little and took some pictures. I loved this bench and the bare branches of the tree, along with the River and the swell of Turkey Mountain in the background.

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Friday night Logan had a comedy improv show. Laughing Matter Teen Improv at Clark Theater is a lot of fun. Logan is second from the left. We have been going for years and it has been fun watching these young people grow up.

So that is what I’ve been up to, what about you?

Saying No to an Outlet Mall on Turkey Mountain

There is big news here in Tulsa, Simon Property Group wants to build an “Upscale Outlet Mall” here. That is just great. We need economic development and jobs and investment and all that good stuff. I just have one problem with the concept.

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They want to build it on Turkey Mountain right near the Turkey Mountain Wilderness Park. The outlet mall is going to be huge, covering 53 acres. Simon Properties Woodland Hills Mall is a little over 60 acres. As near as I can tell the spot where I took the photo above would be inside the outlet mall.

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It is going to ruin a lot of things about Turkey Mountain. The one place in Tulsa where one can get away from it all.

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Turkey Mountain is home to a lot of critters, Everything from snakes, turtles, and deer to…

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… thousands of people: geocachers (above), hikers, runners, bicyclist, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and just people wanting to go get their heads clear.

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This is the wrong place to build an outlet mall. There are other places in the city where it wouldn’t have such a drastic effect.

Turkey Mountain city Map

I know that it is private property and I’m all for property rights as anyone else but not when it has such a drastic effect on the adjoining property. Plus it is anticipated that Simon Properties will be demanding subsidies and special tax treatment to make their project feasible. (Why is it that giving money to starving people is welfare and giving money to multi-billion dollar companies is incentives?) I don’t know about you but I’m not really wanting to provide incentives to somebody to destroy a wilderness and pave it over.

 

Turkey Mountain Garmin Map

 

So, I will be writing to the Mayor and writing and talking to my City Councilor and contacting Simon Properties Group to see if they can make a wiser decision on locating their new Outlet Mall.

I am saying No to the Turkey Mountain site. Build in Tulsa if you wish, but do it somewhere else.

What about you? Have you ever fought City Hall on anything?

Skywatch Friday – Sunrise Secret

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I went running earlier this week at Lafortune Park here in Tulsa. It is a huge complex with playgrounds, picnic grounds, batting cages, an American Legion ballpark, two golf courses, a library, fancy croquet courts, tennis courts, and a high school complete with a football stadium and yet another baseball stadium, and some nice ponds and fountains, all linked together by a popular three mile running/walking/strolling/waddling trail that I use frequently.

It was a sticky morning and when I finished I needed a little extra cool down walking time and so I walked over to the ponds behind the library and saw the “same old thing” in a new way so I pulled out my trusty old free, Pantech generic no-name phone and used its HDR camera to take a pic.

Have you seen something old in a new way before.

Skywatch Friday

Serendipity – “Games Along the Way”

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Note the doll on the little girl’s back and the baby on the mother’s back.

I had lunch with a friend Friday. I stopped at Centennial Park on the way back to the office to snap some photographs of the park. On my way back to my car I passed a set of bronze sculptures installed on a traffic island. I found it totally charming. The artist is John Gooden of Kingfisher, Oklahoma. It turns out that the traffic island is a park called Medicine Wheel Park.

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The installation is called “Games on the Way” and it shows a mother carrying a baby walking on a path accompanied by a little girl carrying her own baby and a boy playing “Shoot the Hoop.” Everybody is smiling and they seem in total harmony with each other.

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The sculptures are sponsored by the Indian Health Care Center of Tulsa and it is meant to outline their approach to care as nurture: “An embracing approach to care to strengthen physical, emotional, mental and spiritual wellness within a family.”

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All photos are HDR processed. Without it the sculptures are just big dark colored blobs. With it you can see the details.

And who can argue with that?

I love coming on unexpected finds like this.

Have you come upon something great lately? Tell us about it.

Arts Against the Odds – Protest and Performance

Hey! Look who was downtown today  at City Hall!

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Heather and Logan opposing cutting eliminating Clark Theater from the city budget. 

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Heather and Logan were not alone. There was a bunch of kids there enthusiastically exercising their right of free speech. They were spirited and loud and very enthusiastic and very polite. I loved it.

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Their parents were there and they were getting into it also. It was a great vibe going on. They were there because there was a city council meeting tonight to discuss the Mayor’s proposed budget that involves closing the theater. Found out all about it here.

KTUL.com – Tulsa, Oklahoma – News, Weather

(Of course some of us more cynical people are wondering why we are just rocking along and then all the sudden we need to cut about 200 jobs to balance the budget.)

 And so what do you think happened after the rally? Well I’ll tell you what theater kids do, they perform. Many of the protestors hurried on down to Henthorne Performing Arts Center for a recital.

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Some of the kids did various improv skits. They were great and they were funny, of course.

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Logan wasn’t in the improv part of the recital he recited a monologue that he had been working on for some time.

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All the kids did great, get up there and take a bow guys! We are proud of all of you!

Save Henthorne PAC Clark Theater Facebook Site

Skywatch Friday – Lobby View

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On a nice, cool, breezy, sunny day last week I was walking around downtown taking pics. The bottom level of one of the tallest buildings in Tulsa, the BOK Tower, has some huge arched windows on the ground floor and I took this shot. It has kind of grown on me. I don’t know why, maybe it is the flag or the steeple with the cross on it, the clouds, I don’t know but here it is.

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Arts Against the Odds in Tulsa

I don’t generally do advocacy type things but a situation has come up here in Tulsa that has hit near and dear to our family’s heart. So I beg your pardon as I tell you about this.

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On my humble blog I have reported son Logan’s performances at Tulsa’s Clark Theater. He has mainly done Improv Comedy but has also participated in some of their summer programs.

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Logan and all sorts of other kids also in two age groups participate in the Clark Theater programs. Besides the Improv groups Clark puts on several productions for kids of various ages. The facility at Henthorne Park also has Heller Theater which is for adults.

Late last week though we all found out about Wide Ranging Cuts to the city supported arts programs. The Mayor faced with a 4% shortfall in the city budget is proposing to not just cut back the arts programs. He plans on eliminating them. So the parents and others associated with Clark and the other arts programs in the city are trying to figure out what to do.

The kids though, they have already started. They have a facebook page going, Save Henthorne PAC Theater, and have used their performing skills to make some videos and posters. There is also talk of meeting outside City Hall Monday at 4 PM to display their posters.

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So I am not sure what the Bates family is going to do but we know somebody who has been through this before. The worlds greatest MIL, Nana, fought for funding for the arts in the schools of Antlers, Oklahoma back in 1977. She won that battle and got a plaque that she still has.

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The plaque was presented to her by the Lieutenant Governor of the State, George Nigh.

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So, I don’t know what we can do, but we are going to do it. Because we have Nana on our side. How can we lose? I’ll tell you one thing about Nana. You don’t want to be on her bad side. Nope, that is not a good thing.

How are the Arts doing where you live?  Don’t take your government support for granted. Next time you contact your city councilperson, Mayor, Governor, legislator, or whomever let them know how much you support the arts and that you expect them to support the arts also.

If you happen to live in Tulsa check out the City Council web site. You can get on there, find out who your Council Person is and send them a polite notice on how you feel. Check out the Mayor’s web site. Politely let him know how you feel about things. 

I’ll be giving updates on this situation.

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Signs, Signs, – Tulsa’s Librarium

#librarium #tulsa temporary central #library #oklahoma #signs

The Tulsa City County Library has closed their main library downtown to undergo a rather leisurely paced, not totally funded, multi-year overhaul. In the meantime we have a converted Homeland Store that has great wi-fi and a helpful staff. It is called the Librarium.

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Signs, Signs

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