Permission Zone Revisited

Yesterday I went by Tulsa’s only (as far as I know) permission zone for Graffiti, Mad Mike’s Liquor Store in east Tulsa near 11th and Mingo. I went there this past March and was amazed by the graffiti. I was interested to see how much was new.

I’m guestimating that about 60% of the graffiti from March had been painted over. I’ve found that graffiti doesn’t age well. The colors get dull and flake off fairly quickly so turnover is a good thing.

My favorites of the new stuff is the Hulk. He’ s not as cuddly as the Hulk has become in popular culture. I love how his hands are coming out of the wall.

I also liked this piece although it seems a little disturbing.

There were several pieces with writing. I have no idea what any of this says but love the colors and vibrancy.

The one above might say “Peace” maybe, what do you think?

I noticed some partially painted over work like the above in my last visit. It is hieroglyphics to me. But I like it for some reason.

I notice that some work had been added to since my last visit. Yesterday’s “Sunday Demons” is above, March’s is below. the outline of the demon has been filled in with white paint.

Some work was similar in style to what I saw in March.

The above is evocative, so is below (from March, now painted over). The colors are totally different.

Here are the tools of the trade.

Blame my friend of JenX67 has got me interested in graffiti. Check the link to see what she is up to.

Men in Black III – the Movie

One of the things we did on Memorial Day was venture to our local theater to see Men in Black III. I found the first movie okay but forgettable, I skipped the second, but I really like III. It still has Will Smith as Agent J, Tommie Lee Jones as Agent K, and Josh Brolin playing Agent K also. The Men in Black work for an organization that licenses and controls aliens and possesses technology to make ordinary people forget what they saw and heard when an encounter with an alien gets a little messy.

In this flick Agents J and K are after a real mean guy Boris who, guess, guess, anybody, class?… Is out to destroy the world.

I won’t spoil it by telling you whether the world was destroyed or not but I’ll tell you the movie is very good and has a good story. It has some great time travel scenes and headscratchers worthy of the Back to Future movies. Most movies like these are expensive naps for me and I liked this movie a lot.

I give it four stars out of five, highly recommended! For you parents out there, the film does have some moderate language (which I find irritating in a movie that many kids are going to want to see) and some mild sexual innuendo. The violence is mostly over the top alien stuff with lots of boogery type substance.

This is a great summertime movie.

Men in Black III IMDB site

Our World – Tulsa’s Perryman Cemetery

Perryman Cemetery at 32nd and Utica is Tulsa’s oldest private cemetery. It was laid out in 1848 by the Perryman family. The Perrymans were mixed blood Creek Indians and held positions of leadership in the Creek Tribe and early day Oklahoma. The Chronicles of Oklahoma has an interesting article from 1937 about the History of the family.

Benjamin Perryman led his family to Oklahoma from Georgia in 1828. He was a chief of the Creek tribe and the noted early western painter George Catlin painted his portrait.

(from Chronicles of Oklahoma)

The cemetery was a family plot and there are lots of Perryman names on the gravestones. The last burial in the cemetery was in 1941. The Tulsa Historical Society has owned and maintained the cemetery since 1971.

Only about 50 people are buried on the property. Apparently the graveyard was originally bigger than the present fenced area. The speculation is that there are bodies buried in the yards of some of the nearby residences.

Very interesting to me is the grave house over one of the graves. It is only about a two feet tall. I’ve seen many similar structures in eastern Oklahoma at very old cemeteries. I wish I could tell you that I have definitively determined why some graves have them and what the significance is, but I can’t. I have not found what I consider to be a good source of information. I have read a lot of what I consider to be speculation. Some of what I read says that the houses were merely to cover the grave and keep the rain off. Other sources though indicate that the houses are houses for the grave occupant’s spirit.

In the meantime the cemetery is a nice place to go and ponder the meaning of it all. More information can be found in an interesting post from the Forgotten Tulsa blog.

Our World

Happy Birthday Son

Its about that time of year again SuperPizzaBoy. I always marvel how much you have grown from the previous year.

You are learning all sorts of things and doing all sorts of things and me and your Mother are very proud of you.

You are such a happy young man who has learned the simple pleasures are important especially family.

Your Mother and I love you very much and are very proud of you

May God richly bless you
As you celebrate today
Another year to grow in Him
And follow in His ways
Enjoy what God has given you
His blessings from above
With friends and family gathered round
Let’s thank Him for His love.

Perfect Pairings by my friend Baloney

Claudette Colvin – Twice Toward Justice

I picked up Phillip House’s “Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice” at SuperPizzaBoy’s book fair. Talk about a find! Claudette Colvin was a fifteen year old black teenager who was arrested for not giving up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery,Alabama on March 2, 1955 long before Rosa Parks was arrested for the same offense. Ms. Colvin was not celebrated like Rosa Parks was, Colvin was not considered a suitable representative for the cause because she was so young and was not perfect.

She disappeared for a time until Phillip House heard about her story and convinced her to share it with the world. She was brutalized verbally by the policemen who arrested her and shunned by her community for causing trouble. She had other problems that made her less than the perfect representative for her people. She moved north and worked for years in obscurity, resentful of the attention that Parks got.

It is a great book about the Civil Rights movement but more than that it’s about life not being fair and perfect and how you have to persevere anyway.

I give this book four stars out of five.

Weekend Reflections – CityPlex Towers

Late Wednesday evening I finished my weekly run on Turkey Mountain. When I saw the CityPlex Towers brilliantly reflecting the low sun at my back.

It was at the perfect angle to reflect right back at me. The towers are the site where in 1980 the evangelist Oral Roberts claimed to see a 900 foot tall Jesus. (The building is about 600 feet tall.)

Now that would be a picture!
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Weekend Reflections

Skywatch Friday – Something New Out on the Prairie

Used to be that what dominated the sky in western Oklahoma were grain elevators like this one in the town of Geary.

The farmers are still growing lots of wheat in Oklahoma but they have also leased their minerals to the natural gas producers who have brought new features to the landscape.

Late afternoon, Canadian County, Oklahoma, drilling rigs trying to tap the Cana Woodford Shale formation for natural gas.

Skywatch Friday

Autism Center of Tulsa Ready, Set, Run 5K

Last Saturday the Autism Center of Tulsa had their Ready Set Run 5K and Fun Run. I got to help out getting ready on Friday night.

I’m on the sign crew. The race starts and ends at Hunter Park and extends out back along the Creek Turnpike Trail so the course is a little complicated and needs lots of signs.

Robert and Shannon my coworkers putting out signs.

I keep telling Shannon that drinking and driving don’t mix.

To the right everybody!

For the big sign out in front of the park Robert shows off his manly form.

And then it is Brian’s turn. I’d help, but somebody has to record these things for posterity, right? I’ mean I could do it, but my motto is not to mess with people who are in the groove, and these guys are definitely in the groove.

Then Michelle shows up and gives us all a lesson on proper zip ties.

Wow, that Brian is a steel post driving machine!!

The next day the 5K’ers show up for the race. I saw the famous Trail Zombie. Talk about machine he was running this race and then going to Turkey Mountain to run some trails with a friend and then headed to Stillwater for his third run and second race of the day.

So the race went on and everybody had a good time!

“S” is for Ships

I saw a bunch of ships during my trip to New Orleans in April.

I saw a paddlewheeler.

And a ferry that I swear could be wider than it is long.

A pair of tugboats. It looked to me like they were pushing against the far shore. Perhaps they were trying to make the Mississippi wider? I don’t know, I’m a landlubber Okie. You tell me what they are doing.

A crewboat of some kind. Did I ever tell you about riding one of these (or something similar) on a long ride to an offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Six hour boat ride, or a one hour helicopter ride. And that is why I live in Oklahoma now!