Graffiti Wednesday – Good and Bad?

I went running on the Arkansas River trails here in Tulsa a couple weeks ago. I always take along my trusty point and shoot. You never know what you are going to see. In twenty years of running I’ve come across one of the fox that live along the trail three times. I haven’t had my camera any of those times. Next time I see one, I’m taking their picture. Today though some graffiti stopped me.

I think a stencil was used to do this. I certainly don’t condone graffiti in non-authorized places but i dont’ think this example really bothers anybody. I’ve tried googling “nemesis” in various ways for Tulsa graffiti and didn’t get any good hits.

But then, on the other side of the structure you get this, meh.

I also noticed lots of these stencils along the trail. It’s just a few inches long. I have no idea what the purpose is. They don’t seem to be distance markers since they are spaced at irregular intervals.

And then running across the pedestrian bridge I saw this cheesy Christian evangelism and peace sign symbol. It looks like two people getting in on the act.

Do you think any sort of graffiti is acceptable? Do you think that graffiti evangelists are going to heaven?

And then I ran a little further and came across this memorial to a motorcyclist who died within feet of this tree just a couple weeks earlier. Is this graffiti, you see more and more of these memorials. They don’t age very well. They seem to be at least tolerated by officialdom. As an aside, fast forward two weeks, and I met a police officer in a social setting who worked the accident. Tulsa is the biggest small town I’ve ever lived in.

Graffiti Wednesday

Ready Set Run 2012

What do you have planned on the morning of Saturday, May 19?
Do you like exciting racing?

Sports Mascots?

Do you want to be fawned over by cheerleaders?

Hang out with hot women?

See happy kids?

Or get a nice sweaty hug?

Join our team, Logan’s Free Time, (because as you may know, nothing is more important than free time to teenagers) raising funds for the Autism Center of Tulsa.

You can register for the race, or donate money by clicking the link below.

Logan’s Free Time Running Team

Our World – Seeing for Miles and Miles

Fellow Blogger and Geocacher Baloney of That’s Baloney and her husband Doc invited Sweetie and I to a fundraiser on the 60th floor of the Citiplex Tower in south Tulsa.

CityPlex Tower (Photo credit: alnbbates)

The building is 60 floors tall. One of the tallest buildings in the state and there is nothing really close to it anywhere close.

Cityplex Towers started out as Oral Robert’s medical school and hospital. Now it is a huge office building with a banquet room on the top floor. You can literally see for miles from up there. You can see for yourself just how flat Oklahoma is.

The big round building is the Mabee Center where the ORU basketball team plays. Sweetie and I saw Huey Lewis and the News in concert a few years back. There is a plaque in the lobby that talks about Elvis playing there once.

There is the famous Praying Hands. Sorry about the blurry picture. I thought it would be too nerdy to take my brand spanking new “nice” camera to the event. So I took my point and shoot.

ORU was playing baseball Friday night.

And my favorite, the Prayer Tower. Whatever you think of Oral Roberts you have to admit that the prayer tower is a striking building. It is basically a three dimensional modernistic cross. I didn’t realize that on my own, I had to read it before it sunk in.

Our World

Shadowshot Sunday 2 – From the 60th Floor

From the 60th floor of Cityplex towers in Tulsa early Friday evening.

Shadowshot Sunday 2

Weekend Reflections – Self Portrait

At Citiplex towers in south Tulsa. Do you see me?

I’m right behind the lowermost red car.

Weekend Reflections

A Walk in the Street – Street Car

I’m back from New Orleans and glad to be with my family but I miss the energy and vitality of the Crescent City. Sure there are lots of tourists and conventioneers but there is a tremendous number of people who live and work in New Orleans. They seem to barely notice the tourists and treat each other with good cheer. They come in all shapes, sizes, ages, and genders. Its truly a city.

Walk in the Street

New Orleans Navy Week

I was in New Orleans this week at an energy business convention. While there the US Navy and friends showed up for a party. A party to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the war of 1812 and the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. New Orleans is the innaugral city of a three year fifteen city celebration. I mean if you are going to celebrate, you might as well start in New Orleans.

The USS Frank Mitscher, a Guided Missile Destroyer. The ship has a brand new skipper, in February this year Commander Monika Stoker assumed command of the ship. She is also the first African American woman to command an American warship.

The USS Dewert, an “Oliver Hazard Perry Class Frigate.” Reportedly in October 2011 this ship, along with a British vessel, rescued a an Italian Merchantmen from Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean.

The French Navy Germinal, a light monitoring frigate, showed up for the party also.

The USS Wasp, an Amphibious Assault Ship. It is a lot bigger than what it looks like in this photograph. This is as close as I could get.

It carries a whole bunch of Marines and their equipment. Reportedly, about 3000 sailors from the various ships had a pretty good time Tuesday night in the French Quarter.

The modern warships were great and a special to see but the big attraction was the Tall Ships that came in to celebrate also.

The Coast Guard’s WIX Eagle a training ship was there. She started out as the the German vessel, SSS Horst Wessel. Adolf Hilter attended her commissioning. The United States seized her after World War II.

The Indonesian’s sent their KRI Dewaruci, their navy’s training vessel. It also was built in Germany in the 1930’s. It

I loved the woodwork on this ship.

Ecuador sent their BAE Guayas, another training vessel. It was my favorite because of the condor below.

I just hope that all the sailors get back to their ships, the right ships.

Signs – Delacroix Corp.

I’ve been walking a lot around New Orleans the last couple days. I found a few caches and took lots of photographs.

I noticed that on consecutive days I took photographs of this building, labelled Delacroix Corp.,

I just love the building. First the green color. I love that green, and the big windows. Second the silvery letters for the sign with the two different fonts, part script and part block letters, and the rakish angle in the Delacroix. It’s written with flair, and then the down to earth Corp.

Third, the mysteriousness of it, Who knows what Delacroix does? I mean its not a restaurant, nor a tshirt shop. They don’t have a web site but they have a some sort of mysterious connection to the oil and gas business. The president of the firm is a third degree connection to me in Linked In. The ground floor windows are glass blocks.

What’s going on in there?

I just love the French Quarter. It has its secrets.

Signs, Signs

Ruby Tuesday 2 -Painting the Town Red

I’m in New Orleans for a few days this week.

The red theme started in Tulsa at the airport.

Flew into New Orleans, checked into my hotel, and the red paddles on the paddlewheeler was one of the first things I saw through my room window.

My readers know that I have a think for red cranes. Sorry.

The streetcars were out.

The Norwegians are coming, the Norwegians are coming, Vikings, run for your lives.

A red crane and a red boat!!!!

Two carriages and a donkey. Don’t you think a four row carriage is a little much for one donkey? I think so!!

Ruby Tuesday 2

Thanks Gemma Wiseman and Magical Mystery Teacher!!

Our World – New Orleans

I’m in New Orleans on a business trip attending the Gas Processors Convention. I haven’t been here since right before Katrina in 2005 when Sweetie came along.

The town was jumping Sunday afternoon with the French Quarter Festival going on. Tell you what New Orleans knows how to party. There were lots of bands in lots of different places. The place was packed.

But people were under control. Apparently I dropped my cell phone. A lady chased after me for two blocks she said until she caught up with me to give it back to me (I move fast when I’m walking.)

People were major chilling to the music.

New Orleans reminds me a little of the Santa Fe of my youth before the billionaires crowded out the millionaires. Santa Fe has the public party side especially during fiesta (like I know what I’m talking about, I
haven’t been to the fiesta in 35 years) but also a very private side in private courtyards and closed doors.

Both New Orleans and Santa Fe give hints of ordinary people who actually live and work there. But an outsider never sees these people.

New Orleans in the South but it is different from the rest of the South. I think that is why I love it.

It is more than just a town to party in, it is a town with soul. There has been inroads by the developers who bring in the expensive condos with high gates, security, and chain restaurants and “high end” retailers.