Mos Jef Does Dfest

That's Mos Jef in the middle.

Well, it seems the planners of Tulsa’s seventh annual Diversafest did exactly what some people thought they would not be able to do – top last year. Dfest went from five years of obscurity to “the festival that brought out The Flaming Lips” last year. Despite how great The Lips were last year, as a whole this year was much better.

Remembering how long I waited in line for a bracelet last year, I went downtown in the early afternoon to get mine. I briefly stopped into McNellie’s to get a beer and I was reminded that, despite our big city music festival being setup out the window, Tulsa is still just a great big small town. I was upstairs with 3 other people. One guy was the bartender with whom I played little league baseball. Another guy I happened to meet at Big Splash two weeks earlier. The third guy I recognized as dating one of my ex-girlfriends.

I left downtown for a while and returned to catch the last part of moe. They put on a good show, but Dfest made for the third time I’ve seen moe. perform. The band that played immediately after them blew me away though. Ghostland Observatory is a two-man band that falls somewhere between dance pop and glam rock. I’d never heard of this Austin-based duo before, but I was thoroughly impressed by their music and particularly their stage show. I know many people were there to see the headlining Disco Biscuits, but I think Ghostland Observatory stole the show Friday night.

Ghostland Observatory

Saturday night I was convinced that DIVERSafest lived up to its name. I saw the first half of Helmet. Yes, Helmet. I haven’t seen a concert attract that many shirtless drunk white guys into a mosh pit since I was in junior high. I had no desire to smash around and dance like a chicken in front of a large audience, but I did enjoy watching it all go down. A short walk later, I was at Zappa Plays Zappa. The most violent thing happening here was glow sticks and beach balls being tossed around. The music was outstanding. Being a Frank Zappa fan, I didn’t know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. Once Zappa ended, I was getting pretty excited about The Roots. I view The Roots as a very significant band. Years from now, I think they will be viewed as one of the great hip-hop groups of the day. They did not disappoint. Rather than playing from their allotted time of midnight to 1:45AM, they played until 2:40. I left exhausted from the dancing.

Zappa Plays Zappa

The Roots

The Roots

Overall I would have to give an A+ to Dfest this year. I think last year The Flaming Lips opened up the opportunity for this festival to grow. This year having The Roots will further legitimize Dfest as a big music festival. I can’t wait to see what is going down next year.

Wooooo! Mosh pit

The crowd

The crowd and downtown Tulsa

Other accounts of Dfest: This Tulsa
Urban Tulsa's G.K. Hizer

Drink Downtown

I have cool friends.

Chris Bouldin, proprietor of T-shirt and accessory company Rock City Outfitters and once-contributor to this blog, has made the above shirt design available to all you thirsty downtown lovers out there. Click the link to get your own.

Speaking of, where's your favorite place to get a drink downtown? Perennial favorites of mine are McNellie's and Arnie's, mostly because I see people I know at both of those places pretty much anytime I go in, and I love to see people I know. Arnie's is small, and sometimes it takes a solid 30 minutes to get a beer from a waitress at McNellie's, but I'd take them both over Orpha's or, heaven forbid, El Guapo's.

Sorry. I want to like El Guapo's. I really do. I've heard it has improved since I last went, but I've been scared to give it another chance. I don't know - their margaritas are about as big as my head (you didn't hear this from me, but folks, that's a giant head), and it's hard to stay away from that for too long.

So, Mack, what'll it be? McNellie's, Arnie's, or [insert your favorite downtown bar here]?

Primary Election Today

Today is a voting day! Voting is fun - you get to hide in a booth as you make your choices, you get to feed the counting machine and you get a sticker afterward. You also get time off from work to vote. It's also the greatest responsibility of the citizen of the United States of America. In sum, it's the best way to spend a few minutes of your time today.

Here is some great education on the candidates running in today's election. If ever you need to know more about any candidate in an election in Tulsa, visit the League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Tulsa Web site. They work hard to make those voter guides available free to the public, and the guides are always thorough and organized.

Read up, and we'll see you at the polls!

Purple Glaze Studio: Something for the Kids, Perfect for a Rainy Day

I've been getting questions about what there is to do in Tulsa for kids. I'll answer since kids are people, too, mostly.

Also, I'm always on the lookout for great gifts, especially ones I can make.

Purple Glaze, on Peoria at about 35th St., and on S. 91st St., fills both orders.

We went to the Peoria location to make gifts for my mom and Meme for their birthdays. My mom turned the big 5-0 yesterday, so I wanted to make her something that would secure my status as her favorite daughter, once and for all.

I don't know why I was expecting a quiet little studio, but that joint was abuzz with all kinds of folks - a group of pre-teens, a mother and daughter on a night out, an early-20's couple on a date. We took the last available table, and for the plus-or-minus two hours we were there, no tables came free.

Let's rewind a bit and remind the seasoned among us what exactly goes down at Purple Glaze: You pick a piece from the wide array of pottery and ceramics available in the studio; get an idea for a design and pick paints; sit at your little table, draw, paint and have a great time. A few days later, return for your one-of-a-kind, professionally fired and glazed work of art.

Purple Glaze runs daily specials, ranging from Friday date nights where couples pay only half the $6 studio fee to after-school, $2 studio fees for students on Wednesdays. Since we went on a Monday, we didn't have to pay a studio fee at all. Pottery prices include paint, glazing and firing. We decided to work with large plates, which were $16 per - not bad for a handmade keepsake.


That's my hand print. Dainty, no?

That's my husband's hand print. Burly. Manly. Muscular.

The same size as mine.

Oh, well.

And there's our little guy, gettin' in on the fun.

Here's the finished product.

Go ahead and say it: This is the cutest darned thing you have ever did seen.



I've gotta commend Purple Glaze on its customer service. When I went to pick up our plates Thursday, the person in charge that day informed me one had broken during the firing process (good thing we made three, right?). She and her manager offered me a gift certificate that more than replaced the plate that had broken, and they let me keep the broken plate, of course. They were apologetic and professional in handling what was potentially an upsetting situation.

Mom and Meme loved their gifts. We gave them each a half of the broken plate first, just for laughs. They even tried to act excited about them, the sweethearts.

They liked their unbroken plates much better.

Hubs and kiddo and I will be returning to Purple Glaze to re-make our own heirloom soon. I'm thinking this time we'll opt for a set of small, square plates - or maybe a set of bowls - or maybe I'll finally try a mosaic - or maybe we'll do it all, since we plan to make Purple Glaze a regular destination for our family outings. It's cheap, easy and fun. Plus, it gives us a chance to just sit around and be together.

If your kids are running here for baseball practice, there for ballet, and you're trying to fit dinner in between catch-up work on your laptop, walking the dog and scrubbing behind your ears, yell, "Wait a minute!" at the top of your lungs the next time your family is within ear shot and haul everyone down to Purple Glaze.

While you're making something together that you'll always treasure, even if you can't tell if it's a dog or a fish or a clown, and even if it looks more like it got dragged through the mud than masterfully painted, you'll get plenty of chances to take a much-needed, long, deep breath.

Until your youngest knocks over an entire shelf of ceramic Batmans. If/when that happens, be sure to take pictures. Send them to me so I can have a good laugh.

Parking for Dfest

I think some people shy away from spending time downtown because they think there is no parking available.

Well, maybe the kind of parking available in suburbia where you step out of your car, take a few steps and you can walk into your destination isn't widely available, but there is certainly plenty of places downtown to store your wheels.

Source: Tulsa Police Department. Click to enlarge.

I hope most of you will make it downtown this weekend for Dfest, Tulsa's premier music event and conference. Dfest officials estimate about 60,000 will show up downtown for some music this weekend, and 60,000 music fans can't be wrong.

You can still buy two-day passes for $30, which is next to nothing to pay for the level of entertainment that will be available during the course of the weekend. If you wait until the day of the event (starts tomorrow, gates open at 4, with first shows at 6), you'll have to shell out $40.

How often can you pay for an entire weekend's worth of entertainment for less than the price of a tank of gas? Especially entertainment that rocks.

The Most Lifeless Intersection

Google Streetview

I overheard someone say once that the S. 51st Street and Memorial Drive intersection is "the most lifeless intersection in Tulsa."

I have thought about that comment a lot. At times, I've been convinced the person was correct. Two strip-style shopping centers riddled with national chains, a Shell station, not anyplace where I'd be enticed to dine, two lanes going in all directions, pedestrian lights about 30 seconds long, and a cemetery comprising the entire southeast corner.

It doesn't get more lifeless than a cemetery, you know?

Then I began to think of Tulsa in a new way. I've wandered the city by foot, car and mind, thinking of T-Town in terms of its intersections. Some are as happenin' as they come - 31st and Peoria, 1st and Archer, 71st and Memorial (like it or not, it's there). Others...well, others - 51st and Mingo, 9th and Boston - make me sad.

I also began to think of what exactly makes an intersection hip, or what sends it straight to lifeless-ville. Where's the tipping point, exactly? Does it happen when a chain, often too large in scale and discouraging of pedestrian activity, moves in on one of the corners? Does a cool independent restaurant or retailer have the capability of singlehandedly transforming a "lifeless" intersection into a hotspot (I think Elliot Nelson has answered this question with a resounding "yes," but think for yourself)? If so, what are the other parts of the formula to creating a hip hub of an intersection?

What would lists of lifeless and happenin' Tulsa intersections look like?

Feel free to weigh in on this in the comments section. If nothing else, give it some thought.

Hola, Eloté

I had the most delicious beef nachos today for lunch, and guess what - I don't feel one little bit guilty about it.

At about noon today, a few co-workers and I mosied down to Eloté Café and Catering, in the space that once housed Nelson's Buffeteria at 514 S. Boston Ave., where the menu is centered on owner and chef Libby Auld's spin on Mexican cuisine that she coined "Fresh-Mex." I had my choice of familiar, south-of-the-border dishes from tacos to quesadillas to puffy tacos, all made with fresh ingredients.

The menu at Eloté is big on healthful food, which brings me back to my nachos: they were flavorful, light and not overly filling, a far cry from the greasy, heavy nachos I order at basketball games and Taco Bueno. Not that there isn't a time and a place for everything, including greasy, heavy nachos, but I'm trying to rid this world of some of my presence right now. Eloté can be good for those of us staring longingly at those skinny jeans.

One of my co-workers had the puffy tacos, one beef and one chicken, with eloté (roasted corn-on-the-cob served with a spicy, citrus aioli) and black beans. Puffy tacos - or "pouffy tacos," as another customer mistakenly and hilariously called them - could be closely compared to those Indian taco things available at the fair and Mayfest, only they're usually much smaller, and the range of ingredients varies much more widely. I've had the puffy tacos from Eloté once before, so it was fun watching someone else experience their fresh, pico-topped fabulousness.

It's hard to get rid of a $10 bill at this place. My co-workers and I each ate for $6-$7, including a drink. Considering that several entrees feature two sides, and since my plate of nachos was more than enough for two to share, any price less than $10 would be a great value.

Yet another reason to brag on Eloté: it's just a hop, skip or a jump from the offices of most folks who earn a living downtown. No gas money required.

Libby, the owner and chef, seems to be suited for the business. Both times I've been to Eloté, she has flitted between the kitchen, the dining room and the hostess stand, saying hello and checking in on everyone in between. Best of all, she can cook. I like that in a restaurant owner.

Eloté Cafe and Catering has the official Tasha Does Tulsa seal of approval, which means that if you mention this blog when ordering, you'll receive a fabulous prize. Not really. Unless you actually do.

Hosting an Out-of-Townie

I got to play hostess to a friend who came in from out of town Saturday.

Actually, having moved from Tulsa to a distant, remote land of Indian casinos, a total lack of edible take-out and zero QuikTrip availability, she not only knows her way around Tulsa quite well, but she knows exactly what she wants to do when she gets here.

So, rather than allowing me to feel like a dignified know-it-all, she led me around my own dang town all Saturday long. She also insulted me, flashed me (many times) and bought me clothes along the way.

Without further ado, this is my friend:Come on, don't be shy.
That's Amanda. Sorry I blew out all the color in your face, Amanda. I'm still getting the hang of my camera, Amanda. Thank you for understanding, Amanda.

In those pictures, she's getting ready to split a delicious lunch of sausage and mushroom pizza with me at The Stonehorse Cafe in Utica Square. That pizza continued Stonehorse's flawless track record of supplying me with fall-on-the-floor amazing food.

The dining room is cozy, too:That's half of the dining room. Hey, so what if there's not much seating? You won't need a seat at Stonehorse; you'll be too busy flailing about on the floor in fits induced by overwhelming deliciosity.

The bar area. Lovely, huh?

We fell into Stonehorse only after spending the previous hour at Ihloff Salon and Day Spa, also in Utica Square. Amanda will come clear from land-of-no-shopping just to get her hair trimmed there.
See that? That's a smack-bottom awesome hair cut.

That is...well, that's me. Not even an Ihloff stylist can rein that in.

Amanda was dead-set on spending the day shopping for new pants. Since the first of the year, Amanda has lost 20 pounds and 4 pants sizes, so pants that fit are now in rare supply at her house. Punk.

This is what Amanda looked like last Halloween: See her there, hiding her body behind a Nike sweatshirt and a lovable attitude? Sad. Just pitiful.

By the way, I am nearly five months pregnant in that photo, so if you make fun of me for being fat, well, you're mean.

Here's the last photo I have of us from back in the good ol' days when I weighed less than her...
...which was nearly three years ago.

Sigh.

Here's what she looks like now:So hot that she can even pull off one of those dresses that looks like a UPS uniform. She wanted me to put, "What can brown do for you?" under this photo, but I thought that might come off, I don't know...racist.

Can you tell Amanda likes to try on LOTS of clothes? Yeah. She's sort of awful to shop with, at least for a girl who wouldn't name shopping to her top-ten list of favorite pastimes. In fact, shopping is on my top-fifty list of favorite pastimes, right under washing pacifiers for the third time in a day and looking down at the scale in the morning only to realize I outweigh Amanda by 30 pounds.

Sigh again.

Amanda's shopping prowess comes in handy enough, I guess. She helped me find a super-nice suit jacket that had been marked down nearly 90 percent. It's a good thing she was with me, or else I might have purchased something more along the lines of: This. Ooooohhhh this.

That suit is real. I found it at Stein Mart, right here in T-Town, during a self-piloted shopping trip. I didn't buy it, but I should have. My kitchen is now decorated in pineapples, solely because of this photo and the family joke it has become.

After three or four hours of blitz-style shopping activity, I had to bail. That's kind of hard when the Woodland Hills shopping mall is this busy:
I go to the mall maybe - MAYBE - three times a year, so I was sort of caught off guard by the size of the crowd. All of these people can't believe that the best thing to do in this town on a Saturday afternoon is to go to the mall...

Can they? I don't know. I did for a day, I suppose. But it was all Amanda's fault.

Bike to Work Day

I hear today is Mayor Kathy Taylor's Bike to Work Day:

Not that I don't love trees, baby seals or clean air for Tulsa, but...that's my idea of biking to work, right there.

Be a Green Traveler

Have any of you guys seen this?It's INCOG's Green Traveler. It's a pretty cool deal. After signing up, which is easy as pie, you can search for anyone looking for a rideshare according to where you live, where you work, where that person works, your commuting times, and more. You can even tell the system whether it'd be cool with you to rideshare with a smoker.

A few Tulsa employers have put Green Traveler on their Intranet systems to make rideshare finding easier for employees, and other employers have taken steps to help employees find coworkers with whom to carpool via the Web-based version of the program.

It's free to register, and who knows, carpooling could be a wonderful experience.

Case in point: When I learned I was about to be a baby momma, I decided to start carpooling with a coworker to assist my husband and my efforts to stock pile some cash for our soon-to-be kiddo. Until I got to the ultra-hormonal nesting stage in the middle of my eighth month and could no longer grip the door handle hard enough to deal with her New York-style of driving, our carpool contributed to a friendship that grew very close by the time my doctor told me to lay off work and have a baby instead.

When you drive to work and back with someone each day, you learn all about him or her. You have chances to talk about anything and everything, from the merits of vegetarianism to spouses to issues of faith. Carpooling was an enriching experience for me in that I gained a close, life-long friend out of the deal. Plus, I didn't drive, so I got to look out the window a lot. I like that.

Even if you don't use Green Traveler - but you should at least register so you can get a look at it, because it's pretty darned neat - try to carpool every now and again. You'll be enriched and, if nothing else, you'll learn something about yourself.

Like that when your carpooling buddy inexplicably turns on the heater full blast on the way home from work on the 20th of August and you're pregnant and your clothes don't fit and you're in a constant state of sweat-astic, you must go into the house and promptly barf up everything you ate for the past three weeks. I know that about myself now, and I'm better for it.

DoubleShot is DoubleAwesome

Man, that was a nerdy title. Please don't slap me - I'll do better next time.

Nerdy title! Next time you're in a tiled bathroom or other space in which you practice your echoes, shout those two words as loudly as you can, with as much staccato as you can muster. You'll be pleased with the results.

Right now! Stop that! Silly. I would say that if you could guess the movie from which that quote comes, you'd win something. Well, you won't - except for maybe a nice pat on the back. From yourself.

The only person who wins something today is Jeff Shaw of Bounded Rationality. He correctly guessed where the picture from this post was taken. While there were a few good guesses, the ceiling of The Philtower was spot-on.

Guess what I got him. A pound of Ethiopia Moka Stag coffee from DoubleShot Coffee Company. Yay! Cherish it, Jeff - that's some good bean.

Speaking of the DoubleShot, I love it. The guy who runs it, Brian Franklin - self-dubbed "roastmaster general" - is cool, too. He's got a lot going on right now. There's the DoubleShot blog, the podcast, running for children, and oh yeah, that little coffee company on Boston:

Let's go back to that running-for-children thing.

Brian is running in the Leadville 100 August 16 to raise money for Coffee Kids, which helps coffee farming families in need. You folks can pledge via Internet money per mile that he runs at Leadville, and after the race you can donate the total amount that you pledged to Coffee Kids.

"Hopefully it will raise some money for this great cause, which is really close to my heart," he said. "And make my run more than just a run in the Rocky Mountains."

P.S. - Brian runs a lot.

The website to make pledges: www.CoffeeIlluminati.com

The charity: www.CoffeeKids.org

The blog where he will keep his efforts updated: CoffeeIlluminati.blogspot.com

Cool beans! Sorry. Had to bookend my nerdy title with a lame ending.

Fresh Tuesday

Aaron suggested that I make my homemade margherita pizza for dinner tonight.That's not it. That's my chicken bacon ranch pizza. I'm just trying to prove that I do in fact make pizza entirely from scratch. How a photo will help you realize this, I don't know.

Anyhow. I decided some super-fresh tomatoes were key to the success of my pizza margherita. Rather than head to the grocery store, I stopped here:
That's the downtown farmers market. Not only did they have tomatoes for $2/pound (they're about 20 percent more than that at your local grocery right now), but they also had these:
Those are the prettiest peaches I've ever seen, I'm pretty sure. I'm going to have to fan myself.

This is the downtown farmers market's second year, and from what I can tell, business is good. I counted seven booths and vendors offering everything from potted herbs to vegetables to fresh, local meat to handcrafted goods, and one or two vendors offered lunch. After I'd purchased my tomatoes and chatted up the farmers (these farmers/vendors were wonderfully sweet and frank - I like that), I stood around and enjoyed the weather for about five minutes. During that time, which was at noon or so, I noticed that about 30 individuals wandered through the row of tents on Williams Green. That's a pretty darn good audience for a small farmers market:
See those little tents? That's it - that's the downtown farmers market.

It's open until October every Tuesday 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Don't forget about the other farmers markets in the Tulsa area - we've got 'em four days out of the week all over town.

Mmm mmm mmm - you just haven't lived until you'd had a garden-fresh, Oklahoma tomato. Especially on my homemade pizza.

A Guessing Game

Check this out:Oooo. Aaahhhh.

If you can guess where this photo was taken, you win a prize. Not a very big prize, but a prize nonetheless. And recognition. And maybe a few extra gold stars next to your name in the Book of Life.

In keeping with the sacrilege theme, don't even try to look away from this:
In case you didn't read about it in the paper, it finally happened: Chester kicked the bucket. Like, six months ago. Sorry I forgot to mention that.

If anyone would need extra gold stars in the Book of Life, it'd definitely be that naughty, wayward little fish.

Yesterday, In Pictures

We had a lot to do yesterday. Birthdays to celebrate, babies to welcome into the world and photograph, housework. But, we managed to take some time out to go see this:

That's the center of the universe. What are the odds that the center of the entire universe would be in my hometown? You know, it's probably not the actual center of the universe, but I like thinking that my world is at the center of things. Because it is.

Wait! Don't leave yet. The center of the universe is cooler than it looks, especially when someone decides to sidewalk chalk all over it. When you stand on the edge of that circle you see up there, you can hear the echo of the sound your voice makes when you're saying all kinds of dumb things like, "Haaaallooooowwww," and "Kaw! Kaw kaw!!" and "Hey, Aaron, will you take a picture of me like THIS?" as you bend over and look at your spouse from across the center of the universe from between your knees.

Thing is, there aren't any walls near that circle that seem capable of reflecting sound. So, it's cool and mysterious and mind-boggling.

Especially when you're on a date. Picture this: it's late, you had dinner and you went to see a cool band or something, and you've decided to take your date on a pitstop by the center of the universe before heading home. You decide it would be cool to go in for a smooch (my papa is the only person cool enough to say smooch, so don't repeat it...unless you're me), and whadoyaknow, you can hear your disgusting kiss sounds magnified by a seeming hundred times, and they're bouncing all over the place, maybe even to non-center-of-the-universe areas, like Hong Kong or New Zealand.

On second thought, don't do this. Save your goodnights for the front porch, or wherever it is you yahoos do that sort of thing.

After we exhausted all entertainment that could be had at the center of the universe, we drove by this:
It's gonna be done soon. There should be a night where everyone who brings a roll of duct tape gets in free.

Hey, just tryin' to help out by making a thoughtful suggestion.

While we were downtown, we also saw two or three instances of this:
Someone's having a good time puzzling everyone - or reenacting that scene from Big Fish over and over, one of the two.

We were hungry at that point, so we stopped in at The Local Table and had this:
Pardon the munched-upon look, but we couldn't help ourselves. No lie: this cuban panini is the best sandwich I've had in many, many moons. We'd hit a huge run of bad luck lately trying to get a decent meal that's worth our hard-earned cash when we go out, but we hit the jackpot yesterday. At about $7, this sandwich is a steal.

You know that saying, if Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy? Just as a mother's unhappiness can quell the good mood of an entire family, so can her happiness over (finally!!) finding a 100-percent satisfying lunch lighten the spirits of her spouse and spawn.
See?

Later we had to go to Red Lobster to celebrate the July family birthdays (three of them, Lord help us - actually, Lord help them, since three of us have October birthdays, and we demand much nicer and many more gifts). I say "had to go" because...well, let me put it this way. What I had at Red Lobster was no cuban panini from The Local Table.

Have I convinced you yet that that little sandwich is a God-send and could sprout wings at any moment and fly over to some schmuck's table to be eaten with less appreciation and love because, well, maybe angel sandwiches have a tendency to do that sort of thing?

Here's where the Red Lobster wait staff sang to the birthday kids:
I love it when wait staffs sing the Happy Birthday song. There's always a little of this going on:
Classic.

Random Google Searchings

Ever get on Google and do random searches? I don’t – no, never (especially not when I should be working or doing laundry or flossing my teeth) – but apparently, some people do.

According to my little stat counter, these are some Google and Yahoo! searches that have recently landed unsuspecting, unwitting souls at this blog:

• Oklahoma trips on a tank full around Tulsa (love this idea – someone should write about it. Like me. Maybe I will – after I wash all 500 dirty burp rags that have taken over our house)
• Chicago style pizza Tulsa (more than one search)
• Fun stuff to do in Tulsa on a date (a little more on this here pretty soon)
• Mcnellys bar Tulsa, OK (more than one search – and nearly every time McNellie’s shows up in a Google search that leads someone to my site, whoever is searching is a misspelling fiend of sadness and loathing)
• Stuff to do in Tulsa
• Fun things for kids to do in Tulsa OK
• Everything today is ugly buildings (huh?)

And strangest of all: Does mac and cheese make you poop

Not that that’s my area of expertise, but…no. Quite the opposite, actually.

Here are some Tulsa spots for which folks have been searching specifically lately:

• Cherry Street Coffee House (on this blog here.)
• Umberto’s Pizza (“ “ here.)
• Savastano’s (“ “ here.)
• Creek Nation Casino
• The Pie Hole

It’s fun to spy on people, isn’t it? That’s why I’m always throwing in words like “bomb” and “human shield” during phone calls – to give whoever is listening a little fun.