Mayfest Memories

Some of the stories you TDT readers shared about your Mayfest/Blue Dome Arts Festival/Art Car weekend are just too good to leave buried in the comments on this blog and the madness that is my Facebook page.

Below are a few that have popped into my mind over the past couple of days, causing me to burst out laughing at inappropriate moments or sigh wistfully as I waited in line at the grocery store or smile to myself as I watched my kid dump sand on his head at the playground.

Vnecv wrote:

Mayfest has always been special because my birthday is in May! Every year in middle and high school, my dad and I would come and wander the artists on Saturday looking for just the perfect birthday gift for me. Rows and rows of the best jewelery, photos, painting and more. I think I had the most varied art collection of any freshman going off to college. I'm now 37, married with two kids, so I will always remember the special May memories with my dad.

ambientchatter wrote:

...took my girlfriend (now wife) in 94 to Mayfest, ate some great apple strudel, listened to some great jazz at the stage by the water fountain in the main mall. First kiss later that night. Guess the Mayfest magic worked.

suburban hippie mama wrote:

Last year at Mayfest I was VERY PREGNANT w/ twins. Hoping to put myself in labor I walked from Mayfest to the Blue Dome everyday...there are some pretty big hills. I was so incredibly huge that artist (who were strangers)were actually giving my unborn twins gifts! I love Tulsa.

And my favorite one of all, from Joe Noman:

It was the 2001 event. I was in the company of a co-worker. I did not know her very well, but she had overheard me telling my boss that I was going and she sorta invited herself. We were listening to some band that was not very good. We had bought some coneys and were lucky enough to find an empty bench to sit on. Good food and good seating; how could I have asked for more? Then the band played a slow, bluesy song. My companion grabs my hand and tells me how nice it would be for me to ask her to dance. But I had found comfortable seating and I was eating coneys. It would have taken a tornado to move me at that moment. So like the yutz that I am, I just sat there and did not ask her to dance. The next thing I know, I get a large-sized cup of strawberry soda dumped on my head and a styrofoam tray of half-eaten coneys smashed in my face. And as I watched my, now very offended, companion stomp away; it occured to me that I probably did not handle that particular situation very well. Not surprisingly, she never spoke to me again.

Thanks, you guys. I love being let in on the zaniness of your lives.

Image by Amanda Emerson at havesporkwilltravel.blogspot.com. Blue Dome Art Festival, 2009.

A Close Encounter at Woodward Park

After some sushi at Fuji on Brookside Friday night (which is one of the times when Fuji does NOT run it's all-you-can-eat-sushi-for-$9.99 deal, which we learned once we got there with much sadness and loathing), my little family made its way to Woodward Park, at 21st Street and Utica Ave. 

Taking this kid to the park is, well, an adventure to say the least. He has only one speed, and that's GO - in caps. In bold. In italics.

Right now, everything that's furry, has four legs and a tail is "a doggie." He says it like that lady on Hee Haw says "How-DEE!" 

"Uh dug-IE!" It's the cutest thing. 

Being very comfortable with and attracted to "uh dug-IES," when he saw the dozens and dozens of squirrels flitting about at Woodward Park, this was his oh-so-natural reaction: 

To approach one to see if it'd let him pet (read: maul) it. 

Look at that body language. It doesn't exactly bring to mind cuddles, nuzzles or even the mainstays of rough love like affectionate ripping out of fur - my son's No. 1 choice for showing he cares.

Run away!

Thank goodness for grandmas, huh, little guy?

They're really good at coming to the rescue.

Parenting sKool

Parenting fail at Tulsa International Mayfest?

You be the judge. 

Have a great time at Mayfest today, Tulsa. Don't be like me.

Saturday Night Winners

Saturday night, and the moon is out, gonna head on over to...downtown and eat lots of food and get some craft beer.

Let's hope the moon comes out, anyway. It's been a little rainy 'round here as of late. We had a storm really show its stuff last night, but I've heard all that will have moved out by the time everyone's ready to cut loose downtown this evening.

Want to know the winner of the pair of VIP passes, t-shirt and poster vouchers I had stashed for Saturday night?

Are you sure?

Are you really, really sure?

Okay:

Congrats to Brian, my first contestant and one of the two entrants who share the title of Most Entries Earned! E-mail me ASAP at tashadoestulsa at gmail dot com. And have a safe drive from Pryor - don't speed for goodness sake.

I have an acute fear of speeding, in case you didn't already know. Gives me the heebies.

Guess what? I have TWO pairs of passes and vouchers! I mean, of course. Did you really think I was just going to give away one pair? I couldn't have. That would be cruel and mean and hateful and all the other things I am every morning before 8 a.m.

Congrats to Michael, who held the 30th entry! Loved your Tulsa photos on the Tasha Does Tulsa photo group - thanks for those. E-mail me soon and we'll talk about how you can get your goods.

Thanks for playing, everyone. I have a lot of fun with these giveaways. It's just so much fun to give away fun things to nice people - especially nice people who use their valuable time to read this silly little blog. Big hearts to all of you.

YOU Are the ABoT

That's right, it's you - you are the absolute best of Tulsa. That you're reading this blog right now shows that you give enough of a rip about this city to either:

a) look up a blog about Tulsa on the Interwebs when there are so many hilarious videos of cats and puppies and babies beckoning from YouTube; 

b) be brave enough to subscribe to a blog called Tasha Does Tulsa that has nothing to do with what Debbie's doing in Dallas;

c) check this blog before you make your choices on where to eat, where to go for entertainment and what to do to fully experience the Tulsa area. 

While you could very easily vote for yourself in each and every category of Urban Tulsa Weekly's  2009 Absolute Best of Tulsa survey, you'd come off less like someone who drank the crazy Kool-Aid if you took the time to cast some thoughtful votes for, you know, other people.

The survey is pretty intense, asking for who you think is the best city counselor, which is the best restaurant, and who you think are the best musicians in Tulsa. By the way, the music section of the survey was expanded this year, so pay special attention and weigh in carefully. 

ABoT has been kind of a big deal in Tulsa for 18 years now. It's such a cool deal because it's not some bad imitation of those multiple-choice tests we all had in our easy classes in college. You have to know your stuff to get through the survey. The results of this survey actually mean something - it's by Tulsans, for Tulsans, about Tulsans.

Send in your ABoT ballot or vote online by May 21. If you vote online, you might win a prize. And wouldn't that be just creamy?

Then, look for the run-off ballots in the June 11 and June 18 issues. Readers choice results will be published July 16. 

Take ten minutes and bust out the best as you know it. Then, take yourself out for ice cream. Go ahead - I give you permission.

Ripples

One of my favorite aspects of Tulsa International Mayfest weekend is that myriad events and activities that spring up around the Mayfest hubbub on Main Street and the goings-on in the Blue Dome District with Blue Dome Arts Festival.

Here's just a sampling of events that will benefit from the waves of traffic brought on by the biggest downtown festival all year, while causing their own ripple effects as well: 

First birthday party at Elote Cafe & Catering

Dwelling Spaces ROCKS Blue Dome Arts Festival and Mayfest

Blue Invitational Art Exhibit

American Craft Beer Festival at McNellies, a celebration of National Craft Beer Week

Hanson on the Blue Dome Arts Festival Music stage at 11 a.m. Saturday

Whew, that's a lot of awesome sauce. 

Perhaps the biggest and most-loved Mayfest/BDAF sideshow, though, is Art Car Weekend, hosted for the fifth year by Living Arts of Tulsa. Artists come from all over the country to to enter their crazy, colorful working car designs in the show. 

It all gets started today at 6 p.m., when the Art Car Artists will start rolling into T-Town. The cars tour Tulsa schools tomorrow from 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. They'll parade through downtown at 2 p.m. Saturday and party the night away at the Roadhouse at Blue Dome Diner. The artists will sit down for a documentary by Harrod Blank at Circle Cinema. For all the times in between, head to second and Elgin to up-to-the-minute updates on Art Car Weekend. 

Want to put a bite to eat after the Saturday afternoon Art Car parade on the itinerary? Great. That's a good idea. Know what'd make it even better? If that bite to eat didn't cost you a darned, blessed thing. Also, if you were wearing a free Mayfest t-shirt and had a free Mayfest poster rolled up and tucked under your arm. 

I should be a professional party planner. Because if a trip to Art Car Weekend, Blue Dome Arts Festival, Tulsa International Mayfest and maybe a few events in between isn't a party, I don't know what is.

You can win this free bundle of Mayfest goods by heading to Twitter, Facebook, Myspace or the comments in this blog and chatting about one of the many events listed in this post.

BONUS: Four bonus entries to each entrant who posts a photo to the Tasha Does Tulsa group on Flickr. That's a total of five entries for the shutterflies.

BONUS: Four bonus entries to each entrant who can answer the following question: Which act will take the Main stage at Williams Green at Mayfest Saturday night at 9:00 p.m.? That's a total of five entries for the Mayfest trivia and music lovers.

Bonus: Four entries to each entrant who'd be coming to Mayfest from outside the Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area. That's a total of five entries for the out-of-townies. 

Contest ends Friday night at 5 p.m. I'll announce winners later in the evening, so stay tuned.

Good luck, Mayfest fiends! I could say the same thing to the weather, but hey, it's all part of the fun of holding a festival during the wettest month of the year in the state of Oklahoma. Wee!

Friday Night Winner(s)

I apologize for my tardiness in announcing the winner of a pair of VIP passes to Friday night's Mayfest, a voucher for a Mayfest shirt and a voucher for a Mayfest poster. I didn't not have a hall pass, so go ahead. Call my parents up to the school. I dare you.

Sorry. Flashbacks from when I used to skip school and sneak up to Sonic for tater tots. In elementary school.

Anyway.

Let's see, who had the 39th entry...Mandy Moore! Congrats, Mandy. E-mail me at tashadoestulsa at gmail dot com, and we'll go from there on joining you and your tickets and vouchers in loving harmony.

Just kidding about skipping class in elementary school, by the way. I wish I could have been that cool of a kid. In reality, I never skipped a day of class in my life - not even on Senior Skip Day. And what did I get in return? A child who is ornery enough for the both of us.

Know how that makes me feel? Like giving away more passes, another T-shirt and another poster.
Laura Ritchhart entered 10th! Congrats, Laura. E-mail me, okay? Let's unite you with your tickets and Mayfest swag.

Thanks for playing, everyone! And don't be smokin' in the boys' room. Because it's naughty, that's why.