Oklahoma Day 1- Deco, Drillers, and Diaspora
My week in Oklahoma started in Tulsa, and my first day in Tulsa started with Foolish Things Coffee. This was anything but a foolish decision, as they had an oak-aged cold brew coffee that was absolutely phenomenal. I also liked the way they put just one big ice cube in the center of the glass so it felt like you were drinking breakfast whiskey.
After my coffee, my first stop for the day was the Tulsa Art Deco Museum. It's located in the Philcade Building, a former shopping mall owned by Waite Phillips of Phillips Petroleum Company. Oklahoma was home to quite the oil boom around the turn of the 20th century, and Tulsa became a happening place for the extremely wealthy. Naturally if there's one thing the extremely wealthy love doing, it's showing off how extremely wealthy they are, and the massive 13 floor sky scraper was designed to be a shining pinnacle of the then-stylish Art Deco Building.
It was a stunning building both inside and out, with an absolutely incredible lobby in the shape of a T for Tulsa. That Lobby has now become the home of a free museum dedicated to preserving and showcasing all things Art Deco, ranging from high fashion to everyday appliances to architectural models. I'm a huge sucker for the sleek geometric simplicity and color combinations typical of the art deco style, and it was really interesting to see the ways in which one artistic style got incorporated into so many different facets of people's lives, even high school year books!
My personal favorite items in the museum collection were the sculptures because they were the most blatantly artistic entries, and the display of type writer ribbon cases because I'd never seen anything like them before. I got such a kick out of the ribbon cases because I think that speaks to the level of opulence of the roaring 20s that people even wanted the containers of one small piece of an appliance to look like pieces of art. They did legitimately look amazing, but who was really showing off their type writer ribbon cases? As for the sculptures, my favorites were casts of pieces by a French sculptor named Paul Philippe. His sculptures of classy 1920s ladies were really incredible, but my favorite part about this particular display was that the only other person in the museum at that hour was an older woman who REALLY loved Paul Philippe. When she saw them she exclaimed, "Oh my stars and whiskers!" and I have never been so happy in my life.
Across the street from the museum was a gift shop called Decopolis. While they did have some art deco posters and memorabilia, they also had a lot of totally random things like a giant model T-Rex skeleton, paintings of Tiki Heads being attacked by aliens, and vintage toy robots.
The thing that I was most amazed by in the store though was that so, so many people must have looked at this board game, and nobody thought that there was anything wrong with the name Uncle Wiggly.
After the gift shop, I went to the Center of Universe. While the odds of the actual Center of the Universe being in Tulsa are astronomically unlikely (in every sense of the phrase), the name in this case refers to a small circle of concrete that is the sight of a bizarre acoustic phenomenon. Any sound made from the circle comes back much louder inside the circle than outside, like a miniature echo chamber. This appears to be the result of circle's placement at the center of several concrete walls that reverberate sound back, but no one know if this was done intentionally or was just sort of a fun accident. Either way it's a cool thing to check out if you don't mind looking like a crazy person yelling to yourself on a bridge.
Slightly off-center of the universe was a monumental abstract sculpture by an artist named Bob Haozous called Artificial Cloud, because at the top of the over 70 ft high spire is a little cloud like shape. I loved the whimsical nature of the cartoonishly fake cloud thrust up into the heavens.
After working up an appetite walking around downtown Tulsa, I got enticed by a bustling little husband and wife Banh Mi shop called Lone Wolf Banh Mi. It appeared to be very popular which was a good sign, but they also had a notice up that today was Meatball Monday which was an even better sign. All their meatball dishes were discounted so in the spirit of this beautiful holiday, I got the Japanese meatball rice bowl which came with bean sprouts, scallions, pickled daikon and carrot, cilantro, pesto meatballs, and cilantro pesto aioli. It was incredible, with all the different flavors adding up to a deeply satisfying whole. The shop also happened to be next to a cafe/yoga studio called Press, which is a solid pun for that kind of establishment. I had no interest in the yoga, but I was in the mood for getting more coffee without walking too far (that says a lot about how in shape I've gotten) so I got a can of their nitro cold brew to go. I hadn't really seen canned coffee before, but the barista hyped it up and I have to say it was pretty good.
After lunch, I went to the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, home of the largest collection of Judaica in the Southwest. I'll be honest I always assumed Oklahoma would be a fairly WASPy state, so I was pleasantly surprised to see this little outpost of Jewish art and culture. Having grown up in an almost entirely Catholic community, my knowledge of Judaism is fairly limited so it's always nice to get to learn new things while checking out some quality art.
The first gallery was a newer gallery of pieces by an artist named Michael Knigin. Knigin is a master in the craft of lithography, and this series of prints combines photographs from Nazi Germany various other images creating collages that augment and heighten different aspects of the originals. These juxtaposed images were sometimes blithely humorous such as big red thumbs down over images from a Jewish ghetto and sometimes painfully poignant such as images of Jews being loaded onto trains for the concentration camps paired with blankly staring lambs being led to slaughter. Overall I found this gallery to be really powerful, like a pop art take on WWII propaganda posters reclaiming the Jewish narrative of these horrific events.
One of the coolest items in the museum was right in the lobby: Three monumental stained glass windows depicting different scenes from the Torah. They had been purchased from a synagogue in downtown Houston and they were absolutely awe-inspiring.
The next small special gallery featured a series of incredibly detailed sketches of landscapes from Israel by an artist named Raffi Kaiser. In an interesting choice none of the scenes, despite how vivid and fully realized they are, depict actual locations in Israel. Instead they're sort of amalgams of real locations and imagined ones as a nod to the idea that for Jewish people there is the actual country of Israel but also a more mythological homeland that doesn't really exist in our world as it does in texts and imaginations. I always love when people use their immense artistic talents to mess with people's heads like that, even if does have richer symbolic meaning.
The permanent collection galleries on the first floor were as depressing as they were fascinating as they focused on the history of Jewish persecution at home and abroad, including artifacts and remnants from the concentration camps. I was surprised and disappointed to see the extent of American anti-semitism through the years, some of which was alarmingly recent such as photos from 2011 of tipped over Jewish gravestones. The most shocking thing to me though was that Henry Ford wrote a book called The International Jew: The Foremost Problem and used to put a copy of the book in the glovebox of each new Ford sold. I had heard stories about Ford being anti-semitic, but I had no idea how far reaching his anti-Jewish campaign had been. The other thing that really surprised me was seeing actual KKK robes. I don't think I've ever seen them in person before, so they've always been more of an ethereal evil presence to me, but actually seeing the robes made me feel more viscerally how horribly this still active organization is. While this isn't always the most upbeat material to look at it, I'm glad there are collections of it, because the fact that this stuff still happens shows how important it is to still talk about it and learn about and not let the evils of the past off the hook.
Despite all this prosecution, it wasn't like the world Jewish community took all these things lying down, and it was very inspiring after reading such horrible stories to see a display on all the different ways Jews from every social strata resisted the Nazis, even within the camps. It's always amazing to me that despite the Nazis best efforts at intentionally creating the most soul crushing environments the human spirit is an almost impossible thing to totally break down. It was very powerful.
The last pieces on this floor were a series of artists takes on the Holocaust, including some more lithographs by Michael Knigin that combined excerpts from Anne Frank's diaries with different images as a really lovely tribute to her life and continuing legacy.
The next floor of the museum was much more upbeat, focusing on celebrating Jewish culture and tradition from around the world. This started in wonderful fashion with a collection of Purim masks designed as part of an annual competition by local school children. The idea of masquerading to celebrate Purim is believed to have originated in 15th century Italian Jewish communities, and while some academics believe there to be religious significance to the act, its also definitely associated with partying and celebration, not dissimilar to carnival celebrations. It was really funny and endearing to see how much each kids different personality came out with their masks, ranging from scary monsters to totally random objects like buckets of KFC or Blobfish. This year's winner however was a very impressively made mask of a papier-mache Hasidic Jew complete with a bushy yarn beard. This one was definitely the most technically impressive, but I have to give my vote to the KFC kid.
The rest of this floor collected items from all over the world associated with different communal and religious traditions, ranging from high holidays to marriage to death and burial. I really loved the blending of history, anthropology, art, and craft in this collection. It was very cool to see how different global cultures combined their own cultural traditions with Jewish ones, adding their own artistic interpretations of different religious objects and traditional clothes. The most interesting historical bit of information I learned was that there were pockets of Jewish communities living in Ethiopia since at least the 10th Century BCE that were unknown to the larger world Jewish community until nearly the 20th century! That blew my mind.
My favorite items from the collection included: tools and figurines from the Bronze Age because it was impressive that they were so well-preserved at all let alone still so aesthetically interesting; some ketubot by a Jewish-Japanese artist that combined calligraphic traditions with an ancient Jewish marriage tradition essentially making them the most beautiful pre-nups I've ever seen; and some truly incredible examples of fine Jewish metalwork. Using precious metals, primarily gold and silver, some of these ancient ceremonial objects are astounding works of intricate craftsmanship.
And last but not least, there was a small corner in the back of the gallery dedicated to honoring prominent Jewish pop musicians through the ages from Billy Joel to Gene Simmons to Lenny Kravits. It was a really nice display, with some great guitar art and classic rock photos, but I did laugh out loud at how hilariously easy the pun they went with for it was. Naturally, it was called Jews Rock!
After the museum, I kept the religious zeal going by checking out a massive public sculpture outside Oral Roberts University called Praying Hands. These 60 foot tall glove-fillers are made of over 30 tons of bronze, which makes it one of the largest sculptures of pure bronze in the world. For me personally, even more impressive than the sheer size of the sculpture was its attention to detail with every single vein in the hands perfectly rendered. The sculpture was without a doubt very impressive, but there is something just sort of off putting about any giant disembodied appendage.
Tulsa seemingly had no shortage of impressively large public art pieces as my next stop was the fifth largest sculpture in the US, Tulsa's Golden Driller. This 76 foot tall shirtless oilman confidently resting an arm on an oil derrick was originally erected in 1953 for the International Petroleum Expo, but ultimately proved so popular that it became the official symbol of the state monument for Oklahoma. It's not quite as detailed as the giant hands, but it has a sort of cartoonish sleekness to it that reminded of the art deco grandeur of this morning.
The caboose of this little giant sculpture train was actually about 20 minutes out of Tulsa in the little town of Catoosa, which is very fun to say. The Blue Whale of Catoosa was built in 1972 by an artist named Hugh Davis as a gift to his wife, because nothing says I love like you a giant whale. The whale also serves as a dock for jumping off of into the nearby pond so it became a popular attraction for local families and children. I've gotta admit I did have a sort of childlike glee in channeling my own inner Pinocchio and walking into the belly of the giant whale. The whale also happened to be located off historic Rt. 66 so that also stoked my sense of Americana finally linking up with that most famous highway.
I was pretty tuckered out from all that big art, so I decided to refuel and get some writing done at 918 Coffee back in Tulsa. It was a really great atmosphere for working, and they had a special coffee in the spirit of the upcoming St. Patrick's day that had non-alcoholic Irish cream syrup and a dash of mint and chocolate. It was a very delicious way of honoring my ancestors. At one point during a bathroom break, I noticed that I was wearing just a white shirt and blue jeans and so in a fit of bored creativity I decided it was very important that I try to recreate the Born in the USA album cover with a dishrag I drunkenly took from Waffle House in place of the Boss' baseball cap.
After my photoshoot, I was about ready for some dinner. I think that visiting that giant whale stuck me with a hankering for some seafood. I went to the White River Fish. Because everything looked so good and fresh, I got the seafood platter so that I wouldn't have to narrow it down. It came with broiled cod, scallops, clam cakes, corn on the cob, and green beans. Everything was fantastic. The veggies were really nicely seasoned, the fish was flavorful and had just a perfect texture, the clam cakes were doughy and tasty, and the scallops were honestly the real star of the show. I don't know what they did to give them such a stand out flavor, but they were some of the best I've ever had.
With a nice belly full of fish, I went to a cool little bar called The Fur Shop where the night's open mic would be. I got there much earlier than I needed to but this gave me a chance to try some local beers (the Dead Armadillo Amber was a real highlight despite its kinda gross name) and chat with the local comics once they started filing in. The fact that they were all so friendly even before the mic started gave me some high hopes for this mic, and I was not disappointed.
The two hosts of the night Andrew Deacon and Ryan Greene did a great job keeping energy and enthusiasm up for a fairly full night of comedy, and the whole line up was really solid. My favorite comic of the night was a guy named Michael Zambino who did a great extended bit about how his look is that of a first step-dad. "Like I wasn't cool enough to be with mom when she was young, but I'm stable now but not stable enough now that I'm gonna be the last step-dad." I thought it was a rally clever mix of self-deprecation and making a one-off metaphor work way better for way longer than you expect.
My favorite single line of the night was a very dark and very funny joke from a comedian named Brian Miller: I asked my mom for a baby brother for christmas so imagine my surprise when I came home on Christmas morning and found a box with Baby brother written on it. I just wish she had remembered to put some holes in the box...
Other highlights:
Zachary Amon- My mom's half Asian... and half white trash. (this then segued into a very funny extended bit where he subverted both groups' stereotypes with a pretty great impression of his mom that unfortunately probably wouldn't translate great into text)
Hilton Price- I just want to be depressed enough that dogs come up to me.
Laura Cooke- I think I'm dating someone out of my league. Like he's a teacher with a Ph.D and I'm a waitress with butt acne.
An unintentional highlight that killed me was an act that was so surreally bad that I'm not sure if the guy was really nervous or drunk or if it was all some illfated attempt at Andy Kaufman performance art. This comic came up wearing sunglasses in a bar at night, did some incredibly weak puns ("A frog's favorite soda is croak-a cola, but dogs prefer Pupsi" was one I remember) flailed around on the stage doing a very offensive Hellen Keller impression, and then said the phrase that absolutely destroyed because it did seem so earnest after all that: "I have to go, I'm very busy" I don't know if that was as funny to anyone but me or even intended to be funny but I was howling at the idea of this person being an incredibly busy business man who made time out of his day for that.
My own set never reached such surreal high/low points, but I think it went over pretty well. I kept one new joke I was working on in the middle going a little longer than it needed to but every punchline hit which made me feel good. I had been a little nervous because I was going up fairly late in the night and still feeling a little out of practice since I only got to do two shows in AR, but the audience stayed receptive until the end, and a few of the comics came up to me after the show to say they liked my set so that was a really powerful confidences booster. I remember in regards to a silly one-liner I opened with one of the comics said, "This is the highest compliment a comic can pay another comic but fuck you for writing that before I could" I like that not to toot my own horn, but as a fun little window into how all of our weird minds work in that I genuinely did feel like that was a huge compliment. I ended up hanging out at the bar just chatting, drinkng, and joking around with a bunch of the comics for well over an hour. It was a definitely a nice welcome to Oklahoma.
Favorite Random Sightings: Up With Trees; Grumpy's Tavern; Mayo Meadow (my personal hell)
Regional Observations: I'm assuming it's because a lot of wealthy northerners moved to Tulsa during the oil boom, but a lot of the streets in Tulsa are named after Northeast Cities and colleges (Boston, Yale, Harvard etc.) which made me weirdly nostalgic.
Albums Listened To: Playlist: the Very Best of Waylon Jennings by Waylon Jennings (an excellent Christmas present from my best family friends, the Beaudets, who met up with me in Nashville) ; Please Please Me by the Beatles (for a long time I thought the poppier early Beatles wasn't that great, and while it's fluffier it's still pretty amazing music); Pleased to Meet Me by the Replacements (probably my favorite Replacements album)
People's Favorite Jokes:
nothing today so here's one from the Internet:
If you ever get cold, just stand in the corner of a room for a while. They're normally around 90 degrees.
Songs of the Day:
it’s unreal to me that a Ringo song could have this effect on women
the angle is off to avoid copyright i guess but when the horns kick in everything is okay
