Dr. Omed: Roadside Attractions and Okie Arcana

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:25:53 GMT

THE LAST ROAD TRIP?

THE LADY AND LITTLE SISTER, NATURAL FALLS STATE PARK

DR. OMED VISITS THE LADY

Pilgrims and seekers, aside from the poke I received from Fiona, this image is the numinous entity you have to thank for the return of Yours Truly to the blogging fold: The Lady, the naiad in residence at Natural Falls State Park. This is one of Oklahoma's numerous small state parks, tucked away in odd corners off blue two lanes all over the state. To reach this one, you drive almost to Arkansas and watch out for the small sign that marks the turn off. Blink and you'll miss it. The place is small, and betrays its origin as a private, commercial resort--Dripping Springs I think it was called. The movie Where the Red Fern Grows was filmed "on location" at the park. The ferns do indeed grow in the mist from the Lady's dress.

I go to see the Lady to find some peace--the peace that passeth understanding, if you will--from the weather of the world and my own dark heart. She does not fail. In spite of all human 'improvements', glamour, in the old sense of the word, clings to the place where she pours herself out. Don't go to her immediately. Walk the trails for a bit, cross your own path, then go down to the pool in the grotto by her foot, sit, and breath. That's all. Breathe out the bad ions and breathe in the good ions. Watch the falling water braid itself in a recursive spiral. Go on your way renewed.

CROSS YOUR OWN PATH

SIT, AND BREATHE.

WATCH THE FALLING WATER.

That's all.

When I filled up my tank that day, on the pilgrim path, a gallon of gas in Tulsa was selling at three dollars and nineteen cents per in Tulsa, which consistently has the cheapest fuel in the country. It was a selfish indulgence, I must admit, but I figured I'd better get in that last road trip, and visit the Lady, before the price of gas goes through the roof. I'm glad I did.

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:03:34 GMT

ICED TULSA: THE DAMAGE DONE

Yes, I know. More gloomy pictures of trees mutilated in the big icestorm in Tulsa.

This one reminds me somehow of the jungle pictures of Henri Rousseau. Go figure.

These pictures were not taken by me. They were taken by Mrs. Dr. Omed's co-workers.

These pictures convey, more than my own, the catastrophic nature of the damage done to the trees of Tulsa.

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:01:17 GMT

A TENT SHOW REVIVAL:

CHURCH SIGN ROUND-UP

Dr. Omed passes Beams of Light Family Church on the way to his day job most mornings. The apothegms on their sign provides amusement and/or bemusement and/or fast food for thought on a regular basis. The one you see above caught my eye and caused me to make a rather sudden turn across a lane of traffic into their parking lot. It hit me upside the head like a fried catfish, like a corn pone Okie Zen Koan—what did it mean?

Though Dr. Omed was not on the road to Damascus, pilgrims and seekers, I was mugged by a semi-revelatory petit-epiphany (Have you noticed that revelations frequently don't reveal anything?)—The message on the sign revealed to me an inspiration: that I must revive an old feature of the Tent Show that some of my regular congregants may remember, the Sunday Church Show Round-up. Yes, I know it's Wedesday, this is the teaser. Although I have not posted a Church Sign Round-up for a couple of years, I never stopped taking pictures of church signs, so I've got a lot of them saved up. Look for a full round-up on next Sunday—with hushpuppies and coleslaw. Virtually.

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:29:19 GMT

ICED TULSA: BROKEN TREES

ZINK PARK

Snow fell on Saturday.

Annie Beagle.

PERRYMAN FAMILY CEMETERY

And I will friend you, if I may,
In the dark and cloudy day.

A.E. Housman

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:52:11 GMT

LET THERE BE LIGHT...

heat, light, and Internet access.

CHILLIN' WITH THE GREAT SPIRIT

MONDAY, WOODWARD PARK, TULSA, OKLAHOMA

Dr. Omed's Tent Show is back on the grid, as of Saturday afternoon. Our humble home and hermitage has been without electricity since last Sunday afternoon, about 2, when one of the Frost Giants kicked over some trees in our backyard. Those Frost Giants spent all that night crashing about, making God's own toothpicks out of who knows how many of the trees of Tulsa. Dr. Omed took a whole lotta pictures during and in the aftermath of the Great Oklahoma Ice Storm of '07, some of which I posted to my back up blog, The Tent Show at Blogspot, from work, which has a big generator hooked up to a natural gas line. We are most humbly thankful to the Norns for the aforsaid heat, light, and internet access which as many as 75,000 Public Service Company of Oklahoma customers, mostly in North Tulsa, still don't have. Expect more pictures of Kristalnacht für die Bäume, at least until I get bored of it. Since I'm very, very fond of tress, that may take a while.

In the meantime, Mrs. Dr. Omed woke me up about one this morning, snoring. Usually it's the other way around. I snore like my dear departed Uncle Bethel Jewel, which is to say like a bull elephant trying to bugger a steam shovel. Mrs. Dr. O sounded like someone trying to start a chainsaw just outside the back bedroom window, yanking the starter cord over and over. I'm don't normally have a case of the fantods waking up in the middle of the night, but the vision of Ol' Leatherface in our backyard, fixin' to start in cutting some kindling, if only he can get that chainsaw revved up, kinda kept me from getting back to sleep. Lost my perchance to that dream, so to speak. I've been up 'termiting' since then, it's almost dawn, and I'm tired. I'll be back after a nice morning nap.

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 13:22:01 GMT

I AM MY OWN GNOME

ELK FALLS, KANSAS

Those of you who are familar with the film Amelie will recall that she kidnapped her father's garden gnome, and sent it around the world with a friend working as a stewardess for Air France. On her travels, the friend took polaroid pictures of the gnome posed in front of various world famous landmarks, and mailed them to Amelie's bemused father. I don't have a gnome, so I use (if need be) the ten second shutter delay on my digital camera, and pose as my own gnome.

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 07:46:09 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: DOWN BY THE RIVER ON BUTTERFLY ALLEY

TURKEY MOUNTAIN FROM "BUTTERFLY ALLEY"

Across from Turkey Mountain between the Riverpark's paved path and the Arkansas River is a narrow strip of trees, vines, and underbrush, and a footpath runs through it, undulating like a very relaxed snake. A footpad such as myself can stroll to its slight slither, insulated a bit from Riverside Drive and rush hour joggers and cyclists aerobically exercising their right to open space. In such slivers of undeveloped real estate I find a little residual wildness, a half hour of relief from what Henry Miller called “the air-conditioned nightmare”—updated—the suburban monoculture of box store boulevards, super churches, gated ‘communities’ of McMansions, horizontal hives of condominiums and apartments that is eating up the landscape of the country. Mrs. Dr. Omed travels on business quite a bit, and she says it’s the same everywhere—from Boston to San Diego—“same buildings, same restaurants, same stuff—different trees.”

A MOCKINGBIRD KEEPING AN EYE ON THINGS.

With a little time on my hands on after work, I parked the car in the lot, crossed the asphalt paved ‘trail’ and a swale of mown grass, and ducked under the low limbs of the tree that guards the entrance to the “Butterfly Alley.” Now I didn’t have a name for this micro-refuge until this last visit. I had on previous occasions noticed that there were often a lot of butterflies about in September, October, and even into November last year (don’t get me started on global warming), after the wild sunflowers began to bloom. But in the 30 odd minutes I had to myself that evening, the place was practically swarming with butterflies. Butterfly Alley is the appropriate moniker. There were Monarchs aplenty as well as other species. The best of show were dark swallowtail butterflies which I first thought were Black Swallowtails, but after a couple of hours of research, decided were most likely Spicebush Swallowtails.

There were also a lot of Bonking Beetles bonking.

SILVER SPOTTED SKIPPER, Epargyreus clarus

FIERY SKIPPER, Hylephila phyleus (male?)

SPICEBRUSH SWALLOW TAIL Papilio troilus troilus

BEST OF SHOW

The yellow flowers all these beauties are perching upon are not of the Sunflower family Helianthus. I tenatively identify them as Helenium autumnale, also known as Sneezeweed. It is called Sneezeweed because the dried flowers were once used as an ingredient in snuff. It tickles my fancy, if not my nose. Dammit, Jim, I'm a poet, not a botanist.

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 21:03:50 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: OXLEY NATURE CENTER

WHITE TAIL DEER (LEAST BLURRED SHOT)

Oxley Nature Center is one of the pockets of semi-demi-wilderness, like Turkey Mountain and Redbud Valley, that have been preserved from assimilation into the metastasizing McSuburb that is greater metropolitan Tulsa, by the donation of land by (in this case) a Oil Boom grease baron and/or his heirs and assignees—for which egregious souls such as I are duly and mightily thankful. Next slide.

"FLOWLINE TRAIL"

There is wooded lowland interspersed with small lakes, ponds, marsh, and open land bordered by Bird and Coal Creeks. An abandoned section of old two-lane highway runs through it on the Bird Creek side. It isn't very big—truly a little pocket of land within Mohawk Park, which also contains the Tulsa Zoo, a golf course, the city waterworks, and Yahola Lake, from whence much of Tulsa's drinking water comes.

COTTONWOOD SAVANNAH (NO SAND TRAPS)

HOLLOW TREE WAITING FOR A DRUID

THE REAR END OF AN ARMADILLO

THE ARMDILLO REARS UP ON ITS HIND LEGS (CAN I SAY IT HAPPENED IN A BLUR?)

On my latest sanity stroll at Oxley, going where "the wild things go," I took my camera and not my beagle (no dogs allowed in the Nature Center), and snapped dpics with abandon. The lack of a dog at the end of a lead and the magic of digital technology compensate for my incompetence and my shaky hands, and I come away with some fine images:

MONARCH BUTTERFLY PERCHED ON A THISTLE BLOSSOM.

BUMBLEBEE ON A THISTLE

HOGWEED AND DEAD THISTLES, AMONG OTHER THINGS

HOGWEED BLOSSOMS AND HOGWEED BONKING BEETLES

These yellow and black beetles were swarming on these plants with the clusters of small white flowers, doing what comes naturally to them. I did a little research and discovered that the plant was most likely Hogweed, and the bugs having the orgy were a variety of 'army' beetle, Rhagonycha fulva, commonly known as Hogweed Bonking Beetles.

A WHOLE LOTTA BONKING GOIN' ON

BONKING ON A THISTLE, WITH THE MONARCH LOOKING ON

TIGER SWALLOWTAIL

The Butterflies were thick on the ground—Literally:

BLACK SWALLOWTAILS DOGFIGHTING IN THE LEAF LITTER UNDER THE TREES

A HERON (NOT READY FOR ITS CLOSE-UP) LEAVES FOR OTHER WATERS

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 01:43:20 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: BOWLING BALL PEACE MONUMENT

ADMIRAL BOULEVARD FLEA MARKET

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

JOHN LENNON

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 12:33:55 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: NO LONGER ROADSIDE

THE TWO WAY TAXI NO LONGER GOES BOTH WAYS FOR MOTORISTS

and the odd pedestrian (Dr. Omed) on the frontage road south of Hwy. 169.

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 06:07:01 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: GRAFFITI WATCH

SEEING EYE TO EYE

I've been posting fairly regularly on the Tent Show main page, but my other categories have been languishing, for the most part. There are a number of reasons for this; it takes time and leisure to organize and post the sort of photo-essays I like to do for Roadside Attractions and The Fossils of Tulsa County, and before that I have to go out and actually take some pictures, which was not happening in the nasty hot summer Oklahoma has been having. Real life interferes with blogging, particularly extended blogging; it's much easier to tear off a quick hunka hunka burning rant in reaction to the Bush Regime's latest public gaffe or war crime. The long walks are not taken, and not blogged.

Another thing that has bolixed me a bit in regard to Roadside Attractions in particular, is that I have discovered that when I google, say, Tulsa Graffiti, Dr. Omed is near or at the top of the page, and the official City of Tulsa anti-graffiti site is right below it. I have drawn too much attention to some other things in and about Tulsa that I love, and that has given me pause, but in the case of graffiti—an outsider, outlaw form of art of which I am inordinately fond—when I post an image of a local example of the genre, all a graffiti hater has to do is click twice to get from here to the place where he/she can report it to the local graffiti gestapo.

I don't want to give up posting local graffiti, but I feel I must exercise discretion and not give away, in the text or in the images, the location of the work I photograph and post. I will apply this rule even to graffiti I know has already been painted over, or graffiti I believe has been done with permission or comissioned by the owner of the property it decorates. This is all rather deary, but the art is not, and it will continue to appear here on this blog, and to bloom on the blank surfaces and ulitarian artifacts of the urban waste spaces of Tulsa and cities all over the earth, bringing color, shape, and interest to eyes blighted by blind walls and naked concrete.

A NEW STENCIL FACE

Sat, 01 Jul 2006 20:54:21 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: SIGNS OF THE TIMES

After Mrs. Dr. Omed picked me up at the bookstore noonish, we passed this single protester at the corner of 41st and Yale on the way to lunch. The day was getting hot and there she was, pacing back and forth barefoot on the blazing concrete. I snapped these dpics, and gave her the thumb's up.

There she stood, alone, speaking her truth by way of a crudely lettered sign to eyes protected by tinted glass, to air cooled souls swathed in steel and plastic, standing on hot pavement, breathing their—our—exhaust.

Sun, 04 Jun 2006 21:36:16 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: ANOTHER DREAM HOUSE

THE "FLINTSTONES" HOUSE, CHARLE PAGE BLVD., EAST OF GILCREASE RD.

This house has been a local landmark for many years. I have no idea who built it, or why they choose this particular "style" for their dwelling place. It is still occupied, as you can see. The hill behind the home is perhaps the only bit of rising ground along the Arkansas River in Tulsa that is not composed of limestone and/or sandstone and/or shale laid down during the Carboniferous Period (roughly 285 to 325 million years ago)...this hill is composed, instead, of loess (fine wind blown dust) deposited 30 odd milliion years ago during the Eocene Epoch. Dr. Omed knows that, but he doesn't know who lives in the house.

Sat, 03 Jun 2006 20:59:38 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: LOOKING THROUGH THE GLASS

"RAPIDOS CHIHUAHUA" ADMIRAL BLVD. FLEA MARKET

Sat, 03 Jun 2006 04:31:27 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: THE RETURN OF THE STENCILS

You can't keep a good stencil bot down.

Some graf-artistes look down their noses at stencil grafitti, but I rather like it.

I'm not sure at all what the image above represents. You tell me.

Stencils can be crude, but they can deliver a message.

Repeat it again and again and again.

No matter how many times they're painted over.

Tue, 30 May 2006 01:26:27 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: MEMORIAL DAY BY THE ROADSIDE

21ST STREET JUST EAST OF YALE AVE., NEXT TO SEARS PARKING LOT

Judging by the pictures, the dearly departed rode her motor scooter to Heaven.

My mother was killed on a motorcycle, my motorcycle as a matter of fact, by a drunk in a pick-up truck who'd already lost his license to a DUI, but she was not wearing a helmet and died of head injuries. This young lady seemed to like wearing her helmet, but it didn't save her.

A roadside memorial this elaborate almost always includes inspirational verse.

Mon, 29 May 2006 05:53:43 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: MEMORIAL DAY BY THE ROADSIDE

HWY. 412, WESTBOUND, NEAR QUANAH

"DANIEL PAUL NEWMAN"

"ALWAYS IN OUR HEARTS"

Mon, 29 May 2006 05:29:37 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: MEMORIAL DAY BY THE ROADSIDE

HWY. 412 EASTBOUND, NEAR GILCREASE RD.

"GALEN"

Every year approximately 42,000 people are killed in auto incidents in the United States; that's about 115 per day—more on holidays like Memorial Day.

Sun, 28 May 2006 18:51:52 GMT

LOOKING THROUGH THE GLASS

DR. OMED STILL LIVES AND LURKS...

Tue, 02 May 2006 13:53:43 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: PICTURES FROM A DEMONSTRATION REDUX:

THE NEWS AT TEN

"THE MINUTEMEN"

The self-styled "Minutemen" got much, much more face time on the local news. Go figure.

Concerned citizens exercising their right

to advocate for the denial of rights to "undocumented" humans.

THE VIEW FROM THE HELICOPTER

Mon, 01 May 2006 22:20:36 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: PICTURES FROM A DEMONSTRATION

LA LIBERTAD

The sign says it all:

"WE THE PEOPLE: WE ARE THE PEOPLE"

CIVIC CENTER PLAZA, TULSA, OKLAHOMA 3:45PM CST: WHITE T-SHIRTS EVERYWHERE.

"COLUMBUS WAS AN IMMIGRANT"

The weather was cloudy but smiles were sunny.

"WE ARE AMERICA"

"WE WANT PEACE NOT WAR"

GUADALUPE SCARF: "AM I NOT HERE, I WHO AM YOUR MOTHER?"

Tulsa "Street Crime" Police guard the counter-demonstrators—all twelve of them—from themselves.

Are these patriots? Who is a true American?

When I left (the time on the parking meter was running out, and yes, I got a parking ticket), the white t-shirts were still coming.

And the helicopters were still circling.

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 05:37:12 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: PAINTED OVER

This mystic vision was painted on the side of this building on 15th St. near Delaware St when it was occupied by a cooperative art and crafts gallery. This is what it looked like today when I snapped a dpic from my car as I drove by:

One with the snows of yesteryear and covered by coats of Sherman Williams' beige.

I really, really hate that.

Note to local graffic artists who email hints about grafitti I may have overlooked:

I am grateful for the tips and wish to continue recieving them, but I have a backlog of dozens of dpics of Tulsa grafitti in my files I haven't posted yet, so don't get impatient if the particular grafitto you're touting does not immediately appear on Dr. Omed's Roadside Attractions and Okie Arcana. I will try to post grafitti dpics more regularly, but, as you may have noticed, grafitti, as much as I like it, is not my sole interest, and I'm behind on all the stuff I'd like to post.

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 03:53:15 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Annie Beagle and I drove downtown to deliver fat envelopes of tax forms to the main post office this evening. This little nocturnal pilgrimage is something of a tradition that many people observe in Tulsa. Tonight, just past the traffic policemen with their reflective vests and orange flashlights, there was a small group of protesters encamped on the streetcorner. I do believe they object to rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's, considering what Caesar is doing with the denari in these latter days. What lovely heresy. I gave them a thumb's-up, snapped a couple of dpics, and called out that they would be appearing on Dr. Omed's blog tonight. Dr. Omed sometimes keeps his promises.

'Nuf said.

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 04:51:11 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: CHURCH SIGN ROUND UP

SINGING, DANCING, AND STIGMATA—WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED?

Church signs are the thought balloons of pastors. The messages posted often read like a punchline without joke, or a caption without a cartoon. I keep an eye on the church signs around town; when I think they think they've been particularly clever, or have an especially wise saying, I stop and take a picture.

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 07:06:52 GMT

SCENIC TULSA: LOOKING THROUGH THE GLASS

SCAWY WABBIT, ANTIQUE SHOP, 20TH & HARVARD

Kill the Wabbit!