Usher, Looking 4 Myself – Whenever an artist says they’re developing a “new type of music,” the proclamation is generally met with a collective groan. Usher may have come close with his seventh studio album, though. The sultry R&B singer brought in an eclectic group of collaborators, including Danja, Diplo, Empire of the Sun and Pharrell Williams, to weave together pop, electronica and R&B influences to create something unique.
Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel… – Fiona Apple attained international acclaim with her 1996 debut album, but unlike most performers she hasn’t felt the need to regularly release new material. This marks just the fourth album in her 16-year career, and her first since 2005. Apple previewed three songs from the album in widely lauded performances at SXSW, which confirmed the quirky, gritty Fionna Apple we know and love is back.
Kenny Chesney, Welcome to the Fishbowl – Chesney’s 13th major studio album tops off a storied career that has brought more fame and hit records than most country music performers can imagine. Chesney says this status allows him to not only produce the types of songs that allow him to sell out stadium concerts, but also make music he truly loves. The album’s lead single, the Tim McGraw duet “Feel Like a Rockstar,” is the second highest debuting country song in Billboard history.
Maroon 5, Overexposed – Maroon 5 came to prominence with 2002’s Songs About Jane – though it took the album a while to catch on – becoming superstars with a fresh musical sound and cover model good looks. After two subsequent albums that have solidified the band’s fame and talent, while sounding largely the same, the quintet says they’re headed in a slightly new direction with a dance-driven album described as their poppiest. That remains to be seen though, since the lead single “Payphone” sounds much like the band’s previous work.
Wall Street bankers and massive, often multinational financial institutions were at the center of the U.S. subprime lending catastrophe that triggered the global recession. But legislation ostensibly intended to rein in the errant behavior on Wall Street is worrying banking interests on America’s main street, including in Oklahoma, where banks avoided the pitfalls of risky lending and financial products. While legislators who crafted the legislation that prompted the crisis collect their federal pensions, while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – the largest players in the crisis – still remain flush with public dollars, and while Wall Street bankers have enjoyed banner years in terms of personal bonuses, the nation’s smaller, regional banks brace themselves for massive new federal intrusion.
“Back then, ‘bank’ was a dirty word, even though it wasn’t traditional banks that brought about the collapse,” says former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating, now president of the American Bankers Association (ABA). “We were assured only large financial institutions would be affected by the Dodd-Frank Act. There are now 7,226 pages of proposed and approved Dodd-Frank rules, and the average community bank is looking at this and it absolutely does affect them.”
Brad Krieger, executive vice president and regional manager for Arvest Bank in Oklahoma and Kansas, certainly agrees.
“Most of the discussion was about investment banks, which weren’t regulated like regular banks – or with whom regulatory power was not used,” Krieger says. “We made an effort to make sure people know that ‘investment banks’ and ‘banks’ weren’t the same thing. The legislation started in paragraph one referencing ‘investment banks’ but by the third paragraph it became just ‘bank.’ And Fannie and Freddie aren’t mentioned at all in Dodd-Frank.”
Krieger says that the smaller the bank, the more compliance “you have to put on people. They’re adding additional expenses without corresponding income.
“We in the banking industry have dealt with regulation a long time and much of it is necessary,” he continues. “Just let us know what to do so we can support our constituency and provide a reasonable return to stockholders. Dodd-Frank creates an impediment to taking care of our customers. A lot of consequences have more of an affect on regular and small community banks than they do on larger players.”
“The short term effects are already visible on our income statement.”
A simple example Krieger offers involves the federal government’s arbitrary decision on appropriate fees for ATM use. While it adversely affects many banks, larger players are better able to offset it than are smaller banks that rely on such fees for income.
Keating points out that overdraft fees are also heavily scrutinized, which could be disastrous to smaller banks.
“For some banks, particularly smaller and community banks, that’s a big portion of their income,” Keating says.
Federal interests also would prevent banks from providing a home loan to an applicant who – despite demonstrated financial wherewithal – had defaulted on a student loan.
“That’s $1.6 trillion in loan opportunities being sucked out of banks, particularly small banks, because of liability from Dodd-Frank,” Keating says.
With waves of new regulators under command of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has virtually no limit in terms of power and for which there is no checks and balance oversight, conducting standard banking business becomes far more expensive, according to Keating. Small and mid-size banks will have to pay more to monitor and guarantee compliance and all transactions are subject to bureaucratic oversight.
“There will be no character taken into consideration – everyone will be put in the same box,” Keating says.
Krieger says that bank customers are already noticing changes.
“Many banks have eliminated free checking and moved to a minimum balance, fee-based system,” he says. “You hear a lot about lending and some of its not true. Banks do have liquidity. But many customers aren’t requesting things because it’s shrouded in uncertainty. It’s paralysis by uncertainty.”
Krieger says that with community banks and small to mid-size banks, it’s customers like farmers and ranchers being beset with unintended consequences. Regulations regarding mortgage compliance have already driven some banks to get out of the mortgage business.
“The federal government is taking some income away, increasing our expenses, squeezing margins and making it much harder to do business,” Krieger says.
The full effects and long term influence of Dodd-Frank remain unclear.
“The long-term impacts of Dodd-Frank on banks like BOK Financial are yet to be seen, but the short term effects are already visible on our income statement,” says Pat Piper, executive vice president, Consumer Banking, at Bank of Oklahoma Financial. “Our organization has been preparing for this so it’s nothing we can’t overcome. Our mission now is to continue to seek greater efficiencies internally, while balancing customers’ expectations for both high service and technology, as well as reasonable charges. Ultimately, Dodd-Frank has changed the world of banking, both for bankers and for customers.”
Keating says that the ABA has several bills being looked at now that could help shore up the deficiencies of Dodd-Frank. The problem is that any of them might accentuate the fact that the legislation’s backers – including most Democrats and the White House – are capable of making mistakes.
“I know many Democrats feel that if they amend the rules it will be proof they didn’t know what they were doing,” Keating says. “Could be that we have to hunker down in the storm shelter and wait to see what happens.”
Krieger says that historically those in the banking industry are optimists.
“That optimism says we can make changes in the right way,” he says.
As for the massive multinational banks characterized as “too big too fail” and blamed for the nation’s banking crisis, however, business has never been better. Two years after being verbally targeted by President Barack Obama, and while main street institutions struggle under massive new regulation, the nation’s five largest banks hold assets equal to 56 percent of the U.S. economy ($8.5 trillion-plus). That’s up from 43 percent of the U.S. economy just five years earlier, according to Businessweek.
Last fall, Chicago Tribune art critic Howard Reich asked the question: Can Esperanza Spalding draw a new audience to jazz?
OK Mozart hopes the answer is “yes,” and that the Grammy Award-winning musician can reel in guests to its week of fanfare and music. The 28th annual international festival presents the vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and composer in four different experiences – a chance for many to see why the world thinks so highly of Spalding.
At 27, Spalding has already lived a rich life as a teenage jazz club musician, as a college instructor at Berklee College of Music in Boston and a highly-sought recording artist. Influences from Bach, the diversity of her hometown of Portland, Ore., and a variety of musical genres create a complex sound you enter through two doors.
Spalding’s Chamber Music Society (2011’s best-selling contemporary jazz album) is a sophisticated ode to William Blake poetry from a string ensemble, vocals and percussion. Her recent Radio Music Society showcases jazz artists through an accessible selection of original compositions and covers, such as the Beach Boys, ready for radio play.
Whether she’s balancing a bass or cradling a guitar, Spalding is that refreshing, unexpected element in jazz that fans have been waiting to hear. And OK Mozart has her for both its main stages in Bartlesville and its Oklahoma City Series performances.
Spalding performs in the festival’s first big show on June 9 at the Bartlesville Community Center, sharing the stage with Grammy winning jazz artists Terri Lyne Carrington, who collaborated with Spalding on Carrington’s Mosaic Project album, and Geri Allen. Then it goes to Oklahoma City University for a matinee on June 10.
Spalding helps close out OK Mozart’s 2012 season at the Grand Finale Concert with the Amici New York Orchestra and Kyle Dillingham on June 16 at the Bartlesville Community Center. The grand finale repeats June 17 at the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall. www.okmozart.com
Many of us live for the weekends, and that’s especially true in summer. The pace of life wants to slow down whether we like it or not, and we’re struck with an overwhelming desire to play hooky from the hustle of the daily grind. Here are 12 welcome retreats designed to recharge your batteries and allow you to savor summer in Oklahoma.
1
Celebrity in OKC
Oklahoma may not be as rife with opportunities to hobnob with the rich and famous and live the high life as, say, Hollywood or Manhattan, but Oklahoma City is quickly becoming a world-class city with all the fixins’ for a celebrity weekend. This is a perfect weekend away from reality with your BFFs, and who knows? You may even cross paths with an NBA player or an energy tycoon.
This weekend is all about living it up, so you’ll want to check into well-appointed digs at the Colcord Hotel – one of their luxurious suites or corner rooms if you can get it. Dress to the nines and head to OKC’s hottest new shopping area – Classen Curve – for lunch and retail therapy. Nosh on upscale casual fare with international flare at Café 501 or raw delights at Matthew Kenney. You’ll be fortified to shop the designer fashions at Balliets, On A Whim, Liberté, Black Optical and Steven Giles. If you don’t shop ‘til you drop, swing by the trendy Paseo Arts District to peruse the eclectic art galleries and maybe grab refreshment at Picasso Café.
After a disco nap, you’ll dress for an evening on the town and hop in your limo – yes, you have a limo. Start off with a martini at Red Piano Lounge in the Skirvin Hotel or the Purple Bar at Nonna’s before dinner at a downtown hotspot such as the new Flint or Red PrimeSteak. Next, you’re off for an evening of bar-hopping and maybe a little dancing in Bricktown or at one of many spots along Western Avenue.
After some much needed sleep, you’ll start the day with brunch at West or Café do Brasil. Finish off your weekend fit for a celebrity – sans wardrobe malfunction – with shopping in the local boutiques along Western or The Outlet Shoppes and maybe a little something sweet from La Baguette before heading home.
2
Country Victorian in Guthrie
The picturesque town of Guthrie sprang from the plains with the 1889 Land Run. Overnight, the town had more than 10,000 citizens and soon came modern brick buildings, running water, electricity, public transit and even underground parking for horses and carriages. It enjoyed a short stint as the state’s first capital before a contentious election in 1910 gave that honor to OKC. This led to the decline of Guthrie as a major economic and political player, but ironically preserved the historic Victorian architecture that makes the town a tourist attraction today – downtown is a National Historic Landmark and the largest urban historic district in the country, covering 400 blocks.
To get the most from Guthrie, arrive on Friday and check into one of the town’s many Victorian-style bed and breakfasts or inns – you’ll need to book well in advance. Get the lay of the land with a trolley tour or rent a bike and explore on your own. Enjoy dinner at Gages Steakhouse on the lower level of the Sand Plum Building, and get a glimpse of the network of underground walkways that once connected much of downtown. If your timing is right, you can catch a performance at the historic Pollard Theatre – their production of La Cage aux Folles runs throughout the month of June.
Rise early on Saturday and grab breakfast at one of Guthrie’s down-home diners. There’s a ton to do on a Saturday in Guthrie, ranging from the farmer’s market and local festivals and parades to antique shopping and events at the Lazy E Arena. Plan on lunch at the Victorian Tea Room, and don’t you dare leave without dessert. Spend the afternoon exploring the Oklahoma Territorial Museum and the charming Frontier Drugstore Museum before making the short drive to east Edmond for dinner at the Steak & Catfish Barn, of Man vs. Food fame. Try to catch the famous Byron Berline Band at the Double Stop Music Hall or live music at a downtown tavern. Start your Sunday with a soak in nearly ubiquitous claw foot tubs found at most B&Bs and enjoy breakfast in house before exploring any parts of town you may have missed. Grab some barbecue or a burger and onion rings at Stables Café on your way out of town.
3
Get Lucky
Gaming in Oklahoma has come a long way from the days of the bingo hall. Today, we can have a Vegas-style casino experience without booking airfare, and with major casinos located throughout the state, it’s easy to plan a weekend enjoying the best Oklahoma gaming has to offer.
Tulsa boasts three major casinos, all within in a few minutes’ drive from one another, so it’s easy to hit them all in a weekend. Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Claremore boasts 125,000 square feet of gaming, 350 luxurious hotel rooms and suites and five nightclubs and entertainment venues. Other amenities include Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill, McGill’s on 19 and the Cherokee Hill Golf Club. Hard Rock also presents big name entertainment at The Joint. This summer, catch Cheap Trick, Dennis Miller, Duran Duran and Tony Bennett, among others. River Spirit Casino, located on the banks of the Arkansas River, offers a full range of gaming options from electronic games to a poker room and other table games. Dining options include Elements Steakhouse and Grill, the state’s largest casino buffet, a 24-hour café and the Scorecard Sports Bar. And you’ll be thoroughly entertained with regional acts in the Mystic River Lounge and headliners in the event center. Just north of downtown, Osage Casino Tulsa offers more than 1,000 electronic games, poker room and table games and an expansive buffet. Big-name entertainment at the Event Center this summer includes Travis Tritt and Crystal Gayle. Just up the turnpike in Quapaw is one of the state’s most beautiful casinos, the elegant Downstream Casino Resort. The vast gaming room includes the latest electronics, table games and a stylish poker room. Other amenities include an 11-story hotel, golf, and a full range of dining options. Regional bands perform at Legends Sports Bar and big name acts, including summer concerts by Chicago, Ronnie Dunn and Boston, can be seen at The Venue.
Near OKC, there’s FireLake Grand Casino in Shawnee. This casino is a haven for card players with poker, blackjack, spinette, craps and Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em. Keno is also a favorite. Satisfy your appetite at Embers Steakhouse, the buffet or sports bar and quench your thirst at one of the swanky lounges. FireLake Grand also offers regional acts and regular performances by nationally known acts. Riverwind Casino in Norman offers 219,000 square feet of gaming space including 30 table games, 24/7 poker room and off-track betting. A 100-room contemporary hotel houses guests in comfort and dining options include a buffet, sports bar and food court. National and regional acts perform at the Showplace Theater and intimate performances by local bands occur at the River Lounge.
The luxurious, AAA Four Diamond Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant features a 300,000 square foot gaming floor with more than 4,500 electronic games, a private poker lounge, off-track betting and even bingo. The Choctaw Grand Tower offers 300 elegant rooms and suites with a fitness center, spa, indoor/outdoor pool and a tropical pools with a lazy river and waterfalls. Nine dining options, ranging from buffet to Mexican grill to fine dining offer something for everyone and a host of bars and lounges keep the party going. Five venues host everything from local bands to national acts such as Clint Black on June 7. Nearby, in Thackerville, is the state’s largest casino – and the fifth largest in the nation – WinStar World Casino, named for the recreation of world cities from Paris to Beijing that grace its façade and carry through to eight themed gaming plazas. This massive casino features a 500,000 square foot gaming floor and 19,000 square foot poker room. Amenities include the a 12-story luxury hotel, modeled after an Italian Villa, spa, 27-hole golf course and 10 dining options, including a Mongolian grill and Spanish-inspired pizzeria. The Global Event Center has twice been recognized as casino of the year by the Academy of Country Music, and it’s no wonder; highlights of the summer schedule include Sting, Reba, Kelly Clarkson, Vince Gill, Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks.
4
Escape to Quartz Mountain
Quartz Mountain Resort is an ideal base for a range of activities from extreme outdoor sports to a leisurely game of golf. Nestled in the rugged Wichita Mountains on sparkling Lake Altus, the resort offers Western lodge-style guestrooms with a host of amenities, as well as rustic cabins located in the center of the Quartz Mountain Nature Park. In addition to boating, fishing and water sports on the lake, the area boasts a swimming pool, 18-hole golf course with a driving range, an art gallery, a nature center, a fun park with waterslides, go-carts, bumper cars, Ferris wheel and petting zoo, miniature golf and paddleboats and canoes.
Five short hiking trails are located adjacent to the resort, and more advanced hiking opportunities exist throughout the region. The Wichitas also offer the state’s best rock climbing, with rewarding climbs for all skill levels. The nearby Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge is a must-see stop for nature lovers. The vast preserve protects a delicate ecosystem of native prairie and animal species, including bison, elk, deer and longhorn cattle. Various guided walks and even a star viewing are held throughout the year.
5
Native America
With the second highest Native American population and the largest number of tribal headquarters in the country, Oklahoma offers many ways to explore American Indian culture and history. In fact, there are far too many to mention here, and you’ll have to focus your efforts on specific tribes and regions to fit everything into a weekend itinerary.
Tahlequah is the capitol of the Cherokee Nation and the best place to learn about the largest tribal nation in the U.S. Begin your tour at the Cherokee Heritage Center, a large complex with notable attractions such as the Trail of Tears exhibit, which tells the story of the forced removal of the Cherokee from their historic homeland to Indian Territory; Ancient Village, a recreation of a pre-contact Cherokee village with historical re-enactors demonstrating tribal crafts and customs; and Adams Corner, which recreates an Oklahoma Cherokee village of the 1890s. Other attractions in and around Tahlequah include the Cherokee National Capitol and Sequoyah’s Cabin.
Alternately, you could travel to southeast Oklahoma to discover the history and culture of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes. Important sites to these tribes include the Chickasaw Council House Museum in Tishomingo and Choctaw Nation Museum in Tuskahoma.
Another fun way to learn about Native American culture is through festivals and powwows held throughout the year. Two nationally-known events are the Red Earth Festival, held in Oklahoma City in June, and the Standing Bear Powwow, held near Ponca City in September.
6
Small Town Charm
The spirit of Oklahoma lives strong in hundreds of small towns dotting the map. Pack up the car and plan a weekend visiting those places where the hustle of daily life doesn’t seem so oppressive; where people still sit on the front porch and everyone waves when you walk by. Time your adventure to coincide with a local celebration and party it up with the locals. You’re sure to be welcome.
5 Old Fashioned Festivals
Glenpool Black Gold Days: June 14-16, celebrates the discovery of the Glenn Pool oil field with children’s games, a parade, carnival, live music, festival foods and fireworks.
Pawnee July 4th Games: Pawnee puts its spin on Independence Day with games on the courthouse lawn, including a turtle race, egg tosses, water balloon volleyball, tricycle race and more, leading up to the parade and fireworks.
Pauls Valley Fireworks Extravaganza and July 4th Celebration: Pauls Valley celebrates the Fourth with games, live music, a talent show and fireworks, but the highlight of the day may be the Watermelon Seed Spittin’ World Championship.
Porter Peach Festival: July 19-21, celebrates the town’s most famous crop with the Peach Pageant, Peach Parade, free peaches and ice cream and a host of activities including a pet show, frog-jumping contest and a 5k run.
Rush Springs Watermelon Festival: August 11, celebrates the local watermelon crop with a carnival, live entertainment, car show and tons of watermelon – the festival attracts upward of 20,000, and more than 50,000 pounds of melon are served.
7
Architectural Treasures
Oklahoma’s unique history – a young, frontier state with influxes of great wealth – has created a treasure trove of architectural wonders, including early pioneer homesteads, Victorian main streets, oil baron mansions, Art Deco masterpieces, monumental churches, Mid-century Modern buildings and notable contemporary designs.
Every major Oklahoma town from the early days of statehood and the Oil Boom is blessed with serious public and private architecture. Notable examples are found in Ponca City, Muskogee, Enid and Guthrie, to name a few, but the greatest concentrations of significant architecture are located in Tulsa, Bartlesville and Oklahoma City.
Take a walk or get behind the wheel to make the most of your adventure. The Tulsa Historical Society offers docent-guided walking tours of downtown Tulsa the last Friday of every month. Reservations are required. The society’s website also offers self-guided walking and driving tours, broken down by area and types of architecture. It also offers a driving tour of nearby Bartlesville. While you’re in B-ville, visit the Price Tower Arts Center, located in Frank Lloyd Wright’s only skyscraper. You can even stay the night in one of the rooms refurbished by noted architect, Zaha Hadid.
GPSmyCity.com offers iPhone app-based, GPS-guided tours of cities around the world, including Tulsa and OKC. The Oklahoma City package includes two downtown tours and a historic building tour.
10 Notable Oklahoma Buildings
Bank of Oklahoma Tower, Tulsa
BOK Center, Tulsa
Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, Tulsa
Devon Tower, OKC
Gold Dome, OKC
Price Tower, Bartlesville
Redeemer Lutheran Church
Education Building, Bartlesville
Stage Center, OKC
Temple of the Scottish Rite of
Freemasonry, Guthrie
Westhope, Tulsa
8
Go West, Young Man
Oklahoma is home to some of the most diverse terrain in the country. No more is the stark difference evident than in the panhandle of the state, where, rising from the earth, one can spot the point of highest elevation in the state – Black Mesa – from miles away. The hike up Black Mesa, a formation that was long ago an active volcano, is moderately challenging and clocks in around eight miles, round-trip. Upon conquering Black Mesa’s summit, take time to admire the view, which includes glimpses into two neighboring states: Colorado and New Mexico. Hiking to the state’s high point and back will take a half-day, so that leaves plenty of time to explore other points of interest inside Black Mesa Nature Preserve. Outside of the park, several interesting attractions await, including Cimarron Heritage Center Museum. The building, originally a 1949 Bruce Goff-designed home, houses tributes to the panhandle’s heritage, including a homestead dugout, a restored Santa Fe Depot and blacksmith shop, wagons, buggies and more. Natural wonders abound as well; fossils and artifacts from Cimarron County’s rich Native American history are on display at the museum, as is the main attraction: the skull and partial skeleton of an Apatosaurus, a cousin to Tyrannosaurus rex. Black Mesa State Park offers amenities suited to those who wish a rustic camping experience – campsites do offer electric hook-ups and grills – but for those who desire plusher amenities, several bed-and-breakfasts dot the areas outside of Black Mesa State Park.
9
Grape Central
Oklahoma’s long growing season and fertile soils make it an ideal place to grow many types of wine grapes, and local vineyards have sprouted up around the state. The greatest concentration of these is in the central part of the state, where you can make a weekend of tasting local wines at charming vineyards while exploring the Oklahoma countryside. The following are some of the more popular wineries and vineyards in the region. You can find more at www.oklahomawines.org. Most wineries offer free tastings on weekends and some serve lunch and offer special events. Always call ahead to confirm that the facility is open to visitors.
Central Oklahoma Wineries
Tidal School Vineyards, Drumright
Redstone Vineyards and Winery, Luther
Tres Suenos Vineyards and Winery, Luther
StableRidge Vineyards and Winery, Stroud
Territory Cellars, Stroud
Clauren Ridge Vineyards and Winery, Edmond
Farfalla Winery, Yukon
10
Work the Land
We are all familiar with Oklahoma’s agrarian roots. But how about spending a weekend getting in touch with them? Our state offers great options for spending some time with the land.
In addition to being a working ranch, Howard Ranch offers Cowboy & Cowgirl School for those who wish to learn skills that are necessary “for the true American Cowboy.” With 13,000 acres, more than 600 head of cattle and 40 horses, this would certainly be the place to cut your teeth. Activities include roping, tagging and moving cattle, as well as doctoring, sorting and branding them. And of course, what cowboy (or cowgirl) experience would be complete without a few horsemanship lessons? Explore the ranch on horseback with or without a guide, and gather at the campfire at day’s end for a Dutch oven dinner and stunning Oklahoma sunset.
Pick-your-own farms also abound in Oklahoma. Sample some fresh Oklahoma blackberries picked from Owasso Tree and Berry Farm, or try out the peachy offerings at Deep Fork Peach Orchard or Livesay Orchards, home of the famed Porter peaches
Other Working Dude Ranches
Meadowlake Ranch in Sand Springs offers horseback-riding, fishing, canoeing, shooting and even knife-throwing. www.meadowlakeranch.com
Rebel Hill Guest Ranch in Antlers is a third-generation working horse ranch offering rustic amenities along with hiking, swimming and bird-watching in addition to other typical dude ranch activities. www.rebelhillguestranch.com
Tatanka Ranch, located in Stroud, offers modern entertainment, such as an arcade room, DVD rentals and other fun activities in addition to the outdoor activities like horseback riding, fishing and hiking.
11
Commune With Nature
With such diverse geology in Oklahoma, camping in different parts of the state offers an array of experiences.
Beaver’s Bend & Hochatown State Park: Located in the far southeast corner of Oklahoma in the Ouachita Mountains and along the shores of Broken Bow Lake and Mountain Fork River, the lush landscape provides a rich backdrop for a rustic getaway. The park offers lodging, but plan on pitching a tent and cooking by campfire to truly absorb the beauty offered by the area. Hiking, fishing and canoeing are year round activities.
Great Salt Plains Lake: Camping along the shores of the Great Salt Plains Lake in northwest Oklahoma provides unique opportunities for experiences not found with other campgrounds in the state. Visitors can tour the Great Salt Plains and dig for crystals in the basin. The area is also a top spot in Oklahoma for birding; visitors have reported spotting more than 100 species in a single day. Of course, hiking, fishing and canoeing are also available.
Illinois River: Several resorts offer camping along the Illinois River, a favorite among families and Spring Breakers for its scenic beauty and great canoeing. “Floating” along the river is the best-known pastime of this eastern Oklahoma gem, and the resorts along the river specialize in making each floating experience memorable.
12
Feed Your Inner Foodie
It’s very easy to choose a different restaurant to eat at each day for a year in Oklahoma and not get tired of the delicious fare. From top-flight dining to holes-in-the-wall with tasty offerings, filling a weekend with food is a no-brainer.
If fine dining is your thing, then you certainly know that Tulsa’s Polo Grill and Oklahoma City’s Coach House are two restaurants in Oklahoma with reputations for finery. From steaks and chops to sumptuous desserts, both restaurants offer unique dining experiences. If you prefer something less formal, head to Meers, home of perhaps the most famous burger in the state. The Meersburger is a seven-inch behemoth of Texas longhorn beef topped with American cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, purple onions, dill pickles and mustard. There’s also the original Van’s Pig Stand in Shawnee, serving tender barbecue that epitomizes the food genre in Oklahoma. Though the restaurant now boasts four locations, it’s the Shawnee location that holds the history of Van’s, the oldest barbecue restaurant in the state. For a bit of an adventure, fly your private plane into the runway next to McGehee Catfish Restaurant. This restaurant, located in Marietta, near the Oklahoma-Texas border, raises its own catfish to serve customers, and has done so for 40 years.
Summer Food Festivals
Indian Taco Championship: Held in Pawhuska, this national competition is sponsored by the Osage Nation. Cooks from around the country gather to celebrate the staple in Native American culture and offer their renditions of the classic.
Blue Bell Taste of Summer: Enjoy live music, an ice-cream eating contests and tours of the ice creamery in Broken Arrow. Brain freeze not included.
World’s Largest Calf-Fry Festival & Cook-off: The event, hosted by the Vinita Chamber of Commerce, celebrates this favorite pastime of ranchers. Sample the tasty “fries” and help determine the winner.
The first audiences of Pawnee Bill’s wild west show must have been in awe at the trick shooters, trick riders, Native Americans, horses and battle reenactments they witnessed at the frontier spectacular. Such sights were rare in the eastern half of the country that had settled and turned toward industry and modernization. But Gordon William Lillie (Pawnee Bill’s real name) exploited a nostalgia for the disappearing past with sensation and bravado. Today, audiences are enthralled by the historic significance of the show itself, and the Pawnee Bill Ranch in Pawnee brings it all back with three shows featuring chuck wagons, chariots, quick shooters, stunt riders, powwow dancers and plenty of fun on the grounds at the ranch museum. Count on appearances from Pawnee Bill himself. Shows will be at the ranch in Pawnee on June 16, 23 and 30. www.okhistory.org
Cherokee playwright Diane Glancy has published a lot of plays. But seeing plays published and seeing them performed are two very different things. This summer she’s looking forward to the Oklahoma City Theatre Company’s production of her latest offering, Salvage. The company will perform the play at Oklahoma City’s City Space Theatre from June 1-10.
Every summer sees the Oklahoma City Theatre Company pour effort into the Native American New Play Festival, highlighting plays by the best Native American playwrights in the nation.
“I feel that investing our resources into the festival could someday bring national recognition to our theater company. There’s nothing like this, a yearly competition festival, in the state or in the region for Native Americans. As a theater company in Oklahoma, it’s really our duty to do something that brings things that are unique to Oklahoma to the forefront,” says artistic director Rachel Irick.
The company’s festival, a two-week celebration of Native American playwrights and their works, is in its third year. It began as a humble reading of plays by Native American authors and grew from there. Each year Irick and her team select one of the readings for a full presentation for the following year’s festival. Their choice isn’t just based on the best reading; it’s also a matter of finding a good fit for the company.
“Any festival that gives voice to a culture is important. It’s an educational process, it’s an awareness process and in this case it helps the Native American culture look at itself and work out some problems,” says Glancy.
Salvage tells two tales: The story of a car collision between two men and a story of the collision of Native American and European cultures. It’s also a tale of loss, revenge and family loyalty. The author, a University of Central Oklahoma graduate, confesses to pulling out all the stops for it. It’s the kind of work that’s garnered Glancy the American Book Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Five Civilized Tribes Playwriting Prize and the Oklahoma Book Award. From 1980 to 1986, Glancy served as the Artist-in-Residence for the State Arts Council of Oklahoma. The experience influenced several of her works, including Salvage.
Salvage has been produced before in Los Angeles and London. This is its first appearance in Oklahoma.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the play again. Every time you have a different director and actors that put their own interpretation on a play you see another dimension to it that you didn’t know was there. I’m looking forward to seeing it very much,” Glancy says.
If you were a “hepcat” teenager in the late 1960s who happened to live no more than a few dozen miles west of Tulsa, chances are good that you saw and heard the Undertakers, a five-man rock ‘n’ roll outfit that pretty well ruled that turf for a few golden years. Among the teen hotspots they regularly played was the Joker in Cleveland, Okla., where, in 1967, a friend of the band’s named Dick Culbertson set up a brand-new Sony reel-to-reel tape recorder and two mikes and recorded 60 minutes of the group’s SRO performance that night.
In those days, simply getting something down on tape for your own use was a big deal, and actually getting the music to the public was an even bigger deal. Home recording was far from ubiquitous then, and the process involved in putting out a record was far more costly and time-consuming than it is today, when a musician with reasonable technical proficiency can cut a CD, create the packaging and put it on sale without ever having to leave his computer. Sure, bands got picked up by record labels, but the distance between Mannford, Okla., where most of the Undertakers lived, and recording centers like L.A. and New York seemed as far away as another galaxy.
For those reasons, it’s unlikely that the young members of the group ever thought their recorded performance would go much further than the 1/4-inch tape on their friend’s machine.
As it turns out, they were wrong.
Forty-five years later, those 60 minutes are finally being released – on vinyl – as the premiere offering of In Person.Records, a new label based in Sand Springs. It’s the brainchild of 23-year-old Jake Shaeffer, son of Undertakers lead guitarist Larry Shaeffer, the concert promoter and booking agent who owned Tulsa’s Cain’s Ballroom for nearly two decades. To hear Jake tell it, he grew up at least as impressed by his dad’s record collection as he was by Larry Shaeffer’s role as one of Tulsa’s entertainment heavyweights.
“Years and years ago, I got into vinyl records, stuff like Buddy Holly, because that’s what dad had at home,” explains Jake. “I didn’t listen to it because I thought it was cool; it’s just what I had. If you were in eighth grade in Keystone Middle School, listening to Buddy Holly on vinyl was probably the most uncool thing you could do.”
A few years later, that all changed.
“My brother, James, was a big White Stripes fan, and they were putting out a lot of vinyl,” he says. “That was the first time I noticed kids buying new vinyl.”
As it turned out, kids like Jake were buying old vinyl, too, searching out hard-to-find rock ‘n’ roll and blues records, many of which had never been transferred to disc. He became a collector of LPs and obscure music. Given that passion, it was natural that his attention would soon fall on the tape of his dad’s band.
“I’d always heard about the Undertakers,” he says. “I knew the guys who were in the band, I’d seen the old pictures. And about 10 years ago, I finally heard a cassette tape of the show. I loved that I could finally put a sound to these old photos – and the music wasn’t bad at all. The vinyl collector in me thought it would be cool to do their first record.”
First, though, he had to convince his father.
“For a year or so, I’ve been pushing him into it,” Jake says. “He told me, ‘No one wants to hear us make our noise. No one would want to listen to it. No one would be interested. It’s not even a professional recording,’
“I told him, ‘That’s cool right now. People like to listen to the scratches and the pops. This is real music, flaws and all, and people like that old garage-rock sound.’”
“It was gentle persuasion,” adds Larry Shaeffer. “He finally just wore me down.”
Once Larry was on board, he and Jake turned to Undertakers bassist Terry Colberg – who, notes Larry, “has been the curator, the guy who hung onto the photos, the memories, and the original tape.”
“About a year ago,” says Colberg, “I ran it through a graphic equalizer and onto the computer. I digitized it because I wanted to make a disc for all the guys.”
Now, the music on the tape has been even further enhanced, and by one of the top mastering engineers in the business, Kevin Gray. Based in Los Angeles, he’s worked on recordings by such artists as the Who, the Doors, the Beach Boys, Jefferson Starship and Steely Dan.
“He remasters big acts to be put back on vinyl,” explains Larry. “He told us that the Undertakers reminded him of the garage band he was in. His band had even played some of the songs we played. And suddenly, an exorbitant price went down to something very reasonable.”
Following the remastering, the record goes to Chad Kassem in Salina, Kan., who is, says Jake, the largest vinyl distributor in America. “We’re doing 1,000 copies total, on 200 grams, the thickest vinyl we can get,” he adds. “Two-hundred-gram vinyl is more of an aesthetic thing. We want it to be as close to a record pressed in 1967 as it can be – weight, look, feel, smell, everything. The first 100 will be signed and numbered, with reproductions of five handbills for the band and a copy of the band’s business card.”
Unlike many bands, the Undertakers got along well until the end, when the military draft broke the group up. As guitarist John Claybrook remembers, “We just had fun and cared about playing good. There was no ego from anybody.”
That was true from the very beginning, according to lead vocalist Jimmy Allen, when the group had to cobble together whatever equipment it could. “I remember that our first microphone stand was homemade,” he says with a chuckle. “It had a Nash Rambler hubcap for a base. Our first gig was at a Mannford High School assembly, and all Mike had was a snare drum. We were raw. But we got better.”
Indeed, it wasn’t all that long before the group was drawing big crowds virtually every weekend in teen venues around the area.
“We put our songs in medleys, so we never stopped playing when we were on stage,” adds original drummer Mike Porter. “The guys had real good imaginations, and they did things that put our own mark on the songs.”
Often, those marks came about because the band members weren’t all that familiar with a number they were doing. “Sometimes we wouldn’t even practice a song,” remembers Jimmy Cunningham, who took over for Porter when the latter left for the Army. “Someone would hear a song on the radio and say, ‘Hey, have you heard this one?’ And we’d just jump in there and do it.”
That’s one of the things that make the project so attractive to Jake Shaeffer. “They didn’t write their own songs,” he says, “but what they did were a lot of the classic songs of the ‘60s. So this record is a way to document a little part of the ‘60s. And the fact that it’s my dad’s band makes me smile.”
At this writing, The Undertakers is set for a July 4 release. In addition to being offered on Facebook and other online sources, it’ll be available in Tulsa at Starship Records and Tapes.
On Avenue Q, residents pass the days in relative peace and privacy. The difference between their neighborhood and yours is that your neighbors probably do not look like descendents of Jim Hensen’s Creature Shop. Call it Sesame Street for those Gen X-ers – now grown and in touch with the more sardonic aspects of life – who learned to count with music, monsters and giant birds on TV. Just don’t make the mistake that Avenue Q — 2004’s big Tony Award winner – strives to be a haven for tender minds. Satire makes the story of a young college grad and the folks he meets in his shabby apartment building ripe for songs titled “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist” and “The Internet is for Porn.” That the play is produced this time by LOOK Musical Theatre makes it enticing, considering the company was born from Gilbert and Sullivan shenanigans. Avenue Q plays the Tulsa Performing Arts Center June 16, 17, 22, 30 and July 3. Also see LOOK’s entire summer season at www.looktheatre.org
When you’re a fan of speed, it doesn’t matter if the action takes place on the pavement or in the water. Head off-road to the Ozarka Oklahoma City Nationals for one of the country’s biggest boat dragging spectaculars set for June 8-10 in downtown Oklahoma City on the Oklahoma River. In its fourth year, the event is sanctioned by the Southern Drag Boat Association and features a variety of watercraft, some racing on speeds of up to 250 miles per hour. Top fuel hydro, top alcohol hydro, pro mod, pro eliminator, river racer – whether you recognize these as a class eligible for drag racing or not, the sight of boat and driver virtually skipping the waves like a stone ripping the surface at 175 miles per hour just may fascinate you. www.okcmotorsports.com
Poker Tips From Master BenBluff. “Most amateurs don’t bluff a lot. Poker is a game of aggression. Most of the time nobody has a good hand.”
Don’t place too much emphasis on math. “Everyone kind of overvalues statistics and math. When you start playing poker, you’re going to figure out the math within the first few months.”
Study other players to learn their tells. “Poker is a game of incomplete information. They overdo it in movies, but tells are very important.”
Try things to see if they work. “I was never really into the books on game theory. The best way of learning for me was trial and error.”
Have fun. “Before online poker became illegal, you could get six or seven years’ worth of experience in a few months. But it’s so much harder now. If you’re not already a good player, I wouldn’t recommend pursuing poker as a profession. It’s just too hard to break into.”
There’s a famous scene in the movie Rounders in which Mike McD (played by Matt Damon) walks in on a game of Texas Hold ‘Em and proceeds, through a combination of superior skill and Hollywood magic, to accurately name the hand each player at the table holds. It’s the kind of moment that movies love to feed to audiences: a baby-faced prodigy astounding seasoned veterans with his abilities in a contest of skill. By the end of the movie, Mike is heading off into the sunset toward Las Vegas where he plans to test his skills against the world’s best poker players in the World Series of Poker. This is the point when, if the movie world crashed with present-day reality, we would see reigning World Series of Poker Card Player of the Year Ben Lamb destroy all of Mike McD’s dreams.
Of course, Rounders was released in 1998, when Ben Lamb was a 12-year-old living in Tulsa, and long before he became one of the top poker players in the world, with more than $7.4 million in career winnings. Lamb’s gambling experiences up to that point were limited to high stakes games of Monopoly, some intensely competitive pool and Pog.
“When you’re a kid you tend to want the things your friends have,” Lamb says and laughs, “whether it’s a video game or a 10-cent Pog.”
It might seem silly now, but those Pogs were instrumental in shaping the competitive nature that would lead him to become one of the top poker players in the world. But first he would have to actually take up the game.
“I played a lot of pool in high school, betting on games,” Lamb says, “but I didn’t really play a lot of poker until I was 18 or 19.”
Although 18 might not sound particularly old, it is a bit late for mastering the skills needed to excel at poker, especially when you consider that 2009 World Series of Poker champion Joe Cada was the youngest winner ever at 21. But Lamb turned out to be a quick study and began playing in money games online and in college at Trinity University in San Antonio.
It was the online poker games where Lamb received his real poker education. Back then, before online gambling laws forced the two largest poker sites in the world to shut off access to money games in the U.S., a young guy like Lamb could shorten the learning curve by playing hundreds of hands a day. In fact, he became so good so fast that he quickly made the decision to drop out of college and pursue poker as a career.
“It seems stupid now,” he says of leaving college. “It probably was stupid. But I guess it turned out okay.”
After moving back to Oklahoma, Lamb took a job as a dealer at the Cherokee (now Hard Rock) Casino in Catoosa, where he continued learning by watching the players and playing in tournaments, often finding himself playing against older and much more experienced competition.
“I think (my age) was an advantage sometimes,” says the baby-faced Lamb. “I was underestimated a lot. Back then there weren’t a lot of young players.”
Soon he was winning enough to travel to Atlantic City and Las Vegas for tournaments. In 2008 Lamb went to Las Vegas and stayed.
“I had been making money for a while by then,” he explains. “It was sort of the natural progression.”
One might say the rest is history, but for Lamb, history is still waiting to be written. The natural progression he speaks of has been a steep and steady slope that he has climbed at unusually high speeds. In 2011 alone, Lamb totaled more than $5 million in winnings and finished number three in the main event at the World Series of Poker.
“I’ve succeeded beyond my wildest dreams,” he says, “but I always want to improve as a card player.”
For the most part, that improvement comes from simply playing cards. Lamb plays anywhere from twice a week during slow periods to every day when he’s preparing for tournaments. But he also never hesitates to ask his peers questions or seek their input in trying to learn more about the game. For Lamb, the ultimate goal in poker is learning to always play to his utmost ability.
“A lot of my friends who play will maybe have their B or C game a lot of the time,” he says. “I want to get to the point where I bring my A game every time.”
One would be wise to expect that Lamb will get to that point sometime, probably sooner rather than later. Any good gambler will tell you that it’s a safe bet that he will make it back to the final table at the World Series of Poker Main Event. A safer bet would be that the next time he makes it there, Lamb will be the last man standing. And if and when he does, maybe he’ll stop being so hard on himself for dropping out of college.
Oklahoma may not be as rife with opportunities to hobnob with the rich and famous and live the high life as, say, Hollywood or Manhattan, but Oklahoma City is quickly becoming a world-class city with all the fixins’ for a celebrity weekend. This is a perfect weekend away from reality with your BFFs, and who knows? You may even cross paths with an NBA player or an energy tycoon.
The picturesque town of Guthrie sprang from the plains with the 1889 Land Run. Overnight, the town had more than 10,000 citizens and soon came modern brick buildings, running water, electricity, public transit and even underground parking for horses and carriages. It enjoyed a short stint as the state’s first capital before a contentious election in 1910 gave that honor to OKC. This led to the decline of Guthrie as a major economic and political player, but ironically preserved the historic Victorian architecture that makes the town a tourist attraction today – downtown is a National Historic Landmark and the largest urban historic district in the country, covering 400 blocks.
Gaming in Oklahoma has come a long way from the days of the bingo hall. Today, we can have a Vegas-style casino experience without booking airfare, and with major casinos located throughout the state, it’s easy to plan a weekend enjoying the best Oklahoma gaming has to offer.
Quartz Mountain Resort is an ideal base for a range of activities from extreme outdoor sports to a leisurely game of golf. Nestled in the rugged Wichita Mountains on sparkling Lake Altus, the resort offers Western lodge-style guestrooms with a host of amenities, as well as rustic cabins located in the center of the Quartz Mountain Nature Park. In addition to boating, fishing and water sports on the lake, the area boasts a swimming pool, 18-hole golf course with a driving range, an art gallery, a nature center, a fun park with waterslides, go-carts, bumper cars, Ferris wheel and petting zoo, miniature golf and paddleboats and canoes.
With the second highest Native American population and the largest number of tribal headquarters in the country, Oklahoma offers many ways to explore American Indian culture and history. In fact, there are far too many to mention here, and you’ll have to focus your efforts on specific tribes and regions to fit everything into a weekend itinerary.
The spirit of Oklahoma lives strong in hundreds of small towns dotting the map. Pack up the car and plan a weekend visiting those places where the hustle of daily life doesn’t seem so oppressive; where people still sit on the front porch and everyone waves when you walk by. Time your adventure to coincide with a local celebration and party it up with the locals. You’re sure to be welcome.
Oklahoma’s unique history – a young, frontier state with influxes of great wealth – has created a treasure trove of architectural wonders, including early pioneer homesteads, Victorian main streets, oil baron mansions, Art Deco masterpieces, monumental churches, Mid-century Modern buildings and notable contemporary designs.
Oklahoma is home to some of the most diverse terrain in the country. No more is the stark difference evident than in the panhandle of the state, where, rising from the earth, one can spot the point of highest elevation in the state – Black Mesa – from miles away. The hike up Black Mesa, a formation that was long ago an active volcano, is moderately challenging and clocks in around eight miles, round-trip. Upon conquering Black Mesa’s summit, take time to admire the view, which includes glimpses into two neighboring states: Colorado and New Mexico. Hiking to the state’s high point and back will take a half-day, so that leaves plenty of time to explore other points of interest inside Black Mesa Nature Preserve. Outside of the park, several interesting attractions await, including Cimarron Heritage Center Museum. The building, originally a 1949 Bruce Goff-designed home, houses tributes to the panhandle’s heritage, including a homestead dugout, a restored Santa Fe Depot and blacksmith shop, wagons, buggies and more. Natural wonders abound as well; fossils and artifacts from Cimarron County’s rich Native American history are on display at the museum, as is the main attraction: the skull and partial skeleton of an Apatosaurus, a cousin to Tyrannosaurus rex. Black Mesa State Park offers amenities suited to those who wish a rustic camping experience – campsites do offer electric hook-ups and grills – but for those who desire plusher amenities, several bed-and-breakfasts dot the areas outside of Black Mesa State Park.
Oklahoma’s long growing season and fertile soils make it an ideal place to grow many types of wine grapes, and local vineyards have sprouted up around the state. The greatest concentration of these is in the central part of the state, where you can make a weekend of tasting local wines at charming vineyards while exploring the Oklahoma countryside. The following are some of the more popular wineries and vineyards in the region. You can find more at www.oklahomawines.org. Most wineries offer free tastings on weekends and some serve lunch and offer special events. Always call ahead to confirm that the facility is open to visitors.
We are all familiar with Oklahoma’s agrarian roots. But how about spending a weekend getting in touch with them? Our state offers great options for spending some time with the land.
With such diverse geology in Oklahoma, camping in different parts of the state offers an array of experiences.
It’s very easy to choose a different restaurant to eat at each day for a year in Oklahoma and not get tired of the delicious fare. From top-flight dining to holes-in-the-wall with tasty offerings, filling a weekend with food is a no-brainer.