A reason why I'm moving.

Not THE reason; there are a number of reasons why my partner and I are moving to Portland.

But I've been using this illustration to explain one of the prime motivators behind the move.

In a lot of video games - for example, World of Warcraft - there are "zones" where you do quests, gaining levels and experience, and then you move on to the next zone. I kind of feel like I've leveled past Tulsa, that I'm done with Tulsa, and it's time to move on to a new zone.

A geeky explanation, to be sure. But then, I'm a geek. Actually I'm a gork - a geek/dork hybrid, but my point stands.

Thanks to the good folks at Blue Oklahoma

for promoting this humble blogger's post about chain restaurants to the front page.

I'll be totally honest here. I mock this state ruthlessly, and I do it quite often. And sometimes Oklahoma deserves to be mocked ruthlessly.

However, I will say this. For all its faults, its political stupidity, its religious extremism, its sterile suburban sprawl, its terrible roads, and all the rest of it, Tulsa really is a pretty easy and comfortable place to live. There are a lot of good people here, doing good things, leading good lives. The fact is that no matter how far I travel from this city, it'll always be the place where I was born and have spent quite a bit of my life, and as such it'll always feel like home.

So to you Progressive Okies fighting the good fight against seemingly insurmountable odds, I wish you nothing but the best, and I'll be keeping my eye on you when I'm in Oregon.

I'll be making some changes to this blog's layout when I move to Oregon in about a month, and of course I'll ask the editor of BNN to move me to the Oregon page, but I plan to continue blogging about Oklahoma issues from time to time. Stay tuned.

In praise of local restaurants (or how I learned to stop going to chains and love eating out again)

The earlier post I wrote mocking the Tulsa World for reviewing a chain restaurant like Western Sizzlin' has prompted me to lay out my argument in favor of eating locally.

I'm sure a lot of people really do enjoy going to Applebee's. It's easy, it's cheap, and the service and food are safe and predictable. It's the same quality of service and food you'll get at Chili's, and at TGI Fridays, at the Olive Garden, and any number of the other chain restaurants dotting the city. Waiters and waitresses are bubbly and friendly, they wear cute outfits, and they always have an extensive menu of easily recognizable and non-threatening food.

The problem is that none of it is actually good food. The food lies there, limply on the plate, telling you, "Some kid making $8 an hour has made 100 of me during today's shift, assembling products from a menu designed by a corporation hundreds of miles away." Sure, the food is fine, and it won't kill you, and it'll fill your belly, but does it really excite you? Are you positively engaged in the dining experience, or are you just eating food?

It's been my experience that local restaurants, like the Brook, or Arizona Mexican Restaurant, or White River Fish Market, or Mario's Pizzeria, or Mekong River, or Lanna Thai, all offer a higher quality, more delicious, and frankly more personal dining experience, for the same price or cheaper than the national chains. Maybe it's because the owners are close by, and the employees have more of a stake in what they're cooking and presenting to the customers. Maybe it's because family-owned restaurants by their very nature take more pride in what they serve. I don't know what it is, but I have yet to eat at a chain restaurant that can match the quality and innovation of service and food that I've found at local restaurants.

A few weeks ago, my partner and I were down in the 71st and Memorial area, and we decided to check out this steak restaurant we saw. As soon as we walked up, we knew we were at a chain. We walked in, and we were greeted by a bubbly hostess who handed us one of those vibrating coasters. We asked to see a menu, and we were presented with one that, had I not known the name of the restaurant, would have looked identical to a million menus I'd seen at chain restaurants all over the country. And yet, people were lining up to eat there. I wanted to ask them all - what makes this restaurant any different or better than any of the other chains? What makes it unique? We handed back our vibrating coaster and menu, and we left. We ended up having an absolutely delicious dinner at Mekong River, a locally owned Vietnamese restaurant with delicious food and wonderful service at prices significantly lower than they were at that steak restaurant. And yet Mekong River was nearly empty. Why, Tulsa? Why would you rather go to a soulless, unidentifiable chain, than an absolutely delicious local restaurant where the food is prepared with care, and it's cheaper than the chain?

I'd like everyone reading this to try an experiment for me. Go to any one of the myriad chain restaurants in town and have a meal. Pay attention to the service, to the food, and ask yourself whether you're actually enjoying your meal because it's tasty and interesting in your mouth, or whether you're just enjoying the meal because it's filling your belly. Ask yourself what makes this particular chain restaurant unique and different and better than any other chain restaurant. It can't just be superficial stuff like, "Well, this one has southwestern eggrolls, and that other one doesn't," because that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the overall experience. I think you'll find that where it counts, your dining experience will be basically identical at any given chain restaurant.

The next night, I'd like you to go to a local restaurant. I will define a local restaurant as one based in Oklahoma with fewer than, say, 10 locations in the city. Ideally, I'd like you to go to a restaurant with no other locations, but there are a few local chains that are quite tasty.

Earlier in this post, I named a few local restaurants that I enjoy. I'll give you some more details on those:

The Brook - a Tulsa institution - delicious burgers, sandwiches, and a full bar. On Brookside between 41st and 31st and Peoria.

Arizona Mexican Restaurant - Several locations throughout the city. Serves authentic homestyle Mexican food in a relaxed, casual atmosphere. The staff is friendly, the food is delicious, and the margaritas are huge. My favorite location is at 66th and Lewis.

White River Fish Market - this local fish joint is in North Tulsa, and it has actually been reviewed nationally as one of the best places for fish in the country. Cheaper than Bodean's and just as delicious, in a relaxed and casual atmosphere, White River offers broiled, fried, and grilled fish and the best gumbo you can get in the city.

Mario's Pizzeria - authentic New York style pizza and sandwiches. Quite possibly some of the best pizza in the city. Also try the pepper & sausage hot sub.

Mekong River - Vietnamese restaurant at 71st and Memorial behind Toys R Us. Dishes you won't find anywhere else. Try the French style steak - you won't find a better, more delicious, or more uniquely prepared steak dish somewhere like Outback.

Lanna Thai - Just south of 71st and Memorial, this Thai restaurant also offers live music and great cocktails. Their curries are hard to beat, and the service is superb.

Kolam- Indian restaurant just north of 51st and Memorial. It's a small location, but the dishes are an innovative and unique blend of North and South Indian, and Indo-Chinese food. Their lunch buffet is quite possibly the best in the city, and their dinner menu is superb, and not that expensive.

One more reason I'm moving out of this state...

Tulsa's newspaper recently did a serious review of a local steak restaurant:

Western Sizzlin'.

Really?

What's next? Laudatory gushing over the all you can eat soup & salad bar at local favorite "The Olive Garden?"

Yeek.

Vote NO on the "Street Fixing" proposals.

The current street fixing proposals on the ballot this November won't fix the streets. The Tulsa City Council got cold feet and decided not to put on the ballot the $2 billion proposal that actually would fix the streets. The current proposal would actually leave us worse off 5 years from now than we are today. It's a giant waste of taxpayer money, and it won't solve anything. Vote NO. Tell the City Council that we want real solutions to the city's street crisis.

The Other Debate: Rice vs. Inhofe

Tulsa viewers: Tune in to KJRH Channel 2 (9 on Cox) at 5:15pm tonight for live coverage of the only debate between the fightin' Andrew Rice and Jim "Jack" Inhofe. KJRH will also have live streaming coverage on its website.

OKC viewers: you can catch the debate on the web.

Message to Jay Matlock

Mr. Matlock:

You seem pretty determined to cram my mailbox full of big one-page flyers demanding that I vote for you for State House. Alright then, here are a few questions:

1) I had to search really, really, really hard to find your party affiliation. Way down under the address label, it says "Paid for by the Republican State House Committee." Why are you so afraid of calling yourself a Republican?

2) On your website, your candidate photo shows you not wearing a flag pin. Why do you hate America?

3) One of the strengths that you trumpet on your flyer is your experience as a "financial advisor." Why did you destroy our economy?

OKC, Tulsa rated last on eco-friendly cities list

Tulsa was rated 48th on the list of 50 "environmentally friendly" cities in a recent report.

Who was #1?

Portland, Oregon.

100 days
2413 hours
144804 minutes
8688278 seconds

till we head that way to look for jobs and apartments.

Can't come any sooner...

Peeling the Onion: BOK Center First Impressions

From the outside, Tulsa's new arena is a masterpiece of shiny metal, swirling shapes, and massive expanses of glass. It's an audacious example of digital architecture that only Cesar Pelli could have come up with. It's a giant, gleaming, silver onion.

Once you go inside the onion, however, something smells a bit rotten. Your eyes are assaulted by raw concrete, jagged angles, exposed duct work, and a general feeling that the construction workers forgot to finish building the place. There are also some rather bizarre decisions in how to integrate interior spaces with the bold lines of the exterior. There's a ramp that goes up to the second level. You'd think it would follow the sweeping lines of the place and wrap around the building. But you'd be mistaken. Halfway up the ramp, you are stopped by an ugly concrete wall blocking you from going any further. It's not a full wall, and you can see over it the rest of where the ramp should go, a vast expanse of raw concrete that is mind-bogglingly ugly. The ramp doubles back on itself.

The building is full of raw concrete pillars, exposed ducts, unfinished bits, and just general ugliness that clashes dramatically with the smooth metal and white columns of the exterior. It's like Mr. Pelli had a vision for the outside of the building, but he had no idea how to put together the interior.

It's a bold, bizarre, jarring, incomprehensible piece of architecture, completely out of touch with the rest of Tulsa, and almost completely devoid of aesthetic beauty.

BOK Center finally gets good music!

One of the Great Ones of angry industrial rock, Nine Inch Nails will play the BOK center on November 22nd.

Hell of a lot better than the Eagles, Celine Dion, that American Idol thing, or whatever.

Rock.

In celebration of this news, I will probably post a couple of NIN videos here this weekend, so you can share in the wonderfully noisy angst that spews forth from the demented genius of Trent Reznor's mind.

Tulsa Airport getting privacy invasion scanner

Tulsa Airport is going to get one of those machines that creates a 3d naked image of you that is beamed to an offsite security screener. Your face is blurred, but they can see your bits quite clearly.

If you're not happy about random people seeing all your bits, and you think that this is a bridge too far in the name of "security," you might contact the airport authorities.

http://www.tulsaairports.com/index.cfm?id=8

The ACLU has a page explaining the problem and showing a picture of what these machines can see:

http://www.aclu.org/privacy/35506res20080603.html

Latest poll shows Obama trailing badly in Oklahoma (as expected)

Obama isn't going to win Oklahoma in November.

But there is something happening here.

In 2004, I saw very few Kerry bumper stickers and yard signs around town. Maybe a handful.

Recently, however, I'm seeing Obama bumper stickers and yard signs everywhere. I can think of two possible reasons for this. The first reason is probably more likely: I'm spending most of my time in Midtown, which can kind of be thought of as Tulsa's "liberal oasis." The second reason, which would be really something, is that Obama is getting more traction here than the polls show.

Again, I'm leaning towards the first reason. I don't see much visible support for Obama when I go down to South Tulsa. But if Obama is gaining more traction in Tulsa than the polls show, then that's a pretty significant thing, and it bodes well for down-ticket races, especially Georgianna Oliver's race against John Sullivan. If Obama can energize enough Dems in District 1 to go to the polls, Oliver might just have a shot. Obama might even help Andrew Rice, who is also trailing in the polls.

What the hell is with this city??

Why is Tulsa's crime rate so damned high, especially when it comes to robberies and home invasions? It's a little worrying.

Congrats to Andrew Rice and Georgianna Oliver

CD1 now has a decent candidate to try to oust John Sullivan, who is a real right-wing asshat, and I'm excited about Rice's chances to oust another real right-wing asshat, Jim Inhofe.

Full election results up top.

I voted.

For those who haven't voted yet, here is the election guide that I posted yesterday.

I decided to vote for Mark Manley for Congress, because, for once, I wanted to vote for principle over politics, which I did not do in the Presidential primary. I'm pretty confident, though I'm not entirely sure of this, that Georgianna Oliver will win this primary handily, and she's doubtless the best candidate to face Sullivan in November. However, Manley's grassroots cred appeals to me, so I threw him some support.

I also voted for Andrew Rice. You should, too.

Tulsans, vote tomorrow.

Get out and vote tomorrow!

Here's the League of Women Voters election guide.

Here are the links to the two candidates for US Congress, Oklahoma District 1:

Georgianna Oliver

Mark Manley

Oliver is positioning herself as a centrist and she has a lot of money to spend. Manley's campaign is a grassroots effort from the anti-war crowd.

I'm not making an official endorsement in this primary. Oliver may be better positioned to beat Sullivan, but I like a lot of Manley's politics. I'm not sure who I'm going to vote for in this race, but I will absolutely endorse the winner of this primary.

For US Senate, I am endorsing Andrew Rice, and I encourage every registered Democrat in Oklahoma to get out and vote for him. Rice's campaign is a real chance to unseat one of the most reactionary members of the US Senate, Jim Inhofe. Not only can we unseat a bad Republican, but we can replace him with a really good progressive Democrat, someone who will actually care about his constituents and solving real problems.

I'm not making any endorsements in local/state legislative races.

Apparently we're not safe in this city.

Twice within the past week, Robert Stotler and his partner have been targets of anti-gay messages at their Tulsa home.

About seven days ago, the message "Gays Must Go" was spray-painted on their garage door, and a symbol resembling a swastika, which is used by some white supremacist groups, was spray-painted on the side of their home.

Holes were punched in a friend's pickup's tires and the truck was set on fire while parked in Stotler's driveway.

The message "I'll be back" was spray-painted on both sides of the vehicle.

And back the person came.

A few days later, holes were punched in the front door of their home in the 11800 block of East 25th Street, and the message "Gay Go Away" was painted on it.

This is happening here, now, in Tulsa, to a couple who are doing nothing more than trying to live normal lives. I had no idea that this kind of thing was happening in this city. My partner and I keep a fairly low profile, but we don't hide who we are by any stretch of the imagination.

The startling point of this article is that these crimes are not classified as hate crimes by the Tulsa Police or by Oklahoma law. Oklahoma is one of 17 states that refuses to add sexual orientation protection to our hate crimes laws.

Call your state legislator, your mayor, call Governor Henry, and demand that sexual orientation become a protected status in Oklahoma.

The gay community has no "agenda." All we want is to live our lives in peace, and to have the same rights that the heterosexual community takes for granted. Is that really so much to ask?

Right-wing rag praises right-wing blogger...what a surprise

Urban Tulsa, the most shockingly right-wing "alternative weekly" news magazine I've ever read, has praised the equally right-wing blog Batesline in its "best of Tulsa" column.

Somehow I doubt they even considered any progressive bloggers...

In a lot of ways, I can't wait to leave this city.

Tulsa's new dog park

The city has converted a disused baseball diamond on Charles Page Blvd. into an off-leash dog park. I took Wendy there last night, and met some very friendly folks who are part of the "Tulsa Bark Park" effort. The link at the top of this post is to the Tulsa Bark Park website, from which you can subscribe to a Yahoo! group dedicated to Tulsa's quest for a permanent off-leash dog park.

I support this effort, at least until I move to Portland, which is a city full of off-leash dog parks. I think it's ridiculous that Tulsa hasn't had a dog park until now, and I'm glad to see that this effort is happening.

Wendy, by the way, had a great time. Once she had gotten over the initial shock of meeting a whole group of dogs at the same time, all of whom wanted to sniff and examine her, she was as happy as, well, a happy dog. I will definitely be bringing her back there.

I encourage those of you who are pet owners to check out the dog park, and to join the Tulsa Bark Park Yahoo! group. The park is on Charles Page Blvd. east of 33rd West Avenue. Look for a parking lot with a lot of police cars in it next to a baseball diamond. It's also, oddly enough, right next to some kind of detention facility, but I don't think that's going to be a problem.

$4.00 gas hits Tulsa

According to the Tulsa Gas Prices widget on the left side of my blog, $4.00 gas has hit Tulsa for the first time, which is bad news for the rest of the country, since we often have the cheapest gas in the nation. It looks like it's just at one station so far. The good news is that QuikTrip always keeps their prices the lowest, so we won't be seeing $4.00 gas from QT until they absolutely have no other choice. Shell gas is always priced higher than QT for some reason.

Just 10 more months and I won't have to have a car ever again (probably).

I can do it.

God. I just want to break my lease, sell the cars, and go now. But that would be extremely irresponsible and logistically hellish, not to mention expensive.

Sigh...