Defend the Indefensible: Oklahoma

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6MbPWzIFUk

Oklahoma is awesome because when you go to monster truck jams in Texas & they have a "war" between "teams" of trucks they call one the Texas team & the other the Oklahoma team & the crowd goes absolutely bonkers booing the Oklahoma team, like you think that Oklahoma must be the rank crotch of the earth...oh wait...yeah, fuck it, I can't do it.

Frank Lloyd Wright built only one skyscraper in his career. It's in Oklahoma.

http://pricetower.org/

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/okla/bartlesville/price/shaftsm.jpg

On the other hand, I had lunch in a place in OKC that was famous for its chicken fried steak, and it kind of sucked. Distinguished only by its size. Only chicken fried steak I've ever not finished.

Oklahoma Jewry represent:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_synagogues_in_Oklahoma

Tony Randall and Daniel J. Boorstin both Tulsa Jews, it turns out -- not half bad!

"Seminole Hebrew Center" might be my favorite name for a synagogue anywhere, actually.

The state lends its name to Oklahoma Joe's, one of the best barbecue places in Kansas City & thus the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iYY2FQHFwE

I'm from Oklahoma. I love it there. My parents bowled in a Jewish league, but we are not Jewish. I lived the first 18 years of my life in Tulsa and was defintely ready to leave, but I love going back now. Don't really care if everyone else hates it.

Oklahoma City sucks, though.

I don't think any other state has this.

http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1421/1232940943_e68523ba36_z.jpg?zz=1

Wait I've been to one of those things and I've never been to OK. I think maybe it was outside Chicago somewhere?

Chicago has their Oasis rest stops like that, which often contain McDonalds and other fine dining establishments.

With the big golden arch though? That's pretty cool.

There's definitely one in the Chicagoland area; for years, it was a Howard Johnson's (and as a kid, it was really exciting to eat there). I don't know what it is now, though.

Sadly, no arch. OK beats CHI.

it's america's take on this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_Vecchio

spent 18 years growing up in oklahoma. left for college been away longer than the time i spent there. going back to visit the parents is a trip cos it's a totally different experience. now i truly feel like a visitor and it's actually fun.

-people are genuinely nice. they actually smile and say hello to you!
-okc can be grim and suck but where are you and when? the sf bay area is fantastic but you would never find me in the tenderloin or oakland at night.
-that photo of the art museum/house is the philbrook museum in tulsa. i would recommended it too. speaking of tulsa, visit giant things there including: praying hands at oral roberts university and the golden driller. there's also a nice little jazz museum in downtown tulsa. right outside of the museum is a spot called the center of the universe. it's a small little circle where anything you say is echoed many times in your head. but stand outside the circle and you can't hear anything said inside the circle. fun times.
-national cowboy and western heritage museum. fraser! remington! russell! also i love exploring the barbwire collection.
-martin park nature center. went here all the time for field trips when i was growing up. so much fun. haven't been back since though. tons of free parks to visit though.
-okc thunder. tied for best team in the nba!

Oklahoma is a nice shape! Second maybe only to Idaho.

two of my favorite co-workers hail from Oklahoma City, they're so nice it makes me want to visit & see what Oklahoma is all about.

plus the song! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKLAHOMA

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/LimitedLiabilityGirl/glasshouse.jpg

I've had that jpg for probably 8 years on my computer and never knew where it was from.

I want to go to that bridge-steraunt

Those are the kinds of places I begged my parents to stop on family trips, but they were always frugal vacationers and we would have picnic lunches at roadside rests instead.

Some of the rest stops have picnic tables underneath concrete teepees. I give that to OK as a plus.

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/gop-rep-ill-personally-have-to-kill-some-senators-to-get-a-budget-passed-audio.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

The rest stop off I-90 at Angola NY has a median McDonalds.

But in Oklahoma, the actual McDonalds itself stretches across the interstate. There's no bridge to take you there because it is the bridge.

... gave us Jimmy Webb

lee hazlewood, too!

--i've been told there are pretty spots in "mountains" there
--it's not Nebraska

the wichita mountains are the oldest mountains in the world! according to someone in my youth, probably not true.
when i was a lad, that mcdonalds was always touted as the largest restaurant in the world. since overtaken by a mcdonalds in japan, iirc.

The rest stop off I-90 at Angola NY has a median McDonalds.

Really? I always thought it was just a footbridge to get from the parking lot on one side of 90 to the McDonald's on the other side.

Rick Bayless was born in OKC.

That's a positive, but skip Bayless cancels that out.

xpost, nope the whole damn rest stop is in the median.

i went to tulsa once with my dad when i was a kid and i thought it was cool. we both bought cowboy hats!

(gets in car, jumps on I-90 West)

xp

I want to go to that bridge-steraunt

This is giving me serious Zapp Brannigan vibes. "She's built like a steakhouse, but she handles like a bistro!"

ilx goes back and forth on this band, and maybe it's a "back" phase, but this took place in Oklahoma once upon a time and you can't deny its awesomeness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=433k90PZyT0

Also, the history of the panhandle allowed a relatively brief time when the whole panhandle was this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Old_Beaver_County.png

Panhandle State is my favorite college name.

I learned about the Tulsa race riot for the first time a few months ago.

The wiki is good, too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_riot
I guess this isn't really a defense of Oklahoma.

Greenwood would rise again, this time with Archer and Pine Streets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJcQmXnAD3E

God Abbott, that's super-depressing!

Like, I'm' glad to know, but it's definitely not helping OK's case.

You know how weird it is to outsiders that, say, Indians and Pakistanians hate each other? Or Irish and English?

I once played blackjack at a Mississippi Delta casino next to this ol' redneck guy. He was talking to everybody and I was just trying not to double-down on single-digits. I get a few hands and he congratulates me and I say thanks. You'd never befriend some of these people in the real world, but in a casino, this "us against the house" attitude tends to take over.

He starts telling me how he's from Oklahoma and drives seven or eight hours down to Mississippi once a month or so to play the tables. I say, don't you have casinos up there in Okie? He looks left and right, and as a white person, I get ready to hear something I don't want to hear. Kinda too used to the moment before someone goes all en sotto on you after that look.

He whispers to me, "Too. Many. Damn. INDIANS." and leans back. I just go okkkaaaaaayyyyy and start counting my chips.

How can you be racist to Native Americans? Yeah, there are the stereotypes, like there are for any group of people, but first, they're the one domestic group that's been hurt and punished more by the United States of America -- and we're talking about a country that once ENSLAVED another group of people. "Drunk Indians always wanting a handout…" WE TOOK THEIR LAND AND KILLED THEIR PEOPLE.

And secondly, some ol' redneck like that with his racist ideologies coming down to TUNICA, MISSISSIPPI, BIRTHPLACE OF THE BLUES, HALF AN HOUR FROM MEMPHIS? I've got racists in my family in Memphis who would probably drive over to Tahlequah for some bingo, just to get away for awhile.

<drudge siren> Racists Don't Follow Logic <drudge siren> More at 10.

I don't know anything about Oklahoma, but those first two pictures are quite cool.

Also, isn't OK where George Kuchar would go to film storms?

I lived in Stillwater OK for a year because of work and I really fell in love with the state. On the weekends I drove all over the state looking for records and OK is great for digging. Certain parts of the state are beautiful. I love the rolling fields and around Tulsa is especially nice. I love driving, and OK is a nice state for driving. The people are mostly nice. I ended up at lots of barn parties with bluegrass bands playing. They have weird liquor laws though and you have to stock up if you want to drink anything other than 3. beer. I didn't mind OKC, and thought it had nice parts. When the job was over and I was visiting friends in Austin and told them how much I liked OK, I got blank stares and laughs. I dunno I've liked every state I've lived in though.

Arkies and Okies have somewhat of a rivalry. (Arkies live in paradise while Okies are shoeless Tom Joads killing the Indians, etc.)

I was in a sandwich shop and the TV was blaring something about some horrible event in Texas. Guy behind the calendar says, "It's always Texas."

I say, "Ain't that the truth. You must be from around here."

He says, "Nope, I'm from Norman, Oklahoma."

We just stood there for a bit watching the news. "Welp," I said. "Guess we have some common ground."

Whoa, the Tulsa Race Riot, had NEVER heard of this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_riot

not even sure how I found it today, some internet wormhole I guess

the worst. still so sad to go to greenwood, cause nothing came ever back there.
cool local band Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey recently released an album about it, which is interesting
http://jfjo.com/projects/race-riot-suite/

The 'G' in The Gap Band stands for Greenwood.

(And 'a' for Archer and 'p' for Pine, all three streets in the band's old Tulsa neighborhood.)