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Asleep at the Wheel and Cain’s Ballroom – Can It Get Any Better?

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Tulsa’s historic Cain’s Ballroom – the home of Bob Wills – was the perfect setting to hear Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel.  We were there for the final party of the 2008 National Preservation Conference, and Benson used the occasion for a history lesson of western swing. 

With his beautiful bass voice, fluid guitar lines, and expert showmanship, Benson had the crowd in his hand from the opening notes of Take Me Back to Tulsa.  The tight band worked through song after song in the western swing catalog (“Western Swing Ain’t Dead…It’s Asleep at the Wheel!)  We danced to Choo Choo Boogie, Faded Love, and so much more.

It was great to hear this band with so many friends and colleagues.  Kaye told me they are her favorite band and she cleans the house while listening to their CDs.  Ed told me he saw them once in New York, but “they’re much better here.”  Must be that cultural context.  Newcomers to the music kept saying, “what a terrific band.”  Indeed. 

Great way to end the week in Tulsa.  Does it get any better than barbeque, Cain’s ballroom, and Big Balls in Cowtown:

Workin’ on the railroad
Sleepin’ on the ground
Eatin’ saltine crackers
Ten cents a pound
Big Ball’s in Cowtown
We’ll all go down
Big Ball’s in Cowtown
We’ll dance around

More to come…

DJB

Will Rogers: Why can’t new public schools be this cool?

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As regular readers know, I’m in Tulsa, Oklahoma, this week for the 2008 National Preservation Conference.  Tonight’s event was in this great building, Will Rogers High School, which reminds us all that public schools weren’t always bland, boring spaces.

Will Rogers High School
Tower of Will Rogers High School in Tulsa

As we drove through a non-descript neighborhood, my colleagues were doubting that anything of great value could be found in this landscape.  And yet, the moment the school, with its towers rising above the treetops, came into view, it was clear we were in for a treat.  The school was built in 1938 as part of the Public Works Administration (PWA).

The auditorium was an Art Deco wonder, the library a pleasant surprise, and the entire building a delight for the eyes which has to be a treat for the discerning and observant student.  I’ve posted a couple of pictures to give you a hint of what we enjoyed.

More to come…

DJB

An Art Deco masterpiece

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Today’s opening plenary of the National Preservation Conference was held in the spectacular Boston Avenue Church – a National Historic Landmark and Art Deco masterpiece.  Seldom have I been so surprised – and moved – by an interior.

The church was built in 1929 and is filled with great detail large and small.  I took numerous pictures of the interior, several of which I’ve posted.  Today has been a gray, rainy day in Tulsa, so the exterior shot doesn’t show off the building at its best. 

The stunning setting was a great place to hear the Cherokee Youth Choir, with a group of middle-school and high-school boys and girls who sang three beautiful songs in their native Cherokee.

The keynote speaker was Chief Wilma Mankiller of the Cherokee Nation.  She gave a terrific talk about indigenous people, ending with the old Mohawk proverb:

It is hard to see the future with tears in your eyes.

More to come…

DJB

Boston Avenue Church Organ

Taking a Look at Tulsa

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I’m in Tulsa, Oklahoma for the 2008 National Preservation Conference and took some time this afternoon to become acclimated to my home for the next week.

Tulsa is known for its great collection of art deco architecture, and on my way to the TV studio this morning to do a stint on Good Morning Tulsa I drove past the magnificent Boston Avenue Methodist Church.  What a building!  It was highlighted on the cover of the July/August 2008 issue of Preservation magazine in a beautiful photograph and – seen in the morning light – is even more stunning in person.  I hope to take some photos later in the week when we’re there for conference events.

In walking around downtown on a beautiful fall day, I found a range of 20th century architecture – not just art deco.  The photo at the top of the post just gives a hint of the range of styles one sees when walking around with an open eye.

The newest landmark in Tulsa just opened last August – the Cesar Pelli-designed BOK Center.  One of my colleagues went inside yesterday afternoon and said it was a terrific space.  I’m posting a couple of photos of that building from different angles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the shot on the right, you can also see the mid-century modern Federal Building, which I learned this morning is threatened.

I took more photos and will upload more posts – including those art deco gems – later in the week.

More to come…

DJB

7-Eleven Coffee Sales Predicting Election

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I promised not to post much in the way of political coverage on More to Come…but I will put up the occasional note that might bring a smile.  While searching the Internet, I found this fun poll – taken by 7-Eleven coffee drinkers. 

Every day 7-Eleven sells more than 1 million cups of coffee a day.  And before the election, coffee drinkers can choose a McCain or an Obama cup to “cast” their vote.  What a fun idea…and the results may surprise you.

So check out the 7-Election 2008 web site  for the up-to-date results.  And drink your coffee to show that you’re a patriotic American.

More to come…

DJB

Baseball on the Radio

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I love driving in a car and listening to baseball on the radio.  That’s a good thing.  Because I’m looking forward to tonight’s Game 6 of the ALCS between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays AND as the father of teenagers who don’t drive, the weekend means that I run a taxi service.  I expect I’ll listen to as much of tonight’s game on the car radio as I watch on television.

ESPN radio carries all the baseball post-season games, with the wonderful Jon Miller doing the play-by-play.  Miller is even better on the radio than he is on the Sunday night TV games.  He’s thoughtful, entertaining, smart enough to know when to stop talking, and he’s not Tim McCarver. It speaks volumes about what’s been wrong with the Baltimore Orioles under the ownership of Peter Angelos that Miller – only a Hall-of-Famer-to-be announcer – was fired by Angelos as the voice of the Orioles. 

So in anticipation of hearing Miller tonight, I’ll repeat a quote of Miller’s from Paul Dickson’s Baseball’s Greatest Quotations:

There’s just something about the game.  It spans seven months.  It’s good company.  It’s not once a week.  I also think it mirrors life in that it’s constant and you have to keep going on days when you’re not at your best.  You go out and play if your best player is hurting, if you’ve got to call a kid pitcher up from the minors, if everything seems to be going wrong.  Everyone goes through periods like that in their personal lives. – Washington Post, April 1, 1994

Turn on the radio and listen to the ballgame.  It’s Miller time.

More to come…

DJB

Rosenwald Schools – Invested with Meaning

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I’m reading Mary Hoffschwelle’s The Rosenwald Schools of the American South, an inspiring story of a remarkable program.  Mary (Dr. Hoffschwelle) is a friend who happens to be married to Van West – one of my oldest friends from childhood and a professional colleague.  In this 2006 book, she captures the story of the Rosenwald School building project which eventually resulted in the construction of more than 5,000 school buildings for African Americans across the Southern states in the first half of the 20th century.

Through its Rosenwald Initiative, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has worked with community groups to try and save the approximately 1,000 remaining Rosenwald schools.  It is very important work.  I spoke at a Rosenwald Schools conference at Fisk University several years ago and was inspired by the many stories of the former students.  I recommend a tour through the initiative’s web site to learn more about these remarkable community centers and what’s being done to preserve them.  I recommend Mary’s book as well.

I came across the following in Mary’s introduction and thought I would share it as just a great summation of why historic buildings – and their preservation – matters:

No program administrator or state bureaucrat had the power to turn (Booker T.) Washington and (Julius) Rosenwald’s idea into a blanket of over five thousand school facilities spread over fifteen states.  That power came  from the hundreds of local leaders and thousands of average people in the South’s African American communities….These black men, women, and children turned self-help prescriptions and idealized building plans into real places and invested them with meaning.  (emphasis mine)

More to come…

DJB

Get your kicks…with vintage signs from Route 66

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On our family’s western travels this summer, we regularly crossed or traveled historic Route 66, as when we visited the beautiful — and beautifully restored — La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona (see photo at the top).  So it was great to learn that the Vintage Roadside folks were traveling to the National Preservation Conference in Tulsa by road trip along historic Route 66 – and blogging about it along the way.

Vintage Roadside celebrates the “incredible history and advertising graphics of mom and pop businesses from the 1930s through the early 1960s.”  The folks at Vintage Roadside partner with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the sponsors of the National Preservation Conference in Tulsa.  You can also read about their trip on the PreservationNation.org website of the National Trust.

So take a look at their blog, order one of their great t-shirts with a roadside sign from America’s past, and get your kicks on Route 66.

More to come…

DJB

Free Baseball

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I love October baseball.  Friday’s games – the first between the Phillies and Dodgers followed by the Red Sox vs. the Rays – were both terrific.  And tonight, the Sox and Rays just went into extra innings – or what Skip Carey use to call “Free Baseball.”   And as I was typing those words, lo and behold, Ernie Johnson, Jr., whose dad was Carey’s longtime broadcast partner with the Braves, just used that term.  Skip lives!

Yesterday, Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia was rocking – and I was reminded of my visit there just two short weeks ago when I saw the Phillies take a win that may have been the pivotal one towards the division championship.  The view (see photo at right) was very similar.

More to come…

DJB

Not All Who Wander Are Lost…But Many Are

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I don’t normally post political items on this blog…there’s more than enough of that chatter on the Internet for me to weigh in.  Plus, I try and focus on things in More to Come… that elevate my mood.

But this video that was put together on how the late night comics handled “The McCain Wander” from the second presidential debate was too funny to pass up.   Enjoy.

More to come…

DJB