Friday, October 30, 2009 | by nathan

The Resting Soul of Galileo

I hope all you Okies can pick up the Oklahoma Gazette this week; it contains what I think might be the best piece I’ve ever written for the publication – a farewell ode to Galileo Bar & Grill in the Paseo.

I started going to Galileo after my inglorious return to Oklahoma City in 2002, and have loved everything about it ever since. I love the artwork, the beer, the staff, the food, and especially the ambience. Because the Gazette is a strictly third-person publication, I wasn’t able to share my own personal memories of Galileo. So, here are some vignettes.

In the winter of 2002 I took my little book of scribblings to the open mic poetry reading. I listened to everyone else read, frantically searching through my book for something decent; everything suddenly seemed like crap and I grew a case of cold feet. Also, I ran into a boy I liked there and was so worried about impressing him that I worried my writing would scare him away. That was one of the stupidest things EVER, but there you have it.

In the summer of 2003 I sat on the back patio at Galileo with a group of well-connected Oklahoma progressives who had responded to a posting on Meetup.com; we were there because we supported Howard Dean and were soul-sick about the Bush administration. David Walters and Miles Tolbert spoke eloquently, and we all left with a sense of purpose and determination. Later, we all had our hearts broken when John Kerry earned the nomination, and even worse when Bush was re-elected.

In 2004 my friend Dylan came to see me, and we took him to see K.C. Clifford play a show at Galileo. The show was excellent, the crowd was raucous and into it, but a knot of hippie girls insisted on standing directly in front of our table, effectively blocking our entire view of the stage. When we politely asked them to move, they turned and sneered at us in a way that suggested we might be imminently devoured. Peace and love indeed. Whatever, we still had a fantastic time.

In 2005, at another K.C. Clifford show, I asked my friend Laurie what she thought of the possibility of me getting together with this guy Brian I’d been hanging out with a lot. She loved him to death and gave me a look like "OH MY GOD ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS GET OVER YOURSELF AND GO OUT WITH HIM." Some months later, in that same restaurant, at a table a few feet away, I asked him to marry me. I have an audio recording of that entire evening; if my house ever catches fire I’m grabbing Sam and those CDs before I run out of the house.

We had my 25th birthday party at Galileo. My family got me a wonderul Indian quilt from Craig’s Emporium and I drank sloe gin fizz all night. It was another K.C. Clifford show, and she sang me "Happy Birthday" from the stage and dedicated "The Wish Song" to me.

When the first Equality Ride came through Oklahoma City, they parked their big gay bus down in the Paseo and shared their stories with the assembled crowd, stories of finding Jesus in the midst of the crazy struggle with capital-letter topics like Sexuality, Alcoholism, Drugs and God. I looked out into the crowd, most of whom had just come down for dinner, and saw some tears, and even more expressions of dawning understanding and compassion. I spent the rest of that week smiling my head off.

IN 2006 my friends Jon and Tish were racing through OKC to make it to our friend Faith’s wedding in St. Louis. They called asking where they might find some good fast food. I told them to forget the fast food, and directed them to exit the interstate at NW 23rd, and to meet me in the Byron’s parking lot. I called over to Galileo, got a couple wraps and some hummus to go, and delivered it unto them. They called 20 minutes later to thank me profusely.

At yet another K.C. show, the Bluehouse were invited to the stage mid-set to serenade the crowd with their kickass rendition of "Heard It Through the Grapevine." Another time, a dude had a seizure just a few minutes before showtime, right in the front door of the restaurant. Finally, at yet another show, K.C. was struck with a case of the giggles mid-song when a woman in full belly dancing regalia strolled, nonchalantly, just a few feet past her as she sang. Her giggles proved infectious and soon the entire restaurant was laughing.

Also in 2006, on my last day as an intern at the Gazette, a job and an opportunity that changed my life forever, the editor and one of the news reporters took me out to lunch at Galileo and told me I had a promising future. JOKE’S ON THEM! No, seriously, it was a wonderful day.

This past summer, after a Dr. Pants show at CD Warehouse, pretty much the entire show crowd met afterward at Galileo, where we pulled several tables together outside and gabbed until the place closed. It was the last time I ever went there; I wish I’d have known – I’d have ordered a sloe gin fizz and a K.C. Calzone (named, of course, after Mrs. Clifford).

That place has formed such a nexus of activity and history in my Oklahoma City life since 2002. There’s a new place opening in the space on December 1; it’s going to be called Picaso’s on the Paseo. I don’t know if it’ll be good or not, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to bear going in there, but I say let’s all go and raise a glass to what was, and what will be. In the meantime, though I will probably be murdered for doing so, I’m posting this photo, which my friend Todd sent to me as I was researching this story. It’s a photo from one among countless dinners at Galileo wherein we laughed, drank, philosophized and generally just enjoyed one another’s company. It’s possible this photo is from winter 2002, but I’m not sure.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 | by nathan

Uncovered

Driving up May last week I noticed that the sign at the NW 30th and May shopping center, the one with the awesome locally-owned grocery store, camera shop, burger joint, Christian coffee house and sex shop – just across the street from that place where they found that body, you know the one – had removed the laminate over their sign – one presumes to replace it? I hope not; I hope they’re going to restore this original sign, because it just looks so great. Here’s what it was like before:

Not terrible, but the green with the rusty lettering pleases me. I like seeing old stuff uncovered.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 | by nathan

Nerd Power Groove Rock

I took this photo last night as my buddies @drpants played their infectious variety of rock-n-roll at the Venue in Oklahoma City’s Plaza District. I’d been sick for the better part of two days when we arrived at this show, but some pre-concert Phó cleared up my sinuses very nicely and I set about filling up a flash card with photos from this show. If you’ve never been to a Dr. Pants show, well, you’re missing out. I honestly cannot think of another rock band that meets the following criteria:

1) Describes themselves thusly: "Weezer and Beck made a baby with Phish"

2) Shows heavily feature a donut launcher, and

3) Has written the world’s catchiest (and possibly only) tribute song to John Cusack.

Seriously, check out their music at their webpage, where this photograph is also heavily featured.

Friday, October 23, 2009 | by nathan

They Call Them “OMG!” Cheeks

There is the fecund whiff of reproduction in the air; I, for one, couldn’t be happier, as several good friends have either had babies or created them in recent months. This is my new friend Camryn Ruthann, who turned seven weeks old yesterday. She was born on September 3 and has been spending her time doing a lot of sleeping. Seriously, though, doesn’t she have the cutest, squishiest cheeks ever? I mean, if you like that sort of thing in a baby. WHICH I TOTALLY DO. Look at ‘em! I mean – I ask you.

I got to hang out with Camryn, her mom, and her brother Cooper today:

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 | by nathan

City of Blinding Lights

Laurie snuck a point-and-shoot camera into the concert, and so pretty soon I’ll have the benefit of getting to see some better photos from the show, but as you probably noticed, I was stuck taking pictures with my phone. It’s fine, the iPhone takes a decent photo every now and then, but the maddening thing is that once we got into the inner circle I looked around and saw no fewer than a half dozen people with digital SLRs, many of them the exact same model I’d left at home. It seems that once upon a time I let Tina Turner’s 700-pound head of security put the fear of God in me about taking cameras to shows, and now I’ve got an entire psychological complex about it. From now on I’m totally just going for it. SO WATCH OUT, ROCK STARS – I’m coming to steal your souls whether you like it or not.

And anyway, the whole prohibition on taking photos at concerts is ridiculous. Everyone has camera phones now – photos from concerts are going to end up online. Period. If these rock stars were smart they’d sell "photo passes" along with their tickets – $15 to bring in whatever camera you can lug in. In this day and age it’s good word of mouth. It’s not going to hurt DVD or ticket sales; if anything it would drive them. At any rate, I’m totally kicking myself for having such great seats to this show and not nutting up and sneaking my camera in like I did last year at Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at the Zoo Amphitheater.

Monday, October 19, 2009 | by nathan

A Rock Band From Ireland

So, last night this happened:

Aaaand:

Aaaand:

It was so incredibly awesome to get to see U2 in concert for the second time, especially since this time we were TEN FEET AWAY FROM BONO OH MY GOD. Needless to say I’m rather in love with this band, and do you know what’s funny about that? The first album of theirs I ever owned and listened to seriously was Pop. I might be in a one-man minority of people who really dig that record, though to be fair I haven’t listened to it in awhile. I might have to remedy that tonight.

The opening act were the Black Eyed Peas, who did little if anything to change my relatively low esteem for their body of work. Though I do have to tell you that earlier this year when I realized that Fergie was Stacy Ferguson from Kids Incorporated, I about crapped my britches. And anyway, it didn’t matter, because my view for most of the Peas’ set was this:

This photo was taken from exactly my eye level and is a great representation of what happens to me every time I go to a concert. I’m pretty sure I’ve taken to this website to bitch about this before, but EVERY TIME I get great seats to a show, some six-foot-plus douche bag comes and stands DIRECTLY in front of me. In front of five-foot-six me. This guy was especially douchey, because not only was he dancing like a crack-addicted ape, which is dangerous when your elbows are at everyone else’s eye level, but he was also standing on a sort of riser, a large hump in the floor that made him even taller by about six inches. He TOWERED over everyone around us, as did two of the friends he came with. A lady next to me, who was about five-foot-two, offered him and his friend free beers if they’d move back a ways, but they wouldn’t. I know everyone wants to be close, but come on! If you’re six and a half feet tall, maybe give up a little distance so that the rest of us don’t have to jump to see the show, hmmm?

Anyway, we shuffled ourselves around and by the time U2 came on we had managed to find an arrangement that suited us for the most part, and when they played "Magnificent," my favorite track of the new CD, I was able to grab this video. The sound quality’s not great, but GOOD GOD LOOK! I GOT TO STAND UNDER BONO’S CROTCH!

U2 "Magnificent" in Norman from Okay City Nate on Vimeo.

Monday, October 19, 2009 | by nathan

Weekly Reader – 19 October 2009 (NERD EDITION)

NERD EDITION

32 Extrasolar Planets
I think the hunt for extrasolar planets is one of the coolest things going on in science right now. While I don’t expect it to yield contact with an alien civilization, I do think it’s fascinating to see the huge variety of star systems that are out there and to speculate on what they might be like.

Flexible OLED
A video of a new screen being developed by Samsung that brings the idea of digital paper into the real world. Pretty soon we’ll be folding these things up in our back pockets; I’m looking forward to this development, but I know I’m going to be constantly losing my foldy-uppy-phone-Kindle-digital-inky-thingy. QUICK! We need a kicky name for this bad boy that we can patent!

Not That Asteroid But This Other One
Because a huge part of me is still six years old, I am super bummed that we don’t have dinosaurs walking around. One scientists is claiming that, nope, that one crater in Mexico that we thought was the impact site but this other one in the Indian Ocean is the place where it all started going pear-shaped for Barney and Friends. Either way – bummer.

Moleskinerie
And because I am a huge nerd about stationery, enjoy Moleskinerie, an entire blog dedicated to everyone’s favorite pocket-sized notebook.

Thursday, October 15, 2009 | by nathan

Where The Streets Have No Name

About eight and a half years ago my friend Tish, a bunch of people from our church and I got to go see U2 when they performed in Charlotte; on Sunday Brian and I and two of our dearest friends will be seeing them on Owen Field in Norman. I’ll grant you that I’m not as crazy about U2’s latest album as I was about "All That You Can’t Leave Behind" or "Atomic Bomb." I also will grant you that I don’t expect this show to have the funky, psychedelic, DIY vibe of a Flaming Lips show, but dammit I’m excited. A bunch of college friends saw the show when it swung through North Carolina recently and they seem to still be regrowing their faces, so no matter what happens with the Shootout on Saturday, I know that come Sunday I’ll be in a happy place.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 | by nathan

Purple And Gold

One of the best things about this time of year are the sunsets; something about the cold and warm air colliding just makes for some spectacular western skies. I took this from our front yard looking down the street, and blacked out almost all the dim details of the street except for that one neighbor’s window, partially because I’m a total nosy voyeur, but also because I thought the photo looked really cool with just that one thing below the horizon line.

Monday, October 12, 2009 | by nathan

420 at 329

This weekend while we were in Norman for the OU-Baylor game I took the opportunity to take a stroll past the front window of the men’s clothing shop I used to work at. Since the company has long since shut down its stores I suppose I can just give up the whole "anonymity" thing and tell you that the one year – and one day – that I spent working at Harold’s was among the worst in my entire life. It wasn’t just the store’s fault; I was doing a pretty good job of self-sabotage in general back then, but working there was not the best.

But I have to say, a highlight of my time at Harold’s, a time that I enjoyed, were the times when I got to hang out at their store on Campus Corner in Norman, which was the original location.

Of course, this was back when the owners of Harold’s were doing their best to destroy all of Campus Corner by driving rents sky-high, effectively shutting down some of my favorite places, including LaBaguette, where my friends and I would go in high school on Friday nights to hang out, drink coffee, talk philosophy and pretend to be three years older and eighty times more pretentious than we actually were. God, did I love those times. They also had sabotaged the original Harold’s store by opening an outlet just around the corner, which meant that customers would come look at what we had, take up hours of our time trying things on, and then go next door to get the exact same thing for seventy percent off; it’s any wonder the company imploded.

I did love hanging out on the Corner. It made me feel connected to college, again, and to a college I love and where I eventually earned my master’s degree. The presence of aforementioned retail outlet, and the generally dwindling business on Campus Corner at the time (see above, re: sky-high rents) meant that the Norman store was SLOOOW. Entire weeks would creep by where, if it weren’t for the fact that we were the only place in Norman selling Jack Purcells at the time, we wouldn’t have made any sales. The front door opened at the top, and we’d leave it open all day long just to let the fresh air in. My boss and I would hang out, one person in the store, the other on the sidewalk smoking, shooting the breeze for hours. That part was fun.

One day I was in the store by myself. It was a beautiful, sunny, crisp autumn day and I was just watching foot traffic amble by on the Corner. Suddenly, a stoner sort of wandered up. He had greasy hair, a dirty, tie-dyed shirt and eyes the color of maraschino cherries. He stopped in front of the door where I was standing and looked down at the tree on the sidewalk, where he saw this:

Which, I dunno, I guess that’s a little strange, a plug socket at the bottom of a tree. But I’d been looking at it for months from just a few feet away and it never seemed that odd. But this stoner, he was really taken by it. He stopped, and started staring at it, and then back at me, a giant grin growing on his face.

"That," he said at last, "is fucking art."

I smiled and nodded but said nothing.

"No, no, no, no, man, no," he said as if I’d argued with him. "That shit … is fucking … fucking … ART." 

At this point I pursed my lips together in an attempt to keep from laughing, because I wanted him to continue. I was eager to hear his version of art criticism.

"I mean, like, look! It’s a fucking … pluuuuuuug … in a fucking … tree." 

"That’s fucking … ART, right there, is what that shit is, there. It’s fucking ART."

He sort of stumbled around awhile, each repetition of the word "ART" getting louder and more pronounced, until a small crowd had gathered to watch his bizarre performance piece, which, like any good show on the Fox network, ended as soon as people started watching it. He wandered off in the direction of the recently-closed LaBaguette, mumbling about what bullshit it was that that place had closed down because that place was fucking ART, it was fucking THE SHIT.

At times like that, I didn’t mind that job so much, but they were few and far between, and I was eventually ripped from the Campus Corner store to do bitch work at the 50 Penn Harold’s. Things turned out pretty okay, so I guess I can’t be bitter.

An interesting side note to this story: when I was taking these pictures, I was standing next to two women who had run into each other and clearly had not seen one another in a long time. There was a huggy, middle-aged-lady reunion happening as I snapped the 329 on the door and then the FUCKING ART. I was vaguely aware that the two women’s families had stopped in a small knot on the sidewalk, and when I stood up from photographing the plug socket, I found myself FACE TO FACE, inches away, from one of the guys I once worked with at the 50 Penn Harold’s. He was actually an okay guy, and has since opened a wildly successful store of his own, but it was such a shock, such a weird, weird coincidence to run into him that I said nothing.

I don’t think he recognized me – I look quite different now, having aged a bit, changed the way I wear my hair and gotten glasses, so I’m hoping he didn’t realize who I was and think I was being rude when I ducked my head and practically RAN away from him. Coincidences like that are too much to bear, and anyway, AWKWARD, right, like, "HEEEYYY, remember that thing we both did that I was terrible at and got fired from? BOY THOSE SURE WERE THE DAYS, HUH? Did you get a good look at this FUCKING … ART?"