A lovely 10 show week in OKC has come and gone, and we find ourselves only about 2 hours down the road in Tulsa. We gear up for another 10 shows in 6 days, and Whoville finds a new stage upon which we will have a week-long home. This marks our 3rd city and, for me, the 3rd city that I am seeing for the very first time. We travelled yesterday for two hours, making a necessary grocery store stop! I find myself slowly refining the art of grocery shopping for a 6-day period... I'm throwing away less each week! Tulsa seems to be a great city so far! Spent the past 24-hours of free time exploring, and found many neat little attractions. These include, but are not limited to: A "retropub", which is a bar that is filled with all of the arcade games you'd hope to rediscover from your childhood (The Simpsons, NFL Blitz '99, etc.), a couple of great BBQ spots, a bowling alley appropriately named "The Dust Bowl", The BOK Center (Home to a WNBA and hockey team), a beautiful amphitheater, and the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame.
I actually just got back from this Jazz Hall of Fame- it really peaked my interest. There are some pictures included above, but it's filled with tributes to some of the great Jazz artists who originated in the Tulsa area. We even got invited for a weekly jam session tonight, which I thought was pretty neat. We checked out their library, which included Original Cast Recordings of a bunch of Golden Age musicals (Oklahoma, Fiddler, Carousel, Sound of Music, etc.). I wish they'd had a record player! There's nothing like putting one of those on and hearing it like you would have at the time they were recorded. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era. Something tells me I would have been quite content to enjoy these recordings, their sound, and their authenticity. Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with contemporary theatre- there's quite a few beautiful pieces of theatre being put out there. But sometimes I yearn for the simplicity of theatre past, the content of the shows as well as the grandeur that accompanied an evening at the theatre. That's just me being old-fashioned, I suppose.
So, here we are! In an hour, we begin our preparation to share this story with another anxious audience. The theatre (The Chapman Music Hall at Tulsa Performing Arts Center) is great, from what I could see last night. Granted, I only got a view from back of house and the lobby, but it's very regal in a simple way. I love a theatre with the classic burgundy trend, flowing curtains running down the house walls. It's clean and new, but simultaneously gives off a vibe of history. A rather nice perk includes the location of the theatre in relation to the hotel, which is on the same block!
The beginning of this week's journey feels good. It feels fresh. It can be unsettling at times to call a different city home week by week. This week's transition has me thinking clean slate. The constant goal to live in the now seems to be assisted by opening up to Tulsa, taking in the experiences on and off of the stage. This is the week of new, the week of furthering goals by learning from the past, the week of loving the moment, and the week of basking and squeezing everything possible out of the day. After all, today is all I have. "Tomorrow has enough troubles of its own". Love.
I actually just got back from this Jazz Hall of Fame- it really peaked my interest. There are some pictures included above, but it's filled with tributes to some of the great Jazz artists who originated in the Tulsa area. We even got invited for a weekly jam session tonight, which I thought was pretty neat. We checked out their library, which included Original Cast Recordings of a bunch of Golden Age musicals (Oklahoma, Fiddler, Carousel, Sound of Music, etc.). I wish they'd had a record player! There's nothing like putting one of those on and hearing it like you would have at the time they were recorded. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era. Something tells me I would have been quite content to enjoy these recordings, their sound, and their authenticity. Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with contemporary theatre- there's quite a few beautiful pieces of theatre being put out there. But sometimes I yearn for the simplicity of theatre past, the content of the shows as well as the grandeur that accompanied an evening at the theatre. That's just me being old-fashioned, I suppose.
So, here we are! In an hour, we begin our preparation to share this story with another anxious audience. The theatre (The Chapman Music Hall at Tulsa Performing Arts Center) is great, from what I could see last night. Granted, I only got a view from back of house and the lobby, but it's very regal in a simple way. I love a theatre with the classic burgundy trend, flowing curtains running down the house walls. It's clean and new, but simultaneously gives off a vibe of history. A rather nice perk includes the location of the theatre in relation to the hotel, which is on the same block!
The beginning of this week's journey feels good. It feels fresh. It can be unsettling at times to call a different city home week by week. This week's transition has me thinking clean slate. The constant goal to live in the now seems to be assisted by opening up to Tulsa, taking in the experiences on and off of the stage. This is the week of new, the week of furthering goals by learning from the past, the week of loving the moment, and the week of basking and squeezing everything possible out of the day. After all, today is all I have. "Tomorrow has enough troubles of its own". Love.