Jennifer

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Author's posts

Tiki Tuesday: The Art of Jeff Granito

Meet tiki designer and freelance artist Jeff Granito. Jeff Granito designs colorful art prints and a wide variety of tiki products true to the style of the Enchanted Tiki Room, and Granito is no stranger to the paradisal world of Disney. He works from his home studio in Southern California and has created a number …

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The Pear-Green Apple: A Meditation on Yuri Norstein’s ‘Tale of Tales’

Why I Love Tale of Tales I recently featured Yuri Norstein’s animation Tale of Tales for Soviet Film Wednesday, and this week I would like to take some time to delve into my thoughts on this epic film, which has been voted the “Greatest Animation Film of All Time” by an international jury. It is …

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Tiki Tuesday: Meet Pioneers of Surf Rock, The Shadows

Happy Tiki Tuesday! Today we’re listening to a band that effortlessly crossed rock, tiki, and surf music genres in a fantastically fun way. The Shadows were a London instrumental band active from 1958-1968 who were pioneers of surf rock with songs like “Kon-Tiki” and “Apache.” The founding members were lead guitarist Hank B. Marvin, rhythm guitarist …

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Tiki Tuesday: Remembering Les Baxter

Les Baxter is one of the two most prominent figures from the world of exotica lounge music of the ’50’s and 60’s, along with Martin Denny. Baxter was born Leslie Thompson Baxter in Mexia, Texas on March 14, 1922. As a young man, he studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory, and then attended Pepperdine College …

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Soviet Film Wednesday: The Tree and the Cat

February 20th is National Love Your Pets Day, so be sure to lavish some extra attention on your fur babies today and show them how much you appreciate the love they bring. For this special Soviet Film Wednesday, here’s a heartwarming tale about a cat left on the side of the road. The cat wanders …

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Soviet Film Wednesday: Introducing Larisa Shepitko

This month the Criterion film channel is featuring Soviet director, writer, and actress Larisa Shepitko. You can now watch two of her most acclaimed films, Wings and The Ascent, as well as the full introduction to the director on Criterion. The 1966 film Wings (Krylya) concentrates on a highly decorated female fighter pilot in World War …

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Wonders, Soda Fountains, Hot Springs, and Kitsch on Route 66

Some of the best places to see on the long Rt. 66 stretch between Tulsa and Los Angeles This summer my daughter, her boyfriend, and I took our longest Route 66 road trip yet: from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Los Angeles, California, tracing the route that many Oklahomans took in the ’30’s, as fictionalized in The …

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Soviet Film Wednesday: The Sounds of Tarkovsky

The independent film streaming service Fandor has put together a mesmerizing compilation of audio moments from Andrei Tarkovsky films, showing how the director emphasizes particular sounds as one of his many creative film-making techniques. The films shown in this two minute collage are The Steamroller and the Violin (1961), Ivan’s Childhood (1962), Andrei Rublev (1966), …

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Discovering Route 66: From Tulsa to Arcadia

Last weekend my family and I took a day to explore Route 66 along Tulsa to Arcadia. Our first stop was for lunch and a little sightseeing in Stroud, Oklahoma. There were a few places that we found interesting, but finally decided on lunch at the Rock Café, a well known historic Route 66 landmark …

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Discovering Route 66: Tulsa’s Mother Road Market

I always say that there are two things that I like best about living in Tulsa: the friendly people and the architecture, and the former proved to be true once more when my family and I took a walk through the Mother Road Market this weekend and were greeted by the friendliest of vendors! When …

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