McHuston Booksellers

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Tag: Books and Bistro (Page 78 of 92)

Go to the light… Go to the light!

September 13, 2013 /

Nah. It’s not a post-apocalypse Zombie movie set. That’s downtown BA in the pic. I would say “downtown Broken Arrow after dark” but it is clear the dark is still there. Nothing AFTER about it. It stays this way until the morning hours.

Sometimes they kill the generator-powered lights down by Fiesta Mambo (the tiny pin-point of light in the lower-right in the pic). They might cut the power to those after the Tex-Mex margarita machine is powered off. Lights and mixer – same electrical circuit? You decide. The ensuing darkness? I believe that’s the Zombie’s cue. (I know they’re out there. I’ve seen Zombie droppings.)

Here’s the word. (Actually it is hearsay from another business owner, but amongst ourselves we consider that to be The Word. Similar conversations might be called ‘gossip’ elsewhere.) The Word: Demolition that will eventually lead to construction will begin in front of the bookstore next week.

Fine.

The sooner started, the sooner completed. Boomer.

It can’t get any darker out there, and the end result will work toward my primary hope: Slower traffic.

We used to have talks about the OLDER generation and the YOUNGER generation. Later, it was broken down demographically. GEN-X. GEN-Y. The MILLENIALS. (Couldn’t gin up a Gen for them, I guess.) These are social study descriptions for various age groups. It’s a lot too complicated for me.

Here is what it really boils down to: Cars.

Not what kind of car you drive, or car you’d like to drive. Not cars you owned or wrecked or stole. It’s what you do when you’re inside that big steel honker. Need a label? Fill in your own blanks.

1. In a car seat or strapped in the backseat = Gen _____
2. Finally got a license and personal set of keys = Gen _____
3. Driving with a car seat or strap-ees in back = Gen _____
4. Paying insurance premiums for Group 2 = Gen _____
5. Complaining about driving of Groups 2, 3, & 4 = Gen _____
6. On a pillow to see over dashboard and Groups 1-5 = Gen _____

Now, we’ll play Guess the Group:

Me, on the phone: “…not only that! It’s a construction zone. I’m sure they’re doing 50! And it’s dark!”

Daughter (Hint: Accompanied by several Group 1-ers): Well, Dad. Maybe they need to be somewhere in a hurry.

Me, sounding a lot like Billy Crystal (Google him) when he affects a Jewish dialect: And they don’t have an alarm clock so they can leave earlier to get there on time? And not kill the rest of us?

You see, these are the kind of things that are concocted in your head after staring up at the brilliant police spotlights in downtown BA. It isn’t a near-death experience. Just the gas-powered spotlights in the Rose District. At least, it isn’t a near-death experience – unless you are a member of Group 5 or 6… And get out of your car.

The rest of you – (Editor’s Note: The atmosphere on Main Street in Broken Arrow does not really involve Zombies, Billy Crystal, speeders, or near-death experiences. Group 5’ers tend to get worked up.) Well, then – ALL of you:

Come Visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main, Broken Arrow OK!

Bam! Jump in the Machine!

September 11, 2013 /

Tonight I time-traveled. Twice.

After chimichanga and salsa, I switched on CBS and BOOM! Time travel to the 1970s and Ozzy Osbourne – back then the frontman for a group called Black Sabbath. (I point this out because some of you have asked me who the Beatles were.)

Now, I think ole Ozzy is better known as being the husband of Sharon Osbourne. Yes! The same Sharon who revealed on her talk-show The View that she had a “fling” with a guy years and years ago. Before she met Ozzy. A fling with a guy named Jay Leno.

Well!

That was about the same time I met Jay Leno (I had no fling, cross my heart) upstairs at a nightclub in Brookside. Sharon Osbourne – fling with Jay or no – wound up marrying the heavy metal singer, taking on his management duties, and having his children. One of whom would end up on Dancing With the Stars.

Is this a chain of events that signifies the arrival of the Apocolypse?

Doesn’t matter.

Now, I’m time-traveling again. Watching the CBS-CSI concert featuring Ozzy and Black Sabbath, I’m flashing on one of my first-ever live concert tickets: Bloodrock on a Tulsa stage. (Do NOT Google that date.) Never heard of Bloodrock? I don’t hold that against ya.

One hit wonder.

On the other hand… There are – as usual – a couple of stories there. In an age of New York, MoTown, and LA music, Bloodrock was a Texas group. There were plenty of others (ZZ Top, those Albino Boys from Beaumont, TX, Freddie King, Stevie Ray Vaughn, to name a few), but none hit early from the Lone Star State like – Bloodrock. (Don’t nitpick about Richie Valens and La Bamba…)

DOA was the song. As in Dead On Arrival. A song that featured a European-sounding siren as a key musical component. They had a recording contract and a few records before guitarist Dean Parks left to become musical director of the Sonny & Cher Show. (You can Google that one.) Lee Pickens replaced him – later fronting his own Lee Pickens Group.

Stevie Hill of Tulsa joined the band in about 1968, providing keyboards and vocals. The next year, they changed their name to Bloodrock. Charted an album. Really low on the Billboard 200. But that’s still something.

In 1971, the song DOA hit the charts. Made it to #36, mostly due to radio play in Texas, Oklahoma, and the Southwest US. Lee Pickens explained the song later. He wanted to get his pilot’s license. His friend got one. His friend took off as Pickens watched, got to about 200 feet, rolled the plane and crashed. DOA.

The concert was pretty amazing. (You think a kid’s first or second concert experience wouldn’t be?)

Oh, did I mention? Bloodrock was the opening act. Sort of like Ozzy was for Sharon, the headliner in that family currently. And the stars of that 1971 Tulsa show? (OK. I’ll tell you the date: April 6, 1971, Tulsa Assembly Center, my first ever exposure to potential hearing loss.) In the BIG print on the ticket was:

Grand Funk Railroad.

What? Grand-who?

Ozzie has the last laugh on that one. It was five years later when Black Sabbath took the stage in Tulsa. And only five minutes ago when he took the stage in Broken Arrow (by way of CSI on CBS). Woo. Time-traveling again.

Just like Sharon Osbourne, I guess. “That man that I had a flingy-wingy with was Jay Leno,” she admitted on The View. How was it? “It was so long ago I can’t remember!” she said. “One cannot remember that long ago!”

Hey. I remember Bloodrock. But then, I’m a time-traveler. And what does this all have to do with a bookstore in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma? Answer (from those who don’t know me): Nothing. Answer (from those who know me – including those who won’t admit it): Nothing. Hee-hee. I’m just rifting here.

Come visit! (with or without your time machine.)

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main, Broken Arrow, OK!

March of the Orange Barrels

September 11, 2013 /

As Granny Mamie would say: Ya canna keep Troubles from comin’ round, but ya needn’t offer ‘em a chair.

That pretty well sums up my feelings as the Rose District construction approaches the front door of the bookshop. As you can see in the image, the orange barrel invasion has swallowed all but the doorstep of my neighbor Jason’s – Main Street Tavern. The block just to the north is next.

That’s this place.

Probably next week, I’m thinking. A little bit of trouble, convenience wise, and comin’ round. But I’ve already brought the sidewalk bench indoors. Needn’t offer a chair. Speed things along.

Giving credit where due, the contractors have gone out of their way to accommodate the merchants as the construction progresses. When the last segment of sidewalk was all that was left down the street, workers kept at it all night so the chips & salsa, margaritas, and enchiladas could be served as usual when Fiesta Mambo opened the following day.

The most-asked question lately? Is the construction bothering your business? Well… I don’t think barricades, front-end loaders, jackhammers, and road-closed-signs are GOOD for business. There are some once-regular customers who had just found the shop at its new location whom I haven’t seen for a time.

The other side of that is – with a stop sign at every intersection – some folks are slowing down (and stopping hopefully) long enough to look around and notice the businesses in the area. The Main Street Expressway, where speeds regularly hit 45 to 55 mph (not an exaggeration), was not conducive to business. Too risky to take your eyes off the road or cell phone when a pesky pedestrian might step out to cross the street.

That’s my primary hope: that – once the construction troubles pick up and move along – the Rose District will be a little friendlier (traffic-wise) to shoppers and side-walkers. It would be great to have people cruise the business district like we used to do, styling and profiling, circling the loop between the Sonic and the A&W. (Different town, different era.)

There will be plenty of new things to see once the street-scaping project winds up. A couple of new buildings. Several new restaurants. There are already new shops settling in with the long-term residents. Half of one block is complete with newly-painted parking space lines. It’s going to be great, I just know it. The sooner they move in front of the bookstore, the quicker it will be finished. No sense fussing about it.

As Granny Mamie would say: You can’t drown your sorrows. They know how to swim.

Make some waves. Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main, Broken Arrow OK!

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