McHuston Booksellers

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Tag: oklahoma (Page 49 of 115)

A long day. Really. Summer Solstice.

June 21, 2014 /

Too many years ago to count, I moved to Tulsa with a rock and roll band intent on playing the clubs. Yeah. That worked out.

There were some capital-G guitarists back then, but it was the leading edge of the change. Guitar-bangers like me got kicked to the curb in favor of folks that were taking lead guitar playing from a picka-picka style to something approaching virtuosity. We’d heard Plant and Clapton and Zappa. (Yeah. Frank Zappa. YouTube him. He WAS that good.) These guys were the exceptions.

Only, at some point – they weren’t anymore. Sure they had their experience and signature licks and people looked to them to imitate. One day everybody with a Strat woke up and could make their fingers fly and they just needed a singer to front their fretwork.

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It’s the Summer Solstice. Longest day of the year. Maybe the hottest so far, too. There are plenty of folks gathered in the Rose District this evening, sampling food truck provisions and looking over the festival wares: tie-dye tees, craftwork, and jewelry. There’s an old Royal typewriter under a canopy with a tag. $40. A little steep, I think, for a non-starter.

But the guy up on the stage? Kicked off his set with a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner that mimicked Hendrix in a mighty-fine fashion, then – midway through it – drifted off into some other machinegun musical assault. I’m thinking right off the bat that the guy has picked up a guitar before this evening. Once or twice.

In fact, back in the days when I was doing a sideman bit for DeWayne (a gifted guitarist in his own right: RIP), this guy playing on a flatbed on Main Street could have been knocking them dead at the Fillmore. (You can Google that venue, you whippersnappers.)

It makes me wonder just how many excellent guitar pickers are huddled in their living rooms hacking away and doing it ten times better than all but the cream of the crop did it not so many years ago. (Okay. Okay. So, it was a good while ago. The point is, the state of guitar playing has evolved greatly from back then to now.)

Don’t know how the first Summer Solstice festival in the Rose District will measure up, but between the heat, the hot licks, and the hot dogs, a bunch of folks ought to leave happy when it’s all sung and done.

Come visit!

McHuston

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

Get out der bleistift and make a list!

June 11, 2014 /

When my friend Joe got back from Germany, he had a new vocabulary that he eagerly shared with me. Not a lot of words, but some used universally. We were sixth-graders and the only bi-lingual cussers on the playground. It’s certainly a thing of wonder, the fact that I can remember those phrases after all this time, but have to look up the website password.

Thought about Joe when the Book of EVERYDAY WORDS in German came into the shop today. It’s a safe assumption that my old buddy’s words aren’t included in this book. And I’m sure it’s because I don’t get out enough, but some of the Everyday Words that are included in the book aren’t on my daily list of spoken words. (Joe’s German phrases don’t get used by me either…)

Das Krokodil. Really? Do the rest of you talk about crocodiles every day?

Despite my lack of German language skills, I can translate some of these without the little picture guide. Das Toilettenpapier, for example. Now, there’s an everyday word.

I could have figured that a bikini is a bikini in any language, and I’m not surprised that an orange is an orange and an avocado is just the same, both here and there. And in Hamburg, the hamburgers are cooked on Der Grill, just like in your own backyard.

Couldn’t find the word for book, naturally. But I’ve found plenty of new book titles.

Some of the recent arrivals have already departed. Michael Korda’s new biography of Robert E. Lee – Clouds of Glory – is out of stock, but on order. There are other new titles on the shelves, though.

Diana Gabaldon’s latest in the Outlander series was released this week, and Written in my Own Heart’s Blood catches up with Jamie and Claire shortly after the American Revolution. There is intrigue anew and secrets revealed in the latest installment, which already has a four-star review on Amazon. (Don’t know how folks could have already finished reading the thing – it’s an 848 pager.)

The title that has been flying off the shelf?

The Fault in our Stars, by John Green. Part of the sales have been driven by the release of the movie version, but it has been a steady seller for the past few months. Passionate fans, too. A young lady spotted it as she walked by, picked it up, and gave it a smooch before setting it back on its easel.

We also have a smooch-free copy, if you prefer.

The nice Dickens set has been sent home with a good family. 130-old volumes that were nicely kept and will look great on their bookshelf. You’ll find some new copies of older titles in stock too, like a Lord of the Rings anthology (the complete trilogy in a single book), the Hunger Games, a boxed set of the Ender’s Game series, and others.

They’re forecasting more showers. Makes for good reading.

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 S. Main St. Broken Arrow OK! 74012

Muchas Smooches, said Hobbes.

June 2, 2014 /

Some books are comfort food for the heart. Just looking at them can transport you to a different time and place, and maybe even inspire a smile.

Calvin and Hobbes have that effect on me.

One of my simple pleasures, way back when, was the Sunday Tulsa World – back when it was a big, big newspaper. Size of a fireplace log. Not that it was important to strain a back picking up from the driveway, but I just remember it that way. These days the paper is considerably smaller. (Carriers probably prefer the current version.)

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There were a couple of features that were always worthwhile, even when it was a slow sports week. Dave Barry’s column and Calvin and Hobbes.

More than once I had trouble getting through Mr. Barry’s column. It got to be a common practice that I would read it aloud so my wife and I could enjoy it at the same time. When Dave was hitting on all cylinders I’d be laughing so hard it was difficult to speak. It made for an uplifting way to start off the Sunday.

We both enjoyed Calvin and Hobbes, but it just wasn’t a read-out-loud feature. The fun was in the artwork. The comic strip was drawn by an artist named Bill Watterson for a ten year period beginning in late 1985. Some of you will have grown up without ever having seen it in a daily paper.

And that’s a shame. Calvin is an ornery six year old, and Hobbes is his Tiger. The trick of the feature is that – while everyone else sees Hobbes as a stuffed toy – Calvin and the readers see the tiger as a living, breathing, fun-loving sidekick.

Just like it made my Sundays, I was really tickled to come across a huge stack of the collected comic strips in paperback. Pristine copies, too.

Even though it has been years since I’ve seen them, when I flipped one over to look at the back, I immediately remembered Spaceman Spiff. You C & H fans will remember Calvin’s trips into deep space, where he assumed his alter ego.

When Mr Watterson first introduced Calvin, I wondered about the economy of his artwork. The kid’s hair is little more than a squiggled line and his mouth is usually a triangle. Working with such a simple form, I was amazed at the range of emotions that were depicted. And the background art?

Stuff worthy of framed canvas.

Mr Watterson was able to fill his Sunday comic strip with outrageous depictions of Calvin’s imagination, from dinosaurs, to space travel, to ingenious snow sculpture. (Calvin’s projects were always more than just snowmen.)

They’re priced individually, but if you’re in need of a twenty-years-later Calvin & Hobbes fix, I’ll make you such a deal on the entire lot.

Come visit!

McHuston

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

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