Watch with shock n awe, as the top Baristas from Green Country’s best cafés compete until one drops from a caffeine overdose. Not really, but you can catch the aromas, tastes and talent as Baristas challenge each other in a coffee contest that is a first for Tulsa and hosted by Café Topéca. Proprietor of
Café Topéca, John Gaberino III (Chip) says, “This will be an interactional event.” “Our (coffee) culture is at the right time for this (type of event)”.

So what is a “Barista”? A “barista” is a person who is a expertise in the making a espresso-based coffee drink. You know how cool those “art forms” on the top of the crème of your latte are and how quick you like your tasty beverage to be in your hands. Now is your chance to see artists at work during a day long competition against the best in Oklahoma right here in your own T-town.

The competition will be taken on by one representative from each participating café. They will get 10 minutes to perfect a espresso, cappuccino, and a personal “signature” drink (in the epitome of the Iron Chef”) for two USBC certified sensorial judges using manual grounding, dosing and tamping of the coffee beans. How serious is this? Besides the 2 sensory judges (one flying in from Nashville),
there will be 1 Technical judge and 1 head judge in the mix. The two sensory judges will judge
timeliness, consistency, cleanliness, quality, taste and presentation. 1st place gets $100, 1/2
day roasting class on a Detrich IR-12 Roaster., 2nd place-$50, 3rd place-$25 and 4th place a
can of Folders.

Participating cafés will be: Jews Coffee & Health, Coffee House on 15th Street, Café Topeca, DoubleShot, Shades of Brown, and Coffee Slingers.

All the details

Where Café Topéca, 115 West 5th Street (south-east side of the historic Mayo Hotel)
When Saturday, December 6th, 2008 at 10:00AM

On September 25, 1958 Quiktrip opened its doors to Tulsa, Oklahoma at its first store on South Peoria. Now it’s time for the Tulsa based convenience store chain to celebrate their 50th year anniversary with live music from a variety of both local and regional acts. Quiktrip is also throwing a huge fireworks display to thank Tulsa citizens and the community for fifty years of support. The event will be held at the River West Festival Park (on the West Bank of the Arkansas River behind the Amphitheater) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Best of all, you can get your tickets at all Tulsa area Quiktrip locations for free! 

Bands, Bands, and More Bands!

• Uche and the Crash - These guys will take Stage 2 at 12pm
• Little Chair - Stage 1 at 12:50pm
• Crooked X - Stage 2 at 1:40pm
• Rattle and Hum -  Stage 1 and 2:30pm
• Midlife Crisis - Stage 2 at 3:20pm
• South40 - Stage 1 at 4:10
• Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey - Stage 2 at 5pm
• Leon Russell - Stage 1 at 6pmHanson - Stage 1 at 7:50

What about beer, restrictions, and food?

Glad you asked! Quiktrip Mobile will be on site with concessions, the same food you have learned to enjoy from their deli sandwiches to egg rolls. Best of all, Budweiser will be on site with their beer garden, providing a nice environment to sit back and drink-up! There is a double fist limit of two beers per visit to the beer concession and the beer stops flowing at 9:30PM when the fireworks demonstration begins. Quiktrip has outlined all the details of their Tulsa festival on their website www.quiktrip.com/festival/QTfest_faq.asp.

The fireworks will pop from the 21^st Street Bridge at 9:30PM in Tulsa, Oklahoma and continue until they’re out of the magical black power and star dust. Don’t miss out, come out to the River and enjoy some FREE live music and fireworks! See you there, Tulsa!

Article image thankfully jacked from quiktrip.com/festival/. Great artwork huh?

Coming up next week (September 7th - 13th) is the Tulsa’s annual “Restaurant Week”. If you’d like to please your pallet with some of the city’s best restaurants now’s the time. You can get great three-course dishes at special prices next week only.

There are a ton of restaurants participating in this year’s event including the Avalon Steakhouse, Bodean’s Seafood, The Chalkboard, The Melting Pot, and many, many more. The best part about it is that each of these participants are donating 10% of the proceeds during this time to the Community Food Bank for Northeastern Oklahoma.

TulsaPeople has all participating restaurants listed with links to their menu options for the event. We’ll list them too just in case you haven’t read the TulsaPeople website.

• Avalon Steakhouse
• BigA
• Bodean’s
• The Brasserie
• Cyprus Grill
• The Chalkboard
• Daily Grill
• Fleming’s
• Garlic Rose
• Jazmo’z
• Keo
• Lava Noshery
• The Local Table
• The Melting Pot
• Oliver’s Twist
• Oscar’s Gastropub
• Palace Cafe
• Polo Grill
• Sochey
• Sonoma
• Thyme

Even before the BOK Center officially opens on August 30th, performances had already been booked.  The Eagles will be the first act to perform in the new building on September 6th and a second date has also been added for November 11th.  Just announced today, August 28th, Janet Jackson will be coming to Tulsa on October 26th for her Rock Witchu tour.

The BOK is 565,000 square-feet and will play host to a wide variety of events, including preseason NBA basketball featuring the new Oklahoma City team, men’s college basketball, Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey circus, and Cirque du Soleil’s Saltimbanco.  Also already booked are musical performances with local ties.  American Idol winner and Checotah native, Carrie Underwood is scheduled to perform on October 29th and American Idol season 10 winner David Cook, who lived and worked in Tulsa, will be there September 13 along with the rest of the top 10 contestants from that season.

For information about upcoming events and tickets, go to the BOK Center website.

There’s no doubting Tulsa’s rich music history. We’ve always been a city captivated by live music, especially jazz. With the fall season starting to hit us, music is in full swing downtown, and we feel that its about time.

The Jazz Hall of Fame is celebrating their one year anniversary in their new building, The Jazz Depot; the BOK Arena is slated to open soon with tons of concerts already booked; and new businesses are either starting up or re-locating downtown. The new Downtown Tulsa is changing…and that’s a good thing.

Here’s what the Jazz Depot, who’s motto is "Creating Unity Through Music" has going on through the rest of the year:

September 14 – Songstress – Ms. Olivia Duhon

Ms. Duhon is a TU grad and hot new jazz vocalist with trio, Sonny Gray, Vernon Howard and George Toumayan.

September 21 – Two Gents of Song - Jason De Long and Devre Jackson

Two of the Jazz Hall’s favorites, Mr. De Long and Mr. Jackson are planning a knock-out performance, with Mike Leland on piano, Spike Gore on drums and Nigel Frye on bass.

September 27 –  Kansas City, Mo. American Jazz Museum All-Stars

Greg Carroll (Executive Director of the American Jazz Museum), sax man Gerald Dunn, and other Kansas City jazz all-stars make appearance at the Jazz Depot with a slam dunk performance.

October 5 – Still Jazzin’ Our Way’ With the Midnight Social Club Quartet

Pam Van Dyke Crosby, local jazz vocal favorite sings up a storm with Bill Crosby on bass; guitarist, Frank Brown; drummer, Wade Robertson drums and Jeff Newsome on piano.

October 12 – Amy Cottingham and Friends

Pianist/vocalist Amy Cottingham brilliantly plays jazz, classical, pop and practically any other style of music. She will be joined by her trio.

October 19 – Chuck Gardner “Music From My Heart”

Pianist, Chuck Gardner is a jazz standard at the Jazz Hall and plans a special concert featuring original compositions of his, never heard before in Tulsa. He’s joined by Bill Crosby on bass and Tony Yohe on drums, with special guest vocalists.

October 26 – An Evening with Janet Rutland

The always top-notch vocalist will blow the roof off the Jazz Depot with guitarist, Randy Wimer and her special blend of music and style.

November 2 – Presenting the Annie Ellicott Trio

From young to old alike, Annie Ellicott has carved a niche in everyone’s heart with her shining vocals and wonderful scatting ability. She will be joined by her dad, Rod Ellicott on bass, Wade Robertson on drums, and Frank Brown on guitar.

November 9 – TU Big Jazz Band One

The swinging sound of big band music with TU’s stunning jazz ensemble, and vocalists will be on the bandstand too. Under the musical direction of Jazz Studies professor, Vernon Howard.

November 16 – Ernestine Dillard & the Tulsa Praise Orchestra

World-renowned gospel vocalist and Oklahoma music treasure, Ms. Dillard performs all of your classic gospel selections with the amazing Oklahoma Praise Orchestra.

November 30 – Ellington’s “Sophisticated Ladies” – The Stage Concert

Stage version of the Broadway hit, Sophisticated Ladies will feature a number of top-flight vocalists, with staging by Jazz Hall CEO, Chuck Cissel

December 7 – Jeff Shadley & His Big Band’s “Ring-a-Ding Ding”

“Ole Blue Eyes” shows up at the Depot in the form of vocalist Jeff Shadley and his big band performing your favorite Sinatra tunes, also with plenty of brand new music.

December 14 – Holiday “Jazz Jam” Session

Leon Rollerson’s Band will perform holiday tunes and collaborate with area jazz musicians and vocalists coming together to celebrate the Christmas holiday in an evening of straight-ahead jammin’.

December 21 – Gospel Workshop Choir of America

Making their annual visit to the Jazz Depot performing gospel selections with the choral sound only the Gospel of Workshop Choir can. Musical director is Jazz Hall Inductee, Dr. Joey Crutcher.

December 28 – J3 Acoustic Jazz and Blues Band

Back by popular demand, J3 took the Hall by storm on their first visit, and now they are coming back like a hurricane – to absolutely blow you away with their fine musicianship and vocals. Added treat will be holiday music on the menu.

Site: www.okjazz.org

All concerts are at the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame building - The Jazz Depot. Its located at 111 E. 1st St.  Phone: (918) 596-1001

If you missed the first evening of Summer Bash 2008 at Plan B in downtown, Tulsa, Oklahoma — you missed one hell of a show! It is okay! We captured plenty of photographs and video footage to help assist you in filling the void of local music and entertainment. No matter what we show you, you did miss an extremely energetic performance by some of Tulsa’s great local bands: We Stay Gold, Radio Radio, First Lady Assassins, P.D.A., and Violence to Vegas.

Each band performed for about forty five minutes on average and entertained with music from their extensive repertoires. The energy was noticed throughout every performance and only grew through the middle of the evening when Anthony from P.D.A. performed; prior to Violence to Vegas.

“How many of you have heard of THISTULSA.COM? If you haven’t you need to check them out online at THISTULSA.COM!” exclaimed Anthony, P.D.A., during his performance at Summer Bash. He was extremely enthusiastic and supportive of this website. Brad and I were both extremely surprised at this statement. Mad love!

The show continued throughout the midnight hour with Violence to Vegas, opened by P.D.A.’s wild performance. First Lady Assassins jammed the outdoor sand covered patio with their harmonic screaming tones, prior to Radio Radio knocking the house down with their melodies. If you’ve not witnessed performances from these bands; we recommend you check them out.

The drinks were affordable, the environment very clean, and bands well established. For eight dollars for a single night or ten dollars for both evenings; you could not ask for a better performance. The weather for this event has been absolutely beautiful and could not be any better.

We look forward to all the new visitors to the site per P.D.A.’s recommendation and personal endorsement. If you are new, let us know!

Mad props to all the bands this evening and those performing on day two (Technically that is today as well — considering it is 2:54AM now Saturday morning.)

If you have not checked out P.D.A. on myspace, do so now: myspace.com/pdaonline and follow him on twitter at twitter.com/pdaonline.

Check back in a few hours for the short video teaser, Anthony promised we would have the entire performance on the website (we told him we’d edit it down a bit.) FocusOn: Tulsa will end up posting more segments from the video in the upcoming show next week. We also have all the photographs here on flickr.com. Check them out!

On a side note, when Brad and I arrived back at his casa to have a few beers and prepare the photographs and video for release on the website; we decided to watch a flick. During this process there was a shadow figure in a straight flight path across his living room wall into his kitchen. “Dude it’s a moth.” he mentioned. “Man, it looked like a bird,” I said. “Holy ####! It is a (BLEEPING) bat!” he shouted. “Grab my camera!” I yelled while running from the sofa.

Needless to say, I think the 8″ winged monster is gone and we both don’t have rabies — that we know of.

Organum Records will host a night of the best original music Oklahoma has to offer on Friday, August 29 at Exit 6C. Dorian Small, based out of Norman, will be joining Archer Collective for his first Tulsa appearance since last year’s Dfest. With two albums receiving shining reviews (“every track surprises you with depth, recording quality, composition, and a feeling of nostalgic excitement”- Nonzine) and fresh off a successful two-week East coast tour with Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Dorian’s performance will be one not to be missed.

Archer Collective and is officially debuting its new line-up: Josh Raymer- Drums, Andrew Bones- Drums/Keys, Matt Hayes- Bass, Chris Combs- Guitar/Lap Steel, and Dylan Aycock- Pedal Steel/Effects. Innovative instrumental material, superior musicianship, and a full-length album in the works make Archer Collective the group to watch for 2008 (“what’s amazing is that these guys really are in the top-tier of performers, statewide…it’s safe to say that, locally, they’re the best at what they do”- Urban Tulsa Weekly).

Be sure to check out Archer Collective’s myspace at www.myspace.com/archercollective and Dorian Small at www.myspace.com/doriansmall

All the details at a glance

WHO: Archer Collective and Dorian Small
WHEN: Friday August 29th at 9:30PM
WHERE: Exit 6C, 1st and Detroit
WHAT: Ages 21+ and cover is $5.00USD

A brief discussion after Dfest two weeks ago between Brad and myself echoed an idea he started a while back for, “Focus On: Tulsa.” FocusonTulsa.com was launched shortly thereafter with the intention on becoming Tulsa’s best independently manipulated, produced, and corrupted internet video show.

We are not quite sure if there are any more shows taking place out there in the vast world of the internet, but we felt it appropriate to continue on and begin production. The first episode, “In the beginning,” launched earlier this week as a modest introduction to the guys behind the show.

Essentially, we are a few guys sitting on a sofa talking about topics important to Tulsa, ourselves, and you (we think). We know this might be similar to diggnation, but we have great intentions and the sofa is mobile!

Be sure to check out the website focusontulsa.com and watch the new episode(s) every week which officially go live on Wednesday evenings.

Looking for a way to beat the heat this summer? With Tulsa hitting its record high temp this past Sunday and with no real end in sight for the heat…TulsaLoop.com’s map of Tulsa Splash Pads are a great free way to cool off.

This past weekend, Shattuck and I rep’d ThisTulsa at DFest. To be honest, my expectations of this festival were not that high in the beginning. I was a little prejudice to how well big-time artists would be received by the Tulsa crowd. Man was I wrong…

The headliner for the closing night of DFest was The Roots. A hip-hop band that really needs no introduction, put on a show that I thought was nothing short of stellar. The band, who recently dropped their 10th album Rising Down, rocked the house at Tulsa’s annual DFest downtown. Since ThisTulsa was recognized as a “legitimate” news company, we had the ability to snap some great shots of their performance and hang out backstage while the performance rocked on.

Hopped up on RedBull, Justin and I took gigs of photos over the weekend. You can find them in various locations like Flickr; here and here as well as the bottom of every ThisTulsa web page.

How do you think DFest did this year Tulsa?