Inspiration

June Home Tours

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Yesterday my friends and I had a lovely day of touring homes and we got both a lot of sun and a lot of steps ☀️

First we toured the neighborhood where my friends live, Tulsa’s historic Lortondale mid-century modern homes. Here are some highlights:

Lortondale, Tulsa Homes

Also, one house in the neighborhood had a beautiful wildflower yard! 😍

Wildflower Lawn!

Next, we toured the Adah Robinson home, designed by artist and teacher Adah Robinson with the aid of her student Bruce Goff as well as assistance from Joseph Koberling. The Art Deco house features leaded glass windows, hollow tile, stucco, and terrazzo floors. The unique layout welcomes visitors with a stunning two-story living area with a huge open space, tall windows, and a beautiful light fixture. Adah Robinson was also a concept designer for Tulsa’s famous building, the Boston Avenue Methodist Church.

Adah Robinson House

Supporting Black-Owned Businesses

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Growing up in the Tulsa area, I was aware of our bleak past, a time and place where black business owners had started to thrive, only to have their lives and shops destroyed by a racist white mob during the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, which writer Scott Ellsworth described as “the single worst incident of racial violence in American history.” Some, who were able to, rebuilt their businesses, but undoubtedly, our Tulsa Greenwood district would look very different today if all of those businesses had the opportunity to continue to flourish.

I realize that times are difficult for many, but when you go to shop, consider the black-owned businesses you could be supporting. As an Etsy buyer and seller, I was glad to see Etsy highlight some excellent black-owned shops recently. And as a member of Etsy seller groups, I have seen the impact of this support on the lives of many shop owners this week, and I hope we will remember to continue to build up these communities in the future.

When you support these wonderful, vibrant businesses, you support an economic and societal presence that has been stolen from too many people.

Nina Simone: To Be Free

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Nina Simone was way ahead of her time, this interview is very apt for this time and place (all of Earth) where there’s a heightened sense of fear, where racial injustice still runs rampant, where we are currently facing a major pandemic, and where we have seen environmental planetary destruction take place for too long. The absurdity is that all of it has been denied by far too many, so we’re not getting the support needed to handle it. I heard this interview a long time ago and it was an inspiration to me, and I took it very seriously, especially the end where she says “like a new way of seeing,” which I think of often.

It’s International Observe the Moon Night

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It’s officially International Observe the Moon Night! There’s lots of great moon footage around, but I wanted to focus on the idea of reaching new spaces and really liked how this scene from “View From a Blue Moon” (2015) tied the moon landing in with a surfer’s dreams.

“View From a Blue Moon” Trailer:

The song in the trailer is Kishi Bashi’s “I Am The Antichrist To You” –

He released this story with the official video (below):

“Once he belonged to someone.
He had a big floppy ear like a puppy and a tiny tail like a bunny.
Nobody knew what he was, but it didn’t matter to them anymore.

He was abandoned on the street. There he found a hat that was also dumped, and they both decided to take a journey in search of a better place.

The puppy and the hat sailed away in the dark ocean…
One day, they arrived to The Island, where All the creatures were once someones’
family, friend or lover.
No one can visit the island except the ones who came here abandoned…

He met there the pink bunny with whom they spent many years rediscovering happiness again. Then the numbers from their other world arrived…”