Earthquake in the City

So yeah, appearently there was a really tiny earthquake. So small you probably missed it, or mistook it for a passing truck. USGS has a map of where it was and all the science-y numbers, too.

so a new idea just occured to me...

I've had to go back to work, basically because I was broke and blogging might pay for some people, but I'm not one of them. Then I thought: why not crowd source information on what's happening in the city? A running twitter feed to gather info and amalgamate it all in one spot? I'll still do the occasional features as time allows, but use people talking about the city to get me info. First post to go live faster than you can say earthquake.

I love it here: Pho Hoa, 901 NW 23rd Street (three blocks east of classen).

I'm not a food critic or even really a "foodie." That's not what this is about. Really, Pho Hoa is one of the things in this town that make it livable, that make me happy to live here. One of the great things about my life: I woke up today, decided to do this review, texted my friend, Sarah: "Lunch? Pho?" She replied: "I'll be there at noon thirty." By then, it was already 11. I was going to have to hurry.

I hadn't had any coffee. That was the rush. So I went in to the kitchen, made coffee (7 minutes), poured a cup and added ice to cool it so I could down it quickly (1 minute), looked around for socks in my room (10 minutes), set my coffee on my desk, forgot it, put on my shoes, remembered, guzzled half, threw everything for my day in my bag (laptop, camera, etc.) and hopped on my bike. This left me with an hour to get there. Plenty of time.

The first three miles were fine, all the way to Bryant on tenth street. Then my chain fell off and I had to stop and fix it. Then, a few miles later, it happened again and I noticed I'd lost a spoke nipple, which meant I was walking the last half mile. (Spoke nipples hold spokes to the rim; short a spoke, the wheel is weakened; and with my confidence shot anyway, it made sense at the time). I got there right on time.

Partly to relieve the stress and partly to kill time, I took off my back wheel to fix it, and after barking my knuckle, got the tire off and tried to shake the spoke nipple out of the rim. It fell to the ground, disappeared, something. I gave up and waited.

Some things you should know: Pho Hoa is unapologetically foreign. It's located in a dive location, looks a bit run down on the outside, but the rule remains true: the places that look most like dives have to have good food, or they'd be out of business. Sarah arrived, and we went in.

On the inside, it's immaculate. White table cloths, orderly place settings (a spoon and chop-sticks), and an appetizer of sprouts. All of the dishes served are fare you won't see except in another, lesser, Vietnamese restaurant, or possibly if you were to go to Vietnam. I've no idea, I've never been. There is tripe in some of the soup, and brisket, and shrimp and pork, in just about all the possible combinations you can imagine.

The soups are divided by broth, as far as I can tell. There's a section on the menu that's basically beef, and one that's more or less pork, and another that's more or less seafood. I say more or less because there are a ton of options that should really be experienced.

As we were trying to decide what to get, Sarah said "I'm going to get something different. Last time I get here I had something other than the usual, and it was delicious."

To which I responded: "Everything on the menu here is adventurous for me..." I'm a meat and potatoes guy, with a side of pizza. I don't normally like a lot of soups; people's tendency to add a little of everything really kills it for me. Pho is different.

The base is a broth, a really simple broth, seasoned lightly with something really good that I can't place. Ginger or cinnamon, something like that, onion and some other things that I can't discern. The meat is stewed and tender, and the rice noodles are a good blank slate to get the taste of the broth in your mouth. The textures all work together, and it's a really pleasing meal.

Added to that is the beverage menu, which has all the average fare like tea and soda, but also has things like Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk and "bubble tea" which is some kind of fruit smoothie with these spheres of gel in the bottom that come up through a really big straw. The coffee is wonderful and the bubble tea is weird, but tasty.

Of course, after all I'd been through I was starving. I tore into my soup, and for once, a small wasn't too much food. Very tasty, overall, and very recommended.

Bike against hunger redux

So today was the main event for Bike against hunger, over 30 racers, 60 odd riders total, 700 dollars raised and 500 pounds of food donated. Lots of good.

I got to the race feeling late but being early. this isn't uncommon for me; I wake up late, rush through my morning routine, and manage to make it where I'm going with plenty of time. I'll usually sacrifice part of the routine, and this morning it was fashion that lost out; I threw on a mechanic's jumpsuit I favor and I was off to cover the race.



When I got there, the scene was already packed with people on two wheels. I was #33 to sign up, half an hour before the race. The race was starting and ending at sauced, a local favorite hangout for some, and that place some people can't stand and will never go to. I don't know any of those people because I'm always at sauced. The service is... idosyncratic, subject to change, and the same can be said for the menu, the staff, etc. The main feature besides the fairly decent (for being this far west of the Hudson) new york style pie is the patio, outdoor seating which is to die for, and even in the winter people will be out, crowded around fire pits and chimineas.

I locked my bag in my car, then realized I would need it to carry cans... and about two seconds later realized that my car keys were in the bag. Locked out. So, I had my camera and a spare battery, no problem, I'll just ride and try to keep up.

Crowded it was. At the start of the race, everyone walked to a nearby parking lot, lined up, and waited for Timmy to get there. Stuart, the man behind all this, was yelling jokes through his bullhorn. "Everyone hates you right now, Timmy," he said. "Everything bad that happens in the race, it's his fault." Timmy is actually a likable affable guy, don't worry, he was laughing too.



Then the surprise start. There's always at least one thing that happens in an alleycat that you don't expect. This time, the start of the race was actually a three legged run to the bikes. We had to pair up and get taped to a partner, and then we were supposed to run to the bikes. Hilarity ensued.





From there, it was off to the first checkpoint. Partly because Stuart had said it wasn't his fault, and partly because it was the farthest south, we headed to Schlegel (sorry for butchering the name) Cycles. There was some really foul things in a cup that all the racers had to eat. Sauerkraut mixed with relish mixed with pumpkin and spinach. I decided at that point that I gave up and wasn't going to try to race. My bowels already hate me.





From there, there were six grocery stores, all roughly the same. Ride into the parking lot and up close to the entrance, prop the bike, run in, get a can, wait in line for what seems like forever, run out, get a manifest signed, and then on to the next stop. Lather, rinse, repeat.





After the fifth store, I figured I had enough pictures and so I headed back to sauced, which was also the finish line. I took a few photos of the finishers, and then started trying to open my car- I finally succeeded with a big pry bar and a coat hanger about half an hour later. Beer, bike tricks and conversation were our after party.

some thoughts on this blog...

My name is Matt Mills, and right now I'm the sole writer/editor/producer here at OKCityblog. Most of the people that come here know me. My original thought, in creating this blog, was to do news coverage of the everyday here in the city. Do it as strait news, ledes, captions, quotes, the whole bit. I'm just one guy. It seems like I could keep up with doing a couple posts a day if all I had to do was shoot pictures and put them up, even writing little captions.

But when you add writing to that, I'm done. I'm not a writer, and I'm definitely not an editor. Which is why posting has been sparse. I was in a good rhythm for the first week or so, but my routine usually consists of me waking up and deciding what to do for the day. Which leads to no routine at all.

So, instead of doing what old newspapers do, I'm going to wing it gonzo style. The rules are:

1. Tell the truth of what happened.

2. Show what I can with pictures.

3. Publish early, publish often.

If anybody wants to help me, I would really love it. And by help, I mean both email me that things are happening and send in your photos, videos, and stories. If you post them on your blog first, you can just send me a link and I'll post it here.

I Love it Here- Afternoon at the Zoo

This piece is part of a recurring feature I'd like to have, if I can find enough good reasons. Its counterpart, "I hate it here" will also make appearances from time to time. I recieve no compensation from anybody for these posts. (Except for the google ads, which hopefully will pay my bills).

Seriously, when was the last time you went to the zoo? Elementary school? With you little cousins, when you got dragged along that last time in ninth grade?

The Oklahoma City Zoo is filled with amazing animals. Sure, they're caged. Go away PETA, you're not helping. Zoos like ours, with large habitats made to simulate animals' natural environments, actually do more good than harm for wildlife in general because they raise awareness. Nobody I know can go on an African Safari and see rhinos. Everybody can go to the zoo.



This time of year is great too. According to the zoo's web site: "Fall, winter and cloudy days are good times to visit the Zoo because it is less crowded and many of the animals are more active." I remember going in the summer, years ago, and not seeing many animals. I always left with a feeling of vague dissappointment. It could have been the heat exhaustion. It seems more likely, though, that I was missing out on seeing all theanimals walking around, playing with each other, flying, sunning, napping, all the things that they do.



Tuesday was a good day. There were maybe ten other people on the whole grounds of the zoo; the lack of croud gave the place a really intimate feeling, as if it were my zoo. It was quiet. I walked in to one of the exhibits, empty, and looked out through the thick glass. I was expecting maybe some weird kind of squirrel, or some other small mammal. I was sort of peeing off into the far corners, and from the edge of the window, inches from my face, a mountain lion appeared. It wasn't scary; it was a non-sequitur, a surprise.



That was in the new (new to me, but it's been years, again) Oklahoma section of the zoo. I didn't know there were bears in this state, but appearently, there are. And deer, of course, and elk, and alligators.



Every section was like that- all of the animals on display, active, improbable here in OKC. I wandered around the zoo slightly bewildered and mostly bemused, each turn revailing a lion or a wolf or a vulture. It's a good way to spend an afternoon.

Bike Against Hunger-Norman

Bike Against Hunger Norman edition was a big success, about 30 people, ton of cans got donated. Big event next week, if you're reading this, you should come out. Sunday the 16th, at noon.
(note: I'll come back and add captions when I'm on a faster connection).