Meador Manor

Superheroes Past and Present

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Granger Meador

I wasn’t a big comic book collector, but I did read DC 3-packs in the early to mid-1970s. Marvel comics never caught on with me – their artwork seemed cruder to my eyes and I didn’t care for all of the bickering and angst amongst its characters…too much drama!

The front and back books of my DC 3-packs were usually Justice League of America and Action or Detective Comics (aka Superman or Batman) while the middle would be some lesser title like Superboy or Green Lantern/Green Arrow. Since I only had a couple dozen or so comic books in all, I read and re-read some of those comics again and again, enough that images from several of the stories lingered over thirty-five years later.

My comic books were discarded decades ago, and although I would sometimes wish I’d kept Dagger in the Sky and other tales, I presumed I’d never see them again. Comics were printed on cheap paper and how could you possibly sift through the hundreds of titles at a comic book shop and hope to find the few you fondly remembered?

Well, the internet puts everything at your fingertips these days. Online databases let you see the covers from any mainstream comic book and you can then use that info to track down a digital download. Recently I’ve re-acquired a number of titles from my youth and enjoyed revisiting their artwork, if not their juvenile storylines.

You can click on any of the images here to enlarge them.

Memorable images from my youth

Dagger in the Sky from 1972’s Superman #256 was the story I remembered best. I was always struck by that plane-shaped hole ripped through the fabric of spacetime.

Dramatic action

And the dramatic take-off of the jet from the hanger lingered in my mind’s eye as well. I loved Superman stories where he used his brains as well as his brawn, since Superman was enough of a deus ex machina himself without needing silly assistance from robot Supermen and other junk from his Fortress of Solitude. I disliked stories involving kryptonite, especially the many weird variations, and despaired when Mr. Mxyzptlk would make another annoying appearance. Gosh, did I really like Superman? Doesn’t sound like it, does it?

First person shooter

The next month brought Detective Comics #428 with a dramatic first-person shooter cover. But I was never as fond of Batman as I was of Superman. I loved the campy Batman TV show, but the comics of the 1970s were a very different take on the caped crusader. They were dark and seething with rage, although not as down and dirty as Frank Miller’s influential 1986 The Dark Knight Returns, which truly isn’t my cup of tea in storyline or artwork. And while I liked the first of the Tim Burton Batman movies, they went downhill fast. The new Christian Bale movies are better, but are also quite grim.

A noirish Hawkman caper I liked

That same 1972 issue of Detective Comics had a moody noir-style Hawkman story which I liked for its somber atmosphere. I never read much of Hawkman, but that particular short tale stuck in my mind.

I always preferred Justice League of America stories to the comics dedicated to a single character. They had more variation in style and content. I was no doubt influenced by the Super Friends television show, and Wonder Woman in the comic books was a far more interesting female character than anyone in the sappy Superman Family comics, even if she was rather dull in Super Friends.

Wonder Woman was the brainchild of William Moulton Marston, a Harvard-educated psychologist and lawyer and inventor of the lie detector. That explains the magic lasso’s truth-telling power, but Charles Lyons points out that “Marston filled his stories with bondage (both male and female), spanking, sorority initiation rituals, cross-dressing, infantilism, and playful domination.”

Wonder Woman in a typical act of bondage

Lyons offers up a revealing comment by Marston in 1946:

Tell me anybody’s preference in story strips and I’ll tell you his subconscious desires…Superman and the army of male comics characters who resemble him satisfy the simple desire to be stronger and more powerful than anybody else. Wonder Woman satisfies the subconscious, elaborately disguised desire of males to be mastered by a woman who loves them.

She'd changed some by the 1970s

The original Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman changed styles with the times, starting out with a 40s hairstyle and ruffling skirt which were long gone by the time I read her tales in the 1970s Justice League comics.

But she retained her habit of either getting trussed or chained up herself or gleefully doing it to others.

A Sexy Superboy?

The most sexualized artwork I read as a kid was, oddly enough, in Superboy. Even at age 9 I could pick up on some of the homo- and hetero-erotic vibes. We all know what those teenage superheroes were really up to, don’t we? The costuming left little to the imagination, for males or females, but as a prepubescent I was no doubt even more distracted by the visual Star Trek references in their spaceships. The female costumes were also a reminder of 1960s Star Trek: the outfits, or lack of them, which Bill Theiss draped over the guest stars.

Your place or mine?

She used too much bleach when washing her costume

Which is stranger: Cosmic Boy's outfit or the junked U.S.S. Enterprise?

The 1970s were part of the Bronze Age of comics. The Golden Age had ended in the 1950s with the attacks by Fred Wertham and the consequent Comics Code. The Silver Age had brought back many superheroes in revamped costumes and modernized origin stories. The Bronze Age I grew up in added more self-consciously darker and “socially relevant” storylines, which did little for me.

I certainly didn’t like all of the parallel worlds that built up in the storylines to explain away various contradictions. Eventually DC had the Crisis storylines of the 1980s which revamped all of the continuity. I wasn’t reading any comics by then, so I missed out on all that. And I also missed out on the switch from mass comic reading by kids to avid collecting by adults. Readership declined but revenue was bolstered by special editions and collectors.

The only time I read any comics after elementary school was when I heard Superman died. I picked up a graphic novel collection of the follow-up storyline of Superman’s return, struggling to decipher its maze of alternate Supermen and the like. It really didn’t seem worth the effort in the end; the artwork was impressive, but the convoluted tales certainly weren’t nostalgic for me, being far removed from what I’d read as a kid.

Some years later I was convinced by a highly positive mention in Time to read the Watchmen graphic novel, which was extremely dark but also a great story. I also read the first Sandman books, but although Gaiman is a great author they got a bit too ethereal for me.

Then DC announced a few months ago that it was completely rebooting its entire line, discarding all of the old continuity and starting fresh. They’d also be offering their new line in iPad-friendly versions with the same kind of auto-panning and zooming that Marvel had in its digital line.

That sounded intriguing since I could just download a few books on my iPad and not have to worry about the overload of ponderous continuity from decades of stories. Two of my favorite television franchises, Dr. Who and Star Trek, suffered from such problems of backstory overload, although I was an avid enough watcher of every Trek series to keep up with the dizzying complexities.

The New 52 at DC has a rather digital look. And Wonder Woman is like money: always inflating.

So I’ve bought and read the first three of the new Action Comics with Superman. He’s weaker than before and in this storyline hasn’t really figured out how to be a superhero yet and is leaping about in jeans, not flying around in full spandex. It’s actually been fun and I’ll keep reading it for awhile until I tire of it.

The New Action Comics

There is a separate Superman comic book line where it appears he’s older and more polished with more stuff about Krypton, but that doesn’t interest me. And I’ve sampled and rejected The Savage Hawkman and some Marvel comics. I’m just not the target audience for most of this stuff. The fact that I complain more than praise throughout this article is a giveaway that comics really aren’t my thing, although I like bits and pieces.

I’ll wrap up with something interactive you can try if you like. I found a silly online quiz that supposedly identifies which superhero you most resemble in terms of your personality. Here’s what I got:

You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern		65%
Superman		55%
Spider-Man		55%
Hulk		50%
Robin		50%
Iron Man		40%
The Flash		30%
Supergirl		25%
Batman		25%
Wonder Woman		15%
Catwoman		10%

Hot-headed. You have strong
will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Well, I never really cared much for Green Lantern (let alone this summer’s movie version which I wasted money on), but I have to admit that while I don’t want to read about it, if I had to live it I’d prefer a magic ring to bare knuckled fisticuffs. And having to keep that darn ring charged up isn’t all that different from keeping the iPhone and iPad ready to go, is it?

Posted in art, photos, random | 1 Comment

Straddling the Lake of the Ozarks State Park

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Granger Meador

At Lake of the Ozarks (click image for slideshow)

I’ll wrap up 2011 with a lengthy post about four trails I hiked at Lake of the Ozarks on the last day of the year.

Coping with Hotel Living

Earplugs are my strategy for some hotels. The new one I stayed at in Osage Beach was, as reported in online reviews, run by a friendly couple but suffered from poor architecture. It had a large central corridor which functioned as a resonance box for the indoor pool at one end and all of the inevitable slamming doors from typical thoughtless guests. But my earplugs kept me undisturbed, the bed was comfortable, and the continental breakfast was varied and fresh. It’s a shame earplugs can’t compensate for a cramped bathroom, but it was a budget hotel after all.

Lake of the Ozarks Area

On the last day of 2011 I’d hike on four different trails in the Lake of the Ozarks State Park, straddling it with hikes at the west and east end. These added to the previous day’s hike there and a hike in September 2010 at nearby Ha Ha Tonka. I haven’t exhausted the trails in this area, so I’ll be back in 2012. The long drive from Bartlesville means I will need to stay at an area hotel, so I might try returning here over Spring Break. I wouldn’t like the big summer crowds.

Grand Glaize Trails

By 8:45 a.m. I was on the first trail, which was only a few miles away in the Grand Glaize area on the west edge of the state park. The area name refers to a flooded creek but the origin of the name is uncertain. It lies only a few blocks east of the south part of Osage Beach (aka Laguna Beach), and the area is known for its summer partiers. The state has redesigned the park entry road, which fooled Trixie the GPS, but I had little trouble finding the trailhead for the Rocky Top Trail, a 2.5 mile double-loop.

This wasn’t Tennessee, but I’ll confess I did have the old bluegrass song in mind as I began my hike. Oh my, but I still love it when Buck Owens kicks it into gear. Hee Haw rubbed off on me a bit, I guess. Gloom, despair, and agony on me.

And since it was New Year’s Eve, I could ask, “Where, oh where, are you tonight?” Yes, they did it on Porter Wagoner too.

Okay, I apologize for that. Let’s get back to the trail…

It was still in the 40s so I opted to walk the trail so that I’d be in the sunlight along the lake shore for the start of my hike. I walked past a shelter and down to the shore, where a bright sun was climbing the sky. A fisherman was standing in his boat close to shore and we waved as the trail hugged the shoreline. I reached the waterway which separates the two trail loops and crossed it so I could ascend the adjacent hill to an overlook. The trail, like both of yesterday’s, followed a ridgeline to a point. But this time it was a broad high cliff providing a sweeping eastward view of this arm of the lake.

I spotted a fisherman below the bluff and zoomed in for a look, deciding it might just be a fisherwoman…hard to tell. Across the way were various condos, and boats and birds passed by the point. I could see that I was standing on an overhang of a high eroded bluff and managed to bushwhack down the edge of the bluff and made my way over along its lower and colorful face to stand beneath the overlook. Some large pieces of rocks had broken away, and a bit of greenery was bursting from the bluff. I was very glad I’d made this bushwhack and climbed back past the eroded rock face to the trail, where the Ozark savanna led down into the lake.

I found more tree fungi of various sorts. I returned to the first loop and followed it up to reach a profusion of pockmarked rocks as I exited the forest into a large sloping glade which justified the trail’s name. This truly was a rocky top, with many eroded stones protruding from the grass. I shot a panorama and then exited the glade, which was close to the trailhead. Altogether a most satisfying start to my day.

I knew the nearby Shade Ridge Trail would be less interesting, as it simply hugs the lake shore connecting the marina to the Pa He Tsi area. But it was so close I couldn’t pass it up, so I drove over to the trailhead, discarded my heavier jacket and ear pops since the temperature had climbed into the 60s, and crossed a short bridge onto the trail. It hugged the lake shore part of the way, providing ready access to the water where I could see a fishing boat silhouetted by the glare of the morning sun. Along the trail there were pleasant views of the lake developments. I peered down into a fallen log’s maw, but thankfully nothing came popping out at me.

Squirrels scampered about, as they had on parts of the earlier trail, but they were skittish and would not pose for the camera. I forded a small steady stream and arrived at the closed entrance to the Pa He Tsi area. The name refers to the Big Osage tribe or “campers on the mountain” in contrast to the Little Osage or U-ʇseɥ-ta or ‘”campers in the lowlands”.

I retraced my steps, passing a dead tree which poked at the clear blue sky. The low sun was lengthening my short legs enormously as I walked over to the stream, where some tree roots formed a miniature waterfall. A plane flew overhead toward the nearby landing strip. A couple of fishermen were plying the edges of a cove as I returned to my car. It was time for lunch.

The Lake of the Ozarks and Bagnell Dam

I was craving pizza and Yelp said there was truly excellent pizza to be found at the Alley Cats bar to the north in Lake Ozark. I don’t care for smoky bars, but the lure of crispy tasty pizza was irresistible. So I made my way over, finding I had to cross Bagnell Dam. The half-mile long dam was constructed by Union Electric of St. Louis from 1929-1931 and rises 148 feet from bedrock (so it’s about twelve stories high and seven blocks long). It was named for the town site where it was built, which of course is gone today. At full capacity 30,000 gallons of water can flow each minute through each of the dam’s eight turbine generators, producing 215 megawatts of electrical power.

The dam impounds 600 billion gallons of water and forms over 1,150 miles of shoreline along what the company called the Osage Reservoir, the Missouri legislature named Lake Benton, and everyone still insisted on calling Lake of the Ozarks: the largest man-made non-flood control lake in the country. Since the lake level is very steady, unlike many flood control lakes built by the Army Corps of Engineers, the shorelines have been intensively developed by private interests. Recently the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled that many structures are actually on utility-owned land and ordered thousands of home and businesses to be moved, causing widespread concern and consequent clarifications.

The main road into Lake Ozark, a tourist strip replete with restaurants, bars, and shops, runs over the narrow top of the dam which clearly was meant for smaller cars. You are supposed to creep along at 25 miles per hour, which I dutifully did to the dismay of several young fools behind me, who recklessly zipped around my car both before and after we crossed the dam. I certainly wouldn’t want to be around here in the summer swarm. I’ll take a lonely forest or mountain trail over swarming crowds of tourists any day.

The bar was small and a bit smoky, but the pizza was superb. The bartender proudly pointed out the huge trophy they had won in a pizza cook-off and I had to agree that it was some of the best pizza I’d ever had. Bikers pulled in and drank as I happily consumed my hot, thin, and crispy mushroom confection.

I recrossed the narrow dam and drove up to an overlook. The electric utility had put up a nice set of displays and a viewing platform, along with one of the massive old turbines. The 1931 turbine is cast steel, weighs 50 tons, and rated to produce 33,500 horsepower at 90 feet of water pressure at 112.5 rev/min. I know, only a physics teacher could love such statistics!

The overlook provided a nice line of sight along the dam and one could see the extensive shoreline development. The drive down the other side of the overlook provided a nice view of the dam.

Horse Trails

It was time for the afternoon hike, which I planned for some hiker/equestrian trails at the stables on the east side of the huge state park. I reached the empty Hidden Springs Trailhead at 1 p.m. and set off down the wide trail. Thankfully there was little prominent manure and I enjoyed the wriggling descent down toward the lake. Now it was the afternoon sun forming my silhouette as I strode through tall trees past an almost illegible sign which read “Half Way There”.

Finally the lake appeared and the trail ran northeast parallel to it. It rose to an overlook, but the view was obscured by trees and I bushwhacked downslope for a splendid view.

In front of some low islands a number of birds were lined up along a floating log in the lake. The wind was whipping and I hung onto an odd tree arch on the promontory before climbing back up to the zigzagging trail. I reached an intersection with the south loop of the immense Trail of the Four Winds. The south loop is 9.25 miles long while the north one is 4.25 miles and the 13.5 mile trail is clearly popular with equestrians since there had been a number of horse trailers at its trailhead.

This part of the long trail led down toward the water. Eager to get a better look at the birds, I followed it down. Ferns were growing alongside the trail and I reached the shore where I could see birds fishing in the water, riding the stiff wind and diving to the water after prey.

I followed the Trail of the Four Winds for a couple of miles, passing high bluffs and then making a winding ascent between waterways, but the views were limited and I finally decided to turn back. Rather than wind my way back around the waterway I bushwhacked down it and across, finding more tree fungi in the form of wide white fans. An opossum beside the trail eyed me warily as I passed, but wasn’t scared enough to play possum. I trudged back up onto the Hidden Springs Trail and eventually the Trail of the Four Winds split off and I returned to my car for the long drive home.

Day Hike Statistics

It had been a satisfying end to 2011, with me tacking another 9.5 miles onto my day hike total, bringing it up to 326.3 miles for the year. Since I hiked 50 days in 2011 that averages to 6.5 miles per day. I continue to rack up many auto miles finding new trails, having exhausted so many trails since July 2009. Since then I have hiked 56 days in Oklahoma, 23 in Arkansas, 11 each in Kansas and Missouri, 9 in Oregon, 8 in Colorado and 3 in New Mexico. But there are still some unexplored trails in Oklahoma and many more in Missouri and Arkansas beckoning my boots. Summer vacation continues to be a great time to pick up more trails in Colorado or the Pacific Northwest and escape July in Joklahoma.

I’m still eager to get out and walk about, shooting pics and listening to audiobooks. I agree with Nate Desmond of Practical Manliness about the benefits of day hiking, but for me #5. Relieve Stress ranks above #3. Foster Relationships since I use solo day hikes as a chance to escape from people and work, indulging in my own favorite pastime. But I’m not a complete loner: I do share my photos and write extensively about each trek. I know some folks who just look at the photos, some who read every detail, and several of my friends never look at my posts, period. And that’s just the way it should be. As Cicero wrote, “Suum cuique pulchrum est.” To each his own is beautiful.

Click here for a slideshow from this day hike

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Windy Walks in the Ozarks

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Granger Meador

Indian Point (click image for slideshow)

The forecast called for unseasonably mild weather for the final two days of 2011, so I decided to try again for day hikes at Lake of the Ozarks. I tried to do so last May but rain changed my plans. The sprawling lake is over 4.5 hours from my home, so I needed to stay in a local hotel overnight. This time I opted to first try for some trails at Pomme de Terre Lake about 45 miles southwest of the larger lake and stay overnight at Osage Beach, hiking at the Lake of the Ozarks the following day.

The sun ascended as I drove along narrow old US 60 to Nowata. Road work forced me on a long detour south to Chelsea, where I had to wait on a long freight train. Chelsea is where Oklahoma’s first oil well was drilled, although the first commercial oil well was drilled in Bartlesville. I finally reached Vinita and I-44, which took me up to Springfield where I bought gas and a Lunchable and headed north to Pomme de Terre.

The fancy French name translates to “apple of the earth” and refers to potatoes, although the French trappers who named the river the lake is formed from probably were referring to the potato bean, which the Osage Indians in the area ate. I drove through Bolivar, seat of Polk County, Missouri as shown by its old-fashioned courthouse.

I parked at the Indian Point trailhead on the lake, which promised to head out to a point on the lake with multiple Indian burial mounds and cairns from the Mississippian culture. The trail led through what is called an Ozark savanna, with scattered oak trees growing on very thin soils. The wind was really whipping, forcing me to don my Ear Pops and use the strap on my hat.

I passed the first burial mound as the trail headed down the ridge toward Indian Point. Before the lake was built this ridge lofted above Pomme de Terre River and Lindley Creek. The trail led straight down to the point and the wind only increased as I walked. The water was very choppy but that didn’t stop one boat from churning and bouncing through it.

The point was a highly eroded low rock promontory. The wind was unbearable up top, but there was a side channel allowing me to duck behind the rock for a warm and sunny shelter out of the wind. The rock sloped off into the water, making me feel like a flood survivor grateful for a scrap of high ground. A speedboat zoomed by as I broke open my Lunchable and enjoyed a snack.

The rock around me was so eroded it was almost frightening. I peered around the rocky bluff and spotted two fishermen standing out in their boat down the shore, also enjoying the shelter of the point. I’d make a comment about the craziness of fishing on a windy day like this, but I was out hiking, so I’ll stay mum.

I then ascended the trail and followed it through another savanna over to a cove where I could get a better view of the fishermen and their boat. Looping back to my car, I passed more cairns, all heavily disturbed by both looters and archaeologists.

I then drove over to the Hermitage area on the north shore of the lake, but it was closed from December through February and thus my second planned hike was nixed. I set course for the Lake of the Ozarks, hoping to hike at Coakley Hollow as Plan B. But that entire area of the park was gated off with a sign that it was closed due to flooding. Okay, Plan C. I do wish these state parks would post trail closings on their websites!

Just down the road was the trailhead for the Honey Run trail, which my Hiking Missouri book described as a 2.5 mile loop. But the trail has been reconfigured into a 12.75 mile long trail with an initial 3.1 mile linear segment leading to north and south loops of 4.4 and 2.6 miles respectively. That’s great, but I only had two hours to hike so I couldn’t even make it to the first loop. It was too far to drive around to yet another trailhead, so I set out to do what I could.

The trail led off through another Ozark savanna on a ridge above Honey Run, which would never come into sight on this short hike. The trail turned to follow a downward ridge. I could easily imagine I was back at Indian Point, but before they built the dam and flooded the valleys to either side.

Eventually I wound around to a waterway and either needed to reverse and trace back my course or bushwhack. I opted to bushwhack up the watercourse to intercept the trail higher up and cut off a long loop. I rested on large felled tree, then posed with the setting sun behind me before shooting close-ups of the fungi growing on the trunk.

I crossed more fallen trees, recalling I’d seen a lot of wind damage at Pomme de Terre, which had wiped out some of the twisted oaks mentioned in my hiking book. The thin soils here provide little grip for the roots.

I passed long low mounds of rock which clearly were not burial mounds but instead had once formed the trailbed with a thin line of rocks marking its other edge. But the reconfigured trail passed higher along the slope, occasionally using the old rock lines but then deviating. Frequent tree blazes, yellow here while those at Pomme de Terre were blue, made the revamped trail easy to follow. Much better than the mostly unmarked trails in the Wichitas, although there were quite a few rock blazes in the Granite Hills.

I wrapped up the hike, adding 2.25 miles to the 3.25 miles I’d hiked earlier. It was time for an early supper, which I found at a Mexican restaurant in Osage Beach. I was diverted along a brand new bypass around the strip tourist town and it was strange to exit onto a broad wide highway lined with businesses but almost devoid of cars. Being here out of season with big empty stores, condos, and hotels and with the new bypass redirecting most traffic, the town felt very odd.

Trixie the GPS didn’t know about parts of the bypass and complained bitterly. The rapid development here explains why Google Maps was also very confused about the location of my new hotel. I finally located it miles from where Google said it would be and turned in early, ready to hike some nearby trails tomorrow and then head back home before New Years Eve.

Click here for a slideshow from these day hikes

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2011 Additions to My Playlist

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Granger Meador

2011 SONGS OF THE MONTH

I decided to look back at the music I acquired in 2011 and was surprised when iTunes reported over 400 songs were added to my collection, swelling it to almost 11,500 tracks. That is quite an investment since I paid in full for anything commercially available in digital form.

I’m surprised that I acquired that many new songs since my heyday of music appreciation was in my late teenage years. I figure most folks are that way. But at 45 I’m still on the prowl for songs, especially since the ready access I’ve had since 2004 to digital tunes via iPods, iPhones, and my Apple TV means that old favorites get worn out and I want fresher material. I don’t hear a great deal of new music since I rarely use services like Pandora, Spotify, etc. But I do get alerted to some new-to-me tunes through NPR and various blogs.

No one wants to peruse someone else’s list of 500 songs, so I’ll boil this down to one favorite track I’ve selected from my acquisitions from each month of the past year. They’re fairly eclectic and many were released in previous years but were new to me.

January

Lying Peacefully from Beatitude by Pepe Deluxé

iTunes Link

This is a Finnish electronic music band. The Beatitude album dates back to 2003 in which they tried a number of styles, collaborating with about 40 other musicians. The Lying Peacefully track vocal is by Mika Sellens.

February

Cool Summer from Kitchen Clean by Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

Amazon Link | iTunes Link

February is a good month to be thinking about summer and I found this song through an awesome video. This is an unsigned hip hop group out of Provo, Utah.

March

Delilah from The Ramsey Lewis Trio In Person by The Ramsey Lewis Trio

Amazon Link | iTunes Link

I first heard this in the longer version from the Ramsey Lewis’s Finest Hour album where the beginning is a somber piano piece reminding me of how Ferrante & Teicher made a living out of “pianizing” movie themes. But that is the white bread for the sandwich Ramsey is making: the meat is syncopated jazz. It is a weird combination that I like to play loudly when driving on a lonesome highway late at night. But the live version I’ve linked to here is a far more exciting recording, even if it lacks the weird intro and outro.

April

Take Me Back Again from Bella by Teddy Thompson

Amazon Link | iTunes Link

I’m terribly fond of Teddy’s music and I love the rich orchestration accompanying this guitar-heavy track. I couldn’t find a good video link, but you can sample the track on his website: hit the fast forward button above the lyrics until this track is selected. Turn it up and surf the sound. If you insist on a video version, here it is, but the audio doesn’t do the song justice.

May

Ida Red from Continental Stomp by Hot Club Of Cowtown

Amazon Link | iTunes Link

I was fortunate to hear this trio live in Bartlesville at OK Mozart.They’re keeping fast country swing alive and kicking.

June

Creep from The Sing-Off by Street Corner Symphony

Amazon Link | iTunes Link

This is an acappella take on Radiohead’s hit from 1992…there aren’t any instruments in this track, just manipulated sounds produced by the men in this group.

July

Save the Last Dance for Me from It’s Time by Michael Bublé

Amazon Link | iTunes Link

I raved about this already on the blog. And I still never tire of this Canadian’s Latinized version of the classic song.

August

Stop, Look, and Listen from Josie & The Pussycats

This obvious imitation of The Jackson 5’s ABC is nostalgic for me since I loved it back in 1970 when I watched the silly Josie & The Pussycats television cartoon as a child. Unfortunately you can only find this song via the YouTube video (37 seconds into the clip) or through a non-commercial bit torrent server. It’s Patrice Holloway’s version, superior to the sped-up version Cheryl Ladd sang in the actual television episode.

September

Du soleil plein les yeux (Eyes Full of Sun) from 1969 by Pink Martini with Saori Yuki

Amazon Link | iTunes Link

I’ve driven to Fort Worth on more than one occasion to catch a live show by Pink Martini. Lead singer China Forbes is sidelined for now, recovering from throat surgery, so their new album featured Japanese singer Saori Yuki. In keeping with their worldliness, she is singing a French track. I don’t really care what she is singing about as they play, I just want to tune out the world and listen.

October

Under a Cloud from Sweetheart of the Sun by The Bangles

Amazon Link | iTunes Link

Three of the four members of one of my favorite groups from the 1980s (did you comprehend all of those numbers?) return with a fine new album. I like the strings dropped in here and there.

November

Moment of Surrender from No Line on the Horizon by U2

Amazon Link | iTunes Link

I loved U2’s sequential albums The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, and Zooropa but was disappointed by their later efforts. So it took me a couple of years to get around to listening to their latest. This song has that weary poignancy they carry off so well when they care to, reminding me of some of their work under the guise of Passengers with songs like Your Blue Room.

December

Pot Belly from Ma’ Cheri by Freshlyground

Amazon Link | iTunes Link

I discovered this one through Wendy’s Alternative World Spin. The group is from South Africa and the video is precious, reminding me of when I bought songs because their videos were irresistible.

And now I’m looking forward to a new year with more new music. New to me, at least!

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Ison’s Folly and the Stairway to the Sky

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Granger Meador

Above Quanah Parker Lake (click image for slideshow)

I paid the price for too many colas at yesterday’s supper: a sleepless night in my room at Quartz Mountain. I finally drifted off and did not get up until 8:15 a.m. A cold shower woke me up, but not by choice. The hot water was malfunctioning and while the water wasn’t frigid, it was uncomfortably chilly. I had a hot breakfast in the Sundance Cafe and overheard other diners mentioning the chilly start to their day, so I wasn’t the only one who had suffered.

I packed out and headed to Granite at the opposite end of Lake Altus. Granite is known for two things: granite markers and a state reformatory. Which to visit? Let’s see…

Will Rogers in Granite

I found Willis Granite Products fittingly located at the intersection of Mountain Avenue and Quarry Drive. They extract from Headquarters Mountain and beside the entrance they’ve erected a likeness of Will Rogers comprised of 195 granite panels. Entitled “Giants of the Plains”, it points to missing likenesses of Sequoyah and Jim Thorpe, which were mentioned in a 1980 edition of Oklahoma Today but never constructed.

There is also a fake cemetery, or “cemetary” as shown on its sign, created from tombstones created by the Willis firm for a Texas veterinarian and his wife. After retirement they eventually opted to have the stones returned to the quarry from which they came. I liked Penelope Prichard’s epitaph: Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it. There were stones for the satisfied woman, several with sayings of Will Rogers, a plea from a widow woman yearning for comfort, among many others.

As I left town I passed the reformatory, but didn’t know of anyone there hoping for a visit from me. So I rolled on through Lone Wolf, Hobart, Roosevelt, and Snyder, making for the southwest corner of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. Somewhere west of the Treasure Lake Job Corps Center are the remains of Ison’s Folly.

George Ison staked an 80 acre claim there in 1866 and he and his son Silas moved in permanently in 1901 as the Wichita Mountains Forest Reserve was being established. Silas had married Dove Murray, sister of the Oklahoma Governor “Alfalfa” Bill Murray. The Isons fought the U.S. government to remain on the 80 acre plot and George died in the 1930s. Silas continued to work the area and in the 1940s was finally awarded “squatter’s rights” for the remainder of his life, which worked out to about 30 years since he died in 1972. He and his father established four mines: the Atlas, Old Maid, Mennonite, and Half Moon. They sunk 13 shafts on their property and built a stone walkway up a stream from a stone cabin to a hand-built rock dam. My goal was to locate the remains.

My search for Ison’s Folly

Edward Charles Ellenbrook’s book mentioned a faint trail off the Indiahoma Road near the southwest edge of the refuge. I first tried bushwhacking close to the boundary, but in traipsing about for almost 1.5 miles all I found were buffalo and erosion. Figuring I’d missed the spot, I drove on eastward and parked, backtracking and pacing off the distance from the Job Corps center. There were many animal trails, so I just followed one and rambled all over the wooded area streams searching for any signs of the Isons.

A ha! Found the walkway…

Just when I was about to give up, I stumbled across a section of pipe and a drain trap. Perhaps this was from the stone cabin? I headed northwest up a stream and finally came across the granite terraced walkway. It was quite overgrown in spots with multiple treefalls. I struggled upstream and finally saw the rock dam and tiny adjacent zircon mine. What Ellenbrook’s book said was a 20 minute walk had turned into a multi-hour search.

Ison’s Dam

I clambered up for a better view of the dam and behind it found no water, as the stream flowed under the silt and out from its base. Climbing higher up the defile I located one obvious large shaft with a tree growing out of it and farther upstream found another cutout. I climbed up its tailings pile for a closer look.

I finally stopped climbing upstream when cedar overgrowth grew too thick and backtracked to the dam. The water trickling into the pool below reminded me of a huge ripple tank. Perhaps I should haul my physics students out here to see some diffraction action.

I sat down for a snack while I enjoyed the view and shot a video:

Ison’s zircon mine

Then I bushwhacked over to the zircon mine, the front of which is now a brick wall. There was only a tiny pool behind it. I returned along the tree-strewn terrace, grateful for the clearer patches. I searched about for a large tree since Ellenbrook said the cabin remains were nearby. A newspaper article said the cabin was bulldozed in 1976.

I found a large tree but no remains thereabouts. Scouring the area I finally found a stone where someone had collected a number of bricks stamped St. Louis. This was as much Ison debris as I would find – I hadn’t waymarked the pipe and drain trap I’d seen earlier and never did relocate them. Around here a big elk zipped by along the edge of the woodland – I only saw his rump so it is just as well the camera wasn’t ready.

Being watched

I was weary of bushwhacking for hours on end and made my way to the road, happily leaving the wooded area to follow animal trails in the grassland. Longhorns eyed me warily as I traipsed back to my car. The calves tried to emulate the adults, but their attention spans were noticeably shorter. One cow eyed me from a downed fence. I don’t think it mowed down that fence, but I wouldn’t argue with it anyway.

I then drove north and east, where buffalo were entertaining drivers. I was heading for a real trail this time: the one leading up Little Baldy Mountain and over to the dam at Quanah Parker Lake.

Little Baldy Mountain & Quanah Parker Dam

I parked in the visitors area at Camp Doris. Buffalo blurred by across the road as I made my way to the unmarked trailhead. There is a true paucity of signs on these trails. The only sign I did find was almost illegible, but I could make out Stairway to the Sky, which sounded most appealing.

Steps on Little Baldy

I’d already crossed a bridge over a dry creek leading into Quanah Parker Lake and climbed one flight of steps earlier along the trail. I lost the trail to the sky stairway, so I circumnavigated Little Baldy until I spotted them. I climbed to the summit, where I found a couple of metal stakes pounded into the granite.

I shot a 360 degree panorama and then shot a self portrait I entitled A Little Baldy Atop Little Baldy Mountain. I also got a closer shot with Quanah Parker Lake in the background. In the distance I could see the chasm carved by Quanah Creek.

I then descended the Stairway to the Sky and made my way over to the dam. I was pleased to find it was designed with stairs and a walkway across the top. I crossed and looked back to admire how the dam was joined to the rock. I was surprised to find a small lower pool below the main dam, formed by a small downstream dam. This demanded investigation!

Quanah Parker Dam

Double dams

I clambered downslope and used animal trails to reach the lower dam. I made my way out onto a bar to get a shot of both dams along Quanah Creek and then made my way upstream to admire the reflections in the lower pool. I then recrossed the dam, following a trail over to the lake shore and used it for an alternate route back to my car, crossing a different footbridge than before.

I drove out of the refuge, stopping at the east entrance to walk uphill to the old road and the 38 foot long archway of native stone that once marked the park entrance. The west side glowed in the setting sun as I left the refuge, eager to return sometime in 2012 to explore a few more sights mentioned in Ellenbrook’s guidebook.