F5 Beer from Louie's

"Pouring out liquor is like burning books."

        -William Faulkner

 

I decided to have some fun for lunch, so I went to a sports bar in Midtown OKC called Louie’s.  I met a couple of new friends at the bar, both former sailors.  They recognized my old tattered leather flight jacket with colorful Navy patches from a fighter squadron I was in at Miramar in San Diego.  It is a small world because we knew some of the same people in California years ago.  So I had a beer with them, a very good one at that, from a local brewery.  I laughed when I read its label . . . “This F5 is a belligerent hop reckoning”.  It was named after a huge F5 tornado that came through here 2 years ago, leveling a thousand homes, with the strongest recorded wind speeds of any tornado in history.  Needless the say the beer held up well to its name because it was very stout, and I was feeling its effects.  So I went for a walk . . .

Here are a few pictures from my walk, from one of my favorite parts of the city.  It’s a part of the city that was blighted and downtrodden for the longest time, since the 1960s.  But now it’s vibrant, brimming with a peculiar energy.  

The colorful building below is an art gallery owned by the singer of “The Flaming Lips”.   It’s called “the Womb”, and the inside looks like an actual womb, with giant fluorescent painted intestines and other such organs.  And amazingly,  I heard Yoko Ono once performed here with the Flaming Lips during a Christmas show.   

There is a funny story behind this picture.  On my way back to work after my fun little lunch and photo adventure, I passed by “the Womb” gallery.  So I jumped out of my truck to snap a quick picture.  Keep in mind they just repainted this place, and in my haste I didn’t pay attention to the subject matter.  So I came back to work and downloaded my photos.  But before I did, I showed my friend the few photos I took.  Like many people around here, my friend is a huge southern Baptist – straight as a razor, a complete tea totaler, doesn’t curse, or even dance for that matter.  Well, wouldn’t you know it.  I got to my last photo, the one of the Womb art gallery, and she let out a gasp, almost a scream.  That is when I noticed what was painted on the front door.  

The Womb gallery

The other pictures are of an old ice cream and soda fountain, one of my favorite Irish pubs, and a boutique hotel with our sole sky scraper in the purple distance.  This skyscraper is of course home to one of our large energy companies, and at night it lights up and looks just like a blue natural gas pilot light.  It’s actually quite beautiful and on a clear night can probably be seen from Texas.