Entertainment and Leisure within Oklahoma

Tulsa has lots of clubs and cafe's. If you want to eat or drink, you have a really good selection of cuisines and environments......everything from betting where you can easily lose a paycheck playing pool, to the ballet and the opera. Piano bars, little theater, lots of such things.
If you want watersports, there are several lakes within easy commuting distance where you can ski, scuba dive, fish for everything from catfish to trout, jet ski, or sail.If you hunt,  there is everything in the region from squirrel to deer to bigfoot. If you prefer upland game, we have pheasant and quail. If you like water fowl we have ducks, geese all over the place. If you prefer equestrian, we do everything from dressage to rodeo. 
Tulsa even has a club where you can "ride to the hounds" complete with english riding jackets. 

University of Tulsa student reacts to increase in homicide rate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6-B4pTUO28

By Lauren Nehf and Laura Yeradi

We interviewed a University of Tulsa student for her reaction to the rising homicide rate in the city of Tulsa. Already in 2013, the homicide rate is 24, which is more than half of the total homicide count in 2012.

Visit the Tulsa World link for their report: http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/Tulsa_homicides_at_24_more_than_half_of_2012_already/20130409_11_A1_CUTLIN736201

Race Fans Welcome the Reopening of Live Racing at Fair Meadows

By J.L. Calderwood

Live racing at Fair Meadows is only two months away, and thanks to recent developments, people can actually enjoy racing again in Tulsa—including my roommate and myself.

We are happy with the decision to have live racing for the 2013 season. We enjoy going there and watching the horses while also enjoying each other’s company. We have a fascination with these animals and watching them do something pretty amazing. 

But this season was almost lost thanks to a vote that occurred late in 2012.

Last November, according to the Tulsa World, the Tulsa County fair board voted unanimously to sign a multi-year naming-rights agreement with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. This would have ended racing at Fair Meadows.

But a special meeting of the fair board was held on December 12, the Tulsa World reported,to get live racing scheduled for 2013. During that meeting the fair board rescinded the vote to cancel the 2013 racing season.

“When confronted with this new information, it was imperative to take aggressive and timely action,” said County Commissioner and fair board Chairman Fred Perry. “I believe it is appropriate to follow the terms of the agreements regarding the 2013 race meeting, which is why I have requested a special meeting to address the issue.” 

Fair Meadows has released their schedule for the 2013 season. The first race will be held Saturday, June 8, and the final race will be Friday, August 2. Night races are scheduled Thursday-Sunday, as well as two races on Wednesday, June 19 and July 3. 

News Students Tour the Tulsa World

John Rhodes of the Tulsa World explains how ad supplements get into the newspaper to TU students Laura Yeradi, center, and Lauren Nehf, left. The spring News Gathering class visited the World this week in order to get a better idea of how what it takes to produce a daily newspaper.

Coming Soon: New Stories from TU Journalism Students

More stories are coming soon to the Tulsa Street Stories site, a Tulsa University digital journalism project founded in 2006.

Tulsa Street Stories is a project of the spring 2013 News Gathering class taught by Prof. John Coward.The class is an introduction to news reporting and writing, including an introduction to digital and online media.

Watch this space for more Tulsa stories from TU journalism students, who will be posting articles and images soon.

Doing Good in Tulsa: Reports on People Who Help

By John Coward

Tulsa is justifiably proud of its good citizens and many service organizations that work every day to make this a better city. Helping our fellow citizens is certainly a higher calling.

With that in mind, Tulsa Street Stories is publishing profiles of some of the people and organizations who serve Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma every day.

Several of these stories are posted below. Please take a few minutes to read these stories, all of which were written by University of Tulsa students in the fall 2009 News Gathering course.

Prof. John Coward teaches communication at The University of Tulsa.

Rethinking Online News: New Ideas, More Content for Tulsa Street Stories

By John Coward
Faculty of Communication

Tulsa Street Stories was started two years ago as an online journalism project of the News Gathering class at The University of Tulsa. The idea for the site was to give TU communication and journalism students a chance to report on a variety of Tulsa topics and to practice some online journalism.

The project got off to a fair start the first year, largely due to my own efforts as the class instructor and on-line guru. I made the story assignments, prodded the students, edited the copy and posted the stories. The result was that the class learned something about the online media world, though our stories and postings were fairly tame (some were too boring) and definitely low tech.

Last fall, the Street Stories project lagged. I wasn't able (or willing) to do all the Internet work, so the postings slowed and then ceased altogether. It wasn't really the students' fault, since I focused on other classwork and let the blog assignments wither away.

This year, however, I'm optimistic that the News Gathering class can reinvigorate the Street Stories site. I have in mind more original stories and some true multimedia content. That means I'm going to work with the students to cover and develop new stories ideas and see if we can't generate more photos, some soundbites and audio content, and even some video.

Also, we will look for ways to link the site to Facebook or MySpace, two sites popular with students. Surely, there are ways to create interesting news and feature stories that other students would like to see.

I want students this year to develop their own stories ideas and supply photos, audio and video. One of them can be the editor as well, giving them good experience and, not incidentally, relieving me of this task.

That's not out of the question for a beginning journalism class, even one taught by a relic of the print age (Yes, I'm that old. I used to write on a manual typewriter. You can see that very machine in my office in Oliphant Room 128. Knock first, please.)

Check back at this site in a few weeks for some new (and exciting) content from Tulsa. Until then, check out the Oklahoma Prison Project, an online journalism project produced earlier this year by the Documentary Workshop class. A link to that site can be found by clicking here.

More Tulsa Stories Coming to Street Stories Soon

The fall 2007 TU News Gathering class is hard at work on a new batch of Tulsa Street Stories. I'll be posting news stories and photos soon, so check back regularly to see what TU students are writing about Tulsa and Tulsans.

The first three stories below are part of an assignment for students to use their powers of observation to describe a public place. I asked them to use their senses to describe the place and the people in it, to create a verbal "snapshot" of some interesting place in Tulsa.

If you like what they've done, please comment and tell them so. If not, you can tell them that too. Meanwhile, they'll keep writing. I hope to post more photos on the site soon as well.

--John Coward, Faculty of Communication

A view of the Tulsa Rose Garden in Midtown Tulsa

COMING THIS FALL: NEW TULSA STREET STORIES

More Tulsa Street Stories will be coming soon to a computer near you. Starting in September 2007, TU News Gathering students will be writing a new batch of stories to the Tulsa Street Stories site.

Check this site later for stories, photos and more from Prof. John Coward's TU class site. Thanks for your interest in Tulsa Street Stories.