For the first time, I collaborated with Chris Cox from The House OKC as he tried spicy dishes in Oklahoma City. In this first installment, Chris and I visited Truong Le at Chick-N-Beer in the Uptown 23rd District for their “Peppers Galore” in both traditional wing and vegan variants. Then we went to the Plaza District to interview Jeff Chanchaleune about Goro Ramen and tried their Spicy Miso Ramen.
Both dishes we tried packed some heat while still having some strong flavor. I recommend both of them, depending on what you’re in the mood to eat. We tried to get a third place, but our schedules didn’t line-up to pull that off. We got some ideas for another installment of spicy dishes and we’re in the process of soliciting more.
Thank you to my supporters on Patreon for helping to make Uncovering Oklahoma possible! Big thanks to superstar supporters: Lynn and Steve Keller-Kenton Family and Revolve Productions.
This week on Uncovering Oklahoma, I collaborated with Apollo Woods of OKC Black Eats for a mini-series of stories for Black Restaurants Weeks. Since each video averaged 15-minutes, I decided to release the stories throughout a three day period.
We first visited OklaSoul, a restaurant that puts the soul in food; Clean Juice, a juice bar with USDA Certified Organic cold-pressed juice cleanses, smoothies, acai bowls, and more; and ended with Carican Flavors for Caribbean American food in Oklahoma City’s east side.
I loved that we got to showcase a variety of foods. Since Apollo had been doing lots of interviews for the Black Restaurants Weeks event, he wanted to do something different. We did the interviews in the kitchen and even did some cooking at OklaSoul. I especially liked how Sharon of Carican Flavors gave a tour of what she was cooking. The experience has given me some ideas for doing restaurant interviews differently.
I joked on social media that I felt like I made a back-door pilot for Apollo’s own Food Network show. I’m going to edit all three stories together to fit a 30-minute timeslot, hand it over to Apollo, and see what happens. 😎
A programmer’s Saturday morning ritual is interrupted by a loud knocking from a soldier in Legionnaire armor with the ancient city of Rome behind him.
Despite being “a grown-ass adult,” Lucas had a Saturday morning ritual of enjoying a bowl of sugary cereal while watching cartoons on a streaming service in his PJs. He lived alone in his one-bedroom Oklahoma City apartment, which freed him from judgmental remarks from roommates – though he was prepared to defend himself. The routine was his special way to unwind after a week of coding at Deep Fork Technology.
Lucas nearly choked on the first bite of his cereal from the sudden, thunderous knock on the front door.
He grumbled under his breath, “Who could this be?” as he paused the show on his TV to answer the call.
Upon opening the door, a man in full Legionnaire armor stood before Lucas with the ancient city of Rome behind the soldier. Lucas stuck his head out the entrance to study the scene. In his mind, this had to be an elaborate prank. Still, he could feel the sunshine and smell the summer breeze, contrasting the snowy weather he knew was happening in Oklahoma City. The outside building of his apartment matched the clay exterior of a Roman house.
“Are you Lucas?” the Legionnaire interrupted.
Lucas turned his attention to the soldier, now noticing the bloody rag around his leg. “Yes, I’m Lucas.”
The soldier let himself inside. “I was told this would be a safe place.”
Lucas closed the door. “Who are you?”
“I am Barbados. You have a strange home here.”
“How are you able to communicate with me?”
“What do you mean? We are speaking Latin.”
“No, we’re speaking English.”
“English? What’s this English?”
“Never mind. Who sent you here?”
Barbados fell into the worn-out, brown thrift-store bought couch. “This man in this strange, pinkish outfit I have never seen. New fashion, I suppose. Pointed me to your door and said you were a healer.”
“I tried to be a doctor, but I switched majors to programming,” Lucas explained.
“I did not understand a word you just said.”
Lucas thought for a moment to best word the situation. “I’m not a healer.”
Barbados nodded in understanding. “I see.”
Although Lucas didn’t have much medical training, he did recognize a dying person and rushed to his side. He kneed by him, stuck in a state of what to do, as Barbados took his last breath. Lucas checked his pulse. There was none.
“Fuck.”
Before he had much time to think about what to do next, there was a knock at the door. Lucas opened the door to a tall, slender man in a pink suit with bold, black outlines and a woman in a red dress from the Roman era. Something about their appearance–perhaps their black hair–made Lucas think they were siblings. The scene behind them was of a rainy night in a futuristic neon city.
The two individuals let themselves inside and headed straight to Barbados.
“Don’t mind us,” the man in the pink suit said. “We’re here to collect Barbados.”
The woman lifted Barbados from the legs while the man grabbed him from the other end.
“Have a nice day,” the woman said as she walked back past Lucas.
The strangers closed the door behind themselves. Lucas waited a few seconds, trying to process what happened, and opened the front door. Outside was his snow-covered apartment building. The cold wind whipped his face, telling him this was real. Lucas closed the door and returned to his cereal as that’s all he could think to do.
In the raining neon city, the man and the woman dropped Barbados on the alleyway pavement. The man opened Barbados’ eyes and pulled out a contact lens. He handed the lens to the woman.
“I’ll get the footage processed right away,” the woman said. “How are you feeling about this episode so far, Loki?”
Loki pulled out a black pen from inside his suit jacket. He shook the device, and the writing utensil transformed into a staff as tall as himself. He poked at Barbados with the bottom end of the staff.
“I’m not sure yet, Raven. I think Barbados died too soon to have any comical moments with Lucas. We’ll try again, but with different people.”
This week’s prompted short story was inspired by the following idea: “You awake one Saturday morning to frantic banging on your front door. Upon opening the door you see in front of you a man in full Legionnaire armor and behind him the ancient city of Rome.”
Brian Gililland from the Okie Show Show guest-hosted his first episode of Uncovering Oklahoma by getting to know Oklahoma’s premier showcase of the best local and regional improvisational comedy and theater, OKC Improv. Brian spoke with Kendon Lacy, Cory Phillips, and Pallas about what visitors can expect from an improv show, the history of the theatre, the benefits of taking an improv class, and the organization’s community outreach.
Visit OKC Improv for yourself at 1757 NW 16th Street in Oklahoma City’s Plaza District and be sure to get tickets at okcimprov.com
For a trip back in time, here’s my first story I did about OKC Improv when they were getting their start at Ghostlight Theatre back in 2010.
Then several years, I followed up with OKC Improv in 2017.
In the season finale of Tales Unveiled, Sam and Geoff interview Dani and Whitney from the podcast Creepy Caffeine. Whitney and Dani share their paranormal experiences about Shawnee and the USS Batfish. Later, Sam and Geoff meet an individual calming to be George Grayson who requires an item in the professor’s possession.
I’m proud to have brought your season two of Tales Unveiled, along with my co-host, Jeff Provine as the voice of Professor Geoff DeRoot. Thanks to Whitney and Dani from Creepy Caffeine for sharing stories with us in this episode. The voice of George Grayson was David Moxley.
Behind the Scenes Commentary
We started the second season on Friday the 13th and we’ve ended it on Friday the 13th with 14 total episodes. That alone was fun to pull off. This whole season has been exciting traveling all over Oklahoma for ghost stories. We’ve been featured in publications and podcast collections this year, averaging over 1,000 downloads per episode.
Mirroring reality, Jeff has been busy grading papers and dealing with finals. I was hoping to schedule an interview with owners of Gabriella’s Italian Grill and Pizzeria in Oklahoma City and tie the George Grayson meeting there, but they never responded to my request for an interview. With time running short and Jeff’s limited time, I reached out to Creepy Caffeine to hear their personal stories. I’ve been waiting to collaborate with them for some time and I figured now would be perfect. We did record at Jeff’s office for that interview.
For the George Grayson scene, we used the recording studio space at the new Norman public library. As described in the narrative, I attached Rode Go mics to Jeff and myself to give us that spy recording sound. Jeff and I filled David in on the backstory we’ve been creating for Grayson. We outlined the plot points we wanted to hit and improvised the whole scene. I thought it would be funny that Grayson actually says the professor’s name correctly, so we worked that in.
Since there are many more places with ghost stories in Oklahoma and Jeff is still researching for his book about Oklahoma’s ghosts, we do have plans for a third season. The plan is to start recording in January with a fall release on a weekly schedule. If you become a patron supporter, you’ll get super early access to new episodes.
