Notes from the road July 21, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books, Businesses, Food, Highways, Music, Preservation, Restaurants, Road trips.add a comment
— The bad news in Oklahoma is that the state’s turnpike authority will raise toll-road prices an average of 16 percent. The good news is that this probably means more traffic on old Route 66 in the Sooner State.
— On Monday we briefly visited with Dawn Welch, owner of the Rock Cafe in Stroud, Okla., who was busy finishing a professional video shoot. At least some of the footage will be used to promote her upcoming cookbook, “Dollars to Donuts: Comfort Food and Kitchen Wisdom from Route 66′s Landmark Rock Cafe.” The book will be out Nov. 10.
— The superstar country-music duo Brooks & Dunn will very likely film a portion of a music video within the next few months at Combine City near Amarillo, Texas. Combine City features several vintage combines into the Texas earth; the site is very reminiscent of the nearby Cadillac Ranch.
— Scenic America, a nonprofit devoted to preserving and enhancing America’s communities and scenery, recently featured Arizona’s Route 66 in its June/July newsletter about a recent Historic Route 66 National Scenic Byway workshop in Flagstaff. A report about the workshop is here (28-page PDF document), and may prove useful to preservationists.
— The Elegant Cookie, based in St. Louis, is offering a new line of cookies, gifts and gift baskets inspired by Route 66. The company even has technology in which you can create an image of a Route 66 landmark on a cookie. You can see all of its Route 66 stuff here.
Cadillac Ranch takes on unintended meaning July 20, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Attractions, Vehicles.add a comment
Mitch Potter of the Toronto Star talks to Stanley Marsh 3, the Amarillo tycoon who created the art landmark that is Cadillac Ranch just off Route 66 on the west side of town.
But in the summer of 2009, this iconic row of classic Cadillacs jutting skyward from a farm field in the Texas Panhandle has taken on a darker meaning than its builders ever intended.
With the implosion of GM and Chrysler, the Cadillac Ranch now looks more like the graveyard of American greatness – 10 tragic steel-and-glass tombstones marking the sorry demise of automaking as we know it.
“It’s painful to think of it that way today. It’s not what the Cadillac Ranch is supposed to say,” says Stanley Marsh, 70, the famously eccentric Amarillo millionaire who bankrolled the landmark 35 years ago, conceiving, buying and planting the Caddies nose-first with the help of San Francisco art collective Ant Farm.
“We put it there as a public gesture to freedom, mobility and the open road. The Cadillac was the way to say it. And I like to think we got it exactly right – the cars tilt at the same angle as the Great Pyramids in Egypt.” [...]
Still, hunkered down in Amarillo, the owner of the Cadillac Ranch remains an optimist; he believes the American dream will thrive despite GM crashing into bankruptcy, the banks foundering and the housing market starving for buyers.
“I think America is going to do just fine,” Marsh asserts. “We’ve still got our freedom and as long as people all over the world want to be part of it, we’re bound to recover.”
Early heartbreaking July 20, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music.add a comment
Here’s an early clip of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performing Bobby Troup’s most famous song. This 1977 video predates the band’s breakout “Damn the Torpedos” album.
A little too touchy-feely July 20, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Religion.add a comment
Here’s another chapter of “Route 66: A Road Trip on the Bible,” this one covering the first book of Chronicles.
King David should have invested in a pair of handcuffs and a large burlap sack.
A view from the passenger side July 19, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Photographs, Road trips.add a comment
Los Angeles artist and photographer Jason Paul Bennett embarked on a Route 66 trip from Chicago to L.A. last year, and shot more than 5,400 images to document it.
Bennett has a dedicated site, Passenger Side, to those photos. For a donation, yYou can download all 5,40o or so high-definition photos. You also can see about 170 of those photos in a slide show, or in these two YouTube videos below.
I found a number of the images to be quite striking.
Hello from Austin July 18, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music.add a comment
Here are the Jazz Pharaohs, doing a Dixieland number on Bobby Troup’s most famous song.
Notes from the road July 18, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Attractions, bicycling, Events, Food, History, People, Road trips, Web sites.add a comment
A few things to move off my plate:
— One of the beneficiaries of federal stimulus package passed earlier this year is a Route 66 bicycle trail in Illinois. According to an Associated Press report, $25,000 in such funds will be used to build a four-way stop signal at an intersection for the Route 66 Bike Trail in Chenoa.
— The grand opening celebration of the Old Joliet Prison Park at 1125 Collins St. in Joliet, Ill., will be from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday. Events include the Blooze Brothers Band, child safety IDs by made by local police, free kids’ activities, plenty of food and drink, and free mug shots in front of the old prison. The whole shebang will be in the parking lot outside the prison.
— Frankoma Pottery in Sapulpa, Okla., announced a couple of new pieces. This year’s annual collectors plate was designed by Joniece Frank, daughter of Frankoma’s founder, John Frank. The theme of the plate is “A Miracle in God’s Hands” and shows the infant Jesus in God’s hands. Price will be $33.00. In addition, Frankoma released its first new nativity piece in several years. The nativity set was started in 2002 and the set grew to 15 pieces by 2004. This year, a shepherd is added. Both pieces can be seen on the front page of Frankoma’s Web site.
— Illinois Route 66 advocates John and Lenore Weiss will present their free “Route 66, Then & Now” program at the Wilmington Public Library in Wilmington, Ill., at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Weisses recently received the Route 66 Ambassadors award at the annual Illinois 66 banquet.
— The Crawford County Fair in Hood Park along Route 66 in Cuba, Mo., continues through Saturday. You can read about the fair’s long history — including the time a future president named Harry Truman visited — at the Viva Cuba blog.
— Jones Soda and Griffin Technology are sponsoring a photo contest for the best creative photos from people’s road trips. To participate, travelers must use the hashtag “#roadtripjones” in a social media update, including their destination or itinerary. Photos and videos can then be uploaded to the Jones Soda gallery at www.jonessoda.com/gallery and hashtagged through Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.