Cotton to this December 13, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music.1 comment so far
Here’s a blues-based version of Bobby Troup’s “Route 66″ by Billy Branch and one of the greatest blues harmonica players in history, James Cotton.
Stagecoach stop December 12, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Motels, Music, People, Restaurants.add a comment
I’ve been hearing good things in the past year or so about the new owners of the Stagecoach Motel on the east end of Seligman, Ariz., near the historic alignment of Route 66. In addition to the motel, it contains a pizza place.
But this video shows more charm and detail than any advertising can buy:
Incidentally, the video comes from Janet and Tom of AdventurouSpirits.com. The blog post about their night in Seligman is here.
Rocking the Route December 12, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music, Road trips.add a comment
A few weeks ago, Red Bull sponsored a Route 66 tour for two unsigned rock bands who competed for the chance of getting professional recording studio time in Los Angeles.
Here’s a video that summarizes the tour and contest:
Shows by both bands were in Chicago, St. Louis, Tulsa, Albuquerque, and Los Angeles. Journals and videos reveal that the bands ran through a cornfield maze in western Oklahoma, took part in the Big Texan’s 72-ounce challenge, and a guitar-solo contest in Two Guns, Ariz.
The tour finished in early November, but Red Bull is keeping the results close to the vest until it trickles out new video episodes from the trip. You can read the journals and see the videos here.
Joplin sues marathon organizer December 12, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Events, Sports.1 comment so far
This certainly explains why the city of Joplin, Mo., announced so quickly in November that the organizer’s contract for the Mother Road Marathon wouldn’t be renewed.
Joplin filed a federal suit for an injunction against Reinke Sports Group, alleging the Florida-based organizer infringed on the Mother Road Marathon trademark, according to an article Friday in the Joplin Globe.
According to documents filed in connection with the suit, the city alleges that Reinke Sports Group and its owner, Dean Reinke, is claiming ownership of the race and seeking sponsorship for a 2011 Mother Road Marathon.
The filings state that Reinke Sports group was under contract for the event’s inagural run on Oct. 10 of this year, but a contract renewal was not extended.
The inaugural Mother Road Marathon drew 1,600 runners for the race, which started in Commerce, Okla., continued on Route 66 through Kansas, and ended on the west edge of Joplin.
The fact the city’s relationship with Reinke turned sour so quickly shouldn’t have been surprising. I uncovered several stories about other muncipalities’ dissatisfaction with Reinke, including the Purdue University suing over an alleged trademark violation.
12/28/2010 UPDATE: Both parties have been ordered into mediation in an effort to reach a settlement. The Joplin Globe reported that this is a routine action that seeks to keep the lawsuit from actually making its way to court.
DVD review: “Route 66: Ten Years After” December 11, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books, Movies, Road trips.5 comments
The documentary “Route 66: Ten Years After” was meant as a travelogue. But, unexpectedly, this flawed but fascinating 52-minute film winds up also as an emotional journey.
In 1999, veteran writer Tim Steil and young photographer Jim Luning traveled together from Chicago to Santa Monica to gather material for a new Motorbooks International publication. The result, “Route 66,” remains one of the best travel books I’ve read.
Steil also e-mailed journal entries each night. Those off-the-cuff posts, which still can be found in the archives of the Route 66 yahoogroup, read like Hunter S. Thompson, but with a lot more empathy.
In 2009, Steil and Luning decide to do another Route 66 trip to revisit the places and people they saw. By now, Steil has settled into a more domestic existence. Luning opened his own photography business. On this trip, Luning brought a video camera for the purpose of filming a documentary.
The production runs into trouble. Luning realizes the schedule was far too ambitious. Steil contracts a case of writer’s block after losing his notebook somewhere in Oklahoma. Luning’s plans for his film seem scuttled before he reaches the Mother Road’s halfway point.
But they press on, and Luning keeps filming. One of the saving graces of “Route 66: Ten Years Later” is an interview with 82-year-old Angel Delgadillo in Seligman, Ariz., a barber who almost single-handedly started the Route 66 revival in the late 1970s and early ’80s. Delgadillo’s almost shamanistic observations about the joy and “sheer beauty” of his life become quite moving. Commenting about Route 66, he says: “I hope it doesn’t change.”
But change it does. Steil and Luning find the Shady Jack’s campground in Missouri where they stayed a memorable night in 1999 is an abandoned husk. Lucille Hamons of Lucille’s near Hydro, Okla., has died. They find the Oklahoma City bombing site transformed from a makeshift memorial on a chain-link fence to a manicured, serene park. The quiet, reserved owners of the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, N.M., have been replaced with an ambitious proprietor. The Exotic World burlesque museum near Oro Grande, Calif., has packed up and moved to Vegas. And one corner of the ghost town of Glenrio, Texas, has been tidied up by a new resident — an honest-to-goodness cowboy.
The point of evolution and change on the Mother Road is driven home when Steil and Luning, hankering for a garlic burger they savored in 1999 at Cactus Joe’s in Oatman, Ariz., discover the business has changed hands and now is called Arizona Girls. The 200-year-old cactus that’s part of the building is still there. But the garlic burgers are gone, replaced by charming female owners who keep desert tortoises as pets in the backyard.
Later, Luning observes: “Some things that you like change or go away. But in this case, it was replaced with something as equally as fun.
“But I still wish I had that garlic burger.”
It’s not just the Mother Road that changes. Steil took charge during the 1999 trip, namely because he had the book contract and Luning was on his first big photo assignment. Ten years later, it’s Luning who’s calling the shots, and Steil sits in the passenger seat. In just a decade, the roles have reversed.
Still, their fondness for Route 66 and each other has not ended. Among the best parts of the film are when Steil and Luning confide to each other while heading down the road. It’s not often you see this kind of frankness in any film. Frustrations pop up during the course of “Route 66: Ten Years Later,” but their friendship endures.
As I’ve said, the film contains flaws. Audio problems emerge during interviews with Blue Swallow Motel owner Bill Kinder and 1957 Thunderbird owner Andrea Woodside. My DVD inexplicably jumps back to the California chapter at the end of the movie. And, because of the difficulties described above, “Route 66: Ten Years After” becomes muddled at times.
But Delgadillo’s profound monologue and the film’s themes of change and friendship have kept me thinking about “Route 66: Ten Years After” for days. Those elements more than salvage the film, and they’re why I urge that you see it.
Recommended.
—
Special features of the DVD include:
- A 36-page PDF of Steil’s highly entertaining, behind-the-scenes e-mails during his and Luning’s 1999 trip on Route 66. The pages include a few of Luning’s photos.
- A slide show with audio of Steil reading excerpts from his 1999 e-mails.
- Audio of Luning being interviewed about the documentary on WGN radio in Chicago.
- A 7-minute time-lapse video of Luning’s road-trip return to Chicago through Colorado and other non-Route 66 states.
- GPS locations on Google Earth of several Route 66 locations.
(The DVD for “Route 66: Ten Years After” can be ordered here.)
Eisler Bros. Store in limbo December 10, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Businesses.2 comments
The historic Eisler Bros. Old Riverton Store on old Route 66 in Riverton, Kan., closed last week amid a possible ownership change, according to the store’s longtime manager, Scott Nelson.
The store, which has operated continuously since 1925, closed at 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, and will remain shuttered indefinitely.
“It has nothing to do with the store’s financial condition,” Nelson said by phone on Friday. “This was one of the best summers we’ve had. But we couldn’t keep it operating the way things were going. We’re closed due to circumstances beyond management’s control.”
Nelson, who’s been manager of the store since 1980 and worked there years before that, said he’s “in negotiations” to acquire the property, but wouldn’t say anything more on the record.
“I do have plans if I get the store,” he said.
According to property records, Joseph and Isabell Eisler of Allen, Texas, own the store. I heard through the grapevine during the Route 66 Festival in Quapaw, Okla., last summer that Eisler Bros. Store might be sold. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
If the store remains closed for an extended period, it will become somewhat of a hardship for Riverton residents. Not only is Eisler Bros. Store a Route 66 tourist attraction because of its excellent gift shop and hand-made deli sandwiches, but it remains Riverton’s only grocery. The nearest grocery sits miles away in Galena or Baxter Springs.
“The community is really upset about this,” Nelson said. “But the thing is, it’s the only week off I’ve had in 35 years,” he added, laughing.
“If it all works out well, we’ll be back open, hopefully by spring. But there’s no guarantee.”
(Photo by Ron Hart)
An advance review of “Cars 2″ — sort of December 10, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Movies.2 comments
Nanna Torhild of CC2K claims she saw a “super secret” advance screening of the Disney-Pixar animated film “Cars 2,” which won’t hit theaters until summer 2011.
Torhild said “Cars 2″ was “good, but never feels Pixar good.” But before you set your expectations lower, this caveat sticks out like a proverbial sore thumb:
Since it’s still steeped in post-production about 70% of the movie was incomplete. There were a few completely animated scenes where the cars voices matched the mouth movements but the majority of the animation consisted of animated storyboards, flat animation and completed scenes with incomplete dialogue.
I’d be extremely skeptical of any review of a movie that’s only 30 percent finished. A lot of editing and story-polishing can be accomplished in the six-plus months before the film opens nationwide — especially when you factor in the additional flexibility that computer animation brings.
(Hat tip: Slashfilm.com)
Galena bridge reopens to traffic December 9, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Bridges, Businesses, Preservation, Railroad.add a comment
A few days ago, Melba Rigg at 4 Women on the Route in Galena, Kan., passed along good news — the historic Front Street Bridge that was closed to traffic for repairs has reopened.
The bridge, which actually is a 216-foot-long railroad viaduct, was built in the early 1920s, and incorporated as Route 66 when the road was first certified in 1926.
In 2007, it was discovered the bridge needed repairs, and its load limit was lowered from 20 tons to 10 tons. The lighter load limit wasn’t a big deal for regular vehicles, but it did prevent tour buses on Route 66 from using the bridge. Because 4 Women on the Route is near the west end of the bridge, it undoubtedly lost some tour business.
After receiving a grant from the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, the bridge was closed for repairs.
Rigg said after the first phase of the repairs was finished, the officials reopened the bridge to traffic. Phase 2 and 3, she said, are mostly cosmetic, and work on that won’t begin until next year if money is available.
(Photo courtesy of Ace Jackalope of TheLope.com.)
Outlook for Mojave Trails Monument dims December 9, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Preservation.1 comment so far
It now seems less likely the lame-duck Congress will vote on a lands bill that includes legislation to establish a Mojave Trails National Monument along the Route 66 corridor in Southern California, reported Kurt Repanshek today for National Parks Traveler.
Repanshek explains:
Conservation groups last month urged Congress to sweep these and dozens of other pending bills up into one omnibus lands bill and pass it before adjourning the 111th session. While there is movement in the U.S. Senate to do just that … , the 327-page “Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2010″ has yet to be introduced and the clock is quickly ticking.
And if it doesn’t make it this session, it’s back to square one for all these measures. How they’d fare in a GOP-controlled House of Representatives is questionable.
A draft of the bill can be found here.
Of course, the situation can quickly change in Washington. Barely a week ago, a vote on a lands bill seemed probable.
But with other legislation (unemployment benefits, tax cuts, DADT) being given higher priority in Congress, it’s easy to see why a big lands bill might get shunted to the side.
The story behind the Meadow Gold sign December 9, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Preservation, Signs.add a comment
The Journal Record of Oklahoma City has published a story about the saving and restoration of the historic Meadow Gold sign on Route 66 in Tulsa.
The article is behind the newspaper’s online pay wall. But it posted a video about the Meadow Gold sign that includes an interview with Lee Anne Ziegler of the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture:
The video doesn’t mention it, but the car dealership that was so intractable about saving the sign left the neighborhood less than a year later for a Tulsa suburb. We won’t buy a car from that dealer anytime soon … if ever.