“Billy Connolly’s Route 66,” Episode 3 September 29, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Road trips, Television.1 comment so far
Here’s the third episode of “Billy Connolly’s Route 66,” which aired across the pond earlier today on ITV. It goes from Oklahoma City to eastern Arizona.
Here’s the complete episode in five parts:
http://youtu.be/_V-L6VSddlQ
http://youtu.be/_4I7Yip_l04
http://youtu.be/0dDxv2NHfVM
http://youtu.be/yRKXATPOAEs
http://youtu.be/ZpOGFeBI-fQ
Rancho overpass project nearly done September 28, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Bridges, Highways.add a comment
Some good news and bad news for Route 66 travelers going through the Los Angeles area this weekend.
First, the bad news. Travelers should avoid Foothill Boulevard (aka Route 66) on the west side of Rancho Cucamonga this weekend. Construction workers are finishing a big road-widening and overpass project there, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reported.
The good news: The overpass that is the Pacific Electric Trail will be open to pedestrians and cyclists by Monday morning.
More from the newspaper:
In addition to the new bridge, this $19 million project funded by redevelopment agency tax allocation bonds, includes widening Foothill from four to six lanes. When the project wraps up in January, there will be bicycle lanes, sidewalks and a center median.
On the north side of the street, there will be a trailhead park which will provide access for pedestrians and equestrians to the Pacific Electric Trail. A portion of the old bridge and a piece of the original Route 66 pavement will be featured at the park.
The city is planning a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Dec. 7 to mark the completion of the Pacific Electric Trail. Route 66-themed art work on the bridge is scheduled to be complete in December or January.
Here’s an artist’s rendering of what that refurbished section of Foothill will look like:
By spring, this video will be replaced by reality.
New preview video for Route 66 fitness program September 28, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Road trips, Sports, Web sites.add a comment
Health Enhancement Systems, which has touted a “Get Fit on Route 66″ program for workplaces or groups for several years, recently concocted a new video about it. It’s a well-designed clip:
Here’s my story about the program from 2009.
“Man vs. Food Nation,” Route 66 edition September 27, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Food, Restaurants, Television.add a comment
The Travel Channel’s “Man vs. Food Nation” recently did a Route 66 segment that included Ted Drewes Frozen Custard in St. Louis, Idle Spurs Steakhouse in Barstow, Calif., and Elote Cafe in Tulsa.
Here’s the full episode, in two parts:
The segment includes Elote’s formidable Puffy Taco Challenge.
Is The Mill haunted? September 27, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Events, Ghosts and Mysteries, Preservation, Restaurants, Vehicles.add a comment
I doubt it. But a Spirit of Tours ghost-investigation event on Oct. 8 at the Route 66 landmark in Lincoln, Ill., is bound to be entertaining, reported the Lincoln Courier.
Spirit of Tours, based in nearby Bloomington, wants to check out The Mill, a 1929 restaurant that’s being renovated for future use as a tourism center.
Having such a great history, the building is sure to hold some “spooky” inhabitants, according to medium Deborah Carr Senger, who will lead the event.
Also, the group will host another event later that month:
Spirit of Tours will return to Lincoln on Oct. 22 to host the Ghost Bridge Ghost Walk. Partcipants will walk down an abandoned stretch of old Route 66 to the Ghost Bridge in Lincoln and visit the grave of Coonhound Johnny, who, legend has it, smuggled hooch up and down this storied highway.
Participants will hear infamous and rare stories of spirits and unexplained events up and down the Mother Road.
Reservations for both events can be obtained by going to the Spirit of Tours website.
Also, The Mill is hosting a car show from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The $5 registration fees to the annual Cruise-In raises money for The Mill’s ongoing restoration efforts.
Visitors that day can also participate in tours of The Mill.
The Route 66 Heritage Foundation of Logan County is sponsoring the events.
New toys, iPad app allow you to cruise Radiator Springs September 27, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Movies, Video games.add a comment
A new Disney toy line and an Apple iPad app allow you or your kids to cruise the fictional Route 66 town of Radiator Springs as portrayed in the Disney-Pixar films “Cars” and “Cars 2,” according to Mashable Entertainment.
From the report:
The new toys, called Disney Appmates, interact directly with a free app for the iPad that brings them to life.
The first toys in the Appmates series are from Pixar’s Cars. Twin packs of toy autos — each representing a character from the popular film series — will be available in stores for about $20. [...]
Each plastic car has specially designed capacitive sensors on the bottom. Once placed on the iPad, these sensors provide the app with information about what character the car represents (each pattern of sensors slightly different) and where it is on the screen.
The app then adjusts itself to match the position of the car and to speak and interact with the character. The voices from Cars and Cars 2 are a nice touch. Kids can freely explore the area around Radiator Springs and Route 66 during the day and at night.
In addition to a free play mode, kids can also compete in races and complete missions. This earns them coins that outfit their cars with power-ups, special tires and different kinds of fuel. The coins are virtual only — no in-app purchase or real currency exchange takes place — and Disney tells us it is still exploring how it might offer add-on levels or additional items.
Here a video that demonstrates the app:
Mashable’s writer said she was “shocked” with how well the toys interacted with the game on the iPad’s screen.
Appmates works only on the iPad 2 for now because of the game’s hefty processor and memory requirements. But future editions of the game will allow it to work with first-generation iPads as well.
(Photo courtesy of Disney)
Getting kicks on an old Jeep September 27, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Road trips, Vehicles.add a comment
Global Content Partners is producing videos to mark Jeep’s 70th anniversary. Here’s a clip about two fellows he did the Mother Road in a 60-year-old Jeep.
City Museum founder dies in industrial accident September 26, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Museums, People.add a comment
Bob Cassilly, founder of the popular City Museum in St. Louis, died in an apparent construction accident Monday on the north side of town, reported the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The newspaper reported that Cassilly died while operating a bulldozer at the construction site of his Cementland amusement park, formerly the Missouri Portland Cement Co., in north St. Louis.
Cassilly, 61, was found dead Monday morning inside the bulldozer’s enclosed cabin. Police say the bulldozer tumbled down a hill with Cassily inside.
More about Cassilly’s unique vision:
Cementland is located along Riverview Drive near the Mississippi River. Cassilly had been working on the site for more than a decade. Cementland, which was running far behind its scheduled opening of 2010, was supposed to be an attraction featuring a castle, man-made mountains, elevated paths, pools and a river with tunnels for rowboats and inner tubes. [...]
A visionary and an entrepreneur, Cassilly created dozens of public art sculptures across the region, including Turtle Park. He salvaged St. Louis’ forgotten architectural treasures and redeveloped the International Shoe Building into the City Museum. [...]
The City Museum, which he opened with his then-wife Gail Cassilly in 1997, was an instant hit among St. Louisans and tourists who loved its whimsical artifacts, art and activities. Today, visitors ride of the museum’s rooftop Ferris wheel and scamper across MonstroCity, the museum’s outdoor playground.
The City Museum’s website’s main page Monday night was all-black, except for this message: “City Museum is saddened by the loss of our founder and inspiration, Robert Cassilly. 1949 – 2011.”
Here’s a video about Cassilly, when City Museum was being built:
And here’s an irreverent but informative look at the City Museum (caution: It contains a bit of mildly vulgar language):
It’s difficult to overestimate the impact Cassilly made to the St. Louis area. His founding of the City Museum — along with renovating long-abandoned industrial buildings into lofts — helped spur the revitalization of the city’s Washington Avenue district and other downtown areas.
Having lived near St. Louis for eight years and observing Cassilly’s impact firsthand, the city benefited greatly because of him. Every city could use a Bob Cassilly-type character to remind us that great things are possible, no matter how eccentric they may seem.
UPDATE 9/27/2011: The Post-Dispatch has posted an overview of Cassilly himself. A key passage:
Whenever Mayor Francis Slay travels, people tell him they love City Museum. Fodor’s touts it as “an institution unlike any museum you’ve been to before,” and the New York Times calls it a “must-see for visiting gerbils of any age.”
“It has earned international acclaim,” Slay said on Monday. “He made this totally unique, phenomenal creation that no one else has and anybody can enjoy.”
Cassilly opened City Museum in 1997 in an abandoned shoe factory with his former wife, Gail Cassilly. Their first mission statement: “To reawaken the childlike imagination, joy and sense of wonder in all of us.” Today the museum draws 630,000 visitors annually.
And this:
“If you rank important people in the history of St. Louis — not just artists — you would have to include Bob Cassilly. He showed young people that you can take old, abandoned stuff and make it beautiful,” Christman said. “Hopefully these children grow up and don’t tear stuff down and ignore the everyday beauty of what’s around them.”
A vigil was held Monday night at the City Museum:
Tough miles ahead for old theaters, drive-ins September 26, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Movies, Theaters.1 comment so far
Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune tells about an upcoming development that likely will lead to a rough era for drive-in theaters and older movie houses — digital film distribution.
According to the article, the Route 66 Twin Drive-In in Springfield, Ill., remains the state’s only digital-projection drive-in. Obviously, the SkyView Drive-In on Route 66 in Litchfield isn’t digital, and it’s probably safe to say the other surviving drive-ins on Route 66 — 66 Drive-In in Carthage, Mo., and soon-to-be-rebuilt Admiral Twin in Tulsa — aren’t digital.
Some stark data about theaters converting from film to digital:
Right now it costs about $75,000 per screen to convert to digital projection. That’s $150,000 (lower if he waits a couple of years for used equipment) for a weather-dependent outdoor theater open four or five months out of the year [...]
Film distributors commonly spend $1,200-$1,300 to strike a single 35 mm print, plus shipping costs. Digital delivery of a new release, by contrast, is more like $100, according to Cinedigm’s McGurk.
The studios have been steamrolling this one for several years while squabbling with exhibitors over the bill for the digital conversion tab. The industrywide conversion to digital has been financed by what’s called a virtual print fee (VPF) formula. Digital projection equipment costs between $50,000 and $80,000 per screen on average. The majority of those costs will be repaid to the theater owners by the studios.
But it takes up to a decade. And the studios are saying that after September 2012 they won’t be striking any new VPF deals. No deals, no subsidy. [...]
Right now North America has about 39,000 movie screens. (Worldwide estimates run between 100,000 and 150,000.) Cinedigm has already handled the digital conversion on 10,000 of those North American screens. In all, 22,000 screens have gone digital. That’s more than half, and that means 35 mm is going to have a very hard time hanging in there for very long, outside the realms of archives, academia and the most purist-driven of the revival and art houses.
That likely would also leave a bunch of small, historic theaters — such as the H & S Theater in Chandler, Okla., and the Odeon Theatre in Tucumcari, N.M. — out in the cold. (Incidentally, the Odeon’s been for sale for about $60,000 for months, with no takers despite being the only theater for at least 100 miles.)
The film industry is yet another sector likely to be severely disrupted by the rise of the Internet. With Netflix streaming, Amazon on-demand, and even Facebook eventually getting into the home-movie sector, it’s going to be difficult to see how many movie theaters will remain financially viable in the coming years.
Perhaps a few of these old film venues can survive by hosting concerts, showing classic films, or becoming beer-and-a-movie places like Alamo Drafthouse. But, in the meantime, you’d better enjoy them while you can.
Relighting date of Luna Cafe sign announced September 25, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Businesses, Events, Preservation, Signs.2 comments
The official relighting ceremony of a refurbished Luna Cafe neon sign in Mitchell, Ill., will be about 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 22, according to organizers.
That time is approximate, depending on how cloudy it is at dusk. According to data from sunrisesunset.com, sunset in nearby Granite City on that date is 6:14 p.m. So plan accordingly.
From the news release:
Larry Wofford, owner of the Luna Café, is anxiously awaiting this exciting day when his historic Route 66 beacon will again shine like it did during the hey-day of the Mother Road.
He is delighted to welcome all Route 66 roadies to join in the fun and celebrate this exciting event with him. [...]
Refreshments will be served, and it is anticipated that a representative from the Illinois State Historic Preservation Agency will be there for this special event, as well local media and community leaders.
The sign-revitalization project was sponsored by the Route 66 Association of Missouri, Route 66 Association of Illinois, and Friends of the Mother Road. The Luna Cafe received an $11,000 cost-share grant from the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program to restore the sign.
The Luna Cafe was built in 1926, and its clients reportedly included Al Capone, Elvis Presley, Hank Williams Sr., and Ike & Tina Turner over the years. The sign itself dates to the late 1940s to early 1950s. Most of the neon in the sign stopped working during the 1990s.
(Photo of the temporary removal in August 2011 of the Luna Cafe sign, courtesy of Jim Thole)