Kent, Washington's El Rancho Drive-In

By Jack Brummet, Green River Valley Ed.

There were three drive-ins in Kent, but we mostly went to the El Rancho, because it was cheap. They showed whatever was cheap to rent, like spaghetti westerns, scary movies like I Saw What You Did And I Know Who You Are, monster movies like The Blob, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, or ass-kicking movies with Billie Jack, Charles Bronson, and Clint Eastwood.

If you were lucky, you might see an R-rated potboiler by Russ Meyers, like Vixen, or The Stewardesses.  There were also the memorable exploitation movies like Wife Swappers.  This is where I saw my first Woody Allen movie—Take The Money and Run.

There were several other El Ranchos around the country.  One survives in Nevada, at 555 El Rancho Dr, Sparks, NV 89431.

There were two other drive-ins in Kent: The Midway, on West Hill, which still exists, as a swap meet location (the screen has long been dead), and the Valley Drive-in (which closed in the last two years). 

The fantastic marquee out front showed a gigantic cowboy on the range, cooking bacon in a cast iron skillet over a campfire. At $3.50 a carload, so you could see a movie for about seventy-five cents.

Lining the street in front of the drive in were a row of stately Lombardy poplars. The El Rancho was torn down in 1975, but you can still see a few of those poplars, in between the concrete tilt-up buildings and warehouses.

More drive-ins close every year, but a few remain in Washington State, but a few remain:

• Samish Twin Drive-In Theater, Bellingham
• Auto Vue Theatre, Colville
• Dayton Drive-in Theater, Dayton
• Puget Park Drive-In, Everett
• Your Drive In Theatre, Longview
• Rodeo Tri Drive-In Theatre, Port Orchard
• Blue Fox Drive-in Theater, Oak Harbor
• River-Vue Drive-In, Pasco
• Skyline Drive-In Theatre, Shelton (with an actual Indian totem pole at the entrance)
• Wheel-In Motor Movie, Port Townsend
• Vue Dale Drive In Theatre, Wenatchee
• Country Drive In Theatre, Yakima

one of the two murals in front of the theatre

An aerial land survey view of the El Rancho before it was demolished

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Photograph: paratroopers over Moscow (ca. 1940's) by Yakov Rumkin

They remind me of jellyfish. . . /jack

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Painting: MayDay Seattle 5/1/2014 - "Wreck everything."

By Jack Brummet

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The Four Walls

Drawings by Jack Brummet
Photography by Philip Palermo

click images to enlarge

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Remembering a passageway along Meeker Street in Kent. Wash.

This alley--which must be in England--reminds me of the passageway I used to walk through every day in my youth Kent, Wash. It was maybe two feet wide and  two or three doors east of the Ben Franklin store, sandwiched between two brick buildings, one of which I think was Grunstead's Cafe (which had several other names over the years).  

The passageway led from the sidewalk on the south side of Meeker Street to a parking lot behind the buildings, and then onto Gowe Street.  Depending on where you were headed, it cut a block off your walk. Do any of my fellow Kentites remember this? Link to an earlier post about Meeker Street: go here.

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Caroline, Jackie, and Jack Kennedy, Hyannisport, 1959

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Ed.

Caroline, Jackie, and Senator Jack Kennedy, at the family compound in Hyannisport, 1959, a year before his election campaign against Richard Nixon.  The survivor in this photo, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, is our Ambassador to Japan.   Photographer unknown to me.   I don't know if it actually is, but the shot has that rich Kodachrome look. . .

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Sid & Susie a/k/a Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs: Under The Covers

By Jack Brummet, 20th Century Music Ed.

I only discovered the amazing Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs collaborations a couple of weeks ago.  I instantly went out and tracked down their works (bought local!), and have been gorging on them ever since.  Wow.  These are two artists I have very much liked independent of each other.  But together?  Unbelievable.  The voices, and their sensibilities are just stunning.  Go buy all their music!











Vol. 1

1. "I See The Rain" The Marmalade 3:45
2. "And Your Bird Can Sing" The Beatles 2:10
3. "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" Bob Dylan 3:45
4. "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?" Fairport Convention 5:51
5. "Cinnamon Girl" Neil Young and Crazy Horse 2:47
6. "Alone Again Or" Love 3:35
7. "The Warmth of the Sun" The Beach Boys 3:08
8. "Different Drum" Stone Poneys featuring Linda Ronstadt 2:52
9. "The Kids Are Alright" The Who 2:50
10. "Sunday Morning" The Velvet Underground 3:26
11. "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" Neil Young and Crazy Horse 2:27
12. "Care of Cell 44" The Zombies 3:56
13. "Monday, Monday" The Mamas & the Papas 3:27
14. "She May Call You up Tonight" The Left Banke 2:24
15. "Run to Me" Bee Gees 3:06
_________________________________________
Vol 2

# Title Original artist Length
1. "Sugar Magnolia" Grateful Dead 3:32
2. "Go All the Way" Raspberries 3:33
3. "Second Hand News" Fleetwood Mac 3:13
4. "Bell Bottom Blues" Derek and the Dominos :02
5. "All the Young Dudes" Mott the Hoople3:52
6. "You're So Vain" Carly Simon 4:22
7. "Here Comes My Girl" Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 4:22
8. "I've Seen All Good People: Your Move/All Good People" Yes 7:29
9. "Hello It's Me" Todd Rundgren 3:51
10. "Willin'" Little Feat 2:59
11. "Back of a Car" Big Star 2:32
12. "Couldn't I Just Tell You" Todd Rundgren 3:27
13. "Gimme Some Truth" John Lennon 3:27
14. "Maggie May" Rod Stewart 5:32
15. "Everything I Own" Bread 3:09
16. "Beware of Darkness" George Harrison3:38
_____________________________________________
Volume 2 Bonus Tracks

1. "Dreaming" Blondie 2:51
2. "Marquee Moon" Television 10:49
3. "I Wanna Be Sedated" Ramones 2:10
4. "Baby Blue" Badfinger 3:42
5. "You Say You Don't Love Me" Buzzcocks 2:55
6. "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" Nick Lowe 3:57
7. "You Can Close Your Eyes" James Taylor 2:34
8. "Melissa" The Allman Brothers Band 4:14
9. "Killer Queen" Queen 2:56
10. "A Song For You" Gram Parsons 2:59
_____________________________________________
Volume 3
1.  "Sitting Still" (R.E.M.)
2.  "Girls Talk" (Dave Edmunds) [popularized by Elvis Costello]
3.  "Big Brown Eyes" (The dB's)
4.   "Kid" (The Pretenders)
5.   "Free Fallin'" (Tom Petty)
6.  "Save It For Later" (The English Beat)
7.  "They Don't Know" (Kirsty MacColl)
8.  "The Bulrushes" (The Bongos)
9.  "Our Lips Are Sealed" (The Go-Go's)
10. "How Soon Is Now" (The Smiths)
11.  "More Than This" (Roxy Music)
12.  "Towers of London" (XTC)
13.  "Killing Moon" (Echo and the Bunnymen)
14.  "Trouble" (Lindsey Buckingham)

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The Bare Tech Conference

By Mona Goldwater

While Jack did attend The Bare Tech Conference in San Diego, he failed to generate any actual material for his expense account-funded junket, other than one rambling, 133 character Tweet that he posted at 3:30 in the morning,

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Love poem

By Jack Brummet

drawing of Jack and Keelin by Jerry Melin, 1981

The unspoken

the unknown

the unstoppable
vs.

you & me.

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Drawing - Faces #797

By Jack Brummet

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The Wisdom Of Ken Kesey

By Jack Brummet, American Lit. Ed.

"You don't lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case."

"Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing."

Ken, on a bus trip heading east, stopped in Yellowstone and saw a sign that said "Beware of Bear" and said :  "This used to mean be aware of the bear.  But now, it means 'be afraid of the bear."

“Of offering more than what I can deliver,
I have a bad habit, it is true.
But I have to offer more than I can deliver,
To be able to deliver what I do.”

“Always stay in your own movie.”

“You're either on the bus or off the bus.”

“... you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But, please. It's still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it's the truth even if it didn't happen.”
― from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

"When Shakespeare was writing, he wasn't writing for stuff to lie on the page; it was supposed to get up and move around."

"To hell with facts! We need stories!"

“Okay, stand outa the way. Sometimes when I go to exertin' myself I use up all the air nearby and grown men faint from suffocation.”

“Good writin' ain't necessarily good readin'.”
― from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

"People think love is an emotion. Love is good sense."

"Loved. You can't use it in the past tense. Death does not stop that love at all."

"The trouble with super heroes is what to do between phone booths."

“He knows that you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.”
― from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph."

"Nowhere else in history has there ever been a flag that stands for the right to burn itself. This is the fractal of our flag. It stands for the right to destroy itself."

"You've got to get out and pray to the sky to appreciate the sunshine; otherwise you're just a lizard standing there with the sun shining on you."

"There's something about taking a plow and breaking new ground. It gives you energy"

"Listen, wait, and be patient. Every shaman knows you have to deal with the fire that's in your audience's eye."

"The '60s aren't over; they won't be over until the Fat Lady gets high."

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The helpful neighbor - an almost Shakespearean tale, but, alas, a hoax/urban legend

Jack Brummet, Urban Legends Ed.

Alas, this is a hoax, or, urban legend.  But nonetheless, a good story.  It has been passed around under various guises, with different names and locales, but the crux of the tale is always the same. . .

Traute Soupolos needed a helping hand

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