THE BLUE SUEDE CRUISE FLYING SAUCER TOUR!!
By: Mike Marino
Summertime in America! A time for travel and vacations, and this year more and more roadheads will be hitting the asphalt as modern day explorers. Awaiting them will be a land festooned with festivals of every sort, catering to every taste. There are three festivals however, that exemplify pop culture as few can do and lets face it, in America...Pop Goes The Culture!
First we'll beam down to the mysterious alien infested town of Roswell, New Mexico, where fact and fiction are a space age blur of myth and sci-fi. Then it's on to Fairmont, Indiana, childhood home of '50s icon James Dean, and the town "Where Cool Was Born" for the annual black leather, teen angst filled fest of America's numero uno Rebel Without A Cause. Our final stop will take us to Phoenixville, Pennsylvania for the annual celebration of the cheesy movie monster mass of killer goo known, locally and lovingly as Blobfest...beware of the Blob..It Creeps. Blobfest, however, rocks!
The silver screen of the 1950's was an atomic explosion of "Invaders From Mars" and Japanese atomic lizards. There was "The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" and there were plundering produce on a rampage in the film "The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes", a vegetable bin gone beserk, causing havoc and commotion to all of humanity. All this because this was the dawning of a new age, the Space Age, and the anti-gravitational pull of all things galactic was too strong to resist. And to think it all started in Roswell, New Mexico.
ROSWELL UFO FESTIVAL
Captain's Log: Star Date 1947. Ufologists' and the UFO challenged skeptics agree that something happened that year in the stark cactian landscpae that surrounds Roswell, New Mexico. Alien invasion or weather balloon crash, it's up for debate, but one thing is certain, it was the opening concerto played by a fully orchestrated, extra-terrestrial sci-fi symphony tuning up and striking the theme song to "The Twilight Zone", and nothing has been the same ever since.
Did aliens from another world indeed crashland in the desert while traveling on some bizarre flying saucer galactic chartered tour bus, or just the crash of a weather balloon as the government insisted? Questions, yet no definitive answers as to what was responsible for this cacophony of interplanetary commotion. Outer space had finally met the outer limits of imagination in a headon collision of fact and fiction, and the force field of fantasy was in warp speed. Today, the mystery is still unsolved, unclear, but the residents of Roswell don't mind the notoriety. Gives them an excuse to hold one of the biggest, and best UFO Festivals on the planet that makes every little green man, green with envy throughout the solar system. Klaatu. Barada. Nicto!
If St. Louis can be considered "The Gateway to the West", then by that token, Roswell, New Mexico is "The Gateway to Outer Space". Every summer, the 50,000 or so Earthlings that call Roswell home, fire up the party burners for the annual UFO Festival. Food vendors serve up platters of planetary palate pleasers, and souvenir merchants offer up a delicious array of kitsch with a decidedly alien theme. Music and dancing orbit harmoniously around a galaxy of events and entertainment, including a hot air balloon lift off, as well as a nighttime Alien Parade, and a fireworks display that is out of this world!
The UFO Museum in Roswell is a must see and explore attraction, and although it may not be "The Day The Earth Stood Still", the town puts on it's best space helmet and costuming as they re-enact a real alien invasion! Even aliens find time amidst all the fun and activity to crown a queen, and every year Miss UFO Fetival rules Rosell with a benign charm found only on the planet Venus. All in all, it's Star Trek on a steroid asteroid!!
There are plenty of off the beaten path side trips that will allow the asphalt kicker a delightful added bonus to the journey. If you need a break from all the galactites at Roswell, take a spelunkers break and visit the stalagtites and stalagmites at Carlsbad Caverns, loaded with bats and the one American attraction that can truly boast, Guano Happens! Billy the Kids grave is just up the road in Ft. Sumner and Smoky the Bear is also buried nearby. Aliens and Earthlings alike agree..the Roswell UFO Festival is an out of this world experience.
For more information contact the Roswell, New Mexico Chamber of Commerce at
www.roswellnm.org
WHERE COOL WAS BORN
Byrlcreem dreams and neon nights ruled the pop culture realm of those semi-fabulous 1950's. Big fins, fuzzy dice and lots o' chrome shared the baby boomin' stage that sat smack dab in the middle of the Cold War ground zero for silver screen dreams and teenage angst. No one person embodied the times more completely than Fifties icon, James Byron Dean, the original rebel without a cause. Dean, rocketed out of the cornfields of central Indiana and blazed across the Hollywood sky like a rampaging meteor, only to crashland on a lonely stretch of California highway in 1955 at the age of 24. Every year, the 3,000 citizens of Deans boyhood town, Fairmont, Indiana, pay homage to their favorite son and over 30,000 other rebels without a cause descend on the town "Where Cool Was Born" for a very good reason..The Annual James Dean Festival!
Fairmont sits on Highway 26, just west of I-69, and on the final full weekend in September every year the small burg turns into the rockabilly, rock n' roll, car culture capital of the known world, and Deaners everywhere agree...this is the ultimate Dean Party. As to be expected there is entertainment that turns the town into a blue suede cruise with '50s music perfomred by some of the legendary groups of that era, as well as a raucous backbeat supplied by some of the finest new rockabilly bands in the country. Parades and events abound, and yes, there is a James Dean look alike contest and would be Deans get to strut and swagger with just the right amounts of juvenile deliquent bravado and midwestern machismo. Dean souvenirs of every type imaginable are available, and the town explodes with a detonation of chrome as over 2,500 classic cars from little duece coupes to '49 Merc's arrive for the annual James Dean Run Car Show.
The town turns into a blast from the past for the weekend and in addition to the festival and the showing of Deans movies, you can also visit the Fairmont Historical Museum on Washington Street for the most comprehensive collection of Dean memorabilia around, including Jimmy's clothing, his high school sports uniforms and some motorcycles he owned. No visit to Fairmont is complete however, without a visit to the James Dean Memorial Gallery, located in a restored Victorian home on N. Main. The years of Dean collecting has been a labor of love for proprietor David Lohr and is unique to say the least. Take the stairway to the basement and you'll find a rockabilly shop full of vintage clothing and other accessories reminiscent of "the good old days".
James Dean lookalikes? Forgettaboutit! If you visit Park Cemetary in town you'll be in the company of the real deal. Go in, follow the signs and you'll end up at Jimmy's gravesite. It's a granite tribute with gifts from admirers placed anonymously on the grounds, along with bouquets of flowers and private notes of adoration. The tombstone itself has to be cleaned on occassion to remove the lipstick marks left by loving fans, most of them born well after James Dean etched himself into the pop culture psyche of America and the world. Not only is Fairmont the town "where cool was born", but also the town where it is buried too!
For more information the James Dean Festival contact the Fairmont Historical Museum at:
www.jamesdeanartifacts.com
BEWARE OF THE BLOB...IT CREEPS!
Take a behemoth mass of B-grade monster movie goo, add the obligatory terrified small town citizenry...and Voila! You have just created the makings for one of pop cultures classic monster movie icons...The Blob! The Blob began it's box office creep in 1958, and featured non other than, Steve McQueen, the soon to be "King of Cool" in his first featured film. The Blob was shot on the creep-cheap in Chester County, Pennsylvania, not far from Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love and Philly Cheese Sandwiches to die for. The Blob oozed and awed movie audiences around the world, and was a boffo-Blobo smash hit, and still remains a cult fave rave for Blobheads everywhere, and every year, in July, Blobmania hits the town of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania with the force and impact of a rampant meteor crashing into earth.
Blobfest, even the name is cool, is held in the town of Phoenixville for good reason...the movie theater downtown. That's right, the Colonial Theater is the very same theater featured in the film where the Blob drops from ventilator shafts and devours the patrons like an overpriced box of popcorn. Needless to say, the Colonial Theater is still alive and well, and is the center piece of this annual celebration of the mayhem caused by this messy mass when the town kicks off it's shoes for a few days of Blobtastic fun, frivolity and festivities.
The festival pays homage to the fabulous 1950's with a gathering of the chrome, classic cars of all descriptions show up to display their fins and flex their V-8 muscle. Then it's off to the prom with a Fifties fashion show repleat with poodle skirts and sweaters, parades and yes, a monster costume contest not for the feint of heart. Souvenir vendors ply their trade with all manner of memorabilia and food is everywhere, including a special "Blob Dip" created by a local pizzaria.
Ladies and Gentlemen! It's showtime! The big screen comes alive with celluloid cult classics during the "Midnight Spook Show" guaranteed to make the adrenalin race madly as Triffids, robots and space ships attack earth as body snatchers take human form and rule the planet. Movies and monsters to delight young and old, not to mention the main feature, the showing of the original Blob movie. At one point, the audience is involved in the theatricss as you participate in a re-enactment of the most famous scene in the movie, where the Blob attacks, and you run screaming into the streets of Phoenixville. It's Bloberrific!
UFO's, James Dean and the Blob. Icons all, and all etched deep into the pop culture psyche of America. They are reminiscent of a time of youth, rebellion and rock n' roll. It was the American decade where flying saucers ran head on into little duece coupes, and if nothing else it was the high octane era of the flying saucer blue suede cruise...and when it comes to putting some fun into a weekend party, these festivals rock and roll!
Classic Cars, Rock n' Roll, Elvis, Drivein Movies & Route 66! Kerouac, The Beats, Haight Ashbury, Easy Rider & Vietnam!
The Roadhead Chronicles goes from the Cold War Fifties Pop Culture of classic cars and rock n' roll to the spaced out Spare Change Sixties of Vietnam and Hells Angels. Not the usual look at the era, instead It's written by someone who lived it and spent a life of being on the road from his beach bum days in Honolulu to the glitz and dangers of the Sunset Strip in LA, and his purple hazed and double dazed days in North Beach and the Haight Ashbury in San Francisco. The Roadhead Chronicles also looks at the history of Route 66, Roadside Neon Culture and old diners and dives!
Mike Marino writes in an offbeat and irreverant style with a beat and a cadence that is all his own. His writing style has been compared to John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck and Terry Southern and one reviewer likened him to Frederick Lewis Allen on acid! Readers and critics call the book "wickedly wonderful", "delightfully weird" and "automotively sexy."!!
