Drive-in movies!

photo collage by trash180
The first patent for the Drive-In Theater (United States Patent.. 1,909,537) was issued on May 16, 1933. With an investment of $30,000, Richard Hollingshead opened the first drive-in on Tuesday June 6, 1933 at a location on Crescent Boulevard, Camden, New Jersey. The price of admission was 25 cents for the car and 25 cents per person.-from about.com.

Looks like we're coming up on the 73rd anniversary, huh?

Now that it's summer it's time for me to make my yearly commitment to go to the drive-in. I rarely make it, but this year I'm doing my research and planning early. It turns out that there are a few sites to help me.

michigandriveins.com has a comprehensive list of theaters and most have some pix.
Dig the Lansing drive-ins...


I used to go to the M-78 as a kid. Of course, they've all been gone for years.

drive-ins.com had a nice list of currently operating drive-ins. Some are open year round!



It looks like the Ford Wyoming in Dearborn might be the most impressive. They say it's the largest in the world...certainly something I'd like to investigate myself...

Originally posted in the scavenger hunt blog.

The Roxanne Saga...

So, back in 1984 I was a big fan of hip hop, rap, breakdancing, and in turn U.T.F.O. The self titled UTFO tape seemed to be on every boom box and ghetto blaster within earshot.

If you knew all the lyrics to Leader of the Pack or "Beats and Rhymes" you had that much more cred with the other 8th graders. The most well known song on the tape was "Roxanne, Roxanne" where the 3 MC's competed for the attention of girl from the block Roxanne.


According to Wikipedia, when UTFO backed out on show that Mr Magic and Marley Marl were promoting, the two dj's conspired with local 14 year old, Lolita Gooden, to make record that dissed them, to get even.

"Roxanne's Revenge" and the phenomenon of response/dis records was born.
Magic and Marl used the original UTFO instrumental track, while Lolita, now newly named Roxanne Shanté freestyled her lyric over the top. When UTFO took legal action they were forced them to change the backing track, but not before 250,000 singles were sold in NY!. Soon UTFO got wise and released their own roxanne response records (which appeared on their s/t album) but by then the flood gates were open and dozens of responses followed. Some say there were well over a hundred.

Random sampling of notables from wiki:
* Sparky's Turn (Roxanne, You're Through), by Sparky D
* Roxanne's Doctor-The Real Man by Dr. Freshh
* Do the Roxanne by Dr. Rocx & co
* The Parents of Roxanne by Tony Gigolo & Lacy Lace
* Yo My Little Sister (Roxanne's Brothers) by Crush Groove
* Rappin' Roxy: Roxanne's Sister by D.W. and the Party Crew featuring Roxy
* Roxanne's a Man (The Untold Story - Final Chapter)

Feel free to send me any of the above tracks if you have em. I think I have an old copy of Roxanne's Grandma kickin in the crates, actually.

After UTFO and Shanté, hip hop and r&b response records were fairly common, but none reached quite the absurd pinacle of the Roxanne Saga.