Get Your Fashion Fix on Route 66
| Project Meta
Cameras: Panasonic HMC-150 (x3) Editor: Final Cut 7 |
Every other fall, the merchandising program at the NAU School of Communication produces a fashion show featuring local designers alongside student designers. I first participated in documenting this event in 2008 under poor lighting and audio conditions. This time around, in 2010, the venue, and thusly the production quality, changed for the better. This 42 minute program was filmed in HD on Panasonic SD-card-based cameras. For this production, I served as one of the camera operators and the editor. Original shooting date was in November, but it was only recently completed because it was done pro-bono.
(Give the video a few minutes to load to start; Total file size is 300 MB. Resolution is 720p.)
Abandoned Route 66 Icons Point to New Future
Think of the modern American road trip. Where are people headed? Where do they stop along the way, and why? As US Highway 66 was developed and populated, midwesterners traveled the historic road from Chicago to Santa Monica, with many popular stops in the state of Arizona. But in many cases, unlike the road warriors of today, the highway itself was the destination, not a town or city.
That mentality seems to be all but gone now. With a faster and higher-capacity Interstate system in place, highway travel is seen more as an inconvenience than an experience.
Peter Dedeck wrote in his book, Hip To the Trip: A Cultural History of Route 66, "Route 66 fell victim to its own success." That success is the highway's efficient planning. 66 followed the contours of the terrain, whereas other US highways such as US 30 and 40 did not.
Such an efficient and speedy way to head west gained popularity, and by the time the Interstate system was being developed in the 1950s, a culture was bred around the highway. Gas stations were established, roadside attractions were built, and popular artists wrote songs and made films about the expressway to the west.
That culture was disbanded when the Interstate was constructed. Many sections of Route 66, the most efficient paths, were paved over by Interstate highways. Dedek writes, "In 1985, Route 66 existed existed only as a series of mostly disused strips of eroding pavement stretching from Chicago to Los Angeles."
And as many of the sections of Route 66 disappeared, so did the businesses that thrived off of them.
According to Dedek, the "funeral" for Route 66 was held in Williams, Ariz. in 1984. Icons from the highway's culture gathered on main street to say goodbye to America's Main Street.
In that same region, two abandoned structures along Route 66 struck a particular interest: Pine Springs and Twin Arrows. One of them is leading the way in a redevelopment of that highway culture that was almost lost.
What led these businesses to fall? What is their future? Will the Route 66 culture be re-fostered and restored in a point-to-point travel society?