The Driving Thread

Mama said
It's uphill for oddities
Stranger crusaders
Ain't ever wannabes
The weird and the novelties
Don't ever change
We wanted everything, wanted everything -- Panic! at the Disco​

This morning I looked up a few things on Quentin Tarantino, who was born in Tennessee but grew up in Torrance and is an Angeleno in mind, body, and spirit.

At 14 years old, Tarantino wrote one of his earliest works, a screenplay called Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit, based on Hal Needham's 1977 film Smokey and the Bandit starring Burt Reynolds. The summer after his 15th birthday, Tarantino was grounded by his mother for shoplifting Elmore Leonard's novel The Switch from Kmart. He was allowed to leave only to attend the Torrance Community Theater, where he participated in such plays as Two Plus Two Makes Sex and Romeo and Juliet.[19] At age 15, Tarantino dropped out of Narbonne High School in Harbor City, Los Angeles.[23][24] He then worked as an usher at an adult movie theater in Torrance, called the Pussycat Theater.
​

Google lists the address for the Pussycat Theater as 1653 Cravens Avenue.

Decided to go there after eating this bodacious meatball sub at a shop down the street from South Torrance High ...

6 hearty meatballs, fresh roll, tangy sauce, fully melted cheese. Wolfed it down.



Google said 1653 Cravens was about 4 miles away.

I arrived hoping to see remnants of the Pussycat Theater where Tarantino worked.

There was no Pussycat Theater in sight. In fact there was no 1653 Cravens.

I did see an old movie marquee on the walls of a brew pub and restaurant.





Something weird happened right about now.

Do you see that small blue car parked across the street? It had just pulled into that spot. Didn't think anything of it at the time.

Kept looking for 1653 Cravens. Where the fuck is it? Why isn't it here?

Came to the conclusion that this white structure is 1653 ...



... but soon realized it's 1641, and a pawn shop. Maybe this building was never 1653.



Took a few shots of a newspaper crossword in the dirt by a tree ...



... when I heard a woman ask what I'm taking photos of.

Looked around to spot the voice and saw that it was a woman sitting in that blue car which now had the top down.

She was attractive, in her 30's, reminded me of Kate Jackson.

Told her I'm trying to find the old Pussycat Theater where Quentin Tarantino worked.

NO WAY! THAT'S WHY I'M HERE!

She spoke -- in this case, exclaimed -- with a southern twang.

Come on, I said, there's no way in hell both of us are here at the same time looking for the Pussycat Theater.

I AM! I SWEAR! I KNOW QUENTIN!

You KNOW Quentin Tarantino AND you're here looking for the Pussycat Theater at the same exact time I am? I call bullshit.

AIN'T IT CRAZY!?

Where you from, I asked, Alabama? Georgia?

She told me to look at her plates and walked behind the car.



Quentin was born in Tennessee. Maybe she does know him? This is kind of weird, I thought. Walked back to keep chatting.

So you're from Tennessee?

And you know Quentin Tarantino?

And you're here looking for the Pussycat Theater at the same exact moment I am?

I CAN CALL HIM RIGHT NOW!

Sweet, I said, dial him up so I can say hi.

GOTTA GO! GOOD LUCK FINDING YOUR PUSSYCAT!

And she started her shiny blue Cooper and sped away.

Not sure what I'm supposed to do with all of that.

Definitely completed this little adventure.

On the way down PCH into the beach cities I saw 2 other interesting women at red lights.

One of them was cutting her hair ...



... the other who claims to be the wife of R2D2, or his spirit animal.



Here are the rest of the photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/EuB3dncT2TZTjptR7

Per this blog, the Pussycat was torn down and up went condos in 2002.

 

Lou Brock was doubled up at second after his 3,000th hit.

 

Need to move that decimal point a notch to the left for the 1958 breakfast, boyo.

 

Somebody drove from fucking McMinnville, Tenn., to LA just to look for some rando piece of Tarrantino ephemera? That’s weird. If she was wearing open-toed shoes, I’d be a little more inclined to believe her though.

 

My 1958 Breakfast reference was to this.

Three-egg omelets in my town are in the $9-$11 range, and worth it.

 

That's what I was about to say. The tag says she's from Warren County. She's 20 years younger than Tarrantino, who left Knoxville before he started school.
I'd probably have to say she's full of crap.

 

Flew out of the Burbank airport a couple of times in the 90s. Whatever the restaurant was in the terminal made some bangin' chlaquiles. Best airport breakfast I ever had...

 

"Two Plus Two Makes Sex" sounds like a romantic comedy that Troy McClure would have starred in.​

 

Huntington Park. Vernon. Maywood. City of Commerce. So depressing.

One visual at an intersection made me sigh:



Not because it's a combined celebration of MLK and Malcolm X ...

... but if you expand the photo a little bit ...



... you get to the root of the problem with people of color, poverty, and poor health outcomes. At some point things have to change.

Would it be so hard to put a Sprouts at that corner or something in the vein of Whole Foods or Amazon Market?

I took MLK to another street to another avenue to another boulevard and was ready to call it a day but went a bit further.

When I got to Telegraph Road, which is way out there, I was like fuck this shit and was about to quit. Then I saw this sign ...



Downey! I perked up. Now was the time to drive to Warren High.

I played 2 years of JV soccer at Millikan High. This is my sophomore year in '87. My kit number (did I say it right, kit?) was 26.



In '88 we had a game at Warren High. I started at center forward, only time I played on the front line.

I scored the first goal of the game midway thru the first half. It was the only goal of my JV career.

Here I was back in Downey 34 years later and I wanted to walk the field again to relive the memory.

Parked the car and walked to a field with soccer goals on each end. A few Warren kids were on the field.



Asked one of players if this was the JV field like I thought it was. He said no.

I was confused. I don't think we played on the football field in '88 but walked over there anyway.

The football field has turf so there's no way we played there in '88. Walked back to the field above.

The soccer players had left so it was just me and the tennis courts and a black crow.



Kind of funny as squawking over which Black woman Biden chooses to replace Breyer on the Supreme Court will start soon.

Anyway, I walked down the middle of the field like that day in '88 and replayed my one moment of glory.

I recall we were on a counter and the right-winger (can't remember his name) was leading the attack.

I sprinted fast as I could to keep up. Winger crossed a roller it into the middle.

I got behind the defense.

The keeper broke from his line.

The ball was there to be had. Everything happened so fast.

Keeper started to go down. I got to the ball first and toed it between his legs -- nutmeg! -- and it rolled into the back of the net, 1-o.

I kissed the sky and was over the moon. Coach noticed my exuberance and pulled me down to Earth fast. We won 2-1.

I played soccer for 11 years. Love the beautiful game. Scored some goals during AYSO and LBYSO and those were cool.

But this was a goal for Millikan High, one of the elite soccer programs in SoCal at the time (still might be).

And sure, it was only a JAYVEE goal but you had to bust your ass to make the Millikan JV.

The whole joke here about JV players try just as hard!!11!1 is a real thing at schools with a culture of winning.

The expectation for Millikan JV soccer players was to win and bring that winning edge to the varsity. I didn't make varsity as a senior.

Anyway, here I was again 34 years later on the same soccer field in Downey to relive my moment of glory. Or so I thought.

I quickly Googled Warren High football history and saw several stories about the new turf.

Also read that the school is named after Earl Warren, who was born in L.A., raised in Bakersfield, and appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Walked back over to the football field with its fancy turf. A girls soccer game just ended.

I asked a coach from Warren if the field over there used to be the JV field. Told her why I was asking.

Another coach looked at me and said, Millikan? You were my rival -- I went to Lakewood. I said, You mean Flakewood? She laughed.

Turns out Warren spent a lot of money upgrading and reconfiguring the athletic facilities.

The football field now goes east-west and they moved the baseball field over into the back corner.



So we did play that JV soccer game in '88 on the football field and I scored my goal over by where it says WARREN BASEBALL.

The football stadium had all but cleared out by now. I walked around for a few more minutes to take photos.



Love that they call it JUSTICE STADIUM to honor Earl Warren. Per Wiki:

Earl Warren had been one of the most popular governors of California and was subsequently appointed as Chief Justice of the United States. While serving as Chief Justice, the Supreme Court came up with a number of notable rulings, including Brown v. Board of Education, which abolished the long-standing "separate but equal" doctrine that allowed segregated schools in the United States.

Earl Warren had been invited to and appeared at, the dedication of the school in 1955. Indeed the school colors of blue and gold were adopted because they were the official colors of the State of California. The California state animal, the bear, was designated as the school mascot, and indeed all the sports teams at Earl Warren High were known as "the Bears." The school newspaper was called "The Justice," and the girls' drill team was known as the "Honeybears." (Earl Warren's daughter Nina Warren was nicknamed "Honeybear".) In fact, the class rings were designed to show, among other things, the scales of justice on one side and a gavel on the other, referring to Earl Warren's tenure as Chief Justice of the United States.​

Other notable alumni:

• Rick Burleson, former Major League Baseball player
• Eric Hipple Detroit Lions Quarterback 1981-1986
• Kerry King, co-founder and guitarist for Slayer
• Bobby LaFromboise, Major League Baseball player
• Lena Park, Korean-American R&B singer[citation needed]
• Paul Ruffner, former BYU and pro basketball player
• Jeff Tedford, head football coach at Fresno State, previously at University of California, Berkeley

Karen Carpenter went to Downey High.

Anyway, that was pretty much that. Scratched a 34-year soccer itch.

Got back in the car and made a left onto Paramount Boulevard and was starving to eat lunch.

Was about to stop in South Gate at a hole in the wall cafe called Velma's.

Turned the engine off and opened the door and was about to get out ...

... when Florence and the Machine came on the radio ...

... closed the door and started the engine and turned up the volume and kept driving until I found myself here ...



I'll post what happened there tomorrow. The story involves a 3-foot burrito.

 

Millikan High sparked a hilarious memory.

In 1969, I was playing JV baseball at Santa Monica. Millikan was the defending CIF champion. We went there for a nonleague game, the Varsity and JV since Millikan had two baseball fields. The center fielders were close enough to hear whispers but it wasn't an issue.

The JVs were sort of keeping on eye on the Varsity game. Sure enough, a Millikan guy tried to score and there was a collision with the SM catcher. They started a bench-clearing brawl. One of the guys it our JV dugout said, "Hey Coach, are we supposed to fight them?"

Instead, one of the Millikan JVs near our dugout offered a smug laugh and said their guy was an all-league linebacker. I said, bullshit, our guy is an All-CIF linebacker ... and he's crazy.

 

I haven't thought of Florence in about 8 years. She not only got lapped by Adele, but got her doors blown. And in Bonnaroo language, that was a (rac)coon's age.

 

CIF vs. UIL is such an apples vs. oranges presentation because of the section setup in Cali. Hard to subjectively say which is better, even though Cali has a population edge that helps its numbers.

Add: CIF apparently has one advantage: Grilled tri-tip! I've heard it's larrupin' good, which is a saying apparently somehow associated with Cali.