Wonkette
DOWN ZZYZX ROAD: “To build his Moroccan-inspired Mojave oasis, Springer bused in Los Angeles winos from skid row – they got food and a bunk for their troubles, but most headed back to Fifth Street once they figured out booze wasn’t part of the menu.” [LA CityBeat]
Oh, how I miss those “old-time crook[s] who never really hurt anybody”. These new-time crooks are pain-inflicting mofos (I miss my fingernails and my eyelids and I want them back).
That was a fucking fantastically well-written article you have there, Ken Layne. Zzyzx is the shittiest abandoned town in California, however. On our way to Moab once we decided it would be a good idea to stop there. NO NOT NEVER AGAIN. It’s an insult to fine, seedy meth-laden ghost towns everywhere.
Nice piece, Ken. I’ve driven past that exist a good 50 times, never turned off.
Zyzzyx Rd is the name of my favorite movie in IMDB–made in 2006, starred Tom Sizemore and Katherine Heigl, and grossed $20 at the box office. Apparently it actually grossed $30, but $10 was refunded to a member of the crew. No joke.
I gots ta git me sumathat hair water thar…
He should have had Hopey come and speak. The “Messiah” would have brought in a HUGE crowd of burn-outs who have already had their share of Kool-Aid
Great! Now I have a location to head to when the hobocalypse raises its frightening head and engulfs us in a wave of hobo bindles, canned beans, and bum fights.
Well, this was just eerie because I read Ken’s article yesterday and got a weird sense of deja vu when reading the snippet here. Also, I saw a Jeep commercial last night, in which happy Anglo drivers are Jeeping it up in a desert setting and all I could think of was angry missives by one Ken Layne regarding OHVs in his desert-y neighborhood. Wonkette is taking over my life.
Terrific lede, and artfully succinct. I would have like a few grafs about the Zzyxx Philharmonic and the town’s efforts to procure an NFL franchise.
Zzyxx is where I bought my aardvark!
Very nice piece - I love all that weird stuff out in the California desert. But I have to admit my astonishment that a Wonkette editor could write an article about anything anywhere NEAR Baker, California without mentioning “Bun Boy.”
Dave J.: A $20 box office gross means roughly 2 people paid good money to see it. A bit surprising for a movie starring Katie Heigl, even a crapass thriller. They must have screened it only in Soda Springs. But seriously, Tom Sizemore shoulda played the Meth Maker. Nothing against Rickey Medlocke, whom I remember fondly from his Blackfoot days, but nobody plays crazed druggie better than Tom Sizemore. For reals, ‘cuz he ain’t just actin’.
Hey, Ken can actually write. Who knew? Now I want to have his babies, but I suppose I’d need to install a uterus or something.
“campaign yard signs warning against gay marriage when neither marriage nor gays seems to exist in these strip-mall trailer-park pawn-shop wastelands” — Absolute poetry!