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voluptuarian · 8 days ago

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Oh hey @forthegothicheroine, I was able to pull up the track listing for my Fallout playlists on Wayback Machine, including the one that's specifically themed for Fallout 4

Don't They Know It's the End of the World: A Fallout Radio Fanmix

One More Kiss, Dear by Vangelis

Chatanooga Choo Choo by Glenn Miller

Swing Doors by Allan Gray

Robot Man by Jamie Horton

My Blue Heaven by Gene Austin

Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens by Louis Jordan

Obey Your Air Raid Warden by Tony Pastor

You're A Sweet Little Headache by Helen Forrest

Red Silk Stockings And Green Perfume by Sammy Kaye

You're Just In Love by Perry Como

I Surrender Dear by Red Norvo

I'll Never Smile Again by Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra

Love Is The Sweetest Thing by Al Bowlly & Ray Noble and His Orchestra

Personality by Johnny Mercer & Pied Pipers

Tic, Tic, Tic by Doris Day

Worry, Worry, Worry by The Three Suns

(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66 by Nat King Cole

No More by Billie Holiday

The End Of The World by Patti Page

At The Flying 'W' by Elliot Lawrence and Rosalind Patton

It Might As Well Be Spring by Margaret Whiting & Paul Weston Orchestra

One For My Baby (And One More For The Road) by Frank Sinatra

Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag by Bob Crosby With Martha Tilton

Jazzy Interlude by Billy Munn

In The Mood by Glenn Miller

I Have Eyes by Artie Shaw & His Orchestra

Big Spender by Peggy Lee

Stars Of The Midnight Range by Johnny Bond

You'd Better Go Now by Billie Holiday

Oh Boy, I'm In the Groove by Louis Jordan

Blues In The Night by Alvino Rey & His Orchestra

Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition by The Merry Macs

Trouble Is A Man by Peggy Lee

Flying Saucer Boogie by Eddie Cletro

Along The Navajo Trail by Bing Crosby & Andrews Sisters

Memories Of You by The Ink Spots

Tuxedo Junction by Glenn Miller

There's Frost On The Moon by Artie Shaw and His Orchestra with Peg La Centra

Fools Rush In by Jo Stafford

One More Tomorrow by Frankie Carle And His Orchestra with Marjorie Hughes

They Call Me The Wanderer: A Fallout Radio Fanmix

Daybreak by Harry James & His Orchestra With Johnny McAfee

Stormy Weather by Frank Sinatra

Orange-Colored Sky by Nat King Cole

The Wanderer by Dion And The Belmonts

(Time To Get A Drink) Just A Little Drink by Eddie Stone

Highways Are Happy Ways by Bill Boyd

Atomic Love by Little Caesar & The Red Callender Sextette

We Three (My Echo, My Shadow And Me) by The Ink Spots

Flamingo by Duke Ellington

There's a Land of Begin Again by Vera Lynn & Mantovani and His Orchestra

Lovin' Machine by Elliot Lawrence

Stardust by Kay Starr & Barney Bigard

Skyliner by Charlie Barnet

Sh Boom by Leon McAuliffe & His Western Swing Band

Hard-Hearted Hannah by Ray McKinley

The Java Jive by The Ink Spots

Jet Propelled Papa by Helen Humes

Let's Go Sunning by Jack Shaindlin

I'm So Afraid Of You by Sam Lanin & the Ipana Troubadours

Put Your Shoes On, Lucy by Anne Shelton

Frenesi by Artie Shaw

Ivory Tower by Cathy Carr

Pistol Packin' Mama by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters

Rockin' With The Rockets by Harlan Leonard

Fallout Shelter by Billy Chambers

Cool Water by The Sons Of The Pioneers

Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out by Bessie Smith

Put Another Chair At The Table by The Mills Brothers

Me And The Man In The Moon by The Ambassadors

Deep In A Dream by The Artie Shaw Orchestra With Helen Forrest

Rocket 69 by Todd Rhodes With Connie Allen

I Let A Song Go Out My Heart by Duke Ellington

To Each His Own by Eddy Howard

Twentieth Century Blues by Noel Coward

Button up Your Overcoat by Waring's Pennsylvanians

Radar Blues by Big Joe Turner

Milkman Keep Those Bottles Quiet by Kay Kyser and Sully Mason

Sentimental Journey by Les Brown & His Orchestra

Dear Hearts And Gentle People by Bob Crosby And The Bobcats

Wheel Of Fortune by Kay Starr

Atom Bomb Baby by The Five Stars

Don't Fence Me In by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters

On The Sunny Side Of The Street by By Layton And Johnstone

When The Lights Go On All Over The World by Vaughn Monroe

Breezing Along with the Breeze by Josephine Baker

#also I want it on record I used 'atom bomb baby' by the five stars Before it actually was used in the games 🤣#playlist #playlists #fallout

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aplusblogging · 3 years ago

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ART 225 Final Blog Post: Bob’s Java Jive

photo circa 1930

Located at 2102 South Tacoma Way, in Tacoma, Washington, this weird little building is not just a local attraction; it's on the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places. Originally called the Coffee Pot Restaurant, it was designed and built by Otis G. Button, a veterinarian from Tacoma, in 1927, and opened in 1929. It was one of Tacoma's first prefabricated commercial buildings, with construction beginning on the tideflats and then individual sections moved to the property and bolted together on-site. It was one of a number of quirky object-shaped buildings erected alongside highways across the United States in the 1920s, intended to fascinate, both to draw new customers into the businesses housed within, and—in a time when speed limits were not standardised and signage was infrequent—to encourage drivers to slow down in order to get a better look at the sights. Unlike the three-story gas pump station next door or the giant lemon down the street, however, this one has stayed standing for almost a century at time of writing.

❗ BULLETIN: ROBBERY The Coffee Pot was robbed for the first time in November of 1936.

A change of ownership and a change of footprint took place in 1940 when Harold Elrod purchased the property and added a dance hall to the building. Elrod also obtained a liquor license and added a bar, though it was rumoured that the place had contained a speakeasy during the last years of Prohibition, so he may have just been legitimising a well-established tradition of drinking while adding a new tradition of dancing. With more space came larger crowds, and with a dancefloor came music. This kicked off the building's long history of musical gatherings.

❗ BULLETIN: ROBBERY It was robbed again in December 1945.

❗ BULLETIN: ROBBERY Robbed again in June of 1951. The Tacoma Public Library's notes on the location indicates that "yeggs loot[ed] safes here." Fun fact: "yeggs" was a slang term for a burglar or a safecracker and is thought to come from a bank robber who used the alias John Yegg. According to a source quoted by Ray City History Blog, John was "said to have been the first safe-cracker to use nitro-glycerine as an adjunct to the prosecution of his art," and subsequent crimes began to be referred to as being perpetrated by "yeggmen." A bit of broader and more language-based history mixed in with this local stuff!

In 1955, Bob Radonich purchased the building and renamed it the Java Jive. The name was suggested by Bob's wife Lylabell, who was inspired by a popular 1940 song of the same name performed by The Ink Spots. Lyrics from the song include, "I love coffee, I love tea; I love the java jive and it loves me!" Roadside America notes that Bob "made the Jive loosely Polynesian-themed," adding a "Jungle Room" and decorating with artefacts collected during his tour in India, Madagascar, and other places white Americans found exotic at that time. He also, in true fifties fashion, kept two chimpanzees named Java and Jive in a glass cage for customers to view. (The monkeys drew animal rights protests and other drama over the years, so Bob would eventually remove them from the establishment, sending them to "live with some friends.")

❗ BULLETIN: FIRE In April 1962, the fireplace caused a bigger fire than it was supposed to.

Until 1969, South Tacoma Way was known as highway 99, a main thoroughfare through the city, and "people would drive by and be lured in by the quirky shape of the building, then stay for a beer and the house band," as South Sound Magazine put it in their 2019 article about the place. Then interstate 5 was built, right over the Jive, and highway 99 became just another surface street. Bob's daughter Danette Staatz recalls how, after that, "there wasn’t the same kind of traffic — and it hurt business."

Despite the highway situation, by 1972, the Java Jive was world famous. According to Danielle, that year, "we were gonna paint the ceiling, and you would have thought that we were going to take a wrecking ball to the whole building. Everybody was so upset, we haven’t been able to paint the ceiling since.” Why was everyone so upset? Because the ceiling is "absolutely smothered with signatures from people all around the world who have come to visit," and is thus an important part of the building's story, to be preserved rather than painted over.

unknown date; source

photo from South Sound, circa approx 2019

...

♬♪ INTERLUDE: music, culture, legacy

The city of Tacoma is ground zero for grunge music. Grunge is inherently quite political; as Wikipedia puts it,

Grunge lyrics are typically dark, nihilistic, wretched, angst-filled and anguished, often addressing themes such as social alienation, self-doubt, abuse, assault, neglect, betrayal, social isolation/emotional isolation, psychological trauma and a desire for freedom. ... [they] contained "... explicit political messages and ... questioning about ... society and how it might be changed ...". ... The topics of grunge lyrics—homelessness, suicide, rape, "broken homes, drug addiction and self-loathing"— contrasted sharply to the glam metal lyrics of Poison, which described "life in the fast lane", partying and hedonism.

Peter Andrijeski writes a bar-crawling documentation blog at seattlebars.org. When he started the blog, he began with Bob's Java Jive, which he visited in 1982. (The chimpanzees were still there at the time, living in the back bar.) Pete nods to the Jive's history as a happening spot for the local music scene: "Before they made in big, The Wailers played there several times, and The Ventures played as basically the house band. Harold Lloyd, Clara Bow, and Bing Crosby are all said to have hung out there during the early years."

You may recognise The Ventures as the band who performed the Hawaii 5-0 theme song. They and the Fabulous Wailers, as well as the Sonics, were part of the evolution of rock 'n' roll into grunge; garage bands who became national darlings and blazed a trail that led to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney, Hole, the Smashing Pumpkins, the Foo Fighters...

Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk is a book comprised entirely of quotes from people who were at the centre of the mainstream explosion of punk music while it was happening, as they recall what it was like to live that maelstrom. While these people mostly came from the East Coast, their experiences are not entirely dissimilar from what was happening in the Pacific Northwest at that time. I present the following quotes without further commentary.

Ed Sanders: The problem with the hippes was that there developed a hostility within the counterculture itself, between those who had, like, the equivalent of a trust fund versus those who had to live by their wits. It's true, for instance, that blacks were somewhat resentful of the hippies by the Summer of Love, 1967, because their perception was that these kids were drawing paisley swirls on their Sam Flax writing pads, burning incense, and taking acid, but those kids could get out of there any time they wanted to. ... Whereas someone who was raised in a project on Columbia Street and was hanging out on the edge of Tompkins Square Park can't escape. ... They're trapped. So there developed another kind of lumpen hippie, who really came from an abused childhood—from parents that hated them, from parents that threw them out. ... And those kids fermented into a kind of hostile street person. Punk types.

Wayne Kramer: Any time you take a political stance, especially when you start throwing around violent political rhetoric, you're guaranteed a violent reaction from the powers that be. There was an attitude that prevailed in the Detroit area, amongst parents, teachers, policemen, and prosecutors: "When is somebody gonna do something about the [band Motor City 5]? We cannot allow them to say what they're saying!" We were telling people at our shows to smoke reefer, to burn their bras, to fuck in the streets—it wasn't just a matter of "Well, they were a little too wild for the record industry," which we were, but it went beyond that. Peace and love worked in the realm of the music business, but once you went beyond that, to revolution... that's bad.

Dennis Thompson: Nixon and the smart boys in the green room back in the brain trust sat down and said, "Here's the easiest way to handle this damn thing. Just take away their party favors." The government figured it out. It was obvious. "These people do pot and hash and psychedelics and then they get revolutionary, and they come up with all these new ideas like 'Hey, let's change this world. And let's eliminate these fascist politicians!' Well, the smartest thing to do is give them what's been in the ghettos for a long time because that's been working pretty good there." All of a sudden all you can find anywhere you go is heroin. It's cheap, and there it is. So heroin became the next drug of choice, mainly because you couldn't buy a kilo of pot to save your soul.

In 1980, the future singer and guitarist for Girl Trouble met at Bob’s Java Jive. They would go on to become local legends. Bon Von Wheelie, Girl Trouble’s drummer, reflected on being a punk in the 80s during an interview for Northwest Music Scene: "Since Tacoma was a working-class town the people here weren’t really open to anything new, including punk rock hairdos and clothing. It is almost unbelievable to think about that now but for some reason it made people so mad they’d go after anybody who dared to look even a little out of the norm (which was baggy flare jeans and feathered hair). Having tight pants and a short haircut could get you in a fight faster than anything."

Nirvana didn't play at Bob's Java Jive, but they did hang out there in the mid to late 80s, and it was at a different venue in Tacoma that they first performed under the name "Nirvana." A local legend is that the band asked Bob if they could play a set at the Jive, but Bob didn't like their sound and he turned them down. Nirvana's bassist Krist Novoselic says that's an urban myth.

Unlike Nirvana, Bobby Floyd Radonich, the owner's son, was a frequent performer at the Jive. He was said to be an incredibly talented piano player, and to have a thousand songs memorised to play any time a customer made a request. The Tacoma News Tribune also wrote an article in 1983 about Bobby Floyd's presence at the piano bench, saying in the headline that the "Java Jive comes alive when [he] plays." Pete said on his bar crawling blog that on the night he was there, "Maestro" Bobby Floyd "seemed to play mostly 70s television themes, mixed in with Beatles covers and local high school fight songs." Pete called the bar and his experience at it "epic."

...

photo of the Jive’s menu from 1990, shared on their facebook page

The 1990 film “I Love You To Death” was filmed entirely in Tacoma, and features a scene inside Bob's Java Jive. Keanu Reeves plays alongside William Hurt as pothead cousins and would-be hitmen who are hired to kill a cheating husband; the deal is struck at a table in the Java Jive. South Sound Magazine notes, "You can play pool at the same pool table that Reeves did. He [allegedly] offered to buy the coffee pot building for $1 million and move it to Hawaii. [Bob] turned the offer down." (This urban myth may have been sparked by the fact that Bob later put the Java Jive up for sale for $1 million, despite the property and building being worth much less at the time. There were no takers, so he kept the place.) The Java Jive was also featured in “Say Anything” and “Three Fugitives” the year before, and a decade later it would appear in “Ten Things I Hate About You.”

By 1995, Bob was in his late seventies and health was failing, so his daughter Danette took over the Jive.

❗ BULLETIN: FIRE Another fire in April of 1996 caused some amount of damage and caused the Java Jive to be shut down for a time.

❗ BULLETIN: ... wait never mind In 1998, there was a fire in the apartment complex behind the Jive, but the building itself escaped the blaze this time! Whew!

In July of 1999, Teddy Haggarty and Dan Richholt painted the above mural.

❗ BULLETIN: FINANCIAL TROUBLES In July of 2002, Danette spoke to the Tacoma Daily Index about the financial struggles she and her husband were facing due to lack of patronage. She promoted the event they were organising called The Big Hoopla to try to raise funds to keep the place open, with "dancers, live music, a juke box, pool, pinball and darts, as well as hot dogs and pop." Danette did not end up losing the Jive that year, probably in large part due to the event and the news coverage reminding Tacomans about their quirky little landmark and bringing in funding both from the event and from the likely boost in general patronage. Later that year, Bob Radonich died at 83 years old, with the famous coffee pot building still in the family.

2011 Yelp review: "This is the last Grit City hangout that hasn't been gutted and made into a fancy hangout for all the new transplant yuppies. Great vintage atmosphere and music venue. No hard booze here folks, just straight up beer and wine. Worth the visit."

2013 Yelp review: "the java jive is the most tacoma place in tacoma. a landmark, a tradition, and practically all that remains of our cultural past. built as a dine & dance joint in the 20s, then morphed into a rock club for the nascent garage/punk scene in the early 60s (think the sonics and the wailers), this roadside attraction is shaped like a giant coffee pot and like alice's wonderland, holds a mysterious variety of spaces inside. come here for a cheap pitcher of coors and a "jungle burger": a basic frisko freeze-style cheeseburger that's absolutely tasty and cooked to order. karaoke most nights, and occasional live music with a dance floor. just a great hang."

couple of my favourite show posters from facebook, circa 2014

In 2016 Huck Magazine added a video called Misfit City to their Huck Across America series on YouTube. This installment focussed on the “Grit City” music scene, with a huge showcasing of inclusive punkiness, and featuring a familiar little coffee pot shaped venue. In it, Hozen member Hozi says, "Tacoma is a misfit city, you know... I think that a lot of people feel comfortable to be themselves here in a way that you wouldn't necessarily feel in Seattle or Olympia because those places have so much of an identity. Here, you just... are who you are."

2016 show posters:

(2016 was recognised on the facebook page as a "shitty year")

The Jive has an overall rating of 4.5 stars on Yelp (as of December 2022). A lot of the naysayers seem to be disappointed that the coffee pot building was not a coffee shop (including one tourist who pulled over to take photos and then upon seeing the hand-scrawled sign on the front door decided not to go inside... but still left a three-star review based on their vague disappointment). Or that the dive bar atmosphere was not for them, to which I say: don't judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. There are, however, quite a few comments about the state of the place around 2008–2015, with a handful of "this place used to be better" sentiments from people who had fond memories but seemed upset at the state of the place around that time. Luckily, the owners have done major renovations since then!

In 2019 they made a slew of announcements on facebook: they had installed a new karaoke sound system, acquired new arcade games ("a new dart machine that works!" and a new pinball machine), had the pool tables and the game area's carpet redone, bought a pretzel oven and hot dog steamer, installed security cameras for the first time to surveil the parking lot and surrounding area. Later that year, they got their wn library card! The Tacoma Public Library printed special edition library cards—a batch of only 3000—featuring the coffee pot building in its youth, before it had the colourful paint job and additional structure.

By this time, even non-natives were charmed by the place!

2019 Yelp review from a Kent resident: "I was very pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoy this place. Great karaoke, awesome people, wonderful atmosphere. I feel like this is a place where everyone is welcome and accepted which means a whole lot to me. I will most definitely be back and would absolutely recommend this spot to my friends!"

mural at the railroad bridge at 66th and south tacoma way, taken in 2019

❗ BULLETIN: GLOBAL PANDEMIC In March of 2020, the world stopped for a bit.

Renovations continued after the lockdowns. In June 2021 the exterior was repainted by Honest Guys Painting. Also around this time, Darren Blacketer and Chris Tipton were restoring Teddy Haggarty's murals on the extension of the building. In the summer of 2022 they installed a beer garden outside so that people could social distance and/or enjoy the warmth and sunshine. They even had a couple of bands play sets on the patio, and set things up for an outdoor open mic.

For a long time there was live music at the Jive every Saturday. Shows were all $5 as late as 2018, but by 2022 there are "monthly live music event[s]" and the price was usually $10 (though some shows cost less, and some were free). Between the pandemic and "den mother" Jenna Shrenk suffering a family loss that interfered with her gig-booking duties, the Jive has lost a bit of its presence in the music scene as a hot venue for local sound. These days it’s more of a karaoke/comedy bar, which frankly fits the vibe that Tacoma has going now. On Tuesdays there's open mic for poetry, singing, guitar or keys etc., and Bob's Comedy Jive is a weekly open mic comedy event on Thursdays.

2022 Yelp review: "The Java Jive is alive and well! Getting better every week. Cleaner, better beverage offerings while still keeping true to its gitchy legacy. Better beverages, better bathrooms!, better hours, better beer garden, better parking, better lighting, yet still the Java Jive!"

Bon Henderson said during her Tacoma News Tribune interview in 2021,

The people and stories [in Tacoma] are disappearing, brick by brick. I was born here. Things weren't perfect, and certainly not politically correct, and it was a tough town, but you learned to love all that. I want people moving here to know what Tacoma was all about. If we lose places like the Java Jive, they will never know. And that would be a damn shame.

Someone on Yelp called it "more like Bob's Java DIVE," and while that was probably meant to be an insult, it's accurate. The place is a dive. But that's kind of the point. This building and its history seem to emanate punk and grit and weirdness. It's been through hell, it's got a very mixed reputation, it's reinvented itself a few times, but for the most part these days it just kind of is what it is, the culmination of its history.

And if you're looking for coffee you can always go next door to KD'z Espresso shack...

PSYCH, IT'S CLOSED.

(Man, am I disappointed by the lack of coffee shops in this area!)

Bob’s Java Jive is currently open from 4pm to 2am, seven days a week.

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