September 7, 2024 • 43 mins
Alexis, macaronic, joins the show and we had a great conversation about drumming, him getting into signs, finding treasures in small towns, and finding signs across the world!
You can follow macaronic at:
https://instagram.com/macaronic
You can follow macaronic at:
https://instagram.com/macaronic
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome everybody to International Sign Finders. Glad you're with us.
Hopefully had a great weekend of hitting the pavement. Get
out there finding either neon hand painted signs, architecture, boo cars.
You know all those Venn diagrams that we all kind
of settled into, whether it's antiquing, urban art, cold cars,
(00:36):
neon signs, it all kind of messages together, and we
all kind of swap tails together. And that's kind of
what this podcast is about us getting together, swapping tails.
And today we're called International sign Finders. Our guest today
is a definite international keyword, international sign finder. If you
go to his feed, you'll see some awesome photos from Mexico,
(01:00):
the Netherlands, England, Brands, Germany. He has it all. He's
You've been to so many awesome places around the world.
He's a drummer, he's a diner. I mean, I don't
know what all don't What don't you do? Alexis? This
(01:20):
is macaronic by the way, everybody, Alexis, you do so
much stuff? What is it that you don't do?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I mean, there's a lot of stuff I wish I
could to. The list is very long, and stuff I
don't do.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Oh wow, it's just amazing where you've been and what
you do. But first, before we get into all that,
you know, I need to not get sidetracked immediately off
the bat, introduce yourself to everybody. If they don't know
who you.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Are, Hey the Hello, I'm Alexis I am I grew
up in Washington, d C. Lived a bunch of different
places in the country, and I I've been in a
number of bands that I've toured around a lot of
the world and have used that opportunity to uh to
(02:13):
see as many things as I possibly can.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Now, what what type of drumming do you? Dude? Are
you just? Are you like rock, jazz of experimental hip hop?
Or what type of drumming do you do?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
It's it's mostly rock.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Oh cool.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I wish I could be a jazz dram but I'm
not that list. Yeah, yes, mostly rock with a little
bit you know, with punk rock and with so cool
hip hop. Yeah stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
So come up with do you normally stand in the
four four? Uh? And what is a meter? Or do
you go out like tool does and they'll do like
a eight seven eight six eight five eight eight eight.
It's just kind of it.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Depends on the band. Usually it's four to four. Yeah,
but I play with a band from Italy. That's a
lot of interesting time signatures.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, I've been everyonce a while. I watched Drummio on
YouTube and they will bring and you're probably familiar with
it and you're not familiar with is it's this like drumming.
These drumming experts they bring in these amazing drummers of
all these bands. They had like jazz drummers. They had
Billy Joel's drummer I wanted. He didn't do tool. That
(03:27):
was another guy who did tool, but he did a
band that he wasn't and he was like cussing Adam.
He's like, I had hate you the whole time. And
also they'll throw in like I had uh a country
drummer playing uh yeah, doing like rock music. It was
a and the guy knew like Porcupine Tree and all
these different metal bands. They finally found one that he
(03:50):
didn't know. I think it was masted on eventually, And yeah, there's.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
A show that what is it. They get different drummers
to forget the name of the show, but it's a
I don't I don't think it's trumming. But they get
different drummers to play other people's songs, and I think
they got the guy from Yeah One Guy to play
a Tool song and he was just like, what is happening?
Speaker 1 (04:11):
A song? Yeah you did? He writes the one that
that I saw it probably is a drum you. I
think he's the one that you're thinking of. If he's
a he's a funk drummer, R and B soul funk drummer.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Oh well, yeah, that's that's a cool that's a cool challenge.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Oh yeah. And he was doing Tool and you can
see where he was getting frustrated, frustrated, and then you
can see the layers coming off, and then finally he
was just of his like being comfortable with the song,
if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, yeah, and there like clarification of the song.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
As he's getting through it. Yeah and there, and they're
showing the measures the backgrowd. It's like, oh my gosh,
it's like I could barely count to four and I'm
doing good. So, uh, after we've gone into the weeds
a little bit, what was the event or events that
(05:14):
kind of gave you the bug to go out and signfind.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Ye know, I don't know, I I have always been uh,
you know, I always loved traveling. I was like looking
at a lot of different stuff. I sort of grew
up looking at architecture. A lot of people in my
family are architects, okay, and just sort of and that was,
you know, I did a lot of home renovation stuff.
So I've always been sort of fascinated with with the
way stuff is built. And then I think as I
(05:44):
you know, was getting into music, I sort of you know,
started getting into things like well just like reading Lukowski
and listening to Tom Waits and stuff like that where
it's sort of like and loving movies like Little Nor
movies and stuff like that, and and sort of just
always associating Neon signs with you know, sort of the
(06:07):
CD New York like sort of fascinating dark side of
a City and everything. Unfortunately that now is it contributed
to its demise, but yeah, but just sort of always
been fascinated with this. There's always sort of Neo signs
have always sort of worked their way into stuff that
I do, and uh, and so and I've always taken
a thousand photos of everything, and so going back to
(06:29):
look at my photos now there might be like some
amazing sign in the corner of my photo that I
just sort of put there because I liked it, but
it wasn't the main focus of my of my shot.
And now now I know, I know a lot of
side people. Now we're all like, I wish I took
more photos of science back then, but so it's just
sort of developed. There's some something in probably in the
(06:51):
two thousands triggered me to just being obsessed with them.
I'm not sure what it was.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Now. Would you started off, were you using like a
DSLR like film cameras early two that like early two
thousands when they started swapping over to digital because I
was working at a photo lab where where he developed
it was Lifetouch Studios. I don't know if you're familiar
with them, where they do student photos, and they were
(07:17):
starting they had what they call film grabbers where they
take the the old negatives and turn them into digital images.
And it was about that time where they were having
some of their photographers go out with the early incarnations
that's the wrong word, like the early generation digital cameras
(07:39):
and they're taking pictures and I'm sure that it's gone
from almost one hundred percent negatives to probably like eighty
five percent digital. Were you when did you start using
digital or do you use digital? And in the early
days of your sign finding, were you using like you know,
point shoot and stuff like that that.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, when I started, I was just using those disposable
film cameras.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, and then I had a Pentax K one thousand
that I that I would take carry around with me,
but unfortunately I didn't. I didn't really you know, it's
very cursory about about learning to use the camera. So
I have like tons of bad photos and if you
follow Chris Stine from Blondie, but his photos are incredible,
(08:28):
and I was I just think, you know, if I
had spent just a little bit of time with composition
and getting the right shutter speed and stuff, you know, Like,
I mean, this goes for anybody, but yeah, digital exsit
list an issue. But all those moments that you had
when you were growing up, like those are gone and
twenty years later when you look at that photo, you're like,
(08:48):
it's amazing, you know, Yeah for whatever, So so I
wish I'd spend more time. But yeah, the big thing
for me was I going to Australia. I took twelve
rolls of film with me, and I came back with
like three good shots and it was just like super expensive,
and it's just really annoying that I didn't have anything
(09:09):
really good from that trip. And then I just tried
out a digital camera, and you know, it was what
I really liked about. It was just the very different
and weird like pixelation and stuff from those early cameras,
and the colors were crazy and I and I'm sort
of fascinated, So it was just like you could take
(09:29):
as many shots as you want. I think that maybe
another reason why I didn't take as many pictures of signs.
I definitely took pictures of signs, but you know, you
had to roll twelve O or rule twenty four or
thirty six, so you know, every shot would be like
I'm not going to take sure of that.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
You know, I mean you had to economize what you
were looking for basically, either have like a definite you know,
target in mind, because it's kind of like me giving
my my wife giving her chamber to my kids. They
will take a million photos now, but that's just the
nature of the game. You could take a hundred thousand
(10:04):
photos and maybe have a hundred come out good and
you just erase the other ones, which which makes the
hobby more accessible now than what it was back in
the day.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, awesome. And I think that's also
it's been really liberating because then you just you know,
like now I want to take a picture of a sign,
I'll it's like super annoying, but I'll take a picture
of every angle I can, because even if I know
I'm not going to use it, I want to at
least optimnute, you know. And I do that with with
street stuff too, because you know, when you you don't
(10:38):
you don't realize that I was you know, you don't
realize that there's so much stuff in your photo that
you wish you had taken. So I always trying to
take a photo of just like a wide angle just
to get stuff because you never know. I mean, one
of the things that we all talk about in the
sign world is like you take a picture when you
can because it's going to be gone. You never know
when to find disappears like the DNT day.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Or something exactly. And that will bring us to the
end of our first segment. We have Macaronic on Alexis
and we've been talking about you know, his drumming him,
you know, going around and some of his early bug
biting that got him into the hobby. And also you know,
(11:22):
go down and take a photos. When we come back,
I'll have a question for you that hopefully that makes sense,
but it's just one that popped into my head. We're listen,
you're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International
(11:42):
Sign Finders. Gladys still with us. We have macaronic on.
I'll have the links on how you can follow him
in the show notes over on speaker. Don't follow him.
He has a ton of photos, but it's not it's
not you know, tons of photos for the sake of
taking photos. It's there, there's purpose to them, there's beauty
(12:04):
behind them. But when you were talking about uh, you know,
speaking photos from different angles and standing there and looking
at the side, stuff like that, do you feel if
there's a kind of a feeling a catharsis when uh,
you know that release that you know you can kind
(12:25):
of focus, you know, when you're out there taking photos
of of signs, especially taking so many different angles of
one sign.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
To a fill out catharsis from doing that?
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah, is that the right word?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
You know? Sometimes I think it's like a it's like
a plague, you know, because you go out there and
like I'm always like super super psyched to find a
really good sign. You know, there's like a million really
great liquor signs and great you know, cocktail signs and
stuff like that, but a lot of them are very
similar and they're really cool. But if you see one
that's got like some crazy errow or like you know
(13:04):
there's this Steagle sign and you know the one in
Dallas that is amazing incredible sign like something like that,
when you stumble upon it, you're just like, oh my,
it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
That that's kind of like my, Uh, You've got to
you know, time factor in different things such as you know,
travel to there, I'm uh, you know, finding a place
at park. But the sense of awe, uh, the thing
you step back now, I'll wreak a tharsis uh, the
process of releasing and thereby providing relief from stronger repressed emotions.
(13:37):
I guess you can sit there and you feel those emotions,
that excitement that you're actually here at the sign, and
then you can focus on that sign that I guess
that's what I mean. Uh, do you do you find
a sense of zen something like that when you see
a sign and you're trying to capture it in a
way that's both memorable for you and also poplast week
(14:00):
for others that are looking at the photos. Or maybe
it might go in too deep where I don't need
it too deep?
Speaker 2 (14:06):
That makes sense. Yeah, Yeah, for sure, there's definitely a Yeah,
there is a there's sort of like a great joy
and in discovering and then getting getting a great shot
of it. And and also it's sort of like this
discovery moment when you stumble upon something, especially if it's
something that you don't know about. They used to have
on just a great sign. And I mean it's sort
(14:28):
of like there's two two different reactions. One is that
the sign is in horrible shape, you know exactly, or
the other one is where it's really well preserved and
you're just super psyche that they care about the sign
enough to keep it running and you know it's very
expensive and are keep these signs maintained?
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Now, what when you talked about you know, signs that
are disrepair. You have a picture of a sign as
a triangle sign, and I forget what you call the
company because you can't read what the company is. I
just thought I kind of chuckled because it's like it
used to be something, you know, company or I forget
what it was, because you're still trying to bring kind
of a personality to decide. Because I mean, the It'll
(15:08):
Do dance club I saw that on your feed was
in Fort Worth or Dallas. This is the DFW area,
you know, that's got a personality just by the name.
It's yeah, it's probably not the most memorable shape. It's
a it's century shape, but it's not the most memorable shape,
but the name's memorable. But then you have this kind
of cool rusted that the patina is just singing. You
(15:30):
can't read it, but you're giving a personality to it.
I really admire that.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah, well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Well.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
I think also that, you know, one of the things
that is really fun is like Texas has some of
the best skies around, you know, so you just these
incredible clouds and blue skies and and sometimes when it's
you know, really stormy, it's just like it's so dramatic
that you may societs look even better, you know, like,
(16:01):
oh my god, is a huge sign, but the clouds
behind it are also insane, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Yeah, and I've found that here in Houston because we
were talking before we started recording about the the the
memorial we should have for all the old Houston signs
like Guidos and the Indian Chief and I think the
Tiki Hid and all those other ones that are just
gone now. But everyone swhile like the Admiral Motel old sign.
(16:31):
It is probably one of the throwbacks to back in
the day. Beautiful kink neon, Love that neon. But ever
once in a while you'll get those skies in the background.
And there's a lot more trees in Houston than stay
up in like in the Dallas, like going out to
Childers and Amarillo. But when the I love taking pictures
at night when it's cloudy, because yeah, go ahead about
(16:55):
about that before I went exeloquent.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
I have some some friends that, you know, they're very
very particular about their the lighting, and so they get
so into it that they have they have you know,
they're actually a lot of stars students where they have
their you know, the app that tells you exactly how
the sun is going to be in a specific time
of year, and and then a time of day and
everything so you plane your trip around exactly when the
(17:21):
sun's going to hit. Something doesn't have to be aside
to be anything the way you wanted to hit, and
I I think that's pretty cool. I'm more of the
school of just taking it when you're there because you
can't really, I can't really plan on that, but it
is fascinating how the different times of day make everything
look a lot different. Like one of my favorites is
is a is a sunset right when the neon comes on?
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Wow, so it's not super dark. You know, it's interesting.
I noticed it, uh that when a sign is just neon,
which I love. I love to see them lit and working.
But you know, just in terms of Instagram and stuff like,
you don't to get as much a reaction from from
from just then on it, which is I'm not really
sure why that is, but I love I love just
(18:07):
saying them lit, and I love it when it has
some light. I'm actually less of a fan when it's
in full, full bright sunlight. But it's also cool to
see the glass and you know the way it's constructed.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
And I know there's some guys out there that do that.
I know three year Rabbit takes a lot of daytime
photos and there there is a place for that, especially
seeing the wear and the tear and the artistry. And
you don't necessarily get to see that as much at
night unless you have like a like my Google pixel,
I could take pretty decent nighttime photos. You still see
(18:41):
details of the signs that everybody has that or maybe
not have the patience to deal with all the settings.
And you know, park the car on the side of
the road it's four in the morning, and you try
to make sure your surroundings are safe and and things
like that. But there's a beauty to uh during the day.
(19:02):
And there's one guy that takes pictures of Austin signs
of night. It's uh nea was it neon nights Austin. Uh.
He goes out, he takes pictures of just the neon
and it's fantastic. I love it. I don't know if
it gets as much pop as some other stuff, but
it's really it's the visuals are just especially the negative
(19:26):
space of the black is amazing.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
M Yeah, yeah, I mean I do like, I do
like seeing how the I always get sort of curious
with with sign people that restore signs because there's a
whole different you know, this this sort of way they
sort of pursue it. But it's, you know, one of
the things that makes you sound so interesting. It's just
the way that the paint has, the way that they're painted,
(19:48):
and the way that the pain is decayed over time.
And and so I'm always i'd sort of like on
the fence about whether a sign should be like stripped
clean and completely painted, or it's it should just be
like brought up a little bit so it's not so
it's still functioning or whatever. I don't know. I mean,
they look great either way. But you know, sometimes when
I it's it's weird, like I find when I when
the signs brand new, I'm much less interested in it.
(20:10):
And also I want to sign this in a museum,
I'm much I mean much less interested. I'm glad it's preserved,
but I do like to see the signs where they
you know, where they originally were.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
And then you have someone like Lisa Tennant Art who
does watercolor painting of Neon signs, like hyper realistic watercolor. Uh.
And she found this one that was just rotted out.
There was a family of pigeons living in there, and
if you go to her page. Uh, I think she
did the painting probably about five ten years ago, somewhere
(20:43):
around there. And the detail that she has makes you
feel like you're there because I think the sign's gone.
It's long gone now it's in Florida, or was in Florida.
But like you're saying with the patina now the it's
one of those things like I want them both to
happen simultaneously. We'll see the quantum realm where you could
(21:04):
have both the brand new and the old and still
enjoyed the two because there's a beauty and rust yeah,
that I never thought about.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Also in the way that the colors, you know, you
get this, it's not a flat color. It has so
much texture and so much quality to the different colors.
Unless it's like an enamel sign, then you get you know,
the way the sun beats down on or if it
starts rusting through or whatever. And it's just that'sassinating. It's
also fascinating because those those are those are you know,
(21:38):
now everything's plastic, so it ages different.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Wow, And that'll bring us to the inniverse. Second segment.
This show goes by so fast. I'm just warned. Yeah, Alexis.
It goes by so fast. And when we come back,
we'll talk about some of the Lexus's travels around the world,
especially to Mexico City, London. I'll just say France. Let's
just say France is kind of a blanket statement. You're
(22:04):
listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders.
Glad you're with us. We have Macaronicon with us. Alexis.
Go and find him on Instagram and you know, follow him.
Like his stuff. He's probably one of the few people
(22:24):
that has way more pictures than I do. I'm pushing
eighty seven hundred. He has thirteen thousand so on, and
they're all great stuff. It's it's really great, so especially
documenting stuff from around the country and around the world.
Now I am so jealous. I'm so happy that you
were able to get the Las Vegas Billiards American Pool
(22:45):
Hall there in London. I think it was it has
that you know that Squashy Jackson him in bond.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
At oh So waterfell Bon. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just
went there and I uh lucked out to find that
that little section of London, and I guess, but there's
a bunch of really cool signs, and I guess London
they have started preserving those signs, so I think a
lot of them are restored and everything. But it's a
(23:13):
that's a really cool area and lots of really good theaters.
They're great, great architecture. I mean London has where England
has tons of amazing deco theaters and Victorian theaters and stuff,
and a lot of fire and horrible shapes. So get them,
why you can't.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yeah, and especially the Agatha Christie what was it? Oh yeah,
the mouse trap, so yeah, amazing. They made a neot
sign just for that.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. I think they do that the
Olympic can in Paris as well. Okay, although those may
be led. I'm not sure, but they may. I think
they probably used to be a neon, but yeah, they
would have like, yeah, you make a neon sign for
the production. I guess because it's around for months or
even years or even years. Yeah, yeah, amazing. I remember
(24:01):
the Winter Garden Theater in New York had cats for
I don't know, it was like fourteen years or how
it was, and that sign for the Winter Garden Theater
was amazing. I don't know if it's still there.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Wasn't it was there like a battle between Cats and
Phantom of the Opera for being the longest running Broadway shows.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I will not yeah, I would not be surprised.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Oh my heavens. But yeah, just looking through your like
the bar Italia, the Ray Raymond Review Bar, or was
that in New York City? No, that's solo. Yeah, Ruby
Ruby Ruby, soho sorry I can't sing very well. But also, Harris,
(24:46):
I like you've shown different neon signs that range from
was a Lake Cafe Levant down to mayde Casino in
was it Bordeaux? Just the range of neon in France
is amazing.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yes, yeah, yeah, there's uh yeah, I always feel really
lucky to find anything in a lot of those towns
because there's just not much left. Yeah, but yeah, I
found some really great stuff in Bordeaux, and I found uh,
I mean, there's all these these sort of interesting, really
(25:26):
fancy restaurants that had a lot of neon on them.
Paris has that as well. Uh yeah, it's just it's
really really cool.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
One of the great things about being so obsessed with
sciences and architecture is that when I travel, it really
gives me something to look for. So so it's you know,
any any town that some person would think that it's
like the worst town of the world, for me, could
be the best town in the world because there's just
some fascinating layers of history in these towns. I just
(25:56):
went to this town and you know, American squares. But
she's been document she documents a lot of Pennsylvania and
socially stuff like that. But she had a whole bunch
of McKeesport photos and all all my friends. I got
to go to mckysport. It looks insane, and I just
(26:16):
went there and it is just a wreck of a town.
It's it's really, I mean, and if you look at
anything on YouTube and see what that town was like,
it was amazing town. It was like the third most
prominent town in Pennsylvania or something like that. It was
a really, really bustling town. And there's just not much
(26:36):
of it left. And I'm glad I I just went there,
and I'm glad I got there. You know. It's just
I don't know how much longer anything will be there.
I mean, it's they're just tearing everything down because it's
just all it's just all either burning down or crumbling
and it's you know, it's just really hard to maintain
that stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
And that's in the Pittsburgh area, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
It's a it's basically a suburb of Pittsburgh. It's about
a half an hour from Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
What was in about Oh, go ahead, Well.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I'm just gonna say there's a ton of towns like
that because of you know, and I mean just being
into the rust belt. Yeah, there is tons of towns
that were really really you know, doing a lot of
business in the forties and fifties and sixties that are
now that are not doing so well now. And there's
a lot of stuff there.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Like Gary, Indiana. This is the one that comes to
mind first.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Gary is a wild town. Yeah, yeah, now wild.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
What's so interesting about Mckethsport is back in the whenies,
thirties and forties, maybe even fifties all you know, Yeah,
the Pittsburgh Steelers was were huge, but he also had
all these Sandlot League teams and Mckeysport had a couple
of them that were pretty strong. And it's just so
(27:51):
I got like hyper focused the ADHD hyper focus on
like the Sandlot Leagues of Pittsburgh and just the history
of those teams just I would find it, go to
like newspapers, dot commerceome like that. You'd looked up old
papers to see if you could find like the way
(28:13):
that their old uniforms will look, and I try to
recreate them for like modern times. You had these teams
like the Mystics. I forget the one that was in McKeesport,
but there's another one where I don't they're either all
the question marks or they didn't know the name of
the team. Something put question mark in there, and it's
(28:36):
just some really cool stuff from the area. Now and
your travels around Europe, what was the Your Barcelona signs
are amazing? I remember seeing somebody went to Porto and
Portugal and they found some really cool signs there.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
What was the oh, go ahead, there's an amazing theater
in Porto that Oh yeah, that just had incredible neon
sign I don't know, it's been restored, so yeah, cool.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Good. What was the one place that surprised you with
the neon? Uh? Even if you say Paris, that's a
perfectly credible answer.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
You know, I would say, well, I saw some really
cool neon. Actually there's a whole collective and I want
to go meet these people. But in Poland, because yes,
a lot of really cool Neon and Poland. But uh
it uh, you know, the stuff that I've found has
(29:41):
mostly I think been in the US. That I will say,
like when I went to Wildwood, I was like, at
some point, I was like, I just have to lead.
There's just too much here. It's like wearing me out. No,
it's there's just so much on Wildwood. Although I think
I think they're having some issues with a lot of
that stuff. Just as well. Wildwood's amazing, and La is amazing,
(30:03):
and Texas is great. Oklahoma is amazing.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Yes, like Oklahoma City, I need to spend a week
in Oklahoma City. Chickachhet Falsa, she's Norman not so much. Uh,
might need to do a deeper dive into my mom's
home town. But like Oklahoma City, I.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Spend it just amazing. Yeah, just find so much modernist
architecture that they continue to tear down. Wow. But yeah,
that's uh, that is a great one.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Now Mexico City, Uh, we'll route out this segment your round.
Some really cool theaters and architecture, old Neon that used
to be there. How magical was it to find that
in Mexico City.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
That that theater. I found the I mean, the the
Opera Cine Opera is mind blowing. And then the Cinny Orchion,
the Tiatro or is incredible too, and they're empty. The
Glorion was restored but now it's been empty for I
(31:20):
don't know, maybe like fifteen years something. But the the
the opera one is like I mean, and that's the
crazy thing about these theaters. It's, I mean, they're amazing,
but they they're really a heyday to Mexico's uh, film industry,
which is really you know, doing great in in the
fifties and forties and stuff like that. But they're also
(31:45):
you know, four thousand capacity theaters. They are huge, so
they're they're hard to I think they're hard to fill,
you know.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
L A has like a ton of theaters too, and
it's I mean, it's tricky. You people will go to
the movies that much, so it's it's just really hard
to figure out what to do with these spaces. A
lot of them turning into churches. Yeah, and four thousand
capacity theaters is very big, you.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Know exactly uh we will Yeah, Like Oklahoma City has
tons of like theater, like two theaters on the same
street type stuff. Yeah, all around the town like Yale
Theater and the Oklahoma Opry and stuff like that. And
that'll bring us to the end of our bird segment.
(32:31):
When we come back, we'll get into Alexis's bucket lists
places other than any other thing he wants to plug.
You're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International
(32:54):
sign Finders. We've been having a great conversation with Alexis
and cy Go and find a Macaronic on the socials Instagram.
Are you on any other social platform as well?
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Not really, I don't on Facebook, but not I don't
really do find stuff. It's just Instagram. Instagram has been
a real, uh, you know, kicker for for just posting stuff.
It's you know, it's a it's just it keeps me
posting because usually what I do is I take a
thousand photos and they just sit on a hard drive somewhere.
(33:26):
So it gives me a little incentive to do something
with them.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah, oh, most definitely. Yeah, So we've been talking about,
you know, you're going around to Europe, to Mexico City,
you're talking about going down to Australia now on your
bucket list of places to go. What do you have left?
You've talked about Poland. Uh, I was talking to Todd
(33:49):
and Corky out of Denver, and Todd has Hungarian heritage.
You talked about in the seventies, Uh, maybe eighties there
was kind of like this like imfusion of Americanism into
you know, those two Eastern Bloc countries, and so there's
a ton of neon that went up. I don't know
how much how much of it is still lit, but
(34:13):
you know, right there in Poland and Hungary you had
kind of a little American corner of the Eastern Bloc.
Where's the place that Where else would you like to go?
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Well, I'd love to go to Cuba. Yeah, A bunch
of friends have been been there a few times. Love
to get down there and see that. America still has
a lot of stuff I need to go see. And
in Chicago I've been to, but it's just that's a
whole huge expedition, but a lot of stuff up and up,
and you know, I don't know what's in North South
(34:46):
Dakota or in Montana. I think there's a lot of
stuff in Idaho, yes, but I'd also like to go
to let's see, I mean I went to ben to Greece.
Uh yeah, places like well, hungry, Hungry, and and uh
and Austria probably would be interesting to go sort of.
(35:08):
I mean all there, every stuff is everywhere, you know,
and a lot of times it's one sign and I'm
knowing there's like no other sign, there's just one sign.
So a big trip to go on to see one thing.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
You know, if if it's good enough, why not, you know?
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Yeah, you know, Vancouver and Toronto used to have a
ton of really good stuff. So I'd like to go
back to Vancouver and see see some see if I
can dig up anything and there's still some stuff there.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Yeah. Amazon, Uh, the Amazon's headquarters has taking a lot
of Vancouver signage there in Vancouver. Du but yeah, I
remember looking that up when I was talking with miss
Matador out of Toronto. Oh yeah, her dad lives in BC.
I think in Surrey. She'll she'll correct me if I'm wrong.
(35:55):
But yeah, Amazon has done a lot to preserve a
lot of those old signs. And Edmonton, Edmonton has a
Neon sign museum. Uh yeah, you would think that's but
freaking cold. Yeah, Edmonton. When you're talking about Idaho, Montana's
got a lot like you and a.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Conda ye Billings even up.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
In like Kallis Bell on the north side of the
Blackhead Reservation. Uh, there's some really cool stuff from understand.
Uh Rapid City, South Dakota. They're downtown has been revitalized
and there's a lot of cool there. Their Elks Theater
is amazing.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Who's Toy there's two of them. Uh they have a
big owl on both of them. But whose Toys has
some cool stuff? And also Pocatella, Idaho. Uh yeah, they
and uh, I forget the uh the gentleman's name, but
he's kind of taken under his belt to kind of
(37:01):
go and you know, revitalize all that amazing neon that's there.
Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City's got a ton of
stuff too, and I'm and I wish I could have
gotten it all in one afternoon. Just can't. There's too much.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Yes, I want to do a loop going up from
up to Salt Lake City back down through Nevada because
there's stuff Eli and uh sparks and you know Reno
and Reno is amazing.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Battle Mountains.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
I don't know if it's been a Bell Mountain. Is
that near Reno.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Uh, it's south of wood Amucca.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Okay, it was called the.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Armpit of America for a while, but at the Washington Post.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, perfect for silence, had some place to go, right.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's not the ar pit, but yet
like Eli and Wells and yeah, I've got friends that
you know, either work in the area or live in
the area. So and I've also got friends like Idaho Falls.
There's still stuff left in Idaho Falls. Not as much
as that you too, but there's still some pretty cool stuff. Wyoming.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yeah, Wyoming has they're too great thugs. And I've only
been to guests to Jackson Hall and then have been
oh gosh, yeah, I was taking pictures of signs back then.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
So Jackson Hole, oh my gosh. Yeah. Going through there
at night is the rest of my bar. Oh yeah,
the million dollar Cowboy Bar is amazing to see that
lit up at night. Like my family was all asleep
and we were coming, you know, down through Yellowstone and
(38:34):
Grand Teton and we got there at Jackson I was stopping,
like every ten seconds, I was stopping to take I.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Hope you have a very patient family, most of them
just like I'll just go do it by myself since
it's so annoying.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah, well they were asleep, so patient by proxy. Right, Yeah,
So we're coming up to the end of the show.
Is there anything that you'd like to play? Anybody want
to give a shout out to this time? Is yours? Uh?
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Nothing, I need to plug. I am friends with all
the people in the group called Signs United, so I
courage it. But he's into interested in this stuff, uh,
to see it, to join them, and sometimes they go
on trips or you know that. Actually this Neon Speaks
is coming up in a couple of weeks. That's always
something very fun to check out. If anybody wants to.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
See that, I need to get up to San Francisco too.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
And then of course anything Charles Fanox does, it's pretty fun.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Oh my gosh. He's come to Houston once as a
guy that restores cars in Austin. I can't remember his name.
He's gonna kill me probably. I don't know if he
listens to the show, but he and he restores like
these old life fifties and sixties and seventies cars, and
so they were going right down West Teimer, right by
the Leopard Lounge, which is probably one of the coolest
(39:57):
retro looking like a tom you know that atomic you know,
space age looking sign. It looks like No, it's in Houston.
They do have one in Austin Leopard Lounge. But uh,
the guy came over, met Charles Phoenix and they drove
around Houston. But of any place in the world I
(40:21):
could see that being in is Arco, Idaho, because Marco's
got a little bit of neon. It's a town of
maybe five hundred people. Uh and uh. It was the
first town that was ever powered by one hundred percent
atomic energy. So it's in the middle of nowhere with
what status any Idaho?
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Idaho? Okay, yeah, because there's a I forget where it is.
But I found this sign that was a it's a
nuclear uh uh neon sign from the.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
I think that's it so amazing.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Yeah, I thought it was like in snata By.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yeah, I'll dig around. I know, oh old Hotel Science.
Pam has gotten it. She's gotten up to Arco. Okay,
you have to get lost in order to find Arcos.
It's on its way to craters of the Moon if
you're heading out that way. But yeah, anything else you'd
(41:20):
like to give a shout out too before we get out.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Now that's it link.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Yeah, well, thank you so much for being a part
of the show, Alexis. It goes my so fast. You're
welcome and go and follow him at Macaronic on Instagram.
Like I said, I'll have links to how you can
get in contact with him on the show notes. But
as I say every week, get out there, hit the pavement,
(41:45):
have fun. We don't care if you have a one
follower or one hundred and fifty million followers. Get out there,
take those sign photos and share with the rest of us.
We want to see him too. Until next time, happy
sign finding
Welcome everybody to International Sign Finders. Glad you're with us.
Hopefully had a great weekend of hitting the pavement. Get
out there finding either neon hand painted signs, architecture, boo cars.
You know all those Venn diagrams that we all kind
of settled into, whether it's antiquing, urban art, cold cars,
(00:36):
neon signs, it all kind of messages together, and we
all kind of swap tails together. And that's kind of
what this podcast is about us getting together, swapping tails.
And today we're called International sign Finders. Our guest today
is a definite international keyword, international sign finder. If you
go to his feed, you'll see some awesome photos from Mexico,
(01:00):
the Netherlands, England, Brands, Germany. He has it all. He's
You've been to so many awesome places around the world.
He's a drummer, he's a diner. I mean, I don't
know what all don't What don't you do? Alexis? This
(01:20):
is macaronic by the way, everybody, Alexis, you do so
much stuff? What is it that you don't do?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I mean, there's a lot of stuff I wish I
could to. The list is very long, and stuff I
don't do.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Oh wow, it's just amazing where you've been and what
you do. But first, before we get into all that,
you know, I need to not get sidetracked immediately off
the bat, introduce yourself to everybody. If they don't know
who you.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Are, Hey the Hello, I'm Alexis I am I grew
up in Washington, d C. Lived a bunch of different
places in the country, and I I've been in a
number of bands that I've toured around a lot of
the world and have used that opportunity to uh to
(02:13):
see as many things as I possibly can.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Now, what what type of drumming do you? Dude? Are
you just? Are you like rock, jazz of experimental hip hop?
Or what type of drumming do you do?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
It's it's mostly rock.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Oh cool.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I wish I could be a jazz dram but I'm
not that list. Yeah, yes, mostly rock with a little
bit you know, with punk rock and with so cool
hip hop. Yeah stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
So come up with do you normally stand in the
four four? Uh? And what is a meter? Or do
you go out like tool does and they'll do like
a eight seven eight six eight five eight eight eight.
It's just kind of it.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Depends on the band. Usually it's four to four. Yeah,
but I play with a band from Italy. That's a
lot of interesting time signatures.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, I've been everyonce a while. I watched Drummio on
YouTube and they will bring and you're probably familiar with
it and you're not familiar with is it's this like drumming.
These drumming experts they bring in these amazing drummers of
all these bands. They had like jazz drummers. They had
Billy Joel's drummer I wanted. He didn't do tool. That
(03:27):
was another guy who did tool, but he did a
band that he wasn't and he was like cussing Adam.
He's like, I had hate you the whole time. And
also they'll throw in like I had uh a country
drummer playing uh yeah, doing like rock music. It was
a and the guy knew like Porcupine Tree and all
these different metal bands. They finally found one that he
(03:50):
didn't know. I think it was masted on eventually, And yeah, there's.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
A show that what is it. They get different drummers
to forget the name of the show, but it's a
I don't I don't think it's trumming. But they get
different drummers to play other people's songs, and I think
they got the guy from Yeah One Guy to play
a Tool song and he was just like, what is happening?
Speaker 1 (04:11):
A song? Yeah you did? He writes the one that
that I saw it probably is a drum you. I
think he's the one that you're thinking of. If he's
a he's a funk drummer, R and B soul funk drummer.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Oh well, yeah, that's that's a cool that's a cool challenge.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Oh yeah. And he was doing Tool and you can
see where he was getting frustrated, frustrated, and then you
can see the layers coming off, and then finally he
was just of his like being comfortable with the song,
if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, yeah, and there like clarification of the song.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
As he's getting through it. Yeah and there, and they're
showing the measures the backgrowd. It's like, oh my gosh,
it's like I could barely count to four and I'm
doing good. So, uh, after we've gone into the weeds
a little bit, what was the event or events that
(05:14):
kind of gave you the bug to go out and signfind.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Ye know, I don't know, I I have always been uh,
you know, I always loved traveling. I was like looking
at a lot of different stuff. I sort of grew
up looking at architecture. A lot of people in my
family are architects, okay, and just sort of and that was,
you know, I did a lot of home renovation stuff.
So I've always been sort of fascinated with with the
way stuff is built. And then I think as I
(05:44):
you know, was getting into music, I sort of you know,
started getting into things like well just like reading Lukowski
and listening to Tom Waits and stuff like that where
it's sort of like and loving movies like Little Nor
movies and stuff like that, and and sort of just
always associating Neon signs with you know, sort of the
(06:07):
CD New York like sort of fascinating dark side of
a City and everything. Unfortunately that now is it contributed
to its demise, but yeah, but just sort of always
been fascinated with this. There's always sort of Neo signs
have always sort of worked their way into stuff that
I do, and uh, and so and I've always taken
a thousand photos of everything, and so going back to
(06:29):
look at my photos now there might be like some
amazing sign in the corner of my photo that I
just sort of put there because I liked it, but
it wasn't the main focus of my of my shot.
And now now I know, I know a lot of
side people. Now we're all like, I wish I took
more photos of science back then, but so it's just
sort of developed. There's some something in probably in the
(06:51):
two thousands triggered me to just being obsessed with them.
I'm not sure what it was.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Now. Would you started off, were you using like a
DSLR like film cameras early two that like early two
thousands when they started swapping over to digital because I
was working at a photo lab where where he developed
it was Lifetouch Studios. I don't know if you're familiar
with them, where they do student photos, and they were
(07:17):
starting they had what they call film grabbers where they
take the the old negatives and turn them into digital images.
And it was about that time where they were having
some of their photographers go out with the early incarnations
that's the wrong word, like the early generation digital cameras
(07:39):
and they're taking pictures and I'm sure that it's gone
from almost one hundred percent negatives to probably like eighty
five percent digital. Were you when did you start using
digital or do you use digital? And in the early
days of your sign finding, were you using like you know,
point shoot and stuff like that that.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, when I started, I was just using those disposable
film cameras.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, and then I had a Pentax K one thousand
that I that I would take carry around with me,
but unfortunately I didn't. I didn't really you know, it's
very cursory about about learning to use the camera. So
I have like tons of bad photos and if you
follow Chris Stine from Blondie, but his photos are incredible,
(08:28):
and I was I just think, you know, if I
had spent just a little bit of time with composition
and getting the right shutter speed and stuff, you know, Like,
I mean, this goes for anybody, but yeah, digital exsit
list an issue. But all those moments that you had
when you were growing up, like those are gone and
twenty years later when you look at that photo, you're like,
(08:48):
it's amazing, you know, Yeah for whatever, So so I
wish I'd spend more time. But yeah, the big thing
for me was I going to Australia. I took twelve
rolls of film with me, and I came back with
like three good shots and it was just like super expensive,
and it's just really annoying that I didn't have anything
(09:09):
really good from that trip. And then I just tried
out a digital camera, and you know, it was what
I really liked about. It was just the very different
and weird like pixelation and stuff from those early cameras,
and the colors were crazy and I and I'm sort
of fascinated, So it was just like you could take
(09:29):
as many shots as you want. I think that maybe
another reason why I didn't take as many pictures of signs.
I definitely took pictures of signs, but you know, you
had to roll twelve O or rule twenty four or
thirty six, so you know, every shot would be like
I'm not going to take sure of that.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
You know, I mean you had to economize what you
were looking for basically, either have like a definite you know,
target in mind, because it's kind of like me giving
my my wife giving her chamber to my kids. They
will take a million photos now, but that's just the
nature of the game. You could take a hundred thousand
(10:04):
photos and maybe have a hundred come out good and
you just erase the other ones, which which makes the
hobby more accessible now than what it was back in
the day.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, awesome. And I think that's also
it's been really liberating because then you just you know,
like now I want to take a picture of a sign,
I'll it's like super annoying, but I'll take a picture
of every angle I can, because even if I know
I'm not going to use it, I want to at
least optimnute, you know. And I do that with with
street stuff too, because you know, when you you don't
(10:38):
you don't realize that I was you know, you don't
realize that there's so much stuff in your photo that
you wish you had taken. So I always trying to
take a photo of just like a wide angle just
to get stuff because you never know. I mean, one
of the things that we all talk about in the
sign world is like you take a picture when you
can because it's going to be gone. You never know
when to find disappears like the DNT day.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Or something exactly. And that will bring us to the
end of our first segment. We have Macaronic on Alexis
and we've been talking about you know, his drumming him,
you know, going around and some of his early bug
biting that got him into the hobby. And also you know,
(11:22):
go down and take a photos. When we come back,
I'll have a question for you that hopefully that makes sense,
but it's just one that popped into my head. We're listen,
you're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International
(11:42):
Sign Finders. Gladys still with us. We have macaronic on.
I'll have the links on how you can follow him
in the show notes over on speaker. Don't follow him.
He has a ton of photos, but it's not it's
not you know, tons of photos for the sake of
taking photos. It's there, there's purpose to them, there's beauty
(12:04):
behind them. But when you were talking about uh, you know,
speaking photos from different angles and standing there and looking
at the side, stuff like that, do you feel if
there's a kind of a feeling a catharsis when uh,
you know that release that you know you can kind
(12:25):
of focus, you know, when you're out there taking photos
of of signs, especially taking so many different angles of
one sign.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
To a fill out catharsis from doing that?
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah, is that the right word?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
You know? Sometimes I think it's like a it's like
a plague, you know, because you go out there and
like I'm always like super super psyched to find a
really good sign. You know, there's like a million really
great liquor signs and great you know, cocktail signs and
stuff like that, but a lot of them are very
similar and they're really cool. But if you see one
that's got like some crazy errow or like you know
(13:04):
there's this Steagle sign and you know the one in
Dallas that is amazing incredible sign like something like that,
when you stumble upon it, you're just like, oh my,
it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
That that's kind of like my, Uh, You've got to
you know, time factor in different things such as you know,
travel to there, I'm uh, you know, finding a place
at park. But the sense of awe, uh, the thing
you step back now, I'll wreak a tharsis uh, the
process of releasing and thereby providing relief from stronger repressed emotions.
(13:37):
I guess you can sit there and you feel those emotions,
that excitement that you're actually here at the sign, and
then you can focus on that sign that I guess
that's what I mean. Uh, do you do you find
a sense of zen something like that when you see
a sign and you're trying to capture it in a
way that's both memorable for you and also poplast week
(14:00):
for others that are looking at the photos. Or maybe
it might go in too deep where I don't need
it too deep?
Speaker 2 (14:06):
That makes sense. Yeah, Yeah, for sure, there's definitely a Yeah,
there is a there's sort of like a great joy
and in discovering and then getting getting a great shot
of it. And and also it's sort of like this
discovery moment when you stumble upon something, especially if it's
something that you don't know about. They used to have
on just a great sign. And I mean it's sort
(14:28):
of like there's two two different reactions. One is that
the sign is in horrible shape, you know exactly, or
the other one is where it's really well preserved and
you're just super psyche that they care about the sign
enough to keep it running and you know it's very
expensive and are keep these signs maintained?
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Now, what when you talked about you know, signs that
are disrepair. You have a picture of a sign as
a triangle sign, and I forget what you call the
company because you can't read what the company is. I
just thought I kind of chuckled because it's like it
used to be something, you know, company or I forget
what it was, because you're still trying to bring kind
of a personality to decide. Because I mean, the It'll
(15:08):
Do dance club I saw that on your feed was
in Fort Worth or Dallas. This is the DFW area,
you know, that's got a personality just by the name.
It's yeah, it's probably not the most memorable shape. It's
a it's century shape, but it's not the most memorable shape,
but the name's memorable. But then you have this kind
of cool rusted that the patina is just singing. You
(15:30):
can't read it, but you're giving a personality to it.
I really admire that.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah, well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Well.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
I think also that, you know, one of the things
that is really fun is like Texas has some of
the best skies around, you know, so you just these
incredible clouds and blue skies and and sometimes when it's
you know, really stormy, it's just like it's so dramatic
that you may societs look even better, you know, like,
(16:01):
oh my god, is a huge sign, but the clouds
behind it are also insane, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Yeah, and I've found that here in Houston because we
were talking before we started recording about the the the
memorial we should have for all the old Houston signs
like Guidos and the Indian Chief and I think the
Tiki Hid and all those other ones that are just
gone now. But everyone swhile like the Admiral Motel old sign.
(16:31):
It is probably one of the throwbacks to back in
the day. Beautiful kink neon, Love that neon. But ever
once in a while you'll get those skies in the background.
And there's a lot more trees in Houston than stay
up in like in the Dallas, like going out to
Childers and Amarillo. But when the I love taking pictures
at night when it's cloudy, because yeah, go ahead about
(16:55):
about that before I went exeloquent.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
I have some some friends that, you know, they're very
very particular about their the lighting, and so they get
so into it that they have they have you know,
they're actually a lot of stars students where they have
their you know, the app that tells you exactly how
the sun is going to be in a specific time
of year, and and then a time of day and
everything so you plane your trip around exactly when the
(17:21):
sun's going to hit. Something doesn't have to be aside
to be anything the way you wanted to hit, and
I I think that's pretty cool. I'm more of the
school of just taking it when you're there because you
can't really, I can't really plan on that, but it
is fascinating how the different times of day make everything
look a lot different. Like one of my favorites is
is a is a sunset right when the neon comes on?
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Wow, so it's not super dark. You know, it's interesting.
I noticed it, uh that when a sign is just neon,
which I love. I love to see them lit and working.
But you know, just in terms of Instagram and stuff like,
you don't to get as much a reaction from from
from just then on it, which is I'm not really
sure why that is, but I love I love just
(18:07):
saying them lit, and I love it when it has
some light. I'm actually less of a fan when it's
in full, full bright sunlight. But it's also cool to
see the glass and you know the way it's constructed.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
And I know there's some guys out there that do that.
I know three year Rabbit takes a lot of daytime
photos and there there is a place for that, especially
seeing the wear and the tear and the artistry. And
you don't necessarily get to see that as much at
night unless you have like a like my Google pixel,
I could take pretty decent nighttime photos. You still see
(18:41):
details of the signs that everybody has that or maybe
not have the patience to deal with all the settings.
And you know, park the car on the side of
the road it's four in the morning, and you try
to make sure your surroundings are safe and and things
like that. But there's a beauty to uh during the day.
(19:02):
And there's one guy that takes pictures of Austin signs
of night. It's uh nea was it neon nights Austin. Uh.
He goes out, he takes pictures of just the neon
and it's fantastic. I love it. I don't know if
it gets as much pop as some other stuff, but
it's really it's the visuals are just especially the negative
(19:26):
space of the black is amazing.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
M Yeah, yeah, I mean I do like, I do
like seeing how the I always get sort of curious
with with sign people that restore signs because there's a
whole different you know, this this sort of way they
sort of pursue it. But it's, you know, one of
the things that makes you sound so interesting. It's just
the way that the paint has, the way that they're painted,
(19:48):
and the way that the pain is decayed over time.
And and so I'm always i'd sort of like on
the fence about whether a sign should be like stripped
clean and completely painted, or it's it should just be
like brought up a little bit so it's not so
it's still functioning or whatever. I don't know. I mean,
they look great either way. But you know, sometimes when
I it's it's weird, like I find when I when
the signs brand new, I'm much less interested in it.
(20:10):
And also I want to sign this in a museum,
I'm much I mean much less interested. I'm glad it's preserved,
but I do like to see the signs where they
you know, where they originally were.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
And then you have someone like Lisa Tennant Art who
does watercolor painting of Neon signs, like hyper realistic watercolor. Uh.
And she found this one that was just rotted out.
There was a family of pigeons living in there, and
if you go to her page. Uh, I think she
did the painting probably about five ten years ago, somewhere
(20:43):
around there. And the detail that she has makes you
feel like you're there because I think the sign's gone.
It's long gone now it's in Florida, or was in Florida.
But like you're saying with the patina now the it's
one of those things like I want them both to
happen simultaneously. We'll see the quantum realm where you could
(21:04):
have both the brand new and the old and still
enjoyed the two because there's a beauty and rust yeah,
that I never thought about.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Also in the way that the colors, you know, you
get this, it's not a flat color. It has so
much texture and so much quality to the different colors.
Unless it's like an enamel sign, then you get you know,
the way the sun beats down on or if it
starts rusting through or whatever. And it's just that'sassinating. It's
also fascinating because those those are those are you know,
(21:38):
now everything's plastic, so it ages different.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Wow, And that'll bring us to the inniverse. Second segment.
This show goes by so fast. I'm just warned. Yeah, Alexis.
It goes by so fast. And when we come back,
we'll talk about some of the Lexus's travels around the world,
especially to Mexico City, London. I'll just say France. Let's
just say France is kind of a blanket statement. You're
(22:04):
listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders.
Glad you're with us. We have Macaronicon with us. Alexis.
Go and find him on Instagram and you know, follow him.
Like his stuff. He's probably one of the few people
(22:24):
that has way more pictures than I do. I'm pushing
eighty seven hundred. He has thirteen thousand so on, and
they're all great stuff. It's it's really great, so especially
documenting stuff from around the country and around the world.
Now I am so jealous. I'm so happy that you
were able to get the Las Vegas Billiards American Pool
(22:45):
Hall there in London. I think it was it has
that you know that Squashy Jackson him in bond.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
At oh So waterfell Bon. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just
went there and I uh lucked out to find that
that little section of London, and I guess, but there's
a bunch of really cool signs, and I guess London
they have started preserving those signs, so I think a
lot of them are restored and everything. But it's a
(23:13):
that's a really cool area and lots of really good theaters.
They're great, great architecture. I mean London has where England
has tons of amazing deco theaters and Victorian theaters and stuff,
and a lot of fire and horrible shapes. So get them,
why you can't.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yeah, and especially the Agatha Christie what was it? Oh yeah,
the mouse trap, so yeah, amazing. They made a neot
sign just for that.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. I think they do that the
Olympic can in Paris as well. Okay, although those may
be led. I'm not sure, but they may. I think
they probably used to be a neon, but yeah, they
would have like, yeah, you make a neon sign for
the production. I guess because it's around for months or
even years or even years. Yeah, yeah, amazing. I remember
(24:01):
the Winter Garden Theater in New York had cats for
I don't know, it was like fourteen years or how
it was, and that sign for the Winter Garden Theater
was amazing. I don't know if it's still there.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Wasn't it was there like a battle between Cats and
Phantom of the Opera for being the longest running Broadway shows.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I will not yeah, I would not be surprised.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Oh my heavens. But yeah, just looking through your like
the bar Italia, the Ray Raymond Review Bar, or was
that in New York City? No, that's solo. Yeah, Ruby
Ruby Ruby, soho sorry I can't sing very well. But also, Harris,
(24:46):
I like you've shown different neon signs that range from
was a Lake Cafe Levant down to mayde Casino in
was it Bordeaux? Just the range of neon in France
is amazing.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yes, yeah, yeah, there's uh yeah, I always feel really
lucky to find anything in a lot of those towns
because there's just not much left. Yeah, but yeah, I
found some really great stuff in Bordeaux, and I found uh,
I mean, there's all these these sort of interesting, really
(25:26):
fancy restaurants that had a lot of neon on them.
Paris has that as well. Uh yeah, it's just it's
really really cool.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
One of the great things about being so obsessed with
sciences and architecture is that when I travel, it really
gives me something to look for. So so it's you know,
any any town that some person would think that it's
like the worst town of the world, for me, could
be the best town in the world because there's just
some fascinating layers of history in these towns. I just
(25:56):
went to this town and you know, American squares. But
she's been document she documents a lot of Pennsylvania and
socially stuff like that. But she had a whole bunch
of McKeesport photos and all all my friends. I got
to go to mckysport. It looks insane, and I just
(26:16):
went there and it is just a wreck of a town.
It's it's really, I mean, and if you look at
anything on YouTube and see what that town was like,
it was amazing town. It was like the third most
prominent town in Pennsylvania or something like that. It was
a really, really bustling town. And there's just not much
(26:36):
of it left. And I'm glad I I just went there,
and I'm glad I got there. You know. It's just
I don't know how much longer anything will be there.
I mean, it's they're just tearing everything down because it's
just all it's just all either burning down or crumbling
and it's you know, it's just really hard to maintain
that stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
And that's in the Pittsburgh area, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
It's a it's basically a suburb of Pittsburgh. It's about
a half an hour from Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
What was in about Oh, go ahead, Well.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I'm just gonna say there's a ton of towns like
that because of you know, and I mean just being
into the rust belt. Yeah, there is tons of towns
that were really really you know, doing a lot of
business in the forties and fifties and sixties that are
now that are not doing so well now. And there's
a lot of stuff there.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Like Gary, Indiana. This is the one that comes to
mind first.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Gary is a wild town. Yeah, yeah, now wild.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
What's so interesting about Mckethsport is back in the whenies,
thirties and forties, maybe even fifties all you know, Yeah,
the Pittsburgh Steelers was were huge, but he also had
all these Sandlot League teams and Mckeysport had a couple
of them that were pretty strong. And it's just so
(27:51):
I got like hyper focused the ADHD hyper focus on
like the Sandlot Leagues of Pittsburgh and just the history
of those teams just I would find it, go to
like newspapers, dot commerceome like that. You'd looked up old
papers to see if you could find like the way
(28:13):
that their old uniforms will look, and I try to
recreate them for like modern times. You had these teams
like the Mystics. I forget the one that was in McKeesport,
but there's another one where I don't they're either all
the question marks or they didn't know the name of
the team. Something put question mark in there, and it's
(28:36):
just some really cool stuff from the area. Now and
your travels around Europe, what was the Your Barcelona signs
are amazing? I remember seeing somebody went to Porto and
Portugal and they found some really cool signs there.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
What was the oh, go ahead, there's an amazing theater
in Porto that Oh yeah, that just had incredible neon
sign I don't know, it's been restored, so yeah, cool.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Good. What was the one place that surprised you with
the neon? Uh? Even if you say Paris, that's a
perfectly credible answer.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
You know, I would say, well, I saw some really
cool neon. Actually there's a whole collective and I want
to go meet these people. But in Poland, because yes,
a lot of really cool Neon and Poland. But uh
it uh, you know, the stuff that I've found has
(29:41):
mostly I think been in the US. That I will say,
like when I went to Wildwood, I was like, at
some point, I was like, I just have to lead.
There's just too much here. It's like wearing me out. No,
it's there's just so much on Wildwood. Although I think
I think they're having some issues with a lot of
that stuff. Just as well. Wildwood's amazing, and La is amazing,
(30:03):
and Texas is great. Oklahoma is amazing.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Yes, like Oklahoma City, I need to spend a week
in Oklahoma City. Chickachhet Falsa, she's Norman not so much. Uh,
might need to do a deeper dive into my mom's
home town. But like Oklahoma City, I.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Spend it just amazing. Yeah, just find so much modernist
architecture that they continue to tear down. Wow. But yeah,
that's uh, that is a great one.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Now Mexico City, Uh, we'll route out this segment your round.
Some really cool theaters and architecture, old Neon that used
to be there. How magical was it to find that
in Mexico City.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
That that theater. I found the I mean, the the
Opera Cine Opera is mind blowing. And then the Cinny Orchion,
the Tiatro or is incredible too, and they're empty. The
Glorion was restored but now it's been empty for I
(31:20):
don't know, maybe like fifteen years something. But the the
the opera one is like I mean, and that's the
crazy thing about these theaters. It's, I mean, they're amazing,
but they they're really a heyday to Mexico's uh, film industry,
which is really you know, doing great in in the
fifties and forties and stuff like that. But they're also
(31:45):
you know, four thousand capacity theaters. They are huge, so
they're they're hard to I think they're hard to fill,
you know.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
L A has like a ton of theaters too, and
it's I mean, it's tricky. You people will go to
the movies that much, so it's it's just really hard
to figure out what to do with these spaces. A
lot of them turning into churches. Yeah, and four thousand
capacity theaters is very big, you.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Know exactly uh we will Yeah, Like Oklahoma City has
tons of like theater, like two theaters on the same
street type stuff. Yeah, all around the town like Yale
Theater and the Oklahoma Opry and stuff like that. And
that'll bring us to the end of our bird segment.
(32:31):
When we come back, we'll get into Alexis's bucket lists
places other than any other thing he wants to plug.
You're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International
(32:54):
sign Finders. We've been having a great conversation with Alexis
and cy Go and find a Macaronic on the socials Instagram.
Are you on any other social platform as well?
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Not really, I don't on Facebook, but not I don't
really do find stuff. It's just Instagram. Instagram has been
a real, uh, you know, kicker for for just posting stuff.
It's you know, it's a it's just it keeps me
posting because usually what I do is I take a
thousand photos and they just sit on a hard drive somewhere.
(33:26):
So it gives me a little incentive to do something
with them.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah, oh, most definitely. Yeah, So we've been talking about,
you know, you're going around to Europe, to Mexico City,
you're talking about going down to Australia now on your
bucket list of places to go. What do you have left?
You've talked about Poland. Uh, I was talking to Todd
(33:49):
and Corky out of Denver, and Todd has Hungarian heritage.
You talked about in the seventies, Uh, maybe eighties there
was kind of like this like imfusion of Americanism into
you know, those two Eastern Bloc countries, and so there's
a ton of neon that went up. I don't know
how much how much of it is still lit, but
(34:13):
you know, right there in Poland and Hungary you had
kind of a little American corner of the Eastern Bloc.
Where's the place that Where else would you like to go?
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Well, I'd love to go to Cuba. Yeah, A bunch
of friends have been been there a few times. Love
to get down there and see that. America still has
a lot of stuff I need to go see. And
in Chicago I've been to, but it's just that's a
whole huge expedition, but a lot of stuff up and up,
and you know, I don't know what's in North South
(34:46):
Dakota or in Montana. I think there's a lot of
stuff in Idaho, yes, but I'd also like to go
to let's see, I mean I went to ben to Greece.
Uh yeah, places like well, hungry, Hungry, and and uh
and Austria probably would be interesting to go sort of.
(35:08):
I mean all there, every stuff is everywhere, you know,
and a lot of times it's one sign and I'm
knowing there's like no other sign, there's just one sign.
So a big trip to go on to see one thing.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
You know, if if it's good enough, why not, you know?
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Yeah, you know, Vancouver and Toronto used to have a
ton of really good stuff. So I'd like to go
back to Vancouver and see see some see if I
can dig up anything and there's still some stuff there.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Yeah. Amazon, Uh, the Amazon's headquarters has taking a lot
of Vancouver signage there in Vancouver. Du but yeah, I
remember looking that up when I was talking with miss
Matador out of Toronto. Oh yeah, her dad lives in BC.
I think in Surrey. She'll she'll correct me if I'm wrong.
(35:55):
But yeah, Amazon has done a lot to preserve a
lot of those old signs. And Edmonton, Edmonton has a
Neon sign museum. Uh yeah, you would think that's but
freaking cold. Yeah, Edmonton. When you're talking about Idaho, Montana's
got a lot like you and a.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Conda ye Billings even up.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
In like Kallis Bell on the north side of the
Blackhead Reservation. Uh, there's some really cool stuff from understand.
Uh Rapid City, South Dakota. They're downtown has been revitalized
and there's a lot of cool there. Their Elks Theater
is amazing.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Who's Toy there's two of them. Uh they have a
big owl on both of them. But whose Toys has
some cool stuff? And also Pocatella, Idaho. Uh yeah, they
and uh, I forget the uh the gentleman's name, but
he's kind of taken under his belt to kind of
(37:01):
go and you know, revitalize all that amazing neon that's there.
Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City's got a ton of
stuff too, and I'm and I wish I could have
gotten it all in one afternoon. Just can't. There's too much.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Yes, I want to do a loop going up from
up to Salt Lake City back down through Nevada because
there's stuff Eli and uh sparks and you know Reno
and Reno is amazing.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Battle Mountains.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
I don't know if it's been a Bell Mountain. Is
that near Reno.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Uh, it's south of wood Amucca.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Okay, it was called the.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Armpit of America for a while, but at the Washington Post.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, perfect for silence, had some place to go, right.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's not the ar pit, but yet
like Eli and Wells and yeah, I've got friends that
you know, either work in the area or live in
the area. So and I've also got friends like Idaho Falls.
There's still stuff left in Idaho Falls. Not as much
as that you too, but there's still some pretty cool stuff. Wyoming.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yeah, Wyoming has they're too great thugs. And I've only
been to guests to Jackson Hall and then have been
oh gosh, yeah, I was taking pictures of signs back then.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
So Jackson Hole, oh my gosh. Yeah. Going through there
at night is the rest of my bar. Oh yeah,
the million dollar Cowboy Bar is amazing to see that
lit up at night. Like my family was all asleep
and we were coming, you know, down through Yellowstone and
(38:34):
Grand Teton and we got there at Jackson I was stopping,
like every ten seconds, I was stopping to take I.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Hope you have a very patient family, most of them
just like I'll just go do it by myself since
it's so annoying.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah, well they were asleep, so patient by proxy. Right, Yeah,
So we're coming up to the end of the show.
Is there anything that you'd like to play? Anybody want
to give a shout out to this time? Is yours? Uh?
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Nothing, I need to plug. I am friends with all
the people in the group called Signs United, so I
courage it. But he's into interested in this stuff, uh,
to see it, to join them, and sometimes they go
on trips or you know that. Actually this Neon Speaks
is coming up in a couple of weeks. That's always
something very fun to check out. If anybody wants to.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
See that, I need to get up to San Francisco too.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
And then of course anything Charles Fanox does, it's pretty fun.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Oh my gosh. He's come to Houston once as a
guy that restores cars in Austin. I can't remember his name.
He's gonna kill me probably. I don't know if he
listens to the show, but he and he restores like
these old life fifties and sixties and seventies cars, and
so they were going right down West Teimer, right by
the Leopard Lounge, which is probably one of the coolest
(39:57):
retro looking like a tom you know that atomic you know,
space age looking sign. It looks like No, it's in Houston.
They do have one in Austin Leopard Lounge. But uh,
the guy came over, met Charles Phoenix and they drove
around Houston. But of any place in the world I
(40:21):
could see that being in is Arco, Idaho, because Marco's
got a little bit of neon. It's a town of
maybe five hundred people. Uh and uh. It was the
first town that was ever powered by one hundred percent
atomic energy. So it's in the middle of nowhere with
what status any Idaho?
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Idaho? Okay, yeah, because there's a I forget where it is.
But I found this sign that was a it's a
nuclear uh uh neon sign from the.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
I think that's it so amazing.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Yeah, I thought it was like in snata By.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yeah, I'll dig around. I know, oh old Hotel Science.
Pam has gotten it. She's gotten up to Arco. Okay,
you have to get lost in order to find Arcos.
It's on its way to craters of the Moon if
you're heading out that way. But yeah, anything else you'd
(41:20):
like to give a shout out too before we get out.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Now that's it link.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Yeah, well, thank you so much for being a part
of the show, Alexis. It goes my so fast. You're
welcome and go and follow him at Macaronic on Instagram.
Like I said, I'll have links to how you can
get in contact with him on the show notes. But
as I say every week, get out there, hit the pavement,
(41:45):
have fun. We don't care if you have a one
follower or one hundred and fifty million followers. Get out there,
take those sign photos and share with the rest of us.
We want to see him too. Until next time, happy
sign finding
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