January 24, 2025 • 23 mins
Mario Fiammenghi joins the podcast and we do things a bit differently this go 'round. I hope you enjoy this way of presentation and let me know how you feel about it.
You can follow Mario at his Instagram Page.
You can follow Mario at his Instagram Page.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Welcome everybody to another edition of the International sign Finders.
I'm your host, you Rabernathy. Glad you're back with us,
and this week we're going to do things a little
bit different. Things have been crazy lately. I'll just give
you kind of an update of my life. Over Christmas.
I did have a great interview with the Real Text
in the Real TXN. She was amazing, gave me a
(00:36):
great interview. We talked about some little heres and theres
and didn't even get to talk about everything I wanted to.
That's okay, That's what a podcast does. And especially when
you're interviewing and going back and forth and you're kind
of feeding off for each other's energy. Sometimes you follow
the script. Sometimes you go off onto dirt roads. Sometimes
you go off into the gravel where there's no road,
(00:57):
and you talk about some pretty interesting things. Especially when
she was talking about, you know, taking the kind of
the road less travel, the everyman stop. I said, to
go into the touristy traps. She goes to the the
more ally way, the everyman stop. You know, the locals
are there, lovely people, and she gets to go out
(01:19):
and see him, and I still I still want to
see I wish I could have seen up close the
trailers full of model T Fords that she talks about,
two hundred and twelve model te's. This one lady was
selling of her husband's. That is insane, and I wonder
what Henry Ford would say about something like that. Well,
(01:44):
here's a little bit of update about me. I am
now full time employed overnights. I start working at eight
in the evening, get off at four in the morning,
so it's gonna be a little bit harder for me
to interview people. We may have to reduce the podcast
down to once a month just because of a working
be homework in school work. I'm in my final semester.
(02:05):
I gotta get my homework done. I've got some homework
right now. I've got gotta get it done. And right
now I was planning on possibly having an interviews this week,
another interview this week, to kind of, you know, stack
them up, so if I do fall behind a week,
I have one in my back pocket to say, hey,
(02:26):
I can have something out, some content out for you
to enjoy. We've had an ice storm here, a snowstorm
slash ice storm here in Houston, so I've been a
working overnights as usual. That's what I do now and
b been staying in a hotel because we get we're
kind of on call twenty four hours a day. The
(02:47):
station I work at is the one that sends at
the EAS signal. We're also the weather channel type of
thing on the AM dial. When it all hits the fan,
like with hurricanes, especially hurricanes, we're like the number one
stop for hurricanes on the radio dial. Whenever we do that,
we go in to twenty four hour coverage mode then.
(03:09):
So I've been on call there, had to stay close by,
and I live about thirty minutes away from the station.
So yeah, it's kind of crazy. So school, work, life,
it all hits you sometimes all at once. And hopefully
we can still continue on with the podcast. I want
to still continue on. I enjoy doing I enjoy talking
(03:30):
to everybody out there. So if you want to be
a part of the podcast, let me know and we
will make it happen. We'll do it any which way
we can, and that's the way. What how we're doing
it this week. Our guests this week goes by the
name of Baba Go Underscore exp His name is Mario Flemini.
Hopefully I'm pronouncing that right, Mario. I apologize if I
(03:53):
am not pronouncing that right, you can always correct me.
He's in Italy and we just figured to be a
lot easier for me to send him some questions and
he can answer him over email. And maybe this is
a different way that we can do the podcast for
people who don't feel as comfortable being on having their
voices heard, or they don't feel comfortably and interviewed, maybe
(04:15):
we can. Somebody suggests this in the past and like,
AS's a podcast, you know it's meant to be heard,
but guess what, you're still hearing this. If there's an
email back and forth, maybe Instagram message conversation and I
can convert that into a into an audio format. Maybe
(04:36):
we can do this and continue on content for the
show when I'm unable to, you know, break out the
microphone and Instagram voice and we could talk back and forth.
Maybe this is a good alternate so we could keep
content flowing. Now, if you go over to Babba Goo's
Instagram page, he's got some amazing stuff. Holy cow, I'm
(04:57):
just gonna scroll through a little bit and you'll see
this on the Instagram reel, especially the one that stood
out to me just almost immediately. I didn't scroll down
very far. I mean, you've got the classic one from Portland,
the Palms Motor Hotel, amazing, and I think the one
that is a homage to that one here in Houston
might be taken down, which sucks. But two after that
(05:20):
is what's called the Viking Motel. Now, you thing, you know,
looking at this, it's just got simple rectangles with some
rounded or not rounded diamonds, but some diamonds. But that's
the cool thing about. It's got a really cool vintage
retro midcentury modern script on top, and the motel. He's
(05:40):
got some really good stuff on his page, so head
on over there. I mean, he's got the the Roberts
Motors oldsmobile with the rocket shooting off k exp he's
got hymns, he's got that bad I think that's in Waco.
He's got that bad boy up there. I mean, I
mean bun and Barrel out of San Antonio. He's been
all over the country free, you know, and I'm glad
(06:02):
that we're able to at least present him to you
in this way so you will hear some of his words,
even though it's it's me repeating them. But also b
it's an introduction for you to get on over to
his Instagram page and check it out because it's awesome.
So first off, I asked him the basic question, who
(06:24):
are you and what got you into taking photos of science,
and he responding, you know, Mario Flamenji, I'm an Italian photographer.
The first American science I photographed were in nineteen eighty one,
so he's been doing this for a little while back.
You know, the old school film right on the strips,
you know, take it to you know, you have those
(06:46):
little like kiosk in the middle of a parking lot
and you would take it to and have it developed there.
I've never had them in the towns that I lived in.
I lived some tiny towns though, so we would have
to go to like the little roses. Yeah, if you're
from the South, you know what roses is. It's like
the alternative to Walmart at one point, or Aims or
(07:08):
TGMY or something like that, and you have us in
off or sometimes you send it off in the mail
and have that taken care of. And the follow up
I had to the first question was do you remember
the place or the sign that made you want to
take more photos? He says, sure, I was in Las
Vegas and the colors of the neon signs were a
real revelation for me. I have a beautiful memory of
(07:28):
Fremont Street, and I jealousy preserve the shots I took
on slides. Now, if you've ever sat through a slide
show when you were younger, or for those of you
who are a little bit older, the slides. But I
remember as a kid breaking out my dad's slides from
when he was a Vietnam and seeing all the cool like,
you know, the gunship trucks and the neat paintings that
(07:49):
were painted on the sides of those And for him
to take these photos, take them from strip to slide,
that is great, and especially I love the way, he says,
I jealously preserve the shots I took on slides. There's
a poetry and what he said and how he said
(08:11):
it there. Then I asked after that, where do you
primarily go out to take photos of science? He says,
in the USA. I have a few shots taken in Europe.
There's some nice on science if you want to look
for them, but they are not as charming as the
American ones. I don't have experience over in Europe. I've
seen this was cool ones in Europe. I know in
(08:32):
Portugal are quite a few. Heck, London, I want to
see the Las Vegas one there in London. I think
the Las Vegas Arcade or Las Vegas Billiards. It's one
on my bucket list. And also, oh who was it? Mark?
My chronic he got some really cool ones in Paris.
(08:52):
But you know, just for a little bit, I know
of things. He's right, there's some really cool ones here
in the States. And I then asked him after that,
so what type of equipment do you use to take photos?
And he said I started shooting on slide film that
I switched to digital, currently using a Canon six D.
I responded, have you taken any recent trips where you
(09:14):
went out to take photos of signs as a side
trip or have you taken trips for the sole purpose
of taking photos of signs? He responded that my first
trips to the USA date back to the eighties. I
returned to America after a long time in twenty thirteen,
then return again in twenty sixteen, twenty eighteen, and twenty
twenty two, and my last trip dates back to May
(09:35):
of twenty twenty four, so last year he was here
in the States. The first trips were mostly with the
intent of visiting the fabulous American parks. Oh man, I
really I need to get back out west to visit
those parks. And there's a really cool ones on the
East coast. Don't get me wrong, but there's just something
about being in those like Bryce Canyon in Utah and
(09:59):
of course Yellowstone the og right there so or one
of the ogs. So I just love those parks. And
also when you go there, there are people from all
over the world, China, Japan, Russia. I think there was
like a Russia video vlog of this little girl that
(10:21):
the dad was photographing her around oh faithful. So there's
a charm to all the parks that brings people here.
And not only you know, in the mainland, but like
Alaska and Hawaii, people from all around the world come
to our parks. We are and I'll say for Canada,
(10:41):
I went up to Waterton and that's a gorgeous area too,
the north side, the Canadian side of Glacier. So US
Canada were blessed. We're very blessed with some beautiful open
lands that we have, some great parks and people can
go in and enjoy them from all over the world.
The first trips are mostly with the intent of visiting
(11:02):
the fabulous of American parks. The last ones just to
go hunting for signs. My main passion I travel with friends,
but I prepare the itineraries, and obviously the highly s
of the trips are the neon signs. My next question
was do you have family members who go This is
kind of going back to my UH interview with f
(11:22):
nine two five. Oh no, not again. When you decide
to stop and take photos of signs, he responded, sure,
my wife. The last trips since twenty sixteen onwards, I
have only done with friends to whom I have passed
on my passion. Good on you, Bobag, good on you, mate.
I have passed on my passion for signs. And sometimes
(11:42):
when we are traveling around America, they're the ones who
say to me, have you seen that one? Why don't
we stop and take a picture. You got the bug?
You infected them with the bug, Mario, that's amazing. My
next question was what are your tips to help people
take better photos? Nothing in particular. I recommend taking photos
(12:05):
in raw and I do this myself, and I agree
with what he's about to say today. You could do
it even with smartphones. When I come back for my travels,
I am myself. I arm myself. Sorry, I need to
learn how to read. I arm myself with a lot
of patience and get to work. Almost all the photos
I post on social media have been digitally processed. My
goal is to try to do justice to the beauty
(12:26):
of the signs as much as possible. Me too, Mario,
I do that too, because with raw you could play
with the settings. Because with JPEG you can do that,
but you don't have the freedom as you do with raw.
Raw you're able to get in there, you know, roller
for sleeves, get to work and make those photos sing.
All right. That will end our first segment of International
(12:48):
sign Finders this week. So tell me how do you
like this formatt Is this a good alternate when things
get a little bit hectic and you still want content
and we can get or we can keep the ball rolling,
keep things flowing so you don't have to wait as long.
Let me know you're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome
(13:24):
back to International sign Finders. Glad you're still with us.
I'm your host, Drew Abernathy, and we're doing a I'm
reading the conversation I had with Baba Go Mario go
and find him on Instagram, Instagram, dot com, front slash
Babba Go b A b A g O Underscore e XP.
Mario has got a lot of great stuff out there.
(13:47):
And also we're just talking about how he likes to
take photos in raw, especially with digital cameras, because there's
raw if I remember from my classes correctly, when you
it's not just like raw, but you know, like red
and all the other like, oh, I forget the other
one besides red, besides red giant, the red and red giant.
(14:10):
Like digital photos, you have all that light information and yeah,
even with like the red stuff, it looks a little
bit flat, but don't fear there's still something there. And
you can use your tools of Photoshop after effects was
a premiere Pro or Da Vinci or whatever you use,
(14:34):
play with the raw and be able to tease out
what those signs or what was in your memory of
those signs. So in a way, it's kind of like
sharing that memory of way you saw it. Yet with
the JPEG or the p ANDNG, it's it might be
a one to one representation. With raw, you're still trying
(14:56):
to get that one to one representation, but it's like
you're taking that memory from out of your brain and
you're playing with it on your computer and you're able
to fiddle with all the different knobs and whistles and
bells and things like that and share with people directly
(15:18):
what you saw. You know, perceptions reality. Sometimes your perception
of a sign is gonna be a little bit different
than others. And then you always have pink. I love
pink and I hate at the same time. That is
one of the hardest I think I talked with dv
ever Dt about this. Pink is one of the hardest
colors to get right for me. Other people might like,
(15:39):
you know, oh, they're twitter with a little bit good me,
it's not. I gotta get it pink. I am very personnikity.
Let's just use the word persnickety about it. Yeah, I've
got to get it just right. So let's get back
into the conversation. Where's some places you you would love
(16:00):
to visit for the first time or even return a
visit to take photos of. This is my bucket list question.
I probably should have said bucket list. But eh, there's
another way to phrase it a little more professional. I
guess you could say I like calling a bucket list.
Maybe I'm I'm following the zeitgeist. You know, Hey, everybody
(16:20):
else calls a bucket list. When do I continue in?
So after me bloviating about that, let's get to what
Mario says. I've been to the USA eight times. I
missed the whole southeastern part of the United States, so
he's wanted to go to the southeast. The best photos
I took were in the Western States, and I have
to agree with him there. I know western parts of
(16:44):
North Carolina have stuff, but I really don't remember much
neon in eastern North Carolina. Plus, I haven't traveled all
over eastern North Carolina like I should have. I've only
been to Newburn a couple times. Don't remember a whole
lot of it. Just I've been to Newburn. I've been
to Wilmington, just stun you and see Wilmington's campus. Didn't
get to go out and see the rest of Wilmington.
(17:04):
So you know what, maybe I'm missing a whole lot
there in the eastern part of the state. So I'll
like go that I need to get to the get
back home, get back to North Carolina. South Well, geez, Spartanburg.
I need to get back to Spartanburg. I missed a
lot of stuff in Spartanburg. So I guess that's me
kind of riffing off of what Mario was saying here.
(17:25):
I would like to return to the urban area of
Los Angeles. I miss He's missed several signs. But I
have to hurry because when a return many have been
removed to go to museums or bought by some collector.
He's right, He's so right. I know my conversations with
Deborah Jane, we will sometimes talk about, you know, a
(17:46):
sign that we both admired or somebody of that, and
she'll let me know, hey, that's in the collection. Now
come and luckily here in Houston and the Houston area
up in Berkshire, where's a Brookshire? If it was eastern
North Carolina, i'd be Berkshire. I'm sure of it. You
have HEMMI hideout. I still need to get out to
(18:07):
hemmy hideout cramp. My trips are always friantic. Yes, I
hear that I arrive on site, I shoot and run away.
I have to manage to take as many signs as possible. Unfortunately,
time is always short. Amen, brother, Amen, It's like when
I talk about you know, you got to plan for driving,
(18:27):
You got to plan for parking or maybe playing for
a runaway get away, a drive by shot. But you
also have to plan for the awe factor there especially
I talk about coming up to the tower theater there
in Oklahoma City. The awe of that thing. That thing's
two stories tall. Uh for for my Oklahoma City folks.
(18:52):
Heck Reese rees funk go follow him? He does all
the highways sixty six stuff. He would know about this, Reese,
how tall is the tower? I'm too lazy right now,
I'm at work. I'm trying to get stuff done. Right. Yeah. So,
like he says, my trips are always friendtick. I arrive
(19:14):
on site, I shoot and run away. I have to
manage to take as many signs as possible. Unfortunately, time
is always short. I have a list a mile long
from both Salt Lake City to Oklahoma City, and I
probably got to fourth of them both. And here's our
final question. Where can people go to follow you on
social media websites, et cetera? He says, the best place
(19:35):
is Instagram at Bobbago underscore exp. That's b A B
A g O Underscore Exp. I also have a Facebook
profile where the stories and photos I post on Instagram
are replicated. My dream is to print a book with
my memories and Bobbago I will I hope, I hope
to have the privilege of buying that book from my
(20:01):
dream is at a book with my memories. I have
had two exhibitions in America, one of Panoma and one
in Glendale at Mona, the Museum of Neon Art, together
with other song photographers. I was the only Italian Italian
photographer there. That's a big thing. I get no, no,
I think that is a big thing. You had an exhibition.
(20:24):
How amazing is that? Maybe that's something I need to
shoot for is an exhibition. It's just printing the photos
to and also getting frames for them. But you know,
we can always work that stuff out. Maybe one of
these days if there's somebody in Houston or elsewhere that
wants to uh share some of my photos in an exhibition. Yeah,
(20:47):
I am writing the coattails of Mario right now. He's
got He's had two exhibitions, and that's amazing. I am
you know as the Bible says righteously coveting that. I
think the Apostle Paul says something like that, that's a
good thing. I'm not, you know, covening in the bad way.
I'm covening in that I would like to do this someday. Goals.
(21:08):
It's also called goals. So that was our interview with
Mario Fleminging. I hope I'm pronouncing your last name right, Mario.
So go and follow him on Instagram, follow his links
to Facebook. Well, I'll try to have the links up
(21:29):
so you can go and follow him on those two places.
But man, I'm glad that, you know, we were able
to make something happen. This isn't the traditional way of
doing a podcast normally. This is almost like the American
Stories way of doing stuff sometimes, where they will just
have people tell stories of people's lives. And I'm glad
that I've been able to tell the the path that
(21:52):
Mario has gone on to from you know, Italy to
the United States and all around the US, where he
has fulfilled his dreams or you know, fulfill his hobby dreams.
Let's say that's probably a better way of saying it.
I fulfilled his hobby dreams of taking pictures of great
Neon signs. So, as I say, always get out there,
(22:14):
hit the pavement, have fun, have fun, and also keep
your head on a swivel. You know what I'm talking about,
and get out take those photos, share them with us,
and man have fun doing it. Until next time, have fun, everybody.
You're listening to International Sign Finders with your host, Drew
Abernathy
Welcome everybody to another edition of the International sign Finders.
I'm your host, you Rabernathy. Glad you're back with us,
and this week we're going to do things a little
bit different. Things have been crazy lately. I'll just give
you kind of an update of my life. Over Christmas.
I did have a great interview with the Real Text
in the Real TXN. She was amazing, gave me a
(00:36):
great interview. We talked about some little heres and theres
and didn't even get to talk about everything I wanted to.
That's okay, That's what a podcast does. And especially when
you're interviewing and going back and forth and you're kind
of feeding off for each other's energy. Sometimes you follow
the script. Sometimes you go off onto dirt roads. Sometimes
you go off into the gravel where there's no road,
(00:57):
and you talk about some pretty interesting things. Especially when
she was talking about, you know, taking the kind of
the road less travel, the everyman stop. I said, to
go into the touristy traps. She goes to the the
more ally way, the everyman stop. You know, the locals
are there, lovely people, and she gets to go out
(01:19):
and see him, and I still I still want to
see I wish I could have seen up close the
trailers full of model T Fords that she talks about,
two hundred and twelve model te's. This one lady was
selling of her husband's. That is insane, and I wonder
what Henry Ford would say about something like that. Well,
(01:44):
here's a little bit of update about me. I am
now full time employed overnights. I start working at eight
in the evening, get off at four in the morning,
so it's gonna be a little bit harder for me
to interview people. We may have to reduce the podcast
down to once a month just because of a working
be homework in school work. I'm in my final semester.
(02:05):
I gotta get my homework done. I've got some homework
right now. I've got gotta get it done. And right
now I was planning on possibly having an interviews this week,
another interview this week, to kind of, you know, stack
them up, so if I do fall behind a week,
I have one in my back pocket to say, hey,
(02:26):
I can have something out, some content out for you
to enjoy. We've had an ice storm here, a snowstorm
slash ice storm here in Houston, so I've been a
working overnights as usual. That's what I do now and
b been staying in a hotel because we get we're
kind of on call twenty four hours a day. The
(02:47):
station I work at is the one that sends at
the EAS signal. We're also the weather channel type of
thing on the AM dial. When it all hits the fan,
like with hurricanes, especially hurricanes, we're like the number one
stop for hurricanes on the radio dial. Whenever we do that,
we go in to twenty four hour coverage mode then.
(03:09):
So I've been on call there, had to stay close by,
and I live about thirty minutes away from the station.
So yeah, it's kind of crazy. So school, work, life,
it all hits you sometimes all at once. And hopefully
we can still continue on with the podcast. I want
to still continue on. I enjoy doing I enjoy talking
(03:30):
to everybody out there. So if you want to be
a part of the podcast, let me know and we
will make it happen. We'll do it any which way
we can, and that's the way. What how we're doing
it this week. Our guests this week goes by the
name of Baba Go Underscore exp His name is Mario Flemini.
Hopefully I'm pronouncing that right, Mario. I apologize if I
(03:53):
am not pronouncing that right, you can always correct me.
He's in Italy and we just figured to be a
lot easier for me to send him some questions and
he can answer him over email. And maybe this is
a different way that we can do the podcast for
people who don't feel as comfortable being on having their
voices heard, or they don't feel comfortably and interviewed, maybe
(04:15):
we can. Somebody suggests this in the past and like,
AS's a podcast, you know it's meant to be heard,
but guess what, you're still hearing this. If there's an
email back and forth, maybe Instagram message conversation and I
can convert that into a into an audio format. Maybe
(04:36):
we can do this and continue on content for the
show when I'm unable to, you know, break out the
microphone and Instagram voice and we could talk back and forth.
Maybe this is a good alternate so we could keep
content flowing. Now, if you go over to Babba Goo's
Instagram page, he's got some amazing stuff. Holy cow, I'm
(04:57):
just gonna scroll through a little bit and you'll see
this on the Instagram reel, especially the one that stood
out to me just almost immediately. I didn't scroll down
very far. I mean, you've got the classic one from Portland,
the Palms Motor Hotel, amazing, and I think the one
that is a homage to that one here in Houston
might be taken down, which sucks. But two after that
(05:20):
is what's called the Viking Motel. Now, you thing, you know,
looking at this, it's just got simple rectangles with some
rounded or not rounded diamonds, but some diamonds. But that's
the cool thing about. It's got a really cool vintage
retro midcentury modern script on top, and the motel. He's
(05:40):
got some really good stuff on his page, so head
on over there. I mean, he's got the the Roberts
Motors oldsmobile with the rocket shooting off k exp he's
got hymns, he's got that bad I think that's in Waco.
He's got that bad boy up there. I mean, I
mean bun and Barrel out of San Antonio. He's been
all over the country free, you know, and I'm glad
(06:02):
that we're able to at least present him to you
in this way so you will hear some of his words,
even though it's it's me repeating them. But also b
it's an introduction for you to get on over to
his Instagram page and check it out because it's awesome.
So first off, I asked him the basic question, who
(06:24):
are you and what got you into taking photos of science,
and he responding, you know, Mario Flamenji, I'm an Italian photographer.
The first American science I photographed were in nineteen eighty one,
so he's been doing this for a little while back.
You know, the old school film right on the strips,
you know, take it to you know, you have those
(06:46):
little like kiosk in the middle of a parking lot
and you would take it to and have it developed there.
I've never had them in the towns that I lived in.
I lived some tiny towns though, so we would have
to go to like the little roses. Yeah, if you're
from the South, you know what roses is. It's like
the alternative to Walmart at one point, or Aims or
(07:08):
TGMY or something like that, and you have us in
off or sometimes you send it off in the mail
and have that taken care of. And the follow up
I had to the first question was do you remember
the place or the sign that made you want to
take more photos? He says, sure, I was in Las
Vegas and the colors of the neon signs were a
real revelation for me. I have a beautiful memory of
(07:28):
Fremont Street, and I jealousy preserve the shots I took
on slides. Now, if you've ever sat through a slide
show when you were younger, or for those of you
who are a little bit older, the slides. But I
remember as a kid breaking out my dad's slides from
when he was a Vietnam and seeing all the cool like,
you know, the gunship trucks and the neat paintings that
(07:49):
were painted on the sides of those And for him
to take these photos, take them from strip to slide,
that is great, and especially I love the way, he says,
I jealously preserve the shots I took on slides. There's
a poetry and what he said and how he said
(08:11):
it there. Then I asked after that, where do you
primarily go out to take photos of science? He says,
in the USA. I have a few shots taken in Europe.
There's some nice on science if you want to look
for them, but they are not as charming as the
American ones. I don't have experience over in Europe. I've
seen this was cool ones in Europe. I know in
(08:32):
Portugal are quite a few. Heck, London, I want to
see the Las Vegas one there in London. I think
the Las Vegas Arcade or Las Vegas Billiards. It's one
on my bucket list. And also, oh who was it? Mark?
My chronic he got some really cool ones in Paris.
(08:52):
But you know, just for a little bit, I know
of things. He's right, there's some really cool ones here
in the States. And I then asked him after that,
so what type of equipment do you use to take photos?
And he said I started shooting on slide film that
I switched to digital, currently using a Canon six D.
I responded, have you taken any recent trips where you
(09:14):
went out to take photos of signs as a side
trip or have you taken trips for the sole purpose
of taking photos of signs? He responded that my first
trips to the USA date back to the eighties. I
returned to America after a long time in twenty thirteen,
then return again in twenty sixteen, twenty eighteen, and twenty
twenty two, and my last trip dates back to May
(09:35):
of twenty twenty four, so last year he was here
in the States. The first trips were mostly with the
intent of visiting the fabulous American parks. Oh man, I
really I need to get back out west to visit
those parks. And there's a really cool ones on the
East coast. Don't get me wrong, but there's just something
about being in those like Bryce Canyon in Utah and
(09:59):
of course Yellowstone the og right there so or one
of the ogs. So I just love those parks. And
also when you go there, there are people from all
over the world, China, Japan, Russia. I think there was
like a Russia video vlog of this little girl that
(10:21):
the dad was photographing her around oh faithful. So there's
a charm to all the parks that brings people here.
And not only you know, in the mainland, but like
Alaska and Hawaii, people from all around the world come
to our parks. We are and I'll say for Canada,
(10:41):
I went up to Waterton and that's a gorgeous area too,
the north side, the Canadian side of Glacier. So US
Canada were blessed. We're very blessed with some beautiful open
lands that we have, some great parks and people can
go in and enjoy them from all over the world.
The first trips are mostly with the intent of visiting
(11:02):
the fabulous of American parks. The last ones just to
go hunting for signs. My main passion I travel with friends,
but I prepare the itineraries, and obviously the highly s
of the trips are the neon signs. My next question
was do you have family members who go This is
kind of going back to my UH interview with f
(11:22):
nine two five. Oh no, not again. When you decide
to stop and take photos of signs, he responded, sure,
my wife. The last trips since twenty sixteen onwards, I
have only done with friends to whom I have passed
on my passion. Good on you, Bobag, good on you, mate.
I have passed on my passion for signs. And sometimes
(11:42):
when we are traveling around America, they're the ones who
say to me, have you seen that one? Why don't
we stop and take a picture. You got the bug?
You infected them with the bug, Mario, that's amazing. My
next question was what are your tips to help people
take better photos? Nothing in particular. I recommend taking photos
(12:05):
in raw and I do this myself, and I agree
with what he's about to say today. You could do
it even with smartphones. When I come back for my travels,
I am myself. I arm myself. Sorry, I need to
learn how to read. I arm myself with a lot
of patience and get to work. Almost all the photos
I post on social media have been digitally processed. My
goal is to try to do justice to the beauty
(12:26):
of the signs as much as possible. Me too, Mario,
I do that too, because with raw you could play
with the settings. Because with JPEG you can do that,
but you don't have the freedom as you do with raw.
Raw you're able to get in there, you know, roller
for sleeves, get to work and make those photos sing.
All right. That will end our first segment of International
(12:48):
sign Finders this week. So tell me how do you
like this formatt Is this a good alternate when things
get a little bit hectic and you still want content
and we can get or we can keep the ball rolling,
keep things flowing so you don't have to wait as long.
Let me know you're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome
(13:24):
back to International sign Finders. Glad you're still with us.
I'm your host, Drew Abernathy, and we're doing a I'm
reading the conversation I had with Baba Go Mario go
and find him on Instagram, Instagram, dot com, front slash
Babba Go b A b A g O Underscore e XP.
Mario has got a lot of great stuff out there.
(13:47):
And also we're just talking about how he likes to
take photos in raw, especially with digital cameras, because there's
raw if I remember from my classes correctly, when you
it's not just like raw, but you know, like red
and all the other like, oh, I forget the other
one besides red, besides red giant, the red and red giant.
(14:10):
Like digital photos, you have all that light information and yeah,
even with like the red stuff, it looks a little
bit flat, but don't fear there's still something there. And
you can use your tools of Photoshop after effects was
a premiere Pro or Da Vinci or whatever you use,
(14:34):
play with the raw and be able to tease out
what those signs or what was in your memory of
those signs. So in a way, it's kind of like
sharing that memory of way you saw it. Yet with
the JPEG or the p ANDNG, it's it might be
a one to one representation. With raw, you're still trying
(14:56):
to get that one to one representation, but it's like
you're taking that memory from out of your brain and
you're playing with it on your computer and you're able
to fiddle with all the different knobs and whistles and
bells and things like that and share with people directly
(15:18):
what you saw. You know, perceptions reality. Sometimes your perception
of a sign is gonna be a little bit different
than others. And then you always have pink. I love
pink and I hate at the same time. That is
one of the hardest I think I talked with dv
ever Dt about this. Pink is one of the hardest
colors to get right for me. Other people might like,
(15:39):
you know, oh, they're twitter with a little bit good me,
it's not. I gotta get it pink. I am very personnikity.
Let's just use the word persnickety about it. Yeah, I've
got to get it just right. So let's get back
into the conversation. Where's some places you you would love
(16:00):
to visit for the first time or even return a
visit to take photos of. This is my bucket list question.
I probably should have said bucket list. But eh, there's
another way to phrase it a little more professional. I
guess you could say I like calling a bucket list.
Maybe I'm I'm following the zeitgeist. You know, Hey, everybody
(16:20):
else calls a bucket list. When do I continue in?
So after me bloviating about that, let's get to what
Mario says. I've been to the USA eight times. I
missed the whole southeastern part of the United States, so
he's wanted to go to the southeast. The best photos
I took were in the Western States, and I have
to agree with him there. I know western parts of
(16:44):
North Carolina have stuff, but I really don't remember much
neon in eastern North Carolina. Plus, I haven't traveled all
over eastern North Carolina like I should have. I've only
been to Newburn a couple times. Don't remember a whole
lot of it. Just I've been to Newburn. I've been
to Wilmington, just stun you and see Wilmington's campus. Didn't
get to go out and see the rest of Wilmington.
(17:04):
So you know what, maybe I'm missing a whole lot
there in the eastern part of the state. So I'll
like go that I need to get to the get
back home, get back to North Carolina. South Well, geez, Spartanburg.
I need to get back to Spartanburg. I missed a
lot of stuff in Spartanburg. So I guess that's me
kind of riffing off of what Mario was saying here.
(17:25):
I would like to return to the urban area of
Los Angeles. I miss He's missed several signs. But I
have to hurry because when a return many have been
removed to go to museums or bought by some collector.
He's right, He's so right. I know my conversations with
Deborah Jane, we will sometimes talk about, you know, a
(17:46):
sign that we both admired or somebody of that, and
she'll let me know, hey, that's in the collection. Now
come and luckily here in Houston and the Houston area
up in Berkshire, where's a Brookshire? If it was eastern
North Carolina, i'd be Berkshire. I'm sure of it. You
have HEMMI hideout. I still need to get out to
(18:07):
hemmy hideout cramp. My trips are always friantic. Yes, I
hear that I arrive on site, I shoot and run away.
I have to manage to take as many signs as possible. Unfortunately,
time is always short. Amen, brother, Amen, It's like when
I talk about you know, you got to plan for driving,
(18:27):
You got to plan for parking or maybe playing for
a runaway get away, a drive by shot. But you
also have to plan for the awe factor there especially
I talk about coming up to the tower theater there
in Oklahoma City. The awe of that thing. That thing's
two stories tall. Uh for for my Oklahoma City folks.
(18:52):
Heck Reese rees funk go follow him? He does all
the highways sixty six stuff. He would know about this, Reese,
how tall is the tower? I'm too lazy right now,
I'm at work. I'm trying to get stuff done. Right. Yeah. So,
like he says, my trips are always friendtick. I arrive
(19:14):
on site, I shoot and run away. I have to
manage to take as many signs as possible. Unfortunately, time
is always short. I have a list a mile long
from both Salt Lake City to Oklahoma City, and I
probably got to fourth of them both. And here's our
final question. Where can people go to follow you on
social media websites, et cetera? He says, the best place
(19:35):
is Instagram at Bobbago underscore exp. That's b A B
A g O Underscore Exp. I also have a Facebook
profile where the stories and photos I post on Instagram
are replicated. My dream is to print a book with
my memories and Bobbago I will I hope, I hope
to have the privilege of buying that book from my
(20:01):
dream is at a book with my memories. I have
had two exhibitions in America, one of Panoma and one
in Glendale at Mona, the Museum of Neon Art, together
with other song photographers. I was the only Italian Italian
photographer there. That's a big thing. I get no, no,
I think that is a big thing. You had an exhibition.
(20:24):
How amazing is that? Maybe that's something I need to
shoot for is an exhibition. It's just printing the photos
to and also getting frames for them. But you know,
we can always work that stuff out. Maybe one of
these days if there's somebody in Houston or elsewhere that
wants to uh share some of my photos in an exhibition. Yeah,
(20:47):
I am writing the coattails of Mario right now. He's
got He's had two exhibitions, and that's amazing. I am
you know as the Bible says righteously coveting that. I
think the Apostle Paul says something like that, that's a
good thing. I'm not, you know, covening in the bad way.
I'm covening in that I would like to do this someday. Goals.
(21:08):
It's also called goals. So that was our interview with
Mario Fleminging. I hope I'm pronouncing your last name right, Mario.
So go and follow him on Instagram, follow his links
to Facebook. Well, I'll try to have the links up
(21:29):
so you can go and follow him on those two places.
But man, I'm glad that, you know, we were able
to make something happen. This isn't the traditional way of
doing a podcast normally. This is almost like the American
Stories way of doing stuff sometimes, where they will just
have people tell stories of people's lives. And I'm glad
that I've been able to tell the the path that
(21:52):
Mario has gone on to from you know, Italy to
the United States and all around the US, where he
has fulfilled his dreams or you know, fulfill his hobby dreams.
Let's say that's probably a better way of saying it.
I fulfilled his hobby dreams of taking pictures of great
Neon signs. So, as I say, always get out there,
(22:14):
hit the pavement, have fun, have fun, and also keep
your head on a swivel. You know what I'm talking about,
and get out take those photos, share them with us,
and man have fun doing it. Until next time, have fun, everybody.
You're listening to International Sign Finders with your host, Drew
Abernathy
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