February 20, 2025 • 56 mins
Alex, neonnightaustin, joins the show and we talk about his love of Austin Neon, especially at night. I go off into some dirt roads, talk about Big Red the Western Kentucky Hilltopper (forget his name, sorry Big Red), the New Braunfels Unicorns, and we share some stories of being out and about hunting neon signs.
You can follow Alex on Instagram here.
You can follow Alex on Instagram here.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome everybody to another that's right, another episode of International Signfinders.
It has been a minute since we have done anything
with the podcast. Let's put it this way. I've been
busier than a one legged dog with fleetings lately. School.
I'm now full time at the radio station. So I
(00:34):
just just doing this right now is a feat of
modern engineering. I mean, the the Civil Engineering Corps deserves
a lot of credit for helping me get to this point.
Now they don't not really know. But tonight we've got
another fellow preacher of the Night on we have uh
(00:54):
meon Austin Knights. Is that is that your Instagram handle, Alex?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I believe it's on Night Austin. But to be fair,
I always forget because the first like thirty names that
I tried to pick, we're already taken by Instagram.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
It's all dr so neon Austin Nights. That's right, uh
neon Night Austin. I ask you, you tell me. I forget.
I've had I've had thirty minutes sleep in the past
like twelve hours, so oh wow, Yeah, it's gonna be
a good one. It's gonna be a good one to night.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
So uh happens I'm that baby here.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Heck, yeah, I'm glad that you're here, and you're very
correct me in the first two minutes of the show.
That's awesome and no is Yeah. So tell us a
little bit about yourself, Alex.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, I I grew up here in Austin, and I've
been uh, I guess I've been here all my life
and I always like traveling, but nowhere else feels quite
like home. So it's yeah, it's good be here.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Now, you've seen Austin grow from being a separate city
to basically join the San Antonio runners. From what I understand,
that gap between San Antonio and Austin is now just
one solid urban area now, isn't it? Or suburban slash urban.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
That gets talked about a lot. But I do think
that's a little bit exaggerated. I think Austin feels plenty
distinct from everything else. It's true that all of the
small towns in between, like San Marcos and New bron
Folds and Kyle and everything else, those have all grown
(02:39):
a lot, and a lot of people have moved there
to escape some of the high prices of real estate
and things like that. So those are definitely expanding and
maybe maybe it will feel more like one place in
(03:01):
another fifty years or something, but probably not.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
But you always have to recognize New brons Fells. Their
their high school mascot is the Unicorn. It's the unicorn. Yeah,
And I looked because I used to be really big
into high school mascots, like unique high school mascots, Like
(03:28):
when I was in Idaho, you had the Shelley Russetts
with the Idaho Potatoes, and I was kind of looking
throughout h throughout like you have like the Happy Cowboys
in Texas, and what of them was the new bronx
Fells Unicorns And I was kind of looking into him.
And they are proud of that moniker. So you know,
(03:51):
enough about them. We gotta get back to Austin.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
So you know, I don't have there's a high school
that has a mascot called the maroon as just a
big maroon colored blob man.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
That is what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I don't even know what that is, but it's a thing.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Well. Uh, and then you have like the Harvard Crimson,
you have the Crimson Tide, the Green Wave of Twu Lane.
So it's not out of the ordinary, but it is.
It is weird, especially since they're they have like the
like the I don't know if you're familiar with Western Kentucky. Uh,
(04:33):
they're the Hilltoppers. But they have this big red blob called,
oh the Topper, uh what they call him? I forget
what what his nickname is, but he's like one of
the best mascots in all of college sports. He's hilarious.
I I haven't heard of that yet. Yeah, it's uh,
I'm weird like that. I am extremely weird like that.
(04:56):
So now that you know, we we've finally have kind
of touch base and we're talking finally over the internets,
the ones and zeros. What was the first sign that
got you into taking pictures of especially neon at night
because neon is a night time well mostly a night
(05:18):
time medium. I mean there's some places that have their
neon burning during the day and I love that. That
is like the like the you know, the essence of
excess in a way. But what what got you into
this into doing it at night?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Well, I guess my earliest memories are when I was
growing up as kid, there was a a sign for
the Nighthawk, which was sort of a mini chain of
restaurants that were I guess they started possibly in the
(05:57):
nineteen thirties and was maybe the first place that was
open laid into the night when Austin was really small
and most places closed by ten if not earlier than that.
And so the Night Hawk was this, uh, this really
interesting kind of panty. I don't know if it was
(06:21):
a steakhouse or a diner or something, but it had
this amazing sign of like a a hawk with a
couple of frames of animation where you know, the wings
would flab though every time, you know, I passed that
as a kid in the car, I'd always you stare
out the windows and it was like my favorite thing
(06:42):
to see out the windows was that kind.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Of like your your your signaled at your home type
of thing.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
It it wasn't too close to home, Uh, it was
just you know, something I'd see when we're out doing
errands or whatever. And so it was always just very
attention grabbing, especially with the animation. Then everything it I
(07:10):
found it endless look fascinating, so.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
And that there's there's a beauty to animated neon just
it's like uh, Dean's uh beans Downtown hearing in Houston.
For the longest time, I didn't think it was animated,
really cool like old school like art neco slash early
(07:35):
midsign tree modern Neon signed there on the side of
a wall of Bean Dean's thrift clothing or Beans loans,
whatever it is. It was always static and then one
night I go by there and it is animated. It's
not one of those like accidental animated type of things,
(07:55):
you know, it's like it's burning out. It's burning out,
so it's it's anime that way. No, it was like
the Star Wars coming out that Deans is going into
is moving. And I don't know what the status of
that Neon sign is right now because I'm not there
during business hours to see it. But when I saw that,
(08:19):
I made sure to take another couple of loops around.
I'm sure that the homeless people were kind of like.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
What's that guy too, I've been there before that.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Oh yeah, Nick, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
There used to be a really cool one in Well.
It was actually another small chain probably from around the
sixties called Genie car Wash, which also had places in Waco,
and I don't quite know the history, but it had
some some great signs with basically a Genie coming out
(08:58):
of an Aladdin's Slamp kind of thing, and that I
never saw animated until probably last year when since all
of the locations eventually closed got bought out by another chain,
(09:20):
some of the signs got snapped up by a place
called sign Bar that's kind of on the outskirts of town.
It's got kind of a big outdoor place with where
they've collected a huge ton of signs from all around
Austin in you know, the last ten years or something
(09:41):
like that, and they have a kind of an amazing collection.
But they've slowly been restoring a bunch of old Neon
signs and one of them was the Genie car wash
and the amazing apparently had it animated for the first
time that I've ever seen, and then it was kind
(10:01):
of interesting to see kind of like the smoke rings
and then the Genie appears in sequence, and that was
really interesting night. I don't know if they added animation
since they were restoring everything from scratch, or if if
animation was something that never got turned on while I
(10:24):
was around previously.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Hey either or glad it's back. So that'll be the
end of our first segment here of International sign Finders.
We have Neon Night Austin. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Good, I finally got it. So have I Austin Alex
with this, and after we come back with the break,
we're gonna talk about Austin, the City of Austin and
the neon that is there, both the old like the
Austin Hotel and the new Holy Cow. Just what is
a Congress Street? Just just drive down it. You'll get
(10:58):
your pill of neon in one setting. You're listening to
International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders. Glad
(11:23):
you're still with us. We have Alex Neon Knight Austin,
and hopefully I will get that down pat before the
end of the night. I accidentally said that Heather David,
she does uh San Jose uh Senators of California, and
I said that her her handle didn't flow off the
(11:44):
tongue very well. And I felt so bad to say,
I don't want to say that about yours. Alex.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
No worries. It's uh. It's hard to find a handle
that's not taking on his ye down there, A goofy
a goofy me.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
I decided to add underscores because I didn't know if
there was a huge how many people were doing Houston
kind to find out. It's like me and two other
people who've actually done Houston neon, and I've been the
one that's taking it to the craziest end possible.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
But I appreciate that that's a It's always fun seeing
the things you've posted. And I had no idea that
Houston has so much neon until I saw all of
your work.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Well thanks, and that that is a project of being
pissed off. It's I tell people because you know, when
I first came kind of got into neon and Googi.
From the most unlikely sources is a blog called uni
Watch for uniforms. This guy wrote a blog about, you know,
(12:53):
aesthetics in uniform design, you know, like why did the
Bengals decide to go to the awful looking uniform there
in the two thousands, twenty tens to early twenty twenties
when they had such a great one there in the nineties,
And why do the Dallas Cowboys have two different colored pants?
Speaker 2 (13:14):
You know?
Speaker 1 (13:15):
He goes into thefts like that, like weird stuff. You
would think, Eh, is this chow? It's freaking Jerry Jones.
He doesn't know how to run a team to save
his life. You know, uh, yeah, yeah, I have issues
with Jerry Jones. So so he started writing some stuff
about you know, like neon signs and googie and I
(13:38):
was like, you know, where's this stuff in Houston at
you know, yeah, because there isn't a lot. A lot
of it was taken down because isore laws and was
isore laws back in the seventies and eighties. And also
a lot of the Houston used to be billboard city.
And then Lady Bird Johnson came along and said Nope,
(14:01):
not anymore. Uh and she had like the Highway Beautification
Acts and stuff like that that she got passed through
Lynd and B and so Houston.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
There aren't many old signs.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
I probably have counted working signs is probably five, maybe
ten skeletons of signs. I have about one hundred that
I have documented in one way or another. New signs.
There are tons of new signs loads. Yeah, so there's
been kind of a rejuvenation. Now, what about Austin, because Dallas.
(14:37):
I was talking to Dallas neon enthusiast. He said that,
you know, up there in Dallas, there's there's been kind
of this neon culture up there, whether it's old or new,
like Deep l o Man and different places like that.
Up there, You're gonna find a lot of that Neon
up there because they take pride in that. Austin there's
(14:58):
the old The one that comes to mind, and I
know it's cliche, is Austin Hotel. That's kind of like
when you think of Austin, that's like the first sign
that comes to my mind. What is it about Austin
and Neon? Is there a lot of older a lot
of new? How's it worked there?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
It seems pretty similar to how you described Houston, where Okay,
they're a handful of pretty old ones, but most of
them are probably in the last thirty years or so,
and it's been like there's been a pretty big researchence
where just while I've been taking photographs in the last
(15:40):
few years, there are kind of tons of new ones
every single year, and so there are some old ones.
It seems like a lot of the old ones are
probably rebuilt over time. I'm not too clear on the history,
but the places like matt cell Rancho, I know that
(16:07):
sign was damaged and got rebuilt probably in the nineteen nineties,
I believe, and that was the restaurants from the nineteen fifties.
I don't know when the sign was originally from, but
the newer sign I believe is from the nineteen nineties now, okay,
(16:30):
And there's El Patios also, a pretty fainest one.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
So you guys have an L Patios too, because we've
got a really cool our. L Patios has a really
cool neon sign. I've heard that the food's okay, but
they've got a good case. So but that's somebody. Well
you're on what is.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
What is yours? Like? Because I think ours a large
sombrero and where is.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Ours is a large green bird with Elpatio in like
big block letters, kind of like slanted oblique as technical
term oblique red letters and stuff like that. Yeah, that
sounds very interesting. It sounds probably unrelated. El Patio is.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
At least the one here in Austin is it's kind
of a single place near the university, and I believe
it's also pretty old, like possibly the nineteen fifties or sixties,
and it's been family run, I think the old time,
(17:43):
and it was more recently taken over by the younger
generations and they've been tried to expanded in the terms
of bottling their salsa and making the tortilla chips available
(18:03):
in HGB.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
So so they're they're marketing, trying to trying to build
the brand more than just being a good place to
eat near the university.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yes, good accident. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
The only one that we have that's kind of a
sombrero is so Rita's Ta Korea, and it is my
favorite sign in Houston, or one of my favorite signs
in Houston. Normally, would people would say their favorite sign,
they would put that as the number one signed in
their city. And I have to be objective about that,
and that would be acne Oyster Bar, our Deco Neon.
(18:40):
That just it's the old El Real Theater, well Old
Real to the Leator which became the l Real Mexican
Restaurant which is now acme Oyster Bar. And there has
to be a mile of Neon tubes. And I'm not
exaggerating on that place.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
That's so spectacular. I'd love to see that.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah, I've got I've been really lazy, like not lazy.
I've been so exhausted that I've got a whole bunch
of pictures in the queue that I need to update
and get out there because I like taking pictures in
raw and then going into photoshop and use the camera
raw filter. I know, yeah, I'm using filters, but I'm
(19:22):
trying to get it back to the original book because
rock gets all the light data and puts it in.
And you probably know this. I'm I'm preaching to the choir.
I'm sorry, Alice.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I think I'm probably way more amateur than you. So
i haven't use a lot of technical skills or photoshops.
So to hear about your process, well, just think.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Of it as the blind leading the blind of this situation. Well,
it's a lot bigger it's a lot bigger file, of course.
So I'll take it, you know, take it from my phone,
put it on my you know, my my laptop, and
I'll play with the camera raw filters to try and
(20:13):
get it back to what my memory has it of
the sign that I've I've looked at. Yeah, so when
you look at the picture, you know, some people love
to take a picture and not touch it up at all.
I think Sign Peeper, Old Motel Signs, Pam does that.
There are a few others and I love that for them. Yeah,
(20:34):
Debor Jane may do that too. She may touch them
up a little bit as well. But but for me,
I want you to see the memory, if that makes sense.
I want to share the memory with you. And maybe
that's just too artsy, fartsy way of saying. I'm trying
to get it to the original look. So I'll play
with it, and yeah, I'll try to get in camera,
(20:57):
and I also save it in P and G because
a PEG's a good photo, but PNG's a higher quality.
Uh yeah, it's bigger, but it's a higher quality photo.
And then I'll upload it to Instagram, which just craps
on the photo anyway.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
That's true. I've noted that I always save my name
pnga also and then yeah, the aload HEASANTU sometimes disappointed
leap poor quality.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Oh, I hate it because you're like, man, I did
all this amazing. It took me like ten minutes to
get this photo just right because A it's pink neon,
because pink neon. I love it and I hate it,
and it's pain in my existence.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I think purpose the worst for me. It's uh, it's
very difficult to make it show up the way I
see it with my eyes.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Oh, we have one place here called petty Cash. Amazing
is it uses the uh that lavender purple neon trim.
It goes around the building and it goes into petty cash,
goes back around the building. You full purple neon. Yeah,
and I bring it onto my computer. I'm like, what
(22:06):
I did take this picture?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Oh man? Uh so uh that'll be the end of
our second segment when we come back. I'm asking you
about some of your favorite signs in Austin, because I've
probably gone on a little bit about Houston. I'm sorry,
this is we're talking about Austin.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
No, yeah, I've enjoining the Houston bar two.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Oh yeah, it's oh man. I And like I said earlier,
a boy being pissed off, It's like I was so
bound to determined. This is how adhd I am. Right now.
I'm bringing back an old conversation. I was so bound
to determined to take pictures of Neon and Houston that
I figured out I found a map of all eighty
(22:52):
eight super neighborhoods of Houston, because Houston's huge, It's enormous.
Yeah and yeah, and I have been to all eighty eight.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
And if somebody wants to check me on this, I'll
let him go ahead. Have fun. Check all eighty eight
hundred of my pictures. You will find out I've been
to all eighty eight of the super neighborhoods. But when
we come back, we're going to talk to Alex Neon
Night Austin about what are his sly his favorite signs
in Austin, and also the magic of Conger Street because
(23:28):
just you know, doing a Google Street search during the day,
there's some pretty cool signs on Congress during the day,
and the way he takes them at night, it's magical.
You're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International Signfinders.
(24:02):
Glad you're with us. We have Neon Knight Austin. Alex
with us. He's in the house. Go and follow him
on Instagram is Instagram, dot conference slash Neon Night Austin.
Are you anyplace else in the social world? Just Instagram
for now. Okay, so they didn't You didn't make it
over the Flicker either, No.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
I just started about I don't know, probably about three
years ago. Yeah. Yeah. It was just kind of a
goofy hobby and it sort of expanded from there and
I found myself, you know, going out at nice to
try and take pictures and add more content and it's
(24:46):
uh and by now I've ended up with I don't know,
almost a thousand different signs. That's what I'm talking about
taking pictures of and it's it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
And when you talk about the thousand pictures, you have
caught the pictures in a way that is awesome because
you're welcome. Oh man, I love it when yours pops
up on my feed because you know, if you're doing
like a composition, because I do photoshop compositions a lot,
(25:23):
and I'll use some of my neon signs and there
are times where you know when you're getting the blend
modes just right to put it up on the wall.
Sometimes you'll have to mask out, you know, parts of
the sign, but you just you capture the neon mostly,
if not only, in your photos. Is there a technique,
(25:45):
a method to your madness of doing that or is
it just you know, just going into photoshop, you know,
adjusting some levels of making it happen or am I
answering your question for you?
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Well, there are a couple parts of that. It I
think like the first like a year that I was
taking pictures, I wasn't so great at it, and It
took me a while to figure out everything. But some
of the techniques are that if i'm it seems to
(26:19):
work better if I use particular light setting inside my
camera and my camera has a decent zoom on it.
So if I right and stand farther away from the
neon and zoom in on it, if yeah, with that, well,
(26:44):
I find that the farther away I am, the better
perspective it is. So if you're standing like directly under
a side and taking pictures of it, it's gonna be,
you know, distorted, like a square is going to look
like a trigle more or less if you're underneath it.
If you're far enough away, it keeps the straight sides,
(27:05):
you know, straight the way they're supposed to be, and
that helps a lot.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
And are you using WISELR.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
No, I've just got a sort of a compact. It's
a cannon power shots. We're probably about, I don't know,
a dozen years ago or something like that.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
It takes great pictures, man, I I like it.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
It's it's been a lot of fun and it's, uh,
it feels like each particular thing I have to figure
out how to take pictures. But the neon at least
I've got the light settings worked out pretty well and
aperture and all that and and so that mostly captures
(27:53):
just the neon itself. And let's if it's up against
the night sky, it'll just be up you're black behind it,
and that works great. Sometimes if it's more crowded, like
you know, they're street lights or things like that, I'll
go into photoshop and you know, just trim out everything
around to the side and just leave the sign itself.
(28:15):
But I find a lot of the signs, if they're
on a pole and they're up against the night sky,
they just look great the way they are and you
don't have to do any edit editing.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Here's an odd question because I was thinking esthetic wise,
I know, you just you take the pictures where the
neon's just you know, the neon is front and center.
But have you ever captured a photo where either the
clouds the moonlights come through the clouds and it's just
you know, you're like, holy crap, this is this is
(28:52):
an epic looking picture with the way that the moonlights
come through the clouds and it's framing the bringing the
neon sign or there's a moon or you have a moon.
I make it sound like we're on tattooing or something
like that. Speak that two moons or the moon is
(29:12):
just over the sign and you're like, oh my gosh,
this is magic, and you get a picture of the
sign that way.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
I've seen that with my eyes a lot, but it
doesn't really capture it with with the lights that I
got in the camera, and so I there have been
times when I've wished I could take a picture of
that that well, But it feels like at least with
the setting, musing and the very small amount of skill
(29:45):
I've got, pretty much shaking did this one way without
you know, taking pictures of the sky I mean the sky.
When I've tried to take pictures of it, use like
more automatic camera setting and s it'll sort of this
guy's pretty gray, and if I let the camera do
what it wants, it usually overexposes the neon. So I
(30:09):
more let adapt to the manual settings to make it
look the way I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
I guess that's where the pixel comes in. Pretty handy.
It takes those night time shots pretty well. The video
I'm not too thrilled with the video on the pixel.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
But.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Nighttime shots yeah, pretty good. But now let's get into Austin.
I've distracted us from the topic. So, like Congress Street,
are there other places in Austin that have great neon?
Because like up in Oklahoma City you have autobile Alli jeez,
(30:49):
of course, you know Old Highway sixty six, Northwest sixteenth
Street down to I think Southwest twenty ninth Street, going
in Bethany in places like that. Are there great places
besides or with Congress and other places that have amazing neon?
Speaker 2 (31:12):
I absolutely they're They're probably half a dozen roads that
are are pretty good for that, but they are also,
ah to be fair, they're pretty spread out.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
So one good.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Place besides South Congress. South Congress definitely has a whole
bunch in pretty concentrated strip. But another places Bardon Springs,
Okay Road has a fair number that are that are
pretty close to each other. There's a Lamar Okay. Lamar
(31:55):
is a really long road north to south and so
it has a lot on it. But they're seemingly more
spread out. So Okay, you might go, you know, blocks
without any and then there'll be a few and then
you know some more blocks. That's sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yeah, And what are some of the cool signs that
you know, if you were saying the top five that
come to your mind of signs that that people should
hit up when they come to Austin, what should they?
What are the signs that people should go hit up?
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Man, that that is the hardest question, because, like I said,
I've probably taken picture of like a thousand different signs,
and oh yeah, some of them are are really incredible.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
See I asked the hard questions on the show. You
thought that's gonna be easy, didn't you.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Well, one of my favorites is definitely Sandy's Hamburgers. It's
on Barten Springs and it has a h. I think
it's it's I think it was built in the nineteen forties.
I'm not one hundred percent sure how old the sign
itself is. It seems like a lot of the older
(33:17):
signs get rebuilt over time. I guess you're green, pale
and you know, just getting rusted.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Out and the freaking humidity.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yeah, they can't, they can't survive forever. But yeah, but
really that could be a pretty old sign. But it's
just a really classic ice cream cone with like soft
surf ice cream cone with a I think it says
it's like group you're underneath it and stuff like that.
(33:49):
So it's about as classic a sign as you can
find in and you'll find that image plenty of places too,
because it's it's well known.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
One of the the newer ones that I really love
is oh my gosh, my mind is lost. It it's
a pickleball place in East Sauston, kind of retro mascot
of like a pickle ball with it's like smiling and
(34:26):
and has has a really cool design. It's in f
One of the one of the other cool designs that
I've seen is is Preto Chicken al Carbone and it's
(34:47):
it's sort of well, it's kind of a Mexican cartoon,
uh uh, a little bit of a chicken and colorful
uh neons. So it's you know, like Pete the Blues
and stuff like that. But it's it's just a really
(35:09):
excellent design and it's They've got a couple of locations
so that that one is a lot of fun to
see and then honestly, anybody, uh who's interested in you
would have to go to the the sign bar. Yeah,
it's unfortunately kind of in the middle of nowhere. It's
(35:31):
it's the far East side, and so it's uh, it
feels like along drive when you know you're in East Austin,
you can drive here and drive me. For another it's
like five miles see in the dark. But it's uh,
it's got it an incredible collection. So they're things like
(35:54):
the h the gd car wash that I love. There's
a there, say, a large fish on a fishing pole
that's flipping its tail back and forth. There's a really
(36:14):
nice kind of a lotus flower from a Thai restaurant.
And and they're just you know, maybe dozens of random
other ones. Some of them are less interesting, just you
know text or something like that, but some of them
(36:34):
are are fascinating.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
They've also got one of one of the best ones
is basically the Nighthawk spun off a small diner called
the Frisco and it's old Hamburgers and stuff like that,
and that has a really great sign of like a
hamburger Ian one of those old style like perforate to
(37:00):
envelope kind of things. So Scott, you know, let usen
tomatoes sticking out of it, and that's klat It's really
nicely designed. So yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
So that'll end our third segment. Of International sign Finders
for this evening, and when we come back, maybe we'll
swap some crazy stories, because you know, Austin, I've heard,
you know, there's some crazy things are going up there.
You know, I've seen somebody running with their pants around
(37:34):
their ankles and I'm like, what the heck's going on
near in Houston and McGregor. But uh yeah, we'll get
into that when we come back, we'll get we'll swap
some crazy stories. You're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome
(38:06):
back to International sign Finders. Glad you're still with us.
I may put Alex on the spot. We're talking with
Neon Knight Austin. Go follow him at Instagram, dot com
ference slash Neon Night Austin. He's got a great, great
lineup of photos, so head on over to his page
and maybe one of these days that he'll have a
(38:29):
an exhibition where if you're in Austin you can go
see his stuff. One of these days. I'm not saying
it's happened anytime soon. Hopefully one of these days it'll
happen for him. That'd be awesome. Yeah, now I put
you on the spot if you had any weird stories
I'll start off one that happened recently. I have this
(38:50):
favorite little sign in East Text Jensen. It's not too
far away from my house. East Text Jensen used to
be old Highway fifty nine. You've heard of I sixty
nine fifty nine right here in Houston. So this is
the old fifty nine back in like the thirties forties.
The Granada Theater is over there, and for some I know,
(39:12):
the shopping center next to it burned down about two
years ago, three years ago, but they have the Granada,
you know, fenced off right now, and I hope, I hope,
I hope, I hope as for a restoration project. I
need to contact my people down there and East Text
Jensen to see what the heck's going on with that.
(39:32):
It's got to be one of the best signs in Houston.
It's still around. So there's this income tax place that
has been an oil change place and income tax place twice.
I don't know what it originally was. Well, it's got
this cool like mid century like graphazoid, romboyd whatever right
(39:54):
off of Jensen, and so I'm just pulling off to
the side to get a picture of it. It's broad
freaking daylight, you know, not thinking anything will happen. So
this dude's walking across the street yelling, you're taking a
picture of me, aren't you. I said, no, I'm not
taking a picture that sign. And he's getting mad. He's
(40:16):
he's covering his face with his T shirt. He's like,
stop taking a picture on me. I'm like, I'm not
taking a picture.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
He starts yelling at me, and he's getting within like
ten yards of my van. And what I should have
done just to piss him off, to know when it
is like turnative cameras that now I am heer ran.
I ran two red lights to get away from this camera.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
That's probably the best idea of somebody.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Oh oh, and you know, Houston scene is this rough place,
and I really haven't had many like running with people,
you know. Like one time I was over in Magnolia Park.
I was told not to go there by somebody who
(41:10):
uh deal dealt drugs. I still go over there because
it's got a lot of great history, beautiful old buildings
from the early twentieth century and such. And they had
this place called all Mimos Records number one, great baby
(41:31):
Blue Neon sign. So one time I pulled in there.
And because I've taken a picture of a few times.
Every time I get a new camera, I always take
a picture of the sign or whatever. So yeah, yeah,
I always do that. So there's a lot of repeats
on my page because I try to update. When I
get a better picture, I update it. So one time
(41:53):
there's somebody changing a tire and they both were looking
at me like I was funny. But and this other
time they're these two old old guys and what it
was like, I thought you were taking a picture of me.
I said, no, I was it. I said, you're too
good looking for me to take a picture of. He
(42:14):
just started laughing at me. I said, I want my
wife to look at you know, the picture, leave me
for you or something like that. He just started laughing.
But you know, those are the fun memories, uh, that
I have. I don't know, Uh, do you have any
crazy stories there in Austin or is it mainly you
go in and take the picture and leave pretty much?
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Uh, That's only happened once where I was taking pictures
to the side, like at closing time, and so they
they were probably closing up to the shopping side and
a guy came out pretty angryly.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
He was like, what do you doing.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
I'm just taking a picture of the suicide, that's all mad.
You're like, well, dere look suspicious. You can see I
would be suspicious, wouldn't you. But most of the time
nobody much cares. Yeah, I've pretty much surely got a
pretty short window a lot of time. So yes, wind
(43:15):
your work's great because you know, it gets dark around
you know, six or six thirty or something like that,
and then I've gotten till maybe ten when everything closes
and they start turning off the lights. Some places like
South Congress they leave them all later. So yeah, that's
I've got a little bit extra time. But but a
(43:36):
lot of times I just stamp maybe three hours.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
And now I do you work at night or it's
just the hobby to go out at night.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
It's just hobby and God and a night.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Sometimes you know, if I known new places opened it
they've got something worth photographing, I'll try and you know
snap it when I'm passing by, you know, depending went
on in the area. But since they're all over Austin,
I yeah, sometimes we'll just do a small section, yeah
(44:13):
that I haven't gotten to previously. And it's actually kind
of it feels peaceful at night sometimes, you know that's true. Yeah,
I like not too many people out, maybe just a
few cars on the road, and it's kind of nice
to be able to pull over and take a few
(44:33):
pictures and enjoyed the night air.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
And I've met some cool homeless people, like one guy. Uh,
he just came up to me and I was talking
with him, and I can't remember the conversation, but he
asked me the first of money. I gave it to him,
and then I went by there earlier, you know, later on.
This is like four in the morning, four thirty. I
mean the guy was built like a freight train. He
(44:59):
was like five at five and built. He was solid.
But I didn't feel threatened by him, if that makes sense.
And uh, and I came by the area later on
that day so I could take some pictures some like
old signs that are kind of dead. Yeah, and uh,
(45:19):
he was he was awake and he was picking up trash.
And I was like, you know what, that guy earned
that five bucks. He probably earned a lot more, but
he earned that five dollars. But there's one night I
was down in man Old third Ward is now the
museum district and I there's this it's like a re
(45:45):
old jumbalaya ut thing place, and they have like this
neon sign over their drive through. So I go through
and get that I'm coming through and yeah, four thirty
in the morning, and I yeah, because I get off
work at four and the ambulance guys are are filling
(46:11):
up the truck and they're yelling at this guy. If
you keep doing that, they'll arrest you. I'm like, why
in the world. And I drive by and there's this
guy with his pants around his ankles, leaning into his car,
and I don't know what's happening. I'm not I'm not
(46:31):
sticking around to find out what's happening. I'm like, you
know what, I'm not getting arrested. It's some critique, h
that is separate from the other story where I saw
somebody running across someone's yard with their you know, almost
half button naked. But yeah, but those stories, those stories
are so few and far between that, you know, I
(46:56):
get weird looks. I've had a couple of cops, you know,
stop and talk with me like what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (47:03):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Yeah, one was just curious. He was just honestly curious.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
The other one was like, as me, what did that
so far? Yeah, I guess there have been you know,
occasially holmeless people are drunk people and yeah, and you
know sometimes they're like homeless people are like yelling to
themselves and stuff like that. Yeah, I try and avoid
that as much as possible.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
I think one of the funniest things I've seen was,
you know, downtown Houston, middle of the day. I'm just
you know, driving around, just seeing what I can find.
I think I was trying to take a picture of
the little dipper bar. I didn't even know if that's
there anymore. It's a cool little sign holy Cow. So, yeah,
this is the middle of the day, and maybe I
(47:49):
expect more of people, But there's a guy walking around
a really nice high rise apartment building, walking his English
bulled worrying nothing but furry slippers and a bathrobe. I
didn't ask others anything underneath. I wasn't going to because
(48:11):
I'm like, that's your business. But I would not be
caught dead with that in the middle of chapter the day. Yeah,
they say Austin's weird. I think Houston's got a little
weirdness to itself. Too.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
It sounds like an I haven't seen that yet.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
But yeah, yes, it's crazy, but we better finish up
this segment. When we come back. We'll get it to
your bucket list. We've got about five minutes. We'll get
it to your bucket list of places that you'd like
to go. You're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back
(49:03):
to International sign Finders. Glad you're still with us. If
you're stuck with us after that last segment, you're that's
saying a lot. You're dedicated. Uh, we have Neon Night
Austin with us. Alex Glad he's still with us. He
hasn't run off yet. I haven't run him off yet.
That's sticking around alleys. Uh. So we've talked about the
(49:25):
crazy stories from Houston. Some cool signs you're you're kind
of top five signs and one is a place in
Austin of Neon. Now what are where are some of
your bucket places or what are some of your bucket
list items of signs or places you'd like to go
to to go take pictures of. It may not even
(49:47):
have to be Neon. It could be some cool classic
cars like in La the cool hand painted signs. There's
a whole book of hand painted signs in la I
keep talking about. I wish I would have bought it.
It was like forty five bucks. It looks like it
would worth the money.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
Yeah, but that is hard. Coffee table books do run
a lot, but they do. Yeah, that one sounds like
a winner. I definitely would love to. I don't know.
I I've made a few small trips and taking pictures
when I go somewhere. So I went to Germany this
(50:29):
past summer and ended up being Cologne, and they did
not have too many sons, but it was mostly texts
with interesting fonts and things like that. So I had
fun taking pictures of those. But I would definitely like
to go maybe a road trip to someplace like Nashville,
(50:52):
which had a large selection of neon sans and things
that I've seen picture sures of but would love to,
you know, go see them in person and things like that. Also,
Las Vegas has ah on steroids. Yes, well, they also
(51:15):
have their own museum. It looks like it's mostly outdoors
and it has a lot of the really old classic ones.
Uh yeah, it's you can see them and those those
would be spectacular.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
And they're they're building one up in uh, Kansas City.
I think it might be open called the Looming Neons.
I need to get in contact with those guys. The
Looming Neon Museum up in Kansas City is coming online
right now.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
That's great. I think I've seen some of their their pictures.
And there's also an American Signed museum, and I really
like that. There are the museums, and I desperately wish
we had one in Austin.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
Kind of got one there with the bar in a way,
it's it's not the same as a museum museum, but
but there we have kind of one in Houston out
in Berkshire. Uh, It's it's way out there. Uh you're
looking at thirty minutes on the other side of Houston, which, yeah,
which is like seven hours. Yeah, the traffic's bad. But
(52:31):
the HIMMI hideout. It has both signs that were natively neon.
I don't know if that's a term, but I'm going
to use that term, and ones that he turned into
neon as well.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
Okay, that sounds great. I did like that a lot. Yeah.
Also right that the sign bar does feel like I
kind of museum of itself. It's it's definitely, well, it's
not the same thing. Well, it definitely collected a few,
and I'm grateful that they rescue those and that they're
(53:09):
on public display and so that that definitely makes a
big difference to me. Yeah, but it feels like there
are more than they can handle because every year a
bunch of places open and then unfortunately a bunch of
places closed. Yeah, so it's always really disappointed to see
(53:32):
signs that you've gotten used to, that you really appreciate,
you know, seem in your commute or whatever. Yeah, you know,
disappear from the the public view.
Speaker 1 (53:45):
Like one of my favorites, Kelly, one of my favorites.
They're all my favorite in a way. At least Country Cooking,
they have this awesome, big, huge kneon signed overlooking the
Gulf Freeway forty five. Now it's plastic, the big plastic bugs.
I mean, they still kept a small neon there. At
(54:05):
their entrance. They have this huge open neon open sign,
which I've had fun animating. Yeah, but I'm just like,
I mean, you want a visual kick in the nuts.
That that is a big visual kicking the nuts, especially
the beautiful white neon with the orange apostrophe and I
(54:28):
don't know if I could say kicking the nuts, but
I just said it five times. But yeah, it's you're right,
it's it's so frustrating. But well, we better wrap things up.
We were up the at the fifty four minute mark.
Is there anybody you want to give a shout out
to in the same community before we head out?
Speaker 2 (54:52):
Not? Not really, I just I've enjoyed getting to know
a lot of people who are making the signs here.
It's been, uh, it's been a pleasure and I've I've
really enjoyed finding out that there's like so many more
signs in Austin than I ever knew. Bye, just dripping
(55:12):
around and scouring the countryside and it's it's been so
much fun. And thank you for having me. It's a
god a pleasure to talk with you.
Speaker 1 (55:24):
Yeah, glad to have you. And if you haven't figured
out where to find him at as Alex, you can
find him over at neon Night Austin. I'll have a
link to how to get in contact with him in
the show notes. When this goes out live, Well, if
you're listening to this, you know that it's out live Redundancy.
But once again, Thanks Alex for joining me here on
(55:44):
the podcast, and thanks to you for listening to the podcast.
If you have any suggestions of who I can talk to,
or maybe some sights or places to go, let me know.
Just hit me up either in the show notes or
over at International Signfinders or Houston Underscore Sign Underscore Hunting.
(56:07):
That is a mouthful, I understand. Just hit me up
there and we'll make a connection to go from there.
Until next time, Happy sign finding everybody.
Welcome everybody to another that's right, another episode of International Signfinders.
It has been a minute since we have done anything
with the podcast. Let's put it this way. I've been
busier than a one legged dog with fleetings lately. School.
I'm now full time at the radio station. So I
(00:34):
just just doing this right now is a feat of
modern engineering. I mean, the the Civil Engineering Corps deserves
a lot of credit for helping me get to this point.
Now they don't not really know. But tonight we've got
another fellow preacher of the Night on we have uh
(00:54):
meon Austin Knights. Is that is that your Instagram handle, Alex?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I believe it's on Night Austin. But to be fair,
I always forget because the first like thirty names that
I tried to pick, we're already taken by Instagram.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
It's all dr so neon Austin Nights. That's right, uh
neon Night Austin. I ask you, you tell me. I forget.
I've had I've had thirty minutes sleep in the past
like twelve hours, so oh wow, Yeah, it's gonna be
a good one. It's gonna be a good one to night.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
So uh happens I'm that baby here.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Heck, yeah, I'm glad that you're here, and you're very
correct me in the first two minutes of the show.
That's awesome and no is Yeah. So tell us a
little bit about yourself, Alex.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, I I grew up here in Austin, and I've
been uh, I guess I've been here all my life
and I always like traveling, but nowhere else feels quite
like home. So it's yeah, it's good be here.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Now, you've seen Austin grow from being a separate city
to basically join the San Antonio runners. From what I understand,
that gap between San Antonio and Austin is now just
one solid urban area now, isn't it? Or suburban slash urban.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
That gets talked about a lot. But I do think
that's a little bit exaggerated. I think Austin feels plenty
distinct from everything else. It's true that all of the
small towns in between, like San Marcos and New bron
Folds and Kyle and everything else, those have all grown
(02:39):
a lot, and a lot of people have moved there
to escape some of the high prices of real estate
and things like that. So those are definitely expanding and
maybe maybe it will feel more like one place in
(03:01):
another fifty years or something, but probably not.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
But you always have to recognize New brons Fells. Their
their high school mascot is the Unicorn. It's the unicorn. Yeah,
And I looked because I used to be really big
into high school mascots, like unique high school mascots, Like
(03:28):
when I was in Idaho, you had the Shelley Russetts
with the Idaho Potatoes, and I was kind of looking
throughout h throughout like you have like the Happy Cowboys
in Texas, and what of them was the new bronx
Fells Unicorns And I was kind of looking into him.
And they are proud of that moniker. So you know,
(03:51):
enough about them. We gotta get back to Austin.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
So you know, I don't have there's a high school
that has a mascot called the maroon as just a
big maroon colored blob man.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
That is what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I don't even know what that is, but it's a thing.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Well. Uh, and then you have like the Harvard Crimson,
you have the Crimson Tide, the Green Wave of Twu Lane.
So it's not out of the ordinary, but it is.
It is weird, especially since they're they have like the
like the I don't know if you're familiar with Western Kentucky. Uh,
(04:33):
they're the Hilltoppers. But they have this big red blob called,
oh the Topper, uh what they call him? I forget
what what his nickname is, but he's like one of
the best mascots in all of college sports. He's hilarious.
I I haven't heard of that yet. Yeah, it's uh,
I'm weird like that. I am extremely weird like that.
(04:56):
So now that you know, we we've finally have kind
of touch base and we're talking finally over the internets,
the ones and zeros. What was the first sign that
got you into taking pictures of especially neon at night
because neon is a night time well mostly a night
(05:18):
time medium. I mean there's some places that have their
neon burning during the day and I love that. That
is like the like the you know, the essence of
excess in a way. But what what got you into
this into doing it at night?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Well, I guess my earliest memories are when I was
growing up as kid, there was a a sign for
the Nighthawk, which was sort of a mini chain of
restaurants that were I guess they started possibly in the
(05:57):
nineteen thirties and was maybe the first place that was
open laid into the night when Austin was really small
and most places closed by ten if not earlier than that.
And so the Night Hawk was this, uh, this really
interesting kind of panty. I don't know if it was
(06:21):
a steakhouse or a diner or something, but it had
this amazing sign of like a a hawk with a
couple of frames of animation where you know, the wings
would flab though every time, you know, I passed that
as a kid in the car, I'd always you stare
out the windows and it was like my favorite thing
(06:42):
to see out the windows was that kind.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Of like your your your signaled at your home type
of thing.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
It it wasn't too close to home, Uh, it was
just you know, something I'd see when we're out doing
errands or whatever. And so it was always just very
attention grabbing, especially with the animation. Then everything it I
(07:10):
found it endless look fascinating, so.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
And that there's there's a beauty to animated neon just
it's like uh, Dean's uh beans Downtown hearing in Houston.
For the longest time, I didn't think it was animated,
really cool like old school like art neco slash early
(07:35):
midsign tree modern Neon signed there on the side of
a wall of Bean Dean's thrift clothing or Beans loans,
whatever it is. It was always static and then one
night I go by there and it is animated. It's
not one of those like accidental animated type of things,
(07:55):
you know, it's like it's burning out. It's burning out,
so it's it's anime that way. No, it was like
the Star Wars coming out that Deans is going into
is moving. And I don't know what the status of
that Neon sign is right now because I'm not there
during business hours to see it. But when I saw that,
(08:19):
I made sure to take another couple of loops around.
I'm sure that the homeless people were kind of like.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
What's that guy too, I've been there before that.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Oh yeah, Nick, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
There used to be a really cool one in Well.
It was actually another small chain probably from around the
sixties called Genie car Wash, which also had places in Waco,
and I don't quite know the history, but it had
some some great signs with basically a Genie coming out
(08:58):
of an Aladdin's Slamp kind of thing, and that I
never saw animated until probably last year when since all
of the locations eventually closed got bought out by another chain,
(09:20):
some of the signs got snapped up by a place
called sign Bar that's kind of on the outskirts of town.
It's got kind of a big outdoor place with where
they've collected a huge ton of signs from all around
Austin in you know, the last ten years or something
(09:41):
like that, and they have a kind of an amazing collection.
But they've slowly been restoring a bunch of old Neon
signs and one of them was the Genie car wash
and the amazing apparently had it animated for the first
time that I've ever seen, and then it was kind
(10:01):
of interesting to see kind of like the smoke rings
and then the Genie appears in sequence, and that was
really interesting night. I don't know if they added animation
since they were restoring everything from scratch, or if if
animation was something that never got turned on while I
(10:24):
was around previously.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Hey either or glad it's back. So that'll be the
end of our first segment here of International sign Finders.
We have Neon Night Austin. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Good, I finally got it. So have I Austin Alex
with this, and after we come back with the break,
we're gonna talk about Austin, the City of Austin and
the neon that is there, both the old like the
Austin Hotel and the new Holy Cow. Just what is
a Congress Street? Just just drive down it. You'll get
(10:58):
your pill of neon in one setting. You're listening to
International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders. Glad
(11:23):
you're still with us. We have Alex Neon Knight Austin,
and hopefully I will get that down pat before the
end of the night. I accidentally said that Heather David,
she does uh San Jose uh Senators of California, and
I said that her her handle didn't flow off the
(11:44):
tongue very well. And I felt so bad to say,
I don't want to say that about yours. Alex.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
No worries. It's uh. It's hard to find a handle
that's not taking on his ye down there, A goofy
a goofy me.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
I decided to add underscores because I didn't know if
there was a huge how many people were doing Houston
kind to find out. It's like me and two other
people who've actually done Houston neon, and I've been the
one that's taking it to the craziest end possible.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
But I appreciate that that's a It's always fun seeing
the things you've posted. And I had no idea that
Houston has so much neon until I saw all of
your work.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Well thanks, and that that is a project of being
pissed off. It's I tell people because you know, when
I first came kind of got into neon and Googi.
From the most unlikely sources is a blog called uni
Watch for uniforms. This guy wrote a blog about, you know,
(12:53):
aesthetics in uniform design, you know, like why did the
Bengals decide to go to the awful looking uniform there
in the two thousands, twenty tens to early twenty twenties
when they had such a great one there in the nineties,
And why do the Dallas Cowboys have two different colored pants?
Speaker 2 (13:14):
You know?
Speaker 1 (13:15):
He goes into thefts like that, like weird stuff. You
would think, Eh, is this chow? It's freaking Jerry Jones.
He doesn't know how to run a team to save
his life. You know, uh, yeah, yeah, I have issues
with Jerry Jones. So so he started writing some stuff
about you know, like neon signs and googie and I
(13:38):
was like, you know, where's this stuff in Houston at
you know, yeah, because there isn't a lot. A lot
of it was taken down because isore laws and was
isore laws back in the seventies and eighties. And also
a lot of the Houston used to be billboard city.
And then Lady Bird Johnson came along and said Nope,
(14:01):
not anymore. Uh and she had like the Highway Beautification
Acts and stuff like that that she got passed through
Lynd and B and so Houston.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
There aren't many old signs.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
I probably have counted working signs is probably five, maybe
ten skeletons of signs. I have about one hundred that
I have documented in one way or another. New signs.
There are tons of new signs loads. Yeah, so there's
been kind of a rejuvenation. Now, what about Austin, because Dallas.
(14:37):
I was talking to Dallas neon enthusiast. He said that,
you know, up there in Dallas, there's there's been kind
of this neon culture up there, whether it's old or new,
like Deep l o Man and different places like that.
Up there, You're gonna find a lot of that Neon
up there because they take pride in that. Austin there's
(14:58):
the old The one that comes to mind, and I
know it's cliche, is Austin Hotel. That's kind of like
when you think of Austin, that's like the first sign
that comes to my mind. What is it about Austin
and Neon? Is there a lot of older a lot
of new? How's it worked there?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
It seems pretty similar to how you described Houston, where Okay,
they're a handful of pretty old ones, but most of
them are probably in the last thirty years or so,
and it's been like there's been a pretty big researchence
where just while I've been taking photographs in the last
(15:40):
few years, there are kind of tons of new ones
every single year, and so there are some old ones.
It seems like a lot of the old ones are
probably rebuilt over time. I'm not too clear on the history,
but the places like matt cell Rancho, I know that
(16:07):
sign was damaged and got rebuilt probably in the nineteen nineties,
I believe, and that was the restaurants from the nineteen fifties.
I don't know when the sign was originally from, but
the newer sign I believe is from the nineteen nineties now, okay,
(16:30):
And there's El Patios also, a pretty fainest one.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
So you guys have an L Patios too, because we've
got a really cool our. L Patios has a really
cool neon sign. I've heard that the food's okay, but
they've got a good case. So but that's somebody. Well
you're on what is.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
What is yours? Like? Because I think ours a large
sombrero and where is.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Ours is a large green bird with Elpatio in like
big block letters, kind of like slanted oblique as technical
term oblique red letters and stuff like that. Yeah, that
sounds very interesting. It sounds probably unrelated. El Patio is.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
At least the one here in Austin is it's kind
of a single place near the university, and I believe
it's also pretty old, like possibly the nineteen fifties or sixties,
and it's been family run, I think the old time,
(17:43):
and it was more recently taken over by the younger
generations and they've been tried to expanded in the terms
of bottling their salsa and making the tortilla chips available
(18:03):
in HGB.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
So so they're they're marketing, trying to trying to build
the brand more than just being a good place to
eat near the university.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yes, good accident. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
The only one that we have that's kind of a
sombrero is so Rita's Ta Korea, and it is my
favorite sign in Houston, or one of my favorite signs
in Houston. Normally, would people would say their favorite sign,
they would put that as the number one signed in
their city. And I have to be objective about that,
and that would be acne Oyster Bar, our Deco Neon.
(18:40):
That just it's the old El Real Theater, well Old
Real to the Leator which became the l Real Mexican
Restaurant which is now acme Oyster Bar. And there has
to be a mile of Neon tubes. And I'm not
exaggerating on that place.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
That's so spectacular. I'd love to see that.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah, I've got I've been really lazy, like not lazy.
I've been so exhausted that I've got a whole bunch
of pictures in the queue that I need to update
and get out there because I like taking pictures in
raw and then going into photoshop and use the camera
raw filter. I know, yeah, I'm using filters, but I'm
(19:22):
trying to get it back to the original book because
rock gets all the light data and puts it in.
And you probably know this. I'm I'm preaching to the choir.
I'm sorry, Alice.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I think I'm probably way more amateur than you. So
i haven't use a lot of technical skills or photoshops.
So to hear about your process, well, just think.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Of it as the blind leading the blind of this situation. Well,
it's a lot bigger it's a lot bigger file, of course.
So I'll take it, you know, take it from my phone,
put it on my you know, my my laptop, and
I'll play with the camera raw filters to try and
(20:13):
get it back to what my memory has it of
the sign that I've I've looked at. Yeah, so when
you look at the picture, you know, some people love
to take a picture and not touch it up at all.
I think Sign Peeper, Old Motel Signs, Pam does that.
There are a few others and I love that for them. Yeah,
(20:34):
Debor Jane may do that too. She may touch them
up a little bit as well. But but for me,
I want you to see the memory, if that makes sense.
I want to share the memory with you. And maybe
that's just too artsy, fartsy way of saying. I'm trying
to get it to the original look. So I'll play
with it, and yeah, I'll try to get in camera,
(20:57):
and I also save it in P and G because
a PEG's a good photo, but PNG's a higher quality.
Uh yeah, it's bigger, but it's a higher quality photo.
And then I'll upload it to Instagram, which just craps
on the photo anyway.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
That's true. I've noted that I always save my name
pnga also and then yeah, the aload HEASANTU sometimes disappointed
leap poor quality.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Oh, I hate it because you're like, man, I did
all this amazing. It took me like ten minutes to
get this photo just right because A it's pink neon,
because pink neon. I love it and I hate it,
and it's pain in my existence.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I think purpose the worst for me. It's uh, it's
very difficult to make it show up the way I
see it with my eyes.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Oh, we have one place here called petty Cash. Amazing
is it uses the uh that lavender purple neon trim.
It goes around the building and it goes into petty cash,
goes back around the building. You full purple neon. Yeah,
and I bring it onto my computer. I'm like, what
(22:06):
I did take this picture?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Oh man? Uh so uh that'll be the end of
our second segment when we come back. I'm asking you
about some of your favorite signs in Austin, because I've
probably gone on a little bit about Houston. I'm sorry,
this is we're talking about Austin.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
No, yeah, I've enjoining the Houston bar two.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Oh yeah, it's oh man. I And like I said earlier,
a boy being pissed off, It's like I was so
bound to determined. This is how adhd I am. Right now.
I'm bringing back an old conversation. I was so bound
to determined to take pictures of Neon and Houston that
I figured out I found a map of all eighty
(22:52):
eight super neighborhoods of Houston, because Houston's huge, It's enormous.
Yeah and yeah, and I have been to all eighty eight.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
And if somebody wants to check me on this, I'll
let him go ahead. Have fun. Check all eighty eight
hundred of my pictures. You will find out I've been
to all eighty eight of the super neighborhoods. But when
we come back, we're going to talk to Alex Neon
Night Austin about what are his sly his favorite signs
in Austin, and also the magic of Conger Street because
(23:28):
just you know, doing a Google Street search during the day,
there's some pretty cool signs on Congress during the day,
and the way he takes them at night, it's magical.
You're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International Signfinders.
(24:02):
Glad you're with us. We have Neon Knight Austin. Alex
with us. He's in the house. Go and follow him
on Instagram is Instagram, dot conference slash Neon Night Austin.
Are you anyplace else in the social world? Just Instagram
for now. Okay, so they didn't You didn't make it
over the Flicker either, No.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
I just started about I don't know, probably about three
years ago. Yeah. Yeah. It was just kind of a
goofy hobby and it sort of expanded from there and
I found myself, you know, going out at nice to
try and take pictures and add more content and it's
(24:46):
uh and by now I've ended up with I don't know,
almost a thousand different signs. That's what I'm talking about
taking pictures of and it's it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
And when you talk about the thousand pictures, you have
caught the pictures in a way that is awesome because
you're welcome. Oh man, I love it when yours pops
up on my feed because you know, if you're doing
like a composition, because I do photoshop compositions a lot,
(25:23):
and I'll use some of my neon signs and there
are times where you know when you're getting the blend
modes just right to put it up on the wall.
Sometimes you'll have to mask out, you know, parts of
the sign, but you just you capture the neon mostly,
if not only, in your photos. Is there a technique,
(25:45):
a method to your madness of doing that or is
it just you know, just going into photoshop, you know,
adjusting some levels of making it happen or am I
answering your question for you?
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Well, there are a couple parts of that. It I
think like the first like a year that I was
taking pictures, I wasn't so great at it, and It
took me a while to figure out everything. But some
of the techniques are that if i'm it seems to
(26:19):
work better if I use particular light setting inside my
camera and my camera has a decent zoom on it.
So if I right and stand farther away from the
neon and zoom in on it, if yeah, with that, well,
(26:44):
I find that the farther away I am, the better
perspective it is. So if you're standing like directly under
a side and taking pictures of it, it's gonna be,
you know, distorted, like a square is going to look
like a trigle more or less if you're underneath it.
If you're far enough away, it keeps the straight sides,
(27:05):
you know, straight the way they're supposed to be, and
that helps a lot.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
And are you using WISELR.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
No, I've just got a sort of a compact. It's
a cannon power shots. We're probably about, I don't know,
a dozen years ago or something like that.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
It takes great pictures, man, I I like it.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
It's it's been a lot of fun and it's, uh,
it feels like each particular thing I have to figure
out how to take pictures. But the neon at least
I've got the light settings worked out pretty well and
aperture and all that and and so that mostly captures
(27:53):
just the neon itself. And let's if it's up against
the night sky, it'll just be up you're black behind it,
and that works great. Sometimes if it's more crowded, like
you know, they're street lights or things like that, I'll
go into photoshop and you know, just trim out everything
around to the side and just leave the sign itself.
(28:15):
But I find a lot of the signs, if they're
on a pole and they're up against the night sky,
they just look great the way they are and you
don't have to do any edit editing.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Here's an odd question because I was thinking esthetic wise,
I know, you just you take the pictures where the
neon's just you know, the neon is front and center.
But have you ever captured a photo where either the
clouds the moonlights come through the clouds and it's just
you know, you're like, holy crap, this is this is
(28:52):
an epic looking picture with the way that the moonlights
come through the clouds and it's framing the bringing the
neon sign or there's a moon or you have a moon.
I make it sound like we're on tattooing or something
like that. Speak that two moons or the moon is
(29:12):
just over the sign and you're like, oh my gosh,
this is magic, and you get a picture of the
sign that way.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
I've seen that with my eyes a lot, but it
doesn't really capture it with with the lights that I
got in the camera, and so I there have been
times when I've wished I could take a picture of
that that well, But it feels like at least with
the setting, musing and the very small amount of skill
(29:45):
I've got, pretty much shaking did this one way without
you know, taking pictures of the sky I mean the sky.
When I've tried to take pictures of it, use like
more automatic camera setting and s it'll sort of this
guy's pretty gray, and if I let the camera do
what it wants, it usually overexposes the neon. So I
(30:09):
more let adapt to the manual settings to make it
look the way I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
I guess that's where the pixel comes in. Pretty handy.
It takes those night time shots pretty well. The video
I'm not too thrilled with the video on the pixel.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
But.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Nighttime shots yeah, pretty good. But now let's get into Austin.
I've distracted us from the topic. So, like Congress Street,
are there other places in Austin that have great neon?
Because like up in Oklahoma City you have autobile Alli jeez,
(30:49):
of course, you know Old Highway sixty six, Northwest sixteenth
Street down to I think Southwest twenty ninth Street, going
in Bethany in places like that. Are there great places
besides or with Congress and other places that have amazing neon?
Speaker 2 (31:12):
I absolutely they're They're probably half a dozen roads that
are are pretty good for that, but they are also,
ah to be fair, they're pretty spread out.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
So one good.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Place besides South Congress. South Congress definitely has a whole
bunch in pretty concentrated strip. But another places Bardon Springs,
Okay Road has a fair number that are that are
pretty close to each other. There's a Lamar Okay. Lamar
(31:55):
is a really long road north to south and so
it has a lot on it. But they're seemingly more
spread out. So Okay, you might go, you know, blocks
without any and then there'll be a few and then
you know some more blocks. That's sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yeah, And what are some of the cool signs that
you know, if you were saying the top five that
come to your mind of signs that that people should
hit up when they come to Austin, what should they?
What are the signs that people should go hit up?
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Man, that that is the hardest question, because, like I said,
I've probably taken picture of like a thousand different signs,
and oh yeah, some of them are are really incredible.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
See I asked the hard questions on the show. You
thought that's gonna be easy, didn't you.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Well, one of my favorites is definitely Sandy's Hamburgers. It's
on Barten Springs and it has a h. I think
it's it's I think it was built in the nineteen forties.
I'm not one hundred percent sure how old the sign
itself is. It seems like a lot of the older
(33:17):
signs get rebuilt over time. I guess you're green, pale
and you know, just getting rusted.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Out and the freaking humidity.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yeah, they can't, they can't survive forever. But yeah, but
really that could be a pretty old sign. But it's
just a really classic ice cream cone with like soft
surf ice cream cone with a I think it says
it's like group you're underneath it and stuff like that.
(33:49):
So it's about as classic a sign as you can
find in and you'll find that image plenty of places too,
because it's it's well known.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
One of the the newer ones that I really love
is oh my gosh, my mind is lost. It it's
a pickleball place in East Sauston, kind of retro mascot
of like a pickle ball with it's like smiling and
(34:26):
and has has a really cool design. It's in f
One of the one of the other cool designs that
I've seen is is Preto Chicken al Carbone and it's
(34:47):
it's sort of well, it's kind of a Mexican cartoon,
uh uh, a little bit of a chicken and colorful
uh neons. So it's you know, like Pete the Blues
and stuff like that. But it's it's just a really
(35:09):
excellent design and it's They've got a couple of locations
so that that one is a lot of fun to
see and then honestly, anybody, uh who's interested in you
would have to go to the the sign bar. Yeah,
it's unfortunately kind of in the middle of nowhere. It's
(35:31):
it's the far East side, and so it's uh, it
feels like along drive when you know you're in East Austin,
you can drive here and drive me. For another it's
like five miles see in the dark. But it's uh,
it's got it an incredible collection. So they're things like
(35:54):
the h the gd car wash that I love. There's
a there, say, a large fish on a fishing pole
that's flipping its tail back and forth. There's a really
(36:14):
nice kind of a lotus flower from a Thai restaurant.
And and they're just you know, maybe dozens of random
other ones. Some of them are less interesting, just you
know text or something like that, but some of them
(36:34):
are are fascinating.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
They've also got one of one of the best ones
is basically the Nighthawk spun off a small diner called
the Frisco and it's old Hamburgers and stuff like that,
and that has a really great sign of like a
hamburger Ian one of those old style like perforate to
(37:00):
envelope kind of things. So Scott, you know, let usen
tomatoes sticking out of it, and that's klat It's really
nicely designed. So yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
So that'll end our third segment. Of International sign Finders
for this evening, and when we come back, maybe we'll
swap some crazy stories, because you know, Austin, I've heard,
you know, there's some crazy things are going up there.
You know, I've seen somebody running with their pants around
(37:34):
their ankles and I'm like, what the heck's going on
near in Houston and McGregor. But uh yeah, we'll get
into that when we come back, we'll get we'll swap
some crazy stories. You're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome
(38:06):
back to International sign Finders. Glad you're still with us.
I may put Alex on the spot. We're talking with
Neon Knight Austin. Go follow him at Instagram, dot com
ference slash Neon Night Austin. He's got a great, great
lineup of photos, so head on over to his page
and maybe one of these days that he'll have a
(38:29):
an exhibition where if you're in Austin you can go
see his stuff. One of these days. I'm not saying
it's happened anytime soon. Hopefully one of these days it'll
happen for him. That'd be awesome. Yeah, now I put
you on the spot if you had any weird stories
I'll start off one that happened recently. I have this
(38:50):
favorite little sign in East Text Jensen. It's not too
far away from my house. East Text Jensen used to
be old Highway fifty nine. You've heard of I sixty
nine fifty nine right here in Houston. So this is
the old fifty nine back in like the thirties forties.
The Granada Theater is over there, and for some I know,
(39:12):
the shopping center next to it burned down about two
years ago, three years ago, but they have the Granada,
you know, fenced off right now, and I hope, I hope,
I hope, I hope as for a restoration project. I
need to contact my people down there and East Text
Jensen to see what the heck's going on with that.
(39:32):
It's got to be one of the best signs in Houston.
It's still around. So there's this income tax place that
has been an oil change place and income tax place twice.
I don't know what it originally was. Well, it's got
this cool like mid century like graphazoid, romboyd whatever right
(39:54):
off of Jensen, and so I'm just pulling off to
the side to get a picture of it. It's broad
freaking daylight, you know, not thinking anything will happen. So
this dude's walking across the street yelling, you're taking a
picture of me, aren't you. I said, no, I'm not
taking a picture that sign. And he's getting mad. He's
(40:16):
he's covering his face with his T shirt. He's like,
stop taking a picture on me. I'm like, I'm not
taking a picture.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
He starts yelling at me, and he's getting within like
ten yards of my van. And what I should have
done just to piss him off, to know when it
is like turnative cameras that now I am heer ran.
I ran two red lights to get away from this camera.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
That's probably the best idea of somebody.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Oh oh, and you know, Houston scene is this rough place,
and I really haven't had many like running with people,
you know. Like one time I was over in Magnolia Park.
I was told not to go there by somebody who
(41:10):
uh deal dealt drugs. I still go over there because
it's got a lot of great history, beautiful old buildings
from the early twentieth century and such. And they had
this place called all Mimos Records number one, great baby
(41:31):
Blue Neon sign. So one time I pulled in there.
And because I've taken a picture of a few times.
Every time I get a new camera, I always take
a picture of the sign or whatever. So yeah, yeah,
I always do that. So there's a lot of repeats
on my page because I try to update. When I
get a better picture, I update it. So one time
(41:53):
there's somebody changing a tire and they both were looking
at me like I was funny. But and this other
time they're these two old old guys and what it
was like, I thought you were taking a picture of me.
I said, no, I was it. I said, you're too
good looking for me to take a picture of. He
(42:14):
just started laughing at me. I said, I want my
wife to look at you know, the picture, leave me
for you or something like that. He just started laughing.
But you know, those are the fun memories, uh, that
I have. I don't know, Uh, do you have any
crazy stories there in Austin or is it mainly you
go in and take the picture and leave pretty much?
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Uh, That's only happened once where I was taking pictures
to the side, like at closing time, and so they
they were probably closing up to the shopping side and
a guy came out pretty angryly.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
He was like, what do you doing.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
I'm just taking a picture of the suicide, that's all mad.
You're like, well, dere look suspicious. You can see I
would be suspicious, wouldn't you. But most of the time
nobody much cares. Yeah, I've pretty much surely got a
pretty short window a lot of time. So yes, wind
(43:15):
your work's great because you know, it gets dark around
you know, six or six thirty or something like that,
and then I've gotten till maybe ten when everything closes
and they start turning off the lights. Some places like
South Congress they leave them all later. So yeah, that's
I've got a little bit extra time. But but a
(43:36):
lot of times I just stamp maybe three hours.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
And now I do you work at night or it's
just the hobby to go out at night.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
It's just hobby and God and a night.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Sometimes you know, if I known new places opened it
they've got something worth photographing, I'll try and you know
snap it when I'm passing by, you know, depending went
on in the area. But since they're all over Austin,
I yeah, sometimes we'll just do a small section, yeah
(44:13):
that I haven't gotten to previously. And it's actually kind
of it feels peaceful at night sometimes, you know that's true. Yeah,
I like not too many people out, maybe just a
few cars on the road, and it's kind of nice
to be able to pull over and take a few
(44:33):
pictures and enjoyed the night air.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
And I've met some cool homeless people, like one guy. Uh,
he just came up to me and I was talking
with him, and I can't remember the conversation, but he
asked me the first of money. I gave it to him,
and then I went by there earlier, you know, later on.
This is like four in the morning, four thirty. I
mean the guy was built like a freight train. He
(44:59):
was like five at five and built. He was solid.
But I didn't feel threatened by him, if that makes sense.
And uh, and I came by the area later on
that day so I could take some pictures some like
old signs that are kind of dead. Yeah, and uh,
(45:19):
he was he was awake and he was picking up trash.
And I was like, you know what, that guy earned
that five bucks. He probably earned a lot more, but
he earned that five dollars. But there's one night I
was down in man Old third Ward is now the
museum district and I there's this it's like a re
(45:45):
old jumbalaya ut thing place, and they have like this
neon sign over their drive through. So I go through
and get that I'm coming through and yeah, four thirty
in the morning, and I yeah, because I get off
work at four and the ambulance guys are are filling
(46:11):
up the truck and they're yelling at this guy. If
you keep doing that, they'll arrest you. I'm like, why
in the world. And I drive by and there's this
guy with his pants around his ankles, leaning into his car,
and I don't know what's happening. I'm not I'm not
(46:31):
sticking around to find out what's happening. I'm like, you
know what, I'm not getting arrested. It's some critique, h
that is separate from the other story where I saw
somebody running across someone's yard with their you know, almost
half button naked. But yeah, but those stories, those stories
are so few and far between that, you know, I
(46:56):
get weird looks. I've had a couple of cops, you know,
stop and talk with me like what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (47:03):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Yeah, one was just curious. He was just honestly curious.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
The other one was like, as me, what did that
so far? Yeah, I guess there have been you know,
occasially holmeless people are drunk people and yeah, and you
know sometimes they're like homeless people are like yelling to
themselves and stuff like that. Yeah, I try and avoid
that as much as possible.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
I think one of the funniest things I've seen was,
you know, downtown Houston, middle of the day. I'm just
you know, driving around, just seeing what I can find.
I think I was trying to take a picture of
the little dipper bar. I didn't even know if that's
there anymore. It's a cool little sign holy Cow. So, yeah,
this is the middle of the day, and maybe I
(47:49):
expect more of people, But there's a guy walking around
a really nice high rise apartment building, walking his English
bulled worrying nothing but furry slippers and a bathrobe. I
didn't ask others anything underneath. I wasn't going to because
(48:11):
I'm like, that's your business. But I would not be
caught dead with that in the middle of chapter the day. Yeah,
they say Austin's weird. I think Houston's got a little
weirdness to itself. Too.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
It sounds like an I haven't seen that yet.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
But yeah, yes, it's crazy, but we better finish up
this segment. When we come back. We'll get it to
your bucket list. We've got about five minutes. We'll get
it to your bucket list of places that you'd like
to go. You're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back
(49:03):
to International sign Finders. Glad you're still with us. If
you're stuck with us after that last segment, you're that's
saying a lot. You're dedicated. Uh, we have Neon Night
Austin with us. Alex Glad he's still with us. He
hasn't run off yet. I haven't run him off yet.
That's sticking around alleys. Uh. So we've talked about the
(49:25):
crazy stories from Houston. Some cool signs you're you're kind
of top five signs and one is a place in
Austin of Neon. Now what are where are some of
your bucket places or what are some of your bucket
list items of signs or places you'd like to go
to to go take pictures of. It may not even
(49:47):
have to be Neon. It could be some cool classic
cars like in La the cool hand painted signs. There's
a whole book of hand painted signs in la I
keep talking about. I wish I would have bought it.
It was like forty five bucks. It looks like it
would worth the money.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
Yeah, but that is hard. Coffee table books do run
a lot, but they do. Yeah, that one sounds like
a winner. I definitely would love to. I don't know.
I I've made a few small trips and taking pictures
when I go somewhere. So I went to Germany this
(50:29):
past summer and ended up being Cologne, and they did
not have too many sons, but it was mostly texts
with interesting fonts and things like that. So I had
fun taking pictures of those. But I would definitely like
to go maybe a road trip to someplace like Nashville,
(50:52):
which had a large selection of neon sans and things
that I've seen picture sures of but would love to,
you know, go see them in person and things like that. Also,
Las Vegas has ah on steroids. Yes, well, they also
(51:15):
have their own museum. It looks like it's mostly outdoors
and it has a lot of the really old classic ones.
Uh yeah, it's you can see them and those those
would be spectacular.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
And they're they're building one up in uh, Kansas City.
I think it might be open called the Looming Neons.
I need to get in contact with those guys. The
Looming Neon Museum up in Kansas City is coming online
right now.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
That's great. I think I've seen some of their their pictures.
And there's also an American Signed museum, and I really
like that. There are the museums, and I desperately wish
we had one in Austin.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
Kind of got one there with the bar in a way,
it's it's not the same as a museum museum, but
but there we have kind of one in Houston out
in Berkshire. Uh, It's it's way out there. Uh you're
looking at thirty minutes on the other side of Houston, which, yeah,
which is like seven hours. Yeah, the traffic's bad. But
(52:31):
the HIMMI hideout. It has both signs that were natively neon.
I don't know if that's a term, but I'm going
to use that term, and ones that he turned into
neon as well.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
Okay, that sounds great. I did like that a lot. Yeah.
Also right that the sign bar does feel like I
kind of museum of itself. It's it's definitely, well, it's
not the same thing. Well, it definitely collected a few,
and I'm grateful that they rescue those and that they're
(53:09):
on public display and so that that definitely makes a
big difference to me. Yeah, but it feels like there
are more than they can handle because every year a
bunch of places open and then unfortunately a bunch of
places closed. Yeah, so it's always really disappointed to see
(53:32):
signs that you've gotten used to, that you really appreciate,
you know, seem in your commute or whatever. Yeah, you know,
disappear from the the public view.
Speaker 1 (53:45):
Like one of my favorites, Kelly, one of my favorites.
They're all my favorite in a way. At least Country Cooking,
they have this awesome, big, huge kneon signed overlooking the
Gulf Freeway forty five. Now it's plastic, the big plastic bugs.
I mean, they still kept a small neon there. At
(54:05):
their entrance. They have this huge open neon open sign,
which I've had fun animating. Yeah, but I'm just like,
I mean, you want a visual kick in the nuts.
That that is a big visual kicking the nuts, especially
the beautiful white neon with the orange apostrophe and I
(54:28):
don't know if I could say kicking the nuts, but
I just said it five times. But yeah, it's you're right,
it's it's so frustrating. But well, we better wrap things up.
We were up the at the fifty four minute mark.
Is there anybody you want to give a shout out
to in the same community before we head out?
Speaker 2 (54:52):
Not? Not really, I just I've enjoyed getting to know
a lot of people who are making the signs here.
It's been, uh, it's been a pleasure and I've I've
really enjoyed finding out that there's like so many more
signs in Austin than I ever knew. Bye, just dripping
(55:12):
around and scouring the countryside and it's it's been so
much fun. And thank you for having me. It's a
god a pleasure to talk with you.
Speaker 1 (55:24):
Yeah, glad to have you. And if you haven't figured
out where to find him at as Alex, you can
find him over at neon Night Austin. I'll have a
link to how to get in contact with him in
the show notes. When this goes out live, Well, if
you're listening to this, you know that it's out live Redundancy.
But once again, Thanks Alex for joining me here on
(55:44):
the podcast, and thanks to you for listening to the podcast.
If you have any suggestions of who I can talk to,
or maybe some sights or places to go, let me know.
Just hit me up either in the show notes or
over at International Signfinders or Houston Underscore Sign Underscore Hunting.
(56:07):
That is a mouthful, I understand. Just hit me up
there and we'll make a connection to go from there.
Until next time, Happy sign finding everybody.
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