March 5, 2025 • 54 mins
WARNING!!! If I sound punch drunk, goofy, a bit more unprofessional than expected... I've been running on little to no sleep this semester and in the words of someone...I don't know whomst... "The Show Must Go On!"
Ben Geier is an awesome dude! He was a great sport and put up with my antics. We talk about cows, Rawlins, WY, the Adobe Suite, and His book coming out in June or July.
You can follow him on Instagram here.
His website is here.
Ben Geier is an awesome dude! He was a great sport and put up with my antics. We talk about cows, Rawlins, WY, the Adobe Suite, and His book coming out in June or July.
You can follow him on Instagram here.
His website is here.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Welcome everybody to another episode of International Sign Finders. Glad
you're with us. Last week we had Neon night Austin
on great interview we had with him. I think I
probably did a little too much talking in that episode,
but he was great, awesome, And it's also great when
you have someone who is hitting an area that you
(00:38):
know everybody else gets. You know, there's a lot of
people who do the Austin area, but it's also great
when you have somebody who just focuses on Austin. You know,
you have people who do Chicago and Saint Louis and Denver.
There's quite a few people who do Denver and Chicago,
but you know, with Austin, it's great to have somebody
who focuses in on Austin because there are a lot
(01:00):
of Neon signs, both the old school signs and the
new school signs. And I'm gonna warn you. I'm your host,
jur Rabernathy. I haven't had any sleep in the past day,
so this might get a little goofy I'm just going
to warn you. I know you're not supposed to do
that in public, speaking more people about when things may
get a little weird, but I feel like I should
warn everybody. I'm I'm a little tired. I'm here at
(01:24):
work right now. But we have a great guest and
hopefully he can work around my goofy. It is with
Big Geyer. You can follow him on Instagram. It's been
Geyer photography. Isn't that correct? Ben?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
That's correct?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, awesome. And he might correct my grammar too, because
I might forget how the English language might work.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
And that's all good.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, And he comes to us from the I mentioned
Chicago earlier. He comes to us for the Chicago area.
You know, one of the greatest signs in America is
Central Camera. It survived riots, fires, probably pigeons nesting in it.
So welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Ben, Yeah, thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, glad to have you on. I've been following you
for it has to be over a year now, and
I have loved your photography. What you introduced yourself to everybody.
You've got what ten fifteen thousand followers.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Five yes, somewhere it might be a little more than
fifteen now, but yeah, so undeserved. Thank you. I'm Ben Guyer.
I'm from Batavia, which is like a western suburb of Chicago.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
I mean that's such a cool name. Batavia.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, it's like if Batman can name the bat Cave,
he should have named a Batavia. See get to a
bad start ring.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I love Batman. So yeah, it's a good start.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
I'm back to it. So, so how did you get
your start in taking pictures? Just taking photos? Do you
take like analog photos, digital photos both?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
You know I used to take analog photos like a
long time ago. I really got my start in photography
more so through video. You know, in high school, I
used to attend shows at a place called Fireside Bowl,
which is it was it was it kind of like
a kind of a dive bar, but it was it
(03:33):
was host all ages shows, and so I would I would,
I would, you know, attend shows there, take photos, but
mostly just just film with my like sony handicam, you know,
every single show that I would go to. And I
was also in bands, so I feel like, you know,
I was really into design. So you know, anytime that
(03:58):
we had any you know kind of like show come
on up or you know, an album coming out, it
would always just be like, all right, I'm going to
design it. You know, we need this photo in this photo,
and you know, I'd kind of just go out, go
out and take the photos you know, for the for
the flyer or album cover, and it would just kind
of slowly, you know, evolve into like, you know, a concept.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
I'm afraid that Homer Simpson was gonna like poke his
head out of the cars start yelling at us. Nerd.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, right, I am. I Like in high school, I
was the biggest design nerd. But you know, I was
just super super into it. So I got a job,
a design job straight out of high school, what did
you know, college for two years in Chicago, dropped out.
I had like a dream job, like you know, pop up.
(04:50):
So it just it kind of worked out. And then
through that I just started you know, like honing my
you know, video skills and yeah, photography. That's really where
it kind of took off from there.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
And that's amazing because what people don't realize is a
lot some of the visual arts and especially radio, you
really sometimes you don't need a degree. Sometimes a degree
might even hinder you is yeah in those ways. Yeah,
(05:23):
for me, I'm getting my multimedia certificate and what is
a multi what is multimedia? Who knows? Really?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Especially for the four years from now, so like how
it evolves.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
And like what is multimedia even right now? My professor
he he did multimedia in the early nineties where it
actually had a purpose. You know, he did interactive CD
ROMs for like Casper the movie, and he did interactive
(05:58):
multimedia where they took Cinderella's Castle at Disney World and
turned it into a steampunk visual where the castle became
a living organism in a steampunk way. And you know,
that's a multimedia extravaganza right now, what is it now?
(06:21):
Who knows?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
You know?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Now multimedia is like social media. Maybe you don't know
what it is, but you know, for me, you know,
going to school kind of helps me because it kind
of forces me to get all this software where I
couldn't really afford it before, but where you you had
the knack for it. You you went out and got
(06:45):
it and you did it, and companies recognize that you
had the drive and the determination. It's kind of like programming.
I had a buddy in the late nineties early two
thousands where he didn't what somebody who went to school
and was doing you know, Java and Python HP. He
(07:08):
would somebody who was doing it out of their basement
and may have smelled of Cheetos and you know, pizza puffs.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
You know, yeah, because they're they're passionate about it exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah. Right now, my passion is I want to go
to sleep. But uh but a photoshop But yeah, so,
uh when did you start getting into the video editing
and stuff like that? If you don't give away your age,
that's that's perfectly fine.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Oh no, I'm totally fine with that. Uh So, I mean, honestly,
it was it was even from high school that I
really got got into it. But you know, when I
when I landed that my kind of dream job, like
right out of high school, it was you know, I
was doing design, I was doing animation, I was doing video.
So it was just it was a great way to
(07:59):
kind of just just get like real, real like experience
all of that stuff. So, you know, I mean that
was that was in the year two thousand. So I
mean I'm forty three now, okay, so yeah, so quite
a bit as you know, like changed since then. But
you know, so I own like a small I'm a
(08:21):
partner in a small marketing agency now. Oh so yeah,
so it just kind of, you know, I've just evolved
it over the years.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
That's amazing so small marketing. I might have to send
you a resume to have you go over it just
to blat it out. Yeah, because right now I'm in
a portfolio class and I'm just trying to figure out
what to do. Holy cow, it's so wild. I'm sorry,
I'm I'm making this about me and I'm really not
(08:52):
trying to. But so when you got into the video
editing and stuff like that, were you into like after
a facts and yeah, ro did you ever work with
Avid or Da Vinci?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
So not so much Avid, but you know all all
the Adobe products, So it's just like, you know all
those applications, photograph, after effects, premiere. So I've always kind
of been more so focused on premiere. Yeah, I know
Da Vinci is like a huge thing, and I do film,
like all my stuff on Black Magic, but I don't
(09:28):
know who's Da Vinci. So it's kind of funny.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah. I learned about nuke, uh, and I had no
clue what nuke was until one of my professors, who
you know, he's he's in the high you know, he's
done high end stuff in Hollywood, and he's like, yeah,
how do you teach this? Because it's so expensive students
can't get into it. But Maxon, on the other hand,
(09:54):
they have students stuff. Sorry, we're talking shop right now.
If you're interested in this, this is This is great
for all of you out there who want to get
into all these things, because some of you may have
not heard of Maxon Mexan. They use for like transformers,
and but it's strong. It's powerful enough to do three
D rendering and three D animation, but simple enough that
(10:18):
you could do social media and social media marketing and
stuff like that. It just it runs the gambit, and
you know what, we got to finish up this first segment.
You know, wow, time flies in this show. When we
come back, we're gonna get into uh where been got
the bug for? Uh neon? And signs and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah sounds good. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
If you're listening to International scide Finders, Welcome back to
(11:01):
International sign Finders. Glad you're still with us. If you're
still with us after that first segment, keep on trucking
with us, because we're going to be going down the
interstate and talking about signs. We may talk about video editing,
video editing tools. We may talk about sasquatch, we are
going to get Sasquatch in here somehow. I don't know
how we're going to get him in here, even if
(11:21):
I have to bring him in fromround the hallway and
he goes, you know, just makes an appearance. So we've
got Ben Geyer go follow him on Instagram, Ben Geyer
g E I E R a photography over there on
the Instagram's are you on Flicker? Are you on the
Flicker guys too? Now?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
You know at one point I was, But yeah, I
kind of I kind of stopped doing it years ago.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
It's a commitment to do a lot of social media.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
It is. You know, it's like I just I started
doing like Blue Sky. I feel like I'm just all
over the place with like the social media.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
So I do. I do Twitter mostly for goof and around. Okay,
I just do a whole bunch of goofy crap on
my my Twitter account. Is I don't care what side
of the political aisle you're on. If if you're willing
to be goofy with me, I'm willing to be goofy
with you. I just don't care. And uh, you also
(12:17):
have your website. You want to plug it real fast? Uh?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, it's just it's Ben Geyer dot com, so you
guy or Ben, and then G E I E R
dot com.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Now we're gonna talk about you getting into signs, but
going down your Instagram feed, Instagram page, feed page, whatever.
There's so many different terms. I I'm too lazy to
keep up with them, even though I want to go
into social media. Yeah yeah, you know, if you want
(12:48):
to hire me out there, that's probably not a good
indicator that I really want to go into social media.
There's just so many different terms and I just forget them.
One of my favorite pictures of yours is there's a
sign in the middle of a field with these cows
staring at you.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Oh yeah, is the satellite cafe?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yep?
Speaker 2 (13:13):
That is? Yeah, now right along Route sixty six.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yeah wait, was that one of those ah ha moments
where you just like, I gotta slam up breaks and
get this.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Picture kind of so, I you know, it's when I
when I take photos, it's like I always want to
capture them at so many different times a day, which is,
you know, unless you're staying nearby, it's it's almost impossible.
And I was, you know, for that trip, I was
staying at the Mungermoss Hotel, which is on around sixty six,
(13:46):
oh yes, which is you know just a little you know,
four or five miles walk west of the Satellite Cafe sign,
so you know, terrible lighting. When I came through the
first time, and I just decided to know what I'm
going to wake up like really early tomorrow morning, just
after sunrise and like try and you know, capture the
signs so you know, it hits it in the right way.
(14:07):
And so when I when I rolled up, like you know,
the cows were there at that time, but they weren't
there such time, and it was it was like an
epic you know, obviously an epic shot. And usually when
I photographed like you know, cows like that, they they've
run from the camera or run from it. Yeah, that
was a moment where for some reason they just came
(14:29):
straight to me and so just it worked out.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
It was so great about that photo is I could
see a grunge band or a post grunge band from
the mid nineties early to mid nineties using that as
a photo for their album. It just frames up so well,
it's such a great photo. If they just you know,
add some contrast to it, maybe you know, black and white,
(14:56):
put some put some like grungey letters up there, perfect
like social distortion. I could see Social Distortion or even
like the later Pearl Jam albums. That'd be a great
Pearl Jam album cover. You know.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
The funny thing. The funny thing that the comment that
I always got on that was that it's like a
living Chick fil a ad. Yeah, because it's it's all
these cows that are just you know, promoting you know, chicken,
just like just down the road.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
That's so true. That is so true. So way, what
was the thing? What was the bug that or what
was a thing that initiated the bug to bite you?
To take pictures of signs?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Okay, so this is kind of funny actually. So when
I first you know, when I first like really really
got the bug to just like travel and do photography,
it was always about landscapes. Yeah, and just you know,
the outdoors and everything. So I'd always go to National parks.
I was, you know, super into it. But I live
in Illinois, so it's like, you know, I can only travel,
(15:59):
you know, you know a couple of weeks out of
the year. Yeah, and Illinois has the most you know,
boring landscape for for you know, outdoor.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Stuff I've been through.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Yes, Yeah, so I really started just like you know,
what is around here that I can you know, photograph
almost you know, every day, or just get out of
the house every day to go, you know, photograph something.
It was really more so like the abandoned places. Yeah,
so's you know. I did that for you know, a
(16:32):
handful of years. And then during the pandemic, I feel
like I was watching you know, a couple of different
movies Paris, Texas, uh, Nebraska, like No Country for Old
Men and there was who like movies that like just
they have those like really great like kind of rural
like towns that just have incredible some of them are
(16:57):
and signs, some of it's just good signage. Yeah, And
that was like that was kind of the moment where
I was I thought, like, you know what, I need
to like start finding all the ones in you know,
the Schygland area just you know, just right around me.
So it started there, and the more that I you know,
(17:17):
photographed these, I felt like it became more like of
an obsession where I, you know, I would spend entire
weeks traveling the other states to like try to you
know captures as many as you know, as I could,
and you know in the Stretcher Road that you know
I had planned out.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
And luckily been right there in Chicago. That you know,
that's the beginning of the Mother Road. Oh yeah, right,
which is you know another obsession of mine is just
about sixty six. So yeah, and uh, have you hooked
up with Reese Funk? He is the president of the
Route sixty six Association, like the whole rout Seacy sixth Association.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
And he's he he's in Oklahoma, right, Yeah, he's in Tulsa,
and uh, you know they're coming up on the hundredth
year anniversary. Yeah yeah, and twenty six.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah, yeah, in twenty six. And so he's putting together
a kind of a oral tradition, oral tradition, you know,
story type thing where he's trying to get people to
come on to his website to give their stories of
Route sixty six. I need to do that, Ah, I
(18:31):
need to do that. And with you, you know, Chicago, Hello,
and you've read you know Mugra Moss. I mean you've
got rest Caven right here. You've got both of the
iconic uh you know, the sister signs on your site
and so many more circus room that is Amarillo, right, yep,
(18:54):
that's great. I mean, jeez, I mean the QB one
of the creepiest dolls just going through your uh your
yeah a limo ohio on my that that QP Restaurant
is probably my favorite store front.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah. Creepous at the same time, Oh for sure, for sure.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Uh. I know, I'm, I'm, I'm multitasking and not multitasking
at the same time. But you know, you've got so
many stories already. I mean, you've already told me a
story of the cows. You know that. That's an amazing story.
I love it. Yeah, that's that's a once in a
lifetime story, especially like how many cows don't run from you?
(19:40):
That's awesome. Yeah. Uh So that will bring us to
the close of our second segment, uh or a third segment.
Do you have any stories that you want to tell
when we come back? I know, like, you know, we'll
get Yeah, we'll get into it.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah that sounds good. I like how it's going.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Yeah. Yeah, we'll just flow into it. Yeah. Sometimes people
have like, uh, when I talk to too much fire,
he had like a laundry list of things that you
wanted to talk to. I'm like talk about I'm like,
let's do it, and sometimes we just we just flow. Baby.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Yeah. So I will say though that, like I do
have a book coming out, which would the audit to
start to plug, like, let's do it come out until June,
but you know, somewhere towards the end, I would like
to plug that.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Let's plug it next, Let's plug it next. All right,
So when we come back, Ben's got a book. Ben's
got a book. So we'll talk about Ben's book when
we come back. And I will try not to sing
as much. You're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back
(20:57):
to International sign Finders. I'm your host, Drewernaty, and I
am slap happy and punch drunk and all these those
things above. I will not stop talking about this because
I am Adhd and I do that type of thing.
And we have big Guyer with us who is not
as Adhd as I am. But we're having fun. We're
talking about some crazy stuff. And we talked about the Koopie.
(21:19):
Is it the Coopie Cafe or Coopie Restaurant?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
I think it's Coopy Hamburger, swoopy Hator just as Hamburgers.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Maybe now I know there is a high school that
has the Koopie mascot. Yeah is that a yeah, we'll
look it up while we do this play. Also, good news,
Ben's got a book coming out. Let's let's talk about that.
What while I uh mindlessly looked this up because I
(21:48):
am obsessed, tell us about the book that's coming out, Ben.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, So I have a book coming out in June.
It's I think it's June tenth the date this year.
So I actually like we're sending it off to the
printer this Friday, So I'm excited about it. Uh. It
kind of just covers a lot of my signs.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
It's it's split into uh six sections. So one of
them is you know signs. One of them is roadside storefronts,
theaters uh blank, and on a couple of them restaurants
and hotels.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Oy kind of like your website.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Yeah yeah, right, Yeah, I feel like there's I don't
like I started to like, I don't know how to
quite describe like so as I you know, as I
took all these photos, I feel like as I start
to kind of bucket them all out, like they're they're
more they're more impressive as as groups. So I kind
(22:54):
of felt like doing a book was just it made sense.
You know, there's there's so much consistency, and you know
the way storefronts look or the way you know, all
these abandoned theaters look. They have such great you know,
typography and bold colors, and I just feel like as
a as a kind of a good curated like grouping,
(23:14):
they they they're impressive.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Especially theaters. Theaters are really impressive together.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Yeah, right, And you know, I've done abandoned photography for
so long, so it's like there's so many people like,
you know, they're all about getting inside and you know,
you know, taking photos of just the interiors and everything,
but there's I'm I'm more obsessed with the exteriors. Yeah,
(23:40):
I just feel like there's the mid century kind of
look to them.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
The urban decay or not even just urban decay there,
there's just just nature taking over what man has for sure.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
And you know, the colors that they used to use
versus today, you know, the signage is just incredible, the type,
the typefaces they use, the colors, the geometric patterns, the
stripes and all that stuff. It's just they're they're so cool.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Yeah, that's one of the coolest things about going through
UH like Nebraska and Kansas, UH, parts of Texas and
even Oklahoma City. I've noticed that you've gotten through Oklahoma
City is something old like the Yale Theater and the
May Theater, and they're off of May Street. Some of
(24:36):
those old theaters have those cool like you said, the letters,
the stripes, even those abandoned wind still have that essence
of yesteryear. And you could steal the ghost of the past.
I don't want to say haunt you, but still bring
back that which was. And if I'm if I'm re
(25:00):
peting what you're saying, let it be an amen to
what you just said, because you're not. You're not. Yeah,
but amen to what you just said. Because you know,
growing up in eastern North Carolina, we had some of
those old theaters. I just don't remember them as well.
Like we had the Taylor Twin there in Edenton, North Carolina.
(25:21):
We had this one called the Columbia Theater, which I
don't remember, okay, because we didn't go to that part
of town. It wasn't a bad part of town, it's
just we just didn't go there. We didn't have any
too yeah, and the Plymouth Theater. I just don't remember
the lights being on. Uh we went there, it just
(25:44):
was kind of run down already. Yeah, but you know,
like the Tower Theater in Oklahoma City, Holy cow.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yeah, they they did a good, great job, like we're
staring that, you know, years ago. Oh, I mean, yeah,
so good.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
I don't I don't know. You've probably heard from my
past episodes. I I talk about the three things getting there,
finding parking, and the awe factor, right, Yea. Sometimes it
takes a minute or two just to gather yourself before
you could take the picture because you're just like, oh
(26:19):
my gosh, am I seeing what I'm seeing? Because yeah,
you can see the pictures, but being up close and
in person is just like it's just.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Completely Yeah, there's nothing blows your mind like it.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
So continue on, continue on. I took your time now.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
So yeah, the six chapters, Yeah, I'm looking forward. It's
being put up by a publisher called Trope. They do
like really great kind of like more like artistic just
like art art prints and just art art books. So
you know, they they've done some kind of some kind
of like art books in the past, but more so
(27:03):
they really focus on photography, but everything just kind of
feels like just the physical books always kind of feel
like it like it an art piece. So I'm really
excited about it.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Now do they now is it trope dot com?
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I think it's maybe true. Yeah, it should be trope
dot com. Let me double check though.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Well does that com?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Because yeah they art see fartsy Holy cow? I love
the books just that. Yeah, it just has that you know,
you're you're coming, you're stepping into an art, an art
what is it?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Art show? When you were looking at these pieces.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Of right, I think that's the book that's really like
what they strive for with their books.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah you you you really stepped
into something good here, buddy. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Well, yeah, so good on you. So uh of all
your photos that you've taken, I know this is kind
of like which of my children do I love the most? Uh?
What is one that you keep going back to that
You're just like, man, I just it just catches your
(28:20):
eye no matter where what it's like, yeah, I'll catch
your eye, but this one you just keep going back
to it that You're just like, I love it.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Well, you said rest Haven earlier. That is definitely one
of my favorite.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
And you know, another thing that I haven't really talked about,
but another thing that I love to do is like
you know, when I when I'm photographing these places, I
will set a time set aside like time to actually
film them, just because I feel like just just doing
little videos around these places, because I mean, who knows
(28:55):
how much longer like any of these places will true
be around. And you know a lot of these signs
are you know great, they animate in great ways, so
you know, like the starlight and in Mesa, Arizona, and
the doghouse and like so I like in Elbuquerque, like
(29:19):
I love to, like, you know, photograph them, but I
also like to just set as set a time or
set aside like some time to like film them with
a video camera for a while, just so I can
kind of, uh just capture like the animations and just
the overall like ambient vibe of the scene in a
(29:39):
weird way.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I know I'm using this term wrong, but it's kind
of like an ethnography of the place. I know I'm
using that term wrong. At Darker the scientific description of
customs of individual peoples and cultures kinda is right, but
it's kind of not right as well, because you're getting
(30:01):
the vibe of the area.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
You're Yeah, it's it's like the whole scene. It's like,
you know, a photograph only does so much. Yeah, but
it's like, you know, I want to capture like the
you know, the cars going by, like the sound, the
sounds of the neon, like all of those songs I
think is like very important to the you know, like
if it's a glitching animation you're getting right, which I
(30:28):
it's weird because sometimes I don't hear the glitching animation. Uh.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
We have the Continental Club here in Houston, and one
time it was glitching. I have a video of it
up on my uh uh page, and it's glitching. It's
glitching awesome, but I didn't hear it. Seriously, And everybody's
like I love the sound of like, you know, neon
(30:54):
and stuff like that, Like I honestly don't hear the
hum of neon. And I wonder if my hearing needs
to be chick act.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
To be honest with you, yes, some signs don't have
like sometimes it's not very loud, yeah, I know, like
but like I don't know if that's just a sign
off it's starting to starting to go, or yeah, I'm
not sure.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Or maybe I'm an alien from another planet. You heard
it here, folks, I'm Sasquatch now see I got it
in there. Yeah. Oh uh. The the high school where
the coops the Qpies are the mascot is David Henry
Hickman High School. Yeah, out of Columbia, Missouri. Some of
(31:35):
their famous alumni alumni are US and state members of
Congress Frederick Chapman Robbins. I don't know who he is.
I don't care, and he won the Nobel Prize for medicine.
And also Sam Walton comes from there. You know Walker's
founder Kenneth lay He He's was the CEO of Enron.
(32:00):
So go qbs and also uh for their rivals Battle
High School, We're coming for you, go QTS. So yeah,
that bit of information was unnecessary, but no, that's awesome.
You got to you got to coming through. And also
I love that you you you sit there and you
(32:21):
get the video. Also one what I also have to
give you credit. I don't know if you used a
boom or if you use the clone not a clone
but a drone. They rhyme to get that really cool
shot of a blue swallow and toucum carry. It was
(32:42):
drone man. That is a cool shot getting at that
angle because number one, I know, a hundred million people
get a picture that that sign.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
That neon sign. I I know it is a cliche,
but it's one of my favorite signs of all time.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Oh it's the same, same, and right, I know it's
like cliche, but I kind of don't even care, like
it's yeah, I mean I do try to like find
like new ways to photograph it, but at the some time,
like it's just it's so iconic, it's so good. It's
icond of because it's so good.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah. And also you got the neon trim around the
buildings that surround the main building. Yeah. That all Wow,
I just realized we're at that man, you son of
a gun. That is awesome. Yeah. So you know what.
(33:45):
On that note, we're gonna come back. We're gonna end
this segment of International sign Finders. When we come back,
we'll get into other hygiinks and nonsensory and we'll talk
about some of his photos of old abandoned and old
(34:07):
school gas stations. I love old school gas stations. One
of my favorites is there in Robins, Wyoming, and you're
listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders.
(34:36):
Glad you're still with us if I haven't running you
off with oh my nonsensical sayings, you are an awesome person.
Even if you've run off, You're okay, but we still
love you anyway. We've got the awesome big guyer with us.
Go follow him on Instagram, Instagram, dot com front slash
(34:59):
Ben Geyer fat giography. You can also find him on
the WWW's at Bengeier dot com. I think it's now
HTTPS for security sake, but you know he takes pictures
of not just you know, everybody's favorite stuff, you know,
(35:19):
like neon signs, hand painted signs, abandoned places. Oh the
picture of the ed Sel, Holy cal that I love
that you got the grill of the ed Sel. That
that is such a mid century grill right, Oh my gosh,
Oh I love the Edzel grill. It's so different. Love it.
(35:43):
But also you you took time to take photos of
those old school either abandoned gas stations or just you know,
keepsake pieces, music in pieces, old gas stations. The reason
(36:03):
why I love you know, I love them because they're
so cool. There's a place here in Houston where the
guy's garage area is just filled to the gills with
nothing but old gas station memorial Manlia I may have
trespassed over his fence and took pictures of it.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
I may have to held you where that is. I
do have a trip planned to Texas in early May
where it's I'm gonna be there for like a week.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
I can find it. Look, I can find it. It
feared was a little Mexico taste of Mexico. I think
somewhere around there we can find it. And Zach, it's
near an Zach Street. Okay, yeah, have all the streets
to be named an Zach Street, which is really cool.
(36:57):
But the reason one of the one of the old
gas stations that has my heart will always have my
heart is I was my wife's grandparents had this old
Windstar van that they gave to us, and they have
a place in Park City, Utah, and they're getting up
(37:19):
in age. My wife's grandfather passed away during COVID twenty
twenty one, I think, and the van was in their
duplex quadplex place, and like my wife's mom and their
siblings rent out the place, you know, like an airbnb
type thing a timesh Yeah, and so they wanted the
(37:42):
van gone out of there, and so we were like
the only ones that are like, yeah, we'll take it.
It's a two thousand and three. We just had to
fly out to Salt Lake City get up to Park City,
which is an interesting ordeal if you're taking public transport
to it's easy, but it's interesting as well. And they
(38:06):
drive it back to Texas. Okay, sounds interesting, sounds like fun.
Two thousand and three. Okay, it's a twenty year old van.
So I'm driving it across Wyoming. Which have you traveled
across Wyoming yet?
Speaker 2 (38:20):
I have?
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah? Okay, it's.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Barren, Yeah, desolate, desolate.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
More interesting than Kansas, I will say, and Nebraska because
there are mountains that you can see. So I stop
in the metropolis of Rawlins that is the home of
the state penitentiary and also the state capital of Crystal Meth,
which I've heard of. What and everybody's learning something new
(38:51):
on this episode of International scip par Renders. So, uh,
I stopped, get something to eat, fill up, I go
to on my car nothing, try to get nothing. I'm
freaking out, like I am in this is where this
this story? Oh yeah nothing, it's going nowhere. My fuel
(39:12):
pump went out and the closest fuel pump that we
could get is it Denver, and we take it it
till the next day. So uh where they had me
in the Cono Lodge down about a couple of miles
down the road. So I have to walk from Thecono
Lodge to uh the tire factory where they're fixing my car,
(39:36):
and on the walk is this cool old Texico station
and I take pictures of it because it is such
a neat place and it breaks up the walk and
there's also some cool signs and rawlins as well. And
then I call it my buddy in Twin Falls, Idaho.
I was like, yeah, I'm in Rawlins. He's like, do
(39:57):
you have a gun? No? Should I have? Boys Like,
I'm I live in Houston. I've been to parts of
Houston that people tell me not to go. It's like
you live in Chicago. He's that, yeah, you should it,
Crystal Meth. I'm like, okay, all right, so but no,
that's the reason why. But for you, what is it
(40:19):
about these old school gas station I just took up
a lot of time. Uh sorry. What is it about
these old school gas stations that just does it for you?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I mean it's always it's always the signage, it's the colors,
it's it's it's I feel like it's like always a
perfect blend of kind of mid century design, whereas and typography.
You know, like you drive down like any highway nowadays,
(40:50):
and it's like you you see any gas station, any
sign that's you know, like you know, seventy five feet tall,
like you know McDonald, it's nothing's none of it's like
it's not attractive, it's not unique. It's like, yeah, it's
just it's really not. So. I feel like when I
(41:10):
find one of these places, it's, uh it's got like
some stopping power.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Yeah, what is which one? Is there one recently that
made you beat the brakes out of your car to
stop and get it.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
There? Definitely is? Uh So there's one in Michigan, Okay,
I'm blanking on the name of It's in a car museum.
I think it's called the Gilmore Gilmore Car Museum, and
it's it's a reproduction of a shell gas station. I
visited it like when it was like maybe a week
until Halloween, so they had it like, you know, they
(41:56):
had their typical kind of like shell you know color
where it's you know, bright yellow, bright orange, bright red,
but it was just lined with pumpkins and it was
just it's one of it's one of my favorite photos
that I've taken, and it's one that I can't I
can't sell, so it kills me. I mean, the museum
(42:19):
has like some some like you know, restrictions on which
you can actually publish and stuff like that, but it's
it's truly like one of my my my favorite photos
that I've ever taken.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
Oh dang it. Now, have you ever been down to
Rock Sanna, Illinois?
Speaker 2 (42:36):
I have not. I don't even know if I actually
have heard of Rock Sanna.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Oh, Rock Sanna, Which.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Is crazy because I feel like I've I've covered so
much Illinois ground.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
It is is southern Illinois, down towards Saint Louis. The
only reason I know about this is there was an
old website. Because I've already told you that I kind
of hinted that I really like high school mascots. Uh,
there's a shell refinery I think in Rock Sanna. Okay,
mascot are the shells really, And like if you go
(43:09):
to rock Sanna Shells dot com, you will see that
their mascot symbol is the shell shell shell. Yeah, so
you're talking about shells. I'm like, I can't remember. I
know there's one in Illinois. Like at first I thought
it was Rock Island, but they're the Rock Island Rocks.
(43:29):
But yeah, I was like, yep, Roxanna Shells. So you know,
it's just so cool that you know, I make these
weird you know, correlations. But you know, you have something
so I don't want to say mundane as a company,
(43:49):
but you have this cool museum piece. Then it's still
there where people could go up and take pictures of
it and deal. You have that piece of Americana that
triggers memories and yeah, absolutely, and then it triggers a
weird memory in me of this high school in southern
(44:11):
Illinois outside of Saint Louis, of the shells and and
and that's that's the cool thing about all these different
little venn diagrams of how you know, like you could
be talking about something like like you know, like antiquing. Yeah,
(44:32):
we could be talking about like old school gas pumps
and there gonna be someone out there listening to us talk,
you know, hearing you talk about the shell or gas
or home's saying you know what, I know where some
gas pumps are that you can come take the patriots off. Yeah,
they can get in contact with you.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
I feel like that's what Instagram has been like so
great for It's just like the recommendations that come through.
Uh you know of somebody that you know, they in
some small town in Illinois that they're making a recommendation
to like, you know, come shoot their you know, their grandfathers,
you know service station. It's like, yeah, it's it's been
(45:10):
like incredible to make connections through Instagram. You yeah, yeah,
really great.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
See and all you know what, we come full circle.
He even my ADHD side roads come to circle. So
we have ten minutes to go. Uh so we're gonna
end this segment. When we come back, we're gonna get
into your bucket list places some places I haven't been yet,
(45:38):
and we're gonna you know, finish this off strong and
I will try not to get off to some side
roads because Rollin's Wyoming. You may be the crystal meth
capital of Wyoming, but you have a place in our hearts.
You're listening to international sign finders. Welcome back to international
(46:11):
sign finders. I have just alienated Central Wyoming. I'm so sorry,
Ralis I really do like your town. I yeah, wow,
but we love you Wyoming. Here's the thing. If you're
a sign finder and you haven't been to Wyoming, it
(46:32):
doesn't matter if you're in a town like Rock Springs, Evanston, Laramie,
or you're in a small middle of the nowhere place
like the middle of the Teton Forest. You will find
meon like Arch the Archer Dude Ranch. I believe it's
(46:53):
the Archer Dude Ranch in the middle of a forest.
It's like I was coming out of Due Boys, Wyoming
one time and just heading towards Jackson, Wyoming. Do Boys
nine hundred one thousand people maybe have some cool little
signage there too, Just going right through the middle of
the forest middle. You know, it feels like you're going
(47:15):
to do a bad horror movie. All of a sudden,
brightened me on in the middle of nowhere. You're right
there to dude Ranch. You're like, all right, I'm waiting
for aliens to come snatch my body they or something,
So all right, enough of me am I weird stories?
(47:38):
All right, Ben, this is being Geyer. Go follow him
Instagram dot com front slash Bangeyer Photography that should be
just like assumed Instagram dot com front slash so bangeyr
Photography over Instagram dot com. Also you can find him
at Bangeyer dot com as well. So we always love
to hear where people would love to go or go
(48:00):
again or maybe even go back into the past and
photograph as sign. It's up to you where you want
to take this. So we have five minutes left. Sure,
where are some of your bucket list places you'd love
to go to.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
It's such a tough one because I don't know how else,
like how else, like anybody you know like tracks where
they want to go. But it's like for the last
like I don't know, six seven years, I have this
Google map where I just I constantly. Then you know,
it's like within a week I may pin fifty places.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Yeah, it's just you know, like again like I feel
like I'm plugging Instagram or something like that, but I'm
but I follow some of me like incredible photographers that
you know, they live all over the country. So it's
like they they're introducing you to like places that are
you know, maybe a sign that's like right down the
street for them. But I'm always you know, keeping track
(49:02):
of those. So for me, it's always I I wait
until I have like a good grouping of of pims
and I could you know, spread a whole trip out
of it. So, I mean my next big trip is
is to Texas.
Speaker 1 (49:19):
Yeah, come on down. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
So so I mean I fly into Dallas, I go
straight up to Oklahoma City. But then I come back
and you know, through Odessa and you know, I'm definitely
hitting up Austin and San Antonio and yeah, I mean
there's there's this Houston. There's just so many places to
to see. I go on a work trip tomorrow to uh, California,
(49:46):
so it's just like I'll be you know, hitting stops there. Yeah.
And then uh. I would have to say, though, my
like the place that I would act absolutely like bucket
like place that I would love to go to, which
so many people have been, but I don't care. It's
that t W A hotel. Yeah, oh my god. It's
(50:08):
just the architecture there, the signage, like just just like
interiors and everything about it. It's just it's like peak
for me. It's like it's the best.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
Color Race Spiegel. Uh he I you know he has
gotten some great photos. I think him and them your
grabbit cheers. Yeah, I mean they lit that place up,
just took some amazing photos at that place. And what
surprised me if mis Matador from Toronto also got that
place as well. Okay, some amazing photos from them.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Yeah. Yeah, I talked to the Will from.
Speaker 1 (50:49):
Uh yeah, Will grab it.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
Yeah, he's so cool, seriously, such a great guy. But yeah,
I've seen him and Color Color by Spiegel have been there,
and it's just like those are the photos where I'm like,
I look at I'm like, hush, I wish I wish
I could be there. Yeah, I'll make it. Uh.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
They've got like the little little group. Of course, I
forget the name of the grou uh. And then you
get onto me for forgetting it, and Deborah Ja's wound
be like it's the it's the name. I'd be like,
I know, I just forget. Uh. We had me and
Deborah Jane have some really cool conversations behind the scenes.
(51:34):
May I have to also say, you're your photo of
round Up Cleaners I know I'm taking away from your time,
but your photo of round up Cleaners is amazing. I
love that. I love that sign as well because it's
one of those signs where it's eye level.
Speaker 2 (51:50):
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was when I when I
first took a photo of it, I was like, I
don't know how I want to like photograph this. It's
I mean's a hard one to photography because it's because
it's eye level.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
Yeah, but that's also the the the appeal to it
is its eye level. Yea. And also, uh, I have
to also give you credit for you have that one
photo where it's an abandoned house. It's it's rady as
all get out with that uh TV in the corner
(52:24):
and you masked out, you massed out the windows and
put like moving parts to it, and you made it
like a horror scene. Oh yeah, yes man, you do
like after effects and Premiere pro doc. Yeah that's right. Yeah.
So uh guilty, Okay, I gotta give you Okay any more?
(52:48):
Uh any more? Uh bucket list places before I take
any more of your time.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Uh no, No, the t w A is definitely top
of list.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
Okay, Well, I betre to let you go. Uh, I
gotta get to work myself. But uh, any shout outs, Well,
we'll give you a couple shout outs. Then we got
to hit the road running.
Speaker 2 (53:12):
Uh No, I feel like, uh guilty because I just
want to plug the book that that'll come out in June.
So that's about it.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
Okay, everybody, he's got a book coming out, Uh get it. Uh,
it's been a pleasure been having you on. H thank
you so much for agreeing to the mad house that
I have brought you into for this now.
Speaker 2 (53:34):
I really appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
Yeah, it's been a blast. And uh so go and
follow him Ben Geyer Photography that's be in g E
I E R Photography over Instagram. Uh it's been Geyer
dot com. That's his website. And once again, when you
go out this weekend to go take pictures photos, be safe,
(53:57):
have fun and also share your photo. We don't care
if you have one follower or one hundred thousand followers
or even more. I don't think you can have any less,
but just go out there, have fun, share them. We
don't care if we've seen the place a hundred times
or no times, and share them with us. Have fun
and be safe. Until next time, Happy sign finding
Welcome everybody to another episode of International Sign Finders. Glad
you're with us. Last week we had Neon night Austin
on great interview we had with him. I think I
probably did a little too much talking in that episode,
but he was great, awesome, And it's also great when
you have someone who is hitting an area that you
(00:38):
know everybody else gets. You know, there's a lot of
people who do the Austin area, but it's also great
when you have somebody who just focuses on Austin. You know,
you have people who do Chicago and Saint Louis and Denver.
There's quite a few people who do Denver and Chicago,
but you know, with Austin, it's great to have somebody
who focuses in on Austin because there are a lot
(01:00):
of Neon signs, both the old school signs and the
new school signs. And I'm gonna warn you. I'm your host,
jur Rabernathy. I haven't had any sleep in the past day,
so this might get a little goofy I'm just going
to warn you. I know you're not supposed to do
that in public, speaking more people about when things may
get a little weird, but I feel like I should
warn everybody. I'm I'm a little tired. I'm here at
(01:24):
work right now. But we have a great guest and
hopefully he can work around my goofy. It is with
Big Geyer. You can follow him on Instagram. It's been
Geyer photography. Isn't that correct? Ben?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
That's correct?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, awesome. And he might correct my grammar too, because
I might forget how the English language might work.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
And that's all good.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, And he comes to us from the I mentioned
Chicago earlier. He comes to us for the Chicago area.
You know, one of the greatest signs in America is
Central Camera. It survived riots, fires, probably pigeons nesting in it.
So welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Ben, Yeah, thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, glad to have you on. I've been following you
for it has to be over a year now, and
I have loved your photography. What you introduced yourself to everybody.
You've got what ten fifteen thousand followers.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Five yes, somewhere it might be a little more than
fifteen now, but yeah, so undeserved. Thank you. I'm Ben Guyer.
I'm from Batavia, which is like a western suburb of Chicago.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
I mean that's such a cool name. Batavia.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, it's like if Batman can name the bat Cave,
he should have named a Batavia. See get to a
bad start ring.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I love Batman. So yeah, it's a good start.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
I'm back to it. So, so how did you get
your start in taking pictures? Just taking photos? Do you
take like analog photos, digital photos both?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
You know I used to take analog photos like a
long time ago. I really got my start in photography
more so through video. You know, in high school, I
used to attend shows at a place called Fireside Bowl,
which is it was it was it kind of like
a kind of a dive bar, but it was it
(03:33):
was host all ages shows, and so I would I would,
I would, you know, attend shows there, take photos, but
mostly just just film with my like sony handicam, you know,
every single show that I would go to. And I
was also in bands, so I feel like, you know,
I was really into design. So you know, anytime that
(03:58):
we had any you know kind of like show come
on up or you know, an album coming out, it
would always just be like, all right, I'm going to
design it. You know, we need this photo in this photo,
and you know, I'd kind of just go out, go
out and take the photos you know, for the for
the flyer or album cover, and it would just kind
of slowly, you know, evolve into like, you know, a concept.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
I'm afraid that Homer Simpson was gonna like poke his
head out of the cars start yelling at us. Nerd.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, right, I am. I Like in high school, I
was the biggest design nerd. But you know, I was
just super super into it. So I got a job,
a design job straight out of high school, what did
you know, college for two years in Chicago, dropped out.
I had like a dream job, like you know, pop up.
(04:50):
So it just it kind of worked out. And then
through that I just started you know, like honing my
you know, video skills and yeah, photography. That's really where
it kind of took off from there.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
And that's amazing because what people don't realize is a
lot some of the visual arts and especially radio, you
really sometimes you don't need a degree. Sometimes a degree
might even hinder you is yeah in those ways. Yeah,
(05:23):
for me, I'm getting my multimedia certificate and what is
a multi what is multimedia? Who knows? Really?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Especially for the four years from now, so like how
it evolves.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
And like what is multimedia even right now? My professor
he he did multimedia in the early nineties where it
actually had a purpose. You know, he did interactive CD
ROMs for like Casper the movie, and he did interactive
(05:58):
multimedia where they took Cinderella's Castle at Disney World and
turned it into a steampunk visual where the castle became
a living organism in a steampunk way. And you know,
that's a multimedia extravaganza right now, what is it now?
(06:21):
Who knows?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
You know?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Now multimedia is like social media. Maybe you don't know
what it is, but you know, for me, you know,
going to school kind of helps me because it kind
of forces me to get all this software where I
couldn't really afford it before, but where you you had
the knack for it. You you went out and got
(06:45):
it and you did it, and companies recognize that you
had the drive and the determination. It's kind of like programming.
I had a buddy in the late nineties early two
thousands where he didn't what somebody who went to school
and was doing you know, Java and Python HP. He
(07:08):
would somebody who was doing it out of their basement
and may have smelled of Cheetos and you know, pizza puffs.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
You know, yeah, because they're they're passionate about it exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah. Right now, my passion is I want to go
to sleep. But uh but a photoshop But yeah, so,
uh when did you start getting into the video editing
and stuff like that? If you don't give away your age,
that's that's perfectly fine.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Oh no, I'm totally fine with that. Uh So, I mean, honestly,
it was it was even from high school that I
really got got into it. But you know, when I
when I landed that my kind of dream job, like
right out of high school, it was you know, I
was doing design, I was doing animation, I was doing video.
So it was just it was a great way to
(07:59):
kind of just just get like real, real like experience
all of that stuff. So, you know, I mean that
was that was in the year two thousand. So I
mean I'm forty three now, okay, so yeah, so quite
a bit as you know, like changed since then. But
you know, so I own like a small I'm a
(08:21):
partner in a small marketing agency now. Oh so yeah,
so it just kind of, you know, I've just evolved
it over the years.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
That's amazing so small marketing. I might have to send
you a resume to have you go over it just
to blat it out. Yeah, because right now I'm in
a portfolio class and I'm just trying to figure out
what to do. Holy cow, it's so wild. I'm sorry,
I'm I'm making this about me and I'm really not
(08:52):
trying to. But so when you got into the video
editing and stuff like that, were you into like after
a facts and yeah, ro did you ever work with
Avid or Da Vinci?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
So not so much Avid, but you know all all
the Adobe products, So it's just like, you know all
those applications, photograph, after effects, premiere. So I've always kind
of been more so focused on premiere. Yeah, I know
Da Vinci is like a huge thing, and I do film,
like all my stuff on Black Magic, but I don't
(09:28):
know who's Da Vinci. So it's kind of funny.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah. I learned about nuke, uh, and I had no
clue what nuke was until one of my professors, who
you know, he's he's in the high you know, he's
done high end stuff in Hollywood, and he's like, yeah,
how do you teach this? Because it's so expensive students
can't get into it. But Maxon, on the other hand,
(09:54):
they have students stuff. Sorry, we're talking shop right now.
If you're interested in this, this is This is great
for all of you out there who want to get
into all these things, because some of you may have
not heard of Maxon Mexan. They use for like transformers,
and but it's strong. It's powerful enough to do three
D rendering and three D animation, but simple enough that
(10:18):
you could do social media and social media marketing and
stuff like that. It just it runs the gambit, and
you know what, we got to finish up this first segment.
You know, wow, time flies in this show. When we
come back, we're gonna get into uh where been got
the bug for? Uh neon? And signs and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah sounds good. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
If you're listening to International scide Finders, Welcome back to
(11:01):
International sign Finders. Glad you're still with us. If you're
still with us after that first segment, keep on trucking
with us, because we're going to be going down the
interstate and talking about signs. We may talk about video editing,
video editing tools. We may talk about sasquatch, we are
going to get Sasquatch in here somehow. I don't know
how we're going to get him in here, even if
(11:21):
I have to bring him in fromround the hallway and
he goes, you know, just makes an appearance. So we've
got Ben Geyer go follow him on Instagram, Ben Geyer
g E I E R a photography over there on
the Instagram's are you on Flicker? Are you on the
Flicker guys too? Now?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
You know at one point I was, But yeah, I
kind of I kind of stopped doing it years ago.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
It's a commitment to do a lot of social media.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
It is. You know, it's like I just I started
doing like Blue Sky. I feel like I'm just all
over the place with like the social media.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
So I do. I do Twitter mostly for goof and around. Okay,
I just do a whole bunch of goofy crap on
my my Twitter account. Is I don't care what side
of the political aisle you're on. If if you're willing
to be goofy with me, I'm willing to be goofy
with you. I just don't care. And uh, you also
(12:17):
have your website. You want to plug it real fast? Uh?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, it's just it's Ben Geyer dot com, so you
guy or Ben, and then G E I E R
dot com.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Now we're gonna talk about you getting into signs, but
going down your Instagram feed, Instagram page, feed page, whatever.
There's so many different terms. I I'm too lazy to
keep up with them, even though I want to go
into social media. Yeah yeah, you know, if you want
(12:48):
to hire me out there, that's probably not a good
indicator that I really want to go into social media.
There's just so many different terms and I just forget them.
One of my favorite pictures of yours is there's a
sign in the middle of a field with these cows
staring at you.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Oh yeah, is the satellite cafe?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yep?
Speaker 2 (13:13):
That is? Yeah, now right along Route sixty six.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yeah wait, was that one of those ah ha moments
where you just like, I gotta slam up breaks and
get this.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Picture kind of so, I you know, it's when I
when I take photos, it's like I always want to
capture them at so many different times a day, which is,
you know, unless you're staying nearby, it's it's almost impossible.
And I was, you know, for that trip, I was
staying at the Mungermoss Hotel, which is on around sixty six,
(13:46):
oh yes, which is you know just a little you know,
four or five miles walk west of the Satellite Cafe sign,
so you know, terrible lighting. When I came through the
first time, and I just decided to know what I'm
going to wake up like really early tomorrow morning, just
after sunrise and like try and you know, capture the
signs so you know, it hits it in the right way.
(14:07):
And so when I when I rolled up, like you know,
the cows were there at that time, but they weren't
there such time, and it was it was like an
epic you know, obviously an epic shot. And usually when
I photographed like you know, cows like that, they they've
run from the camera or run from it. Yeah, that
was a moment where for some reason they just came
(14:29):
straight to me and so just it worked out.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
It was so great about that photo is I could
see a grunge band or a post grunge band from
the mid nineties early to mid nineties using that as
a photo for their album. It just frames up so well,
it's such a great photo. If they just you know,
add some contrast to it, maybe you know, black and white,
(14:56):
put some put some like grungey letters up there, perfect
like social distortion. I could see Social Distortion or even
like the later Pearl Jam albums. That'd be a great
Pearl Jam album cover. You know.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
The funny thing. The funny thing that the comment that
I always got on that was that it's like a
living Chick fil a ad. Yeah, because it's it's all
these cows that are just you know, promoting you know, chicken,
just like just down the road.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
That's so true. That is so true. So way, what
was the thing? What was the bug that or what
was a thing that initiated the bug to bite you?
To take pictures of signs?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Okay, so this is kind of funny actually. So when
I first you know, when I first like really really
got the bug to just like travel and do photography,
it was always about landscapes. Yeah, and just you know,
the outdoors and everything. So I'd always go to National parks.
I was, you know, super into it. But I live
in Illinois, so it's like, you know, I can only travel,
(15:59):
you know, you know a couple of weeks out of
the year. Yeah, and Illinois has the most you know,
boring landscape for for you know, outdoor.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Stuff I've been through.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Yes, Yeah, so I really started just like you know,
what is around here that I can you know, photograph
almost you know, every day, or just get out of
the house every day to go, you know, photograph something.
It was really more so like the abandoned places. Yeah,
so's you know. I did that for you know, a
(16:32):
handful of years. And then during the pandemic, I feel
like I was watching you know, a couple of different
movies Paris, Texas, uh, Nebraska, like No Country for Old
Men and there was who like movies that like just
they have those like really great like kind of rural
like towns that just have incredible some of them are
(16:57):
and signs, some of it's just good signage. Yeah, And
that was like that was kind of the moment where
I was I thought, like, you know what, I need
to like start finding all the ones in you know,
the Schygland area just you know, just right around me.
So it started there, and the more that I you know,
(17:17):
photographed these, I felt like it became more like of
an obsession where I, you know, I would spend entire
weeks traveling the other states to like try to you
know captures as many as you know, as I could,
and you know in the Stretcher Road that you know
I had planned out.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
And luckily been right there in Chicago. That you know,
that's the beginning of the Mother Road. Oh yeah, right,
which is you know another obsession of mine is just
about sixty six. So yeah, and uh, have you hooked
up with Reese Funk? He is the president of the
Route sixty six Association, like the whole rout Seacy sixth Association.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
And he's he he's in Oklahoma, right, Yeah, he's in Tulsa,
and uh, you know they're coming up on the hundredth
year anniversary. Yeah yeah, and twenty six.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah, yeah, in twenty six. And so he's putting together
a kind of a oral tradition, oral tradition, you know,
story type thing where he's trying to get people to
come on to his website to give their stories of
Route sixty six. I need to do that, Ah, I
(18:31):
need to do that. And with you, you know, Chicago, Hello,
and you've read you know Mugra Moss. I mean you've
got rest Caven right here. You've got both of the
iconic uh you know, the sister signs on your site
and so many more circus room that is Amarillo, right, yep,
(18:54):
that's great. I mean, jeez, I mean the QB one
of the creepiest dolls just going through your uh your
yeah a limo ohio on my that that QP Restaurant
is probably my favorite store front.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah. Creepous at the same time, Oh for sure, for sure.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Uh. I know, I'm, I'm, I'm multitasking and not multitasking
at the same time. But you know, you've got so
many stories already. I mean, you've already told me a
story of the cows. You know that. That's an amazing story.
I love it. Yeah, that's that's a once in a
lifetime story, especially like how many cows don't run from you?
(19:40):
That's awesome. Yeah. Uh So that will bring us to
the close of our second segment, uh or a third segment.
Do you have any stories that you want to tell
when we come back? I know, like, you know, we'll
get Yeah, we'll get into it.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah that sounds good. I like how it's going.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Yeah. Yeah, we'll just flow into it. Yeah. Sometimes people
have like, uh, when I talk to too much fire,
he had like a laundry list of things that you
wanted to talk to. I'm like talk about I'm like,
let's do it, and sometimes we just we just flow. Baby.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Yeah. So I will say though that, like I do
have a book coming out, which would the audit to
start to plug, like, let's do it come out until June,
but you know, somewhere towards the end, I would like
to plug that.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Let's plug it next, Let's plug it next. All right,
So when we come back, Ben's got a book. Ben's
got a book. So we'll talk about Ben's book when
we come back. And I will try not to sing
as much. You're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back
(20:57):
to International sign Finders. I'm your host, Drewernaty, and I
am slap happy and punch drunk and all these those
things above. I will not stop talking about this because
I am Adhd and I do that type of thing.
And we have big Guyer with us who is not
as Adhd as I am. But we're having fun. We're
talking about some crazy stuff. And we talked about the Koopie.
(21:19):
Is it the Coopie Cafe or Coopie Restaurant?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
I think it's Coopy Hamburger, swoopy Hator just as Hamburgers.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Maybe now I know there is a high school that
has the Koopie mascot. Yeah is that a yeah, we'll
look it up while we do this play. Also, good news,
Ben's got a book coming out. Let's let's talk about that.
What while I uh mindlessly looked this up because I
(21:48):
am obsessed, tell us about the book that's coming out, Ben.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, So I have a book coming out in June.
It's I think it's June tenth the date this year.
So I actually like we're sending it off to the
printer this Friday, So I'm excited about it. Uh. It
kind of just covers a lot of my signs.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
It's it's split into uh six sections. So one of
them is you know signs. One of them is roadside storefronts,
theaters uh blank, and on a couple of them restaurants
and hotels.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Oy kind of like your website.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Yeah yeah, right, Yeah, I feel like there's I don't
like I started to like, I don't know how to
quite describe like so as I you know, as I
took all these photos, I feel like as I start
to kind of bucket them all out, like they're they're
more they're more impressive as as groups. So I kind
(22:54):
of felt like doing a book was just it made sense.
You know, there's there's so much consistency, and you know
the way storefronts look or the way you know, all
these abandoned theaters look. They have such great you know,
typography and bold colors, and I just feel like as
a as a kind of a good curated like grouping,
(23:14):
they they they're impressive.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Especially theaters. Theaters are really impressive together.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Yeah, right, And you know, I've done abandoned photography for
so long, so it's like there's so many people like,
you know, they're all about getting inside and you know,
you know, taking photos of just the interiors and everything,
but there's I'm I'm more obsessed with the exteriors. Yeah,
(23:40):
I just feel like there's the mid century kind of
look to them.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
The urban decay or not even just urban decay there,
there's just just nature taking over what man has for sure.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
And you know, the colors that they used to use
versus today, you know, the signage is just incredible, the type,
the typefaces they use, the colors, the geometric patterns, the
stripes and all that stuff. It's just they're they're so cool.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Yeah, that's one of the coolest things about going through
UH like Nebraska and Kansas, UH, parts of Texas and
even Oklahoma City. I've noticed that you've gotten through Oklahoma
City is something old like the Yale Theater and the
May Theater, and they're off of May Street. Some of
(24:36):
those old theaters have those cool like you said, the letters,
the stripes, even those abandoned wind still have that essence
of yesteryear. And you could steal the ghost of the past.
I don't want to say haunt you, but still bring
back that which was. And if I'm if I'm re
(25:00):
peting what you're saying, let it be an amen to
what you just said, because you're not. You're not. Yeah,
but amen to what you just said. Because you know,
growing up in eastern North Carolina, we had some of
those old theaters. I just don't remember them as well.
Like we had the Taylor Twin there in Edenton, North Carolina.
(25:21):
We had this one called the Columbia Theater, which I
don't remember, okay, because we didn't go to that part
of town. It wasn't a bad part of town, it's
just we just didn't go there. We didn't have any
too yeah, and the Plymouth Theater. I just don't remember
the lights being on. Uh we went there, it just
(25:44):
was kind of run down already. Yeah, but you know,
like the Tower Theater in Oklahoma City, Holy cow.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yeah, they they did a good, great job, like we're
staring that, you know, years ago. Oh, I mean, yeah,
so good.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
I don't I don't know. You've probably heard from my
past episodes. I I talk about the three things getting there,
finding parking, and the awe factor, right, Yea. Sometimes it
takes a minute or two just to gather yourself before
you could take the picture because you're just like, oh
(26:19):
my gosh, am I seeing what I'm seeing? Because yeah,
you can see the pictures, but being up close and
in person is just like it's just.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Completely Yeah, there's nothing blows your mind like it.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
So continue on, continue on. I took your time now.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
So yeah, the six chapters, Yeah, I'm looking forward. It's
being put up by a publisher called Trope. They do
like really great kind of like more like artistic just
like art art prints and just art art books. So
you know, they they've done some kind of some kind
of like art books in the past, but more so
(27:03):
they really focus on photography, but everything just kind of
feels like just the physical books always kind of feel
like it like it an art piece. So I'm really
excited about it.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Now do they now is it trope dot com?
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I think it's maybe true. Yeah, it should be trope
dot com. Let me double check though.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Well does that com?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Because yeah they art see fartsy Holy cow? I love
the books just that. Yeah, it just has that you know,
you're you're coming, you're stepping into an art, an art
what is it?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Art show? When you were looking at these pieces.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Of right, I think that's the book that's really like
what they strive for with their books.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah you you you really stepped
into something good here, buddy. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Well, yeah, so good on you. So uh of all
your photos that you've taken, I know this is kind
of like which of my children do I love the most? Uh?
What is one that you keep going back to that
You're just like, man, I just it just catches your
(28:20):
eye no matter where what it's like, yeah, I'll catch
your eye, but this one you just keep going back
to it that You're just like, I love it.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Well, you said rest Haven earlier. That is definitely one
of my favorite.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
And you know, another thing that I haven't really talked about,
but another thing that I love to do is like
you know, when I when I'm photographing these places, I
will set a time set aside like time to actually
film them, just because I feel like just just doing
little videos around these places, because I mean, who knows
(28:55):
how much longer like any of these places will true
be around. And you know a lot of these signs
are you know great, they animate in great ways, so
you know, like the starlight and in Mesa, Arizona, and
the doghouse and like so I like in Elbuquerque, like
(29:19):
I love to, like, you know, photograph them, but I
also like to just set as set a time or
set aside like some time to like film them with
a video camera for a while, just so I can
kind of, uh just capture like the animations and just
the overall like ambient vibe of the scene in a
(29:39):
weird way.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I know I'm using this term wrong, but it's kind
of like an ethnography of the place. I know I'm
using that term wrong. At Darker the scientific description of
customs of individual peoples and cultures kinda is right, but
it's kind of not right as well, because you're getting
(30:01):
the vibe of the area.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
You're Yeah, it's it's like the whole scene. It's like,
you know, a photograph only does so much. Yeah, but
it's like, you know, I want to capture like the
you know, the cars going by, like the sound, the
sounds of the neon, like all of those songs I
think is like very important to the you know, like
if it's a glitching animation you're getting right, which I
(30:28):
it's weird because sometimes I don't hear the glitching animation. Uh.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
We have the Continental Club here in Houston, and one
time it was glitching. I have a video of it
up on my uh uh page, and it's glitching. It's
glitching awesome, but I didn't hear it. Seriously, And everybody's
like I love the sound of like, you know, neon
(30:54):
and stuff like that, Like I honestly don't hear the
hum of neon. And I wonder if my hearing needs
to be chick act.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
To be honest with you, yes, some signs don't have
like sometimes it's not very loud, yeah, I know, like
but like I don't know if that's just a sign
off it's starting to starting to go, or yeah, I'm
not sure.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Or maybe I'm an alien from another planet. You heard
it here, folks, I'm Sasquatch now see I got it
in there. Yeah. Oh uh. The the high school where
the coops the Qpies are the mascot is David Henry
Hickman High School. Yeah, out of Columbia, Missouri. Some of
(31:35):
their famous alumni alumni are US and state members of
Congress Frederick Chapman Robbins. I don't know who he is.
I don't care, and he won the Nobel Prize for medicine.
And also Sam Walton comes from there. You know Walker's
founder Kenneth lay He He's was the CEO of Enron.
(32:00):
So go qbs and also uh for their rivals Battle
High School, We're coming for you, go QTS. So yeah,
that bit of information was unnecessary, but no, that's awesome.
You got to you got to coming through. And also
I love that you you you sit there and you
(32:21):
get the video. Also one what I also have to
give you credit. I don't know if you used a
boom or if you use the clone not a clone
but a drone. They rhyme to get that really cool
shot of a blue swallow and toucum carry. It was
(32:42):
drone man. That is a cool shot getting at that
angle because number one, I know, a hundred million people
get a picture that that sign.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
That neon sign. I I know it is a cliche,
but it's one of my favorite signs of all time.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Oh it's the same, same, and right, I know it's
like cliche, but I kind of don't even care, like
it's yeah, I mean I do try to like find
like new ways to photograph it, but at the some time,
like it's just it's so iconic, it's so good. It's
icond of because it's so good.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah. And also you got the neon trim around the
buildings that surround the main building. Yeah. That all Wow,
I just realized we're at that man, you son of
a gun. That is awesome. Yeah. So you know what.
(33:45):
On that note, we're gonna come back. We're gonna end
this segment of International sign Finders. When we come back,
we'll get into other hygiinks and nonsensory and we'll talk
about some of his photos of old abandoned and old
(34:07):
school gas stations. I love old school gas stations. One
of my favorites is there in Robins, Wyoming, and you're
listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders.
(34:36):
Glad you're still with us if I haven't running you
off with oh my nonsensical sayings, you are an awesome person.
Even if you've run off, You're okay, but we still
love you anyway. We've got the awesome big guyer with us.
Go follow him on Instagram, Instagram, dot com front slash
(34:59):
Ben Geyer fat giography. You can also find him on
the WWW's at Bengeier dot com. I think it's now
HTTPS for security sake, but you know he takes pictures
of not just you know, everybody's favorite stuff, you know,
(35:19):
like neon signs, hand painted signs, abandoned places. Oh the
picture of the ed Sel, Holy cal that I love
that you got the grill of the ed Sel. That
that is such a mid century grill right, Oh my gosh,
Oh I love the Edzel grill. It's so different. Love it.
(35:43):
But also you you took time to take photos of
those old school either abandoned gas stations or just you know,
keepsake pieces, music in pieces, old gas stations. The reason
(36:03):
why I love you know, I love them because they're
so cool. There's a place here in Houston where the
guy's garage area is just filled to the gills with
nothing but old gas station memorial Manlia I may have
trespassed over his fence and took pictures of it.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
I may have to held you where that is. I
do have a trip planned to Texas in early May
where it's I'm gonna be there for like a week.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
I can find it. Look, I can find it. It
feared was a little Mexico taste of Mexico. I think
somewhere around there we can find it. And Zach, it's
near an Zach Street. Okay, yeah, have all the streets
to be named an Zach Street, which is really cool.
(36:57):
But the reason one of the one of the old
gas stations that has my heart will always have my
heart is I was my wife's grandparents had this old
Windstar van that they gave to us, and they have
a place in Park City, Utah, and they're getting up
(37:19):
in age. My wife's grandfather passed away during COVID twenty
twenty one, I think, and the van was in their
duplex quadplex place, and like my wife's mom and their
siblings rent out the place, you know, like an airbnb
type thing a timesh Yeah, and so they wanted the
(37:42):
van gone out of there, and so we were like
the only ones that are like, yeah, we'll take it.
It's a two thousand and three. We just had to
fly out to Salt Lake City get up to Park City,
which is an interesting ordeal if you're taking public transport
to it's easy, but it's interesting as well. And they
(38:06):
drive it back to Texas. Okay, sounds interesting, sounds like fun.
Two thousand and three. Okay, it's a twenty year old van.
So I'm driving it across Wyoming. Which have you traveled
across Wyoming yet?
Speaker 2 (38:20):
I have?
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah? Okay, it's.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Barren, Yeah, desolate, desolate.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
More interesting than Kansas, I will say, and Nebraska because
there are mountains that you can see. So I stop
in the metropolis of Rawlins that is the home of
the state penitentiary and also the state capital of Crystal Meth,
which I've heard of. What and everybody's learning something new
(38:51):
on this episode of International scip par Renders. So, uh,
I stopped, get something to eat, fill up, I go
to on my car nothing, try to get nothing. I'm
freaking out, like I am in this is where this
this story? Oh yeah nothing, it's going nowhere. My fuel
(39:12):
pump went out and the closest fuel pump that we
could get is it Denver, and we take it it
till the next day. So uh where they had me
in the Cono Lodge down about a couple of miles
down the road. So I have to walk from Thecono
Lodge to uh the tire factory where they're fixing my car,
(39:36):
and on the walk is this cool old Texico station
and I take pictures of it because it is such
a neat place and it breaks up the walk and
there's also some cool signs and rawlins as well. And
then I call it my buddy in Twin Falls, Idaho.
I was like, yeah, I'm in Rawlins. He's like, do
(39:57):
you have a gun? No? Should I have? Boys Like,
I'm I live in Houston. I've been to parts of
Houston that people tell me not to go. It's like
you live in Chicago. He's that, yeah, you should it,
Crystal Meth. I'm like, okay, all right, so but no,
that's the reason why. But for you, what is it
(40:19):
about these old school gas station I just took up
a lot of time. Uh sorry. What is it about
these old school gas stations that just does it for you?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I mean it's always it's always the signage, it's the colors,
it's it's it's I feel like it's like always a
perfect blend of kind of mid century design, whereas and typography.
You know, like you drive down like any highway nowadays,
(40:50):
and it's like you you see any gas station, any
sign that's you know, like you know, seventy five feet tall,
like you know McDonald, it's nothing's none of it's like
it's not attractive, it's not unique. It's like, yeah, it's
just it's really not. So. I feel like when I
(41:10):
find one of these places, it's, uh it's got like
some stopping power.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Yeah, what is which one? Is there one recently that
made you beat the brakes out of your car to
stop and get it.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
There? Definitely is? Uh So there's one in Michigan, Okay,
I'm blanking on the name of It's in a car museum.
I think it's called the Gilmore Gilmore Car Museum, and
it's it's a reproduction of a shell gas station. I
visited it like when it was like maybe a week
until Halloween, so they had it like, you know, they
(41:56):
had their typical kind of like shell you know color
where it's you know, bright yellow, bright orange, bright red,
but it was just lined with pumpkins and it was
just it's one of it's one of my favorite photos
that I've taken, and it's one that I can't I
can't sell, so it kills me. I mean, the museum
(42:19):
has like some some like you know, restrictions on which
you can actually publish and stuff like that, but it's
it's truly like one of my my my favorite photos
that I've ever taken.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
Oh dang it. Now, have you ever been down to
Rock Sanna, Illinois?
Speaker 2 (42:36):
I have not. I don't even know if I actually
have heard of Rock Sanna.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Oh, Rock Sanna, Which.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Is crazy because I feel like I've I've covered so
much Illinois ground.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
It is is southern Illinois, down towards Saint Louis. The
only reason I know about this is there was an
old website. Because I've already told you that I kind
of hinted that I really like high school mascots. Uh,
there's a shell refinery I think in Rock Sanna. Okay,
mascot are the shells really, And like if you go
(43:09):
to rock Sanna Shells dot com, you will see that
their mascot symbol is the shell shell shell. Yeah, so
you're talking about shells. I'm like, I can't remember. I
know there's one in Illinois. Like at first I thought
it was Rock Island, but they're the Rock Island Rocks.
(43:29):
But yeah, I was like, yep, Roxanna Shells. So you know,
it's just so cool that you know, I make these
weird you know, correlations. But you know, you have something
so I don't want to say mundane as a company,
(43:49):
but you have this cool museum piece. Then it's still
there where people could go up and take pictures of
it and deal. You have that piece of Americana that
triggers memories and yeah, absolutely, and then it triggers a
weird memory in me of this high school in southern
(44:11):
Illinois outside of Saint Louis, of the shells and and
and that's that's the cool thing about all these different
little venn diagrams of how you know, like you could
be talking about something like like you know, like antiquing. Yeah,
(44:32):
we could be talking about like old school gas pumps
and there gonna be someone out there listening to us talk,
you know, hearing you talk about the shell or gas
or home's saying you know what, I know where some
gas pumps are that you can come take the patriots off. Yeah,
they can get in contact with you.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
I feel like that's what Instagram has been like so
great for It's just like the recommendations that come through.
Uh you know of somebody that you know, they in
some small town in Illinois that they're making a recommendation
to like, you know, come shoot their you know, their grandfathers,
you know service station. It's like, yeah, it's it's been
(45:10):
like incredible to make connections through Instagram. You yeah, yeah,
really great.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
See and all you know what, we come full circle.
He even my ADHD side roads come to circle. So
we have ten minutes to go. Uh so we're gonna
end this segment. When we come back, we're gonna get
into your bucket list places some places I haven't been yet,
(45:38):
and we're gonna you know, finish this off strong and
I will try not to get off to some side
roads because Rollin's Wyoming. You may be the crystal meth
capital of Wyoming, but you have a place in our hearts.
You're listening to international sign finders. Welcome back to international
(46:11):
sign finders. I have just alienated Central Wyoming. I'm so sorry,
Ralis I really do like your town. I yeah, wow,
but we love you Wyoming. Here's the thing. If you're
a sign finder and you haven't been to Wyoming, it
(46:32):
doesn't matter if you're in a town like Rock Springs, Evanston, Laramie,
or you're in a small middle of the nowhere place
like the middle of the Teton Forest. You will find
meon like Arch the Archer Dude Ranch. I believe it's
(46:53):
the Archer Dude Ranch in the middle of a forest.
It's like I was coming out of Due Boys, Wyoming
one time and just heading towards Jackson, Wyoming. Do Boys
nine hundred one thousand people maybe have some cool little
signage there too, Just going right through the middle of
the forest middle. You know, it feels like you're going
(47:15):
to do a bad horror movie. All of a sudden,
brightened me on in the middle of nowhere. You're right
there to dude Ranch. You're like, all right, I'm waiting
for aliens to come snatch my body they or something,
So all right, enough of me am I weird stories?
(47:38):
All right, Ben, this is being Geyer. Go follow him
Instagram dot com front slash Bangeyer Photography that should be
just like assumed Instagram dot com front slash so bangeyr
Photography over Instagram dot com. Also you can find him
at Bangeyer dot com as well. So we always love
to hear where people would love to go or go
(48:00):
again or maybe even go back into the past and
photograph as sign. It's up to you where you want
to take this. So we have five minutes left. Sure,
where are some of your bucket list places you'd love
to go to.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
It's such a tough one because I don't know how else,
like how else, like anybody you know like tracks where
they want to go. But it's like for the last
like I don't know, six seven years, I have this
Google map where I just I constantly. Then you know,
it's like within a week I may pin fifty places.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Yeah, it's just you know, like again like I feel
like I'm plugging Instagram or something like that, but I'm
but I follow some of me like incredible photographers that
you know, they live all over the country. So it's
like they they're introducing you to like places that are
you know, maybe a sign that's like right down the
street for them. But I'm always you know, keeping track
(49:02):
of those. So for me, it's always I I wait
until I have like a good grouping of of pims
and I could you know, spread a whole trip out
of it. So, I mean my next big trip is
is to Texas.
Speaker 1 (49:19):
Yeah, come on down. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
So so I mean I fly into Dallas, I go
straight up to Oklahoma City. But then I come back
and you know, through Odessa and you know, I'm definitely
hitting up Austin and San Antonio and yeah, I mean
there's there's this Houston. There's just so many places to
to see. I go on a work trip tomorrow to uh, California,
(49:46):
so it's just like I'll be you know, hitting stops there. Yeah.
And then uh. I would have to say, though, my
like the place that I would act absolutely like bucket
like place that I would love to go to, which
so many people have been, but I don't care. It's
that t W A hotel. Yeah, oh my god. It's
(50:08):
just the architecture there, the signage, like just just like
interiors and everything about it. It's just it's like peak
for me. It's like it's the best.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
Color Race Spiegel. Uh he I you know he has
gotten some great photos. I think him and them your
grabbit cheers. Yeah, I mean they lit that place up,
just took some amazing photos at that place. And what
surprised me if mis Matador from Toronto also got that
place as well. Okay, some amazing photos from them.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Yeah. Yeah, I talked to the Will from.
Speaker 1 (50:49):
Uh yeah, Will grab it.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
Yeah, he's so cool, seriously, such a great guy. But yeah,
I've seen him and Color Color by Spiegel have been there,
and it's just like those are the photos where I'm like,
I look at I'm like, hush, I wish I wish
I could be there. Yeah, I'll make it. Uh.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
They've got like the little little group. Of course, I
forget the name of the grou uh. And then you
get onto me for forgetting it, and Deborah Ja's wound
be like it's the it's the name. I'd be like,
I know, I just forget. Uh. We had me and
Deborah Jane have some really cool conversations behind the scenes.
(51:34):
May I have to also say, you're your photo of
round Up Cleaners I know I'm taking away from your time,
but your photo of round up Cleaners is amazing. I
love that. I love that sign as well because it's
one of those signs where it's eye level.
Speaker 2 (51:50):
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was when I when I
first took a photo of it, I was like, I
don't know how I want to like photograph this. It's
I mean's a hard one to photography because it's because
it's eye level.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
Yeah, but that's also the the the appeal to it
is its eye level. Yea. And also, uh, I have
to also give you credit for you have that one
photo where it's an abandoned house. It's it's rady as
all get out with that uh TV in the corner
(52:24):
and you masked out, you massed out the windows and
put like moving parts to it, and you made it
like a horror scene. Oh yeah, yes man, you do
like after effects and Premiere pro doc. Yeah that's right. Yeah.
So uh guilty, Okay, I gotta give you Okay any more?
(52:48):
Uh any more? Uh bucket list places before I take
any more of your time.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Uh no, No, the t w A is definitely top
of list.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
Okay, Well, I betre to let you go. Uh, I
gotta get to work myself. But uh, any shout outs, Well,
we'll give you a couple shout outs. Then we got
to hit the road running.
Speaker 2 (53:12):
Uh No, I feel like, uh guilty because I just
want to plug the book that that'll come out in June.
So that's about it.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
Okay, everybody, he's got a book coming out, Uh get it. Uh,
it's been a pleasure been having you on. H thank
you so much for agreeing to the mad house that
I have brought you into for this now.
Speaker 2 (53:34):
I really appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
Yeah, it's been a blast. And uh so go and
follow him Ben Geyer Photography that's be in g E
I E R Photography over Instagram. Uh it's been Geyer
dot com. That's his website. And once again, when you
go out this weekend to go take pictures photos, be safe,
(53:57):
have fun and also share your photo. We don't care
if you have one follower or one hundred thousand followers
or even more. I don't think you can have any less,
but just go out there, have fun, share them. We
don't care if we've seen the place a hundred times
or no times, and share them with us. Have fun
and be safe. Until next time, Happy sign finding
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.