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 back with us. Holy cow. I've been busy this
past few months. School's catching up with me, work catching up.
I'm working seven days a week right now. If I
get sleep, I'm lucky. But today we have someone If
you're in the sign community, you'll notice him commenting on
(00:39):
people's photos, liking a lot of photos, and just giving
a lot of encouragement to the sign finding community. I
wanted to have him on, wanted to have him on
for a while. We finally are able to do this.
Welcome everybody to the show. Jared Presley, are are you Jared? Yeah? Sorry,
(01:03):
I kind of blanked out there for a second. I'm
sorry about that. So yeah, I want you introduce yourself
to the to everybody.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
That's a load of questions. So you mean as far
as just instm or just as in general, however you
want to do it. I mean, we can do Insteagram.
Let's let's let's marrow it down Instagram. Okay, I'll start
with that. So yeah, it didn't and it just kind
of happened where a lot of the photos I posted
resonated a lot with like people who like signs. So
(01:37):
it's the Instagram I account I have. It's more than
just that. People have asked me why I don't separate it,
and I've told them it just makes it more confusing
if I do it by different things I'm interested in,
so I just keep it all in one. So, but
it just ended up that a lot of people follow
me and liked what I did with the sign stuff.
(01:59):
And that's just kind of how it just kind of
built to that. It wasn't I didn't intend that to
be the thing case. It just kind of delpt up
to that, which is fine. I enjoy it, Yeah, and
as other people. I mean, I obviously I do like
looking at the sign accounts, but there's also other like
Mesity accounts, et cetera that I do look at. So
it just as far as what a lot of people
(02:20):
followed me over the years, that's kind of just what
a build up is. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Uh And it's kind of like uh B Bailey's account.
B Bailey does a lot of signs, but he also
does a lot of old cars in nostalgia.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yes, and something he's really into.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, and he's he's great. The dude can tell stories
for days. If you ever get a chance to talk
to him. But when I think you started following me
or we started communicating after I shared a picture of
say Dean's downtown in Houston, because did you play a
gig there.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yes, I'll explain, especially for those who aren't familiar of Houston.
So it's near like the the railcar away, like the
streetcar that place. So Dean's. It's not called Dean's. Well,
the building is and the sign is. But yeah, there's
a venue there, and I believe it's still there called
not basically it's Easton spelled backwards. Oh yeah, I don't
(03:21):
know if you ever been to a show there. I'm
still pretty sure they still have shows there and it's there.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
It's like an all of one place almost.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah. Yeah, and next door because I went there during
like after the show, there's like a they had a
DJ there on the building next to it, which is
pretty much an easy credit building. Yeah, they're like connected.
So I think it was because you shared that. That's
how I found out about it. I played in a
(03:49):
couple of places in Houston. The other one was Super
Happy fun Land, which is a very weird place. It's
kind of off of Polk Street, so that part of town.
It's an odd building. It's an odd part of town,
not like not to do that was more. That's like
more of a historic part of town.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
It's very downtown and super heavy fun Land Polk Street, Yeah,
that's that's kind of the arts seed. Yeah. Yeah, it's
Oh that's Edo, that's over an Edo second Ward.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yes. Yeah, it's one of the most probably and this
is no joke, the strangest venue I've ever been at. Yeah,
and that's no exaggeration. It's hard to do. They had
all these toys and dolls inside that are all these couches.
It was just weird. I liked it. It was just
(04:42):
of all the places I've been around the country, it's
just as far as the music venue. It's odd, and
I believe it's still going on.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Oh yeah it does. One of the cool things about
super Happy fun Land, now that you're reminded me of it.
I go by there every so often. Uh, on my
little ventures. I have been going out as much lightly
because of work, and yes, seven days a week sucks.
They have the mural on one side of all the
(05:11):
horror monsters like the brighter brighter frankenstroin right of Frankenstein
if I could say your name, Uncle Fester, the weird
smiling like hamas the tank engine fronts in a way. Yeah,
those have been there. I mean it's got murals all
(05:33):
around it.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I just haven't been there since twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, that may be new, uh compared to them you
knew or yeah, But I'm.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Glad it's still there because what happened not long after
that point was the floods if you remember, Oh yeah,
I believe, just like just months afterwards, in twenty seventeen. Yeah,
so I was lucky I was able to play then
and not during floods where everything was pretty much canceled underwater. Literally.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yeah. I don't know if you got over to the aquarium,
but I think that's along Buffalo by you uh, and
the aquarium sits probably six seven feet above the of
the by you bottom, and that flooded. That whole thing flooded,
uh uh, the place where all the sharks are at.
(06:27):
The ones the ones that survived were like the bottom
feeding sharks, like the sawfish and other things like that.
They could handle brackish water. They can handle it fine.
But yeah, I think they lost a few fish in
that that part of the aquarium.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
But that was nationwide news.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Oh yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
My parents knew about it. So like I moved people okay,
but basically people friends that I knew of who never
been to Houston.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I heard about it.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
It was nationwide news.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Oh yeah, my Uh. We moved to Houston on July
the fourth or fifth of that year, okay, yeah, and
we were about the we were trying to close on
a house and then her then Harvey hit and so
we're all trapped in you know. Luckily we were in
(07:19):
a part of the Houston Metroplex area up in Humble area,
which is to me, it's technically Houston. It all connects.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
But it wasn't hit as hard I should.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Say, no, no, uh not like you know, like Third
Ward and downtown Midtown all the geese, uh like clear
I think clearly got hammered pretty hard too. I was
still getting used to the area, new to the area,
and uh it was it was. It was crazy. I
(07:51):
hadn't seen that much water come down from the skies
since ninety nine in North Carolina when we had two
hurricanes hitting to weeks and it flooded us pretty bad too.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I was lucky that I was there in April that year,
because a few months later, both of those venues were
closed for a significant amount of time too. Luckily they reopened.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
But it happens, like you said, luckily because you know,
there's still gosh, I don't know, there's there's been a
lot of reconstruction in those areas. But it wasn't surprising
me if there are a lot of old venues, they're
just like, we can't, you know, this is too much money.
Especially yes, oh my gosh ya the marquee too over
(08:40):
in Rice Village wet University Place area slash West University.
It's it's basically the Rice University area. Yeah, he was
doing everything he could just to stay afloat everything. I mean,
he was making posts and just you know, and they
were kind of doing the whole They relaxed a lot
(09:02):
of the liquor laws so you could do almost like
home delivery of like Margarita's.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Just to cheap himself aflow. As far as there's a
lot of venues closed nationwide, yeah, it's still tendantally recovering
from it, oh yeah, the worldwide two. As far as
just egonomically recovering from.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
It and also academically my wife sees it if she's
a teacher, and I think my oldest probably got her
a little bit with it. She's she started kindergarten that year.
Carved carvid a selected from Southern Utah COVID. Yeah, so
(09:47):
we'll end the first segment here. When we come back,
my phone will let me know that I should be
wrapping up this segment. When we come back, we'll get
into some other places that Jared's travel to and seeing
different venues, different signs, everything. Uh, this is gonna be
(10:08):
kind of a free form today because I just woke up.
I have worked tonight, So when we come back, we'll
get more into that. You're listening to International sign Finders.
(10:40):
Welcome back to International sign Finders. Glad you're still with us.
We have Jared Presley on go follow him on all
his socials. So where are you at on the on
the social spaces.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Well, I'm on band camp and Spotify. That's with my music.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Go ahead plug him? Uh what's your band camp?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Site?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
So's it would be Jared Presley bandchamp dot com. Okay,
or just type in my name and bandchamp and it'll
direct you there. And as far as Instagram, it's just
my name, Jared Presley five. The reason Jared Presley was
never available available to me to someone else who has
that account, who's never used it. It's like one of
those empty champs that has that name.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
One of those placeholders. It's almost like people who buy
who buy up like web addresses. Hopefully somebody will come
buy and buy it from them.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
It's fine. I don't care, It's it's fine. Eh.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
It's more memorable that way. Jared Presley five. Uh? And
was was five just available for you? Or was it
just like you like the number five.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Number?
Speaker 1 (11:53):
It's like me and the number ninety nine. I used
to use ninety nine and everything. Uh, that was my
favorite number. I wish I ad a warrant in football,
but they didn't have the jersey. So uh, as we
were talking about, you know, Houston and Jared's coming to
Houston and doing a lot of stuff at a few
(12:14):
of the venues, we got to get into signs. Uh
forgive me for my exhaustion, but he Yeah, And I
also got to give a lot of credit to Jared
for keeping me on the straight and arrow right now,
because well, you be talking about you know, the hoe
dag up in Wisconsin by this time, if if my
mind was going the way it is. So signs, what
(12:37):
got you into signs? Jared?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
So, I mean as far as Instagram, I like phetagraphing
my travels and that kind of blew up. But from
the initial point, like when I was a kid, I
always thought they were interesting. The thing is, when I
was growing up, I didn't grew up in the city,
so the amount of cool signs I saw was very,
very limited. So I say, is when I did. Some
(13:03):
people have a different experience with that, and like there's
some people on Instagram, you know that pretty much grew
up around the place, but it had a lot of
cool stuff. So whenever I did see them, it wasn't
it was rare, but there was still some cool stuff
that I have memories of. So, yes, I grew up
in Indiana and Ohio River, on the Ohio.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
River pretty much like southern Indiana.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yes, okay, so when I did, and my grandmother did
as well, but she was further down. So when we
visited her. There's a couple a few places that had
like murals and signs. One of them is still there,
like old seed mills and had like the ghost type
on it. And it's a couple of places that old
mills that had like these murals long gone is one
(13:49):
of them that's been gone decades now that I still remember.
It's been demolished, but it's just stuff like that when
I was one of my parents are driving me to
my grandmother's as a kid, that I remembered. So those
are my early memberies of signs. Yeah, everyone's in Indiana,
like and mostly they're like on old like mill buildings.
(14:11):
I mean, it's Indiana, so there wasn't I didn't really
have a lot of experience with like neon signs until
old That all depends on where you're at, So that's
basically I just always thought they looked cool. There's no
deep story beyond that.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
That's great because you know, it doesn't have to be
necessarily deep. Yeah, Like for me, I I kind of
categorize sign finders into a few different camps. You have
like the ooh it's pretty, which I'm in. I'm definitely
in the oo it's pretty. Yeah, the people who uh
who know the history, the backstory, all that stuff, and
(14:51):
then you have like the folks who go the extra mile,
like Heather David in San Jose who actually is actively
uh trying to restore signs back to their old glory
or safe signs and stuff like that. So I am
completely in the ooh it's pretty no, but we need
people like that.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah, just before before I could get so, I'm in
Cincinnati now there is the American Sign mese.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Yes, I was going to ask you about that.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yeah, and that is something I've not I've met Todd before. Okay,
have you been there? Off hand? I wish have you
been there? I have sat far away, I trust me, man,
I drove through the country. I know that's very far away.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
No, I used to live in Uh. I went to
school in Western Virginia and we went through Cincinnati a
few times on road trips, but we never stopped.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Well it's yeah, okay, so the museum, it wasn't there
at that point. It's only been there for like maybe
fourteen years now.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, that was definitely way beyond fourteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, but I'm saying, if you have the chance or
anyone listening, it is worth seeing. And I've met the
owner of Todd before they do at the Flavorstore signs.
There's a lot of history behind it. I always you've
seen photos. It's a museum devoted to American signs and
they just start serving them.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
And they just opened up the main street section of
the did Yeah have you have you been in there
since they've opened that up?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
What what's it like?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
The photos don't do it justice. It's upthen like it's
worthsgoing if you're visiting Cincinnati, but I'll warn you, I
wouldn't go just for the museum. This other cool stuff.
And where the museum is at is in Camp Washington.
I used to have a studio down there. It's in
a industrial part of town. It's it's kind of a
(16:42):
rough part of town. Some people might say, is it.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Kind of like an artsy because we have several parts.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
To actual museum. Yeah, the actual museums in a rough
part of town. But there's a lot of cool stuff nearby.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Whenever I'm traveling to play a different city, I always
try to find cool stuff, you know. Yeah, and every
city's different. I try to look at the positives, you know,
there's always something worth exploring.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Oh yeah, and even like here in Houston, some of
the older I guess skeleton signs could be and technically
rough parts of town I've had places where people look
at me funny.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
But it's still every every town, every city, I should say,
has that, but you know it's still cool. Or explore
those parts of town.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Oh yeah, and there's some really hidden gems in those
parts of town, like Magnolia Park. One of my favorite
little signs is, uh it's just simple like script neon
memos number one, memos, record shop number one, I believe
it is. It's a neat like channel letters with neon
(17:49):
inside on the side of an old Mexican music store
and they have all these cool like murals based off
of like famous singers from Mexico when uh Textmac singers
and Martino and stuff like that on the outside. So
uh yeah, don't, as I tell people, keep your hand
at swivel, always keep your head in a swivel. Oh yeah.
(18:13):
But also two, sometimes you do have to go into
the quote unquote reeferent parts of town to find some
of these hitting gyms.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah, but you also can find like besides just signs,
like different architectures. Oh yeah, there's there's a lot to
say to explore. Unfortunately for me, for Houston, I was
only there for two days because I went to New
Orleans after.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
That, oh wow, yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah, And I just wish I would have had more time,
but it's like any city met anyone else, there's only
so much time. At some point. I'd like to visit
Houston again, only more textas in general. I mean, it's
a mid steak. There's a lot I would like to see.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Yeah kidding, So that will bring Yeah, man, you're driving
to Amarillo was a day. That's that's a day from Houston.
So that'll bring us to the end of our second segment.
When we come back, we'll get more to signs and
some of Jared's travels and you know what, you never
know what what you'll hear here on International sign Finders.
(19:16):
Uh So we'll be back after these messages. Welcome back
(19:42):
to International sign Finders. We have the great Jared Presley.
Go find him on Instagram. Jared Presley five. Got just
remember Short Circuit Johnny five, Jared Presley five. There's no
connection there, but that's the way I remember it. So
Jared Presley five, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
About three decades at least. It's been a long time.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Since you seen that movie, like thirty years ago. Yeah,
I love it. I used to watch my grandmother pirated
it off of Busney Channel. We'd get this is back
when was it? Yeah? Oh yeah, where you were you
videotaped it off of like satellite. Uh, this wasn't on
(20:26):
cable then, and so uh yes, she would send us
videotapes of all these Disney movies and we got short
Circuit and I would I'd watch it a few quite
a bit. I loved it. That stupid robot was so lovable.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Uh, but we're talking about different places you've been. I mean,
you've been like to all over the.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Country, haven't you also summer Europe?
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Really, so I'm saving up money. I've just bills payments,
you know how it as. But oh hey, my next destination.
Destination I want to go to is Japan for multiple reasons.
I really like mandra anime. I've been to anime cons
before and it's just something that's been on my list.
But as far as Europe, it's been England, France and Italy.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Are there's still lots to be there.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yes, And as far as science, yes, I did get
to see some really cool signs in Europe, very different
than America obviously, but one in particular was have you
been to Europe.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Not yet, It's on my bucket list. I need to
get to English. Yeah, for me, England that's well, at
least the British Isles, because I'm Irish and Northern Irish,
so uh, Saint Patrick's stay is a confliction for me.
British my last name is British my real last name,
(21:55):
and I've got some Scottish in me too, So I
want to get English.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Being in the foreign trenchary where they that's not the
main language, it does post challenges. I'm not saying not
to do it. It definitely gets you outside of your
comfort zone. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
But my mother in law found out when she went
through Paris that if she brought her little book along
with her, her you know, English to French book, and
she tried, if she actually tried to speak French, they
were more likely to help her than I was supposed
to her just going to someone in English saying hey,
you speak.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
English, you don't know. Don't ever ever do that. Oh yeah,
I've been warned, don't ever just walk up to someone
with English. At least learn enough to ask if you
can speak English in their language or something like that, yes,
and they'll be to say like see or no I
(22:51):
depending on.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
And also Handjester's work too. I had a coworker she
she could you know, we couldn't speak to each other.
But sometimes hand gestures do work. They do look funny,
but sometimes they can work. I'm probably wrong about that,
but I've had Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Despite a lot of bad things that come with technology,
I would say, like with Google Translate, I know it's flawed,
but for like translator apps that are coming out, and
it's trying to get to the point where on one
side someone's going to speak Spanish and it will come out
English and someone on the other side speaking English come
out Spanish.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
They've already got technology like that, Yes, but I'm saying
where it's very fast and very efficient and still in
the early stages where it does mistakes overlap, but where
it will get clean and smooth.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Yeah. Now, did you get to see some of the
neon in London because they.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Have what they like? I'll go ahead, Sorry, Okay, I
was on before I forget there is speaking of neon.
There is one I'll highlight in the Soho section of Okay,
So it was in London. The Soho section was very
It used to be a very part of town and
they have this neon it's like on this wall. Have
(24:06):
the center feto of it to you later, but it's
like this, it's like a couple of stories high. But wow,
dancers of this dancer girl. It's pretty risque. But like
just it's like the neon like her laid moves. It's just.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
They did they did it up pretty good.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
It sounds like, yes.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Uh. And also they have the Agatha Christie Theater or.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Pretty much in that part of town because that's a
Sierra district and.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
So okay, yeah, because I always think it's so I
always think of that place is kind of artsy, fartsy
in a way.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Yes, and that's how the one in New York is
as well.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah yeah, it's it's And also there's a technically a
Soho in Houston. Well that's just South Houston.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Yeah yeah, they call it so Yeah, so hope because
of that, it's not the same thing.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
No, no, oh heavens no. Uh. But they do have
a cool McDonald's down there. They have a McDonald's with
a neon sign, like the old school McDonald's, like the
single arch oh in Houston, in South Houston, because there's
a town called South Houston as well.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Okay, so there's a town that's actually called southeaston.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah, there is South Houston and then there's the town
of Southeast and let's just make it more confusing, absolutely more.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
I did see speaking of Houston when I played at
that yet across the street there's the ghost sign of
the Sam Houston building. It's okay type, it's which it's
across the street from like the Easy Credit place. It's
like the building that has like Sam Houston's name on it,
the Sam Houston and Dohose type.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
They know what you're talking about. I just need to
go back there because that place is you. You used
to be able to drive through there pretty easily. Now it's
just like, no, I understand what you mean.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
It was I parked a couple of blocks away and
I paid for parking, but it was a hassle back
in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah, and it still is a hassle today.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
That's why they had that streetcar.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yeah. Uh, Metro it doesn't get used as much as
they wanted to, but they still use it. Uh. I mean,
if you're if you're like downtown Midtown, maybe if you
live up kind of north of downtown and stuff. It's great,
and also out in h Edo and Magnolia Park. It
(26:33):
goes out there. So if if you don't want to
deal with driving downtown, it's great. But outside of that
little area it's not very convenient.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Yeah, I meet and I was there. I would definitely
probably utilize that. Yeah, besides that, I mean I was
just visiting and paying for parking just for then. It
didn't bother me, but trying to if you're working, you
don't want to do that every day exactly.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, it's so uh And also one of my one
cool sign in London before we end this segment is
the Las Vegas Billiard's Hall has this really cool almost
like the Jackson font I'll.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Have to see that. I didn't. I unfortunately did not
see that there. But I think what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
It is such a it's not big, it doesn't seem
to be super big. I think Machronic Macaronic got it,
and it's not super big, but it's flashy enough to say, yeah, this,
I could see this being in Vegas type of thing.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yeah, now that you mentioned Machrochronic, that's probably where I've
seen it from.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, oh man, you want to talk about somebody who
has traveled the world.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Oh, yes, very much.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
So yeah, and he and he finds a lot of
neon in places where there isn't a lot of neon,
Like there's parts of France, I want to say, Bordeaux,
that there's some really neat like neon signs and like
carnivals and places like that that he's gotten. And it
(28:14):
would not surprise me if I go searching through his
fee that you'll he'll have like neon from Mongolia on
his feet. It just wouldn't surprise me.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
He does his research.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Oh yeah, Oh yeah, he's good. He's a great conversation too.
Holy cow, we're having a great conversation here, even though
I'm taking us into side roads. I apologize about that,
jaredy No, I like that. Yeah, we're actually coming to
the end of our third segment when we come back.
Where do you want to talk about when we come
back some of the other places you found some cool
(28:47):
signs or you've had cool gigs at you.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
What would you want to talk about?
Speaker 1 (28:54):
You know, let's go to different places you've been in
the US where you've had bud gigs and saw cool signs.
How about that? Yes, cool. I sometimes we leave it
up to chance what we do around here. That that's
just the fun of having your own podcast. You can
talk about whatever you want. You're listening, that's right. No,
(29:15):
don't edit it as heavily as what people think. Uh
oh yeah if they're gaps, yeah, definitely will do. Yeah. So, uh,
you're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International
(29:47):
sign Finders. Glad you're with us. We're having a great
conversation with Jared Presley. We've been talking about signs places
he's been around the around the world with his music
as such. And also one of the great things is
you could put up a sign is like I think
when I put them up in Salt Lake City, you
knew where they were at. Uh for the most part,
(30:11):
like Salt Lake, Rapid City, you name a big town,
he's probably been to it. So some of the places
where you found really cool signs. I know everybody's like,
you know, I've seen this sign, this sign, but that
doesn't mean you haven't seen it also, and it could
be cool to you or you may not like it. Also,
I mean it's so much out there. Well yeah, like Minneapolis,
(30:35):
Holy Cow.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Oh yes, I think the best finds and the best
stuff I've seen is stuff that's obscure if you're in
a small town. It's just some there's some very famous
signs that pretty much a lot of people have seen.
And I'm not saying at school, like let's say, for example,
like Roy's that cafe. Oh hey, yeah, I mean I've
seen that, and yeah, that's cool. It's just so many
people have seen it, so many people have taken photos
(30:59):
of it. M h. It's cool, but it's not one
of like my favorite findes by far.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
You you like me the hunting going off path, hunting.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Coming upon it during my travels. It's just it's something
special about that. Even if you like, I won't like.
I don't do like research like make like some of
the other people do that do major research. I just
don't have the time to be honest, so usually it's
just me traveling. I will say the app road Trippers
has helped a lot. Okay, now now there's apps that
(31:35):
kind of help you, not just that just cool like
spots to see, yeah, which is another thing that technology
has helped with. But like as far as smaller finds
like that in towns where I haven't seen anyone else
post it just obscure stuff, especially Indiana some draft when
I visited my hometown or just like traveled in Indiana.
(31:57):
It's more it's just stuff that especially people outside of
the states, have never seen. Yeah, and so basically that's
what I enjoy the most out of seeing the signs.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Somebody recently posted some stuff from Wyoming, and there's some
pretty cool signs of Wyoming, especially along the I eighty corridor.
But they were traveling between I want to say, Casper,
which is kind of the dead center of the state,
and Riverton or do Boys, which is over on the
western side of the state. And uh, they were sharing
(32:30):
some because I've traveled that at night where you can't
see you can barely see anything, and they're showing some
really cool little signs that you know they're technically I
guess you say go sign skeleton signs, whatever is the
technical term. And this one little hodgey farmer that's happy
as I'll get out, and yeah, like you said, just
(32:54):
stumbling upon those, I admit, I'm a I feel like
a giddy little kide.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Also, not a place a lot of people have been.
Oh yeah, I've only been to like the Yellowstone section
of Wyoming and Grand Teton. So I have not been
down as south as Casper. Yeah, Unfortunately, the only sign
I don't know if it's in Casper. It's like the
camera sign. It's the famous signing in Wyoming. Oh, I'm
trying to think right now, we'll figure it out. We're
(33:25):
in Wyoming, but this there's some obscure stuff. Yeah, and
speaking of go ahead, you go ahead, speaking of that
part of it, Okay, So speaking of that part of
the country. Probably my favorite city ever to see old
ghost signs as Butetana. Yes, and it's a city I've
never heard of before. When I was traveling through Yellowstones
(33:47):
and I because I was going to go to Helena.
Then before that, I stopped at Butte. It's a city.
It's a small town city, but there's so many different
like ghost signs and the such a treasure trove. But
you would never know about it because it's not Most
people will never heard of you.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
The The only the only reason why I know abut
is because I went to school in Idaho and I
traveled up to the area. I've been through Helena and
Great Falls and uh outskirts of Oh what where is
University of Montana at ow it'll come to me like Missoula. Yeah,
(34:25):
I've been through Bozeman, but most university is that's Montana State.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Okay, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
But you I think they have like a big, huge,
lit up like statue of Christ in the mountain that.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Yes, it's like something they have. You get to see that.
I was there on a rainy day. Unfortunately, I was
lucky to be able to get the photo as I did.
Again that's something about traveling sometimes it's all up to
the weather time have. I was also seen a lot
of other things as well, and Helena as well, which
is still really cool. I feel like as far as
(35:05):
signs in the United States is it's no place like Butte.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
You and and the one person who's taken or the
two people probably say three. The three people have taken
the most videos or pictures of signs in Butte are
colored by Spiegel three ear grabbit and you know Deborah
Jane has yeah, I say Jackie as well, Oh yeah, Jackie,
(35:29):
oh yeah, I need we were supposed to do a show. Yep,
she's from Boise, Yeah and Boise. I didn't realize like
the cabana hat. I think Cabana Hat restaurant. That's a boise.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Oh wow, Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Yeah, boys has got a lot of cool stuff. But yeah,
Butte's an old mining town, an old school mining town.
I think it was like probably one of the richest
towns in America at one point with all the mining
that went on there. And like downtown has a ton
of ghost sends. It's almost like Helper, Utah, but bigger.
I don't know if you've heard of Helper. Uh, there's
(36:08):
a guy who's it's a little town in the mountains
of like central Utah, and there's a guy from northern
Utah who was kind of he had to relocate to
Helper in a way. If if the story I've heard
is correct, and they have all these I mean they
had brothels, they had bars and all these different things
(36:32):
there in the mountains with all the miners and such.
But there's also a ton there's a huge neon culture
in Helper as well, and all throughout Utah you'll find
still working intact sign neon signs and like Hangwitch, which
is the middle of nowhere. I thought I lived in.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
The middle And that's what we were talking about. Like
everyone's seen the signs in Vegas and you see't don't
get me wrong. And as a knon museum, that's all cool.
It's just there's so much covered with that. It's not
the same as going to one of these places and
seen it as intended in the location that it was
built in out and it's crowded like Vegas.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Oh heck no, oh heck no. Like uh Nebraska, Oh yes,
Nebraska and Kansas. We can talk about Oklahoma. Oklahoma's got
a lot of that stuff too. Like chickashe I need
to get back and visit my aunt there. I have
a reason to visit her in chickashe H. In parts
of Texas, like the little towns where they have the
(37:39):
old theater marquees, because you know, you got all those
ranchers they have to come to town sometimes they gotta
get their you know, their feed, their seed and all
that stuff. So you know, they travel into the little
towns and the little towns will have their own theater
marquees because that was the place to go back in
the day. I mean, I think we're studying this in
(38:00):
my one of my video classes. Like they had air
conditioning back in the thirties and you can see a
triple header for like a nickel and uh so you
people just go to the movie theater and it was
an all day family event type of thing.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Oh yes, And and a lot of places around the
country and cities they used to be like a theater
pretty much every couple of blocks at one point. There's
no joke like Oklahoma City, Cincinnati had like pretty much
on every block. Most of them are gone, I would say,
the vast majority of them demolished years ago. Okay, same
(38:41):
with a lot of other cities. Unfortunately, even with the
ones still in Texas, because there's an account I think
it's cinema treasures.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
They were saying.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
A lot of times these theaters are deteriorating. A lot
of times they get demolished or just the rough kazen
I mean. Unfortunately, just with how with society changes, people
don't go to the theater, even in my lifetime. Nowadays,
a lot of the theaters are struggling. Yea, and you
can make them live and a lot of times what's
(39:11):
scores I've played in place at the places that used
to be a movie theater, but they turned it too
like a music venue or just a live venue because
at this point, if you want live entertainment, you have
to you still have to go to that. You still
can't replicate that or like a movie, people getting these
big screens and it's still not the same. It's just
(39:32):
you know, society goes to shifts and changes, and.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
There could be another thing that comes along soon that
we'll grab everybody's attention as a public thing. Uh, kind
of like a movie theater. I don't know what it's
going to be, but we never know. Everything's shifting and
changes so fast.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
And with that, that's why I got signs of ghost
signs because I think something was there thriving then it didn't,
so it's find like a reminder of the past.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
And I and you commented on that one place because
I went out to Wallace, Texas, which was on my
bucket list of places around here, and the old venue,
well kind of old, kind of new venue. Uh. I
think they're restored to ghost sign on the old PoCA
Cola sign on the side of their building, which that's
(40:26):
always fantastic.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Where they repainted. Yeah, and some people very much. I
know people who have argued, argued, sorry, argued against that. Yeah,
But I feel like it depends if it's so bad
that you can't tell anything about it looking at the sign,
that I don't mind it being repainted. Yeah, I feel
like it depends on the condition I give. It's like
(40:47):
no detailed, is that all? And I know some people
will disagree, but at that point, you know, as far
as as a as a repainting is a good job.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Yeah, in the in the original colors, I I it, yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
As possible, yeah, because sometimes you only have the black
and white photos to go off by.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
If it's not And I think there was one that
was restored. I talked to the folks. Oh heavy pages press. Uh,
they do the Chicago sign painting, like the old school
Chicago sign painting. They still keep going. And there was
a huge like red like ghost sign on the side
(41:26):
of a building because they demolished one building brought up
another one, and right there was this old bread sign
that that her like mentor or boss's boss had painted.
And I think they restored that. And it's gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
That's how a lot of signs have found nowadays. Its
demolished and on the side is like this well preserved
sign exactly.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
Yeah. Uh so does a bread sign, Oh, it is
a bread bread. Yeah, so sorry, I'm slurrimbok. So we'll
finish up this segment and when we come back, we'll
do your bucket list of places to go. You're listening
to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders.
(42:33):
We've been having a great conversation. I mean it started
with signs and it's gone into really cool side routes
where like ghost signs kind of like when I talk
about the different ven diagrams of you know, like sign
finders once they find themselves in like antiquing, urban exploration,
ghost signs kind of is the same as sign finding,
(42:54):
but it's in its own little place. I guess the
one that comes to mind is was it Melbourne ghost Signs?
Down in Australia. They have like an account dedicated to
just finding these old school Melbourne Australia ghost signs on
the sides of buildings.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
And that's great, especially for us because he very far
away from us.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
That is what seventeen hour flight.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Flight, that's a day's flight. Literally.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
I was listening to the undertaker, Mark Callaway. He's got
a podcast and they had him flying to Perth to
do one of his like one man shows. He's like
they've they've been flying all night, all night, all night,
and all of a sudden he looks out the window
and there's land. It's like, oh, we're not too far away.
But he's in Perth. He's on the other side of Australia.
(43:48):
So he said like, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
A lot of hours left. I feel like it's around
the same size length length I would say is the
United States. Yeah, not bigger, So that's not at least
four or five.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Hours of exactly if you're lucky, yes, at least he
wasn't doing Uh, it'd be fun to do the train,
the Eagle. I think you have the Eagle goes from
Melbourne to Perth, and then you have the Gan which
goes from oh what is it, Adelaide up to Darwin,
up in the northern territories.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Unabout Australia than I do. Well, Unfortunately, I.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Know a little bit. I know enough to get myself
into trouble, if that makes sense. But they used to
have these old camel trains because one of the world's
largest wild camel herds is in Australia. Because uh, they
use camel trains to go from think Adelaide up to
like Alice, Alice Springs and places like that in the
(44:50):
middle of the desert. We're not talking out back, we're
talking desert and uh cals.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
It's just in the Middle East.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Yeah. Yeah, And and they still have camel herds in
Australia because you know, what do you do when you know,
A it's not viable to run camel trains anymore across
the desert, and b it's expensive to feed of freaking camel.
They just set them free and they are thriving in
parts of Australia, if you believe that. So, I think
(45:23):
we're coming up on time constraints kind of right now
for you, because I know you've got to go here
in a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
So we're still about fifteen twenty minutes.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Okay, we got we got a little bit of time
left in the show. So where are some places that
you'd like to go, whether it be performing or just traveling,
just traveling.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Yeah, So as mentioned Japan obviously overseas, that's what I
plan on doing. That's when I'm able to, when I
get the money.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
To yeah, when I say any word, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
As for anyone who hasn't everyone else, traveling is expensive
especially overseas. Yeah, besides that, in the country, you know that.
That's an interesting question because there's a few places, but
it's just I don't know which way I would want
to do first. It's just more opportunity. M h. I've
(46:23):
only been in New Orleans a day. Then that's I
guess a trip that I'm gonna take a relative distance
where well i'd fly in the United States is what
I mean, not just drive, would be probably the New
Orleans and Mississippi because there's still a lot of cool
stuff within that state and outside of New Orleans, the
federgraph architecture wise, nature wise, Oh yeah, all of that,
(46:48):
which I enjoy.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
All of that, like the pyramids and.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
All you talking about New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
Well, I mean there's also pyramids in parts of UH,
Louisiana and Mississippi, like old school, like as tech inspired
uh pyramids that were built back and around the time
of the Aztecs.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Oh, I'm not really sure about that. I haven't no,
I mean, I believe you, but uh, I'll definitely like
the nice thing that is I have the road Trippers
app there on Instagram, so I've only had that for
a few months, but it's really nice. Instead of having
like the Google Search, it has a huge listing of
(47:32):
just stuff to do by genre and just stuff you're into. Yeah,
which makes it nice as opposed to like years ago,
like when I first traveled time to research.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
Yeah. And also no, you go ahead, sorry, I was
just going to add to that. You also had to
have the paper maps.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
Oh, yes, that was what I want to say, like
for map quest mm hmm, yeah, or just old Atlas.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
Yes, I still keep going around me just in case
something happens.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
I do it just depending on where I'm traveling. That's
not always viable, if because sometimes I just don't have
a detailed enough one, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Oh? Yeah, you got to have like the city maps,
especially when you're going around like Chicago, or you almost
need like the age by page street map. Uh. They
used to print off like you'd have like soho New
York City, and they'd break it down into even smaller
parts so you can see all the side streets and such.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
I always brain up. I always brain a backup GPS.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
Oh that's smart.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
I highly suggest it. Don't ever, you don't have one
to depend on your phone if Heaven forbid something happens
to you have found Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
But you can it will not just can it will?
Speaker 2 (48:57):
Yeah? Yes?
Speaker 1 (48:58):
So uh any other place that you'd like to go
besides New Orleans.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
It's a lot of places. Saint Louis. Yeah, I wouldn't
even need to fly there, to be honest, New York
Saint Louis from Cincinnatis, maybe like six hours. It's a reason.
What if I want to stay there a few days.
I probably could play a show there. Some venues. I
would look at smaller venues. I would look into, yea,
(49:25):
some visiting some stuff there. I played in Kansas City,
but it is many years ago. That's still another city.
I would like to explore more the cities I've driven through.
It's just still a lot of town cities. I was
just in general experience more so, pretty much a lot
of places in the United States. I mean you have
to go state by state. Really, Colorado it's another one.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Oh gosh, Denver, I need to get to Denver real bad.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
Well, that would be there has been limited.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Yeah, I wish. I wish we had more hours in
the days sometimes, but that just means I'd have to
work longer hours.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
But we could just transport to different places. That might
be an easier solution.
Speaker 1 (50:09):
Come on, Bezos, you sell everything else, get a transupport
for us man, like the.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
One like in Star Trek. Yeah, I'll be honest that
if that technology ever happens, it's gonna be well beyond
our lifetime, well beyond and as like your grand kids,
and that'll be well beyond their lifetime.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
Oh we're talking like four or five hundred years in
the future if that if yeah. Yeah, So Jared, do
you have any uh so, you've got your band camp, Instagram?
Are you on Flicker as well?
Speaker 2 (50:43):
You know, people ask me that I'm not I never
got onto that. Okay, it's a cool side. I'm not passionate.
I just personally I never have it is.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
It's old school still, but it's still got a lot
of great finds on on that.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
Oh yes, and then some stuff that's only on Flicker.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
Yeah very much.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
So.
Speaker 1 (51:05):
Yeah, So that will wrap up our conversation for today.
It has gone by so fast. Thank you so much.
I need to say thank you to Jared Presley. We've
tried this two other times before it just technical issues,
so yeah, I think the first time. Okay, here's the
word to the whys of your podcaster. Don't upgrade your
(51:26):
your software five minutes before you do an interview, because
it could screw you up. That's what happened the first
time we try to together. That was not a smart
idea on my part. But until it does, and it's
you live and you learn, and sometimes you don't get
to the learned part. That's me. But we're glad to
(51:48):
have everybody here listening. As we say every week, get out,
hit the pavement, have fun, take pictures, keep your head
and swivel and share your photos with us. It doesn't
matter if you have one follower or one hundred million followers.
We still love seeing what you got. Until next time,
Happy sign finding. This is an international sign finders
Welcome everybody to another episode of International Sign Finders. Glad
you're back with us. Holy cow. I've been busy this
past few months. School's catching up with me, work catching up.
I'm working seven days a week right now. If I
get sleep, I'm lucky. But today we have someone If
you're in the sign community, you'll notice him commenting on
(00:39):
people's photos, liking a lot of photos, and just giving
a lot of encouragement to the sign finding community. I
wanted to have him on, wanted to have him on
for a while. We finally are able to do this.
Welcome everybody to the show. Jared Presley, are are you Jared? Yeah? Sorry,
(01:03):
I kind of blanked out there for a second. I'm
sorry about that. So yeah, I want you introduce yourself
to the to everybody.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
That's a load of questions. So you mean as far
as just instm or just as in general, however you
want to do it. I mean, we can do Insteagram.
Let's let's let's marrow it down Instagram. Okay, I'll start
with that. So yeah, it didn't and it just kind
of happened where a lot of the photos I posted
resonated a lot with like people who like signs. So
(01:37):
it's the Instagram I account I have. It's more than
just that. People have asked me why I don't separate it,
and I've told them it just makes it more confusing
if I do it by different things I'm interested in,
so I just keep it all in one. So, but
it just ended up that a lot of people follow
me and liked what I did with the sign stuff.
(01:59):
And that's just kind of how it just kind of
built to that. It wasn't I didn't intend that to
be the thing case. It just kind of delpt up
to that, which is fine. I enjoy it, Yeah, and
as other people. I mean, I obviously I do like
looking at the sign accounts, but there's also other like
Mesity accounts, et cetera that I do look at. So
it just as far as what a lot of people
(02:20):
followed me over the years, that's kind of just what
a build up is. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Uh And it's kind of like uh B Bailey's account.
B Bailey does a lot of signs, but he also
does a lot of old cars in nostalgia.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yes, and something he's really into.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, and he's he's great. The dude can tell stories
for days. If you ever get a chance to talk
to him. But when I think you started following me
or we started communicating after I shared a picture of
say Dean's downtown in Houston, because did you play a
gig there.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yes, I'll explain, especially for those who aren't familiar of Houston.
So it's near like the the railcar away, like the
streetcar that place. So Dean's. It's not called Dean's. Well,
the building is and the sign is. But yeah, there's
a venue there, and I believe it's still there called
not basically it's Easton spelled backwards. Oh yeah, I don't
(03:21):
know if you ever been to a show there. I'm
still pretty sure they still have shows there and it's there.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
It's like an all of one place almost.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah. Yeah, and next door because I went there during
like after the show, there's like a they had a
DJ there on the building next to it, which is
pretty much an easy credit building. Yeah, they're like connected.
So I think it was because you shared that. That's
how I found out about it. I played in a
(03:49):
couple of places in Houston. The other one was Super
Happy fun Land, which is a very weird place. It's
kind of off of Polk Street, so that part of town.
It's an odd building. It's an odd part of town,
not like not to do that was more. That's like
more of a historic part of town.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
It's very downtown and super heavy fun Land Polk Street, Yeah,
that's that's kind of the arts seed. Yeah. Yeah, it's
Oh that's Edo, that's over an Edo second Ward.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yes. Yeah, it's one of the most probably and this
is no joke, the strangest venue I've ever been at. Yeah,
and that's no exaggeration. It's hard to do. They had
all these toys and dolls inside that are all these couches.
It was just weird. I liked it. It was just
(04:42):
of all the places I've been around the country, it's
just as far as the music venue. It's odd, and
I believe it's still going on.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Oh yeah it does. One of the cool things about
super Happy fun Land, now that you're reminded me of it.
I go by there every so often. Uh, on my
little ventures. I have been going out as much lightly
because of work, and yes, seven days a week sucks.
They have the mural on one side of all the
(05:11):
horror monsters like the brighter brighter frankenstroin right of Frankenstein
if I could say your name, Uncle Fester, the weird
smiling like hamas the tank engine fronts in a way. Yeah,
those have been there. I mean it's got murals all
(05:33):
around it.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I just haven't been there since twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, that may be new, uh compared to them you
knew or yeah, But I'm.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Glad it's still there because what happened not long after
that point was the floods if you remember, Oh yeah,
I believe, just like just months afterwards, in twenty seventeen. Yeah,
so I was lucky I was able to play then
and not during floods where everything was pretty much canceled underwater. Literally.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yeah. I don't know if you got over to the aquarium,
but I think that's along Buffalo by you uh, and
the aquarium sits probably six seven feet above the of
the by you bottom, and that flooded. That whole thing flooded,
uh uh, the place where all the sharks are at.
(06:27):
The ones the ones that survived were like the bottom
feeding sharks, like the sawfish and other things like that.
They could handle brackish water. They can handle it fine.
But yeah, I think they lost a few fish in
that that part of the aquarium.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
But that was nationwide news.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Oh yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
My parents knew about it. So like I moved people okay,
but basically people friends that I knew of who never
been to Houston.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I heard about it.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
It was nationwide news.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Oh yeah, my Uh. We moved to Houston on July
the fourth or fifth of that year, okay, yeah, and
we were about the we were trying to close on
a house and then her then Harvey hit and so
we're all trapped in you know. Luckily we were in
(07:19):
a part of the Houston Metroplex area up in Humble area,
which is to me, it's technically Houston. It all connects.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
But it wasn't hit as hard I should.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Say, no, no, uh not like you know, like Third
Ward and downtown Midtown all the geese, uh like clear
I think clearly got hammered pretty hard too. I was
still getting used to the area, new to the area,
and uh it was it was. It was crazy. I
(07:51):
hadn't seen that much water come down from the skies
since ninety nine in North Carolina when we had two
hurricanes hitting to weeks and it flooded us pretty bad too.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I was lucky that I was there in April that year,
because a few months later, both of those venues were
closed for a significant amount of time too. Luckily they reopened.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
But it happens, like you said, luckily because you know,
there's still gosh, I don't know, there's there's been a
lot of reconstruction in those areas. But it wasn't surprising
me if there are a lot of old venues, they're
just like, we can't, you know, this is too much money.
Especially yes, oh my gosh ya the marquee too over
(08:40):
in Rice Village wet University Place area slash West University.
It's it's basically the Rice University area. Yeah, he was
doing everything he could just to stay afloat everything. I mean,
he was making posts and just you know, and they
were kind of doing the whole They relaxed a lot
(09:02):
of the liquor laws so you could do almost like
home delivery of like Margarita's.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Just to cheap himself aflow. As far as there's a
lot of venues closed nationwide, yeah, it's still tendantally recovering
from it, oh yeah, the worldwide two. As far as
just egonomically recovering from.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
It and also academically my wife sees it if she's
a teacher, and I think my oldest probably got her
a little bit with it. She's she started kindergarten that year.
Carved carvid a selected from Southern Utah COVID. Yeah, so
(09:47):
we'll end the first segment here. When we come back,
my phone will let me know that I should be
wrapping up this segment. When we come back, we'll get
into some other places that Jared's travel to and seeing
different venues, different signs, everything. Uh, this is gonna be
(10:08):
kind of a free form today because I just woke up.
I have worked tonight, So when we come back, we'll
get more into that. You're listening to International sign Finders.
(10:40):
Welcome back to International sign Finders. Glad you're still with us.
We have Jared Presley on go follow him on all
his socials. So where are you at on the on
the social spaces.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Well, I'm on band camp and Spotify. That's with my music.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Go ahead plug him? Uh what's your band camp?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Site?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
So's it would be Jared Presley bandchamp dot com. Okay,
or just type in my name and bandchamp and it'll
direct you there. And as far as Instagram, it's just
my name, Jared Presley five. The reason Jared Presley was
never available available to me to someone else who has
that account, who's never used it. It's like one of
those empty champs that has that name.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
One of those placeholders. It's almost like people who buy
who buy up like web addresses. Hopefully somebody will come
buy and buy it from them.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
It's fine. I don't care, It's it's fine. Eh.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
It's more memorable that way. Jared Presley five. Uh? And
was was five just available for you? Or was it
just like you like the number five.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Number?
Speaker 1 (11:53):
It's like me and the number ninety nine. I used
to use ninety nine and everything. Uh, that was my
favorite number. I wish I ad a warrant in football,
but they didn't have the jersey. So uh, as we
were talking about, you know, Houston and Jared's coming to
Houston and doing a lot of stuff at a few
(12:14):
of the venues, we got to get into signs. Uh
forgive me for my exhaustion, but he Yeah, And I
also got to give a lot of credit to Jared
for keeping me on the straight and arrow right now,
because well, you be talking about you know, the hoe
dag up in Wisconsin by this time, if if my
mind was going the way it is. So signs, what
(12:37):
got you into signs? Jared?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
So, I mean as far as Instagram, I like phetagraphing
my travels and that kind of blew up. But from
the initial point, like when I was a kid, I
always thought they were interesting. The thing is, when I
was growing up, I didn't grew up in the city,
so the amount of cool signs I saw was very,
very limited. So I say, is when I did. Some
(13:03):
people have a different experience with that, and like there's
some people on Instagram, you know that pretty much grew
up around the place, but it had a lot of
cool stuff. So whenever I did see them, it wasn't
it was rare, but there was still some cool stuff
that I have memories of. So, yes, I grew up
in Indiana and Ohio River, on the Ohio.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
River pretty much like southern Indiana.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yes, okay, so when I did, and my grandmother did
as well, but she was further down. So when we
visited her. There's a couple a few places that had
like murals and signs. One of them is still there,
like old seed mills and had like the ghost type
on it. And it's a couple of places that old
mills that had like these murals long gone is one
(13:49):
of them that's been gone decades now that I still remember.
It's been demolished, but it's just stuff like that when
I was one of my parents are driving me to
my grandmother's as a kid, that I remembered. So those
are my early memberies of signs. Yeah, everyone's in Indiana,
like and mostly they're like on old like mill buildings.
(14:11):
I mean, it's Indiana, so there wasn't I didn't really
have a lot of experience with like neon signs until
old That all depends on where you're at, So that's
basically I just always thought they looked cool. There's no
deep story beyond that.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
That's great because you know, it doesn't have to be
necessarily deep. Yeah, Like for me, I I kind of
categorize sign finders into a few different camps. You have
like the ooh it's pretty, which I'm in. I'm definitely
in the oo it's pretty. Yeah, the people who uh
who know the history, the backstory, all that stuff, and
(14:51):
then you have like the folks who go the extra mile,
like Heather David in San Jose who actually is actively
uh trying to restore signs back to their old glory
or safe signs and stuff like that. So I am
completely in the ooh it's pretty no, but we need
people like that.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah, just before before I could get so, I'm in
Cincinnati now there is the American Sign mese.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Yes, I was going to ask you about that.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yeah, and that is something I've not I've met Todd before. Okay,
have you been there? Off hand? I wish have you
been there? I have sat far away, I trust me, man,
I drove through the country. I know that's very far away.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
No, I used to live in Uh. I went to
school in Western Virginia and we went through Cincinnati a
few times on road trips, but we never stopped.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Well it's yeah, okay, so the museum, it wasn't there
at that point. It's only been there for like maybe
fourteen years now.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, that was definitely way beyond fourteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, but I'm saying, if you have the chance or
anyone listening, it is worth seeing. And I've met the
owner of Todd before they do at the Flavorstore signs.
There's a lot of history behind it. I always you've
seen photos. It's a museum devoted to American signs and
they just start serving them.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
And they just opened up the main street section of
the did Yeah have you have you been in there
since they've opened that up?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
What what's it like?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
The photos don't do it justice. It's upthen like it's
worthsgoing if you're visiting Cincinnati, but I'll warn you, I
wouldn't go just for the museum. This other cool stuff.
And where the museum is at is in Camp Washington.
I used to have a studio down there. It's in
a industrial part of town. It's it's kind of a
(16:42):
rough part of town. Some people might say, is it.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Kind of like an artsy because we have several parts.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
To actual museum. Yeah, the actual museums in a rough
part of town. But there's a lot of cool stuff nearby.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Whenever I'm traveling to play a different city, I always
try to find cool stuff, you know. Yeah, and every
city's different. I try to look at the positives, you know,
there's always something worth exploring.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Oh yeah, and even like here in Houston, some of
the older I guess skeleton signs could be and technically
rough parts of town I've had places where people look
at me funny.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
But it's still every every town, every city, I should say,
has that, but you know it's still cool. Or explore
those parts of town.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Oh yeah, and there's some really hidden gems in those
parts of town, like Magnolia Park. One of my favorite
little signs is, uh it's just simple like script neon
memos number one, memos, record shop number one, I believe
it is. It's a neat like channel letters with neon
(17:49):
inside on the side of an old Mexican music store
and they have all these cool like murals based off
of like famous singers from Mexico when uh Textmac singers
and Martino and stuff like that on the outside. So
uh yeah, don't, as I tell people, keep your hand
at swivel, always keep your head in a swivel. Oh yeah.
(18:13):
But also two, sometimes you do have to go into
the quote unquote reeferent parts of town to find some
of these hitting gyms.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah, but you also can find like besides just signs,
like different architectures. Oh yeah, there's there's a lot to
say to explore. Unfortunately for me, for Houston, I was
only there for two days because I went to New
Orleans after.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
That, oh wow, yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah, And I just wish I would have had more time,
but it's like any city met anyone else, there's only
so much time. At some point. I'd like to visit
Houston again, only more textas in general. I mean, it's
a mid steak. There's a lot I would like to see.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Yeah kidding, So that will bring Yeah, man, you're driving
to Amarillo was a day. That's that's a day from Houston.
So that'll bring us to the end of our second segment.
When we come back, we'll get more to signs and
some of Jared's travels and you know what, you never
know what what you'll hear here on International sign Finders.
(19:16):
Uh So we'll be back after these messages. Welcome back
(19:42):
to International sign Finders. We have the great Jared Presley.
Go find him on Instagram. Jared Presley five. Got just
remember Short Circuit Johnny five, Jared Presley five. There's no
connection there, but that's the way I remember it. So
Jared Presley five, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
About three decades at least. It's been a long time.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Since you seen that movie, like thirty years ago. Yeah,
I love it. I used to watch my grandmother pirated
it off of Busney Channel. We'd get this is back
when was it? Yeah? Oh yeah, where you were you
videotaped it off of like satellite. Uh, this wasn't on
(20:26):
cable then, and so uh yes, she would send us
videotapes of all these Disney movies and we got short
Circuit and I would I'd watch it a few quite
a bit. I loved it. That stupid robot was so lovable.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Uh, but we're talking about different places you've been. I mean,
you've been like to all over the.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Country, haven't you also summer Europe?
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Really, so I'm saving up money. I've just bills payments,
you know how it as. But oh hey, my next destination.
Destination I want to go to is Japan for multiple reasons.
I really like mandra anime. I've been to anime cons
before and it's just something that's been on my list.
But as far as Europe, it's been England, France and Italy.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Are there's still lots to be there.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yes, And as far as science, yes, I did get
to see some really cool signs in Europe, very different
than America obviously, but one in particular was have you
been to Europe.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Not yet, It's on my bucket list. I need to
get to English. Yeah, for me, England that's well, at
least the British Isles, because I'm Irish and Northern Irish,
so uh, Saint Patrick's stay is a confliction for me.
British my last name is British my real last name,
(21:55):
and I've got some Scottish in me too, So I
want to get English.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Being in the foreign trenchary where they that's not the
main language, it does post challenges. I'm not saying not
to do it. It definitely gets you outside of your
comfort zone. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
But my mother in law found out when she went
through Paris that if she brought her little book along
with her, her you know, English to French book, and
she tried, if she actually tried to speak French, they
were more likely to help her than I was supposed
to her just going to someone in English saying hey,
you speak.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
English, you don't know. Don't ever ever do that. Oh yeah,
I've been warned, don't ever just walk up to someone
with English. At least learn enough to ask if you
can speak English in their language or something like that, yes,
and they'll be to say like see or no I
(22:51):
depending on.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
And also Handjester's work too. I had a coworker she
she could you know, we couldn't speak to each other.
But sometimes hand gestures do work. They do look funny,
but sometimes they can work. I'm probably wrong about that,
but I've had Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Despite a lot of bad things that come with technology,
I would say, like with Google Translate, I know it's flawed,
but for like translator apps that are coming out, and
it's trying to get to the point where on one
side someone's going to speak Spanish and it will come out
English and someone on the other side speaking English come
out Spanish.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
They've already got technology like that, Yes, but I'm saying
where it's very fast and very efficient and still in
the early stages where it does mistakes overlap, but where
it will get clean and smooth.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Yeah. Now, did you get to see some of the
neon in London because they.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Have what they like? I'll go ahead, Sorry, Okay, I
was on before I forget there is speaking of neon.
There is one I'll highlight in the Soho section of Okay,
So it was in London. The Soho section was very
It used to be a very part of town and
they have this neon it's like on this wall. Have
(24:06):
the center feto of it to you later, but it's
like this, it's like a couple of stories high. But wow,
dancers of this dancer girl. It's pretty risque. But like
just it's like the neon like her laid moves. It's just.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
They did they did it up pretty good.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
It sounds like, yes.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Uh. And also they have the Agatha Christie Theater or.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Pretty much in that part of town because that's a
Sierra district and.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
So okay, yeah, because I always think it's so I
always think of that place is kind of artsy, fartsy
in a way.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Yes, and that's how the one in New York is
as well.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah yeah, it's it's And also there's a technically a
Soho in Houston. Well that's just South Houston.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Yeah yeah, they call it so Yeah, so hope because
of that, it's not the same thing.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
No, no, oh heavens no. Uh. But they do have
a cool McDonald's down there. They have a McDonald's with
a neon sign, like the old school McDonald's, like the
single arch oh in Houston, in South Houston, because there's
a town called South Houston as well.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Okay, so there's a town that's actually called southeaston.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah, there is South Houston and then there's the town
of Southeast and let's just make it more confusing, absolutely more.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
I did see speaking of Houston when I played at
that yet across the street there's the ghost sign of
the Sam Houston building. It's okay type, it's which it's
across the street from like the Easy Credit place. It's
like the building that has like Sam Houston's name on it,
the Sam Houston and Dohose type.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
They know what you're talking about. I just need to
go back there because that place is you. You used
to be able to drive through there pretty easily. Now it's
just like, no, I understand what you mean.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
It was I parked a couple of blocks away and
I paid for parking, but it was a hassle back
in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah, and it still is a hassle today.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
That's why they had that streetcar.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yeah. Uh, Metro it doesn't get used as much as
they wanted to, but they still use it. Uh. I mean,
if you're if you're like downtown Midtown, maybe if you
live up kind of north of downtown and stuff. It's great,
and also out in h Edo and Magnolia Park. It
(26:33):
goes out there. So if if you don't want to
deal with driving downtown, it's great. But outside of that
little area it's not very convenient.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Yeah, I meet and I was there. I would definitely
probably utilize that. Yeah, besides that, I mean I was
just visiting and paying for parking just for then. It
didn't bother me, but trying to if you're working, you
don't want to do that every day exactly.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, it's so uh And also one of my one
cool sign in London before we end this segment is
the Las Vegas Billiard's Hall has this really cool almost
like the Jackson font I'll.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Have to see that. I didn't. I unfortunately did not
see that there. But I think what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
It is such a it's not big, it doesn't seem
to be super big. I think Machronic Macaronic got it,
and it's not super big, but it's flashy enough to say, yeah, this,
I could see this being in Vegas type of thing.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yeah, now that you mentioned Machrochronic, that's probably where I've
seen it from.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, oh man, you want to talk about somebody who
has traveled the world.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Oh, yes, very much.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
So yeah, and he and he finds a lot of
neon in places where there isn't a lot of neon,
Like there's parts of France, I want to say, Bordeaux,
that there's some really neat like neon signs and like
carnivals and places like that that he's gotten. And it
(28:14):
would not surprise me if I go searching through his
fee that you'll he'll have like neon from Mongolia on
his feet. It just wouldn't surprise me.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
He does his research.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Oh yeah, Oh yeah, he's good. He's a great conversation too.
Holy cow, we're having a great conversation here, even though
I'm taking us into side roads. I apologize about that,
jaredy No, I like that. Yeah, we're actually coming to
the end of our third segment when we come back.
Where do you want to talk about when we come
back some of the other places you found some cool
(28:47):
signs or you've had cool gigs at you.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
What would you want to talk about?
Speaker 1 (28:54):
You know, let's go to different places you've been in
the US where you've had bud gigs and saw cool signs.
How about that? Yes, cool. I sometimes we leave it
up to chance what we do around here. That that's
just the fun of having your own podcast. You can
talk about whatever you want. You're listening, that's right. No,
(29:15):
don't edit it as heavily as what people think. Uh
oh yeah if they're gaps, yeah, definitely will do. Yeah. So, uh,
you're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International
(29:47):
sign Finders. Glad you're with us. We're having a great
conversation with Jared Presley. We've been talking about signs places
he's been around the around the world with his music
as such. And also one of the great things is
you could put up a sign is like I think
when I put them up in Salt Lake City, you
knew where they were at. Uh for the most part,
(30:11):
like Salt Lake, Rapid City, you name a big town,
he's probably been to it. So some of the places
where you found really cool signs. I know everybody's like,
you know, I've seen this sign, this sign, but that
doesn't mean you haven't seen it also, and it could
be cool to you or you may not like it. Also,
I mean it's so much out there. Well yeah, like Minneapolis,
(30:35):
Holy Cow.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Oh yes, I think the best finds and the best
stuff I've seen is stuff that's obscure if you're in
a small town. It's just some there's some very famous
signs that pretty much a lot of people have seen.
And I'm not saying at school, like let's say, for example,
like Roy's that cafe. Oh hey, yeah, I mean I've
seen that, and yeah, that's cool. It's just so many
people have seen it, so many people have taken photos
(30:59):
of it. M h. It's cool, but it's not one
of like my favorite findes by far.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
You you like me the hunting going off path, hunting.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Coming upon it during my travels. It's just it's something
special about that. Even if you like, I won't like.
I don't do like research like make like some of
the other people do that do major research. I just
don't have the time to be honest, so usually it's
just me traveling. I will say the app road Trippers
has helped a lot. Okay, now now there's apps that
(31:35):
kind of help you, not just that just cool like
spots to see, yeah, which is another thing that technology
has helped with. But like as far as smaller finds
like that in towns where I haven't seen anyone else
post it just obscure stuff, especially Indiana some draft when
I visited my hometown or just like traveled in Indiana.
(31:57):
It's more it's just stuff that especially people outside of
the states, have never seen. Yeah, and so basically that's
what I enjoy the most out of seeing the signs.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Somebody recently posted some stuff from Wyoming, and there's some
pretty cool signs of Wyoming, especially along the I eighty corridor.
But they were traveling between I want to say, Casper,
which is kind of the dead center of the state,
and Riverton or do Boys, which is over on the
western side of the state. And uh, they were sharing
(32:30):
some because I've traveled that at night where you can't
see you can barely see anything, and they're showing some
really cool little signs that you know they're technically I
guess you say go sign skeleton signs, whatever is the
technical term. And this one little hodgey farmer that's happy
as I'll get out, and yeah, like you said, just
(32:54):
stumbling upon those, I admit, I'm a I feel like
a giddy little kide.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Also, not a place a lot of people have been.
Oh yeah, I've only been to like the Yellowstone section
of Wyoming and Grand Teton. So I have not been
down as south as Casper. Yeah, Unfortunately, the only sign
I don't know if it's in Casper. It's like the
camera sign. It's the famous signing in Wyoming. Oh, I'm
trying to think right now, we'll figure it out. We're
(33:25):
in Wyoming, but this there's some obscure stuff. Yeah, and
speaking of go ahead, you go ahead, speaking of that
part of it, Okay, So speaking of that part of
the country. Probably my favorite city ever to see old
ghost signs as Butetana. Yes, and it's a city I've
never heard of before. When I was traveling through Yellowstones
(33:47):
and I because I was going to go to Helena.
Then before that, I stopped at Butte. It's a city.
It's a small town city, but there's so many different
like ghost signs and the such a treasure trove. But
you would never know about it because it's not Most
people will never heard of you.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
The The only the only reason why I know abut
is because I went to school in Idaho and I
traveled up to the area. I've been through Helena and
Great Falls and uh outskirts of Oh what where is
University of Montana at ow it'll come to me like Missoula. Yeah,
(34:25):
I've been through Bozeman, but most university is that's Montana State.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Okay, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
But you I think they have like a big, huge,
lit up like statue of Christ in the mountain that.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Yes, it's like something they have. You get to see that.
I was there on a rainy day. Unfortunately, I was
lucky to be able to get the photo as I did.
Again that's something about traveling sometimes it's all up to
the weather time have. I was also seen a lot
of other things as well, and Helena as well, which
is still really cool. I feel like as far as
(35:05):
signs in the United States is it's no place like Butte.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
You and and the one person who's taken or the
two people probably say three. The three people have taken
the most videos or pictures of signs in Butte are
colored by Spiegel three ear grabbit and you know Deborah
Jane has yeah, I say Jackie as well, Oh yeah, Jackie,
(35:29):
oh yeah, I need we were supposed to do a show. Yep,
she's from Boise, Yeah and Boise. I didn't realize like
the cabana hat. I think Cabana Hat restaurant. That's a boise.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Oh wow, Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Yeah, boys has got a lot of cool stuff. But yeah,
Butte's an old mining town, an old school mining town.
I think it was like probably one of the richest
towns in America at one point with all the mining
that went on there. And like downtown has a ton
of ghost sends. It's almost like Helper, Utah, but bigger.
I don't know if you've heard of Helper. Uh, there's
(36:08):
a guy who's it's a little town in the mountains
of like central Utah, and there's a guy from northern
Utah who was kind of he had to relocate to
Helper in a way. If if the story I've heard
is correct, and they have all these I mean they
had brothels, they had bars and all these different things
(36:32):
there in the mountains with all the miners and such.
But there's also a ton there's a huge neon culture
in Helper as well, and all throughout Utah you'll find
still working intact sign neon signs and like Hangwitch, which
is the middle of nowhere. I thought I lived in.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
The middle And that's what we were talking about. Like
everyone's seen the signs in Vegas and you see't don't
get me wrong. And as a knon museum, that's all cool.
It's just there's so much covered with that. It's not
the same as going to one of these places and
seen it as intended in the location that it was
built in out and it's crowded like Vegas.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Oh heck no, oh heck no. Like uh Nebraska, Oh yes,
Nebraska and Kansas. We can talk about Oklahoma. Oklahoma's got
a lot of that stuff too. Like chickashe I need
to get back and visit my aunt there. I have
a reason to visit her in chickashe H. In parts
of Texas, like the little towns where they have the
(37:39):
old theater marquees, because you know, you got all those
ranchers they have to come to town sometimes they gotta
get their you know, their feed, their seed and all
that stuff. So you know, they travel into the little
towns and the little towns will have their own theater
marquees because that was the place to go back in
the day. I mean, I think we're studying this in
(38:00):
my one of my video classes. Like they had air
conditioning back in the thirties and you can see a
triple header for like a nickel and uh so you
people just go to the movie theater and it was
an all day family event type of thing.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Oh yes, And and a lot of places around the
country and cities they used to be like a theater
pretty much every couple of blocks at one point. There's
no joke like Oklahoma City, Cincinnati had like pretty much
on every block. Most of them are gone, I would say,
the vast majority of them demolished years ago. Okay, same
(38:41):
with a lot of other cities. Unfortunately, even with the
ones still in Texas, because there's an account I think
it's cinema treasures.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
They were saying.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
A lot of times these theaters are deteriorating. A lot
of times they get demolished or just the rough kazen
I mean. Unfortunately, just with how with society changes, people
don't go to the theater, even in my lifetime. Nowadays,
a lot of the theaters are struggling. Yea, and you
can make them live and a lot of times what's
(39:11):
scores I've played in place at the places that used
to be a movie theater, but they turned it too
like a music venue or just a live venue because
at this point, if you want live entertainment, you have
to you still have to go to that. You still
can't replicate that or like a movie, people getting these
big screens and it's still not the same. It's just
(39:32):
you know, society goes to shifts and changes, and.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
There could be another thing that comes along soon that
we'll grab everybody's attention as a public thing. Uh, kind
of like a movie theater. I don't know what it's
going to be, but we never know. Everything's shifting and
changes so fast.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
And with that, that's why I got signs of ghost
signs because I think something was there thriving then it didn't,
so it's find like a reminder of the past.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
And I and you commented on that one place because
I went out to Wallace, Texas, which was on my
bucket list of places around here, and the old venue,
well kind of old, kind of new venue. Uh. I
think they're restored to ghost sign on the old PoCA
Cola sign on the side of their building, which that's
(40:26):
always fantastic.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Where they repainted. Yeah, and some people very much. I
know people who have argued, argued, sorry, argued against that. Yeah,
But I feel like it depends if it's so bad
that you can't tell anything about it looking at the sign,
that I don't mind it being repainted. Yeah, I feel
like it depends on the condition I give. It's like
(40:47):
no detailed, is that all? And I know some people
will disagree, but at that point, you know, as far
as as a as a repainting is a good job.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Yeah, in the in the original colors, I I it, yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
As possible, yeah, because sometimes you only have the black
and white photos to go off by.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
If it's not And I think there was one that
was restored. I talked to the folks. Oh heavy pages press. Uh,
they do the Chicago sign painting, like the old school
Chicago sign painting. They still keep going. And there was
a huge like red like ghost sign on the side
(41:26):
of a building because they demolished one building brought up
another one, and right there was this old bread sign
that that her like mentor or boss's boss had painted.
And I think they restored that. And it's gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
That's how a lot of signs have found nowadays. Its
demolished and on the side is like this well preserved
sign exactly.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
Yeah. Uh so does a bread sign, Oh, it is
a bread bread. Yeah, so sorry, I'm slurrimbok. So we'll
finish up this segment and when we come back, we'll
do your bucket list of places to go. You're listening
to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders.
(42:33):
We've been having a great conversation. I mean it started
with signs and it's gone into really cool side routes
where like ghost signs kind of like when I talk
about the different ven diagrams of you know, like sign
finders once they find themselves in like antiquing, urban exploration,
ghost signs kind of is the same as sign finding,
(42:54):
but it's in its own little place. I guess the
one that comes to mind is was it Melbourne ghost Signs?
Down in Australia. They have like an account dedicated to
just finding these old school Melbourne Australia ghost signs on
the sides of buildings.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
And that's great, especially for us because he very far
away from us.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
That is what seventeen hour flight.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Flight, that's a day's flight. Literally.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
I was listening to the undertaker, Mark Callaway. He's got
a podcast and they had him flying to Perth to
do one of his like one man shows. He's like
they've they've been flying all night, all night, all night,
and all of a sudden he looks out the window
and there's land. It's like, oh, we're not too far away.
But he's in Perth. He's on the other side of Australia.
(43:48):
So he said like, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
A lot of hours left. I feel like it's around
the same size length length I would say is the
United States. Yeah, not bigger, So that's not at least
four or five.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Hours of exactly if you're lucky, yes, at least he
wasn't doing Uh, it'd be fun to do the train,
the Eagle. I think you have the Eagle goes from
Melbourne to Perth, and then you have the Gan which
goes from oh what is it, Adelaide up to Darwin,
up in the northern territories.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Unabout Australia than I do. Well, Unfortunately, I.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Know a little bit. I know enough to get myself
into trouble, if that makes sense. But they used to
have these old camel trains because one of the world's
largest wild camel herds is in Australia. Because uh, they
use camel trains to go from think Adelaide up to
like Alice, Alice Springs and places like that in the
(44:50):
middle of the desert. We're not talking out back, we're
talking desert and uh cals.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
It's just in the Middle East.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Yeah. Yeah, And and they still have camel herds in
Australia because you know, what do you do when you know,
A it's not viable to run camel trains anymore across
the desert, and b it's expensive to feed of freaking camel.
They just set them free and they are thriving in
parts of Australia, if you believe that. So, I think
(45:23):
we're coming up on time constraints kind of right now
for you, because I know you've got to go here
in a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
So we're still about fifteen twenty minutes.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Okay, we got we got a little bit of time
left in the show. So where are some places that
you'd like to go, whether it be performing or just traveling,
just traveling.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Yeah, So as mentioned Japan obviously overseas, that's what I
plan on doing. That's when I'm able to, when I
get the money.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
To yeah, when I say any word, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
As for anyone who hasn't everyone else, traveling is expensive
especially overseas. Yeah, besides that, in the country, you know that.
That's an interesting question because there's a few places, but
it's just I don't know which way I would want
to do first. It's just more opportunity. M h. I've
(46:23):
only been in New Orleans a day. Then that's I
guess a trip that I'm gonna take a relative distance
where well i'd fly in the United States is what
I mean, not just drive, would be probably the New
Orleans and Mississippi because there's still a lot of cool
stuff within that state and outside of New Orleans, the
federgraph architecture wise, nature wise, Oh yeah, all of that,
(46:48):
which I enjoy.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
All of that, like the pyramids and.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
All you talking about New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
Well, I mean there's also pyramids in parts of UH,
Louisiana and Mississippi, like old school, like as tech inspired
uh pyramids that were built back and around the time
of the Aztecs.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Oh, I'm not really sure about that. I haven't no,
I mean, I believe you, but uh, I'll definitely like
the nice thing that is I have the road Trippers
app there on Instagram, so I've only had that for
a few months, but it's really nice. Instead of having
like the Google Search, it has a huge listing of
(47:32):
just stuff to do by genre and just stuff you're into. Yeah,
which makes it nice as opposed to like years ago,
like when I first traveled time to research.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
Yeah. And also no, you go ahead, sorry, I was
just going to add to that. You also had to
have the paper maps.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
Oh, yes, that was what I want to say, like
for map quest mm hmm, yeah, or just old Atlas.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
Yes, I still keep going around me just in case
something happens.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
I do it just depending on where I'm traveling. That's
not always viable, if because sometimes I just don't have
a detailed enough one, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Oh? Yeah, you got to have like the city maps,
especially when you're going around like Chicago, or you almost
need like the age by page street map. Uh. They
used to print off like you'd have like soho New
York City, and they'd break it down into even smaller
parts so you can see all the side streets and such.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
I always brain up. I always brain a backup GPS.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
Oh that's smart.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
I highly suggest it. Don't ever, you don't have one
to depend on your phone if Heaven forbid something happens
to you have found Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
But you can it will not just can it will?
Speaker 2 (48:57):
Yeah? Yes?
Speaker 1 (48:58):
So uh any other place that you'd like to go
besides New Orleans.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
It's a lot of places. Saint Louis. Yeah, I wouldn't
even need to fly there, to be honest, New York
Saint Louis from Cincinnatis, maybe like six hours. It's a reason.
What if I want to stay there a few days.
I probably could play a show there. Some venues. I
would look at smaller venues. I would look into, yea,
(49:25):
some visiting some stuff there. I played in Kansas City,
but it is many years ago. That's still another city.
I would like to explore more the cities I've driven through.
It's just still a lot of town cities. I was
just in general experience more so, pretty much a lot
of places in the United States. I mean you have
to go state by state. Really, Colorado it's another one.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Oh gosh, Denver, I need to get to Denver real bad.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
Well, that would be there has been limited.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Yeah, I wish. I wish we had more hours in
the days sometimes, but that just means I'd have to
work longer hours.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
But we could just transport to different places. That might
be an easier solution.
Speaker 1 (50:09):
Come on, Bezos, you sell everything else, get a transupport
for us man, like the.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
One like in Star Trek. Yeah, I'll be honest that
if that technology ever happens, it's gonna be well beyond
our lifetime, well beyond and as like your grand kids,
and that'll be well beyond their lifetime.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
Oh we're talking like four or five hundred years in
the future if that if yeah. Yeah, So Jared, do
you have any uh so, you've got your band camp, Instagram?
Are you on Flicker as well?
Speaker 2 (50:43):
You know, people ask me that I'm not I never
got onto that. Okay, it's a cool side. I'm not passionate.
I just personally I never have it is.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
It's old school still, but it's still got a lot
of great finds on on that.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
Oh yes, and then some stuff that's only on Flicker.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
Yeah very much.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
So.
Speaker 1 (51:05):
Yeah, So that will wrap up our conversation for today.
It has gone by so fast. Thank you so much.
I need to say thank you to Jared Presley. We've
tried this two other times before it just technical issues,
so yeah, I think the first time. Okay, here's the
word to the whys of your podcaster. Don't upgrade your
(51:26):
your software five minutes before you do an interview, because
it could screw you up. That's what happened the first
time we try to together. That was not a smart
idea on my part. But until it does, and it's
you live and you learn, and sometimes you don't get
to the learned part. That's me. But we're glad to
(51:48):
have everybody here listening. As we say every week, get out,
hit the pavement, have fun, take pictures, keep your head
and swivel and share your photos with us. It doesn't
matter if you have one follower or one hundred million followers.
We still love seeing what you got. Until next time,
Happy sign finding. This is an international sign finders
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