South Tucson Day 7

This is the 7th and final post of my South Tucson Pictures... for now.

This is one of my few portrait pictures. But because of the sign, this was ratio was completely necessary.

This is a good saying.

I wonder how the 'A' came off; the letters were painted on.

This is one of the most flamboyant signs I have ever seen.

South Tucson Day 6

This is one of the most run down places I have ever seen. It must have been glorious when it was open but now it's closed and breaking down. I would think that it would be a great building for something like an art gallery but I don't think artists see it that way.

Got this while I was in the car. Taken in a very quick shot.

I couldn't help but focus on the bottom of this sign. It looks like it's about to fall down. Pigeons made a nest inside it.

South Tucson Day 5

Here is my fifth day of South Tucson pictures.

That guy in the mural reminds me of the No Me Gusta face.

This is Paradise Motel's less sketchy counterpart down the road a few yards.

Says what is needs to say. If I need tires and wheels this is the place I would go.

"Paradise" Motel

Here is day 4 of my South Tucson pictures.
I'm dedicating today's post to a very special location in South Tucson, you'll see why from the pictures.

If you can see, the sign, at one time, had neon lights over the lettering, but that time was long ago.

This motel has Kitchenettes, and some other stuff, but I can't make out what else. Maybe each room has a T.V. but beyond that, this sign isn't much help.

No association with Paradise Bakery.

The owner doesn't play games.

South Tucson Day 3

Here is day 3 of the South Tucson blog posts.

I found this tire sign irresistible.

The simplicity of this sign, to me, is striking, Sans Serif font with a little decorative typography to make it stand out.

I tried to get this sign up against a stark blue sky, but for some reason I just got the edge of a tree in. I should have zoomed in a bit closer.

Day 2 of South Tucson

Now, I give you, the second day of pictures from South Tucson.

I didn't realize pay phones still existed. I thought cell phones pretty much made them useless.

This sign has some of the best chipping paint I've seen on a sign. It's fairly consistent across the sign.

This is one of the strangest buildings I've seen. It has a collection of brick spires along the front and flag poles sticking out at obtuse angles.

Feast or Famine

I have a few new pictures from a day of shooting some signage in South Tucson.

James, a friend of mine, took me around and let me use his SLR.

From today: I have about seven post worth of material. I now give you Day 1:

Camera Issues

You may have noticed that I haven't made a post in a while.

The reason: I'm having camera issues. When I try to import the images from my camera it takes many minutes then, either returns an error message or only gives me the top third of the image. Once in a while, if I try long enough, I may get a few images out of the camera. Intermittent operation is not adequet operation and can not be depended on.

I'm pretty sure the issue is related to my compact flash card (Yes I still use compact flash cards as a storage medium). SD cards are the de-facto standard for cameras but they still manufacture CF cards.

As soon as I get one: I'll be taking more pictures again.

Stone: Day 3

Day 3, and the final day, of the Stone Ave pictures I have. Have a good Thanksgiving everyone!

Gotta love the two font types on the sign.

This place doesn't look like it's been open for a while.


I bet this sign has been standing for 60 years.

Tucson is known for its logging industry.

Stone: Day 2

Stone: Day two of three.

Ten points to who ever can make out the lettering on this sign.

Gimmicky?

If anyone knows what the SPCA is, let me know (There was no building in front of this sign).

Stone: Day 1

I took a trip down Stone on my bike. The wealth of material is phenomenal. I have enough pictures for three days. Which I will be uploading for the next three days.




This sign is behind a chain link fence, chances are it's going to be torn down soon and this plaza will be redeveloped.

Broadway and Campbell

Today I went to a region south of the U of A.

I really like this sign (Vince's Automotive Repair) notice the use of only two colors and the creative deployment of typography.

This is like some kind of sign grave yard. (Notice my shadow).

Funny thing about this R.V. Parks is that it's actually a trailer park, and it's pretty run down too. Furthermore it sits right in the shadow of the city, it's there, you go around the corner of Safeway and you'll see it. But unless you go one block out of your way: it's hidden behind all the glamorous Cricket wireless store and an apartment complex, and, Safeway.

I like that this sign is missing the 'S'

Grant and Park

99 cent store!
There's not much to say about this sign. I just took a picture of it on my way home from church. It's just like every other sign in Tucson. With this blog, I want to get a diverse representation of the signs throughout the town, spectacular or not. So: let this be an example of a typical Tucson sign at night.

Prince & Stone

I went out of my way today and these are the results:

One thing Tucson has, in abundance, are these payday loan places. This one is unique in the number of glowing neon and LED signs in its windows, really obnoxious if you ask me.

The thing that caught me about about this Dairy Queen was the glowing star on top. This Dairy Queen was built in 1952 and it's still owned by its original family. The star on top is based on an old electro-mechanical system that controls the lights to light up in around the star in series, like the Lucky Wishbone sign on Broadway. Unfortunately only the inner lights work because the system has broken down and replacements parts are no longer available. I'm lucky I got this sign now too because city ordinance forbids it because it's "distracting to traffic". The only reason it's up now is because it was put up before that ordinance was passed. Once it goes down: it can't go back up. So its days are numbered.
Although one thing I wonder: why do they let the payday loans place have so many neon lights and they don't want Dairy Queen to have its glowing star?

Trip over to west campus

So I headed over to west campus, a place I do not normally go to to try and get a hair cut. Being Monday, as I forgot, the barber was closed. But I used this as an opportunity to get more pictures.

Here is the place I tried to get a hair cut at.

I can't resist taking pictures of two signs stacked almost on top of one another.

This picture just shows the creativity of human laziness. So you were too lazy to walk the other twenty feet to put the top of your soft drink container in the trash? You just had to stick it into the entrance sign at the bank didn't you? And what did you do with the soft drink container? Did you throw that in the trash? So you couldn't carry the extra 2 grams to the trash but you could carry the container just fine? Really, this just doesn't make any sense.

Alvernon iCal

Alvernon iCal, on the corner of Campbell and Glenn.

Fair Wheel Bikes

I snapped this really quick outside of the U of A. I don't have much time to take too many pictures now with my Senior capstone design project and other school work, but I do what I can when I can.

The sun was reflecting directly off from this building. This image was taken from the west facing wall during sun set, making it look very bright and yellow. Most of the day this building looks different but during this one time of day it looks like this.
This is one of the things I'm trying to do with this blog: capture perspectives we normally don't see in things we see every day.