In New York, no neon news is good neon news these days:
• On the west side, the West 57th Street Garage (along with its gorgeous, three-story high sign) is no more.
The once resplendent West 57th Street Garage has been demolished. (T. Rinaldi)
• On the east side, the veteran Japanese restaurant East has closed.
• Uptown, the picked-over husk of the Lenox Lounge has been put out of its misery, to make way for unspecified chain retail. Give me strength.
• Downtown, Pearl Paint's vanished neon has resurfaced as luxury tsotschke.
• All over town, American Apparel has left New York, dimming some of the city's best new neon.
• In Queens, Astoria's Broadway Liquors has LEDed what was one of New York's best neon storefronts.
Broadway Wines & Liquors in Astoria boasted one of New York's best neon storefronts. (T. Rinaldi)
Goodbye to all that. Meanwhile, elsewhere . . .
• For your listening pleasure: my interview on the Stark Truth podcast with Robert Stark.
• Out west, sign chronicler Debra Jane Seltzer has been out and about - warning, there are some grizzly before-and-afters here:
> Cali to AZ
> In-n-around LA
> More In-n-around LA
> A little here, a little there
• Via Weather.com, "Creepy Abandoned Ghost Signs"
• From down south: "Meet Todd Sanders, the Man Who Keeps the Texas Neon Burning"
• Some windows into a neon-lit past over at Shorpy:
> Chicago's great Pabst spectacular by day and by night.
> And a bonus of Indianapolis neon
• Look for neon in the backdrop of these photos by Marvin E Newman in a new Taschen monolog of his work.
• A glorious gallery of vanished Albany storefronts, from AllOverAlbany.
• From the not-neon-but-still-cool file: Ephemeral New York pays homage to Canal Plastics.
• And finally ~ nationwide neon: Las Vegas' neon museum on CBS Sunday Morning.
Metropolitan Life. ("Public Speaking")