the retrofuture

for a while, that's what i wanted to have as my url. the site there is pretty cool although i could do without the ubiquitous church of bob heads on any type of website ever again. there's just so much kitsch of this nature existing in the world, it's hard to schelp thru it all.

that said, i attended, gave a paper at and was the snack goddess for the Society for Commercial Archeology's Seattle Conference. There was a serious 'I've found my people' vibe to the three-day event, where I could hear thoughts I'd only had buried in my head voiced articulately by those dear to preservation, photography, and idle worship of design and architecture of the American roadside. my paper, naturally, was on the Wildwoods and how demolition is changing the density of neon signage along the roadside, and thus the character of the town. among the many great folks i met were Laura Russell, an amazing photographer dedicated to neon, amusement parks and 'ghost dogs,' or the brick-painted signs that become ghosts over time/wear; Carol Ahlgren of 2020 Omaha, a great preservation group with a dada-esque approach to getting their buildings landmarked (they made mustaches to wear to a hearing for a neon sign boasting a Mexican character named "pepe"), and Richard Gilbert, who along with Leonard Garfield of the Museum of History and Industry, gave a fabu tour of the old rt. 99, including the gun shop where St. Cobain's death wish was purchased. Fun!