Milford Plaza

At 8th Ave. & 44th St.  Not a great building, but they've cleaned it up without (so far) removing all its old-school signs; unfortunately the big M on top is gone, at least for now.

Rolls Royce Car Wash

Another yellow car one story closer to heaven, on top of the car wash / repair shop at Union Ave. & Meserole St. in Williamsburg.  This junker is a Rolls Royce, which reminds me that the soundtrack to one of my favorite stupid movies, Car Wash, was done by Rose Royce.

Plaza Arcade Signs

The 47th St. end of the arcade
Plaza Arcade cuts through the middle of the block from the 48th St. side of Rockefeller Plaza to the "diamond district" on 47th St. between 5th & 6th Aves.  Its main tenant is Ross Metals, and (beyond the beaded witnesses in the window, left) its main attraction is the signs.



There's the fetching Arcade Coffee signs above.


And the Ross Metal signs above and below, whose strong "mystical system" style reminds me of Paul Laffoley's work.


And then there's the best NO sign I've ever seen on Ross Metal's door: NO DRINKS, NO CARRIAGES, NO FOOD, NO RADIOS, NO SMOKING, NO UMBRELLAS, NO SOLICITING, NO LOITERING!

8th Ave. Lingeries Toys

I recommend the Swiss Army Nurse outfit
Sure there's plenty of cartoonish plastic & steel fronting the Times Square / 42nd St. corporate theme park, but it gets harder all the time to find concentrated organic storefront visual vitality in NYC.  Luckily there's still some on 8th Ave. between 39th & 40th.


I hardly notice the Subway sign, lost in the barrage of cheesy We Buy Gold signs.  In fact I'm thinking that after I sell my gold (caps, crowns and fillings), I might just get a tattoo, a $125 suit, some Lingeries Toys, jewelry and a fresh haircut, then get a picture taken and renew my passport so I can take one of the trips advertized on the building above right!

She makes smoking look sexy again...

Wasco Was?

Wasco Auto Parts, at the corner of McGuinness and Nassau, is one of my favorite Greenpoint sights.  I just noticed it's shuttered, but don't know if that means it's gone for good.

Not only does it sport the classic Junker Gone to Heaven motif on the roof, but its big Wasco sign always reminds me of Elmer Fudd and that "wasco-y wabbit," Bugs Bunny.

Globe Slicers

Above, globe slicers on Bowery -- oops, I mean below.  Or maybe both, since the slick, ostentatious Sperone Westwater Gallery (above left) arrived to help the New Museum (above right) blaze the Luxury Trail down Bowery and connect the Soho luxury mall to the coming LES luxury mall.

Sharpening slicers, mixers and grinders across Bowery from Sperone
Yes, seeing high-end art outposts preen on the Bowery, clueless as slumming debutantes (or clueless as the Vogue India editor who had "colorful" people at the bottom model luxury goods for people at the top, like she was dressing up monkeys) still pisses me off.

Sure, the top end of the art world has been a luxury industry since the Pharaohs, but it's galling to see supposedly sensitive art types help erase every trace of the Bowery with buildings and institutions that would fit in just fine with the luxury flagship stores up at 5th and 57th, or on the ground floors of any new luxury tower in NYC.

I don't care how many Salvation Army bunk beds Sperone can fit into the massive red elevator it flaunts on the street like a Rolls Royce hood ornament.  I don't care what the New Museum shows, serving an already spoiled clientele a few feet away from a rescue mission that's likely destined to become a $1000 a night flophouse-themed boutique hotel sometime soon, for people who can afford to enjoy the warm glow radiated by misery and erased history, along the event horizon where places go "poof" as they're sucked into the stainless black hole of Luxury.

And further down Bowery, below, evil Anthony Hopkins looks happy as hell, no doubt imagining carrying out the rite the ad promises on the inhabitants of the new condos on Kenmare behind him.

Signs of Snow

In Queens again.  Above, a fresh snow carpet matches the whitewashed sign at the oil facility on the Queens side of the Greenpoint Ave. bridge.  Below left, the CitiBank Queens tower looms in the distance past the LIRR tracks near 50th Ave.


Meanwhile, above right and below, from 51st Ave. near 21st St., traffic climbs the LIE from the Midtown Tunnel under a mountain of signs.

I See Signs 1

Right: I'd like to ask the Rabbi: Was it just chance that landed your purple ad in the middle of all that yellow?

(Re complementary colors;  sign seen on Delancey.)



What's wrong with Tycoon Island (formerly NYC), above left: "Live like a Rockefeller, party like a rockstar." (2nd Ave near 2nd St)

On the bright side, that lifestyle will deliver them to the business across the street from the sign, above right.  Nothing like a dead clock, window plants, and lights left on to make a funeral parlor homey.  (Radio ad tagline: "At Provenzano Lanza, we leave the lights on!")

Above left: The Gaseteria sign, perfectly placed near the mouth of high octane Newtown Creek.  Above right, a star filled "night regulation" sign I found sleeping on the sidewalk in Greenpoint.

And finally, below, on 58th St. in Maspeth, the most "architecturally organic" sign I've seen in a while.  Leave it to "New York's Tidiest" to bring us the last word in clean, modern style.