Tue 5 Jan 2010
Sun-Lake Neon Relit!
Posted by Will under neighborhood, photography
[8] Comments
(click for the bigger picture)
For the last couple years (at least), every time I’ve passed the Sun-Lake Pharmacy’s neon at night it’s been off and I grumble to myself about what a shame it is that it’s not blazing bright on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Parkman in my section of Silver Lake.
See, I’m one of those who thinks it should be a fineable offense to neglect neon signs.
Anyway, I’m not sure the occasion, but biking home tonight from work I was pleasantly amazed to see it shining in all its glory, and so of course I stopped, busted out the cam and snapped me a shot for posterity.
Hey, that’s only a couple of blocks from here. I’ve lived in the neighborhood nearly a year and never seen it lit. Cool!
Yeah, I’m guessing its reillumination might be tied in to that slowly progressing and mysterious “David” business that’s taking over where the chinese food place use to be a couple doors down. They added neon to the old eatery’s existing sign. Maybe the owners are trying to hip up the corner.
Just had a Modelo from the liquor store next door. That whole strip between Parkman and the Silver Lake Boulevard Bridge would make a great renovation project for the right enlightened developer–all it needs is a little face lift.
Silver Sun Plaza, however, catecorner, is not the exemplar. Icky pomo wedding cake stuck on a stripmall. That one needs to be bulldozed.
I noticed it Sunday night and my first thought was, “Why haven’t I noticed that sign lit up before?” Then I realized they must have just fixed it. Very cool, indeed.
Joseph, what makes Silversugly Plaza even more atrocious is when you can see what they did to what was first there (which includes the same building between SLB and Parkman, circa 1923):
http://www.silverlake.org/HistoricPhotos/oldphotos/Sunset&Parkman.jpg
Cool photo of the original SilverSun Plaza. I remember it actually looking fairly original, or at least tasteful, until sometime in the mid-seventies when it suffered a fire. It’s undergone a couple of bad re-models since.
Sooo many gut wrenching photos of LA like that. Notice the red car running down sunset blvd? My only hope is that as people start to realize the cost of land given up to parking isn’t worth it, we’ll return to building human-scale, pedestrian oriented spaces, without the strip-mall carmageddon architecture that induces tagging, theft, blight and an all around abandonment of society.
Here’s a photo I just came across; you guys know those strange cement blocks on the hillside just north of the Rick’s burger, across the street from the DWP building on Fletcher near Riverside? I never knew what they were for until now…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/atwatervillage/414366690/sizes/l/in/set-72157594507990763/
Hello Will,
I wrote some words whilst in a taxi in Madrid and have set them against your neon picture which I found using google images. I did this as part of an ongoing project to find completely unconnected images and see what results. So far I have about 30 of them as part of a ‘stream of conciousness’ on behalf of myself and people I meet.The whole seems to be greater than the sum of the parts, so thankyou.
Martin