Neon in the News

I received an interesting call yesterday from a reporter with the Tacoma News Tribune who was doing a story on the vintage neon restaurant signs of Tacoma and what the look and style of the signs say about the restaurants they advertise. Of course when he did a Flickr search using the tags "neon" and "Tacoma" he happened on a few Hikenutty photos. After seeing my (Hikenutty's) set of neon photos and realizing he had a compulsive sign person on his hands he decided to give me a call because the Tribune still had my number from the Waymarking article they interviewed me for last Spring. He figured I might know who Hikenutty was since she waymarked in the Tacoma area.

We chatted about what waymarking is, what my Website Wayward is all about, and who this "Hikenutty" was who had a bunch of photos on Flickr. Some of the questions that he had for me were tough to answer. Why do I photograph them? What is it about them that I like so much? What are my favorite Tacoma area signs? (I had to give him three there - Poodle Dog Restaurant (night), Daffodil Motel (night) and the Golden City Cafe.)

How do you know why you love a certain thing? I love that neon can be art and science at the same time. I love how an old broken down, peeling sign looks - the colors and texture. I love how easy it is to turn an old sign into a very cool photograph. I love the history contained in some of them. Put that all together and add a complusive personality, and you end up with lots of sign photos. Plus, it helps that everyone in team Hikenutty is, well, nutty about old neon.

So for those of you out there who compulsively post waymarks to a specific category, what is it about that category that you love? What drives you to find yet another example to share with the Waymarking community? I'd love to hear any comments that you might have.

Waymarking Hits the Newstands

The Tacoma News Tribune article on Waymarking came out today. I would have completely missed it except that we received a bunch of emails stating that my husband was in the funny pages (it's on the cover of the "Soundlife" section, which has the funny pages in it.) He's going to have a hard time living this down. Hmm... This is a strike against my campaign to interest him in waymarking. Anyhow, the cool thing is that they have posted a contest as part of the article. Anyone who can post a "News Article Locations" waymark using a Tacoma News Tribune article can enter their name in a drawing for a prize. They don't say what the prize is, but hey, I'm going to be wandering around town on Saturday waymarking anyhow. Might as well get a cup of coffee or something out of it. For details on the contest link to the article.

Embracing the Inner Geek

Well, it's official now. Everyone that reads the Tacoma News Tribune will soon be alerted to my true state of geekiness. On Saturday morning Troy, my husband, and I went waymarking with a TNT photographer. She followed us around for about an hour as we waymarked several historic buildings and a community garden. In this picture we're at Fire House No. 1, which is on the U.S. Register of Historic Places. Troy is being photographed taking a waymark and you can see by his expression that he's not yet buying my "embrace your inner geek" stance.

I thought that wandering around with a photographer taking pictures of me waymarking would be embarrassing. Actually though, I felt like it made me seem a little less weird. I mean, if you're on your own and you climb up a wall to take a picture of a weed-filled community pea patch, people start to wonder if they should cross to the other side of the street. But if someone with a giant camera is taking a picture of you taking a picture of weeds and dirt, well, people are going to assume that your doing something legitimate. Either way though, I didn't have to worry as it seems that citizens of Tacoma are all still sleeping at 9:30am on Saturdays.

After we had done a few waymarks the photographer said goodbye and headed off to her next assignment. She had to photograph some new immigrants finally arriving after their relative has worked for something like 5 years to bring them to the country. Great story, but I don't see how it can compete with a spot on waymarking. We'll see. ;)

If you're interested in seeing the waymarks we did with the photographer, here are the links: Neighbors Park Community Garden, Fire Alarm Station, McIlvaine Apartments, and the Fire House link above. I'm guessing the story will be out in the next couple of weeks and I'll post a link to the article when that's available.

I've been outed!! Wayouted!!

Yes, you read right. I've been outed! No, not that way - my husband and I are still together. It's my waymarking habit that has been outed. The Tacoma News Tribune is doing an article on waymarking and they've interviewed me for the story. You see, up until now this waymarking habit is something only my family truly knows about. Now all of that inner geekiness I've been hiding from my friends will be out in the open. Those weekends spent searching for interesting intersection names and ginormous everyday objects will be known to all. Oh well, I suppose it had to be. At some point I have to embrace the inner geek and stop hiding it from those I love. Oh, the freedom!! The joy!!

On Saturday I'll be waymarking with my husband and a News Tribune photographer, and on Sunday I'll be waymarking in the land of geeks, Redmond, Washington, home of Microsoft and Nintendo. I'll write about it here on Sunday or Monday and give you the status of that inner geek embracing I'm working on.