As you may or not know, there isn't a hell of a lot to do it Tucson. Go to 4th ave. Check. Foothills, sleepy. Check. Um, the mall. Check. Apart from the fact that Tucson has probably the best Mexican food on earth, namely El Charro, Mi Nidtio (without any doubt the best margarita in existence and Bill Clinton ate there!), and Cafe Poca Cosa (menu changes twice a day!) it is pretty spare on things to do. Luckily I have been down there with my woman as well as being there during the TV on the Radio concert, the AIA Architecture Home Tour, Asobi Seksu concert (Jared Bell's fantastic band Lymbyc System opened up for them. Check 'em out.) Apart from that, we couldn't find much else to do and we really did try. I think we have been over every inch of the city, going insofar as to drive to Bisbee (which is truly one the most interesting places to visit in AZ but that is for some other time.) Not to mention that while being in Tucson I witnessed my first person who had been shot, laying on the ground in front of a liquor store, which was not a very pleasant experience to put it lightly.
That being said there is one thing Tucson does have and that is potential. There are not many places left that have these relics of America's roadside culture. The signs above were meant to lure travelers in from the road trips which accelerated after 1956's National System of Interstate and Defense Highways Act was passed and people all over the country were hitting the road. This also took away business from places that were no longer visible from the new highways. The signs represent a bygone era but are also made with great care and art, something lacking from almost all signs today. For example my favorite photo above is the Tucson Inn, which is not only bold but fun to look at and shows that flare and design are missing in the signs o' the times (like Prince).
When I was taking the photo of the Arizonan sign an old man was sitting on his porch. I got out to take the photo and he yelled at me, “ What are you doing there?” I replied that I was just taking a picture of the sign. “What for?” Again me being horrible at small talk I said something to the affect of, Oh just for fun. “Fun? Doesn’t sound like fun to me.”
Most of these are found around Stone, Main, or Oracle which used to be some of the main roads coming into Tucson even before the highways were built. I would hope that the artistic or architectural community in Tucson would pay more attention to what is around them. The big danger to Tucson is the Rio Nuevo. Although there have been great preservations like the Fox and Hotel Congress downtown, the Rio Nuevo is an attempt to make Tucson another gentrified Scottsdale or any other place in this country. The focus should be on what is already there and how to make that better, I am not against the development but there is so much classic and under appreciated architecture and signage in Tucson that it would be a shame just to build without incorporating it into the landscape. Each generation should be preserved for what it represents, we are a nation of false progress and in an era of hit and run developments we should collectively realize that the United States is one of those rare places that does not care about its History and we have to fight to preserve important history in the face of developers and businesses with Government subsides.
There are a lot a nice things around if you took the time to look.
1 comment:
I apologize if my previous comment seemed like an affront on what you are trying to do here. Every once and a while I get disillusioned about what I'm doing with my blog, as it has always lacked a goal. I usually end up deciding that it's fine as a sounding board and once and a while I will write up something that is of some quality. That, and most of my friends like the pictures or the random things I find. So I guess the overall goal might be the entertainment of my friends.
In any case, the criticism is not of you, but probably more out of my own self-conscious feelings for my own blog. I think i just went off a little. I don't think that makes the ideas meaningless, but reading your entries and getting a better understanding of your ideas from your last comment probably means they don't apply to you.
I like what you write about, I think it's interesting stuff. I like this one on the Tucson signs, and I totally agree with you about how towns must respect their established character when moving forward.
In fact, it made me feel like an ass because I haven't mused on something in a while. It's a worthy endeavor.
I haven't read everything, because you've been pretty prolific in the past couple days and it is a decent amount of reading spliced in with all the other net reading I do. But it's interesting. I think the random artist and the Tucson signs are the best pieces so far, or at least the ones I'd like to hear more on.
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