I’ve never cared much about neon signs one way or the other. I’ve never lived anywhere where I could see them without going somewhere, though.
I suppose that what I think about them now is that some of them are pretty, but they can be distracting and/or annoying if they’re in the wrong place. If I did have any opinion about them when young, I don’t remember what it was.
The change I have noticed in gas price signs is that more and more of them are at ground level. Also, most have gone back to physical displays rather than segmented or video displays.
No, Military Intelligence here is a joke, not an oxymoron.
I love neon signs, mostly as an extension of my love for Googie architecture and midcentury architecture in general.
I do find it interesting that during the time when they were common many people apparently considered them “eyesores”, but that was before my time.
They’re also fun to photograph:
Do they still have the giant pirate skull you can see from Google Earth?
We did the daylight tour seven years ago. I want to go at night to see some of the signs lit up.
Somewhere between profoundly and barely nudge around the edges.
A great artist can get me to see something important profoundly differently. But they’re not going to turn me into a different person with an entirely different worldview.
I was including writers within artists, and many works of fiction have changed my perspective on things.
That’s how I interpreted it. Tolkien crystallized my anti-death penalty position with Gandalf’s insight on who deserves death.