Light Pixie Studio

Urban landscapes are full of messages. Graffiti is one form of advertising and advocating. Billboards, store signs and logos are another. Finding the value in either is optional, your choice. Do you recognize the city where these are located and what they advertise? Some are harder than others. Click the first one to open a Lightbox with bigger images.

April CONTEST results! First the answers:

1. The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar in Jackson Hole, Wyoming: This vintage neon sign over the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar at 25 North Cache Drive in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, has as much attitude as history. It started in the late 1890′s when the first commercial buildings were built. First, it was a doctor’s office, then the first bank, and eventually in a new building it became Ruby’s Cafe and Beer Garden. In 1937, Ben Goe changed the name to the Cowboy Bar along with the first liquor license issued in Wyoming after prohibition. The knobbed pine bar with inlaid silver dollars, chairs, pillars, walls and ceiling trim were scraped and prepared by a new owner himself. In the mid-40′s, the next owner renamed it the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. A gas explosion in 1953 damaged and even destroyed a lot of the old decor and when it was reconstructed this distinctive sign was added. Bar stools are saddles but alongside the kitsch is also a renowned collection of fine Western art. Visitors are treated to history, themed food, and mega atmosphere.

2. Pasticceria Sensi, Via Dono Doni, Assisi, Italy: Off the Piazza del Commune in Assisi, Umbria district, is this wonderful bakery window showcasing every delight from the ABCs of anise cookies, biscotti and cannoli to panneforte, stromboli and tarallini. Sensuous smells and sights are part of the sell!

3. The Gourmet Pantry, Driggs, Idaho: This was the easiest one–everything is right there on the sign! At 10 North Main Street in downtown Driggs alongside neighbors in the same building at #18, they cater mostly to locals and those looking for something a little different than the excellent Warbirds Cafe at the local Driggs-Reed Municipal Airport known to pilots as KDIJ. This picturesque town is in Teton County just beyond the westside foothills of Grand Teton and its equally grand brethren. It’s just a little more down to earth and reasonably priced than Jackson Hole yet still within range of mountain scenery, skiing, hunting, and trekking.

4. Kites on Ice 2004, Madison, Wisconsin: This is a tough one–you’d know if you attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison during the late 1990s until 2007 when this winter festival fell on hard times and was suspended. Over its active years it moved among the lakes of central Madison nearest the isthmus on which the capitol building and the main university sit. In 2004 it was held on Lake Mendota in front of the student union and hosted more than 500 impressive kites like these! Every imaginable winter festival item was for sale somewhere. The location was literally ON the lakes–as in: on top of the thick winter ice, hence the name Kites on Ice. It was civic pride and local boosterism at its best!

5. Mosaic floor inlay at Grand Central Station, New York City: What appears to be eTa is actually TEA, as in the Grand Union Tea Company. Grand Union is a food retailer currently operating more than 200 supermarkets in six states, more than half of which are in New York. Three brothers named Jones–Cyrus, Frank, and Charles–founded what was to become Grand Union in 1872, and called it the Jones Brothers Tea Co. with one store in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the shelves were stocked with coffee, tea, spices, baking powder, and flavoring extracts. They expanded steadily until they headquartered and warehoused in Brooklyn, New York. By 1912 Grand Union was a 200-outlet chain with an army of 5,000 door-to-door salesmen and horse-drawn wagons for deliveries. They reincorporated as the Jones Brothers Tea Co. in 1916. In the 1930s the “supermarket” concept evolved once again with the Grand Union name at the forefront. Their president in the 1940s recognized that a new concept was needed so as not to confuse customers by overwhelming their senses. Aisles with items shelved by category were the answer. By the mid-1950s, Grand Union operated about half the number of stores it did in the 1930s, but the stores sold seven times as much as before. They were also first in discounting groceries, selling convenience items and services, catalogue sales, cleaning products, household gadgets, even shoes and clothing alongside the usual mix of groceries. Grand Union struggled through the 1990s, losing money every year and twice entering into bankruptcy protection. They continued to struggle along with other retail grocery chains in the 21st century, but hope to recover their successful past with new innovative marketing and experimental store formats.

6. Bernar Venet’s 3 Arcs in Disorder, Bayside Park, Miami, Florida: Across from the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Miami, 100 Chopin Plaza. You can see it on Google maps but the name and artist were nowhere to be found! Thanks to my friend Elizabeth and her friend who is the event coordinator at Bayside, this sculpture finally has its proper name and creator recorded here! The rings promote in an artfully intrinsic way the emerging cultural center of Sculpture Miami, Art Miami, and Art Basel Miami, among many other art forums and installations in this great Atlantic coastal city.

7. Restaurant window, Brooklyn, New York: Looking for a good meal in the south part of Brooklyn where September 11, 2001 was still on their minds. What do they sell? Good Italian food and a good dose of patriotism.

8. Nidarosdomen (Nidaros Cathedral), Trondheim, Norway: This last one is without a doubt the most difficult of all for both the angle of view and the distant location. I didn’t really expect anyone to get it and no one did! It’s the roof peak of the Romanesque and Gothic cathedral in Trondheim, South Trondelag, Norway, looking up toward the golden orb and cross against a June sky. The so-called Triumphant Cross is formed of the Christian cross atop the orb of Earth, a prominent symbol among the faithful and among Christian monarchs a sign of royal legitimacy. This more than one thousand year old ediface is the traditional site for consecration of Norway’s kings. Roman Catholic from 1152 until 1537, following the Reformation it became the seat of the Norwegian Lutheran Church and the northernmost Medieval cathedral in the world. Work began in 1070 and was finished sometime around 1300. It has suffered war and fire and lightning damage; work and restoration are ongoing. There are two fine organs, one built by Steinmeyer in the 1930s for the north transept with 125 stops that was originally commissioned for the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Stikklestad, now largely rebuilt with many stops removed for a new choir organ and moved to the west nave. The old Baroque organ was built by Johann Joachim Wagner in 1738-1740 and was carefully restored in the mid 1990s with 30 stops and placed in the north transept where the Steinmeyer organ once stood.

Look for the next contest during the month of May! Thank you for looking at Light Pixie Studio.
Contest RULES: Anyone can win and you don’t have to get them all, even one would do if no one else enters. But you have to enter to win! Subscribe to these posts and then use the Contact Sharyn link to send your answers; I’ll post the winner and answers with details on April 15th, 2012. The individual who accurately identifies the greatest number of these images will receive any one image of their choice from the entire Light Pixie site–FREE of charge including shipping. Good luck!