#38 - Learn to make neon signs

Another item a long time in the making.

After a significant amount of searching I found a neon sign design class offered by the Museum of Neon Art, http://www.neonmona.org/.  The museum was setting up a temporary at the NHRA museum at the Pomona Fairgrounds, kind of a poke from Temecula, but better than driving to Glendale, the planned permanent home of the museum.

I signed up for the class starting last January.  The class was taught by David Svenson, an artist who works with neon, glass and wood, among other things, to make some incredible works of art.  You can check out some of his work here -> http://www.svensonarts.com/david.htm and here -> http://www.californiastudioglass.org/?p=684.

Interestingly, one of my ideas for a neon project was to do something with my Dad's WWII 488th Bomb Squadron insignia.  

I was talking about how my Dad had worked on B25s during the war including aboard the Hornet supporting the Doolittle Raid and learned that David's father also served on B25s, as a flight engineer in North  Africa and Italy.  

It is a small world.

David sent a picture that his father took while serving, a photo of a B25 named "Wet Dreams," which was fairly consistent with the squadron insignia theme, as you might imagine.

I hadn't fully committed to the idea of the insignia, but when we found out our fathers both worked on B25s during the war I decided it was probably my karma to go ahead with the project.

I got off to what I thought was a good start with the design, going old school.  I scanned a copy of the artwork, printed it onto a transparency, borrowed an old overhead projector from the office, taped some paper to the wall and traced the projection out into a plan.  

Being not terribly bright, I complicated the design by making it three-dimensional.  My plan called for the circle in the design to be back-lit with a neon (well, technically, an argon-mercury filled blue phosphor-coated) tube, bouncing blue light off the wall to give a short of "wild blue yonder" effect.   The woman and bomb were to be a suspended in front of the circle, also back-lit, this time with green phosphor tubing behind the bomb and pinkish-white behind the woman, all one tube, because you can splice different colors of tubes together.  Well, YOU can't, but someone who knows how to bend tubing can.  I wanted some actual neon in the work, so I added the text "488th BOMB SQDN" in an arc following the bottom arc of the circle.  And the lightning bolt is theoretically to be a crackle tube(s), which I will have to explain later.

I should back up a bit and 'splain a bit.  We tend to refer to all these glowing gas tubes as neon, when in fact a sign may have no neon at all.  Neon gas glows bright red in a clear tube.  Other gases like argon, krypton or xenon, produce colors from violet to white to bluish white.  Inject some mercury into a neon gas tube and the thing turns bright blue.  Glass tubing can be colored or the inside of the tubing can be coated with different phosphors.  The tubes are all white when powered off, but glow different colors depending on the given coatings.  Crackle tubes are a special case where the gas tubes are filled with some manner of glass beads or whatever.  When the tube is lit the current tries to find a path through all the glass bits and creates a lightning like effect inside the tube.  Very cool actually.

After my quick start my project bogged down horribly, mostly because I tried to switch from old school to new school, importing the drawing into Adobe Illustrator and tweaking the pattern.  It turns out that I have no aptitude for Adobe Illustrator.  A smarter person would have sought assistance from one of our designers at work, guys who can probably run Illustrator in their sleep.  I, on the other hand, eventually reverted to my projector and pencil, a technology with which I am much more comfortable.

Sometime around last June I finally got the plans to my tube bender, Michael Flechtner.  Check out his work at http://www.flektro.com/.  (His work is amazing...check out his Neon Aquarium.  I particularly liked his Carrot and Stick crucifix.)  

Michael makes bending glass look like a piece of cake, which, based on my very limited experience in class, it is not.  Michael mentioned that he offered a bending class (I think he said it was 40 hours a week for six weeks and involved bending somewhere around 300 lbs of glass.)  I decided that tube bending was going to be beyond my grasp.

My tubes were ready relatively quickly, the only real problem being that Michael's studio is in Van Nuys, not exactly a quick hop from Temecula.  Picking up the tubes and driving them all the way back to Temecula was a little nerve wracking.  I had them taped down on some rigid foam insulation to protect them, but I still felt like I was a pothole away from breaking them all.

Once back home, the project went into yet another holding pattern while I installed a lawn, concrete paver walkways, a patio slab and a new hot tub.

Finally a few weeks ago I got sick of the tubes still sitting on their transport foam and decided to try to finish the damn thing.

The fabrication of the panels actually ended up being quite fun, the painting something of a pain as I have no artistic abilities, and the assembly totally nerve wracking, way more so than the drive from Van Nuys.  Because of my stupid multi-level design, I had to install tubes, flip the panels over, install more tubes, flip them back over to install transformers, etc.  Every flip ran the risk of smashing a tube.

Early in the fabrication process

Testing the wall mount, with the first base paint coats

Assembling the layers

In the end I managed to the thing assembled and mounted on the wall, using a French cleat that you could hang a Volkswagen from. 

Mostly finished project

I still have some work to do.  I need to get back together with my instructor on the crackle tubes and need to clean up some of the marginal wiring before I electrocute myself, but I think it's close enough to check this one off.

I have definitely learned what's involved in neon making neon art.  Sadly, much of it is beyond me.  I would have liked to have done some of the tube bending myself, but given the months of training and the expense of the equipment it probably will never be practical for me.  And the bombarding process, where the tubes are filled with gas is a little terrifying, involving enough voltage to light up a small town.  I don't know that I could be trusted with that.

#27 - Eat a Hot Dog at Pink's

Eating a hot dog proved to take longer than originally expected.

I've wanted to try Pink's for about forever, but for most of my life never even bothered to figure out precisely where it was.  Then a few years I bought tickets to see "Wicked" at the Pantages.  Denise and I spent the night at a Hollywood hotel and next morning decided to kill time with a trip to the LA Farmer's Market.  On the drive over from the hotel we drove right past Pink's.  It being only about 10:00 in the morning and having just pigged out on the hotel breakfast buffet, I opted not to stop in for a dog at that time.  Have been regretting it since.

I nearly cheated on this one; when Denise and I took Nicholas to LAX for his trip to Italy, nearly two years ago, we discovered a Pink's in the Bradley International Terminal.  So I could have legitimately said I did eat a hot dog at Pink's way back then, but that would have been a definite violation of the spirit of #27.

So, I have bided my time, waiting for the appropriate time to visit the original 1939 edition Pink's on La Brea in Hollywood.  On at least two occasions I have driven to the neighborhood, once going so far as to park my car up the street before ultimately deciding that the line was too long to be worth the wait.  On both those occasions I was alone and the thought of experiencing Pink's without someone to share just didn't seem right.

On Sunday I finally brought this one to a close.  Interestingly, Sunday I was supposed to have been checking off #21 - Run a 5K, by participating in the Redondo Beach Superbowl Sunday 5/10K Run.  Unfortunately, I broke the big toe on my right foot several weeks ago and that has cut into my training somewhat.  That and the fact that I needed to be in Redondo Beach by 6:00AM made the run a no go.

Denise and I were returning from Santa Barbara and I decided that with the Superbowl about to kick off, lines at Pink's might be mercifully short.  Score!  When we showed up there were about 10 people in line.  About 5 minutes in line and had our orders in; Chili Dog with Sauerkraut for Denise, Chicago Polish Dog with a side of Chili Cheese Fries.  Just water to drink, because we're trying to eat healthy after all.

Another five minutes later and we had our lunch.  Beautiful aren't they?

And I did actually eat my dog, photographic evidence provided below.  It was a bit messy.

So, the verdict?  Well, it was definitely an experience, the dogs were tasty and the lines non-existent, thanks to the Ravens and 49ers.  Would the dogs be worth it if the lines were the oft mentioned 45 minutes or more?  Well, I suppose that depends on who you're waiting with.  Any regrets?  Only that there were too many dogs and too little time.

#64 - Shave with a Straight Razor

The original number #64 - Avoid the urge to dye my hair/get a tattoo/buy a corvette/dump my wife for a younger woman - was at worst silly and at best unnecessary, since I have little hair left to dye, no money to buy a corvette and no shot at a younger woman.  As old age sets in and my memory fades I may actually opt for a tattoo, but it will be some handy information, like my social security number, bike lock combination or maybe my recipe for focaccia.

So, out with the old #64 and in with the new.  It is now #64 - Shave with a Straight Razor.  And, as of today, this one is also complete.

For some time I've been researching straight razor shaving, there being several attractions in it.  For one, it's SO manly.  James Bond shaves with a straight razor.  Or to be completely accurate, Bond Girls shave James Bond with a straight razor.  I have convinced myself that straight razor shaving must be more environmentally friendly than those disposable plastic 8-blade cartridge monstrosities, since you don't throw a straight razor away, you just sharpen it.  And the straight razor has to be cheaper in the long run, although it could be quite a long run.  

Those disposable blade cartridges are ridiculously expensive, but as it turns out, so is a good straight razor.  Not to worry; I bought a not so good straight razor for not so much money.  Technically, what I bought is not an actual straight razor, but a replaceable blade straight razor.  It uses safety razor type blades which have the advantage of being really inexpensive and require no honing, stropping, etc.  It's sort of a straight razor with training wheels.  When (and if) the wheels come off, I'll upgrade to a real straight razor, but that will be another day.

The really good news is that you can at least still cut the crap out of yourself with a replaceable blade straight razor, which I demonstrated admirably in my first foray.  

Fortunately, I also bought a styptic pencil.  All bleeding stopped for the moment.