Bob Shell wrote: > > On Nov 28, 2005, at 2:50 PM, Ann Sanfedele wrote: > >(snip snip) > > My original inspiration for photographing weird signs was Mason > Williams, best known for his song Classical Gas. He put out a book > back in the early 70s called Reading Matter. One section of the > book is a bunch of photos of weird signs, like one on a meat packing > place that reads "Custom Killing".
That sounds familiar.... He also put out a book of photos > which were all shots of vintage mechanical typewriters after he had > tossed them out of a car going 55 miles an hour. Interesting man > with a very weird sense of humor. Missed that one... > > Lovers of the strange should take a look at the book Passing Gas:And > Other Towns on the American Highway. My friend Gary Gladstone did > this book a couple of years ago. He traveled all around the USA > photographing places with really weird names. Here in Virginia he > photographed the little town of Tight Squeeze. He's traveling now, > working on a sequel. I know that book from somewhere. And there is another called "Closed on account of Death - Not Sam" but most of the signs in it are, well, just signs. > > There is so much humor in the world if we just take the time to look > for it. > > Bob back in the dear dead days beyond recall I did a bit of acting and was typed a "comic ingenue" so I've always applied my funny bone to all endeavors. You will find, if you stick around the list, I'm one of a handful of shameless punsters. I've got "Son of" Sign Language sort of hanging around hoping for a publisher - but I'm inherently lazy and haven't pushed it. What happened, after the book came out, some friends who were not photographers would give me truly terrible snaps shots of signs they saw hoping I would use them in my next book. Ugh. That was a little hard to deal with sometimes. annsign, uh, annsan
