Howdy pardner’s! My name is Tyler and I love Las Vegas’ history. I graduated from the UNLV School of Architecture in 2017 with an M.Arch degree. During my time I’m architecture school, I took a research interest in the urban and architectural history of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Image from the Yesco Collection at UNLV Special Collections

So The Fitzgeralds sign is from a relatively young casino--it was founded in 1987--but it is notable because it eventually became the first Black-owned casino on the Strip in 2001 when Don Barden’s company purchased it in 2001. It has since become The D, which is a nod to its downtown location; Detroit (where Don Barden was from); and Derek Stevens’ nickname, who was one of the co-buyers once Don Barden died in 2011 and the property was sold. 

It’s also of note because on the tour, this is the first time you learn that not all neon signs are neon; in fact, many of them aren’t actually neon. Neon naturally creates red, orange, and pink lights, and argon makes up the rest of the colors with a touch of mercury. Argon is baby blue in color, and you can see it in the close-up of the clover sign where the ends of the tubes are in fact blue. I’ve since referred to the Neon Museum cheekily as The Noble Gas Museum, but that isn’t quite as compelling to anyone who isn’t remotely interested in the periodic table. 

The other highlight of this part of the tour was this Plaza sign which was a new addition from the Plaza Hotel and Casino which is also located in Downtown Las Vegas. I love that casinos are donating their still-working signs to the boneyard and likely upgrading their big signs to LEDs to save on electricity costs, which is a win-win for everyone!

redrawing of famous 15th century tapestry “Unicorn in Captivity” except instead of a unicorn it’s my favorite beanie baby. 

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ngl it irks me that people have removed butch and femme from their cultural significance and redefined them so much that they’re now synonymizing butch with “man-like” or masculine and femme with “woman-like”/feminine. like just completely abolishing the depth and significance of these identities to be two opposite ends of a cis-heteronormative spectrum (essentially reinventing m/f) as opposed to two complex and separate queer identities. so then you get people saying things like “futch” instead of genderfluid or genderqueer or nonbinary or bigender, all of which are real and valid things to be. butch and femme are not ends on a sliding scale, butch does not simply mean “masculine” and femme does not simply mean “feminine.” there’s other resources on this and other people who can explain it better than me but basically please don’t dilute the meaning of these cultural identities by putting them on a spectrum they don’t belong on.

edit: blocking people who leave annoying or dumb replies 💋❤️

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imported a couple of old evangelion tie-in manga

they're so fucking gay for eachother

From our picture files: "Their names in lights - the signs of the city"

Neon signs of Sochi (USSR, 1970s)

The York Galleria is the only surviving one of five malls developed in York, PA, over the years. Prior to the Galleria, the east side of York had the York Mall, opened in 1968, with anchors JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, and York's own The Bon-Ton, as well as a flagship location of McCrory's variety store. The west side of town was dominated by the West Manchester Mall, a 1981 mall from major mall developer Crown American Corporation. This mall featured Hess's, The Bon-Ton, and Gee Bee as anchors. The two other malls, North Mall and Delco Plaza Mall, were smaller and both struggled to compete with the nearby West Manchester.

In the late 80s, another big mall developer, George Zamias, chose to build the York Galleria in east York - right next to the York Mall. He described the Galleria as the 21st century mall that York deserved. Upon opening in 1989, York Galleria featured Sears, Boscov's, JCPenney, and The Bon-Ton; the latter two stores had left the York Mall behind to join the Galleria.

This presented an opportunity for Arkansas-based Walmart to open at the wounded York Mall in its former JCPenney building in 1990. It was the first store in PA for the particularly ruthless Walmart, which would spend the next 30 years laying waste to rival northeastern discount stores. The West Manchester Mall wasn't hit as hard by the opening of the Galleria, but it too made the mistake of welcoming in Walmart to replace their closed Hess's store in 1993.

Walmart later expanded both stores into supercenters that swallowed up huge sections of the malls they were attached to, and a Sam's Club was added at the York Mall site next to Montgomery Ward. Far from keeping these two malls afloat, Walmart helped kill them from the inside out. The closure of Montgomery Ward in the late 90s was the final straw for York Mall; West Manchester was slated for redevelopment after The Bon-Ton left in 2011. Today, the York Galleria stands as the city's only mall, but it has faced its own struggles recently. At least part of this comes from the various former malls in York that the Galleria had previously helped to kill.

Finally another pirate dino! Olenna Mondego, former first-mate to infamous Captain Ives.

On Stage In Person: Sugar Torch and Nudie Dolls

“Neon Demons: Genesis” Part II (continued from Part I here). Holoroid photographs from the Laboratories of the Seventh Spire of Hell, circa 1980s earth time, during Satan’s grand experiment to fuse human, demon, and machine.

The architect of the Neon Demons project was an old Fallen Angel known as Malachor, whose bitter rage at his former kingdom fueled a centuries-long obsession with finding a dimensional pathway between the realms of Hell and Heaven. He walked amongst mortals, studying their technologies and ensnaring the souls of brilliant scientists who would serve their eternity in Hell working on Malachor’s legacy: The Seventh Spire.

Although The Seventh Spire achieved heights of cosmic elevation far beyond any previous structure in Hell, it could only manage to graze the very outer spectrum of radiation from Heaven’s Light. Malachor felt he had failed, but Satan saw it as a different type of success, and assigned Malachor a new, even more impossible task: Bioengineer a new breed of demon, transfused with Heaven’s Light: the first demon with the power beauty, the ultimate manipulator of men.

The years (centuries? eons? Time in Hell does not flow so much as it squirms and stretches like the skin of a writhing worm) spent in the laboratory were a strange atmosphere, even for the underworld. The low levels of Heavenly radiation wore at the demons, depleting them gradually. Meanwhile, it nourished and uplifted the otherwise dead souls of the beautiful earth creatures whose bodies would become an essential ingredient of the Neon Demons. Even as their physical forms were dismantled and augmented, they moved through the halls of the Spire with a grace and lightness never before witnessed by Hell’s denizens. For most of the already tired demons, the presence of these glistening nymphs in this unholy realm of infernal misery made them uncomfortable and irritable. But a few demons, in their weakened state, let their guard down and allowed themselves some comfort in the beautiful mortals. But that is another story…

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NOTE: This alternate reality horror story is part of my NightmAIres narrative art series (visit that link for a lot more). NightmAIres are windows into other worlds and alternate histories, conceived/written by me and visualized with synthography and Photoshop.

If you enjoy my work, consider supporting me on Patreon for frequent exclusive hi-res wallpaper packs, behind-the-scenes features, downloads, events, contests, and an awesome fan community. Direct fan support is what keeps me going as an independent creator, and it means the world to me.

Block E at Night, Minneapolis (1970s) via @hclib

every time queer discourse surges on this site everyone is so quick to jump to “it was actually the evil lesbians who divided us” because y’all heard the term “political lesbian” and never bothered to figure out what that meant