Neon Light Nights

I could hear everything, together with the hum of my hotel neon.

Jack Kerouac

Real neon - the kind hand-made from glass tubes and gas - changes everything.

Real neon signs are vivid and a bit dangerous, traits imbued on the places they illuminate.

Real neon is like lightning in a tube. It amplifies places. We real estateurs should use it as such.

Roy’s Motel & Cafe, in the desert outside of Amboy, CA, did just that.

Waylon Jennings describes living a life of neon with “lovable losers and no account boozers” in Honky Tonk Heroes:

Them neon light nights, couldn't stay out of fights
Keep a-hauntin' me in memories
Well, there's one in every crowd, for cryin' out loud
Why was it always turnin' out to be me?

Waylon is neon, manifested.

Waylon Jennings by Jim Marshall

A real honky tonk isn’t possible without real neon.

But neon is also Miles Davis, manifested.

Miles Davis by Jim Marshall

And a real jazz club isn’t possible without neon.

Like Miles, neon brings a bit of edge, a hint of excitement within.

...Hey Miles why do you have a green trumpet? Hey Motherfucker I didn’t ask you why you have a black Camera! He scared the shit outta me...

- Jim Marshall⁣

Neon works with jazz. But also steaks, seafood, and cocktails.

Or rockabilly.

And it amplifies motels.

The soft underbelly of America

And restaurants of all types.

It can animate a place.

The only trick is using real neon.

With real neon, the everyday becomes exciting.

Neon can define a neighborhood.

Greenwich Village

And it exists across America.

Reno, Chicago, Fargo…

Neon defines some of our most memorable places.

Use it in small doses

Or large.

And make places that hum.