Fading ads

A couple years ago, I made a daylight trip to the Deep Ellum area of Dallas to photograph the side of a brick building which featured a fading advertisement for the Texas & Pacific Railway. The T&P was merged into the Missouri Pacific system in 1976, but the railroad had stopped offering passenger train service in the late '60s, so that ad had to be at least 35 or 40 years old when I photographed it.

A Texas & Pacific mural graces the side of a building in the Deep Ellum area east of downtown Dallas - December 2005.


Recently, I received an email from a guy in New York who had seen that photo on my website. Frank Jump produces the Fading Ad Blog, which documents fading advertisements on the sides of buildings in New York and elsewhere. That's part of the beauty of the internet; once you start posting stuff, there's no telling who you'll hear from next, where they'll be emailing you from, and what they'll want to discuss. In Frank's case, he was interested in posting a few of my photos on his blog and linking to my site. I sent him several photos of another interest of mine -- fading ads and logos on the sides of freight cars.

In exploring Frank's blog and related websites, I've discovered plenty of interesting photos and commentary on topics ranging from fading ads to Rosario Dawson (quite possibly my new "dream woman"... so long, Britney!) to gay marriage and AIDS activism. And I've started keeping a more vigilant eye out for fading ads here in north Texas.

Here are a few shots I took on Saturday of the grain elevators in Saginaw. (Note: for the purposes of fading ad documentation, I don't limit "fading ads" to actual advertisements like the T&P mural, but I also allow the term to include fading names of buildings' previous owners.)

Horizon flour mill - Saginaw, TX - September 2007

Union Equity logo on grain elevator -- now owned by ConAgra -- Saginaw, TX


Saginaw's Attebury elevator displays fading "Far-Mar-Co" lettering

Watch for more fading ad photos coming soon, both on Frank's Fading Ad Blog, and right here in Whiskey, Texas.

how 'bout them Cowboys!

Well, the Cowboys unleashed an ass-whupping on the Bears last night, winning by a score of 34-10. The Cowboys look pretty good so far this year. Even with a 3-0 record (with only one win coming against a quality opponent -- Chicago), I'm beginning to hear lots of talk of Dallas making a Super Bowl run this year. I'd say that's a little premature... seeing footage of Bills quarterback J.P. Losman suffering a knee injury in yesterday's game against New England reminded me that the Cowboys might only be one key injury away from finishing the year with a .500 record. But if the team stays healthy, I see no reason why they shouldn't at least make the playoffs. They'll need to watch out for Philadelphia and Washington... both teams have had good games and bad ones so far. And Green Bay has looked strong so far this year; they do have a game against the Pack looming on the schedule in November.

It's good to see Romo continue to perform strongly -- each quality performance lends further confirmation that the games he helped win last year were no "flukes" -- he really does have some great talent. And I think that the new coaching staff (Wade Phillips, Jason Garrett, et al) has made a big difference in the players' attitudes, and obviously in the team's game strategy. I'm missing Bill Parcells even less than I thought I would. In short, I feel better about the team's chances this year than I've felt at any time since the end of the Jimmy Johnson era. Keep up the good work, 'Boys... I'm looking forward to December and January... then we can start talking about the Super Bowl.

WSC

np: Tennessee Ernie Ford - "Sixteen Tons"

nr: Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead