Westlake pro tip: You can't go wrong with a taco stand watched over by a shrine to the Virgin. #esotouricroadtrip

Creeping up an alley to check on a termite infested city landmark (sigh), we met an SRO kitty cat who is keeping an eye on his domain. Kitty says "brick is better!" #esotouricroadtrip

Digging the shadows on a Watts Tower tour. It's like a spider's web that never blows away--deceptively delicate, too. #esotouricroadtrip

Before the Jolly Motel at 8811 S. Central advertised a thrilling time with that alluring arrow, this was Central Pottery, offering Bauer and other lush glazed essentials for those setting up house. #signgeeks #signswitharrows #esotouricroadtrip

Incandescent arrow signs are hard to resist, so don't. On old Route 66, Glendora. #signgeeks #esotouricroadtrip

Adorable backlit plastic ghost sign opposite Wyvernwood on Olympic in Boyle Heights. This Zig Zag Moderne roadhouse was Club Chapala, and before that The Rumpus Room. This is a very old form of signage meant to convey info sans written language. #signgeeks #esotouricroadtrip

It only took ten years, but Jose Huizar's crooked gentrification of the Broadway independent business district has reached its climax: the long vacant quinceanera shop is now a XXX fetish and smoke shop! Has there ever been such a thing on this block before? #esotouricroadtrip

The light in Los Angeles leaves us breathless this time of year. And this golden hour stripe down the Roosevelt Lofts nearly stopped our breath entire. #esotouricroadtrip #DTLA #thisplacematters #losangeleshenge #goldenhour

Albert H. Crocker's Depression era motorcycle shop (L.A.'s official Indian distributors) gave way to Robert H. Maloney's AAA Electric Motor Service Co. by 1952. This legacy business at 1346 Venice has a mighty sweet sign! #esotouricroadtrip #signgeeks

The Victoria Theatre at 2570 W. Pico is one of the first cinema houses in Los Angeles, opened in 1914! Its 1970s event hall remodel appears in Rudy Ray Moore's wild "Petey Wheatstraw: The Devil's Son In Law." youtu.be/1SzAZR-7WyY?...
#esotouricroadtrip #thenandnow #signgeeks

Up in the clouds, karma and consciousness. Down on the streets, echo chambers. A lot of good came out of the Capitol tower and the Vedanta Temple. Where do you belong? #esotouricroadtrip

Eternal love howls at the moon in the Hollywood Hills. #esotouricroadtrip #Halloween2023

Up in the Hollywood Dell, the fall sun glints through functional arrowslits, from which cranky castle dwellers can defend against invasion from the street. #esotouricroadtrip

On Temple Hill Drive, between the ashrams, the path to a wee 1920s Hollywood fairy castle is a funky patchwork of stones and field tile, with a shattered Warren Kimble bunny in the middle. #esotouricroadtrip #storybookstyle

We love to meet friends in the shade of the Bo Tree at the Vedanta Society, and after all the rain this year, these delicate newborn leaves are uncoiling from vines that nearly reach the ground. The gate that says OM is also new. #esotouricroadtrip

Just off Whittier Boulevard, a mural promotes the healing power of traditional herbal remedies and honors Ruben Salazar and the martyrs of August 29, 1970.

Herbs of Mexico is an East L.A. legacy business, established 1961. #esotouricroadtrip #streetart #EastLA

Death and donuts on Whittier Boulevard, spied from Ruben Salazar Park on the Eastside Babylon crime bus tour. #esotouricroadtrip #signgeeks #EastLA

"Play it, Sam." Casablanca Market on the East Los Angeles / Boyle Heights border, captured by us on Saturday's Eastside Babylon crime bus tour, and by John Humble on a signage safari in Summer 1986. A year before that, locals caught Richard Ramirez! #esotouricroadtrip #signgeeks

On the Eastside Babylon tour, we took a coffee and cookie break at Salazar Park, and a few of our gentle riders detoured to get a spooky snack from the eye-catching Elotes el Chucky truck. #esotouricroadtrip #streetfood

Spied from the window of the Eastside Babylon crime bus: when the flower man of Calvary Cemetery brings out his marigolds, you know the spirits are near. #esotouricroadtrip #eastLA

Our Eastside Babylon crime bus route takes us by some handsome vintage signage, both neon and backlit plastic. #esotouricroadtrip #signgeeks

The partial eclipse cast strange dappled reflections across George Wyman's Bradbury Building. #esotouricroadtrip #DTLA

As we departed on the Eastside Babylon crime bus tour, the (visible) ghosts of Grand Central Market wished us safe, weird travels. #esotouricroadtrip #DTLA