Smut Club Signage

Hotzone: fire and brimstone and women in teal two piece ensembles.

In celebration of my moving into the periphery of a red light district, I bring you some images of Subic Bay's girlie bars. Born out of the testosterone glut that was a US naval base, the skin trade in the area lives on. The whole Subic area really depresses the daylights out of me, but this particular stretch of the national highway makes me feel like I'm in some novel written in the 90s. The neon, thelarge painted signs, the chunky old Caucasians in Hawaiian shirts, the crackhead parking boys and rugby-sniffing apprentices. And the girls, some of them underage, who can only imagine the glory days of the district, when the customers were strapping young American soldiers, not overweight pasty men spending their pensions in the tropics.

Many clubs rely on word-of-mouth (and lately, websites), but exclamatory mural work helps to differentiate and state the concept of the establishment. Most of the painting is designed to be seen during the night, with light-colored letters against dark backgrounds.

Angels for Sale

"Guest Relations Officers", the driest euphemism.

Perhaps the saddest thing about the area is the resignation of the local government to the fact that women are its main product.

Great tourism strategy, Olongapo.

The Movable Sabbath

I've been quite busy in the past few months. Thanks for the emails. I've been ever the itinerant, and only of recent have been united with my laptop. Enough to post one or two things, hopefully more...

I'd traveled to Dipolog recently. The city is small, clean, relaxed, and has an unusually low population. Trade is far from brisk, because of the transportation situation. There is an airport in the area, but shipping is another thing altogether. The place does not seem to have a lot of local crafts-- many of the goods are sourced from Bohol.

There are no taxis in Dipolog. Everyone gets around by walking, riding jeeps or private vehicles, or taking tricycles. The tricycles are inexpensive. Ten pesos gets you from the airport into town, and twenty pesos to the airport (under the assumption that they will not have any human cargo going back into the center).

Also cute, is that they list their "days off" on the back of their tricycles. This is presumably to regulate the amount of traffic. Another possibility is to keep tricycle-driving viable. In the absence of a scientific method to analyze population-to-tricycle ratios (and with cab drivers in Davao complaining about the glut of cabs that basically makes a lot of them sit around, passenger-less all day) this might be a good idea.

Other cities like Dumaguete have proposed (and tried, and failed) color-coding their tricycles for easy identification of those that should not be on the road.

In Dipolog, the days off are painted on the back of the passenger chamber of the tricycles, together with the tricycle's registration number and the sentence "Keep Dipolog clean".

Melaka Folk Typography

Not the Greek restaurant.

According to Google Translate, this means "Patience and perseverance / The success".

A majong shop!

Melaka Dentist Signage Norms

Digital photo stickers of possible dentures.

Dental staff eats lunch in the background.

Say hoi! More digital photos of dentures and messed up teeth.

Handpainted dentures. Being young, I am frightened by screws in the mouth.

Indonesian False Flower Signage

Fake flowers form letters.

"Congratulations / Grand Opening / Samsung Mobile / from Phu Hie Hai"

Instead of displaying large funeral-type congratulatory flower bouquet stands outside a doorway of a newly-opened shop, Indonesians have a practice of taking the flowers apart and arranging them in letters on large signage, and lining the streets with those. It's buttering up by a folk type of advertising, kind of a more beautiful "streamer predilection" than the Marawi version.

They remind me of fiesta decor made from corn husk and all that stuff. Except they're commonplace, and obviously haven't been replaced by the dreaded tarpaulin printers. And that is a nice thing. Although the flowers are fake.

"Congratulations / On Opening / Samsung Mobile / from Flamez 72"-- Nice touch with the umbrella.

Closer shot.

"Congratulations / On Opening / Samsung Mobile / from Batam Cellular"

A Vendor and His Signs

A stylized male underwear price board, made with scrap paper and a marker..

I hear it gets boring sitting around all day waiting for people to buy your wares. I've also been told that if you're going to do something, might as well do it well.

Vendor and ornamentation enthusiast.

Working to fill dead time and attract customers.

A coinpurse price sign, covered in plastic. Note the soft shading between letters and as numbers' shadowing.

 

Crate Bench

The physics all work out for this bench made of old fruit crate pallets. I had a little rest on it.

More crate reuse, as a crib and tables.

PS- I'm trying larger photos out.

Puerto Galera Folk Typography

Hot sunny days at Puerto Galera.











Special mention: Nito-weave style "no parking" sign.

Davao Folk Typography

Technological Holdover

Waiting for clients a la Lucy Van Pelt.

Notary publics are all over the metropolis. Along Malate, they effectively utilize colorful handpainted signage and broken typewriters to alert passersby to their presence. The imagery plants itself in your subconscious, which is the point I guess, because everyone in the Philippines needs something notarized every once in awhile.


Busted typewriter.

I asked one of them if I could use their typewriter for old times' sake, but he laughed and said it was broken-- when they get a client's details, they shuffle down a hallway, type the affidavit (or whatever) out on a computer, and return with a printed, signed, stamped document.


A notary public hiding under the table?