I haven't been inside this store. In fact, I haven't been inside any liquor store since I lived in Venice Beach in my 20s and bought Lotto tickets, Marlboro Reds and Pabst Blue Ribbon at a seedy place called Dan's Liquor Locker. (Ah, youth...)But from all appearances, Ocean Liquor Store is well-stocked!
28 comments:
This creates a perfect 45 degree angle! I like the stark contrast of the dark night and the vivid neon lights. It has that "eat at Joe's" sensibility. Makes me think of an oasis after a long night drive through the desert and finally a place to stop, get a drink, and use the restroom. :~)
Great neon sign.
Great color, great composition, great mood.
Great photo: how the store and the sign float in mid-air. If I've been there once in the 27 years that I've lived in South Pas, it's only been once. It doesn't feel like it's in South Pas. I actually drove past it last night and thought about stopping in to buy a snack, but it was on the wrong side of Huntington, so I kept going. If I had stopped there, we'd say someone had ESP.
Thanks Laurie for all of your late night (early morning) posts, the thought and talent therein for all of us to peruse, to learn, to enjoy and comment.
Now I know where to go to get a cigar in the dark of night when I visit South Pas. Creates a kind of funny picture, don't you think?
I love the stark contrast between the very dark and the very bright neon.
I wonder why it's called Ocean Liquor. South Pasadena is not at the ocean. You can't see the ocean. It's not on Ocean Blvd. I'm sure the current owners bought it from someone who bought it from someone who. . .
What's everyone think?
Something tells me you can't get Chateauneuf du Pape here... but hey, who cares when you can bathe in the light of all that gorgeous neon!
Another fine pic from the Queen of Darkness.
I checked the link. I wonder if Gabe K, received any free product for his ringing endorsement of the place.
Cute little store....despite spending my youth in SoPas and my mother frequenting the Ralph's around the block, I never went in this little store. We saw it, drove past it to Ralph's, or I walked to Ralph's if I was at the Y up the street. Not to say I've never been in SoPas's liquor stores, but just not this one.
I have an inkling in the back of my mind that it was once owned by someone who owned other stores---that started out on Ocean...but memory is failing me at the moment.
Gotta say, the lit sign reminds me of my youth and all the signs there USED to be...even in our sleepy little town of SoPas.
Wowie zowie Laurie! Super night shot. Super composition. What camera are you using now? It is doing a wonderful job for you!
I love old Googie style signs, and I'm sorry to see your other reader says they are disappearing from the SoCal landscape. This was the ubiquitous vision of my youth. And as your other reader suggested, it does have that feel of "Oh, here's Indio, let's make a pee stop."
You and Marlboros and PBR? Whodathunkit! For me in junior high it was a Mountain Dew and a Hershey's Semi-Sweet chocolate bar after school everyday from the local convenience store. . .and the occasional Archie comix, and by college it was just Diet Pepsi. I led such a boring, unglamorous youth. ;^)
-Kim
Seattle Daily Photo
I'm sure BW will appreciate this shot.
Color in the dark.
I've been lots of time. As a kid when Helen Ceike lived around the corner on Olive street. Later to pick up a pack of Carlton Reds 120 softpack. They kept it in stock for me.
Love the picture! Bet they have a fine selection of artistic magazines. (PA, I've only known one other person in my life who smoked Carltons -- my best friend in college, and wild, wild.)
fantastic Laurie! top of my list for the week. Now get in that store and buy some Lagavulin!
Pabst Blue Ribbon? Come on, Laurie. You sure didn't have a very discriminating palate when in your 20's. What about Lucky Lager - the number one selling beer in California at one time? Or Schlitz? Falstaff? or Blatz? Brew 102? Anything but Pabst Blue Ribbon, which is placed prominently in the film Gran Turino. Laurie and Clint drinking Pabst together - what a picture that would be.
Brew 102! Now that's a name. When I started working downtown in 1981 the remnants of the Brew 102 brewery were still there. I used to park on the roof of a warehouse that was still owned by the brewery, and Henry, the parking guy, worked for them. I never had the beer, however. It was gone before I arrived in LA.
Brew 102 was a supermarket brand - rot-gut beer that was cheap. It was brewed by the Maier Brewing company which owned and operated the brewery north of downtown which is now the Brewery lofts off of north Main. Lucky was a premium beer, #1 in sales in California in the 50's. It got bought by Labatt's, a Canadian brewery who eventually sold it to Maier who made it a supermarket brand like Brew 102. Both were brewed in the brewery on north Main. Lucky Lager used to have a brewery in Azusa which was bought by Miller, which they later moved to Irwindale, right off the 210 freeway.
That's more beer history than anyone needs to know. No doubt Ocean Liquor sold all those brands at one time.
DB: The Brew 102 facility remnants that I knew was next to the 101 on Commercial Street near Garey and Vignes, east of Alameda.
Love the brew talk, and on some South Pasadena neon too! Lovely stuff.
Keep that beer history coming.
Benjamim Franklin perhaps said it best, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
That's not beer history, Ben, but beer wisdom.
I love the isolation of sign from store. Everyone, you must go look at what Stef did:
http://stefsketches.blogspot.com/2009/01/ocean-liquor_21.html
Ass now what your country can do for you (I'm so sorry for that. Every day.)
It looks like Altadena Hiker stopped at Ocean Liquor for a road kit before posting her comments.
Come here and lemme give you a road trip knuckle sangwich.
Hello my loony beer-swilling pals,
Can you believe what Stef can do with an i-phone? Honestly, if Apple doesn't nab him as their official artist, they're missing out on a goldmine. He is the Shepherd Fairey of the San Gabriel Valley. Iconic images, Stef! I'm so happy to find things for you to sketch!
Now... as to beer. You know, I'm actually a wine person. (ducks down to avoid objects now thrown by my readers.) Those PBR days in Venice were fun, and cheap -- but even then I preferred a $2 chianti from Trader Joes.
Still, I do enjoy a good brew on occasion. When I was in college in Austin, I was a cocktail waitress at a Belgian pub downtown. My boss introduced me to Elephant and Pilsner Urquel and Duvel. And speaking of Austin... many an epiphany has occurred with a little help from Shiner Bock.
Wayne, I am totally psyched that you have dubbed me Queen of Darkness. Get out of the way before I hurl lightening bolts from my fingers and call my shadow minions out to do my bidding... bwahahahahahaha...
Til tomorrow, people...
Oh, and Kim -- as to cameras. I'm still shooting with my trusty Fujifilm e900 or my newer Fujifilm S2000HD. The w900 is a souped up point and shoot with a truly wonderful sensor for night shots. It's also small enough to fit in my purse but big enough for me to use manual settings. I've played around with all kinds of other cameras, including the famous Canon and Nikon SLRs and a couple of Lumix cameras and I keep coming back to Fuji. I really love the attached Fujinon lenses, and I think they really shine over a lot of other cameras in the same price range. I also love the fact that even with the SLR-type body of the S2000HD, these cameras are unobtrusive enough to get great street shots. (And the optical zooms on both are amazing for the money.) When I used to point my big Canon film SLR at people, they'd scatter.
I know, I sound like a Fuji rep.
I'm sure I'll go for a true DSLR at some point, but so far I've been really happy with my Fujis!
Thanks Petrea and Laurie :) you guys inspire me and make me discover the area, it's fun!
I Use To Work In This Liquor Store Back In 2008. Its A Great Store Awsome Ppl Around That Area.
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