The Neon Cruise…it’s not just about neon.

Kevin has written about this before in LA Observed, and I signed up standby last time, but they were full. I emailed Will Camp-bell, who did get to go, and he said it was a blast. So this time I acted like a grown-up, and signed up BEFORE the last day, and got in.

The Hart (sp?) Brothers made both these signs with hearts in them!

Wow. This is a must-see and must-do in Los Angeles, for either tourists or natives. First of all, physically, there’s nothing like it for the vantage point, unless you’re in a very low-flying helicopter or on a crane. The Neon Cruise uses London tour buses, and everyone sits on the top. We’re high enough up there that we look down on the tops of city buses. And there’s no roof or windows, so everything is crystal clear for any kind of photography! (Yes, if you’re like me, you also wondered, will the bus capsize, with all the weight on the top? All, I can say is, it didn’t this time, and the driver was smooth and slow.)

Beautiful birdseye view of this building.

Our tour guide was Eric Lynxwiler, who was smart, entertaining, and confident. I was really lucky, and sat next to Kevin most of the tour, so I got some extra tidbits of info, and I could ask him questions. Kevin said all the buses used to be as high as ours, and that’s why there was so much great design and architecture way above street level, where most traffic will never see it. I can see why these guys collaborated on Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles.

Painting on one of the older buildings. I don’t think anyone knew what it was, but lots of oohs and ahs.

My favorite part was the first part of the tour, around old LA. I never realized before that the city is almost split in two, between new and old in downtown. There were some terrific vintage signs painted on buildings that I would go back for just to shoot again. (Surprisingly, several cartoonists were former sign painters, as I was. Although I only worked as a sign painter for a very short time before I did cartooning fulltime, I went to sign school, and I can date most signs, and sometimes even identify the painter!) And the details and decorations on the building are very special when you can almost reach out and touch them.

We also hit Chinatown, Wilshire, Hollywood Blvd (date night), and Canter’s, which didn’t blink an eye when we swarmed in there, hungry and looking for the bathrooms. Along the way, I got to chat with David Rensin and other folks. Kevin introduced me to someone named Amy, and I racked my brain for her last name, trying to remember who Kevin had written about. I said to her, “Oh, Amy Winehouse?” She said, “I wish. She’s a famous singer.” Okay, so I made a musical faux pas.

Instead, she’s Amy Dawes, the editor of Creative Screenwriting magazine, and her husband writes a blog about cooking with ingredients from the 99 cent store. (one of my fave stores.)

More pix and comments at blogdowntown. com, by Ed Fuentes.

Men’s prison downtown. For Kevin, because we share an interest in incarceration.

We also drove through some not very nice neighborhoods, mostly downtown, which were interesting, but again, I went to the dark side, and thought what an easy target we would make, high up in the open air, if some sharpshooter wanted to pick us all off one by one. (My favorite file: Morbid Cartoons.) Instead, as Kevin mentioned, there were cheers and waving and smiling from people in all areas. (The ones in Hollywood did a little extra dancing, of course.) It was a warm embrace.

I’m a little shy taking pix of people, but someone I pointed out to Kevin, and wish I had gotten, was a young shaved guy alone on a street corner. He was in a wheelchair, no doubt from a gang bullet. His intentions were peaceful that night, however; he grinned and gave us thumbs up as we trundled by. He was kind of special.