Late last night my wife and I were driving around San Francisco after a dinner party at a restaurant. We had not been down to the city for awhile, and with the kids at home in bed with their grandmother staying over, we decided to take advantage of the free time and cruise the city a bit.

I was driving my wife crazy pointing out every MINI I saw since ours is still on order. We went up the hill to Coit Tower and walked to the spot where I had proposed to her twelve years ago. It was a beautiful night in the city and we were having a great time. It would have been perfect if we had our new MSCc with the top down.

Finally, it was time to head back up to Napa so I turned west on Broadway for a little speed run through the tunnel. When we reached the area on Broadway where all the strip clubs are I see, among all the brightly lit up signs, this big flashing neon sign that reads "Topless Always" with a bright blue neon outline of a MINI Cabrio underneath. It was just such a perfect fit for the whole night that after I passed it I wondered if I had really seen it. My wife confirmed that it was real and we had a good laugh about it. Unfortunately I did not have a camera with me. I will have to get a shot another time. Perhaps with our new MINI parked in front of it.

For the whole hour drive home I was dreaming about getting ours.

Kris

 

Hey, look at that! I have reached first gear!

I meant to ask in my original post if anyone had seen this sign anywhere else or was it a unique sign made for just this location?

Kris

 

Interestingly enough, I live out here on the eastcoast but via the magic and wonder that is television I can say I too have seen that billboard-at least a piece of it. Last night watching some music video's I caught a glimpse of it in the new video by "The Game ft/ 50-cent- How we do". Amungst the rather quick flashes of XXX/Toppless billboards in the video I caught a glimpse of the part that says "XXS"- I had to think a bit and then I realized it was that billboard- how clever of the producer, he must of thought it curious!

 

Here's a crop from another picture I took showing the billboard.



That particular billboard is near LAX. Here's the image that it was cropped from.

 

DiD - I took the liberty of de-smogging your photo (hope that's okay). If not, I'll delete it.

 

Now that is an amazing photo. The mountains, the plane, the billboard...

James

 

That photo is actually a completely different billboard. The one I saw first of all is much smaller. It is up on the side of a building and is probably no more than ten feet wide. Also, though it was hard to tell in the brief second I saw it and since it was night, but I do not think there was even a picture of the car. It was just the ouline of the car in blue neon light. The other difference was that it did not say the usual "always open" but instead said "topless always" in pink (I think) neon which is obviously a play on all the other signs nearby for the strip clubs. I sure wish I had a camera with me or at least drove back around the block for a better look. The billboard definitely needs to be seen in context with its surroundings.

Kris

 

That's cool. Thanks.

I didn't put any time into editing the photo since the day was just so crappy. Now if only you could de-smog L.A.

 

Sorry, I only have Photoshop Elements. I think you need the full version of PS to do that!

 

And he talks (or at least types) like the smog actually ruined the photo! Jeeze even with the smog I thought it was a pretty good looking picture. (BTW didn't realize you could see mountains from LA)

 

Yeah, L.A. has the San Gabriel mountains to the North, the Santa Monica "Mountains" to the West (hills by Colorado standards), and then the Cleveland National Forest to the South East, and the Los Padres National Forest to the North West. Lots of mountains around here.

Not to totally hijack the thread (setting a bad example here ) the day after I took the picture at LAX that I posted earlier in the thread, I went back and took this photo. Check out that blue sky.

 

Kris,

You got it right. It is all neon and nicer than the LAX sign. We went by it on the 2am run through the streets of San Francisco. We were going to stop for a photo op but were too focused on ripping it through the tunnel, just like you. I'll be in the City the next few days. I'll try to get over for and get a digital pic and post it on Friday.

Cheers,

 

Hey! Well Here is a closer picture of the NEON MINI Sign/Billboard! But it might be a different one then the one you saw! HaHa But its one of them!

Enjoy!

*Taken In New York*

 

The neon Mini sign in San Francisco is on Broadway near Enrico's restaurant in the "red light" district. I took these two pictures with my phone camera, back in February, so I could email them to a friend. Just saw this thread and thought I would post them. I might take a better picture when I am there with a real camera.