Fri, Aug. 26th, 2005, 02:29 pm
Boston Scares me...

<RANT>

So I was looking at many posts from [info]volare concerning boston and they had a user icon of a flashing CITGO sign... so curious as I am, I wondered "what does a citgo sign have to do with boston" so I looked online.

From WIKIPEDIA: Kenmore Square:

The Boston Citgo sign

Citgo refers to its logo as the "trimark." A large, double-faced sign featuring this logo overlooks Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts and has become a landmark, partly because of its appearance in the background in televised baseball games. The current 60 foot by 60 foot incarnation, unveiled in March 2005 after a six-month restoration project, features thousands of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LEDs were selected for their durability, energy efficiency, intensity, and ease of maintenance. Earlier versions featured neon lighting; the previous sign contained some 5,878 glass tubes with a total length of over five miles.

The first sign, featuring the Cities Service logo, was built in 1940, and replaced with the trimark in 1965. In 1979 Governor Edward J. King ordered it turned off as a symbol of energy conservation. Four years later, Citgo attempted to disassemble the weatherbeaten sign, and was surprised to be met with widespread public affection for the sign and protest at its threatened removal. The Boston Landmarks Commission ordered its disassembly postponed while the issue was debated. While never formally declared a landmark, it was refurbished and relit by Citgo in 1983 and has remained in operation ever since. In 2005, during a major renovation, the neon lights of the Citgo sign were removed and replaced with a Light-emitting diode display.

There is no associated Citgo gas station -- the sign is now a historical landmark, visible over the left field wall of Fenway Park during most televised Boston Red Sox games.

It was highlighted in the 1968 short film Go, Go Citgo and a 1983 Life Magazine photograph feature, as well as a 1987 animated film as Kenmore Square's "neon god." The association with Fenway and the Red Sox is so strong that some local little league fields often are decorated with replicas of the Citgo sign, as does Hadlock Field in Portland, Maine.

And I have to say... Wow that is odd. I know I am going to really amuse or piss off my boston friends (esp [info]volare... sorry vol) but cmon people... other cities through their identities behind things like statues, buildings, even clocks but a gas station advert? I know there are other precidents like Nascar and the "Winston Cup" but IMO that is just as silly. Maybe I am missing the point, not being a baseball fan, but geesh talk about taking commercialism too far.

</RANT>
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 Leave a comment | 11 comments

Fri, Aug. 26th, 2005 07:25 pm (UTC)
[info]ibabeu: It is only partly about baseball

See, that whole area is a major part of Boston social life. Fenway Park is just part of it.

Mostly it is about navigation. A big tall glowing thing is easier to navigate by than 3 inch tall little green street signs...especially because someone thought it was a cool street sign and stole it.

I have to admit I also navigate Boston by brick style and copper flashing pattern recognition. Oh, and where I cross the Green Line.
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Fri, Aug. 26th, 2005 07:44 pm (UTC)
[info]pfloyd: Re: It is only partly about baseball

I have to admit I also navigate Boston by brick style and copper flashing pattern recognition. Oh, and where I cross the Green Line.

You are such a nerd... :)
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Fri, Aug. 26th, 2005 07:45 pm (UTC)
[info]aelana: Re: It is only partly about baseball

What really gets me is there is references online to a "Well Known Boston Quote": "London has Big Ben, Paris has the Eiffel Tower. Boston has the CITGO sign."

Comparing a billboard to Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower seems a bit, well off to me.
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Fri, Aug. 26th, 2005 09:23 pm (UTC)
[info]ibabeu: Re: It is only partly about baseball

Ok, that is a bit off. I mean, sure it is a landmark, but hardly one of the same interest.

Boston has plenty of other historic monuments.
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Fri, Aug. 26th, 2005 08:28 pm (UTC)
[info]godspiel

My memory may be off here, but I seem to recall that Citgo doesn't even own it anymore. Either the city itself or some citizens group bought it a while back.
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Fri, Aug. 26th, 2005 09:11 pm (UTC)
[info]anatketani

Whenever my family decided to take an intrepid visit to Boston, we would always screech with glee when we saw the sign because we knew we were NOW in Boston.
Of course, I grew up in a village in Vermont with under 2,000 population, so going to Boston was both terrifying and unusual. I still grin when I see that sign.
*shrugs*
A landmark is a landmark, y'know? Does a fond memory of the sign prompt me to run right out and find a Citgo gas station and buy gas from them specifically? Hell no. I'm blond but not stupid.
*grins*
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Fri, Aug. 26th, 2005 10:07 pm (UTC)
[info]volare: The name of the icon is "Boston pride". Savvy?

If I have to explain it, you wouldn't understand it anyway.


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Sat, Aug. 27th, 2005 02:52 am (UTC)
[info]vu13

See you got to understand.. baseball is pretty boring a lot of the time for a kid. So you get taken to a baseball game.. there is a lot of waiting there waiting for something to happen. Once it gets dark out.. you can watch the sign do it's lighting parttern.. It's really quite hypnotic. I think I've spent at least 25% of any baseball game watching that sign.
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Sat, Aug. 27th, 2005 02:54 am (UTC)
[info]taellosse

While I understand your puzzlement, I think the most amusing thing is that you were unaware of the existence of the Citgo sign until today. You've lived in this state for very nearly as long as I have, after all. Admittedly, you didn't grow up with a Red Sox fan as a dad, but still.
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Sat, Aug. 27th, 2005 04:31 pm (UTC)
[info]aelana

You are forgetting, Western Massachusetts is not a part of the same state as Boston. If you don't understand that, you haven't been out here long enough and need to speek with [info]dunkelza I can count the times I have been forced to go into boston on my fingers. (Most of them Arisias) And I don't go into boston if I can at all help it.
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Mon, Aug. 29th, 2005 02:51 am (UTC)
[info]taellosse

Oh, I know that. I go into Boston just as infrequently. People out here may think that everything east of Sturbridge is culturally part of Boston, but its not. Really, if you get too far beyond I95, the real "greater Boston" ends. People in the Worcester area are just as bitter about Boston attitudes as those out here are.

But I knew about the Citgo sign before I even lived in the state. Admittedly, as I said, this was because my Dad's a Red Sox fan, and it shows up on TV whenever a game is on. I was never into watching the games with him, but I saw it enough times on the screen anyway to know about it, and asked about it once at some point when it was mentioned as part of the broadcast commentary. Your lack of knowledge about it has much less to do with where in the state you live and much more to do with the fact that you are totally disinterested in sports, and didn't grow up with anyone who was a local fan, really.
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