Friday, February 5, 2010

Building America

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This appears to be the slogan of the Union Pacific Railroad these days. It's got all the sledgehammer irony you could want. Just don't try to get too close to the action.

This was shot in a modest rail yard not far south of the Arch. I think we'll have a little more of it tomorrow.

What was going on last night: my daughter and I went to a reading by renowned novelist T. C. Boyle at the main branch of the St. Louis County Library. He did a little stand-up comedy, read one of his short stories and took questions from the overflow crowd. Boyle is erudite and witty, and wears eye-popping red suits (an homage to Tom Wolfe and Mark Twain in their white suits, he told us.) The picture below is a crummy iPhone shot of the author signing his books. My daughter bought one but the line looked like it would be maybe 45 minutes when we got in it so we bailed.

12 comments:

Luis Gomez said...

Bob, what a great image "Building America" is. Love the use of B&W for this one.

T.C. Boyle's red suit is just great!

Chuck Pefley said...

The barbed wire does give the first photo today just a slightly mixed message, doesn't it?

Regarding your iPhone photo ... nothing crummy about it. You know the story, though ... if it is the only camera you have available then it is the best one for the job. You actually got a sort of ethereal look to it.

Olivier said...

tres beau profondeur de champs sur la premiere photo.

brattcat said...

That top photo is beautifully ironic, the bottom ironically beautiful.

Virginia said...

Building American prisons is more like it!

And the author..........well we needed that Iphone photo to get the full effect. Where's his guitar??:)
V

U "R" Us AKA Captain Crowe said...

Very cool. His new story collection is supposed to be pretty good. I'll have to get your copy of Talk Talk back. Not his best, but worth a read.

cieldequimper said...

The railroad is a myth... As is TC Boyle. Well, almost.

Louis la Vache said...

Amazing irony in that first shot....

Stefan Jansson said...

I have read Tom Wolfe and I enjoyed that, so I guess I should check out T. C. Boyle. Not sure I would be able do dress like that and get away with it!

Fernando Lipina said...

How political and strong the first picture... to think and re-think. Regards from Buenos Aires.

Three Rivers, Michigan said...

It's an outstanding iPhone shot; I never would have believed the red (sure looks orange) suit without photographic evidence. The matching orange shoe laces are also very tasteful.

Like your mini-documentary in b&w too.

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