Thanks to my alert City Daily Photo colleague in Strasbourg, France, https://strasbourgdailyphoto.blogspot.com/, for identifying the local ska punk band, The HotRails, who performed something involving pitch and rhythm at Artica on Saturday. Their fans spread far and wide, if not down my street.
Artica always has a beat up piano for public use. Name that tune.
Another find at Tower Grove Pride Fest. Free books are great. Now if I could only get my granddaughter's face out of her iPad and onto a paper page. Free flag making is a little unusual but could be fun. And what could be better than harmony with clean sox?
Hey, this weekend is Artica.
One of the stages at Pride Fest featured drag musical entertainment. One of my many faults when shooting events is that I get sucked up by the images and miss some ot the context. I didn't make a note of this performer's name or what she was singing, but my aural memory is that it was very heartfelt. The next performer did a lip-sync of Judy Garland's Over The Rainbow from the movie, just standing there straight, and it didn't work as well.
More passing color at Pridefest. I don't think cats and parrots can be friends. Fashion, however, can create all kinds of genial combinations. Look however you like. You may get attention (and maybe that's the point) but no one here will disapprove.
We have two major annual Pride events. There is a big parade downtown in June, which I was not able to attend this year. This weekend we have what is called the Tower Grove Pride Festival, named for the city's second-largest (and my favorite) park. Stages, entertainers, food, artists, craftspeople, churches, healthcare, politics (guess what kind), social services, clothing (some provocative), and lots and lots of interesting strollers. This dad and I are like the shortest distance between two points on a plane, but we are open minded and sympathetic.
Our Lady of Guadalupe meets Hello Kitty. One could not be more Mexican (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe), the other more Japanese. Everyone has seen advertising on top of taxis, and there was a time when many St. Louis cabs had illuminated signs on the top that said "Our Lady of Guadalupe - Queen of the Americas." I never figured that out. Hello Kitty might as well be a Shinto demi-god. My granddaughter likes tacos much more than sushi but that has no effect on her fashion sense.
Ooh, this makes my eyes wobbly. Another toy vendor at the Hispanic Festival. Maybe I should have set a greater DOF and higher shutter speed but I was shooting on the fly. Is it okay to inhale this stuff?
I should get out on the street today looking for stuff but it's supposed to pour and pour. The front end of Helene, probably, passing through here while it is devastating northwest Florida and western Georgia. Maybe it will find Ron DeSantis.
Gunners? I think that's how the name of the band, Banda Artillerros, translates into English (corrections invited) but it was more like heavy artillery. This was just a small part of the Mexican orchestra playing in the plaza at the Hispanic Festival. There were these three trumpets, the tuba behind them (with a microphone taped in the bell), two trombones, two clarinets, accordion, drum kit, congas and two singers. My sound app said it reached 110 db in front of the stage, enough to start causing some serious damage. The musicians were not wearing ear plugs. The crowd loved it.
There were people hawking all sorts of things and there were plenty of children at the Hispanic Festival. This salesman's dress and demeanor seemed pretty heavy for his wares. It was a good thing my granddaughter wasn't with me. If she had been, she would have pulled the fingers out of my hand if I didn't buy her something, preferably Hello Kitty.
I still have lots of sculpture photos in the can, TinType and conventional, but I wanted a change of tone. Our Hispanic Festival took place this weekend. The Latino population here isn't as big as many American cities but it's growing. This couple danced to an impossibly loud, large and energetic Mexican band. I'll show something about them shortly. I'm shocked the members have any hearing left.
I think I get it, but that’s more for the women in my life to judge. I was a chubby, awkward, geeky young man, and perhaps that spared me from the more callous competitive attitudes of my peers. After all, there is a woman who has put up with me for 50 years, to my great good fortune.
This is in the sculpture garden behind the St. Louis Art Museum, Aristide Maillol’s The Mountain, https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/10289/, Maillol’s work is primarily about female nudes. The mountain here may be the left leg, with the right encased in the lead base. It’s not clear in TinType, but the hair appears wind-blown.
It’s nice that St. Louis has so many public events and festivals. The bad news is that they have gotten so crowded as to be almost unbearable. The Great Forest Park Balloon Race is in its 54th year. It’s the usual hare and hounds chase. The night before they have a balloon glow. After sunset, they inflate on their gas jets at the sound of a horn, glowing vividly in the night. It’s spectacular.
Ellie and I arrived a half hour before the preliminary events started and 2.5 hours before sunset. We got one of the last spaces in the nearest parking lot. We sat in the car for an hour running the AC (not so bad, it’s a hybrid), killing time on screens. Ninety minutes before sunset we walked down one long hill and up another to get to the main field. Then Ellie, who is afraid of insects, wouldn’t sit on the grass because ants might get in her clothing. It was so hot, humid and crowded we went back to the car, at least for a cool off. We decided it was pointless and we left as the sun was setting. Huge numbers of people were still streaming in.
Yoshitomo Nara”s White Ghost, https://citygardenstl.org/art/yoshitomo-nara/, needs a background note, which I think is a problem with some contemporary art. Your experience when confronting the piece is essential, of course, but there may be layers of meaning that require more information. Nara’s work often represents children or dogs, or, as here, something of a blend. The note on the Citygarden website linked above, if it is accurate, expects too much from the viewer.
Hope to get much more color and excitement in the next few days. This weekend is the Great Forest Park Balloon Race, https://greatforestparkballoonrace.com/. Tonight is the balloon glow. At dusk, the balloons stay tethered but periodically blast up with flame. creating an otherworldly experience. It’s going to be packed but my granddaughter and I will give it a shot.
Just the thing for a St. Louis man to wear to a late summer social event. But it makes me think of the words of a certain native St. Louis writer: We are the hollow men/ We are the hollow men/ We are the stuffed men/ Leaning together/ Headpiece filled with straw.
Austrian sculptor Erwin Wurm’s Big Suit, https://citygardenstl.org/art/erwin-wurm/#, asks a lot of questions. I like art that pokes. Many people walk past something like this and think it looks weird/cool/stupid/baffling, then keep on movng. I’d rather stop and wonder about what’s going on.
These images seem like they come from another time, which I guess is the point. Still in Citygarden, Jim Dine’s Big White Gloves shows Pinocchio exultant, although I’m not sure why. He seems to be some way from his goal of becoming a real boy.
There was an article in the local newspaper yesterday about prominent public sculpture in our town. I know some but not all. Lots of ideas.
When I did my New York street photography program in May, everybody was experimenting with a camera app for iPhones called TinType, https://hipstamatic.app/app/tintype. It is Inspired by daguerreotypes, tintypes, and other photographic processes from over a hundred years ago. We got some pretty cool results. Since St. Louis has lots of outdoor sculpture and I have nothing better to do, I decided to use it for a series. Other than the Arch, this is our emblematic sculpture, the Apotheosis of St. Louis, standing in front of the art museum.
At the Cardinals baseball game. She calls these things stuffies and - I can’t be sure - she may have over a hundred. The big one in the middle is the Cardinals’ mascot, known as Fredbird. The one on her right was the give-away at the game. The one on her left was made by one of the nurses when her mother was hospitalized last year.
An old guy walking around with a big camera can get people’s attention. Passers-by sometimes engage me. The most common question is “get any good ones today?” Most common answer, said in a pleasant tone: "Ï’ll know when I download them.” Rarer but much more fun question is “hey, mister, wanna take our picture?” The answer is always yes. I offer to send them a copy and give them my card. Hardly anyone contacts me.
I met these young people in Citygarden, our wonderful downtown sculpture park. The picture was originally in color, of course, but the light was hazy-bright-harsh and my Photoshop skills were not up to fixing it. Still, you can often get a good monochrome conversion.
I don’t have much interest in sports. The violence and exploitation of American football horrify me. But I do have a soft spot for baseball. It’s what I grew up with, when a kid could get a cheap seat at Yankee Stadium on the day of the game for what was in a kid’s pocket. Now I support the St Louis Cardinals. They are having a mediocre year, after a terrible one last season. We rarely attend.
But we got tickets for last Sunday. They had a promotion giving kids a free Cardinals teddy bear. My granddaughter, Ellie, who has the largest collection of stuffed animals and things (a stuffed cup of bubble tea!) in Missouri coveted yet another one. The Cardinals got smacked around but the day was beautiful.
I said I’m not much for sports but we’ve been to a couple of first division soccer/football matches in Buenos Aires, and that was a lot of fun.
So much of the wall art I see at Paint Louis and other places looks like Marvel comic books on steroids. (But, um, I’m getting some in my spine later today. It has its uses.) Being old and not ever being a comic book reader (unless you count Mad Magazine), I don’t get the ethos. What are the artists trying to express or communicate? Inquiring minds want to know.
I’ve never seen anyone use a stencil before at Paint Louis but it makes sense. It’s been hard for me (knowing nothing about the techniques) to understand how the artists get the small details right. The colorful arcs emphasize the big chest and belly, as does the pose with hands behind the back. I particularly like the top of the head scattering into crazy energy mist.
Missed yesterday’s post. Today is two weeks post-op and things haven’t gone as smoothly as I would have liked. A little harder to get out on the street.
So back to Paint Louis. This picture gives some overview of how the process works, albeit just a short selection. The whole thing runs about two miles or 3 kilometers. It becomes a linear art gallery.
Some noble thoughts in this Kieth Haring-ish mural. But maybe it’s better to start at the base of the pyramid, focusing on food, shelter and health care.
Is anyone out there old enough to at least know of the once-popular radio drama, The Shadow? https://www.oldradioworld.com/shows/The_Shadow.php The intro was always "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” I pride myself on loose associations, and that was what immediately came to mind when I photographed this section of the Paint Louis wall.
Some of the wall art at Paint Louis is pleasant fantasy, some political, some social commentary, but to me a lot of it is deeply disturbing. Sure, I’m in my 70s (okay, boomer) and would not understand lots of what’s happening to younger people. Nevertheless, much of the work communicates - to me - a dark, distorted, even apocalyptic world. It is so skillfully executed, but what motivates it? Some of it reminds me of the well-known English artist, Francis Bacon, https://www.francis-bacon.com/paintings, whose images curl my toes and make me look away.
Other than that, have a nice day. 😃
They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Of course, the taste of that eye is shaped by culture and experience. I get some of the esthetic of the wall painters on a visceral level but there is plenty that puzzles me. My parents didn’t get the Rolling Stones, either.
I’ve never gone to the earliest phase of Paint Louis. The artists must start with a plan, perhaps on a grid, to transfer their designs onto a large section of wall. There is also a puzzle (to me) about the enormous scripts that all follow a similar style (to my eye) and look much alike. What do I know. I’m old.
We wanted to go to the big Japanese festival at our botanical garden yesterday and got tickets in advance. When we arrived around 11 all of the remote parking lots were full. Literally nowhere to put your car, so we left. Big disappointment, photo ops missed.
Labor Day weekend around here brings the return of Paint Louis, the annual event in which a 2+ miles stretch of the Mississippi River floodwall is turned over to graffiti artists from around the world. You may or may not like the style but this takes a lot of skill and effort. The work may not be art school standard but you can’t pull this off easily. And imagine the expense for all that paint, equipment rental and transportation. More to come.
CDP’s September monthly theme is bridges. Given the rivers around here, we have plenty. This was taken at the dedication of the newest one across the Mississippi, the awkwardly named Stan Musial - Veterans Memorial Bridge. (Stan Musial was, by acclamation, the greatest player in the history of our baseball team.) Simple is good. Crossings from other City Daily Photo members around the world can be found here.
I was more creative about theme days when I was younger. CDP had bridges as a theme 14 years ago. This is what I posted,
St. Louis theater veteran Joe Hanrahan is a Fringe regular. This year, he presented three short comedies called Auditions!, about the humiliations, absurdities and indignities of casting a show. The burdens apply equally to the actors and producers. I think this was the funniest: a Martian performer with an unpronounceable name shows up expecting a part. Theater is a big deal on Mars. Everyone goes all the time. Casting is not an issue. The right person is always in the right place. It’s pretty hard for the human directors to grok.
Lots of new stuff to shoot this weekend. We’re into Paint Louis, when top graffiti artists from all over re-decorate a miles-long stretch of the Mississippi River flood wall. And Labor Day weekend brings the Japanese Festival at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, always a great photo op.
St. Lou Fringe president and artistic director Matthew Kerns has plenty of acting chops of his own. A puppet he had made by a New York master puppeteer arrived just before the festival, leading to a late schedule addition, the Tiny Quarterman Variety Hour. Tiny (and I don’t know where the name comes from) appears to be from another dimension, visiting us from time to time, looking for, um, companionship. Matt proved to be quite the puppet performer. The show was rude, lewd, funny and as gay as the first day of May.
Yet another Fringe performance. Cam Burns is a young musician from Kansas City. The title of the show is one of his songs. He plays keyboards with speed and agility, writes songs and sings. Burns falls in the tradition of so many piano player singer-songwriters. In the second picture, his brother accompanies him on guitar.
My spine surgery yesterday went very well. I can stand straighter but still a little woozy from anesthesia. General anesthesia is a strange thing. I was, and then I was not, and then I was. There was no sensation of slipping away or gradually coming back; more like an on-off switch. There is no pain around the tiny incision. Lots of thanks to my wonderful neurosurgeon, Dr, John Ogunlade, and the fabulous team at the Washington University Medical Center - Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
