CURVED PATH

 

Just after entering Garden Glow at the Missouri Botanical Garden, visitors are led past a curved line of lights toward the Climatron. It is a geodesic dome containing a complex system of landforms and ventilation that replicates four climate zones.                  

GARDEN GLOW AGAIN

 

Every year at this time, the Missouri Botanical Garden lights up the place for the holidays. The technology gets more and more amazing. The view here is across what is a reflecting pool in the warm months, changing color and dancing to music. More to come.               

SHOES FOR INDUSTRY

 

Not in the sense of final, but rather shoe manufacturing. St. Louis once dominated shoe making in the US before it all went offshore. (And we had more big breweries than just Anheuser-Busch, as well as a second - terrible - major league baseball team. It was said that we were first in shoes, first in brews and last in the American League.) This building was the headquarters of the International Shoe Company and a shoe last is a mechanical form shaped like a human foot, used by shoemakers to create and repair shoes. BTW, obscure reference in the title: https://youtu.be/Metv95k5VrY?si=dtWWai1lv9lYEP--

YOU CAN’T GET THERE FROM HERE

 

A locally notorious signpost downtown near the nexus of several highways. Imagine being a visitor trying to find your way, approaching this at 30 mph / 50 kph. Good luck.                  

FOOD ROOF

 

It  may be hard to see depending on the size of your screen, but those are the words over the door of this old, wildly painted commercial building. (14th and Delmar for the locals.) The only other signage indicates storage space. Maybe there is an urban farm on top. If so, the roots seem to go deep.                  

HALLELUJAH

 

We have a top-tier symphony orchestra but, this being St. Louis, it rarely sells out. That wasn’t so this weekend, when three performances of Messiah played to packed houses. Baroque master Nicholas Mc Geegan led with a reduced orchestra and chorus appropriate to the time of composition. The crowd went wild.                

SEE-THROUGH

 

Most of the first floor of the Old Courthouse contains historical exhibits and it’s very well done. This room is about the building itself. I mentioned that it had been constructed in phases. This model shows the small original structure surrounded by a clear plastic model of what exists now.                   

STRAIGHT UP

 

Looking straight up in the rotunda of the Old Courthouse. I need to go back with a fish eye lens. I like the gradations of color and how it reminds me of a cross section of the Large Hadron Collider.                   

INSIDE THE OLD COURTHOUSE

 

The statue of Dred and Harriet Scott I posted yesterday is outside the building we call the Old Courthouse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Courthouse_(St._Louis). It was built in stages during the 19th Century and became the seat of state and federal legal proceedings. It is now part of the National Park system and underwent  a big restoration recently. The view is inside the rotunda from the first balcony, which is as far up as they let you go.                        

DRED AND HARRIET SCOTT

Most Americans have heard of Dred Scott, although I’m afraid that many don’t know the story. Scott and his wife Harriet were enslaved people who had lived in St. Louis when Missouri was a slave state. Their owner moved them for some years to Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory, where slavery was not recognized. Upon their return here they sued for their freedom. It became known as the Dred Scott Case. Its long, complex process resulted in one of the most horrifying decisions in the history of our Supreme Court (although there are modern competitors). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott. This statue stands before the local courthouse where the litigation began.             

 

UNION STATION

 

St. Louis Union Station is across the street from the fountain and sculptures seen yesterday. It was opened in 1894 and was at the time the largest railway station in the world. (We used to be somebody.) Passenger rail service is long gone. Much of it is now a fancy hotel. Out behind contains restaurants and amusements. We are grateful that it has been preserved.             

ANOTHER SNOWCAP

Ten blocks west of Citygarden, opposite Union Station, is Aloe Plaza, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloe_Plaza . The main feature is a fountain containing many sculptures collectively called The Meeting Of The Waters, https://www.urbanreviewstl.com/2011/06/carl-milles-meeting-of-the-waters-in-aloe-plaza/. It represents the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The main characters are accompanied by a strange assortment of river creatures.                 

HE’S GOT GLOVES BUT A SWEATER MIGHT HELP

A little further down in Citygarden, Pinocchio seems impervious to the cold. Jim Dine’s Big White Gloves stands without shivering in short sleeves and pants. Maybe he is showing off, given his desire to become a real boy.              

FROZEN HEAD

 

It’s unusual in recent years for us to get snow this early, but when it happens I think I should do something with it. Igor Mitoraj’s Eros Bendato in Citygarden.             

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

 

There is a magazine here called Out In STL, serving the LGBTQ+ community. They have an annual event called The Luminary Awards. My friend, Matthew Kerns, received major recognition and invited me and Mrs. C as his guests. Matt is president and artistic director of the St. Lou Fringe, seen in these pages every summer. (I’m the president of the board of directors and house photographer.) The event was by turns moving and a hoot. Here, some members of the local chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence help get things rolling.          

NOT JUST ANOTHER THURSDAY NIGHT

 

And not just another awards ceremony. I’ll explain…               

WHAT FALLS AND WHAT REMAINS

 

More aftermath of last week’s fire. Brick can collapse when the support behind it burns away. Concrete stands. The small building in the foreground, although close to the  collapsed structure, survived.                

FIRE AND ICE

 

While we were away last week a five alarm fire broke out in an area of old, vacant warehouses south of the Arch. The fire and smoke ball was so big it showed up on weather radar. The district was to be part of a big redevelopment project, whose future is now uncertain. I went by yesterday to see what was visible in the snow.                  

SNOW AT O'HARE

 

Airports, especially big ones, are best avoided when it snows. Unfortunately, that can’t always be avoided when traveling for family events. This is what part of the departures board looked like on Saturday. The airline put us on a flight at mid-day Sunday, although there were still many cancellations. It got us home, if 2.5 hours late. At that point we didn’t care. It’s been snowing here all day on Monday as I write this.                

CITY DAILY PHOTO DECEMBER THEME - FURRY THINGS

 

Not a lot of furry, fuzzy things around our house except granddaughter Ellie’s huge mountain of stuffies. The one living exception is Gizmo, the family cat. We all wish we could be this serene.                    

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - UNSCHEDULED LAYOVER

 

Adventures in winter travel. As each flight from Chicago to St. Louis yesterday was canceled we were put on another, which was then canceled. Eventually all of them. Our flight from Flint, Michigan, to Chicago amazingly got through - seven hours late. It was still snowing at O’Hare when we got this far. Found a hotel and now booked on a noon flight Sunday. Success to be determined.               

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - MICHIGAN KIDS

 

The grandchildren we don’t get to see often enough, Josie, above, and Audrey, below. We were out Christmas tree shopping.

We may or may not get home today. Chicago, where we change planes, is having a snowstorm. The airline canceled one of our flights already but booked us on another. Report to follow, possibly with photos of O’Hare chaos.                  

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - COPS & DOUGHNUTS

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner in Clare, Michigan, with our daughter-in-law’s family. Clare is right in the middle of Michigan’s lower peninsula, a town of about 3,300 named for County Clare, Ireland, where my father’s family is from. Its best-known business is Cops & Doughnuts. All of the small town police department took over the failing town bakery some years ago and created a business famous in the region. It is a meme in American culture that the police love doughnuts and coffee, especially if not at their own expense.              

NOT PART OF THE PLAN

 

Tough winter travel day yesterday. Ice in the morning and mid-day in Chicago messed up everything at O’Hare. Skipping the details, we missed our connection but there was space on a late flight that got us into Flint, Michigan, about 11:30 PM. Too late to drive to our son’s city. Fortunately, the car rental desk stayed open for us and I found a hotel room near the airport. Flint was once a big auto manufacturing city. General Motors was founded here, but all that is gone. Tough times since.             

LOVE IT AND LEAVE IT

Perhaps due to a lack of good sense, Mrs. C and I are flying today for the Thanksgiving holiday. We get to change planes in the chaos of Chicago O’Hare International Airport on one of the busiest days of the year, ending up in Midland, Michigan, where our son and his family live. We get to see our two other grandchildren, who are too far away. The sign is in front of the Missouri History Museum. The heart shows the center of the city’s flag.            

SIX MONTHS LATER

 

It’s been right at six months since a tornado swept through parts of St. Louis. It cut across the northwest corner of Forest Park and moved into residential neighborhoods to the north, much of which contained old homes in lower income areas. Here in the park many damaged trees were cut to stumps at ground level. However, one huge tree was toppled and pulled up much of its root ball. Lots of it has not been cleared.        

AGLOW

 

The view from one of the galleries toward the central hall of the St. Louis Art Museum’s central hall, as seen in Saturday’s post. This is one of five massive paintings that are part of the Anselm Kiefer show. The glittering highlights around the figure in the upper center and the words across the top are in gold leaf.           

BIRCHES AT THE MUSEUM

 

A carefully arranged grove of birch trees outside the entrance to the new wing of the St. Louis Art Museum.             

KIEFER IN THE HALL

 

Anselm Kiefer is a giant of contemporary German art. His first major U.S. museum show in 20 years is now at the St. Louis Art Museum. Five huge paintings flank the central hall, with many others in the galleries. He visited St. Louis a number of years ago and some of the work refers to the Mississippi or the Rhein. We’ve going to a walk-through with a docent today.              

LOUIS IN THE MIST

 

Granddaughter Ellie’s history class has been talking about ancient Egypt and she wanted to see the examples at the art museum. It was a dank, drizzly day so I stepped out the front door to see how le saint roi was faring. He was impassive.              

LIGHT AND SHADOW

 

A bend in a hall in the contemporary wing of the Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City. The structure is full of eye-catching shapes, in both the art on display and the architecture itself. The stack on the right is the well-known style of Donald Judd. I didn’t make a note of the simple curve to the left. It’s purple and quite low on the wall, making it hard to interpret.            

KANSAS CITY POSTCARD

 

An iconic view of Kansas City, taken from the hill that contains the Liberty Monument and World War I museum. In the foreground is Union Station, which still gets a few trains but now contains other attractions. Downtown is behind. The four narrow towers at left center support the roof of the convention center.             

PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY

 

We got back into Kansas City early Sunday afternoon and headed for the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. Its gorgeous new wing slides like a white tentacle down a gentle hill from the old main building. The collection of contemporary art is remarkable and of course, there is a photography gallery.                  

KANSAS SUNSET

 

West of Marysville (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marysville%2C_Kansas), where my wife went to high school, on our way to a 50th anniversary party for her brother and sister-in-law. It was held in the town of Bremen, population 50, where you can rent out the firehouse for events.                

KC B&W

 

Kansas City has America’s major World War I memorial and museum. When I first heard of it I wasn’t that interested - more than a century ago, no connection to my family, etc. Turns out it’s fascinating and well worth a visit if you find yourself in this pleasant city. The sunlight on a cloudless autumn day complements the 1920s architecture.

KANSAS CITY

We spent last night in Missouri’s other major city, meeting family for dinner before heading into the Kansas countryside today. The area where we met is known as the Country Club Plaza, https://countryclubplaza.com/, arguably America’s first shopping center. It is several square blocks of upscale shops and restaurants. The odd little statue in the median has a plaque in front of it that reads “Tranquility In Innocence - Sleeping Child.” Okay, then.            

NO SHOW

 

Turning around from the view in yesterday’s photo, looking north over Art Hill. This is the clear northern sky where we hoped to see the aurora borealis. There was nothing but a plane heading for the airport.

Road trip today to Kansas City, then across the prairie into Kansas on Saturday for a family event. Always something interesting to shoot.                

NO AURORA, BUT . . .

 

Some people got really good northern lights photos around here Tuesday night. We were at home but, given the forecast, went out last night. Mrs. C, granddaughter Ellie and I headed to Art Hill, which has an unobstructed view to the north and not a lot of city lights. Nothing as of three hours after sunset. Ellie amused herself taking selfies in front of the statue of the Big Guy, and then rolling down the hill on her side over and over.                  

A MODERN MAJOR GENERAL

Several performing arts organizations put on half hour presentations at the symphony open house, including Opera Theatre of St. Louis. The season is in May and June, and first up next year is Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance. Robert Mellon, seen here, will sing Major General Stanley, including the famous patter song I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major General. The frantic pace is notoriously difficult. Mellon led the audience through a series of exercises, learning how to sing it faster and faster.                  

ATTENTION

 

People listening to the St. Louis Classical Guitar Quartet, seen in yesterday’s post. Most of the audience is paying close attention, except for, maybe, the girl on the lower left on her phone and the man on the right, who I think is more interested in his date. And, well, me.               

CLASSICAL GUITAR

Many groups of local performers rotated through the St. Louis Symphony’s open house on Saturday. This is the St. Louis Classical Guitar Quartet. The conditions were not ideal. They performed on a balcony outside the mid-level of the auditorium, with open space off to the right going one level up and a floor and a half below. The gentle sound got a bit lost.             

SYMPHONY OPEN HOUSE

 

Our beloved St. Louis Symphony Orchestra performs in a hundred-year-old building, originally designed for movies and vaudeville. It was remodeled to become the orchestra’s home in the late 1960s. Mrs. C and I went on our first date there in the spring of 1973 (Mahler’s First, but I don’t remember what she wore) and we’ve now been subscribers for, I think, 47 years. Despite good acoustics, the hall had many drawbacks, with very inadequate backstage space.

It had been closed for two years for a major restoration and construction of a large new building covering two sides of the old hall. We’ve been to a few performances already but there was a public open house on Saturday showing off all the new stuff. Here, a septet of orchestra members perform as a tango group (unfortunately, no bandoneon). Having visited Argentina a few times, I love tango. The group played some of the biggest hits, including Carlos Gardel's Por Una Cabeza and Astor Piazzola’s Libertango.               

GOODNIGHT MOON

 

 Goodnight Lou. Goodnight to photographers snapping the view. *

* https://youtu.be/uU1sX_Yg3JU?si=8Dusy5tipruxN4jN                      

JUST HANGING OUT

 

Wednesday’s super moon, hanging over a building in St. Louis’ Central West End. This was as close in as I could get with my longest lens, 600 mm equivalent with the camera’s 2:1 crop factor.              

LOUIE AND THE SUPER MOON

 

There was a super moon last night, one of the occasions when our satellite is closest to the earth. Worth going out with a tripod, but where? This is our emblematic statue, the Apotheosis of St. Louis, in front of the art museum in Forest Park. Maybe I can edit something more about the moon itself for tomorrow.                

GOOOOOOOOL!

 

Another figure at the History Museum’s Dia de los Muertos event, dressed in the uniform of our local soccer/football team. St. Louis City SC's record this season is somewhat well represented.                   

ALTAR DETAIL

 

One of the features of Dia de los Muertos is elaborate altars, usually in honor of a particular deceased family member. This is a small detail from what I gather was a family’s abuela, or grandmother. The photos may be great grandchildren.               

GRATEFUL DEAD?

 

Technically, Dia de los Muertos was yesterday. In the Roman Catholic calendar, November 1 is All Saints Day and November 2 is All Souls Day. (You are only obliged to go to mass on the former.) Only a few people at the Missouri History Museum who were not official participants in the event did the full makeup or costume. If you look closely at his clothing, when the day comes I don’t think the man on the right expects to end up in heaven.                 

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

 

Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican festival that celebrates our connections to the beloved who have left us. Despite the imagery we will see in coming days, it is not morbid. The Missouri History Museum (a lot more interesting than it sounds) has a weekend event observing the occasion.