THE HIGH ALTAR

 

The biggest memorial altar at the Dia de los Muertos celebration at the history museum. I note the skeleton in the St. Louis Cardinals baseball uniform, which may reflect the team's performance last year.                   

SOMBER WATCH

A few people dressed and made up as catrinas mingled with the crowd, posing for pictures with visitors. Late in the afternoon, they came out on the building's portico for a bit of a fashion show. Her makeup seems unusually sad and, strictly speaking, catrinas are female.             

RED WINGS

 

More color from Dia de los Muertos at the history museum. I can't say which was more engaging, the choreography or the costumes.                 

LA CATRINA

 

La Catrina is the face of Dia de los Muertos. The origin and popularity of the figure is a bit murky (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Calavera_Catrina) but it is now inescapable during the November 1 - 2 period of All Saints and All Souls Days. This example at the History Museum festival stands in front of the flag of the City of St. Louis.              

ALTARS AND ICE

One of the most touching customs of Dia de los Muertos is the building of altars that memorialize the dead but, even more, keep the living in communion with them. It can be an individual, an entire family or something much wider. At the History Museum's festival there is always an altar for the entire local Peruvian community. This one strikes particularly deep. The circle at the bottom center says "Perished In ICE Custody or Encounters, 2025-2026." ICE, of course, is the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. I don't need to repeat its story.              

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

 

There is an annual Dia de los Muertos festival at STL's Missouri History Museum. (Which should be called the St. Louis History Museum, since you won't find a thing about the Ozarks or Kansas City. I suppose there are old legal reasons.) One of the main presentations was an hour-long program of old and new danza mexicana. More to come.               

SNAKE EYES

 

Granddaughter Ellie's school was closed on Election Day, which suddenly seems to be a thing. We all went to the St. Louis Aquarium, which the kid loves. Plenty of fish, sure, but also aquatic animals like this one. Is it sleeping?            

SCIENCE FRIDAY

 

Mrs. C and I are devoted listeners to National Public Radio's show Science Friday. Ira Flatow, left, has hosted the program for 36 years. He came to St. Louis yesterday and recorded a segment of his show at the Sheldon Concert Hall with Dr. Lúcia G. Lohmann, president and director of our superb Missouri Botanical Garden and professor of botany at Washington University in St. Louis. Great way to spend a Thursday evening. 

            

THAT'S NOT FUNNY

 

A candidate for the most horrifying costume at the Central West End Halloween party. I don't like scary stuff. It makes me deeply uncomfortable. My granddaughter thinks horror movies are a hoot. She can watch them without me.                

DOH!

 

I stopped this couple at the Central West End Halloween party and asked them to explain their costumes. "I see the eggs," I said, "but what's the rest of it?" She pointed to her horns.  "Oh, I see. Deviled eggs.  But what about him?" She pointed to his head and wrist band and the brand on his shirt and told me "runny eggs!" I smacked my forehead like Homer Simpson finally realizing the obvious. "For this I went to college!" I said. They thought it was funny.                 

WAITING FOR A CALL

 

More from the Central West End Halloween party. Awfully good makeup. He looks like he is waiting for a call or wielding his phone as a futuristic weapon (which maybe it is).                

SLIGHTLY SPOOKY FAMILY

 

I made it to the Central West Halloween party. Didn't stay that long due to my creaky condition but got a few good shots. Everyone is happy to be photographed. Nice to see a family out for the evening but I think it's past the little one's bedtime.             

CITY DAILY PHOTO NOVEMBER THEME - HAPPY

 

You don't have to be good to be happy, so I thought I'd mix the theme with the day after Halloween. The illustration is from this year's St. Lou Fringe Festival in a show called The Wizard of Oz(es), a mashup of all the Broadway shows and movies. Other City Daily Photo members have a good cackle at https://citydailyphoto.org/category/theme-days/.             

HALLOWEEN

 

It's the day for another massive marketing ploy, but  lots of people enjoy it. There is a huge outdoor party in our Maryland Plaza in the Central West End neighborhood. The costumes are outrageous and there are big prizes for the winners. This is a scene from last year. The weather looks good tonight, my spine isn't too awful so I'm going to give it a shot. Results, I hope, to follow.              

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - WAITING FOR A TREAT

 

While in Vienna, we attended morning exercise at the Spanish Riding School with the Lipizzaner stallions. The main shows are sold out weeks in advance. No photos while the horses are in the arena, supposedly for their peace of mind. However, a walkway just behind goes by the stables. This one looks to be waiting for a sugar cube.              

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - I THINK I GOT MY SAINTS STRAIGHT

 

I admitted recently that I was getting confused about what saint goes with which cathedral, an easy thing to do in Europe. I'm confident, though, that this is St. Stephen's in Vienna. Although its twin steeples tower over the central city, it is hard to get an overview as it is crowded by neighboring buildings. One corner, though, collects afternoon sun.             

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - THE LAST SUPPER OF VIENNA

 

Something special and a bit  out of the way in Vienna. There is a somewhat smaller church in the central city known as the Minoritenkirche. It contains something remarkable. When Napoleon swung through town, he decided he wanted Leonardo's Last Supper there. The original in Milan wasn't portable - it's a fresco, egg tempera painted on wet plaster. So an Italian artist was commissioned to create a copy in mosaic - thousands and thousands ot tiny pieces only a couple of millimeters across.

Turns out I did have mild pneumonia. Getting better now, hoping to get out to shoot our big outdoor Halloween party Saturday night.  

              

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - THE WORK OF THE MONTHS OF THE YEAR

I have been incorrectly identifying the church within the grounds of Prague Castle as St. Stephen's. Wrong. It's St. Vitus. I can't tell them apart anyway. But we found these fascinating small reliefs on a gate along the side. Turns out they are illustrations of the labors of the months of the year. I used Claude to find out, on the theory that Anthropic is marginally less evil than OpenAI. What it tells me:

 

Winter into spring

• January (Aquarius): A man in a fur coat warms his hands by a pot over a fire while a woman kneels at the hearth.
• February (Pisces): Women spin thread at a spinning wheel inside a cottage with a crucifix on the wall.
• March: One man prunes a young tree while another stands beside him.
• April: A sower scatters seed in a windswept field.

Summer

• May (Gemini): A young man plays a pipe beside a woman at a well, a courtship scene. A Czech stamp issued in 1986 is titled “Allegory of May,” after a Horejc grating at St. Vitus, so this may be the same panel. cpslib
• June (Cancer): One man mows with a scythe while another sharpens a blade, with a village church tower behind them.
• July (Leo): A reaper in the field drinks from a jug while a woman binds sheaves.
• August: Two people thresh grain with flails. The small plaque below is hard to make out, but Virgo would fit here.

Autumn into winter

• September (Libra): A woman holds a basket while a man on a ladder picks fruit from a tree.
• October (Scorpio): A grape harvest, with a man and woman beside heavy vines.
• November (Sagittarius): An elderly couple carries bundles of firewood and brushwood.
• December (Capricorn): A pig slaughter, with a carcass hung from a frame.

I hope I got the order right. 

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - HIGH GOTHIC

 

Arches and shadows in the interior of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Prague. The architecture is entirely gothic although the interior decor is a wide range of baroque and rococo. 

Sorry I haven't returned to local material. I've had a hacking, productive cough for a couple of weeks now. It's getting worse and I'm concerned it's pneumonia. Talking to the doc this morning.             

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - KING WENCESLAS RIDING ON AN UPSIDE-DOWN DEAD HORSE

 

What? A sculpture found in a shopping arcade in Prague. According to some website, "Created by Prague-born artist David Černý, whose claim to fame was the painting a Soviet tank pink as a memorial to the Velvet Revolution, he's also known for his unsettling large scale installation piece of babies crawling their way up the Prague television tower, among other works of modern surrealism.

The sculpture is a mocking reference to the more famous equestrian statue of King (and later, Saint) Wenceslas that sits in Wenceslas Square, and possibly a mocking nod to Czech president Vaclav Klaus, although the artist will not say what his intentions were."

You got to like a city that doesn't take itself too seriously.