STL DPB ON THE ROAD - THE LONELINESS OF THE SUBWAY

The  columns in a station create visual compartments between the passengers, who are already seated on opposite ends of the bench. The woman on the left looks up, perhaps in hope that her train will soon arrive. The man on the right slumps with chin in hand, perhaps from fatigue or depression. The Target bag reminds me of the ongoing virus risk. Neither of them is masked. Maybe that's how we  got infected last weekend.

AMEN

Maybe a last shot from the Women's Rally. Michael Parson, mentioned in the yellow signs, is the incompetent governor of Missouri, someone who started off as a rural county sheriff and rose to higher office through a series of coincidences. His attitude toward the virus is to let people do whatever they please, although local governments can impose stricter regulation. Covid cases in the rural parts of our state are exploding and medical facilities in some areas are near collapse. St. Louis and Kansas City aren't nearly as bad but certainly not in the clear. We are still hunkering down.              

CITY DAILY PHOTO THEME DAY FOR OCTOBER - RESPONSE TO COVID-19

This photo is about six months old, taken when shutdowns and quarantines were really beginning to bite. This young man set up shop next to the great statue of St. Louis in Forest Park, a natural meeting place, without a mask. I am sorry to say that many people here do not follow health officials' advice. Whenever I pass through the park on a nice Saturday, I see many wedding parties at the usual photo stops, clumped together and no one wearing masks.

The incidence of infection is moderate in St. Louis City and County. It's much worse in the outlying areas, where local hospitals are overwhelmed and sending patients here.        

IF STAN MUSIAL CAN WEAR A MASK SO CAN YOU

One corner of our baseball stadium has a group of statues of the most famous Cardinals in history. (One of the foremost, Lou Brock, died yesterday at 81.) They wore the flag of the City of St. Louis as a mask, sort of like a bandito face covering. Stan Musial, The Greatest Cardinal Of Them All by universal acclimation, followed all the safety standards.

So if Stan the Man can do his part to protect the rest of us, you can, too. None of this my right to be free and kill your grandparents. I'm a grandparent.          

JOHANNES AND HIS FRIEND SAY WEAR A MASK

And last in this series, Dan Ricketts' spin on Vermeer's Girl With A Pearl Earring. The earring is a bit hard to spot. The first version had white polka dots on the mask, perhaps a reference to the pearl. Rickets changed his mind, as painters do.

I once had the privilege of seeing this painting in person.  It is in a small museum in The Hague. It's surprisingly little but the beauty made my jaw drop. In a way, it is like the Grand Canyon or the Taj Mahal. No photograph can prepare you for the experience of standing before it.

Got a good and rather unusual Thursday Arch Series picture for tomorrow.            

FRIEDA SAYS WEAR A MASK

St. Louisan Dan Ricketts has a business called St. Louis Sign and Mural (slogan: a business without a sign is a sign of no business). He is painting a triptych of Covid 19 messages on an older building downtown. There was an article about it in the local paper yesterday and I had to go look for myself. Frieda Kahlo's mask is the flag of the City of St. Louis (available here). The other two panels based on famous works of art are in progress. I'll stop back later today.

TODAY'S RANT: after I left Ricketts' installation I drove through Forest Park looking for something to shoot. Came up empty-handed but I did see four wedding parties at the usual photo spots, all clustered together, not a single person wearing a mask. But wait, we can't have masks in our wedding pictures! The virus is roaring out of control in this area. Idjits. Selfish, uncaring, stupid idjits. IDJITS.        

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - YOU CAN'T BE TOO CAREFUL THESE DAYS

Like many of my online friends, people who don't wear masks in public make me angry. Our family, even the little ones, are with the program. While waiting for the next flight at O'Hare, Ellie, Lambie and her favorite doll, Aliane (pronounce it the French way - we think she is Québecois because the card that came with her says she likes poutine) are full of respect for their fellow travelers. Hard to see in these pictures but Ellie put a little bottle of hand sanitizer on each of their left wrists. Not everyone in the terminal was so respectful despite the Illinois state mandate.        

MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO

As everyone has heard, many Americans are tired of following rules that they find chafing, even though they are a powerful brake on the spread of Covid-19 and will save thousands of lives (maybe their own, or their parents). I'm still horrified at how many people I see at outdoor bars, maskless and packed closely together. (And, no, Stolichnaya is not an adequate disinfectant.)

 

The reference is to a song (is that the right term?) by the hip hop group N.W.A. It is called Straight Outta Compton, that being a hard-life part of the Los Angeles area. The piece is extremely violent. I knew of it but had to look up the lyrics to get the point. Take my word for it.

 

Can't wait to see what  happens after 19,000 people packed an arena in Tulsa to see the would-be dictator last night. Is the appropriate concept herd immunity or thinning the herd?                  

ASSURANCE

A business on Delmar Boulevard in The Loop. I don't feel assured but then I don't know what's going on inside. I think it is a tattoo parlor. Maybe you're into that or maybe you're not (I'm horrified by it but my children have lots) but I can't imagine how it could be done safely. 

The public response to the pandemic remains unsatisfactory. The Governor of Missouri, Mike Parson, has declared the state to be wide open, subject to greater restrictions by local government like St. Louis City and County. Restaurants are reopening albeit with reduced capacity. Everyone in my suburban supermarket wears a mask but my one visit to Walmart was a horror. I am shocked by the number of people in our parks who don't bother with protection. They don't respect me or give a damn about my health. We just hope we come out well on the other side.        

MAYBE YES, MAYBE NO

After all we have been through in recent weeks and months, all we can say is that we will find out when we get there. Whether our political and social upheaval means anything will not be known until November 4 and maybe not for a long time after that. 

And the virus - people are tired of confinement and rules. The people I've seen at demonstrations here and in the media have thrown distancing to the winds. Most - but only most - people are still wearing masks. I want to scream at those who don't that they are threatening my life. The director general of the World Health Organization said the other day that “the biggest threat now is complacency.”

I had never heard of this company on the western edge of downtown so I looked it up. It's a worldwide marketing agency that specializes in just branding.   

WHERE TO NOW?

An iconic logo that comes from the baseball team, seen in a rainy plaza downtown. STL is our abbreviation for our town. It's the airport code. Here, the bright color seems to be vanishing in the mist. Now where for us? No one knows. In the short term, I worry that the packed crowds from all the demonstrations - social distancing be damned - may lead to a surge in Covid-19 cases. In the medium term, I worry about the would-be dictator and his henchmen.       

IT'S GOING TO TAKE MORE THAN THAT

This is an unhappy time for many Americans. People are becoming terribly ill and dying from an invisible scourge. Millions are falling into poverty and bankruptcy. The smoldering underground fire of racism and economic inequality has erupted into the streets. Meanwhile, our president hides in the White House, babbling nonsense on Twitter. 

We can wash our hands free of virus but not of responsibility.

Tomorrow's post has a great change of tone. I understand the irony.
           

FAUSTIAN BARGAIN

There is a meme in old American movies about a stick-up, an armed robbery. The criminal is facing his victim and holding a gun. "Your money or your life," the thug barks. It's a bad choice but one is much worse than the other.  

A Faustian bargain refers to the legend of the old alchemist who sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for youth, love and wealth. Everything the world has to offer came to Faust, but in the end he was doomed. Our government's policies about the virus and economic recovery have begun to feel like this. Your money or your life, indeed. Granted, my family is financially secure and I understand why others would be desperate. In the big picture, though, I'd rather have my life, and my family's, friends and co-workers. And yours.

Normally at this time of year I'd be shooting The Lou's many outdoor events. All canceled, of course, so I have to find something else. Last weekend I went to one of our two huge old cemeteries, Bellefontaine. It's all Protestant (every name is English, Scottish or German). The Catholic one, Calvary, is adjacent. It's where our rich and famous get planted. I got a good shot of the grave of our native son and cultural hero, William S. Burroughs. Tennessee Williams is across the road. We will come back to the subject.  

HEROES AND VILLAINS

This banner is high on a wall of the enormous Barnes-Jewish Hospital / Washington University Medical Center complex. I've been repaired there a time or two. The American Heritage Dictionary defines hero as:

• n. In mythology and legend, a man, often of divine ancestry, who is endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated for his bold exploits, and favored by the gods.
• n. A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life.

Words are inadequate to express our appreciation for front-line medical workers. Courage, nobility and risk like no other. Then, on the other hand, we have the anti-public health, anti-vaccine people. I respect their right to speak but I don't respect their judgment. There was an interesting piece in The Conversation yesterday about what may happen with these people when a vaccine is developed. Could it be that the tables are turned and they become the object of rage by the rest of the country for prolonging danger and unemployment? And then we get into the questions about what society - all of us together, the national government if you want to call it that - must do to keep us fed and housed. John Maynard Keynes, where are you, now that we need you?

There are times I think a lot of us could use an intro course in epistemology but, as the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Or was the last word "think"? 

This probably qualifies as the occasional rant.

PANDEMIC IN SPRINGTIME 3 - ESSENTIAL BUSINESS

Is there a more essential business in St. Louis these days, other than, perhaps the Washington University and St. Louis University Medical Centers? Yes, this is the headquarters of Budweiser, or sort of, since it was sucked up by a Brazilian-Belgian conglomerate. It chases you everywhere in the world (except, I think, the Czech Republic). The brand was on the first advertising sign we saw when our little group got off the plane in Tibet years ago. https://flic.kr/p/71dTXFhttps://flic.kr/p/71dTXF . I guarantee you this place is still open for business.            

KEEP YOUR MONEY IN YOUR POCKET

Possibly the only good that has come of the virus shutdown. I have described St. Louis in these pages as Little-Las Vegas-On-Mississippi. (And the Missouri, too.) There are five good-sized casino-hotels ringing the metro area. When this was first legalized the casinos literally had to be riverboats, you know, actually floating. Now they only have to be kinda sorta near the rivers, allowing for much bigger operations.

Lumiere Place, a big one, is just north of downtown. The complex has a very expensive Four Seasons Hotel. I know there are people who like it and can control their spending, but, like the lottery, I've always thought casinos were ethically indefensible, preying on the most vulnerable. But, hey, this is America! Business ethics are an oxymoron.

Note from the Language Police: shouldn't the verb in the next to last line be "are"? Or does the whole place consider itself a collective noun?               

FIGHT LONELINESS

Before our not-very-strict stay at home order went into effect, I went cruising around town hoarding photographs like some people amass toilet paper. As I drove by the front of the closed art museum I did a double take. 

Across the lane, under the statue of St. Louis, I met David. He had quit his job as an emergency medical technician (!) a few weeks ago, spent some time out on Missouri's Ozark trails, came home and decided not to be a hermit. He had set up a folding table full of granola bars and other snacks along with an ice bucket of flavored sparkling water. He was asking a dollar for them, implying he had gotten them for less at Sam's, but was giving them away on Monday. Then there was this display.

I still had lots of questions but other people walked by and engaged him. Why did he quit his important job? What motivated him to set up this display? What is he going to do with himself now? I hope he stays well.        

ARCHED WINDOWS

The setting in the second floor of the St. Louis Art Museum. The arched windows overlook the central great hall and you can see the one on the other side. The placard on the left of the pedestal shows the artwork that inspired the floral arrangement, in this case a white marble statue.

THE LOCAL SITUATION - we have one confirmed COVID-19 case in St. Louis, a student who just returned from Italy, and two in the State of Missouri. St. Louis City and County just banned all public gatherings of more than 1,000 people. (500 is safe?) We were to attend a big fundraising dinner and auction for an arts group tonight and it's off. The symphony is canceled for the weekend (we had tickets). Our small law office is open but our desks are all more than 2 meters apart. We are changing all client meetings to phone calls. There are contingency plans if most of us have to work from home. I'm getting all of us burner phones so we can call clients without having our personal phone numbers on Caller ID. Hoping for the best and preparing for trouble. 

PS: moments ago, St. Louis County prohibited gatherings of more than 250 people. St. Louis City and County are separate political entities but the City should follow along shortly.