KEEP OUT THE MISSISSIPPI

                Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

                That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

                And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

                                                     Robert Frost, Mending Wall

Artica head guy Lohr Barkley leads the annual parade by the Mississippi River flood wall.       

Clearance Sale

Lots of good people shots from dinner at  Lohr and Carrie's house last week. I picked a few of the best to clear out the topic. There are four figures worth of shots from last weekend's Grand Center Theatre Crawl I have not finished sorting by show, let alone edited. Haven't even looked at Sunday's pix from the Pride Parade. Then there are big local and downtown July 4th celebrations later this week if the rain holds off (the forecast is not good) and the river don't rise. (But it probably will.)

Our wonderful host and hostess are in the last picture.     

Leadership

St. Lou Fringe executive director Matthew Kerns joined the Tiny Totem Parade! Here marching down Grand Boulevard with Artica head guy D. Lohr Barclay.       

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I miss Ren and Stimpy and their Happy Happy Joy Joy dance. You can have fun without a cartoon show, of course, and Artica leader D. Lohr Barkley sure is. I don't know the woman on the left but she's with the program, too. So is the slogan on her hoodie. I hope it says something about Artica.       

Creatives' Pot Luck - Before The Crowd

My friend Lohr Barclay, director of Artica, organized a pot luck dinner and social event at his home Thursday for Artica participants, friends and hangers on. Since I am now the official Visual Archivist, I fell into the latter category.

I don't know all the details but there is a long traditional bar downstairs, which says something about its former use. Lohr and his SO Carrie live upstairs. I got there at opening time to deliver food and bev before the crowd arrived. This man introduced himself as John but, if I understood correctly, his name is Jean. Americans just can't pronounce it correctly. He is from the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe. Heaven knows how he ended up here. I tried out some of my weak French on him. He was very kind about my efforts.

Lots of pix from this event. I'll be working through them more or less chronologically.                 

And To All A Good Night

Some final pix from Santarchy and then time to move on. There is something appealing about the sweater in the first photo. In the second, Lohr Barclay is expressing some Yuletide cheer. However, if I read the micro-expressions correctly the woman on the left isn't entirely comfortable about it. Further down, some bright color and strange dress in a bar called B-Side, as in the back of an old 45 RPM record. Last, one of the more subdued partiers brought his mandolin. I loved it when he was playing La Habanera from Carmen.

New material tomorrow.

Santarchy!

I didn't know a thing about it. How? Since the early 90s, groups of people dress as Santa or an avatar and roam around a city from bar to bar, spreading good cheer and searching for merry spirits. Or fermented malt beverages. For hour after hour. It's called Santarchy or sometimes Santacon, and it is now all over the world.

My Friend D. Lohr Barkley, who runs Artica, also finds time to organize St. Louis' Santarchy. He invited me along with them yesterday to document as much as I could. It's just nuts. One of Lohr's many talents is herding cats and he got (most) everybody to pose in front of the City Museum. I peeled off after this but the party continued late into the night. It's still going on as I write this.