How It Starts

I've wondered how ice sculptors begin to extract an image from a plain block. Minutes before this was taken, one of the men did a tracing of a cardboard template onto the ice. Hard to imagine how they can execute the design freehand and get it exact.

I wanted to get in closer but I could not get around the person in the left foreground. Don't know why she was shooting phone video. She was carrying a Canon 5D Mark IV (US$ 3,300) with an expensive, high-end L series lens. (I'm ex-Canon.) It can take fabulous video.         

Clang Clang Clang Went The Trolley

That song, as everyone knows (or should have known, as we say in legalese) is from the movie Meet Me In St. Louis. There used to be trolleys, or street cars, all over town. They went away, some of us think, in part due to the automobile manufactures who aided in creating highways that led to some of the worst suburban sprawl in the country.

But now we have one line again. Sort of. The Loop Trolley was meant to connect the west end of the Delmar Loop in University City to the Missouri History Museum, a mile or more into St. Louis itself. It's just now creeping into service, years late and and way over budget. It tried to begin running this month but one of them was hit by a car. Or hit a parked car. It's a little vague. Then the second one had electrical problems. So the first one was back in service this weekend, creeping up and down Delmar Boulevard. The retro cars are cute but we don't want to be marketing this to tourists just yet.          

Hail, Hail Rock n' Roll

The statue of St. Louisan Chuck Berry along the Delmar Loop. He doesn't care how cold it is. He keeps rockin' day and night, every day of the year. Note how carefully made the work is, with all the weight perfectly balanced on one forefoot.

The statue is across the street from the locally renowned Blueberry Hill. It is a restaurant, bar and music venue. Downstairs there is a performance space named the Duck Room, named after Berry's signature walk. He played there a lot. I am casually acquainted with the sculptor, Harry Webber, who got me into the place after the dedication of the statue. That's when I got this picture.       

Madeleine Monday

The adults got cold quickly on Delmar Boulevard Saturday. There are restaurants up and down the strip so we went into the nearest one, Blue Box Pizza. (They sent home our leftovers in a white box.) 

A local soft drink company called Fitz's makes unique, delicious root beer and cream soda. Their bottling plant and restaurant was across the street and Blue Box sold the the products. Ellie had never tasted cream soda before and was surprised by how bubbly it was. The rest went down easily.           

The Loop Ice Festival

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The Delmar Loop is a stretch packed with restaurants, entertainment venues and unusual shops. It lies mostly in University City, so named because most of the main campus of Washington University is within it, and is growing into St. Louis proper. It got the name Loop because years ago there used to be a loop of track where the trolley cars turned around to go back to the city. In 2007, the American Planning Association named the Loop as one of the ten best streets in America. Really.

On Saturday, The Loop put on an Ice Carnival. Pretty weenie stuff for you far northern types but fun for us. There were ice sculptures up and down the street. This one showed a lot of imagination.

WHAT I CAN'T GET OUT OF MY HEAD: We Sail the Ocean Blue from Gilbert and Sullivan's H. M. S. Pinafore. What's wrong with me?

TOMORROW: another frozen treat: gee, this looks like fun. Plus a new Arch photo on Gateway.