ST. LOUIS PUBLIC SCULPTURE - CHUCK BERRY

 

Chuck Berry is a native St. Louisan. In his later years he lived with family in a compound on the edge of the area. He frequently performed in a small space in the basement of locally famous Blueberry Hill, a bar and restaurant across the street from this statue. The performance venue was known as The Duck Room, after Berry's signature walk.

This is another work by Harry Weber. I knew him slightly since he asked to use my picture of another of his statues (see tomorrow) in a book about his stuff. He said he would send me a copy of the book. He didn't. Nobody ever does. (Talking about you, Museum  of Modern Art.) What Weber did do is get me into the private reception for Berry at Blueberry Hill, resulting in this picture - https://tinyurl.com/cdce9hhh .               

ANOTHER TROLLEY PICTURE

I’m out of new stuff. It’s just too hot for these old bones to get back out on the street so I pulled a trolley picture from the archives. Our streetcar system was long gone when I got here for college in 1967. In the last several years, local boosters developed this trolley line from the history museum to the end of the Delmar Loop district. It was a boondoggle, way late and over-budget. It runs down the center of a busy street without the kind of appropriate stop structures you find in Europe. I thought it was shut down, but I was pleased to find it still running.                 

CHUCK

 

The statue of St. Louisan Chuck Berry in the Delmar Loop. He frequently performed at Blueberry Hill across the street. I had forgotten how old this statue is. It was dedicated on July 29, 2011 and I went to photograph it. I was slightly acquainted with the sculptor, Harry Weber - I had photographed some of his other work - and he got me into the private reception at Blueberry Hill. I’ve photographed Berry in concert but that’s when I got a close-up. https://tinyurl.com/3x9adbaw                       

DARTS, ARROW, GIRAFFE

I'm sure there are several bars in the Delmar Loop that have a dart board, but none this big, or accompanied by an angel with a bow and arrow (Eros?) and a giraffe. It's a bit hallucinatory.             

MAGIC MINI GOLF

A new game in town. Locals and regular visitors know the area known as the Delmar Loop, so-called because decades ago it's where the trolley cars turned around. Now it is full of restaurants, bars, entertainment and shops. 

The newest attraction, opened just a week ago, is Magic Mini Golf. It has a most imaginative indoor course, a couple of shuffleboard courts. a tiny five car Ferris wheel and a few arcade games. There is a full bar and a stage, so I assume it was meant to pull in a young crowd for an evening's entertainment. Ellie didn't care about that part. She just likes mini golf.            

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.