C'mon, Smile.

Over to our other, smaller St. Patrick's Day parade. What other city has the guts to call a nice residential neighborhood Dogtown? It is always held there on March 17th so it was crowded on a sunny Sunday. 

It used to be more fun. People were a little bit naughty, doing whatever alcohol in the street does to you. Now there are more fences, more security, more rules. Even this chap in his green jacket and bowler hat, beer in hand, seems to have had the joy sucked out of him.     

But There Were Lots Of Happy People

Don't misinterpret yesterday's post. Those faces were just part of the human scene and there is no such thing as an uninteresting face. Most of the people attending the St. Pat's parades were in high spirits. The man in the first shot called out to me "this is the best picture you're gonna take today!" I really like the third one, with her Vermeer-ish face and skin.

TOMORROW: Saint Louis Daily Photo's 11th anniversary. Why, I wonder.       

Green Day

No, not the band.

The Lou has two St. Patrick's Day parades, and it's a big deal here. The smaller, more traditional and often more inebriated one takes place in a neighborhood with the lilting Celtic name of Dogtown. (Really.) The other is way bigger and goes through the city center, always on the Saturday before the event. Except yesterday, since Saturday was the 17th.

So the former started at 10 AM and the latter at 1 PM. I ran from one to the other and they were both packed. Tons more of this to come.

I think the caption for the bottom picture is what goes in must come out.      

Street Porrtraits 2

More street portraits from the two St. Patrick's Day parades. Lots of smiles (some lubricated), some glowers and at least two colored contact lenses.

There are more and more pictures in the St. Pat's set on Flickr. Time to be moving on, though. A few pix about the reason I was in New Orleans. Lots of good pix of the Big Easy itself. Yesterday there was, of all things, a Baconfest in downtown STL. And we may get a lot of snow today (morning trip to the Botanical Garden?). Might break my shutter.

 

 

 

Easy Riders, Dogtown Style

Ug. Our plane from St. Louis to New Orleans arrived four hours late and we got to bed around 2 AM. Up and out this morning for some commercial activity, more about which in a bit.

These photos illustrate varieties of transportation at the Hibernians parade in Dogtown. Just love the stylish engine in the first one. The Edsel, once called the worst car ever made in America, ain't bad either.

Great Nawlins dinner last night.

Blessing O'The Beer

It's the reason for the season, at least for some people.  Here, Good St. Paddy himself blesses the beer. (I put him up to it.) Even the bottle is green. The second picture sums up the attitude of some of the merry-makers pretty well. I do not condone alcohol abuse and I did not see anyone behaving offensively at either of last weekend's parades. However, I'd rather have some public silliness than a stone cold sober town.

In this country, New Orleans leads the way in public silliness. And speaking of which, top o'the morning from The Big Easy itself. I have some actual work to do here until mid-afternoon. Then there is time for some shooting and dinner with a local friend. This trip, plus the general panic level at work, is the reason I've been light on comments on my friends' blogs. Home tomorrow.

There Are Some Wacky People In This Town

I made it  to the Ancient Order of Hibernians parade in Dogtown yesterday. It didn't snow. Although the day was colder, there was little wind and I bundled up. Ready for action.

This parade is smaller. It lacked entries from TV stations and high school marching bands. More families. Most of the marching groups were based on Irish clans although, alas, the Crowes of County Clare were unrepresented.

The participants and crowd were no less wacky than at the big event downtown. That's one of the things I love about St. Louis. It ain't stuffy, or at least the parts that are stay out of my way.