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?               

THAT'S A RELIEF

Time to be back on the streets of The Lou, although I may still run some Costa Rica pix if I'm short of material. Anyway, my office is a couple of blocks from our football dome without a football team. (Many Americans would know the story and nobody else will care.) The Rolling Stones are going on tour again this year (what, with their walkers?) and it was announced yesterday that they would play here in June. On Wednesday the big LED sign in front of the stadium had a teaser display of the iconic lips and tongue logo with the single word "When?". I walked over yesterday, hoping to find some version of that but no luck.

We have a lot of casinos around here, six, I believe, on or next to the rivers. The one downtown is cut off from the city by a major highway but there is an entrance and underground tunnel across from the dome. Couldn't pass up this image. We hope the casino is exciting enough without gunplay.         

Best Bet

When all else fails, you can take pictures from your office window. As they say in the investment company ads, your results may vary.

The coxcomb atop the pricey Four Seasons Hotel was lit up like a Renoir palette last night. The bright signboard just right of center shows a happy middle aged couple who apparently have not lost all their money at the adjacent casino, or who did but are chillin' on the free drinks they serve at the gaming tables and slot machines.

Below: across the highway at the football-dome-without-a-team. I can't wait. 

We are expecting an ice storm to roll in about mid-day. Could be a good photo subject but I don't have any crampons for my shoes.                  

Best Bet

Vess is an old local soft drink maker. The iconic bottle has been on the north edge of downtown for decades. It is about to be restored in honor of the company's 100th anniversary.

The sign board is for Lumiere Place casino, just off frame to the left. I think St. Louis' best bet is to stay far away from there.

We expect to meet a big shot from France today, as well as see the governor of Missouri (I've met him before) and my brother (him too). All at the same time. Hope I get close enough for a good shot. Details to follow.             

Abandon All Hope You Who Enter Here

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'entrate, the inscription on the gates of hell in Dante's Inferno. Perhaps it should be added to this entrance to our downtown casino. The building itself is in a pedestrian-unfriendly location a bit off from downtown and behind a major highway. They built a tunnel that comes up on Broadway across from the football stadium. Don't go down there thinking you're lucky.

That's Entertainment

This is the big video advertising board at the Lumiere Place Casino. It stands beside I 70, distracting drivers and me, too, since it's easy to see from my office window. So come to the show room in St. Louis. You can catch Winonna Judd or the ladies' beefcake show. If you prefer, contact me if you would like something more edifying.             

Heartbroken

Or howl at the moon, whatever you'd like to call it. There is a bar here called that. These musicians, probably hired by the local business association, were playing on the sidewalk in Laclede's Landing outside of the defunct Heartbreaker's Rock and Roll Saloon. A number of bars and restaurants in the district have been shuttered because the fine folks renovating the Arch grounds blocked the most convenient access with construction. And no compensation offered.                        

On the other hand, the owners of the Four Seasons Hotel and Lumiere Place Casino did a better job with the French flag last night. No cedar of Lebanon sighted, though.

Fat Chance

As I've mentioned in the past, STL has an awful lot of casinos for a city our size. They help fill the government's coffers and empty people's pockets. This is the grandest one. Lumiere Place stands on the edge of a run-down industrial area not far north of the Arch. It contains an opulent Four Seasons Hotel in that cyan box.

The architecture leaves something to be desired, IMHO. A blue-green box with an odd coxcomb growing out if it. That reddish part must be inlaid with LEDs. It glows in all sorts of low resolution themes, as determined by the management. The crummy picture at the bottom was taken from my office window last night with my iPhone. It doesn't seem sincere. The display, I mean, not my iPhone.
 
The next to last picture is a big video signboard by I 70 next to the casino. You can't time it on purpose but the camera can get some good video wipes. And if you can squint, read the bottom line. It says Gambling Problems? Call 1.888.BETSOFF. You can get yourself barred from the casino.                      

Coming Attractions

Year Eight, Day One:

Video screens play tricks on digital cameras. This is the color signboard in front of the Lumiere Place Casino and Four Seasons Hotel. My guess is that it works like an analog TV with horizontal lines of color and light re-scanned so many times a second. Digital computer monitors don't photograph this weirdly. 

This woman is performing at the casino's theater soon. I have no idea who she is. I might go if she wore make-up like this.                                     

Let's Go

. . . shoot some new pictures. I am so out of material. The week hasn't been conducive to hitting the streets.

So, another shot from the window of the new office. The right side is the five star Four Seasons Hotel and Lumiere Place Casino. You can go see a show! On the left is the new Stan Musial Bridge across the Mississippi. It will open next month.

I have no idea how they do the light effects on the top and left side of the hotel. During the day it looks like a bland brick cockscomb. (The architecture is, frankly, pretty dull.) Maybe there are LEDs on the brick. They can display anything. This one promotes the local hockey team, the St. Louis Blues.         

Thursday Arch Series

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I rarely shoot the Arch like this from the north. The light isn't as good and there are few interesting buildings to bring into the frame. This one works in a way. The tall building on the left with green glass curtainwall and brick cockscomb is the Four Seasons Hotel, perhaps the most luxurious in town. (The staff at the Ritz Carlton might disagree.) Below and around it is the Lumiere Place Casino. Hard to believe, but this area has seven major casinos, like we're Little-Las-Vegas-On-Mississippi.

We've never spent a dime in them, but we did stay one night in the Four Seasons after a big holiday party in the Lumiere complex. Pretty swanky and we had a great view of the river and the Arch. Too rich for a regular diet, though.

Dr. Mandelbrot, I Presume?

This is a bit of fun with the huge video sign outside of Lumiere Place casino. It doesn't look like this to your eye. What you see on the street resembles a television screen. But have you ever tried to photograph a TV screen? I did not not get a response to my request for technical comments yesterday about what causes this effect but my guess is that it's the fast scrolling video refresh of the image. (Expert advice still solicited.)

So what we get in camera is a crazy sci-fi effect, a molten color skin that resembles (or may actually consist of) fractals, as defined by Benoît Mandelbrot. Alien meets The Matrix meets 2001 meets "there's a sucker born every minute." The casinos are glad of the last part.

TOMORROW: Still a lot of water.

Hazard

I've mentioned that our town has a bunch of casino-hotels. The newest and most opulent is Lumiere Place. It's got a Four Seasons hotel in it. It's got a couple of preposterously expensive restaurants and some downscale ones for the masses. We ate at their pan-Asian restaurant for our annual Stupid Bowl dinner out his year. (creatively named Asia) Won't be returning. Oh, and the architecture is ugly. There will be a photo of that some time.

Their newest feature is a giant video advertising sign, the kind you see at American sports stadiums or along the Las Vegas Strip. It's smack on the main highway that runs from downtown to the airport and on to Kansay City, really in your face. This picture has stirred some controversy: an attractive young lady in a hotel bedroom, holding up a slinky negligee. The shopping bag on the bed is from L'ove [sic], the casino's, um, kinky boutique. (But as Tina Turner says, what's love for to do with it? BTW, Tina spent her adolescence here in STL.). See picture below. The display is said to be causing traffic problems on the highway.

I love the weird color effect of photos of the sign. The image is clear to the human eye but the colors are crazy and distorted in the click of a camera shutter. If anyone knows the technical reason for this, please tell us.

TOMORROW: special effects