PRIEST

This is the area of the Pagan Picnic called the Bardic Circle. To me, a bard is a poetic storyteller, e.g., the Bard of Avon. These folks were not recounting legends but standing in a circle with palms upward, or walking in concentric circles chanting things I couldn't quite understand (maybe on a few levels). Lots going on at this event about goddesses but this event had a dude in charge. Looks like a grayer version of Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments. 

It was fashionable to wear a Druidic cape with a hood but only if balanced with a Chevrolet tee shirt.            

COME AS YOU ARE

Quicky today. Have to clean my desk, pack and get to the airport early tomorrow. This is an illustration of the many vendors of, well, non-traditional clothing at the Pagan Picnic. The effect doesn't work correctly without bright sunlight, shadow, a deep cut and a useless umbrella. No harm in accessorizing, though.           

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

St. Louis is small enough to be manageable and big enough to have a weird edge. This weekend brings the annual Pagan Picnic. The crystal merchants, fortune tellers, witches, soul travelers and dragon tamers convene in Tower Grove Park, taking an opportunity to be themselves in comfortable surroundings. You can look like this and fit right in. 

Photography note: it's hard to work the street with a cane in your hand. Gotta figure out a better approach before I hit Boston later this week.              

Hallelujah

Another from the Pagan Picnic. Not altogether sure about what's going on because, as usual, I was paying more attention to my viewfinder than life in front of me. Salute to Mother Earth or the Earth Goddess or it just feels good to do this? I'm a bit of a voyeur here, being more in tune with logical positivism than, say, wicca.        

Bliss Out

Another image from the Pagan Picnic.  Reminds me of that old song If You're Going To San  Francisco. Except this is St. Louis. Maybe not as romantic.        

Do Not Go Gentle

Observers at the Pagan Picnic. Not so mobile but definitely still in the action. Reminds me of Dylan Thomas' poem Do Not Go Gentle.                     

It's . . .

Monty Python's Flying Circus? At least I think it's a python. This person was walking around the central area of the Pagan Picnic last weekend. These creatures are pretty tame, at least when they are not hungry. The owner let kids pet it and adults put it around their necks. Even my granddaughter Ellie likes to play with them. Personally, I'd pass. However, I love the snake's burnished golden color and beautiful patterns. How do genes accomplish that?  

My Pal

Never let it be said that this town is a boring speck in flyover country. We have plenty of eccentrics. There is an annual event called the Pagan Picnic in Tower Grove Park. It's been going of for 20-odd years and has been seen on these pages before. It's where our local druids, earth-worshipers, tarot readers, soul travelers and crystal gazers show up to play together.

Lots of people bring the whole family. Many dogs and, to the best of my knowledge, one iguana.     

There are more pictures from New York but I'll post them on Flickr and move on. We'll be back the first week of July, anyway.   

States Of Conciousness

I don't see how someone could go into a trance with the size and volume of the speakers surrounding this young musician. Maybe when I was her age I did. After my first sequence of shots of the band I wandered off. Soon after they started playing something I could sing along to and pulled me back in. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear.

Out late again last night, no comments written. It's opera season in The Lou.                         

The Band

Sorry for the late post. We were out last night for a family celebration. My son-in-law is a professional chef. He is gifted and loves it but it's a tough industry to work in. The hours are often terrible, jobs can be unstable and the pay isn't always so great. He just got hired as executive banquet chef at the Chase Park Plaza, the grande dame of St. Louis hotels. It's a great coup and we're delighted.

Anyway, the band at the Pagan Picnic was terrific. They call themselves Tuatha Dea and describe their style as celtic tribal gypsy rock. Whatever that  means, their music was infectious. I've got some more of these.                                             

Another St. Louis Character (And An Enigma)

This is Susan Stone, or perhaps David Stone, (I'm just going to use the female pronoun.) She has been around for years. You see her at public events where there is live music like the Pagan Picnic. She is a fixture at Earth Day. Stone performs a lumbering, uninhibited improvisation she calls The Dance of Life.

I've photographed her many times before but never did a post about her. My guess was that she had some serious disability and I didn't want to seem to make fun of her. However, I had a chat with the Pagan Picnic house photographer about her. It turns out her story is complicated.

There are thousands of videos on YouTube by and about her. She has a website. It is unclear whether she is a transvestite or transgendered. Someone wanted to make a documentary about her but it looks like the project never got going. She told the videographer a story about a life of great suffering. No way to tell if any of it is true. She has had some serious run-ins with the law, and not about her lifestyle.

So I present this simply as reportage, one of the many quirks of life in our very mid-American city. One thing is for sure: we have experiences like this almost exclusively in the city proper. If you are in the nether suburbs, going from big house to shopping mall to salon to soccer field, you will not encounter these parts of St. Louis life.
                                     

Fancy A New Frock?

Dresses for sale at the Pagan Picnic. You still sometimes see people wearing tie dye clothing around here. Retro hip, maybe, but not my style.                      

Unchurched

You never count your money . . .  Most of us know that tune.

There is an annual event in Tower Grove Park (home of many of our stranger events) called the Pagan Picnic. It attracts all the dream weavers, witches, soul travelers, mystics, tarot readers, Wiccans, goddess worshipers and pentangle janglers - and lots of their friends - from miles around. All in service to the greater goals of spiritualism until it's time to count out a wad of twenties into a bank envelope.

I had quite the conversation with the man in the second photo. We agreed on a number of things.

Looking back over the kind of people I like to photograph, it seems unlikely you will ever find me shooting at the debutantes' cotillion (although I'd love to).                      

Local Events - Headshots

I never thought I'd say this, but I have more material than I know what to do with at the moment. So, some quickie portraits and head shots from recent events. Only the last is from an occasion already seen, the circus. Let's mix and match for a while to keep things interesting. All will be explained.                   

Laces On A Hat

...among other things. I can't figure out why you would need laces, let alone gears, on a leather top hat.  Or those earrings, that striking beard, the dashiki or those eyes. Must be a studied effect, a bit intimidating.                                                       

To Nature

Someone dancing all by herself at the Pagan Picnic. She was quite graceful and had no body image problems, which I think is great. Sort of a Terra Mater.                         

Chacun A Son Goût

This Pagan Picnic that I mentioned a couple of days ago isn't a real big deal. People who have generally out of the mainstream religious views show up with various mystics, tarot card readers, spiritual travelers and those trying to sell them something. Many are deliberately strange. The small gathering can be a bit sad but it's good that The Lou is diverse enough to have the affair.

There were an awful lot of tattoos, not surprisingly. Readers of this blog know my attitude about them but, hey, your skin belongs to you. Still, it's hard for me to understand why someone would want that on the back of their leg. Each to their own taste.

Any troublemakers might have a hard time taking the agent below seriously. How about a little gravitas?                                

Higher Education

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There is an awful lot of advertising in this country pushing for-profit schools who claim that they will train you for a prosperous career. Many of the programs are bogus. I can't tell you how many people come through my office after attending one of them, who have tens of thousands of dollars in federally guaranteed student loans and can't find a job in their chosen field. It's become a scandal.

Better you should learn something practical, a field that requires technical skill and is always in demand. You could sign up at the Pagan Picnic.

Metallica

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Getting into some of the strange things for sale at the Pagan Picnic. Don't just dress Goth, wear this chain-mail head and shoulder covering to your favorite club. The second one is, um, a bit out there but if it is in public view in the City of St. Louis, the times must have changed to accommodate it. Not surprisingly, these were for sale by the same merchant.

 

Bonne Fête Nationale à tous nos amis en France! Il ya un petit festival à Saint-Louis, mais il n'est pas jusqu'à demain. (Pourquoi?) Je serai là.

Christians And Pagans

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Lots of Americans think of St. Louis as a rather dull, mid-size, Midwestern city that has a better-than-average baseball team but otherwise is on a downward slope. Not so. There's weirdness all around, if you keep your eyes open.

I saw something in the weekly events section of the paper about the 10th annual Pagan Picnic in Tower Grove Park. What? I've been running this blog for almost five and a half years and it's gotten under my radar. It wasn't very big but it was reasonably strange. There was a lonely anti-pagan walking up and down, getting no attention from anyone (there are some other similar people around town). They apparently do a quilt for each year's event. What would happen if you curled up in this on a cold winter night?

You cant see it clearly in this picture but the man in the back of the top picture is carrying a book titled "Natural Witchery." I might consider the Kindle edition.