Black Forest

So what's to shoot on a dismal day? I've always liked this grove of old pines in Tower Grove Park. They look ominous, perhaps dangerous to walk through. But if you pass the challenge, go a few paces further and confront the mad genius, Richard Wagner, on the next column down from Beethoven. Ho Jo To Ho!                                

Sturm Und Drang

From Tower Grove Park following a thunderstorm. This is my favorite light: sunlight at my back and dark cloud behind the subject. The glowering busts of Beethoven and Wagner are appropriate for the post's title.

I got no new material and may have to string out some more from the Renaissance Faire over the weekend (some good ones still in the bin). However, there is something interesting to shoot tomorrow afternoon if it doesn't pour down rain (which it might), a soccer tournament for homeless people. That's different.                         

Fork In The Road

Getting on and getting off the main highway viaduct over the Mississippi, known locally as the Poplar Street Bridge. The direction is from Illinois to Missouri.

This blog promises the occasional rant, and they are very occasional indeed. But there can be the occasional rave. Our wonderful little summer opera company, Union Avenue Opera, is doing an ambitious Ring Cycle over four years. It's a "reduced" version for small companies and houses (UAO plays in a church with a semicircular auditorium and good acoustics). This summer's offering is Die Walküre, which we attended last night. O M G. This was the most intense, brilliant performance on the musical stage this town has seen since I don't know when. The long, tender final scene with Brünnhilde and Wotan actually brought tears to these cynical old eyes. We're going back again next weekend. If you're around The Lou and you like opera, you gotta catch this one. St. Louis Post-Dispatch review here.

Hojotoho!

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In a comment to yesterday's post, our friend Cieldequimper asked who were the other composers in the circle around the gazebo. Well, they all wrote operas (although Beethoven, whom we just saw, wrote the fewest of the lot, producing just one), three spoke German, two spoke Italian, one spoke French and all reflected highbrow Midwestern taste in the late 19th Century.

So, knowing a straight line when I hear one, I think we'll move through the collection. Richard Wagner, a disagreeable genius, is well-placed in this HDR-pumped sky. I was once in Los Angeles on business and went to hear Tristan und Isolde by myself at the L.A. Opera. I walked back to the parking lot next to one of the members of the orchestra, who asked me if I actually liked it. I told him I was ecstatic. And then there was the time I heard Jon Vickers sing Parsifal in Chicago. I could go on.

And speaking of Wagner, do you like the smell of napalm in the morning?


YOUR ASSISTANCE PLEASE: It's almost time for the 2009 travel photo competition sponsored by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I've won a couple of honorable mentions but never one of the top three prizes. This is a selection favorite photos from around the country and the world this year. Please leave me a comment and let me know which one you would submit. Remember, this is a general-interest daily newspaper so nothing too weird. Click here for the set.

La Lune Silencieuse

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The title is in fancy-pants French because yesterday's was, too. VJ gets it.Tuesday's moon photo was loud and brassy. Today's is quiet.

WHAT I'M LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW: Siegfried's Death, from the opera of the same character's name. Despair and the lasting memory of triumph all within a few minutes. Wagner was a jerk but his art is transcendent.

TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series and another new Arch photo on Gateway.