Your Face Or Mine?

I'm not sure if what's in the man's right hand is a mask or a decoration. You could experiment.

Not real happy with the color correction here but there is no chance to use gels when shooting on the fly. My Photoshop skills are OK but hardly advanced.              

Naughty Or Nice

After the children's pageant and pot luck dinner at St. John's Sunday evening, who should appear but a merry old elf. Ellie looks a little concerned. How do the scales of justice hang between naughty or nice? As an observer of her behavior I'd say there is a definite tilt toward nice but, well, nobody's perfect.  My sources tell me she's going to make out very well this year.      

Not The Way To The North Pole

Santa made a wrong turn somewhere around Minneapolis while trying to find his way home.

Actually, this is one of the members of the Missouri Disabled Water Ski Association. They do their thing in the Mississippi River under the Arch on New Year's Day. The members wear whatever one does for plunging into cold water. (And the water was cold yesterday. At least there was no ice floating in the river.) Personally I think they're nuts, although for a good cause.         

Madeleine In Marysville Monday: 1 or 2?

1. Audition for a slasher movie, maybe. At breakfast at the Wagon Wheel Cafe. The knife wasn't very sharp.

2. A more traditional approach. She's been a good girl all year, mostly.         

So Be Good For Goodness Sake

And be careful about who's next to you.

Shirt found in a store window along the Delmar Loop.                  

Madeleine Monday: At Element, Powell Symphony Hall And Meeting Santa

Yes, it's time for my favorite moppet, out for a whirl this weekend. Top, the guest of honor with mom Emily at Element Friday night. (She's always the guest of honor.) Middle, her first visit to Powell Symphony Hall with daddy Brian (that's grandpa's girl - I didn't get to Carnegie Hall until I was, I think, 12 or 13) for this weekend's performance by Circus Flora with the St. Louis Symphony. Bottom, first face-to-face encounter with Santa at a church Christmas pageant. Getting pretty worn out by that point. Second and third pictures by Emily, iPhone and Canon 5D Mark II, respectively.

The child does not lack for stimulation.                          

I Didn't Know They Were Acquainted

Santa and Ms. Missouri seem to be on very friendly terms. If I were an old guy with snow-white hair I'd find this exciting. Actually, I'm not that far off but I dress better than Santa.

The whole Ms. America/Ms. Missouri (formerly Miss) thing is pretty awful. I remember watching Miss America as a kid and thinking it embodied unattainable elegance. There was an evening in a cousin's living room in Ireland when the whole family, young and old, watched the local equivalent, the Rose of Tralee Pageant, with rapt attention. But really. It's such an out-of-it vision of women and their place in society. Makes me think of Frank Zappa's Suzy Creamcheese.        

Christmas Afternoon

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Most of the excitement is over. Everybody who is interested in loot has got theirs. It doesn't matter whether you're naughty or nice any more. Santa is exhausted and needs a ride home.

We are visiting my family in Ridgewood, New Jersey, for a few days. The other divisions are driving distance, coming in from suburban Boston and central Pennsylvania. We have to fly. Something got my attention at New York's La Guardia airport while we were waiting for our bags. Those of us who watch Jon Stewart's The Daily Show will recognize it as one of those moments of zen. Stare at it long enough and it could drive you mad.   

Skating With Santa

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Every December Steinberg Ice Rink in Forest Park sets aside a couple of Saturdays for a Skating With Santa event. I seem to get around to photographing it about every other year.

The same charming gentleman plays the role year after year, and he's good at it. For one thing, he can ice skate. (I can't ice skate, or ski, or snowboard, or even hit a %^$@^ golf ball, for that matter.) He's been on the blog before. The creepy thing is that his name is John Crowe, my father's name. My father may have known how to ice skate but I never saw him do it. Never wore red velvet and ermine to his job in New York's Financial District, either. If someone did that today, they might end up in the New York Times' fashion section.

The Christmas Spirits

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It looks like jolly old Santa is waving us in to share a drink. Unfortunately, this establishment appears to be out of business. The owners couldn't predict their own future.

This was shot yesterday afternoon on ultra-funky Cherokee Street, way down on the south side. Note that the tiles in the entryway spell out "Hippodrome." Huh?

'Twas The Night After Christmas

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What? You weren't good all year? It's not just that Santa won't leave goodies. After a brief rest from his delivery duties, there's a story that Santa makes a second round, wielding a purple pick axe in retribution to the bad.

Well, nah, I just made that up. This is something from Artica. Santa here and a companion in a florescent-colored mask were reciting and acting out a long 1916 Dadaist poem, The First Celestial Adventure of Mr. Antipyrine, Fire Extinguisher by Tristan Tzara. It was pretty bleeping bizarre. I think I'll work in a bit more of this.

Thursday Arch Series (Christmas Edition)

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Merry Christmas From St. Louis

Here we are, near the end of another year. Santa advises us to "wine a bit - you'll feel better," a concept endorsed by some of our CDPB colleagues (you know who you are). I must have been a good boy all year, 'cause look what was under my tree! (Below. left.) Well, actually we don't have a tree - haven't had one since the kids moved out. That's not important to us. We have each other.

I am grateful that my wife and I and our two children are all together today; that we are all healthy; that we all have jobs; that the mortgage or rent is all up to date and that there's enough left over for a couple of bottles of that stuff Santa is pushing. We don't need no stinkin' tree.

WHAT HAPPENED ON OUR QUEST FOR AN OPEN RESTAURANT LAST NIGHT: our favorite Vietnamese restaurant was closed, too. There is a stretch of South Grand Avenue with a regular United Nations of ethnic restaurants. We ended up at Mangia Italiano, happy as can be. They were busy! Two of the five lawyers in my office are Jewish so I asked their advice earlier in the day. Get Chinese carry-out and go to a movie, they both told me. Now there's a Christmas tradition.

TOMORROW: winter whirl.

There is a new Arch photo today on GATEWAY.
It's kinda cheesy but you might like it.
Oh, and a story! Everybody loves a story.

Santa Stands Accused!

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These two children appear to be fingering Santa as the culprit, but why? Is he guilty of wage and hour violations in the elves' sweatshop? Shipping huge amounts of loot internationally without the necessary customs licenses? Failure to record a flight plan with the Federal Aviation Administration? I couldn't tell from this distance but just look at his guilty expression. Later, I saw him flashing gang signs with this bro from the hood, pictured below. Something fishy was going on.

WHAT I'M READING: Salman Rushdie's most recent novel, The Enchantress of Florence. Rushdie plays the English language like Horowitz played the piano. The book is riveting (to old Strangetastes, anyway). It is coming out in paperback in the US in early January if you want to save a buck or two.

TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series and also a new Arch photo on Gateway.

Do You Believe In Santa Claus?

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There was an interesting and diverse crowd on the ice at Steinberg Rink last weekend. The young woman in the top picture proclaims that she still believes in Santa. And why not? He was right there, skating with everybody else. Maybe she shouldn't be so confident, for reasons we shall discuss in tomorrow's post.

WHAT I'M FINALLY USING: Photoshop CS4. I've had the new version on my computer for two or three months but I've been intimidated about using it - there are some important changes. However, I got the excellent, concise book, Adobe Photoshop CS4: Up To Speed by Ben Willmore, which is only about what's changed since CS3. Very, very useful. Lots of good new features in CS4. Wow, is the sharpening better!

TOMORROW: We accuse Santa!

Skating With Santa 2008

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Little did I know before I started a city daily photo blog, but every year around this time kids can go skating with Santa at Steinberg Ice Rink in Forest Park. I went for the first time last year and got some good shots - see them here. The weather was milder and it was much more crowded this time but I still got a few good ones. What's weird is that when Santa and I got chatting last year we found we had the same last name; his first and last name is the same as my father. He remembered me, calling out, "Hi, Mr. Crowe!" and I replied, "Hi, John!"

My wife and I scour the newspaper for community events I can shoot. So much more going on in this town than I realized.

TOMORROW: all of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names.