I drive by this place occasionally and it has always seemed mysterious. Plain facade of a building on the edge of the Soulard neighborhood, near the huge Anheuser-Busch brewery. So I looked up the website, https://www.sbacstl.org/, and it is stranger than I thought. Not my hangout.
As has been noted in these pages, St. Louis loves an excuse to drink in public. As the mob followed the king and queen on Soulard Bastille Day, many had bottles or cans in hand. Some of those too unsteady to walk the route rode golf carts, voiturettes de golf, flying le tricolore.
Happy Bastille Day to all our French friends. This town was founded by a pair of French explorer-traders. Our originally French Soulard neighborhood holds an annual tongue-in-cheek celebration of the revolution, wherein the royal couple are chased very slowly from one to another of the several local bars, ending at a mock execution at le rasoir national.
Anheuser-Busch used to be headquartered in St. Louis. Some years ago it was taken over or merged into the Belgian-Brazilian giant Inbev, which moved the North American headquarters to New York. Still, their biggest American brewery is here and it marked the end of the Mardi Gras parade route.
Another corporate headquarters lost to St. Louis. Still, it was announced yesterday that Boeing is moving its defense offices back here from a suburb of Washington. We were the HQ when it was McDonnell Douglas.
Do NOT send your arrows this way. You have to remember, though, that the Mardi Gras parade was held on Valentine's Day.
It was drizzling yesterday morning when I decided to take a chance and go downtown to check out the Mardi Gras parade. As one of our colleagues reminded me, there is no bad weather, just bad clothing. The parade's policy is to go on, rain or shine. I go early and work the staging area, where the participants ane milling around and everyone is happy to pose.
Today, Saturday, is supposed to be our Mardi Gras parade. The organizers claim it is the second biggest in the U.S., after New Orleans. But they have several over a few days and we just have the one shot. The forecast is for rain all day but, from what I know, the parade isn't canceled. The organizers couldn't afford to lose all sales at their party tents. So the usual mass swilling on the street will be washed away.
Another dog dressed as a movie character. It certainly has the right face. I don't think earthly pups or their interstellar cousins drink Busch beer, though.
The big Mardi Gras parade is scheduled for tomorrow but it's supposed to rain most of the day. Don't know how the organizers will handle that.
It has been noted in these pages that St. Louis likes an excuse to drink in public. That pastime was clearly on display on Sunday during the dog parade. It won't come close, though, to what you will see on the street next Saturday during the main Mardi Gras parade. Hoping the rain holds off.
And owners. I dress in dark colors when I'm shooting on the street to blend in. People in the dog parade tend to go in the opposite direction. I guess I'm more of a observer than a participant (and besides, we just have a cat). Somebody has to make the record.
Moving on from outdoor sculpture for a while. Lots of different material coming up because it's silly season in St. Louis (not that people take us very seriously). Mardi Gras is a big deal here. I think it started with community organizations but it's all commercialized now-still fairly crazy but orderly enough. Yesterday was the traditional dog parade, sponsored by Purina, the pet food company that is headquartered here. Lots of wacky puppies with owners to match.
I don’t think these people are genuine daughters of the revolution, nor do I believe those beverages are rose de Provence. The outfits are un peu stereotypical. Nevertheless, as I have noted, St. Louis loves an excuse to drink in public and what could be a better end to the party than a decapitation (even if fake)?
There were people hawking all sorts of things and there were plenty of children at the Hispanic Festival. This salesman's dress and demeanor seemed pretty heavy for his wares. It was a good thing my granddaughter wasn't with me. If she had been, she would have pulled the fingers out of my hand if I didn't buy her something, preferably Hello Kitty.
I still have lots of sculpture photos in the can, TinType and conventional, but I wanted a change of tone. Our Hispanic Festival took place this weekend. The Latino population here isn't as big as many American cities but it's growing. This couple danced to an impossibly loud, large and energetic Mexican band. I'll show something about them shortly. I'm shocked the members have any hearing left.
Lent begins Wednesday in the Christian world. Some parts of it have a blowout of excess leading up to the period of fasting and penance, called Carnival in most places but often Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) in the U.S. New Orleans is justly famous for its days of wild celebrations. St. Louis claims to have the second biggest. This is something like comparing the height of the Washington Monument with the
The best subject of almost any parade I photograph is Audrey SImes. She is on the board of directors of the Artica festival I shoot for and does much of their computer graphic design. She is a choreographer and costume designer/maker. She creates her own look for each event and every one is more amazing than the last. And, wow, does she know how to pose.
The guy on the right is okay but he's beside the point.
It's Ash Wednesday, nominally time for revelry to end, hangovers to be nursed and a season of contrition to begin. For a kid like me who was brought up in the all-Latin Catholic Church, it's that mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa time of year when we got so sick of fish sticks for dinner we would have to sneak into the local burger joint (White Castle for us back then, not McDonald's), but certainly not in our parochial school uniforms.
Rex here, in our local parade, looks like he's already past his party peak. Perhaps he could take a lesson from years gone by.
And happy birthday to my grandson, Atlas, four years old today. The boy lives up to his name.
