COLOR FOR COLOR'S SAKE

 

Rainbows everywhere, but I guess that's part of the point. Probably the last photo from Tower Grove Pride. Artica is this weekend and we hope to go today. Usually get some good pictures and the weather should be good for the bonfire.                   

DDARE BIONIC

 

More color and fun at Tower Grove Pride. I know who this person is without looking at the festival website, since we've crossed paths through the St. Lou Fringe, where I'm the photographer and board prez. It's Darrious Varner. who performs as DDare Bionic. Darrious also works in the newsroom at St. Louis Public Radio.                    

THE WORKERS OF THE WORLD AREN'T INTERESTED

 

A booth at Tower Grove Pride that was getting absolutely no traffic. They had enough capital for a nice tent and printed materials. Now, in current terminology, my politics could be described as pretty out on the progressive side and I'm good with the idea that unrestrained capitalism is predatory and destructive, while communism has been an abject failure. Some nations have shown that there is a middle way. Still, I'm happy that this country lets these people be there to have their say.             

CHACON A SON GOUT

 

It is not unusual in this country to see people who are simply covered with tattoos. Mrs. C and I think they are abhorrent and disfiguring. Both of our children got them, one all over, one more discretely (the route of the Chicago Marathon he ran on his calf). Skin belongs to the owner. Each to their own taste. https://youtu.be/WtTnCeuYkgI?si=Rj_RzNRPB9p3tAyN                    

THE PASSING SCENE

 

What with my creaky spine, sometimes I'll sit or lean on something at the side of an event, flip up the LED screen on my camera leaving it on my lap, and shoot what goes by. When the camera is not up to my face, people don't know I'm taking pictures. This trio swung over by me and I had quite a conversation with the man on the right. He noticed my Fujifilm camera. He's a FF shooter, too, and we had a chat about why they are so wonderful.                 

TOWER GROVE PRIDE

 

Change of scene. Metro St. Louis has a few Pride festivals, and, even though you could compare me to the shortest distance between two points on a plane, you could not find more colorful subject matter. This one is in Tower Grove Park, our second largest. (STL City has a lot of parks.) These folks told me they were family. Mom and the kids?                   

COLD AND CUDDLY

 

While walking out of the Festival of Nations to our car, we came across this man with his pet monitor lizard. I didn't get the name but I think he said he'd had the reptile for 20 years. The hot day seemed to keep it awake.                          

JUMP

 

Still at the Festival of Nations, a West African dance and rhythm group called Spirit of Angela. So full of energy and lucky to have the shutter speed high enough to catch the dancers in the air.                       

HOW CROWDED WAS IT?

 

About this crowded, and there were people still streaming in. It's great that St. Louis has so many festivals and public activities, but the turnout is often so great that an old duffer with a bad back like me has trouble coping, especially when it's hot. Which it always is anymore.

I went to Paint Louis yesterday for a while and got some pix but didn't last very long. I'll go back today for a drive-by, since the painting event will be done, to see what's on the wall. Also went by the neighborhood where the bicycle races were but there was nowhere to park.                

YEAH, RIGHT

 

Corn dogs are a staple of American carnivals and state fairs. (I've only been to one state fair but it was Texas so it was a hoot.) This comestible is a hot dog pierced by a stick, rolled in mozzarella cheese, coated in corn meal and deep fried. I guarantee you there are no corn dogs in Korea, unless Kim Jong Il arranged for clandestine imports to serve his delicate palate. Patrons of the Festival of Nations didn't care.                    

MEXICANOS EN ST. LOUIS

 

That's simply how this group bills itself, or at least how they were listed on the program. Like most places in the U.S., they have plenty of countrymen here. I like the complex rhythms.

There is a lot going on here over our Labor Day long weekend. (There is some irony that we have one.) Daytime high temps are still hovering around 38 C / 100 F, maybe a bit lower by Monday. I'm not going to attempt the colorful Japanese Festival at the Botanical Garden since it is crushingly crowded. There are pro bicycle races, always great to shoot, but will they go forward in the heat? And we have Paint Louis, according to Guinness the longest graffiti wall in the world. Should get some of that.                      

SEEN AT THE FESTIVAL OF NATIONS

 

Or elected official, or otherwise. Your choice.                  

AT THE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

 

The St. Louis International Institute has a big festival in one of our parks over the last weekend in August. There are performances of music and dance from all over the world, with food to match. Usually lots to photograph but it has gotten so crowded over the years we went early on the first day and left by early afternoon. The weather doesn't help. Not quite as bad as Europe, but about 38 C / 100 F every day this week.                       

ODE ON A CONCRETE URN

 

Seen at the other end of Tower Grove Park from yesterday's picture. Keats would not have liked my poor joke, but it's what popped into my head. My head should be clearer in a couple of days after I get my lumbar spine blasted on Thursday.                    

VOICES OF SPRING

 

Explosions of tulips in Tower Grove Park. Although it is a city park, there is a private foundation that supports and helps maintain it. Today's background music: https://youtu.be/c3Ywo8Tsyys?si=ckDPPi_brJnDHdff                

SPRING, REALLY?

 

Fake ruins in Tower Grove Park, a 19th Century Romantic fantasy. No flowers around here yet, maybe because St. Louis can't figure out what season it is. When I shot this yesterday afternoon, the temperature was 94 F / 34.4 C. This morning as I write this, it is 40 F / 4.4 C. Not normal.                          

DRY AUTUMN

 

It’s increasingly common here. Autumn has been very warm and dry. Officially, we are in moderate to severe drought. The leaves turn brown and just fall. The only way to get some color may be putting them right in front of the setting sun.  

Unfortunately, there are strong storms predicted for Saturday, the day of our nationwide No Kings protests. I really want to document it. We’ll see.            

I DON’T BELIEVE IT

Crowds queue up for snacks at the Festival of Nations. I guarantee you there is no such thing as a Korean corn dog. Mozzarella? Italian, degenerated in this country. Hot dogs? Based on German sausage but first served in this form at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Coating it in corn meal and deep-frying it? American county fairs. And, moving right, Chan  is a Chinese name but teriyaki is Japanese. You can’t believe anything these days.               

IT’S A SMALL WORLD

Seen at the Festival of Nations. Maybe this globe provides a sense of scale. It rolls a little when the children push it but I’m guessing the bottom is a bit flat so it doesn’t go bounding into the street.

                         

 

CITY DAILY PHOTO APRIL THEME - STRIPES

 

In Tower Grove Park, my favorite in St. Louis. It is laid out like an old-fashioned English walking park. There are many old, fancy pavilions available to rent. This one, called the Turkish Pavilion, is the largest.