HONK

Nutcracker-style decoration at Winterfest in Kiener Plaza. The reddish structure on the right, the Wainwright Building, doesn't look like much here but is quite architecturally significant.       

The Beat

At the end of the Annie Malone parade last weekend, some participants hung out on the side streets, keeping the beat going and thumping it off the surrounding office buildings. This young man was with a group of percussionists and dancers in the courtyard of Louis Sullivan's Wainwright Building. It is of great architectural significance, being one of the first couple of steel-framed skyscrapers in the world. (Eleven stories was a skyscraper in 1890.) These kids put on a great improv dance show for their own pleasure but I was fascinated by this young man's disengagement. I liked his crooked yellow bow tie and the way the light played off his face, too.

TOMORROW: Poker Face