Bikers For America

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There were an awful lot of motorcycles at the veterans parade last weekend. Nearly all of them were Harley Davidsons, machines that have become a cult in this country. Think back to Peter Fonda in Easy Rider. There seems to be a certain style that goes with riding one, albeit with variations. Almost all the drivers wore black leather outer clothing. Some were well tailored and clean cut. Others looked tattered and tough, favoring bandanas tied around their heads and lots of facial hair.

Speaking of the Fonda family, look closely at the bottom picture. The patch on the rider's right hip says "Jane Fonda American Traitor Bitch." Sheesh, let it go. The Vietnam War was more than 40 years ago. And, um, people can sincerely hold different viewpoints, right?

Apologies for not leaving any comments yesterday. Long day at work (they all are) and then spent the evening doing something different. I am a participant in a long-term study of personality and its effects on aging at the psychology department at Washington University, one of the country's most prestigious centers of higher education. (Recall that I went to that other university across town.) Every year or two they have me over for three hours of interviews and testing. I hope I skew the bell shaped curve.

Thursday Arch Series

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In yesterday's post, I asked readers if they had a preference among three rather different Arch photos I shot recently. Only S.C. from Amsterdam, an architect, replied, expressing a preference for Miesian simplicity.

Actually, I'm holding that one for a bit. Today's image has some urban rhythm and derelict property. The vacant square block is where most of the old Busch Stadium sat. The new one is just off camera to the right. When the team came begging for public money to help build the new venue, they promised to develop a wonderful complex on the site of the old stadium called Ballpark Village. It was to have shops, restaurants, apartments, a hotel and office space. The new stadium opened in 2006. Not long afterward the economy tanked, the real estate market retired to its sick bed and the developers left us with this vacant lot. Well, now part of it is a parking lot. It has a rather crude, seldom used baseball field (it's not very flat) and this little swamp you see in the foreground.

And thus the taxpayers' money. It does make some cool, symmetric reflections, though.

More Of The Same, But Different

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Another night shot in Citydarden. Color works better in this one. In the foreground is the park's most visited work, Igor Mitoraj's Eros Bendato (Eros Bound). It's been on this blog a few times before. It is a hard work to interpret. In this dark shot, it makes me think of a decapitated head lying on the ground - those dead empty eyes. Just four blocks away in the Old Post Office Plaza is Mitoraj's Icarus, a work just as mysterious. It's up to the viewer.

Tomorrow is Thursday and I actually have a few new Arch pictures. Would you like simple and elegant, rhythmic and symmetrical in a urban setting, or lurid color?

Sorry that yesterday was a no comments day. I spent the evening assembling frame kits for my stuff that was accepted in Seen 2011, STL's big year end photo competition and show. They took five images (this, this, this, this and this). Of course, judges being what they are (each of us is the only perfect judge), they didn't take my best couple of images of the year. More about that, maybe, on the January 1 theme day.

Night In The City

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Citygarden at night. The darkness is broken, though, by selective lighting on the sculpture, some of the foliage and the nearby buildings. The wacky architecture of the Civil Courts Building is on the left. The top glows yellow and red these day. The lights on the side of the building after hours are always in that sort of double-L pattern. It's all a bit unsettling.

When I wrote the title for this post I had an immediate association with a song I liked a lot from 1967. Geez, that was the year I graduated from high school. It's a near-miracle that I can remember it.

In C

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If you have looked at my Blogger profile you may have noticed that one of my interests is "music that most people I know think is weird." We had a big, wonderful serving of it downtown last night in the Old Post Office Plaza..

Terry Riley's In C is the seminal work of minimalism. According to the program notes:

What makes In C especially unique is that the entire score features just one scale - C major - broken out into 53 separate musical sections of varying patterns, with no set duration, and can be played for any number of musicians on any given instrumentation. Individual performers are given loose guidelines on moving from section to section, but much is left to their "in the moment" interpretation, making each performance wholly unique.

You can hear some of the original recording here.

Last night's performance was by the HEARding Cats Collective, led by Richard O'Donnell, the retired principal percussionist of the St. Louis Symphony. There were not only musicians but also interpretive dancers, professional and spontaneous.

More of this on Friday after I edit some video. The Thursday Arch Series returns tomorrow.