O SOLO MIO

 

Seen along the public radio station's downtown photo walk. A young man sits alone on a tree stump by the reflecting pool (and yes, it has algae), playing his guitar and singing. Sadly, he was out of earshot. Our group left him to his reverie.

SHE’S LIKE A RAINBOW

 

Another loose association in an old brain: https://youtu.be/6c1BThu95d8?si=BryfJhcCdCxRjs96 . The lyrics are light weight but the official 1967 video is top-of-the line psychedelic pop. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. Looks like the tradition carries forward.                        

MORE BEAUTIFUL MUSIC

 

Thanks to my alert City Daily Photo colleague in Strasbourg, France, https://strasbourgdailyphoto.blogspot.com/, for identifying the local ska punk band, The HotRails, who performed something involving pitch and rhythm at Artica on Saturday. Their fans spread far and wide, if not down my street. 

Artica always has a beat up piano for public use. Name that tune.                   

MUSIC, SWEET MUSIC

Where do these people spend their weekdays? There were indications that the band calls itself The Hot Rails, but I couldn’t find anything about them online  (assistance welcome). The singer (or screamer) mumbled something about the style being ska-punk, but what would I know. Could the drummer interest you in some investments?               

BAND OF GUNNERS

 

Gunners? I think that's how the name of the band, Banda Artillerros, translates into English (corrections invited) but it was more like heavy artillery. This was just a small part of the Mexican orchestra playing in the plaza at the Hispanic Festival. There were these three trumpets, the tuba behind them (with a microphone taped in the bell), two trombones, two clarinets, accordion, drum kit, congas and two singers. My sound app said it reached 110 db in front of the stage, enough to start causing some serious damage. The musicians were not wearing ear plugs. The crowd loved it.            

FINAL NOTES

 

A last image of the members of Moon Valley who performed at the opening of 3rd Space. The TinType app makes for interesting images. New York tomorrow.                                

ARTICA - THE ENTERTAINER

There were two performance stages at Artica, far enough apart that both could be going at once. This person performs as El Draco, in one of the few poses where he was still enough for me to get a clean shot. OMG was he full of energy. Pretty good singer, too.            

SELF EXPRESSION

One of the first acts Saturday on the Artica main stage. I think he calls himself Eldraco but that part of the program was a little confusing. He was a terrific showman (love the coat but I wish more were visible) and had a powerful voice. Something that was odd, though, not seen here, is that there were three female backup singers in a line at the rear of the small stage, just dancing in place and adding musical punctuation. That may have been common in the 60s but I found it disconcerting in today's entertainment world.              

A MANDOLIN, MAYBE?

This is the musician who was playing the pipes in yesterday's post, now seen under his left elbow. I'm puzzled about the instrument he is playing here, with ten strings and a tiny body. A mandolin usually has eight strings and a somewhat bigger body. A ukulele has a small guitar-shaped body and four strings. So what's this? The performer got some power with it along with his voice. I'd be happy to update this if any astute reader can fill us in.             

NAME THAT INSTRUMENT

It wasn't too hard to find on the Web. The instrument is called a ruan, characterized by four strings and big tuning pegs with a circular body. They come in different sizes ranging from soprano to bass. I guess you would call this one a tenor.               

EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK

My friends Lohr Barkley and Carrie Goodson are the propelling force behind Artica. For the last several months they have hosted a creatives pot luck dinner on the last Thursday of the month at the old brick building they are renovating into their home. It was very pleasant last night, not so common at this time of year. Several people brought musical instruments. Celebrate summer. That can of PBR didn't hurt.

I have more good images if I can find time to edit them. I am shooting the Grand Center Theater Crawl tonight and tomorrow. Sunday is the Pride Parade, the don't miss photo op of the year. Then we get into the Fourth of July stuff, with the enormous Fair St. Louis downtown and a more manageable festival in Webster Groves, the suburb where we live. Sometimes I complain about lack of material. Soon I'll have enough to blow out my hard drive.

City Daily Photo Theme Day - Music

Had to do a bit of dumpster diving to find something for this theme day. This is my ticket stub from The Beatles second concert at the old Shea Stadium in New York, August 23, 1966. My sister and I went. The stadium was just a few stops down the Number 7 train line in Queens, where we lived. It would have been just before the start of my senior year of high school.

I remember some things about it. Mary Beth and I arrived early. The stands were already full of mostly 12 and 13 year old girls, screaming non-stop at the top of their lungs. Nothing was happening yet. And then there were the Beatles themselves on a stage behind second base. Couldn't see them very well but I remember the singing: yeah, yeah, yeah.    

The Blues

No, nothing to do with the hockey team, which has been quite successful in the first round of the playoffs.

There was a blues band playing in the new extension of the Arch grounds. This man was easily the most visually interesting. He is playing a harmonica, a blues harp in musical terms. The sounds he could make were quite amazing.         

Diva

Across the room from yesterday's pictures this mezzo was letting it fly. She was what some opera reviewers call a force of nature. (You get the point.) I'm sorry that I didn't get her name.

It doesn't come naturally for Westerners to sing over didgeridoo improvisations. The two artists mostly went their own ways but it somehow worked together.

The Band

The entertainment after the Marysville High reunion was the Blue River Ramblers, named for the stream that runs by the town. Not a thing about them online so my guess is that they are just a pick-up group. There seemed to be chronic technical problems and Elvira needed to go home so we didn't get to hear them play.

They were diverse by Kansas standards. The guitar player had a face like the proverbial five miles of bad road and eyes that hadn't smiled in years. The singer-keyboard player looked and sounded like George Beverly Shea, Billy Graham's gospel music singer. The drummer was doing the Duck Dynasty look. Wish we could have stayed to hear their style.             

Look At Me

No pictures of Denver yet. From what I've seen so far, downtown is bigger and more modern than The Lou and full of really boring architecture.

So I dug this up from an event at Union Station a few weeks ago. The entertainers are on something of a bridge at the far end of the old train hall, looking down at the audience. The singer really wanted to attract attention and he succeeded.

The guitar player's hat say BRONX on the front. He don't know from The Bronx, as we used to say. I went to high school in The Bronx. I could tell him something.                

Some Concert Pix

I don't know of anyone on CDP who does concert photography as well as my friend Olivier in Evry, France. (An example here.) I don't get to many performances where you can take pictures (the St. Louis Symphony, where we usually hang out, doesn't permit it). But Grovefest had a stage at one end of Manchester Avenue, happily facing southwest, where I stopped at the end of the afternoon. I don't remember the name of the group but they were terrific.

And hey, this week is the Gateway Arch's 50th anniversary! There's a party today in Kiener Plaza. Mrs. C, Emily, Madeleine and I will be attending.                      

A Last Visit With The Music Students

Some final shots of the music students. The first one got the most views of the set on Flickr (where there are several more - link in the right sidebar). We needed to have an ensemble shot, too.

The school is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Youth.  If you read some Spanish (you can machine translate, of course) and care to look, there is information about Costa Rica's national music education program here. Pretty cool.

While I was shooting, one of the young violinists started playing the Ode to Joy. I began to sing along in the original German: Freude, schöner Götterfunken . . .  She gave me the most puzzled look and then, as I persisted in my low-quality baritone, the biggest smile. That's why I love to travel.      

Music Students 2

A commenter yesterday mentioned that the students looked so serious. Well, not completely. Besides, it is not possible tor a trombone to be serious, ever.

I think Blogger must be messing with its photo algorithm again. All my blog pictures are linked to originals on Flickr, where the color looks a lot better. You can click any of these photos to go to the Flickr version if you care to.

Really sorry I haven't made any comments while we've been away. We get up a little late, diddle through breakfast, go do something, come back to the condo, I edit pictures and edit pictures and edit pictures. We go out to dinner and come home full and sleepy. Cold St. Louis should get me going again.

Music Students In Liberia

Liberia is the provincial capital of Guanacaste, Costa Rica. The international airport is there. The center of town has an old fort that is currently being used a a music school for the equivalent of junior high and high school students.

I asked our guide if the students would let me take some pictures. All of them were delighted to get in front of the lens. Some lovely candid portraits were the result. 

There are many more to edit. I have some kind of Tico tummy bug and spent most of yesterday in bed, now sleeping, now editing. Hope to get more done on the plane today.