Politicians

                            
You will never find a politician without something to say. These are some of the dignitaries from the Missouri side of the river who attended the bridge opening and, of course, had a few comments.

Above, happy-go-lucky Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, wearing his Cardinals hat and a scarf to match. Next, Senator Claire McCaskill, much admired in the Crowe household.

Beneath the senator are a current and past member of the House of Representatives, Lacey Clay and Russ Carnahan. The latter was my congressman until last year. As American readers know, the 435 members of of our House of Representatives are re-apportioned among the states after each decennial census. Missouri's percentage of the national population went down a bit and, as a consequence, we lost one seat in the House. The Republican dominated state legislature re-drew the boundaries in such a way as to eliminate Carnahan's district, and thus a Democratic seat in the House. No idea what he's doing now. He looks a bit ghostly in the crowd beside the stage.                               

Send In The Clown

It happens a lot around St. Louis. Fredbird, the baseball Cardinals' irrepressible, relentlessly idiotic mascot, was in attendance at the bridge opening. Fredbird. Red bird. Cardinals. Get it? Har har.

Fredbird is famous for clamping his (its?) beak down on people's heads. All in good fun. In the second photo, he seems to be about to try it on some politicians. From left to right: Sen. Claire McCaskill (yay), Rep. Lacey Clay (yay) and, most immediately, Rep. Ann Wagner (not yay). Might it do some good?

Tomorrow: you can see the Arch from the bridge. Mostly.                      

Special Effects

A couple more shots of the S.M.V.M. Bridge. I'm trying to learn Lightroom in the hope it might make my workflow faster than with Photoshop, which I've used for years. These images were made with a couple of whiz-bang Lightroom presets.                            

Everybody Who's Anybody

All the swells showed up for the new bridge opening. Well, at least of the political class. Lots of ordinary people came, too, like the chap in the second picture. And me, too, more or less ordinary except for the bag and two cameras hanging off me, one of which had a telephoto lens as big as Crocodile Dundee's knife.

It took a long time for the official opening ceremonies to get going. Only a fraction of the dignitaries who were present made it onto the small stage. In the third picture, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon braved the cold with a woman I cannot identify. The governor's actual first name is Jeremiah but that's too many syllables for a modern American politician. There was another governor, Pat (instead of Patrick); U.S. Senators who go by Claire, her actual name, and Dick (instead of Richard); and U.S. Representatives who introduce themselves as Bill (instead of William, but that's okay because he's an old friend of mine), Lacey (two syllables, his middle name, to distinguish himself from his father who previously held the seat, both of them William) and Ann, whose district I live in but who emphatically does not represent me.

I almost hit the Governor of Illinois in the head with said large telephoto lens in the crowd afterward but fortunately (for me, mostly) no harm done.

Lots more to come. BTW there is all sorts of interesting stuff about about the design and construction of the bridge here.                  

New Bridge On The Mississippi

For a several decades, STL has had one main bridge that carried the Interstate highways (55, 64 and 70) across the Mississippi. It's choked with traffic at rush hour and always seems to be under repair. A couple of other old bridges were essentially extensions of the city streets. It was time for more capacity.

Thus, the brand-new Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge, just for I 70 and another means of access to downtown. It's a wonder the thing got built. Illinois wanted a toll bridge with many more lanes. Missouri, a low-tax, low-service state, insisted it be free and who cares if it's wide enough. Since the men and women of the armed services are held in high esteem these days (it wasn't always so - think Vietnam), Illinois wanted to call it the Veterans Memorial Bridge. Cardinal-worshiping Missouri wanted to name it the Stan Musial Bridge, after the greatest god in the team pantheon, who died last year. Hence, the compromise, with a name that falls liltingly off the tongue and probably has too few lanes (just two in each direction).

The public was invited to wander around on it yesterday afternoon. Many big-shot politicians showed up, including some I actually like. Cars may travel on it today. It is handsome. I hear the night lighting is fabulous. Much of it is visible from my office window so we'll get that later.

So, we will have several days of architecture, crowds, politicos, signage and barge traffic on the ice-filled Mississippi.                         

Ars Nova

The much-anticipated new east wing of the St. Louis Art Museum opened yesterday. Too much of the collection was in storage. The new wing is devoted to modern and contemporary art, giving the glorious original 1904 building by Cass Gilbert room to breathe.

I gather some architecture critics have already panned it as rather plain. One, quoted in the newspaper, declared that "it fails to dream." The architect, Sir David Chipperfield, maintains that the building was designed for the art and its enjoyment, not for its own sake. I think that both opinions are true. From the outside, the building is an undistinguished box, right angles in shades of gray. The interior holds no surprises, just rectangular spaces. However, there is an ingenious combination of natural and artificial light, all a bit soft, with simple white walls and spacious views. When moving from room to room, the building disappears and the visitor's entire attention goes to the art itself. The new wing is self-effacing, only concerned with its contents, and shows it off superbly.

So much to shoot in coming days. There are more pictures of the museum. The Pridefest parade is today, one of my favorite annual photo-ops. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday bring parades,carnivals, air shows, music and fireworks for our Independence Day celebrations. It's only ten days until we touch down in Calgary. Overwhelming.