BIG BOY

So here's the reason for the expedition. Back in the 1940s the Union Pacific Railroad built 25 gigantic locomotives called Big Boys. There are now several in museums and this one, Number 4014, in working order that occasionally go out on tour. It passed through St. Louis Sunday and Monday.

The thing is simply gigantic, too big to get all of it in this picture.  132 feet / 40 meters long and 1.2 million pounds / 544,310 kilograms! See https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/4014/. It spent Sunday parked on a major railway passage on the edge of downtown, inside a fenced enclosure. I would have had to wait an hour or more in heat and brilliant sun to get in, which is beyond me these days. I took this by reaching to the top of a high chain link fence, propping my camera on top, pointing it in the general direction and hoping for the best.

Big Boy made a brief stop in the suburbs yesterday on its way west and I got some better shots.               

RAILROADS

Moving on. I'm not particularly a railroad aficionado, other than having commuted to high school on the New York subway. I've loved trips on the TGV in France and the Shinkansen in Japan but the U.S. has nothing that compares. Of course, before the day of ubiquitous air travel it's how we got around. St. Louis' Union Station was one of the great junctions of the nation.

I went out yesterday trying to shoot a railroad event worth seeing but had limited success due to crowds and the heat. I'm going to make another attempt this morning and hope to have something to show tomorrow. This old passenger car parked behind Union Station will do for today.            

THE FRINGE CONTINUES - SKY

A couple of things to say up front. First: I simply don't understand dance. I am physically graceless. I have no athletic ability and have iffy balance. Second: no matter how many Fringe performances I photograph, I will never, ever again see something like this.

The young woman who goes by Sky is independent and trying to make her way in the world personally and artistically. We know one another from a couple of past Fringe festivals. She loves to dance and creates her own esthetic, using music, a bit of fabric and her own inner flow. 

Her performance at this year's festival had something different. She called it I'd Rather You See My Soul Than My Body. Toward the end, she spread a tarp on the floor. She took a big jar of creamy peanut butter, spread it out with a spoon, and - what's the right word? - undulated, writhed, coiled and uncoiled across it. The aroma of peanuts quickly spread throughout the tent. The bottom picture is one of the less provocative I took. I have no means to interpret it.               

THE FRINGE CONTINUES - DEENIE GETS SYNCHRONIZED

You may be wondering about the full title of the show, Get Wet With Deenie Nast. During the performance, Deenie talked about her mastery of synchronized swimming. There was a video illustrating the point, which unfortunately is not on Youtube. Deenie pointed out that this can get complicated with other bodies flailing about.. Her solution was to do it by herself and add digital effects. I wish I had a shot showing that part but this will do for now.                            

THE FRINGE CONTINUES - DEENIE'S GOLD LAMÉ SHORTS

At one point during Deenie Nast's show at the Fringe, she reminisced about a pair of gold lamé shorts she had worn in a starring role in the James Bond film Right Between The Eyes. She still had them and, by God, she could still get into them! Well, it turned out to be a bit of work requiring the assistance of the whole team of male nurses. It may have been exhausting but it was successful in the end.                  

THE FRINGE CONTINUES - GET WET WITH DEENIE NAST!

I usually have a favorite show at the Fringe and this year it was no contest. My friend Audrey Crabtree, a gifted comic actress, has developed a character, Deenie Nast. Deenie is a former great star of Hollywood and the New York stage (possibly over the last century) who still loves her public and won't let go of her fans or her fondness for booze and pills. Check this video for the backstory: https://youtu.be/pbRn_6EXaXI

In Saturday's late night show, far past my usual bedtime, she staggered out of a wardrobe trunk and regaled the audience with stories and musical numbers. She's getting on in years, of course, and has a coterie of male nurses she recruited on Tinder to keep her propped up and supplied. The set has as many dangling pill bottles as corks on the brim of an Australian bushman's hat. This was fall out of your seat funny and we will see more of it, including the wet part..          

THE FRINGE CONTINUES - WHITE RABBIT/RED RABBIT

I'm skipping ahead to a show I really liked, White Rabbit/Red Rabbit. Perhaps you have seen it it. It was written ten years ago by the Iranian Playwright Nassim Soleimanpour and has been produced all around the world. https://www.nassimsoleimanpour.com/whiterabbitredrabbit  

But you probably haven't seen it and I won't be a spoiler. I'll just say that a script is handed in an envelope to an actor or actress who has never seen it. No rehearsals. The Fringe did it three times last weekend, each with a different performer, in this instance with the stunningly talented Jacquelyn Thompson. It involves life and death questions, audience participation, political freedoms and the reasons for writing. Might come back to this.