Flattery Will Get You Everywhere

Once again, my thanks to Karine in Buenos Aires for posting some of my work. Click here. BsAs (that's how they abbreviate it) is one of the most delightful cities on earth, IMHO.

Earth Day, Part 3

This is the last day of our review of Earth Day festivities in St. Louis. If you had an out-there life style, you were certainly welcome.

No idea what's with the roller derby girl. Maybe she was a member of the local St. Louis Arch Rivals Roller Girls Club. (Get it? Get it? Arch Rivals? Nyuk nyuk nyuk.) The guy in the blue satin Chinese suit was in yesterday's post. I took a look around the web to see if he was a master with a local group. What I discovered is that the St. Louis Tai Chi Ch'uan Association has become a division of Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks.

The woman at the lower left was selling locally made products for children. You can't see it in this picture but the tag on her right shoulder says Kangaroo Kids. Looks like good stuff if you're in the market. It's the thing she's carrying that I can't get past, that alien baby doll. Looks like the plastic-domed infants of another star system have become sponsored by Sally Struthers. Not a clue about the man on the lower right. He could be Second Amendment rights advocate, a far-out Libertarian or an anarchist. Someone in the tent was wearing a Dennis Kucinich for President tee shirt, if that helps any.


TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series

Earth Day, Part 2

Okay, this may be cheating. It's technically against the rules that Eric or somebody wrote and we were all told when we signed up (whether we read them or not) - one picture a day of one city. Not everyone adheres strictly to this. Olivier posts multiple pictures all the time and gets away with it, but then he is such a good photographer, why not? These contradictions must have something to do with being French and their famous powers of logic.

It was fun for all at the St. Louis Earth Day festival. You could get up close and personal with a bald eagle. I haven't been this close to one since the last time I watched the Colbert Report with my glasses off. You could take a - what is it? - tai chi or falun gong lesson even if you're a hopeless honkey in a baseball hat. (That's what I was on Sunday, although it's not me in the picture. I would never wear white sneakers.) Actually, when I saw these guys, I thought the festival had hired the Village People to perform. Or, you could sign up for Reverend Tiki's Garden of Paradise Internet Church. Damn, I wish I'd stopped and talked to them. They are so exclusive I can't find them anywhere on the Web.

TOMORROW: What did you like best at the Earth Day Festival? Paranoid political action, brown-skinned toy alien babies, martial arts or roller derby?

Mother Says To Eat Your Vegetables

Earth Day festivities at Forest Park in St. Louis: every wholesome supporter of recycling, homeopathy, healing herbs, composting, whirled peas - and more! - was there. Every friend of Al Gore and enemy of nutcase Senator James Inhofe was out in the sunshine.

For out international visitors, the words on the tee shirt are a play on one of America's most famous advertising campaigns of recent years, "Got Milk?", sponsored by our dairy industry. For a more dispassionate description, click here. Somebody does do "Got Carrots?", but, bizarrely, it has to do with training horses.

Apologies to anyone who came here looking for the "Safety Clown Says..." picture mentioned in the teaser I had up most of the day with Sunday's post. This one was too good to pass up. Safety Clown should be here in a few days. In the meantime, Safety Clown says remember, kids, don't talk to strangers with big red noses offering treats.

TOMORROW: If The Earth Is Your Mother, Who's Your Daddy?

MORE URGENT NEWS

The Porteños have done it again. Click here.

White Photographers Can't Jump

The city has a 3-on-3 street basketball tournament in April. It is held on Market Street, the main downtown east-west thoroughfare. The do this on purpose to make it more difficult for compulsive people like me to get to their offices on Saturday. These guys were showing off their dunks between games.

When I walk around at events like this with my big camera, people usually me if I'm from the newspaper. You try to explain to a stranger in 30 seconds or less what a city daily photo blog is.

TOMORROW'S POST: The Earth Is Rich In Carotene

Dale Chihuly in the Missouri Botannical Garden

For several months, the spectacular Missouri Botanical Garden had installations of Dale Chihuly's glass sculpture all over the place. It was a delight. These glass bonbons floated in a reflecting pool up to the Climatron, a geodesic dome enclosing a rain forest. It was designed following the principles of R. Buckminster Fuller, the visionary designer and architect. The sculptures in the reflecting pool are by the Swedish artist, Carl Millies.

TOMORROW'S POST: White Photographers Can't Jump