Gas Tank of the Damned

This is the gas tank of a customized Harley Davidson I saw at the Collinsville World's Largest Catsup Bottle Festival. I'd like to know something about the designer and the owner of the bike who commissioned the work. It starts with a sort of Beauty and the Beast motif and then gets way darker. How would you interpret it?

I spent much of Saturday and Sunday wandering around the St. Louis artists' studios open house weekend. It's great fun to look at all the different creations. All of the artists are happy to talk about their stuff. And then, guess what? I ask if I can take their picture. It will take me a while to sort and edit it but I got such good stuff I'm thinking about an all-portraits week on STL CDPB. Would that interest anyone?

WHAT I'M LISTENING TO: the St. Louis Cardinals game on the radio, driving from studio to studio. Aaron Miles hits a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth and the Cardinals defeat the San Diego Padres 9 - 5. What kind of name for a professional sports team is Padres, anyway? (Who's your daddy?)

TOMORROW: a strong hand and intense heat.

American Gothic

American Gothic by Grant Wood is an iconic painting that hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago. It portrays a man and woman on an Iowa farm around 1930. If you are not familiar with the image, please click the first link. Gordon Parks, one of my favorite photographers, used the same title in 1942 for his famous image of a black cleaning woman in a Washington office building, dignified and worn. The people in the two pictures are very different. The common thread is the seriousness of everyday American working men and women. This is my small contribution to the genre. (Background music for the topic here.)

While I was eating my horrible carnival lunch at the World's Largest Catsup Bottle Festival, I saw this man at the cash box of a beer vending truck nearby. Given my habits, I asked him if I could take his picture. He grunted assent but I couldn't get a flicker of expression. Maybe that was for the best.

WHO I'M HANGING OUT WITH TODAY: ShadowyOne, heir-apparent to the St. Louis Daily Photo fortune

TOMORROW: Gas tank of the damned

Hot Rod Lincoln

Actually, I have no idea what kind of car this started out as. It qualifies as a hot rod and I just love the song Hot Rod Lincoln by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, America's finest rockabilly band:

When I went to the Collinsville World's Largest Catsup Bottle Festival I was talking about yesterday, I found there was a big classic and custom car show spread out on the grounds of the American Legion hall. Lots of cool wheels and interesting people. This photo above is a detail of the right front fender and chrome bullet headlight of something-or-other.

WHAT I'M LISTENING TO: Why, Hot Rod Lincoln, of course. Oh, also the Commander's other classic, Lost In the Ozone Again.
TOMORROW: American Gothic

The World's Largest Collection of The World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things

Issam and Gigi were not the only interesting new friends I made last weekend. On Sunday, I drove out to the Illinois suburbs to shoot the Collinsville World's Largest Catsup Bottle Festival. (Check the link. This is too bizarre to explain briefly.) Collinsville claims to have the world's largest catsup (not ketchup) bottle, but actually it's a big fake, a model, over the Brooks Catsup plant. I plan to have it in a post in the next few days. Turns out there was also a great classic car and custom hot rod show, more about which tomorrow.

It was there I met Erika Nelson, a self-styled "outsider artist" who runs The World's Largest Collection of The World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things, a stationary/mobile museum in/from Lucas, Kansas. Lucas is WAY out there on the remote prarie. I mean, my wife's family is from way (no caps) out on the prarie in north-central Kansas but Lucas is three hours further drive. She travels the country in her way-out mini pickup named Scout, attending odd arts events, for example, those involving giant catsup bottles. I'll try to have more pix of Scout on my Flickr site by the end of the weekend.

And if you're ever in the neighborhood of Lucas, Kansas, do drop by!

Scout's Left Rear Quarter Panel

WEEKEND PLANS: Wandering around the city-wide St. Louis artists studio open house and asking artists if I can take their portraits.

TOMORROW: Hot Rod Lincoln

Thursday Arch Series

Some photographers avoid lens flare at all costs. I like it, if it doesn't get in the way. It makes me think of energy shot down from the heavens, like an evanescent version of the monolith in 2001. Here, the Arch is the antenna.

WHAT I"M WEARING: My Monty Python "I'm Not Dead Yet" tee shirt
TOMORROW: Art Car

Gigi and Issam

I was driving to my office last weekend, turning off the boulevard in front of the Arch, when I saw a man crossing the street with a cat on his shoulders. Skrreeeecchh, over to the curb and who cares if it's a no parking zone, it's Saturday and I can't pass this up. Out of the car, introduce myself, hi, I'm not professional, don't sell pictures, I have this blog about St. Louis, etc., etc., and would it be okay if I took a picture of you and your cat? (I will never stop thanking the superb Bobbi Lane for teaching me how to approach people like this.)

The man told me that his name is Issam Haidar but he is sometimes called Osam. He is Iraqi and fled Saddam Hussein's regime years ago, ending up in Lebanon. He spent years there, living in refugee camps and eventually in a cave outside of Beirut. He has many criticisms of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, from which he got the name of his web site, www.unhcr.info. Read his story in his own words there. He refers to himself as Osam Altaee on the site. I didn't get to talk to him long enough to learn about the different names or, particularly, what brought him to St. Louis. I've emailed him offering to send him his picture and asking if I can meet him again.

Gigi is the cat he adopted in a refugee camp in Lebanon. When I got out my camera bag I asked Issam if the flash would bother her. He said, "No, she is blind." Then I noticed her face. I'm puzzled about how Gigi got into the United States with Issam - that's one of the things I'd like to talk to him about.

After our brief conversation I welcomed Issam and Gigi to our community. If I hear back from Issam there may be more in this blog.

STL DAILY PHOTO BLOG IN THE NEWS: the St. Louis Post-Dispatch interviewed me about my views on Anheuser-Busch's sale to InBev. We are losing the corporate headquarters of our iconic beer, Budweiser. The reporter found my February 1 theme post, "When People Think of St. Louis, They Think of...", featuring an icy can of Bud under the Arch. The article appears in today's newspaper. Scroll down to the end. And by the way, there's a good article in today"s New York Times about the sale and the City of St. Louis' regeneration

WHAT I'M READING: Carpe Diem: Put a Little Latin In Your Life by Harry Mount
TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series (and actually on Thursday this time)

Scenes From an Execution

Royalty and mob mix on the street in St. Louis' Soulard neighborhood in a playful re-enactment on the beheadings of King Louis and Queen Marie Antoinette. Think about that sentence for a moment.

SEEN ON THE STREET IN ST. LOUIS: A bumper sticker reading I MISS PLUTO.
TOMORROW: A blind cat named Gigi and her companion, Issam