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As I mentioned yesterday, I don't have any new material so it's time to go dumpster diving. There are some good things down there that didn't catch my eye the first time around. Here's an example taken about a year ago. Fun with Photoshop. 
There is a new Arch post today on Gateway.
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A final photo from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. No hint as to what those exhibitions may be. All will be explained around the corner. This is an example of the haunting beauty of the Bloch Wing's architecture. Note that this is a color image and has not been desaturated.There may be an Arch photograph tomorrow if I can find a suitable one in the archives. No new material. Too many things competing for my attention.
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For all my fellow addicts, from the new Bloch Wing of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. See, I can make pictures that aren't all full of stuff like yesterday's.
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So said the song from the old Broadway musical Oklahoma! so forgive me while I post a couple more KC pix, pending some new local material. The city has a a very good gallery, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. A new section, the Bloch Wing, opened three years ago and I got to see it for the first time Saturday. The architecture is brilliant, a series of glowing boxes dropping down the hillside perpendicular to the old museum building. The museum is known for its set of four badminton shuttlecocks by Claes Oldenburg on the lawns. This one's space is undergoing some repairs, which makes it all the more bizarre.
TOMORROW: photography gallery.
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So here's the reason we're in Kansas City.In 1984 and 1985, I was in a small law firm. It had five principals (I was the most junior) and a miserable, underpaid utility associate. My social security disability practice had become too big for me alone and I was starting to give my overflow to the others. I had also signed a contract to start a business for mediation of civil litigation cases (which has done pretty well). A couple of the other lawyers thought that I had outgrown our facilities and I should split off.I'd never been completely on my own in law practice. Panic! I had too much of a caseload for me alone and I was about to start a new business. What am I gonna do? I went out running in a cold rain in March 1985, trying to clear my head. By chance, the miserable associate drove by, saw me and pulled up to the curb."Hey, idiot" she called out the window. "What are you doing out here getting soaked?""I just left the firm, Julie," I gasped. Her eyes went wide with surprise. And then, without any conscious thought, I said "and I'd like you to come with me."She told me to go home, dry off and call her. Six weeks later, on May 1, 1985, our little firm opened its doors. I was 35. Julie Shanahan was 27. I wanted people to respect her so it was Crowe & Shanahan from day one.Twenty five years later there are four lawyers, about 18 support staff and an outstanding reputation in our specialty. Julie and I are like brother and sister. Several of the staff have been with us twenty years or more. We're a family.Julie had the idea to do something for all of them in the form of a road trip and dinner. They voted for Kansas City and we had a terrific party last night. Some of the guests below are Stessie Bill, our law clerk, Cindy Derse, who has been my paralegal for twenty seven years, and paralegal Kaari Smith. What a great bunch of people. Here's to many more years. 
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We're in Kansas City for a special event tonight. If the photography gods smile (meaning someone else has to take some of the key shots 'cause I'll be in them, and no one but me at the event knows squat about photography) there will be pix tomorrow.KC is about four hours drive west of St. Louis. It is a smaller metro area than out town but it ha a lot going for it. The locals say that Kansas City has more fountains than Rome. Based on personal observation, I'd say it's true. What you see above is a detail from the J. C. Nichols Memorial Fountain at the edge of KC's famous Country Club Plaza, the first shopping center in the US and still very upscale.We hit bands of heavy thunderstorms on the drive across Missouri yesterday, illustrated below. When it let up, we could enjoy our states's bucolic countryside, as in the last picture. By the way, CDL stands for commercial driver's license, i.e., truck drivers get special discounts.
This is from the part of the Mississippi floodwall where graffiti is permitted. The eyeball is the signature of local artist Peat Wollaeger, seen here at last year's Cinco de Mayo festival in the wacky People's Joy Parade. Peat and his crew create wild, out-sized lucha libre masks for the event. I'm the semi-official volunteer photographer for this year's parade so lots of pix from Sunday forward.
This is from the part of the Mississippi floodwall where graffiti is permitted. The eyeball is the signature of local artist Peat Wollaeger, seen here at last year's Cinco de Mayo festival in the wacky People's Joy Parade. Peat and his crew create wild, out-sized lucha libre masks for the event. I'm the semi-official volunteer photographer for this year's parade so lots of pix from Sunday forward.
