Thursday Arch Series

Taken on the same day as last week's Arch photo, and with the same technique. It's so pretty it looks fake, the kind of dressed-up picture you might see on a web site for a resort or a new housing development.

I've been pretty bad about visiting my friends' blogs this week. I've been working stupid hours. Hasn't been much time between coming home, having dinner and falling asleep. This will get better, I hope.        

A Tribe, But Of What?

North of the Arch and the Laclede's Landing entertainment district is a derelict industrial area. Not like Detroit, but thank heaven for small favors. One of them is a long, narrow building that looks like it contained an assembly line, the structure in the center of this Google Earth link. 

The place is covered with graffiti, inside and out, but when I drove by the other day I saw something new. It's hard to tell unless you can zoom in on the high res version but this group of - something - is all female. They are wearing briefs and shoulder sashes. None of them have hair. A few are missing a body part here and there, probably because the figures were put in the wall in sections, maybe of paper. It's enigmatic.         

It Gets Dark Early These Days

4:30 in the afternoon at a railroad crossing in suburban Webster Groves, where I live. The sun in mid-November goes down well before I leave the office, making me feel like I've worked an even longer day.         

Why Not An All-Madeleine Monday?

Carolyn's brother Mel and his wife Pat passed through town yesterday on their way home to Kansas. (We'll be there for Thanksgiving.) They had to stop by Emily and Brian's house to see Madeleine. These pix were taken with an 85 mm prime lens with just window light, which turned out to be a bit cool. So I tried my first black and white images of my granddaughter.

The top one is definitely the winner, with Mel's huge, weathered farmer's hand next to her tiny, soft one. I think the fourth one shows a lot of personality, though - you're trying to sell me what?            

Winner

Not a clue what this means. Maybe it's a projective psychological test. Found on the flood wall along the Mississippi.         

Thwack Pinocchio

Low on material so I took my camera out at lunchtime yesterday. I walked through Citygarden to one many of our many food trucks, wandering through the sculptures on the way back. All of them have appeared here before. This one is Tom Otterness' Kindly Geppetto, showing the creation, or maybe the destruction, of Pinocchio. Who knows.           

An Urban Ruin

The remains of the Fourth Baptist Church in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood. The historic building was gutted by fire five years ago. You can read the sad story here. 

You can't see it in this picture but there are a few words stenciled across the boarded-up main entrance. They read, "the lord is my shepherd ."