Everybody Who's Anybody

All the swells showed up for the new bridge opening. Well, at least of the political class. Lots of ordinary people came, too, like the chap in the second picture. And me, too, more or less ordinary except for the bag and two cameras hanging off me, one of which had a telephoto lens as big as Crocodile Dundee's knife.

It took a long time for the official opening ceremonies to get going. Only a fraction of the dignitaries who were present made it onto the small stage. In the third picture, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon braved the cold with a woman I cannot identify. The governor's actual first name is Jeremiah but that's too many syllables for a modern American politician. There was another governor, Pat (instead of Patrick); U.S. Senators who go by Claire, her actual name, and Dick (instead of Richard); and U.S. Representatives who introduce themselves as Bill (instead of William, but that's okay because he's an old friend of mine), Lacey (two syllables, his middle name, to distinguish himself from his father who previously held the seat, both of them William) and Ann, whose district I live in but who emphatically does not represent me.

I almost hit the Governor of Illinois in the head with said large telephoto lens in the crowd afterward but fortunately (for me, mostly) no harm done.

Lots more to come. BTW there is all sorts of interesting stuff about about the design and construction of the bridge here.                  

New Bridge On The Mississippi

For a several decades, STL has had one main bridge that carried the Interstate highways (55, 64 and 70) across the Mississippi. It's choked with traffic at rush hour and always seems to be under repair. A couple of other old bridges were essentially extensions of the city streets. It was time for more capacity.

Thus, the brand-new Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge, just for I 70 and another means of access to downtown. It's a wonder the thing got built. Illinois wanted a toll bridge with many more lanes. Missouri, a low-tax, low-service state, insisted it be free and who cares if it's wide enough. Since the men and women of the armed services are held in high esteem these days (it wasn't always so - think Vietnam), Illinois wanted to call it the Veterans Memorial Bridge. Cardinal-worshiping Missouri wanted to name it the Stan Musial Bridge, after the greatest god in the team pantheon, who died last year. Hence, the compromise, with a name that falls liltingly off the tongue and probably has too few lanes (just two in each direction).

The public was invited to wander around on it yesterday afternoon. Many big-shot politicians showed up, including some I actually like. Cars may travel on it today. It is handsome. I hear the night lighting is fabulous. Much of it is visible from my office window so we'll get that later.

So, we will have several days of architecture, crowds, politicos, signage and barge traffic on the ice-filled Mississippi.                         

The Lonliness Of The Rail Yard

Okay, it's completely corny and it's the wrong state but what I can't get out of my head as I write this post is the old Waylon Jennings song:

Between Hank Williams' pain songs and
Newberry's train songs and Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain
Out in Luckenbach, Texas ain't nobody feelin' no pain
 

I haven't heard a train song in a long time. Train pictures, though, are always at hand. The graffiti-permitted floodwall faces the yard in the first two pictures.  The ironwork in the bottom shot forms part of the base of a railroad-only bridge that crosses the Mississippi closer to the Arch.The monument is in the background somewhere but you can't see it in the mist.

Something different to shoot today: a brand new bridge across the big river. It's open to pedestrians today and cars tomorrow. Pix on Sunday morning.               

I Got Nothing So Why Not Post...

At least it's enthusiastic.

So short on time...                   

Yuck

The view from my front porch yesterday morning. Mrs. C's little Prius could get buried. I know, I know, Birdman and other northern friends, it's not much by your standards but it's a big pain in the booty by ours. And bitter cold again last night.

Still, going through this in pleasant Webster Groves is better than living under the I 55 viaduct near downtown. Which some people do.

Happy Birthday, Bill

Oops, forgot about this, leading to a rare second post in a day.

Today is the one hundredth birthday of one of St. Louis' most famous and infamous sons, William S. Burroughs. His writing has the power to shock even today and most of his life was wild, to put it mildly.  My pupils must have dilated hugely when I read The Western Lands and Cities of the Red Night.

He spent his last 13 years in Lawrence, Kansas, not far from Kansas City and home of the University of Kansas, but asked to be buried in the family plot here. They had money - his grandfather invented the adding machine. Now he rests in beautiful Bellefontaine Cemetery, the location marked by only a small stone.

Burroughs often wrote with ripping, outrageous humor. Here's an example with him reading the notorious Dr. Benway bit  from Naked Lunch (see also here). I like the photo that goes with this on YouTube, showing Frank Zappa standing by the writer, smiling with obvious admiration. WARNING - this recording is not for  minors, the easily offended  or people who are certain they know what good literature is.                            

Red Baron

It's snowing again. We're tired of it. Sure, people from Maine and Minnesota will think we're weenies but this has been the worst winter we've had in a long time. Same for most of the eastern two-thirds of the country.

So, to pass the time, some architecture shots. These large, old homes are on Lafayette Square, an historic district near the city center. Many of the beautifully restored homes are French in design, as discussed in the link. These however, are in what's called German Baronial style. Germany was the most important source of immigrants here in the 19th Century. Some of them hit it big (think Adolphus Busch). They built homes designed to impress, usually of red brick, based on patterns familiar to them. Sort an equivalent of today's McMansions way out in nether Chesterfield.