Arcs In Arch City

Just a quickie as I pack for my weekend trip. I was playing with the fisheye lens last weekend, something I don't often do. Once again, this is in Citygarden, featuring Bernar Venet's 2 Arcs X 4, 230.5 Degree Arc X 5. The mathematical-esthetic concept is more than I can grasp but I like the way the lens makes the downtown buildings bend with the sculpture. And you can see just a bit of a certain monument on the right.

Two hearings this morning and then straight to the airport. Details to follow.

 

White Palace

A diner towards the edge of downtown in late afternoon sun. Someone goes to the trouble to keep the paint fresh and the facade very clean. 

There is an unusual back story to this eatery. If interested, you can read about it in this old post.

May have trouble getting posts up for a bit. Tomorrow is a travel day and it's a sentimental journey, as you will see.               

Superheros Stalk St. Louis

There was one of those comic book/superhero/sci-fi conventions downtown over the weekend. They are for-profit enterprises and take place all over the country, or at least anywhere there is enough population to buy sufficient tickets.

There was someone wearing a Star Trek uniform shirt at the Blues Museum opening. As I walked back to my office afterward I found this group on Washington Avenue. Wish I had more time to hang out around the convention center. There was probably a lot of this on the street. Sadly, though, duty called.

In general, I do not recommend crossing Washington Avenue, a busy street, with your face in a smart phone.         

The Entertainment

The museum opened with a performance of the marching band from suburban Normandy High School. Inside, there was a place to pose before a photo of a blues-jazz band from 1920.  Sharp-looking young men.

That's about all I have of this event.  Muddy Waters provides the summary.         

 

St. Louis Blues

It's been years in the making. The National Blues Museum opened in downtown STL yesterday and it was worth the wait. It is a block and a half from my office so your faithful photoblogger showed up. The place is just spectacular.

The museum takes you on a walk through the history and styles of the blues, from the call-and-response field hollers of slave laborers on Southern plantations, across the south and up the riverways to Memphis, St. Louis and Chicago, to both coasts and around the world. There are exhibits about how it blended with country and western music and then, in the hands of our own Chuck Berry, created rock and roll. (Did you know that rock and roll was hatched in St. Louis? Chuck Berry is a native and life-long resident.) All the major musicians are featured as the exhibits take us to the present. Remember that the Rolling Stones were originally just an electric blues band. The corridors end at a room covering the active blues scene around our city.

A few more pictures to come - it was awfully crowded. If you find yourself in this part of the world you owe it to yourself to visit.

 

Macropalooza

When I was shooting at the orchid show I used only my 100 mm f2.8 macro lens, sometimes with an extension tube added on. The idea was to get deep inside the blossoms. This is some of what I saw.                   

CDP Monthly Theme Day: The Beauty of Simplicity

From the orchid show at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Lots more where this came from. To see all City Daily Photo members' simple images click here.

And I thought there would be some April fools.