I went back to the Japanese Festival at the botanical garden yesterday. The weather was better but it was impossibly crowded; I lasted two hours before I had enough. At one point I sat on a bench, picked up the camera with the telephoto and tried to take sniper shots. This one worked. Is her costume based on an anime character? That's beyond my experience even though I've been to Japan a few times and have plans to return.
There is a big Japanese festival at our big botanical garden over Labor Day weekend. It rained until mid-afternoon, when I went over for a while. A lot of the activities were canceled due to the weather or soggy grounds. The ever-popular sumo demonstration was in an amphitheater with a covered stage. Got some pretty good shots.
Sunday's forecast is good. I plan to go back to the garden in the morning and then return to Paint Louis in the afternoon.
Paint Louis, which takes place here over Labor Day weekend, is a big international gathering of graffiti artists, taggers, DJs and hip-hoppers. It's arguably the largest single graffiti event in the world, covering a 2 mile / 3.2 km stretch of the Mississippi River floodwall south of the Arch, all sanctioned by the city. The result is considered the longest mural in existence by the Guinness Book of World Records. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint_Louis
I went for a look late yesterday afternoon and things were just getting started. It's supposed to rain most of today and I don't know how it will affect the schedule. https://www.facebook.com/PaintLouis/ I'll be back when the weather permits.
Part of the mechanism that moves the wheels on the Big Boy locomotive. I have no idea how it actually works. There is a big water tank and boiler, formerly powered by coal and now by diesel fuel. That creates steam which makes something or other turn, which in turn is connected to a series of levers and wheels. That's as far as I go with the concept.
I confess that I didn't work very hard on this theme so I dipped into some old archives. The common meaning of this phrase refers to something that is obvious but unnoticed but I took it literally. I wonder if the horse thinks she smells good,
The Big Boy locomotive didn't travel alone. Several other cars trailed behind, including a modern engine for some extra push. The companion cars didn't seem to have a purpose other than to show off the primary colors of the Union Pacific railroad. Why or how would you experience the UP? Private rail companies don't carry passengers in this country.
As the massive Big Boy locomotive left St. Louis it made a stop Monday morning in the suburb of Kirkwood, a town big enough to have an Amtrak station. There was quite a crowd but I squeezed my way to the front, looking for a clear shot. The backlighting was terrible but this will do.
As the train pulled to a stop right in front of me it let go a mighty blast of its whistle. Ow! The sound meter on my phone said it was 113 db but I bet the reading would have been higher if the phone hadn't been tucked into a holster. Half a minute of that can cause ear damage according to some web page I found (so it must be true). I haven't experienced the like since maybe the last Led Zeppelin concert I attended.
