At the Festival of Nations

.
Seen at our Festival of Nations in Tower Grove Park this weekend, as a group of Indian dancers prepared to take the stage. The lovely performers appear to include a young Lakshmi, goddess of beauty and grace, and a beatific bodhisattva, as near to enlightenment as one can get is St. Louis, Missouri. But how did Molly McGuire, there in the background, find her way into this troupe?

Electronics and jet planes have created a world unknowable to our ancestors. Here I am on Monday morning, in my office, looking out the window at the Arch. By Friday I'll be in India, if only for one night. Most of us now realize that there are no fairies and that Harry Potter is just an entertaining fiction, but this planet has become more magical that we could have ever imagined.

TOMORROW: CDP monthly theme day, BIG.

Mitrata Nepal Foundation

.

You may have noticed the last thing on my left sidebar, promoting the Mitrata Nepal Foundation (click it!). Well, these women run the U.S. side of the operation here in St. Louis. Mitrata has a children's home and school in Kathmandu. It provides care and education to orphans and kids whose families have no means to support them in one of the world's poorest - and most beautiful and sweetest - countries. They had a table at out annual Festival of Nations this weekend, which celebrates all of the lands and cultures that contribute to our region. We will be visiting Mitrata soon.

Nepal is the only country on earth that has the creativity to break out of the rectangular flag habit. That's it in the center of the table. Mrs. C and I will arrive in Kathmandu on Saturday. She knows a little Nepalese. I can barely manage "namaste" but I can hardly wait.

Open Freeman

.
Read this anyway you like. Maybe it's what psychologists call a projective test.

Actually, it's a port cover on the huge Mississippi River towboat I featured a couple of weeks ago.

La Riviere

.
One of the best things about our new Citygarden is that when I'm out of new pix to post I can always go there and get something interesting. It's a block and a half from my office. Aristide Maillol's La Riviere is one of the works in the garden I keep coming back to. Click the link to listen to the audio clips about the works and sculptors recently added to Citygarden's web site.

A very nice invitation came my way yesterday. A few of you know that I have rheumatoid arthritis that affects my hands. The Milliken Hand Institute at Washington University School of Medicine does ingenious work keeping my fingers straight. I was over there yesterday getting my brace adjusted. They have recently painted the suite and have lots of blank wall space. The staff knows about my photography addiction and invited me to shoot a series of hand pictures to decorate the place. This could be a lot of fun.

And another 15 minutes of fame: the web site for Fodor's Travel Guides had a photo contest this summer for pix of Argentina. You could upload up to five. There were a lot of entries. I got an email yesterday that they gave two of mine honorable mention. Not in the top three places, but getting two selected was nice. I get four Fodor's travel books as a prize. The winners will be on their web site about September 15 but you can see mine now here and here.

Thursday Arch Series

.

Half steel, half sky. The bright curved streak on the north leg of the Arch is the reflection of the south leg on a sunny summer day.


There is a new Arch photo
today on GATEWAY.

Don't think there will be an Arch picture next Thursday. The day is the start of a great adventure.

Last Stop

.
St. Louis Union Station is now a luxury hotel, a group of restaurants and a failing tourist mall. In its day it was one of the great railroad junctions of North America. As such, it had to have a place for travelers to stay. Here's the former entrance to the Terminal Hotel. Sure, railroad stations and airports have terminals but this sounds so much like terminal disease or "terminate with extreme prejudice" (remember that phrase in Apocalypse Now?). The Terminal Hotel sounds like the roach motel - you check in but you don't check out. It's the end of the line.

TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series and a new Arch photo on GATEWAY.

Geppetto's Hammer, Again

.

I hope it doesn't seem like I'm just recycling material but the more I look at it the more fascinated I become with Kindly Geppetto in Citygarden. It's made to look like the simplest toy or cartoon but there is something terribly malevolent about it. The wood carver is actually about to whack the hell out of his creation. Pinocchio aspired to become a real boy. He ain't gonna make it in this version of the tale.