I Can't Explain It

An odd contraption in the people's Joy Parade. It's hard to say what it represents but the middle picture looks like a dead bug lying on its back. The appendages have, um, creative tips.

The west is safe. Cross the Mississippi, friend, and you're on your own.        

And The Band Played On

Lots of entertainment up and down Cherokee Street after the parade, all part of the Cinco de Mayo festival. I'm told this is a relatively minor event in Mexico, particularly compared to Independence Day in September. We were in Mexico City once years ago on Independence Day and that, ladies and gentlemen, was a good show. Saturday in South St. Louis wasn't bad, though.       

More Street Portraits, Joyful Or Not

Characters. Character. Everyone at the People's Joy Parade struts and frets their hour upon the stage. I think the top pic is one of the best street portraits I've ever made. Your results may vary.       

People's Joy Parade

Saturday brought us the annual People's Joy Parade, which segues into the Cinco de Mayo festival on funky Cherokee Street on the South Side. Its purpose is just because, why not, hey kids let's put on a show! There is a Mexican element - the neighborhood is the center of our small Hispanic community - but the marchers just do any wacky thing that comes to mind.

The bottom photo features Sarah Patterson, a local artist who founded the event. The sign on the truck to the right says "Mermaids By The Mississippi." Okay, then.

More of this for days.         

One Of Those Dive Bars

I mentioned the American concept of dive bars in yesterday's post. Well, here's one. Last weekend in Chicago, son Andy, in all pictures, and his fiancee Claire, second and fourth pics, took me to meet a bunch of their friends at Danny's Tavern in Bucktown. It's dark, a bit run down, and serves extraordinary small-production American liquors. Andy is sipping some upscale rye whiskey. He got me started on it soon thereafter. They even got the old man into one of the photos.

Hope to start a new series tomorrow about one of our best annual photo-ops, the People's Joy Parade and Cinco de Mayo festival, if it doesn't get rained out. It felt like near summer when I got home from Chicago Wednesday but since then it's been cold and wet, wet, wet. There was snow in much of the Midwest yesterday.         

PBR

We need a little more filler before the next series starts on Sunday so a bit more from Chicago. Pabst Blue Ribbon, often called just PBR, used to be a very popular beer in this country. Sales plummeted by 90% in the 80s and 90s. They revived when the brand became popular with urban hipsters. These days it's always cheap and consumed straight from the can, drunk with a who cares attitude.

The scene here is a north side dive bar.        

To And Around Wrigley

A few more pix from Chicago. St. Louis has one of its big annual photo-ops this Saturday but I'll have to scrape along until then.

Going to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field is a deep experience for a baseball fan. Above, our group gets ready to board a Red Line CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) train at Chicago Avenue, near our hotel. We took it to Addison Avenue, right next to the stadium. 

Of course, it's squeezed into a neighborhood, known as Wrigleyville. The stadium is so small that people have built grandstands on top of the small apartment buildings across the street (now mostly converted to bars).

Below, the back of the lower deck of seats late in the game, with a very old-fashioned scoreboard. Cubs win! Cubs win!

I mentioned that the the Cubs have not won the championship in over a century. Our St. Louis Cardinals have done so eleven times.