What We Lost

These are old pictures of what used to be the west half of Kiener Plaza. There was an amphitheater surrounded by a collonade. The stage, below street level, was was in the middle of a wide brick floor that could contain, for example, the Kansas University band and cheerleaders. (Some phase of the college basketball playoffs was in town.) In back, there was an irregular waterfall flowing down concrete steps, a treat for local families during our hot summers.

It was a delight, and well used. I shot political demonstrations there, music performances and civic events. Apparently, the amphitheater did not fit the very flat plans of the new architects (see yesterday's lead picture). Losing it is the worst thing about the new Kiener Plaza.

Unoccupied

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The police kicked the Occupy St. Louis protesters out of Kiener Plaza Friday night. There was plenty of warning and no violence. About 25 people who passively refused to move were arrested.

I stopped by yesterday afternoon to see what was left. The walkways and amphitheater that had been full of colorful tumult were empty but for a few earnest souls who could not tear themselves away. A couple of puzzling signs were still around and the east side of 7th Street looked like a small home eviction had occurred.

The movement could have meant so much more. My point of view is expressed in a Doonesbury comic strip from a couple of days ago.

International Style

Looking up and northeast from Kiener Plaza: 200 North Broadway, 100 North Broadway and the Kiener Plaza East Garage. Pretty good light. International Style buildings usually avoid strong color but this photo doesn't do justice to how red the building on the left is. The facade is brick, a common building material around here, and I think the tone has been enhanced. The windows look black from the outside. 

We have PrideFest here this weekend with the big parade on Sunday. It is a candy store for photographers. Should see some results by Sunday.        

Beat The Heat

Holy bleepers, it got hot around here. One of the nice things about downtown is that the city lets anybody splash around in the fountains and pools of Kiener Plaza and Citygarden. Can you imagine that in the fountains of Trafalgar Square of the Trevi in Rome?               

Hot Foot

Well, not exactly. A meeting place in downtown STL is the statue The Runner in Kiener Plaza. People often dump colors in the fountain around it. It's common to have red for the Cardinals baseball team or the namesake shade of the St. Louis Blues hockey franchise. I have no idea what this orange is about and it's been there nearly a month, which means that someone is refreshing the dye. The runner's right foot looks like it is pushing through a wall of fire but the lower picture shows that theory is all wet.

Aerial photo of picture location in Kiener Plaza, downtown STL

TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series

Baseball Opening Day

THE RALLY

THE GAME

Yesterday was a gorgeous day in St. Louis, bright sun and 75 F. (24 C.). The Cardinals held an opening day rally in Kiener Plaza in the city center. Nobody knows who Kiener was and I can't even find it on Google. Three friends were enjoying the sunshine and beverages produced by the local mega-brewer. They met some nice young ladies who were promoting the fine restaurant mentioned in yesterday's post, which has just opened a new outlet on the plaza. The irony is that they did not appear to consume many 2/3-Lb. Double Bacon Cheese Thickburgers, despite their enthusiasm for their employer. The ladies' shirts bore various slogans, one of which was "Hunger Patrol." Really? Hungry for what?

The baseball game opened with great ceremony, featuring members of past Cardinals championship teams. Poor old Stan Musial, so honored that his statue towers outside the stadium, came onto the field in a golf cart but was not well enough to walk over to the other veterans. The home team then took a 6-1 drubbing by the Mets. Late in the game, some fans still tried to work up a bit of enthusiasm.

Note the tee shirt of the man at the left of the first picture (click the picture to enlarge it). A small, publicity hungry publisher issues an annual ranking of America's safest and most dangerous cities. This year St. Louis topped their bad list. The lists are completely bogus, of course, for statistical and demographic reasons too lengthy to mention here. Maybe the owners should satisfy their needs with the Hunger Patrol instead of picking on us.

TOMORROW'S POST: Bad News

Kiener Reopened

STL's main downtown square, Kiener Plaza, has been closed for a year for renovation. It was completely redesigned and opened again this weekend.

There are pluses and minuses. A lot of it looks quite barren to me. The new landscaping, where it exists, is better. (It couldn't have been much worse in the old one.) There is more seating and a cute, if somewhat cramped, children's play area. It will look better when the trees fill in.

I'm going to cover this for a few days with some comparison shots to the old plaza.           

RED MEANS GO

Kiener Plaza is named after Harry Kiener, a St. Louisan who was a U.S. track star at the 1904 Olympics. (Which was held here. We used to be somebody.) Most people don't know that the model was a rabbinical student who was an acquaintance of the Lithuanian-Jewish sculptor. The plaza was completely redone four or five years ago, this statue being the only carry-over. The lights are now LEDs that change colors for occasions like a Cardinals game.               

March Madness

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The quarterfinals of the U.S. men's college basketball tournament is in town this weekend. The whole process is usually referred to as March Madness, and it really is. People get silly-stupid about 20 year olds shooting baskets for far-away schools. I, of course, have no interest in it (well, at least since St. Louis University got knocked out in the second round).

I was out at lunchtime with my camera yesterday, hoping the fresh spring foliage would provide some new material. The sound of brass bands was wafting out of Kiener Plaza so I walked over for a look. Turned out that the team bands and cheerleaders of each of the schools was performing. North Carolina State University was going off and Kansas University coming on. My wife's family is from Kansas (she even has a sister named Dorothy who still lives in Kansas, but who sadly does not have a dog names Toto). This became a mandatory stop 'n' shoot.

NC State's teams are known as the Wolfpack, which is kind of gruesome. The avatar on hand yesterday was a slender lady in a 50's-looking skirt and a really ugly head. No shortage of irony. No one around in a Kansas Jayhawk suit but the band was pretty good.

GOOD NEWS: a commenter from Indianapolis yesterday said that she had e-mailed Eric Tenin about the portal and He replied. The portal was hacked. Tenin said they hope to have it back up this weekend.

Thursday Arch Series' Bad Nutrition Test Kitchen

The horror...the horror...

I have a trembling fascination with Ronald McDonald as a symbol of corporate evil and greed that also happens to be cute and appealing to children. McDonald's sponsored a small blues festival in Kiener Plaza downtown after the parade and baseball game last Saturday. Even cowgirls get the blues, but I don't believe that Ronald gets the blues. I don't think he even gets the point.

That evening, my wife and I went to a performance of the national touring company of The Second City, Chicago's renowned improv comedy troupe. In one of the bits, a male member of the cast came out on stage with a guitar. He started to sing a sort of folk rock song with a bitter tone. It was about how he started out on a road trip with a new girlfriend. He eventually got hungry and proposed a stop at McDonald's. The girlfriend strongly objected, going on about how she would never put that high fat, high calorie, high sodium garbage in her mouth. The young man dug in his heels, ending every verse with the refrain, F*** Y**, it's delicious! (Us ROTFL.) You pays your money and you takes your choice. But Ronald, please stay out of my nice little downtown plaza.

OH, AND BY THE WAY, happy birthday to Chicago's U "R" Us, daily photo blogger and scion of the Tastes family, who's off for a really big party in New York City (my home town) tonight! He can make it there, so he can make it anywhere.

TOMORROW: Oh, what the hell, another street portrait.

Occupy Somwehere Else

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Since they were chased away by the police, the Occupy St. Louis folks come around Kiener Plaza once in a while but not much. The local natural gas utility's offices are in my building and there was a kerfuffle last Saturday when the management thought that Occupy was going to put on a big demonstration at the door. A memo went out to the tenants late Friday that the building would be on lock-down (what a word!) the following day. The morning shift guard said they were expected any time (of course I go to work on Saturday and of course they let me in). The second shift guard said a cop told him the mob would arrive early evening. Nobody showed up.

Maybe the Occupy forces were not informed. My theory is that it was a prank - someone called the gas company or police and left an anonymous bogus tip. The Occupiers have left a couple of mementos in the Plaza but no one knows what comes next.

Star of Wonder, Star of Light

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The official municipal Christmas tree in Kiener Plaza (with a bit of pixel modification). The star and moon may be leading us somewhere. Unfortunately, Bethlehem does not lie in that direction. East. St. Louis does, though.The Son of God was not born in East St. Louis but Miles Davis was.

Correction: I just remembered that Davis was actually born in Alton, Illinois, a bit up river. However, his family moved to East St. Louis when he was 1 so I'm going to leave the story alone. I like it better that way.

Jueves Serie del Arco

Just east of the Hispanic Festival in Kiener Plaza lies a circular pool, fountain and the statue known locally as the nearly naked guy running through the water, or possibly just The Runner.  The Old Courthouse and our friend Archie are in the background. I decided it was time to shoot them upside down.

The second pic is just the crowd surrounding the festival stage, in front of STL's iconic view.        

ENDLESS RACE

The statue known as The Runner in Kiener Plaza. He's been in the same race for many decades and never reaches the finish line. It has an interesting history. Harry Kiener was on the U. S. track team in the 1904 Olympics, held in St. Louis. The sculptor, William Zorach, was a Jewish Lithuanian immigrant. The model for The Runner statue was Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein. He posed as the lithe young runner when he was a 22-year-old rabbinical student.

Christmas

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The Crowe family wishes a peaceful and joyous Christmas season to our friends around the world. I am writing this on Christmas Eve in the living room of a prosperous home, MacBooks scattered in every direction, a pile of brightly wrapped boxes under the piano. (No Christmas tree for years. There is a poinsettia on the piano. Good enough for us.) Fabulous dinner, wacky conversation, good company.

It's likely that those of you reading this have similar comforts. It is all too easy in our moment of warm pleasure to forget those who who do not share what we have. There are so many, invisible from our pleasant homes. The photo is the Salvation Army Tree of Lights in Kiener Plaza. It's about fundraising, of course, and the organization tries hard to manipulate your emotions, but the money goes to important social services (which, heaven knows, the government has largely abandoned in this country). Still, stop and consider. What has each of us done for those in want in this time of celebration? What will we do once the holiday is past?

I Wish It Were So SImple

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I'm writing this late Friday night in a suburb of Chicago. Long drive from STL, bad construction and traffic delays, and now I'm just tired. So, a few more scenes from the Occupy St. Louis encampment in Kiener Plaza. The viewer may draw his or her own conclusions.

Free day in Chicago today. Besides the usual museums, I may go find where the Occupiers hang out in this city. I hear it's by the Board of Trade, the country's major commodities exchange.

But most important of all, the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies 1 - 0 to clinch the first round of the baseball playoffs. Philadelphia had the best record of all during the regular season. The Cards now advance to the National League Championship Series against Milwaukee. Happy happy joy joy.

Have A Seat

Found in Kiener Plaza on a recent evening. It looked like an event was being set up. If someone set out a sign that this was an exhibit on loan from the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum, lots of people would believe it.      

Madeleine Monday

As mentioned, we took the tyke to the seasonal skating rink in Kiener Plaza on Saturday. There was one under the Arch last year that had a synthetic surface - don't know if this was the same. Ellie didn't care.

I don't know if she will have the chance to really learn to skate. Her mother could do it years ago but seems to have lost the touch. Neither Mrs. C or I can't do it at all. So Ellie still uses the double-blade shoes and started off with this sled thing. She ditched the sled after a while and just hung on the rail. She claimed later that she was zooming around. We did not disillusion her.           

Order 190

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To go where? I found this lying in the dirt and dead leaves of Kiener Plaza. There are several restaurants across the street, including a local Italian eatery, a T.G.I. Friday's, a Hardee's (home of the Cardiac Combo) and (the horror!) a Hooter's (whose motto is, or used to be, "delightfully tacky." Really. Except only the second word is true). Maybe this is a subtle form of street art, suggesting we grow our own food.

Madeleine Monday

Haven't had the moppet on since we were in Michigan almost two months ago to see the other family division.  As mentioned, we took her downtown Saturday for a run through the splash fountains. This is in the recently rebuilt Kiener Plaza (I give it a C- but that's for another post). The jets go off in patterns that fascinate her. If she puts her foot over one can she suppress it? The playground wasn't too bad, either.

Later in the day she wanted to watch the several videos of her I have on my phone. I was editing pictures and she was slouched next to me on the broad arm of an easy chair.. After some time, I looked over and asked her, "Who's your favorite person?" She thought for just a moment, pointed to her chest and said "myself." No self-esteem problems here.