Commercial District

One of the discouraging things about professional sports (worldwide, I assume) is the intense commercialization. Fans cannot escape marketing at every turn. It is annoying, distracting from the game. Some is just a logo, some is simply absurd. It's hard to see with low contrast, but the middle of the Coca Cola ad has the slogan "taste the feeling." Are they slipping LSD into the beverage?

        

Freezer Ball

The family went to the Cardinals game today, the second home game of the new season. It was bloody cold, 37 F / 2 or 3 C. An announcement on the scoreboard said that it was the lowest temperature at the start of a day game here in 39 years. Cardinals first baseman Jose Martinez played with a balaclava, something I've never seen before.

Strange People

One  of the things I like about Artica people is that they are unafraid to be different. They don't do it to shock, just to be expressive. And a nicer bunch of people you will never meet.

Totems On The Go

The dictionary built into my computer defines totem as a natural object or animal that is believed by a particular society to have spiritual significance and that is adopted by it as an emblem. My friends from Artica seem to apply the definition loosely. I like the concept, though. The little devices and the parade shake up the people who see them.                

Tiny Totem Parade To The Tick Tock Tavern

It's that time of year again when our friends at Artica start to gear up for the season. They generally pick a dank, cold Saturday on the cusp of winter and spring, assembling in the southeast corner of Tower Grove Park. They dress in whatever appeals to them from mild to wild and march down Grand Boulevard with these, well, tiny totems, some of which can be seen here. (More to come.)

The route proceeds down Grand past restaurants and shops. The marchers engage the patrons and any passer-by, creating some pretty strong boggle. It is a busy street and I wonder if the sight of the parade is a hazard to traffic. The route eventually winds around to a locally famous bar. We'll see more of the festivities over the next couple of days.  

April Is The Cruelest Month

So said St. Louis native T. S. Elliott in the opening line of his monumental poem, The Waste Land. This city hasn't seen snow on Easter since 1940. It was in the forecast yesterday but what we got was ice, rice grain-sized particles covering everything. This is the scene just outside of chez Crowe late yesterday afternoon. The daffodils have been defeated, while my daughter's and wife's cars became encased.          

Easter In STL (Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow)

Plastic eggs all over Citygarden for the children. The weather was gorgeous late Friday afternoon. Saturday was gray and drizzly, but there was a fun event we'll see soon. The weather shamans are predicting an inch of snow for late this afternoon and evening. We don't have snow on Christmas very often. I've never seen it on Easter.