APPRENTICE PUPPETEER

There was a fundraiser last weekend for Artica, one of my favorite arts organizations. They are weird, sincere and charming. I have been dubbed the visual documentarian. That seems to mean they like my pictures and that I actually show up.

The event was from 4 PM to midnight. I could only stay until 5:20 because of another obligation. Still, I got some of the 5 o'clock puppet show. I can't remember the puppeteer's name - Articans, please help me! - who put on the performance with the help of his son. Which has the bigger role?  

There is a big rally at mid-day today for our St. Louis Blues. Hope to go shoot some of it.          

LET'S GO BLUES

I'm not a big fan of hockey but I'm aware of it. When I was young I used to go to occasional New York Rangers games. Right now, though, STL is gripped by hockey fever. Our team, the St. Louis Blues (good name, and the Blue Note is one of the best logos in sports) has made it to the championship finals for the first time in 49 years. The team had the worst record in the league on January 3, and now look. The town has gone absolutely nuts

Our opponent is the fearsome Boston Bruins. Some sports writer described the match-up as Cinderella against Godzilla. Boston won the first game but the score is tied in the second as I write this. Unless the Bruins sweep the series with four straight wins, I will be in Boston on the day of the fifth game, June 6. If I weal the appropriate hat, would the locals beat up an old guy with a cane?      

THEY DON'T LOOK THAT BAD

A bit more of the black Masons. There seem to be a number of different lodges and I've seen these men on their antique fire truck before. I guess the slogan is an affectation. They look like they wouldn't hurt a fly.              

BACK TO WORK

We just finished the three day Memorial Day weekend in the US. Many of us are having trouble getting getting back into the swing of work, perhaps including this man in the Annie Malone parade. It is already summertime hot here. There have been days of record-setting temperatures across much of the Southeast and severe tornadoes have been dancing around the Midwest, skipping us - so far.

Out family heads to New England in a week, where we expect things will be different. Could be downright chilly in the evening when we reach Down East Maine.             

SOMEONE'S IDEA OF FUN

More from the KDHX street party. Multi-purpose headgear. Sacred rock music for the middle aged. And, at the end, old Billikens never die. We just lose our dignity.

Billikens?            

KDHX FANS

KDHX is a local "alternative" radio station. Lots of music, leaning toward folk, international, Latin and world, singer-songwriters and news about the local arts scene. It's not entirely justified, but it has a reputation of appealing to aging hippies.

They had a street festival in front of the station's building. Bands, food trucks, exhibits promoting social and environmental and social causes. I came there from the Annie Malone parade and my back didn't let me stay long. Still, there was good people watching.            

BABE?

I got you - babe? Covered? In the palm of my hand? American lawyers have to market themselves. My tiny boutique firm works on it, or else. So does Attorney White, but he doesn't guarantee what you will get.

This was one of the groups in the Annie Malone parade. By the way, no arm wrestling with the guy on the right.        

HAIL

One of my favorite parts of the Annis Malone parade is the black Masons. The organization was founded in 1784 as a reaction to racism. Whatever you think of Masonry, the members in this parade are impeccably tailored and exude dignity.

Of course, Masonry in its current American form is full of Arab-ish mumbo-jumbo and gives its officials wild names. The sign on the car (a Cadillac) in the third picture hints at this. Missouri, in general, has moderate rainfall but some people of a, um, progressive bent might agree with the metaphor, except for some parts of St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia.   

THURSDAY ARCH SERIES

Taken a couple of weeks ago from the overlook in East St. Louis when the river was at its highest. The water went down some but we have had severe thunderstorms for a few days. The river level is going up again. Areas that have levees are doing okay. Those that don't are inundated, catching all the water pushed away by the levees.            

YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU

Very late post today. Once again, a day when more people wanted a piece of me than there is me to go around. Plus my back is some worse. Pain management specialist next month. 

Some day I'm going to read up on the psychology and sociology of parades. We sure have a lot of them around here. One of my favorites is the Annie Malone parade. The foundation she started in 1888 provides wonderful services for children and families in our African-American community. 

The parade celebrates their mission and work. It's always colorful and, like most of our parades, has its share of ironies. The top picture shows a big pickup promoting what we call a title loan company. If you have a title to a car - the legal ownership document - without debt on it, you can hand it over for a cash advance, repayable at horrifying interest rates. If you don't make the payments, they get your car. Controversial, to say the least. In the second picture, a woman hanging out the window of a Cadillac limousine publicizing a mortuary.

Draw your own conclusions.

            

GO FLY A KITE

Found in Malcolm Martin Memorial Park in East St. Louis, Illinois. It is directly across from the Arch and contains a wonderful overlook across the Mississippi. There is also the Gateway Geyser, an enormous water jet whose spray, wind permitting, rises as high as the Arch itself. 

Most of the area is open green space. The Authorities don't want anyone snooping on the park or the nearby grain elevator, casino or railroad tracks. (Note the camera on the symbol of the drone.) Presumably a gentle kite is okay.            

MADELEINE MONDAY

They didn't do this when I was a child, or when my own children were this age. However, in the twenty-first century, kindergarten graduation is a big deal. Ellie was bursting with pride. I has been interesting to see how much her mind expanded this year. For most of her life, we read her stories at bedtime. Since a couple of months ago, she reads them to us.

Excellent phone cam shot by daughter Emily.             

A POLITE CITY

St. Louis has good manners, or some people want you to think so. I doubt that we are better or worse than other cities. Except maybe Japanese cities. The people there are amazingly polite.

The billboard on eastbound I 44 gets everyone's attention. There are a couple of others. One of them, also yellow on black, says "I 'Heart' STL".  The third, white on red, simply says "LOVE."  They were quite a mystery until it was revealed that the billboard company itself did it just as a pleasant gesture. Sure beats "this space available."

Not far away sits the Courtesy Diner. Imagine going in for coffee and a piece of pie, have the server bow, gesture toward a convenient seat and ask how s/he may serve you. No, I don't think so either.

      

I SEE BEER

A change of scene to the big art fair at Laumeier Sculpture Park. Tony Tasset's Eye must be looking for something other than the beer truck. I'd take a left.          

GOOD ADVICE, MOSTLY

A concrete barrier in front of a closed flood gate along the Mississippi. Be patient for what? The water going down? The river is doing that but it will take some time for it to recede below the street behind this gate.

This is generally a good idea but there are times when patience is a bad choice. Say you were being chased by a wild animal or your chemotherapy isn't getting scheduled.             

WANT A LOOK?

It piques your curiosity. Are you a bit envious that there might be something really great in there that you don't have? The fact that you (or most of us) wouldn't stop a stranger walking through a crowded street festival and ask for a glance makes it all the more enticing. The contents are unknowable and we are missing out. 

Once again, seen on Cherokee Street.     

PERSPIRE

A young man at the Cinco de Mayo festival. He has a serious expression and a perplexing tee shirt. Sure, people get hot playing most sports (maybe not ski jumping) but what's the point of proclaiming it? Maybe it's just sporty.   

Tee shirts can be confusing. Once in Japan I saw someone in a shirt with the text "we slay all suckers who perpetrate and lay down law from state to state." At first I thought it was hostile gibberish. A commenter later told me it was a line from Run DMC.     

THE GAMBLER

What do you think the chances are he is playing video poker on his phone? Or that he has a fashion consultant?

Seen on Cherokee Street.             

NO ES NECESARIO HABLAR ESPAÑOL

Lots of pictures of the parade left but I decided to look down the street for something different. Cinco de Mayo is a minor observance in Mexico (http://bit.ly/2pTyRkQ). Here it is an excuse to consume large amounts of Corona beer and Jose Quervo tequila. As I have noted, St. Louis loves an opportunity to drink in public and this is a big one.

So the party spilled down Cherokee Street all afternoon and evening. Have a burrito with your booze. You could roughly translate chapparito as shorty, perhaps a reference to the owner.    

WHEELS

Fun to watch, hard for me to do. The last time I rode a bicycle I needed a cortisone shot in my knee. I've been on the back of a motorcycle a couple of times but never driven one. If I tried, I would never do it wearing a fake rabbit head.

The group in the third picture is a club that participates in parades around town. They call themselves the Banana Bike Brigade. Oh, and that's a lollypop stick, not a cigarette, in the mouth of the rider in the last picture.