CITY DAILY PHOTO APRIL THEME - STRIPES

 

In Tower Grove Park, my favorite in St. Louis. It is laid out like an old-fashioned English walking park. There are many old, fancy pavilions available to rent. This one, called the Turkish Pavilion, is the largest.                 

STL DPB IN COSTA RICA - SHIPWRECK

 

Tamarindo beach, where the day trip boats anchor. Dinghies shuttle the passengers to and from the beach. This one has seen better days. No way to tell whether it broke up here or out at sea and then washed in. It’s a bit of an exaggeration to call it a shipwreck but it still looks a bit scary.

Home yesterday. I’ll stick with these for a bit until I find some local stuff.                        

STL DPB IN COSTA RICA - CHILL OUT

 

Seen on the lawn of our condo development between the pool and the beach. As Mrs. C and I get older we wonder what there is to do here if our granddaughter isn’t with us. We don’t sit on the beach. I’m as pale as they come and I’ve already had melanoma once. The pool is okay (Ellie loves it) but it doesn’t do much for us. People used to bring books and read on the lawn. Now they have tablets. Will there be a next time?                 

STL DPB IN COSTA RICA - RATE OF EXCHANGE

 

Somehow I think this supposed to be a joke. Seen at a little taco restaurant in Tamarindo which is, in fact, cash only. By the way, the ahi tuna tacos were smashing.                    

STL DPB IN COSTA RICA - BLACKHAWK

 

Another must-do when we come here is a boat ride on the Tamarindo Estuary, a body of salty to brackish water separating the town from sweeping and little-developed Playa Grande. Thar be crocodiles. The guides are sharp-eyed and experienced, picking out wildlife in the surrounding mangroves that I would never see. We were told this is a blackhawk. I’ll take the guides word.                

STL DPB IN COSTA RICA - FIRE DANCERS

 

It’s on the to-do list for every trip to Tamarindo. After dark, groups of dancers who play with fire go from one beachfront restaurant to another, performing to pounding music. The shows are spectacular. They do it for tips, and we tip generously.                                 

STL DPB IN COSTA RICA - THE OBLIGATORY SHOT

 

Have to do this one every time we come here. Taken from poolside at the condo development, Playa Langosta, near Tamarindo.                          

STL DPB IN COSTA RICA - PLAYA LANGOSTA

Lobster Beach, although I’ve never seen any lobster fishermen here. Parts of the beach are littered with black rock from ancient lava flows. This is where we come year after year. I don’t know how much longer we will return. We’re old and my balance on sand is insecure; I did not make it far down this land and seascape. But as long as my granddaughter wants to keep coming...                       

STL DPB IN COSTA RICA - MADELEINE MONDAY

 

Happy to be at the end of the road. Dinner at Ellie’s favorite local restaurant, El Sapo (the toad), where they serve the kitty pizza. The kid is in heaven. She has her two lambies and a pair of plush sloths (there’s a concept) she talked me into buying her at the supermarket. One is tan, one is brown, and they are held together by velcro. She named them Costa and Rica.           

ST. PATRICK VS. THE FORCE

 

I’m pretty sure that Darth Vader never visited Ireland and that Princess Leia never had a sip of Guinness. So what’s this doing in the St. Patrick’s Day parade? Enquiring minds want to know but there was no explanation.

Traveling this weekend, taking our granddaughter for some tropical spring break fun. Even she thinks it’s a good time to be out of the U.S.                      

STL DPB IN THE AIR - HEADING SOUTH

 

The kid’s spring school break comes up next week. We are taking Ellie back to our favorite place in Costa Rica. She’s been there a couple of times and just loves it. The scene here is sunset at Tamarindo beach. Flying to Dallas-Fort Worth this afternoon, overnight there, and then onward Sunday morning. It might be good to get out of the U.S. for a while.             

GREEN

There is a huge parade downtown on the Saturday before the official St. Patrick’s Day. I sometimes wonder why just the Irish, since we have sizable German, Italian, Jewish and many other populations. (There is a vibrant African-American parade later in the spring.)  There are roots far back in U.S. history, but it really got going in 19th Century New York, arising from massive immigration and reactionary discrimination.  https://tinyurl.com/5n7j59ev                 

We will arrive in Ireland in a month,  but not until after an international detour in the opposite direction.

WHAT IS THIS?

 

One of the balloons in the St. Patrick’s Day parade. This one puzzled me. There was no sign or banner identifying it, and nothing about the sponsor. The figure looks like it is wearing a hard hat and safety harness.                

DRINKING O’ THE GREEN

 

As I’ve noted here in the past, St. Louis likes a chance to drink in public. Budweiser, the local famous brew, markets heavily on St. Patrick’s Day. The can labeled High Noon in this person’s right hand, is nominally vodka and fruit juice. The chap in the Scots tartan has a fat cigar in his left hand. (Calling Dr. Freud!)                       

HOW THEY FLOAT

 

Most of us have seen the big helium-filled balloons at parades or other events but I’ve never seen how they get their lift. I came up from the train station downtown and found this. Those cylinders must be three by three or maybe four. I could not see an outlet and, try as I might. I could not see a connection point to the balloons themselves. Then there is the question of how the helium is produced and compressed into the tanks.                  

WELL, WHY NOT?

 

There is a delicious silliness about someone riding a Harley tricycle with a Santa hat and beard in the St. Patrick’s Day parade. It’s all about gesture, the show, the image and a laugh. I like it.                 

GREEN

There is a huge parade downtown on the Saturday before the official St. Patrick’s Day. I sometimes wonder why the just the Irish, since we have sizable German, Italian, Jewish and many other populations. (There is a vibrant African-American parade later in the spring.)  There are roots far back in U.S. history, but it really got going in 19th Century New York, arising from massive immigration and reactionary discrimination.  https://tinyurl.com/5n7j59ev                 

We will arrive in Ireland in a month,  but not until after an international detour in the opposite direction.

DECK THE HALL

A simple but striking floral ornament in the central great hall of St. Louis Art Museum. We can’t see the details when zoomed out to get all of it, but the blossoms are delicately and subtlety woven into the greens.

Hoping to shoot our big St. Patrick’s Day Parade today. However, as I write this early Friday evening, we are expecting severe thunderstorms and likely tornadoes later tonight. Mrs. C and I are topping up our phone chargers. Hope it doesn’t affect the parade.  

Oh, and beware the Ides of March.                  

BLUE RIBBON

 

Far be it from me to pass judgment on floral arrangements. This one was awarded first prize at Art In Bloom. I like the fact that its gallery has windows overlooking the museum’s central great hall. The painting the arrangement refers to is on the opposite wall, https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/1449/ .                    

HUH?

The Mardi Gras parade floats are supposed to be colorful and eye-catching. It’s not as important that they make sense. This one seems to vaguely refer to barbecue (how does a boss grill?) without getting specific. The people look like retirees from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It got the attention of me and my lens.                       

MAX BECKMANN

 

Max Beckmann was an important German artist of the first half of the 20th Century. Like so many others, he fled the Nazis and eventually ended up here. He worked and taught for the last three years of his life at Washington University in St. Louis. Our art museum has a major collection of his work, including a large room exclusively devoted to him. I think the floral arrangement refers to this picture, https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/13448/, not the one shown here.                

A FAVORITE

 

Not the flowers, actually. I mean, I like flowers as well as the next person but it’s not really my department. The painting on the wall, though, is one of my favorites in the St. Louis Art Museum, a 1908  work by the American Paul Cornoyer, The Plaza After Rain. The place is at the southeast corner of Central Park in New York, looking south along Fifth Avenue. It brings up sentimental feelings for my home town.                  

ART IN BLOOM

 

It’s become a local tradition. In late winter, our art museum puts on an event called Art In Bloom. Expert floral arrangers are invited to create a design inspired by one of the pieces from the collection. This year there were thirty-some entries. It can be horrifically crowded, but the museum opens to members two hours early on the first morning. It’s the onlly time worth going.               

ABOVE THE FRAY

 

Turn around from the parade route and look up. The locomotives of a Union Pacific freight train are about to cross the Mississippi, passing just in front of the Arch. Then there is a billboard promoting St. Louis Public Schools. A bit sad that they need one.                  

ANOTHER WAY TO PARADE

 

Mardi Gras parade participants don’t have to walk the route. Many ride on floats. Alternatively, you could decorate a motorized wheelchair. However, the cigarette won’t help you get back on your feet.                        

HUH?

The Mardi Gras parade floats are supposed to be colorful and eye-catching. It’s not as important that they make sense. This one seems to vaguely refer to barbecue (how does a boss grill?) without getting specific. The people look like retirees from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It got the attention of me and my lens.                       

DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY

 

Mardi Gras floats don’t have to make sense. They are supposed to have a theme but the idea is loose and I don’t remember what this one was about (if anything). The yellow-purple-green color scheme refers to the season, although maybe not art school standards. Some people put an awful lot of work into the center of this float.               

YES, YOU CAN DO THAT HERE

 

Recreational marijuana, or cannabis if you will, is legal in many but not all U.S. states. It was authorized here in Missouri by referendum. Pot remains unlawful on the federal level but the rules are not enforced in permissive states. Shops, called dispensaries, are all over. Never dreamed I’d see a sign like this back in college days when little plastic bags were smuggled in the dorm. Strange that I have not smelled it on the street recently. Chemistry, maybe.                     

UM, IT’S A BIT CHILLY

 

You might see someone in an outfit like this prancing down St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans and certainly in Rio de Janeiro. But South Broadway in St.Louis on a late winter day? The weather was wonderful for a parade, sunny, light winds, 42 F / 6 C, not hypothermia territory. I suppose you have to be young and resilient.              

SISTERS OF PERPETUAL INDULGENCE

 

The local chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is a fixture at the Mardi Gras parade, Pridefest and other out-there events. Who are they? See https://www.thesisters.org/ . Never met one who wasn’t happy to pose. If you are dressed like that you certainly aren’t shy.                                      

LAISSEZ LES BON TEMPS ROULLER

 

The phrase is universally associated with Mardi Gras in the U.S. - let the good times roll. I’ve heard that it makes almost no sense to French speakers. Still, there was plenty of fun as the floats rolled through our parade.                 

SILLY SEASON

 

Wednesday is the start of Lent in the Christian world, a season of self-denial and repentance. The days leading up to it, not so much. The time is called Carnival in most most places and the day before Ash Wednesday, at least in the U.S., is Mardi Gras - Fat Tuesday. No American city comes close to New Orleans but we have a pretty good party here. The big parade is on Saturday and St. Louis gets wacky, More to come.                 

CITY DAILY PHOTO MARCH THEME - FIRE

 

Time again for City Daily Photo’s monthly theme day. This month it’s fire. There is no more appropriate example for me and St. Louis than the burning of Our Lady of Artica at the end of the eponymous festival. See conflagration from other members’ cities at https://citydailyphoto.org/category/theme-days/ .              

GOLF AND MEDICINE

 

A golf course near the edge of Forest Park on a mild February day. Behind is just a small part of the enormous Washington University Medical, one of America’s top clinical and research facilities. It goes on for blocks to the left, right and behind this view. I’ve been repaired there on a number of occasions, always with success.                         

BIRCHES AT THE ART MUSEUM

 

At least I think thats what they are. Correction welcome. Not doing well gathering new material. Frankly, feeling increasingly depressed, even repulsed by the situation in my country, so I drive around aimlessly, looking for something but not being engaged. That should change Saturday when we have our big Mardi Gras parade.              

SCRAPPY GOLF

 

Along Chouteau Avenue in Midtown. Get rid of your cans and git a couple of buckets of balls. The central urban area seems like a strange place for a guge driving range but then people from all over the place (but not in this household) play golf and there is nothing else like it for miles around.             

HEY MISTER, TAKE MY PICTURE

 

I was out cruising yesterday, looking for anything to shoot. It wasn’t going well, and Mrs. C and I wonder if we have ongoing brain fog after our recent episodes of norovirus. When I was parked at a curb to photograph a building across the street, this driver pulled into a queue at a traffic light. He saw my camera and gestured at me to take his picture. It was a gift. Being an old white guy, I could use help interpreting the hand gesture.                 

UM, KIND OF LIGHT ON MATERIAL

 

So why not post a favorite Arch picture? Need to  get back out on the street.                   

IT SEEMS OBVIOUS

 

Dark sky day at the Big Wicket. Until a several years ago the entrances were at the feet of the legs and there were minimal displays under the center. The Arch and grounds are a national park (the smallest one) but there is a wonderful Gateway Arch Foundation that raised the money for a major renovation and expansion.               

SELF-INDULGENCE

 

This thing leaves me shaking my head. It’s a Tesla Cyber Truck, something that looks like a patrol car from a futuristic police state. These things cost $80-100,000 and make me think about the good that money could do. Social reasons notwithstanding, I would never buy something that puts another dollar in the pocket of that most self-indulgent person, Mr. Musk.                    

YEAH, IT’S COLD

There would be a lot of competition for this title over the last several days. Like many places, our winters have become gradually milder and some years we get no more than a touch of snow. Not this time. It was 0 F / -18 C when I got up Wednesday. I know, I know, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Canadian prairies, but this is Missouri. 

I must acknowledge Robert Cohen, one of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's superb press photographers, as the inspiration for this picture.               

NOT

 

75th birthday today. Like all of us, life has had significant ups and downs but the net balance is positive. Solid marriage of almost 51 years, financially secure and generally have my wits about me (subject to independent confirmation). Had health challenges, only one of which was potentially fatal, but they were all treated promptly and competently, something not all Americans can say. Brave words, but this limit won’t apply to me. Further adventures await.                   

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - THE TRIP THAT WENT WRONG

 

So, okay, Mrs. C and I were going to have a long weekend in my much-loved home town. Some good dinners, theater, a special art show, maybe some touristy stuff. As mentioned, hot new restaurant on Thursday, the first night. Food poisoning, up much of the night with bi-directional GI eruptions. Exhausted, in bed asleep most of Friday. Managed to get out to dinner Friday to a favorite place and couldn’t finish an appetizer. We had theater tickets Saturday and did get out to a very funny show called The Play That Went Wrong, although I wasn’t always following it well.  Dinner at a little Italian place, where I made it into the second course before giving up.

Then things got worse. Our flight home Sunday wasn’t until 6 so we got to the Metropolitan Museum for the show we wanted to see. It was raining when we went to La Guardia and, as the day ended, a heavy fog settled over the airport. Close to half of the AA flights were canceled, including ours. Got online looking for alternatives. No non-stop seats the next day. Got an airport hotel and booked us through Chicago with a 5.5 hour layover. But La Guardia had high winds Tuesday morning and only one runway was in use. We sat on a taxiway for more than an hour before leaving on a two hour flight. Few seats had been available, so 6’ 3”/ 190 cm me was stuck in a middle seat for 3+ hours. When we got to Chicago our STL flight was running 90 minutes late just because. It turned out to be 3.5 hours late, with a change of aircraft because there was a pressure leak in a cockpit window of the original plane.  

So we got home 30 hours late, but we’re here. First world problems, right?                          

WHY WE CAME HERE

Mrs. C and I subscribe to the digital edition of the New York Times. One morning in early January she read an article and passed it to me, https://tinyurl.com/4s5amvuy (I hope it’s not behind a paywall). "Ï’d really like to see that!” she told me. I asked her what she had on in the middle of February. Nothing special, so I opened my laptop and here we are.

Armia Kahlil is an Egyptian immigrant, a sculptor and a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for 13 years. How he became acquainted with a Met curator who took an interest in his work and ended up placing this in a current exhibition is much too long a story for here. I commend the Times article to you. The sculpture is titled “Hope — I Am a Morning Scarab.” The scarab beetle was a symbol of hope for the ancient Egyptians and one appears on the top of the head.  

Other than that, I still can’t eat much and am pretty weak thanks to Thursday’s restaurant. La Guardia Airport was socked with fog yesterday and our flight was canceled. We’ll get home today through inconvenient routes and times, but we’ll get there.              

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - OUTREACH

 

This has turned out to be a disappointing visit to my favorite place in the world for street photography due to Thursday night’s restaurant disaster. Still, there are opportunities. We saw this on 42nd Street, under the viaduct where Park Avenue goes up and around Grand Central Terminal. The person was still there when we came back the other way a couple of hours later. Sadly common in America and likely to get worse.              

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - TAXI!

 

Yesterday was the rare day with no post. On Thursday night, we went out to a hot new restaurant, shown in Friday’s post. I got food poisoning. Bad. Up much of the night blowing stuff out of both ends. In bed asleep most of yesterday but better today, fortunately. Really blew a hole in a three day trip. This was the scene as we exited Grand Central Terminal onto 42nd Street after the infamous meal.                

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - DINNER IN MANHATTAN

 

Well, we’re back in the place I love the best and like to pay for the least. We just got here and so many images! We went to dinner at a new restaurant in Grand Central Terminal, the Grand Brasserie. I thought it might resemble Le Train Bleu at the Gare d’ Ést in Paris. No. A lot louder. This is NYC. The food was pretty good, at New York prices.           

THESE LITTLE TOWN BLUES

 

Granddaughter Ellie wanted to go to the top of the Arch last weekend so I had to take the usual picture. This isn’t all of downtown St. Louis but it’s the better part of it. I spent my whole working career, 47 years, here. It’s not doing well post-Covid but there are rays of hope. But I’ll be far away later today. Homeward bound.                      

AT THE ORCHID SHOW 5

 

POW. I promise I’ll get to something new. Traveling tomorrow. Home sweet home.                 

AT THE ORCHID SHOW 4

 

Sorry for more of the same - but not really. Orchids are a wonderful set of variations on a theme. The color can be so luscious. I wonder if any of these would work in black and white, thinking of Robert Mapplethorpe’s lilies, but they are nearly monochrome to start with. We are traveling Thursday so there will be some new stuff.