STREETSIDE PRAGUE

 

We're here, and floored by jet lag. For now, a  phone shot just outside our gorgeous art deco hotel. More to come when the brain is functioning.         

RESTAURANT TV

Mrs. C and I had a terrific anniversary dinner Tuesday night (52, thank you) at the locally renowned restaurant Little Fox in the Fox Park neighborhood. Wow. Looking around, it seemed like the open kitchen's reflection in the front window was a television screen with a cooking show, layered with customers and customers' reflections.

Down to Dallas-Ft. Worth mid-day today, London overnight and Prague tomorrow afternoon. Now I'm worried about whether there is going to be jet fuel in Europe in 12 days to get us home. I guess it would be relatively cheap to be stuck in Budapest but what would would we do with ourselves? Couldn't be many more expensive places to be stuck than London but it would be fun.                     

MUST BE AUGUST

 

Caffe, Italian, or cafe, French? In either event, no baristas were on duty. The caption comes from a family travel memory. We were all in Milan in August, Euro vacation season. The tourist office gave us a list of restaurants that were supposed to be open. None of them were, that we could find. We ended up eating at the cafeteria in a department store, which was actually pretty good. It was in Italy.

For locals, this is on Gravois, just southwest of the Bevo Mill. I may be off line for a couple of days, unless I can find something interesting at Dallas-Ft. Worth or Heathrow.                     

MAHLER 5TH

 

Post-performance ovation at Sunday's concert by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. We have a first class orchestra and music director Stéphane Denève led a searing interpretation of Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony. I wonder - do conductors ever use hearing protection? My Apple Watch was setting off high decibel warnings up in the balcony.

The lumbar steroid injection went well this morning. Some improvement Monday afternoon but it takes longer to fully kick in.

And it's supposed to be a gorgeous weekend in Prague.                  

TODAY'S DESTINATION

The name on the building may sound odd to out-of-towners. Nothing to do with keeping meat and dairy separate. When I arrived here for college in the late 60s, there was Barnes Hospital and Jewish Hospital facing Forest Park, both affiliated with the Washington University School of Medicine just behind them. In time they all got sucked into a single entity, including several suburban hospitals. What we see here is only a small part of today's complex, which goes back and to the left for several blocks. One of the buildings is the self-consciously named Center for Advanced Medicine. That's where the big guy in pain management is giving me caudal lumbar steroid injections this morning. 🤞                

THIS HAS TO BE A FRONT FOR SOMETHING

 

Or a pointed, understated joke. The old building on Gravois Avenue looks like it has been thoroughly rehabbed. The ground floor looks like it was a storefront, with an apartment upstairs. Not open for business now. I searched for Bang's Ice Cream and came up with nothing, although there appears to be a product called Bang!! Caffeinated Ice Cream. And "DRUGS"? While editing the photo I noticed what may be a mural on the right side. I'll go back for another look when I can walk better. The lumbar steroid injections are tomorrow morning.                   

CHANGE OF CUISINE

 

Another bright facade from my drive up Gravois Avenue on a cloudless day. I don't know anything about the old Lemmons Restaurant other than passing it by. Never ate there. It was taken over at some time by people from our sizeable Bosnian population, but that didn't last, either. I'm glad the current owners kept the ghost sign and antique neon fixture,                    

THINGS ARE LOOKING ROSIER

 

Another eye-catching business on Gravois (pronounced GRAH-voiz in local dialect) Avenue on the south side of the city. Things are looking up cince I got a call late yesterday from my pain management doctor, who is the big cheese at Washington University. Everyone in the U.S. knows that health care authorization and billing are absurd and aggravating. Tiny differences in wording and coding got in the way of my nerve root ablation, so I'll get a caudal steroid injection on Monday. My lumbar spine is essentially made of recycled balsa wood but this will keep me going for a while.                    

COMFORT, AND NOT

 

Ah, comfort food from my young days, although I don't remember gyros and chicken wings being popular in my neighborhood in Queens. However, NY style pizza or a thick burger and fries bring back warm feelings. What isn't comfortable is that the hospital contacted me yesterday and canceled my lumbar nerve root ablation that was scheduled for today. They didn't get Medicare payment authorization in time and I'm really upset they didn't get this done earlier. We leave for Europe a week from today and I'm not sure I can make it without the procedure. Waiting for their response.                      

ODE ON A CONCRETE URN

 

Seen at the other end of Tower Grove Park from yesterday's picture. Keats would not have liked my poor joke, but it's what popped into my head. My head should be clearer in a couple of days after I get my lumbar spine blasted on Thursday.                    

VOICES OF SPRING

 

Explosions of tulips in Tower Grove Park. Although it is a city park, there is a private foundation that supports and helps maintain it. Today's background music: https://youtu.be/c3Ywo8Tsyys?si=ckDPPi_brJnDHdff                

NEW NEIGHBORS

 

There is a crook in the downspout of our house that sometimes attracts nesting birds. It's a bit precarious but squirrels can't get to it. Some years no one shows up. We have had robins a couple of times. This year we have not seen the usual cardinals and robins but there are lots of doves. A pair has  set up housekeeping in this spot and we are waiting to see some little peepy heads.                   

SANTA HAS HIS SLEIGH

 

But here, in suburban St. Louis, the Easter Bunny tools around in a Ford Mustang convertible. I wonder how many eggs fir in the small trunk.                                     

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - STREET SCENE

 

We spent a lot of time on the road Tuesday driving north from the Costa Rican border into Nicaragua. This is the southern town of Rivas. Some general impressions: Nicaragua is notably poorer than CR. The houses are mostly smaller and in rough shape. The cars are older and more beat up, and there are fewer of them. Lots of horse-drawn carts. In more populous areas, there are many autorickshaws, like you see in parts of Asia. Busses and some trucks are as festively painted and religiously decorated as in India. Few if any modern strip centers that are now common in CR. Many fewer supermarkets; our guide said they are too expensive and people prefer to buy from local roadside vendors. Flags are everywhere, with more of Daniel Ortega's Sandinista National Liberation Front than the national flag.

The day was exhausting and we took yesterday off. More of this to come.             

IT'S NOT EVERY DAY . . .

 

. . . that we watch spider monkeys on a volcanic island in Lake Nicaragua, eating fruit provided by tourists during a boat ride. As I mentioned, this is a big lake (19th largest in the world), with volcanoes in and around it. Some big blow sent huge chunks of black rock through the air, creating a group of islands in the northwest corner. This pair of monkeys were settled here, we were told, for rehab purposes.

Late post today. The tour company picked us up at 4 AM and got us back at 9 PM. Now a slow day.                     

WE DID IT IN THE 1940S

 

According to Merriam-Webster:

Fascism : a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition

Sound about right? Again, from the No Kings rally. Don't know what I'll do over the Easter weekend since my mobility isn't very good. 

FREE BURRITO

 

Catholic Worker is a long-established left wing Catholic organization based in New York City. When I was in high school and had the run of the city by subway I think I ended up at some event there. A contingent of them was at No Kings Saturday, with this man calling out "Free burritos! Don't march hungry!" They gave a neatly foil wrapped snack to anyone in need. I guess that was part of their point.                     

NOT MY PROBLEM

 

I didn't listen to the president's speech last night - I wanted to get some decent sleep. Everything I needed to know was on the news this morning. Here's something that struck me. Although the U.S. and Israel started the war and Iran's closing the Straight of Hormuz was an obvious consequence, Trump thinks it's the rest of the world's problem to reopen it. Not ours. We spilled all the candy but somebody else has to pick it up.               

CITY DAILY PHOTO APRIL THEME - ENTERTAINMENT

 

What do you like to see, hear and do when you go out for an evening of fun - or choose to stay at home? Our choices of entertainment in today's society seem limitless. As the house photographer for the St. Louis Fringe, I have an obvious place to look for an example but a huge amount to choose from. These girls from a high school on the edge of the area performed a spin on A Midsummer Night's Dream called A Tale of Puck. Now that was entertaining.                         

MUG SHOT

 

I think I will leave the commentary to you, gentle reader. He does like his face and name on absolutely everything possible. Think of the opportunities.                 

WHITE, GOLD AND OUTTA HERE

 

Maybe not the best picture from Art In Bloom, but it's a travel day. Flying today to a giant airline hub and spending the night. Saturday morning down to our home away from home in Costa Rica. I think it's +/- our twenty-third visit to the country over some decades (we obviously like it). Anybody want to see pictures of beautiful Dallas - Ft. Worth International Airport?            

NO KINGS

 

The third No Kings demonstrations took place across America yesterday. There were 50 scheduled in Missouri, with a big one in downtown St. Louis. Mrs. C and I went, and an absolutely perfect day brought out a big crowd. No estimates yet of numbers. The mass of people marched down a main thoroughfare to the baseball stadium, where a game was about to end. My spine didn't carry me that far.                     

PLAY BALL!

 

It's opening weekend of the baseball season in the U.S. When I was young, I was interested in all kinds of sports, like most American boys. Over time, I have become bored with most of it, particularly our version of football, which I despise for its gratuitous violence and crass spectacle. There is still a soft spot, though, for baseball. I spent a bunch of my youth in the cheap seats in Yankee Stadium (two versions back). Thursday was opening day for our beloved Cardinals, who squeezed out a come-from-behind 9 - 7 victory over Tampa Bay.

We are going to try to get to the No Kings rally today with my rollator, camera and help from Mrs. C. 

           

SPRING, REALLY?

 

Fake ruins in Tower Grove Park, a 19th Century Romantic fantasy. No flowers around here yet, maybe because St. Louis can't figure out what season it is. When I shot this yesterday afternoon, the temperature was 94 F / 34.4 C. This morning as I write this, it is 40 F / 4.4 C. Not normal.                          

BUDS

 

Another early sign of the season. I have to confess that this is from the archives. The arthritis at the bottom of my spine has gotten a lot worse and I'm not walking well. There is a pain management procedure scheduled for April 9 that has helped in the past, but until then it will be either old stuff or whatever I can shoot from my car (sitting is okay).                     

DAFFODILS IN FOREST PARK

 

First signs on a gray day. The trees are confused. Our temperatures have been zooming up and down, summer hot one day and need a coat on the next. It has not been as extreme as some  parts of the country but many plants don’t know which way to go.                    

FIRST BUDS IN DRIZZLE

 

Long, tedious drive home yesterday from Kansas City, with an awful lot of construction on I 70. So, I thought I'd post something spring-like from Forest Park.                      

LIVE FREE OR DIE

I think the motto dates to our revolutionary war, and is also seen on the license plates of the State of New Hampshire. If the guns and bullets aren't enough, the place also sells cigars. And if you don't have the courage to go in and check out the wares, there is a liquor store immediately to the left.

 

Found in Shawnee, Kansas, in suburban Kansas City where we are staying. Home today.         

 

STL DPB'S 19TH ANNIVERSARY

 

Today is St. Louis Daily Photo's 19th anniversary, having first appeared on March 22, 2007. 6,831 posts to date. Hooda thunk. Most of the pictures are from St. Louis, but there are others from Tibet to Patagonia. So how much longer?                 

in Just-

 

in Just- 

spring          when the world is mud- 

luscious the little 

lame balloonman 

whistles          far          and wee 

and eddieandbill come 

running from marbles and 

piracies and it's 

spring 

when the world is puddle-wonderful 

the queer 

old balloonman whistles 

far          and             wee 

and bettyandisbel come dancing 

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and 

it's 

spring 

and 

         the 

                  goat-footed 

balloonMan          whistles 

far 

and 

wee

          e e cummings

TOWARD THE END OF THE DAY

 

A photography teacher once told me that outdoor light was good enough to shoot if the angle of the top of an object to the tip of its shadow was at least 45 degrees. That's surely the case here, winding up our trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. We question when of if we will be back. We're getting old and physical activities are becoming a challenge. The arthritis in my lumbar spine is worse, and I needed a bunch of airport wheelchairs last weekend. Having a super duper pain management procedure that has helped before, but it's not for three weeks.

So I need to search for something new. Suburban Kansas City this weekend for a family event.                

LAS CARRETERAS NICARAGUENSES Y EL ARBOL DE LA BASURA

 

I mentioned that I would show something about Nicaraguan roads, generally better than Costa Rica although CR is much more prosperous. All Chinese foreign aid. (Someone still believes in soft power.) What's notable is the tree-like thing in the center. They are all over the place, maybe 15 meters tall, brightly colored and splashed with LEDs at night. The government calls the design Tree of Life. The locals call it Tree of Garbage. Chinese designed and manufactured, but built at great cost to the Nicaraguan state. What could the money have done for education or health care?