Snow White

I took pictures at four shows yesterday plus the outdoor family day activities and kinda went overboard. The big event was ERA Theatre's Snow White, which was quite a spin on the Disney and Brothers Grimm versions. Snow White herself dresses in passionate red. There is an evil stepsister who doesn't have a good bone in her body and a bubble-blowing prince charming. Oh, and seven very tall dwarves. And a gigantic fruit salad. And a plot twist at the end.

It was a visual candy store. So many more good shots I could edit. But it's back to work at the festival for me shortly.        

Friday Night At The Fringe

First night of shows at the St. Lou Fringe Festival. I have so much to edit. I'm going to try to post one photo from each show ASAP and then go back for other good ones when  time permits.

Top: Matthew Marcum in a one man show that explores the artistic technique of Jackson Pollock through a collage of personal quotes, extended vocal techniques and pulsating music. Film clips of Pollock painting were shown on the wall behind him. It blew me away.

Center: a one act musical comedy called Liberals vs Zombies vs Conservatives. The stereotypes are easy to spot. In the end, both sides unite in the face of global apocalypse. Make you think of any other situation?

Bottom: Brittanie Gunn performs a very unusual monologue called Hot For TREX. She portrays a writer of what is called dino-erotica, with novels including Hung Like A Dinosaur, The Flirtatious Period and Getting Dino-Sore. (I'll leave the rest to your imagination.) She tracks down people who have written blistering online reviews of her work and tears into them without mercy.  

Five shows to shoot today plus an outdoor family day. Oy.          

Pigeon in a bad place

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This is the first time (fortunately!) I've ever seen a pigeon on the shopping carts just outside our town's Shufersal supermarket.
It was standing on the slot where you put in your 5-shekel coin deposit.
The poor bird looked like it could not fly, as if its tail was too short or something not quite right.
Poor thing. . .
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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The Fringe Is Back! The Fringe Is Back!

The St. Lou Fringe had its opening ceremony last night. Honors to those who should be honored, announcements and samples of some of the major acts. I hustled over to Grand Center after work to get some shots. Too many people, too many names I didn't write down, but it's obviously gonna be a fabulous season.

Locals: GO, or never darken my doorway again. Schedule, map ant tickets here.       

Vandeventer Place Gates

St. Louis has had many grand private streets where the homes of the rich were or are located. Some, in neighborhoods that became undesirable (mostly closer to the Mississippi) are gone. Many from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, mostly west of Kingshighway, survive. One of the most opulent was Vandeventer Place. (Some history here.) Now the area is, well, not so great. The mansions were raised and the development destroyed.

All of these private streets had elaborate entrance gates. For some odd reason, the entrance to Vandeventer Place was preserved and plopped down in an open area of Forest Park in 1950. It's near the Jewel Box and the Korean War Memorial seen a couple of days ago. Now it is an entrance to nowhere.