Act Your Pants Off

The St. Louis Fringe's annual warm up and fund raiser, Act Your Pants Off, took place last night. The premise is that local actors/comedians are given a dramatic speech to memorize in a half hour. They also performed a monologue of their own choosing. Whenever they forgot a line they called out "line!" and the judges would fill them in. But each time they had to remove an article of clothing. The judges would also give the actors a style to imitate. If I remember correctly, someone had to recite a Shakespeare speech as Fozzy Bear. The audience rewarded each performer with "Fringe bucks." The winner was the performer who brought in the most loot.

Nobody took all their clothes. Well, almost nobody, but that's not a subject for this blog. Presiding was Fringe impresario Matthew Kerns. The judges were St. Louis' incomparable Desiree Declyne and Lola van Ella. Lots more to come.  

Thursday Arch Series

One of the stranger and more amusing things to see at last weekend's Grand Centre block party was a nine hole mini golf course in the art galleries at The Sheldon. Each hole was designed by a different group, all whimsical, all unique. 

The eigth hole was based on the renovated Gateway Arch grounds.  You had to putt your ball through or around the Old Courthouse and then plunk it into a cup modeled on the new entrance to the Arch museum. The ball than ran through a tunnel to a lower level, resembling the street and promenade in front of the Mississippi. The player had to drop the ball into one more hole in the street. If you did that the red warning light on the top of the Arch lit up. Ellie got it done with what I think soccer would call a hand ball.
    

Your Moment Of Zen

As Jon Stewart used to say. An unusual piece of sculpture at the Pulitzer, a disk filled with sand, maybe 3 or 4 meters wide, with a blade stretching across the diameter. One side cuts precise grooves, the other makes everything smooth. It seems like an obvious reference to Japanese zen gardens but here the Buddhist concept of impermanence is twisted. Everything changes and everything remains the same. Deep.

Joe

The Pulitzer Arts Foundation is one of the gems of St. Louis. It's not very big and a bit out of the way. It was founded by Joseph Pulitzer III, grandson of Joseph Pulitzer, the New York newspaper baron, and his wife, Emily.  He was for many years the publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Joe and Emily amassed one of the greatest collections of contemporary art in the U.S. The foundation is a center of research and a small, exquisite museum, designed in a very spare style by Japanese architect Tadao Ando.

The Pulitzers were good friends of the sculptor Richard Serra. The courtyard of the Foundation contains his massive work Joe, dedicated to the patron's memory. It is a spiral of rust-red steel plate, concerned with space, scale and sky, holding delights around every bend. The last picture gives an overview.     

Madeleine Monday

At the Contemporary Art Museum during the Grand Centre block party.  There was a table covered with silly hats and a sign reading "Selfie Station." The background was, um, busy. Not going to be any selfies while grandpa and his camera are around. She doesn't know how to take selfies yet, thank heavens.

You may have heard the saying that the Queen of England reigns but does not rule. The first picture makes it clear that in Ellie's case it's just the opposite.