CITY DAILY PHOTO SEPTEMBER THEME - BOTTLE

The September City Daily Photo theme is bottle, a broad concept. Rather than show a glass or plastic container, I chose one of our town's minor landmarks (with the major one in the picture). Vess is a local soft drink company, whose motto, seen in small print under the name, is Billion Bubble Beverage. The giant bottle rotates and is easily visible from a major highway that runs nearby. It had gotten dingy but was repainted a few years ago. The location is a down-at-the-heels area just north of the city center. Plans promoted to redevelop the area as The Bottle District never went anywhere.    

City Daily Photo members around the world display their vessels at https://citydailyphoto.org/category/theme-days/ .            

ST. LOU FRINGE - UNLICENSED MUSICAL THERAPY

Interesting concept: three thirty-something men, old friends  One is a singer-songwriter who is unsure of his direction. Two old pals who are articulate and at times blunt. The former expresses himself through his music and responds to his friends' prodding. They pick apart his confused feelings and, as they say, get in his face. Psychotherapy on the cheap.               

ST. LOU FRINGE - ZOE ROSE SPILLS HER GUTS

One of my faults when shooting at The Fringe is that I do more looking than listening. I did not get the name of the person who performs a show briefly described as "an immersive, participatory, one-woman show about exploring identity. Throw things! Yell stuff! Laugh! Cry!" It contains four parts, each with a different character who begins by reading from her diary. As long at the page is on The Fringe website you can read a more detailed description at https://tinyurl.com/2p9xtycr .  Sure, pour a mini bottle of Jaegermeister into your water jug.              

ST. LOU FRINGE - VESTALS

Vestals is a new play by Susie Lawrence based on the ancient Roman order of the Vestal Virgins. I won't explain the details of the order here; click the link to learn more. Six women were held in very high regard and were, in a sense, seen as preservers of the Roman state. The setting is late the 4th Century CE, when the Senate acted to cut their budget. In 382, the Christian emperor Gratian confiscated their revenues and the order disappeared shortly thereafter.

The play involves complex themes of duty, piety, male-female conflict, treachery, desire and revenge. A lot to pack into an hour.             

ST. LOU FRINGE - FINAL PERFORMANCE OF MIDNIGHT ANNIE

Writer and journalist Chris Andoe performed an hour-long monologue about experiences on the gay scene from his home in Tulsa, to the larger Oklahoma City and eventually to St. Louis with detours to San Francisco and New York. Something keeps pulling him back here. His stories were at times wild and raucous, to the delight of a big audience of his fans.     

I sometimes have loose associations. His pose in the second picture reminded me of Rembrandt's Aristotle Contemplating The Bust Of Homer, without the jewels and silken robe.