120/365: Center Field

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The view from Clark Avenue, looking into the center field entrance to Busch Stadium and the grandstands beyond. Lots of symbols and icons. I wonder what, if anything, the public absorbs from them.

Territorial warfare continues today on St. Louis Daily Photo.

119/365: Seizure

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Advice found just to the right of the wall painting in yesterday's post and the tagger even knows some Latin. People's reaction to graffiti varies a lot. I don't like defacement of buildings but it's permitted on this wall and the work often has a lot of energy. This one has great visual pop. Sometimes it can be witty, like here. To quote another worn Latin phrase, de gustibus non est disputandum - there's no disputing taste.

The guys in today's St. Louis Daily Photo's post took this suggestion seriously.

118/365: Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places

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That's one of those songs that can just get stuck in your head. Maybe it is the idea behind this new bit of painting on the graffiti-permitted part of the floodwall near the Arch. You're not likely to find the companion of your dreams in the industrial barrens around this site. The young man looks quite lonely, or maybe just stupefied.

St. Louis Daily Photo illustrates why the Arch may get its feet wet.

117/365: A Walk In The Rain

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One of Julian Opie's kinetic light sculptures in Citygarden, This Is Bruce and Sarah Walking, on their existential amble to nowhere. It was raining softly and near sunset. The out-of-focus dogwood blossoms look like low-hanging clouds.

St. Louis Daily Photo is just as wet today.

116/365: A Wheel For Giant Gerbils

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I was wandering around Citygarden between rain squalls Sunday afternoon, trying to find some downtown material. The Cardinals baseball game was letting out nearby. Two young ladies were taking pictures of one another in part of Bernar Venet's 2 Arcs X 4, 230.5 Degrees Arc X 5. It looks like one is racing through a very abstract gerbil wheel. I hope it's not a prediction of her career path.

River's rising. See St. Louis Daily Photo for details.

115/365: In The Company Of Rabbits

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Looks like I have a not-quite-the-Easter-Bunny theme going on. This rabbit in repose is the Citygarden companion of the one in yesterday's post. It seems to be guarding the way for this family to return to their car after the baseball game.

More bogus bunnies on St. Louis Daily Photo today.

114/365: Easter Bunny

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Well, it's that day in the Christian calendar so we gotta have something appropriate. What kind of eggs will this bunny bring to Citygarden? He or she (no way to tell!) might bring some in painted bronze, just like itself. Maybe chocolate ones, covered in white in a white sugar shell and whatever other seasonings the downtown sky brings. I'm not going egg hunting today, but I may go searching for images.

St. Louis Daily Photo is staying quiet and dark. Maybe it's because of our incessant rain.

113/365: Dogs Can Be Episcopalian, Too

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I told you I was out of downtown material. Where does the time go? (Answer: work). So, back to the Blessing of the Animals at Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral, where this little Westie has his dogma down.

And speaking ow which, it's raining cats and dogs on St. Louis Daily Photo.

112/365: The Official Drink

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As I said on St. Louis Daily Photo today, I am scraping the bottom of the barrel for material. It's appropriate, then, to pop open a large serving of STL's favorite local beverage and contemplate plans for the future. This field is adjacent to the baseball stadium. When the new ballpark was being planned, the taxpayers were promised the site would soon contain a major retail, office and housing complex. Well, we have some grass and a parking lot. That's a start.

There is a little romance on St. Louis Daily Photo today, found when dumpster diving in the archives.

111/365: Toynbee Tile

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Arnold Toynbee, 2001 A Space Odyssey, resurrection on Jupiter? Yes, that's the key idea in Toynbee tiles. This one is in the pavement near the northeast corner of 6th and Olive, beside the Starbucks.

They are found here and there across the northeast quarter of the US, most of all in Philadelphia, where they are believed to have originated. There were four in St. Louis. The city paved over two of them a couple of years ago during regular street maintenance, oblivious to their value (I would have paid the city streets department to save them for me).

The back story is complicated and uncertain. I did a series about them on St. Louis Daily Photo about them four years ago. The first post with as much information as I could find is here. My second find, the one pictured above, has more research and can be found here. This post, with info about tiles in other cities in in this post. The badly deteriorated fourth one is here.

Have any of you seen Toynbee tiles in your city?

There is an unusual Thursday Arch picture on St. Louis Daily Photo.

110/365: The End Of The Road

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They say that Wall Street starts in a graveyard and ends in a river. (It's literally true.) St. Louis' Washington Avenue starts in, um, a cul de sac and ends in a really big river right here. Eads Bridge is on the left and East St. Louis, Illinois, across the Mississippi. Note the telephoto-tiny statue of Meriwether Lewis behind the wall.

We're doing art appreciation testing on St. Louis Daily Photo today.

109/365: Old Fashioned Justice

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I've been complaining about not having fresh downtown material. So, when going into the hotel where the Flashbus program took place, I stopped at the corner and took some snaps of The Old Court House across 4th and Chestnut. It has a certain elegance that some of this burg lacks.

The genuine Flashbus itself is on St. Louis Daily Photo.

108/365: Open Freeman

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The manhole cover to a sewer or utility tunnel or I don't know what on the Arch grounds. Would free people escape into it or out of it?

Final images from Chicago on St. Louis Daily Photo today.

107/365: Attention Gov. Walker Of Wisconsin

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Readers outside of the U.S. may not have heard of Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin. A radical conservative, he led a battle to revoke the collective bargaining rights of almost all state workers (boo, hiss). The Democratic members of the state senate prevented a vote as long as they could by leaving en masse for neighboring Illinois, preventing a quorum. I share the reaction of this participant at the working families rally downtown a few weeks ago.

St. Louis Daily Photo experiences a gray day in Chicago.

106/365: A Voice For The People

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So, here I am in Chicago and, um, a bit out of new downtown material. On this weekend when the Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a budget eviscerating the Medicare program for the elderly and disabled while demanding low taxes for the rich, I decided to use some pictures from the working families' rally last month.

This is Rev. Teresa Danieley, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in St. Louis, who gave the invocation. She is a tireless advocate for economic and racial justice. She's also been a close friend of our daughter since they were 12. They were high school classmates. Teresa officiated at our daughter and son-in-law's wedding four and a half years ago. She wields the light side of the Force.

St. Louis Daily Photo is on tour, eating its way through Chicago.

105/365: Serving St. Louis SInce 1880

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Almost midnight on Thursday as I write this. Long, good day on our anniversary but it's time to snooze.

This blog has been serving St. Louis since 2011 but we're not preaching anything.

It's Le Roi Saint himself today on St. Louis Daily Photo.

104/365: No Fun Allowed

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A sign on a lamppost facing the Milles Fountain, featured here over the last few days. Looks like the city fathers and mothers are a bunch of old poops. Cricket doesn't seem to be prohibited and you can set it up almost anywhere (I've seen it played in the most unlikely locations in India). So let's set up a little scratch cricket match beside the fountain and see what the authorities think of that. It should weird them out pretty good. Anyone know a fast bowler who doesn't mind some water spray in his face?

It's Thursday Arch Series day on St. Louis Daily Photo.

103/365: Blog Goof Off Day Part 2

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Lots more nothing, people goofing off, taking it easy, refusing to produce. It may appeal to you or not (it would drive me crazy.) The theme is shared today with St. Louis Daily Photo.

This chap in snoozing on the marble wall surrounding Milles Fountain and its pool, which we have seen in the last few day's posts.

Here's the companion goof off on St. Louis Daily Photo, an inert young woman in Forest Park.

102/365: The Mississippi And Its Posse

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A wider view of Milles Fountain, showing the western half half of the work. The tall man in front represents the Mississippi River. The female Missouri is just out of the frame to the right. The unveiling of the statue in 1940 set off quite a scandal among the local wealthy prudes. It was originally called The Marriage Of The Waters. The bride and groom were nude (the composition of this picture has taken care with the placement of Mr. Mississippi's right hand). Unconscionable! So the city called it The Meeting Of The Waters thereafter. Must have been a hot date.

Union Station is in the background.

The topic is art and decline on St. Louis Daily Photo.

101/365: Opposed To Bathing

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Like yesterday, another detail from Milles Fountain. The overall theme of the work is celebratory - the great meeting of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers - but some members of the retinue on each side are positively miserable. This one looks like a little boy who really doesn't want to take a bath.

Another treacly springtime postcard on St. Louis Daily Photo Blog today.

100/365: River Monster

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A detail from Carl Milles' fountain The Meeting of the Waters, between Market and Chestnut Streets. It's about the union of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers just north of here, each with his or her fishy attendants. More of this over the next few days.

I am not getting up today for the 7 AM start of the St. Louis Marathon.

St. Louis Daily Photo is on a little float trip today.

99/365:No Swimming

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The city lets children splash around in the fountains at Citygarden. That's a wonderful and surprising thing, given the usual attitudes of insurance companies. The water is on now, the weather is getting warmer, so what's with the sign? It's not like they have a lifeguard.

We are supposed have summer-like weather today, with temperatures in the upper 80s F. or 30 - 31 C. I'll walk by and see if the sign is being ignored. Question authority.

St. Louis Daily Photo needs a sense of direction.

98/365: Mother of Invention

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This has nothing to do with Frank Zappa, although I wish it did. Never saw him perform live. Damn.

But back to the point. In yesterday's post, I was whining about how I was out of downtown material. Necessity being the mother of invention, I went down to Citygarden at lunch time with my point-n-shoot (there's always something to shoot). I noticed that the city had just turned the fountains back on. Eros Bendato sits on a wide circular plinth of granite, tilted just a degree or two down and away from the face. (You can get a better idea from this old post.) In the warmer months, a thin sheet of water trickles from the face to the edge of the plinth, increasing the overall feeling of strangeness. This is how it looks from ground level.

Do you know how many women Don Giovanni wooed in Spain? Then check St. Louis Daily Photo today.

(Answer: mil e tre.)

97/365: Walk/Don't Walk

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Well, make up your mind. Julian Opie's This Is Kiera and Julian Walking violates the Don't Walk sign 24/7. The couple are on an endless existential walk to nowhere, a stroll that has no beginning and no end. I hope the artist didn't mean this as a metaphor for the relationship.

I am desperately low on downtown images that aren't about the Arch. Might have to post a picture of the pen and pencil holder on my desk, or something similarly dire. Maybe I could use that thought as a springboard.

It's the Arch, free soda pop and public nuisance today on St. Louis Daily Photo.

96/365: Save Us, O Lord

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The graffiti-allowed section of the Mississippi River flood wall is constantly being overpainted and changing. Here's a new bit. The illustration is a little over the top (I doubt that we are a first-tier target for nuclear attack) but the image still has meaning. We have a city that's not fabulous but not a complete dump. We have a large array of civic, cultural and arts organization that keep up real vibrancy, while our governmental leaders, as a group, are short-sighted and self serving. We just keep losing corporate headquarters, our suburban and now exurban sprawl is appalling, but the city itself still has a strong beating heart. What's in the future? Salva nos, O Domine.

St. Louis Daily Photo is trying to whistle the Ode To Joy after sucking a lemon.