St. Louis Daily Photo

O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0000

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This weekend feels like spring in St. Louis, with temperatures of 20 - 21 C / low 70s F, but the colors are still those of autumn. At sunset in Tower Grove Park, Ludwig van Beethoven glowers in front of one of the candy apple gazebos. Let's cram a chorus and orchestra in there playing An Die Freude and make the scene even weirder.

YOUR ASSISTANCE PLEASE: It's almost time for the 2009 travel photo competition sponsored by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I've won a couple of honorable mentions but never one of the top three prizes. This is a selection favorite photos from around the country and the world this year. Please leave me a comment and let me know which one you would submit. Remember, this is a general-interest daily newspaper so nothing too weird. Click here for the set.

A Post For Saturday

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Or perhaps for Saturday night. Geez, I haven't thought about this form of entertainment since I was an undergraduate. Party on, dude.

In fact, Binge & Purge is a vintage clothing and oddball kitsch shop on Cherokee Street. An announcement about its opening last March said that "Binge & Purge will have an always alternating inventory of vintage clothing, antique medical devices, military surplus, Japanese candy, human skulls, taxidermied critters, torture devices, outsider art, vintage electronics, malicious machinery, infernal devices, & other aesthetic delights."

How interesting. I didn't actually go in the store but antique medical devices could be worth investigating. I think I'll contact them and see if I can do a feature on the place.

Altar To Frieda

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0000

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I mentioned that there wasn't much activity in our Latino neighborhood for El Dia de Los Muertos. Still, when I walked the strip there were all sorts of little details. Part of Mexican tradition for the day is the construction of small altars honoring the dead. This one, in a store window, celebrates the painter Frieda Kahlo. I love the intensity and intimacy of her work. A few years ago we got to visit her museum in Mexico City, in the home she shared with her husband, the muralist Diego Rivera. She died at age 47. They remember her on Cherokee Street.

Thursday Arch Series

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0000

A swoosh of metal behind the dome of the Old Courthouse. Just do it.

Odd Couple

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:20:00 +0000

She was a spot-on double (notice I didn't say dead ringer) for the late Farrah Fawcett, dressed to imitate the actress' most famous photo, leaving a trail of pheromones behind her. He was in this bizarre wolf man get-up, bare-chested on a chilly night, showing off a body builder physique and a deep tan, emanating testosterone radiation. Together, they wandered around Maryland Plaza with the other spooks. Wonder what happened to them later Halloween night.

TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series.

El Dia de los Muertos

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0000

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November 1 is All Saints Day in the Christian calendar. It is also El Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of The Dead, in Mexico and other western Hispanic countries. St. Louis has a small Latin American community compared to many US cities but there was an observance along Cherokee Street. This little memorial reminds us of 1,060 women in Ciudad Juarez murdered "to date." I don't know what the timeline is. The sign says "hasta la feha." Feha is not a Spanish word I could find in any dictionary. It may be a mispelling of fecha, date, but the reference is surely to the bloodshed in Mexico's narco wars.

Devil With A Blue Dress On

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0000

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How many of our readers are old enough to remember that song? Those who are are not expected to answer. This young woman covered the concept well at Halloween in the Central West End.

There is a growing set of pix of Halloween in the Central West End here.

Halloween In St. Louis (Friends Forever)

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:24:00 +0000

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Halloween in our town's Central West End Neighborhood is an adults-only free-for-all. Meet old friends, make new ones and drink in the cold streets until curfew. Put old conflicts aside and just have fun.

Actually I thought today's theme day was contrast, but I see I'm a month behind. Well, I hereby declare this post retroactive.

Terrace View

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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I go right by Citygarden at the beginning of my drive home from work. Last night, I swerved into a parking place when I saw a nearly full moon hanging in haze straight over the Arch. More about that later. I took a few pix with my good point-n-shoot and then got attracted by the lights in Citygarden. The Terrace View is the bar and cafe overlooking the art and gardens. Someplace slick to stop for a drink on early Friday evening.

At A Halloween Party

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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If the Time Bandits don't get me, I hope to shoot the crazy street theater of Halloween in the Central West End tomorrow night and the Dia de los Muertes festivities in our Latino neighborhood along Cherokee Street on Sunday.

Thursday Arch Series

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Arch, autumn, clear blue sky. Simple.

Tricolor

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Victor said he liked this one in a comment on Flickr. He has impeccable taste so it must be good enough for the blog. Broad green, a red stripe and a spot of yellow on Art Hill, with three little bitty people at the bottom.

TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series. It's seasonal.

Autumn For A King

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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So that's the big dude himself, St. Looie, a/k/a Louis IX, Roi de France. He's been here several times before, his monumental statue standing in front of the St. Louis Art Museum (motto: dedicated to art and free to all. How ya gonna top that?), looking down the broad slope of Art Hill. No doubt the trees in the background were planted, at least in part, for their spectacular fall color. They look regal.

Autumn In St. Louis Continues

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:30:00 +0000

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What was on the grass in front of my house this weekend. Fall foliage may be brilliant in sunshine but it can be subtle and complex in the shade.

Color and Light

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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I used to go to a lot of Broadway shows when I was in high school in New York City. After I ended up in St. Louis, my wife and I went occasionally when we were back visiting my family. They became less and less interesting to me over time - they turned into shallow, mass-appeal extravaganzas. No more Mama Mia for me.

However, one of my all-time favorites is Stephen Sondheim and James Lepine's Sunday In The Park with George. It is based on the obsessions of painter Georges Seurat's while creating the masterpiece A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (click on the thumbnail for a bigger version). It has both beauty and substance. Early in the show, Seurat sings to a young woman while painting on the island:

Color and light.
There's only color and light.
Yellow and white.
Just blue and yellow and white.
Look at the air, miss-
See what I mean?
No, look over there, miss-
That's done with green...
Conjoined with orange...

I thought of this song while editing the photo for this post, taken in Forest Park yesterday.

Just About Color

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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Taken Thursday downtown. We don't always get good color in the fall. If it's been dry from late summer until now - and it often is - the leaves just turn brown and drop. We're lucky this season.

Oops, what's that in the background? What day of the week is it?

The Hunt For Red October

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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OW, what a bad joke, but appropriate to the picture. I had seen from my office window that the trees around the Arch were starting to burst with autumn color. Being bored/tired at work, I took a quick walk over there yesterday with my point-n-shoot. She sky was dull and a light rain was falling but some of the trees were beginning to glow. The weather should be better by the weekend and I plan to shoot my favorite monument amidst seasonal color.

Thursday Arch Series

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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The Arch lives in a city. These rush hour drivers heading east on Chestnut Street probably don't notice it, just the traffic light and the bumper of the car ahead of them.

I see brilliant autumn colors in the park around the Arch from my office window. I hope I can find the time to go shoot it. Not so far this week.

Archives Dumpster Diving

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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I am so out of material. Too much time out of town, too much work in town. So I'm scrounging around in the archives and found this. I don't think I've posted it before. It's the state courthouse downtown. Some of this could be the setting for a new header for this blog - I got an idea - but I need help to set it up. Any locals interested?

Better go find an Arch picture for tomorrow.

Flip Side

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Desperate for material as usual (exploring new dimensions in overwork this week), this is the flip side of yesterday's photo, taken from the outside.

I haven't shot this work so close before. There is a gentle slope covered with water in front of it. This time I decided what the heck, stand in the water. It's only a couple of centimeters deep. I had not noticed the crosshatch texture of the surface or the hole over the left eye. The blankness of the eyes jumps out but is that a hint of a smile? This is a mysterious work of art.

Inside Looking Out, And Vice Versa

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Back last night from San Francisco and looking through the archives for something to post. We've had a couple of normal outside shots of Eros Bendato, one of my favorite sculptures in Citygarden. The head is open on the neck end and I've seen kids crawling around inside it many times. I decided to give it a try myself a couple of weekends ago when U "R" Us was in town. This is the result.

STL DPB On The Road: In The Redwood Forest

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

A volunteer dresses as a giant banana slug (for reasons best known to herself) in Henry Cowell State Redwood Park near Felton, California. We spent the weekend visiting my wife's cousin and her husband in Los Gatos, CA, on the edge of Silicon Valley south of San Francisco. They are retired and volunteer as docents in the park. Oh, and why the faux slug is holding a small stuffed penguin was never explained to me. Who would win a fight between a penguin and a banana slug?

Home tonight.

If you were to dress up as a slimy forest floor creature, what would it be?

STL DPB On The Road: San Francisco - Transamerica Building In Fog

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Yesterday morning, a lawyer-photographer friend and I took a pass on the conference and went walking with our cameras. Heavy fog was beginning to lift. This is the Transamerica Building, SF's pyramid, backlit through the fog by the morning sun. Why does a shadow of the pinnacle appear to be hanging on the cloud behind the building? If there are any meteorologists of optics experts out there, please help us out.

Lots of San Francisco pix are going up on Flickr here.

STL DPB On The Road: San Francisco

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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Mrs. C. and I are in SF for a legal conference in my specialty. Actually, I played hooky most of the day. This is the view of the Embarcadero ferry terminal at the foot of Market Street, shot from the end of the hall of our hotel.

The focus of the day was the Richard Avedon show at the SF Museum of Contemporary Art. It overwhelmed me. At times the brilliance of the work literally brought tears to my eyes. It felt a little silly to call myself a photographer after viewing 200 of Avedon's images, almost all portraits. The work was intense and beautiful, and had so much to teach. When to keep the image sharp (Ronald Reagan). When soft focus works better and when a complete blur is the best expression (Charlie Chaplin). How a very shallow depth of field can create the most intense visual image, softening into a blur by the time we see the ears. When a long depth of field grabs and holds a complex whole (a young Truman Capote or Marianne Moore, perhaps the most beautiful picture in the show). When to center the subject of a portrait in the frame (Marilyn Monroe), when to go off center (Marian Anderson) and when to go way off center (appropriately enough, St. Louis' own William S. Burroughs). And over and over again, the genius of using a plain white paper background for a portrait, stripping away everything external, leaving just a single, isolated human.

Thursday Arch Series

robertacrowe@gmail.com (Bob Crowe) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

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A peek-a-boo shot of the Arch, looking between the old commercial buildings and supports of the railroad bridge to the south.

Late plane into San Francisco today, then a boring meeting, then a good dinner. So no SFO pix yet.

BTW, there have been quite a lot of new Tibet pictures added to the set on Flickr. Click here.