12 Feb 2015 by Neil E. Das

Sunset on the Landing – Sundeckers – MLK Bridge – St. Louis, Missouri

Yesterday I made an impromptu trip downtown to try to visit the Gateway Arch to take some pictures of the Museum of Westward Expansion which will be closing on Tuesday (more on that in subsequent posts). Foolishly, I did not look up how to actually get to the arch these days–there is orange construction fencing everywhere–and so I did not make it. The entire northern section of Lenore K. Sullivan Blvd. has been torn up. I will try again later this weekend. On my way to try to get there, though, I took some pictures of, frankly, a very desolate Landing. When checking the status of the bar pictured I discovered from a news story with the headline “Is Arch construction hurting Laclede’s Landing businesses?” that it had closed in December. I had no attachment to the place or any other Landing establishment other than “Ye” Old Spaghetti Factory and, for one glorious evening when Sufjan Stevens was doing his Illinois tour, the long-shuttered Mississippi Nights. Even so, I hope that when the arch construction is complete, that this area may rebound and be even better than it was before, that it may become more than only a place for partying and kitschy tourist attractions.

30 Jan 2015 by Neil E. Das

Waiting in Hope – Art Hill Sledding Straw Bales – Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri

After one early snowfall in November, our winter here in St. Louis has been a rather tepid affair. I know some would choose to replace “tepid” with “moderate” or “temperate” or “blissful,” but while I enjoy the lower energy bills and even some of the temperate days, the lack of snow has been depressing. And, so, I was very glad to find that at the very least the straw bales have been placed at the base of Art Hill and it at least is ready for snow days.

Normally at this time of the year the perfect curve of the bales would have been dented and misshapen by the feet of a hundred sledders crashing into it, but today it still remained in perfect coencentricity with the curve of the Grand Basin. I might wish that those two curves were a bit closer, allowing more real estate for sledding, but I am very glad that the bales are there.

There may be a greater city for urban sledding–there are certainly ones with more snow–but when the weather is right, the views from the hill looking both up and down, the wide expanse of the hill allowing for hundreds of sledders, the two bonfires lit by the city, and the camaraderie amongst the sledders all make Art Hill rather hard to beat! Snow, please don’t let us down!

30 Jan 2015 by Neil E. Das

Blumeyer Public Housing Project Demolition in Rain – Grand Center, St. Louis, Missouri – St. Louis Housing Authority

23 Nov 2014 by Neil E. Das

Blogstagram – In the Garden of a Friend – Missouri Native Plant Species – St. Louis – Lomography

The odd tile of this piece is owing to the fact that I am finding that carrying my iPhone around and being able to Instagram images immediately has really taken away from my blogging here. So I think from time to time when I have a series images on my iPhone that I might process them on my computer and present them here to sort of reverse that process and decline. These were processed with a lomo effect.