Posted by seeninstl on Aug 12, 2008
My old friend Al Stanger, the St. Louis juggler and human calculator, brought me to the City Museum tonight, where Circus Day (a great organization that works to build character and expand community through teaching circus skills!) teamed up with the Galilee Circus (a Jewish/Arab youth circus) and the St. Louis Arches (this area’s youth circus) to perform as “The Galilee Arches.”
It was a great show where these kids showed amazing teamwork despite language barriers (most of the kids spoke only English or Arabic or Hebrew) and they did impressive variety arts: juggling, highwire stunts, balancing acts, acrobatics, unicycling, flying through the air.
You can see Circus Day’s shows at City Museum pretty regularly. It is a great cause, and since its just a few blocks from our apartment, we like to go frequently.
Posted by seeninstl on Jul 12, 2008
Posted by seeninstl on Jul 12, 2008
We went to the free concert a couple blocks away from our place last night. It used to be called Live On The Levee, and was down by the Gateway Arch, but this year due to the flooding of the Mississippi, the concert was moved to around Soldier’s Memorial. The bands were Umphrey’s McGee and Sound Tribe Sector 9, and it all had a very hippie feel.
The last picture is of D.J.’s old friend Darla, who pleasantly surprised us by stopping by with her husband and 4 year old son right before we went to meet up with other friends at the concert. It is our friend Tim’s Hula Hoop; he is in the left of the photo.
Posted by seeninstl on Jul 10, 2008
Every Wednesday night during the summer, the amazing Missouri Botanical Garden hosts a free concert that draws hoards. It is called the Whitaker Music Festival, and last night, the concert featured Javier Mendoza. This was the first one we have been able to get to, and on our way out, we took some pictures of the Lily Pond with the Dale Chihuly floating glass sculptures. The Climatron geodesic dome is in the background of one of the photos.
Posted by seeninstl on Jul 7, 2008
Today after the Young Literati meeting (the young friends group of the library) we saw this great bluegrass group outside at the St Louis Public Library’s Central Branch. The group is called “Folk’n Bluesgrass,” and they know how to have fun.
The Library’s concert series, called the “NOT SO QUIET! Concert Series,” is the first Monday of every month, and it is free.
Posted by seeninstl on Jul 6, 2008
St. Louis has fireworks all weekend of July Fourth, and last night we used a tripod for the first time to take some longer exposure shots, setting up behind the Old Courthouse in Keiner Plaza whereas on July Fourth we were in front of it. We are still learning how to best use the camera (more camera than we have ever had but we will grow into it). Here are some of our favorite shots.
Posted by seeninstl on Jul 5, 2008
We got to try out D.J.’s birthday present last night during fireworks. First we went to Fair St. Louis, which is one of the largest Fourth of July celebrations in the United States. Then we parked our butts on the grass along with zillions of others to enjoy the fanfare explosions. Here are a few of my favorite shots from last night (I can’t remember whether D.J. or I took them) but I especially like the one of the boy silhouetted and cheering during the finale. For tonight’s fireworks we are going to use a tripod, which we still have to run and buy.
Posted by seeninstl on Jul 1, 2008
Posted by seeninstl on Jun 25, 2008
Since today is D.J.’s birthday, we decided not to watch the entire movie in the parking lot next to our building and are going out in a bit for revels and celebrating. (We also just came in a while ago from an ice cream social in the lounge of our building for the Downtown St. Louis Resident’s Association. We met some nice folks and joined up, and I bet that our building won the cocktail party that is awarded to the building that has the most people show up.)
Even though we didn’t stay for the whole movie, here is a picture from outside our corner window. Looks like fun, but Fool’s Gold just wasn’t the right vibe for us tonight.
Posted by seeninstl on Jun 20, 2008
There is a constant stream of conventions and national events downtown, which was a surprise considering St. Louis doesnt seem at first like a national destination for events. A couple weeks ago there was a big astronomy convention, and this week there is a big national fitness tradeshow.
And even more interestingly, for the next few days there is a national Pentecostal teen convention. Pentecostals are the fundamentalist brand of Christianity that focuses on the gifts of the “Holy Spirit” given to the Church at Pentecost in the first generation of Christianity. Many Pentecostals speak in tongues, believe in “words of knowledge” when the Holy Spirit tells them secrets only God should know, believe in giving prophecies, and believe in supernatural faith healing during their praise services, along with other forms of miracle-working.
This national Pentecostal teen convention is called SummerFest ‘08, and is featuring a national teen talent expo, which we chose not to go to (it cost 20 bucks, I think). But according to the program they gave us when we poked around in the foyer of the Orpheum (on the other side of the Syndicate), the talent show performance categories include such fun and outrageous thigs as Christian Comedy, Persuasive Speaking, Interpretive Dance, and Human Video (whatever that is). Check it out at the Orpheum through the end of the day.
