Seen in St. Louis

University City’s Delmar Loop has been named one of the 10 greatest streets in the United States by the APA (the American Planning Association, a nonprofit public interest organization focused on urban planning).

Well, later in the day yesterday we went with our old friends the well-known St. Louis juggler Al Stanger and his wife Kimberly to U City to see some of the reason why: the Drum Circle, which has been happening every Sunday that’s over 50 degrees for over a decade—it is a really fun time.

One of the most impressive sights we enjoyed was the work of Hiroshi Tada, a semi-retired mechanical engineering professor from Washington University. He is a practitioner of what’s called Koma-mawashi, or the art of Japanese top-spinning. He makes the tops himself, and balances and juggles them on a small piece of rope. Amazing. D.J. even got into the act when Hiroshi had him balance one of the tops on the end of a pen.

More pictures from our fun time at the U City Drum Circle to come.

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Some of my favorite memories of New York City include the virtuosity of the street performers, especially late at night on the weekends in the subways. (Buffalo doesn’t really have a busking culture.) Some of the performers in New York City are far above the kitsch variety artists (frozen statues, moving mannequins, etc.) that we have witnessed around the Louvre in Paris or on the streets of London or Rome.

Well, St. Louis has its own virtuoso, replete with his own product-line. Meet Bill Richardson, who plays jazz on his saxophone on the streets of downtown many weekdays. Today, D.J. and I saw him around lunchtime outside of the downtown Kinkos. This picture was worth the tip we gave him.

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