Thinking back over 5,500 posts, give or take since some were lost when this website crashed a year ago, for some reason this post from February of 2015 popped into my head. It’s interesting in that my 5,000th post also dealt with a subject from the St. Louis Place neighborhood. I was always drawn to…
Category: Commentary
Opinion pieces/commentary
Big Muddy Dance Company Presents: Blaze
As I’ve done in the past, I wanted to alert readers to an upcoming cultural event that I think is worth your time. Big Muddy Dance Company is offering up another performance this Friday and Saturday. From their press release: A specially curated blend of exciting new works and audience favorites, featuring world premiere choreography…
Sixteenth Anniversary of Saint Louis Patina
On the occasion of the sixteenth anniversary of St. Louis Patina, I wanted to announce that I now own the trademark for the name “St. Louis Patina.” I wanted to thank my parents for helping me obtain this recognition of this identity that I’ve built up over the last decade and a half. You’ll notice…
Rapid Changes, Mill Creek Around Grand Boulevard
Late on Saturday, I checked up on how the residential development of the former railyards of the western Mill Creek valley was going. This is west of the historic African American neighborhood, but is the actual valley, where roundhouses and light industry, as well as massive switching yards once lay. The building that was under…
A Sad Discovery, Dutchtown
I was shocked to discover that the beautiful house above, one of a pair on the west side of Nebraska Avenue in between Gasconade and Osage streets burned at some point after I photographed them in October of 2019 (fourth and fifth photo down, the burned house is in the fifth photo). But what matters…
An In Depth Look at Laclede’s Landing, Fall 2022
Laclede’s Landing has been in the news a lot lately, and while I’m not going to wade into the controversy that’s been going on concerning crime, homelessness and whatnot, I thought it was time for me to revisit what is perhaps one of the best known neighborhoods in the region. When reviewing old posts, I…
Some Final Thoughts on Paris
OK, we’re done with Paris. I did want to give some final thoughts on the French capital, and share some things that St. Louis could learn, and also be honest on some other matters. First of all, it’s sort of unfair to compare the two exactly because with any world capital, particularly a European one,…
Who Controls the Past Now Controls the Future
Who controls the past now controls the futureWho controls the present now controls the pastWho controls the past now controls the futureWho controls the present now? I’ve been thinking about the lyrics of this song by the band Rage Against the Machine, which are based off the novel 1984, after having gotten back from Paris….
Some Random Impressions of France
First off, perhaps I would like to start off with some impressions of Paris, and France in general. This was my twelfth trip to Europe, but my first to France. Many people were surprised that I had never been, and that was a major reason I chose to finally go. As I remarked to someone,…
Checking In On Mark Twain and Central High Schools
St. Louis voters recently overwhelmingly passed Prop S, which will allow the St. Louis Public Schools to issue bonds for much needed improvements to buildings, most of which are now over one hundred years old, though as anyone who will admit it, are extremely well built and will last for centuries if properly maintained. The…