St. Louis City Museum

The St. Louis City Museum is a crazy place housed in an old shoe factory and warehouse in the former garment district of St. Louis.   The vision of Bob Cassilly who purchase the building in '86 and and began working on a place for kids and adults to play and explore together. It's bills itself as an "eclectic mixture of children's playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel. With it's many floors that house tunnels, cage tunnels, memorabilia and architectural artifacts of now gone historic buildings of St. Louis. The highlight is the rooftop playground with a bus as if it's teetering over the edge, and big slide and ferris wheel. It's great fun and everywhere you turn there's a something to discover.

St. Louis is Beer and Baseball

St. Louis is one of those cities that people either love or hate.  To me it's a great city with plenty to offer even with its rough edges.   What city doesn't? Every year around the 4th of July, we try to make it down for a Cardinal's game on the way to visiting the parents in the Ozarks.

Having grown up in Missouri, I'm still a Cardinal's fan at heart. The new Busch Stadium is a beautiful baseball park. The open design allows for good sight lines, good air flow and a beautiful view of the St. Louis Arch if you sit on 3rd base side. It goes without saying a beer is almost required to beat the summer heat in St. Louis. It seems only appropriate to have a Bud. 

Unfortunately Anheiser Busch is no longer a locally owned brewery in St. Louis, but the beer is still brewed just a few miles away down I-55.  It's how things go in this age of globalization and corporate consolidation. Either way, Budweiser Beer is still a big part of St. Louis so I'll drink to that! Cheers!

Hash House Harriers Red Dress Run

The Hash House Harriers is an international phenomenon with fun loving chapters across the globe.  They describe themselves as, "a drinking club with a running problem".   You know trouble and merriment will ensue whenever they get together.   The Madison Hash House Harriers is no exception.  Each July they have their Red Dress Run that always falls on the same weekend of Madison's 4th of July Rhythm and Booms fireworks celebration at Warner Park.   They make a point of running through the park and crashing the Madison Mallards baseball game as well.   

The object of the Hash House Harrier runs is to find the freshly marked trail to the beer stops which there are generally at least three.   At the end of the run, there is the "On In" which includes more drinking, food, singing and awards ceremonies.  It's all very silly and often irreverent fun.  It's quite the spectacle with all these folks running around in red dresses drawing gaping mouth stares from onlookers. 

See more Hash House Harrier Red Dress Run photographs here.

 

 

Flashes of Hope

I was excited to get the opportunity to be the photographer for June's Flashes of Hope. What a great experience if not a little challenging, but that's what photography is about. I love being able to use my photography to give back to the community. For more info, check out the Flashes of Hope website.

Trudy is the coordinator for the Madison Chapter of Flashes of Hope.  She's great to work with and makes sure all goes well with the sessions.   I appreciate the fact that she took a chance and let me fill in for another photographer who couldn't make it.

Back from The Kalish Workshop

Back from a fun and inspirational week at The Kalish Workshop at Ball State in Muncie, IN.   It was so great to be with a fun and creative group of people from the photojournalism and multimedia world.   It was a week of learning, inspiration, show and tell, and lots of late night socializing.  It was just the ticket to help me grow and move forward with my work as well as get my feet wet with this new fangled thing called...video. 

Bloody Mary With Rhinelander Beer Chaser at the Shamrock

After all these years I suddenly learned about a Wisconsin tradition of having a beer chaser with your Bloody Mary. It's not like the Bloody Mary isn't strong enough on it's own. I had mine with a Rhinelander Beer in the little shorty size. I like that these old brews are coming back and even more excited about what seems to be the comeback of the shorties. Sometimes this is exactly the amount of beer I want. Just a taste without having to invest in a full 12 or even 16 ounce. Something to wet the whistle after fighting the crowds at the Saturday farmer's market. The Sat & Sun Shamrock brunch was delicious. Glen the owner is quite the cook and all the ingredients were fresh from the farmer's market. More olives please!