Urban Renewal

Just south of the St. Louis Arch, just before I-44 / I-64 meets up with I-70 and crosses the Mississippi River.  This old warehouse is in the process of being converted to condos...  This area is called Chouteau's Landing and appears to be up-and-coming...

East St. Louis Toodle-Oo

Veiw of an old building in East St. Louis, as seen from the interstate.  This was probably a really cool building once upon a time, but has been neglected for as long as I can remember.  Note the lack of windows and the "wild" trees growing on the roof. 

Vanishing Farmland

111 Acres for sale, along the I-255, just north of Collinsville, IL.  This area has been slowly turning commercial over the past 20 years, but there's still lots of farmland.  But less and less and less.  But I suppose there's plenty more places to grow corn...

Summer Scene

I took this photo yesterday at lunch, jsut driving around looking for inspiration.  It took a little tweaking to soften the noon light, but I think it turned out OK...

Comin' Down

Follow-up from my 8/8/10 post, they've started tearing down one of the buildings in downton Collinsville.... 

Pick One:

Morle playiong around w/ portraits on my new bass:
Which version do people prefer?  B&W or Color?

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Wordle - Ephesians

I'm reading Ephesians this week, and decided to do a "wordle"..... 
Just cause I can.

All Well And Good

Below is an approximate transcription of a real conversation in my office today. Supervisor (me) talking with two engineers. The subject of an upcoming training session comes up:

Employee: Yeah, we’re having that class on writing good in September.

Supervisor: Well, I suppose writing good is OK, but we really want people to write well.

Employee: [puzzled look]

Supervisor: We don’t really want you writing evil, but we need you to write well.

Employee: [pause] Oh, I get it!

Supervisor: [sigh].

I have a group of very smart young engineers working for me, and it amazes me how consistently deficient their grammar is. Or have I just turned into a grumpy old man? The worst thing is that it is rubbing off on me, I'm getting sloppy too.  When my wife has to (frequently) correct my use of "I" versus "me".....  that's bad.

Hey you kids! Get off of my lawn!

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The photo above is mostly random, something from the ancient archives.  From way back in  1982 / 1983, shot on Tri-X film, scanned from an 8x10 print.  This was on the north side of Wheaton, MD.  The building was torn down probably 25 years ago when they widened Rt 97.

Barber Jack's, etc.

Barber Jack's has relocated....   Seems like I've been taking a lot of images lately along Rt. 159 in Collinsville.  Something attracts me with the impending changes.  Also seems like I'm doing a lot of square crops lately.  I'm a big believer in cropping to what the image calls for, though I use the "normal" 4x6 most of the time...

Below is an older apartment building on the south side of Collinsville.  I don't know how (or if) it will be impacted by the Rt. 159 expansion.  But I felt like taking a photo...  (and NOT square!)

Geared

Another close-up of the peg-head from my SX 5-String.  this time from the back:

I played the 5-string "out" for the 1st time today, in the Praise Band.  Only 6 weeks since it arrived. but I've been busy.  Seemed to go well, though I'm still getting comfortable w/ the extra string.  It was especially useful on one song where we went down from E to D#.... Band leader said he was diggin' it, so that's good.

American Tune

This one reached #35 in 1973.  A bit of an anticlimax, on the heels of "Kodachrome" and "Loves Me Like A Rock".  But a really nice tune.  Came up on the iPod during yesterday's commute, and I thought I'd share.

click for YouTube

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Manys the time I've been mistaken

And many times confused

Yes, and often felt forsaken

And certainly misused

But I'm all right, I'm all right

I'm just weary to my bones

Still, you dont expect to be bright and bon vivant

So far away from home, so far away from home

Strung

Close up of the head of my SX 5-String Bass.  This shows a limitation of my Point-n-Shoot, I need more depth of field for theis shot.  I should pull out my D-70 and reshoot.  I kinda like the composition, but need crisp front-to-back focus...

Add a quickie from the D-70....  not perfect, but better:

Heart Of...

The Praise Band is playing The Heart Of Worship this Sunday. I generally like to listen to the songs we’re playing a few times between practice (Wednesday evening) and Sunday. Either on Youtube, or my iPod… Anyway, point of this story, I dialed up “Heart Of Worship” yesterday on the iPod, and noticed quite a few “Heart Of” songs. So I made a playlist:

• Heart Of An Angel – Van Zant
• Heart Of Glass – Blondie
• Heart Of Gold – Neil Young
• Heart Of Ice – Joe Jackson
• Heart Of Stone – Rolling Stones
• Heart Of The City – Nick Lowe
• Heart Of The Country – Paul McCartney
• Heart Of The Night – Poco
• Heart Of The Sunrise – Yes

Most Important Technological Invention of the past 25 years...

I gotta vote for the iPod.  It has changed my life in ways I could only imagine just a couple of years ago. 

Yes, I now carry my entire musical collection (almost) with me wherever I go.  I plug my iPod into my car stereo.  I plug my iPod into my home stereo system, I plug my iPod into speakers at work.  Every once in a while, I break out the earbuds and listen that way!!  I wake up somtimes to an alarm from my iPod (and a playlist of Thelonius Monk).  I even plug my iPod into my bass amplifier when I want to practice with recorded music.  My currnet iPod (my 2nd) is 80 Gig, and currently has just under 12,000 songs on it.

Grumpy

I generally try to avoid politics on this blog.  If you know me, you know where I stand.  But, I saw this trailer on last Saturday's drive to Murray Kentucky, and couldn't resist.  This guy seems to feel pretty strongly about the state of things, enough to spray paint his trailer.  And not just the back but both sides (which I didn't photograph).   And no points for neatness!

In case you can't read it, it says:

No Jobs

Housing a Bust

New Taxes

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Vote Them ALL Out Now

I've followed politcs since the early 70's when I was a teenager, and Watergate was big news. But I'm pretty sure I've never seen things as messed up as they are now, nor as many people bubbling over with frustration. I can understand the feeling that our representatives aren't representing the "regular people"...

So now what?