.

I get a lot of email photography newsletters. Most of them are deleted because I don't remotely have the time to read them. I would if I were not a photo addict, but then I wouldn't have a reason to subscribe to them, but I am so I can't get around to them. You can see the self-defeating nature of the proposition.

Sometimes the title of a message will get my attention. I saw one a couple of weeks ago about shooting outdoor Christmas decorations, something I have been spectacularly bad at. The problem, it explained, is that if you do this in full darkness (and I usually did) you might expose the glowing lights correctly but the surrounding areas would be pitch black. You have no context. Better to shoot between sunset and complete darkness. If it's clear you get beautiful color on the sky and a good sense of whatever is around the lights. They look great when it's just dark enough for them to stand out.

So I tried it in Citygarden during my Christmas Eve shoot. Works great. The email also recommended use of a tripod but my camera has very little noise at ISO 800 or 1600 so I did without. It also suggested using tungsten white balance but I prefer to adjust the color temperature in Bridge or Lightroom for better fine control. Yesterday's post used the same technique. I think it worked out pretty good.

Citygarden has unique Christmas decorations. These white glass globes glow and pulse with changing colors, giving them an eerie look. Will something strange hatch by New Year's Eve?

KCTV sums it up:

HOUSE DECISION WOULD RAISE YOUR TAXES

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -The U.S. House of Representatives failed to take action Tuesday to extend the payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits for millions.

The House rejected a two-month extension to 160 million Americans on their payroll taxes. This means if you made $50,000 annually then you'll pay about $1,000 more in taxes in 2012.

The Senate-approved bill would have allowed millions of unemployed Americans to continue receiving jobless benefits.

Merry Christmas!
12/27/2011

Congresswoman Hartzler Fights to Allow Taxpayer-Funded Christmas Cards
12/27/2011

What’s Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler been doing up in Washington?  Well, besides complaining about having to show up at work at her tax-payer funded job, her latest crusade is for us taxpayers to pay for her Christmas cards.  No, really.

For someone who has received hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in farm subsidies, you’d think Congressman Hartzler would be able to pop for a few of her own Christmas cards.

Bah humbug.

Special Delivery
12/27/2011

The Home Stretch
12/27/2011

Okay boys and girls, we are in the home stretch. Just a few days left before the Iowa caucuses and a blessed winnowing of the panelette. Of course, if Cranky Dr. Paul wins, all bets are off and the group surges to New Hampshire intact.

As you meet with family and friends over the next week or so, try and stay civil with Uncle Otis and his railing against the war on Christmas. Tell Cousin Mabel that, yes, that Michele Bachmann sure is cute. The Obama haters in your family will be in full throat, but in the spirit of the holidays, smile and say yes, we do need change. No need to be specific. They’ll be talking about “activist” judges who need to be run out of town on a rail and how gays are ruining the military and the country. It won’t be easy. Miss Liberty’s brother thinks she is unpatriotic, which is pretty hard for someone named Liberty Belle to understand.

You might throw out a few questions of your own, politely, of course. Does Newt believe his own bombast? Has Governor Good Hair Perry really read the Constitution or just the Cliff notes? Flip Flooper Romney was on David Letterman with a list of revelations – is it really a hair piece? Suits Santorum is rising in the polls. Are Iowans catching fire as he hopes? Governor/Ambassador Huntsman is just a footnote, but is he really a republican? Have you heard of Gary Johnson? Do you want The Donald orJeb Bush to jump in and save the country? Try a multiple choice quiz on the candidates’ positions. It could be fun. Or it could spawn a brawl.

At any rate, Miss Liberty wishes all (even my unpatriotic brother) a happy holiday. Oops, she meant Merry Christmas.

Man of the People Brunner Headed to Cayman Islands
12/27/2011

Perhaps GOP Senate wannabe John Brunner's feeling a little frozen out of the campaign for the nomination of his party to run against Sen. Claire McCaskill, or maybe he just wants to prove himself a man of the people by taking a good ol' family vacation, because according to the P-D, Brunner will be heading out to the warmer climes of the Cayman Islands for Christmas.

To his personal vacation home.

Because, you know, don't we all decide to pack up the entire family and head off to our own vacation homes on a tropical island 1500 miles from home?  I know I do!

If you, too, want to head to a tropical paradise for Christmas and New Year's, you can get a bargain basement round trip ticket from St. Louis to Grand Cayman for just over $1,000 leaving tomorrow and returning just after the New Year; and if you don't own your own home on the islands like Brunner, well, you can dole out an average of $250 a night for a hotel or guest cottage.

If that's still too much for your average Missouri household making $45,000, Brunner's campaign would like to let you know that you don't have to "be out in the cold." For $25 they're more than happy to send you pair of earmuffs.  No word on whether they're embroidered with palm trees or not.

Darkow on House GOP's Refusal to Support Bipartisan Payroll Tax Bill
12/27/2011

None of This Actually Creates Jobs
12/27/2011

PoliticMo: "The second pillar is called 'Missouri Jobs'...The caucus will support major parts of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce’s legislative agenda, including reform of workers compensation, a fix to the state’s second injury fund, changes to employment law, and tort reform."

The Twelve Days of Akin
12/27/2011

As Christmas time approaches, it appears many in Congress may indeed receive that well-deserved lump of coal. Whether it’s protecting millionaires from having to pay taxes or cutting the unemployment lifeline for jobless workers, those like Rep. Todd Akin must truly be into the taking rather than the giving spirit of Christmas.

Unfortunately our dear friend Todd Akin has not given Missouri families an opportunity to sing this holiday season with his many questionable and regretful decisions this past year.

With no further delay, I present the “12 Days of Akin” holiday carol, sure to warm the hearts of the many without a payroll tax cut or at risk of losing their jobless benefits this year.

“The 12 Days of Akin” …

On the [First] Day of Christmas, Akin was a scrooge to me…

[1^st] Raised taxes on working families

[2^nd] Tried to force a government shutdown

[3^rd] Said medicares unconstitutional

[4^th] Called us God-hating liberals

[5^th] Ran from five town hall meetings

[6^th] Tried to privatize social security

[7^th] Wants to eradicate the EPA

[8^th] Voted to slash unemployment benefits

[9^th] Called Obama a flaming socialist

[10^th] Doesn’t believe in global warming

[11^th] Faked a Paul Ryan endorsement

[12^th] Doesn’t even live in his own district

Washington Avenue revisited
12/22/2011

It's been several months in the making: the Washington Avenue tour is now completely revitalized and up to date.



So much has happened on the Avenue, and my own standards for page and image format have risen so much, that a complete revamp was the only option. I've re-scanned all the old photographs, in many cases setting them alongside new ones taken on my most recent St. Louis trip or in the intervening years. Huge amounts of information about many of these buildings is now available online, and I've pulled some of that together as well. I even snuck in the Tudor Building, which featured on a very early version of Built St. Louis but had since fallen off the radar.



The transformations are amazing. Dingy, battered storefronts have been reworked all up and down the Avenue. Dirty facades have been cleaned and repaired. The 2004 streetscape improvements have transformed the area's vibe.



The last fragments of the street's old life, its gritty urban and garment district days, are fading away. Of all the storefront operations visible from the street, only a handful predate the 1990s (Levin's, Levine Hat Company, Mankofsky Shoe Company, possibly the relocated Erlich's Cleaners). Most are less than five years old, and almost none of the businesses I photographed in 2001 remain today.



But the new generation of businesses has brought new life to the street, people and light, neon signs and sidewalk dining. Rising from its threadbare state of ten years ago, Washington Avenue has become the most urbane street in St. Louis.

The town's struggles with racism are legendary. In the late 1960s, the city's black community organized a boycott against segregated white-owned businesses. The owners so adamantly refused to give in that one by one they simply went out of business, over the course of a few years.

Those days may be past, but the city's struggles continue. The town's fall probably has as much to do with the overall centralization of river traffic as any problems created by racism. Cairo isn't much of a port anymore. The Interstates have passed it by, and there isn't much room to grow. The Bunge Corporation maintains a soybean processing plant there, and railroads still loop around and through the town, so little Cairo isn't entirely off the economic map. But there is little else.



Cairo's geography is unfathomable. Sited on a narrow wedge of land between the two rivers, it is perpetually in danger of being washed away by the whims of the mighty rivers. Thus a huge levee rings the entire town. To the south, one simply drives over it. But to the north, where land is lower, a gargantuan metal gate descends to close off a tunnel through the railroad embankment when flood waters rise.



At Fort Defiance Park, one can literally stand at the confluence, the exact point where two thousand miles of river join together. The two channels unite to form a river nearly a mile in width. The view is awe-inspiring. The water was nearly level with the park land on the evening of my visit, an obvious warning of the rivers' power.

Two mighty bridges cross the rivers, connecting the city to Kentucky to the east, and Missouri to the west. They carry two-lane roads, long surpassed by I-57 to the west.





Traces of Cairo's glory days remain. Scattered churches, mansions, and public buildings have been restored and maintained.







But they sit in a landscape wrought with the physical signs of abandonment, of despair: empty lots, reclaimed by forest. Wrecked and ruined buildings. Streets leading nowhere.



It's hard to imagine a bright future for long-suffering Cairo, but there remains a peculiar beauty to its ruins, amplified by its precarious place upon the fickle rivers.

Links:
* More photos
* Cairo, IL at Wikipedia
* Mississippi River web site page on Cairo.

More on 2322 Montgomery at Ecology of Absence.

Links:

• at the city's Geo St Louis database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Links:

• 2541 W Sullivan at the city's Geo St Louis database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Alternately, a new, contemporary design could be put in place. So much of the original facade has been lost that it wouldn't be out of place to perform a purely contemporary intervention.

Either way, Blairmont has a host of wonderful things they can do with this house, now that they own it. By rights, the only problem should be choosing from among the several options.


August 2003 - photograph by Kevin Keiffer

Links:

• 2209 Sullivan at the city's Geo St Louis database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

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