2013 Soulard Mardi Gras Parade

Posted on February 9, 2013 by RegenAxe

Nemo of the Banana Bike Brigade

Hilary’s Krewe

Let the Parade Begin – SLPD

The Hill Boys

Yellow Submarine by Rue’d, Lou’d And Krewe’d

Starfish from Aquaman’s Justice League Mardi Gras Party

I bicycled down to the river today, for this year’s Soulard Mardi Gras Parade. You have to be specific about these parades, because there are three Mardi Gras parades in Saint Louis. Last weekend hosted the dog parade in Soulard; imagine costumed pups threading the crowd in the narrow streets of this early 19th century neighborhood. This Tuesday, the actual Fat Tuesday, will host a Mardi Gras parade downtown, but today’s parade is the main event, second only to New Orleans, in these United States.

Normally, we do Mardi Gras with Gary and Linda, members of Team Kaldis. They live in Soulard and generally throw a terrific party on this Saturday. Gary has this parade down to a science, what with portable scaffolding that he can set up at the last minute, giant hand shaped rakes to snag the lofted strings of beads and several hundred Jell-O shots. Everything goes better with Jell-O. This year, they wanted to take a year off from their hosting duties and get out and see what their neighbor’s are up to for a change. I hope that they’re back to form next year.

So, since I didn’t have to brave the crowd in Soulard, I decided to watch the parade closer to downtown, closer to its origin. At Broadway and Chouteau the crowd wasn’t as thick, drunk, crude or lewd, as in Soulard proper. This parade is different from any of the myriad other parades that occur every year in town. Saint Louis sure does love its parades. This parade has a pretty stiff entry fee, $300 for a walking Krewe and $500 for a Krewe with a float. The word “Krewe” is a generic term used to describe any carnival organization or club. The word was coined by the oldest such organization in New Orleans, the Mystik Krewe of Comus who believed in 1857 that the word gave the club’s name an “olde-English” flavor.

There are three Krewe types in this parade: the corporate Krewe, the civic organization Krewe and the real Krewe. You can always tell a real Krewe from any of the others, because they are not trying to sell you anything. A real Krewe always has an interesting name, like the following examples illustrate:

Weekend Society for the Prevention of Sobriety
Bodacious Bead Blasters
Grand Sultans of Excess
Krewe of the Creatively Confused

My favorite Krewe was the Krewe of the Mystic Knights of the Purple Haze. Their float was Aquaman’s Justice League Mardi Gras Party. The red starfish, the last photo, is part of their Krewe. Maybe, I’ll revisit this Krewe on Tuesday, because just one picture of one member does not do this Krewe justice. They had a float to die for. Plus, they won first place. The Banana Bike Brigade, pictured first, took second place with their Finding Nemo theme. Having super-storm Nemo occurring on the same weekend, probably didn’t hurt their chances any. They are an example of a “walking” Krewe, because they had no float.

YOLO

Posted on January 28, 2013 by RegenAxe

Portrait of a Woman, Roman, Imperial period, 2nd century, gouache on wood

As per usual, the highlight of SNL last weekend was the Lonely Island digital short. This time the show’s host Adam Levine and musical guest Kendrick Lamar pitched in to help out. The target of their derision was the most annoying 2012 neologism, YOLO. This acronym is shorthand for you only live once. Here is a link to SNL’s YOLO short. YOLO was voted in a Time Magazine poll, the word or phrase that most people thought should be banned in 2013. So, if we only live once and if life is so short, why am I still wasting precious breath on this annoying phrase?

The picture with this post is a portrait of an Egyptian woman who lived almost two-thousand years ago. Nothing remains of her except for this painting in the Saint Louis Art Museum. Her eyes make this a striking image, but was that really her or was it an artifact of the artist’s style? The text that follows is the museums description of this artwork.

Large, almond-shaped eyes dominate this striking portrait of a well-to-do Egyptian woman (note her gold and pearl earrings). Created using gouache paint on wood, this portrait was likely commissioned while she was still alive, capturing her in middle age with gray-streaked hair and deep forehead creases. Gouache paint is similar to watercolor but modified to make it an opaque painting medium. At her death, it would have been placed on her coffin. Unlike the idealized faces from dynastic Egypt, this portrait from Egypt’s Roman period portrays the subject as she looked during her life.

Carpe diem – seize the day has a similar connotation as YOLO, except that YOLO has been engulfed as an Internet meme that is probably the main reason that so many people are sick of this acronym. There are far too many pictures on the web that show people yelling YOLO, just before they do something stupid. Life is both short and uncertain. All to soon any one of us will be considered lucky to have a bit of painted wood, to be remembered with.

In the spirit of YOLO, I took the afternoon off from work today. Most of my office had already bailed, by the time that I left work. This afternoon was a gorgeous 73 °F day. It was a great day for a bicycle ride, because you know, YOLO. 😉

Love and Fate on the Rocks

Posted on January 19, 2013 by RegenAxe

Bike Girl Rides Again

Lattes in Love

Ice Slide

Missouri Ballet Theater Dancers

Mustache Sculpture

Juggler on Stilts

The Sights You See, When You Do Have a Camera

Friday night, Joanie, Anne and I had dinner at Yen Ching’s. At the end of dinner they served fortune cookies and the check. My fortune was the following:

You can’t ride in all directions at one time.

Well the Chinese laborer who made that cookie has never seen me in Forest Park. East, South, West, North and then repeat, as I ride around the bike path. I call that riding in all directions at one time. It is traveling in a circle, which is the meaning of the message, but sometimes that’s a good thing.

Saturday was a beautiful day. The high was a balmy 67 °F, under a crystal blue sky. Today was a rare January day and I rode out to enjoy as much of it as I could, because the forecast calls for more seasonal weather tomorrow, followed by bitter cold. The mercury is running like a rollercoaster, one day it’s up, the next day it comes crashing down. When I left, Anne was making some noises about picking her bicycle up from Mesa.

All the beautiful people were out and about in the park. I was into my third podcast (NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour and Slate’s Political and Culture Gabfests) when Anne called. She had ridden her bike the half-mile home from the shop and wanted to do some more riding. We agreed to meet at the De Mun Kaldis. I arrived first ordered a pair of lovely lattés and a plate of nachos. Don’t laugh, the Kaldis nachos really rock. After lunch we rode home together. I was ever watchful, ready to thrust my body between Anne and any passive-aggressive parked car or any mean piece of asphalt. I hope that I didn’t make her too nervous doing this.

It was good to see her get back on the bike. It has been a long wait. When we were unlocking our bikes outside of Kaldis, we overheard a trio of hipsters. One was speaking with a fourth over her cell. The other party was late joining them, because they had spent 45 minutes in traffic, trying to navigate the Loop. The Loop was hosting its annual ice carnival today. After shepherding Anne safely home (don’t worry, this phase won’t last long), I re-launched towards U City. The place was mobbed, nothing like sixty degree weather to bring out the ice carnival devotes.

Delmar was filled with four lines of stationary cars. The outermost two lanes were officially parked. The middle two lanes were effectively parked. Fortunately, there was plenty of room for me to slip between the cars, as I glided up and down the avenue. My only real traffic issues occurred, when I dismounted and joined the throngs on either sidewalk.

4 Guys Biking Across America

Posted on January 16, 2013 by RegenAxe

Hey Kayak Woman, below are pictured a few things that you don’t have to fling. You might want to wash them out though. Four hot, sweaty and dusty guys for your birthday.

4 Guys Who Are Biking Across America

I met these four guys a couple of summers ago on the Katy Trail. The Katy is a rails-to-trails bike path that nearly spans the State of Missouri, east-to-west. They had started from California and were eventually headed to someplace on the East coast. Their goal on this day was Saint Louis. One of them had an uncle in town. There were two things that they wanted to see, while visiting the Lou, the Arch, naturally, but also Crown Candy Kitchen. Crown Candy is a venerable soda fountain on the near north side. I had no idea that its fame had reached so far and wide, but when we stop there, we tend to do takeout, too crowded.

Happy Birthday Cousin Anne

Cousin Anne, happy birthday, and happy trails to you!

It’s Not Easy Being Green

Posted on January 15, 2013 by RegenAxe

Toyota Prius

The U.S. Department of Transportation is proposing new rules that would require hybrid and electric vehicles to add artificial sounds. This proposal is designed to make these very quiet vehicles easier to detect by pedestrians, especially the visually impaired. DoT has proposed a dozen acceptable sounds here, but they are all pretty boring.

NPR’s “All Things Considered” crowdsourced its audience and came away with a number of better and more humorous examples. The favorite one came from the TV series “The Jetson”. The iconic sound of their flying car is found above.

Me, My Bicycle and My Shadow

The NPR article goes on to enumerate a number of their other candidate sounds. Including the sound of cards in the spokes of a bicycle wheel. It can be found below.

The article then goes on to suggest that what your silent electric car really needs is its own theme song. They even have a suggestion or two. The following YouTube video has Kermit the frog singing, “It’s not easy being green”.