respublica

Signs of the times

Rhapsody in Blue and White

Who can imagine dancers running across the high face of this building?

Crowded ways of life?  Yesterday underneath this banner, yes, it was crowded.

It was even crowded on one of Grand Avenue's side streets

A small wind farm crowded onto the corner of Grand and Delmar

Cutting a rug and climbing the walls

St. Louis' Grand Center was given over to dance today.  Performing dancers, food vendors, more dancers, huge crowd.  Click to enlarge

On one stage:

One another stage

But let's cut to the chase, as great as all these stages were, the biggest draw were the dancers from Project Bandaloop out of Oakland California.  They danced on the wall of the Continental building, way way way up.

I took a hundred photos, who could cull them down to a reasonable number.  What a sight this was.

Mesmerizing

Blogger has a webpage named Blogger Play which features a slide show of the photographs being uploaded to various blogger blogs in real time!  This is mesmerizing to say the least, especially when you know all these pictures are being uploaded while you sit and watch and wonder over the many things people all around the world do with images.

According to Blogger via Rick Lee, "Shortly after Blogger launched photo uploading two years ago, one of our engineers whipped up a web page that would show us the pictures that were being uploaded in real time. The result was fun, often beautiful, but above all, compelling. We couldn’t stop watching."

Getting near closing time in Michigan

Today is the last call for the state of Michigan.  If the state lawmakers cannot agree on a budget in a special Saturday session, 35,000 of 53,000 state workers will not be reporting to work on Monday.  The rest are involved in public safety and they will head for work.

One of the state offices which is included in a possible shut down is the lottery office which means no one will be able to buy a lottery ticket or redeem a winning ticket.  All state parks will also be closed which means Lake Michigan will be off limits except for private land owners. 

Where's the MAtH headed next week?  The Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 

Thanks Stephanie!

Cable ratings scorecard

For the week ending September 27.  Via TVNewser

Total Viewers: (LS)

Total day: FNC: 221 | CNN: 154 | MSNBC: 109 | HLN: 104 | CNBC: 71

Prime: FNC: 361 | CNN: 212 | MSNBC: 181 | HLN: 179 | CNBC: 81

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:
FNC	BigStory:	Hume:	Shep:	O'Reilly:	H&C:	Greta:	O'Reilly:
	874	1121	1218	2345	1406	1196	1007
CNN	Blitzer:	Dobbs:	Blitzer:	OutOpen:	King:	Cooper:	Cooper:
	546	750	506	509	873	680	464
MSNBC	Hardball:	Tucker:	Hardball:	Countdo.:	Abrams:	Special:	Special:
	361	250	386	668	425	317	396
HLN	Prime:	Prime:	Beck:	Grace:	Beck:	Grace:	Showbiz:
	210	178	279	661	459	392	335

There is something very satisfying about seeing Chris Matthews and Keith Obermann so far behind the rest.  And yet, they still go on.   And on and on.  The most important demographic for those interested in ratings is the 25 to 54 age group and that is even worse for MSNBC. 

Unique weekend event

At the Grand Center from 2-10 on Saturday (free), Project Bandaloop, an aerial dance company that performs on the face of cliffs and skyscrapers.   You just have to find a way to go and see this, dancers dangling from the south side of the Continental Building 150 feet above Olive St. at Grand Center.  This part of the program will be at 4 and 7:30. 

In the same area, Grand Center, the 6th annual Green Homes Festival and Home Tour will be held.  Parking will be chancy with both events overlapping, but the Green Festival has free lots available.

Friday quotables

The fact that only 17% of the Police Department's 1,859 employees indicated they do not have confidence in Chief Joe Mokwa is hardly an indicator of any widespread discontent.  St. Louis Mayor Slay

"We realize the chief is not responsible for all of our issues."  Sgt. Kevin Ahlbrand St Louis Police Officers President.

"He's out there somewhere."   Roger Vincent, president of the Missouri Emergency Response Service, on the last bull missing from the overturned cattle truck.

"Let me be clear. I think Republican consultants are mostly very stupid. I think they have no education. I think they have no sense of history."  Newt Gingrich

"I'd like to be able to spout all my beliefs on the air, but I'm not a political person."  Martha Stewart before her interview with Bill Clinton.

"I'm definitely in favor of Hillary as president. I think she'd be a great president. It's very early in the campaign, though." Martha Stewart before the same show.

The State Park incorporation study

Can be read here on the city's website.

From the air it looks like...oh no!

A U.S. navy base in Coronado California will be spending over $600,000 to disguise what its barracks complex looks like from the air.  No one knew that the architecture looked like a swastika until the advent of Google Earth?  Until an obscure Missouri radio talk show started beating the drum to get this place changed? 

Via the L.A. Times

15 largest cities by rank and population

Mayor Slay's blog has a list of the largest 15 cities in the country by rank and population, but no link to where he got this information.  Slay's blog never links to sources which is a 'source' of frustration when attempting to verify or flesh out his postings.

The list is out of the ordinary in that St. Louis is ranked number 7.  You just know this can't be correct, the city has under a million people, maybe under half a million people, but wait...St. Louis got to add in the population numbers for St. Louis County.  Ah.