6/23/11

Burn.Question

I move with a relentless force that radiates while staring out the window at clouds, Cooper's hawks, the limestone cornice, and terra cotta rosettes.

I asked: What is your experience with or how would you define freedom?
You looked back with cautiously expressionless eyes.

This is where I engage movement and it articulates and defines me. This is where I achieve validity with constant motion, constant, and it's my only understanding of being free. It's an abstraction that I glimpse when moving, the abstract movement of contrasts, the gentle rub of resistance that is hot and comforting.

You are extensive like light or gravity, a massive incontrovertible force. Substantial. Fluid. Moving.

Freedom is just more capitalism.


----------------
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow.
- T.S. Eliot


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The site:

View from the window:

What's left of Mo State Hospital retains some fascinating details: limestone columns, limestone dentil molding, capitals with melting eagles, rotunda roof (painted, that's not copper patina), massive terra cotta rosettes. The original arched windows are missing. They've been replaced and a concrete lentil rests above each window. Arched windows still remain in the rotunda roof.

I estimate the superb limestone capitals on the front of the building to be 5 feet in height.









6/4/11

Behind the Brick

Brick awaiting repointing on my back porch after being raked. Behind the fine mortar finish was a variety of small rocks which had me wondering about the mechanics of hand selection in 1912.



5/25/11

Fist size

My neighbor holding a piece of hail after the storm. More massive chunks can be seen in the background on the lawns.

5/19/11

Two white guys

Click on the title above for a hilarious story.

My neighbor/friend/contractor being supervised by another white guy:

Gary told me a couple of days ago the world was ending Saturday which made me wonder why both of us were working.
We're cooking up a Rapture Party since I'm taking the pup with me.

5/4/11

Adnan Kadir

Read a book by Sissela Bok called: Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life

2/27/11

The Kingshighway Viaduct and Skate Park

I read (click on the title) that the demo of the KHW viaduct is starting soon and wanted to revisit the area below the deck. I had the willies driving down the rumble strewn road along the east side but was enchanted to encounter a large group of friendly men and their underground DIY skate park complete with freestanding ramps and a recently created 'pool'.

I also had a great chat with the author of http://we-are-the-city.blogspot.com/

It was baffling to discover a dumpster under the bridge.
I called my 10th ward alderman Joe Vollmer. He said he's supportive of them being there -hence the dumpster - and wants to work with them to develop skate parks in our ward.

Reinforced piers:






Missing parapet:


In the middle of the photo there's a small figure, one of a group of boys who'd discovered the LRA board up had been removed:

Cracks in the piers






Entrance to the viaduct from South Kingshighway

Downspout encased in concrete:

2/18/11

I'm back.

I was working.
I worked every single day last year while attending to volunteer business and didn't have much time for brick spotting. I smacked down a lot of debt, did some work on my building, and didn't go on vacation.

My business took me on some long drives on wide highways. I still won't call them interstates. I marveled at expanses of sky while traveling on highway 44. I avoid 40 because it's disorienting. The remodel with its extensive sound barriers is like driving through a courtyard.

Here's a building I encountered on Morgan Ford. The green bricks are spooky and the finish is stucco-ish. Check out the green patina on the original copper gutter and how it matches the green bricks. The original downspout matches and I'm betting that was deliberate.



Gorgeous palette:

Welcome

10/28/10

Arts and Crafts Homes - Maplewood

For a tour of exceptional columns and the stucco finishes of local Arts and Crafts influenced buildings start your tour at Lyndover and Roseland Terrance.







Second floor recessed porch:

Check out the buff color half circle brick wall on the left side of the porch.


10/27/10

Ghetto on Ghetto?

But wait, I was thinking as I skimmed the article (click on the title), Christo already did that. I mean, the man invented the medium.

I started a mild burn...Historic BRICK house but OK, in a depressed area where hey, no worries over a further drop in value. FYI: Depressed area doesn't always mean black folk live there or that they wear gold chains which looks more like a 80s Versace scarf print than wrapped rapper.
Please.

Here's some tedious rhetoric from the artist statement:
...The house, wrapped in gold chains, will flaunt itself to locals, while simultaneously finding itself bound and gagged by its own design.


I'm gagging.

10/18/10

How rude

Never mind that Morgan Ford is once again a thriving business district just resolve your tuckpointing issue with white vinyl siding over historic brick.
Congratulations dimwits, you've just won the hoosier rehabbing Award of the Year!

9/17/10

Morgan Ford In Motion Festival! Sept 25th

Save the date and come out to the Morgan Ford In Motion Festival Saturday, September 25 · 12:00pm - 9:00pm

I'm sharing a booth with my lovely friend Bruk Longbottom of Rodeo Revival fame and the founder of Maid Rite.

A fraction of what I'll be selling can be seen by clicking on the title or cut and paste:
http://christian-herman.blogspot.com/ which includes felts, knits, crochet, and handmade jewelry.

Here's a list of the Bands:
12:00 - 12:45: The Ten Cent Looseys
1:15 - 2:00: Bullet Pop
2:30 - 3:15: One More Round: A Tribute to Johnny Cash
3:45 - 4:30: Last Nights Vice
5:00 - 6:30: Steve Ewing
7:00 - 8:30: Jon Bonham &Friends

This is a FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT: FUN, FRIENDS and FESTIVITIES are planned for the Morgan Ford in Motion Music &Street Festival on Saturday, September 25th. Bring your family for a full day of great bands, booths and incredible food on Morgan Ford.

9/11/10

What's Wrong with this Picture?

As a kid I loved What's Wrong with this Picture? it would display two images that were close but didn't match and the objective was to locate the differences.

Location: The Hill.
Of course.

8/29/10

I went looking for Riley

And only found these outstanding 'bark' bricks

On this building at Miami and Morgan Ford: