tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140223912024-03-14T12:10:55.559-05:00MID-CENTURY DREAMMission: To preserve, catalog and celebrate the signage, architecture, and graphic sensibilities characteristic of the period from around 1930 to 1970.
And to have a good ol' time doing so.Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-25744880746499009482007-12-17T09:23:00.000-06:002008-12-12T21:31:02.663-06:00Stickin' It to the Mansard<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><a href="http://tobybelt.blogspot.com/2007/12/absurd-mansard-in-sunset-hills.html">Toby's recent piece</a> on the mansard-enshrouded little building in South St. Louis County inspired me to dig through my files for a photo I took a few years back near downtown Belleville, Illinois. I'm not sure exactly where this building stood or if it still looks like this, but it's undeniably a shining example of some hot mansard-on-mansard action.</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqYxucTXzWgZvvTu9_WIozx7O1GkY56h_r8pMV7PDRCOCk-UGE-Yvn11viKkNIULNNfL8Ad1p2mm7MraovilSh8qZnBtPcaZYsTj8FFJBlEwytrTxKUQLQspa8M3r2R_1AaWKZ/s1600-h/mansard.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5144963198229913922" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqYxucTXzWgZvvTu9_WIozx7O1GkY56h_r8pMV7PDRCOCk-UGE-Yvn11viKkNIULNNfL8Ad1p2mm7MraovilSh8qZnBtPcaZYsTj8FFJBlEwytrTxKUQLQspa8M3r2R_1AaWKZ/s400/mansard.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div></div>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com161tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-63070723872901122622007-12-02T11:50:00.000-06:002007-12-10T16:43:17.457-06:00SWSL updateThat last batch of homework before finals has kept me from doing much exploring outside my immediate neighborhood, and a cold (as well as "the cold" in general) has been keeping me indoors for a few days. Fortunately, there's a lot going on around my immediate neighborhood, and now I have time to sit here and write about it. And cough. And go through a couple boxes of Puffs Plus, which is about the only tissue my poor nose can tolerate right now--even though it's kind of like honkin' into a fat-infused sheet of Bounce.<br /><br /><span style="color:#cccccc;">Remember when I was discussing the opening of <strong>Aya Sofia</strong> just a couple of years ago? Well, it's gone already. (So's my post on the topic; its reference to Wagr33n5 attracted so much spam that I had to delete it.) The humble rough-wood siding that made Aya Sofia (and Rizzo's before it) look so homey has been replaced by a grandiose facade treatment that makes the building look like the runty little brother of one of those high-end furniture hangars out in Ballwin. Don't know what's moving in yet.</span> <br /><br />Just across Chippewa (at Lansdowne), <strong>Lion's Choice</strong> has finally opened. It's only the second location within city limits for the 40-year-old chain (the other one opened not too long ago downtown), and the drive-thru is constantly hoppin'. No word on whether the nearby Arby's is suffering yet. I'd say probably. (I'd been hinting around since 1990 that they should put a Lion's Choice on Kingshighway, somewhere near Uncle Bill's--but this was before the better location on Chippewa became available. Say, does anyone else think the strip of Kingshighway between Chippewa and Home Depot has a kinda Chicago feel to it? Dunno why, I just do.)<br /><br />A little farther east, eulogies for the <strong>St. Louis Hills Office Center</strong> were premature; the demolition of the structurally-unsound parking garage was just a necessary bit of cosmetic surgery. The random pieces of billboard graphics hung from the structure to keep the dust down provided a nice little public art installation for a while, too. I'm glad they're repurposing the main building, and it's nice to be able to see all the foliage that was previously hidden from the intersection. (Well, there's no foliage NOW, obviously, but that's fall for you.) Toby will keep you <a href="http://tobybelt.blogspot.com/2007/11/st-louis-hills-office-center-stands.html">apprised!</a><br /><br />Nearby there's an isolated little business block that hasn't had a vacant storefront for as long as I can remember...you know the one; it's got a dragon rising out of the sidewalk. It's always been a cheerful little strip, and the wild new purple-and-yellow facade of <strong><a href="http://www.stlouisgooeybuttercake.com/">Gooey Louie</a></strong> makes it even more vibrant. (The proprietors of Gooey Louie, specializing in a local treat called the gooey butter cake, could have benefited from a pre-emptive peek at <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Gooey+Louie">Urban Dictionary</a>.)<br /><br />This is sad: The cool old neon sign at <strong>Donut Drive-In</strong> (Chippewa at Watson) is gone. I wonder if someone ran into it. Seemed inevitable.<br /><br />There's a lot going on in the Southtown strip along Kingshighway, too. The remodeling of <strong>Shop 'n' Save</strong> and the rebirth of the <strong>Kriegshauser Funeral Home</strong> as a church (hey, it always looked like a Spanish mission anyway)--not to mention the pathetic occpancy rate at <strong>Southtown Plaza</strong>--are making it look less and less likely that the entire southeast corner of Chippewa/Kingshighway will be wiped out, as previously rumored, and replaced with a shopping center anchored by Sam's Club. <em>So</em>...Any deluded hermits out there who are still waiting for someone to give you a million dollars for your abandoned southside movie theater, PLEASE stop holding it hostage and let someone throw you a few thousand bucks a month to fix it up as a brew 'n' view or something.<br /><br />So anyway, I was at the South Kingshighway DMV the other day and I hardly recognized the <strong>McDonald's</strong> next door! For years it was one of their tackiest remodeling jobs, fronted by a gaudy PlayPlace--but suddenly it's a sleek, clean, compact, adult-friendly example of up-to-the-minute fast-food design. The interior's done in tasteful browns and blues, and there's now a double drive-thru lane. The employees even seem to have their act together more than they used to; the whole front line was friendly, everyone was hustling, and they even got my order right. I'd be happy to see ALL of those PlayPlaces scraped off, frankly; how appetizing can a fast-food place be if the first phrase that pops into your mind when it comes into view is "BALL PIT?" I know this was supposed to attract the kids, but somebody at the home office apparently realized, after much time and money was spent on market research, that it's not usually the children who are driving or paying for the food.<br /><br />Across Kingshighway, that old, closed streamline-moderne garage that was painted electric blue for years has been remodeled into <a href="http://bestof.riverfronttimes.com/bestof/award.php?award=377519">Eddie's Southtown Donuts</a>. The building's lost its mid-century character, but at least it's now contributing something to the economy--and<a href="http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2007/08/17/news/sj2tn20070814-0815ssj_donut.ii1.txt"> public safety</a>. Still stuck in a picturesque time warp--at least for now--is the tiny building up the block that, for years, housed a locksmith business. The locksmith has relocated now, and hopefully someone will find a use for this adorable little storefront.<br /><br />I also spend a lot of time in Webster Groves, and the Old Orchard commercial strip has just been jolted out of an unusually long period of stable business occupancy. The floor-covering store next to Weber's Front Row is gone, and a new tenant (anyone know who?) is presently bustling its way in. On the same block, the <strong>Bike and Rack Shack</strong> just put up a Going-Out-Of-Business sign. Webster would be a great place for a large, full-service bike shop, wouldn't it? I wouldn't wish any ill upon the <strong><a href="http://hwy61roadhouse.admitonevip.com/">61 Roadhouse</a></strong>--<em>mmm, bbq!--</em>but if it ever moves out (like, maybe, to Highway 61? Just an idea) or goes belly-up, its building right by the railroad tracks would make a PERFECT bike shop. You know what happens to railroad tracks when they get decommissioned, right?<br /><br />One last Webster note: I can't believe <a href="http://www.ozarktheater.com/">this</a> is actually happening--and I don't know what will ultimately become of it--but it's looking great these days.<br /><br />Got anything enlightening to add? It's always good to hear from other armchair real-estate mavens.<br /><br /><strong><em>UPDATE: Aya Sofia, I have learned (thank you, readers), is not out of business! They merely closed temporarily to do a little remodeling, during which their sign was spirited away. They may have looked defunct, but they most certainly are not. So dine, by all means! Dine!!</em></strong>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com307tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-1755777001213838762007-11-20T08:48:00.001-06:002008-12-12T21:31:03.416-06:00A lazy afternoon in Columbia, ILBefore I declare Upside-Down Library Guy's behavior too unorthodox, I should confess that I subsequently found myself in the ladies' room of two small-town libraries within the next hour. The all-female staffs of the libraries in both Dupo and Columbia are apparently pretty lax about refilling the soap in the men's room, and when you gotta wash, you gotta wash.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ990EFLeLtrj1J4FhPS28lMVTsMxvJW6A4q3Lxq_RvQkp2G8H-_r1QraDuCbMnn2Q7movCEqDLcfmqtKnlG1lEXPRfHi1edvz3le8HoxVHEaxZed5Z41P9Sj89BC0rLMH_1wO/s1600-h/IL-Columbia-Tiny's+interior.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ990EFLeLtrj1J4FhPS28lMVTsMxvJW6A4q3Lxq_RvQkp2G8H-_r1QraDuCbMnn2Q7movCEqDLcfmqtKnlG1lEXPRfHi1edvz3le8HoxVHEaxZed5Z41P9Sj89BC0rLMH_1wO/s400/IL-Columbia-Tiny's+interior.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134953752398808530" border="0" /></a><br /> You can't spend a 73-degree November day indoors, though, so I took a nice walk up and down Main Street in relentlessly-pleasant Columbia, IL. I stopped for a burger and a Boulevard at <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tiny's Pub & Grill </span><span>(above)</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">,</span> a sprawling establishment that contains a small, traditional tavern in front, a newer, brighter bar and pool room in the back with a vaulted ceiling and a south-of-the-border flair, and a spacious patio. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3H0sSFgssP3Q8CmgWp_iPtg27mBAMvwJ3cDk9gnSxKRu5faq8VKUJZIajrtWU6iNnosPs8oRWozkM-CCgteTaZz2qQuL35Epcwv0HsILiPKUH8fkrDgl1WwumsqSMiYlPTPB7/s1600-h/IL-Columbia-Greenfield's.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3H0sSFgssP3Q8CmgWp_iPtg27mBAMvwJ3cDk9gnSxKRu5faq8VKUJZIajrtWU6iNnosPs8oRWozkM-CCgteTaZz2qQuL35Epcwv0HsILiPKUH8fkrDgl1WwumsqSMiYlPTPB7/s400/IL-Columbia-Greenfield's.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134944080132457890" border="0" /></a> I peered into the windows of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Greenfield's</span> (above), a charmingly old-school restaurant and lounge that was until recently run by the family of a friend of mine, and now stands empty. The actual bar within is supposedly Columbia's oldest (the building dates back about 150 years), cut from a single piece of solid walnut. I located Columbia's most distinctive piece of mid-century architecture (below...and please correct me, Columbians, if I'm wrong). <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Gsg1AcKv-VtzLePPgU-tHJK_mVcxhRxYT-cbOgkJs_GXS0HblpqfbT7qe9K-OSfonCPlbjOFx1abdVpsOZx1X4m4MLCVE9sTyFzsLPgXU8HbKW7ixN7DemvcvXL_85FceBMP/s1600-h/IL-Columbia-Harrisonville+Tel+Co.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Gsg1AcKv-VtzLePPgU-tHJK_mVcxhRxYT-cbOgkJs_GXS0HblpqfbT7qe9K-OSfonCPlbjOFx1abdVpsOZx1X4m4MLCVE9sTyFzsLPgXU8HbKW7ixN7DemvcvXL_85FceBMP/s400/IL-Columbia-Harrisonville+Tel+Co.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134952442433783234" border="0" /></a> Then, to rest and get in out of the Thanksgiving-week heat, I popped back into the library.<p><br /> The back issues of the local paper are bound rather than microfilmed here, which is a lot easier on the eyes. I plowed through all of 1950 looking for any news of business openings or closings, and didn't find much: Just a dry-cleaner changing hands, a church expansion, and the remodeling of a restaurant (Wayne's) and the local Turner's Hall. The <span style="font-style: italic;">Columbia Star</span>--in 1950, at least--has to be the most boring small-town newspaper ever. There aren't many photos, and the front page is regularly populated by wedding announcements and small children's birthday parties. The local movie house didn't even advertise, sparing the Star even a mild burst of Hollywood hype. The high spot was definitely the comics page. <p><br /> Like a lot of small-town papers, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Star</span> settled for second-string strips. (Today's analogues would be <span style="font-style: italic;">Fred Basset, The Born Loser,</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Frank & Ernest</span>.) I look at old papers a lot, and the only two strips I recognized were <span style="font-style: italic;">Virgil</span>--a fairly creative, <span style="font-style: italic;">Skippy</span>-style "kid strip"--and <span style="font-style: italic;">Mutt and Jeff.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Mutt and Jeff</span> was still pretty good in 1950, with smart, unorthodox pacing and a regular flow of absurd Jeff-isms. But what I'd like to call your attention to is a trio of strips I'd never seen before. <p><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> Silent Sam</span>, as it turns out, is pretty well-documented online; it's an American adaptation of a Swedish strip called <span style="font-style: italic;">Anderson's Adventures</span>, and Jeff Hayes was just one of several artists to draw the strip over the years (he ran things from 1941 to 1953). Sam usually wore a large hat, but in this beach-based strip, he resembles Bruce Willis acting out a <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://kingfeatures.com/features/comics/henry/about.htm">Henry</a></span> gag.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibURfMucPbh-vjitv5EQNSwhNZDJREmon3uE4-hYe1fNQus12Am_5YRoDKU04R5VcLFZv_G9uf15cTXaX56APyedCizmuMrS-ZGYLcAfvvWFfE6oCw76gnOn-mwQjuI2j-TKxj/s1600-h/Silent+Sam+1950.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibURfMucPbh-vjitv5EQNSwhNZDJREmon3uE4-hYe1fNQus12Am_5YRoDKU04R5VcLFZv_G9uf15cTXaX56APyedCizmuMrS-ZGYLcAfvvWFfE6oCw76gnOn-mwQjuI2j-TKxj/s400/Silent+Sam+1950.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134943616275989906" border="0" /></a><br /> Perhaps the most distinctive strip in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Star</span> during this period--due to its dogged single-mindedness and fitfully awful art--was <span style="font-style: italic;">The Old Gaffer</span>, by Clay Hunter (now making its first Google appearance, thanks to yours truly). I have no idea how long the strip had been around by 1950, but for the first few months of the year, EVERY SINGLE STRIP WAS ABOUT THE DUDE'S BEARD. (Granted, the Star was not a daily paper, so there may have been more <span style="font-style: italic;">Old Gaffer</span>s than I was privy to, but it's appalling enough that the good people of Columbia, IL, at the very least, were treated to such an unyielding onslaught of hoary whisker humor.) By summertime, Hunter was mixing in the occasional joke about Gaff's advanced age. (He was in the Revolutionary War! Ho ho!!) These were no better; in fact they were a little disappointing. By this time, I was actually getting curious about what would appear in the little fella's Santa-esque appendage in the next <span style="font-style: italic;">Star:</span> it had by now hosted birds, alphabet soup, and even a booby trap that thwarted a would-be mugger. It had allowed the Gaffer to smart-off to pushy salesmen trying to sell him belts and ties. It had warmed his ancient ass at a football game. Switching the focus away from the beard at this point was tantamount to Lucy letting Charlie Brown kick the football, or Jon Arbuckle scoring with a girl. (Oh, wait, that happened.)<p><br />The <span style="font-style: italic;">Old Gaffer</span> you see here is a bit atypical, in that the "extra" is atypically non-hideous. Generally, any one-shot character drawn by Hunter was frighteningly ugly and amateurishly-drawn. Mr. Google Glasses here is unusually pleasant.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzTYQ66xM6Rppsmp6ieAweEH4sFp3cZGizgDBGG72OnwqgAPcq3F7JhNf9vNOyXfh3NdLcxzKmuQnZgGhT1HKXYHqgy4FeubbFdRu_nOE6-AYadkDwbqxJmEpBvqAgKFILAqFU/s1600-h/Old+Gaffer+1950.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzTYQ66xM6Rppsmp6ieAweEH4sFp3cZGizgDBGG72OnwqgAPcq3F7JhNf9vNOyXfh3NdLcxzKmuQnZgGhT1HKXYHqgy4FeubbFdRu_nOE6-AYadkDwbqxJmEpBvqAgKFILAqFU/s400/Old+Gaffer+1950.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134948645682693554" border="0" /></a><br /> The only reason you're seeing <span style="font-style: italic;">Sunnyside</span> above as well: I was struck by the simultaneous and identical headfirst ejections of two characters straight out of the panel (and presumably clear off the comics page) by the punchlines in two adjacent strips. Since I did include <span style="font-style: italic;">Sunnyside</span>, though, I might as well share a little trivia: The noticeably well-drawn strip ran from 1949 to 1951 and was produced by Clark S. Haas, who nearly a decade later would be partially responsible for the groundbreakingly weird TV cartoon <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.toontracker.com/clutchcargo/cargo.htm">Clutch Cargo</a></span>, and eventually worked on mediocre Hanna-Barbera fare such as <span style="font-style: italic;">Speed Buggy.</span> Sure, you remember <span style="font-style:italic;">Speed Buggy.</span> It was the Saturday Morning show that answered the unasked question: "What if Scooby-Doo was a car?"Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-16255805220232453572007-11-19T19:19:00.000-06:002008-12-12T21:31:03.816-06:00Dupo, IL: A new perspective<div>This has nothing to do with anything, really, but it's too good to pass up.</div><br /><br /><div>This morning I was doing a little research at the library in Dupo, IL. The only other person there besides the librarians was a normal-lookin' dude with a shaved head, sitting at one of the computer terminals. After I'd been reading a local-history book for a few minutes, I glanced over and noticed that this fellow had draped himself over a chair and was just hanging there upside down, feet in the air, giggling intermittently. This went on for a good fifteen minutes.</div><br /><br /><div>Eventually, an older gentleman came in to drop off a book and asked one of the librarians "Is that young man all right?" She sort of laughed it off, but then called the upside-down patron by his name and told him to cut it out. He righted himself, still giggling a little, and walked toward the desk. "What on earth were you doing?" she asked him.</div><br /><br /><div>"Just tryin' to stay off of the Internet," he replied.</div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWyjZhsxeO03-Z39msKDxbGig6loYE63Ce5xaNhMaJseTExk1EpqgaFfoH81XdvyWlUU4smGcMCnOkeFhZ42hxA6w1N8OGDa0mlDM0EjD2P3vq8ljlQ0tz-Se5Ef2tTIVlltpl/s1600-h/upsidedownguy.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134727390442440066" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWyjZhsxeO03-Z39msKDxbGig6loYE63Ce5xaNhMaJseTExk1EpqgaFfoH81XdvyWlUU4smGcMCnOkeFhZ42hxA6w1N8OGDa0mlDM0EjD2P3vq8ljlQ0tz-Se5Ef2tTIVlltpl/s400/upsidedownguy.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Clearly, it didn't work.</div>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com96tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-49402406550632834782007-10-14T10:27:00.000-05:002007-10-14T10:38:03.800-05:00Free to a Good Home<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">As of 9 p.m. on October 13, there was a decent number of bowling-alley seating units piled next to the dumpster at King Pin Bowl at the Carrollton Center shopping plaza in Bridgeton, MO (Natural Bridge at McKelvey). They're white Fiberglas (or at least very sturdy molded plastic), two seats to a unit, with a blue circle on the seats. Wish I'd had a chance to get a photo (or could find one online), but maybe the best way to describe 'em would be to say they look kinda like something from the bridge of a spaceship on the original Star Trek. They definitely have a late-'60s/early-''70s "mod" look to 'em, and I figure they were original to the bowling alley--which I'm pretty sure was built in the late '60s or thereabouts. </span> <br><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">King Pin was originally a Brunswick facility, and I think these seats still have the Brunswick logo on them somewhere.</span> <br><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">If you're interested in hauling a few away to save the trash man some trouble, I can assure you that three of the two-seat units fit neatly into an Xterra with the back seats removed...</span></span>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-34075264836508120262007-08-24T11:31:00.001-05:002008-12-12T21:31:06.616-06:00The bell tolls for Bel-Air Bowl<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Back in Spring 2004, <a href="http://www.tobybelt.blogspot.com/">Toby</a> and I took a self-guided tour of many of the bowling alleys of the Metro East (the St. Louis suburbs in Madison and St. Clair County, IL).</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">We didn’t actually do any bowling on this occasion, as our objective was to find the the most-retro, least-remodeled old-school bowling alley in the area and we were mostly just takin’ pictures and movin’ along.</span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I never got around to posting the pics on this long-dormant blog, but recent events have reminded me why I started Mid-Century Dream in the first place:</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Primarily to create a permanent record of some vanishing aspects of American life.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">So here are some of the 2004 photos, accompanied by a fresh August ’07 update.</span></p><ul><li><br /><span style="font-size:100%;color:#006600;"><strong>KNITTIG’S BOWL (Now REDBIRD LANES): 1801 Camp Jackson Rd., East St. Louis IL</strong></span></li></ul><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">God only knows where my original notes went—2004 is, I believe, resting in the old crapped-out PC I used before I wised up and discovered the External Hard Drive and my constant companion, Flash Memory—so I can’t tell you for sure what this bowling alley’s original name was.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">I do know something about the Knittigs, though:</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">They used to run some lanes in south St. Louis County, and some time after the original Knittig Lanes closed, the founder’s grandson (I think) resurrected the family business on the opposite side of the Mississippi.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Taking over the old Cahokia Bowl (someone correct me if I’m wrong!), Tony and Anne Knittig filled the place with memorabilia from the old location and named the lounge in honor of the founder’s nickname:</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Tycoon’s.</span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Toby and I visited on a weekday at around 11 a.m., when the place had just opened but no bowlers had yet arrived.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">We had a nice chat with the lady at the desk, who may have been Anne Knittig.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">(Someday, I swear I will recover the contents of all my old hard drives and dump them onto an external, releasing a magnificent fountain of information…Information wants to be free, they say!)</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">She told us that the original building had about five lanes added to it several years after opening, and the difference in the brickwork is visible on the exterior if you know where to look.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Since we clearly told her we were there not to bowl (this time, anyway) but to soak up the nostalgia and she seemed okay with that, I have no freakin’ idea why we came away with just an exterior photo…but here it is, complete with the giant 2-D bowling pin that no longer stands in the parking lot.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzDln-O0vSICZpWDAQZe3axiB7hfC_7ZlDARAyTMFn98B_xeVa4vMBV6qV7jTHK8d-I3yoaU3MvrBe2Tuv44WD5qUgHzrBZlW0ezhoGRrYpCZA0j9WTznjkVa_9YLdSQdCzWRF/s1600-h/Knittig+Bowl.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5102306381141093122" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzDln-O0vSICZpWDAQZe3axiB7hfC_7ZlDARAyTMFn98B_xeVa4vMBV6qV7jTHK8d-I3yoaU3MvrBe2Tuv44WD5qUgHzrBZlW0ezhoGRrYpCZA0j9WTznjkVa_9YLdSQdCzWRF/s400/Knittig+Bowl.jpg" border="0" /></a></span><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Flash forward to August 2007, when a desire to roll a few balls combined with guilt for never having given the Knittigs’ cool old alleys any business resulted in a trip to the East Side.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">I’d forgotten what a sad-looking neighborhood the lanes were in; it’s on a forlorn strip dotted with down-at-the-heels used-car lots and body shops and boarded-up cinderblock cafes.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">While I’d always thought of Knittig’s as being in Cahokia—not a pretty town itself—Google Maps just informed me that the proper address is East St. Louis, which has an even more forlorn reputation for decay and economic depression.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Frankly, you probably wouldn’t be seeing a lot of white folks bowling here if the place wasn’t located just a stone’s throw from Interstate 255.</span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Anyway, I was surprised to see a new sign in place of the big ol’ bowling pin out front:</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Knittig’s is now Red Bird Lanes.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Sound familiar, St. Louisans?</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Like Knittig’s itself, Red Bird Lanes was a fixture on the south side of St. Louis for many years, and there was quite a hubbub when the popular 24-hour bowling center got bulldozed about 15 years ago and replaced with a Walgreen’s.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The Red Bird guys announced that they were hoping to open in a new location, but nothing ever materialized.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Could this be their triumphant (if low-key) return?</span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Well, it’s hard to say.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">All I learned from Internet searches is that the Knittigs sold the place back around July, and that the new owners have already hosted a prestigious tournament or two.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">I would’ve gone in and gotten the scoop (and done some bowling, of course), but the place was closed.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The hours listed on the spiffy new Red Bird sign suggested that they should’ve been open at this time, but when I peeked through the door I could see a small engine of some kind sitting on the floor a few yards away, busily whirring.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">It looked like some kind of pump, maybe, and since we’ve had some pretty fierce storms here lately, it’s possible that the Red Bird sprung a leak and they had to take a day or two off to bail the place out.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">We’ll try the Bird again at a later date.</span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Determined to get some bowling in, we decided to head to the spectacular Panorama Lanes in nearby Belleville.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Then I got lost, which is what I do in Belleville any time I stray from Main Street or Highway 159.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Fortunately, we bumped into <a href="http://www.belairbowl.com/">Bel-Air Bowl</a>, which was another stop on the 2004 tour.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">But wait!</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">It was now past dinnertime, and the parking lot was still empty?</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">What th’--?!</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">A sign taped to the front door told the story:</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Bel-Air Bowl was now at a new location on South Belt West, and an accompanying illustration showed the Bel-Air name tucked into the familiar shape of the Panorama’s distinctive neon sign.</span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Fine—that’s where we were trying to go <i>anyway!<span style="font-size:0;"><br /></span></i>And so we did.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">And we finally did some damn bowling!</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8l8HRPNMdysFqJxBIvXXIgUmSRPUIOAJRMgDxCEDVde-xd0xSou4utCwNKLBlQVUveSQNCbKtsQKfChO2scDFqvifboDoeiANgS8x-P7l9BS-N2CY6LKVarbTrQyGUCHTA_IC/s1600-h/IL-Belleville-Panorama+MCD1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5102306389731027762" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8l8HRPNMdysFqJxBIvXXIgUmSRPUIOAJRMgDxCEDVde-xd0xSou4utCwNKLBlQVUveSQNCbKtsQKfChO2scDFqvifboDoeiANgS8x-P7l9BS-N2CY6LKVarbTrQyGUCHTA_IC/s400/IL-Belleville-Panorama+MCD1.jpg" border="0" /></a></span></p><br /><ul><br /><li><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><span style="font-size:100%;color:#006600;">BEL-AIR BOWL (defunct): 1703 North Belt West, Belleville IL</span><br /></div></li></ul><ul><li><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: rgb(0,102,0)">(NEW) BEL-AIR BOWL (formerly Panorama Lanes): 200 South Belt West, Belleville IL</span><br /></div></li></ul></span><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">So what’s the lowdown on the Panorama-to-Bel-Air conversion?</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Is it a good thing?</span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Well, new owner Matt Shellabarger (who also runs St. Clair Bowl) thinks so, and so does longtime Panorama owner Frank Booker, who will stay on to manage the downstairs banquet facilities.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">And, since Shellabarger recognizes the value of the former Panorama’s well-preserved fifties-futuristic flavor, I think it’s a good thing too.</span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The old Bel-Air will be missed, and bowling will not be returning to the property due to a deed restriction.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">(In fact, at this time the facility is still for sale, and it’s a good-sized lot on a busy retail strip.)</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">While the old Bel-Air was just the right age to possess a lot of retro charm, the sad fact is that most remodeling on the site took place when the mid-century look was considered gauche.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">When we visited in 2004, the last vestiges of its original flavor were found in the fantastic sign, the pastel-tiled restrooms, and the faint whiff of Googie that remained in the main-floor lounge (which was apparently nameless; Curly Joe’s was the downstairs tavern that was not yet open for the evening when we were there).</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The barroom had a large porthole window, and there were still traces of a fancy drop-ceiling effect that must have been pretty sophisticated in its heyday.</span></p><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJYqftc6X3htncWhWVCQfcXjR83F1lB7HisKvUuK6NxwybYqU07_rmrvNIP1HE2WxNdoH0B7B1Fj_i4MeRg2eR0bFvzLyh9VsoemeRTXscg9EJ-xxdh0JI9_PyB_0BsIhK66hy/s1600-h/IL-Belleville-Bel-Air+MCD.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5102306385436060450" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJYqftc6X3htncWhWVCQfcXjR83F1lB7HisKvUuK6NxwybYqU07_rmrvNIP1HE2WxNdoH0B7B1Fj_i4MeRg2eR0bFvzLyh9VsoemeRTXscg9EJ-xxdh0JI9_PyB_0BsIhK66hy/s400/IL-Belleville-Bel-Air+MCD.jpg" border="0" /></a></span><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">If one of the Belleville bowleries had to die, the Bel-Air was the logical sacrifice.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Its stylistic integrity had been compromised, and it had eight fewer lanes than its competitor.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The Panorama, meanwhile, appears to be in very good hands.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Seller Frank Booker, a very nice gentleman who noticed us taking pictures on our 2004 visit and proudly gave us a history lesson and a tour of the entire building, is still on the job as banquet manager and resident historian (he was interviewed for the local paper <a href="http://www.topix.net/content/kri/2007/08/bowling-kingpin-decides-to-move-on">here</a>), and Matt Shellabarger is providing enough hindsight and capital to ensure that the new Bel-Air will be a state-of-the-art facility possessing plenty of the old-school flair identified with the sport.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The amoeba-shaped recessed red neon ceiling of the snack bar isn’t going anywhere, the outdoor sign is being relettered and relit, and the brand-new lounge furniture is true to the vibe.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">(Matt’s plans are detailed <a href="http://stclairjournal.stltoday.com/articles/2007/08/17/sports/sj2tn20070807-0808fhj_belairbowl.ii1.txt">here</a>.)</span></p><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR0o2vuoV9wBeYz0sNOyqCMxjxYeiSLASumnL4oYhFx2qjn17WTLsIrLZmlAPV7H72lyO4tRoCa8ZJ3P0ssv0wxwtEfoU1U7yV9tT-DcDrFBD9g96suXrBzCGm14RDkK3e82eJ/s1600-h/IL-Belleville-Panorama+MCD2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5102306394025995074" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR0o2vuoV9wBeYz0sNOyqCMxjxYeiSLASumnL4oYhFx2qjn17WTLsIrLZmlAPV7H72lyO4tRoCa8ZJ3P0ssv0wxwtEfoU1U7yV9tT-DcDrFBD9g96suXrBzCGm14RDkK3e82eJ/s400/IL-Belleville-Panorama+MCD2.jpg" border="0" /></a></span><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Below, a couple of bonus photos from Shellabarger’s awesome-in-its-own-right <a href="http://www.stclairbowl.com/">St. Clair Bowl</a>:</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The humble but welcoming foyer, and a wonderful mural depicting Belleville landmarks and <i>composed entirely of carpet.</i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Not shown:</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The impressive upstairs lounge that overlooks the bowling lanes through soundproof windows and offers live music.</span></p><br /><ul><br /><li><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><span style="color:#006600;"><span style="font-size:100%;">ST. CLAIR BOWL: </span>5950 Old Collinsville Road, Fairview Heights IL</span></div></li></ul><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK4JFWA64uuG44xLABLWt-DhbB8gQUq_wdtaMIKllbbMmAcSVaFhsBmiqJi29yBDPnJsuAnG3bGcf4z-AMKmy_Unk-6OWhKGFIVT-gEACqqL6i9CXCVPy7l7cldMj8eiA5d4bM/s1600-h/IL-Belleville-SCB+MCD1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5102313424887458642" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK4JFWA64uuG44xLABLWt-DhbB8gQUq_wdtaMIKllbbMmAcSVaFhsBmiqJi29yBDPnJsuAnG3bGcf4z-AMKmy_Unk-6OWhKGFIVT-gEACqqL6i9CXCVPy7l7cldMj8eiA5d4bM/s400/IL-Belleville-SCB+MCD1.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe5Mp4rMTYR4NrgffdeL85E76-iVeQhwX3ruSNIdNpI1oJNk7JcvJPcyaNWbLG6GzjND7mqOk5ybtHldI1HoJO70MBW6dE8e0r_hUo9aSacKyRxTjoTEgDaBS0D2zO4hrS0fUx/s1600-h/IL-Belleville-SCB+MCD2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5102345194760547186" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe5Mp4rMTYR4NrgffdeL85E76-iVeQhwX3ruSNIdNpI1oJNk7JcvJPcyaNWbLG6GzjND7mqOk5ybtHldI1HoJO70MBW6dE8e0r_hUo9aSacKyRxTjoTEgDaBS0D2zO4hrS0fUx/s400/IL-Belleville-SCB+MCD2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /></span><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">As always, any background information, historical data or scuttlebutt of any kind is welcome here!</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">I promise to try to update this blog more often, even though I just became a nearly-full-time college student.</span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms"><?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p><span style="font-family:Georgia;"></span></o:p></p>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-3067158822539818872007-03-01T18:40:00.000-06:002008-12-12T21:31:07.486-06:00Webster Groves: Giant fruit advocacy starts here!<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Though nobody seems to ever sit in them--blame their propensity for collecting rainwater that then sits for days upon days--the "apple chairs" are a distinctive feature of Webster Groves' "Old Orchard" neighborhood.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">There are three sets of chairs: One on Big Bend near Murdoch, one at the small park with the gazebo by Old Orchard Center, and another on the wedge-shaped park area in front of Nerinx Hall, a girls' school. On Feb. 27, a work crew uprooted the latter bunch of apples and deposited them in a row along Big Bend Blvd.</span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHQlmpvSac7eFHr7LyGb5KqOD4Y83IkvmMBqTs6Zj8wAzvSZKDMSlGCnm6CrmQSBVnZ9AJtoVPazwbDIQeniemxBI0YeI-VovMEzICfSgcmPXoJanar9zV1UWRAD-2R7i3H4qt/s1600-h/MO-Webster+Groves-apple+pickin+mcd.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5037122754910889218" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHQlmpvSac7eFHr7LyGb5KqOD4Y83IkvmMBqTs6Zj8wAzvSZKDMSlGCnm6CrmQSBVnZ9AJtoVPazwbDIQeniemxBI0YeI-VovMEzICfSgcmPXoJanar9zV1UWRAD-2R7i3H4qt/s400/MO-Webster+Groves-apple+pickin+mcd.jpg" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">It's the latest in a series of small upheavals in this immediate area, coming shortly after the removal of a large bush behind a stone monument facing the Big Bend/Lockwood intersection and last year's seemingly-unlikely collision of an SUV with said monument. (A teenage girl accidentally rammed the nearby DeSoto Building with her car in a separate incident.)</span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUQDJqyENwtX0WnzBPgxyKus9bnw_HpY5IfN7NCClH2Gz5JeD5NS8sbwfdY8q3d3aJeqTkw5Xm_nPiuCRI_6ngvORdwLAYmdLtlpzysdODSlzZC33WDKku4AHo_-kOaWJ9X1B2/s1600-h/MO-Webster+Groves-apples+picked.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5037123046968665362" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUQDJqyENwtX0WnzBPgxyKus9bnw_HpY5IfN7NCClH2Gz5JeD5NS8sbwfdY8q3d3aJeqTkw5Xm_nPiuCRI_6ngvORdwLAYmdLtlpzysdODSlzZC33WDKku4AHo_-kOaWJ9X1B2/s400/MO-Webster+Groves-apples+picked.jpg" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Gotta wonder if the apples will be re-planted elsewhere in the neighborhood, or if they're just going away for good. And does their removal have anything to do with the construction of a huge new theater building at Nerinx Hall (seen in the background in the above photos)?</span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmY9M6BbgVW5xGdssWYIrxuVo9DHSkUKrEmyddi6ti5E0Wp0vhUVwGG-KI-z9RwgyqZo3KHGIIyqR2hriumG2F1faZlh8mdNc9N4wu0n66RDyv9MYLrG4SsJ8VgKVjQVyCoJ7M/s1600-h/MO-Webster+Groves-apples+picked+3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5037123051263632674" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmY9M6BbgVW5xGdssWYIrxuVo9DHSkUKrEmyddi6ti5E0Wp0vhUVwGG-KI-z9RwgyqZo3KHGIIyqR2hriumG2F1faZlh8mdNc9N4wu0n66RDyv9MYLrG4SsJ8VgKVjQVyCoJ7M/s400/MO-Webster+Groves-apples+picked+3.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong><em><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">UPDATE: During the second week of March, the uprooted apples were all relocated to the Gazebo area. The former Apple Zone is being prepped, I hear, for the installation of a piece of public art.</span></em></strong>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-34550620735345707992007-02-16T17:03:00.000-06:002008-12-12T21:31:10.505-06:00Beardstown, Illinois: January 2007<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4PYDJ-7Ml3s3_RrHyQIyZwinO1QObUiL9W0S8F-nUywiQHhF2aQ-pCQnftPEM6oHU_VlTasdaGcJJlJ4dmDDsMv19G2runm88e8a1JV6rVT9Vg93VhXvhwr7zhmM3PgNfasHI/s1600-h/IL-Beardstown+-+town+square+mcd.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4PYDJ-7Ml3s3_RrHyQIyZwinO1QObUiL9W0S8F-nUywiQHhF2aQ-pCQnftPEM6oHU_VlTasdaGcJJlJ4dmDDsMv19G2runm88e8a1JV6rVT9Vg93VhXvhwr7zhmM3PgNfasHI/s400/IL-Beardstown+-+town+square+mcd.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5032366547621486498" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Let us now dig Beardstown, an Illinois River town that’s faded some since its heyday but is still holding its own.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Beardstown was first settled in 1819, and it’s best known as a stop on the young Abraham Lincoln’s law circuit and as a great place to grow watermelons.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Jazz vibraphonist Red Norvo was born in Beardstown, and for a time in the 1980s the city was also known for the Beardstown Ladies, an investment club made up of seniors who were known nationwide for achieving unusually high returns on their investments until a close look at their bookkeeping revealed that they were, whether intentionally or accidentally, fudging some of the numbers.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I first visited Beardstown in September 2000, and at the time it struck me as a particularly rough-and-tumble place. I took a few photos, and I didn’t make it back for just over six years. A lot of the mid-century landmarks I’d photographed were gone by this time, but I also found a few I hadn’t seen before. One, in fact, despite its obvious age, appears to have taken up residence in Beardstown since my last visit.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Beardstown has had a bowling alley at 218-222 West Main for over sixty years (it appeared in the city directory in 1943, but not 1939), and it has a pretty wonderful vintage neon sign. I’m just not sure if the sign itself has been here that long. Wouldn’t I have taken a picture of it on my last visit, since I photographed an arguably less interesting building right across the street? You’d think so, wouldn’t you? Or maybe—just maybe—the sign wasn’t there. It’s entirely possible that the Peacocks, who have owned Beardstown Bowl since 1998, fitted it with a “gently-used” sign from another town. Or maybe I ran out of film last time I was in Beardstown, and just forgot about it. Either way, it’s definitely the city’s coolest piece of neon.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ6NguWIWDEywYxxHKLqHHCXtiK-dKopspbz_OOzGNV4cezLMyb6JWjUIkzy0FRpv5YJV7xqGBqQIGqDQFMERIG1yfzyTP0_dPHJV0rWmbxB2D5KFpNUK0oVAL3hfmjCvHD-S0/s1600-h/IL-Beardstown+-+Bowl+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ6NguWIWDEywYxxHKLqHHCXtiK-dKopspbz_OOzGNV4cezLMyb6JWjUIkzy0FRpv5YJV7xqGBqQIGqDQFMERIG1yfzyTP0_dPHJV0rWmbxB2D5KFpNUK0oVAL3hfmjCvHD-S0/s400/IL-Beardstown+-+Bowl+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5032366822499393458" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Upstairs from the bowling alley—which was bustling with high school kids on a field trip when I stopped in—is the Riverview Restaurant, accessible by elevator or by a narrow spiral staircase in the bar. The back wall is all windows, facing the Illinois River with its landmark drawbridge.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8SSVhf9lEwoi3Ju5s8nIx2klYWLjthDuoBK9TN2aSTgcE-oRuRGkwxNpdpQ6NUSNJzDbyV6iaFKCIDEuNriLEDvtQAXYbrSF1nZ0xnh_DGZj7PLAG4LNSJIMpyLQ1WZYm3I_y/s1600-h/IL-Beardstown+-+view+from+Riverview.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8SSVhf9lEwoi3Ju5s8nIx2klYWLjthDuoBK9TN2aSTgcE-oRuRGkwxNpdpQ6NUSNJzDbyV6iaFKCIDEuNriLEDvtQAXYbrSF1nZ0xnh_DGZj7PLAG4LNSJIMpyLQ1WZYm3I_y/s400/IL-Beardstown+-+view+from+Riverview.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5032367084492398530" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The building I had photographed across from the bowling alley, incidentally, is an old Coca-Cola bottling plant built in the ‘50s. Its Coke days were over by 2000, but I didn’t take note of what it was being used for back then, if I could even tell. It’s now been transformed into an arcade and skating rink, and the Coca-Cola logo bas relief is still visible, thankfully. I’m including my photo from 2000 here because it shows the logo in greater detail.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-f3tb8XZtGB2WomaUHgDs2inV6xjhlKnTJxXT9j6m_5M2RG90JckUIGuZOQ2X2tqeMEUNWR_ht1Uor14o_hTqGqI-9yj03HgewJ68X422mBNMwc0A-QtZ-QujYWYKQnYIh11v/s1600-h/IL-Beardstown+-+Coca+Cola+00.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-f3tb8XZtGB2WomaUHgDs2inV6xjhlKnTJxXT9j6m_5M2RG90JckUIGuZOQ2X2tqeMEUNWR_ht1Uor14o_hTqGqI-9yj03HgewJ68X422mBNMwc0A-QtZ-QujYWYKQnYIh11v/s400/IL-Beardstown+-+Coca+Cola+00.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5032367251996123090" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">On the next block, above the Main Street Tap, someone is leading by example: If you’ve got a broken window, board it up with civic pride! </span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZFld9BdKfnC48gj5RqezfaheieSEnJ5iV7RMtx775bIW9RHlIujxf4CbDp5WfoHP5XAtfg5eO6SR3BwBf2ZcVTBbrFOr3mV24VpI3D6shn12-1PIo31M6fAnmInSbTwIJcxgv/s1600-h/IL-Beardstown+-+Main+St+Tap+detail.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZFld9BdKfnC48gj5RqezfaheieSEnJ5iV7RMtx775bIW9RHlIujxf4CbDp5WfoHP5XAtfg5eO6SR3BwBf2ZcVTBbrFOr3mV24VpI3D6shn12-1PIo31M6fAnmInSbTwIJcxgv/s400/IL-Beardstown+-+Main+St+Tap+detail.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5032367432384749538" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">Watering holes in and around Beardstown have sported some intriguing names. The Sazarac has been going for over 70 years in different locations under different owners, and it’s named after an ancient and relatively obscure cocktail that apparently originated in New Orleans and was originally made with absinthe. A mile east of town was the exotically-named Bal Tabarin nightclub. The original Bal Tabarin was a legendary hot spot in Paris (and the subject of a movie made in 1952, when Beardstown’s version was already up and running), but I think it’s likely that the small-town Illinois version took its name secondhand from San Francisco’s Bal Tabarin, a popular watering hole in the first half of the last century.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Two of the saloons found in the 1915 Beardstown directory are still serving drinks over eighty years later: The Mile 88 (formerly Ira Howell’s, the Capitol Bar and then the Nook) and Looker’s (formerly McClain & Buck’s, Baker’s, and the Arrow).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">But back to Main Street: Beatty Hardware was also along this stretch. Below is a photo from the store’s advertisement in the 1915 city directory, along with a photo I took in 2000, when the store was out of business but a beautifully-lettered sign still decorated a window. It’s gone now.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6S0onli-4EHRK4iQn1O7QqbDkuotwKe3sUY3XuiqiU2y_2jZW2sxkhouB5z2f1h_mGowboCu7SyWl_XNNOt1VttU9SA7LuuTvh-H2u-hxoOMUAy-oSY1XVBwU7i9agCgGaNOP/s1600-h/IL-Beardstown+-+Beatty+Hdw+mcd.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6S0onli-4EHRK4iQn1O7QqbDkuotwKe3sUY3XuiqiU2y_2jZW2sxkhouB5z2f1h_mGowboCu7SyWl_XNNOt1VttU9SA7LuuTvh-H2u-hxoOMUAy-oSY1XVBwU7i9agCgGaNOP/s400/IL-Beardstown+-+Beatty+Hdw+mcd.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5032367617068343282" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">A prominent downtown landmark is the old Quaker Oats advertisement painted on the side of a building. It’s been touched up since I took the fall 2000 photo on the left, but—as you can see in the 2007 photo on the right—a handsome old building across the street has been demolished since then. It was one of several structures in Beardstown faced with a distinctive dark-gray brick I’ve seldom seen elsewhere.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGzTS3qdjbVQj7WUc70qKwR0s3htQvYJsR9gTdSYrTfkCpRzGG_2BMkQsOv5kpXaQeLRXDg_sCY2dqhg1hMdVwI7A_awEeaeJUEjPfonEcnKF60coj-yMkVhZlxSRLzww54glt/s1600-h/IL-Beardstown+-+Quaker+mcd.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGzTS3qdjbVQj7WUc70qKwR0s3htQvYJsR9gTdSYrTfkCpRzGG_2BMkQsOv5kpXaQeLRXDg_sCY2dqhg1hMdVwI7A_awEeaeJUEjPfonEcnKF60coj-yMkVhZlxSRLzww54glt/s400/IL-Beardstown+-+Quaker+mcd.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5032367767392198658" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The downtown neon roundup concludes with a pair of vintage signs placed by fraternal organizations.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOCBPHSqavUEM2xQ8vfrTuWHW9vCyvH-LIdyvB81a-TxNQDpAqoq_iM-TeC_fehGqyggOuYUgv4mF5zBst1YFzhhWTAD9N0qg4TShQFYNpbp0sBg_70QLLjCLRpmtBUutwkQ1d/s1600-h/IL-Beardstown+-+VFW+mcd.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOCBPHSqavUEM2xQ8vfrTuWHW9vCyvH-LIdyvB81a-TxNQDpAqoq_iM-TeC_fehGqyggOuYUgv4mF5zBst1YFzhhWTAD9N0qg4TShQFYNpbp0sBg_70QLLjCLRpmtBUutwkQ1d/s400/IL-Beardstown+-+VFW+mcd.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5032367909126119442" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Situated around the picturesque town square (seen in the title picture at the top of this entry) are an array of shops and restaurants, along with the old Carnegie Library that now serves as a City Hall annex. (The present library is a new, prairie-style building at the edge of town, and it’s one of the most attractive small-town library buildings I’ve ever seen.) I love finding remnants of long-gone businesses, and the doorways of a hair salon and a dollar store on State Street still bear the stamp of a former occupant.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBlCUKv5MHnAv_Ys2_FQVpmUcmySZz8rf69lfVTBjss0HSm9E3LDHxQBJxixZgPzr97QS0PpRzUrNmsiHYPmjTBNvTo0KraSq9kxdETz-ZBIEYU2jOJg90uaVDIJP8N6osKdF_/s1600-h/Il-Beardstown+-+Woolworth+1+mcd.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBlCUKv5MHnAv_Ys2_FQVpmUcmySZz8rf69lfVTBjss0HSm9E3LDHxQBJxixZgPzr97QS0PpRzUrNmsiHYPmjTBNvTo0KraSq9kxdETz-ZBIEYU2jOJg90uaVDIJP8N6osKdF_/s400/Il-Beardstown+-+Woolworth+1+mcd.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5032368080924811298" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">There’s another business district spread out along 4th Street, containing several businesses serving the town’s large Hispanic population. There’s also the old Princess Theater, a sturdy black-brick edifice that’s been closed for years but still appears to be in pretty good shape—at least on the outside. The marquee close-up is from 2000; the other photo from January 2007.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWNE80KFEfR3sWKg0OD1MXk7bvCyJI_OzSYoOv8xcXIeEML0nRu2uCmDs45cn-IHsdbKI0QJRvEl9z7NG2332iFbMJ9DU4woK2bHjp7FYtXmGVApHT0xx5jeFhpULFnCwNBWhW/s1600-h/IL-Beardstown+-+Princess+00a.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWNE80KFEfR3sWKg0OD1MXk7bvCyJI_OzSYoOv8xcXIeEML0nRu2uCmDs45cn-IHsdbKI0QJRvEl9z7NG2332iFbMJ9DU4woK2bHjp7FYtXmGVApHT0xx5jeFhpULFnCwNBWhW/s400/IL-Beardstown+-+Princess+00a.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5032368437407096882" border="0" /></a><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvTZuJKoSaxCa8VQFsZd8j3BlX1in9BMhmjCuq2AXLDfAl5zULD57H_ctPkQh3nUpxIGPNeXuLjFuQsKVFyNzquc-85CceHzZpkNAIuiReupxOnlhE-mEo0ZAQs2qN9j0Nqsyw/s1600-h/Il-Beardstown+-+Princess.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvTZuJKoSaxCa8VQFsZd8j3BlX1in9BMhmjCuq2AXLDfAl5zULD57H_ctPkQh3nUpxIGPNeXuLjFuQsKVFyNzquc-85CceHzZpkNAIuiReupxOnlhE-mEo0ZAQs2qN9j0Nqsyw/s400/Il-Beardstown+-+Princess.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5032368437407096898" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">A nearby gas station, despite its humble wooden construction, apparently tried to update its look to suit the Streamline Moderne era by adding a curve here and there.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNCLz32kNQ6j3WcGswmfjmfOvmb-Dc0CbfYfqm2QlxUiCYK9VvB3DH-Ges0zs_KRrXM0X-fg2hQyTkqS-7fsdhjpWf0qFhQhHHchVvhuHKdbbxiM2k6-mDUwkY6BnqyLXD6FN6/s1600-h/IL-Beardstown+-+gas+station.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNCLz32kNQ6j3WcGswmfjmfOvmb-Dc0CbfYfqm2QlxUiCYK9VvB3DH-Ges0zs_KRrXM0X-fg2hQyTkqS-7fsdhjpWf0qFhQhHHchVvhuHKdbbxiM2k6-mDUwkY6BnqyLXD6FN6/s400/IL-Beardstown+-+gas+station.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5032368622090690642" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">Closer to the edge of town is a tiny house with a winch and several blank tombstones in the back yard. As the rusty old sign leaning against the house reveals, it was once a sales office for monuments.</span><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9aZqZwWZMTDzqOzK7hXWU4y8-f9CSXZuTQ8EdMYCxhFzBoA1caAEpPewkVEx6Spst7u6EuQIY1-pFvmGdaoYjMrWq1oLhMxolx8CCaPp2A6Hm5JKkBTeqoYF_1RNpBisTxuo5/s1600-h/IL-Beardstown+-+Rock+of+Ages+mcd.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9aZqZwWZMTDzqOzK7hXWU4y8-f9CSXZuTQ8EdMYCxhFzBoA1caAEpPewkVEx6Spst7u6EuQIY1-pFvmGdaoYjMrWq1oLhMxolx8CCaPp2A6Hm5JKkBTeqoYF_1RNpBisTxuo5/s400/IL-Beardstown+-+Rock+of+Ages+mcd.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5032371714467143842" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">My favorite vanished Beardstown landmark (at least I think it’s vanished; I’m pretty sure I remember where it used to be) is the old Starlight Drive-In sign. It remained on Arenzville Road long after the drive-in theater was closed and demolished. I could certainly be wrong, but I think when I took the following photos in 2000, the drive-in site had become a pig farm.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6-RRKb8qmaDrf0jz6qVJfE7cJwSlM7ONkuhpXUhUqmLVXWZgOWujWAjY6pwh0f1kYNl2y14Q-u9_EzUYVwUgwWeG6wN2_tC0Ycyzw11WGIhyphenhyphenM5qWXfBPQ0fHlPK39KpJ19upe/s1600-h/IL-Beardstown+-+Starlight+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6-RRKb8qmaDrf0jz6qVJfE7cJwSlM7ONkuhpXUhUqmLVXWZgOWujWAjY6pwh0f1kYNl2y14Q-u9_EzUYVwUgwWeG6wN2_tC0Ycyzw11WGIhyphenhyphenM5qWXfBPQ0fHlPK39KpJ19upe/s400/IL-Beardstown+-+Starlight+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5032369000047812738" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">...A pig farm with a kick-ass sign.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE4I_eEotDDN35GLkU-2Td_IsbevwFu54nVzzRn360rFaTPXwnRfpWslhwrRsGUhs127n0vGhIbMQz3O_n9hyphenhyphen31wa22k2oP8CiuFGNJIEOPDPg0Hn4PigUHgyHMrrp_9lG_tXJ/s1600-h/IL-Beardstown+-+Starlight+1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE4I_eEotDDN35GLkU-2Td_IsbevwFu54nVzzRn360rFaTPXwnRfpWslhwrRsGUhs127n0vGhIbMQz3O_n9hyphenhyphen31wa22k2oP8CiuFGNJIEOPDPg0Hn4PigUHgyHMrrp_9lG_tXJ/s400/IL-Beardstown+-+Starlight+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5032368995752845426" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">That’s what I came away with after a day in Beardstown, digging in the library and walking around looking for pieces of the past. If anyone’s got any enlightening back-stories for any of the places pictured or mentioned above—or any corrections--I’d love to hear ‘em. An encyclopedia entry may boil a town’s history down to an Abe Lincoln sighting or two, but the stores, theaters and bars are where the people live, work, and play, and they contain a town’s real spirit. Their stories shouldn’t be lost.</span></span>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-42031044289222778022007-02-08T19:08:00.000-06:002008-12-12T21:31:10.850-06:00Shoot me a line sometime<div><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Out on Route 52, west of Fosterburg, IL, is a guy who just might have quicker mail service than the rest of us...</span></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiK0_cLRS-I5vHqMD6SlpPGWLVItpKzKG6IYJy_cqc439q1asX1EevzNT53gXPjj7OFtyZiv2VfdJFFEb5opgtmCjUZcL995xb7HaCG5dz2_iBn51hTnzBW2E6J8w_aOGRck2s/s1600-h/gun+mailbox.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5029336085425396978" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiK0_cLRS-I5vHqMD6SlpPGWLVItpKzKG6IYJy_cqc439q1asX1EevzNT53gXPjj7OFtyZiv2VfdJFFEb5opgtmCjUZcL995xb7HaCG5dz2_iBn51hTnzBW2E6J8w_aOGRck2s/s400/gun+mailbox.jpg" border="0" /></a>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com65tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-37459002021379763962007-02-08T18:19:00.000-06:002008-12-12T21:31:11.581-06:00Prehistoric bowling alley unearthed!<div><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Since whoever's been spamming me in broken English is now contributing this site more often that I am, I suppose I have some catching up to do. I should follow the fine example set by the likeminded </span><a href="http://www.googier.blogspot.com"><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Googiemel</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">: Shorter posts, more often!</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">When it comes to old buildings, I'm very much in favor of adaptive re-use--even if it's quick and a little sloppy. A non-invasive rush job often leaves open the possibility that the building in question might someday be returned to its original purpose--but even if pieces of the past have deteriorated beyond all practicality, it's cool (if a little melancholy) when they're kept around as artifacts of a bygone age.</span></div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEighI-IKUeDHahXPI3r4JbCD21ABXFhuTdoRgOoP-WXq8c7sYKtogR9jKXFPjCV3sOz3pOmKPdKt7DYSb4_sjwO_eueihtrGZdy4F3GF1V0WMU4tdn64-35sA1ynd9DoOkmv-tc/s1600-h/IL+-+Red+Bud+-+Sporto"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5029331919307119794" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEighI-IKUeDHahXPI3r4JbCD21ABXFhuTdoRgOoP-WXq8c7sYKtogR9jKXFPjCV3sOz3pOmKPdKt7DYSb4_sjwO_eueihtrGZdy4F3GF1V0WMU4tdn64-35sA1ynd9DoOkmv-tc/s320/IL+-+Red+Bud+-+Sporto%27s.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">The latter would seem to be the case at Sporto's Pub and Grill, a cozy little watering hole in spiffy downtown Red Bud, Illinois. I stopped in because it looked like a decent place to have a sandwich and a beer, and it's in a building that appears to be closing in on the century mark. We all know that older bars have more personality, right? Well, as I sat at the bar and waited for my burger to arrive, I noticed this crazy ol' thing sticking up out of the floor:</span></div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtaJaAK2je5UvvR4U3OWbZPrxM_G-8xnJ00bJvWD_nIOGHN7JfvDpBLdX-z-iG7CdCPDN1Hjqmpzwzut2KqmbCF_wTRtNDdaFx_hBlMEc2s85Uc0hYvtgRSfwExc661I01AgqZ/s1600-h/IL+-+Red+Bud+-+Ball+return+3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5029331794753068194" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtaJaAK2je5UvvR4U3OWbZPrxM_G-8xnJ00bJvWD_nIOGHN7JfvDpBLdX-z-iG7CdCPDN1Hjqmpzwzut2KqmbCF_wTRtNDdaFx_hBlMEc2s85Uc0hYvtgRSfwExc661I01AgqZ/s320/IL+-+Red+Bud+-+Ball+return+3.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">One of the locals noticed that I was eyeing it, and he commented that it was pretty much what it looked like: A very, very, very old ball return. Turns out Sporto's used to be a bowling alley! It couldn't have had more than two or three lanes, and they're now covered by carpeting and used as a pool room--but the ball return was too much trouble to extract, so they just left it there behind the buffet table.</span></div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG1qh7-RY9Rx9Wa9u9mV-VmTclNEdO61OFVDTtIDhHtVYFbzBFF-wVwgpbhhlHtdeut8c9JGDQ4pp5NzWQLjuhEOsSyd6obCqz1-TrkxxY3IGt-MUQgn1wM_MLsLVIjomjjUCB/s1600-h/IL+-+Red+Bud+-+Ball+return+4.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5029332198479994050" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG1qh7-RY9Rx9Wa9u9mV-VmTclNEdO61OFVDTtIDhHtVYFbzBFF-wVwgpbhhlHtdeut8c9JGDQ4pp5NzWQLjuhEOsSyd6obCqz1-TrkxxY3IGt-MUQgn1wM_MLsLVIjomjjUCB/s320/IL+-+Red+Bud+-+Ball+return+4.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">I was told the bowling lanes were never modernized, and they were in use until just a couple of years ago. (I secretly doubted this until I saw </span><a href="http://www.redbudchamber.com/RedBudCC/sportospub.html"><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">evidence</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"> that bowling at Sporto's coincided, at least, with the Internet age.) Pins were re-set by hand until the bitter end, and somebody in your group would have to know how to keep score the old-fashioned way. I've been spending time in bowling alleys for 35 years, and I've never seen a situation this primitive! People rhapsodize about how old-school the </span><a href="http://www.saratogalanes.com/index.php"><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Saratoga Lanes</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"> in St. Louis are, but Sporto's is home to a museum-quality artifact. If they ever give the joint a more thorough remodeling, I hope they donate the old Brunswick equipment to the Historical Society or something. (Or me.)</span></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgET9iZsqDDnoK_OZtpufGsBuwtZgemSLUTUNT2o-B9HV-9P1kcC_sZ-7C4GRVzw79ANAJGTqXt9pAp7SNeegLbCoGzAJi7qGz3a_VJU7eF_Miq6QXWcuuRjwC8uXx6VG9G8okY/s1600-h/IL+-+Red+Bud+-+Ball+return+5.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5029332292969274578" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgET9iZsqDDnoK_OZtpufGsBuwtZgemSLUTUNT2o-B9HV-9P1kcC_sZ-7C4GRVzw79ANAJGTqXt9pAp7SNeegLbCoGzAJi7qGz3a_VJU7eF_Miq6QXWcuuRjwC8uXx6VG9G8okY/s320/IL+-+Red+Bud+-+Ball+return+5.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">And speaking of old things that are in relatively good shape: I got carded! I love this place.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">(You can still bowl in Red Bud, by the way; the VFW hall has six lanes that offer open bowling on weekends. And I found evidence in an old high school yearbook suggesting that the facility now occupied by Sporto's was called Mac's Bowling Alley.)</span></div></div></div></div>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com45tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-1159122389178178152006-09-24T13:12:00.000-05:002006-09-24T13:26:29.256-05:00UNDEAD ZOMBIE DIMESTORE!!!<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Now here's something you don't see every day--at least not in the last 15 or 20 years...A Woolworth's sign.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"></span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/MCD-Wool1.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/MCD-Wool1.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">They're remodeling Concord Plaza, a shopping center in south St. Louis County that dates back to about 1963, and as they tear off the previous facade (which appears to have gone up in the '80s) to make way for the new one, the original brick facing is revealed for the first time in years.</span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-Wool2.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-Wool2.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">The first "ghost sign" to be uncovered belonged to a defunct department store called P.N. Hirsch--but I didn't have my camera on me when I saw that stage of remodeling. A few days later, half of the old Woolworth's logo had been uncovered--and it was revealed in its entirety later in the week. (I haven't found the closing date of the Woolworth's yet, but I do know it survived at least into the mid-'80s.)</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Apparently, the shopping center's facade was of red brick; when it was repainted in a lighter color, the painters simply masked around the signage--leaving the store logos basically stencilled on when the signs were removed later. Hopefully, the marks of more long-gone stores will be revealed as the construction continues!</span>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-1159119526998338502006-09-24T12:23:00.000-05:002006-09-24T12:42:10.093-05:00Now leaving Minneapolis<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-ritz.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-ritz.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">After our morning coffee, we had to get a daytime shot of the old Ritz Theater--which is now a dance studio—and this great old bar sign just down the block.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-13th%20univ.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-13th%20univ.jpg" border="0" /></a>We had a long drive ahead, but we were able to pull over a few times when a particularly fetching mid-century artifact beckoned. Blooming Prairie, MN, retains this snazzy sign, though the store itself has gone out of business.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-harriets.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-harriets.jpg" border="0" /></a>In Lansing, I was startled and creeped out while photographing the sign pictured below. I pulled into the restaurant’s parking lot, and the moment I stepped out of the car, a speaker underneath the eaves began blasting the irritating Disney tune “It’s a Small World After All.” I can only hope that, unlike the Disney theme parks, Lansing Corners Fine Foods does not have the song on an endless loop.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-lansing%20corners.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-lansing%20corners.jpg" border="0" /></a>I’ll wrap up this travelogue with photos of two of Iowa’s most visually stunning small-town cinemas, both of which just happened to be along our route: The Charles in Charles City (see its previous sixties-licious marquee <a href="http://www.parsonrealestate.com/chascity/charles.shtml">here</a>)…<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-charles.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-charles.jpg" border="0" /></a>…And the almost surreal <a href="http://wattstheatre.com/">Watts</a> in Osage, which injects a little Dr. Seuss into its Googie.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-watts.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-watts.jpg" border="0" /></a>That’s what we did on our summer vacation. Whew. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;">Our next scheduled trips are a quick jaunt to Champaign/Urbana, IL (to see the <a href="http://www.silversunpickups.com/">Silversun Pickups</a>!) and a December flight to Austin, TX. In the meantime, there's plenty to see and document in the St. Louis area...if I can find the time, that is.</span>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-1159117109953490732006-09-24T10:55:00.000-05:002006-09-24T12:20:49.740-05:00Saturday in Minneapolis<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Finally, almost a month after the previous post--and two months after the photos were actually taken--I <em>might</em> be about to wrap up the Minneapolis trip. Here's Saturday, as I remember it...</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">On a friend’s recommendation, we had breakfast at <a href="http://www.hellskitcheninc.com">Hell's Kitchen</a>, a downtown restaurant run by a big fan of English cartoonist <a href="http://www.ralphsteadman.com/">Ralph Steadman</a>. The décor and menu graphics bear the influence of Steadman’s splotchy, rather gruesome style—but the food itself is much more appetizing. (Hey, when does <a href="http://www.geraldscarfe.com/">Gerald Scarfe</a> get HIS brunch joint?) There can be a pretty long wait at Hell’s Kitchen on a Saturday morning, but the 45 minutes of downtime (accompanied by a long-range pager given to us by the hostess) gave us a chance to roam several blocks of the central business district.<br /><br />The elegantly tapered Foshay Building was Minneapolis’ tallest structure for 45 years, and the story-high letters at the top are still backlit at night.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><p><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-foshay.0.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-foshay.jpg" border="0" /></a>The neighboring AT&T tower, rather than tapering, fans out a little at the top.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-AT&T.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-AT%26T.jpg" border="0" /></a> Peter’s Grill, which had been in business since 1914, went out of business a month before our arrival. It may or may not be revived; an undated article I found indicates that it has new owners. I trust that whatever happens, someone will take good care of this wonderful old sign.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-peters%20grill.0.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-peters%20grill.0.jpg" border="0" /></a>We don’t have an IKEA back home, so whenever we’re near one we jump at the chance to check out all their latest stuff. Our previous IKEA experience took place in suburban Seattle on a weeknight just before closing time, and that certainly didn’t prepare us for IKEA in Minneapolis on a Saturday afternoon. It’s across the street from the Mall of America, and it was a madhouse. We weaved through the crowd, bought a lamp and got the hell out.<br /><br />We couldn’t waste time because we had to get to the <a href="http://www.walkerart.org">Walker Art Center</a>, which was running a big <a href="http://photography.about.com/library/weekly/aa110600a.htm">Diane Arbus</a> retrospective. We’ve all seen her work here and there, but having it all together in one big exhibit leaves a profound impression: <strong>THE EYEBROWS, MY GOD; THE EYEBROWS.</strong><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/brows.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/brows.jpg" border="0" /></a>Did women in New York in the early sixties<em> all</em> have such overwhelmingly inky brows, or did Diane just seek out the ones who did?<br /><br />The art museum was fantastic, and we stayed until closing time. Its focus was on modern art, and there were plenty of Pop artifacts, fascinating abstractions, and wacky mixed-media pieces. There was also a temporary installation devoted to <a href="http://www.cameronjamie.com/">Cameron Jamie</a>, whose anthropologically-focused works include studies of backyard wrestling and commercial “haunted houses.” Jamie’s fans include Charlotte Caffey (Go-Go’s) and Jeff McDonald (Redd Kross), who loaned the museum a “coconut head” decorated by the artist.<br /><br />When you’re at the Walker, you just have to go across the street to the sculpture garden—but it was so awfully hot that after viewing Oldenburg’s celebrated <a href="http://garden.walkerart.org/artwork.wac">Spoonbridge and Cherry</a>, we retreated to the air-conditioned car and made our way to the fairly cool Metrodome for the evening’s Twins game.<br /><br />I liked the dome more than I thought I would; it’s not as loud inside as I’d expected, despite the infectious enthusiasm of the fans. As it’s taking me forever to finish posting these vacation notes, I’ve forgotten who the Twins played, but I’m pretty sure they won.<br /><br />After the game, we visited venerable ice cream institution Sebastian Joe’s—which offers some very unusual flavors—and photographed a little neon. Twin Cities liquor stores, in particular, seem to be VERY serious about their neon. Check out this beauty!<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-franklin.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-franklin.jpg" border="0" /></a>Unfortunately, we were roaming the city at closing time, and two more gloriously-lit liquor stores turned off their neon just before I could get a picture. Fortunately, <a href="http://www.brede.com">Brede</a>—a tradeshow contractor near our hotel—keeps its sign blazing 24/7.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-brede.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-brede.jpg" border="0" /></a><strong>NEXT:</strong> I can finally wrap this thing up, with a couple more Minneapolis pix and a few scenes from the drive home. Sorry this is taking so long.<br /></span></p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"></span>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-1156523072186183792006-08-25T09:04:00.000-05:002006-08-25T11:24:32.263-05:00More fun in MPLS, starring JNS LKMN<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Minneapolis has a great network of bike and rollerblade trails. When I was doing advance research, I actually got more useful information from this </span><a href="http://www.visi.com/~tam/skate.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">rollerblading site</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> than from any official sources. We plotted out a loop that ran along part of the Grand Rounds (a route that, if biked in its entirety, would’ve taken more time than we had…maybe next time) tracing the Mississippi River, down to the old Soo Line railbed that has been converted to an asphalt track and is in what looks like the final stages of refurbishment.<br /></span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-greenway.0.jpg"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-greenway.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">This took us west through the city between 28th and 29th Streets, under a long series of overpasses and eventually out into the pretty green space between Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles. The Southwest LRT Trail continues to the west, but we turned North on the Kenilworth Trail to get back downtown. The Cedar Lake Trail will take you most of the way downtown, but there’s not a really obvious and easy route through the city and back to the river yet. There’s a dedicated bike trail down the middle (!) of Hennepin Avenue, and that will get you most of the way. It was really frustrating to be pedaling past so many of Minneapolis’ great old movie palaces without being able to stop and take a picture, being in the middle of the street and all! I was, however, able to get a shot of the boisterous signage at <a href="http://www.leesliquorlounge.com/">Lee’s Liquor Lounge</a>.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-lee"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-lee%27s.jpg" border="0" /></a> We picked up the West River Parkway, which gave us a good view of the Frank Gehry-designed <a href="http://www.weisman.umn.edu/">Weisman Art Museum</a> at the University of Minneapolis.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-weisman.0.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-weisman.0.jpg" border="0" /></a>Before long, we were back where we started—next to the WPA Rock under (I think) the 27th Street bridge.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-wpa%20rock.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-wpa%20rock.jpg" border="0" /></a>I had lost my cell phone somewhere along the trail, so we had to take a few minutes back at the hotel to call Verizon and get them to suspend service until I could get a new phone. Unfortunately, the customer service representative instead disconnected the line altogether (after I had asked her as carefully as possible if I’d be able to get my old number back when I get my new phone, just so she wouldn’t make exactly the mistake she made) and it took a week for me to get my service back. Since my cell phone is the business number for my DJ service, every call I miss is a potential $500 down the drain, so you can imagine how mad I was at Verizon. Can you hear me now?<br /><br />John Kass had promised us his “patented tour” of the Twin Cities, and he figured we’d find all the old-school commercial-strip stuff on our own—so he drove us through the network of pretty parkways that crisscrosses the metropolitan area, connecting the lakes where locals swim and sail. We did take a detour through downtown St. Paul and the neighborhood John grew up in, so he could show off the old <a href="http://www.moundstheatre.org">Mounds Theatre</a> he used to attend as a kid—now refurbished and thriving after thirty years as a warehouse.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-mounds.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-mounds.jpg" border="0" /></a>We encountered a group of Swedish tourists at Minnehaha Falls, which was a nice bit of foreshadowing for the evening’s entertainment. But before we checked out Gothenburg’s favorite singer-songwriter, we had a fine Thai meal at <a href="http://www.sawatdee.com">Sawatdee</a> (one of several locations) and tracked down a few more golden-age movie houses.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-uptown%201.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-uptown%201.jpg" border="0" /></a>The <a href="http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Market/Minneapolis/UptownTheatre.htm">Uptown Theatre</a> anchors the neighborhood celebrated in song on an early Prince album. The carved mural on the side wall and the huge vertical sign are still impressive, and movies are still shown here. The Uptown has the Twin Cities' largest screen, and it's operated by Landmark Cinemas in conjunction with the newer <a href="http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Market/Minneapolis/LagoonCinema.htm">Lagoon</a> multiplex about a block away.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-uptown%202.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-uptown%202.jpg" border="0" /></a>Not far from the Uptown is the <a href="http://www.suburbanworldtheater.com/">Suburban World Theatre</a>, now available for live performances. <a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-suburban%20world.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-suburban%20world.jpg" border="0" /></a>Somewhere along the way, we also bumped into the Music Box (formerly the Loring Theatre), home of the long-running show <a href="http://www.tripleespresso.com/">Triple Espresso</a>...<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-loring%20theater.1.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-loring%20theater.1.jpg" border="0" /></a> …and the Avalon, now home to a puppet theatre company called In the <a href="http://www.hobt.org">Heart of the Beast</a>. (As if puppets weren’t creepy enough already!)<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-avalon%202.1.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-avalon%202.1.jpg" border="0" /></a> Couldn’t pass up this fantastic Car Wash sign, either.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-park%20lake.1.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-park%20lake.1.jpg" border="0" /></a> Finally, with dusk approaching, it was time for the event that brought us to Minneapolis in the first place: <a href="http://www.jenslekman.com">Jens Lekman</a> in concert. The <a href="http://www.triplerocksocialclub.com/">Triple Rock Social Club</a> is used to performances of a punkier variety (the bar’s general vibe is similar to that of St. Louis’s Hi-Pointe), which may explain why Jens’ publicity was a little sketchy. His name was misspelled one way (“Lekmen”) on the concert flyers, and another in the club’s ad in CityPages. (I bet they never misspell NOFX!)<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-lexman.1.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-lexman.1.jpg" border="0" /></a>Jens’ recorded output—which, in America, amounts to two CDs’ worth—leans heavily on melancholy, often trenchantly funny songs sketched out on piano or acoustic guitar and decorated with horn or string arrangements sampled from another record. He’s often compared to Morrissey and Stephin Merritt, but there’s an optimistic undercurrent that pops up in the occasional unabashedly Ishtar rhyme or a starry-eyed declaration of love, and that gives him a leavening dollop of Jonathan Richmanesque charm. (Yes! I used “Ishtar” as an adjective! And in the context of a compliment! But I suppose most of you have never seen “Ishtar.” Well, you don’t know what you’re missing. When the plot focuses on Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty as struggling, clueless songwriters, it’s as nerd-tastically funny as “Napoleon Dynamite” or any of Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries. But I digress. )<br /><br />In concert, the affable Swede’s more upbeat material carries the day. The cut-and-paste horn arrangements are recreated live by a band of six attractive women, dolled up in tasteful homage to ‘80s couture and switching expertly from saxophones and trumpets to a variety of percussion instruments, keyboards, string bass, and a stripped-down drum kit. Jens, with a fedora tipped precariously toward the back of his head, plays guitar, jigs around a bit, sings and tells a story or two—pausing at one point to inform us that he actually speaks no English and is, in fact, “doing all this phonetically.”<br /><br />There is, however, a hint of potential trouble right from the beginning. When the first of two opening acts—local folk-rocker Robert Skoro—approaches the microphone, a broad-shouldered frat-boy type, in a t-shirt emblazoned with “SNEAKY PETE’S” across the back, steps right up to the lip of the stage, about eight inches from Skoro and at least fifteen feet from the next-closest observer. He greets the end of each of Skoro’s low-key tunes with the sort of whooping and clapping you’d expect to hear at, say, wet t-shirt night. Skoro looks a little unnerved, and it’s apparent that he’s never seen this dude before. Is he heckling him in an ironic way? Is he so drunk he doesn’t realize he’s being inappropriately boisterous? Is this, like, the first concert he’s ever been to? Katie and I decide that he’s just a random overserved lunkhead who was dragged here by his girlfriend, and this might turn out to be their last date.<br /><br />When the second performer, a mildly eccentric and rather pretty Swedish blonde named Frida Hyvonen, takes a seat at the piano for her solo set, I’m sure I’m not the only observer who’s worried that this might get ugly. Sneaky Pete is at this point distracted, being scolded sporadically by his date, who seems to be worried that he’ll forget he left his flip-flops up by the stage. Still, I’m a little concerned that if Sneaky gets a second wind he’ll somehow manage to ruin Jens’ set. But you know what? Dude’s a fan—a huge fan; he knows all the words and sings along with gusto. No harm done! Jens seems rather bemused by his football-fan enthusiasm. When, toward the end of his set, he seeks volunteers to help rattle some tambourines, he hands one to the broad-shouldered lad, and more than one audience member is heard to groan “Oh no—Sneaky Pete!!”<br /><br />Funny thing—in the end, the fella had made the show more memorable and maybe a bit more fun. The only performer he disrupted at all was Skoro and, well, let’s just say the crowd didn’t seem all that into Skoro anyway. To be honest, he wasn’t my cup of tea either, but I could see him going over big as an opening act for, say, Son Volt. Live and learn, bookers…<br /><br />NEXT: Arbus, Ikea, Twins, Hell.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-1155346636350035652006-08-11T20:36:00.000-05:002006-08-12T12:31:10.000-05:00Summer Vacation 2006, Part Two<span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"></span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-palace%20waverly.0.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-palace%20waverly.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">An early highlight of the second leg of the trip was the <a href="http://www.waverlypalace.com/">Palace Theatre</a> in Waverly, Iowa, not too far up the road from Waterloo. As the website explains, the Palace is equipped with a state-of-the-art sound system that's the first of its kind.<br /><br />In Spring Valley, Minnesota, we found a well-preserved A&W Drive-In. It still has the familiar roofline and curb bay, plus a plush green backyard featuring picnic tables, a mural, and a vintage Papa Burger statue. (Mama Burger apparently got custody of the kids, and they could be <a href="http://www.agilitynut.com/giants12b.html">anywhere</a> by now.)<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-papa%20burger.0.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-papa%20burger.jpg" border="0" /></a>A&W’s been having a bit of an identity crisis lately, by the way. Many of the classic drive-in locations had closed by the 1980s, when the chain was concentrating on placing hot dog stands in every mall’s food court. Nowadays—in my neck of the woods, anyway—A&W is most often seen sharing a building with Long John Silver’s. (Both restaurants are run by Yum! Brands, out of Louisville.) Once in a while they’ll try something new—but an architecturally impressive freestanding prototype A&W opened in Effingham, IL, a few years back didn’t last long, and an A&W paired with a gas station in St. Charles County, MO, tanked after a few seasons. It’s nice to see that the classic curb-service root beer joints survive here and there, but the “new” corporate color scheme—sea-foam green with mustard-and-bean-dip-colored checkerboard trim—really clashes with the venerable orange-and-brown palette most people identify with A&W…don’t you think?<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-a%20w.0.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-a%20w.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />I’d promised my friend and rock ‘n’ roll benefactor <a href="http://www.gojohnnygo.com/">John Kass</a> I’d ring him when we got to Minneapolis, and he promptly invited us over to beautiful suburban St. Paul for beer and swimming. We had a lot to talk about and I can talk while drinking but not so much while swimming, so we sat by the pool with the happy Kass clan and John and Chris gave us tips for enjoying the Twin Cities. He also got out a surprisingly good-sounding battery-operated turntable and played requests from his vast collection of Minneapolis rock rarities. I hadn't heard the Suburbs in quite a while!<br /><br />At length Katie and I retired to the conveniently-located <a href="http://www.starwoodhotels.com/fourpoints/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=645&requestedChainCode=SI&requestedAffiliationCode=4P&localeCode=en_US&localeoverwrite=&language=en_US&">Four Points Sheraton</a>, where we watched a fascinating TV show about primordial dwarfs and their susceptibility to catastrophic aneurysms.<br /><br />Katie had heard good things about the <a href="http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/srl/">Split Rock Lighthouse</a> on Lake Superior, and John advised us that traffic would be hellish on a Friday or Saturday so we made the trek on Thursday. It was quite a haul, but we were rewarded with some fantastic scenery, a top-notch pizza at <a href="http://www.sammyspizzas.com/">Sammy’s</a> in Duluth, and an audience with the Bare-Assed Voyageur of Two Harbors.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-voyageur.0.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-voyageur.jpg" border="0" /></a>This impressive piece of folk-art statuary must stand fifteen or twenty feet tall. He guards a vacant lot next to the Voyageur Motel—which could just as easily be called the Voyeur, due to its guests’ view of the bearded giant’s unclothed nether region. I’m sure the dude is supposed to be wearing pants, but his caretakers made the mistake of painting ‘em the same color as his face and hands. Oops! And what’s with the hollow eyes? A web search reveals that the Voyageur statue used to have eyes that moved, and that he also spoke. Creepy, huh? I’ve found no record of what he used to say, but I couldn’t blame them for silencing him if he was uttering things like “Come here, little girl; I want to show you something.”<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-2%20harbors%20docks.2.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-2%20harbors%20docks.1.jpg" border="0" /></a> Another too-big-to-be-believed sight in Two Harbors is the set of massive docks pictured above.<br /><br />The lighthouse itself, a little further up the road, is impressively positioned on a rocky protuberance and admirably maintained. Interpretive displays tell the story of the lighthouse’s construction, explain the way the keepers obtained supplies before local roads were built, and also trace the course of the ill-fated Edmund Fitzgerald.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-split%20rock.0.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-split%20rock.jpg" border="0" /></a> Since I try to bring home at least one new t-shirt from every road trip, I was slightly tempted by the surprisingly cool offerings at the gift shop: One t-shirt design imitated the label of a beer bottle, for instance. Still, I am not prepared to be the Guy With The Lighthouse T-Shirt, so we bought a commemorative spoon for Katie’s mom and went on our way.<br /><br />We paused in the tiny town of Kerrick for a photo of a bar called Lobo’s Den. It had a stylish example of the “On & Off” signs seen around Minnesota; they indicate that a tavern also functions as a package-liquor store so customers can consume their booze ON-site and OFF-site.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-on%20off.0.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-on%20off.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />I cannot believe I did not take a single picture of anything in Duluth. Someday I will return and give Duluth the time and attention it deserves. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><br />Back in Minneapolis, we met up with John Kass again at a release party for “Whiskey on a Sunday,” a new DVD about the band Flogging Molly. The event was hosted by the downtown branch of <a href="http://www.grumpysbar.com/">Grumpy’s</a>, a small chain of bar & grills run by one of the parties responsible for the <a href="http://www.amphetaminereptile.com/">Amphetamine Reptile</a> record label—an imprint familiar to fans of the loud, raw, wild rock ‘n’ roll of the grunge era. AmRep (as it's fondly known) has a very distinctive graphic aesthetic, and the design and signage at Grumpy’s shares some of the same flavor. I presumed that they’d have some pretty good-looking t-shirts, but Paddy the bartender regretted to inform me that they were temporarily out of stock. The teriyaki wings were good, though!<br /><br />The evening ended at the <a href="http://www.varsitytheater.org/">Varsity</a>, a handsome old movie theater recently reborn as a concert venue. We enjoyed a sparkling set by <a href="http://www.camera-obscura.net/">Camera Obscura</a>, a six-piece Scottish pop band that shares a few attributes with its friends and neighbors in Belle and Sebastian. The sound was crystal clear, and the venue was just beautiful. The movie-house floor has been flattened, but there’s a variety of tiered seating (sofas, small tables, ottomans, etc.) along the side walls and a wide strip down the middle for those who prefer (or are obliged) to stand or to dance. Small trees hung with white Christmas lights add charm, and the upstairs lounge flanking the restrooms is retro-fabulous. Camera Obscura was selling t-shirts that, oddly enough, resembled Minnesota Twins jerseys. Coincidence, surely; they could hardly afford to print up locally-themed shirts for every town on the tour!<br /><br />I didn’t buy a shirt. I was holding out for something that explicitly, intentionally stated ”I got this in Minneapolis!” (The Varsity should sell t-shirts of its own, I think.) I also didn’t get a photo of the Varsity; I figured they didn’t want cameras inside, so I left mine in the car a few blocks away and totally forgot to get a picture later. Here’s a link to a set of photos taken just a couple of days later by someone else; I’d sure like to have been at <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocknrollstar/203580845/">this</a> show!</span><br /><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><strong><em><br />Next installment: Bike-friendly MPLS, more cool old theatres, Jens Lekman!</strong></em>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-1154535574553382962006-08-02T09:30:00.000-05:002007-11-16T12:30:17.017-06:00Summer Vacation 2006, Part One<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Katie and I just got back from Minneapolis, where we saw, heard, did, and ate a lot of wonderful things.<br /><br />We drove up instead of flying because there’s a lot of land between St. Louis and Minneapolis that we haven’t seen yet. We took US 61 to the top of Missouri, and cut across on 136 to pick up US 63, which we followed all the way through Iowa.<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><p align="left"><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-bloomfield%20block.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-bloomfield%20block.jpg" border="0" /></a>We stopped for lunch in Bloomfield, a nice little county seat with a handsome courthouse on a bustling square. The Iowa Theatre has a cool Moderne façade, and two doors down there’s a vintage Coke sign over Ray’s Recreation. We had lunch at Rancho Centinela on the square; it’s a Mexican restaurant occupying a huge storefront—6000 square feet, says one resource—that I suspect might have been a department store in a previous life.<br /><br />We’re carrying <em>Buildings of Iowa</em> with us; it’s one volume in a series of books published by the American Institute of Architects, and it lists notable buildings in many of the towns we’re passing through. I’m most interested, obviously, in mid-20th-century relics, so when we hit Ottumwa I seek out the Rowe Drug Store. It’s supposed to be a Streamline Moderne classic, clad in neon and midnight-blue-and-cream Vitrolite. At the listed address is a tiny, nondescript storefront swathed in stucco. It’s not a drug store anymore, and all the Moderne finery is gone. The only hint that this is even the correct address is a capital R set in the tile at the entrance.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-rowe.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-rowe.jpg" border="0" /></a>Oskaloosa is a bust too, as I’m looking for the old Rivola Theater that’s listed on CinemaTour. It’s gone (though visible at <a href="http://cinematreasures.org/theater/2977/">Cinema Treasures</a>); entire blocks of the main drag have been replaced by a modern strip center that’s supposed to act as a natural extension of the old business district. There’s a farmers’ market set up along one side of the square, though, and Katie scores some tomatoes and blackberries.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-capri.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-capri.jpg" border="0" /></a>There’s a nice surprise in New Sharon: The Capri Theatre is a well-preserved example of an older cinema getting a 1960s makeover. The entire entrance is uninterrupted glass, and atop the marquee are backlit letters in individual boxes spelling CAPRI. Theatres built or remodeled in this style are often a curious mix of rough stone facing and poodly wrought-iron, and the Capri is a fine example. The venue is run by volunteers, and it’s open only on weekends—but the $1.50 admission charge is hard to beat.<br /><br />There were a couple of things I wanted to check out in Malcom, but an angry-looking storm cloud is literally following us up the highway so we buzz on through in hopes of leaving it behind.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-traer%20stairs.0.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-traer%20stairs.0.jpg" border="0" /></a>The coast is clear by the time we hit Traer, so we check out the famous <a href="http://www.traer.com/visit/winding_stairs.html">Winding Staircase</a> that was built in 1894 for direct access to a second-floor newspaper office. Just down the block is the Traer Theatre, which is run by the city and is presently being remodeled.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-traer%20theatre.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-traer%20theatre.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">WATERLOO/CEDAR FALLS</span></strong></p><p>We had reservations at the Quality Inn in Waterloo. After everything was set up, I discovered <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/">TripAdvisor.com</a>, and checked out the users’ comments on our hotel. One traveler noted that the Quality Inn was in the “WORST neighborhood in all of Iowa” and that the outer doors required no key-cards for entry: “You could just walk in at all hours and hop on the elevator up to the rooms, no questions asked.” Well, how the hell else are you supposed to get in when you first arrive, before you’ve registered? The restaurant and bar are both open to the public, and if their doors to the hotel lobby were locked, it would be a fire hazard. Myself, I worry more when I arrive at a motel and I have to be buzzed in. There are three locks on the door to your room, worry-wart. Use ‘em.<br /><br /></p><p><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-downtown%20waterloo.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-downtown%20waterloo.jpg" border="0" /></a>True, the Quality Inn was not in the prettiest of neighborhoods, but it didn’t look particularly dangerous to me. There were at least four bars within rock-throwing distance, but we didn’t hear any drunken hollering during our stay. The immediate area also contained an ethnic grocery, several warehouses, more hotels, a convention center, a Subway restaurant, and a pizza parlor with the repellently cutesy habit of spelling its product “peetza.” I would’ve thought the hotel just fine, even if I hadn’t been named “Guest of the Day” and gotten upgraded to a two-room suite with a whirlpool tub!<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-guest%20of%20day.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-guest%20of%20day.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-deco%20gas.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-deco%20gas.jpg" border="0" /></a>In the morning, <em>Buildings of Iowa</em> led us to a swell art-deco gas station (now a fence store), and further exploring revealed a vintage neon sign in the shape of a fez …<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-el%20mecca.1.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-el%20mecca.1.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cassette.1.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-cassette.1.jpg" border="0" /></a>…and this wonderful sculpture in front of the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center. I got to wondering about the Sullivans: Were they local mavens of commerce? A comedy troupe, perhaps? Sadly, no. A little research revealed that they were five local siblings, ages 19 thru 27, who served together on the USS Juneau in WWII and were all killed when the ship was attacked in 1942. The armed forces usually didn’t allow siblings to serve together, but the Sullivans had insisted on it.<br /><br />Waterloo and neighboring Cedar Falls, a college town, have a pretty impressive network of <a href="http://www.cedarfallstourism.org/trails.asp">bicycle trails</a>, and we rode over 20 miles through the parks and suburbs and along the river. (Trail maps and other local resources are available at the Chamber of Commerce—on Main Street just south of the Cedar River—and just down the road at an old gas station that’s been converted into a tourist-information kiosk.)<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-candy%20machine.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-candy%20machine.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.communitymainstreet.org/">Main Street</a> in Cedar Falls has undergone an amazing transformation in the last few years. The sidewalks have been upgraded with new trees, benches and bike racks, and shops and restaurants have multiplied. Cup of Joe, a coffeehouse conveniently located at the nexus of the bike trails by the river, was celebrating its eleventh anniversary on the day of our visit, and the proprietor felt very fortunate to have staked a claim on Main Street well ahead of the rush. The coffeehouse is blessed with a perfect location, great java, a friendly staff, and an incredible collection of early-‘60s Danish Modern furniture.<br />Directly across the street is the recently-restored Cotton Theatre. Now renamed the <a href="http://www.cedarnet.org/regent/">Oster Regent</a>, it presents live entertainment.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-oster%20regent.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-oster%20regent.jpg" border="0" /></a> A few doors down, the historic <a href="http://www.blackhawk-hotel.com/">Blackhawk Hotel</a> offers quaint-yet-classy accommodations.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-black%20hawk%20hotel.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-black%20hawk%20hotel.jpg" border="0" /></a> Main Street also offers a wide variety of restaurants, many of which are run by the multi-concept <a href="http://www.barmuda.com/">Barmuda</a> chain—we had dinner at Beck’s Sports Grill, which is also a microbrewery. There’s also a bike shop, a handsome modern library, an array of public sculpture, and—just a few steps off of Main on 4th Street—a vintage Maid-Rite Sandwich Shop, serving loose-meat burgers Midwestern style.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-maid%20rite.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-maid%20rite.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-panther%20lounge.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-panther%20lounge.jpg" border="0" /></a> A little further out in suburban Cedar Falls, my eye was caught by the vintage neon at the Panther Lounge and the venerable <a href="http://maplelaneswaterloo.com/">Maple Lanes</a>. I wish I’d had time to check out the Imperial Lounge, or at least go into the bowling alley and see if the interior was as retro-fabulous as the exterior! (There are NO photos on their website, unfortunately.)<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-maple%20lanes.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-maple%20lanes.jpg" border="0" /></a> Among all the sights we saw in the Cedar Falls/Waterloo area, I’d say the place most deserving of the Mid-Century Dream “Don’t Go Changin’” award is downtown Waterloo’s Newton’s Jewelers. Now THAT’S some undeniable signage!<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-newton"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-newton%27s.jpg" border="0" /></a>We had to get going before we could explore the town any further. Fortunately, someone with a little more time to spend in Waterloo (and other Iowa cities) has documented it more extensively: <a href="http://www.absolutedsm.com/waterloo_photo_page.htm">http://www.absolutedsm.com/waterloo_photo_page.htm</a></p><p>NEXT INSTALLMENT: Waterloo to Minneapolis. </p><p><em>UPDATE: Reader Aaron Bolton shares news that </em><a href="http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2007/11/16/news/top_story/doc473d8ea8c2a86289123477.txt"><em>Newton's is closing </em></a><em>after 93 years. The owner is pursuing other jewelry-related endeavors that afford her greater opportunity to travel. I can respect that, obviously! Now, anybody got a good home for a two-story-tall neon sign?</em></p></span>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-1152721954792260252006-07-12T11:26:00.000-05:002006-07-12T11:32:34.813-05:00See, it's not just me<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Since I brought it up a few months ago, I was pleased to see that a sorta-well-respected music site is with me on the Sufjan thing: Check out Stephen Thomas Erlewine's well-considered article at <a href="http://www.allmusic.com">www.allmusic.com.</a><br /></span></span>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-1148662448490226952006-05-26T11:53:00.000-05:002006-05-28T12:59:29.610-05:00Cape Girardeau: Broadway<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">While Main Street, paralleling the Mississippi River and its elaborate levee murals, attracts tourists, the earthier east-west Broadway artery is where you’re more likely to see a pregnant teenager pushing a stroller and smoking. It used to be the more glamorous street, however: Main Street was where the department stores were, and Broadway had the hotels, restaurants and movie theaters. Now, while the movie theaters are all shuttered and the restaurants have given way to junk shops, the old <strong>MARQUETTE HOTEL</strong> is leading a Broadway revival.<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><p><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-marq%20then%20now.1.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-cg-marq%20then%20now.jpg" border="0" /></a> Built in 1928, the Marquette was a respectable destination for about half a century. As the chain motels out by the interstate took more and more of travelers’ business, the downtown hotels closed and fell into disrepair. The Marquette was threatened with demolition in the ‘90s, but recently rebounded as a freshly-rehabbed tower of apartments and offices.<br /><br />When I first saw and photographed the Marquette in the mid-‘90s, it was at its lowest point. Through the dusty glass doors I saw a once-proud lobby littered with dirty mattresses and other debris, and the neon signs were broken and rusty.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-marq%20old%20sign.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-marq%20old%20sign.jpg" border="0" /></a> To me, the most intriguing part of the Marquette was the storefront at its southeast corner. <strong>THAD BULLOCK'S PIANO SALON</strong> had obviously been out of business for a while; the instruments I could see through the window had keys like crooked teeth, and the newest song I could see on a display of sheet music was “Mama Told Me (Not to Come).” A fast-food soda cup of more recent vintage revealed that someone had recently been inside, however.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-thad"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-cg-thad%27s%20window.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />As I walked around the back of the building, I saw two old vans bearing Bullock’s name in the parking lot. Both were rusty and had broken windows, and while one was obviously a piano-delivery truck, the other revealed Bullock’s political aspirations. Now I was really curious about this guy, and when I got home I searched the library’s newspaper index for his name and asked former Cape residents about him. The following account was gleaned from <em>St. Louis Post-Dispatch</em> articles and possibly exaggerated anecdotes; any concerned Bullocks who stumble across this text should keep in mind that I present the following not as pure fact, but as a combination of Biographical Thad and Thad-As-Local-Legend.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-thad"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-thad%27s%20vans.jpg" border="0" /></a> Thad Bullock was already selling pianos by the 1950s, but he didn’t move his Salon into the Marquette building until later. He purchased the entire building in 1969, by which time it’s reasonable to assume that the hotel’s downward slide had already begun. After the hotel proper closed, the Piano Salon remained in business for quite a while longer while Thad also pursued his political interests. He ran unsuccessfully for Mayor, but eventually gained a seat as a Missouri Representative. He is remembered as a morally-conservative Democrat, a cantankerous-yet-gregarious character who built an organ into a small trailer so he could jam for constituents on the campaign trail. A Cape resident remembers his last Thad sighting: During a downtown parade, Bullock showed up and unlocked his long-shuttered Piano Salon so he could sit in the doorway and watch the festivities from his lawn chair… blissfully unaware, hopefully, that his fly was open the entire time.<br /><br />Thad Bullock died in 1999, and surviving family members allowed the business deal that brought the Marquette back to life. His name is invoked at the hotel to this day. When, during renovation, an elevator got stuck between floors, a passenger who wrote for the local paper cheerfully blamed “the ghost of Thad Bullock.”<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-marq%20clean.0.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-cg-marq%20clean.jpg" border="0" /></a> Broadway was the main destination for moviegoers in Cape Girardeau, as it was home to three cinemas up till the early ‘80s. The Rialto (circa 1940) was the first to stop showing movies, but it was renamed the Concord and put to good use by a theater group for the remainder of the decade. The much older <strong>BROADWAY THEATRE</strong> closed down around 1960, but was remodeled (with the hideous aluminum façade seen below) a decade later by the Kerasotes chain. It became a church in the ‘80s, but returned to the movie business for a while in the ‘90s. Now closed and used for storage, the Broadway has a lobby full of random junk and a bunch of broken, boarded-up windows.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-broadway.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-broadway.jpg" border="0" /></a> The last cinema to open on Broadway was 1947’s visually arresting <strong>ESQUIRE</strong>. Its Streamline Moderne façade has held up extremely well, despite many years of vacancy interspersed with stints as a church and a nightclub. Like the Broadway, the Esquire is supposedly in line for renovation.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-esquire%20then%20now.0.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-cg-esquire%20then%20now.0.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Other nostalgic sights along Broadway include <strong>WALTHER'S</strong>, a former undertaker/furniture store currently awaiting a new tenant…<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-walthers.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-cg-walthers.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-bob%20boot.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-cg-bob%20boot.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-bob%20sign.0.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-cg-bob%20sign.jpg" border="0" /></a> </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>BOB'S SHOE REPAIR</strong> is hard to miss, with its giant boot.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-shivelbine"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-shivelbine%27s.jpg" border="0" /></a> <strong>SHIVELBINE'S</strong> music store is still going strong, as is its two-story-tall rotating sign—which, encouragingly, still rotates.<br /><br /><br /><strong>BEARD'S SPORTS SHOP</strong> closed in 2003 after 44 years in business, but the shop’s new tenant allowed Beard’s distinctive metal fish to remain on the façade.<br /></p><p><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-beards.0.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-cg-beards.0.jpg" border="0" /></a> </span></p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Then there’s <strong>KEN'S CAPE CLEANERS</strong>, because superheroes get dirty too.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-cape%20cleaners.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-cg-cape%20cleaners.jpg" border="0" /></a> While Cape Girardeau has its touristy side, it’s also a college town—and Southeast Missouri State University has attracted plenty of student-friendly businesses to a particular stretch of Broadway. Pizza parlors, sandwich shops and bars prosper near the campus. Cape Girardeau, I’m told, is also home to the second oldest gay bar in Missouri. </span><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Another old business district in Cape is located along <strong>GOOD HOPE STREET</strong> on the south side of downtown. For years it was home to the (razed) Orpheum Theater and a host of restaurants, stores and taverns. These days it appears to be a down-at-the-heels African-American district, characterized by empty storefronts and occasional violence (a successful nightclub recently closed its doors after a murder occurred on the property).<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-ed"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-ed%27s.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />When I’m perusing old city directories at local libraries, I always try to find the oldest operating restaurant and the oldest operating tavern in town. I was a little disappointed to find only one bar that had lasted fifty years: <strong>ED'S</strong>, on Good Hope. The 2000 Polk Directory indicated that the name had been changed to “JB Taverne,” but when I drove by in May 2006, Ed’s was still the only name visible. I later found out—via the Southeast Missourian’s invaluable “Century of Commerce” feature—that the Corner Pub (renamed Al’s Place), dating back to 1910, is actually the town’s oldest bar. But you still gotta love Ed’s great old neon sign!<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-clark%20sign.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-clark%20sign.jpg" border="0" /></a> Other eye-catching south side items are this handsome neon “Alinement” sign (photographed in 2003) and the stunning new <strong>BILL EMERSON MEMORIAL BRIDGE</strong> over the Mississippi.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-new%20bridge.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-new%20bridge.jpg" border="0" /></a> (Get more info on this bridge at <a href="http://www.bridges.midwestplaces.com/mo/cape/new/">this site</a>, which I discovered moments ago—and which I’m sure will keep me plenty busy in the future.)<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-old%20bridge.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/400/mcd-cg-old%20bridge.jpg" border="0" /></a> I took these pictures shortly after the demolition in September 2004, when the Illinois approach lay broken on the bank (I swear I heard creepy carousel music coming from the nearby woods while snapping photos) and the decorative arch at the Missouri side was still standing. (Actually, I hope they kept this nice little remnant; I forgot to check when I was there earlier this week.)<br /><br />This probably won't be my last post on Cape Girardeau; due to time constraints, I neglected to check local history books for vintage photos, and I completely forgot to get a shot of the local house that looks like an ocean liner. It's a pretty big town, and I haven't even explored downtown in its entirety, let alone the mid-century beginnings of suburban Cape. In the meantime, here are a couple of valuable resources from the fantastic <em><a href="http://semissourian.com">Southeast Missourian </a></em>website: A register of <a href="www.semissourian.com/landmarks">local landmarks</a> and a <a href="http://www.semissourian.com/story/1077682.html">"Century of Commerce"</a> review. I didn't discover these until after my visit, so I'll be sure to take advantage of all this information next time I'm down that way.<br /><br /></span></p>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com74tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-1148452821639089072006-05-23T22:54:00.000-05:002006-05-26T10:19:19.470-05:00Cape Girardeau: Main Street<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-walthers%20detail.0.jpg"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-walthers%20detail.0.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">When Billy Bragg came through town a few years ago, he spent a couple of minutes between songs lecturing us on the proper pronunciation of some Missouri place names. He had apparently been dismayed to hear some locals talking about "Cape Jer-AR-dough" while any sensible Frenchman would, of course, say "Cap Zheer-ah-DOUGH." He was all worked up because the Berlin Wall had come down earlier that day, so we gave him some slack.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;">LIke a lot of Mississippi River towns, Cape (as it's informally known) has a good deal of French heritage. You can catch up on the early years at the city's <a href="http://www.cityofcapegirardeau.org">official website</a>, and peep some more recent changes on MCD's unofficial tour of the commercial landscape...starting right here.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;">In pre-suburban days, Cape had three fairly distinct business districts, each of which has developed its own flavor over the last fifty years.</span><br /><br /><br /><p><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-steps.1.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-steps.1.jpg" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"><strong>MAIN STREET</strong> has become a haven for tourists, offering galleries, antique shops and restaurants (including the Buckner Brewery, in a converted department store) just a block away from the impressive murals that cover the levee. Traditional businesses like drugstores and clothiers have quietly closed up or moved to the suburbs, but a storefront never remains idle for long. While the occupancy rate is impressive, a little bit of flavor disappears every time a business changes hands. Below are three eye-catching Main Street storefronts that have either gone through major changes since my last visit, or are about to.</span> <a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-hechts%20facade.2.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-hechts%20facade.2.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"><strong><a href="http://www.kfvs12.com/Global/story.asp?S=1718185">HECHT'S</a></strong> was an upscale women's clothing store that went out of business (due to retirement, not diminishing dividends) last fall after nearly 90 years in the same location--and what a location! The storefront boasted custom logo tile, plenty of display windows, and a slightly naughty ceiling mural--all of which are still in place as the building awaits a new tenant. Gone, unfortunately, is the one-of-a-kind weather vane--shaped like the good ship Mayflower--that came off in a storm and was spirited away by a scavenger.<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-hechts%20ceiling.1.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-hechts%20ceiling.1.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-hechts%20facade.jpg"></a><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-hechts%20then%20now.1.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-hechts%20then%20now.1.jpg" border="0" /></a></span><em><span style="font-size:85%;">The photo on the left was taken in May 2003, as the mannequins were being changed. Three years later, the lack of lighting in the empty cases lets the natural greenish color of the glass tint the entire foyer. </span></em></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Another then-and-now juxtaposition is a little more dramatic: When <strong>HALE'S JEWELRY</strong> went out of business and the shop next door expanded into its old quarters, Hale's distinctive signage--including custom door handles--was removed.<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-hales%20then%20now.1.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-hales%20then%20now.1.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-hales%20door.1.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-hales%20door.1.jpg" border="0" /></a> The mid-century facade of <strong>LANG'S</strong>, another shuttered jewelry store, probably isn't long for this world; history-happy tourist towns like Cape Girardeau are pretty eager to wipe away any post-Victorian frippery that's accumulated over the last century.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-langs.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-langs.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Safe for now is the zingy sign down the street at still-operational <strong>ZICKFIELD'S</strong>; it almost looks like a modern-day interpretation of classic mid-century signage--or maybe it's just very well-maintained. <a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-zickfields.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-zickfields.jpg" border="0" /></a> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Gone but not forgotten are two stores that emblazoned their names on the tile at the front door: <strong>SALLE-ANN</strong> and <strong>THE BOOTERY...<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-salle%20ann.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-salle%20ann.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-bootery.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-bootery.jpg" border="0" /></a> </strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong></p></blockquote></strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">...and I always enjoy finding a remnant of a long-gone department store, like these door handles left over from <strong>MONTGOMERY WARD.</strong></span></span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-wards.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-wards.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">One more shot from Main Street: A gorgeous, funky, slightly mysterious sign that would actually look more at home in the earthier Broadway business district...or wherever caucasian kids insist on dressing up like gangstas.</span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-cg-wiggery.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-cg-wiggery.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><em><span style="font-family:courier new;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong><span style="color:#666600;">UPDATE:</span></strong> I just learned that the Wiggery, in business on Main Street since 1968, is moving. They'd better take the sign--and if they don't, I want it!!</span></span></em><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Next post: Broadway--featuring tremendous boots, abandoned theaters, and Cape's perennial candidate.</span>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-1147882561356498652006-05-17T10:47:00.000-05:002006-05-17T11:16:01.420-05:00Meramec Highlands revival<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-kirkwood%20tunnel.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-kirkwood%20tunnel.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">This story may not be thematically appropriate for "Mid-Century Dream," as most of the action takes place at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 21st--but I'm kind of excited about it anyway.<br /><br />When I first heard about the Meramec Highlands resort that flourished briefly in the Kirkwood, MO area many years ago, I set out to see what, if anything was left of it. Turns out there was plenty to see; most of the cottages built in the late 19th century were still standing along a cozy little one-way street called Ponca Trail, the general store had been converted into an attractive residence (home, I believe, of Highlands documentarian </span><a href="http://www.meramechighlands.com"><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">James Baker</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">), and the old train depot was boarded up at the edge of the neighborhood. That was a few years ago. Yesterday I was in the area and decided to check up on the Highlands, and I was stunned to see that the depot has been converted into a beautiful home that's presently on the market for a million and a half! The </span><a href="http://www.agapeconstruction.com"><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">developer</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"> has also built a new street paralleling the old tracks, and is in the process of building ten more new houses. Some of the yards back up to a common ground, and others touch on the still-charming properties along Ponca Trail.<br /><br />Another bonus: The old railroad tunnel I'd heard so much about is now easily accessible from the end of the block. A wide walking trail has been laid from the cul-de-sac to the mouth of the tunnel, which has been partially bricked up to keep kids out of danger while letting the resident bats come and go.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Turns out there's been a lot of hoopla about the depot restoration lately, but none of it reached me: KMOV did a TV feature and sponsored tours of the depot last month, and <a href="http://www.tobybelt.blogspot.com">Toby</a> kindly brought <a href="http://www.timesnewspapers.com/stories/20060512/favorites.html">these</a> accolades to my attention. (Note the Neighborhood of Distinction award recipient in the Times article linked above: fifties-tastic Craig Woods, nearly untouched by the teardown plague!)</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Now if they'd only rebuild the dance hall that used to stand atop the railroad tunnel... </span>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-1144305364051033052006-04-06T01:17:00.000-05:002007-03-11T12:52:06.877-05:00Defendant pleads Robble Robble<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">In Beckemeyer, Illinois--between Carlyle and Breese--there used to be a drive-in theater called the Car-Breeze.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;">The screen was torn down years ago, but the marquee survives, hidden under a pasteboard sign. Until recently, the concession/projection building was still standing, covered with weeds and surrounded by rusty farm implements. Some of the letters spelling CAR BREEZE DRIVE-IN were still attached to the counter, and some of the equipment was still rusting away under the rotted ceiling. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;">I used to check on the status of this relic every time I passed by. Today, on my first visit in several months, I couldn't help but notice that the lot had been cleared of weeds and implements, and the old drive-in building had at last been leveled.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;">But in its place stood something pretty wonderful:</span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/Ofc.%20Cheeseburger%201.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/Ofc.%20Cheeseburger%201.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Yes, it's the severed bun of Officer Cheeseburger, McDonaldland's most-decorated keeper of the peace.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">His torso was found several paces away.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Actually, the discovery of this wayward piece of playground equipment wasn't a very big surprise. For a few years, a grade school in nearby Breese has been in possession of another piece of old-school playground equipment, apparently donated when a local McDonald's upgraded to the Playplace: a slide festooned with the head of Captain Crook, a long-decommissioned McDonaldland villain. I think I remember seeing other pieces of McDonald's playgrounds scattered around this part of Illinois, usually in school or civic park playgrounds. Do you know of any?</span><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/Ofc.%20Cheeseburger%203.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/Ofc.%20Cheeseburger%203.jpg" border="0" /></a>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-1124494988077184362005-08-19T18:38:00.000-05:002007-03-11T12:49:28.971-05:00There are worse things they could do<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">News from my neighborhood: The Southside location of Rizzo's is gone! The venerable Italian restaurant has vacated its digs on Chippewa, and a new Turkish/Mediterranean joint is about to open in its place (which, I was sad to learn today, was <em>not</em> the former location of a Parkmoor drive-in, as I'd previously thought). The new restaurant is called Aya Sofia, and I'm pretty curious about it. I haven't seen any advance press, though. Anyone got any inside info or an opening date?</span>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-1124494669074214962005-08-19T18:24:00.000-05:002005-08-19T18:37:49.080-05:00Proud member of AAA, ADD and OCD<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Wow, it's been a while. I've been traveling and researching and photographing all kinds of stuff as diligently as ever, but when I buzzed through several unfamiliar Midwestern cities in one day and only had time to take a few pictures, I started debating with myself about whether to bother posting my findings until I had more background information. While it's fine to present a photo and say "look at this rusty old neon sign at a bar in Dubuque," part of me wants to know how old it is, and what the bar's like inside, before I go slappin' these pictures up on the Web. Otherwise, all you're getting is a bunch of pictures and no text. But I guess my Comprehensive Review Of Every Cool Thing I've Ever Seen Anywhere can wait for a real website (as opposed to a blog), so I can add to it incrementally as information arrives, rather than chronologically. In the meantime, I've got a lotta stuff to dump on you from a trip to northeastern Iowa. But not right now.</span>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-1121818902823699532005-07-19T18:49:00.000-05:002007-03-11T12:40:32.177-05:00St. Charles, MO: No 20th Century, Please; We're Historic<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/MCD-AmCar.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/MCD-AmCar.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> I've been putting off delving into the mid-century legacy of St. Charles because the place has always kind of rubbed me the wrong way. When I was a kid, I lived just across the river from this historic town, and the most direct route to the shoe store my mom frequented there involved one of the scariest bridges in the Midwest (it's now been imploded and replaced). Then a friend who lived there pissed me off. And, finally, St. Charles County is the place all the white-flight refugees wound up when the dreaded non-caucasians followed them to their original haven in northern St. Louis County. Dozens of shabby, generic subdivisions went up, most of them of the sort that appears to consist of a series of two-car garages with modest living quarters tacked on behind them as an afterthought. To a lot of St. Louisans, the St. Charles area represents the worst excesses of suburban sprawl.<br /><br />None of this can be blamed, of course, on the perfectly charming older section of St. Charles, much of which goes back some 200 years. But all that ancient stuff is for </span></span></span><a href="http://www.historicstcharles.com/visitors.aspx"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">another website.</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> I hit Main Street looking for 20th-century artifacts, and came up damn near empty-handed. While South Main is preoccupied with antiques and bistros shoehorned into really, really, really old buildings, North Main has always been a little more contemporary. That's where all the jewelers, shoe stores, and five-and-dimes were located, and just like every other Main Street in America, it got festooned with neon signs in the '30s and aluminum facades in the '60s. That's all gone now. The only neon is in the windows of the sports bars, and the only structure approaching the Streamline Moderne aesthetic is now, ironically, the home of a company that specializes in retro fixtures for homes of the pre-talkie era (and the building itself is more bland than picturesque). Everything else has been restored back to the Victorian era, in keeping with the town's reputation as a living, breathing chunk of frontier history.<br /><br />When suburban shopping centers drew customers away from the city center, St. Charles attempted to make Main Street more mall-like by prohibiting vehicular traffic on large chunks of the thoroughfare and installing seating areas, playgrounds, planters, and mod-looking awnings. Like it almost always does, this plan backfired and the streetscape was returned to normal at great expense. (Public restrooms erected during the mallification, thankfully, are still in use.) While the area looks very nice now, there's just not a lot on Main Street that fits into the purview of this blog. There is some pretty cool stuff, though. Dig...<br /><br />One of the town's major employers in the early 20th Century was the American Car and Foundry Company, whose sprawling plant was located at the northern end of Main. Seen at the top of this post, its campus has been painstakingly converted into a multi-use business park.</span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/MCD-RedGoose.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/MCD-RedGoose.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">A little further south, 324 N. Main still shows traces of the dry goods store founded by George Kuhlmann over 100 years ago. The space is now occupied by offices, but the Kuhlmann's logo still appears in a Red Goose Shoes ad painted on the building's side long ago, and it's also set in the tile at the entrance.</span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/MCD-Kuhlmann"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/MCD-Kuhlmann%27s2.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/MCD-RedStore1.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/MCD-RedStore1.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/MCD-Rosenblum.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/MCD-Rosenblum.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/MCD-Palace.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/MCD-Palace.jpg" border="0" /></span></a></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">You might have to lift a mat to see them, but there are several other logos for extinct businesses still set in the entrance tile along North Main.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Main Street is fairly narrow, and it's difficult to get a photo of an entire building directly from the front. A conveniently placed parking lot in the first block of South Main, however, allows a great shot of the swankiest 20th-century edifice on the whole street: The Elks Building (below).</span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/MCD-Elks"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/MCD-Elks.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Downtown blocks are also narrow from front to back, and the buildings back up to the next street--which, as a result, serves mainly as an alley. I'd hoped this meant some old signage remained around back, but--save for the Red Goose sign--there wasn't any. Many of the bars and restaurants, however, use their sunken backyards as multi-tiered decks for fair-weather dining. One business had an ancient panel van in its small back lot, with "FM" painted graffiti-style on the side. The word "Spit" was also scrawled over it, and I wouldn't have known what that was about if I hadn't happened to catch </span></span><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086946/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">"Beat Street"</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> on TV the night before!</span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/MCD-Spit"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/MCD-Spit.jpg" border="0" /></span></a></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Off of the main drag, down near the huge Ameristar Casino, new housing is being built in a classic brick townhouse style that complements the old Water Works building that stands in the midst of the development. It's been handsomely restored as a bar and grill called Maryland Yards.</span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/MCD_MdYards.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/MCD_MdYards.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Downtown St. Charles is also home to a fanciful little building with a corner tower; it's now a bail-bonds office, but I'm pretty sure it housed a taxicab company when I first noticed it 25 years ago.<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/MCD-CabCastle"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/MCD-CabCastle.jpg" border="0" /></a> </span><br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">(To be continued)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><p></p></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"></span>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14022391.post-1120700334325512372005-07-06T20:31:00.000-05:002005-07-07T00:56:55.600-05:00Upon Perusal of a Bombastic Document Singularly Unreflective of the Subject it Purportedly Honors, or What the Hell Does Sufjan Know about Illinois?!<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/1600/mcd-sufjan.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/955/320/mcd-sufjan.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Well, I pretty much have to have an opinion on it. Singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens has just released the second in a projected series of CDs celebrating our fifty states, and it's all about Illinois. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">It just doesn't <em>sound</em> like the Illinois I know. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-size:85%;">When I heard that Stevens was including songs about towns I'd spent a lot of time exploring, I became very interested in hearing the CD, and when </span><a href="http://www.pitchforkmedia.com"><span style="font-size:85%;">Pitchfork</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> declared it the best album released thus far in 2005, the stakes were raised. I didn't know much about Sufjan Stevens, so I didn't really know what to expect. The jokey, Slade-referencing title, <em>Come on Feel the Illinoise</em>, and the album cover--festooned with the Chicago skyline, UFOs, Al Capone, and a famous Illinois-identified cartoon character (whose handlers issued a cease-and-desist order that resulted in his likeness being removed from future pressings)--suggests that the record might be fairly humorous...so it wasn't unreasonable to expect something droll and Steve Goodman-esque, considering that I've heard Stevens described as something of a folkie. Boy, was I in for a surprise.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;">This thing is <em>ornate</em>, man. It's fey and fussy and foo-foo; it makes the Decemberists sound like AC/DC. Sufjan squandered an opportunity to create an artifact for the ages--something that could be enjoyed and understood by Joe Sixpack and maybe even used as a teaching aid--and instead opted to whip up a rococo wedding cake of smug, cutesy-poo math-fluff that'll sail right over the heads of the unpretentious folk who populate the towns he name-checks. Most of the songs' titles are smirky, paragraph-long gusts of exposition--which is enough in itself to keep them from becoming standards or even seeming sincere--and one of them suggests that the orchestra repeat that string arrangement again, "because I don't think they heard it way out in Bushnell." I don't know if Sufjan's been to Bushnell or just picked it at random off a map, but I've been there--and it seems like the kind of town that, for better or worse, wouldn't hesitate to tell you where to stick your string section.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;">Why couldn't he have come up with a less obtuse song about the UFO's that apparently visited Highland a while back; something as solid and memorable as, say, "Bloody Williamson," the Rockhouse Ramblers' ode to the Charlie Birger gang? Hell, despite its ill-informed reference to the "east side," I'll take "The Night Chicago Died" over this stuff. </span></div><div> </div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;">You want to hear some Illinois-bred music that really reflects its point of origin? Pocahontas is a tiny town in the shadow of an interstate highway. It consists mainly of a few houses, a couple of antique shops and two or three motel/gas/convenience plazas with illuminated signs so tall that their tops would land outside the city limits if they toppled. For the last thirty or forty years, Pocahontas has provided diesel fuel, clean sheets and three-egg breakfasts to outsiders who are always in the process of rushing off to someplace more important. Grandpa's Ghost is a band native to Pocahontas, and their music, infused with the deep loneliness of Neil Young at his spookiest, can damn well put you right there on the brightly-lit parking lot of the Powhatan Motel at three in the morning, when it might as well be the surface of the moon. They also play some longer and less structured pieces, which is usually the kind of thing I don't have much patience for--but, having been to where they're from, I swear I can hear the buzzing of fluorescent lights and the shudder of trucks on the overpass rising from the band's subtle swells of feedback. It <em>sounds</em> like Pocahontas to me. But that's just one side of the coin, and native daughter Gretchen Wilson's mainstream shitkicker country is just as valid a representation of her hometown. You can walk into a well-stocked record store in St. Louis and walk out with an accurate representation of an all-night party in Pocahontas in one hand, and a sound-painting of a sleepless night in Pocahontas in the other. They both evoke their point of origin with equal accuracy. Playing<em> Come on Feel the Illinoise</em>, try though I might, I can hear nothing but Sufjan Stevens' ego.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;">Maybe I was expecting too much from Sufjan. If I had any musical talent and a yen to record fifty albums dedicated to the fifty states, I'd recognize the magnitude of the project and try to do something useful with it. I'd take that big road trip, man, and try to put across the <em>feel</em> of the places I'd been; I'd try to give the people I encountered something they could be proud of. This guy is apparently just looking for a template to drape some generally cringeworthy poetry over the kind of lite-classical arrangements Pitchfork wouldn't deign to review if the auteur didn't wear a trucker hat and record for an indie label with a goofy name. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"></span>Darren Snowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13601026518447257908noreply@blogger.com437