Continuing with the recent trend in “ruin porn” – the phenomenon of almost voyeuristic hindsight and awe with America’s urban past and what has become the present – the notoriously iconic St. Louis housing complex Pruitt-Igoe will get an injection of interest next month when the new film The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: an Urban Historypremieres at the Oxford Film Festival. That’s Oxford, Mississippi. It’s no surprise to me of course that this film isn’t debuting in St. Louis itself, a city in almost permanent conflict with its own past, identity and desires.
For two years I drove by the grounds where Pruitt-Igoe stood on my way to high school – up North Jefferson, the main street bordering on the west (above). Not that I understood then the impact P-I had on the landscape – I didn’t – but it was even then a point of fascination that something so grande and ambitious was attempted in my fair and diminutif city during an era of otherwise obvious decline. It lasted only 20 years, and was destroyed before I was born – but for the adults around me who lived through that era, something always seemed to stick at their side. Perhaps the film will shed light on what that thing is, but I like to think not – in the same way that looking at the contemporary satellite map above, which we now have easy access to, makes one think “awwww, that’s nice” – and actually yes the green is pleasant to look at – but it’s ultimately impossible to answer the question “What went wrong?”
some footage from Koyaanisqatsi shows Pruitt-Igoe getting blow’d up:
…
on another note I’m currently reading Franzen’s The Twenty-Seventh City, which I highly recommend to any native from the region, as well as anyone looking for a good (although I think he’s very cynical at times) American satire.
Having just uploaded an anaglyph video myself to Vimeo, someone put it in a 3d channel, that I looked at and clicked to watch this video, only to be surprised that it’s my hometown of St. Louis, MO! Pretty nifty. And yes indeed viewing 3d over the internet does work – maybe it’s a monitor refresh-hertz thing, but I found if I’m a certain distance from the screen the glasses translate the image correctly; move forward or back and they didn’t seem to work as well. Probably something with how the eye perceives, then flips, and how the brain is cross-wired. ISN’T SCIENCE GRAND!
My latest excursion to St. Louis was probably bar none one of the worst trips I’ve ever been on. There I said it. The trip had a purpose, to move my parents after 32 years in one domicile. This wasn’t so much the burden, but the layers that got piled onto the project during the lead-up to the move made it exhausting and unrewarding. Who knows when I’ll next go back. I was only able to go out 4 nights over nearly 3 weeks; I had one brunch and one lunch with friends. Aside from that I was held hostage to not having a vehicle, and to spending countless hours migrating furniture and boxes across and around 4 floors of one of the best houses in the city. A quick after-thought count would suggest I walked up and down over 20,000 stairs to complete the job (it was 15 up and 15 down to the front door; and 31 up and 31 down inside the house; basement stairs were 17 up and down… do the math). Still, I’m all about hard work. I appreciate the physical exhaustion at times. But the exhaustion of family and other barriers shed light on how not to conduct a project like this in the future when it’s my turn.
While I was there my dad – the Dude – also had four stents put in his heart, which put an exclamation mark on the stresses of the project and daily life in Normalville. I wish I was there for the post-op but I barely escaped as it was. While I was there some good happened, but I really had to fight for it. Thanks to John and Octavia for their support; to Ash for his big biceps and stick shift super-powers; to ARRG for the awesome sport; to Leah for the brunch (I needed to get the FUCK outside!) and to everyone else who loaned an ear and listened.
* I worked on and off over two weeks boxing my own stuff up, rented a U-haul, and whisked it away…
* to my friend John’s basement! It looks quite good here. I would have liked to have skids on the floor, so fingers crossed there’s no floods ever. …
* Ash was a biiiiiiig help moving stuff – thanks to his dad’s truck – to my parents’ new digs. I rewarded him with Redbird memorabilia (below)
* Yes, I have THAT record on vinyl! Don’t make me RICK ROLL you!
When in St. Louis be sure to stop by the Royale on South Kingshighway for your fix of “food and spirits”. There are lots of great bars in St. Louis but the Royale really makes it a point to remind you you’re IN St. Louis. The fleur-de-lis painted on the building’s exterior is just a taste of what you’ll find indoors, including photos from years past, drawings of St. Louis imagined in the future, and maps aplenty, including one that I donated to the bar showing the layout of the city as it was built up around old forts. The proprietor Steven Smith also showed me a wall painting in the bar’s courtyard that showed the city from pre-Civil War years and depicted an Army Corp of Engineers project that was commissioned by none other than Robert E Lee – I never knew!
Old-school photos and new-school friends (and Juan-o): that’s me I guess from around age 15; Smarty McFly of the Stunt Devils derby team (who was quick to inform the table she won “Best Rack 2009″ – I didn’t see the competition, but sure!)(UPDATE: forgot to mention, she’s sporting my Dolabany otchkies); Juan-o and company playing a 2:40am game of “The Game of the House Located Upon the Top of the Hill” or something obtuse like that (Frankenmonster totally pulverized our asses with two punches!); and enjoying a brunch at the Benton Park Cafe with Leah – do go here, the food is delish, I had the veggie burger which is totally one of a kind!
It’s strange how some kids have “a thing”. And this little cutie’s thing is anything mask or head-wear! She’s game if it covers her face, goes on her head, tweaks her vision, or just generally looks awesome!
* BELLA BELLA BELLA!
* if you have a day, walk around Soulard in historic St. Louis – some wonderful pieces of architecture remain!
* I rewarded Ash for his contributions of truck-n-muscle with some St. Louis Cardinals ephemera I collected while going through literally tons of boxes full of crap.
* one of the few exciting things I was able to enjoy during my trip was the 1st anniversary of Binge & Purge on Cherokee Street
Of course an always-admired location to stop by, Vintage Vinyl in University City just west of the city limits. Still the largest and most-awesomestest music store I’ve ever been in, they have more vinyl than you could physically listen to in a calendar year! This place was a big part of my youth, and a large portion of my personal vinyl collection came from here.
and of course lastly a shout-out to APOP Records, also on Cherokee Street (two doors down from Binge & Purge, above). APOP are a record label and store, specializing in independent, punk, hardcore, gore films, counter-culture books, crust demo tapes, and unique LPs ranging from rock bands to Laurie Anderson. Stop in and say HI to Tiffany, tell her I sent you! Great store, great layout, and there’s always something I’ve never heard and quite like on the house speakers. Oh yeah, fucking rad cat too, that followed me around the store a couple times, acting like it’s looking at vinyl! loL!
While I always love my time in St. Louis, my people there, and having a deep familiarity with a city that is no longer mine, these shots from my return flight from St. Louis’s Lambert to New York’s LaGuardia help illuminate why I am so in love with the grandeur of New York City, a city of unimaginable size and scale:
For starters there was the actual takeoff out of St. Louis. Now, first thing to note is that the airport is in the County, not the City (limits). Still, it’s all part of the St. Louis “region”. However it’s a distinguishing fact to keep in mind that when you land at LaGuardia you’re landing in Queens County, one of the five counties that constitute the boroughs of New York City. Also, look at how green this place is:
So here’s a shot flying east over the Mississippi. That’s downtown St. Louis in the background, the most-distinguishing building being the TWA Dome/Edward Jones Dome, the white hump of a building that the Rams play in:
We dropped below the clouds just in time to catch the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, connecting Brooklyn to the north with Staten Island in the corner:
One thing you’ll recognize immediately is how much closer you feel. And what I really love is having a relational proximity to this city that I’ve really only experienced elsewhere in London. You live here for so long and you really start to develop a memory-map of the city based on prior experiences, in ways that I never could in St. Louis. Like the week before I was underneath the same bridge I was now 3,000 feet above:
(Staten Island in the background)
Or take the Rockaways, here pictured in the background behind Coney Island/Brighton Beach, I was at a beach on the left top-middle edge also just a week prior:
And to give you a sense of scale, it took an hour to travel from Lower Manhattan to said beach by ferry – that’s how huge and expansive this city is!
A shot of Brooklyn, this time a view of that building at the intersection of 4th Avenue, Flatbush Avenue and Atlantic Avenue (which I’ve got a shot of from below as well!):
Here’s a view of Governor’s Island in the lower-right seen over the right wing. I was at Governor’s Island just a couple weeks prior for the Tangent public art festival!
Continuing on.
Here’s a great shot of the AT&T building near Canal and Broadway, which can be seen just above the AT&T building (see detail):
it ain’t called Empire State for nothing
Madison Square Garden, the round building in the lower-right, much more impressive than the Edward Jones Dome highlighted near the top of this post.
Yankee Stadiums new and old (left and right, respectively) – I have yet to visit the new stadium.
A view of Co-Op City in the Bronx, the largest cooperative housing development in the United States.
And then suddenly you’ve landed.
This flight was incredibly short for some reason. We departed about 30 minutes late it seemed, so they must have made up for it in the skies because we landed 2-3 minutes early! Nice.
Oh yeah, this was an American Airlines flight, and given their flight path if you want these remarkable views from St. Louis get a window seat on the right side of the plane! I sat in 18F, so a few numbers less (17, 16, 15, etc.) would probably remove the wing from your view. Yippee!
Classic diner on the outskirts of STL city in Maplewood that caters to the midnight crowds, there’s always a good rush between 1-2am and they are open 24/7. The crowds are loud which is a good thing because there’s always a conversation to join in on, and people here are expressive! Joann is the type of waitress whose been here 30 years, an old dame with a quick attitude and her own personalized approach to crowd management: if you are loud or obnoxious she will hit you with her stick!
Not actually the stick she will hit you with (she keeps that behind the counter), this BIG STICK is displayed right by the entrance. Been going here since 1997 or 98 and can’t say I ever noticed it before. The joint still manages to surprise.
The menu is classic, and includes local fare like the Slinger, a must-have for carnivores (even I recommend it, simply for the sheer OMG-factor!).
