Katy and Kathleen get serious: An impromptu meeting at Jade Lounge (in back of Mekong, on South Grand, in St. Louis, check it out) degenerates as I [with regret] bring up the topic of christianity vs. catholicism.

Chicago Redux: More street pictures and other weird snaps from recent treks through the city. Mostly waist-level pictures where my camera seems to have gone unnoticed. Nice pants.

Newlywed Neighbors Jonathan and Leslie were recently married, and live below Martha and Scott, who threw a party to celebrate the event. Both Jonathan and Leslie are excellent artists; he does photography and she does sculpture. I couldn't nail down a single personality type at the party. Everyone who attended was unique in their own ways. I did learn, however, that Rolling Rock beer and White Castle cheeseburgers are a bad, bad, combination. Eww.

Open Mic Night... the bastard-child of Karaoke. A local St. Louis club encourages Wednesday-night patrons to express their show business fantasies... {sometimes} at the expense of the crowd. This particular evening featured Erin singing Bobby Jean or Billy Jack or Bobby McGee or something like that, while Noodles belted out a smoove improv rap. Pepe, the owner of the place, sang like a Stone Temple Pilot and offered a pinch-me-am-i-dreaming deal: he'd post my photos of him on his web site if I sent them to him.

Red-headed sluts: Not a reflection on their social habits; it's just the name of the drink they were all consuming. Coincidentally, almost everyone there had red hair. It wasn't an Irish bar, either, and no one had an "O" in their last names. And the walls and carpet are red, too. It was surreal.

Fashion Slow: One of those events at a club where they make you think you are helping a charity. Most of the marketing effort went to promoting the clothing brand-- not the charity. I attended because Caroline was showing work there, and she put me on the guest list. The pictures aren't noteworthy, but the girls were pretty and the colors were cool. The audience shots are the best; check out the waves of identical haircuts. Vive la St. Louis. Additionally, I discovered that there actually are people who pay full price at Banana Republic.

Johnny Love plays live: Musician Johnny Love (that's really his name) saw me at Broadway Oyster Bar and told me that he had been invited to go on stage and play with the visiting band that night. I offered to take pictures of him to record the event, which he described as his "most important, all time life dream, ever". He was great. But I forgot the name of the band he was playing with.

Casa de Katy II: The sequel. More weird stuff at Katy's house. Better light this time. See if you can find me in one of the pictures.

Caroline in U. City: Tyler and Caroline wax artistic in the basement studio of her University City home. Also random pix from the Black Thorn later in the evening, where the bartenders sucker you into giving them a dollar on the promise that they will be able to throw it up to the ceiling and make it stick. It works... both the suckering and the sticking.

A third-wheel evening at Red Sea with rock-star artist Caroline Huth and Dave Gray of Xplane fame evolves into a free-for-all review of our diametrically opposing philosophies on life, business and how to win friends and influence people... through brutal stereotyping and sneaky psychological manipulation. We talked about cars and stuff too.

Casa de Katy: Designer-friend Katy's eclectic tastes demanded to be documented when I spent some time at her house recently. Part retro kitsch, part Nine Inch Nails video, her collection of history was fascinating and humorous.
Shot with barely any available light, the poor technical quality of the images reveals the limitations of the digital camera I was using.

Planet Parenthood: Chris, Claudia, Children and the Cardinals. For me, a fun night of psuedo-parenting. An outing with my friends and their two- and four-year-old boys. Unfortunately, it rained and the game ended after the 7th inning.