Images From Forge City

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Changing Times...

It seems that I am out of river shots for the time being, at least until I get some developed, or until I find some old negatives.

Therefore, I will begin posting other shots I've taken over the years.

I will begin with a very particular "then & now."

Check these out...

Deadly Water

Yes, I took a little break, Mostly for the holy days, partly becazuse I was just tired.

When we last went down to the river, I said that my next post would be about why signs like this --

-- were in the Riverfront Park region in the late 1980s, and why signs like this --

-- should still be down there today. It all has to do with this little shed behind me in the above picture, and in greater detail below, here --

By the end of 1988, I had been to the fence, I had been just on the other side of the fence, but I had never gone to the shed, even to look inside. Well, a few months later I did so with a video camera. This is what I saw:

The barrels are all labeled "Riverfront Park-- protective clothing and gear." Right there on the roadside. I mean, they're behind the fence, but still, they're on the river side of the levee, and real close to prying eyes and curious hands.

When I originally saw them, I got into my car and began driving away, and the only two words cycling through my brain (after having just encountered toxic waste) were "chromosome damage."

Actually, I have no idea whether the barrels are still there, but considering the fence and the signs are still up, I'm venturing to guess they are. I don't quite have the nerve to walk up and check it out.

A Gift on the New Year...

For the Equinox. Enjoy.

Click the picture.

Music Video: Deus Ex Machina -- "The Dead City Scrolls"

Riverfront Park, Then and Now...

So some of you that know me may be aware of my passion for the Missouri Riverfront in Kansas City. When I was a kid, I remember the first of the KC "Spirit Fests" took place over the US Bicentennial celebration at Riverfront Park. I went there several times after that as a kid. Then came the big Missouri toxic waste snafu in the early 1980s, where dioxin dumping caused the town of Times Beach (South of St. Louis) to just "disappear." I had friends there. It was depressing. I'm rambling. At any rate, similar dumping took place at Riverfront Park, so around the same time that Times Beach disappeared, my park was closed down as well.

I was only a kid when all of this happened. It was another eight years (after I'd been driving for a couple of years) before I discovered the site again. It hadn't been removed from maps, but unless you knew what streets to turn on, you couldn't find it.

The first three shots above are from 1988, and show what used to be the main entrance to the park, as it was locked down then. The others are from 2004, showing the new gate. The road goes back aways to the left, then terminates at a boat ramp, where many people frequently fish. If you look at one of my earlier posts, there is a sign that sits on the bank of the Kaw about 500 yards from where it merges with the Mighty Mo, describing the delicasies found benteath the surface. This is only about three miles upriver from this boat ramp. As I have said in other places, you won't catch me eating anything out of those rivers caught around here.

Next photo post: the answer to why we should still see signs like these in that area today.

Next post: Something Special...

From the Wall to the Water...

These shots cover the geography between the Discipline Wall and the river itself.

1.) "The Law Is..." situated immediately to the left of the "Discipline" panel.

2.) "Dead Panhead." Panhead WAS everywhere, at least until Ammutbite made Panhead dead by adding a simple word to an earlier tag by someone else. Kilroy was here.

As above, so below.

3.) Above, barbed wire.

4.) Below, well...

5.) "Spiders." Concrete handrail mount leading down the stairs past the afforementioned abuctment and into the water.

6.) "Loser." slab of concrete just to the right of the concrete handrail mount.

7.) "Getting the Fear." the abuctment, Summer 1989

8.) "Talon." the abuctment, Fall 2004, long after the sun had faded the Manson-esque visage.

Next, more "then&nows"

More "Then & Now"

1.) "Vision Dereliction"

Back to the river we go. A bit of geography. Until the mid1990s, one could drive north on Grand in downtown KC, and once you crossed 3rd Street, you could either take a bridge over the tracks, ending in the parking lot for the old Missouri River Queen Riverboat, or cut down to the right, on Guinotte Street. The Discipline Wall was painted on one of this bridge's supports, just north of the tracks. Between this wall and the riverbank was concrete, and lots of it. Part of it was a fenced in chamber or "cell" where several homeless and transient persons spent cold nights huddled together. It terminated at this odd abuctment-type thing, adjoining a stairway descending into the river. These first two shots come from the side of the abuctment. It was my personal "sigil" at the time, and is the only bit of my old grafitti that still stands at the location.

2.) "Fear is a Man's Best Friend"

This was behind and over my left shoulder from the above two shots. The wall face this was painted on has since collapsed and fallen down the bank.

Again, more when I have time...

For Ammutbite...

...who, for the present, has moved on to greener pastures. I'm hoping he will choose to rear his head again after returning from the Sisters of Mercy show in Chicago tonight (envy) and the 69 Eyes (I can't wait) show here in KC on Thursday, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Up first, "Perpetual Torment."

I was not a part of the creation of this piece, done on a pile of stone that supported portions of the ASB bridge before they rebuilt parts of it in the mid 1980s. I wish I had been there for it. Ammutbite and the Left Alan (see below) did this one. Unfortunately, these shots don't do it justice, and the color shots I had of it (taken in the afternoon -- these were shot at dusk and illuminated by the Zeromobile's headlights) disappeared, and these are all I have left.

It sat at the roadside under the bridge on Guinotte St. for about eight months, when it was smashed into smaller stones and hauled away.

More when I get time...

The Discipline Wall, 1987

This was my first foray into tagging with the Zeroboys. I learned quite a bit about using masking tape stencils to great effect.

More paint to come...

Sic Luceat Lux...

I've heard it said that good things come to those that wait. As a gift to you for your patience in waiting for the river shots to come back, if you click on the picture below, you will be taken to a website. Once you get there, scroll down and click the "Free" button. This will allow you to down load the never-before-released album "Kneeling is Bleeding" by Deus Ex Machina, the band I played with fifteen years ago.

It's a good soundtrack for looking at some of these shots.

Stolen from Ammutbite...

So here we have two more shots from the old days. The first shot is the only evidence I have that I played onstage at the Outhouse. This was with Nosferatu, the band Ammutbite and I headed up along with a couple of other Lawrence kids. We were the fastest and sickest hardcore band in Lawrence at the time. Christ--I just realized that was half my life ago.

The second shot is Ammutbite and me with a pair of Alans. No, really, both of them are named Alan. We called ourselves either the Zero Boys or the Zombie Boys, depending on whichever we felt more fit the situation. This was the main crew that hung out down by the river. Most of the graffiti, no wait, ALL all the old days graffiti you see on this site was done by some combination of the four of us.

My Mistake...

Since Ammutbite posted his, I thought I shold post mine.

These two shots were sent to me by Madame U, and they are the only two shots I have from my first wedding.

It came with the following caption: I call this first one "Scared shitless, with good reason." I believe the actual quote was "I'm hung over and I hope Ilya has a joint."

Jeez-- look at me in the second shot -- what am I ON? I don't remember any sort of intoxicants till MUCH later in the day. Whoa.

Caption for shot 2: "The first day of the rest of their lives"..."Who gave us that lawyer's card? What were they thinking?"

The interlude is over...

...though it will be a couple of posts before I get back to the river shots. The vidcap experience was successful. Plus, after I experiment with a few links, I will be posting some downloadable gifts (which some of you already have, but oh well). Keep watching...