Sublunar Photography

I was going to start off the first blog post of the new year by talking about how it's '21 now and how I'm glad the past year is finally over, but it feels like its rancid leftovers are still stinking up the room, as though 2020's trash is all piled up by the door waiting for someone to haul it outside. So.. yeah. It is technically 2021 now, I guess. Anyway, here's to new years and new adventures and I hope everyone's '21 is all around better and less like a suffocating dumpster fire that never ends.

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The Clocktower was constructed in the 1890's. It proudly stands watch 230 feet above downtown Saint Louis. Facing out in all 4 directions, its hands have steadfastly toiled away at their work for almost 130 years now-illuminating every moment of our miserable existence and ensuring that the unending march of time continues to progress forward in a clockwise fashion.

Unfortunately, the clocktower appears to finally be sealed up now and this may be the last time I would ever get to enjoy the views. But who knows. Maybe in another decade after the current owners abandon it, the great cycle will repeat itself with Saint Louis falling back into disrepair, becoming the filming location for another Escape From New York movie in which this building once again enjoys a starring role. It already happened once before and, well, we survived 2020. Anything is possible at this point.

First post of 2021 MEGA BONUS: River Thing #2

Way back in the before times there once existed an awesome abandoned site in STL called Carondelet Coke. It was everything you could need such a thing to be. It was a safe, happy place-if burning off stress in an industrial wasteland makes one feel safe and happy, I suppose. Jutting out from the coke plant high above the torrent of death that is the Mississippi River, a tall structure that once unloaded barges full of coal or coke (or something) was left standing without any adult supervision as an attractive and stupid temptation for attractive and stupid people like myself. It was known as "River Thing". On one warm summer day, myself and a longtime comrade went all the way up the thing where a misplaced trust in the stability of one of the walls at the top nearly ended his life.

Just a few days ago, I was surfing the googles and saw something that reminded me of River Thing. It happens to be next to another more well known location and yet I don't think I've ever seen photos on/of this thing before. So it went on the to-do list and we ended up heading out to it recently.

WARNING; DO NOT ATTEMPT: THIS THING FUCKING SUCKS

So we head out to it and discover that it's really goddamn high over the river. A lot taller than you'd think. As we progress, it's pretty sketchy and a little rickety but relatively doable up to about 98% of the way to the actual structure. Once you reach the structure, the floor is a patchwork of loose, rotten wood and.. I think that's it. Keep in mind this is BEFORE you reach the concrete platform where it wouldn't be fatal to fall through. This is the tallest and furthest point yet over the river (the very end of the structure is only like another 20ish yards ahead past the little walled section). So you're standing there some, I don't know, 60 or 100 feet above the river where you are forced to confront your mortality, thinking to yourself "well this fucking sucks. Do I turn around or just try to finish it?" I chose the latter option because I'm a stupid fucking idiot. I carefully stepped over it while holding on to a beam on the side like a little bitch. When I got to the concrete part, I tried to get a good look at the floor from below and, technically, it does in fact appear to be: just some rotten ass fucking wood high as fuck over the river which appears ready to collapse any day now. Probably like the next time your dumb ass steps on it. God fucking damnit. Fuck me. Why the fuck do I do this shit?

So anyway this thing's name shall henceforth be known as "River Thing 2" and I fucking hate it. Please don't go out there. Satisfy your curiosity with these pictures and live to explore something else instead.