Links to local reports on the Tea Party at Kiener Plaza:

• From KPLR 11 (CW)
• St. Louis Post Dispatch
• From KTVI 2 (FOX)
• From KMOV 4 (CBS)
• We don’t have a local ABC news group, and who really gives a rat ass for NBC?  Not even Hiro Nakamura can save that network.

 

The Tea Party was your standard run of the mill gathering, as what I’d suspect Tea Parties go.  I expected other places to be more elaborate.  I’d suppose the ones in Texas would have reenactments of the battle in the Alamo, and in Philly, there’ll be plenty of cosplayers to go with the Hawaiian guy who does Tomas Payne over at Beck’s Show to have a group hug.  I don’t want to know what happened in Callie.  But in the heartland, we had about 10,000 people making their voices heard in a vocal, yet conservative, rally over at Kiener Plaza.

I came there early and took a lot of pictures:

 

Kiener Plaza

 

 

Kiener’s located at the center of town, just shy to the north of Bush Stadium and within easy reach of a still-operational Metrolink.  The location includes the open air Morton D. May Amphitheater with a dramatic view of the Old Court House and the Gateway Arch, and what I call the Runner pool, made by sculptor William Zorach.  You’ll really need to see the fountain in motion to fully appreciate it.  You’ll notice that the water in the Runner pool is blue for Child Abuse awareness.  Although with little signs over the reasoning, it just looks stupid on it’s own.  But what can I say, it could be worse.

I’ll be seeing if I can get something like this place in the books, in front of the Knothole Palace.

 

Horse Drawn Carriages

 

A major addition in the scene is the horse drawn carriages that go throughout the blocks downtown.  It’s a nice image from the city’s historical nature.

And of course, if you have horses, you get, naturally, horse shit.  The natural kind.  Not the kind that comes out of congress, which can be worse.

 

The Usual Suspects

 

As you could expect, our Fox Affiliate would be here to report on the event.  Where the news comes first . . . then rolls over to smoke a cigarette.  Just kidding.  KMOX (CBS-4) was there too.

 

Not to mention the requisite news chopper.

 

When you have a political rally, sure enough, you get signs!

 

  

Here’s some of the better ones:

 

 

The ones you wear with you as well…

And the ones I flat out LOVE!

 

ZERO WING REFERENCE!

If you know what this means, you need to get out more.

 

TRIPLE COMBO!

Sweet!

 

I didn’t know Foxworthy had his representatives in this rally.

Ditto with Gaico!

The political version of RTFM!

I can just hear Vader yelling this out, don’t you?

“I believe I will take my antioxidants.”

Something Rosharch could say in these gigs.

 

And Rosharch did not die in vain either.

Or Mr. A for that matter.

And we have our Sick Freaks out here in force as well.

Not to mention the signs Eric Krockett could get into…

Let your freak flag fly!

 

Not that I’d call the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag a ‘Freak Flag,’ to the face of someone flying it, but that’s just me. I’m a stinker.

 

And remember folks, Cosplay is Love!

Someone who was really in the proper spirit of things.

Colonial era haute couture

Me:  HEY!  Ain’t you supposed to be dead?!

Cap:  You can’t kill a symbol.

Me: . . . oh . . . right.  Silly fricking me.

Cap:  Besides, Winter Soldier’s doing well.

 

(And don’t get me started on Steve Roger’s death.)

And this one takes the cake for the most imaginative.

 

And of course, if you’re reading this in English, thank a soldier.

Circle of Concern props

Circle of Concern is a local charity the ran a drive for a food bank during the rally.  As someone who had to use food banks on occasion, I can’t give them enough props.

And some props for the Volunteers

We could never have shindigs like this without people taking time from their busy schedule over it.  Even if you don’t see yourself in this pic, take a bow.

 

And as the crowd really gets together and the rally is really getting underway, the darn batteries in my camera starts to go out :P

Something tells me that I need to get a better camera.  But I made a lot of contacts and got some needed publicity for my book.  This will include several groups that I’ll be visiting in the coming weeks.