full circles

[dirtydarthdrama]

When I was a student down at SLU I heard stories about a strange street performer based down in the Central West End. This performer was a black man who would twirl a baton in time to music only he could hear - he always had on headphones - and marched through the streets of the Central West End in costume or cross-dressing. When I hear about this

Comments

[beanrua]

Years ago, we had a guy in Columbia, who usually dressed up like a cowboy (chaps and all), and stood at a major intersection, waving, singing and pseudo-traffic directing. I don't know where he went now, but he did make me smile...and wonder...when I passed him.

I have a friend in Philadelphia, a poet, who's known for doing kinda crazy things. I choose to think he brings out the best in me. We danced and sang down the middle of Broad Street in Philly at one in the morning, and we didn't have a thing to drink or smoke. It's a very fond memory.

I don't know why people need to be so damn mean. Seriously...mean people suck, and there's so many of them.

[kmbrown6]

God damnit! Atlanta is going to get all our good luck! It is a little known fact that seeing Baton Bob is a good omen of things to come. Let me explain. He'd hang around the CWE, but from time to time he'd come up around our neck of the hospital. Rumors started going around the offices of this strange man of mystery in a tutu. Who was this guy? Was it performance art? Was he crazy? He just twirled away, oblivious to the passing world. Ah, but his outfits are so varied and thematicly approriate to holidays and such! Surely only a sane man could coordinate like that. Such was the debate, and we dubbed him "The Twirler" (This was before the days when he became a media darling. At the end of his STL stay, he was getting some press, but never as much as he's getting in Atlanta. Long story short, we didn't know he was "Baton Bob" till our name had already stuck in our office

[dirtydarthdrama]

You know what? I'm glad to hear that Baton Bob had an impact on the folks at the hospital. It seems like that's exactly what he was trying to achieve here in St. Louis, and I'm glad he did some good while he was here.

St. Louis is now the most dangerous city in America. I don't think it's a coincidence, either.

That said, he seems very happy in Atlanta and they seem to appreciate him more than some people did around here. So though I am sad that he left my hometown I'm glad that he's some place where his twirling can bring joy without people harassing him.