Click to enlarge. Photo for thegazz.com by Walker DeVille

Is it just me? Or does anyone else find the massive, brawny parade of pillars beneath the interstate as it cuts through downtown Charleston to be so impressive? Highway engineers and planners must be meticulous men and women to create such prodigious feats of handiwork, which must bear such weight and stress while traversing hundreds of miles. I envision that after the decline and fall of the American empire, the pillared, impressive ruins of the U.S. interstate system will be our Parthenon, our Roman aqueducts, to tourists in the 31st century.

Click to enlarge. Photo fro thegazz.com by Walker DeVille

A flowering lady replenishes the stock at Capitol Market on this morning. Charleston lacks an arboretum so one must find one’s urban encounters with masses of soothing greenery where one may. Here is the ticket: return at dusk, order a cab from Soho’s — that would be the Louis Martini kind — and maybe the roasted red pepper appetizer and take a seat at one of the restaurant’s outdoor tables. If the several burbling garden fountains for sale in the market are still on, well, you have an imitation woodland gout — with a very good wine, to boot — at hand.

Click to enlarge. Photo for thegazz.com by Walker DeVille

A slightly color-saturated view along Kanawha Boulevard, full of flags. What is up with the Sasaki and Associates plan for the riverfront, Mayor Daniel? One hopes that the hullabaloo, the discord, the hoo-ha, the brouhaha (excuse me, as I make full use of my thesaurus searches), the ruckus over the possibility of shrinking the Boulevard to 3 or 2 lanes has not sent this estimable, meritorious, sterling, crackerjack, peachy (there I go again) gnarly plan into the circular file beside the good mayor’s desk?

Photo for thegazz.com by Walker DeVille. Click to enlarge

The Masonic Temple building, at the corner of Virginia and Hale streets, has the attention to ornamental detail that is almost never afforded anymore to modern buildings. It’s like some wildly inventive chef de patisserie crafted all these flowers and flourishes with a pastry tube, all of which hardened into stone. It’s yet more remarkable — given the lamentable, toss-’em up contruction downtown responsible for such architectural felonies as plastic Corinthian columns — to ponder the amount of handiwork in just one door frame on this building. Related shot here.

Click to enlarge. Photo for thegazz.com by Walker DeVille

Like a Buffalo Nickel, you simply do not often encounter a ‘Speed Limit 5 m.p.h.’ sign. Is it even possible to drive at steady clip of 5 m.p.h.? The cognitive dissonance was too extreme for someone who saw this sign in front of a warehouse along Smith Street, and who edited the sign to a more sensible speed.

Click to enlarge. Photo for thegazz.com by Walker DeVille

Why don’t Hindus, Jains, Buddhists or Zoroastrians leave pamphlets in public places, trolling for the souls of the lost? The energies of the Jesus Christ street team never seem to flag. You could call on Christ at this phone along Summers Street, near the Subway shop. It’s one of the few remaining public phones left downtown. What will down-on-their-luck Gen X’rs and Y’rs do who can no longer afford a cell? “Hey, buddy, can you spare a text message?”

Click to enlarge. Photo for thegazz.com by Walker DeVille

Really, truly, I am not a Peeping Tom or Peeping Walker, for that matter. But I did spot these bulked-up containers of paintbrushes in this first-floor window at the back of the Masonic Temple building along Hale Street and just had to click away. This looks to be the redoubt of one serious artist. Either that, or a paintbrush collector.

Click to enlarge. Photo for thegazz.com by Walker DeVille

Famous Charleston streetperson Bill Dunn (previously seen here), takes a breather from piloting his baggy shopping cart, at the corner of Quarrier and Summers streets. There is another younger man — like a weird protege of Bill’s — who also pushes a bagged shopping cart. But he is far less prominent on city streets than the leggy Dunn, who certainly seems to have stamina. Bill always graciously accepts bills I hand him. Once, for Christmas, I put a tenner on his cart while he was inside a coffeeshop. I suspect he has a faithful bevy of contributors. You never know when a seeming bum turns out to be a holy fool or — as Mere Teresa once said ‘Jesus in disguise’!

Click to enlarge. Photo for thegazz.com by Walker DeVille

With the injection of Appalachian Power Park into Charleston’s warehouse district, one wonders if there is hope for more revitalization in this area. Warehouse districts in bigger, more robust cities have often been transformed into earthy, club-flecked, bohemian districts. Perhaps too many people are draining out of the city and state to fuel such a metamorphosis. But then who would have prognosticated a vibrant little stadium in the area 10 years ago? A drive-through the district yields pleasant divertissement, such as the festively painted front and sides to Pugh Furniture shop along Hansford Street.

Click to enlarge. Photo for thegazz.com by Walker DeVille

Curious by Nature has keen eyes, being as s/he is so curious and aces a 2nd Quizscape with her/his correct identification of these corbels as belonging to the building at left at 812 Quarrier St. I was standing in front of the little shoe shop on Quarrier, in response to his/her query (merde upon these gender-less pseudonyms!) in the comments to the original Quizscape photo below.