Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

To get the full effect of this photo of a Charleston cityscape seen from Quarrier Street and Leon Sullivan Way, click on it. I’ve slightly de-saturated the colors which makes the city look as if it belongs in a scene from ‘Sin City.’ The thumbnail shot is a slightly different vantage point, but the singular car’s red lights, matched to the stoplight it approaches as dusk sets in, makes it look like something bad-ass is going down later tonight.

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

Full disclosure: I’ve been stalking and haunting the streets of Charleston in search of entertainment for years now but had never been to a game at Appalachian Power Park. Until this one, which took place on Saturday, June 23 at Appalachian Power Park in Charleston. What a fine little stadium. (OK, I know, I’m late to the party…) And an equally fine people-watching venue. As the following shots demonstrate.

Click to enlarge. Photos by Walker DeVille

I wish I could get these guys to groom MY yard. Is it not one of the pleasures of a baseball game on a classic grass and dirt field like the kind at Appalachian Power Park how manicured and neat Nature looks, as if Creation existed only to offer a pleasurable place to be at play in the fields of the Lord. (To quote one of my favorite book titles and books — a work that is most assuredly NOT very placid and peaceful).

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

It’s a tough journey from baseball’s minor leagues (like the one in which the Appalachian Power play) all the way to the Bigs, or major leagues. The disappointments and struggles must be legion in comparison with the outsized lives and salaries of the lowliest shortstop on a big league team. But there must be some satisfaction in being able still to play on a bright sunny day, long after your Little League compadres have stashed their gloves in the basement somewhere. Plus, you get your face splayed electronically, tall as a house, on the scoreboard, looking like some ninja ballplayer out of a killer video game.

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

What was life like before cellphones? I can hardly remember. Did we watch things more closely without the chance our kids/lover/office/bill collector/presidential pollster was going to call in the midst of some public outing like a lovely afternoon ballgame at Appalachian Power Park? P.S. –  Related shot.

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

Boys and baseball go way back. This one was not quite as prepared, glove-wise, for foul balls and anyway was standing in the netted area behind homeplate at Power Park. His day — and foul ball — may one day come.

Click to enlarge. Photos by Walker DeVille

Here are some shots from a visit to Appalachian Power Park and a game that took place there Saturday, June 23, during FestivALL Charleston. Here, of course, is that longetime purveyor of trinkets, ties and other peddled goods, Wheeler Bob, a k a Bob Friedman. He’s up to bat (well, up to bats) in the stands at Power Park, selling tiny wooden bats that would make good truncheons for a Pygmy Police Force.

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

Mark Davis has to be one of the more joyous performers to experience in the Charleston area. The multi-talented percussionist has studied the art of drumming in Ghana and elsewhere and you know it’s going to be a pleasant night if he’s in the band. He is seen here performing with Andy Parks (singer-songwriter and fellow bandmate and guitar whiz in Voodoo Katz) at the monthly Lighthouse Cafe music night, held the third Friday each month at Charleston Baptist Temple, Quarrier and Morris streets. Next one: Friday, July 20.

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

She’s studying up for something. My wager is a lawsuit since suits are the business of the suits who occupy all the law firms that line Capitol Street. Attorneys being a cash crop in the capitol/capital city of Charleston.

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

OK, so not exactly a photo from the downtown streets of Charleston. But wait — it is just off the downtown streets. This was a shot of a woman named Dana who was leaning back to stretch — and not having an attack of angst — during a recent ceremony in the Taylor Books art gallery honoring the book “Patchwork Dreams,” which she helped to create along with editor Heidi Muller.