Email Author Ben Westhoff

Awards

• 2007 - National Association of Black Journalists Awards

  "Ace of Spaides"

• 2006 - National Association of Black Journalists Awards, published September 14, 2005

  "Rap vs. Rapture"

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2004 Stories by Ben Westhoff

• Blogger's Remorse

  published December 29, 2004

  St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Daniel P. Finney has resigned from the newspaper following the discovery of his blog. First seen by... More >>

• Attack of the Blog

  published December 22, 2004

  Following publication of an Unreal item in last week's Riverfront Times, newsroom management at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch seized... More >>

• STL's Dirtiest

  published December 22, 2004

  Chingy and Nelly's new albums are pretty good, but Powerballin', Sweat and Suit don't need any more coverage, so this list... More >>

• Bad 2 Tha Bone

  published December 8, 2004

  En route from St. Louis to Denver in a Dodge Durango, Jonathan Toth from Hoth and Tucker Booth have the volume on their rented SUV's CD player... More >>

• Hell on Wheels

  published November 24, 2004

  One afternoon last March, Stan Crocker went out to get the mail from the front porch of his home on Yale Avenue in Maplewood, just like any other... More >>

• Phat-wa!

  published November 17, 2004

  Charlotte, North Carolina, the "City of Positive Energy," has given us Toastchee peanut-butter crackers, Captains Wafers and Sour Bloops (courtesy... More >>

• Proof It!

  published November 10, 2004

  Bottles weave along on conveyer belts as udder-like hoses dispense fluids of different hues. A sweet, boozy bouquet saturates the air. It's... More >>

• Blind Drunk

  published November 10, 2004

  "We can make products that taste exactly the same as the originals," Donn Lux boasts of his knock-off boozes, with pride worthy of an... More >>

• Krypton Rock

  published November 3, 2004

  "Superman is one of the most recognizable characters on the planet," says Steve Younis, a 33-year-old graphic designer who runs More >>

• Farr Out Campaign

  published October 27, 2004

  Congressional candidate Leslie Farr's Hyde Park neighborhood is full of windowless, abandoned houses. Police chases and drug trafficking are... More >>

• Nothing in Commonspace

  published October 6, 2004

  For its swan song, the Commonspace featured an installment of "Free Candy," an untelevised pseudo-talk show. While twenty audience members sucked... More >>

• Where the Boys Are

  published September 22, 2004

  Lee stares out at Washington Boulevard through the late-evening drizzle. No one's driving by, except for the 97 bus, which rolls over a plastic... More >>

• Metal Health

  published September 22, 2004

  Metallica used to get into fistfights onstage, turn dressing rooms into latrines and rip through so many cans of beer that Alcoa stock would rise... More >>

• Finding Your Religion

  published September 8, 2004

  Aphrodite Description: Greek goddess of love, beauty, desire and fertility. She was also vain,... More >>

• The Bouncer and the Dojo

  published August 4, 2004

  Sensei Elliot Freeman is surrounded by strip-club bouncers, who are sitting Indian-style in a semicircle around him. A smiling Micheal Ocello, the... More >>

• Word to My Mother

  published August 4, 2004

  Once upon a time, long before R. Kelly or Michael Jackson was accused of a sex crime, before entire careers were demolished by scandalous quotes... More >>

• The Absurd Third

  published July 28, 2004

  All hell broke loose when Richard Gephardt decided that he had served long enough (28 years, to be exact) in Congress. In bidding farewell to a... More >>

• Booty Call

  published July 28, 2004

  Ah, the single life. Is there anything better? Is there anything you would rather do than go to the grave single, alone, yet able to watch... More >>

• Rebel Yell

  published July 28, 2004

  The Germans have a word, "schadenfreude," which is roughly translated as "shameful joy." Perhaps some St. Louisans felt a twinge of schadenfreude... More >>

• Bedrock, Cock Rock

  published July 14, 2004

  You've partied in a warehouse. You've partied in a field. But have you ever partied in a cave? You'll get your chance Friday, July 16, through... More >>

• Party Down

  published July 7, 2004

  ST. LOUIS IS A FUCKING JOKE --graffiti anonymously chalked on the men's-room wall at Tangerine on closing night Erin... More >>

• Rabble Rousers

  published July 7, 2004

  You may have noticed legions of leaflet-toting activists infiltrating your neighborhood. They come by day and by night, their uncompromising world... More >>

• Jesus For Juniors

  published June 23, 2004

  Six-foot-two, two-hundred-ten-pound metrosexual youth minister Freddy Williams sits down with his decaf. The Ashton Kutcher-caliber hunk takes off... More >>

• Avril Lavigne

  published June 16, 2004

  You can say this much for Avril Lavigne's new album, Under My Skin: It is not overproduced. It's refreshingly rare to hear a pop album that... More >>

• Baton Bob to Suburbanites: Drop Dead

  published June 9, 2004

  "How many of you people are from Chesterfield?" demanded "Baton Bob" Jamerson on a recent Friday night at upscale Central West End eatery Liluma.... More >>