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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2005 Stories by Ben Westhoff

• Rapid Fire

  published December 14, 2005

  A true-blue donkey, Roy Temple has served as executive director of the Missouri Democratic Party and as Jean Carnahan's chief of staff during her... More >>

• Royal Treatment

  published November 23, 2005

  That '70s Show's Kitty Forman is TV's coolest mom, consistently turning a blind eye toward her son and his homies' ganj-addled behavior in... More >>

• The Times, They Are A-Changin'

  published November 16, 2005

  Shortly before Cy Young Award-winning hurler Chris Carpenter threw the first pitch of the National League Division Series to San Diego Padres... More >>

• Name That Loon

  published November 16, 2005

  Despite a slew of FCC fines and an impending move to satellite radio, The Howard Stern Show soldiers on. Recently Stern solicited... More >>

• The Mad Blogger

  published November 2, 2005

  Kanye West may have become a household name when he lamented, "George Bush doesn't care about black people" during the Hurricane Katrina debacle,... More >>

• Under-represented

  published October 26, 2005

  Mark Rice considers himself a south St. Louis Democrat's Democrat. The pro-union, anti-gay-marriage candidate came within a few hundred votes of... More >>

• Pick Your Brain

  published October 26, 2005

  George Romero's Night of the Living Dead had something for everyone: chiaroscuro, political overtones for the civil-rights crowd,... More >>

• Judge Mental

  published October 12, 2005

  Filmmaker Bill Boll thought he was inadequately paid for his role in Built for Speed: The Coral Court Motel, a documentary eulogizing St.... More >>

• Serengeti

  published September 21, 2005

  Chicago rapper Serengeti wears his influences on his sleeve: Sniper, Bloodsport's Frank Dux and Chong Li, Mike Ditka,... More >>

• Rap vs. Rapture

  published September 14, 2005

  Their set just minutes away, hip-hoppers Cho'zyn briskly make their way through the throng of 700 eager concertgoers. The striking duo is clad in... More >>

• Cold as Ice

  published August 31, 2005

  Damn G, the spot's gettin' hot So how the fuck am I supposed to make a knot? Police looking at niggas through a microscope... More >>

• Dead Reckoning

  published August 10, 2005

  Leonardo Drisdel had drifted for a while before realizing he'd left his heart in St. Louis. Since moving back to town in the late 1980s, the... More >>

• You've Got Mail

  published August 10, 2005

  Holly Elder and her boyfriend, Terrence Hamner, have lived in the gentrifying McKinley Heights neighborhood for the past four years. They run Ice... More >>

• Av Almighty

  published July 20, 2005

  Jesus had a lot of haters. Hence, his crucifixion. Avril Lavigne has a lot of haters, too. But fortunately for Lavigne, sounding awesome isn't a... More >>

• Marko-V

  published July 20, 2005

  Twenty-seven-year-old Marcus Moore -- a.k.a. Marko-V -- is not quite gangsta and not quite "conscious," and that's what makes him so cool. His... More >>

• Boing!

  published July 13, 2005

  Allen Baldwin's Low-Riding Rule Number 1: No seat belts. "They're kinda pointless. You can get a ticket for it, but there's so... More >>

• Twisted Web

  published June 29, 2005

  A registered sex offender apparently obsessed with the breasts of a St. Louis TV anchorwoman is out on bail and back working the counter at a... More >>

• Sing Us a Song

  published June 22, 2005

  Teenpop Torture June 12, 2005 New York -- TIME has obtained the first documented look inside... More >>

• Not on Our Street

  published June 8, 2005

  The big white bus pulls out of Detroit shortly before dawn and arrives at the corner of California and Cherokee streets by dinnertime. On this... More >>

• John Maxfield

  published June 8, 2005

  Tapered-jeans-sporting John Maxfield dropped out of his Highland, Illinois, high school, moved to Kansas City, made an album, got a GED, and then... More >>

• Bull Run and the Everlasting Gobstopper

  published June 1, 2005

  Son Volt, the band of the guy who once penned the lyric "what I'd give for that hat to be medicine," has a new album called Okemah and the... More >>

• The Corner Man

  published May 25, 2005

  Standing beside his basement pool table, Kevin Cunningham is surrounded by the trappings of the good life: Out back, his swimming pool. In the... More >>

• The Basement Tapes

  published May 4, 2005

  Kenautis Smith lives in a beautiful brick house off West Florissant Avenue near O'Fallon Park, in one of St. Louis' most upscale black... More >>

• Where Do Wolf Babies Come From?

  published April 20, 2005

  Cheryl Asa wants to offer a disclaimer. She is going to be talking solely about animal sex tonight, and any parallels to the human variety... More >>

• Men Aren't from Venus

  published April 20, 2005

  This year's Venus Envy art exhibition featured photos of a woman boxing with a mannequin, a decorated outhouse and models wearing a hand-blown... More >>