Subject: Nicholas Phillips

• Mardi Gras Inc. Spokesman Decries Riverfront Times "Hatchet Job"

  On February 13 we posted a short piece by our new Editorial Fellow Nicholas Phillips, about Mardi Gras Inc. and its list of fine-able offenses by participants in the annual Soulard Mardi Gras parade.Above is an excerpt from the Mardis Gras Inc. parade application.After the jump is an e-mail Phillips received over the weekend from MGI spokesman Mack Bradley.Spoiler alert!Mr. Bradley didn't like Phillips' story. Doesn't like us, period. He points out that RFT referred to Mardi Gras Inc. as "Nazis"

  February 17, 2009

• This Week's RFT, March 19-25

  It's Thursday. And you know what that means? You guessed it -- this week's Riverfront Times is on newsstands now. Below is a quick rundown of just a few of the stories you won't want to miss. In the "News Dept." writer Nicholas Phillips explains why some rival agencies complain that casting company TalentPlus is hogging auditions for the George Clooney movie, Up in the Air. Trust me, you're not going to want to miss our feature presentation, "Vanishing Act," the first of a gripping two-part

  March 19, 2009

• Readers come to the defense of smoking bans and Cherokee Street

  June 3, 2009

• Readers question the motives of the New Life Evangelistic Center and TalentPlus

  April 1, 2009

• RFT readers to Mardi Gras Inc.: Make like an egg and beat it

  February 25, 2009

• Bad Dog: A reader sends the RFT to obedience school over our story on puppy mills

  February 11, 2009

• Letters

  Week of September 17, 2003

  September 17, 2003

• Cherokee Street at Texas Avenue: A Lot of Contention

  On any other empty lot, the delivery last Friday of a heap of compost and pile of mulch would equal one robust mound of "who gives a doodle." Not the case at the southeast corner of Cherokee Street and Texas Avenue, where some are clamoring for a community garden but haven't gotten the nod from the lot's owner: the City of St. Louis.Photo by Nicholas PhillipsTwo piles of wha? at Cherokee and Texas "Somebody got the cart before the horse," says Alderman Ken Ortmann, in whose Ninth Ward the v

  April 16, 2009

• Question: What does Spring Put YOU in the Mood For?

  Photo by Nicholas Phillips Jerome Wade, native St. Louisan"Spring is a companion. It's like a friend. Springtime is a time for growing, re-rooting, re-sprouting."Photo by Nicholas PhillipsMaggie Karges, SLU student"Cookouts. Anything on the grill."Photo by Nicholas PhillipsTom Schmidt, owner of Franco bistro"Cardinals baseball and a steady diet of Van Halen."Photo by Nicholas PhillipsDaniel Schiele, Spanish teacher, Cardinal Ritter High School"Run as fast as I can. Across the city."Photo by Nich

  April 17, 2009

• This week in RFT, April 30-May 6

  Every year, thousands of Americans are suckered out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by a burgeoning number of West African e-mail hucksters. Law enforcement agencies have done little or nothing to track down these far-flung perpetrators. Enter Paul Kinsella of New Athens, Illinois. In this week's feature, RFT writing fellow Nicholas Phillips delves deep into the mindset that governs this full-time -- and quite obsessive -- scam baiter. As Kinsella put it, "I like being a jerk." And

  April 29, 2009

• Need Fake Nikes? Try Someplace Else.

  Photo by Nicholas PhillipsFrango's shop at 2623 Cherokee St.Life is never dull on Cherokee Street. In case you ain't heard: The owner of West African Art -- a clothing shop on Cherokee and Texas Avenue -- was taken in by the feds this week after being indicted for hawking counterfeit goods. (FYI: The shop sits directly across from a rather controversial city-owned lot, and just a couple blocks from this weekend's Cinco de Mayo festivities). The arrest wasn't a complete shock to neighborhood resi

  April 30, 2009

• MOBOT Selling Off Surplus Plants -- To You

  Photo by Nicholas PhillipsBeware the swarm!Until 4 p.m. today, you've got a chance to witness one of Nature's great mysteries: as the Missouri Botanical Garden liquidates this season's surplus plants, older white ladies with short hair have converged like a swarm of ravenous locusts. On offer at 4344 Shaw Boulevard are perennials, annuals and also weird stuff you won't easily find elsewhere (like tropicals -- all the rage right now among horticultural types). 

  May 7, 2009

• Who's Snaggin' Catfish within City Limits?

  Last evening, about a dozen fishermen had their lines thrown out into the freshly-stocked Fairgrounds Park Lake. Here's a profile of one urban outdoorsman:Photo by Nicholas PhillipsHe's gonna be tasty...Name/age/profession: Mike Webb, 47, butcher at Shop 'n' SaveLicense? Yes (see photo after the jump).Biggest fish ever caught here at Fairgrounds Park: 20-pound carp; 5-pound catfish.Does the Daily-RFT believe him: ...Yes. Bait: Live worms; also, the liver of a catfish he'd caught Wednesday night.

  May 8, 2009

• Readers compare St. Louis to Austin and contemplate the Internet's darker sides

  May 13, 2009

• Rockin' People's Faces Too Hard? Get Help from Judge Nothing's Drummer!

  BY NICHOLAS PHILLIPS1) Ever wake up drenched with vomit, in a trashed hotel suite, spooning a prostitute? 2) Suffering from aches and pains associated with guitar solo splits; bar fights; jail hangovers; and/or coke orgies?3) Has sunlight become an abstraction?4) Do you play the guitar?www.rosewoodchiropractic.comIf you answered "yes" to the foregoing, you're a face-rockin' rock-'n'-roller. But there ain't no need to live like Nikki Sixx. Rosewood Chiropractic Clinic in East Alton, Illinois, is

  May 20, 2009

• Shots Ring Out on Cherokee: Part I

  Editor's note: the author happened to be present when this incident occurred. St. Louis Metropolitan Police DepartmentLedarius D. Williams, 17The two shots cracked open the Sunday air just after 12:30 p.m. Within seconds, squad cars were funnelling in, 17-year-old Ledarius D. Williams lay face-down on the pavement, and the blue-shirted police officers who'd just wounded him were joined by others, all swarming the northeast corner of Cherokee Street and Texas Avenue. Ah yes, from the same interse

  May 27, 2009

• "F--k the Police": Shots Ring Out on Cherokee, Part II

  Photo by Nicholas PhillipsWilliams, handcuffed to a stretcherOn Sunday, after 17-year-old Ledarius Williams turned his gun on police - who then shot him in the knee -- at the corner of Cherokee Street and Texas Avenue, one responding officer told a resident that every cop in St. Louis knew of the 17-year-old, thanks to a robust criminal record. According to this officer, Williams had once declared in the presence of police, "I'll take everybody out with an AK-47, I don't give a f--k."But while t

  May 27, 2009

• Foul-Stinking Flower Blooms at UMSL!!

  Photo by Nicholas PhillipsA sort-of bloomingThe corpse flower at UMSL hath bloomed!!! (Well, it opened up slightly.)But the Daily RFT can assure you: on Sunday, it did smell like a rotting corpse. And it did remind us of death. I.e., your death. My death. The death that awaits each of us, always. But hey, the corpse flower lives. LOL!There are several cool things about the corpse flower. First, it's huge (50 inches tall!). Also, it doesn't bloom every year (some specimens take three years; this

  June 8, 2009

• Readers are mad for (and about) St. Louis' most famous Hungarian

  June 10, 2009

• Cherokee Street Merchant Caught With "Trailer Load" of Fake Goods Pleads Guilty

  Here's an update to a story Daily RFT first reported back in April. Photo: Nicholas PhillipsFrango's store on Cherokee Street.Yesterday the U.S. Attorney's office announced that Passaro Frango, owner of West African Art (at 2623 Cherokee Street) and F & A Fashions (at 6212 Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. in Wellston) has pleaded guilty to charges of selling counterfeit goods. According to the indictment, between September 2005 and February 2009, Frango sold counterfeit goods at both store locat

  June 10, 2009

• Gold digging, meat Match-ing and Obama's pants

  August 5, 2009

• For some readers, stuffed dead squirrels were a little too real, and a tea-party protester was a little too fake

  August 19, 2009

• May the UrbanFORCE be with you, and hey, still looking for Cardinals home addresses?

  August 19, 2009

• Review: Ice Kitchen

  Stew Smith​My review of Ice Kitchen is now available online. Ice Kitchen is located at 302 Westport Plaza, next-door to Casa Gallardo and across the pedestrian walkway from Trainwreck Saloon. It has a MySpace page, but no official website that I could find. No slideshow this week.The feature story in this week's paper is also food-related: In "Weed Eaters," Nicholas Phillips looks at the area's burgeoning raw foods movement. Among the raw foodists profiled is one of this town's best servers (i

  September 9, 2009

• Top Ten Raw Foods That Surprisingly Can Sustain You

  ViaYes, you can eat the leaves of a dandelion.​This week's feature story, "Weed Eaters," looks at the the raw-food movement sprouting in St. Louis, and those who chose to go completely raw, living on nothing but what most people might consider weeds good for pulling -- but certainly not for eating.From the story:Put nothing in your mouth that comes from an animal and nothing that's been heated above 118 degrees. Nothing.Consider the implications: Imagine grocery shopping but never straying fro

  September 9, 2009

• RFT readers weigh in on the raw-food diet and take Dennis Brown to task over his stand on the Kiel Opera House

  September 16, 2009

• Readers riff on rude audiences, misogynistic columnists and raw food

  September 23, 2009

• The South Butt takes on the North Face -- and more

  October 7, 2009

• FoodWire: Foam Now Open

  ​After two years of anticipation, Foam Coffee & Beer at 3359 Jefferson Avenue has finally opened its doors! For the most part. Owner Mike Glodeck says he's already secured his city liquor license but is still waiting on the state's imprimatur. (When this gets going, it'll be the only bar on Cherokee west of Jefferson).In the meantime, he'll be selling hot coffee drinks and light snacks. (Our fearless music editor Annie Zaleski blogged about Foam back when the idea was hatched as a possibl

  October 30, 2009

• Choice Cuts: The St. Louis International Film Festival's eighteenth year brings together films shot around the world and in our back yard

  November 12, 2009