Riverfront Times | Complete Issue

Perverts Beware: St. Louis area police have your number

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Earlier this summer, Roderick McArthur shuffled into a courtroom at the Thomas F. Eagleton Federal Building for his sentencing hearing. Hunched over his walker, the 77-year-old Ballwin man was trailed by his wife and two middle-aged women who came in support. McArthur's pale blue eyes welled with...

Cannon Fodder: The mystery of the Spanish gun in Forest Park

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Fred Ruhrwien calls his curiosity downright inane, but still, the 79-year-old can't shake his obsession with an old cannon located in Forest Park. An inscription in Spanish reveals the gun was forged in 1783 during the reign of King Charles III of Spain. The word "Examinador" emblazoned at the en...

Unreal plumbs the flavor of French vodka, consults our advice-giving pastor and ponders the Tao of Patrick Swayze

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

"Clear. Cream, toasted hazelnut, and wispy anise aromas. A soft, gentle entry leads to a very smooth and supple dryish light-to-medium body of anise cookie, fig, and wet mineral flavors. Finishes with a breezy sweet spice, dried fruit, cream and granola like fade. Tasty."

Pop quiz: What s...

Bravo, Boss: Springsteen may have been late, but man, was he great

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

A to Z, August 24, 2008

As Good As It Gets

The Boss rules: After an evening like this, three and a half hours of unbelievable musicianship, humility, grace, grinding drama and hell-bent spectacle, what else is there ["Show Review: Bruce Springsteen and the E...

When People Dance

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

A clutch of drunken baby boomers fall through the sweaty door, a cartoonish ensemble of bright Technicolor floral patterns mixed with dusty pink and silvery hair on a bleary night out. Their dancing has the heartbreaking grace of the familiar. They've grown accustomed to each other, these couples...

Chipped Off: Is it insulting to serve margs and tortilla chips at a Mexian-themed party?

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Dear Mexican: I'm an illegal alien. Got here on a tourist visa and stayed for a job. My gabacho employer knows about it and doesn't give a crap. I don't apologize about it, as ever since I can remember, the U.S.A has meddled around other countries' business like it owns the world...

The Cover of the September 4 Print Edition

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Illustration by Brian Stauffer...

Two writers debate the pros and cons of indie-rock/Afropop sensations Vampire Weekend, who are making their St. Louis debut on September 10

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
The pace of the blog-driven indie-rock world has reached a point where sometimes a backlash will set in almost before the frontlash gets rolling. New York's Vampire Weekend vaulted into the buzzosphere on the strength of a three-song 2007 demo, cemented its golden-child status thanks to a glowing Pi...

An Under Cover Weekend at the Bluebird tackles the '60s and '70s, while electronic up-and-comer Deadmau5 worms his way into town

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
The 2008 version of An Under Cover Weekend is double the fun of last year's inaugural edition: The event is now spread out over four nights (in other words, two weekends). And although the premise of the extravaganza is still the same — your favorite local musicians paying tribute to ba...

I Love You

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Like fellow locals Ad Astra Per Aspera, Kansas City's promising I Love You thrashes about in the secret playroom between punk and indie rock, where the kids dress in rags and are given chemistry sets at a dangerously early age. Drummer Jeff Schlette and guitarist, singer and effects-array ...

Indian Jewelry

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
There's something inherently oceanic about Indian Jewelry's Free Gold, the densely layered second disc from the (mostly) Houston-based collective headed by Tex Kerschen and wife Erika Thrasher. The rolling, tribal rhythms of several songs create an effect similar to being tossed to and...

Bill Morrissey

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The music-geek wars between the rockists and the poptimists laid waste to logocentrism — the obsessive privileging of song lyrics — but Bill Morrissey survived the critical carpetbombing. As the lyric laureate of New England, his songs have the narrative grace of John Cheever's...

Bellafea

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

For the North Carolina trio Bellafea, the lines that separate punk, metal, art-rock and folk completely dissolve in a barrage of dark-hued, beguiling three-minute miracles. On the group's debut full-length Cavalcade, snaky, math-rock guitar lines bleed into solemn dirges, which in t...

Tussle

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Electronic manipulators Tussle combine heavy square waves of vintage synthesizer buzz with raw, kitchen-cupboard percussion, while its hypnotic basslines are propelled forward by spastic live drums. This is imperfect dance music made by humans for humans; the San Francisco band's loose, un...

These Are Powers

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

It makes sense that members of These Are Powers split their time between Brooklyn and Chicago; the band's relentless noise rock is equal parts skronky NYC No Wave and Windy City minimalist pounding à la Shellac. Distorted guitars float in the air like spaceships (Anna Barie's hypnot...

Motörhead

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

There's no longevity award in metal, although it's not like Motörhead needs one to validate its existence. Warts and all, the London-born trio has been cranking out blistering speed-metal (heavy on the speed — and the metal) since 1975, longer than many of its fans have been ali...

Wreckless Eric/Amy Rigby

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Here's the story of a scruffy laddie with a corking line in ragged, tuneful songs. He cut a couple of albums on Stiff Records, but we hadn't seen him in so long. Here's the story of a gal named Rigby, who had a thing for power-popping blokes. She sang some insightful middle-aged laments and some ...

Lamar Harris

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Lamar Harris is a trombonist, trumpeter and all-around brassmaster who takes the most staid of brass instruments (even the tuba) and turns them into silky, funk-fortified gold. Harris certainly has the chops to turn out a straight-ahead jazz album — his lines can be fluid and mellow or shar...

Tortilla Road: Tower Tacos stakes its claim a little farther up Cherokee Street

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
It's far too easy to exaggerate the risks that new restaurants face. I'm as guilty as anyone. A few years ago in this column, in a bit of an overheat, I wrote that restaurants have a failure rate that would make deep-sea fishermen blanch.

Sorry, fishermen.

Still, the risk is great. A...

Drink of the Week: Ocean Spray 100% Orange Juice

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

They tracked our whereabouts like hypersensitive cadaver dogs, onto our every change of address, name or job. It was as though they knew our day-to-day whereabouts better than most of our friends, and could appeal to our guilt better than most of our family. American Red Cross workers are bloodho...

Towering Cinema: Philippe Petit's World Trade Center tightrope walk was made for the movies

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Even as the first girders were laid in the mid-1960s, something about the World Trade Center — that twin-pronged erection jutting from the loins of Western commerce — inspired fantasies of lustful conquest. As James Marsh's documentary Man on Wire tells it, a mischievous French...

With a Hitch

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Frontyard Features is a local entity that organizes free outdoor movie screenings all over the city and state in an effort to promote neighborliness. One of the Frontyard venues is outside the Syndicate building downtown (at North Tenth and Olive streets), which is where you can see Hitch<...

There Are 76 Trombones

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Even folks who don't like musicals give props to The Music Man. Maybe it's because a story about a smooth-talking shyster who pulls one over on the simple citizens of River City goes against the public's saccharine-sweet perception of what a musical is. Or maybe they just like the song...

Dinner Music

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
The "go out and eat at a certain restaurant and a percentage of your bill is donated to a cause" type of fundraiser is increasing in popularity, which shouldn't really be a surprise. It's a relatively painless way to donate, and the donor always gets something in return. The only trouble spot with t...

Mazed and Corn-fused

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Like deliciously ripe homegrown tomatoes, the Great Godfrey Maze is only around for a limited amount of time each year. The corn stalks in Glazebrook Park (1401 Stamper Lane, Godfrey, Illinois) have been cut to reveal not only a maze but also a safari scene, and you can try to navigate throug...

They Know How to Behave

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
From a very biased standpoint, A Hard Day's Night is not only the greatest of the Beatles' films, it's also slightly melancholy — and not just because of the lonely Ringo plot line. Director Richard Lester and writer Alun Owen together re-created a typical day in the life of the ...

But Why Do You Like Ike?

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
In retrospect, why was Richard Milhouse Nixon electable? Kennedy drank his milkshake in the 1960 election, and his hangdog expression and dour nastiness didn't improve with time. The answer is obvious: Nixon looked fantastic as a cartoon character. His campaign team capitalized on this with a matche...

The Outside's In

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
When a couple local artists get together and have an art show, we call that cool. But when more than 50 artists gather to sell their works — everything from glass pieces to paintings and from jewelry to photography — we call that Art Outside. This overwhelmingly awesome art fair i...

The Light Fantastic

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
If you're wont to sneak into Grand Center by the westerly route, you've no doubt noticed the burnt shell of the Spring Avenue Church. All of the growth that has happened in this burgeoning arts district, and the remains of this fire-damaged building, um, remain lurking on the periphery like a drunke...

They Read, You Listen

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
You might have learned that Missouri named its first poet laureate earlier this year. And then you may have realized that you've never heard of the guy. Lucky for you, at 8 p.m. at the Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Avenue, Maplewood), you'll have an opportunity to not only lay eyes on Missour...

Out on the Wire

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Andre Royo's portrayal of Bubbles in HBO's brilliant urban drama The Wire proved that there can be such a thing as a sympathetic crackhead. Based on a real addict that co-executive producer Ed Burns knew when he was a Baltimore detective, the ragged, droopy-eyed Bubbles was often the m...

History Lesson

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Conventional methods of learning history are so played. You require excitement; you crave live-action entertainment. Good thing there's the History Theatre Festival, happening from Thursday, September 4, through Sunday, September 14, at St. Charles Community College (4601 Mid Rivers Ma...

Fiesta sin Siesta

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
National Hispanic Heritage Month officially runs from September 15 to October 15 (spanning two months, technically), but who wants to wait another week? The Greater St. Louis Hispanic Festival jump-starts the party with a three-day fiesta in World War Memorial Park (1315 Chestnut Street) from...

Air Force Won

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Late in June of 1948, the Soviets cut off all ground and water access to Berlin in a Cold War stare-down. The plan was to starve the city so that it would be wholly dependent on the Soviet Union. Military brass in the Allied nations realized that an airlift of food and fuel could save the city (and ...

Who Built This City?

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
In 1798, when the enterprising Charles Gratiot was granted the 5,440 acres that would one day evolve into the sterling city of Maplewood, did he realize that 210 years later citizens would congregate on his land for a historic tour? Probably not. Did the Sutton brothers, who purchased sections of th...

Rally 'Round the Engine

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Depression has set in for many area children, as school has already started, or will start following this weekend. The poor little buggers don't know where the time went, and the parents couldn't be more relieved to have them out of the house. But, being parents, they're sympathetic even as they're ...

Doggie Days of Summer

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Can we talk about how great dogs are for a minute? They never have a bad day, even if you do. Plus, they're super cuddly and always willing to offer up kisses to anyone they meet. Seriously, could they be any sweeter? O'Fallon, Missouri, knows the awesomeness of pups, and the town celebrates them du...

Great Grapes!

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Norton is more than a computer antivirus program and the name of that giant anthology you were supposed to read from in college; it's also an important American grape that makes some especially yummy red wines. Learn more about the drinkable Norton and get a good taste at the National Norton Wine...

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The perils of reading too much into a theater review

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

After the column last month in which I fessed up to having made some factual errors in my theater reviews [see "Mea Culpa," August 7], I received an e-mail from actor-director Joe Hanrahan, who wrote that my piece had elicited memories of past reviews — "not from you," he assured me —...

St. Louis Stage Capsules

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Grace Craig Wright's examination of religious faith — what it takes to maintain it, and what can destroy it — receives an intelligent and bracing outing from director Greg Johnston and an impressive cast. Jason Cannon plays fundamentalist Christian wheeler-dealer Steve as a big...

St. Louis Art Capsules

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Ongoing
Dan Flavin: Constructed Light Limiting his palette to mass-produced fluorescent tubes of varying lengths and colors, Dan Flavin, who died in 1996, made a career distilling these ubiquitous artifacts of bureaucratic life into their purest form. The result: a body of reser...

Riverfront Times | Complete Issue

Perverts Beware: St. Louis area police have your number

Cannon Fodder: The mystery of the Spanish gun in Forest Park

Unreal plumbs the flavor of French vodka, consults our advice-giving pastor and ponders the Tao of Patrick Swayze

Bravo, Boss: Springsteen may have been late, but man, was he great

When People Dance

Chipped Off: Is it insulting to serve margs and tortilla chips at a Mexian-themed party?

The Cover of the September 4 Print Edition

Two writers debate the pros and cons of indie-rock/Afropop sensations Vampire Weekend, who are making their St. Louis debut on September 10

An Under Cover Weekend at the Bluebird tackles the '60s and '70s, while electronic up-and-comer Deadmau5 worms his way into town

I Love You

Indian Jewelry

Bill Morrissey

Bellafea

Tussle

These Are Powers

Motörhead

Wreckless Eric/Amy Rigby

Lamar Harris

Tortilla Road: Tower Tacos stakes its claim a little farther up Cherokee Street

Drink of the Week: Ocean Spray 100% Orange Juice

Towering Cinema: Philippe Petit's World Trade Center tightrope walk was made for the movies

With a Hitch

There Are 76 Trombones

Dinner Music

Mazed and Corn-fused

They Know How to Behave

But Why Do You Like Ike?

The Outside's In

The Light Fantastic

They Read, You Listen

Out on the Wire

History Lesson

Fiesta sin Siesta

Air Force Won

Who Built This City?

Rally 'Round the Engine

Doggie Days of Summer

Great Grapes!

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The perils of reading too much into a theater review

St. Louis Stage Capsules

St. Louis Art Capsules