Riverfront Times, December 13, 2023 by Big Lou Holdings

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DECEMBER 13-19, 2023

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DECEMBER 13-19, 2023

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Owner and Chief Executive Officer Chris Keating Executive Editor Sarah Fenske

E D I T O R I A L Managing Editor Jessica Rogen Editor at Large Daniel Hill Staff Writers Ryan Krull, Monica Obradovic Arts & Culture Writer Paula Tredway Dining Critic Cheryl Baehr Theater Critic Tina Farmer Music Critic Steve Leftridge Contributors Aaron Childs, Max Bouvatte, Thomas Crone, Mike Fitzgerald, Cliff Froehlich, Eileen G’Sell, Reuben Hemmer, Braden McMakin, Tony Rehagen, Mabel Suen, Theo Welling Columnists Chris Andoe, Dan Savage Interns Peter Cohen

COVER

A R T

P R O D U C T I O N

Art Director Evan Sult Creative Director Haimanti Germain

The Things We Carry

Graphic Designer Aspen Smit

M U L T I M E D I A

A D V E R T I S I N G

Michelle Smith advocates for some of the most hated people in Missouri — death row inmates. The burden is a heavy one

Directors of Business Development

Cover photo by

Circulation Manager Kevin G. Powers

MONICA OBRADOVIC

B I G

Publisher Colin Bell Account Manager Jennifer Samuel Tony Burton, Rachel Hoppman

C I R C U L A T I O N

L O U

H O L D I N G S

Executive Editor Sarah Fenske Vice President of Digital Services Stacy Volhein Digital Operations Coordinator Elizabeth Knapp Director of Operations Emily Fear Chief Financial Officer Guillermo Rodriguez Chief Executive Officer Chris Keating

INSIDE Front Burner News Missouriland Feature Calendar Cafe Short Orders Reeferfront Times Culture Music Film Stage Out Every Night Savage

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FRONT BURNER

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4. Officials convene a week-long crime conference at the Washington University School of Medicine campus to develop a regional solution to St. Louis’ biggest black eye: crime. Elsewhere in the city, critics protest at the Delmar Divine against the possible expansion of charter schools, saying the nonprofit complex’s tenant the Opportunity Trust does not have St. Louis’ best interests in mind. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5. Bitter winds make today’s high of 47 feel much colder — or maybe we’re just spoiled by eternal fall. The Post-Dispatch reports that the city’s red-light camera plan is now stalled at the Board of Aldermen, another policy split between Mayor Tishaura Jones and Aldermanic President Megan Ellyia Green. Green wants a full review of police surveillance activity as part of the bill; Jones just wants the cameras. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6. Just one day after trumpeting the progress he’s making

Previously On LAST WEEK IN ST. LOUIS in clearing Kim Gardner’s backlog and all the people he’s locked up, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore says — surprise! — he’s running to hold onto the job. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7. There’s some good news for once: The city is apparently waking up from its 911 nightmare. Officials tell the Post-Dispatch they’re now picking up 80 percent of calls within 10 seconds or less, and on some days it approaches 90 percent. It’s almost like a real, functional city! Also, almost like a real, functional state, Governor Mike Parson has a plan to spend $4 million to address maternal mortality in Missouri. When even Parson calls the state’s record “embarrassing,” you know it’s bad.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8. Ryan O’Neal dies, reminding us that love means never having to say you’re sorry, which is not even true, but it was the 1970s, man. Back home, the Board of Aldermen votes to freeze property taxes for seniors living in homes worth $500K or less, meaning you can be in the top 5 percent of St. Louis residences and still qualify for welfare as long as you’re not of childbearing age. Also, the local leaders who’ve been huddling all week have a plan to reduce homicides by (another) 20 percent — using “focused deterrence” to tell some of the city’s biggest troublemakers to shape up or face “targeted enforcement action.” Unsurprisingly, the business community is totally

on board. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9. It’s again lovely weather — when it’s almost 60 in December, you have to wonder what happened to winter in St. Louis. Also, what happened to the Blues? They lose 3-1 to the Blackhawks, their second consecutive loss to a last-place team. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles: The Dodgers announce they’ve signed superstar Shohei Ohtani for $700 million. That’s 4.5 times the Cardinals’ entire payroll. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10. Approximately 450 people march in support of Israel in the Delmar Loop — along with 30 counter protestors. Meanwhile, the Post-Dispatch reports that St. Louis lost another 17 cops last month, or 2 percent of their entire workforce. The city is budgeted for 1,224 officers but only has 912 on the rolls — making it yet another city department with major problems with retention and recruitment. Will the last St. Louis city employee turn out the lights?

5 QUESTIONS for author John O’Leary St. Louis has gone movie mad in the past month. After years without any major productions based here, On Fire, based on the inspirational bestseller by John O’Leary, kicked off an anticipated five weeks of filming in St. Louis on November 6. O’Leary made his career as a motivational speaker by telling the story of how, as a nine-year-old, he caused an explosion that left him badly burned. But with the help of Jack Buck, he found healing and hope. The film is based so closely on his life that it even uses his boyhood home. O’Leary recently joined us to share his thoughts on the cast and more. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. The film based on your memoir is being credited with singlehandedly reviving Missouri’s film industry. How does that feel? The whole thing is surreal — from having a book about my life to having it turned into a movie to having it filmed in my own backyard. Utterly surreal. But what has been most surprising is how many people are coming up saying, “Thank you for doing this work in St. Louis.” And it’s not just St. Louisans who are proud of our community. The people primarily thanking me are the guys who are pulling the wire and driving the trucks and serving the food and doing the work. And so although we got into this hoping we get to film On Fire in St. Louis because it was true to the story, one of the coolest things that has come out of this is the fact that it is now super good for our entire community. Like, this whole niche industry that was robustly alive a decade ago is now beginning to come back. What’s the weirdest part about seeing the St. Louis of today staged to look like the St. Louis you grew up in? They filmed at the house where I was burned, which is the house where my parents still live. So they redid the floors in the front hall. They redid the garage to look just like it was in 1987. They redid the walls to look like what it looked like when I was a little guy growing up. So to walk into my parents’ house after the crew had been out there for three weeks and open the door and see my old house as it was is amazing. You’ve got some big names — William H. Macy, John Corbett,

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A new film production has taken John O’Leary’s childhood home straight back to 1987. | SUSIE GAAL who played Aidan on Sex and the City. I assume he plays the adult you. Oh, the guy who plays me as an adult is Joel Courtney. Not as big a hunk. Well, it depends on who you ask. You ask your girlfriends and your parents, of course everyone’s going to choose Corbett or Macy. But if you ask your daughter or middle-school girls or college-aged kids, Joel Courtney is like, beloved, man. He has 6 million followers on Instagram! Every time he and I go out for a meal in St. Louis, people walk right past me, and they’re like, “Oh my gosh, Mr. Courtney, can I get a picture with you?” You’re just lunching around town with these Hollywood stars? They’ve become my friends. What was important to me on the front side is that the actors who participated in this were doing so because they understood the real mission that we’re after. … The type of individual who would say yes to that is also the kind of individual who wants to hang out at St. Louis Bread Company and have lunch, have a beer with me after work, hang out with my family on the weekend. We’re fortunate to work with really quality people who also are quality actors. —Sarah Fenske

[ WEEKLY WTF?!

T H E D E V I L’ S I N T H E D E TA I L S

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CHRIS ANDOE’S SOCIETY PAGE A Hotel-Inspired Dinner Party, in Search of Lost Time

Guerilla marketing meets graffiti. | MONICA OBRADOVIC

GRAFFITI WATCH Where: North Sixth and Pine streets, downtown St. Louis When: 3:55 p.m., Friday, November 24 What: a low budget gonzo advertisement for the upcoming Wonka movie Or maybe: Willy Wonka’s greatest feat yet. Who else could spray paint his name in the exact same spot floor-to-floor — and in a font so similar to the movie’s logo? But really: The perp is probably any St. Louis dipshit with the right motivation. We won’t win a Pulitzer for this discovery because: Not a single RFT staffer bothered to check the top of the parking garage for oompa loompas or golden tickets.

15 SECONDS OF FAME TWITTER FLAMEOUT OF THE WEEK

Sarah Unsicker

Once upon a time, Sarah Unsicker was considered a mainstream St. Louis County Democrat. Then came last week. After a bizarre tweet thread that suggested a bill honoring Springfield’s beloved cashew chicken was part of an international conspiracy, Unsicker posted a selfie of herself enjoying “basil lemonade” with a man best described as a prominent alt-right troll — and quickly earned a new reputation as someone who’d been red-pilled right into political Siberia. After refusing to distance herself from said troll — a guy derided as a Holocaust denier by the Anti-Defamation League and who once got banned from Twitter for setting up a GoFundMe campaign State Representative Sarah Unsicker. | TIM to “take out” a Ferguson activist — BOMMEL/HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS Unsicker found herself stripped of her committee assignments. Unsicker responded with both defiance and incoherence, positing on Substack that the deaths of the state Auditor Tom Schweich and county aide Cora Faith Walker were suspicious in order to … well, damned if we can figure out the play here. Unsicker’s online activity lately has been a classic example of how to destroy your political career with just a few keystrokes, and none of it makes much sense. But at least now we know who not to vote for in the Democratic primary for state attorney general.

ascended the flame-illuminated stairs to Russell Jackson’s limestone Portland Place mansion, where Place & Time Private Dining Experiences & Events was hosting one of their monthly dinner parties last month. Standing at a desk at the home’s palatial entrance was Caitlin Franz, who welcomed guests and handed each one an envelope containing their seating assignment. Place & Time consists of Franz, Chris Bork and Joe Mooney. Each month, fans monitor the group’s Instagram for the announcement of the next themed dinner, which costs $250/person and sells out within an hour despite attendees not knowing the menu or location until 48 hours before the event. “The concept of one place, one time, is a callback to the indescribable energy shared amongst a communal table,” Franz says. “We’ve had people taste something, hear a song we’ve played, then remember a very distinct memory of their own and share it with us. That’s the magic we try and execute, and it’s been an amazing journey.” Regarding the themes, Franz says, “We aren’t aiming to replicate a place and time, rather drawing inspiration from it and sharing what we know about it.” The theme for November’s sixcourse dinner was restaurants in iconic hotels around the world. The start of the evening felt a bit like the beginning of a classic murder mystery as two dozen guests, including notables like Jazz St. Louis’ Adaron “Pops” Jackson and the Saint Louis Art Alliance’s Emily Trista Lane, gathered in a large, darkly paneled room with a roaring fire before being shown to our seats in the 65-foot marble-floored hall. The 13,000-squarefoot residence, which was recently featured in the Wall Street Journal’s Mansion section, was built for a tobacco heiress and later owned by 7-Up heiress Lucianna Gladney Ross, who died in the home in 2012 at the age of 96. Russell Jackson, an attorney with Dowd Bennett, along with friend and house manager Alex Gutierrez, were inspired to open their home after attending the group’s soiree at a neighbor’s, which was themed around Moscow’s White Rabbit restaurant.

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“It was a beautiful event in a glass solarium,” Jackson says. “One long table with 25 or so people down the center. We started in the garden with cocktails. I only knew the hosts. We went in and took our seats, and I got to know many of the folks at the table. Most regularly came to the dinners. It ran like a welloiled machine. The explanations of the dishes and the cocktail and wine pairings really enhanced the experience. And the food was great. Afterwards I chatted with the hosts over cocktails and watched how the Place & Time team was tearing down the event and returning furniture to its usual place, and I remember thinking how cool it must be to have someone reimagine and transform a space you had curated for just a few nights, and then restore it to its prior order — and to not have to do that work yourself. Chris, Caitlin and Joe are really quite remarkable.” This was the 24th monthly event for Place & Time, and the trio is taking a break over the holidays to reflect on the past two years and move through a very busy holiday private party booking schedule. They plan to announce new concepts in January. (Keep an eye out for details.) Jackson is a natural host, savoring the conversations as much as the inventive cuisine. Just before the fourth course, a fish tagine paired with a cocktail called Gunpowder in the Garden (very Agatha Christie, but inspired by La Mamounia in Marrakesh), he suggested the two of us swap tables so that I could visit other guests, including his best local friend, “Pops.” Jackson also led tours of the home, which had been exquisitely decorated by Jimmy Jamieson. A highlight for me was the display of newspaper clippings about Gladney Ross, which they’d found in the attic. Assuming all the guests had departed, Jackson shut down the residence, only to stumble upon Gutierrez and me tucked away in the servants’ quarters where the display was located, enrapt in conversation about Gladney Ross’ history at the property, including the story of a basement ammunition explosion that destroyed the dining room decades ago. Conversations recalling a place and time. n

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NEWS Jail Woes Stem From Staggering Staff Vacancies

nel for a recent Board of Aldermen committee meeting shows that Corrections is authorized to have 307 positions but that 183 of those spots are unfilled — meaning that the agency’s vacancy rate would stand at around 60 percent, if those numbers are accurate. However, it is notable that the numbers from Personnel don’t include any position categories in the jail that are 100 percent filled. It’s unclear why that data was omitted and, presumably, if it had been included, it would lower the percentage of overall vacancies. The Department of Public Safety did not provide comment after several messages Friday. The person best positioned to know the specific number of jail staffers is keeping that number

close to her vest. Corrections Commissioner Jennifer ClemonsAbdullah has remained mum on the extent of staff shortages, citing security concerns. In a sitdown interview last month, KSDK reporter Christine Byers asked if the jail was still down about 30 to 50 officers, the number of vacancies Clemons-Abdullah inherited when she took on her role. Clemons-Abdullah responded, “Well, I suppose it’s a little bit more than that.” That seems to have been an understatement. Earlier this month, Alderwoman Cara Spencer asked the city’s Director of Department of Personnel Sonya Gray to speak at a Budget and Public Employee subcommittee meeting about vacan-

cies among all city agencies. Gray produced a report that showed that the City Justice Center’s 183 vacancies were the highest of any department other than the police. “I’m really concerned about this high level of vacancies, especially in light of ongoing tragedies at the Justice Center,” Spencer tells the RFT. “And I’ve asked Gray to verify those numbers.” Most notably, the numbers show there are 126 vacant “Corrections Officer I” positions of the 198 that the jail is authorized for. The vacancy rate at the “Corrections Officer II” position was significantly better, with only eight vacant positions out of the 28 authorized. The former staffer who spoke to the RFT says that the staffing situation seemed to get noticeably worse after the hostage incident at the jail in August, which proved to be the first in a series of bad headlines for the jail. The staffer says that employees seemed to be leaving more quickly and were not getting replaced. Given concerns about drug overdoses at the jail, the former staffer was also surprised to often see no one staffing a first-floor checkpoint, the second of two such checkpoints that all employees must pass through before going anywhere in the facility above the first floor. The former staffer says the checkpoint tended to be staffed at the beginning and end of the day shift. “But there was often no one to staff it in the middle of the day,” they said. “People could leave for lunch and come back with whatever.” n

Black Workers Sue City Over Overtime

A lawsuit filed in federal court last week accuses the city’s Refuse Division of violating state and federal wage laws by not properly compensating the employees at one and a half times their regular pay when they worked more than 40 hours in a given week. The suit alleges that the department, as well as the workers’ manager, “willfully, and with reckless disregard carried out” the pattern of illegal nonpayment. They are now seeking the pay they say was withheld, as well as other damages. The suit alleges there was a racial component to the treatment, claiming that the nine men bringing the suit were paid less than white employees who did similar work. The men bringing the suit are all heavy equipment operators with St. Louis’ Re-

fuse Division, but the suit does not specify if the heavy equipment they operate are trash trucks. Their attorney, Daniel Sparks, would not comment on the suit beyond saying that it speaks for itself. Last year, complaints about overflowing dumpsters in St. Louis reached a peak, and the city promised to work double shifts to clear the mess. There have also been complaints about sporadic recycling services, with some city residents even filming as recyclable blue bin material has been loaded into the back of garbage trucks along with trash from brown receptacles, all of it presumably headed for a landfill. This summer, responding to complaints about the trash, the city said it was short approximately 10 drivers and that while it took a fleet of about 45 trash trucks to service the city, only 37 were operational. n

The City Justice Center has at least 183 openings — and that’s affecting operations Activists have sought changes after recent deaths at the St. Louis jail. | RYAN KRULL

Written by

RYAN KRULL

ast month, St. Louis officials announced that in the wake of a rash of deaths at the City Justice Center, they were changing health-care providers. “Ensuring the health and wellness of individuals detained at the City Justice Center remains a top priority,” the mayor’s office said on November 30, announcing that as of the next day, the nonprofit Physician Correctional, USA would handle health care at the jail. But someone who worked at the jail tells the RFT that many issues with health care for detainees were less about the previous provider, YesCare, and more about a bigger problem at the jail: chronic understaffing. That’s because detainees who wanted to see a doctor or a nurse practitioner needed to be escorted to the medical unit on the second floor by a corrections officer, and often no corrections officers were available to do so. The former staffer says the shortage of corrections officers curtailed “anything when detainees had to get out of the cell,” including physical exams and dental work, which required detainees to have access to a dentist’s chair. The former staffer asked the RFT not to use their name for fear of harming future job prospects. The number of empty positions at the jail bolster the former employee’s claim. Data compiled by the city’s Department of Person-

Refuse Division workers say white workers were paid overtime and they weren’t Written by

RYAN KRULL

ine Black sanitation workers say that the City of St. Louis didn’t pay them properly for overtime and that they were paid less than their white colleagues.

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MISSOURILAND

The Fresh Prints of South City Cherokee Street’s Print Bazaar brought out a bevy of art lovers Photos by

BRADEN MCMAKIN Words by

SARAH FENSKE

he Cherokee Street Print Bazaar was back December 2 — and bigger than ever before. The annual print sale featured more than 170 artists, selling prints, lithographs, letterpress and more across 50 storefronts stretching a full mile on Cherokee. Among the vendors this year was a veritable rock star: Jay Farrar of Son Volt, who helmed a booth selling Son Volt posters from his personal collection. You can count Farrar, a Belleville native, as a big fan of the street and its artists: “Cherokee Street is emblematic of what’s great about STL — it’s vibrant and eclectic,” he told us in the run up to the event. Unusually warm weather made it easy to walk the full mile of participating shops — and maybe take home a print or two. How better to support artists in St. Louis than to open your wallet? n

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A C E L E B R AT I O N O F T H E U N I Q U E A N D FA S C I N AT I N G A S P E C T S O F O U R H O M E

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ichelle Smith’s family didn’t have a lot. Smith, now 47, grew up during the 1980s and ’90s in what she calls “the projects” of St. Louis. There, the crack epidemic ran rampant. There was violence, gangs and open drug use by her peers and their parents — which sometimes turned fatal. “I saw a lot of dead bodies growing up,” Smith says. But there was also community. And even though her family struggled to put food on the table, Smith says she’d come home from school to find her mom feeding neighborhood kids and teenagers. She fed even the ones she knew were the source of trouble.

six-year-old girl to death, a registered sex offender who raped and murdered her ex-girlfriend, a man convicted of killing his girlfriend and her three children, and more. She also runs a nonprofit, Missouri Justice Coalition, which advocates for better conditions for a group that most of so-

rate out of all U.S. states, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Four people were executed by the Missouri Department of Corrections in 2023 — the highest yearly tally in Missouri since 2015, when then-Governor Jay Nixon signed off on the execution of six men. Smith’s work with Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty involves frequently communicating with people the state will almost surely administer a lethal injection to. By the time they’ve been killed, she’s grown to consider several of them friends. And she’s there for their families, often serving as a literal shoulder to cry on. She can’t help but feel anger and grief, which culminates to a weight that at times, she says, can be overwhelming. But when asked if she ever holds back to protect herself from the near-inevitability of these

The Things We Carry

Michelle Smith advocates for some of the most hated people in Missouri: death row inmates. The burden is real “She wouldn’t throw away the youth just because they were doing something bad,” Smith says. That compassion made a mark on Smith, and it has stayed with her during her work with some of Missouri’s most condemned convicted criminals. The state of Missouri has executed six people in the past year and a half. Smith knew them all. In a lot of ways, Smith has the worst job you could imagine — even if she doesn’t view it that way. Death, trauma and the anguish of shattered lives surround her each day. As co-director of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, much of Smith’s work involves humanizing, and advocating for, death row inmates accused of the most heinous crimes. In the past year, Smith and her organization have stood behind a man who beat a

ciety is all too happy to forget — people in prison. It’s grueling work. But not because Smith finds it hard to stand up for convicted killers, or because she despairs about the systemic injustice she sees. No, at the core of everything Smith does is deep understanding, grit and empathy. There’s more to these people than their crimes, she insists. And Smith knows, possibly more than anyone, how easily one’s life can get swept into the criminal justice system — whether they’re guilty or not. “All of the injustice I see around me, I just want to do something about it,” Smith says. What that “injustice” entails may be the opposite of what most Missourians would think. Missouri is one of the most prodeath penalty states in the country. It has the fourth-highest per-capita execution

Michelle Smith says she learned compassion growing up in the Peabody Darst Webbe projects. | MONICA OBRADOVIC riverfronttimes.com

people’s deaths, Smith seems surprised by the question. “I’ve never felt that, or even had an inkling of it,” Smith says. She can’t hold back, and she can’t be cynical either, she says. “I think if I gave up hope, that would make me into a person who didn’t believe in the power of humanity,” Smith says. “And I do.”

t is almost exactly a year after Missouri executed Kevin Johnson when Smith agrees to meet a reporter for an interview in her home office. St. Louis County is home base for Smith, who works in an apartment packed with files, books, protest supplies and vinyl chairs that give her living room an almost corporate feel. Inside, a giant map of Missouri hangs Continued on pg 15

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THE THINGS WE CARRY Continued from pg 13

on the wall, with each of the state’s prisons marked. On a bookshelf, in between a book on abolitionist organizing and “We Charge Genocide,” a 1951 petition presented to the United Nations on racism in the U.S., sits a portrait of Johnson. The black-and-white picture shows Johnson with his head down, his hands folded to his chest in a prayer position. As a 19-year-old in 2005, Johnson murdered Kirkwood police officer William McEntee by shooting him multiple times, with the fatal blow an execution-style shot to the head. Johnson’s case garnered national attention for multiple reasons. The brutality of McEntee’s murder had shocked St. Louis. But a special prosecutor later appointed to look at the case alleged Johnson’s prosecution had been tainted by racism and sought to vacate Johnson’s death sentence. Johnson’s age at the time of his crime also fueled requests for clemency. Courts have since changed how they sentence youthful offenders. Johnson also had documented psychiatric disorders, which may have changed his sentencing in more recent years. Smith and Johnson spoke and wrote to each other often after she first reached out nine months before his death, and she got to know his teenage daughter during that time. “I care very much for his daughter and family,” Smith says. A large part of Smith’s work involves supporting family members of people being executed. Smith picks them up from airports, sets them up in hotels and helps them find transportation to Bonne Terre, where all executions in Missouri take place. But mostly Smith and her colleagues, including co-director Elyse Max, provide emotional support. “Even if you have a huge church community or a huge family, they’re not necessarily who you can talk to about your kid getting executed,” Max says. Max still talks to the mother of Amber McLaughlin, who in January became the first openly transgender woman in U.S. history to be executed. McLaughlin, 49, was put to death for the murder of Beverly Guenther. McLaughlin, then known as Scott, raped and stabbed Guenther to death in 2003. In Johnson’s case, Smith is close with his daughter, Khorry Ramey, who with Smith’s encouragement recently completed a leadership development program called Dream Justice Cohort. Smith babysits Ramey’s one-year-old, Kaius. She was also there when Ramey had to move from her home in Kirkwood. After Johnson was executed, people started driving by the house honking their horns, throwing middle fingers and stealing yard signs with supportive messages for Johnson on them. “She’s been a great help in my life,” Ramey says of Smith. “When I’m having a mental breakdown or something like that, I can always call on her.” One year after his lethal injection, Smith remembers Johnson as hilarious and “truly a character.” She still chuckles about things she remembers him saying.

Michelle Smith displays a photo of Kevin Johnson on her office bookshelf. | MONICA OBRADOVIC By the time of his execution, Johnson was far different from the 19-year-old who murdered a cop. Most people executed by the state spend 20 or more years in prison waiting for appeals and seeking clemency. Those years can lead to growth and change. “The person being executed is not the person who committed the crime,” Smith says. Some Missouri death row inmates, including Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams and the late Leonard “Raheem” Taylor, have found religion. Johnson, in addition to becoming a dedicated father and mentor to younger incarcerees, authored three books and became a model prisoner who took on leadership roles. McLaughlin realized her identity as a woman and came to terms with her guilt. Taylor’s death was a hard blow for Smith. The 58-year-old was executed on February 7 for the 2004 murders of his girlfriend and her three young children. Governor Mike Parson had refused a request from Taylor’s attorneys and the Midwest Innocence Project to convene a board of inquiry to review his case, despite Taylor’s claim that he had been 2,000 miles away at the time of the murder of Angela Rowe and her three children. Smith is confident this won’t repeat with Williams. Williams’ strong case for innocence was the subject of an RFT cover story in 2022. Williams was convicted of the 1998 murder of former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Felicia Gayle, but in 2016, testing on the handle of a knife lodged in Gayle’s body found no match with Williams’ DNA. Hairs and footprints found around Gayle’s body did not match Williams either. Williams was five hours from death when former Governor Eric Greitens decided to stay his execution and launch an inquiry into Williams’ innocence — an effort Parson dissolved this year. (A lawsuit argues he did not have the right to do that without the board of inquiry first issuing its findings.) Still, Smith believes Williams’ attorneys will save his life. In the meantime, Smith says Williams has remained patient. “He’s the calmest, most intelligent, logical

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person in the whole world,” Smith says. He’s also a poet who sends Smith poems via the Department of Corrections’ email system. In a November 5 email, Williams, a devout Muslim, wrote “bismillah” (a greeting that means “in the name of God”) to Smith, and then, with no other preamble, a poem he’d titled “Survival and Strawberry Jam.” she hurried back to their Saturday morning for with her comfort toy in hand within little brother guarded the sugar bread laid out on his alphabet mat like a good soldier following a command shhh … they both listen for dad just bibi the cat investigating their couch pillows and bedsheets pad unimpressed, she disappears with a dash lotus style they sit and softly giggle at a secret that now they were invisible and safe from his wrath little brother looks up at her then to the sugar bread and they both quietly laugh it’s time but not before they say a prayer for mommy not to be sad “liiike this” she turns her hands palms up like uncle Ahmad had satisfied with what she said, she gives him the bread and oh boy is he glad not biting into hers, consumed with his happiness but also the not knowing how long will it last? Much too young to be burdened with thoughts of survival coupled with a traumatic past with her mind already shifting to round two of sneaking in the refrigerator for the strawberry jam. Through an innocent childhood moment, the poem seems emblematic of the rough childhoods many of the men on death row share. While Smith says her childhood wasn’t necessarily a bad one, she can relate. The sight of people doing drugs or selling them was common, she says. Gangs had permeated the community and some of the kids she went to school with were killed, sometimes by each other. Her parents never did drugs, but they were Continued on pg 16

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Missouri executed Kevin Johnson, left, in November 2022. Marcellus Williams, right, hopes to avoid a similar fate. | JEREMY WEIS/MO DOC

mith doesn’t like to bring attention to herself, something she made clear multiple times while talking to the reporter writing this story. But when she speaks about going to school at Peabody Elementary, there is no way to beat around this brag: “I wasn’t just smart, I was considered like a child genius.” There was nothing lower than an A on her report cards. She tested higher than every other kid in her grade level on standardized tests. Most kids liked to play, but reading books, especially those by Judy Blume, was much more entertaining for her. The word “potential” was used a lot around her. After the first grade, Smith says school officials wanted her mom to allow her to skip second grade. But for whatever reason (Smith still doesn’t fully understand), her mom said no.

“She didn’t fully comprehend what they were saying,” Smith says. “From her limited understanding of education, you just went to every single grade.” Smith points to this decision as one of the most pivotal moments in her life. When she reached sixth grade, spokesmen from Saint Louis University came to her school and announced that all seventh graders who graduated high school would get a full ride to the university. Smith would have been one of those students had she skipped second grade. “I could have been somewhere else. I could have been someone else,” Smith says. In retrospect, Smith sees her story as emblematic of a larger truth in the City of St. Louis. “I think kids are so demonized in our city and other places,” Smith says. “But no, these kids have potential. They just don’t have anybody to nurture it.” Smith earned a GED after having a baby at 18, who she raised with the help of her mother. Nearly a decade later, she was able to enroll at Fontbonne University, where she studied business. She was a year away from earning her degree when another education-related decision altered her life for the worse. She needed a loan to complete that last semester. Her parents didn’t have credit, so she turned to a friend to help her find a cosigner. “I didn’t have that foundation of family being able to make sure I was OK or take out loans or credit,” Smith says. “A background of generational poverty hinders those sorts of things that young people do.” Her friend filled out her father’s loan information without his knowledge, Smith says. Years later, when he found out, the dad reported it as fraud. At the time, Smith knew nothing about the law. She ended up pleading guilty to the fraud charge even though she didn’t fully under-

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THE THINGS WE CARRY Continued from pg 15

both alcoholics, Smith says. There were times she and her brother, Michael, would have to carry their mother home from places where she got too drunk. “Neither of us ever drank or smoked or anything because of that,” Smith says. Smith says she and brother “just existed as best as we could.” She was a nerd, she says with a laugh, and the oddball of the neighborhood because all she wanted to do was stay at home and read or watch Bob Ross. As an adult, her brother, a tall man known as “Big Mike,” coached sports for the city’s Recreation Division, which he’d done since he was a teenager. He died in 2021 due to cardiac arrest. For all her parents’ struggles, Smith grew up “with a spirit of community and helping others.” “That’s why I am the way I am now,” she says. “My mom was exactly like that.”

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stand why she was being charged. Once she was incarcerated in 2012, things changed for Smith, who was 35 at the time. “I vowed to figure out what happened to me,” Smith says. (Ironically, after a car accident incapacitated her, she’d never even finished that final semester of college.) She started studying law in her prison’s library, where she later got a job as a law clerk. Early on, the legalese was confusing. “It was not meant for regular people to understand,” Smith says. The first person Smith ever helped in the criminal justice system was a woman who felt her sentencing was calculated incorrectly — and Smith discovered that it was, partially through the help of a law clerk in another Missouri prison, Maurice Davis. “I started writing to Maurice and explaining to him I needed help understanding a few things,” Smith says. “He was the first person who helped me understand how to read the law and how to research.” They continued writing to each other for years. Eventually a relationship formed, and they’re still partners today. Davis, who was convicted as an accessory to a 1997 double homicide in Kansas City, has an innocence case of his own. He and Smith can’t afford lawyers, Smith explains, so Davis does his own legal work, and Smith drives to Kansas City to file documents on his behalf. “She’s a freedom fighter at heart,” Davis says of Smith. “That’s why I love her.” But her own freedom didn’t last long. Smith was back in court in 2018, accused of embezzling three months’ worth of Social Security disability payments. The charge accused her of stealing $2,754 — which she says was because she failed to promptly report a new job while she was laid up in the hospital. Normally, disability overpayments are Continued on pg 18

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handled by the Social Security Administration outside of court. Yet Smith says she was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison because of her record and a determined prosecutor. She’s still making her restitution payments on the $4,000 she was ordered to repay. After she was released in 2020, activism wasn’t the first item on her agenda. “I definitely wanted to change the system, but I knew I needed to pay the bills,” Smith says. When she was working for an insurance company, a few friends sent her a job listing for Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Smith didn’t think she’d get it. The job description for the racial justice coordinator said a college degree was preferred, and Smith didn’t have that. But Max, who now co-directs the organization with Smith, says she saw something in her. “We want folks that are closest to the problem because they’re closest to the solution,” Max says. While the death penalty takes up much of her time, prison conditions and advocating for the innocent are also a central focus. Smith started the nonprofit Missouri Justice Coalition after realizing there was no statewide advocacy group for Missouri’s incarcerated population and their families. Over the past month, Smith has been traveling around Missouri for a “town hall tour” to raise awareness of problems in prisons and empower inmates’ loved ones to advocate for more humane conditions. The town halls take place in communities that contain prisons. The tour comes after the Department of Corrections, or DOC, implemented new restrictions that prevent Missouri inmates from receiving books from friends or family. A year earlier, the DOC banned people in its prisons from receiving paper mail. The goal was to curb drug use in prisons, but it’s made a massive impact on the mental health of incarcerees, Davis says. “Some people will never have a picture to hold in their hand of their children or parents,” Davis says. “Holding a picture of a loved one is really important.” That’s why it’s important for people in prison to have someone on the outside to advocate for them, people like Smith. Davis says he filed a grievance about the mail policy, but it could take a year for it to go through. “The DOC isn’t going to do anything, but if the outside was to get involved, these things could happen faster,” Davis says. Smith has done the tour and all of her advocacy despite a rare hereditary bone disease called osteocondromatosis, which causes benign tumor-like growths to form in her wrists, knees and ankles. Smith has dealt with the disease for her whole life, but in her mid-40s it’s taking more of a toll on her mobility, and she walks with a cane. Long days on her feet exacerbate her pain; sometimes, she’ll work from her bed for a few days afterward. Yet there’s seldom a criminal justice protest Smith fails to attend. And living with a disability has hardly hindered her advocacy work; if anything, she says, it’s made her more cogni-

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After some executions, Smith says she sits in her car to “feel it” for some time. The two-hour drive back to St. Louis is always a battle.

“You try not to cry because you got to see the road,” she says. zant of issues in prisons — especially issues endured by marginalized populations. “I remember being in prison when a smoke alarm would go off, everyone would have to go outside and stand for three hours,” Smith says. “They didn’t care that I was disabled, or that for the next four to five days I was barely able to move because my disability was so aggravated from standing outside for three hours.” There’s hardly a person on Missouri’s death row that doesn’t have a disability of some sort, be it mental, physical or intellectual. While Smith rarely presents these disabilities as an excuse for their crimes, she says death is still not the answer.

mith and her colleagues feel a change is coming soon. Max, her co-director of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, says abolishing capital punishment has gained strong Republican support in recent years. “I think we’re really about to flip the tide with the pro-life movement wanting to take on the death penalty,” Max says. Indeed, a Republican, Representative Tony Lovasco of St. Charles County, filed a bill during Missouri’s last legislative session to end the death penalty. Lovasco recently told the Kansas City Star he plans on re-filing the bill next year. Lovasco’s measure is more “symbolic” than anything, Smith says, but her organization is lobbying hard this legislative session to rid Missouri of its so-called “judicial loophole.” The state is one of two states where if a jury does not come to a unanimous verdict for the death penalty, the decision falls to the judge. “A lot of times, Republicans are more libertarian, and they think the loophole is judicial overreach,” Smith says. Other states have implemented unofficial moratoriums where attorneys general don’t file motions to set execution dates and governors don’t sign off on death warrants. Others can’t get the drugs to carry out executions as pharmaceutical companies don’t want their products associated with such a dark purpose. In a much darker vein, Missouri may simply run out of people to execute. Death sentences have become decreasingly common in recent years, with only one person, Craig Wood, receiving the sentence in the past five years. Max looks to Virginia, which became the first Southern state to abolish the death penalty in 2021 after no new death sentences had been imposed for 10 years. Just two people were on death row at the time of Virginia’s abolition. Their sentences were commuted to life without parole.

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“The really sad fact is that they ran out of people to kill, and we’re almost there,” Max says. “We only have 10 people eligible for execution on death row.” The days of executions are always hectic, Smith says. They’re filled with calls from reporters, vigils organized throughout the state, drives to Jefferson City to deliver petitions to the governor’s office and drives to the prison in Bonne Terre for vigils or “execution watches” outside of the prison there, where supporters gather on a nearby farmer’s property to pray, sing “Amazing Grace” and show support for whomever’s death is on the docket that day. Attendees are often religiously minded folks who travel to the prison on a charter bus provided by the Archdiocese of St. Louis. After each execution, Smith says she’s left with anger. Not anger at a specific thing or individual, she says, but all the things that led to why each person committed their crimes in the first place. “My feelings always go back to how our society has failed people so much, and this is that final failure of the system against someone,” Smith says. After some executions, Smith says she sits in her car to “feel it” for some time. The two-hour drive back to St. Louis is always a battle. “You try not to cry because you got to see the road,” she says. Smith also feels like a failure — that all the work she did failed to result in the reprieve she so desperately sought. She hasn’t been alone in failing to earn reprieves. Misssouri’s current governor has never granted a death row inmate clemency, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority has yet to ever grant a stay for a Missouri execution either. But Smith remains hopeful that Missouri will change. The center of that hope lies in a story she heard about why executions are held at the Bonne Terre prison, and not at Potosi, where Missouri’s death row is. Executions are carried out by a volunteer force of corrections officers, Smith says, but the Potosi prison got to a point where they couldn’t get enough volunteers. Missouri’s death row is “general population,” meaning inmates are not confined to a cell. Through their years of incarceration, the corrections officers got to know the men. “They say ‘good morning’ every day, have small talk, et cetera,” Smith says. “They got to know them to the point where they wouldn’t volunteer for the execution team.” That story alone gives Smith hope that Missouri will abolish the death penalty. “I really feel like humanity will win out,” she says. n

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CALENDAR

BY RIVERFRONT TIMES STAFF

THURSDAY 12/14 Sleigh, Queen Union Station is once more a bastion of Christmas cheer, as the Sleigh Shed has returned for the 2023 holiday season. In celebration of ol’ St. Nick’s impending arrival (oh, and some ancient dude’s upcoming birthday, apparently), Union Station’s Train Shed (201 South 18th Street, 314-923-3949) has been transformed into a magical Christmas retreat with wallto-wall bling. The pop-up bar features creative cocktails such as the Sleighcation (double-aged dark rum, coconut rum, hazelnut liqueur, allspice dram, cream of coconut, lime and Angostura bitters) and the Just Beclaus (vanilla vodka, Aperol, Abricot du Roussillon liqueur, cream, simple syrup, lemon and egg white), alongside appetizers and desserts. With its traditional Christmas colors and dripping icicles, the Sleigh Shed is a full-on celebration of the merriest of holiday seasons. Admission is free and the festivities run through December 31. For more information, visit trainshed-stl.com.

Atta Boy, Clarence What would the holidays be without the iconic Jimmy Stewart Christmas film It’s a Wonderful Life? The perennial holiday favorite practically defines the season, and the TV marathons of the Christmas classic are as ubiquitous in some homes as coniferous trees and ceramic ornaments. This year, though, maybe switch things up and enjoy the timeless tale in a new way: performed live as a radio play at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (130 Edgar Road, Webster Groves; 314-968-4925). You no doubt already know the story, but see and hear it again through fresh eyes and ears as George Bailey and the town of Bedford Falls are reimagined as an old-time radio drama — very fitting for a film made in 1946. It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play runs until December 23, with times varying by day of performance. Most weeknight shows start at 7 p.m., with earlier start times on the weekends. Tickets are $30 to $155. More info at

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Le Meridien Hotel’s Chalet pop-up bar affords you the opportunity to inject a little luxury into your holiday festivities. | VIA JASPER PAUL PR repstl.org.

Christmas Knights Sure, Christmas is great and all, but you know what would make it better? Pairing it with a nearly 600-year-old game of wits and strategy, of course. Enter Jingle, an over-the-top, holiday-themed pop-up with a chess twist at the Saint Louis Chess Club (4657 Maryland Avenue, 314-361-2437). And this affair truly brings something for everyone, regardless of where you fall on Santa’s list. During “Nice” hours (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.), families and kids can enjoy hot chocolate, cookies and hands-on activities and projects. At night, during “Naughty” hours (4 p.m. to 10 p.m.), adults can sip on chess-inspired drinks and small bites from the neighboring Kingside Diner. The World Chess Hall of Fame, too, will be converted into a frosty fantasy with floor-to-ceiling decorations,

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themed chess sets and an illuminated, color-changing bar. Tickets during “Nice” hours are $5 per person and $10 per person during “Naughty” hours. The pop-up runs through December 30. Tickets and more info at worldchesshof.org/visit/jingle.

FRIDAY 12/15 Santa’s Lap (of Luxury) Introduce a little extravagance into your holiday festivities this year with a visit to the Chalet pop-up bar. It’s perched on the sky deck at Clayton’s ultra-swanky Le Meridien Hotel (7730 Bonhomme Avenue, Clayton; 314-863-0400), where you’ll find exclusive indoor and outdoor experiences creating the ultimate winter escape in the city. The outdoor pop-up bar is $15 to enter and offers curling

for $50 per hour, savory seasonal bites and sips, cozy fire pit seating, live music, s’mores kits, wooden pergolas, heated lamps, twinkling lights and blankets. Looking to take the Chalet experience indoors? You’re in luck. There’s an indoor private room for up to 10 people with an outdoor patio and direct access to the Chalet popup bar for $500. This one-hour and 45-minute experience comes with private outdoor seating with a firepit, curling rink rentals and concierge services. The Chalet is open each Friday, Saturday and Sunday in December; times vary by day. Visit cafelaviestlouis.com for tickets and more information.

SATURDAY 12/16 Prints of Darkness This year, why not include a bit of evil in your holiday gift-giving? World-class St. Louis printmaker

WEEK OF DECEMBER 14-20

Jingle brings chess-themed fun for everyone — whether you’re naughty or nice. | ELIZABETH SEMKO line at scarefest.fearticket.com — if you dare.

MONDAY 12/18 Goodness and Light(s)

that are welcome to participants of all levels. Tickets are $25, which is less than what many yoga classes in town will run you, so things seem likely to fill up quickly. For tickets and details, visit yogabuzz.org.

WEDNESDAY 12/20 We’re not taking issue with OG A Notorious A Christmas classic gets the radio play treatment this week at the Rep. | POSTER ART yoga, with its meditative ambiance that’s often accented with Sexpot the sounds of gongs or lavender

Tom Hück, well-known for his large-scale satirical woodcuts, has seen his wildly demented but thoroughly awe-inspiring works land in the public and private collections of many an art aficionado and esteemed institution — we’re talking everywhere from the Library of Congress to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to, of course, the Saint Louis Art Museum and many points beyond — and now they can grace the walls of your friends and family as well. With the annual Evil Prints Holiday Sale, Hück invites the public to snag some of his art at affordable prices, just in time for the holidays. And it’s not just his work that will be available. Joining Hück at the Witt Building (2929 South Jefferson Avenue) this Saturday, December 16, will be 14 fellow artists of similar sensibility peddling their wares from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Skip the long lines at

the Galleria or Target or wherever the normies do their shopping in 2023 and give something truly unique that your giftees are sure to love. For more information, visit evilprints.com.

Scary and Fright What if Christmas wasn’t so merry? This Saturday, December 16, watch in terror as St. Louis turns into a winter horrorland for a Krampus Haunted Christmas inside the Darkness (1525 South Eighth Street). Starting at 6 p.m., Santa’s asshole buddy Krampus and his evil sidekick Jack Frost will ring in the holiday season by wreaking havoc on everything merry and bright. Experience a horrific Christmas with Krampus photos ops, free candy and more. This one-nightonly holiday tradition is limited to the first 1,250 guests. Tickets start at $34.95 and can be purchased on-

wafted over reclining yogis in śavāsana. Actually, we like that yoga a lot. But sometimes we have the urge to mix things up with some acro action, or a workoutstyle offering that promises to get us ripped, or maybe something that involves cute animals, like goat yoga. The holidays, naturally, bring their own yoga angle, and we couldn’t be more psyched to try out Yoga Under the Lights at the Angad Arts Hotel (3550 Samuel Shepard Drive, 314-561-0033) at 6 p.m. on Monday, December 18. Hosted by Yoga Buzz, the event will take place in the hotel’s Grand Ballroom, which will be decorated to the max with fun lighting. Post class, yogis can create their own custom cocoa cups (N/A or spiked with the good stuff) and sip on them while checking out the hotel’s art exhibits. But those interested will probably want to act fast: There are 50 spots available

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Long before Hollywood attempted to subvert the treacle of classic Christmas movies with machine guns and bad Santas, Billy Wilder explored the lonely underbelly of the season in what’s now regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, 1960’s The Apartment. Yes, it’s a romantic comedy but one with a properly dark view of human behavior and corporate America — you’ll laugh, but you’ll also cry, just like real life. On Wednesday, December 20, the Arkadin Cinema (5228 Gravois Avenue, 314-221-2173) will show the film alongside a Midcentury Christmas Cocktail Party just like the one in the movie (but don’t count on Shirley MacLaine showing up). Swing by for a drink at 6 p.m. and stay to watch Fred MacMurray be the bad guy to Jack Lemmon’s good guy at 7:30. Tickets are $9; pick them up at arkadincinema.com. n

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CAFE

Making the Cut Shay’s Creole Smokehouse proves that some of the best barbecue in the St. Louis area is actually in St. Charles Written by

CHERYL BAEHR Shay’s Creole Smokehouse 912 South Main Street, St. Charles, 314852-2803. Thurs.-Sat. 11 a.m.- 8 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. (Closed Mon.-Wed.)

he Crazy Patty’s Reuben at Shay’s Creole Smokehouse is less a sandwich — or a clever reference to a character in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia — than a realization that you are eating a Reuben as god intended. The key is owner Shay Landry’s pastrami, a succulent, peppery, smokeladen masterpiece that drips with mouthwatering jus and rendered fat that soaks into the perfectly griddled marble rye and mingles with the tangy, housemade Thousand Island dressing to form a glorious sauce. Pungent Swiss cheese and funky sauerkraut slice through the decadence, adding a wallop of flavor that borders on dizzying. It’s the best sandwich I’ve eaten in 2023 and perhaps the best Reuben you’ll find in the bi-state area. It’s no surprise that Landry is capable of such genius. A veteran cook who has worked, by his account, at 44 different restaurants ranging from mom-and-pop joints to Ruby Tuesday, Landry has been preparing for a place like Shay’s Creole Smokehouse his entire career — and well before that. Though he grew up in west St. Louis County, he traces his culinary influence to Lake Charles, Louisiana. That’s where his father’s side of the family resided and he’d regularly visit, soaking up his Grandma Hazel’s cooking and the Creole and Cajun food heritage that permeated every aspect of the family’s food traditions. He remembers learning to make gumbo alongside his mom at the age of 10, and he started smoking meat on the family’s

Shay’s Creole Smokehouse features a blend of Cajun, Creole and barbecue specialties. | MABEL SUEN

Shay Landry is the chef-owner of Shay’s Creole Smoekhouse. | MABEL SUEN backyard Weber kettle grill when he was 13 after realizing he could do it better than his father. In college, Landry took a job with Ruby Tuesday to earn some money, then found himself rising so high in the ranks that he quit school to work full time. After 10 years, he was ready for a change and got the opportunity to own his own restaurant, O’Shay’s Pub in

the Grove, a bar and grill that he ran for about a year before parting ways with his business partners. A few gigs later, he joined the Pappy’s Smokehouse team, first at the restaurant group’s flagship Midtown location and then at its sister spot, Dalie’s Smokehouse in Valley Park. Over time, Landry itched to strike out on his own again, so he called

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up his friend, Troy Gongwer, owner of the Old Millstream Inn on St. Charles’ historic Main Street, and asked if he could open a restaurant in the kitchen space. Gongwer was supportive of the idea and offered to help Landry get things up and running so long as he’d agree to doing the food for the rest of the Old Millstream property, which includes a downstairs bar and an outdoor courtyard. Landry agreed, and on April 1 of this year, Shay’s Creole Smokehouse welcomed its first guests. Shay’s Creole Smokehouse feels like the culmination of the knowledge and experience Landry has gained over the years. But more importantly, it feels like a place where he has committed to making the food he loves. He sees barbecue and Creole food as the dual threads that ignited his passion and animated his career, and at Shay’s, he is able to finally marry those traditions in one wonderful concept. The two genres blend seamlessly on dishes such as an étouffée laden not simply with shrimp but also with outstanding brisket that adds a backbeat of smoke to the rich,

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The pulled pork dinner is served with two sides. | MABEL SUEN

Landry’s shrimp and brisket étouffée, pictured here with fried okra. | MABEL SUEN

SHAY’S

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smothered rice dish. Landry’s gumbo is such a transportive dish, you practically feel yourself sitting at his Grandma Hazel’s kitchen table eating it. Heartier than some of the looser, soup-like versions, this is like a cross between a Creole stew and crawdaddy risotto, its decadence cut by a vinegary hot-sauce kick. Landry’s barbecue puts it in the pantheon of St. Louis’ great smokehouses. Pulled pork is exactly what you want: tender, slicked with the perfect amount of fat and interspersed with mouth-watering caramelized bits. Ribs are outstanding, cooked to that sweet spot that has the proper amount of chew and pull while being tender enough to pull off without effort. Landry rubs and glazes his ribs with just enough sauce to give them a lovely, sticky coating that accents the pork’s natural sweetness. I’m a die-hard Texas-style brisket gal, but Landry’s thinnersliced, Memphis-inspired brisket makes a case for other styles of the beloved cut. Peppery and with a thin layer of bark around the edges, the brisket is gently smoky and impossibly tender and moist — you wonder if it’s been dunked in some sort of jus, but it’s just naturally that juicy. It’s an excellent dish, though his burnt ends left me speechless. Equal parts bark, meat and luscious fat, these meaty bits are glazed in a brown-sugary, Kansas City-style sauce that has a lovely creeping spice that builds with every bite. Landry’s wings are shockingly good — dry-rubbed, smoked and fried so that the skin cooks up to a

Shay’s Creole Smokehouse is located inside St. Charles’ Old Millstream Inn. | MABEL SUEN crisp texture. The flats and drummies are plump and juicy; they’re the perfect balance of crunch and tenderness. Another appetizer, the Shayquitos, are billed as smokehouse-style taquitos but are actually more like a barbecue version of a chimichanga. Here, a thin tortilla is filled with brisket, pulled pork and pulled chicken, rolled up, fried and served alongside a silken Creole-seasoned queso. I’d call it the quintessential barbecue joint finger food except it’s so hefty, you need two hands to hold it. Landry puts as much care into

his side dishes as he does into his main courses. Mac and cheese is tangy and rich — a concoction so wonderfully creamy it’s like mac and cheese queso. Pit beans, too, are thick, hearty and flecked with pulled pork — that stunning brown sugar molasses style that every baked bean wants to be. The meat gives them a hint of smoke, and there’s a subtle backheat that balances the sweetness. Hearty smashed potato salad, tossed with just a whisper of mustard and Creole spices, is a solid choice, as is the wonderful, trinity-filled Creole corn and a vine-

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gary coleslaw that dazzles thanks to its chopped, crunchy texture. Any of those would be a worthy accompaniment to that outstanding Reuben, though really, the only side dish you’ll want with it is … a second Reuben. But as much a masterpiece as it is, it’s just one of the innumerable reasons to love this outstanding restaurant — and to celebrate Landry as one of the region’s great pitmasters. n

Shay’s Creole Smokehouse Crazy Patty’s Reuben ��$15�50 Pulled pork plate�� $17�75 Beef brisket plate ��$19�25

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SHORT ORDERS

[SNEAK PEEK]

Rick Giordano Can’t Wait to Show You the Headless Bat The “heavy metal pizzeria” has Tower Grove South salivating Written by

JESSICA ROGEN

he first thing everyone asks Rick Giordano is what style of pizza his heavy metal eatery Headless Bat (3128 Morgan Ford Road) will serve. He’ll answer, “I just consider it good pizza,” but he admits that he questions the entire premise. “It’s always strange to me that that’s the first question,” Giordano says. “It’s like, ‘What style of pizza? Why? Is there a style that you don’t like?’ All pizza is awesome. Even St. Louis-style that is kind of garbage and not even really pizza, in my opinion, is still pretty good.” For the record, the Headless Bat’s pizza has a thin, light and airy crust that crisps up nicely in the Italian brick oven. The sauce has a bit of sweetness with hits of spices and garlic, and it’s all topped with legit, stretchy, melty mozzarella. “That’s called New York-style,” he says. “That’s cool. But we’re not in New York, so I don’t really give a shit.” In short, it’s the kind of pizza that he likes. Pretty much everything at Headless Bat, which is aiming for a soft opening by the middle of this month, followed by an official public launch, is something Giordano handpicked based on his personal taste. That’s true of the decor, the food, the bar offerings — even the sound level, which he promises, contrary to the metal theme, will never be too loud for good conversation. Giordano is gambling that St. Louis will like what he likes, and after getting a look at his soon-to-

The dining space has everything, including Satan holding pizza on the cross. | JESSICA ROGEN

Headless Bat’s pizza will be New York style, or rather, “good pizza.” | RICK GIORDANO be-open pizzeria, that seems like a safe bet. From the outside, the building still brings to mind its former resident — the London Tea Room, which relocated in 2022 — but enter and all thoughts of scones, teapots and dainty china will vanish. Probably best-known as part of local metal band the Lion’s Daughter, Giordano did most of the work himself, painting the space a vibrant red and adding a long, beautiful wood-topped bar on the right side of the first room. Red underlighting adds a heavy metal ambiance, as does the artwork

Rick Giordano did most of the work at Headless Bat himself. | JESSICA ROGEN

covering the walls. Look closely and you’ll spot everything from an Iron Maiden poster he’s had since he was a little kid (“probably got it at Spencer’s Gifts in, like, 1989”) to work by local artists such as Jason Spencer or Matt Thornton to a circa-1986 Judas Priest Turbo onesheet to the artwork Giordano has secretly made in his basement for years and figured he’d slip in. He’s opened up the back events space to serve as the main dining area, and it carries a similar vibe, with Satan on the cross holding slices of pizza and a light-up tiger that issues its glow over the space.

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During the time it’s taken to make all these changes, figure out the menus and get all the necessary permitting, Giordano has tested out the changed-up space. “I’ve gotten drunk in here a good 6 to 10 times with a couple of friends and figured out like, ‘Hey, this is a pretty fucking awesome place to sit and have drinks with your friends and eat some pizza and listen to music and watch goofy horror movies,’” he says. “This is the place that I always wanted to be able to hang out. So now that I know it is that, I’m really excited about it. I’m

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Pinball machines come into play in the dining room of Headless Bat. | JESSICA ROGEN

HEADLESS BAT Continued from pg 27

really excited to actually open the door and let other people come check it out.” A big part of getting to this point was figuring out the pizza itself, and after some thoughts of premade dough, he ended up instead developing the dough and sauce recipes himself. He also hired a chef, and the two have been collaborating on the menu. The offering that stands out most to Giordano is a green curry pizza, an homage to the red curry pizza at the long-gone Thai Pizza Co. in the Delmar Loop. It’s already been a hit with taste-testers. “It was a bit unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before,” Giordano says. “He took what was my idea to take what I thought was a really good pizza from a decade ago in the Loop, and he turned it into a great pizza that’s unique to us.” There will also be some of the pizza standards and some less wild custom creations, such as jalapeñopopper or artichoke. He’s also planning on monthly specials, such as a dried-cricket pizza, that are more fun and could be a reason for customers to come in just to try. Though the menu will mainly hold pizza, Headless Bat will also serve garbage bread, which involves toppings being wrapped up in pizza dough and sliced like a stromboli. There will also be jumbo wings and other appetizers, potentially spinach dip or bruschetta, and single-serving Peanut

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M&M cookie cakes. “Very short menu, but we kind of want to specialize, and I would rather do a few things really, really well than try to be the Cheesecake Factory,” he says. Giordano is a firm believer in the perfect union of pizza and beer, and he’s determined to add a rotating cast of bottles and cans not seen at other bars in town, such as beers from Hoof Hearted Brewing in Columbus, Ohio, and Nightmare Brewing Company in New York. The bar menu will also include a short list of cocktails developed by Platypus’ Tony Saputo, like the Queen Wasp, which contains either tequila or mezcal, mango and smoked jalapeño. It has a spicy, smoky, sweet flavor that Giordano loves. “I can’t wait to drink a couple hundred of those next year,” he jokes. Finally, there’s the music, which Giordano says will never be live because he wants Headless Bat to be the kind of place where customers can walk in and know they can have a conversation without shouting. But you can’t have a heavy metal pizza parlor without music, and so he’s created a curated playlist that’s 400 hours long. All in all, it’s a package he’s hoping will appeal, and hearing from excited neighbors or random people telling Giordano it’s going to be great has been validating. “It’s really, really cool to get the support and enthusiasm that we’ve seen from everybody so far,” he says. “I’m excited.” n

[FOOD NEWS]

Up Later

[FOOD NEWS]

Caramel Room Returns

Up Late to open second location on the Delmar Loop

Pure Catering plans to return the St. Louis events space to its former glory

Written by

SARAH FENSKE

PAULA TREDWAY

et ready to stay up late on the Loop. Up Late (1904 South Vandeventer Avenue), the popular late-night eatery that opened last spring inside World’s Fair Donuts, announced on December 1 it will be opening a second outpost on the Delmar Loop. The eatery said it would open at 6197 Delmar Boulevard, which was previously home to Chicken Out. An RFT staff favorite (to put it mildly), Up Late has won a big following not only for staying open until 4 a.m., but also for what critic Cheryl Baehr describes as “easy, straightforward sandwiches,” but ones where the chef puts the “care into them and nails the small details to make them memorable.” As for the new location, owners Nathan Wright and Jason Bockman write only, “We are hiring all positions, email nathan@uplatestl.com with ‘stay up late’ as the subject line. riding this to the moon.” n

t. Louis’ esteemed event venue the Caramel Room (1600 North Broadway) has been brought back to life after its closure in October 2022. Pure Catering, led by Timothy Eleby, Joseph Westbrook and Ashlee Freeman, reopened the beloved venue’s doors late last month. Though the team has some plans of their own, the space will host the same events — nonprofits, weddings, private parties and corporate affairs. Eleby says one major difference guests will notice is that Pure Catering will be the venue’s exclusive caterer. For weddings, the Caramel Room offers packages that include butlerpassed hors d’oeuvres, a two-course plated dinner, complimentary cake-cutting, coffee service, professional serving staff, tables and chairs, a wide selection of linens and candles. Eleby, Westbrook and Freeman were on the hunt for a new adventure with an event space after two years operating the Missouri History Museum’s Cafe Pure, which is now closed. After discovering the Caramel Room when it went up for sale earlier this year, the group was captivated by the space’s charm and versatility.

its loyal patrons, so this Top 5 is not necessarily definitive but more of a personal preference. Let it be the opening of an ongoing conversation about our city’s many wonderful takes on this beloved dish.

CHERYL BAEHR’S

FRIED CHICKEN PICKS Few dishes evoke the intense emotion of fried chicken — and understandably so. A staple of home-cooked meals and the embodiment of the comfort food genre, golden fried bird is what you turn to when you need the culinary version of a warm hug. St. Louis is blessed with an abundance of wonderful fried chicken spots, each with

Sunday Best After realizing that fried chicken made up roughly 80 percent of his sales at his late restaurant Juniper, John Perkins decided to run with it. In the summer of 2023, he closed Juniper and reopened as Sunday Best (4101 Laclede Avenue, 314-329-7696), a restaurant centered around his fried chicken genius. Perkins has been tinkering with his recipe for more than a decade, and though he’d never admit it, he’s achieved perfection in the form of succulent, flavorful meat and a supremely crisp — but not overly hard — breading that is what you dream of when you dream of fried chicken. Grace Meat + Three Rick Lewis is St. Louis’ reigning king of comfort food, and perhaps nowhere on

The Caramel Room reopened on November 19 with a Friendsgiving Brunch. | COURTESY PHOTO “The moment we walked off the elevator into this magnificent space, we knew we were home,” says Eleby, principal of Pure Catering. “The warmth and flexibility of the space convinced us to commit to helping bring the North Riverfront to life once again.” To celebrate the reopening, the team hosted a Friendsgiving Brunch on November 19. The brunch featured a selection of seafood, prime rib and bottomless mimosas, providing guests with a memorable culinary experience and just a peek of what’s to come. Local chocolatier Bissinger’s had

his Grace Meat + Three (4270 Manchester Avenue, 314-533-2700) menu is this more obvious than his fried chicken. The breading is flawlessly seasoned — not spicy but flavor-packed — and that perfect texture of crisp without being overbearing so that it doesn’t overwhelm the juicy meat underneath. Southern Pappy’s Smokehouse’s sister concept Southern (3108 Olive Street, 314-5314668) opened at the height of the hot chicken craze that made its way out of Nashville and into the hearts (and bellies) of the rest of the country. Eight years later, Southern has proven that it was no mere trend, its staying power the result of its exceptional take on the offering. Though the restaurant is known for its different styles ranging from mild, to a few sweet and spicy options to varying degrees of burn-your-face-off, its wonderfully crisp and juicy original shows that Southern knows how to nail the fundamentals.

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opened the Caramel Room as a private events space in its factory in 2014. Nestled along the historic Near North Riverfront, the Caramel Room was known for its warm and rich aesthetics and modern design elements — and over-the-top desserts. With its return, Pure Catering hopes to reclaim the space’s position as one of the premier event destinations in St. Louis. “We are very excited,” says Eleby. “We’ve been open for five years and this is the first venue we’ve owned. We are hoping to expand in the future, making it bigger and better.” n

Porter’s Porter’s (3628 South Big Bend Boulevard, 314-781-2097) is a St. Louis institution thanks to its classic and deceptively simple take on golden fried bird with a delicate, perfectly cooked exterior that (when ordered spicy) packs a heat that builds with every bite. This is the closest to Grandma’s fried chicken we have in town. Chicken Seven There is a reason Korean fried chicken is considered to be one of the best examples of fried bird you can find, and no one in town does it better than Chicken Seven (6312 South Grand Boulevard, 314-354-6349). The restaurant, located deep in south St. Louis city, serves up a chicken with batter so crispy yet so delicate it’s a marvel of texture. The dish is good on its own, but when gilded with Chicken Seven’s soy honey garlic sauce, it becomes an absolute masterpiece.

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REEFERFRONT TIMES

[INDUSTRY]

‘An Extra Edge’ Minorities for Medical Marijuana is opening up Missouri’s weed industry for people of color Written by

MONICA OBRADOVIC

he air smells of weed, and a soft haze of smoke blankets the room. People sit at tables chatting, laughing and puffing as they smoke, roll joints and grind their weed. Everyone here knows each other. Or at least it seems like they do. In this place, no one is a stranger. This is the Cola Private Lounge (2834 Cherokee Street, 314-8841699), a members-only cannabis lounge that became the first of its kind in Missouri when it opened on Cherokee Street in 2019. The Cola’s slogan aptly describes the lounge as a “place where buds meet.” But on this evening, a chill Monday night, the Cola Lounge is more than that. It’s the center of organizing for Minorities for Medical Marijuana. Minorities for Medical Marijuana, or M4MM, is an international organization with chapters in 27 states, including Missouri. Here, members have had plenty to talk about. For some, the state’s rollout of legal adult-use cannabis was as disappointing as it was for medical marijuana, when few people of color were able to get into the industry. At the time of M4MM’s mixer in November, it had been about a month since the state’s Division of Cannabis Regulation announced the winners of its lottery for micro-business cannabis licenses. What were supposed to be “socialequity” licenses intended to allow minorities a pathway into the industry ended up being flooded by out-of-state interests. A Missouri Independent investigation found that out-of-state entities recruited people eligible for the licenses through Craigslist

Kierston Clark, owner of Peaxe Pipes, gives a presentation on his business at the Cola Private Lounge. | MONICA OBRADOVIC and convinced them to sign away potential profits in exchange for a small upfront fee. The state’s Department of Health and Senior Services has since said it will determine if micro-businesses are in fact majority-owned by the named applicant through a postlicensure verification process. About an hour into the mixer, the Cola Lounge’s proprietor and M4MM rep, Brennan England, walks up to the front of the room, greeting the crowd with a “welcome home.” This place is “authentically, and unapologetically, a home for Black people where everyone is welcome,” he says. Soon into his speech, England says he isn’t going to talk much about micro-business applications. “You know why? Because the last time I asked if anyone had applied, there was not one fucking hand that raised in the room,” he says. “It just showed the amount of distrust and the amount of concern that our community has with the system.” Brennan asks how many are interested in the next line of licenses. Several of the 30-some people in the room raise their hands. The point of these mixers isn’t

to trash on any perceived injustices. England started gathering people in August 2021 so they could network and build a united voice. Every month, new and old attendees come to get informed about politics, meet other business owners, market their products or just hang out. “Black and brown folks make up less than 4 percent of the industry, even though we’re at a 400 percent likelihood of being targeted for the plant,” England says. “That’s getting better, but as the industry grows, our inclusion doesn’t unless we organize and fight for it.” At the very least, the mixers are one of very few free informational cannabis sources, says Abrahama Keys, who owns a cannabis networking company called We Cann. Applicants for micro-businesses can spend thousands of dollars on consultants to beef up their applications. Others, including England, try for the licenses through a grant accelerator program (though England did not win in the latest round). “It’s an extra edge up,” Keys says of the mixers. Keys didn’t apply for a micro-

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license during the first round, which finished in October with the state issuing six licenses for each of Missouri’s eight congressional districts. By 2025, the state will have issued 144 licenses through three rounds of lotteries. “Until you know whether or not the playing field will be leveled, it’s really hard to get excited and put all the time and effort into it,” Keys says. But some exciting things are developing. The constitutional amendment that legalized recreational cannabis gave control to local governments on where cannabis consumption could be allowed. There’s been talks of cannafriendly picnic areas, cafes and temporary consumption permits for events such as concerts and more. And as the industry evolves, England tells the people in the Cola Lounge they’re always able to leverage their expertise and get into the industry in creative ways. Many in the room, from cannabis chefs to artisan “glassware” makers, already have. “The biggest opportunity we have are the skills we already possess,” he says. n

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CULTURE [COMEDY]

Improv Shop Expands — Again Kevin McKernan purchases a church in the Grove to grow the improv comedy business’ training center Written by

PAULA TREDWAY

es, and … Improv Shop owner and founder Kevin McKernan is set to expand his evergrowing improv business. Again. McKernan purchased the old Remedy Church (4372 Vista Avenue) in the Grove across from Cardinals Care Field. The Improv Shop settled in the Grove back in 2016 at a standalone building at 3960 Chouteau Avenue that previously held Bad Dog and R-Bar. In 2022, the Improv Shop expanded its business by purchasing the Gaslight Studio and Lounge (4916 Shaw Avenue) on the Hill. This new purchase, which closed on Friday, comes as business for the Improv Shop has continued to increase since the end of COVID-19 restrictions. “Post COVID we actually got people coming back to improv classes and shows and stuff,” says McKernan. “We’ve seen a return to pre-COVID numbers, and this gives us an opportunity to teach more classes.” The 1902 building offers McKernan 3,878 square feet of opportunity. “It’s not a church in the way you would think; it’s not like a Catholic church,” says McKernan. “It’s a makeshift church. It used to be a two-family flat that they turned into a church.” He says the first floor, which was previously used for services, will be used as a small venue. Luckily for Mckernan, the church already came with a stage.

The first-floor stage and room upstairs for additional classrooms sold the space. | COURTESY PHOTO “This will give us the potential to do some smaller, experimental shows in the venue space,” he says. “It could be used as a classroom or a smaller venue for small comedy shows.” Upstairs are five refurbished

rooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen, giving the Improv Shop plenty of space to expand its training center and rehearsal space. Purchasing the church was a no-brainer for McKernan, who says he’d wanted to expand in the

[ S T. L O U I S S TA R S ]

Hit the Page A new book, St. Louis Walk of Fame: 250 Years of Great St. Louisans, highlights 173 Walk of Fame inductees Written by

PAULA TREDWAY

he St. Louis Walk of Fame is stepping out of the Delmar Loop and into the pages of a new book. St. Louis Walk of Fame: 250 Years of Great St. Louisans highlights 173 inductees, including 27 of the newest to get a star, such as actor Jon Hamm, boxers Michael and Leon Spinks, TV host and producer Andy Cohen, football star Kurt Warner, Temptations vocalist Dennis Edwards, writer Jonathan Franzen, actor Jenifer Lewis, NASA mission controller Gene

The book spotlights photos and biographies of inductees. | COURTESY PHOTO Kranz, musicians the Isley Brothers and bowler Pete Weber. This book spotlights photos and biographies of inductees as well as photos from induction ceremonies over the years and

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Grove because “it’s been a good home for us, and the community supports us.” After casually looking for his next investment, the church made the most sense. “This makeshift church with classrooms would be perfect,” he recalls thinking. “The building gets to stay intact, and all the cool stuff they did to the church gets to stay. The building is turnkey, which is really nice.” When it comes to expansion, Mckernan says the Improv Shop never really plans on it, that it just happens when the time is right. “I never have real goals because I never know what it’s going to do,” he says. “The goal is always to keep shifting and meeting needs as they come about, and it seems to me if you do the work well in the moment and don’t worry so much about expanding, the answer is going to come.” Another investment the Improv Shop has recently made is hiring new individuals to join the leadership team. “I’m not as hands-on as I was back in the day; I have a kid and other stuff that I’m doing,” McKernan says. “But the leadership team there has put their energy into it and are growing it in really cool ways, and that’s exciting to me, too.” n

visual guides to the Delmar Loop. In a statement, St. Louis Walk of Fame nonprofit founder Joe Edwards said, “We donate a copy of our book to every middle and high school library in the region as part of our mission to cultivate children’s pride in the St. Louis community and showcase role models that inspire career paths.” Edwards founded the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 1988 with the goal of drawing attention to great St. Louisans who have had a major influence on our culture on a national or international level. The Walk of Fame consists of brass stars and bronze plaques embedded in the sidewalks of the vibrant Delmar Loop neighborhood. Each star features the name of an honoree and the accompanying plaque contains a biography putting their achievements and connection to the city into perspective, making this walk enjoyable and educational. n The Walk of Fame book is available for purchase for $29.95 at Blueberry Hill, Subterranean Books, the Moonrise Hotel gift shop and in Blueberry Hill’s online store at blueberryhill.com.

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MUSIC “The first day when my phone was blowing up, it was going off the hook. I left Walmart, I left my job and never came back. Once I went viral, I was like, ‘This is it!’”

[R&B]

If the Shoe Fits Layton Greene went from East Boogie to the Billboard Hot 100 — and her new single “Cinderella Story” shows she’s still climbing Written by

ADAM DAVIDSON

n early 2020, Layton Greene was riding high. The East St. Louis native had just signed a record deal with Quality Control Music, had plans for a 10date debut tour and was garnering a rapidly growing fan base for her heartfelt R&B. However, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, sending the artist into a dark place mentally. She decided to protect her mental health and took a break from music. “I went into a very depressive state. I lost myself and my mental [health]. Then I found out I was pregnant in 2021 with my first child,” she says. “Going through that, I felt that life was just lifeing, and I had to take a step back to really focus on myself so that when I was ready to put myself out there again, I can give my best to them.” Her plan worked. Says Greene, “I’m in a great head space now. I’m ready to come back on the scene and go crazy.” Last week, Greene, 25, dropped a new single, “Cinderella Story.” The melodic track was a long time in the making, as she first recorded the song four years ago and only revisited it this year. “When I first cut the song, I loved it, but I felt like I needed to recut it because my voice had grown, and I grew in different places,” she says. “I’m ready to get this music out because I’m in my head about it. I know I’ve grown so much, but also I want [fans] to see the growth, too.” Greene caught her first big break in 2017 by releasing covers of popular songs, most notably

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Layton Greene first recorded her new single, “Cinderella Story,” four years ago. | COURTESY PHOTO Kodak Black’s “Roll in Peace” — which became her first hit, garnering 3.5 million-plus streams on SoundCloud in the first month alone. When she released the cover, she was working at Walmart, unloading trucks and stacking groceries. “The first day when my phone was blowing up, it was going off the hook. I left Walmart, I left my job and never came back,” Greene says. “Once I went viral, I was like, ‘This is it!’ I was working on getting my GED, but I dropped everything.” For all the viral success Greene achieved with her covers, she was looking for something more from her music and decided to write her own songs. She used songwriting as a form of therapy as she wrote about trauma and formative life experiences. “I used to take entries from my journal and come up with songs,” she says. “That’s how ‘Blame on Me’ came about, just putting my feelings onto paper.” She adds, “It feels most therapeu-

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tic once I put my music out and see how people relate to it in the way that they do. I’m just writing from my own life experiences. That’s why I put my life into these songs, and I’m not afraid to be vulnerable because people deserve it.” After the viral success of her covers and 2018 debut single “Myself,” Layton Greene became the first-ever R&B artist signed to Quality Control Music, the Atlanta-based hip-hop label. Her first single with it, “Leave ‘Em Alone,” soared to No. 60 on the Billboard Hot 100. Even in her first meeting with the label, she says, it was clear she’d found the place to grow as an artist. “QC is like a family; everybody is tight-knit. I’m trying to get back on the scene, and they’re so supportive, just to have a label and label-mates that go so hard for each other. It’s another blessing, and I don’t think I could have signed with a better label,” Greene says. “It just felt like home, and it felt

right. I felt like I was seen, and that I could relate to everybody on the label.” Greene grew up in East St. Louis before moving to Knoxville, Tennessee, at age 14. Signs that she would pursue a music career were evident from a young age: She would sing on her porch to friends and family, making them pay to watch her sing. “I always knew that I wanted to be a singer. I just didn’t know how it was going to happen,” she says. “Nobody in my family is musically inclined, and my parents told me that I needed to go to college because it’s not possible, it’s a one-in-a-million chance. I was determined it was going to happen. I didn’t know how, but I knew it was going to happen.” When Greene moved cities she experienced a huge culture shock. She is mixed race and says that in East St. Louis was considered a white girl, but after moving to Knoxville and attending an allwhite school, she was considered a Black girl. The change was tough, but Greene says that it gave her more to write about and a chance to turn hardships into art. With her new album slated for early next year and plans for a debut headlining tour, Greene has big plans for 2024. “I’m ready for the album to come,” she says. “In 2024, I want to give myself to my fans and be on the scene more. I want to tour and get out and touch my supporters. You can just expect great things.” n

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FILM

[REVIEW]

She Is Risen Indeed Poor Things brings Emma Stone back to life — and both sexy times and black-comic social commentary ensue Written by

CRAIG D. LINDSEY Poor Things Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Written by Tony McNamara. Now playing in select theaters.

oor Things is a movie about a woman who receives a second chance to get to know her vagina. That’s what happens to Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a formerly dead lady who is found and brought back to life by deformed mad scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), whom she refers to only as God. The doctor attempts to keep Bella holed up in his manor, where he and his assistant (Ramy Youssef) watch this young Frankenstein’s monster and document her progress. But once she discovers her lady parts, all hell breaks loose. Poor Things marks the second collaboration between director Yorgos Lanthimos and screenwriter Tony McNamara, who teamed up for 2018’s The Favourite. They give us another extravagant period piece (filmed using several lenses, from wide-angle to fisheye) where women defiantly flaunt their agency and sexual independence while also behaving very badly. By adapting Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same name, Lanthimos and McNamara again found some choice material to delve into vulgar shenanigans while also pulling off a visually dazzling costume drama. (I’m quite certain Poor Things will snap up the Oscars for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design.) Bella predictably longs to see what’s outside her door, opting to go on a globe-trotting getaway with a caddish lawyer (Mark Ruf-

After being brought back to life, Emma Stone’s Bella is ready to explore. | ATSUSHI NISHIJIMA © 2023 SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES falo) that has her engaging in some torrid sex. (It’s almost like Lanthimos remembered the wildass sex scenes Ruffalo had with Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right and decided no one can blow an Oscar winner’s back out on screen but him.) Ruffalo mostly brings foulmouthed comic relief with his character, a so-called stud who predictably catches feelings for the beguiling Baxter, virtually oblivious that he’s sprung over a woman-child who’s still learning about this thing called the world. She gets a crash course on how this planet can be a beautiful but cruel place, filled with delicious pastries and sick, destitute souls. (Youssef’s pal and frequent collaborator Jerrod Carmichael shows up midway as a sharpdressed cynic who briefly serves as her pessimistic tour guide.) It’s a journey that has her working at a Paris brothel in the third act, discovering how much men are willing to pay just to get it on with her. Poor Things is basically a Victorian steampunk version of Candy, Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg’s 1958 novel that was a dirty-book takeoff on Candide. (It was also adapted into a disastrous sex farce 10 years later starring Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau

Emma Stone’s Bella gets a crash course on how this planet can be a beautiful but cruel place, filled with delicious pastries and sick, destitute souls. and Ringo Starr.) Just like that work, Poor Things has a female protagonist exploring her sexuality while dealing with guys who instantly fall in love with this free spirit. Stone, showing a whole lot more than in previous movies, plays her frighteningly pale protagonist like an awkward sexaholic on the autism spectrum, often coming to pragmatic conclusions in her quest to achieve success (and orgasms) on her own terms. The film is obviously about how women have to fight to live their own damn lives and how men do everything they can to contain

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and control them. The doctor and his assistant (whom the doctor encouraged to be Bella’s fiance) miss Bella to the point where they go and “create” another girl in her absence. (She’s surprisingly played by a rising, well-known young actress — I won’t spoil it — which almost seems like a built-in commentary on how quickly It Girl ingenues are discarded in Hollywood.) The story is enjoyably randy in its first half, establishing itself as a raunchy sex comedy wrapped up in sophisticated surroundings. In the second half, once Bella finds out how cold and unforgiving the world can be, it bounces back and forth between being silly and being serious. But just when you think the movie’s over and done with, it throws in a twist that not only stretches the movie an additional, dead-horse-beating 20 minutes, it also reminds you that, oh yeah, Bella was a whole other person before all this happened. Those 20 minutes practically kill two birds with one stone, again reiterating how men are determined to keep women down and also reviving The Favourite’s bitter message: Quite simply, powerful people ain’t shit. Lanthimos and McNamara throw in a hell of a lot in Poor Things. Thankfully, it’s a horny, gorgeous hell of a lot. n

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9 1 0 w e s t p o r t P L A Z A d r i v e • s a i n t l o u i s , m i s s o u r i 6 3 1 4 6 • 3 1 4 .5 4 8 . 2 8 7 6

LET’S GET THIS YOU LEAVE IT ALL ON HOLIDAY STARTED. THE COURT. WE’LL LEAVE THE COURT. WE’LL LEAVE IT ALL ON STAGE. Now Serving Up Lunch Daily

live music every week DEC15

F A C E OFF A G A I N S T Y O U R FRIENDS DEC16 A N D ROCK O U T T O S O M E L I V E MUSI C , E V E R Y W E E KEND.D E C 2 2

wwestportsocial-stl.com e s t p o r t s o c i a l- s t l . c o mD E C 2 3

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DECEMBER 13-19, 2023

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BITTER PILL

D EC29

RETRO NERDS

POLLY & THE POCKET

D EC30

BRIGHTSIDE

DIRTY MUGGS

DEC31

LONE RANGERS

WELL HUNGARIANS

STAGE

39 HOLIDAY SHOW!

HOME FREE THU, DEC 14

KARLOUS MILLER SAT, DEC 16

ON THE PROWL WINTER HOLIDAZE TOUR

STEEL PANTHER

PLUS MOON FEVER

SUN, DEC 17 CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA NYE WEEKEND

ZEDS DEAD PLUS RUSKO & HEYZ

Marlee Wenski as Sandra Dee, Terrell Thompson as Harry, and the Stoner Carolers keep the mood high. | JILL RITTER LINDBERG

[REVIEW]

A Hilarious Trip New Line Theatre’s pot-infused musical, Jesus and Johnny Appleweed’s Holy Rollin’ Family Christmas, is surreal, nostalgic fun Written by

TINA FARMER Jesus and Johnny Appleweed’s Holy Rollin’ Family Christmas Written by Scott Miller. Directed by Scott Miller and Tony L. Marr, Jr. Presented by New Line Theatre at the Grandel (3610 Grandel Square) through Saturday, December 16. Shows are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and tickets are $25 to $50.

oliday revelers and partiers looking to take their celebrations to new highs should plan to pop into the Grandel Theatre for New Line Theatre’s original holiday musical spoof Jesus and Johnny Appleweed’s Holy Rollin’ Family Christmas. Penned by company artistic director Scott Miller, the story taps into a cross-section of weed culture and nostalgia to create a hilarious and upbeat musical.

Set in mid-century middle America with playful nods to the sitcoms, cartoons and jingles that permeated the airwaves of the ’60s and ’70s, we join the Goodson family on Christmas Eve 1959. The times they are a-changin’, but dad Hugh is reluctant to embrace the future. Perhaps a little reefer would help him relax? That’s what the rest of the family thinks, and his wife Bess has even baked some special Christmas cookies. After the rest of the family goes to bed, Hugh stays in the living room, falls asleep and is visited by multiple ghosts who try to adjust his perspective. Terrell Thompson is solid as Harry Goodson. He’s a bit out of harmony and step with the rest of the family in a humorous way. Kay Love is fabulous as not-sobored housewife Bess. Her voice is pleasing and warm, even when she’s belting about her “Hoo-Hoo of Steel,” and Love’s other characterizations are delightfully odd. Marlee Wenski shines as daughter Tammy Goodson, and her sultry, torch-song-like vocals on “Miles and Miles” are a highlight of the first act. Tai Davis is charming with just a hint of flamboyance as son Chip; his coming out story is realistically cute and fantastically funny. Tawaine Noah perfectly captures the swagger of a modern man comfortable with his feelings as Uncle Hugh. A chorus of carolers featuring Robert Doyle, Matt

Hill, Stephanie Merritt and Lauren Tenenbaum provides musical and comic insights and exposition. The songs are well-crafted and many contain hints of carols, jingles and theme songs from the period. While enjoyable, I think some editing would make this highly entertaining show even better. The first act feels a bit too long in exposition in ways that almost make the audience forget the great “Heteronormative.” The first two songs of the second act could easily be combined, and while “The Grey Flannel Ghosts” technically fits the plot, neither the song nor the reprise did much for me. However, the majority of the songs are well-constructed and fun, with surprising elements, hilarious lyrics and hidden riffs galore. Jesus and Johnny Appleweed’s Holy Rollin’ Family Christmas is packed with lots of sharply funny takes on familiar Christmas themes, as well as exaggerated and satirical racism and sexism with liberal reference to and suggested use of marijuana. The show is not for everyone. However, it’s an upbeat musical spoof with a plethora of pointed satire underneath the holiday haze. For those looking for abundant laughs that gently but consistently poke fun at the season and social norms, Jesus and Johnny Appleweed’s Holy Rollin’ Family Christmas is a great choice. n

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FRI, DEC 29

TYLER HENRY:

THE HOLLYWOOD MEDIUM

TUE, JAN 9 7-0-7 TOUR

ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS PLUS CHARLIE SEXTON

FRI, JAN 26

THE SIMON AND GARFUNKEL STORY FRI, FEB 2

BAND OF HORSES SAT, FEB 17

SUBTRONICS PLUS WOOLI, HEDEX, SAKA, JON CASEY, SKELLYTN

THU, FEB 22 GOODBYE YELLER BRICK ROAD, THE FINAL TOUR

LEWIS BLACK FRI, FEB 23

DECEMBER 13-19, 2023

RIVERFRONT TIMES

DECEMBER 13-19, 2023

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OUT EVERY NIGHT

ach week, we bring you our picks for the best concerts of the next seven days. To submit your show for consideration, visit https://bit.ly/3bgnwXZ. All events are subject to change, so check with the venue before you head out. Happy showgoing!

LIVE JUKEBOX: 6 p.m., $6. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 South Kingshighway Blvd., 2nd Floor, St. Louis, 3143765313. SONNY LANDRETH: 8 p.m., $28. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060. SPIRIT OF THE SEASON: 3 p.m., free. Mascoutah High School, CUSD #19, 1313 W Main St, Mascoutah, IL 62258, Mascoutah, 618-566-8523. STORMRULER: w/ Summoning the Lich, the Gorge, Oracle 7:30 p.m., $15. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. UNCLE ALBERT: 8 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

[CRITIC’S PICK]

THURSDAY 14

DREW SHEAFOR: 5 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521. HOME FREE: 8 p.m., $25-$65. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500. I WISH YOU PEACE BENEFIT CONCERT: w/ Emerson Magana, Aska Maret, Farshid Etniko 7 p.m., $20. Center for Spiritual Living, 12875 Fee Fee Road, Creve Coeur, 314-576-6772. KERR NIGHT MARKET: w/ Burning Plastic Blues Band, The Neck, Kingston Family Singers, Lowlands, DJ Yelyzaveta 7 p.m., $10. William A. Kerr Foundation, 21 O’Fallon St., St. Louis, 314-436-3325. LAKA UNPLUGGED: 9 p.m., $25. Evangeline’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644. LOGAN LEWIS BLUES: 7 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. NATE LOWERY: 3 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. NOPOINT: w/ Throat Piss 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. PETER MAYER NIGHT 2: 8 p.m., $28-$35. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. SUNSQUABI: 8 p.m., $20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. TAGABOW: w/ Full Body 2, Yuppy 8 p.m., $15. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

SUNDAY 17

Local H. | VIA FLOWER BOOKING

FRIDAY 15 15TH ANNUAL HOLIDAY BRASSTRAVAGANZA NIGHT 1: w/ Funky Butt Brass Band 8 p.m., $25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. ANDY FRASCO & THE U.N.: w/ Maggie Rose 8 p.m., $26. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. DIRTY HONEY: 7:45 p.m., $27.50. The Hawthorn, 2225 Washington Avenue, St. Louis. DREW LANCE: 4 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. EXPERIMENTAL OPEN MIC: 7 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. GENE JACKSON’S POWER PLAY BAND: 8 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. GREAT CREEPY CHRISTMAS: 7 p.m., $12. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. HEARTSFIELD: 8 p.m., $38. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060. HONKY TONK HAPPY HOUR: 4 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. LITTLE HILLS: 6 p.m., $6. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 South Kingshighway Blvd., 2nd Floor, St. Louis, 3143765313. LOCAL H: w/ Death Pose 8 p.m., $30. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. NIGHTSWIM: w/ Armories, Osmotic Gradient 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. PICKIN BUDS ELECTRIC: 9 p.m., $10. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. PRIMITIVE RAGE: w/ Blistered Spirit, Direct Measure, Maladjust 7 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. THE RECORD SPACE 5TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION: w/ Bassamp and Dano, Petty Grievances, Bastard Squad, The Jag-Wires, Better Day 8

Local H w/ Death Pose 8 p.m. Friday, December 15. The Duck Room at Blueberry Hill, 6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City. $30. 314-727-4444. Hailing from Zion, Illinois, a small town equidistant from Milwaukee and Chicago, Local H has been peddling its brand of artful grunge rock since 1990, when four high school friends took up instruments and started learning power chords. That lineup wouldn’t last, with half the band leaving before they’d recorded a single album. Their loss, though: Local H carried on as a duo, securing a major record deal with Island Records that included the release of As Good As Dead, the 1996 album whose single “Bound for the Floor” reached No. 5 on the Billboard Alternative chart. That record was eventually certified

gold by the RIAA, and although the band hasn’t reached such peaks since, it jumpstarted a fruitful career that has seen the group criss-cross the world and build up a loyal following over the decades since. A more recent career highlight even saw the band opening for Metallica for five nights of its 2017 WorldWired tour — no small accomplishment and undeniable evidence that its road-dog approach and tireless work ethic have paid off. We Got the Beat: Local H’s original drummer parted ways with the band in 2013 in order to focus full time on his tour management company, Tour Time Productions. The band’s current drummer has local roots — Ryan Harding used to play in St. Louis act Sullen with Justin Slazinik and Shanna Kiel in the early to mid-2000s. —Daniel Hill

ERIC LYSAGHT: 9 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. ERIK BROOKS: 8 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. THE GATEWAY RINGERS HOLIDAY CONCERT: 4 p.m., free. Historic Trinity Lutheran Church, 812 Soulard St, St Louis, 314-231-4092. JOHN MCVEY BAND: 3 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. KRIBMAS: w/ Smino 8 p.m., $50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. NEIL SALSICH, BETH BOMBARA AND LYNN O’BRIEN: 7:30 p.m., $20. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. SAINT LOUIS CHAMBER CHORUS: 3 p.m., $40. Second Presbyterian Church, 4501 Westminster Place, St. Louis, 314-367-0366. STEEL PANTHER: 7:30 p.m., $34.50-$49.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500. TERISA GRIFFIN: 7 p.m., $35. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060. TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA: 7 p.m., $37.49$119.75. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888.

MONDAY 18

EVAN FARRIS: w/ Luisa Sims 7:30 p.m., free. Yaqui’s on Cherokee, 2728 Cherokee St, St. Louis, 314-400-7712. SOULARD BLUES BAND: 9 p.m., $8. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. TIM ALBERT AND STOVEHANDLE DAN: w/ Randy 7 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

TUESDAY 19

ERIC LYSAGHT: 9 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. NAKED MIKE: 7 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. ROBERT GLASPER NIGHT 1: 9:30 p.m., $58-$68. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060. STRAIGHT NO CHASER: 7:30 p.m., $29.50-$89.50. The Fox Theatre, 527 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, 314-534-1111.

WEDNESDAY 20 p.m., free. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

SATURDAY 16 15TH ANNUAL HOLIDAY BRASSTRAVAGANZA NIGHT 2: 8 p.m., $25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. 2 PEDROS: AN EVENING OF YACHT ROCK: 7:30 p.m., $20. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. ALL ROOSTERED UP: noon, free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. ATOMIC JUNKSHOT: w/ Hazard To Ya Booty 8 p.m., $14-$18. Central Stage, 3524 Washington

Avenue, St. Louis, 314-533-0367. BIG LOVE: A TRIBUTE TO FLEETWOOD MAC: 8 p.m., $20-$25. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. BLUE MOON BLUES BAND: 3 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. BROTHER FRANCIS AND THE SOULTONES: 9 p.m., $12. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. HOTEL FAUX PAS: 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. KARLOUS MILLER: 7 p.m., $39.50-$129.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500.

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DREW LANCE: 4:30 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. GOSH DARN TRIBUTE TO THE MUSICAL LEGACY OF GREG HAUPT: 7 p.m., $20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. JOHN MCVEY BAND: 7 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. MARGARET & FRIENDS: 3 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. ROBERT GLASPER NIGHT 2: 9:30 p.m., $58-$68. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060. VOODOO LED ZEPPELIN: 9 p.m., $14. Broadway Oys-

DECEMBER 13-19, 2023

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

[CRITIC’S PICK]

Smino. | COURTESY PHOTO

Kribmas w/ Smino 8 p.m. Sunday, December 17. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard. $50. 314-726-6161. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Smino is one of the biggest music acts to emerge from St. Louis in recent years. And the Hazelwood Central grad born Christopher Smith Jr. holds no shortage of hometown pride, insisting he be classified as a St. Louis artist even after making a move to Chicago, which has been his home base for more than a decade now. But that move hasn’t stopped the rapper from returning to the Gateway City each year for his wildly popular annual holiday concert, Kribmas. The event doubles as a celebration of the Lou and a form of community give-back; one purpose is to raise money for lo-

OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 41

ter Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

THIS JUST IN

ADAM ANT: W/ the English Beat, Thu., March 21, 8 p.m., $40-$60. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. ALVVAYS: Tue., May 7, 8 p.m., $30-$45. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. THE DANDY WARHOLS: Sat., March 16, 8 p.m., $34.50. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. HOT WATER MUSIC: W/ Quicksand, Sun., June 16, 8 p.m., $40. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. MITZI MACDONALD AND THE LAWS OF MUSIC ALBUM RELEASE PARTY: Sun., Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m., $15. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL KULT: Wed., March 13, 8 p.m., $29.99. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. OCTOBER LONDON: Thu., Feb. 22, 8 p.m., $98.52$157.54. The Hawthorn, 2231 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, 314-887-0877. PANCHIKO: Wed., May 8, 8 p.m., $27.50. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. P!NK: Sat., Aug. 10, 6:30 p.m., $39.95-$299.95. The Dome at America’s Center, 701 Convention Plaza, St. Louis, 314-342-5201. POSEY LULU: Fri., Jan. 5, 7:30 p.m., $10. Blue

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DECEMBER 13-19, 2023

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cal causes, and often Smino brings out surprise guests (including, from time to time, none other than Nelly). That’s all well and good, but it should still be noted that none of it would be possible were it not for the star power and exceptional talent of the man himself, for which his many accolades and hit records serve as proof positive. In other words, as former RFT contributor Ymani Wince once wrote in a review, “If Kribmas were a school homecoming, Smino would be king.” Louphoria: On stage at the 2019 edition of Kribmas, Smino addressed the crowd and promised that no amount of fame would make him forsake the city that raised him. “No matter how big this gets,” he said, “I’m bringing this shit back home.” It’s a promise he has yet to break. —Monica Obradovic Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. THE POSTAL SERVICE & DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE: Tue., May 7, 7:30 p.m., $38-$122.75. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., St. Louis, 314-977-5000. REAL ESTATE: Tue., May 21, 8 p.m., $25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. SAMANTHA CLEMONS: Fri., Jan. 19, 7:30 p.m., $15. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. SAY ANYTHING: Sat., May 18, 8 p.m., $36.50$51.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. SWANS: Fri., May 10, 8 p.m., $30. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. TAKING BACK SUNDAY: Sat., June 15, 8 p.m., $35$55. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. TAYLOR’S HOUSE PARTY: Fri., Feb. 2, 8 p.m., $13$25. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. THE TESKEY BROTHERS: Wed., May 8, 7:30 p.m., $50.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. THE TOM SCHAEFER BAND: Thu., Jan. 11, 7:30 p.m., $10. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. TOO MANY ZOOZ: W/ Pell, Tue., March 19, 8 p.m., $23. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. WHEELER WALKER JR.: Thu., April 4, 7:30 p.m., $34.50-$49.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500. n

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DECEMBER 13-19, 2023

RIVERFRONT TIMES

DECEMBER 13-19, 2023

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SAVAGE LOVE Departures BY DAN SAVAGE Hey Dan: I am a 34-year-old gay man who immigrated to Canada from a Latin American country a few years ago. I immigrated with my husband of eight years. Throughout our relationship we had been monogamous, and we never questioned it. However, the sex was never great. Not even at the beginning. But he was kind, good looking and caring. So, I fell for him. I was always clear at the beginning that I was versatile, and he said he was, too. But after a few weeks I assumed the bottom role, and I never felt like I could make any demands on him. In fact, I’ve never even asked a blowjob. (And I did not get one for seven years, even as I gave him plenty!) Also, we had sex once every two weeks or so, and only when he wanted to. Always in the dark, and always in the same position. I know I am at fault for not asking for what I needed. About year ago, I got on Grindr without my husband knowing. I met a man and his husband. Their relationship was open, and they invited me over. After that one threesome, we decided to just be friends, and we even hung out as couples with my husband, everyone pretending that nothing had happened. But I started to develop feelings for the person I originally connected with on Grindr. We continued to have mind-blowing sex, just the two of us now. Four months later, both our partners discovered our affair. The other couple decided to divorce, and my husband and I decided to work through it. But the affair continued, and my feelings for this other person only continued to grow. My husband is not willing to be more sexual, he is not willing to allow me to top him, he will not go down on me and he refuses let me have sex elsewhere. I have been patient and mindful of his needs and struggles, but he gets annoyed each time I talk about this or ask him to read a book about open relationships. He accuses me of only caring for myself and the things that I want. He has agreed to talk to a therapist about the possibility of being open, but I don’t know how much longer I should wait. On the other hand, the person with whom I am still having an affair wants me to live with him. Sometimes I want that, sometimes I don’t. He has a young child, and I had never thought about being any sort of parent. Should I stay in my marriage and be patient with my husband since sex is the only thing that does not work between us? Or should I simply go be with this new person? Staying Over Straying Don’t drag this out.

You’ve already opened your marriage, SOS, and you have no intention of closing it again. You’re still fucking the other man. While you don’t explicitly state that your husband is unaware the affair continues, the fact that you still describe it as an affair suggests your husband doesn’t know. You need to tell him. I get it: you don’t want to be the bad guy. You got caught having an affair, and giving your marriage a chance — or pretending to — is what a good (but not perfect) person does after they get caught having an affair, SOS, if that’s what their spouse wants. I mean, you owe your husband that much, right? So now you’re going through the motions — having those difficult conversations, pushing the right books at him, searching for a non-trad couple’s counselor — but unless you sincerely want to remain in this marriage, SOS, you’re wasting your husband’s time. And based on your actions over the last year, I really don’t think you wanna stay in this marriage. To recap: You cheated on your husband with a married couple and then encouraged your husband to socialize with that couple and then started fucking one of those guys behind his husband’s back and yours. That kind of double-barreled betrayal isn’t something a marriage typically survives — your affair partner’s open marriage didn’t survive a lesser betrayal — and the fact that you’re still slamming your dick down on the self-destruct button, i.e. fucking this other guy, is evidence that what you want is out. Because you already got caught once, SOS, and you’re going to get caught again, and then your husband is almost certain to leave you. If you can sincerely say you could happily remain married if you were free to fuck and date other men — not just open, but poly — you need tell your husband that. But you’re issuing an ultimatum, SOS, you’re not entering into negotiations. And if that’s unacceptable to your husband, well, you’ll need get a lawyer and your own place. If you’re still crazy about the guy you’re fucking a year from now, and you’ve come to enjoy spending time with his kid, you could think about moving in with him then. If you’re still crazy about him a year from now, and you don’t enjoy spending time with his kid, think about moving a little closer, e.g. moving into the same building or onto the same block. Sexual compatibility is crucially important in sexually exclusive relationships. The sex doesn’t work between you and your husband, it never has and it’s unlikely it ever will. You could live with that for a while — you did live with it for a while — but you’re not willing to settle anymore. You’ve been doing the wrong

thing for a while now, but it’s not too late to do the right thing: honestly ask for the divorce you clearly want, SOS, instead of manipulating your husband into giving it to you. Hey Dan: Please help. I saw an old boyfriend today and based on our text communications about how much he wanted to be with me, I was expecting him to take me in his arms and kiss me. When he made no moves, when he didn’t so much as react to my flirty comments, I was devastated. I didn’t realize how devastated until I was alone in my car. While I’m not usually big on the waterworks, I started weeping. I don’t think I was devastated about being rejected. I’m a big girl, I can handle that. But does weeping — more like wailing — indicate something that my heart knows/ understands that my head hasn’t caught up to yet? Does this mean that I’m in love with him? The Town Cryer It does not. You reconnected with an old flame, you swapped some flirty texts, mutual interest was established. And at some point between reestablishing mutual interest and scheduling that first faceto-face meeting in however many years, you allowed yourself to do what anyone in your position would: you began to fantasize about what could be (or could be again), TTC, and you got your hopes up. What you wanted — what you were in love with — was what he represented: possibility. When an old flame comes back into our lives, it can feel like a miraculous shortcut; if you can pick up where you left off, the truly hard part — finding someone you like — is already done. In this instance, TTC, the shortcut didn’t work; you’ve changed, he’s changed. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it: You were rejected and that always hurts. But it was the want of it that made you cry, not the him of it. You hoped you might find what you want with him — love and connection — but that wasn’t in the cards. So go ahead and have a good cry, TTC, and then go find it with someone else. P.S. I once met up with an old flame — my first true love — hoping we might get back together. I went to Marshall Field’s that day fully expecting we would wind up in a changing room, tearing each other’s clothes off like we used to. But whatever we had was gone. We had a nice lunch, but lunch was all it was. Neither of us wound up weeping on the subway on the way home. But the realization that what seemed possible an hour earlier was impossible left me feeling incredibly sad. So I feel you, TTC, and my heart goes out to you.

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Hey Dan: I’m in love with someone I shouldn’t be. He’s married. He claims to love me. We haven’t done anything besides talk. While I’m not among the most traditional sort of people, I have a hard time getting past the fact that he is married. I can rationalize it. We knew each other, and we loved each other before he met her. He only married her because he thought I was unavailable. Their union is an unhappy one. But the fact remains that he hasn’t asked her to open the marriage. I don’t get anywhere when I suggest he do that. He claims he wants to divorce, or separate, but he doesn’t make any movement in that direction. They don’t have sex anymore, he says. They don’t sleep in the same bed anymore, he says. They don’t celebrate holidays together anymore, he says. If all that is true, I don’t understand why they stay together. I don’t know if I should wait, which could be a long time, or give up. If it were just about sex, the answer would be easy. But he’s become an important part of my life, despite it just being only talk — and not sex talk. We talk about everything going on in our lives. What would you do? This Emotional Affair I’d fuck the guy. But if I shared your qualms — if the guy was married and unwilling to ask for an open relationship, and I didn’t know if anything he was telling me was true — here’s what I would do: I would tell this guy to give me a call when he’s single. And as much as I might pine, I wouldn’t wait. I’d get out there and date/ fuck other people — single and looking, partnered and ENM — in the hopes of putting as much emotional, social and sexual distance between me and this married-and-unavailable guy as I possibly could. That’s not giving up, TEA, that’s moving on. If I heard from him after his divorce, and I was still single, we could resume talking and possibly start fucking. If I was with someone else when I heard from him after his divorce, and I was happy with that other person, I would tell him he missed his window — again — and, given the intensity of our connection, I would tell him being friends was out of the question. And finally, TEA, if I was with someone else when he reached out after his divorce, and I was unhappy, I would do what I wanted him to do back when he was married and unhappy: open or end the relationship I was in so I could be with him too or with him instead. Send your burning questions to mailbox@savage.love Podcasts, columns and more at savage.love

DECEMBER 13-19, 2023

RIVERFRONT TIMES

DECEMBER 13-19, 2023

riverfronttimes.com

DECEMBER 13-19, 2023

RIVERFRONT TIMES

DECEMBER 13-19, 2023

riverfronttimes.com