Riverfront Times, January 25, 2023

FRONT BURNER

FOUR QUESTIONS for STL Starter Packs Creator

Previously On

LAST WEEK IN ST. LOUIS

MONDAY, JANUARY 16 St.

school district eyes a four-day week — this one in Arnold. Begun in rural districts, this trend is now getting closer and closer to civilization (or what passes for it in Missouri). When will we decide enough is enough and demand better teacher salaries?

TUESDAY JANUARY 17 Vivek Malik becomes the first person of color to hold statewide office in Missouri. The Wildwood-based immigration attorney (and “strong capitalist,” per Governor Mike Parson) has now taken the reins as state treasurer. Also: Longtime P-D gossip columnist Joe Holleman has a new gig. He’ll write a column called “Joe’s Political Fix,” which will presumably serve as an outlet for Jane Dueker’s latest unsubstantiated gossip about local progressives — so, pretty much just what Holleman was doing before, only with fewer stories about TV reporters ankling their way to bigger markets. (Did we do that right?)

Scroll through Instagram on any given night, and you’ll probably come across one of your friends sharing a meme from the St. Louis Starter Packs account. The creator, who wishes to remain anonymous says the account started with an office o e and now has more than 18,000 followers. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did you get started with the meme account? I was at the office, and there was a guy that I worked with that walked over. He had on a needlepoint belt, Patagonia vest, loafers, and I said, “You are a walking starter pack.” And he said, “I don’t even know what that means.” So I pulled up an example and showed it to him, and then one of my other friends said, “Make one of him.” So I did. Another person in the office [said,] “You should do an Instagram account of this.” It started there, and it grew pretty quick.

How do you come up with your ideas, and what’s that process like? Some of it’s topical. … And then others, an idea might hit. I’ll think of something I saw when I was at, for example, the Tower Grove Farmers Market. There’s never really a rule to it.

What are some of your favorite starter packs? I did one about a year ago about a Eureka subdivision, and the comments and the DMs were just out of control. It was like I awoke a sleeping giant. You had a mix of people like, “Oh my God, that’s my neighborhood!” to “How can you disparage our community that way? Go back to Kirkwood.”

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18 It’s raining, it’s pouring! Bad day to be on the lam, yet that’s the status of five detainees from St. Francois County, three of whom are sexual predators. The Post-Dispatch reports that the quintet made a successful jailbreak the night before. Also: Governor Parson delivers his State of the State. He has big ideas — like widening I-70. OK, that’s it. That’s his big idea. What did you expect, the Great Society?

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19 Yet another

ESCAPE HATCH

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20 Former President of the Board of Aldermen Tom Villa has died, and finally there’s something to bring St. Louis progressives and oldschool Democrats together: Everybody apparently loved the guy. Villa was also House Majority Leader, back when Democrats could do that sort of thing in Missouri. Also: as of this morning, all five offenders from St. Francois County are back in jail. The sheriff’s office found the fifth guy after he stopped by a local bar and ordered only water. Witnesses felt he was behaving “rather strangely,” the sheriff reports. Next time, order whiskey

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21 A fire broke out Friday at Bob Kramer’s Marionettes in the Central West End, and this morning, firefighters found a body in the rubble, apparently dead of smoke inhalation. There are no words.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22 A terrible mass shooting in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park claims ten lives at a Lunar New Year celebration — the worst mass shooting since Uvalde. In St. Louis, the beat goes on: lines at Webster’s hot new bagel place stretch for two hours.

We ask three St. Louisans what they’re reading, watching or listening to. In the hot seat this week: three baristas.

Hannah Casey, Shaw’s Coffee

Reading: The Art of Living by Thích Nhất Hạnh

“It’s opening my mind to a new path of understanding the world and the people in it.”

Ancel Branch, Café Dolce Watching: Survivor Season 40: Winners at War “I like the competitiveness and that everyone who is playing has played before. I also just applied to be on the show.”

—Jenna Jones

Did you ever think it was gonna go this far? No, definitely not. I mean, when I started, it was kind of a joke. … Within a month, it had, I think, 1,000 followers or something. And from there, it just took off. So no, I never thought it would get close to 20,000 followers.

Josie Willcox, Hartford Coffee Listening to: Come Away with ESG, by ESG “The music is really funky, upbeat, drum and bass-driven, disco-influenced. Their music is a good time. It’s got a punk edge to it as well.”

St. Louis Starter Packs began with a joke. | @STLOUISSTARTERPACKS

Louis sees three different homicides in a span of three hours. KMOV reports that the third, at Gravois and Russell, involved a masked man walking into a gas station and blowing away a customer. Brand-new Police Chief Robert Tracy has his hands full.

WEEKLY WTF?!

Car Watch

Date and time of sighting: January 17, 4 p.m.

Location: Wisconsin Ave, approximately five blocks from the Mississippi River and 300 miles from Wisconsin state

Number of flat tires visible: one

Total number of flat tires: three “Ace of Spit” is: Guerrilla marketing for rock band Ace of Spit and its album The Room Beyond

How much the “Ace of Spit” is worth: Historically, the Ace of Spit was actually the lowest value of spit, even lower than a Two of Spit. But over time, it gradually evolved to achieve its current place atop the Spit deck, one rung above the King of Spit.

SO ST. LOUIS e

Pet Blotter of Nextdoor St. Louis

An anonymous story about something that could only happen in the Gateway City

Name, Variety, Neighborhood, Description, Circumstances, Status

• Max, lost, Tower Grove, cat of the brown and white variety (not outdoor), standard with a clipped ear, ran off and won’t answer to his name, unknown

• Unnamed, found, Southwest Garden, cat of the wistfully looking in the door variety, fairly friendly, approaching the back door, about to be caught

• Ozark, found, Gravois Park, puppy of the perky ears variety, no chip or collar, not altered, 21 pounds, caught by the city

• Chunky kitty, found, Southwest Garden, cat of the kitty variety, eating food on my neighbor’s steps, almost domesticated

• Unknown, spotted, Bevo, cat of skittish variety, short haired, running free

• JoJo, missing, Kingshighway Hills, cat of the fluffy long-hair variety, “the absolute best and sweetest,” reunited after a month

• King Boo, escaped while the owner was out of town, Tower Grove South, dog of the husky variety, missed dearly, not discovered yet

• Unnamed, found, bird of the parakeet variety, Benton Park, discovered on a sidewalk, unhurt

• Unknown, found, Soulard, dog of the boxer variety, “a sweet guy but skinny and scared,” kept in a yard, come get him, please

• Shrimp, found, City of St. Louis, dog of the fluffy white variety, “2 years old, 11 pounds; no collar/ chip,” running on Delor Street, reunited with his owner

Send your So St. Louis story to jrogen@euclidmediagroup.com.

HARTMANN

A Faithful Defense of the Right to an Abortion

A new Missouri lawsuit stands up to zealots who would impose their religion on the rest of us

BY RAY HARTMANN

Thank God for the pro-choice faith leaders of Missouri.

More than a dozen clergy members of multiple faiths have stepped forward with a lawsuit challenging Missouri’s oppressive laws banning abortion. The case, a national initiative of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, seeks to send an essential message to those who oppose abortion:

Keep your religion to yourself.

The lawsuit filed last week brings a novel approach to defending reproductive freedom for Missouri women. It doesn’t stop at arguing that laws trying to govern bodies are discriminatory. It goes further to claim that such laws constitute a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” Antiabortion laws, the lawsuit argues, were motivated by — and steeped in — religious viewpoints.

The lawsuit “is the first of its kind in the nation in that it makes an Establishment Clause claim and not just a discrimination claim,” says Denise Lieberman, a prominent civil-liberties attorney serving as local counsel.

It’s obvious that Missouri lawmakers were intent on imposing as statute their own religious views as to the origin of life, among other opinions advanced by their faiths. That’s precisely what is forbidden by both the U.S. and state constitutions.

“[This] law favors one religion over another,” Lieberman tells

me. “By referencing God as the creator and defining life as beginning at conception, Missouri favors one religious viewpoint over another.

“That permeates the abortion law and the restrictions that flow from it. And it violates the Missouri Constitution, which affords stronger protections than the U.S. Constitution.”

(The Missouri constitution has three separate constitutional provisions prohibiting the establishment of religion, which the Missouri Supreme Court have interpreted as being more protective of the separation of church and state than the federal constitution.)

Missouri is the perfect place to make that claim. Our state’s politicians didn’t stop at running afoul of the basic tenet that government remain separate from religion. They stomped on it with glee.

The 85-page brief is teeming with examples of legislators damning themselves. They proclaimed their disregard for separation of church and state with the full-throated exhilaration of a church choir.

It can be left to philosophers and historians of another time to analyze whether these bozos were too stupid or too zealous to refrain from admitting out loud what they were doing. But this much is clear: They did admit it.

Whether courts will allow the Missouri General Assembly to get away with converting the state to its contorted interpretation of Christianity remains to be seen. But legislators were motivated by religion, as laid out in the plaintiffs’ brief:

“Attacks on abortion access reached their nadir in 2019, when Governor (Mike) Parson signed into law House Bill No. 126. Legislators who sponsored and pressed for this bill did so expressly in the name and service of a particular religious view that many Missourians and their faith communities do not share. They openly invoked their personal religious beliefs as the reason for the law, enacting in the statute the religious views that ‘Almighty God is the author of life’ and that ‘the life of an individual human being begins at conception.’”

There was no shortage of smoking guns to cite in the brief:

The bill’s lead sponsor, Representative Nick Schroer, explained

that “as a Catholic, I do believe life begins at conception and that is built into our legislative findings.

One of the bill’s co-sponsors, Representative Barry Hovis, stated that he was motivated “from the Biblical side of it ... life does occur at the point of conception.”

Another co-sponsor, Representative Ben Baker, stated: “From the one-cell stage at the moment of conception, you were already there ... you equally share the image of our Creator ... you are His work of art.”

But all the hallelujahs cannot go to the men who led the charge to obliterate the rights of Missouri women. One of the stars of the show is indeed a woman, state Senator Holly Thompson Rehder, (R-Sikeston). Thompson Rehder was preaching as a member of the House at the time H.B. 126 was debated.

As the lawsuit notes, she urged passage of the bill “by exhorting her colleagues: ‘God doesn’t give us a choice in this area. He is the creator of life. And I, being made in His image and likeness, don’t get to choose to take that away, no matter how that child came to be. To me, life begins at conception, and my God doesn’t give that option.’”

That wasn’t all she was kind enough to share from her God: “Life begins at conception. Psalms 119 says, ‘Your hands made me and formed me.’ That’s the very initial stages ... to stand on the

floor and say, How could we make someone look at a child from rape or incest, and to care for them?’ I can say how we can do that. We can do that with the love of God that he puts in our hearts for those children.”

I’m not one to police pronouns, but what do you mean “we,” strange lady?

But pay no attention to my views on women’s reproductive rights. Take note instead of the words of the Reverend Traci Blackmon; the Reverend Barbara Phifer; Maharat Rori Picker Neiss; the Reverend Molly Housh Gordon; the right Reverend Deon K. Johnson, Eleventh Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri; Rabbi James Bennett; the Reverend Holly McKissick; the Reverend Krista Taves; the Reverend Cynthia S. Bumb; Rabbi Susan Talve; Rabbi Douglas Alpert; the Reverend Janice Barnes; and Rabbi Andrea Goldstein.

They are the plaintiffs with the courage to stand up to politicians who would impose their religions upon Missouri women. Unlike the politicians, these are actual people of faith, as opposed to lawmakers using religiosity — often through warped misinterpretations — for the unholy purpose of vote-getting.

The faith leaders’ words need to be heard far and wide: “Healthy pluralism is at grave risk. Many people of faith support abortion access not despite, but because of, their religion. Among them are [the] Plaintiffs in this case — an interdenominational coalition of clergy who, consistent with their faith traditions, oppose the Legislature’s explicit preference for and establishment in law of others’ religious beliefs about abortion. Collectively, [the] Plaintiffs, like other clergy and faith communities all across this State, have through their work providing care, counseling, teaching, and preaching, spent decades countering the false but all too common assertion that faith and abortion access are incompatible.”

Yes, religious faith and abortion access are entirely compatible. It’s religious zealotry and government that are not. n

Ray Hartmann founded the Riverfront Times in 1977. Contact him at rhartmann1952@ gmail.com or catch him at 7 p.m. on Thursdays on Nine PBS.

It can be left to philosophers and historians whether these legislators were too stupid or too zealous to refrain from admitting out loud what they were doing. But this much is clear: They did admit it.

Suspicious Church Fire Causes Unrest

e Uhuru Movement wants answers a er a church it wanted to buy mysteriously burns down

Written by MONICA OBRADOVIC

Members of a Black liberation group under investigation by the FBI called on the federal government to answer for a church fire they described as a “direct assault” against its movement last week.

Leaders of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement and African People’s Socialist Party say a “very suspicious fire at a north city church was the most recent attack on their movement. The fire occurred months after the FBI raided its leaders’ homes last summer over allegations that the Uhuru Movement colluded with a Russian national to spread Russian propaganda and infiltrate local elections.

The fire was at the Sanctuary, a church in the 4000 block of Red Bud Avenue in the O’Fallon neighborhood, on anuary . The cause was unknown the day of the fire, and Uhuru members say they haven’t heard any updates since. A public information officer for the St. Louis Fire Department did not immediately respond to questions from the RFT

The Uhuru Movement was under contract to purchase the church until it was severely damaged by the two-alarm fire, members say. It planned to renovate the building and turn it into a community center with offices.

mali Yeshitela, chairman of the African eople s Socialist arty, likened this month s fire to attacks against civil rights leaders Martin uther ing r. and alcolm . The Uhuru Movement is a U.S.based socialist group founded in

2 under the African eople s Socialist Party.

“They’re attacking us because we re living like [ ing], Yeshitela says at a press conference in front of the Sanctuary on Martin Luther ing r. ay.

Yeshitela says the church fire was a direct attack on “Black selfreliance.”

“This church, this magnificent institution we were bringing all kinds of programs to, they burn it down, Yeshitela says. “The objective is to make sure that African people stay in a constant state of dependency; that we cannot feed, clothe and house ourselves so that we have to rely on the Good White Man.”

Yeshitela was joined by Ward Alderman esse Todd, who says he’s been a lifelong member of the Uhuru Movement.

“This church was burned because it was making a positive

contribution to lack people, Todd says. “They don’t want us to have facilities to meet in.”

n uly 2 , the I conducted a raid on several properties related to the huru movement, including a house owned by Yeshitela and his wife, na en Yeshitela. The church is on the same street. Federal authorities also searched the Uhuru Solidarity Center in south city the home of enny Hess, chairperson of the African People’s Solidarity Committee; and Uhuru properties in St. etersburg, lorida, where the movement is based.

The raids were connected to the indictment of Aleksander Ionov, a Russian nationalist who founded the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia. Authorities charged Ionov with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States after he allegedly recruited people in the United States and Ukraine to spread pro-Russia propaganda and other information designed to sow division in their countries.

Themba Tshibanda, a member of the huru ovement, tells the RFT he was arrested in October for making terrorist threats against St. Louis Public Schools. He says he lost his job in the district recently and got into a “heated exchange” when he asked for a reason for his termination. He says he made no threats against the school district but was detained at the St. ouis ity ustice Center for two weeks and interrogated by the FBI several times about the Uhuru Movement.

Tshibanda says the FBI asked him how many people were involved in the Uhuru Movement. He was also shown photos of different people in Russia and asked to identify them.

“They grabbed me, pointed two guns at my face and put me in handcuffs really tight, Tshibanda says of his arrest. “Me being an activist, all I thought about was what happened to Darren Seals and all these different types of mysterious disappearances and deaths.”

Seals was an activist from Ferguson who was found shot and killed in his car in 2 . A recently obtained I file showed Seals was under surveillance by the FBI shortly before his death.

Tshibanda says his terrorism charge was dropped soon after his release from jail.

Yeshitela says the accusations against him and those involved with Uhuru are “bogus” and “racist.”

Yeshitela founded the Uhuru Movement and moved to north St. ouis in 2 . huru and its several affiliate groups buy dilapidated properties in St. Louis and fi them, train lack women to become doulas and build community gardens in food deserts, among other initiatives. The group recently built a basketball court in the O’Fallon neighborhood.

Yeshitela says they will not try to buy the Sanctuary again.

“It s no use to us now, he says. n

“

This church, this magnificent institution we were bringing all kinds of programs to, they burn it down. The objective is to make sure that African people stay in a constant state of dependency.”

African People’s Socialist Party Chairman Omali Yeshitela speaks. | MONICA OBRADOVIC

A two-alarm fire torched much of e Sanctuary church in north city. | MONICA OBRADOVIC

Clergy Fight Missouri Abortion Ban

force their religion into law.

“Legislators imposed their preferred religious doctrine on everyone, forcing the citi ens and taxpayers of this state to fund the establishment of that doctrine and to obey it regardless of their own faith and beliefs, and irrespective of the resulting grave harms to those seeking abortion care, the lawsuit reads.

Written by MONICA OBRADOVIC

Clergy from various faiths filed a lawsuit in the St. ouis Circuit Court Thursday arguing that Missourians have a right to exercise their freedom of religion — which includes abortion.

The lawsuit claims the Missouri legislature’s abortion ban exhibits an overall “explicit preference” for some religious beliefs about abortion over others. If successful, the suit would require a judge to issue a permanent injunction on Missouri’s abortion ban.

The suit’s 13 plaintiffs are essentially arguing that each Missourian has a right to decide for themselves what they believe and practice. ust because most issouri legislators interpret their religions as against abortion (or see it as politically expedient to say as such , that doesn t mean they can

Missouri’s trigger law banned abortions with no exception for rape or incest after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in une. Anyone who knowingly performs or induces an abortion risks prosecution of a class B felony. Medical providers found guilty of doing so could lose their licenses.

The 13 faith leader plaintiffs say this law is an egregious violation of their religious rights. The plaintiffs follow a variety of religions and mostly lead congregations in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas.

“Missouri abortion bans contradict, devalue and disrespect my religious beliefs that the life and health of a pregnant person take precedence over a fetus, aharat ori icker Neiss, e ecutive director of ewish ommunity elations Council of St. Louis says in a statement.

everend Traci lackmon, associate general minister of justice and local church ministries for the nited hurch of hrist, says her God is a “God of choice.”

“In the nited hurch of hrist,

we believe that God intended people to have autonomy over their lives and bodies, and to have authority to make complex decisions, including whether to have an abortion, lackmon continues.

To further prove their point, the plaintiffs sent videos to the press of legislators clearly stating their religious biases.

“As a atholic, I do believe life begins at conception, epresentative Nick Schroer (R-St. Charles County) says in one clip.

“ adies and gentlemen, from the one-cell stage at the moment of conception you are already there, we just couldn t see you yet, epresentative en aker -

Charter School Plans Fall Through

Kairos Academies’ plans for a high school collapse in the Marine Villa neighborhood

Written by RYAN KRULL

Acharter school’s plans to build a new high school on a plot of land in south city’s Marine Villa neighborhood have hit a major snag.

Kairos Academies, which currently operates a charter school for fifth through ninth graders at Wisconsin Avenue and

Potomac Street, had previously announced plans to build a high school about three blocks south of there, just on the other side of South Broaadway.

The deal would have required Kairos to purchase land from the Teamsters Local 6, whose Gambrinus Hall is also on Wisconsin.

A source familiar with the negotiations between the Teamsters and Kairos says that deal has fallen apart.

The current Kairos school has an enrollment of around 420 students, and the proposed high school was intended to have a student body twice as large.

The Post-Dispatch reported on a meeting that took place in December between Kairos leaders and Marine Villa community members during which residents voiced concerns over traffic congestion and safety issues during student pick up and drop off times.

The source familiar with the deal says these community concerns were one of the factors that led to the deal falling through.

Newton County) says in another clip. “What makes you valuable is that you equally share the image of our creator …”

This wouldn t be the first time pro-choice religious leaders have taken legal action to oppose Missouri’s abortion law.

The Satanic Temple tried to file suit against issouri last year, but the Eighth Circuit Court refused to consider its arguments. The religious organization based in Salem, assachusetts, tried to argue Missouri’s abortion ban violated one of its member’s right to religious freedom.

Maybe the courts will listen this time. n

Alderwoman Cara Spencer, whose Ward 20 includes Marine Villa, confirms that the deal has collapsed.

“I have a long standing, good working relationship with the Teamsters, and they have always been excellent partners with the community,” she says. “They decided that moving forward with the deal is not in the best interest of all involved.”

Kairos Academies had previously spoken about having the new high school up and running by fall 2024.

“Kairos has an obligation to provide the best educational experience possible for our students and families. Meeting that obligation includes creating a purpose-built facility for our existing high school,” Kairos Academies’ Stuart Murray tells the RFT in an email. “Just as we teach students to achieve goals and navigate challenges, we will adapt. We will deliver on our promise to our families.” n

e faith leaders say the ban violates Missourians’ religious freedoms

Reverend Traci Blackmon of the United Church of Christ is one of 13 plainti s. | COURTESY AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

Kairos Academies operates a school in south city but needs room to expand. | RYAN KRULL

MISSOURILAND

Holy Hockey Stick!

e archdiocese is home to one of the most St. Louis holy relics ever

Words and photos by REUBEN HEMMER

January 26 marks the 24th Anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s pilgrimage to St. Louis. Much is remembered about the pope’s 31 hour sojourn,

and hockey fans may recall the Pope receiving a St. Louis Blues hockey stick signed by the entire 1999-2000 roster during a mass. Upon receiving his gift, JP2 gave the hockey stick a swing that would give former Blues player Chris Pronger a run for his money, resulting in massive applause from the audience.

John Paul II was canonized as a saint in 2013, making the hockey stick a holy relic. Now, it is held within a vault at the ffice of Archives and Records on the grounds of the St. Louis Archdiocese campus. “Yeah, this might be the only relic with Al MacInnis’ autograph,” says Brecht Mulvihill, the executive director of

communications for the archdiocese.

So how did the hockey stick end up here?

“The St. Louis Blues found out that the Holy Father was hosting a youth rally at the Kiel Center, where they played,” says Eric Fair, director of archives. “They decided to sign a commemorative souvenir stick for him, and it was then presented to the Holy Father at the rally. The pope was actually an athlete as a young man and even played hockey.” The hockey stick, however, did not return to the Vatican with the pope.

“When the Holy Father visits a site, there tends to be a lot of different things given to him from

the local population. He will take some artifacts back to the Vatican with him, but he will also leave what he believes is important to the native area. The hockey stick was then on display in the archbishop’s residence for a while, but we transferred it to the archives to make sure it was in a safe space,” Fair says.

Although the Blues could use some help from the divine hockey stick every now and again, it seems like the relic will remain safely in the vault. Still, the hockey stick is a unique reminder of the pope’s visit, and it is a very, very St. Louis relic. “One last thing,” Fair says before parting ways, “Let’s Go Blues!”

The Return of moondog

moondog rover

Part 1: FIGHT NIGHT

It’s Saturday night, and South Broadway Athletic Club is packed for its monthly wrestling event because tonight wrestler Moondog Rover will be returning to the ring.

The event sold out days in advance, and many fans without tickets are turned away due to capacity restrictions. The crowd is a sea of Moondog Rover T-shirts, and some spectators have donned fake beards and tattered jeans to mimic the wrestler they love and adore. Moondog’s family is here in support, and the building is a powder keg of energy and enthusiasm. Already, there is nothing quite like

a night of wrestling at South Broadway Athletic Club. Since 1985, the Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance has organized match after jaw-dropping match within the historic south city institution, a location that has hosted boxing and wrestling tournaments in the Soulard area since 1899.

Every second Saturday of the month, the building becomes an energetic melting pot, offering one of the most unique and entertaining cultural events one can experience in the City of St. Louis. Every walk of life attends, and nobody acts like a stranger. Two dollar draught beers

Continued on pg 16

After a heart attack six months ago, wrestler Moondog Rover, a.k.a. Paul McKnight, finally returns to the ring. Our man-about-town Reuben Hemmer was there to see it all, and even sat down with the wrestler for a one-onone interview

STORY & PHOTOS BY REUBEN HEMMER

FIGHT NIGHT

flow like wine, and by the end of the night, your face hurts from smiling so much. But tonight, the energy is amped up to 11.

oondog over, a.k.a. aul McKnight, has been wrestling at South Broadway for 35 years, and his fans are legion. With shaggy white hair and an untamed beard, Moondog gives off the appearance of an unhinged Santa Claus out for revenge. His sole means of communication is barking like a feral canine, and a derelict rope is the only thing holding up his frayed pants.

Moondog is well known for hiking up his leg like man’s best friend to pretend to pee on kids’ shoes, and the maniac wrestler is not afraid to take a bite out of his opponents or hit them with his signature bone. To say the audience is charmed by Moondog’s antics would be an absolute understatement. Every time he enters the ring, the room echoes with fans barking like wild dogs, and chanting “Moondog.”

Then, 57-year-old Mcknight suffered a heart attack following a wrestling match in mid July. Thankfully, he survived the medical emergency, but McKnight was left with the real possibility of a

fate worse than death in his own eyes: never being able to wrestle again.

For the last six months, McKnight has been on the road to recovery, undergoing test after test at a cardiac rehab facility while awaiting clearance from doctors to wrestle again.

Tonight is finally the night.

MMWA President Anthony astaldi is the first to hop over the turnbuckle. He begins the evening by introducing oondog over back into the ring. The crowd is uncontrollable as Moondog makes his way through the building, pure joy radiating from the wrestler.

Sitting in the front row near Moondog’s family is the medical team that saved him after the heart attack. Castaldi asks for a round of applause for the doctor and his staff. While they stand and smile, the crowd lets out a thundering roar of cheers and dog barks. Suddenly, multiple wrestlers interrupt Castaldi’s speech. These wrestlers are a part of the Kings of the evolution, a group that includes the very wrestler whom oondog over faced just before his heart attack: Dr. Dallas. There are boos and jeers, but the loudest insults come from oondog over’s mother. “He hurt my boy!” she yells, and points at Dr. Dallas.

The ings of the evolution taunt oondog over, telling him

that he “should have listened to his wife and stayed at home,” and they are going to “send him right back to the hospital.”

At this moment, a different group of wrestlers called the Brotherhood arrive to support Moondog. One method of support includes calling one of the Kings of the evolution “ ncle ouche, which becomes a popular chant for the rest of the evening.

After the Brotherhood threatens the Kings with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire, the Kings make their way back to the locker room. The two groups continue to trade insults before agreeing to face off again soon for the main event.

Other wrestlers get in the ring while Moondog signs autographs and takes photos with fans in between rounds. Then, a crackling recording of Moondog’s signature walkout song (an original composition from musician ichard ee blasts through the speakers, and Moondog and the Brotherhood march into the ring.

As Moondog and the others are fle ing, an audience member stands up to offer Moondog a bone he had brought with him from home. In a nearly biblical scene, the lighting focuses solely on this Moondog disciple as he holds the bone outright, and wrestler icky Cruz leaves the ring to retrieve it.

Moondog’s eye twinkles as Cruz extends the bone like an offering, and Moondog nods his head in approval.

The ings of the evolution arrive next, and the tension is at a breaking point. The bell rings, and a quadruple-tag-team match ensues. Moondog starts off a bit slow and easy, almost cautious. As the fight continues, oondog lets the animal inside of him out a bit more. Then oondog finally finds himself squaring off with the man who induced his cardiac arrest, Dr. Dallas.

Caution is thrown out the window as Moondog lifts and tosses Dr. Dallas around the ring. (A lot of fans are probably thankful there is a full surgical team in the building. oondog finishes r. allas by dropping him on the mat, getting down on all fours, and pretending to pee on him like a dog. The room explodes with applause.

Despite this, the Kings of the evolution are declared the victors, which leads to a massive brawl spilling outside of the ring. It is pandemonium as wrestlers fight staff and toss chairs. efore long, bodies begin to line the floor. In the midst of all of the chaos is Moondog, standing just outside of the mayhem grinning ear to ear. If home is where the heart is, Moondog over s heart is in the ring, and he s finally home. n

Part 2: THE MAKING OF A LOCAL WRESTLING LEGEND

Imet Moondog at DuBowl Lanes in Lemay on his birthday to learn more about his near death experience, and to hear how wrestling has shaped his life. Normally, Moondog is associated with tearing into his adversaries while foaming at the mouth. During our discussion, he helped his mother arrange cupcakes while explaining his story in a soft, comforting voice — contrary to barking like a junkyard dog.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length.

So where are you from? What was your first experience with wrestling?

I was born Paul McKnight on November 13, 1965, in Detroit, Michigan, however I grew up at

my grandma’s house in Bradford, Tennessee. y first taste of wrestling began watching wrestlers like Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee on TV. We moved around a lot [when I was] a kid, and wherever there was a local wrestling channel on TV, I watched it. Places like Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee — many of my biggest influences were wrestlers in the mid-South.

My aunt Doris would take me along to live matches, and I really enjoyed watching wrestling with her any chance I got. Us kids would go to the matches early on Saturday morning because a few of the organizers would pick us out of the crowd to help set up the ring. That was our free ticket in, and I was always the one in the crowd yelling, “Pick me! Pick me!”

When we moved to Indiana,

I started wrestling from eighth grade through high school, and that only increased my desire to pursue professional wrestling. Then my family moved to the St. Louis area in 1982, where I finished high school at itenour High. A guy I went to school with came up to me and said: “Hey do you still love wrestling? Go down to South Broadway Athletic Club this weekend and talk to [wrestler and promoter] Tony Costa.”

I made my way down there, and I still don’t know what Tony saw in me, but he looked me up and down and said, “We work out here on Mondays and Tuesdays.” That started in November of 1987, and I’ve been going ever since. Thirtyfive years later I m still at [ idMissouri Wrestling Alliance].

How did you become Moondog Rover?

I originally began wrestling under the name “Crazy Paul,” and I found myself at a match in Tennessee

where one of the original Moondog [collective] wrestlers, Moondog Spot, was performing. He approached me and asked if I had ever considered being a Moondog.

I said, “No, I haven’t,” because I was really doing my own thing, but then I thought, “Why not? We’ll see how far it goes, and let’s have some fun with it.” So I went ahead and became oondog over.

I started working with Moondog Spot at his shows in Osceola, Arkansas, and I was just having so much fun being Moondog. We found ourselves doing what they call “running the circuit.” Memphis Coliseum on Monday; Louisville Gardens on Tuesday; Tunica, Mississippi, on Wednesday; an off night on Thursday; Osceola, Arkansas, on Friday; Saturday morning TV and Saturday evening shows and finally Sunday at the Gaylord in Nashville. I did that whole circuit for six or seven months while holding down

Previous spread: South Broadway Athletic Club was packed with Moondog Rover supporters for his first match back a er a near fatal heart attack. is spread: With famed bone in hand, Moondog Rover fights “Da Bomb” Brian James (middle photo) and others.

THE MAKING OF A LEGEND

Continued from pg 17

a full-time job at a tractor-trailer company.

How was life on the road? It was challenging with a fulltime job, but I always looked at it as more experience. I work for a company called Dino’s Logistics, and when I was younger I would drive [long-haul]. If I knew I had a layover for the weekend, I would look up the local booker. I always brought my stuff with me, and I’d go to them and say: “Hey, you don’t have to pay me. I just want the experience,” and they’d put me in the show.

I’ve met so many different people this way; it’s really been a dream. For instance, one match I faced [Dwayne] the Rock [Johnson]! Me and Moondog Spot took the title away from him and his partner. I even hit him over the head with my bone. It’s never been about the money, just the passion for the sport.

Sounds like that bone has hit many famous heads. I imagine being hit with an object by one of your heroes, or hitting them with your own, is a pretty big deal in the wrestling world. The bone has hit quite a few. Oh,

yeah, some of my most memorable matches were against Jerry “the King” Lawler, “Superstar” Bill Dundee, “Handsome” Jimmy … matches against those veterans is something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

One of the last ones I did with Lawler was an outside show he put on at his barbecue place. It was misting rain and only 40 degrees. A lot of folks didn’t show up because of the weather, including the sound guys. The match still went on, but that vinyl ring was slick as all get out. So we just took all the matches outside of the ring and used his barbecue place as a prop! I hit his head on the side of the building, and we ended up getting into the fans. He grabbed a broom and smacked me with it. I was just really enjoying it all.

You can tell in your performances there is an old-school charm.

Nothing is really ever offensive, and the crowd really loves it. What are some of your favorite ways to get the crowd going?

Oh yeah, I don’t cuss. That’s just how I learned. There’s a whole new generation that’s a little more fast paced and exciting than what I’m doing, but you gotta stick with the classics.

In Louisville, Kentucky, there were these four women who were not paying attention to the show, sitting front row with their husbands right behind them. All of the pretty boy wrestlers were shaking their stuff at the gals, and these pretty boys were getting mad because the ladies weren’t paying any attention. So during my match, I got released from a chain link leash, and I popped a bunch of alka seltzers to get the foam in my mouth going. I did a dead sprint right at them with all of that foam flying, barking

my head off! Three of them actually got up and ran away, and the fourth couldn’t move because she was so scared. But that was the whole point! They sure watched me after that.

It’s an art form!

Exactly, I know critics say we choreograph and whatever — but the truth is I make stuff up as I go. It’s a good way to gauge the crowd, and see how they react to stuff. There’s times we’ll go to town, and I was supposed to be the good guy and they ended up hating me. OK then, so I’ll be the bad guy!

Has being the bad guy ever bac fired?

Oh yeah. One time me and Moondog Spot were wrestling in some little town in northeast Arkansas, and we ended up getting a police escort out of the town. We tore up the opponents we were facing, a father-son team, and the father had a wife who was a wrestler as well. We threw her in the mix, throwing an ironing board at her, crutches, what have you. Turns out she was the mayor’s daughter! The mayor wasn’t too fond of our match, so the police escorted us out of town. There were like 300 to 400 people there, and it was all torches and pitchforks! Got our money back from the hotel at least.

“I was told I needed open-heart surgery the following day, and as it turns out, the surgeon’s assistant was a huge fan of mine! He owned two of my shirts actually, and asked me if I had brought my bone into the hospital with me.”

Well it is no secret you are beloved at South Broadway Athletic Club. When did you realize you became a crowd favorite? I think more or less when I got my name from Moondog Spot. After working with him in Tennessee, I came back up here to wrestle with Tony Costa at [Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance]. I more or

less proved myself carrying that name, and the crowd started going ape for what I was doing. I think that was the turning point.

I have all the wrestlers I worked with down south to thank for that, as well as [wrestler] John Blackheart and Tony Costa. I don’t know what they saw in me, but they saw something, and Black-

Clockwise from top le : A fan enjoys South Broadway Athletic Club’s $2 brews. Moondog Rover greets a fan. Some fans get cra y in paying homage to Moondog Rover. Moondog overlooks a dog pile following a chaotic first match back. Fans talk to Moondog Rover post-match.

heart really took me under his wing. He was the one who showed me the ropes.

Since then, I find myself in situations like a bachelorette party where the bride was wearing a “Bite Me, Moondog” shirt and dragged me on [the] bus to take photos. It’s so much fun.

I always see a lot of people taking selfies with you at the outh Broadway Athletic Club. A lot of people keep telling me I should charge for selfies, picture

sales, etc. etc. I really don’t care, and picture sales really aren’t that great anyways. I just want people to leave with a smile. I can sell Tshirts and whatever little things I have, but these days with cell phones you could just make up a picture of us together. So taking a picture is no biggie. I just want them to enjoy the show and to come back for more.

Besides recent events, was there ever a time in the last 35

THE MAKING OF A LEGEND

years where you thought about throwing in the towel?

There have been a few times where wrestling got real monotonous, and you’re just going against the same person over and over and over. Even though we’re putting on good matches, it can get boring. That made me think about hanging it up and doing something else. Like bowling! That’s my second passion for sure. I do it here with my little brother in a league called Sunday Funday.

Bowling certainly is a little more relaxing, but wrestling is like therapy. It is my therapy. It releases so much stress and beats my normal job driving a tractortrailer around the city all day … and the way some folks drive. I’ll just put it like that.

Y’know, they wanna cut off us semi drivers, hoping we can stop on a dime with 80,000 pounds behind us, and that’s real stressful, so I need something to relieve that stress — and wrestling does that for me. I got 10 screws and a plate in my leg, a little bit of a torn bicep, cuts all over my head, several concussions, but none of it’s ever stopped me.

So what happened the night of July 9?

I woke up that morning and felt fine, had a normal work day and everything. I got to South Broadway, and they stuck me with Dr. Dallas. Me and the doctor had a good match. After the match, my biceps and lower back started hurting. I went down to do the rest of the show, and my wife noticed that I didn’t come back out with the same amount of energy I usually do. The match ended, but my pain was still present.

A lot of the wrestlers and wellknown fans meet up at a Denny’s in Arnold after the show to cut up and have fun, so we decided to just head there. I started loading up the car, and that’s when I threw up. I just couldn’t get comfortable. My wife’s mother had [had] a heart attack, and that was one of the warning signs she had.

My wife made the decision to head to Mercy South. After they hooked up the monitor, the doctor looked at me and said, “Oh yeah, you’re having a heart attack.” Then they took me into another room and started shaving me all the way down. I wasn’t supposed to be getting up off the table for x-rays, but I got up and got x-rays anyways. The nurses got mad at

me about that, but my wife made the point that I was a professional wrestler, therefore I have a higher pain tolerance.

I was told I needed open-heart surgery the following day, and as it turns out, the surgeon’s assistant was a huge fan of mine! He owned two of my shirts actually, and asked me if I had brought my bone into the hospital with me. At first, they said they were going to have to shave my beard for surgery, which is a major part of

my character. Thankfully the assistant got a couple of nurses to braid it off to the side. He saved my beard!

How did all of this make you feel?

It all happened so fast, I didn’t really have time to focus on it. I had the operation that Sunday, and on Sunday night, they pulled the breathing tube. I recovered just a few days later. My wife had more worry about it than me, I think.

Yeah, I was a little bit scared

because it is my heart, but I was more worried that wrestling would be over. But the surgeon, Dr. Ahmad, told me, “No, I want to get you back to your normal life. I want to get you back in the ring.”

I really appreciate that doctor. He really wanted me back wrestling. The doctor even told me that being so active with wrestling for so long made my arteries nice and big, and that helped out so much during the surgery. No damage was done whatsoever. I made a recovery, and was home in just a matter of days.

How has rehabilitation been?

It’s really a miracle. They said from the point from when I began, to the point I graduated rehab, I recovered 150 percent. I feel great. I really can’t wait to get back into the ring.

Before your big comeback, I saw you by the ring selling merch. It must have been torture to be so close to the action.

Yeah, I’ve been trying to hold myself back. It has been eating at me. Oh, it has been eating at me, sitting on the sidelines.

When I got out of the hospital, I went out to a show that [wrestler] Ricky Cruz put on. As much as I wanted to get into the ring, I knew I couldn’t. As I’ve progressed with the healing, I keep saying, “I’m good now,” but my wife, Anthony Costa, and all the other wrestlers keep saying, “No, not yet.” So I kept asking the doctors, “When can I get back in the ring?”

Originally, December they said would be OK, but that changed to January just to be safe. But to be fair, June to January is pretty good. Six months.

[Before the match] So what can fans expect for your big return match?

It’s gonna be a surprise. Honestly, it’s because I really don’t know what I’m gonna do. Ninety percent of my matches are spur-ofthe-moment. Like my mentor John Blackheart always told me, things are gonna be different no matter who you go against, so why plan it? React to the crowd. And that’s basically been my whole thing for the last 35 years. If the crowd likes it, I’ll do it again! It has become a big full circle. I started with MMWA, and I am hoping to end my career with MMWA but not anytime soon.

[After the match] How are you feeling?

I feel absolutely amazing. It is so wonderful to be back. n

“Bowlingcertainlyis a littlemorerelaxing, but wrestling is like therapy. It is my therapy. It releases so much stress and beats my normal job driving a tractortrailer around the city all day … and the way some folks drive. I’ll just put it like that.”

Moondog Rover celebrating his birthday with his bowling league: Sunday Funday.

CALENDAR

BY RIVERFRONT TIMES STAFF

THURSDAY 01/26

Theology Themed

You might have been to the True/ False Documentary Film Fest. You might have gone to the St. Louis International Film Fest. You might have gone to Sundance or Cannes or South by Southwest. But you can’t really say that you’ve been to them all until you’ve also hit up the Faith and Film Festival from Concordia Seminary (801 Seminary Place, csl.edu/faith-andfilm . The fest, which is geared toward films that consider hristian or theological themes, is a threeday filmapaloo a that runs from 1 p.m. on Thursday, January 26, through noon on Saturday, January 28. Filmgoers will be treated not only to the group film watches, but there will also be theologians, pastors and film critics on hand to discuss. Included in the program are films such as Promising Young Woman, Moonrise Kingdom, Into the Wild, The Night of the Hunter and more. Tickets are $100 and include meals.

FRIDAY 01/27

Flower Power

Orchids are some of the most beautiful flowers on the planet, but you have to be a masochist to want to grow or care for them yourself. Orchids are known for being finicky and re uiring speciali ed potting mi and just the right amount of water to survive. They also often have re uirements for light, humidity or fertili er that are less than forgiving. Orchids are high-maintenance as heck, basically. But you can still enjoy their beauty while taking on none of the hefty responsibility at the Orchid Show at the Missouri Botanical Garden (4344 Shaw oulevard through Sunday, February 26, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. During the Orchid Show, MoBot will be showing off its collection of more than 6,000 orchids, including hundreds of endangered or threatened specimens. They’ll also be hosting “Orchid Nights” events on Thursday, February 9, and Thursday, February 23, from

6 p.m. until 8 p.m. where you can party with the orchids and enjoy fun lighting, live music and samples of drinks from local wineries, distilleries and breweries.

Deduce This

Sherlock Holmes is really having a moment. Well, maybe many moments ever since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet was published in 1887. That’s a long run. Well, that run continues in a much different medium: dance. On Friday, January 27, and Saturday, January 28, the Big Muddy Dance Company will present a reimagining of the classic Sherlock Holmes tale during My Dear Watson, which was directed and choreographed by Joshua L. Peugh. The “evening of mystery” will incorporate elements of many different Holmes adventures and features an original score by composer Brandon Carson. The show kicks off at 7:30 p.m. at the randel randel S uare ,

and tickets are $45 to $225. There will also be an option for a later, virtual showing from Thursday, February 3, to Sunday, February 5; this will cost $20.

SATURDAY 01/28

Psych-O

We’d love to tell you that the School of Metaphysics (2606 akview Terrace will host its Psychic Olympics at 1 p.m. on Saturday, January 28, and you’ll have the chance to embrace your own psychic abilities through intuitive games and activities for a $10 entrance fee payable at the door, and that if you want more information, you can visit the school’s Facebook page. But you already knew that.

Good Vibes

Dust off your shoulder-padded

jackets, Adidas tracksuits and all things teal because the 1980s are coming to the Hawthorn (2225 ashington Avenue this onday. Electric Avenue: The ’80s MTV Experience is taking the stage at 8 p.m. to play more than three hours of synth-filled classics. pect some avid owie, Lionel Richie and Depeche Mode. The si -piece ensemble includes a sa player, so you know what that means: “Careless Whisper” will be on that setlist. Tickets start at $20. If you’ve never been to the Hawthorn, its good vibes alone are worth the price of admission.

SUNDAY 01/29

Ode to a Great

When Stephen Sondheim was still relatively unknown, he got a little job writing the lyrics for a show you may have heard of: West Side Story. Anyone who has belted out

e Lemp Mansion is super haunted. | PAUL SABLEMAN

“Maria” or “America” knows that he did a pretty decent job putting words to Leonard Bernstein’s award-winning score. If you asked Sondheim though, it wasn’t his favorite work, mostly because he wanted to compose the music and write the lyrics for his shows. So Side by Side by Sondheim is a revue of the best songs over the career of a man who didn’t think his major contribution to an awardwinning classic of stage and screen was his best work. You’re in for a treat as the Rep stages the show at COCA (Catherine B. Berges Theatre, 6880 Washington Avenue from Sunday, anuary 2 , to Sunday, February 19. Showtimes vary and tickets are $23 to $92.

For the Book Lovers

Are you a fan of almost any kind of book? Do you like deals? If you said yes to either of those ues-

tions, well, the JCC’s Biannual Used Book Sale might be for you. Twice a year, the 20-plus-year-old sale brings thousands of bargains spanning almost as many literary genres to St. Louis. Eight-foot-long tables, marked with genres ranging from children’s to mystery to philosophy, will fill the s performing arts center. Every year, the sale gets a variety of interesting picks, and book dealers, along with St. ouis book lovers, pri e it, especially the preview event on the first day. ut despite the uality of the reads, potential shoppers shouldn’t be afraid that they’ll have to spend big: Most volumes will run from $1 to $3. Proceeds from the event will go toward the J’s cultural arts programs, including its St. Louis Jewish Book Festival. Check out the fun at the St. Louis Jewish Community Center (2 Millstone Campus Drive, - 2- , jccstl.com from Sunday, January 29, to Thursday, February 2. The first date is the preview day and costs $10. All other

days are free. On Thursday, attendees can purchase a bag of books for $5 between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.

TUESDAY 01/31

Arts and Cats

Throughout history, cats have been viewed as both divine creatures and bad omens capable of bringing bad luck. But lately, we tend to think of cats as fluffy friends we love to snuggle and adore. This is especially true at cat cafes like Whisker Station Cat Cafe and Lounge (212 North Kirkwood, - - in irkwood, where adoptable cats keep customers company as they munch on light snacks. On Thursday, channel your love for cats into art. Whisker Station will host a craft- and cat-themed event for guests to color and create cats out of various media. This event is designed for children eight and under, according to Whisker Station’s Facebook page. But the event is open for all ages (honestly, who wouldn t enjoy a cats and crafts combo . Tickets are per person and are available on Bookeo.

Haunted Brews

The Lemps may be St. Louis’ second-most famous beer brewing family, but they are way more haunted than their A-B counterparts. The Lemp family was once one of the most prosperous in

town, but when they moved into a mansion in the Benton Park neighborhood in the 1860s, paranormal misfortune befell them. This Tuesday, you can learn all about it with the St. Louis Paranormal Research Society, which will be leading a ghost tour of the Lemp Mansion 22 emenil lace and the basement of the Lemp Brewery Bottle Works. Tickets for St. Louis’ Most Haunted Ghost Tour are $40 and can be purchased online at seeaghost.com or over the phone at 618-340-5526.

WEDNESDAY 02/01

How To

Books are everywhere –– in the library, in your house, in those little shelves on the street. But have you ever thought about how the books were made? No, not the words. How they are physically sewn, glued and pieced together. In this Vintage Hardback Bookbinding eco-friendly class hosted by Perennial (3762 South Broadway - 2-22 , participants will learn how to create books from recycled materials. The class takes place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and costs between $40 and $50. For more information, visit perennialstl.org/event/vintage-hardback-bookbinding-5. n

Have an event you’d like considered for our calendar? Email calendar@riverfronttimes.com.

WEEK OF JANUARY 26-FEBRUARY 1

Learn how to make books at Perennial. | VIA FLICKR / ADAM BURKE

e Orchid Show returns on Friday. | COURTESY PHOTO

Eggcellent

Hatch’d is one of St. Louis’ most thrilling daytime spots

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

Hatch’d 6931 Gravois Avenue, 314-448-1642. Sun.-Sat. 7 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Joshua Sturma can still hear the voice of his former boss at the Shack in his head. A fiery Italian who was passionate about food, the man would lose his mind any time he d go back into the kitchen and see his cooks under-seasoning or undercooking the hash browns.

“ eople don t like fucking potatoes, he d yell at anyone within earshot. “You know what they like They like butter They like salt. They like their potatoes fucking cooked

In the midst of his tirade, Sturma s then-boss would take a squeeze bottle of melted butter and shaker of salt, smother the browns with them, then take a spatula to smash the thinly shredded potatoes with the entire force of his ire.

Sturma admits the approach was a little heat-of-the-moment intense, but he also understands why the message was so important. People screw up hash browns, Sturma says. They think of them as a throwaway side that is only on the plate because it needs to be and therefore put as little effort as possible into heating them up and getting them out to the table. Sturma thinks this is a crime that if you cook and season your hash browns properly (six minutes, not four and a half, and loaded with butter and salt, he insists , they can be a multite tured, deeply satisfying earthy delight. That s why he serves the most quintessential version of the dish you ll find, why you ll rarely see any left on his customers plates, and why his restaurant, Hatch d, is one of the area s most thrilling daytime spots.

Sturma s road to breakfast glory began when he was just a kid working in restaurants around town but really took off in 2 when he began working for

Hospitality roup, the restaurant group behind the Tavern itchen ar, the orner ub rill and the Shack reakfast unch. Though he arrived at the Tavern a -year industry professional, Sturma had his eyes opened to what true hospitality looked like working for as he rose through the ranks with the company. After landing at the

Shack, Sturma became passionate about the idea that even simple breakfast and lunch could provide the same level of service and care as fine dining, and he dove headfirst into helping the group execute its vision as it expanded throughout the St. ouis area and into ansas ity.

Sturma dreamed of opening a

restaurant of his own one day, so when his hope to buy into the Shack s ownership group failed to materiali e a couple of years ago, he left the company to venture out on his own. uring that time, he worked at the storied south St. ouis Italian restaurant Trattoria Marcella as he sketched out a plan for what his own daytime spot would look like. Though he had the menu nailed down uickly, the full picture of what he wanted his place to be materialized once he found the right space the former uincy Street istro in rinceton Heights. After signing on his dad, Paul, as a partner, securing the space and dealing with e uipment problems that nearly crushed his restaurant dreams, Sturma welcomed his first guests into Hatch d last ay.

rom day one, Hatch d has been a roaring success, and the hash browns tell you all you need to know about why this is the case not because they are flawless they are , but because they demonstrate Sturma s uncompromising, every detail counts approach to running a restaurant. very dish embodies this philosophy, from

Hatch’d features breakfast and lunch in South City. | MABEL SUEN

Joshua Sturma and his father, Paul, are co-owners of Hatch’d. | MABEL SUEN

HATCH’D

the best-in-class hash browns to a flawlessly cooked cheese omelet, cleverly named Sweet reams Are ade of heese. The eggs are beautifully prepared so that you can still see the waves from where the spatula gently folded them. luffy and praise the lord not a touch of brown on them, the eggs are stuffed with molten cheddar and mo arella cheeses, then garnished with sour cream and chives for a decadent morning treat.

The same care is given to the astramolette, an omelet filled with housemade pastrami, onion, red pepper and Swiss cheese. ike a combination of bacon and sausage, the gently peppery pastrami seasons the eggs with smoke and meaty flavor without being overwhelming. It s a beautiful addition to the omelet-filling pantheon.

Skillets are e ually successful. If the Hot in Hurr a beautiful, mouth-tingling melange of hash browns, luscious e ican chori o, jalape os, green chili salsa and ueso is the embodiment of Southwestern flavors, the Slingers lub nails south St. ouis uintessential dish. Here, the Hatch d kitchen crew smothers hash browns and mild breakfast sausage patties with over-easy eggs, cheddar cheese, diced white onions and beefy, greasy spoon diner style chili. This is where you send an out-of-towner looking to e perience a gut punch of St. ouis pride.

Hatch d may nail St. ouis signature breakfast dish, but it shows that love to hiladelphia as well through its enny s ot eef, a riff on eggs benedict made with housemade brisket smothered in jalapeno ueso that tastes like the most respectable version of a

hilly cheesesteak I ve had outside the ity of rotherly ove. These creative dishes make up a significant part of Hatch d menu, though the restaurant is e ually adept at delivering the classics. ancakes, flavored with just a whisper of vanilla, are perfectly golden and light, then crisp up just the tiniest bit around the edges wa es are delightfully malty and crunchy on the outside, then yield to a soft interior. iscuits and gravy deliver eactly what you want fluffy and smothered with velvety sausageflecked gravy for a classic and utterly delicious interpretation of the country breakfast staple.

However, the dish that caught

me off guard was the South Sider, a breakfast sandwich featuring an over-medium egg, American cheese and fried bologna served on griddled toast. Not only was the dish a gooey, decadent dream, it was also unbelievably nostalgic. I truly felt as if I was eight years old, sitting in my mom s kitchen and eating her signature grilled cheese she used Spam instead of bologna, but something about the way that uber-melty American cheese melded into the white bread while the cured meat provided a salty pop brought me back to my youth.

Sturma had that same e perience as a kid growing up on the

city s south side, though his mom used bologna. He suspected most St. ouis natives enjoyed some version of that sandwich in their youths, and it was important for him to tap into that not only because it s delicious but because he believes food is one of the purest forms of warmth and joy we have as a community. Noshing on that South Sider and a side of his perfect hash browns while reveling in nostalgic bliss, it s hard to disagree. n

South Sider

Slingers Club

e menu features sandwiches, skillets, griddled goods and more. | MABEL SUEN Avoca-Toast with whole-grain bread, avocado smash, egg whites, mozzarella and pico. | MABEL SUEN

e Fat Elvis has peanut butter, banana, bacon and chocolate chips. | MABEL SUEN

Second Squawk

Chicken

SHORT ORDERS

items

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

St. Louis Hills will soon be a little more delicious thanks to Sean Lee and Erica Park. The husband-and-wife team behind the popular Carondelet Korean fried chicken restaurant, Chicken Seven, have announced that they will be opening a new restaurant on South Hampton in the coming weeks. The forthcoming fast-casual eatery, Cafe Ganadara (6413 Hampton Avenue), will feature grab-and-go Korean breakfast fare, pastries and desserts including shaved ice, all meant to appeal to hungry diners on the go.

For Lee and Park, Ganadara, which is akin to “A B C D” in Korean, is an opportunity for them to share more of their culture with the customers who have warmly embraced Chicken Seven over the past year and a half — something they have greatly appreciated as they faced many hardships, most centered on attempts to obtain a liquor license from the City of St. Louis. As Park explains, many of their regulars have expressed an interest in trying more Korean foods, and rather than take up the limited space in Chicken Seven’s kitchen, she and her husband decided their best move would be to open an entirely different restaurant.

“ hen we first opened hicken Seven, a lot of our customers didn’t know the difference between Chinese and Korean food,” Park says. “Now, we have people coming in telling us that they have been to Korea and crave what they tried over there. Also, K-Pop and Korean culture have

been getting very trendy lately, so we wanted to share more of that. We thought about expanding the menu at Chicken Seven, but our chicken takes so much time and space to prepare that we did not have the room to do that. We thought a second restaurant would be better.”

However, the inspiration for Ganadara goes beyond simply a desire to expand their offerings. As ark e plains, she often finds herself looking for healthy breakfast food options after she drops off her children at school and is regularly disappointed by what’s available. Longing for the Korean breakfast offerings she grew up eating, Park had the idea to open a casual eatery to help fill that void.

The cornerstone of Ganadara’s breakfast menu will be Koreanstyle morning toast, a dish Park describes as an egg toast topped with cabbage, shaved carrots, green onions and ham that is shaped into a pancake and placed between a bun with additional toppings like shrimp, bacon or hash browns, and a special sauce.

“It’s popular among students, but it is also a good thing for someone in a hurry because it is a perfectly balanced grab-and-go

meal,” Park says.

Though Park expects the morning toasts to be a popular item, she is also looking forward to showing off her pastry skills with several sweet offerings. She’s particularly excited about what is sure to become the restaurant’s signature dish the cro e. art croissant, part wa e, the cro e is one of Korea’s most popular

dishes, and according to Park, there is good reason for this.

“It’s layers and layers of butter and crunch,” Park says. “Soft and buttery on the inside, crunchy on the outside — it’s so good. It’s the number-one selling dish for delivery in Korea, and it’s very popular in New York, too.”

Park and Lee plan to serve their cro es with a variety of toppings, such as homemade pastry cream and fresh strawberries; cookies and cream with homemade chocolate sauce; or Nutella and sliced bananas.

According to Park, there will be much more to Ganadara than breakfast and pastries, though. The cafe will also be a destination for Korean desserts, such as ice cream and shaved ice, which she credits Monica Lee, owner of Spoonful in Creve Coeur, with bringing to St. Louis. Coffee service will be a significant part of the cafe’s operations, as will several fresh juices, many made with the Korean citrus fruit yuzu.

Just as Park laments the lack of healthful food options in the morning after school drop-off, she and Lee have been equally eager to see expanded offerings in the evening when they get off work. That’s why, in addition to its breakfast offerings, Ganadara will offer a rotating selection of fast-casual and ready-to-eat Korean specialties, including boneless fried chicken and kimbap, a rolled rice dish often referred to as “Korean sushi.”

Ganadara will occupy the small storefront on South Hampton that used to house Yapi Mediterranean Subs, which moved to the Central West End last fall. Park and Lee have been hard at work rebranding the spot, which will have roughly six to eight tables and feature black-andwhite scenery. They hope to open sometime this month, though an early February opening is also possible.

“We want to make people feel like they are in Korea,” Park says. “We are looking forward to having somewhere for people to go that is not a fast-food chain and that serves healthier options. There are three different schools on this street, so we hope that everybody who is in need of a quick grab-and-go will come by and try us out.” n

Seven owners’ Cafe Ganadara to feature Korean toasts, desserts and other grab-and-go

Sean Lee and Erica Park are the minds behind Cafe Ganadara. | MABEL SUEN

“ Soft and buttery on the inside, crunchy on the outside — it’s so good. It’s the number-one selling dish for delivery in Korea, and it’s very popular in New York, too.”

Benton Park Cafe Reopens

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

After nearly a year without its beloved neighborhood eatery, Benton Park residents have reason to celebrate: Benton Park Cafe (2901 Salena Street, 314-661-2368) reopened at 7 a.m. on January 19.

The news was first announced on Benton Park Cafe’s Facebook page in a short post.

“We are really excited to get this place reopened,” co-owner Gavin Haslett tells the Riverfront Times. “We’ve pretty much kept things the same as we intended to all along; our focus has been on trying to maintain or improve the food quality in any areas we can and on retaining as much of the original menu as possible. We are mostly opening the same cafe as the previous owner had before — we have the same coffee vendor, many of the same suppliers are back at the table, and we even have a lot of the same front-of-house and back-ofhouse staff back, so it should be very consistent with what people knew.”

Founded in 2007 by Jessica Lenzen and the late John Caton, Benton Park Cafe has been shuttered since last April. Originally, Lenzen intended for the closure to be temporary, but as the renovations lagged on and she became further removed from daily operations, she began questioning whether or not she wanted to continue on in the business. Longtime patrons and local entrepreneurs Haslett and his business partner Elicia Eskew had been looking to take on a new venture, so when they got wind of Lenzen’s intentions to pass on the torch, they began negotiations that resulted in them taking over the cafe last fall.

Since then, Haslett and Eskew have been working hard to get Benton Park Cafe open for business, working with Lenzen to make sure they carry on its traditions. As Haslett told the RFT when he first announced the arrangement last November, he and Eskew see themselves as stewards of the restaurant’s legacy and have no intention of turning it into something it’s not.

“We want to bring back the same identity that the place had before it closed,” Haslett said last November. “We loved what they were doing before so much, so why change it? It’s a success, so we want to keep going with that.”

Haslett is confident that he and Eskew have achieved that goal. He describes

the restaurant’s menu as essentially unchanged; though they have taken off one or two items that did not sell well in the past, and they have added a few things that they feel diners will love. These include several gluten-free offerings, such as toast and pizza crust for their popular breakfast pizzas, which people have

been requesting since they learned that the restaurant would have new owners. It’s one of the few tweaks that longtime regulars seem willing to accept.

“The number of people who reached out and congratulated us has been unbelievable,” Haslett says. “They told us how excited they were, and then immediately jumped into telling us we shouldn’t change anything. They are really excited to come back and have the same food, experience and space that they had before.”

One difference customers will notice is that the restaurant does not yet have its liquor license. Haslett emphasizes that this is just a temporary situation and that he anticipates they will have it soon, perhaps within the month. However, he believes that there is so much demand for the cafe’s food, coffee and atmosphere that he and Eskew could not justify holding off any longer.

“We are really excited to get open, and we can’t wait to experience the love that the neighborhood has for Benton Park Cafe in person, instead of just on Facebook.” n

Cheese Dreams

Written by ROSALIND EARLY

Steve’s Hot Dogs launched a ghost kitchen concept last week — with five different kinds of grilled cheese sandwiches for carryout or delivery.

Described as an “elevated grilled cheese sandwich on bakery fresh bread,” the new concept, Steve’s Meltdown, will not have any in-person dining.

“Delivery is here to stay — and it’s a growing segment of our business,” Danni Eickenhorst, co-founder of Steve’s Hot Dog’s, said in a statement. “The opportunity with ghost kitchens is to get creative, to experiment and to play with new concepts without having the overhead that comes with a traditional brick and mortar. Steve’s Meltdown will launch as a strictly delivery and carryout concept.”

The menu offers five creative takes on grilled cheese:

•The Sweet Caroline Grilled Cheese is

on sourdough and topped with brie, cranberry jam, apple slices and melted sharp white cheddar. It also comes with a side of cranberry jam for dipping.

•Mambo Italiano Grilled Cheese is a take on a Caprese with mozzarella cheese, sundried tomatoes, spinach, pesto and a balsamic glaze drizzle. It comes with a side of marinara for dipping.

•The Don Ho Grilled Cheese is a Hawaiian-pizza-style grilled cheese with ham, pineapple jelly and a light brushing of honey chipotle barbecue sauce, along with spicy pepper jack cheese. It comes with a side of barbecue sauce for dipping.

•That’s Amore Grilled Cheese draws

from pizza for its inspiration and includes both traditional and buffalo mozzarella, spinach and pepperoni, and is served with marinara sauce for dipping.

•Finally, for traditionalists, there’s the Forever Young “Adult” Grilled Cheese, which is buffalo mozzarella, pepper jack, colby and American cheeses on sourdough bread.

All of the sandwiches come with chips and cost between $11 and $12.

To order, visit stevesmeltdown.com. Delivery is through Grubhub, Uber Eats or Door Dash, or orders can be picked up at Steve’s Hot Dogs at 3145 South Grand Boulevard.

e beloved neighborhood eatery, reopening under new owners, has been closed for nearly a year

[FOOD NEWS]

Steve’s Meltdown, a new ghost kitchen from Steve’s Hot Dogs, o ers grilled cheese sandwiches for delivery or pickup

e Forever Young “Adult” Grilled Cheese is one of many on o er. | MICHAEL KILFOY, STUDIO X

e wait is finally over. | VIA FLICKR / PHIL ROUSSIN

Provel For All

mom had to buy it at Roma Grocery on the Hill and ship it to him.

And while the recipe for Provel — which requires several types of cheeses, a bit of equipment and some special ingredients — doesn’t exactly make the cheesestuff easily accessible, it does make it possible at home or outside of Imo’s distribution area for all those homesick St. Louisans.

heavy cream and salt.

Written by ROSALIND EARLY

Auser in the St. Louis subreddit has cracked the code for how to make Provel cheese at home.

Provel, of course, is the polarizing melty cheese topping for St. Louis-style pizza. Bon Appetit described the processed cheese product as “something between béchamel and a thick, savory crème anglaise,” calling the texture “creamy, buttery, [with a] subtly rich flavor.” Clearly writer Asonta Benetti was a fan, and she’s not even a St. Louis native (but discovered the cheese because she is married to one).

The issue? Although Kraft Heinz manufactures the cheese, locally based Imo’s is Provel’s exclusive distributor. And while you can grab it at any Schnuck’s, it’s hard to get outside of the Midwest. Bon Appetit writes of a St. Louis native, George Frasher, who opened a restaurant in Phoenix and wanted to sell St. Louis-style pizza. Before he started buying Provel from Imo’s, his

A Redditor fittingly named House of Provel pulled together two recipes, a traditional and a personal “House of Provel” style. The basic idea for creating Provel is to combine several good-melting cheeses and a touch of smoke (more on that in a minute). But the cheeses, while traditionally Swiss, cheddar and provolone, can be switched up.

“I don’t see anyone saying Cecil Whittaker’s isn’t really STL style pizza because they use Colby and Mozzarella in their ‘Provel,’” House of Provel writes on Reddit. “So don’t feel like you’re stuck using Swiss, Cheddar, and Provolone. Make your Provel with the cheeses that you like best and omit anything you don’t like.” Just note that if you want it to come out that signature white color, you need to use white cheeses.

For the traditional recipe, House of Provel recommends combining equal parts Swiss, white cheddar and provolone. You’ll also need three to four drops of mesquite or hickory liquid smoke, sodium citrate (sodium bicarbonate and citric acid, which emulsifies the cheese),

About the smokiness of the Provel, House of Provel says, “If you are using liquid smoke here… try to use something that is just smoke flavoring and not a lot of additives.” But the real hack is to use an already smoked cheese and leave out the liquid stuff all together. “I love using Red Apple brand smoked cheese because the apple wood smoke gives my Provel a scent that reminds me of a really good bacon cheese burger.”

House of Provel’s special blend mixes in applewood smoked gouda with provolone, sharp white cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese.

Redditors were impressed with not just the recipes, but also the thoroughness of the instructions.

“Thank you for doing the Lord’s work here,” LuzBenedict writes. “I’m sending this to all my provel loving friends who unfortunately live in a provel free zone.”

“I lived in Houston for about a decade and was surprised how much I missed provel. I actually tried making it a few times but never got it quite right,” another commenter writes.

One excited commenter writes, “This post needs to be submitted to the MO History Museum.” The same person came back later to add, “I literally sent [original poster’s] post to a good friend at the MHM. He’s going to talk to the archives about how to record it.” Because what could be more museum-worthy than our region’s favorite processed cheese product? n

Start Drooling

In-N-Out Burger is going to be within driving distance of St. Louis

Written by JAIME LEES

There are 385 In-N-Out locations in the United States, but not one of them exists east of Texas … yet.

Soon the In-N-Out Burger chain will be headed east, and our neighbors in Tennessee are going to get the first one built outside of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Texas or Utah. InN-Out is starting the process of opening in Franklin, Tennessee, which is 25 miles south of Nashville and less than a fivehour drive from St. Louis. We mapped it and it’s a 4 hour and 41 minute drive from the Gateway Arch, but 328 miles isn’t far at all to drive for animal-style fries.

In-N-Out has remained a primarily west coast business for years because of the quality control standards the company imposes on itself. As a rule, In-N-Out doesn’t build restaurants that are more

than 500 miles from its distribution centers. That means that it’s not easy just to pop up a new restaurant in a new state; it requires quite a bit of planning (and building) beforehand.

The company is planning to construct a 100,000-square-foot office space in Franklin that is projected to cost more than $125 million. The project is expected to create close to 300 new jobs in the area, and In-N-Out is planning to open its first location in Tennessee in 2026.

“We are very excited to provide Ten-

nesseans with our quality burgers, fries and shakes,” Lynsi Snyder, In-N-Out owner and president says. “In every decision I make, I always consider what my family would want. I have no doubt that my grandparents, dad and uncle would be proud of this decision to grow our associate family and serve even more amazing customers beginning in Nashville and the surrounding areas.”

Did you see that? “Surrounding areas.” That’s us! Come on over to Missouri, In-NOut! Our door is always open. n

CHERYL

BAEHR’S

PANCAKE PICKS

This time of year, the promise of a semi-sweet, fluffy grilled breakfast treat is about the only thing worth getting out from under the covers for. Though our fair city has an embarrassment of breakfast and brunch riches, these five take the (hot) cake.

Grand Pied

The undisputed champion of St. Louis’ pancake game, Grand Pied’s (3137 Morgan Ford Road) version of the breakfast classic is a beautiful marriage of a pancake and flan that jiggles when it hits the table. Its crunchy, golden exterior yields to a custard-like fluff that makes you question whether or not you’d rather inhale the stack or nuzzle up to it.

Bowood by Niche

Bowood by Niche’s (4605 Olive Street, 314-454-6868) blueberry buttermilk pancakes evoke the feeling of cast-iron-cooked hotcakes. Thick with a slightly rustic texture, the pancakes’ outer edges are a gorgeous toasted brown and crisp, while the inside remains fluffy and cake-like. Fresh blueberries add pops of sweetness.

Half and Half

Whether you are enjoying the classic blueberry version or the raspberry, mascarpone and granola accented Clara Cakes, Half & Half’s (8135 Maryland Avenue, Clayton; 314-7250719) pancakes show what’s possible with a stunning buttermilk canvas.

Winslow’s Table

Michael and Tara Gallina’s pancake game at their University City eatery

Winslow’s Table (7213 Delmar Boulevard, University City; 314-725-7559) shows that they are adept at daytime comfort fare. Malty, fluffy and topped with fresh berry compote, butter and syrup, they are perfection.

Turn

Flecked with whole grains for a slightly rustic feel, Turn’s (3224 Locust Street, 314-240-5157) pancakes taste like a vanilla-infused funnel cake.

Yes, you can make Provel at home, says St. Louis Redditor

It’s almost here. | VIA FLICKR / @JEEPERSMEDIA

Former NBA Players Open St. Louis Dispensary

e Black-owned dispensary is the first in downtown St. Louis

Written by ROSALIND EARLY

Viola STL (2001 Olive Street, violabrands.com), a new dispensary located across from Citypark Stadium, held its grand opening on Monday, doubling the number of Blackowned dispensaries in St. Louis from one to two.

The dispensary is owned by former NBA players Al Harrington and Larry Hughes, who played together on the New York Knicks from 2009 to 2010, as well as Abe Givins and Dan Pettigrew. Hughes is a St. Louis native, who grew up in Carr Square Village — not far from where his dispensary is — and played basketball at Saint Louis University.

“For me, St. Louis is home,” Hughes says. “So bringing different opportunities, different industries to the area is something that I pride myself on.”

The location was also important. “We’re the only dispensary

in downtown St. Louis,” co-owner Dan Pettigrew says. “We just love the neighborhood. I’ve been to the soccer stadium and all the construction around you can really see the development of the area.”

This is Viola STL’s anchor dispensary, but a second one is scheduled to open January 27 at 3420 Iowa Street in the Cherokee district. That dispensary will include a drive-thru. Each location will employ about 20 people. There are also plans to open a cultivation facility in St. Louis that would bring even more jobs to the region.

Harrington started Viola in 2011. It is named after his grandmother, who struggled with glaucoma.

“[Harrington] was playing in Denver at the time, and cannabis was a really huge endeavor,” says Abe Givins, co-owner and operator of ViolaMO, the company behind Viola STL. “He asked her did she smoke, and she was like, ‘Boy, I ain’t smoking no reefer. I’m a church lady.’” He convinced her to try it though, and when he went to check on her after a while, she told him this was the best she’d been able to see in 10 years.

Harrington decided to learn more about marijuana and open a business. With Viola, he’s rolled out a line of products and opened dispensaries and cultivation facilities across the country.

Harrington and Hughes view the cannabis space as a way to help people. “I’m always looking for business opportunities that provide help,” Hughes says. “And from the medical space, flower has many benefits. e re talking about alternative ways to be healthy.”

REEFERFRONT TIMES

Since its early days, Viola has worked to bring more Black entrepreneurs into the cannabis industry.

At Viola’s groundbreaking two years ago, Harrington said he’s proud that the company is entirely Black owned. “Right now [cannabis] is a new trillion-dollar industry, and we don’t have any representation. And that’s a huge issue. So me and Larry coming together are trying to obviously fight that. We’re trying to use our platform to create opportunities for people of color to be able to participate in this industry because there’s generational wealth at risk.”

Harrington taught Givins about

Apply Soon to Grow Your Own Weed

the industry so he and Hughes could open Viola STL. He also created the Harrington Institute and Viola Accelerator to help minority entrepreneurs learn the ropes of the cannabis business. In St. Louis, Hughes hopes Viola can create more minority Cannabis entrepreneurs by putting minorities in leadership and management roles and teaching them about the plant.

“For us, it’s an opportunity to help St. Louis out,” Hughes said, “but at the same time bring others along with us.” n

Benjamin Simon contributed to this reporting.

and over can legally possess, purchase, consume and cultivate marijuana for recreational use in the state of Missouri.

So by February 6, you can pick up some weed almost as easily as picking up some beer, and you can start growing your own bud (legally) in your basement. Sounds heavenly, right?

Written by JAIME LEES

We thought the day would never come, but soon you can apply to grow your own legal weed in the state of Missouri. Pass the bong, Cheech & Chong, the Show-Me State is almost ready to celebrate!

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services says that you should be able to submit your application to cultivate your own stash by Monday, February 6, the same day that adults ages 21

Well, there are some rules, and the state is very strict about them. First of all, the plants must be kept within a locked facility. So you can’t just grow them out in the open in your yard or anything like that. You can grow outside, but the area needs to be locked and not be visible to the public.

Under the new laws, every person who cultivates can share up to three ounces with others. They can also have up to 18 plants (six mature plants, six plants that measure 14 inches but are not mature, and six plants under 14 inches that are seedlings or clones).

Recreational cultivation licenses cost $100 and should be available soon. Until then, you can visit health.mo.gov to see a sample application. n

Viola STL is now open in downtown St. Louis. | COURTESY PHOTO

Legalizing recreational marijuana means you can legally grow the flower at home

Larry Hughes (le ) and Al Harrington (right) are two of the owners. | COURTESY PHOTOS

CULTURE

[SWEET RETURNS]

Off the Fly

Written by BENJAMIN SIMON

It’s a homecoming for Beverly Perkins. Well, it was supposed to be a homecoming two weeks ago, for a show on December 29, but then that whole Southwest debacle happened, and her flight got canceled, so she had to reschedule her show. “I ain’t messing with Southwest,” she says. “They can kiss my ass.”

But now it’s really a homecoming for Perkins. She’s back, fresh off a elta flight with a layover in Atlanta. She touched down in the Lou ready to make people laugh and have some fun. Or as she succinctly says: “When I come to St. Louis, I come to smoke and get my drink on.” She’s going to see her family. She’s going to Bar Code and then Blueberry Hill for a birthday party.

“I love it,” she says by phone on a Monday afternoon. “Oh, ohhh, I’ll be up early — I got up extra early, at 2:30 [a.m.], just so I could text people and let them know I’m coming. So I already got it laid out — like tonight I’m going down to the Grove. … My homies, they picking me up so we can go drink Guinness. I got something to do every night.”

She was also in town to give a comedy performance. Last Thursday, Perkins, better known as comedian B-Phlat, starred in the Mid-Coast Comedy Series at Central Stage in Grand Center. The St. Louis native has a long list of accomplishments to her name, including appearances on HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, Showtime’s Comics Without Borders and Comedy Central, where her skit “This Is Not Happening” has been viewed more than 2 million times.

When Perkins returned on Thursday, it was her first performance in St. Louis since 2019. Performing in St. Louis is always a little stressful, she says. “I told

my husband I only get a cold sore when I come to St. Louis.” Like, look at her phone, she says. She has 47 unread text messages, with people wondering what time the show starts, where it’s happening and, “Oh, can they get a ticket?”

But that’s all part of the fun.

“When I go to St. Louis — it’s the only time I get to kick it,” she says. “As much as I travel, the only time I get to kick it is when I come home because I feel comfortable with all my friends and family and people I grew up with. I don’t hang out when I’m in other places.”

Perkins is now 53 (though she asks if we can print her age as 56: “I always tell people I’m older than I am because they’d be like, ‘Damn, you look good for your age.’ I tell people all the time, I’m like, ‘I’ll be 60 in four years.’ They be like, ‘Hell, nah.’”)

She hasn’t lived full-time in St. Louis since the 1990s, when she moved away to attend Drexel University in Philadelphia. Back then, she didn’t even have plans to become a comedian. She planned to earn her JD/MBA degrees and become an art museum curator.

“It was too stressful, and I dropped out and said, ‘Fuck it’ and became a comedian,” she says.

She has stayed in Philadelphia ever since.

But St. Louis still plays an integral role in Perkins’ art. Actually, one could argue that her art might

not exist without the river city. Her work is filled with references to St. Louis.

“It totally influences my comedy,” she says. “Most of my comedy is about my mom and growing up in St. Clair. And the rest of it is just about growing up in St. Louis.”

Perkins grew up in St. Clair, a small rural town southwest of St. Louis. In seventh grade, she moved to St. Louis wearing a Harley Davidson jacket with a bald eagle on the back — only to be teased by her new classmates.

“I always felt like if people bullied you, you would step your game up,” she says. “So it made me step my game up. I wouldn’t be like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to go to school.’ No, I was going to school, show people I got my shit together.

“I quit wearing that Harley Davidson jacket, and now I’m like a fashion aficionado, and you can t tell me shit about no fashion,” she adds, dying of laughter.

Perkins would stay in the St. Louis area throughout the next few years. But she still didn’t think she would go into comedy. She graduated from Kirkwood High School and then Fontbonne University with a degree in art history and ceramics.

It wasn’t until 1997, though, that she decided she wanted to be a full-time comedian. She quit her job at a law firm and never took another 9-to-5 again. Actually, far from it. Perkins usually wakes up every morning at 3:30 a.m. and before she even starts work, she gets in some yoga and creative writing.

Even though her job is to make people laugh, there’s nothing haphazard about her day. She has more than enough responsibilities as a full-time comedian and creator/ host of the podcast Tight’n Up Tuesdaze, where she goes to people s houses and fi es, reorgani es and flips one of their rooms without buying anything new. “I’m working on like seven different projects all the time,” she says. She has more than seven journals, for example, boxes full of every single stand-up show and records of the outfits she has worn at each show.

“I’m funny, but I’m not fun,” she says. “That’s what it is. I’m super serious about everything, like school — everything.”

But for all of the time that Perkins puts into her work, all of the meticulous planning to schedule her life, when she steps on the stage, there’s nothing planned. Perkins calls her humor “grown, unexpected, calm before the storm.

“You never know what I’m going to say,” she adds.

That’s because Perkins doesn’t know what she’s going to say either. No one wants to hear a script, she says. “I don’t like continuity when it comes to comedy,” she says. “It’s like listening to a broken record. Even though you might like that same song, you can listen to the same song over and over. You can’t listen to the same joke over and over.

“I’m going to be smoking my weed,” she adds, “and I just go off the fly.

Comedian B-Phlat returns to St. Louis for a belated homecoming

Beverly Perkins is also known as comedian B-Phlat. | COURTESY PHOTO

“ Most of my comedy is about my mom and growing up in St. Clair. And the rest of it is just about growing up in St. Louis.”

MUSIC

My Friend, the Iconic MTV VJ

Asking Alan Hunter, one of the original five VJs, all the questions I never could

Written by STEVE LEFTRIDGE

Alan Hunter, one of the original s during the first years of T , is a very close personal friend of mine.

Or at least, that’s how it always seemed. I mean, we go way back. He was in my house practically every day when I was a teenager. I looked up to him. He was a key source of company, he helped me forget the drudgery of the school day and he turned me on to a lot of music.

The fact that I was a teenager in small-town Missouri and that Alan Hunter was a television personality in New York who had never heard of me did little to lessen our bond.

When MTV debuted in 1981, the moment video killed the radio star, Hunter was the first to appear on the network. f the original five s Hunter, artha uinn, ark oodman, Nina lackwood and . . ackson Hunter was my favorite. So I hung out with him the most.

ach of the five s was also an archetype, as though picked from central casting, like a videojukebo Breakfast Club: Martha, the girl ne t door Nina, the rock vamp ark, the jock . ., the elder statesmen. And Alan?

Alan was the lovable goofball, a jovial, blond-mulleted everyguy who talked with a warm amiability, a comic physicality and a uni ue blend of telegenic polish and parodic irony. f the five s, it was Hunter who most established the standard aesthetic informal accessibility, sharp speechcraft, cool whippersnap-

pery that was as new to television hosts as was the music-video format itself.

Hunter was not a rock e pert like ackson, a radio legend who helped break ed eppelin in America, or oodman, a seasoned disc jockey from the biggest rock stations in hilly and NY. ut what Hunter lacked in musical e pertise, he made up for in ronkitean trustability and easy charm.

I wanted my T . All the time. The way kids come home from school today and transform into video game ombies, I got lost for hours in the music videos ushered in by Hunter. I felt like I was hanging out with a cool older neighbor kid who brought his Tom etty and Top records over. I came for the U2, the Madonna, the hitesnake I stayed for the Alan Hunter.

So imagine my surprise when I heard that Hunter is now living in St. ouis. y old buddy lives here I was floored to discover that Hunter s Sirius radio shows broadcast from his home in eb-

ster roves.

I wasted no time in tracking him down, and Hunter agreed to meet me at a pub in ebster.

As I arrive for our big reunion, I reali e that I had not laid eyes on my old pal in decades. hen I watched him on T , he was in his 2 s. Now he s . ould I rec-

ognize him?

Then, through the door walks Alan Hunter. earing a blue puffer jacket and jeans, Hunter approaches me with much the same youthful countenance as I remember, his blond hair a little darker, his downturned eyes now behind glasses.

“How ya doin he asks as though this is in fact a reunion of old friends. I immediately feel as if he is about to pull out a microphone and point it at me la his old T spring break segments. ut amid the clatter and laughter of afternoon drinkers, we snag two pints and a table, and I ask him about the things I always wanted to know.

e discuss his early bio Hunter grew up in Alabama, attended college in ississippi where he met his first wife and, in , struck out for New York to become an actor. He landed minuscule roles in Annie the arol urnett one and avid owie s video for “ ashion, but the kind of roadway roles he wanted eluded him.

As he recounts these events, Hunter is uick with details when I ask where he lived “ th and roadway in a little one-bedroom apartment for a month , where he tended bar “The agic an at th and th and what he thought of the city then “In , New York was in the toilet .

In une , Hunter had a chance encounter in entral ark with a T producer named ob Pittman who was starting a new cable channel that would show music videos around the clock. “I said, That s funny I was just in a avid owie video. ood luck with your channel, Hunter says, adding that he thought nothing more about it. Two days later the phone rang.

“They brought me in to audition at the studio at 33rd and 10th in Hell s itchen, Hunter says. “ eing an actor, I needed a role. They said, e yourself. And I said, ho s that So I thought I sucked. ut they had me back three more times in three successive days.

Hunter was the last of the five VJs to be hired, and a month later he was on the air. If he was unsure how to do the job, he was not alone. “ T was put together by duct tape and tons of people who didn t know what the hell they were doing, he says. “It was a -

Alan Hunter broadcasts his two SiriusXM shows from Webster Groves. | COURTESY PHOTO

“ MTV was put together by duct tape and tons of people who didn’t know what the hell they were doing. It was a 50-ring circus. Total chaos.”

ring circus. Total chaos. Things would change every day. I would come in, and the set would be moved around. They were constantly e perimenting.

hat of Hunter s signature look with the feathered hair, the suspenders, the vests “ hen I got hired, they gave me an envelope on the first day with dollars cash in it and told me to go buy some clothes, he says, noting that T had no makeup or wardrobe staff. “So my wife and I went to acy s and bought some clothes on sale.

As I ask more uestions about the behind-the-scenes production of live television, Hunter drops a bomb: “Well, MTV was never live.

ait. hat Alan, ark and artha were not talking to me in real time I admit that I always thought his video intros were live, as if this new information was some sort of betrayal. “Sorry to take some of the luster off for you, Hunter laughs. “All of our breaks were pre-recorded a day in advance. I would do my five-hour shift in an hour and a half.

I also get my old amigo to reveal his salary that first year a cool 2 , . “That wage was a little bit better than a chorus guy on roadway, which was my yardstick at the time, Hunter says. He even kept his bartending job for a while after he started VJing, unsure as he was about MTV’s future.

Hunter says he had no idea that T was going to be a success, noting the channel was losing money. oreover, Hunter had no sense of the network s cultural impact early on, as T was not broadcast in anhattan for its first year of e istence.

Then, after a few months, MTV sent its s to make promotional appearances across the country, and Hunter realized something big was happening. “They would send me to a record store in ittle ock or rand apids or somewhere and a thousand people would show up, Hunter remembers. “I would say, hat are all these people doing here And they would say, They re here to see you.

Hunter hit it off right away with uinn and lackwood but not oodman. “He thought I was a nerd, and I thought he was an ass-

hole, Hunter says.

ater, they became close, but the early friction came as oodman s music snobbery clashed with Hunter s casual fandom. “ y schtick was less about being some music journalist and more about being a fun guy messing with regular folks, Hunter says. “They eventually started having me do man-on-the-street stuff and going on trips to cover spring breaks and other things.

The Hunter-hosted trip I most remember is MTV’s Hedonism eekend in amaica with on ovi in , a wild hair-metal beach party with the world s hottest rock band and a smorgasbord of booze and bikini-clad girls. I had to ask Hunter with such immediate access to on ovi-level se , drugs and rock roll how much did he himself partake

“ id I party h god, yes, Hunter says. “ ut I was happily married at the time, and I have a pretty strong willpower. That doesn t mean that when it’s three in the morning and I m partying with everyone that I m not struggling to try to not do another line of

coke. ut you have to show some professionalism. I wasn t going to screw up my job.

hile Hunter says he was never about serious music journalism, he was nonetheless at the center of some history-making musical events, including ive Aid and illy oel s groundbreaking concert in the Soviet nion. At ive Aid, Hunter was given the tough task of interviewing the members of ed eppelin just after their infamously maligned reunion performance. “The whole scene was so chaotic, that about all I could get out was, hat was that like Hunter recalls. “ ut overall it was hours of standing in awe of everything that was going on. Hunter s talent for conversational spontaneity led to road shows such as Amuck in America, which saw Hunter traveling across the country interacting with locals, a ratings boom that precipitated T s eventual pivot from music videos to reality shows. Ironically, the changes that Hunter helped initiate roughly coincided with his decision to leave the network.

“ urnout was high, and I felt like I should leave while I was on top, Hunter says. “So I chose not to e ercise the last two years of my contract. In hindsight, I should have stayed longer.

Hunter moved to os Angeles, looking to fulfill his old dream of being an actor, only to find that path blocked by his success as a . “I would go to auditions, and they would be, Hey, it s Alan Hunter from T , he says. “ hat I didn t understand is that I had played me for si years. It s very difficult to change that.

Still, Hunter forged a successful path in entertainment on the other side of the camera. In his hometown of Birmingham, he started Hunter Films, was nominated for an scar in 2 for producing the short film Johnny Flynton, built a multi-use entertainment facility and co-founded the acclaimed Sidewalk ilm estival.

Seven years ago, while planning Sidewalk, Hunter, then divorced from his first wife, received an email from a female nglish teacher in New York. “She said, Your high school girlfriend s older sister s daughter is my first cousin s roommate, Hunter says with a laugh. She was interested in teaching a film workshop in the festival.

That email eventually led to a second-time-around family for Hunter. His wife, Elizabeth, became a pioneer in the world of digitally augmented reality and e periential theater, and Hunter started hosting shows on two of Sirius s most popular channels s on , lassic ewind si days a week from his home office. race yourself Those aren t live either.

Then, in late 2022, Elizabeth accepted a position at ashington niversity, and the Hunters relocated to St. ouis. And we re caught up.

After a thorough 90-minute walk down memory lane, Hunter is due to pick up one of his kids from a class. “ et s talk again, he tells me.

Strolling alone out of the pub, unbeknown to the patrons around him, goes a pioneer who was at the tip of the spear of a music and cultural revolution, and is a seminal figure to a generation raised on T . And, also, is a very close personal friend of mine. n

Alan Hunter in his MTV VJ days with his signature feathered hair. | COURTESY PHOTO

STAGE

Time Travelers’ Ode

With e Golden Record, Prison Performing Arts honors those lost

Written by ROSALIND EARLY

The Golden Record

Curated and adapted by Courtney Bailey.

Directed by Rachel Tibbetts. Presented by Prison Performing Arts from Thursday, January 26, through Sunday, January 29. Showtimes are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $25.

LaWanda Jackson is planning to sing “Amazing Grace” later this week as part of a new original show The Golden Record.

“When I was young, I always wanted to sing,” Jackson says. “But I lost my confidence.” She began tapping into that childhood passion again in 2009 when, while incarcerated, she joined the Prison Performing Arts program. Now, she is a member of the alumni program, which stages shows around St. Louis with peo-

The Final Chapter

New Jewish eatre’s Broadway Bound, the final play in the Neil Simon trilogy, is an e ective, touching story of change

Written by TINA FARMER

Broadway Bound

Tickets are $27.02 to $58.37.

In 2019, New Jewish Theatre introduced audiences to the Jerome family, the central characters in Neil Simon’s coming-of-age trilogy, in their production of Brighton Beach Memoirs The family’s bittersweet, effectively comic story now comes to a close with the company’s heartfelt and touching production of Broadway Bound

The year is now 1949. Eugene, the Je-

ple who have been released from prison.

Agnes Wilcox started the Prison Performing Arts Program in 1999. Across the state, she would stage productions with incarcerated individuals. This American Life once featured the program’s

staging of Hamlet at the Missouri Eastern Correctional Center.

Jackson says joining the group was life-changing.

“They let me know that you are smart, you are creative, you can do anything,” she says. “They gave me room to grow. They let me be myself. It’s been an amazing experience because they care. When someone really cares, everything in your life becomes fruitful.”

Jackson has been in the alumni program since 2021, and The Golden Record will be her third production since. She also appeared in Kept Away and Elsinore, a prequel to Hamlet. In The Golden Record, Jackson will play Traveler Number 2.

“We are time travelers, carrying the last memories of the people who are gone,” Jackson says. “And so it’s our job is to keep their memories alive and not forget them, but in the midst of it, we’ve kind of forgotten ourselves.”

The show is based on the actual golden phonograph records that Carl Sagan created and were launched into space on the Voyager in 1977. The records were a catalog of human sounds and images that would give alien life a sample of the best Earth had to offer.

The two travelers in the show are carrying their own records of stories, poems, scenes and memories. They’re shepherd-

ing these things to a new destination, but the spacecraft is glitchy, and they aren’t sure they’ll make it. The show is dedicated to PPA alumni who have passed away, and theirs are some of the memories being performed.

“It’s personal because of the people we lost,” Jackson says.

Director Rachel Tibbetts says that the show grew out of writing prompts that the alumni were responding to. “We realized that we had something here,” Tibbetts says, and she called in writer and theater artist Courtney Bailey to shape a throughline with the works. Bailey came up with The Golden Record idea, which would allow the show to tie together disparate stories, but it also allowed “transmissions” to come in via recorded video. This allowed PPA alumni who aren’t in St. Louis to join the show.

Sound Designer Ellie Schwetye drew on the music and sounds that are on the actual golden phonograph records still hurtling through space, such as Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” or the “Night Chant” from the Navajo.

The show runs an hour, but Jackson says that a lot is packed into it. “It’ll make you laugh; it’ll make you cry,” she says. There’s even a giant chicken. “Filberta,” Jackson says. “I think people are going to love her. She does it all.” n

rome family’s younger son, is no longer a teen experiencing the first pangs of maturity from the sidelines as his parents and adult relatives make all the decisions. He has graduated high school, fought in a war and returned home. He holds down a tedious day job while he and his older brother Stanley try to get their big breaak as comedy writers in television or radio. Opportunity arrives with an invitation to submit a sketch to CBS, and the brothers scramble to kick off their careers just as their parents’ relationship seems to be entering its final chapter.

Multiple storylines weave in and out of the story as Eugene works toward his future. His older brother Stanley is itching to move to the city. His mom Kate’s father Ben is living with the family for now. His pop Jack is spending more and more time away from home, and rumors are flying. His widowed Aunt Blanche has remarried and moved out, and her new husband became successful and wealthy in the post-war economy. And Eugene has met and fallen for the girl he will eventually marry, though that isn’t so certain at present.

Director Alan Knoll, who also directed Brighton Beach Memoirs, employs a light touch that nonetheless marks each moment with just the right pause, creating

space for laughter, sighs and a touch of sorrow. Jacob Flekier returns as Eugene, effortlessly picking up the conversation with the audience as if we visited with his teenage self just last week. Eugene is more self-assured, with a bit more reflection and maturity added to his obser-

vations, though he hasn’t lost his sharp tongue or quick retorts.

Also returning from the 2019 cast are Spencer Kruse as older brother Stanley and Chuck Brinkley as Eugene’s dad, Jack. Both of these characters have matured in ways that aren’t always flattering and neither performer shies away from the flaws. Jack is particularly conflicted and, at times, downright unlikeable, Brinkley shows his character’s pain and self-awareness without trying to win the audience over.

Jenni Ryan is surprisingly sympathetic as the nervous and overly critical (on everyone including herself) Kate. Bob Harvey is funny and mostly endearing as grandfather Ben; he’s also stubborn, judgmental and caring beneath his gruff exclamations. Christina Rios finds layers of life experience and emotion in Kate’s sister Blanche, turning in a memorable, poignant performance in only a few scenes.

Filled with snappy one-liners and witty observations, Broadway Bound is vibrant, hopeful and quite funny, if a bit period specific and cerebral. There’s some real sadness and bittersweet depth to the story as well, illustrating both Eugene’s maturity and the fact that not every story has a happy ending, even in a comedy. n

Guest actor Summer Baer plays Filberta in e Golden Record. | PPA ALUMNI

Written by Neil Simon. Directed by Alan Knoll. Presented by New Jewish Theatre through Sunday, February 5. Showtimes vary by day.

Eugene and Stanley celebrate in Broadway Bound. | JON GITCHOFF

OUT EVERY NIGHT

Each 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, especially in the age of COVID-19, so do check with the venue for the most up-to-date information before you head out for the night. Happy showgoing!

THURSDAY 26

BUTCH MOORE: 4 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

DIESEL ISLAND: 8 p.m., $15-$20. Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave, St. Louis.

THE HAMILTON BAND: 9 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

THE IAN BUSCHMANN PROJECT: 8 p.m., $15-$20. The Dark Room, 3610 Grandel Square inside Grandel Theatre, St. Louis, 314-776-9550.

KARAOKE WITH SHAGGY SOUNDS: 5 p.m., free. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 S. Kingshighway, 2nd floor, St. ouis, - - .

NICK SWARDSON: 7:30 p.m., $39.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

TAYLOR PIETZ AND MICHAEL AMOROSO: 7 p.m., $10. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

FRIDAY 27

DREW SHEAFOR: 7 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

FLYING HOUSE: w/ Mike Martin & the Sticky Keys, Melissa Russell 7:30 p.m., $12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

GHOST KITCHEN: 7 p.m., $10. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

JAMESON RODGERS: 8 p.m., free. Ballpark Village, 601 Clark Ave, St. Louis, 314-345-9481.

JASON SCROGGINS & CECIL TIMMON: 4 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

JAY COAST: w/ Umami, Ferriss, Ricky Wolfe, Eric Dontè 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

THE JAZZ TROUBADOURS: 7 p.m., free. Evangeline’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644.

LARYSA JANE: 9:30 p.m., $20. The Dark Room, 3610 Grandel Square inside Grandel Theatre, St. Louis, 314-776-9550.

MISSISSIPPI CLEAN: 5 p.m., $10. The Attic Music ar, 2 S. ingshighway, 2nd floor, St. ouis, 314-376-5313.

MOM’S KITCHEN: 4 p.m., $14. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

MY DEAR WATSON: 7:30 p.m., $20-$45. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

OLD CAPITAL SQUARE DANCE CLUB: w/ Peter Porcelain 9 p.m., $10-$15. Central Stage, 3524 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

RICKY SKAGGS & KENTUCKY THUNDER: 8 p.m., $43-$56. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

SHAELYN ROLF DAYDREAM SINGLE RELEASE

PARTY: 8 p.m., $20. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

THE SLEEPY RUBIES: w/ the Adam Maness Trio 7:30 p.m., $22. Jazz St. Louis, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000.

WILLIAM DAFREND: w/ Swamp Lion, A Living Hell, Kilverez 8 p.m., $10. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

SATURDAY 28

AARON KAMM AND THE ONE DROPS: 10 p.m., $16. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

ALL ROOSTERED UP: noon, free. Broadway Oyster

Angel Olsen w/ Erin Rae

8 p.m. Saturday, January 28. e Factory, 17105 North Outer 40 Road, Chesterfield. 314-423-8500.

Stars: They’re just like us! In the specific case of singer-songwriter Angel Olsen, that means they were born and raised in St. Louis, attended punk and noise-rock shows at the Creepy Crawl and the Lemp Arts Center as they were growing up, and started a band at 16 with no small influence from No Doubt. The similarities end there, though, as Olsen decamped from her hometown for Chicago and eventually Asheville, North Carolina, all the while sharpening her musical chops and finally emerging as a staggering talent in the indie-rock world, an artistic force whose introspective lyricism and silken vocals have led her to collaborate with such lu-

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

ANGEL OLSEN: 8 p.m., $34.50-$64.50. The actory, N uter d, hesterfield, 314-423-8500.

BEDLAM BROTHERS: 7 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

DAN CUMMINS: 8 p.m., $29-$120. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

ELECTRIC AVENUE: THE 80’S MTV EXPERIENCE: 8 p.m., $20-$40. The Hawthorn, 2225 Washington Avenue, St. Louis.

GATEWAY CITY HARDCORE PRESENTS: A MEMORIAL FOR BLAKE FOWLER: 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

KENDALL DAVIDSON ALBUM RELEASE SHOW: 8 p.m., $20. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

minaries as Mark Ronson, Sharon Van Etten and Cass McCombs. Olsen’s latest, June’s Big Time, sees the folk-rock poet incorporating a hefty dose of country twang into her work, with pedal steel and heartache at the forefront of most of its 10 tracks. It’s an album that vacillates fluidly from joy to sorrow and back again, in keeping with the events of Olsen’s life during the run up to its release, which in 2021 saw both of her adoptive parents pass not long after she came out as gay. The grief and love that she channeled to craft these songs are heart-on-sleeve evident, and the result is easily one of her strongest records to date.

Folk Yeah: Opening the show is Nashville’s Erin Rae, an up-and-coming singersongwriter whose folk-pop stylings have earned her comparisons to Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne. —Daniel Hill

LEE DEWYZE: 7:30 p.m., $20. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

NEW FOUND GLORY: 8:30 p.m., $37.50. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

RYAN MARQUEZ: 10 p.m., $20. The Dark Room, 3610 Grandel Square inside Grandel Theatre, St. Louis, 314-776-9550.

SCHOOL OF ROCK: noon, $15. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

THE SCHWAG: 9 p.m., $10. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

SYNOPTIC FREQUENCIES 4: FOREST MANAGEMENT: w/ Henry Claude/NNN Cook/Damon Smith Trio 6 p.m., $10. Saint Louis University-Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA), 3700 W. Pine Mall, St. Louis, 314-977-7170.

UP ALL NIGHT: 5 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 2 S. ingshighway, 2nd floor, St. ouis, 314-376-5313.

WIL ROBINSON VS. DAKOTA PAGAN: 8 p.m., $20. Central Stage, 3524 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

SUNDAY 29

COLT BALL: 2 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

ERIC LYSAGHT: 9 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

ERIK BROOKS: 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA: 7:30 p.m., $46-$66. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

MISS JUBILEE AND THE YAS YAS BOYS: 11 a.m., free. Evangeline’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644.

PAUL BONN AND THE BLUESMEN: 3 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

MONDAY 30

ANDY COCO & CO.: 5 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

MONDAY NIGHT REVIEW WITH TIM, DANNY, AND RANDY: 7 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

SOULARD BLUES BAND: 9 p.m., $8. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

TUESDAY 31

J.D. HUGHES: 5 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

MONSOON: w/ the Rose Court, Fever Pitch 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

NAKED MIKE: 7 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

WEDNESDAY 1

DREW LANCE: 4:30 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

JOHN MCVEY BAND: 7 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

MARGARET & FRIENDS: 3 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

THE ST. LOUIS STEADY GRINDERS: 7 p.m., $10. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

VOODOO PHISH: 9 p.m., $10. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

THIS JUST IN

100 GECS: Sat., April 15, 8 p.m., $30. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

120 MINUTES: TRIBUTE TO THE RAMONES, THE SPECIALS, AND THE CLASH: Fri., Feb. 24, 7 p.m., $10. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

CHUCK FLOWERS: Fri., May 19, 7 p.m., $25. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

CLUTCH: Fri., May 12, 8 p.m., $37.50-$59.50. The actory, N uter d, hesterfield, 314-423-8500.

CRYSTAL LADY - GOLDEN BIRTHDAY BASH: Sat., Feb. 25, 8 p.m., $10. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

DIESEL ISLAND: Fri., March 10, 7 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

DREW LANCE: Wed., Feb. 1, 4:30 p.m., free.

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

ILLENIUM: Tue., June 27, 7:30 p.m., $55-$69.50.

The actory, N uter d, hesterfield, 314-423-8500.

Angel Olsen. | ANGELA RICCIARDI

Blake Fowler Memorial Show w/ Time and Pressure, Chemical Fix, Prevention, Direct Measure, Squint

8 p.m. Saturday, January 28. O Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $10. 314-498-6989.

St. Louis melodic hardcore act Time and Pressure is opening up the pit one last time this weekend for a special reunion in celebration of the life of their bassist Blake Fowler, who died by suicide in November to the shock and dismay of all who knew him. Friends and family remember the 22-year-old as a lover of music and a champion of the local hardcore scene, a kind soul who was quick to connect with people on a deep, emotional level. T&P will be joined by like-minded local acts Direct Measure and Squint, as

well as Philadelphia’s Chemical Fix and Prevention from Springfield, Illinois — all bands whose members counted themselves as Fowler’s friends.“He was a stellar representation of St. Louis hardcore as a whole,” Brennen Wilkinson, vocalist for Squint, says in a recent interview with the RFT. “Accepting, kind, tough, openminded and selfless. We all miss him very much.” Expect an emotional night of heavy riffs, active pits and catharsis in remembrance of a fallen friend.

For the Cause: All proceeds from the show will go to a GoFundMe set up by the members of Time and Pressure to assist his family with funeral expenses. That fundraiser has already brought in $17,000, and any extra money will be donated to Hope for the Day, a non-profit focused on suicide prevention. Give generously.

Stage, 2 ashington Avenue, St. ouis, - - .

SMIDLEY: Fri., March 31, 8 p.m., $12. Blueberry Hill - The uck oom, elmar lvd., niversity ity, - 2 - .

JAY COAST: W/ Umami, Ferriss, Ricky Wolfe, Eric Dontè, Fri., Jan. 27, 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

JEREMIAH JOHNSON BAND: Fri., March 10, 5 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 S. Kingshighway, 2nd floor, St. ouis, - - .

KAREN CHOI: Thu., Feb. 2, 8 p.m., $15-$20. Joe’s afe, ingsbury Ave, St. ouis.

MASTODON AND GOJIRA: Tue., Aug. 29, 7 p.m., $49.50-$89.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 d, hesterfield, - 2 - .

MISS JUBILEE AND THE YAS YAS BOYS: Sun., Jan. 2 , a.m., free. vangeline s, 2 N uclid Ave, St. ouis, - - .

MS. HY-C AND HER FRESH START BAND: Fri., April , p.m., 2 . National lues useum, ashington Ave., St. ouis.

OLD CAPITAL SQUARE DANCE CLUB: W/ Peter Porcelain, Fri., Jan. 27, 9 p.m., $10-$15. Central

SOMBA BOM: Fri., Feb. 17, 8 p.m., $15-$20. Joe’s afe, ingsbury Ave, St. ouis.

THE ST. LOUIS STEADY GRINDERS: Wed., Feb. 1, 7 p.m., $10. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, N oyle Ave, St. ouis, -2 - .

STORY OF THE YEAR: Sat., March 11, 8 p.m., $35. The ageant, elmar lvd., St. ouis, - 2 - .

VOODOO CSNY/DAVID CROSBY MEMORIAL: Wed., arch , p.m., . roadway yster ar, S. roadway, St. ouis, - 2 - .

VOODOO PHISH: Wed., Feb. 1, 9 p.m., $10. Wed., arch , p.m., . roadway yster ar, S. roadway, St. ouis, - 2 - .

WEDNESDAY: Thu., May 18, 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, emp Ave., St. ouis, - - .

ZACHARIA LLOYD & PORKCHOP EXPRESS: Fri., March 24, 5 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 2 S. ingshighway, 2nd floor, St. ouis, - - . n

—Daniel Hill

Blake Fowler. | VIA TIME AND PRESSURE

SAVAGE LOVE

Case Disclosed

BY DAN SAVAGE

Hey Dan: I’m a bisexual woman living in a major city. My boyfriend of about a year is HIV-positive. He’s been undetectable for more than a decade, but I’m on PrEP, just to be double-back-flip safe. I trust science, and I’m comfortable with this, in part thanks to your clear and honest conversations around HIV. We have been talking about playing with other couples or singles, but I’m super nervous about contracting herpes, and he agrees he doesn’t need that in his life either. I know it’s part of the risk, and I’m aware of all the stigma around having/getting herpes and other STIs. The thing is, I would like to have a very open conversation with our future hookups about testing and STI status. The problem: My partner does not disclose his status. Only a handful of people in his life know. Not even his family knows. How do we go about having a transparent conversation with potential hookups about status and risk if he’s not comfortable disclosing his HIV-positive status? We live in a state where it’s not illegal to withhold this information. Is lying the only option?

Risk Adverse Dame

First, a quick refresher on the science: If someone with HIV is taking their meds and has an undetectable viral load, that person is uninfectious; meaning, that HIV-positive person can’t — cannot — infect someone with HIV. An HIV-negative person is at greater risk of contracting HIV having unprotected sex, i.e., condomless sex, with someone who thinks they’re HIV-negative than they are having unprotected sex with someone who knows they’re HIV-positive and has an undetectable viral load. And while some argue it’s inaccurate to describe bareback sex with an HIV-positive person with an undetectable viral load as “unprotected,” since the meds themselves provide protection, HIV meds — including PrEP, which is a pill HIV-negative people can take to protect themselves from contracting HIV — offer no protection against gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, and other STIs. So, meds or no meds, PrEP or no PrEP, condomless sex still counts as unprotected sex.

A little more science: a study out of the UK found that more straight people were infected with HIV in 2020 than gay people. But while there were more total infections among straight men and women than among gay men — slightly more than a thousand new HIV infections in

2020 among straight people (1010) and slightly fewer than a thousand among gay men (940) — gay men still remain at significantly greater risk. Only 2.9 percent of men in the UK identify as gay men, while 93.7 percent of the population identifies as straight. Which means almost half of all new HIV infections were concentrated in less than 3 percent of the population, which is why health officials recommend that all gay and bi men get on PrEP.

OK, RAD, so you and your boyfriend wanna play with other couples; you wanna have open, honest and transparent conversations about STIs in advance of playing; your boyfriend doesn’t want to disclose the fact that he has HIV to anyone. Is lying the only option?

I guess so. If you want to have sex with other people and withhold this information — which means you would only be pretending to have those open, honest, and transparent conversations — then lying by omission and commission would indeed be your only option.

Now, you can make a solid case for not disclosing — your boyfriend is undetectable, he can’t infect anyone, you aren’t legally obligated to disclose where you live, you would presumably be using condoms to protect yourselves from other STIs — or you could have sex with couples who don’t wanna have a conversation about STIs in advance. But I’m guessing you don’t want to have sex with couples who aren’t willing to have the STI convo with you, RAD, for your own safety and peace of mind. Which means … you want other couples to be honest with you without having to be honest with them. That hardly seems fair, RAD, especially since you’ve made the choice get on PrEP for your own peace of mind. Denying other people you play with the opportunity to make that same choice for their own peace of mind isn’t fair either.

Look, I don’t always think HIV-positive people who pose no risk of spreading HIV — people with undetectable viral loads — are morally obligated to disclose their HIV status to casual and/or anonymous sex partners, though they might be legally obligated in some states by misguided HIV-disclosure laws. But we aren’t talking about anonymous sex partners here. We’re talking about other couples that you and your boyfriend claim to wanna have honest and transparent negotiations with about sexual safety.

There’s a very real chance that straight couples will refuse to play with you guys if he discloses; straight people and opposite-sex couples are far less likely to be informed about HIV and far more likely to reject HIV-positive partners who pose no risk to them in favor of presumed-to-be HIV-negative partners who do. Even worse, there’s a very real chance that word will

spread. People talk. The only workaround here that comes close to ethical — the only ethical-adjacent workaround — is for your boyfriend to refrain from having penetrative sex with other play partners. But even then, RAD, you will be failing to disclose information that your new play partners might feel they were entitled to, e.g., that your primary sex partner is HIV-positive.

Hey Dan: I am a 64-year-old bisexual woman. I contracted HPV about 10 years ago and went through a painful, expensive treatment that dragged on for three months. Since then, I have tested negative for it. My gyno said that I am HPV free. Is that possible? I thought HPV lasted forever. I have a new sex partner, my first in a few years. I have to tell him, right? Am I going to get throat cancer giving him blow jobs? Is he going to get esophageal cancer eating my pussy? Do we use condoms forever and plastic wrap on me? It makes me want to stay home and watch Grace and Frankie alone. We used condoms for the first couple of months and then agreed that since we were both disease-free to go without. But am I really disease-free? Stress Eating And Tense

“For most people, once HPV is cleared, it goes into an undetectable state and cannot be transmitted to future partners,” said Dr. Ina Park, a professor at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine and Medical Consultant for the Centers for Disease Control Division of STD Prevention. “In rare cases, people who cleared HPV can experience a reappearance — say, if their immune system becomes compromised — but this is NOT the norm. For someone who has been HPV free for 10 years, there’s no need to disclose a remote history of HPV to partners, and no need to use barriers unless both parties wish to do so. So, it’s ok to leave the plastic wrap in the kitchen!”

Worst-case scenario: let’s say you somehow wound up exposing your new boyfriend to HPV or he exposed you to a different strain. It can take 20 years and sometimes longer for an HPV infection to progress to cancer, which only a small percentage of HPV infections do. And I don’t mean to be callous, SEAT, but by then — 20 years from now — something else will have killed you already, or you’ll be ready to go. And whether you’re dying of cancer or something else a few decades from now, SEAT, I doubt you’ll be laying deathbed thinking, “Gee, I wish I’d gotten my pussy eaten less.”

P.S. And if you’re not too old to learn a new trick — and you’re not — use that plastic wrap to mummify your boyfriend.

Dr. Ina Park is the author of Strange Bedfellows: Adventures in the Science,

History, and Surprising Secrets of STDs. Follow her on Twitter @InaParkMd.

Hey Dan: I’m a 31-year-old straight male from Denver with a general question about finding dates. I’m 6’ 2”, in shape, have sought therapy, and I have a sixfigure salary — and I can’t get a date to save my life. I primarily use Hinge to find people, and I work from home and have a friend group that isn’t big on going out to events and such. What general advice do you have for people who are looking, and just aren’t having any success? Seems like so many people are going on regular dates, finding relationships, etc., and frankly I’m just struggling to figure out how they’re all doing it.

Love Eludes Dude

Whatever else you do — this is so important — don’t succumb to bitterness, as bitterness will make you radioactive to any woman you might manage to wind up on a date with.

Additionally, LED, you should ask your therapist to level with you about what you might be doing wrong. Do you behave in ways that make women feel uncomfortable, unsafe or uninterested? If your therapist isn’t comfortable telling you what you should or shouldn’t do, then ask them to work with you on identifying the interpersonal skills you might need to work on. Also, seeing as what you’re doing now isn’t working — lurking on Hinge, staying at home — try something else. Get on some other dating apps, LED, and get out of the house more. You don’t have to ditch the friends you already have, but you do need to make additional friends, e.g., meet some people who like going places, seeing things, and doing shit. The best way to meet those people, LED, is to go places, see things, and do shit on your own. Volunteer somewhere, join some clubs, find an adult sports league. These aren’t exactly blazing new insights on my part; with the exception dating apps, I could’ve lifted this advice from a 60-year-old Ann Landers column. But everything I’m telling you has been the standard, go-to advice for guys in your shoes for decades because it works.

Please note: Following this advice does not guarantee romantic success. But the more shit you’re out there doing and the more people you’re getting to know while you’re out there doing shit — the more you enjoy life — the less miserable you’ll feel. And the less miserable a single person is, LED, the more attractive he becomes to potential romantic partners.

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