Riverfront Times, October 26, 2022

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by JESSICA ROGEN

FRONT BURNER

FIVE QUESTIONS for Larry Lunceford of Grove Dawgs

Previously On LAST WEEK IN ST. LOUIS

MONDAY, OCTOBER 17 Following a week end of beautiful weather, an arctic blast shook St. Louis. Is 33 degrees always this miserable? Meanwhile, motorcycle deaths are way up. Missouri repealed its helmet law in 2020, and bikers have been dying since, aiding the Show-Me State’s quest to demonstrate that survival of the fittest means a lot of dead hoosiers

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18 Radioactive contamination was found at Florissant’s Jana Elementary. Now, students are moving to online learning until they can be shuffled into new schools. Online learning?? Wonder if Eric Schmitt will sue over that?

vinaigrette for years? That Nora Ephron knew how to toss a salad!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21 Glory Hallelujah, the weather is perfect. Hibernation, over; back to Googling “best patios for drink ing” and rounding up our rowdiest friends. Also, the new soccer stadium is still not at full power because St. Louis. A contractor knocked out the power, and the damaged conduit sat out in the rain — frying the main breakers. Now the $461 million stadium meant to instill regional pride runs on a backup generator. We can’t have nice things. And: Billy Busch, the brewing heir best known in these parts for beating up a sixth grader, says he’ll vote for Eric Schmitt over his own sister. Seems about right.

If you’ve ever shopped at Lowe’s or partied in the Grove, you’ve definitely seen him. He’s the man out there, grilling hot dogs, serving up a quick lunch or a late-night snack. His name is Larry Lunceford, a 52-year-old St. Louis native and owner/operator of Grove Dawgs. Lunceford has been serving up hot dogs all across the city since 2008. We caught up with Lunceford to learn more about himself and his hot dogs:

You say that you design hot dogs. What does that mean?

I’ve got a hot dog called the Homewrecker. I’m the only one that sells the Homewrecker. It’s an 18-inch, all-beef hot dog. You say you want mustard, relish, onions, barbecue sauce, jalapeño –– what ever you want [goes] on it. When I give it to you, the presentation will be so beautiful. It’s like art. Hot-dog Picasso.

How’d you get started doing the Homewrecker?

A lot of vendors I know in St. Louis, they pretty much just have like the bun-length hot dog. But I have the Homewrecker. And I’ve got the buns to match.

Where did you get 18-inch buns?

I can’t tell you that. I got two sleeves with a trick up each one [laughs].

Why hot dogs?

It’s not necessarily the hot dogs, it’s the people. I like to invest in people. I just use hot dogs as the tool to do that.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been out on the Grove at night, but I have this rule. There’s a certain crack in the concrete on both sides of the pull cart –– it’s like, no matter what you went through this week, when you get between those two cracks, just for that one little moment, you’re gonna walk away happy. You’re in the hotdog zone. You’re gonna hear some music, have some good food, probably with your friends.

I just talked to someone the other night, she met her [fiancé] at the hot-dog stand. This happens all the time.

What do you do for fun outside of making hot dogs?

Well, that — that is fun. You know what I mean? —Benjamin Simon

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19St. Louis po lice apologized after basically ignoring a tip alleging that a body had been buried in a shallow, north-city grave. It took resi dents — and Alderman Brandon Bosley — digging up a ribcage and skull to get them back on site. Finally, a good argument for St. Louis continuing to employ so many al dermen: they double as cadaver hunters.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20 Welp, turns out Liz Truss’ tenure as British prime minister did not last longer than a head of lettuce. Speaking of lettuce, has anyone else been making Olivia Wilde’s

ESCAPE HATCH

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22 The Post-Dis patch reports that Earl Weaver, the former county aide who pled guilty to four felonies over a kickback scheme, now toils as a salesman at Macy’s, proving it’s never too late for honest work. Also, someone robbed the Cure Violence program, which obviously did not cure violence here.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23Tower Grove Park is now 150 years old! Eat your heart out, Forest Park. Summery weather continues, leaving us torn between bliss and certainty that climate change will kill us all.

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

DMITRI JACKSON, photographer and cartoonist

Listening to: Hüsker Dü

“I’ve recently been reinvestigating the discography of Hüsker Dü. I’m mainly tackling their creatively fertile stretch from Zen Arcade to Ware house: Songs and Stories. I’m still amazed at the band’s level of quality control during this time, even on a small budget, still managing to pump out landmark after landmark record [in] just three to four years.”

THEO WELLING, photographer

Listening to: Dubb Nubb

“Lately I’ve had the song ‘Cowboy’ by Dubb Nubb on repeat. Really like that song. I honestly didn’t listen to their music over the 10-plus years they’ve been rocking. And they rock.”

SARAH LOVETT, photographer and Webster student

Listening to: the 1975

“Two songs I have on repeat are ‘If You’re Too Shy’ and ‘Oh Caroline.’ I have been listening to them absolutely nonstop as of late. They are one of my top indie bands to listen to.”

Larry Lunceford is the master of the hot-dog zone. | BENJAMIN SIMON

DUMPSTER WATCH

SO ST. LOUIS

e Big American Welcome

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

It was a month or so after mov ing to St. Louis from my small northern hometown in Canada — and not even a full week after importing my car — that I was involved in my first hit and run.

He was trying to turn out of the Walgreens parking lot at Hamp ton and Chippewa — across two lanes of oncoming traffic no less — and managed to steer himself into my back end. I bailed into the left turn lane to dodge the bulk of the damage.

Thankfully, no one was hurt, there were only scrapes and scratches including a chunk off

my brand-new winter tires. The young man responsible for the crash? He kept on driving as if nothing had happened. I’m not sure if it was disbelief, shock or road rage, but I decided to follow behind at a safe distance trying to compel him to pull over while my spouse called the police. At that time, the 911 dispatcher gave possibly the best advice anyone’s offered us: Pull off and do not fol low someone who’s already done something possibly illegal.

An officer coming to the scene, seeing my Ontario license plates, said, “Welcome to St. Louis. It was bound to happen eventually.”

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

[QUOTE

“What an effing article! Kudos to the RFT for finding an uncut gem right smack dab in our own backyard. Who the F knew? Much love to ‘Big Shot!’ BRING HOME da BACON!!!”

- Jason Barton, reacting to our October 19 story on boxer Stephan Shaw

HARTMANN

Too Little, Too Late

certain that the creek itself is the source of the waste found at the school. The loathsome federal bu reaucrats who customarily mini mize the horror of the radioactive waste — perhaps on their ways to rotting in hell — may well point out that the new data was revealed y la firms ith evil motives such as compensating humans for government in icted suffering.

BY RAY HARTMAN

The bombshell news story that just gripped St. Louis with fear over nuclear radiation was a little late in uncovering shocking revelations. ifty years late, to e s ecific. And 80 years late dating back to the original sin. first re orted on cto ber 15 that Boston Chemical Data Corp. had discovered unsafe lev els of radioactive waste at Jana Elementary School in the Hazel wood School District. The inde pendent analysis found 22 times the expected level of the poison ous waste inside the school.

Three days after the KMOV story broke, the Hazelwood School Dis trict took the seemingly bold step of acting immediately to close the school. The kids would go straight to virtual learning until this year’s end, when they’d be distributed to other schools.

At first lush, that came across like an uncommonly prompt and decisive action by a school district trying to head off a terrible situa tion. People could at least breathe a sigh of relief that these kids were removed from danger.

Nothing could be further from capturing the essence of a horror story that will be remembered as by far the worst environmental disaster in the history of St. Louis. Because there’s this:

Jana Elementary School may well have been poisoned since the day the school was dedicated on October 1, 1972.

he school sits on the ood lain of Coldwater Creek, which has been contaminated with some of the deadliest radioactive sub stances ever to exist on the planet. And that contamination in many cases dates back all the way to that day — 50 years ago this month — that Jana Elementary opened.

To be fair, it cannot be said for

And government in icted it has been. Consider some context. The story began in 1942 with the fa mous Manhattan Project, for which St. Louis’ Mallinckrodt Chemical Works had been selected to execute a top-secret mission: enriching ura nium for the orld s first controlled nuclear chain reaction.

For 15 years, the company re fined uranium do nto n, yielding tons of hazardous waste without a clue of how or where to dispose of it. When space ran out down town, it would be transported to a site near Lambert Airport, where it as first uried in steel drums but ultimately would land via un covered dump trucks in two land fills one on atty oad, the other at est ake andfill in ridgeton.

The government had a name for the waste material. They referred to it as “poisons.”

The treacherous substances now bear names like uranium-238 (with a half-life of 4.5 billion years) and thorium-232 (with a half-life of 14 billion years). But incomprehensible lifespans aren’t the half of it. The ensuing crisis would be unleashed by wind and rain, blowing thorium dust into the air people breathed.

And perhaps most dreadfully, the poisons (and chemicals in tended to extract them) would seep into the banks and waters of beautiful Coldwater Creek.

This is not just any little creek. It’s a picturesque tributary wind ing through about 15 miles of St. Louis County, spanning commu nities such as Florissant, Hazel wood, Black Jack, Spanish Lake, St. Ann, Berkeley and Ferguson. It runs past schools, golf courses and soccer fields.

For decades, American-dream suburban homes had been built along its banks. Kids played in it constantly, swimming, skipping rocks and searching for crawdads and more. he creek often ood ed, its lethal waters seeping into gardens from which residents

thought they were eating healthy vegetables.

Instead, they were poisoned.

In 2008, some of those children of Coldwater Creek celebrated the 20-year class reunion of McCluer North High School. Everything seemed fine. ut ithin just a fe short years, they would come face to face with the horror that the contamination had wrought.

One of their classmates had de veloped a brain tumor and died a few months later, at age 40, leav ing behind four children. Another died of uterine cancer at age 40. Two more died from appendix cancer. Still another brain tumor was diagnosed. And one died from a rare case of nonsmoking lung cancer. All in the space of less than two years.

By the time I wrote a 2013 col umn on this in St. Louis Maga zine, the numbers accumulated by some heroic young women (them selves victims) on a Facebook page called “Coldwater Creek: Just the Facts” bore shocking testimo ny. Here’s just a portion of what I’d learned nine years ago:

“Members of the page have re ported more than 2,500 cases of cancer, autoimmune diseases, and birth defects. The data contains more than 100 reports of brain tu mors and cancers, more than 50 cases of thyroid cancer, and more than 30 cases of appendix cancer — a stunning number, considering it’s a rare disease affecting fewer than 1,500 people annually.

“There are dozens of cases of leukemia, multiple sclerosis and lymphoma. There’s amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, pancreatic can cer, and more. There are a stun

ning number of reports of infertil ity, in addition to the birth-defect cases. There have been three sep arate cases of conjoined twins (a statistical anomaly if ever there was one). There were three babies born with only one ear, another without either eyeball.”

I can’t imagine how much those numbers have grown since. But this isn’t a story about statistics. It’s about your federal govern ment — across party lines — hav ing wreaked unspeakable suffer ing on generations of innocent citizens. It’s not hard to imagine Jana alumni being among them.

The people responsible for the Manhattan Project are dead by virtue of old age, unless the poi sons (or some other cause) got to them sooner. The villains of the story have been an unending se ries of federal bureaucrats more concerned about budgets and pro cess than people.

After decades of willful igno rance, the government pretended to get serious about the problem in 1989, when the Department of En ergy first re orted the resence of radioactive material in and along the creek. It was placed on the “Na tional Priorities List” of the EPA Su perfund project that year.

Yet as we learned just a week ago, the material is still destroy ing the health and lives of people 33 years later. Some priorities list.

And for those of us that have at tended many of the tearful public hearings on the subject, one clear theme has emerged: The federal bureaucrats cannot bring them selves to care.

For now, the focus needs to be about taking care of the kids of Jana Elementary School. Hope fully there will be a way to clean up the poisons and get them back to school, in person.

In the meantime, it’s worth ask ing some health questions about the kids who attended Jana over the past 50 years, along with teachers and others who worked at the school. They might be, to borrow my own phrase from 2013, just like the other poisoned children of Coldwater Creek. n

Jana Elementary’s quick closure over radioactive waste belies at least one devastating detail

Ray Hartmann founded the Riverfront Times in 1977. Contact him at rhartmann1952@ gmail.com or catch him at 7 p.m. on Thurs days on Nine PBS and St. Louis in the Know with Ray Hartmann from 9-11 p.m. Monday through Friday on KTRS (550 AM).

The essence of horror: Jana Elementary School may well have been poisoned since the day the school was dedicated on October 1, 1972.

Shooting Shakes St. Louis

Police killed a former student a er he briefly terrorized CVPA High School, killing 2 and injuring 7 more

Written by MONICA OBRADOVIC AND RYAN KRULL

Three eo le died and seven more were injured after a gunman entered entral isu al and erforming Arts igh chool onday morning. t. ouis Interim olice ommis sioner ike ack said one adult female and one teenage female died from gunfire. he oman, ho has een identified as health teacher ean uc ka, died after rushed her to a hos ital. uc ka, , re ortedly shielded students from gunfire hen the shooter entered her classroom. A year old student, Ale andria ell, died at the school. a enforcement received a call notifying them of an active shooter at a ro imately a.m. fficers arrived at a.m. and located the sus ect at a.m. e as fatally ounded in a gunfight t o minutes after.

ack identified the sus ect as rlando arris, , and said he entered the arts magnet school ith a cali er, A style ri e and more than rounds of am munition on his erson, including seven maga ines of ammunition on a chest rig and an additional eight maga ines in a field ag.

i hundred rounds is a lot of ammunition, ack said. his could have een a horrific scene, ut it asn t y the grace of od. arris graduated from the school last year, hich sits at ingshigh ay and Arsenal near o er rove ark in south t. ouis. A ro imately stu dents are enrolled there, accord ing to the ational enter for du cation tatistics. he school also shares a uilding ith a second magnet school, ollegiate chool

of edicine and ioscience.

According to ack, the teenager alked u to the school and made no attem t to hide his ea on. he doors ere locked. even secu rity officers ere stationed at the school, and metal detectors ere set u in at least one entrance.

ack ould not comment on how the shooter entered the school.

o give the ans er is really of fering an opportunity for some ody else ho ould ant to try

to get into a school, ack said. olice said that arris had no criminal record and that they had recovered a manifesto from arris car.

I don t have any friends. I don t have any family, olice said it read. I ve never had a girlfriend. I ve never had a social life. I ve een an isolated loner my hole life. his as the erfect storm for a mass shooting.

Students and parents de

scri ed a harro ing morning, as children feared for their lives and arents feared for the lives of their children.

I sa some shots, indo s reaking, and I heard, All of you are gonna die, A student e ya uster told the RFT. e sounded so angry, so aggressive.

tudent erese uster said that banging noises and the sounds of indo s reaking could e heard throughout the uilding. uster

Students, parents and teachers gather outside of the Schnucks on Arsenal before buses transported them to Gateway School. | MONICA OBRADOVIC

Police swarm the area around CVPA on Monday. | MONICA OBRADOVIC

“Police had to burst into my room because I refused to open the door unless I knew it wasn’t the shooter,” one teacher said.

and other students said they saw students jumping out of secondoor indo s.

e ere terrified for our life, one student said.

ou hear a out these school shootings around the orld, ut you never think it’s going to hap en here, said edra reeman, a arent of a student.

ne A arent ith t o chil dren enrolled at the school says

she looked at her hone to see a te t from her son. y son said,

om I m a out to die, I s ear to od. hen my other son, his t in rother said, om, there s an in truder in the school, you got to come get us no .

Sack says that the surviving vic tims are all in sta le condition. hey suffered from a variety of injuries, from gunshot to shra nel ounds.

hile on a er e have nine victims — eight were transported and one remained — we have hundreds of others, ack said. “Everyone who survived is going to take home trauma.

After the shooting, students and school staff gathered at the chnucks on Arsenal. arents were seen rushing to the high school. hocked teenagers sat in circles efore uses trans orted

them a ay to ate ay chool to reunite ith arents.

One teacher who asked the RFT not to print their name said that students and teachers knew there was a shooting in progress when they heard iles avis in the uilding over the intercom.

iles avis in the uilding is code for a school shooting, accord ing to the teacher.

he teacher said students took shelter in their room for a ro i mately minutes.

olice had to urst into my room ecause I refused to o en the door unless I kne it asn t the shooter, the teacher said.

ur children shouldn t have to e erience this, t. ouis ayor ishaura ones said onday at a ne s conference. hey shouldn t have to go through active shooter drills in case something ha ens, and unfortunately [it] ha ened today.

he sus ect, arris, a ears to have lived most recently in the city s arondelet neigh orhood in a nicely maintained small house ith allo een decorations.

eigh ors told a re orter that la enforcement vehicles, elong ing to oth olice and I, sho ed u around a.m. onday.

immy ilkerson, a arehouse manager and military veteran ho orks on the lock, said arris home as al ays uiet, the last lace you d e ect to e involved ith something like that. e as surprised by the sudden swarm of olice. aid ilkerson, I haven t seen that many guns since Ira . n

A crowd of approximately 100 people gather for a vigil in Tower Grove Park on Monday evening. | BENJAMIN SIMON

Attendees comfort one another during Monday night’s vigil. | BENJAMIN SIMON Community members le flowers and notes outside of the high school. | JESSICA ROGEN

Union Busting

Ladue Starbucks sta ers go on strike a er union organizer Bradley Rohlf fired

Written by BENJAMIN SIMON

After an employee was fired last Friday morning, Ladue Starbucks employees went on strike, forcing the store to close.

Bradley Rohlf, a shift supervisor, says he was fired for his role as a union organizer and for wearing union-related Tshirts.

“They’re just trying to dig up any kind of details they can to find a reason that they can justify firing me,” he says.

Rohlf showed up at 6:15 a.m. for his regular shift. Shortly after, his store manager and another local-area store manager called Rohlf into a meeting and fired him.

In its official termination note, Star bucks issued three reasons for firing Rohlf, including two no-shows in June, COVID-19 protocol violations and dress-

Finding a Name

Detective Jodi Weber asks for the public’s help in IDing a fi h victim of the “Package Killer” serial murderer

Written by RYAN KRULL

O’Fallon Police Department Ser geant Jodi Weber, the detective who solved the so-called “Package Killer” serial-murder cold case, is reach ing out to the public with new information and a request for the public’s assistance.

Weber’s years of investigative work came to fruition last month when prosecuting attorneys in three jurisdictions announced homicide charges against Gary Muehlberg, 73, for four murders he allegedly committed in 1990 and 1991.

Muehlberg left the victim’s bodies in various containers — between two mattresses, in a plastic garbage can, in a metal barrel — leading him to be dubbed the Package Killer.

He has been in law enforcement custody since 1993, when he murdered an acquaintance, Kenneth “Doc” Atchison.

When Weber confronted Muehlberg in prison earlier this year with DNA evidence, he confessed to three additional

code violations.

“It’s the same way — if a police officer follows anyone driving for long enough, they’re going to find some reason to pull him over,” Rohlf says.

Starbucks has not respond to a request for comment.

At 7 a.m. Friday, almost all of the work ers walked out, and the store closed due to a lack of staffing. The unionized staff con tinued striking throughout the weekend.

“Show Starbucks that you can’t mess with us,” Rohlf says. “If you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. That’s what a union is.”

Rohlf believes he was fired for his union ization efforts, despite the termination note. He says the attendance violations are months old. The COVID-19 protocol violations, he adds, are weeks-old and are minor errors on worker check-in forms.

Rohlf says the so-called dress-code vio lations result from his union-related attire. He claims this is illegal after the National Labor Relations Board ruled in Septem ber that employers cannot ban staffers from wearing union attire.

The week after their previous strike in September, management met with Rohlf and three other staff members and told them to stop wearing union-related Tshirts, arguing they were in violation of Starbucks’ dress code.

“Almost everyone in the store had

been wearing those shirts every once in a while on a semi-regular basis,” Rohlf says. “Some of us wear it more than others. But they only discipline four of the most vocal union organizers in the store, including myself.”

Rohlf continued to occasionally wear the shirt until he was fired.

In June, the Ladue Starbucks, located at the intersection of Lindbergh Boulevard and Clayton Avenue, became the first of five Starbucks locations in the area to unionize. Staff at nearly 251 Starbucks in the U.S. have unionized over the last year.

But in late September, workers at the

Ladue Starbucks held a one-day strike, claiming the company had cut the hours of employees, leading to understaffing, longer wait times and worker burnout in retaliation for their unionization efforts.

Workers across the country have accused Starbucks of firing workers for unionization efforts. In January, seven members at a unionizing Memphis Starbucks were fired. A federal judge later reinstated them.

Rohlf says he doesn’t want to stop working at Starbucks and plans to file an unfair labor practice charge.

“We’re fighting for each other’s livelihoods,” he says. n

but he thinks he held onto her body for the longest, maybe even for years.

Weber says that puts the approximate time of this woman’s abduction anywhere between 1989 and 1991.

There are also some discrepancies surrounding where Muehlberg left the unidentified victim’s body.

Muehlberg says he left her body in a metal barrel at the Ram Jet self-service car wash on Natural Bridge Road in Berkeley during winter.

However, the son of the car wash’s owner as well as a Pagedale municipal employee say that they remember a woman’s body being found at a different Ram Jet on Pennsylvania Avenue.

murders: Robyn Mihan, 18, Brenda Pruitt, 27, and Sandy Little, 21.

Then he wrote Weber a letter confessing to two more: 40-year-old Donna Reitmeyer and a fifth woman whose name he doesn’t remember — if he ever knew it to begin with.

Weber says she is preparing next month to testify before a grand jury in St. Charles County, the jurisdiction handling the homicide of Little, whose body was found in a homemade box in O’Fallon, Missouri, in February 1991. For decades she was believed to be the Package Killer’s final victim.

As the prosecution against the alleged serial murderer progresses, Weber is asking for the public’s help identifying that fifth victim, about whose identity

Muehlberg seems to have only retained the most threadbare of clues.

According to Weber, Muehlberg has said the unidentified woman was white, with shoulder-length, dark brown hair.

Weber says that Muehlberg remembers picking up one of the women he killed from the Wedge bar at the corner of Bates and Virginia in St. Louis’ Carondelet neighborhood.

“He was in the bar that night,” she says, adding that if anyone knows anything about a woman last seen there to please contact law enforcement.

Weber says that Muehlberg dumped the unidentified victim’s body last of all the women he killed, meaning that it would have been after February 1991. He doesn’t remember when he abducted the woman,

“Muehlberg says it was at one car wash. And we have two people that say, ‘No, there was a body dumped at a different car wash.’ He’s adamant that it was that specific car wash on Natural Bridge,” Weber says.

She says it’s entirely possibly that there were bodies discovered at both car washes.

“We need the public’s help,” Weber says. “If anyone knows about a body being disposed of at a car wash in the St. Louis area, please call us. Any of the past investigators should know something.”

Muehlberg has told Weber he’s talking to someone in prison to help recover memories. But prison officials say there’s no one like that on staff.

“So I don’t know about the qualifications of the person he’s talking to,” she says. n

Gary Muehlberg is in custody for the 1993 murder of Kenneth “Doc”

Atchison. | COURTESY PHOTO

Workers at a Ladue Starbucks walked out a a er a union organizer was fired. | BRADLEY ROHLF

MISSOURILAND

Rallying

Jubilant St. Louisans gathered to celebrate a Blues home opener that concluded with a nail-biting finish

Photos by SARAH LOVETT

Words by JESSICA ROGEN

On the day of the Blues’ home opener, the real party took place outside the Enterprise Center — the game itself elicited more of a sigh of re lief than wild jubilation.

Things started out swimmingly for the St. Louis NHL team as the players built a 2-0 lead against the Columbus Blue Jackets on October 15. But then, a backslide, as its Ohio opponent picked up its game to match the score. Many a nail in

the sold-out arena was bitten well into the third period until for ward Ivan Barbashev broke the streak with a goal that was soon followed by two from left and right wingers Jack Neighbours and Vladimir Tarasenko.

The evening ended 5-2 Blues. Phew.

But things were different on the plaza at St. Louis Union Sta tion. Beginning at 3 p.m. on the unseasonably balmy day, crowds of excited St. Louisans dressed in Blues gear and buzzing with ener gy gathered for the 2022 Opening Night Rally.

In addition to enjoying appear ances from Louie, Blues broad caster Chris Kerber, Chairman Tom Stillman, General Manager Doug Armstrong and Hall-of-Fam er Al MacInnis, attendees sampled a host of food and entertainment options. That included live music from y riend ike, an in at able snapshot, street hockey, face painting and a T-shirt toss.

Union Station projected the game onto a screen, and if that took the exultant mood down a notch at any point — at least the Blues pulled through for a win. n

A CELEBRATION OF THE UNIQUE AND FASCINATING ASPECTS OF OUR HOME

SCREWED IN THE

THE BOOTHEEL

Hospitals have closed. Reproductive health care is almost nonexistent. In southeast Missouri, the present — and future — is grim

BY MONICA OBRADOVIC

Christy Mershon has heard her fair share of hor ror stories. As the proprietor of a haunted house in Cape Girardeau, she’s heard, and lived, literal spine-tinglers of doors slamming and unseen chil dren laughing.

But it’s the real-life situations that scare Mershon the most — particularly through her work advocating for better access to reproductive health care and education in southeast Missouri.

As a volunteer with the Mis souri Foundation for Health and a former chair of Bootheel Babies and Families, an infant-mortality reduction initiative in the area, Mershon has witnessed it all.

She’s known young men to use plastic bags as condoms and later seek care when the bags’ seals cut their genitals. She’s been bull dozed by public school adminis trators for trying to implement anything other than abstinencebased sex education. She’s en countered women who’ve used meth to terminate their pregnan cies — the closest abortion clinic for most people in southeast Mis souri is an hour away in Carbon dale, Illinois.

On the surface, southeast Mis souri is no different from any other predominantly rural area.

People faithfully support high school football teams and go to Friday night games. Walmarts in

medium-sized towns serve as the designated shopping spots. Most residents attend Sunday church services and align themselves with conservative or Republican politics.

Yet compared to other rural ar eas, southeast Missouri is almost always on the low end of statisti cal hierarchies. People here die younger. Fewer students gradu ate high school. Babies have the same chance of surviving their first years of life as those in third world countries.

The area’s hospitals are few and far between. With general health care so hard to access for most, reproductive health care is the last thing on people’s minds. But that is where the region’s health

PHOTOS BY SARAH LOVETT

disparities are the steepest.

Near Caruthersville in New Madrid County, cotton bolls dot miles of fields like thou sands of tiny snowballs.

It’s late September in the Bootheel — the middle of harvest season. Fertile land in the region nurtures crops from cotton to soybeans. At one point, Sikeston, in Scott County, housed more millionaires per capita than any other town its size. Now, the far ther south you travel, abandoned structures rot on the side of the interstate. Stores advertised at exits aren’t much more than Dol lar Generals and gas stations.

In the Bootheel, a corrugated group of counties in the south ernmost corner of Missouri, cot ton production is at its most con centrated in the state. The plant, colloquially referred to as “white gold,” brings southeast Missouri upwards of $250 million every year. According to local lore, teen agers slashed a few farmers’ cot ton bales one year and cost them thousands of dollars.

Yet, despite what wealth a

This reporting was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Reproductive Rights Reporting Fund.

Pemiscot Memorial Hospital in Hayti has no specialists or obstetric care.

HEALTH CARE CRISIS

lucky few in southeast Missouri reap from agriculture, the area is one of the poorest regions of the state. All of the area’s counties have poverty rates far higher than the state average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“Whether you’re a million aire farmer or a poor person of color, your service is going to be roughly the same,” Mershon says. “Almost everyone lives dozens of miles away from the nearest hos pital.”

Five of the 10 counties in south east Missouri have no hospital, according to the Missouri Depart ment of Health and Senior Servic es. A major hospital popular with residents closed four years ago.

Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center in Kennett, Missouri, was shuttered after a failed corporate buyout.

The last major health-care pro vider before crossing state lines is Pemiscot Memorial Hospital in Hayti, though some residents avoid going there if they can. The hospital has no specialists or ob stetric care. Its exterior is ragged.

Rumors that the small hospital would close have come and gone in recent years, but it surpris ingly eat out its fiercest com eti tor when Twin Rivers in Kennett shuttered.

Kim Hughes, director of nurs ing for the Dunklin County Health Department, says Twin Rivers’ closure blindsided Kennett’s com munity.

“It was a shock,” Hughes says. “We thought no one would close this hospital.”

Twin Rivers was one of the area’s largest employers. For a medical center of its medi um size, it offered expansive care for patients. It housed the ootheel s only full time GYN and offered inpatient, emer gency room and outpatient servic es. Generations of mothers went there to have their babies.

In the year leading up to the hospital’s closure, there were rumors that the hospital would close, Hughes says.

According to reports at the time, Community Health Systems, which owned the hospital, had lost over $2 billion after it acquisitioned a for rofit hos ital chain leeding from debt and legal woes.

“You hear things like that, but you think, ‘It’s never going to hap pen to us,’” Hughes says. “Well, it did, and it’s devastating.”

The empty hospital remains along Kennett’s First Street. Plans for its crumbling shell have bloomed and died since then. Ev ery year or so, residents hear of a new developer who either wants to revive the hospital or tear it down. Nothing ever happens.

Most Kennett patients now cross state lines to Arkansas or Tennessee to receive care. An urgent-care center opened across the street from the former hospi tal after it closed, which has been helpful, but it doesn’t replace a hospital, Hughes says.

Julie Helfer, who worked in Twin Rivers’ mother-baby unit alongside Hughes, says doctors outside of Kennett stepped up to care for their pregnant patients after the hospital’s abrupt clo sure. Now, expectant mothers in the area travel to nearby hospitals outside of the state if they can.

“We’re in a high-poverty coun ty,” Helfer says. “Not all of our moms can afford the transporta tion to get back and forth.”

Among southeast Missouri’s 10 counties, Dunklin County is one of the poorest. A little over 20 per cent of its residents live in poverty — well above Missouri’s average of 12.7 percent. Kennett is Dunk lin’s county seat and its largest community.

Deb Cook, the head nurse for Kennett School District, fears her students and their families don’t receive medical attention as of ten as they should. Driving to and

from a doctor for a crisis would require at least a half-day trip, a feat too expensive for some.

“If you have any complications at all, you always have to drive somewhere,” Cook says. “That’s a challenge for these families.”

There are times Cook waits 40 minutes for ambulances to arrive during school emergencies. They then take students out of town to facilities that their parents some times have no way of getting to.

Cook, like many nurses who still

Despite the wealth from cotton, the region is one of the poorest in the state.

Health care advocates Christy Mershon (le ) and Kendra Eads (right) have seen health care in southeast Missouri deteriorate.

live in the area, worked in the Twin Rivers hospital. She wasn’t there when it closed but spent several years tending to patients in the hospital’s emergency room.

“It was a busy emergency room,” she recalls. “It was needed.”

Helfer and Hughes wonder where mothers in Kennett go for emergencies now.

“I don’t know how many times me and Julie had patients come up to the unit profusely bleeding,” Hughes says. “Their babies are not going to make it in an ambu lance [if they have to] call 911 and drive all the way to a hospital.”

Between 2002 and 2012, more than 6,200 Missouri babies died efore their first irthdays. ne third of those deaths occurred in just two areas, the Bootheel and St. Louis, according to the Mis souri Foundation for Health. Five of the seven Missouri counties with the highest infant mortality rates are located in southeast and south central Missouri.

A large portion of rural coun ties in the U.S. do not have obstet ric units, facilities s ecifically for babies to be born. Four obstetric units serve all of southeast Mis

souri’s 10 counties — an area where about 300,000 people live. In St. Louis, people have at least 17 options.

For most in the Bootheel, what ever options are available are too far away.

Pregnant people who go into la bor in Hayti, for example, have three options for obstetrics units. They can drive 40 minutes to Piggot, Arkansas, or 50 minutes to Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston.

The quickest option is to drive 30 minutes to Dyersburg, Ten nessee, where a medium-sized community hospital has the clos est obstetric department for most Bootheel parents. But some pa tients resist crossing state lines; Missouri’s Medicaid program can’t be counted on to cover costs for out-of-state care.

If someone goes into preterm labor or has a high-risk pregnan cy, the closest neonatal unit is in Cape Girardeau — at least an hour drive for most. More than likely, a person giving birth will end up in an emergency room with no ac cess to obstetric care.

“There really is a health-care drought in the southern part of our

region,” says Kendra Eads, execu tive director of Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence.

Low-income patients with re productive health needs will most likely end up at publicly funded county health centers. Up until a few years ago, many of these health centers didn’t provide patients with condoms or other contraceptives. If they did, their offerings were in limited supply, according to multi ple nurses who spoke with the RFT

To boost access, the Missouri Family Health Council in 2019 start ed offering low-or-no-cost contra ceptives to health centers through the Right Time Initiative, which serves poor or uninsured patients.

They wanted to help solve health disparities, says Michelle Trupiano, executive director of the Missouri Family Health Coun cil. More than half of all pregnan cies in Missouri are unintended. Missourians of color, low-income individuals and people who live in rural areas face disproportionate ly high rates of unintended preg nancy, according to Trupiano.

Most health departments in southeast Missouri offer family planning services, but the need is still greater than what’s available, Trupiano says.

“There needs to be a culture shift to where folks are more open about talking about family plan ning services and the need for them,” Trupiano says. “Especially in rural areas — some folks are uncomfortable about going to any health center for family planning services because they know people there, and they don’t want people to know they’re accessing them.”

There’s hardly a community or ganization in southeast Mis souri that Mershon doesn’t have ties to. She lives in Cape Girardeau, where she serves

on more boards than she can count.

Mershon’s main role is leading Southeast Missouri State Univer sity’s Economic and Business En gagement Center as interim ex ecutive director.

But what’s most dear to her is settling the region’s health-care disparities.

In 2013, the Missouri Founda tion for Health sought to reduce the outrageously high infant mortality rates in portions of St. Louis and six counties in Mis souri’s Bootheel region. This ef fort irthed I in t. ouis and Bootheel Babies and Families in southeast Missouri.

At the time, leaders at the Mis souri Foundation for Health were open to any idea that could have an impact on infant mortality rates. Mershon proposed a teen pregnancy and STD prevention program and brought it to schools in the area.

She bought robot babies de signed to look like a variety of rac es. Some school districts in south east Missouri are fairly diverse. The Bootheel has the largest rural Black population in the state, ac cording to the Missouri Founda tion for Health. Black residents make up nearly a quarter of Pe miscot and Mississippi counties.

So Mershon bought white dolls, Black dolls, dolls that were Black and Asian mixed.

But when she brought the dolls to schools, some administrators didn’t play ball.

ne rinci al told her the ro ot ic infants look “very lifelike when they cry,” Mershon says. And they didn’t want their white students “riding around with a Black baby in the back seat because people would talk.”

“What the actual fuck,” Mershon Continued on pg 21

Twin Rivers Medical Center closed four years ago.

“There needs to be a culture shift to where folks are more open about talking about family planning services and the need for them. Especially in rural areas — some folks are uncomfortable about going to any health center for family planning services because they know people there and they don’t want people to know they’re accessing them.”

HEALTH CARE CRISIS

recalls thinking. But in situations such as these, she says she often can’t take people to task for what they say — she still has to work with them.

“Putting yourself into the so cial mores of these communities. Some might be 65 percent Afri can American, but the majority of the money in those communi ties, the taxpayer base, is coming from wealthy white farmers who still have onfederate ags ying above their barns,” Mershon says.

Sex education is “an after thought” at most of these schools, Mershon adds.

Missouri schools are not re quired by law to teach sex edu cation. If schools do opt for some form of sex ed, abstinence is a required topic of instruction, and educators are bound by law to weave in conversation about STD and HIV prevention.

Cook, a registered nurse, has worked in her hometown at the Kennett Public School District for 30 years.

With a population of about 10,000, Kennett is the largest city in the Bootheel region after Sikeston and a relatively wealthy city com pared to its neighbors. The major ity of its residents are white.

When asked what reproductive health services Kennett School District provides to its students, Cook told a reporter that the dis trict works with middle and high school students when they’re pregnant, helping them rearrange their class schedules and connect ing them with resources.

ook and the five nurses ho ser vice Kennett School District have a good relationship with the county health department, she says. That’s where they send students if they have any STD concerns.

When it comes to contraception, Cook’s school district and most others in the area provide no op tions directly to students, includ ing condoms. Sex education is given an abstinence-only frame work. When the district provides HIV education, educators speak to students about condoms, but they never provide them, Cook says.

She says doing so would require the school district to amend its policies. Even though she’s the district’s lead nurse, she says she’s never in her 30 years of employ ment asked the school board to al low condoms.

“I worried about it being contro versial,” Cook says. “I never felt like the need rose to the level of

the controversy.”

She says she feared that propos ing to provide students with con doms would create a controversy within the community, similar to how “wearing a mask created con troversy within our community.”

“You have to decide where you want your battles, and what your high needs are,” Cook says. “We’ve never had students come in look ing for condoms.”

Sex education is lacking in all corners of Missouri, not only in rural areas, according to Trupiano.

“What we’ve seen in the past two years — banned books and outrage over how we talk about race in schools — sexual health

Missouri have consistently elected Republican politicians to repre sent them. In 2016, voters in Mis souri’s 8th Congressional District supported Donald Trump with a whopping 75.4 percent majority vote, making the area one of the staunchest Republican districts in the U.S.

Those in the political minority are few and far between. When the U.S. Supreme Court’s draft opinion to overturn landmark abortion cases was leaked in ear ly June, Kenny Eston and a small group of pro-choice advocates gathered in downtown Cape Gi rardeau to voice their support for abortion rights.

care systems. Others fear they’d turn away donors.

“It’s an incredibly conservative area,” Eads says. “We provide Plan B because, as far as my knowledge, the ERs won’t.”

Eads’ agency, the SEMO Net work Against Sexual Violence, as the first advocacy grou for sexual assault survivors in south east Missouri when it was found ed 25 years ago. She says NASV maintains a neutral position on abortion.

The agency mainly serves as a child advocacy center for abused children in nine southeast Missouri counties. Its nurses meet rape vic tims and collect evidence kits at local hospitals or at the agency’s of fices. o area hos itals have se ual assault nurse examiners on staff — a side effect of the pandemic and a nationwide nursing shortage, ac cording to Tracy Smith.

Smith, a sexual assault nurse ex aminer with the agency, says her organization has yet to run into a young survivor whose sexual as sault resulted in a pregnancy.

is no different,” Trupiano says. “Schools are fearful of backlash for political reasons, and at the end of the day, our kids are the ones who are losing out.”

Alongside the southernmost miles of I-55 in Missouri, bill boards plead with women not to abort their babies. Most show babies with wide, toothless smiles. At THIS AMOUNT OF WEEKS, I had THIS BODY PART, they read. One sign quotes former President Ronald Reagan: “I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.”

It’s an odd plea for a region where accessing abortion is near ly impossible.

In June, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, pro-choice Missourians mourned the loss of the right to abortion in their state. At that point, the state had only one abortion clinic operating in St. Louis. Access to abortion has been nearly nonexis tent for most Missourians for the past few years and even longer in southeast Missouri.

Up until mid-October, the closest abortion clinic for most southeast Missourians was over two to three hours away in Granite City, Illinois. Then, on October 11, a new abor tion clinic opened in Carbondale, Illinois, in a former dermatolo gist s office. he clinic, I Center for Reproductive Health, is still an hour away from the closest southeast Missouri town.

That may be the way most want it to stay. Residents in southeast

Eston frequently organizes pro tests, she says. She thinks it’s im portant for the area’s sometimessilent political minority to make their opinions loud and clear, but doing so doesn’t come without re percussions.

“We get cussed at, people throw stuff at us,” Eston says. “One time, a guy drove by us, yelled some expletives, went home, came back and threw some cat poop at us.”

he region s ethos is re ected in its health-care providers.

Saint Francis Healthcare System and SoutheastHEALTH are the two largest health care providers in the region. Both located in the same city, SoutheastHEALTH and Saint Francis have created a thriving medical hub in Cape Girardeau.

It’s unclear what the two hos pitals’ policies are on abortion — they won’t talk about it.

When an RFT reporter called a spokesperson for Southeast HEALTH for a story focused on reproductive care, the spokesper son immediately said they had no comment on abortion and would not participate in the story.

Later, in an email, the same spokesperson denied a request to interview the facilitators of a pro gram for needy pregnant mothers run by Southeast Hospital.

Same goes with Saint Francis, a Catholic health-care system founded by nuns in 1875.

Other smaller health-care pro viders in the area would not talk about abortion either. Some wor ried a out losing financial su port from the two large health

But regardless of her personal opinions on abortion, she can’t believe Missouri provides no ex ceptions for rape or incest victims.

Young sexual assault victims are arguably the greatest casualties of southeast Missouri’s general lack of health care access.

According to Missouri Depart ment of Health and Senior Servic es statistics focused on the area, 70 teenagers under 18 got preg nant in 2019. Only three received abortions.

In addition, “all the time, we see 10 year olds, 11 year olds, 12 year olds, who could potentially end up with a very unwanted pregnan cy,” Smith says. “They have zero recourse if that happens.”

But women in the Bootheel face huge disparities no matter their ages. Their schools aren’t teach ing them about safe sex or con sent. They often don’t have the means to drive themselves to an abortion clinic, and there are few services for reproductive care in the region.

In a conservative-dominant area, sexual shame can push off healthy conversations around sex — and shut down the possibility of change.

It’s a years-old, politics-driven cycle that’s made southeast Mis souri and so many other rural ar eas lag behind, Mershon says.

“We are oh-so-religious and [have] our good family values, so we don’t provide education,” she says. “But then when people have lots of babies because we don’t provide education and access, we shame or blame.” n

“It’s an incredibly conservative area,” Eads says. “We provide Plan B because, as far as my knowledge, the ERs won’t.”

CALENDAR

BY RIVERFRONT TIMES STAFF

THURSDAY 10/27

Pup-O-Ween

Dressing up your pup may be nice, but dressing up your pup and yourself It s the cou le s cos tume of every dog lover s dream. You and Fido will get your chance to dress for spooky-season success at Barktoberfest, a pup-friendly Halloween soiree hosted by the Young Friends of the Humane ociety of issouri. he event, which takes place at Urban Chest nut idto n re ery iergar ten (3229 Washington Street), will feature a host of pet-friendly ac tivities, including a costume con test with prizes such as pet por traits and Blues tickets. The price of admission is $25 and includes entry to the beer garden, a vouch er for one drink and entry into the costume contest. The fun starts at 5 p.m. Advance tickets are avail able at e.givesmart.com/events.

FRIDAY 10/28

Community Gardens

lay right aul leischman s

Seedfolks opens with a young boy from Vietnam cleaning up a s ot in a trash filled ur an lot on elmar. e lives near y, and he s planting beans in memory of his farmer father. A neighbor watch ing near y sus ects he s u to no good until she comes to see what he s done. he s hysically lim ited, but she becomes invested in the lant s survival and that of the garden. In time, she s not alone. ee ho the young oy s small act becomes a spark that slowly but steadily connects people who live near the lot during the etro heater om any s roduction at the Grandel Theatre (3610 Gran del Square, metroplays.org). The show, which runs through Sun day, November 6, begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20 to $28 for children and $25 to $36 for adults.

Spirits and Spirits

he issouri otanical arden (4344 Shaw Boulevard, 314-5775100, missouribotanicalgarden.org) invites you to a night of fright ening spirits — oh, and booze, too! — as the garden celebrates Halloween with Spirits in the Garden, when guests can sample spirits from local and regional dis tilleries, wineries and breweries.

hile you re at it, you can sho

off your attire in a costume con test, solve a scavenger hunt, catch classic horror movies, meet local paranormal investigators or learn about the “spirited” history of the garden. njoy a fortune teller, fire performer, stilt-walking Franken stein s monster, air rush tattoos and the musical talent of St. Lou is-based artist D.J. Nune is Lamar Harris. Spirits in the Garden is open to visitors 21 and over. The event begins at 6 p.m., and tickets are $30 for members and $35 for nonmembers.

SATURDAY 10/29

Fall-O-Us Across the River

When the annual Fall Festival takes over downtown Collinsville, roads will be blocked off. There will be trick-or-treating for kids. A chili cook-off. Bounce houses. Carnival games. A critter-crawl et arade. And it s all acked into five hours. he highlight of

the day, though, is always the costume contest. Described as a “family-friendly event,” this is a “not-so-scary” contest that will feature multiple categories rang ing from TV character costumes to homemade garbs. The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets are free but required.

Halloween

Rumpus

St. Louis has no shortage of Hal loween celebrations. But we would be remiss to leave out one of the city s most notorious ashes the Legendary CWE Halloween. Tak ing place in the streets of the Cen tral West End neighborhood, the party begins with daytime familyfriendly activities. Then, as the sun dips and the kiddos head out, the wild rumpus starts. Partygoers 21 and up dressed in every costume imaginable pack the streets, duck ing in and out of the neighbor hood s many food and drink esta lishments. Capping off the evening is the costume contest, a catwalk

e CWE Halloween party’s costume contest is among the season’s highlights. | RFT FILE PHOTO

Barktoberfest at Urban Chestnut benefits the Humane Society of Missouri. | VIA DAPUGLET / FLICKR

affair showcasing “elaborate, com plex and outrageous” costumes and $6,000 in cash and prizes. The festivities kick off at 11 a.m., go to midnight and are free to attend.

Horror on the River

What better way to celebrate Halloween than with a view of the moonlight re ecting off the o ing aters of the ississi i iver At .m., a river oat filled with costumed revelers will em bark from the dock right next to the Gateway Arch. The two-hour Halloween Costume Cruise pre sented by Riverboats at the Gate way Arch (50 South Leonor K. Sul livan Boulevard) will feature a DJ, dance oor, light hors d oeuvres, a cash bar and a costume contest. We suggest dressing as a riverboat captain, just in case something happens to the actual captain and you need to step in and save the night. Tickets are $26, and the boat boards at 8:30 p.m.

Grown and Ghoulish

ost of the time these days, you only hear of the youths causing mayhem in the city. hey re steal

ing cars and running into shit. hey re dangerously using guns. hey re running around at all hours of the night. ut no it s our turn to have some fun. The adults. The hard-working, 8-to5-grinding, slightly bitter adults. Our fun will be law-abiding and safe and hopefully end early enough so we can get to bed at a reasonable time. Have that fun by celebrating Halloween with some fellow grownups at the Adult Halloween Costume Party & Bonfire at the COFLA City Garden (6112 Ridge Avenue). From 6 to 10 .m., you ll find food trucks, a , a onfire and more at the ircle of riends earning Academy s com munity garden space in north St. Louis. The event is 21 and up, and tickets are $10 on Eventbrite.

Trick ARRRR Treat

In honor of Halloween, the St. Louis Aquarium will be open to pirates and pirates only. Want to get in? You need a pirate name. Want some candy? Better call it “pirate booty.” Want to tour the a uarium his isn t just an aquarium. This is a “Pirate Quest for the Sunken Treasure.” Dur

ing the evenings this weekend, the 120,000-square-foot St. Louis Aquarium will be transformed into a pirate-themed aquarium. There will be pirate ships, trea sure caves and, of course, fish, sharks and stingrays swimming around in the tanks. Trick or Treat at the St. Louis Aquarium (201 South 18th Street, 314-9233900, stlouisaquarium.com) will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. Tick ets cost $25 for adults, $18 for kids ages three to 12, and are free for those two and under.

SUNDAY 10/30

Black and White

Few are better at evoking a de lightful sense of dread than ac claimed filmmaker Alfred itch cock, and Psycho is undeniably one of his most tension filled offerings. St. Louisans can pair the 1960 neo-noir tale of Nor man ates and arion rane ith a magnificent rendition of the film s o erful score during the St. Louis Symphony Orches tra’s Psycho. During the event, the symphony will perform Ber nard errmann s score live hile the movie plays on a big screen at Powell Hall (718 North Grand Boulevard, 314-534-1700, slso. org). At 6:30 p.m. the SLSO will hold a costume contest and serve themed cocktails in the foyer. The show begins at 7 p.m., and tickets are $35 to $65.

MONDAY 10/31

The Real Deal

For all the many events that sur round this festival of the dead, with all the scary stories, cos tumes, candy and more, the best Halloween celebration is prob a ly hat s ha ening in your neighborhood when the sun starts to di on onday night. o regard less of hether you re a kid finally getting to wear that cool costume and tell a lame-but-fun joke (or a nonsensical one you made up), a parent being dragged around by your kiddos or walking 10 feet ehind them ecause you re so not cool,” a beer-drinking-candy-

hander-out-er hanging by a front yard onfire, or someone hiding inside with a scary movie and the porch light off — this is your mo ment. Enjoy the magic of Hallow een, all!

Biking the Haunts

This weekend, the annual Haunted Soulard Barcycle Tour takes place after the sun has set, wind ing through the creepy brick streets of the iconic neighbor hood. The oldest neighborhood in the city, Soulard has a wealth of haunted homes, streets, alleys, empty schools and abandoned factories. Attendees will get to experience all of it while riding a bicycle together and sipping some eers. eo le don t have to get on and off the bike to load up. All of the drinks are supplied on the bi cycle for you to enjoy while visit ing the haunted sites. The event runs 7 to 9 p.m and kicks off from St. Louis BarCycle (1013 Ann Av enue, 31-239-1884, stlbarcycle. com). Tickets cost $50.

WEDNESDAY 11/2

Let It Go

Anyone ho s een a caretaker of children at any point since 2013 needs no introduction to the Dis ney movie Frozen. But for the rest of us: The story follows two sisters ho are rincesses in the fictional kingdom of Arendelle. The elder sister, Elsa, has magical ice pow ers that are a tiny bit out of con trol as well as a sibling, Anna, who doesn t understand hy her ig sis on t rela and lay ith her. Things go south as Elsa is crowned queen, and she runs away. But Anna follows, determined to save the day. ou could find out ho the situation resolves by clicking on the remote, but why do that when you can head to the Fabu lous Fox (527 North Grand Boule vard, 314-534-1111, fabulousfox. com) for a production of the Tonynominated Frozen musical? The show begins at 7:30 p.m., and tick ets are $29 to $99. n

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

e traveling production of Frozen debuts at the Fox on Wednesday, November 2. | DEEN VAN MEER

Far South of the Border

South county’s La Oaxaqueña deliciously serves up the food of Oaxaca — and a family’s memories

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

La Oaxaqueña

2925 Lemay Ferry Road, Mehlville; 314-2008212. Sun.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

Jose Soriano is convinced he can feel his grandmother at La Oaxaqueña, the Mehlville restaurant his mom and step dad opened this past March.

He’s only 10 and was not yet born when she passed away on Christ mas Eve of 2005. Still, he insists he picks up on her presence when he’s helping out around the res taurant, describing it as a feeling of warmth that comes over him every now and again.

When you learn the Sorianos’ family story, and feast on La Oax aqueña’s traditional Oaxacan cuisine, you’ll not only see why he feels this way — you’ll believe him. Though the restaurant could e mistaken at first glance for a typical Tex-Mex spot, it’s actu ally the realization of a longtime dream of Jose’s mom, Yolanda So riano, who sees it as a way to stay connected to her late mother.

Growing up in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, Soriano learned the region’s traditional recipes from her mom, who she describes as an outstanding cook. Two years after her mother died, Yolanda joined

her brother in St. Louis and felt the gravity of her loss, as well as homesickness, due in part to the lack of traditional Oaxacan cui sine in her new city. Though she was happy with the opportunities presented in her adopted home — including a job as a server at an area Tex-Mex restaurant — she couldn’t help but long for the food her mother used to cook.

To satisfy her cravings, Soriano would cook at home, then bring in her dishes to share with her family and friends, as well as her restaurant boss and coworkers. They were so impressed that they encouraged Soriano to seriously consider opening her own busi ness and even gave her a jump start by ordering dishes from her for holidays and special oc casions. Soriano soaked in their encouragement and dreamed of opening a place that would show case traditional Oaxacan cuisine.

he started out small at first, selling her wares out of her ga rage while casually looking for restaurant space. Word quickly spread around her neighborhood, all the way to a man who owned a small strip mall on Lemay Ferry Road, not far from her home in south county. He had been look ing for a tenant to take over one of the strip mall’s long-vacant storefronts and was so impressed by Soriano’s cooking that he asked her to consider it. It was the sign she’d been waiting for.

Soriano and her family took over the restaurant space in March of 2021, but because it had been un occupied for so long, it took rough ly a year to get the place in order. The family did all of the work themselves, transforming what they describe as a dark, drab for mer bar into a vibrant restaurant that greets diners with a bright red

Some standout dishes from La Oaxaqueña include (clockwise from top) enchiladas de mole, picaditas, street tacos and molotes. | MABEL SUEN

LA OAXAQUE

and blue facade — a stunning con trast to the otherwise gray strip of businesses. This color scheme car ries into the dining room, where red, blue and yellow walls are crowned with multicolored paper banners. A handful of murals de picting Oaxacan scenes decorate the room; one includes the res taurant’s name, complete with a lily over the “O” of Oaxaqueña de signed by young Jose.

The room’s brilliant colors are a fitting setting for e ually da ling food. hough oriano and her family offer a wide variety of Tex-Mex dishes, the heart of La Oaxaqueña is the roster of Oaxa can dishes based on her mother’s reci es. An a eti er ortion of molotes consists of five foot all shaped masa fritters stuffed with a lend of mild chori o and ota toes. Golden brown and slightly crisped, the corn-dog-like exte rior yields to a doughnut-soft in terior layer of fresh masa. Obvi ously, corn fritters should taste like corn, but the intensity of the avor here is stunning, as if you have been eating corn in black and white and someone turned on the color. A topping of refried beans and queso fresco adds to the richness, while shredded cab bage and tomato salsa break it up with bite and crunch.

La Oaxaqueña’s enchiladas verde are quite possibly the best version of the dish I ve had in t. Louis. Handmade corn tortillas, which are more textured than the typical corn version, are stuffed with creamy queso fresco dip and baked with piquant green chile sauce that is the perfect balance of spice and tang. Its brightness is a pleasant counter to the picaditas, which pair blue-corn tortillas with a luscious concoction made from unrefined ork lard and re fried black beans. The blue-corn shells are slightly thicker than a regular tortilla and are pinched along the edges, forming a some what pie-crust-shaped edge that acts as a cup for the lard, beans, and a topping of cheese, cilantro and chopped white onions.

oriano considers the tlayuda to be the restaurant’s signature dish, a point driven home by its impres sive presentation. The dish — an oversi ed folded fried tortilla is so massive it hangs over the edg es of the su stantially si ed late it’s served on. The tlayuda’s taste, ho ever, is its most significant characteristic. he our tortilla shell is thin and crispy like a lavash

cracker and char-speckled like a ea olitan i a, then stuffed ith the same pork-lard and black-bean filling served ith the picaditas. La Oaxaqueña offers a variety of top pings, but the house specialty is the cecina, or marinated pork cut let. Thinly pounded and the bright orange of a mandarin, the meat has such an intensely savory a vor that your mouth waters when you take a bite.

When you taste La Oaxaqueña’s caldo de res, you feel transported to oriano s mother s kitchen, here a steaming ot ould fill the air with the aroma of slow

-simmering beef bones for her son and daughter. oriano credits her brother with evoking this mem ory through his version of their mother’s soup; his capable hands create a delicate beef and mild chile broth that serves as the base for large hunks of slow-cooked meat, corn, green beans and pota toes. It’s positively soulful. o ever, oriano s est homage to her mother’s legacy is her tama les. Wrapped in plantain leaves that have been slightly charred by the oven, the tamales consist of shockingly creamy masa filled with pulled chicken soaked in red

mole that tastes deeply of guajil lo and garlic. oriano recalls her mother making them on special occasions. Not an everyday food, these were saved for the family’s biggest celebrations.

When you taste them, you not only understand why they were so revered y the oriano fam ily — you see why Jose feels his grandma’s spirit throughout the restaurant. n

e tlayuda is filled with refried black beans, cabbage, meat, avocado and Oaxaca cheese. | MABEL SUEN

e tamales are made with creamy corn masa filled with chicken and mole and wrapped in plantain leaves. | MABEL SUEN

Owner Yolanda Soriano wanted to bring traditional Oaxacan food to St. Louis. | MABEL SUEN

SHORT ORDERS

Turning Tables

Taqueria Morita will move into Winslow’s Table this winter

Written by BENJAMIN SIMON

Taqueria Morita, the newly opened outdoor Mexican restaurant from Michael and Tara Gallina and chef Aaron Martinez, will move inside for the winter. The Baja-inspired, fast-casual eatery, which has been located on a patio outside the Gal linas agshi restaurant, icia, in the Cortex district, will call Win slow’s Table its home for the next few months. Taqueria Morita is set to start serving dinner in its ne digs this eek.

After o ening just five months ago in ay, a ueria orita uick ly uilt a follo ing for its aja in fused meals and cool beach-style vibe. But with chilly days ap roaching, the restaurant didn t want to spend an entire winter closed.

e ere just like, hat are e going to do artine says. o do e kee the momentum u

The Gallinas, who also own Win slow’s Table in University City, decided to rearrange that restau rant’s service to accommodate the temporary move. Fans of Win slow’s Table will still be able to enjoy their favorites for reakfast and lunch, while Taqueria Morita ill take over at night.

“I’m just excited to try a differ ent neigh orhood, artine says. s ecially ecause icia and a ueria orita ere not in a neigh orhood. o I m kind of curious to see ho that s going to change usiness.

The Gallinas and Martinez are thrilled by the reception to Ta queria Morita, which was born on icia s front la n hen the res taurant s dining room as forced to close during the andemic. Unsure of when — or even if — diners would return indoors, the

three set up tables and chairs on icia s s ra ling and reviously unutili ed outdoor s ace, offering everything from urgers to fried chicken. acos ecame such a run away success that they decided to formali e the arrangement y in stalling a soaring avilion and out door ar that ould give a ueria Morita a home.

Inside Winslow’s Table Martinez will be able to build upon that suc

Brunch Magic

cess y making a fe t eaks to the menu. e lans to kee sta les like the fish and carne asada tacos. ut new food will be on offer as well, such as a fried chicken torta and hot dogs ra ed in acon.

Martinez says he draws inspira tion from Empellon Taqueria, the e ork ity eatery that has mul tiple restaurants, each with its own menu and feel.

It s fun and it gives the guests a

different experience at each res taurant, he says of m ellon. o [ e re] trying to see if may e that s something that e ossi ly could do. ust give eo le different itera tions of what the Taqueria Morita could e.

The restaurant won’t live inside forever, though. As the eather starts to arm u in the s ring, the lan is to return to serving u tacos on the atio outside of icia. n

Written by JENNA JONES

Wands at the ready, St. Louis. Another one of those pop-up experiences is coming to St. Louis (you know, the ones like the rude-staffreigning Karen’s Diner, the Neverland Bar and so on) — but this time, it’s positively magical.

The Wizard’s Brunch brings all things fantasy and magic to the south-county location of Orlando’s (4300 Hoffmeister Avenue, 314-638-6660). Learn spells, drink some potions (hopefully none that will turn you half-cat) and sip a complimentary butterbeer. Included in the ticket price is a three-course meal (a Caesar salad, an entree and a dessert) and an experience led by a “Wizard in Residence.”

“Witches and wizards can expect

to lose themselves in a magical world filled with spells and sorcery and enjoy a magical banquet,” a press release reads.

The experience isn’t related to J.K. Rowling or owned by Warner Brothers. It operates as an independently run busi-

ness. Tickets can be purchased on explorehidden.com, beginning at $99. The experience is only in town for two days on Saturday, January 14, and Sunday, January 15. It is only for those 21 and older.

Time slots are available for morning, afternoon and the evening. n

Taqueria Morita’s eggplant tacos will be one of the dishes available in its new digs. | ANDY PAULISSEN

A “wizard’s brunch” pop-up is coming to St. Louis

Brunch on with your fellow wizards and witches. | COURTESY OF EXPLORE HIDDEN/WIZARD’S BRUNCH

City Pride

St. Louis CITY SC will be the only MLS club with all-local concessions

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

The buzz around St. Louis CITY SC keeps getting louder as it approaches its inaugural 2023 season. The most recent cause for celebration? Last week’s unveiling of the four res taurants that will be the founding partners in its CITY Flavor pro gram, an innovative stadium cu linary experience that celebrates the region’s vibrant food scene and sets the bar for what is possi ble in sports concessions through out Major League Soccer.

In an October 17 media event, chef and restaurateur Gerard Craft, a James Beard award-win ning chef and St. Louis CITY SC’s chief avor officer, announced local favorites Balkan Treat Box, BEAST Craft BBQ, his own Niche Food Group’s Brasserie and Pas taria Deli & Wine, and Steve’s Hot Dogs as the soccer club’s four ini tial food partners. The four res taurants will be part of a group of 25 other regional food partners that will be announced over time as the club approaches its highly anticipated inaugural season.

In a speech announcing the ini tial four partners, Craft said he hopes the CITY Flavor program can make an impact on the St. Louis-area food community far off the pitch.

“Through the CITY Flavor pro gram, e have identified artners that showcase what makes the St. Louis hospitality scene such a great lace, raft said. very restaurant has an inspiring story. Our job is not to just support our partners inside the stadium, but our goal is to drive the community to eat local before, during and af ter match day.

Craft has been helping St. Louis CITY SC plan its concessions even before the city had a team. As he explained at the event, Craft reached out to the team’s presi dent and chief e ecutive officer Carolyn Kindle when he heard rumors of St. Louis getting an ex pansion team and told her that he would love to be involved in uilding a avor story for the eventual stadium. When St. Louis

as finally a arded a team in 2019, Craft jumped at the chance to be involved and has since been working with the team’s hospital ity partner, Chicago-based hospi tality management company Levy, to sketch out a vision for a best-inclass stadium food experience that celebrates what it means to eat and drink in the St. Louis region.

As part of his push to identify which local food partners would e a good fit for the rogram, raft engaged the community for help. Using an online platform, area residents were asked to submit suggestions for hidden culinary

gems and favorite menu items from neighborhood restaurants with the goal of creating a food story for the stadium that re ects the joys of eating and drinking in St. Louis. The community stepped up to the challenge, submitting more than 10,000 suggestions, which Craft and his team nar rowed down to 25 partners.

“Our goal with the CITY Flavor program was to ensure that we highlighted the different cultures of our t. ouis food community, Craft said. “Through the food, fans get a feel for the diverse neighborhoods that make our

The Golden Ticket

Written by RYAN KRULL

Lion’s Choice is going full Willy Wonka this week. Now through Friday, five lucky customers will find golden tickets included with their orders.

However, unlike in the Roald Dahl book, these golden tickets will not deliver you to some awful fate like swelling into the proportions of a giant blueberry or being dragged into a trash chute by a group of squirrels.

Instead, the St. Louis-based fast-food chain has gone a much more sensible

route and opted to give its golden ticket winners free Lion’s Choice for one year.

The promotion is to celebrate Lion’s Choice’s 55 years in business as of today. Today (October 26), even if you don’t find a golden ticket you can still check out Lion’s Choice Instagram and Face-

city so s ecial.

As Craft and Kindle noted at the announcement, St. Louis CITY SC is the only MLS team to have a 100 percent locally focused food pro gram. Additionally, the stadium will feature 52 different points for fans to access these culinary offer ings (including a yet-to-be-named pub), the most in MLS.

The local focus is just one of the ways St. Louis CITY SC is in novating in the stadium food space. The team is incorporating state-of-the-art technology and modern design features such as mobile order-ahead, digital menu boards, walk-in walk-out markets and mobile wallet-pay technolo gies that work together to create a completely ticketless and cashless fan experience.

Fans interested in learning more about CITY Flavor and its food partners can do so on the team’s YouTube channel, where Craft will host a four-part series that tells the stories of the people behind the restaurants. The team will also host pop-up events at each of the featured food partners’ restau rants after each episode. The goal of the series — like the goal of the overall CITY Flavor program — is to shine a light on the people and places that make eating in St. Louis such an exciting event.

“The CITY stadium experience — from the views of downtown St. Louis to the food to the music is designed to e re ective of our region, said indle. ans and guests will get a feel for the culture, innovation, energy and passion of t. ouis at every event. n

book accounts, which will be posting coupons for some mad deals good for today only.

And hey, maybe for its 60th anniversary Lion’s Choice will let us tour the roast-beef factory. We’ll probably be the kid who falls into the river of au jus. n

Fans will be able to get a taste of Balkan Treat Box at the new Centene Stadium. | CHERYL BAEHR

[FAST FOOD]

You could win free Lion’s Choice for a year

Five golden ticket winners will receive free Lion’s Choice for a year. | COURTESY OF LION’S CHOICE

Treat Yo Self

Luxury Sweets & Treats was born from its founder’s dream — and now o ers the confections of yours

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

Rodnesha Chatman admits she’s not much of a cook. She wasn’t even that well versed in baking before she founded her local confections brand, Luxury Sweets & Treats. Howev er, when she thinks about what informed the artistry she applies to her cakesicles, cupcakes and candy apples, it’s pretty clear to her how she developed her talent.

“I don’t feel that I am an artist of any sort — I can’t draw or anything — but my grandmother is deaf, and growing up, she helped my mom raise us, hatman says. y her us ing her eyes and hands to commu nicate, that forced us to pay more attention to detail and be more observant. My artistic inclination comes from that attention and thor oughness, which comes through in my teaching and everything I do in life. That has played a role in my creativity — being immersed in American Sign Language and read ing the body language of others, I soaked it all in, and it translates to my artistic a ilities.

For the past three years, Chat man has been using this creativ ity and talent as the force behind Luxury Sweets & Treats, a custom confections and treats brand that allows her to make edible art for everything from weddings and baby showers to sports and corporate events. Though she’s thrilled by the reception her cre ations have received, Chatman says that she never really in tended to make a business out of her sweet treats; the work simply took on a life of its own after she started exploring confectionary as a type of self-care while work ing in deaf and hard-of-hearing education for the Special School District of St. Louis County.

“Back in 2019, my district did a huge push toward self-care, so we were doing professional develop ment on what things we could do in and out of school, hatman explains. “I started to think about what I could do to really love on myself and relieve stress from day to day, so I figured, hy not

try this

Though Chatman really began honing her craft at that time, she notes that the genesis of Luxury Sweets & Treats predates her dis trict’s self-care push. A few years prior, she began experimenting with making chocolates for fam ily, but then she got caught up in the business of being an educator and never took it much further. The push from her day job to ex plore passions outside of work inspired her to pick up where she left off and see where she could take it. She began researching and experimenting, teaching her self from books and YouTube vid eos and eventually ecame confi dent enough to share her goods with her coworkers. They were dazzled and began asking her for custom orders, which made her realize she was on to something.

Chatman’s big break came courtesy of a coworker who asked her to make custom treats for her edding. At first, hat man wasn’t sure she was ready to take on such a large project, but with her colleague’s encourage ment — and a check written in her business’s name that forced

her to start an LLC and open a corporate bank account — Chat man took on the event and sur prised herself with what she was able to accomplish.

If that edding as the confi dence-builder Chatman needed to get Luxury Sweets & Treats off the ground, the pandemic was instrumental in building the rand into a ona fide usi ness, as customers clamored for ready-made, local treats they could enjoy themselves or send to friends who needed a pick-

me-up. Though she can’t help but feel somewhat uncomfortable with her business taking off dur ing such a challenging time, Chat man is happy she could bring joy to people in the midst of it all.

Despite her success, Chatman is still committed to her day job in deaf and hard-of-hearing edu cation and is not giving it up just yet, if ever. She notes that her dream is to eventually have a storefront, not simply to sell her treats but to employ high school students and young adults so that they learn about entrepre neurship and see that there are options outside the expected col lege path. It’s the teacher side of her — something she will never give up no matter where Luxury Sweets & Treats takes her.

o I am just trying to fig ure out how to duplicate myself, because I can’t keep up with demand, hatman says ith a laugh. “I’m still working as a teacher and loving it, and when I clock out, I step into the role of entrepreneur and treat-maker. I still enjoy doing it and enjoy being creative, ut no I have to find self care from my self care. n

Luxury Sweets & Treats is a local confectionary brand, born of self-care.

| COURTESY OF LUXURY SWEETS & TREATS

“ I started to think about what I could do to really love on myself and relieve stress from day to day, so I figured, why not try this?”

[FOOD NEWS]

Munch Box

his customers explore that inter est and open their eyes to the way people nosh around the world.

Over the last few years, Shayn Prapaisilp has seen an in crease in interest around snack foods from different countries at his family’s in ternational grocery stores, which include Kirkwood’s Global Foods Market as well as Jay Internation al (on South Grand) and United Provisions (in the Delmar Loop). Now, he and his team are launch ing a new program that will help

Beginning this November, Glob al Foods Market will begin offering a curated subscription box featur ing snacks from a different coun try each month. Dubbed “Global Munchies,” the subscription pro gram will consist of six to eight dif ferent snack items and an educa tional ier a out the country eing featured. As Prapaisilp explains, the idea goes beyond simply in troducing people to international snack foods; he hopes to take peo ple on a culinary journey without them having to leave town.

“Because of the pandemic, a lot of folks haven’t been able to trav el as much as they’d like,” Prapa isilp says. “This is geared toward the idea that, if they can’t travel, we will bring the world to them each month. It’s kind of a pass port program.”

Prapaisilp sees global snack

foods as the perfect way to intro duce eo le to the different avors and ingredients that make up a country’s food culture. In his years running internationally oriented groceries, he’s noticed that custom ers may be curious about a partic ular cuisine, but they often don’t know where to start and might be intimidated by the thought of cooking a full meal or unfamiliar dish. Snack items, he believes, of fer a good starting point.

“People are getting more and more interested in epicurean food culture, and snacks are a great place to start exploring because they offer the lowest barrier to en try,” Prapaisilp says. “You may not be able to cook an entire culture’s cuisine, so starting with snacks and getting very familiar with them can be a great gateway.”

Though Prapaisilp has designed Global Munchies to be a sur prise gift box — subscribers will not know what country is being

featured any given month until they pick up their box — he has revealed that the first month ill consist of the snack foods of India. He’s not divulging the box’s con tents, but he will say that future ones might feature chocolate can dies and tru es from elgium or crunchy shrimp chips and dried fruit from China.

Global Munchies boxes are $35 for a three-month subscription. Though Prapaisilp is unsure how long the program will last, he is hopeful that, if the response is good, the market will be able to extend it into the future.

“I think the great thing about Global is that we have both custom ers who shop like this every day and those who are just curious,” Prapa isilp says. “We always see people asking what something is or how to cook it; there is a curiosity there, so we just wanted to give folks an entry point and hopefully they can keep exploring from there.”

“Global Munchies” subscription lets you get your snack on Written by CHERYL BAEHR

Global Foods Market is launching an international snacks subscription box. | COURTESY OF GLOBAL FOODS

REEFERFRONT TIMES

[PRODUCT REVIEW]

Badder to the Bone

Proper’s award-winning Strawberry Champagne live badder makes the case for concentrates

Written by GRAHAM TOKER

Im a longtime o er smoker, retty much e clusively. ut those damn ter slur er videos on Instagram really have een getting to me. I anted in on the fun and coughs.

I m mostly kidding. ut as someone ho has ut alcohol on the ack shelf in favor of the lant, I sometimes miss having a stronger effect more akin to a shot or cocktail. n to of that, a recent revie of ead hange s live sauce carts for this u lica tion rought the idea ack around of diving into concentrates, so much so I ent out and secured an American made glass da rig. And no here I am, ready to da .

And hat etter ay to dive in than going for some a ard in ning medical hash At the recent elee on the ississi i event at the randel, ro er anna is se cured the hash cham ionshi elt over ead hange, ivid and eal ith its tra erry ham agne. It seemed like the logical choice for a foray into the orld of con centrates.

I ent to ro er s rest ood lo cation to secure some of the cham ion hash. he tra erry ham agne is sold in half gram uckets for , and I got t o uckets for a total of one gram for . af ter ta and fees. he hash clocks in ith . ercent ter enes and . ercent total canna inoids, and is an ercent mi of tra erry u les imosa crossed ith tra nana ith ercent unt .

I armed my rig ith a ools ter slur er anger, and I as ready to dive straight in. y ini tial im ression of the tra erry ham agne as that it smelled

fantastic. I cracked a jar hen taking hotos, and a very strong aroma of stra erry candy in vaded my nostrils and not the eird candies ra ed in a stra erry ra er, either. he initial da as at degrees don t hate me, lo tem oys and had a very creamy stra er ry mouthfeel akin to a tra er ry i he or tra erry r me aver. he effects settled in my tem le and shoulders and ro vided me ith a mild head high ith a medium to medium lus ody high that as uite rela ing. I also had a lingering s eet erry taste in my mouth. hese da s orked ell for me in the daylight hours, and on one occa sion made my munchie cravings go through the roof.

ne evening efore ed I decid ed to take a nice da of the tra erry ham agne. I d also just smoked a joint, so I as counting on this eing today s aterloo. Af

ter inhale I egan hee ing like an old man at a comedy sho . y eyes atered, and my lungs urned as the ody high took over. I retired to the edroom and oke u after slee ing through the night. hen I arose I definite ly as feeling a eed hangover. his as decidedly too much tra erry ham agne. everal smaller sessions uti li ed my uffco lus da en, and I ulled tasty clouds off of the lo and medium settings. I kno this mi as a s ecial for a com eti tion, ut it ould e great to see on ro er s regular concentrate offerings, as ell as having tra erry u les availa le as a o er o tion. ithout having tried the other com etition hash, I can still definitely see hy the tra erry ham agne as voted to dog.

I as a le to touch ase ith ro er anna is att a ri er for some additional informa tion a out the inning hash. A

native t. ouisan, a rier moved ack home after s ending years in olorado. hat s here he originally encountered the strain. hen e got invited to ar tici ate in the hash attle, e d een ing or henos of tra erry u les, he says. It ecame retty clear in eek si that e anted to use it ecause of the overtly s eet stra erry nose and its ild ter ene rofile that you aren t seeing in the is souri market. Adding in the unt made sense ith its fruity funk, and e voted internally on ut ting the tra erry ham agne for ard.

In the future, a rier says that ro er ould like to offer do nuts, a re roll joint filled ith hash rosin in the middle. e also ould like to do another com le tion centered around solventless hash a rier says ro er doesn t use and never lans to in the future .

his as the first hash attle in the state it ould e cool to do the tasting lind, ut e re un a le to do that due to state regu lations, he says. e have a lot of res ect for the other rands involved. It s a fun ay to uild culture and community here and give atients a uni ue offering.

I finally asked a rier ho I should take a da of the tra erry ham agne. As a lo tem guy, a rier encouraged me to dro my tem do n to ards degrees. aste it to taste it, he chuckled.

eciding to take a su de gree hit, I set my rig u and let it ri at . here definitely asn t as much of a kick as I had ulling degree da s, ut I did find the stra erry notes to e am lified.

A stu id shit eating grin crossed my face as I e haled. ash is cool. n

Strawberry Champagne has a creamy strawberry mouthfeel. | GRAHAM TOKER

These dabs worked well for me in the daylight hours, and once made my munchie cravings go through the roof.

CULTURE

[SEASON’S GREETINGS]

From the Witch’s Hut

Metra Mitchell’s Halloween-infused art has a huge following — but her Tower Grove South home display may be her masterpiece

Written by JESSICA ROGEN

Metra Mitchell peers out from the window next to her front door, a wide, devilish grin on her face. She clutches a handful of remotes, selects one and gleefully presses a button.

Outside, animatronic skeletons activate, and smoke spews. A trio of gawkers — two children and a parent — jump back and then get

excited by the wild display that has sparked to life.

The group has happened upon one the most exuberant Hallow een homes in St. Louis. Mitchell, an artist whose paintings and prints explore what she calls “the magic of Halloween” year-round, annually transforms her Tower Grove South home and yard into a spine-tingling installation.

Part of her reward comes from watching passersby’s reactions. She’s happy to embody the artist as voyeur.

“I like the idea of seeing people happy,” Mitchell says. “Then, also, I’m not going to lie, sometimes the kids cry. It’s strange, and some times they freak out, and some times parents get mad.”

When you approach Mitchell’s house, first you see the lights purples that run along the front banisters, pumpkin lights along the walkway and white spotlights all over. On the left side of the house stand a trio of skeletons arranged in height order, from a 12-foot, much-sought-after Home Depot giant to two that are closer to human proportions. There’s a

graveyard complete with skeleton hands reaching from the earth. Large letters spell out “BOO.” The windows are festooned with sil houettes of bats and black cats.

Head around her house, and there are two skeletons carrying an em ty coffin, sinister um kin headed scarecrows, glowing eyes and an animatronic werewolf by a projected moon. The backyard features cauldrons, more skel etons, more graveyards and more window silhouettes. Fog billows everywhere.

Mitchell starts putting out the display in September but searches constantly for new additions. This year, she scored a limited-edition glowing cauldron off Facebook Marketplace, dying a thousand deaths as the transaction dragged on for two weeks while the seller searched for the adapter.

“I was like, ‘I cannot tell her,’” Mitchell recalls. “‘I cannot tell her what she has.’ … I’m like, ‘Lady, I’ll go buy a fucking adapter.’”

Mitchell is in her element in the lead-up to Halloween. Every night at .m., itchell i s on the lights and the battery-operat

ed animatronics. She takes note of the kids who naturally get into the fun and those who need a few trips not to be scared.

When the 31st hits, it’s go time.

“It’s like pure adrenaline,” she says. “You’re preparing all year for basically the show of all shows.”

But Mitchell’s passion for Hal loween goes beyond the day itself.

“On Halloween, it’s kind of like you can be anything you want to be,” she says. “With Halloween night — or I mean for Halloween people — we try to live this life that’s always magical. To be a prac titioner of magic, there’s a magic trick, but it can also be very real.”

Mitchell got into Halloween through her art, which she started creating while growing up in ru ral Kentucky.

Her father was a “hothead ass hole,” she says, and her mother, an Iranian immigrant, was the breadwinner but often absent. Left by herself, Mitchell played with Barbies, drawing on the wall and painting on the carpet with her mother s finger olish.

“When my mom found out, my

For painter and printer Metra Mitchell, Halloween is the culimination of a year’s worth of preparations, which pays dividends in her home display and art. | SARAH LOVETT

WITCH’S HUT

dad beat the fuck out of me,” she says, saying he broke several of her bones, stabbed her with a pair of scissors and once bit her on the face. “I have literally been pun ished for my art since I was a kid, and I do not know how I stayed with it.”

Mitchell needed to get out, so she focused on getting an art scholarship, landing one at the Governor’s School for the Arts in Louisville. She then attended Fontbonne University for gradu ate school, which is how she end ed up in St. Louis.

Mitchell now works from a stu dio — “the witch’s hut” — behind her house. Through her artwork, she channels strength and vulner ability from her past. Her paint ings and prints depict women, witches, demons, goblins and oth er denizens of fantasia. They are often posed, sometimes writhing, in a way that evokes classic art with a horror spin.

Over the years, her themes have been consistent, as she demon strates with pages from an old sketchbook. However, her style and technique have evolved dra matically from those early days. Even since last year, her paint ings have changed and have more built-up texture, which Mitchell calls her “blobs.”

Each painting begins with a model and sometimes a posed photograph. Then she works out sketches, sometimes makes a print, and outlines the composi tion on a canvas.

Once the prep work is done,

the painting itself goes fast. To ard the end, itchell finds her self disappearing into what she’s named “the shadow lands,” that state of concentration where the outside world recedes. She recalls a recent instance where she was so into the painting that she’d climbed onto the table next to her canvas without consciously real izing it, snapping out to wonder how she’d gotten there.

“It actually kind of scared me,” Mitchell says.

Mitchell’s art has huge fans — she’s represented in galleries across the country and is able to make painting her full-time job, though she also teaches at several area universities.

There are, of course, times when peoples’ reactions aren’t so great — everything from parents being concerned that her work is not appropriate for their kids to men being gross. But over time, Mitchell has learned to manage it all in her own way.

“There’s a lot of great things about being a witch because it’s outside the patriarchy,” she says. “The patriarchy doesn’t matter to a witch because they’re a witch. You’re a creature. You’re not a woman.” n

Visit Metra Mitchell’s Halloween house on the 3800 block of Hartford in Tower Grove South on Monday, October 31. More details at holi daylighthopping.com. Mitchell’s artwork is available for purchase at Houska Gallery and Soulard Art Gallery in St. Louis; Sager Reeves Gallery in Columbia, Missoui; and La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los An geles. See her website, metramitch ell.com, for more information.

Metra Mitchell works from a studio, “the witch’s hut,” behind her home. | SARAH LOVETT

Continued

[INSTALLATION]

Never Forget Wash U installation of Luigi Toscano’s photography honors survivors of the Holocaust

Written by BENJAMIN SIMON

For the next week and a half, nearly 90 people will fill the lawn at Washington University. Their faces stand over seven feet tall. They press up against the sidewalk. They force anyone and everyone to stop, to look at them, to stare into their eyes and to think.

These are the faces of survivors of the Holocaust.

They are part of the public art installation Lest We Forget, captured by photographer Luigi Toscano, which runs through Sunday, November 6, at Wash U’s Tisch Park.

“If we forget the past, we are doomed to repeat it — and this is our chance, if we remember what happened,” Toscano says.

Toscano began photographing survivors of the Holocaust seven years ago. He was a talent manager at the time, but after he visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, he was moved to begin photographing survivors. He started in his hometown of Mannheim, Germany, which had also been home to a concentration camp. He placed the subjects in front of a black background

and took zoomed-in images of their faces — and the project took off.

Since then, Toscano has captured the images of nearly 400 survivors of the Holocaust who live in Germany, Ukraine, South Carolina and, now, St. Louis. His portraits have earned him recognition as a 2021 UNESCO Artist for Peace.

“People asked me — what is my motivation? And my motivation is totally simple,” he says. “I am against antisemitism, racism and any kind of hatred. If I showed this exhibition in the museum or in the gallery, nobody will come. But if you put them in the public space, everybody stops.”

He has displayed his images in cities all around the world, including Vienna, Paris, Kansas City, Pittsburgh and San Francisco — and even at the United Nations.

But sitting at Wash U on a chilly October afternoon, Toscano is still animated, leaning forward in his picnic chair, his hands moving with every word.

“People ask me: ‘Luigi, what is your other project?’ No, this is 100 percent,” Toscano says.

St. Louis native Dee Dee Simon, the chair of the Holocaust Education and Awareness Commission of Missouri, first saw Toscano’s portraits around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., in 2018. She has traveled the world to see Holocaust memorials.

“But nothing spoke to me quite like Luigi’s,” says Simon, who is also the cofounder of Conversation Builds Character.

“For me, it’s his eyes,” she says. “You have a still subject, right? But yet the eyes in his subjects speak volumes. I just couldn’t get it off my heart.”

Simon helped lead the charge to bring Toscano to St. Louis, where he photographed 12 people over three days. Rachel Miller is one St. Louis survivor included in Toscano’s exhibit. Originally from France, she was a “hidden child” — sent away to the countryside during the Holocaust, where she stayed with a Catholic family, changed her name for a time and survived. But her mother, father and three siblings did not make it. Miller says she lost 93 people in the genocide.

Since 1992, Miller has traveled around the area, telling her story and stressing the importance of remembering the Holocaust. She spoke at the opening ceremony of Toscano’s exhibit on October 20.

“The speech … is really about not to forget what the Holocaust was like,” she says. “To tell the story about the Holocaust. I’m representing the Holocaust survivors.”

Toscano says he doesn’t do anything special technically. Taking pictures only

requires a camera, light, black background and a few minutes.

But his process usually entails hours of time with the subjects, drinking coffee, hearing their stories and making sure they’re comfortable before capturing their images. His record, he says proudly, is eight hours with a subject.

“When he goes in, he’s not just going in and taking this picture,” Simon says. “He’s going in and he’s developing this respectful relationship with these survivors, and that I think comes out in his pictures.”

Toscano says he’s not a “superhero.” His goal is to keep the memories, the people and the faces of the Holocaust alive. “I have two beautiful [children], and if something happened in the future and they ask me, ‘Father, what have you done against this?’ then I can show them [my work],” he says. “I will teach them it’s nec essary to be an upstander, not a bystand er, to open your voice if something is wrong in the world.”

Luigi Toscano installs a photograph. | COURTESY WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

Luigi Toscano photographed Holocaust survivors now living in St. Louis, including (from le ) Eva Ashner, Fred Ashner and Sigmund Adler. | LUIGI TOSCANO

STAGE

[REVIEW]

Building Community

Metro eater Company’s Seedfolks upli s audiences of all ages

Written by TINA FARMER

Seedfolks

Script by Paul Fleischman. Directed by Jess Shoemaker. Presented by Metro Theater Company through Sunday, November 6. Showtimes vary. Tickets $20 to $36.

The St. Louis region is fortunate to have multiple theaters that produce shows for, and often with, younger audiences. Since the early 1970s, none have done so more regularly or consis tently than Metro Theater Company, which celebrates 50 years this season. The com pany is among the longest-running profes sional theater companies dedicated to art, education and developing cultural curiosity for the next generation.

Playwright Paul Fleischman’s Seedfolks, continuing at the Grandel Theatre (3610 Grandel Square) through Sunday, November 6, is a tale of hope and possibility centered on the idea of meaningful urban revitalization. One of the company’s productions for audiences of all ages, the show delivers messages about building community and restoring urban neighborhoods. This story purposefully focuses on poorer neighborhoods that frequently attract new immigrants and older residents who cannot afford to live anywhere else.

It opens with a young boy from Vietnam whose father died before he was born and who immigrated to St. Louis with his moth er and sibling. He’s cleaning up a spot in a trash-filled urban lot on Delmar near his home to plant some beans in memory of his farmer father. A neighbor watching from nearby suspects he’s up to no good until she comes to see what he’s done. Though physically limited, she becomes invested in the plant’s survival and, as others join in, the garden. The young boy’s small act, which seems like it’s certain to fail, becomes the spark that slowly but steadily connects people of all races and backgrounds who live near the lot.

The inspiring show features the char acter-creating talents of cast members Joshua Mayfield, Michael Thanh Tran and Tyler White. Each portrays a variety of gen ders, religions, races and nationalities by creating unique, quickly recognizable peo ple rather than leaning into tropes or ste reotypes. Dialect coach Leah Gabriel and director Jess Shoemaker show an atten tion to detail and intent that helps audi ences of all ages follow the uplifting show.

Margery and Peter Spack’s garbage- and detritus-filled set evolves into the thriving community garden with smart, purposeful changes and clever stagecraft, which is augmented by scenic artist Cristie John ston’s vibrant work.

The show isn’t all sunshine and roses, either. One neighbor reminds another of the racial slur they hurled before they knew each other. A young Black man is treated as suspicious when he initially shows up to help. Language barriers create misunderstanding but also provide room for growth. More than simply acceptance, the common purpose and joy of the garden becomes a space of welcome in Fleischman’s well-structured script. n

Performer Tyler White, portraying one of the characters in Seedfolks, surveys a community garden that transforms a neighborhood. | JENNIFER A. LIN

MUSIC

About Time

St. Louis synth-punk act the Mall transports listeners to the future with the excellent Time Vehicle Earth

Written by DANIEL HILL

It’s a cool autumn evening in Uni versity City, and Loop mainstay Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room is boasting a packed house for one of the more anticipated shows of the season. On stage, Spencer Bible deftly operates an insanely complicated midi rig, demonstrat ing considerable mastery over what would look to most outsid ers more like a mysterious pile of wires and buttons than an instru ment capable of inspiring a whole dance oor to shake their asses.

To Bible’s left, Mark Plant com mands the attention of the crowd with ease. Clad in diamond-stud ded leather oots and fishnets under a pair of cutoffs and a black T-shirt, Plant delivers a set of halfgrowled, half-shouted vocals that add a menacing counterbalance to the bubbling and propulsive sounds generated by the rig. The assembled masses sway and shake with the rhythm as if in a trance, pushed forth by the at-once haunt ingly beautiful and desperately ur gent music that hangs in the air.

he sho is the first since i le and Plant — a duo who comprise the celebrated St. Louis synth-punk act the Mall — released their newest record, Time Vehicle Earth, on Octo ber 7. Though the scene unfolding here takes place on a Wednesday in St. Louis County, it could as easily be a dance party at the end of the world, as streaming service Band camp noted upon naming the new record an “essential release” last week. That nod is just the latest in a string of accolades for the relatively young act, which boasts more than 30,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, with its 2020 track “An Answer” pulling in more than half a million streams on the app alone.

Plant is characteristically hum ble about the considerable suc cess of the project.

“It’s really easy to look at that

stuff and be like, ‘Oh, half a mil lion people listened to my song,’ but I think it really is this weird algorithm thing where it’s like the algorithm is making people listen to this,” Plant demurs. “But I don’t think there’s any sort of phenomenon where a half a mil lion people suddenly liked it out of nowhere.”

It’s a solid example of some good old-fashioned Midwestern humil ity, but in all honesty, it’s a load of crap. The fact is, audiences are increasingly ocking to the all s sound and have been doing so since the and first urst onto the scene with the release of its debut album Zone in 2020. Released by Richmond’s Fixed Grin Records and featuring stunning visuals by Indonesian artist I ayarifin, Time Vehicle Earth has been one of the more highly anticipated albums of the year among fans of hardedged minimal wave music. he record is also the first that Plant recorded with a partner. Pre viously, the Mall had been a solo act, with Plant handling both vo cal duties and operation of that in scrutable pile of buttons and wires. Bible was added to the group at the start of the year, freeing up Plant to crawl out from behind that rig while helping push the act’s sound forward. As Plant explains it, Bible was able to ground some of the more out-there ideas for the re cord and make them actually pos sible to pull off.

“I was so creatively frozen after [Zone],” Plant explains. “It was like, all my ideas were getting too lofty and unfinisha le on my o n, I guess. So having Spencer in the band, he’s a much more reason able person. … I just don’t think it would have happened at all with out him.”

Bible and Plant started work on the album in January, practicing in Plant’s basement, which was also the studio where the album was recorded using what Plant calls a “cool gamer computer with lots of cool lights.” Plant and Bible spent months hammering away at the record, sequencing synths and working out song structures, be fore recording live straight into the computer with minimal post-pro cessing. Plant says that the songs were all recorded in the same way they are performed live, with the only exception being that the vo cals were added later.

The result is nine tracks of fully danceable, dystopian darkwave with a slight goth bent that Plant describes as accidental — the kind of music you might hear in the best Crow movie, a hypothetical one that was never released. The matically the record applies mas sive sci fi constructs to the actual reality we live in today, right now, exploring the fact that living on Earth is the only manner by which any of us have ever experienced the concept of time. It has indus trial in uences, ut it esche s the

harsher elements of the music of Ministry or Skinny Puppy in favor of deliberately pop-centric pas sages that place the band in its own category.

“We’re doing something that’s sort of prettier and like, honestly, just gayer than they are,” Plant says with a chuckle. “It does put us in this different bubble where it’s like, we still don t uite fit in ith those in dustrial bands because they’re try ing to do something more figured out, I think, than we are. We’re just trying to play synthesizers.”

The Mall has been especially busy of late, having recently wrapped up a 24-date East Coast tour that saw the group perform ing from Florida to Canada. In late November, the duo will hit the West Coast for six dates with likeminded act MSPAINT from Hat tiesburg, Mississippi. That tour will wrap up with a hometown show at Delmar Hall on Friday, December 2, that Plant is especial ly excited about, with a stacked lineup including Foxing, Thor Axe and Shinra Knives.

“It’s really cool that [Foxing] pulled on a bunch of cool local bands,” Plant says of the show’s headliner. “That’s a band that could just walk away from all of it whenever they wanted to.”

As for Plant and Bible, the two have no intentions of walking away from anything anytime soon. They’re fully strapped into this vehicle they’ve found them selves on, with no plans to take their feet off the gas.

After all, time is of the essence. n

Bandcamp named Time Vehicle Earth an “essential release.” | MABEL SUEN

Time Vehicle Earth is dystopian darkwave with a slight goth bent — music you might hear in the best Crow movie, a hypothetical one that was never released.

OUT EVERY NIGHT

Each week, we bring you our picks for the best concerts of the next seven days! To submit your show for con sideration, visit https://bit.ly/3bgnwXZ.

All events are subject to change, espe cially 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. And, of course, be sure that you are aware of the venues’ COVID-safety requirements, as those vary from place to place, and you don’t want to get stuck outside because you forgot your mask or proof of vaccination. Happy showgoing!

THURSDAY 27

ARKANSAUCE: w/ Bella’s Bartok 8 p.m., $15-$20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314498-6989.

BACK POCKET: 7:30 p.m., $17. Jazz St. Louis, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, (314) 571-6000.

CELEBRATING BILLY JOEL: 8 p.m., $39.50. The actory, uter d, hesterfield, 314-423-8500.

CLERKS III: THE CONVENIENCE TOUR: 7 p.m., $37$55. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THE COMPLETE BLACK SABBATH EXPERIENCE: 7:30 p.m., $27.50. Wildey Theatre, 254 N. Main St., Edwardsville, 618-692-7538.

GHOST STORIES, GHOULS, AND GUITARS: A HALLOWEEN CONCERT: 5:30 p.m., free. Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 314-746-4599.

THE GOLDENRODS: 7:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090.

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

JIM STEVENS & THE VIBE: 7 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

KASIMU-TET: 8 p.m., $15/$20. Joe’s Cafe Gallery, 6010 Kingsbury Ave., St. Louis, 314-862-2541.

RACHEL BOBBITT: 8 p.m., $15. Blueberry HillThe Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

RIVER KITTENS: 7:30 p.m., $15. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

RUSSIAN CIRCLES: 8 p.m., $22. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

SHINYRIBS: 8 p.m., $20. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

THE WILMINGTONS: 7 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergar ten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

ZAP TURA: w/ Lucky Shells, Janet Xmas, Stella 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

FRIDAY 28

5 STAR ROSCOE: 5 p.m.; Dec. 30, 5 p.m., $10.

The Attic Music Bar, 4247 S. Kingshighway, 2nd oor, t. ouis, .

BARNS COURTNEY: 8 p.m., $25/$30. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

BREATHE CAROLINA: 10 p.m., $15-$400. RYSE Nightclub, One Ameristar Blvd, St. Charles. EMO HALLOWEEN: w/ Finding Emo 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

HALLOWEEN SHOW: w/ Feverdream, Polterguts, Cavil, Direct Measure 8 p.m., $5. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

HÉCTOR ANCHONDO: 7 p.m., $20. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

IVAS JOHN BAND: 6 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

Freddy Vs. Album Release Show w/ Misplaced Religion, Umami

8 p.m. Saturday, October 29. Blueberry Hill Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Boulevard. $15. 314-727-4444.

With the deluge of Halloween-themed shows that go down on an annual basis, it’s easy to get the impression that St. Louis has a deep cultural connection with Hell’s favorite holiday. But what about a band that keeps that spooky vibe alive 365 days a year? Freddy Vs. debuted in the weeks leading up to Halloween 2021 with a set

JAKE’S LEG HALLOWEEN SHOW: 10 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

METAL MASQUERADE TRIBUTE SPOOK-TACULAR: w/ Freak On A Leash, Undertow, Gravitational Constant, Use My 3rd Arm 6:30 p.m., $12/$15. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

MOONTOWER: 8 p.m., $15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

RIVAL SONS: 8 p.m., $35-$50. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

STEPHEN KELLOGG: 8 p.m., $25-$35. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

SUSAN WERNER: 7:30 p.m., $25. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

SWEETIE AND THE TOOTHACHES: 7:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090.

TORCHLIGHT PARADE: 8 p.m., $12. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

of demos and its first live show, kicking off what has been a busy year of performanc es across several stages throughout the river city. Sure, one could check out Freddy Vs. on a hot summer night or even later this winter, but seeing the horror-themed rock outfit live during the time of the year that inspired its defining aesthetic will hit so much harder. Freddy Vs. has picked the right time, and the right place, to celebrate the release of its debut album alongside lo cal allies Misplaced Religion and rave pow erhouse Umami. Pro tip: Googling “Freddy Vs.” will likely result in a detour that leads straight to Freddy Krueger fan-fiction, and while that might be low-key intentional on

SATURDAY 29

ALL ROOSTERED UP: noon, free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314621-8811.

ART GALA PRODUCTIONS- MOTION STL 22’: 6 p.m., $10. High Low, 3301 Washington Avenue, St. Louis.

BROCK WALKER & FRIENDS: 3 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

COLIN RICH & THE MONTAGE ALBUM RELEASE: w/ Dizzy Del, Chris Grindz, Solid Armada, Kanashii noon, $10. Pop’s Blue Moon, 5249 Pattison Ave., St. Louis, 314-776-4200.

DETERIORATION: w/ Deliriant Nerve, Blackwell, ocket, oat offin .m., . he inkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

FREDDY VS. THE HALLOWEEN SHOW: 8 p.m., $15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

GENE JACKSON & POWER PLAY: 7 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

HALLOWEEN DANCE PARTY: 8 p.m., free. The

the part of the band, be sure to add specif ic keywords, such as “music” or the name of its fantastic new release The Projection ist.

Tastemaker: Labeling Umami as just a DJ severely understates the multifaceted body of work by sound artist and promoter Pajmon Porshahidy. Whether they’re performing as Stevonnie or operating as part of the Materia collective (featuring like-minded artists Nadir Smith and Manapool, among others), Umami brings an essential aesthetic that marries nostalgia with a sound that feels plucked from the distant future.

—Joseph Hess

Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

HAZARD TO YA BOOTY: 10 p.m., $8. Broadway Oys ter Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

JEREMIAH JOHNSON BAND: 10 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

KELLY HUNT: 8 p.m., $20. O’Connell’s Pub, 4652 Shaw Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-6600.

KILLER WAILS: 5 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, . ingshigh ay, nd oor, t. ouis, 314-376-5313.

THE LATE GREATS: w/ Bobby Stevens 7:30 p.m., $15. Blue Strawberry STL, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

LOCAL H: w/ Here Comes the Zoo 8 p.m., $20. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

LUCERO: w/ L.A. Edwards 7 p.m., $30. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

LUDO: 8 p.m., $35-$100. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

PIFF THE MAGIC DRAGON: w/ Puddles Pity Party 7:30 p.m., $49.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer d, hesterfield, .

Freddy Vs. | VIA ARTIST SPOTIFY

[CRITIC’S

THE ROCKY MAVERICK HORROR SHOW II: w/ Steffine rkell, harai he ighlight rincess, Mrs. Finesse Jess, Matchez Malone, Readyade, . . ., ha isfitcli ue, ay, , Sean Cashmir, Almighty Rastaking, NoID, DJ Key 8 p.m., $10-$20. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

SANTINI THE GREAT: w/ DJ Sno, Repo Marley, Venny Vicciii, Gudda Gang 8 p.m., $15-$20. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

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

VOODOO GRATEFUL DEAD HALLOWEEN: 7:30 p.m., $15/$20. The Lot at The Big Top, 3401 Washington Boulevard, SAINT LOUIS, (314) 549-9990.

THE WILHELMS: 7:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090.

WITCHING HOUR BLUES: TRIBUTE TO JIMI HENDRIX: w/ Matt Roland 7 p.m., $20. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

SUNDAY 30

DREW CAGLE & THE REPUTATION: 7 p.m., $15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

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

GENESIS JAZZ BIG BAND: 4 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

HALLOWEEN BRUNCH PARTY: w/ Drew Sheafor 10 a.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

LOVE JONES “THE BAND”: 7 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

LUDO: 7 p.m., $35-$100. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

OVER HEAD DOG: 2-6 p.m., free. Grafton Winery & Brewhaus, 300 W. Main St., Grafton, 618-786-3001.

THE QUEERS: w/ Teenage Bottlerocket 8 p.m., $20/$25. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

TEDDY SWIMS: 8 p.m., $26-$125. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

THE UNLIKELY CANDIDATES: 7 p.m., $18. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

MONDAY 31

18ANDCOUNTING: 7:30 p.m., free. Work & Leisure, 3015 Locust Street, Saint Louis, 314-620-3969.

CROW’S NEST HALLOWEEN PARTY: w/ DJ Sex Nintendo 8 p.m., free. The Crow’s Nest, 7336 Manchester Road, Maplewood, 314-781-0989. ECHOSMITH: w/ Phoebe Ryan, Band of Silver 8 p.m., $25-$30. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

HALLOWEEN AT OFF BROADWAY: 7:30 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

JACOBY ARTS CENTER’S 2ND ANNUAL HALLOWEEN PARTY: w/ Superfun Yeah Yeah Rocketship 6 p.m., $5-$10. Jacoby Arts Center, 627 E. Broadway, Alton, 618-462-5222.

SOULARD BLUES BAND: 9 p.m., $5. Broadway Oys ter Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

SPOOKY BOAT PARTY ON THE MISSISSIPPI: w/ LuSiD, Umami, Saylor 7-11 p.m., $60. Gateway Arch Riverboats, 11 N. 4th St., St. Louis.

TUESDAY 1

CHRIS SHEPHERD BAND: 7 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

DAYGLOW: w/ Ritt Momney 8 p.m., $29.50. The Pag eant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

INTO IT. OVER IT: w/ Nectar 8 p.m., $20. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

THE JOY FORMIDABLE: w/ Cuffed Up 8 p.m., $23. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

[CRITIC’S PICK]

Too Many Zooz w/ Yam Yam

8 p.m. Tuesday, November 1. O Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $23. 314-498-6989. There’s an unfettered confidence that comes with claiming your own genre. May be you’ve seen post- or indie- precede any number of musical styles and thought, “Well, what’s the difference?” Yes, defin ing yourself in the context of pre-existing categories will help connect prospective fans to their preferred sounds, but some artists aim to carve out their own niche.

New York City’s Too Many Zooz holds a monopoly on the genre “brass house,” which incorporates aspects of house mu sic with jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms to vibrant and dizzying results. Chances are you’ve seen the video for “Car Alarm” — which shows the band playing off a blar ing car alarm — or one of many vids show

KBONG & KOHNNY COSMIC: 7:30 p.m., $15-$20. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

STARSET: 4 p.m., $125. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS: w/ Jane’s Addiction 6:30 p.m., $46-$147. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888.

TOO MANY ZOOZ: w/ Yam Yam 8 p.m., $23. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

Too Many Zooz. | VIA ARRIVAL ARTISTS

ing Too Many Zooz tearing it up in the New York subway system. If not, just know that coordinated dancing and an undeniable chemistry between the players is a recipe for viral content. At least one of those vid eos even reached Beyoncé, who reached out to the band, brought them into the studio and even called on the crew to back up her and the Dixie Chicks at the Country Music Awards in 2016.

Great Minds Think Alike: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, outfit Yam Yam opens the show with a distinct concoction of jazz, funk and soul, with a little jam band exploration thrown into the mix. While the 2021 album Double Dippin’ is a solid place to start, the band’s live album recorded at last year’s Summer Camp Music Festival perfectly captures Yam Yam’s tendency to push boundaries.

—Joseph Hess

TOTAL HELL: w/ Bobcat, Hot Corpse 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

WHEATUS: w/ Fat Tony 7:30 p.m., $20. The Ready Room, 4140 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

WEDNESDAY 2

BIG RICH MCDONOUGH & THE RHYTHM RENEGADES: 7 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups,

riverfronttimes.com OCTOBER 26-NOVEMBER

700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

IV AND THE STRANGE BAND: 8 p.m., $18. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

THE LONE BELLOW: 8 p.m., $26-$30. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

PROTOMATYR: 8 p.m., $20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

ST LOUIS WRECKING CREW PRESENTS UNDER CONSTRUCTION: 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

TRIVIUM: w/ Between the Buried and Me, Whi techapel, Khemmis 7 p.m., $38-$50. The Pag eant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

VOODOO ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND: 9 p.m., $12. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

THE WOOD BROTHERS: 8 p.m., $30. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THIS JUST IN

18ANDCOUNTING: Mon., Oct. 31, 7:30 p.m., free. Work & Leisure, 3015 Locust Street, Saint Louis, (314) 620-3969.

AHSA TI-NU BAND: Sat., Nov. 5, 3 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

BELLE & SEBASTIAN: Thu., May 18, 8 p.m., $40. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

BROCK WALKER & FRIENDS: Sat., Oct. 29, 3 p.m., $15. Sun., Nov. 6, 3 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-4365222.

BUDDY GUY: Mon., March 13, 7:30 p.m., $49.50$79.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, hesterfield, .

CROW’S NEST HALLOWEEN PARTY: W/ DJ Sex Nintendo, Mon., Oct. 31, 8 p.m., free. The Crow’s Nest, 7336 Manchester Road, Maplewood, 314-781-0989.

HALLOWEEN AT OFF BROADWAY: Mon., Oct. 31, 7:30 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

JACOBY ARTS CENTER’S 2ND ANNUAL HALLOWEEN PARTY: W/ Superfun Yeah Yeah Rocketship, Mon., Oct. 31, 6 p.m., $5-$10. Jacoby Arts Center, 627 E. Broadway, Alton, 618-462-5222.

NIKKI GLASER: Sat., Dec. 31, 8 p.m., $36.75$76.75. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600.

ROCKY MANTIA & THE KILLER COMBO: Sat., Nov. 12, 7 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

SELF POLLUTION: TRIBUTE TO PEARL JAM: W/ The Dookie Brothers Green Day tribute, Chili Magik RHCP tribute, Sat., Nov. 12, 7 p.m., $20. The Playhouse at Westport Plaza, 635 Westport Plaza, St. Louis, 314-469-7529.

SKEET RODGERS & INNER CITY BLUES BAND: Fri., Nov. 4, 7 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

THE SOUND OF ANIMALS FIGHTING: W/ Hail the Sun, Concrete Castles, Kitty, Wstdyth, Mon., Jan. 16, 7:30 p.m., $29.50-$75. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

SPLIT66: W/ Secondhand Sin, Axeticy, Sat., Jan. 21, 8 p.m., $15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

ST. LOUIS SOCIAL CLUB: Tue., Nov. 8, 7 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

ST LOUIS WRECKING CREW PRESENTS UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Wed., Nov. 2, 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

THIRD SIGHT BAND: Mon., Nov. 7, 8 p.m., $10. Mon., Nov. 14, 8 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. n

2022 RIVERFRONT

SAVAGE LOVE

Quickies

BY DAN SAVAGE

There is more to this week’s Savage Love. To read the entire column, go to savage.love.

Hey Dan: Can someone be both homosexual and asexual? I can’t wrap my brain around this one.

Sure, a person can be asexual while also being homosexual … because asexuality is a spectrum, and that spectrum is broad and vast and includes people who experience sexual attraction and sometimes choose to act on their sexual attraction. Basically, some asexual guys want boyfriends but don’t wanna fuck ’em at all, other asexual guys want boyfriends but don’t wanna fuck ’em much. It’s really not that confusing … unless you happen to be dating a guy who either doesn’t know he’s asexual or knows it and hasn’t told you, in which case you’re likely to be as confused as you are frustrated.

Hey Dan: I’m a recently divorced 53-year-old bi-curious woman liv ing on the East Coast. I was with my ex for most of my life and he never mentioned this, but since I have begun dating, each new part ner has told me how tight I am. You would think this was a good thing! I recently began dating a man who says he loves how tight I am. However, he also says it is making him come quickly. His marriage recent ly ended too, so he hasn’t had a lot of sexual experience either.So, I don’t know if he just comes quickly or if it’s because of me.Do you have any suggestions?

Maybe it’s you — maybe it’s that you’re tight (which most men re gard as a good thing) — or maybe he’s a premature ejaculator and he’d rather blame you than admit to it. Either way, don’t let him stick his dick in you until after he’s made you come at least once.

Hey Dan: Why do all the gay guys in my age group — guys I like — not want me? And why do only a few men above my age group — guys I also like — want me?

It’s a mystery — a mystery best pondered sitting on the dick of an older guy who wanted you and got you.

Hey Dan: Any tips for safe sex dur ing threesomes? Thinking about having a MFF threesome!

There’s no such thing as safe sex, there’s only safer sex. To be com pletely safe, skip the threesome, stay home, and take a nice, long, relaxing bath instead. Or not. Ac cording to the CDC, every year a quarter of a million people wind up in the emergency room after a fall in the bathroom and thou sands more never make it to the ER because they DIED naked, wet and alone after falling out of their tubs. Meanwhile, fewer than 50,000 people are diagnosed with primary and secondary syphilis annually. So you’re probably saf er at that threesome — provided you don’t shower before or after it. Or ever again. (Full disclosure: Almost 700,000 people got gonor rhea in 2020, and 1.5 million peo ple got chlamydia.)

As for making the sex safer, get tested, share your STI statuses, and use condoms. (Condoms, when correctly used, will protect

you from syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, HIV and pregnancy.) Basically, follow the same riskreduction strategies you would follow for a twosome — with one addition: If M wants to fuck both Fs, he needs to change condoms each time he swaps holes. And to make your threesome emotional ly safer, all three of you should be clear about what you do and don’t want, and everyone should agree — out loud — that if someone feels left out, unsafe or uncomfortable, they can call a timeout without the other two pouting about it.

Hey Dan: Newly non-monoga mous and dating after 16 years of monogamy. How to lighten the “let down” feeling when a date I’ve been looking forward to is over and I have to go back to my “regu lar” life?

Your marriage, a.k.a. your “regu lar” life, will fall apart if fun (going out, doing things, having adven tures) is reserved for dates and stress (paying bills, doing chores, raising kids) is reserved for your spouse. New-relationship-ener gy-infused dates are effortless fun (usually), whereas keeping things fun with a spouse requires

thought, effort and MDMA.

Hey Dan: You always say that a new dad has to be willing to go with little or no sex for a long time and can’t bring up non-monogamy. Does the same go for the mom if she’s the one who wants it more?

Women who’ve just given birth are usually less interested in (or capable of) sex for all the obvious reasons (physical trauma, physi cal exhaustion, emotional exhaus tion), but studies have shown that men’s testosterone levels dip after becoming fathers, which can tank their libidos. Regardless of who wants it more, the best time for two people to discuss non-monog amy is BEFORE they’ve scrambled their DNA together, not after. If you didn’t have that conversation before becoming parents, you should wait a year — at least — before bringing it up.

Hey Dan: In college my boyfriend found out his girlfriend was cheat ing on him with a friend. He told his friend he didn’t care, since he was planning to break up with his girl friend at the end of the semester, and they both kept fucking her. She didn’t know they both knew. What she did was wrong (cheating), but I think my boyfriend and his friend did something worse, as she didn’t know she was being “shared” like this. How do I get my boyfriend to understand?

Sharing your boyfriend … Go to savage.love to read the rest. questions@savagelove.net Check out the Savage Lovecast @FakeDanSavage on Twitter

JOE NEWTON

“ I recently began dating a man who says he loves how tight I am. However, he also says it is making him come quickly.”