Riverfront Times, November 23, 2022

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Publisher Chris Keating

Editor in Chief Rosalind Early

EDITORIAL

Managing Editor Jessica Rogen

Editor at Large Daniel Hill

Digital Content Editor Jaime Lees

Food Editor Cheryl Baehr

Staff Writers Ryan Krull, Monica Obradovic, Benjamin Simon Theater Critic Tina Farmer

Copy Editor Evie Hemphill

Contributors Sylvester Brown, Thomas K. Chimchards, Joseph Hess, Reuben Hemmer, Andy Paulissen, Mabel Suen, Graham Toker, David Von Nordheim, Theo Welling

Columnists Chris Andoe, Ray Hartmann, Dan Savage

Editorial Interns Kasey Noss, Sarah Lovett

ART & PRODUCTION

Art Director Evan Sult

Creative Director Haimanti Germain Production Manager Sean Bieri Graphic Designer Aspen Smit

MULTIMEDIA ADVERTISING

Associate Publisher Colin Bell Account Manager Jennifer Samuel Directors of Business Development Tony Burton, Rachel Hoppman, Chelsea Nazaruk

MARKETING

Director of Marketing & Events Christina Kimerle

BUSINESS Regional Operations Director Emily Fear

CIRCULATION

Circulation Manager Kevin G. Powers

EUCLID MEDIA GROUP

Chief xecutive fficer Andrew Zelman Chief perating fficers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner

Executive Editor Sarah Fenske

VP of Digital Services Stacy Volhein Audience Development Manager Jenna Jones VP of Marketing Cassandra Yardeni

Executive Assistant Mackenzie Dean www.euclidmediagroup.com

NATIONAL ADVERTISING VMG Advertising 1-888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com

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Founded by Ray Hartmann in 1977

FRONT BURNER

FIVE QUESTIONS: St. Louligans Founder Brad Demunbrun

Previously On

LAST WEEK IN ST. LOUIS

MONDAY, NOVEMBER

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15 It snowed — again! One to three inches left some roads slick and sent two tractor-trailers on a collision course on I-70. We said it last week and we’ll say it again this week: It’s too early for this wet, white bullshit!

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19 St. Louis

When CITYPARK hosted its first game November 16, the stadium was rocking. A lot of that noise came from members of the St. Louli gans, one of the largest soccer fan clubs in the city. It’s been around since 2010, supporting the various soccer teams throughout the area, including AC St. Louis, St. Louis FC and now, St. Louis CITY SC. RFT spoke with Brad Demunbrun, 52, a founding member of the St. Louligans, who described his unofficial title as “the vice president of silly hats.”

Why are the St. Louligans important in St. Louis?

When everything’s going great, the team’s winning and it’s sold out, there’s not a problem. But if a team starts to lose and atten dance dips, it’s that supporters’ section that keeps it going. Be cause win or lose, we’ll be standing for 90 minutes singing, making noise and trying to get the rest of the crowd into it. Sometimes if the game’s bad, we can get people more excited. We’re going to be there, every day, no matter what, rain or shine.

On the website, I saw a picture of a guy with a chicken-head hat. That’s you, right?

That’s me [chuckles]. I don’t wear that anymore. Why not?

It started as a o e. The very first AC St. ouis game that we went to in 2010, I had a minivan full of stuff –– all my friends were piled in it. And my son had this chic en hat in there. ne of my friends said, “You should wear this.” I said, “I don’t care. I’ll wear it.” So I wore it. Then more people started to recognize me as the guy in the chic en hat. It ust became a thing, li e, “ h, we ll be in the par ing lot before the game with the chic en-head guy.” r, “I ll be standing in the stands. Look for the guy in the chicken hat. I’ll be near him.” So it just became a little rallying point. But you know, [at] 100-de gree games that became old real quick.

I was going to ask you why you stopped.

I break it out for special occasions. Do you have any superstitions?

I personally don’t have anything too crazy, but a lot of fans do. … I like to get there early, set up the tailgate, get everything ready to go. Then we’ve got 15, 20 minutes before it technically starts. There’s a group of us that have been around for 12 years. We like to sit down and have one beer amongst ourselves, say, “This is going to be a good one,” and see what happens.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16 CITYP ARK Stadium opens, at long last. Night soccer in November — just what we nev er longed for. (Even so, we have to admit the stadium is cool.) Semi-related: The city says a $24 million project will com pletely reconstruct Jefferson Avenue from Market to Natural Bridge. Sounds like progress, until you learn it involves removing the bike lanes. The local ad age is consistently true: We can’t have nice things.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17 Qatar has banned alcohol during the World Cup Sucks for Budweiser, which paid $75 million to sponsor the games. Hey A-B! We have some sponsorship opportunities right here in St. Louis, and we love booze. Also: Paul Goldschmidt is the National League MVP. May we suggest celebrating that great honor with a COVID-19 vaccine? Cases are again surging.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18 The St. Louis

Aldermanic President Megan Green presided over her first meeting Friday — and already she’s facing insurrection. According to the Post-Dispatch, Ward 1 Alderwoman Sharon Tyus wants to force Green to share power on deciding which aldermen sit on which committees and which bills are sent to which commit tee. Under Tyus’ plan, one of the people Green would have to share power with, naturally, is Tyus. “One person doesn’t get to do their agenda and especially doesn’t get to punish people,” Tyus said. Seeing as Lewis Reed was the master of using committee assignments to pun ish people, it feels a bit curious we’re only talking about this now. Also: Anoth er day, another deadly mass shooting Just before midnight, a gunman toting an AR-15 and multiple rounds of ammu nition killed five people and injured 25 others at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colo rado Springs.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20 Nothing happened. Seriously, nothing! Isn’t that a relief?

ESCAPE HATCH

We ask three St. Louisans what they’re reading, watching or listening to. In the hot seat this week: three people we met at a party.

MARK DENK,title withheld Reading by way of listening to: Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes Are High “I just started listening to it. I’m not sure if it’s any good.”

BRIAN RELLER, graphic designer Listening to: Malign Hex by Meat Wave “I just like it.”

TIM SCHALL, singer and actor Watching: Succession on B “I think the actors are fantastic. The cast is perfect. It’s a show about really unlikable people, but somehow I can’t stop watching it.”

Benjamin Simon

Brad Demunbrun has been rooting for St. Louis soccer for over a decade. | COURTESY PHOTO

14 Andy Cohen was here and went to Rehab. Not rehab — the bar in the Grove! Stars: They’re just like us. They even dodge cars on Manchester.

Post-Dispatch reports that 10 police departments in St. Louis County are creating an auto-theft task force to work across jurisdictional lines. Kia and Hyundai thefts are up 1,000 percent from last year. Apparently the Kia Boyz have done what all of Rex Sinquefield’s money could not: show St. Louis how we’re better together

Pothole Watch

Seen: November 18, 2:14 p.m.

Location: Arkansas Avenue and Humphrey Street, Tower Grove East

Severity: Your car’s coil springs cry out for mercy. Avoid

Silver lining: The speed hump abutting the pothole would make a good ramp for some Evel Knievel-style stunt work

Notoriety: High, as indicated by the fact that every car we saw driving by instinctively swerved to avoid it

SO ST. LOUIS

Skanksgiving

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

It was Thanksgiving Eve, loving ly called Skanksgiving by some.

I met some friends at Blueberry Hill for a quick drink. We set up in a corner of the restaurant near the dart room by a large win dow under the watchful eye of taxidermied animals.

I never had the traditional Skanksgiving where I recon nected with people from high school after returning to St. Louis from college. I didn’t have that many friends left over from high school. In those heady first years

of college, I forgot all about high school. So it had never been the traditional Skanksgiving for me. But this night included the trans plants, the recently arrived and the long term St. Louisans who also hadn’t exactly thrived in high school.

It was somehow the most St. Louis of nights, stretching out un til the bar closed, when I ran wild ly across the street, grabbed the arm of the Chuck Berry statue and demanded my friend take my pic ture. Chuck duck walks as I lean forward, beaming.

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

“I wish I had no hours of operation.”

Matt Ligeti on Facebook, in response to our story “Weekends Only to Become Not Even Weekends in Bold New Business Plan”

HARTMANN

Food for Thought at Thanksgiving

Here’s a question to make your celebration especially uneasy

BY RAY HARTMANN

Why do you suppose poor people are poor?

That inquiry would make for an interesting Thanksgiving dinner table conversation, wouldn’t it? It’s on topic, after all. At no time during the year do more Americans ex press more compassion for the less fortunate among us.

Still, sympathetic words about poor people can be as inauthen tic as a politician at a food bank. Wouldn t it instead be a fine time to ponder why extreme poverty persists in the most bountiful na tion in the history of the world? And to discuss what might be done about it?

I know what some of you are thinking: Don’t you dare politicize our Thanksgiving celebration. This is the one day of the year we come together to proclaim our boundless good. Leave your com mie ideas for the other 364.

It is true that these are treach erous Thanksgiving times. No lon ger is the biggest concern dealing with some inebriated uncle. To day’s worries are that the fallout from the nation’s deep political di vide will devolve into weaponiza tion of the family china.

But no sooner than the tradi tional holiday metal detectors are returned to storage, St. Louis will join a growing national discussion about how to combat poverty. Mayor Tishaura Jones is backing a proposal for an initiative known as guaranteed basic income.

A public hearing is set for Thursday, December 8, on a bill introduced by Alderwoman Sha meem Clark Hubbard that would allocate $5 million in pandemic funds — among its other provi sions — to provide $500 monthly payments to hundreds of working

families. Many details are pend ing. But controversy can be ex pected to follow.

That’s why I suggested that an noying Thanksgiving question. Al though there’s no simple answer to why poor people are poor, such a conversation would reveal two poles of opinion: one that they’re poor because of their own short comings and lack of initiative, to put it gently; two that they’re caught up in an eternal poverty cycle caused by a confluence of systemic ills, from racism to poor education to environmental injus tice and more.

Most people likely would plot the answer somewhere between the two poles. But one’s predisposition matters greatly. Those who view the poor as generally lac ing su cient initiative will view the basicincome concept as a wasteful wel fare handout with no end. Those believing the problem is systemic will see the program as an invest ment in those same people.

There’s a growing body of em pirical evidence to support the latter view. An experimental pro gram launched in 2019 in Stock ton, California, by then-Mayor Michael Tubbs provided $500 nostrings-attached stipends to 125 randomly selected people living in neighborhoods at or below the city’s median household income.

A team of independent re searchers, comparing the recipi ents’ results with a control group, found that the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration program “improved participants’ ob prospects, financial stability and overall well-being,” as report ed by NPR. It allowed them to re duce debt and stress, not their em ployment, the researchers found.

It was just one result, but the ex periment received raves nation ally, as reported by the Atlantic, Mashable, Business Insider and other outlets. The Atlantic report summed it up this way:

“An exclusive new analysis of data from the demonstration proj ect shows that a lack of resources is its own miserable trap. The best way to get people out of poverty is just to get them out of poverty; the best way to offer families more re sources is just to offer them more resources.”

The Atlantic also pointed to this ey finding

“The researchers also found

that the guaranteed income did not dissuade participants from working — adding to a large body of evidence showing that cash benefits do not dramatically shrink the labor force and in some cases help people work by giving them the stability they need to find and ta e a new ob. In the Stockton study, the share of par ticipants with a full-time job rose percentage points, versus five percentage points in the control group.”

Stockton’s initiative is a kindred spirit to the universal basic income proposal advanced by Andrew Yang in his 2020 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomina tion. The theory is simple: If the government invests at the ground level in its people, they will invest in themselves, with exponential benefits to the society at large.

It’s a concept worth embrac ing, at least experimentally. In the case of St. Louis, it’s a smart in vestment of $5 million in federal pandemic funds, one that undeni ably targets the needs of some of those most acutely impacted.

It won’t sit well with those who regard the poor as lacking initia tive or worse. That’s to be expect ed, and as the concept of guar anteed basic income takes hold nationally, expect more of that to follow.

Last week, for example, Texas state Representative-elect Ellen Troxclair announced she’ll propose a state ban on all universal basic in come programs. The headlines she enjoyed can only mean the issue has serious wingnut potential.

But here in St. Louis, we don’t need conservative politicians to throw cold water on Jones’ prom ising idea. We’ve got the formerly

liberal St. Louis Post-Dispatch for that.

With its customary air of sanc timony — as if it emanated from some cottage in Connecticut — the Post scolded the mayor with this editorial headline:

“Editorial: A base income for city’s poor isn’t crazy, but lack of details are unacceptable.”

How kind to bestow the coveted “isn’t crazy” label upon helping poor people. The Post even made a smart case for why this sort of stimulus is more ustifiable than transferring large sums of pub lic resources to private hands through trickle-down economics.

“Passing out money to St. Louis’ poorest residents isn’t actually the loony-left idea that some on the right portray. Poverty is large ly a systemic issue that requires societal action. And when there is money in the hands of people who will immediately spend it on unmet basic needs, that actually helps get money flowing through the local economy faster and more realistically than the discredited supply-side notion of putting more money into the pockets of the rich, where it’s more likely to stay.”

That would have been a nice place to stop. Instead, the paper screeched to a 180-degree turn as it whined that the details haven’t yet been flushed out

“Unless Jones has some way to make the program sustainable — and that’s not at all apparent — it risks becoming just a brief, expensive bit of political theater that doesn’t ultimately do much for either the poor or for the city’s economy.”

Nice of the Post to borrow the illogic, in another context, of the NRA: Since no gun control mea sures can guarantee the end of all violent crime, then no gun control is worth trying.

Worse, though: Professing con cern for the poor and then trash ing even a small attempt to lend a hand is the journalistic equivalent of Donald Trump’s tossing paper towels in Puerto Rico.

Now that was a good Thanksgiv ing Day icebreaker. n

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 thru Friday on KTRS (550 AM).

Tishaura Jones’ proposed universal basic income would be a smart investment of $5 million in federal pandemic funds.

Get Loud

e first game at CITYPARK stadium brought the ruckus

Written by BENJAMIN SIMON

Don’t tell St. Louis this soccer game didn’t mean anything. Don’t tell that to Patrick Koetting, who drove two hours from Cape Girardeau, or Sam Wise, who took a half-day off work and started tailgating at 11:30 a.m., or the guy who ran up to Wise and yelled, “This is fuck ing awesome, Sam!”

Don’t tell that to the St. Louli gans fan club. They’ve attended every St. Louis professional soc cer game since 2010, as the city rotated through a list of teams, from AC St. Louis to St. Louis FC to CITY SC 2. They’ve been waiting for an MLS team and a stadium to call their own.

The MLS team will have to wait until 2023. But last week, St. Lou is CITY hosted its first game at CITYPARK stadium in Downtown West, a game between CITY SC 2 and Bayer 04 Leverkusen, a Ger man Bundesliga team. It was the first time the public saw the high ly advertised 22,500-seat, $458 million stadium, with the steep est Supporter Section in MLS and food only from St. Louis vendors.

Don’t tell the fans, though, that they were headed to see a friendly match –– a scrimmage, a glorified practice game. Leverkusen didn’t play their best lineup. CITY SC 2 subbed in a 16-year-old on their academy team. Don’t tell them that. Because the fan club still organized a tailgate outside of Schlafly Tap Room that was sup posed to start at 4 p.m. but really started hours before.

At 6 p.m., an hour before the game, hundreds of fans paraded down North 22nd Street toward the stadium. They marched with flags, waving banners, banging drums, wearing flamingo hats, wrapping themselves in CITY SC scarves and covering themselves in red. “St. Louis is wonderful!” they chanted. “It’s the home of toasted ravioli! St. Louis is won derful!”

Don’t tell Sarah Totten that it was 30 degrees outside, either. It was cold. Really cold. See-yourown-breath-type cold. Can’t-feelyour-toes-type cold. It was windy and, at times, downright miser able. Totten knew it. Her legs were numb, she said, as she stood at the tailgate in front of Schlafly. But she didn’t care. She had taken the Met ro from Granite City. She had been tailgating since 2 p.m. She was here to celebrate. She had waited long enough for a soccer team.

Don’t tell Ray Carpenter that this was just another soccer game. He helped build the stadium. For the last two years, he has done civil engineering work every day at CITYPARK. He isn’t a soccer fan. But he bought tickets. He over looked the pitch on Wednesday evening, his partner by his side, marveling at the crowd, the turf, the red lights –– the place he has reported to work over the past two years, the place he helped to construct.

Don’t tell Gene Poisson that he shouldn’t be excited about an ex hibition match. He showed up at the game in his “World Cup” outfit — an American-flag-themed suit and an American-themed cowboy hat, with a St. Louis CITY jersey and scarf. Oh, and under the suit, jersey and scarf he wore a T-shirt that reads “Saint Fuckin Louis.”

“It’s a fantastic fucking environ ment,” he says of the stadium. He has season tickets, and he can’t wait for 2023. “I’ll be one of them dudes in the club suites jumping up and down like a fool.”

Don’t tell the elevator that no one cared — it broke from over use. Or the concourse hallway that was so packed with people at halftime you, quite literally, could not move.

Don’t tell Brad Kalish that he should have put his kids to sleep. Forget the late bedtime and the cold weather. Kalish brought his whole family to the game. “I’m crazy,” he admits. But, he says, “it’s history.” The kids tried every single concession stand, he says.

More importantly, they can say they witnessed history.

Don’t tell the fans that their team was down 3-0 in the final minute, that the game was never very close and they had no chance to come back. As St. Louis City SC 2 lined up for a corner kick, one minute left in the game, the stadium rocked with noise so loud that someone in the red-and-blue Ferris wheel glowing in the distance at Union Station could have heard them.

Don’t tell City SC defender Josh ua Yaro that the night was defined by the loss. “We’ve seen it empty,” he says of CITYPARK stadium. “And just seeing the stadium full with the excitement and with the fans and having everyone around –– yes, [we lost], but the moment itself is huge.”

Don’t tell coaching director John Hackworth that St. Louis isn’t a soccer city, either. “I’ve said it a lot,” he said of the history and talented players in the city. “This is the best city in the country for soccer.”

So don’t tell St. Louis it was cold or it was too late or it was a bad game or whatever –– because, re ally, it didn’t matter. St. Louis will be there anyway, loud and proud, banging on drums, chanting, “St. Louis is wonderful! It’s the home of toasted ravioli! St. Louis is won derful!”

Despite the cold, the $458 million CITYPARK stadium was packed with rowdy fans for its first game. | BENJAMIN SIMON

“ It’s a fantastic fucking environment. I’ll be one of them dudes in the club suites jumping up and down like a fool.”

A Desperate Appeal

Written by MONICA OBRADOVIC

The Missouri Supreme Court on Monday will hold oral arguments on whether a death row inmate’s execution should be postponed — just one day before he is scheduled to die.

A special prosecutor appointed to investigate Kevin Johnson’s case found ra cial bias “infected” Johnson’s conviction and sentence. Monday, he and Johnson asked the court to delay Johnson’s execution so his findings could be considered in court.

The state Supreme Court set an “expedited briefing schedule” to hold oral arguments regarding the prosecutor’s motion to stay Johnson’s execution. The arguments will be held Monday afternoon, November 28. Johnson’s execution was previously scheduled for Tuesday, November 29.

The special prosecutor, Edward “E.E.” Keenan, filed a motion November 15 to vacate Johnson’s judgment after concluding that then-St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch treated Johnson and other Black defendants ac-

cused of killing police officers differently than a white defendant, Trenton Forster, in whose case McCulloch did not seek the death penalty. He also alleged McCulloch’s team made a “deliberate” attempt to strike Black jurors from the pool in Johnson’s case.

A circuit court judge overruled Keenan’s motion as well as his subsequent motion to amend Johnson’s judgment or alternatively order a new trial. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office also moved to strike Keenan’s appearance from court.

Keenan was using a new state statute that has faced opposition from the attorney general’s office each time a prosecutor has tried to use it. The statute allows a prosecutor to file a motion to vacate or set aside a judgment if they have information that the convicted person “may be innocent or erroneously convicted.”

The statue requires a hearing to be held, which St. Louis County Presiding Judge Mary Elizabeth Ott acknowledged in her denial of Keenan’s motion to set aside Johnson’s judgment.

However, Ott wrote in a November 19

order that there wasn’t enough time to prepare to present a case nor for the court to thoughtfully consider it.

Ott wrote she found it “inexplicable” that Keenan’s claims were not brought to the court’s attention until November 15 — 14 days prior to Johnson’s execution. Johnson had requested that the St. Louis County Prosecutor’s Conviction and Incident Review Unit review his conviction and judgment last December. But one of Johnson’s former trial attorneys works in the prosecutor’s office, so the unit could not perform the investigation themselves.

Ott appointed a special prosecutor to handle the investigation in October.

The office’s Conviction and Incident Review Unit alerted the Missouri Supreme Court of the conflict of interest in a letter on July 11, after the attorney general’s office filed a motion to set Johnson’s execution date.

Jessica Hathaway, chief of the unit, requested the court refrain from scheduling Johnson’s execution. The court did so anyway in August.

When Ott appointed Keenan on October 12, he then faced a high task — review 31,744 pages of case files, talk to witnesses, conduct legal research and review 12 boxes of document requests before Johnson’s execution in little over a month.

In a statement yesterday, Johnson’s lawyers wrote Johnson has no control over delays caused by the prosecutors, saying that for the delay to cost Johnson his life would defy “any sense of justice.” n

Hawley Gets Called Out

As attorney general, Hawley violated Sunshine Law requests to protect his campaign for Senate

Written by SARAH FENSKE

As attorney general, now-Senator Josh Hawley ran an office that knowingly and purposefully violated the Sunshine Law — and did so in ways that expressly benefited Hawley’s political ambitions and kept the public in the dark.

That’s from a ruling issued last week by Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem, who granted summary judgment to Hawley’s foes and ordered the AG’s office to pay the maximum under Missouri law: $12,000 in fines, with their opponents’ attorney’s fees on top of that.

The AG’s opponents have 60 days to submit their legal fees to the court for repayment — a bill that will surely be much bigger than the fine.

The litigation goes back to Hawley’s initial exploration of a run for U.S. Sen-

ate — and his opponents’ attempts to find correspondence between Hawley and his top advisers, often using private email accounts, in which campaign and government business seemed to uncomfortably mix. The Kansas City Star published an eyebrow-raising series of stories about that mingling in October of 2018, triggering an investigation by the Missouri Secretary of State.

Judge Beetem’s ruling suggests the information should have come out much sooner, if only Hawley’s office had followed the state’s Sunshine Law. His ruling notes that, after receiving a Sunshine Law request from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, or DSCC, in March 2018, Hawley’s office quickly located the records being requested.

But instead of turning them over, its custodian of records, Daniel Hartman, instead stalled — and stalled. First the AG’s office said they needed until April, then August.

Even then, the office didn’t turn over the records. Instead, they went radio silent on the request. The AG’s office didn’t get around to turning over the relevant records until August 2019, nearly a year and a half later — and only then as discovery in an open-records lawsuit filed by the DSCC.

For all the law’s clarity, the designated

records custodian, Hartman, had reason to stall: He’s now state director for Senator Hawley, as Beetem notes. His political wagon was hitched to Hawley’s star — not, apparently, the interests of good government.

It’s ugly. Here’s how Judge Beetem explains the AG’s machinations:

“The AGO’s failure to provide any coherent explanation for its substantial delay after failing to meet its second selfimposed, protracted deadline-much less the ‘detailed explanation’ required by the Sunshine Law, § 610.023(3), RSMo, indicates that [the AGO] was not actively

seeking to comply with the law. Rather, after identifying responsive documents, the AGO evaded the law’s requirements, deliberately concealing responsive docu ments. The AGO did not need more time to respond to DSCC’s request: it located all responsive documents on March 16, 2018, and it deliberately withheld these documents without any plausible, lawful rationale for doing so [emphasis added].”

Now, if you follow this kind of litigation, you may find your heart sinking with the realization that Hawley himself is not going to get stuck with the bill for this — not for $12,000 in fines, not for the six figures in legal fees surely to come. Neither will Hartman, his now-state director.

Instead, the taxpayers will get stuck footing the bill. The scheme to delay and knowingly, purposefully obscure public records worked. Hawley got what he wanted. He’s on to D.C. (where he apparently much prefers to live anyway).

So what can you do to hold him accountable?

It’s a small thing, but it may well be all we’ve got. Share this ruling far and wide. Tell people what Judge Beetem said. Help them understand the importance of open records — and how Hawley’s crew violated that trust.

It won’t hurt their pocketbooks. But it should hurt their political reputations. n

One day before Kevin Johnson is set to be executed, the court will hear oral arguments

Kevin Johnson, 37, has a last minute hearing scheduled to postpone his execution. | JEREMY WEIS

Josh Hawley doesn’t just stir up rioters, he also violates laws. | VIA E&E NEWS AND POLITICO

MISSOURILAND

Ye Olde Christmas

Webster Groves kicked o the holiday season with its 36th annual open house

Photos by SARAH LOVETT Words by ROSALIND EARLY

AMr. and Mrs. Claus, horsedrawn carriages, Victorianstyled carolers. For the cynic among us, the Old Webster Holiday Open House on No vember 13 was nostalgic kitsch trying to harken back to a time that never was. (When you’re re calling Victorian-era life, you’re also talking about unfair labor practices, very polluted cities, and people being put in jail for debt … oh, actually, not a lot has changed.) But pretty much every thing kitschy gets a pass if it’s for Christmas.

Kids seemed to be having a good time with the balloon ani mals, face painting and meeting Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Plus, revelers were able to roast marshmallows over fire pits, get free trolley and carriage rides, and do some gift shopping at area businesses. n

The Innocent

BY SYLVESTER BROWN JR.

The Gospel of John tells of Jesus chastising a crowd intent on stoning a woman to death. “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her,” the Bible records him saying.

The oft-quoted verse emphasizes a modern-day conundrum: Since everyone has sinned, no one is qualified to throw stones. That maxim could be applied today to a system driven by human flaws that sentences people to death, sometimes even when they’re innocent.

According to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Cen ter, since 1973 at least 190 people who were sentenced to death in the U.S. have been exonerated.

The center states, “Given the fal libility of human judgment, there has always been the danger that an execution could result in the killing of an innocent person.”

One Missouri case seems to be a textbook example of a perilously imperfect system where a defen dant’s race and socioeconomic status, coupled with prosecutors all too eager to get a conviction, led to an unjust death sentence.

Consider the story of death-row inmate Marcellus Williams.

* * *

On a warm, 72-degree night on Au gust 11, 1998, Dr. Daniel Picus ar rived at his gated University City home to a horrific scene. e found the lifeless body of his wife, Felicia Gayle. She had been stabbed 43 times with a butcher’s knife.

By all accounts, the victim was a model citizen. Felicia (also known as Lisha) Gayle had been a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter. She left the newspaper in 1992 to pur sue full-time volunteer work. The newspaper later described Gayle as “a kind and gentle woman who went out of her way to do nice things for people.”

Although Picus put up a $10,000 reward for anyone with informa tion about his wife’s murder, the case went unsolved for almost a year. Then a man named enry Cole was released from jail in une . e went to niversity City police and told them that a man he shared a cell with had ad mitted the crime to him.

That alleged confessor was Mar cellus Williams.

Laura Asaro, Williams’ former girlfriend, claimed he had admit ted the murder to her, too. Asaro directed police to the Buick LeSa

bre she said Williams had driven the day of the crime. In the trunk, detectives found Gayle’s ruler and calculator. Police were also able to recover Picus’ laptop from a man who said Williams had sold it to him.

Williams was no stranger to the criminal ustice system. e had been previously convicted for bur glary. At the time he was charged for Gayle’s murder, the 29-year-old was serving time for armed rob bery of a fast-food restaurant.

At Williams’ 2001 trial, pros ecutors alleged that Williams was burgling Gayle’s home when she discovered him and, in response, he stabbed her repeatedly.

The jury deliberated less than two hours before finding Wil liams guilty. They recommended a death sentence. The judge also ordered Williams to serve con secutive terms of life in prison for robbery, 30 years for burglary

and 30 years each for two weap ons violations.

In time, the date of his execu tion was set: January 2015.

The Reveal of the Appeals

The appeals process began shortly after Williams conviction. is ap pellate lawyers, Kent Gipson and Laurence Komp, challenged the trial, the conviction and the sen tence. They argued that newly uncovered evidence cast further doubt on Williams’ guilt.

The Missouri Supreme Court denied Williams’ appeal in 2003. Two years later, in 2005, the same court denied a second appeal. In 2008, a federal judge in St. Louis denied his claims, too.

Gipson and Komp then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to order the Missouri Supreme Court to hear new evidence in the case. The petition gave several ustifi cations for the request, including the denial of “post-conviction dis covery” requests that “sought fur ther DNA testing to help establish his innocence.”

Williams’ lawyers included evi dence about Debra McClain — a woman murdered just one month before Gayle in the adjoining sub urb of Pagedale in a strikingly similar way. McClain was also stabbed repeatedly, also with a weapon that came from her own kitchen. In both cases, the assail ant left the weapon behind.

The lawyers felt that comparing DNA evidence related to the un solved murder with forensic evi dence from Gayle’s killing might

This story was commissioned by the River City Journalism Fund as part of its series Shadow of Death , which considers St. Louis County’s use of the death penalty.

DNA analysis reveals that many people in prison are not guilty. Could death-row inmate Marcellus Williams be one of them?

Black Juror, Bye

BY SARAH FENSKE

This story was commissioned by the River City Journalism Fund as part of its series Shadow of Death, which considers St. Louis County’s use of the death penalty.

No less than the great defense attorney Clarence Darrow believed that more than lawyers’ rhetoric, more than the evidence, a verdict of guilt or innocence for many defendants rested on the 12 people judging them. “Never forget,” he wrote, “almost every case has been won or lost when the jury is sworn.”

The theory may sound like hyperbole, but people who study trials have found plenty of evidence that there’s something to it — and that a jury’s racial composition, in particular, can have a huge impact. Says Peter Joy, a professor of law and director of the criminal justice clinic at Washington University School of Law, “Every study ever done shows that a diverse jury leads to better deliberations.” Jurors forced to be in a room with people from different backgrounds discuss the case longer, the studies show, and are more likely to perform effective fact-finding, mitigating their individual biases. On the flip side, all-white juries convict Black people more often than they do white people.

Yet many juries have very few, if any, Black members, even when drawing from communities with significant Black populations, and even when life and death are at stake. In 2014 and 2015, four Black men who’d been sentenced to death in St. Louis County were executed by lethal injection. Of those four, two had been sentenced by all-white juries, even though the county was then 20 percent Black and it’s illegal to remove jurors for their race or religion.

How does that happen? Legal experts blame what are called peremptory challenges. Their use in St. Louis County is now front and center in the case of Kevin Johnson, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection next Tuesday, November 29.

Lawyers can always strike a juror for cause — for example, a rape victim might be ill-equipped to bring impartial judgment to a rape case, or a cop (or even someone married to a cop) might have trouble fairly judging a police officer accused of assault.

Peremptory challenges are different. In these more limited cases, lawyers can strike a juror without explanation, and for the most spurious of reasons. “My client sitting next to me can feel like they got a wrong vibe, and they can strike for that,” Joy explains.

But they can’t strike for race — or religion, or gender. The Supreme Court made that clear in 1986 in Batson v. Kentucky, which has led to what are called Batson challenges. If defense attorneys argue that a juror is being struck due to their race, the prosecution must then offer a race-neutral reason. The judge then decides if the defense has made the case that the strike was improper.

Some experts believe the standard asks way too much of the defense. Joy notes that the Supreme Court has found that prosecutors’ explanations don’t have to be “persuasive, or even plausible.” It’s enough if there’s “facial validity” — basically, as long as it could be true, a judge can accept it. As a result, in practice, Karen Kraft, a former public defender who led Missouri’s Capital Litigation Division, says judges seldom balked at peremptory strikes, even in the death-penalty cases she specialized in.

She recalls an instance when a prosecutor struck a Black juror from a death-penalty case and, in chambers, came hard at the judge as he weighed the back-and-forth over Batson. “The prosecutor said to the judge, ‘If you tell me I can’t make this strike, you’re calling me a racist.’” The judge backed down; the Black juror was struck.

“Most of the time, judges do not want to outlaw a strike,” Kraft says. And when they allow it, appellate courts tend to defer to them.

Continued on pg 23

THE INNOCENT

Continued from pg 21

prove Williams’ innocence. Their request was summarily denied.

Then, in January 2015, the Missouri Supreme Court delayed Williams’ execution to allow for further DNA testing. In an inter view with the St. Louis Post-Dis patch, Gipson expressed his desire that DNA testing and “comparison of any resulting DNA from the Pagedale murder, could reveal ev idence that would prove Williams innocent.”

Gipson and Komp also alleged misconduct on the part of prosecu tors — and defense lawyers who failed to do their jobs. They noted that Williams’ trial lawyers hadn’t fully vetted the witnesses against him. The pair had admitted they weren’t prepared for the trial. In fact, they wrote, one defense attor ney had sought to push Williams’ trial back because he was involved in another capital murder case just one month before.

As for the prosecutors, Gipson and Komp noted that they only turned over arrest and convic tion records for Cole and Asaro two days before the trial started. They also failed to disclose infor mation and records — including drug treatment, mental health, and prison and jail records — that could have cast doubt on the wit nesses’ testimony.

Debunking Key Witnesses

In their appeal, Gipson and Komp stressed that prosecutors didn’t volunteer all they knew about their witnesses’ histories.

Gipson and Komp described Henry Cole as a “career criminal with convictions dating back 30 years” who would “say anything for money.” They detailed a long history of mental illness that ju rors didn’t hear during Williams’ trial. Members of Cole’s family recounted how he suffered from “auditory hallucinations” when he failed to take his psychiatric medications.

Testimonies gathered from Cole s relatives confirmed his rep utation for “providing false infor mation to the police in exchange for leniency.” In one case, the law yers wrote that Cole “served as an informant against his own son … to get a deal from authorities.”

The lawyers also chipped away at the testimony of the other state witness, Laura Asaro, whom they called a “crack-addicted prosti tute.” For example, Asaro told po lice and prosecutors that she saw a purse containing Gayle’s state

identification card in the trun of Williams’ car. That ID, however, was found in Gayle’s home.

Williams’ lawyers argued that Asaro only agreed to testify against Williams in exchange for the dismissal of outstanding war rants against her and a portion of the reward money. The lawyers found witnesses who testified that Asaro was a “known police informant” with a “pattern of ly ing to police to get herself out of trouble.”

The witnesses said Asaro ad mitted to setting up Williams to get the $10,000 reward. Asaro, the lawyers added, “desperately needed this money to feed her crack cocaine addiction, and she had made prior false allegations against others.”

On the issue of the car Asaro told police Williams drove on the day of the murder, multiple witnesses, including Asaro’s own mother, al leged she lied. Each witness tes tified that Williams car was in operable when Gayle was killed. Gipson and Komp contended that Asaro (who had keys to Williams’ car after his arrest) or the police could have planted Gayle’s posses sions in Williams’ automobile. * * *

The National Registry of Exonera tions has comprehensive research on people who’ve been exonerat ed since 1989. The agency’s stated goal is to “prevent future false convictions by learning from past errors.”

Of special focus: testimony by jailhouse informants claiming someone confessed to them while in custody.

“Jailhouse snitch testimony, as it is commonly known, is notori ously unreliable because the in carcerated witnesses are strongly

All-white juries continue to sentence Black defendants to death — because the legal system allows it

Marcellus Williams awaits his fate at the Potosi Correctional Center. | MISSSOURI DOC

motivated to say what the pros ecution wants, usually because they get substantial reductions in their own sentences in return,” the site notes.

Eight percent of all exonerees in the registry were convicted in part by testimony from jailhouse informants, the agency states. Ad ditionally, it added this: “Among murders, the more ex treme the punishment, the more likely we are to see a jailhouse informant, ranging from 23 per cent of exonerations with death sentences to 10 percent of murder cases in which the defendant re ceived a sentence less than life in prison.”

The Advent of DNA Evidence

It was a decade before Gayle’s mur der that A technology was first introduced as evidence in court cases. With it, forensic genealo gists and practitioners were able to help solve criminal cases that had gone cold. They also found hun dreds of innocent people who’d been wrongfully convicted.

Tricia Rojo Bushnell, executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, has spent more than 15 years working on wrongful con victions as both an attorney and law professor. Last year, while serving as an expert witness in a Kansas City death-penalty case, Bushnell addressed how DNAbased evidence has shaken the system. A total of 551 people sent to prison have now been proven innocent thanks to DNA analysis, she wrote.

Even so, she said, in many cas es DNA isn’t available — and the legal hoops to get to exoneration entail a costly, complicated pro cess. Since that first A-based exoneration in 1989, nine people have been executed for every ex oneration.

Experts believe many more in nocent people are serving time. Bushnell refers to the number of wrongfully convicted people still in prison as a “dark number” — there’s no way to know just how many people fall in that category. A study published in the Nation al Academy of Sciences that she finds credible suggests it s li ely around 4.1 percent of all deathpenalty cases.

Williams’ lawyers have sought to show that he’s in that number.

The appellate lawyers retained experts to examine forensic evi dence from the murder victim and her residence. The experts concluded that DNA testing con ducted in December 2016 on the murder weapon actually exclud ed Williams as the contributor of

the male DNA found on the knife.

One of those experts, biologist Greg Hampikian, graphically ex plained how DNA is transferred during a murder like Gayle’s.

“When you’re stabbing, DNA transfers because of restriction and force,” Hampikian told CNN, adding, “If you’re stabbing any one, you have a good chance of transferring your DNA because of that force.”

The DNA on the knife “isn’t enough to incriminate someone, but it is enough to exclude some body,” Hampikian said. “It’s like finding a Social Security card with some blurred numbers. There’s still enough there to at least ex clude someone.”

Further complicating the pros ecution narrative, the bloody footprint found at the murder scene was a different size than Williams shoe. air fibers found at the scene weren’t Williams’, Gayle’s or her husband’s.

Even so, prosecutors insisted the non-DNA evidence — the lap top and the witness testimonies — was enough to carry out Williams’ death sentence.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Gipson succinctly summed up the case for his client’s innocence:

“There is no physical evidence, no eyewitnesses that directly con nect Williams to the murder, the DNA on the weapon wasn’t his, the bloody footprint at the mur der scene wasn’t from Williams’ shoe and was a different size, and the hair fibers found weren t his.

“It was someone else that killed Gayle, not Williams,” Gipson said.

Race and Unreason

Williams’ lawyers and supporters have highlighted aspects of racial bias in his case. Historically, Black defendants are much more likely to be sentenced to death than white defendants, especially if the victim was white, as Gayle was.

Williams’ jury consisted of 11 whites and just one Black person. This was, of course, no accident. The pool of possible jurors includ ed seven African Americans. Pros ecutors struck all but one.

In their appeal, Gipson and Komp noted the bizarre rationale behind the prosecutor’s strike of a potential Black juror named Hen ry Gooden. Since it’s illegal to re move jurors on the basis of race, prosecutors offered other reasons (see “Black Juror, Bye”). They as serted that Gooden was struck because he wore clothes that re sembled Williams’ attire and he wor ed at the post o ce. Accord ing to the prosecutor’s rationale,

Booker T. Shaw was a St. Louis prosecutor and circuit judge before being appointed to the Missouri Court of Appeals. (He’s now a partner at Thompson Coburn.) He says he didn’t see dubious peremptory strikes during his years on the trial court bench — although he acknowledges that, as a Black judge, his very presence may have discouraged lawyers from being too aggressive. His experience is one reason he became convinced that appeals courts should err on the side of trusting the judge who was in the room.

“It’s one of those things where you have to rely on the intelligence and sensitivity of the judge to observe what’s going on in that place or time in his or her courtroom,” he says. “You’re looking at a dry transcript of what happened. I believe the vast majority of judges are fair and impartial. You have to trust their instincts on it.” And so once a Black juror is struck, appellate courts can be loath to second-guess that.

For Kraft’s client Herbert Smulls, who was sentenced to death by an allwhite jury in 1992 (and later executed), prosecutor Dean Waldemar struck the final Black juror from the pool. Challenged by defense attorneys, he claimed he had a policy against postal workers.

“It’s been my experience in the nine years that I’ve been a prosecutor that I treat people who work as mail sorters and as mail carriers … for the U.S. postal office with great suspicion,” Waldemer explained, according to St. Louis Magazine. “In my experience, in many of the trials that I’ve had, they are very disgruntled, unhappy people with the system and make every effort to strike back.” Maybe that was the reason — or maybe it was the fact that the majority of postal workers in St. Louis County are Black. Says Kraft, “That was typical.”

Waldemar’s technique earned him infamy in activist circles, which dubbed it “the Postman Gambit.” But it didn’t leave a mark on Waldemar’s name; he’s now a St. Louis County judge.

Some states have decided they’re uncomfortable with the Batson standard. In Washington, the rules now hold that instead of “facial validity,” a judge should view peremptory strikes from what a “reasonable, average person” would think — a higher standard for prosecutors. (If it looks like a duck, a reasonable, average person may well conclude it’s a duck, no matter how much the prosecutor protests.) Arizona has gone even further: It’s outlawed peremptory challenges entirely. Now if prosecutors want to strike a juror, they must show cause.

Such reforms don’t even seem to be on the table here. “There is no groundswell to change things in Missouri,” Joy says drily. That’s even though, by the end of her long career in 2016, Kraft says she hadn’t seen much change in pattern or practice; judges seldom seemed sympathetic to Batson challenges unless they were in the small group who’d been struck down for getting it wrong in previous cases. Otherwise, they kept excusing Black jurors.

You couldn’t blame a defense attorney on capital cases for losing hope, but Kraft hasn’t. She doesn’t agree with Clarence Darrow on jury selection. “I do think you can win people over,” she says. “I’ve had a lot of white jurors who’ve been very, very sympathetic to my Black clients. I think it’s possible to do it. It all depends on what they hear. … It can turn the tide.”

Even so, she adds, “I certainly think that people have received the death penalty who didn’t deserve it — for sure. Including some of my clients.” Barring a last-minute reprieve, one client she cites as not deserving — Kevin Johnson, who killed a Kirkwood cop at age 19 — will be among them next week.

Johnson’s two juries included both Black and white jurors, but not for a lack of trying on the part of prosecutors. As an independent prosecutor detailed in a November 15 motion seeking to vacate Johnson’s conviction, then-Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch saw a death-penalty conviction overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court just weeks before Johnson’s trial, with the court finding that “the prosecution’s stated explanations for striking a Black juror were ‘implausible and merely a pretext to exercise a peremptory strike for racially discriminatory reasons.’”

Seeking to avoid the same fate in Johnson’s trial, McCulloch tried a novel strategy: He chose to make fewer peremptory strikes than he was allotted, apparently calculating that the judge would then strike potential jurors in numerical order — which in this case would eliminate four Black jurors.

The judge confirmed that he would indeed make the strikes — but stated that he’d follow his “longstanding practice” of taking race into account, “ensuring that reducing the remaining juror pool to the final 12 jurors would not result in the arbitrary elimination of Blacks.”

McCulloch called the rule “silly” and “bizarre.” He asked, “If I don’t have Continued on pg 24

postal wor ers have “liberal, po litical views” and are inherently anti-death penalty.

In response, Williams lawyers insisted ooden bore no resem blance to Williams, other than his s in color that other white urors who wore clothing similar to ooden s were not struc that “another postal wor er who was Caucasian was not stric en by the State and that r. ooden was un e uivocal in stating that he could impose a death sentence.”

The trial court udge ruled that prosecutors had the right to “pe remptory stri es based on their hunches” and their reasoning was “race neutral and not of prete tual nature.”

nder the current legal stan dard in the .S., prosecutors don t need to show that an e planation is plausible — only that it might be valid. The appellate court let the stri e stand.

can prisoners who are convicted of murder are about 0 percent more li ely to be innocent than other convicted murderers.

The American Civil iberties nion, or AC , states that the “color of a defendant and victim s s in plays a crucial and unaccept able role in deciding who receives the death penalty in America.”

According to the AC , “ eople of color have accounted for a dis proportionate 3 percent of total e ecutions since and per cent of those currently awaiting e ecution.”

ata from the ational Reg istry of onerations also show that innocent Blac people are about seven times more li ely to be convicted of murder than in nocent white people. Additionally, the agency notes, African Ameri

According to the registry, “ any of the convictions of African American murder e onerees were affected by a wide range of types of racial discrimination, from un conscious bias and institutional discrimination to e plicit racism.”

At a 0 press conference in support of Williams, Cassandra ould, a efferson City pastor and e ecutive director of issouri aith oices, e pressed the need to e amine how race and in ustice are intertwined with the death penalty in the .S.

“There are countless pools of blood that have been crying out from the ground all over America and especially in issouri, from particularly innocent Blac men who are so easily convicted and so easily sentenced to death,” ould said. *

nine people I don’t strike, why am I being penalized?” It was an incriminating response — suggesting that the judge being mindful of Black representation on the jury penalized the prosecution.

Ultimately, Johnson ended up with a jury of six white and six Black members — and they hopelessly deadlocked on whether he was guilty of firstdegree murder or a lesser charge.

When Johnson went back for a second trial, prosecutors again chose not to use all their peremptory strikes, but this time the judge used random strikes on the rest of the pool. Johnson ended with three Black jurors — and a guilty verdict of first-degree murder.

Johnson’s lawyer appealed that sentence on the grounds that a Black juror had been wrongly removed on the basis of her race. The case went to the state Supreme Court, and its then-chief justice, Richard B. Teitelman, found the Black juror’s removal spurious. He called for Johnson to get a new trial, but Teitelman’s dissent was not enough to overturn the case.

The independent prosecutor newly appointed to Johnson’s case is now trying, 15 years later, to get a different outcome based on those same facts. Much has changed in St. Louis County since then. But this time, the clock is ticking. n

espite new evidence, the is souri Supreme Court ruled that Williams e ecution should pro ceed. ipson told the Post-Dispatch that the court s move was unprecedented.

“We petitioned the court to loo at the new evidence and less than hours later they decided based on the court files that the e ecution should go ahead any way.”

Williams was given a new e ecution date in 0 .

Temporary Reprieve from a Temporary Governor

arcellus Williams was on the sure trac to death before A evidence interrupted his destiny. With the news of A evidence that seemed to e onerate Wil liams, the case drew national at tention from anti-death penalty groups.

Attorney Barry Schec , who de fended . . Simpson as part of his “ ream Team” and cofound ed the Innocence ro ect, oined Williams legal team. The idwest Innocence ro ect launched a pe tition to commute Williams sen tence, and Sister elen re ean, one of the nation s leading antideath-penalty advocates, became a vocal ally.

re ean pleaded with then- ov ernor ric reitens via Twitter. “ ere s what you can do now,” she tweeted on August , 0 . “Call ov. ric reitens at 33 . As him to stop the e ecu tion scheduled for August .”

* * *

issouri s constitution gives the governor power to “grant re prieves, commutations and par dons, after conviction, for all of fenses e cept treason and cases of impeachment.”A 3 state law grants governors another alter

native the authority to “appoint a board of in uiry whose duty it shall be to gather information, whether or not admissible in a court of law, bearing upon wheth er or not a person condemned to death should be e ecuted or re prieved or pardoned, or whether the person s sentence should be commuted.”

With Williams e ecution date looming, the idwest Innocence ro ect wrote a nine-page peti tion to the governor as ing him to appoint an independent board of in uiry.

Citing the A evidence that seemed to contradict Williams guilt, reitens halted the e ecu tion and appointed a board to “consider all evidence presented to the ury, in addition to newly discovered A evidence and any other relevant evidence not avail able to the ury.”

It was a step into almost unchar tered territory. ery few boards of this type had been empaneled in the years since state law first allowed them.

ormer overnor el Carna han created two in his seven-year term. Attorney oe Bednar, who served as Carnahan s chief coun sel, later described the boards of in uiry as “a uni ue process” that deals with “di cult and hard is sues” that a governor has to try to balance with ustice.

reitens order for Williams came less than five hours before Williams was scheduled to die. Williams son, arcellus Williams r., told reporters he and his father had been preparing for e ecution.

“ e and my father, we said our goodbyes. We said we loved each other, I loved him, he loved me,” Williams r. said. * * *

embers of the board included a host of retired udges former circuit udges ichael avid of St. ouis, eggy enner of ac son County and llen Roper of Boone County former .S. istrict udge Carol ac son and former is souri Court of Appeals Western istrict udge aul Spinden.

Spinden says, “ ur charge was to primarily advise the governor on his response to the petition for clemency. That, of course, en tailed loo ing at the evidence, but the primary focus was on how reitens should respond to the petition.”

But reitens abruptly resigned less than a year later, before the board could present its o cial findings. Some advocates ues tioned whether reitens might commute Williams sentence in

Both NAACP president Nimrod Chapel and legendary anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean have spoken on Williams’ behalf. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI | FLICKR/STEVE RHODES

his final wee in o ce.

is actions suggest he was will ing to allow fact-finding, but in no rush to grant Williams a reprieve. Before leaving o ce in une 0 , reitens pardoned people for a range of crimes victims who illed abusers or rapists and individuals who were given what he felt were unreasonably long sentences.

Williams did not receive a com mutation.

When CBS ews as ed Williams r. his thoughts on why reitens didn t pardon his father, the son s response was bitter “ e s li e, I m leaving, I don t care. I do these five pardons, and arcellus he can rot. ”

Justice Delayed

It s been five years since reitens postponed the e ecution of ar cellus Williams, and yet his life still hangs in limbo. The board of in uiry submitted its findings to current issouri overnor i e arson in uly 0 , but he has ta en no action.

iven the gravity of the case, Spinden says he s not shoc ed that it s ta en arson so long to act.

“I can t say I m entirely sur prised. There s not a great deal of precedent or e perience with this process,” he says. “There was a comple set of facts that too us several years to wade through. So, it doesn t surprise me that his de cision has been delayed.”

ue to state law re uiring in formation gathered by the board be held “by it and the governor in strict confidence,” Spinden de clined to comment on the board s findings.

arson s o ce did not respond to uestions about the in uiry s status.

ichelle Smith, director of com munity outreach and advocacy for issourians for Alternatives to the eath enalty, suspects ar son s nonaction is politically cal culated.

“That honestly is a political stand,” Smith told St. ouis ublic Radio in August, adding, “Because you honestly want to come off as someone who is tough on crime, and who is going to ma e sure that people convicted get their punishment.”

Although “politics” is the ob of politicians, Smith said that “ us tice” should be another political re uirement

“When an error or a mista e comes to light, it is also part of their ob within ustice to ma e sure that there aren t innocent people sitting in prison.”

Smith s comment spea s to the complications of a system that is perfectly capable of sentencing innocent people to death.

ighteen people are currently living under death sentences in issouri, si of them from St. ou is County. Since , four per sons have been e onerated from issouri s death row in that same time, have been e ecuted. f those, 3 people — or 3 percent — were Blac , even though Afri can Americans only comprise percent of the state s population.

ne well- nown issouri case is that of arry ri n, a Blac man found guilty of a 0 driveby murder in St. ouis. The state s ey witness would later admit he wasn t sure if ri n was even in the car for the shooting. ri n was e ecuted in , prompting the AAC egal efense and d ucational und to declare, “ is souri e ecuted an innocent man.”

ar ening bac to the uestion of who is ualified to cast stones, it is reasonable to address the pos sibility of wrongful e ecutions in issouri and throughout the na tion. re ean spo e to this topic in her boo .

“If we believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our society, then it has to be wrong for everyone, not ust individuals but governments as well,” re ean wrote.

re ean challenged people to uestion whether an imperfect ustice system should have the power to ta e individuals lives — “whether we can continue to al low the government, sub ect as it is to every imaginable form of in e ciency and corruption, to have such power to ill.”

In this nation, we tolerate with pretense. We pretend there is no unconscious or intentional bias in death-penalty cases, and ig nore that prosecutors and udges are capable of letting those bi ases overrule ustice. We invent ustifications for a system where witness testimony can be conve niently arranged to achieve a pre destined conclusion.

arcellus Williams remains in limbo, his death sentence on the boo s, the government holding his life in its hands. This ta es us bac to where we began this story and emphasi es a still unan swered uestion

Who amongst us is ualified to cast the first stone n

For more on the River City Journal ism Fund, which provided funding for this project and seeks to sup port local journalism in St. Louis, see rcjf.org.

CALENDAR

BY RIVERFRONT TIMES STAFF

THURSDAY 11/24

Trot, Turkeys

othing says Than sgiving more than getting up early in the morning and running until you can run no more. If that’s your thing — or if you re loo ing for a new way to curb holiday calories this year — you re in luc Sev eral turkey trots will take place throughout the St. ouis area this wee . Buc ing a tradition of races in downtown St. ouis, the St. Louis Turkey Trot will be held at the St. Charles am ily Arena 00 Arena ar way in tandem with a virtual race people can participate in from anywhere. ir wood will also host in-person and virtual rac es with three- and si -mile op tions as part of the 40th Annual Kirkwood-Webster Turkey Day Run , and the Olivette Turkey Trot will ic off at a.m. at Stacy ar 0 ld Bonhomme Road).

FRIDAY 11/25

Having a Ball

Instead of trampling your neigh bor to get a cheap T at Walmart, why not support Black artists at the Black Friday Ball at the Con temporary Art useum 3 0 Washington Avenue osted by u art, this free event is more than a ballroom competition. The festivities kick off at 4 p.m. with a holiday mar etplace featuring Blac ueer artists. At p.m. is a panel discussion featuring iyon nee ic man, the community out reach lead for the o o ustice Coalition; state Representative Ra sheen Aldridge -St. ouis and artist Yetunde ans i- gunfidodo. There will also be free I testing, mon eypo vaccinations and C I - boosters on hand, because everyone stans a health-conscious queen. The event will conclude with performances and a ball competition with cash prizes for categories that include ogue

Blac anther , Runway Artis tic Couture , ands o love, o ove , Se Siren eather and ace and Realness ender u phoria). The performances start at p.m. and the competition is at 7 p.m.

Dive and Dash

St. ouis loves a pop-up bar, and Dasher’s Dive Bar at W R le St. ouis ills Boulevard, a elwood promises to be one to remember. The space will shower you in Christmas spirit, from the decorated ceiling on down to the festive tables. They ll be offering Christmas-themed snacks and cocktails and “wall-to-wall Christ mas decor” along with holiday music and cheer. In addition to the snacks and welcome cocktail that is included with the price of your tic et . , you ll also have an opportunity to take a pic ture with Santa. asher s ive Bar will eep you engaged with Christ mas arao e, comedy games and more. The bar is open this riday

through riday, ecember 3, and you can visit powerple stl.com dashers-dive-bar to secure your tickets.

Wildin’ Out

It’s hard to improve on the Saint ouis oo overnment rive , but the Wild Lights display each holiday season really tries. In ad dition to seeing gorgeous lights and all of the usual animals, the Wild ights nights also offer themed areas (like the Cozy Cave and the olly olly angout and winter-themed treats. You never now what you ll find around each corner, from carolers to free activities to a theater featur ing Rudolph the Red- osed Rein deer. And if you have a sensitive kid who would love to partici pate but might sometimes need space to decompress a bit from overstimulation, you can ta e them on Sensory- riendly ight, which returns on onday, e cember , and for which the oo offers sensory maps, uiet areas

e Saint Louis Zoo’s Wild Nights display promises holiday fun for all the wild animals in your family. | VIA FLICKR/PHILIP LEARA

and trained staff to assist people. They’ll even have a limited num ber of headphones and fidget toys for your kids to borrow if it helps them. Tic ets range from $10 for a zoo member to $16 for non-members. isit stl oo.org wildlights for more information.

SATURDAY 11/26

Let’s Get Crackin’

any moons ago, Tchai ovs y disguised .T.A. offman s night marish story about a little girl s fever dream into a tale of Christ mas oy, one that we are now bound by fate to reanimate every year as soon as the alloween de cor hits the Walgreens clearance rac . uestion the tradition, we might, but there is no doubt that the Saint Louis Ballet puts on a stunning Nutcracker show filled with such an abundance of tulle, glitter, fa e snow and tiaras you feel as if you’ve raided Billy Por ter’s closet. These undeniably tal ented dancers create a magical fairyland that, for ust a moment, whisks you into the season’s spirit uic er than a life-si ed, animat ed nut-shelling device can whis away Clara to a land of enchant ment. The ballet runs this Satur day through riday, ecember 3, at the Touhill erforming Arts Center (1 Touhill Circle). Tickets are available through etroti .

Fun Guys

oo ing to learn more about functional magic mushrooms or microdosing . . s rban arm

3 3 Ivanhoe Avenue has a class for you ycologist i e Crabtree will lead Exploring Functional Mushrooms from 4 to 6 p.m. Sip on a cup of mushroom coffee and stimulate your mind while you learn about the functional fungus among us. The class will discuss the many benefits that these mushrooms offer, where to get them and how to incor porate them into your daily life. As a bonus, attendees get to ta e home one of the farm s e clusive functional mushroom products for free! Tickets for the event are . or more information, visit fb.me e r ivsf.

As it turns out, the Dude is just as adept behind the camera as he is in front. | SAM JONES

Curl the MO

It s getting cold outside. That means no baseball. No outdoor bas etball. Running might be a little brutal. But at the Creve Coeur Ice Arena 00 lde Cab in Road, Creve Coeur the sports aren t slowing down — they re speeding up. This wee end, the Creve Coeur Ice Arena is handing out curling lessons through the St. ouis Curling Club. The one-day session Learn to Curl lasts from to 0 30 p.m. isitors will learn how to sweep the floor, de liver stones and try on their own grippers. This is only one part of what the curling club offers, with everything from ids leagues to adult leagues to doubles leagues to skills clinics to private lessons to bonspiel curling tournaments. With this club, it s all curling, all the time. nly 0 people can par ticipate, so grab your tic ets in advance at a cost of 30, or 3 the day of. To find more informa tion, visit stlouiscurlingclub.org.

SUNDAY 11/27

Light It Up

You have to appreciate the re straint that rant s arm 3 rant Road, 3 - 3- 00 has shown in starting its Holi day Lights show the day after Than sgiving. ost holiday ac tivity started up right after al loween, but rant s arm waited for the actual Christmas season to begin the festivities. That means you can drive through the lights at rant s arm from to p.m. Thursday through Sunday until riday, ecember 30, with additional dates start ing onday, ecember . riv ing through the lights costs 3 per vehicle, or those who want a slower e perience can wal through the lights on select on days and Wednesdays between ovember and ecember . Tickets are $10 per person. More information can be found at grantsfarm.com holiday-lights.

TUESDAY 11/29

Shark Attack

In 0 , a South orean children s entertainment company launched a weapon of mass destruction so powerful it rivaled anything its neighbor to the north could pro duce in terms of power and scale, an ordinance of mass destruction so awesome its reverberations are still being felt today — in particu lar at the Baby Shark event at St. Charles amily Arena 00 Arena ar way, St. Charles . ood try, in fong overlords. We see your neon pin and blue, comically wide-eyed cartoon sharks spout ing an inescapable earworm for what they are psychological war fare. But dammit if we can escape your grasp, than s to the puppydog eyes of our toddlers. Than God they serve booze.

WEDNESDAY 11/30

Picture This

There s more to the ude than meets the eye. In fact, it turns out that during his 30 years of stand ing in front of film cameras, eff Bridges, best nown for playing the iconic lead character in the Coen brothers film The Big Lebows ki, has been gifted a photographic eye of his own. With a Widelu panoramic camera, Bridges cap tured decades of moments on set. You can now see the actor’s work at the Sheldon 3 Washington Avenue until onday, anuary , through the Jeff Bridges: Pictures e hibit, the first idwest showcase of Bridges photographs. Though Bridges has built a wide following for his dramatic roles, his photog raphy has gone largely unnoticed compared to his celebrity status. is wor has even been featured in Premiere and Aperture maga ines. In 0 3, he received an Infinity Award from the International Cen ter of hotography. Bridges wor is free to view at the Sheldon’s Bell wether allery of St. ouis Artists Tuesdays through Saturdays. n

Have an event you’d like consid ered for our calendar? Email cal endar@riverfronttimes.com.

Pie’s the Limit

Fordo’s Killer Pizza brilliantly showcases all that a humble food stall can achieve

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

Fordo’s Killer Pizza

3730 Foundry Way. Sun.-Tues. 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Wed.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Joe Luckey describes cooking pi a in a wood-fired oven as a in to driving a stic -shift transmission. There s a lot of touch and go, feeling the dough out to get a read on how it s behaving on a particular day assessing the fire to ma e sure it s hot enough and big enough to get the leopard spotting you want without burning the bottom of the crust and feeling your way around the oven, which seems organic and alive. It s the reason he gives when as ed why, as a chef well versed in fine dining, he decided to sign on to a seem ingly simple pi a counter in City oundry s ood all — and a ma or factor behind the creativity he brings to his eapolitan-inspired pies at ordo s iller i a. uc ey was a natural choice to lead chef and restaurateur erard Craft s City oundry pi a pro ect. After wor ing for Craft at Taste and the rench-inspired Brasserie in the Central West nd, uc ey was tapped to lead the itchen at Craft s ashville outpost of his popular Clayton eatery, astaria, where he wor ed for two years before moving bac to the brand s Clayton flagship. uring his time at both astaria locations, he fell in love with the pi a station, where he considered ma ing pies in the searing-hot wood oven the most fun he d had in his culinary career. When Craft began s etch ing out a plan for a eapolitanstyle pi a itchen in City ound ry, he immediately recogni ed uc ey as the person to help him carry out his vision.

art of Craft s reasoning was uc ey s undeniable passion for

wood-fired pi a. ore impor tantly, though, he saw uc ey as someone who would find creative inspiration in the form rather than feeling confined by it. e encouraged uc ey to nail down the standards — a argherita, a

four-cheese, a pepperoni — but he then set him free to be as creative as he wanted with the concept. mpowered by that mandate and anchored by Craft s outstanding pi a-dough recipe, which was created especially for ordo s,

uc ey set off to transform a hum ble food counter into a bastion of pi a-based creativity.

uc ey debuted his creations when ordo s opened to the public this past ay. Tuc ed into the far southeast corner of the food hall, the stall or “ itchen,” as they are technically called at City oundry has an out-of-the-way feel from the rest of the comple s hustle and bustle. The corner-lot-style setting is necessary due to the pi eria s si able oven a massive wood esuvio oven made by the esteemed Italian manufacturer ianni Acunto that loo s less li e a coo ing device and more li e a white stone trullo that dots Italy s uglia region. It s a serious piece of e uipment that draws your attention to the stall, but a beau tifully deranged mural by artist idhya agara that s e ual parts ric Ripert and len an ig gives an air of irreverence to the place. So does ordo s playlist, fondly referred to by the team as “Woodfired Bops,” which plays through out service.

uc ey notes that the playlist is

A wide variety of ingredients from the traditional to the eclectic top Fordo’s perfectly baked pizzas. | MABEL SUEN

Executive chef Joe Luckey (center) with chefs Elizabeth Hensley and Mike Perkins. | MABEL SUEN

FORDO’S

a departure from other Niche Food Group kitchens — that at Craft’s other properties, music is allowed during prep time, but once service begins, the radio turns off and it’s time to get down to business. That Fordo’s buzzes along to tunes throughout the workday captures the spirit of what Craft and Luckey wanted to achieve here: a whimsi cal, fun romp that is anchored by Niche Food Group’s culinary phi losophy, but is allowed to be play ful thanks to the fundamentally joyful genre of pizza.

Hawaiian pizza captures this spirit. Here, Luckey begins with Craft’s dough recipe, which leads to a master-level crust. Puffed up to a pillow-soft texture around the edges, yet soft and thin in the middle like a proper Neapolitan pie, the crust gets these perfect, blueberry-sized char spots that fla e up to the point of brea ing open but never actually cross that line. The char adds a beauti ful, roasty bitterness to the other wise nutty crust, and serves as a built-in counter to the Hawaiian’s roasted-pineapple-sauce sweet ness. Unlike a typical Hawaiian pie that scatters chunks of pineap ple across the pizza, Fordo’s cara melized tropical sauce permeates every bite and melds into the ac companying mozzarella cheese topping. Slices of Volpi Heritage prosciutto, shaved so thin they are translucent, cover every mil limeter of the pizza’s non-puffyedge surface, blanketing the dish in salty luxury that’s brightened by pungent red onion and jalape ño. It’s a stunning riff on the form.

In place of a standard sau sage pizza, Fordo’s offers one made with hunks of gloriously rich, spice-laden beef sausage. Rendered fat from the meaty crumbles mingles with the zesty roasted tomato sauce and gilds the molten fontina and parmesan cheeses that cover the pie. Bell peppers, chives and sweet cara melized onions that are so soft you could spread them finish this magnificently satisfying dish.

One of Luckey’s more creative turns is the shakshuka, a pizza rendition of the North African breakfast dish. Here, he begins by topping the crust with a warmly spiced red-pepper sauce that’s typical of the traditional version of the dish, then covers it in egg whites before it hits the oven. He admits this is unconventional, but it’s an approach that resulted from many failures, most of them

involving cracking the whole eggs on the pie. By separating out the yol s and finishing the pi a with them when it comes out of the oven, he is able to cook the whites so that they form a beautiful coat ing that acts as a stand-in for a fresh cheese. Yolks, feta and fresh herbs are placed atop this base as soon as it comes out of the oven for a dish that is not only delicious but showcases the innovation that can come from even a humble food stall.

Luckey’s more conventional of ferings are equally successful. A Margherita pizza — the standard upon which all Neapolitan-style pizzerias should be judged — hits the mar flawlessly with its bright tomato sauce, rounds of fresh mozzarella and basil leaves. A four-cheese beautifully pairs mozzarella, Taleggio, fontina and parmesan with a drizzle of honey; its sweetness is a beautiful con trast to the cheeses’ subtle funk. A wild mushroom pie smartly pairs the fungi with citrus gremolata to brighten the earthiness, and a quintessential pepperoni piz za captures the glorious cheesy, greasy comfort you want from such a concoction, all the way down to the pepperoni oil that pools in the sausage’s slightly cra tered slices. Paired with Fordo’s luscious garlic confit puree, it s

easy, decadent bliss.

Luckey describes the painstak ing process of making that garlic puree. irst, he confits fresh gar lic cloves in butter, slow and low, so as to bring out the sweetness without the bitter burnt taste that comes from going too quickly.

i e coo ing a wood-fired pie, there’s an art and a feeling to such an endeavor.

He also says that he got the idea for the condiment from Papa John’s garlic sauce. If ever there was a better summation of this wonderful addition to the area’s pizza scene, I’d like to see it.

Fordo’s Killer Pizza

Margherita

Pepperoni

Shakshuka

Fordo’s salads are prepared using little gem lettuce. | MABEL SUEN

Executive chef Joe Luckey knows his way around a wood-fired oven. | MABEL SUEN

SHORT ORDERS

Dough Dash

Katie’s Pizza is again shipping nationwide this holiday season

Written by MONICA OBRADOVIC

Last winter, short sta ng at FedEx and a nasty omicron surge put a stop to atie s i a asta steria s online ordering platform, which al lowed patrons to ship the St. ou is-based eatery s popular fro en pi as and pastas to any destina tion throughout the .S.

But this year, fans of the brand s signature pies are in luc atie s online ordering is bac for the holidays.

rom now until anuary, custom ers can ship items on atie s fro en menu throughout the .S. Custom ers get a free fro en pi a or res taurant gift card with every order as a than -you for stic ing by the brand after last year s hiccup and for their continued support of the burgeoning fro en-pi a line.

The resolution to last year s shipping woes is the latest sign that atie s is poised to become a national fro en-pi a brand, a ma or development for a pro ect that started out as a pandemicrelated necessity but has become something much more for owners atie ee Collier and Ted Collier.

In 0 0, the couple and business duo behind the popular modern Italian restaurants Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria (two locations including 9568 Manchester Road, Rock Hill; 314-942-6555) turned to fro en pi a to eep their busi ness afloat as C I - wrea ed havoc on restaurants. Their gam bit wor ed. nline orders for fro en pi as piled in to a point where the company could hardly eep up. The success fueled a tie s through the worst of the pan demic and introduced the beloved local chain s fare to a broader na tional audience, including grocery stores around the country.

Competition in the fro en-pi a world is steep. ee Collier says, “It s a very tough business,” but

she and her team did not want to sacrifice uality for e ciency. very item on the fro en menu is made from the same recipes and by the chefs who staff the restau rants. i as are crafted the same way they would be in the bricand-mortar restaurants

“It ta es a lot of wor , and it ta es a lot of craftsmanship,” ee Collier says in an interview. “We re committed to not overstreamlining to the point that it s all machine.”

very pi a is hand-stretched and wood-fired in an 00-degree oven with issouri white oa . reshly milled durum and semolina flour ma e up the dough. Specialty Ital ian meats, fresh cheese and local organic produce adorn the pies.

enu options also include pasta ba es, sauces and fresh pasta by the pound. The dishes taste ust as good microwaved or ba ed at home, ee Collier asserts.

atie s fro en pi as have reached customers far and wide in the past two years. In addition to local shelves at ierbergs in issouri and Illinois, the Colliers have attracted nationwide chains including Whole oods and resh ar et, an ast Coast chain of gro

cery stores with over 0 locations.

But after online ordering for individual customers ended last winter, customers moaned, ee Collier says. “ ventually we ust got so many people saying, I don t live here, but I really want your pi as and you re not in my gro cery store yet, ” she says. “So we decided the perfect time to bring it bac would be the holidays.”

The ascent of atie s i a asta steria was a long one. ee

Collier dropped out of high school at and learned the restaurant business by wor ing in them. She and her father opened atie s i a Cafe in Clayton in 00 when she was ust . ee Collier battled a years-long struggle with addic tion, however, and eventually lost her share in the business.

The cafe closed in 0 , but along with her husband Ted Collier, ee Collier has opened two locations of atie s i a asta steria — with a third one on the way. The largest location of atie s i a asta steria will open in the heart of Ballpar illage ne t year.

The addition of a fro en prod uct line has been an une pected e tension of atie s success — one that s become far bigger than a pandemic uic -fi .

“When we started this, the goal was ust to eep everybody wor ing and eep getting our product out to people during C I ,” ee Collier says. “We were able to save everybody s ob and come out with this great product, and it was a success. We uic ly real i ed that the reach with fro en is much greater than anything a res taurant could ever do. I thin the s y is always the limit.” n

You can now have Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria’s frozen pizzas shipped nationwide. | MABEL SUEN

“ It takes a lot of work, and it takes a lot of craftsmanship. We’re committed to not overstreamlining to the point that it’s all machine.”

A New Era

Vito Racanelli shares his “out of the box” plans for a reimagined Tempus

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

When ito and Amy Ra canelli signed on to be the creative forces behind the newly imagined Tempus — an opportunity that fol lowed the departure of the restau rant s acclaimed chef and creative force Ben rupe — they new they had only one option to thin completely out of the bo .

“When I got in here, it was ama ing,” ito Racanelli says. “But I got to tal ing and reali ed that I don t thin I d want to open a restaurant because there s too much pressure. Ben rupe is an artist, and to follow that up is one hard act to follow. It s li e being a comedian after ave Chappelle who wants to follow that ”

The Racanellis appear up to the challenge. This wee , Tempus an nounced that the husband-andwife team of chefs were tapped by owner eter Bric ler to help him guide the space in a new di rection. Their appointment gives a bit of clarity to the future of the restaurant, which was shadowed in uncertainty after rupe, its star chef and visionary, departed in late August. At that time, Bric ler promised to “restructure and refresh” the restaurant following a brief hiatus. ow, three months later, he and the Racanellis are ready to show the St. ouis dining community what that means.

Their plans represent a dra matic departure from the upscale dining that defined the restaurant during rupe s tenure. As ito Racanelli e plains, Tempus will cease to be a sit-down restaurant with daily service, but will instead be converted into a bouti ue events and pop-up space, ta eout window and dinner-series venue intentionally designed to be everchanging.

“ very time you get into the res taurant business, you thin of a

concept and then find yourself in the walls of that concept, and you are stuc there,” Racanelli says. “With this idea, we can tear down the walls we are not stuc with anything, and we can try all sorts of things.”

Though they are eager to show case a variety of voices at the newly imagined Tempus, the Ra

canellis will lead the first series of pop-ups in order to feel out the space. Their inaugural event is a tic eted spaghetti dinner that will be held on Wednesday, ovember 3, the evening before Than sgiv ing, and Racanelli is eager to lead.

“We ust want to loosen up and eep it simple,” Racanelli says.

ollowing the spaghetti-dinner launch event, the Racanellis will turn their attention to a pop-up se ries called R TS A Culinary our ney. It s an idea that Racanelli has wanted to pursue for some time, as he sees it as an opportunity for chefs to share their stories and showcase their uni ue ourneys.

“It s a way for people to really loo at the mind of a chef — what were the triggers that motivated that person to want to get into this cra y career,” Racanelli says. “There are a million different things, and I want to give chefs li e me the op portunity and set a stage for them to e plain that and to see the chef as a person, as well as the trials and tribulations they went through and how personal this is to them.”

Racanelli will ic off the R TS

series on Wednesday, ovember 30, by sharing with diners the Ital ian upbringing that served as the spar for his own culinary our ney. Though he does not have a date listed for subse uent R TS pop-ups, he teases that the legend ary im iala of The Crossing and Acero is on dec for a dinner that he describes as being “li e a T Tal , but for food.”

In addition to the pop-ups and special events, the Racanellis will be operating a ridays-only ta e out concept, The Window, which will consist of a wal -up window on the ewstead Avenue side of the building where guests can or der meals to go, including the Ra canellis Big s Craft BB , which had previously been operating out of allon s now-shuttered issouri Beer Company. The Win dow, which debuted ovember , will be open from a.m. until food is sold out.

“It s a bit unorthodo what we are doing, but I thin it fits the space,” Racanelli says. “There s al ways going to be a new chapter to it it s going to be a lot of fun.” n

Amy and Vito Racanelli have big plans for Tempus. | KELLE SUTTON

“It’s a way for people to really look at the mind of a chef — what were the triggers that motivated that person to want to get into this crazy career.”

Sweet Tooth

“What’s for dessert?”

Written by MONICA OBRADOVIC

My fandom of Claire Saffitz began much like everyone else’s.

It was early 2020, right before everything went downhill. My biggest concerns at the time were finishing my last semester of college and getting to Webster University’s library cafe before someone swiped the last banana-nut muffin.

Then disaster hit. The harshest days of the pandemic put an end to most inperson activities, and my communications were mostly reduced to texts and vacant small talk with professors over Zoom. But I, along with millions of others, found comfort in YouTube videos — specifically a series created by Bon Appétit magazine called Gourmet Makes where, in video after video, pastry chef and St. Louis native Claire Saffitz attempted to recreate cheap candies and desserts, such as Twinkies, into gourmet creations.

In her latest cookbook, What’s for Des sert, Saffitz builds upon what she began in the Gourmet Makes series, offering her trademark encouraging advice through out this collection of 100 recipes de signed for aspiring pastry chefs of all skill levels. The cookbook, released November 8 by Penguin Random House, follows her debut book, October 2020’s Dessert Per son, which turned Saffitz into a bona fide pastry phenomenon.

Like thousands of wannabe bakers, I found comfort in Saffitz’s Gourmet Makes videos, taking it all in as she dedicated herself to an often arduous trial-and-error process. I’m an admitted

novice in the kitchen — most of my dinners consist of Pasta Roni garnished with little more than bargain parmesan cheese. But Saffitz had me baking garlic and rosemary focaccia, salted halvah blondies and kouign-amann, a delectable French pastry that took a seven-hour commitment of love to make.

Even after Saffitz left the Bon Appétit staff following the uproar surrounding several of the magazine’s employees of color saying they were treated differently than their white counterparts, I continued to follow her work and gleefully scooped up a copy of Dessert Person when it hit shelves that first pandemic October.

Several more did the same. Dessert Person quickly became a New York Times bestseller and Saffitz’s personal YouTube channel, where she started to demonstrate recipes in the book, now has over 1 million subscribers. I could not help but beam with civic pride when she included a recipe for a hometown staple, gooey butter cake, which, no offense to your mom, beats any home recipe using yellow cake mix as a base.

Saffitz tells the RFT that in What’s for Dessert she was inspired to go in a different direction.

“My first book was all about baking, so I didn’t get to explore so many other realms of desserts that I enjoy eating but was less familiar with making, like frozen and child desserts and stovetop desserts,” Saffitz says.

While Dessert Person provided her a route to expand her own horizons as a dessert person and provide more variety for home bakers, Saffitz notes that What’s for Dessert features more simple recipes than her cookbook debut. While developing her recipes for her latest effort, Saffitz focused on streamlining various techniques and processes to minimize steps, dishes and equipment wherever possible.

“As a recipe developer, I definitely place more of an emphasis on creating simpler recipes now than I have in the past,” Saffitz says. “I still enjoy a baking project, but I know that a recipe does not have to be complicated to be delicious,

so I try my best to provide low-lift recipes that make a big impact.”

Like in her debut cookbook, Saffitz in cluded several family recipes in What’s for Dessert. Food was always a topic of conversation in her family and a locus for enjoyment and sociability, she says. Both of her parents are good cooks — her mom, in particular, is an experienced baker.

That childhood, as well as her St. Louis upbringing, influenced her work. A gradu ate of Clayton High School, Saffitz has many fond memories of family outings to Ted Drewes in the summertime. Pumpkin muffies from the early days of St. Louis Bread Company and gooey butter cake from Lake Forest Bakery also created taste memories that almost certainly in fluenced her palate today, she says.

Now a New Yorker, Saffitz says she fields questions about St. Louis-style pizza, “which, in New York, is difficult to defend but I try my best.”

Though readers of What’s for Dessert will not see a recipe for Provel-covered cracker crust, Saffitz says she did take inspiration from classic American midcentury desserts, many of which have a “pretty Midwest feel,” even if none speak directly to her St. Louis roots.

“I turned to community cookbooks from all over the country, which are so fun and interesting to read and give such

a specific look into the local cuisines of a particular place and design,” she adds.

When asked why she feels such a strong sense of duty to help people around their amateur pastry kitchens, Saffitz says she tries to channel her earliest experiences as a baker and the anxiety she felt when trying a new recipe.

Throughout her career, Saffitz has often suggested that baking gets a bad rap; that it’s difficult, frigid and leaves little room for expression. To her, though, dessert is just as important as the main course. Every evening after dinner, she turns to her husband, chef Harris MayerSelinger, and asks “What’s for dessert?” She poses it as a question, but there’s no question mark at the end of her newest cookbook.

Dessert, for Saffitz, is more of an expectation.

“[It’s] part of my routine, and posing the question/statement is a way that I make time to treat myself on a daily basis,” Saffitz says.

And thank God she does, because she’s taught me, and so many others, to do the same. n

What’s for Dessert is available wherever you buy your books, including local sellers such as Left Bank Books in the Central West End.

Celebrity chef and St. Louis native Claire Sa tz asks,

St. Louis native Claire Sa tz prepares some sweet treats. | COURTESY OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE

Salty cashew blondies are one of the recipes featured in Claire Sa tz’s new cookbook What’s for Dessert. | COURTESY OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE

Food Goals

Dewey’s, Crown Candy and more join St. Louis CITY SC vendor list

Written by BENJAMIN SIMON

When CITYPARK hosted its first professional soccer game ovember , it had an array of local food for fans to en oy.

And that s maybe an understate ment. CITY AR is not ust offering some aldi s Coffee here and some Steve s ot ogs there. The entire stadium is full — 00 percent full — of food and beverage vendors from across the St. ouis area.

In ctober, the team first pre viewed its CITY lavor program with four initial partners Bal an Treat Bo , B AST Craft BB Co., Steve s ot ogs and iche ood roup.

n the onday morning before its sold-out first match between CITY SC and Bayer 0 ever u sen, the team shared a list of 0 additional area food and bever age vendors that are represented in the brand-new owntown West S stadium.

The list of offerings includes a number of St. ouis staples, such as ewey s i a, the Bloc , ayo etchup, au, ie uy, adrinos e ican Restaurant, udo ouse, Anthonino s Taver na, Wally s, alinche, armtru , Ices lain ancy, the attened Caf, Bold Spoon Creamery, Che Ali, aldi s Coffee, Crown Candy itchen, W Sausage and eats, and the . .A.T. Brand.

“We want a ma ority of this to be smaller operators, whereas you usually see the reverse in these ma or stadiums,” chef e rard Craft tells RFT. “You see a lot of Chic -fil-A and apa ohn s.”

Craft — a ames Beard award winner serving as St. ouis CITY SC s chief flavor o cer — says they tried to capture the variety of cui sines available across the St. ouis area, from Bosnian to ietnamese to Senagalese food partners.

“St. ouis is made up of so many different cultures, and we really wanted to show that,” Craft says. “We love toasted ravioli and ev erything li e that, but we now that St. ouis is more than ust that. ... We really wanted to have as much representation as we

could.”

The food was available in lo cations across the stadium when CITY AR held its first profes sional game last Wednesday. Af ter flooding and electrical issues

Into the Woods

Botanica has closed in Wildwood

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

Aonce promising light in Wildwood’s dining scene has gone dark. Botanica (2490 Taylor Road, Wild wood; 636-821-1233), the stylish restaurant and bar from the team behind Six Mile Bridge Beer, has closed. The restaurant served its last guests November 13.

The restaurant announced the news on its social media accounts early last week, citing two main reasons for its closure.

“Unfortunately, economic headwinds combined with chronic staffing shortages prevented us from achieving the goals we had dreamed of and ultimately forced our hand to close the business,” a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page read.

Ryan and Lindsay Sherring opened Botanica last October in the former Wildwood location of Llywellyn’s Pub in the hopes of becoming a neighborhood gathering place that could appeal to those looking for a romantic date night, as well as to families wanting a comeas-you-are spot for weeknight pizza, and everyone in between. They started out with great promise, converting the for merly dark pub into a sleek, light-filled dining room and assembling a dream

delayed the stadium opening over a month, CITY SC too the pitch against erman team Bayer 0 ever usen in a friendly match. Though the home team was shut out 0-3, hungry fans could find

comfort in the delicious food fill ing the stadium.

When the S team arrives in 0 3, it will be the first to have a stadium with 00 percent local of ferings. The stadium will also of fer advanced technology for food orders, including digital menu boards, wal -out mar ets and mo bile wallet-pay technologies.

Since the St. ouis S team was announced in 0 , the team received more than 0,000 sug gestions from community mem bers, ultimately whittling the list down to selections. The team says it will continue to e pand its offerings by the time the S team starts play in 0 3.

“There wasn t really a roadmap for this, because everybody was li e, on t do that. That s not gon na be the most profitable option, ” Craft says. “But, than fully, our ownership group was so support ive of saying, We want this to be something special and something different. et s loo at the profit after. et s ust try to ma e this something that is going to really represent St. ouis. ” n

bar team anchored by the well-regarded former Salt + Smoke beverage director Chris Figeroa.

However, the Sherrings signaled they meant business by bringing on Ben Welch as Botanica’s executive chef. Welch, who made his name at his now-shuttered Maryland Heights Smokehouse Big Baby Q and later as executive chef at the Mid western, saw Botanica as his chance to fi nally tease out his ideas for a more South ern-inflected upscale dining concept. This, combined with the Sherrings’ desire to of fer creative pizzas and an Italian-inflected menu, resulted in unique fusion fare such as a sweet-potato pizza with speck, gor

gonzola and candied pecans, as well as fried catfish with eggplant parmesan and spicy tartar sauce.

Their daring culinary style paid off, resulting in a James Beard Foundation Award nomination for Best Chef: Midwest for Welch this past spring. However, not long after the nod, the St. Louis PostDispatch reported that Welch had quietly departed Botanica at the beginning of the year, before the nomination came out.

Reached for comment, Ryan Sherring summed up the situation in a simple sentence.

“It was a tough decision, but we couldn’t keep it open any longer.” n

DD Mau’s delectable Vietnamese cuisine is one of the many newly announced dining options at CITYPARK. | MABEL SUEN [FOOD NEWS]

Botanica has served its last guests. | PHUONG BUI

REEFERFRONT TIMES

How old do I have to be to smoke weed legally?

Green Means Go

With Missouri voters approving recreational weed, here’s what comes next

Written by MONICA OBRADOVIC

Whether you’re for it or against it, recreational weed will soon be legal in Missouri.

The majority of Missouri voters said “Yes, we can(nabis)” and approved Amendment 3, an initiative to legalize recreational marijuana in our state that will also provide legal expungements for those with certain marijuanarelated offenses.

Amendment 3’s passage leads to several questions. If you’ve tried reading the long and wordy amendment yourself and only felt confused, fret not: That may have been the point.

But lucky for you, dear reader, we here at the Riverfront Times love our fucking weed, and we’ve sifted through the amendment’s text to answer your burning questions.

When can I start smoking legal weed?

Amendment 3 doesn’t take effect until Thursday, December 8, so if you’re an avid weed smoker now, you’ll have to carry on in illicit fashion until that date.

But in case you’re not already aware, residents of St. Louis city already have some cannabis free doms. An ordinance passed last December that allows St. Louisans to possess two ounces of marijua na or less and grow up to six can nabis plants.

Where can I smoke marijuana?

Even though recreational weed is legal in Missouri, it’s not like you can blaze it up willy nilly. In fact, if you do, you could face some consequences.

Amendment 3 says a person who smokes marijuana in a pub

lic space, other than an area “li censed for such activity,” is sub ject to a civil penalty no larger than $100.

When can I buy recreational weed in Missouri?

Amendment 3 won t o cially ta e effect until early next month, and the state won t issue the first rec reational dispensary license until February 2023. Dispensaries that currently operate as medicalmari uana facilities will have first crack at those licenses, though, so you can reasonably expect that you’ll be purchasing from one of those after they convert over.

How much weed can I have?

You can buy, possess and trans port three ounces or less of dried, unprocessed marijuana or an equivalent.

How much weed can I grow?

After you apply for a registration card, you can grow up to si flow ering plants, si nonflowering plants (over 14 inches tall) and six clones (plants under 14 inches tall). The plants and any marijua na produced by the plants weigh ing more than three ounces must be kept at a private residence in a locked space and not visible to the public.

Anyone who grows marijuana plants that are visible to the pub lic and/or not kept in a locked space could face a 0 fine and have to give up the marijuana.

Who can sell recreational weed? It will not be legal to sell marijua na you cultivated yourself.

Businesses who won licenses during the medical-marijuana roll out in 0 will have first dibs at recreational licenses. There’s no telling if any more licenses will be given — Amendment 3 does not re quire the Missouri Department of Health to issue any more licenses than it did medical licenses.

However, Amendment 3 does create a new licensing program to allow smaller entrepreneurs to enter the game. Eventually, the state will grant 144 “microbusi ness” licenses to applicants from areas where marijuana prohibi tion has especially affected them.

Whether these microbusiness licenses will be effective or not has been strongly contested. Mi crolicense holders must choose between growing or selling weed; the amendment does not allow them to do both. Critics say this unfairly restricts people trying to break into the market and puts them at a disadvantage.

Unfortunately, high schoolers and early college students, you’re out of luck. Missouri’s recreation al weed provisions only apply to those 21 and older. If you’re caught smoking or possessing weed, you could get slapped with a fine for up to 0. owever, you’ll have the option of attend ing up to four hours of drug edu cation or counseling instead.

Anyone caught selling to those under 21 years old could get in trouble, too. n first violation, unlawful sellers could face a civil infraction costing up to $250. Pun ishments get harsher the more violations you rack up, but a third violation risks a misdemeanor charge punishable by a fine no larger than $1,000.

What crimes are eligible for ex pungement?

The tens of thousands of Missouri ans previously charged with non violent marijuana offenses will have their records automatically expunged.

Offenders currently incarcer ated with nonviolent marijuanarelated offenses involving three pounds or less who did not dis tribute marijuana to a minor may petition to have their records ex punged.

Anyone on probation or parole for an offense that would have been legal under Amendment 3 will have their sentence automati cally expunged once the law takes effect on Thursday, December 8.

Within six months of Amend ment 3’s effective date, the circuit courts will order the expunge ment of all criminal history re cords for all misdemeanor mari juana offenses for people no longer incarcerated.

Within 12 months, the circuit courts will order the expunge ment of criminal history records for people no longer incarcerated for felony marijuana offenses that would not have been a crime un der Amendment 3.

For those with class A, class B, and class C felony marijuana offenses, or a class D felony of fense for possession of more than three pounds of marijuana, the circuit courts will order the ex pungement of criminal records after the offender serves out their incarceration. n

Missourians have o cially given the OK to legal weed. Now what? | VIA FLICKR/BRIAN SHAMBLEIN

Photo Realism

An

outdoor photo installation at the Luminary celebrates Black lives

Written by JESSICA ROGEN

Aclear blue sky frames two men. One sits, leaning slight ly forward on a concrete wall. Across from him anoth er man stands, tilted at the waist, with his forearms leaning against a railing. Behind them, a brick building peeks out. Both gaze back calmly at the viewer.

In many ways, it’s a classic snap shot-of-life photo. Or, it would be — except for the do-rags.

Each man wears a velvety, brightly colored do-rag. But in stead of having the ties wound around their heads, the ties con nect to more do-rags, dipping into an arc between the two men and casting shadows in the bright sun light.

Titled “The Power of Kinship,” It’s an arresting, beautiful image that invokes both fashion pho tography and photojournalism. The photo is part of the series We Matter, shot by Adrian Octavius Walker.

“[They are about] Black Ameri can beauty, beauty traditions amongst Black men,” Walker says.

Walker debuted We Matter in 2018 at Southern Exposure in San Francisco, but St. Louis residents now have the opportunity to see it as a public art installation outside the Luminary (2701 Cherokee Street, 314-773-1533, theluminary arts.com). The installation fea tures six tall, pillar-like banners from that original series. Installed earlier this year, it will be on dis play through May 2023.

The Luminary installation was done in collaboration with PSA, a local public art project that does installations from St. Louis-based artists and writers. Walker, who hails from north St. Louis, ap proached PSA founders Shannon Levin and Marina Peng, with an idea to do something in St. Louis. But he didn’t know exactly what.

The three talked and emailed for a few months, playing around with text, but it didn’t jibe with Walker. Then they found them selves going back to the We Matter images, breaking them apart and overlaying text. This, they real ized, was it.

Walker hopes that the images will do more than just beautify the street and also have an impact on those who view them.

“I just hope people take a pause, you know, I’m saying to look at themselves,” Walker says. “I just want folks to see themselves larg er than life all the time.”

Walker, who hopes to continue to do more public art, is happy to have his artwork — and the mes sage it contains — accessible in such a big way. That accessibility speaks straight to the purpose and

origins of We Matter.

The photoshoot that kicked off the series happened in 2014 in Oakland, California. Walker was photographing a line of do-rags a friend had created for commer cial purposes. But when he got the photos back, he realized that the images told an unexpected story of Black beauty and intima cy among men, and he ran with it. The series has become one of Walker’s most celebrated works, and a selection from it was dis played in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Walker selected the name for the series in response to what was happening within the Black com munity at the time.

“It’s one of those things where it’s just showing that Black lives matter,” he says. “Black male

lives, trans lives, just all lives … I’d say we matter as a whole, and that’s what the title came from.”

Though Walker now lives in Chicago, it’s meaningful to him to have this work shown in St. Louis.

“To be able to root it back to where I’m from was super impor tant to me,” Walker says. “I mean, I could have had it anywhere, but the fact that it’s at home just feels better. It feels more real.”

The youngest of six, Walker grew up in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood in St. Louis in a sin gle-parent household; his mother passed away when he was 10 years old. He spent a lot of time outside as a kid, catching bugs and think ing about being a scientist. Walker became an observer, always look ing and searching for his own path away from some of the things he’d witnessed growing up.

He found himself wanting to document certain things, such as people’s stories. Walker says that was the first hint that he d go on to become a photographer.

But he didn’t pick up a camera until much later. When he was in college, he and some friends had started Made Monarchs, an orga nization that put together themed events and booked shows. Walker began photographing to docu ment what they were doing.

Eventually, the photography it self became the point. Now he’s a photographer and senior art di rector at Getty Images — making his living from his artwork and his freelance projects.

“I’m kind of all over the place,” he says. “I love it.” n

e We Matter exhibit, displayed on the outside of the Luminary, examines beauty traditions among Black men. | RJ HARTBECK

St. Louis native Adrian Octavius Walker created the installation in a partnership with PSA. |

DDESIGNS

Spicing Up Politics

Kelly McGowan’s YouTube series aims to make local politics interesting and accessible to Black St. Louis

Written by BENJAMIN SIMON

Why did Kelly McGowan start a YouTube series de voted to St. Louis politics?

The answer is simple. “Man,” she says, “local government is boring as hell.”

McGowan wants to make lo cal government not “boring as hell.” So recently, she launched a project on her personal YouTube channel, KellyMcG314, that cov ers local government meetings.

The goal, says McGowan, is to translate policy to the public in an understandable and engaging way.

“This information is really im portant,” she says. “People really need to know about this stuff. But how can we present it in a way that isn’t boring, it isn’t dry?”

A St. Louis native, McGowan has spent most of her professional life in public health. She spent a year in New York City with the Harlem Children’s Zone. She returned to the Gateway City in 2016, taking a job with the Emerson YMCA in Ferguson to help with childhood obesity programming.

She left the YMCA in 2020, right when the pandemic hit.

With the world shut down, Mc Gowan found herself calling her friend –– a fellow St. Louis native who lived in Detroit.

“She was like, ‘What the hell’s going on in St. Louis?’” McGowan remembers. “And I was like, ‘Girl, a whole bunch of stuff.’”

They ran the gamut of topics over hours-long conversations. They talked about COVID-19 and the restrictions across the metro area. McGowan pointed out how grocery stores, with healthy eat ing options, were closing in north

St. Louis County.

“Local government, zoning, which is boring as hell, but a lot of these things really impact the resources that are available and the quality of living for residents,” she says. “So I was talking to my friend about this. And she was like, ‘People need to know about this stuff.’”

In an effort to learn more about the city’s response to COVID-19, McGowan found herself scouring government meetings. She real ized how important these meet ings were –– and how hard they were to access.

She decided to pitch the Mis souri Foundation for Health in 2020 about producing creative St. Louis-government-related con tent. She secured the funding for two years.

Most recently, her efforts have resulted in the YouTube channel. But McGowan knew that if she began a channel, she couldn’t just stare into the camera and regurgi tate Board of Aldermen meetings. She wanted to make the videos fun to watch.

Her YouTube clips — all about St. Louis government — are full of efforts to wake up the audience. The inflection in her voice umps as she recaps St. Louis County

meetings and the allocation of American Rescue Plan Act fund ing. She cues in memes of Steve Harvey and plays highlights from meetings. Music is always bump ing in the background.

Her effort to spice up city gov ernment comes through most in Straight Facts, an animated series. ver five episodes, c owan fol lows the main character, Alex, as she goes on her journey to be come a “local government hero.”

But amid the efforts to entertain lies a very serious goal –– to make government accessible. And ac cessible, specifically, to the Blac

community in St. Louis.

“[Local government] has the power to allocate funding, bud gets, coins, money and investing in community,” she says. “Money and investing in community ––our local government, they have the power to do that. And making sure that communities are aware of that, and that they can advocate to make sure that their resources, those dollars, go where they’re needed. I feel like that is hugely, hugely impactful when we’re talk ing about improving the health of Black St. Louisans.”

Since July, McGowan’s YouTube page has been her full-time job. She posts multiple videos per week, along with Monday live streams.

The goal isn’t to become You Tube famous, necessarily. Mc owan says the final goal is to create a website called Transform 314 that will hold all of her con tent. It would provide people with video commentary, live streams and information on upcoming meetings. She plans to launch the organization in December.

In the meantime, though, she’ll continue watching hour-long council meetings and turning them into creative videos.

“This is it,” she says, “this is what I do.”

Kelly McGowan is on a mission to make local government more interesting. | WILEY PRICE/ST. LOUIS AMERICAN

“This information is really important. People really need to know about this stuff. But how can we present it in a way that isn’t boring?”

STAGE 45

Extraordinarily Ordinary

Tesseract eatre Company’s Ordinary Days is an

intimate

little gem for St. Louis audiences

Written by TINA FARMER

Ordinary Days

Music and lyrics by Adam Gwon. Directed by Elisabeth Wurm. Presented by Tesseract Theatre Company through Sunday, November 27. Tickets are $20 to $25.

Warren, a lifelong New Yorker, is trying to find his voice by busking and pet sitting for a currently incarcerated artist. Deb is smart, curious and channeling her drive and energy by enrolling in grad school. Jason loves Claire, and the two are in the process of moving into Claire’s current space together. With this simple, everyday set up in place, Tesseract Theatre’s take on Adam Gwon’s serendipitous Ordinary Days sparkles and endears.

Set in New York City in 2005, the uplifting musical delivers on its hopeful promise with scenes that intersect without always meeting. Tesseract Theatre’s production is both laugh out loud funny and tearfully touching, leading to a truly cathartic denouement.

Jacob Schmidt’s high, charismatic baritone exudes a sense of friendly, hopeful exasperation as the poetically inclined Warren. He’s cheerfully handing out flyers at a busy intersection and only hints at his uncertainty with occasional tremolo. Brittani O’Connell and Michael Lowe, as couple Claire and Jason, both pass him by, preoccupied. He bumps into Lauren Tenenbaum’s Deb. Lost in her own thoughts, she initially scowls before smiling and taking a flyer.

Tenenbaum crisply articulates her frustration with life and her despera

tion at losing her graduate thesis notes with a well-controlled mezzo-soprano. O’Connell’s soprano is emotionally ex pressive, revealing unexpected pain and vulnerability. Lowe’s lower range is nicely wide ranging and warm; even in his most uncertain and annoyed mo ments his voice is unflappably comfort ing. Just as the story arc intermixes the mundane of the everyday with sig nificant experiences, the score is de ceptively straightforward, yet incredibly well executed. These are intimate, per sonal stories that capture the universal through catchy, pleasant melodies with surprising texture and tone.

Though the story trends toward maudlin self-indulgence, director Elizabeth Wurm, music director Zach Neumann and assistant director Kevin Corpuz lean into the extra-ordinary here. Everyone experiences similar life events. The skill is capturing these experiences in ways that elicit our emotional response rather than simply playing on them. The cast is invested without excess, the songs feel effortless and accessible to a broad audience without losing their honesty.

Tesseract has built its reputation through a modern humanist approach to theater. The smaller musical, staged in an intimate space with a compelling cast and piano for accompaniment, reflects the company’s aesthetic. And, the piano may be the smartest decision the creative team made. The balance is excellent for this space. O’Connell, Lowe, Tenenbaum and Schmidt harmonize well, in tone and emotion; the scaled back pit allows us to hear their impressive performances.

Tesseract Theatre Company likely startled more than a few regular audience members when it announced the production of its first musical and the upcoming The Last Five Years. By keeping its focus on remarkably relatable stories with a cast that looks, sounds and inhabits authentic humans, the company has shown it has room to play with music as well. The effectively heartwarming Ordinary Days, though not seasonally themed, provides a lovely little boost of happy to start your holiday season. n

Deb (Lauren Tenenbaum) tells Warren (Jacob Schmidt) about her troubles in Ordinary Days, and he winces in sympathy. | COURTESY TAYLOR GRUENLOH/TESSERACT THEATRE COMPANY

R.I.P. Roland Johnson

A St. Louis soul giant has le the building

Written by JAIME LEES

One of St. ouis finest per formers has left the build ing. Roland ohnson, the ing of St. ouis blues and soul, has moved on to that great Sta studio in the s y.

When news of his passing hit the internet last wee , the tributes immediately started rolling out. The charismatic vocalist had cap tured the hearts of generations of St. ouisans with his magnetic presence, his welcoming nature and his smooth, smooth voice.

In a post to its fans on aceboo , the un y Butt Brass Band shared this favorite memory “ e was a wild card and we never new what was about to go down when he too the stage. Reminiscent of those legendary wrestlers when they were boo ed with young buc s for the first time. There s no rehearsing how this match is gonna flow. ... That first time Ro land oined Brasstravagan a the band s big annual holiday show he wal ed on stage, as ed the audience if the band should pay him for being there, and launched into a random oreigner or Step penwolf tune with made up lyr ics We were completely ba ed and entertained at the same time. Roland had that crowd, and the band, in the palm of his hand the entire time.”

St. ouis musician oe eyer shared his sadness, writing that ohnson was “one of the nicest people and one of the most gifted singers I ve ever met, we lost a great one.”

And musician and producer aul iehaus I , whose Blue o tus label wor ed fre uently with ohnson, shared a photo of the late singer with a caption that uoted the Bo tops “When I thin about

the good love you gave me, I cry li e a baby.”

ohnson was nown interna tionally for his performing prow ess, but here in St. ouis we were luc y to en oy it regularly. rom Beale on Broadway to the enice Cafe to the Broadway yster Bar to ammerstone s to ff Broad way, ohnson wor ed the stages of St. ouis with grace and a captivat ing smile. ven people who had seen him perform hundreds of times were always overwhelmed by his charm, his talents and his fantastic fashions.

uitarist vocalist at Wilson of evil s lbow and Rum rum Ramblers shared a wee ly bill with ohnson at Beale n Broad way for at least two years, and Wilson is full of admiration for ohnson s indness, camaraderie and abilities.

“Roland ohnson was one of the last of a dying breed of true stage performers,” Wilson tells the RFT “A complete powerhouse in every way, he commanded the room

MUSIC

and drove his songs home every single time, leaving stardust in his path. We were so very luc y to have him here in St ouis. e was a beautiful person.”

Tom “ apa” Ray, owner of in tage inyl in the elmar oop and longtime host of the Soul Selector radio show on , was also in awe of ohnson s captivating stage show and easy nature.

“As a vocalist, Roland not only had the gift of a strong com manding vocal range, he also had a way with the sort of subtle nu ances the great soul singers use to give a lyric an added mean ing, a deeper feeling,” Ray tells the RFT. “Whether it was one of his own originals or a otown crowd pleaser, Roland ohnson was by far my favorite soul per former in our city, and he was my friend as well.”

Roland ohnson s talents seemed endless, and his legacy will endure. arewell to a true ing of the St. ouis music scene. ive im assie a hug from us. n

Roland Johnson reliably brought the house down every time he took the stage. | NATE BURRELL

“ Roland Johnson was one of the last of a dying breed of true stage performers. A complete powerhouse in every way, he commanded the room and drove his songs home every single time, leaving stardust in his path.”

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 24

BB’S THANKSGIVING R&B BASH: w/ We Are Root Mod! 8 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

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

MID COAST COMEDY SERIES: 8 p.m., $12-$16. Central Stage, 3524 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

FRIDAY 25

AL HOLLIDAY AND THE EAST SIDE RHYTHM BAND

ALBUM RELEASE SHOW: w/ Eugene Johnson 8 p.m., $15/$20. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

ALLIGATOR WINE: 10 p.m., $10. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

ANDREW MEYER: w/ Ben Colagiovanni Quartet 9:30 p.m., $20. The Dark Room, 3610 Grandel Square inside Grandel Theatre, St. Louis, 314-776-9550.

CHARLES GLENN DUO: 5 p.m., free. Saint Louis Art Museum, 1 Fine Arts Dr Forest Park, St. Louis, 314-721-0072.

DANKSGIVING: w/ Smoke DZA, the Domino Effect, the Gold Giraffe, Drea Vocalz, Remember Buddah, Chillz, Quali T & J Pizzle, VThom 8 p.m., $10-$36. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

DENISE THIMES: 7 p.m., $25. Blue Strawberry STL, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

DIRT ROAD ADDICTION: 10:30 p.m., free. Tin Roof St. Louis, 1000 Clark Ave, St. Louis, 314-240-5400.

THE IVAS JOHN BAND: 8 p.m., $15-$20. Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave, St. Louis.

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

J.D. HUGHES: 4 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

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

MY POSSE IN EFFECT: 8 p.m., $15. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

NIGHT FANNIES: A CLOTHING-OPTIONAL BOOGIEBASH: 8 p.m., $35. The Little Bevo, 4751 Morganford Rd, St. Louis, 314-833-8889.

THE NIGHT OF THE CROWS: w/ Tef Poe, Monkh 9 p.m., $10-$15. Central Stage, 3524 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

THE REVEREND PEYTON’S BIG DAMN BAND: 8 p.m., $18. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Del mar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

SHULER KING: 7:30 p.m., $22-$30. Helium Comedy Club, 1151 St. Louis Galleria Saint Louis Galleria Mall, Richmond Heights, 314-727-1260.

TONKSGIVING: w/ Ha Ha Tonka, Yard Eagle 8 p.m., $18-$25. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

TONY HOLIDAY & THE SOUL SERVICE: 10 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

TRIXIE DELIGHT: 8 p.m., free. Westport Social,

Senidah

8 p.m. Saturday, November 26. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street. $50. 314-289-9050.

Slovenian pop powerhouse Senidah kicked off the year with a video drop for “Behute,” which shows the singer basking in bullfighting gear mixed with quick cuts to surreal imagery. Maybe the traje de luces, or suit of lights, typically worn by matadors is meant to show how Senidah battled critics who cried foul when she publicly stated she was ashamed to be a Slovenian citizen after the country expressed its support of Israel in the

910 Westport Plaza Drive, Maryland Heights, 314-548-2876.

THE URGE: 7:30 p.m., $34.99-$49.99. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

YOU MADE US THIS WAY: 8 p.m., $10. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

SATURDAY 26

BEEKMAN: 8 p.m., $12. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City,

2021 Israel-Palestine crisis. Regardless, the Balkan Trap Diva, a title she rightfully earned after many millions of plays and streams, seamlessly weaves gender neutrality into a grand presentation of perseverance. Capping off a banner year that included a co-headlining spot at EuroPride this past September, Senidah just released her second full-length record to date, Za Tebe. The album’s title means “for you,” and the songs therein cater to hardcore fans by iterating on Senidah’s immaculate concoction of alternative R&B first explored on 2019’s Bez Tebe

Those looking for a marked evolution in

314-727-4444.

BLUES CONCERT FOR THE BENEFIT OF PAPA D: 3 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

CHRIS SHEPHERD BAND: w/ the Service 9:30 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

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

DIRTY MUGGS: 8 p.m., free. Westport Social,

the singer’s signature approach might want to temper those expectations, but make no mistake, “more of the same” is not always a negative — especially not when it comes to Senidah.

Sky’s the Limit: Senidah’s first big breakthrough happened in 2019 when Sky Music awarded the singer Hip-hop/Rap Song of Year during the organization’s inaugural Music Awards Ceremony in Belgrade. Senidah would go on to reach new heights when she won Trap Song of the Year along with a special Golden MAC for Authenticity award in 2020.

—Joseph Hess

910 Westport Plaza Drive, Maryland Heights, 314-548-2876.

DISQ: w/ Ducks Ltd 8 p.m., $15-$18. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

THE FABULOUS MOTOWN REVUE: w/ Velvet and the Diamond Divas 8 p.m., $17. Casa Loma Ball room, 3354 Iowa Ave, St. Louis, 314-282-2258.

THE HARD PROMISES: A TRIBUTE TO TOM PETTY: w/ Joanna Serenko 7 p.m., $25-$30. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

HY-C & THE FRESH START BAND: 10 p.m., $15. BB’s

Senidah. | ALBUM ART

Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

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

O’FALLON OUT LOUD COMEDY: w/ Nathan Orton 8:30 p.m., $10. Rendezvous Cafe & Wine Bar, 217 S. Main St., O’Fallon, 636-281-2233.

PONO AM: w/ Backwash, Tiger Rider 8 p.m., $10$13. Central Stage, 3524 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

RICH MCDONOUGH AND THE RHYTHM RENEGADES: 3 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

RYAN KOENIG: 7 p.m., free. Yaqui’s on Cherokee, 2728 Cherokee St, St. Louis, 314-400-7712.

THE SCHWAG: GRATEFUL DEAD EXPERIENCE: 9 p.m., $15/$20. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

SENIDAH: 8 p.m., $50. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

SPINE’S ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION: 10 a.m., free. Spine Indie Bookstore & Cafe, 1976-82 Arsenal St., St. Louis, 314-925-8087.

THANKSGIVING SOUL JAM: w/ the Whispers, Rose Royce, the Dramatics, the Manhattans 8 p.m., $56-$196. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600.

THAT ‘90S JAM: w/ DJs James Biko, Agile One, Corey Black 9 p.m., $5-$10. Sophie’s Artist Lounge & Cocktail Club, 3224 Locust St second floor of . ac , St. ouis, 3 - - .

VOODOO LAST WALTZ: 8 p.m., $15-$20. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

SUNDAY 27

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

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

IRENE ALLEN: 6 p.m., free. Yaqui’s on Cherokee, 2728 Cherokee St, St. Louis, 314-400-7712.

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

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

NICK JONES BENEFIT SHOW: 5 p.m., $15. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

R&B KINGS: w/ Jagged Edge, Dru Hill, Ginuwine 6 p.m., $79-$169. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600.

THE TROPHY MULES ALBUM RELEASE PARTY: w/ Boxer 2 p.m., $12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

MONDAY 28

MONDAY NIGHT REVIEW: w/ Tim, Danny and Randy 7 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

PLACK BLAGUE: w/ Kontravoid, Lunacy, Nadir Smith 7 p.m., $15-$18. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

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

TUESDAY 29

BETH TUTTLE: 7 p.m., $10. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

BLITZKID: 7:30 p.m., TBA. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

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

BROTHER JEFFERSON: 7:30 p.m., $10. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

THE GREETING COMMITTEE: 8 p.m., $20-$25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

Plack Blague w/ Kontravoid, Lunacy, Nadir Smith

7 p,m, Monday, November 28. O Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $15 to $18. 314-498-6989.

It might seem improbable that a musician who cut his teeth performing in grindcore and powerviolence bands would eventually find himself championed as a gay leather industrial dance sensation, but Raws Schlesinger isn’t exactly known for doing things the conventional way. A fixture in Nebraska’s underground music scene for decades, the artist better known as Plack Blague spent years toiling behind the drum set in metal and punk acts before he set his sights on his current dungeon-disco

SIP & SPIN: 8 p.m., free. HandleBar, 4127 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-652-2212.

SPIRIT ADRIFT: 8 p.m., $18. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

WEDNESDAY 30

BIG RICH MCDONOUGH & THE RHYTHM RENEGADES: 7 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

DAWN WEBER AND CURT LANDES: 7 p.m., $10.

Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N

Plack Blague. | VIA ARTIST BANDCAMP

aesthetic. Frequently clad in a head-totoe leather outfit that includes a studded jock strap and gimp mask, Schlesinger brings a healthy dose of gay spectacle to his pulsating sets — so much so, in fact, that none other than heavy metal and fashion icon Rob Halford counts himself as a fan. Widely credited with introducing leather-and-studs style to the heavy metal scene, Halford paid tribute to Plack Blague a few years back by dressing up as Schlesinger for Halloween and posting a photo on social media, which resulted in a friendship between the two. If Rob Halford is for you, who can be against?

Hellbent for Openers: Kontravoid, Lunacy and Nadir Smith will warm the stage before Plack Blague tears it all down. Show up early and show some love.

—Daniel Hill

CASE: w/ Angela Smith Winfrey, Charlie Winfrey, Chad Wallace, Mollie Amburgey 7 p.m., $15. The Golden Hoosier, 3707 S Kingshighway Blvd, Saint Louis, (314) 354-8044.

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

THIS JUST IN

ALEXIS COLE: Fri., Dec. 2, 7:30 p.m., $20. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

AUGUST BURNS RED: Sat., April 22, 7:30 p.m., $29.50-$49.50. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

BADFLOWER: W/ Des Rocs, Blood Red Shoes, Tue., March 7, 7 p.m., $30. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

BLOND GURU: W/ Middle Class Fashion, No Antics, Fri., Dec. 30, 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

BOYZ II MEN: Sat., Jan. 21, 8 p.m., $59.50$134.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 3 - 3- 00.

BRYAN ENG: Tue., Dec. 13, 7:30 p.m., $20. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

CHAMPIONS OF MAGIC: Thu., March 30, 7:30 p.m., $28.50-$78.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 0 Rd, Chesterfield, 3 - 3- 00.

DAN NAVARRO: Wed., Feb. 15, 8 p.m., $20. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

DESTROY LONELY: Sat., Feb. 4, 8 p.m., $35. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

DREA VOCALZ: Thu., Dec. 1, 6:30 p.m., $20. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

ENEMY OF MAGIC: W/ Horse Magik, Freddy Vs., Fri., Dec. 9, 8:30 p.m., free. CBGB, 3163 S. Grand Blvd., St. Louis.

AN EVENING WITH STEVE ROSS: Sat., Dec. 10, 7:30 p.m., $25. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

AN EVENING WITH THE CHURCH: Sat., March 25, 8 p.m., $35. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

HIGHLY SUSPECT: Thu., March 2, 8 p.m., $32.50$45. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

HIPPO CAMPUS: W/ Gus Dapperton, Mon., May 22, 8 p.m., $32.50-$45. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

HOLIDAY CANDLELIGHT OPEN HOUSE AND CONCERT: Sun., Dec. 18, 4 p.m., free. Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, 7400 Grant Road, Concord, 314-842-3298.

JASON VIEAUX: Sat., Dec. 10, 7:30 p.m., $20-$39. The 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave., University City, 314-421-3600.

JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA: Sun., Jan. 29, 7:30 p.m., $46-$66. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

MAI LEE: Fri., Dec. 30, 8 p.m., $32.50. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

NEW FOUND GLORY: Sat., Jan. 28, 8:30 p.m., $37.50. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

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

PING PONG TOURNAMENT: 7 p.m., free. Central Stage, 3524 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

SOCCER MOMMY: w/ TOPS 8 p.m., $25/$35. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THIS IS CASUALLY HAPPENING: A COMEDY SHOW-

NIKO MOON: W/ Dylan Schneider, Fri., Feb. 24, 8:30 p.m., $25. Ballpark Village, 601 Clark Ave, St. Louis, 314-345-9481.

NYE STL DANCE REVOLUTION: Sat., Dec. 31, 9 p.m., $100. ArmorySTL, 3660 Market Street, St. Louis, NA.

ONEUS: Tue., Jan. 24, 8 p.m., $59.50-$125. The actory, 0 uter 0 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500.

REVEREND HORTON HEAT: W/ Scott H. Biram,

riverfronttimes.com NOVEMBER 23-29, 2022

Soccer Mommy w/ TOPS

8 p.m. Wednesday, November 30. e Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard. $25 to $35. 314-726-6161.

For Nashville-based songwriter Sophie Allison, Soccer Mommy is the mask she wears to express a range of perspectives, including the kind of philosophical arguments that many have inside their head but rarely have the words to articulate. Although her songs sit firmly in the broadest rock category, the DNA of pop lives throughout Soccer Mommy’s body of work. In the recently released Sometimes, Forever, Allison brought on producer Daniel Lopatin (more commonly known as Oneohtrix Point Never) to extract and distill the finer parts of the band’s wide textural range. That’s not to say synthesizers are suddenly swimming around Soccer Mommy’s thoroughly guitar-driven core of folksy melodies, but the

sonic diversity has been expanded and the end result is proof positive of the creative leaps taken throughout the new record. With a string of breakouts starting in 2016 when Allison went from studying music business in college to dropping out and signing with Fat Possum records, Soccer Mommy has withstood the sudden tides of success by building upon early momentum with relentless touring, opening for the likes of Mitski, Wilco and Vampire Weekend, just to name a few. This tour comes hot off the heels of a new video for “Feel It All the Time,” which shows a vivid summation of burnout and the simple ways one can cope.

One for the Money, Two for the Show: Montreal, Quebec’s TOPS opens the show with soft rock that is ice cold, the absolute chillest of the chill. The band’s Empty Seats EP is a good place to start for straight up daytime-nap vibes.

—Joseph Hess

burgey, Ellie Kirchhoefer, Wed., Dec. 14, 7 p.m., $15. The Golden Hoosier, 3707 S Kingshighway Blvd, Saint Louis, (314) 354-8044.

Thu., March 2, 8 p.m., $25. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

SHAME: Fri., May 26, 8 p.m., $20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

SHELBY RINGDAHL: Fri., Dec. 9, 7:30 p.m., $20.

Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

STELLA KATHERINE COLE: Thu., Dec. 22, 7:30 p.m., $20. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

STRFKR: Sat., Feb. 18, 8 p.m., $25. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

THIS IS CASUALLY HAPPENING: A COMEDY SHOWCASE: W/ Max Pryce, Larry Greene, Mollie Am-

THY ART IS MURDER: W/ Kublai Khan TX, Undeath, I AM, Justice For The Damned, Tue., Feb. 14, 6 p.m., $29.50-$49.50. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

TOTO: Sun., March 26, 7:30 p.m., $32-$126.50. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600.

TRANSVIOLET: Wed., April 26, 8 p.m., $18.

Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

WATCHHOUSE: Sun., April 2, 8 p.m., $36-$56.

The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

THE WEE HEAVIES: Thu., Dec. 8, 8:30 p.m., $15.

Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. n

Soccer Mommy. | VIA ARTIST BANDCAMP

SAVAGE LOVE

The Watcher

BY DAN SAVAGE

Hey Dan: I’m a married gay man in Southern California. I also have a boy who has his own partner. Both my boy and his partner used to live nearby. But in August they moved to Seattle. The “why” of their move continues to bother me. They didn’t move for a job, or to be closer to family, or any of the other reasons people normally relocate. My boy said it was a combination of the weather and people. The problem, as I see it, is that both my boy and his partner have introverted tendencies — they don’t go out much — so I don’t see how the weather or people really make a difference.

The bigger issue is that my boy has tried to “pimp” his partner on me throughout our relationship. I usually rebuffed his suggestions, but one night I gave in. His partner and I started to kiss and feel each other up, and it was fine. The weird thing — the thing that troubles me to this day — was how my boy reacted. He watched us with this bizarre look in his eyes, like he was really getting off on watching the two of us go at it, like some creepy voyeur. His expression freaked me out so much that I ended things and gave some dumb excuse. I recently had an encounter with another person who had a similar experience with my boy. He described how he would cam with my boy and how my boy would always bring his partner in.

My boy had expressed to me on multiple occasions how his partner cannot find sexual partners on his own. I think the real reason my boy moved was to find a new dating pool in the hopes of eventually finding a match for his partner. If my thoughts are correct, then my boy did a horrible thing to our relationship. I don’t know much about cuckolds and I’m looking for advice. How do you have a relationship with a boy when that boy’s sole focus is the sexual satisfaction of their partner?

Confused About Lad’s Departure And Deceit

Moving to Seattle for the “weather” seems a little counterintuitive. But I can see why a pair of introverts might prefer gray Seattle, where I live, to sunny Southern California. When it’s nice outside, you feel obligated to go outside. But it’s never nice outside in Seattle. We have a rainy season that stretches from November through July (too wet to go outside) and now, thanks to cata strophic climate change, we have a wildfire

season that stretches from August through October (too smokey to go outside). So, looking out a window in Seattle you never think, “I should go for a walk and risk a chance encounter with another human being,” but rather, “I should go back in the basement and keep playing video games.”

As for the people here in Seattle… even the most extroverted newcomers com plain about the “Seattle Freeze.” But if your boy and his partner are just looking for fuckbuddies, well, they’re in luck. The dick up here is damp nine months a year and tastes like smoke the other three, but there’s plenty to go around.

As for the host of other issues you raise…

Look, I’m not your boy, CALDAD, so I can’t tell you exactly what’s going on in his head. But I do feel confident saying he’s not your boy anymore. Not only did he move away (with his partner) and leave you all alone in Southern California (with your husband), CALDAD, but you seem to hold him in contempt — contempt for his motives, his kinks, and his partner — and contempt is a hard place to come back from. So, since you aren’t in a relationship with him anymore, you don’t have to worry about making this relationship work. (I’m sorry if that seems harsh, CALDAD, but better to hear that from me than from the commenters.)

So, is your ex-boy a cuckold? He could be. Based on your description of his be havior the night you hooked up with his partner, it certainly sounds like he gets off on watching his partner get fucked by other guys. It’s also possible that he shares the dick he’s getting elsewhere with his primary partner. There’s nothing wrong with being a cuckold, of course, and there’s nothing wrong with “pimping” a partner out… so long as 1. your partner wants to be pimped out and 2. you’re not pressuring other guys to do things with your partner that they don’t wanna do.

But if your ex-boy was only interested in you for his partner, CALDAD, he was certainly playing the long game. Establishing an ongoing D/s relationship with a married man when all you really want is someone to fuck your partner in front of you… that seems like an awful lot of effort when Grindr is full of men who would be up for fucking your ex-boy’s boyfriend while he watched without him having to go through the trouble of entering into a long-term relationship first. Setting you up with his partner may have been an interest, but I don’t think it’s fair to say it was your ex-boy’s sole interest.

And honestly, CALDAD, I find myself wondering what you expected from your ex-boy when you started to fuck his part ner in front of him. Did you think he was going to sit there impassively, with a look

of total indifference on his face, not feel ing anything in particular? If so, CALDAD, that wasn’t a very realistic expectation on your part. And I suspect if he had sat there looking bored or indifferent, you would’ve found that just as weird and off-putting. If I was fucking some guy’s boyfriend in front of him, CALDAD, I would hope that guy got off on it. Hell, I would call it off if the guy whose boyfriend I was fucking didn’t react like some creepy voyeur.

Frankly, CALDAD, I don’t think your exboy did a terrible thing. He was honestly into you, that’s why he was your boy, and he wanted to share his partner with you. If you didn’t want to fuck his partner, you should’ve continued to say no. Once you started to fuck his partner, you should’ve wanted (and expected) your ex-boy to enjoy the show.

P.S. On the off chance that CALDAD’s ex-boy is reading this: Welcome to Seat tle! Cuckold or pimp, both or neither, you need to be clearer with your sex partners (in person, online, wherever) about what you’re doing, what you want them to do, and why you want them to do it. There are plenty of guys out there into threesomes, cuckolding, and guys who are pimping out their partners, so there’s no need to be a manipulative-by-default creep, which is how you risk coming across when you aren’t clear about what you’re doing (shar ing your partner) and why (you’re a cuck or your partner has no game or both).

Hey Dan: I read your column a lot and there’s a pattern I’ve been noticing. A straight guy writes in and says he’s straight and likes pussy, but he’s recently discov ered that he’s also attracted to trans wom en. And then they ask something like, “How should I describe my sexual orientation now?” To which you reply with something like, “You are straight. Trans women are women, they just happen to have dicks.” Great answer! I don’tdisagree, but if I were responding I’d write, “You’re not gay, because trans women aren’t men. Trans women are women with dicks. Since you are attracted to women, you can keep on identifying as straight if that’s what feels right. Or you can identify as queer.” Queer

ness, as I understand it, is an expansive term that refers to anyone whose sexual ity or gender expression falls outside of conventional expectations. To me it seems appropriate for these straight men to em brace the term “queer.”

Mulling Over Labels

While you might think it’s appropriate for straight men who sleep with trans women to identify as queer, MOL, lots of trans women disagree.

“It’s deeply problematic when people hear that a famous man is with a trans woman and they automatically think that he’s gay, because that is disavowing the womanhood of trans women,” Laverne Cox said during a conversation with Angel ica Ross about the struggles of dating as a trans woman. “You can be into a trans woman and be completely straight.” (Cox and Ross spoke on an episode of Cox’s talk show If We’re Being Honest.)

So, any straight man who thought of himself as queer because he was into and/or fucking and/or with a trans wom an would be guilty of disavowing the wom anhood of his own partner. And any gay sex-advice columnist who urged straight men who were into/fucking/with trans women to think of themselves as queer would be pretty quickly terfed out of the advice racket. But it does seem to me that a straight man who openly dates trans women, while no less straight than any other straight man, is definitely something more than most straight men — more con fident, more secure in his own sexuality, more likely to be a good partner to any woman he winds up with, cis or trans.

Now, some cis men who date trans women aren’t straight; some cis men are bisexual or pansexual or omnisexual, as Cox pointed out on her show. And there are trans women out there who are queer and straight. Which is where it really gets complicated. A straight cis guy dating a trans woman is definitely in a relationship with a queer person; he’s arguably in a queer relationship himself. But being in a queer relationship — being the cis straight boyfriend of a trans woman or the cis straight wife of a bi guy or the allosexual partner of an asexual — doesn’t make a cis straight person queer themselves.

But you know what? The fucking world is on fire and if a cis straight guy who’s with a trans woman wants to identify as queer — if he wants to round himself up to queer — and the woman he’s with is okay with him embracing the term “queer” for himself, he can call himself queer.

P.S. Not all trans women have dicks.

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If I was fucking some guy’s boyfriend in front of him, I would hope that guy got off on it.