DECEMBER 2–8, 2015 I VOLUME 39 I NUMBER 48
RIVERFRONTTIMES.COM I FREE
THE CURIOUS CASE OF DOJO PIZZA
Accused of human trafficking, Loren Copp is under fire — and in legal limbo BY DOYLE MURPHY
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“I guess I’m a little bit of a romantic in that I can’t stand to see cool old materials just get thrown away. I also really love working with the customers. People who come in, inspiring creativity. We’re getting people in here who don’t want the big-box-store look. So we’re going to direct them to cool old lumber to do their feature wall. Or we’re going to get them some soapstone instead of laminated countertops and things like that. We’re trying to get people what they need, but we’re also trying to get them to think creatively about stuff.”
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TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURE
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The Curious Case of Dojo Pizza Accused of human trafficking, Loren Copp is under fire — and in legal limbo Written by
DOYLE MURPHY Cover by
STEVE TRUESDELL
NEWS
CULTURE
DINING
MUSIC
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25
37
47
The Lede
Calendar
Your friend or neighbor, captured on camera
Seven days worth of great stuff to see and do
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32
Good Dinosaur, Bad Movie
Murals with a Message
An artist advocates for refugees in south St. Louis
Pixar’s latest falls flat
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Summer Concert Shakeup
City Hall cancels a very bad deal
Breaking Black
A Loaf of Bread — and How!
Cheryl Baehr reviews Union Loafers
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Sweet Stuff
Kimchi ice cream comes to Seoul Q
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First Look
Brian Cranston stars in Trumbo, the true story of Hollywood’s blacklist
The Copper Pig brings an eclectic menu to Southampton
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Peace in Our Time
Mustard Seed’s All Is Calm is a new holiday classic
Food News
The Central West End gets a new coffee cart
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Dining Guide
Where to eat right now in the Gateway City
Revolution Rock
Stephen Houldsworth explores the intersection of punk and protest
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Unholy Waters
Master of shock John Waters sets his sights on Christmas
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Homespun
Travis Bursik & Mike Mccubbins: AVAV No. 1
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Out Every Night
The best concerts in St. Louis every night of the week
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This Just In
This week’s new concert announcements
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Savage Love 6
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E D I T O R I A L Associate Editor Kristie McClanahan Arts & Culture Editor Paul Friswold Music Editor Daniel Hill Staff Writers Doyle Murphy, Danny Wicentowski Restaurant Critic Cheryl Baehr Editorial Interns Joshua Connelly, Aaron Davidoff Contributing Writers Drew Ailes, Mike Appelstein, Allison Babka, Nicole Beckert, Mark Fischer, Sara Graham, Joseph Hess, Patrick J. Hurley, Roy Kasten, Dan LeRoy, Jaime Lees, Todd McKenzie, Bob McMahon, Nicholas Phillips, Tef Poe, Christian Schaeffer, Alison Sieloff, Mabel Suen, Ryan Wasoba, Alex Weir
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NEWS
The murals along Cherokee use actual photos of Syrian refugees as their source material. | All photos courtesy of Chelsea Ritter-Soronen
On Cherokee, Murals with a Message
T
he Syrian refugee crisis is a rolling human tragedy on an immense scale. More than 4 million Syrians have fled their country. But to Chelsea Ritter-Soronen, a St. Louis-based muralist and activist, the grim reality seemed all too easy for St. Louisans to ignore. So she decided to do something about it. “When we look at images of warfare through a screen, it’s
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very easy to become immune to those images,” she says. “I wanted to take the images from the media, take them away from a screen, and put them into a real-world setting.” Last week, the 29-year-old public artist affixed wheatpaste murals to walls belonging to three businesses in the Cherokee neighborhood, as well as one in the Grove. Drawn in permanent marker on blank newsprint, the murals use as their source material actual media photos of Syrian refugees. Outside the Carniceria Latino Americana restaurant on Cherokee Street, Ritter-Soronen pasted a mural based on an Associated Press photo showing a Syrian fa-
DECEMBER 2-8, 2015
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ther cradling his son’s body. Another mural, based on a photo of smiling Syrian children, went up on a temporary wall in the front of Nebula, on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Cherokee Street. Wings and gears are a consistent motif in Ritter-Soronen’s work. One mural, on the side of Rise Coffee in the Grove, depicts a young winged woman with the words “Bring them here” on her right arm. The other message, according to the source photo, means “I want the life I had back.” These are just the first wave of murals, says Ritter-Soronen. A dozen other businesses, including Guerrilla Street Food, Yaqui’s and 2720, have contacted her to
offer wall space. She hopes that these pieces of public art can disrupt the prevailing climate of paranoia and borderline bigotry toward Syrian refugees. “It’s a choice, to listen to the radio or turn on the TV. And it’s just as much of a choice to choose not to. But this is a crisis,” she says. “By putting these images on the side of a market, or a side of a bar you frequent, that choice gets taken away and you have to look at it for second. Anybody can relate to the image of a father holding his dying son. When those images are in in front of you, you forget what religion they are or what country they’re from. You just want to know that they’re OK.” – Danny Wicentowski
Summer Didn’t Rock. Now What?
A
fter a year without major summer festivals in downtown St. Louis, the city may have finally had enough. On Black Friday the mayor’s office announced that it had ended its agreement with Los Angeles-based International Creative Management (ICM) to produce a promised, but never held, “Summer Rocks” series on the Gateway Mall. That controversial deal, spearheaded in part by developer Steve Stogel (president of Clayton-based DFC Group) and approved by the city, blocked out a downtown area from Union Station to city hall from May to September 2015, and would have continued to do so for another nine years (and possibly more). The non-compete clause had already forced out local festivals including Taste of St. Louis, Ribfest and Bluesweek. Because of ICM’s failure to produce two events this year, the city received $50,000 in fees, a modest sum compared to potential revenue from the displaced festivals. ICM had painted an idyllic portrait of its planned country and rock mega-concerts. “With the backdrop of the historic Gateway Arch and the shores of the Mississippi River,” it said in an April 2014 statement, “the festivals will bring together top-tier music acts from a variety of genres with local musicians, who are an integral part of the cultural fabric of the city. St. Louis is steeped in rich culture and history, and we are excited to partner with the city to further grow its reputation as an iconic music destination.” Many local musicians and event organizers were skeptical of the ICM “Summer Rocks” deal from the outset. St. Louis Blues Society president Jeremy Segel-Moss launched an online petition to oppose the deal and gathered more than 1,000 signatures in a few days. “This was not a good business decision by the city,” says Segel-Moss. “By not having an event like Bluesweek, you’re putting hundreds of people out of work. The city wanted to make
a business decision, but the city was making a lot of tax dollars out of the events that were already happening. And it was important having festivals that support the culture of the city and our musical heritage.” Mary Ellen Ponder, chief of staff for Mayor Francis Slay, tells Riverfront Times that even though the partnership ended prior to the 550 days ICM was granted in the contract to pull off a festival, the city will not have to pay a penalty. “This was mutually agreed upon between the city and ICM,” says Ponder. “It was an agreement to no longer pursue this opportunity.”
The city will likely face challenges in bringing an outdoor festival back to downtown by Memorial Day weekend, if not for the rest of the coming summer. Booking, promotion, sponsorship and logistical work would need to happen immediately. Are there any major music events in place for the end of May 2016? “Not yet,” says Ponder, “but I look forward to working with some of the local event producers in town to see if we can pull something together. We are a city of thousands of festivals. This will be a great opportunity for some of our locals to put something
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on. If someone really wants to do an event [over the Memorial Day weekend], six months is doable.” Asked if the city will use the $50,000 in fees from ICM to help seed a new or revived festival, Ponder offers no commitment. “I need to review that,” she says. “Right now the money will go into general revenue. I need to talk to the budget director, the comptroller and the mayor, of course. But we’ll definitely take that under consideration. If you hear of any festival producers who are interested — I certainly have some friends who do it — tell them to feel free to give us a call.” – Roy Kasten
DECEMBER 2-8, 2015
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The Curious Case of Dojo Pizza Accused of human trafficking, Loren Copp is under fire — and in legal limbo
O
ne by one, the investigators pushed through the glass double doors of Dojo Pizza and fanned out across the church-turned-karate-studio/pizzeria/school in south city. Loren Copp, a barrel-chested ex-pastor whom everyone calls “Sensei,” stepped aside as a St. Louis Metropolitan Police detective, social services workers and a city building inspector marched past. The 46-year-old lived in the three-story church. He taught free karate classes in the basement, and along with the four teenage girls in his care — two sisters he calls his daughters, and two more who
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moved in after their mother’s drug problems left them in need of a home — hawked pizzas from a kitchen at the edge of what was once the church sanctuary. “You don’t turn kids away,” Copp likes to say. “You don’t turn people away. You do what you can to help.” Dojo Pizza also attracted hundreds of other visitors who passed through the quirky Bevo Mill operation for open-mic nights, community meetings and self-defense classes taught by police. Copp led a neighborhood patrol group and knew many of the officers who worked the area as a result. But he didn’t recognize the uniformed cops who stormed inside on October 15. Two of them took him to a table at the front of the restaurant and told him to sit
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down as the investigators split up in search of underage girls. Nearly a dozen children, ranging from toddlers to older teens, were gathered around a video game downstairs. A.E., a seventeen-year-old who calls Copp “Dad,” was just stepping out of the shower in the second-floor living quarters when the police arrived. She hurried into her bedroom and refused to come out. She only emerged when the detective leading the charge, Keaton Strong, escorted Copp by the arm to her door and allowed him to talk her into joining the other kids in the lobby. When officers led Copp back to his table, he pulled out his cell phone and frantically typed a Facebook message to one of his police contacts, a supervisor in the First District.
BY DOYLE MURPHY “I’m being raided please help by officers,” he wrote to Captain Steven Mueller. The captain had previously penned a glowing letter of recommendation for Copp, but he claimed this operation was a surprise to him and must have been authorized by someone outside of his command. “This is above my level!” Mueller replied. “OK I don’t know what this is.” “Me either. All I know is it didn’t come thru me.” The team in Dojo Pizza that day was comprised mostly of unfamiliar faces, but Copp recognized Strong. The veteran detective, a member of a multi-agency human trafficking task force, had led social services workers through the building just three days before.
They questioned the children and one of their mothers, who sometimes volunteered at Dojo. The investigators wanted to know if Copp forced the teens to work in the pizza shop or touched them in bad ways. By the time the day was over, they had taken custody of six girls and a nine-year-old boy. Copp was led out of the building in handcuffs and eventually hauled off to a holding cell at the City Justice Center. The alleged crime? Endangering the welfare of a child — apparently thanks to a .45-caliber Ruger handgun and .22-caliber rifle investigators found in his bedroom. But the implications were ominous. Copp says Strong promised a much bigger case and serious charges were coming — six felonies in all. When Copp was released from his holding cell nearly two days later, nearly everything in his life had changed. The children who lived with him were scattered in foster homes from Creve Coeur to Ferguson. Dojo Pizza was boarded up, the building condemned. In a week, TV news stations would report that Copp was under investigation for human trafficking.
D
ojo Pizza had always been a strange, if sort of charming concept. The idea of a grizzled sensei taking an unlikely band of young students into his home and teaching them the karate and life skills they’d need to survive in a tough neighborhood seemed like the plot of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles knockoff. (But get this: They’ll live in a vacant church and support themselves by making delicious pizzas!) “The thrill of eating at Dojo Pizza comes from knowing that the place probably couldn’t exist anywhere outside St. Louis,” wrote St. Louis Magazine. The allegations of human trafficking, however, cast a sinister tint onto what had once seemed like oddball fun. At the center is Loren Copp, who has not been charged with any crime, although the investigation remains open. Whether you think there’s a case against him hinges on how you feel about Copp. Is he a big-hearted champion of hard-luck kids? A deviant who preys upon the vulnerable? Or maybe just a bad businessman who made some mistakes, but is still getting a raw deal? Copp had at first planned to help operate a K-8 school in the former home of Christy Memorial United
Loren Copp with Lorraine Bala and a student (face obscured). He and Bala trade accusations about life at Dojo Pizza. | Mabel Suen Methodist Church on Morgan Ford Road. He was the pastor of Southwest Christian Church at the time, and the congregation wanted to set up its own education system, funneling the south-city students into a new $1.4 million high school it was building next to church headquarters in Fenton. It was an ambitious plan, but Copp is an ambitious guy — sometimes prone to bite off more than he can chew. A 2011 front-page story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch uncovered two decades of lawsuits and fraud allegations targeting Copp and his failed construction ventures. It wasn’t long before the high school plan began to falter too, and follow-up stories in the Post-Dispatch detailed a new round of lawsuits between contractors and Southwest. Copp now says the coverage scared off investors. “This article came out, and it tanked us,” he says. Southwest dissolved under the financial pressure, and Copp split off to run his own operation at the Morgan Ford facility. He attributes his previous construction troubles to the overconfidence of a younger man. “I thought I could do more than I could do,” he says. “That’s exactly what happened.” Dojo Pizza was a refuge for Copp.
Is Copp a big-hearted champion of hard-luck kids? A deviant who preys upon the vulnerable? He was teaching karate classes and slowly working on the aging building. A donor supplied a high-end, spring-loaded floor for martial arts practice. A church donated used computers to set up a lab, and a former pupil passed along an inherited pizza oven. At first, Copp made pies just to feed the ten or twelve students who continued to take online classes after plans for the high school folded. Kids from the neighborhood soon figured out they could drop by the karate school for a meal, and their parents started to follow. “The name stuck because everybody kept saying, ‘I’m going to get some dojo pizza,’” Copp says. He played along, sending the kids dressed in karate uniforms to serve customers. Diners saw it as lovable schtick, and the backstory of a nonprofit pizza shop riverfronttimes.com
supporting free karate lessons for poor kids was a heartwarmer. Dojo Pizza’s Yelp reviews — four stars overall — were peppered with praise for the restaurant’s “wonderful mission” and “good works.” Copp proudly introduced his teenage “daughters” to customers as he explained the operation. He wasn’t their biological dad, or even their stepfather, but he had raised them for most of their lives and considered them his girls. They had started living together as part of a temporary arrangement. Copp and his wife at the time, Julie, met Tauna Cowin at a school event. Cowin had six kids but not much money. When her family’s apartment was condemned, she scrambled to find places for everyone. The youngest kids stayed with her; an older son moved in with his grandContinued on pg 14
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DOJO Continued from pg 13 parents. Copp and his wife agreed to take in two of the sisters and an older brother. The boy eventually moved on, but the girls (whom the RFT is identifying only by their initials), A.E. and K.S., stayed. Over time, they began to think of Copp as their dad. They stayed with him even after his divorce in 2013 and moved with him into the old church. The building, if unconventional, turned out to be a perfect hangout for bored teens. Karate classes were free. Dance instructors took over the floor a couple of times a week, and there were concerts some weekends. “It was like, ‘Come in here, play basketball,’” says Heath Cowin, an older brother to A.E. and K.S. “‘Come in and do karate. Come in and talk.’” The girls quickly made friends with other teens in the neighborhood. Many of their new buddies went home to families at night, but in others they recognized a familiar sadness: children with fathers they never saw, mothers who made endless, empty promises. A slumber party with girls who had nowhere else to go might turn into a week, and then months. Some of the mothers even signed documents giving Copp power of attorney while they served jail sentences or searched for long-term housing. But with four or five girls living at the dojo, and other teens dropping by during the day, things could be chaotic. Copp ran the school under a nonprofit incorporated in 2007, Ma-ji Ryu Christian Karate Association Inc. He was an admittedly sloppy bookkeeper, installing one of the teens as a board member for a time to complete his mandated filings. Recently, he received an $18,000 property tax bill. (He says he shouldn’t have to pay because he runs a nonprofit.) The state notified Copp in May it planned to “dissolve or revoke” the corporation because he failed to notify authorities of a registered agent. Through the school, he was granted government funds for breakfasts, lunches and snacks to feed the students. The payouts totaled $14,121 for the 2014-’15 school year, according to Missouri Department of Education records. They were also provided some government-issued food, Copp says. The kids frequently ate pizza for
dinner. Sometimes Copp sprang for McDonald’s hamburgers. It wasn’t two parents and a white picket fence, but it also wasn’t foster care or the streets. “We took them in from a troubled situation,” Copp says. Of the first two sisters who came under his care, he recalls, “That was supposed to be the summer. It ended up being nine years.”
O
n October 22, nine days after police hauled Copp away from Dojo Pizza in handcuffs, neighbors living behind the boarded-up church noticed something strange. A black sport utility vehicle pulled into the back alley, and three men in dark clothes and hoodies climbed out. The trio looked like law enforcement types to 66-year-old Cindy Duncan. Another neighbor agreed. They watched as the men raised a ladder to the second-floor living quarters and slipped through a narrow window. Duncan wasn’t quite sure what to make of the three. When police had come before, they wore uniforms or suits and walked through the front door. She thought they might be there to seal up the window. The clear pane had fallen out a day or two before while she was working in her yard. “It scared the crap out of me,” she remembers. But the men didn’t seem to have any interest in that. She watched quietly as they descended the ladder and loaded it back in the SUV. One of them spoke, and she could just make out the words. “See you all tomorrow,” he said, according to Duncan. She didn’t know what that meant either, but she didn’t have to wait long figure it out. The next morning, reporters hurried to Morgan Ford. The previous raid on Dojo Pizza hadn’t made the nightly news, but now television cameras pointed at the front doors as FBI agents and Metro detectives in black vests streamed inside. The footage captured agents hauling away computers and boxes of files. Animal control officers loaded up pet cats and gerbils. Officially, authorities weren’t saying much. But reporters working back channels soon pried loose tips about seven girls “housed” inside and allegations of human trafficking. Copp, who had moved into a friend’s basement in south St. Louis County, stayed away. He granted Continued on pg 17
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DOJO Continued from pg 14 one off-camera interview to a FOX 2 reporter he knew through church, saying only, “There is no human trafficking. There is no sex trafficking of children. I haven’t been charged with anything along those lines.” A warrant later obtained by Riverfront Times and other media spelled out the allegations. Detective Strong wrote in the affidavit that Copp was the target of a “Labor Trafficking and Sexual Abuse of Minors” investigation, sparked by the word of an informant. The confidential source, referred to as CS in the seven-page document, claimed children suffered from bedbugs and lice while Copp pocketed the government funds that were supposed to go toward school lunches. Instead of schooling the kids, the source claimed, Copp forced them to work in the pizza restaurant. “The CS advised that when minors refuse to work, the target institutes verbal punishment, including threats of being put out of the shelter, which would leave the minors homeless,” the affidavit says. “The CS also advised that the target touches the minors in inappropriate ways (sexually), in inappropriate areas, against their will.” There was more in family court documents obtained by Riverfront Times. “Loren Copp allegedly used to play ‘the butt game’ with the child in which Mr. Copp will make the child touch his butt and he chases the child and touches her butt,” Juvenile Officer Kathryn Herman claimed in a petition, requesting a judge place the children in state custody. Copp, who admits he performed acupuncture on one of the teens, was accused of poking needles into her breast — charges he emphatically denies. Tauna Cowin was also targeted by Herman, who claimed that five of the single mom’s youngest children lived at Dojo Pizza. Cowin was accused of standing by while her kids lived in filthy, dangerous conditions. Herman asked that they be taken into foster care. “The child would be at risk for further harm if returned to the custody of the mother at this time,” she concluded. Cowin and Copp have argued in the past. She claims he has blocked her plans over the past eighteen months to reclaim her two oldest
daughters, even as she’s settled into a large, three-bedroom apartment north of downtown. “I think he was trying to have the best interest for the girls, but he should have seen they should have been with their mom,” she says. But despite their differences, Cowin doesn’t believe he sexually abused her daughters or forced them into some kind of pizza-shop slave labor. The family court petitions are filled with errors, including allegations her three youngest also lived at the dojo with their big sisters, Cowin says. She claims she and the kids often spent a few
nights there but never lived there full time. As proof, she points out that law enforcement agents on October 15 had to request she bring the kids to Morgan Ford from her home, so they could take them. (The three spent more than five weeks in foster care before they were suddenly allowed to return to Cowin’s home on November 23.) If investigators can’t even figure who lives where, she says, how can they claim to know what was going on at the dojo? “I think it’s total BS,” Cowin says of the allegations against
Copp. “I think it’s just somebody coming up with some cockamamie lies because they’re mad at him.” More than a dozen people who spent significant amounts of time at Dojo Pizza over the years told Riverfront Times versions of the same thing. Hundreds of people have flowed through Copp’s building: Customers, parents of neighborhood kids, teachers, cops, social workers and teens all visited without raising any red flags. The nineteen-year-old boyfriend Continued on pg 18
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DOJO Continued from pg 17 of Copp’s oldest “daughter,” A.E., hung out at the pizzeria most days and spent the nights talking with her on Facetime. If something had been going on, he would have seen it or she would have told him, he says. “I’m being honest, nothing ever stood out to me as weird at all,” he says. Karen Chaney, 40, has spent most of her life living across the street from Dojo Pizza, and her twelve-year-old daughter was close friends with the girls who lived there. She credits Copp with chasing away the gangs who used to sit on the steps. She trusted him so much she allowed her daughter to stay the night. The girls had chores and helped out around the pizza shop, but she laughs at the suggestion it rose to the level of forced labor. “If that’s the case, I must be human trafficking,” Chaney deadpans. “Because I have my kids clean the house every day.”
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ust the words “human trafficking” conjure images of some of the ugliest sins one person can commit against another. The crime can cover anything from blackmail to sex slavery to coercing an undocumented immigrant to work in a sweatshop, but it has at its core the age-old violation of the powerful brutalizing the weak. Missouri has recently decided to crack down on traffickers, forming a new Human Trafficking Force that was unveiled this fall during a series of public hearings across the state. Politicians, former victims and law enforcement agents charged with bringing traffickers to justice detailed the horrors they were up against and what they planned to do about them. One of the difficulties, presenters told the audience at a stop in Brentwood, is there is still little money to take care of the victims once they’re rescued. “Slim resources, high need challenge advocates for human-trafficking survivors,” read the headline from a St. Louis Public Radio story on the event. Strong was a panelist that day, and he talked about how hard it was to keep juvenile victims in a safe place while they went after the traffickers. “This is heartfelt to me,” he said. “I’ve been doing this portion of human trafficking for the last couple
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Federal agents returned on November 12, nearly a month after the first police raid in a human-trafficking investigation. | Doyle Murphy
“Nothing ever stood out to me as weird at all.” years, but I’ve been a juvenile detective for years before that.” Human trafficking has also become a priority on the federal level. Authorities say FBI-led stings across the nation recovered 149 child victims in October. Raids in St. Louis came up empty, but task force leaders touted their other busts and vowed to keep the pressure on. “While last week’s stings in the St. Louis area had negative results, the task force rescued approximately three dozen child victims from sex trafficking and child enticement so far this year,” William Woods, the special agent in charge of the FBI St. Louis Division, said in a news release.
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A bust at Dojo Pizza would be a high-profile case for human-trafficking investigators here. When FBI agents and city cops returned to the church on November 12, they had an audience of reporters who tweeted play-by-play updates and noted in their stories that computers were confiscated as part of an ongoing investigation. “Better days are to come,” St. Louis alderwoman Carol Howard told a KMOV reporter. “I’m working, trying to get control of the building and see if we can’t find someone who will take it over and build something that will be an asset to the community.” Federal investigators remained nearly silent, an FBI spokeswoman confirming only that agents had returned to Dojo Pizza for “a law enforcement purpose.” St. Louis police say there’s “an ongoing investigation relative to Dojo Pizza,” and they can’t release more details. The limited information left the public to speculate about a single man, living alone with young girls, amassing who knows what on computers that had been carted away by federal investigators. It’s all ridiculous, Copp says. “There’s no kids tied up in cages in the basement of the building.” Sitting in the law offices of J. Justin Meehan, Copp looks more
like a sleep-starved trucker in his sweatshirt and jeans than the karate master photographed smiling in old Dojo Pizza restaurant reviews. He has spent the past several weeks avoiding reporters even as he watched all the news reports. At this point, he figures, it would be tough for anyone to say anything worse about him than has already been said. He talks for two hours. “They’re saying my girls are lice infested, malnourished,” Copp says. “You know what kind of damage that’s going to do to my kids?” He eagerly scrolls through his phone in search of Facebook posts written by the girls, hoping to prove he isn’t some creep who terrorized children. “Here, look at this,” he says and hands over his phone. It’s a long message A.E. posted on Father’s Day. “Who Knew That I Would have A Father Every Year To Tell Happy Fathers Day To?!” it reads in part. “Who Knew I Would Have An Awesome Guy Like You In My Life. You have Showed Me Rights From My Wrongs. Not Having My Blood Dad Is Hard But, I’d Rather Have Someone Who Treats Me As Blood Then Not.” The allegations just aren’t true, Copp insists. The dojo wasn’t an
Dojo Pizza sits empty after a St. Louis building inspector filed 38 code violations. | Steve Truesdell illegal rooming house; it was their home. The building wasn’t falling apart and filled with trash; it was being renovated. He wasn’t keeping kids as slave labor; he was showing them how to run a kitchen and build things with their hands. “There wasn’t any forced labor,” he says. “We were teaching kids things. It was like summer camp all year long.” After weeks of public silence, Copp works his way through the allegations, sometimes breaking off in the middle of one accusation to combat another. “This whole thing has blown up into somebody calling in a complaint, and then terms like ‘human trafficking’ and ‘sex trafficking’ get thrown out. My reputation has been dragged through the mud.” Copp sees signs of a set-up in all corners of the investigation. Why do city officials suddenly have a problem with him living in a “commercial structure”? It was no secret that he lived there. And what about the three men in the SUV who his neighbors saw climbing through an upper window? “What did they take out of my building — or what did they put in?” His theories about the origins of the investigation focus on three people: Howard, Detective Strong
and a 34-year-old woman named Lorraine Bala, who stayed at the Dojo for several weeks. Copp says Bala left her daughter with him just days before being jailed on drug charges. According to a police report, an officer in Maryland Heights searched her hotel room at the Extended Stay America in December 2012 and found her with marijuana and alprazolam (commonly marketed as Xanax) and buprenorphine, an alternative to methadone, which under medical supervision can help fight heroin addiction. It can also be abused. Bala ended up pleading guilty to a couple of counts of marijuana possession. After she was released, she moved into Dojo Pizza for awhile. Everything was fine at first. She volunteered in the kitchen and helped teach the teens how to wait tables. A photo of her next to Copp, wearing a red karate uniform, appeared in a Riverfront Times story in June 2014. But the arrangement soon soured. Copp says Bala would get into shouting matches on the front porch, and he claims he caught her using his ATM card. He eventually told her to leave. He later put her daughter out when she refused to Continued on pg 20
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DOJO Continued from pg 19 abide by his curfew, Copp says. Months later, when he learned a confidential source was feeding detectives allegations, he immediately thought of Bala. “You’ve got a crazy woman who is trying to make me look bad,” he says. The first time Bala speaks to Riverfront Times, she confirms she stayed at Dojo Pizza after she was released from jail. “He helped me out — at least that’s what I thought,” she says. “Instead, he fucked up my life.” She claims she left on her own to look for permanent housing, and when she returned to check on her daughter, the place was a disaster. Cat feces on the floor. Children forced to man the pizza shop. She also insists that Copp touched the girls inappropriately. Bala says when she took her daughter to enroll at school, administrators rejected a transcript from her classes at Copp’s place, and that resulted in an investigation. Bala says she has spoken to social service workers and police about Dojo Pizza. “The man is fake as fuck,” she says of Copp. “He’s a liar.” She claims a social services worker involved in the investigation showed her pictures of her naked daughter taken by a hidden camera in the ceiling of building’s shower. Bala relayed that information to A.E. and her boyfriend in a string of Facebook messages, but the exchange turned nasty when they didn’t believe her. “u look hella gay bitch,” Bala writes to A.E.’s nineteen-year-old boyfriend. “That kool I don’t argue with drug addicts,” he replies. The next time Bala talks to a reporter, she says she’ll call back in 30 minutes but doesn’t. Reached a few days later, she says her caseworker warned her talking to the media could hurt her chances to regain custody of her daughter. “I’m trying to play by the rules,” she says apologetically, before adding: “I hope you find out the truth.” Copp says Bala’s claims don’t make any sense. “If they had me with pictures of the kids, I’d be locked up,” he says. As for forcing kids to work, he says they would ask to wait tables because they like to learn and because he let them keep all the tips. If anyone thought that was traf20
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Clockwise from top: The door to the karate studio at Dojo Pizza is now boarded up. The former pizza kitchen is shut down, and Loren Copp’s office is now covered in scattered papers following a series of law-enforcement raids. | Photos courtesy of Loren Copp and Steve Truesdell ficking, any of the cops or community leaders who regularly passed through would have reported him, he says. Howard, the alderwoman, wasn’t a regular at Dojo Pizza, but she was familiar with the old church. She and Copp clashed when he pulled out the old stainedglass windows so he could sell them. “It’s almost cannibalistic,” she says. “You’re living there and you’re parting it out?” Copp thinks the disagreement over the windows is proof Howard has it out for him. He now believes she pulled strings to sic police and building inspectors on him. If she was able to point Strong his way, it wouldn’t have taken much for the detective to find an angry Bala and start building a case, he reasons. Howard denies she had anything to do with the investigation and says she would be surprised if
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the human-trafficking accusations are true. It’s more likely Copp is just a careless businessman, she says. “I think the man had good intentions, and for whatever reason, he couldn’t realize those intentions.”
C
opp returns, briefly, to Dojo Pizza about three weeks after he was forced out. The city building inspector has granted permission for a walkthrough to examine the long list of violations detailed in the citations. Dressed in a flannel shirt, jeans and paint-splattered Crocs, Copp brings along attorney Meehan, an architect and a couple of friends to document the condition of the building. A terrible smell hits them as soon as they step inside the door. “You can tell there’s rotten food because they just closed up the building and shut the power off,”
Copp says as the group films their entry. A city building inspector wrote 38 code violations during the October 15 raid. The list of grievances included signs of rodents, a leaking roof, weak lighting in public spaces, a defective shower, unlicensed electrical work, peeling paint and the operation of an illegal rooming house in a commercially zoned building. Copp and his entourage find the upstairs bedrooms rummaged through. Mattresses have been stripped and yanked askew. Papers in Copp’s office are scattered across his desk and floor. In the girls’ rooms, the camera pans across what’s left of their home of nearly three years. A few childhood pictures are taped to a closet door next to an overturned bed in one bedroom. The cinderblock walls of another alternate between bright pink and purple. A girl’s winter coat hangs from a peg. Not so long ago, these rooms were small worlds unto themselves, filled with teen dramas. A.E. and K.S. have spent most of their lives carving out new homes, assembling and reassembling their families as the people around them change. A friendly woman might be called “Mom” for a time. Friends become more like relatives. The only constants in the sisters’ lives, for better or worse, had been Copp and each other. A.E. and K.S. had rooms side by side on the second floor. Copp’s was down the hall. When the state came in October, social services workers separated the teens and sent them to foster homes across the area. K.S. was placed with a younger sister, one of the children recently taken from Cowin, in Ferguson. A.E. was sent to live at a home in Creve Coeur. Though she’s allowed to call her sisters and her boyfriend, she can’t see them. “She hates being separated from her sisters,” her boyfriend says. “She cries every time she talks to her sister.” He thinks investigators are trying to pressure her to say Copp forced her to work or sexually abused her. “But she’s not because there’s nothing to say.” Her boyfriend patches A.E. through to a reporter one night. She says working at Dojo Pizza was like working in a family business, or cleaning up around the house. Most evenings they’d sell two or Continued on pg 22
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Copp says as the group films their entry. A city building inspector wrote 38 code violations during the October 15 raid. The list of grievances included signs of rodents, a leaking roof, weak lighting in public spaces, a defective shower, unlicensed electrical work, peeling paint and the operation of an illegal rooming house in a commercially zoned building. Copp and his entourage find the upstairs bedrooms rummaged through. Mattresses have been stripped and yanked askew. Papers in Copp’s office are scattered across his desk and floor. In the girls’ rooms, the camera pans across what’s left of their home of nearly three years. A few childhood pictures are taped to a closet door next to an overturned bed in one bedroom. The cinderblock walls of another alternate between bright pink and purple. A girl’s winter coat hangs from a peg. Not so long ago, these rooms were small worlds unto themselves, filled with teen dramas. A.E. and K.S. have spent most of their lives carving out new homes, assembling and reassembling their families as the people around them change. A friendly woman might be called “Mom” for a time. Friends become more like ingrelatives. The only constants in the n e d r Gar sisters’ lives, for better or worse, ndoo I f o ift G had been Copp and each other. e h t Giv e A.E. and K.S. had rooms side by side on the second floor. Copp’s was down the hall. When the state came in October, social services workers separated the teens and sent them to foster homes across the area. K.S. was placed with a younger sister, one of the children recently taken from Cowin, in Ferguson. A.E. was sent savteto u s. live at a home in Creve Coeur. o le, ynt grow ki Though she’s allowed to call her d n u u sisters and her boyfriend, she can’t We bour disco h wit see them. “She hates being separated from her sisters,” her boyfriend says. “She cries every time she talks to her sister.” He thinks investigators are trying to pressure her to say Copp forced her to work or sexually abused her. “But she’s not because there’s nothing to say.” Her boyfriend patches A.E. through to a reporter one night. She says working at Dojo Pizza was Open 7 days a week! 1225 N Warson Road like working in a family business, Saint Louis, MO 63132 or cleaning up around the house. 800-285-9676 wormsway.com Most evenings they’d sell two or Continued on pg 22
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DOJO Continued from pg 20 three pizzas. Five was a huge night. “It wasn’t like we were forced to,” she says. “It was like our choice.” She denies Copp ever did anything inappropriate to her. Her voice sounds small and scared through the phone. She doesn’t feel comfortable in the foster home. The first few days, before she started school, she was left alone in the house with her foster mother’s boyfriend and no cell phone to call for help if she needed it, she says. Detective Strong makes her nervous, too. His girlfriend lives next door to the foster home, she says, and she would see him outside her apartment in the mornings. One night, he dropped by to take A.E. to dinner. They walked alone through a dark parking lot to a restaurant and he talked to her about school. He told her she should play a sport and she was a “pretty young lady,” she says. A police spokesman didn’t answer specific questions from Riverfront Times about Strong other than to say there are no internal affairs complaints against him. “The Metropolitan Police Department, City of St. Louis, holds our officers to the highest professional standards and takes any allegations of officer misconduct seriously,” the department said in an email. If A.E. were free to leave and go wherever she liked, she says, she’d move in with Gabriela Niles and her husband in south St. Louis County. Niles, one of Copp’s former karate students, often visited the dojo and doted on the girls, who took turns staying at her house. She liked to take them one at a time to let them know they’re special and give them a break from all the teenage drama. It’s peaceful away from the city, and they could imagine what it must be like for all the kids who grew up in the quiet houses with neatly trimmed yards. Niles took them swimming at her cousin’s pool and to the pumpkin patch. She was making Halloween plans before they were shuttled away. At first the teens called her Gabby, but more and more they say “Mom.” “I feel like I could have more time to myself [there],” A.E. says. Someone in the foster home calls for dinner, and she whispers that she has to hang up.
C
opp agrees to meet a photographer one morning at Dojo Pizza. Not long ago, he would stand watch against the gangs, peering down night after night from his perch atop the front porch. Now, he’s nervous someone will spot him. “Last thing I need is to get into an altercation out here,” he says. After about five minutes, he can’t take it anymore and ducks into the alley in the rear of the building. Cindy Duncan, who had noticed the men in the black SUV back before the story was in the media spotlight, sees him and immediately hurries over. “You better come back,” she says. “We need you.” Another neighbor from across the street joins her, and a family next door comes by to shake hands. “We’ve been over here since February, and he was the nicest person,” 27-year-old Jacob Thomas says. “Nothing along the lines of human trafficking would ever cross my mind.” Copp loosens up among his neighbors, but then he sees a patrol car pull into the alley a block away. Legally, he’s as free as anyone standing here. It has been weeks since the first raid, and he can hang out wherever he likes. The charges he was told were coming that first night in a jail cell have yet to materialize. No one will say if they ever will. But Copp continues to move like a hunted man. “I’m going to get,” he says. He hustles around the corner, hops into a friend’s town car and they wheel away. Copp’s best defense, should he ever be charged, will likely be the dozens of people he has befriended and invited into the dojo to eat pizza, practice karate and hang out with his girls. If he ran a human-trafficking operation, it happened right under the noses of legions of visitors. Shelly Gonzalez, a social worker who has helped out around Dojo Pizza, says she’d be shocked if the allegations are true. However, she wants a definitive answer either way: If he did something, let him suffer. But if he didn’t? She thinks of the girls’ lives thrown into chaos, and how nervous Copp is to be seen in front of his own home. “If this isn’t real, if this is someone’s vendetta? Oh my God.” n
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WEEK OF DECEMBER 3-9
ERIC WOOLSEY
Bad Jews proves no one is more annoying than family.
THURSDAY 12/03 [RIFFTRAX]
Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny After years of neglect, TV audiences made Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life the cherished holiday classic it is today. Movie lovers recently rediscovered another film that was forgotten for all of the right reasons: Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny. When Santa’s reindeer abandon him on a remote beach in Florida, it’s up to the children he summons telepathically (including those holiday icons, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn) to find the animals needed to get his sleigh out of the inch-deep sand. After
pigs, sheep, a donkey, a horse and a guy in a gorilla suit all fail, ol’ Saint Nick is reminded of the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, which he retells for the rest of the running time. Eventually the titular Ice Cream Bunny arrives to give Santa a lift on his fire truck. The RiffTrax team roasts this turkey live, beaming their comic commentary to select theaters nationwide at 7 p.m. Thursday, December 3. You can catch it locally at Wehrenberg Ronnies 20 Cine (5320 South Lindbergh Boulevard; www.fathomevents.com) Tickets are $12.50. — Mark Fischer [ T H E AT E R ]
Bad Jews The death of a loved one brings out deep feelings in the survi-
vors. In the case of Daphna Feygenbaum, her strongest feeling is fear: Fear that her cousin Liam and his shiksa girlfriend are going to get her grandfather’s Chai necklace. That necklace should be hers — she’s a good Jew, with an Israeli boyfriend and everything. Liam assures her that he’s not going home empty-handed without a fight. Joshua Harmon’s Bad Jews is a biting satire about what it means to be a Jewish American. The New Jewish Theatre presents Bad Jews at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 8 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday (December 3 through 20) at the Jewish Community Center’s Wool Studio Theatre (2 Millstone Campus Drive; 314-442-3283 or www. newjewishtheatre.org). Tickets are $39.50 to $43.50. — Paul Friswold riverfronttimes.com
FRIDAY 12/04 [ T H E AT E R ]
Gin Game In Donald Coburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Gin Game, a game of cards becomes a white-knuckle struggle for redemption. Weller and Fonsia are both residents of a rundown nursing home. The two begin a regular gin game that fills their empty days but also consumes them. Fonsia’s an excellent player, and Weller can’t beat her. If he could just eke out a victory, his life would have a high point. As they play they discuss their lives, sharing intimate details that don’t necessarily bring them closer Continued on pg 27
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TA K E H O M E TROPS!
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Enjoy the ultimate evening out. Then stay the night. Ring in the new year December 31, 7:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m., at Hyatt Regency St. Louis at The Arch with the Ultimate New Year’s Eve Party, featuring Dr. Zhivegas, Superjam and DJ Jamie Lambert, plus Curt & Nina from the NOW 96.3 morning show. Enjoy food stations, open bar, champagne toast and confetti drop at midnight. The Ultimate NYE Standard Room Package, including overnight stay and two party tickets, starts at $369. The Ultimate NYE VIP Room Package adds VIP seating, premium bar and dedicated cocktail service and starts at $459. Party tickets only start at $129 ($175 for VIP) and are available at eventbrite.com. To book or for more information, call 314 342 4688 or visit stlouisarch.hyatt.com.
HYATT REGENCY ST. LOUIS AT THE ARCH
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Ultimate New Year’s Eve package available at Hyatt Regency St. Louis at The Arch only. Package must be prepaid at time of booking and deposit is non-refundable after 12/14/2015. Must be at least 21 years of age to receive alcoholic beverages. For complete terms and conditions, visit stlouisarch.hyatt.com. The trademarks HYATT®, Hyatt Regency® and related marks are trademarks of Hyatt Corporation. ©2015 Hyatt Corporation. All rights reserved.
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CALENDAR Continued from pg 25 to each other. St. Louis Actors’ Studio presents Gin Game at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday (December 4 through 20) at the Gaslight Theatre (358 North Boyle Avenue; 314-458-2978 or www.stlas.org). Tickets are $30 to $35. — Paul Friswold [HARRY POTTER]
see Avenue; 314-865-1995 or www. straydogtheatre.com). Tickets are $20 to $25. — Paul Friswold
SATURDAY 12/05 [BENEFIT]
Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Can America have a Christmas RFT_Holiday_Jr_Ad6pt87x8pt95.pdf that doesn’t involve ugly sweat-
First Friday Perhaps you’re still patiently awaiting your Hogwarts admissions owl and struggling to ignite your magical powers. You’re not alone. Even if you can’t get that old broom off the ground, don’t be ashamed to drive your decidedly non-magical car to the Saint Louis Science Center (5050 Oakland Avenue; 314-2894400 or www.slsc.org) for Harry Potter and the First Friday. The evening’s magic, so to speak, includes free screenings of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (at 7, 9 and 10 p.m.; pick up your free tickets beginning at 6 p.m.), live owls from the World Bird Sanctuary, a couple of potions lectures (starting at 6 and 8 p.m.), the St. Louis Quidditch Cup, transfiguration demonstrations and even wand creation — no word on whether you’ll be able to include any phoenix feathers in yours. Admission and most activities are free. — Alison Sieloff
ers? The world will never know, because every year at least 1.4 million people receive an ugly sweater as a gift. But don’t return it — revel in it. Wear your worst to the World’s Largest Ugly Christmas Sweater Party at 7 p.m. tonight at Ballpark Village (601 Clark Avenue; www.stlballparkvillage.com), and help out a good cause. Your $40 ticket gets you a clean vintage ugly sweater, a Santa hat and a raffle ticket. If you bring four canned goods to 7:06 donate for Operation 1 11/8/15 PM Food Search, you’ll also get a gift
certificate to the Diamond Family and 15 percent off your bill at Drunken Fish. The goal is to help feed local families, and maybe set a new world record for the most people wearing ugly sweaters in one place. — Paul Friswold [ T H E AT E R ]
Sublime Intimacy In his musical Café Chanson, Ken Page told a story through the memories Continued on pg 28
50th Season Holiday Special!
3 Shows for only $99 Call the Dance St. Louis Box Office at 314.534.6622 for your premium SEAT package today! Offer ends Dec 15, 2015
C
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[ T H E AT E R ]
Devil Boys from Beyond
MY
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There are strange goings-on in Lizard Lick, Florida. People are buzzing about reports of flying saucers, and two locals, Florence and Dotty, claim that their husbands have been abducted by aliens. With the Cold War raging, some fear the Commies are behind it all. The New York papers send a couple pros down to get the scoop, but paranoia and old grudges stymie their best efforts. Buddy Thomas and Kenneth Elliott’s campy sci-fi comedy Devil Boys from Beyond mocks B-movies and the politics of the Atomic Age. Stray Dog Theatre presents Devil Boys from Beyond at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday (December 3 through 19) at Tower Grove Abbey (2336 Tennes-
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CALENDAR Continued from pg 27
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of a dying World War II veteran and the music of post-war France. In Page’s new play, Sublime Intimacy, the story is conjured from the shared memories of a group of friends. Each of five characters recalls their relationship with a mutual friend, a dancer whom they all loved. Page bills it as “a play with dance.” Max & Louie Productions presents Sublime Intimacy at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday (December 4 through 20) at the Kranzberg Arts Center (501 North Grand Boulevard; 314-7958778 or www.maxandlouie.com). Tickets are $35 to $40. — Paul Friswold
charged with safeguarding starstuff from the dread pirate Black Stache. She attempts to engage a nameless orphan boy as an ally, but she has to convince him to trust himself before he can trust her. Peter and the Starcatcher is performed Tuesday through Sunday (December 4 through 27; no shows on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day) at Webster University’s Loretto-Hilton Center (130 Edgar Road; 314-968-4925 or www.repstl.org). Tickets are $17.50 to $79.50. — Rob Levy
[MUSICAL]
[CIRCUS]
Peter and the Starcatcher
Cirque Dreams Holidaze
The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis continues its season with the Tony Award-winning Peter and the Starcatcher. This swashbuckling production, adapted by Rick Elice from Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson’s novel, is an origin story for J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. Molly, a rookie starcatcher (a being who gathers fallen stars so they can’t be used for evil), is
If you need a bit of an infusion to get the holiday feels a-flowin’, head to the Fox Theatre (527 North Grand Boulevard; 314-534-1111 or www.fabulousfox.com) for Cirque Dreams Holidaze. This showy spectacular dazzles with 30 performers who bring the bendy, heart-stoppingly superb enchantment of modern artistic circus to the stage, with the help of hun-
SUNDAY 12/06
dreds of costumes, original and familiar holiday music, and a lot of imagination. Penguins show off their balancing skills, gingerbread men demonstrate their athleticism and much, much more — basically, we’ll all leave wowed and energized. Cirque Dreams Holidaze is performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 6 p.m. Sunday (December 4 through 6). Tickets cost $25 to $75. — Alison Sieloff
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MONDAY 12/07 [FILM]
Theeb World War I obliterated large tracts of Europe — France and Belgium especially. What’s often overlooked is the “world” part of the Great War; this conflict didn’t play out in Europe only. The acclaimed 2014 film Theeb takes us to the Mid-East where the British armies battled the Ottoman Empire and its local allies. Hussein and his younger brother, Theeb, live in a traditional Bedouin village in western Arabia; they’re cut off from the larger world by huge expanses of desert. Their quiet lives are changed suddenly by the arrival of a British officer and his guide, who need the help of the two young Bedouins to locate a well situated along the old pilgrimage trail to Mecca. The Webster University Film Series screens Theeb at 7:30 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday (December 6 through 8) at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood Avenue; 314-968-7487 or www.webster.edu/film-series). Tickets are $4 to $6. — Alex Weir
Theeb and his older brother, Hussein: characters in Theeb, playing at Webster on Monday. depicting the brutality and psychological trauma of battle. The 1929 novel is about a group of German schoolmates who enlist to fight World War I, spurred on mainly by propaganda, only to be destroyed mentally and spiritually by the horrors of war. Lewis Milestone’s film adaptation won two Academy Awards, and it remains a classic of the genre. All Quiet on the Western Front is screened at 7 p.m. at the Landmark Tivoli Theatre (6350 Delmar Boulevard, University City; 314-935-4523 or www.kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu) as part of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum’s War on Film series. Admission is free. — Rob Levy
TUESDAY 12/08
WEDNESDAY 12/09
[FILM]
[FILM]
All Quiet on the Western Front
Paths of Glory
Few works of literature measure up to Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front in
In Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 film Paths of Glory a commanding officer orders a battalion of soldiers to embark on a suicidal attack on a German stronghold. When the
men refuse, the officer demands that three of the offending soldiers be chosen at random and shot for cowardice. Kubrick tackled war all throughout his career, and while films such as Dr. Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket are better known today, this World War I drama starring Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker and Adolphe Menjou is considered by many to be the director’s best film. Paths of Glory is screened tonight at 7 p.m. at the Landmark Tivoli Theatre (6350 Delmar Boulevard, University City; 314-935-4523 or www.kemperartmuseum.wustl. edu) as part of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum’s War on Film series. Admission is free. — Mark Fischer Planning an event, exhibiting your art or putting on a play? Let us know and we’ll include it in the Night & Day section or publish a listing in the online calendar — for free! Send details via e-mail (calendar@ riverfronttimes.com), fax (314-754-6416) or mail (6358 Delmar Boulevard, Suite 200, St. Louis, MO 63130, attn: Calendar). Include the date, time, price, contact information and location (including ZIP code). Please submit information three weeks prior to the date of your event. No telephone submissions will be accepted. Find more events online at www.riverfronttimes.com.
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[REVIEW]
Creationism Is More Believable Than This Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur is unbelievably boring Written by
MARYANN JOHANSON The Good Dinosaur Directed by Peter Sohn. Written by Peter Sohn, Erik Benson, Meg Fauve, Kelsey Mann and Bob Peterson. Starring Raymond Ochoa, Jack Bright, Jeffrey Wright and Frances McDormand. Now showing in multiple theaters.
T
he Good Dinosaur, the latest animated flick from Pixar and Disney, is such a confused mess that I cannot even figure out what the title is supposed to mean. Clearly it refers to the movie’s putative hero, Arlo the vaguely apatosaurus-esque giant lizard, but in what sense is he “good”? It’s not like there are lots of evil dinos around for him to distinguish himself from. It’s not like he was naughty and learns how to behave in the polite way that all decent dinos behave. The title is not disparaging or sarcastic, although a “good dinosaur” who was like a “good German” would have made for a far more intriguing film that we got here. I am truly flummoxed. I am truly flummoxed by the scientific spin that The Good Dinosaur wants to put on its Flintstones setting, which has dinosaurs and humans existing simultaneously. It posits that a big asteroid 65 million years ago missed planet Earth and so did not wipe out the terrible lizards. But humans wouldn’t have evolved if the dinosaurs hadn’t gone extinct. And yet the five credited screenwriters can find no narrative or thematic justification for their impossible
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A “good” dinosaur reaches deep — but not nearly deep enough. | ©2015 Disney Enterprises, Inc. scenario: Arlo isn’t even “good” in the sense that he is an adequate representation of dinosaur-ness. He could easily be, say, a bear. Arlo could easily be a human boy, and it wouldn’t make a single iota of difference to the story. Yes, this is fantasy, but it is fantasy that doesn’t know what to do with itself. Arlo’s shamefully banal, mightas-well-be-human story is all about how runty adolescent Arlo (the voice of Raymond Ochoa) has to “make his mark” on the world by doing something useful, which in his case requires that he overcome his cowardice and paralyzing fear of just about everything, from bugs to lightning. He will achieve this by having an accidental adventure when he is swept away from his family’s farm — yes, the dinosaurs have agriculture — along a raging river and ends up far from home and very lost. As he struggles to find his way back, he adopts Spot (the voice of Jack Bright), a human toddler fending for himself in the wilderness (also an absur-
DECEMBER 2-8, 2015
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dity). At first I thought Spot — so named by Arlo, because the human doesn’t actually speak, just grunts and howls — was meant to be a feral anomaly. But later we see that all humans are wild and language-less: The homo sapiens are the animals in this world, and the dinos are the people. I think this is meant to be charming, but it’s rather unpleasant. Apart from how it makes no scientific sense at all. I am further truly flummoxed by the decision of director Peter Sohn — a Pixar animator making his directorial debut — to paint gorgeously lifelike landscapes for Arlo to journey across while rendering Arlo himself in a simplistically cartoonish way. The animated mountains and rivers and forests and grasslands are breathtakingly stunning, completely indistinguishable from filmed nature. Even Spot, while somewhat stylized, is a plausible approximation of a human being. Arlo, on the other hand, looks like an inflatable plastic pool toy.
The Good Dinosaur is certainly not suitable for grownup fans of animation — this is almost a slap in the face to such fans after Pixar’s earlier triumph this year with Inside Out, which is thematically, narratively, and visually one of the richest animated movies ever made. But I’m not even sure this is suitable for children: There are moments of casual violence that I can imagine would set off screams of terror in small tykes. (Example: A big colorful bug gets its head pulled off, revealing squishily organic guts and cutting short its squirming. This pretty creature gets killed dead as a joke.) Perhaps the most effective smack to The Good Dinosaur’s lack of imagination comes from the Pixar short that accompanies it. “Sanjay’s Super Team” is a lovely bit of dreamery in which a little boy envisions the Hindu gods his father is praying to as superheroes. It’s beautiful, funny and exciting, and it highlights how stagnant mainstream Hollywood ideas of fantasy have become. n
[REVIEW]
When Writers Were the Heroes Jay Roach’s Trumbo tells the true story of the Hollywood blacklist Written by
ROBERT HUNT Trumbo Directed by Jay Roach. Written by John McNamara from Bruce Cook’s book.. Starring Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, John Goodman and Louis C.K. Now playing at the Landmark Plaza Frontenac and Tivoli theaters.
I
n 1947, a group of writers and directors — the Hollywood Ten — were sentenced to prison for refusing to answer questions before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Almost immediately after their sentencing, chief executives from every major film studio issued a statement severing all connections with the ten and effectively putting in place a politically based blacklist that would remain in effect for more than a decade. There have been dozens of worthwhile documentaries and hundreds of books about this dark period in film history, yet the blacklist, the Hollywood Ten and the witch-hunting climate of the 1950s are subjects which Hollywood has, for the most part, been reluctant to address. Trumbo joins the small list of films (Martin Ritt’s 1977 film The Front, the mediocre Guilty by Suspicion and a few scenes in The Way We Were) to look at the blacklist and its ef-
Brian Cranston as Dalton Trumbo. | Hilary Bronwyn Gail/Bleecker Street fects on both personal lives and the cultural climate. Directed by Jay Roach, who is better known for cinematic explorations of Austin Powers and the Fockers, Trumbo adds a human dimension to the distant political and historical details. Dalton Trumbo was, arguably, the most well-known of the Hollywood Ten, having written the films Kitty Foyle, A Guy Named Joe and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. He had also been a member of the American Communist party for four years at the time of his conviction. Like many blacklisted writers, he continued to work on films using fronts and pseudonyms. The first cracks in the wall of the blacklist appeared when two of Trumbo’s makeshift names won Academy Awards; once Trumbo’s work became an open secret and Kirk Douglas and Otto Preminger agreed to give him credit for Spartacus and Exodus respectively, the blacklist was, for the most part, dead. Trumbo was also, by many ac-
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counts, a rather prickly individual, known for his pointed mustache, an ever-present cigarette holder and his preference for writing while seated in a bathtub. The film shows how his frustration and ambition could often be as difficult for his family as the pressures of living under daily suspicion. Bryan Cranston plays Trumbo complete with all his flaws — the film makes no attempt to whitewash him — but never overwhelms his basic sense of justice. Supported by fine performances from Diane Lane and Elle Fanning, Cranston takes a bigger-than-life character and keeps him grounded. For those unfamiliar with Trumbo’s story, Roach and screenwriter John McNamara do an efficient job of sorting out the political details of the period by employing larger-than-life Hollywood figures — Hedda Hopper (played with enthusiasm by Helen Mirren), John Wayne, Kirk Douglas — to make it easy to sort out the passions of the period (although this is probably the first film ever to present Otto
Preminger as a hero). There are a few times when they’ve altered details or compressed multiple characters into a single person, but for the most past the level of historical accuracy is admirably high. The film uses Edward G. Robinson, known for his liberal politics, as a surrogate for the many friendly witnesses who named past associates to clear their own reputations, even though Robinson, when finally trying to salvage his career, made sure to identify only political organizations, not individuals. Similarly, Louis C.K.’s character Arlen Hird is a composite of different members of the Hollywood Ten, while the B-studio boss played by John Goodman is a fictional version of a Hollywood stereotype — albeit one who gets one of the best scenes in the film when he takes action against a would-be blacklister. It’s entirely fictional, but it provides a wellneeded moment of emotional catharsis in an otherwise largely cerebral film. Trumbo’s story — like most lives and historical events — doesn’t fit neatly into an audience-friendly three-act structure, but the lack of a conventional plot is barely noticeable. The historical lesson is valuable enough to overcome such structural deficiencies. If a few dramatic shortcuts and Hollywood name-dropping are what it takes to bring this kind of history to a wider audience, so be it. If you think witch hunts and loyalty oaths are just an exaggerated anecdote from half a century ago, then you obviously haven’t been following the current presidential campaigns. At a time when certain politicians are happy to embrace the rhetoric of the Cold War, of HUAC and McCarthy, even if they lack the apparatus to enforce it, stories such as Dalton Trumbo’s need to be told. n
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[ S TA G E ]
Peace in Our Time All Is Calm makes the season bright for the third year running at Mustard Seed Theatre Written by
PAUL FRISWOLD All Is Calm
Written by Peter Rothstein. Musical arrangement by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach. Directed by Deanna Jent Presented by Mustard Seed Theatre through December 20 at the Fontbonne Fine Arts Theatre (6800 Wydown Boulevard; 314-7198060 or www.mustardseedtheatre.com). Tickets are $25 to $30.
I
hate Christmas. I hate the commercialism, I hate the maudlin sentiments and I hate the “entertainment” that comes with the season. If there were, in fact, an actual War on Christmas, I’d be on the frontlines shouting “Happy holidays!” at old ladies while drinking from a plain red Starbucks cup. But I love Mustard Seed Theatre’s production of Peter Rothstein’s All Is Calm. For three years running the company has staged this a capella musical about the spontaneous Christmas truces that sprang up on the frontlines of World War I, and every year I enjoy the show more than I did the last. Director Deanna Jent and musical director Joe Schoen together craft a powerful story about peace, love and empathy that shines like a beacon in these darkening days. The company enters singing “Will Ye Go to Flanders?” in darkness, which is made haunting by the low, organ-like tone the deeper-voiced men drone under the lyrics. They sing of their eagerness to sign up for the war, their joyous departure for the Western Front, and their eventual boredom with the monotonous grind of daily army life. But when winter settles in and they realize the war might last longer than the three months
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Mustard Seed’s All Is Calm reminds us of the hope and unity that can be forged during the holidays — even amid war.
Tim Schall could scat-sing dubstep and I’d listen eagerly, but with a truly beautiful song he works magic . everyone believed it would, the songs take on a sadder hue. All of the music is either popular songs of the early-nineteenth century, such as Irving Berlin’s “Come On and Join” and “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary,” or Christmas carols from Germany, England and France. Between songs, the cast adopts the roles of various soldiers from both sides of the war, speaking of dead friends, their families back home and their growing disgust for the songs of their enemies, which they can hear at night. All of this dialogue is taken from actual soldiers’ letters and diaries.
DECEMBER 2-8, 2015
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By this point I know some of the recitations by heart. Still, there’s a difference between knowing them and hearing them once more. In this year’s production, Greg Lhamon reads us a letter home to his young son in which he urges the boy to be brave, and tears well in his eyes as he tries to be strong brave himself. You can’t help but think that children across the country are receiving similar letters this Christmas from fathers deployed overseas. The only difference is that some of those letters are now written by mothers — such is the progress of war in 101 years. The cast is wholly excellent throughout, managing a variety of accents and engaging in soldierly business in the middle of songs that add to the verisimilitude of the production. During a suitably depressed rendition of “I Want to Go Home” by the English soldiers, a resplendently moustachioed Gerry Love punches a fellow soldier in the shoulder, which sets off a chain reaction of slaps and giggles among the troupe. Only the martial tones of Haydn’s
“Deutschlandlied” from across no man’s land sours the mood. But when Christmas Eve comes, one brave German (Tim Schall) emerges from the trenches singing “Stille Nacht” as he approaches the English side. Schall could scatsing dubstep and I’d listen eagerly, but with a truly beautiful song he works magic. The rest of the cast joins in, gathering together in the wreckage of center stage (well-designed by Kyra Bishop) as the lights dim and the stars come out. A small Christmas tree flickers hopefully at stage left while the company hovers on the refrain “All is calm,” willing the war to stop. There is a palpable feeling that we have crossed a barrier at this point — that the ghosts of the past are here, imploring us to remember that they chose brotherhood over enmity in the midst of war, that we could all be one if we wanted. I’ve seen 400 shows in the past eight years, give or take a couple. Those stars emerging as eleven intertwined voices sing the world into stillness stand alone, and I wish to experience them every Christmas. n
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[REVIEW]
A Loaf of Bread — and How! Union Loafers excels at amazing bread, marvelous sandwiches and more in Botanical Heights Written by
CHERYL BAEHR Union Loafers
1629 Tower Grove Avenue; 314-833-6111. (Café hours)Tues.-Sun. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. (Closed Mondays).
T
ed Wilson got a job loafing — OK, actually, it was making pizza. In 2008 the baker found himself back in his native St. Louis, chatting up Mike Randolph about making the perfect slice. Randolph was getting ready to open his Neapolitan pizzeria the Good Pie in midtown and was in search of a pizzaiolo. But in classic Randolph fashion, he didn’t want someone merely to make dough and man the oven. He wanted an obsessive type — someone who understood that, at its root, pizza is bread and should be built around dough no less special than what is found at an artisanal boulangerie. Randolph was talking to the right guy. After working grueling “baker’s hours” at the acclaimed Sullivan Street Bakery in New York City, Wilson was looking to venture into Neapolitan pizza. He went to work for Randolph, creating the Good Pie’s signature crust. Then he started baking bread for the restaurant, playing around with different flours, techniques and recipes. When Randolph’s Ferrara oven could no longer contain his ambition, Wilson hung up his peel and set out to open a bakery of his own. That now-two-month-old temple to pain, Union Loafers, was a long time coming. The idea was originally hatched some time around 2010 when Wilson and
A selection of items from Union Loafers. | Mabel Suen
With smoked beets and sauerkraut on ciabatta, the vegetarian sandwich is as gloriously Russian as Putin riding bareback through the Caucasus Mountains. Sean Netzer, who is now his business partner, worked together at the Good Pie. Though the pair brainstormed ideas for the breadfocused concept, it took roughly five years for their dreams to coalesce. After leaving the Good Pie, Wilson took a front-of-house gig at Urban Chestnut to make some
money as he sketched out plans for the bakery, while Netzer continued to build upon his already extensive knowledge of wine, beer and spirits at 33 Wine Bar. Once they settled on a concept and a spot, they recruited Brian Lagerstrom, formerly of Niche, to head up the café side of the operations. For what they insist is a humble storefront, Union Loafers has some astounding talent. It shines through not just in the food but in the design of the space as well. Wilson and Netzer undertook an ambitious rehab of the corner building at McRee and Tower Grove avenues, doing much of the work by hand — anyone who laments the delay in opening need only speak with the pair about the year and a half they spent unemployed so they could personally tuckpoint and do the carpentry on the historic property. Today, the two-story rust-colored façade beckons patrons inside from Botanical Heights, a neighborhood which is rapidly gentrifying, but still has a largely industrial vibe on the main drag. Inside, the space has the feel of a French-bakery-meetsriverfronttimes.com
modern-loft with exposed brick and whitewashed walls. Diners can sit at reclaimed wooden tables decorated with vases of fresh flowers or an L-shaped bar made from repurposed bowling-alley lanes. The daily offerings are handwritten on a chalkboard over one of the counters. And those offerings! Wilson provides an impeccable bread canvass for Lagerstrom’s sandwich masterpieces. Crusty flour-dusted ciabatta is the base for the restaurant’s signature sandwich, the roasted pork. Thin slices of rosemary-kissed pork tenderloin; creamy, prosciutto-like country ham; and crisp pickles are accented with rustic grain mustard. Perhaps the best part of the sandwich is when the liberally slathered housemade garlic mayonnaise squishes out through the bread’s little cracks. For his vegetarian offering, Lagerstrom smokes beets, which enhances their earthy flavor. He cooks them just to the point of softening but pulls back before they begin to break down, then piles them on ciabatta with Continued on pg 38
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Fresh Pressed Sandwiches Homemade Soups Wood Fire Pizza Local Beer • Local Wine Ice Cream • Snacks
Thank you, St. Louis! BEST COMFORT FOOD - Reader’s Choice 2015
BEST DELI/SANDWICH SHOP - Editor’s Pick 2015
6665 Delmar Blvd #100a, St. Louis, MO 63130
TOWER GROVE EAST Open 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. 3101 Arsenal
314.925.8452 SeoulQSTL.com
The ham and cheddar sandwich comes with pickles, mustard and butter on rye. | Mabel Suen
UNION LOAFERS Continued from pg 37 A selection of items from Union Loafers. | Mabel Suen 288 Golden Pint
Winners Will modern-loft with exposed brickReceive: 1/2 Price Draughts, and whitewashed walls. Diners THE GOOSE THAT LAID can sit at reclaimed wooden tables $2 Goose Island decorated with vases of fresh flow- Pints ers or an L-shaped bar made from ALL OF 2016! Order a Goose Island Pint at TwinOak this repurposed bowling-alley lanes. December and you couldThe win...daily offerings are handwrit288 Golden Pint Winners Will Receive: ten on a chalkboard over one of 1/2 Price Draughts, $2 Goose Island Pints 2 SEASONAL the counters. GOOSE ISLA ALL OF 2016! And those offerings! Wilson proND BREWS O vides an impeccable bread canvass N TAP @TwinOakSTL for Lagerstrom’s sandwich masterflour-dusted ciabatta 1201 Strassner Dr, Brentwood, MOpieces. 63144 • Crusty 314.644.2772 • twinoakwoodfired.com is the base for the restaurant’s signature sandwich, the roasted pork. Thin slices of rosemary-kissed pork tenderloin; creamy, prosciutto-like country ham; and crisp pickles are accented with rustic grain mustard. Perhaps the best part of the sandwich is when the liberally slathered housemade garlic mayonnaise squishes out through the bread’s little cracks. For his vegetarian offering, Lagerstrom smokes beets, which enhances their earthy flavor. He cooks them just to the point of softening but pulls back before they begin to break down, then piles them on ciabatta with Continued on pg 38
THE GOLDEN PINT
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sauerkraut, Emmenthaler Swiss, Thousand Island and sliced hardboiled egg. It’s as gloriously Russian as Putin riding bareback through the Caucasus Mountains. To call Union Loafers’ ham-andcheddar a simple ham and cheese sandwich is like calling Opus One some fermented grape juice. The thinly shaved country ham and pungent white cheddar provide the salty heft, but the real star is the beautiful play of the caraway in the rye bread and the floral dill flavors of the pickles. Think of everything that is right about rye-bread dip, multiply it by ten, and then add the tart, textured pop of the grain mustard sauce for good measure. Even a PBJ sandwich is magical here — a crunchy, housemade peanut butter and a thick layer of Concord grape jelly harmonize on “light and mild” bread. Non-sandwich offerings are equally impressive. A hearty kale and garbanzo soup is enlivened by carrot, fennel, olive oil and hints of Middle Eastern spice. And next to the roasted pork sandwich, the “Little Gem” salad may be the best thing on the menu. Greens and fresh herbs are tossed with buttermilk dressing. Seasoned breadcrumbs take the place of croutons,
giving each bite a uniform crunch, and hunks of bacon the size of half-dollars put traditional bacon bits to shame. Wilson honors his pizza roots with a focaccia-like Roman-style square, served sans cheese with crushed tomatoes and spicy chile oil. It’s so perfect in its simplicity that extra toppings would seem superfluous, while the cheese bread is another example of the power of a few well-executed ingredients. The thick doughy square is baked with Emmenthaler and olive oil so that it’s hard to decipher where the bread ends and the cheese begins. And Wilson’s humongous, rustic pretzels make other versions seem like they belong at a pool hall snack bar alongside a cup of fake cheese. Union Loafers does not serve dessert. (Why bother, with La Patisserie Chouquette across the street?) Not that you will want for anything after carb loading at this impeccable restaurant — except, maybe, a sourdough round to go. Or another of those roast pork sandwiches. For a bunch of loafers, these guys show that they are about so much more than bread. n Union Loafers “Little Gem” salad with bacon......... $9 “Pizza Rossa” ................................ $3 Roasted pork sandwich ................ $12
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VISIT WWW.ENJOYALOCAL.COM/D/355 TO PURCHASE YOURS TODAY! 418 S Florissant Rd, Ferguson, MO 63135 • (314) 254-7359 www.fergusonbrewing.com riverfronttimes.com
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SHORT ORDERS [FIRST LOOK]
THE COPPER PIG OPENS IN SOUTH CITY Written by
KATIE INEICH
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Kimchi ice cream: Don’t judge it till you’ve tried it! | Sarah Fenske
[FOOD NEWS]
Kimchi Ice Cream? Yes, Really! Written by
SARAH FENSKE
A
t Clementine’s Creamery, the stylish ice-cream shop that opened earlier this year in Lafayette Square, you can get a number of flavors that might befuddle an ice-cream traditionalist: Southern sweet corn, manchego with truffles and honey, strawberry with balsamic and white pepper. But only at Seoul Q, the Korean barbecue hotspot in the Delmar Loop, can you get the newest flavor from Clementine’s, one that sounds so bizarre it’ll make you forget everything you thought you knew about sweets. We’re talking about kimchi ice cream — a rich, creamy frozen
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dessert made with fermented cabbage. David Choi, the owner of Seoul Q, knows the idea sounds bizarre. “When we first came up with it, we wanted a flavor that we knew no one else has,” he says. “Surprisingly enough, it came out very tasty.” He’s actually right about that. Served in a dish with sesame-seed crackers and fresh mint, then drizzled with spicy honey, the ice cream works on several levels. First you taste the sweetness, then the heat of the honey — and only then, after you’re already hooked, do you get the intriguing notes of sour funk. It’s quite a complex dessert. Odd as it sounds, Choi says there’s a reason it tastes so good. “Kimchi can go a lot of different ways,” he notes. “But the neat thing is, especially at Seoul Q, if you leave it on a hot grill, it starts to carmelize, and the sweet notes pop up.” The hot honey, he says, then balances it out. “It does
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work!” he says. Tamara Keefe, the owner of Clementine’s, developed the ice cream for Choi using actual kimchi, not just flavors that evoke its essence. It was “incredibly hard,” she admits. “Understanding where it is in the fermentation process is key — otherwise you end up with a not-so-good result.” Keefe also made Seoul Q one of her patented “naughty” offerings — here, it’s soju melon, a riff on the Korean ethanol-based liquor. Both will also be available at Seoul Taco, Seoul Q’s more casual cousin, once the weather gets warmer, and at both restaurants, Choi also plans to offer Clementine’s salted caramel for less adventurous dessert eaters. But Choi and Keefe are hoping people will be lured by the adventurous new concoction. “If you’re a traditional cookies and cream kind of person, you definitely won’t be into this,” Choi warns. “But it’s tasty. People who love kimchi will love it.” n
hen you walk through the doors of the newest restaurant to open in the Macklind Business District in Southampton, the Copper Pig (4611 Macklind Avenue; 314499-7166), you’ll be greeted by a man named Nhat Nguyen. This is his restaurant, and throughout the dinner hours, he does his rounds, checking on tables and chatting with patrons. The Copper Pig has been described as “Asian-meets-Southern fare,” a “gastropub featuring an Asian street food menu,” but if you ask Nguyen, he’ll tell you, “It’s really just food I like to eat.” Much of the menu’s offerings hearken back to the Asian food Nguyen grew up eating, but he has made a point to incorporate a vast variety of flavors and cuisines. “I’ve been fortunate to travel and experience different foods,” Nguyen says. Several items on the menu — even a kids’ grilled cheese — incorporate bulgogi, or Korean marinated, grilled beef. The “Bibimbap Bowl” has bulgogi, garlic rice, kimchi, carrots, Chinese sausage, cucumber, bean sprouts and a fried egg. The “Bulgogi Cheesesteak” is a twist on the Philly classic, including cheddar cheese, kimchi and slivered apples on a soft garlic baguette. Another twist on a classic sandwich is the “Pork Belly Cuban,” which involves the usual ham, Swiss, pickles, and mustard, but it also has the surprisingly tasty addition of maduros, or cooking plantains. Nguyen takes pride in his original dishes and in introducing people to food they maybe wouldn’t normally try. “Sometimes people just need to get over their fears and try different things,” he says. The reception among residents of the Southampton neighborhood has been enthusiastic and warm; many have been looking forward to the Copper Pig’s opening for months. Nguyen owns the building in which the Copper Pig is housed, and he plans to stay there for the foreseeable future. “We want to be a part of the neighborhood as long as we n can.”
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Beer, Wine, & Full Bar Now Available! Breakfast Served All Day! CHEAPEST DRINK PRICES IN TOWN!
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A gourmet cup from Silo Coffee + Goods is brewed.
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hat’s a recent college grad to do when her cleanwater nonprofit is in need of sustainable funding? Get into the coffee business and launch a Kickstarter, of course. Rachael Burchett decided to use coffee to fund the nonprofit she started a few years ago following a church service trip to Panama. The new company, Silo Coffee + Goods, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $10,000 to open a gourmet coffee cart at TechArtista (4818 Washington Boulevard; techartista.org), where Burchett’s nonprofit, Solea Water, has based its operations for the last eighteen months. In addition to raising capital, Burchett also hopes to spread awareness of the water crisis in Latin America and interest people in making a difference. Burchett, her husband Anthony, and friends Josh and Kim Jones founded Silo two months ago. The company started out by selling whole-bean coffee online. Now, with Blueprint enlisted as its roaster, it is now looking to brew its own roast, which Burchett calls “phase two.” Ten percent of all profits made by Silo will go directly to Solea. Solea Water works to provide clean water to indigenous communities in Latin America. The UN estimates that more than three-quarters of a billion people do not have access to clean drinking water, while the World Heath Organization says more than 2 million people a year die from contaminated drinking water. Solea Water is trying to make a dent in those statistics through
its work with communities in Panama, Haiti, Belize, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala. While the CWE has an abundance of coffee shops, Burchett believes her company will stand out from the crowd thanks to its higher-quality brew and social conscience. “I think one of the big draws for our company is that we are so socially minded,” she says. “It’s important to us that these coffee farmers are paid fair wages, since these are people not traditionally reached by fair trade.” Burchett, who grew up in west county, now lives in the city’s Shaw neighborhood. She thinks the 10 percent cut that goes directly to Solea will help, not hurt, her new company’s growth. “It’s our goal to partner with these communities, and so putting the 10 percent directly toward that, it’s a necessity,” she says. Though she studied public health at SLU, Burchett believes that a combination of her experience as executive director of a nonprofit and the ties she has within TechArtista and the St. Louis startup community — including with Prosper Women Entrepreneurs — will allow her to succeed. If the coffee cart sees success at TechArtista, Silo will look to expand to a brick-and-mortar location, potentially in midtown. Burchett envisions a future in which Silo can partner with Latin American communities to sell artwork and hand-crafted goods created by Latin American artists — in addition to its gourmet brew, of course. – Joshua K. Connelly
FA M O U
S FRIED CHICKEN
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OF S PIR ITS,
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ENT
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DECEMBER EVENTS & LIVE MUSIC 12/4 - EASY STREET WED. DEC. 23 12/5 THE FOUR HORSEMEN CHRISTMAS EVE EVE PARTY - 8 PM 12/11 - ROB BOYLE & JOHNNY HENRY 12/26 - MUSIC BY THE STINGERS - 8 PM 12/12 JACKSON HOWARD - 8 PM THURS. DEC. 31 12/18 GAMLER’S TAXI - 7 PM NEW YEARS EVE PARTY- 8 PM 12/19 - YOU, ME & DOUGIE - 8PM 314-878-3886 Satchmo's
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EVERY tuEsdaY tRiVia • EVERY wEdnEsdaY stEak night $8 • EVERY thuRsdaY 13375 Olive BlvdbuRgER night $3.99 Chesterfield, MO 63017
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Olive Blvd. 314-878-3886 • 13375 Olive Blvd. Chesterfield, MO 63017 Hours: Mon-Fri 11am- 1:30am Sat Noon-1:30am Sun 11am-12am
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Fo r m o re i n fo r m at i o n & Fu l l M e n u , V i s i t S ATC H M OSG R I L L .CO M riverfronttimes.com
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Hours
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Mon-Fri 11am - 1:30am
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Wh fil
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DINING GUIDE
The Dining Guide lists only restaurants recommended by RFT food critics. The print listings below rotate regularly, as space allows. Our complete Dining Guide is available online; view menus and search local restaurants by name or neighborhood.
Price Guide (based on a three-course meal for one, excluding tax, tip and beverages): $ up to $15 per person $$ $15 - $25 $$$ $25 - $40 $$$$ more than $40
Buy one lunch entree get $3 off Second
Valid at Washington Ave. location only 1901 Washington Ave, St. Louis, MO 63103 (314) 241-1557
Pearl Cafe’s “Spicy Basil” lunch special. | Jennifer Silverberg [FERGUSON/FLORISSANT]
Ferguson Brewing Company 418 S. Florissant Road, Ferguson | 314-521-2220.
Hill Brewing Company tries to appease both craft-beer aficionados and the casual beer fan: While the India pale ale doesn’t hold back on the brew’s trademark puckering wallop of hops, the pilsner is made with corn in the mash so that it more closely resembles a standard American lager rather than a true pilsner. Standouts include the Munich dunkel and the pecan brown ale. The food is mostly beer-friendly standards: pizza, barbecue, burgers and sandwiches. $-$$
happy hour specials! monday-friday 3-6pm $2.50 domestic beer & Well drinks 1/2 off select appetizers
live music 7 days a week. 365 days a year. FREE SHUTTLE TO ALL RAMS & BLUES GAMES Visit 1860Saloon.com for music schedule and special event calendar
1860 S. 9 STREET TH
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Ferguson Burger Bar & More 9120 West Florissant Avenue, Ferguson | 314-388-0424.
Charles and Kizzie Davis’ Ferguson Burger Bar & More started out as a humble burger joint. Then the tragic shooting of Mike Brown by then-Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson happened, and the pair was thrust into the spotlight as figureheads for a city in crisis. The husband-and-wife team have risen to the occasion, refusing to shutter as their city was stricken with chaos and grief and serving as a place for the community to gather over soul food and diner fare. The house specialty is the “Garbage Burger” — a ground-beef patty, laden with a secret seasoning blend and smashed thin on a flattop so it develops a crispy edge. The burger is topped with lettuce, thick-sliced white onions, crispy bacon, a slice of American cheese, mayonnaise and a fried egg. Ferguson Burger Bar & More serves eight different varieties of chicken wingettes, including peach, “Sweetnspicy,” and lemon pepper, as well as fried-fish dinners, shrimp and Philly cheesesteak sandwiches. Breakfast is served all day. For hungry diners, the “Hearty Man’s Breakfast” provides a sampling of nearly the entire a.m. side of the menu: breakfast meat, three eggs, French toast and hash browns smothered in cheese, peppers and onions. Wash it all down with the house’s “Muddy Water,” a refreshing blend of sweet tea and citrusy juice. $
Pearl Cafe
8416 N. Lindbergh Boulevard; Florissant | 314-831-3701.
From the owners of nearby Simply Thai comes another winning restaurant. The menu is lengthy but not overwhelmingly so, a greatest hits of Thai cuisine: soups, curries, stir fries, noodles and a catchall category of house
specialties. Aficionados of Thai cuisine can choose their favorite dishes with confidence. Each dish is prepared with care, paying close attention to the customary Thai balance of sweet, sour, hot and savory. The overall ambiance works equally well for either a quick lunch or a casual dinner date. $-$$
Simply Thai
2470 N. Highway 67, Florissant | 314-921-2179. A small, no-frills restaurant — one room, paper napkins, no liquor license — Simply Thai happens to turn out fantastic Thai dishes both familiar and exotic. Curries are excellent, especially the rich, complexly spiced massaman curry and the fiery green curry. (Be warned: The kitchen might very well deliver the latter spiced as hot as you think you want it.) Tom yum and tom kha soups are great, too, as is the less-familiar gang jued tofu, a clear broth with tofu, ground meat, cilantro and scallions. Specials include numerous seafood dishes, and do not miss the fried sweet-potato appetizer. $-$$
[KIRKWOOD/WEBSTER GROVES]
612 Kitchen & Cocktails
612 West Woodbine Avenue, Kirkwood | 314-965-2003. When Dan and Pat Graham decided to shutter Graham’s Grill & Bayou Bar after a seventeen-year run, the next generation decided to take over the reins — but put their own stamp on things. Brother and sister business partners Devin and Alison converted their parents’ Cajun-themed bar and grill into 612 Kitchen & Cocktails, a 1920s-inspired cocktail lounge and gastropub. The restaurant is at its best when it sticks to classic bar fare: Sausage-andcheese-stuffed mushrooms, breaded and fried, make for an excellent snack; beer-battered fish and chips pair nicely with a cold one; and the smoked chicken is juicy and glazed with caramelized barbecue sauce. Craft cocktails are on the approachable end of the spectrum. Signature drinks such include the “Great Gatsby,” made with cucumber and basil-infused rum, lemonade and blueberry purée. A bridal shower in barware, the “Coco Chanel,” is a blend of strawberry vodka, lemon juice, pink champagne, strawberries and mint. The most austere offering — and that is a stretch — is the “Scarface.” Tequila, tomato water, triple sec and lavender-infused sour combine to make an interesting twist on the margarita. Regardless of how the younger Grahams brand it, 612 Kitchen & Cocktails is still a simple neighborhood watering hole. $$
IS YOUR MOUTH WATERING YET? Thank you, St. Louis! BEST BARBEQUE - Reader’s Choice 2015
5 AREA LOCATIONS
OLIVETTE • ST. CHARLES • WINGHAVEN • “44” VALLEY PARK • WASHINGTON
coming soon DOWNTOWN Visit SugarfireSmokehouse.com for more info
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6921 SOUTH LINDBERGH BLVD. 314-892-3600 ST. LOUIS, MO 63125 EXT. 185 riverfronttimes.com
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it’s more than music... it’s holiday cheer at jazz at the bistro concerts | dinner | drinks
BOOK YOUR
WITH US! 10 PEOPLE OR 500
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Dec 6 Dec 11-12 Dec 16-19 Dec 21-23
Big Band Christmas with the Dave Dickey Big Band A Very Manley Christmas with trumpeter Jim Manley Matt Wilson’s Christmas Tree-O (pictured) Ellington’s Nutcracker with the Jazz St. Louis Big Band
full concert listing and info: jazzstl.org | 314.571.6000
the harold & dorothy steward center for jazz 3536 washington ave. st. louis, mo 63103 Presenting Sponsor of the 2015-16 Jazz at the Bistro Season
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“THE BEST HOLIDAY PARTY IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!” MANY OPTIONS FOR GROUPS CUSTOMIZE YOUR EXPERIENCE AND COST! ALL-INCLUSIVE PACKAGES – FOOD & BEVERAGES (314) 621-6700 | LACLEDES-LANDING.BIGDADDYSTL.COM
MUSIC Revolution Rock St. Louis activist Stephen Houldsworth explores the intersection of punk and protest in one-man show Written by
JOE HESS Protests & Punk Shows, While Making Other Plans: Musings of a Grumpy Old Gay Man 7:30 p.m. Sunday, December 6. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 South Jefferson Avenue. $5. 314-772-2100.
T
he parable of the blind men and the elephant has roots all over the world. Regardless of its origin, the story’s outline remains the same: A number of blind men examine an elephant solely through touch in order to learn what it is. The group is in total disagreement, because each member placed their hand upon a different part of the animal. “I see a similar energy in angry punks trying to express themselves and angry protesters trying to express themselves,” says Stephen Houldsworth, a man who has spent much of his life with both groups. “For me, it’s all one system that’s being railed against.” On December 6 the activist and avid music fan will perform an interactive spoken-word show at Foam Coffee & Beer. Titled “Protests & Punk Shows, While Making Other Plans: Musings of a Grumpy Old Gay Man,” the event aims to explore the intersection of DIY music and activism in St. Louis. Houldsworth might be the best person to make those connections. In 2012 he and his husband, Graham Matthews, were named “Best Fans” in the music section of our Best of St. Louis issue. In this historic year of protests and civil disobedience in St. Louis, Houldsworth was also voted “Best Activist” in our readers’ choice poll. “I think the reason for that is who votes. I think if you ask activists who the best activist is,
Stephen Houldsworth. | Graham Matthews I would not be high on the list,” Houldsworth says. “And I wouldn’t vote for me. But I think that within the music community, I might be, for some of those people, the only activist that they know well. That, to me, explains that vote. In the activist community, I might be seen as that guy who goes to all the music shows.” Over the last few years, Houldsworth has developed a public persona. Whether he attends a protest in Ferguson or a punk show in a south-city basement, he is asked many of the same questions. One component of the show is a Q&A section where he hopes to answer them in a public setting. “I don’t like doing anything unless there’s a real chance for it to fuck up royally,” he says. And indeed, once the floor is open, the talk could go anywhere — including places he isn’t fully prepared to visit. But at its core, the event is a carefully mapped mix of personal stories and spoken prose. “My understanding of storytelling comes from years of teaching,” he says. “Storytelling is more of an interaction, of reading the crowd and feeling what people want to take deeper. You can look at the crowd and say, ‘All right, it’s all glass-eyed, no one is getting this,’
“I see a similar energy in angry punks trying to express themselves and angry protesters trying to express themselves.” and then try to explain things another way.” Houldsworth earned his master’s degree in counseling at Cambridge College in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1988 and went on to teach as an adjunct in the area for roughly six years. In 1996 he relocated to St. Louis and took a job at Webster University, where he taught several graduate-level psychology courses and held various administrative positions, including program director of the master’s program in gerontology, chair of the Multicultural Studies Committee and coordinator of Webster’s collaborative program with the Lutheran School riverfronttimes.com
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of Nursing. When he first moved to St. Louis, he knew little about the city’s layout, so he made cold calls to spots in every direction surrounding Webster’s satellite campus in downtown St. Louis. To his surprise, the places north plainly warned him against moving into the neighborhood. “I was astonished by the division, the race division, in terms of housing when I first got here,” he says. “That was my introduction to the problems with race in St. Louis, and that was different than what I’d experienced in other places.” Houldsworth is a long-time fan of Olivia Records, a label at the forefront of the womyn’s music movement in the ’70s. He taught this piece of music history, born of lesbian-feminist collectives, and capped the curriculum with a lesson on what he felt came next: the punk-centric riot grrrl movement. Some of his students just happened to play in punk bands, and Houldsworth was soon invited to his first St. Louis basement show to see groups such as That’s My Daughter and Mustardfish. In the last five years, Houldsworth and his husband have become key figures in the St. Louis music scene. To merely call the pair “music fans” would discredit their enormous contribution to the community. While his husband manages one of the largest local music channels on YouTube, Houldsworth’s own Facebook page is a raw gallery of more than 10,000 guerrilla-style photos taken at events all around the greater St. Louis region and, in some cases, beyond. The two are accomplished documentarians who cover a wide range of genres, but Houldsworth likes to hold the magnifying glass up to one scene in particular: punk. His first public photo exhibit, 12 Drummers, is currently on display at south city’s Box through December 19. The pieces feature drummers from several bands performing in basements, dive bars and lesser-known spots throughout the city. In recent years Houldsworth has held several positions at Saint Louis Effort for AIDS. He continued working full-time until late Continued on pg 48
DECEMBER 2-8, 2015
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47 of Nursing. When he first moved to St. Louis, he knew little about the city’s layout, so he made cold calls to spots in every direction surrounding Webster’s satellite campus in downtown St. Louis. To his surprise, the places north plainly warned him against moving into the neighborhood. “I was astonished by the division, the race division, in terms of housing when I first got here,” he says. “That was my introduction to the problems with race in St. Louis, and that was different than what I’d experienced in other places.” Houldsworth is a long-time fan of Olivia Records, a label at the forefront of the womyn’s music movement in the ’70s. He taught this piece of music history, born of lesbian-feminist collectives, and capped the curriculum with a lesson on what he felt came next: the punk-centric riot grrrl movement. Some of his students just happened to play in punk bands, and Houldsworth was soon invited to his first St. Louis basement show to see groups such as That’s My Daughter800 S HWY DR. and Mustardfish. FENTON, MO 63026 (636) 343-5757 In the last five years, HouldMON-SAT 3PM-1:30AM sworth and his husband have beSUN 3PM-12AM come key figures in the St. Louis music scene. To merely call the MONDAY pair “music fans” would discredit -industry night their enormous contribution to -bucket night the community. his WINGS hus- ---> $7.99 -ALL YOUWhile CAN EAT band manages one of the largest TUESDAY local music channels on -free poker @ YouTube, 7pm -tooseday Houldsworth’s ownbooseday Facebook -$2 well & domestic longnecks page is a raw gallery of more than ---> 3PM-1:30AM 10,000 guerrilla-style photos taken -open acoustic JAM ---> 7PM-1:30AM at events all around greater St. -beer pongthe @ 7pm Louis region and, WEDNESDAY in some cases, beyond. -live music - hungarians The two ---> are docNOaccomplished COVER -every umentarians whoWEDNESDAY cover a wide ---> 2 PERSON TEAM BAGS TOURNAMENT range of genres, but Houldsworth THURSDAY likes to hold the magnifying glass -freeinpoker @ 7pmpunk. up to one scene particular: -ladies night His first public photo-exhibit, 12 -live music DEJA BLU Drummers,--->isBLUES currently disNIGHT - NOon COVER play at south city’s Box through FRIDAY December-ladies 19. Thenight pieces feature ---> $2 CALLS & $3bands WELLS perdrummers from several ---> NO COVER -live music 9pm-1am forming in basements, dive bars SATURDAY and lesser-known spots throughout -live music 9pm-1am ---> NO COVER the city. -$2 domestic pints In recent yearsnight Houldsworth has -bomb - $3 bombs held several---> positions Saint Louis ALL NIGHTat LONG Effort for AIDS. SUNDAY He continued working full-time -live jam session ---> 7-11PM night u n t i l l a-guys te Continued on pg 48
DAILY SPECIALS
---> $2 PINTS & $8 PITCHERS WITH $5 REFILLS
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HOULDSWORTH Continued from pg 47 2013, when he was stricken with idiopathic heart failure. His days of attending, on average, more than two shows a week suddenly came to an end. “That was a very scary time. I couldn’t work for almost a whole year,” he says. “My heart was not functioning at a level where my doctor would clear me.” As Houldsworth recovered, a historic event took place that he describes as “kairos,” an ancient Greek term that denotes major change or a significant moment in time: the killing of Michael Brown by former police officer Darren Wilson. “So many wanted to dissect and argue the specifics of the incident of Mike Brown’s killing when that really wasn’t the point — on some level,” he says. “Obviously it was a tragedy. The killing of any human is a tragedy, but there was a bigger narrative.” On the day after the shooting, Houldsworth was among the crowd standing outside the Ferguson Police Department. He felt a major shift in the attitude of the people, which inspired him to join the protests. But for a man just getting over heart failure and relying on serious medication, marching in the dog days of summer was dangerous. “That was also the moment in time when they were enforcing the ‘seven second rule,’” he explains. “If you stopped moving for more than seven seconds then they would arrest you, because now you were loitering and not protesting.” Houldsworth was never arrested, but he came very close twice. “There were times when I stopped to rest and police literally said to me, ‘If you stop again, we will have to arrest you.’” With his health now stable, Houldsworth is again out at local shows and protests. His dogged dedication to each is impressive, especially for, as he puts it, a “grumpy old gay man.” Still, he recognizes that both scenes thrive primarily on the energy of youth. “Both the protests that I’m at and the punk shows that I go to are basically the province of the young,” he says. “I’m coming to this with a different perspective. This is not my first time at the carnival. This is not the first time that I have seen an attempt to change the system by the young standing up. And I’ve also seen it work.” n
Thur. Dec. 10
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Aaron Kamm and the One Drops
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SAT. 1/23* UPCOMING SHOWS: 12/11 BROTHER LEE AND THE LEATHER JACKALS ALBUM RELEASE SHOW 1/2 QUEENS OF COMEDY 1/30 THE MADISON LETTER*
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UPCOMING SHOWS 12.11 FRANK TURNER & THE SLEEPING SOULS
2.12 STS9
12.12 CHARLES KELLEY
2.13 MIKE STUD
12.15 STEEL PANTHER 12.23, 25, 27 EL MONSTERO 12.31 POKEY LAFARGE 1.8 PATTON OSWALT 1.9 MEMORIES OF ELVIS 1.16 STORY OF THE YEAR
2.17 GAELIC STORM 2.21 BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE 2.23 DROPKICK MURPHYS 2.24 HOODIE ALLEN 2.25 DARK STAR ORCHESTRA 2.28 GARY CLARK JR.
1.26 CITY AND COLOUR
3.4 METRIC
1.28 CARNAGE
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2.4 BIG HEAD TODD & THE MONSTERS
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B-SIDES
Unholy Waters Master of shock John Waters sets his sights on Christmas Written by
KELSEY MCCLURE John Waters 8 p.m. on Thursday, December 3. The Sheldon Concert Hall, 3648 Washington Boulevard. $35 & $45. 314-533-2958.
J
ohn Waters is the Renaissance man of weird. Some know him as a director, with 1972’s Pink Flamingos being his most infamously wellknown work. Or perhaps you saw Hairspray (the ’88 version starring Divine, not Travolta) and later learned just how diverse and twisted his stories are when you decided to check out his earlier, far stranger films. A master of attacking good taste and humor, whether on screen, in print or live on stage, Waters could simply be described as a purveyor of “shock value” — if only that term hadn’t been watered down by big-budget buddy films whose idea of “shock” is a recurring dick joke. Waters, unlike those hacks, understands the best way to celebrate bad taste is to know good taste — and how to appreciate the irony in exploiting it. His current live show, A John Waters Christmas: Holier and Dirtier, is a collection of stories for everyone: from those who appreciate the holiday season with the highest regard to those who dread it with every inch of their being. Above all else, it is for audiences who are ready to share a mocking laugh in the face of the pageantry of Christmas. We spoke with Waters to get an idea of what to expect at his December 3 performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Sure enough, our conversation took some unexpected and 52
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John Waters, king of the obscene. | Greg Gorman entertaining turns. Kelsey McClure: I wanted to talk with you first about how you are able to move so fluently from medium to medium. Being a filmmaker, a writer and then also doing live shows and standup — you seem to transition flawlessly. John Waters: Because I’m a writer and I need to tell stories. I wrote my movies, I write my shows, I write my books, so it’s not hard for me. It’s just, each one is a little different way to tell a story. But I’ve been telling stories since I was thirteen years old. I wrote some horror novel
DECEMBER 2-8, 2015
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about cereal that I read to all the kids at summer camp, who started crying and flipping out and their parents called and complained to the camp. I’ve always been doing this. Where is the challenge for you in storytelling? What is it that you are going after? I’m always trying to understand human behavior that I can’t, and that’s the reason I get out of bed every day. I want to bring you into a world [where] you might feel a little uncomfortable. Come with me, and maybe together we can
explore it and figure things out — why people act the way they do. If it’s easy for me to understand, I lose interest quickly. Nobody gets mad at what I say anymore. It seems like a lot of comedians are afraid to even go to colleges today because of political correctness. I am politically correct in a weird, fucked-up way. Does it frustrate you at all that nobody gets mad? No! I never wanted to offend; I wanted to make people laugh. To me, I’m offended now by these big $100 million Hollywood gross-out comedies that aren’t funny. If you’re trying too hard to be shocking, it never works. It’s old hat. When I was trying to shock at the beginning, there were rules to break. There was censorship. [Lenny] Bruce went to jail for saying “Fuck.” Could you imagine? It wasn’t that long ago. No, I can’t. I’ve seen the rules of censorship come and go but that — I can’t imagine that. It just depends on what class you’re in. That’s the thing. The extreme politically correct.... It’s the rich-kid schools. It’s not in the ghettos, I don’t think. I mean, I think straight people should be marching in art schools. They’re the ones they are discriminating now against. There’s still homophobia in other places. Oh, absolutely. A recent example being the Mormon Church denouncing gay marriage, yet again. It’s a losing battle. Even the Republicans have realized that it’s a losing battle to be against gay marriage and stuff. Because their family’s gay now. Because they knew people that were gay. They gave up on that. They were smart enough to know that’s a losing battle these days because everybody, straight or gay, knows how hard it is to fall in love with anybody. And if you can find somebody, why would anyone care about that? The crazy religious right that says, “Being gay is a choice.” And so what if it is?! They think that’s a choice like choosing political parties. Even though we know it isn’t
PHOTOGRAPHE BAND: SLEEPY
www.riverfronttimes.com/concerts/
FIND ANY SHOW IN TOWN... a choice, because you can ask any Alzheimer’s doctor in the world — their patients forget everything. They can’t recognize their family, they don’t know their name — but they never forget if they’re gay or straight. This Christmas show that you’re touring: It’s a series of stories, yes? What can people expect? They’re about how to get through Christmas, really. Even if you’re insane from it, if you’re depressed by it, if you love it — I’ve got advice for everybody. Christmas is coming. You can’t avoid it. I tell you what: You know what I want to get for Christmas? What you shouldn’t get for Christmas. How to handle an insane family, how to deal with children, how is Christmas gay. Is it suddenly a gay holiday? I don’t know. Is Santa erotic now, with the bear movement? It’s quite complicated. Is there one thing in particular that has irked you about Christmas, or is it just kind of all of it? I hate fruit baskets. When someone sends me a fruit basket, I think, “I can buy a pear. How dare you send me this?” Even the poor — anybody can buy a pear. You know, gift baskets should have in it stuff that you’d never buy for yourself: cigarettes, poppers, porno, gun oil. I mean, things that you would never buy for yourself. That’s what gift baskets should be. So don’t insult me by sending me a goddamned pear. You just described the most ideal get-through-Christmas gift
“Gift baskets should have in it stuff that you’d never buy for yourself: cigarettes, poppers, porno, gun oil. That’s what gift baskets should be.”
PHOTOGRAPHER: TODD OWYOUNG BAND: SLEEPY KITTY
“I hate fruit baskets.” | Greg Gorman
R
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basket. Try it. You can do that right now. That’s not that expensive. Well, gun oil isn’t cheap. Gun oil is lubricant, by the way. It’s not real gun oil for a real gun. I’m glad you clarified. I wasn’t sure. I didn’t want you to think I was pro-gun. I don’t get why college students aren’t rioting and burning down gun shops...I don’t get why we aren’t rioting about that. Maybe that’s the college tour that needs to happen: The AntiGun College Tour. Maybe. I don’t understand why. You know, colleges are being very political again. They’re rioting, they’re shutting down. Why is gun-control not the number-one thing? I don’t understand that. Let’s see if I’m going to get lynched for that! n
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HAZELWOOD 233 Village Square Cntr • (314) 731-1212 FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS 10900 Lincoln Tr. • (618) 394-9479
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HOMESPUN
T RAV IS B U RSI K & MIKE MCCUBBINS AVAV No. 1 avavproject.tumblr.com
A
ny lover of vinyl records will profess that, alongside the format’s touted superior fidelity, the artwork and packaging of an LP can be just as gratifying as the music it contains. That twelve-inch-by-twelve-inch field feels positively luxurious compared to flimsy CD inserts. The recently released AVAV project understands the importance of presentation, to the point that the music (here contained on a seven-inch record) isn’t even necessarily the project’s main vessel — the packaging, ingenious and beautiful on its own, gets co-billing. As a collaboration between friends Travis Bursik, a drone-centric musician formerly of Ou Où, and Mike Mccubbins, a graphic artist who has released short films, graphic novels and lots of other printed ephemera, AVAV provides a framework for artists in different media to talk to each other and produce a distinct and conversational work. The two first met eight years ago and later collaborated on a short film called Sky Reports, made using traffic-cam footage from the Saint Louis Science Center bridge. “There was no collaborative aspect; it was finished. Mike gave it to me, and I added stuff to it,” says Bursik. Mccubbins lit upon the idea for AVAV as a way to engage and collaborate with local musicians by providing a back-and-forth dialogue between musician and graphic artist; the title itself (expanded as “Audio Visual Audio Visual”) fairly sums up this idea. The procedure is laid out in full on the project’s illustrative and informative website (avavproject.tumblr.com): The musician creates a piece of music, the visual artist interprets that in his or her given medium, and the musician responds by adding to the composition. This operation volleys back and forth “until the work is considered finished.” For Bursik and Mccubbins, the process went through six iterations and took about four months to complete.
“When we started out, I thought, ‘This is gonna be like a jam, and I’ll send him something, he’s gonna look at it and send me something,’” says Mccubbins. “But then a couple steps into it I thought, ‘We’re gonna have to give each other a little bit of what’s going on in order to not step on the toes of what the other person is trying to do.’” “I think it was easier because it was collaborative,” says Bursik. “I would get Mike’s recent iteration and have an immediate thought, versus me trying to talk about something I built from the
ground up, which I hate doing because it sounds contrived to me and sounds like bullshit sometimes when I try to say what I do. You have to fall into genre stuff, and you can have a hard time taking yourself seriously.” Bursik uses GarageBand to make his music “in-camera,” as he says, as opposed to spending endless hours on post-production. He likens it to “doing special effects on-set as opposed to CGI in post, because then you’re just twiddling shit forever — it’s never quite done. I find that really stifling; you feel almost impotent in the face of that, having so many options.” Bursik used some field recordings from Tur-
key that sound like a call to prayer in one of his iterations; Mccubbins used that nod to incorporate artwork that resembled minarets in his next round. Using images from an old seek-and-find game he picked up at a thrift store, Mccubbins incorporated a grainy black-and-white beach scene amid the cleaner lines and forms he had created in Photoshop. The artists embraced the recursiveness of the project’s structure, both in Mccubbins’ permutations of recognizable shapes and a set color palette and in Bursik’s minute, granular approach to manipulating samples. In his notes on the project’s website, Bursik picks up on the beach scene, which triggered his own interpretations of surf-rock. He writes, “I added some skittery percussion to poke through the waves like the legs of a pier.” Of course, surf-rock is far from the first genre one would associate with the finished track; Bursik’s music, as part of Ou Où and as a solo artist, remains difficult to pigeonhole, though his contribution to the AVAV project will be familiar to fans of his previous releases. Swirling, almost metallic, swells hold the center of the track, and they move in slow but perceptible degrees throughout. The result is a four-minute piece, the length of which was partially predicated upon the medium of distribution — a lathe-cut seven-inch record. “We didn’t want to do CDs because they’re stupid and small, and cassettes are even smaller,” says Bursik. The package, which includes a single-sided square EP and twelve-page book, is limited to twenty copies — the smallest number of lathe-cuts one can order, according to the artists. “I’m all into making handmade printing stuff and all of that, trying to make something that you’re just going to recycle,” says Mccubbins. “That’s one of the reasons we avoided CDs,” says Bursik. “You work hard on something and then you picture it where the case is cracked in the back seat on the floor of your car. That’s how I pictured every demo CD that I would hand out as shows. Artifacts are the only way to make physical media interesting and unique.” –Christian Schaeffer
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OUT EVERY NIGHT T H U R S D AY BILLY BARNETT BAND: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. CAROLINE GLASER: 8 p.m., $10-$15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314773-3363. HAVOK: w/ Black Fast, ThorHammer, Absala 8 p.m., $12-$15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. JOE METZKA BAND: 9:30 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. SEAN JONES LIVE CD RECORDING: 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Dec. 4, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Dec. 5, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $30. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536
F R I D AY Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000. ALL THAT REMAINS: w/ Devour the Day, Audiotopsy, Sons of Texas 6 p.m., $20-$22. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. CAVE STATES: w/ Beth Bombara, Justin Johnson & William Godfred 7 p.m., $10-$12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363. DAN ROTH: w/ Steven J Push 9 p.m., $10. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-775-0775. FINAL DRIVE: w/ Compelled to Destroy, Faceless Commandos, Hallow Point, Absence of Despair 6 p.m., $8-$10. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-8333929. FOREVERMORE: 6 p.m., $12. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532. FUMER: w/ Path of Might, I Actually 9 p.m., free. Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust St., St. Louis, 314-241-2337. IVAS JOHN BAND: 10 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-4365222. JAKE’S LEG: 8 p.m., $7. Cicero’s, 6691 Delmar
Blvd., University City, 314-862-0009. LEROY JODIE PIERSON: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. THE MULTIPLE CAT: w/ Whoa Thunder, Aquitaine 9 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. PUNCH BROTHERS: w/ Gabriel Kahane 8 p.m., $25-$30. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. SEAN JONES LIVE CD RECORDING: Dec. 3, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Dec. 5, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $30. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000.
8 p.m. Friday, December 4. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $12. 314773-3363.
Winter is a dead zone for touring bands — no one wants to be crammed in a fifteen-passenger van, huddling for warmth as they zoom down I-80 to play a show in Des Moines that stands a 90 percent chance of getting snowed out. So while national shows tend to hibernate for the winter, it’s a good time to spend your show-going dollars on local bills. This weekend features a stacked deck of rootsbased St. Louis talent: Chris Grabau (Magnolia Summer) and Danny Kathriner (the Half-Knots) have spent more and more time playing as the
[CRITIC’S PICK]
S AT U R D AY TY DA FLY GUY: w/ J-Ron Black, Beezy Rack$, Beautie Bang, Bank Shed 8 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. Y98 MISTLETOE SHOW: w/ Third Eye Blind, Nate Ruess, George Ezra, Michael Franti, Karmin 7 p.m., $19.95. Family Arena, 2002 Arena Parkway, St Charles, 636-896-4200. 10TH ANNUAL DAN KELLEY CHRISTMAS: w/ J. Gilton, Shark Dad, Mayor Sheriff, the Dan Kelley Christmas Band 7 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314352-5226. BOO BOO DAVIS & THE BUMBLEBEE TRIO: 10 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. BRIAN CURRAN: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-4365222. BRUISER QUEEN’S 12 BASSISTS OF CHRISTMAS: w/ Mike and Jenny of Tortuga, Soddy Daisy, the Vigilettes 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363. THE DELTA SAINTS: w/ Rat Rod Kings 9 p.m., $13-$15. Blueberry Hill, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. THE DIVE POETS: w/ Union Rags 8 p.m., $8$10. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532. ELI YOUNG BAND: w/ Locash 8 p.m., $22.50-
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Cave States in the past few years, turning out largely acoustic, carefully rendered songs from the middle land. Beth Bombara is coming off a busy fall, touring behind her latest, a self-titled LP, and as a touring bassist with the Portland, Oregon-based Pink Feathers. Justin Johnson and Will Godfred have made a mighty noise in Pretty Little Empire, and this duo show will give them a chance to air their songs with nothing more than their guitars and shared harmonies. Sound Economic Policy: Remember, this is the time of year when we’re encouraged to spend locally anyway; might as well apply that logic to your local bands and venue owners. –Christian Schaeffer
Nathaniel Rateliff The Night Sweats | Milo JamesG
NATHANIEL RATELIFF & THE NIGHT SWEATS 8 p.m. Sunday, December 6. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Avenue. $18 to $20. 314-833-3929.
Nathaniel Rateliff grew up 80 miles west of St. Louis, in the river town of Hermann. And though he has released a raft of recordings that stomp, strum and bellow with rural grit, this year’s turn toward neo-gospel and soul on a debut for the Stax label is more musically ambitious than his previous Colorado-friendly (the bearded bruiser makes his $25. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. ERIC BELLINGER: w/ DeLon, Scribe Cash 8 p.m., $15-$18. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. NITE OWL: w/ Rec Riddles, K’sean, Deizil, HISO Music, DJ Stan the Man 8 p.m., $10. Cicero’s, 6691 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-862-0009. SCHOOL OF ROCK: ALL TOGETHER NOW: w/ Valley, Spatula, We Are Like Computers, Kenshiro’s, Waves, Sonder, Digby Very Scared, the Miles 6 p.m., $8. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. SEAN JONES LIVE CD RECORDING: Dec. 3, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Dec. 4, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $30. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000. ULTRAVIOLENTS RECORD RELEASE SHOW: w/ Blight Future, 3 of 5, Powerline Sneakers 8 p.m., $5. WYNONNA & THE BIG NOISE: 8 p.m., $50-$80. Lumiere Place Casino & Hotel, 999 N. Second St., St. Louis, 314-881-7777.
S U N D AY DAVE DICKEY BIG BAND: 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $20. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000.
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home in Denver) folk-pop efforts. Richard Swift’s production has plenty of reverberant boom, but it’s Rateliff’s voice — part Van Morrison, part Chubby Checker (that’s not a diss) — that drives his freshly swinging songs home. A Match Made Somewhere Other than Heaven: Electro-alt-rockers the Moth and the Flame are a bizarre choice to open for Rateliff, but the LA band has enough dissonant hooks to make the hardest of hardcore roots fans take notice. –Roy Kasten HERBO: w/ Bempy Madd, Imaginary Friends, FTO JMB 8 p.m., $15-$55. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. JIM LAUDERDALE: 8 p.m., $20-$25. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314773-3363. KEITH TURNER BENEFIT: 3 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. LOVE JONES “THE BAND”: 9 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. NATHANIEL RATELIFF & THE NIGHT SWEATS: 8 p.m., $18-$20. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. NIGHT RIOTS: w/ Sugar Rags 7 p.m., $10-$12. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532. REVERSE ORDER: w/ Get At Me, Bring on the Fall, Chad Randall Band 6 p.m., $10-$12. Cicero’s, 6691 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-862-0009. SMOKEY ROBINSON: w/ Mario Frangoulis 7 p.m., $45-$250. Peabody Opera House, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-241-1888. TRAPT: w/ Bridge To Grace, First Decree, Meka Nism 6 p.m., $15. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353.
DECEMBER 2-8, 2015
Continued on pg 56
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Nathaniel Rateliff The Night Sweats | Milo JamesG
home in Denver) folk-pop efforts. Richard Swift’s production has plenty of reverberant boom, but it’s Rateliff’s voice — part Van Morrison, part Chubby Checker (that’s not a diss) — that drives his freshly swinging songs home. A Match Made Somewhere Other than Heaven: Electro-alt-rockers the Moth and the Flame are a bizarre choice to open for Rateliff, but the LA band has enough dissonant hooks to make the hardest of hardcore roots fans take notice.
HERBO: w/ Bempy Madd, Imaginary Friends, FTO JMB 8 p.m., $15-$55. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. JIM LAUDERDALE: 8 p.m., $20-$25. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314773-3363. KEITH TURNER BENEFIT: 3 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. LOVE JONES “THE BAND”: 9 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. NATHANIEL RATELIFF & THE NIGHT SWEATS: 8 p.m., $18-$20. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. NIGHT RIOTS: w/ Sugar Rags 7 p.m., $10-$12. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532. REVERSE ORDER: w/ Get At Me, Bring on the Fall, Chad Randall Band 6 p.m., $10-$12. Cicero’s, 6691 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-862-0009. SMOKEY ROBINSON: w/ Mario Frangoulis 7 p.m., $45-$250. Peabody Opera House, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-241-1888. TRAPT: w/ Bridge To Grace, First Decree, Meka Nism 6 p.m., $15. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353.
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M O N D AY DANIEL MARTIN MOORE: 8 p.m., $8-$10. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314833-5532. GREEK FIRE: w/ the Struts, Highly Suspect 8 p.m., $20-$25. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. LOVEDRUG: w/ the Langaleers 8 p.m., $10. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314535-0353. SOULARD BLUES BAND: 9 p.m., $5. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314621-8811.
T U E S D AY TOM BYRNE & ERIKA JOHNSON: 8 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: w/ Clockwork 7 p.m., $10. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. BOB “BUMBLEBEE” KAMOSKE: 9 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. COPYWRITE: w/ Coolzey 8 p.m., $12-$15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-2899050. ETHAN LEINWAND & MAT WILSON: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. FISTER: w/ Beneath Oblivion, Grand Inquisitor, Railhazer 7 p.m., $5. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532. PAUL MARCELLUS: w/ JonesBoy, Ooze, Man of Destiny, Drewzy 8 p.m., $10. Cicero’s, 6691 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314862-0009. SCREAMING FOR SILENCE: w/ Disguise the Limit, Madora 8 p.m., $10-$12. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-5350353. WEEZER: w/ Wavves 8 p.m., $29.50. Peabody Opera House, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-241-1888.
W E D N E S D AY
–Roy Kasten
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OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 55
ZACH & THE HEART ATTACKS: w/ Bottoms Up Blues Gang 9:30 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314436-5222. BEREFT: w/ Railhazer 8 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. BIG RICH & THE RHYTHM RENEGADES: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. BLEU EDMONSON: 8 p.m., $12-$15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314773-3363. BOB “BUMBLE BEE” KAMOSKE: 8 p.m. Beale on Broadway, 701 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-7880. AN HONEST YEAR: w/ 4 Door Theatre, Monday’s Mona Lisa 6 p.m., $12. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. NEKROGOBLIKON: 7 p.m., $15. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. THE SERVICE: 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Dec. 10, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $15. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000.
THIS JUST IN ANDREW BIRD: Fri., April 22, 8 p.m., $33.50-$43.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. AVETT BROTHERS: W/ Brandi Carlile, Thu., June 9, 7 p.m., $44.50-$55. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., St. Louis, 314-9775000. CHURCH BOOT Y: W/ the People’s Key, the Provels, Thu., Jan. 14, 9 p.m., $5. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-775-0775. COURTNIE: Wed., Dec. 23, 8 p.m., $7. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532.
DECEMBER 2-8, 2015
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Weezer’s latest lives up to its title.
WEEZER 8 p.m. Tuesday, December 8. Peabody Opera House, 1400 Market Street. $29.50. 314-241-1888.
The Weezer fan is patient. Over the course of a twenty-year career, the band that Rivers Cuomo built has showed constant promise but scattershot results. Most listeners and critics alike would agree that the band’s first two albums represented its creative peak, and that subsequent efforts have been relatively hit or miss. After hundreds of songs — many of which were never officially released — and six lackluster records, Weezer finally released what many have dubbed its “third HEY MARSEILLES: Fri., Feb. 19, 9 p.m., $12$15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363. JENNIFER NETTLES: W/ Brandy Clark, Lindsay Ell, Tara Thompson, Thu., April 28, 7 p.m., $29.95-$69.95. Peabody Opera House, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-241-1888. JIM JEFFERIES: Thu., Feb. 11, 8 p.m., $39.50-$49.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. JOURNEY: W/ the Doobie Brothers, Dave Mason, Sat., July 30, 7 p.m., $30.50-$152. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314298-9944. LOGIC: Mon., Feb. 29, 8 p.m., $22.50-$25. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. LOOPRAT: W/ Just Rich, Armani, Mon., Dec. 28, 8 p.m., $7-$10. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532. MOBILE DEATHCAMP: Mon., Feb. 8, 8 p.m., $10-$12. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. THE MULTIPLE CAT: W/ Whoa Thunder, Aquitaine, Fri., Dec. 4, 9 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. THE PEACH KINGS: Thu., Feb. 11, 7 p.m., $8$10. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532. POSSE IN EFFECT: A TRIBUTE TO THE BEASTIE BOYS: Sat., Dec. 26, 8 p.m., $10-$12. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.
good album” with last year’s Everything Will Be Alright in the End. The LP landed on many year-end best-of lists. Years and years of waiting for your favorite band to come back around can actually pay off. Weezer proves it. Mistakes Were Made: The last time the band came to town it performed an abbreviated set at now-bygone venue Plush — a small space for a group that frequently plays packed arenas. That set was tight and compact, and it featured hits from across Weezer’s career — but, strangely, nothing from critical darling Pinkerton. It seems doubtful that the band would go that route again. –Daniel Hill RACHEL PLATTEN: Tue., March 22, 8 p.m., $20-$23. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. RAGGED UNION: W/ the Scandeleros, Fri., Feb. 12, 9 p.m., $7. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-775-0775. SAOSIN: Wed., March 16, 8 p.m., $25-$28. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. SCOTTY MCCREERY: Sun., Feb. 14, 8 p.m., $47.50-$57.50. River City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis, 314388-7777. SCREAMING FOR SILENCE: W/ Disguise the Limit, Madora, Tue., Dec. 8, 8 p.m., $10$12. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. SUPER SEXY SLUSHY XXX HOLIDAY PARTY: W/ Crazy XXX Girlfriend, Slushwave, Fri., Dec. 18, 9 p.m., $5. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-775-0775. TOOL: W/ Primus, 3Teeth, Fri., Jan. 22, 7 p.m., $79.50. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., St. Louis, 314-977-5000. TOR MILLER: Sun., Feb. 14, 8 p.m., $10-$12. Blueberry Hill, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. ULTRAVIOLENTS RECORD RELEASE SHOW: W/ Blight Future, 3 of 5, Powerline Sneakers, Sat., Dec. 5, 8 p.m., $5. ZUSHA: Mon., Jan. 18, 8 p.m., $10-$15. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-5350353.
SAVAGE LOVE The Sister Act Hey Dan: I’m a straight female in my mid twenties. I’ve been dating a wonderful guy for two years — but I recently found something that has put me on edge. Before we met, he was in a relationship with a terrible, alcoholic and mentally unstable woman. They got pregnant early in the relationship and stayed together for about five years. We met a year after they broke up. I felt like I’d come to terms with the ugliness of his past, with his trying to stay in a bad relationship for the sake of his child and the rest of it. But recently, thanks to the vastness of the Internet, I came across a suggestive photo of my boyfriend with his ex’s sister. I asked him about it, and he admitted to sleeping with her while he was with his ex. He says it was during a particularly bad period, he was very drunk, she made the first move, etc., but I’m just so grossed out. Cheating is one thing, but fucking your girlfriend’s sister? And it’s not like this was a 19-year-old’s mistake; he was near 30 and the father of a child. He also fudged a little about whether it was just one time or a few times. I feel like now I’m questioning his integrity. This is something that I wouldn’t have thought him capable
of doing. What do I do? All Twisted Up What do you do? You ask yourself if you believe your boyfriend when he says fucking his then-girlfriend’s sister was a mistake, ATU, one he deeply regrets, and one he never intends to repeat. If you can’t be romantically involved with someone capable of doing such a terrible sister-fucking thing, the question is a rhetorical one. You’ll have to end the relationship regardless of the answer. But if you could stay with someone capable of doing such a terrible sister-fucking thing, and if you believe your boyfriend when he says it was a mistake, one he regrets, and won’t happen again, then you stay in the relationship. And when your find yourself feeling squicked out by the knowledge that your boyfriend fucked around on his previous girlfriend with her own sister, you remind yourself that good and decent people sometimes do shitty, indecent, sister-fucking-ish things — and then you pause to consider all the shitty and/or indecent things you’ve done in your life, ATU, some, most, or all of which your boyfriend presumably remains blissfully unaware of. It’s too bad that suggestive/ incriminating photo is rattling around out there in the vastness
of the Internet, ATU, but I’m curious about how exactly you “came across” it in the first place. If you went looking for dirt — if you were snooping — you found it. Congrats. I’m not against snooping in all instances. People often find out shit they had both a right and an urgent need to know: the BF/GF/NBF*/fiancé/spouse is cheating in a way that puts you at risk, they’re running up ruinous debts, they’re hiding a secret second family, they’re attending Donald Trump rallies, etc. But just as often, we find out shit we didn’t need to know — something in the BF/GF/ NBF’s past, something they regret, something they’ll never do again (do you even have a sister?) — and can never unknow. You learned that your boyfriend did something pretty fucked up. Whether you decide to stay or go, ATU, remember that you snoop at your own risk — sorry, remember that you explore “the vastness of the Internet” at your own risk. Hey Dan: I’m a 37-year-old straight male in a relationship with a slightly older woman. I have a GGG girlfriend, and I am completely GGG — until we talk about having a MMF threesome. We have great sex and have experimented together. We tried playing with a couple to give her the “two-dick experience” she wanted, but the
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other man was of “average” size and she was not into it. I’m of average stature, and she made such a fuss of having someone extra large join in that it threw my hangup about my size into overdrive. It’s paralyzed me sexually. I’m afraid she’ll leave me or run off looking to fulfill her need on her own. Average Nerdy Guy Shunning Threesomes If leaving you is the only way this woman can ever experience an above-average cock again, ANGST, then she might leave you. Depending on how important sitting on an above-average cock now and then is to her, your insecurities may create an incentive for her to leave you or cheat on you. But if she can have you and all the good times and the great GGG sex you two have together — if she can continue to enjoy your cock and the things it and you can do for her along with the occasional ride on an above-average cock — then you’ve created a massive incentive for her to stay. * Nonbinary friend. On the Lovecast, Dan chats with writer Parker Molloy about relationships with trans folks: savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter
DECEMBER 2-8, 2015
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810 Health & Wellness General ARE YOU ADDICTED TO PAIN MEDICATIONS OR HEROIN? Suboxone can help. Covered by most insurance. Free & confidential assessments. Outpatient Services. Center Pointe Hospital 314-292-7323 or 800-3455407 763 S. New Ballas Rd, Ste. 310 Viagra!! 52 Pills for Only $99.00. Your #1 trusted provider for 10 years. Insured and Guaranteed Delivery. Call today 1-888-403-9028
100 Employment 105 Career/Training/Schools THE OCEAN CORP. 10840 Rockley Road, Houston, Texas 77099. Train for a new career. *Underwater Welder. Commercial Diver. *NDT/Weld Inspector. Job Placement Assistance. Financial Aid avail for those who qualify 1.800.321.0298
AIRLINE CAREERS begin here – Get started by training as FAA certified Aviation Technician. Financial aid for qualified students. Job placement assistance. Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance 800-725-1563 (AAN CAN)
THE OCEAN CORP. 10840 Rockley Road, Houston, Texas 77099. Train for a new career. *Underwater Welder. Commercial Diver. *NDT/Weld Inspector. Job Placement Assistance. Financial Aid avail for those who qualify 1.800.321.0298
120 Drivers/Delivery/Courier ! Drivers Needed ASAP ! Requires Class E, B or A License. S Endorsement Helpful. Must be 25 yrs or older. Will Train. ABC/Checker Cab Co CALL NOW 314-725-9550
145 Management/Professional Manager, Supply Chain Management – Symphony Deployment Ascension Health Alliance d/b/a Ascension is seeking one full-time Manager, Supply Chain Management – Symphony Deployment in Creve Coeur, Missouri to prepare and deploy PeopleSoft’s Supply Chain Management module for Ascension’s Health Ministries and manage a team of 4-5 associates. Contact Jenna Mihm, Vice President Legal Services & Associate General Counsel, Ascension Health, 4600 Edmundson Road, St. Louis, MO 63134, 314-733-8692, Jenna.Mihm@ ascensionhealth.org
167 Restaurants/Hotels/Clubs SERVERS needed for High Profile Events. PT and flexible scheduling avl. Background checks & Drug tests req. Also hiring for kitchen & housekeepers. Call 314.863.7400
185 Miscellaneous Laboratory Scientist - Microbiology (Nestle Purina PetCare Global Resources, Inc. – St. Louis, MO) Formulate rsrch hypothesis, dvlp experimntl dsgns, execute sci experimnts, & prfrm stat analyses. F/T. Req PhD in Microbio, Food Sci, Molecular Bio, or rel fld & 2 yrs exp in job offerd or in lab or analyticl environ. All stated exp mst incl wrk’g in food ind & w/ tst assay dvlpmnt, validatn & experimntl trbl-shoot’g. Mst also hv exp in follw’g: analyticl microbio & molecular bio w/ cultural & non-cultural methods, incl’g DNA/RNA extraction, PCR, qPCR, GLP’s, microflora DNA profil’g, microflora enumeration, & DNA & RNA sequenc’g; ISO 16140 & AOAC method validatns; food safety, HACCP, GMP’s, good hygienic practices, basic food regs, specs, pathogen monitor’g, & food process’g; food safety & qual mgmt systs incl’g ISO 9001, 22000 & lab procedures incl’g ISO 17025, 7218; risk assessmnts & dvlp’g HACCP plans & microbial specs; stats & experimntl dsgn; & utiliz’g Windows-based apps incl’g Word, Excel, & Powerpoint. Resumes: J. Buenrostro, Nestlé USA, 800 N Brand Blvd, Glendale, CA 91203. JobID: LS-MMA.
190 Business Opportunities Avon Full Time/Part Time, $15 Fee. Call Carla: 314-665-4585 For Appointment or Details Independent Avon Rep. PAID IN ADVANCE! Make $1000 A Week Mailing Brochures From Home! No Experience Required. Helping home workers since 2001! Genuine Opportunity. Start Immediately! www. TheIncomeHub.com (AAN CAN)
193 Employment Information CDL- A DRIVERS and Owner Operators: $1,000.00 sign on, Company/ Safety Bonuses. Home daily/ weekly. Regional runs. Great Benefits. 1-888-300-9935
400 Buy-Sell-Trade 420 Auto-Truck
BUYING JUNK CARS, TRUCKS & VANS 314-968-6555
500 Services 520 Financial Services Are you in BIG trouble with the IRS? Stop wage & bank levies, liens & audits, unfiled tax returns, payroll issues, & resolve tax debt FAST. Call 844-753-1317 (AAN CAN) ATTENTION BUSINESS OWNERS – Get up to $250K of working capital in as little as 24 Hours. (No Startups) – Call 1-800-426-1901 (AAN CAN)
525 Legal Services
File Bankruptcy Now!
Call Angela Jansen 314-645-5900 Bankruptcyshopstl.com The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely on advertising.
Personal Injury, Workers Comp, DWI, Traffic 314-621-0500
ATTORNEY BRUCE E. HOPSON
The choice of a lawyer is an important decision & should not be based solely on advertising.
530 Misc. Services WANTS TO purchase minerals and other oil & gas interests. Send details to P.O. Box 13557, Denver, Co 80201
537 Adoptions PREGNANT? THINKING OF ADOPTION? Talk with caring agency specializing in matching Birthmothers with Families Nationwide. LIVING EXPENSES PAID. Call 24/7 Abby’s One True Gift Adoptions. 866-4136293. Void in Illinois/New Mexico/Indiana (AAN CAN)
600 Music 610 Musicians Services MUSICIANS Do you have a band? We have bookings. Call (314)781-6612 for information Mon-Fri, 10:00-4:30 MUSICIANS AVAILABLE Do you need musicians? A Band? A String Quartet? Call the Musicians Association of St. Louis (314)781-6612, M-F, 10:00-4:30
SOUTHERN MISSOURI TRUCK DRIVING SCHOOL P.O. Box 545 • Malden, MO 63863 • 1.888.276.3860 • www.smtds.com
TOWER-GROVE-EAST $525 314-223-8067 1/2 Off Dec. Rent! Spacious 1BRs, Oak Floors, Stove & Refrigerator, A/C, W/D Hook-Up, Nice area
300 Rentals
WESTPORT/LINDBERGH/PAGE $525-$575 314-995-1912 1 mo FREE! 1BR ($525) & 2BR ($575 specials) Clean, safe, quiet. Patio, laundry, great landlord! Nice Area near I-64, 270, 170, 70 or Clayton
385 Room for Rent MIDTOWN $125-$135/Wk 314-306-3716 Fully furn, all utils inc.+extras, near Metro. Singles. Leave message
www.LiveInTheGrove.com CARONDELET-PARK! $575 314-309-2043 2 bedroom, appliances included, central heat/air, nice hardwood floors, w/d hookups, snow removal included, recent updates! rs-stl.com RG4GA
310 Roommate Services ALL AREAS ROOMMATES.COM. Lonely? Bored? Broke? Find the perfect roommate to complement your personality and lifestyle at Roommates.com! (AAN CAN)
315 Condos/Townhomes/Duplexes for Rent SOUTH-CITY $695 314-223-8067 1/2 Off Dec. Rent! Spacious 2BR, 2BA townhouse, spiral staircase, ceiling fans, D/W, disposal, fridge & stove , full bsmnt, W/D hkups, off st prkg
317 Apartments for Rent CARONDELET-PARK! $575 314-309-2043 2 bedroom, appliances included, central heat/air, nice hardwood floors, w/d hookups, snow removal included, recent updates! rs-stl.com RG4GA DELMAR! $420 314-309-2043 1 bedroom, all kitchen appliances, central heat/air, newer carpet, ceiling fans, pets, off street parking, close 2 everything! rs-stl.com RG4F6 DOWNTOWN Cityside-Apts 314-231-6806 Bring in ad & application fee waived! Gated prkng, onsite laundry. Controlled access bldgs, pool, fitness, business ctr. Pets welcome HAMPTON! $515 314-309-2043 All-electric 1 bedroom, central heat/air, kitchen appliances, newer carpet, close to shop & dine, off street parking! rs-stl. com RG4GB LAFAYETTE-SQUARE $685 314-968-5035 2030 Lafayette: 2BR/1BA, appls, C/A, Hdwd Fl MAPLEWOOD! $475 314-309-2043 Recently updated 1 bedroom, central heat/air, loaded kitchen w/dishwasher, newer carpet, ceiling fans, ready now! rs-stl. com RG4F8 NORTH-CITY! $375 314-309-2043 1-2 bedroom, central air, hardwood floors, enclosed porch, off street parking, recently updated! rs-stl.com RG4F4 OVERLAND/ST-ANN $535-$575 314-995-1912 Near 170, 64, 70, 270. Great loc. Clean, safe, quiet 1 & 2BRs, garage RICHMOND-HEIGHTS $525-$565 (Special) 314-995-1912 1 MONTH FREE! 1BR, all elec off Big Bend, Metrolink, 40, 44, Clayton SOULARD $800 314-724-8842 Spacious 2nd flr 2BR, old world charm, hdwd flrs, yard, frplcs, off st prk, no C/A, nonsmoking bldg, storage. nprent@aol.com SOULARD! $585 314-309-2043 Newly Updated! 1 bedroom townhouse, nice kitchen with dishwasher, newer carpet, central heat/air, pets allowed, off street parking! rs-stl.com RG4F9 $400-$850 314-7714222 Many different units www.stlrr.com 1-3 BR, no credit no problem
DELMAR! $420 314-309-2043 1 bedroom, all kitchen appliances, central heat/air, newer carpet, ceiling fans, pets, off street parking, close 2 everything! rs-stl.com RG4F6 DOWNTOWN Cityside-Apts 314-231-6806 Bring in ad & application fee waived! Gated prkng, onsite laundry. Controlled access bldgs, pool, fitness, business ctr. Pets welcome HAMPTON! $515 314-309-2043 All-electric 1 bedroom, central heat/air, kitchen appliances, newer carpet, close to shop & dine, off street parking! rs-stl. com RG4GB LAFAYETTE-SQUARE $685 314-968-5035 2030 Lafayette: 2BR/1BA, appls, C/A, Hdwd Fl MAPLEWOOD! $475 314-309-2043 Recently updated 1 bedroom, central heat/air, loaded kitchen w/dishwasher, newer carpet, ceiling fans, ready now! rs-stl. com RG4F8 NORTH-CITY! $375 314-309-2043 1-2 bedroom, central air, hardwood floors, enclosed porch, off street parking, recently updated! rs-stl.com RG4F4 OVERLAND/ST-ANN $535-$575 314-995-1912 Near 170, 64, 70, 270. Great loc. Clean, safe, quiet 1 & 2BRs, garage RICHMOND-HEIGHTS $525-$565 (Special) 314-995-1912 1 MONTH FREE! 1BR, all elec off Big Bend, Metrolink, 40, 44, Clayton
320 Houses for Rent NORTH ST. LOUIS COUNTY 314-579-1201 or 636-939-3808 2, 3 & 4BR homes for rent. eatonproperties.com. Sec. 8 welcome NORTH-CITY! $385 314-309-2043 Private house, central heat/air, fenced yard, kitchen appliances, tile floors, no app fee or credit check! rs-stl.com RG4GN NORTH-CITY! $650 314-423-3522 Remodeled 3-4 bed, 1.5 bath house, walk-out basement, central heat/air, fenced yard, all appliances, short term lease, ready now! rs-stl.com RG30G SKINKER! $550 314-309-2043 Redone 2 bed house, full basement, central heat/air, hardwood floors, ceiling fans, all appliances, recent updates! rs-stl.com RG4GP SOUTH-CITY! $545 314-309-2043 Redone 2 bedroom house, big basement, central heat/air, thermal windows, fenced yard w/deck, ceiling fans, pets ok! rs-stl.com RG4GO SOUTH-CITY! $795 314-309-2043 Stylish 3 bedroom house, walk-out basement, central heat/ air, nice hardwood floors, fenced yard, loaded kitchen, recent upgrades! rs-stl.com RG4GU
SOUTH CITY
SOUTH ST. LOUIS CITY 314-579-1201 or 636-939-3808 1, 2 & 3 BR apts for rent. www.eatonproperties.com. Sec. 8 welcome SOUTH-CITY
$400
314-277-0204
ST-ANN! $700 314-309-2043 Neat & clean 2 bedroom house, garage, newer carpet, fenced yard, plenty of storage, off street parking, available now! rs-stl. com RG4GT UNIVERSITY-CITY! $650 314-309-2043 Remodeled 2 bedroom house on quiet street, central air, full basement, large back yard, off street parking! rs-stl.com RG4GQ
3333 Lawn: range, fridge, A/C. Avail. late Dec. SOUTH-CITY $495 314-402-2621 5020 Mardel: Nice 1BR, 1st Flr, Hdwd Flrs, AC, W/D Hkups. Credit check required.
SOUTH-CITY! $795 314-309-2043 Stylish 3 bedroom house, walk-out basement, central heat/ air, nice hardwood floors, fenced yard, loaded kitchen, recent upgrades! rs-stl.com RG4GU
SOUTH-CITY $575 314-968-5035 Newly Renovated, 1BR 1BA, 3850 Park Ave Located directly behind Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital. Less than 1 mile from SLU. New Kit. Appls & Cabinets, C/A, Coin Lndry, Off-St. Pkg, CATV wired & carpet. Park Property Developers LLC SOUTH-CITY 314-504-6797 37XX Chippewa: 3 rms, 1BR. all elec exc. heat. C/A, appls, at bus stop
ST-ANN! $700 314-309-2043 Neat & clean 2 bedroom house, garage, newer carpet, fenced yard, plenty of storage, off street parking, available now! rs-stl. com RG4GT
SOUTH-CITY! $395 314-309-2043 1 bedroom, central heat/air, kitchen appliances, bring the pets, part utilities paid, available now!! rs-stl.com RG4F5
UNIVERSITY-CITY! $650 314-309-2043 Remodeled 2 bedroom house on quiet street, central air, full basement, large back yard, off street parking! rs-stl.com RG4GQ
575
SOUTH-CITY! $425 314-309-2043 Only $200 deposit! 1 bedroom, kitchen appliances, hardwood floors, pets allowed, central heat/air, first floor!! rs-stl.com RG4F7
IF YOU DESIRE TO MAKE MORE MONEY AND NEED A NEW JOB EARNING $45-$50 thousand the 1st year, great benefits, call SMTDS, Financial assistance available if you qualify. Free living quarters. 6 students max per class. 4 wks. 192 hours.
ST. CHARLES COUNTY
314-579-1201 or 636-9393808 1 & 2 BR apts for rent. www.eatonproperties.com. Sec. 8 welcome
ST. JOHN $495-$595 314-423-3106 Special! 1BR.$495 & 2BR.$595. Near 170 & St.Charles Rock Rd
• More driving time than any other school in the state •
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HOLIDAY SHOPPING! 10am-6pm Daily
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MUSIC RECORD SHOP
Looking to sell or trade your metal, punk, rap or rock LP collection. Call us.
Donate at Octapharma Plasma today.
8780 Pershall Road Hazelwood, MO 63042 • 314-524-9015 Must be 18-64 years old with valid ID, proof of social security number and current residence postmarked within 30 days. Information at octapharmaplasma.com.
NEW DONORS EARN UP TO $250 FOR THE FIRST FIVE DONATIONS
BUYING JUNK CARS, TRUCKS & VANS 314-968-6555
Great Selection of Scooters! Sales & Service. @ the corner of Connecticut & Morgan Ford. 314.664.2737
www.LiveInTheGrove.com
BUYING JUNK CARS, TRUCKS & VANS 314-968-6555 DATING MADE EASY... LOCAL SINGLES! Listen & Reply FREE! 314-739-7777 FREE PROMO CODE: 9512 Telemates
Get the Attention of our 461,000+ Readers Call 314-754-5940 for More Info
Made You Look!
South City Scooters
Looking to sell or trade your metal, punk, rap or rock LP collection. Call us.
Made You Look!
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Join the RFT Email lists for an inside look on Concert listings, ticket sales, events & more! www.Riverfronttimes.com to sign up
ATTORNEY BRUCE E. HOPSON
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Join the RFT Email lists for an inside look on Concert listings, ticket sales, events & more! www.Riverfronttimes.com to sign up
Earth Circle’s mission is to creatively assist businesses and residents with their recycling efforts while providing the friendliest and most reliable service in the area. Call Today!
Personal Injury, Workers Comp, DWI, Traffic 314-621-0500
10am-6pm Daily
Earth Circle’s mission is to creatively assist businesses and residents with their recycling efforts while providing the friendliest and most reliable service in the area. Call Today!
EarthCircleRecycling.com - 314-6641450
PAINLESS TATTOO REMOVAL SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 22 OR CALL 866-626-8346
HOLIDAY SHOPPING!
EarthCircleRecycling.com - 314-6641450
DATING MADE EASY... LOCAL SINGLES! Listen & Reply FREE! 314-739-7777 FREE PROMO CODE: 9512 Telemates
Get the Attention of our 461,000+ Readers Call 314-754-5940 for More Info
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Are you interested in making a difference? Washington University School of Medicine is asking you to join their Research Participant Registry (RPR). This registry is a database that helps to match individuals interested in participating in clinical research studies such as:
• Asthma • Lupus • Diabetes • Weight Loss • Healthy • Other studies
PAINLESS TATTOO REMOVAL SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 22 OR CALL 866-626-8346 Personal Injury, Workers Comp, DWI, Traffic 314-621-0500
ATTORNEY BRUCE E. HOPSON
The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely on advertising.
South City Scooters
Great Selection of Scooters! Sales & Service. @ the corner of Connecticut & Morgan Ford. 314.664.2737
www.LiveInTheGrove.com MUSIC RECORD SHOP
Looking to sell or trade your metal, punk, rap or rock LP collection. Call us.
Whether you are interested in playing a role in your own health care, gain access to new research treatments before they are widely available, obtain expert medical care at leading health care facilities or just helping to advance the health care for future generations, you are making a difference. Advances in medical treatments are made possible through clinical studies and clinical studies are not possible without your help.
For more information on how you can help our mission, please visit: rpr.wustl.edu to sign up. Or, call us at (314) 362-1000 today!
Ultimate Massage by
Summer! SWEDISH & DEEP TISSUE FULL BODY MASSAGE Daily 10 AM-5PM
South County Lemay Area
314-620-6386
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