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SEPTEMBER 9–15, 2015 I VOLUME 39 I NUMBER 37

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FreeLastat DOOMED TO DIE IN PRISON AFTER A POT BUST, JEFF MIZANSKEY OWES HIS FREEDOM TO FAMILY, MARIJUANA ACTIVISTS AND A GOP LAWMAKER B Y

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“I’m usually busy at work, so today I told her I was going to work, but I’m actually off. When I finished studying, I bought some flowers to bring her. That’s probably what has kept us together for six years, is our sense of humor and long-term goals. We’re both from Eastern Africa, work with NGOs there, and may move back one day with the skills we’ve acquired.” –FRED OCHIENG’, SPOTTED IN TOWER GROVE EAST, SEPTEMBER 7.

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VOLUME 39 NUMBER 37 SEPTEMBER 9-15, 2015

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10 F R E E AT L A S T Doomed to die in prison after a pot bust, Jeff Mizanskey owes his freedom to family, marijuana activists and a GOP lawmaker BY RAY DOWNS

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Standout dispatches from our news blog, updated all day, every day

Once the Hero of Ferguson, Ron Johnson Is Blasted in New DOJ Report hen Ron Johnson, a captain with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, was named commander of Ferguson operations on August 14, 2014, he was stepping into a situation that had already stretched multiple police departments to the breaking point. The previous night, officers from the St. Louis County Police Department donned riot gear, drove armored vehicles along residential streets and deployed startling quantities of tear gas. The nation watched with horror. Enter Johnson. On the first day of his command, he marched with protesters down West Florissant Avenue — a sign that seemed to indicate improvement in the relationship between law enforcement and the Ferguson community. Of course, those hopes were dashed in the days, weeks and months that followed. And we now know, thanks to a U.S. Department of Justice report released last week, that Johnson’s leadership also created tension between himself and other officers, some of whom felt that the 26-year veteran put too much effort into schmoozing the media and the community, and not enough into coordinating the tactical needs of those under his command. According to the report: The incident commander, Captain Johnson, was involved in extensive community engagement efforts and media interviews. As a result, he was less engaged in day-to-day, hour to-hour incident command responsibilities and instead became the public face for the police response. As a result, the full responsibilities of incident command were often not executed. This resulted in a diminished ability to spend time monitoring the changes in staffing needs, to provide direction for command, and to engage in effective communications with commanders and deployed personnel. Consequently, according to interviews with officers and commanders, morale among officers dropped and inconsistent incident management decisions were being made. At the same time, the media was appreciative of his command; one report said Johnson “was specifically praised by many interviewees for his willingness to engage in dialogue, answer questions, and interact with protesters and the press.” Interviews with law enforcement and community members suggested to the DOJ that the 8

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DA N N Y W I C E N TO W S K I

highway patrol’s approach to incident command was to provide more information, to be more engaged with the community, and to lessen the military image of law enforcement. However, this approach was either badly communicated to the officers, or misunderstood by them — or perhaps, the report suggests, the officers may have actively resisted this approach. From the perspective of the officers interviewed, the strategy for managing the demonstrations was constantly changing, and the tactical directions they were given often failed to flow from the changes in strategy. True, the report credits Johnson’s command as a model for community-oriented policing, quoting a community member as saying, “Things could have been worse if it had not been for the leadership of Captain Johnson.” But the report also faults Johnson for not fulfilling his role as a commander. In fairness to Johnson, some of the very things praised by the media wounded the morale of the officers beneath him. Johnson’s decision not to arrest protesters (and in at least one instance, individuals in the act of looting) seemed to injure the pride of some troopers. “We are the highway patrol: We ask people,

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Captain Ron Johnson, shown here during a press conference on August 15, 2014, was handed the reins to the Ferguson command after nights of unrest.

we tell people, and then we make people comply [with lawful orders], and in this incident, we did none of that,” said one trooper. Another trooper told the DOJ, “Peaceful protesters, residents and even business owners were asking us, ‘Why are you here if you are not going to do anything?’” This isn’t the first evidence of the discontent sparked by Johnson’s command, but it does help explain why Johnson’s role as commander lasted only two days before state officials asked St. Louis County police chief Jon Belmar to return as part of a more formal, unified command structure. Back in November, emails obtained by the Associated Press documented the mixed reaction to Johnson’s handling of Ferguson. “The actions of Captain Johnson have infuriated me,” a retired trooper wrote to Colonel Ron Replogle of the highway patrol. “He has single-handedly destroyed the reputation of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.” We reached out to the highway patrol seeking comment from Johnson. The response,

which was not attributed to Johnson, made no mention of the report’s details. “The Missouri State Highway Patrol has already implemented lessons learned from its own review of events in Ferguson, which has included listening to the concerns of members of the public,” the response read in part. “The patrol is committed to continuing the process of strengthening trust and improving law enforcement — community relations.” Unlike his counterparts in St. Louis County and St. Louis city, Johnson has mostly faded into the background of the region’s struggle to fix the relationships between police and black communities. In a November interview with Esquire, Johnson admitted that his days as commander were so intense and stressful that he sometimes had to retreat to a bathroom and “let the tears out.” “I’m just trying to be that wall in the middle of the road for now,” Johnson said at the time, “so that when I step away everybody can reach over, embrace each other and connect.” — DANNY WICENTOWSKI

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Freeat Last DOOMED TO DIE IN PRISON AFTER A POT BUST, JEFF MIZANSKEY OWES HIS FREEDOM TO FAMILY, MARIJUANA ACTIVISTS AND A GOP LAWMAKER

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t 1:30 a.m. on September 1, Jeff Mizanskey woke up in his prison cell at the Jefferson City Correctional Center after a brief nap. The 62-year-old had been in prison for nearly 22 years. But in six hours, he would be a free man. He couldn’t fall back asleep. The seconds ticked by slowly. Guards came by every 90 minutes or so to shine a light on him and his cellmate. This was procedure, a way to make sure prisoners were still alive. Before, it had always bothered Mizanskey. It didn’t matter today. As day broke and the prison began to wake, guards and inmates who had known Mizanskey for years came by to wish him well. “Only two more hours, Mizanskey,” a guard said as Mizanskey walked down the hall. “You leaving already?” teased a fellow prisoner. After many hugs and handshakes, Mizanskey, sporting a bushy mustache and gray hair tied back in a ponytail, made his way to a waiting room where he would be formally processed out of the prison. The T-shirt waiting for him was something he couldn’t be happier to wear: a black crewneck with the logo of the marijuana law reform group Show-Me Cannabis — a green and maroon pot leaf over the state of Missouri. Underneath were the words, “I’m Jeff & I’m Free.” Around 7:30 a.m. the JCCC’s guards walked Mizanskey toward the lobby. When he turned the corner and faced the front door of the prison, he was taken aback. “There were so many people and cameras everywhere, I almost went back inside,” he says, laughing. “I didn’t expect all those reporters, and I barely recognized my own family because I couldn’t see their faces — they all had their phones in front of their faces!” Still, it wasn’t difficult to pinpoint his family members — they were all wearing Show-Me Cannabis T-shirts, only theirs said, “#WeFreedJeffMizanskey.” At the front of the crowd was Chris Mizanskey, the inmate’s 37-year-old son, who had become 10

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the de facto family spokesman over the past two years. Mizanskey walked through the metal detector, no longer a prisoner, and hugged him. Both men cried as family and supporters applauded. And more family members held their arms open for Mizanskey: his older son Robbie, his brother Mike and many more. Surrounded by TV cameramen hovering inches from his face, Mizanskey walked outside, where a podium and microphone was waiting. He thanked his family, his supporters, ShowMe Cannabis and Republican state representative Shamed Dogan of Ballwin, who’d persuaded legislators to support his release. Mizanskey also condemned the sentence he believes he never should have received. “It’s about time,” he told reporters. “I wish they had done it fifteen or twenty years ago. I spent a third of my life in prison. One third. That’s a shame. This is America. I just can’t believe it happened.” Mizanskey also pointed out that there are others serving excessive sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. “I finally made it to freedom,” he said. “There’s a lot of people in here that deserve the same thing.” Over the past 22 months, Mizanskey has become the symbol of unjust sentences for marijuana use in Missouri. Punished under a draconian three-strikes law that allowed life without parole for three drug felonies, Mizanskey was the only prisoner in the state serving that sentence for marijuana-only crimes. As his case became known, his story drew enough sympathy and anger to propel activists and concerned citizens to petition Governor Jay Nixon to grant clemency. Those efforts failed, but they triggered thousands of phone calls and letters to the governor and grabbed the attention of Dogan, who pushed legislation to free Mizanskey. Dogan’s bill never got to a vote, but it succeeded in getting many lawmakers from both parties to vocally support Mizanskey’s release. Eventually, Nixon had to do something. And in August the governor commuted Mizanskey’s sentence, making him eligible for parole. Things moved quickly after that. Mizanskey’s release was a bittersweet victory for a man who just recently became a greatgrandfather: He’s out of prison, but he can’t help but think about the 21 years of his life he spent there, all for three relatively minor marijuana busts. continued on page 12

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“I spent a third of my life in prison. One third. That’s a shame. This is America. I just can’t believe it happened.”

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Mizanskey continued from page 10

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n the summer of 1994, O.J. Simpson was fleeing LA in that white Bronco, Michael Jackson married Elvis’ daughter, and Forrest Gump was in theaters, causing America to recite annoying catchphrases like, “Life is like a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re gonna get.” But Jeff Mizanskey was figuring out his first few days in prison — a place he was slated to remain for the rest of his life. After a couple of transfers between prisons, the Missouri Department of Corrections decided Mizanskey, then 41, would serve his sentence in “The Walls,” the decrepit Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. First opened in 1836, it was most famous for once housing James Earl Ray, who escaped in 1967 and wasn’t heard from again until he assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. By the time Mizanskey arrived, the prison was a moribund, concrete shell that housed much more than prisoners. “The first night in my cell, I got up on the top bunk, looked up, and saw that the ceiling was moving,” Mizanskey recalls. After a few moments of staring at a flickering glob of black dots, it became clear: “The ceiling was completely covered in roaches.” Mizanskey’s requests for an exterminator were politely ignored by prison staff, so he decided to do something about it on his own. All he needed was some baby oil. “I put some baby oil in a paper cup and stuck a little piece of food, something sweet, in the middle,” Mizanskey says. “And I placed that cup on a shelf and roaches would go in it, but then got stuck. When it was full, I put them in the toilet. I’d say about three or four hundred roaches a day.” But no matter how many roaches succumbed to the baby oil, more would come in through the walls of the crumbling penitentiary. Because prison staff wasn’t about to fill in any cracks, Mizanskey obtained an extra tube of toothpaste and did it himself. To kill the remainder of the roaches, Mizanskey put laundry sour — a combination of acids used in industrial laundry centers — around the cell. In those early days of confinement, however, Mizanskey had another, much bigger problem: The other inmates didn’t believe him when he said he was doing life just for weed. “You had to have done something else — what did you do?” they would ask. Suspicions would arise: Had he done something violent? Were children involved? There had to be more than just pot. “I got in a few fights over it — some people just didn’t believe it,” he says. “I guess I can’t really blame them for that.” Mizanskey’s status as a lifer for drug offenses drew the attention of some prison dealers who wanted him to help smuggle drugs in via a dirty guard. Mizanskey refused — and was beaten for it. The guards wanted to know who did it, but Mizanskey refused to tattle. “I told them it was a handball accident and that there was no problem with anybody,” Mizanskey says. “But that wasn’t what they wanted to hear.” He landed in the hole. A few days turned into a few weeks; Mizan-

“He’s a good man. He won’t recidivate. He’ll probably just get back to work.” skey says he spent about a month in solitary confinement for not giving more details about the supposed handball incident. Once prison officials realized he wouldn’t divulge any information, Mizanskey was let back into general population. “I didn’t snitch, so the guys who beat me up knew I was OK, but they still wanted me to do their drug-muling thing,” says Mizanskey. He again declined the invitation — not only did he risk more time in solitary if he was caught, but, at the time, he still figured that he had to somehow have some chance at parole. He couldn’t jeopardize that. A member of the drug crew who was in prison for a triple murder decided to make one last pitch using the hardest hard-sell

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technique. “He showed me a shank and said if I didn’t do it, he was gonna kill me,” Mizanskey says. Mizanskey still didn’t go to the guards — that could make things worse in the long run. Instead, he watched his back and tried to stay clear. And then luck struck: The convicted murderer overdosed and was found dead in his cell. “After that, the drug crew let me be, found someone else,” Mizanskey recalls. Mizanskey settled into prison life by working at furniture factory inside the prison. Desks, chairs, bookcases, even the podiums that politicians speak from are made at the prison’s furniture factory, which relocated (along with Mizanskey) to the newly built JCCC in 2006.

Jeff Mizanskey, photographed at the Jefferson City Correctional Center in 2013. A skilled construction worker and supervisor before he was locked up, Mizanskey was promoted to foreman, teaching and supervising workers. “A lot of people that I taught never had a job before, and they didn’t know how to work,” Mizanskey says. “That’s probably a big reason why they ended up in there in the first place. But a lot of them learned to like it, and they learned some skills they could use.” Although he worked full-time in prison for two decades and led crews, Mizanskey never made more than $1 an hour. That’s even though the state sells its prison-made furniture to government offices for lucrative amounts — the going rate for an 84-inch-wide “Judge’s Collection” executive desk is currently $1,500. But among the friends he made were his supervisors — the civilians who help run the factory for the state of Missouri. That includes Tim Allgaier, who worked with Mizanskey for the past three years. “I was amazed how Jeff could take these guys who had no experience in furniture finishing and teach them how to stain and mix colors,” Allgaier says. “He ran his shop like it was his own business. He found ways to save materials, and cut back on cost — even though it was a prison and it wasn’t his money, it was state money.” Allgaier and other supervisors advocated for Mizanskey’s release with letters to the parole board. And on the day Mizanskey was released, Allgaier was there to congratulate him. “He’s a good man,” Allgaier says. “He won’t recidivate. He’ll probably just get back to work.” continued on page 14

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Mizanskey continued from page 12

Chris and Mike Mizanskey organize media contacts who’ve asked to speak with Jeff.

ver the years, in between factory shifts, Mizanskey worked on appeals. They proved a series of letdowns, climaxing when he learned that his sentence came without the possibility of parole. The unusual sentence was an extreme result of Missouri’s unusual three-strikes law. Under the state statute, a person with three drug-related felonies can be subject to a minimum of ten years and a maximum of life in prison without parole if a prosecutor chooses to charge him as a “prior and persistent drug offender.” According to the American Civil Liberties Union, no other state in the country has a drug-specific three-strikes law. All three of Mizanskey’s felonies had been for marijuana and had come over the course of ten years. In 1984, he was busted for possessing a half-pound and selling an ounce. In 1991, police searched Mizanskey’s home after an informant said he was carrying. Police only found two ounces, but anything more than 35 grams is a felony in Missouri, and Mizanskey got his second strike. The third and final strike came in December 1993 when he drove a man to a hotel to check out a seven-pound brick. The man, Atilano Quintana, was a known drug dealer — but unbeknownst to either him or Mizanskey, he was being set up by two men working with Sedalia police. The men had been busted with close to 100 pounds of pot the day before and claimed they were bringing it to Quintana. In return for helping the police get Quintana, the two were promised leniency. Sergeant James Wingo, the highway patrolman who organized the Quintana sting and watched it go down via a hidden camera, told the Riverfront Times in 2013 that Mizanskey was there in a supporting role for Quintana. “You do a dope deal, you bring your extra hand around,” Wingo said. “For lack of a better word, [Mizanskey] was his ‘helper,’ I guess.” Mizanskey first filed for post-conviction

relief in 1997, arguing that his attorney at trial had been ineffective because he did not object to his client being sentenced as a “prior and persistent drug offender.” The motion was denied in March 1999. A year later, Mizaskey’s public defender tried to get the Missouri Supreme Court to hear the case. He argued that the original attorney had failed to call a key witness and failed to object when the prosecutor referenced damning details about Quintana’s drug activities. After all, Mizanskey was only on trial for his involvement in one transaction — the six pounds in the hotel room. But the court declined to hear the case. Mizanskey filed another appeal the next year. Yet again, he was denied. Mizanskey attempted a final shot in 2010 when he filed an appeal arguing that Theodore Scott, the Benton County judge who’d sentenced him, didn’t intend the sentence to be life without parole, and that a clerical error was responsible for what was arguably the harshest drug sentence in the nation. After all, Scott never said in court that the sentence was to be “without parole” — he said only that Mizanskey had to serve a life sentence, which is typically treated as 30 years, allowing a parole hearing as early as 2005. But in the paperwork filed after Scott handed down the sentence, a clerk checked in the “without parole” box. In April 2011, the appeals court denied Mizanskey again. There just wasn’t enough proof, the judge concluded, that Scott didn’t intend for Mizanskey to die in prison. There was nowhere else to go but the governor of Missouri. In early 2012, Tony Nenninger, a lawyer and cannabis activist based out of Columbia, attended a town hall hosted by Show-Me Cannabis. That’s where he met Chris Mizanskey, who told him about his father’s egregious sentence. Nenninger has told the Riverfront Times that he was flabbergasted and looked into ways he could help. continued on page 16

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Mizanskey Ultimately, he advised Mizanskey to seek clemency from Governor Nixon. In March 2012, Mizanskey filed an application for clemency. He seemed like the perfect candidate for the rare privilege: He was in prison for nonviolent crimes, he had worked steadily in prison and completed every single rehabilitation program on offer — drug counseling, self-improvement, you name it. In addition, selling marijuana is no longer considered a crime in Colorado and Oregon (with the proper documentation, of course), and Oregon and Alaska have recently passed legislation to join the trend in the next few months. Public attitudes toward weed have shifted dramatically, with legalization on the rise in several states and quite possibly the country. Even Missouri may soon consider some sort of medical-marijuana initiative. Still, Nixon would not be an easy sell. The governor — who had previously been the state’s attorney general — had never once granted clemency since taking office in 2009, and a backlog of several hundred clemency petitions sat unanswered. Months passed without action. Then, in October 2013, Nenninger wrote a short blog post about Mizanskey’s case on the National Cannabis Coalition website. The post urged readers to send letters to Nixon asking for clemency. “It is rare that a case gets enough of a governor’s attention to be seriously considered,” Nenninger wrote. “However, like all politicians, Governor Nixon will notice if enough citizens call a political issue to his attention.” Four days later, the Riverfront Times published a story about the case that got picked up by several national news organizations. Online comments showed a mix of mostly outrage and disbelief. And Show-Me Cannabis decided to make a push to persuade Nixon to grant clemency synonymous with its effort to reform Missouri’s marijuana laws. “We did about 40 town hall meetings in 2013 and 2014,” says John Payne, the executive director of Show-Me Cannabis. Crowds ranged between 50 and 200 people, many of them interested in Mizanskey’s case.

he first question was, ‘What can we do to get this guy out of jail?’” Payne says. “People had a very profound sense of injustice when they heard about the case, and they wanted to do something to right that wrong. It definitely became a cause célèbre among cannabis activists in Missouri everywhere we went.” Via Facebook, Show-Me Cannabis posted photos with an invitation to take action. Anybody who texted “Jeff ” to the easy-toremember “420420” would get alerts to call the governor’s office. The simple social-media campaign prompted more than 800 calls in its first few months alone. “That may not seem like a whole lot for the entire state of Missouri, but in politics, a few phone calls could mean quite a lot,” Payne says. The texts primarily came from Missouri, but people from around the country chimed in, especially whenever a news story about the campaign spread through social media. 16

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continued from page 14

“I was blown away when I met Mr. Mizanskey. Here was a man who had done everything he could to rehabilitate himself, he had been working the entire time, and he didn’t deny he did wrong.” Mizanskey’s story made it to the front page of Reddit a few times — “whenever that happened, the texts spiked,” Payne says. Five months after Mizanskey’s story first hit the Internet, Show-Me Cannabis came up with a new idea to garner support: billboards. A story about the plan rose to the top of Reddit, garnering another round of national and international attention. The organization raised more than $10,000 to publicize Mizanskey’s case. Billboards near Sedalia and in Jefferson City questioned the sentence — “Life without parole for cannabis? It’s time to fix our unjust

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marijuana laws” — and asked people to call Nixon and demand Mizanskey’s freedom. But the governor, whose own son had been arrested for marijuana possession in 2011, was still silent. From CNN to local TV news stations and even a German news crew that flew in from Hamburg, Mizanskey was by far the most visited prisoner at the JCCC. The inmate told his story to whoever was willing to make the drive to No More Victims Road, the ironically named location for the new Jefferson City Correctional Center, which replaced The Walls in 2006.

Mizanskey with his greatgranddaughter, Aria McReaken. And while Mizanskey spoke out about the injustice he felt he had suffered, he also was honest about his views on marijuana, refusing to temper his beliefs to make his cause more palatable to Missouri politicians. He praised marijuana’s medical benefits, telling journalists that it’s safer and less addictive than alcohol and prescription painkillers. He also said repeatedly that if he got out, he would join the marijuana-reform cause. The biggest victim of Missouri’s marijuana laws became the most vocal advocate to change them. Mizanskey’s words were having an effect. When RFT spoke to the prosecutor in Mizanskey’s case, Jeff Mittelhauser, in November 2013, he insisted that the sentence was appropriate and felt no regret for asking the judge for life without parole. But by the spring of 2014, after Mizanskey’s story was told by news organizations around the country, Mittelhauser, who was then running for judge in Pettis County, told a Kansas City TV station that he supported clemency. As Mizanskey did more interviews, his son Chris was also becoming a polished spokesman for the family. A good-natured 37-year-old bar owner who lives on the same street he grew up on in Sedalia, Chris told the story of losing his father at a young age to the criminal-justice system, bringing home the message that draconian prison sentences affect entire families. Media reports would often note that Mizanskey had become a great-grandfather. Other family members assisted, too. Amber Ward, Mizanskey’s niece, ran the Free Jeff Mizanskey Facebook continued on page 18

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Mizanskey continued from page 16

page, which accumulated several thousand likes. She also had bumper stickers and Tshirts made. And soon Mizanskey’s brother Mike would come down from Chicago to help with the effort that would ultimately lead to Mizanskey’s release.

RIVERFRONT TIMES

Above: Mizanskey after his release, barbecuing with son Robbie. Left: Mizanskey with family — many of them sporting T-shirts emblazoned with #WeFreedJeffMizanskey.

P H OTO S B Y R AY D O W N S

tate representative Shamed Dogan of west St. Louis County, first heard about Mizanskey’s plight like most everyone else: online. Like many, he had trouble believing Mizanskey was in solely for marijuana convictions. But when Dogan confirmed that the stories were true, he had options that other sympathetic readers did not. His first course of action was to see if he and other lawmakers could get Nixon to grant clemency. When they, too, were ignored, the Republican decided to legislate. In February 2015, Dogan announced HB 978, which called for the release of any Missouri inmate serving life without parole for nonviolent, marijuana-only charges. In other words, Jeff Mizanskey. “It is unconscionable to me that this man, who is no danger to society, will spend the rest of his life in prison at taxpayer expense,” Dogan said in a press release announcing the bill. “Many of my legislative colleagues have come together to implore the governor to commute Mr. Mizanskey’s life sentence, but to date the governor has done nothing more than promise to review Jeff ’s case before he leaves office. I appreciate the governor’s willingness to eventually take interest in this case, but the time for justice is now. My legislation would allow immediate action to be taken so that this miscarriage of justice can be rectified and Jeff Mizanskey can again be a free man.” Calling out Nixon in the press release was intentional. The bill’s true purpose, Dogan admits, was to push the governor to grant clemency. On April 28, Dogan, members of Show-Me Cannabis, and Chris Mizanskey held a joint press conference at the Missouri statehouse to announce that they were about to deliver 390,000 signatures from a Change.org petition that asked Nixon to give clemency to Mizanskey. Started by Chris in early 2014, the petition got a great deal of attention, including mentions in the BBC and a tweet from Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey. During the press conference, a reporter asked Dogan about his pending bill. “You don’t hear legislators say this very often, but I really don’t want my bill to pass,” he said, only half-joking. “It would be wonderful if the governor took this bill out of consideration and grant clemency tomorrow.” Over the next few weeks, Dogan’s bill gained wide acceptance in the Missouri House, most notably from Representative Paul Fitzwater, a powerful conservative Republican from Farmington who chairs the House Corrections Committee. He personally traveled to the JCCC to meet Mizanskey. “I was blown away when I met Mr. Mizanskey,” Fitzwater explains. “Here was a man

who had done everything he could to rehabilitate himself, he had been working the entire time, and he didn’t deny he did wrong. But most of all, I was amazed that in 22 years of being in prison, he had only been written up twice: Once for a dirty cell, and once for putting a letter in the wrong mail slot. I’ve been involved in corrections for a long time and that’s remarkable. The man was a model prisoner and had clearly been rehabilitated.”

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Fitzwater quickly scheduled a committee hearing. The hearing took place inside a graywalled room in the state capitol with Mizanskey supporters and family members facing the twelve-member committee. In between sat Dogan, who made his case for Mizanskey’s release. After citing Nixon’s refusal to act, Dogan explained: “I wrote this bill to save taxpayers money and to right an injustice that riverfronttimes.com

was done to Mr. Mizanskey.” Fitzwater then implored committee members to look at the bigger picture. “The prison population has increased to over 33,000 in the state of Missouri,” Fitzwater said during the hearing. “The question is: Do we build a new prison, or do we find ways to put some of these nonviolent criminals that are behind bars with long sentences back on the street and make them citizens again? This is a serious question that we have to address.” There wasn’t much argument. Several committee members voiced support, including Republican representative Justin Hill, a former undercover narcotics officer with the St. Charles County Drug Task Force. “As somebody that has pretty extensive experience in narcotics investigations from working with the DEA and drug task forces, this marijuana charge does not fit the sentencing,” Hill said. “I’ve charged people in federal court with a thousand pounds of marijuana and they got quite a lesser sentence than this. This is very excessive.” Representative Penny Hubbard, a Democrat from St. Louis, added: “I’ve been in corrections at the state and local level for 30 years, and I’ve never seen a sentence like this. I’ll be supporting the bill.” And then Mike Mizanskey, Jeff’s 57-yearold brother, nervously read a moving statement to the committee about the impact Mizans-

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“It was like a big countdown. Even some of the guards were saying things like, ‘Just five more days, Mizanskey.’” key’s incarceration has had on the family. “The saddest and most heart-wrenching thing I had to do was travel from Chicago to the Jefferson City Correctional Center to be with my mother, who was dying of cancer, so she and Jeff could say their final good-byes. That broke Jeff’s heart,” Mike said, wiping a tear from behind his eyeglasses. “I am now fulfilling my mother’s last words before she passed. She made me promise to be committed to getting justice for Jeff. That’s why I’m here today.” The bill passed committee 11 to 1, and looked like it would pass in the full chamber — it had bipartisan support and even greater support from the public. Maybe Nixon wasn’t necessary after all. Yet resistance seemed to be building, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear. Payne, of Show-Me Cannabis, says that several lawmakers were concerned with the bill’s constitutionality. Another source who has worked extensively in the Missouri House says that some Republicans didn’t want to vote yes on the bill, but they also didn’t want to look bad by voting against it. They apparently told the speaker not to allow a vote. When HB 978 did not make it to a vote before the session ended May 14, Mizanskey’s best chance for freedom was over, just like that. “I was crushed. I thought that was it,” recalls Mizanskey. Show-Me Cannabis urged supporters not to give up. There’s always the next legislative session, and this time they knew they had support from many lawmakers. Maybe a few more could be convinced. But finally, on May 22, Nixon did something. It wasn’t clemency, but it was the next best thing: The governor commuted the 62-year-old’s sentence, making it possible for Mizanskey to be paroled.

“The executive power to grant clemency is one I take with a great deal of consideration and seriousness,” Nixon said in a press release. “In the case of the commutation, my action provides Jeff Mizanskey with the opportunity to demonstrate that he deserves parole.” After almost 22 years in prison, Mizanskey would finally have the possibility of parole. And while getting parole was certainly preferable to staying in prison, it also meant that Mizanskey would not be completely free: He’d have to report to a parole officer on a regular basis, see his travel restricted, and have to piss in a cup under the watchful eye of the state of Missouri. “Nixon should have just granted Jeff clemency, but as usual, he’s unwilling to take action,” Dogan says. “I was very disappointed, but I can’t say I was surprised.” Payne felt the same way. “It was a very Nixon thing to do,” said Payne. “He just kicked the decision over to the parole board so he wouldn’t have to make a decision. That’s right out of the Nixon playbook.” Few doubted that Mizanskey would be granted parole. Show-Me Cannabis kept pushing, rallying its supporters to write letters to the parole board during the lead-up to the August 6 hearing. That morning, Mizanskey made his case one last time. The parole board told him it could be six to eight weeks before they’d rule. But less than two weeks later, on August 20, they gave him a decision. On September 1, 2015, roughly three months shy of his 22nd year in prison, Jeff Mizanskey would be released. “I just can’t believe it,” Chris Mizanskey tells the RFT. “It’s surreal. Finally. They’re finally gonna let him out.”

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pend more than two decades of your life in one place, and you make close friendships, even in prison. The eleven days between the announcement of Mizanskey’s release date and his actual departure featured numerous teary good-byes. One of those good friends was his cellmate for the last few years, Neldon Neal. The 68-year-old Springfield man is currently serving a 16-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter after shooting his wife while intoxicated. His story got some press after he eluded police for 62 days before finally getting caught hiding in the Mark Twain National Forest. “He might have been more excited for me than I was for me,” Mizanskey says jokingly. “Every day he’d say how many more days I have to go, how many hours, that kind of thing. Lots of people were doing that. It was like a big countdown. Even some of the guards were saying things like, ‘Just five more days, Mizanskey.’” Some friends he never got to say good-bye to, including Floyd Newberry. Newberry murdered his wife in 1976 for insurance money — and while he actually had the possibility for parole, he had to serve 50 years of his sentence first. He didn’t make it, succumbing to cancer two weeks before Mizanskey’s release. Mizanskey did time with a lot of people who committed horrible crimes, but when you’re serving a life sentence in prison, you befriend the people who surround you. And watching friends die behind bars was a grim reminder of what would happen to Mizanskey if he never got out. “It’s hard to get medical treatment in prison,” he says. “You have to go through so much bureaucracy just to get help, and even then you might only get to see a nurse practitioner instead of a doctor. If I got seriously ill, who knows what would happen to me? I suspect they’d just let me die, too.” A few days after his release, Mizanskey points to the baseball-sized tumor on his left forearm as proof. “I couldn’t ever convince them to take this out. I’ve had this for years, and it has just gotten bigger. They just tell me it’s fine, don’t worry about it — but it’s kinda hard not to worry about.” Freed from prison just twelve hours ago, Mizanskey sits at the kitchen table in the home of his oldest son, Robbie, on the outskirts of Sedalia. He has more he wants to say about prison — ways to improve it, ways to keep people like him out of there — but Robbie, a lanky sheet metal crew supervisor, takes his father’s mind off all that. “Look at this, Dad,” Robbie says, revealing a tray of thick, lightly seasoned steaks, ready to go on the grill outside. “Oh, man — that is beautiful,” Mizanskey says with a grin. “And this one’s yours,” Robbie says, pointing to the biggest cut on the tray — a gigantic Tbone about a foot long and three inches thick. It must weigh at least two pounds. Robbie raises cattle on the side and told his butcher to cut a special steak for his father. Mizanskey laughs. “I ain’t gonna be able to eat all that, but I guess I can try.”

As Robbie takes the steaks outside, his wife, Jennifer, sets the side dishes on the table. Among them is a neon green pasta and vinegar dish that Mizanskey’s brother Mike brought from a restaurant in Chicago. It was a childhood favorite of Mizanskey’s, who grew up in the Windy City, and he can’t remember the last time he had it. As dinner is being prepared, Chris and Mike go over a list of media interviews lined up for Mizanskey over the next few days. He’ll have a lot to do — more family to meet, a party, and an invitation to a suite at Busch Stadium to watch the Cardinals take on the Cubs. “You sure you don’t wanna hold off on some of these interviews just for a few days to relax?” Mike asks. “No, I want to get the word out while I

can, help the movement,” Mizanskey says. “There’s some momentum, and it’s good to talk about this now.” He means it. Mizanskey has often said that it wasn’t the courts that helped him; they only hurt him. Rather, it was the work of activists, including his family, that forced Missouri politicians to look at the serious problems with the state’s drug laws. “We need to do find alternatives to throwing people in prison for these nonviolent crimes and releasing people like Jeff, nonviolent criminals who have nothing more to gain from being in prison,” says Rep. Fitzwater, who plans to invite Mizanskey to the state capitol to meet other lawmakers and talk about alternatives to prison for drug offenders. Outside, Robbie mans the grill and flips the

steaks, giving special attention to the gigantic slab of meat. “I was about nineteen or twenty when he got locked up,” says Robbie, now 42. “When they said life in prison, I didn’t even know what to think. I can’t even describe it. It’s horrible.” Jennifer comes out to check on him. Before she heads back inside, she turns around and says, “Hey, Robbie — your dad’s home for dinner.” Robbie grins. “Yeah — he’s gonna be for a while, too.” ■ Ray Downs is a former staff writer for the Riverfront Times. He first wrote about the Jeff Mizanskey case in October 2013.

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NIGHT + DAY ®

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 11–16

PAU L I R I N E , D E TA I L O F “ I H AV E YO U , M Y C A P TA I N . YO U W O N ’ T FA L L ,” 1 917.

Color lithograph, 12.5 x 14 15/16. A coups de baïonnette 9 (June 1917): pp 424-25. Getty Research Institute Los Angeles. Part of World War I: War of Images, Images of War.

F R I D AY |09.11

[ A RT FA I R ]

ST. LOUIS ART FAIR

Spring has long been seen as the season to refresh — a time of renewal and rebirth. But we think the end of summer is much better suited for these rejuvenation vibes — at least, when it comes to your interior space. Why not freshen up your walls before the cool temperatures and long winter nights keep you indoors? That way, you’ll be hunkered down in lovely surroundings with some interesting things to gaze upon. The St. Louis Art Fair offers more juried art than you could fit in your (presumably non-palatial) abode, and you’ve got three full days to browse. We’re talking everything from painting and photography, to fiber works and glass pieces. Plus, there’s jewelry — art for the body — along with eats, live music, circus performances and more. The St. Louis Art Fair takes place from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to

10 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday (September 11 through 13) in downtown Clayton (Forsyth and South Brentwood boulevards; www.culturalfestivals.com). Admission is free. — ALISON SIELOFF [ART EXHIBIT]

WORLD WAR I: WAR OF IMAGES, IMAGES OF WAR

We hit the centennial mark of the outbreak of World War I last year, but observances won’t cease soon; the war continued on until 1918. And lest you think some fusty old war is irrelevant to your comfortable 21st-century life, consider that World War I underwrites our daily reality, just like all of history does. If you’re a young, hip, aesthetically minded cat or kitten, WWI should be of particular interest — its agonies and absurdist pointlessness were what birthed European high modernism. World War I: War of Images, Images of War, the new exhibit at Washington University’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum (1 Brook-

ings Drive; 314-935-4523 or www.kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu), looks at the Great War through the plethora of images chronicling it. War of Images, Images of War curates more than 150 pieces that illustrate the conflict’s bleak trajectory, from exuberant early optimism to trauma-blitzed total exhaustion. Included are works by modernist titans such as Max Beckmann, Georges Braque, Natalia Goncharova, George Grosz and Kazimir Malevich. The show opens with a free public reception at 7 p.m. Friday, September 11, and it remains up through Monday, January 4, 2016. The gallery is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day except Tuesday. Admission is free. — ALEX WEIR [ART EXHIBITION]

HURVIN ANDERSON: BACKDROP

One of the more amazing features of being human is how we create a sense of self. We might be born and raised in one place but move someplace else and decide that the new location is more in tune with who we really

are — and yet our point of origin still shaped us in immutable ways. Hurvin Anderson explores these concepts of memory and place and how we internalize them in his paintings. The British-born artist’s Jamaican roots and Trinidadian experiences inform his landscape paintings in subtle ways — tropical greenery is viewed through geometric patterns that evoke chainlink fences, or seen in the reflection of a building’s glass and steel façade. His portraits of patrons in barbershops recall the shared social experience of the African diaspora in bright hues. Hurvin Anderson: Backdrop is a comprehensive survey of the artist’s work — and perhaps his life. Backdrop opens with a free reception from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, September 11, at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (3750 Washington Boulevard; 314-5354660 or www.camstl.org). The show remains up through Sunday, December 27, and the museum is open Wednesday through Sunday. Admission is free. — PAUL FRISWOLD continued on page 24

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S AT U R D AY |09.12

[THEATER]

ALL THE WAY

If you’re old enough to remember Lyndon Baines Johnson’s presidency, you know it didn’t end well. There was a tinge of defeat and disgrace about Johnson’s famous nationally televised 1968 announcement that he would not seek the Democratic nomination for a second term as president. Vietnam was a quagmire for the United States, and guess who took the hit for it, right in the neck — LBJ. Nearly forgotten at that juncture were Johnson’s astonishing accomplishments as chief executive. This was the extraordinary Texan who nearly single-handedly muscled through one of our country’s watershed pieces of legislation: the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Robert Schenkkan’s play All the Way casts a look back at Johnson’s early period in the Oval Office, from the unplanned, traumatic nature of it (following

LEVIN’S

John F. Kennedy’s assassination) up through LBJ’s political genius in pushing epic civilrights legislation through a deeply resistant Congress. The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis opens its new season with the 2004 Tony winner for best play. Performances take place Tuesday through Sunday (September 11 through October 4) at Webster University’s Loretto-Hilton Center (130 Edgar Road; 314968-4925 or www.repstl.org). Tickets are $17.50 to $79.50. — ALEX WEIR [COMEDY]

JON LOVITZ

For more than two decades, Jon Lovitz has been a prolific force in contemporary comedy. Despite steady work in films, television and theater, he remains best known for his stint on NBC’s Saturday Night Live (1985 to 1990), where he created likeable weirdos such as Master Thespian, pathological liar Tommy Flanagan and Hanukkah Harry. The affable Lovitz now works as a standup comedian, and he brings his act to town for two shows at 7 and 9:30 p.m. at Lumière Place Ca-

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NEW Merchandise Arriving Daily! HOURS: MON-FRI 9-5

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sino (999 North Second Street; 314-881-7777 or www.lumiereplace.com). Tickets are $25 to $35. — ROB LEVY

S U N D AY |09.13

[ A RT FA I R ]

PAINTING PRAYERS

ART OUTSIDE

Are you an admirer of art best described as “sofa-sized” and/or “Sheraton-approved”? ...No? Then you’ll welcome the chance to see fantastic, one-of-a-kind, super-local creations at Art Outside. This fabulous fest, which grows larger each year, combines juried art, live music, delicious food and tasty brews over three full days of family-friendly fun. Art Outside takes place from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday (September 11 through 13) at Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Avenue, Maplewood; 314-241-8337 or www.schlafly.com). Saturday’s highlights include sets by Rhythm Section Road Show and Big Brother Thunder and the MasterBlasters, among other acts. And bring your cash — this art fair offers so many pieces to wear, to hang, to share and to cherish. Admission is free. — BROOKE FOSTER

[ART EXHIBIT]

Islamic calligraphy is forever linked to the words of the Prophet; because figurative art was believed to lead to idolatry, early Muslim cultures created intricate and beautiful designs made of words and phrases for ornamentation. Indian-born artist Salma Arastu embraces this tradition in her work. She uses a flowing hand to inscribe beloved passages from the Qur’an, as well as the writings of the poet Rumi and the Hindu saint Meera Bai, atop color field paintings to create visible meditations of peace and hope. Even if you can’t read the words, Arastu’s paintings radiate a sense of harmonious calm. Painting Prayers: The Calligraphic Art of Salma Arastu, the new exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art on Saint Louis University’s campus (221 North Grand Boulevard; 314-977-7170 or www.mocra.slu. edu), opens with a free public reception from

A D R I A N R O D G E R S ( C ) B B C W O R L D W I D E 2 014

SALMA ARASTU

1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, September 13. Her work remains up through Sunday, December 6, and the gallery is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is free. — PAUL FRISWOLD

M O N D AY |09.14 [FILM]

THE HIVE

Films such Sleepaway Camp and Friday the 13th cemented summer camp as the domain of the slasher film, but the new movie The Hive makes Jason Voorhees’ former stomping grounds ground zero for the zombie apocalypse. The Hive is a collaboration between Chris Hardwick’s Nerdist Industries and DJ Steve Aoki’s soundtracking skills, and is described as Evil Dead meets Memento. The film tells the story of a camp counselor struck by amnesia, a plane crash in the nearby woods and a plague that’s turning everyone in Camp Yellow Jacket into monsters. The Hive is screened at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the

Chesterfield AMC 14 (3000 Chesterfield Mall, Chesterfield; www.fathomevents.com). Tickets are $12.50. — MARK FISCHER

T U E S D AY |09.15 [SCI-FI]

DOCTOR WHO

Since its reboot a decade ago, Doctor Who has grown from a cult show seen on late-night public television into a global phenomenon. As Whovians across time and space await the arrival of season nine, Fathom Events and BBC Worldwide present the season eight finale in RealD 3-D in select cinemas nationwide. These two episodes — “Dark Water” and “Death in Heaven” — feature the Doctor and Clara battling old foes the Cybermen and the mysterious Missy. In addition to these episodes, there’s a prequel scene for the season premiere, as well as an interview with stars Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman conducted by Wil Wheaton. You can get Who’d up at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and

Wednesday (September 15 and 16) at the AMC Esquire 7 (6706 Clayton Road, Richmond Heights; www.fathomevents). Tickets are $18. — ROB LEVY

From the left: Hurvin Anderson: Backdrop, the Johnsons go All the Way, the painted prayers of Salma Arastu, and Holly and the Doctor find trouble.

T H U R S D AY |09.17

at 7 p.m. tonight at the Ethical Society of St. Louis (9001 Clayton Road, Ladue; 314-3676731 or www.left-bank.com). Admission is $31 and includes a copy of the book. — BROOKE FOSTER

[THE FRANZ]

JONATHAN FRANZEN

Many great authors contend for “voice of a generation” status, and Jonathan Franzen often emerges as the frontrunner. After The Corrections cemented his reputation as a capital-N Novelist, Franzen went on to write the exquisite Freedom (lauded by everyone from President Obama to Oprah Winfrey). Now, Franzen returns to St. Louis (he grew up in Webster Groves) to give a reading from the brand-new Purity, a multigenerational, multi-continental epic that centers on a young woman’s quest to determine the identity of her birth father. Early reviews indicate preservation of Franzen’s literary-lion status. Franzen reads from and signs copies of Purity

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film Brando a Brando A TREASURE TROVE OF AUDIO TAPES REVEAL THE MAN HIDDEN DEEP INSIDE THE POP-CULTURE FIGURE Listen to Me Marlon Directed by Stevan Riley. Written by Stevan Riley and Peter Ettedgui. Opens Friday, September 4, at Landmark Plaza Frontenac Cinema, 1701 South Lindbergh Boulevard, Frontenac. Call 314-995-6285 or visit www. landmarktheatres.com.

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Hatchet Jobs ALEX GIBNEY HACKS HIS WAY THROUGH THE MYTHOLOGY THAT SURROUNDS STEVE JOBS Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine Directed by Alex Gibney. Opens Friday, September 4, at the Landmark Tivoli Theatre, 6350 Delmar Boulevard, University City. Call 314-727-7271 or visit www.landmarktheatres. com.

he last few years have seen a flood of documentary films of nearly every kind, from biographies of people and cultural events both great (Susan Sontag and Bob Marley) and obscure (the Beatles’ fan club president?), to speculative films so enamored of their own wool-gathering that they never get around to making a point (unless you believe that the carpet in The Shining looks like the Apollo 11 BY launchpad...). Such thematic diversity makes it hard to ROBERT discern exactly why we’re HUNT seeing such a torrent of nonfiction films, but perhaps it’s a logical after-effect of the information age: Now that we’ve filmed and recorded nearly everything in the world, we need someone to

sort through it all and, if they’re lucky, make sense of it. Currently reigning over the documentary field is the prolific Alex Gibney, who produces three or four films a year. (He began 2015 with the exceptional Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief and followed it with a justreleased portrait of Frank Sinatra, currently playing on cable.) Compared to filmmakers like Frederick Wiseman or Ken Burns, Gibney keeps a low directorial profile; the wide range of Gibney’s subjects allows him a kind of anonymity. Though he’s not hesitant to make opinions or label villains when he finds them, Gibney’s skills are those of an accomplished journalist, describing events, placing them in context and uncovering meaning within them. Gibney’s latest, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, begins with the death of his subject in October 2011, as hundreds of people wept and created impromptu memorials outside Apple stores across the world. Why, Gibney asks, are all of these people so affected by the death of a businessman? And what does it mean when they talk about the love they feel for the products he sold them? (I recall thinking the same thing at the time when I realized that the only Jobs-produced item I owned was a DVD of Toy Story 3.) Gibney’s film not only provides a look at the sometimes

Steve Jobs, perfecting the everyman image.

enigmatic Apple leader, but also at the myths — personal ones as well as professional — he created. As it turns out, Jobs wasn’t that nice a guy, and his company, for all its “Think Different” publicity, could be just as ruthless as any other international corporation. Image was important to Jobs and Apple from the very beginning, when the legend of Jobs and Steve Wozniak creating a computer in a garage was first created, it remained paramount to the point where Jobs may have deliberately understated his illness in his final months. Jobs also cheated friends, denied the paternity of his own daughter and generally behaved like a self-centered ass, when he wasn’t trying to present himself as a selfdenying Buddhist ascetic who just happened to run a billion dollar company. This doesn’t necessarily lessen his achievements — Apple is, after all, a very successful business — but Gibney’s film shows how Jobs and his peers branded nonconformity and turned it into a selling point. The viewer is struck, finally, by the image of hundreds of Jobs’ admirers standing on the sidewalk hypnotized by the glare of their iPhones, all of them thinking different in the very same way. ■ riverfronttimes.com

arlon Brando was not known for being particularly open about his personal life. He rarely gave interviews or hit the talk-show circuit. Living in seclusion in a gated mansion in Los Angeles and on Tetiaroa, his private Polynesian island, he withdrew from public life early in his career; later, he even tried to withdraw from acting, reducing most of his post-Godfather appearances to heavily disguised cameos. Stevan Riley’s Listen To Me Marlon breaks through the actor’s evasiveness to create a kind of alternate autobiography, a story not just of the actor’s professional triumphs and fame, but also of how he withdrew from them. Although Riley makes excellent use of archival footage and clips, the heart of the film is a collection of previously unheard tape recordings of Brando (including some made for self-hypnosis). The film reveals the unseen Brando, the actor with his guard down, revealing his private thoughts more openly than he ever did in public or on film. (The closest he ever came to showing himself onscreen was an autobiographical monologue in Last Tango in Paris; in Listen to Me, he accuses Tango director Bernardo Bertolucci of prying into his personal life.) He speaks about an unhappy childhood, his difficult relationship with an alcoholic mother and an abusive father (there’s an awkward scene from a 1950s talk show where he introduces his father), and the liberation he felt when he moved to New York and studied with Stella Adler. A few years later, he was one of the most acclaimed performers in the world and already bored with it. The film seems to pinpoint as the moment of his unrest the premiere of Guys and Dolls, when he was mobbed by his fans. Listen to Me Marlon is an intimate confession of the Brando born at that time, balancing his personal struggles with his public image, searching for happiness — which he apparently found on the island of Tahiti while filming Mutiny on the Bounty — but more often facing tragedy. It’s an astonishingly open and revealing film, skillfully edited and annotated by Riley. It’s the story Brando’s disappointing ghostwritten memoir Songs My Mother Taught Me wasn’t able to tell. — ROBERT HUNT

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STILL ROLLING OUR ONGOING, OCCASIONALLY SMARTASS, DEFINITELY UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO WHAT’S PLAYING IN ST. LOUIS THEATERS Robert Redford, star of A Walk in the

Woods, bought the rights to Bill Bryson’s travelogue of the same name way back in 2005, long before “hiking the Appalachian trail” became the best euphemism ever for cheating on your spouse with an Argentine (gracias, Mark Sanford!) and Reese Witherspoon made hiking crunchy-cool again in Wild. In the intervening ten years, walking-to-find-oneself is a path that’s frequently taken in film, becoming a subgenre all its own — with a popularity that suggests, when given the choice, most people would rather see the movie than read

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the book about pushing the limits. Anything other than actual, physical activity. Like, um, hiking, for example. ● More than 60 percent of Americans do not own a passport, and the film No Escape is hardly a commercial for getting one — or for promoting tourism in Asia, where fewer than 5 million of us ventured

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last year, for that matter. Owen Wilson plays Jack, a married American father of two, who relocates there for work (the exact country is never revealed, but all of Asia is pretty much the same, so NBD?). But the timing is terrible: There’s a coup, and the uprisers’ main concern seems to be killing the Dwyers, because they hate our freedom or money or something. It’s not easy trying to outrun these machetewielding foreigners as a family of four...and that’s probably why most of us just go to Destin. ● Ah, the trap of the stoner comedy: playing pot for laughs while somehow also advancing the plot. And much like completing a book or making a life-long commitment, that can be

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really daunting — particularly when super high. In American Ultra Jesse Eisenberg plays Mike, an aspiring comic-book author who pays the rent with the money he earns working at a convenience store. He has just never quite

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gotten around to proposing to his girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). But seemingly dim Mike manages to off a guy using just a spoon, which might begin to explain why CIA agents

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are after the pair. And who hasn’t been there while totally baked? — Kristie McClanahan

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Three Kings is known around town as having a Great Craft Beer list, but now we are just as famous for our Upscale, Global Pub Food as well as our Award Winning Atmosphere.

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MABEL SUEN

cafe

Whiskey Blues BAD SERVICE AND BAD FOOD DOOM THE WOOD CASK The Wood Cask 10332 Manchester Road, Kirkwood; 314-8581085. Mon.-Thurs. 4-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 4-11 p.m.; Sun. 9 a.m.-2 p.m. and 4-9 p.m.

riends, please gather ’round and lower your heads for a moment of silence as we say goodbye to a trend: the whiskey and comfort food joint. If the Wood Cask is any indication, it’s over — gone to that magical place in the sky to frolic BY with pan-Asian, molecular gastronomy, and chicken and C H E RY L waffles. It’s not that trends necesBAEHR sarily go to die in suburban strip malls (though that’s certainly a red flag). If the Wood Cask’s only crime were that of location, it would be a non-issue. No, the reason that the Wood Cask sounds the death rattle of whiskey joints is that it marks the point in this trend’s life cycle where a concept that was originally fresh and interesting

has become more watered down than Buffalo A selection of items from the Wood Cask: Scotch eggs, caramelized peaches, whiskey-glazed Trace on the rocks on a steamy August day — a chicken wings, a hand-cut beef rib eye and a peach old-fashioned. mere caricature of what you’ve come to expect that tastes like a cocktail of Maull’s and Jack classic, yet the sausage was tough and overrather than an actual, bona fide original. Perhaps I am being too hard on the Wood Daniel’s. A thick-cut rib eye came out cooked whelmed by fennel, and the entire enterprise Cask. After all, owner Dan Marten did a nice to a juicy medium-rare with grill marks so per- was dried out. There were five of us at the table. job converting Kirkwood’s former dark and fect you could play tic-tac-toe on it. The steak We didn’t finish it. dingy Eleven Mile House into a warm, in- rested atop sugary caramelized onions and was Meanwhile, the “Wood Cask Boil,” which viting space — particularly on the bar side. served with mild blue cheese compound but- we mistakenly assumed to be a nod to a Cajun Reclaimed wooden beams cover the walls, ter. Though the rib eye was far and away the shrimp boil, was advertised as being “poached old barrels dot the room, and a back-lit bar culinary highlight of the visit, a simple burger in tomato garlic broth.” Instead, it was swimshowcases an adequate whiskey collection. also showcased the Wood Cask’s excellent ming in cream of tomato soup — and room grill. The thick patty rested temperature soup at that. A few cubes of overThe most striking feature of on a buttery brioche bun and cooked potatoes drowned in the thick sauce. the room is the gigantic brass The Wood Cask was coated with enough black chandelier that casts an amber I’d say that the salmon was so mediocre it Chicken wings ......... $10 pepper and salt to form a thin, glow over the space. Though would be at home at the Cheesecake Factory “Cowboy flatbread” $14 delicious crust. the dining-room side is a ge— but the salmon I’ve had there (come on, who Hand-cut Aside from a Boston bibb hasn’t been dragged against their will?) has neric space with tables and beef rib eye ............... $34 lettuce salad that was oddly much more pizazz. The Wood Cask’s version half banquettes, the bar side served as a whole, core-on isn’t offensive per se, just painfully boring: overmakes guests feel as if they’ve head of greens, drenched in so much dressing cooked fish, lackluster brown sugar bourbon stepped into an elegant converted barn. And if you sit there and order something off I should have been served a spoon instead of a sauce that needed acid for oomph, and a boring the well-seasoned grill, you’ll have a good time fork, the bar-side experience had me holding sauté of asparagus and mushrooms. (especially if Pete is your bartender — but more out hope for the Wood Cask. Things took a draWere the pork chop not overcooked, it about that later). An order of plump chicken matic downturn, however, in the dining room. would have been an enjoyable dish. Again, The first indication of trouble with the food the sweet meat benefited from the seasoned wings, branded with char marks, are tossed in a light whiskey sauce (the menu says “glaze,” but was the Scotch egg, a deep-fried, sausage- grill, infusing it with a deep, earthy flavor. the coating was much too thin for that term) wrapped hard-boiled egg. These are a British The whiskey bordelaise continued on page 32 riverfronttimes.comS E PMT O 1 riverfronttimes.com EN MTBHE RX X–X 9 - 1 5X,, 2200105X RRI IVVEERRFFRROONNTT TTI IMMEESS 31

MABEL SUEN

The Scotch egg features a soft-boiled egg wrapped in sausage and coated in breadcrumbs.

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Wood Cask

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sauce took very little flavor from the booze but was still an adequate gravy, and the accompanying pudding was a well-executed marriage of cornbread and grits. However, our server announced with much fanfare that the pork chop was served medium. It arrived well-done. A minor detail also prevented the “Cowboy Flatbread” from realizing its full potential. The golden crust, glistening with olive oil and brushed with horseradish cream sauce, was covered with pieces of shaved, medium-rare roast beef. Fontina cheese melted over the dish, but the promised whiskey-glazed onions were nowhere to be found. Their presence would have taken the dish from good to really good. The biggest offenders were the fish tacos — so mushy that it was difficult to tell where the blackened tilapia ended and the flour tortillas began. Even the cabbage lacked crunch. A side of watery salsa was supposed to be used for a garnish, though this would have only made matters worse. Fortunately, this mess of a dish allowed me to save room for the meal’s high note — a bowl of bourbon-soaked peaches covered in thick, vanilla-scented whipped cream. Give me a few orders of these and several shots of whiskey, and I might come around in my opinion of the place. I take that back. I will not come around on this one. And the biggest offender of the meal was not the fish-taco debacle. It was the amateur service. Granted, we got our orders taken and

I’d say that the salmon was so mediocre it would be at home at the Cheesecake Factory — but the salmon I’ve had there has much more pizazz. were usually able to get our server’s attention by flagging him down, but I have little patience for someone who asked repeatedly, “Are you done with that?” in reference to signing the check, then ran us over while talking on his phone as we walked out the front door. Which is why I need to bring up Pete, the polished, knowledgeable bartender who seemed to be a one-man show at the Wood Cask. As we sat at the bar, I witnessed guests get up from the dining room to complain to him about the service. I saw servers come up to him and complain about the guests complaining about them. For two hours straight, he was putting out fires in the dining room, explaining the origins of Cuban rum to a group at the bar and making ticket after ticket of drinks. If you’re at the Wood Cask, sit at Pete’s bar and order a steak and you’ll have a good time. Unless he, too, figures out that whiskey joints are over. ■

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short orders [CHEF CHAT]

Joel Crespo of Guerrilla Street Food.

From Funerals to Filipino Food

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MABEL SUEN

oel Crespo was toiling in the funeral industry when he and pal Brian Hardesty first hatched the plan for Guerrilla Street Food (3559 Arsenal Street; 314-529-1328). “I started working at the funeral home as an in-between-things sort of job after I moved home to take care of my mother,” Crespo recalls. “The next thing I knew, I had been there for seven years. I was comfortable with the nineto-five hours, benefits and vacation, but I was sleepwalking through the job to pay the bills.” The restaurant business may seem like an unlikely leap for someone coming from the mortuary business — especially one who had no professional culinary background. Crespo, however, saw it as a natural fit. A self-described “fat kid” growing up, Crespo has always been passionate about food. “I’ve always loved to eat and have identified my memories with food,” he recalls. “I’m also a total nerd, and when I love something, I really geek out about it. I’ve been nerding out about food all my life.” In Hardesty, Crespo found a fellow food nerd to obsess with. The pair have been friends for years, and would get together to talk about cooking, gardening and what was going on in other cities. One thing they noticed was the rise of the food-truck scene and how St. Louis (at the time) had yet to embrace the new way of getting food to people. “We said to each other, ‘We can do that,’ Crespo recalls. “We talked about it for two or three years.” Eventually, their talk turned into action after Crespo had finally had enough with his gig at the funeral home. “I went to film school and worked in film and television out in LA for several years,” Crespo explains. “I needed to do something with my degree, so I told Brian that I was either going to leave town to get back into the industry or that we could start the food truck.” At the time, Hardesty was working at Terrene. He promptly put in his two weeks’ notice, and the pair bought an old laundry truck off of Craigslist for $2,000. “One day there was an article in the paper saying how Brian had quit Terrene to open a food truck,” Crespo remembers. “We knew at that point that there was no turning back.” As for the Guerrilla Street Food concept, Crespo credits Hardesty with pushing him to serve Filipino food. “I’m first-generation Filipino. My parents’ generation — at least here in St. Louis — wasn’t good about teaching its kids about their culture, so I really didn’t know that much about my heritage. All I knew was the food I grew up eating,” explains Crespo. “Brian and I wanted to do food that people couldn’t

get anywhere else, and he asked me why we shouldn’t consider Filipino food. No one else was doing it. “Brian is the instigator,” Crespo adds. “I was too shy to say, ‘Let’s do Filipino food.’ This has given me a way to reconnect with my heritage.” Crespo took a break from Guerrilla Steeet Food’s month-old brick-and-mortar restaurant to share his thoughts on the St. Louis food and beverage scene, the guilty pleasure that is probably killing him and why you should never call his food “pan-Asian.” What is one thing people don’t know about you that you wish they did? One of my pet peeves is the term “fusion,” especially when used to describe Asian styles of cooking. All Asian food is fusion by nature. Filipinos, for example, use Chinese noodles in their traditional dishes. They bake bread derived from Spanish recipes. They eat American Spam for breakfast. I think it’s a misnomer that is outdated. What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you? Hitting up the Asian food stores and perusing the aisles for new ingredients to play with. Walking my dog after I get home from work, no matter how long of a day it’s been. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Teleportation. I seem to never have enough time to travel, and since most of my traveling revolves around what I want to eat, it would be

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ideal to just pop over to another city or country for a meal and then pop back. What is the most positive trend in food, wine or cocktails that you’ve noticed in St. Louis over the past year? I am constantly and pleasantly surprised with how people in St. Louis are becoming more and more adventurous and sophisticated with their food choices. My business partner, Brian Hardesty, is always the one pushing to do more challenging dishes, like dinuguan [a traditional Filipino pork blood stew]. I’m always the voice of caution and skepticism, and pretty much every time I’m proven wrong. Who is your St. Louis food crush? Rick Lewis [of Southern]. Comfort food is my jam, and that dude hits all the right notes. He also has a great smile. Who’s the one person to watch right now in the St. Louis dining scene? Derek Roe at Dressel’s Public House. He’s consistently putting out great food, doing new specials and using local ingredients. He’s also just a great, down-to-earth guy. Which ingredient is most representative of your personality? Fish sauce. When you taste it or smell it, it might not seem like something you would instinctively think of as delicious, but it is actually crucial in giving a dish that extra special something. It’s sort of magical. A total underdog of an ingredient. It’s also funky.

If someone asked you to describe the current state of St. Louis’ culinary climate, what would you say? Exciting. There are so many great restaurants and chefs in this town. It has probably become cliché to say at this point, but I really feel like with all the new restaurants opening and all the new chefs emerging, St. Louis proves itself more and more to be just as good as any other city when it comes to great food. Name an ingredient never allowed in your kitchen. There are no rules as far as ingredients go. Anything can be made into a delicious dish if the concept is good and it’s executed right. I don’t like to think of food in terms of boundaries. What is your after-work hangout? I don’t go out that much after work, but when I do, it’s often at a dive bar like Iowa Buffet. You can’t go wrong with cheap drinks, an unpretentious crowd and tasty burgers. What’s your food or beverage guilty pleasure? Diet soda. I can’t defend it, I’m not proud of it, and it’s probably slowly killing me, but I’m addicted. What would be your last meal on earth? Kare-kare. It’s a traditional Filipino dish of oxtails braised in peanut sauce with eggplant, green beans and bok choy. I would want my mom’s version with a big side of shrimp paste to cut the richness of each bite. —CHERYL BAEHR

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[FIRST LOOK]

Above: Bibimbap with chicken (beef is also an option) at Fleur de Lilies. Below: Frog legs, served on a bed of peppery arugula.

ny number of restaurants in St. Louis can boast good étouffée. But good étouffée and good bibimbap? That’s a bit more unusual. Fleur de Lilies (1031 Lynch Street, 314932-5051) opened almost a month ago in the Soulard spot that previously held the muchloved Sage (and more recently, and less successfully, Gusto’s 314). And it’s attempting just such a mashup — with a menu combining Creole favorites like po’ boys and frog legs with Korean classics like kalbi, which are Korean-style barbecue short ribs. Oh, and did we mention there’s sushi, too? Fittingly, the restaurant is the brainchild of Misha Sampson, whose heritage is Creole, and Alexis Kim, whose is Korean. As St. Louis Magazine reported, Kim was previously a sushi chef, which explains its inclusion the menu. She is also an owner of BBC Cafe in the Central West End. Most of what’s on offer is less fusion than individual entreés from the two cultures. For the most part, you won’t find Creole notes in the Korean offerings or Korean notes in the Creole ones. The bibimbap is a classic version, with spicy kimchi, vegetables and your choice of protein unified by the expertly cooked egg and gochujang sauce that flavors it, all tossed in rice. The po’boys, too, are utterly traditional — but supremely wellexecuted. Fat juicy shrimp are lightly fried in a cornmeal dusting and served with pickles, iceberg lettuce and tomato on a soft French baguette. The same cornmeal coats the fried tomatoes and pickles — it’s not a generous portion, but the appetizer is expertly prepared. It also shows up on the frog legs, which are incredibly large. (Where do they get frogs that big?) They’re also quite tasty. The burger is one of the few dishes where several influences are in play at once. There’s

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Fleur de Lilies Now Serving a Creole/ Korean Mix in Soulard

a pretzel bun, while the meat is Wagyu beef topped with kimchi and a sesame-rich sauce. Fries, dusted with Parmesan, are served on the side. It’s a delicious combination. Fleur de Lilies has a lot going for it. The space is lovely, with clean, contemporary lines. It looks like not much has changed in the interior since its days as Sage — and that’s not a bad thing. It also has one of the loveliest patios in town. But while the service was extremely pleasant and personable on the day we visited, the kitchen seemed utterly unprepared for even the few tables in attendance. We waited far too long for our appetizers, and then they came out individually with long pauses in between — not ideal when we’d made it clear we wanted to share them. Same thing, unforgivably, for our entrées. Our server was apologetic (“the kitchen is usually not like this”), but it was hard to appreciate the good food we were being served when we found ourselves eating one at a time. Based on our server’s apologies, it’s clear Fleur de Lilies knows it has kinks. And Soulard denizens should hope the restaurant can work them out soon. The space is too lovely to sit empty. And the idea of good Korean food — and sushi! — in a part of town that’s dominated by American and French offerings is intoxicating. That there’s also excellent Creole renditions on offer only makes the place all the more promising. —SARAH FENSKE

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dining guide

SEPTEMBER 9-15, 2015

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

CENTRAL WEST END The BBQ Saloon 4900 Laclede Avenue; 314-833-6666. The BBQ Saloon’s Phil and Tracy Czarnec may seem like the new kids on the block when it comes to St. Louis’ barbecue scene, but they’ve actually been doing it for decades. Every Fourth of July, the Czarnecs would fire up the grill on the patio of their Wild Flower Restaurant and turn it into a holiday barbecue. Now they’ve opened a smokehouse directly across the street from where it all began — on the Central West End corner that used to house the Majestic. The Czarnecs gutted the old diner and turned it into a restaurant that sets itself apart from the crowd in two ways. First, it offers the largest whiskey selection — 520 bottles — in the region. Second, The BBQ Saloon grills up exotic game in addition to the traditional offerings. Alligator, emu, kangaroo and ostrich are served alongside the more traditional pork and beef ribs. The restaurant’s signature item is the pulled pork: It’s the best you’ll find in town. Evangeline’s 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644. Evangeline’s Bistro & Music House comes from the mind of a musician. Don Bailey, who got his start in the food business while running a concert venue named Three-1-Three in Belleville, Illinois, brings his latest venture to the Central West End. There, he’ll present Southern-style dishes alongside live blues, jazz and singer-songwriters. Eats include appetizers like the “Crawfish Carolyn” made with Louisiana crawfish tails, Brandy cream sauce and Parmesan cheese. For a more filling meal, supplement that with entree options including gumbo, red beans and rice, chicken and sausage jambalaya, Louisiana shrimp creole and étouffée. A drink menu features wine by the glass or bottle, several beer options, classic cocktails and Champagne cocktails to drink the night away. $$ Gamlin Whiskey House 236 North Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, 314-875-9500. Gamlin is unapologetically masculine with rustic decor, a hearty menu and what seems like every brown liquor under the sun. The spirits list includes selections from every major whiskey producer — all available neat — as part of a flight or in a craft cocktail. Signature drinks like the Bees Knees, a delicious blend of Knob Creek Rye and ginger ale over honey-laced ice cubes, showcase Gamlin’s cocktail creativity. Ask one of the expert bartenders for a quick lesson on the nuances between Kentucky Bourbon, Tennessee whiskey, and Irish and Scotish whiskey, single-barrel bourbon, 12-year single malt Scotch, 20-year old bourbon, small-batch whiskey and rye, or just dive in solo. Whiskey may be the theme, but Gamlin does not skimp on the food. The menu is unfussy, with items like rib eye, pork steak and bourbon-brined chicken providing hearty comfort. The “Moon Dance Farm Pot Pie” is especially noteworthy, its beef-laden tomato broth made rich with tender meat, vegetables and creamy mashed potatoes. Sure, Gamlin is a little indulgent, but, after a few Manhattans, we don’t really care. $$$ Mary Ann’s Tea Room 4732 McPherson Avenue, St. Louis, 314-361-5303. Located in the large greenhouse in the back of the boutique Enchanting Embellishments, Mary Ann’s Tea Room is an ostentatious scene — think Scarlett O’Hara meets Marie Antoinette. The Central West End lunchtime eatery is named after Mary Ann Allison, the late socialite and building’s former owner who tragically passed away in 2009 while trying to save her pets from a house fire. Mary Ann’s Tea Room serves classic “ladies who lunch” fare, such as chicken salad with grapes on a croissant, quiche and smoked salmon. The restaurant excels at soups, including the must-try crab bisque that is loaded with lump crabmeat and garnished with caviar. The savory chicken pie and smoked-salmon duo are also noteworthy options, as are the boozy tea infusions. Take your mom and grandmother on a lunch date, and they will be impressed. $$ Nathalie’s 4359 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-1580. Nathalie Pettus brings the bounty of her Overlook Farms to the Central West End at Nathalie’s. The restaurant is truly farm-to-table: Nearly all of the ingredients, including the meat, are sourced directly from Overlook, hand-selected by

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Pettus and chef Jimmy Voss. Through his eclectic menu, Voss takes diners on a culinary world tour. There’s classic French, represented by rich and tender coq au vin; Greek moussaka al forno; Middle Eastern style vegetable kofta; and feijoada, the national dish of Brazil. The pate maison should not be missed. The house-made beef-liver pâté is flecked with hazelnuts and served with a red-onion jam and traditional accompaniments. The food is only part of the story at Nathalie’s. The building, a magnificent 19th-century mansion, is one of the most ornate dining rooms in town. Venetian chandeliers hang from the ceilings, gold paint trims the walls and red roses decorate the white linen-clothed tables of the dining salons. (The term “dining room” just doesn’t do the space justice.) Even the restrooms are a sight to behold — there’s even a marble fireplace in the ladies’ room. It’s a sight to behold. $$$$ Pizzeria Mia 4501 Maryland Avenue, St. Louis. Bosnian émigré Dado Beganovic brightens the residential Central West End Corner of Maryland and Taylor avenues with Pizzeria Mia. Occupying the storefront that used to be a travel agency, the pizzeria cooks up wood-fired pies that are like a cross between Neapolitan and New York styles. The signature crust — a secret recipe from Beganovic’s Bulgarian friend — is soft and raised with just a little bit of crispness around the edges. Toppings include classics such as fresh mozzarella and basil (the Margherita) and greasy pepperoni, as well as nontraditional pizza offerings like the gyros pizza. The signature pie is the spinach pizza, a rich blend of roasted garlic, spinach, ricotta and mozzarella cheeses. The restaurant also serves a few pastas and a calzone, as well as homemade desserts by Beganovic’s mom — literally, she makes them at her home and brings them in in her personal to-go containers. When the weather permits, pull up a chair under the bright red umbrellas - and don’t forget to bring the pooch; the patio is dog-friendly. $-$$

THE LOOP Peacock Loop Diner 6261 Delmar Boulevard, University City, 314-721-5555. The latest feather in Joe Edwards’ (Blueberry Hill, Pin-Up Bowl) impressively plumed cap, Peacock Loop Diner serves breakfast and lunch staples 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The bright, retro-themed restaurant is outfitted with a dizzying array of 1950s kitsch and boasts a curtained, rotating circular booth called the “carousel of love.” The menu offers everything from omelets and biscuits and gravy, to burgers and corn dogs. On the breakfast side, the “Finals Breakfast Sandwich” is a must-try: an egg, griddled ham, bacon, sriacha and mixed-berry jam are sandwiched between two malty waffles. Ask for a side of maple syrup, and the dish becomes a quirky take on a Monte Cristo. Another standout is the chicken curry salad melt with Muenster cheese. And don’t leave without trying at least one of the seventeen different varieties of spiked milkshakes. They are break-up cures in a frosty glass. $-$$ Salt and Smoke 6525 Delmar Boulevard, University City, 314-727-0200. Salt + Smoke infuses the Loop air with the unmistakable smell of barbecue. The scent may draw diners in, but the delectable barbecue taste will keep the crowds coming back for more. The latest venture from restaurateur Tom Schmidt, best known for Franco in Soulard, Salt + Smoke features Texas-style barbecue, a huge bourbon selection and comprehensive craft-beer offerings. Fried pickles and hush puppies dipped in honey butter are standout appetizers, and the falafel sandwich — though a surprise at a barbecue place — is the closest thing a vegetarian can get to barbecue. St. Louis-cut ribs are dry-rubbed and fall off the bone. Those who order the brisket are given the option of the fatty part, the lean part or the burnt end. The lean part is tender and needs no sauce. The thick-sliced smoked bologna, flecked with fat, jalapenos and cheddar cheese, is more like salami than the thin-sliced Oscar Mayer deli slices. Be forewarned: A little goes a long way. Salt + Smoke offers thoughtful side dishes like white-cheddar cracker mac & cheese, coleslaw tossed with apples and fennel, and sweet creamed corn. And make sure to save room for the chocolate pie. The flaky crust and bittersweet pudding-like filling make it an excellent ending to a great meal. $$

OVERLAND Chef Ma’s Chinese Gourmet 2336 Woodson Road, Overland; 314-395-8797. Chef Ma’s Chinese Gourmet sits in a former Taco Bell off of a busy intersection in Overland. It’s not exactly where you’d gravitate in search of an authentic Chinese experience, but don’t let that fool you. The restaurant is owned by Chef Ma, the former banquet chef for Mandarin House whose culinary resume spans nearly forty years. Chef Ma has cooked everywhere from Hong Kong to Malaysia to Singapore, and he integrates those flavors into a traditional menu he is more than happy to share with his guests — though your best bet is to simply tell him how many people are in your party and let him create the menu for you. If you’re lucky, he’ll bring out the fish stew, a delicate simmering cauldron of flaky whitefish, pork meatballs and vegetables, including exotic mushrooms. The twice-cooked pork is another treat. Tender slices of caramelized pork belly are cooked with tofu, eggplant and bell peppers then glazed in a sweet and fiery sauce. Chef Ma’s also offers an American-style Chinese menu that gets the same care and respect as his authentic fare. Dishes like hot braised chicken or Mandarin pork cutlets benefit from Ma’s handmade sauces and in-house butchery. This place is an unexpected gem.

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SEPTEMBER 9-15, 2015

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music

B-Sides 42 Critics’ Picks 46 Concerts 50 Clubs

Too Blessed ST. LOUIS GEARS UP FOR ANOTHER WEEKEND OF LOUFEST FUN fter years of scheduling conflicts, festival aficionado Katy Miller will fi nally get to see a music fest in her hometown. Anticipating a lineup that features her favorite band, Umphrey’s McGee, along with headlining acts Ludacris and the Avett Brothers, she beams a wide smile as she plans for the weekend. “Instead of family vacations, my friends and I treat these festivals as our vacation,” she says. “One big family enjoying lots of great music together for a weekend — what could be better?” LouFest returns to Forest Park for its sixth installment this Saturday and Sunday, September 12 and 13. Though the lineup is certainly the BY main draw, Mike Van Hee of JEREMY production company Listen Live Entertainment, thinks ESSIG of the show as an all-encompassing experience. “It’s not just for music lovers,” he says. “Some of the folks we work with say it’s all about the vibe…. Once you get out there on the field, there’s tons of stuff going on — there are things to see and do that are completely separate from the music.” Specifically, Van Hee mentions the Nosh Pit, an area akin to a food court, featuring local restaurants, and LouFest’s Market Square, a collection of local vendors, as two of the festival’s best offerings. LouKids, an area where children can get hands-on experience with musical instruments or have a rock & roll makeover — complete with funky hair — will also be available. Kids ten and under are admitted free. Wes Johnson, Miller’s co-worker at Felix’s Pizza Pub, will be attending LouFest for the second year, and says he knows the vibe Van Hee is talking about. “The time spent partying with friends, coworkers and neighborhood folk is what has me coming back,” Johnson says. “I can’t wait to hang out and party with the good people of St. Louis and whoever visits our city.” The weekend’s reputation also drew in Jessica Donahoe, who will be attending the festival for the first time. Donahoe says she decided to buy tickets during LouFest’s “blind presale” — a period where tickets are sold at a reduced rate before any acts have been announced — thanks to positive reviews from friends. Hoping to have a music-festival

STEVE TRUESDELL

experience of her own, she says she isn’t too concerned with the lineup, though she is “dying to see Billy Idol. More specifically, dying to see my husband cringing throughout Billy Idol’s performance.” Corey Woodruff also cites Billy Idol as a can’t-miss act. A local drummer and the official photographer for the festival’s first three years, Woodruff will be attending for the first time as a fan. Just like Donahoe, he bought tickets during the blind presale. “From a fan’s perspective, to have a festival this affordable, with this caliber of performers in our own back yard, is huge,” he says. As a local musician, however, Woodruff wishes the festival would include more than just a few local acts (Pokey LaFarge, American Wrestlers and Clockwork are all on the roster), although he understands the pressure producers are under to find bands that will move tickets. Jacob Videmschek, another St. Louisbased musician, said he sees the inclusion of LaFarge and Clockwork as a sign that “LouFest is slowly but surely hoping to connect with St. Louis as an advocate of local music.” Van Hee confirms that St. Louis bands will always be part of the show’s lineup, and

notes that this will be Clockwork’s second appearance at LouFest. (The group previously participated in a battle of the bands competition on the kids’ stage.) Videmschek attended for the first time in 2014 and says he hopes LouFest will continue to focus on local music and the St. Louis community. “Forest Park is where we put our best foot forward,” he adds, “and LouFest has the opportunity to be our annual comingout party.” The significance of Forest Park is not lost on Brooke Leal, who works for C3 Presents, the Austin-based co-producer of the event. “It’s one of the most beautiful venues I’ve ever seen,” Leal says, adding that the location is one of the major things that sets LouFest apart from other festivals C3 produces, such as Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza. For all the enthusiasm attendees have for the experience and location, Videmschek, Woodruff and Donahoe all share some disappointment about this year’s lineup. Still, they think LouFest’s benefits far outweigh the letdown. But for frequent attendee Jameson O’Guinn, this year’s acts will keep him from attending a fourth time. “The festival was on a really amazing upriverfronttimes.com

LouFest returns to Forest Park for the sixth time this weekend.

ward trajectory for the past few years,” he says. “Flaming Lips, Wilco, Arctic Monkeys, Future Islands and Outkast. Even the bands farther down the bill were relatively solid. Then the 2015 lineup dropped. Hozier? He has one single and he’s headlining? Avett Brothers. Ludacris. Billy Idol. It’s a joke.” After obtaining VIP passes last year, O’Guinn said he had such an incredible experience he decided to buy the passes for every year going forward. But when the bands for this year were announced, he says, he “couldn’t fathom even buying the cheap tickets.” LouFest’s producers understand that disappointing some fans is an inevitable outcome of booking such a large event each year. Leal says C3 takes fan feedback very seriously, and the company pores over the audience surveys when the weekend wraps. Besides, Van Hee says, the best part about a music festival is discovering new favorites. “You’ll stumble upon an act that you did not come there for and then you’re walking by a stage, and [it] just pleasantly surprises you. And now you’ve just found somebody you’re a huge fan of.” ■

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Enough Already

b-sides

ANOTHER BAND VAN BURGLARIZED — THIS ONE, OUTSIDE SCHLAFLY TAP ROOM AT LUNCH

Sights Set on the Small Screen

STL UP LATE IS PRIMED TO MAKES ITS MOVE FROM LIVE PERFORMANCE TO TELEVISION

M A L LO R Y M I N O R

n March 2015, local late-night talk show STL Up Late recorded yet another episode in front of a live studio audience. The cast and crew assembled much as they have since the show’s debut on October 12, 2013, but with one major difference: This taping would not be split into bite-sized chunks for YouTube. Instead, the night would stay intact as a pilot episode, boosting STL Up Late from a live studio show to a full-blown TV production on local CBS affiliate KMOV (Channel 4), which officially offered the program a slot on its schedule beginning in November. “They’re giving us a shot but waiting to see if we can pull it off,” says Eric Christensen, host and co-founder of STL Up Late. Christensen grew up in Murray, Kentucky, and started pursuing comedy as a high schooler. In 2006, he moved to Chicago where he studied and performed at ComedySportz, CiC Theater, iO Theater and Second City. Despite being deeply involved with the improv and standup scenes there, he relocated to St. Louis in 2012. “For a brief period, I was a stay-at-home dad with my daughter,” Christensen says. “For some reason, I started watching late-night talk shows. It just kind of hit me that this would be a great way to show off the city of St. Louis and continue doing comedy. I just had a baby, but I wasn’t able to get out. It seemed like a win-win.” continued on page 44

STL Up Late host Eric Christensen interviews a guest.

HOMESPUN M T. T H E L O N I O U S A Little More Time mtthelonious.bandcamp.com

t the tail end of 2014, acoustic trio Mt. Thelonious released a digital EP called Other People’s Music, and as the title suggests, the folk group took a swing at several rock and alternative staples it had no hand in originally composing. Songs by the Police, Radiohead, the Pixies and the Rolling Stones were recast for acoustic guitar, double bass and violin. Tellingly, however, Mt. Thelonious used the excursion not as a means to rock out but as a way to peel into the soft, fertile core of these well-worn tracks. The three-piece takes a similar approach to structuring its own songs for its second full-length, using patience and persistence to build tension organically, ranging from the strummy, reel-like “Run” to the communal, all-in choruses on “The Prayer.” Opening track “Word Grenades” takes on the air of a desperate lover’s plea, and the eight-track album carries that tone and spirit on the back of Ian Lubar’s words and performance. For “I’ll Go On With You,” Mark Wallace uses his upright bass less to drive the rhythm and more to add a sliding, swooping counterpoint, and Alyssa Avery

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follows suit with far-off, keening violin lines. Like many songs here, it’s in no hurry to rush through itself, and its subtle crescendo gives Lubar room to show off the potency of his voice. As a lyricist, though, he manages to both undersell and oversell his devotion: “I’ve been meaning to tell you, I think you’re pretty swell / And I will stand with you unto the gates of hell.” It’s one of a few clumsy lines on the album, but you never doubt the sincerity or intensity of Lubar’s vocals, many of which are buoyed by Avery’s harmonies. “White Motel” uses the trio’s sparseness and the resonant thrum of string music to cast a shadow over Lubar’s whispered delivery, this time telling of poverty, addiction and the dead-end choices that go along with them. The story gets a little maudlin — broad strokes are the order of the day — but Mt. Thelonious continues to embrace the relative limitations of its setup to tailor its definition of folk music. —CHRISTIAN SCHAEFFER Want your CD to be considered for a review in this space? Send music c/o Riverfront Times, Attn: Homespun, 6358 Delmar Boulevard, Suite 200, St. Louis, Missouri, 63130. Email music@riverfronttimes.com for more information.

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Charlottesville, Virginia-based group became the latest victim on September 1 of what has become an epidemic of band thefts in St. Louis — and this time, the burglary happened in broad daylight. Love Canon, a bluegrass band making its way to Denver, stayed outside Louisville on Monday night and stopped for lunch at the Schlafly Tap Room in downtown St. Louis around 2:15 p.m. When they keyed into their Ford Transit approximately one hour later, however, they were horrified — just about $20,000 in gear had been taken, including several Macbook Pros, two pairs of custom-molded headsets, backpacks, luggage bags and a large box full of cables and other equipment. Only their instruments were spared — and that’s solely because they’d customized the van to create a sleeping space, which separated the areas accessible from the back and the side door. The thieves even took one member’s songwriting journal. “That book was months of work,” band member Colin Perkinson says. “These are the kinds of things that can’t be replaced.” Andy White, director of operations for the two Schlafly restaurants, confirmed that the theft was reported on Tuesday. He said the restaurant does not currently have security cameras facing the parking lot — but that installing them is now under consideration. Two weeks ago, as KMOV (Channel 4) reported, three people were robbed at gunpoint leaving the Tap Room. But just as distressing to touring bands have been a series of thefts that have occurred at random parking lots across town. Last year, the RFT reported on nearly a dozen incidents from May to November. In many cases, even though the bands took major precautions, their gear was taken. After a brief respite, the thefts seem to be back with a vengeance this year. Vans have been burglarized outside the City Museum and even in Clayton. Love Canon’s Perkinson notes that the group’s vehicle had privacy glass — there was no way anyone could have guessed they were a traveling band. Yet the thieves were clearly pros: The cops dusted for fingerprints and found none. The thieves seem to know exactly what they’re looking for, and they move swiftly enough to go for it in the middle of downtown on a sunny day. For the bluegrass musicians, the experience was dispiriting, to say the least. “We were talking about it, and even though it’s an isolated incident, we are extremely unlikely to ever return,” Perkinson says. “And that’s too bad. A lot of other musician friends have been victims of theft in St. Louis or know people who have. The word is out that St. Louis is not a safe place to play or even visit if you’re in a van.” —SARAH FENSKE

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M A L LO R Y M I N O R

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continued from page 42

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STL Up Late needs $35,000 to make the jump to television.

He met with friend and local filmmaker for tapings. At press time, the campaign is shy Josh McNew to pitch the idea, and the two by nearly ten grand, and there’s just one week developed STL Up Late with a small but left. With Kickstarter, programs must meet dedicated writing staff. Performers were their goal in order to receive funding. Being sourced from local comedians and improvisers, even $1 short would mean that STL Up Late and soon the crew assembled for its first show would not receive a single penny. But if funded, STL Up Late will debut on at the Satori Theatre. “It was busting at the seams the first night. KMOV in early November. Although the show I had butterflies in my stomach and felt like is hyper-local, the crew plans on bringing in guests who are only I was going to vomit,” tangentially connected to Christensen says. “That felt “THERE’S A POINT WHEN St. Louis, such as actors amazing. I know the show wasn’t great by today’s YOU’VE BEEN DOING A filming in town or bands passing through on tour. standards, but it was such “The station will an amazing night.” He adds CERTAIN KIND OF SHOW get whatever the show that the shows have gotten progressively better, and FOR A LONG TIME, AND is in TV form, and any digital rights we’ll have,” that the whole production is ready to take on the new YOU GET COMFORTABLE. Christensen says. “The online show will probably challenge of TV. be longer than what you “There’s a point when WE’RE KIND OF A see on broadcast.” you’ve been doing a certain Past episodes, split kind of show for a long MACHINE NOW. WE into shorter clips of time, you get in the habit and get comfortable. We’re KNOW HOW TO DO THIS, live music, interviews and sketches, can be kind of a machine now. We found on YouTube or know how to do this, but BUT WE CAN PUSH at www.stluplate.com. we can push ourselves to Christensen says the OURSELVES TO DO do something more,” he cast still plans on offering says. SOMETHING MORE.” content online while In July, the production working through social moved from its home at the Satori Theatre to the Marcelle, a new space media to promote full episodes. “We want to keep pushing ourselves to located in Grand Center. The facility, funded by the Kranzberg family, offers more options be better and do things on a grander scale for studio lighting and sound — essential for with this show,” he explains. “That’s what motivates us. Let’s struggle again; let’s bring live production. Last month, the crew took to Kickstarter those butterflies back. We’ll get great again, with a goal of $35,000 — the bare minimum and get better at making a TV show.” —JOSEPH HESS needed to purchase the equipment necessary

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critics’ picks 7 p.m. Friday, September 11. Pop’s, 401 Monsanto Avenue, Sauget, Illinois. $18 to $20. 618-274-6720. When Gwar vocalist/mastermind Dave Brockie died of a heroin overdose in March 2014, many fans feared that the band of freaks he had assembled 30 years prior would die with him. A year and a half later, we can say with confidence that those fears were unfounded. Now fronted by Michael Bishop, who had previously been the band’s bassist in the ’80s and ’90s, Gwar has embarked on several well-received tours in the aftermath of Brockie’s death, performed at this year’s Denver Riot Fest and even opened an “upscale dive bar” in Richmond that bears the group’s name. Brockie had often expressed his wish that the band continue for as long as possible, even if he was no longer around. It is good to see that wish fulfilled. Sent Packing: When Bishop took over, Gwar also moved a new character into the lineup: Vulvatron, played by Kim Dylla. On May 7, roughly a year after she joined, the band issued a statement saying that she would no longer be performing with the group, reportedly due to alcoholism. In other words, at this show you won’t likely have blood sprayed at you out of anyone’s nipples. But rest assured: There will be blood. —DANIEL HILL

STEVE TRUESDELL

GWA R

THE LIGHTHOUSE AND THE WHALER 8:30 p.m. Monday, September 14. The Firebird, 2706 Olive Street. $10 to $12. 314-535-0353. With a name as cumbersome and precious as a rejected Hemingway story, the Lighthouse and the Whaler is actually the opposite of rugged minimalism. The Cleveland-based band, led by songwriter Michael LoPresti, wouldn’t exist as a strum-and-whoa-oh band without the likes of Arcade Fire, let alone the Lumineers, but onstage the band’s unpredictable sense of grandeur can be as fun and freaky as a Flaming Lips show (sans confetti and fake blood). The band’s rhythmic shifts, hooky dynamics and pure sense of play dare you to not dance your twee ass off. Upstage Potential: No headliner likes getting blown off the stage by a support act, but Killers-esque opener Born Cages threatens to do just that. —ROY KASTEN 46

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From the top: Gwar, the Lighthouse and the Whaler and Tü Fest.

DAREN GRATTON, BOBBY STEVENS, MATT HARNISH, MILES LONG, DAN BLAKE 8 p.m. Tuesday, September 15. Foam, 3359 South Jefferson Avenue. $5. 314-772-2100. Sometimes we all need a change of scenery and a break from routine. Songwriters are no different, and every now and again they ditch their bandmates for a chance to stretch outside their normal gigs. This multi-dude bill at Foam offers a coterie of rock frontmen stripped of their normal trappings. Daren Gratton is best known for his work in the Haddonfields and the Winchester, but his two solo EPs from 2015 pair his punk energy with dialed-back acoustic strums. You know Matt Harnish as the leading force of scene godfather Bunnygrunt, but expect deep cuts and some genre-hopping covers. Bobby Stevens plays alongside Dan Johanning in the Wilderness, but his own compositions (last heard on 2012’s winsome Come One, Come All!) hew toward Springsteen-style rock heroics and dusky twang. Five Fresh Fellows: Banjo-slinger and percussionist Miles Long and Dan Blake round out this five-act bill.—CHRISTIAN SCHAEFFER

S C OT T M U S L E R

3:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, September 12 and 13. 2720 Cherokee, 2720 Cherokee Street. $20 to $40. 314-875-0233. Tü Fest is the St. Louis underground music community’s response to LouFest, the decidedly larger, more corporateowned, less artist-driven festival that also happens to take place this weekend. The event debuted last year as Pü Fest, and brought in dozens of acts including New York’s Perfect Pussy and Kansas City’s Faultfinder to a south-city stage. This year sees the festival expanding its lineup, with out-of-town standouts including Lord Green, Oozing Wound, American Hate, Solid Attitude and Glow God performing alongside a veritable who’s who of St. Louis’ finest off-kilter acts. Be sure to catch Military Police and Times Beach on day two — both bands feature St. Louis ex-pat Mark Plant, and each set is slated as the groups’ last. Get Started Early: Friday, September 11, marks the official Tü Fest kickoff show, which will take place at Blank Space and feature performances by the Brainstems, Ghost Ice, Gym Shorts, Hardbody and Veil. Admission is free for fest ticket holders; otherwise you will pay a scant $5.—DANIEL HILL

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6261 Delmar in The Loop

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Delmar Loop Wednesday 11/11 ON SALE 9/11

Friday 9/11

THIS WEEK

Saint Louis

Friday 11/13

saTUrday 9/12

Friday 9/25

ON SALE 9/11

Wednesday 9/9

THIS WEEK

Friday 9/18

sUnday 9/27

TUesday 9/29

with Marc Scibilia, The Young Wild

UPCOMING SHOWS

9.30 PARADOSIO 10.2 FUNK VOLUME TOUR 2015 W/ HOPSIN 10.6 GHOST 10.7 FATHER JOHN MISTY 10.8 BEN RECTOR 10.9 TORI KELLY 10.12 BRING ME THE HORIZON 10.13 CHANCE THE RAPPER 10.14 COHEED AND CAMBRIA 10.15 FLUX PAVILION 10.16 LETTUCE 10.17 GRACE POTTER 10.19 PASSION PIT

10.20 MAC MILLER 10.21 LYLE LOVETT & JOHN HIATT 10.23 YELAWOLF/MEG MYERS 10.24 DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS 10.27 GORGON CITY 10.28 ANDREW MCMAHON IN THE WILDERNESS / NEW POLITICS 10.29 SLIGHTLY STOOPID 10.30 MAT KEARNEY 10.31 SOMO 11.5 THE MAVERICKS 11.6 TIMEFLIES 11.7 JOHNNY RIVERS 11.8 NEW FOUND GLORY/YELLOWCARD

visit us online for complete show information facebook.com/ThePageantSTL

@ThePageantSTL

thepageantstl.tumblr.com

thepageant.com // 6161 delmar blvd. / St. Louis, MO 63112 // 314.726.6161

riverfronttimes.com

SEPTEMBER 9-15, 2015

RIVERFRONT TIMES

THIS JUST IN The Agonist: Wed., Sept. 30, 7 p.m., $15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. Alejandro Escovedo: Sun., Oct. 25, 8 p.m., $25-$35. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-4365222. The Alley Tones: Wed., Oct. 14, 10 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Boo Boo Davis & the Bumblebee Trio: Sat., Oct. 3, 10 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Harvey Lockhart & Friends: Sun., Oct. 11, 5 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Lil' G. Weevil Band: Sun., Oct. 4, 10 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Love Jones "The Band": Sun., Oct. 11, 8 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-4365222. The Bel Airs: Sat., Oct. 17, 10 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Big Freedia: w/ Boyfriend Fri., Nov. 13, 8:30 p.m., $20$22.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. Big George Brock Jr.: Fri., Oct. 2, 10 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Billy Barnett Band: Thu., Oct. 1, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Billy Barnett Band: Thu., Oct. 15, 10 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Blind Willie & the Broadway Collective: Mon., Oct. 26, 9 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Bob "The Bumblebee" Kamoske: Tue., Oct. 13, 9:30 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Brian Curran: Sat., Oct. 3, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Brother Jefferson Duo: Thu., Oct. 8, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Brother Jefferson Duo: Fri., Oct. 9, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Car Seat Headrest: Sat., Dec. 12, 8 p.m., $10. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. Dave Weld & the Imperials: Fri., Oct. 23, 10 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Doug Deming & the Jewel Tones: featuring Dennis Gruenling Fri., Oct. 9, 10 p.m. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Failure: w/ Local H Sat., Oct. 17, 8 p.m., $20-$25. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. Gemini Syndrome: w/ 9Electric Sun., Oct. 4, 7 p.m., $13$15. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. Good for the Soul: Sun., Oct. 4, 6 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Have Mercy: w/ Transit, SoMoS, Microwave Tue., Oct. 27, 7 p.m., $15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. Iron Mike Norton: Sat., Oct. 31, 7 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Ivas John Band: Sat., Oct. 10, 10 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. JAJA2 Music Showcase: featuring Royal T Sun., Oct. 25, 5 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Jake's Leg: Sat., Oct. 31, 10 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. James Armstrong Band: Sat., Oct. 24, 10 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-4365222. James Harman Band: Fri., Oct. 16, 10 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Javier Matos: Mon., Oct. 12, 8 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Joe Metzka Band: Thu., Oct. 1, 10 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Joe Metzka Band: Thu., Oct. 15, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Joe Metzka Band: Thu., Oct. 22, 10 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Johnny Azari: Wed., Oct. 21, 10 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Johnny Rivers: w/ Butch Wax & the Hollywoods Sat., Nov. 7, 8 p.m., $35-$75. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. Keith Moyer Group: Mon., Oct. 19, 8 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

RIVERFRONT TIMES

SEPTEMBER 9-15, 2015

riverfronttimes.com

COURTESY OF INTERNATIONAL TALENT BOOKING

concerts

Soulfly will perform at Fubar on November 12. Larry McCray Band: Thu., Oct. 8, 9:30 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Leroy Jodie Pierson: Fri., Oct. 2, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Leroy Jodie Pierson: Fri., Oct. 16, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Leroy Jodie Pierson: Fri., Oct. 30, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Leslie Sanazaro & Sharon Bear: Tue., Oct. 13, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Lincoln Durham: Fri., Oct. 2, 8 p.m., $12-$14. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. Love Jones "The Band": Sun., Oct. 18, 8:30 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Miller & the Other Sinners: Fri., Oct. 23, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-4365222. Miss Jubilee & the Humdingers: Fri., Oct. 30, 10 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. More Than Blue: Fri., Oct. 23, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. More Than Blue: Thu., Oct. 29, 10 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Musical Tribute to Jazz Legend Willie Akins: Sun., Oct. 4, 2 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Our Last NIght: w/ Palisades, Hail the Sun, Picturesque Fri., Nov. 20, 6 p.m., $15-$18. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. Rocky & the Wranglers: Tue., Oct. 27, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Soul Cafe Jazz Group: Sun., Oct. 18, 5 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Soul Sistahs: Tue., Oct. 27, 9:30 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Soulfly: w/ Shattered Sun, Incite, Article III, Grays Divide Thu., Nov. 12, 7 p.m., $20-$22. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. St. Louis Social Club: Tue., Oct. 6, 8 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. St. Louis Social Club: Tue., Oct. 20, 8 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Survay Says: w/ the Decline Sun., Oct. 18, 5 p.m., $8-$10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. Switchback: Thu., Nov. 5, 8 p.m., $30-$30. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900. Third Sight Band: Wed., Oct. 7, 10 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Tom Byrne & Erika Johnson: Mon., Oct. 5, 8 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Tom Hall: Sat., Oct. 17, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Trigger 5: Sat., Oct. 10, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Turquoise Jeep: w/ Death and Taxes, Billy Brown Thu., Oct. 1, 9 p.m., $12-$15. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis. Warren G: Sat., Oct. 17, 7 p.m., $20-$25. Pop's Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. Wolves at the Gate: w/ Torn at the Seams Tue., Oct. 6, 6 p.m., $14. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. Yip Deceiver: w/ the Free Years Sun., Oct. 18, 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363. Zakk Knight: Sat., Oct. 24, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Wedneday 9.9.15 What: Parties in the Park When: 5PM Where: Downtown Clayton

Friday 9.11.15 What: Music at the Intersection When: 5PM Where: Grand Center

Sat. 9.12 & Sun. 9.13 STL Public Library - 9.5.15

What: Fiesta on Cherokee When: 11AM Where: Cherokee Street

Sat. 9.12 & Sun. 9.13 What: LouFest When: 11AM Where: Forest Park STL Public Library - 9.5.15

STL Public Library - 9.5.15 For more photos go to the Street Team STL Public Library - 9.5.15

website at www.riverfronttimes.com.

Tower Grove Farmers Market - 9.5.15

Twilight Tuesdays - 9.1.15

Twilight Tuesdays - 9.1.15 riverfronttimes.com

SEPTEMBER 9-15, 2015

RIVERFRONT TIMES

out every night “Out Every Night” is a free listing open to all bars and bands in the St. Louis and Metro East areas. However, we reserve the right to refuse any entry. Listings are to be submitted by mail, fax or e-mail. Deadline is 5 p.m. Monday, ten days before Thursday publication. Please include bar’s name, address with ZIP code, phone number and geographic location; nights and dates of entertainment; and act name. Mail: Riverfront Times, attn: “Clubs,” 6358 Delmar Blvd., Suite 200, St. Louis, MO 63130-4719; fax: 314-754-6416; e-mail: clubs@ riverfronttimes.com. Schedules are not accepted over the phone. Because of last-minute cancellations and changes, please call ahead to verify listings.

T H U R S DAY

OZARK OUTDOORS PRESENTS

SCHWAGSTOCK A CAMPOUT CONCERT EVENT

Biters: 7:30 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. Black Pussy: w/ Ape Machine 8 p.m., $10. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. Black Tusk: w/ Lazer/Wulf, Wrong, Valley 8 p.m., $12-$14. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. Bold: 8 p.m., $15-$20. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. Fishbone: 9 p.m., $25. Blueberry Hill, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. Jon Writer: w/ Madie Ali, Xcedera Twins, Zay the King 8 p.m., $10-$12. Cicero's, 6691 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-862-0009. Key Grip: w/ Pat Sajak Assassins, 3 of 5 9 p.m., free. Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust St., St. Louis, 314-241-2337. Monty Alexander Trio: 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $30. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000. Northern Faces: 6 p.m., $12. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. On the Cinder: w/ Captain Dee, Antithought, C is for Cadaver 8 p.m., $5. Melt, 2712 Cherokee St., St. Louis, 314-7716358. Tortuga: w/ Ellen Hergert, Griddle Kids 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

F R I DAY

SEPTEMBER 11+12 featuring 2 nights of live music with

GRATEFUL DEAD EXPERIENCE : THE SCHWAG PINK FLOYD TRIBUTE : THINK FLOYD USA ALLMAN BROTHERS TRIBUTE : THE BROTHERS JOSH HEINRICHS & SKILLINJAH REGGAE BAND GIVING TREE BAND - MADAHOOCHI FALLING FENCES - FLEA BITTEN DAWGS

SPOOKSTOCK 11 - OCTOBER 30+31 THE SCHWAG - ANDY FRASCO - AARON KAMM MOM’S KITCHEN - CLUSTERPLUCK - JAIK WILLIS

OZARK OUTDOORS RIVER RESORT Leasburg, MO 800-888-0023 ONE HOUR FROM ST. LOUIS : 44 west to exit #214 and left for 7 miles NO ILLEGAL DRUGS ALLOWED - NO DOGS - AGES 18+

www.ozarkoutdoors.net

RIVERFRONT TIMES

SEPTEMBER 9-15, 2015

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Bottoms Up Blues Gang: 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Fear the Concept: w/ Kriminals, Post Primal, A Beginnings End, We Are Descendants 6 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. Gwar: w/ Butcher Babies, Battlecross, Thorhammer 7 p.m., $18-$20. Pop's Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. Gymshorts: w/ Ghost Ice, Hardbody, The Brainstems, Veil 8 p.m., $5. Blank Space, 2847 Cherokee St., St. Louis. Inner Outlines CD Release: w/ Equal Squeeze, the Winks, Forgetting January, the Cinema Story 8 p.m., $10-$12. Cicero's, 6691 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-862-0009. Justin Hayward: 8 p.m., $55-$65. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900. Kid Rock: 7 p.m., TBA. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944. Lil Boosie: 8 p.m., $45-$75. Ambassador, 9800 Halls Ferry Road, North St. Louis County, 314-869-9090. Mass Appeal: Native Tongues Tribute: 9 p.m., $10. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. Nashville Pussy: w/ Valient Thorr, Bug Chaser 7 p.m., $15. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. O.A.R.: w/ Allen Stone, Brynn Elliott 7 p.m., $42-$52. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. On An On: 8 p.m., $12. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. Soulard Blues Band: 10 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. The Way Down Wanderers: 9 p.m., $8. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis.

S AT U R DAY Big George Brock & the Houserockers: 10 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Goldfish: 10 p.m., $12-$15. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. Head East: w/ StrikeForce 5 p.m., $25-$30. Chesterfield

Amphitheater, 631 Veterans Place Drive, Chesterfield. Jahmal Nichols: 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $20. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000. Joey Fatts: w/ Jordan Baumstark, Jordan Simmons, Michael Jerome 8 p.m., $15-$17. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. Jon Lovitz: 7 & 9:30 p.m., $25-$35. Lumiere Place Casino & Hotel, 999 N. Second St., St. Louis, 314-881-7777. Money for Guns: w/ Lina Uda, CaveofswordS 8 p.m., $8. Blueberry Hill, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-7274444. Old Saints EP Release Show: w/ Brother Lee and the Leather Jackals, the Wilderness 8 p.m., $10. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. The Simple Pleasure: w/ Thelonious Kryptonite, Brothers Lazaroff 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

S U N DAY Abigail Williams: w/ Today is the Day 6 p.m., $15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. Bob Bucko Jr.: w/ Strong Force, TRACY ANDREOTTI + ALEX CUNNINGHAM DUO 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. Dave Dickey Big Band: 6 p.m.; Oct. 4, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Nov. 1, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Dec. 6, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $20. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314571-6000. The Freight Shakers: 6 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Hollis Brown: 8 p.m., $8-$10. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. Sacrificial Slaughter: w/ Nuclear Age, Ends Of Infinity, Nevalra 7 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. Zella Day: 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363.

M O N DAY 1 Last Chance: w/ Unmanned Precinct, Captain Dee and The Long Johns 7 p.m., $8. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. Blis.: 7 p.m., $12. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. Joe Metzka Band: 9 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Light Music: 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. The Lighthouse and the Whaler: 8 p.m., $10-$12. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. Soulard Blues Band: 9 p.m., $5. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

T U E S DAY Christian Mistress: w/ Grand Inquisitor, Path of Might 8 p.m., $10-$12. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-2899050. Daren Gratton: w/ Bobby Stevens, Matt Harnish, Miles Long, Dan Blake 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. Dead Horse Trauma: w/ Superpimp 7 p.m., $10-$12. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. Ethan Leinwand & Matt Wilson: 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Full Devil Jacket: w/ Bridge To Grace 7 p.m., $13-$15. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. Nick Jonas: 7 p.m., $27.50-$37.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

W E D N E S DAY Ace Frehley: w/ Divine Sorrow 7 p.m., $35. Pop's Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. Big Rich & the Rhythm Renegades: 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. Bob "Bumble Bee" Kamoske: 8 p.m. Beale on Broadway, 701 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-7880. Dead Soft: 7 p.m., $8-$10. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. The Dear Hunter: w/ Chon, Gates 8 p.m., $16-$18. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. Honey Island Swamp Band: 8 p.m., $10-$12. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. Two Times True with Larry Johnson: 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Sep. 17, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $15. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000.

savage love Guys Hey, Dan: Is it legal for a man to procure the services of a dominatrix? In the kind of session I have in mind, there’s no nudity or sexual activity or contact involved. I just want to see what it would be like to be bound and gagged. So is it against the law to pay a woman to tie me up? Boy Into Nonsexual Domination

“The short answer is no, he’s not likely to be arrested for procuring the services of a Dominatrix,” says Mistress Justine Cross, a proDomme based in Los Angeles. BY “What BIND desires sounds totally legal and safe — he just DAN needs to find a Domme who is reputable (check out her S AVA G E website, read her reviews) and knows what she is doing in the realm of bondage. That said, I’m not a cop or a lawyer.” Cross is, however, a business owner. She runs two dungeons in LA — and she consulted with a criminal-defense attorney before going into the professional domination business. “He assured me that what I do is A-OK,” says Cross. “And even though he had practiced for many years, he had never defended, nor did he know any other lawyer who had ever defended, a professional Domme. Since Dommes rarely find themselves in trouble for their work, it stands to reason that BIND, a future client, will be in the clear as well.” With the Feds going after websites like Rentboy and myRedBook (sites that make sex work safer), and with the never-ending puritanical, punitive crusade to “rescue” adult sex workers from consensual, nonexploitative sex work (by arresting them and giving them criminal records), how is it that professional Dominants and their clients aren’t routinely harassed by law-enforcement authorities? “We don’t offer sex or nudity in our professional BDSM work,” says Cross, “and this keeps us out of the ‘criminalized’ categories of sex work. However, every state has different laws. NYC and LA both have large professional BDSM communities, but I can’t say every state or city welcomes or tolerates this type of sex work. In some places, the scene is more ‘underground,’ mostly because people still have a hard time understanding that some people just want to get tied up and not get a hand job, too.” Hey, Dan: Penis puppetry came up on an episode of Difficult People. I don’t want to Google it, but I am curious. Could you explain it?

the world, where men use their penis and testicles as puppets, twisting them into all kinds of shapes and characters,” said Eichner. “Not sure what about the name Puppetry of the Penis threw you off.” Hey, Dan: I’m a straight man, age 33. I was in a mutually unsatisfying relationship with a woman in my twenties. I told her not long after we got together that I didn’t want to eat her pussy because I didn’t like her smell. I’d eaten other vulvas before and loved them. She wasn’t a week-between-showers kind of woman, and she was rightly hurt. Years later, I started listening to you and got religion. (And since she didn’t want to hear from me, I made my apologies by treating the women I date now better.) Since then, I’ve loved the smell of every woman’s pussy I’ve been fortunate enough to stick my nose in. But the question haunts me: How could I have handled that situation instead? How would I handle it again? I first thought of your advice for smelly dicks — tell him to take a shower — but for Americans, the smell of a vulva is tied up as much in hygiene as misogyny. I’m not sure how to approach this. Wondering How I Fill Females In Now Graciously

Telling someone with a pussy that their genitals smell funky is more complicated and fraught, as you’re already aware, than telling the same thing to someone with a dick. The culture has been telling women — and, yes, that tiny percentage of men who have pussies — that their genitals are unclean and stinky since basically forever. But there are legitimate medical issues that can make someone’s junk smell funky (and just not pussy-style junk), WHIFFING, and sometimes we need the people who can actually get their noses into our crotches to give us a heads-up. A bad vaginal odor can be a sign of bacterial vaginosis or even cancer. Here’s how you approach it: You ask yourself if you’re the problem — think they smell bad? You’re the problem — and then you ask yourself if sexual chemistry is the problem. (Don’t like this person’s particular smell and taste? Keep your mouth shut about their smell and taste and end the relationship.) If you think it might actually be a medical issue, you say something like this: “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but your vagina and labia smell funky. That’s not an easy thing to hear, I know, and it’s not an easy thing to say. I know the misogynistic zap the culture puts on women’s heads about this — but I’m worried that it might be a medical issue, and I’d rather risk your anger than your health.”

Delicately Interested Person

I couldn’t tell you, DIP, but Billy Eichner, one of the stars of Difficult People, could. “Puppetry of the Penis is a show that tours all over

Listen to Dan Savage every week at savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter riverfronttimes.com NB TE H RX9X–X IV IM riverfronttimes.com S E PM T EOM - 1 5X, , 22001 0 5X RR IV EE RR FF RR OO NN T TT T IM EE S S 531

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SEPTEMBER 9-15, 2015

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100 Employment

115 Customer Service

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

110 Computer/Technical Inspirix Technologies LLC is seeking 1 professional for Fulltime employment (40 hours a week) for the position of Programmer Analyst at Saint Peters, MO 63376 at competitive salary. Job Summary: Analyze, Design, Develop & Test general computer applications software or specialized utility programs or application user Interfaces using QL, DB2 UBB, MVS, Windows XP & Windows 7, Stored Procedures, Clarity, REMEDY, MS Office, MS Excel, MS Word, MS Project, MS Power point, MS Out Look, MS Visio. Travel within USA required. Qualifications required: Masters in Computer Science or Applications + 2 years of experience as computer software professional. We offer comprehensive benefits including health insurance. To apply send your resume to Attn: HR, Inspirix Technologies, 1270 Jungermann Rd, Suite #B, Saint Peters, MO 63376.

Sr. Software Engineers (Chesterfield, MO): Req bach deg (or foreign deg or degs combined eval for US equiv) in comp sci or related, 2 yr exp in job offered, sftwr dvlpr or sftwr archit, dsgn & dvlp sys archit & supervise other sftwr engs & sftwr dvlpmnt for cmplx BI sftwr projs; 2 yr supervisory level exp .Net frmwrk, C#, AJAX, Web Services & SQL svr. Job now in Chesterfield MO, may req med to long-term relocatn to Lewisville TX, Cranbury NJ, Pittsburgh PA or other unanticipatd locatns in the US. Send resume to: K Kothary, Visionet Systems, Inc., 4B Cedarbrook Dr Cranbury NJ 08512.

Opportunity Powered by the Sun! NOW HIRING Full- & Part-Time Customer Service Loan Specialists St. John, MO • $11-$13/hour with monthly bonus potential • Mileage reimbursement • Paid training • Health insurance • 401K • Tuition reimbursement • Paid time off • Advancement opportunities • Much more! Apply today at: http://www.qhire.net/797130 or at jobs.sunloan.com

EOE m/f/d/v

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

160 Office/Clerical Human Resources Adminstrator, Union MO, req’d bachelor deg, 2 yrs exp & courses in HR mgmt & Org. Behavior mgmt. mail resume & trans. to Gateway Extrusions Ltd. 704 W. Park Rd, Union, MO 63084 Attn HR

167 Restaurants/Hotels/Clubs Blues City Deli is now hiring a FOH person to start immediately. Must be honest, team oriented, have a strong work ethic, get along with others, enjoy working with the public, thrive in a fast pace environment. Pay is very competitive. Inquire or apply in person Mon-Fri 8-10:30 am or 2pm-4 pm or email bluescitydeli@ yahoo.com Now Hiring 2 EXPERIENCED HEAD LINE COOKS & DAY SERVERS. Apply in Person Only. Rich & Charlie’s 4487 Lemay Ferry

190 Business Opportunities Avon Full Time/Part Time, $15 Fee. Call Carla: 314-665-4585 For Appointment or Details Independent Avon Rep.

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

500 Services

145 Management/Professional

530 Misc. Services

GM. Manage division/mkt sector of commercial construction co. Reqs BS/foreign equiv in Civil Engg/closely related + 5 yrs exper. Mail to GM/BJ 8800 Page Ave, St Louis MO 63114-6106. No Calls.

WANTS TO purchase minerals and other oil & gas interests. Send details to P.O. Box 13557, Denver, Co 80201

155 Medical Research Studies Washington University study seeks women 1449! Available services include birth control, GYN exams, & STI tests. 314-747-0800

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

800 Health & Wellness 805 Registered Massage

HHHHH Simply Marvelous

Call Cynthia today for your massage. M-F 7-5, Sat. 9-1. 314-265-9625 - Eureka Area #2001007078

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314-467-0766

$40/hr. Walk Ins Welcome #2001010642 Escape the Stresses of Life with a relaxing Oriental MASSAGE & Reflexology You’ll Come Away Feeling Refreshed & Rejuvenated. Call 314-972-9998

Health Therapy Massage

Relax, Rejuvenate & Refresh!

Flexible Appointments

Monday Thru Sunday (Walk-ins welcome) 320 Brooke’s Drive, 63042 Call Cheryl. 314-895-1616 or 314-258-2860 LET#200101083 Now Hiring...Therapists

Ultimate Massage by Summer!!!! Relaxing 1 Hr Full Body Massage. Light Touch, Swedish, Deep Tissue. Daily 10am-5pm South County. 314-620-6386 Ls # 2006003746 AmandasMiniDaySpa.com 510 E. Chain of Rocks Rd Granite City, IL.

314-467-0766

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SOUTHERN MISSOURI TRUCK DRIVING SCHOOL Are You Addicted to Pain Are You Addicted to Medications or Heroin? Pain Medications Suboxone Can Help. or•Confidential Heroin? Outpatient •Convenient

P.O. Box 545 • Malden, MO 63863 • 1.888.276.3860 • www.smtds.com

300 Rentals

ST. CHARLES COUNTY 314-579-1201 or 636-939-3808 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

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 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

•Covered by most insurance

After hours or weekends: 800-345-5407

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

www.LiveInTheGrove.com

BENTON-PARK $495+deposit 314-984-8127 1BR, carpet br & liv rm. Lg kitchen: fridge & stove inc. 21xx Lynch

MARYLAND-HEIGHTS $1100 314-443-4478 1557 Redcoat: All elec. 3 bdrm, 2 bath house. Parkway Schools.

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

NATURAL-BRIDGE! $550 314-309-2043 Roomy 2-3 bed, 2 bath house, central air, hardwood floors, walkout finished basement, garage, fenced yard, washer/dryer included! rs-stl.com RGVT1

LOUGHBOROUGH! $500 314-309-2043 Redone 2 bedroom, cold a/c, fenced yard, appliances included, w/d hookups, some utilities paid, easy move in! rs-stl.com RGVTX

NORTH ST. LOUIS COUNTY 314-579-1201 or 636-939-3808 2, 3 & 4BR homes for rent. eatonproperties.com. Sec. 8 welcome

NATURAL-BRIDGE! $450 314-309-2043 Roomy 2 bedroom, fenced yard, all kitchen appliances, plush carpet, enclosed back porch, recent updates! rs-stl.com RGVTV

NORTH-CITY! $600 314-309-2043 2-Story 3 bed, 2 bath house, full basement, fenced yard for kids & pets, large covered porch, flexible deposit! rs-stl.com RGVT2

NORTH-CITY! $375 314-309-2043 Budget 1 bedroom, hardwood floors, all appliances, pets ok, utilities paid, recent updates, no app fee! rs-stl.com RGVTT

SOUTH-CITY $790 314-223-8067 2 BR house,some wood floors, stove/fridge, W/D hkup in bsmt, new C/A, garage, porch. No Sec. 8.

NORTH-COUNTY $500 (314)606-7868 Senior Community: 2Br, Fridge, Stove, Dishwasher, C/A, W/D Hkup.

SOUTH-CITY! $650 314-309-2043 Private House, single carport, appliances included, washer/dryer included, carpet & tile, pets allowed, available now! rs-stl.com RGVT3

RICHMOND-HEIGHTS $515-$555 (Special) 314-995-1912 1 MONTH FREE! 1BR, all elec off Big Bend, Metrolink, 40, 44, Clayton SOULARD! $575 314-309-2043 Stylish all-electric apartment, loaded kitchen w/dishwasher, pets allowed, basement storage, recent updates! rs-stl.com RGVTZ SOUTH CITY $400-$850 314-771-4222 Many different units www.stlrr.com 1-3 BR, no credit no problem 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 $530 314-481-6443 6429 Gravois- Apt. 2 BR, C/A, Carpet, Draperies. $530 deposit

SOUTH-CITY

$475 314-397-2388

1BR near Grand & Gravois area. Totally rehabbed, close to everything, all appls incl, hdwd flrs, thermal wins. $400 Dep.

SOUTH-CITY $425 314-776-6429 2504 California. 1BR, C/A, Appliances inc.,Ceiling fans. A Must See!! SOUTH-CITY

$435

314-277-0204

1st Mo Rent FREE! 3841 Gustine 1BR; $40 Per Adult App Fee. SOUTH-CITY 314-504-6797 37XX Chippewa: 3 rms, 1BR. all elec exc. heat. C/A, appls, at bus stop SOUTH-CITY! $400 314-309-2043 All-electric 1 bedroom, kitchen appliances, frosty a/c, pets allowed, recently updated! rs-stl.com RGVTU

SOUTH-CITY! $750 314-309-2043 Remodeled 3 bed, 1.5 bath house, finished basement, hardwoods, garage, central air, fenced yard, fireplace, all appliances, pets ok! rs-stl.com RGVT5 SOUTH-CITY! $775 314-309-2043 Updated 4 bed, 2 bath house, full basement, central air, fenced yard, all appliances, pets ok, walk-in closets, hardwood floors! rs-stl. com RGVT6 SOUTH-COUNTY! $675 314-309-2043 Save money in this 3 bed house, full basement, central air, fenced yard, appliances, single carport, washer/dryer included! rs-stl.com RGVT4 UNIVERSITY-CITY! $795 314-309-2043 Recently redone 3 bed house, central air, basement, hardwood floors, large fenced yard, pets, covered deck, off street parking! rs-stl.com RGVT7

Tuesdays, Aug. 25–Sept. 29

TWILIGHT

TUESDAYS AMEREN CONCERT SERIES

FALL 2015

SOUTH-CITY! $495 314-309-2043 Short term lease! 2 bedroom, basement storage, kitchen appliances, w/d hookups, covered porch, deck, ready now! rs-stl.com RGVTW

MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM

SOUTH-COUNTY! $400 314-832-2313 Loaded 1 bedroom, hardwood floors, all appliances w/dishwasher, central heat/air, washer/dryer included! rs-stl.com RGVTY

OUTPATIENT SERVICES

5000 CEDAR PLAZA PKWY., STE. 380 763SAINT S. NEWLOUIS, BALLASMO RD.,63128 STE. 310 ST LOUIS, MO 63141 314-842-4463 After hours 314-292-7323 or weekends 800-345-5407 or 5000 CEDAR PLAZA PKWY., STE. 380 ST LOUIS, MO 63128 314-842-4463

314-727-1444

320 Houses for Rent

6pm to 8pm • FREE • Museum’s Front Lawn Forest Park • mohistory.org

Outpatient - Confidential - Convenient 763 S. NEW BALLAS RD. STE. 310  Covered byLOUIS, most insurance SAINT MO 63141  Free & confidential assessments

314-292-7323

UNIVERSITY-CITY $895 2BR, new kitch, bath & carpet, C/A & heat. No pets

SOUTH-CITY! $650 314-309-2043 Redone 3 bedroom, basement storage, central air, dishwasher, garage, hardwood floors, all appliances, pets allowed! rs-stl.com RGVT0

•Free & confidential assessments Suboxone Can Help.

or SERVICES OUTPATIENT

TOWER-GROVE-EAST $525 314-223-8067 Move in Special! Spacious 1BRs, Oak Floors, Stove & Refrigerator, A/C, W/D Hook-Up, Nice area

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. • More driving time than any other school in the state •

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SEPTEMBER 9-15, 2015

RIVERFRONT TIMES

Join the RFT Email lists for an inside look on Concert listings, ticket sales, events & more! www.Riverfronttimes.com to sign up Like the Riverfront Times? Make it official. www.facebook.com/riverfronttimes

314-754-5966

Want to find a good Happy Hour? Download the RFT’s Free Happy Hour Phone app - search “Happy Hour”

MUSIC RECORD SHOP

Looking to sell or trade your metal, punk, rap or rock LP collection. Call us.

MAKE MONEY BY MAKING A DIFFERENCE. 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

A clinical research study for adults 18-70 yrs old, who suffer from depression.

BUYING JUNK CARS, TRUCKS & VANS 314-968-6555 CAMPS, WINERIES, SPORTING EVENTS, WEDDINGS, PARTIES, GROUP OUTINGS

Call First Student to pick you up! Charter & School Bus Rental. 866.514.TRIP or www.firstcharterbus.com

DATING MADE EASY... LOCAL SINGLES! Listen & Reply FREE! 314-739-7777 FREE PROMO CODE: 9512 Telemates

DWI/BANKRUPTCY HOTLINE:

R.O.C. LAW , A Debt Relief Agency, Helping People File For Bankruptcy Relief Under the New Bankruptcy Code. 314-843-0220 The choice of a lawyer is an important decision & shouldn’t be based solely upon advertisements.

DWI/Traf $50+/Personal InjuryMark Helfers, 314-862-6666- CRIMINAL former Asst US Attorney, 32 years exp

www.HelfersLaw.com The choice of a lawyer is an important decision & should not be based solely on advertising

EarthCircleRecycling.com - 314-664-1450 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!

•Full Body Massage •Deep Tissue Massage •Hot Stone •Couples Massage •Swedish Massage •Chinese Accupressure

Made You Look!

Get the Attention of our 461,000+ Readers Call 314-754-5940 for More Info McGuire Furniture Sells Mattresses! Visit our showroom to find out why McGuire is St. Louis’ best kept secret. 314.997.4500 McGuireFurnitureSTL.com 650 Fee Fee Rd., St. Louis, MO 63043

PAINLESS TATTOO REMOVAL SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 14 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.

Porn Shop Liquidation XXX-ALL MUST GO-XXX ALL DVDS 6 for $20 Selling the Finest in Adult Entertainment for 55 Years. Mon-Sat. 10-6; Closed Wed. BARGAIN DVDS IN ST. CHARLES. 1 MILE SOUTH OF 70. 1877 OLD HWY 94 South City Scooters

Great Selection of Scooters! Sales & Service. @ the corner of Connecticut & Morgan Ford. 314.664.2737

109 Long Rd. • Chesterfield, MO 63005

636-633-2929

www.LiveInTheGrove.com

www.spa-chi.com • Open everyday 9:30-9:30

ARE YOU DEPRESSED? If you’re feeling exhausted and sad and have no interest in things you used to enjoy, if your appetite has changed and you can’t sleep, you may be suffering from depression. Learn more at www.mac-research.com or call 314-647-1743 to see if you qualify.

Mid-America Clinical Research, LLC 56

RIVERFRONT TIMES

SEPTEMBER 9-15, 2015

riverfronttimes.com

Make Every Day Special with a Luxurious Asian Massage

Are You Addicted to Pain Medications or Heroin ?

Suboxone Can Help. Outpatient • Confidential • Convenient •Covered by most insurance •Free & confidential assessments

OUTPATIENT SERVICES

763 S. NEW BALLAS RD. STE. 310 SAINT LOUIS, MO 63141

314-292-7323 or

5000 CEDAR PLAZA PKWY., STE. 380 SAINT LOUIS, MO 63128

314-842-4463

After hours or weekends 800-345-5407

Are You Addicted to Pain Medications