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January 2, 2013

Skipping the shipping Four shrewd ways to get free shipping

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You can take home a recording of your music from The Science of Rock ‘n’ Roll exhibit at Science City.

Backstage pass The Science of Rock ‘n’ Roll exhibit at Kansas City’s Union Station shows the art and science of music

By KRISTEN HARE St. Joseph News-Press

Todd Weddle | St. Joseph News- Press photo illustration

By SHEA CONNER St. Joseph News-Press

Experts say that paying for shipping is an online shopper’s biggest pet peeve. In fact, 79 percent of shoppers say that fi nding free shipping is the most important online deal they seek when shopping online, according to a study

by Discover.

With this in mind, we’ve talked to a few online shopping and saving specialists to fi nd out how they’ve cut those hefty shipping fees out of their lives.

Work the Web

The fi rst place to look for free shipping is on FreeShipping.org, which lists free shipping offers from thousands of online retailers.

Next, consider signing up for a 30day trial membership with ShopRunner.com — a shopping website that partners with hundreds of retailers to offer free two-day shipping — then cancel the membership after a short period of time, recommends consumer savings expert Andrea Woroch, a consumer and money-saving expert who has been featured in “Good Morning America,” NBC’s “Today” and The New York Times.

Andrew Schrage, founder of the personal fi nance site MoneyCrashers.com, recommends shoppers do something similar with Amazon: Sign up for a month-long free trial for an Amazon Prime account, which will give you 30 days of free shipping, then cancel it at the

month’s end. He says you also can fi nd many free shipping deals on cash-back sites like DealNews.com and FatWallet.com.

Pick your store wisely

Speaking of DealNews.com, website founder Dan de Grandpre says many stores offer free or minimal shipping year-round. Walmart is probably the most popular, he points out.

“Walmart has become a new leader in the online shipping game,” he says. “Most items on Walmart.com get free shipping with orders of $45 or more, and many of its apparel items, even clearance items under $10, qualify for 97-cent shipping.”

Other online stores that frequently offer free shipping (often with a no-minimum or a lowminimum purchase) include shoe stores like Zappos.com, Shoes.com, ShoeMall.com and Piperlime as well as luxury department stores like NeimanMarcus.com, Saks. com and Nordstrom.com, he adds.

Just remember that and offer of “free shipping” doesn’t always save you money. For example, jewelry stores often promote free shipping near Christmas, Mr. de Grandpre says, but jewelry prices are often at their highest during the holidays.

Purchase more at one store

Most stores will offer you free shipping if you spend a certain

amount of money with them. For example, Barnes & Noble offers free shipping within the U.S. if you spend $25 or more for a single order.

“Though it isn’t always smart to spend an extra $25 to save $10, it does make sense, however, to buy multiple gifts from the same retailer so you don’t have to pay for shipping on those various items,” Ms. Woroch says.

Be cautious, however. A study by Forrester Research indicates that more than one in four people who shop with a retailer offering one of these kinds of free shipping deals ends up adding unplanned items to their carts to meet this threshold. So, before you start adding so-so items to your cart, see if you can fi nd a free shipping offer on another site that doesn’t require a minimum purchase amount or one in which the minimum purchase amount is very low.

Simply ask for free shipping

Sometimes, you can get free shipping by simply calling customer service and asking for it, Ms. Woroch says. She says that you should point out to the customer service representative that other stores are offering free shipping, and if the store doesn’t want to lose your business, it should be doing the same for you.

Shea Conner can be reached at shea.conner@ newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter: @ stjoelivedotcom.

At Union Station, The Science of Rock ‘n’ Roll isn’t a “go see” exhibit.

“This is really a ‘come do’ exhibit,” says Joy Torchia, Union Station marketing and public relations.

The exhibit, which is new and the fi rst time it’s been shown, takes visitors through time, into the sound booth and backstage, all with one ticket.

The exhibit begins with decade pods, Ms. Torchia says, starting with music in the ‘50s and leading up to present day. Visitors can learn about the music and the musicians that set the sound and style of the time, as well as learn how technology continues to change how we record and listen to music.

“It’s just kind of fascinating as you travel through each of the decade pods,” Ms. Torchia says.

After the decade pods, you can get your hand on instruments yourself, playing rhythm at a cube with drums, for instance, or keyboard or guitar, and then listen how different the sound is with distortion.

Everything you experience and create as part of the exhibit can come home with you, too, thanks to a QR code on the backstage pass you receive when you begin the exhibit. Whatever you record, you then have the ability to e-mail home to yourself.

Next, you’ll head to a mixing station to hear how songs are really mixed in the studio, breaking down the steps taken to result in what we hear today.

You also can sing in the recording booth. (Don’t worry, people can listen along only if they put the headphones on.)

Next, you can step backstage to see what goes into creating a show, from sound, lighting and set design to the work of stylists in creating the show’s look.

The exhibit ends, fittingly, with a concert experience.

The Science of Rock ‘n’ Roll pulls back the curtain, you could say, showing people that music might not be magic, but rather a process involving a lot of people that creates something that sounds magical.

And throughout the journey, you’ll get to see a little of what the real pros can do. For instance, lighting for the exhibit was designed by the person who designs lighting for Bruce Springsteen, Ms. Torchia says.

To deepen the experience, check out resources to read ahead of time on the exhibit’s website, scienceofrock.com, such as the history of the compact disk and the rise of the music video.

The Science of Rock ‘n’ Roll runs through the end of April, possibly into early May, Ms. Torchia says.

The exhibit is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Tickets cost $8 for members, $15 for adults, $13 for seniors, military and students 15 years and older, and $12.50 for children 3 to 14. Group discounts are available. For more, go to scienceofrock.com.

Then, get yourself to Union Station and rock on.

A2

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Larry Christy uses a router on a wood piece for a customer on a recent afternoon in St. Joseph.

Matt Reid | St. Joseph News- Press

Restoring history, remembering past

By ALONZO WESTON St. Joseph News-Press

The mansions are named Geiger and Schuster because those are the names of the folks who paid to have them built.

But Mr. Christy also wants to remember the forgotten men whose craftsmanship made those places grand.

“I think oftentime what happens is you forget the people with the skill that made it possible,” he said.

Mr. Christy said he, too, sometimes signs his work before plastering over a wall. Sometimes he even places one of his short stories or a poem behind a wall before drywalling it.

“Maybe some of that stuff will never be seen,” he said. But the hope is that someday someone like him will want to know who Larry Christy was just like he wonders about Harold Ulmer.

Knowing Larry Christy today might not be any easier than it will be 100 years from now. The 43-year-old St. Joseph man is one with many gifts and passions.

Some days he’s a musician. You’ll find him

playing out the songs in his head on the guitar or the old piano in his living room or at Cafe Acoustic.

As a gifted poet and a storyteller, he creates detailed stories from his tales from his childhood and life observations.

His soft baritone delivers these tales with the ebband-flow cadence of a rolling river.

And Mr. Christy knows rivers. He’s shared his thoughts with the Missouri and Snake rivers that he’s traveled by canoe many times.

Helping restore older homes is how Mr. Christy makes his money. But it’s not how he makes his living. He lives by experiencing and celebrating the subtleties of life around him.

It never has taken much for him to live, he said. He can get by without a lot of things, but not his freedom to create.

“I’m following what I want to do instead of trying to make a bunch of cash,” he said.

Mr. Christy said part of his introspective nature comes from the fact that

his young mother left him with her parents when he was 5 years old. He never knew his father.

“By the age of 4 or 5, you’ve already bonded pretty seriously with your biological mom,” he said.

“When she’s out out of the picture, you suffer this great loss as a young person. You got this sense that things are pretty screwed up in the world, you’re feeling this pain and you become real observation-

Larry Christy talks to a friend while working Wednesday afternoon in St. Joseph.

Matt Reid | St. Joseph News- Press

Please see RESTORING/Page A3

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A3

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

C A R P E T & REMNANT

Restoring history CONTINUED FROM Page A2 al as far as how the world works. You become really introspective just trying to understand.”

But he wasn’t without love. His grandparents, especially his grandmother, also provided him with a can-do-anything sense of confidence.

“She was really very confident. She was always saying stuff like ‘I can do anything, I can do anything’ and she would,” Mr. Christy said. “We got photos of her inside the engine compartment of her car taking the carburetor out or being out there with power saws, whatever, building things.”

This spirit fueled Mr. Chirsty’s nature to try different things.

He once sold his house so he and a friend could open up a bookstore. He was fine living in a tent out on a farm near the edge of town.

“We didn’t really make any money at that bookshop. We just broke even every month,” he said. “It was like a glorified clubhouse and we just kept the door open to give poets in town some place to go read their work. That was it.”

After the bookstore closed, Mr. Christy spent a few seasons working with the forest service and guiding raft trips down the Snake River in Wyoming.

In the winters, he came home to St. Joseph.

That’s when he became acquainted with the house restoration community and began doing work returning old architectural structures to their original splendor.

“I looked at it as survival work until I could go back

out West and do some work out there,” Mr. Christy said. “You do anything long enough and repetitively enough, you start getting good at it.”

He got good enough to be in demand. The restoration community began requesting his services.

Mr. Christy does lot of work for Olin Cox, who owns the Whiskey Mansion and a few other similar restoration projects in the city.

Mr. Cox said he appreciates Mr. Christy’s skills.

Skills and craftsmanship he can appreciate without having to look for a name behind a wall.

“He’s very talented,” Mr. Cox said. “He’s a gem.”

Mr. Christy has plans to launch a business on the river next summer. Missouri River Rafting Outfitting and Canoe Rental will offer people here the chance to take advantage of the beauty of the Missouri River. He plans to offer raft tours, canoe rental and shuttle services.

“This is another project — kind of like the bookshop — so who knows if it’s going to make any money or not,” he said. “It will be interesting in the very least.”

From there, who knows where Mr. Christy’s passion will take him. His passion for freedom and exploring has not been easy on some of the relationships in his life. This lifestyle is not for everyone, he said.

“Do not try this at home,” he said with a laugh. “It’s caused a great many women in my life a lot of grief, and I feel bad about that.”

Alonzo Weston can be reached at alonzon.weston@newspressnow.com.

Follow him on Twitter @SJNPWeston.

CROSSWORD

ARIES - Mar 21/Apr 20 Aries, there are some things that need to be accomplished this week despite the your reservations. Find a way to make the best of the situation.

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A4 Wednesday, January 2, 2013