Riverfront Times October 3, 2018 by Riverfront Times

OCTOBER 3-9, 2018 I VOLUME 42 I NUMBER 40

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THE LEDE

“ Check on your friends. They might seem like they’re fine or OK, but you don’t really know until you talk to them and get a deeper perspective of what they’re dealing with. Because none of us saw what was going to happen with our friend. We had no idea. Nobody even suspected he was hurting.”

PHOTO BY THEO WELLING

Mikayla GilliaM, photoGraphed on SepteMber 30 with ChriS SantiaGo at the out of the darkneSS CoMMunity walk at Creve Coeur lake, benefitinG the aMeriCan foundation for SuiCide prevention

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Publisher Chris Keating Editor in Chief Sarah Fenske

The Lady Is a Champ

E D I T O R I A L Arts & Culture Editor Paul Friswold Music Editor Daniel Hill Digital Editor Jaime Lees Staff Writers Doyle Murphy, Danny Wicentowski Restaurant Critic Cheryl Baehr Film Critic Robert Hunt Editorial Interns Tom Hellauer, Desi Isaacson, Dustin Steinhoff Contributing Writers Mike Appelstein, Allison Babka, Sara Graham, Roy Kasten, Jaime Lees, Joseph Hess, Kevin Korinek, Bob McMahon, Nicholas Phillips, Tef Poe, Christian Schaeffer, Lauren Milford, Thomas Crone, MaryAnn Johanson, Jenn DeRose, Mike Fitzgerald Proofreader Evie Hemphill Cartoonist Bob Stretch

Miss Gay America, the nation’s oldest female impersonation pageant, comes to St. Louis

A R T Art Director Evan Sult Contributing Photographers Mabel Suen, Monica Mileur, Micah Usher, Theo Welling, Corey Woodruff, Tim Lane, Nick Schnelle

COVER

Written by

P R O D U C T I O N Production Manager Jack Beil

MELISSA MEINZER

M U L T I M E D I A A D V E R T I S I N G Sales Director Colin Bell Senior Account Executive Cathleen Criswell, Erica Kenney Account Managers Emily Fear, Jennifer Samuel Multimedia Account Executive Michael Gaines, Jackie Mundy Event Coordinator Grace Richard

Cover photo of Miss Gay America 2018 Deva Station by

LAURA BIDDLE/LAURA DARK PHOTOGRAPHY

C I R C U L A T I O N Circulation Manager Kevin G. Powers

INSIDE The Lede News Feature Calendar

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NEWS TriggerHappy Cop Tied to Two Shootings Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

pooked by a pit bull on September 22, a St. Louis cop opened fire on the dog — only to accidentally shoot a 29-year-old police recruit in the wrist. Not exactly a great look. And it wasn’t the first time the officer had done something like this, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The paper, citing sources, identified the dog-fearing cop as Officer Lavell Bell, a six-year veteran, who reportedly shot the mother of a murder victim in 2015 while firing at her dead son’s dog. “I don’t think he should have got his job back in the first place,” the mother, Peggy Cobb, tells the Riverfront Times. (For the record, police have refused to identify the officer or confirm he was involved in both incidents.) Cobb and her family had already been distraught on the afternoon of October 29, 2015. Her oldest son, James Cobb Jr., and his best friend, Haris Hajdarevic, had been gunned down the night be-

fore in front of the family’s house in Bevo Mill. A prosecutor would later describe the twin killings as an “ambush.” As our 2016 cover story about the case detailed, James Cobb Jr. had been in a custody battle with his ex-girlfriend over their baby son, and the shooter was her new boyfriend. Less than 24 hours after the double murder, police arrived with child-services workers to pick up the baby while custody was sorted out. When they arrived, James Cobb Jr.’s dog, King, hopped a baby gate and barked at officers. One of the cops — who’s now been identified as Bell, according to the Post-Dispatch — pulled his gun and squeezed off an errant round that slammed directly into Peggy Cobb’s shin. Police at the time claimed King “lunged” at the officer. Peggy Cobb says that’s absolutely not true, insisting the dog only barked at the strangers. “I was standing right there,” she says. “I’m the one who got shot.” And King, she points out, never bit the officer, even though the bullet missed him. Peggy Cobb was stunned when she read the Post-Dispatch article identifying Bell as the common link between the 2015 incident and last month’s shooting. She says she doesn’t understand how an officer, with all the firearms training required for the job, could still be firing wildly at dogs nearly three years after she was shot. “He does not need to be an officer,” she says, adding, “How do you get your job back when you

Peggy Cobb was shot by a cop who claimed her dog lunged at him. The officer was visiting because Cobb’s son had been murdered the night before. | DOYLE MURPHY

“He does not need to be an officer. How do you get your job back when you shoot somebody in their home?” shoot somebody in their home?” Cobb is still planning to sue the department. She’s had two surgeries on her leg and says doctors

may recommend more, although she’s leery of undergoing another operation. “I’ll always have pain in my leg forever,” she says. Police say the investigation into the 2015 shooting was closed as an “accidental injury,” and the case was not reviewed by the Circuit Attorney’s Office. Saturday’s shooting of the recruit is still under investigation. Police say officers were responding to a disturbance in the Carondelet neighborhood. They were reportedly met at the door by a woman with a pit bull. The officer shot the dog, but also hit the cadet. He had a familiar explanation — the dog lunged at him. n

STREAK’S CORNER • by Bob Stretch

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In Ladue, it’s a soccer mom who tried to play hard ball. | FLICKR/VÁCLAV JANECEK

Ladue Mom Sues Over JV Soccer Cuts Written by

SARAH FENSKE

mother in the wealthy St. Louis suburb of Ladue filed a lawsuit in federal court last week, saying that a soccer coach’s decision to cut her son from the junior-varsity team last month amounts to, yes, age discrimination. In the suit, the mom — identified only as “Jane Doe” — says the family was told that junior boys who didn’t make the Ladue Horton Watkins High School varsity soccer team would not be put on the junior varsity team. And that, she alleges, is a huge legal problem. Because the policy is not in place for younger boys, or female athletes, the boy’s mother alleges that it violates both age-discrimination laws and Title IX, a civil rights law attempting to guarantee equal access in public education regardless of gender. She asked for a temporary restraining order, a permanent restraining order and an injunction to order the school district to put her son on the team. Only in Ladue, right? The suit says the school’s soccer coach, Dave Aronberg, explained that he’d had a gut-wrenching decision in choosing his 2018 JV and varsity teams. “We essentially had 40 kids trying to make 24 spots on the varsity team,” Aronberg wrote to the

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boy’s mother. “[Jane Doe’s son] was right on the bubble of making the team this year and has some impressive attributes including his attacking mentality and straight line speed. However, there were a few holes in his game including technical ability and game decision making that put him behind a number of kids. In the end, there were just too many kids who had a little better soccer skill and soccer IQ for him to make the [varsity] team.” And Aronberg wasn’t willing to put him on junior varsity. Confronted later by the boy’s stepfather, the coach allegedly “blamed the parents of four juniors who had played on the junior varsity in the fall of 2017. Because they had groaned about their sons’ playing time that season, Aronberg said he wanted to avoid the ‘aggravation’ this year,” the suit says. The boy’s mother and stepfather made a formal complaint to Ladue school officials, but the suit alleges they “circled the wagons” and defended the coach. The boy’s mother claimed she had no choice but to turn to the federal courts — saying her son would face “irreparable harm” if he wasn’t put on the team swiftly. “The junior varsity soccer season will be over by the end of October 2018,” the suit notes. “Over half the season is already gone.” But U.S. District Court Judge John A. Ross wasn’t buying it. After a hearing last week, he denied the mother’s request for a restraining order. The courts have found, Ross wrote Monday, that participation in school sports is “not a property right but a privilege.” Beyond that, the judge wrote, he remained unconvinced that the case “warrants [the court’s] involvement.” n

Clayton Mayor Defends IHOP Traffic Stop Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

he mayor of Clayton says an incident involving a group of black college students wrongly suspected of diningand-dashing at IHOP was not, in fact, a case of racially biased policing. Mayor Harold Sanger’s conclusion came in a report issued Saturday, which details the police department’s response to a 911 call shortly after midnight on July 7. The caller, a manager at the IHOP on Clayton Road, had reported that four young men, all African American, had skipped out on a $62 bill. When officers from the St. Louis suburb were dispatched to the area, they eventually stopped a group of Washington University students walking from the area near the restaurant toward a nearby Metrolink station. There were ten students in the group, and some were carrying IHOP “to-go” bags. The students, who are black, provided receipts to the officers. The officers then walked them back to the store, where a manager confirmed that they weren’t the culprits. The incident attracted widespread condemnation after the St. Louis Post-Dispatch broke the story, and the ensuing outrage resulted in an apology from Clayton’s city manager. However, Sanger’s review argues for a different conclusion: It notes that some of the students “matched the clothing color, gender and race description of the four suspects provided by IHOP.” And it insists that the stop was made in good faith. The entire interaction between police and students took twelve minutes, the report says. And it pushes back on a critical assumption made by many who criticized the incident: It states that it was the students who insisted on returning to the store to resolve the

issue in person, not police. The report notes, “The officers did not require or suggest that the students return to IHOP. The officer in command of the incident radioed requesting that another officer convey the IHOP manager to the location of the students at Brentwood Blvd. and Galleria Parkway for an identification. On hearing this, at least one of the students offered that they would prefer to walk back to the restaurant, and the officers agreed. Our officers believed that walking back was the preference of the students. Had they believed otherwise, they would have continued with their original plan, and brought the manager to the students.” The mayor’s letter also says that reports that the students were followed by multiple police cars on their walk back to the restaurant were incorrect: Only one police car was involved, it was 75 feet behind and it only used “rearfacing hazard lights on for safety purposes.” “Given all these circumstances,” the mayor’s report continues, “the investigation found that initiating contact with this group was in keeping with policies and procedures.” Sanger’s letter features video and audio recordings of the investigation, including the initial 911 call and subsequent radio dispatches. But the letter goes further than simply describing the investigation’s results and compiling evidence. It also pushes back on statements issued by Clayton City Manager Craig Owens shortly after the story broke.

Black Wash U students were questioned by Clayton Police after leaving IHOP, but the department says the stop adhered to policy. | FLICKR/MIKE MOZART It was Owens who issued the apology in the Post-Dispatch, saying, “It is clear to us that we mishandled the interaction with these ten Washington University students and lacked sensitivity about their everyday reality because of how racial bias affects their lives. For that, on behalf of the City of Clayton, we sincerely apologize.” Mayor Sanger’s report doesn’t mention Owens by name, but it does say that “the police... felt wronged by elements of an early statement issued by the City, which incorrectly made judgments about their conduct before an investigation had been completed.” While the report attempts to clear the officers’ conduct in the July 7 incident — and push back on criticism of the department

Police Waive Residency Rule for 150 Newbies Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

f you ever wanted to be a cop in St. Louis without having to, you know, live in the city, here’s your chance. St. Louis’ Civil Service Commission has decided to waive the residency requirement for as many as 50 recruits. With the police force down by as many as 150 officers, Mayor Lyda Krewson requested the move. “This is an issue of public safety,” Krewson said in a prepared statement Friday. “Waiving the residency requirement will help us broaden our recruiting efforts.” The city has had trouble filling the

St. Louis cops walk their beat on Cherokee Street. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI ranks of its police department. Full staff is about 1,300 officers, but numbers routinely fall well below 1,200. It’s been a tricky problem. Chief John Hayden

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— it also goes out of its way to acknowledge “the growing gap around the nation between police and their communities.” Mayor Sanger writes, “The public reaction to this incident tells us that this gap is as real and persistent right here in Clayton as it is anywhere else.” In that vein, Sanger says the department is working to improve relations with its minority residents and visitors, and that it contracted an outside review of its policies by 21st Century Policing Solutions, which recommended Clayton police equip its officers with body cameras. The department now says that it will be implementing a body camera program next year. n

previously told the RFT there used to be waiting lists to get into the academy, but classes in recent years have been comparatively meager. It has been especially difficult to recruit minority officers. Our June cover story detailed the efforts of the police union representing black officers, the Ethical Society of Police, to diversify the department through its pre-academy — a ten-week program to prepare potential officers for the actual police academy. At the direction of Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards, the city has also launched a cadet program to introduce potential recruits to police work while they’re still in their teens. Softening the residency requirement has long been discussed as a possibility to entice new officers, although critics have argued it could widen the gap between the community and police. The new change is to take effect on December 1. n

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Queens in the Miss Gay America kingdom include (clockwise from upper left) 2018 MCs Nicole DuBois and Catia Lee Love, Miss Gay Tennessee America 2017 First Alternate Sasha Leigh Chambers, Miss Gay Ohio America 2017 Valerie Taylor and Miss Gay North Carolina America 2017 Dessie Love Blake. At center is Deva Station, whose reign as Miss Gay America 2018 ends this weekend with the crowning of a new queen. | BJKJ ILLUSIONS

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BY MELISSA MEINZER

his week, the country’s most talented drag queens converge for four intense days of competition, capping off months of preparations on Saturday, when just one will be crowned Miss Gay America. And you won’t have to go far to get your share of sequins, glitter, false eyelashes and tears of joy: After moving cities every year or so across its 47-year history, the country’s oldest and largest female-impersonation pageant has found a forever home in downtown St. Louis. The pageant’s owners are husbands Michael Dutzer and Rob Mansman. The Baltimore residents opened St. Louis’ revamped Hamburger Mary’s franchise last year in a huge downtown space, specifically with a mind to having it host their pageant. “It never really had a home,” says Dutzer. “We decided to give it a permanent home in St. Louis.” Doing so allows performers to become familiar with the venue. And having a year-round home base lets the pageant’s charitable arm get established

and do more. The MGA Excellence Foundation seeks to mentor LGBTQ youth. “Mary’s gives us that stage and that platform to get the message out there,” says Dutzer. There are practical reasons to settle down as well. “It’s very expensive to run a pageant,” Dutzer explains. “When you don’t have a home such as a bar or something, it’s hard to get corporate sponsorship. Hamburger Mary’s gives us a chance to promote a brand year-round.” The pageant dates back to 1972, with the crowning of Norman Jones as Norma Kristie at the Watch Your Hat and Coat Saloon in Nashville. Since then, drag queens compete each year in state and regional feeder pageants, vying for glory and prizes: $10,000, jewelry, vacations and the ability to book club dates almost anywhere as the reigning Miss Gay America. Contestants face off in five areas: male interview, where the judges interview contestants outside of Continued on pg 14

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Heady is the head who wears this gorgeous crown. | BJKJ ILLUSIONS

Vivian Vaughn says pageants helped her embrace both sides of her sexuality. | BJKJ ILLUSIONS

MISS GAY AMERICA Continued from pg 13

their drag persona; presentation, where the queens display a costume in keeping with the year’s theme (this year, “Fantastical Creatures”); evening gown; onstage interview; and talent. The male interview is one thing that makes Miss Gay America unique among pageants. “This is one where they want you to be comfortable as a man, and in the illusion of a woman,” says Vivian Vaughn, Miss Gay North Carolina 2015. “Society is always driving you to pick one. “I’ve struggled with femininity versus masculinity,” Vaughn adds. “This pageant has taught me that you can really truly completely embrace both.” No contestant can have body modifications below the neck or be taking feminizing hormones. This wouldn’t necessarily exclude transwomen. Dutzer says

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Lady Gaga, with pageant owners Rob Mansman and Michael Dutzer, is a fan. | BJKJ ILLUSIONS that if a contestant was living daily life as a woman without hormones or surgery, she could compete — though the male interview portion might be a little awkward.

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But traditionally, the pageant has showcased gay men competing as their feminine alter egos. The rules, Dutzer says, put “every contestant on an equal playing field. We require them to present

the full illusion.” In the context of the pageant, that means cleavage comes from padding, tape and highlighter instead of silicone. Winners serve as administrators for feeder pageants and use their elevated profile to promote charities. Competitors say that the pageant is foremost a family. It’s also a lot of work, and it polishes skills that continue to serve them offstage. Vaughn, for one, credits her work in the pageant system with turning her life around. She was a high school dropout, and the pageant system taught her the value of setting goals and putting in work, which led to her becoming the first person in her family to graduate from college. Outside of pageant life, these days she has a busy career in logistics. “I’m now running an entire department in a very successful company,” Vaughn says. “A lot of those skills, I used being Miss North Carolina. I had to go and be interviewed in front of a panel to get the

Past winners include Suzy Wong, Miss Gay America 2016. | BJKJ ILLUSIONS

job, and they fell in love with me.”

ageant participation is rarely one and done — it’s a multiyear investment. Carl Glorioso, who won the national crown in 2009 as Victoria DePaul, is a good example of how these efforts take time. Glorioso, who now lives in Kansas City and owns a busy hair salon, spent eight years chasing the title. Before taking top honors, his alter ego DePaul held titles including Miss Gay Central States America (2001), Miss Gay Heart of America (2005) and Miss Gay Midwest America (2007). “Once I started competing, I never stopped,” says Glorioso. “I did my homework, I surrounded myself with the people I could learn the most from.” The lead-up to the qualifying pageants each year reaches a summertime crescendo of rehearsals, fittings, hair and makeup, raising and spending money, and ceaseless other preparations. And for most contestants, it ends

The very first Miss Gay America, Norma Kristie, in 1973. | COURTESY OF NORMA KRISTIE in defeat. “When you have all of that invested, the years you may not win can get very discouraging,” Glorioso says. But almost no one wins their

Miss Gay Missouri America 2017 first alternate Karma T. Cassidy. | BJKJ ILLUSIONS

first time out. Instead, the years of competing allow contestants to hone their craft and to learn exactly what makes someone Miss Gay America material. “I did my city preliminary in 2004, and I was horrible!” recalls Vaughn, who finally won the 2015 Miss Gay North Carolina America after years of competition and finally taking city and regional qualifiers in 2012 and 2013. “Clearly I had a lot to learn.” For that, she credits what could seem like an unlikely source — her fellow competitors. “A lot of the time you hear about cutthroat behavior in pageants,” says Vaughn. “That wasn’t what I experienced at all.” Indeed, Janessa Highland, who was crowned Miss Gay Missouri America this spring at Hamburger Mary’s, says she’s in touch with queens she beat in preliminaries. Some have helped arrange fundraisers to pay the steep expenses associated with competing. Victory can be bittersweet. “It’s more about the journey

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than the end result,” says Glorioso, the 2009 title holder. “After I won Miss America, I had one of the best years of my life — I loved it. But something was missing — that competitive piece you do every year. It’s like ‘Oh gosh, what next?’ You’re used to this taking up your whole Halloween season.”

lorioso will bring Victoria to the stage in St. Louis for the pageant, but not as a competitor. She’s performing each of the four nights in celebration of the tenth anniversary of her victory. As for Highland, she is this year’s local favorite, simultaneously holding the Miss Gay Missouri and Miss Gay St. Louis titles. She’ll be performing a vampedup version of the number that clinched the Missouri crown for her in April, a drag interpretation of the music of Mary Poppins. While the judges won’t convey any hometown advantage, she knows the crowd’s enthusiasm

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Continued on pg 16

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their lives during interviews. “I don’t think that you truly realize until you have become Miss Gay America what people say in their interviews,” Station says. “Their struggles, why they chose to do drag. Maybe they’re hiding, maybe it’s an escape. I got to look inside all these peoples’ diaries! It makes you not sweat the little things. People have really conquered some demons.” That’s true in Station’s case, too. Her drag name references the rough spot she was in when she began performing in her late 30s. “I never considered myself to be the most beautiful or the most talented, but I was the most passionate,” says Station. “I’ve told people before the irony in all this: Dressing up as a woman and going onstage and playing a character taught me how to be a man.”

MIss Gay Northeast America 2017 Dessie Love Blake channels her inner Britney in a flesh-toned bodysuit. | BJKJ ILLUSIONS

MISS GAY AMERICA Continued from pg 15

will buoy her spirits. “I feel really confident,” she says a few weeks before the pageant.

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“Barring me falling down, I think I have a pretty good shot.” The 2018 Miss Gay America, Deva Station of Columbus, Ohio, will be ending her reign and passing the crown to the next winner. After seven years of competing, it will be

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hard to crown the new winner. “It’s been the year of a lifetime,” Station says. In her role managing the qualifying pageants, Station says she’s really enjoyed connecting with competitors and hearing about

Miss Gay America 2018 will host preliminary nights on October 3 and 4, with the revue show on October 5 and the winner crowned on October 6. The first three nights are at Hamburger Mary’s (400 Washington Avenue, 314-833-4000), and the final night is in the Ferrara Theatre at America’s Center (701 Convention Plaza, 314-421-1023). For ticketing info, see missgayamerica.com.

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CALENDAR

BY PAUL FRISWOLD don (3648 Washington Boulevard; www.thesheldon.org). The show remains up through January 12.

SATURDAY 10/06 Drop that Puck The St. Louis Blues and the Chicago Blackhawks both missed the NHL playoffs last year, forging another link in the chain of coincidences that binds the two teams in hatred. Fortunately, the Blues and the ’Hawks meet early in the season this year, so both teams can work on accumulating points early against an old foe. (And if the Blues can rack up wins late in the season as well, there won’t be a repeat of last year’s debacle.) The one-time Norris Division warriors hit the ice at 7 p.m. Saturday, October 6, at the Enterprise Center (1401 Clark Avenue; www.stlblues.com), with four points on the line and 50-plus years of honest dislike behind them. Tickets are $75 to $319.

Leather Daddies Unite DJ Skillet and Chef Rossi (Erin Renee Roberts and Sarajane Alverson) make a formidable team in the kitchen. | ERIC WOOLSEY

THURSDAY 10/04 Hot Plate Comin’ Through The chef and food writer known only as Rossi has come a long way to get to the launch of her first book, The Raging Skillet: The True Life Story of Chef Rossi. Her “memoir with recipes” will debut at a combination book talk/cooking demonstration that will put the cherry on top of her arduous climb through the kitchens of NYC and also serve as a stick in the eye to all the chauvinist restaurateurs who told her she’d never make it. The only trouble comes when her mother crashes the party, which is quite a feat for a dead woman. Mom — who never approved of Rossi’s lesbianism, her rejection

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of her Orthodox Jewish heritage for punk rock or her foul mouth — becomes the counterpoint to her big day in Jacques Lemarre’s play about food and family, Raging Skillet. Inspired by the true story of caterer Chef Rossi, the play opens the new season for the New Jewish Theatre, the first with new artistic director Edward Coffield. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday (October 4 to 21) at the Wool Studio Theatre at the Jewish Community Center (2 Millstone Campus Drive, Creve Coeur; www.newjewishtheatre.org). Tickets are $42 to $45.

FRIDAY 10/05 New in Town America’s long history of welcom-

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ing new arrivals to Team USA is celebrated in the exhibition The Immigrants: Works by Master Photographers. From the earliest days of photography in the 1890s, when Ellis Island clerk Augustus Frederick Sherman began documenting immigrants with his camera, to today, when Italian photographer Alex Majoli captures the crisis of refugees trying to survive the ocean crossing from Africa to Greece, the exhibit shows the people who fled their homes in search of safety. The Immigrants doesn’t shy away from the worst moments; Dorothea Lange’s suppressed photograph of Japanese Americans in a U.S. internment camp during World War II is part of the show, as are more ennobling images made by Lewis Hine and Bob Gruen. The Immigrants opens with a free reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, October 5, at the Shel-

It’s a leather kind of weekend, as the Mr. Midwest Leather Contest and the Midwest Puppy Contest will crown new titleholders on Saturday, October 6, at JJ’s Clubhouse (3858 Market Street; www.mrmidwestleather.com). There are a host of social events for the community to join on Friday and Sunday, but if you’re only in it to see fit men who look good in leather compete for the sash, Saturday is the main event. Doors open at 9 p.m. for a silent auction and raffle (plus some serious socializing), and the contest starts at 11 p.m. Potential winners will need to answer questions from the judges, wear their hottest outfit while being introduced to the audience, demonstrate their comfort by answering a single question while minimally dressed and deliver a 90-second speech in full leather. The new Mr. Midwest Leather will then represent the community to the best of his abilities, raise funds and awareness, and compete in the International Mr. Leather contest. Admission for spectators and supporters is $10.

WEEK OF OCTOBER 4-10

Lewis Wickes Hine, (American, 1874 – 1940), Jewish Grandmother, Ellis Island, 1926 gelatin silver print, 13 3/8 x 10 3/8 inches; printed c. 1935, courtesy of the Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York.

SUNDAY 10/07 Print it! Just like books and records, letterpress printing is having something of a revival despite the onslaught of desktop publishing. Letterpress uses moveable type either carved into wood blocks or forged in steel, which is then placed in a locking form and inked. A roller powered by machinery or elbow grease then applies pressure, which stamps the impression into paper. It’s the same labor-intensive process Johannes Gutenberg invented centuries ago to print the Bible. Printmaker Marie Oberkirsch thinks the letterpress renaissance is a result of modern technology and old-fashioned nostalgia for a once-fading artform. “I’m sure social media has

helped the letterpress community,” Oberkirsch says. “When a part breaks, you can contact other printers for help or a replacement, or watch a video that shows you how to repair it. I think there’s a stronger community than there has been in the past because of it. A stronger print community spurs growth. It’s tough to run a small print shop, so having a community helps.” The nostalgia kicks in when non-printers get their hands on a printed poster or card. “I think people really appreciate the tactile quality of it,” Oberkirsch surmises. “The oil-based inks are lustrous. There are impressions left in the paper, so it feels different than laser printing or other modern methods.” Oberkirsch is executive director of Central Print, the nonprofit arts organization based in the city’s Old North neighborhood that pro-

Saturday night, a new Mr. Midwest Leather will be anointed at JJ’s Clubhouse. | COURTESY MR. MIDWEST LEATHER motes letterpress through classes, workshops and hands-on demonstrations. To that end, Central Print, its neighboring shop Firecracker Press and trade organization the Ladies of Letterpress host STL Print Week, a series of seminars for beginners to advanced practitioners of the inky art, from October 4 to 7. The week culminates in the Print Market, an open-to-the-public show and sale of hand-printed material and supplies for the small printmaker. The Print Market takes place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, October 7, in a large tent set up behind Central Print. You’ll be able to buy new hand-carved type crafted by Steve Moore of Moore Wood Type, plus old forged type — and learn tips and tricks from the pros. You can also help in the creation of the Ouroboros print project. The brainchild of Eric Woods of Fire-

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cracker Press, Ouroboros involves a modified one-ton letterpress, a squeeze clamp, some drywall screws and 2×4s, and an exercise bike. A 2,000-foot-long spool of paper will be fed into the letterpress, and as volunteers pedal, the paper will be fed through and printed on in an unbroken loop. “Eric has done some incredible projects, but this is something else,” Oberkirsch explains with just a touch of understatement. “It’s a combination of new technology and old coming together.” Admission to the Print Market is free. Spaces are still available for the seminars; check out your options and sign up for one at www. stlprintweek.com.

Meet the Artist Many artists are living and work-

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Jodie Whittaker officially has the keys to the Tardis now. | © BBC

CALENDAR

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ing throughout the metro area, and the annual Open Studios STL allows you to meet many of them in their studios and workspaces between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (October 6 and 7). Saturday is devoted to artists who work east of Grand Boulevard, and Sunday is for those west of Grand. Maps of participating studios are available at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (3750 Washington Boulevard; www.camstl.org), and CAM also offers curator-led studio visits if you’d like some help breaking the ice. Sunday’s participants include Metra Mitchell (3883 Hartford Street), whose oil paintings of people arranged in strangely lit spaces feature thickly applied paint to create a sense of texture. Justin Cissell (Phi Academy of Art, 4210 Chippewa Street) shows his fired clay sculptures and drawings of nudes and still lifes, while photographer Gena Brady (4032 Botanical Avenue) presents her photos of everyday life, which range from luridly hued dollar-store interiors to portraits of teenage girls peering into

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their cellphones while waiting on a bench. Open Studios STL is free.

WEDNESDAY 10/10 Doctor Whom? America may not believe in women physicians, but Great Britain certainly does. After some 50 years, science-fiction hero Doctor Who is finally a science-fiction heroine. Jodie Whittaker officially becomes the star of the series as the thirteenth Doctor in the season-opening episode October 7. If you don’t have BBC America and do have some patience, you can see the epochal episode at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 10, on the big screen at Marcus Wehrenberg Ronnies Cine (5320 South Lindbergh Boulevard; www.fathomevents.com). Or see it again, you superfan. It’s a new era for the long-running show, which is slightly better than real life at times because the good guys win. Tickets are $12.50, and there are two behind-the-scenes short features (one about Whittaker, one about the director) included in the ticket price. n

FILM

[REVIEW]

The Books Are Better Colette is a breezy and harmless excursion into the life of a great French writer Written by

ROBERT HUNT Colette Directed by Wash Westmoreland. Written by Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland and Rebecca Lenkiewicz. Starring Keira Knightley, Eleanor Tomlinson and Dominic West. Now showing at the Landmark Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

ith the rush of awards season still a few weeks away, the art-house-lite attractions begin to blur together into a vaguely familiar mix of modest period settings and upper-middle-class drama, set to a chamber orchestra and with just enough feminism and gender issues to seem reassuringly (yet mildly) relevant. And so it is with Colette. Like the recent Lizzie, Colette begins in 1892, and while no one is likely to confuse Colette’s rural France with suburban Massachusetts, you still might be caught off guard by the early appearance of Fiona Shaw, who played Lizzie Borden’s stepmother and here graduates to full motherhood for a new repressed heroine. As the film continues, a significant portion of the narrative follows a storyline that matches almost step by step a major segment of the season’s other literary drama, The Wife. Only the absence of either a media-savvy thirteen-year-old or Ruth Bader Ginsburg prevents Colette from scoring this season’s full indiefilm trifecta. Once you shake the sense of déjà vu, Colette is a harmless and comfortable entertainment, a stroll through a fin de siècle France of top hats, Impressionist landscapes and country walks, where every character follows the established movie code of speaking with a reassuring English accent (even

Missy and Colette (Denise Gough and Keira Knightley) share a quiet moment. | ROBERT VIGLASKY/BLEECKER STREET though they write in French). It’s the story, albeit abbreviated, of the writer Colette, who charmed Paris with semi-autobiographical tales of her youth, broke a few taboos about gender and sexuality, and, in the film’s dominant storyline, broke through the confines of the male literary establishment to find her own voice. It’s also one of those speedingthrough-history films where you’re expected to forget about details and just enjoy the ride. When we first see Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (Keira Knightley), she’s a young but not particularly innocent country girl conducting a secret affair with a family friend, the pretentious and selfenamored writer Henry Gauthier-Villars (Dominic West), who conducts literary business under the nom de plume “Willy.” Within minutes, the film transports her to Paris as Willy’s wife, trying to hold her place among her husband’s condescending friends, overlooking his romantic indiscretions and ultimately taking a place as one of many ghostwriters actually producing the work published under his name. When the stories of her alter ego Claudine become a public sensation, the young writer is

The film is erratic and inconsistent, but flits about so casually that its irrational shifts seem almost deliberate. liberated, embracing her new toujours gai attitude by dropping her first name and pursuing her own casual affairs. As directed by Wash Westmoreland (who also co-authored the screenplay), Colette is erratic and inconsistent, but flits about so casually that its irrational shifts seem almost deliberate. One minute Willy and Colette are the toast of Paris, swimming in wealth; a few scenes later, they’re dodging creditors. Paris society consists largely of close-minded snobs, except when it’s dominated by enthusiastic, convention-flaunting Claudine fans. Colette and Willy have a devoted but open marriage

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— their concurrent infidelities are turned into a brief comic scene — until Colette somewhat arbitrarily rebels and demands her independence. That last plot shift is typical of Colette’s capricious tone. It’s amusing, and Knightley and West are reasonably engaging, but when the filmmakers try to hit a serious note, it seems impulsive. It’s transgressive, but in an almost anachronistic way (Colette has an affair with a young cross-dressing aristocrat who wouldn’t be out of place in a von Sternberg film). It’s feminist, but only when it becomes convenient for the filmmakers to convert the otherwise amiable Willy into a patriarchal straw-man villain. It wants to assure us of Colette’s literary stature but uses her writing career simply to move the story along, until finally deciding fairly late in the film that it should be an emblem of her independent spirit. The filmmakers want credit for telling a timely and important story, but they take shortcuts to get there. The intentions are good, but they’re just the slim afterthought to 111 minutes of breezy but insubstantial literary gossip and period-piece window dressing. n

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STAGE

[REVIEW]

Kitchen Confidential Chef deftly explores the violence done to a woman — and the recipe for living through it Written by

PAUL FRISWOLD Chef Written by Sabrina Mahfouz. Directed by Marianne de Pury. Presented by Upstream Theater through October 14 at the Kranzberg Arts Center (501 North Grand Boulevard; www.upstreamtheater.org). Tickets are $25 to $35.

ow did we all get to where we are right now? Was it happenstance that brought us here, or are our lives a planned accumulation of people and events that could only lead to this moment? To put it in cooking terms, are our lives happy accidents, like the creation of gooey butter cake, or do we follow the intricate steps of a complex recipe on the order of duck pâté en croûte? This is the question doggedly pursued by the sole character in Sabrina Mahfouz’s drama Chef as she waits to resume cooking once again. Upstream Theater’s seasonopening production of Chef at the Kranzberg Arts Center is a challenging meal, but rewarding, too, once it’s completely digested. Guided by Swiss director Marianne de Pury and starring the incomparable St. Louis actress Linda Kennedy, it’s a production that piles misery upon misery, spiced by sharp spikes of violence that are evoked rather than shown. Despite the litany of horror Chef endures, she keeps living — that’s a victory no one wrests from her. Some lives don’t feature grand trajectories celebrated by fireworks and praise, but are small things lived in the glare of other people’s explosions and outbursts. When we first meet Chef (she admits no other name), the front of her white kitchen smock is awash in blood. She hides the gar-

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Linda Kennedy dazzles as a one-woman show in the harrowing Chef. | PRO PHOTO STL.COM ment and then tells us the story of her life, perhaps more for her own benefit than ours. She has grown up victimized by the violence of men. Her father was made brutal by his failures, and marked each of Chef’s own small childhood failures with a new cycle of beatings. Older and no wiser, she attaches herself to another abusive (although sexy) man, who continues the cycle. “I loved a man who cut shapes in flesh because he couldn’t use words,” she says. This poetic language is her hallmark, whether she’s remembering the sensation of being choked into unconsciousness or dreaming up sumptuous recipes for the cookbook she’s in the process of writing. Kennedy delivers these lines with a vitality that makes them genuine. For the course of the play’s 90 minutes, she creates a depth of sweetness in Chef’s heart that, despite everything else in

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Some lives don’t feature grand trajectories celebrated by fireworks and praise, but are small things lived in the glare of other people’s explosions and outbursts. her life, enables her to praise to the majesty of a ripe peach and evokes the wounded soul of her

friend and co-worker, Candace. But Candace is as battered by the fists of the world as Chef. Only Chef’s unnamed culinary mentor showed her any kindness; his one flaw was that he didn’t care for baking, which was all Chef cared about when they met. She loved the way ingredients became something else under her hands. Chef realizes that her mentor transformed her into a chef through a similar process, which to her is just as magical. It’s that magical transformation — of eggs, sugar and flour and into cake, and broken people into something new and whole — that’s at the root of Mahfouz’s play. As she replays the events of her life, Chef recognizes that her life is more the result of a recipe than serendipity. There is no happy ending coming as dessert. But she’s still alive, and still cooking. It’s a small, dark life, but it’s a victory. n

[REVIEW]

Foxy Lady Lillian Hellman’s classic drama still rings true in an entertaining production by St. Louis Actors’ Studio Written by

PAUL FRISWOLD The Little Foxes Written by Lillian Hellman. Directed by John Contini. Presented by St. Louis Actors’ Studio at the Gaslight Theater (358 North Boyle Avenue; www.stlas.org). Tickets are $30 to $35.

s The Little Foxes begins, great works are being set in motion within the Giddens House. Up ‘til now brothers Oscar and Ben Hubbard stuck to the smaller work of enriching themselves by nickel-anddiming poor black people in their store, but now they’re moving on up. They’ve enlisted their sister Regina to charm the business magnate Marshall over a traditional Southern dinner, in hopes of enlisting the Northerner in their dream of building their own cotton mill. Oscar has the cotton field (through marriage) and Ben has the cut-throat business sense; with their own mill it’s just a matter of time ‘til they leave “comfortably rich” behind and become “filthy, stinking rich.” Lillian Hellman’s drama debuted in 1939, but in the intervening years it’s only become more prescient. The production currently being mounted by St. Louis Actors’ Studio and director John Contini is a fascinating story beautifully told by a large and talented cast — and one that’s depressing as hell. The robber barons of the past were ambitious mercenaries who didn’t care who they crushed to earn another fistful of dollars, and they’re alive and thriving in the modern world. But nobody ever talks about the depredations of the robber baronesses. Charming, clever Regina Giddens is here to demonstrate that men are pikers compared to her callous appetite for more.

Siblings Regina (Kari Ely, third from left) and Ben (Chuck Brinkley, far right) vie for more of everything, to the detriment of everyone else. | PATRICK HUBER Ben and Oscar (Chuck Brinkley and Bob Gerchen) graciously offer Regina (Kari Ely) a piece of the Marshall deal, but only if she can come up with $75,000 buy-in. They both know she has no money of her own; their father left his fortune only to his sons. Regina’s cut must come from her banker husband Horace (William Roth), and he’s been recuperating from ill health in Baltimore for five months. He hasn’t responded to Regina’s requests. This need for more — more of Horace’s money and more of the luxuries Regina dreams of acquiring once the mill is up and running — spurs on Regina, and she in turn drives the action around her. Make no mistake, all three Hubbard siblings are a voracious bunch, sowing destruction in their wake, but Regina is a real piece of work. It’s a plum part for an actress, and Kari Ely makes a meal of it. Ely wears a persistent smile as she flirts with Marshall, spars with her brothers and manipulates her

daughter Alexandra (Bridgette Bassa) into going up north to bring home Horace. Ely commands every scene through force of will and that dancing smile. And when it disappears, watch out. Her hard eyes size up an obstacle, and you can almost see the machinery in her head working out whether it will be quicker to circumvent someone or destroy them. The Little Foxes requires two intermissions, but it never feels over-long thanks to Hellman’s use of the secondary and tertiary characters, which gives everyone in the cast a story. Oscar’s sour disposition and hatred for his wife Birdie (Laurie McConnell) informs the quiet joy she displays when spending time with the lively Alexandra. Regina’s servants Addie and Cal (Wendy Greenwood and Dennis Jethro II, both excellent) are mere statues in her presence, but come alive in the presence of Horace and Alexandra’s decency and kindness. Oscar and Birdie’s son Leo (Ryan LawsonMaeske) is a block of wood with a

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face drawn on, and his staggering inability to follow a conversation or a plan is the source of the play’s few laughs. And then there’s Horace. When he returns, theater buffs get to watch Ely and Roth spar with the same exquisite timing and skill they exhibited in the company’s previous production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Horace is a dying man, and he has no desire for more of anything except quiet rest. Still, he has enough energy to plot out a perfect parry that will stymie Regina while still allowing Ben and Oscar to get richer. But not even his long years of fighting his wife allow him to anticipate her riposte. Regina runs the table on Horace and outfoxes Ben and Oscar in the process. She has her own blindspot, though. If you devour everything in sight, what’s left for anyone else to live on? Regina learns too late that nobody can survive on nothing, and not even everything you ever wanted can keep you company when you’re alone. n

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CAFE

VP Square’s pan-Asian cuisine allows for a menu that includes everything from hot pots to taro bubble tea to a char-grilled lemongrass pork chop. | MABEL SUEN

[REVIEW]

Once More, With Feeling At VP Square, the team behind Café Mochi has crafted a restaurant even more dazzling than the original Written by

CHERYL BAEHR VP Square 3611 Juniata Street, 314-833-4838. Tues.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. (Closed Mondays.)

uncan Pham is a born cook, a talent that revealed itself even in the most difficult of circumstances. Growing up in Vietnam in the mid-1970s, amidst the chaos and terror of war and oppression, young Pham took solace in food, even before he had any inkling he was destined for

the kitchen. At first, his skills manifested as a penchant for fishing — as he not only caught whatever bounty the waters would give up but designed his own implements. He fashioned innovative eel traps out of tin cans, used a string of cans to catch octopuses and even designed a special slingshot that proved way more effective for catching fish than the traditional methods. That innovation would come in handy for Duncan and his siblings, Victor and Mina, when they were forced to flee Vietnam in 1981. Traveling by boat, the siblings survived by foraging what they could find on islands along the way, and eventually set up a small bamboo tent in a refugee encampment on the beach in Thailand. There, Duncan was the family’s resident fisherman, an impressive distinction given that he was only eleven. The Phams were in Thailand for six months before moving to the Philippines to await entrance into the United States. Once they arrived stateside, they settled in Florida with their father, who had already made the journey. After getting acclimated to their new home, Duncan naturally ended up

in the food business, scoring a job at a sushi restaurant. If Duncan was the chef of the family, Victor was the entrepreneur, always on the lookout for business ventures even when he was a schoolkid. After graduating high school, Victor left Florida to join one of his siblings in St. Louis and was immediately struck by the dearth of sushi restaurants. Sensing an opportunity, he bought a building on South Grand, rehabbed it and recruited his brother and sister to help him run the place. Together, the three opened Café Mochi in 1989. The cafe’s always-full patio tells you all you need to know about the success the Phams have enjoyed. The restaurant has become something of a South Grand institution, an oft-recommended place for sushi and Japanese cuisine with a legion of regulars. In fact, the restaurant’s reputation is what led the Pham siblings to their latest concept, VP Square, which opened just a few blocks away from Café Mochi this past February. Though they weren’t actively looking to open a new spot, the owner of the building at Grand and Juniata knew of the Phams’ reputation as tireless res-

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taurateurs. He approached Victor to see if he was interested in taking over the building, and before they knew it, the siblings were hard at work converting a former hair salon and office space into their second restaurant. For VP Square, the Phams wanted to do something that felt more personal than sushi — something that evoked not only their homeland but the stops they’d taken along the way on their journey to the U.S., as well as the rich culinary traditions of other countries throughout Asia. In that spirit, VP Square is an “Asian fusion” restaurant that features dishes from culinary traditions as diverse as Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea and China. Bibimbap next to Szechuan hot pot, bánh mì alongside tonkotsu ramen — for a lesser chef it would be overly ambitious, but for the talented Duncan Pham, it’s effortless. It’s also flawless, each dish more dazzling than the next in both flavor and execution. Take the crab Rangoon, an appetizer usually offered as a straight-from-the-freezer throwaway. At VP Square, it may be the restaurant’s signature dish, a half-moon-shaped wonton

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VP SQUARE

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that is as crisp and delicate as a paper-thin potato chip. Somehow, that dainty wrapper is able to contain a cream-cheese filling so interspersed with crabmeat and scallions it could be considered a crab salad. Chef Pham would never dare serve such a masterpiece with cloying, pre-made sweet and sour. Instead, he pairs his Rangoons with a vibrant housemade sweet-and-sour sauce spiked with chiles. There is not a better crab Rangoon in town; there may not be a better crab Rangoon in existence. Duncan’s sushi skills shine through on the tuna tartare. The soy-slicked cubes of ruby-hued raw tuna are paired with avocado and served atop light-as-air wonton chips. Thickly sliced green onions add a pungent punch to the silken fish. It’s simple, fresh and perfect. “Starburst Summer Rolls” are VP Square’s take on a traditional Vietnamese spring roll. In addition to the usual vermicelli and cilantro, the chef adds crab, shrimp and strawberries into the sticky rice-paper roll, then pairs the appetizer with velvety soy-and-pea-

nut sauce for dipping. The mix of texture, sweet, salt and refreshment is stunning. Even a simple fried-rice dish is an event at VP Square. Loads of garlic and fresh basil leaves spike the stir-fried rice, adding a layer of complexity to the soy-sauce base. The dish comes with a garden’s worth of fresh vegetables, but you can choose to add chicken or shrimp. I opted for the latter and was treated to plump, perfectly cooked shellfish that paired seamlessly with the other components. A pork chop nearly two inches thick is scented with lemongrass then kissed with bitter grill char. The combination of floral perfume and grilled meat is positively intoxicating on its own, but when dipped in the accompanying funky lime-spiked fish sauce, it’s otherworldly. The pork was a touch overcooked (I prefer medium and this was cooked throughout), but the egg that accompanied the dish was flawlessly prepared; the white was plump and silken, the yolk in a suspended state between liquid and solid. Miso-cured salmon was another success. The large filet was tender and pulled apart into flakes the texture of flower petals. The fish sat atop a bed of noodles specked

with cod roe. The fish eggs clung to the salmon, noodles and accompanying seaweed salad, tying everything together in a pleasant sea-flavored bow. Like the fried rice, the tofu yaki udon reads like a straightforward presentation: wheat noodles, tofu, cabbage, bean sprouts and assorted julienne vegetables. However, the quality of noodles transforms it into a work of art. The yaki udon are silken ropes, gilded with just a touch of a sticky soy glaze that enhances their nutty flavor without covering it. How a chef can dazzle with such simple ingredients is mindboggling. Aside from the crab Rangoon, this may be my favorite dish. Duncan Pham’s foray into Korean and Chinese food is, unsurprisingly, a success. The bulgolgi on the bibimbap is sweet, salty and as tender as pot roast. Even the carrots are a showstopper, subtly spiked with a sweet chile sauce. It’s as good as any version I’ve had in town. The same goes for the Szechuan-style hot pot, its mouthtingling, rich beefy broth a master class in layering spice. You could enjoy this food in a shack and be content, but Victor Pham shows off his knack for style in the building’s décor. The

two-story restaurant is outfitted in serene colors with taupe and pale mustard walls. Upstairs, where the bar is located, exposed, whitewashed brick and brass accents create a contemporary scene, while downstairs, grey marbledlooking tabletops and of-the-moment chandeliers fashioned from antlers give the room a rustic feel. Victor Pham is also using part of the downstairs space as a bubble tea and smoothie shop. You can order one of his soon-to-belegendary avocado smoothies for dessert or stop in and grab one to go — it doesn’t matter where you enjoy it. You’ll be transported to another plane regardless your surroundings. In fact, that feeling will hit you time and again at the thrilling VP Square. Café Mochi may have been the restaurant that established the Pham siblings, but the new place seems like the one they were always destined to own. That destiny may go back all the way to their childhood in Vietnam, but now, it flourishes right here in St. Louis.

VP Square Crab Rangoon ............................................ $5 Tofu yaki udon .......................................... $11 Miso-cured salmon .................................. $17

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OCTOBER 3 - 9, 2018

RIVERFRONT TIMES

OCTOBER 3 - 9, 2018

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SHORT ORDERS

[SIDE DISH]

Bakers & Hale Chef Is Returning to Her Roots Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

hen thinking back on where she got her love of food, Kelsi Walden Baker, the co-owner of the new Metro East restaurant Bakers & Hale (7120 Montclaire Avenue, Godfrey, Illinois; 618-4339748), does not hesitate. It was Grandma Baker. “I was really close to my grandma. She was a stay-at-home mother and a farmer’s wife,” Walden Baker says. “She was always working in the garden, and I realize now what a love she had for food because she was always venturing into different things. She’s the one who taught me that you can always make something out of nothing. All you have to do is look in the fridge, and there is a meal in there to be created.” Walden Baker did not wait long before using what her grandmother had taught her in the kitchen. Even as a kid, she loved to cook, and once she got old enough, she would take over preparing family dinners for her working parents. She never felt obligated to do so; she simply enjoyed the process and relished the opportunity to explore the cookbooks around the house. It was natural, then, that she would be drawn to the food business. When she was sixteen, Walden Baker got a job in fast food, which she describes as one of the only opportunities in her small town of Brighton, Illinois. She later got a job as a busser at one of the town’s nicer restaurants and decided to go to culinary school after she graduated high school. After a brief stint at one of the area’s four-year universities, she enrolled in the local community college’s culinary program,

Kelsi Walden Baker is now cooking the food she wants to cook, doing as much in-house as possible. | LAWRENCE BRYANT interned with Disney and came back to Illinois ready to work. Her brother suggested that Walden Baker look for a job at the restaurants on the Hill, and she was hired on the spot by Charlie Gitto’s to work at their satellite concept, located at what was then Harrah’s Casino. The opportunity would prove fateful, introducing her to the man who would become her biggest culinary influence next to her grandmother. “That’s where I met Rex,” Walden Baker says of acclaimed chef Rex Hale. “That’s pretty much where I got to where I am today. I worked with him there, and I’ve been working with him ever since.” In Hale, Walden Baker found not only a mentor but a friend who took her cooking knowledge and skills to the next level. The pair worked together at a series of subsequent restaurants — Charlie Gitto’s on the Hill, McCormick & Schmick’s, 360, Basso and the Restaurant at the Cheshire, which then became Boundary. Throughout their experiences, the pair formed a bond like family based on mutual respect and a shared cooking philosophy.

They were not always allowed to live that philosophy, however, as Walden Baker and Hale at times found themselves in corporate kitchens with recipes and ways of doing things that did not always appeal to them. They would often talk about how they would do things differently if given the chance, creating a vision for their dream restaurant without even realizing it. They got their chance to live that dream not long after Walden Baker left Boundary to focus on her family. Her brother stumbled upon a charming property that would make an ideal restaurant, and after purchasing the building, he recruited his sister and Hale to help him create what would become Bakers & Hale. They both jumped at the offer. “Instead of living in the corporate world where you are ruled by what you have to do, here we can have a vision, make it our own and have a say,” Walden Baker explains. “Now, we are able to make those decisions we knew were right all along but couldn’t.” Those decisions include making as much in-house as possible, buying in as little prepared food

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as they can get away with. The pair also relish the creative control they have over menu items, something they felt was lacking at many of their other jobs together. “You couldn’t ever say, ‘I’m not serving that dressing’ because you were always having to do other people’s recipes,” Walden Baker explains. “Here, we both agree on recipes and tastes and are able to control things that get brushed under the rug at larger places. “ But for Walden Baker, the creative control is not even the main allure of Bakers & Hale. Now that she is finally working in a cozy, farm-to-table spot only a short drive from where she grew up, she feels like she has gotten back to why she began cooking in the first place. “We used to drive past this place because it wasn’t that far from where I grew up in Brighton. I always thought it was beautiful, especially the outdoor space,” Walden Baker says. “It feels like going back to why I fell in love with food.” Walden Baker took a break from the kitchen to share her thoughts on the area’s food-and-beverage

OCTOBER 3 - 9, 2018

Continued on pg 37

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Bloom Café serves a fresh take on casual dining while helping people with disabilities grow their independence through a unique job training program. Just steps away from Forest Park and the St. Louis Science Center, Bloom Café serves breakfast and lunch six days a week.

KELSI WALDEN BAKER Continued from pg 35

scene, raising her three kids even while running a restaurant and why she identifies with an onion. What is one thing people don’t know about you that you wish they did? That I have a big heart and genuinely care about people and their feelings no matter how I am perceived. What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you? I get my kiddos up and off to the school bus every morning, so telling them I love them is definitely a daily ritual. My youngest always says “I love you,” and then I say “I love you more,” and then he screams as he shuts the door “I

love you most!” If you could have any superpower, what would it be? To be able to be in two places at the same time: at home and here at the restaurant, for sure. The balance is definitely hard. What is the most positive thing in food, wine or cocktails that you’ve noticed in St. Louis over the past year? Local ingredients. Who is your St. Louis food crush? Chef Rob Beasley at Chaumette Winery. He is out there making awesome dishes and has the best view and landscape that he can wake up to every day, before he goes to work. That place is amazing. Who’s the one person to watch right now in the St. Louis dining scene?

Josh Charles of Honey & Thyme. The meals that he is preparing for people are not only healthy, but look so amazing and fresh. Which ingredient is most representative of your personality? Onion. They can be sweet, but they can also make you cry. I am not saying that I would ever want to make anyone cry, but being a woman in the restaurant industry is tough for sure; I definitely have to stand my ground when needed. If you weren’t working in the restaurant business, what would you be doing? I would venture into an occupation that has to do with taking care of the elderly. I had a wonderful relationship with my grandmother, and she is now in a nursing home. When I go and see her, I could talk to the other

patients all day long. Name an ingredient never allowed in your restaurant. I don’t think I have one. What is your after-work hangout? At home with my husband, Nathan, and my three children. What’s your food or beverage guilty pleasure? Mexican food. There is a Mexican restaurant in Brighton, the town that I live in, called Riviera Maya, and when I get off at night, probably a couple times a week, I have been known to go there and get carryout. What would be your last meal on earth? Pepperloin from Tony’s on Main Street in Alton, along with a baked potato and side salad. It’s simple, and their pepperloins are to die for. n

[FIRST LOOK]

Mike’s Hot Dogs Has U. City Lining Up Written by

TOM HELLAUER

t was crazy to me that St. Louis didn’t have a hotdog,” says Mike Eagan, owner and chef of Mike’s Hot Dogs Soups & Sandwiches (7293 Olive Boulevard, University City; 314-776-9225). After all, there are Chicago dogs, Coney Island dogs, even Sonoran dogs in Arizona. Why not a St. Louis dog? So Eagan made one at his new counter-service joint, which opened in August in University City. Combining St. Louis staples such as Provel, bacon, caramelized onions and more, Eagan jokes, “Short of putting a ravioli on it, there’s not much more I could’ve done.” Despite the novelty factor, Eagan says his creation fits in nicely with his skillset. “Building flavors and components that go well together is what I’ve always done, whether I was a chef or anything else,” he says. The St. Louis dog pairs nicely with onion rings and a refreshing cane-sugar soda. Expect Provel, bacon, caramelized onion, tomato, sport pepper and celery salt on the St. Louis dog. At only $6, it’s fast become a popular menu item. At Mike’s Hot Dogs, all the ingredients have come together to create what Eagan calls an “old-fashioned fast food” spot. Evoking memories of diners, milkshakes and burgers, the new restaurant’s red walls host black-and-white photos of both pop-culture stars and oldtime St. Louis. The staff’s monochrome uniforms are simple and clean, matching the spacious

Mike’s Hot Dogs has proposed an official St. Louis dog, featuring Provel, bacon, caramelized onion, sport pepper and celery salt. | TOM HELLAUER black chalkboards with bold listings of menu items and black tabletops. The scene is set with a soundtrack featuring BB King, Buddy Guy and other blues legends. Eagan has a long history in St. Louis restaurants. He started at Charlie Gitto’s as a dishwasher at sixteen. From there Eagan went to Bon Appetit Catering before serving as the chef at Cardwell’s for eleven years. He made one last stop at Kirkwood Brewhouse before opening Mike’s. Although hotdogs get star billing in the restaurant’s name, burgers, chicken, cod and vegan options are on the menu as well. Chefs sear the edges of the burgers on a sizzling flat top, making them a favorite in Mike’s first seven weeks of

service. Caramelized onions and pickles adorn the patties, conforming to Eagan’s cooking philosophy: “Fresh. Simple. Quality.” Mike’s Hot Dogs’ fan-favorite burger can incorporate one to three patties depending on your hunger. This mindset has helped make Mike’s a local affair. The hotdogs, sausages and burgers are all pure Angus beef provided by El Rey Cooked Meats of Ferguson. A variety of colorful pure-cane-sugar sodas lining the counter and refrigerator come from Excel Bottling, a short drive across the River in Breese, Illinois. The community has taken notice, filing in to try Eagan’s creations. University City Councilman Bwayne Smotherson has “been in to eat five or six times,”

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Eagan says, adding that the reception is all he could have hoped for. He’s already thinking about expanding. In fact, after just a few weeks, it became clear to Eagan that he needed to find additional parking beyond the nine spots directly outside. Other changes may be on the way, too: Patrons compliment the kids menu but ask when an adult menu complete with alcoholic options will be available, leading Eagan to look into adding beers and other spirits. For the time being, though, Mike’s affordable options have been a hit in a city not well known for its dining outside of the Loop. Mike’s is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. n

OCTOBER 3 - 9, 2018

RIVERFRONT TIMES

FEATURED DINING

6 RESTAURANTS YOU NEED TO CHECK OUT...

THE BLUE DUCK

THURMAN’S IN SHAW

314.769.9940 2661 SUTTON BLVD, MAPLEWOOD, MO 63143

314.696.2783 4069 SHENANDOAH AVE, ST. LOUIS, MO 63110

There aren’t many businesses named after Adam Sandler movies, but at the Blue Duck, the food is as whimsical as its “Billy Madison” reference. Originally founded in Washington, Mo., owners Chris and Karmen Rayburn opened the Blue Duck’s Maplewood outpost in 2017, bringing with them a seasonal menu full of American comfort-food dishes that are elevated with a dash of panache. Start the meal with the savory fried pork belly, which is rubbed with coffee and served with a sweet bbq sauce and root vegetable slaw. For the main event, the Duck’s signature DLT sandwich substitutes succulent smoked duck breast instead of the traditional bacon, adding fried egg and honey chipotle mayo along with lettuce and tomato on toasted sourdough. Save room for dessert; the Blue Duck’s St. Louberry pie – strawberries and blueberries topped with a gooey buttercake-like surface – is a worthy tribute to the Gateway City.

In January, Doug Fowler made big changes to Thurman’s in Shaw, and it’s paid off big time. A year and a half after taking over the old Thurman’s Grill location, Fowler switched from burgers and traditional bar fare to hearty handheld Mexican grub to great acclaim. Everything on Thurman’s menu now is designed for maximum portability – perfect for both full dinners and light bites on the go. The street tacos and giant burrito have earned love from Shaw residents, with tortillas bursting with a choice of mouthwatering meats, fish or vegetable mix plus all the fixings. Looking to scoop up deliciousness? Try Thurman’s chips with frijoles dip (traditional or vegetarian), spicy salsas, queso (chorizo or vegetarian) or smooth guacamole. Polish off a meal with churros sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and served with warm chocolate dipping sauce. Don’t forget drinks! Thurman’s goes well beyond its tasty margaritas, with plenty of craft cocktails, wines and beers available.

STONE TURTLE

J. SMUGS GASTROPIT

STONETURTLE.COM

JSMUGSGASTROPIT.COM

314.349.1933 6335 CLAYTON AVE, ST. LOUIS MO, 63139

314.499.7488 2130 MACKLIND AVE, ST. LOUIS, MO 63110

At Stone Turtle, a classic American gastropub menu finds a way to fit right in with Dogtown’s Irish history. Principal owner and general manager Nick Funke drew on his years in the restaurant business in both St. Louis and New York and on Stone Turtle chef Todd Bale’s expertise to develop the signature menu. In a neighborhood known for burgers and drinks, Stone Turtle instead offers elevated dinners that are perfect for date night. Fried burrata serves as a much-lauded appetizer, exploding when a knife cuts into the breadcrumb-coated molten cheese. Mushroom gnocchi continues the cheesy goodness, mixing marsala mushrooms and garlic alongside spinach and goat cheese in tiny pasta curls. The highlight of the menu is the savory pork chop, cut thick and served with jus and creamy grits. But true to Dogtown roots, whiskey does take a star turn, with the Smoked Old Fashion appearing on many “must-try” lists in St. Louis.

Housed in a retro service station, J. Smugs GastroPit serves up barbecue that can fuel anyone’s fire. Married teams of Joe and Kerri Smugala and John and Linda Smugala have brought charred goodness to the Hill neighborhood, nestled among the traditional Italian restaurants, sandwich shops and bakeries. Part of St. Louis’ ongoing barbecue boom, the J. Smugs’ pit menu is compact but done right. Ribs are the main attraction, made with a spicy dry rub and smoked to perfection. Pulled pork, brisket, turkey and chicken are also in the pit holding up well on their own, but squeeze bottles of six tasty sauces of varying style are nearby for extra punch. Delicious standard sides and salads are available, but plan on ordering an appetizer or two J. Smugs gives this course a twist with street corn and pulled-pork poutine. Several desserts are available, including cannoli – a tasty nod to the neighborhood. Happy hour from 4 to 7pm on weekdays showcases half-dollar BBQ tastes, discount drinks, and $6 craft beer flights to soothe any beer aficionado.

CARNIVORE STL

BLOOM CAFE

314.449.6328 5257 SHAW AVE, ST. LOUIS, MO 63110

314.652.5666 5200 OAKLAND AVE, ST. LOUIS, MO 63110

Carnivore fills a nearly 4,000-square-foot space on The Hill with a dining area, bar lounge, and adjoining outdoor patio gracefully guarded by a bronze steer at the main entrance. Always embracing change, Joe and Kerri Smugala, with business partners Chef Mike and Casie Lutker, launched Carnivore STL this summer. As the Hill’s only steakhouse, Carnivore offers a homestyle menu at budget-friendly prices appealing to the neighborhood’s many families. Steak, of course, takes center stage with juicy filet mignon, top sirloin, strip steak and ribeye leading the menu. Customize any of the succulent meats with sautéed mushrooms, grilled shrimp, or melted housemade butters, such as garlic-and-herb and red wine reduction, on top of the flame-seared steak. Other main dishes include a thick-cut pork steak (smoked at J. Smugs) and the grilled chicken with capers and a white wine-lemon-butter sauce. St. Louis Italian traditions get their due in the Baked Ravioli, smothered in provel cheese and house ragu, and in the Arancini, risotto balls stuffed with provel and swimming in a pool of meat sauce. With an exciting new brunch menu debuting for Saturday and Sunday, Carnivore should be everyone’s new taste of the Hill.

A new restaurant with a meaningful cause has sprouted up near the Saint Louis Science Center. Bloom Café is a breakfast and lunch spot with a mission – empower people with disabilities through job training while providing a tasty menu full of sandwiches and sweets. An endeavor from Paraquad, a disability resources nonproft, Bloom Cafe makes good on its promises. Trainees work under culinary director Joe Wilson to prepare a variety of fresh dishes (including plenty of vegetarian and gluten-free options) that are perfect for a lunch date, a business meeting or a family meal before fun in Forest Park. For a morning jolt, try the breakfast burrito, stuffed with sausage, egg and pepperjack cheese and topped with tomato salsa. At lunch, the reuben stands out, making mouths water with a smoky, juicy corned beef brisket, sauerkraut, melted Swiss cheese and tangy Thousand Island sandwiched between swirl rye bread and toasted. A rotating array of pastries is available daily, but you’ll definitely want to pick up the cinnamon roll – cinnamon and sweet glaze make their way into every nook of the light dough for a delight in every bite.

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CARNIVORE-STL.COM

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OCTOBER 3 - 9, 2018

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[FOOD NEWS]

Goodbye Squatter’s Cafe, Hello Bulrush Written by

SARAH FENSKE

quatter’s Cafe (3524 Washington Avenue, 314-925-7556) will be closing after lunch service on October 31. But don’t despair — it’s actually just one piece of a bigger puzzle that involves some seriously good news. That news? Last week, Chef Rob Connoley finally announced a location for his long-awaited Bulrush. The restaurant, which will specialize in the cuisine of the Ozarks and utilize the acclaimed chef’s love of foraging, will aim for an early 2019 opening at 3307 Washington Avenue. A Missouri native who made his name in New Mexico before returning to the St. Louis area in 2016, Connoley has been clear that Bulrush was always his Plan A. But during his lengthy search for the perfect location, he ended up pursuing Plan B in the interim — the breakfast-and-lunch-only Squatter’s Cafe, located in the KDHX building. The restaurant drew acclaim, but it always came second for Connoley to his Bulrush plans. And now that Bulrush is moving forward at long last, he’s posted on social media that yes, indeed, Squatter’s Cafe will soon begin its final month of service. “We had an agreement with KDHX that is coming to a close,” the chef wrote on the restaurant’s Facebook page after naming October 31 as its final day of service. “With us opening Bulrush there won’t be the ability to continue Squatters.” But the chef isn’t going far: Bulrush will be located just three blocks east of Squatter’s. And Connoley will, to some extent, even be working with the same stakeholders. In yesterday’s press release, Connoley indicates that his new landlords are Ken and Nancy Kranzberg, who were also instrumental in KDHX moving to its headquarters on Washington. The Kranzbergs, Connoley notes

Chef Rob Connoley is finally opening his dream restaurant, just three blocks from the cafe he’s currently running in Grand Center. | MABEL SUEN in his press release, were the key to solving a problem that bedeviled him for two years — finding the perfect location for Bulrush. “Why did this take two years? If you had told me in the fall of 2016 that it would take me two years to open Bulrush I would have thought you were nuts,” Connoley writes. “Two years later I’ve learned that there are a lot more players in the game than I had in my previous restaurant, and it was ultimately an issue of finding a landlord who believed in my vision, and how that vision fits into their larger development goals. “Specifically, finding a landlord that would allow me to put the kitchen in the middle of the room, and all of the structural changes that entails was more challenging than I anticipated. It was only when we met Ken and Nancy Kranzberg that all the pieces fell in place. Their commitment to presenting and nurturing the arts allowed me to step in and include food as art in their portfolio of arts tenants.” Connoley says Bulrush is now working with SPACE Architects to renovate the 3,400-square-foot building to include a 24-seat dining room “hidden behind a 40seat bar. “The dining area will be a circular bar surrounding the kitchen. Guests will be invited to

watch as we prepare the food, ask questions, hear about our recent forages, and allow me to serve them personally,” he writes. As for what he’ll be serving, Connoley notes that his family has deep roots in the Ste. Genevieve area. He spent his childhood visiting the family log cabin in the Mark Twain National Forest — and says his memories of his time there will inform the new concept. “There I would gather mushrooms, crawdads, catch bluegills and sunfish, and explore every holler, cave and stream,” he writes. “That’s where my love of foraging began. The food was rooted in the German wave of immigrants to the Ozarks, heavy on sausages and potatoes, but gleaning that Southern touch of familiarity and hospitality. Cooking with the season and cooking with what we had was the norm. To this day I don’t understand when a chef serves a fresh tomato in January or a strawberry in November. That is why we rely on curing, drying, pickling and a slew of modern preservation techniques — techniques all common to Ozark preparations. “This is traditional southern cooking, and what makes Ozark cuisine unique is the combination of ingredients and techniques

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particular to the region (sorghum, pawpaw, persimmon, spice bush). I was fortunate to find Justin Bell to serve as Sous Chef because his upbringing was similar but even more deeply rooted in Ozark tradition. Foraging is a lifestyle that we’re both well-versed in that allows us to cook this style of food, and [our] contemporary cooking training will allow us to present this food in a new way giving it the attention it deserves ...” And while Squatter’s Cafe impressed critics and diners alike with its whimsy and execution, Connoley is clear that he has higher aspirations for his new project. “Make no mistakes,” he writes, “that we aspire to do to Ozark cuisine what Sean Brock has done for Appalachian Southern cooking.” See what we mean about good news? To get a taste of Bulrush, it’s hosting various pop-ups, so keep an eye on social media for your chance at a sneak peek. And in the meantime, may we recommend visiting Squatter’s Cafe while you still can? You’ve got one month to go — and after that, you’ll be entering a period where you’ll be unable to access Rob Connoley’s cooking until Bulrush opens its doors. Might want to gobble up those biscuits and that gravy while you still can. n

OCTOBER 3 - 9, 2018

RIVERFRONT TIMES

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OCTOBER 3 - 9, 2018

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MUSIC & CULTURE

[HOMESPUN]

A Different Drum Math rock act Subtropolis, featuring members of Popular Mechanics, releases its debut Written by

CHRISTIAN SCHAEFFER

hen Dave Todd fronted Popular Mechanics, a respected but below-the-radar rock quartet, he sharpened his knack for writing three-minute songs that merged classic rock and pop hooks with Todd’s oft-sardonic commentary. After that band parted ways a few years ago, he and drummer Sean Wilke wanted to keep working together, but they were tired of conventional verse-chorus-verse rock songs. Todd and Wilke’s new project, Subtropolis, takes the idea of the well-made rock track and turns it to shrapnel. Across five songs on its debut Automatic Touchless, the duo hides snippets of songs like Easter eggs in the tall grass of prog-like song suites. You might hear something that sounds like a Kinks cut or a dream-pop track, but chances are you won’t hear it for long. For Todd, Subtropolis has its roots in his old band, but he treats the new project as a conscious shift. “Popular Mechanics sort of ran out of steam creatively — it was time to change, and I had been writing a lot of stuff that was all over the place,” says Todd. “Sean was our drummer for the last year of the band and he was much different than our last drummer, and it opened up a lot of what we could do with the band.” Wilke’s time in that group was brief — he contributed to a twosong single released just before Popular Mechanics split up — but it was enough time for him to inhabit an already-warm drum stool while still making his own imprint. “When I first joined Popular Mechanics, it was more like drum karaoke,” Wilke recalls. “I joined

Dave Todd and Sean Wilke work out tricky time signatures at Schlafly Tap Room. | VIA THE BAND the band about a year before we broke up, and my job at that point was to learn the parts. As we were playing more and more and starting to create with me involved, I started getting more comfortable doing different things. Historically, I have enjoyed doing different time signatures while keeping a good groove.” Much of the material on Automatic feels like rock & roll splatterpaint on first listen, but it doesn’t take long for the discipline and dexterity of both instrumentalists to reveal themselves. “Sean thinks about it a lot — he is very deliberate,” Todd says of Wilke’s parts. “We used to do a lot of bash-’em-out songs, and Sean would think about the parts he was playing. He had a very different feel, a very different sense of timing and a different pocket rhythmically. It was like, wow, we could use this.” Wilke’s rhythmic dexterity is the prime mover in Subtropolis, which relies on the shifting tides of math rock to disrupt Todd’s already-flurried songs, most of which branch off into a few different stylistic directions before the run time is up. On Automatic Touchless, Subtropolis leans into some mechanical,

pneumatically precise riffs and hairpin rhythmic shifts, but much of the joy comes from the whipsaw approach to mashing songs and styles into something both coherent and askew. “I had definitely been in bands that fell under the the umbrella of math rock or noise rock, and definitely in the past two years I have reinvigorated my love for the classic British prog stuff like King Crimson and Genesis,” Todd says. But while prog rock often involves a cast of musicians creating knotty tapestries with layered guitars and banks of synthesizers, Subtropolis’ two-man approach won’t immediately call to mind the work of Yes. Todd notes that in Popular Mechanics, he was frequently arriving to rehearsals with pre-written songs. In Subtropolis, he remains the frontman and lead singer, but the songs spring from the interplay between him and Wilke, and several songs emanate from oneoff goofs during rehearsal. “This is probably a more collaborative type of thing,” Todd says. “A lot of these stem from jams in the room.” For Wilke, the song that most clearly suggested that this two-

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piece group would work came through the track “Plastic Sheet.” The track opens with his most scattershot drum fill — it sounds as if he has dared himself to hit every piece of his kit in the shortest time possible — before Todd enters with a lurching sequence that eventually straightens into a Brit-pop chorus and a thumping, flanger-heavy series of repetitive riffs. “The main groove came out of me messing around,” Wilke says of the song. “I essentially just modified a Captain Beefheart beat. That was the first time we had a nonlinear song.” Subtropolis has played about once a month during its year and a half in existence, including a release show at Foam at the end of last month. “I’m not sure if people who liked the old band dislike the new band, but there are definitely people who disliked the old band that like the new one,” says Todd. That type of response is fine with him and Wilke, who are more than content chasing their own muse as a twoheaded math-prog hybrid beast. “I feel like we get a strong reaction either way — they either like us or they leave the room, and I’m OK with that,” says Wilke. n

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Club Imperial in its heyday. | COURTESY OF THE METRO EAST ST. LOUIS LIVE MUSIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY VIA IMPERIALSWING.COM AND GEORGE EDICK

[HISTORY]

Historic Club Imperial Gets No Bids at Tax Sale Written by

JAIME LEES

hough it would surely be the most obvious spot for a St. Louis music-history museum, the old broken-down Club Imperial is still sitting unclaimed after being put up for auction last week in the city’s Land Tax sale. The north-side nightclub is where St. Louis-based musical superstars including Chuck Berry and Ike and Tina Turner got their start. That small stage helped launch the careers of Dolly Parton, the Monkeys and Glen Campbell, and on any given mid-century night, the joint was jumpin’.

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The club was listed for $82,278, which seems like a steal in light of its importance to music history. But the devastation hiding behind the signature striped-brick facade might have made that amount feel harder to swallow. Pictures from Robert Vroman, whose company acquired the property at a tax sale in 2017, show the conditions inside the building, explaining why Vroman sought a full tear-down early this year. The club is in such a state of disrepair that it’s hard to tell what’s worse, the ice in the basement or the piles of toxic garbage. The city’s Historic Preservation Board, however, denied his request, voting unanimously that no, the site could not be a future Applebee’s and that the historic facade must remain standing. Himself a north-city resident, Vroman says he was the only bidder in 2017. He found someone willing to reinvest in the property, provided Vroman was able to acquire the demolition permit, but found himself blocked. Last week, Vroman took to Facebook to announce the sale, and vent his frustration with the entire process. Vroman wrote: Great news St. Louis! Your fa-

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The interior of the historic club would require massive repairs. | COURTESY OF ROBERT VROMAN voritest burnt rotting murderzone landmark, Club Imperial at 6306 W Florissant is back up for sale courtesy of Sheriff Betts this coming Tuesday, Sep 25 for $82k in back taxes. The fetid basement bowling alley where Ike himself wrote bad checks, can be yours four days from now via the final step in the City’s obtuse tax forfeiture gauntlet. Do you have 20k square feet worth of pipe dreams, or even 20k feet of pipe? The Cultural Resources Office is ready and eager to stand over your shoulder every step of the way. (A little explanation on that screed: The Historic Preservation Board, which denied Vroman’s

demolition request, works with staff at the city’s Cultural Resources Office.) So what would it take for Club Imperial to be returned to glory? Judging by the photos, it would require an HGTV-sized intervention. Vroman explains that at the time the Historic Preservation Board denied his demolition request, he’d owned the building for six months “and had no leads for the building as-is, and had borrowed the funds to acquire it, with payments past due.” He says, “I had no choice but to have my lawyer arrange a refund, and send the building back to the sheriff.” The city has assessed the build-

ing’s value at $226,300, online records show. The Collector of Revenue’s files show a total of $101,729.99 past due in taxes. When Vroman sought to demolish the building, many people in town expressed outrage. Yet potential buyers apparently decided to take a pass; the property sat unclaimed at what was otherwise a hot tax sale. The St. Louis PostDispatch’s Jacob Barker reported that the standing-room-only sale “drew a crowd of 200-plus people.” None bid on Club Imperial. So what happens next? The club seems destined to become the property of the city’s Land Reutilization Authority, or LRA. The so-called “owner of last resort” serves as a land bank for properties in St. Louis that no one else wants. As of last year, it owned approximately 11,800 parcels. Got an idea to return Club Imperial to its former glory? Now you don’t need to win at auction — or even necessarily cough up $82,278. You just need to make the LRA a good offer, and it could be yours. (That said, would-be renovators should beware of the rap on the LRA: Just because land is sitting in a vast database doesn’t mean they’re giving it away. You may have to jump through some hoops.) n

The city rejected a demolition plan that would have put a restaurant in the club’s place. Now it sits vacant. | COURTESY OF ROBERT VROMAN

Wednesday october 3 9:45 PM Urban Chestnut Presents

the voodoo players marshall tucker vs lynyrd skynyrd shootout friday october 6 10PM

marquise knox

wednesday october 10 9:45 Urban Chestnut Presents

the voodoo players

tribute to the beatles let it be album thursday october 11 9pm

bumpin uglies

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[CRIME]

Christian Rapper Thi’sl Shot in Robbery Attempt Written by

DANIEL HILL

t. Louis rapper Thi’sl, a pioneer in Christian hip-hop, was the victim of a shooting during the early morning of Tuesday, September 25, according to social media reports. The rapper, born Travis Tremayne Tyler, 41, was reportedly shot during an attempted robbery early Tuesday morning. Social media postings say that Tyler was leaving Nara Cafe & Hookah Lounge (1326 Washington Avenue) when he was approached by a man who attempted to rob him. Rapzilla reports that Tyler was shot in the leg, which was broken by the bullet, requiring surgery including a rod and bolts. St. Louis police do not release the names of victims unless they are deceased and a next of kin has been notified, but departmental reports show two instances of first-degree assault on September 25, one in which the victim matches Tyler’s description. According to that report, the incident happened

RIVERFRONT TIMES

near 12:30 a.m. at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Fifteenth Street, about a block from Nara Cafe. The victim told police he was approached by a man who produced a firearm, according to a police summary of the case. The victim then drew his own weapon and there was an exchange of gunfire between the two men. The victim was shot in the leg and transported to a hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. The suspect allegedly jumped into a vehicle occupied by two other suspects and the group fled the scene. It is unclear if any of the suspects were struck by gunfire. Police describe them only as three unknown black males. The Christian Post cites a private Facebook post from a family member saying Tyler is expected to recover. “Didn’t want to post until I knew he was OK and really wrapped my head around everything that happened today,” the woman writes. “My fav was shot multiples x’s last night and underwent surgery this morning. He is expected to have a full recovery. We have to pray more for this city and all these senseless acts of violence. I thank God He spared my cuzzns life. Praying for a speedy recovery. I love you cuz Thi’sl Tyler.” Thi’sl is a Billboard-charting hip-hop artist who appeared on fellow Christian rapper Lecrae’s Grammy-winning album Gravity in 2012. He had previously

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Travis Tremayne Tyler, better known as rapper Thi’sl, exchanged gunfire with the suspect. | JEFF BORT rapped about the street life he lived as a young man in St. Louis — a life that even led to him being locked up on a suspected murder charge in 1999 before being cleared and released. Following that in-

cident, the rapper turned his life around. Since that time he’s released five fulllength albums, and he’s considered one of the most influential Christian rappers in the country. n

[COMEDY]

David Cross Is Ready to Forgive St. Louis Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

avid Cross is coming back to St. Louis for the first time since a disastrous set more than a decade ago at Saint Louis University — a show that went wrong because, as it turned out, the student organizers didn’t actually want David Cross the standup comic. They wanted chicken pot pie. It was 2001, and a student board at the Jesuit university had invited Cross to perform during welcome week. They seemed to think they’d be getting “Slow Donnie,” Cross’ faking-a-brain-injury character on the then-popular sitcom Just Shoot Me, a part known for Cross’ falsetto’d catchphrase, “Chicken-pot-chicken-pot-chicken-pot-pieeeee.” Instead, they got David Cross the comic, a guy who swears a lot and hates President George W. Bush. At the time, Cross was working on the material that would eventually make it onto his Grammynominated 2004 album, Shut Up You Fucking Baby. He also wasn’t shy about offending religious sensibilities, as evidenced in a bracing bit about being raped by the Virgin Mary. The SLU show was so bad that Cross would later recall St. Louis in a Reddit AMA as “the most humorless city in America.” So bad, in fact, that he didn’t return to St. Louis for seventeen years. “I knew that show was going to be problematic,” Cross says today. In retrospect, the warning signs were about as obvious as the fbomb on Cross’ album cover. He recalls that when two students picked him up from the airport, they casually mentioned that SLU was one of the oldest Jesuit universities in the country. “I was like, back up a sec, did you say it was a Jesuit school?” That was only the first harbinger of certain disaster. “You’ve seen my act, right?” Cross asked.

“I knew that show was going to be problematic,” Cross says today. | DANIEL BERGERON They hadn’t. As he remembers it, “They said, ‘No, not really, but you’re the chicken-pot-pie guy.’ And I was like, well, this will be interesting.” It was not interesting — well, not unless you are interested in comedy trauma. Hundreds of audience members left in the middle of the set, raising a cacophony of metal chairs being dragged across the floor. Cross remembers one

“You’ve seen my act, right?” Cross asked. They hadn’t. outraged man even approaching the stage, but instead of a regular round of heckling, the angry man took Cross’ pitcher of water, poured a glass, and drank the entire thing right there in an inspired bit of passive-aggression. “He poured the rest of it, and then turned the glass and put it down as if he was victorious — it was just a really strange thing,” says Cross. That night, he adds, he had to leave through the venue’s back exit. “It was very disconcerting, and it took me a day or two to shake the experience,” Cross says. “It was not pleasant.” Now Cross is looking at a November 4 date at the Pageant for his “Oh Come On” tour. It will be his first time in St. Louis since the

disastrous SLU set, and it comes after years of repeatedly jabbing at the city. Asked about it now, Cross clarifies that while he did nix St. Louis on subsequent tours, it wasn’t animosity in a “fuck St. Louis” sort of sense. “I try to separate the experience of what happens in one night in one city on one day, and the city itself,” he says. He adds, “Salt Lake City is the last place I’d want to live, but I always have great shows there.” Cross knows his standup persona can be polarizing, and his work in TV and movies — such as his turn as the flamboyantly repressed Dr. Tobias Fünke on Arrested Development — poses significant contrasts to his caustic style behind a mic. But he also notes that even during that traumatic 2001 show, some people in the SLU audience stuck around. They wanted Cross the standup comic, and it’s that St. Louis that Cross hopes will come to his show November 4. He says he doesn’t view the reunion in bitter terms. He knows St. Louis is not a bad boyfriend who wronged him years ago. “I want to flip this script,” he says. “Let’s stay humble and grounded. St. Louis is giving me another chance, and I appreciate the opportunity.” Then again, if you’re thinking this show is going to be all chicken pot pies and denim cut-offs, Cross has some advice: “Do your homework.”

David Cross 8 p.m. Sunday, November 4. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard. $37.50. 314-726-6161.

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OUT EVERY NIGHT

[CRITIC’S PICK]

duke’s BLUES

Looks more like a sausage party from here. | VIA ARTIST BANDCAMP

The Nude Party 8 p.m. Thursday, October 4. Blueberry Hill Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City. $10 to $12. 314-727-2277. The force of the Velvet Underground and its uncountable disciples (the Modern Lovers, Television, the Plimsouls) is strong with the regrettably named, Catskillsbased band the Nude Party. There’s something utterly carefree in the way singer Patton Magee channels the spirit of Lou Reed’s chemically enhanced snarl

THURSDAY 4

A TRIBUTE TO THE 25 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF UNCLE TUPELO’S “ANODYNE”: w/ Melody Den, Grace Basement, Trophy Mules, Native Sons, The Fighting Side, the Vondrukes 8 p.m., $12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. BILLY BARNETT BAND: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. BILLY STRINGS: 8 p.m., $15-$18. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. CALVIN JOHNSON: w/ Beach Bodies, Matt Harnish’s Pink Guitar 8 p.m., $8. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. DARK STAR ORCHESTRA: 8 p.m., $29.50-$35. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. DOOMSTRESS: w/ Ox Braker, Van Buren 8 p.m., $8. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. LOCAL H: 8 p.m., $15-$18. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. THE NUDE PARTY: 8 p.m., $10-$12. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. ORPHAN JON & THE ABANDONED: 10 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. THE RADIO BUZZKILLS: w/ System Restore, The Hybrids 9 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226

and his spontaneous hipster observations of the decline of Western civilization. And for its part, the band turns the artful primitivism of chugging guitar licks, bentbut-never-broken R&B rhythms and basement gang singing into a party that’s twisted and groovy and yet somehow dressed for shambling rock & roll success. Art in the Dark: Led by singer and songwriter Haley Jones, St. Louis’ Mother Stutter, a proudly declared “queer-feminist” art-rock ensemble, opens up the night. —Roy Kasten

Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. THE STORY COLLIDER: UNCHARTED TERRITORY: 7 p.m., $10. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

OPENING NIGHT

! THURSDAY h s Ba 3PM-CLOSE

VOTED ST. LOUIS’ BEST BAR & BEST SPORTS BAR

NFL SUNDAY WATCH EVERY GAME

FRIDAY 5

BLACK VIOLIN: 8 p.m., $22.50-$64.50. Blanche M Touhill Performing Arts Center, 1 University Dr at Natural Bridge Road, Normandy, 314-516-4949. BREAD AND ROSES BIRTHDAY BASH: w/ The Soulard Blues Band, Sonja Gholston Byrd 7 p.m., $20-$30. Joe’s Cafe Gallery, 6010 Kingsbury Ave., St. Louis, 314-862-2541. BRETT ELDREDGE: w/ Devin Dawson 7 p.m., $32-$72. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600. BREWTOPIA: 9 p.m., $5. Maggie Malones, 909 Main Plaza Drive, Wentzville, 636-332-1176. CELEBRATION DAY: A TRIBUTE TO LED ZEPPELIN: 7 p.m., $20. Chesterfield Amphitheater, 631 Veterans Place Drive, Chesterfield. DEVOTCHKA: w/ Orkestra Mendoza 8 p.m., $25.50-$28.50. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. EDGE OF REALITY: w/ Bridges, Eyes From Above 7 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. ELLIS PAUL AND SUSAN WERNER: 8 p.m., $35$45. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd.,

Continued on pg 48

AT THE CORNER OF MENARD & ALLEN IN THE HEART OF HISTORIC SOULARD

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[CRITIC’S PICK]

[WEEKEND]

BEST BETS

Five sure-fire shows to close out the week

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5 FarFetched Presents: Somi

7 p.m. Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 3716 Washington Boulevard. $12 to $20. 314-754-1850.

Making waves in world music is old hat for Somi — she’s been doing that since the release of 2003’s Eternal Motive, even making her way onto the Billboard charts. But last year’s Petite Afrique was a tsunami, earning her an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album while capping off a decade of records that merged jazz standards with African music. From her birthplace in Champaign, Illinois, to her adolescence in Zambia to her current home in New York City, Somi is a storyteller whose songs are underlined by a sense of journey. See what she calls “New African Jazz” in a show presented by FarFetched, a ground-breaking collective led by several St. Louis natives dedicated to expanding the diameter of music culture in the river city.

Reignwolf

8 p.m. The Firebird, 2706 Olive Street. $17. 314-289-9050.

By age fifteen, Jordan Cook had already played Switzerland’s Montreux Jazz Festival in a hot-wired blues rock trio. And while that likely worked wonders for his social life in high school, Cook clearly spent more time in the basement with his guitar than anywhere else. Whether it’s his one-man show (complete with a foot-activated rhythm section) or his full backing band (which includes Soundgarden’s Ben Shepherd), Reignwolf is a revelation led by a man born with a six-string in hand. His latest single, “Wanna Don’t Wanna,” sees wiry blues riffs cutting through a ‘90s-era grunge gem like a hot knife through butter.

Voodoo Forrest Gump

6 p.m. Atomic Cowboy Pavillion, 4140 Manchester Avenue. Free. 314-775-0775.

If you’re a Forrest Gump cosplayer who doesn’t have a place to call home, we have good news: For one night, Atomic Cowboy will feel a lot like the seminal film thanks to a live soundtrack by Sean Canan’s Voodoo Players. Throwing boxes of chocolates at the band as they power through three hours of Elvis, Dylan, CCR, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors Continued on pg 49

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Ms. Lauryn Hill. | STEVE TRUESDELL

Ms. Lauryn Hill 7 p.m. Friday, October 5. Chaifetz Arena, 1 South Compton Avenue. $49.50 to $199.99. 314-977-5000. Recommending that anyone attend a Ms. Lauryn Hill show can be a fraught endeavor. The hip-hop legend and former Fugees member has developed a reputation over the years for making her audiences wait — sometimes hours — for her to take the stage. But if her 2016 performance at LouFest, for which she was only about fifteen minutes behind schedule (or, in Lauryn Hill terms, “on time”), is any indication, the chance to see her sing the songs that have made her one of the greatest voices in hip-hop is well

OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 47

St. Louis, 314-533-9900. FORGOTTEN SPACE: GRATEFUL DEAD TRIBUTE: 9 p.m., $12-$15. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. GAME OF THRONES LIVE CONCERT EXPERIENCE: 6 p.m., $36.50-$96.50. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888. GLOWRAGE: 9 p.m., $15-$45. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. GOO GOO DOLLS: 8 p.m., $49.50-$59.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. HUHT: w/ Kaleb Kirby, Lord Soul 9 p.m., $5. Way Out Club, 2525 S. Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-664-7638. JAMES ARMSTRONG BLUES BAND: 10 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. LOVE HZ: SELEKTA TAKEOVER: w/ Professor Hex, Bacon Beatz, Packie, Jon Dent b2b Stray 9 p.m., free. The Crack Fox, 1114 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-621-6900. MARK AKIN: 7 p.m., free. The 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave., University City, 314-421-3600. THE MIDWEST THROWDOWN: w/ Pickwick Commons, Cavil, Lo and Behold, Ziion, Polterguts, Wolf Skin 6 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South

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worth the wait. And the stakes are upped this time around, as the singer comes to town to celebrate the twenty-year anniversary of her seminal (and sole) album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. You’d do well to roll the dice on this one, but maybe bring a deck of cards or something too. You may end up with some time to kill. Imagine That: Fellow hip-hop legend Nas was supposed to perform at this show as well, but he was dropped from the tour with no explanation, sinking any chance the crowd may have had to see Nas and Hill perform their 1996 collaboration “If I Ruled the World” together. That’s a shame, but at least Shabazz Palaces is still slated on the bill. —Daniel Hill Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. PEARS: 7 p.m., $12-$15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. PRAIRIE REHAB: w/ the Highway Saints, John Hawkwood 9 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. RAY WYLIE HUBBARD: 8 p.m., $20-$35. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. REIGNWOLF: 8 p.m., $17. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. ROCKY MANTIA & KILLER COMBO: 7 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. THE MISEDUCATION OF LAURYN HILL 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR: w/ Patoranking, Shabazz Palaces 7 p.m., $49.50-$199.99. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., St. Louis, 314-977-5000. VOODOO FORREST GUMP: 6 p.m., free. Atomic Cowboy Pavilion, 4140 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis, 314-775-0775.

SATURDAY 6

3 OF A PERFECT PAIR: 7 p.m., free. Hwy 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen, 34 S Old Orchard Ave, Webster Groves, 314-968-0061. A.L.I.: 9 p.m., free. Nightshift Bar & Grill, 3979 Mexico Road, St. Peters, 636-441-8300. AFROJACK: 9 p.m., $25-$70. Ameristar Casino, 1 Ameristar Blvd., St. Charles, 636-949-7777.

ATG EXCLUSIVE ALBUM RELEASE: w/ Altayzie, Egans Rats, Smiley Boy, RT-FAQ, Pogo Funk, Apollo’s Daughter 8 p.m., $5-$10. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. THE BAND THAT FELL TO EARTH: w/ School of Rock 8 p.m., $8-$10. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. CAFÉ TACVBA: w/ Ruen Brothers 8 p.m., $35$40. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. CAVEOFSWORDS: 4 p.m., free. Shaw Neighborhood, 4100 Flora Place, St. Louis, 314-771-3101. EZRA FURMAN: 7 p.m., $15-$17. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. THE FADE ALBUM RELEASE SHOW: w/ Tok, the Mindframes 7 p.m., $6-$8. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. FRANK BANG & THE COOK COUNTY KINGS: 10 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. GROVE FEST AFTER PARTY: SAVED BY THE 90S: 11 p.m., $10. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. KHARMA: w/ Watchdogs, Life Sucks, Time and Pressure, Capitol Offense, Brief 7 p.m., $5. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. LARRY GRIFFIN & ERIC MCSPADDEN: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. LITTLE RIVER BAND: 8 p.m., $39-$59. River City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis, 314-388-7777. ONO: w/ JoAnn McNeil, Heavy Pauses 8 p.m., $7. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. ROGERS & NIENHAUS: 7 p.m., $5. Hwy 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen, 34 S Old Orchard Ave, Webster Groves, 314-968-0061. THE SCATTERGUNS: w/ the Wilderness 9 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. SHANE SMITH & THE SAINTS: 8 p.m., $12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. SMOKEY ROBINSON: 8 p.m., $60-$90. Family Arena, 2002 Arena Parkway, St Charles, 636896-4200.

SUNDAY 7

BLACK MAGIC FLOWER POWER: w/ Rover, Spark Thugs, Le’Ponds 8 p.m., $5. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. BUHU RECORD RELEASE: w/ People Seen In Cars, Dingus 8 p.m., $7. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. CLUSTERPLUCK: 4:30 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521. FOR THE FALLEN DREAMS: w/ Obey The Brave, I Am, Of Virtue, Wide Awake 6 p.m., $15-$17. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. GENESIS JAZZ PROJECT: 5 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. KINGSBURY ENSEMBLE: 7 p.m., $8-$20. The 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave., University City, 314-421-3600. LOS LONELY BOYS: 8 p.m., $30. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. LOVE JONES “THE BAND”: 8 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. PERSEID STRING QUARTET: 4 p.m., free. Second Presbyterian Church, 4501 Westminster Place, St. Louis, 314-367-0366. PILE: w/ The Spirit of the Beehive 8 p.m., $10$12. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. PLANET WHAT: w/ Viet Rahm, Andy Basler, Dryads 8 p.m., $7. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. R-E-S-P-E-C-T: A ST. LOUIS TRIBUTE TO ARETHA FRANKLIN: w/ Renee Smith, Kim Massie, Theresa Payne, Teec’a Easby, Skylar Rogers, Beth Bombara, Sharon Foehner, Laura Green 7 p.m., $15-$30. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. RICHIE RAMONE: 8 p.m., $15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

McGREGOR vs KHABIB

[CRITIC’S PICK]

SATURDAY NIGHT

Your Smith. | VIA HIGH ROAD TOURING

Your Smith 8 p.m. Tuesday, October 9. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $12. 314-773-3363. It has been a few years of change and transition for Caroline Smith. She left her native Minnesota for Los Angeles, shed some of the trappings of R&B that defined her last album and adopted a new stage name. Now performing as Your Smith, the singer-songwriter still knows how to navigate her way around a groove — the palette of 2018’s four-song Bad TECH N9NE: w/ Futuristic, Dizzy Wright, Krizz Kaliko 8 p.m., $27.50-$30. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

MONDAY 8

ALLAN RAYMAN: 8 p.m., $22-$25. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. ESPANA: 7:30 p.m., free. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900. FRIENDS OF MUSIC CONCERTO COMPETITION: 4 p.m., free. The 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave., University City, 314-421-3600. MONDAY’S A DRAG (SHOW): 10 p.m., free. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. MUSIC UNLIMITED: 8 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

TUESDAY 9

CHRIS O’LEARY BLUES BAND: 10 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. ESPANA: 7:30 p.m., free. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900. ETHAN LEINWAND & FRIENDS: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. HIPPO CAMPUS: w/ The Districts 8 p.m., $22$25. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. LIKE PACIFIC: w/ Raom, Story Untold, Bearings, Between You & Me 6 p.m., $15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

Habit EP keeps the bass drum pointed at your chest, but the title track pares down her powerful vocals to a subtle, supple whisper. With a new stage name, Your Smith only underlines what has always been an entrancing facet of her work — the personal relationship between her and the listener. Baum Squad: Baum, a vocalist who uses spare R&B and hip-hop backdrops to support sharp-elbowed verses, opens the show. —Christian Schaeffer

WATCH IT AT

SOFI TUKKER: 8 p.m., $15-$20. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. YOUR SMITH: 8 p.m., $12-$15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

WEDNESDAY 10

BIG RICH MCDONOUGH & RHYTHM RENEGADES: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. BLITZEN TRAPPER: 8 p.m., $20-$23. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. GHOST NOTE: w/ The Truth Band 8 p.m., $15$18. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. JASON COOPER BLUES BAND: 10 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. JAZZ BAND CONCERT: 8 p.m., free. The 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave., University City, 314-421-3600. LIL XAN: 8 p.m., $27.50-$30. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. LUPE FIASCO: w/ Mvstermind 8 p.m., $30-$35. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. MICHIGAN RATTLERS: 8 p.m., $15. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. SINKHOLE 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY: w/ Scarlet Tanager, Bleach Balta, Shitstorm 8 p.m., free. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

DUKE’S - 2001 MENARD (AT ALLEN) IN THE HEART OF SOULARD

NEIGHBORHOOD BAR & PATIO TRUEMAN’S - 1818 SIDNEY (AT LEMP) SOULARD - BENTON PARK

NO COVER

2 DRINK MIN...THAT AIN’T HARD

Continued on pg 50

riverfronttimes.com

OCTOBER 3 - 9, 2018

RIVERFRONT TIMES

OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 49 SURVIVAL GUIDE: w/ Mother Stutter 8 p.m., $7. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

THIS JUST IN

2CELLOS: Thu., Feb. 21, 8 p.m., $49-$79. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., St. Louis, 314-977-5000. 93.7 THE BULL SANTA JAM: W/ Carlton Anderson, Danielle Bradbery, Rodney Atkins, Maren Morris, Fri., Dec. 7, 7 p.m., $9.37-$93.70. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600. 95.5 THE LOU’S DISTRICT RHYTHM SERIES: W/ Keri Hilson, Bobby V., Sun., Nov. 4, 5 p.m., TBA. Ballpark Village, 601 Clark Ave, St. Louis, 314-345-9481. A.L.I.: Sat., Oct. 6, 9 p.m., free. Nightshift Bar & Grill, 3979 Mexico Road, St. Peters, 636-441-8300. AMANDA SHIRES: Thu., Nov. 29, 8 p.m., $20-$35. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. ANDREW MCMAHON IN THE WILDERNESS: W/ Flor, Grizfolk, Thu., March 7, 7 p.m., $35$37.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. ARIANNA STRING QUARTET: Mon., Nov. 5, 7:30 p.m., $10. UMSL at Grand Center, 3651 Olive St, St. Louis. “MONUMENT TO THE DREAM” LIVE ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE: Sat., Oct. 27, 8 p.m., free. Gateway Arch, 200 Washington Ave., St. Louis, 877-982-1410. BASTILLE: W/ Lovely the Band, Thu., Nov. 29, 8 p.m., $45-$60. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. BATES ALBUM RELEASE SHOW: W/ Tank the Machine, King Geno, MBZ, Cedes, Chris Grindz, Shai Lynn, Bow Lil Ryan, Tootz, Kourtney Nicole, MZ Tigga, DJ Rico Steez, Precious J, Fri., Oct. 12, 9 p.m., $10. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St.,

BEST BETS

Continued from pg 48

and so many more might feels apropos, but is highly discouraged. When all is said and done, we can only hope somebody stumbles out of the show and exposes a political conspiracy the same way Gump helped with Watergate in the movie — oops, spoiler alert.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6 Brandon Seabrook Trio w/ Pat Sajak Assassins, Apathist! 9 p.m. Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust Street. Free. 314-241-2337.

Maybe it’s the lack of drums, but Brandon Seabrook’s latest record Convulsionaries pushes the avant-garde guitarist away from both rock and jazz, two genres that he’s spent much time deconstructing. Bassist Henry Fraser and cellist Daniel Levin add levity to Seabrook’s manic riffing, making for a power trio of strings that casts a wiry haze. If you’re missing beats, St. Louis’ own Pat Sajak Assassins takes a polyrhythmic approach, with Harry Coin manning a hybrid set of acoustic and electronic drums. Alex Cunningham (of Vernacular String Trio) and Chris Trull (of Yowie) perform their inaugural set as Apathist! at this show as well. And

RIVERFRONT TIMES

OCTOBER 3 - 9, 2018

riverfronttimes.com

St. Louis, 314-535-0353. BIG RICH MCDONOUGH & RHYTHM RENEGADES: Wed., Oct. 10, 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. BLACK MAGIC FLOWER POWER: W/ Rover, Spark Thugs, Le’Ponds, Sun., Oct. 7, 8 p.m., $5. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. BUHU RECORD RELEASE: W/ People Seen In Cars, Dingus, Sun., Oct. 7, 8 p.m., $7. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. THE BUSH SISTERS: Mon., Nov. 5, 8 p.m., $55$99. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. CALVIN JOHNSON: W/ Beach Bodies, Matt Harnish’s Pink Guitar, Thu., Oct. 4, 8 p.m., $8. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. CHRIS O’LEARY BLUES BAND: Tue., Oct. 9, 10 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. CITY WIDE SOUNDS: W/ Karen Choi, The Good Deeds, AV & The Dirty Details, Thu., Oct. 18, 8 p.m., $5. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. CORY WONG: Sat., Jan. 12, 9 p.m., $20-$25. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. DAWES: Fri., Jan. 25, 8 p.m., $35. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. DIRTY HEADS: Sun., Dec. 16, 8 p.m., $32.50$37.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. DOOMSTRESS: W/ Ox Braker, Van Buren, Thu., Oct. 4, 8 p.m., $8. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. A DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY CHRISTMAS: W/ Sunny Sweeney, Brennen Leig, Bri Bagwell, Tue., Dec. 11, 8 p.m., $12-$15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. ETHAN LEINWAND & FRIENDS: Tue., Oct. 9, 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

with that, your mellow will surely be harshed.

ONO w/ Mourning A BLKstar, JoAnn McNeil, Heavy Pauses 9 p.m. Foam Coffee and Beer, 3359 South Jefferson Avenue. $7. 314-772-2100.

Travis, ONO’s nebulous, mononymous frontman, not only served in Vietnam but did so as a gay black sailor. And then he and multi-instrumentalist P. Michael Grego started ONO, whose first show was in 1980 with both Naked Raygun and Special Affect. The band faded from Chicago’s underground for 21 years before forming anew in 2007, and has since collaborated with the likes of Wolf Eyes, Al Jorgenson and Obnox. While its founders remain, ONO lives as a radioactive collective that seems to change shape with the seasons. If the name looks familiar, that might be because the group played in town only a few months back. There’s a good reason for this return trip — ONO performs at the Columbia Experimental Music Festival the night before with St. Louis’ JoAnn McNeil in tow. — Joseph Hess Each week we bring you our picks for the best concerts of the weekend. To submit your show for consideration, visit riverfronttimes. com/stlouis/Events/AddEvent. All events subject to change; check with the venue for the most up-to-date information.

OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 50 A FUNKY-A-FARE: Sat., Nov. 3, 7 p.m., $7-$10. Boathouse, 6101 Government Drive, St. Louis, 314-367-2224. HOT RIZE: Fri., Nov. 2, 7 p.m., $35-$45. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900. JASON COOPER BLUES BAND: Wed., Oct. 10, 10 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. KEVIN GATES: Thu., Nov. 1, 8 p.m., $45-$99. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. KHARMA: W/ Watchdogs, Life Sucks, Time and Pressure, Capitol Offense, Brief, Sat., Oct. 6, 7 p.m., $5. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. THE KNOCKS: Tue., Feb. 12, 8 p.m., $20. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. THE MARQUETTE WEEKEND: W/ Fairwell, Pilots, Fri., Nov. 16, 8 p.m., $12-$15. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. MATT NATHANSON: Tue., March 12, 8 p.m., $39.50. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. THE MIDNIGHT HOUR: W/ Mathias and the Pirates, Sat., Dec. 1, 7 p.m., $22.50-$25. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. THE MIDWEST THROWDOWN: W/ Pickwick Commons, Cavil, Lo and Behold, Ziion, Polterguts, Wolf Skin, Fri., Oct. 5, 6 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. MIKE MATTHEWS PROJECT: Sat., Oct. 27, 9 p.m., free. Nightshift Bar & Grill, 3979 Mexico Road, St. Peters, 636-441-8300. MONDAY’S A DRAG (SHOW): Mon., Oct. 8, 10 p.m., free. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. MURMUR: A TRIBUTE TO R.E.M. BY 120 MINUTES: W/ U2 Hype: A Tribute to U2, Fri., Dec. 14, 8 p.m., $15-$25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. MUSIC UNLIMITED: Mon., Oct. 8, 8 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. NATHANIEL RATELIFF & THE NIGHT SWEATS: W/ Albert Hammond Jr., Fri., Nov. 30, 8 p.m., $25$59. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600. ONO: W/ JoAnn McNeil, Heavy Pauses, Sat., Oct. 6, 8 p.m., $7. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. PLANET WHAT: W/ Viet Rahm, Andy Basler, Dryads, Sun., Oct. 7, 8 p.m., $7. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. RAZAKEL AND THE SLICE GIRLS: W/ Histio, Douuble You, Hard Jawz, Crackle Capone, Wed., Nov. 21, 6:30 p.m., $10-$13. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. RIVER CITY OPRY: W/ The Red-Headed Strangers, Miss Molly Simms, The Fighting Side, The Dirty Beet Brothers, The Aught Naughts, Quinlan Conley & The I-90 Blues, Johnny Baker, Bryan McQuaid, Sun., Oct. 28, 1 p.m., $5. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. SAMANTHA FISH: Sun., Dec. 30, 8 p.m., $20. Mon., Dec. 31, 9 p.m., $60. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. SHINEDOWN: W/ Papa Roach, Asking Alexandria, Sun., March 17, 7 p.m., $43-$78.50. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., St. Louis, 314-977-5000. SINKHOLE 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY: W/ Scarlet Tanager, Bleach Balta, Shitstorm, Wed., Oct. 10, 8 p.m., free. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. THE SKATALITES: W/ Murder City Players, BoomTown United, Sat., Nov. 10, 8 p.m., $20$25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. SLUIVILLE: W/ Nikee Turbo, Arshad Goods, J’demul, Najii Person, Myrion Two$, DJ Benny Honda, Thu., Oct. 18, 9 p.m., $10-$14. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis,

314-833-3929. SONIC MISCHIEF: Sat., Oct. 20, 9 p.m., free. Nightshift Bar & Grill, 3979 Mexico Road, St. Peters, 636-441-8300. ST. PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES: Fri., March 22, 8 p.m., $25-$40. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. SURVIVAL GUIDE: W/ Mother Stutter, Wed., Oct. 10, 8 p.m., $7. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. THAT 1 GUY: Sun., Nov. 11, 8 p.m., $13-$15. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. THRESHOLD: Sat., Oct. 13, 9 p.m., free. Sat., Oct. 13, 9 p.m., free. Nightshift Bar & Grill, 3979 Mexico Road, St. Peters, 636-441-8300. TOM SEGURA: Fri., May 31, 7 p.m., $29-$75. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600. TYPESETTER: Thu., Oct. 25, 8 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. WELL HUNGARIANS 25TH ANNIVERSARY: Sat., Dec. 15, 8 p.m., $25-$28. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. THE YALE WHIFFENPOOFS: Sun., Oct. 14, 5 p.m., $10-$25. St. Louis University High School, 4970 Oakland Ave., St. Louis, 314-351-0330.

RECOMMENDED NEXT WEEK

4U: A SYMPHONIC CELEBRATION OF PRINCE: Sun., Oct. 14, 7 p.m., $35-$125. The Fox Theatre, 527 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, 314-534-1111. BATES ALBUM RELEASE SHOW: W/ Tank the Machine, King Geno, MBZ, Cedes, Chris Grindz, Shai Lynn, Bow Lil Ryan, Tootz, Kourtney Nicole, MZ Tigga, DJ Rico Steez, Precious J, Fri., Oct. 12, 9 p.m., $10. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. BLUE OCTOBER: Fri., Oct. 12, 8 p.m., $30-$35. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. DEVON CAHILL EP RELEASE PARTY: W/ Tonina, Mt. Thelonious, Fri., Oct. 12, 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. FOO FIGHTERS: Sat., Oct. 13, 7 p.m., $46.50-$96. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888. FORTUNATE SONS AND DAUGHTERS: A 50TH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE TO CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL: W/ Cara Louise Band, Jon Bonham and Friends, Funky Butt Brass Band, Nick Pence and Friends, Eastsiders Review Band, Cree Rider Family Band, The Homewreckers, Marcell Strong and the Apostles, Sat., Oct. 13, 8 p.m., $12-$25. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. THE FRIGHTS: Sat., Oct. 13, 8 p.m., $17-$20. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. HOLLYWOOD BABBLE-ON: W/ Kevin Smith, Ralph Garman, Sun., Oct. 14, 8 p.m., $39.50$$50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. INSANE CLOWN POSSE: W/ Waka Flocka Flame, Fri., Oct. 12, 7 p.m., $30-$35. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. KEN MODE: W/ Birds in Row, Slow Damage, Dodecad, Mon., Oct. 15, 7 p.m., $12-$14. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. LETTUCE: Fri., Oct. 12, 6 p.m., $25-$30. Atomic Cowboy Pavilion, 4140 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis, 314-775-0775. MINUS THE BEAR: Fri., Oct. 12, 9 p.m., $20-$25. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. ROBBIE MONTGOMERY: Sat., Oct. 13, 8 p.m., $30$50. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900. SOB X RBE: W/ Quando Rondo, Thu., Oct. 11, 8 p.m., $20. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. STRYPER: Sat., Oct. 13, 8 p.m., $25-$30. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. TEN FOOT POLE: W/ The Disappeared, Fri., Oct. 12, 7 p.m., $15-$16. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. THRICE: W/ The Bronx, Teenage Wrist, Sat., Oct. 13, 8 p.m., $23-$28. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. THUNDERPUSSY: Wed., Oct. 17, 8 p.m., $15-$18. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. n

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS

SOUTH COUNTY

NO COVER

THE FIGHT IS ON AT

Voted St. Louis’ Best Wings & Appetizers

NFL FOOTBALL

EVERY GAME EVERY WEEK

200 N. MAIN STREET, DUPO, IL 15 MIN DOWN SOUTH ROUTE 3

riverfronttimes.com

OCTOBER 3 - 9, 2018

RIVERFRONT TIMES

OCTOBER 3 - 9, 2018

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SAVAGE LOVE HEARTS AND MINDS BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: Is it even possible for a couple that stopped having sex to start back up again? My girlfriend and I (we’re both women) have been together for four years, and we haven’t had sex for two. I thought the sex was good before it stopped, but apparently she was going through the motions. She’s a sex worker, and it took her a while to figure out she was not being present and she wanted to stop having sex with me until she could figure out how to change that. I get that and respect it. We have an open relationship, so I started having more sex with other people. And while it’s fun, I do find myself wishing I could have sex with someone I actually care about — and I only care about her. She says she wants to start having sex with me again, but we don’t really know how to do that. Everything is kind of terrifying and awkward. She said it’s hard to go from sex with zero intimacy into sex with the intimacy turned up to eleven. We’re very romantic with each other, and there are other forms of physical affection like kisses and snuggling, but no making out or humping. I love her more than I knew I could love a person, and if we never do figure out how to have sex together, I’ll still stay with her. But for two people who are both highly sexual and want to have sex with each other, we sure are perplexed at how to make this work. Sex Or Romance Dilemma “Let’s cut to the chase: Yes, it is possible for a couple that has stopped having sex to start having it again,” said Dr. Lori Brotto, a clinical psychologist and a sex researcher at the University of British Columbia. You ended on a note of despair, SORD, but Brotto sees two good reasons for hope: You and your girlfriend are completely open and honest with each other, and you’re committed to staying together whether or not the sex resumes. Your communication skills and that rock-solid commitment — neither of you are going

anywhere — are the bedrock on which you can rebuild your sex life. “There are two aspects of SORD’s question that jump out at me: One, the reference to wanting to be present for sex, and two, the description of the situation as terrifying and awkward,” said Brotto. “SORD’s girlfriend likely perfected the practice of ‘going elsewhere’ during sex while at work, which meant that it became almost automatic for her to do this while having sex in her relationship. This is classic mindlessness, and it is why mindfulness — the state of full awareness to the present moment in a kind and compassionate way — may be a tool for her to consider implementing.” Mindfulness is the subject of Brotto’s new book, Better Sex Through Mindfulness: How Women Can Cultivate Desire. “Mindfulness has a long history in Buddhist meditation, and it allowed monks to sit with their present experience, including pain and suffering, for hours or days — or sometimes weeks and months,” said Dr. Brotto. “In more recent years, mindfulness has been reconceptualized as a tool that anyone can use and benefit from. It doesn’t rely on having a Buddhist orientation or a cave to retreat to.” So how does this ancient mindfulness stuff work where modern girl-on-girl sex is concerned? “The practice is simple,” said Brotto. “It involves deliberately paying attention to sensations, sounds and thoughts in the present moment — and noticing when the mind gets pulled elsewhere and then gently but firmly guiding it back. Mindfulness is also about not berating yourself for finding it challenging or judging yourself for the thoughts you have.” In her practice, Dr. Brotto has seen research subjects successfully use mindfulness to cultivate and/or reignite sexual desire, calm anxiety and relieve the awkwardness and fear that some people experience with sex. “Suffice it to say,” she said, “there is an impressive body of research that supports the practice of mindful sex, and people who otherwise may believe that their minds are incapable of staying still can effectively learn to fully engage their attention to sex and

the person(s) with whom they are having sex. It doesn’t matter if you are skeptical about whether mindfulness works or not — if you are willing to learn the skills and apply it to sex, you’re likely to benefit.” And if you’re nervous or scared that it won’t work or that you’ll never reconnect sexually with your girlfriend, SORD, Brotto wants you to know that those feelings are perfectly normal. “The uncertainty surrounding what will happen when they try to reintegrate sex can be terrifying for some couples,” said Brotto. “What if it doesn’t work? What if neither of them has desire? What if the sex is just plain bad? If SORD and her partner are worrying about the anticipated sex, or even catastrophizing over it — a jargony term meaning they imagine it ending in disaster — that can make it damn near impossible to remain in the present. The good news is that mindfulness can help with the tendency to get lost on the thought train.” So here’s what you’re going to do, SORD: Order a copy of Dr. Brotto’s new book and read it with your girlfriend. And while you wait for the book to arrive, you’re going to try a mindful touching exercise called “sensate focus.” “She will invite her girlfriend to touch her from head to toe, minus the genitals, for fifteen minutes — without the goal of triggering arousal or desire,” said Brotto. “SORD’s role is to pay attention to the sensations emerging, and curtail any thoughts by redirecting attention to the here and now. And relax. After fifteen minutes, they switch roles so SORD becomes the giver and her girlfriend is the receiver. This is not foreplay. It is not manual sexual stimulation. It is a mindfulness exercise designed to teach a person to remain in the present while receiving sensual touch.” There are solo mindfulness exercises, SORD, and some good, commercially available apps out there that can walk you through them. But if your goal is reconnecting with your girlfriend, Brotto strongly recommends that you two work on mindfulness together. “My view is that a couple-based mindfulness exercise like sensate focus will get them to their goal

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of mind-blowing, mind-knowing sex,” said Brotto. Follow Dr. Brotto on Twitter @ DrLoriBrotto. CONFIDENTIAL TO AMERICAN CITIZENS EVERYWHERE: Furious about Brett Kavanaugh? Me, too. That’s why I donated to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Our only hope of protecting a woman’s right to choose, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, the environment, organized labor — our only hope for blocking Trump’s anti-everyone-and-everything agenda — is to take back the US House and Senate this November. If the Democrats control the House come January (which looks likely), they can impeach Kavanaugh; if they control the Senate come January (a longer shot but within reach), they can put Kavanaugh on trial — and that means a full investigation into all the allegations against him, including the numerous ways in which he perjured himself during his confirmation hearings. It would take a two-thirds majority in the Senate to convict and remove Kavanaugh, and Dems likely won’t take that many seats — but if a trial uncovers proof that Kavanaugh committed the crimes he’s been accused of and lied to Congress, perhaps enough Republicans can be shamed into voting to remove him. (Republicans feeling shame? That may be the longest of long shots.) Go to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee website (dscc.org), click “contribute,” and give what you can. CONFIDENTIAL TO CANADIAN STUDENTS IN ONTARIO: Thank you for walking out of your classrooms to protest the scrapping of Ontario’s sex-ed curriculum by Doug Ford, your newish (and thuggish) premier. Every student deserves an up-to-date sexual education that covers reproduction, pleasure, consent, tech, sexting, sexual abuse, and LGBTQ issues. Watching students stand up against Ford’s reactionary, bigoted, sex-negative assholery has been truly inspiring. Keep it up! Listen to Dan’s podcast at savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter ITFMA.org

OCTOBER 3 - 9, 2018

RIVERFRONT TIMES

OCTOBER 3 - 9, 2018

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OCTOBER 3 - 9, 2018

RIVERFRONT TIMES

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features something for everyone, including beer, wines and other spirits. The way to negotiate all that, Bahrami says, comes with inquiring of a staff that’s there to walk you through options, with a precise pour and some explanatory conversation, too. “I think our front-of-house is working really well on that,” she says. “We want people to come in with an inquisitive mind. We’re very much an education-focused bar. If people walk in uniformed about our selection, they’ll walk out feeling that they’ve had an experience and will tell people that. The biggest thing for us is that word-of-mouth, with people coming in for happy hour and getting so excited about what they have that they’ll try something that’s not on the happy-hour menu, something classic and beyond an old-fashioned.” In getting both new customers and regulars accustomed to “being conscious of what they’re drinking and trying new things,” it’s not uncommon for folks to come in for a sample of the happy hour menu before settling into a multi-hour stay, including samples of the adjoining restaurant’s wide-ranging menu of Persian favorites. “The Cafe Natasha combination is giving access to wonderful food and great drinks,” Bahrami says, best enjoyed at the small bar, where the Gin Room’s staff remain accessible, engaging and informative even during the busiest moments.

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

OCTOBER 3 - 9, 2018

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