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SEPTEMBER 2â&#x20AC;&#x201C;8, 2015 I VOLUME 39 I NUMBER 36

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Inside Man

Cop critic Bruce Franks is now an unpaid cop consultant. Can he really reform law enforcement from within? BY N IC H O L AS P H I L L I P S

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“People may wonder why they’re at our place, but the Drepung Gomang monks often like to visit with people in public contexts, not just the usual academic, religious or peacenik settings. They will frequently bless a spot that’s hosted them for a meal. The Tick Tock has always offered a round of hot dogs from Steve’s next door, when they’ve visited St. Louis. So we’ve been blessed three times now, including on the week we opened last fall. I feel a bit unworthy to have them, but the chants are always unique, and seeing them in the context of our little corner of the city is really wild.” –CO-OWNER THOMAS CRONE, SPOTTED AT THE TICK TOCK TAVERN, AUGUST 29.

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10 INSIDE MAN Cop critic Bruce Franks is now an unpaid cop consultant. Can he really reform law enforcement from within? BY NICHOLAS PHILLIPS

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In St. Charles, a Police Report Because “Black People Don’t Belong.” Yes, Really.

A quiet cul-de-sac in a St. Charles subdivision is the scene of a bitter dispute between neighbors.

h, subdivisions. If you’ve got the money, these cookiecutter communities offer wide driveways, pristine lawns and gargantuan houses (even if they all kind of look the same). More importantly, they present a kind of fantasy neighborhood, a perfect image of affluence far removed from the grime of city life. And for at least one resident of the Glen Brook Manor subdivision in St. Charles, that fantasy definitely doesn’t include black people walking their dogs. On May 13 an anonymous resident contacted the St. Charles County Police Department to report suspicious activity: “Several [black male] subjects walking down the street with dogs and snapping pics of homes. Caller [advised] that this is an all-white neighborhood, and they do not belong.” The dog-walkers were the three children of Maritha Hunter-Butler, who’d moved her family into a 2,600-square-foot home just four days before the anonymous complaint. According to a police report, officers were dispatched to the area and took no action. “If the caller calls back,” the report concluded, “[advise] them that a black family lives in the neighborhood.” The incident has become part of an escalating conflict between Hunter-Butler’s family and her new neighbors. And while the report doesn’t say who called the cops on May 13, other neighbors have since called formal complaints into animal control about Hunter-Butler’s dogs barking. More than a dozen requests for protection orders have been filed between Hunter-Butler and her backyard neighbors, the Chamblees. (A judge dismissed them all last month “for failure to state a cause of action.”) “All we did was try to move to a nicer neighborhood,” says Hunter-Butler, who shares the house with her three sons, her female partner and four dogs. She believes her neighbors are harassing her for being black, and because she and her white partner are openly in a lesbian relationship. In an interview with the St. Louis PostDispatch, which also featured a lengthy story about the neighborhood dispute, Jana Cham8

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blee insisted that her requests for protection orders and complaints to animal control had nothing to do with Hunter-Butler’s race or sexual orientation. “It’s so far from that,” she said. After eleven years in the subdivision, the Chamblees have put their house up for sale. The subdivision squabble came to a head earlier this month, when third-degree assault charges were filed against Hunter-Butler for allegedly striking another neighbor, Rebecca Scudder, in the face during an argument on July 1. According to a police report, when an officer arrived to take Scudder’s statement, she appeared to be uneasy on her feet and was using furniture to stabilize herself. Scudder, who had a “bloody nose, a severely swollen lip, and a bruise to the bridge of her nose,” said she had a mixed drink with vodka before the confrontation with Hunter-Butler. The officer noted that Scudder’s eyes were glassy and bloodshot, and he wrote that he was unable to determine if it was from crying or “consumption of alcohol.”

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When the officer questioned Hunter-Butler, she denied striking Scudder. She also said she wasn’t home at the time of the alleged incident and had surveillance video to prove it, but then couldn’t tell the officer where she had been and declined to provide the footage. In fairness to Scudder, this wasn’t HunterButler’s first tangle with the law. She is a convicted felon. In 2005 she tried hiring a cousin to kill her ex-husband, but instead of carrying out the plan, he went to the cops. HunterButler pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and armed criminal action in 2007 and was sentenced six years in prison. She served two years and ten months. The situation escalated again two weekends ago, when Hunter-Butler reached out to Umar Lee, a writer, cab driver and Ferguson protester who views St. Charles County as a stronghold of racism and intolerance. Lee interviewed Hunter-Butler and uploaded a video of her statements to YouTube. Afterwards, Lee and another activist, Talal Ahmed, attempted to speak with some of the

neighbors who had made complaints about Hunter-Butler. One man opened his door and told Lee, “Get the fuck off my porch.” Lee’s investigation ended after a St. Charles police officer showed up. The two men got into a shouting match when the officer said Lee was trespassing. Lee called the offi cer a racist. “I didn’t do anything wrong, I just knocked on three people’s doors,” Lee says. “When we went back to [Hunter-Butler’s] house, all of a sudden police showed up, wanted to see my ID, and I said no. I wasn’t trespassing. The police were very belligerent.” Lee said he would be organizing a protest in St. Charles to combat the racism and harassment of black families there. But before he could get started on that, he suddenly found himself unemployed: He was fired from his job at Laclede Cab, he announced via Twitter. “Responding to right-wing trolls, Laclede Cab fired me today,” Lee tweeted on Monday. “There is no job that is worth me surrendering my freedom of speech.” Lee had driven for the company for more than a decade. And, ironically, he had been one of the loudest voices arguing that ride-sharing operations Uber and Lyft are bad for St. Louis. After his termination, Lee began to call out his former employer on Twitter. “It’s odd @LacledeCab would fire me for lawfully protesting and yet have a convicted child-rapist working in the office named Sam Standley,” he tweeted. There is a Sam Standley listed in the state’s sex-offender registry, who gives his work address as 600 S. Vandeventer — which matches the cab company’s address. Apparently, Standley’s father, Jerry, was president of Laclede Cab for 30 years before retiring in 2006. Laclede Cab did not respond to calls seeking comment. Lee’s firing generated numerous sympathy tweets, including those from local journalists and politicians. Many expressed outrage that Lee was terminated for expressing his views outside of work. Chris King, editorial director of the St. Louis American, which has featured Lee’s columns, tweeted his support. “I have recommended @STLAbuBadu for one cab job already. I don’t have a journalism job to offer him but highly recommend him,” he wrote. Ferguson Democratic Committeewoman Patricia Bynes also offered her sympathy, but acknowledged she was hardly surprised. “This should never have happened to you,” she Tweeted to Lee. “This is so wrong. Sadly, this is soooo St. Louis.”— DANNY WICENTOWSKI

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Inside Man

BY N IC H O L AS P H I L L I P S

Franks is not the only protester to move into policy work. It’s now been thirteen months since officer Darren Wilson fatally shot unarmed teenager Mike Brown in Ferguson, sparking the hashtag “Black Lives Matter” and nationwide demonstrations against police use of deadly force. Until recently, that movement took flak for being heavy on outrage but short on demands. Then, last month, several prominent activists launched Campaign Zero — a set of proposals ranging from officer body cams and deescalation training to strong civilian oversight boards. St. Louis native Johnetta Elzie, a member of the planning team and known on Twitter as @nettaaaaaaaa, says that Campaign Zero plans to win those changes by working with local, state or federal legislators. But directly with cops and prosecutors? Not interested, she says. “I don’t believe in them,” says Elzie. “I’m all about going above them.” Asked about Franks’ efforts compared to hers, she says, “There’s nothing wrong with doing both. We all need to do everything we can.” Franks’ willingness to parley with law enforcers sets him apart in more ways than one. Some in St. Louis’ protest base now consider him a traitor or spy, he says. It’s expressed obliquely, whether through offhand comments (such as “Ooops is with the ops,” which he recently overheard) or just a greeting that feels cold and short. That kind of reaction doesn’t surprise DeRay Mckesson, another member of Campaign Zero’s planning team. “I get why people are skeptical,” says Mckesson, who moved to St. Louis during the Ferguson unrest and has since become a national voice for Black Lives Matter. “He doesn’t play a role that I would play. But he has clear reasons as to why he engages this way, and he has integrity.” Even Franks himself sometimes marvels at his new role. After nightfall on August 10 — one day after the anniversary of Mike Brown’s death — protesters gather on the west side of West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson. They shout “We shut shit down!” at the cops bunched across the street. A helicopter thwumps overhead. Franks yawns. “I can’t wait for this to be over,” he says, mellow and slow, as usual. “Not the protests. I’ll always be a protester. I mean, the need to protest.” He just wants justice to be done, he says, so they can all go home. A few minutes later, he studies his cell phone, then shakes this head. “Man, that’s crazy,” he says. A U.S. Department of Justice official has just texted him the words, “Be safe.” “A year ago,” he says, “I didn’t even know what the justice department was.” continued on page 12

STEVE TRUESDELL

ruce Franks Jr. knows he fits the description. Black male. Age 30. Face tattoos and heavy eyelids. Wears a hoodie, drops St. Louis slang and even once caught a stray bullet. Franks is a battle rapper — stage name “Ooops” — who soldiered up on the frontlines of the Ferguson protests. When cops see him, he says, they see a thug — at least, the cops he isn’t friends with. But he is friendly with some cops. City police chief Sam Dotson texts him. City circuit attorney Jennifer Joyce tweets at him. Franks is not only a college-educated business owner, husband and father of five, but he’s also an anti-violence activist, one who’s trying to bridge the gap between the protesters and the protested. Which isn’t easy. Franks founded his organization, 28 to Life, in March. He’s still waiting for the IRS to recognize it as a nonprofit. His primary mission, however, is clear: He wants to save black lives. All of them. He’s well aware of the city’s latest murder stats: Of the 133 total homicide victims in St. Louis from January 1 through August 25, 94 percent were black, and more than two-thirds of those were under the age of 30. Lately he’s been seeking out that demographic in parts of south city, trying to hook them up with jobs and turn a few into activist-leaders. At the same time, Franks believes that fatal police shootings of black residents, while far fewer in number, are an outrage — first because they’re avoidable in many cases, and secondly because they devastate the community’s trust in the system, without which the other murders won’t get solved. So to tackle that problem, he has been working the halls of power. Once a harsh critic of law enforcement, Franks has become a volunteer consultant who huddles frequently with the circuit attorney, police chiefs, police academy candidates, St. Louis City Hall leaders, and even the Department of Justice. He’s been influencing public-safety policy at the highest levels — and doing it mostly behind the scenes. “I got to know him and realized right away that when this person calls, I need to answer the phone,” says St. Louis County police chief Jon Belmar. “He has no problem telling you when you’ve messed up, but he has the ability to listen and work things out. He’s invested in this, and for the right reasons. I can’t tell you how valuable that is.”

Cop critic Bruce Franks is now an unpaid cop consultant. Can he really reform law enforcement from within?

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Franks The story of Franks’ youth is inked onto his skin. The “Gibson” tattoo on his right hand refers to the street where he grew up in the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood. There, on June 7, 1991, Franks’ older brother, nine-year-old Christopher Harris, died from a gunshot wound to the back. Witnesses said a crack dealer had used him as a human shield against an attack from a rival. Franks was only six. The boy’s death caused a public outcry, which led to a city-sponsored gun buyback program that eventually brought in some 7,500 firearms. Some of those guns were later melted into a statue of Harris that still stands in front of Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital. A second family tragedy struck that same year, in the same neighborhood: In December 1991, Franks’ cousin, Roger Fields, a city sheriff’s deputy, was ambushed outside a bar on Manchester Road and killed. To escape all the violence, Franks’ mother moved her children to the Cochran Gardens housing complex downtown. But it turned out to be worse. Franks remembers peering out their apartment window late one night and watching a man on his knees plead for his life to an armed robber, who shot the man anyway. (Thanks to neighbor involvement, Franks says, the perpetrator was later caught.) It was around this time Franks first met a policeman. Rodney Wilkerson, a city officer, was a family friend. One day, he gave the boy a globe as a gift. “Kids from the ’hood don’t play with globes,” Franks observes. Wilkerson pointed toward St. Louis on the map, which was so small, it wasn’t even marked. “He told me, ‘There’s a much bigger world outside what you living in.’” Franks soon learned that lesson first-hand. His parents, separated by that time, both moved to south city, but Franks spent his days in the southwest St. Louis County suburbs as a voluntary desegregation student in the Lindbergh School District. His classmates were mostly white. “It was a culture I wasn’t used to,” he says. “But we got to grow together. To this day, they’re some of my best friends.” Upon graduating from Lindbergh High School in 2002, Franks enrolled at St. Louis Community College’s Florissant Valley campus and ran track (the triple jump and long jump were his specialties). But at the end of 2004, a gun ended his athletic career. Franks says he had just finished playing basketball in the Walnut Park East neighborhood when a shootout erupted close by. He took a stray bullet in his right knee. After the injury, he tattooed the name of his daughter Taj, who had just been born, on both his right temple and his neck. “I didn’t know how long I was gonna live to be her father,” he says. Even that episode didn’t compare to the dual tragedy that befell him two years later, which inspired the tattoos streaming down from his eyes. Just before 8 a.m. on October 20, 2006, Franks got into a heated cell-phone argument with his then-girlfriend, Juanita “Buggy” Betts. 12

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“I didn’t know how long I was gonna live to be her father.” She was driving north on U.S. 67 near Jamestown Mall, when suddenly, the call cut out. Franks assumed she had hung up on him. Later that afternoon, he discovered the truth: Betts had crossed the center line and Tboned another car carrying a married couple (both Hurricane Katrina refugees, it turned out). All three died in the collision. As if that weren’t enough, seven days later, Franks’ grandmother, Bonnie Jeanne Harris, who had helped raise him, succumbed to cancer. “The double impact — I still haven’t gotten over it,” he says. The tattoos under his eyes, he says, are for “the tears I don’t have to cry anymore.”

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Franks in the early days of the Ferguson protests. Franks threw himself into a new hobby: rapping. When not toiling in the restaurant industry as cook, server or bartender, he wrote verses and entered open-mic nights. With influences ranging from Eminem and Stevie Wonder to Rod Stewart, he adopted the stage name “Ooops,” which he tattooed on both his face and neck. He eventually recorded with Wacka Flocka Flame and the local rapper Huey, who is his first cousin. His lyrics during that period contained more swagger than social commentary. In “Stand Up,” a single released in 2010, he bragged about his native St. Louis as “the real murder capital”: It’s goin’ down hurr, might not wanna come ’round hurr, you can get lost and not found hurr, trip and we let off some rounds hurr But he soon opted for a more domestic vibe. In July 2010, he met Dana Kelly, an insurance saleswoman and poet. They went on their first date the next month and have been inseparable

ever since. Perhaps it was fate: They were both born on September 22. They chose that day in 2012 to get married. By the summer of 2014, they were living in a well-kept, two-story brick house in Benton Park West. Between them, they owned and operated an Allstate insurance office a block away, in addition to a seasonal Kwik Tax office and Kwik Print shop on Cherokee Street. They also had a son named King. On King’s first birthday, Franks posted a video online of the happy baby wiggling his arms. It was August 9, 2014. That afternoon, Franks heard about Mike Brown. Paul Muhammad first saw Bruce Franks as just another hothead Ferguson protester. “At that point,” Muhammad says, “he wanted to turn up and tear shit up.” Franks had driven up to Ferguson the morning after Brown’s death continued on page 14

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Franks continued from page 12

without knowing why. He wasn’t into politics. That changed after a few nights of tear gas. “THERE IS A WAR BEING WAGED UPON US,” he wrote on Facebook on August 29. “IF THERE IS NO JUSTICE, I WILL SHOW YOU EXACTLY WHAT NO PEACE LOOKS LIKE.” A regular on the frontlines, Franks ran into Muhammad, who co-founded the Ferguson Peacekeepers, an informal clique that stood as a “buffer of love” between cops and protesters so the latter could vent without putting themselves or others at risk. Noting Muhammad’s poise in tense moments, Franks asked to join. “If you’re gonna put on this hoodie,” Muhammad told him, “you have to be a de-escalator and watch out for agitators. We’re with the movement, but if they’re throwing rocks and bottles, you need to step to those people.” Franks agreed. Yet even the Peacekeepers couldn’t always keep the peace. At about 11:15 p.m. on Christmas Eve, a police officer fatally shot eighteen-year-old Antonio Martin at a Mobil gas station in suburban Berkeley. Surveillance footage would later reveal that Martin raised a gun at the officer. But the hundreds of people who quickly converged didn’t know that yet. Things got ugly fast. The Peacekeepers arrived and tried to soothe tensions, but when police started to arrest one of them, both Muhammad and Franks intervened. In the melee, police brought them to the pavement, pepper sprayed and arrested them. Franks had bloody cuts on his face and leg. He was jailed for several hours on charges of resisting arrest, interfering with arrest and assault on a law-enforcement officer. 14

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Peacekeepers Carlos Ball, Franks and Calvin Kennedy. Four days later, he again wrote on Facebook: “ITSTIMEWEFIGHTBACK!!!” One of the darkest hours of Tom Jackson’s tenure as Ferguson police chief, he says, actually occurred in Boston — and Bruce Franks was part of it. The chief was seated inside Harvard Law School alongside seven other panelists on January 17. Their goal that afternoon was to discuss how to heal the wounds festering in St. Louis since the Ferguson unrest. Jackson is not a smooth orator under pressure. He jumbles words; his voice quivers. That was evident at his first press conference after Brown’s shooting back in August 2014, when he looked totally overwhelmed by the national news cameras. During an unscripted apology to protesters weeks later, he had even publicly called Brown’s death “a fucking tragedy,” without realizing he’d dropped the F-bomb until a reporter pointed it out the next day. At the Harvard panel, Jackson hoped to calmly dispel some myths about his handling of crisis. He also wanted to flesh out his ideas for overhauling Ferguson’s police force — a project he said he truly believed in. “Otherwise, why would I be here,” he said into the microphone, “knowing some of the response I’m going to get?” The response did prove hostile, but to his surprise, it came from his fellow panelists. “When will you offer your resignation?” asked Justin Hansford, a Saint Louis University law professor, directing the question at both Jackson and Ferguson mayor James Knowles III, one seat over. As the chief replied, the Harvard Law student on his continued on page 16

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Franks left, Derecka Purnell, physically turned her back on him. Paul Muhammad, also on the panel, took his turn sparring with Jackson, at which point former Missouri GOP gubernatorial candidate Dave Spence, sitting in between, gave up listening and played with his cell phone. But nobody exploded like Franks. At first, the wiry five-foot-five Franks just seethed at the far end of the table. Then he rose and glided toward Jackson, spitting bars about how a police gun gets used on a black person: “’Round my way, one flash from that tool get rid of that body, leaving only recollections and memories.” Jackson recognized his face. “I knew him from some ‘home events,’” he says. Franks finished his rap and sat back down. A half-hour later, he erupted again after Jackson claimed that police only deployed tear gas on protesters after gunshots. “You can’t tell me we was tear gassed because of no gunshots,” he railed, jabbing his finger. “I was tear gassed because I was standing there making it inconvenient for you motherfuckers!” Once the event ended, Harvard campus security guards ushered Jackson and Knowles separately out of the building. Still, the panelists reconvened for dinner at Legal Sea Foods, a restaurant in nearby Harvard Square. Andre Norman, the ex-con and motivational speaker who had organized and moderated the panel, noticed Franks was still upset at the chief. He pulled the 30-year-old aside. “I told him, ‘If you want to do business on behalf of your people, you’re going to have to talk to that man,’” Norman recalls. How are you going to change policy, he asked Franks, if you won’t talk to the policymakers? Screaming at people only makes them shut down. Franks walked over to Jackson’s table and took a chair. “He had his hands folded in front of him with his head down,” Jackson says. “Then he quietly said, ‘I’m not sorry for what I said. But I’m sorry for the way I said it.’ So I said, ‘Let’s just talk.’” And they did. For hours. Until the restaurant closed. Back in St. Louis, Franks says, Jackson called him within 48 hours to ask for his advice on various initiatives, including diversity training for officers, minority recruitment at Ferguson’s high school and a cop-community brunch. Ultimately, Jackson lost his job. Six weeks later, the U.S. Department of Justice released a blistering report. It concluded that Jackson had presided over a police squad that disproportionately used force against black residents and targeted them for petty offenses to fund city operations. The DOJ report revealed Jackson’s role in the so-called “taxation by citation” practices. It did not, however, clarify the extent of his complicity in the targeting of African Americans. Maybe the chief should have been aware of it and wasn’t. Or maybe he was indeed aware, then had a change of heart. Franks doesn’t dwell on it. He says he saw in Jackson a genuine desire to right the wrongs committed by the department. To this day, he considers Jackson 16

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C O U R T E SY O F B R U E FA R N K S / @ I A M O O P S

continued from page 14

When it comes to solutions, Franks says, “It ain’t about black and white. It’s about right and wrong.” “a good guy.” The Ferguson police under Jackson would seem like a prime example of “institutional racism” or “white privilege,” but Franks almost never uses those words. He doesn’t deny their existence; he simply prefers to speak in terms of specific individuals who either help or hurt his cause. Those who share his goal of saving black lives, he says, are “my people” — however they may look. When it comes to solutions, he says, “It ain’t about black and white. It’s about right and wrong.” Mike Brown’s death only seized Bruce Franks’ attention. What really launched him on a full-time crusade was the killing of VonDerrit Myers. At about 7 p.m. on October 8, city officer Jason Flanery was clad in his police uniform working as a private security guard in the Shaw neighborhood. As he approached a group of young men, one took off running. Flanery chased him, but couldn’t catch him. Minutes later, Flanery again came upon group of young men. He thought he recognized the runner among them. It turned out to be someone different — eighteen-year-old Vonder-

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Franks with his youngest daughter, Brooke. rit Myers, who was supposed to be on house arrest (he was wearing a court-ordered ankle bracelet as a condition of bond in a gun case). Myers fled, climbing up a front-yard hill and ducking into an alley. Flanery pursued him. He would later say that Myers produced a silver handgun and fired down at him, so the officer returned fire. Around twenty gunshots later, Myers lay dead in the gangway, a gun by his side. Surveillance video from a nearby deli showed that Myers had shopped there right before the encounter. So a rumor quickly spread: Myers never had a gun in his hand; he only had a sandwich. The circuit attorney launched an independent review. Prosecutors sifted through physical evidence. They tried to re-interview all police witnesses and find new ones, though later reported that “a number of witnesses declined.” Attorneys for the Myers family told local news outlets they’d heard Myers was “begging for his life,” in the alley, only to be executed by Flanery. So investigators asked the lawyers several times to produce those witnesses. They never did. On May 18, Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce announced she would file no charges against the officer. In a 51-page report, her team wrote that the physical evidence alone proved that Myers’ gun fired at the officer from the gangway. Several witnesses saw or heard those shots. Furthermore, the team wrote, “no witness claims to have seen [Flanery] alter evidence in any way,” not even Myers’ acquaintances, who were standing nearby. Therefore, the officer’s justification for deadly use of force would be insurmountable in court. No prosecutor could

prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he had committed a crime. “It is a tragedy that a life was lost in this incident,” the team concluded. Two days later, about 40 people displeased with Joyce’s decision showed up to her home in Holly Hills just after 9 p.m. They chanted, “No justice, no sleep!” Police arrested six of them for peace disturbance, resisting arrest and trespassing. “It was very disheartening to see how things were rolling out,” says Joyce. “We’d worked so hard on that report. I found that a lot of the protesters didn’t read it.” She agreed to meet with them in small groups and let them record it, she says, but it never happened. “They wanted a town-hall meeting,” she said, “not a conversation where you could talk about these things and reach some understanding.” Then Bruce Franks came to see her. He carried a copy of the Myers report. “That thing looked like a law-school textbook the night before a final exam,” she recalls. “It was dog-eared, it was highlighted, it had sticky notes all over it. And he had very thoughtful questions.” The Myers case haunted Franks, he says, because it happened three miles from his house. This is right in my zone now, he thought. Reflexively skeptical of all police narratives, he did his own investigation. That day in Joyce’s office, he spoke to her for nearly two hours. “I didn’t like her decision,” he says. “But given what she got from witnesses, I understood how she came to it.” Then he told her that the Myers family deserved an explanation from her, in person. Joyce replied that she had already invited them several times, to no avail. So Franks, who knew the family personally, arranged for them to meet on June 15. However, he says, the grieving parents bowed out at the last minute. “It wasn’t the right time,” he says. “They lost their only child.” “I can’t imagine the heartache they feel losing their son and not having charges brought,” Joyce says. “I’m not going to push it. Hopefully at some point they’ll feel like they want to come talk to me.” After that meeting with Joyce, Franks felt like he could do business with her. He recently brought into her office a witness to the fatal police shooting of Kajieme Powell that occurred on August 19, 2014 — another case in which Franks is convinced an officer unnecessarily ended a black life. Franks believes that Joyce, supplied with the proper evidence, will do the right thing. He’s even given her a nickname: “J.J.” “My husband thinks it’s pretty funny,” she says. “I didn’t even know battle rap was a thing. So then I’m at home on a Saturday morning at the breakfast table looking at YouTube battlerap videos, and my husband’s like, ‘Who are you?’” Joyce’s staff is now seeking Franks’ advice on a major project: the call-in program. The idea, which has shown some success in Kansas City, is to identify ex-offenders fresh off probation or parole who risk falling back into violence. They’re invited to meet with a team of law enforcers, victims, other ex-cons and service providers, who continued on page 18

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Franks

Franks named his new grassroots organization, 28 to Life, after the statistic-turnedmeme that a black person is killed by a cop every 28 hours. That figure, pulled from a report by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, went viral in the wake of Ferguson. It’s not true. The statistic has been debunked by PolitiFact and the Washington Post. But Franks hasn’t given it a second thought — which is indicative of how fast he’s been moving. He seems to experiment with a new initiative every week, just to see what sticks. It also reflects how singularly focused he is on his programming, at the expense of branding — not to mention fundraising. “He’s not very good at asking for money,” says Alderwoman Cara Spencer of the 20th Ward, where Franks is based. “As soon as he gets that 501(c)3 status, we can maybe get that rolling.” For now, Franks says, he has only received a few hundred dollars in donations. He and his team work as volunteers. The group’s logo shows the number 28 inside the Superman diamond. He chose that shape, he says, because he’s “in the business of making superheroes.” That’s partly a reference to the several teen summits he has held on Cherokee Street, wherein local kids meet law enforcers — employees of the FBI, U.S. Attorney’s office, Circuit Attorney’s office and city police have all attended. With their input, the teens hash out the problems on their blocks and craft plans to fix them. But “superhero” is also a reference to what 18

RIVERFRONT TIMES

“I don’t give a fuck about these politics, man. I want everybody to be involved.” he thinks every cop should be: a nimble problem-solver who not only locks up villains, but can also disarm a threatening suspect through verbal or tactical jujitsu, without killing him. He recognizes that in some cases, deadly force is necessary and legal. But it should be rarer than it is. In addition, Franks believes, a “superhero” cop is also incorruptible. That explains his reaction to a radio segment he heard on April 5, when Heather Taylor, a city police sergeant, called into The Demetrious Johnson Show on Hot 104.1 FM. Taylor had just been elected president of the Ethical Society of Police (ESOP), which has historically been a black officers’ association. Displaying no fear of rankling the top brass, Taylor knocked them for failing to promote black officers. She also bemoaned the new distribution of manpower that favors downtown at the expense of the largely poor and black north side. Yet when it came to ethical crime-fighting, racial solidarity took a back seat. “If white officers are doing wrong, they need to go,” she said. “If black officers are doing wrong, they need to go too, because it’s all about the community.”

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Above: Franks, right, argues a point to a police minority-recruitment class as instructor Sgt. Bill Clinton stands in the background. Below: Franks with friends at the makeshift memorial for VonDerrit Myers in the Shaw neighborhood.

STEVE TRUESDELL

deliver a delicate balance of carrot and stick: We’re watching you, but we also want to help you stay straight. On August 7, Rachel Smith, an assistant circuit attorney, called Franks into a fourthfloor conference room at the state courthouse downtown. “We need to get the right message to the right people,” she tells him. “And we want the message to be about promises, not threats.” Three gangs generate most of the gunfire in the city, she explains. The plan is to “call in” about 25 mid-level leaders from those rival groups who are newly back on the streets. They’ll have to pass through metal detectors. “My concern,” says Franks, reclining in his swivel chair, “is when you get these guys to come out, you wanna be compassionate. They’ve had that iron fist for so long, they’re going to put up a block.” Smith asks Franks if he’d like to address them. “I’m with it,” he says. “Just put me in front of ’em. Who you got from the police?” Smith lists two high-ranking officials. “No,” he says. “I know how these young guys are. We see gray hair, it’s done.” He suggests a younger black female sergeant he knows. “When she talk, people listen.” As the meeting wraps up, Smith seems anxious. “I know that we as law enforcers need to do things differently,” she says. “The question is how to do it.” After the meeting, Franks steps into the elevator, lost in thought. “That Rachel Smith,” he says. “She give a fuck, for real. It’s not fabricated. Just like J.J.”

STEVE TRUESDELL

continued from page 16

Hearing those remarks, Franks immediately texted his police contacts to find her. When they connected, she told him that the previous November, the mayor’s office had agreed to set aside $50,000 in public-safety funds to partner with ESOP on a minorityrecruitment program. The course’s aim was to

bolster minority applicants to the police academy by getting them up to speed on computer literacy, professional etiquette, use-of-force protocol, and strategies for acing the required exams. Taylor invited Franks to attend and give the pre-cadets a citizen’s perspective.

“When he started class with us in March, he was very angry,” says 29-year-old applicant Rosa Rojas. “His intention was to bash cops.” But by debating with instructors sergeant Bill Clinton and detective Keaton Strong over use-of-force videos, she says, Franks seemed to find some common ground. “He really just wants to stop African Americans from being killed,” she says. Common ground doesn’t always come so easily. Progress can become mired in politics. Franks recently hatched an idea for a gunbuyback program. He wanted it to include a resource fair, a job fair and amnesty for certain nonviolent offenses in exchange for community service. So he broached the topic with city police chief Sam Dotson, who supports the buyback concept. Franks found another receptive audience in board of aldermen president Lewis Reed, who had already passed a resolution authorizing buybacks in January 2014. But Franks didn’t realize how complex city hall alliances could be. The media got wind of the plan and publicized it before Franks, Dotson and Reed could hash out who else would be involved and how exactly to fund it. A flurry of phone calls and miscommunications ensued, and Franks feared his coalition was unraveling. While he says the project is now back on track, the lesson was a frustrating one. “I don’t give a fuck about these politics, man,” he said at the time. “I want everybody to be involved.” Last month, two very different deaths made headlines in St. Louis. On August 18, someone fired a gun into a Ferguson home, killing nine-year-old Jamyla Bolden as she did her homework. Then, the very next morning, city police serving a search warrant in the Fountain Park neighborhood shot and killed eighteen-year-old Mansur BallBey, claiming he pointed a gun at them. The latter triggered a swift and angry demonstration, followed by tear gas from police, arson and looting. No such drama accompanied the fourth-grader’s death. The conservative website Breitbart.com crowed, “Black Lives Matter Couldn’t Seem to Care Less About Jamyla Bolden.” But that wasn’t exactly true. Hundreds converged at a candlelight vigil for Bolden on August 20, including activists such as Kayla Reed of the Organization for Black Struggle. She says that activists may have initially coalesced around stopping police violence, but the movement has grown. “Black Lives Matter encompasses black life in every field,” she says, from the “community violence” that took Bolden’s life to education to housing. “There’s enough work for everybody,” she says. Franks does that work — he has become just as invested in stopping community violence as police shootings. The police department’s 3rd District, which he calls home, overlaps with some of south city’s most violent blocks. In July, after a spate of shootings involving young men, 3rd District captain Mary Warnecke grew concerned about retaliation. She asked Franks if he could help resolve the beef. So he investigated. He managed to get one of the young men a job through a family member’s business.

It didn’t last, but Franks decided to scale up. He began recruiting local youths for a jobstraining program through St. Louis City Hall. All told, he has sent 30 young people to the program in about a month. “These last few weeks I’ve had fewer shootings,” says Warnecke. She hesitates to credit the whole reduction to Franks, but adds that sometimes all it takes for someone to go straight is the right messenger. “I like to think we’re on the right path.” That kind of cooperation doesn’t always sit well with people on the street. On the day Mansur Ball-Bey was shot by police, a protester at the site of the shooting is quick to dismiss Franks to a reporter. “Man, I don’t know where Ooops at,” he says. “He up with the police now.”

And later, that assertion proves partly true. At 5:30 p.m., Franks is slouched on the hood of his car in the parking lot of the Nathaniel J. “Nat” Rivers State Office Building on Delmar Boulevard. He has arrived early for the police’s minority-recruitment class. A Fox2Now helicopter loops like a vulture about six blocks to the north over Page Boulevard and Walton Avenue, where demonstrators are growing restless. In an earlier conversation, Franks noted the value of violent protest, citing Martin Luther King’s notion that rioting is the language of the unheard. “When they’re out here burning and breaking shit,” he said, “I don’t condone it, but I don’t condemn it. I’m a business owner. Do I want my business burned down? No. But if these young adults hadn’t burned shit down,

then the world wouldn’t know about Ferguson.” But this evening, he just wants to vent at his critics in the movement. “Y’all want to protest until the end of time. But if you can’t ever sit down with the people you’re protesting against, you ain’t goin’ toward any solution. The only way to know if what they’re saying is bullshit is to actually listen to what they’re saying.” The minority-recruitment class is about to begin. He slides off his car and trudges inside. Within the next few hours, protesters in north St. Louis will hurl bottles at police. Police will respond with tear gas. All will make headlines. Bruce Franks, meanwhile, will try to make superheroes. ■

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NIGHT + DAY ®

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 4–9

F R I D AY |09.04

[MUSICAL]

TELL ME SOMETHIN’ GOOD

Taking a stroll down memory lane, as they say, is good for the soul, whether your recollections date back a few years or several decades. With music, it’s far easier to transport ourselves to the past. The revue Tell Me Somethin’ Good dances, swings and moves through the years, from the birth of doo-wop to the ascension of hip-hop. This popular show was conceived by the Black Rep’s founder and producing director Ron Himes, and it opens the Black Rep’s new season at Washington University’s Edison Theatre (6445 Forsyth Boulevard; www.theblackrep.org). Performances take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 3 p.m. Sunday (September 2 through 20; no Wednesday show on September 16). Tickets are $20 to $30. — ALISON SIELOFF

[THEATER]

MR. BURNS: A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY

What do people talk about after the end of the world? In the case of Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, the same thing they did when society still existed: The Simpsons. Everything has been destroyed, and in the ruins of civilization, a group of survivors huddle around a fire and talk about the same episode of the show — “Cape Feare,” gueststarring Kelsey Grammer as Sideshow Bob. The story is the only one they all know, and so they tell it over and over, eventually deciding to re-create it as a sort of ritual performance to give their lives meaning. R-S Theatrics opens its new season with this bleak and thoughtful comedy about the the power of stories. Mr. Burns is performed at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 7 p.m. Sunday (September 4 to 20) at the Ivory Theatre (7620 Michigan Avenue; 314-252-8812 or www.r-stheatrics. com). Tickets are $20 to $25. — PAUL FRISWOLD

S AT U R D AY |09.05

The cast of Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play.

[PERFORMING ART]

[ F E S T I VA L ]

THE IRVING SISTERS

JAPANESE FESTIVAL

Some sisters fight and compete with one another, some sisters lift each other up in supporting love, and still other sisters form girl groups and sing together for their enjoyment and yours. This last kind of sister group, the most entertaining kind, is what the Irving Sisters evoke. Although Elise LaBarge, Linden Christ and Sarah Simmons aren’t sisters in the familial sense, you’ll forget that detail as they harmonize and sing old favorites, such as “Mr. Sandman,” “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and other ’30s and ’40s tunes, as well as share stories about the artists who made these songs American gems. The Irving Sisters perform at at 7:20 p.m. tonight at the Kranzberg Arts Center Studio (501 North Grand Boulevard; www.irvingsisters.com). Admission is $20, cash only. — ALISON SIELOFF

Since 1977 the Missouri Botanical Garden (4344 Shaw Boulevard; 314-777-5100 or www.mobot.org) has hosted one of the largest Japanese Festivals in the United States. This annual event celebrates Japan’s cultural and artistic heritage through art, music and dance. There are martial-arts demonstrations, separate kimono and cosplay fashion shows, displays of bonsai and ikebana floral arrangements and, of course, the Taiko drummers. Guided walking tours of the Japanese Garden and Tea House Island — a gift from our sister city Suwa — are offered daily. This year’s Japanese Festival is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday (September 5 to 7). Admission is $5 to $15. — ROB LEVY continued on page 22

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J A M I F O R D / C O U R T E SY M I S S O U R I B OTA N I C A L G A R D E N

S T E WA R T G O L D S T E I N

From the left: The Black Rep’s 2007 Tell Me Somethin’ Good, the Japanese Festival, Stages St. Louis goes Full Monty and The Art of Maurice Sendak.

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continued from page 21 [ART EXHIBIT]

JOURNEY TO THE INTERIOR

The Saint Louis Art Museum in Forest Park (314-721-0072 or www.slam.org) highlights its deep collection of Asian art with Journey to the Interior: Ink Paintings from Japan, an exhibit of six prominent works of Zen and literati paintings. This calligraphy-based art form originated in China and uses ink made from compressed wood soot and glue, resulting in a monochrome image. Included in the show are two of Kakutei Jôkô’s six-paneled folding screens painted with flowers and plants, and three hanging landscape scrolls. Never before shown as a collection, the exhibition illustrates China’s cultural influence on the Kamakura shogunate and comprises several pieces on for the first time in over a decade. Journey to the Interior is displayed in gallery 225. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, and admission is free. — ROB LEVY

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S U N D AY |09.06

[THEATER]

THE FULL MONTY

Stages St. Louis closes out its season by partying naked with the fun and frolic of The Full Monty. Based on the 1997 British film, this Americanized musical tells the tale of six down-on-theirluck Buffalo steel workers who become male strippers to make some serious scratch. As these unlikely buff daddies bump and grind their way down a road paved with dancing and prancing, they discover the importance of self-respect, family and friendship. Written by Terrence McNally with music and lyrics from David Yazbek, this frothy musical get its groove on with plenty of disco and soul classics. The Fully Monty is performed at 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, at 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday and at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday (September 4 through October 4). Tickets are $20 to $57. — ROB LEVY

[FILM]

THE LOOK OF SILENCE

Indonesia endured terrible internal strife in the 1960s. Following a military coup in 1965, the country’s leader, President Sukarno, gradually bled power and was ultimately ousted by General Suharto in 1967. Indonesia’s communists, plus any suspected communists, bore the brunt of the instability; an estimated 600,000 to 1 million citizens were killed by the republic’s military and police. Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence (a companion to his earlier film about Indonesia’s civil war, The Act of Killing) tracks a family of survivors of the purge. They learn how their son was murdered, then the identity of the men who killed him. The victim’s brother, an optometrist, refuses to back down before the thugs: He confronts the deathsquad leaders responsible for his brother’s murder. This is riveting documentary cinema with no need of hokey acting, CGI or

C O U R T E SY S T. LO U I S P U B L I C L I B R A R Y

PETER WOCHNIAK

contrived plot bombs — drama and power accrue from the real human trauma the film records. The Look of Silence screens at 7:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday (September 4 through 6) at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood Avenue; 314968-7487 or www.webster.edu/film-series). Tickets are $4 to $6. — ALEX WEIR

M O N D AY |09.07

[CYCLING]

TSG GATEWAY CUP

The Staenberg Group Gateway Cup is a Labor Day tradition at this point. A mix of amateur and professional cyclists race for fun and cash prizes, respectively, in four races held in four neighborhoods from Friday through Monday (September 4 through 7; www.gatewaycup. com). And while the first three are relatively quick-racing square or rectangular courses,

the final day of the cup is the Benton Park Classic: a complex circuit that requires technical riding prowess as well as brute speed. The Benton Park Classic starts on the Arsenal side of Benton Park (Arsenal Street and South Jefferson Avenue) at 10 a.m. Monday, September 7, with the juniors’ race. Pro racers start at 1:05 p.m. with the women’s pro categories and a field of up to 150 racers attempting that dangerous hard right turn in front of the Venice Cafe. Admission is free for spectators. — PAUL FRISWOLD

W E D N E S D AY |09.09 [CHILDREN’S EVENT]

THE ART OF MAURICE SENDAK

Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are has stood the test of generations of children, offering them a gentle reminder that even when they misbehave their parents

still love them. Which is why those same troublesome kids grow up to read it to their own children; it’s the secret handshake passed down through the years that gets you through solitary confinement in a small, cluttered bedroom. The Art of Maurice Sendak, the new exhibition at the St. Louis Public Library’s Central branch (1301 Olive Street; www.slpl.org), celebrates the life and works of a singularly fantastic children’s author. The show is built around Maurice Sendak: The Memorial Exhibition — 50 Years, Works, Reasons, which includes 50 original works of art by the man himself. Other family-pleasing highlights include a life-size replica of Max’s bedroom (you can lie in his bed and see the jungle above), a sailboat for sitting in and various monsters hidden throughout the library. There are numerous Sendak-related events at multiple branches, so pick up the full schedule when you visit. The Art of Maurice Sendak is open 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday

through Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday (September 5 through October 18). Admission is free. — PAUL FRISWOLD Planning an event, exhibiting your art or putting on a play? Let us know and we’ll include it in the Night & Day section or publish a listing in the online calendar — for free! Send details via e-mail (calendar@riverfronttimes.com), fax (314754-6416) or mail (6358 Delmar Boulevard, Suite 200, St. Louis, MO 63130, attn: Calendar). Include the date, time, price, contact information and location (including ZIP code). Please submit information three weeks prior to the date of your event. No telephone submissions will be accepted. Find more events online at www.riverfronttimes.com.

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C O U R T E SY O F L I O N S G AT E

film

She’s Funny, But Not Accomplished PETER BOGDANOVICH’S GOOD OLDFASHIONED FARCE SUFFERS FROM A PUZZLING LACK OF CONFIDENCE She’s Funny That Way Directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Written by Peter Bogdanovich and Louise Stratten. Starring Owen Wilson, Imogen Poots, Kathryn Hahn and Jennifer Aniston. Now streaming online.

t’s been said that the filmmakers of the “New Hollywood” of the ’70s (more than 40 years later, has no one come up with a better name?) were the first generation of American directors who grew up as cinephiles. Some, like Brian De Palma and Martin Scorsese, knew all about the films BY of Ford, Hitchcock, Hawks ROBERT and Welles, delivered via The Late, Late Show and revival HUNT houses, and filtered through the auteurist criticism of Andrew Sarris and the latest works of the French New Wave. Others, like Francis Ford Coppola and Jonathan Demme, worked their way up 24

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by toiling on the low-budget productions of Roger Corman. Peter Bogdanovich, despite having done all of those things, was something of an anomaly in the New Hollywood crowd. He didn’t just know the films of Ford and Welles: He hung out with the famous directors themselves. And he didn’t just pay homage to the styles and genres of the studio era; his films were painstaking recreations of them. He made Fordian melodramas, Hawksian comedies, Welles-like costume dramas and Lubitsch-like farces with an assured disregard for the trends and concerns of the present day. Somewhere along the line Bogdanovich became a celebrity, known as much for his talk-show appearances, his Old Hollywood friends and his offscreen relationship with Cybill Shepherd as for his films. After a trio of box-office successes, his films became more esoterically shaped by his cinephiliac background. After the failure of both 1975’s At Long Last Love, an underrated farce in which Shepherd and Burt Reynolds sing Cole Porter tunes, and 1976’s Nickelodeon, a comedy about the early days of the film industry, Bogdanovich’s love of Hollywood’s past effectively isolated him from its present. Though he has continued to direct films in the four decades since and serve as a mentor to younger filmmakers (two of whom, Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson, are among the producers of his latest work), he’s probably best known today for his recurring role on

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The Sopranos. She’s Funny That Way is not a complete return to form for Bogdanovich, but it takes him back to the comfortable Hollywoodfiltered climate of his best work. Written by the director and his ex-wife Louise Stratten, it’s a broad comedy that wears its Lubitschian inclinations proudly (and openly: it ends with a clip from Cluny Brown that is quoted throughout the film). Told in flashback by Izzy Patterson, also know as “Glowgirl” (Imogen Poots), a formerprostitute-turned-actress being interviewed about her career, it’s a comedy filled with jealousy, mistaken identities, rotating lovers and trapped suitors hiding in bathrooms. Owen Wilson plays Arnold, a Broadway director with a fondness for hiring call girls and financing their ambitions to enter other careers. On the set of his new play, Arnold’s most recent beneficiary — Izzy — shows up for an audition and immediately entrances the playwright. The playwright’s girlfriend happens to be Izzy’s psychiatrist (Jennifer Aniston, whose very strange performance may be the best thing in the film). Throw in a private detective searching for the now-retired Glowgirl on behalf of an obsessed judge — also one of Aniston’s clients — and let them all run around for roughly 90 minutes. It’s a messy film, but also frequently very funny, mostly thanks to the cast doing their best with relatively limited means.

She’s Funny, if in an understated kind of way.

The cast willingly embrace the contrivances of the script — a necessity for this kind of film — but whereas Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal were willing to underplay and adopt acting styles reminiscent of ’30s stars in Bogdanovich’s earlier films, the performers here sometimes clash with the deliberately retrograde script. Perhaps Bogdanovich intended for the film to seem more contemporary than classical — it’s hard to keep Owen Wilson from acting like Owen Wilson — but with the theatrical setting, New York locations and a call girl with a Brooklyn accent, the viewer is less likely to be reminded of Lubitsch than of more recent Woody Allen films such as Bullets Over Broadway Unfortunately, aside from Aniston’s deadpan performance as the narcissist shrink, the more modern elements are so structurally dominant that the farcical plot simply dwindles away. Worse yet, most of them — including the redundant interview segments and a climactic cameo by a Famous American Director — simply fall as flat as the film’s unimaginative title. Ultimately, there’s a lack of confidence to the film, a sense that its classical comedy style had to be buried behind fancy trappings that neither interest nor please the director. Under them, there’s a reasonably funny film that should have been given a little more room to come alive. ■

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the arts Sympathy for the Devil

Amy Loui juggles seven characters in The Amish Project.

MUSTARD SEED’S ONE-WOMAN SHOW EXAMINES FORGIVENESS AFTER A MASS SHOOTING The Amish Project Through September 13 at the Fontbonne University Fine Arts Theater, 6800 Wydown Boulevard. Tickets are $25 to $30. Call 314719-8060 or visit www.mustardseedtheatre. com.

t’s a hard thing to go see a play about a high-profile shooting shortly after a different high-profile shooting dominates the news cycle. I imagine a day will come when this sort of art about America’s peculiar habit no longer seems “too soon,” simply because the barrage of armed men gunning down people in churches, at BY schools and on the job will be so great that we’ll all be PA U L too numb to be shocked or F R I S W O L D traumatized. We’ll simply sit in the dark and try to remember which particular incident the play is referencing. Jessica Dickey’s The Amish Project is inspired by the 2006 West Nickel Mines shooting, in which a lone gunman killed five girls in a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Dickey uses the event less as factual grounding for her one-woman show and more as a springboard to explore the idea of forgiveness. Because here, as in real life, the Amish families of the slain girls publicly forgave the killer and his widow; they viewed her as a victim of violence, just as they were. Deanna Jent directs Mustard Seed Theatre’s production of the play, which stars Amy Loui. The set, designed by Kyra Bishop, looks like a kindergartner’s drawing hung on the wall, with a center cutout of a simple schoolhouse outline. Childlike crayon clouds, a tree and the sun surround the school; most of the action takes place inside the cutout, where a large blackboard and a single desk wait. The script demands that Loui jump between seven characters: two Amish sisters, the killer’s widow, a college professor, a local woman, a Puerto Rican teenager and the killer. She does it all while wearing the long-sleeve dress, bonnet and white apron of an Amish schoolgirl — in some scenes, it’s distracting. The flamboyant Puerto Rican teenager who snaps her fingers in a “Z” for emphasis is a stock character who needs to be retired, but watching a woman play her while in Amish mufti is bizarre at the very least.

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JOHN LAMB

Several of these scenes cycle between two characters in a series of brief outbursts — at times with fewer than 100 words spoken. What is perhaps meant to build tension instead splits the focus of both the play and the audience. But what works works very well. The widow is a woman being slowly consumed by grief and guilt. Loui’s voice spikes with anger when she theorizes, “We are all just a few bad days away from ‘sicko.’” It’s not so much a rationalization of her husband’s actions as it is a fear that the more depressed she gets, the more likely she is to be swallowed by the same darkness that engulfed her husband. It is as the killer — Eddie — that Loui excels. Leaning against the wall outside the schoolhouse, he watches us for a long, silent stretch of time and just smokes, and then warns us that he’s not going to explain or justify what he did. (Our own frequent experience with manifestos and video testimony tells us that knowing the killer’s reasoning never helps us understand “why” anyway.) His voice cold and flat, Eddie explains the sexual thrill he gets

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from seeing the little bits of pink flesh that are exposed by the full-cover garb the Amish girls wear. He’s wearing the same dress, of course, a realization that turns your blood to water. But Eddie also wants us to know that he’s not entirely a bad guy — he “likes cats, and the kinda flowers that smell,” as if these benign truths, piled high enough, will outweigh the monstrousness of his actions. His forgiveness comes from the Amish, and in the framework of the play it makes sense. But now in the daylight I find it difficult to articulate and harder to comprehend how they could offer him absolution, fictionally and in real life. The words are in my notes, and yet I can’t make sense of them. That’s likely because I’m not the most forgiving person. But the college professor, here to explain the culture and beliefs of the Amish, says something about forgiveness I do understand: “Heavy to accept, and heavy to receive.” Just because it’s a burden I don’t want to carry doesn’t mean you can’t heft that weight yourself. ■

Several of these scenes cycle between characters in a series of brief outbursts. What is perhaps meant to build tension instead splits the focus of both the play and the audience.

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P H OTO S B Y M A B E L S U E N

cafe

Taze happy-hour appetizers, including fetastuffed fried olives, shrimp and meatballs.

Fast-Casual Fail IT AIMS TO BE CHIPOTLE FOR MIDDLE EASTERN FOOD. BUT TAZE FALLS FAR SHORT. Taze Mediterranean Street Food 626 Washington Avenue, #103; 314-254-7953. Mon.-Sun. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

suppose I shouldn’t be all that surprised at how utterly lackluster Taze Mediterranean Street Food is. After all, a place that is basically the “Chipotle of Middle Eastern food” doesn’t exactly inspire hope for authenticity. I doubt that anyone has mistaken the burrito chain for real Mexican BY cuisine. But I had hopes. Some C H E RY L of them were admittedly grounded in a romanticized BAEHR nostalgia for the fast-casual

Middle Eastern food I lived off of in graduate school — though a fast-casual Middle Eastern concept beyond the mom-and-pop gyro joint is new to St. Louis, a similar restaurant called Garbanzo has been out West for several years. Others, though, were based in reality. Owners Casey and Justin Roth seemed to do everything right. The brothers took their concept seriously enough to embark on a research and development tour of the Mediterranean to learn about the flavors they hoped to re-create at their restaurant. They coughed up the dough for prime space inside the Mercantile Exchange Building, and even hired the geniuses at SPACE Architecture + Design to do their magic on the interior. Walking into Taze, you could be forgiven for having elevated expectations. The interior is gorgeous, with polished blond wood ceilings, walls and countertops, and a shiny stainlesssteel open kitchen with giant, rotating spits of glistening meat. Metallic light fixtures hang from the soaring ceilings, and the burntorange-hued walls display modern watercolorstyle paintings that would seem at home in at a

museum. If the saying is true that you eat with from my overflowing platter, it certainly looked your eyes, Taze is a glorious feast. that way. But my hopes were instantly dashed But tastebuds matter, and unfortunately, at the first bite of falafel — a tasteless, leaden Taze’s efforts do not result in good food. chickpea fritter drenched in a bland white Taze’s concept seems simple: choose either sauce that purported to be tahini but tasted pita, rice or greens as the base, and then top more like thick ranch dressing. it with chicken, beef and lamb, falafel or I hoped the dish was a one-off, but sadly portabella mushrooms. As you move down most of what I tried at Taze was a parade of the line, the workers add any disappointment. The beef and number of Middle Easternlamb gyro meat was crusty, inspired toppings and sauces. dry and under-seasoned. Taze Mediterranean The options are numerous, Ditto for the sinewy chicken Street Food Chicken tandoor ....$8.95 which is great in theory, but gyro. The tandoor beef was Beef and lamb it ends up muddying the plate. slightly better. It was at least gyro .....................$9.95 As meat and sauces and sides moist and had a hint of cumin Falafel (large) ........$5.95 and garnishes and hummus spice, although it lacked salt. get piled on one after the The one main course other, you end up with an option that works at Taze is amalgam of flavors that don’t always mesh. the chicken tandoor. The juicy hunks of meat This is why Chipotle is actually much smarter picked up the predominately cumin spice than it gets credit for: It’s actually not that blend, and though it too needed salt, I found simple to be simple. it enjoyable placed atop the saffron rice. I opted for a bit of everything, assuming Sauce offerings, for the most part, did little that a plethora of condiments would translate to enhance the lackluster meats. The creamy into a glorious Middle Eastern feast. Judging cucumber and yogurt continued on page 30 riverfronttimes.comS E M 1 riverfronttimes.com P TOENMTBHEX R X–X 2 - 8X, , 2200105X R RI IVVE ER RF FR ROONNT T T TI IMME ES S 29

Tandoor chicken over saffron rice with jalapeño-cilantro hummus and roasted eggplant.

Taze

continued from page 29

匀䔀倀吀㌀㄀㨀㌀倀䴀刀䔀䐀䰀䤀䜀䠀吀刀伀䐀䔀伀 ⠀刀䤀䌀䠀䴀伀一䐀Ⰰ 嘀䄀⤀ 匀䔀倀吀㐀㠀倀䴀倀伀刀䌀䠀㐀 ⠀䌀唀䰀䰀伀圀䠀䔀䔀Ⰰ 一䌀⤀ 匀䔀倀吀㔀㜀倀䴀匀䄀刀䄀䠀䨀䄀一䔀 ☀ 吀䠀䔀䈀䰀唀䔀一伀吀䔀匀匀䔀倀吀㘀㄀㄀䄀䴀䴀䤀匀匀䨀唀䈀䤀䰀䔀䔀䠀伀吀䨀䄀娀娀䈀刀唀一䌀䠀㜀倀䴀䤀䰀夀䄀䤀䴀夀 ⠀䈀䄀䰀吀䤀䴀伀刀䔀Ⰰ 䴀䐀⤀ 匀䔀倀吀㜀㠀倀䴀䄀䜀䔀䨀䄀䴀䔀匀 ⠀一䄀匀䠀嘀䤀䰀䰀䔀Ⰰ 吀一⤀ 匀䔀倀吀㠀㜀倀䴀䜀刀䔀䜀伀刀夀䠀夀䐀䔀 ⠀䌀䠀䤀䌀䄀䜀伀Ⰰ 䤀䰀⤀ 匀䔀倀吀㤀㜀倀䴀䨀䔀刀䔀䴀䤀䄀䠀 ☀ 吀䠀䔀刀䔀䐀䔀夀䔀匀 ⠀䰀伀匀䄀一䜀䔀䰀䔀匀Ⰰ 䌀䄀⤀

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SEPTEMBER 2- 8, 2015

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tzatziki was the most palatable, followed by the harissa (though it tasted like someone had squirted sriracha into ketchup). The mango sauce was gluey and flavorless, and the aforementioned tahini hadn’t the slightest hint of sesame — the main component in this quintessential Middle Eastern condiment. It hurts my soul to write that something has too much garlic. Yet in the case of Taze’s hummus, pea-sized hunks of the “stinking rose” flecked the otherwise bland and cement-like chickpea purée. It was off-putting. The hummus comes in a few different flavors, including an innocuous balsamic and “caramelized” onion version (and by caramelized, they apparently mean diced and raw). Other side dishes fared much better. Fresh lemon juice enlivened a beet and feta cheese salad, giving a pleasant tart counter to the vegetable’s natural sweetness. Creamy baba ganoush was infused with smoke from charred eggplant, and the tabouleh, flecked with mint, tomatoes and cucumbers, was one of the restaurant’s more flavorful items. The side of roasted eggplant was completely unexpected. I anticipated actual pieces of the vegetable, but the dish arrived instead as a tart, earthy tomato-based dip, speckled with (just the right amount of ) garlic. I was impressed. In the evenings, Taze offers additional dishes like flatbread, spiced shrimp, meatballs and hummus samplers to appeal to a nighttime crowd. Wine and beer are also available, though I have to question whether creating a second identity as a tapas and drinks spot is

It hurts my soul to write that something has too much garlic. Yet Taze’s hummus was flecked with hunks of the “stinking rose.” It was off-putting. the right move. Remember the lesson learned from Chipotle: Sometimes simpler is better. And I wouldn’t recommend coming here for dessert. If baklava came out of vending machines, it would probably taste a lot like Taze’s version: dry, bland and chewy. I took one bite and was so disappointed, I was prompted to leave the restaurant and head around the block to Yiro/Gyro, the other fast-casual Middle Eastern spot that opened roughly the same time as Taze. Surely, it had to be better. And it was — much. And so is Medina Mediterranean Grill, which I previously reviewed positively, and which is located mere blocks away. The fact that the three similar concepts all opened within a few weeks of one another, all within a radius of a few miles, means that Taze will have to step up its game if it wants to stand out from the crowd. Unfortunately, its current distinguishing factor is that it’s the one with the least tasty food. And that is no way to compete. ■

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Clementine’s Tamara Keefe Makes Naughty and Nice Ice Cream

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GREG RANNELLS

very Sunday when she was growing up, Clementine’s Tamara Keefe’s parents would pack up her large Irish-Italian brood and head off to church. After services, Keefe would watch as all of the other families dashed off to get ice cream while hers had to do without. As she’d come to understand when she got older, her parents didn’t have much money and couldn’t afford frozen treats for Keefe and her four older brothers. Her luck would change one Sunday when she and her family stopped at a garage sale on their way home from Mass. Keefe’s mom spotted an old, hand-crank-style ice cream maker and brought it home with them. “Do your chores, change clothes, and meet me in the kitchen in an hour,” Keefe’s mom said to her. Keefe has been making ice cream ever since. It’s only recently that Keefe turned her passion for ice cream into a full-fledged career. Until 2012, Keefe was on the fast track in corporate America, working a job that had her traveling 262 days that year. “My family and friends thought that I had made it — that I had this super glamorous life,” Keefe explains. “I was miserable, though. I was on a vacation at the lake with some friends and I completely broke down. My friend looked at me and said, ‘Well quit, then. Make ice cream.’” The idea intrigued Keefe, who promptly put a plan together for an ice cream shop. Word quickly spread among her friends and neighbors, who began requesting Keefe’s wares. One of those friends was hosting a dinner party and asked her to come up with some exotic flavors. Little did Keefe know, some of the city’s top chefs would be in attendance. They were dazzled and immediately asked her to start supplying for their restaurants. “I planned on opening the shop first,” Keefe recalls, “but things just started happening.” One of those chefs, Kevin Brennan of Brennan’s in the Central West End, asked Keefe is she could put booze in her ice creams, but she was stumped. “Alcohol doesn’t freeze,” she explains. “Still, he pushed me to try to figure something out. I got together with several of my friends who were food scientists. We all got together one weekend and actually figured it out.” Keefe is in the process of patenting her technique. In the meantime, though, she keeps plugging along at Clementine’s, making her parents proud one scoop at a time. “My family thought I was crazy when I quit my job,” Keefe says. “Now they are really proud of me. My mom has passed away, but I know she is

looking down on me.” Keefe took a break from her making her naughty and nice concoctions to share her thoughts on the St. Louis dining scene, her last meal on earth and eating ice cream for breakfast. What is one thing people don’t know about you that you wish they did? I eat ice cream for breakfast every single day, and I was a competitive ballroom dancer and have a crazy passion for world music. What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you? Having my love (Frank Uible) make me coffee and eggs with truffle salt every morning. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? I would love to be invisible. I am such a voyeur! What is the most positive trend in food, wine or cocktails that you’ve noticed in St. Louis over the past year?

Tamara Keefe of Clementine’s Naughty and Nice Creamery.

Such amazing restaurants are opening in the city; I love that people from all over flock into our hip little neighborhoods for unique eats. Who is your St. Louis food crush? Most definitely Zoe Robinson, owner of Bar Les Freres and I Fratellini. She is smart, sexy, passionate, subtle and has brought her love of the world and food to create beautiful restaurants in St. Louis that have consistently amazing food and service, and the most authentic atmospheres. Who’s the one person to watch right now in the St. Louis dining scene? Simon Lusky, head chef and nutritionist for the Cardinals and owner of Athlete Eats/ Revel Kitchen. He is making healthy food taste amazing and making it accessible to everyone. Who knew vegan cheese could taste so good? Which ingredient is most representative of your personality? continued on page 34

Authentic MexicAn Food, Beer, And MArgAritAs!

2817 cherokee st. st. Louis, Mo 63118 314.762.0691 onco.coM r B L e iA r e u q A .t w w w riverfronttimes.com

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JOHNNY FUGITT

Mi Caribe’s “Pescado Frito,” or fried snapper.

[FIRST LOOK]

Mi Caribe Brings Caribbean Flavors to Midtown St. Louis

big new restaurant at 3701 Lindell Boulevard features flavors as bold as the space is vast. Located in the former home of Chuy Arzola’s on the bottom floor of the Coronado, Mi Caribe hopes to capitalize on a busy location, large patio and lack of Caribbean competition in midtown. A conglomeration of dishes and flavors from across the Caribbean may be sampled from the wide-ranging menu. From the “Mofongo” appetizer of meatballs made from beef, pork rinds and green plantains to the “Sopapilla Dominicano” dessert, however, Dominican influences are certainly the strongest. That comes from co-owner Johnny Martinez, who was a pitcher and scout for the Cleveland Indians before entering the restaurant business. These days he, along with some of his family, can be found in the kitchen. The other co-owner, Warren Duval, is a mortgage banker. “Sancocho” is a traditional soup made with yams, plantain, potato, squash, yucca, chicken, beef and pork seen throughout much of the Dominican.

Tamara Keefe

continued from page 32

Cumin! It’s warm, sexy, spicy, sweet, earthy, funky, savory, deep, with an edge of citrus peel, and a twist of that umami funk like porcinis, romano — if it was an instrument, it would be a funky bass guitar. If someone asked you to describe the current state of St. Louis’ culinary climate, what would you say? It’s under recognized, with pockets of greatness. Name an ingredient never allowed in your kitchen. Anything artificial and yams...yuck!

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“Puerco Asado” is baked pork in a marinade, and moro accompanies many of the entrées. The menu also includes a number of sandwiches, salads and pasta dishes, though more adventurous eaters will be drawn to the “Rabo en Cendido,” or oxtail cooked with sofrito, as well as the goat simmered in a sofrito sauce. But not everything on the menu is quite so exotic. Chicken wings, offered buffalo or barbecue style, might appeal more to the steakand-potato crowd, while the “Vaca con Pan” sandwich, made of grilled skirt steak and topped with lettuce, tomato and onion, might be found in Jersey just as easily as Jamaica. The voluminous interior is brightly lit and colorful, while the patio space doubles seating capacity. And even though there’s a large sign on a busy street, the low-slung space can still be somewhat easy to miss. The restaurant has a great location on the edge of the Saint Louis University campus; whether it can capitalize on that plus its striking good looks remains to be seen. It may well be a question of whether the Billikens feel up for trying oxtail and goat — or whether they’d rather stick with Crazy Bowls & Wraps. Mi Caribe is located at 3701 Lindell Boulevard. It’s currently open from 11a.m. to 9p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for Sunday brunch. Call 314-696-8719 for more information. —JOHNNY FUGITT

What is your after-work hangout? Strolling in my magical neighborhood of Lafayette Square. What’s your food or beverage guilty pleasure? In the morning, soggy Life Cereal and at night Billecart Salmon Champagne procured from Parker’s Table in Clayton. What would be your last meal on earth? Flown in from Paris, it would be Relais de L’Entrecôte’s walnut salad, tender sirloin steak served with its famous sauce and golden, thin-cut pomme frites..... and my Manchego with truffles and honey ice cream! —CHERYL BAEHR

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Beer, Wine, & Full Bar Now Available!

dining guide

Breakfast Served All Day! CHEAPEST DRINK PRICES IN TOWN!

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DOWNTOWN The Dining Guide lists only restaurants recommended by RFT food critics. The print listings below rotate regularly, as space allows. Our complete Dining Guide is available online; view menus and search local restaurants by name or neighborhood.

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CHEROKEE/ DUTCHTOWN Revel Kitchen 2837 Cherokee Street, St. Louis, 314-9325566. Tucked amid the bodegas and indie record stores of Cherokee Street sits Revel Kitchen (formerly Athlete Easts), a polished little café that is all about healthy eating. Owner Simon Lusky started the business as a nutrition service, providing meal plans and prepared foods to healthconscious clients, including some of the St. Louis Cardinals players, and expanded to include a breakfast and lunch counter. Revel offers a variety of juices, smoothies and guilt-free fare, including Carolina-style barbecue; a juicy, locally raised grass-fed beef burger; and hearty salads. One of the more creative offerings, the bibimbap bowl, replaces the traditional sticky rice with caulirice — grated pieces of roasted cauliflower that resembles small rice grains. Tossed with edamame, shiitakes and thinly sliced spiced beef, it’s as good, if not better, than the traditional, rice-based Korean staple. Revel only serves breakfast on Saturdays and Sundays — a shame because it’s where some of the restaurant’s best items are showcased. The gluten-free pancakes, laden with cinnamon and topped with coconut cream and maple orange syrup, are so tasty that one doesn’t miss the flour. And do not leave without trying Revel’s breakfast take on the Gerber sandwich: a garlic-studded waffle is topped with shaved ham, Provel cheese, béchamel sauce and a sunnyside egg. It’s one of the best uses of waffles in town. $ Gooseberries 2754 Chippewa Street, St. Louis, 314-5776363. Gooseberries is a Dutchtown South-Cherokee Street gathering place where locals and passersby can go to grab a meal, a snack or just a cup of coffee. Out of a cozy, rehabbed storefront, owners Kim Bond and Ross Lessor serve an mix of breakfast and lunchtime items, including several vegan and vegetarian dishes. Bond is a pastry chef, so Gooseberries’ baked goods are highly recommended — especially the hand pies, filled with everything from gyro meat to chicken and waffles to broccoli-cheddar. Sandwiches include a vegan beet Reuben, pulled pork, and a Gouda and cheddar grilled cheese that can be made with waffles instead of bread. The restaurant’s signature dish is “KFT”: “Krispy Fried Tofu” made with a savory blend of thirteen herbs and spices that is so tasty, it could make one forget the Colonel. $ The Little Dipper 2619 Cherokee Street; 314-625-3230. The Little Dipper may be a micro-sized storefront on Cherokee, but what it lacks in space it makes up for with large flavors. The restaurant is run by long-time friends and bandmates Jason Paul and Thomas Eversmann. Their sandwich focused menu was inspired, in part, by the Italian beef sandwiches they grew to love when they were playing music in Chicago. The restaurant’s namesake is this Windy City classic: house meat, cooked sous vide and piled onto a crusty hoagie roll with gravy and spicy giardinera. Another must-try is the hot tuna, a lightly dressed, garlicky riff on a tuna melt. The Little Dipper has several vegetarian dishes, such as a falafel sandwich, and a (sometimes on the menu) North Africanseasoned “Wheatburger.” The hummus, rustic in texture and brightened with fresh mint and lemon zest, is some of the best in town, and if you are lucky enough to be there when Paul cooks up some of his bagna cauda, do yourself a favor and order it. The butter, olive oil and anchovy dip is so satisfying and complex, you’ll be fooled into thinking it’s from a high-end restaurant. Tarahumara 2818 Cherokee Street; 314-804-7398. In the twenty years that they’ve lived in St. Louis, Teresa Armendirez and Luis Navarro have been unable to find food that is typical of their native Chihuahua. The husband and wife decided to take matters into their own hands, opening Tarahumara in the heart of the vibrant Cherokee Street dining district. Do not go in expecting tacos and Tex-Mex; instead, you’ll find delicious northwestern Mexican cuisine such as chilaquiles, a traditional dish of fried corn tortilla chips topped with pulled chicken, crema, and a fiery hot tomatillo

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salsa. Gorditas are also a house specialty. The hollowed-out tortilla pockets come in two varieties: harina, made of flour or roja, made from corn and crushed red bell peppers. Both types are stuffed with a choice of toppings, the best being the poblano pepper and Chihuahua cheese. Tarahumara’s best dish is its torta especial — an excellent sandwich made with Mexican bread that is like a cross between a soft, buttery brioche and crusty Vietnamese banh-mi bread. It’s stuffed with shredded beef, ham, cheese and avocado, and though it looks big enough to share, you won’t want to.

Death In The Afternoon 808 Chestnut St, St. Louis, 314-621-3236. Death in the Afternoon is a culinary oasis set in downtown’s idyllic Citygarden. The weekday lunch spot is the brainchild of Adam Frager and TJ Vytlacil of the members-only restaurant and bar Blood & Sand. Death in the Afternoon features impeccably presented soups, salads, sandwiches and snacks. From kimchi and pickled vegetables to housemade pastrami served on a pretzel, the menu offers something for everyone’s palate. The mahi mahi sandwich is spectacular: The fresh grilled fish is so moist it’s as if it were poached. Served with Meyer lemon and dill aioli, pickles and fennel salad, it’s an excellent lunchtime treat. The restaurant’s signature entree is the tonkotsu ramen, a bowl of mouthwatering pork broth teeming with housemade noodles, mushrooms, pork loin and belly, a soft-boiled egg and garnished with black garlic oil. It’s comfort in a bowl. And lest the kids romping in Citygardens’ fountains have all the fun, Death in the Afternoon serves a rotating selection of cotton candy for dessert. It’s a whimsical end to a perfect meal — a great way to kill an afternoon. $$-$$$ Medina Grill 1327 Washington Avenue; 314-241-1356. Ibrahim Ead grew up in the States, but his parents packed up and moved back to Palestine for a few years when he was a boy. That experience gives him a unique perspective on both American and Middle Eastern cuisine that is on full display at his fast-casual restaurant, Medina Grill. Don’t be fooled by the culinary “F” word — this fusion restaurant showcases delicious culinary mash-ups that defy labels. The “Summer in Dubai,” for example, features chicken shawarma, pepper-jack cheese and smoky chipotle sauce on warm French bread. It’s like a Middle Eastern cheesesteak. The restaurant also succeeds with classic Near East street food, such as the “Original Palestine” beef or chicken shawarma and the falafel on pita (the pickled turnips make the dish). Medina Grill offers a small selection of entrée-sized or side salads, as well as some homemade baked goods such as blondies and chocolate chip cookies. Label it what you will, but one thing is clear at Medina: good food knows no boundaries. Rooster 1104 Locust St., St. Louis, 314-241-8118. This charming crêperie brings a little bit of Paris to downtown. Savory crêpes feature both the hearty (“German-style” sausages, bacon, roasted sirloin) and the delicate (Brie with roasted apples, egg with Gruyère). Fans of owner Dave Bailey’s Lafayette Square hot spot Baileys’ Chocolate Bar won’t be surprised by the excellent sweet crêpes, from a simple lemon crêpe dusted with sugar to the indulgent “Peanut Butter Cup,” which is even richer than its namesake. The menu also features soups, salads and sandwiches as well as Serendipity ice cream and Kaldi’s coffee. $

SOULARD Mission Taco Joint 908 Lafayette Ave, St. Louis, 314-9325430. Mission Taco Joint’s Soulard location is the second to its Delmar Loop flagship, slinging tacos served on housemade tortillas, innovative cocktails and more West Coast inspired Mexican fare. The dining room features plenty of natural light, a colorful mural along the back wall and plenty of seating for groups. Start with a margarita or daiquiri, gobble up some house guacamole with your tacos — choose from cactus, brisket, duck and more — and end the meal with some churros with chocolate sauce. Pizzeoli 1928 South Twelfth Street, St. Louis, 314-449-1111. Signaling how seriously chef/owner Scott Sandler takes his pies, Pizzeoli’s authentic, wood-burning, Neapolitan oven takes up roughly a third of the restaurant’s precious real estate. Smoke and flames dance underneath its black-andwhite-checkered dome, casting a warm glow around the room. The remainder of the space is divided equally between a small bar and a six-table dining area. A few vintage travel posters of Naples dot the walls, and some Hindu-inspired décor, including a photograph of Sandler’s guru, is scattered about the interior. Sandler makes his dough fresh daily with finely ground “00” domestic flour and a little bit of yeast. After it’s cooked in the 900-degree wood oven, the result is a pale gold crust speckled with small black dots of char that looks like a cheetah’s coat. Toppings are simple — and entirely vegetarian — ranging from the classic Neapolitan pies to some of Sandler’s own creations. The Margherita, the only true way to measure a Neapolitan pizzeria’s authenticity, arrived perfectly on point. Crushed and salted pear tomatoes, basil leaves and pearls of fresh mozzarella topped the impeccably cooked crust. I was equally impressed by the “Affumicata” pizza. The sauceless pie was brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with halved cherry tomatoes. Smoked mozzarella is melted over the top, and its flavor mingled with the char on the crust for a pleasantly bitter taste. Peppery arugula blanketed the dish after it came out of the oven and provided a final, pungent punch. $-$$

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music

B-Sides 40 Critics’ Picks 42 Concerts 46 Clubs

Never Forgotten LA’S DENGUE FEVER PULLS FROM COUNTLESS INSPIRATIONS — INCLUDING THE RICH MUSIC SCENE OF WAR-TORN 1970S CAMBODIA Dengue Fever 8 p.m. Sunday, September 6. The Firebird, 2706 Olive Street. $15. 314-535-0353.

engue Fever is a testament to music’s sheer resilience. The Southern California band’s roots are in the Cambodian psychedelic-pop scene of the 1960s and ’70s. That community’s biggest stars — luminaries including Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Sereysothea, Pan Ron and Yol Aularong — are long dead, victims of the Khmer BY Rouge’s murderous 1970s regime. Yet the music would MIKE not die. It survives in Phnom A P P E L S T E I N Penh market stalls; at Long Beach, California, supper clubs; and on cheap, hissy cassettes and semilegitimate compilations. A recent documentary film, April’s Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten, traces the story of this lost music scene in haunting, vivid detail. “The music is considered a national treasure,” Dengue Fever bassist Senon Williams tells RFT Music. “If you go to a Cambodianstyle supper club, you’ll see bands incorporating group dances like the hustle and the electric slide into different styles of music. But all of them, to this day, play Sinn Sisamouth songs. The music never went away.” Williams first encountered those sounds during a mid-1990s trip to Cambodia. “I was in the back of a taxicab. The taxi driver was playing this medley of music from the 1960s all the way to the 1980s, all with the same drum machine,” Williams recalls. “It would start with ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ and then go straight into ‘Black Magic Woman.’ I asked him, ‘Where can I find other music like this?’” The taxi driver took him to an openair market. There Williams encountered a makeshift tape-dubbing operation. “The stand had a giant boombox with 50 cables coming out of it, all feeding into smaller boomboxes,” he says. “It was literally dubbing 50 copies at a time. It looked like a tape-eating monster. I bought probably twenty cassettes from this guy. I realized that a lot of what I liked was actually the same song sung by different people. It seemed like all the songs we really liked were written by Sinn Sisamouth. It all went back to him.”

M A R C WA L K E R

Dengue Fever.

Upon returning home to Los Angeles, Williams met up with Zac and Ethan Holtzman, two brothers similarly intrigued by these enigmatic recordings. “We were mostly turned on by the stuff with female singers, especially where the voice cracks at a high pitch,” Williams says. “That’s what inspired us to seek out a female singer.” After setting up a rehearsal space in Long Beach, the Holtzman brothers began scouting for a lead singer, hitting every Cambodian supper club they could find. It did not go well at first. “They invited some not-so-great singers,” Williams says. “We quickly learned four or five of these Cambodian songs, and they were out of key. The whole vibe was just bad. We were thinking, ‘This could be the worst idea anyone’s ever had.’” Enter Chhom Nimol. A native Cambodian with family in Southern California, she initially came to America on a six-month visa sponsored by a local club. She ended up staying in Long Beach, and made quite a big name for herself on the local scene. After failing to show up for four or five prior auditions, Nimol finally came to a Dengue Fever rehearsal and instantly clicked — not that it was easy to communicate at first, either musically or linguistically. “Nimol’s like a little mall girl [turned] into Celine Dion and Mariah Carey,” Williams explains. “She didn’t speak any English, and we were these dudes from LA. We were about ten years older than

she was. Her sister kept saying, ‘I don’t trust these guys.’” Williams credits actor/director Matt Dillon, in a roundabout way, for making the partnership work. “About a month after we started, Dillon was making City of Ghosts. He needed some Cambodian music for the soundtrack,” he explains. “Very early on, he came to one of our rehearsals. All of a sudden, Nimol’s older sister, who came to these daily rehearsals, was like, ‘Ooh! Maybe this is something.’ In a weird way, Matt Dillon really helped get Nimol to believe in it enough to keep coming back.” Once it clicked, the chemistry was apparent. “We got a lot of respect when we went to Cambodia in 2005 from Nimol’s family and friends,” Williams recalls. “They were expecting us to play Mariah Carey-style pop. They didn’t expect this raw rock band following Nimol’s tradition rather than our own. “She’s not necessarily a lyricist, and her songs tend to be mostly light love songs. We always try to steer them to more poignant or darker topics,” he continues. “We like allegories more than she does. But she does have input in the way she sings. Zac writes most of the vocal melodies, but she has a way of bending them into her own style. The way she interprets them is pretty incredible.” It should be stressed that Dengue Fever does not merely replicate its favorite recordings. Listen to The Deepest Lake, the band’s sixth and riverfronttimes.com

latest studio album, and you’ll hear an unusually wide array of influences: surf music, African chants, garage rock and a faint hint of Masqueera punk, all anchored by Nimol’s lilting vocals. This mixing and matching is actually in keeping with the source material. Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten recounts the various influences Cambodian musicians absorbed — from Cliff Richard in the 1950s, to French and AfroCuban music in the early 1960s, to Santana and Otis Redding in the 1970s as the Khmer Rouge intensified its power grab. A typical track from the time — for instance, Aularong’s “Cyclo” — might feature Beatles harmonies and mutant Santana/Hendrix guitar leads, while maintaining a certain melancholy, minorchord wistfulness even in the most upbeat songs. Ultimately, Dengue Fever’s merging of native and immigrant cultures could not be more timely. “Not all of us in the band are obsessed with Cambodia. Some people assume that,” Williams says. “We didn’t want to start another indierock band, but something outside of ourselves that could be really fun and different. Our intention was just to find a singer and use that music as an influence. “The idea was always to write music with Nimol as the singer, and have her be the Cambodia in our music,” he adds. “And the rest of it could be garage rock, surf music, African music — not just copying what happened in the 1960s.” ■

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b-sides Buyer Beware BAND FINDS ITS OWN STOLEN GEAR FOR SALE ON EBAY BY ST. LOUIS-BASED SELLER

P R E S S P H OTO V I A T R AG E N C Y

nter the phrase “bands robbed” into Bing, and the website will dutifully suggest that you complete your search with the phrase “in St. Louis.” While the recent spike in band-owned vehicle break-ins in the area has been infuriating for artists, venue owners and music fans alike, equally vexing is the thought that there exists a simple way to potentially solve at least one of these crimes. Someone just needs to return a phone call. Attempting to replace over $10,000 in gear stolen after a show in St. Louis last March, Two Cow Garage’s David Murphy made an amazing discovery while searching for replacements on Ebay: the band’s own equipment. According to Murphy, Ebay says it will release the seller’s information to St. Louis police, but the police will not return their call. Dan Howard, captain of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s fourth district, however, says the problem runs in the opposite direction — that Ebay will not return calls from police. “I get it,” Murphy says, “[that] whoever is popping a lock or smashing a window is probably not the same guy who is selling it online. But still, there’s a funnel there somewhere. To have that person shut down would be awesome, and to know that there was a shot at that [which] was completely fumbled — it’s frustrating as hell.” Murphy’s frustrations began the morning of

March 25. The group played the Demo the night before and, familiar with the rash of breakins in the city, had taken extra precautions to secure its van and gear by parking in the covered, gated lot attached to the Sheraton on 14th Street. The extra safeguards were all for naught, however, as thieves navigated their way around the lot’s enhanced security and cleaned out all of the band’s equipment. “They popped the driver’s lock,” Murphy remembers. “They didn’t even chip the paint on it; they did a really clean job. Then you

could see where they had wiped down like a six-inch diameter around every door handle. They knew what they were doing.” A hotel employee called police, the band members gave a statement and then left to play their next gig in Minnesota, borrowing equipment to finish out the tour. Hours later, a fan and radio DJ in Denver started an online fundraising campaign that would net more than $12,000 before the band asked for it to be shut down in order not to “gouge” fans, according to Murphy. As the band began shopping for

HOMESPUN M I S S M O L LY S I M M S One Way Ticket missmollysimms.bandcamp.com Miss Molly Simms Record Release Show 8 p.m. Friday, September 4. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $10. 314-773-3363.

olly Simms’ voice is too big to be contained by one mere band or project. The singer, songwriter and guitarist came to local prominence as the leader of the Bible Belt Sinners, and that band’s 2014 EP, Sunday Best, paired Simms’ strident delivery with the triedand-true strains of punk and rockabilly. The songs were fun flashes of attitude and twangy discord, but Simms’ solo work — first heard on 2013’s Revenants and the just-released One Way Ticket — offer her a wider stylistic and emotional range. For her new album, Simms assembled a varied and sympathetic band of local players that would be hard to match: funk/R&B maestro Al Holliday lays down soulful organ and electric piano, former Trip Daddy Jamey Almond plays bass and Zagk Gibbons (CaveofswordS, Old Capital Square Dance Club) does double duty on drums and co-production (Zach Anderson adds lead guitar on a few tracks as well). Together, the band supports Simms through a variety of roots-rock tropes as she uses her lyrics to navigate the space between love and self-actualization. 40

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“I’m so good at breaking hearts,” Simms sings on the title track. It’s not a boast, exactly, but in song after song, Simms shows how ready she is to say goodbye — to old lovers, to her old life, and to whole cities that left her dry. “Fodder for the Songs” twists and spins with a new-wave energy as Simms spits fire at an ex; the next song, “Drive That Nail,” emits a tenderness both in instrumentation and delivery, as Holliday’s plinking electric piano lays a soft foundation for Simms’ slightly dolorous vocals. If Simms seldom has to worry about the power of her voice, she’s still figuring out how best to deploy it in these songs. She hits the righteous vigor of Lucinda Williams (a common comparison) in songs like the white-knuckling “Goodbye St. Louis” (first heard as a Bible Belt Sinners cut) and the swampy bayou grooves of “Low Down Broke.” Opening track “Can’t You See” has a killer chorus but proves harder to navigate in the verses, and Simms can rely too heavily on similar patterns of delivery. But with the sound and stories on One Way Ticket, Simms shows her willingness to re-create, reconstruct and grow, and she doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. —CHRISTIAN SCHAEFFER Want your CD to be considered for a review in this space? Send music c/o Riverfront Times, Attn: Homespun, 6358 Delmar Boulevard, Suite 200, St. Louis, Missouri, 63130. Email music@riverfronttimes.com for more information.

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Two Cow Garage, whose equipment was stolen in St. Louis in March.

replacement equipment, they literally found exactly what they were looking for. One of the first pieces they tried to replace was a guitar owned by Todd Farrell Jr. “There’s not a lot of them out there,” Murphy says. “So we go online and start looking, and sure enough there’s one out there on Ebay in one of the suburbs north of St. Louis. The serial number was on there, and the last number of the serial number was different than ours — everything else was the same. Ours either ended in a six or a nine, and this one was the opposite of that six or nine. If someone knew what they were doing they could just grab it on Photoshop and turn it upside-down.” Singer Micah Schnabel bid on the guitar, thinking, according to Murphy, that the worst case would be they got a good deal. Best case, they’d find the person selling their stolen gear. Schnabel won the bid and asked if the guitar could be shipped to Farrell in Nashville, explaining that the band recently had a bunch of equipment stolen. As soon as he made mention of the theft, the seller refunded Schnabel’s money via PayPal and blocked him on the site. Some quick investigation revealed that the seller, who went by the username “OnlyTheBestGadgets,” was placing all of the band’s missing equipment up for auction. Though the account has since been disabled, Ebay still allows for a search of user feedback on items OnlyTheBestGadgets sold over the past six months. Guitar pedals, cameras and computers populate past sales — all things that could be found in a band’s tour van.

DAV I D M U R P H Y

Around the same time he discovered the account, Murphy was put in touch with detective John Anderson from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s fourth district. Murphy gave the detective a complete list of the items stolen from the van, including serial numbers for most of the instruments. Anderson was initially responsive, Murphy says, but eventually stopped returning the drummer’s calls. Captain Howard, however, disputes Murphy’s claim that Anderson stopped responding. “He spoke to them over thirty times,” Howard says, adding that Anderson had become “the biggest joke in the bureau” for how often he would talk to the band. While Murphy agrees that he initially was frequently in contact with Anderson, he says many of the detective’s unprompted calls had little to do with the specific equipment the band had reported missing. “He started calling me with, ‘Hey I wanted to touch base with you. We got some information on a possible music gear theft. Did you by chance have a red drum set?’” Murphy recalls. “And we did not. I had given him information like: ‘Drum set by Yamaha, color blue or black.’ It would be like if I called you and you had a yellow Mustang stolen and I asked if you had a red Cobalt stolen, stuff like that. He and his partner drove to central Illinois to look at something, and whatever that thing was was completely different than anything we had given him.” In one of these calls, Murphy mentioned the Ebay account to Anderson and provided him the various auction numbers. He says Anderson told him that it was extremely hard to subpoena information from Ebay without “a body” — that a physical person must be caught with the merchandise — otherwise someone could just be pretending to be someone else on the Internet. Frustrated, Murphy turned to social media to see if the band had any contacts within Ebay. Through a friend of a friend in Salt Lake City, he was put in touch with a person named Christian in the global asset protection department. Christian was ready to work with detective Anderson on releasing user

The popped lock on Two Cow Garage’s van.

information for OnlyTheBestGadgets to the St. Louis police. “I have reached out to Det. Anderson and have not yet heard back,” Christian wrote in an email to Murphy dated May 4. “Have you spoken with the Det?” “No,” Murphy responded. “I’ve tried multiple times to contact him. He and I were talking quite a bit for a while and then he just kind of disappeared.” Captain Howard says he “doesn’t believe” that Ebay has tried to contact the department. Howard claims he has seen phone calls and email strings that show Anderson has attempted to contact Ebay and that the site has “fell off the face of the Earth.” “He has no reason, no motivation not to solve the problem,” Howard says of Anderson. “He hasn’t given up on the case. It’s not on a shelf.” But Ryan Moore, senior manager of Ebay’s global corporate affairs and communications, says that Christian called and left messages for Anderson twice to no avail back in May. Moore also says that the global assets protection team reached out once again when contacted for this story, also to no response. As the police and Ebay continue their game of he-said-he-said, the most frustrating part is that user information for OnlyTheBestGadgets is still available — if only the two parties could somehow contact each other. Even though the user has since disabled the account, Moore says, Ebay could still access the records from April. “Unreal,” Murphy says when told the police could still obtain the user info. “I know they have bigger and better things to worry about — matter of fact, when the one guy was originally doing our police report he got a call in for a shooting…. But you would think at some point you get any kind of info, that they were looking into anything that might be on that list in front of them. “I mean he apparently couldn’t get through to Ebay. I made that part happen,” he adds. “I felt like I put in the time, and then just to hear it turned into a joke at the station? That sucks.” —JEREMY ESSIG

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L I S S A G OT WA L S

critics’ picks

From the left: The Good Life, the Mountain Goats and Motörhead.

BENEFIT FOR TOM ALDERSON 7 p.m. Friday, September 4. The Firebird, 2706 Olive Street. $10. 314-535-0353. On July 26, Crosscheck drummer Tom Alderson was accosted and severely beaten by two men in Philadelphia. The incident took place at an after-show for this year’s This Is Hardcore fest. The motive? Alderson reportedly bumped into one of the men while moshing. The violence left Alderson hospitalized with traumatic brain injuries; its ripple effect shocked the hardcore community worldwide. In just a month, a GoFundMe page for the drummer has collected nearly $30,000 in donations, with benefit shows such as this one popping up in hardcore scenes across the globe. Band Together: Out of Time, Blackwater ’64, New Lives, Strangers Now and Church Key will perform. Admission is $10, but give more if you can. —DANIEL HILL

THE GOOD LIFE 8 p.m. Saturday, September 5. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $15. 314-773-3363. Tim Kasher has been in a reflective mood of late. Or at least, his record label Saddle Creek has found grist in some of the singer-songwriter’s back pages. Cursive’s seminal The Ugly Organ received a deluxe reissue, and his long-dormant side project the Good Life recently saw its earlier LPs re-released on vinyl, some with a host of demos tacked on as well. Thankfully, those reissues served as an aperitif to the Good Life’s resurgence; Kasher and his bandmates convened for this year’s Everybody’s Coming Down, the band’s first in eight years. Always more melodic and pop-centric than Kasher’s Cursive and solo work, the Good Life’s latest shows traces of squalling rock, basement funk and emotionally bare balladry. Harp Attack: Big Harp, the duo of Good Life bassist Stefanie Drootin-Senseney and her husband Chris Senseney, will open the show with a set of smoky, inventive folk-rock. —CHRISTIAN SCHAEFFER

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SEPTEMBER 2- 8, 2015

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THE MOUNTAIN GOATS SOLO SHOW 8 p.m. Tuesday, September 8. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $20. 314-773-3363. Rock music, whatever that is, has always had its word-drunk artistes. Blame Dylan if you like, but the Beatles and the Stones didn’t take over the world because of haircuts and backbeats. Their words mattered. John Darnielle, the voice and vision of the Mountain Goats, may be a heavy-metal scholar, and his riffs may stand up to blasting from a boombox — for years his preferred recording method — but it’s through his lyrics that he transcends. Arcane, dark and hilarious, his words are often as poignant as midnight confessions. Even when singing of professional wrestling, as he does on this year’s brilliant Beat the Champ, his keen portraits and body-slamming rockers are praise songs at their purest. No Band Needed: Darnielle performs this show sans backing, as does opener Heather McEntire of fellow Merge Records stablemate Mount Moriah. Arrive early and swear not to talk through her set when you do. —ROY KASTEN

MOTÖRHEAD 8 p.m. Tuesday, September 8. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard. $45 to $50. 314-726-6161. One day, it is entirely possible that Lemmy Kilmister might die. No one really likes to think about it, but the 69-yearold rock legend has been showing signs of mortality in the last few years. Heart issues, diabetes and a bout of hematoma have been the diagnoses, while his physical appearance has grown more thin and frail. Most recently, Lemmy revealed in an interview with The Guardian that he has switched from his trademark Jack Daniel’s to Absolut vodka, reckoning that the latter is better for his health (though he also insists that he is “indestructible”). The whiskey may be the canary in the coal mine, though — better go to this show. More Rock Royalty: Saxon and Crobot will open the show, but to call either of them “openers” would be a great disservice. —DANIEL HILL

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

SEPTEMBER 2- 8, 2015

6261 Delmar in The Loop

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Delmar Loop friday 10/09

ON SALE 9/04

Saint Louis

saturday 11/07

ON SALE 9/04

thursday 9/3

THIS WEEK

tuesday 9/8

wednesday 9/9

thursday 9/10

friday 9/11

saturday 9/12

friday 9/18

UPCOMING SHOWS

9.25 WARREN HAYNES 9.27 BEACH HOUSE 9.29 ZZ WARD 9.30 PARADOSIO 10.2 FUNK VOLUME TOUR 2015 W/ HOPSIN 10.6 GHOST 10.7 FATHER JOHN MISTY 10.8 BEN RECTOR 10.12 BRING ME THE HORIZON 10.13 CHANCE THE RAPPER 10.14 COHEED AND CAMBRIA 10.15 FLUX PAVILION 10.16 LETTUCE

10.17 GRACE POTTER 10.19 PASSION PIT 10.20 MAC MILLER 10.21 LYLE LOVETT & JOHN HIATT 10.23 YELAWOLF/MEG MYERS 10.24 DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS 10.27 GORGON CITY 10.28 ANDREW MCMAHON IN THE WILDERNESS / NEW POLITICS 10.29 SLIGHTLY STOOPID 10.30 MAT KEARNEY 10.31 SOMO 11.6 TIMEFLIES 11.8 NEW FOUND GLORY/YELLOWCARD

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

@ThePageantSTL

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

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SEPTEMBER 2- 8, 2015

RIVERFRONT TIMES

concerts UPCOMING Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk: Tue., Sept. 22, 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314772-2100. Bear Cub: Sat., Sept. 19, 9 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. Ben Folds: Tue., Nov. 17, 8 p.m., $32.50-$37.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. Big K.R.I.T.: Sat., Nov. 7, 8 p.m., $22-$100. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. Bob Bucko Jr.: Sun., Sept. 13, 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. Bonus Beast: Fri., Sept. 18, 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. Bruxism 11: Sat., Sept. 26, 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. Cas Haley: Sat., Nov. 14, 8:30 p.m., $12-$14. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. Diane Coffee: Wed., Sept. 23, 8 p.m., $5. Billiken Club at Saint Louis University - Busch Student Center, 20 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, 314-977-2020. Florida Georgia Line: Sat., Sept. 26, 7:30 p.m., $30.25$65. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944. Geoff Tate: Fri., Oct. 16, 8 p.m., $10. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. Gymshorts: Fri., Sept. 11, 8 p.m., $5. Blank Space, 2847 Cherokee St., St. Louis. The Hotelier: Mon., Oct. 26, 7 p.m., $12-$14. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. I Could Sleep In The Clouds: Thu., Sept. 24, 9 p.m., free. Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust St., St. Louis, 314-2412337. Imelda Marcos: Sat., Oct. 17, 9 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. Jacob Wick: Thu., Sept. 17, 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. Kevin Harris / Alex Cunningham Duo: Thu., Oct. 1, 8 p.m., free. Tavern of Fine Arts, 313 Belt Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-7549. Key Grip: Thu., Sept. 10, 9 p.m., free. Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust St., St. Louis, 314-241-2337. KSHE-95 48th Birthday Party: Fri., Nov. 13, 8 p.m., $26$116. Peabody Opera House, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-241-1888. Langhorne Slim: Fri., Oct. 30, 8 p.m., $15-$18. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. Leftรถver Crack: Fri., Oct. 23, 8 p.m., $12-$15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. Mac Miller: Tue., Oct. 20, 8 p.m., $30/$32.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. Mariner: Sat., Oct. 3, 10 p.m., $8. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. The Mavericks: Thu., Nov. 5, 8 p.m., $35-$55. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. Nashville Pussy: Fri., Sept. 11, 7 p.m., $15. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. On the Cinder: Thu., Sept. 10, 8 p.m., $5. Melt, 2712 Cherokee St., St. Louis, 314-771-6358. Popular Mechanics Album Release Show: Fri., Oct. 2, 9 p.m., free. Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust St., St. Louis, 314-241-2337. Royal Blood: Mon., Oct. 5, 8 p.m., $20. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. Silverstein: Sun., Nov. 22, 7 p.m., $18-$22. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. Tellavision: Mon., Oct. 5, 9:30 p.m., $5. Los Punk, 2709 Cherokee St, St. Louis, 314-932-5411. Tori Kelly: Fri., Oct. 9, 8 p.m., $25/$27.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. Trans-Siberian Orchestra: Sun., Dec. 27, 3 & 7:30 p.m., TBA. Scottrade Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-2411888. Trout Steak Revival: Wed., Oct. 14, 8 p.m., $7-$10. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis. Two Cow Garage: Wed., Sept. 9, 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363. Upsilon Acrux: Fri., Oct. 9, 9 p.m., free. Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust St., St. Louis, 314-241-2337. A Very Manley Christmas: Fri., Dec. 11, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Sat., Dec. 12, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $25. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000. The Wonder Years: Sat., Nov. 14, 7 p.m., $22.50-$25. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. ZZ Ward: Tue., Sept. 29, 7 p.m., $22.50-$25. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

RIVERFRONT TIMES

SEPTEMBER 2- 8, 2015

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UPCOMING EVENTS:

Wedneday 9.2.15 What: Modest Mouse When: 8PM Where: The Pageant

Thursday 9.3.15 What: Glitch Mob When: 8PM Where: The Pageant

Saturday 9.5.15 Party in the Loop - 8.29.15

What: Tower Grove Farmer’s Market When: 9:30 AM Where: Tower Grove Park

Saturday 9.5.15 What: Maurice Sendak: The Memorial Exhibition When: 10 AM Where: St. Louis Public Library (Downtown) Party in the Loop - 8.29.15

Festival of Nations - 8.30.15 For more photos go to the Street Team Party in the Loop - 8.29.15

website at www.riverfronttimes.com.

Festival of Nations - 8.30.15

Tower Grove Farmer’s Market - 8.29.15

Tower Grove Farmer’s Market - 8.29.15 riverfronttimes.com

SEPTEMBER 2- 8, 2015

RIVERFRONT TIMES

OZARK OUTDOORS PRESENTS

SCHWAGSTOCK A CAMPOUT CONCERT EVENT

SEPTEMBER 11+12 featuring 2 nights of live music with

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

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

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

W E D N E S DAY A.J. Gaither: Wed., Sept. 2, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222, www. bbsjazzbluessoups.com. Cody J. Martin: Wed., Sept. 2, 8 p.m., $8. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, www.thedemostl.com. Erin Bode Sings Standards: Wed., Sept. 2, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Thu., Sept. 3, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $20. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000, www.jazzstl.org/jazz-at-the-bistro/ Shai Hulud: Wed., Sept. 2, 7 p.m., $12-$14. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050, www.fubarstl.com. Your Chance To Die: Wed., Sept. 2, 7 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050, www.fubarstl.com.

T H U R S DAY Allie Kral & the River City All-Stars: Thu., Sept. 3, 8 p.m., $12-$15. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis. American Pinup: Thu., Sept. 3, 7 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100, foamvenue.com/. Billy Barnett Band: Thu., Sept. 3, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222, www.bbsjazzbluessoups.com. Cayetana: Thu., Sept. 3, 8 p.m., $10. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353, www.firebirdstl.com. Dock Ellis Band: Thu., Sept. 3, 8 p.m., $7. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363, www.offbroadwaystl.com. The Glitch Mob: Thu., Sept. 3, 8 p.m., $22.50-$25. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161, www. thepageant.com. We Banjo 3: Thu., Sept. 3, 8 p.m., $10-$12. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505, www. oldrockhouse.com.

F R I DAY A Benefit for Tom Alderson: Fri., Sept. 4, 7 p.m., $10. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353, www. firebirdstl.com. Aaron Kamm and the One Drops: Fri., Sept. 4, 6 p.m., $10. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis. Ask Your Folks: Fri., Sept. 4, 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100, foamvenue.com/. Dave King Trucking Company: Fri., Sept. 4, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Mon., Sept. 5, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $25. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000, www.jazzstl.org/jazz-at-the-bistro/. Def Leppard: Fri., Sept. 4, 7 p.m., $25-$149.50. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944, www.livenation.com/VerizonWireless-Amphitheater-St-Louis-tickets-Maryland-Heights/ venue/49672. Miss Molly Simms CD Release Show: Fri., Sept. 4, 9 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314773-3363, www.offbroadwaystl.com. Mississippi Fever: Fri., Sept. 4, 10 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222, www. bbsjazzbluessoups.com. Mushroomhead: Fri., Sept. 4, 6 p.m., $20-$23. Pop's Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720, www.popsrocks.com. Mutoid Man: Fri., Sept. 4, 8 p.m., $13. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050, www.fubarstl.com. Rob Thomas: Fri., Sept. 4, 7 p.m., TBA. Peabody Opera

RIVERFRONT TIMES

SEPTEMBER 2- 8, 2015

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House, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-241-1888, www. peabodyoperahouse.com. Secondary: Fri., Sept. 4, 8 p.m., $10. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, www.thedemostl.com. Tom Hall: Fri., Sept. 4, 7 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222, www.bbsjazzbluessoups.com.

S AT U R DAY Big Muddy Blues Festival 20 Day 1: Sat., Sept. 5, 3 p.m., TBA. Laclede's Landing, N. First St. & Lucas Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-5875, www.lacledeslanding.com. Bruiser Queen: Sat., Sept. 5, 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100, foamvenue.com/. The Disappeared Farewell Show: Sat., Sept. 5, 9 p.m., $10. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, www. thedemostl.com. Four Year Stong: Sat., Sept. 5, 8 p.m., $16-$18. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353, www. firebirdstl.com. The Good Life: Sat., Sept. 5, 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363, www.offbroadwaystl.com. Kylesa: Sat., Sept. 5, 8 p.m., $15-$18. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, www.thereadyroom.com. Laura Rain & the Caesars: Sat., Sept. 5, 10 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-4365222, www.bbsjazzbluessoups.com. Max Benson: Sat., Sept. 5, 8 p.m., free. Cicero's, 6691 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-862-0009, www.cicerosstl.com. Midwest Extreme United Fest: Sat., Sept. 5, 5 p.m., $12. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050, www. fubarstl.com. Toby Keith: Sat., Sept. 5, 6 p.m., TBA. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944, www.livenation.com/Verizon-Wireless-Amphitheater-St-Louis-tickets-Maryland-Heights/venue/49672. The Wombats: Sat., Sept. 5, 8 p.m., $10.57. Blueberry Hill, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444, www. blueberryhill.com.

S U N DAY Big Muddy Blues Festival 20 Day 2: Sun., Sept. 6, 3 p.m., TBA. Laclede's Landing, N. First St. & Lucas Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-5875, www.lacledeslanding.com. Cleric: Sun., Sept. 6, 8 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050, www.fubarstl.com. Dengue Fever: Sun., Sept. 6, 8 p.m., $15. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353, www.firebirdstl.com. The Fall Of Troy: Sun., Sept. 6, 7 p.m., $18-$20. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, www.thereadyroom. com. Good for the Soul: Sun., Sept. 6, 6 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222, www.bbsjazzbluessoups.com. The Hottest Lady in the City: Sun., Sept. 6, 8 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050, www. fubarstl.com. Love Jones "The Band": Sun., Sept. 6, 10 p.m., $10. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-4365222, www.bbsjazzbluessoups.com. Waste: Sun., Sept. 6, 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100, foamvenue.com/.

M O N DAY Tom Byrne & Erika Johnson: Mon., Sept. 7, 8 p.m., $5. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314436-5222, www.bbsjazzbluessoups.com.

T U E S DAY Abiotic: Tue., Sept. 8, 7 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050, www.fubarstl.com. Henrietta: Tue., Sept. 8, 8 p.m., $5. Kismet Creative Center, 3409 Iowa Ave., St. Louis, 314-696-8177. Megan Nicole: Tue., Sept. 8, 7 p.m., $18-$20. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050, www.fubarstl.com. Motorhead: Tue., Sept. 8, 8 p.m., $45-$50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161, www.thepageant.com. The Mountain Goats (solo): Tue., Sept. 8, 8 p.m., $20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363, www. offbroadwaystl.com.

savage love The Asexual Dom Hey, Dan: I’m confused about my sexuality. For many years, I thought I preferred heteroromantic asexual relationships. Exposure to select reading material — thanks to my gender-studies classes — has me convinced I’m an asexual t-type (i.e., “top,” but I prefer not to use such connotative terms) female who is attracted to slight and feminine men. I do not want to take off my clothes or engage in oral, anal, digital or vaginal sex. Instead, I want to design sexual situations that comely young gentlemen will consensually enter: restraints, BY CBT, whippings, play piercings, fisting. DAN To make matters worse, I’ve never been in a sexual situS AVA G E ation or romantic relationship. I am 23 years old. Extremely low self-esteem and a lack of trust in other people — especially men who are attracted to women — prevented me from reaching out to others, let alone informing a potential partner about my unusual interests. Fortunately, extensive therapy sessions have improved my selfimage and willingness to take risks. Developing a romantic friendship with a potential partner is essential. I doubt I will have much luck on the Internet or at munches, given that so many men doubt the existence of exclusively t-type females. I also don’t fit or wish to fit the stereotypical Bettie Page–esque image of a t-type female. Dressing up in PVC and playing Mistress is not my thing. Do you have any recommended howto guides or communities for t-type females? P.S. I’m trapped in the closet. Beyond Envisioning Any Solutions T-type

You should go to munches and put yourself out there on the Internet, BEAST, because in both those places/spaces you’ll meet — I promise — other t-type/Dominant women and the men who want to worship them and suffer at their hands. Your knowledge of the BDSM/kink/fetish community seems pretty distorted — it sounds like your exposure has been limited to reading materials distributed in your gender-studies classes — but I can assure you that there are men out there, some of them slight and feminine, who not only don’t doubt the existence of exclusively t-type/Dominant females but are actively seeking them. But you’re not going to find them under the rocks in your garden or at the back of your fridge. You’re going to have to enter kinky places/spaces to meet kinky guys. There’s another type of person in those kinky places/spaces you need to meet: mentors. It’s particularly important for someone with your interests — CBT, whippings, piercings and fisting are not JV kinks — to meet, speak with and be mentored by knowledgeable players. These are varsity-level kinks — they are skill sets that

take time to acquire. You’re going to need instruction from people with experience before you start torturing a guy’s balls or sticking (clean and sterile) needles through the head of his cock or his nipples, BEAST, as you could do serious and lasting damage to someone if you’re winging it. Munches are your best bet for meeting the players and educators in your area who take mentorship seriously. Be open about who you are (an asexual t-type female/Dominant woman), your ideal partners (slight and feminine sub guys who are into SM, not sex), and your experience level (nonexistent). Ask about classes, don’t do anyone/anything that makes you uncomfortable, and do the reading. (Check out Greenery Press for titles on female dominance, CBT, flogging and other varsity kinks.) You know who else you’ll meet in the kink scene? Women who don’t fit stereotypical Bettie Page–esque images, don’t dress up in PVC and don’t play Mistress games — but you’ll also meet women who enjoy doing all of those things, BEAST, as well as women who could take or leave Bettie Page, Mistress games, etc., but who dress up because it turns on their partners and/ or attracts the kind of men/women/SOPATGS* they’re interested in restraining and torturing. When someone is indulging your thing (a slight and feminine guy is giving you his cock and balls to torture), it’s simply good manners to indulge his things (letting him call you “Mistress,” if that’s something he enjoys, or pulling on a little PVC). And give yourself permission to grow — or to continue growing. You used to think you were one thing (a hetero-romantic asexual), and now you realize you may be another thing entirely (an asexual t-type/Dominant female who is attracted to slight and feminine men). Who knows what you’ll learn about yourself once you actually start having IRL experiences? (Also… most guys into hardcore BDSM — particularly hardcore masochists — regard CBT and whippings and piercings as sex. Not foreplay, not a substitute for sex, but sex. Something to think through before you have a slight and feminine guy’s balls in your hands: Your “victim” may experience your play as sexual even if you’re experiencing it differently, i.e., you may not feel like you’re having sex with them, BEAST, but they’re going to feel like they’re having sex with you. Is that OK with your particular flavor of/theories about asexuality?) P.S. You’re not trapped in the closet — that door locks from the inside. You can open it whenever you’re ready. * Some other point along the gender spectrum.

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On the Lovecast, NYT religion writer Mark Oppenheimer on the Jewish-Mormon connection: savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter riverfronttimes.comS E PMTOENMTBHE R X X–X 0X R R ER FO RO IM E S 491 riverfronttimes.com 2 - 8X, ,2 2001 5 I VI V ER FR NN T TT IT M ES

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100 Employment 105 Career/Training/Schools THE OCEAN CORP. 10840 Rockley Road, Houston, Texas 77099. Train for a new career. *Underwater Welder. Commercial Diver. *NDT/Weld Inspector. Job Placement Assistance. Financial Aid avail for those who qualify 1.800.321.0298

115 Customer Service

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

190 Business Opportunities Avon Full Time/Part Time, $15 Fee. Call Carla: 314-665-4585 For Appointment or Details Independent Avon Rep. MAKE $1000 Weekly!! Mailing Brochures From Home. Helping home workers since 2001. Genuine Opportunity. No Experience Required. Start Immediately. www. theworkingcorner.com (AAN CAN)

193 Employment Information

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

EOE m/f/d/v

120 Drivers/Delivery/Courier ! Drivers Needed ASAP ! Requires Class E, B or A License. S Endorsement Helpful. Must be 25 yrs or older. Will Train. ABC/Checker Cab Co CALL NOW 314-725-9550

CDL- A DRIVERS and Owner Operators: $1,000.00 sign on, Company/ Safety Bonuses. Home daily/ weekly. Regional runs. Great Benefits. 1-888-300-9935

500 Services 505 Automotive Services AUTO INSURANCE STARTING AT $25/ MONTH! Call 855-977-9537

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

DWI/Traffic from $50/Personal Injury.

Mark Helfers, 314-862-6666 Choice of a lawyer is an important decision & should not be based solely on advertising

File Bankruptcy Now! Call Angela Jansen 314-645-5900 Bankruptcyshopstl.com

The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely on advertising.

Personal Injury, Workers Comp, DWI, Traffic 314-621-0500

ATTORNEY BRUCE E. HOPSON

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

530 Misc. Services Get CABLE TV, INTERNET & PHONE with FREE HD Equipment and install for under $3 a day! Call Now! 855-602-6424 WANTS TO purchase minerals and other oil & gas interests. Send details to P.O. Box 13557, Denver, Co 80201

537 Adoptions PREGNANT? THINKING OF ADOPTION? Talk with caring agency specializing in matching Birthmothers with Families Nationwide. LIVING EXPENSES PAID. Call 24/7 Abby’s One True Gift Adoptions. 866-413-6293. Void in Illinois/New Mexico/ Indiana (AAN CAN)

400 Buy-Sell-Trade 420 Auto-Truck

BUYING JUNK CARS, TRUCKS & VANS 314-968-6555

CASH FOR CARS: Any Car/ Truck. Running or Not! Top Dollar Paid. We Come To You! Call For Instant Offer: 1-888-420-3808 www.cash4car.com (AAN CAN)

800 Health & Wellness 805 Registered Massage

HHHHH Simply Marvelous

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

HHHHHHH A New Intuitive Massage Call Natalie 314.799.2314 www.artformassage.info CMT/LMT 2003026388

AmandasMiniDaySpa.com 510 E. Chain of Rocks Rd Granite City, IL.

314-467-0766

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

Health Therapy Massage

Relax, Rejuvenate & Refresh!

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

310 Roommate Services ALL AREAS ROOMMATES.COM. Lonely? Bored? Broke? Find the perfect roommate to complement your personality and lifestyle at Roommates.com! (AAN CAN)

315 Condos/Townhomes/Duplexes for Rent SOUTH-CITY $695 314-223-8067 Spacious 2BR, 2BA townhouse, spiral staircase, ceiling fans, D/W, disposal, fridge & stove , full bsmnt, W/D hkups, off st prkg

Flexible Appointments

Monday Thru Sunday (Walk-ins welcome) 320 Brooke’s Drive, 63042 Call Cheryl. 314-895-1616 or 314-258-2860 LET#200101083 Now Hiring...Therapists Make Every Day Special with a Luxurious Asian Massage at Spa Chi Massage & Day Spa 109 Long Rd Chesterfield MO 636-633-2929 www.spa-chi.com

810 Health & Wellness General ARE YOU ADDICTED TO PAIN MEDICATIONS OR HEROIN? Suboxone can help. Covered by most insurance. Free & confidential assessments. Outpatient Services. Center Pointe Hospital 314-292-7323 or 800-345-5407 763 S. New Ballas Rd, Ste. 310 Struggling with DRUGS or ALCOHOL? Addicted to PILLS? Talk to someone who cares. Call The Addiction Hope & Help Line for a free assessment. 800-978-6674 VIAGRA 100mg, CIALIS 20mg. 40 Pills + 4 FREE for only $99. #1 Male Enhancement! Discreet Shipping. Save $500. Buy the Blue Pill Now! 1-800-404-1271

600 Music 610 Musicians Services MUSICIANS Do you have a band? We have bookings. Call (314)781-6612 for information Mon-Fri, 10:00-4:30 MUSICIANS AVAILABLE Do you need musicians? A Band? A String Quartet? Call the Musicians Association of St. Louis (314)781-6612, M-F, 10:00-4:30

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

ST. JOHN $495-$595 314-423-3106 Special! 1BR.$495 & 2BR.$595. Near 170 & St.Charles Rock Rd

300 Rentals

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

317 Apartments for Rent BENTON-PARK $495+deposit 314-984-8127 1BR, carpet br & liv rm. Lg kitchen: fridge & stove inc. 21xx Lynch CENTRAL-WEST-END! $600 314-309-2043 First Floor 2-3 br, central air, finished basement, great hardwoods, thermal windows, all appliances, storage! rs-stl.com RGU9P DELMAR-METRO-LINK! $450 314-832-2313 All-electric remodeled apartment, kitchen appliances, central air, carpet, pets, part bills paid! rs-stl.com RGU9M DOWNTOWN

$569-$3000

888-323-6917

THE GENTRY’S LANDING

More than you’d expect for less than you’d imagine. The Best Views in St Louis overlooking the Arch/Riverfront. Spacious studio’s, 1 & 2 bedroom apartments-Fully Furnished Apt’s and short-term leases also available. Rooftop pool, two fitness centers, community room and business center w/WiFi. Penthouse Suites Available. www.gentryslanding.com DOWNTOWN Cityside-Apts 314-231-6806 Bring in ad & application fee waived! Gated prkng, onsite laundry. Controlled access bldgs, pool, fitness, business ctr. Pets welcome HALLS-FERRY! $400 314*309-2043 Clean 1 bedroom, frosty a/c, appliances included, nice hardwood floors, w/d hookups, plenty of storage! rs-stl.com RGU9O NORTH-COUNTY $500 (314)606-7868 Senior Community: 2Br, Fridge, Stove, Dishwasher, C/A, W/D Hkup. OVERLAND! $625 314-309-2043 All-electric 2 bedroom, central air, all appliances, basement storage, utilities paid, available now! rs-stl.com RGU9R RICHMOND-HEIGHTS $515-$555 (Special) 314-995-1912 1 MONTH FREE! 1BR, all elec off Big Bend, Metrolink, 40, 44, Clayton SOUTH CITY $400-$850 314-771-4222 Many different units www.stlrr.com 1-3 BR, no credit no problem SOUTH ST. LOUIS CITY 314-579-1201 or 636-939-3808 1, 2 & 3 BR apts for rent. www.eatonproperties.com. Sec. 8 welcome SOUTH-CITY $530 314-481-6443 6429 Gravois- Apt. 2 BR, C/A, Carpet, Draperies. $530 deposit

SOUTH-CITY

$475 314-397-2388

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

SOUTH-CITY

$435

314-277-0204

1st Mo Rent FREE! 3841 Gustine 1BR; $40 Per Adult App Fee. SOUTH-CITY $450 314-221-9568 Large 1br apt, all electric 4250 Miami

SOUTH-CITY! $495 314-309-2043 Loaded 2 bedroom, central air, hardwood floors, fireplace, w/d hookups, pets, covered porch! rs-stl.com RGU9S

314-292-7323

SOUTHWEST-CITY! $550 314-309-2043 Nice 2 br, central air, hardwood floors, basement storage, all appliances, pets welcome, w/d hookups, ready to rent! rs-stl.com RGU9T

After hours or weekends: 800-345-5407

WESTPORT/LINDBERGH/PAGE $525-$575 314-995-1912 1 mo FREE! 1BR ($525) & 2BR ($575 specials) Clean, safe, quiet. Patio, laundry, great landlord! Nice Area near I-64, 270, 170, 70 or Clayton

www.LiveInTheGrove.com 320 Houses for Rent CARONDELET! $675 314-309-2043 Remodeled 2 bedroom house, big basement, plenty of storage, off street parking, ceiling fans, large yard! rs-stl.com RGU9Y LUCAS-&-HUNT! $600 314-309-2043 Remodeled 2 bed house, full basement, hardwood floors, fenced yard for kids, kitchen appliances, possible rent to own! rs-stl.com RGU9X MARYLAND-HEIGHTS $1100 314-443-4478 1557 Redcoat: All elec. 3 bdrm, 2 bath house. Parkway Schools. NORTH ST. LOUIS COUNTY 314-579-1201 or 636-939-3808 2, 3 & 4BR homes for rent. eatonproperties.com. Sec. 8 welcome NORTH-COUNTY! $750 314-309-2043 Large 5 bed house, full basement, pets allowed, flexible deposit, off street parking, possible rent to own! rs-stl.com RGU91 PAGE! $500 314-309-2043 All-electric 2 bed house, central air, hardwood floors, fenced yard, appliances, pets ok, make deposit in payments, easy move! RGU9W SOUTH-CITY $790 314-223-8067 2 BR house,some wood floors, stove/fridge, W/D hkup in bsmt, new C/A, garage, porch. No Sec. 8. SOUTH-CITY! $700 314-309-2043 Roomy 3 bed house, full basement, garage, central air, ceiling fans, fenced yard, kitchen w/dishwasher, ready to rent! rs-stl.com RGU9Z SOUTHCITY! $500 314-309-2043 Ready now! 1 bedroom house, great fenced yard, nice hardwood floors & custom tile, central air, all kitchen appliances! rs-stl.com RGU9V UNIVERSITY-CITY! $800 314-309-2043 Newly updated 4 bed house, full basement, central air, nice hardwood floors, fenced yard, all kitchen appliances, covered porch! RGU90

Tuesdays, Aug. 25–Sept. 29

TWILIGHT

TUESDAYS AMEREN CONCERT SERIES

FALL 2015

SOUTH-CITY $675 314-221-9568 2br duplex, hdwds, central air, private basement, Carondelet area, $25 app fee, no sec 8.

OUTPATIENT SERVICES

or SERVICES OUTPATIENT

UNIVERSITY-CITY! $595 314-309-2043 Private 2 bedroom, central air, hardwood floors, appliances included, pets, off street parking, ready to rent! rs-stl.com RGU9Q

MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM

SOUTH-CITY! $385 314-309-2043 Nice 1 br, central air, all appliances, carpet & tile, w/d hookups, basement storage, pets ok! rs-stl.com RGU9N

Suboxone Can Help.

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

314-727-1444

SOUTH-CITY 314-504-6797 37XX Chippewa: 3 rms, 1BR. all elec exc. heat. C/A, appls, at bus stop

•Covered by most insurance •Free & confidential assessments

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

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

IF YOU DESIRE TO MAKE MORE MONEY AND NEED A NEW JOB EARNING $45-$50 thousand the 1st year, great benefits, call SMTDS, Financial assistance available if you qualify. Free living quarters. 6 students max per class. 4 wks. 192 hours.

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

ST. CHARLES COUNTY 314-579-1201 or 636-939-3808 1 & 2 BR apts for rent. www.eatonproperties.com. Sec. 8 welcome

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

riverfronttimes.com

SEPTEMBER 2- 8, 2015

RIVERFRONT TIMES

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

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

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

R 314-754-5966

EarthCircleRecycling.com - 314-664-1450

BUYING JUNK CARS, TRUCKS & VANS 314-968-6555 DATING MADE EASY... LOCAL SINGLES! Listen & Reply FREE! 314-739-7777 FREE PROMO CODE: 9512 Telemates

DWI/BANKRUPTCY HOTLINE:

ARE YOU DEPRESSED?

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

appetite has changed and you can’t sleep, you may be suffering from depression. Learn more at www.mac-research.com or call 314-647-1743 to see if you qualify.

Made You Look! Get the Attention of our 461,000+ Readers

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

PAINLESS TATTOO REMOVAL

SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 14 OR CALL 866-626-8346

Personal Injury, Workers Comp, DWI, Traffic 314-621-0500

If you’re feeling exhausted and sad and have no interest in things you used to enjoy, if your

Earth Circle’s mission is to creatively assist businesses and residents with their recycling efforts while providing the friendliest and most reliable service in the area. Call Today!

•Full Body Massage •Deep Tissue Massage •Hot Stone •Couples Massage •Swedish Massage •Chinese Accupressure 109 Long Rd. • Chesterfield, MO 63005

ATTORNEY BRUCE E. HOPSON

The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely on advertising.

South City Scooters

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

636-633-2929

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

www.LiveInTheGrove.com

Mid-America Clinical Research, LLC

Make Every Day Special with a Luxurious Asian Massage

Are You Addicted to Pain Medications or Heroin ?

Suboxone Can Help.

OUTPATIENT SERVICES

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

Outpatient • Confidential • Convenient •Covered by most insurance •Free & confidential assessments

2015

314-292-7323 or

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

314-842-4463

After hours or weekends 800-345-5407

G O A H E A D,

Are You Addicted to Pain Medications or Heroin?

Best of St. Louis ®

Suboxone Can Help.

PLAY FAVORITES! Polling is Now Open

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VOT E NOW throug h Septem ber 19, 2015 52

RIVERFRONT TIMES

SEPTEMBER 2- 8, 2015

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Outpatient - Confidential - Convenient  Covered by most insurance  Free & confidential assessments

OUTPATIENT SERVICES

763 S. NEW BALLAS RD., STE. 310 ST LOUIS, MO 63141 314-292-7323 or