Riverfront Times January 16, 2019

JANUARY 16-22, 2019 I VOLUME 43 I NUMBER 2

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HONORS & AWARDS: • Charles Shaw Trial Advocacy Award • Missouri and Kansas Super Lawyers • St. Louis Magazine, Best Lawyers in St. Louis DWI • Riverfront Times Best Lawyer • Best Lawyers in United States • 10 years of law enforcement training, including time as a narcotics agent • Invited to speak nationally on the topic of DWI defense • A proven record of successfully defending difficult DWI cases • A graduate of the National College of DUI Defense at Harvard

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THE LEDE

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

SPEND SOME OF THAT

HOLIDAY CASH! RIFLES & SHOTGUNS

HAND GUNS Publisher Chris Keating Editor in Chief Sarah Fenske

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

COVER

SAFES & KNIVES

The Long Violent Fall of Todd Beckman

YOUR HOMETOWN FIREARMS RETAILER FOR OVER 15 YEARS!

VOTED BEST GUN SHOP OF 2015

-2015 RIVERFRONT TIMES BEST OF ST. LOUIS

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

The playboy loved fast cars and beautiful women. Then came a brutal kidnapping

P R O D U C T I O N Production Manager Jack Beil M U L T I M E D I A A D V E R T I S I N G Sales Director Colin Bell Senior Account Executive Cathleen Criswell, Erica Kenney Account Managers Emily Fear, Jennifer Samuel Multimedia Account Executive Michael Gaines, Christine Knoll, Jackie Mundy Event Coordinator Grace Richards

Written by

DOYLE MURPHY Cover design by

EVAN SULT

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

INSIDE The Lede News Feature Calendar

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JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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NEWS

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County Halts Marijuana Prosecutions Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

W

hen an internal policy memo from St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell leaked to local media last week, its sections on marijuana were overshadowed by the controversy over the office’s new child support policy, as well as Bell’s decision to to fire several veteran prosecutors.

But though Bell complained in a January 5 Facebook post that the memo’s policies should not have been interpreted as “finalized,” his office confirmed to the RFT Friday that, as outlined in the memo, it is indeed halting the prosecution of all marijuana possession cases under 100 grams.

The policy, says Bell’s chief of staff Sam Alton, is already in action.

“For possession cases alone — not a possession with a weapon or an intent to sell — possession alone, that policy is in effect and will stay in effect,” Alton wrote in an email last week.

That means the isolated crime of marijuana possession is no longer a crime in St. Louis County.

According to the memo, “Prosecution of more than 100 grams of marijuana will only be pursued if evidence suggests the sale/distribution of marijuana.”

It’s important to note that while Bell’s office handles felony and misdemeanor cases across St. Louis County, the 87 municipalities within its borders can still deploy police and write citations to enforce their own local ordinances. Although those come with no chance of prison, they can still count as convictions on your record.

Still, it’s a major shift that the county’s chief prosecutor will be declining such possession cases — one that brings St. Louis County in line with a new policy rolled out last year in St. Louis city.

“If a municipality sends our of-

In essence, new St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell just decriminalized pot possession. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI fice a case of possession of less than 100 grams, and that is the only charge that does not meet an exception and/or there is no extenuating circumstance, our office will not entertain and/or issue on that case,” Alton wrote. “We look forward to working with the municipalities on this and every other issue.”

Language in Bell’s memo seems designed to disrupt multiple corners of justice system. Associate prosecutors are instructed to issue “Nolle Prosequis” on current marijuana possession cases under 100 grams, formally abandoning even those cases involving a plea deal. Also cancelled: Warrants filed for failure to appear “on possession of marijuana matters.”

The policy also reaches into the probation system, where until now a positive test for weed could result in a violation and a possible return to prison. According to the new policy, associate prosecutors “will not file or pursue Motions to Revoke Probation arising solely from the use or possession of marijuana.”

In his email, Alton explains that

Language in Bell’s memo seems designed to disrupt multiple corners of justice system. the office is looking into past cases as well, ones in which individuals had their probation revoked solely for marijuana possession.

“If those cases meet the standard, they will also be subject to review and possible dismissal,” he wrote.

Bell’s policy now makes St. Louis County the third major Missouri municipality to end prosecution of most marijuana possession cases.

In June, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner set a similar policy in an email to staffers.

Then, in November, after Missouri voters approved a ballot

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measure legalizing medical marijuana, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Bakers announced that her office would respond to the “mandate from voters” and end the prosecution of most marijuana possession cases. The policy, which affects Kansas City and its suburbs, was met with support by Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forté, who called it “bold and progressive.”

That hasn’t been the reaction in St. Louis County.

Although the region voted for Bell, some members of the county police department aren’t that eager for the changes he seeks to implement. In an interview with KMOX, St. Louis County Police union president Joe Patterson claimed last week that officers are still obligated to enforce the federal prohibition on marijuana, no matter what Bell wants.

“I can’t pull a guy over with 96 grams of weed in his pocket and just let him keep it. That’s not something we can do,” he said.

“We’re still going to have to either write a county-level arrest summons, or there’s other recourses we have.” n

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Defendants who can’t afford pre-trial monitoring often end up in the city’s hellish Workhouse. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI

Next Target for Reformers: Pre-Trial Fees Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

S

t. Louis courts let a private company extort money from poor defendants through pricey fees for GPS ankle monitors, according to defense attorneys and criminal-justice reformers.

In a letter to St. Louis judges, the authors blast Eastern Missouri Alternative Sentencing Services for what they say are illegal strong-arm tactics.

“The pretrial supervision practices in this Circuit result in the incarceration of individuals solely because of their poverty,” the letter reads.

It was signed by leaders from ArchCity Defenders, the American Civil Liberties Union, St. Louis Public Defender, Bail Project, Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center and Mound City Bar Association.

EMASS has a contract with the 22nd Judicial Circuit, which covers felonies and misdemeanors in St. Louis city, as well as other jurisdictions across the state. The St. Charles-based company provides GPS monitoring along with other pretrial services, such as handling criminal defendants’ regular check-ins and alcohol-monitoring devices.

Often, the only way for a person charged with a crime to get out of jail while they await trial is to agree to a long list of conditions. Along with prohibitions against drinking or promises to avoid certain people, judges regularly require defendants to submit to an ankle bracelet or some other type of monitoring.

The problem, critics say, is that defendants have to pay a profit-driven private company for the privilege of wearing its

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monitors or checking in with its staff.

These are people who haven’t been convicted of a crime but still have to pay for their freedom.

The fees add up. GPS monitoring and house-arrest electronic monitoring cost $50 for installation, plus $10 per day, according to the letter. Defendants might have to pay $300 up front for the first month, the reformers say. Mandated check-ins cost another $30 per month, and some defendants have been told not to show up if they don’t have the money, triggering a violation, the defense attorneys say.

“The status quo of mass pretrial detention is already a moral outrage, but to condition freedom upon payment to a private company is just grotesque,” Blake Strode, executive director of ArchCity, said in a written statement.

If defendants miss a payment because they don’t have the money, EMASS will report to the courts that the person has violated the conditions of their release, even if they do everything else right. Based on an EMASS report, judges can issue warrants to have the person arrested and hauled back to jail.

The signers of the letter say that power lets EMASS use the threat of incarceration to squeeze poor people to pay fees they can’t afford. It also violates defendants’ constitutional rights, creating a system where poor people end up in jail while wealthier defendants go free.

The letter includes several recommendations for judges, including requiring EMASS to make it clear to the courts when the only violation is not paying fees. They also want judges to figure out what people can afford before locking them into expensive agreements which set them up to fail.

And if defendants do miss payments, the attorneys and reformers ask that judges hold hearings to see what happened rather than issue arrest warrants.

EMASS did not respond to a request for comment. n

P-D Fumble Proved Costly Written by

SARAH FENSKE

M

ore than a decade ago, Wilian Ramos immigrated to the U.S. from Guatemala.

He jumped through all the necessary hoops — he’s currently a naturalized citizen — and started a small landscaping company in Wentzville. The business grew and developed an expertise that allowed it to score contracts for everything from lawn mowing to retaining walls.

There was just one problem, according to Ramos’ lawyer, Evan Howard of Clayton: “It’s hard to find Americans who want to do jobs like this, and do it full time.”

And so Ramos Landscaping LLC relied on the federal H2B temporary work-visa program. Every year, Ramos hires lawyers to follow the onerous process of legally hiring migrants from his native country. So long as he’s awarded the work visas, his company can bring a handful of workers to the U.S. during its busy season, where they earn $14.52/hour, plus overtime, to sculpt the lawns of suburban St. Louis. Then the workers go back home.

That system, while not particularly easy (or cheap), worked just fine for Ramos until last fall, Howard says. That’s when Howard says the St. Louis Post-Dispatch bungled a key part of his application — and, in the process, cost him virtually his entire livelihood.

By law, companies vying for work visas must first advertise the jobs to U.S. residents. For Ramos, that meant placing an ad in a local newspaper on two consecutive days at least two weeks before applying. And not just in the “help wanted” section — companies like Ramos’ had to use a more costly section for legal services, Howard says. Only with proof of placement can they then apply for visas.

Ramos’ immigration lawyer placed the ads in the Post-Dispatch last November — a $2,186.05 order, the lawsuit says. Weeks later, the company was awarded visas for ten workers, just as it had asked for.

The problem came after that, when the immigration lawyer sought proof that the ads had been placed. At that point, according to a lawsuit Howard would file last month in St. Charles County

Wilian Ramos, center, has seen his business practically destroyed, his lawyer says. | COURTESY OF EVAN HOWARD

Because the visas are awarded competitively in two set cycles annually, there will be no chance for Ramos to apply again in time to get the workers to the U.S. for the full season.

Circuit Court, the newspaper’s rep admitted that the ad had only run one day, not the two required by law.

Ramos’ immigration lawyer had no choice but to confess the omission to the federal government, says Howard. And, with that, the company’s work visas were no longer in play.

Because the visas are awarded competitively in two set cycles annually, there will be no chance for Ramos to apply again in time to get the workers to the U.S. for the full season, Howard says.

“He is practically wiped out of business,” Howard says. Without the extra workers, “the only people he has working for him are him-

self and his sixteen-year-old son, who’s in high school.” Because of that, Ramos has had no choice but to drop clients, Howard says.

And, yes, to file suit. That’s when Howard got involved, and the suit he filed December 7 accuses the paper of breach of contract and negligence. It claims, “As a direct and proximate cause of Defendant’s breach, Ramos has been damaged and is unable to staff his workforce for the end of the 2018 year and 2019 year.” It seeks more than $25,000 in damages.

A spokeswoman for the Post-Dispatch says the newspaper does not comment on pending litigation.

The daily’s attorney, Joseph Martineau of Lewis Rice, got the suit moved to federal court last week. He also filed a response suggesting any error had been caused by Ramos’ immigration lawyer, blaming “failure to exercise reasonable care and due diligence to review the published newspaper and to notify Defendant that the requested advertisement was not placed.”

Martineau notes that nine days elapsed before the lawyer asked for proof the ad had run.

Not surprisingly, Howard says his client is preparing to apply for the work visa program again in the next cycle, which begins in March. But this time, the company won’t be placing ads in the legal section of the Post-Dispatch. This time, it’s got a cheaper option.

As of January 1, the work-visa program’s requirements have changed to allow online options like Craigslist instead. n

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The tanning mogul was into fast cars, hot women and drug dealing. It took a brutal kidnapping to bring down his empire

BY DOYLE MURPHY

One morning, a federal prosecutor named John Davis was driving to his job at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in St. Louis when he looked in the rearview mirror of his Toyota Yaris and spotted a BMW flying up behind him on Interstate 44.

Davis eyed the luxury car as it grew larger and larger in the mirror. When it blazed past him, the driver was a blur, but he immediately noticed the name on the vanity license plate — TANCO. “One of these days, I’m going to get that guy,” Davis said aloud.

For years, the career prosecutor had heard about Todd Beckman, the founder of a chain of tanning salons called TanCo. The perpetually bronzed CEO was a local success story, turning a tanning bed in the back of his father’s beauty parlor into a small empire that extended across more than a dozen states. He opened not just tanning salons but massage parlors and gyms. In the coming years, he would debut yet another concept — a line of hormone and supplement centers, offering aging men the promise of recapturing their youthful vigor.

It was a lifestyle Beckman not only sold but embodied. Then in his mid-40s, he was a notorious playboy with blond highlights in his hair and a smile worthy of a toothpaste ad. He had a reputation as a hard-partying daredevil with a fondness for beautiful women, gaudy automobiles and anything that could go fast. He was even for a time a professional powerboat racer on the Formula One circuit, blitzing across waterways from Creve Coeur to the Florida Keys.

All that was fine, but it was Beckman’s rumored side business, importing crates of marijuana, that interested Davis.

A month older than Beckman, the prosecutor had

spent his federal career assigned to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, which focuses on large-scale narcotics conspiracies. Part of the job was talking to defendants who hoped to trade information on the bad deeds of others in exchange for shorter prison sentences. In those conversations, Beckman’s name had come up often enough to make Davis suspect the tanning mogul was up to something more than peddling a year-round glow to stripmall customers.

Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration had also taken an interest in the flashy CEO, according to an agency official. So far, they did not have anything to present to prosecutors. Frankly, Beckman was a small fish compared to the major traffickers moving heroin, cocaine and mass quantities of marijuana through the metro area. And yet a supposedly legitimate businessman brazenly flouting the law had a way of annoying those responsible for enforcing it.

Davis watched the BMW and its TANCO plates speed out of sight. That was that.

But then, about four years later, in December 2016, the prosecutor was groggily watching the 4 a.m.

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TODD BECKMAN Continued from pg 15

news when the story of a vicious kidnapping caught his attention. A young Maplewood man had been abducted from his home, beaten and tortured for three days until his family paid a $27,000 ransom.

The names of four suspects — a pair of twenty-something brothers named Blake and Caleb Laubinger, 24-year-old Zachary Smith and 55-year-old Kerry Roades — meant nothing to Davis. But mention of the fifth made him sit up in bed.

“Did I just hear ‘Todd Beckman’?”

T

odd Beckman’s marijuana arrived every month in shipments from California. An eighteen-wheeler would back up to the loading dock of his corporate headquarters at 11 Champion Drive in Fenton and offload crates of what appeared to be industrial toolboxes.

It was a good cover. The building, which included offices and a large warehouse, was the nerve center of Beckman’s wide-ranging interests. Over the years, more than two dozen corporations have been registered there under his watch. Some fizzled, but others, including MassageLuXe and LifeXist gyms, had grown into multi-state franchises. The warehouse teemed with motorcycles, sports cars, racing go-karts or whatever else happened to grab Beckman’s attention.

When a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter visited in 2010 for a profile of the successful entrepreneur, she noted walls covered with photos of him racing during his Formula One days, along with a “human-sized trophy” planted near his desk.

“You’ve got to be motivated,” Beckman told her. “That’s why I have all those pictures here.

They’re not just because I like to see myself. It’s because it reminds me of winning.”

With everything going on, no one was going to notice a couple nondescript crates arriving every four weeks.

It was Kerry Roades’ job to handle the incoming cargo. A capable mechanic and generally handy when it came to building or fixing things, he had helped take care of the literal nuts and bolts of Beckman’s big ideas for two decades.

Once the crates were in the warehouse, Roades cracked them open and retrieved the true payload — between 50 and 80 pounds of marijuana in airtight packaging.

From there, the weed went

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Todd Beckman in a promotional video for MassageLuXe, one of the multiple brands he built into successful franchises. | YOUTUBE to Blake Laubinger, a dull-eyed young drug dealer who started as an investor in one of Beckman’s gyms and became an awestruck protégé. Laubinger stashed the pot at his house in the small town of Pacific, Missouri, parceling it out to a network of low-level dealers and then collecting the proceeds from their sales. He and Beckman split profits of about $800 per pound and sent the rest back to their supplier in California. On an 80-pound shipment, they could each clear $32,000, maybe more if the market was good.

The operation hummed along month after month until October 2016, when Laubinger returned home to find his house had been burglarized.

The 24-year-old searched desperately, but it was just as he feared — his safe with $15,000 and 24 pounds of marijuana was gone.

In a panic, he called both Beckman and his older brother, 26-year-old Caleb Laubinger, and told them what happened. He even called Pacific police and reported the burglary, although he wisely omitted the bit about the missing marijuana and drug money.

Both were problems. Not only had Blake Laubinger fronted his network of dealers — putting up the weed on the promise of being paid after they sold it — but Beckman had fronted him. Forget about profits; he was now in debt tens of thousands of dollars to the tanning mogul, and he worried about the consequences.

“I mean, it wasn’t a good situation,” Blake later told prosecutors.

“There was a lot of money lost,

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and I had no way of paying it.”

In the short term, he says, his brother loaned him $75,000 to buy time. (Caleb Laubinger claims it was only $3,000.) But the only real solution was to find the burglar and get their money back.

Luckily for Blake, he knew exactly who had ripped him off. A fellow drug dealer, Ellis Athanas III, knew where Blake kept the marijuana and had easy access to the house, because the two 24-year-olds had been literal partners in crime ever since meeting in 2010 at St. Louis Community College. Both were student drug dealers at the time and decided to team up.

Athanas had long, light brown hair that hung past his shoulders, contributing to his surfer-bro vibe.

He had met Beckman just once (when the middle-aged entrepreneur complained of an aching back, Athanas suggested they go to hot yoga together), but he knew when the shipments were incoming. After all, he was one of the people who had helped sell them.

Athanas had been peddling marijuana since he was about sixteen years old but recently had grown more interested in daring drug ripoffs. “Seizing dealers’ assets,” is the way he described it.

Blake Laubinger had teamed up with him on a few such escapades. Athanas would arrange to meet another seller in an out-ofthe way location, snatch the drugs and speed off in his car. Blake, parked just out of sight, would wait until his partner passed and then pull his truck across the road, cutting off any pursuers.

Now, he discovered, he was the one whose assets had been seized.

And his former accomplice was on the run.

T

he Laubinger brothers spent more than three weeks desperately hunting Athanas.

They told mutual friends to watch for him, and soon tips began to trickle in. They missed him in Springfield after he was supposedly spotted hanging around Missouri State University. They almost had him another time at a Steak ’n Shake in Sunset Hills, but he bolted through a back door, jumped in his car and escaped during a wild, wrong-way chase on I-44. Athanas was turning out to be a ghost.

Adding to the pressure was Blake’s relationship with Beckman. The young dealer’s attorney, Scott Rosenblum, would later describe it as nearly paternalistic.

The Laubingers’ own father had been physically and emotionally abusive, Rosenblum told a judge, and Blake was easily impressed

by Beckman’s money, cars, beautiful women and “sparkling tan.”

The younger man talked about his buddy “Todd” so much so that his mother began to wonder about what she assumed was another twenty-something. She was alarmed when she discovered her son’s new friend was a middleaged CEO. On social media, Blake hyped his new lifestyle and connections.

Alongside a photo of his ride next to Beckman’s souped-up sports car, he wrote, “Me and todd on the way to the race track had to snap

a pic lol.”

But Rosenblum contends there was always an “element of fear” in the relationship. And when Athanas stole his money and drugs, Beckman was adamant that Blake “get” him, authorities say.

The Laubingers finally caught a break on November 21, 2016, when they learned Athanas was staying at a house in Maplewood.

That evening, they slipped inside and waited in the dark. It was a modest place — two bedrooms, set off a one-block street south of Manchester Road — and the brothers searched for any sign of the stolen bounty. They knew it was a long shot. Blake had heard Athanas bought not one, but two luxury cars after the burglary.

He was making them look stupid.

And the money was still gone.

Their target finally returned home after an evening out, and Blake punched him hard in the face. Six feet tall and 200 pounds, Blake had a size advantage of three inches and about 30 pounds.

But Athanas was wily. A fitness fanatic, he occasionally posted shirtless photos of his ripped physique on social media and filmed himself doing acrobatic flips. The two rivals traded blows in the cramped kitchen.

The fight ended when Caleb, bigger and stronger than them both, rushed in from behind. He clamped his arm around Athanas’ windpipe and squeezed until the smaller man passed out. Blake bound his adversary’s wrists and ankles with plastic zip ties.

When Athanas awoke, Blake grilled him about the drugs and money, but he was too late — Athanas had already sold all the weed and spent the cash.

Blake called Beckman to tell him what happened, and then the brothers carried their captive outside to a truck. It was dark outside, and things were getting complicated. They still had no money and no drugs, and now they had a live hostage who knew plenty about them.

The Laubingers crept out of the neighborhood and onto the highway. Blake drove while Caleb sat in the back with Athanas. It is a 30-minute trip from Maplewood to Pacific, and Athanas was frightened. Part of the reason he was so hard to find after the burglary was because he had fled to Florida, where his mother lives. Now that he was back, he wondered if he was going to be killed.

As the truck sped down the highway, Athanas made one last, frantic attempt to escape. He flung himself into the front seat and kicked furiously at Blake. The

Blake Laubinger, top, was Todd Beckman’s admiring protege, bragging on Instagram about their exploits. | VIA EUREKA POLICE/INSTAGRAM truck spun out before Caleb was able to grab Athanas, punching him and dragging him back into the rear seat.

Once they arrived at Blake’s house in Pacific, the brothers pulled into the garage and carried Athanas down to the basement.

They laid a plastic tarp across the floor — for the “blood stains,” they said — and tied their hostage by his wrists to a pole.

Within the hour, Beckman and Kerry Roades arrived. The tanning mogul glared at Athanas.

“You fucked up,” he said.

I

t was like a movie — like the four had watched a bad movie about drug dealers or kidnappers and decided this was the way to handle a thieving double-crosser.

The plastic tarp was one thing.

Then Beckman pulled electric hair clippers out of his backpack.

Athanas had spent years growing his hair, proudly measuring the

length at 26 inches. If there was one thing Beckman understood instinctively, it was the psychological power of your looks. The former hairstylist had, after all, become a rich man by playing to his customers’ vanity. Now he intended to turn it against his captive as a form of mental torture.

The clippers buzzed as Beckman shaved Athanas’ head down to the scalp. When he was done, he collected the hair and said he planned to send it to his marijuana supplier in California to prove they had caught the thief.

Athanas later testified the men took turns beating him. Blake had a Taser, and they shocked him over and over as they threatened his life. Roades suggested they shoot him, chop him into pieces and shrink wrap him for shipment back to the supplier in California, according to Athanas. Beckman alternately pistol whipped him and jammed the barrel of the gun against his head, pulling the trig-

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ger with a sickening click as the pistol’s hammer slammed forward into an empty chamber.

“I was convinced I was going to die,” Athanas later testified.

Blake’s French bulldog, Louie, had befriended Athanas during previous visits. At one point, all the screaming and beating freaked out Louie so much the protective pup nipped Beckman’s face.

Finally, sometime after midnight, Beckman and Roades went home, leaving the Laubinger brothers to keep watch. Athanas was a mess. He had two black eyes and cuts across the top of his head. His face was puffy and swollen, and the cartilage in one shoulder was torn. The zip ties used to bind his wrists and ankles had cut off the blood flow, causing his hands and feet to turn darker and darker purple as they went numb. He begged the brothers to let him go or at least loosen the restraints, but it was no use.

In the morning, Beckman returned. He had been shopping at Lowe’s, and he held up a roll of shrink wrap and a heat gun.

If Athanas did not come up with some cash, Beckman warned, they really would kill him and ship him to California.

It was to be a long and violent day. By now, the four kidnappers knew Athanas no longer had their money, so they settled on a new plan — they would call his parents. They dialed his father in St. Louis first, then his mother in Florida. During the calls, they put Athanas on the phone, demanding he ask for money. They beat him so his parents could hear him suffer and warned if they did not pay, their son would be dead by Thanksgiving — two days away.

The calls — and beatings — continued throughout the morning as the kidnappers increased the pressure. The worried parents started gathering cash, but it was difficult. They were working-class people with no piles of money lying around. Athanas’ father rehabbed houses, and his mom had her nursing license. Slowing the process, the mother had to drive from Florida and would not arrive until the next day.

Blake was getting worried about the crime scene unfolding in his home. The house was surrounded on all sides by neighbors, including ones just across a small backyard from the walkout basement where he and his friends had been torturing a man for nearly 24 hours. Anyone was liable to show up.

In fact, one of Blake’s buddies, 24-year-old Zachary Smith, did

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Continued on pg 18

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17

TODD BECKMAN Continued from pg 17

just that. Smith, who had gone on one of the unsuccessful Springfield search missions, tromped down to the basement where Athanas dangled from his wrists, his head shaved and covered in bruises.

There would later be some debate about whether Smith took a turn with the Taser or just watched and left. Regardless, they needed a more secluded location.

Beckman suggested moving the operation to some rural land owned by the Laubinger family, but Blake balked at that idea. Instead, they settled on a wooded property Beckman had on the edge of Fenton. He and Roades left to make preparations.

Blake and Caleb waited until dark, then loaded Athanas into a rented blue pickup and headed out. Athanas watched out the window as they turned onto I-44 again, this time headed east. As they neared Six Flags, they draped a blanket over his head so he could not see.

Riding blindly, he felt the truck pull over. The door opened, someone else got in and he heard a familiar voice.

“Now we’re going to take you to where you’re going to die,” Beckman said, according to Athanas.

The tanned CEO reached back and clocked him in the head with a pistol. Blake put the truck in gear, and the four of them turned back onto the road.

T

odd Beckman’s land in Fenton was on the top of a hill overlooking Bud Weil Memorial Park.

He had been renovating a two-story house there until a suspicious explosion wrecked the place in 2006. According to law-enforcement records of the investigation, St. Louis County detectives found a gas line had been left wide open, filling the garage with combustible fumes until a space heater, stuffed with paper and hot wired to an electric timer, kicked on. The blast cracked the walls, blew out windows and flung the garage door 50 feet from the house. Neighbors more than 400 feet away felt their homes shake and called 911. Investigators noted it could have been worse — the five-gallon containers of fuel staged around the heater somehow did not ignite.

Beckman had left for Cancun just before the incident. Detectives later arrested one of his boyhood friends, a caretaker for the property, on an arson charge

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Ellis Athanas III, shown in his mugshot for a 2015 arrest in Florida, had grown his hair to 26 inches before kidnappers shaved his head. | COURTESY LEE COUNTY SHERIFF (they found a charred scrap of envelope addressed to the man among the shreds of paper near the heater). But county prosecutors later dropped the case, and a lawsuit Beckman filed against his insurer, which had denied his homeowner’s claim, was settled out of court.

By the time the kidnappers arrived on November 22, 2016, it was an eerie sight. A large fish pond sat in a clearing just beyond the end of the drive. Where the house once stood was barren ground. The trio dragged Athanas out of the truck. His hands and feet were still cinched together by zip ties, and they had added a set of handcuffs. He hopped along as they pulled him by his shoulders toward an industrial shipping container at the edge of the property.

Kerry Roades, the jack of all trades, had anchored steel cables to the inside of the container. The men laid their hostage on a blanket and fastened his arms and legs to the cables. They continued to beat him as they worked. Athanas was a mass of bruises on top of bruises by then.

“I was terrified,” he later testified. “It was the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me in my life. I really thought I was going to die.”

Once they were done, the kid-

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nappers shut the heavy steel doors to the container and left Athanas lying in the cold of the November night. He was wearing khakis and a long-sleeve shirt.

The cables didn’t have enough slack to permit him to stand, so he just lay there in the dark, listening to rain beat against the shipping container. A small hole in the roof was his only light.

B

lake Laubinger returned alone the next day to the shipping container. He was apparently feeling some remorse, or at least pity for his former partner.

“It was cold,” he said later.

“It was cold and wet, and I was checking on him.”

He brought Athanas a double cheeseburger from McDonald’s.

It was almost over, he told him; Athanas’ parents had agreed to pay a ransom.

Athanas spent the rest of the day in the container. It was true his parents had scraped together as much cash as they could — $27,000 — but Beckman also wanted the BMW and Mercedes that Athanas had bought with his ill-gotten gains. That proved to be a little trickier, and it led to one of the strangest episodes of the three days.

The plan, as Beckman devised

it, was to go with Athanas’ father, Ellis Athanas Jr., to get the vehicle titles from the dealerships, hoping the matching names would be enough cover for the ruse.

The plan did not work. The father and son may have had similar names, but the car dealers quickly recognized something was off. They remembered the son. How could they not? He was young, looked like a surfer and paid $23,000 cash for a Mercedes.

Same name or not, this blue-collar guy in his late 50s was not their customer.

Beckman and Athanas Jr. reconvened at Joey B’s to work out the details. What they needed was a power-of-attorney form, Beckman decided. He called Blake to pick up the form at TanCo’s corporate office and bring it to the restaurant.

When Blake arrived, he found the two middle-aged men sitting together, drinking beers. For anyone else observing the scene, it was unremarkable. Beckman claimed he was trying to work out a solution, “dad to dad.” But to Blake, the sight of the kidnapper chatting with Athanas’ father as the young man lay bloody on the floor of a shipping container was surreal.

“Weirdest thing I had ever seen,” he said later.

After a few more minutes of negotiation, the father left, and Beckman and Blake finished their beers. They later met Athanas Jr. in a parking lot where he handed over $27,000. After three brutal days, the kidnappers finally had at least some of their money back.

With any luck, they would soon have the cars, too.

Beckman and Blake drove back to TanCo’s corporate headquarters on Champion Drive. It was just the two of them now, the mentor and his protégé. They made their way through what was essentially a tribute to Beckman’s success, walking under the giant logos of his top brands to the office where he liked to keep all those reminders of winning.

They counted and sorted the ransom money into stacks of bills.

A few more hours, and they would be done with this caper. Now, they just needed to go pick up Athanas.

A

s it grew dark on the third day, Athanas heard the door to the shipping container swing open and looked up to see Beckman and Blake.

It was his lucky day, Beckman said: His father had come through with the money. The tanning mogul slapped Athanas across the head with a handgun, kicked

Caleb Laubinger (top) and Kerry Roades added muscle to the kidnapping, authorities say. | COURTESY ST. CHARLES COUNTY/ST. LOUIS COUNTY him a couple of times and then jammed the gun barrel to his hostage’s head.

“I should still kill you,” he said, according to Athanas. “I should just shoot you right now.” Instead, he pulled out a power-of-attorney form and ordered him to sign it.

Beckman was still thinking about those cars.

Once the paperwork was done, he and Blake hauled Athanas out of the container and put him in the back of a van. Bleary from three days of beatings, near-constant terror and an estimated 50 or more jolts from a Taser, Athanas was still lucid enough to notice the TanCo logos on the van.

The three rode south for about 25 minutes before pulling into Gravois Bluffs Plaza in Fenton.

Over the years, Beckman had made these kinds of sprawling shopping centers his home, gaug-

ing the flow of shoppers and comparing price-per-square-foot rents to see if they would be right for a chain massage parlor, gym or maybe a supplement shop.

They pulled the van around behind a Smoothie King. Blake handed Athanas a cellphone and told him his dad was nearby and expecting his call. Before they put him out of the van, Beckman gave him one last warning: Go to the police and they would kill him and his family. Then they were gone.

Athanas dialed his dad and walked free for the first time in three days, scanning the horizon of asphalt parking lots and uniformly beige-colored block buildings. He was bald, battered and shaken from the beatings. When he finally located his father and walked up to his car window, the Continued on pg 20

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The kidnappers kept their hostage locked overnight in a shipping container on Todd Beckman’s property.

TODD BECKMAN Continued from pg 19

older man barely recognized him.

Athanas Jr. took his son to the hospital. There, doctors surveyed the effects of three days of torture and promptly called the police.

At first, Maplewood detectives did not know what to make of his story. It was so crazy as to be almost unbelievable. Athanas refused to give them names or addresses, but the specifics of the violence he endured were starkly specific, and he clearly had the wounds to match.

“His head was swollen like a grapefruit,” Detective David Brown recalled.

It took another week before Athanas agreed to identify his attackers. Assured that detectives weren’t interested in going after him for selling weed, he and his attorney arrived at Maplewood Police headquarters the week after Thanksgiving 2016 and laid out a stunning story of violence and torture carried out by one of the region’s most recognizable businessmen.

The Maplewood detectives quickly recognized they would need more manpower and called a contact on a DEA task force. Lo-

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cal police hadn’t been too familiar with Beckman, but as soon as they mentioned his name, the feds perked up. Soon, agents from the DEA and FBI, along with local cops, had joined the case.

“They brought a small army,” Maplewood Police Lt. John LeClerc says.

The blended team of investigators worked quickly, methodically matching Athanas’ wild story to a growing number of verified facts.

Eight days after the traumatized 24-year-old was dumped behind a Smoothie King, they were ready to make arrests.

E

arly on the morning of December 1, 2016, an FBI special agent and a St. Louis city police officer sat in an unmarked Dodge Charger outside a house in Fenton. Beckman’s ex-wife lived there with their two young kids, and he stayed over some nights.

Shortly after sunrise, the special agent and the cop watched as Beckman walked out and got in a white Subaru. They carefully trailed him to a convenience store and then a condo he used as a bachelor pad.

As he walked toward the front door, they popped out of the Charger, shouting “Police! Police!”

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Beckman, seeming a little dazed, continued to fumble with a keypad on the door until the two-man crew tackled him onto the front yard, pinning him face down in the grass. Two more task force members swooped in and secured his wrists with handcuffs.

Similar scenes played out across the St. Louis metro as teams of law-enforcement agents picked off the kidnappers one by one. By mid-morning, only Roades was unaccounted for.

The suspects were driven to the DEA’s local headquarters, where Maplewood’s LeClerc and Brown were preparing for interrogation.

Neither man had handled a kidnapping case before, but they knew their way around an interview room.

“As detectives, if there are multiple [suspects] involved, you think about who is the weakest, who is going to talk to you,” LeClerc says.

“Who’s going to fold first,” Brown adds.

They soon discovered they were not dealing with the toughest of criminals. Blake, the aspiring big shot, started to cry. Caleb folded, too.

The detectives had figured they would get little from Beckman. A big-time corporate executive like him was almost guaranteed to call

in an attorney, a good one, after about three seconds.

Instead, to their delight, he talked for three hours.

“He just couldn’t help himself,” Brown recalls. “We just let him talk. He kept digging himself deeper and deeper in the hole.”

They led with a good cop/good cop routine. Beckman was pissed about having his face mashed in the ground that morning, but these two detectives seemed OK. “Interesting start to the day, huh?” LeClerc offered.

Before they knew it, Beckman was rattling on about his busy schedule, chatting about a female employee on her way to his place that morning and the go-kart racing expert from Los Angeles he was flying in that afternoon to coach his kids. He asked whether the police had secured the two money clips he had been carrying when arrested. He also had two cellphones — make that three cellphones.

“That’s my girlfriend phone,” he added slyly.

“Oh, ho, man,” laughed Brown.

“I love it.”

As Beckman continued to loosen up, they began to ask him about various players in the case. Blake was a “great kid,” Beckman said, Continued on pg 21

TODD BECKMAN Continued from pg 20

but he knew little about his brother, Caleb.

“Well, let me throw another name at you,” Brown said, “Ellis Athanas.”

Beckman shook his head.

“No dealings with him?” Brown asked. “Nothing like that?”

“No.” But a few minutes later, Beckman’s memory improved: “What’s his name again?”

It was soon coming back to him.

Athanas was the kid who burglarized Blake’s house, he recalled.

Yes, in fact, Beckman had tried to help negotiate a solution, agreeing to take title to Athanas’ car, sell it and give Blake the money to settle the debt. He even remembered meeting for beers with Athanas’ father to make it happen, he said.

In his telling, Beckman was simply a peacemaker trying to help out his young friend, who’d had his house burglarized.

“He called me freakin’ crying on the telephone that he’d lost everything,” Beckman told the detectives.

Brown and LeClerc listened, silently cataloging the admissions that corroborated what they already knew. After about 40 minutes, they began to turn up the heat.

“You’re not being straight up with me on Ellis,” Brown told him.

He and LeClerc began to lay out the details of the kidnapping, torture and ransom payments. They questioned him about the pole in Blake’s basement, the shipping container. If Beckman was under the impression the detectives had been blindly lobbing questions, they were now deliberately showing him that they’d done their homework.

“Todd, how do I know all this?”

Brown asked about an hour in.

Investigators had already collected video from Lowe’s of Beckman buying shrink wrap and a heat gun on the second day of the kidnapping. They had run the GPS on Athanas’ phone showing him in Blake’s basement, they told him, and they would soon do the same to Beckman’s phones. His smartest move would be to start telling the truth, they said.

Beckman then admitted he had seen Athanas in the basement. He told the detective he had advised Blake to make a “citizen’s arrest” after the burglary. Athanas was a “shithead” who “would have got it

sooner or later,” Beckman added, but he insisted he never hurt the 24-year-old. “I’m the nicest freaking guy you’ll ever meet.”

Yet even as Beckman tried to minimize his role, he admitted to key parts of the narrative: He was at the scene of the crime, he had negotiated ransom payments over beers with the hostage’s dad and he’d advised Blake to snatch — “citizen arrest” — Athanas.

Incredibly, Beckman was not done cooperating even after the interview ended. He signed consent forms for investigators to search his condo and Subaru, leading them to discover the handgun he used to pistol whip Athanas. He even accompanied police to his office in Fenton. His attorney, Travis Noble, met them there on Champion Drive.

“I think in Todd’s mind, it wasn’t a kidnapping,” Noble later tells the RFT. “It was, ‘We grabbed a guy who stole from us and we want our stuff back.’”

Beckman certainly conducted himself as a guy with nothing to hide, even as federal agents piled up crucial evidence. He led them to the safe in his office where he had stored $5,000 of the ransom money. And he suggested where they might find the keys to a certain TanCo van that seemed of particular interest. While they searched, he picked up a glass, poured himself a belt of vodka and gulped it down. Noble, left with little else to defend his client, later argued that the investigators had let his client get drunk, asking a judge to throw out any statements Beckman made to the Maplewood detectives. But it was already too late. Davis, the federal prosecutor, successfully pointed out that Beckman gave his longwinded interview before he did any drinking. The statements were fair game, the judge ruled.

As an added bonus that day at Beckman’s office, investigators discovered Kerry Roades milling around outside and took him into custody as well. LeClerc and Brown tried to interview him, too, but he was clear: He wanted an attorney.

E

veryone pleaded guilty. They quibbled about a few of the details in a list of facts composed for each plea hearing — Beckman said he couldn’t remember pistol whipping or dryfiring the gun against Athanas’ head, Roades claimed he wasn’t part of the torture — but they had been caught. Even Zachary Smith, Continued on pg 22

Police photos taken of Ellis Athanas III at the hospital show his injuries. | COURT FILES riverfronttimes.com

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Assistant U.S. Attorney John Davis heard rumors about Beckman long before the businessman’s arrest. | DOYLE MURPHY

TODD BECKMAN Continued from pg 21

the 24-year-old who dropped by Blake’s during the kidnapping, admitted he failed to report a serious crime and was ordered to serve fifteen months behind bars.

As part of the plea deals with the four main defendants, Davis agreed to recommend sentences of no more than twenty years in federal prison.

Caleb Laubinger, who had been pulled into the incident by his younger brother, fared the best.

U.S District Judge Audrey Fleissig gave him five years and ten months. Blake’s attorney, Rosenblum, made a compelling case during his sentencing that his client had been manipulated by his mentor after a childhood of abuse.

Fleissig described the actions of the four as among “the worst conduct I’ve had to deal with in my time as a judge,” but she agreed that the kidnapping and horrific beatings seemed far beyond Blake’s nature. She sentenced him to six and a half years.

“I would truly like to say sorry for what I did,” Blake told the judge, fighting back tears. “I wish I could take it back.”

Roades also apologized, but Fleissig was less merciful. Davis had long considered the mechanic the savviest of the four — the “alpha criminal” in a crew of amateurs. He notes that Roades was careful to position himself behind Athanas, out of his sightline, during the attacks. Unlike the others, he never talked to investigators.

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“Kerry pretty much stonewalled it until the end,” Detective Brown says.

Athanas testified that it was Roades who suggested they chop him up and shrink wrap the pieces to ship to California. And yet friends and neighbors wrote passionate letters to Fleissig, begging her to have mercy on him. An Arnold cop who lived in the same subdivision as Roades and Beckman claimed that his two neighbors had little do with each other outside of their business dealings.

“I can’t stress enough that Kerry is truly one of the good people,” the veteran officer, Jason Valentine, wrote. “I have seen him work hard every day of the week providing for his family, and at the end of a long day, it was not unusual to look out my window and see him mowing my lawn.”

Fleissig sentenced Roades to ten and a half years in prison. Only Beckman received the full twenty years recommended by prosecutors.

His daughter, the oldest of his three kids, gave a speech that Davis would later describe as “gutwrenching,” attesting to the kindness of her father and the way he could motivate a roomful of people. He had been arrested on the day of her engagement party and was still locked up when she got married. Beckman listened quietly.

His tan had faded after more than a year in jail, and his dark hair was going gray at the temples but was somehow still perfectly styled.

Fleissig noted that while he clearly cared for his own children, he showed no mercy to the

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Maplewood Detective David Brown, left, and Lt. John LeClerc investigated the case with the help of a DEA task force. | DOYLE MURPHY parents of Athanas.

“I have never seen a case like this,” the judge said. “I have seen cases where some horrible things took place, but short of somebody shooting or killing somebody, I have never seen a case in this court where a defendant has elected to abduct, detain, threaten, terrorize a person and then turn around and threaten and terrorize that person’s parents.”

Beckman didn’t even need the money, Fleissig added. He had “millions in assets,” according to court filings, yet he tormented his victim for three straight days.

“It is one of the most violent and callous series of facts I have ever run into as a judge,” Fleissig said.

Left unanswered was why.

“If you figure that out, let me know,” Beckman’s attorney Noble says in a phone interview.

The two men knew each other for years. They met when the lawyer helped Beckman out of a drunk-driving charge and later continued to run in some of the same social circles. In many ways, Noble says, he could relate to Beckman. Neither grew up with money, and when they finally accumulated some, it could be hard to resist spending it in dumb, showy ways. Always the best-dressed attorney in the courtroom, Noble, like Beckman, owned Lamborghinis for a time; they were in the same luxury-automobile club.

Early on in the case, Noble suggested that nobody who could afford a $250,000 car was going to risk everything he had for a $27,000 ransom over some stolen weed. But as it turns out, Beck-

man did exactly that. Noble still can’t figure it out.

“This case is the one case that keeps you up at night,” he says.

Davis, the prosecutor, will remember it, too. He has no idea why Beckman did what he did. Unlike the movies, major dealers regularly write off losses of three or four times the amount stolen by Athanas as a cost of doing business, he says. The risk that comes with violence simply is not worth it.

“Their cost-benefit analysis was way off,” Davis says.

He sees Beckman as a wealthy businessman who thought the rules no longer applied to him.

Davis describes himself as a staunch believer in the social contract, the idea that we as a society are all better off when we collectively agree to do the right thing.

The drug dealers or kidnappers or child pornographers who pass through the courtrooms operate outside of that contract.

“It just doesn’t sit well with me,” he says.

On the day of Beckman’s sentencing, Davis was hanging out with the federal agents and cops who investigated the case, waiting for proceedings to start. The hearing had been a long time coming, and as they all piled into the elevator, Davis began telling the story of seeing that BMW with the TANCO plates a half-dozen years ago on I-44. Just as they reached their floor, he got to the part about how he said he was going to get that guy one day.

The elevator doors opened. Davis looked out.

“And guess what today is.” n

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CALENDAR

BY PAUL FRISWOLD B Y PAUL FRISWOLD This week Wolf brings her vicious whimsy to Helium Comedy Club (1151 St. Louis Galleria, Richmond Heights; st-louis.heliumcomedy. com). Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and 10 p.m. Friday (January 17 and 18). Tickets are $35, and there’s a two-item minimum purchase in the showroom.

SATURDAY 01/19 High-Flyin’ Spies

Christine Corday at work with the building blocks of the universe. | © 2018 CORDAY STUDIO

FRIDAY 01/18 Indoor Constellations Space is deep, to quote Hawkwind, and yet scientists believe all living creatures on Earth contain stellar elements within their genetic makeup. Artist Christine Corday explores this union of humans and the stars in her new exhibition Relative Points, which was commissioned by the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Eleven of Corday’s large sculptural forms, which are each made of more than 10,000 points of elemental metals and metalloid grit, will be arranged within the museum in a pattern of Corday’s choosing. The sculptures, which resemble slightly squashed black marshmallows more than four feet high, are intended to be touched; they’re essentially the same base elements as humans, after all.

During the course of the exhibit, the shapes will change gradually from repeated contact and the

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inexorable force of universal gravitational attraction. You’ll have your first opportunity to get close and personal with Corday’s work at the opening reception, which takes place from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, January 18, at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (3750 Washington Boulevard; www. camstl.org). Christine Corday: Relative Points remains fixed in space through April 21.

The Good Wife Cole Porter was a tough man to stay married to; he liked glamorous parties, the nightlife and being the center of attention. His homosexuality could have been another dealbreaker, but not for Linda Lee Thomas. The Southern heiress had already had one rough marriage when she met Porter, and the two got along so well that they soon married. Despite their sexual incompatibility, they shared a genuine affection, and Porter had no greater champion than his loving wife. The one-woman musical Love, Linda recounts the story of Mrs. Cole

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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Porter through jazz arrangements of her husband’s most beloved songs, adapted by Stevie Holland and Gary William Friedman. Max & Louie Productions presents Love, Linda at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday (January 17 to 27) at the Marcelle Theater (3310 Samuel Shepard Drive; www.maxandlouie.com). Tickets are $40 to $45.

Wolf on the Loose Comedian Michelle Wolf shot to fame — and online notoriety — after she flamethrowered the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2018. Fans of the current president and his staff were not amused, but Wolf’s mix of verbal savagery delivered with a bubbly laugh won her a lot of fans. (Those insisting on equal time should note that on Wolf’s now-canceled Netflix show The Break, she equated watching Congressional Democrats with giving a toddler a sticky piece of paper, who then struggle to get rid of it by peeling it off one hand and then having to peel it off the other and never get free.)

Circus Harmony’s annual January performance has some new features this year. For starters, new acts have been incorporated into the show, including the Chinese Pole (acrobatics performed on a stationary pole ranging from ten to 30 feet tall) and Hoop Diving (increasingly complex tumbling runs performed while diving through a vertical hoop or series of hoops). Perhaps the largest noticeable change from previous years is the accompanying band, which is completely new and making its debut performance during Accelerando, a musical mystery.

Two teams of young circus performers will attempt to find a topsecret envelope before their competitors. You can bet there will be many twists, turns and flips as the mystery unfolds. Accelerando is performed at noon and 2 p.m. Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday (19 to 27) at the City Museum (750 North Sixteenth Street; www.circusharmony.org). Tickets are $20.

Honoring the King The Fountain Park neighborhood is home to one of the oldest statues of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the metro area. Rev. King is in a dramatic pose, right arm outstretched as he preaches to the world, his church vestments billowing out behind him. Erected in 1978, the statue received muchneeded refurbishment in the summer of 2018 and now stands tall and proud once again to welcome the celebrants of this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance.

At 10 a.m. Saturday, January 19, community leaders from Centennial Christian Church, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and community and civic leaders will participate

WEEK OF JANUARY 17-23

Circus Harmony is embroiled in a musical mystery. | JESSICA HENTOFF in a peace walk that starts adjacent to the statue at 4950 Fountain Avenue, with the Jennings Warrior Marching Band leading the onemile march. Following the walk, there will be a panel discussion in the Centennial Christian Church sanctuary on the theme of “Living the Dream: Dismantling Injustices in Community, Education & Literacy.” A book-bag-and-school-supply giveaway follows the discussion.

Admission is free to all.

day (January 18 and 19; www.visittheloop.com). Admission is free.

SUNDAY 01/20 Pack Mentality

Hot or Cold Carnival As frequent attendees of the Loop Ice Carnival will attest, the January event has no guarantee of cold weather. While it’s sometimes frigid on the days in question, St. Louis weather is fickle; it can be tough to stay in a frosty frame of mind while the ice sculptures are sweating in 60-plus-degree heat.

But it’s not impossible. Whatever the temperature turns out to be, the ice sculptors and their creations will line both sides of Delmar Boulevard between Kingsland and Rosedale avenues,

Michelle Wolf is at Helium Comedy Club for two nights. | CRAIG BLANKENHORN/HBO along with the kid-favorite ice slide, trike races (for kids and parents), a bounce house and the Red Bull Rooftop Skate Park atop the Moonrise Hotel. New this year

are a host of after-hours events for adults, including bar games at participating venues. The Loop Ice Carnival takes place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sun-

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Sarah DeLappe’s play The Wolves will feel like familiar territory for many parents in the Repertory Theatre St. Louis’ audience. In it a team of teenage girls stretches before an indoor soccer game. But the only parent nearby is the team coach, who is too hungover to pay much attention to his athletes, and the girls are free to speak honestly to each other and about each other. As the season progresses, a new teammate, growing resentments, discussions of various boyfriends and flashes of unexpected cruelty reveal that behind these girls’ confidence on the field, each remains a young woman finding her way toward adulthood. The Repertory Theatre St. Louis presents The Wolves Tuesday through Sunday (January 18 to February 3) at the Loretto-Hilton Center (130 Edgar Road; www.repstl.org).

Tickets are $46 to $71. n

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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FILM

[REVIEW]

The Fading Fires of Youth Chang-dong Lee’s brilliant Burning shows how we lose control of our own lives Written by

ROBERT HUNT

Lee Jong-su (Ah-in Yoo) gets caught up in a love triangle in Burning. | COURTESY OF WELL GO USA ENTERTAINMENT

Burning (Beoning) Directed by Chang-dong Lee. Written by Jung-mi Oh and Chang-dong Lee. Starring Ah-in Yoo, Steven Yeun and Jong-Seo Jun. Screens at the Webster University Film Series January 18, 20, 22, 25 to 27 and 29.

T

here is a great sense of restlessness in Chang-dong Lee’s Burning, a depth of spirit and emotional scope that gives the film an expansive feel that justifies its considerable length (148 minutes) and its surprisingly eventful plotlessness. It’s a film about feeling young (or, more accurately, about feeling youth slipping away), about having to fend for yourself and find answers in life when you’re still unsure of the questions. Director Lee gives the film a rambling New Wave quality — immediacy, blurred genres and a significant nod to the triangular romances of Jules and Jim or Band of Outsiders — while creating his own completely un-nostalgic vision of contemporary Korea.

Burning centers on Lee Jong-su (Ah-in Yoo), a restless young man who aspires to be a writer but has been sidetracked by the more mundane job of maintaining his father’s tiny farm. Running errands in the city, he encounters the free-spirited Hae-mi (Jong-seo Jun), a barely remembered childhood acquaintance. Irresistible but elusive, Hae-mi persuades the quickly smitten Lee to take care of her cat while she runs off to vacation in Africa.

When Hae-mi returns, she’s joined by Ben (Steven Yeun), a mysterious young man of seemingly unlimited resources and no

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responsibilities. Infatuated with Ben and indifferent to Lee’s blind devotion, Hae-mi pulls them all together into an uncertain triangle, no party entirely sure of the others.

Burning is based on a brief, enigmatic story by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, the bulk of which is neatly sandwiched in a block of around twenty minutes right in the center of Lee’s film. In Murakami’s story, three unnamed characters corresponding to the film’s trio meet, ambiguously separating when the Ben equivalent reveals his fondness for pyromania. Though the film keeps most of the story intact, Lee has brilliantly transformed it, making it a small but significant plot point in the center of a rambling narrative that allows him to speculate on how Murakami’s cipher-like figures came together and what might have happened to them later.

The simplicity of the plot is carefully balanced by Lee’s expansive direction, allowing the cast to explore things freely, as if neither they nor the director knew or cared where they were going.

Yuen, recently seen in Sorry to Bother You, is fittingly callous and self-confident as the amoral Ben, and Jong-seo Jun is winsomely aloof as Hae-mi, but it’s Ah-in Yoo’s performance as Lee, passive and even a bit slow, yet doggedly determined to muddle through things, that holds the film together.

Shortly after meeting Ben, Lee sizes his rival up with a revealing and appropriately liter-

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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ary comparison, remarking that there are “too many Gatsbys in Korea.” Though Burning tells a slightly cooler and more baroque story than Fitzgerald’s great novel, the reference is apt. Like The Great Gatsby, Burning is a bitter and bleak portrait of its time, simultaneously tragic and distant.

And like Fitzgerald’s Nick Car-

raway, Lee is never entirely quite sure of the whole story happening around him, even as he tries to tell it. In ways that he doesn’t fully understand, the story is bigger than he is. He’s at the center of the narrative but doesn’t realize that he’s lost control over it.

The hero of the story, Lee is also its victim. n

[REVIEW]

Dangerous Woman Destroyer Directed by Karyn Kusama. Written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi. Starring Nicole Kidman, Tatiana Maslany and Sebastian Stan. Opens Friday, January 18.

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e’re all familiar with movie stars whom we’ve known since they were young and unblemished scoring new credibility by appearing in middle age as grizzled, crusty versions of their once-glamorous selves.

Karyn Kusama’s Destroyer adds a new twist to heroism-gone-to-seed, not just by virtue of a gender switch — this time the hard-drinking, puffy-eyed, burnedout cop is Nicole Kidman — but by adding a new element to the time-ravaged principal. We see Kidman, along with many of her criminal colleagues, looking suitably haggard, but if the stretch from our memories of the star’s younger roles isn’t enough, we also see her in flashbacks from fifteen years earlier, CGI-enhanced to her Moulin Rouge-era youthfulness.

Nicole Kidman. | SABRINA LANTOS/ ANNAPURNA PICTURES Kidman plays Erin Bell, a Los Angeles detective drowning in guilt and alcohol until a minor homicide convinces her that figures from a past assignment infiltrating a desert gang have come back looking for revenge. Director Kusama, a St. Louis native, is at her best when she treats the original script by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi as a no-nonsense hard-boiled crime drama. The film turns softer at the end, but by that time Kidman has invested so much into her performance that the few loose ends and wisps of sentiment can be ignored.

— Robert Hunt

STAGE

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[REVIEW]

The Ferguson Effect A look at the death of Michael Brown and its aftermath, Canfield Drive is both compassionate and enthralling Written by

PAUL FRISWOLD Canfield Drive Written by Kristen Adele Calhoun and Michael Thomas Walker. Directed by Ron Himes. Presented by the Black Rep through January 27 at Washington University’s Edison Theatre (6445 Forsyth Boulevard; www. theblackrep.org). Tickets are $15 to $45.

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ritten by Kristen Adele Calhoun and Michael Thomas Walker. Directed by Ron Himes. Presented by the Black Rep through January 27 at Washington University’s Edison Theatre (6445 Forsyth Boulevard; www.theblackrep.org).

Tickets are $15 to $45.

All the news stories have been written and the documentaries released; four years after the killing of Michael Brown, art steps up to make sense of what remains a senseless act. Playwrights Kristen Adele Calhoun and Michael Thomas Walker did the hard work needed to write the new drama Canfield Drive, conducting interviews with a wide swath of people, undergoing a long workshop process with repeated public readings and listening to audience feedback. Not even a quick-moving blizzard could stop the show from going on during its world premiere.

Produced in conjunction with the Black Rep, which commissioned the play, Canfield Drive is an ambitious story bravely told.

Most of all it’s art, powerful and alive at all times, even in its darkest moments. Telling the truth and living always requires bravery, but Calhoun and Walker show more courage than most, walking right into the bloody mess of America’s festering Achilles heel, racism. It’s painful and honest

Eric Conners, left, and Christopher Hickey play a host of people in Canfield Drive. | PETER SPACK and, ultimately, cathartic to watch because it doesn’t take the easy way out. There are no simple answers to be found at the end, no happy endings discovered in the fires of Ferguson. What Canfield Drive does is show us the next step. One step forward might not seem like much, but it’s one step farther than we were yesterday.

Calhoun and Walker use an abundance of short scenes, and have their four-person cast assay multiple characters, to allow as many voices as possible to be heard, which neatly dispsenses with the myth of black culture being monolithic; there are no agreements, only opinions. The main plot line follows TV journalists Imani Duncan-Ward (playwright Kristen Adele) and Brad O’Connor (Christopher Hickey), who have very different viewpoints about what happened in Ferguson on August 9, 2014. Sent to St. Louis for the duration of the protests, the two argue on-screen and off about who Michael Brown was and why he was killed.

Imani sees his death as another consequence of racist policies, while Brad believes Brown was a thug who failed to comply with police orders and got what he deserved. Off-camera, Brad says he’s merely arguing the opposition viewpoint and that he’s not

a racist, he’s “just doing his job.”

Imani doesn’t have the luxury of compartmentalizing her beliefs for a paycheck. Ironically, Brad considers Imani “his black friend at work,” and as their story progresses we see what that misconception costs Imani. Brad expects her to explain racism to him in a way he can not only understand but agree with, which is an insane — but very common — white blindspot. If you can’t trust a black person to know racism when they see it, who can you trust?

Hickey and Adele are joined in supporting roles by Amy Loui and Eric Conners, and all four actors are outstanding in the many characters they play, and not just the obvious ones. Amy Loui plays both the unapologetic Darren Wilson in his first televised interview and a vaguely familiar Southern cooking show host who teaches us a recipe that explains St. Louis’ racial inequities, while Hickey provides a bonkers version of Sarah Palin spouting half-thoughts to a camera … perhaps also verbatim, but who can tell?

Meanwhile, the white mayor of Ferguson defends his city by claiming he never received phone calls or emails from any residents complaining that “the police unfairly pulled them over or beat them.” A protestor screams at the

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police, “Just shoot me! They’re gonna shoot me anyway, it may as well be for something I believe in!”

The gulf between these two people can’t be crossed via a polite email or phone call, because only one of them is fighting for his life.

Margery and Peter Spack’s set design incorporates two large video screens, which are used to provide the backdrops for several scenes and identify the various speakers.

The screens show the familiar archival footage of Michael Brown in the QuikTrip before his run-in with Darren Wilson, along with photos and video of the protests that followed and the ad hoc memorial constructed in the middle of Canfield Drive. Time has not lessened the pain of this footage, and many of the scenes are difficult to watch.

But there is no growth without pain. Canfield Drive provides a darkened space where we can collectively face that pain in the dark, and even process some of it. I don’t think Canfield Drive will change any mind that isn’t willing to wrestle honestly with what it reveals. (As Brad’s journey shows, some people only recognize oppression when their oppressor stands on their throat for the first time.) For the rest it provides understanding, compassion and a little bit of hope — and those are much-needed gifts. n

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

RIVERFRONT TIMES

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CAFE

31

[REVIEW]

The Heat Is On Thai Table brings a true taste of the storied cuisine to St. Louis — and it’s sensational Written by

CHERYL BAEHR Thai Table 7403 Manchester Road, Maplewood; 314449-6919. Mon. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-9 p.m.; Wed.-Sun. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-9 p.m.

(Closed Tuesdays.)

N

atthinee “Joy” Hughes insists that, no matter many times you have dined at a Thai restaurant, chances are you’ve never eaten pad Thai. It’s a bold statement. To American diners, the ubiquitous noodle dish is almost synonymous with Thai cuisine.

Glancing at Thai Table’s platter of ribbon-like noodles, slicked with light brown sauce, you may understand her assertion. Unlike other versions around town, Hughes’ pad Thai is not red, a difference in color that results from the absence of paprika. As she explains, paprika is not used in the traditional preparation of the dish, so she doesn’t use it.

But it’s not just its hue that differentiates the pad Thai at Thai Table from the rest. Here, there is only a whisper of the sweetness that is characteristic of American-style preparations; the umami bomb of soy and the complex funk of the fish sauce are its dominant flavors.

Fried egg provides added richness, and bean sprouts, green onions and crushed peanuts add crunch.

If this is authentic pad Thai, as Hughes insists, it’s a revelation.

Hughes did not set out to revolutionize how St. Louis views Thai cuisine; she simply wanted to serve local diners the food she loves to eat. A talented home cook, Hughes learned how to make traditional Thai food from her grandmother, developing a reputation as the cook in the family from an early age.

Though she had a talent for

Thai Table offers terrific renditions of everything from pad Thai to sticky rice with Thai custard. | MABEL SUEN cooking, Hughes did not pursue that path professionally until she moved to the U.S. six years ago.

In need of work, she took a job in the kitchen at the Blue Elephant in Clayton before moving on to other area Thai restaurants, including Basil Spice. All the while, she lamented just how different the dishes she was being asked to make were from the ones she’d loved in Thailand — and the ones she continued to make here in her home kitchen.

While looking for a job closer to her home in Maplewood, Hughes noticed the city’s lack of Thai restaurants. It gave her an idea: Instead of working for someone else, why not open a restaurant of her own? Going into business would not only allow her to immerse herself in her love of cooking; it would give her the chance to do so on her own terms.

She opened Thai Table last September near the corner of Manchester and Sutton, in one of the storefronts built out from the former Monarch space. The moderately sized open room has a polished feel, with sleek wood floors, pale

Don’t let the fruity base of this salad fool you; this som tum is searing hot, but so bright and flavorful it lights up the palate.

It’s like fireworks going off in your mouth. gray-blue walls and tufted blackleather banquettes. Large, framed photos of Thailand — everything from street food to landscapes — hang on the walls. Though the restaurant does not currently serve alcohol (something Hughes hopes to change in the future), a small bar sits in the back of the restau-

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rant, serving as a very busy takeout counter and offering a view of the bustling kitchen.

Hughes’ pad Thai is just one delight in a parade of dishes that will make you rethink Thai food. Som tum, the popular green-papaya salad, is positively electric. Thin slices of the fruit are paired with shredded carrots and grape tomatoes, then tossed in tamarind, lime and Thai chiles. Do not let the fruity base of the salad fool you; this som tum is searing hot, but so bright and flavorful it lights up the palate. It’s like fireworks going off in your mouth.

Thai Table’s “Summer Rolls” are equally thrilling. Crisp shredded vegetables and silken vermicelli noodles are stuffed into a rice-paper wrapper. On their own, they are outstanding, but the accompanying dipping sauce makes them transcendent. Though delicate in texture, the condiment’s chile and cilantro-forward flavor is mighty.

Verdant, tart and fiery, it lights up the mouth from the tip of the tongue to the back of the throat.

Another condiment, billed simply

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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THAI TABLE

Continued from pg 31

complex flavor, the result of shiitakes and chestnuts added to the mixture. However, the glorious nectar that accompanies the savory pillows is otherworldly. The thick, dark brown sauce tastes like a reduction of brown sugar, soy, molasses and garlic, forming an intense, syrupy glaze that’s like a rich, salty exclamation point. Even if you don’t order the dumplings, ask for this sauce and pour it onto anything in sight.

Then again, you won’t want to mess with Hughes’ alreadyperfect cooking. Vibrant lab kai, a plate of ground chicken spiked with lime, chiles, red and green onions and cilantro, is wipe-yourforehead spicy, but the flavors are so addictively sour you still can’t stop eating it. It’s mercifully served with pieces of iceberg lettuce and sticky rice to help mitigate the heat.

That same delightfully sour taste is prominent in the tom yum kung, a pork, shrimp and mushroom soup that is mouth-puckering tart and spicy up front, but softens to a sweet finish that tastes like orange blossom. Tom kha kai, Thai Table’s other soup offering, isn’t as spicy, but its coconut, lime and lemongrass-spiked flavor is just as powerful.

Thai Table also excels in its noodle offerings. Like the pad Thai, pad see ew is less sweet than the usual preparation. The reduction in sugar puts the spotlight on the funky black bean sauce and fried egg. Pad kee mao features the same flat rice noodles as the for-

Thai Table’s egg custard is served over sweet sticky rice. | MABEL SUEN mer, but with the zing of bell peppers. Thai chiles tingle the tongue, while whole grape tomatoes offer a pop of refreshment when bitten.

Both dishes are magnificent.

If the noodles are excellent, the curries are positively ethereal. Massaman beef, with its pull-apart meat and fork-tender potatoes, is like a warmly spiced, lemongrass-scented Thai pot roast. Panang curry, which I ordered with plump shrimp, is like a lovely floral perfume. Lemongrass, garlic and bergamot mingle in a chile-spiked coconut broth; the effect is so vibrant it made my mouth feel as if it was dancing.

It’s difficult to pick a favorite of the curry dishes, but the ghang ped bhed yang is a standout. Slices of succulent duck, caramelized on

the top while rich and fatty under its skin, bob in a spicy coconut milk broth seasoned with lemongrass and chiles. The spice level here has several mitigating components: the fatty duck, the grape tomatoes that burst when pierced and hunks of pineapple that pop with sweetness and infuse the broth with tropical refreshment.

There are so many different flavors at play; rather than trying to discern each one, you are better off simply surrendering to this perfect dish.

As delicious as the duck curry is, Thai Table’s nam tok beef may be its most thrilling dish. Hunks of tender flank steak are grilled as expertly as you’d find in an expensive steakhouse, each piece picking up a delightfully bitter char.

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After it’s pulled from the fire, the meat is finished with a bright lime vinaigrette, then adorned with red and green onions and cilantro. It’s straightforward, but the intensely savory yet bright flavor of the citrus-kissed beef is simply masterful.

Hughes’ talent for savory dishes carries over to sweets as well.

Sticky rice, paired with a halved, peeled and scored mango, is finished tableside with warmed coconut milk, a lovely touch that ties the dessert together with soothing sweetness. And Thai custard, served over sticky rice, is a luxurious Southeast Asian riff on flan.

Her most delightful dessert, however, is a Thai tea cake so fluffy it was like eating a cloud flavored with sweet tea — a cloud layered with whipped cream so light it dissolved upon hitting my tongue.

The cake was so delicate, it jiggled with just the slightest agitation of the plate. This was a special offering on one visit; hopefully it will become a staple of the restaurant’s dessert menu.

Even without this delectable addition, though, Thai Table is flawless. Though we are only a few weeks into 2019, I suspect it’ll earn a place as one of the best restaurants I visit this year — not that Hughes was going for such accolades. She simply wanted to cook for us the food she loves to eat, the authentic Thai food you’d find in her beloved homeland. Now that we’ve had that taste, there is no going back.

Thai Table “Authentic Pad Thai” ............................. $9.95 Nam tok beef .......................................$13.95 Ghang ped bhed yang (duck curry) .....$14.95

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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[SIDE DISH]

She’s Queen of the Compost Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

W

hen Beth Grollmes-Kiefer thinks back on her path to owning her own composting business and farm, she can’t help but laugh at how unexpected life can be.

“I was never someone who said, ‘All I want to do is farm,’” GrollmesKiefer says. “If you would have asked sixteen-year-old me, I would have been like, ‘Oh my god no.’ I never could have predicted what future or current me would be.”

Grollmes-Kiefer may not have imagined spending her days in the dirt, but now that she is, she couldn’t be happier. As founder of Perennial City Composting, Grollmes-Kiefer has dedicated herself to nurturing the earth through its subscription-based composting service, offering residents of St. Louis, University City and Clayton the ability to make an earthfriendly decision, even if they lack the capacity to do so on their own.

A native of Topeka, Kansas, Grollmes-Kiefer moved to town to study nutrition and dietetics at Saint Louis University. Though she loved the subject matter, she found that once she started working in the field, the jobs were not the right fit.

“It just wasn’t what I wanted to do,” Grollmes-Kiefer explains. “I don’t like doing the same thing all of the time and doing what I am told to do. I wanted to do something else.”

While working a front-desk security job at Saint Louis University, Grollmes-Kiefer found a kindred spirit who would inspire her to realize her life’s passion. Tim Kiefer, who is now her husband, would regularly show up at her desk as part of his work. Tim had just launched the bicycle delivery service Food Pedaler, and when he dropped by with orders to

Beth Grollmes-Kiefer is on a mission to nourish the land, one compost subscription at a time. | TIM KIEFER her building, the two would talk.

Eventually, those talks got longer and the pair began to share their mutual passion for everything from food and farming to goats and coffee. Grollmes-Kiefer found not only her soulmate but someone who encouraged her to follow her own path, even if it wasn’t what she thought it would be.

“Everyone is afraid of risk at some level, but Tim is less so,” Grollmes-Kiefer explains. “He would tell me, ‘If we fail, at least we are still together.’ Having that shared risk made me think, ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’”

With Kiefer’s encouragement and willingness to share his business experience, Grollmes-Kiefer launched Perennial City Composting in January 2018 as a subscription-based residential composting

service. As Grollmes-Kiefer explains, the service is meant to help customers who want to compost but don’t have the time or capacity to do it on their own.

“The zero-waste movement is becoming popular, but there are a lot of people who feel like they can’t do it because they are in a city apartment or don’t have the time,” Grollmes-Kiefer explains.

“This allows them to do that. Plus, our subscribers are really happy that they don’t have to take the trash out as much.”

Composting is only part of Grollmes-Kiefer’s overall plan for Perennial City. She and her husband also bought a plot of land in the city’s Visitation Park neighborhood that they are turning into an urban farm. The compost from their subscribers is turned

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into soil that Grollmes-Kiefer uses to grow vegetables and flowers. Subscribers will have access to the result.

Moving forward, GrollmesKiefer envisions the agriculture side of the business as her main focus. She wants to grow as much as possible on the land, raising chickens and creating a lush food forest.

“Tim and I are both passionate about urban agriculture and challenging people to see what is possible in the city,” Grollmes-Kiefer says. “There is all of this vacant land — lots that have been sitting there for decades. We want to challenge people and give them the confidence that we can produce our own food in an urban environment.”

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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All items madevegetarian from scratch, havebynomarrying butter orhigh-quality, sugar and use to no oilwith – but variety of that flavors of Chicken their fresh meat and Chicken Sandwiches, and their not innovative flavors. items are haveanything. no butter The or sugar and use little to no oil –newest but too thin Pizzas come out on aWings, rectangular metal tray.Hamburgers A wide assortment of freshly made appetizers, with the flavors andAll creativity at made Frida’s,from youscratch, won’t miss University City restaurant’s too thinsalads Pizzas and that pastas come out rectangular metal tray. Aany wideofassortment of sports freshlyon made theImpossible flavors and Burger creativity Frida’s, you won’t miss anything.

Thethe University City juiciness restaurant’s newestand sandwiches, canon beaenjoyed while watching your favorite the appetizers, many flat hitwith is the – aatmassive plant-based patty that has texture and of meat saladsthe and canBeer be enjoyed of your sports the many hit isfools the Impossible Burger –award-winning a massive plant-based patty that has the texture and juiciness of meat and screensandwiches, TVs throughout Barpastas & Grill. you say?while Wellwatching we have any 16 local andfavorite regional tap on handles of flat often carnivores.

Frida’s signature namesake burger is no slouch, either, with its screen TVs throughout Bar &and Grill.cans Beertoyou we have 16 local and tapa handles of often fools carnivores.

Frida’s award-winning signature namesake burger is no slouch, either, with its your favorites and countlessthe bottles wetsay? yourWell whistle.

Bobby’s Place is regional known for $6.99 daily tahini-chipotle slaw topping and local bun.

The menu also boasts decadent favorites like tacos, wraps, favorites and countless bottles and cans to wet your whistle. Bobby’s Place is known for a $6.99 daily tahini-chipotle slaw topping and local bun. The menu also boasts decadent favorites like tacos, wraps, lunchyour special and a wide variety of drink specials. There is always something going on at Bobby’s Place, pizzas and desserts, and a new Sunday brunch that just launched in April. Beer and wine are available, lunch special and a wide variety of drink specials. There is always something going on at Bobby’s Place, pizzas and desserts, and a new Sunday brunch that just launched in April. Beer and wine are available, whether that something is Trivia Night, Beer Pong, DJ Music, or live bands. A full bar with signature drinks and many of Frida’s menu items can be modified for vegan or gluten-free diners. whether that something is Trivia Night, Beer Pong, DJ Music, or live bands. A full bar with signature drinks and many of Frida’s menu items can be modified for vegan or gluten-free diners. and shots will compliment a good night out with friends at Bobby’s Place. and shots will compliment a good night out with friends at Bobby’s Place.

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J.J.SMUGS SMUGSGASTROPIT GASTROPIT

314.391.5100 314.391.5100 9 S. VANDEVENTER 9 S. VANDEVENTER AVE. AVE. ST. LOUIS, ST. LOUIS, MO MO 6310863108

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The fast-fresh, made-to-order concept has been applied to everything from pizza to pasta Louis, The fast-fresh, made-to-order concept has been applied to everything from pizza to pasta in in St.St. Louis, butsushi the sushi burrito surprisingly no Gateway home MKT opened near Saint but the burrito surprisingly had had no Gateway CityCity home untiluntil BLKBLK MKT EatsEats opened near Saint University lastItfall. was worth the wait, though, because combines bold flavorsand and Louis Louis University last fall. wasIt worth the wait, though, because BLKBLK MKTMKT EatsEats combines bold flavors convenience a perfectly wrapped package that’s for those a rush.

Cousins and co-owners convenience into ainto perfectly wrapped package that’s idealideal for those in ainrush.

Cousins and co-owners Kati Fahrney andTurigliatto Ron Turigliatto a casual menu of high-quality, all-natural ingredients thatfitfit Kati Fahrney and Ron offeroffer a casual menu full full of high-quality, all-natural ingredients that NOT YOUR AVERAGE SUSHI SPOT NOT YOUR AVERAGE SUSHI SPOT everything you about love about burritos right in your hand.

Swedish Fish layers Scandinavian everything you love sushisushi and and burritos right in your hand.

TheThe Swedish Fish layers Scandinavian 9 SOUTH VANDEVENTER DINE-IN, a TAKEOUT OR DELIVERY MON-SAT 11AM-9PM salmon, dill slaw, Persian cucumbers avocado fresh flavor explosion.

Another 9 SOUTH VANDEVENTER DINE-IN, OR DELIVERY MON-SAT 11AM-9PM curedcured salmon, yuzu yuzu dill slaw, Persian cucumbers andand avocado for for aTAKEOUT fresh flavor explosion.

Another favorite, the OG Fire, features your choice of spicy tuna or salmon alongside tempura crunch, masago, favorite, the OG Fire, features your choice of spicy tuna or salmon alongside tempura crunch, masago, shallots, jalapeño and piquant namesake sauce; Persian cucumbers and avocado soothe your tongue shallots, jalapeño and piquant namesake sauce; Persian cucumbers and avocado soothe your tongue from the sauce’s kick. All burrito rolls come with sticky rice wrapped in nori or can be made into poké from the sauce’s kick. All burrito rolls come with sticky rice wrapped in nori or can be made into poké bowls, and all items can be modified for vegetarians. bowls, and all items can be modified for vegetarians.

Housedininaaretro retroservice servicestation, station, J. J. Smugs Smugs GastroPit fire.

Housed GastroPit serves servesup upbarbecue barbecuethat thatcan canfuel fuelanyone’s anyone’s fire.

Married teams of Joe and Kerri Smugala and John and Linda Smugala have brought charred goodness Married teams of Joe and Kerri Smugala and John and Linda Smugala have brought charred goodness theHill Hillneighborhood, neighborhood,nestled nestled among among the bakertotothe the traditional traditionalItalian Italianrestaurants, restaurants,sandwich sandwichshops shopsand and bakeries.

Part of St. Louis’ ongoing barbecue boom, the J. Smugs’ pit menu is compact but done right.

Ribs ies. Part of St. Louis’ ongoing barbecue boom, the J. Smugs’ pit menu is compact but done right.

Ribs arethe themain mainattraction, attraction,made made with with aa spicy spicy dry turkey are dry rub rub and andsmoked smokedtotoperfection. perfection.Pulled Pulledpork, pork,brisket, brisket, turkey andchicken chickenare arealso alsoininthe thepit pit holding holding up up well of of and well on on their theirown, own,but butsqueeze squeezebottles bottlesofofsixsixtasty tastysauces sauces varyingstyle styleare arenearby nearbyfor forextra extra punch. punch. Delicious Delicious standard plan onon varying standardsides sidesand andsalads saladsare areavailable, available,but but plan ordering an appetizer or two J. Smugs gives this course a twist with street corn and pulled-pork poutine. ordering an appetizer or two J. Smugs gives this course a twist with street corn and pulled-pork poutine.

Several desserts are available, including cannoli – a tasty nod to the neighborhood. Happy hour from Several desserts are available, including cannoli – a tasty nod to the neighborhood. Happy hour from 4 to 7pm on weekdays showcases half-dollar BBQ tastes, discount drinks, and $6 craft beer flights to 4 soothe to 7pmany on beer weekdays showcases half-dollar BBQ tastes, discount drinks, and $6 craft beer flights to aficionado. soothe any beer aficionado.

CARNIVORE STL CARNIVORE STL CARNIVORE-STL.COM

THE BLUE DUCK THE BLUE DUCK BLUEDUCKSTL.COM

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314.449.6328 5257 SHAW AVE, 314.449.6328 LOUIS, MO 5257 ST. SHAW AVE, 63110 ST. LOUIS, MO 63110 Carnivore fills a nearly 4,000-square-foot space on The Hill with a dining area, bar lounge, and adjoining outdoor gracefully guarded by aspace bronze at the main entrance.

Always embracing change, Carnivore fillspatio a nearly 4,000-square-foot onsteer The Hill with a dining area, bar lounge, and adjoining Joepatio and Kerri Smugala, with business partners and Casie Lutker, launched Carnivore STL this outdoor gracefully guarded by a bronze steerChef at theMike main entrance.

Always embracing change, summer.

As the Hill’s only steakhouse, Carnivore offers a homestyle menu at budget-friendly prices Joe and Kerri Smugala, with business partners Chef Mike and Casie Lutker, launched Carnivore STL thisappealing to the neighborhood’s many families.offers Steak,aof course, takes center stage with juicyprices filet mignon, summer.

As the Hill’s only steakhouse, Carnivore homestyle menu at budget-friendly aptop sirloin, strip steak and ribeye leading the menu.

Customize any of the succulent meats with sautéed pealing to the neighborhood’s many families. Steak, of course, takes center stage with juicy filet mignon, mushrooms, grilled meltedthe housemade butters, such as the garlic-and-herb and red reductop sirloin, strip steak andshrimp, ribeye or leading menu. Customize any of succulent meats withwine sautéed tion, on top of the flame-seared steak. Other main dishes include a thick-cut pork steak (smoked at J. mushrooms, grilled shrimp, or melted housemade butters, such as garlic-and-herb and red wine reducSmugs) and the grilled chicken with capers and a white wine-lemon-butter sauce. St. Louis Italian tradition, on top of the flame-seared steak. Other main dishes include a thick-cut pork steak (smoked at J. tions get their due in the Baked Ravioli, smothered in provel cheese and house ragu, and in the Arancini, Smugs) andballs the grilled withand capers and a white wine-lemon-butter sauce.

Louis new Italian tradirisotto stuffedchicken with provel swimming in a pool of meat sauce. With an St. exciting brunch tions get their due in the Baked Ravioli, smothered in provel cheese and house ragu, and in the Arancini, menu debuting for Saturday and Sunday, Carnivore should be everyone’s new taste of the Hill. risotto balls stuffed with provel and swimming in a pool of meat sauce. With an exciting new brunch menu3 debuting 6 R I V for E R Saturday F R O N T and T I MSunday, E S J Carnivore A N U A R Y should 1 6 - be 2 2everyone’s , 2 0 1 9 new r i vtaste e r f rofo the n t t Hill. imes.com

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314.769.9940 2661 SUTTON BLVD, 314.769.9940 MAPLEWOOD, MO 2661 SUTTON BLVD, 63143 MAPLEWOOD, MO 63143 There aren’t many businesses named after Adam Sandler movies, but at the Blue Duck, the food is as whimsical its “Billy Madison” reference. founded in Washington, Mo., Duck, ownersthe Chris There aren’tasmany businesses named after Originally Adam Sandler movies, but at the Blue foodand is as Karmen Rayburn opened the Blue Duck’s Maplewood outpost in 2017, bringing with them a seasonal whimsical as its “Billy Madison” reference. Originally founded in Washington, Mo., owners Chris and menu full of American comfort-food dishesMaplewood that are elevated with dash bringing of panache.

Start theameal with Karmen Rayburn opened the Blue Duck’s outpost in a2017, with them seasonal the savory fried pork belly, which is rubbed with coffee and served with a sweet bbq sauce and root vegmenu full of American comfort-food dishes that are elevated with a dash of panache. Start the meal with etable slaw.

Forpork the main Duck’s signature DLTand sandwich succulent smoked duckvegthe savory fried belly,event, whichthe is rubbed with coffee served substitutes with a sweet bbq sauce and root breast instead of the traditional bacon, adding fried egg and honey chipotle mayo along with lettuce etable slaw. For the main event, the Duck’s signature DLT sandwich substitutes succulent smoked duck and tomato on toasted sourdough. Save room for dessert; the Blue Duck’s St. Louberry pie – strawberries breast instead of the traditional bacon, adding fried egg and honey chipotle mayo along with lettuce and blueberries topped with a gooey buttercake-like surface – is a worthy tribute to the Gateway City. and tomato on toasted sourdough. Save room for dessert; the Blue Duck’s St. Louberry pie – strawberries and blueberries topped with a gooey buttercake-like surface – is a worthy tribute to the Gateway City.

BETH GROLLMES-KIEFER Continued from pg 35

Grollmes-Kiefer took a break from tending to her compost subscribers’ charming green buckets to share her thoughts on the St. Louis food-and-beverage community, her love for coffee and fries and why you won’t find her doing any job other than her current one.

What is one thing people don’t know about you that you wish they did?

Nothing. I love privacy and enjoy being a woman of mystery. **end of interview** Just kidding.

What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you?

Blueprint Coffee! Gotta be Blueprint, gotta be hot. It’s a chemical dependence.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Doing an I Dream of Jeannie head nod and magically turning sad, contaminated ground into kickass soil for growing delicious food.

What is the most positive thing in food, wine or cocktails that you’ve noticed in St. Louis over the past year?

An increased focus on local food and farmers.

Who is your St. Louis food crush?

Ted Wilson of Union Loafers.

Loafers is my absolute favorite restaurant. Everything is always top notch, and I leave feeling like a million bucks. They catered our wedding. I love them.

Which ingredient is most representative of your personality?

Garlic. Down to earth, with a little bit of bite, but there are ways to make it sweet. Plus, I really enjoy growing garlic.

If you weren’t working in this business, what would you be doing?

If I wasn’t working in this business I’d be sulking around somewhere, bummed out, because I’m already living the dream!

Name an ingredient never allowed in your kitchen.

Fake meat. Pick a team. You can’t have it all.

What is your after-work hangout?

My house.

What’s your food or beverage guilty pleasure?

Fries. Especially “rip fries” from Mac’s Local Eats and fries from Taste with plenty of garlic aioli.

But they’re simply a pleasure; I never feel guilty.

What would be your last meal on earth?

I think knowledge of my imminent death would spoil my appetite. n

Sultan Mediterranean Cuisine will offer Kurdish specialties, including the “Sultan Pilau.” | SARAH FENSKE

[FIRST LOOK]

A Taste of Kurdistan in the Grove Written by

SARAH FENSKE

O

n Saturday, a new restaurant with a new kind of cooking for St. Louis opened its doors in the Grove — Sultan Mediterranean Cuisine (4200 Manchester Avenue).

Founded by a pair of Kurdish immigrants, the full-service eatery features dishes unique to that region of Iraq, as well as favorites from across the Middle East.

It’s located in the former home of Erney’s 32 Degrees, which has undergone extensive renovations in the year since husband-andwife team Jenar Mohammed and Akram Saeed took over the space.

“The only thing we didn’t change was the floor,” laughs their daughter, Media Saeed.

The couple were refugees who were resettled in the U.S. in the mid-1980s, fleeing Saddam Hussein. Their daughter says they always dreamt of opening a restaurant of their own. Mohammed, who has long worked as a cook at Sameem Afghan Restaurant, will be Sultan’s chef.

“She’s always loved cooking,”

Media Saeed says. “Now she’s made her dream a reality.”

The space is striking, with large windows overlooking Manchester and charming accents that reference the family’s heritage. The colorful chandeliers are from Turkey; the golden-hued tea sets displayed on a shelf near the dessert counter came directly from Kurdistan.

Both coffee and tea will be served with a presentation far lovelier than the usual American style.

And that should be true for many dishes as well. House specialties will include the “Sultan Pilau,” a Kurdish puff pastry that wraps lamb, rice, almonds and chickpeas in layers of phyllo dough. It’s terrific. So, too, are the dolma. In addition to the stuffed grape leaves known by American diners, Mohammed stuffs zucchini, tomato and even eggplant. You can get a sizable vegetarian plate for $8; the beef version is $12.95.

Other menu highlights provide Mohammed’s take on classic Middle Eastern dishes, such as mantu, delicate ravioli stuffed with beef and drizzled with yogurt sauce.

The more traditionally minded, of course, can always order a classic lamb shank with rice — at $14.95, the platter is one of the city’s more affordable versions.

The family originally hoped to be open last summer, but getting everything just right took time.

“It took two months just to get the lights shipped over,” Media Saeed notes. But now that they’re in, they’re all in. They’re now open every day but Monday beginning at 11:30 a.m., with dinner service every night. n

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JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

RIVERFRONT TIMES

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Chef Ben Grupe is launching the dinner series “Work in Progress” as research and development for his forthcoming restaurant. | R.J. HARTBECK

[FOOD NEWS]

Star Chef Plots New Concept Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

B

en Grupe has a running collection of notes and spreadsheets he refers to as his “hornet’s nest” — a self-described mad-scientist-style assemblage of thoughts, observations and inspiration about restaurants he’s been keeping for as long as he can remember. It predates his tenure as executive chef at Elaia, as captain of the U.S. Culinary Olympics team and as the second-place finisher to represent the U.S. at the Bocuse d’Or. Now, Grupe is putting those notes to work, gathering his thoughts as he prepares for the first event in a series of dinners he is launching this month. Called “Work in Progress,” the dinners are a platform for Grupe to formalize the concept for a restaurant he is planning to open sometime in 2019 — one that is both clear in his vision yet still

being formulated.

“I’ve been working on this for a long time and am very strategic about what I am doing,” Grupe explains. “This is not a pop-up or guerrilla-style cooking or any of that. It’s my platform for research and development.”

A veteran of the country-club scene, including the revered Greenbrier resort in West Virginia, Grupe left that world in 2015 to pursue his dream of running his own restaurant. For roughly a year, he tested the waters with a series of pop-up dinners called Soigné before being recruited by Ben Poremba to run his flagship fine-dining restaurant, Elaia.

Under Grupe, Elaia maintained its status as one of the top dining destinations in St. Louis — no simple feat considering the chef was concurrently competing in (and winning multiple gold medals at) the 2016 Culinary Olympics in Germany. However, Grupe always knew that he would eventually do his own thing, and he took a step towards that when he left Elaia last fall.

With his reputation as one of the city’s top chefs firmly established, Grupe wants “Work in Progress” to be less the introduction to the scene that Soigné was and more of an intimate back and forth with guests. As he explains it, he has several ideas that he’s been working out for a while now,

but how they translate to the dining experience is what he is looking to explore.

“It’s a combination of being open and having ideas,” Grupe says. “I want there to be open, honest feedback from the guests.

It will be honest and interactive — what do you like about this style of service or this progression? It’s a way to find out what works.”

To that end, “Work in Progress” is intentionally small — just two seatings of ten people at each dinner — to facilitate conversation.

Held at Brennan’s Work & Leisure, the dinners will take place in the form of counter service at the bar with Grupe, his assistants and his beverage director serving and describing each item. Though the menu will be a progression of dishes served in small portions, he insists this has to do with the logistics of the dinner series and is not a precursor of what is to come at his future restaurant.

“I am not going for a tastingmenu-only restaurant,” Grupe explains. “Of course there is always a progression to a menu, but I do not want to be a restaurant where there are sixteen courses of oneor two-bite things. This is just a way for me to work out things by having guests sample.”

Grupe also feels that there is a tendency to label what he does as French food because of his classical training. Though he agrees

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that what he does is rooted in classical training, he feels that it refers less to a particular cuisine and more to the fundamental techniques that underlie his cooking.

“The foundation is always going to be rooted in classical cuisine, because that lays the blueprint for everything,” Grupe says. “It’s why I always tell young cooks to go to the center. If what you are doing isn’t forged in technique, what is the point of doing it? Once you have that foundation and knowledge, it will propel you into doing other things.”

With “Work in Progress,” Grupe is excited to see what those other things are; even as he has an idea of what he wants, he feels that the concept will be revealed through the dinners and not the other way around. The response he has gotten is evidence that others are excited as well. His first two dinners, on January 26 and February 9, have already sold out with guests clamoring to be part of a waitlist.

Two more dates will be released in the near future, and he hopes to add a few more in the coming months.

“It’s not just a name; this really is a work in progress,” says Grupe.

“I want diners to come in and say that they helped move this project forward — that they can have a sense that they helped form what I am doing.” n

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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MUSIC & CULTURE

41

[IN MEMORIAM]

Slain Rapper Killed for Good Deed Written by

DANIEL HILL

V

eeno Gunna died a hero.

The up-and-coming St. Louis rapper, born Vincent Sanders, 35, was shot to death at approximately 3:30 p.m. Sunday, January 6, in the 2600 block of Chippewa. The only reason he was at the scene at all, witnesses later said, was to defend two young women who were reportedly being harassed by a much older man.

That man, 42-year-old Christopher Rainey, has now been charged in Sanders’ murder.

According to court documents, the altercation started when Rainey began arguing with two teenage girls outside of the Moto Mart located at the corner of Jefferson and Chippewa. Close friends of Sanders told KSDK in the days following the shooting that one of the girls was Sanders’ niece. She apparently called him and told him that she was being bothered by an older man.

Sanders showed up at the scene to assist, witnesses told police.

Sanders and Rainey then got into a physical confrontation, according to court documents. After Sanders punched Rainey, Rainey pulled a gun, firing two shots in the air.

Sanders then began backing away from Rainey. That’s when Rainey shot him in the chest, police say.

Sanders ran away from the threat, collapsing at the nearby Regions Bank branch before being transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Rainey also fled the scene following the shooting, but was taken into custody the following day. Police found the gun that was used to kill Sanders in Rainey’s backpack. Rainey then admitted to the shooting, but claimed it was in self-defense, according to court documents.

Police say they have viewed

Veeno Gunna, left, shown with St. Louis super-producer Jay E, was shot to death last week in south city. | VIDEO SCREENSHOT footage from a nearby security camera that shows Sanders was backing away when he was shot.

Rainey was charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action. He was incarcerated at the St. Louis Justice Center, with a $500,000 cash-only bond.

Sanders leaves behind a sixteen-month-old son and a burgeoning rap career that even saw him teaming up recently with diamond-certified St. Louis superproducer Jay E, best known for his work with Nelly and the St. Lunatics, for Jay’s July release Jay E Presents “In The City” Vol 1.

Fellow rappers and producers were quick to mourn Sanders’ passing on social media.

“Just saw the worst news,” writes Suburban Pro Studios owner Matt Sawicki. “Veeno Gunna we juuuuuust kicked it and were making plans. You were an amazing individual and will be greatly missed. This is awful.”

“We deal with death constantly dog. But this one hurts in a wild way,” writes rapper and former RFT contributor Tef Poe. “REST IN PEACE VEENO. Another one that just hit me in the stomach. We had a video shoot planned next week.

We tried to shoot it this weekend

“I have an indescribable pain in my chest for my nigga Veeno ... I got my start from Veeno and all my gs and I’m for real broken by this.

Lord help us.”

—Bates but I wasn’t fully prepared. We were all just together at the studio on Thursday. There was plenty of life left in this man. I know for a fact he planned on living, we all had plans.”

“I have an indescribable pain in my chest for my nigga Veeno, and I know if I’m this hurt I cant even fathom what Preach, Sketch

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and Veeno family feeling,” writes rapper Bates. “I got my start from Veeno and all my gs and I’m for real broken by this. Lord help us.”

“I love you brother. I’m in shock, I’m in pain,” writes producer and frequent collaborator David “Sketch” Barnes. “We were doing so much, you were doing so well.”

Rapper Preach (stylized P.R.E.A.C.H.), who was part of the group Rhyme Royals with Sanders, has launched a GoFundMe to help raise money for memorial services. That effort has already raised more than $4,300 of its $8,000 goal.

“Due to the tragic loss of our dear brother and friend, we have decided to band together to do our part in assisting in providing financially for his memorial services,” Preach writes in the fundraiser’s description. “Veeno was not only a talented artist, but also a wonderful friend who could light up a room with his smile, and could warm the coldest souls with his infectious personality.”

A candlelight vigil was held in Sanders’ honor on Friday at McDonald Park. Preach has also said he will be putting out Sanders’ unreleased tracks to keep his memory alive. n

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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The rapper recorded the EP at the end of 2018, writing all the beats and lyrics himself. | ART CREDIT

[HOMESPUN]

Birthday Boy The Domino Effect’s Cue ColdBlooded marks his 30th with a celebratory new EP Written by

CHRISTIAN SCHAEFFER

T

urning 30 years old is generally a milestone that is met with equal parts celebration and stock-taking: If it doesn’t carry the angst of encroaching middle age that 40 does, it tends to clarify the wild-oats-sowing of one’s twenties and gives a soft restart to a more thoroughly “adult” existence.

For Preston Bradley, his 30th birthday was a chance to throw himself a little party in the form of a five-song album. Under his hiphop alias Cue ColdBlooded, Bradley dropped the 12eleven EP not long after his birthdate (December 11, as you may have guessed).

And while he’s reflective about the time that has passed, ultimately he chose a joyful path and

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framed his songs with a celebration in mind.

“I think 30 is a big year for anybody, really,” Bradley says.

“There’s two ways to look at it: I’m getting old and running out of time, or I did a lot of growing up in my twenties and I have that knowledge of those ups and downs.” Bradley says rather than focus on the passage of time, he used the start of his third decade to focus on the road ahead. It also gave him a hard deadline to hit.

“I just wanted to release a project,” Bradley says. “I just locked myself in the studio from late October — I did all the beats, did all the writing, and finished it up around the beginning of December.”

The resulting EP reflects his state of positivity, something that carries over from his 2017 solo debut Yourz Truly and some of the throwback soul vibes he and Steve N. Clair have used with their long-running duo the Domino Effect. Many of the tracks on 12eleven ride on spare boom-bap beats punctuated by 808 pings, and the instrumental palette is airy and woozy. He favors a laidback delivery as a vocalist, but the most aggressive Bradley gets on this project is the street-smart love song “My Ryder,” which uses a little g-funk synthesizer swoop-

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

riverfronttimes.com

ing above his bars.

Bradley talks about striking a “celebratory tone” on the album, aiming for songs that could be played from car speakers and in the club. “‘How I Feel’ is my most fun record on there — it was really fun writing that,” Bradley says. “It’s got a little bounce in there. I use a little more vocal range, those rapsingy type tones. I wanted to incorporate that into my own style.”

But that doesn’t mean that Cue ColdBlooded is blinded from occasionally donning rose-colored glasses. He remains an emcee who is fiercely loyal, to his city and his people, and his work (both with the Domino Effect and as a solo artist) takes measure of racial and social realities. On the upwardly mobile “Royalty,” he notes, “Never really fit with an audience / In this world, in my skin, I’m a target.”

It’s one of his talents as a lyricist to walk the tightrope between bravado and humility, between real-life hardships and joyful aspirations.

“I mean, I can’t pinpoint anything extremely specific,” Bradley says as he reflects on the inspirations for these tracks. He notes that he centered on his work with the Domino Effect and thought “a lot about how we developed as artists over time. Looking back,

I hear a vast difference and improvement.”

It’s been since 2016’s Satellites that the Domino Effect has released new music; Bradley notes that since the duo’s other half, Steve N. Clair, moved to Atlanta, “there’s a lot of transitioning going on right now.” Still, Bradley promises a new album by the pair in 2019.

“It’s bouncing back and forth, really,” Bradley says of the Domino Effect’s creative process and longdistance partnership. “I make a bunch of stuff and he throws his input in. It’s pretty easy with us since we’ve been doing it so long. Me and Steve can not talk for a month and we can link up again and be right on cue. It’s always gonna be like that; we’re brothers.”

Family matters to Bradley, so much so that 12eleven kicks off with a pair of voicemails from his parents, wishing him a happy birthday and setting the tone for the EP that follows.

“My mom was probably more nervous,” Bradley says. “My dad, I get most of my musical genius from him — he was the head of the music in churches and stuff.

He was in his element.

“There’s no 12eleven without them,” Bradley says, “and it was important to give them credit for all the support they’ve given me.” n

[LOCAL LEGENDS]

An Artist Whose Work Was Never Done Written by

THOMAS CRONE

W

ayne Ermatinger, known throughout most sectors of the cosmos as Wayne St. Wayne, died on Friday, January 11, after a lengthy battle against prostate cancer.

Treatments of radiation and chemo proved unsuccessful in halting the effects of a disease he lived with for half a decade. With his death at age 64, he leaves behind a family that includes son David, 31, of St. Louis, and son Chris, 35, and daughter Shana, 33, both of Whitehorse, Yukon, along with two grandchildren.

All of St. Louis, meanwhile, lost a unique character who bridged multiple generations of bohemianism here. Both a self-taught artist and longtime professional wrestler, St. Wayne was a presence in south St. Louis barrooms, coffee shops and cafes over several decades — sometimes as an employee, more often in his self-appointed role as artist in residence. It’s a title he enjoyed at several spots, most notably Mangia Italiano, where his mural Mangia Evolutiano remains a years-in-progress work, showcasing his singular interpretation of history. At Mangia, patrons can observe his visions of history’s biggest moments, from the Big Bang to the teat-sucking Romulus and Remus to Cary Grant’s mad dash from a crop duster in North by Northwest.

His output at Mangia was symbolic, in many respects, of his general approach to art creation.

He’d dab at a portion of the mural, often revisiting what an onlooker might see as a thoroughly finished panel, instead of pressing ahead on the mural’s completion (which he’d regularly suggest would be “this year, definitely, and if not this year, then next year, for sure”). Meanwhile, friends and onlookers would pause to chat on a regular basis, often taking out time for visits to nearby alleys for “inspiration walks” with his fa-

A pro wrestler and prolific artist, Wayne St. Wayne was a true original. | FACEBOOK vorite forms of creativity-enhancing vegetation. Painting while sipping at both coffee and a Stag, St. Wayne would pause frequently to work on commissioned pieces, simultaneously hawking works on his preferred canvasses of twelveinch records and beer bottles.

Of his Mangia mural, in 2013, St. Wayne told filmmaker Susan Herzog, “I don’t know anything about what’s gonna happen after I die, so just in case I want to leave some great stuff behind.”

For years, he lived near the Carpenter Branch Library on South Grand, and his familiar figure could be seen walking north and south between Mangia and the compact apartment he shared with his sons. His gait was affected by what amounted to an added body part: an old-school gym bag slung at the hip, loaded with bottles, paints, brushes, dog-eared folders teeming with newspaper clippings and, always, vintage, paint-splattered copies of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine.

The visuals he created were dominated by the contents of that bag, with B-movie cinema at the heart of things. His paintings of old St. Louis often illustrated the dead movie houses of his youth, or the films that played on those screens, though they were far from his only muse. A first-time viewer might, for example, wonder why so many paintings were dedicated to the colorful prowrestling scene of the 1960s and 1970s, though a quick conversation with him would yield that information.

As a youngster, St. Wayne was entranced by KPLR’s long-running

Wrestling at the Chase, a show that inspired him to develop his body, to join the wrestling team at St. Mary’s and to eventually train as a pro.

By the time he achieved some level of local fame as St. Wayne, his barnstorming days were well behind him, but photos of his younger self show a young man who was committed to his craft and body. He developed a thick, muscular frame, his buzz-cut dome and broad chest propped atop tree-trunk thighs. Developing a kinship with Canada that would last a lifetime, St. Wayne would live and train in Edmonton, Alberta. That included time spent with the famed Hart family, and he eventually settled into a role as a “heel” in many of his matches, though he’d also battle other villains or provide an amusing foil in tag-team matches.

With the Canadian promotion company Stampede Wrestling, he was known as Buddy Frankenstein, Mike/Michael Hammer, Mike Blood and, later, Doctor Blood. Moving back to St. Louis with that name, he took part in a lively period in local pro wrestling lore, battling at regional civic centers, ballrooms, high school gymnasiums and, most notably, the South Broadway Athletic Club. He was a fixture in a golden moment that included Big Daddy the King of Men, Ron Powers, Gary Jackson and the Giant Assassin, with their Saturday night exploits at the club in heavy rotation on Double Helix cablecasts.

Eventually, his body wore down from the years of intense mat work and multi-hour drives.

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That’s when his painting began to really blossom. Mangia was the perfect landing spot. This was the first generation version of that Italian-pasta-shop-turned-restaurant-and-bar, under the auspices of founder-owners Doc and Micci Parmely. They created something of the spiritual kin of Gaslight Square’s culture cafes there, with open-mic poetry, Budweisers and savory pasta salads mixing sensibly. With his daily presence, St. Wayne was as much of part of that environment as anyone.

In time, St. Wayne would be employed at other freewheeling spots, including a stint in the kitchen of the boho Cummel’s Cafe, along with a tenure as the backdoor bouncer of Creepy Crawl, where he came into contact with dozens of punk, ska and metal bands, some of which would wind up commissioning him for the covers of their records. These he’d execute with only a bit more speed than his usual it’s-donewhen-it’s-done approach to timely assignments.

For a good chunk of the 1990s, he became a regular presence in local papers, including the RFT, in student and indie films, and on cable access shows like World Wide Magazine, all at a time when places like Mangia, Cummel’s, Venice Cafe, the Way Out Club, the Wabash Triangle Cafe and more were offering young St. Louisans a chance to grow into their own, new selves. He was something of a funny uncle for those of us in that community, cracking wise and offering up catch phrases such as his standard, lilting greeting, “So what’s new and exciting?”

After he moved closer to Kingshighway and Gravois, St. Wayne’s daily walks down South Grand became less frequent, and his illness eventually paused them entirely.

But in recent years, St. Wayne was still spotted at Ert Nights, an art-making experience that took place at clubs like 2720 and the Art Bar, as well as the home of curators Jamie Jessop and Lana Camp. There, St. Wayne was among kindred spirits, working in their preferred media, alongside other free-spirited souls.

Realizing that all those south side sightings are over is a bit jarring; his presence is so ingrained in the visual geography of his old neighborhoods. But the magic dust he liberally scattered on his many long walks will remain on these streets for years to come.

A celebration of life for Wayne St. Wayne will be held at Mangia on Saturday, February 23 at 3 p.m.

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

RIVERFRONT TIMES

43

OUT EVERY NIGHT

44

Liz Cooper and the Stampede. | VIA PARADIGM TALENT AGENCY

Liz Cooper and the Stampede 8 p.m. Saturday, January 19. Old Rock House, 1200 South Seventh Street. $12.

314-588-0505.

Pity the record-store employees who have to file Liz Cooper and the Stampede.

Country? Folk? Americana? Rock? And why is there no section for “Psych Crooner Alt Jangle Pop?” By the sounds of last year’s Window Flowers, Cooper has spent the better part of her musical life stumping the shit out of those clerks coast to coast. She’s soaked up the sounds of Brenda Lee and Shannon and the Clams,

THURSDAY 17

AL HOLIDAY: 7 p.m., $15. Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave, St. Louis.

BLACK & WHITE BAND: 10 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

BROTHER JEFFERSON BAND: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

FUTUREBIRDS: w/ Elliott Pearson & the Passing Lane, Yard Eagle 8 p.m., $12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

KARAOKE BOOM: 8 p.m., free. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

MICHELANGELO SKERO: w/ 3ality, Cozmik Spirit, The Black Dragoon, Mark Bone, J Crazy, Jake The Plug, La Koda $u, Ezzey x Jay Capo x Young Taurus 7 p.m., $10-$12. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

NATE LOWERY: 4 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

PAUL BONN & THE BLUESMEN: 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis,

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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the Beach Boys and Beachwood Sparks, Rosanne Cash and Those Darlins’, and squeezed out all the bittersweet cool and daydreamy warmth a lover of twang-tinged pop could want. Her much anticipated set at LouFest 2018 was cancelled, and while she opened in St. Louis for Phosphorescent late last year, she’s finally got the headlining set her talent deserves.

Art of Local: Props to the Art of Live Festival folks for pairing Americana folk rocker Beth Bombara and jangling newcomer Summer Magic to the opening bill, making this night an absolute triple threat.

—Roy Kasten

314-773-5565.

SAM BUSH: 8 p.m., $25. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

SCRUB & ACE HA AND TONINA: 8 p.m., $10.

Gaslight Lounge, 4916 Shaw Ave, St. Louis, 314-496-0628.

SILVERSTEIN: w/ Hawthorne Heights, As Cities Burn, Capstan 7 p.m., $22. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

TOADFACE: w/ G-Space, Patches O’Malley 8 p.m., $20-$22. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-775-0775.

FRIDAY 18

AMIGO THE DEVIL: 8 p.m., $13-$15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

ANIMAL YEARS: w/ The Burney Sisters 8 p.m., $10. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

ARLIE: w/ Wild Pink, Sontalk 8 p.m., $10-$12.

Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis,

Continued on pg 45

GRAND OPENING!

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314-498-6989.

RAMONES TRIBUTE: w/ 120 Minutes 9 p.m., $8.

The Red-Headed Strangers. | VIA BANDCAMP

The Red-Headed Strangers 8 p.m. Saturday, January 19. The Focal Point, 2720 Sutton Boulevard. 314-560-2778.

The Red-Headed Strangers’ band name has always been a partial misnomer.

Sure, the Sullivan siblings who serve as the core of the many-membered band share a light complexion and russet-colored hairdos, but there’s no such thing as a stranger in their group or in their songs.

December saw the release of No Time to Waste, its second record, and the band’s

OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 44

BIG BAMOU: 8 p.m., free. Rhone Rum Bar, 2107 Chouteau Ave, St. Louis, 314-241-7867.

BOOTIGRABBERS DELIGHT: 7 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

DAVID DEE & THE HOT TRACKS: 8 p.m., $3.

Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

ELLEN COOK: w/ Irene Allen, Lisa Houdei, Donald Woodyard Inc. 8 p.m., free. Livery Company, 6728 S Broadway, St. Louis, 314-558-2330.

ERIN BODE’S COZY WINTER WEEKEND: 8 p.m., $20-$25. The Monocle, 4510 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-935-7003.

AN EVENING WITH THE WERKS: 8 p.m., $12-$15.

The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-775-0775.

GREENSKY BLUEGRASS: w/ Circles Around the Sun 8 p.m., $25-$30. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

HITCHCOCK & THE HITMEN: 9:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090.

LUCKY OLD SONS: 8 p.m., $3. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

MARTY ABDULLAH & THE RHYTHM ROCKERS: 7 p.m., $10. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

MOTHERFATHER: 9 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

ONE WAY TRAFFIC: 11 p.m., free. Halo Bar, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-1414.

PEACELORDS: w/ Dr. Slappenstein, Norvena 8 p.m., free. Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust St., St. Louis, 314-241-2337.

country and roots affectations haven’t dulled in the intervening nine years since its debut. Instead, the Strangers have a more sure footing in weaving in different American styles, from the minor-key bluegrass of “Lincoln County” to the ampedup Memphis blues of “The Corner.”

Focal’s Focus: Seeing as this event is billed as “an evening with,” expect the Red-Headed Strangers to dive into both of the band’s records while pulling liberally from standards, covers and castoffs.

—Christian Schaeffer

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

ROB BELL & SUZIE CUE’S B-DAY SHOW: w/ Bagheera 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

ROYAL SOUTH: 8 p.m., $24-$40. Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N Grand Blvd, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

STEPHANIE STEWART EP RELEASE: w/ Gary Hunt, Don Stewart 8 p.m., $12-$15. The Focal Point, 2720 Sutton Blvd, St. Louis, 314-560-2778.

TORREY CASEY & THE SOUTHSIDE HUSTLE: 10 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

SATURDAY 19

5 STAR ROSCOE: 8 p.m., $5. Hwy 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen, 34 S Old Orchard Ave, Webster Groves, 314-968-0061.

AND THAT’S WHY WE DRINK: 8 p.m., $25-$60. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

BALD EAGLE MOUNTAIN: w/ Ian Leith, Ryan Joseph Anderson 9 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

BIG EASY: 9 p.m., free. Nightshift Bar & Grill, 3979 Mexico Road, St. Peters, 636-441-8300.

CHERUB: w/ Mosie 8 p.m., $20-$23.

Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

ERIN BODE’S COZY WINTER WEEKEND: 8 p.m., $20-$25. The Monocle, 4510 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-935-7003.

AN EVENING WITH THE WERKS: w/ Surco 8 p.m., $12-$15. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-775-0775.

THE FOGGY MEMORY BOYS: 9:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090.

Continued on pg 46

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

45

OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 45 HOUNDS: w/ Decedy, Apex Shrine 8 p.m., $10.

Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

JAKE CURTIS BAND: 3 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

KENNA REIS: w/ Desire Lines, Randi 9 p.m., $5.

Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

KINGDOM BROTHERS BAND: 7 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

LIZ COOPER & THE STAMPEDE: w/ Beth Bombara 8 p.m., $12. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

MARQUISE KNOX BLUES BAND: 10 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

MIDWEST AVENGERS: w/ Anthony Lucius 8 p.m., $20. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

MONSTER TRUCK: 8 p.m., $15-$18. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

PEACELORDS: w/ Midnight Rockstars 8 p.m., $5.

[WEEKEND]

BEST BETS

Five sure-fire shows to close out the week

FRIDAY, JANUARY 18 Greensky Bluegrass w/ Circles Around the Sun 8 p.m. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard. $25-$30.

314-726-6161.

Kalamazoo, Michigan, boasts one of the more lush and underrated music scenes in America. Within it resides Greensky Bluegrass, the kind of genrebending band one might expect from a college town with so much heart.

Putting “bluegrass” in the name is something of a clever parlor trick, as the group barely fits the mold. Take it as a bold declaration that, contrary to whoever might feel otherwise, this is the band’s take on the style, through and through. All for Money might be the name of Greensky Bluegrass’ latest full-length, but the Kalamazoo crew is quick to quip, “Clearly, we aren’t a band all for money.” That doesn’t mean its members don’t deserve a little for breaking new ground in Americana.

Animal Years w/ the Burney Sisters 8 p.m. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Avenue. $10.

314-833-3929.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one: A rock band holes up in a cabin somewhere in the woods to make an album that stands the test of time. Sure, it’s a cliché at this point, but a little seclusion and a lot of focus make for a good record, as demonstrated by Animal Years’ 2017 release Far From Home. In this case, the indie rock outfit worked with Ryan Hadlock, producer of both the Lumineers and Vance Joy, to churn out an EP that’s proof positive of the

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

The Haunt, 5000 Alaska Ave, St. Louis, 314-481-5003.

THE RED-HEADED STRANGERS: 8 p.m., $12-$15.

The Focal Point, 2720 Sutton Blvd, St. Louis, 314-560-2778.

RICARDO COBO: 8 p.m., $24-$28. Ethical Society of St. Louis, 9001 Clayton Rd, Richmond Heights, 314-991-0955.

SAMMY’S ALBUM RELEASE PARTY: w/ Denny, NEX, Capitol Jay, Young Tyso, Music Killed The President 7 p.m., $10-$12. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

SILVERBACK: 8 p.m., free. Rhone Rum Bar, 2107 Chouteau Ave, St. Louis, 314-241-7867.

SKEET RODGERS & INNER CITY BLUES BAND: 4 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

TIM ALBERT & THE BOOGIEMEN: 9 p.m., $3.

Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

WINTER JAZZ FEST: w/ John Patitucci, Brian Blade, Tracy Silverman, Dave Black, Ptah Williams and Bach to the Future, Jay Oliver, William Lenihan, Lucrezio DeSeta, Mo Egeston and friends 7 p.m., $25. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

YEAR12: w/ Outta Vibes, My Two Straight Dads, Handsome Boy, Blind Blue Eyes, PissPocket 6:30 p.m., $8-$10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St,

band’s enduring sound. Columbia’s Burney Sisters share equal billing on this show, with sweet, carefully crafted folk that could make you forget that both of its members are too young to drive. The rest of the country will catch up with Missouri’s best-kept secret soon, no doubt.

Ramones Tribute w/ 120 Minutes 9 p.m. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 South Broadway. $8.

314-621-8811.

The normally cover-band-friendly St. Louis has been slow to warm to punk tributes, but a tribute to the Ramones is surely the exception that proves the rule. At this point, the group seems as American as apple pie. It’s fitting that Broadway Oyster Bar has brought in a few raucous acts to break in its newly christened stage, and the show itself should be a proper band sandwich, with the Ramones tribute as the meaty center. The bread is two sets of punk and alternative rock under the name 120 Minutes — a nod to the long-running MTV show made popular in the mid-’90s. Buried in the band’s backlog are covers from both Fugazi and Devo, bringing deep cuts for fans of post-punk and new wave.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 19 Midwest Avengers w/ Anthony Lucius 8 p.m. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Boulevard. $20.

314-533-9900.

Midwest Avengers uses the term “hiphop” loosely. In addition to the rappers it borrows from, the group cites both Nine Inch Nails and Pink Floyd as key influences, which might seem strange for people who haven’t explored Midwest Avengers’ expansive body of work. Now in its 27th year, the group puts its genre splicing under a microscope at the Sheldon while doing something else it’s long been known

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

Continued on pg 49

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St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

SUNDAY 20

AND THAT’S WHY WE DRINK: 8 p.m., $25-$60. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

ANNUAL ACOUSTIC FESTIVAL: w/ Tom Hall, Ivas John, Gary Gordon, Brian Curran 4 p.m., $10.

BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

BERT KREISCHER: 8 p.m., $37.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

HORN, ALPHORN, AND ORGAN: 4 p.m., free. Second Presbyterian Church, 4501 Westminster Place, St. Louis, 314-367-0366.

IBC FUNDRAISER: w/ HyC & the Bottlesnakes 7 p.m., $10. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

JOHN PRY: 3 p.m., free. Rhone Rum Bar, 2107 Chouteau Ave, St. Louis, 314-241-7867.

LOVE JONES “THE BAND”: 8:30 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

ROCK 4 RELIEF: w/ OneDay 2 p.m., $10. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

WESTBOUND SIGN: 7 p.m., $8-$10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

MONDAY 21

LIVID: w/ Brute Force 7 p.m., $8-$10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

PETAL: 8 p.m., $12-$15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

ROCKY MANTIA & THE KILLER COMBO: 7 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

TUESDAY 22

THE DIRTY FEW: w/ Shitstorm 9 p.m., $5. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

JANET EVRA: 7:30 p.m., $10. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

STL SHED: 8 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

WEDNESDAY 23

BIG RICH MCDONOUGH & RHYTHM RENEGADES: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

JOE METZKA BAND: 10 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

MIKE STUD: 8 p.m., $25-$27.50. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

NONAME: 8 p.m., $25-$30. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

SONGBIRD CAFE: 7:30 p.m., $20-$25. The Focal Point, 2720 Sutton Blvd, St. Louis, 314-560-2778.

THIS JUST IN 83 WEEKS LIVE: W/ Eric Bischoff, Conrad Thompson, Sat., Feb. 23, 7:30 p.m., $20-$75. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

AARON NEVILLE: Sun., March 3, 8 p.m., $45-$50.

The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

ANNIE AND THE FUR TRAPPERS: W/ Saint Boogie Brass Band, Zydeco Crawdaddies, Thu., Feb. 28, 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

ANNUAL ACOUSTIC FESTIVAL: W/ Tom Hall, Ivas John, Gary Gordon, Brian Curran, Sun., Jan. 20, 4 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

ASIAN DOLL: Fri., Feb. 8, 8 p.m., $20-$35. Ambassador, 9800 Halls Ferry Rd, North St. Louis County, 314-869-9090.

BIG RICH MCDONOUGH & RHYTHM RENEGADES: Wed., Jan. 23, 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

BLACK & WHITE BAND: Thu., Jan. 17, 10 p.m., $5.

BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

BOB WEIR AND WOLF BROS: Thu., March 21, 7 p.m., $65-$100. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

BONGO JAK: Sat., Feb. 2, 8 p.m., free. Rhone Rum Bar, 2107 Chouteau Ave, St. Louis, 314-241-7867.

BOOTIGRABBERS DELIGHT: Fri., Jan. 18, 7 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

BOTTOMS UP BLUES GANG: Fri., Feb. 15, 8 p.m., free. Rhone Rum Bar, 2107 Chouteau Ave, St. Louis, 314-241-7867.

BRETT ARNOLD AND DINGUS: Sat., Jan. 26, 11 p.m., free. Mangia Italiano, 3145 S. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, 314-664-8585.

THE BROKEN HIPSTERS: Sat., Feb. 16, 8 p.m., free. Rhone Rum Bar, 2107 Chouteau Ave, St. Louis, 314-241-7867.

BROTHER JEFFERSON BAND: Thu., Jan. 17, 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

C.J. BOYD: W/ Mother Bear, Oxherding, Thu., Jan. 24, 9 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

CATFISH & THE BOTTLEMEN: Wed., March 13, 8 p.m., $30-$35. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

CHARLOTTE STREET: Sat., Feb. 9, 8 p.m., free.

Rhone Rum Bar, 2107 Chouteau Ave, St. Louis, 314-241-7867.

DANIEL ELIXIR: W/ Suzie Cue, Adam Gaffney, Fri., Feb. 1, 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

ELLE KING: W/ Barns Courtney, Fri., May 10, 9 p.m., $30-$35. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

ELLEN COOK: W/ Irene Allen, Lisa Houdei, Donald Woodyard Inc., Fri., Jan. 18, 8 p.m., free.

Livery Company, 6728 S Broadway, St. Louis, 314-558-2330.

FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE: W/ Dan + Shay, Morgan Wallen, Thu., Aug. 8, 7 p.m., TBA. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944.

HELL NIGHT ALBUM RELEASE PARTY: W/ Ultraman, The Lion’s Daughter, Fri., March 1, 8 p.m., $10. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

HUHT EP RELEASE PARTY: W/ Lord Soul, Fri., Feb. 8, 9 p.m., $5. Tim’s Chrome Bar, 4736 Gravois, St. Louis, 314-353-8138.

JASON ALDEAN: W/ Kane Brown, Carly Pearce, Dee Jay Silver, Sat., Aug. 24, 7 p.m., TBA. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944.

THE JEREMIAH JOHNSON BAND: Fri., Feb. 8, 9 p.m., $10. Rhone Rum Bar, 2107 Chouteau Ave, St. Louis, 314-241-7867.

JEREMY ENIGK: W/ Tomo Nakayama, Fri., April 26, 8 p.m., $16-$18. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

JOE METZKA BAND: Wed., Jan. 23, 10 p.m., $5.

BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

JOHN MCVEY: Fri., Feb. 1, 7 p.m., $10. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

JOHN PRY: Sun., Feb. 17, 3 p.m., free. Rhone Rum Bar, 2107 Chouteau Ave, St. Louis, 314-241-7867.

JOHNNYSWIM: Fri., May 3, 8 p.m., $30-$105.

The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

KARAOKE BOOM: Thu., Jan. 17, 8 p.m., free.

Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

KENNA REIS: W/ Desire Lines, Randi, Sat., Jan. 19, 9 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

KEVIN GRIFFIN: Sat., March 2, 8 p.m., $27.50$30. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

KINDRED: Fri., Feb. 8, 7:30 p.m., $5-$15.

Parker’s Table at Oakland & Yale, 7118 Oakland Ave., St. Louis, 314-645-2050.

KING BUFFALO: Wed., April 3, 8 p.m., $10-$12.

Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

KINGDOM BROTHERS BAND: Sat., Jan. 19, 7 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

LA4SS: Sat., March 2, 8 p.m., $40. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

MARDI GRAS

[CRITIC’S PICK]

SAT MAR 2

Noname. | VIA PARADIGM TALENT AGENCY

Noname 8 p.m. Wednesday, January 23. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard. $25 to $30.

314-726-6161.

Chicago rapper Noname is a star on the rise. Since coming to prominence with an appearance on Chance the Rapper’s song “ Lost” from 2013’s mixtape Acid Rap, the performer born Fatimah Nyeema Warner has made appearances on Saturday Night Live, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert Series and even, just last week, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Noname got her start as a spoken-word artist and poet, and it shows through her uniquely LOVE JONES “THE BAND”: Sun., Jan. 20, 8:30 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

LOVELYTHEBAND: W/ Flora Cash, Sat., April 27, 8 p.m., $20-$22.50. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

LUCKY DAN AND NAKED MIKE: Fri., Feb. 1, 8 p.m., free. Rhone Rum Bar, 2107 Chouteau Ave, St. Louis, 314-241-7867.

MAGGIE ROSE: Fri., April 12, 8 p.m., $10-$13.

Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

MARQUISE KNOX BLUES BAND: Sat., Jan. 19, 10 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

MARTY ABDULLAH & THE RHYTHM ROCKERS: Fri., Jan. 18, 7 p.m., $10. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

MATT DIEKEMPER: Sun., Feb. 3, 8 p.m., free.

Rhone Rum Bar, 2107 Chouteau Ave, St. Louis, 314-241-7867.

THE MELVIN TURNAGE BAND: Fri., Feb. 8, 7 p.m., $10. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

MESSTHETICS: Sat., March 9, 9 p.m., $12-$14.

Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

MEWITHOUTYOU, TIGERS JAW: Tue., March 19, 8 p.m., $20-$23. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

MISS JUBILEE: Fri., Feb. 15, 9:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090.

MONEYBAGG YO: Fri., March 1, 9 p.m., $25-$40.

Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East

plainspoken cadence and subdued delivery. The release of her debut album, September’s Room 25, was met with universal acclaim from critics, with no less an authority than Rolling Stone dubbing her “one of the best rappers alive.” It’s high praise, but it is praise Noname has undoubtedly earned.

Tour Guide: Noname’s Late Night debut saw her accompanied by rapper Smino, a St. Louis native now living in Chicago who still constantly reps the Lou. A surprise guest appearance might be asking too much, but stranger things have happened.

—Daniel Hill

St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

NOT SO QUIET! SETH BRAND: Thu., March 21, 6:30 p.m., free. St. Louis Public Library, Central Branch, 1301 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-241-2288.

PARACHUTE: Fri., May 17, 8 p.m., $25-$27.50.

Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

PRIESTS: Wed., July 10, 8 p.m., $12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

PUSSY FOOT: W/ the Funs, Glued, Mon., Feb. 18, 8 p.m., free. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

RELEASE THE HOUNDS: A BENEFIT FOR STRAY RESCUE ST. LOUIS: W/ the Lion’s Daughter as Motorhead, Slow Damage as Black Flag, The Gorge as Botch, Path of Might as Neurosis, Valley as Black Sabbath, Fri., Jan. 25, 8 p.m., $10.

The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

REVOLUTION AND THE KING OF ROCK & ROLL: Sat., Jan. 26, 6 p.m., $15. Casa Loma Ballroom, 3354 Iowa Ave, St. Louis, 314-282-2258.

RICARDO COBO: Sat., Jan. 19, 8 p.m., $24-$28.

Ethical Society of St. Louis, 9001 Clayton Rd, Richmond Heights, 314-991-0955.

ROB BELL & SUZIE CUE’S B-DAY SHOW: W/ Bagheera, Fri., Jan. 18, 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

ROCKY MANTIA & THE KILLER COMBO: Mon., Jan. 21, 7 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

THE RUM DRUM RAMBLERS: W/ Todd Albright, Sun., Feb. 10, 4 p.m., $10. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

DUKE’S LEGENDARY

FREE STREET PARTY & TENT

LIKE & FOLLOW FOR INFO & UPDATES @DUKESINSOULARD riverfronttimes.com

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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wednesday january 16 9:45 pm Urban Chestnut Presents

the voodoo players

tribute to acoustic jerry garcia thursday january 16 10 pm

the return of aaron kamm & the one drops friday january 17 10 pm

120 minutes plus the ramone’s tribute show saturday january 18 10 pm

little dylan’s blues experience wednesday january 23 9:45 pm Urban Chestnut Presents

the voodoo players

tribute to the allman brothers friday january 18 6 pm saturday january 19 12 pm

oyster & crab leg festival

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JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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RYAN KOENIG: W/ Dan Whitaker Shinebenders, Dock Ellis Band, Sat., Jan. 26, 8 p.m., $10. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

SAMMIE: Sun., March 3, 8 p.m., $25-$42.50.

The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

SKEET RODGERS & INNER CITY BLUES BAND: Sat., Jan. 19, 4 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

SLUM FEST AWARDS: Sat., Feb. 23, 7 p.m., $10$12. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-775-0775.

STL SHED: Tue., Jan. 22, 8 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

SUSTO: Wed., April 10, 8 p.m., $18.50-$20. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

THAMES: W/ Pono AM, Hounds, Sister Wizzard, Fri., Feb. 1, 8 p.m., $10-$13. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

THE JEREMIAH JOHNSON BAND: Fri., Feb. 15, 7 p.m., $10. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

THIS WILD LIFE: W/ Sleep On It, Crooked Teeth, Mon., April 29, 6 p.m., $18. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

TORREY CASEY & THE SOUTHSIDE HUSTLE: Fri., Jan. 18, 10 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

TURKUAZ: W/ Paris Monster, Fri., March 8, 8 p.m., $16-$18. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THE WANDA MOUNTAIN BOYS: Fri., Jan. 25, 7 p.m., $10. Jacoby Arts Center, 627 E. Broadway, Alton, 618-462-5222.

THE WHO: Thu., May 23, 7 p.m., $39-$300. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944.

WINTER JAZZ FEST: W/ John Patitucci, Brian Blade, Tracy Silverman, Dave Black, Ptah Williams and Bach to the Future, Jay Oliver, William Lenihan, Lucrezio DeSeta, Mo Egeston and friends, Sat., Jan. 19, 7 p.m., $25. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

WIZ KHALIFA, CURREN$Y: Sun., Feb. 17, 8 p.m., $35-$40. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

UPCOMING

ALLMAN ANTHOLOGY: A TRIBUTE TO THE ALLMAN BROTHERS: Sat., Jan. 26, 8 p.m., $20-$25.

Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THE AMITY AFFLICTION: W/ Senses Fail, Bad Omens, Belmont, Tue., Jan. 29, 7 p.m., $25-$30.

Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

AUSET MUSIC PROJECT: W/ BAJA, Sat., Jan. 26, 8 p.m., $12-$15. The Focal Point, 2720 Sutton Blvd, St. Louis, 314-560-2778.

Bar, 2107 Chouteau Ave, St. Louis, 314-241-7867.

BEST BETS Continued from pg 46

for: uplifting new and young talent.

Opener Anthony Lucius blends goldenera hip-hop with the sharp edge of modern rap and an emphasis on production — a full package to be sure.

Sarah Davachi and Lea Bertucci 8 p.m. Link Auction Galleries, 5000 Washington Place. $10 to $20. 314-454-6525.

New Music Circle presents a pair of solo sets that range from longform, synth-driven pieces to vibrant manipulations of saxophone and clarinet. LA-based Canadian composer Sarah Davachi has a master’s degree in electronic music and is currently a

C.J. BOYD: W/ Mother Bear, Oxherding, Thu., Jan. 24, 9 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

CARRIE NEWCOMER AND OVER THE RHINE: Fri., Jan. 25, 8 p.m., $30-$40. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

CODY KO & NOEL MILLER: Thu., Jan. 24, 8 p.m., $25-$80. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

DAWES: Fri., Jan. 25, 8 p.m., $35. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THE DEVIL MAKES THREE: Wed., Jan. 30, 8 p.m., $22.50-$25. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

EMO NITE: Fri., Jan. 25, 8 p.m., $10. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

THE GASLIGHT SQUARES: Sat., Jan. 26, 9:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090.

GHOST ATLAS: W/ Landon Tewers, Mon., Jan. 28, 7 p.m., $13-$15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

THE GRATEFUL BALL: W/ The Travelin’ McCourys, Jeff Austin Band, Sat., Jan. 26, 9 p.m., $25-$30. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

JACOB VI: W/ Matt F. Basler, Wax Fruit, Sat., Jan. 26, 9 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

LAMONT & THE HADLEY BAND: Fri., Jan. 25, 7 p.m., $10-$20. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

MARTY STUART & THE FABULOUS SUPERLATIVES: Thu., Jan. 24, 8 p.m., $35-$179. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

OLD CAPITOL ALBUM RELEASE PARTY: W/ Old Souls Revival, The Hague, Elliott Pearson & the Passing Lane, Fri., Jan. 25, 9 p.m., $10-$12. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

ON THE CINDER: W/ Antithought, Bastard Squad, Sun., Jan. 27, 8 p.m., $8-$10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

PATRICK SWEANY: W/ Greyhounds, Fri., Jan. 25, 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

RAYLAND BAXTER: Fri., Jan. 25, 8 p.m., $15.

Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

RELEASE THE HOUNDS: A BENEFIT FOR STRAY RESCUE ST. LOUIS: W/ the Lion’s Daughter as Motorhead, Slow Damage as Black Flag, The Gorge as Botch, Path of Might as Neurosis, Valley as Black Sabbath, Fri., Jan. 25, 8 p.m., $10.

The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

ROCK THE SPECTRUM BENEFIT CONCERT: W/ Al Holliday and The East Side Rhythm Band, Cree Rider, Bottoms Up Blues Gang, School of Rock, Sat., Jan. 26, 8 p.m., $20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

TRIPPIE REDD: Sat., Jan. 26, 8 p.m., $45-$99.

Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. n

doctoral student of musicology. Davachi is also well traveled, having performed throughout the states and several continents including Europe, Asia and Australia. Sound artist Lea Bertucci revels in the aura of processed saxophone, scultping sonorous walls through a careful balance of feedback and extended technique. Both performers exhibit a keen understanding of space while working to bring out a shared voice between themselves and a given show’s venue.

— Joseph Hess Each week we bring you our picks for the best concerts of the weekend. To submit your show for consideration, visit riverfronttimes. com/stlouis/Events/AddEvent. All events subject to change; check with the venue for the most up-to-date information.

ST. LOUIS’

BEST SPORTS BAR

BEST BAR FOOD

BEST HAPPY HOUR

duke’s in the heart of soulard

2001 Menard (Corner of Menard & Allen)

riverfronttimes.com

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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50

RIVERFRONT TIMES

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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SAVAGE LOVE BIG LITTLE LIES

BY DAN SAVAGE Hey Dan: I’m a middle-aged man dating a younger guy. He wanted to be a “boy” to a Dom top daddy, and I was happy to oblige. The sex is amazing, and we click as people, too. Then a couple days ago, he told me he wanted to explore small penis humiliation (SPH). I was taken aback — not by the request, but because his penis is not small! It’s not huge, but it’s at least average. And it’s thick! I’m not super hung, so it’s not that he seems small in comparison — I have maybe an inch on him.

When I pointed this out, he claimed I was just trying to make him feel better about his small size!

He said I was patronizing him. He ended the conversation by saying he would drop it, since it was obviously making me uncomfortable.

Honestly, I am uncomfortable with it. I just can’t imagine bringing myself to go on about how small his dick is when I’m actually thinking how much that thing would hurt if he were to top me.

But my bigger concern is that doing SPH might feed into possible body dysmorphia. The way he reacted to being told his penis wasn’t small was a red flag — it told me this isn’t just a fantasy. It’s not that he wants to be made to feel it’s small; he really believes it is small.

How is this different from telling a skinny boyfriend what a big fat pig he is? I really like this guy, and I think this could go somewhere. I want to be GGG, but not at the cost of his mental health.

Need Objectivity, Savage, Please Help!

“The boy expressed a desire to play out a specific scene; he did not request a fact-check on his dick size,” said Dr. Reece Malone, a board-certified sex therapist with a doctorate in human sexuality. “The boy’s disappointment is understandable, especially if he was feeling hopeful that the request would be met with enthusiasm and mutual excitement.”

Your boy was probably nervous when he brought SPH up, NOSPH, and his reaction to your reaction — his complaints about feeling patronized, his demand to drop

the subject — was likely motivated by shame. Not shame about the size of his dick, but shame about this particular kink. He was open with you about other kinks right away, but sharing those kinks probably didn’t make him feel as vulnerable as sharing this one did. He held SPH back until he felt he could really trust you. And after he worked up the nerve to tell you about his biggest turnon, your response was to argue with him about whether his dick is small enough to qualify him for SPH play. “I think it’s important that NOSPH revisit the conversation to examine if his reaction felt shaming,” said Dr. Malone.

“While I appreciate NOSPH’s concerns,” continued Dr. Malone, “SPH scenes don’t require one to have a small dick. It’s fully engaging in the role-play itself that’s hot and exciting. It really is no different if a daddy’s skinny boyfriend wanted to engage in a fantasy where the thought of being a ‘big fat pig’ was hot and exciting for him.”

Now, if he had a history of bulimia, telling him he’s a “big fat pig” could be harmful; likewise, if he had a history of bigorexia, telling him he’s a “skinny little shit” could be harmful. Your boyfriend may have a distorted idea about average dick size — most likely distorted by porn — but odds are good he’s one of millions of people out there who have eroticized their anxieties and insecurities.

So long as he isn’t contemplating some dangerous or stupid way to make his cock bigger (like getting liquid silicone injected into his genitals, something that led to the death of a gay man in Seattle last year), you can engage in SPH without doing him harm.

“But NOSPH should ask more questions and engage in a dialogue on how his boy wants the scene played out, and if and how it would change their sexual dynamic overall,” said Dr. Malone.

“It’s also fair for NOSPH to share his own concerns about feeding into body dysmorphia. He also has the right to set boundaries or decline the scene altogether.”

Agreed! Limits and boundaries aren’t just for subs, bottoms, or slaves. Doms, tops, Masters, and Mistresses get to have limits and set boundaries, too. If you can’t go there, you aren’t obligated to go there. But it might make you feel

“I was taken aback — not by the request, but because his penis is not small! It’s not huge, but it’s at least average.

And it’s thick!” better about going there, NOSPH, if you bear in mind that you can mock his tiny cock (during sex play) and reassure him about his cock (during aftercare). If your boy doesn’t feel like he has to win an argument about how small his cock is to get the SPH he wants, he might be willing to admit — or finally be willing to accept — that his cock isn’t really that small.

Dr. Reece Malone is the creator of “Last Longer in Bed: 6 Steps to Master Premature Ejaculation.” You can learn more about Dr. Malone and his work at reecemalone.com.

Hey Dan: I’m a gay man in my late 20s finishing up a graduate program and dating a man who is 38.

The sex is great. Some context: We met on Scruff and dated for a little bit. Then I suffered a loss in my family — I was sad and confused, and didn’t want a relationship during this time. We talked again in June 2018, we went to Pride in Minneapolis, and we have been together since December 2018. Recently he hinted about children and my attitude toward children. I responded that I want to have children of my own someday. However, in a text, he stated that he wants a child in a year or two. This seemed like an ultimatum to me, one that could make or break this relationship, and I wonder why he kept this from me. I do want children, but I’m still a starving student, a child is a huge responsibility, and I worry about the state of the world. And he texted this information to me! I feel anxious and pressured. What do I need to do?

Text Ultimatum May Unravel Loving Ties

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Maybe you need to chill the fuck out, TUMULT. People put their long-term goals on the table when they start getting serious about someone — long-term goals like the places they’d like to live or the kids they’d like to have — because if you’re not on the same page about the big stuff, continuing to make a large emotional investment in the relationship sets both partners up for heartbreak. And while you seem to think he should have brought kids up sooner (or in person, which definitely would’ve been better), people who bring up kids on the first date don’t get many second dates.

Six months in is a perfectly reasonable time to bring kids up.

And where you see an ultimatum, TUMULT, I see an opening — the opening of negotiations. Your boyfriend would like to be a parent in a year or two. You would also like to be a parent, but not that soon. So make your counteroffer. If two years is too soon, tell him when you think you might be ready.

Three years? Four? After you land a job in your field? After President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez signs the Green New Deal into law?

All your boyfriend is saying — all he’s texting — is that he sees a future with you and wants to know if you’re on the same page about the big stuff. It’s a compliment, TUMULT, not an ultimatum. And while there’s no compromising about whether to have kids — you can’t have half a kid (not legally) — you can hammer out a compromise about when to have kids.

Give the gift of the magnum Savage Lovecast at savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter ITMFA.org Want to reach someone at the RFT? If you’re looking to provide info about an event, please contact calendar@ riverfronttimes.com. If you’re passing on a news tip or information relating to food, please email sarah.fenske@riverfronttimes.com. If you’ve got the scoop on nightlife, comedy or music, please email daniel.hill@riverfronttimes.com.

Love us? Hate us? You can email sarah. fenske@riverfronttimes.com about that too. Due to the volume of email we receive, we may not respond -- but rest assured we are reading every one.

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

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HAPPY HOUR SPECIALS SPONSORED CONTENT

FOUR STRINGS HAPPY HOUR WEEKDAYS TIL 7PM $2 WELLS & DOMESTICS 1730 South 8th Street | Soulard

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MONDAY–THURSDAY 3–6 PM (ALL LOCATIONS) SUNDAY–THURSDAY 10 PM–CLOSE (DELMAR) THE LOOP

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DES PERES SOUTH COUNTY

314-858-1067 11925 MANCHESTER RD. DES PERES, MO 63131

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Now celebrating its sixth month anniversary, Four Strings in Soulard continues to expand its alcohol offerings, with local craft beers from 4 Hands and Schlafly on tap and specialty cocktails, but maintains the cheapest happy hour in Soulard with $2 domestic beers and $2 wells, with prices good from 3:30 to 7 pm.

In addition to its already excellent weekend brunch, Four Strings now offers food at happy hour and dinner, with the kitchen open until 9 pm on weekdays and 12:30 am on Friday and Saturday nights. The menu offers clever twists on classic bar food,

including the Brokeback Burger (an angus patty topped with an onion ring and BBQ sauce), the Fatty Fat Ranch Sandwich (a burger topped with fried pickles, a jalapeno popper, cheese and ranch dressing), as well as pizzas, po’ boys, and chicken wings.

Four Strings’ entertainment options include its bimonthly drag show hosted by local diva Kyra Banks, a Sunday jazz residency by Annie and the Fur Trappers, and other local jazz and folk talents like the Brian Horneyer Trio and River Kittens.

LAMBERT AIRPORT

artisan drinks in historic downtown

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wildeytheatre.com 618.307.1750

720 N. 1ST ST, ST. LOUIS, MO 63102

$2 OFF Appetizers

HAPPY HOUR

$12.50 Domestic Buckets During All Mizzou, Blues and Cardinals Games

•The ONLY place where you can get $12 Pitchers of SANGRIA in Town!!!

•The BEST VIBE!

•The Usual stuff everybody else does!

EVERY SUNDAY! 636-537-1970 HARPOSSTL.COM

314.863.9909 BARCELONATAPAS.COM 34N. CENTRAL AVE. ST. LOUIS, MO 63105

136 HILLTOWN VILLAGE CENTER CHESTERFIELD MO 63017

JANUARY 16 - 22, 2019

HAPPY HOUR @ BARCELONA M-F 3:30 – 6:30

•The BEST Calamari!

Burger Madness

RIVERFRONT TIMES

| 314.356.2776 | 401 pine st.

For a complete schedule...

FREE Axe Throwing with Food and Beverage Purchase!

Happy Hour 3-7 M-F

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feb. 2 sponge feb. 28 buzz sutherland comedy show apr. 6 albert cummings mar. 22 vanilla fudge

St. Louis’ ONLY Axe Throwing Bar and Grill

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*Craft CoCktails * H a p p y H o u r 7pm – 9 pm * o p e n t u e s – f r i a t 4pm

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