Riverfront Times, June 24, 2020 by Riverfront Times

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THE LEDE

PHOTO BY THEO WELLING

“We’re celebrating, but we’re also thanking our ancestors for what they went through so that we’re able to be here.” ASHANTI WREN (LEFT) WITH MARIAH WASHINGTON AND SISTERS ALLISON DICKENS AND RACHEL DICKENS AT THE JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION IN FRONT OF ST. LOUIS CITY HALL ON JUNE 19

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The (local) reckoning

s ac out uesday ooded nstagram and other socia media with b ac bo es, p enty of companies oined in through their corporate accounts. ut if they thought an on trend post wou d automati ca y earn them digita fist bumps, many soon found themse es facing an on ine rec oning. s RFT food writer Cheryl Baehr reports, one of those staring down a sea of accusations was homegrown dar ings a di’s offee. ast and present emp oyees responded with an ons aught of comp aints of bias and mistreatment of ac and rown wor ers. aehr ta ed to numerous sources who accused the compa ny of fo owing a pattern of microaggressions and hiring practices that bypassed ac ob candidates. nd on our co er this wee is my friend and former cowor er het ordon, a ta ented news photographer who turned to ong hau truc ing when ourna ism turned its bac on him after near y years. e was getting comfortab e in his new career right before hit. e ta about his new antage point from behind the whee of a truc , in stead of a camera but a so sti a camera. — Doyle Murphy, editor in chief

TABLE OF CONTENTS CAN’T

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E DITIO N

Publisher Chris Keating Editor in Chief Doyle Murphy

E D I T O R I A L Digital Editor Jaime Lees Hero In A Hot Dog Suit Daniel Hill Contributors Trenton Almgren-Davis, Cheryl Baehr, Eric Berger, Jeannette Cooperman, Thomas Crone, Mike Fitzgerald, Judy Lucas, Noah MacMillan, Andy Paulissen, Justin Poole, Christian Schaeffer, Chris Ward, Theo Welling, Danny Wicentowski, Ymani Wince Columnist Ray Hartmann A R T

& P R O D U C T I O N Art Director Evan Sult Editorial Layout Haimanti Germain Production Manager Haimanti Germain M U L T I M E D I A A D V E R T I S I N G Advertising Director Colin Bell Senior Account Executive Cathleen Criswell Account Managers Emily Fear, Jennifer Samuel Multimedia Account Executive Jackie Mundy

COVER

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

Traveling A long-time photojournalist’s journey from the news business to long-haul trucking during the pandemic Cover photos by

CHET GORDON

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ENT

HARTMANN America Dreaming A St. Louisan finds belonging in beer and baseball BY RAY HARTMANN

hen Eduardo moved to St. Louis from Denver four years ago to take a job at Anheuser-Busch, one thing jumped out at him more than any other: his new hometown’s love affair with its sports teams. “Growing up in Denver, everyone was really big into the Broncos and football, but not so much with the other sports,” the 30-year-old says. “The biggest thing I’ve noticed about St. Louis is its passion for its sports — obvi-

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ously the Cardinals and the Blues — in a way that’s really different from what I grew up with.” Eduardo is a city resident who works on the supply side in the brewing and packaging division of “Anheuser-Busch.” That’s in quotes because he corrected me when I referred to the company as “InBev,” pointing that while “Anheuser-Busch InBev” is technically correct, St. Louisans at the brewery still prefer to call it by its old name. You wouldn’t know Eduardo has only lived here four years. He and his wife of two years have fallen in love with the city, and in particular with hanging out in the Delmar Loop, as well as with that sports obsession. She has a good job in the city, too. “One of the things I really enjoy about St. Louis is that it has all the perks of a major city, but still has a neighborly vibe,” Eduardo says. “We love to go to the Loop for dinner and then go to the Pageant or Delmar Hall. You can see some

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in. When you throw on a Cardinals hat, you’re part of this movement. t’s definite y simi ar with the Blues. It’s very uplifting.” Being accepted as part of the St. Louis community is especially important to Eduardo. But it’s not so much because he works at an iconic local company, has become a hometown sports fanatic and enjoys hanging out with his wife at the Loop. No, it’s because Eduardo is a DACA kid. That’s why I’ve been referring to him as “Eduardo,” which is actually his middle name, rather than ma ing him more specifica y identifiab e. to d him didn’t mind his request to protect his identity, since it seemed obvious that the cloud of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency must hover over his life like a drone. Tellingly, Eduardo says that’s not the reason he would prefer anonymity in this context. While I Continued on pg 8

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great bands from all over the country — some really amazing artists — but you don’t feel like you’re one of a million people. You’re just a St. Louisan watching a concert.” That said, Eduardo was literally one of a million or so when he participated in the Stanley Cup parade and became a fan in the stands at Cardinals and Blues games. He still ranks sports as the thing that stands out most to him about his adopted hometown. “St. Louis is just infectious about its sports teams,” Eduardo says. “The environment and the whole vibe are really contagious in a way that’s different from Denver, especially with the teams other than the Broncos. I wasn’t a baseball fan until I got here, didn’t follow the Rockies, but it’s so different here. “The contagion of how much fans care — the energy and positivity around the team — it just makes it very accepting and easy to go along with and get caught up

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HARTMANN

Continued from pg 7

doubt that he and his wife, a U.S. citizen, are likely to invite ICE agents over for a dinner party anytime soon, he is represented by arguably the top immigration attorney in St. Louis — Jim Hacking — and leaves the legal stuff to him. The reason Eduardo prefers his privacy is that he just wants to be one of us. DACA kids are essentially Americans without the right piece of paper. In the large majority of instances, they came as young kids — Eduardo was six when his Mexican family overstayed its visitor visa in 1998 in search of a better life — and the United States is really the only country most have ever considered home. Eduardo is proud of his family and his heritage, but all he wants today is to melt into our melting pot. That’s not so easily accomplished if people might lump him with those “rapists and murderers” from Mexico about whom Donald Trump waxed so eloquently in 2016 as an organizing principle of his successful campaign to Make America Xenophobic Again. Eduardo has no reason to apologize for being a DACA kid, and most Americans agree with that in survey after survey. Even Trump pretends to favor kindness to young people like Eduardo after fanning the ames of fear and distrust all these years. But Eduardo keeps his head down about his DACA status — outside of a small number of friends and business associates — because he’s a realistic person. “I don’t broadcast it, just out of fear of how people will perceive me, not only in my personal life but at work as well,” Eduardo says. “A lot of people just have this view of us as foreign, when we’re really just normal people among you.” Eduardo acknowledges it might be different were he a Dreamer from Europe. “I would never compare us to Black Lives Matter, because that’s on a whole different level, but there is systematic racism that crops up when you’ve come here from countries like Mexico or El Salvador,” Eduardo says. “It’s cool to be an immigrant from England, if you’re a white person, but it’s looked down upon when you’re a brown person. “I just want to be an American and a St. Louisan.” Hacking was elated with last Thursday’s surprise U.S. Supreme

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Court ruling that bought more time for his clients such as Eduardo to remain in the country through DACA status. In a 5-4 ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts joined the high court’s four liberal justices in finding that the rump administration had been “arbitrary and capricious” in its heinous effort to eliminate DACA without a nondeportation solution in hand. “Eduardo’s case is a perfect example of President Obama’s goal in adopting the DACA program,” Hacking says. “He has made the most of the opportunity that was given to him and is a shining example of what can happen when immigrants are allowed out of the shadows. We’re hopeful that this serves as a bridge to him as he moves toward citizenship.” In Eduardo’s case, unfortunately, an immigration judge in Los Angeles ordered him and his family deported eighteen years ago. So, there’s work to be done. “We were able to get that order set aside last year by showing that Eduardo was married to a U.S. citizen and that he was eligible to adjust status,” Hacking says. “We’re hopeful that he can adjust in the next several months, and that would put him on a path toward U.S. citizenship.” At that point, Eduardo would become a green-card holder and would be eligible for citizenship three years later. Without DACA he could have already been deported, Hacking says. I had always thought marrying a U.S. citizen made you a U.S. citizen. Not so, it turns out in the case of DACA kids like Eduardo — because of the “crime” he committed at age six. Hacking says it’s up to Congress to fi this mess e remain hopeful that immigration reform is in our future.” Meanwhile, Eduardo is hoping like the rest of us that the Cardinals and Blues will start playing again. He also looks forward to rooting for his Broncos, but not two of Denver’s other sports franchises, the Avalanche and the Nuggets. The problem with them, Eduardo says, is that they’re owned by a fellow named Stan Kroenke and — in his words — “Kroenke sucks.” I really wish I could share with you this St. Louisan’s real, full name. After all, he’s one of us. n Ray Hartmann founded the Riverfront Times in 1977. Contact him at rhartmann@sbcglobal.net or catch him on St. Louis In the Know With Ray Hartmann and Jay Kanzler from 9 to 11 p.m. Monday thru Friday on KTRS (550 AM).

NEWS Kaldi’s Employees Allege Biased Culture Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

eramy Perry could not believe what he was hearing when he received the news that he’d been fired from his ob at a di’s offee. e’d e pected that he would have a conversation with his superiors after he says one of his coworkers assaulted him with a toi et p unger, but he was stunned to earn he was being b amed for the incident after, unbe nownst to him, a customer ca ed a di’s co-owner Tricia Zimmer Ferguson to let her know that a Black male emp oyee was ye ing at a white woman in the midd e of the obby. n hindsight, erry nows he shou d ha e seen this coming. or three years, he’d been emp oyed by the t. ouis based coffee brand, wor ing his way up to ead ba er at the company’s emun caf . hroughout his emp oyment, erry says he had e perienced regu ar microaggressions — the consistent ac of eye contact with white managers, meetings he wasn’t in ited to, dismissed ac app icants he’d encouraged to app y when the caf was short staffed but the probematic company cu ture they signa ed ne er fu y registered with him unti his firing ast ecember. hough he was reinstated fo owing an investigation that absolved him of any wrongdoing, erry says he was forced to wor with his assai ant and was e entua y pushed out of the caf when his hours were cut to pre ent their paths from crossing a situation he has come to see as emb ematic of the company’s cu ture of de a uing its ac emp oyees. f you are not white enough or way too ac , if you act way too ghetto, you are not part of a di’s cu ture,” erry says. ou can be a ac guy, but you ha e to be a quiet ac guy who won’t spea his mind or say what you fe t i e

Tricia Zimmer Ferguson says Kaldi’s is taking multiple steps to address concerns. | ANDY PAULISSEN saying. hat’s why didn’t fit in. I never understood what culture meant unti was ha fway through wor ing for them and seeing peop e who were trying to get obs and cou dn’t get obs. f you are ac , but you are too ac , that’s too much for them. hey can’t deal with that because they don’t now how to ta to you.” er the years, a di’s has grown from its origina shop in emun to eighteen ocations, inc uding caf s in o umbia, ansas ity and tanta, according to its website. f erry thought he was a one in his e periences, that perception was b own out of the water on une when a di’s posted a b ac square in honor of ac out uesday on its nstagram page. eant to signal solidarity with the Black i es atter mo ement for racia ustice, the post quic y became a forum for former emp oyees who, i e erry, say they either e perienced or witnessed a work environment that is unwelcoming to ac emp oyees and indifferent to creating a diverse and inclusive wor force. ithin hours, comments from current and former emp oyees began pouring in, a eging e erything from racist hiring practices to inconsistent discip ine, to belittling behavior toward Black associates and patrons. he pushbac did not stop there. hen a di’s posted again on nstagram on une , this time with a statement about its commitment to standing against racism, more commenters came forward to share simi ar stories of the company’s ac of di ersity and unwe coming en ironment for ac

“No matter how many times I’d send them people — mostly colored people — they never took anyone. Even though the people I sent them had professional skills beyond what Kaldi’s needed.” emp oyees. echoed a simi ar sentiment a di’s does not care about ac peop e. i e many e emp oyees, o e awyer, a former barista at the a di’s uc id ocation in the entra est nd, fe t compe ed to spea out when he saw the company’s nstagram posts. e f identified as a white, cisgender gay man, Sawyer says that he was never the ictim of discrimination at a di’s, but he witnessed it during his emp oyment. e was particu ar y surprised by the ac of ac cowor ers at his caf , which is ocated in a diverse neighborhood and surrounded by other businesses staffed with ac emp oyees. ccording to awyer, the two ad a-

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cent businesses, and ha e hac , both had ma ority ac staff, whi e a di’s had a staff of 21 that included seventeen white emp oyees, three sian emp oyees and one uerto ican emp oyee. awyer found the racia ma eup of his store qui ica . hen hired, he was told he had something the company refers to as the spare,” an factor that guides their hiring decisions and is considered a quality that can determine whether or not an app icant wi be a good fit for the organi ation. owe er, the onger he wor ed for a di’s, the more he came to question why app icants of co or seemed to lack such a quality in the eyes of hiring managers. his spar e’ is something that upper management says is a requirement to wor for the company,” awyer says. was ne er to d e act y what spar e’ meant, but assumed it was some sort of factor or specia ingredient in my that made me a rea y badass barista. find it rea y hard to be ie e that no ac peop e possessed that same spar e.” erry heard the word spar e” many times as well and was equaly confused why the app icants he ept sending a di’s way mosty ac peop e seemed to ac it. hough the cafes were consistent y oo ing for ba ers, not one of the peop e he encouraged to app y was u timate y hired, he says. n time, he came to see the term as a code that white hiring managers cou d use to screen out peop e who did not oo i e them. hey were a ways oo ing for ba ers, but no matter how many times ’d send them peop e mosty co ored peop e they ne er too anyone,” erry says. en though they were desperate and the peop e sent them had professiona s i s beyond what a di’s needed, they sti wou dn’t get hired.” Perry might have believed this had something to do with him, persona y, had he not witnessed a similar disinterest in hiring Black emp oyees at the company’s wee y hiring e ents. hough the e ents regu ar y yie ded ac app icants, those app ications wou d go to the bottom of the pi e without a second oo . n the rare instances that a ac person was hired, they were typica y gi en positions in the bac of the house, or as erry notes,

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KALDI’S

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“away from the customers.” Chris Brown, through his Instagram handle “@blerd_is_the_ word,” echoes the criticism of Kaldi’s failure to hire Black people, noting that, in his three years working for the company, he was the only Black team member at his location, even though neighboring restaurants had multiple Black and Brown employees. Three ex-employees, all of whom asked the Riverfront Times to withhold their names, describe similar circumstances. One says she only had two Black co-workers during her two years of employment; another corroborates this lack of diversity, explaining that she, too, only had two Black co-workers during her two-year tenure with the company. However, their allegations against Kaldi’s are not contained to its lack of diversity but include issues like inconsistent discipline, alleging Black employees were held to a different standard than their white counterparts for things like tardiness and dress-code violations, wage disparity, lack of sensitivity to LGBTQIA+ employees and an overall unpleasant work environment. Perry is not surprised. “If you worked at the roastery, you were a golden child,” Perry explains. “If you work there or become friends with them, you are good. If you work in the cafes, you are treated like crap. Different people get disciplined differently. Some of the stuff they do is just a human problem; they just have trouble treating people well, period. If you aren’t somebody they want and they hire you anyway, they’re going to find a way to get rid of you.” Kaldi’s has been slow to respond to the criticism. Though the company has made no replies to any of the comments on its June 2 post, it made attempts to do so on its June 8 one, reaching out to individual commenters with acknowledgment that they had seen the posts and would like to hear more. Perry is one of those commenters, and he has been disappointed by the lack of dialogue and the company’s apparent unwillingness to engage. Instead of speaking with someone from the company directly, he has instead been contacted by an intermediary, who is a Black former roastery employee. He says that Kaldi’s has asked to meet with him on June 29, but he feels that a threeweek delay speaks volumes about the company’s desire to hear what he has to say. The RFT reached out to Kaldi’s

with request for comment to the allegations lodged against it by several former employees. The company didn’t respond to specific questions, but did issue a statement, attributed to Zimmer Ferguson, which says that it has taken multiple actions due to the feedback from former employees. Among these are the formation of a Diversity Advisory Committee that includes BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and other members of the team, anti-racism and anti-bias training for new and current team members, and reliance on the Diversity Advisory Committee to play a role in hiring and promotions within the company. The statement

also says that Kaldi’s will focus its community support to prioritize communities of color by partnering with organizations like the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis. “Kaldi’s is one of many organizations that has been prompted by this national conversation to take this feedback and improve how we conduct our business,” the statement reads. “We are going to move quickly to make these improvements, so all of our team members and guests receive a better Kaldi’s experience.” Perry remains hopeful that once people know about his experiences at Kaldi’s it will force real change

within the organization. Even if that does not happen, he is glad that his voice has helped empower others to speak up and share their experiences. “I’ve talked to people who have told me they are thankful that I said something because they have been terrified of this company for so long and wanted to speak out, but they were worried they would lose their jobs,” Perry says. “By giving people the opportunity to say something now, a lot of people are letting go of the pain of Kaldi’s and are allowed to speak out and feel better. I’m just happy I can help them let go of it.” n

[OPINION]

Should Louis IX’s Statue Be Next to Fall? Written by

MICHAEL ALLEN

t. Louis safely removed Christopher Columbus from Tower Grove Park last week. It could be worse: A statue of Christopher Columbus lost its head in Boston. In Bristol, England, a monument to slaver Edward Colston went for a swim. Philadelphia’s longcontroversial statue of former mayor and police commissioner Frank Rizzo survived a felling attempt but is now in storage, festooned with graffiti. In Richmond, Jefferson Davis is gone and Robert E. Lee may soon follow. The struggle against racist policing has inspired a fresh wave of hard looks at divisive monuments. But in St. Louis, we removed the Confederate Monument from Forest Park back in 2017. It’s now in storage at the Missouri Civil War Museum, under an order to never again be displayed in the city or county. Since George Floyd’s death, activists had renewed calls to remove the statue of Christopher Columbus from Tower Grove Park. Designed by Ferdinand von Miller and sponsored by park founder Henry Shaw, the 1886 bronze was at the center of recent debates that led the park’s Board of Commissioners to pledge the addition of interpretive signage and markers of the area’s indigenous past. Columbus, however, still reminds many people of the violent, racialized origins of the European colonization of North, Central and South America. Although his visage aided the quest of Italian-Americans to assimilate, it also inscribes a legacy of imperialist conquest and racist genocide. A disclaiming plaque or countermonument will not erase that inscription. The Commissioners of Tower Grove Park rejected removal last year but now have

If you thought Christopher Columbus was bad, maybe check out Louis IX. | DOYLE MURPHY reversed course very swiftly. So we’re good, right? We’re in the clear? Maybe not. Arguably the worst offender of local statues remains atop Art Hill in Forest Park. Readers need no introduction, and perhaps feel their hearts swell on sight. But sadly, the statue of King Louis IX — St. Louis himself, our city’s namesake — enshrines a legacy as violent and offensive as that of Columbus. The statue itself is a dead giveaway. Beloved Louis, outfitted with chain mail and helmet, hoists his sword high and forward. The king is likely plunging his sword toward Muslims in the Middle East or Northern Africa, because erasing non-Christian life from the Holy Land was the foremost concern of his reign. He launched his first Crusade in Egypt in 1249. He died in Tunis in 1270 while leading another. Back in France, before the Crusades, Louis IX had tested his resolve by persecuting Jewish people. In 1243, he banned the Talmud and other Jewish texts, which his soldiers then confiscated and burned. If that sounds despicable, it did not end poorly for Louis IX. In St. Louis, his name is repeated thousands of time each day. Before the Gateway Arch rose, the icon of Art Hill — cast by W.R. Hodges from a model by Charles Niehaus in 1906 — illustrated letterheads, magazines, menus, maps, signage and even

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clothing. Things could be worse for a man who devoted his life to killing Muslims and persecuting Jews. Will this statue survive the current moment? Should it? As an historian, I hesitate to make such pronouncements. But right now, the masses devoted to justice are not waiting for expert opinion, deliberative commissions or other processional gestures at justice. People may take matters into their own hands, or they may not. While felling offensive statues is a regular part of political change, in the United States it happens incrementally and unevenly. Columbus may be the only casualty of this moment, and Louis IX may hoist sword high for a battle ahead. However, as we continue to debate issues of justice and representation, statues are not innocent bystanders. Political commemoration is a symbolic statement of the social compact. It records the lives and names of those the state wishes the populace to acknowledge, if not revere. But sometimes the people have had enough. No symbol, commission or scholarly compensation will suffice. Only the state’s redress of their main grievance will do. Michael R. Allen is Senior Lecturer in Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design at Washington University in St. Louis and Director of the Preservation Research Office.

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Chet Gordon, a former U.S. Marine who spent nearly 30 years as a news photographer and photo editor, has been a long-haul truck driver since December 2016 with Prime Inc. of Springfield, Missouri.

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Traveling Traveling A longtime photojournalist’s journey from the news business to long-haul trucking during the pandemic BY DOYLE MURPHY

very so often, my friend Chet Gordon has a stopover in St. Louis, and we meet for dinner. Chet is a long-haul truck driver these days, so we stick close to the interstate. Ideally, he’s ab e to find a par ing spot among the tractor trailers at a Love’s truck stop in the far northwest corner of St. Louis County, and then we drive in my car to one of the closest sitdown restaurants, a LongHorn Steakhouse next to the failed St. Louis Outlet Mall in Hazelwood. Driving there on our last visit felt like touring an abandoned metropolis in a zombie movie. We descended St. Louis Mills Boulevard past an emptied-out Babies R Us and curled along the perimeter of acres of unused parking spots. In less than two decades, a comp e designed to e cient y funne thousands of people to shops, restaurants and a movie theater had dwindled to accommodating… us, a handful of other diners and a few workers at a surprisingly hard-to-kill chain restaurant. “Hello, my friend,” Chet says whenever we meet again. For nearly 30 years, he was a photojournalist in New York and New Jersey. Now that he’s a driver, I follow along on his Instagram feed as he posts photos from across the country. Truck stops at dawn in Wyoming. Downtime between loads in Indiana. Fried catfish at the ra e a a in ig Cabin, Oklahoma. We worked together for more

PHOTOS BY CHET GORDON than six years at a newspaper north of New York City. Neither of us were married at the time, and we sometimes stayed up all night covering chaos or winding down over beers. Newspapers were faltering even then. It hadn’t reached the despair of a hollowed-out mall in the suburbs, but you could feel the dread. I took another job in 2013, and shortly after, the hedge fund that had bought the formerly familyowned newspaper before I left began slashing jobs. It laid off talented editors, outsourced the copy desk to Austin, Texas — and eliminated the entire photo staff. For me, it was like leaving a party early and learning later there had been a house fire at the end of the night. Chet and the other staffers, who had helped teach me the business, scattered in search of new jobs. Despite decades of experience, they quickly learned there were few options. Chet spent nearly three years battling to keep going in a career he’d begun in 1988 after serving in the Marine Corps. e anded a spot as the first photo editor of a lifestyle magazine group, only to be laid off again. He took jobs as a laborer for a contractor and in the warehouse of a grocery wholesaler as a way to buy time until he could return to his profession. But he wasn’t going to return. “I’m literally laying in bed one night,” he says, recalling a conversation with his future wife. “I sat

up, and I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to drive a truck.’” It wasn’t completely out of the blue. Not long before, he’d ridden along on a cross-country trip for a personal photo story on a long-haul driver and returned with new interest in the industry. And at the grocery wholesaler, he chatted up drivers who dropped off pallets of food, quizzing them about the pay, lifestyle and best trucking companies. After his late-night epiphany, he sent an inquiry to one of the companies, rime nc., based in Missouri. Over the previous three years, he’d sent dozens of applications to newspapers and former humanitarian aid agency clients with no luck. But a recruiter from rime oo ed at his mi itary service and his decades as a hardworking news photographer, and quickly offered him a bus ticket from New York to the company’s headquarters and training facility in pringfie d. het de ayed for another couple of weeks, and then he boarded the bus for the Midwest. “A twenty-plus-year career in the news business,” Chet says, replaying the mental hurdles of leaving his o d career and oing rime. t was tough. t was di cu t. t was shocking. It was shocking, yeah. But I made the right choice.” In October 2016, I picked him up from a bus depot at the Gateway Station in downtown St. Louis where he had an hour or two to

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Chet Gordon pauses after using a leaf blower to clean out his trailer in Aurora, Illinois.

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“This is an industry where none of us can ‘tele-work’ from home, and our work affects the health and well being of every single person in this country. Everybody has to eat.”

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i before tra e ing the fina eg to pringfie d. or ing at a newspaper is one of those obs that becomes an identity. hose who ea e tend to switch to something sti of that wor d, maybe a turn to the dar side” pub ic re ations or ad ertising. ome go into teaching. ’ e nown a few who went on to aw schoo . t’s not that they can’t do other things it’s ust outside their imagination. o wou d not ha e e er suggested het go into truc ing, but it made sense. e had a ways been a rigorous p anner, meticu ous y ining out his gear, arranging remotes and strobes for aw dropping sports images. e was a so mission dri en and a reent ess tra e er, embedding with doctors tra e ing abroad on humanitarian missions to near y countries and photographing ife in fghanistan, oso o, frica or ust re a ing in ermuda. er hamburgers and beers at aggie ’ rien’s pub, we ta ed about the truc ing industry, the news business and the state of the country. t wou d become part of our routine. s het mo ed from trainee to company dri er to now easing his truc toward ownership, we wou d meet semiannua y at some truc stop or empty par ing ot around t. ouis and catch up at whate er restaurant was nearby. e estimates it too a year tor

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so to get o er his an ieties and fee comfortab e in the truc . i e it,” he te s me during a recent phone ca . te them a the time, end me where er you want to send me. ’m going.’” ut e en as het has sett ed into a routine of i ing out of his truc for four wee s or more at a time, the country that he crosses from one end to the other has seen an uphea a un i e any in our ifetime. n arch, the weight of the corona irus first began to sett e on the consciousness of the nited tates. estaurants c osed their dining rooms, or c osed entire y. ro sports suspended their seasons. choo s shut down. hose sti wor ing were diided into essentia ” and nonessentia ,” but e en then, there were differences within the distinctions. eop e with essentia obs i e mine cou d sti most y wor from home. eop e with essentia obs i e het’s had itt e choice but to eep forging across the andscape. ’m an er the oad or ong hau commercia truc dri er, and here’s why the corona irus terrifies me,” he wrote at the top of a aceboo post ater pubished by another of our former co wor ers in the Putnam County News and Recorder in ew or state . het described the cra iness of the run on toi et paper and antibacteria wipes, the necessary imits on the number of peop e in crowds, imits that wou d ater be re ised down to ero. ut from his perch in the cab of an eigh-

teen whee er, as peop e began to wrest e with the se erity of the pandemic, he cou d see a missing piece of the con ersation. t seems that no one is wi ing to ac now edge the ery rea potentia mass chaos if the perishab e and grocery supp y chain networ is disrupted in this country,” he wrote. magine for a few moments if a percentage of the unseen ow wage farm, i estoc and migrant wor ers, a ong with meat, seafood and pou try processing p ant wor ers, as we as the warehouse wor ers, oaders, doc wor ers, and truc dri ers were to succumb to the irus. his is an industry where none of us can te e wor ’ from home, and our wor affects the hea th and we being of e ery sing e person in this country. erybody has to eat.” ot ong after he wrote that, c usters of outbrea s started popping up at meatpac ing p ants across the country. he enters for isease ontro and re ention issued a report in ear y ay that re ea ed about a fifth of the p ant wor ers in outh a ota and owa had contracted the irus and near y , wor ers in nineteen states had tested positi e. het’s routes occasiona y inc ude some of those same faci ities, not to mention a the truc stops and other warehouses a ong the way. ome p aces ha e it together,” he says. ou now, they chec us at the gate, they chec temperatures. hey request your icense, and they spray it and wipe it down Continued on pg 18

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

The scenery is always changing for long-haul drivers. Clockwise from top left: watching mechanics on April 28 at a Prime Inc. facility in Springfield, Missouri; parked on March 30 in McCammon, Idaho, after a long day on the road; restocking on March 25 in Port Arthur, Texas, after two failed attempts to find an open, truck-friendly store; an empty truckers’ chapel on April 6 in Princeton, Illinois; .

TRAVELING

Continued from pg 16

when they give it back to you. … Quite a few places don’t even want you to get out of the truck, other than to open your doors and back up to the building.” Lots of truck stops have closed their drivers’ lounges, restaurants and showers. They require masks. “Other places, it looks like nothing’s happened. There are extremes. … I’ve gone some places, and nobody’s wearing a mask, maybe one worker. None of the guests and none of the people in the cars at the truck stop that are walking in are wearing masks. None of them are concerned, and it’s like, ‘What the heck is going on here?’” Predictably, the attitudes of his fellow truckers vary as well. There are the drivers like Chet who have built extra steps, like disinfecting surfaces in the cab a couple of times a day, into their normal safety routines, and there are skeptics, too. “I hear the guys talking, ‘Oh, it’s

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a hoax, it’s all bullshit. It’s this. It’s profession.” He still reads the major newsthat,’” he says. “It’s a microcosm papers online, but his mind soon of the country, this industry.” In late May, George Floyd was fi s with maps, safety chec s and killed by police in Minneapolis, set- trip paperwork. He usually reting off massive protests. Chet was verse engineers his trips, working driving through Minnesota at the backward from the time he has to arrive so that time but was he can deterrouted on a loop You can contact Chet Gordon mine the miles a couple hours and follow his adventures here: to cover each north of the Twin chet@chetgordon.com day and allow Cities. Since then, chetgordon.photoshelter.com for the endless demonstrations Facebook: /chetgordon.pkr64 variables: trafhave sprung up in Twitter: @chetgordon fic, bad weathevery major city Instagram: @pkr64 er, road conin the U.S. and, in ditions, crazy some cases, interdrivers and on nationally. Seven or eight years ago, Chet would have and on. There are a million things been in the streets, viewing the up- to think about when you’re pullrisings through the lens of his Nikon ing close to 80,000 pounds down DSLR’s. Every once in a while, he the road at highway speeds. But even as he digs deeper and still feels the pang of missing the big news stories. But he’s consciously deeper into the life of trucking, he begun redirecting his mind away still has the urge to make pictures. from his old identity as a news pho- A dashcam rigged up in the cab gives a driver’s-eye view of the tographer, and into his new career. “I missed the daily stuff for a horizon ahead. Out of the truck, long, long time,” he says. “But he makes stunning use of an as this takes over your time and iPhone8, GoPro and a pocket-size your brain, this has become my Canon G15. And should he need

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them, he’s still got two Nikons onboard and a laptop for editing. He hasn’t lost the eye. It’s just his vantage point that has changed. “I’m not in the world as a journalist anymore,” he says. “I’m not dealing with mayors and governors and police chiefs and celebrities and athletes and, you know, socialites and country-club morons with the khakis and the golf shirts. I would actually rather be with the labor-force people, the workers. Always have, always will want to be, because these are the people that will give it to you straight.” The best times come when he has a two- or three-day run stretched out in front of him. There’s no boss to be apprised of his every move (onboard sensors send off all the information they need to monitor his progress), and no o ce to isit. he has to do is wake up and drive. “I tell people all the time, ‘You want to know what it’s like, you’ve got to come ride with me,’” he says. “I can’t tell you what it’s like. I can’t explain it.” n

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SHORT ORDERS

[SIDE DISH]

New Beginnings Meghan Coltrain used downtime from a layoff to boost a passion project Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

s recently as early March, Meaghan Coltrain was in a great place in her job as corporate executive pastry chef for Niche Food Group. From making gelato and special events desserts for Pastaria and Sardella to developing Instagrammable soft-serve ice cream for Rockwell Beer Company, Coltrain was in her groove, using her talent and creativity to make the sweets at Gerard Craft’s restaurants among the best in town. All of that changed when the COVID-19 outbreak hit St. Louis in mid-March. Overnight, the industry to which she’d devoted her professional life was upended, and she found herself unemployed for the first time in her adu t ife. t was disorienting, but as Coltrain explains, it was not unexpected. too off to ew or for a fi ming opportunity right when the first two cases [in St. Louis were announced,” Coltrain says. “We were watching the news scroll across the big tic ers where they fi m the oday show — it was so crazy to see the numbers. hen ew bac , there were only twenty people on a fu si e outhwest ight, which was a good indication that something was awry and things were going to be happening.” Coltrain’s intuition proved right. As soon as she arrived back in St. Louis, she and her fellow Niche Food Group teammates gathered for a meeting to discuss a plan of action. She admits that she and her colleagues thought Craft was perhaps being overly dramatic at first that his c aims of a permanently changed industry were unlikely. However, as things began to get worse and worse in the United

Meaghan Coltrain sees her time away from the kitchen as an opportunity to rethink the way the industry operates. | ANDY PAULISSEN States, they all realized that Craft was actually quite prescient. hough the decision was incredib y di cu t, o train e p ains the restaurant group felt it had no other choice but to lay off its staff and shut down operations. She and her coworkers occupied themselves for a while with deep-cleaning projects, as well as volunteering with the North Sarah Food Hub, an organization in north city that provides meals to the neighborhood’s food insecure. However, as those projects ended, Coltrain found herself with time to think about what she wanted her next steps to be — and whether they would lead to the same path she’d been walking for the past several years. When it became clear that her position with Niche Food Group was going to be permanently eliminated, Coltrain realized that

it was an opportunity to focus on her business, Milkmade, a postpartum nutrition company she’d founded after the birth of her second daughter. hough it’s a ways been her passion project, she sees this as an opportunity to fina y execute her vision of the business as a health and wellness resource for mothers, who need support during such a wonderful, but challenging time in their lives. By combining that passion with her love for cooking, Coltrain hopes she can be a part of a movement to change the conversation about work-life balance for women. “My heart is in the food industry, and I think I will always be involved,” Coltrain says. “I would love to get back in the kitchen, because I think it’s an opportunity to design how life looks for women in the workplace. I truly believe

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in a work-life balance, and there’s nothing to say that we can’t do that. his is a great opportunity to evaluate what is necessary. When you are a busy person, it’s easy to pile more busyness on top of it, but you need to see how to do it without bogging yourself down.” Coltrain took a moment to reect on the pandemic’s impact on the industry she loves and what’s giving her hope during this challenging time. As a hospitality professional, what do people need to know about what you are going through? More than ever, I hope people understand that our line of work is not for the faint of heart. Most of us dedicate everything to our jobs, and unfortunately, regardless of that dedication, these unforeseen

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MEGHAN COLTRAIN Continued from pg 21

circumstances have left business owners to make the hardest decisions as they rebuild what they have left. While some have waited safely in their homes, others have worked tirelessly to make the curbside and delivery ventures work. In a nutshell, the industry is tired and worn but same as it ever has been. We will rise again and find new footing in this pandemic wor d. am confident that the t. Louis industry will bounce back with a stronger sense of community. As a consumer right now, I urge you to support oca and be patient whi e doing so. What do you miss most about your job? or me, iche ood roup was like coming home. Many of the chefs and managers were with the company when wor ed there originally almost a decade ago. I miss seeing my coworkers and the think tank we shared for creating a bright future for the restaurants. I know the future ho ds opportunities for us to co laborate again, so I look forward to that time. What do you miss least? The restaurant industry is always bustling, which is what is so attractive to me as a busy bee, but taking time to work on myself and grow outside of my professiona ife has been a blessing in itself. While I love being busy, I don’t miss the rat race. I felt like I was always behind and constantly rushing from one role in life to the next. It has been rea y nice to de e op my small business, Milkmade, and focus energy on my daughters, Ruby and e i ah. his is the first time as a family with two chefs and two little girls that we have had this amount of time to spend together. e are soa ing up e ery minute as we ta e steps into the future and new opportunities. What is one thing you make sure you do every day to maintain a sense of normalcy? I love to hike and kayak, so recently I have been challenging myself to get outside and e p ore dai y. What have you been stress-eating/ drinking lately? Oreos, double stuffed with ice cold milk. Also, handmade ice creams, sorbets, and custards. o sugar basically all I have done during quarantine is eat sugar and bake. What are the three things you’ve made sure you don’t want to run out of, other than toilet paper? Butter, eggs and Oreos. You have to be quarantined with

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three people. Who would you pick? e i ah oan, uby oan and Brian Coltrain. Once you feel comfortable going back out and about, what’s the first thing you’ll do? fter being in the epicenter of the virus in March during my visit to ew or ity, new had to find ways to create a comfort for myself and my family. Luckily, Chef erard was ery open initia y with us about how the future oo ed for the hospita ity industry, so I immediately started working on baking items from home for customers. ince then, ha e wor ed on specia orders, contact free drop off and bui ding c ientele. That being said, once restrictions ift and ife finds its course in ater phases of corona irus, oo forward to hosting dinners for friends and family again. Having a home full of love and laughter brings me so much oy. he past few months of being separated from everyone has been so quiet. What do you think the biggest change to the hospitality industry will be once people are allowed to return to normal activity levels? I think creating a comfortable environment for guests and emp oyees with a e e s of concern over the coronavirus will be the biggest challenge. The restaurants that are proacti e about training staff and encouraging customers to engage in the pandemic procedures wi hopefu y thri e. atience is ey as a consumer if something seems off, mention it, but p ease remember e eryone is still learning how to best navigate during the reopening phases. What is one thing that gives you hope during this crisis? I have found a new level of faith in humanity during the pandemic. was fortunate to volunteer with iche ood roup at the orth arah ood ub. n the midst of all of the coronavirus craziness, we bui t fundamenta safety protocols and comfort for our emp oyees that we fur oughed with meal bags. From there, the community spirit grew in so many of us as racia in ustice pea ed in the midd e of pandemic. a ers for Black Lives was formed out of passion and hope for progress. annah erne, haron arter, Maya Harter, Paige Jocoby, Tai Davis and myself have worked on this pro ect the past few months. t. ouis showed up to support in our “every calorie counts” efforts to raise funds for ArchCity efenders and ction t. ouis. f there is anything I have learned from this virus, it has to be bake for what you believe in. n

[IN MEMORIAM]

RIP Jack Parker The legendary owner of O’Connell’s Pub was my first boss Written by

THOMAS CRONE

side from a couple of random cash hustles, my first real job was enjoyed as a busboy at O’Connell’s Pub, circa 1985, or thereabouts. That, of course, meant that the bar’s longtime owner Jack Parker was my first boss. It didn’t take long for the relationship to become official. On my maiden shift, I wore my go-to shirt of that moment, a long-sleeved, vertically striped affair with a Nehru collar. It was untucked and with my shirt-tails flapping, Jack ambled over within two minutes of the door opening and mentioned (and this is verbatim) that “that’s not how we do it here.” With the message received, I tucked in, finished my shift and spent the next 35 years at least a touch worried when Jack was around, even though I only worked there for about two years in the mid ‘80s. Hundreds, if not thousands, of St. Louisans knew him at least a little bit well, and we all came into his orbit at different moments and in different roles. But for me, and maybe a few others along the way, he’ll always have that authority figure vibe in our minds. Really, his presence is something that I felt every time I’d walk into that goldenlit barroom at Kingshighway and Shaw, even when he wasn’t onsite. It was always his place, even after he passed the management reins to his nephew, Fred. It was only with his okay that a lot of us came into that employ. I scored my own gig the old-fashioned way: by knowing someone. It was my friend Pete who set it up. He’d come on as a legacy worker, himself, as his mom Kitty was serving tables there, while Pete bussed weekend nights. At that time, the staff was largely set and shifts were rarely open, whether on the floor, in the kitchen or behind the bar, where tag teams like Lenard-andRed and Kim-and-Ron entertained their regulars, poured countless drinks and added to that overall, traditional feel that permeated the place. “Tradition.” Always the watchword at O’Connell’s. From the smoking at the bar to the lack of tomatoes to those dustyheaded gnomes that appeared above the bar every Christmas season — back then, all elements were explained as done-that-way-because-they-were-donethat-way. It’s always felt lived in, homey. And that made sense, as this beast of a building was, in fact, a bar long before O’Connell’s arrived in the early fall

We lost a link to a fascinating era of St. Louis nightlife when Jack Parker died. | COURTESY O’CONNELL’S PUB of 1972. But when he brought a lot of the woodwork and chandeliers and brica-brac, well, it was thought a new bar and that old bar, all at once. His collections — be they old prints of older boxers, pictures of his winning race horses or weathered whiskey signage — were more than just decorations. By 1972, of course, the pub’s reputation was already well set after many years at the edge of Gaslight Square; that year, it would be the last major business to finally depart the famed-then-faded entertainment district. By the time I hit the scene to wash glassware and mop up spills, a few of the workers were well into a decade of service, several dating back to the days at Boyle & Olive. Parker’s own arrival as a proprietor came a few years into its original operation (and Ann Lemons Pollack has done a marvelous job of summing up the highlights of the early years via St. Louis Magazine’s blog this past weekend). At the time, I recall conversations about Gaslight taking place all around me, though I was too young and uninterested to really clue into the meaning of it all. Fast-forwarding a couple of decades, I ended up getting hipped to that long-gone area, eventually working on a book called Gaslight Square: An Oral History, published in 2004. At the time, Jack Parker, interviewed in his upstairs lair of J. Parker Antiques, provided one of the kickoff interviews. He’s featured on the book’s cover

and is the first, full Q-and-A in the project. All of that made sense, in that Jack was frequently cited in stories about the Square, and little media attention about the Square didn’t at least mention O’Connell’s and Parker. Thus, these three elements (an owner, a business, a neighborhood) became interwoven over time. He surely didn’t know that in taking on a lease in the mid ‘60s that he was also signing a lifetime contract as spokesman for a doomed, brilliant flash of St. Louis history. Kicking forward a couple more years, I was brought on by a family member to write a lil’ book about the place itself, as it moved toward its 50-year anniversary. By this point, I could sense that Parker had had enough interviews and sit-downs and drop-ins about Gaslight to last a lifetime. There were days when the topic was fine to bring up, and there were others when you could sense that it wore on him, this unofficial role as the district’s living link. There were surely afternoons when he wanted to sit upstairs, enjoy some iced tea and a smoke without someone walking up those many steps to rifle through his box of Gaslight keepsakes. (And what a box it was, loaded with newspaper clippings, ticket stubs, playbills and the like.) As bad luck would have it, in a moment of haste, I accidentally erased the entire contents of a digital recorder, and poof!, the idea ended. But as that deflated project began I had my second awkward run-in with Jack. In the Gaslight book, he referenced

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someone specifically and wished he hadn’t. Books being what they are, there wasn’t much to be done but apologize for any miscommunication. He felt, and conveyed to me in no uncertain terms, that the comment, a short one, wasn’t kind and didn’t need to be included. There wasn’t a need in the canon, he felt, for this single, throwaway comment and it rubbed him the wrong way for all those years. This idea that he’d slighted a contemporary made him feel bad about his role in talking about the Square, and I felt I’d disappointed him, in turn. Over time, it dawned on me that he really did carry the Square’s weight. That conversation was never really brought up again. And, in becoming a pretty solid regular at the bar for a few years, I had plenty of time to chit-chat with him during his frequent bar cameos. Usually right there at the west end of the tavern, pressed near the server’s station, where the best conversions have taken place, staffers and customers cracking wise, Jack coming by for a self-pour from the iced tea pitcher. Hard to imagine those scenes not continuing another decade. Jack Parker died at age 83 on June 19. As Lemons Pollack reported, “According to his son, John Parker, Jr., his father died from heart failure while in the hospital, following treatment for an intestinal disorder.” He was more than a bar/restaurant proprietor, of course, but in that role alone he leaves us as a legend. n

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CULTURE [HOMESPUN]

This Time Is More Intense 18andCounting stays bent and busy with 71-day livestream run Written by

CHRISTIAN SCHAEFFER

tay woke, stay ready,” as the saying goes. That dictum has been put into practice for years by civil rights organizers, but as the intertwined movements of police reform and Black Lives Matter have hit a critical mass over the past month, the phrase rings ever more true. Stan Chisholm has his own twist on the phrase: “Stay bent, stay busy.” It describes both his posture — leaning over turntables, or racks of synthesizers, or paint-splattered canvas — and his seemingly endless drive to create. As the force behind the pseudonymous 18andCounting, Chisholm creates varying strands of visual and musical art: Sometimes that means DJ sets at local bars, and sometimes that means leading a band comprising drums, violin and didgeridoo, as Chisholm did at 18andCounting’s memorable set at LouFest in 2017. Alongside vocalist goya_goon and fellow producer Dolor, 18andCounting also recently released a set called Strait II Tape, culled from an hours-long session recorded in January and preserved on grainy, punchy cassette. But Chisholm, like every musician, struggled with how best to stay busy during the COVID-19 shutdown that has continued to sideline working musicians. At first, he put his house in order literally. Years of steady gigging left his studio space in shambles, so the shutdown allowed Chisholm to put everything back together. “Quarantine has helped that — I don’t have to have all these cables on deck to take to shows, and we’re not throwing parties at the studio for a while,” he says. “All these cables that were hanging out are now engaged. I don’t

Stan Chisholm dubbed the nightly series of streams the “Midnight Special.” | VIA THE ARTIST know what’s gonna happen when we do another show.” Those regular gigs got transmuted into what he dubbed the “Midnight Special,” a nightly DJ set that he livestreamed for a whopping 71 nights straight. “I guess it was a decision made on a whim,” he says. “I just woke up one day and said, ‘Alright, I guess there’s not gonna be any shows for a while. I’m gonna stream every day.’ I said that’s what I was gonna do.” is first i estream set was March 22, which was supposed to be the night of former Can lead singer Damo Suzuki’s long-awaited set at Off Broadway. Chisholm was set to perform at the show. “I can’t say that I streamed because that show got canceled, but something about the intensity that was going to take place at that show inspired me,” he says. “I wasn’t afraid of the idea of playing continuously,” Chisholm continues, referring to his usual three or four (or more) hours-long DJ sets pre-shutdown. “Going at it in some intense manner was going to be good for everyone. I was able to show the range as well — if I’m doing it from home there is no emotional factor, aside from what we were all seeing online. It never really felt repetitive — who is in the room changes, and every day something got tweaked.” Ever the sonic tinkerer, Chisholm made subtle changes to the format for each stream. But the

depth of his record crates ensured that his sets stayed varied, and being liberated from a traditional DJ booth let him take some chances. “But it was weird for a little bit — not having a crowd is weird,” he says. “You don’t get that with a stream it was coo to y at my own imagined pace, not ‘it’s Friday, everyone’s drunk!’ I’ve always been pretty stubborn about playing what I want to, but it was pretty nice to y how want to, playing my own music or deciding that I was gonna play drumless music for the next 40 minutes.” Chisholm ended his nightly streams at the end of May but he hopes to tweak the format for future videos, perhaps focusing on modular synthesis or production. And he still lends his talents to righteous causes, performing on i estream benefits as both a and a performer. Early last week he did a set to benefit bringing personal protective equipment (PPE) into prisons, and on Friday night he too part in a benefit for the legal advocacy group ArchCity Defenders thrown by the Grove neighborhood venue the Monocle. or these shorter benefit sets, hisho m has been ab e to e his activist muscles more overtly than in his DJ sets. “It’s interesting; I consider myself a writer and vocalist and a rapper before everything else; I got into rapping before everything else,” Chisholm says. “I think my angry-at-the-world voice has taken a backseat.”

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Performing his lyrical content on these streams, including songs from his 2016 release The Birds at This Hour, reanimated his skills as an emcee. “I guess it was an opportunity to remind myself that lyrically I am against a lot of what is the norm, and I have this sociopolitical aggression that has taken a side-step to learn production,” Chisholm says. “It’s important to show up for those folks,” Chisholm says of the organi ers and beneficiaries of these recent livestreams. “It’s also important for me to maintain my corner and what I believe in activism. I have an aggressive way of doing things and a lot of it comes from going against stereotypes and going against images of who I am.” Chisholm’s work has long been socially conscious if not overtly political or straightforwardly preachy; he favors elliptical lyrics and extended metaphors in his verses. But when asked for his perspective as a Black man living and working in St. Louis if this moment feels different than the experiences in and around Ferguson after Michael Brown’s death, Chisholm sees both stasis and progress. “Unfortunately it doesn’t feel different, but it does feel more intense,” Chisholm says of the current swell of activism. “Intensity is how you make a difference; intensity is how you get heard. People are leaning on the struggle of Black people in this moment because the struggle of Black people built this country. Because it is so intense, people are starting to feel like it matters to them. It’s now, but it’s also historical. Even saying something as simple as, ‘I’ve enjoyed the music of black people all my life; now I have to do something.’ You saw, you enjoyed, but you were not hearing me. “Only because it’s intense now — it’s upsetting that it takes that much work,” he continues. “I think now people are starting to understand that it’s not a Black problem — it’s a white problem. Somehow, it’s now starting to seem like a problem for everyone. It’s not gonna be the last time we see a video — it’s already happened. It’s upsetting, but I am hoping the intensity changes things. If the law took care of George Floyd, then when is the law gonna take care of the murderers? “Things are intense because they’ve been so fucking lopsided for over a century,” Chisholm says. n

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[RADIO]

Save the Sound St. Louis jazz station 88.7 FM WSIE is in danger of going under due to COVID-19 Written by

DANIEL HILL

fter nearly 50 years as a community radio station serving the St. Louis region, WSIE (88.7 FM), the area’s only source of 24/7 jazz on the FM dial, is in danger of being knocked off the air thanks to COVID-19. The station, branded “The Sound” in 2016 after decades spent hosting jazz music, is owned by Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and is used as a training ground for the school’s Mass Communications department, with students working alongside its small but dedicated staff. For years it received an appropriation from the state totaling about $140,000 annually, which covered the bulk of its $181,000 yearly operating costs. But as the state of Illinois faced a budget crisis in recent years, the station stopped receiving that appropriation. SIUE instructed WSIE in 2016 to become self-sustaining by 2017, and by 2018 the state funds dried up. “After the loss of our state funding in 2018, our staff, which consists of myself as general manager, our full-time chief engineer, Carlos Bedoya, and our part-time fundraiser, Stephanie Lewis, rallied to recover as quickly as possible,” General Manager Jason Church says. “Although we still hadn’t recovered entirely from the absence of state funding, the increases in underwriting support from local businesses, along with donations from our loyal listeners and a new focus on grant applications had us well on our way.” Then, as with pretty much every story told in 2020, COVID-19 came along to wreak some havoc. Church says the station saw an immediate decrease in financial support as lockdowns meant to control the spread of the virus took a toll on the economy both locally and globally. “Unfortunately, many of our underwriters were forced to pull their contributions to the station, as many had to reduce services or close entirely during the shutdown,” Church says. “We also saw a marked decline in regular listener donations. This combination has set WSIE up for a loss of around $100,000 this year and a desperate need of funding. “Without the loss coverage,” he says, “this station may go off the air for good.” That would be a major loss for local

General Manager Jason Church, center, says that COVID-19 has badly affected the station’s underwriting efforts. | VIA WSIE lovers of jazz, R&B and blues music. With its 2016 rebrand from The Jazz Station to The Sound came expanded

programming, in keeping with the outsize influence jazz has had on the music scene locally and nationally in recent

[ A P O C A LY P S E S O U N D T R A C K ]

Pande-Mix: An End of the World Mixtape

BY CHRIS WARD Each week, former KDHX DJ Chris Ward examines a song from his quarantine-based playlist dealing with isolation, loneliness, hope and germs. Find them on the Spotify playlist, “Pande-Mix: An End of the World Playlist”: https://spoti.fi/2WZGTJZ.

“Influenza” from The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect (1982) by Todd Rundgren “I can feel my will slip away.”

have a checkered history with Todd Rundgren. I had this next-door landlord in Springfield, Illinois — Eddie, great guy — who used to punch out at his city job, slide down the tail of a brontosaurus right into his NASCAR-themed garage, drink Miller Light until midnight, and noodle on a bass while his wife stayed in the house. In other words, the life. He had buddies who would come

around, no joke, like the opening credits of King of the Hill at 5:02 p.m. One of these men had a white ponytail exactly like you’re imagining. He also had that braying smoker’s laugh that accompanies his own non-jokes and makes everyone deeply uncomfortable. This guy was the first Todd Rundgren superfan I have ever met. I didn’t know this was a thing. It’s a thing. He, like other superfans, call him “Todd” when talking about him. Casually. Imagine if Jimmy Buffett fans still had none of the taste, but were boomer drug addicts instead of boomer alcoholics. That’s Todd Rundgren superfans. He gave me

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years. Pre-2016 the station was more likely to play music that would strictly get the nod from jazz purists, but in the years since, it’s not uncommon to hear the likes of Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and John Coltrane alongside David Sanborn and George Benson, with a little Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt and Aretha Franklin on the side. The station is a supporter of local artists as well — you can hear celebrated singer/songwriter Tonina there, as well as the Funky Butt Brass Band and many others. In order to try to dig itself out of the hole, the station launched a fundraiser, seeking to raise some $100,000 by June 30. At present those efforts have brought in approximately $30,000, but Church is optimistic that they’ll reach their goal. “If we received just $5 from 20,000 donors, we’ll reach our goal. If we received just $10 from 10,000 donors, we’d be set,” Church says. “So it’s literally going to take a community to save this wonderful community radio station, and it’s our hope that spreading the word far and wide will help do the trick.” That’s our hope as well. If you’re able, consider donating to WSIE at siue. edu/wsie/support. n

a DVD of Todd’s ‘90s experimental music videos that would “blow my mind.” If you go to Todd’s website, TRconnection.com — where 1997 has been quarantined and preserved in HTML amber — you too may have your mind blown. If you thought the original Space Jam website was a trip…brother, hold on. Somewhere, a pony-tailed webmaster with a raspy cough awaits your visit through Netscape Navigator. This is his current, updated website, mind you — note the 2020 tour dates. But if there’s anything more comforting than going down the wormhole of a pre-social media Angelfire page these days, I don’t know what it is. Let your guard down, let your will slip away. Let Todd’s website happen to you. What is at first jarring and garish suddenly becomes nostalgic and soothing — a time when Computer Rooms were a thing. And these are the types of online bunkers it’s nice to spend a little time in, once in a while, during a scary time. As long as we’re not, you know, a chickenshit president with actual things to do. All that said, I like the song “Influenza.” I like it because no one could pick out Todd’s voice in an AM Gold lineup — it could just as easily be Daryl Hall singing this song. I like it because it’s light, it’s breezy, and it’s synthy. And I like it because the crash and ride cymbals are hilariously dull every time they hit in a way that makes me laugh as I’m signing Todd’s Angelfire guestbook. n

JUNE 24-30, 2020

RIVERFRONT TIMES

JUNE 24-30, 2020

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SAVAGE LOVE BLOWING UP BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: I’m committed to my male partner and he’s committed to me. (I’m a woman.) But we both understand we need to flirt and that we will both want to sleep with someone else at some point. We live together, we have a dog, and neither of us believes in marriage. We plan to purchase a house in the coming months. Here’s the issue: he met a woman at work. He’s not sexually attracted to her at all. She, however, would love to blow him. She’s in an unhappy marriage and has no friends. They exchanged numbers when my partner was transferred and now she texts him constantly. It doesn’t totally bother me. But not only does she text him at all hours of the day and night, but she continuously tells him he’s the hottest man she’s ever met. She sends him nudes, which I’ve seen, and wants to suck his “huge dick.” (It is huge.) But even though I know he’s not sexually attracted to her, I’m still feeling threatened. I have extremely low self-esteem right now and I’m struggling with depression. I’m speaking with a therapist and I’m on meds. But the meds have made me gain about fifty pounds, which doesn’t help with the depression. I get the need and desire to flirt. But right now I’m not confident enough to be okay with him being sexual with another person even if it’s just texts. And I feel this way knowing he has no plans to be with her! He continues to tell me he has no desire to spend his life with anyone else but me. Yet he’s suddenly hesitant to buy a house. I guess I’m asking WTF should I do? Dinging Phone Really Exacerbating Semi-Serious Depression You say it doesn’t bother you — it doesn’t totally bother you — that this woman texts your partner day and night, DPRESSD, which strikes me as odd. Because that shit would drive me up the wall. Blowing up someone’s phone at all hours of the day and night screams, “I HAVE NO BOUNDARIES! I AM INCAPABLE OF BEING CONSIDERATE! I HAVE NO SELF CONTROL!” Even if you were

in a place where you felt better about your partner getting some attention elsewhere, the shit this woman is pulling would still be annoying, unsettling and totally bothersome. And this shit should be disqualifying — meaning, your partner should’ve shut this woman down already. He should’ve told this woman to knock it off and, if she didn’t knock it off, he should’ve told her to fuck the fuck off and blocked her number. If he tried to shut her down and she kept texting him, DPRESSD, then I have to wonder why he hasn’t he blocked her number already. Assuming he’s telling you the truth about not being attracted to her — and it sounds like he is — he may have allowed this to go on because he enjoys feeling desirable and/or he doesn’t want to hurt her feelings. If it’s the former, make it clear to your partner that you wouldn’t ha e a prob em with him finding someone e se to swap irty sext messages with, so longs as it’s someone who can sext in moderation and at appropriate times. If it’s the latter, DPRESSD, make it clear to your partner that this shit is hurting your feelings and, as his partner, you expect him to prioritize your feelings over his former coworker’s feelings. All that said, DPRESSD, even if the thought of your partner going off to play with another woman didn’t make you feel insecure, you wouldn’t want your partner getting blown by this particular woman. Even if your partner has never said, “Don’t text me at all hours of the day and night,” that’s no excuse. No one wants their phone or their partner’s phone blowing up at 3 AM; that’s not a boundary anyone should have to articulate to set and, articulated or not, no one with any common sense would do that. (And, holy crap, if this is how this woman behaves in pursuit of your partner’s big cock, how is she gonna behave after she gets a taste?) As for the house issue, DPRESSD, press your partner to clarify his sudden hesitancy. It may have nothing to do with your relationship; it’s entirely possible that he’s freaked out by the state of the world — because, my God, who isn’t? — and he’s having second thoughts about sinking his savings into a house. Depression of-

“I put up with enough bullshit without the men in my life knowing I eat pussy.” ten puts the worst possible spin on things; it can lead us to reject a calming truth someone is telling us in favor of an alarming lie we’re telling ourselves. Don’t fall into that trap. nd fina y, , p ease talk to your doctor about switching out your meds. If weight gain is a side effect of the ones you’re on now and weight gain is making you more depressed, then it doesn’t make sense to keep treating your depression with the meds you’re on now. A different med might gi e you the same benefits without this particular side effect. Hey, Dan: I met someone I connected with during quarantine. We’ve all but committed to screwing our brains out after we’re given the all-clear. But she recently suffered a devastating loss. We will meet, on her terms, most likely very soon. I know I should follow her lead, but should I avoid sex even if she wants to have sex? I don’t know if sex will help or hurt. Is being chaste and supportive the right move? Can sex help in a time of loss? I just don’t want to be the asshole someone winds up writing to you for advice about. Looking Over Sexual Timing Follow her lead — that’s a good impulse — and if she wants to have sex after you’ve met in person and after you’ve made it clear to her that there’s no rush, LOST, and if you want to have sex after you’ve met her in person, go ahead and have sex. Some people find se after a de astating oss to be hea ing and a rming and the last thing that person needs is for someone else to decide they shouldn’t be having sex or even wanting to have sex. As for the all-clear you’re waiting for, well, that could be a long time off, seeing as COVID-19 rates are spiking all over the country. If you decide you can’t wait for the all-

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clear, please consult the New York Health Department’s safer sex/ harm-reduction recommendations for people who want to have sex during this pandemic. (Google “New York Health,” “coronavirus,” and “sex.”) To quickly summarize: you can minimize your risk of contracting or transmitting COVID-19 by wearing a mask, not eating ass, using condoms and using a glory hole. Hey, Dan: I’ve been dating someone long distance for seven months. I’ve been transparent about my need for an open relationship. Recently this gentleman asked me to tell him if I slept with someone else. I agreed because I’m not sleeping with anyone at the moment due to COVID-19. But since March, I’ve been having phone sex with a longterm booty call who lives across the country. Neither knows about the other and neither one knows I’m bisexual. No big deal, right? I’m a first responder in a maledominated field and I put up with enough bullshit without the men in my life knowing I eat pussy. How much of an asshole am I for not disclosing what I don’t need to? Not Banging (Other) Dudes You’re being an asshole — to yourself. Hiding your bisexuality from the men you’re dating increases your odds of winding up in a relationship with someone who judges, shames, or hates you for being bisexual, NBOD, and why on earth would you want to do that to yourself? Disclosing your bisexuality ups yours odds of attracting a guy who fetishizes your bisexuality, of course, but it’s easier to weed those guys out early than it is to leave (or divorce) some guy who reveals himself to be biphobic after you’ve made a huge emotional investment in him. As for the phone sex … you should disclose that too. If Mr. Seven Months can’t handle you having phone sex with some other guy, NBOD, he certainly won’t be able to handle you sleeping with someone else. And if he can’t handle that, he’s not the right guy for a woman who wants/needs/requires an open relationship. mail@savagelove.net @FakeDanSavage on Twitter www.savagelovecast.com

JUNE 24-30, 2020

RIVERFRONT TIMES

JUNE 24-30, 2020

riverfronttimes.com

JUNE 24-30, 2020

RIVERFRONT TIMES