Riverfront Times, September 25, 2019 by Riverfront Times

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RIVERFRONT TIMES AND mo Y’S PRESENT

3rd a ual

mo ys in sOULARD 11:30AM-2:30PM Grilled Oysters • Raw Oysters • Oyster Shooters Open Bar • Additional Food & Music

Celebrate your favorite briny bivalves at Riverfront Times' 3rd Annual Shuck Yeah! This party on the patio will bring together oysters from both coasts for a celebration of all-things-oyster and other bites from your favorite local restaurants at Mollys in Soulard. Plus enjoy craft cocktails and beer and live music from Funky Butt Brass Band.

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SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

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WELCOME TO BURB-CITY!

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THE LEDE

PHOTO BY THEO WELLING

“I learned from shoe guys. I learned from shoe repairmen, from boot men and boot repairmen. I learned from orthopedic men. And I put all these guys together, and here I am now.” BOB STEVENSON, PHOTOGRAPHED AT HIS SHOP, BOB STEVENSON’S SHOE REPAIR & LEATHERWORK, ON SEPTEMBER 13

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Publisher Chris Keating Interim Editor in Chief Doyle Murphy

COVER Cold Case

Adam Smithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mother kept the secret of the box in her freezer for decades. Then she died, and he made a ghastly discovery. Cover design by

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

INSIDE

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

The Lede Hartmann

News Feature Calendar

Reckoning with a barrelful of bad apples

13 20

Downton Abbey

Stage

Fifty Words

23 27

Cafe

Short Orders

Culture

Estherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Persian Cafe

A R T Art Director Evan Sult Contributing Photographers Virginia Harold, Stephen Kennedy, Monica Mileur, Zia Nizami, Andy Paulissen, Nick Schnelle, Mabel Suen, Micah Usher, Theo Welling, Jen West P R O D U C T I O N Production Manager Haimanti Germain

EVAN SULT

Film

E D I T O R I A L Managing Editor Liz Miller Arts & Culture Editor Paul Friswold Music Editor Daniel Hill Digital Editor Jaime Lees Staff Writer Danny Wicentowski Restaurant Critic Cheryl Baehr Film Critic Robert Hunt Columnist Ray Hartmann Contributing Writers Mike Appelstein, Allison Babka, Thomas Crone, Jenn DeRose, Mike Fitzgerald, Sara Graham, MaryAnn Johanson, Roy Kasten, Jaime Lees, Joseph Hess, Kevin Korinek, Bob McMahon, Lauren Milford, Nicholas Phillips, Tef Poe, Christian Schaeffer Proofreader Evie Hemphill Editorial Interns Katie Counts, Joshua Phelps, James Pollard

E U C L I D M E D I A G R O U P Chief Executive Officer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP of Digital Services Stacy Volhein Creative Director Tom Carlson www.euclidmediagroup.com N A T I O N A L A D V E R T I S I N G VMG Advertising 1-888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com S U B S C R I P T I O N S Send address changes to Riverfront Times, 308 N. 21st Street, Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63103. Domestic subscriptions may be purchased for $78/6 months (Missouri residents add $4.74 sales tax) and $156/year (Missouri residents add $9.48 sales tax) for first class. Allow 6-10 days for standard delivery. www.riverfronttimes.com The Riverfront Times is published weekly by Euclid Media Group Verified Audit Member Riverfront Times 308 N. 21st Street, Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63103 www.riverfronttimes.com General information: 314-754-5966 Fax administrative: 314-754-5955 Fax editorial: 314-754-6416 Founded by Ray Hartmann in 1977

Justin Meister at Lemmons | Bar Tab: Bluewood Brewing

Brian Owens + Michael McDonald | Najii Person | Flyover Comedy Festival

Out Every Night

Melvins | Kristeen Young | Weyes Blood

Savage Love 6

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Riverfront Times is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies of the current issue may be purchased for $1.00 plus postage, payable in advance at the Riverfront Times office. Riverfront Times may be distributed only by Riverfront Times authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of Riverfront Times, take more than one copy of each Riverfront Times weekly issue. The entire contents of Riverfront Times are copyright 2018 by Riverfront Times, LLC. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the expressed written permission of the Publisher, Riverfront Times, 308 N. 21st Street, Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63103. Please call the Riverfront Times office for back-issue information, 314-754-5966.

HARTMANN The Truth Is in the Texts Are bad cops like Dustin Boone really outliers? BY RAY HARTMANN

exts don’t lie, and they don’t go away. And sometimes they bear repeating. Here are some literary samples from the mobile device of police o cer ustin oone te ting a fellow o cer as they prepared two years ago to encounter a protest gathering of some of the citizens they’re sworn to serve and protect: “The more the merrier!!! It’s gonna get IGNORANT tonight!! ut it’s gonna be a lot of fun beating the hell out of these shitheads

once the sun goes down and nobody can tell us apart “I’m on [Sgt **’s] arrest team! me and a I O black dude r the guys that are hands on o stick or shield ... ust fuck people up when they don’t act right! hat’s my dude today Haha he’s basically a thug that’s on our side It’s he and I that ust grab fuckers and toss em around. e really need these fuckers to start acting up so we can have some fun. ell it turns out author oone got his wish. His texts were sent on September 15, 2017, the day that e t. ouis o cer Jason tockley was found not guilty of murdering Anthony Lamar Smith, who he shot and killed following a police chase. hat all too familiar white o cer shoots black supect storyline. On day two of the protests, Boone texted, “This shit is crazy ... but it’s fucking A O too cept for cops getting hurt. eople on the streets got ol. And this Just deployed to

city ... u will see the A O I come in and clear fuckers A I . e ain’t fuckin w them tonight. There was this from day three: A lot of cops gettin hurt but it’s still a blast beating people that deserve it. And I’m not one of the people hurt so I’m still en oying each night ... And this from day four e reloading these fools up on prisoner busses. As they got on we all said in unison O ’ haha. I’ll stop there even though there’s more oyful prose from oone’s phone. hat’s because the O thing was corroborated on video that’s annoyingly di cult to minimi e or deny because well we all could see and hear it. pecifically a rather substantial number of o cers appeared to be repeatedly chanting “Whose treets Our treets in an outpouring of defiant emotion that did seem to channel say ed uare. And that brings us to the uestion of the day two years hence Just

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how much of an outlier is ustin Boone? I wish I was certain r. oone is an aberration. As someone who doesn’t risk his life to go to work every day, I have great respect for those who do, be they police o cers firefighters or other first responders. I’d really like to think that the large majority of police officers would be aghast at oone’s prosaic te ts and the conduct they appear to have documented. ut I don’t know. I’m only writing about oone because he got caught. He and two other o cers are currently under federal indictment in connection with the savage beating of one uther Hall, who had been a fellow police o cer of oone e cept for the African American part but was allegedly attacked by Boone and o cers andy Hays and hristopher yers while working undercover to keep eyes on the protestors from within. It’s worth noting the accused

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HARTMANN

Continued from pg 7

are innocent until proven guilty. A fourth o cer ailey olletta has already confessed to lying for the others and is due to be sentenced in ecember. or now r. oone is back in the news as a defendant in a civil lawsuit from Hall targeting numerous o cers as well as ayor yda rewson and the city and separately in a new class action lawsuit against do ens more officers as well. he lawsuits are so plentiful as to seem almost impossible to track: The ACLU has one that’s apparently set for trial next month and Arch ity efenders filed at least a do en or so. hey seem endless. And they don’t seem to be getting tossed for lacking merit. Hall’s civil suit reintroduced oone’s te tiness although the sanitized, redacted form doesn’t do ustice to the writer but more important it reminds us two years after the Stockley protests that we really have a problem here. In fact t. ouis has a crisis of confidence in policing and race relations and oone’s work must be part of the discussion. Is oone really an outlier or a symptom of that problem ven accounting for the fact that lips get sealed when the lawsuits are ying where is the indignation from good police o cers and from the city and the department over the now very public words on ustin oone’s cellphone It would really be nice if we felt the collective outrage from police about oone that we hear pretty much on a daily basis about ircuit Attorney im ardner. ut we’ve never heard it and it doesn’t appear that we will anytime soon. It would be easier to sympathize with the police side of this story if, in real time, on the nights of the protests, then-acting Chief Lawrence O’Toole hadn’t stood up publicly with an approving ayor rewson at his side and heaped praise upon the conduct of his o cers. urely they hadn’t seen oone’s te ts but they knew and condoned more about the fun that some o cers had been having. Yes, Krewson did start walking back her high praise of the police, pretty much on a nightly basis as the embarrassment unfolded. ut Hall’s lawsuit was shocking as it referenced a moment somehow not remembered by the mayor in which she shares an eleva-

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“We really need these fuckers to start acting up so we can have some fun.” tor ride with him on the night of his beating after having had him picked up by her security people and observed “Oh, they messed up your cute face. I don’t know what to make of that, except that this is certainly a “what did she know and when did she know it moment in this awful chapter of our history. es she ultimately passed over O’ oole for chief in favor of hief John Hayden Jr. an African American police veteran who promised to rebuild trust stem violence when hired by Krewson a few months after the tockley protests. ut it wasn’t accompanied by any mea culpas about anything. aybe Hayden has raged about what happened to Hall and it ust didn’t make it into the media. Or maybe I missed the stories. ut even if he can’t comment about pending litigation, does anyone even know what he thinks about any of this? ore important I’d really like to think Krewson and Hayden and ublic afety irector Jimmie dwards and those under their command are mad as hell and aren’t going to take any more of this. I really want to believe the sort of unbridled racism revealed by Boone has people of all races losing their minds with anger. ut last week they convened a crime summit or whatever with ov. ike arson and ounty ecutive am age and e cluded ardner and her county counterpart rosecuting Attorney esley ell while including the region’s leading white prosecutor . . Attorney Jeffrey Jensen. eally I really want to believe that ustin oone and his te ts have no relevance to anything in t. ouis going forward. ut like a lot of others, I’m still waiting for a sign. ecause those te ts don’t go away. 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 New Details in Stockley Suit Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

awyers working for the state Attorney eneral’s O ce knew about key DNA information in the Jason tockley investigation but kept it a secret during negotiations in a civil suit according to an independent report that was released in full for the first time last week. tockley an e t. ouis cop killed Anthony amar mith following a car chase in 2 . Attorney Al atkins sued the t. ouis etropolitan olice oard and tockley in 2 2 on behalf of mith’s young daughter eventually winning a settlement. he independent report conducted by Hal oldsmith then an attorney at ryan ave and now a federal prosecutor makes it clear that the board agreed to the large unprecedented according to Watkins) settlement in part because A evidence recovered during the investigation challenged tockley’s version of the killing — but top assistant attorneys general in the hris oster administration didn’t disclose that negotiating point to atkins. he o cer who was pushed out of the department after the incident ustified shooting mith five times at close range by claiming the 24 year old was reaching for a gun. o support his claim tockley produced a silver colored aurus handgun saying he recovered it from mith’s vehicle. However it was later revealed that A recovered from the gun matched tockley not mith. atkins had read police documents that mentioned the gun had been swabbed for A but the lab reports were never turned over to him despite a udge’s order. or years after o cials in the Attorney eneral’s O ce played dumb when asked about the lab reports. hat continued even after tockley was charged in 2 with murder in the case. he theo-

Only ex-St. Louis cop Jason Stockley’s DNA was on a revolver, similar to this one. FLICKR/JAMES CASE, HARRIS COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE ry that the e cop planted the gun was central to the circuit attorney’s prosecution and it hinged on those lab reports that supposedly didn’t e ist. hen the criminal case confirmed the lab reports did e ist and were potentially trouble for tockley’s claims atkins asked to reopen settlement negotiations in the civil suit. In ay 2 the Riverfront Times questioned a spokeswoman for Attorney eneral Josh Hawley who had succeeded oster multiple times about whether attorneys handling the case knew about the lab reports and failed to disclose

that info. hen . . Attorney ichard allahan had told us his o ce was aware of the A evidence in 2 2. oldsmith’s investigation found that top o cials in the Attorney eneral’s o ce passed the RFT’s questions among themselves and ultimately decided to say to our o ce’s knowledge no A evidence was available. When the St. Louis Post-Dispatch atkins and an attorney from city counselor’s o ce also asked about the disappearing reappearing lab reports, they were told essentially the same thing. It was maybe technically true.

Traveling Weed Bus Investigation

It is the “bus” — a black MercedesBenz van — which is at the center of allegations that Health City MD is doing more than just registering patients to make future legal pot purchases. According to the News-Leader report, the Missouri State Highway Patrol confirmed that it is investigating the complaints, but it’s also worth noting that the newspaper’s report is largely based on the work of a private investigator in Columbia, Melinda Kidder, who had written her own account of an undercover visit to a CannaBus clinic last month. Kidder, the story explained, had gone undercover at the behest of a client, though that particular client is not named in the News-Leader story. According to a statement from Kidder included in the story, the client had provided “express consent” for her to share her findings with the newspaper. Here’s where things get even murkier: According to the documents provided to the News-Leader, Kidder wrote that she’d attended the event at a vape store in Fulton, paid $125, filled out some forms and then listened to a speech

Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

issouri is still months away from making its first legal medical marijuana sales, but one St. Louis doctor and traveling cannabis health clinic is being accused of jumping the starting line — and allegedly crossing into drug dealing. As first reported by the Springfield News-Leader last week, the case revolves around Heath City MD, a Brentwoodbased company which this summer began sending a traveling clinic, the “CannaBus,” to small towns across the state. Outside head shops and alternative health clinics, long lines of would-be patients showed up pay $125 for a physician’s certification, which is a key step to obtaining a state-issued medical marijuana card.

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he oldsmith report didn’t find the lab results in the attorney general’s case file but it says it is clear that assistant attorneys general knew about them and knew what they said. “Several senior attorneys within the AGO were aware, prior to the issuance of the June 2 2 response letter that the lead A O defense counsel had been aware of the DNA test results establishing tockley’s A on the aurus revolver prior to the June 2 2 ediation but had failed to disclose that information in discovery to laintiff the oldsmith report says. For one thing, then-Assistant Attorney eneral ana edwing who was leading the case discussed the A evidence with the police board back in 2 when recommending the board settle with mith’s daughter. It wasn’t ust that the A evidence e isted it was that people involved in the investigation knew it was potentially bad for tockley and the board. here were two swabs. he first was done on the trigger grip and rough areas of the gun. hat turned up A only for tockley. A second swab of a screw from the revolver also came up with the e cop’s A Continued on pg 11

from one of the clinic’s staff. Afterward, she and the rest of the attendees were directed to go “to the van.” “I inquired of a Koko Vapors employee as to the purpose of going to the van,” Kidder wrote, “and was informed that was where one could immediately obtain medical-grade marijuana.” The News-Leader story also quotes from an interview with Kidder, who told reporter Gregory J. Holman that the store employee had made the statement while standing “a few feet away” from Health City MD founder Zinia Thomas. In response, Kidder claimed that Thomas “simply smiled and nodded to me and did not correct his statement.” In addition to the News-Leader, Kidder reportedly provided documents to the Missouri Highway Patrol. However, while patrol spokesman Sgt. Shawn Griggs confirmed to RFT that state investigators are “looking into all the information that was provided to us” regarding allegations of “a bus that was traveling around” selling marijuana, he said he could not name the subject or target of Continued on pg 11

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STOCKLEY COVER-UP Continued from pg 9

and none of mith’s. A police investigator later told oldsmith’s team he million dollar uestion was How was tockley’s A evidence on the gun but the decedent mith’s A was not ’ In the criminal trial Judge imothy ilson re ected the theory that tockley planted the gun arguing in part that it was likely mith had a gun because ilson’s nearly years as a udge had

taught him “that an urban heroin dealer not in possession of a firearm would be an anomaly. our years earlier on the civil lawsuit side of the killing however edwing and others saw ma or problems for their side. he spoke to the police inspector overseeing the investigation to prep him for a deposition. edwing later told oldsmith’s team she couldn’t remember what he told her. At the time, however, she apparently considered it significant. In light of the information he provided me I may have con icted myself out of the case she told

another assistant attorney general. It is e tremely important that we discuss this matter. he added that the police inspector shared some things with me I was not e pecting. nfortunately I may have con icted myself out of this case as a result. his case is e tremely messy for tockley and The state was overseeing the police department back then so the Attorney eneral’s O ce was responsible for representing the board and tockley. ut after the meeting with the police inspector edwing stopped representing

the e cop and another assistant attorney general was brought in for that part of the case. he police inspector told oldsmith’s team he couldn’t remember the meeting with edwing either but he had probably talked to her about the A evidence. edwing who is now in private practice has denied doing anything wrong. A federal udge eventually agreed to reopen mediation in the civil case and atkins negotiated an additional payout in the case. n

WEED BUS

Continued from pg 9

the investigation. In a phone call, an employee at Koko Vapors told RFT they could not comment on the incident and allegations described by Kidder’s report. As for Thomas, she’s a board-certified psychiatrist with an active medical license in Missouri; her company’s Facebook page lists more than a dozen past and future events and CannaBus tour stops, with October events already scheduled in Springfield, Festus and St. Joseph. According to the company’s article of organization filed the Missouri Secretary of State, Thomas registered the business in late May 2019. In the past, Thomas has been regularly quoted in media stories about alternative medicine, and more recently she appeared in a Post-Dispatch story exploring the shortage of Missouri doctors who are willing to certify patients for medical marijuana. As a result of that shortage, cannabis clinics like one founded by Thomas have popped up across the state. In general, the businesses offer no-hassle registrations with an on-site doctor to sign off that a patient is suffering from the set of ailments covered by the constitutional amendment passed by Missouri voters in 2018. In an interview with RFT, Thomas described the News-Leader story and the allegations provided by the private investigator as “misinformation.” She also claimed that her company has already been investigated by police departments and the Drug Enforcement Administration “with a fine-tooth comb.” She added that aside from providing patients with legal physician certifications, “no one can find anything on us.” Indeed, Thomas isn’t new to law enforcement scrutiny. Earlier this summer, the News-Leader‘s story notes, allegations of back-of-the-van weed dealing spurred undercover visits to the CannaBus by Rolla Police officers. The allegation, police Chief Sean Fagan told the newspaper, “was completely false. They were not selling anything they shouldn’t.” n

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It’s hard for Adam Smith, 37, to say whether Barbara had been a good mother. Growing up, he and his sister Susan always had food on the table, a roof over their heads. They also saw a stream of husbands and boyfriends cycle in and out of the house. Some were better than others. When Adam was about twelve, Barbara started drinking heavily and taking up with people who did the same. “My teenage years she wasn’t around,” Adam says. “She was on the bar scene, always out, hanging out with her boyfriend and this and that.” Perhaps not coincidentally, about the same time that Barbara started drinking a rift formed between her and her extended family. Previously, Adam’s aunts, cousins and grandmother had been a

steady presence. Then, all of sudden, Adam says, that extended family was cut out of his and his sister’s lives. The Smiths lived on Miami Street in Tower Grove South and later moved to the Hill when Adam started high school at St. Louis Career Academy. Before Adam and Susan were born, Barbara had worked as a mail carrier and in restaurants, but she later told her children that she had to give up work because of them. For a while,

Adam split his time between his dad Terry’s place and his mother’s. Days with his dad mostly meant sitting at bars watching him drink. Things were marginally better with his mom. Still, he says, she’d always had a mean streak and regularly belittled him for no cause. When he was old enough, he didn’t hesitate to get a job and move out. “But I always got sucked back in,” Adam says. “That was my mom.” Even when he was living out of the house, Adam says, Barbara was still “clingy” with him, calling, asking him to run errands to get groceries and pick up medicine. Analyzing their relationship now, he thinks she stunted his independence, preventing him from fully realizing the life he wanted for himself.

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In the mid-’90s, Barbara met a metal worker named Steven Yaw at a bar on Macklind. Yaw doesn’t recall the name of the bar, though he’s sure it’s long gone. He describes Barbara as having been “headstrong, stubborn, domineering, set in her ways.” She once chewed him out for buying a car he could drive back and forth to work. “What are you going to use that for?!” she said, accusingly. They lived together for almost twenty years. “I worked nights a whole lot, and when I went to work she’d be at the bar,” says Yaw, who is now 65. “Saturday if I was off, we’d always go to the bar.” In 2017, Yaw left Barbara to go live in Houston. According to

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COLD CASE

Continued from pg 13

Adam, Yaw couldn’t deal with Barbara’s deteriorating health. Yaw says he left because he discovered Barbara had spent $40,000 of his money supporting her children. He’d given her access to his account to pay bills but had no idea she was going through that kind of cash on her kids’ car payments, food and cigarettes. Whatever the case, Adam, though not necessarily eager to, moved in to the second oor two bedroom apartment in Clifton Heights to provide his mom full-time care. Living in close quarters with Barbara subjected him to even more of her neediness and mistreatment. When Adam arranged for his sister Susan to come over so he could have a night out, Barbara would start to scream. “Oh, here goes whiny butt,” she’d say. “Here he goes whining. Fuck, just leave. Go to your girlfriend’s.” As Adam describes it, “For a woman dying, you wouldn’t think someone had that much strength to sit there and like bang on an ottoman saying, ‘Die, motherfucker, die.’ Yeah, she would tell me that.” uring her fits of shouting Adam sometimes called his girlfriend on speaker phone just so she could hear and know that he wasn’t exaggerating. He tried his best to be magnanimous, not wanting to devolve into a shouting match with an ill older woman. Barbara had lived in the apartment for nearly two decades and smoked in it every day. The white walls had turned yellow. Detritus from a disordered life lay everywhere. Then there was the box in the freezer, a detail that at the time wasn’t particularly out of the ordinary given that a lot about Barbara’s life didn’t add up, even to her children. Later, a handful of media reports implied that Adam and his sister had spent their entire childhoods asking their mom, “What’s in the box? What’s in the box?” It hadn’t been like that. However, it was true that for as long as Adam could remember there had been an object in his mom’s freezer the size of a large shoebox, the sort of thing a pair of boots would be packaged in. He has firm memories of it from as young as six. His sister, who is 45, remembers it always being there, too. They thought maybe a piece of wed-

ding cake was being saved inside. When Adam asked his mom about she would de ect. “She’d just say, ‘No, it’s nothing. No comment. Don’t worry about it,’” Adam recalls. “She changed the subject.” Generally, Adam didn’t think of it at all. This past January, about a year after Adam moved in with her, Barbara was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. She’d been telling her doctors she wasn’t smoking,

ter bottle he’d been chilling and saw the box. Holy crap, he thought. The box. His mother wasn’t around to tell him not to open it. He took a photo of the open freezer and messaged his girlfriend, his sister Susan and his aunt. What if it’s money? his aunt texted back, jokingly. Money was one thing Adam felt pretty confident it was not. He thought it might be more fun to wait until his sister and girl-

“Are you going to grab it?” “I am not touching the thing again,” he said. Adam went into his room while the o cers and eventually a detective, investigated the kitchen, which was now a crime scene. Later that night, down at the police station, a homicide detective interrogated Adam, who insisted the baby was a total surprise to him. Adam says the detective apologized to him for what he’d gone through and let him go. The medical examiner would do an autopsy which would hopefully provide at least some rudimentary answers. The next day, the media showed up. hannel was the first. Adam let them in. The other local stations followed suit. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Riverfront Times published stories, as did CNN, NBC, the South China Morning Post and countless others. The headline on the Washington Post’s website read, “His mother kept a cardboard box in the freezer for decades. Inside, he found a mummified’ baby. Reporters had a lot of questions. Adam had a lot of questions, too. Chief among them: Exactly what kind of person was his mother? What else about her didn’t he know?

B which was categorically false. A CT scan found spots on her lungs. The cancer spread to her liver, her bones and her lymph nodes, and in late July Adam called a priest to the apartment. “I’m not particularly religious,” he told the cleric. “But if you could say a few words I know she’d appreciate it.” Barbara passed away on July 21 at the age of 68.

bout a week after Barbara died, Adam’s girlfriend was on his case to clean out the apartment. Dirty dishes covered the table. The pantry was stuffed with half-empty boxes. He had his work cut out for him on that hot July Saturday. It was shortly after midnight when he opened the freezer to grab a wa-

Barbara Smith kept the strange box in the back of her freezer for decades. | ADAM SMITH

friend could be there to open it with him — an impulse, in retrospect, he’s glad he ignored. He grabbed a knife and cut into the cardboard. He saw a pink eece blanket. “When I reached down there, I mean you could tell it was just a foot. You could see it was a baby’s foot,” Adam says. “The skin was cracked. I guess curiosity gets the best of everyone. I pulled it up. When I pulled it up, that’s when I saw the back of the baby’s head with hair.” Adam freaked out, he says. He put the baby back in the box and called the police, the non-emergency number. “This is crazy,” the dispatcher said. “I’m just going to transfer you to 911.” Adam met the o cers outside and led them upstairs. In the kitchen, he recalls, one of the officers looked to Adam and asked

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arbara Smith kept a lot of secrets. Even when she was alive, it was often up to her children to suss out key aspects of their identity on their own. An example: For a long time, Adam and Susan had assumed they got their last name from the same man, Adam’s father Terry Smith. However, as adults, they found out that Barbara had previously been married to a man named Howard Smith, from whom Susan got her last name (though Susan’s biological father was really a man named Don). In the wake of her death, the family compared notes about Barbara. How many times had she been married? How many times did she give birth? Different relatives came up with different numbers. In the weeks since Barbara’s death, siblings who previously had been unknown to each other have met for the first time. Steven Yaw, the man who lived with Barbara for almost twenty years, said her past didn’t seem particularly mysterious to him at the time. “Now? Yeah,” he adds. Yaw of course knew about the box in his freezer for all those years but says he was “blown away” when he learned on Facebook about Adam’s discovery. “For twenty years, I saw that box in

SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

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COLD CASE

Continued from pg 15

the freezer and it was never used, didn’t move. I always wondered what that box was for, didn’t ask,” he says. In multiple conversations, Adam stressed he isn’t judgmental of his mom for being with so many partners. That’s not what bothers him. What keeps him up at night is the fact that she left him in the dark about so much — and that she died leaving an infant frozen in a box she knew her son would open. “She knew she wasn’t going to be around much longer. Why couldn’t she tell us?” he says. “I can’t help but think she did something bad.” In the weeks since finding the baby girl, Adam has combed through his memories for clues to her identity. He remembers once when riding in the car with his mother he asked her why she seemed sad. She responded, “My firstborn Jennifer would have been 21 today.” Adam can’t recall exactly how old he was when she told him that. Maybe six. Maybe seven or eight. “I can’t help but think that the baby that I found was Jennifer,” Adam says. But even that, the most basic of information, is still beyond his grasp nearly two months later. Police and the medical examiner have yet to say how the baby died. And without a DNA test, Adam does not even know for certain the little girl was Barbara’s child, although he strongly suspects that to be the case. Adam and Susan have always known the box to be in their mother’s freezer, in houses from Miami Street to the Hill to Bancroft to Magnolia, meaning it’s probable that the baby inside was born before Susan, who was born in 1974. In that case, Barbara would have been barely in her twenties, maybe even younger, when the infant arrived. It is hard to say what Barbara’s life was like at that time. In the early 1970s, she would still have been living with her family in the north St. Louis County city of Florissant, where she grew up. Younger relatives described the family as strictly Catholic, but family members who were around Barbara then and might remember what was happening at the time have not wanted to speak to reporters. However, Adam says in talking

with his relatives, he has come to believe his mother almost certainly concealed her first pregnancy. It is likely her family did not know – or somehow did not notice, even as her belly swelled. Though concealed pregnancies that end in tragedy are shocking, they are relatively common and follow recognizable patterns, says Michelle Oberman. A law professor at Santa Clara University, Oberman has researched the grimmest of outcomes. She is often cited as a leading expert on infanticide as well as neonaticide, killing a baby in the first 24 hours of life.

Women who conceal pregnancies for the entire duration often are disconnected from their own bodies and typically are young, often teenagers, pregnant for the first time. Oberman notes they are slow to recognize the signs of pregnancy, possibly as a result of some sort of trauma, but often because they are scared at the prospect of being pregnant. And while they are physically and emotionally changing, another hallmark of the cases Oberman has reviewed is that no one around the expectant mothers notices what is happening. The young women end up confused and torn between yearning for a connection with their baby and the feeling that they would be left in a seemingly impossible situation of caring for a child alone. Because they are young, they fall in the adolescent trap of avoiding

Barbara Smith took her secrets to the grave. | COURTESY OF ADAM SMITH 16

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SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

the short-term pain of telling an adult they’re pregnant, and perhaps getting in trouble for having sex, and ignore the far more serious long-term consequences. “All too suddenly, labor begins one day,” Oberman says. “No one would plan to have a baby alone, unattended, on a toilet. Yet the overwhelming majority of these cases end in this tragic manner.” In cases of neonaticide, the unprepared mothers often smother the newborns in a moment of panic. The response is not, I don’t want this baby, but instead, Oh my God, someone is going to find out. Often, the women follow the near-

ly unimaginable act with tenderness, cleaning the infants before taking them back to their bedrooms. Under their bed, in their closets, they keep the lifeless babies with them. Oberman points out that if a woman were committing something like premeditated murder, she would endeavor to get the evidence as far away from her as possible. “We’re distracted by the fact that the baby is dead, I get that heartbreak. It’s a tragedy,” Oberman says. “But if we’re tending toward worrying about these cases and how to prevent them, then we have to notice that what the woman is doing is actually treating the baby like a baby.” Neonaticide cases tend to follow a distinct pattern, Oberman says. Parts of what we know about the broad outlines of Barbara’s younger life follow that pattern. She would have been young and almost certainly afraid. Given her family’s heavy-handed Catholi-

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cism, it is easy to imagine her concealing a pregnancy rather than admitting she’d been having sex — and worse, had become pregnant. In fact, when she was later pregnant with twins following Susan’s birth and put them up for adoption, her family was adamantly opposed, Adam says. But what actually happened to Barbara and that little girl in the freezer is still a mystery. Oberman says there are significant aberrations in the story that set Barbara’s situation apart from the cases she has reviewed. “What’s weird about this case is how long Barbara hung onto the baby, and that she talked about it aloud,” the professor says. “Those are strange facts.” Maybe the little girl was stillborn or died of sudden infant death syndrome. Maybe there was an accident. But the idea that Barbara could carry a child to term without anyone close to her noticing seems entirely believable to Adam — because it happened at least one other time. In 1986, Barbara gave birth to a daughter whom she put up for adoption. Adam and his sister were schoolchildren at the time, and yet, he says, no one in the family — not her children, not her siblings, not her parents with whom she was still in contact — realized what had happened. It wasn’t until the days after her death that Adam and Susan found out.

bout a week after Barbara’s passing, Adam got a call from his aunt. She had news. Earlier that year her daughter, Jessica (Adam’s cousin), paid for 23andMe DNA testing and found she had two full cousins, both women, one living in Illinois and the other in Florida. Laura and Shannon were their names. Born a decade apart, they shared the same mother but had been adopted by different families. Their mother was a woman from St. Louis named Barbara Smith. Adam now knew the name of his older half sister, Shannon, who had been given up for adoption in 1977. The younger sister, Laura, was the real surprise. He hadn’t known she existed. No one in the family did. She was younger than Adam by five years. He’d been around for the pregnancy but hadn’t noticed. Furthermore, this was before the rift with the family in north county, and despite being in Barbara’s life at the time, none of them had noticed either. Laura Sorensen grew up in St. Continued on pg 19

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Adam Smith lived with his mother in the apartment on Magnolia Avenue during the last years of her life. | JEN WEST

COLD CASE

Continued from pg 16

ouis and has lived in pringfield Illinois, for the past eight years. After connecting with Adam’s cousin Jessica on 23andMe, they pieced together that Barbara was Laura’s mother. Jessica told Laura that Barbara had passed away recently. If there had been an opportunity for the long-separated mother and daughter to meet, they had missed it by a matter of weeks. Laura did a Google search for her mother’s obituary, but what appeared instead was a story about a baby in a freezer. “I had actually seen the story about Barbara before I even found the cousin or Adam or any of them,” Laura says. “I saw an article earlier that week. I was like, ‘No way, I totally read that headline earlier that week.’ Apparently, that’s my birth mom and my half brother. It was overwhelming.” A birth letter Laura received from the adoption agency had some basic information about Laura’s biological mother and father. The father had been an acquaintance of Barbara’s ex-husband whom Barbara had dated for a year and half, though at the time of Laura’s adoption, they were no longer together. It said Laura was Barbara’s seventh pregnancy. However the letter also states that

prior to giving birth to Laura, Barbara had one miscarriage, a stillbirth and four natural births. It’s likely, but not certain, the baby in the freezer would have been her first pregnancy followed by the natural birth of Susan in 1974. Three years later, she gave birth

to Shannon, natural birth number two, as well as a twin who was stillborn. Adam was born in 1981. This means there are three known natural births, one short of what the letter says. Also, the stillbirth was Shannon’s twin, the same pregnancy, meaning the

letter leaves another pregnancy unaccounted for. The letter from 1986 also states that Barbara lives with a son who attends a school for kids with severe hearing problems Adam’s hearing is fine and always has been. The adoption worker who wrote the letter may have made a few careless mistakes. Or it’s possible that she, like a lot of people in Barbara Smith’s life, was working with incomplete information. “The more you know, the more questions you have,” Laura says. Asked what she thinks is the story behind the baby in the freezer, Laura can only speculate: “Maybe something tragic happened and she didn’t know what to do and that was her solution to not getting in trouble. She was young when it happened. I don’t think it was anything criminal. It takes a big heart to give up two children to adoption, so I have a hard time believing there would be any kind of malice involved.” Laura may have missed out on meeting Barbara in life, but she did go to the funeral and hung out with family afterward. She and Adam hit it off. Cut from the same cloth, they bonded instantly. Since connecting with Laura, Adam had been trying to scrape together the funds to have both his and his sister’s DNA tested. In September he bought a scratch off and won $1,000, some of which he used for 23andMe. The results showed he and Laura are half siblings. Her dad’s identity is still unknown.

he end of summer and early fall have been rough on Adam. He’s mourned his mother. Pictures of him in front of his mom’s open freezer have gone around the world. He’s put up with media intrusions. He’s had to grapple with the anger he has toward Barbara that may never fully resolve. Barbara’s legacy was questions, ones that only she knew the answers to. At the same time, Barbara’s death has brought Adam something of a relief, a weight lifted off him. He no longer has to witness his mother’s pain and suffering, nor be subject to her cruelty. He’s out of the apartment on Magnolia. “I was held back for so many years by my mom’s sickness,” he says. “I could never go and venture out and do my own thing. Now, I get to do what I need to do, what I’ve always wanted to do.” n

Half siblings Susan and Adam Smith still wonder about their family history. | COURTESY ADAM SMITH

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Ryan Krull is a freelance journalist and assistant teaching professor in the department of communication and media at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

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CALENDAR

BY PAUL FRISWOLD day (September 27 to October 12) at the Kranzberg Arts Center (501 orth rand oulevard www. upstreamtheatre.org). There’s an additional 2 p.m. show on Sunday, October 13. Tickets are $25 to $35.

Munich Comes Home

Cry-Baby and friends are here to ruffle some feathers. | JILL RITTER LINDBERG

THURSDAY 09/26 Crying Game

FRIDAY 09/27 Friendly Fight

Continuing its proud tradition of righting roadway’s wrongs ew Line Theatre rehabilitated John Waters’ musical Cry-Baby with its 2012 production of the show. The musical was pared down by the creators expressly for New Line’s inaugural regional production, throwing out the bombast and orchestrations in favor of a more intimate show with a six-piece band. These changes brought Cry-Baby back to street-level 1954, when conformity and close-harmony singing ran headfirst into the hormones and heartache heralded by the pioneers of rock & roll. Wade ry aby alker is the uncrowned king of the rapes altimore’s greasers). When good girl Alison falls for the tender-hearted Wade, she turns her back on all that’s decent. Her jilted square boyfriend aldwin will have his revenge on all Drapes and damn the consequences. New Line Theatre opens its new season with Cry-Baby. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday (September 26 to October 19) at the Marcelle Theater (3310 Samuel Shepard Drive; www.newlinetheatre.com). Tickets are $20 to $30.

amous suffragist usan . Anthony didn’t ust fight for women’s rights. She was an ardent abolitionist and worked to help tear down the legal framework for slavery. In both fights she was closely allied with Frederick Douglass, the man who escaped slavery and became one of the leading orators and writers of his day. Anthony and Douglass were comradesin arms in the fight for e uality and women’s suffrage, but their friendship was tested when the 15th Amendment — which gave only black men the right to vote — was proposed. Anthony felt Douglass was betraying women by supporting the amendment, while he thought any bill that linked black people and white women was bound to fail; far better to support black men now and then resume the fight for women. at mart’s play The Agitators showed how these two intelligent, opinionated people fought for, and sometimes against, each other in the cultural wars that still drag on. Upstream Theater opens its new season with the timely drama. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 7 p.m. Sun-

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SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

rban hestnut rewing ompany brings festive German charm to St. Louis with its ninth annual Oktoberfest. The beer-fueled celebration takes place at both ’s idtown rewery and iergarten 22 ashington Avenue; www.oktoberfeststl.com) and ircus lora’s ig op tent (3401 Washington Avenue) Friday through Sunday (September 27 to 29). Traditional Oktoberfest eats will be available (think brats and pretzels), and there will be a selection of food-truck favorites on site. Handmade goods from local businesses and artists can be found at the Vendor Village outside of the ig op. ost importantly beer will be available in sixteen-ounce and one-liter pours throughout the festival grounds — buy a stein, or bring your own! Put your best arm forward for the stein-holding competition, or Masskrugstemmen, at 7:15 p.m. Saturday. The

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festivities run from noon to midnight on Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. Sunday is also amily ay at the ig op with a petting zoo and Circus Flora performers. Entry is free, but you’ll need cash or cards for beer and concessions. —Caroline Groff

Shakespeare for the Defense Scholars have long found links between the Catholic plot to blow up the ritish arliament and newly-crowned King James and William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In the thriller Equivocation, playwright ill ain weaves together these connections to tell the story of William Shakespeare’s desperate attempt to write a history play about that plot at King James’ request. Cain’s Shakespeare has a guilty conscience, as his family has various connections to the plotters. James wants the truth as James sees it, which only complicates matters. Can the playwright bend the o cial truth enough to defend his family name while also attering the king est nd layers Guild opens its new season with Equivocation. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Union Avenue Christian Church orth nion oulevard www.westendplayers.org). Tickets are $20 to $25.

SATURDAY 09/28 Ruptured Life

The Agitators fight for all. | PATRICK HUBER

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum rookings rive kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu o cially reopens with a bang. Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei presents a major exhibition of work that spans the past twenty years of his career, some of which has never before been shown in the United States. Divided into two parts, Bare Life and Rupture, the show features monumental exhibitions such as Forever Bicycles (2019) and Through (2007-2008). The former is a commemorative arch built with Chinese-made bicycles, their carefully positioned

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 tires lining up to create the image of telescoping lenses; the latter is an intersecting series of wooden pillars that pierce the surface of Qing Dynasty wooden tables. The work evokes China’s own interrupted and intentionally erased history. Ai Weiwei: Bare Life also includes sculptures, photographs, films and a triptych constructed of LEGO bricks. The show runs from September 28 to January 5.

in today’s age. In the company’s own words, Whammy! “probes the American fever dream where Dr. hil ia epam and daily a rmations crash headlong in self-medication, suicide and The Shirelles.” Originally created in 2010, the show was most recently presented at the NYC Fringe Festival in 2013. Whammy! is performed at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday (September 26 to October 5) at the Centene Center for the Arts (3547 Olive Street; www.facebook.com/youngliarstheatre). Tickets are $20.

MONDAY 09/30 Overemployed & Underfed Whammy! is about self-help. VALERIE GOLDSTONE

Heal Thyself Can all your questions about selfhelp be answered by a combination 1960s dance party and Nietzschean philosophy? YoungLiars presents Whammy! The Seven Secrets to a Sane Self. The St. Louis theater company invites you to a show exploring the tragedy and triumph of personal growth

Francis Henshall is in a pickle, which is a terrible irony because he’d kill for a pickle right about now. The always-starving musician needed a job after being dumped by his last band and ended up with two employers. he first boss oscoe Crabbe, is a small-time hood in town to collect payment from his future father-in-law. The other boss is Stanley Stubbers, a snooty gentleman currently hiding from the police. Francis’ life is complicated not just by trying to do the bidding of two employers but because oscoe is really achel sister of the murdered criminal. And would you believe that achel is in town looking

Ai Weiwei (Chinese, b. 1957), Grapes, 2011. 40 wooden stools from the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), 87 13/16 x 73 1/4 x 74 13/16” (223 x 186 x 190 cm). Private collection. for her boyfriend Stanley Stubbers, who may have something to do with oscoe’s death. ichard ean’s play One Man Two Guvnors is freely adapted from Carlo Goldini’s eighteenth-century farce The Servant of Two Masters, and it made a star out of James Corden, who plays Francis. The National Theatre rebroadcasts a taped production of its winning comedy at 7 p.m. Monday, September 30, at the Landmark ivoli heatre elmar oulevard; www.landmarktheatres. com). Tickets are $15.

TUESDAY 10/01 Matchmaker Takes a Spouse

In Equivocation, Shakespeare gets a job he can’t refuse. | JOHN LAMB

Noted matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi is on the hunt for a wife for Horace Vandergelder of Yonkers, the half-millionaire who is infamous for his surly disposition. Horace’s niece Ermengarde has already found her own husband in Ambrose, but the old man disapproves. Ambrose is an artist, which isn’t a stable profession. When Dolly takes Horace to New York City to go wife-scouting, she secretly brings Ambrose and Ermengarde with her. To add to the confusion, Horace’s two employees ornelius and arnaby also go to the city. At the rate Dolly’s

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pulling strings, everyone in New York will be married before this trip is through. he roadway tour of Hello, Dolly! sweeps into town this week to begin a twoweek run. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday (October 1 to 13) at the Fox Theatre (527 North Grand oulevard www.fabulousfo . com). Tickets are $35 to $105.

WEDNESDAY 10/02 Sic Transit Gloria At 7 p.m. Wednesday, October 2, the Blues start their defense of the Cup against the former champion Washington Capitals at the Enterprise Center (1401 Clark Avenue; www.stlblues.com). Expectations for this season are high — almost as high as ticket prices for the home opener. The few remaining cheap seats start at $269, and good seats are going for $850. If you can swing the price, it’s going to be an ama ing night. hat first championship banner will be raised in a pregame ceremony, songs will be sung and a new season of hockey will o cially start. emember how exhilarating it was when the lues won that first up how great do you think it would feel if they do it all over again? Game on, and play “Gloria.” n

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FILM

[REVIEW]

Nary a Spot of Bother Downton Abbey’s insular world of genteel twits and docile servants is only for the fans Written by

MARYANN JOHANSON

Downton Abbey Written by Julian Fellowes. Directed by Michael Engler. Starring Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Joanne Froggatt and Michelle Dockery. Now showing.

haven’t seen a single episode of the (check notes) “worldwide phenomenon” (per a press release) that is Downton Abbey, so I approached this big-screen installment as I always do when I am among the uninitiated: to determine if there is a reason to see this movie for people who don’t think it’s for them. Sometimes there is! But I also embraced a spirit of anthropological exploration. I thought perhaps I might discover just what is it that draws so many viewers to the costume-drama TV series. Why has it garnered so much acclaim and so many awards (Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, etc.)? I mean, sure, it’s a kind of fantasy — of a lost world of fabulous clothes and posh accents, of a time when people dressed for dinner and, I dunno, drew baths and stuff. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Folks, I literally moved to London from New York solely to indulge my Anglophilia. So I get it. But — she said as she found herself ever so slightly appalled at what she had just seen on the big screen — just what kind of fantasy is this? My daydreams of visiting the early twentieth-century English countryside involve being collected at the station by a dashing fellow in a Lagonda and then solving an unexpected murder during a weekend house party at a crumbling yet still stately manor. You know, an Albert Campion at Gos-

ford Park sort of thing, amazing nosh and gorgeous evening wear but also, c’mon, seething intrigue and simmering resentment across class lines leading to genteel violence. As is inevitable. Or so you would think. But this is a very different brand of fantasy, and it’s way more unpleasant than murder. The estate of Downton Abbey, sprawling across Yorkshire and ruled over by the Earl of Grantham, Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville), is a hotbed of ... niceness. Of calm. Of definitely nothing like class-based resentment, heaven forfend. Oh, absolutely, Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, deploys an entertainingly wicked tongue in pursuit of protecting her privilege, but how is it possible that all the servants are so happy? Not only do the cooks and maids and footmen and so on Know Their Place, they positively revel in servitude. One character literally makes a foolish spectacle of himself, so giddy is he at the prospect of waiting on his “betters.” This is played for charmed laughs: Of course he’s delighted to serve his superiors, who wouldn’t be? His endearing faux pas is merely in being so effusive instead of maintaining a correct British decorum. (There’s a servant character here who is bitter in the way you’d imagine a centuries-old subservient underclass would all be bitter. This character is just about as close as this movie comes to a villain. Another miscreant is someone else who fails to adhere to the prescribed class and power structure.)

When devotees of Downton Abbey insert themselves into this saga, are they imagining themselves as Anna Bates (Joanne Froggatt), clever and resourceful personal maid to Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery), one of the Earl’s daughters? Or perhaps as e cient and dedicated r. arson (Jim Carter), the erstwhile head butler who comes out of retirement at this particular moment of need? Seems unlikely. No, the fantasy here is a very reactionary one, a hankering for a world in which no one questions the status quo, where wealth and privilege are deserved and proper: The plot revolves around a visit to Downton Abbey from King George V (Simon Jones) and Queen Mary (Geraldine James), and the mild uproar the preparations for this throw the household into. Maybe there’s some sort of satisfaction to be had in seeing that even the Crawleys can be ordered around by their betters? Except the Crawleys are mostly pretty unfussed by it all. Even the minor bits of intrigue resolve themselves in ways that could not be more conservative, more contentedly uncomplaining: Oh no, is cook Daisy Mason (Sophie McShera) going to abandon her butler fianc ichael o for the handsome new plumber (James Cartwright)? Whom will childless Lady Bagshaw (Imelda Staunton), cousin to the dowager countess, leave her fortune to? Never fear: There are no revolutions in the o ng at Downton Abbey. And just when a good one to fantasize about would be very welcome indeed. n

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SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

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SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

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STAGE

Jan and Adam (Julie Layton and Isaiah Di Lorenzo) finally have a night alone, and all they want to do is fight. | STLAS

[REVIEW]

Fight Night Fifty Words paints a convincing portrait of marital dysfunction — if you care to see one Written by

PAUL FRISWOLD Fifty Words Written by Michael Weller. Directed by John Pierson. Presented by St. Louis Actors’ Studio at the Gaslight Theater (358 North Boyle Avenue; www.stlas.org) through October 6. Tickets are $30 to $35.

magine you’ve been invited to a dinner party, but you know in advance that the hosts will fight for the duration of the evening, and no one will eat. That’s Michael Weller’s Fifty Words. His two-character drama opens St. Louis Actors’ Studio’s thirteenth season, and it’s an uncomfortable play with few rewards for the audience. Jan (Julie Layton) and Adam (Isaiah Di Lorenzo) have been together for seventeen years and with their son away on his first sleepover they have the brownstone to them-

selves. Adam has focused his efforts on seducing Jan while Jan is focused entirely on work. Arguments are up uickly and are never fully e tinguished for the bulk of the play’s minutes. That’s not to say Adam doesn’t try to smooth things over. Di oren o brings a goofy physical charm to the role, bowing to his wife and leaping around the apartment like an oversize cat stalking a tender morsel. He imbues Adam with an obviously conciliatory manner, as he works to keep her away from the computer and focused on him. In the early going, Jan is written with a brittle, sharp personality that skewers most of Adam’s efforts. ayton plays this up rarely even looking up from her screen and firing off one or two word answers. She’s unsympathetic and determined to foil every one of her husband’s advances but slowly relents and opens up. Between arguments, they talk about their past and how they got to this contentious state of affairs. Jan gave up her dance career to start a family despite not really wanting to be a mother. Now that their son is older, she goes back to work and for reasons not e plained, decides the best position for her is as a freelance database miner(?). It’s not an easy transi-

tion. Adam is an architect, which he loves. Their individual careers are perhaps a bit of writerly cleverness, as in “writing about music is like dancing about architecture. It’s a subtle way of signaling that Jan (dancer) and Adam (architect) don’t have the language to communicate with each other. All of the arguments come down to one uestion ill their marriage survive the night or that uestion to be meaningful you have to care one way or the other about their marriage. Despite Layton’s and Di oren o’s skill at portraying a fractious, angry couple, I don’t care. As written, neither one has taken an active interest in their relationship until tonight and if they don’t care how can any outsider? he title of the play comes from something Jan says, that there should be fifty different words for the wealth of emotions love incorporates such as frustration and resentment, contentment and desire. But there’s only one word for love because true love encompasses all of those feelings. If you forego complaining about her habit of never turning off a light then she will not speak of your arguing with the sloppy logic of commercials. You let those things lay for the sake of harmony. he fact that neither Jan nor Adam knows this is damning. n

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SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

RIVERFRONT TIMES

CAFE

[REVIEW]

All Hail Queen Esther In a Bridgeton strip mall, Esther’s Persian Cafe dazzles Written by

CHERYL BAEHR Esther’s Persian Cafe 12426 St. Charles Rock Road, Bridgeton; 314-755-1882. Wed.-Sun. 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. (Closed Mondays and Tuesdays).

fter your first bite of the tahdig at sther’s ersian afe you may think you’ve been mistakenly given a hash brown and not the crispy ersian rice dish advertised on the menu. A golden brown round cake the si e of a dinner plate glistens with clarified butter steam emanating from underneath like the sort of potato wonder you get at a high end steakhouse. As you take your fork and dig into the crispy mound however it becomes apparent that the composition is rice and not potato. ender awlessly cooked basmati grains are encased in the buttery shell of crisped rice that has been carameli ed on the bottom of a searing hot ghee coated skillet. he butter saturates that outside layer soaking down into the interior of the rice cake so that with every bite your tongue is coated in the richness. Alone this is a masterpiece. However sther’s owner e a oghiyany smothers the tahdig in ghormeh sab i a traditional ersian stew made with beef kidney beans and fresh herbs. hick and hearty as pot roast the stew only adds to the decadence with ust a whisper of lime finishing the dish giving it a crucial punch of acid that balances out the richness of the butter and beef. It’s utterly soulful. After e periencing oghiyany’s tahdig you understand why he’s assembled a legion of fans over the years. A talented home cook oghiyany has always loved food but he never pursued it profes-

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The tahdig (layer of crispy rice) with ghormeh sabzi (Persian beef stew) is a masterpiece. | MABEL SUEN sionally. Instead he made his living as an automobile sales entrepreneur and cooked in his free time as a hobby hosting dinner parties for family and friends. However these were no mere dinner parties. oghiyany put together outright feasts for his guests and as they grew in number he had to start hosting his meals at parks to accommodate the ever increasing crowds. In between the oohs and ahhs he was fre uently told that he should open a restaurant of his own so that even more people could e perience his cooking. ventually he took that advice to heart. After searching for the right location oghiyany settled on a small storefront in ridgeton near t. harles ock oad and Interstate 2 . Although a nondescript suburban storefront may seem like an odd spot for a ersian restaurant oghiyany and his daughter the restaurant’s namesake sther purgeon felt that it was a uni ue opportunity to bring a different style of cuisine to an area teeming with chain restaurants. After a rehab of the space and some menu development oghiyany opened the doors to sther’s ersian afe in April. sther’s is a sit down restaurant but the large open kitchen

SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

Toghiyany put together outright feasts for his guests, and as they grew in number, he had to start hosting his meals at parks to accommodate the ever-increasing crowds. setup makes it look like a diner albeit a stylish one. An earth tone granite counter runs almost the entire depth of the restaurant underneath it’s painted rench blue an aesthetic that gives the feel of an updated home kitchen. hiny metal bakers’ racks filled with pots pans and spices stand behind that counter and appro imately twelve simple laminate topped tables and black leather chairs

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provide seating. he restaurant is sparsely appointed but it’s strikingly clean giving it a glimmer that almost acts as decor in itself. oghiyany need not waste any energy on filling those walls with decoration for nothing could compete with the artistry that comes out of his kitchen. As da ling as the tahdig is it’s ust one dish in a parade of wonders that make you understand the beauty of ersian cuisine. he kookoo sab i described as an herb frittata is a stunningly rich verdant concoction that has the avor of an onion and dill uiche but with the te ture of the little crumbles you get around the edges of a paper thin at top burger. Inside the egg mi ture is suspended somewhere between uffy and custard like. It’s magical. he kotlet or ersian cutlet has this similar crispy e terior. Inside the beef and potato filling has the te ture of a rustic p t its avor deepened by the subtly sweet avor of cooked onions. It’s reminiscent of a attened griddled slice of meatloaf yet one electrified with fresh herbs. oghiyany’s chicken wings are surprisingly special. hough they present as simple wings and drummies their yellow hue suggests a saffron marinade that gives them

a gentle but present depth of avor that is enhanced by bitter char from the grill. ven the hummus a ubi uitous dish is notable at sther’s. Here it’s smooth as silk and e tra thick and nutty thanks to oghiyany’s liberal use of tahini. erved with grilled pita bread it’s a satisfying delight. sther’s offers a handful of kebabs including a tender straightforward filet mignon kebab and a chicken kebab marinated in the same gentle spices as the chicken wings. oth are good but the standout is the beef koobideh kebab a mi ture of lightly spiced beef that is coarsely ground so that it has a heartier te ture than is typical of ground meat. he avor and te ture are similar to a osnian cevapi black pepper kissed enveloped in grill char and impossibly uicy. he stews are also noteworthy. In addition to the ghormeh sab i sther’s serves gheymeh a slow cooked beef and split pea dish cooked in a cinnamon accent-

Chef-owner Reza Toghiyany began by hosting dinner parties for friends and family. | MABEL SUEN ed tomato paste. he result is a iddle astern spiced version of barbecued pulled beef. Another specialty the fesen an is a won-

derful rendition of the traditional chicken and pomegranate stew. low cooked in rich pomegranate molasses and accented with

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chopped walnuts it’s a comple mi of sweet and savory that underscores the beauty of this rich culinary tradition. sther’s does not serve desserts. Instead if he’s not too busy working the grill oghiyany is likely to swing by your table with a cup of urkish coffee and insist that you en oy it as a leisurely end to your meal. As you sip the thick as mud brew you can’t help but notice the string of cars ust across the parking lot that pack the hick il A drive through and feel sad for the motorists who are so close to greatness without reali ing it. If only they knew that something like that tahdig was within a 4 second walk across the lot surely they’d e it the ueue and make a beeline for sther’s. hat butter soaked basmati beats a wa e fry any day of the week.

Esther’s Persian Cafe Tahdig.......................................................... $7 Fesenjan ................................................... $10 Beef koobideh kebab ............................... $13

SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

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FEATURED DINING SEDARA SWEETS

SPONSORED CONTENT

6 RESTAURANTS YOU NEED TO CHECK OUT...

CLUSTER BUSTERS

SEDARASWEETS.COM

CLUSTER-BUSTERS.BUSINESS.SITE

314.532.6508 8011 MACKENZIE RD AFFTON, MO 63123

314.297.8846 3636 PAGE BLVD ST. LOUIS, MO 63113

In May of 2019, Sedara Sweets joined the community of Affton. Sedara serves a variety of baked goods including fifteen types of baklava—both Iraqi and Turkish. Just like the name says, Sedara sells ice cream, using products from Wisconsin-based Cedar Crest, and milkshakes. The cafe offers a small savory menu featuring breakfast bread, falafel and shawarma sandwiches, with rotisserie versions of beef or chicken both on offer. Whether you are looking for something to satisfy your sweet tooth, or a new option for lunch and dinner, Sedara has you covered. “We want to have something for everybody” Sedara Sweets is both family owned and operated. They offer dine in and take out food services, as well as an amazing Baklava gift box that can be ordered online, or even delivered! Owners George and Esraa Simon look forward to meeting their new neighbors and sharing some of their favorite dishes with the community!

Located on both Page Avenue, as well as the upcoming location in the Saint Louis Galleria, Cluster Busters hopes to provide Saint Louis with high quality seafood at affordable prices. Cluster Busters offers both dine in and carry out seafood, with recipes from Chef Deion Woodard. You will find all your favorites dishes such as seafood, pasta, gumbo, and fried fish. Whether you want to try their flagship “Cluster Buster” or the Lobster Mac and Cheese, Cluster Busters offers something for everyone. Since 2017, Cluster Busters continues to grow as part of a staple of the North Saint Louis community, and is very excited to bring their offerings to the Galleria. Keep an eye out for menu additions as well as daily specials. Cluster Busters is also available for catering and private events, so consider them for your next event. At Cluster Busters, you’re invited to come catch this drip!

POKE DOKE

POKEDOKESTL.COM

CARNIVORE STL CARNIVORE-STL.COM

314.449.6328 5257 SHAW AVE, ST. LOUIS, MO 63110 Carnivore fills a nearly 4,000-square-foot space on The Hill with a dining area, bar lounge, and adjoining outdoor patio gracefully guarded by a bronze steer at the main entrance. Always embracing change, Joe and Kerri Smugala, with business partners Chef Mike and Casie Lutker, launched Carnivore STL this summer. As the Hill’s only steakhouse, Carnivore offers a homestyle menu at budget-friendly prices appealing to the neighborhood’s many families. Steak, of course, takes center stage with juicy filet mignon, top sirloin, strip steak and ribeye leading the menu. Customize any of the succulent meats with sautéed mushrooms, grilled shrimp, or melted housemade butters, such as garlic-and-herb and red wine reduction, on top of the flame-seared steak. Other main dishes include a thick-cut pork steak (smoked at J. Smugs) and the grilled chicken with capers and a white wine-lemon-butter sauce. St. Louis Italian traditions get their due in the Baked Ravioli, smothered in provel cheese and house ragu, and in the Arancini, risotto balls stuffed with provel and swimming in a pool of meat sauce. With an exciting new brunch menu debuting for Saturday and Sunday, Carnivore should be everyone’s new taste of the Hill.

JSMUGSGASTROPIT.COM

314.328.3421 6730 PAGE AVE ST. LOUIS, MO 63138

314.499.7488 4916 SHAW AVE ST. LOUIS, MO 63110

Looking for the best seafood in St. Louis or the Midwest—don’t fret, Crawling Crab is now open! Here, we drizzle everything in garlic butter and then sprinkle on our magic dust! In a fun and casual atmosphere, you’ll enjoy fresh, hand-cleaned seafood ranging from lobster, shrimp, and of course crab legs. All platters come with corn sausage potatoes and Cajun boiled eggs and shrimp that won’t disappoint. For those pasta and veggie lovers out there, there is a spot for you here too! Enjoy our double dipped garlic butter rolls along side with your meal. And if you are still not stuffed, we have homemade dessert on the menu too! Have a big family coming in or an event coming up? Enjoy our family meal options and our beautiful seafood tables. As we continue to grow, we are excited to add new items to the menu, get creative with new recipes, and give back within the community. Join us on the first Tuesday of the month for $20 platter specials, and $5 appetizers on every Wild Wednesday! Open Tuesday thru Saturday 4pm-10pm, currently located in the 24:1 Coffee House Cafe.

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Poke Doke offers St. Louis their energized recipes intertwined in a fast-casual model. Best part is every bowl is customizable to the patron -- whether you know what you want and can come up with your own flavor pairings — but it’s certain your heart will be content with the rich, high-quality seafood. Customers choose a size, a base, (such as rice, greens, or soba noodles) and choose from proteins (such as salmon ahi tuna, spicy tuna, shrimp or tofu), then add as many toppings and drizzles as they wish. If you’re less interested in the simple pleasures of fish and more in playing around with accoutrements, both the shrimp and tofu are neutral enough that they benefit from the enhancements. The menu also offers appetizers such as pork-filled pot stickers, miso soup, and crab rangoon, along with an assortment of bubble milk teas and soft serve ice cream. With locations in both the Central West End and the Delmar Loop, Poke Doke is the perfect spot to grab a quick bite!

J. SMUGS GASTROPIT

CRAWLING CRAB

314.833.5900 8 S EUCLID AVE ST. LOUIS, MO 63108 314.553.9440 6316 DELMAR BLVD UNIVERSITY CITY, MO 63130

SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

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

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SHORT ORDERS

[SIDE DISH]

Ballet to Bartending Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

ooking back on his working life, Justin Meister realizes that his jobs have always centered around food in one way or another. Whether it was working in restaurants, managing a Whole Foods or running the Plaza Frontenac location of the home goods store Sur La Table, Meister has consistently found himself surrounded by the world of food and beverage — even back when he was little more than a kid. I remember being fifteen years old and walking to the bank from the bagel store where I worked with the day’s deposit because I was too young to drive,” Meister recalls. “At that age, I was already managing the place. I guess the management thing has been apparent all along.” Meister’s current gig as the bar manager and all-around utility player at Lemmons (5800 Gravois, 314-899-9898) may seem like light years away from that little bagel spot, though the seeds for his restaurant career were planted all those years ago. In fact, they were planted even earlier. As a kid, he’d watch his mom cook and try to pick up what she was doing, all the while developing a passion and curiosity for food. However, Meister wouldn’t think of the food and beverage industry as a career path right away. After graduating high school, he left St. Louis for college in Chicago where he started pursuing theater, and then eventually ballet. Meister knew he had to support himself financially so he got a ob as a bagger at Whole Foods. The more he grew with the company, the more he realized it was a more viable career path than ballet. “I had dreams of theater and ballet, but reality kicked in,” Meister says. “I realized I was going to have to work for a living, and since that was the case, I had to have more control of the situation.”

Lemmons’ Justin Meister had dreams of the ballet but found his true passion in the food business. | ANDY PAULISSEN Meister worked for Whole Foods for several years, eventually being promoted to store manager at one of its Chicago locations. However, he began to feel the pull to return home to St. Louis, not only because of its cheaper cost of living but because of the growth the city had experienced while he was away. It excited him and his husband, Caleb, and they decided they wanted to be part of it. “We would come back for visits over the years and see how much the city had changed — not just in the food and dining scene but in the neighborhoods that were developing,” Meister explains. “It used to be just the Loop and the Central West End, but now it’s Cherokee and South Grand and Benton Park and the Grove. Plus, there is a quality of life here because you can live well but within your means. You can enjoy more of the fun things in life because you don’t have to work all the time.” Meister settled into the Bevo Mill neighborhood and got a managing job at Sur La Table. Eventually, he wanted to switch course, so he went to work in the kitchen at the Caramel Room under acclaimed chef Nick Miller. Under Miller’s tutelage, Meister honed his profes-

“I remember being fifteen and walking to the bank from the bagel store where I worked with the day’s deposit because I was too young to drive. At that age, I was already managing the place.” sional cooking skills and further developed his passion for food. He carried that with him when he left the Caramel Room for a job as a bartender at the former Element. Though he had little experience with the beverage side of the business before joining

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the Element team, Meister took what he learned about working with ingredients from Miller and combined it with his passion for customer service which he’d developed over the years working in retail and management. It felt like he was putting it all together. Meister wasn’t actively looking for a job when the Lemmons opportunity arose, but when it did, it was something he couldn’t pass up. The reason was geography: The south-city restaurant is located next door to his house, making it super convenient. However, the moment he went in for his interview, he realized that, even if it had been across town, this was the place he wanted to be. “When I went in, I got really good vibes from the place,” Meister says. “When I started working there though at first I wasn’t so sure if I was doing a good job. I’ve come to find out that the alkan community, and the Grbic family in particular, are very superstitious and hesitate to let you know that you are doing a good job or that they appreciate what you are doing. I think it’s because they are afraid that if they tell you, you will leave. Once I found that out, I

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Continued on pg 33

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SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

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JUSTIN MEISTER Continued from pg 31

knew it was meant to be.” Meister feels that he has a unique opportunity as a bartender at Lemmons. For starters, he came into the restaurant when its bar program was still finding its voice, and he’s been given full creative freedom to fashion it into whatever he wants it to be. This has meant educating customers on why a drink may cost a couple dollars more than before, but he’s found his guests to be receptive and understanding as to the reasons behind the changes. More importantly, Meister feels that the restaurant’s strong Bosnian in ection gives him the opportunity to go in a direction with the bar that is not typical in other St. Louis restaurants. Like Lemmons’ chef and co-owner Senada Grbic, eister takes its alkan in uence as a jumping off point for experimenting with different ingredients and avors. hether this means using figs to infuse vodka or incorporating beets into a more savory cocktail eister finds inspiration at every turn — even if he still hasn’t figured out how to make rbic’s famous Bosnian coffee.

“She’s shown me how to make it her way, but I still don’t do it right,” Meister laughs. “She just calls me to have the water boiling and the coffee measured out, but she makes it when she gets there. If we could sit around and talk and have coffee all day, we’d do it, but we have a business to run.” Meister took a break from his bar and coffee dates to share his thoughts on the St. Louis food and beverage scene, the one cocktail trend that’s piqued his interest and why there’s so much to love about his beloved Bevo neighborhood. What is one thing people don’t know about you that you wish they did? I’m pretty much an open book; ask anyone that knows me ... especially after a couple of cocktails. What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you? Coffee and CNN. I’m a news junkie. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? The ability to travel the world without having to pay for anything. What is the most positive trend in food, beer, wine or cocktails that you’ve noticed in St. Louis over the past year? One trend that I know I’m fol-

lowing is savory ingredients in cocktails; widening the options for juices and mixers allows me to play with seasonality in crafting cocktails. What is one thing missing or that you’d like to see in the local food and beverage scene? Since starting at Lemmons, I immediately became family. I love the entire family and the community. There are great things happening in our neighborhood, and I’d love to see even more culture and diversity in such an openminded area. Who is your St. Louis food or drink crush? Chef Nick Miller. Who’s the one person to watch right now in the St. Louis food and beverage scene? Meaghan Coltrain is back with Niche Food Group as the pastry chef at Sardella. Everything she makes is amazing. Which ingredient is most representative of your personality? Lemon balm. It grows like crazy in my garden, and I’m always finding new ways to incorporate it into recipes for food and drinks. If someone asked you to describe the current state of St. Louis’ food and beverage climate, what would you say?

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efinitely continuing our upswing, gaining national recognition and becoming known as a food town. When I left St. Louis for college in Chicago almost, ahem, twenty years ago, there were whole neighborhoods that didn’t even exist, a handful of decent restaurants, one local brewery. The entire scene has exploded. It’s all very exciting. If you were not tending bar, what would you be doing? Working alongside Chef Senada Grbic, of course! Name an ingredient never allowed behind your bar. Pre-made sour mix. What is your after-work hangout? My bar or my couch — I’m usually too tired to go anywhere else! What’s your edible or quaffable guilty pleasure? I’m a closet sweets eater. You’ll never see me eating chocolate or ice cream, but I do, and now everyone knows. Also, I love Mallort. The only other person I know that can stand it is my husband, Caleb. Including drinks, what would be your last meal on earth? The only thing on my mind right now is our new fall pasta coming out soon: housemade pappardelle with shredded beef ragu and housemade citrus ricotta with a bottle of Dunja Rakija. n

SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

RIVERFRONT TIMES

BAR TAB

by Ellen Prinzi

Where we’re drinking: Bluewood Brewing (1821 Cherokee Street, 314-376-4166) What we’re drinking: Arch City Haze When we’re drinking: Any time of day is beer time

art burger buzz, part beer buzz, the newly opened Bluewood Brewing is now open after three years of serving the area through local festivals and events. Located inside the brewery is the highly regarded burger counter, Mac’s Local Eats, which serves as the perfect complement to Bluewood’s artisan ales. While the burgers are a popular draw, the brewery that houses them deserves more than just a nod with its impressive lineup of stouts, ales and everything in between. Bluewood, which started back in 2015, was founded by a group of college buddies, Cameron Lund and Grant Lodholz, from the engineering school in Rolla, Missouri. What started as a hobby quickly became a passion for the accomplished homebrewers, and their beers soon attracted a cult following in the area. In a region known for its beer scene, Bluewood stands out from the pack with its signature stouts and high-ABV brews. Notably, Bluewood’s Proprietor’s Fourth-Anniversary Stout won first place in the People’s Choice category at Ales for Tails in 2017. The long-awaited brick-and-mortar taproom is located in a beautifully restored building that dates back to 1821, encompassing roughly 2,000 square feet, plus a beautiful patio with an outdoor bar. There is ample space upstairs for events — even a rooftop patio, which the owners have teased for upcoming event opportunities. “We started looking for spaces about a year and a half ago, but as soon as we saw this building, it was a no-brainer that this was the future home of the brewery,” says co-founder and brewer Jerry Moberg. Beer production is still limited but will be ramping up to full speed in the coming weeks. Bluewood currently offers more than ten house draft beers, from signature barrel-aged brews like the creamy Cafe Noir Stout to a variety of beers with a deceptively high ABV. In fact, the brewery offers beers up to 24 percent ABV (we’ll try that one, please!), like Testify, a quadruple IPA, with notes of stone fruit, candied sugar, gold tequila and orange marmalade. On the lighter side, The Cherokee Standard Pilsner is an easy-drinking Pilsner that’s not too hoppy — and

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SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

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Arch City Haze. | ELLEN PRINZI

makes the perfect complement to one of Mac’s famous smashed burgers. The beer that stood out most on my recent visit to Bluewood was the Arch City Haze, a creamy New England-style IPA with natural hop flavors, offering more sweetness than the traditional bitterness of classic IPAs. Most New England-style IPAs lean heavily on late- and dry-hopping techniques; the Arch City Haze in particular delivers a slightly fruit-forward experience. For those looking for a gluten-free option, Bluewood offers Glutenberg Pale Ale and plans to offer ciders in the future. Living in St. Louis means we are spoiled rotten with a wealth of great craft beer, and that’s not lost on the founders of Bluewood, who are excited to be a part of this storied beer city. “The beer scene is top notch, with some of the best beer in the country coming out of St. Louis, and we are eager to share it with the community,” Moberg says. Head over to the edge of Benton Park for one of the city’s best burgers,and step out of your beer comfort zone to try one of their exciting artisan ales. Ellen Prinzi is our bar columnist. She likes strong drinks and has strong opinions. You can catch more of her writing via Olio City, a city guide app she started in 2017.

MUSIC + CULTURE

[HOMESPUN]

Soul Brothers Michael McDonald and Brian Owens team up for a concert to benefit the youth of Ferguson Written by

CHRISTIAN SCHAEFFER

hen local soul and gospel artist Brian Owens named his 2017 album Soul of Ferguson, the title served a few purposes. After Michael Brown’s death in 2014, the city’s name became a byword for several things — police reform, social activism, the Black Lives Matter movement — and Owens, a Ferguson native, sought to honor his hometown while telling a deeper, richer story than newspaper headlines could. If the soul of the movement that started in Ferguson still resonates five years later Owens’ album was a reminder that there is still soul and heart and faith in the people of Ferguson today. But when it comes to Michael McDonald — the husky-voiced maestro, the unwitting patron saint of yacht rock, the secret sauce in Steely Dan and, yes, the native of north county — Owens refers to his friend, tour-mate and collaborator as “the original soul of Ferguson.” Such a plaudit is well deserved given McDonald’s longevity and stylistic dexterity; he’s generally considered one of the more adept and respectful white interpreters of black music, and he’s got a few bona fides duets with atti LaBelle, samples by Nate Dogg and Warren G and a catalog of Motown covers — to prove it. Owens is relying on his relationship with McDonald for this weekend’s “A Night for Life” concert at the ouhill erforming Arts enter. The concert will be a tribute to McDonald’s music, featuring performances by Owens, The Voice contestant Kennedy Holmes, jazz pianist eter artin classical a hybridizers the 442s and about 50

Ferguson native Brian Owens will pay tribute to another North County native, Michael McDonald, at an upcoming concert. | JARRED GASTREICH youth performers. McDonald will perform as well. Owens says that he and McDonald have been trying to do a collaborative concert together for a few years, but this week’s event is doubly special for Owens. It serves as a fundraiser for Owens’ L.I.F.E. Arts nonprofit whose mission he describes as “developing the leaders of today using the arts.” So while the music celebrates the career of a chart-topping St. Louis native, the concert has a larger purpose, according to Owens. “The truth is, we’re using you for the greater good — we’re using your music to bring people together,” Owens told McDonald. “Your music has been the soundtrack of people’s lives for 40 years.” L.I.F.E. Arts — the anagram stands for leadership, innovation, faith and entrepreneurship — was founded in 2014 in the wake of the unrest in Ferguson. For Owens, that time of confusion turned to action, with a focus on his immediate community. “After Mike Brown was killed, I was trying to figure out what my response should be — as a believer, as an African American male, as a Ferguson native,” he says. With L.I.F.E. Arts, Owens and his partners decided to focus on helping the youth in his community by engaging their creativity while

tending to their social and emotional needs, especially in times of stress and unrest. “We have an eight-mile radius of Ferguson of where our resources can be most effective,” Owens says. “You’re developing people that will be the future creators of thoughts and movements — all the things that push culture.” Owens’ group seeks to link young creatives with business partners in the area to let their passions for music art and film be part of a larger narrative. To date, the students in L.I.F.E. Arts have worked with a few big cultural names in St. Louis, partnering with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra the ulit er oundation and the ardinals on multimedia projects. “Ultimately we’re trying to build this ecosytem where we gather together the partners necessary to serve the students in our community in a way that is holistic,” Owens says. But he also notes that though the arts can serve as a bridge, it is rarely the solution to larger, deeply entrenched problems. “It’s not enough to make a soundtrack about it; we need to engage with people to bring resolution to issues,” he says. “We’ve seen what can happen when you allow young people to be involved in problem solving.”

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Owens writes and performs his own original work — his next, When Love Came Down, is expected next year — but he regularly performs tributes to heroes like Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway and Johnny ash all performers who have experience in both sacred and secular music. His plan to honor the music of McDonald during Sunday’s show is a little different. “For me, I have never gotten to pay tribute to someone who is a musical hero that is actually in person,” Owens says. “I get to perform with him. This night is gonna be special.” Beyond Owens’ own artistic and personal fulfillment he sees Sunday’s concert in much larger terms, for both his students and for his community. “All in all, I want to encourage people to come out and experience the healing of the city and the promise of its young people,” Owens says. And having McDonald, who famously sang, “You don’t know me, but I’m your brother,” in attendance is icing on the cake. “His music is the perfect soundtrack for that.”

A Night for Life 7:30 p.m. Sunday, September 29. Touhill Performing Arts Center, 1 University Boulevard. $39.50 to $75. 866-516-4949.

SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

RIVERFRONT TIMES

[JOKES]

[PROFILE]

For the #@%! of It

A Comedy Invasion

St. Louis rapper Najii Person focuses on love and relationships with #@%! Is Forever EP

Flyover Comedy Festival brings Kyle Kinane, Sasheer Zamata, Jena Friedman and more in 2019

Written by

JACQUI GERMAIN

he very first track on Najii Person’s latest EP, #@%! Is Forever, starts with a brief audio snippet of a young girl’s voice asking what many of his listeners might also be wondering: “But for real, why did you — why did you bleep out the word?” Smartly, the St. Louis rapper doesn’t answer the question immediately, instead guiding the listener through ten songs that deal in different ways with one of art’s most notoriously ubiquitous, complicated and remixed ideas: love. “The main thing I really want people to get is what the word actually is,” explains Person. “Some people get it immediately after the first song, but for some people they don’t really know what I’m talking about until, like, five songs in.” On the surface, it’s a risky bet. What happens if the listener never figures out the title? And if they don’t, can they still enjoy the album anyway? Thankfully, the puzzle pays off in large part due to an EP that is sonically cohesive and lyrically thoughtful without being too conceptual for people to connect with. For an idea as well traveled as “love,” obscuring the word invites us to engage a bit more deliberately with the EP as a whole. #@%! Is Forever’s first track, “That Word,” works well as an opener, with a clean, even flow and stream-of-conscious delivery that would be perfect for a late summer drive. Featuring the soulful vibrato vocals of St. Louis singer-songwriter Katarra, the first half of the song gives us a wealth of pretty clear hints to the title’s missing word. The music breaks for a 30-second audio clip of Person briefly explaining his perspective on love before guiding us into a lower, steadier beat to close out the track. Of course, there are some familiar tropes (“she measures her worth by the measurement of his condom size / feeding the outer while the inner die”) that pop up, but we get a taste of some of his fresher lyrics (“combo McLegs weakin’, leakin’, Eden, sneak in / I was an invite, whatchyou know about insight, see the world through her eyes”) on display here, too. “Where You Going,” the EP’s second track, is a fan favorite, according to Person, and it’s easy to imagine why. The song’s chorus is simple for a crowd to rap along to and a great way to build energy at a live show. Also featuring vocals from Katarra and another 30-second audio

RIVERFRONT TIMES

Written by

DANIEL HILL

Najii Person recorded a conversation with his friends on the subject of love, which served as the blueprint for his new EP. | VIA THE ARTIST clip, this track’s ending switches into a much silkier sound that reminds the ear of Childish Gambino’s “Redbone.” The switch in tone leads well into #@%! Is Forever’s third song, “Young #@%!” — a short track with another audio interlude and the beginning of several R&B-influenced tracks on the EP. The third, fourth and fifth tracks — all with notes of R&B influence — were produced by Person, who names track five, “Morning Run,” as his personal favorite. It’s one of the most, if not the most, transparent and vulnerable tracks on the EP. Here, Person raps about the risk and frustration of a young relationship between two people with differing intentions, possibly shedding a light on the rapper’s mindset when he was putting the project together. Person says that he’d actually been thinking about making an EP about love for the last three years to process his own experiences, and the experiences of friends his age, with navigating relationships. When it came time to actually work on the project, he sat down with those friends and recorded a candid conversation about what love means and looks like for young people today. The audio clips dispersed throughout #@%! Is Forever make a bit more sense now; they’re artifacts from Person’s original conversation with friends. The varying topics that came up during that talk served as prompts that Person used to create the EP. “It was everything I had experienced up until that point, and I wanted to talk about it and get it off my chest,” he says. “You kind of hear it in the first song, how I felt about what our generation feels about the world.” The most sonically exciting portion on the EP comes at the end with “Nigga,”

SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

produced by ACE, and “Strangest Feelings,” produced by Person and OV and featuring rapper PHONZZ. “Strangest Feelings” is the last song on the EP and offers another audio interlude, but gives listeners a sound that’s pretty unlike anything else on #@%! Is Forever. It’s a bouncier, layered track that’s more playful and measured than might be expected for a closing song. For a rapper who describes his sound as “eclectic” and “experimental,” this is a particularly memorable inclusion that sounds a touch fresher than some of the earlier tracks. Prior to #@%! Is Forever’s release, Person was in and out of the studio for a year putting the EP together. In addition to having a hand in producing about half of the tracks, the rapper also worked with St. Louis producers Owen Ragland, 92, ACE and OV, and with local visual artist Hayveyah McGowan, who designed the EP’s cover art. The result is a well-thought-out project that showcases Person’s skill and growth since releasing his first single on SoundCloud back in 2015. Including audio interludes on seven tracks — three of which are in the middle of the song and not easy to skip — might seem like a lot, but given the project’s roots, it makes sense. And for what it’s worth, they’re handled well. Audio interludes can be cumbersome and distracting, but these match the vibe of their individual tracks without disrupting the EP’s overall flow too much. #@%! Is Forever is a well-produced sophomore EP from a rapper who is self-aware without being predictable, giving skilled wordplay, a fun vibe and a fresh sound. “I really wanted to take my time with [the EP],” Person says. “I wanted it to happen more organically, so I just really took my time with it so I could make it what I wanted.” n

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lyover omedy estival t. Louis’ homegrown celebration of comedians both local and national, has consistently grown with each year that’s passed since it debuted in 2017 — and this year’s fest continues that upward trajectory, bringing nearly 100 performers to 30 events in the Grove over the course of just three days. This year’s festival will take place from November 7 to 9, with headliners Kyle Kinane, Joel Kim Booster, Sasheer Zamata, White Women improv, Jena Friedman and Kids These Days. articipating venues include the Improv Shop, the Ready Room, Handlebar and the Bootleg. Kinane has performed on pretty much every late-night show there is in addition to hosting “The Boogie Monster” podcast and regularly appearing on Doug Benson’s podcasts “Doug Loves Movies” and “Getting Doug with High.” He’s also a omedy entral regular who served as the voice of the station’s on-air announcements for years in addition to making appearances on @midnight, Drunk History and TripTank. Booster has performed on Conan and The Late Late Show with James Corden in addition to filming a Comedy Central StandUp Presents special in 2017. He’s also appeared on et i ’s The Week Of, Hulu’s Shrill and TBS’s Search Party. Zamata is best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2014 to 2017, in addition to serving as a contributor on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. She’s performed on This American Life and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and released a standup special called Pizza Mind in 2017. Continued on pg 37

Jena Friedman (top) and Joel Kim Booster are two of the headliners at the Flyover Comedy Festival. | VIA FLYOVER COMEDY FESTIVAL

FLYOVER COMEDY Continued from pg 36

White Women is a troupe of black men based in LA that has performed across the United States, headlining festivals in ortland Austin ew ork and Washington. Its members have individually written and performed for numerous television shows: The group comprises Ronnie Adrian (Key & Peele, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot), Zeke Nicholson (AP Bio, The Good Place), Ify Nwadiwe (@midnight), Lamar Woods (New Girl, Single Parents), arl art MadTV, Brooklyn NineNine) and Ishmel Sahid (Cousins For Life, Maron). riedman worked as a field producer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and as a writer for The Late Show with David Letterman. Paste magazine named her special American Cunt one of the ten best comedy specials of 2016; she’s since teamed up with Adult Swim for a series titled Soft Focus with Jena Friedman. Kids These Days is a sketch comedy group made up of several New York-based comedians who

work at The Tonight Show, The Daily Show and more; the group has sold out every show it has performed in and has also made appearances at numerous sketch and comedy festivals across the nation this year. In addition to that staggering array of headliners, the fest will see performances by Kenny DeForest, Ian Edwards, Holly Lynnea, Ian Aber, Aaron Brooks, Jenny Zigrino and Kenny Kinds, among many more. “We’re thrilled that we’ve been able to build on the success of the past two years to bring a lineup that is unlike anything we could have imagined lyover omedy Festival co-founder Kris Wernowsky says in a press release. “We’re equally thrilled to bring all of these amazing and talented people to showcase everything that St. Louis has to offer.” ickets for lyover omedy estival are on sale now. Three-day all-access passes will go for $45 but for a brief time are marked down to just $30 for early birds. For more information, visit the fest’s o cial website at yovercomedyfest.com. n

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SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

RIVERFRONT TIMES

SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

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OUT EVERY NIGHT

[CRITIC’S PICK]

Melvins. | VIA SPEAKEASY PR

(The) Melvins 8 p.m. Friday, September 27. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Avenue. $20 to $25. 314-833-3929. Long revered as founding fathers of grunge and sludge metal, Melvins is, without a doubt, the most popular band to have ever released music on Slap-a-Ham Records, the now-bygone San Franciscobased label best known for contributing mightily to the explosion of the as-fastas-possible “powerviolence” sub-genre of hardcore punk throughout the ’90s. That may seem an odd footnote, but it also explains a lot. Melvins started out as a hardcore punk act akin to Black Flag — frontman King Buzzo has said his

THURSDAY 26

ADAM GAFFNEY: 8:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090. GREG KOCH AND THE KOCH-MARSHALL TRIO: 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. SMILE EMPTY SOUL: w/ Bullet To The Heart 7:30 p.m., $10-$15. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. STL SHED: 8 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. THOLLEM: w/ Ellen Hilton Cook 7:30 p.m., $7. Foam, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. TYCHO: w/ Poolside 8 p.m., $35-$37.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. TYLER STOKES BAND: 6 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

FRIDAY 27

BOYZ II MEN: 8 p.m., $49.50-$129.50. The Fox Theatre, 527 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, 314-534-1111. BREWTOPIA: 9 p.m., $5. Brewskeez O’Fallon, 4251 Keaton Crossing Blvd., St. Charles, 636-329-0027. BROTHER JEFFERSON BAND: 10 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis,

guitar playing is most influenced by that group — and though the band has moved through several genres over the years as its sound has evolved, it’s never lost that punk spirit and everything-to-eleven approach typified by the bands of the Slapa-Ham roster. Melvins’ latest, last year’s Pinkus Abortion Technician, even pays homage to another boundary-pushing punk act, Butthole Surfers, in both name and personnel, with BS bassist Jeff Pinkus writing and performing on it. Up the punks, or something like that. What Did You Say? Melvins’ shows are obscenely loud. Wear earplugs, or be prepared to experience premature hearing loss. You’ve been warned. —Daniel Hill

314-436-5222. CECE WINANS: 8 p.m., $25. Blanche M Touhill Performing Arts Center, 1 University Dr at Natural Bridge Road, Normandy, 314-516-4949. DEFEATER: 7:30 p.m., $15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. DIRT MONKEY: w/ Eliminate, sfam, Zia 9 p.m., $15-$20. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. DRAGON FALCON: w/ The Most, Wise Disguise 9 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. ERIC PREWITT BAND: 7 p.m., free. Hwy 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen, 34 S Old Orchard Ave, Webster Groves, 314-968-0061. FOREVER ROCK: w/ Hookie, St. Villagers, Sunset Over Houma, Let’s Not 8 p.m., $10. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. FRIDAY AT THE FOUNTAIN: 5 p.m., free. St. Louis Community College-Forest Park, 5600 Oakland Ave., St. Louis, 314-644-9100. GRASSFED: 9:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090. HERE COME THE MUMMIES: 8 p.m., $25-$27.50. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. JEREMIAH JOHNSON: 7 p.m., $15. National Blues

Continued on pg 41

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SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

RIVERFRONT TIMES

Wednesday Sept. 25 9:30PM

Sean Canan’s Voodoo Players Tribute To Jimi Hendrix

Friday Sept. 27 10PM

Doug Deming and the Jewel Tones Saturday Sept. 28 10PM

Gumbohead Reunion Show with The Funky Butt Horns

Sunday Sept. 29 8PM

Blues, Soul and

Pop Diva Kim Massie Wednesday Oct 2 9:30PM

Sean Canan’s Voodoo Players Tribute To Van Morrison

Friday October 4 10PM

Shamar Allen and the Underdogs Funk and R&B from NOLA

RIVERFRONT TIMES

SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

riverfronttimes.com

[CRITIC’S PICK]

Kristeen Young. | VIA SPIDER TOURING

Kristeen Young 8 p.m. Friday, September 27. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $10. 314-773-3363. It has been a long time since Kristeen Young was a permanent resident of St. Louis, but the New York-based artist has never forgotten her roots. It was Young’s longtime connection with legendary producer Tony Visconti that linked him with local hip-hop alchemists Illphonics, and when it came time to produce a video for her new

OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 39

Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis. KRISTEEN YOUNG: w/ Tiger Rider, Tight Pants Syndrome 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. LEROY JODIE PIERSON: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. THE MELVINS: 8 p.m., $20-$25. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. MONSTERWATCH: w/ Bastard & the Crows, Boreal Hills 9 p.m., $7. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. PREACHER LAWSON: 8 p.m., $22. River City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis, 314-388-7777. SLARK MOAN: w/ Dill Spears, Teshua Parker 9 p.m., $7. Foam, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. ZDRAVKO ČOLIĆ: 9 p.m., $60. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

SATURDAY 28

100 THOUSAND POETS & MUSICIANS FOR CHANGE: 4 p.m., free. Foam, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. AMPLE WARNING: 9 p.m., free. Nightshift Bar & Grill, 3979 Mexico Road, St. Peters, 636-441-8300. ANDY SYDOW BAND: 10 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. DEMON HUNTER: 8 p.m., $35-$75. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. DIE ANTWOORD: 8 p.m., $49.50-$52.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. GUERRILLA THEORY: w/ Dead Format, Ignore the Lights, Kamikaze Cole, Egan’s Rats, J-Rebel 6:30 p.m., $10. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. HERE COME THE MUMMIES: 8 p.m., $25-$27.50. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. JAN SHAPIRO GROUP: 8 p.m., $10-$12. Ozark The-

single “Less Than,” she called on local filmmaker Brian McClelland, who filmed her mock destruction of a grand piano at one of Webster University’s recital halls. It’s a fitting image for the glam-rock singer, who has used her keyboard to create dramatic, industrial nail-bombs of pop and rock. Forever Young: The show will be opened by the alt-rock quintet Tiger Rider and the long-running power-pop powerhouse Tight Pants Syndrome. —Christian Schaeffer

atre, 103 E. Lockwood Ave., St. Louis, 314-962-7000. JUSTIN JOHNSON ALBUM RELEASE: w/ Town Cars, O’Ivy, Jenny Roques 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. KELSEY MILES: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. NEW AGE MIDWEST: w/ Mean Season, Treason, Decline, the Dividing Line, Redbait, Life Force, Abraxas, Dying For It, Thirdface 2 p.m., $18. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. SEWINGNEEDLE: w/ Greg Electric, Miracle Whip, Metropolitan 400 9 p.m., $5-$7. Foam, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. THE REVEREND PEYTON’S BIG DAMN BAND: 8 p.m., $18-$20. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. TOM HALL: 5 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. TORREY CASEY AND THE SOUTHSIDE HUSTLE: 7 p.m., $15. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

SUNDAY 29

BECCA MANCARI: 8 p.m., $12. Blueberry Hill The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. CAROLYN MASON: 4 p.m., $15. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis. CHRISETTE MICHELE: 7 p.m., $35-$55. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. HAY ZIE P BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION: 8 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. LOVE JONES “THE BAND”: 10 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. THE NEW RESPECTS: 7:30 p.m., $18-$20. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. A NIGHT FOR LIFE: w/ Michael McDonald, Brian Owens and the Deacons of Soul, Kennedy Holmes, Peter Martin, Shedrick Mitchell 7:30 p.m., $39.50-$75. Blanche M Touhill Performing Arts Center, 1 University Dr at Natural Bridge Road, Normandy, 314-516-4949. POP EVIL: w/ Royal Tusk 8 p.m., $20-$25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis,

Continued on pg 43

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SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

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[CRITIC’S PICK]

Weyes Blood. | VIA PARADIGM TALENT AGENCY

Weyes Blood 8 p.m. Tuesday, October 1. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave. $16 to $18. 314-773-3363. Decadent and majestic, anguished and thrilling, the mood and music of Weyes Blood’s Titanic Rising seems cribbed from some baroque fin de siecle opera in which everything is going to hell so one might as well break out the good stuff, turn up the string section and live a little, apocalypse be damned. “It’s a wild time to be alive,” sings Natalie Laura Mering, the artiste and devastating singer known as Weyes Blood (named after a novel by Flannery O’Connor). Many musicians

OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 41

314-726-6161. RIVER CITY OPRY: w/ Nick Gusman & the Coyotes, Charles Ellsworth, Patrick Eagan, Eric Ziegler, Father Bran Misty 1 p.m., $5. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. THE ROOSEVELTS: 8 p.m., $13. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. STEFAN GONZALEZ: w/ Alex Cunningham, Damon Smith, JoAnn McNeil 8 p.m., $5-$7. Foam, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. TIM CUNNINGHAM: 2 p.m., $15. Mount Pleasant Estates, 5634 High St., Augusta, 800-467-9463. TRIBUTE TO KINDRED THE FAMILY SOUL: w/ Anita Jackson, Tracy Mitchell 5 p.m., $20. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. WITCH MOUNTAIN: 8 p.m., $12. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

MONDAY 30

BLEACHED: w/ The Paranoyds 8 p.m., $18-$20. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. THE JUBU EXPERIENCE: w/ Terry Rogers 7 p.m., $20. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. MUSIC UNLIMITED: 10 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. PRIORS: w/ Shitstorm, Milkface 9 p.m., $7. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. THIS WILD LIFE: w/ The Happy Fits 8 p.m., $15-$18. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

TUESDAY 1

GRIFFIN HOUSE: 8 p.m., $18-$20. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., Univer-

have tried and failed to capture cinematic experiences in sound and lyrical vision. Mering succeeds. Her mission should be impossible — turning climate change and planetary death into personal redemption — but she has created something to feel deeply and to believe in. The beauty of her music still rises. Up to the Challenge: Québécoise Helena Deland has the unenvied position of setting up the night for Mering’s soaring, gothic style. Her fierce minimalism, suggestive of early Angel Olsen, deserves the chance and your prompt arrival. —Roy Kasten

sity City, 314-727-4444. JUDAH & THE LION: 8 p.m., $35-$40. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. PENNY & SPARROW: w/ Caroline Spence 8 p.m., $17-$57. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. WEYES BLOOD: 8 p.m., $16-$18. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

WEDNESDAY 2

BLACKTOP MOJO: 7:30 p.m., $15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. CHRIS BROWN: w/ Tory Lanez, Ty Dolla $ign, Joyner Lucas, Yella Breezy 6:30 p.m., TBA. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888. DREAM THEATER: 8 p.m., $31.50-$66.50. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600. FRESH PRODUCE BEAT BATTLE: first ednesday of every month, 9 p.m. continues through Oct. 3, free. The Monocle, 4510 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-932-7003. GOLD CONNECTIONS: w/ The Hunter Hamilton Group 8 p.m., $8-$10. Foam, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. JUDAH & THE LION: 8 p.m., $35-$40. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. LUCERO NIGHT ONE: w/ The Huntress, Holder of Hands 8 p.m., $25-$35. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. MOONCHILD: 8 p.m., $23.50-$26. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. MR. CLIT & THE PINK CIGARETTES: w/ Belushi Speed Ball, Hover 8:30 p.m., $5. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. SUBLIME WITH ROME: 7:30 p.m., $29.50-$39. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. THE STORY COLLIDER: LET’S GET PHYSICAL: 7:30 p.m., $12. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. n

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SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

RIVERFRONT TIMES

SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

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SAVAGE LOVE CROSSED OFF BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: I’m a 35-year-old bisexual man in a LTR with a man. My question, however, has to do with my parents. As an adolescent/teen, I was a snoop (as I think most of us are, looking for dad’s porn stash, etc.). I was probably 12 or so when I found evidence of my dad being a cross-dresser. There were pictures of him in makeup and women’s clothing, and correspondence (under an alias and to a separate P.O. box) with other men interested in cross-dressing. As far as I could tell, he did this alone in hotel rooms while on work trips. Two years ago while on vacation, it came up while my mom and I were at dinner. She had recently found evidence, and she needed to take a short break to visit a friend out of state to process. She suggested I bring it up with him (I guess) because I’m queer and she knows I used to help host pansexual play parties. My dad is a devout Republican and comes off as very masculine. I see them only a couple times a year. Should I try to bring this up with my dad and let him know that I’ve known about his cross-dressing for more than 20 years and offer my knowledge about kink and alternative sexuality? Or just let him do his thing and we all retain the illusion of ignorance? My parents are still happily married — and whether it is more companionate than lusty, they love each other and have been married for more than 40 years. Your take would be appreciated. Son Of A Cross-Dresser Why does your mother want you to talk to your dad about his crossdressing? Does she want you to talk him out of it? Does she want you to convince him to include her on his cross-dressing trips? oes she think he would benefit from attending a pansexual play party with his adult bisexual son? Unless your father is in some sort of emotional distress or your mother is in some sort of danger, I really don’t see the point of this conversation, SOACD. It doesn’t sound like your dad is struggling

with shame. If your dad had to abuse alcohol or smoke a crate of meth in order to give himself permission to cross-dress alone in a hotel room, you surely would have mentioned that fact. And if your father was having unprotected sex with the other straight male cross-dressers he corresponded with, you surely would have mentioned that, too. From the details you included in your letter, SOACD, it sounds like your dad has successfully integrated cross-dressing into his life without harming himself or neglecting and endangering your mom. You could say your parents had a long and loving marriage despite the cross-dressing … or you could say it’s possible your parents’ marriage is an ongoing success not despite the cross-dressing but because of it. If dressing up in women’s clothes and occasionally escaping the confines of masculine performance helped your dad feel centered and emotionally whole, having this escape and having some people he could be open with about it — some straight male cross-dressing peers — could have made him a better husband and father. (It’s too bad it didn’t make him a better person politically, but you can’t have everything.) And while it might have been better for everyone if your dad had been open about his cross-dressing with his wife and kid(s), that ship sailed a long time ago. I don’t see what this convo — coming 20 years after you discovered his cross-dressing and two years after your mother discovered it — will achieve other than embarrassing and humiliating your father. Even a married person has a right to some small degree of privacy, and each of us has a right to a small zone of erotic autonomy. Your parents’ long, loving, successful marriage coexisted with your father’s crossdressing for four decades, and I don’t see why it can’t continue to coexist with it now. And if your mother is sad that your dad never shared this with her and wants to reassure him that he didn’t need to hide this part of himself from her and that she loves him just the same, she doesn’t need to deputize her bisexual son to initiate that conversation. If she thinks it would be a relief and not a torment for her husband to know she

“My 19-year-old younger brother is doing financial domination online. [His Twitter account is] mostly photos of him giving the finger and looking smug.” knows and that knowing hasn’t changed how she feels about him, she should tell him. Hey, Dan: I’m 25 years old and polyamorous. I’m in a relationship with a 28-year-old man since August 2018. It was just him and me when we first started dating, and then his old flame came into the picture. This whole time he had said he was not interested in having kids and a home and a primary partner. Since he got surgery in June and is now unemployed, he’s had a lot of time to think, he says, and now he’s decided he wants kids and a home and a primary partner. He knows I do not want any of these things, so he says his old flame is the person he’s going to do this with. He has made jokes about being an “alcoholic” since I first met him, and I thought it was just a joke. But now he’s spending money he simply does not have on alcohol. It worries me. Do I hang in there? Do I throw in the towel? I love this man very much, but I’m so confused. Previously The Primary I’m so sorry, PTP, but it would appear you’ve lost the unemployed guy with the drinking problem to another. But take heart: You’re young enough to meet someone else, someone who wants what you want and doesn’t want what you don’t. I’m certain that after meeting this person — or even long before you meet them — you’ll be able to recognize that your ex did you a favor. Sometimes we dodge

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the bullet, PTP, but on rare occasions the bullet dodges us. Hey, Dan: My 19-year-old younger brother is doing financial domination online. He maintains a Twitter account that’s mostly photos of him giving the finger and looking smug. He also posts pics of his feet, videos of him urinating (no penis visible, just the stream), and lots and lots of “bitch shots,” i.e., crotch-height photos looking up at him from below. He uses a lot of homophobic slurs in the tweets that accompany these images. I would have exactly zero fucks to give about this if my brother wasn’t still a teenager and wasn’t posting photos of his face. I warned him that the internet is forever, and facial-recognition software is a thing, and people who don’t understand the role-play aspect of his use of hate speech will think he’s a bigot. This could come back to haunt him socially or professionally. Complicating matters somewhat, my little brother is a straight boy and I’m gay. He’s not making a ton of money doing this, but he’s making enough that my parents are wondering how he’s buying all those super-expensive shoes. What do I tell him? What do I tell them? Falling Into Nefarious Doings Of Male Sibling P.S. I know about this because he told me — I didn’t stumble over his Twitter account. You’ve already told your brother the internet is forever and the low-key, low-stakes pseudo sex work he’s doing could come back to haunt him, FINDOMS. Beyond that … well, there’s really not much more you can do. Your brother is an adult, as are the men paying “tribute” to him, as they say in FinDom/FinSub Twitter, and he’s free to make his own choices. As for your parents, why is explaining where your brother is getting all those new shoes your problem? If your brother is old enough to set up his own Twitter and Venmo accounts, he’s old enough to come up with a plausible lie about those shoes. Listen to Dan’s podcast at savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter ITMFA.org

SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

RIVERFRONT TIMES

SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

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SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2019

RIVERFRONT TIMES

HAPPY HOUR SPECIALS HAPPY HOUR

CARNIVORE A PLACE TO MEAT

Located in the historic Hill neighborhood of Saint Louis, Missouri, Carnivore STL is a flame-grilled steakhouse for the people of casual American dining from the esteemed Italian families of the Hill. Carnivore is one of St. Louis’ most popular new restaurants and brings something unique to the Hill, a steakhouse. They take pride in their steak, and offer a few different cuts along with delicious house made butter. Whether it was required to be part of the group of restaurants, or they just felt obligated, Carnivore offers some Italian dishes that could compete with anyone in the neighborhood as well. Part of their unique offering is their fantastic happy hour, offered every Tuesday through Friday from 4-6 pm. Carnivore offers $ domestic beers, $4.50 house wines, $5 premium rail drinks,