Riverfront Times - December 14, 2016

DECEMBER 14–20, 2016 I VOLUME 40 I NUMBER 50

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Float On

Spending 90 minutes in a dark, silent pool — no phones allowed — might sound horrifying. But it could change your life

BY MELISSA MEINZER

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“I’ve been here in the city for six years. I don’t live in the city. But since I’ve been coming to work here I’ve noticed every year it getting progressively worse. We’ve had ten people shot in this two-block radius this year and one paralyzed.

“The thing that kills me is that, when it really goes down in here and you call 911 — like last Saturday, when that guy got shot — it took them almost 30 minutes to get here. I got off the phone with them and I go check on the guy and I watched a cop drove right past us and kept on going. Never stopped. It was maybe ten minutes after that we got swamped with police. It takes forever for them to get here. That’s why I carry a gun, because I’m gonna have a fighting chance to get out of here.” —PAT FELL, PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE EAT-RITE DINER AT CHOUTEAU AND 7TH STREET ON DECEMBER 11 riverfronttimes.com

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TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURE

10.

Float On

Spending 90 minutes in a dark, silent pool — no phones allowed — might sound horrifying. But it could change your life.

Written by

MELISSA MEINZER Cover by NIKOLAY KLIMENKO

NEWS

CULTURE

DINING

MUSIC

5

21

27

35

The Lede

Calendar

Your friend or neighbor, captured on camera

Seven days worth of great stuff to see and do

8

24

New Hope for Addicts

A St. Louis doctor pioneers a new treatment to help heroin addicts in the critical detox phase

Film

For Robert Hunt, La La Land suffers from nostalgia overload — and its stars’ modest musical abilities

The Sweetest Thing

Joseph Hess catches up with Cranky Yellow, which is now a series of songs and music videos

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38

Side Dish

How Michael Miller fell in love with Asian flavors — and opened Kounter Kulture

31

8

Food News

Fire at Cementland

Cheryl Baehr discovers a Bosnian-accented gem in south city

Years after arson struck the late Bob Cassilly’s warehouse, another suspicious fire sets the place ablaze

Fifty Shades of Yellow

Cheryl Baehr finds a pastry chef spinning sugar into gold at Nathaniel Reid Bakery

32

First Look

Sarah Fenske checks out Cate Zone Chinese Cafe, a new restaurant bringing the cuisine of Dongbei to Olive Boulevard

B-Sides

Blank Space is now a bar, not just an event venue

40

Homespun

The Pat Sajak Assassins Long Time Listener First Time Caller

42

Out Every Night

The best concerts in St. Louis every night of the week

44

This Just In

This week’s new concert announcements

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FOOD Publisher Chris Keating Editor in Chief Sarah Fenske E D I T O R I A L Arts & Culture Editor Paul Friswold Music Editor Daniel Hill Digital Editor Elizabeth Semko Staff Writers Doyle Murphy, Danny Wicentowski Restaurant Critic Cheryl Baehr Film Critic Robert Hunt Contributing Writers Mike Appelstein, Allison Babka, Sara Graham, Roy Kasten, Jaime Lees, Joseph Hess, Kevin Korinek, Bob McMahon, Nicholas Phillips, Tef Poe, Christian Schaeffer, Mabel Suen, Lauren Milford, Thomas Crone, MaryAnn Johanson, Jenn DeRose

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NEWS

For Heroin Users, a Promising Treatment in St. Louis Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

T

o break a heroin habit, an addict must live through the personal hell known as withdrawal. Like a debilitating flu, the process afflicts the body with fever, tremors, nausea, muscle aches and diarrhea. And those symptoms might not even be the worse part.

“With the flu you don’t have this component of fear, this unusual preoccupation with dying in pain,” says Dr. Arturo Taca, a boardcertified addictionologist who runs a clinic based in Creve Coeur. It’s all too common for patients to return to drugs after just a few days of anguish, he says.

But a little more than a year ago, following his own preoccupation with neuroscience, Taca deployed a groundbreaking treatment helping addicts defeat withdrawal. The results are generating waves of interest in addiction clinics across the country.

The treatment isn’t a new drug.

It’s a small, plastic device, not much larger than a bottle cap, which is fitted with adhesive just behind a patient’s ear. The device uses tiny wires to send electrical pulses to specific areas of the brain, effectively blocking pain signals.

“This helped them reduce 85 percent of their withdrawal symptoms within minutes, and it gave them a fighting chance,” Taca says.

He named the device the Bridge, since it is intended to function as a bridge between an addict’s first five days of withdrawal and their first injection of Vivitrol, a non-narcotic medication Continued on pg 9

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A previous fire at Cemenland was likely arson, and last week’s blaze is also under investigation. | PHOTO COURTESY OF GIOVANNA CASSILLY

Cementland Fire Claims Cassilly Art

A

n intense fire broke out Thursday night in the warehouse at Cementland, the late Bob Cassilly’s unfinished project in north St. Louis — leaving half the warehouse a charred shell and destroying many of Cassilly’s molds and other artwork.

Giovanna Cassilly, the artist’s widow, was on site Friday surveying the damage. She says the fire appeared to rage the hardest in a loft area of the warehouse where her late husband’s artwork was stored.

And that has her questioning whether it could again be an arsonist at work. An investigator found clear traces of accelerant after a previous fire, in August 2014. Cassilly’s attorney Albert Watkins, who hired the expert, has questioned whether the fire was meant to cover up the theft of priceless artwork from the 40,000-square-foot warehouse.

Curiously, Giovanna Cassilly says, the warehouse had nothing in it that might have accidentally started a fire — no vehicles or gas tanks. Yet it

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

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began so loudly that the off-duty cop who first tipped her off to the blaze Thursday night described it as “an explosion.”

“This was not an area where there were any hazardous items,” she says.

Giovanna Cassilly expressed thanks to the firefighters that responded, but said she was devastated by the further loss of her late husband’s art. A sculptor, Bob Cassilly made molds that he used to create giant cement sculptures; those molds could have been used to cast new pieces. But many were stolen in 2014, and another serious theft over Thanksgiving weekend this year also targeted the warehouse.

“We’ve lost so much,” Giovanna Cassilly says.

Cementland encompasses 56 acres along the Mississippi River.

Previously, St. Louis city has claimed authority for the site, taking the lead on both the August 2014 arson and Bob Cassilly’s own death, which was officially ruled an accident. (Giovanna Cassilly and Watkins have been fighting to get it reopened as a potential homicide.)

Yet Watkins has argued for months now that the warehouse,

as well as the site of Bob Cassilly’s death, are actually in the St. Louis County municipality of Riverview. On Friday morning, he fired off a letter to the city, arguing that it needed to stand back and let Riverview handle the investigation.

A St. Louis city fire department spokesman did not return a call seeking comment, although the department seemed to confirm Riverview was taking the lead, tweeting, “Riverview Fire & #STL Regional Bomb & Arson unit handling investigation.” The bomb and arson unit is a joint unit between the city and county fire departments.

The Riverview fire chief said he would have no comment since the fire is under investigation.

Watkins has argued that the city dropped the ball on the two previous investigations — conducting two investigations that were cursory at best. “I don’t want them to do what they’ve done in the past,” he tells RFT. “In the 2014 fire they didn’t investigate for arson.”

He adds, “If the city wants to use city tax dollars to run a county investigation, I imagine some city taxpayers will be pissed off.”

—Sarah Fenske

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WITHDRAWAL TREATMENT Continued from pg 8 that blocks opioid receptors, but can only work after detox. ivitrol can’t eliminate the cravings by itself, but it’s able to annihilate the brain’s ability to get high off opiates. If you can get on Vivitrol, your chances of recovery go way up. ow, Taca didn’t invent the ridge from a garage wor shop. e’d already been using similar devices in his clinic to target physical pain. His breakthrough was to realize that if the device could lessen post-surgery soreness or chronic knee pain, it could probably also help an addict shaking and sweating through detox.

Around the start of 2015, Taca contacted Indiana-based medical device distributor Innovative Health Solutions. Over the course of months, Taca wor ed with engineers to fine tune the design. It turned out to be a fairly simple to tweak the device for opioid withdrawal: Taca wanted a device that could remain active for five days straight instead of just a few hours at a time, providing continuous stimulation to the brain during the worst stretch of the withdrawal process.

In September 2015, Taca began distributing the Bridge to his patients. Even he was shocked at the outcome. In as little as twenty minutes, the withdrawal symptoms appeared to retreat to manageable levels. ince then, Ta a says he’s administered the device to hundreds of patients from his clinic. A study of 73 patients (currently under submission to the Journal of Addiction Medicine) found that 88 percent of Bridge users were able to successfully transition to medicationassisted therapy like Vivitrol.

And Taca noticed something else in his patients.

“We saw the fear go away,” he says. “What surprised me was that the anxiety, the fear, almost disappeared. So it was like telling the person going through withdrawal, ‘I think I can do this. I think I can make it this time.’”

The Bridge is cleared by the FDA for treating pain, but it’s not yet covered by insurance, meaning patients are on the hook for around $600 per device. But even so, the Bridge is now being used in clinics in more than a dozen states, including Louisiana, Ohio and Indiana. In an interview with the Indianapolis Star, an addiction specialist said of the ridge, “It’s not a matter of if it will wor . It’s a matter of will I ever see

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There’s still further research to be done, says Taca. e’s already testing a “super Bridge,” which discharges electrical pulse ten times more powerful than the debut version. He believes that future peer-reviewed studies will confirm what he’s already seen in his patients.

One of those patients, who spoke to Riverfront Times on condition of anonymity, represents Taca’s best case scenario. We’ll call the patient Dave. ave was referred to Taca’s clinic about six months ago. His addiction had started with prescription painkillers, and he gradually moved to the cheaper and more accessible relief found in heroin. He wound up homeless and, despite his college education, jobless. He devoted most of his energies to shooting $75 worth of heroin into his veins each day.

“My disease was in a pretty advanced state at that point,” Dave says in a phone interview. “I had been on methadone. I did drug court.

I had been to three in-patient rehab facilities before. I never made it that long.”

Dave was desperate to kick his addiction. At the very least, the Bridge was something he hadn’t yet tried.

“Withdrawal is a painful, intimidating process,” Dave says. “That period of time that the Bridge helps with, it’s probably the most crucial and vulnerable period of your recovery when you’re starting out. That’s when you’re at your worst and you need the most help.” In that stage, it’s incredibly tempting to turn to another fi “What’s challenging is that you know instantly how to relieve those symptoms by returning to your substance of abuse. It’s hard to endure that for a period of time, even if it is a few short days.”

Using the Bridge felt like turning the volume down on the physical and psychological pain. And five days later, once ave got his first shot of Vivitrol, he says it felt like heroin was finally losing its tenacious grip on his mind. The freedom allowed him to focus on piecing his life back together.

Today, Dave says his life is unrecognizable. He just started a new job and he’s got a roof over his head. e’s receiving treatment for depression and attends a twelve-step program.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am with the results,” Dave says. “It is going so well, it’s feeling li e it’s happening to someone else.”

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9

Spending 90 minutes in a dark, silent pool — no phones allowed — might sound horrifying.

But it could change your life

BY MELISSA MEINZER

Flo

J

anice Kitrel would never have floated if it hadn’t been an assignment for class. The idea of willingly spending more than an hour closed into a pod of salty water, left with nothing but water and darkness and her own thoughts — no thank you.

“I was a little apprehensive doing this at first because I am seriously claustrophobic,” she says. “The description of what was going to happen — I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t know if I can do this. This is very much outside my comfort zone.’”

But the 50-year-old executive assistant is in a master’s program at Webster University, and an instructor assigned each student to float as a prompt for an essay about their sense of place. And once Kitrel gave it a chance, it proved to be a very moving experience.

It took some time to slow her mind down from 100 miles an hour, she says, but she realized it was like laying in the bathtub as a kid. She felt her mind and body synch. Then she had an epiphany.

“I really kind of saw myself in a different way,” she says. “I’m not defined by my job title, the kind of car I drive or the things that I own. I’m defined by me as a person. What have I accomplished in my life other than my job, my status? I have a lot more that I can give back.”

Proponents say that floating — spending 90 minutes or more in what amounts to an artificial womb, with external stimulus removed

loat On — comes with a host of benefits, including mental clarity, pain relief, improved athletic performance and creativity.

And thousands of St. Louisans have done it since February 2015, thanks to a crew of young entrepreneurs who’ve turned floating into their business. At FLOAT STL’s centers in Midtown and now Maryland Heights, which opened last month, they’re less spreading a gospel than presenting an experience.

If the womb metaphor seems too easy, that’s because it’s perfect. How else, really, to describe shutting yourself in a dark and silent pod filled with super-salted water that creates complete buoyancy? More than anything, it’s a reversion to a fetal state.

At its core is reflection. You shut off all the noise, and what are you left with? It can be terrifying. A 2014 University of Virginia study found that when pried away from their smartphones and other distractors, 67 percent of men and 25 percent of women chose to push a button to shock themselves electrically, rather than try quiet introspection. Looking inward is not in our modern nature.

Yet once floaters break past the fear, it can be a way to access inner peace or intellect, to solve problems and grow. Some recover from physical or mental taxation. Others change the way they see themselves in the world.

Kitrel is in the final group. Since her float, she’s training to become a hospice volunteer and calling bingo at a senior center. “You can give monetary donations and that’s good, but when you give of yourself, it means more,” she says.

The origins of FLOAT STL lie in a St. Louis area residential treatment facility for people with eating disorders. Jacob Resch, 32, and Marcio Guzman, 41, were counselors there, and as their work relationship turned into friendship, they tried floating in other cities.

(The South American-born Guzman recalled attempted something like a float in Lake Titicaca as a child.)

By the end of 2011, they’d bonded with another counselor, 37-year-old Kevin McCulloch, and realized floating was something all three had in common.

“Through conversation, we came to realize we each had floated,” says McCulloch. “We were already passionate about helping with growth, mindfulness and stress and anxiety reduction. Introspection. Mind-body. All those things are so aligned with helping somebody heal themselves.”

With no public float centers in St. Louis, none of the three was floating as often as he wanted. The friends would partake on trips to Chicago or visits to other big cities, but they couldn’t find the consistency they craved.

By spring 2012, they were talking seriously about how they could accomplish it. They attended the international Float Conference together in Portland, Oregon, that summer, and left feeling enthusiastic and confident.

Continued on pg 12

“We want as many people as possible to be able to float.

We didn’t really think beyond that.”

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FLOAT ON Continued from pg 11 “We want as many people as possible to be able to float. When we thought about opening a center, we didn’t really think beyond that,” McCulloch says.

FLOAT STL was the first such service in the state, although others have since opened (including a few in the St. Louis area). The permitting process suggests just how out-on-a-limb the partners were in bringing it here. There wasn’t even a regulatory framework for what they were trying to do: St. ouis classified T T as a service business; Maryland Heights, as mental health specialists. Seeking financing, too, the group was met with a lot of confused faces and “we’ll get back to you” from banks who didn’t quite understand the business. Ultimately the trio found backing from private sources, mentors-turned-investors

who went from helping with the business plan to buying into it.

And St. Louis had zero reservations: Locals responded to FLOAT T ’s first location with major enthusiasm. The minute, sessions quickly became a hot ticket; waits to get in were as long as 23 days, McCulloch says.

“When we talk to someone on the phone, they have pain and stress and anxiety, and you tell them, ‘Well, it’s fifteen days,’ it doesn’t feel good,” he says. Things have slowed down a little bit, but the center’s four berths still book up very quickly. By the time the partners started an application to open a second center, on Weldon Parkway in Maryland Heights, patrons had already completed , floats at their flagship location. That number is now up to more than 13,000, with more than 7,000 unique visitors. t first, everyone did everything, but as the business has grown,

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From the left: Co-owners Kevin McCulloch, Marcio Guzman, and Jacob Resch at the Maryland Heights location. | KELLY GLUECK

the co-founders have specialized.

Resch mostly handles operations: training staff and keeping the tanks and the building in shape. Guzman manages HR and inventory — they go through a lot of salt. And McCulloch handles branding and business development.

McCulloch says that about 45 percent of their floaters are repeat customers, with plenty of regulars.

(Monthly subscriptions cut the cost a little bit.) But that still leaves more than half of their customers who are first time floaters.

“We take a lot of responsibility for introducing people to this practice,” he says. “We obsess over how do we want to engage someone when they step through the door How do we show up enough but not too much If someone’s going to let go of control, it’s helpful to have structure.”

The Midtown location is heavy on the windows, with sunlight streaming in to nourish palms,

bamboo and other living plants.

Patrons arrive a few minutes before their scheduled float and leave their shoes at the door. An employee checks them in via iPad. uring boo ing, floaters choose between a pod or a tank resembling an oversized bath tub, a popular option for claustrophobes.

There’s a brief orientation, which can be a group session for as many as four people, and then it’s off to the float.

Floating is pretty much idiot-proof. The pods and rooms are private, and each contains a shower. Suds up, rinse off and get in. Drowning or sinking, even if you fall asleep, is impossible thanks to the 850 pounds of salt. If you’re in a room, you just climb into an oversized bath tub. If you’ve chosen a pod, get in and pull the clamshell top closed. Turn the lights off when you’re ready, and ten minutes of spa music lull you into la-la land.

Continued on pg 14

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The water is ept at a neutral . degrees, neither bracing nor toasty.

When time’s up, they cue the music back up and remotely turn on the lights. nce their minutes have elapsed, floaters reconvene in the front room for tea and debriefing, if they’re so inclined. The three co-founders developed the space after finding themselves floating at less thought-out, stripped-down facilities in Chicago. They would leave directly from the pod into the bustling streets, and then search for a quiet place to talk it over.

To eliminate that, the St. Louis facilities offer couches and comfy pillows, and a few closed-off smaller spaces for those that might not want to talk with strangers.

“The post-experience, that’s when you integrate what happens,” says McCulloch. “If the space isn’t created to receive that experience, it can feel uncomfortable,

insecure. What you need to do is button that up.”

Think about showing travel pictures, or telling someone what you dreamed. Unless the other person was there, it’s rare they can match your enthusiasm. The low-key, tea-sharing hangout session with other floaters and a staffer all of whom float regularly boo ends the experience neatly.

“We’re passionate and obsessive about how do we create that ‘Ooh, it feels good in here’ experience,” he says.

McCulloch knows that giving in to the experience isn’t always easy. First timers, especially, can feel a lot of anxiety, from concerns about claustrophobia to intense introspective experiences.

“So much of what we do is working to create that safety, even in all [the anxiety] that’s still there,” McCulloch says. “It allows people to have deeper, more relaxing experiences. The aspect of letting go is key.”

Floaters set their own parame-

The film Altered States, fictional but based on his research, depicted a Lilly-esque doctor becoming a primitive apelike man after using drugs and floating. nd this summer’s synthy etfli darling Stranger Things featured an adorable psychic who used floating to bring on visions of inter-dimensional monsters — deeply unpleasant for our heroine, but how else could she fight them and save the world So it’s not too surprising that some fol s thin floating belongs in the same pop psychology bargain bin as primal scream therapy.

Or they assume it’s in the realm of trippy drug stuff.

Not so, says Dr. Peter Suedfeld. A professor emeritus of psychology at the University of British Colombia, the good doctor earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University and is one of the planet’s leading researchers in REST. “Among psychologists and medical professionals, there’s a sense Continued on pg 16

from 1 - 1,000,000,000

ters, with some choosing to leave the pod open or the light on. A few folks have left before the time elapsed, but no one has had a full-on freakout.

McCulloch understands that not everyone is ready for what follows.

“It’s the most intimate connected experience I’ve had with myself because there’s nothing else there,” he says. “That can be uncomfortable.”

The first float tank was developed in by ohn C. illy, who was interested in the effects of stimulus on human brain capacity. The technique of removing external stimuli via the tank came to be known as Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique, or REST. Now, things got weird for Lilly — he used psychedelic drugs in the tanks, and devoted a large part of his professional life to attempting to develop communication with dolphins. He was also keenly interested in extraterrestrials and malevolent systems of control over humans by greater beings.

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FLOAT ON Continued from pg 15

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that it’s New Age. People are concerned they’ll have episodes of quasi insanity,” he says. “That’s a non-starter. Many people have seen the movie Altered States.

They’re afraid they’ll emerge as a pre-human ape. As far as I know, no one has. Did you emerge and start hunting ga elles at the oo ” (For the record: Nope.)

Instead, removing stimulation is a pretty straightforward path to accessing deeper concentration and relaxation. And no matter what you’ve heard, though, don’t call them “sensory deprivation” tanks.

“That’s inaccurate—you cannot deprive sensory input unless you cut the nerves. Most people would not volunteer for that.”

Being in a tank, he says, induces deep relaxation and physiological change. Blood pressure, heart rate and muscle tension are appreciably lower, he says.

“In the normal environment, we are always monitoring what’s happening around us,” he says. “That’s a kind of evolutionary given. Animals—including humans—tend not to live very long if they ignore what’s going on around them.”

In the tank, though, there’s nothing to monitor, Suedfeld says. “ ou can concentrate on whatever you need to concentrate on: problem solving, decision making, recalling events from your past.

There are fewer distractions.”

His research has shown that floating can improve perception and motor coordination. He found that subjects improved in bas etball overall and specifically in free throw accuracy, as well as in darts, ski racing, target shooting and tennis serving.

Those results can linger for a few days or more. egular floaters can see lasting improvements from learning how to shut up some of life’s noise. “ or the first major part of the human species’ evolution, we were dealing with much lower levels of stimulation than we have now,” he says. “Our system isn’t evolved for that. Any time you can reduce the bombardment of stimuli, that’s a good thing.”

That’s certainly been true for Jon Neuman. For him it’s become critical.

If you didn’t know him you might not realize that Neuman, an unassumingly handsome and quietly affable guy in his mid fifties, is in the grips of a mental decline

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

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Zack Smithey, artist and entrepreneur, on a visit to FLOAT STL. | KELLY GLUECK

neither he nor his doctors can entirely understand. (Jon Neuman is a pseudonym, as many members of his family and circle of friends aren’t yet aware of his condition.)

Neuman spent 25 years in commercial kitchens — fast-paced hothouses of perfectionism, complete with screaming, egos and ceaseless demands. He was the executive chef at a popular area hotspot when his wife and business partner noticed something was very wrong. e just couldn’t handle all the action at once any more. octors have been trying to figure out what is wrong with Neuman’s brain for about three years now. He’s seen psychiatrists and neurologists. Depression and sleep apnea were considered, but proved not responsible for his cognitive decline. He has trouble remembering things, and gets quickly overstimulated. A morning chat in a busy coffee shop becomes obviously taxing after a while.

“The worst thing I’m sensitive to is sound,” he says. “Unless you are that sensitive you probably don’t realize how noisy the world is. Trader Joe’s is terrible; I have a hard time going to movies. I carry earplugs with me.”

Medication helps him sleep and

wake up, and he carries notebooks everywhere. Family and close friends are patient and understand his need for isolation and quiet.

His weekly sessions at FLOAT T are the definition of isolation and quiet, and he says they are profoundly helpful.

“My brain has got so much information, and because of what’s happened to me, it gets full awfully quickly. It gets full,” he says.

“I’m really very sensitive to stimulus. So I can only take so much, and it’s like — I’m emptying the bag, and then it fills up again.

Floating empties it for quite a bit.

I go once a week, but it helps me all the time.”

Two ears a o a k the tried his first float in enice, California. The artist and entrepreneur loved it. His wife Brie tried it once and didn’t enjoy it, but she still saw the business potential.

But the couple aborted their plans to open a float center in t.

Louis when they realized FLOAT STL was already underway. Instead, Zack Smithey has become a regular.

Smithey, 34, says he can feel his brain shifting between scienContinued on pg 18

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Float

Kelly Kennon looks to floating for a peace of mind after constantly being on the go as an MMA fighter, firefighter and paramedic. | KELLY GLUECK

I

FLOAT ON Continued from pg 16 tific, analytical thought (like building a house or running a business) and more creative, abstract thought (like design questions relating to his artwork). Floating can be a great help in moving between the two, he says.

“At any one time, I’m thinking about past memories, I’m talking, regulating my body temperature,” Smithey says. “If you’re standing up, you’re balancing yourself. ou’re seeing, you’re hearing, you’re smelling things. Even when you’re not doing much your brain is still doing a lot. So the idea of the float tan is to strip away all of those stimuli.”

Ideally he floats every other week or so, he says. “ ometimes I’ll use it just to recharge my mental batteries, to strip away stresses that I’ve been exposed to,” he says. “But when I’m not stressed out, I can use it for other things like increasing creativity or problem solving. It’s like going into a quiet room and being able to think and write down your thoughts, but in there it’s better.”

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or a big chun of his first float, Smithey thought about not thinking. “So much time had gone by that I thought, ‘Man, I’m gonna blow it, I’ve wasted too much time trying to get into the right state.’ Then, all of the sudden, it happened. My body disappeared. I couldn’t feel it anymore. I was all in my brain, I was li e floating in space.”

His perception of time had become completely unreliable.

He says he remembered that he was the last float of the day, and wondered in passing if he’d been forgotten.

“I was so relaxed that I didn’t even care,” he says. “I just laid there and thought, I’ll just lay here until I don’t feel like laying here.’ Then I heard some banging on the door and it was over.”

He’s not the only regular who’s come to depend on floating sessions. For Kelly Kennon, , floating is a crucial part of her physically demanding life. he’s a full time firefighter and paramedic, as well as a professional fighter.

During fight camps, which are six to eight week periods of intense training leading up to a bout, she floats once or twice a week.

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

“Usually by the end of that fight camp, you’re li e I’m tired of punching people!’” Since integrating floating into her fight camps, she says, “I haven’t had that.” ince she added floating to her regimen, she adds, she’s gotten through the camps injury free.

“It’s like an Epsom salt bath on steroids when I’m sore,” she says. “It’s amazing. I come out of there feeling better.”

Because her career demands she leap out of bed ready for action, she’s a very light sleeper. The intensity of the relaxation she feels in the tank — she sometimes falls asleep — is welcome, and leads to deeper sleep for the next three nights or so.

Floating, she says, seems to rewire her brain to new patterns — quieter patterns that let her breathe, and think and heal. And that, at its heart, is what all the stillness of a good hour-and-a-half-long float is about.

“I’m always like a go go go person,” she says. “It makes me take a minute for myself, to let my body heal, to let my mind do what it needs to do — no phone calls, no distractions. It’s only minutes, but it’s needed.”

riverfronttimes.com

visited FLOAT STL on a Sunday evening with stratospheric expectations. I was pretty sure I was going to trip my balls off in there, see the face of God and resolve some deep-seated conflicts. Totally reasonable for 90 minutes, right?

For the first few minutes I fussed around physically, bopping against the sides of the tank and trying out different arm positions. My legs and trunk felt perfect almost immediately, heavy yet weightless. My arms and shoulders, always tense for me, never got there, but I did feel some profound loosening.

I spent what felt like a lot of time thinking “Okay, clear your mind, dammit.

Stop thinking…NOW.” But my thoughts never did ease up.

What I realized was that, completely alone in the tank, all the thoughts were coming from me. No external force was responsible for the laundry list of disappointments or the rumination on complicated grief with which I was tormenting myself. That gave me a new perspective on my own depressive and self-critical tendencies: I’m the one doing that to myself, and I have more agency than I realize.

It wasn’t all existential dread. I had luminously vivid memories of past travels: a sunrise visit to the Cambodian temples of Angkor Wat, and listening to a man sing a wild song in a deep, dark cave in western Iceland. They were almost visual hallucinations, way better than looking back through my Facebook postings. The womb-like setting also made me think about my parents as much younger people anticipating my arrival 37 years ago, and of my younger sister whose first child was then due any second.

When the music signaling the end of my float piped in, I was pissed off and certain there had been a mistake, since it only felt like ten minutes. I wanted to go home immediately and pout to my cats, but I deigned to sip tea and talk with the other folks who had just floated.

As I recounted what happened with other wet-behind-the-ears floaters, it dawned on me that it was profound, even without living up to the chemical-free acid trip I had envisioned.

Sad and frustrating for me, sure, but a deeper internal journey than my half-assed meditation practice has ever taken me on. I’d love to try it again.

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DECEMBER 31

CALENDAR

21

WEEK OF DECEMBER 16-21

FRIDAY 12/16 Missouri Ballet Theatre: The Nutcracker

Hari Kondabolu headlines Helium Comedy Club this weekend. | MINDY TUCKER

If you believe it’s just not Christmas until you take in a performance of The Nutcracker, this is your week. Missouri Ballet Theatre presents its annual production of the beloved Tchaikovsky ballet.

Watch as Clara receives the gift of a nutcracker soldier from family friend Herr Drosselmeyer, and falls asleep dreaming of his his dashing adventures in a wintery wonderland of dancing dolls and malevolent rat kings. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 and 6 p.m.

Sunday (December 16 to 18) at Washington University’s Edison Theatre (6445 Forsyth Boulevard; www.edison.wustl.edu). Tickets are $40 to $60.

Hari Kondabolu Comedian Hari Kondabolu transcends most of the easy labels.

He’s a first-generation American who’s just as comfortable exposing the idiocy of celebrity interviews as he is unspooling a long riff about race and politics in America. Kondabolu somehow approaches every topic from a unique position of sharp social commentary combined with empathy, all delivered in a weary tone that implies he shouldn’t have to be telling you this in 2016.

He’s currently on tour across the country, and you’d better believe he has stuff to say about this past year. Hari Kondabolu performs at 8 p.m. Thursday and 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday (December 15 to 17) at the Helium Comedy Club in the Galleria (1151 St. Louis Galleria; stlouis.heliumcomedy.com). Tickets are $15 to $20. It’s an eighteen and older show, so if you can’t vote yet don’t show up.

BY PAUL FRISWOLD

SATURDAY 12/17 BandTogether Holiday Concert This year marks BandTogether’s twentieth season as the city’s premiere LGBT concert band. In that time the group has grown from a handful of friends gathered together to form a small marching band for the Pride Parade to a more than 100-member strong powerhouse. BandTogether’s repertoire includes pop standards, modern symphonic works and, at this time of year, holiday music. You can bet you’ll hear a sleigh-full of that last genre at BandTogether’s

seasonal show, In the Christmas Mood. Expect music from TV Christmas specials, carols and a few surprises. In the Christmas Mood starts at 8 p.m. tonight at the 560 Music Center (560 Trinity Avenue, University City; www. bandtogetherstl.com). Admission is free but donations are greatly appreciated.

White Christmas Singing along with a film is normally frowned upon at the cinema, but because it’s so close to Christmas, we will allow it for today only and only because the film in question is White Christmas.

The 1954 musical features Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as a pair of riverfronttimes.com

dashing veterans who have teamed up as a very successful song-anddance duo. They meet beautiful sisters Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen and form a quartet, in more ways than one. Together they plan to put on a televised show to save the failing inn owned by our heroes’ former commanding officer. Their secret weapon is a treasure trove of great Irving Berlin songs, including “Sisters,” “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep” and the title track. White Christmas is shown at 2 and 7 p.m. today at the Wildey Theatre (254 North Main Street, Edwardsville, Illinois; www.wildeytheatre.com), and singing along is encouraged.

Tickets are $10 to $15 and include a goodie bag of props to use during the screening.

Continued on pg 22

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

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CALENDAR Continued from pg 21

SUNDAY 12/18 The Wanderers

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America was on the precipice of unimaginable social and cultural change in 1963, but neither Richie nor his gang the Wanderers had any inkling of a world outside their corner of the Bronx. For them the whole of the world was encompassed by rock & roll, their Italian-American families and the important task of not mixing it up with any other gangs, particularly the violent Ducky Boys. But no matter how safe and carefree your youth is, eventually you gotta grow up even in the Bronx. hilip aufman’s coming of age film The Wanderers is something of a cult classic, both for its rock & roll soundtrack (Dion, the Shirelles and the Four Seasons) as well as for the clarity with which it captured a moment in time. The Webster Film Series presents The Wanderers at 7:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday (December 16 to 18) at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood Avenue; www.webster. edu film series . Tic ets are to .

MONDAY 12/19 St. Louis Blues vs the Edmonton Oilers The St. Louis Blues have been on a bit of a tear recently, picking up some much-needed wins in ways both dramatic (that comefrom-ahead shootout win over Minnesota) and determined (that come-from-behind win against Montreal) providing we ignore that stumble against Winnipeg. They’re going to need both dramatics and determination to handle the maybe possibly finally resurgent Edmonton Oilers. Wonder-kid Connor MacDavid leads the Oilers in goals, assists, points and pure hockey smarts but is his offensive genius greater than Colton Parayko’s defensive prowess The lues lost the last game in Edmonton, but the team’s playing better hockey now.

The Blues take on the Oilers tonight at 7 p.m. at Scottrade Center (601 Clark Street; www.stlblues.com).

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‘Tis the season of The Nutcracker.| COURTESY SAINT LOUIS BALLET

TUESDAY 12/20 WEDNESDAY 12/21 Saint Louis Ballet: Hip Hop Nutcracker Clearly The Nutcracker has stood The Nutcracker the test of time; look how many The Saint Louis Ballet performs The Nutcracker every holiday season to sell-out crowds, but you’ll never see the same show twice. Every year sees new choreography from artistic director Gen Horiuchi, which also requires a re-thinking of the show’s lavish special effects (pyrotechnics and glitter among them). The dancers of the professional company are joined by students of the Saint Louis Ballet School, and Mother Ginger (the character whose many children emerge from under her voluminous skirts to perform a celebratory dance) will be played by a special surprise guest this year. The Saint Louis Ballet presents The Nutcracker at 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2:30 & 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 and 7 p.m.

Sunday (December 16 to 18), and then at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (December 20, 22 and 23). All shows are at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus (1 University Drive at Natural Bridge Road; www.touhill.org) Tickets are $35 to $69.

productions there are of it this week alone. Jennifer Weber and Mike Fitelson have recast this holiday fairy tale about a young girl dreaming of holiday adventures as a hip-hop romance set in Brooklyn. Here Maria-Clara is whisked away by the magic of Drosselmeyer to a certain New Year’s Eve in 1980s Brooklyn.

In a nightclub on the last night of the year, her parents will meet and fall in love. The Hip Hop Nutcracker features b-boys, a DJ and an electric violinist remixing a beloved favorite right before your eyes. It’s performed at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Fox Theatre (527 North Grand Boulevard; www. fabulousfox.com). Tickets are $25 to $65.

Planning an event, exhibiting your art or putting on a play? Let us know and we’ll include it in the Night & Day section or publish a listing in the online calendar — for free! Send details via e-mail (calendar@ riverfronttimes.com), fax (314-754-6416) or mail (6358 Delmar Boulevard, Suite 200, St. Louis, MO 63130, attn: Calendar). Include the date, time, price, contact information and location (including ZIP code). Please submit information three weeks prior to the date of your event. No telephone submissions will be accepted. Find more events online at www.riverfronttimes.com.

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11/15/2016 9:01:30 AM

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FILM

Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are attractive but only modestly entertaining in La La Land. | DALE ROBINETTE [REVIEW]

Beautiful Leftovers La La Land suffers from nostalgia overload and its stars’ modest musical abilities Written by

ROBERT HUNT La La Land

Directed and written by Damien Chazelle.

Starring Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and John Legend. Opens Friday, December 16, at Landmark Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

T

he first thing you see in Damien Chazelle’s La La Land (not counting the usual string of production company logos) is a nod to the past, a vintage mid-’50s title card that reads “In CinemaScope.” Like Taranti-

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

no’s use of retro ‘70s logos, it’s a hint of what’s to come, simultaneously identifying the wide-screen process in use (although one could uibble that the film was actually made with Panavision lenses) and creating a little distance by placing it in a nostalgic context. Grab your hats, folks, we’re taking a leap back to the lost art of the Hollywood musical, back to the song-and-dance days before the pictures got small.

Yes, La La Land is a musical, a throwback to the spectaculars of 60 years ago in which romances rose up in song and whirling, floating cameras became a third dance partner. Shot in bright hues just on the safe side of gaudy, this is a love song to a purely imaginary Los Angeles and to a cinematic ideal patented by Donen and Minnelli and filtered through the art house sensibility of Jacques Demy (a major influence here). Despite its minor contemporary touches, Cha elle’s film is nostalgia s uared, a longing for a fiction already re imagined in films li e The Young Girls of Rochefort.

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

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It begins with a splash, a broad and flashy scene in which drivers in a freeway tra c jam leave their cars — who knew that the highway was filled with skateboarders and acrobats? — to sing a hymn to the California sun. Among the crowd are Mia (Emma Stone), a would-be actress studying for an audition, and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a struggling musician.

Their paths will cross again, but not until the film establishes that Sebastian is a dedicated artist whose commitment to “true jazz” (his expression) means that he’d rather starve than compromise.

Someone should have told him that going to LA for a jazz career is liking moving to Nashville to become a calypso singer.

And yes, Mia and Seb (if you insist) finally meet and fall in love, complete with singing and dancing — sometimes adequate, sometimes strained — but always extremely likable in the candy-colored world of La La Land. The film is so bright and flashy and self-assured that it’s almost im-

possible to dislike, but there’s an intrusive self-consciousness that works against it.

Chazelle is so eager to make sure the audience catches his film history credentials, for example, that when he nods to Rebel Without a Cause by staging a dance scene in the ri th bservatory, he oversells it by first having osling and Stone attend a screening of icholas ay’s film. e loves the bold, brash tones of ‘50s musicals, but he also tries to keep a cool reserve. Although he steers clear of the hipster posturing that damaged his earlier foray into the genre, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, there’s a contrived, calculating quality to this exercise in genre resurrection.

It would be foolish to point out that Gosling and Stone, who are actually quite appealing, are not the equals of Gene Kelly or Cyd Charisse. But certainly one of the great things about Hollywood musicals is the actors’ sheer love of performance. Kelly and Astaire, Continued on pg 25

COLD WEATHER IS HERE!

LA LA LAND Continued from pg 24

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onald ’Connor and ebbie Reynolds seem to be bursting with energy; they can’t wait to break into song or tap across a stage.

Gosling and Stone are sheepish by comparison, and while their “I can’t believe we’re doing this” modesty is charming at first, it can’t make up for plain old talent and enthusiasm.

The film stumbles most in its last 40 minutes or so. A subplot involving John Legend as a rival who hires Sebastian for an electronic jazz/funk band promises much more than it delivers. Hurdles in the romantic relationship seem purely arbitrary and throw the film so far off course that it takes a contrived fantasy sequence (a musical interlude that revises/ reprises the entire plot and reminds me of the finale to The Muppet Movie just to bring the film to a conclusion.

The bumpiness of the plot is not helped by the heavy-handed reminders that this isn’t just a love story, it’s about True Art, complete with lectures about “living your dream” and a lot of fretting about compromise (playing Christmas songs in a bar is selling out, but playing “Take on Me” in an ‘80s cover band evidently isn’t). Mia and Sebastian, the film tells us again and again, are True Artists, but Cha elle seems to define “true” art as commercial success with carefully articulated compromise bo o ce appeal for her and running a ritzy nightclub for him.

(Although to the best of my knowledge, neither Thelonious Monk nor Miles Davis ever ran a nightclub, with no apparent detriment to their talents.)

Cha elle is not the first to try to reclaim the Hollywood musical.

He’s following the path of other post-Golden Age musicals such as New York, New York, At Long Last Love, One From the Heart, Pennies From Heaven and Absolute Beginners, all notorious failures, nearly all of them more ambitious and better films than La La Land. ut those films wanted to ta e what was bright and magical about musicals and bring it into a harsher, less naive world. Chazelle just wants to polish off the genre and treat it like a novelty. It’s a lovely, well-made but essentially empty film. It’s a good movie in many ways, but not nearly as good as its makers seem to think it is.

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Co-owners Nathaniel and Lee Lee Reid love getting to know their customers — and seeing their smiles as they bite into a confection. | MABEL SUEN [REVIEW]

The Sweetest Thing At Nathaniel Reid Bakery, a superstar pastry chef spins sugar into pure gold Written by

CHERYL BAEHR Nathaniel Reid Bakery

11243 Manchester Road, Kirkwood; 314858-1019. Mon.-Sat. 7 a.m.-6 p.m. (Closed Sunday).

I

f savory cooks are the hard-partying free spirits of the kitchen, then pastry chefs are the careful scientists. You learn this pretty quickly if you’ve ever tinkered around with a recipe. It’s not like

adding some extra garlic or salt into a sauce — even the slightest variance in measurement can throw off the end product and result in culinary catastrophe. “You can’t just wing it with pastry,” a chef friend once told me. “It has to be precise.

These are chemical reactions.”

It’s fitting, then, that athaniel Reid, one of the country’s most acclaimed pastry chefs, came to his craft via the hard sciences. A biology major at Mizzou, Reid found himself in a professional crisis after an internship made him realize he was on the wrong path. His mom suggested that he get into cooking.

Her idea seemed to come out of nowhere: Though he liked to cook and enjoyed food, it wasn’t an obvious calling. As soon as she spoke the words, though, something inside him clicked.

Reid changed his major to hospitality and restaurant management, got a job in a kitchen, and begged his way into doing dessert specials when the restaurant’s pastry chef quit. He laughs that his boss would

have thought twice about his promotion if he’d seen the trashcan — for every success, he had numerous failures that were too bad to serve.

His boss didn’t notice or care; he was too busy watching Reid’s desserts sell out every single night.

These days, Reid’s wares are flying off the shelves at his own shop, athaniel eid a ery, which opened in Kirkwood in August. The place is his first solo venture, but it’s hardly a freshman effort. Since graduating Mizzou, and the prestigious e Cordon leu in aris following that, Reid honed his craft at luxury hotels like the MGM Grand in Las Vegas (where he worked with the Michelin-starred Joël Robuchon), the St. Regis at Dana oint and the it Carlton here in St. Louis. He’s traveled the world as a brand ambassador for Valrhona chocolate and Sasa Demarle nonstick cooking products and has racked up numerous accolades, including . . astry Chef of the ear at the . . astry Competition and one of 2012’s top ten riverfronttimes.com

pastry chefs of the year according to Dessert Professional Magazine.

Reid, in other words, is a huge deal in the pastry world — to the point that a modest storefront in ir wood seems li e a significant departure. Reid admits as much but says it’s not only the realization of a dream, but the change he needed.

“In the pastry kitchen at a hotel, I know the guest as nothing more a number,” he says. “All I knew about a person is that they were ‘order number 775’ or ‘table number 42.’

That’s not what this is about.” t athaniel eid a ery, the eponymous chef spends as much time behind the counter interacting with his guests as he does preparing their treats in the kitchen. He says that his biggest joy — greater than any accolade or professional award he’s received — is seeing their smiles as they bite into one of his creations.

And at this superb pastry shop, those smiles are plentiful. How can you not burst into tears of joy after biting into Continued on pg 28

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

RIVERFRONT TIMES

27

NATHANIEL REID BAKERY Continued from pg 27 his almond croissant? The buttery layers of dough are flec ed with just enough almond paste and slivered almonds to infuse the pastry with the nut’s amaretto-sweet essence without hitting you over the head.

A dusting of powdered sugar adds a pop of sweetness to this magnificent treat.

His chocolate croissant is equally restrained, balancing hunks of bittersweet chocolate with toasty layers of dough — as authentic as anything you’d eat on the eft an .

Reid marries his chocolate and almond croissants for his signature pastry. I assumed it would be too much, but I should never have doubted. ieces of dar chocolate, almonds and a touch of almond paste are wrapped in dough that is crisp and golden on the outside, soft and buttery on the inside. It’s brown butter meets chocolate almond buttercream in pastry form, and it’s shockingly good.

His apple croissant is no less successful. Tart apples scented with baking spices are encased in layers of buttery dough and covered in streusel. Meanwhile, his cinnamon pecan roll is the ideal representation of the form: just enough pecans, cinnamon, sugar and butter in every single bite. There’s no better version.

Reid’s individual cakes are a window into the luxury side of the pastry world — luckily for us, it’s a glimpse of the heights that can be achieved in taste, not price. For the “ piced ear elene,” a delightful almond crumble cookie is topped with a layer of salted caramel mousse and poached pears speckled like a mosaic in thick caramel cream and topped with chai tea Chantilly. The entire enterprise tastes like the sort of Christmas you

Individual cakes include Reid’s signature “Amber Cake” with pecan caramel (top left). | MABEL SUEN see in a ottery arn catalog you aspire to replicate it in your home, but you know you’ll never get there.

However delicious the Helene may be, it pales next to Reid’s “Amber Cake,” a dessert so good it was selected for inclusion in a prestigious cookbook that honors the world’s best pastry chefs. There’s no question why the authors chose it. A luxurious silken dome of salted caramel mousse is gilded with pecan caramel. Caramelized pecans are sprinkled around the bottom of the cake, and the crust is a crunchy shortbread that would be good with or without the topping. The balanced taste is like a nutty, brown butter biscuit. Forget the saying “it looks too good to eat.” It looks that good, but it tastes even better.

In addition to his sweet offerings,

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Reid offers a selection of sandwiches, salads and quiches for people to eat at one of the restaurant’s few window seats or take to go on their way to work in the morning. His quiches are unbelievably decadent: The four-cheese version may as well be cheesecake, and the caramelized onion, bacon and gruyere balances salt, smoke, sweetness and velvety, custard li e richness. oth are baked onto his impeccable, buttery crust like a savory pie.

Sandwiches, like the grape- and pecan studded Waldorf chic en salad and the turkey and cheese, have the benefit of being served on one of Reid’s wonderful croissants.

Surprisingly, they hold up well as sandwich bread, rather than fla ing apart as I would’ve expected.

His Italian sandwich is a standout.

Layers of Italian cold cuts are topped with lettuce, tomato and a giardiniera so spicy it will make your eyes water, yet it’s tamed by the other components. Forget the Hill. This is the city’s spot for an Italian sub.

Reid does not believe in perfection. In fact, he thinks it doesn’t exist. “It’s like I’m chasing something I’ll never catch, but I’m still wor ing toward it,” he says. ut while he may not want to deploy the “p-word,” I’ve never seen a place where it would be more apt.

Indeed, with pastries like these, I’d say he has his craft down to a science.

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SHORT ORDERS

[SIDE DISH]

Michael Miller’s Long Road to Kounter Kulture Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

I

n Michael Miller’s self-described “super-Italian” family, it was the men who did the cooking.

“My dad, even though he was a busy entrepreneur, always had a home-cooked meal on the table for us, and some of my earliest memories are the smells and sounds of my maternal grandfather’s kitchen,” the chef and coowner of Kounter Kulture (3825 Watson Road; 314-781-4344) recalls. “At the time, I didn’t know it was having such an impact on me, but looking back it was a big influence.” t his first job, as a short order cook at the Village Bar, Miller learned the ins and outs of cooking on a line, and got a feel for the industry. Still, he didn’t see cooking as a career; instead he went to Florida for college and prepared for a career in finance.

When his then-girlfriend got pregnant with their son, Miller moved back to St. Louis to focus on making money to support his family. He began to embrace the idea of a career in the kitchen.

However, his real passion developed on a trip to San Francisco.

“It was like the sheets were completely pulled away from my eyes,” iller says. “I saw just how amazing a career could be with all of those restaurants out there. ather than just ma ing money, I realized this is where I could get serious.”

Miller moved to San Francisco with a plan to go to culinary school,

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

Kounter Kulture’s Michael Miller found inspiration in San Francisco. | CHERYL BAEHR but his chef mentors insisted that he could get just as valuable an education outside of the classroom. He worked hard, learned new skills and, instead of spending money on tuition, went out to eat.

“That’s where my love of Asian cuisine really developed,” Miller explains. “I’d go out to all of the hole-in-the-wall restaurants around Chinatown and really spoil myself. I picked up so much and was really drawn to the complexity of flavors.”

Miller returned to St. Louis and too a job under osh alliano at the famed Monarch. His tenure at the restaurant also led to a business partnership with co-worker Christine Meyer. The pair came up with the idea to sell chef-oriented t-shirts under the name

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

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Kitchen Kulture, and they approached the people in charge of the Tower rove farmers mar et about setting up a booth. The organizers were intrigued, but they wanted the pair to sell food items as well. To the pair’s surprise, their prepared food offerings sold better than the shirts — so much, in fact, that they decided to open a permanent, brick and mortar operation.

At Kounter Kulture, they are serving up their eclectic mix of Asian fare out of a tiny storefront in south city’s Lindenwood Park neighborhood.

“This is the food I enjoy eating — when I go out, this is where I gravitate,” says Miller. “Plus, on a food-consciousness level, this type of food is not so meat and protein-focused. It allows us to

have a lower carbon footprint, which is very important to us.”

Miller took a break from Kounter Kulture to share his thoughts on the St. Louis food and beverage community, why you’ll never see lupini beans in his kitchen and his surefire remedy for winding down after a long day.

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

I am a father. y son aden will be fourteen in anuary.

What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you?

A hike and coffee. It helps clear the mind and mentally prepare me for the day.

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

Time travel. ust thin of the possibilities. No regrets and no mistakes!

What is something missing in the St. Louis dining scene that you’d like to see? uthentic apanese shabu shabu.

Who is your St. Louis food crush?

Eric Heath of Cleveland-Heath.

My man is killing it.

Who’s the one person to watch right now in the St. Louis dining scene?

I’m looking forward to Matt Mcuire’s new spot ouie’s, opening in the former immy’s on the ar .

Which ingredient is most representative of your personality?

Fish sauce — salty and smelly, but with deep complexity.

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

I have no clue honestly. This is all I know.

Name an ingredient never allowed in your kitchen. upini beans. They are just gross.

What is your after work hangout?

Stella Blues. Kimchi pizza and Hibiki whisky are exceptional aids in unwinding after a long day.

What’s your food or beverage guilty pleasure?

Sour candy. I have an insatiable sweet tooth.

What would be your last meal on earth?

A full spread of Korean BBQ with all the kimchi and banchan.

[FOOD NEWS]

YAPI OFFERS BOSNIAN SPECIALTIES IN SOUTH CITY Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

A

rmin Grozdanic knows what it’s like for the refugees who have recently relocated to St. Louis. After all, it wasn’t so long ago that he was one of them.

“In 1996, my husband Armin was in a concentration camp in Bosnia for nine and a half months,” Lisa Grozdanic explains. “He was able to flee with his family to Germany and then came here to St. Louis. That was seventeen years ago — and we’ve been together ever since.”

The husband and wife team, who met as high school students at Cleveland NJROTC Academy, have made it their life’s mission to help St. Louis’ immigrants. For Lisa, it’s through her full-time job in the social service department of the St. Louis Islamic Center. Armin’s as-

The cevapi, left, comes with onions and sour cream. At right, a buffalo chicken melt. | CHERYL BAEHR sistance comes in a culinary form — and in fact, it’s what propelled the pair to open their new restaurant, Yapi Mediterranean Subs and Sandwiches ( 5005 S. Kingshighway Boulevard, 314-354-8333), in October.

During Ramadan, Lisa explains, Armin cooks the iftar, or nightly

post-fast meal, for two mosques.

“This past year, he cooked for the Syrian refugees who have no running water or gas to cook for themselves,” says Lisa. “Imagine, it’s the heat of the summer, you’ve been fasting all day, and you have no way to eat. Armin brought them food to break the fast.”

Though the Grozdanics’ outreach was altruistic, it had the benefit of raising their profile as culinarians within the community, giving them the exposure and investments they needed to open a place of their own.

Yapi has quickly garnered a reputation as the place in town to get cevapi, a traditional Bosnian ground beef sausage dish served with sliced raw onions, sour cream and flatbread. “People says ours is the best,” Armin says. “They ask why it’s so good, not tough, and I tell them it’s because I use fresh, organic ingredients and don’t take shortcuts.”

You’ll also find traditional daily specials, like goulash, on the menu, but the Grozdanics insist that Yapi is not strictly a Bosnian restaurant. In this spirit, the menu is peppered with everything from Mediterranean-inspired gyros to American subs, like a buffalo chicken melt. The restaurant’s signature sandwich, the “Yapi Burger,” features a mammoth patty of organic, grass-fed beef piled onto a fluffy roll with lettuce, tomato and thicksliced onion.

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31

[FIRST LOOK]

DongbeiStyle Chinese Comes to University City Written by

SARAH FENSKE

I

f you are used to the sort of gelatinous sweet-and-sour pork served at Panda Express, you might resist ordering the version at Cate Zone Chinese Cafe (8148 Olive Boulevard, University City; 314738-9923). Don’t be so foolish. They have about as much in common as hot dogs have with pork belly.

The Cate Zone’s version is listed on the menu as “twice-cooked pork,” but it’s really guo bao rou, the sweet-and-sour pork made famous by China’s Dongbei region.

In this northeastern area of the country, they dust thin slices of por tenderloin in flour, then fry them and toss them in a lightly vinegared, ginger-rich sauce that becomes almost a second skin.

The result? Pieces of meat crispy enough to pick them up with your hands, but still tender. They’re an eye-opener. o, too, are the chun s of fish sold, aptly, as “hot crisp fish.” If you’ve grown to love the spicy kick you get from a piece of Nashville-style hot chicken, you’ll love the batter on this fish it’s compulsively edible, with chiles you barely notice until they’ve rushed right past you. With a side of rice to cool your tastebuds between bites,

Cate Zone’s “hot crisp fish” — just as it sounds, and amazingly tasty. | SARAH FENSKE eager for a taste of home. There’s a youthful energy here that’s different from most of the area’s top Chinese restaurants.

It’s not formal or expensive (nothing on the menu is over $13.99), but it’s still quite stylish: The wallpaper lists subway stops in New York City, with lighting that’s Co-owners Daniel Ma (left) and Quincy Lin. | SARAH FENSKE a step up from Ikea but just as modern. you won’t be able to stop eating.

Co-owners Quincy Lin and DanCate Zone opened late last iel Ma share cooking duties. They month in the spot that previously aren’t just offering entrees and apheld W a ery, and it’s already petizers — there’s also a short list packing in Chinese college students of “noodles street food” and a

bar where customers can assemble their own toppings for the “mala soup bowl.” The chalkboard that details the options is entirely in Mandarin, but they’ll explain how to get started if you’re interested. ust loo for the small station that resembles a salad bar to the left of the front counter and then ask for assistance.

If you’re hesitant to build your own dishes, not to worry: You have plenty of other options. Your server may try to steer you away from some of the truly authentic regional dishes — the menu seems to have a large number of options featuring pig’s intestines, which we were told emphatically would not be to American tastes. But no matter. At a place where even the sweet-and-sour pork is worth eating, it’s hard to go wrong.

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MUSIC [THE SCENE]

Fifty Shades of Yellow David Wolk’s Cranky Yellow takes a new form with a series of songs and music videos Written by

JOSEPH HESS

T

he name “Cranky Yellow” has long stood as a catch-all title for artist David Wolk, who has craftily kept the brand fluid for the past eleven years. From its early start in 2005 as a publisher of t-shirts, stickers and prints to three separate, now-shuttered storefronts on Cherokee Street, Cranky Yellow has become the umbrella covering Wolk’s many works. Its latest incarnation is Am The Death, an ongoing audio-visual album in collaboration with songwriter Nick Wetzel.

“It’s pop music, so it’s superficial and supposed to be fun, but it’s also crazy because Cranky Yellow is crazy,” Wolk jokes.

He and Wetzel like to call their songs “fuzz pop,” owing to the dense-yet-outlandish style of the work.

When writing songs, Wolk will hum or form a tune with his voice, which Wetzel then translates to ukulele while working out rhythm and structure. The duo then commits the skeleton of each song to a computer using the recording software Logic Pro; the sound is then expanded using guitar, live drums and multiple synthesizers, among other instrumentation.

“Whenever we begin on the ukulele, the songs all sound like ‘Over the Rainbow,’ but by the time production is finished they are standalone songs,” Wolk says.

“After the digital processing happens, after the song goes from being in real life to in the hard drive, it always sounds completely different,” Wetzel agrees.

35

outside of the Starbucks on Delmar Boulevard, he sought to expand Cranky Yellow into a record label as well.

Magrath’s Heartstrings was released in January 2008, but the album now has the aura of tragedy: The young singer passed away two months later. Wolk abstained from music for the next year until moving Cranky Yellow to 2847 Cherokee Street, in the building that now holds Blank Space.

This new space offered three floors to work with: The upstairs was Wolk’s home and workshop while the main floor offered a larger store filled with vintage clothes, artwork and an even wider range of handmade items.

Wo l k l o a n e d t h e basement to bands and DIY music promoters for low-key concerts — a practice that would continue long after Cranky Yellow left the building in June of 2011.

“It was a very tumultuous time so I was very ate-up,” Wolk admits. “Cranky Yellow closed, and obviously closing didn’t make it all better, beDavid Wolk (left) with Nick Wetzel, surrounded by wares from Cranky Yellow’s life as a curio shop. | MABEL SUEN cause the store was so much of who I was.”

Wolk’s next endeavor would “You know you’re doing things or wrong, so I just basically sit right when it finally feels good.” there while we’re mixing and say come as a surprise to himself and his friends alike. In 2012, he From recording to mixing yes or no,” Wolk explains. and mastering, Wetzel counts While this approach might made his first foray as a musion Logic Pro to build Cranky seem like backseat driving, Wolk cian with Charm Ape, a one-man Yellow’s distorted pop. Any has a rightful claim to the wheel, theatrical rap opera spanning 45 gaps left by the live instru- having worked in music for sev- minutes and performed for one ments are filled in by dual vo- eral years in both supporting and night only.

“I guess the spoken word and cals, which the pair provides starring roles. Wol first opened through layers of singing, shouting the Cranky Yellow store in 2007 rap was just kind of a medium and banter filtered through a as a small shop focused on hand- at the time,” Wolk says. “I wasn’t mesh of tone-twisting effects. made goods. He sold local music expecting it, it just started coming “He has the ability to lay it out, on consignment, and after hearing to me and I had to honor it.”

Continued on pg 36 but I can hear whenever it’s right songwriter Dora Magrath sing riverfronttimes.com

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

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35

CRANKY YELLOW Continued from pg 35

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His work with Charm Ape would lead to another stage show nearly two years later with Foster & Fortitude, a play about reuniting with your creativity. This project was the first of many for Wolk and Wetzel, and would later form the foundation of Cranky Yellow as a musical entity.

In collaboration with Upcycle Exchange owner Autumn Wiggins, Cranky Yellow reappeared as a pop-up shop in Union Station for Strange Folk Festival 2015. As part of the event, Wetzel’s punk band the Chemical War performed and released The War Came Swiftly, a World War II memorial album also produced by Wolk.

Following the festival, a third Cranky Yellow store opened in a shared space on Cherokee Street with Upcycle Exchange. Its lifespan would be the shortest to date.

“We snuck out in the middle of the night,” Wolk says. “Autumn and I just decided that it was over, and that’s when Nick and I started writing a pop musical.”

For him, the new project mirrors his Charm Ape debut, serving as a therapeutic process after closing up shop. Cranky Yellow’s Am The Death is currently being released through the brand’s Facebook, SoundCloud and YouTube pages. The pair uploads a new song every two weeks; a music video follows seven days later.

Owing to Wolk’s reputation for multifaceted art, the visuals for Am The Death are equal partners with the music, while subtle stories arc through multiple songs.

“I discovered that the important thing for me is that the store’s atmosphere doesn’t actually have to be a store,” Wolk says. “Just being surrounded by the things, you know?”

Following the digital campaign, the pair will release Am The Death on CD, with sights set on a later vinyl edition. Wolk and Wetzel plan to take Cranky Yellow on the road, playing small venues and art spaces throughout the U.S. “Everything that I have been doing for over ten years has been about creating, promoting, seeing and hearing art,” Wolk says. “And it takes a lot of different forms.

I’m not satisfied with just selling handmade things or being a theatre company. I also want to perform.”

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1151 ST LOUIS GALLERIA ST g ST LOUIS MO 3 1 4 7 2 7 1 2 6 0 g H E L I U M C O M E DY. C O M riverfronttimes.com St. Louis Riverfront Times 12-14-16.indd 1

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

RIVERFRONT TIMES

37

12/2/16 10:29 AM

38

B-SIDES

Kaveh Razani, proprietor and now full-on owner of Blank Space. | MABEL SUEN [BARS]

Filling in the Blanks Three-year-old Blank Space adds regular hours for those looking for a drink or a bite on Cherokee Street Written by

DANIEL HILL

S

ince opening in 2012, Cherokee Street’s Blank Space has stood as an unmarked canvas on which local artists and musicians alike can display their creativity without curatorial oversight. Indeed, the building’s identity has long been rooted in

38

RIVERFRONT TIMES

the fact that it has no o cial identity. Is it a music venue? A bar?

An art gallery? A reading room?

The truth is, the chameleonic space is all of these things — and starting next week, it will be a pub with daily hours of operation as well.

Blank Space is currently open only for events, but starting December 19, it will be open to the public Monday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. The bar will offer an expanded beverage menu with craft beers, cocktails and housemade infusions such as butterscotch whiskey and blackberry lavender vodka. In addition, the venue plans to partner with local restaurants and chefs to provide pop-up food options.

“We’re gonna be the same thing we always are; we’re just gonna be open regularly,” says owner Kaveh Razani. “It’s not so much that we’re shifting our focus, per se. We’re still gonna do as

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

riverfronttimes.com

many events as we have on our calendar now, it’s just going to be a matter of we’ll be open every day as well.”

Blank Space’s expansion into regular business hours and pub fare is part of a larger goal for the venue. In time, Razani says, he hopes to have regular hours in the daytime also.

“We will eventually get to that point. I think it’s important for us to first get in the habit of being open every day and rocking that,” Razani says. “I think that there will certainly be interspersed daytime hours to start, but I think our goal is by spring/summer to be working toward more daytime hours.”

Razani says the bar began experimenting with infusions starting a couple months ago, and they’ve been going over very well.

As for food, he mentions Master Pieza, located right across the street, as one restaurant whose food will be served in the bar.

There will be no cover from Monday through Friday, but due to a string of regular monthly gigs already on the books, Saturdays will see a $5 admission charge.

Even as the always-amorphous venue adds yet another identity, Razani says Blank Space’s overall mission remains unchanged. In addition to bringing in a more regular flow of income, the regular hours will help provide a gathering place for friends and neighbors alike. “ I t ’s p a r t n e c e s s i t y, p a r t wanting to pull the trigger on this, and partly like, this is what I always have believed Blank Space to be — open and accessible,” Razani says. “I think we’re killing two to three birds with one stone here.”

Razani is also the co-owner of RKDE, the new arcade bar at 2720 Cherokee. The concept, located on the second floor of the massive venue, features a small bar and eight Sega Blast City cabinets.

2016-17season

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Jazz St. Louis All-Stars Alumni Quintet Jan 11-12

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Sponsored by American Family Insurance – Ted Wheeler Agency, Inc.

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concerts | dinner | drinks full concert listing and info:

jazzstl.org | 314.571.6000 the harold & dorothy steward center for jazz 3536 washington ave. | st. louis, mo 63103

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riverfronttimes.com

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

RIVERFRONT TIMES

39

40

HOMESPUN

THE PAT SAJAK ASSASSINS Long Time Listener First Time Caller patsajakassassins.bandcamp.com

Pat Sajak Assassins

9 p.m. Saturday, December 17. The Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust Street. Free. 314-241-2337.

F

or much of its nearly twenty-year existence, the rhythmically dexterous band the Pat Sajak Assassins has had a hard time staying in one lane — certain albums pushed toward math-rock, others dabbled in horn-led fusion, and nearly all recordings were instrumental. But for a band built around some level of well-controlled chaos, finds itself in a rare groove of consistency, as the same lineup recorded both 2014’s Motherboard and the brand-new Long Time Listener First Time Caller. Alongside longtime members Harold Covey (drums) and Brian Fleschute (bass), the quartet is rounded out by keyboardist Chris Eilers and vocalist/synthesist Syrhea Conaway.

Eilers joined the band a few years back and began using more bu y, retro heavy tones to fill in the space where guitar and saxophone used to sit.

Conaway, who has played in a host of local bands and who performs her own solo wor as yna o ro, fills a more elusive role, that of lead vocalist and lyricist for a band that has routinely been words-free.

Over coffee at MoKeBe’s, Covey and Conaway talked about the band’s evolution, writing process and current sci fi obsessions that pepper the new album.

“We had dabbled with other vocalists and it never really worked out,” says Covey. “We were always trying to get into that arena with a vocal element — it wasn’t really a need we found ourselves, but I think that we thought that it was something that would make it more accessible to an audience. If there’s nobody singing, they’re kind of just like, ‘What the hell is going on?’”

Conaway’s solo work often employs looping and layering, so she is well-versed in using her voice as an instrument as opposed to a megaphone. That skill fit in well with the sonically curious band. “ yrhea was the first one who could compete with the volume levels that we’re all producing,” Covey continues. “Every other singer we’ve had, we would do shows and the sound guy would inevitably be like, ‘That sounded cool but I couldn’t really hear the vocals at all.’” Turning to Conaway, Covey comments, “You’re doing so many other things with the vocals that it really projects and it meshes well with all the other stuff that’s happening.”

That “other stuff” often involves enough tempo shifts and time-signature changes to give a music theory student conniptions. “1.7 Billion Mile High Club” finds Conaway singing around a stuttered rhythm and fi ing synth triplets she navigates through the pulsing instrumentation with ease. For Conaway, that comfort amid these busy structures stems from the band’s democratic practices, which are dictated less from someone’s fleshed out demos and more by the

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

riverfronttimes.com

members’ intuitive jamming.

“There’s never been a point in a PSA practice where one of us is telling somebody else, ‘You can’t do that,’” says Conaway. “We all listen to each other and just find it. It’s very organic we just play something and then record it.”

Covey concurs with Conaway. “I’ve said this before, but I think that all four of us are chameleons when it comes to adapting to whatever is happening around us,” he explains. “Brian and I have been playing together for so long that we don’t really have to think about it. We can sync up no matter what, and I think that allows us to listen to what is going on with Syrhea and Chris and respond to it. All of us are into different genres of music, and I think some of that comes through.”

One synergistic moment came on the track “86’d,” when Eilers suggested that Covey channel Norwegian black metal on some of the breaks. “That’s something I would never do — I’ve never been into speed metal or death metal — but it worked great,” recalls Covey.

“That breadth of exposure among the four of us plays a big part.”

On her second album with the band, Conaway imparts her influence in a few ways, most notably through the album’s loose thread. “The theme for me, most definitely, is anything une plained that’s related to space,” says Conaway. “There for a while I was watching a whole lot of alien-related stuff.” That includes “ othman,” a five minute trac inspired by the titular urban legend it plays out li e trailer for a sci fi roc opera.

The album’s artwork, designed by Covey, includes an actual piece of foil and instructions for making a tinfoil hat — better to keep away mind-reading devices with, of course. It’s a playful poke at paranoia in an age overrun with it, compliments of a band that can turn conspiracies into kinetic little symphonies.

–Christian Schaeffer

riverfronttimes.com

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

RIVERFRONT TIMES

41

42

OUT EVERY NIGHT

THURSDAY 15

Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

$27.50-$50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St.

AMERICAN WRESTLERS: 8 p.m., $12-$15. Off

THE SUPERSUCKERS: w/ Jesse Dayton, Gallows

Louis, 314-726-6161.

Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-

Bound 8 p.m., $15. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th

THE FEW’S 5TH ANNUAL XMAS BASH: 6 p.m.,

THE STRUMBELLAS: w/ Arkells 8 p.m., $22. Blue-

3363.

St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

$7-$10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-

berry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd.,

AUSTIN JONES: 7 p.m., $18-$20. The Firebird,

THE VONDRUKES: w/ Old Souls Revival 8 p.m.,

289-9050.

University City, 314-727-4444.

2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353.

$10. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis,

FUNKY BUTT BRASS BAND 8TH ANNUAL HOLIDAY

THE BUMP & HUSTLE NO. 54: w/ DJ Mahf, DJ

JONNY CRAIG: w/ Kyle Lucas, Whitney Peyton 7

314-726-6161.

BRASSTRAVAGANZA: Dec. 16, 9 p.m.; 9 p.m., $18-

Needles, DJ Makossa 9 p.m., $5. Blank Space,

p.m., $15-$17. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis,

WIL’S JINGLEFEST: w/ Chase Rice, Granger

$20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis,

2847 Cherokee St., St. Louis.

314-289-9050.

Smith, Maren Morris, Kane Brown 6 p.m.,

314-773-3363.

THE WINTER GET DOWN: w/ DJ Logic, Uptown 10

JOSH GARRELS: 7 p.m., $20-$35. The Ready

$35-$50. Family Arena, 2002 Arena Parkway, St

HELMET: w/ Local H 8 p.m., $20-$22.50. Delmar

p.m., free. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave.,

Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-

Charles, 636-896-4200.

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

St. Louis, 314-775-0775.

6161.

Y98 MISTLETOE SHOW: w/ The Fray, O.A.R.,

INSANE CLOWN POSSE BIG BALLA’S CHRISTMAS

Colbie Caillat, Wrabel 6:30 p.m., $9.81. Family

833-3929.

nifiyah

p.m.,

. The eady oom,

REGULAR JOHN: 8 p.m., $12-$15. Delmar Hall,

SATURDAY 17

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

DADA LIFE: 9 p.m., TBA. Ameristar Casino, 1

PARTY: w/ Oddball Wrestling, ABK, Blahzay

Arena, 2002 Arena Parkway, St Charles, 636-

THE RHYTHM TRIBE: 9 p.m., $6-$8. Cicero’s, 6691

Ameristar Blvd., St. Charles, 636-949-7777.

Roze, John Boi 6 p.m., $15-$20. Pop’s Nightclub,

896-4200.

Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-862-0009.

EBB AND FLOW - A 311 TRIBUTE: w/ The Jalapeno

401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-

SARA EVANS: 8 p.m., $42-$52. River City Casino

Poppers - Red Hot Chili Peppers Tribute 9 p.m.,

6720.

SUNDAY 18

& Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis,

$8-$10. Cicero’s, 6691 Delmar Blvd., University

MUUY BIIEN: 8 p.m., $10-$12. The Firebird, 2706

ARC IRIS RELEASE SHOW: w/ Essential Knots,

314-388-7777.

City, 314-862-0009.

Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353.

David Beeman 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509

SHARON HAZEL TOWNSHIP: w/ Spaceship 7 p.m.,

EL MONSTERO: THE DEFINITIVE PINK FLOYD EXPE-

SKALIDAYS: A BENEFIT FOR ST. VINCENT HOME

Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363.

$10. The Stage at KDHX, 3524 Washington Ave,

RIENCE: Dec. 16, 8 p.m.; 8 p.m.; Dec. 22, 8 p.m.;

FOR TEENS: w/ Ska-Side Johnny and the Aff-

THE DARRELLS: 2 p.m., free. Howard’s in Sou-

St. Louis, 314-925-7543, ext. 815.

Dec. 23, 8 p.m.; Dec. 29, 8 p.m.; Dec. 30, 8 p.m.,

tones, The

lard, 2732 S 13th St, St. Louis, 314-349-2850.

oon andits, The

agnificent ,

SLIM JESUS: 8 p.m., $15. Cicero’s, 6691 Delmar

FOLK SCHOOL BLUEGRASS JAM: 2 p.m., free. The

Blvd., University City, 314-862-0009.

Stage at KDHX, 3524 Washington Ave, St. Louis,

[CRITIC’S PICK]

FRIDAY 16

314-925-7543, ext. 815.

LOVE JONES “THE BAND”: 8:30 p.m., $10. BB’s

CASKEY: w/ Cityboistreets, Darius Hickman,

Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis,

Cali_Bombay, High55, Chuck Gang Ent, SKOOB-

314-436-5222.

EEZY, Luhh B 7 p.m., $15-$18. Pop’s Nightclub,

POEFEST 2016: w/ Tef Poe 8 p.m., $10. Delmar

401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-

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

6720.

6161.

DAISYHEAD: w/ Capstan 7 p.m., $13. Fubar, 3108

TIM REYNOLDS: 8 p.m., $16-$18. Old Rock

Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

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

THE DRIFTAWAYS: 8 p.m., free. Arena Bar &

A VERY POLITICALLY CORRECT HOLIDAY CONCERT:

Grill, 5760 W. Park Ave., St. Louis, 314-646-

w/ One Too Many 7 p.m., $12-$15. The Stage

7171.

at KDHX, 3524 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-

EL MONSTERO: THE DEFINITIVE PINK FLOYD EXPE-

925-7543, ext. 815.

RIENCE: 8 p.m.; Dec. 17, 8 p.m.; Dec. 22, 8 p.m.; Dec. 23, 8 p.m.; Dec. 29, 8 p.m.; Dec. 30, 8 p.m.,

MONDAY 19

$27.50-$50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St.

THE FAT BABIES JAZZ BAND: 8 p.m., $10-$12. Off

Louis, 314-726-6161.

Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-

FOR TODAY: 7 p.m., $18-$20. The Ready Room,

3363.

4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

ICP. | PHOTO VIA PSYCHOPATHIC RECORDS

FUNKY BUTT BRASS BAND 8TH ANNUAL HOLIDAY BRASSTRAVAGANZA: 9 p.m.; Dec. 17, 9 p.m., $18$20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363.

HENHOUSE PROWLERS: 9 p.m., $10-$13. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314775-0775.

A HOLIDAY BENEFIT SHOW FOR THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE: w/ Chris Ward, The Vigilettes, The MERCS, Squircle the Destroyer, Accelerando, Pirate Signal, Traveling Sound Machine, DJ Ras ‘Nit 7 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

HYMNS OF THE REPUBLIC: w/ Cacodyl, Lucas Jack 8 p.m., $10. Cicero’s, 6691 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-862-0009.

MELISSA ETHERIDGE: 8 p.m., $52.50-$72.50.

River City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis, 314-388-7777.

MISS MOLLY SIMMS: w/ Old Capital, Cara Louise 10 p.m., $7. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S.

42

RIVERFRONT TIMES

Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Avenue, Sauget, Illinois. $15 to $20. 618-274-6720.

The Christmas season is upon us once again, replete with all the trappings that come with the holiday. Brightly colored lights are hung on the gutters with care.

Children are on their best behavior for fear of being narced out by the elven police force. Eggnog flows freely for reasons that remain largely mysterious.

And, of course, face-painted psychopathic clowns are coming to town to blast everyone in the face with offbrand soda. The Insane Clown Posse

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

riverfronttimes.com

Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314621-8811.

Insane Clown Posse 6 p.m. Saturday, December 17.

SOULARD BLUES BAND: 9 p.m., $5. Broadway

THIRD SIGHT BAND: 8 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues

Big Balla’s Christmas Party comes to Pop’s this weekend, spreading good cheer and Much Motherfuckin’ Wicked Clown Love among the faithful. Even if you don’t count yourself among the juggalos, you should make a point of attending an Insane Clown Posse performance at least once in your life, if only for the sheer people-watching potential. Just don’t be a dick — it’s Christmas, after all.

The Naughty List: Joining ICP on stage will be ABK, Blahzay Roze and John Boi, as well as performers from Oddball Wrestling.

— Daniel Hill

& Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-4365222.

TUESDAY 20 THE 442S HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR: 7:30 p.m., $15$25. The 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave., University City, 314-421-3600.

JAMAICA LIVE TUESDAYS: w/ Ital K, Mr. Roots, DJ Witz, $5/$10. Elmo’s Love Lounge, 7828 Olive Blvd, University City, 314-282-5561.

SAINT BOOGIE BRASS BAND UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATER PARTY: 8 p.m., free. HandleBar, 4127 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-652-2212.

ST. LOUIS SOCIAL CLUB: 8 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314436-5222.

Continued on pg 44

thurs. dec. 15 10PM DJ Mahf

fri. dec. 16 10PM Miss Molly Simms, Old Capital and Cara Louise Band

sat. dec. 17 10PM Clusterpluck Album Release Party with Special Guests Old Salt Union

Wed. dec. 21 9:30PM Voodoo Players Tribute to Paul Simon

thu. dec. 22 10PM Southern Exposure Playing the Music of New Orleans

fri. dec. 23 10PM Aaron Kamm and the One Drops Holiday Show

dec. 24 & Dec. 25 Closed. Have a Merry Christmas!

Discounted Holiday Gift Certificates NOW AVAILABLE! 736 S Broadway St. Louis, MO 63102

(314) 621-8811

“St. Louis pioneers of craft beer and live music” THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15 TH TKO Low Dose & Rhythm Tribe - Hip Hop doors 8:30pm - $8

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16 TH

Hymns of the Republic, Lucas Jack, Integrow Rock - 8pm - $10

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17TH

Ebb & Flow - 311 Tribute & Jalapeno Poppers RHCP Tribute - Rock - 8:30pm - $10

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17TH IN THE BAR AREA Geeks Who Drink Pub Trivia - 8:30pm - FREE

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18TH IN THE BAR AREA Open Mic with Mark Z - 8:30pm - FREE

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21ST IN THE BAR AREA

Geeks Who Drink Pub Trivia - Trivia - 8:30pm - FREE

UPCOMING SHOWS

1/6 Jake’s Leg 1/7 Pepperland (Beatles Revue) 1/20 Chris Scott, Matt Jordan & Joshua Stanley

6691 Delmar

In the University City Loop

314.862.0009 • www.ciceros-stl.com

THE HAUNT 5000 Alaska Ave

SAGITTARIUS PARTY Sat Dec 11th 3-close Music 5-9 pm No Cover HOLIDAY TOUR SCHEDULE

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23 BALLPARK VILLAGE 601 Clark Avenue St. Louis, MO 314-345-9481 ALL AGES WELCOME 8 p.m. - FREE SHOW

Free Haunt Glass for the 1st 10 Sagittarians Saturday Dec 24h

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30

ROYAL 66 - MOUNTAIN HOME, AR 9 p.m. - 21+ - $10

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31

THE REGENCY - SPRINGFIELD, MO 9 p.m. - 21+ - FREE SHOW

www.theschwag.com

Krampus visits the Haunt Happy Hour 3-7 Every Day $2 domestic & Rails riverfronttimes.com

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

RIVERFRONT TIMES

43

OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 42

[CRITIC’S PICK]

WEDNESDAY 21 BIG RICH MCDONOUGH & RHYTHM RENEGADES: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

THE BLUES CRUSHERS: 10 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314436-5222.

BOB “BUMBLE BEE” KAMOSKE: 8 p.m. Beale on Broadway, 701 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-6217880.

SILENCE THE WITNESS: w/ Arkangela, Wrecklamation, Sons of Leviathon, Through Burning Eyes, Set Fire To Salem 6 p.m., $8-$10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

THIS JUST IN (HED)PE: W/ Motograter, Sat., June 3, 6 p.m., $16-$18.

Tef Poe. | THEO WELLING

The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353.

AFTER THE BURIAL: W/ Emmure, Fit For A King, Fit For An Autopsy, invent, animate, Tue., March 14, 7 p.m.,

PoeFest 2016

$20-$23. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St.

8 p.m. Sunday, December 18.

Louis, 314-833-3929.

ANDREW MCMAHON IN THE WILDERNESS: W/ Atlas Genius, Night Riots, Mon., March 20, 7 p.m., $30. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

ART GARFUNKEL: Sun., Jan. 22, 8 p.m., $55-$75. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-5339900.

BAND OF HEATHENS: Wed., Feb. 15, 8 p.m., $13-$15. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

BLANK: Fri., Dec. 30, 7 p.m., $7-$8. Sky Music Lounge, 930 Kehrs Mill Road, Ballwin, 636-527-6909.

BRUISER QUEEN: W/ Brother Lee & The Leather Jackals, Dan Potthast of MU330, Thu., Dec. 29, 8 p.m., $10. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-

Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Boulevard. $9.50. 314726-4444

These days, a quick Google search for local rapper Tef Poe yields as many results for his activism as his music — his work in the wake of Ferguson has spread his message to international audiences. But for the fourth annual PoeFest, the man born Kareem Jackson puts the focus back on his estimable talents on the mic even while

726-6161.

St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353.

CHICANO BATMAN: W/ Sad Girl, The Shacks, Sat., April 8, 8 p.m., $12-$15. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St.

— Christian Schaeffer [CRITIC’S PICK]

CALLOWAY CIRCUS: W/ Decedy, Strikes Back, The VIII, Fri., Jan. 20, 7 p.m., $8-$10. The Firebird, 2706 Olive

celebrating the talents of other local hip-hop acts. For this year’s iteration, Tef will share the stage with STL artists Domino Effect, Mai Lee and T-Dubb-O alongside Chicago artist GLC and the Atlanta-bred ReeMarkable.

After the Party: Venue curfews be damned, Tef Poe and company keep the vibe going with an after party at Blank Space (2847 Cherokee Street).

Arc Iris 8 p.m. Sunday, December 18.

The individual resumes of Providence, Rhode Island, trio Arc Iris give just a hint of the adventurous chamber pop contained on its 2016 album Moon Saloon. Affiliations with the Low Anthem, Jethro Tull, Gene Ween, classical conservatories and a rock school in Afghanistan function less as influences than as faint dreams that float across the band’s sumptuous neo-classical constructions. Brass, woodwinds, piano, strings (of the

banjo and the cello variety) and strutting percussion carry the deliciously breathy lead melodies of singer and lyricist Jocie Adams. If that sounds overly serious, it shouldn’t. Arc Iris has a playful, theatrical approach to performing that snaps listeners out of a reverie and into full-on dancing.

Restless Natives: Native Sound studio owner/operator and pop itinerant David Beeman joins the newly formed (out of the ashes of Blind Eyes) band Essential Knots for a double local opener bonus.

— Roy Kasten

NORAH JONES: Tue., June 6, 8 p.m., $52.50-$68.

City, 314-727-4444.

Fri., May 12, 6 p.m., $49.50-$149.50. Scottrade Center,

Peabody Opera House, 1400 Market St, St. Louis,

SHARON HAZEL TOWNSHIP VIDEO RELEASE: Thu., Dec.

1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888.

314-241-1888.

15, 7:30 p.m., $10. The Stage at KDHX, 3524 Washing-

VOODOO GLOW SKULLS: Mon., March 6, 8 p.m., $12-

RIVAL SONS: W/ London Souls, Howie Pyro, Wed., May

ton Ave, St. Louis, 314-925-7543, ext. 815.

$14. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar

24, 8 p.m., $26-$28. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd.,

SIGUR ROS: Mon., June 5, 8 p.m., $36.50-$76.50.

Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

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JASON BOYD EP RELEASE SHOW: Thu., Jan. 5, 7 p.m., $8$9. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

K.FLAY: Sat., Feb. 11, 8 p.m., $15-$18. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

KEHLANI: W/ Ella Mai, Jahkoy, Noodles, Sat., May 13, 8 p.m., $26.50. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

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MEAT WAVE: Sat., Feb. 11, 7 p.m., $13. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

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44

RIVERFRONT TIMES

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

riverfronttimes.com

SAVAGE LOVE SLOUCHING TOWARD 2017

BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: Perhaps you’re not the best person to ask, being a cis white man, but as a queer woman of color, the election had an extremely detrimental effect on my relationships with my white partners. I love and care for them, but looking at those results has me wondering why the fuck they didn’t do better in reaching out to their shitty relatives? I’m sick of living at the whim of white America. I’m aware this is the blame stage of processing, but it’s left me unable to orgasm with my white partners. I’m really struggling with what Trump means for me and others who look like me. I know my queer white partners aren’t exempt from the ramifications of this, but I wish they had done better. Respond however you like.

Devastated Over National Election First and most importantly, DONE, you don’t have to fuck anyone you don’t wanna fuck — period, the end, fin, full stop, terminus — but we owe it to ourselves to be thoughtful about who we’re fucking, who we aren’t and why.

Data isn’t a turn-on for most people, DONE, and I’m not suggesting

the data I’m about to cite obligates you to fuck anyone. But queer voters (a group that includes millions of people of color) didn’t just reject Trump, they did so by wider margins than some communities of color (groups that include millions of queers). While 14 percent of LGBT voters backed Trump, 28 percent of Latino voters and 19 percent of Asian American voters backed Trump. (Only 8 percent of African Americans voted for Trump.) The shitty and unfathomable votes of some POC — and some queers (WTF, 14 percenters?)

— doesn’t get your white partners off the orgasm-killing hook. It’s possible your white queer partners didn’t do enough to persuade their families back in Clinton County, Iowa, to vote against hatred, fascism, racism and Trump. (Trump won Clinton County, Iowa, by five depressing points.)

Like you, DONE, I’m struggling with what this election means. I’m not going to tell you what to do, or who to do or how to process the election. I am going to tell you to talk with all your partners about your fears and your anger, and I encourage you to do whatever and whoever feels right going forward.

Hey, Dan: If the GOP can send a huge prick like Donald J. Trump to the White House, why can’t we send our own pricks? My modest

proposal: a coordinated effort to send thousands of dildos to Trump on January 21 — enough dildos to make news and get under his thin skin. This coordinated effort would be supplied and vetted by responsible, women-friendly sex shops with a portion of the proceeds going to Planned Parenthood, LGBT charities and the ACLU. Donald Is Loathsomely, Disastrously Outrageous I like the way your mind works, DILDO, but your plan would result in good dildos going to waste.

So perhaps we should do a dildo version of the ice-bucket-challenge thing instead? You gift a dildo to someone through a cooperating, woman-friendly, progressive sextoy shop, and that person gifts a dildo to someone else, and so on.

A portion of the proceeds for each gifted dildo goes to groups fighting Trump’s agenda and a card gets sent to Trump letting him know a dildo was gifted to a deserving orifice in his name and a worthy organization benefited. Nearly 100,000 people have made donations to Planned Parenthood in Mike Pence’s name since the election, and that’s made news. This could too, DILDO. If someone wants to run with this idea, I’ve purchased the URL marchofdildos.com. Get in touch, show me your plan and I’ll gift the

riverfronttimes.com

45

URL to you.

Hey, Dan: My wife enjoys being submissive and getting spanked.

A few weeks ago, she asked to put that part of our sex play on hold.

The ugliness of Trump’s sexual aggressions made her feel strange. We joked about the fun we’d have after the election. Well, here we are, and that asshole and his misogyny are going to be front and center for the next four years. How do we get back to being us?

Upsetting News Sincerely Unnerves Best Spouse Voting rights, health care, public education, legal pot, police reform, a habitable planet, LGBT equality, our undocumented friends, coworkers, and lovers — the Trump misadministration is going to take so much from us, UNSUBS. We can’t let them take our kinks, too.

Encourage your wife to feel the shit out of her feelings and don’t pressure her or rush her — and if she needs to put spanking on hold for the next four years, I wouldn’t blame her and you shouldn’t shame her. In the meantime, UNSUBS, maybe spanking your ass would make her feel better?

Listen to Dan’s podcast at savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter

DECEMBER 14-20, 2016

RIVERFRONT TIMES

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RIVERFRONT TIMES ST LOUIS RFT WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14

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