TALK OF THE TOWNS

creve coeur

Someone once said that there’s nobody more boring than a talking writer. My wife would tend to agree on occasion with that statement. But this is probably not the case for fiction writer George Saunders: Time calls him the best short-story writer in English. In 2013, the magazine included him in its list of the world’s 100 Most-Influential People. He’s won a truckload of literary awards, including the Man Booker Prize. What’s more, he sports awesome, bushy facial hair, much like the favorite writer of a few local folks. So, it might be worth spending an evening with Saunders, who’s coming to Chaminade to share Liberation Day, his latest collection of short fiction, which publicity materials say, “cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with other humans.” Whether familiar with his work or not, readers should be affected by many of these nine stories,

which “coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances.” And, certainly, we don’t need a publicist to tell us that plenty of absurdity seems to be going around nowadays. Come hear what Saunders has to say about the world and our place in it. He is set to appear next week—Oct. 26 at 7 p.m.—at the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts. Visit slcl.org for information on tickets, which also are available through Eventbrite.

BILL BEGGS JR. HAS WORN MANY HATS AT NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES AND IN MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS SINCE BEFORE THE ERA OF THE FLOPPY DISC. NOW HE JUST WEARS A HAT TO KEEP HIS BALD SPOT FROM GETTING SUNBURNT. YOU CAN REACH HIM AT WRTRS.BLCK@GMAIL.COM

talk

OF THE TOWNS

by bill beggs jr.

u. city

So, you think chamber music appreciation requires sitting impassively, ramrod-straight, perhaps adjusting your bowtie and inspecting your cufflinks while your date lovingly admires her jewelry? Bet you didn’t think you might actually start toe tapping! Chamber Project St. Louis (CPSL) presents “GROOVE,” a program designed to dash misconceptions and even motivate you to move. This spirited and eclectic program for flute, clarinet, strings and keyboards is 7:30 p.m. Nov. 18 at WashU’s 560 Music Center just west of the Delmar Loop in U. City. Sampling the Caribbean’s rich musical tapestry, Jamaican composer Peter Ashbourn will perform “Jamaica Folk” with his string quartet. This will be followed by the world premiere of St. Louis composer, performer and educator Blake Hernton, AKA Concert Black, who melds elements of classical, jazz and hip hop—his ‘new-age instrumental’ style will incorporate expanded versions of pieces from his debut EP. (It’s part of CPSL’s commissioning project, now in its seventh year.) Then comes a blast from the powdered-wig past: Nearly 300 years ago Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi compiled a set of concertos for the flute, an instrument still under development at the time. Groove to his flute concerto La notte—a driving rhythmic element is a chief characteristic of Vivaldi’s sound, which links it to the modern works slated for the evening. For instance, cowboy dance steps inspired Libby Larsen’s “Barn Dances,” so each movement of her music expresses a playful take on this uniquely American music. The closer? Arranged by Christopher Woehr of St. Louis, “Roma Suite” evokes a famed Romanian ensemble’s take on the traditional; Woehr produced this wildly expressive, complex and rhythmic arrangement for clarinet and string quartet just 10 years ago. But if any or all of this still seems too rich for your pop-oriented blood, consider attending a ‘Very Open Rehearsal’ on Nov. 3 at the St. Louis County Library’s Willowyck branch. A moderator of this casual, interactive—and free—preview will let you ask questions of the musicians as they rehearse. Visit chamberprojectstl.org.

the metro

When I worked as a vendor stocking candy in the checkout lanes at metro Home Depot stores, it astonished me how the company got such a big jump on holiday merchandising. Huge, inflatable spooky yard ornaments started appearing in the store, fully formed and much bigger than life, as early as July. But folks, if the pre-holiday frenzy seems to start earlier every year, that’s definitely true this year. Experts say there’s a method to this madness. It’s another unpredictable side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Supply-chain problems led to a glut of merchandise arriving at the last minute or late. Collectively, retailers are stuck with tons of unsold, out-of-season inventory, from unfashionable apparel and obsolete laptops to musty furniture. Earlier this month, The Washington Post took a deep dive into the situation, explaining that stores are sitting on a record $732 billion of merchandise. So retailers’ 2022 entreaties smack of desperation—the big boxes for weeks have been asking us, in advertising and through mailings, whether we’re ready for the upcoming holiday. They don’t mean Halloween, of course; cartons of candy, costumes and decorations shipped months ago. They mean the extended late-fall buying season that culminates on Dec. 24. Amazon has even announced a second Prime Day sale, less than three months after its last one. Maybe economists are just trying to urge Americansto spend their hard-earned money because we’re all trying to avoid a recession. Spend it now, for all of us. Take one for the team. Season’s Greetings! TT trivia ☛

WHAT DID THE LATE POP SINGER LAURA BRANIGAN HAVE TO DO WITH THE BLUES’ STANLEY CUP EXPERIENCE? Extra credit: “Celebration” was the unofficial Redbirds theme song for the 1982 World Series. Who recorded the song, and when was it a No. 1 hit in Billboard?

LAST ISSUE’S Q&A

As time passes, what happens to the titular portrait in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray? Perhaps better known for his plays, Irish writer Oscar Wilde is also famed for The Picture of Dorian Gray, his only novel. If you don’t mind getting the creeps combined with the willies, it’s a great gothic read. The title character makes a deal with the devil to retain his youth, which he does. Meanwhile, the portrait ages horribly.

oakville

The ecstasy and the agony sum up another frustrating season for the Redbirds, but that’s not important right now because it’s over. This just means that it’s time for the StL to bleed blue! It’s also time for another sports book from Dan O’Neill, who retired a few years ago after 32 years as a sportswriter for our town’s esteemed metro daily. Best of The Blues: The Greatest Players in Team History is the third of three Reedy Press books by O’Neill, and his second on the favorite NHL franchise of nearly everyone in the metro. (He had to go back in to revise When the Blues Go Marching In once the team had won the Stanley Cup in 2019. It’s now the “Championship Edition.”) O’Neill, who lives in Oakville, has also authored a book on baseball, Celebration: The Magic of the Cardinals in the 1980s. One could say they wove the most magic in 1982, although they made it to the World Series in 1985 and 1987, too. But that ‘one’ would not be Dan O’Neill, who was like one of those ‘knothole gang’ baseball fans, only with hockey. He was a few years away from graduating U. City High—age 15, in fact—when he did his best to look old enough for the busboy job he landed at the Arena Club, during the formative years of the Blues franchise. But the inveterate sports fan came by his professional career honestly, graduating from Mizzou’s J-School in 1981 and cutting his teeth with the Suburban Journals before landing at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1985, where he became known affectionately around the newsroom as the ‘Bogeyman,’ because he wrote a lot about golf, too, in his popular sports column. Sportswriting is kind of, but mostly not, like newswriting—‘fans’ is just a shortened form of ‘fanatics,’ but after all, sports is just for good sports. Well, it should be. (I mean, don’t people still call that New York baseball team, the one that’s not the Yankees, ‘pond scum’?) O’Neill’s books can be the source of lively arguments, but usually no one gets hurt unless someone’s had too much to drink. Any of O’Neill’s books looks beautiful on a coffee table, and can serve to start conversations at any party, with or without cocktails. “I just think they’re fun books,” says O’Neill. “But these days, you can’t talk to anybody or read anything that doesn’t have an agenda.” You certainly can argue the merits and debits of a Bernie Federko vs. a Brett Hull until a third person steps in to insist that Wayne Gretzky isn’t called ‘The Great One’ for his hairstyle. Yeah, the paper needs to hit the presses at a certain time—but championships are won or lost during those excruciating extra innings, endless overtime periods, nail-biting playoff holes … and interminable minutes timeouts take in football, basketball, soccer, ad nauseam. “Nobody knows deadlines like a sportswriter,” O’Neill says, ruefully. Visit reedypress.com. &

Dan O’Neil

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