TALK OF THE TOWNS

talk

OF THE TOWNS

by bill beggs jr.

The Metro

Scams are a hot mess. If a sucker is born every minute, every 60 seconds somebody also comes into this world who’s all too willing to snooker him or her out of a dollar or thousands of them. Solicitations from ‘BidenCare’ have been appearing in my email inbox. Four, so far. Each with a different confirmation code, and all originating from American Cars Brands of Tucson, Arizona. And wouldn’t you know it, I just got a solicitation from the same folks for car insurance. Interesting. Let’s back up a bit. Maybe that’s not a scam, or even a bait-and-switch tactic. It’s just disingenuous. All that American Cars Brands does is hook you up with local insurance companies based on your ZIP code. You might as well ‘let your fingers do the walking’ through the yellow pages, if such a thing has survived into our highly technological age. Come to think of it, it’s been quite some time since one or two of those impossibly thick volumes— Charles Atlas, legend has it, could tear a phonebook in half—thudded on the front stoop hard enough to crack the concrete. An internet search can provide options; just keep your eye out for SEO, which is the acronym for search engine optimization. Companies pay for better placement among various providers, so the top few choices paid to be there. Anyhow, if you need health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, go directly to the source: healthcare.gov. For one thing, ‘BidenCare’ isn’t a thing yet, any more than ObamaCare was the official name for the insurance one may get via the ACA. The ‘fine print’ from the Tucson outfit reads: “By clicking the submit button, I expressly consent by electronic signature to receive communications via automatic telephone dialing system or by artificial/pre-recorded message, email, or by text message from this website and multiple partner companies or their agents at the telephone number above (even if my number is currently listed on any state, federal, local, or corporate Do Not Call list).” Mercy me! All of that is exactly what I do not want: annoyance calls, junk mail and spam. Looks like that’s a setting I need to revisit on my PC.

Richmond Heights

Please lend us an ear … OMG, no. No. That’s not what we meant! Eww—here; take this back. OK; listen up, we meant. Get your tickets before Van Gogh has come and gone: Tickets for the blockbuster exhibition “Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” are on sale for its limited engagement here Sept. 16 to Nov. 7. The exhibition will fill the new Starry Night Pavilion just outside the Saint Louis Galleria. This unique, awe-inspiring entertainment plunges the viewer—art lover or neophyte—into a 3D world that exhilarates the senses. In a rich multimedia virtual environment using highly advanced projection technology, “Beyond Van Gogh” adds surprising perspective to the artist’s unique body of work. Using his own dreams, thoughts and words to drive the experience as a narrative, guests move through spaces wrapped in light and color that swirl, dance and refocus into flowers, cafes and landscapes. While journeying through the exhibit, visitors experience more than 300 masterpieces—as though freed from their frames—including instantly recognizable classics, such as The Starry Night, Sunflowers and Café Terrace at Night. Van Gogh’s art comes to life by appearing, disappearing and reappearing across multiple surfaces in immense detail. Bold brushstrokes are evident on your body, the floor and walls. Through Van Gogh’s own words set to a symphonic score, viewers come to a new appreciation of the tortured artist’s work. Millions of people all over the world credit Van Gogh with enhancing their relationship with art. “Beyond Van Gogh” will only deepen it further. The spellbinding production was created by French-Canadian creative director Mathieu St-Arnaud and his team at Montreal’s world-renowned Normal Studio. Visit vangoghstlouis.com.

St. Louis

“Rock and roll is here to stay / It will never die ...” ~Danny & The Juniors “Long Live Rock!” ~The Who “Rock Is Dead” ~Marilyn Manson

Well, two out of three ain’t bad. The first two quotations cite rock classics. The third is from a shock rocker in a boatload of legal peril from his alleged extracurricular sexual abuses—Manson soon might be trading his fake name for a number on an orange jumpsuit. But we digress. If Johnny Winter is “Still Alive and Well,” so is the classic rock scene in the StL, in part thanks to Keep Live Alive Saint Louis, a community fundraiser presented by the St. Louis Classic Rock Preservation Society. So far, the effort has raised $100,000, enough to provide a $1,000 grant for every qualified industry applicant who lost income during the pandemic. The campaign launched in March with a 90-minute video featuring local radio personalities from KSHE 95, 92.3 WIL, 105.7 The Point and 106.5 The Arch, along with local and national recording artists and entertainers, including Sammy Hagar, REO Speedwagon’s Kevin Cronin, Mama’s Pride’s Pat and Danny Liston, and comic Paula Poundstone. Performance venues—The Fabulous Fox Theatre, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, The Pageant, The Muny, Enterprise Center, Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts, The Sheldon and The Family Arena, among others—backed the campaign. The mission of the nonprofit Classic Rock Preservation Society is to preserve, promote and honor St. Louis’ unique classic rock heritage and its place in music and pop culture history. With the pandemic in the rearview mirror and apparently not catching up but falling back, there’s plenty more history to be made in the Gateway City.

TT ☛ trivia

WHAT IS MARILYN MANSON’S REAL NAME?

LAST ISSUE’S Q&A

Can plastic CD ‘jewel cases’ be recycled? No. 6 plastic—polystyrene, the hard stuff that CD ‘jewel cases’ are made of—goes to the landfill. No. 6 includes Styrofoam and those nettlesome packing peanuts, and no one is quite sure how long it takes to biodegrade. The wooden canoes and rowboats at grandpa’s lake house all rotted away eventually, but not my dad’s beloved Styrofoam sailboat. It broke into big pieces that will stick around for who knows how long after we’ve all decomposed.

Wildwood

Before there was even a there there, Jack Clark lived there … “there” being a vast, unincorporated, hilly and wooded area of St. Louis County that in 1995 officially became incorporated as the City of Wildwood. It’s the second-largest city in the state by land area, and at 32,000-some residents, the third-largest in the county by population, topped only by U. City and Chesterfield. Clark and his wife were used to living in sort of the middle of nowhere, having moved west from near Queeny Park about six years before the Wildwood dream became reality. They’ve now lived in the same house for 32 years. Meanwhile, Clark has discovered that, in fact, there can be a second act in American lives. At 80, he is CEO emeritus, of sorts, of The DeSIGNery, a graphic design shop founded in 1995 that he sold in 2009. Many an average American would have retired—after all, he was 68—but he still consults for the company. “I don’t know that I bring too much brain power to the business,” Clark says, offhandedly. “But I am an extra pair of hands.” Specialties of the firm still include signage for ADA compliance, braille and the like. As for Clark’s other role in his second act? City government; the Wildwood City Council, to be specific. He started in 2011 by completing an unfilled term as Ward 4 councilman, then was elected to a full term, leaving the council in 2014. But he remains active as a member of the city’s Charter Commission, bringing invaluable management expertise and firm, informed views about what works well in government and what, apparently, does not. “Wildwood has to watch its money carefully,” Clark points out. There’s not a very robust retail presence contained within its 66 square miles. Therefore, not a whole lot of a municipality’s lifeblood (i.e., sales tax) flows into its coffers. Its more-populous neighbor, Chesterfield, generates the most sales-tax revenue by far of any city in the county, but has been litigiously unwilling to share the bounty, as we have reported frequently over the years in this column. YOU’RE MUCH BETTER OFF WITH A At inception, a vision for STRONG COUNCIL ... Wildwood was for it to remain somewhat idyllic, a ‘bedroom’ community. Big-box stores were verboten. “That might not have been the best decision,” notes Clark. That’s likely one issue the charter commission is considering this go-round—every 10 years a revised city charter must go to the population for a vote. To get an idea of something that has not worked well for the county, one need only glance at a glaring situation created by an executive with too much power: Steve Stenger, former county executive, was just released from federal prison after serving most of his sentence for mail fraud and other financial improprieties. Wildwood’s power is not centered in the mayor’s chair, which is not to cast aspersions on its present occupant. “You’re much better off with a strong council,” Clark emphasizes. “It’s harder to corrupt 16 people.” Visit cityofwildwood.com. &