Vox Magazine November 2019

PLAYWRIGHTS PLAY RIGHT PAGE 14

HITTING START ON A GAMING EMPIRE PAGE 23

BEHIND THE BAR: BARTENDERS TELL ALL PAGE 28

FOUR LOCALS SAVING THE PLANET PAGE 32

NOVEMBER 2019 • THE VOICE OF COLUMBIA

Living with a Deadly Past One shooter. Two days. Four dead. Countless unseen scars.

DISA STERS D ON’ T

PL AN AHE AD

YO U C A N DON’ T WAIT. COMMUNICATE. Talk to your loved ones about how you are going to be ready in an emergency.

VISIT READY.GOV/PLAN.

The United States Air Force Band of Mid-America’s Airlifter Brass

Great Russian Nutcracker December 11, 7pm • Jesse Auditorium

November 6, 7pm • Jesse Auditorium

Tickets are FREE at the Missouri Theatre Box Office in advance.

Presidio Brass November 15, 7pm • Missouri Theatre

The Trans-Siberian Experience: The Prophecy December 3, 7pm • Jesse Auditorium

Finding Neverland

January 24, 7pm • Jesse Auditorium

An American in Paris February 10, 7pm • Jesse Auditorium

Visit www.concertseries.org or call 573-882-3781 for more information on our amazing lineup!

ConcertSeries

FROM THE EDITOR

E DI T OR -I N -CHI E F ELIZABETH ELKIN DE PUT Y E DI T OR CARY LITTLEJOHN

CHANGE AGENTS

I

may never return to my hometown.

I grew up in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean on Kwajalein.

There were many strange things about living on an island that was approximately 6 square miles. I spent my childhood living two minutes from what I am convinced is the most beautiful beach in the world. We’re talking clearer, warmer, cleaner water than Hawaii, folks. There were no privately owned vehicles, so we rode bikes to school and the only grocery store on the island. I graduated in a class of 19, which was huge for the school. We didn’t have cell phones, and we got high speed internet island-wide my senior year of high school.

But the strangest thing of all is, undoubtedly, that the place I am from will someday be swallowed whole by the ocean. As sea levels rise due to climate change, the Marshall Islands will vanish underwater.

Living in paradise makes you painfully aware of how much there is to lose in this world. From the time that I was young, I can remember classmates, particularly those who were Marshallese,

M AN AGI N G E DI T OR CATHERINE WENDLANDT DI GI TAL M AN AGI N G E D IT O R

“If you want something to change, you have the power to try to change it, no matter your situation.” becoming very active in working to keep the Marshalls above water. Many of these people now work in the government or as activists, and head projects to help fight against climate change.

Activism comes in a wide array of forms from people of all ages. On page 32, you’ll find a story about those in Columbia who are trying to make a difference. Spanning ages 9 to 66, these people have arranged marches, worked for policy change and more. They’re educators and future politicians, lobbyists and organizers. What they all have in common is a desire to do good.

I hope their stories remind you that if you want something to change, you have the power to try to change it, no matter your situation. While the Marshall Islands might be in trouble, the Marshallese aren’t going down without a fight and neither is Columbia. In the end, that just might make all the difference.

CAMERON R. FLATT ON L I N E E DI T OR GABY MORERA DI NUBILA ART DI R E CT OR S MITCHELL BARTLE MADISON WISSE PHOT O E DI T OR DEREK RIEKE M ULT I M E DI A E DI T OR SAM MOSHER

AS S I S TAN T E DI T O RS CULT UR E SARAH EVERETT, MORGAN SPEARS E AT + DR I N K MEG DONOHUE, XIYUAN ZHANG CI T Y L I F E KRISTIN BLAKE, ADRIAN BURTIN, ELENA K. CRUZ DI GI TAL E DI T OR S LAUREN BROCATO, CHLOE KHAW, EMILY LENTZ, MEREDITH LEHMAN, HANNAH MUSICK, DANIELLE PYCIOR, NICOLE SCHROEDER, VICTORIA TRAMPLER, TAYA WHITE MULTIMEDIA EDITORS FIONA MURPHY, MAGGIE MADRO, EMILY POWERS, CHLOE THORNBERRY DESIGNERS LAURA JONES, ELIZABETH PRINCIPATO CON T R I B UT I N G W R I T E R S AIDAN CARLSEN, KRISTINA ESDALE, CLAIRE HASSLER, BECK JAECKELS, HIROAKI KONO, ELZA GOODLOW, SKYLAR LAIRD, MARIANNA MOORE, DJ MCGUIRE, MATT NOWORUL, KATE ROBBINS, MATT SCHMITTDIEL

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR HEATHER LAMB DIGITAL DIRECTOR SARA SHIPLEY HILES EXECUTIVE EDITOR JENNIFER ROWE OFFICE MANAGER KIM TOWNLAIN

Vox Magazine

ELIZABETH ELKIN Editor-in-Chief

Art director Madison Wisse sets up props for the story’s design in the Columbia Missourian photo studio.

What’s it like to learn you’d lived your entire life in a place without knowing about one of its darkest days?

Vox writer Kate Robbins of California, Missouri, explores that very subject after she learned that her hometown was the site of shooting spree in 1991. She reexamines the places she’d long taken for granted, viewing landmarks in town with an eye for their new significance, and talks to old friends for their versions of a past she never knew. She grapples with the senselessness of it all, and strives to find out why California has buried its past through the only lens that makes sense to her: how we move forward from untimely loss.

— Cary Littlejohn, Deputy Editor

CORRECTION: In the October issue, the story about the COMO Flee Swap included an incorrect photo of Freddie Wolfe. See the correct photo online.

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VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

@VoxMag

@VoxMagazine ADVERTISING 882-5714 CIRCULATION 882-5700 EDITORIAL 884-6432 vox@mi ssouri . ed u CALENDAR send to vox@m i ssouri .e d u o r submi t vi a onl i ne form at voxm a g a zi n e . c o m TO RECEIVE VOX IN YOUR INBOX sign up for email newsletter at voxmagazine.com N OV E MB E R 2019 V OL UM E 2 1 , IS S U E 1 0 PUB L I S HE D B Y T H E COL UM B I A M I S S OUR IA N 320 L E E HI L L S HA L L COL UM B I A, M O 652 1 1

MAGAZINE Cover Design: Madison Wisse Cover Photo: Claire Hassler Photography by Derek Rieke

FEATURES

23

16

Deadly past One Vox writer travels back home to California, Missouri, and back in time to a deadly night in 1991.

BY KATE ROBBINS

23

Arcade king Nic Parks takes gaming to the next level, from a beloved childhood pastime to a lifestyle and lucrative business.

BY MATT NOWORUL

Photography by Emmalee Reed

VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

5

DEPARTMENTS

11

IN THE LOOP

CULTURE

7

11

Have questions about Missouri’s new minimum wage requirements? We did too.

The CoMO Ramblers Club gives singer-songwriters a platform of their own.

9

Killer books

The new wage

Vox picks

Ready to ramble

13

What to drink, wear and celebrate this November.

Missouri has a bit of a reputation in the literature scene. And it’s deadly.

10

14

Murphy left a career in mental health services to share the gift of language.

Local playwrights tell us what it takes to put on a good show.

Q&A: Dan Murphy

Making a play

27

14

32

EAT + DRINK

CITY LIFE

27

29

Got a bad queso the munchies? Hit up one of these Mexican eateries.

A look at Columbia’s prep basketball legacy, plus what’s to come this season.

28

31

Let’s taco ’bout it

Bartender Confidential If you’re going to let them serve you one too many, you might as well get to know them.

Ballin’ this fall

Side hustling From ride shares to DJ jobs, there’s money to be made in today’s gig economy.

32

Active voices These locals are taking charge and making waves.

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VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

Photography by Yanchen Liu, Claire Hassler and Daniel Shular and Illustration by Laura Jones

FALL PICKS NOT

THE ABC s OF

TO MISS P.9

ESL P.10

The new wage Get answers to all of your questions about the state’s increased minimum pay.

BY KRISTINA ESDALE Missouri’s minimum wage rose 75 cents in 2019 and will continue to climb in the upcoming years, which will increase the pay of about 25% of the state’s workforce. The initiative responsible is Proposition B, which was approved by voters on the November 2018 ballot. It made the wage jump for the first time since 2007 when it then went from $5.15 to $6.50 an hour. Here’s how the new change affects workers of all wages, including you.

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VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

Illustration by Elizabeth Principato

IN THE LOOP FAQ

What is Proposition B? Proposition B raised Missouri’s minimum wage from $7.85 to $8.60 at the start of 2019. The wage will continue to rise each year until 2023, and then it will increase yearly based on the consumer price index, as it has in the past several years. This means the minimum wage will alter in accordance with the changing prices of common goods from one year to the next.

What will the minimum wage become?

Before it’s linked to the index, the minimum wage rate will be set at:

2020: $9.45 2022: $11.15

2021: $10.30 2023: $12

Why is the wage changing?

The state’s 2018 minimum wage was $1.48 less than the U.S. average, and Missourians working full-time at $7.85 an hour made roughly $16,000 a year.

The wage rise will especially affect people in expensive areas, such as Kansas City where the cost of living is $11.29 an hour for people without children.

Who else will be affected?

Tipped employees such as waitstaff will still receive at least half of the minimum wage from their employers, so their pay will also rise following Proposition B. Hourly employees making slightly more than minimum wage will likely benefit as well, MU economics professor Peter Mueser says, because their wages will be closer to the bottom of the pay scale range, and therefore employers will have incentive to employ those workers more.

The number of U.S. teens working summer jobs fell 17% from 2000 to 2018, according to the Pew Research Center, and now local teens will find fewer jobs available. Ron Schmidt, a supervisor at the Career Awareness Related Experience program that connects teenagers to jobs, says CARE’s 150 to 200 participant intake has dropped by five to 10 teens this year.

“Whenever the minimum wage goes up, that’s just less trainees that we can hire,” he says.

Oct 31 - Nov 2 and Nov 7- 9 7:30 pm

Book by WILLIAM F. BROWN

GOOD TO KNOW

Missouri’s 2019 minimum wage is $8.60. The wage is $7.25 in Iowa, $8.25 in Illinois and $9.25 in Arkansas.

What about small businesses?

Around the November 2018 vote, business owners and residents debated Proposition B’s effects. Missouri Retailers Association president David Overfelt told the Jefferson City’s News Tribune the increase could prevent expansion, cut jobs and hurt companies. However, Fretboard Coffee owner Dave Elman told KBIA the wage would prevent employee turnover, increase workers’ energy and benefit the coffee shop’s productivity.

Is there a chance I will lose my job?

Mueser says the initial impacts from the wage increase will be “relatively modest.”

He says problems from a higher minimum wage would be greater over the long run than in the short run.

Lyrics by CHARLIE SMALLS

Nov 3, 10 2:00 pm

Tickets Rhynsburger Theatre box office (573) 882-PLAY (7529) or online at theatre.missouri.edu

Director JOY POWELL Musical Director BRETT KRISTOFFERSON

Scan with smart phone to purchase now.

8

VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

Orchestra Conductor BARRY FORD

Winner of seven Tony Awards in 1975!

Illustration by Elizabeth Principato

I N T HE LO O P VOX PICKS

Vox picks for

NOVEMBER Watch…

the revitalized KOPN Central Missouri Holiday Parade to celebrate a variety of traditions. After a year off, the annual parade returns in a new form with new focus and under new ownership. It now will celebrate Missouri’s diversity, instead of following the Christmas theme as seen in years past, and local radio station KOPN is replacing the Jaycees as the organizing body. Bring your family for some inclusive and festive cheer the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Nov. 24, beginning at the corner of College Avenue and Broadway; ending on Fifth and Locust streets, 3–5 p.m., free, 874-1139

Each month, Vox curates a list of can’t-miss shops, eats, reads and experiences in and around Columbia. We highlight the new, trending or criminally underrated ­­— so you’re always informed of the best our city has to offer.

BY ELENA K. CRUZ

Drink…

at the Mid Mo Whiskey Fest.

Missouri is known for its barrel exports, and its sought-after white oak is ideal for aging whiskeys. Nosh on the creations of 44 Canteen and Geisha while jiving to live music, and strike up some spirited conversations with distillery owners and industry pros. Nov. 15, 7–9:30 p.m., 22 N. Tenth St., $55, general admission; $85, VIP; 442-8220

Dress…

in a blazer, day or night, because the classic look has gone casual in 2019’s trends. You can partner it with a pair of biker shorts, short skirt or jeans, and the outfit is perfect for fall’s unpredictable weather. Thrift a blazer from New Beginning Consignment Clothing, or stop by a local boutique. New Beginning, 7 S. Tenth St., $10-$35, 4495722

Photography by Hillary Tan and courtesy of Wiki Commons

Engage…

with the evolved scene of the Citizen Jane Film Festival. After running for over a decade, the fest’s showings of woman-made films have come to a close. Organizers are exploring how to reallocate the festival’s resources to provide film education yearround, according to Citizen Jane’s website.

In the meantime, show your support for women filmmakers by watching Harriet, a film directed by Kasi Lemmons on the life of Harriet Tubman. Opens Nov. 1, Ragtag Cinema, $9.50; $7.50 children, seniors and matinees, 443-4359

VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

9

IN THE LOOP Q&A

Found in translation

Lie vs. Lay? I before e? The English language can be confusing, but Dan Murphy enjoys teaching it to people as their second language.

BY HIROAKI KONO

D

an Murphy found his passion more than 15 years after he began his career.

He left his job as a state employee and began teaching English to non-native speakers at the Columbia Area Career Center in 2003.

Murphy, who speaks Spanish, has traveled across the world to places such as the Carribbean and Canada, and has backpacked all over Europe. Murphy says he likes talking with his students and that the cross-cultural experience means a lot for both Americans and non-Americans.

The people who take his class include international college students, people coming to the U.S. without knowing a word of English and more.

Daniela Leiva, one of Murphy’s students from Bogota, Colombia, says Muprhy’s willingness to talk and his outgoing personality is something that makes him stand out. “He is a kind of different person, and that’s cool,” Leiva says.

Murphy talked with Vox about his journey to becoming an educator and how teaching has taught him about cultural differences.

What was your prior job?

I was in the Missouri Department of Mental Health from 1986 to 1999. I was the director of a therapuetic foster family program.

Working with children, teenagers and their parents was stressful for me. I had to deal with negative behavior every day, sometimes violence. After being in the mental health job for 13 years, I entered MU as a master’s student in adult education. I went to Guatemala after obtaining my master’s degree. I had a six-month contract as an En-

10

glish-language teacher there. The six months, October 2002 to April 2003, was so fun and less stressful than the work at a mental hospital.

After coming back to Columbia, I started this job as a volunteer, then I became full-time.

What’s the main goal of the class?

I try to meet the needs of every student. Everyone has different backgrounds, which means every student has different goals and different levels of learning strategy.

Being sensitive to the difference is the key, and it is very difficult.

Sharing feelings with students is one of the ways to make communication with my students efficient.

When a new class starts, I tell my students,“I am nervous as much as you are.” I also want to make my class accessible to anyone who is in need. That’s why our class is free, and we do not require any documents.

Does your job ever suprise you?

I am surprised whenever my students talk about the cultural differences they have felt in their American lives. The students always remind me that I am too accustomed to American culture to think of why it is. For example, one of my Chinese students said she doesn’t know why all yearround American restaurants serve a glass of cold water to guests. In China, the servers serve a cup of hot Chinese tea in winter.

Why do you think different cultures should interact?

Having worked with people whose cultural roots are not in the U.S.,

VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

Photography by Joal Chan

I have realized that America is not a country just for Americans. In cross-cultural communication, there are many things that both sides can learn from each other about the differences. Furthermore, being able to communicate with someone who is different from you is a skill, a more valuable skill than you might think.

Doing this job, I feel like I’m an ambassador to this country, to this state and this city. I really want everyone to feel comfortable and be welcomed.

Dan Murphy began teaching at the Columbia Area Career Center in 2003.

MISSOURI MURDER

ANATOMY OF

MYSTERIES P. 13

A PLAY P. 14

Dennis Layne Schubert plays and collects guitars, like this Gibson. He has too many to count, he says.

Let’s get ready to ramble Open mic night for local artists encourages original tunes.

BY ELZA GOODLOW CoMO Ramblers is like a family, if everyone in your family knew how to write songs or play guitar — or the banjo, mandolin, autoharp, drums or keyboard. And since spring 2018, the club of musicians has gathered once or twice a month at Rose Music Hall to hone their craft and showcase new songs.

The CoMO Ramblers Facebook group has over 400 members, but only 10 to 12 artists perform at each event.

The music includes genres as varied as punk and country, and the musicians range from teens to 70-year-olds. The setup is simple: a stool, a PA system and a microphone.

The gatherings are unlike standard open mic nights because the audience doesn’t come to hear covers. Many in the CoMO Ramblers’ Club are songwriters.

The shows provide an opportunity to get feedback on original songs from a supportive crowd.

Local musician J.T. Schnakenberg has organized the shows since 2018.

Rose Music Hall’s talent buyer, Pat Kay, originally formed the club in 2015 to bring together songwriters in the area, but it never took off. Schnakenberg reached out to Kay about reviving Ramblers Club, and they spent three months working out the details. In May 2018, the club returned to Rose Music Hall with Schnakenberg deciding the dates and organizing the lineup.

“J.T. was able to resurrect it and put a certain amount of personal fire into it to make it happen and to make it happen on the schedule,” says Dennis Layne Schubert, a Ramblers regular.

Schubert has loved music all his life but began writing songs after retirement.

Good songwriters, Schubert says, “write

Photography by Daniel Shular, courtesy of Craig Freeman/Flickr

VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

11

CU LT URE MUSIC

something about the human condition that is not that easy to express.” He plays at local venues like Fretboard Coffee, Dive Bar and Rose Music Hall. Sometimes he plays solo, and sometimes he plays with his duet partner, Abigail Rose.

Rose began writing songs after her mother died. “Here I am, a middle-aged lady getting back into this,” she says. “I was just playing in the bedroom at home for months, and my kids didn’t even really know I played just because I didn’t have the confidence to go out.”

She started playing covers at the Mission, a music venue in her hometown, Jefferson City. This is where she met Schubert. Eventually, Rose worked originals like “Red Flags,” about warning signs in relationships, and “Trash Talk,” about gossip, into her lineup. Her inspiration comes from phrases she hears from friends or in other songs.

She has encouraged many of her friends to start performing, especially women. “A lot of times you feel like the only gal in the crowd,” she says. This

HOW TO RAMBLE Join the club: Find CoMO Ramblers’ Club on Facebook to sign up for stage time.

Schnakenberg posts dates and times.

Plan your set: You get 20 minutes to shine, and you can’t perform at two shows in a row.

Know what’s next: The 2019 season ended Oct. 22.

More theme nights in 2020 are in the works.

“I’ve got lots of stories to tell,” Abigail Rose says.

Her originals tell tales of vandalizing cars, drinking tiny bottles of booze and more.

year, the club hosted a Ladies Night featuring only female artists.

“A lot of people at Ramblers are just starting out with their originals,” Rose says. “You start to think, ‘Well, if they can do it, maybe I can do it.’”

Mike Davis has written songs for decades. He has a trunk at home filled with old or half-written songs; he returns to them when inspiration strikes. His songs range from his time in the Marines to personal relationships. Landing live gigs in Columbia is tough, he says. He joined Ramblers Club in April.

“Even if you don’t play, you can go there and hear local writers and new music,” he says. “I think it’s cool because everybody gets counted. You get to hear everything that gets around that people aren’t playing anywhere else.”

J.T. Schnakenberg (top right) is helping Mike Davis (left) record his first album.

His guitar is covered in signatures from fellow musicians.

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VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

Photography by Claire Hassler and Daniel Shular

C U LT U RE BOOKS

Killer books

MISSOURIBASED BOOKS

Flip through the murderous pages of Missouri fiction.

Gone Girl, Sharp Objects, Dark Places

By Gillian Flynn Flynn’s novels explore a variety of dark paths set in places around Missouri, all with women at the center.

BY BECK JAECKELS

W

hat is it about Missouri that lends itself to mystery? The seemingly endless flat landscape between its three biggest cities?

The dark woods of the Ozarks?

For best-selling author Allen Eskens, it’s about the childhood memories, but also partially the heat.

Eskens, who grew up in Jefferson City, created the fictional town of Jessup, which is set south of the capital, in his novel Nothing More Dangerous. He captured the heat of summer as he wove the mystery of the story. “So much is drawn from my memories of growing up, it’s hard to separate the novel from parts of myself at times,” Eskens says.

The bleak atmosphere in Missouri-based mystery novels and the darkness

Allen Eskens

of some portrayals of southern Missouri — what MU English associate professor Samuel Cohen refers to as “Ozark noir” — is partially aesthetic. There is a “non-scenic ruralness” in many novels set in the region that is used to express it as rife with meth and hardships. It creates a connection between the area and

Winter’s Bone

By Daniel Woodrell Teenager Ree Dolly faces a challenge in the Ozarks: extracting information from her family set on protecting its own.

Bloody Bones

By Laurell K. Hamilton Anita Blake, vampire hunter, is on the case when four unsolved murders strike Branson.

the crime that appears in these novels.

However, it’s not all about appearance. Eskens and Cohen cite the influence of racial history in Missouri, which teeters between the South and the Midwest. Tensions in the state have roots in the migration of people from slaveholding regions and the entrance of Missouri into the Union as a slave state in 1821.

Cohen says although some writers don’t focus on Missouri’s racial past, racism is a common thread in much of the Missouri-based fiction because it pervades the state’s history. Eskens says that race also plays a key role in Nothing More Dangerous in the identity of a missing woman.

Nothing More Dangerous, releasing Nov. 14, has a Columbia tie, too. Eskens’ protagonist, 15-year-old Broady Sanden, visits the Columbia Missourian archives as he searches for answers about his neighbor’s mysterious past.

Eskens will be speaking at Skylark Bookshop at 6 p.m. Nov. 29.

• EA T/ SHO P /P LA Y •

#ITSGOODTOBEHERE WW W . DISCO VE RTHED IS TRI CT. COM

Photography courtesy of Allen Eskens

VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

13

CU LT URE

STAGE

Making a play

ter can be fully fleshed out, and I can see them as a real person and not just a creation of somebody’s imagination.”

From the characters to the staging, putting on a 10-minute show highlights the elements that make good productions work.

No passion, no play

BY SKYLAR LAIRD

A

good play gives you goosebumps. It leaves you thinking long after it’s over. A good play leaves an impact, even in 10 minutes.

Talking Horse Productions’ Starting Gate New Play Festival focuses on perfecting the 10-minute play. Starting in May, three selected playwrights each workshop two plays, and their creations come to life Nov. 8-10.

This year’s theme is “Win/Lose,” so we asked local theater gurus about what makes a winning play.

Seeking structure Hartley Wright, playwright and Missouri representative of the Dramatist Guild, says each play needs a beginning,

middle and end. Starting Gate’s managing director, Russ Scott, also refers to playwriting basics for his answer: A good play, especially a 10-minute play, has unity of time, place and action.

Complex characters

NEW PLAY FESTIVAL

Talking Horse Productions 210 St. James St. Nov. 8–9, 7:30–9:30 p.m., Nov. 10, 2–4 p.m., $10

Talking Horse Productions founder and professional actor Ed Hanson says characters in a play should make you think.

“There are so many plays where the characters are just very cardboard and very two-dimensional,” Hanson says. “I really like sinking my teeth into a role where a charac-

OFF

MU theater professor David Crespy has done a bit of everything: writing, acting and directing. He has written plays and books on playwriting, and he’s acted in plays, television and film. He says the three essential characteristics of a 10-minute play are “kick, arc and point.” In other words, a bit of magic, a lot of development and a clear purpose.

Plus passion.

“Plays are built on need; they’re built on desire,” Crespy says. “We talk about famous plays, and one of the most famous is A Streetcar Named Desire. So plays are about people who really want things more than anything else in the world, but they want them passionately.”

Location, location, location Another idea to consider is whether the story fits the form. “There’s got to be a

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VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

Illustrations by Laura Jones

C U LT U RE STAGE

reason why this has to be done in theater and nowhere else,” Wright says.

Nora Hennessy, a Columbia native and a professional actress in Kansas City, says the technical aspects — sound, lights, sets, costumes and more — of the performance, the actors and the production team should all come together. “And by technical aspects, I don’t mean spectacle,” she says. “I mean telling the story that needs to be told.”

Conversation starter Ultimately, plays are meant for an audience. MU Ph.D student Veda Gerlach studies Renaissance literature, particularly drama, and says a good play, even if it’s hundreds of years old, “speaks to what we have all experienced in some way, shape or fashion.” She points to themes of jealousy and manipulation in Othello, for example.

Scott adds, “A really, really good play, once it’s over, you keep talking about it.”

Illustrations by Laura Jones

ART FINE CRAFT

TENTH ANNIVERSARY!

LIVE MUSIC KIDS’ ACTIVITIES

FALL INTO ART

JANICE SCHERER

DAVID AND ANN REIF

JOHN FENNELL

CAMERON SMITH

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2019 10AM-5PM SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2019 11AM - 4PM PARKADE CENTER, 601 BUS LOOP 70 W, COLUMBIA MO

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

WITH A FUNDRAISER BENEFITING THE FOOD BANK FOR CENTRAL AND NORTHEAST MISSOURI This year Fall Into Art celebrates its 10TH ANNIVERSARY! With our usual blend of amazing art, fine craft, and terrific music, this year promises to be our best yet. Showcasing 55 carefully chosen artisans, we’ll feature fantastic live music throughout and another silent auction to benefit the Food Bank. Situated right off Interstate 70 in Columbia, MO, we offer ample parking and a comfortable indoor venue for boths artists and patrons. Our show is always free and open to the public.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR 2019 SPONSORS Carol & Mark Stevenson

Find us on Facebook OR ONLINE AT www.fallintoart.org

VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

15

LIVING WITH A DEADLY PAST How a mass shooting 28 years ago in California, Missouri, changed the town ... and the ways it didn’t.

16

By Kate Robbins

In 1991, Christmastime in California, Missouri, was upended by a chaotic shooting spree. The story of that night includes barking dogs, news updates about the manhunt and a seemingly random request for matches and masking tape.

Photography by Claire Hassler

17

T

he town doesn’t look much different from thousands of other rural communities across the Midwest. There’s a thrift shop with an ever-rotating display of Pyrex, a Casey’s General Store with inedibly greasy pizza, train tracks that cut through its center. But once you know the truth of this place, you can’t unsee it.

For two days in early December 1991, one man held California, Missouri, hostage to its own terror. First he shot and killed a sheriff’s deputy, Leslie Roark, and before he was done, three more people were dead: Pam Jones, Cooper County Sheriff Charles Smith and Miller County Deputy Sandra Wilson.

California’s main drag has reminders of those shootings 28 years ago. The house where the killer hid from police sits only a block from the old jail building that served as sheriff’s headquarters. The jail is a block from the funeral home where the victims’ services were held. The street itself was along the route for a Christmas parade held to remember the four people murdered.

California is my home, a sleepy town of 4,300 people, 15 minutes west of Jefferson City, the state’s capital. It boasts the longest continuously running county fair west of the Mississippi, established in 1866. It’s just large enough to support a McDonald’s but not quite big enough for more than one pizza chain. A freight train still thunders through town every hour or so and deafens the main square.

I grew up roughly 15 minutes from the house where the first deputy was killed, but I was 19 years old before I learned what happened there. It’s hard to imagine such silence these days, in an age where mass shootings have the power to transform unheard-of places like Columbine and Newtown into a shared national shorthand for chaos, terror and carnage. It’s hard to imagine the

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deaths of three law enforcement officers, and the wife of another, not being discussed constantly, even decades later. While the tragedy warranted attention from The New York Times, 1991 predated the tectonic shift in American culture where personal grievances led to mass slaughter on a ridiculously regular basis.

I was surprised nobody told me. But then again, why would anyone? It’s not something to teach in school. Twenty-eight years ago sits right between outdated gossip and not yet ready for the history curriculum. So it’s left to linger as a difficult memory but not something to talk about. And the town has moved on.

My mother died when I was 7 years old. That makes me both close to loss and far away from it. But it’s safe to say I’m familiar with the aftermath. Maybe that’s why I’m here, covering murders nearly 30 years old. You have to know what Jim Johnson did to understand what happens next in California, Missouri, but at this point in the story, it’s all aftermath. The events themselves are secondary to what has grown up around them in the intervening years. How this place, my hometown, reconciled its past.

How we move on, even as scars remain.

minutes of one another in rural Moniteau County. Wilson lived with Johnson, her husband, and her 17-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, Dawn Becker.

Her daughter and husband were arguing over the phone bill. They were screaming over each other.

Johnson had removed every phone in the house and put them in the back of his car. Becker was crying.

“I can’t take it anymore,” Johnson told his wife. Tensions had been running high between Johnson and his stepdaughter, leaving Wilson in the middle.

When she came home from work that evening, Johnson issued his wife an ultimatum. Either Becker leaves, or he would. Wilson chose her daughter.

Johnson pulled out the rifle that was sitting in the corner of the room and pointed it at the teenager’s head. Wilson knew the gun was loaded. The guns in the house were always loaded.

“You’re not afraid of me are you?” Johnson asked. Wilson told him that if he was going to shoot anyone, then he’d better shoot her first.

Ten minutes later, about 7:30 p.m., Moniteau County Deputy Leslie Roark arrived. Johnson demanded to know which of the two

It all began inside James Johnson’s home early

in the evening of Dec. 9, 1991. Among the cornfields and cow pastures south of Jamestown, Jerri Wilson came home to a fight. Jamestown, Clarksburg and California are a trio of small towns within 15 Kate Robbins moved to California, Missouri, with her family when she was 4.

Photography by Claire Hassler and Derek Rieke; Archive courtesy of California Democrat

women had called the police; but Wilson and Becker both insisted they hadn’t. Although he’d worked in law enforcement before, Roark became a deputy just six months earlier. He’d been named an Outstanding Young Man of America by the United States Junior Chamber two years ago.

“You better get your ass back in the car,” Johnson yelled through the front screen door. Wilson insisted she and her daughter were fine and that there was no reason for the deputy to stay. Roark said he’d leave once he could see Becker to ensure she wasn’t hurt. Johnson brought the teenager to the door.

Roark returned to his car. But as Wilson watched from inside the house, Johnson opened the screen door, pulled his .38 caliber Colt revolver out of his waistband and shot into Roark’s squad car.

Johnson turned back to her and said, “I’m in trouble now.”

He sat down at the kitchen table.

“We were frozen,” Wilson said during the trial. “We didn’t know what to do. We just stood there.”

A few minutes later, Johnson went outside and opened the car door. Roark was inside, still alive and moaning as Johnson raised the handgun again. The coroner later reported that Roark was killed by two shots to the head at close range. Execution style. He was 27.

“I’m in trouble now,” Johnson repeated as he came back into the house. “He’s dead.”

Johnson loaded ammunition and at least three weapons into his Monte Carlo, told Wilson and

Law enforcement put the community on lockdown on Dec. 10 1991, while patrols were searching cars and houses looking for Johnson.

Becker he wasn’t going to hurt them and ordered them not to speak to anyone. Then he drove off. Wilson immediately ran to the deputy’s car and, using the police radio, called for help.

All the phones were still in Johnson’s car.

By the time I heard this story, I was in college.

It happened by chance, at Jalisco Mexican restaurant on Buchanan Street over a dinner of fajitas and taco platters.

My dad, brother and I were eating with our neighbors, David and Mary Lou Hoellering. Inviting them out was our way of thanking them for watching the farm while we were in Memphis on vacation.

In the midst of the meal, my father asked how David Hoellering became a prison guard at the nearby Tipton Correctional Center. He’d been doing it for over 20 years.

And so began the story. About Jim Johnson and about the murders. How Hoellering had been friends with Johnson. How he used to take Johnson’s parents to visit their son on death row.

I was shocked this was the first

time I was hearing this story. The silence made it feel shameful. Like the fact that it happened here marks California as a town that produces killers, and in one collective PR move, residents decided that it’s nothing they want to make particularly public. There’s a lot more about California that people prefer to talk about, like our thriving Future Farmers of America program or our famed county fair. Not the murders.

Sitting there drinking a cocktail, our neighbor explained how Johnson told him he thought he would make a good prison guard.

And on that encouragement, he took the training and started working at the correctional center, where he remains. The idle word of a death row inmate launched a 20-plus-year career.

He paused to spear a piece of chicken. “Couldn’t see him after that though. Can’t visit a prisoner if you’re a guard.”

The night of Dec. 9, 1991, Johnson drove

the 20 miles from Jamestown to Clarksburg, to the home of Pam

and Kenny Jones. Pam was a high school English teacher in Clarksburg who kept her dark, curly hair cut short, and she was active in the First Christian Church.

Kenny was the sheriff for Moniteau County. Johnson didn’t know them well, but he’d had meetings with the sheriff to discuss his stepdaughter’s abusive boyfriend from Blue Springs.

That evening, Kenny was out of the house working on a 4-H project with their two sons. Their two daughters were at home with Pam, who was hosting a Christmas party and Bible study with the Christian Women’s Fellowship chapter of her church.

Pauline Barnett attended the party, and remembered Pam, dressed in a red jumpsuit, reading to the circle of about 10 women.

Barnett saw a flash from the window behind Pam. She heard three shots. “She just threw her head back and slid down on the floor.”

Barnett said during the trial. Pam slipped from the chair and fell to the ground.

She was pronounced dead at 11:35 p.m. at University Hospital in Columbia. She was 38.

It’s easy to reduce people to their defining moment.

I am motherless. It wouldn’t surprise me if that was how those I grew up with defined me.

My mother died from the flu when I was in elementary school.

Her absence is more real to me than her presence was. I have never liked being known for it, dragging tragedy around all the time. It made it hard to be any-

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thing else. I could be very smart and very clever, but mostly I was motherless.

It’s human nature to identify with the victims who remind you of yourself. So I think of the Jones girls. It would be worse for them.

They have a tragedy attached to them that was a thousand times more public than mine. It would be impossible to shake. Something like, “the girl whose mother died” is a tough narrative to be pinned under, but “the girl whose mother was murdered” would be twice as heavy.

It would be worse if they look like her, I’d imagine. I have my mother’s hair and nose and build and laugh. To my mother’s family I appear more like a ghost than a person. You can’t be yourself and a ghost all at once.

deputy sheriff Russell Borts came home about 1 a.m.

He was changing clothes before returning to the local jail, which was serving as a temporary headquarters in the search for Johnson.

Standing in the bedroom, he was on the phone with a fellow deputy, talking over what he’d seen in Johnson’s house.

He’d just heard his neighbor’s dog barking when he felt what he thought was the

phone receiver exploding in his hand.

It wasn’t until he felt a burst of pain in his chest that he realized what was happening.

Borts was shot four times. Bullets struck him in the chest, the hand and the face. He fell to the floor and scrambled for another phone to call an ambulance.

During his trial, Johnson said he had gone there to confess. But when he heard Borts say his name on the phone, he shot through the window. The men had known each other since they were 5 years old; they sang together in the church choir. “He was like part of the family,” Borts said about the man who shot him.

Johnson walked the two blocks from Borts’ home to the county jail where law enforcement from several jurisdictions had gathered to assist in the manhunt. From outside, Lt. Terry Moore of the Missouri State Highway Patrol had heard the shots from Borts’ house and ran into the jail building to alert the others. A group emerged shortly after, Moore right behind Cooper County Sheriff Charles Smith and another deputy. Other shots rang out. Instinctively, Moore dived for cover, not sure

Pam Jones, beloved teacher and active community member, was killed while hosting a Christmas party and Bible study at her home.

where the attack came from. Smith fell on the ground.

The medical examiner would later say that Smith was struck by four bullets: one in the back, one in the neck, another in the right cheek.

The last one hit the back of his head — it was the fatal blow. Smith was a Vietnam veteran who’d survived four tours. He was 54. From a new vantage point, Moore then saw Miller County Deputy Sandra Wilson in her car under a street light. She attempted to take cover but was shot in the back; the bullet perforated her heart. She died minutes later. She was 42.

everyone you speak to in california

will tell you a similar story about the shootings. From the woman at the City Hall reception desk, to the reporters at the California

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Democrat, to the courthouse information officer.

“It was scary.”

“Things like this don’t happen here.”

“I still remember where I was.”

Mary Ann Clennin tells me her story while we sit at the California Nutrition Center, a gathering place for the town’s seniors with a $4 lunch for those 60 and older. It’s a dimly lit building with people quietly chatting, playing cards and dominos. I’ve known Clennin since I was 4. She’s like a second grandma to me.

Clennin recalls being at home when she heard about the shooting and

Photography by Claire Hassler and Derek Rieke; Archive courtesy of California Democrat

the resulting manhunt.

She was sitting at her kitchen table watching the little box television on the counter when the lockdown was announced. The local television station broadcasted Johnson’s picture as well as a warning that he was armed.

The authorities had set up roadblocks in and out of California. Patrols were searching house to house as they tried to track down Johnson, with the help of more than 150 officers from surrounding jurisdictions.

Businesses were instructed not to open the next day, and the local school closed. The National Guard had been called in, and a helicopter was circling the county.

They were told to stay inside and keep the blinds closed, she says.

She thought of all the times she and Johnson had played together as children. Their parents had been family friends, and they had gone to school together. His parents couldn’t have their own children and had adopted Johnson when he was 2.

On the night of the shooting, when Clennin’s husband, Paul, came back from taking care of the cows, she told him the news. She remembers that they discussed what they would do if Johnson came to their home. They kept guns in the house, and they knew Johnson was armed. But they both agreed that they didn’t think they’d be able to shoot him. He had been their friend. Their shared past would have outweighed Johnson’s present.

shootings and the ongoing manhunt. She told her mother to lock her door.

Miller was heading out to do just that when someone grabbed her.

When Miller started to yell, Johnson put his hand over her mouth.

Her first thought was, “Oh, this must be the man.”

“Don’t yell; I’m not going to hurt you,” Johnson instructed as he followed her inside. He told

her he needed a place to stay and didn’t give her an option to refuse. Once inside she could see the two rifles he carried. Miller, a diabetic, told Johnson she needed to eat. She cooked breakfast, and they ate together at her kitchen table. Afterward, he asked to borrow a radio, and he lay in bed and listened. She

Dorothymae Miller noticed the sound of helicopters overhead

on the night of Dec. 9 but was able to sleep anyway. Early the next morning on Dec. 10, the 82-yearold she received a call from her daughter informing her of the

Mary Ann Clennin knew Jim Johnson when they were both kids — and like the rest of California, she didn’t see him as a murderer.

asked him several times throughout the day to turn himself in, but he told her he wasn’t ready.

She turned on the TV, and news of the manhunt came on the screen.

“Did you kill somebody last night?” Miller asked.

“Yes, but I didn’t mean to.”

By this time, he had killed four people.

He requested several items, including a box of matches and a roll of masking tape. Miller agreed, but said no when he asked to use her car even though he said he’d only take it to the edge of town.

Miller told him she had plans to go to a Christmas party that afternoon, and she needed to attend or the people at the party would get suspicious. The carpool came to pick her up at 3 p.m., and after nine hours of sharing her home with a killer, she was allowed to go. As she left the house, John-

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son commented how pretty her dress was.

Once they were out of sight of the house, Miller and her carpool alerted the police, and law enforcement arrived at the residence with a special emergency response team. Johnson spoke with a crisis specialist, Officer Terry St. Clair, on the phone. The negotiation between them took over two hours.

“They’re all around me.”

“Who’s all around you?” St. Clair asked.

“The Viet-Cong.” Johnson was a Vietnam veteran. Two years later, these experiences formed the basis of his defense in court. The transcript between Johnson and police is fractured with him saying he hadn’t seen his commander in days and asking why the operator spoke “American.” But he also said his marriage was over and wanted to know what the press was saying about him. Most damningly, he spoke bitterly about local law enforcement, the people he had targeted during his killing spree.

Finally, Johnson gave up his three weapons, surrendered and was arrested.

Rumors are persistent, even after 28 years.

People are still trying to divine their own answers to why the shooting happened. At the Good Hair Day hair salon on the outskirts of Clarksburg, Robin Arnold remembers how the town lockdown affected her.

“I missed two days of beauty school,” she says as she bustles around the salon. “And you pay by the day, so I had to pay for two days I didn’t even use.”

Her sister Rita Arnold sits reading a magazine as she waits her turn for a haircut. The family reunion is a coincidence, but Rita

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James Johnson was found guilty of the four murders and was sentenced to death on Feb. 1, 1993.

also had run-ins with Johnson.

“You know, Jim drove me home from the racetrack when I locked my keys in my car a week before it happened.”

“Really? Robins says.

“You never told me that.”

“Yes, he did!”

They have different theories about why Johnson did what he did.

Rita doesn’t look up from her magazine as she comments, “That fruitcake of a girlfriend of his was fooling around with the police department,” and that’s why Johnson targeted the police.

Robin disagrees. She had heard that Johnson did “some things” with his stepdaughter, although she adds that Johnson had always denied it. Her theory is that Pam Jones was the real

VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

target of the spree. Jones was a teacher at Dawn Becker’s school, and the thought was that Becker told her what was going on. Johnson had killed her to keep the story quiet.

The rumors that circle around the Johnson shooting are rampant and impossible to confirm. Ray Scherer was a reporter for the California Democrat at the time of the shooting. “I never paid much attention to the rumors that were flying around,” he says. “They’re just unverifiable.”

Two years after the shooting,

his legal team used a less salacious defense than the reasons discussed in the local hair salon. The team argued that Johnson was experiencing a war flashback during the shootings. His lawyers described the death of a friend in combat and a baby

who was stomped to death by fellow soldiers as the root of the post-traumatic stress disorder that contributed to the shootings. The prosecution was quick to counter that Johnson was in Vietnam for only two weeks.

The exact reason for the shootings can no longer be known, but does it really matter? The defense didn’t work for the jury, and Johnson received a death sentence. That sentence was carried out by lethal injection on Jan.9, 2002. Always a religious man, Johnson’s last words were, “May the God of all grace bring you peace.” He was 53.

And then it was over. The shootings have more

or less faded into history, for better or for worse. There’s a plaque for Leslie Roark in the sheriff’s office and one for Pam Jones at the Clarksburg school, as well as a scholarship fund in her name. Kenneth Jones was elected to represent the 117th District in the Missouri House of Representatives in 2004.

One of his sons, Caleb Jones, currently represents the 50th District.

When I asked my dad how I could have gone so long not knowing, he said: “It happened a long time ago.

It’s already been talked out.”

And maybe that’s true. As the arrow of time continues forward, nothing can stay in the forefront forever. Maybe that’s for the best. If this one event had become California’s defining moment, it wouldn’t have been the town that I grew up in, and it wouldn’t have been the people I grew up with. It certainly would have been darker and sadder than it is now. But a train still rattles through town every hour, and the Casey’s still serves greasy pizza.

The county fair retains its title as the longest continuous fair west of the Mississippi. It’s my home.

We’ve moved forward. We have not been defined by one terrible moment. None of us are.

Photography by Claire Hassler and Derek Rieke; Archive courtesy of California Democrat

With local ventures like Silverball and the mall arcade, Nic Parks is gaming all the way to the bank.

Story by Matt Noworul Photography by Emmalee Reed and Jeremy Johnson

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Nic Parks founded The Pinball Company in August 2006 and Parks Amusement in 2014.

P

inball machines might not seem like the place to try to strike it rich in business, but don’t tell that to Nic Parks, founder of The Pinball Company. One of Parks’ inspirations, famed investor Warren Buffett, got his start in 1946 by purchasing a pinball machine for $25 and convincing a local barber to install it in his Washington, D.C., shop. By the end of the first week, Buffett had earned enough money to buy a second pinball machine. “It was the best business I was ever in,” he once told his pal Bill Gates, one of only two men in the world who can boast of a bigger bank account than Buffett. “I built a small empire on it.”

Sixty years later, Parks would start his own small empire in much the same way. First, pinball machines. Then the games at the Arcade at Columbia Mall.

Then, Silverball arcade bar. This month he’ll add Level Up Entertainment, an upgrade of the family fun center at the Columbia Mall.

Humble Beginnings Parks started at MU in fall 1997. Inspired by his high school math teacher, he hoped to major in math education.

He started down this path but ended

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up taking Finance 123, a basic intro to finance class, as an elective and found his calling. He decided that if he enjoyed one business class, he might enjoy business as a whole and switched his major.

In 2002, Parks graduated from MU with a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a finance emphasis and a minor in math.

After graduation, Parks moved back to St. Louis, where he sold insurance and helped with financial planning for Northwestern Mutual. With his finance background, Parks had plans to become a certified financial planner. After about a year and a half, he discovered he wasn’t getting what he wanted out of the job.

He decided to make his way back to MU for graduate school in 2004 to get his MBA. During this time, Parks “caught the bug” for education again and began teaching a few finance classes at MU, including the class that got him interested in business, Finance 123. He briefly toyed with the idea of becoming a college professor, but the focus on research soon dissuaded him.

In 2006, Parks found a job at Amini’s Galleria in Chesterfield, which sold pool tables, jukeboxes, home-theater seating and pinball machines. Even though he

enjoyed the job, Parks started considering a bigger picture. “For me, coming from my background, having an MBA and kind of thinking like a consultant, I immediately thought, ‘I’m gonna use this knowledge to open my own business,’” Parks says. A few months later, he would do just that with The Pinball Company.

The Dawn of an Empire Parks found an interest in video games at an early age, playing games like Super Mario Bros and Pitfall! almost daily after school. He didn’t know it at the time, but the lessons he learned in those games would play a key role in shaping his outlook on life as an adult. “Every day it was pop it back in and try to get to the next level, and that’s business,” Parks says.

“Every day you want to get to the next level, whatever that is.” He compares the process of growing a business to game players collecting items and advancing characters’ levels to get stronger. No matter how minuscule the improvement may seem, it’s still an improvement.

The Pinball Company started as a website that launched in August 2006. In those early days, Parks had no inventory, little knowledge on fixing and maintaining pinball machines and no clue how to ship pinball machines across the country.

Photography by Jeremy Johnson/Archive and Emmalee Reed

Parks says he hopes to expand Silverball to turn it into a national “barcade” chain.

Despite this, Parks began filling orders for machines he didn’t have, knowing that he could buy them elsewhere and mark up the prices. “Fake it till you make it, right?” Parks says.

As the orders piled up, so did the stress. But quickly learned where to buy the machines he needed and purchased a used U-Haul truck for transporting them. He then sent his friend out across Illustrations by Mitchell Bartle

the country to pick up and deliver the various machines. Parks says the logistics of the operation were planned out with a large U.S. map on his basement bar and used game pieces from the board game Risk to signify the various stops along the way. “A blue Army guy meant a delivery, and a red Army guy meant a pick up,” Parks says.

In the first year of the company,

Parks anticipated he would sell 300 to 400 machines at roughly $3,000 each. It would yield around $1 million in total revenue. In reality, the company managed to double its predictions, bringing in about $2.5 million in revenue.

“The market was much bigger than I thought, and I was able to reach way more people than I thought I could,” Parks says. Around this time, his wife, Brooke Parks, joined the company to help with the bookkeeping, logistics and customer service duties. “It was definitely more chaotic,” she says. “We were really learning as we went.” Parks says that Brooke has now taken over the majority of day-to-day operations, while he mainly sticks to the creative and marketing side. “She’s a believer and has been there the whole time,” Parks says.

Fast forward to today, the Parks family’s business brought in about $8 million in sales during 2018 and has already achieved 10% growth in sales in 2019. They now use a delivery service for long-distance orders, while still personally delivering their local orders.

They subcontract 300 technicians nationwide to help service the machines and employ three full-time technicians who fully refurbish old machines. As for the future, Parks says they’ve always toyed with the idea of breaking into the pinball machine manufacturing market, whether that be merging with an already established manufacturer or starting their own. Additionally, Parks says they’ve discussed getting into the parts manufacturing business, in order to help supply their customers with spare parts to keep their machines up and running.

Family, Fun and Philanthropy Though his empire has grown beyond just The Pinball Company, games are still the backbone of Parks’ business.

He also founded the company Parks Amusements. Under this name, Parks owns the Arcade at the Columbia Mall, which in November will become Level Up Entertainment. Using the arcade games and rebuilt bowling lanes from VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

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defunct Lazer Lanes, Level Up Entertainment expands the offerings. A new ropes course, laser tag arena, and a full bar and restaurant will be added during the expansion.

Parks says it was never his intention to get into this type of business. It all started to take form when the owners of Galactic Fun Zone contacted Parks about installing arcade machines in their center. “If those guys had never approached me, I probably never would have recognized how much money an arcade in Columbia really could make,” Parks says.

One of his other recent projects, Silverball arcade bar, which opened in September 2017, is also a part of Parks Amusements. Parks had the idea brewing for at least three years but decided to put it into action after taking a tour of arcade bars in Chicago in the early 2017.

To make Silverball stand out from other arcade bars, Parks focused on newer arcade machines and frozen drinks as opposed to the vintage games and craft beer of other “barcades.” “It was just a matter of finding the right location and wrapping my head around exactly the way I wanted to do it,” Parks says.

However, business isn’t the only item on Parks’ agenda. In 2015, he discovered Tigers on the Prowl, a local charity organization that auctions off tiger-themed art made by artists, most of whom are local. Parks loved the idea and decided to jump in and help out. By 2016, Parks was president and made Tigers on the Prowl an official nonprofit charity. The organization has since raised over $600,000, donating an average of about $20,000 a year per charity, of which there are usually about five chosen per year. “When I started getting involved with Tigers on the Prowl, it really gave me a sense of purpose,” Parks says. “It’s a way that I know I’m making a positive impact on the community.”

Parks’positive attitude is reflected in his relationship with his family and employees. Brooke says he acts silly at home with their kids and tries to make them laugh. “He’s like a large child at home,” she says. Parks also cares about his employees and treats them as part of the family. “He’s always asking ques-

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Nic Parks compares the process of evolving a business to game players collecting items and advancing characters’ levels to get stronger. tions, and he cares about you and every individual that works for him,” says Ryan McCann, the general manager and event coordinator at Silverball. Mark Montgomery, who has been Parks’ go-to Mr. Fix-it since the early days of The Pinball Company, says he and Parks are “almost like brothers.” “We take vacations with them, have dinner out once a month,” Montgomery says. The two met after he fixed a pinball machine for Galactic Fun Zone. Parks was impressed by Montgomery’s work, and they have worked together ever since. “He’s very caring,” Montgomery says. “He’ll step up and do for you as long as you’re doing for him.”

The Pinball Company has grown since 2006; it now subcontracts 300 technicians nationwide to service its machines.

Dream On Coming full circle, Parks says he’s looking to get back to teaching at MU at some point, perhaps as a guest lecturer on entrepreneurship. He says he wants to challenge young people to think big and wants to help up-and-coming entrepreneurs with their business ideas.

He says he sees himself as an example that anyone with the drive to succeed can if they try. “Look at me; I’m just an average dude,” Parks says. “If I can do it, you can do it.”

As for the future of his own businesses, Parks dreams big. Silverball has already completed its expansion with a food menu and more space and games in October. Parks is planning to open a Silverball in Chicago and St. Louis and eventually develop it into a nationwide chain of arcade bars, with six to eight locations in various cities.

Who knows what the future holds for Nic Parks. But it’s safe to say he’ll keep dreaming big and continue looking for ways to make a positive impact on the lives of those around him. It’s not unreasonable to believe that his 10-year goal is to be pulling in somewhere close to $100 million in combined revenue from all of his businesses. After all, why be content when you can level up?

“Then I’ll be on the heels of Jeff Bezos,” Parks says with a chuckle.

HEY, BARTENDER P. 28

Let’s taco ‘bout it These Mexican restaurants bring new flavors to the table.

BY MARIANNA MOORE The past year has been exceptional for taco-lovers. Three new Mexican restaurants have spiced up Columbia with an all-time favorite — tacos.

Paleteria El Tajín With its opening in August, the family-owned Paleteria El Tajín has sought to bring new flavors of Mexican cuisine to Columbia, owner Yoselin Herrera says.

El Tajín offers Mexican street food such as tacos with marinated meat, in addition to ice cream, other desserts and snacks.

Visit: 923 E. Broadway, Sun.—Wed., 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Thurs.—Sat., 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Tacos: $2.50 -2.75 Taqueria Don Pancho Francisco Rutiaga and his father opened Taqueria Don Pancho in October 2018.

The food garners lots of return customers, fulfilling the eatery’s slogan: “See you tomorrow!” Its menu includes meat choices such as chorizo, buche (pork stomach) and al pastor.

Visit: 3907 Peachtree Drive, Tues.—Thurs., 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Fri.—Sat., 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sun., 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; closed Monday.

Tacos: $1.85 Boss Taco Originally a Tex-Mex catering business, Boss Taco opened its storefront downtown in February. It serves tacos and chimichangas, but the most popular dishes are quesadillas and nachos, bar manager Michael De Leon says.

Visit: 201 N. Tenth St., Tues.—Sat., 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; closed Monday. Tacos: $3.50 -4

Photography by Yanchen Liu

Taqueria Don Pancho’s new Peachtree location is one of three Mexican restaurants that have opened in Columbia in the past year.

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E AT + DRINK D R IN KS

Bartender Confidential

Get personal with the people behind the bar as they offer tricks and tips to help you pour like a pro.

BY AIDAN CARLSEN You know their faces. You know their beverages. They’re our happy-hour heroes and the only people we want to see on a Friday night, shaking martinis and mixing cocktails like there’s no last call. Three local bartenders answer our questions about the job, their own tastes and what the people of Columbia are drinking. Turns out they’re wells of liquor and knowledge.

Richard Komendanchik TWAIN: MISSOURI TAPROOM

Maddy Melton FLYOVER

Matt Pemberton 44 STONE PUB

Hailing from Downers Grove, Illinois, Komendanchik has only been bartending for about a year. He likes Twain because of the customers and the relaxed atmosphere.

Shot of choice: Whiskey, usually Jameson Drink of choice: “Every craft beer I can get my hands on, I’ll try.”

Favorite drink to make: In terms of shots, a buttery nipple. “They’re super simple, but they’re super good.”

Hardest drink to make: Twain’s Midwestern, an old-fashioned poured over smoked ice — ­ always a crowd-pleaser. “People take out their phones and record it all the time because they’re so intrigued.”

Melton began working as a waitress in Eureka when she was 18 and has been bartending since turning 21. Four years in, she’s an alcohol aficionado behind the bar at Flyover.

Shot of choice: Jameson Favorite liquor: Gin Current cocktail obsession: “At home I’ve been making a lot of Aperol spritzers. It’s usually just Aperol, a little bit of orange juice, prosecco and club soda. It’s always good any time of year.”

Drink you make the best: “We make a lot of old-fashioneds at Flyover, and I think that we definitely, myself included, have nailed that down to a science.”

This St. Louis-native prides himself on his vast knowledge of liquor, whiskey in particular. He started serving in a Kansas bar in 1996 and has been pouring strong ever since.

Shot of choice: “At Stone, there’s basically two shots we do. It’s either Rumple Minze or Jameson. I’m definitely in the Jameson camp.”

First drink you mastered: “A Long Island iced tea because that’s all anyone drank in 1996.”

Most popular drink you make: “The one we probably sell the most of is our Pimm’s Cup martini.”

Best mixology tip for aspiring bartenders: Keep it simple. “Start with good ingredients and don’t screw them up.”

Twain: Missouri Taproom, 23 S. 8th St., Sunday, noon to 10 p.m.; Mon.–Thurs., 3 –11 p.m.; Fri., 3 p.m. to midnight; Saturday, noon to midnight

Flyover, 212 E. Green Meadows Road, Tues.–Thurs., 4:30 p.m. to midnight; Fri.–Sat., 4:30 p.m. to 1 a.m.

44 Stone Public House, 3910 Peachtree Drive, Tues.– Thurs., 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Fri.–Sat., 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

BAR CART STARTER KIT All three bartenders weighed in on the essentials you’ll need to build a bar cart. One thing’s clear — limes are key. Here are some other must-haves:

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VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

• muddler, a tool used

to mash ingredients • shaker • strainer • bar spoon

• jigger, a small hourglass-shaped cup used for measuring • vodka • rye whiskey

• • • • •

vermouth gin tonic or tonic syrup tequila schnapps

• triple sec • cocktail cherries • lemons • orange • and of course, limes

Photography by Kate Seaman, Hillary Tan and Daniel Shular

CLIMATE CHAMPS P.32

GIGS AND THE GREEN P.31

After playing for Rock Bridge, Sophie Cunningham played basketball for MU and now for the Phoenix Mercury.

High school ballin’ this fall Behind local student leagues and their continuing legacy.

BY DJ MCGUIRE Basketball might mean Cuonzo Martin, the Antlers and Mizzou Arena for many Columbia fans, but local hoops are much deeper than collegiate sports. About 250 students hit the courts as part of high school basketball teams in Columbia, and these teams boast state championship titles, alums playing pro and spirited cheering sections.

Battle High School boys basketball coach Brian Meny jokes that if Columbia-area high schools combined, the resulting basketball team would dominate Missouri year in, year out. Fr. Tolton Catholic High School boys basketball coach Jeremy Osborne says that prep basketball gives him an opportunity to educate Columbia’s youth outside of the classroom and help them grow as individuals.

With the 2019-20 season starting this month, here are some key things to know about these high school leagues.

There are two locally grown players active on NBA and WNBA rosters.

Denver Nuggets power forward Michael Porter Jr. will make his debut this year after sitting out the past season due to back surgery. He played three years of basketball at Fr. Tolton, and Osborne says Porter has even visited practices to check in with his former team. After playing for the Rock Bridge and MU teams, Sophie Cunningham joined the Phoenix Mercury as a guard this year.

Her Rock Bridge coach Jill Nagel gave credit to Cunningham’s alpha personality, which contributed to her success at every level and reach the WNBA.

Photography by Tim Tai/Archive

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C I T Y LI FE

Diverse programming you can’t find anywhere else.

It’s community radio!

SPORTS

Rock Bridge girls have a history of success.

The Bruins took home four Class 5 state titles between 2012 and 2015. Along with Cunningham and Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee Nagel, these teams also featured Cierra and Bri Porter, who both went on to play at MU. Watch the Battle boys this season.

In the school’s six-year history, the boys team has taken home three consecutive district titles since 2017. But now the question will be whether the team, which returns virtually its entire roster, can get past the state sectional round, where its season has ended the past three years.

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89.5 FM live streaming at kopn.org

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VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

The Hooves cheer on the Tolton team.

Traditions translate to Tolton’s student section.

“The Hooves,” reside at “the Stable,” which is its nickname for the school’s home court.

Norm Stewart Classic is 48 hours of basketball.

Formerly held at Columbia College’s Southwell Complex, this year the annual December classic will move to Mizzou Arena with 47 different teams from multiple states. The classic will benefit cancer research, which Meny says is more important than just playing basketball on a college floor.

C I T Y LI FE BUSINESS

Every day they’re hustling With the gig economy growing, three locals explain why they picked up side hustles.

BY MATT SCHMITTDIEL

W

hether it’s to make ends meet or pursue a hobby, more people are finding ways to make cash outside of the typical 9-to5, and Columbians are no exception.

A recent study by financial publisher Bankrate found that 45% of working Americans have a side hustle, which provides a secondary income on top of a primary job. Although it’s difficult to pinpoint when side gigs began to grow, Bankrate’s survey says millennials are more likely to have a side hustle than older age groups.

It’s the economy, stupid Of those working side hustles, 30% rely on that gig to make ends meet, according to the 2019 Bankrate survey. The study also says the cost of living has increased faster than wages, and 40% of millennials earn at least half of their monthly earnings through their side gigs. Beyond daily expenses, 68% of Americans use side gigs to pay off debt, according to a 2018 Betterment report.

“Because millennials experienced the Great Recession and saw their parents going through it, they probably are more aware than other generations about the importance of having a financial safety net,” author Alexandrea Ravenelle told Bankrate.

Disposable income is the most common reason for people to take up a side hustle, followed by paying for living expenses and saving. Bankrate’s study also found working Americans clock an average of 12 hours per week on their side hustles. Its chief financial analyst Greg McBride cites a fluctuating job market and stagnant wages as reasons for the gig economy’s growth.

Day in, day out In that atmosphere of stalled wages, REDI entrepreneurship program coordinator Collin Bunch says companies might not be able to pay employees more, but they can give them flexibility to pursue other ventures.

Increased flexibility or not, local workers are finding ways to earn money outside of their primary jobs.

Joshua Whitaker says driving for Uber created opportunities for earning additional spending money on the side, for expenses such as a trip to Germany with his wife.

After moving to the area in September 2018, Whitaker saw Uber as a way not only to make money on his own time but also develop his real estate career and get to know the community. “You get to see cool parts of Columbia that you might not get to drive to just on a daily commute,” he says.

Photography by Stephanie Nachtrab and Hillary Tan

Dan Moore works at a church by day, but when it’s wedding time, he’s DJ Shark Attack. Since starting his business in 2014, he has hired another DJ to meet demand.

Joshua Whitaker drives for Uber and says it has helped his real estate career.

Invest in yourself For some, side gigs are for exploring personal ventures. Bankrate found that 27% of workers are more passionate about a side hustle than their main job.

Samae Claspill says it’s funny to call her necklaces a side hustle because they started as gifts. Almost three years ago, her friend Liz Tucker asked if she wanted to sell them at her downtown boutique, Poppy, which turned her hobby into a side hustle.

Claspill is the creative director at Miller’s Professional Imaging and says her hustle provides a different type of creativity. “When you are a creative person and you work on a computer all day, you really miss the messy studio days of when you were in college,” Claspill says.

Like Claspill, Dan Moore turned his DJ-ing hobby into a hustle five years ago. By day, he’s a middle school co-director at a local church, but several weekends every month, you can find him at weddings as DJ Shark Attack.

He builds a budget based on his and his wife’s primary earnings with gig money as a bonus. “At the beginning, it definitely was a core part of if we wanted to do anything outside of this strict budget,” Moore says. “It was DJ Shark Attack’s blessings upon us.”

Profit or not, Claspill boils it down to what she crafts. “I create when I want to create because I am not really worried about what I make off of it,” she says.

“Then it’s more enjoyable for me.”

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CIT Y LIFE COMMUNITY

Active voices Four Columbia climate champions fight for the future of the planet.

BY CLAIRE HASSLER

C

olumbia has long been a place rich with activists. From the group of students who sat at the counter of the Minute Inn to protest its “whites only” service in 1960 to the Peaceworks activists who are on the corner of Providence Road and Broadway every single Wednesday.

At a time when the entire world is rallying around the fight for the climate, things here are no different. On Sept.

8, locals took to the streets at the Walk for the Climate march. Since then, there have been two more climate rallies in town. Columbians are demanding action to fight climate change, and among them, four climate activists, aged 9 to 66,

are working in different ways to protect the planet.

They come from all over, similar in their commitment but different in backgrounds. Emma Winter grew up with animals around her house and wants to help protect them. Jordan Narrol has lived in Columbia his entire life and got to know the town by biking — he’s traveled over 10,000 miles on his bicycle in the last three years. Erica Ascani is from Pennsylvania and came to love the outdoors because of her proximity to the Appalachian Mountains. George Laur grew up on a farm in northwest Missouri where he saw how productive the land can be when it’s cared for properly.

The organizer

plastic trash that is floating in the ocean.

Emma is a 9-year-old who is aware of the world around her, and she wants to do something to make it better.

While a fourth grader at Grant Elementary School, Emma organized Walk for Our Earth, a climate march for kids that took place on Oct. 6. She had help from her parents with things like filling out a permission slip to use the Boone County Courthouse Plaza, but she made all the final decisions. Emma helped select speakers for the event and emailed the superintendent of Columbia Public Schools to notify every district parent about the march.

“I hope people will actually start changing what they do because we have to live here, and in less than 100 years, this won’t be here if we don’t take action,” Emma says as she gestures to the trees in her shaded backyard.

Emma Winter, 9, rallies kids The tornado in Jefferson City on May 23 upset Emma Winter. So does the threat polar bears are facing with their disappearing habitat and the island of

Emma Winter grew up surrounded by animals and is deeply concerned about climate change.

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For Jordan Narrol, biking is a key part of his life. It’s how he explores Columbia.

GET INVOLVED Peaceworks The organization has been fighting for the environment, justice and peace since 1982.

875-0539 Sustain Mizzou This student-led group promotes sustainability through action and education. sustainmizzou.org Renew Missouri Founded in 2006, this group pushes for renewable energy and energy efficiency, mainly through legislation.

303-0394 Citizen’s Climate Lobby By creating national environmental solutions, this organization aims to get sustainable and fair laws adopted.

619-437-7142

The future politician Jordan Narrol, 16, works on campaigns You’ll likely find Narrol at a debate club, watching the news or maybe playing Dungeons and Dragons when he isn’t out campaigning or working with organizations such as CoMo for Progress or Our Revolution. Narrol says eventually he wants to run for political office.

When he was younger, Narrol says he was generally disillusioned with the world. But when he heard Bernie Sanders’ campaign on the TV at his grandma’s house in 2016, he realized he agreed with a lot of what the senator had to say.

If Narrol does end up in office one day, his platform would be close to that of Sanders, the man who inspired Narrol to be an activist. “I’d try to radically invest large amounts of money in renewable energy,” Narrol says.

At Walk for the Climate in Columbia, Narrol marched at the front of the crowd and held a giant sign that read, “End the wars, save the climate.” Narrol is also the president of Young Democrats at Hickman High School and has helped multiple local politicians on campaigns, such as current candidates Michela Skelton, who is running for 19th Senate District and Adrian Plank, a candidate for the 47th House District, as well as Maren Bell Jones, who ran for the 44th House District in 2018.

Photography by Claire Hassler

C I T Y LI FE COMMUNITY

The educator Erica Ascani, 25, teaches children The Pennsylvania native has traveled from Florida to Alaska studying wildlife conservation. Now, she works for the Windsor Street Montessori School and seeks education reform as a way to tackle climate change. Ascani says she wants to officially add climate change to the Columbia Public Schools curriculum, make the schools more eco-friendly and engage the community by bringing in speakers to schools and getting kids out to public events.

“They have to learn, we have to teach them how to appreciate the earth they live on,” Ascani says. “They’re the

ones who are going to be most affected by the planet that we leave them.”

As the climate coordinator of Peaceworks, one of Ascani’s biggest jobs is persuading school board members to vote for the proposed changes. This will take time — at least a year, likely longer, she says.

Ascani never learned about climate change in the classroom growing up, but she says that this has to change for today’s students. “It’s just something that will hurt them so greatly in their future that it’s something we can’t ignore,” she says.

George Laur has been working with Citizens’ Climate Lobby for six years in order to protect the Midwest’s farms, like the one he grew up on.

The policy maker

Ascani used to go camping with her family as a kid. Being outdoors helps her connect with the environment.

For Erica Ascani, introducing kids to climate change is a priority.

Photography by Claire Hassler

George Laur, 67, lobbies for change When George Laur retired in 2013, he didn’t want to just sit around. Instead, he fully committed himself to fighting for the climate. To Laur, the best way to make a change is by working across the political aisle to create strong policy.

He has been to Washington, D.C. to lobby on Capitol Hill 12 times, and this November, he’ll be back for his 13th.

Laur’s dining room table is covered with papers, a laptop and an extra monitor with at least 10 different windows open on it. He has been working with the Citizens’ Climate Lobby for the past six years to pass the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. The bill would impose a carbon fee on all fossil fuels and other greenhouse gases when they first enter the economy: Fuel importers and producers would have to pay a fee of $15 per ton of CO2 equivalent emissions. The money collected would then be returned back to American households in the form of monthly revenues.

The beauty of the bill, in Laur’s eyes, is that it’s bipartisan.

“If you have something that the conservatives and progressives work on together and can find agreement on it’s just a more durable policy,” Laur says.

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CALENDAR

ARTS

November Exhibit Sager Braudis’ November exhibit features artists from around the world, including Metra Mitchell’s “psychologically-charged dramas” and the work of Siberian-born Albert Janzen. Oct. 29 to Nov. 23, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sager Braudis, free, 442-4831

TO-DO LIST

Your curated guide of what to do in Columbia this month.

Sparkling Arts Exhibit Everything from paintings to furniture will be on view at this Columbia Art League exhibit and will be available to take home for the holidays. Nov. 2 to Jan. 2, exhibit open; Nov. 8, opening reception, 6–8 p.m., Columbia Art League, 443-8838 Dalí Works on Paper Museum docent Chuck Swaney will guide a tour of the Museum of Art and Archaeology’s Salvador Dalí exhibit two days before it opens to the public. See and discuss the artwork, on view Nov. 5 to Feb. 23.

Nov. 3, 2–3 p.m., Mizzou North, free, 882-3591

DON’T MISS IT Dialed Out

Dancers rehearse for a Missouri Contemporary Ballet production. Come watch the company’s performance of Dialed Out, an exploration of technology, human interactions and personal relationships.

The show is choreographed and composed by Kristopher Estes-Brown. Nov. 8–9, 7 p.m., Missouri Theatre, $28–48, 882-3781

Synonyms As part of Ragtag’s Passport Series, Synonyms follows Yoav, a young Israeli man, on a journey from Israel to Paris as he searches to find his identity. Inspired by director Nadav Lapid’s life, this film is the last in the series. Nov. 6–7, 6:30 p.m., Ragtag Cinema, $9.50; $7.50, children and seniors, 443-4359 First Thursday Book Discussion After reading Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell, join this library conversation about how upbringing influences success. Nov. 7, noon to 1 p.m., Columbia Public Library, free, 443-3161 The Wiz The fantastic world of Oz meets late ‘70s African-American culture in this seven-time Tony Award-winning show. Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 and Nov. 7–9, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 3 and Nov. 10, 2 p.m., Rhynsburger Theatre, $17, 882-2021 NaNoWriMo: Come Write In November is National Novel Writing Month.

Walk in today or any day of the week for your flu shot! No appointment needed. Call to confirm vaccine availability. Offer subject to change.

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1-573-303-9617 ProvidenceUrgentCare.com Photography

by Phu Nguyen 10/15/2019 12:07:26 PM

C ALE N DAR

This annual online creative writing initiative connects writers and encourages them to complete a 50,000-word manuscript between the first and last day of the month. Join fellow writers in the area for a work session over pizza. Nov. 8, 6–9 p.m., Columbia Public Library, free, 443-3161

new works choreographed by the company dancers themselves.

Nov. 22, 6 and 7:30 p.m., Balsamo Warehouse, 110 Orr St., $10, 219-7134

the mimosa and bloody mary bar. Nov. 23, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Nov. 24, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Columbia Expo Center, $3, in advance; $6, day of, 446-3971

2019 Fall Conservatory Concert The Missouri Symphony Conservatory is the largest music education program for children in mid-Missouri. Come listen as the young virtuosos showcase their skills. Nov. 11, 7 p.m., Missouri Theatre, $10; free, under 18, 882-3781

CIVIC

Shyrocks Farm Corn Maze Get lost in the corn maze, take a turn on the hayride, or sit around the campfire during the first weekend of the month, which is the last weekend Shyrocks is open for this season. Nov. 1, 4–9 p.m.; Nov. 2, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Nov. 3, 2–6 p.m., Shyrocks Callaway Farms, $11; $10, kids 5–12; free, kids 4 and under, 592-0191

FOOD

Fall Into Art Artists will gather at the Plaza Event Center at Parkade to sell leather, wood, textile, glass and other works for a cause. The showcase, now in its 10th year, has raised over $11,000 for the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri since 2014. Nov. 16, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Nov. 17, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., 601 Business Loop 70 W. Veronica Watkins Ceramics Exhibit Veronica Watkins turns the home into an art space by crafting bowls, pitchers, and salt and pepper shakers. The Missouri native’s exhibit will be on view in Columbia starting this month. Nov. 18 to Dec. 14, Greg Hardwick Gallery, free, 875-7517 Choreographic Installation This night at the Missouri Contemporary Ballet studios will feature

Columbia Weavers and Spinners’ Guild Holiday Exhibition and Sale The Columbia Weavers and Spinners’ Guild, a nonprofit supporting mid-Missouri fiber artists, is hosting its 30th annual exhibit, so you can shop for homey and homemade gifts before the holiday rush begins.

The sale features intricate textile crafts and other works of art. Nov. 8, 5:30–8 p.m.; Nov. 9, 9­ a.m. to 4 p.m.; Nov. 10, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Boone County History & Culture Center, free, 864-4439 Columbia Holiday Festival Get a jump-start on your holiday shopping before Black Friday.

Vendors from across the state will be selling must-haves such as stained glass, pottery, custom jewelry, accessories, children’s toys and more at the Columbia Expo Center. While you’re there, enjoy

Sugarwitch Halloween Pop-up at Fretboard Join in on the trick-or-treating no matter your age. Sugarwitch Ice Cream Sandwiches and Fretboard Coffee are hosting a pop-up event where you can enjoy some super witchy ice-cream ‘wiches. Oct. 31, 4–6 p.m., Fretboard Coffee, $5, ice-cream sandwiches, 227-2233 Sip + Soup Tour the Missouri River Wine Trail while tasting some hearty soup along the way. Sip + Soup includes seven wineries along the Big Muddy; Les Bourgeois is closest to CoMo. Nov. 2–3, noon–6 p.m., Les Bourgeois Vineyards, $20, two-day general admission; $10, designated driver, 698-3012 A Meal with Mom This Back 2 Basics Cooking class gives you the chance to cook with your kids outside of your home kitchen. Ham and cheese roll-ups, roasted green beans and bacon are all on the menu. For dessert?

S’mores sushi. Find out about the marshmallowy sushi hybrid at the event. Gluten- and dairy- allergy options can be requested. Nov. 10, 2:30–4:45 p.m., Back 2 Basics Cooking, $60, 268-2248

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CAL E NDAR

Thanksgiving Buffet With 10 possible entrees, seven available appetizers, six options for children, four dessert choices and a salad bar, this buffet could feed the entire Mayflower crew itself.

If you don’t want to cook anything on Nov. 28, this Thanksgiving meal might be for you. Nov. 28, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Holiday Inn Executive Center, $32.95; $27.95, seniors; $11.95, kids 5–12; free, kids 4 and under, 445-8531

triggers and vocal effects. The title track is a dancy-pop tune, while “Turn Tears into Rain” slows things down; it’s ethereal and delicate. Nov. 8, 9 p.m., Cafe Berlin, $5, 441-0400 SoDown Ehren River Wright brings his own flair to the world of electronic music. The DJ and saxophonist will be performing as part of his Trilogy Tour. Electro artists Megan Hamilton and Since Juleye will open. Nov. 8, 9 p.m., Rose Music Hall, $10, advance; $12, day of, 874-1944

MUSIC

The Marcus King Band The fourth-generation musician is stopping in CoMo and bringing his Southern style with him. Aaron Lee Tasjan opens. Nov. 2, 8 p.m., The Blue Note, $15, general admission; $18, balcony, 874-1944 Cara Louise Band with The Cosmic Riders St. Louis-based pop-folk artist Cara Wegner is coming to Cafe Berlin to showcase her five-song EP, Fragile Heart, a mashup of 1960s sound and synthesizers, drum

DON’T MISS IT David Wax Museum

Husband-wife Americana duo David Wax and Suz Slezak are on tour with their latest album, Line of Light, a culmination of 12 years of making music together. Line of Light touches on current events and mental illness, which Slezak battled while finalizing the album. Nov. 17, 7 p.m., Rose Music Hall, $12, in advance; $15, day of, 874-1944

No Coast Nashville-based band No Coast blends electronic and pop songwriting with rock vocals. The indie-electronic group includes Columbia-native producer/songwriter Tate Gardner on keyboard. Before No Coast, check out Thames, a five-piece rock band from St. Louis. Nov. 10, 7 p.m., Rose Music Hall, $5, 874-1944 Josh Abbott Band The Josh Abbott Band prides itself on writ-

ing songs that tell authentic stories, and the boys are back at it again with their latest EP. A departure from the turbulent tales told on the band’s two first albums, Catching Fire is all about optimism and “personal renewal,” sans any sad or slow tracks. Nov. 14, 8 p.m., The Blue Note, $16.50, in advance; $18, day of, 874-1944 Presidio Brass Presidio Brass combines trumpet, tuba, trombone, euphonium, piano and percussion instruments to create its new-generation brass sound. Since forming in 2006, the group has released four recordings: Stolen Moments, Christmas Day, Sounds of the Cinema and its latest, Rhapsody in Brass, featuring popular American music with classical and jazz twists. Nov. 15, 7 p.m., Missouri Theatre, $28–38, children, 882-3781 Whole Lotta Love: Salute to Led Zeppelin Columbia-based blues rockers Mercury Trio will be accompanied by various guest singers, such as Brent Moore of the Many

210 Saint James Street 573-607-1740

One weekend only! An evening of original one-act plays by local authors; Kyle Beckedahl, Makayla Rodgers and Hartley Wright November 8 & 9 at 7:30 p.m.

November 10 at 2:00 p.m.

Purchase tickets at TalkingHorseProductions.org 36

VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

Photography by Anthony Mulcahy and Adam Vogler/Archive

C ALE N DAR

Colored Death and Rich Whalen of the Cherry Pistols, as they pay tribute to the legendary Led Zeppelin. Nov. 16, 9 p.m., The Blue Note, $6, 874-1944 Queer Anthems Concert & Social Night Reminisce and rock out as The Quorus: Columbia’s LGBTQQA–Z Community Choir performs hits from iconic artists. Enjoy dinner and mingling afterward. All proceeds will benefit the nonprofit choir. Nov. 17, 3 p.m., show; 4 p.m., dinner, Unity Center of Columbia, $10; $7, with a student ID; $5, kids 12 and under, 447-0414

SPORTS

Mizzou Women’s Basketball Season Opener It’s game time for the Mizzou women’s basketball team. For the first game of the season, Mizzou will face Western Illinois on Nov. 5. The men’s team will follow the next day against University of Incarnate Word. Nov. 5, 7 p.m., Mizzou Arena, $8–10, 882-6501 Annual Veterans Day Honor Walk and 5K Run Celebrate the military service of veterans at your own pace during this 5K at Stephens Lake Park. The money raised from the event will go to Truman VA Medical Research Foundation and help fund the TVAMRF Clinical Trial Program to improve the health and well-being of veterans. Nov. 9, 10 a.m., walk; 10:30 a.m., run, Stephens Lake Park, $25–100, 814-6555 Homeless Youth Awareness Month Dodgeball Tournament Come and test your dodgeball skills against other Columbians. Prizes will be awarded for first place. Don’t worry if you don’t make it to the top: Rewards will be given to the team with the best uniforms and best name. For ages 13 and up. Nov. 16, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Armory Sports Center, $75 per team, 817-5077 Turkey Trax Family 5K Get some exercise before Thanksgiving dinner with this beginner-friendly race supporting the American Red Cross of Central and Northern Missouri. The 3.1-mile run/walk is sponsored by Ultramax Sports.

The course covers downtown Columbia, and post-race cinnamon rolls will await you at the finish line. Nov. 28, 8:30 a.m., Seventh and Cherry streets., $30–40; $15, children, 445-2664

Tchaikovsky Holiday December 6 Friday 7pm 6:45pm Pre-Concert

Tchaikovsky Piano Trio & Holiday Songs

First Baptist Church, 1112 E Broadway in Columbia $20 /$10 Student | OdysseyMissouri.org | 573.825.0079

Celebrate in our banquet room at the berg!

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VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2019

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photo finish

Sweetie pies PHOTOGRAPHY BY PHU NGUYEN Freda Humphreys cuts homemade pumpkin pies during Thanksgiving dinner at her home last year. Her desserts are just a few of the estimated 50 million pumpkin pies eaten across the country each Thanksgiving. In honor of America’s hungriest holiday, we’ve rounded up some facts that are sure to impress at the dinner table: The average American loads up on as many as 4,500 calories throughout Thanksgiving Day — almost twice the daily recommended intake — with one slice of pumpkin pie coming in at 330 calories. That’s still fewer than the 500 that are packed into a single slice of pecan pie. The Guinness World Record for the largest pumpkin pie was set in 2010 in New Bremen, Ohio. The pie measured more than 20 feet in diameter and was made with more than 900 pounds of pumpkin, 440 sheets of pie crust dough and two pounds of pumpkin pie spice.

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SPONSORED

TIGERS ON THE PROWL IS THANKFUL TO THE COMMUNITY FOR YOUR SUPPORT SPONSORED BY TIGERS ON THE PROWL Tigers on the Prowl is thankful to the community members that have supported us since 2014. This year’s event, 2019, was no exception and we want to thank our Sponsors as well as the artists that created some of the most beautiful Tiger themed art work to benefit 5 local chairitiests.

Tigers on the Prowl started with one man’s vision, Chuck Crews. Chuck spent many hours starting up this 501 (c) 3 organization and continues to work effortlessly to help other non for profit agencies become successful in raising funds to help the families they serve. Chuck continues to grow the event Art by Marie Josee-Brown each year along with his Advisory Board members to make sure this event is great for all parties involved.

ARTISTS

Golden Girls and paticipants at Tigers on The Prowl Event

The Artists selected to be part of this event never cease to amaze the community with their creativity and willingness to support the charities selected each year! We look forward to 2020 and if you are interested in keeping up with Tigers on the Prowl, please take a minute and like us on Facebook, www.facebook. com/TigersontheProwl/

CHARITIES

Cheryl Campbell, Ashley Cooper, Richelle Douglas, Kate Gray, Kaye Gray-Manolov, Michael Henderson, Clayton Hicklin, Carrie Johnson, Lynnette Jones, Marie Josee-Brown, Jenny McGee, Phillip Peters, Jr., Amy Ruopp, Emmett Russell, Matt Scarborough, Lonnie Carlos Tapia, Kathy Unrath, and Justin LeTourneau

Rainbow House, City of Refuge, Lizzy’s Walk of Faith Foundation, Mary Lee Johnston Community Learning Center, and Lutheran Family & Children’s Services of Missouri

SPONSORS

Art by Justin LeTourneau

Joe Machens, Columbia Police Officer’s Association Lodge #26, McAlister’s Deli, 101.5 KPLA, Columbia Missourian, Q106.1, Level Up Entertainment, Silverball, Holiday Inn Executive Center, Hawthorn Bank, Columbia Mall, Cost Cutters, KT Diamond Jewelers, The Pinball Company, Cayce Dermatology Center & Medical Spa, and Big Tree Medical Home

A four-day celebration of art, music, and film, transforming downtown Columbia into a one-of-a-kind creative wonderland.

TRUE/FALSE film fest March 5–8, 2020 columbia, mo

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