TCB > October 2004

Michael Allen and Claire Nowak-Boyd have a new blog that "chronicles changes in the built environments of American cities, with special emphasis on St. Louis and Chicago." It's a companion to the Ecology of Absence website, which examines the "biocultural geography of abandonment in Saint Louis and beyond." Sadly, they've had lots to write about lately.

Posted by Brian Marston on Sat., Oct 30, 2004 at 12:57 PM
Link & Discuss (1 comment) | Other

Signs on Kingshighway between 70 and Delmar:

Kerry: 100%
Bush: 0%

McCaskill: 100%
Blunt: 0%

No on Prop. A,B,C,D: 100%
Yes on Prop. A,B,C,D: 0%

Number of "Vote or Die" ads heard on 100.3 The Beat while driving from 70 to Delmar on Kingshighway: 3

Posted by Brian Marston on Fri., Oct 29, 2004 at 3:19 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | Other

More in the unending recent stream of NY Times coverage of the Lou: this, a mini-profile of Cards' announcer (and voice of the World Series) Joe Buck. Includes a sweet pic of him in his "Slam-a-lama-Ding-Dong" tee!

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Tue., Oct 26, 2004 at 11:25 AM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | People

Word on the street (okay, I don't know if you can call Brentwood Boulevard "da street") is that Baton Bob, that Ambassador of Mirth/Mayhem (depending on your pov), is back in the CWE, doing his Cardinals dance and shakin' that thang. Anyone know the story?

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Mon., Oct 25, 2004 at 3:49 PM
Link & Discuss (27 comments) | People

From Wired News:

Trip Down St. Louis' Rabbit Hole

Most museums are hushed, mannered places. Not in St. Louis, where visitors to the City Museum are invited to get physical in a convoluted maze of monkey bars, shadowy burrows and gushing waterfalls. By Michelle Delio.

The story includes lots of photos. Best quote:

Incidents like that made us mournful that a museum like this will never be built in our home town of New York City. As much as the city likes to pride itself on being the cultural capital of the world, lawyers and insurance agents would descend on any museum that dared to scare, scrape and bruise its visitors in the name of art.

Posted by Brian Marston on Mon., Oct 25, 2004 at 2:46 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | STL in the News

There's a new website in town: STLSyndicate.com.

The STL Syndicate is a loose affiliation of blogs about St. Louis written by interesting people in the know. It's a new way of reporting and distributing information that delivers frequently updated content to twitchy news junkies hitting Refresh. Recent headlines from individual sites in the syndicate are pulled together on the umbrella site (STLSyndicate.com) using a file format called RSS (Really Simple Syndication), giving you one place to go to for all the latest St. Louis news before it hits other media outlets. You can take part in the conversation by posting comments on syndicate members' blogs. If you'd like your own blog and you think you've got the chops to be a member of the STL Syndicate, contact kingpin@stlsyndicate.com. Viva local nanopublishing!

Posted by Brian Marston on Fri., Oct 22, 2004 at 1:51 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | The Commonspace

The Century Building is in the process of being demolished. The wrecking ball began swinging downtown at 9th and Olive at about 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Simultaneously, there was a hearing for a temporary restraining order to halt the demolition. That restraining order was denied by Judge Fleissig on Thursday.

Some words that come to mind to describe this turn of events: sad, disheartening, frustrating, maddening, stupid, unnecessary, unjustifiable, cronyism, corrupt, travesty, wrong. One word that does not come to mind: progress.

This photo is from KWMU. See the story on their site by Tom Weber for more photos.

Posted by Brian Marston on Fri., Oct 22, 2004 at 1:31 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | Other

It all comes home to roost today at 3, but for those who need a little somethin' somethin' to tide them over 'til game time...the NY Times profiles La Russa today. I must admit, I didn't know he homeschooled his kids.

Go Cards!

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Wed., Oct 20, 2004 at 9:55 AM
Link & Discuss (2 comments) | STL in the News

The Urban Knitters are all atwitter about Knitorious, St. Louis' new knitting and stitching store. Coincidentally, Knitorious occupies a location in the Clifton Heights neighborhood (6136 Southwest Ave) that was on the short list of spaces that The Commonspace considered moving into for its physical incarnation.

Posted by Brian Marston on Fri., Oct 15, 2004 at 1:28 PM
Link & Discuss (3 comments) | Business District

Best quote about this week's RFT cover: "It's driving up sales of magnifying glasses." (Dave Drebes)

People I think I recognize are Carrie Zukoski, Renee Duenow, Lyndsey Scott and maybe Mary Ann Russum. You go, girls!

For those of you who only pick up the RFT for the pictures, the cover is publicizing an event called Peace Out!

I wonder if the RFT would ever do the same cover with guys.

Posted by Brian Marston on Fri., Oct 15, 2004 at 12:36 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | The Media

Maybe because it's Friday, maybe because I'm giddy still with all my newfound free time (RIP and RIP again, The physical Commonspace), but a typo in the online version of this story just made me laugh.

"Teachers reported some parents believed the child must be in trouble and that's why the teach had come."

A bit colloquial, no? I bet the kids on "Welcome Back, Kotter" would be equally suspicious of the teach.

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Fri., Oct 15, 2004 at 10:54 AM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | The Media

One wonders if the headache ball has a now-inevitable date with the Century building: Charlene Prost says we'll see movement by the end of this week.

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Thu., Oct 14, 2004 at 10:35 AM
Link & Discuss (1 comment) | Business District

God love Bob Cassilly; have we given him a key to the city yet? His lofts at City Museum make the NYT.

Choice quote:
"And although Mr. Cassilly knows that there are people who would rather not live amid recycled machine parts next to a gigantic jungle gym, he has some trouble relating. Last year, after living in downtown St. Louis most of his life, he moved to Clayton, a suburb, so his children could attend the town's well-regarded schools.

But he did not last long. "I couldn't stand it out there," he said."

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Wed., Oct 6, 2004 at 3:39 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | STL in the News

We at The Commonspace are big fans of the haiku, so it was with great glee that we received the announcement for a new book entitled "St. Lou Haiku" that features fun poems about the Gateway City penned by Mary Elizabeth Ladd and Julie Wiskirchen. Get your copy today from Timberline Press for only $10 (+$2 shipping).

Posted by Brian Marston on Wed., Oct 6, 2004 at 12:56 AM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | Fun Links

Thank you to Sarah and Max Rodhouse, Christina Meneses, and especially Matt Brinkmann and Ben Keep for helping us load all the stuff worth keeping from our public living room into a diesel-burning U-Haul of Death last Thursday and unload it on the other ends. In classic Commonspace form, just as we were trying to figure out what to do with the stuff we didn't want (the majority of stuff in the room), a guy wandered in, asked if we were getting rid of everything and made an urgent call to some friends ("You need to get here, now! Why are you still talking to me?") who showed up with a truck and cleaned the place out in less than 15 minutes. It was a fitting end — things have a weird way of working out if you're open to the opportunities. I'm gonna miss that place, but I'm looking forward to what comes next.

Posted by Brian Marston on Wed., Oct 6, 2004 at 12:40 AM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | The Commonspace

For all those slathering fans out there (and you know who you are), an update from the plate-glass window of the soon-to-be Trader Joe's in Brentwood (formerly Zany Brainy): grand opening is set for October 29. One wonders, is Whole Foods shaking in its pricey boots?

I think you should all start camping out now. Who's bringing the Two-Buck Chuck?

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Tue., Oct 5, 2004 at 5:45 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | Business District

Well, finally. Sure, we're fat and crime-ridden (leading to DJ Wilson's suggested CVB slogan, "St. Louis: Fat, Sassy and Lethal"), but we got up some learnin', too! In the U of Wisconsin's Most Literate Cities rankings, the Lou comes in a respectable No. 13 (out of 79).

Of course, the place we found this tidbit, the St. Louis Public Library's "Check It Out!" newsletter, had the URL of the study wrong...but we figure that's just a typo, not indicative of something greater.

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Tue., Oct 5, 2004 at 4:08 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | STL in the News

The Bottle District is set to open just north of the Edward Jones Dome in 2006. For now, you'll have to be content to visit it online at its new website. The seven-block entertainment, retail, dining and residential development is being spearheaded by Dan McGuire of McGuire Moving & Storage, and Joe Edwards.

Posted by Brian Marston on Tue., Oct 5, 2004 at 3:06 PM
Link & Discuss (1 comment) | Business District

According to a reliable source, Wild Oats is asking people in the checkout line for their zip codes and phone numbers to determine where to put their second store in the St. Louis region. The survey started on September 28, and will conclude around October 12. If you'd like to have a Wild Oats grocery store (or, as their marketing department prefers to call it, a "natural marketplace") in the city, you know what to do: stop by the store at 8823 Ladue Road, and let them know that people who live in the city like nice things (like unbelievably expensive produce), too.

Posted by Brian Marston on Tue., Oct 5, 2004 at 2:49 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | Business District

OK, I'm a little late posting this, but I want to give ArchPundit a shout out for winning a nod in the RFT's Best of St. Louis issue. Last month, AP sucked up almost 11 GB of bandwidth on the server; world domination cannot be far behind. For the St. Louis content, head over to Blog St. Louis at bsl.archpundit.com.

I'd also like to give props to the RFT for giving out one of the weirdest door gifts I've ever seen at their awards party: lavender FM radios shaped like mountaineering carabiners with earbud headphones and tiny, built-in compasses.

Posted by Brian Marston on Tue., Oct 5, 2004 at 1:55 PM
Link & Discuss (3 comments) | The Media

A new blog chronicling life with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra is up and running. The commentary will be dished out by SLSO staffer Eddie Silva, formerly of the RFT.

It's nice to see that even though they play old-school music, the symphony is down with this new-fangled web thing, thanks largely to the efforts of Dale Fisher, the Associate Director of Marketing.

Posted by Brian Marston on Tue., Oct 5, 2004 at 1:28 PM
Link & Discuss (1 comment) | The Media