TCB > August 2005

Doing a bit of research for an article upcoming in the next issue of The Commonspace.org (yes! it lives, people!), ran across the blog for StillSpeaking.org. The "Still Speaking" movement is big in the United Church of Christ denomination right now, and St. Louis' own Bryan Q. Newcomb (whose byline has appeared in the Post and RFT, among others) is the blogger in question, who explores the "intersection of music, pop culture and spirituality."

And that is why the UCC is the kinda church this backslidden Southern Baptist could get with...were she to get with a church.

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Tue., Aug 30, 2005 at 11:15 PM
Link & Discuss (1 comment) | People

GrandCenter.org has been defaced by the Dark Owned Mafia (D.O.M.) crew.

Posted by Brian Marston on Fri., Aug 26, 2005 at 10:40 AM
Link & Discuss (2 comments) | Other

Hey, the Saint Louis Art Museum got hip and retooled its formerly kinda ugly web site! Check out the new one, cleaner and more visually pleasing (as befits an institution devoted to, you know, art.) It's a full-on overhaul, from a design standpoint at least, not just one of those redo jobs of the front page. Good for you, SLAM.

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Wed., Aug 24, 2005 at 7:55 PM
Link & Discuss (2 comments) | Other

Buzz Bissinger, who penned "3 Nights in August" about being inside the head (but not in a being-John-Malkovich kinda way) of Cards manager Tony LaRussa, discusses the book right now on the Diane Rehm show on KWMU.

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Wed., Aug 24, 2005 at 10:10 AM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | STL in the News

As promised a while ago, the CBS Sunday Morning program (with the most soothing host on television, Charles Osgood) aired a segment this morning about the demolition of historic buildings and whose priorities prevail in situations pitting preservationists against developers (though we all know those divisions are artificially black-and-white). Downtown leaders Margie Newman and Alan Brunettin spoke out about the loss of the historic building, with many of Alan's still and moving images providing backdrop for the story. On the other side, Steve Stogel and Mark Schnuck talked about the "ripple effect" that will be achieved by the renovation of the Old Post Office. We shall see.

Interestingly, the reason given for the demolition -- the demand of anchor tenants Missouri Court of Appeals and Webster University for adjacent parking -- was not explored, though I suppose that's another show entirely: "How Long Will We Allow 'Development' Centered Around Americans Who Won't Walk Their Lazy Asses Two Blocks?

And this tidbit (though only the first part of the quote was aired) from the National Trust's Richard Moe: "Regrettably, we lost the Century. We fought hard for it, with the city, with the developer, with the tenants of the building, and we lost the argument."

Now, refresh my memory: which part was the fighting hard part? Was it when the National Trust endorsed the demolition of the Century, or when it acquiesced to historic tax credits to do so?

Lesson of the story, from all the examples aired = people, get ready. These fights are just getting started.

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Sun., Aug 21, 2005 at 8:31 AM
Link & Discuss (1 comment) | STL in the News

Tin Can Tavern (3157 Morganford in Tower Grove South) has added a 42" plasma TV to show NFL Sunday Ticket. They've also concocted a new menu item dubbed the Bibby Burger, which is a burger stuffed into a pastry shell with cheese and other toppings then deep fried. I can feel my arteries clogging just typing that.

Tin Can has live music Thursday through Sunday. When hockey season rolls around, they're going to be giving away a pair of Blues tickets every Tuesday night.

Posted by Brian Marston on Sat., Aug 20, 2005 at 10:26 PM
Link & Discuss (2 comments) | Business District

There's a glowing article about Nicholas Gates (AKA bboy Nick Fury) in West County's Citizen Journal. Nick was a contestant on Fox's new reality show, "So You Think You Can Dance?".

You can see him doing his thing on the world-famous Commonspace linoleum in this clip of one of last year's Jammin' at the Zoo parties. He's the one dressed all in black.

Posted by Brian Marston on Thu., Aug 18, 2005 at 1:29 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | People

In the interest of blatant self-promotion, here are some St. Louis-based sites hosted by fatdays.com:

25thward.com
52ndcity.com
archcitychronicle.com
archpundit.com
barnstormdesigns.com
beckwith.com
bitchwall.com
diatriber.com
downtowndefensefund.com
freecandy.net
hamietbluiett.com (New!)
historichomesstl.com
millerbarge.com
prettywar.com
stevesthoughts.com
stlalamode.com
stlforrent.com
stlsyndicate.com
stlwizkids.org
thecommonspace.org
theshangriladiner.com (New!)
udf-stl.com
urbanreviewstl.com

Posted by Brian Marston on Tue., Aug 16, 2005 at 12:27 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | Fun Links

From the bottom of Big Muddy, the Montana (sunk 120 years ago) rises again.

Interesting tidbit about the safety level: "By 1860, more than 700 steamboats regularly traveled the Mississippi...The life expectancy of the boats was not long — about 18 months, Dasovich said. Downed trees and other river debris, ice, fire and explosions tended to do in the wooden boats."

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Tue., Aug 16, 2005 at 11:20 AM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | STL in the News

We all know the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra's putting its eggs in the "different with David Robinson" basket—will it be enough to pull us into the Grand Orchestral Tier? (At least according to this LA Times piece, here's an area where Chicago's not leaving us whimpering in the dust...)

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Mon., Aug 15, 2005 at 3:53 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | STL in the News

Ameren's website has a neat page that displays real-time information about the number of outages and customers by zip code. As I type this, 96,600 customers are without power. Of course, if your power is out, you can't check the website. D'oh!

Posted by Brian Marston on Sun., Aug 14, 2005 at 8:10 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | Fun Links

Thoughts from Mena Trott, co-founder of Six Apart, on the effects of the Internet on daily life and gender differences (women bloggers "don't need to be so loud") in blogging...along with her own interest in knitting blogs.

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Thu., Aug 11, 2005 at 4:50 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | The Media

Surely the City of St. Louis and the DESCO/Stogels of the world will be the first to bring this concept stateside! (Of course, like "The Office" and "Whose Line Is It Anyway?", it'll suffer in translation...)

Git 'er down!

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Thu., Aug 11, 2005 at 1:43 PM
Link & Discuss (2 comments) | Fun Links

Over publicity lunch at Clayton's Finale, happily seated with our good friends from Playback STL magazine, we heard that Playback will be taking it to the next level, a.k.a. moving out of the spare bedroom, and has been welcomed into the fold at the midtown campus of the St. Louis Enterprise Center, pending finding some business financing.

So it's onward and upward for one of our favorite St. Louis-based publications, and we wish them much success. Just one of the handful of ventures out there putting the Lou on the the national-consciousness map...

Now, what's the SLEC's policy on office pets?

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Wed., Aug 10, 2005 at 12:46 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | The Media

To: Larry Salci, President and CEO of Metro
From: Brian Marston, Transit Consultant Consultant
Re: Do you believe in your product?

Why don't you ditch your turbo Audi A6 and $400-a-month vehicle allowance (as if you need it when you have a $225,000 salary) and take the bus? You can pass the cost savings on to me.

[See the cover story of this week's RFT for the background.]

Posted by Brian Marston on Tue., Aug 9, 2005 at 12:52 AM
Link & Discuss (5 comments) | People

Our congratulations to Heather Dallape and Theodore Moll (the permanent core of time-space traveling band Bagheera), who are anticipating an addition to their family early next year. Because expectant moms can only rock and roll so long, their show this Friday at Creepy Crawl will be their last for a while.

And we bet that kid is gonna rock!

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Sun., Aug 7, 2005 at 6:50 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | People

Check out this video of Mix Master Mike of Beastie Boys fame on the wheels and local boy Peat Wollaeger on the paint cans. It all went down at the unbelievably loud Pop's. Amanda and I were there, but we didn't have the Cool Kid Card to gain admittance to the balcony to watch Peat paint. I think you had to smoke an entire pack of Camels on the spot to get one.

Posted by Brian Marston on Fri., Aug 5, 2005 at 12:42 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | Fun Links

Some sample lyrics from "Laduesier" on Jessie Irwin's new CD, "Hair of the Dog":

You're rich and you're bright and you're pasty and white
You've got what it takes to succeed
You like cheeses and wine, and you're real good at buyin'
Lots of shit that you don't really need
And you live in a house for a family of ten
But you've got a family of two
You're a Laduesier, Laduesier - a hoosier that lives in Ladue

You can listen to a snippet of the song here.

To add to Jesse's indie cred, all of the photos on his site were taken by Bob Reuter, who was laying down a phat set at The Royale last night.

Posted by Brian Marston on Tue., Aug 2, 2005 at 9:31 PM
Link & Discuss (1 comment) | People

Welcome the newest member of the STL Syndicate: 52nd City, a blog about local pop culture by Thomas Crone, Stefene Russell and Andrea Avery. They'll cover such topics as Arts & Artists, Digital & New Media, Film & TV, Food & Drink, Galleries & Museums, Music & Recordings, Photography & Video, Poetry & Literature and Theatre & Improv. "52nd City" refers to St. Louis' rank among U.S. cities based on population.

Look for more good things to come from 52nd City, starting with a trivia night on August 26 at Mad Art Gallery.

Posted by Brian Marston on Tue., Aug 2, 2005 at 1:46 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | The Media