TCB > October 2006

(warning: some salty language follows)

Can't remember how I first came across this gem of a local publication, but I have in my possession a copy of the June 1992 edition of "Venice Views," evidently put out by the good folks at Venice Café. In particular, this unsigned editorial column (reprinted here verbatim) provides edifying reading for a Friday in October, 2006.
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"TOURISTS INVADE ST. LOUIS?

Wow, can you imagine it? People walking the streets of St. Louis? Have you ever been to New Orleans? What in the hell does St. Louis have to offer the weekend visitor (besides Venice Café)?

Try to picture this, street musicians playing on the corners of the Landing, the football game just let out, the Admiral is readying herself for a gambling adventure cruise, and sixty seven percent of the people you see are from another city spending their hard earned money, here in St. Louis, on their weekend fling.

The riverfront would be a whole new world! We got to get these fucks out of control. We need to legalize a lot of things that should have never been illegal. No music taxes, legalize prostitution, gambling, bring talent to the streets, light up this damn town.

I do believe we have a chance. Ashcroft has got to go. Bring on Vince. We have a good chance of getting a football team back, and it is up to us to vote for our Mayor and to legalize riverboat gambling on our side of the gateway. To get street entertainment legal, I guess I'm not sure how to go about that, and the hookers...they'll always be here.

Damn! This really frustrates me, but don't you think if there was more to do, more ways to vent ones self through creative outlets, there may be less anger in this city? Kids and adults making money from wealthy tourist as they entertain them from the streets while awaiting to aboard the next gambling cruise, as apposed to selling crack to unfortunate soles on welfare?

Hells bells! Bungee jump the arch. St. Louis is one of the most historic places in our country, so why are we still living with historic laws? Actually the old laws were probably better, who knows, all I know is that we have to change them and the only way for us to do that is to lobby and VOTE.

St. Louis doesn't have to be a hell hole, I really can picture a brighter future for this city...can you?"

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Fri., Oct 27, 2006 at 10:45 AM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | Business District

Because you probably still can find five extra minutes in your "work"day when you really should be posting to online forums...we point you to St. Louie Louie, currently dominated by men-about-town Bill Streeter and Kopper, and where surely many of the categories are just crying out for your wisdom.

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Mon., Oct 16, 2006 at 4:48 PM
Link & Discuss (1 comment) | Fun Links

Oh, it'd be a long list, I'm sure, were I to try to sleuth out all the YouTube videos with local connections. (Besides, I'm at home and on my own time now: that's what workdays are made for!)

Instead, I'll just entice you with this, the first foray onto YouTube by STL's very own NonProphet Theater Company, a sketch entitled "Urinal Cake Walk" from their very funny Militant Propaganda Bingo Machine sketch show, which, as it happens, has a performance with a twist later this month.

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Tue., Oct 10, 2006 at 9:52 PM
Link & Discuss (2 comments) | Fun Links

And not just here, but in other places, too! Places like Boston, Minneapolis, Phoenix (yes, that Phoenix!) and Seattle...check out what the writer-types in those and our own fair city have to say, poetically speaking, at the first edition of the new poetry site LOCUSPOINT. You can enjoy local contributions from Richard Newman, John Ryan, Shane Signorino, Aaron Belz, Erin Bertram and fellow Syndicate blogger Stefene Russell (who is, in fact, Steftastic.) Up next, hmmmmm....Chicago! Oh, well, enjoy eating our dust. (Ah, it's all in good fun, kids.)

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Tue., Oct 10, 2006 at 3:02 PM
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As first announced on "The Wire" tonight, G-Wiz and Needles are taking it to the airwaves on KDHX 88.1 FM with a new show called "Time's Up" starting next week. It will be broadcast on Mondays after "The Wire" from 8-10 p.m., in the slot formerly occupied by Kopper's "Wayback Machine" for more than a decade. Hip hop hooray!

Moment by moment, day by day
The world is just slipping away
Your future won't save your past
The time is now, it won't last
The time is nigh
Time to do or die

— "Time's Up," Living Colour

Posted by Brian Marston on Mon., Oct 9, 2006 at 9:54 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | The Media

I'm late in blogging this, but the last broadcast of The Science from Blueberry Hill was Friday, September 29. The weekly KDHX hip-hop show was broadcast from a live event since mid-1998. You'll still be able to catch it on 88.1 FM on Friday nights.

I first got in contact with the local bboy scene through The Science. The last few times I attended the event, the turnout was sparse, but I was hoping it would pick up with the fall return of Wash U students.

The Science website hasn't been updated since June 2005. The last post to their forums was on March 3 of this year.

Blueberry Hill's calendar looks a lot more open without a regular Friday night event.

Posted by Brian Marston on Mon., Oct 9, 2006 at 11:32 AM
Link & Discuss (1 comment) | The Media

A couple of reviews of City of Gabriels: The History of Jazz in St. Louis, 1895-1973 by Dennis Owsley from around the blogosphere:

J.B. Spins
Mirror On America

Posted by Brian Marston on Mon., Oct 9, 2006 at 10:36 AM
Link & Discuss (1 comment) | The Media

On June 17, 1946, the first mobile telephone call was placed by a driver in St. Louis. Within a couple of years, wireless phone service was available in almost 100 cities and highway corridors. It wasn't exactly RAZR technology, though; the equipment weighed 80 pounds and only three subscribers could make calls at one time in any city. Sixty years later, I still don't have a cellphone.

Posted by Brian Marston on Mon., Oct 9, 2006 at 9:28 AM
Link & Discuss (1 comment) | Other

The Chicago Tribune ran an interesting video about the underground dance scene up north. It includes a mention of the chickenhead, St. Louis' own variation on the two-step. I wish STLtoday would publish cool multimedia content like this.

Posted by Brian Marston on Wed., Oct 4, 2006 at 7:54 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | Fun Links

An article in the Post-Dispatch about the cooling housing market notes that the largest increase in home values in the St. Louis region from 2000 to 2005 occurred in the city, where the median home price rose 43.5 percent.

In related news, Jason McClelland and Maddie Earnest have made an accepted offer on the house next door to The Commonspace World Headquarters, which in turn is next door to Tower Grove Farmers' Market World Headquarters. Now they just need to sell their super-cute house in desirable Holly Hills. It's priced to move at $184,900, so if you know anyone who's in the market to buy, send 'em their way.

Posted by Brian Marston on Wed., Oct 4, 2006 at 10:18 AM
Link & Discuss (1 comment) | Other