St. Louis

I’ve known Celia for almost 14 years…she’s one of my oldest friends. We are like peanut butter and jelly: pretty different when we’re apart, but totally silly and fun when together. I can’t remember when she moved to St. Louis, but she’s been there long enough for me to have visited enough times to feel like St. Louis is another of my adopted hometowns. Celia is a big fan of what I’ll call “Midwesternism”… every time I visit, the Midwest is a theme throughout conversation.

St. Louis is second maybe only to Detroit as the poster child of the post-industrial American city. A special government division between St. Louis City and St. Louis County governments early in the 20th century exacerbated the race-poverty divisions here, and as a result there are entire areas of the city whose poverty has left them looking similar to war zones. That said, there are neighborhoods chock full of awesome brick houses that are practically free they’re so cheap. The outcome is that there is a really cool mix of creative folks all over the city who’d rather live free than tied to corporate consumerism.

This visit to St. Louis included numerous highlights. Here are some of my favorite times: seeing some really great people; a Tuesday-night show at Atomic Cowboy with Celia’s Big Rock Band, Firedog, and firespinning from Rebecca and crew; a photo session at Van’s house for Celia’s new cd “Transformateurs”; Midwest Mayhem rock-n-roll fundraiser at the amazing City Museum; various eateries around town including Jewish deli Kopperman’s and this great Middle Eastern place on the Delmar Loop. Photos below!