Riverfront Times, April 7, 2021 by Riverfront Times

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APRIL 7-13, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

APRIL 7-13, 2021

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

MARCH 6-12, 2019

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APRIL 7-13, 2021

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THE LEDE

“ When people come through here, they’re surprised at the style of food that we give, the quality. I had a teacher come through today, and she said, ‘I’m a teacher, and my kids ask me every week: “Mom, you go to the giveaway? You go to the giveaway?”’ So even her, as a teacher that’s working, this food is still helping her and she wants to come feed her kids. ... I am a single parent, but I’ve been a single parent with limited funds. ... So I know what it is to struggle and you can’t feed your family. ... That’s why I give them the food that I eat. I eat everything on this table. If I don’t eat it, I don’t give it to them.”

PHOTO BY THEO WELLING

Tami WalTon direcTor/presidenT of The sos Kids sT. louis aT hazelWood school on friday, march 19 riverfronttimes.com

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Quarantine U

hen Saint Louis University reopened its campus for the fall semester, university officials knew some students would get sick. They turned a SLU-owned hotel and dorms into quarantine housing, but multiple students who spent two-week stints in isolation told the Riverfront Times’ Riley Mack that poor execution led to nightmarish conditions. In some cases, SLU forgot to send promised meals for days, according to the students. Among those who got sick were resident advisors — students who say they were tasked with controlling the behavior of fellow students in the dorms, and then blamed when the virus spread in campus housing. Riley’s piece, our cover story this week, is an eye-opening look at how COVID-19 played out on campus and the many missteps along the way. — Doyle Murphy, editor in chief

TABLE OF CONTENTS Publisher Chris Keating Editor in Chief Doyle Murphy

E D I T O R I A L Digital Editor Jaime Lees Interim Managing Editor Daniel Hill Staff Writer Danny Wicentowski Contributors Cheryl Baehr, Eric Berger, Jeannette Cooperman, Thomas Crone, Mike Fitzgerald, Andy Paulissen, Justin Poole, Theo Welling, Ymani Wince Columnist Ray Hartmann Editorial Interns Jack Killeen, Riley Mack A R T

& P R O D U C T I O N Art Director Evan Sult Editorial Layout Haimanti Germain, Evan Sult Production Manager Haimanti Germain M U L T I M E D I A A D V E R T I S I N G Advertising Director Colin Bell Account Managers Emily Fear, Jennifer Samuel Multimedia Account Executive Chuck Healy, Jackie Mundy Digital Sales Manager Chad Beck Director of Public Relations Brittany Forrest

COVER ‘They Forgot About Me’ Inside a quarantine nightmare at Saint Louis University

E U C L I D M E D I A G R O U P Chief Executive Officer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP of Digital Services Stacy Volhein www.euclidmediagroup.com

Cover photo by

RILEY MACK

N A T I O N A L A D V E R T I S I N G VMG Advertising 1-888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com

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HARTMANN Fountain of Euphemisms Ann Wagner sells her political soul, one tweet at a time BY RAY HARTMANN

ancy this. Congresswoman Ann Wagner has suddenly discovered the value of social media as a means of communicating with her constituents, and beyond. Wagner, our St. Louis County Republican voice in Congress, remained strangely silent on Twitter for the past four-plus years, coinciding with the rise and fall of dictator wannabe Donald Trump. Not a discouraging word about him can be found on Wagner’s Twitter feeds. Observing a cardinal rule of Trumpism, Wagner maintained loyal silence during the world’s four-year nightmare of the demagogue’s viral venality. Either Wagner had no comment or has since deleted any tweets she might have posted in response to even Trump’s most disgusting epithets. (Deletion arguably would be worse than silence, by the way.) Wagner tweeted nothing in response to Trump’s call for four congresswomen of color to return to their “home countries,” nor his unending sexist slurs about women, nor his congratulations to Chinese President Xi Jinping for becoming president for life, nor his siding with Russia’s Vladimir Putin over seventeen U.S. intelligence agencies on the world stage, nor Charlottesville, nor kids in cages, nor any of the rest. This small number of examples were put forth here because they fall so directly into the sweet spot of Wagner’s political essence. Wagner is nothing if not a selfproclaimed champion of victimized women and kids, a hard-liner on China and Russia, a pious crusader for morality in the name of religion. For her to have ignored these particular scandalous words and deeds — even from her own party’s president — sets some new standard for hypocrisy.

Were there any doubt that Wagner would have behaved differently had she not been groveling at Trump’s feet, she has wasted no time erasing it now that President Joe Biden is in office. On the very Twitter feeds previously limited to gooey photo ops and feel-good stories, Wagner has discovered the fountain of euphemisms. Please note the plural reference to Twitter feeds. While there’s some partisanship to Wagner’s official account — @RepAnnWagner — the congresswoman reserves her personal account for the finer selection of red meats. That would be @AnnLWagner. Both accounts are verified. Here is a sampling of Wagner tweets, just in the past few weeks, on Biden and issues of the day: “I was proud to stand with another conservative woman who, like me, was endorsed by President Trump. Congratulations to Rep. Julia B. Letlow on her great victory tonight. Tonight we can stop Biden’s socialist agenda, dangerous immigration policies and giveaways to China. Congrats, Julia!” “Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are not fooling the people of Missouri. We know exactly why they want to make DC a state - to pass their socialist agenda with all Dem votes.” “Thank you to @GroverNorquist and @SpeakerTimJones for hosting an important meeting in St. Charles County with grassroots leaders and opinion makers. We must stand together to protect our borders, our freedoms and our wallets from Joe Biden’s radical liberal agenda.” “This is just the first of many tax hikes from Joe Biden. The Democrats will not stop raising your taxes until the government controls it all.” “The Communist Chinese regime is committing genocide. When will the Biden Administration start holding them accountable?” “Joe Biden’s relationship with Communist China is deeply disturbing.” “Joe Biden has been weak on Communist China since day one. It’s an embarrassment.” “There is a crisis at our southern border and the only way we can stop it is by building the wall.” “The Squad is at it again - looking for anyway they can to incentivize illegal immigration. Ameri-

But the most telling tweets are the ones we haven’t seen from Wagner. can taxpayers shouldn’t give cash handouts to illegal immigrants. Period.” “11 years ago today, one of the worst pieces of legislation was signed - Obamacare. I support repealing Obamacare and will never stop fighting to stop socialized medicine. “The radical Left wants to cancel books, TV shows, toys and even the language we use like mother and father. We can’t let them.” There’s a lot to unpack here. Wagner has always been a country-club Republican — albeit with intense opposition to women’s reproductive freedom — so it’s hardly a surprise she would push back on the repeal of Trump cuts for the wealthy. Some of the nonsense about “socialized medicine” has been around a while, just like the newer straw-men inventions about Dr. Seuss. That’s to be expected from someone viewed as a conservative Republican. But almost overnight, Wagner has discovered Twitter as a place to traffic in the red-meat rhetoric far beyond what she would have said in more civilized times. Now she’s all about hurling irrational insults about radical socialism to describe the views of even center-left Democrats. Is returning to a top tax rate of 39.6 percent Marxism or Leninism? Even more egregious is the whole China thing. It’s not clear which Biden policies toward China are so offensive to her, but we certainly know what wasn’t offensive: Trump’s bromance with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Along with Trump’s aforementioned admiration of Xi’s becoming president for life, there were at least fifteen times early in the pandemic that Trump congratulated Xi for his handling of it. Trump didn’t lift a finger on behalf of the Uyghur Muslims or Hong Kong democracy protesters. Wagner never uttered a word about any of it. Just like so many Republicans who hated on Putin before they

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decided he was OK, Wagner parked her foreign-policy beliefs at the gates of Mar-a-Lago. But now Twitter has become the place to convene her own summit on the topic. And any pretense of civility is taboo. Still, the most telling tweets are the ones we haven’t seen from Wagner on the recent news regarding sex trafficking of women (at least not as of RFT press time). Sex trafficking has been Wagner’s signature issue — almost a singular issue in her career in Congress. It’s one of the few causes she has used social media to advance over the years, and she did so as recently as March 20. “I’m fighting to stop sex trafficking for my kids and yours. No child or family should ever endure this modern-day slavery.” Funny thing, though. In the past few days, news across the great ideological divide has been dominated by allegations that Wagner’s fellow Republican House member Rep. Matt Gaetz, of Florida, is under investigation by the Department of Justice for possible sex trafficking — among other rumored crimes — a probe started during the Trump administration. Wagner has said not one word. It’s truly unbelievable. One can only imagine her public rage were Gaetz a Democrat. And while Gaetz is certainly entitled to his presumption of innocence — and while many of us think any of his personal misbehavior pales next to the major role he played in the insurrection and attempted coup led by Trump — words cannot do justice to Wagner’s blatant hypocrisy here. So what do you think about a congressman being investigated for sex trafficking by the DOJ sitting on the House Judiciary Committee that oversees the DOJ? No harm, no foul? Sex trafficking not such a big deal anymore? Really? If one didn’t know better, one might think Wagner was thinking of running for Roy Blunt’s vacant Senate seat. Oh wait. She is. n Ray Hartmann founded the Riverfront Times in 1977. Contact him at rhar tmann1952@gmail.com or catch him on Donnybrook at 7 p.m. on Thursdays on the Nine Network and St. Louis In the Know with Ray Hartmann from 9 to 11 p.m. Monday thru Friday on KTRS (550 AM).

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NEWS

St. Louis Inmates Revolt — Again Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

or the second time in less than two months, inmates at the St. Louis City Justice Center took over portions of the jail and smashed windows to the outside world. On Sunday night, detainees first busted out the windows on the northwest corner of the third floor, facing City Hall. Some shouted, “We want court dates,” an ongoing complaint for those locked away during the pandemic while courts were shut down and cases were delayed. The inmates threw plastic stools and metal appliances out of the smashed windows and set small fires that burned atop a ledge two stories below. By 10:20 p.m., it appeared — from the outside, at least — that jail staff had regained control. Inmates left the windows and were replaced in the frames of broken glass by sheriff’s deputies dressed in heavy armor and helmets. Soon, handcuffed detainees could be seen being led away by law enforcement one at a time down a set of stairs. City firefighters standing on the street hosed down burning bedding and other debris that were still smoldering on the exterior ledge. For the next half hour, it was relatively quiet, occasionally interrupted by kids flinging rolls of toilet paper and scraps of metal and plastic back toward the jail windows. But just as the crowd started to thin out in the lead up to 11 p.m., the sound of glass shattering erupted from the southwest corner of the third floor. Within seconds, the opaque glass of three more windows had been bashed out by inmates with a scrap of lumber. The men flung a microwave out, and it slammed to the sidewalk where dozens of supporters cheered. At one point, men in the win-

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Inmates peer out of broken windows on the third floor of the St. Louis City Justice Center on Sunday night during the latest uprising. | DOYLE MURPHY dows lowered what appeared to be bed sheets tied together like a rope to a ledge below and tied it off on the window frame. But while some in the crowd called for them to climb down and others pleaded with them not to risk it, the rope was never used. Inmates began covering their mouths, and a whiff of some sort of chemical irritant wafted down to the street. The windows emptied shortly after, and jail staff appeared in the frames, untying the makeshift rope and hauling it back over the jagged edges of the broken glass. Inmates have been complaining for months about conditions at the jail and delayed court dates during the pandemic. On February 6, men on the fourth floor took over two units, smashing out windows on the east and west sides of the building. City officials categorized it as a spur-of-the-moment riot by violent opportunists who jumped in when an inmate got into a fight with a guard. But advocates for those locked up in the city’s two jails say there had been long-simmering tensions due to mistreatment and court delays. On average, city inmates spend nearly a year awaiting trial. February’s revolt also raised

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St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts watches from Tucker Boulevard in front of the jail. | DOYLE MURPHY questions about security at the City Justice Center, the newer and supposedly more secure of St. Louis’ two jails. (The older jail, the Medium Security Institution or “Workhouse,” had been slated to close by the end of 2020, but that has been delayed.) Director of Public Safety Jimmie Edwards told reporters at the time that inmates could undo the locks on cells and that it had been an ongoing prob-

lem. Edwards has since resigned, apparently anticipating being replaced when a new mayor takes office later this month. It wasn’t immediately clear how inmates again managed to take over two other parts of the jail on Sunday night. Jacob Long, spokesman for Mayor Lyda Krewson, released a statement early Monday morning saying there were “two violent and dangerous

disturbances” at the jail, beginning at about 8:30 p.m. “Detainees became noncompliant, covered security cameras, smashed windows, and destroyed property,” Long said, adding that the people at the jail are held on the orders of the courts. Sheriff Vernon Betts, whose deputies staff the jail, was on the street on Sunday night, watching the chaos unfold. As kids threw debris at the jail, he stepped into the crowd and shouted to them that they were on camera. That led to a heated exchange between Betts and others in the crowd about the jail conditions. The sheriff disputing that people were being mistreated. Krewson appointed a task force to investigate jail operations following February’s uprising. The group produced a report with recommendations, including establishing an independent oversight board. Advocates for the detainees say conditions at the jail remain a problem. ArchCity Defenders, a nonprofit public interest law firm, sued the city in federal court on behalf of a disabled inmate who reported that he spent 168 days without an accessible shower. Instead, he was given a wash basin and a rag, according to the suit. A judge granted him a temporary restraining order last month, demanding the city provide him with a wheelchair-accessible shower. As the latest uprising played out on Sunday night, ArchCity Defenders Executive Director Blake Strode tweeted his criticism of the system of mass incarceration and warned that some would use the latest revolt to argue the Workhouse should remain open. “I guess because when you have two disgusting, scandalous jails, neither one can survive on its own?” Strode tweeted. “If anything, this is yet another reflection of how this practice of mass caging has failed and continues to fail all of us. It’s more urgent than ever to close one of these two hellholes NOW and put that time, energy, and money to good use in our communities.” n

Five years in, the Civilian Oversight Board says police have yet to provide a single report from investigations of officer shootings. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI

No Oversight in Police Shootings St. Louis police investigate officers’ shootings — and never reveal results to Oversight Board Written by

CHAMPE BARTON, THE TRACE This story was published in partnership with The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in the U.S.

he St. Louis Civilian Oversight Board was founded in 2015 as a check on police power in the wake of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson. But despite more than 50 police shootings in St. Louis over the last five years, the city’s

police department hasn’t provided the board materials to review a single case. As a result, the oversight board has been unable to fulfill one of its most critical responsibilities, and the one that precipitated its founding: to prevent the department from mishandling investigations of police violence. “In five years’ time, we’ve got nothing,” said Kimberley Taylor-Riley, the board’s commissioner. The delay in concluding investigations, she continued, “has completely thwarted [the board’s] process.” The police department, in a written response, declined to offer an explanation for the delays, but said that “all the cases [the department has] reviewed have been turned over to the Circuit Attorney’s Office.” The Circuit Attorney’s Office did not reply to multiple requests for comment about the status of these reports. This week’s mayoral election has the potential to unstop the civilian review pipeline, according to activists interviewed for this story. Both of the women vying to succeed current Mayor Lyda Krewson — Alderwoman Cara Spencer and Treasurer Tishaura

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Jones — have promised ambitious criminal justice reforms. The winner of Tuesday’s contest will have the chance to appoint a new director of the Department of Public Safety, which oversees both the Civilian Oversight Board and the police department. John Chasnoff, who cofounded the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression, a local police-accountability nonprofit, said that new leadership “is more likely to make change than anything else.” He added that the mayor could help shepherd amendments to the Civilian Oversight Board’s founding ordinance through the Board of Aldermen. He and other activists in the city have argued that housing the Civilian Oversight Board and the police department under the same city agency creates conflicts of interest. In response to questions about how she will address the city’s civilian review process, a spokesperson for Spencer’s campaign shared a press release detailing her police reform plan. The plan does not specifically address the delayed police-shooting investigations but notes that the city’s

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civilian review process “will be reviewed for further actions and increased accountability and effectiveness.” A spokesperson for Jones’ campaign said they were aware of the delays at the police department and said that all shootings involving the department “need to be investigated by independent teams of investigators.” They added that the department’s internalaffairs division has exploited a loophole in the ordinance that established the Civilian Oversight Board to avoid sharing hundreds of civilian complaints with the board. “With a Mayor and a Director of Public Safety dedicated to accountability and transparency, we can remedy this issue and give COB the power and resources to do their jobs,” the spokesperson said. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department leads the nation in killings by officers. An analysis conducted by ArchCity Defenders, a legal advocacy nonprofit, found that the department contributed to 18 deaths per million residents, roughly four times the rate of police killings in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles. The vast majority of these killings happen by gunfire. Since 2015, St. Louis police have fatally shot 27 residents — 22 of whom were Black — and injured many others, according to police shooting data from the Washington Post and Fatal Encounters. According to the department, St. Louis police opened investigations into 55 officer-involved shootings between 2015 and the end of 2020. The Civilian Oversight Board is supposed to provide a check on this violence. The seven-member board is composed of mayoral appointees who have been confirmed by the city’s Board of Aldermen. In addition to investigating civilian complaints and reviewing internal-affairs reports of officer misconduct, the board has a specific responsibility to review the police department’s internal investigations of officer-involved shootings. If it determines that an investigation was not conducted thoroughly, the board has legal authority to order police to gather additional evidence, or it can send an independent team of investigators to collect it. Once the board is satisfied with its findings, it can issue recommendations to the police chief about changes the department should make to prevent

The St. Louis Metro Police Department leads the nation in killings by officers. An analysis conducted by ArchCity Defenders found that the department contributed to 18 deaths per million residents, roughly four times the rate of police killings in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles. future shootings and can make its findings public so that community residents are aware of department misconduct. But a lengthy and convoluted internal review process — clogged by infighting between the police department and the city’s circuit attorney — has prevented the board from reviewing any shootings, leaving many city residents who’ve had loved ones killed or injured by police violence uncertain about whether officers had exhausted all necessary options before using force. “When the process isn’t transparent, it leaves a wound that will remain open because you don’t feel like everything was done fairly,” said Carlos Ball, the brother of Cary Ball, who was killed by St. Louis police in 2013. Cary had finished a shift in the laundry room of Mercy Hospital St. Louis and was driving a colleague home when police stopped his car. Cary fled on foot, and after a short pursuit, officers shot him 21 times. Officers claimed he had pointed a Glock pistol in their direction. But civilian witnesses disputed this characterization; at least one said Cary was tossing the gun away when police opened fire. The Civilian Oversight Board did not exist in 2013, and an FBI review of the department’s investigation into the shooting concluded that the officers involved were justified. But no agency outside of law enforcement had an opportunity to review the department’s investigation. Without civilian review, Carlos said, “it is a completely one-sided scale of justice.” The process the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department currently follows to investigate police shootings was a direct outgrowth of a community outcry for greater accountability following the killing of Michael Brown. In the months following Brown’s death, the department established a special division to investigate of-

ficer shootings called the Force Investigation Unit, and the Board of Aldermen agreed to create the Civilian Oversight Board so that internal investigations could be reviewed by an independent agency. The investigative process the department settled on, though, is — in Taylor-Riley’s words — “clear as mud.” Immediately after an officer shoots a civilian in the line of duty, the Force Investigation Unit responds to the scene to examine evidence and interview witnesses. It conducts an investigation to determine whether the officer acted criminally and then sends its findings to the Circuit Attorney’s Office so that the circuit attorney can decide whether to bring charges. If no criminal charges are filed, the Force Investigation Unit’s report is sent to the department’s internal-affairs division. Internalaffairs investigators then conduct their own investigation to determine whether the officer violated department protocols and send their findings to a congregation of high-ranking police officials within the department called the Deadly Force Tactical Review Board, which is charged with deciding whether the investigative findings warrant any changes to department procedure. Next, the Deadly Force Tactical Review Board’s recommendation is shared with the police chief. Only then would the findings collected throughout the process be shared with the Civilian Oversight Board for review. Taylor-Riley and others familiar with the process said that though the system is designed to incorporate many checks on the department’s conduct, it is failing to produce the transparency it was designed to provide. They pointed to the handoff between the Force Investigation Unit and the Circuit Attorney’s Office as

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the point where cases are getting hung up but were otherwise uncertain about what was causing the delays. In public back-and-forths, the agencies have traded broadsides about who is more to blame. The police have implied that the current circuit attorney, Kim Gardner, and her predecessors have dragged their feet about whether to file criminal charges in each case. Gardner’s office has countered that the reports provided to her office are often inadequate, telling the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2017 that the police department had intentionally withheld evidence in 25 then-pending police-shooting cases. Emanuel Powell, a lawyer at ArchCity Defenders, has seen some of the department’s internal investigative reports through his work representing clients in civil suits against St. Louis police over fatal shootings. He said the internal reports show clearly that officers are abiding by a “code of silence” about fellow officers’ possible misconduct. Heather Taylor, a former homicide detective for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and a spokesperson for the Ethical Society of Police, a group of current and former law enforcement employees dedicated to addressing racism at SLMPD, said that these allegations don’t surprise her. She repeatedly referred to the lethargy of the department’s investigative process as “intentional” — part of a broader desire by the department and the St. Louis Police Officers Association to undermine the goals of the Civilian Oversight Board. Both the department and the association, the union for officers, opposed the formation of the board when the bill was passing through the Board of Aldermen. “If you’re investigating yourselves, chances are there’s gonna be some bias, and in law enforcement, there’s gonna be a lot of bias,” Taylor said. Taylor, who retired from the force in 2020, noted that the Circuit Attorney’s Office also has a share of the blame and said that after the new police chief, John Hayden, completely replaced the staff of the Force Investigation Unit in 2018, the quality of its investigations improved. But, she added, “it’s just asinine that [the reports are taking so long to get to the Civilian Oversight Board]. It’s ineffective, and it hurts the relationship between the community and the police — they don’t trust us, and rightfully so.” n

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What the Verdict in Luther Hall Case Means for ‘Kettled’ Protesters Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

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he criminal trial against three St. Louis cops charged in the beating of a Black undercover detective ended last week in two acquittals and a deadlock, but it won’t be the last reckoning for the events of September 17, 2017. “It wasn’t a mixed verdict; it was a total win for the people who admitted to beating a Black police officer,” says attorney Javad Khazaeli, who sat through much of the trial during the past two weeks, a time in which he took a keen observation of the line of police officers called to testify about what they saw when their colleagues beat and arrested Luther Hall. Khazaeli’s interest in the case stems from an already two-year-old lawsuit filed on behalf of a dozen people also arrested on the night of September 17. Their arrests took place a few blocks away and hours later, when dozens of officers in body armor surrounded a mixed group of protesters and residents, forming a “kettle” at Washington Avenue and Tucker Boulevard. The tactic effectively trapped about 100 people in place — at which point the assembled officers closed ranks around them, arresting everyone in a spree of beatings and pepper spray. In 2019, Khazaeli’s firm, Khazaeli Wyrsch LLC, filed a class-action lawsuit against the city while naming nearly 350 officers who allegedly participated in the kettle operation. In an interview with the RFT at the time, Khazaeli noted that officers took “extraordinary measures” to hide their identities that night. Two years later, the lack of badges and name tags played to the defense’s favor in the federal trial of the officers charged with beating Hall: Attorneys for St. Louis cops Dustin Boone, Christopher Myers and Steven Korte each argued that while their clients were in the area of Hall’s beating, they were not the ones who committed the crime of deprivation of rights — suggesting that the true culprits were other, as-yetunidentified cops. To Khazaeli, the argument was absurd — he points to the video footage from Hall’s phone which captured Myers’ face just before the phone was turned off, in addition to the reams of text messages showing the officers’ attempts at damage control after the news broke of the beating. “What makes me so disheartened,” he says, “is for last two-and-half years, we have been sharing with the city of St. Louis, and the FBI, videos from two hours later where other officers are beating citizens, and in our videos, we have 100 per-

Det. Luther Hall was beaten by his fellow officers while undercover. | COURT EXHIBIT cent identified the officers.” And yet, to date, Hall’s is the only beating to result in charges against the officers. However, while the civil case is still winding its way through the legal system — Khazaeli blames Mayor Lyda Krewson’s administration for creating delays and “doing everything in their power to push the buck to the next mayor” — he says he came away from the Hall trial with some causes for confidence. For one thing, while the accused officers in Hall’s beating had the benefit of a lack of video evidence during a key stretch of the incident, the mass arrest later that night was heavily documented by those caught in the kettle. “In our case, we have piles of video evidence,” Khazaeli says. “It cost us tens of thousands of dollars, but we’ve identified almost every single officer on the scene, and most of the cops who have used force.” “Eventually,” he adds, “St. Louis taxpayers are going to refund that money.” That remains to be seen, though St. Louis has already paid out a reported $5 million settlement to Hall, who suffered long-term injuries to his back and pancreas as a result of the fists, sticks and boots crashing into his body. Similar brutality was described in more than a dozen lawsuits filed by people caught in the kettle that night, including allegations that officers targeted people with cameras and tried to destroy cellphones — just as Hall’s phone and camera had been smashed in his arrest. Also like Hall, the arrests cops made that night during the kettle did not turn into any actual criminal charges: While 123 people initially faced charges for “failure to disperse,” the city allowed the one-year deadline for the statute of limitations to pass without taking action. n

THE BIG MAD Turn the Radio Off Medicaid mendacity, lady Rush and a dream of a better April Fools’ Compiled by

DANIEL HILL

elcome back to the Big Mad, RFT’s weekly roundup of righteous rage! Because we know your time is short and your anger is white hot: MEDICAN’T: Republican Missouri lawmakers have apparently decided that a voter-approved amendment to the constitution doesn’t count if it doesn’t involve supplying guns to every white man, woman and child in the state, so they’re going to literally ignore the state constitution and reject billions upon billions of dollars of federal aid rather than provide access to basic health services for fellow citizens. Indeed, State Rep. Justin Hill, who was so incensed that Joe Biden won the presidency that he skipped his own swearing in to go to the January 6 rally at the U.S. Capitol, finally found a majority vote he could actually overturn. Hill helped rally his GOP colleagues to defund the Medicaid expansion that 53 percent of Missourians voted for in August. Hill, a condescending douchebag, rationalized subverting the will of voters by claiming they’d been tricked. “Even though my constituents voted for this lie, I’m going to protect them,” Hill said on the floor of the House. “I am proud to stand against the will of the people.” Yeah, thanks, but maybe your constituents were OK with people getting health care? SAME HOT AIR, NEW WINDBAG: St. Louis native and professional gun-humper Dana Loesch is moving on up in the fever swamps of right-wing talk radio after signing a three-year deal with Radio America that will see her poisonous and frankly exhausting ideas beamed into homes across 200 markets. The allegedly formerly liberal Loesch will see her show airing in the same time slot that used to play host to Rush Limbaugh, and naturally she is already pouncing on the opportunity to prove that she’s just as awful as that guy. “I do feel that I’m well-positioned to fill the void,” she tells Axios of her lady-Rush ambitions. “I’ve been in this slot for years, and if there’s any program positioned to do it, it’s mine.” On behalf of St. Louis, we’d like to offer our sincerest apologies to all those poor folks out there that will soon be forced to know Loesch exists, and especially to anyone unfortunate enough to hear her speak.

152-0, 169 YEARS LATE: On March 31, the Missouri House voted unanimously to “renounce” the 1852 legal atrocity that denied freedom to Dred Scott and his family. Today, the lawmakers’ act carries only symbolic significance, but the declaration is a reminder that it’s never too late to be furious at Missouri’s role in the case — and its distinction for inserting racism directly into the legal record. Writing for the majority on March 22, 1852, Missouri Supreme Court Justice William Scott ruled that the state was not bound by the abolitionist laws in other states; he described the introduction of slavery as “in the providences of God” and abolition movements as “a dark and fell spirit” that would, if successful, result in “the overthrow and destruction of our government.” Seven years later, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney picked up where Missouri left off, ruling that Black people were not U.S. citizens, but property, and therefore did not have standing to seek their own freedom. In 2017, after white supremacists carrying Confederate flags marched in Charlottesville, multiple Confederate memorials to Taney were taken down. Yet, the legacy of the racist judge lives on, not just in contemporary racists, but as the namesake of Missouri’s own Taney County, home of Branson. Yes, the laws have changed. The centuries have passed. But the symbols and names didn’t. Renouncing them isn’t cancel culture — it’s just the right thing to do, even if it is 169 years late. FOOL US, PLEASE! What is April Fools’ Day in a world turned upside down? It could have been perfect: When the clocks struck April 1, the curtains would lift on the vast array of movie sets as an army of turtleneck-wearing technicians disassembled the hospital wards into plywood sheets and stuffed the Donald Trump mannequin back in its shrinkwrap; then, entering from stage right, the still-living brain of Stanley Kubrick would be wheeled out and revealed as “Q.” The 550,000 deaths would be explained away as a complicated series of hoaxes — they were all unharmed and on cruises to Maui, you see — and all to pull off the single greatest April Fool’s joke ever produced. A delusional fantasy? Of course. But after the phantasmagorical hell-ride of the last year, there is a part of us, the unreasonable part, that held out hope for a flashy and irrational explanation to replace the dire reality. In a world of hard truths and scientific explanations, a tinfoil-hatwearing angel on our shoulder whispered of an Occam’s space laser. Instead, April Fools’ got the usual bland array of brands’ photoshopped “announcements” for implausible products — leaving us, the fools, to deal with reality once more. n

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Inside a quarantine nightmare at Saint Louis University BY RILEY MACK

n the last Sunday of Saint Louis University’s spring break, the parking lots should have been buzzing. Cars scrambling for parking spaces. Students running to greet friends. Suitcases rolling along West Pine Boulevard toward dorm rooms. Instead, campus was a silent, lifeless version of itself. Residence buildings were devoid of the typical frenzied cacophony of students. The Clocktower, normally a gathering spot in the warm spring weather, sat empty. The iconic campus fountain had been turned off. All across the country, universities were shutting down to avoid spreading the coronavirus, and now it was SLU’s turn. Students received an email on March 13 from university President Dr. Fred Pestello announcing the suspension of in-person classes through the end of the semester. Students who had scattered on March 9 for spring break were now learning that they wouldn’t be returning to normal college life any time soon. “It is apparent that life is changing and sacrifices are demanded of all of us. Rest assured that the team at SLU is keeping the best interests of our students, patients and employees at the center of our decision making,” Pestello’s email read. In the following weeks, students filtered in and out of campus to clear out their dorms, stacking boxes in their cars and sharing socially distant goodbyes as the residence buildings were closed with no firm date for when they would reopen. For the rest of the semester, students attended classes online. Instead of crowded lecture halls and late nights in the library, they video conferenced from off-campus housing or studied in their parents’ homes. Finally, on May 26, 2020, SLU’s

administration announced they would allow more than 11,000 students to return to the university for the fall semester. COVID-19 infections had continued to increase since the campus’ initial lockdown, but the university assured students they had plans in place for a safe return. In August, the wrought-iron gates of Saint Louis University creaked open for the school year once again, allowing a flood of students to move back to campus for an in-person fall semester. After five months away from campus, the atmosphere was warm with a socially distanced welcome. The administration moved swiftly to set up strict health protocols on campus. The plan included repurposing a university-owned hotel and dormitory buildings for quarantine housing to isolate students when some inevitably caught the virus. In theory, the students sent to quarantine housing would be provided top-notch care, including regular meal deliveries and copious support from the university. But that’s not how it played out, according to multiple students who endured two-week stays in isolation. In interviews, they describe spending long days alone

and neglected, with no one from the university checking on them or even bringing them food. “They just forgot about me,” a student who works for the university says about her on-campus stay in isolation. The issues with quarantine housing weren’t the only problems with the university’s response to the challenges of the pandemic. Resident advisors say SLU tasked them with enforcing COVID-19 rules in student housing with no formal training, leaving them to break up maskless parties and face dangerous conditions in person. In a plethora of emails from university administrators to the student body throughout the 20202021 school year, the messaging began to transform from upbeat to a more harsh, reprimanding tone. COVID-19 had continued to spread, and students say the university increasingly blamed them at a time when they were physically and mentally grappling with the effects of the pandemic. One email from early February, entitled “Breaking point or turning point?”, warned that SLU was “on the brink of implementing severe COVID-19 restrictions because some students, it appears, have just given up.” The email said that stu-

dents should have “no more beerpong parties,” among a list of other flagrant actions. The email continued: “Don’t spend Mardi Gras ‘day drinking’ instead of going to class. (Yes, we’ve heard about that plan.) You asked for more mental health days in the calendar, and February 17 is the first one. Use it as it was intended, not recovering from a day of partying,” wrote Debra Rudder Lohe, the interim vice president for student development at the time. “Come on. You know better,” Lohe added. Students say that while the administration was quick to send stern emails, the actual work of enforcing pandemic protocols often fell to the university’s lowest-paid staff. The pressure to bring case numbers down landed hardest on resident advisors in the campus’ residence halls, who were tasked with controlling sometimes noncompliant residents. In multiple cases, it was the RAs who fell sick. When they did, they were shipped off to quarantine housing. One RA who has worked for the university for two years detailed the dismal conditions of her stay at Grand Forest Apartments quarantine housing. The student, whom we’re calling Abigail, spoke on the condition of anonymity because she fears losing her job at the university. At one point, Abigail was randomly selected to be tested for COVID-19. Students living oncampus all have a chance to be chosen at random for testing, as part of a campus protocol to prevent spreading the virus. When the test came back positive, she was rushed into isolation housing at midnight, where she would stay for the next fourteen days.

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When she arrived at her temporary new home, she says, the bathroom door was locked and the bed, which was without sheets, was covered in unknown stains. Luckily, she says, she was given “a roll of toilet paper.” “Thank God for that,” she adds. Things didn’t improve from there. Abigail says she called the Student Health Center’s COVID-19 hotline to have the bathroom door opened, but they said they would have to check if that was feasible and call her back. When they did get back to her, they said someone could arrive in two hours to fix it. The situation had already become so dire that she had to break the door to use the bathroom. The following days played out in the same vein. Abigail says she was not fed for almost two days after her arrival. When meals finally arrived, it was food she explicitly stated she could not eat, as she has Coeliac’s disease and is lactose intolerant. She lived off of food dropped off by friends and some of the sides to the meals she was provided. Only in the last two days of her fourteen-day quarantine did they bring her food that met her dietary restrictions, she says. Even then, she says, it was inedible. “I like food and I eat anything,” Abigail explains, “but I would throw away all this food. It was gross.” She also faced bouts with her chronic back pain while in quarantine and called the hotline to ask for Tylenol. When the medication arrived, it was in packaging that she couldn’t open without scissors, which was not provided. “The first two nights I couldn’t stop crying,” Abigail recalls. “I was extremely depressed.” Each time she reached out for help from the Student Health Center, she says, the staff sounded “annoyed” and like “they don’t want to be there.” “When they just say ‘OK, we’ll try our best,’ and then nothing happens, you just give up,” she says. Abigail claims that this treatment from her employer was expected. When cases began to rise, SLU Housing and Residence Life turned to RAs to lead a crackdown on regulations inside dormitory buildings. She explained that she has felt unsafe in her job multiple

Saint Louis University converted Hotel Ignacio into quarantine housing in anticipation of students catching COVID-19. | RILEY MACK

Each time Abigail reached out for help from the Student Health Center, she says the staff sounded “annoyed” and like “they don’t want to be there.” “When they just say ‘OK, we’ll try our best,’ and then nothing happens, you just give up,” she says. times throughout the pandemic. “They expect us to go in and bust parties still when people aren’t masked,” she says. “It’s not safe for anybody in that situation.” Abigail works two jobs on top of being an RA in order to pay for college on her own. The university pays poorly, but she says she needs the secure housing that comes with the job. As is the case with all campus RAs, Abigail works twenty hours a week as a desk worker in her building, on top of the time spent helping students on her floor. She gets paid $100 a month, plus housing and a meal plan. The $100 paycheck is taxed. Manisha Ford-Thomas, director of SLU Housing and Residence Life, addresses allegations of mistreatment of RAs during an inter-

view with the RFT. “I’ve heard students say, ‘We’re expected to work twenty hours, and I’m working 25.’ I know we have professional staff who have sat down with them and talked about what time management looks like,” she says. “It is never our intention to overwork students, to overburden them, because what we know to be true is that they’re here to get a degree first and foremost,” Ford-Thomas says. Abigail also alleges that $100 was taken out of her account without her knowledge in December by Housing and Residence Life and that she hasn’t been paid the monthly stipend since. She is currently working with her boss to fix the situation.

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“From the higher-ups, I don’t think they really see students as people,” Abigail says. “They mostly see numbers, and that’s it.” Sarah Cunningham, SLU’s vice president of student development, tells the RFT that the administration is committed to improving its support for students during the pandemic. She points to a survey sent to nearly 500 students who were quarantined or isolated. Of the 215 students who responded, the majority rated their experiences as positive, she says. Cunningham acknowledges some students did report negative quarantine experiences in the survey, and she says the university has looked for ways to provide more support. Cunningham says that more staff were added to the isolation housing team before the spring semester as a result of students’ grievances. “As soon as staff were alerted to problems, a misdelivery of meals with dietary restrictions or missing meals or pictures of food that were unsatisfactory, the staff worked their quickest to fix it,” Cunningham says. “We planned our best and learned that we could’ve done better, and as soon as we figured that out, we did better.” Another student, whom we’re calling Beth to protect her identity, describes a similarly problematic

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

O FR

NT TIMES PRE SE NT S

SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 2021 • CHASE PARK PLAZA 11:30 AM-2:00 PM RFT’S UNITED WE BRUNCH RETURNS FOR THE 6TH YEAR!!

There’s no better way to chase away a hangover than brunch with friends. And Riverfront Times is once again bringing together the best restaurants in town with one mission: unite to cure St. Louis’ hangover. In its 6th year, United We Brunch will be more than just bottomless Bloody Marys and Mimosas — enjoy screwdrivers, bellinis, Irish coffee, beer and more! Plus, all the best brunch hot spots in the St. Louis area under one roof.

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VIP Gift Bag with Commemorative Glass • Brunch Tastings from more than 20 brunch hot spots Bottomless Bloody Marys, Mimosas, Bellinis, Screwdrivers, beer and Irish Coffee

Covid-Protocols: capacity will be significantly reduced, masks required when not consuming beverages/food, social distancing decals, tables spaced apart, individual hand sanitizer provided, and plexiglass between the restaurants and guests.

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experience as a second-year RA. Though she signed on for twentyhour workweeks, she often finds herself working more hours than expected. She says she feels taken advantage of by Housing and Residence Life because they know she needs the RA position in order to remain a student at SLU. Like Abigail, Beth worries about her safety when doing room checks for residents or entering rooms where people are breaking COVID-19 guidelines. Ford-Thomas says that putting the health of student staff at risk is never the intention. “The work that we do in Housing and Residence Life is important,” she says, “but I also would never juxtapose that with the health, the wellness of any person on this team.” “I hear students say that ‘I felt uncomfortable here,’ but that’s when you tap out and you tap someone else in,” she says. “Someone else can be that next line of defense to get us what we need,” which could be a team member who is a graduate student or someone on the HRL’s professional staff, she says. “There’s, at no time, a place where I would want anyone to feel unsafe, because that’s not our role,” she concludes. While Beth was aware that Housing and Residence Life provides assistance in these unsafe situations, she says that the RAs would still have to enter the room and interact with the students, even if another staff member was present. At a recent meeting with Housing and Residence Life, Beth claims RAs were blamed for higher COVID-19 rates in dorms and on-campus apartments. Beth believes RAs were never truly taught how to handle these situations in the first place. “I remember back in the fall training people were trying to ask questions and HRL was like, ‘We don’t know, we don’t know, we don’t know,’ and then we never truly got any answers.” She adds, “There’s always the overall fear that I’ll get in trouble for not enforcing something properly. It feels like walking on a thin line always.” Beth claims the mistreatment of RAs goes beyond COVID-19. As Black Lives Matters protests spread in early October, Housing and Residence Life sent a document to all student staff, explaining that students are protected under the Speech, Expression and Civil Discourse Policy at SLU to

A sampling of the dinners provided to students staying in Saint Louis University’s quarantine housing. | PROVIDED participate in protests. Yet, toward the end of the document, RAs were warned that “actions taken as an individual can have an impact on your employment with HRL and action may be taken if your actions violate University policy.” Ford-Thomas insists they weren’t trying to intimidate students. “We took no stance,” she says. “What we were trying to do is communicate in support of students and what they choose to do.” Beth argues, “It’s kind of confusing how a bunch of Master’s and Ph.D. people can sit around a table and word something, trying to tell us that we do have the right to protest, and made it sound like we didn’t.” “I actually chose SLU for their social justice values,” she says. She now believes the university’s handling of their student staff is “extremely frustrating and disappointing.” Another student who became sick after a night of hanging out with five other students on her floor in early November also spoke with the RFT on the condition of anonymity. When one of her friends tested positive for COVID-19, the student, referred to here as Claire, was moved into quarantine at Hotel Ignacio, a functioning hotel owned by SLU that was converted into isolation housing for students. Here, she received no communication from the Student Health Center. When she eventually did get in touch with their office, she says

she was called irresponsible and talked down to. “I was crying on the phone with Student Health for a couple days because I was getting attitude,” she says, “I felt that I was being chastised for catching a virus that I had no control over.” Cunningham tells the RFT, “There was definitely never any intention or objective of the university to try to make any student feel like it was their fault.” “The fact that the students you spoke with felt that way, I feel awful about, that was never the intention,” she continues. “There is no playbook” for how to handle COVID-19 on campus, she explains. Due to initially testing negative, Claire says she called every day and begged to take another COVID-19 test in hopes that it would improve her care from the Student Health Center. “I just wanted someone to call me and ask if I was OK, besides my mom,” she says. When she was given the opportunity to be tested again, she asked if a golf cart could pick her up for the half-mile walk to the Student Health Center. “The person that was on the phone was like, ‘What? Are you going to get in trouble for walking or something?’ and I was like, ‘I can’t breathe, I have COVID,’” she says. Claire ended up walking to the Student Health Center, where she officially tested positive and finally started to receive calls from nurses. Still, the remainder of her stay in isolation was less than ideal.

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“The food was absolutely terrible,” she recalls, “I wouldn’t eat dinner because it was so bad.” Each day at noon, Claire received a prepackaged sandwich and chips, which she would ration out for the rest of the day because dinners were so unappetizing. As for activities to fill her two-week stay, the TV in the hotel room was broken. “I would literally sit at the desk and look out the window and watch cars, all day, every day for two weeks. That’s hard for a person.” On her last day in quarantine, Claire asked to be discharged as early as possible. The COVID-19 hotline told her that a golf cart would arrive at 8 a.m. to pick her and her stuff up. By 10 a.m., there were no signs of a ride coming. She eventually called a friend with a car to pick her up. To this day, she’s still waiting to hear from Student Health about her ride. Following her quarantine experience, Claire says, “I’ve had my mom ask me multiple times if I want to transfer. I feel, at this point, that it’s a numbers thing.” It’s a feeling shared by students interviewed for this story, who each said that they want their voice to be heard and understood by the university administration, with the aim of improving SLU’s campus for future students. “They don’t care about how you’re feeling when you get it,” Claire says. “Everyone’s a human being; they don’t want to get the virus.” She adds, “I don’t feel that I was respected at all.” n

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CAFE

Fire chicken gangjung with jalapeno, garlic, scallion, sweet soy sauce and sesame seed, is so good that it was worth naming the restaurant after the dish. | MABEL SUEN

[REVIEW]

Hot Spot Fire Chicken brings the heat with its unique twist on Korean cuisine Written by

CHERYL BAEHR Fire Chicken 10200 Page Avenue, 314-551-2123. Mon.Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m. (Closed Sundays.)

ichelle Baik knows her food is good. Ever since she and her husband, Min, opened Fire Chicken this past August, customers have gone out of their way to heap praise on the pair, telling them over and over just how much they enjoy the restaurant’s namesake Korean-style chicken gangjung. However, one recent interaction

stands out to Michelle. A first-time guest was so moved by the Baiks’ cooking that he was compelled to come back and tell her how much it meant to him. His praise had less to do with the food itself and more to do with his appreciation for their willingness to share with him a taste of their culture. “You’re showing me who you are, and that is really special,” the man told Michelle. His words hit her so hard that she was moved to tears. The comments from that overjoyed diner are particularly poignant for the Baiks. For ten years, they owned the St. Peters sushi spot Blue Sea, always dreaming of opening a restaurant that would showcase the cuisine of their Korean homeland. They knew in their hearts that their food would be well received, but family circumstances prevented them from taking the leap. Instead, they spent their days and nights cooking Japanese food, and then made their way out of the restaurant business for a decade.

Now, twenty years after getting their start at Blue Sea, the Baiks are finally realizing their dream of bringing their unique take on Korean cuisine to St. Louis with Fire Chicken. Though Min has been developing the idea for decades, he really got serious about two years ago and began fleshing out ideas for how he wanted the restaurant to run. Conceived of way before the COVID-19 pandemic upended life as we knew it, the restaurant has an ideal setup for dining in the current climate. Min always envisioned Fire Chicken as a delivery and carryout operation, and drawing upon his and Michelle’s experience in delivering food themselves, he made sure to set up his systems to be friendly to that way of dining. He and Michelle also take special care to know the ins and outs of every delivery platform they use, and they work closely with drivers to ensure accuracy and timeliness. Min spent just as much time developing his recipes, working — and, he laughs, fighting — with

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his family about getting the flavors just right. Though he takes traditional Korean dishes as a jumpingoff point, he insists Fire Chicken is not a traditional Korean restaurant. There is no kimchi on the menu, nor other dishes that you’d typically find at a Korean spot. Even the gangjung is different than what you’d typically find in Korea; there, the dish is served at room temperature, while his version is fried to order and piping hot. Min proves that a break with tradition can have delicious results. Reminiscent of a hot braised chicken found at American-style Chinese restaurants, the namesake Fire Chicken gangjung pairs nuggets of breaded chicken that are fried to a glorious golden crisp with a flaming-hot sweet soy sauce glaze spiked with red chiles and jalapeños. At its default spice level, the chicken is fiery even for this heat-lover. However, the layers of sweet, salt, spice and umami make it so flavorful the burn

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Co-owners Min and Michelle Baik. | MABEL SUEN

MICHELLE BAIK Continued from pg 21

becomes an afterthought. The Red Shrimp gangjung is not quite as hot as the Fire Chicken, but it still has notable red chile spice. The biggest difference is not the heat level, but rather its gochujang base that gives the dish a wonderfully funky backbeat. Equally impressive is the Teri Chicken gangjung, a riff on the teriyaki chicken that Min cooked at Blue Sea, but much lighter and with more of a garlicky ginger flavor. Normally this is not a dish that would jump out at me, because of the associations with bottled grocery store teriyaki sauce; I’m glad I took the chance. Min’s version of bulgolgi beef is also quite divergent from my past experiences of the dish. More like a cross between the Korean-style sweet soy marinade and Mongolian beef than what you’d find at a Korean barbecue restaurant, the dish is chock-full of onions, carrots and green beans, all wrapped up in a delicate ginger-perfumed soy sauce. It’s also the best value of the menu; the portion is so large, it could easily feed four people — though it’s so wonderful you’ll have a hard time sharing. Fire Chicken’s ramen also breaks with tradition. The vegetable-based broth is hearty and slicked with oil, giving the entire dish an intense, soy-flavored richness more akin to a stew than a soup. It’s different than any other ramen around, and once you wrap your head around that, it’s utterly

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delicious. The mild chicken, brimming with zucchini, onions, carrots and cabbage, is the sort of hearty soup that you dream of on a cold, dreary day. The veggie version, requested at a medium spice level, makes the mouth tingle with warm red chile heat. The Baiks offer a handful of appetizers, including a shrimp tempura with a batter that tastes like butter, as well as mandu, a Korean pan-fried dumpling filled with pork and veggies. Of course, the pair wouldn’t be satisfied with just having simple mandu on their menu, but instead enlisted the help of Michelle’s sister to come up with a “Popcorn” version of the dish. Here, the dumplings are sliced in half and covered with melted cheese and spicy mayonnaise. The result is a delicious concoction that reads like dumpling nachos. Michelle says there is nothing like the Popcorn Mandu in Korea — or really, any of the dishes they’ve created for Fire Chicken. However, the fact that she and Min are able to play around with different dishes, while also giving St. Louis a taste of their Korean heritage, is their way of showing the city who they are beyond the confines of what is expected. To experience such a delicious exploration is not only fortunate — it’s enough to bring a tear to your eye.

Fire Chicken Fire Chicken gangjung .............................. $12 Beef bulgolgi bowl .................................... $16 Chicken ramen.......................................... $15 • Carryout only/delivery only • Credit or debit card only.

SHORT ORDERS

[SIDE DISH]

In the Mix Todd Brutcher keeps St. Louis quenched with Southside Alchemy’s award-winning cocktail mixes Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

odd Brutcher vividly recalls the moment that bartending first piqued his interest. As a nineteen-year-old bussing tables at Olive Garden, Brutcher would watch in awe as the restaurant’s bartenders were treated like rock stars by anyone they encountered. The staff, the customers, the ladies — everyone loved to be around them, and he knew he wanted to be that guy. “Back then, I already knew restaurants would be my career, because I had zero interest in school,” Brutcher said. “At Olive Garden, I saw how the bartenders always got girls laughing and guys giving them high-fives. They were the celebrities of the restaurant. I told myself, ‘I’ve got to figure this out.’” Now a few decades later, Butcher has both realized that dream and expanded upon it. As the founder of the Bloody Mary and sangria mix company Southside Alchemy (@Southsidealchemy), the longtime barman is no longer behind the stick, but is instead arming his compatriots with the tools they need to make exceptional drinks. Early on, however, Brutcher didn’t know if he’d ever get his shot to tend bar. He spent the first few years of his food and beverage career waiting tables and lucked out during a daytime shift when the restaurant he was working needed some help. The bartender failed to show up for her shift, he explains, so the manager asked Brutcher to jump in and handle the lunch bar business. That lunch shift turned into happy hour, and when he looked down at how much he’d made for the day, he was both exhilarated and determined to never go back to waiting

Longtime barman Todd Brutcher isn’t behind the stick anymore, but he’s still supplying drinks with Bloody Mary and sangria mixes. | ANDY PAULISSEN tables. When his manager, who only hired female bartenders, refused to put him behind the bar permanently, Brutcher packed up and headed to the former Pitted Olive and eventually Onesto Pizza & Trattoria. That would prove to be a fateful switch. “When I first started at Onesto, we only had a license for beer and wine, but after two years, we got our full liquor license,” Brutcher says. “At that time, we were going through about a case of Zing Zang [Bloody Mary mix] about every two or three months. Once I started infusing my own vodkas, it turned to a case and a half every month.” Not content to stop at infused vodkas, Brutcher made a deal with his boss. He’d been playing around with his own Bloody Mary mixes at home, and suggested that Onesto should begin using his instead of Zing Zang. His boss suggested a taste test: He’d blind taste Brutcher’s version against the bought-in mix, and which-

ever was better would be put on the list. Brutcher wasn’t surprised when his won out. In no time, Brutcher developed a cult following for his Bloody Marys and sangria, another of his specialty concoctions. Even after leaving Onesto, he’d still hear praise from his former regulars who insisted that he bottle up and sell his mixes. Eventually, he began to test the waters at a pop-up market his friend put together to showcase local makers. Though Brutcher was hesitant to participate at first, he came around to the idea and was thrilled with the response. He did it again the next year, never thinking of it as more than a way to make some extra spending money — but a run-in with a St. Louis health department official made him reconsider. “He couldn’t have been nicer, but he told me I had to start doing things on the up and up to sell to the public,” Brutcher says. “He gave me all of the information

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I needed to go legit. I discarded it, because I was bartending full time, but about a week later, I was having one of those nights at work. The barback didn’t show up, I was the only bartender and five kegs blew. I was a week away from my 40th birthday and said to myself, ‘I am so sick of this shit.’” Brutcher talked with his wife about going all in with his Bloody Mary and sangria mix. As he explained it, he’d done a lot of things in his life for which he had no regrets, but he felt that this would be that one thing he’d look back on as a missed opportunity if he didn’t act. With her solidly behind him, Brutcher got all of the logistics in order and launched Southside Alchemy in 2019. Two years later, Brutcher could not be more thrilled with his decision. Not only has his Bloody Mary mix gone on to receive national awards, it’s also afforded him more of a work-life balance.

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TODD BRUTCHER Continued from pg 23

No longer out of the house from 3 p.m. until 2 a.m., he gets to be a more present (and, he admits, less grouchy) husband and father. For him, that’s the most important thing that has resulted from him taking the leap. “When you grow up aimless and lost, it’s scary to finally take the plunge,” Brutcher says. “If my wife didn’t support this, it wouldn’t be happening. To have that support of the people in your life who mean the most to you is key. A few times in the past, people have told me that I had to go for this, and I thought they were insane. Finally, I figured that I’ve chickened my way out of pretty much anything else, so I have to do this. I’m glad I did. I’m very humbled — and lucky.” Brutcher took a break from Southside Alchemy to share his thoughts on the state of the St. Louis food and beverage scene, the things you’ll never find at his bar and why you shouldn’t be afraid to approach him, even if it looks like a bad idea. What is one thing people don’t know about you that you wish they did? I am not constantly pissed off, even if it looks like I am. I’m generally in a great mood. You see, I have resting dick face. It’s the male equivalent to resting bitch face.

What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you? Coffee is definitely non-negotiable. I cannot function without it, and I am a miserable, miserable person to be around if I don’t start my day with it. It sets the tone for my day, and its the only way I’m getting anything done without half-assing it. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? I’d love to be able to just snap my fingers and be somewhere new without traveling. I get antsy quickly and don’t like to sit in the same place for long, but I hate the process of traveling. It’s exhausting to me. What is the most positive thing in food, beer, wine or cocktails that you’ve noticed in St. Louis over the past year? Honesty this past year has shown how much the industry as a whole cares about each other. When the pandemic started and restaurants were shutting down, everyone shifted their focus. Whether it was to-go windows installed at a sidewalk or shifting to frozen pizzas or breweries making sanitizer, these places fought for their survival, and innovations were on quick display. My friend Tiffany [Unger] owns the Wandering Sidecar Bar and had to shift from weddings and events to pre-batched cocktails. As she’s doing that, she sees me losing the farmers market, STL Barkeep losing the farmers mar-

ket and their events, so what does she do? She calls me to buy my Bloodys and my sangrias to sell in these pre-batched cocktail kits; she calls Matt at Barkeep and gets him involved. Instances like that were the trend I saw — us fighting for our lives but helping our colleagues out as we go. It was beautiful to see unfold, despite the uncertainty and fear. It was survival, but it was a far cry from every man for himself. What is one thing missing or that you’d like to see in the local food and beverage scene? I think I’d really like to see more festivals or block parties unique to each neighborhood like how Macklind Days does it. Like, how each parish has their “school picnics” but it’s three blocks on a street shut down to traffic, and the restaurants are the anchor of the neighborhood. I really wish someone would hold a giant tomato festival. Who is your St. Louis food or drink crush? Thai Pavilion on Bayless. Outstanding and fast. Great selection of dishes and unpretentious. Who’s the one person to watch right now in the St. Louis food and beverage scene? My boy Kore Wilbert is a magician. Alex Salkowski has a great Instagram that shows how much he loves what we’re doing. I’m also such a big believer in 9 Mile Garden. It’s a great concept, and I’ve discovered so many amazing

places that I never would have without it. Which ingredient is most representative of your personality? I have no idea. I’m an unashamed dork and a wiseass, so use that information as you will. If someone asked you to describe the current state of St. Louis’ food and beverage climate, what would you say? Patient and resilient. Riding this pandemic out while getting shit on by antimaskers for enforcing health code protocol designated by someone else while just waiting for business to get back to normal is astounding. If you were not tending bar, what would you be doing? This, I guess, since I haven’t bartended in a year. Name an ingredient never allowed behind your bar. Gimmicky things like Loopy or Wedding Cake vodka. Pre-made simple syrups. Those smoker things. What do you do after work? Stay home. I’m sober now, and I don’t have any desire to be out. Those days are long past. What’s your edible or quaffable guilty pleasure? Bold Spoon Creamery’s goat cheese and fig ice cream — if I can hide it from my daughters. What would be your last meal on earth? The Cuban from Little Havana food truck. It’s perfect. n

[SNOOCHIE BOOCHIES]

Mooby’s Pop-Up Coming to St. Louis Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

f you’ve ever watched Dogma and thought to yourself, “Man, I could really go for some Hater Tots,” your wish is about to be granted. Mooby’s, the fictional restaurant that makes a recurring appearance throughout several of Kevin Smith’s films, is coming to town this spring. The Mooby’s pop-up is the brainchild of Smith and event producer Derek Berry, who came up with the idea last April. According to Berry, Smith had been wanting to do a real-life version of the fictional fast-food joint for some time, and was inspired to finally act as a way to help struggling restaurants. At first, the event was supposed to be a ten-day pop-up partnership with Postmates in Los Angeles, but

Mooby’s, a pop-up restaurant, is bringing the Kevin Smith Askewniverse to St. Louis this spring. | JOHN TROXELL once Smith and Berry saw how successful it was, they decided to expand the idea to a national audience. The St. Louis event, which was announced last week, will be the eleventh stop on the tour and will take place April 21 through May 3 at a yet-to-be-named restaurant. Folks interested in attending are encouraged to sign up on the event’s website; doing so will give them

advance notice of where the event will take place as well as early access to tickets. The cost will be $30 per person and tickets include an entree, side dish and 45-minute time slot to hang out in the immersive Mooby’s experience. Mooby’s, other Askewniverse-themed merchandise and beer from a to-be-announced St. Louis brewery will also be available for purchase.

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Fans of Smith’s films will recognize several favorite Mooby’s dishes at the pop-up, including the signature Hater Tots and the Cow Tipper, a triple-decker burger that will be available in both beef and plant-based versions. Smith, who is vegan, has committed to making 50 percent of the menu vegan-friendly. For more information and to sign up for early access, visit moobyspopup.com. n

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

[ C O O L T R E AT S ]

Sweet (Spring) Lovin’ Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams is releasing a limited-edition collaboration with Dolly Parton Written by

JAIME LEES

ant to just sit around eating ice cream, but also want to help change the world? We have the perfect sweet treat for you. Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams (multiple locations including 389 North Euclid Avenue; 314-3671700) is releasing a limited-edition collaboration with Dolly Parton, dubbed Strawberry Pretzel Pie, in shops and online this Thursday (April 8). RFT readers already know that Dolly Parton Is the Queen of Ev-

Ice cream with Dolly? Sign us up! | VIA JENI’S SPLENDID ICE CREAM erything and the Glowing Center of the Universe, and the great thing about this collaboration is that proceeds will go to one of the music legend’s greatest charitable accomplishments: Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a charitable initiative that helps gift books to kids five and under. “Dolly Parton is the person we all want to be when we grow up:

an unstoppable force for good with the power to bring people together — a.k.a. a walking, amplified embodiment of what we hope to be as a company,” Jeni’s says in a statement. “Strawberry Pretzel Pie is our ode to the Queen of Country: sweet and salty, with timeless appeal, deep American roots, and makes you feel good.” The ice cream is described as “a

throwback to the triple decker pie from the potlucks of our youths. Layers of salty pretzel streusel, subtly sweet and effortlessly tangy cream cheese ice cream, and lipstick red strawberry sauce.” For those anxious to try it, Jeni’s recommends finding a way to order some as soon as you can on Thursday. Like the shop’s other limited-edition flavors, it is expected to sell out immediately. The new flavor will be available online at 11 a.m. at jenis.com, and can also be found in stores. Customers are limited to two pints per purchase. Only 10,000 pints will be made. “To give everybody an equal shot of getting it, most of the pints will be available online for nationwide shipping,” Jeni’s says in a statement. “The remainder will be split across our shops. If you prefer to buy the flavor from your neighborhood shop, we recommend getting there early (like before open) on release day. Otherwise, your best bet will be to buy it online ... the day it drops. We can’t guarantee availability (or reserve pints), so please plan accordingly!” May the ice cream gods smile upon you, and may Dolly Parton continue to look out for us all always. n

[WIENERS]

The Wienermobile Returns to 9 Mile Garden Written by

JAIME LEES

he world-famous Oscar Mayer Wienermobile is returning to town and will once again be stopping by 9 Mile Garden (9375 Gravois Road, Affton; 314-390-2806) on Sunday (April 11). The food truck garden has been doing steady business since reopening earlier this year — the outdoor food and entertainment space temporarily closed last summer to help combat COVID-19. And now, in addition to reopening and announcing that it will be hosting a full season of entertainment including live music and movies, 9 Mile Garden has also announced that it will again play host to the most famous meatshaped food truck in the world, the Wienermobile. The Wienermobile will be at 9 Mile Garden this Sunday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. And if the whole family isn’t into hotdogs, no worries: There will be other trucks open alongside it to serve you barbecue,

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Everyone’s favorite food-shaped vehicle is coming to St. Louis. | JEREMY NOBLE/FLICKR sandwiches, tacos and more. Some facts about the Wienermobile from its website: • The first WIENERMOBILE was created in 1936 by Carl Mayer. • The 1952 WIENERMOBILE has been living for years in the Henry Ford Mu-

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seum in Dearborn, Michigan (and in our hearts forever, obviously). •The 1969 WIENERMOBILE model featured Ford Thunderbird taillights, a Chevy motor home frame and averaged 187 smiles per gallon. • Six different WIENERMOBILES are driv-

ing across the U.S. at any given time. And, yes, they’ll also be selling merch onsite, and you still get a Wiener Whistle with every order. (That’s a whistle shaped like the Wienermobile, you perv.) For more information, visit 9milegarden.com. n

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

CULTURE

[NEW MUSIC]

Take It Sleazy St. Louis metal act the Lion’s Daughter continues to evolve with Skin Show, its best album yet Written by

DANIEL HILL

t would be folly to imply that the past year-plus of quarantine life has been anything but excruciatingly difficult for all of us, but even within that context, the timing of the pandemic’s onset was particularly cruel to St. Louis metal band the Lion’s Daughter. The three-piece had been steadily gaining steam since the July 2018 release of Future Cult, the band’s groundbreaking third LP and second record with the revered French label Season of Mist. The album’s synth-heavy twist on the band’s usual brand of relentlessly heavy blackened sludge won the overwhelming acclaim of critics and fans upon its release, who appreciated the John Carpenter-esque sounds on offer. The Lion’s Daughter hit the road hard to support the new record, touring across the United States and even doing a run through Europe in 2019 with Baltimore death metal act Misery Index. And, at its start, 2020 was looking to be even more exciting. The band secured a support slot for the celebrated and long-running Italian prog-rock act Goblin’s summer 2020 tour — a huge win, as Goblin is a massive influence. The members of the Lion’s Daughter were beside themselves with excitement as they prepared to announce that tour. Then, of course, COVID came along. “Right before we were about to announce it, everything got shut down,” guitarist and vocalist Rick Giordano says of the tour. “Goblin’s from Italy, and Italy got hit first, so it’s just like, ‘Hey, there’s no way this could happen — these guys can’t even get out of the country.’ And you know, a week later it was like, ‘Oh, hey, nobody can go anywhere ever again.’

RIVERFRONT TIMES

The Lion’s Daughter will see the release of its latest, the excellent Skin Show, this week. | GEORGE NEWMAN “That was the only thing that got axed,” he continues. “But that was going to be the biggest tour that we’d ever done with literally one of my favorite bands of all time. And a band that we, I think pretty obviously, pull a lot of influence and inspiration from. So that was a fucking dream tour for us. Having that get canceled was a sledgehammer to the fucking nuts, man.” Obliterated testicles or no, the Lion’s Daughter made the best of a bad situation and got to work on some new music, resulting in Skin Show, a ten-track offering that will see its official release this week with a party at Record Space and a streamed event filmed on Arch City Audio Visual’s massive soundstage. The new album was recorded over the summer at Firebrand Recording Studio in Maryland Heights with Chicago producer Sanford Parker, who worked on the band’s last two albums and who has put in time behind the boards with a slew of well-known metal acts, including Darkthrone, Voivod, Eyehategod and Nachtmystium. Legendary glam-metal musician

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Lita Ford helped out with recording, too — in the form of a scantily-clad poster hung in the studio throughout the proceedings. “I purposely bought that poster off of eBay weeks ahead of time in preparation for the studio, and I wanted to hang that where it was in plain view the whole time,” Giordano says with a laugh. “I literally played instruments and recorded this whole record while staring at that poster. Instead of just the back of like, Sanford’s head or my feet or whatever, I could stare at Lita. It was like drinking espresso or something — looking in Lita’s eyes, you know, it gets you going.” Whatever trade secrets were employed, they worked. Across its ten tracks, Skin Show remains characteristically heavy but superbly polished, with Erik Ramsier’s thunderous drums underpinning the suitably disgusting sounds of Giordano’s guitar and Scott Fogelbach’s bass. The synths that made Future Cult such a revelation are present and accounted for on Skin Show as well, from the bubbling line that kicks off the record’s first track “Become the Night” to the haunt-

ing horror-soundtrack sounds of closer “The Chemist.” This time around, though, the synths were more thoughtfully arranged to serve as accents to the rest of the music — a decision that Giordano, who played them, says the band made deliberately. “We’ve always played with horror themes. And with the last record, Future Cult, we introduced a little more sci-fi and stuff like that,” Giordano says. “I’m always looking for a way to mix horror and metal that hasn’t been done before. Because it’s been done to death — to great success — by a lot of bands, whether it’s King Diamond and some of the theatrical stuff, or something like Cannibal Corpse and gore, Misfits and kind of cartoonish B-movies and stuff like that. I’m always looking for a new, unique way to do it. “So with Skin Show it was like, ‘OK, what if we let the synthesizers and stuff sound a little more natural and a little more spooky, and have things sound a little more haunting?’” he continues. “And then kind of take the themes, and let’s make the scenes kind

of sleazy, but not in a cool, sexy, sleazy-punk-rock way — in like a dark, depressing, frighteningsleazy kind of way. So it was just a way to continue with themes that we’d always worked with, which were horror and darkness and all of that super duper, uber metal stuff. But let’s see what happens if we introduce, like, sexuality and abuse and these weird, really uncomfortable topics — if we kind of, you know, throw those in there.” The resulting record feels surprisingly catchy and accessible while still retaining the band’s heavy sound and dark themes, and serves as further proof that there’s really no modern metal band that sounds quite like Lion’s Daughter — even if Giordano selfeffacingly posits that their latest material, to his ears, essentially amounts to a Nine Inch Nails or

Faith No More rip-off. “It’s not that different than old Nine Inch Nails,” he says. “You know, the vocals are a lot more aggressive than either of those bands because they kind of have to be — I wish I could sing like either of those guys. But, you know, if you strip down Angel Dust by Faith No More, you have all the same parts that we have. You have basically a rock band, and then synths and pianos. And the synths aren’t always there — they kind of come and go as they need to.” In a time of ongoing pandemic, a proper record release show just isn’t realistic, so the Lion’s Daughter will be celebrating this album with a party/merch pop-up at the Record Space on April 8 at 4 p.m., a Gimme Metal radio takeover by Giordano at 4 p.m. on April 9 and an April 11 streamed set recorded on the professional soundstage

where St. Louis production company Arch City Audio Visual has been hosting local acts over the past few months. The latter brings something else new for the band: a new member. Though the Lion’s Daughter has operated as a trio for much of its existence, guitarist Aaron Akin, best known for his work fronting Black Fast, joined the band for the stream and will continue as a fulltime member going forward. “He’s fucking great. Amazing guitar player,” Giordano says. “It’s funny to show somebody who’s a really, really good guitar player the dumb stuff that you came up with. Like, he’s actually showing me like, ‘No, I actually think you’d play it like this. It would be easier if you played it like this. It would sound better if you played it like this.’ Like alright I get it, you know how to play guitar.”

[LIVE MUSIC]

Fabulous News Fox Theatre announces slate of live concerts after yearlong hiatus Written by

DANIEL HILL

ollowing a protracted virusrelated intermission, live music is finally coming back to the Fabulous Fox Theatre. According to a press release, the storied Grand Center venue will reopen for live events starting Saturday, April 17, with a showcase of local comics curated by We Are Live! host Chris Denman. The event series, dubbed STL Sounds at the Fabulous Fox, will extend through May, hosting shows on weekend nights with St. Louis artists including the NOLA-style Funky Butt Brass Band, Grateful Dead tribute act Alligator Wine, roots/folk band the Mighty Pines and classic-rock cover band Superjam. From the release: “STL Sounds at the Fabulous

Live theater and music is finally returning to Grand Center. | VIA PAUL SABLEMAN/FLICKR Fox will feature local bands performing unique sets, a comedy showcase and two anniversary celebrations of legendary concert events. Welcomed by Music at the Intersection, this series will bring audiences back to Grand Center and The Fox Theatre to begin the process of ramping up to full capacity Fox shows in the fall.” The announcement marks the return of in-person entertainment to the Fox after more than a year

— reps for the venue announced its temporary closure on March 12, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Naturally, the resumption of shows will come with safety measures. The venue will operate with a reduced capacity of just 250 people in a socially distanced, pod-seating setup. Attendees and staff will be required to wear face masks, and the Fox will see enhanced cleaning procedures and air filtration.

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As for future plans, Giordano says everything is pretty much up in the air as the world cautiously re-emerges from pandemic life. The band has no tours on the books at the moment, but he’s hopeful that they’ll at least get another shot to hit the road with Goblin after COVID-19 robbed them of that last one. “From what I understand about those guys, they were really eager to do it and eager to reschedule it,” he says. “So I’m really, really hoping that it could happen, but I mean, those guys aren’t getting any younger. “But whatever,” he adds. “The Rolling Stones are still fucking touring, you know?”

The Lion’s Daughter Record Release Stream 7 p.m. Sunday, April 11. Streamed event. $10 to $65. liveentnow.com.

“We can’t wait to open our doors to St. Louis concert fans so they and our associates can enjoy the excitement of music we have all missed for more than a year now,” says Jim Downey, general manager of MetroTix and the producer of the series. “And we are thrilled to offer this unique opportunity for local bands to play the Fox stage for the first time. These local artists have felt the pain of little to no work and the loss of their artistic expression over this past year. We hope this will be the beginning of a promising 2021 for all of us.” Tickets for each show are $15 and will be sold in batches of two or four to accommodate pod seating. Tickets can be purchased at metrotix.com or by phone at 314534-1111. According to the release, the venue is likely to add shows to the series as time goes on, and the Fox is hoping to be back operating at full capacity by fall. The full slate of concerts announced in the series so far is below: • City Showcase: Comedy at the Fox - 8 p.m. Saturday, April 17 • An Evening With the Funky Butt Brass Band - 8 p.m. Friday, April 23 • Alligator Wine - 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 8 • An Evening With the Mighty Pines - 8 p.m. Friday, May 14 • An Evening With Superjam - 8 p.m. Saturday, May 22 n

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

[WEED]

THANK YOU FOR WEARING A MASK

Enter the Chimchards Dedicated cannabis coverage coming soon to the RFT Written by

RFT STAFF

s medical m arijuana dispensaries increasingly open their doors across the St. Louis area, one thing has become crystal clear: Somebody is going to have to smoke and review this stuff, so that the good people of this fair city know what they’re getting into. Here at the Riverfront Times we live to serve, and that’s why we’ve selflessly decided that we’ll take the bullet on this one and expand our offerings to include a dedicated cannabis section. Now, in addition to the hard-hitting news, food and culture coverage you’ve come to expect, you’ll also be able to read the informedly stoned ram-

Weed criticism is coming soon from your pals at the Reeferfront Times. | VIA WILLPOWER/FLICKR blings of a man who has somehow convinced us to pay him to get high as hell on a weekly basis. Enter Thomas K. Chimchards, RFT’s new cannabis critic. You can find him on Twitter at @TOMMYCHIMS, or you can contact him with tips directly at tommy. chims@riverfronttimes.com. We’ll be getting to know Mr. Chimchards much better in the coming weeks as we roll out the new section — but meanwhile, we can’t stress enough that we’re eager to hear your tips. Do you run or know of a local dispensary that

you think people should know about? Are you a grower or manufacturer who has stumbled onto the next big thing in the business? Are you a master chef in the industry when it comes to edibles? We want to hear from you. Importantly, we also want to hear about the people getting left behind by Missouri’s new foray into medical marijuana. Foremost, it’s important to us to continue to shine a light on those who remain incarcerated or otherwise trapped in the system for drug offenses involving cannabis, in the hopes that something constructive can be done about the absurd post-prohibition predicament in which they find themselves. If corresponding with a possibly fictitious, absurdly named and chronically medicated character doesn’t appeal to you, you can also hit us up with tips at weed@ riverfronttimes.com. We’re looking forward to aggressively covering the cannabis industry in this town from every conceivable angle, and ol’ Tommy Chims is looking forward to consuming as much weed as he possibly can before he gets too high to function and we’re forced to cut him loose for forgetting to file. Because, as always, we are but humble servants of the people. n

[FILM]

Moving Pictures THANK YOU FOR WEARING A MASK

Arkadin Cinema & Bar returns this season with outdoor films Written by

JAIME LEES

rkadin Cinema & Bar (5228 Gravois Avenue, 314-221-2173) is now open for the season, and local fans of film and fun are rejoicing. The Arkadin was meant to be St. Louis’ hippest microcinema, but when the small space became an issue due to COVID-19, business owners Sarah Baraba and Keith Watson pivoted to outdoor movie nights to allow for social distancing. The al fresco film series was a hit, and so it’s returning this spring to the backlot of The Heavy Anchor (5226 Gravois Avenue), neighbors of Arkadin. In addition to showing one David Lynch film per month in honor of the filmmaker’s 75th birthday, this season the owners are also programming a series of movies that were filmed in St. Louis or have roots in town. Guests can bring their own chair and

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The 1945 noir flick Detour will show alongside The Hitch-Hiker on April 7. | POSTER ART food or buy some classic theater snacks upon arrival, like Sno-Caps and Reese’s Pieces. The Arkadin will also offer freshly popped popcorn (with optional gourmet seasonings) and limited permanent seating. Masks are required for entry and must be worn when not eating or drinking. The schedule so far is as follows: April 7 - Night of Noir double feature with The Hitch-Hiker and Detour April 10 - Blue Velvet

April 14 - An Evening of Buster Keaton featuring Sherlock Jr., Cops and The Goat April 17 - 30th anniversary showing of New Jack City April 21 and 23 - Promising Young Woman, nominated for five Oscars April 28 - Drinkolas Cage: a monthly Nic Cage movie drinking game event May 1 - Thief For more information or to reserve your tickets, visit arkadincinema.com. n

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APRIL 7-13, 2021

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SAVAGE LOVE CONCESSIONS BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: I’m a 29-year-old straight male. I’ve been with my 25-year-old partner for six years. I love her and think that we are perfect for each other. We have all the things that make existing with someone wonderful. But about two years into our relationship I had a two-week-long affair while I was out of the country. I fucked up. I came clean to my partner and we’ve done our best to work through this over the last four years, but it has obviously caused some trust issues between us. I’ve never cheated again, and I try every day to work through these issues I caused in our relationship. There’s also been two recent instances of me breaking her trust. On a particularly stressful day I was caught sneaking a cigarette — the sneaking part is the issue — and on another occasion I did drugs in our communal back garden with a friend after she had gone to bed. I owned up to both straight away. I view both of these as being a symptom of the lockdown/ pandemic prompting me to break with my “normal” behavior. But partner is no longer comfortable allowing me to have the freedom to go out with my friends and partake in drugs without her express permission, which she already said she’s unlikely to grant me. The other element to this is, we want kids in three years. We’ve agreed that I will fully abstain from all drugs after we become parents. My problem is that I am trapped between a desire to meet the wants of my partner while also maintaining a degree of autonomy. When we discuss these matters — which we’ve been doing frequently lately — her argument boils down to this: “You did a bad thing, you need to make concessions so that I feel safe, you having to seek my permission makes me feel safe.” It’s coming to loggerheads and I don’t know if I’m the unreasonable one here, especially since I’m arguing for the freedom to do an illegal drug. I would appreciate your external, outside, drug-positive perspective in this. Don’t Really Understand Girlfriend’s Sentiment

I had some emergency dental work done this morning and I’m a little strung out on … what are those things called again? Oh, right: drugs. Last night I selected the letters I wanted to respond to in this week’s column, and I really didn’t expect to be on powerful painkillers when I sat down to write my responses today. In all honesty, I probably shouldn’t be operating advice machinery at the moment, but deadlines are deadlines. You should take my advice with a grain silo or two of salt, DRUGS, and everyone else should just skip this week’s column entirely. OK! DRUGS! Here we go! My outside, external, drug-positivebut-with-caveats (see below) perspective on your dilemma boils down to this: Do not make babies with this woman. Don’t scramble your DNA together with hers — not unless it makes your dick hard to think about begging this woman for permission every time you wanna smoke a little pot with a friend or take a fucking shit for the next 40 years. (And, trust me, you’re still going to want to smoke pot after the babies come.) If that kind of begging excites you, great. Have all the fucking babies. But if that doesn’t excite you … dude … run the fuck away. Yeah, yeah: You did a bad thing. You had an affair four years ago, and you made the mistake of telling your girlfriend about it even though 1. she most likely was never going to find out about it, and 2. you quickly came to regret it. Your regret wasn’t instantaneous — like you, DRUGS, your regret took a couple of weeks to come — but the fact that you haven’t cheated on her since is a pretty good indication that your regret was sincere. And now here you are four years later, DRUGS, waking up every day and getting back to work on those trust issues. Because you’re still in trouble. Because you made the mistake of telling your girlfriend about an affair she would never have known about if you had kept your mouth shut. But you know … come to think of it … maybe it was a good thing that you told your girlfriend about the affair, DRUGS. Not because honesty is always the best policy. The famed couples counselor and author and podcaster and Ted Talker Esther Perel urges people

In all honesty, I probably shouldn’t be operating advice machinery at the moment, but deadlines are deadlines. Take my advice this week with a grain silo or two of salt. who’ve had affairs to consider the “burden of knowing” before they disclose. If you sincerely regret the affair and it’s not going to happen again and your partner is not in any physical risk and is unlikely to hear about the affair from a third party, sparing them the burden of knowing is the second-most loving thing a person can do. (Not cheating at all would, of course, be the most loving thing a person can do.) So to be clear, DRUGS, I don’t think telling your girlfriend was the right thing to do because all affairs must be disclosed. I think telling your particular girlfriend was the right thing to do because she’s telling on herself now. If she doesn’t feel like she can trust you ever again — and if she’s constantly on the lookout for new reasons why she can’t trust you — then she needs to end this relationship. But she hasn’t ended the relationship, DRUGS, and you need to ask yourself why she hasn’t. I have a hunch: She hasn’t ended it because she likes it this way. Someone who cheats and gets caught and discloses and wants to make it right can expect to spend some time, well, making it right. They should expect to spend some time in the doghouse and, to extend the metaphor, they should expect to spend some time on a short leash. But a person can’t spend the rest of their life in the doghouse. A cheater has to take responsibility and be considerate about insecurities the affair may have created or worsened. But if a cheater has

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done all that and years later the person they cheated on won’t let them out of the doghouse — or is constantly finding new reasons to keep the cheater in the doghouse — then the doghouse is where the cheated wants the cheater. Forever. Which means instead of being angry you cheated on her, DRUGS, on some level your girlfriend is delighted you cheated on her. Because the wrong thing you did allows her to control you for the rest of your life. But it shouldn’t. And if she insists it does or that it should, DRUGS, you should leave her. About those caveats: You don’t specify the drug you used in the backyard with your friend, but I’m gonna assume it was weed — which is legal where I live but not where you live. There is, of course, a big difference between stepping out to smoke a little pot after the girlfriend has gone to bed and sneaking out to smoke a lotta meth. And if you’re an addict and a little pot has led to a lot of harder drugs in the past, your girlfriend’s zero-tolerance policy might be justified. But if we’re not talking about hard drugs and you don’t have addiction issues, DRUGS, you shouldn’t have to beg your girlfriend’s permission in advance — which she’s denied in advance — to smoke a little pot with a buddy. Hey, Dan: I’ve been listening to old episodes of the Savage Lovecast while working from home. Yesterday I heard you explain to straight male listeners that their straight female partners would say “yes” to sex more often if “sex” didn’t always mean the woman getting fucked. That really resonated with me, a straight woman with a male partner. When my husband came onto me the next night and I didn’t feel like opening up to get basted, instead of saying “no” I offered to jerk him off while he sucked my tits. It was great — for both of us! Total win! Thank you, Dan Savage! Joyfully Enjoying Relevant Knowledge You’re welcome, JERK! It’s always nice to hear from folks who’ve taken my advice and didn’t regret it! mail@savagelove.net @FakeDanSavage on Twitter www.savagelovecast.com

APRIL 7-13, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

APRIL 7-13, 2021

riverfronttimes.com

APRIL 7-13, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

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Riverfront Times, April 7, 2021

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