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I've added a link to CheapSTL, a blog Laine just found tonight through her flickr page. Laine said this gal's a good photographer, too. I've read a few of her posts and I think the three of us (Me, Laine and Allison) might be the same person. Awkward. I hope she updates more often than we do, though.
C.A.M.P. (Community Arts and Media Project) is having an open house this Saturday from 2:00 to 5:00. Go check out their new community center. **C.A.M.P. is a 501(c)3 non-profit composed of St Louis Indymedia Center, Confluence newspaper, Gateway Greens, and the SWEAT Bike shop. Its mission is to create and maintain a community center focusing on art, media, and popular education as tools to connect local and global struggles in a space that is open and accessible to the community.** They're the ones who hosted the bike-in movies a few summers ago, remember? The bootleg of Superstar, the Karen Carpenter biopic starring Barbie & Ken dolls, yumm-o!
After that, go visit Cherokee's--and St. Louis'-- newest indie music store, Apop Records. Way cool.
Saturday night, we'll be in Forest Park at the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis' version of Much Ado About Nothing. Emma Thompson's tanned bosoms won't be starring in this production, but I'm hoping this old west version will hold my attention anyway.
Grand Center's big deal last Friday wasn't much of a big deal, apart from the architectural genius of the newish Centene Center for the arts. But I have high hopes for this Friday's gallery walk, though. The downtown gallery walk's website seems to be on the fritz, so I'll sift through my e-mails to deliver the goods. Let's see...there's free eats and drinks and the "Forces of Nature" show at Art St. Louis, Cheryl Wassenaar and Mel Watkin are still up at Phillip Slein, uhhh... this is really irritating. So few art galleries in the Lou have websites. Laine thinks the abstract show is still up at Ellen Curlee Gallery. 3rd Floor Gallery hasn't been open on a Friday night in months, but I have nothing to indicate that it will be this time, either. Drive Agency is having an opening reception for photographer Mark Schepker and metal sculptor Andre Tourrette. You should stick your head in MacroSun Imports, too. And if you're willing to break from downtown for Soulard, MadArt is bustin' out the wine and cheese for Julie Malone and Justin Visnesky.You could even buy something.
It's the first unofficial Friday of Summer, come have fun with us.
Here is the lineup for this summer's HYP series. For the uninitiated, HYP is a reading series dedicated to local (within 100 mile radius) young (under 30) poets. This is the last year Amy Debrecht will be the director, as she is passing the baton to me after this season. Celebrate her years of dedication to the project, check out some up-and-coming poetic talent, and have a beer with us at Duff's. Even when the poems stink, it's still fun.
Also, if reading for a free-wheeling, razzle-dazzle-lite series sounds like something you'd like to try, e-mail me a few sample poems and a bio and I'll see about possibly securing you a segment of spotlight next summer.
I'm skipping over my backlog of cheerful posts to gripe about my crappy experience at the Coffee Cartel today. I happened by chance to get on Forest Park twenty minutes early this morning on my way to work, so I figured I'd swing onto Euclid and grab a cafe au soylait and a whole wheat bagel as a special treat. It was 8:00 and the place was relatively deserted, but they seemed to be going through a shift change or something, because about six kids were crammed behind the counter. It took ten full minutes to pay for my coffee while the kids bickered at each other, the register jockey casually spewed profanity, and someone totally maimed my stupid $2.00 bagel and apparently breathed on it in lieu of toasting it. I'm all for alternative spaces, obviously, I went in there instead of going to the closer, but completely sterile Bread Co. on the corner of Euclid and FoPa. I'll happily take the piercings, the tattoos, even an occasional rotten attitude (usually more from the patrons than the employees), but this was just chaos on top of stupid. To add injury to insult, in my foul mood from the crappy service, I forgot the step down at the exit and nearly broke my flippin' ankle. I wound up barely getting to work on time. We can do better than this, CWE. Cartel, just 'cause the Bread Co. moved off your block doesn't mean you can get all assy on everybody. Straighten up and fly right. You never know when some self-righteous local blogger will saunter into your establishment and give you a bratty negative write-up.
I've got my eye on y'all.
