KDHX (88.1 FM) leadership is touting what it sees as progress toward its "bold new vision" this week, with a press release outlining a bulleted list of "results of note" from the station's recent efforts to "harness the power of music to create a better St. Louis." The release comes almost a year after the firing of longtime host Tom "Papa" Ray in February 2023, a move that touched off a wave of subsequent firings and resignations among the staff's all-volunteer crew of DJs and led to considerable public outcry. In a recent blog post on the station's website, Executive Director Kelly Wells acknowledges that the station has lost more than a third of its donors over the last year (that's even as a group of more than 150 St. Louis business leaders have also signed a letter critical of the station's leadership).
Those who have followed Music at the Intersection's evolution since the fest's first iteration in 2021 know what to expect by this point: a diverse lineup of forward-thinking national blues, jazz, funk, soul, rock, hip-hop and R&B acts commingling in Grand Center with some of St. Louis' best artists of similar genres, presented on equal footing and in celebration of our city's many contributions to the history of American music. And with today's announcement of the lineup of this year's event, we're pleased as punch to confirm that the tradition continues. This year's fest sees such heavy hitters as Black Pumas, Big Boi, Lettuce, Chingy, Chaka Khan, Trombone Shorty, Esperanza Spalding and Samara Joy filling out the top lines of the roster, with the likes of Cimafunk, Lady Wray, Thumpasaurus, the Stanley Clarke Band and more a little further down the list.
When the Rev. Mark Miller discovered that the century-old welcome sign in front of his church had been destroyed last August, he initially assumed it was vandalism. It wouldn't have been the first time Westminster Presbyterian Church was targeted. Just a year before, in fact, more than a dozen windows and a door on the church building in St. Louis' Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood had been broken.
Disgraced lawyer and perennial loser Mark McCloskey has never met an exhausting culture-war talking point he didn't like, nor a ridiculously racist remark he wouldn't espouse, and so it's no surprise that he completely soaked his diaper yesterday upon learning about Andra Day's performance of the 19th-century hymn "Lift Every Voice and Sing" at the Super Bowl on Sunday. The failed Senate candidate and current host of Mark McCloskey on Fire, the title of which unfortunately is just a turn of phrase and does not literally describe the format of the radio show (hey, I'd listen), took to Twitter on Monday afternoon to pontificate on how Black people should no longer have voting rights in the United States, among other things. "If African Americans have their own national anthem, then that means they have their own nation, so if they are not part of the USA they shouldn't be getting any US benefits: no Medicare/Medicaid, no social security payments, no Obama care, no food stamps, no housing assistance, etc.
Taylor Swift must know all too well the horrors of driving in St. Louis, because instead of braving city streets, her private jet recently took a 13-minute journey between Cahokia Heights to Chesterfield — twice. The 28-mile flight went from Chesterfield (almost certainly the Spirit of Saint Louis Airport) to Cahokia Heights (almost certainly the misleadingly named Downtown St. Louis Airport) — and then, later that day, back again.
The vacated Sunday-morning streets of Soulard reveal what gets left behind in the wake of Mardi Gras celebrations: beads, beer cans and BORGs, Gen Z’s latest way to day drink. This year, college-aged party-people descended on Saturday’s parade equipped with gallon-sized plastic water jugs filled with liquids the colors of the rainbow.
A wrecking ball came in like Miley Cyrus at Berkeley's City Hall today. All it wanted was to break its walls — at least, until the backhoe could take over. The north county municipality invited journalists and other members of the public to a "demolition ceremony" at 10 a.m. this morning.
The film season’s most exhilarating action sequence doesn't feature bad guys and explosions but simmering sauce pans and delectably steaming plates of veal. In director Tran Ahn Hung’s sublime drama The Taste of Things, the long and elaborate preparation of an ornate meal on the fire stoves of a 19th century French kitchen proves to be as nourishing to watch as the food itself would be to eat.
The Missouri Veterans Commission will likely receive about $19 million from marijuana sales revenue before the current fiscal year is over on July 1, Amy Moore, director of the Division of Cannabis Regulation, told a House committee this week. Next year it will be $22 million, she said, if the governor’s budget recommendations are approved.
If you live or work near Grand Center, or even if you've just enjoyed a night of theater at the Fabulous Fox, you've probably craned your neck to look up at the Continental Life Building — the prettiest skyscraper in the neighborhood. You're not the only one intrigued by this Art Deco beauty. The skyscraper, completed in 1930, was the model for the building haunted by ghosts in 1984's Ghostbusters (set in New York and filmed in New York, but inspired by St. Louis!).
Dave Lange has covered soccer in St. Louis dating back to the 1970s, when he worked as a college student freelancing for the Suburban Journals. To say he brings a depth of knowledge to his new Reedy Press book about City SC, Year One, is an understatement.
Former St. Louis Alderman Jeffrey Boyd, who has been serving a three-year sentence for taking bribes and wire fraud, is no longer behind bars. The former Ward 22 alderman was transferred to a St. Louis Residential Reentry management field office, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
This Sunday, February 11, is the biggest day on any football fan’s calendar — Super Bowl LVIII. The Kansas City Chiefs (who are definitely going to win) will take on the San Francisco 49ers at 5:30 p.m.
Former St. Louis cop Matthew EerNisse has been found not guilty of shooting an unarmed man in the back in north city in 2018 — a case that began with St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner and that drew angry pushback from the union representing police officers in the city. The verdict came today after a three-day bench trial in front of St. Louis Circuit Judge John T. Bird last month. Defense attorneys Scott Rosenblum and T.J. Mathes had opted to waive their client's right to a jury trial in order to try their chances with Bird.
In his garage-turned-studio outside his home in Tower Grove East, Benjamin Cornwell picks up a chip of glass, attaches it to a punty, lights his torch to a blazing 1,700 degrees and waits for the glass to begin to liquify. With some twists, some shaping and a whole lot of patience, Cornwell slowly creates one of the masterpieces for which he is increasingly well known: a mesmerizing, psychedelic marble.
222 Artisan Bakery & Cafe (222 North Main Street, Edwardsville) has announced via Instagram that it will be closing its storefront at the end of February. “We signed our new lease as written by our landlord, but unfortunately they decided to go with a different business,” the post says.
Tel-va: The Bosnian word for the grounds left at the bottom of the cup, which in turn can be used for fortune telling. Or, in another sense, the perfect name for the Nalics’ new Webster Grove coffee shop, Telva on the Ridge (60 North Gore Avenue), which opened on January 10.
St. Louis police crashed another SUV today — but at least this time they didn't take out the front of a beloved local bar ... or land upside-down. The crash took place around 11:30 a.m. at the corner of Euclid and Page avenues, with the SUV driving off the road, over the sidewalk and into a chain link fence surrounding the New Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church. A police spokeswoman tells us no other vehicles were involved.
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