Riverfront Times, July 28, 2021 by Riverfront Times

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MARCH 6-12, 2019

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THANK YOU ST. LOUIS FOR ANOTHER GREAT BURGER WEEK! PARTICIPATING RESTAURANTS Alpha Brewing Company American Falafel Bar Code & Grill BEAST Butcher & Block Beffa’s Bar & Restaurant Blue Duck Boo Coo Bootleggin’ BBQ Tavern Brew Hub Taproom Bus Loop Burgers Cafe On The Abbey Carnivore

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PRESENTED BY:

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Shake Shack Sharpshooter Pit & Grill Silver Creek Saloon StackHouse Pub & Grill Super Smokers BBQ + Cajun Union 30 At Hotel St. Louis The Village Bar White Cottage The Wood Shack Soulard Yorklore

THE LEDE

“So there’s only a handful of two-story Menards across the country. Some of them have a piano in them. So one day, my wife was in here and she said, ‘Here, they got a piano in there.’ So I went and talked to the manager and he said, ‘Come play something.’ I played a little ‘New York, New York,’ and he said, ‘OK, you’re hired.’ Ha-ha! I really love the gig here. It’s a cool gig.”

PHOTO BY THEO WELLING

EARL “KEYS” MOORE, PIANIST, PHOTOGRAPHED AT MENARDS IN RICHMOND HEIGHTS ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 14 riverfronttimes.com

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Chemical Overload

his week’s cover story started with a question: Why is the city buying so much pepper spray for its jails? Over the course of about two months near the turn of the year, St. Louis ordered more than $20,000 worth. Compare that to less than $300 for all of 2018, and things get interesting. Was it a simple restocking, as the city claims, or were they arming their corrections officers for what detainees say has become the new normal of ruthless crackdowns? Check out our story and see what you think. But don’t stop there. We’ve got another packed issue, including RFT food critic Cheryl Baehr’s latest, an interview with Kirkwood-raised pop star Slayyyter and multiple stories on how our elected officials are (and aren’t) fighting the rise of the delta variant. As always, thanks for picking up the RFT and supporting local journalism. —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, Mike Fitzgerald, Ryan Krull, Andy Paulissen, Justin Poole, Theo Welling, Ymani Wince Columnists Thomas Chimchards, Ray Hartmann Editorial Interns Zoë Butler, Holden Hindes, Erin McAfee, Jack Probst, Victor Stefanescu A R T

& P R O D U C T I O N Art Director 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 Digital Sales Manager Chad Beck Director of Public Relations Brittany Forrest

COVER Reloaded

C I R C U L A T I O N Circulation Manager Kevin G. Powers

Detainees in St. Louis jails protested against dismal conditions. The city went on a pepper-spray buying spree!

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 illustration by

TYLER GROSS

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

INSIDE The Lede Hartmann News Big Mad Feature Cafe Short Orders Reeferfront Times Culture Calendar Savage Love 6

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HARTMANN Political Pouting GOP losers can’t accept their Medicaid whupping BY RAY HARTMANN

n the broken world of American politics, there’s perhaps only one occasion that truly settles an argument. That would be a unanimous Supreme Court verdict. Whether at the federal level or in a state like Missouri, if 100 percent of the judges reach agreement in a court of last resort, the ball game is over. If you’re on the winning side, you take a victory lap. If you’re the loser, you pipe down. This principle holds true for both sides of the great political divide. When the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected Republican efforts to overthrow American democracy in Pennsylvania and Texas last December, the matter was settled for rational people. Maybe not for the deranged and defeated cult leader for whom it was offered up. But it was over. On the opposite side, the same principle applied when the same Supreme Court ruled last month in favor of a Catholic child welfare organization in Philadelphia. All nine justices concluded that the charity had a right to decline to place foster children with samesex couples. It was over. We in the unwashed mass can think whatever we want about any particular judge. But when every single one of them makes the same call after judicial consideration of the same set of facts, one cannot say with an ounce of credibility that they all must be idiots. Hate the outcome? Fine. But unanimous Supreme Courts don’t get the law wrong. Which brings us to Missouri. Here’s a nice summary of what happened regarding the issue of Medicaid expansion, courtesy of the Twitter account of attorney Chuck Hatfield, who co-counseled Missouri citizens’ case heroically with attorney Lowell Pearson:

“7-0 ruling from the Mo Supreme Court makes the following clear: 1) voters expanded the group eligible for Medicaid 2) there is money in the budget to pay for their healthcare 3) the State must enroll them. The details of the injunction are left to the trial court (that’s normal).” Everyone got that? It’s over. All seven judges of the Missouri Supreme Court considered both sides of a Medicaid argument that has torn apart the state for some time, and guess what? The judges weren’t torn apart at all. They unanimously arrived at the same conclusion, one that seems rather obvious after all is said and done: Missourians acted constitutionally when enacting a constitutional amendment. So, the vote in August 2020 to expand Medicaid was resolved in favor of the side with the most votes. Perhaps that’s a great victory for the hopeless romantics of democracy. Or maybe for common sense. Maybe for both. But far more important, it’s a critical lifeline for at least 275,000 of our fellow Missouri citizens — working individuals with terribly low incomes for whom decent health care should not be an unattainable luxury item. The fact that the state’s ironfisted Republican majority politicians would have had the audacity to attempt to reject the will of the people wasn’t shocking. Not after they repeatedly pulled the same trick in recent decades on subjects ranging from concealed carry of guns to regulations of puppy mills to raising minimum wages and so on. But this one was a little different. The Republican efforts to rob their own constituents of health care and to pillage the state economy in the process was some new level of political immorality. This wasn’t amoral. This was immoral. In that context, it shouldn’t come as a shock that these politicians have reacted as ultimate losers to their decisive and undeniable defeat. There was no contrition, no public acceptance of defeat. No humility. Keep in mind, this isn’t some liberal court. Of the seven judges, four are Republican appointees: two from former Governor Matt Blunt, one from disgraced ex-Governor Eric Greitens and one from

The governor of the state of Missouri requires more “legal clarity” than a unanimous Missouri Supreme Court decision? Governor Mike Parson. That didn’t provoke statesmanship from Parson. It offered the opposite. Upon first learning of the verdict, the governor’s office indicated it would need to be given a bit more time to gather its thoughts. That’s totally understandable. It’s not as if the chief executive of a state should be expected to react to events quickly. But Parson finally hitched up his boots and bravely had his press person speak for him. Here’s how that went, as reported by St. Louis Public Radio: “Parson spokeswoman Kelli Jones said in a statement that ‘after today’s court decision, the Executive Branch still lacks the necessary budget authority to implement MO HealthNet coverage to the expanded population. “‘We are looking at what options may be available to us to seek additional budget authority and also pursuing legal clarity.”’ Now that’s interesting. The governor of the state of Missouri requires more “legal clarity” than a unanimous Missouri Supreme Court decision. And what might that be? A version of the decision written in crayon? Similarly incisive was state Senator Bob Onder of St. Charles County, a man who had expressed supreme confidence in winning at the Supreme Court. I know this, because he said so on my KTRS radio show. Onder tweeted a link to a news story about the decision, adding the hashtags #JudicialActivism and #BlackRobedTyrants. Really now. Onder is a man whose resume says he received a law degree from Saint Louis University (along with a medical de-

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gree from Washington University). To be fair, the medical degree has not prevented Onder from defying almost the entire medical community on the matter of COVID-19 with the sophistication of a Trump University alum. But Onder truly hit rock bottom in slandering Missouri’s top judges — across party lines and all others — as “black-robed tyrants” and judicial activists. Wow. The lack of grace is not just appalling. It’s foreboding. It suggests that taking Medicaid away from Republican politicians as a cultural wedge issue will continue to be like taking raw meat from the mouth of a growling dog. And I apologize to canines for the comparison. It seems fairly likely that although the legal issue has been settled — the governor’s lack of comprehension notwithstanding — the political issue will rage on. At some point, the Republican majority in both houses of the General Assembly and the Republican governor are going to have to appropriate enough money to meet their legal obligation to their citizens. Or else. Frankly, it’s not entirely clear what “else” might mean. Perhaps the politicians will make a public showing out of punishing some other part of the state budget to fund the state’s Medicaid requirements. Perhaps they’ll test whether they can let the entire program go broke to see what happens. Or maybe they’ll go the more traditional route, using racist dog whistles and the customary efforts to demonize and traumatize Medicaid recipients in disgust over their need for help from the government. That, after all, is supposed to be the province of campaign contributors. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. In the meantime, though, here’s a question for Missouri’s Republican Party, paraphrasing the aforementioned cult leader: Are you tired of losing yet? 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 Nine PBS 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 Mask Mandates Return in City, County Written by

JENNA JONES

t. Louis and St. Louis County are once again requiring everyone older than age fi e to wear masks in indoor places and on public transportation. The rule went into effect on Monday and goes for both unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals. “We’ve lost more than 500 St. Louisans to COVID-19, and if our region doesn’t work together to protect one another, we could see spikes that overwhelm our hospital and public health systems,” Dr. Fredrick Echols, acting director of health for the City of St. Louis, said in a press release on Friday. “The city and county health departments are taking this joint step to save lives, make sure hospitals can provide the care residents rely on, and protect our children so they can enjoy a full range of educational opportunities this year.” Exceptions in the orders include people who are seated in a restaurant or bar while eating and drinking and individuals with disabilities that prevent them from putting on or removing face coverings. St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones and St. Louis County Executive Sam Page held a news conference on Monday to talk about the mandate. “Masks help stop the spread of disease,” Jones said. “We came together once to protect each other, and m confident we can do so again.” But news of the renewed requirement to mask up indoors was met almost immediately with pushback from some state and local Republican o cials. hat included members of the county council who suggested they could vote to override the order as soon as Tuesday night. (The order was still in place as of press time on Tuesday.) Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is running for U. . enate, filed a lawsuit

Time to mask up again, St. Louis. | DOYLE MURPHY against the city and county to block the mandate. In response to Schmitt’s suit, Jones said it was “easy to grandstand when your biggest concern is filming your ne t campaign commercial and chasing clout,” adding that she didn’t believe he would succeed.

“I wish that he would put more attention towards serving the people of the state of Missouri instead and holding our health and safety paramount, instead of filing fri olous lawsuits that waste taxpayer dollars,” Jones said. Echols advised, in addition to the masks, to wash hands regularly

and keep a distance when possible. He also encouraged people to get vaccinated, stressing that the vaccine is one of the most effective ways to prevent severe complications and death from COVID-19. Dr. Faisal Khan, acting director of the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, said the health departments are “relentlessly committed to making vaccinations more accessible and convenient.” Khan added that the masks will help slow the spread of COVID-19 until they can get vaccines more readily available. “We must protect our most vulnerable residents as well as children under twelve, who are not yet eligible for vaccinations,” he said in the press release. The release also noted that vaccines reduce hospitalizations by 87 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Find information about vaccination on the county’s website, stlcorona.com, or the city’s, at stlouis-mo.gov/covid-19. n

Gov. Parson Announces $10,000 Vaccine Incentives Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

ith the Delta variant chomping through southwest Missouri, Governor Mike Parson has unveiled a new “Red, White and Blue” incentive program to get more jabs in arms — with a chance to win $10,000. The incentive giveaways are divided into three color-coded groups, meaning that even if you’ve already gotten your shots, you still have, well, a shot at the money: The red group consists of Missourians eighteen years of age and older who receive at least one dose after July 21, while those who have received at least one dose before July 21 are in the white group. A blue group will consist of vaccinated Missourians ages twelve to seventeen who have gotten their doses at any time. And this isn’t just a one-off event: Five rounds of prizes will be announced by October 20, with the first round of drawings scheduled for August 13. Entrants — including those who have

Governor Mike Parson is now pushing vaccine incentives. | VIA GOVERNOR’S OFFICE already been vaccinated — must register for a drawing to be eligible for the prize money. According to the webpage for the giveaways, non-winning entries will be “rolled over” into the next drawing, so entrants will only have to register one time. Each drawing will result in 80 cash winners in the red and white groups. In the blue group, each drawing features twenty winners — though, unlike the red and white groups, the prize money awarded to youth and teens will come in the form of a $10,000 college savings account.

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Last week’s announcement comes little more than a month after Parson derided the efficacy of vaccine incentive programs, telling one reporter, “What it’s going to be when it’s the next thing somebody thinks is a crisis? Is the government going to come in and give you some sort of reward to do that?” But with a highly infectious variant of COVID-19 devastating hospitals in Springfield and Greene County, Parson did not return to that particular flavor of Continued on pg 12

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State Supreme Court Rules for Voter-Approved Medicaid Expansion Written by

RUDI KELLER, MISSOURI INDEPENDENT

issouri must expand Medicaid to 275,000 eligible people who were expecting coverage under a constitutional amendment that took effect July 1, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Thursday. In an unanimous opinion, the court overturned a trial court ruling that the amendment, passed in August 2020, was unconstitutional because it may increase the state’s cost for the Medicaid program. By funding services required by federal law, the state must allow everyone eligible to access those services, the court wrote. “With no ambiguity, the amounts appropriated and other extrinsic evidence cannot be used to alter the plain language of the purposes stated — to fund MO HealthNet without distinguishing between benefits provided to individuals who are eligible as part of the pre-expansion population and those eligible only under” the expansion amendment, the court wrote. The ruling came nine days after the court heard oral arguments on an expedited schedule. In the decision, the court ordered Cole County Circuit Judge John Beetem to issue a new ruling in favor of the plaintiffs who sued to receive coverage. Under the terms of the Medicaid expansion initiative, adults aged 19 to 64 are eligible if their household incomes are 138 percent of the federal poverty guideline or less. That is $17,774 a year for a single person, equal to working about 33 hours a week at the state minimum wage of $10.30 per hour. For a household of four, the limit is $36,570, the income of one person working full time at $17.58 an hour or two people working a combined 68

VACCINE INCENTIVES Continued from pg 11

whataboutism at a news conference. Instead, the governor warned that “unvaccinated Missourians are the primary target of this new strain.” About 47 percent of Missouri residents have received at least one dose, with 40 percent having completed vaccinations, according to the state’s COVID data tracker. Parson said he hoped the incentive program “will encourage Missourians to explore every opportunity available to get vaccinated” — but his remarks also reflected the challenge of reaching people whose beliefs are twisted up in the same misinformation being actively

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Demonstrators outside the Governor’s Mansion. | TESSA WEINBERG/MISSOURI INDEPENDENT hours a week at minimum wage. Prior to Thursday’s ruling, no adult without children was eligible for Medicaid in Missouri unless they have a qualifying condition such as a disability. Adults with children were eligible if their household income is less than about 16 percent of the federal poverty guideline. Nina Canaleo, 38, who earns about $14,000 a year working part-time cleaning a grocery store at night, said she was trying to figure out if she was in a dream when she heard the news of Thursday’s ruling. She couldn’t believe it. “Wow,” Canaleo said. “I’m very happy, that’s what I am.” Canaleo pays steep bills to treat her multiple sclerosis, a chronic nerve disease that is often accompanied by dizziness and numb feet. She purchased health insurance this year after a fundraiser helped her cover the costs of a plan under the Affordable Care Act. She was worried what would come next once the funds finally ran out. Now, she feels relieved. “I’m gonna be able to take care of myself next year without having to have a fundraiser,” Canaleo said, later adding: “Now I don’t have to worry about that.” During arguments before Beetem and again before the high court, John Sauer of Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office urged the courts to go beyond the dollar

boosted by Republican lawmakers. Parson did not call out members of his own party, but he did come close to rebuking the spread of delusional thinking that has undermined attempts to stop people dying from a preventable disease. At the end of his remarks, Parson addressed Missourians directly. He asked them to trust their doctors and to seek out trusted health sources. “Turn off the clutter,” he urged, “the doom-andgloom scenarios that are out there across our state, all the misinformation out there, all the people who have a political agenda to talk about the virus.” For more information on getting a vaccine, registering for the drawing and a list of frequently asked questions, visit covidvaccine.mo.gov/win. n

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amounts for particular services included in the appropriation bills that pay for Medicaid. Sauer argued that the ratio of state funds to federal funds is important because it showed the intent of lawmakers to only fund services for the traditional Medicaid population. Missouri taxpayers cover about 35 percent of the costs for the traditional Medicaid system. The expansion group would receive coverage under the terms of the Affordable Care Act, which requires states to pay only 10 percent of the cost. The opinion stated that the ratio of funding is irrelevant to the question of whether a particular service is funded. “Clearly, the bills fund services to all who are eligible for [Medicaid], and they do not purport to exclude those eligible only pursuant to” the expansion amendment, the opinion stated. The trial court’s ruling was faulty, the Supreme Court stated, because it incorrectly interpreted a constitutional limit on initiatives barring petitions that appropriate state funds. That constitutional provision prohibits an “initiative that authorizes the expenditure and disbursement of a specified amount for a specified purpose without providing new revenue,” the court ruled. “This includes an initiative that deprives the General Assembly of discretion and requires it to appropriate money for the initiative’s purposes.” But lawmakers retain discretion over how much money to spend on Medicaid, the court wrote. Prior to expansion, Medicaid was expected to cost about $12 billion in state and federal funds in the current fiscal year. “The General Assembly maintains the discretion to decide whether and to what extent it will appropriate money for [Medicaid] programs,” the opinion stated. “Even though it is highly possible the General Assembly appropriated less money than MO HealthNet programs are estimated to cost in FY 2022, the consequences of failing to fund MO HealthNet fully at the outset or even with a supplemental appropriation are not before this court because they are not relevant ….” Groups that backed Amendment 2

praised the court’s decision as a boon to the state’s economy and the goal of a healthier state. “It is hard to overstate the positive impact this decision will have on economic growth across the state of Missouri,” Jason Hall, CEO of Greater St. Louis Inc. said in a prepared statement. “The state is expected to see a substantial increase of new high-quality jobs. More hard-working families will have access to health care.” It will mean earlier diagnoses for dangerous illnesses, health care advocates said. “This ruling is a victory in the fight against cancer in Missouri,” said Emily Kalmer, director of government relations for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “We know individuals without health insurance are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer at later, more costly stages and are less likely to survive.” The extra cost of expansion is expected to be more than offset by additional funding available to the state under the American Rescue Plan, the COVID-19 relief bill Congress approved in March. States that have’t expanded Medicaid will be incentivized to do so by cutting the state’s share of the existing program by 5 percent. That change is worth about $1.15 billion to Missouri over the next two years. “As a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling, Missourians across the state will finally be able to realize the health and economic benefits of Medicaid expansion,” said Amy Blouin, president and CEO of the Missouri Budget Project. “State after state has shown that in addition to providing insurance to those eligible, expansion is a fiscal and economic boon to state economies and budgets.” The ruling “is about as concise of a win as you could imagine for the people of the state of Missouri,” said Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence. House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith, R-Carthage, declined to comment on the ruling. Smith opposed spending the $1.9 billion in state and federal funds requested by Governor Mike Parson in January to fund the expansion. “I’ve got to understand the decision first,” Smith said. Attorneys for the three plaintiffs could not be reached immediately for comment. Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office did not respond to an email seeking comment. The ruling echoes what supporters said during debate over this year’s budget. Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden, one of the few Republicans who voted to appropriate funds for Medicaid expansion, predicted Thursday’s result in May. At that time, Rowden, R-Columbia, said he expected the courts to tell the state to provide coverage like it does for every other eligibility category. “I believe the court will do that,” Rowden said. “And when they do, folks in the expansion threshold will be allowed to apply and we will be presented with a very, very large supplemental budget in October, or November, or December.” n

THE BIG MAD EGO FIRST A.G. Eric Schmitt’s nonsense, rocket-measuring contests and Gov. Parson’s payday Compiled by

DANIEL HILL

elcome back to the Big Mad, the RFT’s weekly roundup of righteous rage! Because we know your time is short and your anger is hot: SCHMITT’S VANITY SUIT: It’s hard to know who to root for in Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s lawsuit against St. Louis and St. Louis County over mask mandates. Should you side with health departments ushering people away from shore as a tidal wave approaches, or should you cheer the use of tax dollars spent to boost Schmitt’s senate campaign? Hmm. Maybe we should look at it from another angle: Is it better to support city and county officials tasked with cleaning up the failures of state and national Republicans who’ve undone the sacrifices made by responsible people for more than a year, or an AG who has made losing splashy lawsuits his primary job? Honestly, does it matter? Taxpayers are paying the attorneys on both sides. But no one wants to be a fence-sitter, so maybe err on the side of those making hard decisions and not Schmitt’s auditions for Fox News air time. SPACE DOUCHEBAGS: Listen, we here at the RFT are big fans of space. Aliens, no problem. Moon doing its thing and wobbling a little, cool. But where we draw the line is the billionaires of the world ruining the environment in the world’s dumbest pissing contest. Why race to the edge of space? Because you have too much money? Don’t worry, Jeff Bezos, we’ll all breathe the polluted air you leave behind as you fuck off to the stars. And Bezos has an even better idea — why not just put all of the industries that continuously pollute the planet in space? Because that’s easier than, say, changing practices that dump over 60 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. As Amazon cashes in on the pandemic and its CEO takes a vanity rocket ride, we can be comforted by the fact that the billionaires will be just fine when climate change comes knocking. Millions of Americans are facing eviction, and now we just sit around and wait for Elon Musk to take his turn and colonize Mars while he’s at it.

NO GOVERNMENT HANDOUTS, ER, UNLESS YOU’RE THE GOVERNOR: Our beloved governor has our best interests at heart. Convinced Missourians are lazy, he ended federal employment benefits to motivate us. Remember that time he pointed out how many businesses had “Help Wanted” signs rather than answering a question about low wages? That was to keep Missourians hungry and on the job hunt. Instead of working one shitty minimum wage job, why not work three? When the federal government offers assistance to get citizens of the Show-Me State vaccinated, Parson conjures a made-up image of federal agents forcing vaccines door to door. When the feds tell us we have to abide by federal gun laws, Parson tells them to go to hell, because that eighth grade history class segment on the hierarchy of government means nothing here. In the name of the American Dream, Parson won’t let those pesky government officials give us Missourians what we haven’t worked for, we must earn it. And by us Missourians, well, he’s excluding himself from that. Parson received a $6,288 PPP loan from the government in March, as reported by the Kansas City Star, for his beef cattle ranch. Now that’s a motivating example. ILLINOIS ENVY: We are so jealous of Illinois. We’re living in the Stone Age here in Missouri while they’re just across the river, driving their flying cars. Here in Missouri, everything seems so difficult and prehistoric. Many Missourians refuse the COVID-19 vaccination and even resist wearing masks to protect their families and neighbors from catching a deadly virus. Meanwhile, in Illinois, they have recreational weed and leaders who actually use their brains to make decisions. Can you imagine? Just last week Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed legislation giving Illinoisans access to over-the-counter birth control. Starting January 1, 2022, pharmacists may provide twelve months of birth control (including birth control pills, rings and patches) to customers without a doctor’s prescription. Pharmacists will access eligibility through screening forms and will be trained how to recommend the best family planning for their clients. Pritzker didn’t stop there. On the same day that he signed that bill, he also signed a bill that increases access to telehealth services across Illinois. That means people who need to speak with their doctor won’t have to risk exposing themselves to COVID at an office or hospital for a consultation. Pritzker is forward-thinking and is taking action to provide the people of his state with easier access to birth control and protection from a highly contagious virus. Geez. Must be nice. n

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Reloading Detainees in St. Louis jails protested against dismal conditions. The city went on a pepper-spray buying spree

BY DOYLE MURPHY

t the end of 2020, the City of St. Louis placed an unusually large order for pepper spray to use in its two jails. The city’s public safety department wanted small ip-top canisters, large ones with pistol grips and of what the enton-based manufacturer BR calls its Cell Buster, a -ounce canister outfitted with a hose that guards can use to slip under doors and fill an entire cell with a cloud of stinging chemical irritant in a matter of seconds.

It was the third purchase order of the year, which was in itself a marked increase in frequency from recent years, and it was the largest yet. The total price was $3,347, according to a December 2020 invoice reviewed by the Riverfront Times. For context, that’s about 14 percent more than the previous two orders combined. Life inside the jails had been growing increasingly tense at the time. Thanks to an acti ist-led effort, hundreds of people had been sent home from the jails in the past year to create a little more space and hopefully minimize the spread of C - , but for those left behind, the situation had deteriorated. There were reports of virus outbreaks and healthy detainees trapped near sick ones. In addition, closed courts meant endless stays for defendants, who even in normal times averaged nearly a year inside before cases were decided. And new safety protocols had cut

off family visits and limited detainees’ freedoms even further. No one was happy. A number of the problems could be attributed to the ongoing threat of the virus and a corrections department on its heels, but according to those riding out the pandemic inside, the problems went beyond logistical headaches to good old-fashioned abuse at the hands of guards. In hotlines set up to take in complaints, nonprofit organi ations the Bail Project and ArchCity efenders fielded calls from detainees and their families about aggressive, retaliatory tactics. ArchCity and three other entities later detailed multiple allegations against the city and jail staff, including accusations that guards often punished detainees by shutting off water to units — and using egregious amounts of pepper spray. For the general public, just how bad it had become at city jails first became obvious through two revolts in which detainees seized control of entire units, busted out exterior windows and shouted complaints to the outside world.

ILLUSTRATION BY TYLER GROSS

The sight of men in jail jumpsuits standing in the smoke-filled frames of broken windows, holding homemade torches aloft in the heart of St. Louis, was an embarrassing scene for city leaders, one that was replayed in national and international news co erage. henMayor Lyda Krewson and Director of Public Safety Jimmie Edwards promised to address issues at the jails. A task force created to investigate problems was announced at a news conference as part of the response. Left unsaid, however, was that the city was quietly loading up on pepper spray. Another SABRE invoice shows a February 26 order that dwarfed the ecember order for canisters of varying sizes. Now the city wanted 800 more: 500 of the -ounce ip-top model, of the larger pistol-grip ariety and, perhaps most worrisome to advocates for those incarcerated in city jails, 100 Cell Busters.

o why do St. Louis’ jails need so much pepper spray? “It’s anticipation,” ArchCity Defenders attorney Maureen Hanlon says in an interview. “They’re buying more chemical weapons because they plan to keep using chemical weapons — and at an increased rate.” According to jail policies, pepper spray is to be used only as a last resort to stop a threat, and then only as a way to avoid reacting with even greater, more dangerous force. It is supposed to be a tool that stops a detainee from, for example, attacking a guard or fellow detainee. But that is not the way Hanlon’s clients say it plays out in reality. She and lawyers from Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center, Saint Louis University School of Law Legal

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Clinics and Rights Behind Bars are representing three men in a lawsuit against the city and multiple members of the jail leadership and correctional staff. n the suit, which was filed in May, they allege that pepper spray was a relentless presence at the City Justice Center, regularly used to attack rather than defend. “The use of mace throughout CJC is inescapable given how often CJC staff deploy mace, and in such large quantities,” the suit says. “For example, staff are often seen carrying or deploying large capacity or riot-si ed cans of mace. “Visiting booths often have tangible smell and residue from mace that is openly detectable for hours or days after a macing incident.” One of the plaintiffs in the suit, Derrick Jones, was beaten and maced by corrections o cers in December 2020 for asking to be moved away from a cellmate who he suspected was sick, according to the suit. While in handcuffs, Jones was allegedly pepper sprayed a second time by a supervisor, Lieutenant Javan Fowlkes, and then taken down to a medical unit and locked in a cell there. When Jones pounded on the door, asking for relief from the pepper spray on his face, Fowlkes sprayed him a third time and closed the door, saying, according to the suit, “Let him marinate.” Jones was later placed in solitary confinement and had been there days when the suit was filed in May. That wasn’t an aberration, advocates say.

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Another plaintiff claimed Fowlkes locked him, nude, in a cell and filled the room with mace, lea ing him there for four hours. Still another said jail staff maced him without reason in a isitor s booth and locked him in for nearly a half hour while he begged to be let out and tried to suck clean air through a crack under the door. uring Plaintiffs confinement at the C C, they were subjected to the in iction of pain and suffering by efendants, who used chemical agents (mace) on the detainees without prior warning, and for the purpose of in icting punishment and/or pain and suffering, not for security or safety reasons,” the suit alleges. Outside of their own incidents, the men said they saw corrections o cers mace people for any reason or no reason, opening chuckholes in doors at times and blasting pepper spray into the cells. n the past, federal judges ha e issued multiple orders barring the city s police department from using pepper spray and tear gas as a way to disperse crowds or retaliate against non iolent protesters. (In a preliminary injunction in 2017, U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry wrote, Plaintiffs e idence both ideo and testimony shows that o cers ha e e ercised their discretion in an arbitrary and retaliatory fashion to punish protesters for oicing criticism of police or recording police conduct.”) But there was no such order directed specifically at jail staff, who operate under a separate di ision of the city epartment of Public afety. s such, the pepper spray owed freely at the City Justice Center as well as the Medium Security Institution, or orkhouse, before it was emptied out this spring. And unlike police protests on the street, ad ocates for detainees allege the abuse played out behind closed doors, without news crews and cellphone cameras to show what was happening. The uprisings offered rare glimpses inside.

here were at least two protests within the City Justice Center in ecember, which recei ed modest media co erage. But a mass re olt on the morning of ebruary forced issues at the jail into the national spotlight. More than 100 men housed on the fourth oor took o er two units, bashing out windows, setting fires and calling out

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Revolts at the City Justice Center in February (pictured) and April attracted new attention to issues at the St. Louis jail. | DOYLE MURPHY to lo ed ones and onlookers who gathered below on ucker Bouleard. ail staff, backed up by city police, were e entually able to corral the detainees, who d jimmied malfunctioning locks to escape their cells. “They macing us,” shouted one man from the window before he was taken away.

Edwards, who had resigned weeks before, som wasn t o erseeing the department when it went on its pepper-spray buying spree. But he tells the RFT he was told the e planation is twofold: Not only did corrections o cers run through a lot of canisters that needed to be replaced, they disco ered that a lot of the reser es they did ha e

“Making Grown Men Cry Since 1975!” reads a 2015 marketing brochure. Below and to the right of a collage of grown men, their agonized faces dripping in red-orange spray, is a picture of the Cell Buster. Twenty days later, according to a BR in oice, the pepperspray manufacturer had an order from the city for $17,379 worth of canisters. Less than two months after that, in early April, there was another uprising. Detainees had once again bypassed faulty locks, this time taking o er units on the third oor in another fiery protest. t took hours for jail staff to regain control. By the time it was o er, the smell of pepper spray was so strong that it scratched your throat if you were outside on the street below. nterim Public afety irector an som says it s his understanding that jail staff went through a significant amount of pepper spray during the series of re olts. ppointed in pril by incoming Mayor Tishaura Jones to replace

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were e pired. “There was a lot of the supply that the shelf life was o er and couldn t be used and had been sitting there for a while, so they needed to replenish,” he says. But that doesn t e plain all of it. Hanlon points out that none of the incidents described in their lawsuit occurred during the uprisings. Clients in the jails had reported a rise in e cessi e, puniti e macing during the day-to-day life of the City Justice Center, and the biggest buy, ebruary s order for 800 canisters, occurred well before the second of the two largest re olts. nd while ecember s order was the biggest of , it was also the third of the year. In July 2020, the city ordered 30 of the big pistol-grip canisters for a total of . , preceded by a $1,944 order in January 2020 for

30 Cell Busters. Compare that to a single order in 2019 — $927 for 100 small, -ounce cans and an e en smaller order in 2018 for just four Cell Busters at a cost of . . t s not just that they re buying more canisters,” Hanlon says. t s that they re buying bigger canisters.” t s not clear how many and what size of canisters the city typically keeps on hand for jail staff. som said he wasn t sure, and a mayor s spokesman has not proided answers in follow-up conersations and emails in recent weeks. t s also not clear whether any of the pepper spray used on detainees came from the apparently large cache of e pired canisters — a question Hanlon wonders about. “The detainees and our clients will talk about this really to ic, hea y-duty stuff, she says. ot that the burning, stinging effect of getting maced would be at odds with the intended goal. In marketing materials, SABRE has long bragged about the potency of its sprays. “Making Grown Men Cry Since reads a brochure used to market its line to law enforcement agencies. Below and to the right of a collage of grown men, their agonized faces dripping in red-orange spray, is a picture of the Cell Buster.

he city s jail system could go in a lot of different directions right now. Dale Glass, the Corrections i ision commissioner since 2012, resigned on June 1 in the face of intense Continued on pg 19

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criticism for conditions in the facilities, a major ashpoint following the uprisings. His former boss, immie dwards, had already resigned two months earlier. he departures seemed all but ine itable with a change in administrations. ayor ishaura ones campaigned in part on a promise to close the Workhouse jail and reform corrections as part of a larger reimagining of the city s approach to criminal justice. hile former ayor yda rewson had largely backed corrections leadership and insisted jail conditions were far better than ad ertised, ones made a point of publici ing her tour of the jails alongside U. . Representati e Cori Bush in pril during her first week as mayor. he said she was shocked by what she saw. When Glass handed in his resignation, Jones made it clear she wouldn t miss him ailed leadership o erseeing the city s Corrections i ision has left the city with a huge mess to clean up. How the city proceeds from that rocky changing of the guard will ha e major implications for the future of t. ouis jails and detainees. o far, ones administration has managed to transfer all detainees out of the Workhouse, leaving the -year-old orth Ri erfront neighborhood jail solely as an option for o er ow from the newer City ustice Center downtown. ome held on local charges were moved to CJC, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the federal government has transferred about people held in the city on federal charges to facilities out of state. fforts to reduce the jail population during the pandemic ha e hastened what was already a downward trend, resulting in a total of fewer than detainees at the latest count, a figure that is less than a third of the a erage daily count a decade ago, according to city corrections statistics. he trend of jailing fewer people, particularly those who had been charged with minor crimes but couldn t make bail, is a positive one for advocates of criminal justice reform. But those who are still being held in the City ustice Center are staying longer than e er. fter a brief decline in the middle of the past decade, the a erage number of days for those awaiting trial has risen sharply in the past two-plus years. efendants a eraged days in in city jails, but now they languish for an a erage of days.

t s not just the time inside, but the conditions. here are the physical problems with the facility the re olts re ealed failures of e en basic infrastructure, including faulty cell-door locks, while causing significant damage to units on the third and fourth oors of C C but detainees and their advocates maintain that the true hell of life in a city jail lies in a culture of abuse by staff. n the lawsuit filed in ay, attorneys for the three current and former detainees claim that pepperspraying people and shutting off water to entire units, sometimes for an offense as slight as getting an attitude, became persistent and widespread torture practices employed by staff at C C. Hanlon, the rchCity efenders attorney, took it as a bad sign when in oices gathered as part of the suit showed the city was stocking up on Cell Busters, but she s hopeful the new administration will make meaningful changes. t s a big job for the new public safety director, she says. som, a former t. ouis police chief and the interim public safety director, says the city is changing the way it does things at the jail. ust consolidating operations at C C and reducing the o erall number of detainees will help, particularly with problems of understa ng, he says. He also points to a change in the way detainees complaints are handled hey re now routed to a ci ilian o ersight board for reiew. nd he says the city is in the midst of implementing new training and adjusting policies. hen it comes to pepper spray, he says it should be used sparingly. e hope to use less. nd, speaking generally, he doesn t see the justification for fogging an occupied cell with the stuff a key and repeated allegation in the ongoing lawsuit against the city. don t think that would be appropriate, to fill it with mace, he says in a phone inter iew. But he still sees a place for pepper spray in lieu of other, more aggressive responses. he other side of using mace is hopefully to ha e compliance without using physical force, som says, adding, t can be effecti e in not ha ing to use physical force against someone to get them to comply, which oftentimes could cause injuries to a detainee and the correction o cer. That is, of course, the guidance jail policies ha e gi en staff for years. hether it will be followed remains to be seen and if it s not, the city has plenty of Cell Busters on the shelf. n

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CAFE

[REVIEW]

Tommy Pastrami Nomad chef-owner Tommy Andrew is serving the best pastrami sandwich you’ve ever tasted Written by

CHERYL BAEHR Nomad 1221 Tamm Avenue, 314-696-2360. Wed.Sun. 11 a.m.-8 p.m. (Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.)

ver since Tommy Andrew was a young cook working the line at the iconic Monarch restaurant, people in the industry have been calling him “Tommy Salami.” The name, given to him all those years ago by acclaimed chef Josh Galliano as a nod to his upbringing on the Hill, just rolled off the tongue and stuck — so much that he’s had several people ask him if Salami is his real last name. However, if you’ve dined at Nomad, his year-and-a-half-old restaurant inside Tamm Avenue Bar, you ll wonder why he hasn t o cially changed his name to “Tommy Pastrami.” The stunning meat, Nomad’s signature dish, is not just good; it’s outrageously good. Shockingly good. Unarguably the best pastrami in town — if not the state, or even the entire planet. Brined in toasted herbs, spices, sugar, salt, honey and a number of other secret ingredients, then rubbed with mustard and black pepper before it is smoked, the pastrami has layers and layers of a or far beyond the one-dimensional black pepper heat typical of the deli staple. Even with all of the different ingredients going on, the predominant tastes that strike you are smoke and beef — brisket that’s so marbled it slicks the tongue with the fat that lingers after the first bite. How you could ever associate this man with any other type of processed meat is incomprehensible. This is precisely what Andrew wanted. or fi e years, the long-

Whether you choose the Dumpster Fire (left) or pastrami sandwich (right), you’ll leave Nomad happy. | MABEL SUEN time chef has dreamed of opening a sandwich spot — but not just any sandwich spot. He wanted to have the sort of place that had a thing, and there was no question that his place was where you’d go for it. It made sense that pastrami would be that thing for Nomad. A selfdescribed pastrami lover, Andrew had been perfecting his recipe for years, going through about a hundred iterations of the dish before he felt he d finally gotten it right. Once he had it locked down, he knew that he did not simply want to make it into a great sandwich; he wanted to build a restaurant around it. Andrew would get that opportunity when his friend Bob Brazell approached him about opening up a food concept inside his Dogtown bar, Tamm Avenue Bar. Brazell, who also owns Byrd & Barrel and the Tenderloin Room, had been thinking about filling the food void left behind when Tamm’s previous tenant, Mac’s Local Eats, left to open inside Bluewood Brewing. For Brazell, there was no question that Andrew was the one to take over

his bar’s kitchen; for Andrew, it was the ideal location for what he wanted to do. After going over the details and chatting about the form the shop would take, the two sealed the deal and converted the space to Nomad, which opened in February 2020. As Andrew tells it, Nomad launched at the worst possible time to open a restaurant, but it was the best type of restaurant to open for the time. With a carryout-friendly menu, casual concept and location inside an alreadyestablished bar, his business was able to survive the two-month shutdown and subsequent challenges that arose because of the pandemic. The time off also allowed him to rethink his original opening vision. Though he debuted with a much larger menu, he quickly realized that he was overly ambitious and trimmed many of the offerings to focus on some core items. He also reconfigured the space. Whereas Mac’s had operated through a tiny window where guests would walk up and order, Andrew understood the logistical

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nightmare that presented for the bar. With food patrons crammed in a small hallway between the window and the bar and a line that snaked around the bar to the front door, it made things really tight. He realized right away that the best way to operate would be to close the window and convert the adjacent space that Mac’s had used as a grocery store into a dedicated area for Nomad. Doing all the work himself, Andrew created an ample, counter-service space, adorned with plants and modern western-style animal figurines, that allows people to congregate comfortably. Though Nomad’s customers can find comfort in the space, the anticipation for the food that Andrew serves out of its still-tiny kitchen is almost unbearable. His pastrami is the backbone of the menu, appearing on a number of items, including the signature pastrami sandwich. For this monstrous mouthful, he piles the meat on top of marble rye bread with melted Swiss cheese and tangy “special sauce,” which tastes like less chunky, chili-sauce-

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Chef-owner Tommy Andrew. | MABEL SUEN

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infused Russian dressing. It’s an impossibly wonderful sandwich — one where you wonder why anyone would order anything else at the restaurant. But he doesn’t stop there. The pastrami is also featured on the Double Deuce, which is a thin, grass-fed beef smash burger patty (you can opt for as many patties as you’d like) topped with the cured and smoked meat, swiss cheese and special sauce, all stacked onto a pillow-soft brioche bun. It sounds over the top, but the pastrami is akin to putting bacon on a burger, the thin slices of meat adding both a or and fat to the patty. He takes this same approach with the pastrami poutine, a pile of fries that are magically crispy on the outside and as soft as mashed potatoes on the inside. The fries are covered in seasoned white gravy and molten Provel cheese, then topped with scallions and crumbles of pastrami that Andrew describes as the burnt ends of the meat that break off when he slices it. He takes these glorious meaty bits, fries them and covers the fries with them for an outrageously decadent dish. However, Andrew is no onetrick pony. His Dumpster Fire sandwich involves no pastrami whatsoever but is still incredible. Here, he takes two mouthwatering patties of ground heritage pork, pairs them with bacon and pimento cheese and stacks them on brioche. cauli ower gyro is an exciting surprise for such a meat-

centric place as Nomad, placing the roasted vegetable as the centerpiece of an intensely a orful egetarian option filled with cucumbers, olives, red onions, tomatoes, feta and a searing-hot roasted poblano tzatziki. Brussels sprouts are another hit; instead of simply roasting them, Andrew fries the sprouts until the outside gets a wonderful crispy texture, then tosses them with deliciously funky kimchi and sesame seeds. The earth of the Brussels and the kimchi combined with the spice make for a powerfully a orful dish. If the pastrami is the must-try sandwich, Andrew’s arancini is Nomad’s must-order appetizer. The cheesy risotto balls are unbelievably creamy and seasoned throughout with crumbles of Italian sausage that are potent enough to add a or but crumbled so small as to not impact the velvety texture of the interior. The accompanying roasted red pepper marinara, piquant and seasoned with herbs, pairs beautifully with the sausage s robust a or. Dishes like the arancini and the Brussels sprouts are clear nods to ndrew s fine-dining background. But the care he takes with every last dish demonstrates his prowess as a chef and why he’s earned a place in the conversation as one of the most exciting talents in the city’s culinary scene — and that pastrami shows why he’s earned a new nickname.

Nomad Pastrami sandwich ................................... $12 Cauliflower gyro ....................................... $11 Salsiccia arancini ....................................... $8 • Carry-out and dine-in inside Tamm Avenue Bar

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SHORT ORDERS

[ S T. L O U I S S TA N D A R D S ]

Old Ways Volpi rose from immigrant roots to become part of St. Louis’ fabric Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

n the early 1900s, it wasn’t that uncommon for families to receive the sort of life-changing request that Armando Pasetti’s parents in Italy got from America, but it was still jarring. Their relative, Giovanni Volpi, had started a salami business in St. Louis after immigrating to the United States in 1899. He and his wife could not have children of their own, and they needed an heir to train and take over for them when the time came. They sent a letter to Mrs. Volpi’s family, the Pasettis, back in a small town outside of Milan, asking them to send over one of their children. As tradition dictated, they obliged. “They chose my dad,” says Lorenza Pasetti, CEO of Volpi Foods. “He was the youngest, so it made sense. His older brothers were already established and spoken for, and they weren’t going to send his sister, because they weren’t going to put a girl in that job at the time. He was fourteen years old when they put him on a boat to New York and then on a train to St. Louis. He didn’t speak the language, and because of World War II, he couldn’t even go back to visit his family for ten years. It was really scary for him at first. Little Armando may not have had a choice in the matter, but the moment he got to St. Louis, he embraced his new life as the heir of Volpi Foods. By the time he arrived in the 1930s, the salumeria was already an established part of the Hill, having been founded by Giovanni at the turn of the 20th century as a salami-making operation out of his friends’ basement. Prior to immigrating to the United States, Giovanni had spent several years honing his craft in his hometown and was an expert sausage-maker; it took little time for word of his prowess to

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The old and new blend seamlessly at Volpi Foods more than 100 years after the business opened in St. Louis. | ANDY PAULISSEN spread through the Italian neighborhood, and in 1902, he opened the Volpi storefront and expanded his product line to include coppa, then eventually prosciutto and pancetta. Armando had big shoes to fill, but he was up for the challenge and took over the business from Giovanni in the late 1950s. He worked morning, noon and night in a craft that may not have been of his choosing but meant the world to him nonetheless. If Armando was quick to embrace his calling as Volpi’s heir, Lorenza Pasetti was less so. Growing up in the family business meant she was often called on to package products when she’d rather be hanging out with her friends at the pool, and she laughs when she recalls how she used to dread news that the business had received orders. However, even as her teenage self resisted, she knew she was being primed to one day take over for her father. Less than a calling, it seemed more like fate. “I think my parents just expected it,” Pasetti says. “When you are the child of immigrant parents, the world is a little bit different, and you look at the responsibility to your family a little bit differently. At that time, I didn’t say, ‘No way am I going to do this,’ because

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Lorenza Pasetti and her daughter, Deanna, keep the family tradition going. | ANDY PAULISSEN there’s no way I would’ve been able to.” After going to graduate school for business, Pasetti returned to Volpi prepared to embrace her destiny and take over from her father when he was ready to retire. That transition happened in 2002, and she’s been steering the ship ever since, trying to balance the need to stay current with the respect for the artisanal way of doing things. As she explains, Vol-

pi has been around since before refrigeration; in fact, that lack of cold preservation is why curing meat e ists in the first place. s such, there is little the company can — or wants to — do to change the process. “It’s the original slow food,” Pasetti says. However, she has made changes where she can. Last year, the company launched its “Raised Responsibly” program, a stringent set of

J’s Pitaria Debuts Frozen Pita Line Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

our years ago, Jose and Zamir Jahic opened J’s Pitaria (91 Concord Plaza Shopping Center, Affton; 314270-8005) as a tiny storefront off Morgan Ford in the shadow of the Bevo Mill. Now, the husband-and-wife team have not only moved into a larger location in Affton but are getting ready to launch a line of frozen pita that will bring the traditional Bosnian dish into the home kitchens of people throughout St. Louis and beyond. “We wanted to give back to our customers with the frozen line,” says Josi Jahic. “We’ve always wanted to because we’ve had so many requests from people who want to bake it at home, but we couldn’t do it. Now, we have this new technology that freezes the pita in seconds, so we started thinking about how we could do it.” The new frozen line features four different types of pita — meat, cheese,

self-imposed standards meant to guarantee that the customer is getting the best product possible by using the highest-quality raw materials. The brand has also revamped its packaging, committing to using more environmentally friendly materials in an effort to decrease its carbon footprint. One thing that hasn’t changed — besides the products — is the family nature of the business. Pasetti’s two daughters and son all work at Volpi, and she sees it as her responsibility to keep that legacy going. Though she’s seen many changes in the industry over the years, she and her children feel a sense of excitement at their customers’ willingness to embrace their old way of doing things — something she hopes the Pasetti family will be able to do for generations to come. “I think that the renaissance of people finding out about how good fermented and dried products are and how versatile they can be reinvigorates you and drives you to recreate yourself, the business and the products, and that constant improvement is part of the company’s DNA. It’s really motivating.” n

J’s Pitaria is launching a line of frozen Bosnian pita that will be available for pick-up at their Affton restaurant. | COURTESY OF J’S PITARIA potato, and spinach and cheese — that can be ordered through the J’s Pitaria website and picked up at the restaurant. Guests can also order the frozen line onsite and take the products home immediately, depending on availability. Curbside pickup will also be accommodated. Though the COVID-19 pandemic has presented many challenges to J’s Pitaria, Jahic says that it forced her and Zamir to get creative in order to sustain their

business. Over the course of the past year, she found herself cooking a lot at home, and she began experimenting with the frozen pita line with the help of her large family. Through trial and error, she figured out the perfect combination of cooking time and oven temperature that recreated the fresh-baked pita experience she and her husband produce in the restaurant. Confident that they could give their customers a high-quality prod-

uct, they decided to run with it. “Being in a crisis was nothing new for us,” Jahic says. “We’ve been through war, moving here, learning a new culture and a new language. Having gone through that really helped us not get into panic mode, but into a mode where we said, ‘OK, this is a crisis. Let’s figure out what we can do to make it better.’ We have to figure out how to do things differently and how to adjust to the new normal.” Though that new normal is currently limited to the in-store pickup option, Jahic hopes that J’s Pitaria can expand to grocery stores, first in the St. Louis area and eventually nationwide. She knows the demand is there; the restaurant regularly sells out of the pita and has a hard time keeping up because the dish is handmade. And because the pita is so approachable, she believe that demand will only grow the more people know about it. “People think that the only people who eat this are those who have grown up with it, but that’s not the case,” Jahic says. “We’ve had an amazing response with everyone loving them because they are so delicious. Our vision is to get into stores here, and the next step would be to get this into stores nationwide. That’s our dream and where we see ourselves going.” n

Brew in the Lou Is Coming Back Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

ne of St. Louis’ most popular beer festivals is back. Brew in the Lou, a celebration of local and regional craft beer, will return to Francis Park this October. The event, which was cancelled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic — is scheduled for Saturday, October 9, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Lily Pond inside the popular St. Louis Hills park. For $40 ($50 the day of the event), guests receive a commemorative glass and can experience unlimited tastings from local Brew in the Lou, one of St. Louis’ most popular beer festivals, returns to Francis Park this October. | and regional breweries. Guests can also COURTESY LUTHERAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ASSN purchase a VIP pass for $100, which includes food and beverage offerings, Organizers have not yet announced One Brewery, Schlafly Beer, Rockwell as well as access to private bathrooms. The annual event is hosted by the Lu- the lineup of breweries and food outlets Beer Co. and O’Fallon Brewery. Other theran Elementary Schools Association, that will be on site at the event. Howev- vendors, including St. Louis Distillery, an organization of 34 Lutheran schools er, the 2019 Brew in the Lou attracted Narwhal’s Crafted and Volpi Foods, in the St. Louis area. Proceeds from more than 100 craft breweries, restau- were also at the 2019 event. For more information on Brew in the Brew in the Lou go to providing scholar- rants and craft artisans, and featured ships and educational services for LESA 45 local and regional craft breweries. Lou and to purchase wristbands, you can n Participating breweries included Square visit the LESA website, lesastl.org. students of all faiths.

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REEFERFRONT TIMES

[REVIEW]

Honey Bears and Pineapples Don’t pass on these silly, beautiful bongs Written by

JACK PROBST

ow that marijuana is legal for medical use in Missouri and entirely legal in many other states, you can enjoy your high in a plethora of ways, which seems preferable to the days when you had to know a guy who knew a guy whose brother sold the cheapest and worst ditch weed that might even contain spider eggs (a true story). Today, you can enjoy your weed in beverages, chocolates, fruit gummies, candies and syrups — if you can name it, they have probably figured out a way to put pot in it. But when it comes to smoking weed the old-fashioned way, discovering the right smoking accessories to invest in can become a journey. These days, there are an infinite number of de ices to try, depending on how you want to enjoy that sticky goodness. Some gadgets are complicated rigs that promise to give you the cleanest puff of smoke on the market. (Well, the cleanest considering you’re still inhaling smoke into your lungs.) Other implements are designed to be stupid as hell and might be crafted to look like Rick Sanchez from Rick & Morty. For this review, I decided to focus on a couple of unusual bongs. For those new to all this, a quick primer: To smoke from a bong, you put your mouth over the hole in the neck while lighting the weed you place in the small bowl at the bottom. Water contained inside cools the smoke, which makes for a smoother hit. ou suck in the ame, igniting the weed and creating smoke that travels up the neck. After a second

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If you’re in the market for new smoking accessories, why not go for something interesting? | JACK PROBST or two, you remove the bowl (or let your finger off the carb hole depending on the design), and the built-up smoke will travel up into your lungs. I decided to track down the silliest pipe I could on short notice and came up with the Silicon Pineapple Bong by SoCal Arch, whose not-at-all-suspicious tagline is “Waterbeds ‘n’ Stuff” (waterbedsnstuff.com). I was able to purchase this locally at the Ascend Dispensary in Fairview Heights (letsascend.com/home) for $25. It’s available in yellow, green and marble swirls. It’s just a bit bigger than a mug of coffee. It is truly the silliest yet extremely functional bong I’ve ever owned. The body of the Pineapple is made entirely of silicon, save for the bowl and a small magnetic part to hold the dab tool, which is basically a thin metal scooper. A secret compartment pops out of the bottom that doesn’t appear to have a function other than maybe holding a small amount of your stash. t s effortless to fill with water, and I found it best to throw some ice cubes in there to make it feel like I was holding a tropical drink. I enjoyed grasping this ridiculous thing in my hand when I lit it up. It looks so stupid in the best ways. (For maximum summer-

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party effect, throw on a crazy Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses and lay in a mini pool in the sun!) Upon the first hit, noticed that the bowl gets easily wedged in the base and is di cult to remo e. However, with a simple design, I found it just as effective to smoke through it without removing the bowl for air ow. If you’re looking for a small party bong that won’t break your weed budget, the Silicon Pineapple Bong is the one for you. Recently, I found a more ornamental bong from Portland, Oregon’s Candy Relics (candyrelics. com), the Honey Bear Bubbler ($160). While not a bong in the traditional sense, the ceramic Honey Bear still has a long neck that usually appears on one. It also doesn’t have a removable bowl stem like you might be familiar with seeing. Instead, the bowl has a carb hole on the left side, much like the ones you may see on standard glass pipes you might purchase at any head shop. It helps to improve air ow when you take a hit off it. The main base is modeled after one of those plastic bears you buy honey in. This bubbler is adorable as all get out, and with its gold-colored topper, it makes for a discreet piece of art to put on your shelf for when your parents come over. But, of course, they’ll never notice that

it’s a drug accessory (I mean, unless they look at it closely). The Honey Bear comes in eight colors, though currently, half of those choices are sold out. We were lucky enough to pick up the turquoise, which is beautiful even without a glaze on the ceramic. It’s also worth checking out some of Candy Relic’s other pieces like the Soda Can Pipe, harking back to your teenage days when you had to make do with what you had, be that a soda can or an apple. We absolutely adore the Honey Bear in our home, both as a conversation piece with hip guests and for its functional reasons. The bong hits smooth, and I found that clearing out the smoke that gets pulled up into the neck is much easier when using the carb hole than other bongs that require the bowl to be removed. The only downside comes from the hands of the user. Make sure to always keep the bong upright because it is far too easy to tip the water out of the hole or to thoroughly soak your weed. ha e definitely ne er gotten too stoned and tipped it over multiple times. If you’re looking to invest a bit of money in a lovely bong that makes your weed habit look a bit classy yet playful, the Honey Bear is the sweetest choice you can make. n

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CULTURE

Slayyyter may be a rising star living in L.A., but she’s still an Imo’s-loving St. Louisan at heart. | PROVIDED

[Q&A]

Slayyying St. Louis An interview with Kirkwood native and rising pop star Slayyyter Written by

JACK PROBST

layyyter looks downright intimidating online. The pop singer has an immense following on Twitter, which is a place that makes it hard to see where an artist’s persona starts and their authentic self ends. Add in a popular new album

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and an international tour on the calendar, and you might guess the rising start had all but left us commoners behind. Originally from Kirkwood, Slayyyter got her start producing music on her laptop during her sole year attending Mizzou. She was first noticed when a short clip of her track “Mine” went viral on Twitter, amassing over 200,000 views. The title track from her new album has hit over 2 million streams on Spotify. Now, living in Los Angeles, she describes her music as -in uenced dancepop,” but it’s that and so much more. The songs on her new album, Troubled Paradise, are sometimes funny, but others are heartbreaking. She has a song called “Throatzilla,” about, well, you can probably guess. That all feels so overwhelming and distressing. Turns out, though, Slayyyter is still a Midwesterner at heart, loves her hometown and is a joy

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to talk to.

town?

RFT: I was concerned you might not want to talk about St. Louis at all.

I think downtown Kirkwood is such a cute little area, but when I turned 21 and started to drink, I started going to the Grove quite a bit with friends. I think if I would have stayed living in St. Louis, I probably would have lived in the Tower Grove area because I think all the apartments and everything is so cute over there.

Slayyyter: No, oh my gosh, I have way too much hometown pride for my own good, so I’m very excited. You grew up in Kirkwood. What was that like for you? It was a very suburban upbringing. My family has lived in the same house my whole life, in a little suburb of Kirkwood. Me and my sister did the classic St. Louis Catholic school thing for grade school, and then I ended up going to Kirkwood High for high school. I feel like being from such a suburban place and not a major city made me really crave pop culture and things that kind of led me to doing music later on. Do you have a favorite neighborhood to hang out in when you’re in

Is there anywhere else in town you like going to? I feel very nerdy to be proud of the history of St. Louis. I think the whole 1904 World’s Fair thing is so cool. My grandparents took us to the Muny a lot, and I always loved the paddle boats. I spent a lot of time going to the art museum in high school. I feel like the Forest Park area is just so beautiful. People don’t get it, but I feel like as soon as you get some Imo’s Pizza in their mouths, they’re like,

“Oh, this place is pretty damn cool,” you know? I feel like I’m just naming off these businesses, but growing up around it they’re so integral to my childhood. The Custard Station was a nice family spot. I have such funny memories of being a little kid, getting a swirl cone and watching the train go by. It kind of makes me feel sad even when I talk about all of it. Oh my gosh, I haven’t been home in so long. Your sound is really big, and I didn’t imagine something like this would have come out of St. Louis. Honestly, it’s funny. I feel like when I started my music project, I was really shy about doing live shows. here are definitely music scenes that go on in St. Louis, but I feel like when I started my little project, I didn’t know how to perform it live. I didn’t have someone that could DJ it for me. I really just grew it online, and I missed out on the whole underground live music scene just because I was too shy to get into it and kept it to myself. I felt like pop music was not going to be people’s thing they wanted to listen to when they’re going out at night. I was such a pop music nerd and fan. I’m very particular about the way I wanna do things. I was like, “I don’t wanna do a show until I can have a balloon drop and I can do all this crazy stuff,” and that’s exactly what I did. I waited until there was enough interest, and I could have a crystal costume and do a full pop music show. I feel like I didn’t really pay my dues in a way like every band and artists or rapper or R&B artist. You play small clubs, and then you work your way up, but I wanted to skip all that so I could have a major debut moment. Going back to food, are there any favorites that you have to have because you can’t find them anywhere else? One of my favorite bars and food places is the Gramophone. I swear, the Red Hot Riplets mac and cheese … I think about that so much. The food culture in St. Louis has come up, and there’s so many amazing restaurants. The chefs in St. Louis really know their shit. Like, Seoul Taco is something I crave all the time. I’m obsessed with the hot salami sandwich from Gioia’s Deli.

I’m obsessed with Imo’s Pizza and, of course, toasted ravioli. And I think Rooster is one of my favorite breakfast places. Are there any St. Louis traditions you miss? I feel like Midwest culture is different. The food and the family and the music and everything and hearing the cicadas chirping in summertime. There’s something really special about all of it that I get super homesick for. Fourth of July is like probably one of my favorite holidays from childhood just because the orest Park firework display was so beautiful, so, definitely will miss that. Are you happy to have left St. Louis? I never really had full plans to move [to LA] just because I was like, “If I can live rent-free at my mom’s house and have all my friends in the same place, why would I ever go anywhere?” I came out here in February of 2020 for a writing trip, then COVID happened, and I had no idea I would get locked here in one place. Then I ended up just moving. I was very much in the mindset of “I’ll never leave St. Louis.” I feel like I have so many friends who couldn’t wait to get out of the small-town kind of thing, but I always [was] the opposite. I always wanted to be the biggest pop star still living in St. Louis, still doing my thing, and it feels kind of like you re a small fish in a big pond coming to LA. Everything with music is out here for sure, but nothing beats certain things about being home and going to Cardinals games with my sister and all that. Is there anyone that you want to work with that you haven’t gotten to yet? Um, I promise I’m not just saying this because I’m talking to you today, this is something I’ve been telling like everyone on my team, but I want to do a Nelly collab as like a funny … I think because I love Y2K pop culture and him being one of the biggest artists of the Y2K times and also from St. Louis, I feel like it is the most perfect collab idea. So hopefully I can make a song that will maybe spark his interest, and we will see, but that is probably my dream collab. n

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HELP WANTED ST. LOUIS AND SURROUNDING AREAS

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MAY 12-18, 2021

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CALENDAR

THE WEEK OF JULY 28-AUGUST 3

depending on whether you want to stay shoreside, BYOBoat or rent a canoe or kayak for an hour. Make sure to dress for the weather and bring a lawn chair so you can sit by a bonfire once you re all rowed out. Tickets and more details are available through eventbrite.com. Get Even Closer to Nature: Proceeds from the event support the Open Space Council, an organization working to conserve land, water and natural resources throughout the St. Louis region, according to its website. With every ticket purchased, the council will plant one tree in a St. Louis County park, and event attendees can purchase additional trees to be planted. —Victor Stefanescu

FRIDAY, JULY 30 3 of 5 and Big-Step 8 p.m. Friday, July 30. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Avenue. $10. 314-352-5226. Star Trek cosplaying trio 3 of 5 is beaming aboard the USS Heavy Anchor with Big-Step this Friday for a fantastic night of lo-fi glitchy electropop. 3 of 5’s captain, the incomparable Andrew Garces, wields a synth program on his Nintendo 3DS to create bouncy, sad love songs that are catchy as hell. There isn’t a better act in the city to follow them than the electrically charged Big-Step. They’ll be boldly going where no person has gone before (for at least the past few months the dance oor. o grab your phasers and your transporters. It’s time to get out, vaxxed St. Louis, to seek out new life and new civilizations in the Bevo area. For a modest fee of just ten space bucks, which is coincidentally $10 American, you’ll get tons of nerdy songs about love, robots, video games, aliens, space and so much more. And don’t forget: Keep watching the skies! (Sorry, I’ve run out of Star Trek references.) Set Phasers to Stunning: Both acts have released a handful of songs between each other since the beginning of the year on Bandcamp, so you might hear a few songs that haven’t been played live before. We all miss going to shows, and what better way to start seeing live music again than by supporting some weird and fun local acts. I’m sure they’d be overjoyed if you came in costume! —Jack Probst

Syna So on the Air 8 p.m. Friday, July 30. Public Media Commons in Grand Center, 3653 Olive Street. $10. Tickets available via stlpr.org/events. St. Louis on the Air is a local show on St. Louis Public Radio that tackles local issues, culture, technology and anything related to this great city that guests want to talk about. Maybe you are already a fan of host (and ex-RFT editor in chief) Sarah Fenske. This Friday, St. Louis on the Air takes things out of the studio and after its normal live broadcast hours for an entire evening with the unparalleled Syna So Pro, a.k.a. Syrhea

Vote on your favorite hole at Golf the Galleries. | RAY MARKLIN

Syna So Pro is one of the city’s most creative and ambitious musicians. | VIA FPE RECORDS Conaway. Conaway is a unique performer who utilizes loops and pedals in her music. Songs build as she plays each part, spinning them back on themselves over and over. It all builds into beautiful soundscapes. It’s something you must see if you haven’t yet witnessed it. She’ll perform at this show and have a conversation with Fenske about her art and how she composes it. Chill/Hype: Check out more of Syrhea Conaway’s music and videos at synasopro.com. Listening to her music is one thing that surely will persuade you to go, because seeing her set up the loops on each track makes the songs that much better. —Jack Probst

Paddle After Dark 7 p.m. Friday, July 30. Simpson County Park, 1234 Marshall Road. $25 to $50. It’s pretty much your idealistic, starlit summer-camp experience, except with some brewskies and live music. At Paddle After Dark, enjoy the opportunity to row around on Simpson Lake in Valley Park, just after the sun sets. A live band will be rocking out on the shore, and 4 Hands Brewing Co. will provide two beers or nonalcoholic bevs to all ticket holders. You also get two pretzel sticks from Gus’ and a make-yourown s’mores packet. Ticket prices vary from $25 to $50 before fees,

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SATURDAY, AUGUST 1 Golf the Galleries Daily through September 5. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Boulevard. $5 to $10. 314-533-9900. Miniature golf with a big twist of creativity is back at the Sheldon in the form of the fourth-annual Golf the Galleries. Tucked inside the gallery space at the Sheldon, each of the nine holes is designed by local artists. Players can putt their way through a series of colorful, bizarre and ludicrous creations, ranging from a giant chess board to an arrangement from Washington University designers featuring “humorous casts of their own heads on pedestals.” Other designs include the physics-inspired “P.U.t.t-Perceptions of Uncertaintees” and an interactive installation titled “Nest,” which according to the museum website “invites golfers to help create a nest with yarn and other materials, supplied along with their putters and balls.” After they’re done sinking shots, players can vote on their favorite golf hole, with the winning artist receiving a $1,000 prize. Tee Time: The event runs through September 5, with tickets available for purchase on MetroTix at $10 for adults and $7 for children twelve and under. Walk-ins are also welcome, though visitors should check the Sheldon website for availability at thesheldon.org before making the trip. —Danny Wicentowski

JULY 28-AUGUST 3, 2021

Listings on pg 32

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Out Every Night Strap that mask back on and keep your head up Compiled by

DANIEL HILL THURSDAY 29

DYLAN “DT” TRIPLETT BAND: 7 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. ERIC MCSPADDEN & MARGARET BIENCHETTA: 4:30 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. FIONA SCOTT: 7:30 p.m., $20. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. JAY STEVENS: 8 p.m., $20-$28. Helium Comedy Club, 1151 St. Louis Galleria Saint Louis Galleria Mall, Richmond Heights, 314-727-1260. MAGNOLIA BOULEVARD: 8 p.m., $12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. MATT STELL: w/ Chris Bandi 7 p.m., free. The actory, uter Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500. MISS JUBILEE: 8 p.m., $15. Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave, St. Louis. MODERN ANDY: w/ Brutal Art of Stabbing, Tat Songs 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. ODDSOUL AND THE SOUND: w/ Tim Leavy and the Grifters 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. PAIGE ALYSSA & RYAN MARQUEZ: 7 p.m., free. Evangeline’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644. ROAST WAR CHAMPIONSHIP: 8 p.m., $15. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. VOODOO BOB MARLEY: 7 p.m., $15-$18. The Stupp Center at Tower Grove Park, 3616 Southeast Drive, St. Louis.

FRIDAY 30

3 OF 5: w/ Big-Step 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. CLOWNVIS PRESLEY: w/ Elektodinosaur 8 p.m., $15. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. COLT BALL: 4:30 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. DAKOTA PAGAN: 7:30 p.m., $25. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. KEESHEA PRATT BAND: 10 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. LARRY FLEET: 7 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. MURDER CITY PLAYERS: 7 p.m., $12. The Stupp Center at Tower Grove Park, 3616 Southeast Drive, St. Louis. ROCKY MANTIA & KILLER COMBO: 7 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. SAUCE: w/ Cook Crvk, Verifyd, Zamm 2 Turnt, Geo Davis, Bighomie Ka$$, Queen Kenya 8 p.m., $10-$15. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. TAYLOR SCOTT: 8 p.m., $12-$15. Blueberry Hill The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

SATURDAY 31

ALL ROOSTERED UP: noon, free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. THE BLACK CROWES: 7:30 p.m., $29-$250. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944. BLACK PISTOL FIRE: 8 p.m., $20-$25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. BLUES CITY SWING: 7 p.m., free. Evangeline’s,

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512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644. CHERYL BROWN: 8 p.m., $25-$30. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. CHICAGO FARMER & THE FIELDNOTES: 7 p.m., $13. The Stupp Center at Tower Grove Park, 3616 Southeast Drive, St. Louis. CREE RIDER: 7 p.m., $11. The Focal Point, 2720 Sutton Blvd, St. Louis, 314-560-2778. FIGHT BACK MOUNTAIN: w/ Young Animals 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. KILBORN ALLEY BAND: 3 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. LUCERO: w/ John Henry 7 p.m., $20-$25. Chesterfield mphitheater, eterans Place ri e, Chesterfield. THE POTOMAC ACCORD ALBUM RELEASE: 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. SAINT BOOGIE BRASS BAND: 10 p.m., $8. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. SUZIE CUE: 6 p.m., $5. STL Style, 3159 Cherokee St, St. Louis, 314-898-0001. THIS IS ME BREATHING: w/ Bardock, As Earth hatters, Co n it p.m., . Red lag, Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. WATERMELON SLIM: 7 p.m., $20. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

SUNDAY 1

’68: 7:30 p.m., $15. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. THE EXTRA 3: 9 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. JERRY’S BIRTHDAY BASH: 1 p.m., $15. The Stupp Center at Tower Grove Park, 3616 Southeast Drive, St. Louis. SKEET RODGERS & INNER CITY BLUES: 3 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. THE USUAL SUSPECTS: 7 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

MONDAY 2

JOSH POTTER: 8 p.m., $20-$28. Helium Comedy Club, 1151 St. Louis Galleria Saint Louis Galleria Mall, Richmond Heights, 314-727-1260. MINDFUL MONDAY: 7 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. SOULARD BLUES BAND: 9 p.m., $5. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

TUESDAY 3

(HED)P.E.: w/ Murder Machine, Ground Control, Powjr72 7 p.m., $20. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. BLACKBERRY SMOKE: w/ The Allman Betts Band, The Wild Feathers, Jaimoe 6 p.m., $30.50$160.50. St. Louis Music Park, 750 Casino Center Dr., Maryland Heights, 314-451-2244. ERIKA JOHNSON & FRIENDS: 7 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. FOO FIGHTERS: w/ Radkey 7:30 p.m. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944. SINGERS OPEN MIC NIGHT: w/ Meghan Kirk, Ron McGowan 7 p.m., free. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. STEVE BAUER & MATT RUDOLPH: 9 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

WEDNESDAY 4

AG CLUB: w/ Sam Truth, ICECOLDBISHOP, Payday 8 p.m., $20-$25. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. BIG RICH MCDONOUGH & THE RHYTHM RENEGADES: 7 p.m., $15. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. OK KARAOKE: 8 p.m., free. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. SEAN CANAN’S VOODOO PLAYERS: 9 p.m., $10. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. WEDNESDAY NIGHT JAZZ JAM: w/ Bob DeBoo 6 p.m., free. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367. n

SAVAGE LOVE CRABS BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: I’m a gay male in my 40s, and I’ve been married to my husband for nine years. There was some mild infidelity on his part (exchanging photos and flirting via text with another guy) early in our relationship. I confronted him at the time, and he lied to me. I decided to let it go, as it was early in the relationship. Fast forward a few years and he gets crabs and gives them to me. He told me it was most likely from the volunteer work he does in a homeless shelter. I let it go again. Fast forward another couple years and I’m feeling insecure and look on his iPad, and find confirmation that he was sleeping with the guy he’d exchanged photos and flirty texts with early in our relationship. This sent me into a severe depression. All my concerns over the years were confirmed, and further sleuthing revealed there was another guy he was fucking around with as well. He admitted to all of this only after I showed him the proof. I chose to forgive and forget. The pain was too much to deal with and I just wanted to move on and get back to our lives. At the time we talked about having an open relationship and I told him I was cool with that, but I wasn’t cool sharing my life with someone who lies to me so easily. We mutually decided that opening the relationship wasn’t a great idea and never really discussed it again. I’m happy I decided to move past this because the last four years have been great. We never fight, our sex life is good, we have a wonderful home and social life. I hadn’t felt the need to sleuth on his devices in years. I felt secure in our relationship. Then two weeks ago I discovered he has crabs (again) after he gave them to me (again). He says he has no idea how he got them. This has obviously brought his history of lying and cheating back to the forefront and I’m questioning so many things. I feel like the only way I’ll ever get the truth is if I find proof and fuck that. I’m not going back to scouring his phone and devices. If I’m staying, I’m staying. But should I stay? Are all past infidelities moot at this point because we’ve put them be-

hind us? Can this new case of crabs be viewed in isolation? Can people get genital area crab infestations during a non-sensual massage? Or am I the idiot whose husband has been fucking around on him the whole time we’ve been together? Scratching Head And Meat Whether or not you stay depends on what you’re willing to tolerate, SHAM. You were willing to tolerate being married to a guy who had cheated on you in the distant past. Can you tolerate being married to a guy who has most likely cheated on you in the recent past and — given his track record — will probably cheat on you again in the future? Answer that question, SHAM, and you’ll know what to do. As for the new case of crabs, SHAM, sure, it’s possible your husband got them during a nonsensual massage — if the place wasn’t clean, if they reuse towels and sheets without washing them, if they don’t disinfect the massage table. I don’t know why anyone would wanna get a massage at a filthy place like that, but maybe your husband isn’t so choosy. But I gotta say … it seems far likelier that your husband, a man who lied to your face the last time he got crabs, is lying to you again. Crabs — pubic lice — are almost always transmitted during pubes-to-pubes contact (e.g., someone who has crabs grinds their crotch against the crotch of someone who doesn’t have crabs and then they both have crabs). That doesn’t necessarily mean your husband had sex with a body worker. He may have gotten one of those full-body-contact massages that involve the masseuse stripping off and rubbing his body all over his client’s body — and while I think that kind of massage qualifies as sensual, your husband may feel (and rationalize) differently. So let’s go ahead assume the worst: Your husband never stopped cheating on you. Which means your husband is the same person he’s always been. Maybe he’s one of those guys who really wants to be monogamous and feels terrible every time he fucks around behind your back. r maybe he s one of those selfish jerks who doesn’t want an honest open relationship because that would mean giving you the same

freedom. Whatever it is, SHAM, he’s unlikely to change. So, what do you do? Leaving him means giving up everything about your marriage that you enjoy — the good sex life a decade in, the generally lowcon ict intimacy, the home you e made together, the social life you share. But if staying makes you feel like an idiot, SHAM, your anger justified and resentment (ditto) will eventually ruin what you enjoy about your marriage. To be clear, SHAM, I don’t think staying means you’re an idiot. But you’ll have to make peace with who your husband is if you decide to stay. Not for his sake; for yours. Make peace with it again, I should say, as I don’t think you stopped scouring his iPad and phone for evidence because you didn’t think he was cheating on you. You stopped because you didn’t want to know if he was. If you do stay, SHAM, you might let your husband continue to think he’s risking his marriage when he cheats. That won’t stop him — it hasn’t up to now, right? — but your husband will be less likely to seize every opportunity that comes his way if he thinks he’s risking his marriage. If you don’t hand a DADT card and/or tell him you’ve made peace with his cheating, SHAM, he’ll redouble his efforts to be discreet and continue to be careful to use condoms with other guys so as to avoid exposing you to a more serious STI. (I say “continue to be careful” because if he’s been cheating on you all this time and only brought crabs home, SHAM, then he was probably being careful, i.e., using condoms, with other guys.) For the record, SHAM, I don’t think this solution is ideal — making peace with who your husband is but not telling him — because I’m a fan of ethical non-monogamy. But you’re never gonna get ethical non-monogamy out of your husband. You’re gonna keep getting what you’ve been getting all along. If that’s unacceptable, if you can’t live with that, you should definitely lea e. f you can live with that, if you can resume ignoring what you kinda knew all along, you might be able to stay. Good luck. Hey, Dan: If the condom breaks, who do you think should pay for

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Plan B? Settle This Argument The government. Hey, Dan: I am on the cusp of starting a sexual relationship with a newly paraplegic man. (We’re both in our late twenties and cis het if that matters.) He hasn’t had any sexual partners since his injury, so he hasn’t had much opportunity to experiment with what works for him now. He’s told me he has no sensation below his belly button. I’m not sure if he’s been able to achieve an erection since becoming paraplegic, but he said he hasn’t been able to orgasm since it happened. I’m hoping that you (or your experts or readers) might have some advice and/or resources for us. I want to make sure that the experience is as satisfying for him as it can be. Sensitive Personal Issues Need Exploration Read the blog post “Keeping the Romance Alive After a Spinal Cord Injury” at spinalcord.com. There are some great insights, SPINE, and lots of useful links. My advice: You wanna have a satisfying sexual experience with this guy his first since his injury — and that’s great. But you’re more likely to have a positive experience if you don’t make it all about his dick. While you shouldn’t ignore his dick, SPINE, you need to go into this encounter — you both need to go into this encounter — believing you can have a rewarding and successful sexual experience even if he can’t get hard or climax. It’s going to take him some time figure out what works for him now — what he needs to get hard, what he needs to get off — and in the meantime, SPINE, his tongue works, his arms work, his hands work. And non-PIV sex — or any other kind of sex in the absence of one or more erections — isn’t some sad consolation prize. They’re satisfying sexual experiences for everybody involved and, just as importantly, they’re things he can excel at, right now. If you want him to come out of his first se ual e perience after his injury feeling more confident about his body and his abilities, center mutual pleasure, not his cock. mail@savagelove.net @FakeDanSavage on Twitter www.savagelovecast.com

JULY 28-AUGUST 3, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

JULY 28-AUGUST 3, 2021

riverfronttimes.com

JULY 28-AUGUST 3, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

JULY 28-AUGUST 3, 2021

riverfronttimes.com

Riverfront Times, July 28, 2021

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