61revised.com

It was only a matter of time, and we all knew it.  Not only did the Associated Press run an article about the man who is argueably St. Louis’ most famous concert-goer, but we learned today that Beatle Bob is also being featured in the latest issue of Blender magazine.  Although we cannot seem to find a link to the article in question, our 5 minutes of research (ie Google) confirm that Beatle Bob is indeed profiled - with pictures!

It’s not as if it were difficult to photograph the man in action; just show up to the best concert in town on any given night.  But Beatle Bob is notoriously camera-shy, and in my experience even pointing a camera phone in his direction can elicit a Matrix-like dodge of the projectile lens from this off-beat dancing machine.  Apparently this photographic rule need not apply if you’re a contributor to a national music magazine.  Perhaps it’s all a ruse meant to draw our attention to the next show he’s hosting at the Lucas School House this upcoming March 20th?

The editorial staff of Highway 61 (revised) would like to congratulate Beatle Bob on finally getting his 15 minutes of fame.

This week more documentaries are heading our way than the True/False Film Festival was prepared to deal with.  Let’s get started right away (ie tonight) for a quick rundown of some films you might want to check out if you’re of the persuasion to call yourself a film geek.

• KDHX recently ran a worldwide documentary challenge, and will screen some of the films from St. Louis for FREE tonight starting at 7pm.  They listed these details:

  Last week, 122 filmmakers from 16 countries set out to make a documentary in 5 days as part of the KDHX-produced International Documentary Challenge. They were assigned a documentary genre (character study, music, political, etc.) and the theme of “Change”. Tonight, we will present a free screening of the St. Louis area produced films (along with some other standouts) at the Webster Film Series.

  And with a theme like “change” you know Obama supporters are bound to show up in droves, so show up early.

• In the Midwest, corn is a fact of life.  Enough so that addresses like MOCorn.com exist for a reason.  And besides being in pretty much everything we eat, it shows up in other products as well.  That’s the premise behind the film King Corn, which will be screened for FREE in the Missouri History Museum on Thursday March 13th starting around 7pm.  After watching a film they describe as “Two recent college graduates embark on a mission to see where America’s food comes from,” you might want to stick around afterwards for a panel discussion of the film which could inspire you to try doing the same.
• Oh yeah, there’s a little film festival taking place this weekend called Q-Fest.  And with the exception of a film called Itty Bitty Titty Committee, it might be little but it’s also a big deal.  This film festival celebrating diversity of cultures and sexual orientation, starts Wednesday March 12th at 8pm in the Mad Art Gallery and continues all weekend in the Webster Film Series.  Not only is this probably your best bet if you rather wouldn’t watch any more documentaries this week, but you’ll also be supporting your neighbors and getting a perspective of storytelling seldom condensed into the same place.  Check their listings for the full list of films and times.

STLPunk.com is undergoing the downtime we were promised will take place before the site re-launch begining around 7:00pm this Wednesday March 12th.  For  of you who like to keep tabs on these things, this update is for you.  And if we are to believe the comments we’ve recieved so far, this may be to no avail; please go on with your regularly scheduled Wednesday.  Hopefully we’ll have a review of the new website sometime soon.

We’ve stepped up to reporting on dance parties before, but you’ll forgive us if we ask our friends at Gateway Lindy Hop to lead this story.  Although our shag is one of Saint Louis’ more enduring legacies in the world of dance, St. Louis has a long history of record hops.  When we heard that a new record hop was about to begin in the Casa Loma Ballroom, the first of which has already taken place on Sunday the 2nd  of March.

So far the feedback makes the possibly recurring record party sound more alluring.  Guest DJ’s like Bob Reuter were on hand to do what radio DJ’s do best, and live music was provided by some of St. Louis’ finer rockabilly ensembles.  Even for those of us afraid to step up, dance lessons were available on the floor for free, although admission would have set you back $5 already.  We’ll keep the Highway 61 events Calendar updated for future dates of what looks to be a recurring dance party.

Extra Credit - Like what you see?  Check out the rest of Lori White’s photos from the record hop in her FlickR photostream.

The ice is thawing and the grass is peaking through the snow, leaving behind a trail of fallen branches and litter trapped beneath the permafrost.  It’s that time of year again - spring cleaning.  Which means it’s time for Operation Brightside to begin Project Blitz.

Instead of dropping bombs, Project Blitz aims to drop bulbs, or at least plant flowers, along with a block by block cleanup of our neighborhoods.  This annual cleanup of city streets, and collection of our homes’ recyclable appliances (among other things), is coming to a neighborhood near you starting on Saturdays between March 29th and May 17th - check their website for details.  It might be easy being green, but sometimes the best place to start is by rolling up you sleaves and cleaning up your neighborhood.

You can learn more about the purpose of this spring cleaning blitz on their website, or in the post we wrote about last year’s Blitz.

It was the Myspace of it’s day, and every band in town used to post their show dates on it. At one point, it seemed every teenager in town had an account there; today we had trouble finding anyone who had visited the site in the last five years.  STLPunk.com is still up and running we assure you.

Upon a recent inspection of this online hangout, we were surpised to hear that although the website is down, it’s not out.  In a recent update site owner John Mancuso wrote, ”The new site is coming along very well and I am really excited about it.”  More recently the site announced an official re-release date of this coming Wednesday, March 12th 2008.

Don’t call it a comeback, it’s been here the whole time.  We tried contacting Mr. Mancuso for further details, but he could only reveal:

“I am unable to answer any questions at this time. I have a meeting on March 31st.  That will determine the level of the sites comes back. I will say that the site is coming back with some big changes (for the better) but that’s all I can say for now.” - John

It would appear that he would rather let this forthcoming revival speak for itself, and we have to admit we’re a little excited. Last we had heard, some entrepreneuring young punkster had bought a competing URL, StLouisPunk.com, and redirected it to their group on The Circuit.  But in our collective memory, local social networking still has one name.  The bands and usernames may have changed, but the game remains the same; the St. Louis Rock’N'Roll scene might be online again in the weeks to come.

Don’t believe the signs, the storefront for New Market Hardware is still there. This 90-year old business was once a fixture surrounded by factories and saloons, but today is surrounded by the loft apartments and trendy restaurants popularized by SLU’s off-campus students.

Some people get excited by every opportunity for an Ikea to move to town, but this is probably one of St. Louis’ best stores for DIY. In a day and age where community hardware stores have been run out by chain stores with acres of home-improvement products that make it impossible to find anything, the friendly staff at this tiny corner store know exactly where to find all the part necessary for your project. That would probably explain how this local business became the RFT’s best hardware store a couple years back.

If you’d like to learn more about New Market Hardware, Living Saint Louis has an excellent documentary explaining the store’s history, or you could pay them a visit next time you’re in midtown. Maybe they can help you figure out how to make that bike rack you’ve been considering.

Full Disclosure: I drove a hydrocarbon-powered combustion engine automobile without carpooling to the StLouisGreen.com website launch party this last Thursday night.  But considering the long line of cars parked along West Park Avenue, and the relative absence of bikes chained in front of the Tarlton Corp building the party was being hosted in, I don’t think I was alone.  Clearly everyone was eager to embrace public transportation and maybe hug a couple trees.

StLouisGreen.com is a website that knows its limits, so instead of trying to correct our degenerative transportation infrastructure, StLouisGreen used it’s launch party to promote local bicycle businesses as a means of individual transportation.  A quick visit to their website, which 52nd City correctly observes had been up and running already, reveals a blog with some transportation tips and other ways to conserve energy and resources; now I know I should unplug my laptop and other devices with rechargeable batteries since they consume energy unnecessarily after they’re fully juiced. 

And when I say that StLouisGreen.com knows it’s limits, I mean that StLouisGreen doesn’t try to replace the Sierra Club, but instead promotes the local businesses that promote environmental sustainability and conservation.  Their website is a detailed resource that is simple to navigate, and they do all the hard research work so you don’t have to.  Best of all it connects us with some of those “green collar” jobs we keep hearing about on the election trail.  If you’re interested in going green but don’t have a green thumb like me, I would like to give the website a tentative (green) Thumbs Up.

As for that launch party - Because it was a social event in Saint Louis, green drinks of all kinds had to be involved; even AB was there serving recycling friendly aluminium bottle samples.  But instead of acting as a launch party to introduce the site, the night evolved into a well-catered networking event those entrepreneurs trying to make some green keeping the earth green, trading their business cards printed on recycled paper using biodegradable ink.  Also there was bluegrass music, which is it least partly green.  The website itself was projected in a side room, which made it easy to forget you were attending a party to launch the site and made for a surreal merging of the plugged-in and the homegrown.

Extra Credit: Check out the green features of the Tarlton building and see more of the website launch party in our FlickR photoset.

Every once in awhile I get an e-mail or press release that is too good not to share publicly, even though it has been distributed to the public at large.  In this case I received an press release from my friends at Apop Records that needs to be shared, if only because it’s mostly decipherable only by the audience who would be attracted to these events in the first place.

Tonight, Thursday March 6th 9pm. XRIN ARMS: Soul samples crushed and toyed with like submissive prisoners into deconstructed fits of digital beat fury. Fans of Realicide & digital hardcore where are you?
Backing: Miscellaneous, Etc. & PLEKO.

Friday March 7th. JUSTICE YELDHAM: Madness behind glass. It is not a shield, separating the spectators into safety, but a tentative punisher and siren of suffering wielded by the madman. Don’t look away, you can’t.
Backing: Flower of Flesh and Blood, The Miracle Worker, The Lonely Procession.

Saturday March 8th 2 pm. Free instore from Chicago’s YAKUZA.

They like to call it Apopaganda. And I get the feeling there is going to be lots of art happening on Cherokee Street in the near future, or at least this weekend.

UPDATE: Apop Records has sent a correction, telling us that Yakuza has moved to Sunday March 9th for their free in-store performance.  In the future you can always rely on our Calendar to keep you updated.

It’s no secret that our contributors like to keep up with what’s in season, whether it be mixtapes, produce, or beer.  So we’d hate for our readers to think that we’re just a mouthpiece for a local brewer just because we get hooked into their parties like a drunk fish on the hook.  But some of these stories just write themselves, and Schlafly has ongoings at each of their brew-pubs this weekend that merit a piece of their own.

At the Tap Room - Stout and Oyster Festival 2008.  Schlafly flies in over 25,000 oysters and prepares them every way you could imagine (except rocky mountain we think), and then pairs them with one of 3 stouts they know how to brew.  While there you can talk to the oyster shuckers in person, who will demonstrate their prowess and help you find the perfect raw oyster.  For extra credit stick around to watch the east/west coast war reignite as rival coasts compete in the 4th Annual Oyster Cup Competition.  It starts on Friday March 7th from 5pm-Midnight, and restarts from Noon-Midnight on Saturday, in the Schlafly Tap Room.

At the Bottleworks - Good Gardening, Good Food Workshop Series kicks off on Saturday morning at 10am until 1pm, giving you plenty of time to go back across town for seconds at the Oyster Festival.  Those who wake up early on Saturday will be imparted the wisdom of Mark Trela who will teach a class in Biodynamic gardening, so we can ”Learn how to grow healthy, energized food in your backyard garden using these easy, effective, natural methods”  just in time for the global seed bank to open.  Later next week a free screening of a film that would be right at home in the Strange Brew series as well; “The Real Dirt on Farmer John” is a documentary telling the story of a misunderstood farmer, shunned from his community, who tries to make good on his family’s name by beginning an organic farm right here in the Midwest.  And we can keep you up to date with the rest of the events in this series of “organic gardening workshops, films and lectures presented by Brick City Gardens and Schlafly Bottleworks” over the coming months using the Highway 61 (revised) calendar.