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It’s no secret that local bloggers love that epitome of all that is seasonal in the neighborhood: the farmer’s market. Everyone is glad when their community can put together a farmer’s market that connects us to the land and to our neighbors, so it’s ironic that so many of our suburban friends who live closer to farms are often disconected from such venues. One such historic farmer’s market is Rombach Farm in Chesterfield Valley, which is most famous for offering everyone a chance to pick their own pumpkin from their patch every fall.

Seen here is Highway 61 contributor Lauren Reid, admiring the harvest season’s produce first hand. It’s part of a set of photos taken from our trip to find the perfect pumpkin from the 50+ acre pumpkin patch and the ensuing harvest revelry on a property that stood at flood plain level before Chesterfield Valley was just a sprawling shopping development.

Rombach Farms was a pretty big part of my childhood in semi-rural Glencoe (now Wildwood), with a summer farmers market within closer reach than Dierbergs. It was a trade off my family made of convience for the country, and I can still remember the year Rombachs was out of reach below the floodplain of 1993. Now their are rumors circulating that this might be the last year the market is open, just when such venues are needed in the supply chain of sustainable living. And while I cannot substantiate such rumors, any year has always been worth the extra trip back to the pumpkin patch this fall.

As a special follow-up on a review written by our own Gabe Bullard, here’s a short clip from last Saturday’s They Might Be Giants performance at the Pageant to show you just how much fun was had at said rock concert. 

Seen here performing “The Guitar,” the band had a little fun with the enthusiastic audience seen here. You might like to check out a clip of “Particle Man” with a Buddy Ebsen reference.

Instead of sharing our own photos of the show, we thought it’d be fun to pass along some properly tagged pictures we found on Flickr.  Using the machine tags from Last.FM and Upcoming is a fun way to organize the events you’ve attended and share public pictures, not to mention making a much better slideshow on FlickR than just using our photos.  And if you were there too, please feel free to pass along your photos through that channel or at least share with us here in the comments.

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It’s been nearly a week since The Lot festival took place in front of the Schlafly Tap Room, but in that week that started with our post of a video from the festival has ended with the posting of more videos from the music performances.  In breakneck turn around time, our friend Bill Streeter has edited together (at least) 2 performances from two of our favorite local bands - Jumbling Towers and the 7 Shot Screamers.  Of course that wasn’t easy, considering that he had four cameras to sync and edit together, one of which was my angle.

Music performances weren’t the only festivities drawing such a thick crowd to the festival, so I thought I’d share some additional perspectives of The Lot with this photo essay.  Individual shots, tagged bands, and larger versions of the photos shown above are available in our FlickR Photoset.

Make sure not to get too hung up in the past though, as the Big Muddy Blues Festival enters its second night this Sunday.  The streets were packed and the drinks were full when we were there last night, and the Landing was once again filled with sweet sound reverberating through the brick alleys and down the stone roads.  We suggest paying your respect to the blues highway this weekend.

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Alongside countless barbeques this weekend, we think making a batch of Sun Tea might make a relaxing weekend that much sweeter.  I encourage all our readers to pour a glass over ice on a hot summer day, which is possibly the best use of city water…next to beer of course.  Set it out on the porch, watch out for hobos, and refridgerate your pitcher three hours later (hint: hotter day equal tastier brews) to have a great Labor Day weekend.

Full size pictures availible in a FlickR photoset here.

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For those of you who couldn’t make it out to our Blog Party last Friday, our condolences.  We thought it’d be nice to let in on our fun with this slideshow, of which individual pictures can be inspected on a FlickR photoset.  If you have any pictures from the event yourself, might we suggest using the appropriate Flickr tag or at least adding it to the event page on Facebook?

Although I must admit that attendance was lower than expected, the blog party was a definite success.  On what turned into one of the busiest social nights of the year, we finagled just enough friends and well-wishers to eat through a couple pizzas.  Thanks everyone.

Since we first announced the Blog Party we’ve generated quite a bit of interest (or at least conversations) on the Meetup (remember those) ideas.  And we agree: a blog party should be more like a block party, celebrating the neighborhood with our neighbors.  Consider this the alpha preview, and any potential follow-up a beta release.

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Because we know you’d have our heads if we didn’t, here’s our view of the Bastille Day parade in St. Louis.  We were a bit surprised when the holiday march turned into a public pub crawl, until we remembered we were celebrating a holiday in Soulard.  Not to mention the authenticity exhibited by the King and Queen, whose authentic costumes (sans red converse high tops) accosted the crowd to spontaneous outbursts of “Off with their heads!” in the kind of alcohol fueled aimless furor usually saved for Mardi Gras.  And despite the strong correlation of group drinking and riots, this ordinarily intimidating mob seemed almost mundane considering the inclusion of segway scooters and small children participating in such revolutionary acts.  In that regard, perhaps the holiday is best remembered right here in town.

Link to FlickR photo set of the parade

Extra credit - a much better perspective of the events is available here (c/o SoulNoir).

Because we’ll probably check out every event we’re officially invited to, we printed up our tickets and made a trip to a special open house @ the Bluebird.  As St. Louis’ newest concert venue, you’ve probably already heard about their Grand Opening this Saturday July 14th, 2007.

Instead of waiting for a more appropriate showcase of local acts, which the venue already showcases via framed poster art (albeit for other venues thus far), we thought we’d share the sneak peak at the venue for you.  And while a majority of our Flickr photoset involves an empty floor and/or Beffa’s (which is adjacent to the venue), we can say that the venue was pretty packed for a casual DJ set by the time we were on our way out the door.  Quite frankly, I was surprised not to see booties shaking to the sounds of LCD Soundsystem playing.

And don’t be fooled by the adjacent parking just because the venue lacks clear signage leading you in, because we already heard murmurs from staff on our way in (from the back entrance) that such indicators are on their way.  In the meantime, the venue has a spacious dancefloor, an adjacent bar, and even a little couch to crash on with as many of your buddies you can fit on it.  Clearly the Bluebird is poised to fill the void left among local music venues drawing national acts in place of the Hi-Pointe, etc.  Hope to see you there sometime soon…

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Just because you missed Blowfly’s show last week @ the Atomic Cowboy (even though we gave you advance notice) doesn’t mean you have to miss the debauchery.  As your personal witness to this funky, if misogynistic, icon of free expression himself, here’s my perspective of his recent tour of St. Louis available as a FlickR slide set (for more photos).

At first you’ll see his appearance @ Apop records who threw a party in his honor.  It was there his appetite for the fairer sex became apparent to even those who were not familiar with his music, although he told one young lady I was a “FBT; Female Bootyhole Tickler”.  And despite or perhaps because of his unique manner of expression, he was able to charm the swarming crowd @ the Atomic Cowboy.  Bill Streeter was also on hand at the concert venue to document the performance’s ongoings, so keep your eyes peeled on LoFiSTL.com for further video documentation of this Funky Thursday.

It’s been a few days since we last spoke, but we have a few updates on previous stories for you.  Maybe you don’t need the sense of closure, but forgive us through this penance.  Here’s some links for your coffee break:

• Maybe we broke the news too soon, but it’s been no secret that the ACC is officially out of print.  David Drebes finally broke the news to his audience on the ACC website, which will remain in its place.  Of course we wish him luck in his new ventures as well.
• Looks like our friends at PubDef have a few films to recommend for your weekend.  I wonder where they got that idea?
• Our friends @ STMRD gave us a look @ the opposite viewpoint behind the scenes in the pride parade, so we gave them our perspective for their slideshow.
• We haven’t even shared nearly half of our photography projects here, but it seems like bloggers in St. Louis just love photographing the town too.  We shouldn’t be surprised, but Pretty War STL was, when we documented a derelict auto service station in my neighborhood.  Hey, it’s not like dibs need be called; we’re probably already checking your FlickR photostream.
• Now that St. Louis officially has the tastiest water of any city, maybe it’s time to update the city water website?

We could keep doing this for awhile, but coffee break is just about over for us if you read through all of that.  We’ll see you next Sunday with some more links to freshen your coffee.

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Following our previous post about the Big Muddy Beach Ball at The Skatium and after last weekend’s 2nd game of the Arch Rival Rollergirls, we can’t help but wax nostalgic for the roller rinks of our youth.  But instead of waiting for another incarnation of last summer’s Greatest Show on Wheels, we decided to check out those old rinks for ourselves.  What’s surprising is how little seems to have changed in what was clearly dated decor and facilities in our own youth, much less today.  See for yourself in greater detail (and size) on our FlickR photoset previewed above.

Needless to say, if you can get past the obnoxious tunes tailor made for today’s youth (I’m looking @ you Radio Disney) blasting from the speakers, these spots are in desperate need of documentary photo essays as they slowly go out of business.  So to start off that process, here’s my photo essay documenting the Rollercade skating rink in South County.  And let us know if you would like to contribute to this project, so we can make a FlickR photo group to help organize and share our photos.