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Full confession: I cannot always attend every screening I recommend each week in this blog.  This is especially the case this week, as I am out of town on vacation (ie, I’ll settle for a 3rd generation of “Hairspray“).  But please don’t let that diminish my recommendations, which whole-heartedly reflect my interest as a collegiate educated film student.

Webster Film Series

• The Draughtman’s Contract @ 8PM Friday-Sunday July 20-22nd in the Winifred Moore Auditorium ($4-6)
  
  This story about a couple who split up on vacation intrigues me, not because I’m a jealous husband but because the wife uses the artist’s picture to try to solve the crime of her newly deceased husband. Of course these portraits were commissioned by the wife, who had to trade her womanly gifts as payment to the artist. Sounds like a James Joyce romance/mystery novel to me.

2007 St. Louis Filmmaker’s Showcase

• This is Lo-Fi Saint Louis @ 7-9 PM Saturday July 21st at the the Centene Center in St. Louis, MO ($8)
  
  Besides the fact that you should have already read about Cinema St. Louis’ local showcase, you really have no excuse not to check out LoFiSTL.com on the big screen. You already know the great work that the friendly Bill Streeter does in an altruistic sense for our local scene, but now you can ask him how - without ping lag for comments! But seriously, this is my last chance to suggest that you simply must check out these films, which will play throughout next week until Thursday July the 26th (check the schedule here)

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In days filled with iPhones and other technological “marvels,” mention the word blackberry and most people are probably more likely to think of the gadget rather than the fruit.
But just this past weekend the fields at Eckert’s Orchards opened for guests to come in bunches and pick all the blackberries that their buckets could hold. However, it may may take a little determination (and a loud alarm clock) if you’re not really into the morning scene as hours when we went were 8am - Noon. But on a beautiful day just bring the sunscreen, leave your worries, and chomp some right off of the bushes. A hint - really stick your head in those shadows for the best, ripest berries.
Well now, when you’re done picking to your heart’s content, what to do with all those blackberries? I think I’ll try my next batch shaken with some Mike’s Hard Lemonade. There’s plenty to garnish with those sweet suckers.
Of course, if you’re looking for something a little less alcoholic, you can’t go wrong with some blackberry stuffed crepes or tarts.

Interested parties are welcome to take a look for themselves, or just @ our FlickR photoset - Matt

While summer vacation beckons for me, there is yet a week’s worth of material I must digest for the civic minded folk of St. Louis.  This weekly feature, which will indeed catch up with it’s original Sunday morning regularity (eventually), should perk up your ordinarily haphazard repertoire of websites.

• Remember our surprise on being included alongside some of our favorite “other sources” across town?  Imagine that doubled being name dropped by our friend @ A to Z blog (that’s one of the RFT’s blogs ya know).  We were just glad to see my notoriously out-of-focus, no-flash photography be conductive to a news post of our own, much less earn us recognition.  Then it helped us make some new friends, and meet some other friends.  Check out the new and separate “Listening to…” blogroll for more details.
• Speaking of out of focus photos, we’d be amiss to ignore our friends on FlickR, since so many of them seem to forget their cameras when we bring ours.  We’re pretty lucky to have snagged some photos before other FlickR members, but it’s not as if  dibs must be called.  Frankly we’d link you all, except everyone of us seems to document something in particular (mine is pay phones).
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With summer in its full swoon, time has come again for a family vacation.  And while I am predisposed to bask in the radiant bliss of a fusion-based light source under damaging ultraviolet radiation, I would somehow expect regular updates.  Or at least some pictures to share (from here, not there).

But just because you are still in St. Louis doesn’t mean you can’t take a little vacation time of your own.  At least try out some of the suggestion from Be A Tourist in your own Town, but if those suggestions aren’t enough, I can promise you’ll be seeing St. Louis through a new set of eyes this week .

I love France, French, Français. When I visit big cities I can find Little Italy with ease or pass by Chinatown without a thought. Russian, Romanian, German, Dutch…it seems that the only city that has a decent French Quarter is the one and only Big Easy. Now, don’t get me wrong, we’ve got a rich French history here in the old Louis IX’s namesake city. I guess what I’m missing is the culture, the people…the opportunity to practice my French. I’d take residence in a true “Little France” area of town in an instant.

But maybe I’ve got hope this weekend in St. Louis’ Soulard district. Bastille Day* is on its way, complete with events all weekend set to project you into that angry French mob you’ve always wanted to be a part of. Off with his head!

Here’s the rundown from stlcamp.org:

21st ANNUAL SOULARD BASTILLE DAYS FESTIVAL
JULY 13TH - 15TH, 2007

FRIDAY, JULY 13TH
6:00 pm A farewell gathering at the corner of Russell and Menard for Queen Marie Antoinette & King Louis. Gather at Joanie’s, Johnny’s or The Bastille to send the King and Queen off to their dreaded fate. (more…)

Congratulations to the lucky winner of a physical copy of the mixtape (see above video for results).  Thanks again to everyone who tried out our “Summer in the City” mixtape for the past two weeks.  By now the tape should have taken you well into summer, so stay tuned to our Last.fm group for another mixtape coming out in the next couple of weeks.

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.

Because we believe one good turn deserves another, we’re giving you a second chance to snag a copy of our “Summer in the City” mixtape you probably read about earlier.  For a full explanation of the mixtape, tracklisting, and communtity features, please refer to our original post.  Just like before, this mp3 mixtape comes in single tracks for each side, just like a real mixtape.  Well, try this second upload out yourself: 

Side A and Side B.

We also wanted to let more or you in on the mixtape madness, so we’re revamping the contest to win a physical audio cassette version of the mixtape.  As of right now, everyone in our Last.fm group is eligible to win a copy.  And in one week’s time we’ll post a video raffle drawing to select the winner.  All you have to do to enter our raffle? - join the group by 3 pm next Friday July 6th.  We think you’ll like hearing what other people in St. Louis are listening to anyway…we know we do.

In celebration of the start of mixtape season, we’ve made a “Summer in the City” mixtape for you, our loyal readers, to start the season in style.  You seem to have liked our local mixtape pretty well, but this mix should satisfy those looking for more seasonal palate of sounds to bask in it’s radiant aural glory like a sunbather by the pool.

And just like mixtape, our mp3 mix comes in two distinct linear flavors -

• Side A and
• Side B . 

You’ll want download each before we either run out of bandwidth or this post is replaced with a cease & desist injunction.  You can burn each (of 2) tracks to CD for the mixtape experience, but we’ll also give a physical copy of the mixtape to a random reader who leaves a comment to this post.  That is to say, if you leave a comment (to this post) you are eligible to win a cassette tape copy of the “Summer in the City” mixtape (unless you’re part of our staff).

And we’re offering extra mixtape fun for our friends with Last.fm .  For more about that, a tracklisting of the mixtape, and a streaming-preview of sorts, you’ll have to read the rest of this post by following the bump. (more…)

Last weekend St. Louis held its own in 48 Hour Film Project. In case you weren’t involved in the actual filmmaking scrambles, you can still reap the entertainment value from the Project.

Each of the 71 participating teams that submitted their films last Sunday night have had the opportunity to screen at the Tivoli theatre through this week. As of today, there are still two screening groups left - that’s 23 groups with 23 different local film screenings to be entertained with. (Screenings 5 & 6: 7:00 and 9:15, respectively). There’s also a 48HFP Blog where filmmakers and spectators can talk about their experiences with the program as well as submit screening reviews.

In case you’re not familiar with the event, filmmaking teams are given different aspects of the basic movie. The team’s task is to bring these together to create a final short film. As the name implies, the 48 hour time limit makes the task a bit more daunting.

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