Courtesy ACLU

Frederick Walker

When saxophonist Frederick Walker retired from his band "Mystic Voyage" after 21 years, he decided he didn't want to hang it up completely. He took his talents to the streets, specifically the 9th Street side of the Soulard Market, to try his hand at buskering.

"I'm 70 years old and I thought it was time to give up jumping up and down on tables and chairs," he says. "I decided to slow down."

Walker says before long a city official approached him and told him he needed a permit. There was also a required audition (though Walker never actually had to complete one since, he figures, the city official saw him playing on the street).

"He saw me. He knows I can play," says Walker.

The fee, however, was another matter.

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via

Show-Me Cannabis, Missouri's marijuana reform advocacy group, has been spreading the word across the state about the need for more sensible pot policies -- and eventually hopes to push for legalization. Next week, the group was supposed to run a booth at Pointfest, 105.7 the Point's annual festival, but yesterday announced that Verizon Wireless Amphitheater had rejected its application.

Why? The managers reportedly were worried about having marijuana advocacy take place at their venue.

"People are just afraid of this issue a lot of the time," John Payne, Show-Me Cannabis executive director, tells Daily RFT. "It perpetuates this fear that people have.... And then no one talks about it and it gets worse."

And Payne says this is not the first time the group has been shut down by a company afraid of even giving marijuana activists a platform.

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Courtesy of Wild

Kelly Wild

Last week, we told you about the backlash local filmmaker Terry Artis was facing for his movie Bootlicker, screening at the Tivoli Theatre today. Part of the controversy stemmed from a flyer for the movie that depicts Mayor Francis Slay as some sort of slave master towering over his black supporters or "slayves."

This is not the only complaint he is receiving.

St. Louis musician Kelly Wild, who collaborated with Artis many years ago, is less than pleased that her copyrighted music appears in the film's trailer -- and her name is listed on the movie's "original soundtrack."

"I don't want my name attached to this in any way shape or form," she tells Daily RFT.

Is Artis going to comply with her requests -- or will she take him to court?

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courtesy Mike Leahy

Young Mike Leahy and his Grandpa Earl.

Of all the reminiscences of former Orioles manager and St. Louis native Earl Weaver, who passed away on Friday, few are more touching than the one posted by his grandson Mike Leahy on Facebook. Leahy is the lead singer for the band 7 Shot Screamers and also the non-jumpsuited alter-ego of Clownvis Presley. Weaver's reaction to Clownvis was about what you'd expect.

Here, with Leahy's permission, is his tribute in its entirety:

Having Earl Weaver as a grandfather was the most amazing thing ever. He made the impossible seem possible. He made any dream seem obtainable. Here is a man who spent 21 years traveling the country in the minor leagues, only to go on to become a baseball Hall of Famer, and undisputedly one of the greatest mangers to ever play the game. When I was in the first few years of grade school he was still managing the Orioles. I distinctly remember getting his 1986 Topps baseball card on the very top of a pack I opened in the parking lot of Venture. It was a huge source of pride and confidence in my younger years, and continues to be today.

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Charles Haller of the Soulard Folk and Blues Band

On January 1, the city quietly quadrupled the price of a busker permit from $25 to $100 annually -- and Charles Haller of the Bates Street Folk and Blues Band feels compelled to make some noise. 

"It's going to diminish the music on the streets of St. Louis," he tells Daily RFT. Haller concedes that he and his bandmates can recoup that expense fairly quickly on a balmy weekend or two outside of Soulard Farmers' Market, where they've been playing for years.

But the permit is issued to individuals, not to a band collectively. Thus, Haller says, the price hike will discourage his friends who liked to sit in on occasion, just for the joy of it. 

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The cops aren't releasing much info on the fatal accident that occurred just before midnight last night at 1800 North Broadway on the Near North Riverfront. 
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Brian Fisk, a 22-year-old from Sikeston, appeared on CNN's website Monday thanks to this little video: More »

Missouri Department of Conservation

Is this majestic creature a male or female? And, more important, can it get down and rap?

The Missouri Department of Conservation is super-dope these days. First there's the bidness with the gender-bending deer, which is totally down with the brave new world of ambiguous sexuality. And then there's the winter rap, yo! Or should we say, doe!

The MDC gets minor props for the first line of its press release about the deer by referencing "Lola" by the Kinks -- about gender-bending, yes, but an older song and not obscure enough to please the hipsters and, dude, it ain't no rap. But the deer -- the deer...

During this fall's near-record deer shootout, hunters came across five female deer with antlers. If you've ever seen Bambi, you will know this is not normal. One of the deer was a full ten-pointer, another a nine-pointer. That's some serious antler-age. The MCD consulted its deer specialist, who has three possible theories:

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Last month Daily RFT broke the news about a gigantic bronze statue of Albert Pujols in the works for Westport Plaza. Sadly, we couldn't make yesterday's unveiling of that sculpture, but fear not. A greater St. Louis legend than Pujols was in attendance yesterday and forwarded along the following pic.

Hey big guy, (God, Beatle Bob, bronzed Albert Pujols) thanks for the memory.

​That's right! We're talking about Beatle Bob (a.k.a. Robert Matonis)!

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