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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Photographic proof that DeWitt and Gill are friends.

​A few weeks back we reported how Ira DeWitt, wife of Cardinals' president Bill DeWitt III, had settled her beef with R&B crooner Johnny Gill.

Gill is signed to DeWitt's St. Louis-based record label, Notifi Records. In August, DeWitt sued the former member of New Edition in Los Angeles after the singer went on a Twitter tirade, accusing her of releasing a single from his new album without his permission. A few weeks later, the two settled their disagreement and announced everything was hunky-dory.

More proof of that came last night when Gill sang the national anthem prior to Game 3 of the NLCS at Busch Stadium. Gee, we wonder how he got that gig?

As was evident last night, Gill still has some impressive pipes. But we gotta say that last night's performance didn't quite measure up to the following video of him singing the Star Spangled Banner at an early '90s Lakers' game. Gill's outfit last night also didn't measure up. Wow.
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Last month, a locally-based Air Force band called Sidewinder blew up the YouTubes with a video of them performing Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" on a morale mission in the Middle East. Sidewinder, led by the amazing pipes of Staff Sergeant Angie Johnson, is a part of the 571st Air Force Band based in Missouri.

The good folks at KDSK, who interviewed the hometown heroes via Skype last month, are reporting that the group returns home later today. Welcome home, and thanks! If we see you at karaoke over the long weekend, beers are most definitely on us.
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Ira and Johnny: "So happy together..."

​Ira DeWitt, the wife of St. Louis Cardinals' president Bill DeWitt III, has dropped her lawsuit filed against former New Edition front man, Johnny Gill.

DeWitt, owner of the St. Louis-based Notifi Records, sued Gill earlier this month in a Los Angeles court after the R&B singer attacked her on Twitter, calling her "deranged" and "fucking nuts." Gill was signed to Notifi at the time of the Twitter assault and believed DeWitt intentionally released a single from his upcoming album onto the internet without his approval.

Yesterday, DeWitt and Gill announced that they're still working together and have put aside their differences.

"I'm elated to continue this journey that I've started with Ira and Notifi Records," said Gill in a statement. "Through conflict we found a resolution, and not to mention I've found my friend again."
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DeWitt and Gill: Record producer sues her star.

​The wife of Cardinals president William DeWitt III has filed suit in Los Angeles against former New Edition front man Johnny Gill.

Ira DeWitt owns Nofti Records, a small label based in the St. Louis suburb of Brentwood. Gill, who reached fame in the late 1980s when he replaced Bobby Brown in the R&B group New Edition, had recently signed on with the label as one of its star talents.

Not anymore.
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Check this out: Here's an Air Force band from Missouri giving Adele a serious run for her money covering her hit "Rolling in the Deep." The band is called Sidewinder, and the lady with the pipes is Staff Sergeant Angie Johnson. They're part of the 571st Air Force Band based out of Whiteman Air Force Base, which is about four hours west of St. Louis. Sidewinder is in the Middle East doing morale shows right now, and this video is blowin' up the internets. And it's frickin' great.

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Fran Landesman in 1996.

​Fran Landesman, a poet and songwriter who, along with her husband Jay and brother-in-law Fred, ran the Crystal Palace nightclub in Gaslight Square in the late 1950s, died last Saturday, July 23, in London. She was 83.

Her website proclaims her "the poet laureate of lovers and losers" and "the jazz world's answer to Dorothy Parker," but Landesman will probably always be best remembered by St. Louisans as the lyricist of The Nervous Set, the world's first (and only) beatnik musical, which had its premiere in St. Louis in 1959. Two songs from The Nervous Set, "All the Sad Young Men" and "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" became jazz standards.

(Here's a fun fact: "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" was a hepcat jazz translation of "April is the cruelest month," the opening line of The Waste Land by another St. Louisan-turned-Londoner, T.S. Eliot.)

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Jason Stoff

​Unless you were hiding under a rock, you know that Irish uber-band U2 graced us with their presence Sunday night, and it was awesome.

But you might not know, unless you are the indefatigable Deb Peterson at the Post-Dispatch, that he stopped by the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center here in St. Louis before the show to discuss how the center's work with plants can assist with hunger in Africa -- one of The Sunglassed One's many causes.
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A concertgoer emailed Daily RFT the following picture snapped during Sunday's U2 concert at Busch Stadium. Yes, that's a toddler at the show, prompting the questions: What were the parents thinking? Or better yet, what was the child thinking?

Think you know? Help us write a caption for this photo by leaving your suggestion in the comment section. 

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