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Not totally satisfied with your weekend itinerary? Just check out Go!, our regular feature highlighting everything from rock shows to art openings, from delicious dishes to hidden-gem hangouts.

Friday, 3/30

Ciao Bella: The Italian Film Festival of St. Louis begins this evening at 8 p.m. with the free screening of La bestia nel cuore (Don't Tell). The festival continues on Friday and Saturday nights through April 14; films screen in Brown Hall on the campus of Washington University (Forsyth and Skinker boulevards).

Cry Cry Cry: Garage-rock icon Question Mark (of the Mysterians) is best known for singing the deathless "96 Tears," the song that launched a thousand shaggy-haired bands back in the late 1960s. Question Mark has fallen on hard times lately, as his Michigan home burned to the ground earlier this year. Local bands the Gentleman Callers, the Nevermores and the Vultures will perform a tribute to the singer at 9 p.m. at Off Broadway (3509 Lemp Avenue; 314-773-3363). Tickets are $7.

Graphic in Nature: Hoffman LaChance Contemporary, home of the tasty and sophisticated art openings, breaks the seal on Graphic in Nature this evening from 6 to 10 p.m. Painter Max Key (a graduate of Kansas City Art Institute and Twin Echo Elementary School) has created an oversize series that at first overwhelms with the sheer size of the piece, and then seduces with the layers of information hidden in all that space.

The Jazz-Jam Flim-Flam: Guitarist John Scofield has spent his career walking the line between jazz fusion and rock & roll experimentation, and he has lent his singular guitar tone to jam-jazz trio Medeski Martin & Wood. Scofield's trio will perform Friday and Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro (3536 Washington Avenue; 314-531-1012). Tickets are $35-$40 and $20 for students.

Raise a Glass: The aTrek Dance Collective has put together a show of "winter works in progress" for your viewing and drinking enjoyment. "Cocktails & Choreography," happening Friday and Saturday (March 30 and 31) on the fourth floor of the Centene Center for Arts & Education (3547 Olive Street), begins with an 8 p.m. dance performance and finishes with a 9 p.m. cocktail reception — so dress nice. Tickets cost $10 to $15; call 314-772-7778 to get some.

On December 8, 1941, America entered World War II. Thousands of young men rushed to enlist and join the war effort — even blacks, who were living in what was essentially a separate America, with fewer rights and little representation in the government. Their desire to serve a country that wouldn't serve them is a singular example of patriotism. However, many of these black volunteers wanted to be pilots — something the Army War College had somehow determined through a series of studies was impossible, because blacks were "unfit for leadership roles and incapable of aviation." President Franklin D. Roosevelt, made aware of the Army War College studies, opted to veto the army's advice. The NAACP's then-recent lawsuit to force the government into accepting Yancy Williams' application for military pilot training had pushed the argument to this point, but give Roosevelt credit for making the right choice. The president ordered the creation of an aviation training program for blacks, located in Tuskegee, Alabama, and the legend of the Tuskegee Airmen officially began.

Operating out of segregated bases, with no access to officers' clubs, often living in sub-standard housing and being subjected to the blatant racism of other officers and enlisted men, the Tuskegee Airmen didn't just prove the Army War College wrong — they gave the lie to the myth that black Americans were lazy, shiftless and incapable of excelling at anything other than manual labor. Soon, white pilots were requesting the black pilots as escorts, because no other fighter wing guarded their bombers as doggedly. By the close of WWII, the Tuskegee Airmen were renowned for their excellent flying — in 1,500 missions, the Red Tails (so named for the distinctive paint jobs on the tails of their planes) are reputed to have never lost a bomber they escorted. They never abandoned their charges, never chased after enemy fighters — to do so and lose a bomber to enemy aircraft was to jeopardize the future of black aviation, and all of the pilots knew it. ABC News has recently reported that two unnamed historians claim the Airmen did in fact lose "a few" bombers to the Germans; tell this to a Tuskegee Airman and you'll get the response, "We couldn't lose a bomber, because if you did, you didn't come back to the base." It wasn't a joke then, and it's not a joke now. These men were fighting for generations yet to come.

Not totally satisfied with your weekend itinerary? Just check out Go!, our regular feature highlighting everything from rock shows to art openings, from delicious dishes to hidden-gem hangouts.

Friday, 3/23

We Want Auction Tonight: Drop by the Sunset Hills Country Club (2525 Highway 157 South, Edwardsville, Illinois) at 6 p.m. for Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's 29th annual art auction. All of the works are made by students, faculty or alumni — and are better than any Pink Floyd posters you have.

Who's the Bossa Nova?: The fabulous Webster University Film Series screens This Is Bossa Nova: The Histories and Stories at 7 p.m. at the Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood Avenue), and you'll only pay $5 to $6 to learn about this Brazilian music style (that's a lot cheaper than other Brazilian things we know about).

"The Beautiful Kind"

Author: The Beautiful Kind

About the blogger: The Beautiful Kind is a 34-year-old atheist mom who hates her job, is writing a book and has a passion for sock monkeys and sex.

Recent Highlight (February 15):

Cock n' Bull
The other day I went to my favorite Chinese restaurant, Asiana, with a friend of mine who is Chinese. The plan was for him to order all kinds of exotic vegetarian food for me to try. When we sat down I told J, "One of the reasons why this is my favorite Chinese restaurant is because they have BULL PENIS on the menu."

"What? Really?"

"Yes! Look!" I pointed it out to him.

"I'll get it."

"NO WAY!"

"Oh, sure. Chinese Food Fear Factor. I've had dog before. And there's this dish called The Duel of the Tiger and Dragon that has cat and snake in it. "

"WHOAH." I'm used to just being grossed out by people eating bacon and steak!

When the server came to take our order, I silently hoped J would order in Chinese, and he totally did, and it was totally hot.

He ordered "greasy stick,"

Not totally satisfied with your weekend itinerary? Just check out Go!, our regular feature highlighting everything from rock shows to art openings, from delicious dishes to hidden-gem hangouts.

Friday, 3/16

Heat Up St. Louis: Third Degree Glass Factory (5200 Delmar Boulevard) hosts its free monthly glass bash this eve from 6 to 10 p.m. "Nice guy" Tim Garcia works the keys while bead-makers show off their craft. Oh yeah, and the vodka will be flowing like liquid glass from the cash bar.

Get Lucky: DJ Gow channels the luck o' the Irish tonight at 9:30 p.m. at Molly's Lounge (816 Geyer Avenue). But don't drop the Chocolate Ecstasy while you're there — that would just be a waste of a perfectly good specialty drink.

The Sun Times: The past and the present collide when the theater department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign presents a staged reading of Tennessee Williams' premiere full-length play, Candles to the Sun, at the same place it was first staged 70 years ago. Drop by what is now the Learning Center (4504 Westminster Place) at 8 p.m. with $10 in hand.

Just what you've all been waiting for: Another fish-focused installment of Stuff That People Send Us, courtesy of R.J. Abernathy, whose monthly column is called, appropriately, "Catch More Fish!"

CRAPPIE DOCK PATTERNS

You know the local lake that you spend all your time fishing? The one with all those houses that line the shore -- the houses with all the boat docks? Those docks might be clogged with people loading and unloading boats and having all kinds of fun, but some of the best crappie fishing can be found directly below them at almost any time of year.

So what is it about these docks? It doesn't matter what part of the country you're fishing, if you've got crappie in the water, they're bound be around these docks. Granted, crappie love certain docks more than others (wooden docks seem to hold more crappie than metal ones), but once you figure out which docks they prefer and what kinds of baits and tackle work best around this structure, there will be nothing stopping you from stocking the live-well with big slabs

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department's Internal Affairs division is investigating the improper use of some baseball tickets during the World Series here last fall.

Spokesman Richard Wilkes does not know when the probe began, how many officers are under the IA microscope, or what exactly prompted the investigation, which has to do with some of the 116 tickets that police officers confiscated during the Series.

What is clear is the investigation was definitely not ongoing early last November when I asked the department what exactly had happened to those 116 tickets. I'd heard from a few "resellers" that they'd been arrested and made to turn over their ticket stash, only to go into the game and find people — officers' friends? family? — sitting in the very seats they had tried to sell.

"The police walked up to me, asked did I have tickets. I said, 'Yeah.' They said, 'Walk across the street,'" said Tony Sanders, recounting his efforts to sell seats to Game 5 last October. "They took my tickets. They showed me a badge. Then they got on the telephone with somebody and said, 'You going to the game!'

"Then a white car pulled up about ten minutes later. They gave my tickets to the people in the white car!"

Wilkes says more details will be available once the investigation is completed.

-Kristen Hinman

Nikolas Schiller, a 26-year-old Ballwin native and Marquette High School grad (Class of '99) — a.k.a. a "counter-cartographer" — was the subject of a nifty feature in the Washington Post's Style section yesterday.

Already, e-mails are pouring in from curators interested in exhibits of his work and artists looking to collaborate with him — not to mention buyers seeking custom-made maps. You can check out his online store here. (Not bad for a guy who once wanted nobody to find him.)

In addition to mapping, Schiller's current projects including chairing the D.C. Statehood Green Party and organizing a coalition that will defend Washington, D.C., businesses from "unfair corporate competition," as he puts it.

"A random aside," he writes in an e-mail. "I am the model in the 'Library' photograph in Hope Edwards' photographic reinterpretation of the boardgame Clue. It's currently on display at the Hoffman LaChance Contemporary Art Gallery in Maplewood until March 24."

Besides the appearance at the gallery, Schiller won't be back in St. Louis until his — guess — ten-year high school reunion.

-Kristen Hinman

I ran out of time before vacation to write a proper piece about this, but I would be remiss if I didn't at least acknowledge that R.E.M. — a.k.a. my favorite band since 1993 -- is being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame today. This is relevant to the area since vocalist Michael Stipe spent time in the Metro East, attending high school and (some) college — before, of course, landing in Athens, Georgia, where he met the rest of the band (Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills) and made history.

Six weeks ago incumbent Jim Shrewsbury looked like the favorite to win the race for president of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen -- not least when comparing his campaign finance reports to those of challenger Lewis Reed. As of January 24, Shrewsbury boasted a war chest of $238,824, Reed $205,000.

The March 6 election marked the first major race in the city since state legislation did away with individual campaign contribution limits last year. In the waning days of the race, Reed benefited greatly from the change in law. He also won the race.

While Shrewsbury's finance reports list contributions in the $100-to-$1,200 range, Reed received a cash infusion of $35,000 from a single donor -- Paul Weismann -- on February 28. Weismann gives his address as 110 E. 59th Street on New York City's tony Upper East Side. (The phone company has no listing for a Paul Weismann at that address. In today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch, reporter Jake Wagman describes Weismann as a real estate developer.)

Also fueling Reed with donations late in the game was George Kruntchev, a University City resident who contributed $10,000 on February 28 -- in addition to the $6,250 he'd already donated to the campaign. (Wagman reports that Kruntchev, too, is a developer. Unlike Weismann, Kruntchev's number is listed. I'm awaiting a return call.)

Of the issues on which Reed separated himself from incumbent Shrewsbury, the most notable was the leasing of 9.4 acres of Forest Park to Barnes-Jewish Hospital. The hospital proposes to expand its facilities onto the park land within the next ten years. Other details of the project -- including the names of the developers -- have yet to be released.

-Chad Garrison

Ex-Vashon basketball coach Floyd Irons and his attorney, Jerry Dobson, began a press conference today by stating, "We're pleased to announce once again that Floyd Irons is the head coach at Vashon."

St. Louis Public Schools spokesman Tony Sanders proceeded to fire off a single-line press release stating, "The employment status of Floyd Irons has not changed."

In other words, Irons has not replaced Anthony Bonner as the Wolverines' head coach. Irons remains on paid sick leave from the district.

The St. Louis Board of Education last week did unanimously vote to allow Irons to apply for any opening advertised in the district. Irons had been prohibited from coaching since he was removed as the Public High League athletic director last summer.

Post-Dispatch sports columnist Bernie Miklasz noted in his online forum that the vote was "a total in-your-face move directed at (Veronica) O'Brien," the board president who orchestrated Irons' ouster last July.

Board member Bill Purdy denies that he and his colleagues were retaliating against O'Brien. The board simply acted to protect itself from possible litigation brought by Irons, Purdy contends, adding: "I would say there's no way in the world that any principal in the St. Louis Public Schools or anywhere else in the area would ever take the risk of hiring him and putting him in charge of basketball, or anything else. I can't see that a principal would risk their own integrity or face the criticism of appointing him. But it's not right to say to him that you can't apply."

For Irons' take on the events of the past year, click here for coverage of today's news conference.

-Kristen Hinman

Valley Park was the scene of a stormy meeting of its Board of Aldermen Monday night following the publication of last week's feature story, "Valley Park to Mexicans: Hasta La Vista, Baby!" Three aldermen suggested that Mayor Jeffery Whitteaker consider resigning because of comments he made to Riverfront Times staff writer Kristen Hinman, including suggestions that the city's anti-illegal immigration ordinances were meant to keep "Cousin Puerto Rico and Taco Whoever" from moving to Valley Park.

In addition, the board unanimously passed a resolution requiring that all further media interviews with the mayor or any Valley Park official take place at city hall in the presence of the city's attorney.

Whitteaker kicked off the meeting with a public apology before adding, "Many of my comments, I thought, were off the record."

(Never in the course of the three interviews Whitteaker granted Riverfront Times did he indicate that he wished to say anything off the record.)

A handful of angry citizens lined up to chastise their first-term mayor for his remarks, with one woman asking Whitteaker to "do the right thing and quietly step down." A supporter of the mayor dismissed Riverfront Times as a "tabloid" which "spinned the information to confirm to their preconceptions" and encouraged the board "not to back down" vis-�-vis the ordinances.

Alderman Don Carroll then addressed Mayor Whitteaker directly: "I feel that you've embarrassed your family and your city with your comments in the Riverfront Times. I know you said it was off the cuff, but the fact that you made those comments at all is the problem. I think you should seriously consider stepping down."

Board President Mike White defended Whitteaker, noting that a call for the mayor to resign "needs to come from the people."

But Alderman Ed Walker echoed Carroll's suggestion, while his colleague Randy Helton took pains to distance himself from the mayor. As Helton put it, "I'm not a racist. You made a mockery of this ordinance. It has nothing to do with what the Riverfront Times printed."

Alderman Mike Pennise asked City Attorney Eric Martin if Valley Park could sue Riverfront Times.

"Once something's in print, nothing can be done," Martin replied. "The statements have been made."

Whitteaker claimed that the story "twisted" certain facts but conceded that he'd learned "a mighty lesson" about talking to the press.

"Before, nobody came up and thanked me," the mayor said, alluding to previous media coverage of the ordinances. "But I get one article from a magazine that sells slut ads in the back...."

"But you took her out!" interjected William Reynolds, referring to Whitteaker's visits to two Valley Park pubs for interviews with Riverfront Times.

Reynolds' wife, Stephanie, is the main plaintiff in a civil lawsuit challenging the legality of Valley Park's anti-illegal immigration ordinances. A decision in that case is expected to be handed down soon by St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge Barbara Wallace.

Valley Park is racking up legal bills in its defense of the ordinances, but its legal fund got a boost at Monday night's meeting when two women representing Missourians Against Illegal Immigration and the Constitution Party of Missouri presented the city a check for $5,000.

-Kristen Hinman and Molly Langmuir

Today was a banner day for River Front Times. Not the newspaper, the horse.

Two years ago Unreal asked perennial Fairmount Park force Lou O'Brien how much he'd charge us to rename a horse after our source of income. Replied O'Brien: "$1 million."

We talked him down to $100 -- coincidentally, the price the Jockey Club charges owners to process a name-change for a Thoroughbred. (Doubtless O'Brien, the protagonist of this 2003 feature story in RFT -- the paper, that is, not the horse -- by then-staff writer Mike Seely, was just being nice.) For the name swap, O'Brien chose a two-year-old colt he'd recently purchased named Pollys Jaybird.

And the rest, as Unreal likes to declaim at cocktail parties, is history.

Actually, most of the rest, Unreal would readily admit under oath, is futility.

First (presumably on the advice of his estimable trainer, Ralph Martinez), O'Brien had our colt gelded. Then, early in Fairmount's 2006 meet, he entered River Front Times in a maiden race -- which is to say a race against other horses that haven't yet won a race. With his jockey sporting the proud green shamrock of O'Brien's stable, River Front Times finished second.

An auspicious beginning, you might say. Unreal, who had wagered money on the colt to win, didn't see it precisely that way.

But O'Brien persevered, as owners are wont to do, as did River Front Times, finishing second again. In his third race, sent off as a 2 to 1 favorite, River Front Times changed things up, finishing eighth, approximately one zip code removed from the winner of the race, the aptly named Hurricane Fury. After two more fruitless efforts, O'Brien shipped the horse to Ellis Park in Kentucky. Perhaps RFT was tiring of the Collinsville scenery. Or maybe not. He finished fourth.

Then it was on to Hoosier Park (the other kind -- outside Indianapolis), where, as autumn's thrill gave way to winter's chill, River Front Times raced five times, finishing seventh, seventh, second, seventh and second. In December the horse was moved once more, to Beulah Park near Columbus, Ohio, where he...ran second yet again.

For those keeping count, that's twelve starts and five second-place finishes -- and still a maiden.

All this Unreal ponders today as we sit with 1,832 of our fellow gene-pool bottom feeders in the Fairmount Park grandstand to celebrate the first day of 2007's racing season. Well, that's not quite accurate; only about a thousand of our fellow bottom feeders have availed themselves of the $1.50 Horse Hooky Tuesday perquisites; the rest are ensconced in the Clubhouse, doing whatever it is hoosiers do when they pay more than they have to to watch the same thing the rest of us paid less for.

And then it's time.

The horse named after our little weekly newspaper is entered in the fifth race on the card, a $5,000 maiden claiming event with a purse of $4,700. The second choice on the morning line and ultimately sent off as the favorite at odds of 9 to 5 -- this despite the disrespect accorded him by track handicapper Jay Randolph, who ranks him fourth in the eight-horse field (and who must be 973 years old, so what the hell, we'll forgive him) -- the four-year-old son of Petionville breaks toward the rail at the start under jockey Camilo Pitty and bumps his neighbor in the four hole, Dancing Ray.

But he recovers to contest a four-way battle for the lead along the backstretch, takes over by a slim margin at the top of the stretch and holds off two rivals, to win the five-and-a-half-furlong sprint by a neck.

Final time: 1 minute, 7.27 seconds over a fast track.

Pedestrian, especially when measured against the effort put in by Pitty three races later on O'Brien's Chipotle -- only two-fifths of a second off the track record of 51.4 seconds for four and a half furlongs.

But still.

Hey, Seely: This, bud, is for you.

-Unreal

This past Friday St. Louis-based Internet radio station 3WK.com was dealt a virtual death blow when the U.S. government-appointed Copyright Royalty Board announced new performance royalty rates. The rates, which all Internet stations are required to pay as compensation to artists in exchange for permission to broadcast their copyrighted material, are renegotiated every five years.

You can read all the mundane details about performance royalty rates and the Copyright Royalty Board (and also SoundExchange and the Small Webcaster Settlement Act) in "You Play, They Pay," published last fall in RFT. But the gory crux is this: If the rate imposed by the board is written into law, small Webcasters like 3WK will go out of business.

In its decision, the board completely scrapped an exemption that allowed mom-and-pop broadcasters like 3WK and RadioIO to pay royalties on the basis of percentage of gross income. Instead, the stations will have to pay under the same rules as Web radio monoliths. You can read more about the decision via online radio station Radio Paradise, which has set up a blog and a forum to protest the ruling.

As a young political reporter with the Anchorage Times, I had a chance to spend an early-spring evening in 1983 with George McGovern. I can't recall the reason for his visit, but it doesn't matter now. I met him at the gate and we walked quietly through the empty Alaska Airlines concourse. We hailed a cab and headed downtown, where dinner and drinks were planned atop the Captain Cook, Anchorage's finest hotel.

McGovern looked tired and withdrawn. He'd lost his Senate seat in South Dakota three years before, swept away in Ronald Reagan's Republican tidal wave. The passionate anti-war insurgency he led as the Democratic standard bearer to unseat Richard Nixon in 1972 seemed a lifetime ago.

McGovern barely touched the king salmon, focusing instead on some stiff vodka cocktails. The talk turned to politics, the 1980 loss and his recent stint as a history professor at the University of New Orleans, where he'd replaced historian Stephen Ambrose. As evening wore on, he reflected about his presidential campaign, an inglorious ordeal that culminated in one of the most devastating electoral drubbings in American history.

When, inevitably, the subject of his short-lived running mate, Thomas Eagleton, arose, McGovern, by now well into his third double vodka, cast an irritated glance down at the dark expanse of the Cook Inlet and almost shouted, "I asked the sonofabitch whether he had any skeletons in his closet, and he said 'no.' The sonofabitch told me 'no.'"