downtown
Alice Boccia Paterakis, Soldiers Memorial conservator, brushed protective wax into nooks and crannies between the raised letters and flat surface of a lacquered bronze plaque. She was hired for the new position in 2016, when the memorial’s $30 million restoration project began. The plaque is at the base of a stone pedestal dedicated to the men and women of St. Louis who made the supreme sacrifice in World War II. That monument was erected in 1955 near the New Deal-era memorial, dedicated in 1936 by FDR to the city’s fallen in the ‘War to End All Wars,’ World War I. Tragically, the war that ended in 1918 was but a catastrophic prelude—WWII began in Europe just three years after our Soldiers Memorial was dedicated. It was sunny and cool the day we visited, a few days after the Nov. 3 ceremony kicking off a week’s worth of activities that ended Nov. 12, the day after Veterans Day and the centennial of the Armistice that brought ‘The Great War’ to an end. Denny Garner, a retired U.S. Navy captain, had attended the grand reopening. The day of our visit, he brought his grandson Colin with him. Garner had enlisted in 1965, during Vietnam, and served 42 years. After taking a photo for the two, we watched a man with a cane negotiate the steps, framed by two of the four heroic Art Deco statues by Walker Hancock … Vision and Courage. Once grimy from decades of city soot, they are impressive once more. Thirty million dollars was a bargain to restore the building and grounds and expand the museum. What price honor and glory for veterans, and those who love them?
the metro
The inferno of the post-retail apocalypse is spreading, and big-box retailing has hit new ‘Lowe’s’. The North Carolina-based home-improvement warehouse—and major pain in the neck of competitors like Home Depot and Menards—is shuttering three stores in the metro. Lowe’s said it will close 20 stores in the U.S. and 31 in Canada, among them the locations in Bridgeton, Florissant and Granite City, Illinois. Metro stores aren’t slated to close until the close of the company’s 2018 fiscal year, Feb. 1, 2019. Lowe’s isn’t big enough to have a zillion stores; it only seems like it. There are just a few dozen more than 1,700 nationwide. Lowe’s, BTW, employs about 300,000 people—roughly the population of the city of St. Louis. What really astonishes me, though, is how often you’ll see a Lowe’s and Home Depot less than a few hundred yards from each other. One is the shark, the other the remora, those little scavengers that trail the shark, gobbling up pieces of hapless surfers and sea creatures the shark doesn’t swallow after tearing them to shreds. Are the remoras Lowe’s? Well, the CEO has gone on record saying the Home Depot playbook is the retail playbook. And he used to be the Home Depot topper, too.
st. louis
Used to be, dropping by a Saint Louis Bread Co. was the essence of an analog experience. You’d go in, maybe wait in line a few minutes, then be greeted—sometimes even warmly—by the person behind the counter. They’d take your order and you’d pay. A little later, they’d call you by name and you’d go get it. That was so 1990s. Somewhere along the line, they started handing out those annoying coaster-sized devices that would buzz when your order was ready, scaring the bejeebers out of you. How turn of the (21st) century, like a beeper making you jump, instead of a mobile phone call’s gentle vibration. It was yet another step away from actual human contact. Now, like Starbucks, McDonald’s and so many other food-service companies, Panera Bread is marking its success in large part on digital sales. Company officials say Panera will surpass $2 billion in digital sales this year, double that of last year. Panera execs say they hit the big number two years early. Seems one in three customers order online, from a smartphone or kiosk. I’ll acknowledge that a digital order or appointment beats the pants off waiting in the drive-through lane at the Starbucks on North & South and Delmar in U. City for 20 minutes—or, trying to walk into a Great Clips for a haircut but getting bumped by those mysterious people who booked online and settle in a stylist’s chair before you. Online, schmonline.
bridgeton
We all seek refuge and rest while traveling. St. Louis artist Solomon Thurman expands on that theme, extending beyond human air travelers. We weren’t born to fly; birds were. Perch Here Between Flights is a series of 14 acrylic and oil paintings of birdhouses and birds in flight, now on exhibit at St. Louis Lambert International Airport in Terminal 2, near gate E10. Thurman is one of two painters who created the airport’s Black Americans in Flight mural (1990, Terminal 1) and he is the 2018 Missouri Arts Council Artist of the Year. Perch is curated by Pat Smith Thurman, Solomon’s wife. Together they founded 10th Street Gallery downtown and were named co-chairs of the 2019 St. Louis Art Awards. The paintings were inspired by a trip to Mobile, Alabama, where Solomon visited an estate with more than 300 birdhouses on the property. Several birds began perching in the houses at the onset of a hard rain. Solomon captured the experience in more than 22 paintings. He has been painting for five decades. This, the first exhibition in the series, will be on display through April 2019.
ladue: notable neighbor
The McCulloughs have a Mini Cooper, a Porsche Cayenne, a Lamborghini Murcielago and a Ferrari Testarossa … and lament the loss of their beloved Bentley. Yes, the family appreciates automotive excellence, but these classics don’t have four wheels. They all have four furry legs—or had, in the case of Bentley, the black-and-white long-haired cat whose photograph is framed on a wall. Mini Cooper is the fatter, boy chihuahua; Porsche Cayenne is the skinnier, girl chihuahua. Why not Ford Pinto, Chevy Vega or Toyota Corolla? Well, nothing but top of the line for Shannon McCullough, DVM, and her husband, Mark, of Ladue. Shannon has parlayed her love and concern for animals—and a special affinity for Africa (a onetime exchange student in Kenya, she speaks fondly of her ‘African family’)—into two businesses with her husband: She’s president of Global Gift Innovators and The Gifting Tree. Most days you can find her at her ‘real’ job at St. Louis Veterinary Center, Grand and I-44 near SLU. But she and her two-legged family (which includes son Luke, 18) don’t just dream of the Dark Continent. They have a pied-à-terre, if that’s what you could call a ‘wildlife estate’, near Kruger National Park in South Africa, a famed location for adventurers going on safari. And when the great hunter shooting (photos of) game returns from a (bloodless) safari, a bucket-list trip for anyone, what to bring back that’s worthy of its overwhelming emotional impact? Not a stinkin’ T-shirt … it could be a rhino fashioned intricately from glass beads on a wire frame. “They’re looking for something distinctive, unique,” says Shannon, Porsche Cayenne stretching to lick her face. “If you told me 20 years ago I’d own a chihuahua…” she says, her voice trailing off. Shannon and Mark work with Charll and Annelie Mans (who are Afrikaners) to help artisans in a rural shop, Madilika, refine their products. For years, the women have recycled glass retrieved from the safari ‘camp’ at Kruger, including green wine bottles, brown beer bottles and clear glass. They crush and bake them in a kiln to create multicolored beads for necklaces or fashion breathtakingly beautiful wire-and-bead beasts and birds. But the process was not as sustainable, nor the beads as consistent, as possible, which is where Charll and Annalie stepped in. He had been teaching business; she, art. Madilika is now more efficient, its finances ‘an open book,’ thanks to the business acumen of Charll and the McCulloughs. Shannon and Mark’s motto, Vive Ut Vivas, is on a plaque beside the front door and a stone archway inside the house. They do, indeed … on at least two continents. Visit giftinnovators.com for more information.
