creve coeur
Voices Rising is the theme of this year’s Gesher Music Festival, which returns next month, bringing chamber music with a multicultural twist. The festival, in its eighth season, runs Aug. 9 through 19 with three formal concerts, as well as several informal opportunities to hear some music and meet the musicians. Each in a different venue, the concerts will tell stories of change:
>> The Legacy of Tin Pan Alley: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 16 at the Missouri History Museum as part of its Muny Memories exhibit. An evening of chamber music will whisk listeners from Tin Pan Alley to Broadway. Artistic director Sara Sitzer will tell the fascinating stories behind the music of this period.
>> Rise Up: Sounds of Protest: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 18 at 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave. in U. City
>> Giving Voice: 3 p.m. Aug. 19 at JCC’s Wool Studio Theatre in Creve Coeur, the festival’s home base As in previous years, festival musicians will participate in a Shabbat service at Central Reform Congregation Aug. 10. A 2 p.m. family concert Aug. 11 at Ferguson Public Library is free, as is the family concert at 2 p.m. Aug. 12 at Congregation Temple Israel. Visit geshermusicfestival.org for more details.
You can get a marvelous view of The Lou and East St. Lou from the Gateway Arch, but depending on how many eighth-grade classes and tourists happen to appear at any given time, you might have to wait as long as for a ride at Six Flags. But you can’t see north to Lewis and Clark territory no matter how much you crane your neck. Want a 360-degree unobstructed view of our city? That treat awaits you if you shell out a Lincoln ($5) and climb the 198 steps to the top of the 120-year-old water tower that is the central feature of Compton Hill Reservoir Park at Grand and Russell, just south of I-44. But never on Sunday through Friday—unless a full moon happens to occur that evening, or there’s a special event. It’s open Saturdays until 10 p.m. April through November. It’s an easy climb if you, say, walk a dog. If you still need a break on the way up or down … whew, some stretch of weather we’re having, eh? … a few chairs for resting are in the spiral stairwell. The observation deck can accommodate 25 sightseers. At 179 feet tall, the tower also stands on one of the city’s highest points. (You already may have noticed ‘hill’ and ‘heights’ in this item.) The tower is one of three built as architectural enclosures for standpipes that helped regulate water pressure. Harvey Ellis, who designed our spectacular City Hall, was the architect. The tower was retired in 1929, but asbestos was discovered in 1984. It deteriorated until 1995, when the city contemplated its demolition, but locals rallied, and in 1999, a $19 million restoration project was completed.
maplewood
“OMG! Honey, call 911!” Response: “OK, I’m on it … umm, what’s the number?” All kidding aside, if you’re a Maplewood resident, you might want to think twice about calling 911 more than once because (at this writing) a second call to the emergency-only number could get you evicted. Because of a pending ACLU lawsuit, city officials have said they cannot comment on a recent meeting to address the ‘nuisance’ ordinance. ‘Nuisance’ calls include peace disturbance and domestic abuse. Say what? Abuse is one time when a desperate person needs help immediately. We realize nincompoops call 911 for the wrong reasons, but it’s hard to imagine more of them live in Maplewood than any of the county’s other 87 municipalities … much less St. Louis proper. I used to rent a flat in South City, my bedroom window about 6 feet from another two-family, occupants unknown. When I was awakened by a loud male voice obviously shouting at a woman (from his unprintable terminology), I called 911. This went on for several nights. Other neighbors must have called, too, but I don’t know whether squad cars were ever dispatched. I may have found out why: When I called 911 another time to report tempers boiling over at another neighbor’s holiday barbecue, the dispatcher asked whether I’d heard gunshots. I hadn’t. SLPD probably had pressing situations in other districts involving gunfire. But would I have had to find other housing if I’d lived in Maplewood and called 911 with similar complaints? Jiminy. In any event, a few years ago, Belleville police got two of the most ridiculous 911 calls I’ve ever heard of: A woman called twice to complain that her boyfriend wouldn’t let her have any more beer. Police did arrive after her second call, but I’d imagine without a six-pack to satisfy her craving.
They were stopped for WWB: Walking While Black. (Ever hear of DWB, an acronym for a Driving While Black police stop? Read: Harassment of someone for no reason but the color of their skin.) Earlier this month there was a ‘dine and dash’ of about $60 reported late one night at the IHOP on Clayton Road. Police stopped a group of 10 young black men as they were walking along Brentwood Boulevard on their way back to the MetroLink station. Although several produced IHOP receipts, the cops (in a halfdozen Clayton and Richmond Heights squad cars) followed them as they walked back to the restaurant, whereupon the manager said they weren’t the suspects. The cops let the men go. No apology. Well, all are slated to enter Washington U. as freshmen this fall. Chancellor Mark Wrighton and several vice chancellors (at least) are fit to be tied. The students didn’t fit the description of the suspects, except for being black. We of the ‘elite media’ were also disgusted by the incident and disappointed with Clayton’s finest. At first. Chief Kevin Murphy and Clayton city manager Craig Owens have met with and apologized to the young men, and in doing so, raised the bar for other metro departments. Because I’m white, I haven’t a clue what it feels like to be shadowed by store employees waiting for me to shoplift … much less to be stopped at night by cops with guns. Clayton police put themselves in the students’ shoes. Good on them.
From Bangladesh and Iran to Japan and Vietnam, 47 men and women representing 28 countries were sworn in as U.S. citizens July 13 at Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse. Leslie Caplan of Olivette brought 14 singers with her to perform “America the Beautiful” at the beginning of the ceremony, finishing it off with “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Caplan has sung for dozens of naturalization ceremonies since 2011 when Alan Freed, also a member of Central Reform Congregation, asked her to help out. A divorce mediator by trade, Freed is now director of music at the synagogue and co-founder of the Courthouse Singers. Aware that the barrister was also quite the vocalist, The Hon. Audrey Fleissig, a federal judge, asked him to sing for ceremonies, and Freed notes, with a chuckle, that he wasn’t about to flout an order of the court. At first only a few attorneys sang, which he found less than inspirational. So, after his plea, Caplan pounced on her email address list. A longtime soprano in the St. Louis Symphony Chorus, as well as a former wedding consultant, Caplan knows dozens of gifted professionals and amateurs, church choir members, soul singers, torch singers, and passionate and powerful singers who won’t drown out their fellows … volunteers who could, as a group, make new Americans feel just as important as any fellow citizen. Since the debut of the Courthouse Singers, Caplan has managed to assemble groups of no fewer than five and as many as 30. They were a smash hit from the start. “The judge took us to lunch, and a love affair was born,” Caplan recalls. Following her singers’ gig during the recent ceremony, new Americans gleeful as kids at an ice cream parlor took selfies and family pictures at the windows with the city stretched out 28 floors beneath them. Caplan says a somewhat recent American citizen named Ramon just about jumps into her arms every time she visits Trader Joe’s, years after she sang the words “… and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea” for his naturalization ceremony. And she recalls with amusement how the tall, imposing man in a Redbirds cap at an October 2013 ceremony introduced himself: “I am from Bosnia. I am a truck driver for six years.” He then exclaimed, “Go Cards!” Today, Caplan has more than 100 singers she can contact, careful to mix them well. On July 13, she had assembled Freed (who conducted), a female cop (her other soprano), an immigration lawyer who’s also a bodybuilder, a SLU professor of medicine and several colleagues in the symphony chorus, all people who were willing to devote most of a Friday morning to the petitioners, as they are called before they take the Oath of Allegiance to the United States. “Other than finding a parking space, the hardest part is not falling apart and sobbing,” Caplan says.