the metro | ‘Bait and switch’ is a timeworn sales scam technique that we don’t encounter much anymore. Say, back in the day, you saw a print ad for a VCR (that’s video cassette recorder, for Gen Z and some Millennials) that featured a built-in alarm clock and coffee maker. There was no such thing, of course, but a great idea, right? Automatically makes your morning coffee, wakes you up and runs a tape of last night’s news before you even leave the bed. So, if Sunday’s paper ran an ad for the product at Famous-Worth’s and you hurried downtown to check it out, the salesperson tells you they’re sold out—but over here is a VCR that dispenses bubblegum balls and plays a song by Sonny and Cher. Not exactly what you wanted, but you need a VCR … and the rest is history. Metro dailies here, there and everywhere may not have run ads like that for decades, but online is where bait and switch is rampant today. Surely, you’ve seen photos at the bottom or on the side of certain webpages—a plastic water bottle jammed between a car tire and wheel well with the question, “Why place a plastic bottle on your tire when you’re traveling alone?” Click to learn why, and you’ve entered a slideshow where 50 frames of ‘click bait’ keep you engaged while you try to find out just what the dang bottle on the tire is all about. Well, after 50 clicks claiming to help you regrow hair, lose weight, erase facial wrinkles and other snake oil variations, you never find out. We looked closely at the bottle in one photo. The label is in Russian, and snopes.com, which sniffs out dishonesty everywhere in the media, first labeled the claim as ‘false’ in 2018. Well, if nothing else, the Russians are persistent. Next up: Why should you carry a crayon in your wallet or wrap your doorknobs in aluminum foil?
olivette
Christo, the self-described ‘irrational’ artist, created monumental public works, such as completely wrapping the Arc de Triomphe in France and the Reichstag in Germany in fabric. He might have been proud of the mailbox in Olivette that’s been wrapped entirely in duct tape, for years. This updates our piece from four years ago about this objet d’art, after a fashion, on the northside of Old Bonhomme. We took a blurry photo on a foggy April morning in 2018. Clearly, not much has changed in what we thought must have been some sort of temporary repair. At first. The owner of a metro art gallery regularly passes the mailbox on his bicycle. It always makes him smile. As this issue’s photo was being taken, a pair of walkers called out, “Instagrammable, huh?”
rock hill
Trainwreck Saloon, situated in a depression at 9243 Manchester Road in Rock Hill, is but one among dozens of businesses damaged by the deadly, record-setting torrential rains that caused flash flooding throughout the metro. This wasn’t owner George Hansford’s first water polo game, if you will. On the tail end of Hurricane Ike in September 2008, Deer Creek also overflowed its banks and spilled into the low point on the busy thoroughfare. Hansford recalls that muddy water was even deeper inside the saloon that Sunday morning than it was early on July 26. Remarkably, the restaurant was up and running five days after the recent deluge. The phones still didn’t work and much of the bar equipment was damaged, but hot food, cold bottles of beer and cans of soda were plentiful. “The community and our employees have been very supportive,” he says. That’s a bit of an understatement. Workers from two restaurants lucky to be on higher ground had come down to lend a hand. “Farotto’s definitely helped out,” Hansford says. “And O.B. Clark’s in Brentwood.” At his establishment, which just celebrated its 40th anniversary last month, Hansford’s seen fire and rain. A three-alarm blaze in February 2019, which destroyed a Woodard Cleaning & Restoration warehouse just across the narrowest part of Hansford’s parking lot, was perhaps even more nerve-racking. His vintage wooden building, which has operated as a tavern since 1890, would have gone up in an instant. Through the night, Hansford kept his mind off a potential catastrophe by making sure first responders got breakfast and stayed caffeinated. But back to water: Just two days after the disastrous flooding on the 26th, heavy rains caused more serious flooding. Homes in south city that had just begun drying out were flooded by the River Des Peres a second time. Storm sewers throughout the CWE were overwhelmed, and Left Bank Books, among other stores and restaurants, had flooded basements. A friend who lives in a high-rise on Lindell Boulevard right across from the Cathedral had to take the stairs from the 18th floor several times a day to walk the dogs because flooding had disabled the elevator motors; reportedly, the undercroft of the Cathedral took on water, as well. But the Trainwreck and neighboring Rock Hill businesses were spared. “The water only came up to street level,” Hansford says.
notable neighbors
westport plaza
In 2020, the pandemic shut down most in-person entertainment, and Westport Playhouse was a casualty. There were doubts it would reopen. But it’s back, with none other than Da Vinci and Michelangelo: The Titans Experience, a multimedia show that runs through Aug. 28. Both Renaissance men are brought to life in a 240-seat theater—itself reborn for live theater, concerts, movies, improv groups, e-sports, even celebrations of life. A 40-foot by 10-foot video wall is central to the brainchild of one Lenny Mink. The immense LED screen could be referred to as state of the art, but mind-blowing or jaw-dropping fit even better. Mink’s wife, Amanda Salley, refers to the musician, songwriter, record label exec, producer, filmmaker and serial entrepreneur as, you guessed it, a renaissance man. We met with the new executive director of the Playhouse on a Tuesday morning as a construction worker put finishing touches on the space for its Friday reopening with the St. Louis premiere of Titans. Later that day Mink was flying to L.A. to continue discussions with Bluebell Smile, an up-and-coming alt-rock band. Meanwhile, he detailed a comedy feature film that he and business partner Dan Byington are co-producing—Bad Grandmas Rule could be released next year. As someone once said: If you want something done, give it to a busy man. Despite being in a beehive of activity, Mink was amiable, engaging, focused and unhurried. Chill, one might say. His life experience may deserve some of the credit. His family fled the Soviet Union, arriving from Belarus in 1978, when Mink was 6. You couldn’t find a more enthusiastic booster of the StL and its culture, especially our music. St. Louisans have a collective self-esteem problem, when around the world we’re known as the birthplace of such giants as Chuck Berry and Miles Davis. “We have to take pride in that,” Mink emphasizes; it’s up to us to represent! Mink feels a great sense of privilege being both insider and outsider. When his family arrived, none spoke a word of English. Now, he has a bit of a Midwestern accent. (Yeah, it’s a thing. For me, at least. I grew up on the East Coast.) Mink’s multifaceted company is Lotown Media, with the motto, ‘Make It Till You Make It.’ That’s also his personal philosophy. Mink has confidence in the renewed success of the Playhouse with all its new bells and whistles. So, about these Titans? They’ll come to life via a one-man show performed by Mark Rodgers. Da Vinci’s elaborate sketches, inventions, and artworks, along with Michelangelo’s masterpieces, will retain their sense of scale. “But this won’t be like a TED talk,” Mink notes. Rodgers has the fire and passion that befit these extraordinary men and their essential contributions to Western culture. There’ll be humor, as well: Rodgers doesn’t ignore their rivalry. Plus, it will be the closest many of us will ever get to the ceiling Michelangelo painted in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. Models of Da Vinci inventions, fashioned from his 500-year-old drawings, will also be on hand. “We challenge you to find your own inner Da Vinci,” says Mink. Visit westportplay.com.
