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Book Sale to Benefit Chatillon-DeMenil House This Weekendadmin | 16 May, 2008 15:31 There's nothing I love more than book sales, although in this case, because we were moving to a much smaller house, I ended up donating about 7 boxes of books. Still, though it sounds ridiculous, I may go and bring home a box of someone else's books! I will tell you, too, that having personally donated to this sale, there are some really nice art and history books in the mix, as well as lots of literature and literary theory, if you're into that kinda thing. Here's the details, per the ReHabber's Club list: Thousands of used books, most a dollar or 50 cents, this weekend at 1912 Cherokee Street (at the eastern end of Antique Row). In addition to a large collection of fiction, books are divided into the followingcategories: Architecture/Urbanism Art Antiques and Collectibels Gardening/Landscaping Cookbooks Travel Music Crafts GLBT Children's Graphic novels and ocmics Business and Management Mysteries Film and TV lots of VHS tapes ...and a whole lot more. The sale runs Saturday May 17 from 10 - 4 and Sunday May 18 from 12 - 4. Sunday is a bag sale. This is the second annual Rehabbers club used Book Sale to benefit ongoing restoration work at the Chatillon-Demenil Mansion (www.demil.org). It's just part of the annual Cherokee Street History Fair; the DeMenil Mansion will be offering Free tours all weekend, and there are all kinds of other activites (tours, music, classic cars, authors, sales, scavenger hunt, and more.) We Must Be Completely Modernadmin | 15 May, 2008 15:40 Oy vey! Apartment Therapy reports that Arthur Rimbaud's petulant mug is being splashed across rugs and wall hangings. Not sure what to think about this - I love it when the incendiary infiltrates the decorative. On the other hand, seeing my favorite poet turned into a textile is a little disturbing. But for a poet who colored in the vowels, perhaps it's not all that inappropriate...
Tower Grove Farmer's Market opens for the Season Sat May 10admin | 08 May, 2008 10:15 Tower Grove Farmer's Market, the precursor to the excellent Local Harvest Grocery, kicks off their third season starting this Saturday! I remember their first season - people called them idealists and groused and grumbled that they would never get this thing off the ground because no one would pay more for local organic produce when they could get the cheap Produce Row stuff at Soulard. As this smart crew has now proved, there was a huge untapped market here, and people hit both markets, albeit for different things (I have yet to see live chickens in Tower Grove Park). Here's the info: This Saturday! Landmarks Association Preservation Week; Old North St. Louis House and Garden Touradmin | 07 May, 2008 12:53
I became a St. Louis transplant partly because I fell so hard for the architecture—the stone curlicues, the indigenous clay brick, the arches and turrets and Mansard roofs. I know at least two or three other people who chose St. Louis (after considering several other mid-sized towns) for the same reason. I’ve talked to some of these other folks not just about the quality of the architecture, but the insanity of tearing it down for parking lots. It seems, at least from my perspective, simply insane, like purposely sawing off one of your own digits because it needs to be replaced with something more “progressive” (or it is a useful token in a political pea-and-shell game).
Luckily, we have the Landmarks Association, which has been advocating for St. Louis’ built environment for decades (see Robert Duffy’s article in today’s St. Louis Beacon for a profile of Landmarks’ director Carolyn Toft, who will retire this September). On Friday, Landmarks kicks off their annual Preservation Week downtown at the Ludwig Lofts (1004-6 Olive) with a ribbon cutting and open house from 3:30–6 p.m. There will also be house tours in Maplewood, Old North, the Central West End and Skinker-DeBalievere, bowling at Saratoga Lanes, a history fair on Cherokee, a trivia night (hosted by Channel 9’s Patrick Murphy), a booksale for the Chatillon-DeMenil House, Landmarks’ “Most Enhanced” awards, and a walking tour of St. Louis Place led by my new neighbor, Landmarks Assistant Director Michael Allen (who you may know via Ecology of Absence). New neighbor? Yep, that’s right. I am sporting a new bruise on my forearm after moving many boxes and our washer and dryer (ack) up two flights of stairs to the top floor of a rehabbed two family in Old North (hooray!). It just so happens that the rehab is one of the stops on the 2008 Old North House and Garden tour, which is this Saturday (I’m pasting all the info below). The House Tour has been one of our no-miss annual rituals for three years now—it will be odd to be on the other side of it! It’s one of the most inspiring house tours in the city, especially if you’ve gone in years past; the progress that’s been made in a scant 12 months is astounding; not just the big stuff, like the 14th Street Mall and the Mullanphy, but the many individual rehabs throughout the neighborhood. Here’s the details: See the progress yourself this Saturday. Join us for the Old North St. Louis 2008 House and Community Tour on Saturday, May 10th. Ten homes and community gardens will be open to the public from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. One of the highlights of this year’s tour will be an opportunity to get a sneak-peek at the current $35 million redevelopment of the former 14th Street Mall. Visitors will be able to walk between the homes and gardens on the tour at their own pace or use the free “trolley” shuttle service. With homes built over a span of 150 years—from the mid-19th Century to this past year—the Old North St. Louis House Tour offers an opportunity to view a range of different housing styles. Advance tickets can be purchased for $10 on our website at www.ONSL.org or for $12 the day of the event. Advance ticket orders will be available for pick-up at the registration area on the day of the tour, which will be on the south side of the intersection of 14th Street and St. Louis Avenue, at the edge of the former 14th Street Mall. UMA Odds & Ends Warehouse Sale This Weekendadmin | 30 April, 2008 10:10 This economy is rough, it's true (and speculators, to hell with them, are making it rougher). Still, sometimes people need stuff, and I would encourage those who need furniture and nifty house accessories to get such things at local businesses. Like UMA (Urban Materials and Accessories) which is having an Odds & Ends warehouse sale this weekend. I'd be tempted to go, but ... I'm moving to much smaller digs, and probably won't have room for much. (I've already made 5 trips to the Goodwill, sheesh.) For those of you who are lucky enough to have some spare time on Saturday or Sunday: Knoll Space Sale @ CENTROadmin | 29 April, 2008 17:55 Buy a fancy chair in a recession? What craziness, you say! Well, if the fancy chair was designed by Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen, Ross Lovegrove or Maya Lin, and the form will stand for generations (like Art Deco has), then it's not so loco. Especially if you can afford it in the first place ... and it's on sale. CENTRO (4727 McPherson, 314-454-0111) will be having just such a sale between May 2 and May 10; this is their annual sale on Knoll furniture. If you need a fancy modern chair ... as they say, there is no time like the present! Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme: Webster Groves Herb Society Sale Tomorrowadmin | 25 April, 2008 09:47 I mentioned this in an earlier post, but the Webster Groves Herb Society is holding their annual plant sale tomorrow from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Webster Groves, 10 W. Lockwood at Elm. Last year was my first visit to this sale; I was charmed by the whole experience, and floored by the quality of he plants. I spent way too much money, but it kept us in basil for the rest of the year (or at least till we mulched the plants, well into the fall). We also picked up chocolate mint, curry, oregano, chamomile, rosemary and wormwood. For whatever reason, we neglected to pick up any heirloom tomato plants, but I'm definitely going to tuck a few of those into my cardboard box tomorrow. We have our own bitty little tomato seedlings (including Wapsicon Peach and Nebraska Wedding Tomatoes) but you never know for sure if the guys are going to make it until they're big enough to flower. The WGHS site says they have 15 heirloom varieties, and I can't wait to see them in person; I'll probably print the plant list and highlight the plants I can't live without. Unfortunately, being a writer, it's hard for me to pass up a plant with an interesting name, so I will have a hard time resisting the Atomic Snowflake geraniums, the Mr. Stripey tomatoes or the Bon Bon calendula. I suspect most of you are more practical sorts, so here's a tip: Brandywine tomatoes (which will be for sale tomorrow) are probably one of the tastiest homegrown tomatoes around. Celebrate Earth Day ... and Eight-Six the Lawnadmin | 22 April, 2008 13:33
In December of 2006, I interviewed a couple of horticulturists at Shaw Nature Reserve for St. Louis Magazine’s work issue, following them around on an unnaturally warm winter morning as they tended to an experimental sedge garden. The two things I remember most vividly: that the spring peepers were peeping four months early, and that the horticulturists referred to lawns as “chemically-dependent carpets.”
I’ve never trusted lawns, even though I have a nostalgic attachment to them based on fuzzy memories of my dad firing up the mower on the first mild spring weekend, or playing “Germs,” with my best friend, pretending that we were causing our host’s hair to fall out as we used that same push mower to give the back yard some bald spots. Of course, those memories sour in an instant when I think about the millions of gallons of fresh water a lawn can waste, or the creepy poisons we sift and spray in an attempt to keep dandelions at bay. We take the presence of lawns for granted, but they’ve only been around a century or so. As the San Antonio Water System notes (and with a climate like theirs, they have reasons for not wanting to contaminate or waste millions of gallons of H2O): “In the late 1800s and early 1900s the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Golf Association and the Garden Clubs of America all worked together to develop grass species not native to the U.S. into lawn grass and promote an aesthetic that revolved around a close-cropped, weed-free lawn as a reflection of a middle class value system. Before the invention of the lawnmower, rubber hose and sprinkler, pesticides, herbicides and commercial fertilizers and the development of appropriate lawn grasses, lawns as we know them today were impossible.” If you can conjure a visceral memory of mowing your lawn here in St. Louis during July and August—especially if you suffer from allergies—perhaps you wish that the lawn had remained impossible. I’m going to argue that it’s folly to spend so much time and energy cultivating a Frankenstein, a zombie, a freak of nature that requires a complicated life-support system to even exist. If you like being behind a lawn mower in 102 degree heat, grass clinging to your sweaty forearms, huffing exhaust … you can continue to be a glutton for punishment. For those who would rather be swinging in a hammock, reading trashy novels and drinking a well-iced Ginger Ale while your poor neighbor slaves away over his lawn, Squidoo has a nice collection of links on native Missouri Gardening. The Earthways Center is happy to help on this front, too, and the Shaw Arboretum Native Plant Sale is coming right up on May 10. Also note that the Webster Groves Herb Society’s 37th annual herb sale is this weekend from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Webster Groves (10 West Lockwood, 314-739-9925) and that properly planted oregano and rosemary are not only great to have on hand for cooking, they don't need babying like grass does. Most “green tips” seem to involve some sort of sacrifice - but low-maintenance native gardens are the opposite. Keeping that chemically-dependent carpet is the sacrifice! 50 Sad Chairsadmin | 17 April, 2008 08:31 The one and only Bill Keaggy has a new, very small book out: 50 Sad Chairs. Though it fits into the palm of your hand, it is a super power pill of a book. In its pages, you will find images of St. Louis' back alleys and the chairs that spend their last days there: "Take a peek inside the cruel and unforgiving world of St. Louis, Missouri's abandoned, abused and neglected chairs. Found in back alleys all over the city, these chairs live out their last days on mean streets, forsaken by their owners and forgotten by society. Until now." This originated as a Flickr set, and the collection of images is fascinating to look at, unedited and without snappy captions, but you really begin to anthropomorphize these chairs when you read Keaggy's titles. This one, for instance, is called "She Never Calls Anymore":
Makes you think twice before just leaving those poor chairs (or sofas, or baby strollers) out in the alley, doesn't it? Though I will say that St. Louis has a pretty active alley culture (I just put out two bookcases last week, and they were gone within 10 minutes) and only the saddest of the sad chairs are left behind ... the ones that probably wouldn't make it to craigslist or even the Goodwill. But ... yes, it's just so sad, isn't it? Which leads me to believe that Keaggy's project was meant to evoke pathos, rather than a call to action. Unlike this project -- hey, May is coming right up, isn't it? Better pocket that litter, lest it show up on Mr. Keaggy's site for all to see (and litterbugs went out of fashion in the 70s anyway - just ask Woodsy the Owl!) 15th Annual Grand South Grand House and Garden Touradmin | 15 April, 2008 16:08 And if the weather holds, what a tour it will be! Per the press release: "Your Community's History, Your Community's Future," Neighborhood History Workshopadmin | 14 April, 2008 11:38 UM-St. Louis, the Landmarks Association and the St. Louis County Historic Buildings Commission are teaming up to produce a Neighborhood History Workshop. One of the first things I noticed about this event is that it is city-county event ... the balkanized, derisive attitude that's marked city-county relations in the past is entirely absent. I take that as a sign, however small, that this community is starting to change in fundamental ways. First, it shows a realization that the region is only as strong as its individual neighborhoods, be they city or county. And the new appreciation for the history of a neighborhood, versus how fashionable it is at present, is also a healthy shift ... I think this signals a willingness to make a long-term investment in a neighborhood, rather than just pull up stakes and head to the next exurban development when the inevitable patina of age begins to manifest itself. Here are all the pertinent details for interested parties: "Your Community's History, Your Community's Future" A Leafy Oasis; a Secretadmin | 11 April, 2008 16:22 As I approach the countdown from house to the top floor of a two-family (we're waiting out the market and saving, saving, saving to buy a house) I find myself newly addicted to Apartment Therapy, the blog that covers all design-related things, so long as they are wildly creative - and appropriate for small spaces. They are currently running a "Smallest, Coolest Apartment"contest, to be decided by web poll. I rather liked this one, described as "a leafy oasis." I also liked the answer the resident gave when asked why small is beautiful: "Living in a small home forces you to select and display only those items which deeply matter to you and which better represent you. Because of that, you and everyone else can get a better sense of you who are just by seeing what you have chosen to reveal in your little rooms..." Amen to that. We're driving a freakin' cargo van to the Goodwill this weekend to get rid of things that we don't look at, use or love. Hopefully, though, they will make someone else very, very happy. And I probably shouldn't be spilling the beans on this one, but I will anyway - the girl with the leafy abode's comments about being an artist on a budget (and using creativity in lieu of cash) made me think of it. If you're okay with DIY and taking a creative approach to decor, I can't say enough about American Science and Surplus. Don't let the name fool you; they sell more than bunsen burners and Geiger counters. They have an awesome array of arts & crafts supplies, homegoods and strange little geegaws. Remember though, sometimes you have to look in lab supplies to find the best glassware, rather than just jumping straight to the home and garden section. The "Big and/or Green" House Debateadmin | 09 April, 2008 15:04 This week, Jetson Green revived the whole how-big-can-a-green-house-be topic after the New York Times ran a piece on the subject. JG was posting, in his words, "random thoughts" to promote discussion, though I was amused by his addendum regarding a guy building a 12,000 "net zero energy" home: "I'm just waiting for someone to create an organic pizza buffet and call it healthy." In some ways, monster houses with low-flow shower heads are worse than their energy-gobbling counterparts. They distract us from the fact that clearing land for a 10,000-plus-s.f. house DOES take a toll on the ecosystem. So does the sheer bulk of building materials. And then there is the issue of the energy required to make the house functional ... which, even if it is LEED, is going to be substantially more than a smaller abode. (I think anyone who earnestly wants to live in a sustainable way also needs to ask themselves, "If the other 6 billion people on the planet were living like me ... what would happen?") Remember Olestra? Hopefully you were smart enough to be suspicious of a substance that tasted just like fat but had no calories ... those that couldn't resist found themselves chasing those Wow! chips with a large dose of Milk of Magnesia ... or a trip to the emergency room. Americans have this funny, adolescent idea that our Id is entitled to whatever it wants, the environment or the common good be damned. And if we can get our hands on the goods without lifting a finger, all the better, whether it's fat without calories, a zero-down mortgage on a $700,000 house or a "green" McMansion. Now, I try not to go on a screed without balancing it with something delightful. So I'll end with a mention of ReNest's post about the opposite of non-Green monsterhouses: green dollhouses.
DIY!admin | 04 April, 2008 09:45 Like riding the bus, cooking at home or buying secondhand, the “do it yourself” model has been stigmatized as a lifestyle choice of the broke and desperate. Never mind that legumes can be a delicacy if they’re made properly, that there is much pleasure in traveling by bicycle or making a trip pied à terre, that there’s satisfaction in building a bookcase from scratch, finding antiques at the Goodwill incognito under coats of Pepto-Bismol colored paint or in teaching yourself to make risotto. Onward and Upward in the Garden; Frank Lloyd Wright Lecture at SLAM Tonightadmin | 03 April, 2008 08:36 Lately I've been reading E.B. White's One Man's Meat, a collection of essays White wrote for Harper's after leaving New York City and hacking it as a subsistence farmer/writer off the coast of Maine. He writes about raising chickens and re-roofing his barn, all the while admitting he's not very good at this stuff. White's dry sense of humor is one of the things I love best in this world, and his visionary mind is apparent throughout. Finding himself up to his armpits in kids' books for review, he pronounces just one of them - The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, by a then-unknown author, Dr. Seuss - to be the only one that displays the true silliness and whimsicality required for non-insulting juvenile literature. He mentions his wife, Katherine, throughout the book. She was also a New Yorker editor, and though not nearly as well-known as her husband, she is credited, along with William Shawn, as being the force that made that magazine what it was. She has really only one book out there - a gardening book. But of course it's more than just a gardening book. One of the reviews on Amazon declared, "These 14 pieces by Katharine White first appeared in the pages of the New Yorker and were posthumously collected by her husband, E. B. White. They are at once as formal as an English manor house garden, as sensible as the Burpee seed catalog, and twice as delightful as either."
This is a book I am going to have to track down for sure. From what I can tell, Mrs. White and I have the same approach to gardening - letting wildflowers and bees do their thing with a minimum of interference. And an event tonight I know lots of people will want to make note of: The Houses of Frank Lloyd WrightRobert McCarter St. Louis Art Museum Main Auditorium 7pm Free Join architect, historian, and author Robert McCarter as he explores the interior spaces, materials, construction, and connections to nature in Wright's Prairie, Concrete Block, and Usonian Houses. McCarter's book, Frank Lloyd Wright, will be available for purchase at an author signing following the lecture. This lecture is cosponsored by The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park. Menusearchcalendar
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