We're Wolf photograph by Claire Toler
Boots may be gone, but the slinger continues to inspire nifty things down on Cherokee Street. On Friday, October 1, Foam Coffee & Beer hosts The Slinger, the first in an ongoing series of monthly variety shows organizers describe as "an hour and a half rampage of talent, comedy and music!" The lineup this month: folk tunes from We're Wolf; "woetry," from Nathan William Ford; "Advertising Board Meeting," where the audience assists performers in developing a marketing plan for a real, horribly named product; monologues from Angelo Olegna of Cranky Yellow, dubbed "Angelo's Horrible Life Stories;" and "Ye Olde Action News," a faux 21st-century crash 'n' burn newscast done in an old-fashioned, Little Nemo style (f'rinstance: the traffic dirigible report). It's all sponsored by The Shangri-La (which probably serves the best veggie burger in town, and definitely has the best psychedelic Barbie art). The suggested donation is modest ($5) and the fun starts at 7 p.m.
The very next day, Los Caminos, a new art space at 2649 Cherokee organized by Francesca Wilmott and Cole Root, opens its first exhibit, RJ Messineo’s Perfectly F----d Up For You, with a reception from 7-10 pm. Messineo, a Chicago-based artist, is hanging distressed, sculptural pieces that "demonstrate that the very accumulation of flawed parts—in both art and in personal relations—can surprisingly produce a sort of perfection." Not a traditional gallery but a second-floor apartment, Los Caminos is designed to be a space where contemporary art is not just looked at, but discussed and made, too. We must also note that there's a funny eggs/chili/cheese connection here: Root, who is the Exhibitions Manager at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, was the curator of Boots' Slinger II show in 2008.
On beyond Slingers and Cherokee street, but within the same time frame (October 2): Laumeier Sculpture Park holds its first Poetry in Place reading this weekend. Life, Death, Mulch features poets Richard Newman and Adrian Matekja of River Styx, as well as Marjorie Stelmach, former director of the Howard Nemerov Writing Scholars Program at Wash U. The poets will read at Beverly Pepper's earthwork, Cromlech Glen, which (if you haven't seen it) is sort of a grassy, natural amphitheater along the nature trail. They are serving fruit, too, as part of the whole metaphor for the reading: "love and loss, life and death, and the beauty that springs from those absolutes." Price is free, time is 1 p.m., and you'd better mark your calendar for the next installment on October 16. The poet that day is freelance writer (and SLM contributor) Byron Kerman, who will place a microphone in front of Tony Tasset's Eyeball (which is just what it sounds like...a giant eyeball). Then he'll stand behind it with a mic attached to his jacket, and deliver a spirited monologue about art, perception and things like that. The title? That Eye’s Got a Mouth on It.
