1. Ask a Negro Leaguer

Who Do You Love?

By Prince Joe Henry

Published: November 7, 2007

Hey Joe: Who is the most influential black person in St. Louis today? Harold Ford Jr., Nashville, Tennessee I'd say former city fire chief Sherman George. I've followed him for a...

2. B-Sides

Get in the Van

By Roy Kasten

Published: November 7, 2007

It's a little too fitting that B-Sides gets a hold of the Bowerbirds as the band was driving around in the dark, looking for a campsite in western Ohio. The Raleigh, North Carolina,...

3. Cafe

Raita On

The honeymoon is over for Ian — but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

By Ian Froeb

Published: November 7, 2007

Listen: Yours truly had come unstuck in time. One minute my wife and I were lingering over cappuccinos after a five-course dinner at our honeymoon resort's premier restaurant, reminiscing...

4. Critics' Picks

Tera Melos/Heavy Heavy Low Low

By Ryan Wasoba

Published: November 7, 2007

"Restless" is a good word to describe Tera Melos, a Sacramento trio that makes no qualms about aspiring to be more ambitious than the average instrumental math-rock group. On its most...

5. Critics' Picks

The Forms

By Shae Moseley

Published: November 7, 2007

The Forms spent 50 consecutive days in Chicago recording its new self-titled album with Steve Albini, a feat which tested the wills, sanity and pocketbooks of the Brooklyn band. But...

6. Critics' Picks

Benny Benassi

By Michael Alan Goldberg

Published: November 7, 2007

Based on the DJ List – which I gather is something like college football's BCS Standings – Italian dance-floor maven Benny Benassi is currently the fourteenth-ranked DJ...

7. Critics' Picks

Jason Isbell

By Roy Kasten

Published: November 7, 2007

As teen-tycoon Phil Spector spirals ever more madly into absolute denial, not even a song as bitter and catchy as Jason Isbell's "Brand New Kind of Actress" could save him. (In fact,...

8. Critics' Picks

VNV Nation

By D.X. Ferris

Published: November 7, 2007

Emo, goth and punk fans who don't go for dance music may already know the Euro-duo VNV Nation: Multi-instrumentalist Ronan Harris manned the samplers on AFI's smash album Decemberunderground,...

9. Critics' Picks

Sammy Hagar

By Michael Alan Goldberg

Published: November 7, 2007

Having just turned 60 a few weeks ago, Sammy Hagar is only five years younger than Paul McCartney. But historical significance aside, which old dude would you honestly rather bro down...

10. Critics' Picks

PINK: A Benefit

Local motion

By Jaime Lees

Published: November 7, 2007

Pink is a bouncing, beat-filled party thrown by some philanthropic electro-types to benefit the Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation. But this multi-level Upstairs Lounge event (i.e.,...

11. DVDish

The Kids Were Alright

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: November 7, 2007

Sesame Street: Old School Volume 2 (Genius) On the heels of the Electric Company boxed sets, which were at once educational and groovy as all get-out, comes the latest in greatest...

12. Feature

The Show Must GO

It's the best of times and the worst of times for St. Louis theater companies

By Malcolm Gay

Published: November 7, 2007

Transitioning from Jason Robert Brown's bluesy "The River Won't Flow," New Line Theatre's cast recedes into the shadows of the Ivory Theatre's spanking-new stage. As the actors all...

13. Film

Show Time in St. Louis

SLIFF celebrates its sweet sixteenth with a two-week party.

Published: November 7, 2007

The St. Louis International Film Festival (November 8 through 18) could easily overwhelm you with the quantity and quality of its selections this year; the RFT staff discovered this...

14. Game On

A Little Sucky-Sucky

Two vampire classics are back. Unfortunately, this time they bite.

By Gary Hodges

Published: November 7, 2007

Castlevania, the vampire-hunting series that stretches over 20 years and as many games, has basically two kinds of fans. There are the traditionalists, who've followed the games since...

15. Homespun

Bad Folk
Bad Folk/Rats and People

"That Great Atomic Power Scared Charlie Louvin More than God" 7"
(self-released)"Saw a Circus" / "I Sang to Heather Nethereye" split 7"
(self-released)

By Christian Schaeffer

Published: November 7, 2007

Bad Folk excels at taking an antiquated form (acoustic folk music) and giving it modern relevance. Case in point: For the band's new, vinyl-only EP, singer and banjo player Tim Rakel...

16. Keep It Down

McRib Value Meal

$5.04
McDonald's
4006 Lindell Boulevard

By Malcolm Gay

Published: November 7, 2007

Stopgap: stäp-gap, n., something that serves as a temporary expedient. The stopgap. Usually when we think of a stopgap, we think of emergency government spending to bail out...

17. Music

Preservation Blues

Local niche labels keep the music coming.

By Dean C. Minderman

Published: November 7, 2007

As big record companies struggle with the ways digital technology is changing the music business, they've also been abandoning entire genres of music to focus on squeezing the biggest...

18. News Real

The Church Ladies

Two St. Louis women will soon become ordained Catholic priests — and in a Jewish synagogue, no less.

By Kristen Hinman

Published: November 7, 2007

The usual ordination of a Roman Catholic priest takes place in a cathedral and includes a vow of obedience to clerical superiors. It then culminates in the sacred "laying on of hands,"...

19. News Real

Prince Joe's Victory

By Chad Garrison

Published: November 7, 2007

After waging a three-year battle with Major League Baseball, Riverfront Times columnist Joe Henry has won inclusion in a pension program for former Negro League ballplayers. News of...

20. Film

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Robert Redford and the American façade.

By Scott Foundas

Published: November 7, 2007

Although he plays a college professor in his latest film, Robert Redford was, by his own admission, never much of a student, consistently more interested in what was going on outside...