1. B-Sides

Smooth Operators

Schoolhouse Rock's songwriter celebrates a few special birthdays in St. Louis while we pit Kenny G vs. Trans-Siberian Orchestra in a fight to the holiday death.

By Ryan Wasoba and Dean C. Minderman

Published: December 5, 2007

This week, two Christmas music powerhouses will be taking the leap from the elevator to the stage in our town. On December 9, the 33-piece Trans-Siberian Orchestra will perform their...

2. Cafe

Study in Scarlet

Decadence colors the Washington Avenue loft district Red.

By Ian Froeb

Published: December 5, 2007

A thumbnail sketch of Red sounds like a Saturday Night Live skit circa 1992. The three-month-old loft district restaurant-slash-lounge is a surreal riff on Soviet Bloc-era Eastern...

3. Critics' Picks

Flee the Seen

7 p.m. Friday, December 7. Pop's, 1403 Mississippi Avenue, Sauget, Illinois.

By Ryan Wasoba

Published: December 5, 2007

Gender-bending has been a rock & roll trademark for years — and continues to be one, especially in today's guy-liner drenched Warped Tour market. But Kansas City's Flee the...

4. Critics' Picks

Straylight Run

7 p.m. Friday, December 7. Creepy Crawl, 3524 Washington Boulevard.

By Shae Moseley

Published: December 5, 2007

Well-executed sibling harmony — see the Beach Boys, Fiery Furnaces and the Carpenters — is generally one of the most direct routes to the heart of any music listener. Straylight...

5. Critics' Picks

Pokey LaFarge

9 p.m. Friday, December 7. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

By Roy Kasten

Published: December 5, 2007

His guitar sounds like a ukulele, his voice like a transgendered punk Bessie Smith, and his style suggests a hobo Pee-wee Herman. But Pokey LaFarge isn't just messing with the old-time...

6. Critics' Picks

Bodisartha

8 p.m. Saturday, November 8. Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, 3301 Lemp Avenue

By Mike Warren

Published: December 5, 2007

"Nirvana-like" has become shorthand for any band both noisy and melodic. The word fits Kansas City's Bodisartha (born in the wilds of Springfield, that name can't be an accident),...

7. Critics' Picks

VHS or Beta

8 p.m. Saturday, December 8. The Gargoyle, on the campus of Washington University at Forsyth and Skinker boulevards.

By Jaime Lees

Published: December 5, 2007

The dance-rock craze just won't end, but that's cool with us: We like to stagger home after a long sweaty night of clappin' and vibratin'. VHS or Beta is one of the best examples of...

8. Critics' Picks

The Treasury

9 p.m. Monday, December 10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

By Shae Moseley

Published: December 5, 2007

The Treasury probably likes George Harrison quite a bit — and probably also listens to Revolver more than the other Beatles albums. But while these are unfair assumptions, they're...

9. Drink of the Week

Asian Persuasion

P.F. Chang's China Bistro
25 The Boulevard
Richmond Heights
314-862-2624

By Kristie McClanahan

Published: December 5, 2007

Today our apartment has transformed into Biosphere where we will dwell for at least the next four months. One day each fall — when we resign ourselves to the reality that it's...

10. DVDish

Cellar Beware

By Jordan Harper and Robert Wilonsky

Published: December 5, 2007

The Girl Next Door (Anchor Bay) If the horror of Saw was a poblano pepper, this here is the habañero. Derived from Jack Ketchum's infamous novel, sometimes word-for-word, The...

11. Feature

Guilt-Edged

Pugnacious defense attorney Frank "Tony" Fabbri never backed away from a fight. Then the lawyer ran afoul of the law.

By Kristen Hinman

Published: December 5, 2007

"Worst of luck to you." That was the first thing Frank Fabbri said to Assistant U.S. Attorney Hilary Frooman during the two years she oversaw a criminal investigation of him, and...

12. Film

Corn Circles

Two recent college grads investigate the cyclical nature of America's obsession with corn.

By Ian Froeb

Published: December 5, 2007

In the opening minutes of the documentary King Corn — directed by Aaron Woolf and starring Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney (also Woolf's co-producer) — we learn that at least...

13. Game On

Future Shock

Mass Effect is riveting — and a bit aggravating, too.

By Gary Hodges

Published: December 5, 2007

For a game that's considered Microsoft's premier 360 title this holiday season, it's amazing how sloppy Mass Effect is. Graphical glitches distract from otherwise fascinating character...

14. Homespun

Various Artists

A Very Bert Dax Christmas, Vol. 6
(Bert Dax Cavalcade of Stars)

By Christian Schaeffer

Published: December 5, 2007

For six years running, Bert Dax honcho Matt Harnish has curated a Christmas compilation that's served a dual purpose: spreading a little holiday cheer while providing a tip sheet for...

15. Keep It Down

Bud Light Clamato Chilada

Price Unknown
A Gift From Blythe Hines

By Malcolm Gay

Published: December 5, 2007

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a...

16. Letters

Hold Your Fire

Readers sound off on policing of the internet, the Catholic church and Wash. U.

Published: December 5, 2007

Feature, November 29, 2007 Vigilante Warning A point well made: I enjoyed reading Keegan Hamilton's story, "Broken Lives on Waterford Crystal Drive," but his penultimate paragraph...

17. Ask a Mexican

Cheese Dip

Why do U.S. restaurants use lower-quality non-authentic queso?

By Gustavo Arellano

Published: December 5, 2007

Dear Mexican: I was born in beautiful El Paso, and my parents are from Juaritos. I always wondered why Mexican restaurants en los Estados Unidos use queso Amarillo — which I...

18. Music

Commit This to Memory

The Minneapolis-based pop-punk act Motion City Soundtrack proves that its success is no novelty.

By Jonah Bayer

Published: December 5, 2007

Jesse Johnson isn't the typical keyboardist for an upbeat pop-punk band whose latest album was partially produced by the Cars' Ric Ocasek. Instead of worshipping the Beach Boys —...

19. News Real

Drug Free

Clinics that treat the poor rely on free medical samples, but pharmaceuticals say there's got to be a better way.

By Keegan Hamilton

Published: December 5, 2007

It seems the drafty old Methodist church off South Grand Avenue that houses La Clinica wasn't made to withstand a cold snap, which might explain the chattering teeth of the two women...

20. Rotations

Alicia Keys

As I Am
(J)

By Dan Leroy

Published: December 5, 2007

Like many of her R&B contemporaries, Alicia Keys comes up short in the melody department: they've got the chops, the feel and even the look of their predecessors, but just don't have...