1. Art

St. Louis Art Capsules

Malcolm Gay encapsulates the local art scene.

By Malcolm Gay

Published: February 13, 2008

All Systems Go and Meditations on Limitations/One-Hour Sculptures White Flag Projects exhibits two young artists from out of town. In the main gallery is All Systems Go, a suite of...

2. B-Sides

"The Sex Song": Not TASTiSKANK's homage to Matthew McConaughey

By Kristyn Pomranz

Published: February 13, 2008

Satirical pop-rockers TASTiSKANK won the Jury Award for Breakout Performance at the 2007 HBO Aspen Comedy Festival and are YouTube stars with "The Sex Song," a harmony-laden tune cheerfully...

3. Cafe

Will Ian flip for the Original Pancake House?

By Ian Froeb

Published: February 13, 2008

I don't doubt there is a circle of Hell reserved for restaurant critics, and I'm reasonably certain it looks like the long stretch of Chesterfield Airport Road at the Boone's Crossing...

4. Cafe

Eat Food, Not "Food"

By Ian Froeb

Published: February 13, 2008

Michael Pollan's new book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, answers the question posed by his revelatory 2006 tome, The Omnivore's Dilemma: What do I eat? The opening sentences...

5. Critics' Picks

The Whigs

7 p.m. Thursday, February 14. Creepy Crawl, 3524 Washington Boulevard

By Shae Moseley

Published: February 13, 2008

Mission Control, the second album by the Whigs — Athens, Georgia's latest purveyors of authentic, blues-tinged garage rock — proves that having the right person behind...

6. Critics' Picks

The Campbell Brothers

8 p.m. Friday, February 15 and 11 a.m. Saturday, February 16. Edison Theatre, 6445 Forsyth Boulevard

By Roy Kasten

Published: February 13, 2008

In the late '90s, the blues label Arhoolie began its seminal Sacred Steel series, which introduced the heathen masses of jam kids and blues heads to the obscure sound of gospel-steel...

7. Critics' Picks

Leo Kottke

8 p.m. Friday, February 15. Sheldon Concert Hall, 3648 Washington Boulevard

By Shae Moseley

Published: February 13, 2008

Though Leo Kottke once experienced partial hearing loss, the Athens, Georgia, native has always found a way to overcome setbacks and create country-blues-inspired folk instrumentals....

8. Critics' Picks

Tesla

7 p.m. Saturday, February 16. Pop's, 1403 Mississippi Avenue, Sauget, Illinois

By Andrew Miller

Published: February 13, 2008

In 1986, a Sacramento group named City Kidd changed its moniker after its manager suggested that it pay tribute to inventor Nikola Tesla. But while Tesla the man pioneered radio technology,...

9. Critics' Picks

Ohmega Watts

7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard.

By Dan Leroy

Published: February 13, 2008

If you're old enough to be wistful for a hip-hop era when "Jam Master Jay was more than a memory/and the culture had harmony" — or if you're just fed up with the current state...

10. Critics' Picks

HEALTH

9 p.m. Monday, February 18. The Billiken Club, 20 North Grand Boulevard

By Ryan Wasoba

Published: February 13, 2008

There's a move that noise kids make at noise shows: With their heads down, feet shoulder-width apart and unmoving, they uncross their arms and lunge both fists in the air. It's commonly...

11. Critics' Picks

OneRepublic

7 p.m. Monday, February 18. Pop's, 1403 Mississippi Avenue, Sauget, Illinois

By Tamara Palmer

Published: February 13, 2008

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has catapulted tons of bands onto folks' iPods and into record stores over the past couple years for one simple reason: He owns MySpace. Alt-poppers OneRepublic...

12. Drink of the Week

Chocolate Raspberry Martini

Tumo's Ristorante
6419 Hampton Avenue
314-351-4400

By Kristie McClanahan

Published: February 13, 2008

We were in high school the first time we came to Tumo's. It was as far into St. Louis city as we had ever ventured from south county, save for the time we drove Gravois Road for nearly...

13. DVDish

Chafing Dishes: No Reservations now available on DVD

By Robert Wilonsky, Jim Ridley and Jordan Harper

Published: February 13, 2008

No Reservations(Warner Bros.)From its cheap, mid-'90s-looking package to its woefully scant extras (one pre-chewed Food Network behind-the-scenes, blech) to its wide-screen/full-screen...

14. Feature

7-Up vs. Coke Part 2

Heir to a fortune, Andrew Gladney went from John Burroughs to Yale and came home to found the dot-com darling Savvis Inc. Then he squandered it all. The spectacular flameout of a St. Louis soft-drink scion.

By Kristen Hinman

Published: February 13, 2008

Editor's note: This is the second part of a two-part story. Part 1 is accessible online at www.riverfronttimes.com. On December 14 of last year, FBI agents arrested 45-year-old...

15. Film

In Bruges, Martin McDonagh's sightseeing hit-men flick, isn't much of a trip

By Ella Taylor

Published: February 13, 2008

No celebrity hairdresser should ever be allowed near Colin Farrell's eyebrows with a tweezer. Black, fluffy and gloriously unilateral, they still aren't the prettiest things about...

16. Game On

No More Heroes is hip, bloody, and indispensable

By Gary Hodges

Published: February 13, 2008

When it comes to giving a game a vibe, "awesome" is an easy mark to hit. Explosions, hot chicks, macho one-liners, and salivating mutants are all awesome. And it's just about impossible...

17. Homespun

Kentucky Knife Fight

Live at Stagger Inn, December 14, 2006
(self-released)

By Christian Schaeffer

Published: February 13, 2008

The five fellows in Kentucky Knife Fight are proud to call Edwardsville, Illinois, home, so it makes sense that the band recorded this five-song live document at the city's beloved...

18. Keep It Down

Malcolm never saw a frog’s leg he couldn’t keep down, until...

By Malcolm Gay

Published: February 13, 2008

These are dark days for the frogs. Chytridiomycosis, an often fatal disease caused by the chytrid fungus, which affects amphibians' pores, causing them to die of dehydration, is leveling...

19. Ask a Mexican

Blood Letting: The Mexican explains why Hispanics love to rent Blood In, Blood Out

Published: February 13, 2008

Dear Mexican: My parents were Greeks who legally immigrated to the United States in 1920. When it became harder for Greeks to immigrate, they began to jump ship in New York. My...

20. Music

Bret Michaels (sort of) talks dirty to RFT

By Jaime Lees

Published: February 13, 2008

Bret Michaels is a horny beast. Throughout his time as the lead singer and frontman of the classic hair-metal band Poison, this was a well-documented fact. He initially wooed women...