They've started calling me "the toast of LaSalle Park." Well, not really, but I feel like that in the wake of my November 16 Riverfront Times cover story, "The Bricks that Bind," about the friendship of Geoff Story and Barbara Clark, who owned the same Morrison Avenue house a decade apart and bonded over its history.
"Holly didn't like how Andy used and exploited people, although she certainly benefited from it," Copeland said. "Her direct quote was, 'Andy Warhol was a pig.'"
Two doors down, LaSalle Park booster Deb Aerne (known as "Aunt Deb" around the neighborhood) and partner Kris Loewe held a cocktail party on Saturday, April 15, to reveal their three-story Second Empire row house, circa 1890, which had been redesigned by Meg Holmes of MIN+ Architecture and had been under renovation for the past year.
Aerne was thrilled with how the house turned out. "Meg did a marvelous job of coalescing the grandeur architecture of the home with our modern tastes. We also had great fun salvaging and refinishing pieces and parts from seven different staircase railings from the late 1800s to complete the focal point of the home."
The brick patio, which flowed seamlessly from the kitchen thanks to a sliding glass wall, was lively despite the ominous sky and blaring tornado sirens. New neighborhood president Amanda Chasnoff and husband Zach Chasnoff were engaged in conversation about a recent community meeting where they were horrified to learn that the city plans to install a fence that would separate Historic LaSalle Park from the affordable housing community, LaSalle Park Village. Several residents of the village were also guests at the party.
"We'd just tear it down," Chasnoff said." It's very segregationist and is the opposite of what we are trying to do."
"I was born in an anarchist commune," the effervescent Zach Chasnoff began, "and LaSalle Park has that kind of vibe. It lives in the city, but is self-sufficient. Because it's so much smaller and less visible than other neighborhoods, we've just organically found ways to take care of ourselves, whether that's street cleaning, planting ..."
Due to the storm, I stayed a bit longer than anticipated. I was sitting beside Holmes when somehow the subject of Madonna's scandalous 1990 hit "Justify My Love" came up and how she'd never seen nor heard of it.
"Meg, it was banned on MTV!" I said. "You had to buy the VHS tape!" This is actually the second time I've had the honor of introducing a millennial to this song and video. I pulled it up on my phone and showed it to her in its fabulous entirety.
We listened to Madonna sing about wanting to run naked through a rainstorm while we waited for a rainstorm to pass. Another delightful LaSalle Park shindig.
Are you throwing noteworthy cocktail parties? Hit me up! On Saturday afternoon you can find me judging Kentucky Derby costumes at the RFT's United We Brunch event at Westport Social, and in the evening I'll be celebrity bartending alongside Steve Potter at the irreverent Donald Miller's controversial play From the Garden, which is inspired by Maplewood's politics.
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