Greetings readers!

It's been a while since we've posted much of note on this blog, and our dedicated spring intern, Erica Streid, has departed us for that great, big world of post-collegiate fun. For this, our 99th post in the Blogspot forum, we'd like to inform of you some changes that we've been thinking about for a bit.

* This blog will remain, though we'll be updating it on an infrequent basis. While that may not seem like news, we'd like to maintain the space as an outlet for special reports or bulletins. Gone are the days that we'll be simply noting a new art show, or movie shoot in town. But we'll keep our site active, to the degree that we'll have a space for guest bloggers like Dana Smith and Rob Levy and extra stuff that doesn't fit into our other, daily writing worlds.

* That said, we've gone the micro-blogging route: we're on Twitter. We'll shoot up pithy thoughts via www.twitter.com/52ndCity, and will alert folks to new entries here whenever they do go up. Please follow us there and we'll reciprocate.

* Stefene Russell has been keeping a daily blog, via St. Louis Magazine's website. If you've not read it, please do, then bookmark it. Called Look/Listen, find the blog here: http://stlmagblogs.typepad.com/looklisten/.

* Lastly, we are having a sale on old issues of the late, lamented 52nd City print zine. And here's the catch: through the years, we've actually sold down our supply of the Drink issue. If you have some extras and wanna trade them back, please do! As it is, we've only got enough to make a limited number of All-Issues Packs, which we'll move for $20. If you want a Variety Pack, we'll make you up a box of assorted issues at variable, but extremely affordable, prices. CDs? We've still got the amazing (if we say so ourselves SOUND issue) and no lack of those to go around; how's an offer of three for $10, plus postage? Get a jump on your holiday buying for a civic/literate friend, while helping Thomas Crone clean out his basement.

So, your takeaways for today:
* Look for us, sometimes, here.
* Join us on Twitter.
* Follow Stefene at STLMag.com.
* Buy some'ing!

Yours,
Thomas for 52nd City

Jockeying with JC Corcoran for years as the biggest d-b on St. Louis radio, Kevin Slaten had quite a show this week. When broadcasting live from a South Side sports bar, he sounded like this:



Today, Dan Caesar of the Post buys an allergy meds excuse, hook, line and sinker.

Priceless stuff!

Fans of the hot and spicy might want to check out the ghost pepper (also known as Naga Jolokia, or Bhut Jolokia). In 2007 Guinness named it the hottest pepper in the world—over one million Scoville units. (That’s ten times hotter than a habanero, 100 times hotter than a jalapeno.) Started from seed, fresh from the Caribbean ala eBay, ghost pepper plants are now bedding down across St. Louis thanks to pepper maestro Jason Bayer. From his one ghost pepper plant Bayer harvested seeds and raised 200 new plants in the greenhouse at his nursery, Bayer’s Garden Shop. “As far as I know no one else is selling them around here,” Bayer said. He sold 100 of them the first week.

The plants go for $3.49 and come in one-gallon pots, but call ahead to check inventory; as of this post they only have about 50 left. (Locations on Hampton and in South City.) With the proper care they grow well in our zone, and they are high-yield. “I got at least 50-75 off of my plant last year,” Bayer said.

So what do you do with the world’s hottest pepper once you’ve grown it? “I personally haven't bitten right into one due to the reactions I've witnessed,” Bayer said, but they are great for cooking. He uses them in chili and in his Jamaican-mango-mustard BBQ sauce. But FYI: wear latex gloves while handling the ghost pepper. Its oil is potent. He warns: “You don't want to accidentally rub your eyes after handling one of these things.”

(Also check out Sauce Magazine’s pepper blog.)

We exchanged e-mails with Don Corrigan about his book "Show Me... Natural Wonders," published by Reedy Press. The longtime editor of the Webster-Kirkwood Times and adviser to the Webster University Journal responded with the words below.

In your introduction you talk about an interest in nature even as a child. But how long did the actual production of the book take?
Actual writing on the book was about two years, any time I could grab time between my jobs at Webster U. and with the Webster-Kirkwood Times. But the “research” goes back to when I was a wee one, playing in creeks, climbing bluffs — and there were those trips with Uncle Stanley and my cousins to see Blue Spring, Greer Spring, Big Spring. It was a relief to get out of the car and see a Spring after having Uncle Stanley lead us in 100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall for 2 hours in a packed car. He also took us kids on the Jacks Fork and Current, a tradition I have continued with my kids and their friends, but I make the all sing Radar Love by Golden Earring on the way to the Ozarks.

Do you think Missourians generally take nature here for granted?
Missourians have been pitiful stewards of their environment and their nature spots — although the future looks more promising. One of my favorite vignettes in the book is about Roger Taylor, canoeist and environmentalist, who tried to get a Clean Streams Act passed — the rural folks met him with threats that he was a communist when he went to ask for their votes. They blew up his car. See the Vilander Bluff piece. That is one of the missions of the book — to get people to care about what we have here. I push that in all of my book presentations.

If you had to pick two-three "must see" locations for Missourians, what would they be?
I like the cave near the top of the bluff between Alley Springs and Eminence on Jacks Fork canoe trips. I worry my kids will fall off the climb up there. It reminds me of the final scenes in Last of the Mohicans where Mugwa has his final battles. (see Jacks Fork piece) I like Devils Icebox and The Pinnacles in the Columbia, Mo. area. It cracks me up that the geologists call The Pinnacles a senile formation that will be gone in a 10 or 20 centuries. Mizzou students always go there to climb and to skinny dip in the nearby river. I stopped by there on my way up to Truman State a few years ago and they were still out there skinnydipping. I think the Castor River Shut-ins is a must-see place to go on a weekday when no one else is around. Enjoy the massive pink rocks without the Johnson Shut-ins crowds. Also the cascading falls are really cool in spring — Siddhartha time, dude. Actually, I get a kick out of all the sites, so it is hard for me to narrow them down. I have had some great personalized tours of caves I profile. I think Onondaga and Cathedral are terribly under-rated.

Conversely, what part of the state do you think has been most junked-up by the human touch?
Well, I love Castlewood Bluff on the Meramec and the scenery farther west on that river, but as you get closer to St. Louis, it is damned pitiful what that river looks like. I ride the Meramec Greenway on my bike from Kirkwood's Greentree Park to the park on the other side if HWY 141. It is pathetic how many junkers, tires and plastic are dumped n that river. What are people thinking? And then there's the beautiful landfill near 141 and 44 that you can see from the Meramec. It is pretty sad. The area has so much potential, but right now it often looks like "Escape From New York."

What kinds of feedback have you gotten from canoe fans, hikers, birdwatchers and other nature enthusiasts since the book came out?
I cannot give a talk without being told what great sites I have missed. Sites I never knew about, especially on the Gasconade, 11 Point and Big Piney. I have written down their suggestions and I have more than 100 for a sequel. These would be out-of-the-way, hidden places. I am looking forward to my next sabbatical form Webster to do the field research — I hope gasoline isn’t $8 a gallon when that happens!

What were your impressions of working with Reedy Press?
The Reedy Press boys, Josh and Matt, get the job done. I like working with them. I was really impressed this past week when i went to visit them and they had some old copies of the St. Louis Mirror they plan to put on the wall of their new digs. Investigative Reporter/Editor Reedy’s original papers. That is another aspect of the St. Louis region that people need to know more about. I visit with Josh and Matt because they are helping me with another book on Show-Me-State Weather to be published later this year. I may be able to get it done if I can get this Tom Crone guy to help me with the 1959 Tornado-- people say he knows something about when it hit
Gaslight Square.

Do you believe in Morlocks?
I work with Morlocks all the time. Oh. my bad, they are actually Gorloks. The Webster U gang who put out the student press — Gorlok Journalistas. I listen to George Noory Coast-to-Coast when I got thru my Insomniac Phases and you believe in anything after a few nights of worrying about' UFO abductions and the underground people coming back up from Atlantis to steal our Filet-o-Fish sandwiches.

Memoirist Rick Bragg is on the road promoting The Prince of Frogtown.

Thursday. 7 p.m.
St. Louis Library Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh.
info

Big Small Town Designs, local stationer. Creator/mastermind Bill Michalski offers greeting cards for all occasions. My favorite are the St. Louis-specific postcards. A massive, empty parking lot with the caption "Greetings from Chesterfield." Also check out "The Scenic River Des Peres." I found them at Puddinhead Books in Webster Groves. Also available here.

Josh Crow is an artist who definitely moves under the surface. He makes a living traveling the world painting murals for businesses and private residents. You never quite know when he's in or out of town. But any chance I get to see his paintings in person, I always take it. He's got this unconcerning flow that's embedded in all of his canvases. There's no regard for time or boundaries in his pictures, just space. When asked about his loose, free, even subconscious space he responds with "When making a drawing or painting I am usually in a state of suspension."
Suspension? What are you suspending?
"On one hand I concentrate on specific relationships of size, shapes and gestures to arrive at my at my interpretation. On the other hand I allow myself to wander from the rational thoughts of making something correct and into a kind of play that involves experimentation, reaction and exaggeration. Yet at the same time the line work is always being pushed to limits of variety or simplicity."

As loose as this suspension is, it's still defined and part of the definition is created by the figures in the pictures posing in a casual style. The figure is central to the sense of his paintings and I asked him to explain the importance.
"There are several reasons for the focus on figures. I enjoy drawing the figure. It is difficult yet rewarding. Everyone is very familiar with what people look like. Even people who don't draw know when something looks off or unnatural because we are hardwired to read people and body language. For this reason each line that is drawn or paint stroke put down is holding a massive amount of information."

Josh's paintings and drawings will be on display during the month of May at City Art Supply. An opening will be on Saturday May 2 from 6pm - 10pm with a musical performance by May Day Orchestra at 8pm.

Josh Crow
NYLON
Sat May 2
6pm-10pm
City Art Supply
3215 Cherokee St
St. Louis, MO 63118