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May kicks off Art Fair season in St.Louis with wine and hayrides

By on May 10, 2012 in Arts, Central St. Louis County, Events, Featured, The Weekender, West County

Art, wine tastings, great food, hayrides…but most importantly art.  May kicks off the spring and summer season of Art Fairs in and around St. Louis with three big ones.

May 11-13th

First up (and located at one of my favorite St. Louis treasures) Laumeier Sculpture Park is holding it’s 25th annual Mother’s Day weekend Art Fair.  Over 700 applications are submitted and only 150 artists are accepted.  Admission is $8.00 for adults and $5.00 for children.

Friday from 6-10; Saturday 10-8; Sunday 10-5

Friday kicks off with Art of Wine; for $12.00 enjoy music and get unlimited tastings from area wineries. (Um, this is where I will be).  Saturday and Sunday will feature the Creation Location with hands-on activities for kids and performances by artists.  There is a Mother’s Day Brunch Sunday but it is sold out.

May 18-20th

Next Weekend is the famed Art on the Square.  This is totally worth crossing the river, for a nationally recognized art fair this is arguably the biggest event of the year in Belleville.

Friday 5-9; Saturday 10-8; Sunday 11-5.  This event is $FREE

Large interactive children’s area with take away projects, local food, and entertainment.  This fair has been ranked as #1 in the country.

May 19th

Faust Fine Art & Folk Festival combines two events into one, often called the Folk and Fine Art Festival – you get your bang for the buck.

Saturday 10-5 and only $5.00

Take a hay ride to an 1800′s village and enjoy tours and demonstrations of blacksmithing, pottery, rope making, and other arts and crafts.  While at the event check out the fine art at the juried art, live music, food, and free rides on the carousel.

Choose one or choose them all, they are all juried shows with excellent art.  My top pick is Laumeier because I love the park but my aunt has been attending Art on the Square for years.

Brought to you by: Mills Properties
Photos courtesy of: Laumeier.com and artonthesquare.com
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Biking St. Louis Style

By on May 9, 2012 in Arts, Events, Featured, St. Louis City, The Weekender

May is bike month and for those of you who are finally getting used to the weather (I can tell that I am not yet, as I thought I was going to die of heat stroke last weekend!), this weekend is the perfect weekend to get out and enjoy a bike ride or be a spectator at one of the coolest biking events St. Louis has to offer!

The Missouri Professional Bicycling Series (aka MO PRO) is hosting their 3-day competitive bicycling event this weekend, May 11-13th. A different race will take place each day in a different St. Louis neighborhood and will offer all sorts of festivities in addition to the races, including great handmade artwork featured by ARTCRANK St. Louis.

Friday, May 11th

The Races: The Loop de Loop Grand Prix in University City from 3:30pm to 10pm. You can watch the races  from one of the Michelob Ultra ringside party areas, head over to Fitz’s for their Turn 4 Viewing Party, or watch the racers cross the finish line at The Melting Pot or in Cicero’s beer garden.

ARTCRANK festivities: Kicks off the start of their weekend festivities at Atomic Cowboy at 5pm selling handmade, signed, bicycle themed posters by 30 local artists for $40 each. Additionally, they’ve teamed up with Widmer Brothers Brewing to sell custom ARTCRANK pint glasses for $5. All proceeds benefit BicycleWORKS to help support their program which gives inner city children the chance to earn a free bicycle. Also, everyone who buys one of these glasses gets a $1 pour at Atomic Cowboy.

Also, check out SpokedSTL’s Goldsprint fun races at The Handlebar from 8:30pm to 10pm.

Saturday, May 12

The featured race: The NCC Tour de Grove in The Grove from 9:40am to 5:30pm. This race is part of the prestigious USA Cycling National Criterium Calendar and the USA Crits Championship Series, which includes some of the fastest professional male and female cyclists in the United States. (There will also be a 5K starting at 9am)

Race Festivities:  I can’t even list all of the awesome festivities The Grove will be offering on Saturday: from Randy’s Recycled Cycles Pig Roast starting at 9am, live entertainment from The Gramophone’s DJs from 1-4pm and The Swamp Daddies from 7-10pm, skateboarding and bicycle skill exhibition contests starting at 7pm, post race party at Atmoic Cowboy starting at 9pm with special guest J Pow, and the London Calling dance party at The Gramophone starting at 10:30pm. These are honestly only a few of the festivities happening on Saturday. You must check out the Tour de Grove website to see about the drag races hosted by Big Shark, skateboard demos with No Coast Skateboards, free Yoga and great drink specials happening at various bars throughout The Grove.

 

Sunday, May 13

The Races: Dutchtown Classic Pro Cycling Series in South St. Louis from 9am to 6pm.

The festivities: There will  be a community bike ride for anyone to attend from 8:30-10am courtesy of MoBikeFed. Registration begins at 7:30am. Cost is $30 in advance or $35 day of and includes a 1 year MoBikeFed membership or renewal. Additionally, ARTCRANK will be at Atomic Cowboy from 5-9pm selling their handmade artwork and custom pint glasses.

There is also a South Grand Mother’s Day family bike ride event taking place from 9am-2pm. Ride around Tower Grove Park with the family, take a leisurely ride through historic neighborhoods and stop at the Compton Hill Water Tower, climb to the top and enjoy the best view in the city. Cost of ride is $8 except moms and children under 10 ride FREE.

Tips: If you’re coming to the Tour de Grove festivities as a spectator, make sure to bring lawn chairs, plenty of water, comfortable and cool clothing, and your cheering voice.

And don’t forget, May is Bike Month. If you have a bike and you enjoy getting prizes, check out that link.

 
Brought to you by Mills Properties
Photos courtesy of tourdegrove.com and artcrank.com
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Tivoli’s Midnight Series Movies

By on April 6, 2012 in Arts, Events, Featured, St. Louis City, The Weekender

Rocky Horror Picture Show is playing tonight, Friday, April 6th at midnight at the Tivoli Theatre in U City…and I’m going to see it!

I’m crossing 2 things off my bucket list this weekend:

1. Participating in a Flip Cup Tournament (it’s not a real tournament with money, but it’s as close as I’m going to get)

2. Seeing a midnight movie

I always hear about these movies that have opening nights at midnight or these crazy Harry Potter midnight shows, and I never thought I’d actually be attending one, but hey, I’m turning 29, it’s time to live on the edge! haha! So I’m going to see it at the Tivoli tonight at midnight. And what better place than the Tivoli, where you can enjoy an adult beverage and a nice, cozy chair.

Rocky Horror Picture Show is the first in the Tivoli’s Midnight Series Line-up, which will include other movies like Spaceballs, Battle Royale and Monty Python, to name a few. Tickets are $8 for all movies except RHPS, which is $10. In addition to the movies, there will be fun trivia and cool giveaways. They go through the end of May so check out the selection…and don’t worry, if you’re one of Rocky Horror Picture Show’s diehard fans but you can’t make it to this show, they’re playing it again in May.

And if you ARE going, it’s common practice to dress up Rocky Horror style so if you’re really living on the edge (which I am not), get out your fishnets and red lipstick and join in the show!

 

Brought to you by Mills Properties
Photo courtesy of mylot.com

 

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Living in public…do you really know your “friends” on the web?

By on March 23, 2012 in Arts, Random

I love technology (except e-readers).  I’m constantly fascinated by all the amazing things at our fingertips.  We don’t ask for directions anymore, we stand in lines less, we have this vast amount of information and resources that we carry around in our pockets or purses all day.  The world around us is changing at fascinating speeds.  At times everything feels so connected.  But is it really?

I read a comment on this blog today that really made me start to think about how real our connections formed and maintained in the online universe are.  Do you really know what is going on in a person’s life based on their Facebook status updates, know their thoughts based on a tweet, know where they are headed in life based on ”check ins”? Do you know the soul of what’s important to a person based on what they “pin” on Pinterest or if someone isn’t online do they not enter your thoughts?

I can tell you what people read, what music they listen to, disturbingly what their child looked like in the E.R, sometimes if they are sad, in a relationship, what they thought of the smelly guy on the subway….but often I feel like we are constantly looking at a dating profile.  You are only seeing what that person wants to share with the world, I can’t tell you how many times someone has snapped a picture and said “that’s your new facebook picture” or something very similar.  I feel that too often we are living for what it will look like to our online community and we are putting too much weight in what we see online.  You are the neighbor of a pedophile saying “I am shocked! They never pinned pictures of little kids scantily clad so who would have known?”

I’m not saying by any means that all of this is bad.  It’s great to keep up with old friends and even new ones without having to pick up the phone or make any effort really at all.  I love to look at collections of funny pictures or beautiful places from all over.  I feel that being able to find out interesting things about people who you otherwise wouldn’t have known has some real value.  Just don’t let it replace the live connections in your life.  I will check-in at restaurants and cool places on vacation, but you cannot feel the happiness in holding my husband’s hand on the way to get there from any post that I can put online and that is closer to the soul of who I am than anything I can find to “pin.”

 

Photo courtesy of wpr.org
Brought to you by Mills Properties
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Cavalia In St. Louis

By on March 21, 2012 in Arts, Events, Featured, St. Louis City, The Weekender

I was a little hesitant about this Cavalia thing at first.  It’s the Cirque du Soleil-type equestrian show that has taken over the parking lot just south of Busch Stadium. I got to see a preview of the show in advance of it’s first real performance, which is tonight at 8pm.

It was fantastic.

What Cavalia has done to transform that parking lot into their arena is amazing.  It makes me think St. Louis should just give them our shady parking lots, garages and abandoned buildings and let them have at it.  They even brought in the fancy portable bathroom trailers and bleachers. You are going to be comfortable while watching this show.

Before the show, the founder of Cavalia, Normand Latourelle, said a few words. He had just flown in to St. Louis and said even he was surprised with all of the billboards. He made sure to specify that all of  those weren’t his idea, but he’s glad they are getting the word out about the show. He also announced that they are donating part of their proceeds from their time in St. Louis to Circus Flora for community outreach.

I grew up with horses in my backyard. I didn’t really care for them then. It was amazing how well-trained these horses were. If my horses had been like that, I assume I could have trained them to play tennis with me. The tricks that these riders could do were amazing and made me wonder if they should be committed for being that crazy. I don’t have the extensive vocabulary necessary to fully describe this show.  It is something you just have to see.  Luckily, I was able to get some pictures and video. It was difficult to get good videos because there was just so much going on and you didn’t know when to record.

Here’s a sweet trick. I can’t fathom how you can 1) ride like that and 2) jump and land like that.

Here are some rope tricks.  I shall call this “Take That Double Dutch.”

Here’s a link to an album of pictures I took.

The show is scheduled to run at 1000 Cerre Street until April 8th, but the rumor is that they might add more shows here. Here’s the performance calendar.  While the first performance is tonight at 8pm, the crew takes tomorrow off as is their custom and will perform again Friday, March 23rd at 8pm. One of the cast members explained to me that they are always stressed out preparing for the premiere so after the opening show, they always take the next day off to relax.  Then, they are just having fun for the remainder of the run.  The performers seemed to be having a blast last night, so I can’t imagine how cool seeing the show later in the run will be.

There are a wide array of ticket packages so take your pick. This isn’t a show you will likely have a chance to see again so you might as well spring for the Rendez-Vous VIP package or try your luck at the Facebook contest to win VIP tickets.

The tent village is a very short walk from the Stadium MetroLink Station so that’s an option if you don’t want to drive. However, it does take place on part of a huge parking lot so there is plenty of parking available.

I advise you go see Cavalia while it is in St. Louis.  You could either take my word for it as an expert on stuff you should see, do and eat or you could just read these other reviews.

 
Post brought to you by Mills Properties
Pictures and videos courtesy of the team at The Laurel Apartments
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It’s Food Truck Time!

By on March 16, 2012 in Arts, Events, Featured, Good Eats, St. Louis City, The Weekender

The food truck spirit is in full effect, and this weekend the Koken Art Factory is celebrating the beautiful weather with the first food truck meet up event of the 2012 season.

Where: Koken Art Factory

When: Saturday, March 17th

Time: Noon to 3pm and 5-9pm

Price: $5 entry fee plus food and drinks

What to expect:

Food trucks: Chop Shop STL, Guerrilla Street, Seoul Taco, Cha Cha Chow, Falfelwich Wagon and some The Sweet Divine for dessert

Music: Bootigrabbers Delight will be playing from noon to 3pm followed by the Eugene Johnson Trio blues band performing from 5-9pm

Drinks: Schlafly and 4 Hands Brewery will be there for your tasting pleasures along with a cash bar and beverages served by the food trucks

And last, but certainly not least, the St. Louis Hoop Club will be performing and offering free hula hoop lessons

Yes, I know it’s St. Patrick’s Day and there’s a parade to watch, but there are 24 hours in the day and you’re going to get hungry after drinking a few of those green beers. Don’t wait months for the first Food Truck Friday event, get your food truck love on now!

 

Brought to you by Mills Properties
Photo courtesy of Koken Art Factory  and stltoday.com
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