WHEN: May 19, 2012
WHERE: Benton Park @ corner of Jefferson & Arsenal (across I-55 from Anheuser Busch)

Tlaloc Rivas sat in a circle with eight people and opened his binder. He took a deep breath and said, "'The New World,' part four."

With those words, the second day of rehearsals began March 28 for a unique play that will be performed under unique circumstances with a unique cast.

"The New World" will be performed April 27-29 at the intersection of Cherokee Avenue and California Street in the Benton Park Neighborhood.

Of the cast of 19 actors, only three are professionals. The rest are amateurs, most of whom live in the neighborhood. They lend authenticity to a play intended to reflect Cherokee Street with its varied ethnic groups and one-of-kind shops, Rivas said.

I was cruising the web and came across designer Christian Annyas who has assembled a gallery of "100 logos from American and Canadian railroad companies," dating from 1845 to 2000. They show a microcosm of a century and a half's worth of evolution in design sensibility, but they also show just how lovely and evocative many of the logos of these forgotten railroads once were..  The Frisco Railroad (1900) logo caught my eye.

Five months after an ownership and name change, Benton Park's American Craft Brewing & Distilling (1821 Cherokee Street) has closed permanently, owner Chris Hines confirmed today to the Post-Dispatch.

Chef Gerard Craft, owner of Niche restaurant in St. Louis, has been named a finalist for “Best Chef: Midwest” in the James Beard Foundation Awards for 2012.

Hello everyone! 

We have two important meetings coming up this week that we want to ensure that everyone is aware. 

The police captain couldn't believe it. He had the Knockout King in his office.

It was September 2011, and police were struggling to get a handle on a series of vicious knockout assaults in south St. Louis. Groups of teens were cold-cocking older pedestrians at random. One was dead, several injured. Residents were alarmed, police baffled. It didn't make sense, such a cruel and cowardly crime.

Another city leader has proposed yet another plan to curb the rising cost of city firefighter pensions.

On Friday morning, Aldermanic President Lewis Reed revealed his proposal — meant to compete with a controversial set of bills forwarded by Mayor Francis Slay two weeks ago — and, in doing so, set off a new round of political maneuvering.

Hello Neighbors!  

A servant heard a muffled pop from her master's bedroom. She summoned his sons, who broke down the locked door and found William J. Lemp Sr. dead with a gunshot to his right temple.

The .38-caliber revolver was nearby. It was the first of four fatal gunshots in the sad tale of St. Louis' first beer dynasty.

Lemp, 68, shot himself on the morning of Feb. 13, 1904, in his second-floor bedroom of the family mansion at 3322 South 13th Street (now DeMenil Place), next to his brewery covering 13 blocks. Lemp had never gotten over the sudden death in 1901 of his son, Frederick, brewery superintendent, from a heart ailment. His depression deepened. When he didn't emerge from the room that morning, no one took much notice.