Puttin’ the ass in class

November 17th, 2008

There are many different things you might find me doing on a weekend: sports bar, beer, football, strip club, movies, napping, growing a beard, and lounging. None of these things would be considered particularly “classy”. This weekend was a little different. Everything I did either supported the arts or was a notch above what you otherwise may find me doing. I had culture shooting out of my ass.

A recap:

Friday Normally my musical tastes skew toward a combination of Death Metal, 70’s Country, and Gangsta Rap but my girlfriend has a thing for Jazz. I decided to humor her (once!) and we headed to Jazz at the Bistro in Grand Center to see her friend Shaun Robinson play. They were a very talented group of guys and while Jazz is typically not my thing I would go back and see them again. We capped the evening with a couple martinis at Jimmy’s On The Park.

Saturday While I did allow myself some time to watch my beloved Tide stomp Mississippi State 32-7 football did not dominate my Saturday for the first time in 11 weeks. Instead we headed to Frontenac with some friends to see Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) at the St. Louis International Film Festival. This was a Swedish film which “tells a darkly atmospheric, poetic and surprisingly tender story of adolescence … and vampirism.” It was excellent. It tells the story of a 12 year old loner who befriends a vampire of the same age. After awhile the subtitles were not at all distracting and the film had some great visuals. Unfortunately Let the Right One In is scheduled to be remade and bastardized by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield). We finished the night discussing the movie over a bottle of Syrah at Sasha’s Wine Bar in Clayton.

Sunday Since I’ve given up on the Rams this season I figured I’d stick with the theme of the weekend and see what other educational experiences I could drum up. I ended up at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park. While I typically find history somewhat interesting this place is a bore. It basically consisted of the history of beer, Charles Lindbergh, and the 1904 World’s Fair. I didn’t see any of the more interesting subjects like Harry S Truman, Missouri during the Civil War, history of architecture in St. Louis, etc. Mo History needs to step it up. I really think St. Louis needs to step up and build some world class museums like Chicago. I then spent some time walking around the park and Wash U – where I’m considering going to business school but probably won’t ($68,000????). After the walk I headed over to the Tivoli and saw another movie being featured in the festival, a documentary called Number One With A Bullet. It “explores the interrelationships between guns, poverty, drugs, hip-hop culture and cultural violence”. It featured interviews with Mos Def, KRS-One, Obie Trice, Ice Cube, and others discussing the institutional violence in the innercity. This one was good but not great.

So there you have it. Jazz, martinis, foreign films, and museums. This was definitely a different type of weekend for me. It was nice but I’m ready to get back on track by attending the Metallica show tonight!!!