TGS BLOCK CAPTAIN MEETING 08/24

The most recent Block Captain meeting featured local and state politicians. Scheduled to arrive but MIA was 10th ward alderman Joe Vollmer. In attendance, Senator Jeff Smith, State Rep 67th District, Mike Daus and 15th ward alderwoman, Jennifer Florida.

An announcement was made about the next meeting scheduled for November 19th which will showcase neighborhood talent: artists, musicians and crafts people will be showing and have their work for sale. 10% of the sales will be donated to the block captain fund.

Jan Clinite
The 15th Ward Democrats. http://15thward.org



Block Captain Kim Cole.
Still my hero.



Tim Garret, TGS resident talked about his gallery storefront that will be opening on Morgan Ford Road next month.

http://photoboothstl.com/


Jennifer Florida, 15th ward alderwoman, was excited to see me with a camera. Oh good, she said, I don't have a picture of me with Jeff. Whew, had she leaned any further to the left she would have been in the his lap.

J-Flo was using a crutch and bets flew around the room: Would she continue to appear in public with it until after the next election? I don't live in J-Flo's ward and if I did, I would have sign the recall petition. I have extensive issues with J-Flo as an alderwoman. Her defunct blog http://jenniferflorida.wordpress.com/ says it all and that all is nada.


Mike Daus, (TGS homeboy) took the lead and talked about his responsibilities as State Rep for the 67th ward. He politely resisted Jennifer Florida's attempt to go off point and start an unrelated argument. http://67thdistrict.blogspot.com/



Senator Jeff Smith looking more like a rock star then a politician. If you haven't seen the film, get it quick http://www.mrsmithmovie.com/

Jeff talked about three recent bills; Social Security, Education, and the Economic Development Package - He voted in support of Paul McKee which will ensure he won't get reelected (according to word on the street)




Steve Smith of the Royale is in the back standing next to Jan Clinite.
Mike Colona is in the foreground, he's going to run for State Rep, 67th ward (Mike Daus will be termed out in '08)

BRICK FENCE - 42 HARTFORD

Many years ago I met the owner of this house, he had made this brick 'fence' in his front yard. Dustin and Amy now live in it on 42 Hartford.

Cool bricks.

WHEN SMOKE GETS IN MY EYES

My friend and former tenant Mo works at Iron Age. She's swell and is one of the smarter and talented women I know. (Iron Age co-owner, Brad Fink worked on my back tattoo 18 years ago. I don't think he was even old enough to drive back then.)

Mo did the tattoo on my arm a few years ago and when we recently chatted she offered to do some more ink for me. I jumped on it since people keep asking me if my forearm tattoo is speakers and I keep telling them to google the Golden Mean. (I joked with Bruk today: I should tell them, yeah, I'm a stripper DJ!)

I drove over to the Loop yesterday, saw Mo and snapped a pix.
She's wrapping the arm of the chair with plastic so I don't bleed all over it.

While she prepared the stencil I overheard a young women telling another artist about the tattoo she wanted to have on her butt, That which does not destroy me makes me stronger. He went off to render the stencil. A few moments later, she sneered my way so I asked her, Why would you have a quote from Neitzche on your body, he was a misogynist.

Who's Neitzche?
The man that wrote that.
What's a massage-ist?
A man that hates women.
That's OK, I hate women too a lot of the time. My boyfriend just dumped me for one!

************************************************************************

How do you tolerate this, I asked Mo after climbing into the chair, and have you ever refused to do a tattoo?
She shook her head and said, I refuse to tattoo racist content.
People asked for that!?
All the time.

A few moments later I went outside and saw the Neitzche groupie smoking and sitting in a chair. As I sat down next to her, she deliberately exhaled in my face.

Nice, I told her. Do you realize Hitler institutionalized Nietzsche as a kind of official philosopher. The soldiers in Hitler's army were forced to carry copies of Nietzsche's "Thus Spake Zarathustra" in their knapsacks as they went in to battle.

Put that on your butt and smoke it.
I winked, patted her thigh and exited, stage left.

Before:

Stencil applied.

Outline applied:

After (and quite swollen)

SKINTLED BRICKS

From Lynn Josse via St. Louis Building Arts Foundation.
Click on the image to read the text.

COAL CHUTES

Partially every home in the city has a coal chute. Coal was delivered by truck and left either on the sidewalk outside of the house or, for an extra fee, delivered to the chute.

One of my earliest memories is having coal delivered to our house at 3964 McDonald. I remember seeing my dad in the basement with a shovel and wanting to know what was going on. I heard noise in the gangway, went out the back door and saw a guy with a wheel barrow emptying coal into the chute.

My neighbor Pop recently told me about having a ton of coal delivered. It was left on the sidewalk and he spent four hours with a shovel tossing it into the chute. The ton of coal lasted all winter. He lived in a four family at the time and said one of the other people living there didn't have any coal. When he noticed they were using his, he padlocked his bin.

Why were they using your coal, I asked.
They were so poor they couldn't afford any.


Coal chute at Peggy's house w/ a stencil by Piet!

MOHAWK WARRIOR MORTAR

I had a rather large foundation crack that needed some attention so I posted on the Rehabber's group and asked for advice. Shish, those Rehabber people! Ask them a question, get a few answers and then they start trying to one up each other.

I went with Jeff Neumann's advice: Just use a Type S mortar with some sugar sand mixed in (15-20 shovels for each bag of mortar) should do the job. If you're able to grind the crack out first, the application will take better. Also remember that the cracks can reoccur as the building settles, so this may not be a permanent fix. Nu-way sells an epoxy based mortar which may be a bit better for your situation, although the Type S is pretty standard. Best of luck.

TGH resident and friend, Other Tim added, useless human knowledge:
mortar "harndess" designations come from looking at every other
letter in the phrase "MaSoN wOrK". M is the hardest, O and K are
recognized (by whatever entities recognizes such things...)but
seldom, if ever, used. N is standard for older structures.

I took Jeff's advice and ended up with an eighty pound bag of Mohawk Mortar.

I googled Mohawk Mortar with no results...so what's behind the name?


The mega crack


Go ahead and sneer, these are the tools I used:
Trowel for lifting the mortar out of the bag.
Pan cake turner for mixing.
A dust pan for filling the crack, the mortar slid in.
Sofa pillow snatched in the alley for sitting on while working.
Beau supervising.



Filled and setting.

HOW TO KILL CURB APPEAL & OFFEND YOUR NEIGHBOR

Hi.

I'm your neighbor that lives up the street. Thrice a week I pass your building and am writing to express my distress about 1) the painted steps, 2) the horrid repointing on the (once) outstanding porch. The only thing pretty in this photo is the back of Beaus' head (note he's looking away from the steps. That's my boy.)

I could have let the painted steps slide without comment.



But this?


What is this, some home made cement mojo mixed in the basement and applied with a spatula and spray gun?

You've some of my most favorite brick on your building - what I call incised brick (it's not, that's just my name for it. It was fired in a mold with ridges). I love the soldier bond used on the top and bottom of the porch!

You may have considered the subtle range of color to your bricks before painting the steps dismal gray. The colors resonate with nature and all that is Outside.

Added to Hoosier Contracting:

4012 JUNIATA

Yesterday I spotted these two bricks on the walkway to the most troubled house in Tower Grove South. I seriously did a double take then snickered and giggled at the two bricks outside of this vinyl sided double wide.

Click on the title above to read more on the double wide.

PRANKING STEVE WILKE-SHAPIRO

Every so often while Tim and I were dining on Grand I'd say, Let's prank Steve!

We both thought this was an excellent idea and would walk (well, I limped) over to SWS's house giggling. Two middle age weirdo's out to prank an unsuspecting serious guy.

The first time was almost funny (for us). We knocked, waited and guffawed. When Rachel opened the door, we asked if we were too early for the dinner party which supposedly had been announced on the TGS group.

The second time was a flop. YIKES!

Steve Wilke-Shapiro, architect, urban planner, community activist and friend of Marti Frumhoff was responsible for creating http://www.15thwardstl.org/ the only blog in the city that covers a ward.

15wardstl.org will continue to provide articles by two TGS/H residents, Mike and Adam.

View from SWS's porch.

TGS SEMI ANNUAL ARCHITECTURE WALK

Twice a year Tim Klass, Tower Grove Heights resident and Registered Architect conducts a walking tour of a section of TGS. This Walk serves as a fundraiser for the Block Captain's Fund and is an opportunity for neighborhood residents to meet each other.

Tim and I co-moderate the Tower Grove South yahoo group, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TGSouth/

Thanks to Jan and Denise for providing these photos!






Tim


Our tour ended at the studio of Tom Krepcio who talked with us about his work. Take an online tour of his comprehensive site:
http://www.krepcio.com/vitreosity/archives/cat_st_louis_stained_glass.html


Some of Tom's work:

DISTRESSED BRICK

Located on MGF, just north of Three Monkeys.

These bricks are exquisite, I tell you. They present a 'distressed' surface similar to Gavin Clinkers yet they are uniformly rectangle.

Spotted on a single family residence that may have been built in the 1950's. These are currently my most favorite bricks in the neighborhood.

For the record, I really miss Steve Wilke-Shapiro.

KILLER GRAFFITI

I give up.

I've spent the last hour on google trying to remember the name of the artist from NYC who has used LED message boards as a medium in the early 90's. Being that it's 4:45 in the morning may have some influence on my hesitant memory.

This particular artist started in the late 70's by placing printed stickers all over NYC phone booths with various messages. One read FATHERS ABUSE POWER.

A prize to the first person who supplies me with her name.

I cherish guerilla art. Earlier last night I was strolling down to Hartford Coffee CO to meet the rest of the Block Captain steering committee and took these photos. I mentioned them to Andrew, he told me it must be the work of his neighbor, Piet (click on the title of this post above). I've just viewed his site, he's a cross between a Furrie and street magician, David Blaine.

Be nice to animals or I will kill you.

Face on sidewalk, 41 Hartford


41 Juniata