MX Movies To Open Downtown This Fall

I’m excited to have movie theater opening downtown. MX Movies is opening on Washington Ave between 6th-7th as part of the Mercantile Exchange, in the former St. Louis Centre building.

From the St. Louis Cinemas website:

St. Louis Cinemas will open a 3-screen, luxury movie theater at 6th and Washington in autumn of 2012. The MX Movies experience will be unlike anything else in St. Louis. In the heart of downtown’s newest entertaining, dining, retail, and residential district, the 3-screen move theater will feature crystal clear digital project, love seats in the theater, high-quality in-theater food service, and a lobby restaurant and bar.

More than just a movie theater, the MX Movies experience includes:

• 3 screens with crystal clear digital projection
• High-quality in-theater food service
• Love seats in the theaters
• Lobby restaurant/bar

Our Grand Opening will be announced later in the summer, so check back often.

St. Louis Cinemas also operates theaters at the Moolah, Chase Park Plaza and Galleria. I’ve been to all of these but I usually go to the Chase. I look foreword to another option. In-theater food service? Perfect!

— Steve Patterson

Thirtieth Anniversary of Richard Serra’s Twain

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the dedication of ‘Twain’ by Richard Serra, easily the most hated or misunderstood art in St. Louis (depending upon your viewpoint).

I tried to arrange a party for tonight to celebrate the anniversary. I had  a lighting designer and manufacturer willing to temporarily light the sculpture. But nobody with deep pockets or art world connections were willing to lift a finger. We’ve got abandoned buildings  galore but we also have an abandoned city block with art by a well known artist.

Being inside Twain is amazing, the sense of enclosure changes your perception of the surroundings. People do wonder inside and when they do they get it also.

Below is from dedication day, May 1, 1982. Original film footage by Merrill Bauer.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3zIlq7Je74

Hopefully some day we can connect this block to Citygarden to the east.

– Steve Patterson

St. Louis Question: Answer Depend On If You Attended High School Here

The results from last week’s poll was interesting to me. The question asked is below with the answers presented in order from highest to lowest responses:

Q: The St. Louis Question: “Where did you go to school?” is?

1. Just an ice breaker (I went to high school here) 40 [26.49%]
2. Highly parochial (I went to high school here) 24 [15.89%]
3. Annoying (I didn’t go to high school here) 22 [14.57%]
4. Annoying (I went to high school here) 16 [10.6%]
5. Other: 15 [9.93%]
6. Just an ice breaker (I didn’t go to high school here) 13 [8.61%]
7. Highly parochial (I didn’t go to high school here) 11 [7.28%]
8. Great question (I did go to high school here) 10 [6.62%]
9. Great question (I didn’t go to high school here) 0 [0%]

But it’s hard to draw any conclusions from the above as presented. Of the 151 responses, 136 answered with one of the predefined answers and the other 15 provided their own answer. I took the 136 that used the answers I provided and divided them based on if they went to high school here or not. Two-thirds of these did go to high school here, one third didn’t.

What we can see from the two pie charts is those of us that didn’t go to high school here (right) have very different thoughts on the question, with seventy-two percent of us selecting one of the two negative answers (annoying & highly parochial).  Conversely, fifty-five percent of those that did go to high school selected a positive answer (just an ice breaker & great question). No surprise, where you went to high school (here or not) influences your viewpoint.

The 15 “other” answers were:

1. An ingrained part of growing up in STL. I find it annoying, but am unable to b
2. a way to size someone up by class
3. More than highly parochial, it is often a hierarchical query..
4. It is an accepted, right or wrong, way of identifying you socio-economically. 
5. Lived here 2 and half years, never heard it.
6. used to discriminate and continue prejudice – another reason outsiders move away
7. a salute to St. Louis 
8. It’s part of the St. Louis culture – enjoy it, it makes you unique!
9. a way to pigeonhole people by class. (I didn’t go to high school here). 
10. Amusing. Especially from the perspective of one who was raised in the Metro-East 
11. Who the hell cares? I’m in grad school! 
12. An annoying question asked by dullards who have nothing more interesting to say 
13. Symptomatic of a insular, backwards, anti-progressive community. 
14. county – e, n w or south city east of grand west of grand TIRED TIRED TIRED 
15. not an issue…..not worth discussing…..people make too much of the question

Among the above you get a full range of views.

The city and region needs more people to grow and prosper economically and those from the region aren’t pro-creating fast enough, too many Catholics using contraception.The region must attract more people from outside while not pushing away those raised here or attended college here. Last week the RFT had an article and brilliant flow chart on this topic.

– Steve Patterson

Readers: Remove Cannabis From Missouri’s List of Controlled Substances

If enough signatures are collected by May 6th, Missouri voters will be asked to support a constitutional amendment to decriminalize cannabis. Seemed like an interesting topic so it was the poll topic last week:

Q: Should cannabis be removed from the Missouri Statutes list of controlled substances

1. Yes, a constitutional amend would keep the legislature from changing the vote of the people 124 [64.25%]
2. Yes, but not as a constitutional amendment 41 [21.24%]
3. No 15 [7.77%]
4. Unsure/No Opinion 5 [2.59%]
5. Other: 5 [2.59%]
6. Maybe 3 [1.55%]

More than 85% support decriminalization but they split on making it a constitutional amendment. Three-qurarters of those who support removal from the controlled substance list  support an amendment.  It should be noted the total number of votes was higher than a typical week, but the results as a percentage stayed consistent throughout the week.

– Steve Patterson

Poll: The St. Louis Question: “Where did you go to school?” is?

“Where did you go to school?” is a very common question around here. Last week the Post-Dispatch had a couple of interesting stories on the topic:

It was while attending a party as newcomers to St. Louis that, for the first time, someone asked Kim Wolterman and her husband where they went to school.

Their answer, “Iowa State,” received blank stares and silence.

“He said, ‘No, I meant high school.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Why do you care where I went to high school?'” Wolterman said.

She didn’t know it then, but Wolterman was bumping into one of St. Louis’ most peculiar quirks — asking complete strangers to name their high school alma mater. (STLtoday.com)

I also used to answer with the college I attended, now I say “not here” or something like that.  The other article  “So, how did ‘the St. Louis question’ start?” has a few theories. What I want to know in the poll this week is 1) how you feel about the question and 2) did you go to high school here or not. The poll is located in the right sidebar.

For the record, I’m a 1985 graduate of Southeast High School in Oklahoma City (aerial). The northwest part of the city was, and is, considered the better part of town. My parents lived in NW OKC before I was born but my dad felt it was too snobbish so when they built a new house they did so in SW OKC  — just two blocks from the east-west dividing line (Santa Fe St. Ave.). My high school (and middle school) both bordered Santa Fe but on the east side, not west side.

– Steve Patterson