displaced_city_mouse

I've a friend who lives in San Francisco who is in a moderately successful band. They recently concluded a tour through the midwest, where they played Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville, and Chicago, among other cities. No STL dates at all.

Les Claypool's Frog Brigade is on tour as well, and skipped STL but did play in Peoria, Louisville, and KC this spring.

Last year, the closest Nightwish came was Chicago.

I get Songkick notifications for other bands -- mostly metal and eclectic -- and more often than not, they are playing everywhere but STL. After living for 20+ years in Seattle, I miss having bands come and play even the small clubs.

To avoid sounding petulant, there have been some tours I looked forward to that came to Pop's in Sauget, but I'm sure there are other bands people here like that have bypassed STL venues as well.

So: Anyone have any ideas why STL gets passed over in favor of Nashville and Louisville?

And just like that, SCOTUS affirms that someone's deeply held beliefs are more valid and in need of protection than someone else's reality.

From the article, when talking about the "groomer" slur aimed at LGBTQIA+ people:

"...There’s no drag queens being arrested for sexual assault of children, that doesn’t happen,” Trixie said. “Do you know where that happens? The church, okay? That’s where. This whole country mollycoddles Christians and I’m fucking tired of it, tired of it!

Last year, a friend of mine died in Washington state. Instead of being buried or cremated, he opted to have his remains composted in a process sometimes called terramation. It's an environmentally friendly option to normal burial, and legal in several states including Washington. Illinois had House Bill 3158 on the docket this session to make it legal here as well.

The bill passed the house, but never made it out of the state senate committee, so it's dead for now (no pun intended). I decided to look up how my state representative voted, and because I live in the red part of a blue state, I was unsurprised to see they voted against it.

I wondered why that might be -- could it be a simple partisan thing? Of course, that's part of it, but another part is the opposition. A little research shows that two groups opposing it are funeral directors (less $$$ for them), and <gasp!> the Catholic Church.

Why? Human dignity, they say -- Daniel Welter, retired from the Archdiocese of Chicago, said turning humans into compost "degrades the human person and dishonors the life" that person lived. He compared it to composting vegetable trimmings and egg shells. Funeral directors also commented on the lack of dignity for the dead.

Thoughts? Mine are simple -- I am built from the dust of stars, as is everything else on this planet. It's my birthright to return to it. Anything that prevents that is anathema to me.

I also find it supremely ironic that, at "traditional" funerals, the priest says "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust" as they lower a preservative filled body in a lacquered box into the ground which is encased in sealed vault, completely separated from the earth and ashes and dust to which the dead is supposed to return.

R. Buckminster Fuller, creator of the buckyball, was a professor at SIU in Carbondale in the 1960's. At that time, he built and lived in a large buckyball home, which has been restored and will soon be a museum to the man and his legacy.

A small town in southern Illinois reaches racial parity in their city council makeup, with a black mayor and equal number of black and white members. Oh, and they also have an openly trans council member as well...

This from a part of the state where some people still fly Confederate battle flags.