As posted over on 52nd City:

Contrary to anything you may’ve read, the LAST public event at Gallery Urbis Orbis will be the 52nd City “release” party at the soon-to-be-shuttering Downtown space, on Friday, Dec. 30, from 7-9 p.m., with a $5 cover. Catering by Hartford Coffee Company, with light refreshments served. Funds will help several publishing projects in 2006.

We’ve got a few things on tap for the evening, including:

Live improvisational music by Eric Hall and Jason Hutto.

Experimental video in Van McElwee’s “Heliogos.”

Accompanied poetry and jazz by Stefene Russell and Dave Stone.

A first look at 52nd City’s e-magazine.

Hope to see you there.

If you’re at loose ends on Friday afternoon at noon, stop by the corner of 6th & Washington, Downtown, to take some photos of St. Louis Centre. There’s more at www.52ndcity.com. Hope to see you there, shutterbugs.

Update: okay, Tom and I shot some pics and a couple of interested bystanders/P-D workers dropped by to chat. Though we didn’t shoot anything inside – choosing to not stir the otherwise complacent Centre security staff – we did stroll through the Centre, at lunch hour. The weirdest thing about the experience was the extreme lack of sound. With no Muzak to “fill” the space, there was about a sense of hearing individual conversations, laughs, coughs. And in the case of one wheezing escalator, a steady creak. It’s cliche to say, but if you’ve not been there in a bit, the complete lack of action will surprise you.

There are a couple more shots over at my flickr page, accessible at right.

For those who are near a radio tonight, feel free to tune into KDHX 88.1 fm, between 10 p.m.-midnight. I’ll be filling in for Rene Saller on “Suffragette City.” Need to start pulling together a setlist, ‘smatter of a fact.

I’ve been alerted by sharp-eyed correspondent Caroline H. that this site is now available in the colorful patois popularized by Snoop Doggy Dogg. With equal measures amusement and alarm…

http://sites.gizoogle.com/?url=https://thomascrone.com/

It’s a bit randier than the normal version.

A feature of Johnny Fox in the current issue of Sauce Magazine.

An interview with Stephen J. Davis in Playback STL.

A review of Riley’s in tomorrow’s Get Out; next week, the Crescent Room.

Upcoming stuff in the P-D, the American, and (I think) STL Magazine. Fingers crossed, of course.

Obviously, an absurd amount of postings at www.52ndcity.com.

Be blessed, one and all, in this, the holiest of seasons. Er.

December 12: Eric Post, photographer, discussing his new book, “Ghost Town: While St. Louis Sleeps” (Reedy Press).

December 19: Margie Newman and Alan Brunnetin, soon-to-be-expats, discussing their projects in St. Louis over the past five years.

December 26: the Collateral Damage/The Wire “holiday jam” featuring DJ Wilson, Fred Hessel and myself, discussing the year in St. Louis, with special guest callers.

Also: check out the KDHX website for an entertaining and informative interview with Jim Shrewsbury, President of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen.