rockstar

I'm experimenting with posting videos. I thought I'd try this one of my 3 year old son playing Christmas songs on his new guitar. This video was taken right after he opened the box. He had been sick for about a week up to this point which makes his voice higher and scratchier than it normally is. This all of course leads into his screamo version of Jingle Bells. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff.

2008 Favorites

I've put together my annual mix of my favorite songs from the last year (2007, 2006, 2005 can be found here). It's an imperfect process. I try to get a group of songs together that make a good mix and that I like a lot. I only did one song from each album so there may be a song that's my second favorite song of the year but it didn't make the cut because my first favorite song is on the same album.

I feel like there aren't many new artists on my mix this year or rather artists making their first appearance on one of my yearly compilations. I'm not sure if that's due to the fact that I've been very busy (new baby, renovating old building, starting a business) or if I've missed some good stuff that came out. I hate when I discover music that I love only to find out that it came out in the previous year and I just missed it. If you want a copy let me know. I have a distribution list and I'm only about 1/3 of the way through printing them up and sending them out.

Ray LaMontagne - Meg White
Tilly and the Wall - Pot Kettle Black
She and Him - Why do you let me stay here?
Bon Iver - Skinny Love
Hayes Carll - Girl Downtown
Dr. Dog - 100 Years
The Dutchess and the Duke - Out of Time
Gentleman Auction House - ABCDEFGraveyard
Gnarls Barkley - Run (I'm a Natural Disaster)
Langhorne Slim - Colette
Love as Laughter - Bonnie and Clyde
Theodore - One Good Fall
Okkervil River - Lost Coastlines
The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name

siblings

stools

Instead of barstools for Foam I have picked up a collection of shop stools over time. The bulk of them came from the surplus department at a local University. The great thing about them is that they are dated 1986 on the bottom but have never been used. Some of them came from thriftstores. I sprayed painted them a range of colors. I could have had them powder coated for a more durable finish but the cost would have been astronomical. Instead I just painted them myself. Over time they'll scratch up but I think it'll be more of a nice patina rather than look shoddy.

bathroom

We just completed a little art/decor project on the outside of the bathroom walls at Foam. This shot was snapped moments after the last board went up.

cafe culture

The first of 3 articles about Foam in local magazines has hit the stands.

Café Culture

Foam promises to resurrect something St. Louis hasn't really had since Gaslight Square: an ultrahip coffeehouse music venue

By Elizabeth Wolfson

Photograph by Rachel Brandt

Let's get one thing straight about Foam before we begin, shall we? According to owner Mike Glodeck, there are two kinds of coffee joints: coffee shops and coffeehouses, and Foam is definitely the latter.

"There are a lot of coffee shops in St. Louis and very few coffeehouses," says Glodeck. "Everybody wants to be in a place where people come and hang out all day long—to provide an inviting atmosphere. I'm very much a host. When I throw parties, I'm meticulous about the lighting, the music." Indeed, Glodeck has been making mix CDs to play in the coffeehouse for more than a year, and the space isn't even wired for a stereo system yet.

You might ask: How could anyone hang out at a coffeehouse all day long? Here's the thing: The "foam" here refers not only to the poof of dairy atop your latte, but also to the froth that crowns a good pour of beer. The basement of Foam will house a microbrewery run by a mysterious gentleman from O'Fallon, Ill., who has been putting on an Oktoberfest for many years now, featuring all his own concoctions. "We'll be doing a lot of unique and seasonal beers," says Glodeck, "which will be available only on tap at Foam."

And Glodeck intends for Foam to function as a music venue, too. "There are some pretty cool bands in St. Louis right now," he says. "I'd love to foster and see more of that and give them an opportunity. If somebody wants to come in and play on a Tuesday and do a solo deal and come back with a full band on Saturday, I'd let them work out their material." He's quick to dissipate the stereotype of the angsty, guitar-strumming coffeehouse staple (will any of us ever forget the Phoebe Buffay classic "Smelly Cat"?), emphasizing that bands of all stripes will be welcome at Foam. Glodeck is, as it turns out, quite the music fan. A native of the Detroit area (home of Motown Records, the MC5 and the garage rock scene that birthed the White Stripes, among others), Glodeck says it's "painful" for him to read about bands he loves being on tour and watching them completely bypass St. Louis.

And Glodeck's clearly passionate about his adopted hometown and the neighborhood in which he's chosen to open his endeavor. People from Detroit are famously loyal to that capital of the Rust Belt, but Glodeck has enough room in his heart for pride in both towns. When his wife, a native St. Louisan, wanted to move home in 2001, he acquiesced without knowing much about the city. When they came down for a visit, he fell in love with it. He sees many similarities between the two towns, from the style of the street signs to the way both cities are "reinventing themselves," after years of decline. "One thing I love about St. Louis: Property values are reasonable enough that someone like me can come in and do a project like this," he says.

Glodeck envisions Foam as a "third place," meaning a place in addition to home and work that people frequent as the center of their social community.

"I don't think anyone in St. Louis is doing what I'm doing with Foam," he continues. "It's going to be unique." No doubt, no matter what your foamy beverage preference is, there will be something worthwhile to bring you down to Foam, whether it's a band, a home-brewed beer or just a cup of joe to drink while you work on that novel. And undoubtedly the soundtrack, over a year in the making, will rock your socks off.


Foam is located at 3359 S. Jefferson, in the Benton Park neighborhood; find it at myspace.com/foamstl.

mural

Thankfully things are always moving forward with Foam. The building is coming along nicely even if it is a little slow at times. We are hitting the point where infrastructure is complete and the design and decoration aspect begins. This is a rewarding stage to say the least. One of the most exciting things is that I have a new mural in the building. An artist and nearby resident painted my logo on one of the walls inside the space. Several people have exclaimed that it looks old and assumed that I discovered it when in fact it's less than a week old. Success!

photoshoot

I participated in a photoshoot for an upcoming magazine article on Foam and the good things happening on Cherokee. It gets published in February. I wore makeup. It felt like halloween but afterwards and throughout the day nobody even noticed.

Here's a super secret shot I snapped at the shoot.