Posted 12:55 p.m. Tues., 02.16.10 - St. Louis native Barclay Hughes' work at Schmidt Contemporary Art delves into the limbo lives of long-haul truckers. These intimately scaled images feel at once anonymous and yet highly personal: We’re given privileged views of a way of life that remains obscure and marginal. (Detail of Michael by Barclay Hughes)

Posted 9:45 p.m. Sun., 02.21.10 - The St. Louis French Festival, which runs nearly a week from Feb. 24 through March 1, started as a simple organ recital. It grew to include two speeches by the French ambassador to the United States, an art lecture, a theatrical performance, a musical afternoon and a tour of the Cathedral Basilica, in addition to the organ recital and two lectures.

Posted 4:52 p.m. Sun., 02.14.10 - In That Uppity Theatre Company's "The Assorted Short Adventures of Tom, Huck and Becky," Tom and Becky are in wheelchairs. Huck has intellectual disabilities. Oh, and Tom's played by a girl.

Posted 10:15 a.m. Fri., 02.12.10 - As a boy growing up in Clayton, James Hirsch was a big Cardinals fan. He never saw Willie Mays on the field. But the idea of writing a biography of Mays appealed to him immensely. After some persuasion, he got the always-wary Mays to trust him enough to work together. He talked with the Beacon about the life and legend of the Say Hey Kid.

Posted noon, Thurs., 02.11.10 - The movie that's tied with "Avatar" for the most Academy Award nominations was withdrawn from general release in the fall. But Plaza Frontenac will give area residents another chance to see 'Hurt Locker' on the big screen.

Updated 11:15 a.m. Wed., 02.10.10 - Late last year, we presented some date ideas that ran through April. Now, the show that was highlighted for February is opening at the Kranzberg. Click through to read about it and to find a link to romantic theater offerings for this Valentine season.

Posted 3:00 p.m. Fri., 02.05.10 - What's the story behind the new book "New Madrid to Claverach: How an Earthquake Spawned a St. Louis Suburb"? Learn how a research project for an application to be on the National Register of History Places led from one discovery to another.

Posted 12:10 p.m. Thurs., 02.02.10 - Large chunks of the movie - an hour or more out of a little under two hours - consist of a policeman watching a group of students. The surveillance goes on for so long over such a limited landscape that we come to recognize landmarks. The landmarks are visually arresting but a movie needs to be more than a series of striking images.

Posted 11 a.m. Wed., 02.03.10 - “Remix” at Art Saint Louis features works by local artists Catharine Magel, Melody Evans and Leslie Macklin, who respond to the chaos of contemporary world by mixing and re-mixing visual cues, artistic media and techniques of production.