Bud Light Presents the ULTRA Pride Awards Honorees

ALIVE Magazine and Bud Light are proud to present the first-ever ULTRA Pride Awards honoring inspiring businesses, nonprofits and individuals who are making a difference in St. Louis’ LGBTQ community. PROMO Executive Director A.J. Bockelman, Vital VOICE CEO/partner Darin Slyman and writer, director and social activist Joan Lipkin will be recognized at the ULTRA VIP White Party Presented by Bud Light on June 27 at the Public Media Commons in Grand Center.

“After four years of partnering with Bud Light on our ULTRA celebration during PRIDE Weekend, we thought it was time to add another dimension and really recognize some of the iconic members who have done so much over the years for the LGBTQ community,” says ALIVE Editor in Chief Kelly Hamilton. “We’re very excited to be launching these awards with Bud Light in our continued effort to support and highlight the LGBTQ community.”

Bud Light ULTRA Pride Awards Honoree for Personal Achievement

Joan Lipkin, Writer/Director/Social Activist/Producing Artistic Director, That Uppity Theatre Company

“I am proud of the support that the LGBTQ community in St. Louis is increasingly providing to other communities that also face significant challenges, like Ferguson. As the late, great Bayard Rustin said, ‘We are all one,’ and our own humanity is compromised when we don’t look beyond our immediate community to the needs of others.”

Support That Uppity Theatre Company with VIP tickets to Bud Light Presents ULTRA.

Bud Light ULTRA Pride Awards Honoree for Noteworthy Nonprofit

A.J. Bockelman, Executive Director, Promo

“The broad diversity and overall makeup of St. Louis is really a part of what inspires me,” Bockelman says. “Despite the fact that we have a challenging environment legally, St. Louis still stands out as a beacon. We’ve managed to get the city of St. Louis to a 100 percent rating with Human Rights Campaign’s municipal equality events, meaning that’s a part of the community coming together and working collaboratively.”

Support PROMO with VIP tickets to Bud Light Presents ULTRA.

Bud Light ULTRA Pride Awards Honoree for Outstanding Business

Darin Slyman, CEO/Partner, Vital Voice

“Vital VOICE is really a representation of how the LGBTQ community has evolved as well,” Slyman says. “It is very important to showcase the hard news of the LGBTQ community, because no one else was covering that. Vital VOICE celebrates cool people doing really cool things, and by the way, they are gay.”

Support the Human Rights Campaign with VIP tickets to Bud Light Presents ULTRA.

St. Augustine’s, Being Destroyed

I had wanted to keep this a secret as long as possible, but judging by how many photos I’ve seen of people posting views of the interior on the Internet, it’s no secret that one of the most amazing churches in St. Louis has been abandoned, trashed, looted and left to collapse due to water permeation.

The bastards have ripped off a ton of the copper on the roof, destroying huge amounts of slate shingles, allowing water to go straight down into the walls.

The church has finally been secured by plywood, though I’m sure that too will be ripped off soon, too. The front door had stood open for most of the last six months.

I met the son of the pastor of the church, which now meets in a house, one day last year when he was out front mowing the lawn. He was devastated by the sacrilege, and so am I.

Dashed Dreams?

I think this is an incomplete church, where the congregation never completed the upper stories. But research does not reveal any explanation about what this was. Records say that the F. W. Caspar & Co. was at this intersection in 1906. Which corner? I suspect this might have been a Christian Scientist church, judging from the buff brick, as is common in a whole string of similar churches around the city built in the early Twentieth Century (examples here and here). The city database lists 1950, which is clearly the date of a renovation or alteration, not construction.

Walker lie number 1,000,001: Act 10 improved Wisconsin’s ACT score

When your governor is this level of smarmy slimeball, it actually gets boring to say, “He lied”. Even when he’s not outright lying he’s applying a dizzying amount of spin. I need something that works like an automatically updating site injury sign at the blog. Today’s update would read, “Scott Walker has proudly gone 1,630 more »

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Centenary Methodist Church

Surrounded by Modernist apartment towers, the church is all the at remains of what was once one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city.

Bill Bernbach on the Future of Advertising

National

A great mind preaching in 1977. Amen, brother.

Via

3,000th Post

This is St. Louis Daily Photo's three thousandth post. Almost every day for eight and a quarter years. The times I have missed were usually during long travels or when we were in remote locations without Internet service. It's been a joy, a grind, a burden and a wonderful education.

And it's time for my first break. Since I shoot only in RAW and obsessively edit everything in Photoshop, the blog takes up most of my evenings. There is shooting every weekend. I have neglected a lot of household maintenance and personal needs. It's time to re-balance. This is not the end. There are great photo opportunities coming up like the Pridefest Parade, my favorite local annual event, plus trips to New York and Chicago in July.

So I'll be back pretty soon when I catch my breath.