The Fête Society: Oh, What a Night!

Go Directly to the December 2008 or Winter 2009 Calendar.

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My goodness gracious, it seems the weather did not keep everyone at home last night. We were among hundreds of other souls eager to see what the new Indigo Hotel of the Central West End looked like. First of all, that old Best Western needed something to happen to make it habitable. Second, I like organizations that 're-use and re-purpose'. Why take up more space? Work with what you've got. And let me tell you, the Roberts Hotels Group has created a phoenix with this property.

As you can see the property has a very Esoteric Caribbean feel to it. Three-dimensional silouettes of branches and bright colors of lime green, ocean blue and orange are through-out the hotel. Beautifully scripted phases written backwards in the lobby. Signs with words and phrases assembled in odd grammatical patterns. So, you know your hostesses, two scientists are taking everything too literally, so found Ms. Kathy Stuart who explained the whole Indigo theme to us.

Your Hostesses with Kathy Stuart

It starts with the Phi:- The Golden ratio. of 1.618. Most natural patterns fits this "perfect ratio" - the intervals between veins in leaves, relative proportions of our body - see the Man created by Da Vinci - and being inspired by Da Vinci is where the backward written phases come in. Da Vinci did all of kinds of mysterious things, including writing many of his human anatomy notes backwards because of the all of the detail. And the nautilus shell - hotel's symbol, is an example of a visual pattern of math, because it's segments adhere to the Phi ratio.So, words that begin in FI are re-spelled to begin with PHI - like fitness to phitness' and the directions are in Haiku form - 17 syllable poems. All of this visual math. Neat.

It was a nice time and we had a chance to meet some great people. Before we could get in the door, Mayor Francis Slay walked right up to your hostesses, smiled, introduced himself, and extended his hand. My camera was ready yet. I also met UM-St. Louis Chancellor Dr. Tom George (another scientist), but alas no picture. And we met Cheresse, of Cheresse Ink. Big Kudos goes to her and her team. They planned the entire event and it was SPECTACULAR. Her people were flashing away and took a picture of us with her. But we managed plenty of pictures of other politicians and key St. Louisians.

The Fête Society with State Senator Jeff Smith & State Representative-Elect Don Calloway

The Fête Society with Mr.Mike Roberts and State Senator Jeff Smith

Missouri State Senator congratulating Mr. Mike Roberts, Sr.

Me with Mrs. Roberts (mother of Mike Sr and Steven Roberts)

Crowd Shots

The open spaces hosted guest with free food and drinks, a live blues band, a 2-piece holiday songs ensemble, and a hip-hop DJ downstairs. And a local artist was there creating art live. He paints bird caricatures. Very colorful - like the hotel, perhaps that is why they invited him - and adorable. I tried to talk him into painting mammals. No dice, only birds. Check him out - Jeff Kapfer.

Artist Jeff Kapfer

The Fête Society Mixing and Mingling

with Virvus Jones - Roberts Brothers Co. Vice President of Real Estate

Amina Terry - Architect and Designer with the Indigo Hotel project. Standing in the room she designed.

with Person on the Move - Darcella Craven

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Later that evening, I stumbled upon "Political After-party". Local Aldermen are preparing for what will be an exciting and historical Presidential Inauguration. As a prelude, President-Elect Obama is encouraging everyone to keep the momentum and be a part of the Change We Need. MLK Day 2009 will be a Day of Service and there will be a grand community service project that Monday to get everyone involved and address this madness of violence in our city neighborhoods. So save the date, Monday, January 19th and stay tuned.

Alderman Davis discussing the MLK Day Service Event