A Good Walk

  If your situation is anything like mine, you’re stuck in Midtown with no car to whisk you away and no homework to keep you holed up in your room.

  Where it’s a relief to have a weekend or two that isn’t consumed by textbooks and index cards, it’s still frustrating to feel cut off from some of St. Louis’ more vibrant areas—trapped in a part of town where nothing seems to be going on.

But even if you’re not feeling adventurous enough to hop on the Grand or Lindell bus—and you haven’t cozied up to the guy on your floor who has a car—you’re still not doomed to spend your first weekend at Saint Louis University pining away for your summer haunts or talking on the phone with friends you swear have gone on to much better places.

With a little guidance, Midtown can be a fun place to explore. There are a number of great spots within walking distance, from the West End (a few blocks down Lindell Boulevard) to Powell Symphony Hall, Fox Theatre and Jazz at the Bistro (a few blocks up Grand Boulevard).

  Filling a morning or an afternoon with a walk around Midtown isn’t really that hard—and shouldn’t cost you much money—as long as you stay focused on where you are and not where you think you’re going.

  To prevent being berated by the Department of Public Safety, I should note in advance that you should probably have a buddy or two with you as you wander around Midtown. You should not, however, be intimidated by the neighborhood in which we live. As long as the sun’s up and you’re with a friend, you should be fine. 

  That having been said, here’s a good, short Saturday walk you can try this weekend.

  You can begin your morning at Nadoz Café, which opens at 8 a.m. on Saturdays. It’s located on the first floor of the Coronado apartment building at the corner of Spring Avenue and Lindell Boulevard. (one block north of the clocktower). There, you’ll find lots of delicious coffee, juice and crepes to get your blood flowing.

  I realize Nadoz isn’t that far away from the heart of campus, but when you live in the Marchetti Towers (on the east side of Grand), you get in a good 10-minute saunter—just enough to work up an appetite—before you get there.

  This Euro-style café will probably inspire you to think artsy thoughts—so make sure you’re ready to talk about poetry or write a beautifully descriptive letter to your friends back home.

  When you’ve had your fill at Nadoz, you can head north on Spring for two blocks, then hang a right at Washington Boulevard. Your destination is the second art museum on the right: the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.

  The first museum on the right is the Contemporary, which isn’t nearly as cool as the Pulitzer—nor as architecturally stunning.

  The Pulitzer Foundation houses the well-known St. Louis family’s art collection and is open to the public on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (and on Wednesdays from noon to 5 p.m.).

  The building was designed by world-class Japanese architect Tadao Ando and just walking inside it is a euphoric experience. The main gallery is a simple rectangular room with an unusually high ceiling, a great swath of white wall and an adjacent railing that all complement the minimal design of one of the Pulitzer’s signature pieces: Ellsworth Kelly’s monolithic Blue Black, which dominates the wall at the gallery’s far end.

  You can walk down a short staircase, stand like one of those apes in 2001 and stare up the length of this beautifully bold painting. At the top is a sliver of skylight, which, depending on the time of day and your position in the gallery, can allow everything from a simple white line to a blaze of sunlight to play on the two tones of Kelly’s piece.

  In the Pulitzer’s courtyard is another breathtaking work: Richard Serra’s Joe. A spiral of weathered steel, this sculpture is a perfect complement to Ando’s building in that its beauty lies in the physical experience of entering and exiting it.

  It is my hope that, by the time you’re inside this spiral, you’re no longer thinking you’re on a walk around your new neighborhood or that you’re starting classes on Monday, but that you are inside a great steel spiral and that there is no work you could possibly do while in such a position so you might as well just enjoy being there.

  As someone who has had his emotional life thrown into mild chaos in the last month by thinking too much about my future—as in grad school, which for some silly reason I’m convinced will dictate the rest of my life—I’ve come to really value experiencing the present.

  It might take a few tries, but if you’re focused enough, being at the Pulitzer should coat you with a sense of calm. You will not want to speak right away, and when you do, you will think about it first.

  Walk out of the museum and hang a right on Washington Boulevard, then another on Grand Boulevard. You’ll walk down the old street with a blank mind, sensing not what your mind is processing and filtering for you, but what your feet are feeling and your ears are hearing.

  If you listen carefully enough, you might even hear the SLU bubble bursting as you re-enter what was once for you a confined, little community.