Tag: post dispatch

The Loss of Joe Williams will rock the St. Louis film scene

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55b62d7053590.preview-620The last time I spoke with St. Louis Post Dispatch film critic Joe Williams, it was after a movie last winter and in a circle of film critics. That’s the way it worked for movie scribes. A movie would be screened and the critics would inform the local marketing company, Allied, rep what they thought afterwards. A quick take. Joe and I didn’t agree that much, but I respected his work and his blunt assessment of film.

Sunday evening, in route to a movie in Cadet, Missouri, Williams was killed in a car crash. The St. Louis film scene will never be the same. Williams’ loss will reverberate throughout the country.

The hardest part of a writer’s death is never hearing their voice again. Changing websites or papers is one thing. Post Dispatch sports writer Bernie Miklasz will leave the paper in August but he can be found at 101 ESPN afterwards. Williams’ voice is gone forever. That is truly the toughest part of this ordeal. For a town with one paper, Williams was the voice for film fans in the Lou. Every week, they’d rush to the stands or refresh their STLToday apps and see what he thought of the latest flicks. That will not be possible after this weekend.  (more…)

Bernie Miklasz “changed things” at the Post Dispatch

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bernieBack when I was a kid, I appreciated the more simple things in life. For me, it was getting up and sprinting to the nearest St. Louis Post Dispatch machine and getting the paper. I went to the machine near Tholozan and Kingshighway. Most days I actually got fully clothed but others I just ran out in what I was in at the time. If they would have timed me on one of my pursuits, I may have challenged a college draft pick for the 40 yard dash.

I needed the paper because I needed to know what local scribe Bernie Miklasz thought about a game, player or upcoming event. As a St. Louis sports fan and prospective writer, he was the guy I looked up to. Every fan has their selective voice and for me, Miklasz was it.

Bernie Miklasz is leaving the Post Dispatch after 26 years of writing print columns, blogging for their STL Today website and producing many podcasts, including Breakfast With Bernie and Best Podcast in Baseball with Cards reporter Derrick Goold. To me, he is the epitome of “tell it like it is and don’t care what others think”. Bernie doesn’t sip the koolaid(unless you put it next to a fine cigar) and prefers to think against type on certain topics. He is a blunt instrument in a world of talking head sports types that are afraid to challenge the status quo. (more…)