slsc.orgThe stress and anxiety of reading week induce mass consumption of alcohol or caffeine (Diet Coke seems to be the preferred resource over coffee as of late), sometimes both. In that attempt or avoidance to study, one often discovers newfound modes of procrastination. Minesweeper. Precisely organizing your mp3 files into cleverly titled folders on your computer. Checking your e-mail every fifteen minutes…make that five. Rearranging and cleaning your dorm room despite your quickly approaching move-out date. Studying proves to be far inferior to any and all of these tasks. If you aren’t going to study, at least enjoy the weather of St. Louis or see those places you always said you would but never made it to during the school year.
Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation
Tivoli Theater
6350 Delmar Boulevard
(314) 995-6270
For 25 years Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted film festival, the longest running festival of its kind, has entertained audiences with cutting-edge, experimental animated shorts that have influenced and advanced various forms of animation. A sampling of the titles of some of the shorts includes: “My First Boner,” “Hut Sluts,” “How to Cope with Death,” “Mama I’m a Thug,” and “Ninjews.” With a complimentary pair of 3-D glasses and an audience of fellow animation enthusiasts, the festival should hold up its past tradition of sick and twisted entertainment.
Showtimes:
Mon.-Thurs. 4:45 p.m., 7:15 p.m., 9:45 p.m.
Fri. &. Sat. Midnight only
Must be 18 to enter
Missouri Botanical Garden
4344 Shaw Blvd
(314) 577-9400
Take a study break, stretch out your legs and commune with nature at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Under its colloquial reference by fellow St. Louisans as “Shaw’s Garden,” the MBG hosts a variety of horticultural paradigms for your visual and olfactory pleasure. On Thursday and Friday morning, it will also host part of the 25th Annual St. Louis Storytelling Festival, deemed “Sparks by the River: An Epoch Journey” for this year’s theme. Storytelling will occur in the MBG from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on both days. For more information, visit www.umsl.edu/~conted/storyfes/.
The St. Louis Science Center
5050 Oakland Avenue
(314) 289-4400
When your eyes start to water after staring at page after page of “The Principles of Chemistry,” let your nerdy science inner child have some fun by visiting the St. Louis Science Center. Admission to the center is free and hosts a number of those silly experiments you never understood in sixth grade, but now see the utter and simple brilliance of from your older, wiser college perspective. Extend your knowledge from this world into outer space by visiting the James S. McDonnell planetarium. The planetarium hosts an open-house viewing of the Boeing Space Station exhibit every weekday from 1 to 3 p.m. Experience a simulated space launch in the Star Shuttle (it’s actually a high-powered elevator, but suspend all disbelief and just enjoy the ride) and gaze at over 9,000 twinkling stars in the Sky Bay. Finish the day with a precursor to studying physiology by visiting the Omnimax and the “cinematic genius” that is “The Human Body.”
Hours:
Science Center (free)
Mon.-Thurs., Sat. 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Fri. 9:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Sun 11:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Planetarium
Open house (free) Mon.-Fri. 1-3 p.m.
Omnimax
Runs on daily rotation ($7)