Just like a blockbuster movie needs a score to bring the scenes to life, an artists’ exhibit can be brought to another level with musical recordings. With this in mind, Laumeier Sculpture Park has hired its first composer-in-residence, St. Louis-based sound artist Eric Hall. The 12-month residency is meant to encourage an active collaboration with Laumeier Sculpture Park’s collections and its landscape. The residency is part of Laumeier’s curatorial focus on “archaeology of place.” Throughout the year, Hall, who is a native of St. Louis, will work to develop a new series of works and projects…

Parents who battle their children each morning and night in the tooth-brushing war may have some relief. St. Louis dentist, inventor and retired Chaminade chemistry teacher Dr. Howard Wright has invented Vortex, which bills itself as the world’s first color-changing toothpaste. Wright, who graduated from the Washington University School of Dental Medicine and who has lived in Sunset Hills for 15 years, released the first tubes of Vortex in early November. He hopes that the color-changing process, from red and blue to purple, will make kids want to brush their teeth longer and more vigorously…

Local charities Service International and Annie’s Hope recently received a very special gift. Crestwood Elementary fifth graders, 10-year-old twins Evan and Tate Jenkins, wanted to share their birthday presents in the form of donations. For the third year in a row the brothers have invited their birthday party guests to contribute to charities, rather than give traditional party gifts. When guests arrive at the party, they can donate to two organizations that the boys have selected. The idea came about three years ago when the boys were having such a big party that their mother, Julie, wanted…