Thursday, August 30, 2007

Officer B and Me

So I was chatting about how I'd like to move near Cherokee to this totally awesomely nice City Police officer (Officer B!) and he looked at me like I was crazy.

I don't think I am. I've lived in a Muslim Slum/Banlieu in France, and spent 4 years in West Philly (west even of Penn, OMG)...sooooo, Cherokee sortof hits "pleasant" on my Creepy-O-Meeter. I may look like a sortof birdbrained, be-pigtailed white girl, but I'm a street smart dame, too.

Maybe I should get a giant vicious dog/boyfriend before I close on a house, though. And Officer B said he'd run a crime report (on what, my house? my block? me?)

Of course this is all hypothetical, and partly due my 16 year old dreams when I first started going to Casa Loma, but I don't really want to live anywhere else.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Anonymous Comments and T-Shirt drama

"All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move." -Ben Franklin

That quote'll make sense later -- if ya really think hard!

So - I love it when I get an email in my inbox that says I got a comment on a post. It's really cool - I don't think I have to go into detail why I think comments are cool...the connection, its nice validation, its community, its good stuff.

It seems that my post over on the Europe Blog comparing DirtyCoast to Stl-Style has made some people angry.
Ouch?
Check it:

Anonymous said...

Who says STL Style wants to be or should try to be like Dirtycoast? They have their own thing going, and I actually think their stuff is pretty cool. it's easy to be an armchair critic, but the Style guys started something out of pure love for their city.

-DetroitLove

Sat May 12, 12:13:00 PM PDT
Lolololori said...

DetroitLove, i could not agree with you more --- but I´d love it if STL Style (real innovators in a little bit of a status quo'y city...at least until NOW!) really took advantage of their position in the community as a force for awesomeitude and for good...and they do, too...Ive been emailin´em for a bit now...now if only they´d take me up on my offer to help them do it --- for free. How´s that for armchair, eh?

Question...does detroit have a similar tshirt thing going? Seems like you´d know...

Sat May 12, 12:21:00 PM PDT
Anonymous said...

what makes you think they need your help or anyone's help. i just went to an event sponsored by stl-style and it looks like they have their shit together. they were doing gangbuster business.

Tue Aug 21, 08:23:00 AM PDT
Lolololori said...

Well, anonymous - I'm not hating, just constructively commenting...have you checked out what is going on at dirty coast? StL Style recently sponsored a music event in St. Louis' Cherokee district to raise money to support/save a local building in disrepair...(is that the event you're talking about? Mullanphy? I wish you'd leave your email/profile so we could talk, ps)it's just this sort of thing I like to see. My favorite founding father, Ben Franklin said, "All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move." -- I just like to see a company that has class, namely StL style, keep on movin' and living up to its GREAT potential! I love St. Louis, and it deserves nothing but the better than best. And StL-Style, much as I love them - in my lowly opinion - could to better.



So they're mad...Good!

(I'm also sortof proud of my post with 4 comments - 2 of which are mine, but whatev, yayyy!)


This class of people who are commenting clearly want to moooove - they speak their minds, they have opinions, and they're out and about in their cities -- and I like that a LOT and respect it even more, I really do. But why do they want to move so anonymously? I answer all my comments nonetheless (not like I have a million, but hey, its a principle), but Tommy Anonymous, can you hear me?

Dear Last Anonymous Commenter,
It seems we both share a love for StL style. Maybe we could work together? Maybe we both could encourage and help StL-Style to list local businesses, blog about local interests, recruit new designers, encourage creativity in new designs, brainstorm fun/important St. Louis-centric things to make tshirts about, and really use the T-Shirts as a way to be proud of StL and to encourage pride in others. I know the Sklar Brothers wore the St.Louis Connection shirt on VH1, but there's more.
So Don't be anonymous, let's be buddies,
Lori

Now, Ben Franklin also said, "
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do."

Am I doing all those things in this letter I sent to Randy Vines, one of StL Style's Vines Brothers? I sure don't want to.

"
Firstly, I love the shirts - I brought the St. Louis highway sign one
over with me to Europe, and i have worn it, and washed it until it
turned pink/grey/brown (love the french laundromats).
Since you're the "production assistant" - I was wondering if you had
seen the productions going on over at Dirtycoast.com -- sortof a
similar theme, but for New Orleans -stl's sista down the riva, but
they've got this real groovy community suport thing going -- and a
blog, yadda yadda.
You guys ever consider doing that?

I think you should! I'll be back in town for good in June (i've been
teaching english in france, dur) and I'll voluntarily help you guys
set something up if you need help - I'm into this social media for the
good of community thing (as y'all seem to be, too)!
Somethin' to talk about! If you've seen what the threadless.com guys
are doing with tshirts and community -- there's just so much
potential.

Soo, even if you don't need my help, have a look at dirtycoast (as if
you havn't already, but there's a chance!) --- I know you StL
supporters'll like what they're doing.
(the shirts are super cool, too).
Keep in touch, and tap me in if you need me, eh?
Lori
"

I talked to a young lady today who was wearing the "Where'd you go to High School?" t-shirt (classic) and we both lamented the lack of community action up at StL-Style. This is not hating, it'sjust motivating! If you agree, give Randy an email...its on the site here.

The fact of the matter is, I love love love what DirtyCoast and Threadless are up to, and I want to be a part of that if STLStyle goes in that direction.

Don't you?





Sunday, August 12, 2007

It's the process...

...that's important - an old band teacher of mine would always say.

I was just reading Guy Kawasaki's take on blogging/changing the world, etc....and he helped me to realize that I oughta blog a little more about my job hunting process.

And what a process it is! I'm learning more about myself, life and the value of just being patient. I may sound a bit plastic right now, but just give me time and my voice will come back. You'll know!

So I've been on the job hunt. I love doing copywriting and new media strategy (fancy way of saying I work on their myspace page and overall internet presence) at TestimoBoutique.com. The clothes are cool, I dig my boss, I have a lot of freedom -- and while I anticipate working with testimo in some way for a loooong time whatever happens, it's time to kick it up some notches.

I've had some great moments with adclubstlouis.org, stlrecruiter.com and and also from checking out different StL bloggers blogrolls. If I'm in any stage in my life to advise anyone about anything, I would advise anyone to visit every single link on your favorite blogger's roll. Such treasures await you!

So, I'm in St. Louis, and I want to stay here for a while. Why? I believe it's possible to have, and contribute to creating a vibrant, imaginative and profitably bohemian 20 something life for yourself and others in a city like this. I didn't go to an Ivy League school to become a robot in a NYC factory, I went to give back. I just hope I can give back now - not be forced to move to a more obviously vibrant town to return here at 35, as is the fate of so many. I'm going to try my best for as long as I can take it.




Saturday, August 04, 2007

Kirkwood's got a fever

and the only prescription? Signs.



Sure this isn't an architecture blog per se, but there's trouble on the homefront!

I'm not entirely sure of the details of the situation, but this Teardown Fever business is a familiar story, especially to my hometown of Kirkwood, and especially lately -- an older homeowner sells totally cute house on a historic street and doesn't want it torn down, some developer decides to knock it down, the house, gets knocked down, everyone talks about it for 5 years until it happens again and we all go, "its happening again, what can we do?"

I remember reading about something similar to this over at Toby Weiss' B.E.L.T and thinking whoa not again.

Residents of Argonne, a neighborhood that's listed on some historic lists of something, but none of the neighbors have any say as to what's to become of this precious little 80 year old chalet
located at, if you havn't noticed already, 407 Argonne. There's talks of the neighbors going in to buy it, rumors that the fella who rennovated the nearly unsalvagable home just next door (the former home of the Kirkwood Historical Society, at that) wants to buy it to do the same...

I'm just wondering how it got this far?

The signs are pretty cool though. If anything, since this house looks like it is very very much on its deathbed, maybe other deals like this won't get dealt b/c the community seems to be once again mad as h**** and they're not gonna take it anymore. Its fun to stand around and watch everyone slow down and point - I saw at least 5 cars stopped, and some residents walking their dog chatting about it.

There's more photos on my flickr account - but drive on by if you're in the neighborhood, its some really striking signage.

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