“The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing.” -James Brown

On that note, come on by The Royale tomorrow night 7pm-10pm and say hello.
Seriously! My lovely sister and I will be spinning records and WE WANT TO SEE YOU.



We're bringing our tambourine!

London Calling is moving!

To Cherokee. To the new Stable Loft.
Interesting.

AMAZING open mic, Cafe Soul's first comedian - Scott

My pal, Scott (better known to the masses as H. Alan Scott) PERFORMED AT CAFE SOUL LAST FRIDAY NIGHT. OMG.



He is the coolest! Also, DJ Needles was PMA (Pretty Much Amazing) that evening as well. Mr. Needles will be at the Upstairs Lounge (and therefore so will I) on December 26th starting at 10pm. I might get there closer to 11, let's be honest.

Cafe Soul was at Lucas School house for the last night tonight...LSH is CLOSING! :( ... so if you have an event space that's big enough for some amazing talent, you should probably email cafesoulstl at yahoo.com and claim this WONDERFUL evening for yourself. Or you should just email them to tell them that they are awesome. OR MAYBE YOU SHOULD GO TO THE NEXT ONE B/C IT IS AMAZING. sorry, shouting.

Anyway, back to Scott... He'll be at Bill Chott's Improv Jam on the 23rd at the Mad Art Gallery. Scott talks about it (more or less) here.

Bill Chott is great. He is a Good St. Louisan. (also, he has met Dana Carvey & MORE!) He teaches comedy classes on Cherokee Street. He puts on some great comedy Monday nights at Atomic Cowboy, too. YOU SHOULD GO. WHY HAVEN'T I SEEN YOU THERE? sorry, shouting again.

Laughter will be home for Christmas. Well, it's always home, but moreso now for the holidays. I went last year (i wore purple) to the Comedy Improv Jam at Mad Art and actually *won* a raffle and got a coffee mug (a travel one!)...this should let you know just how magical it will be.

Come to think of it, last time I was at a Bill Chott hosted thing - everyone's fav poet/person GAVE me a book! Maybe you will be next to tangentially get something free (besides laughs, which are, i hear, the best medicine) at a Bill Chott event. Maybe, b/c I have not seen you, I am getting YOUR free things! Don't let that happen.

B/c I will take them anyway and not even text you about it.

well, this is awkward

global live christmas songwriting

A little internet magic for Christmas.

I'm sorry, but this is live xmas songwriting business JUST TOO COOL.

Rise and Shine (livestream here) is changing my life and I owe it all to John Cleese. (crazy)

here's the podcast:

Get this widget!

I love America

and this is why.

Unchain Your Heart-Shop Local

...just passing along some wise words from your favorite local record store...

As your friendly neighborhood record store we are grateful for your biz and know that we've survived the national record store slaughter because of you. So we'd like to thank you and remind you that, while we may all be spending less this season, it's important to make it count more. So, we urge you to shop local businesses this holiday and avoid chains. Here are some facts:

1-Local stores and restaurants keep their profits here in town and that money circulates back into the community. It's called the multiplier effect. When you spend a dollar at a chain, part of that money is sent out of town as profit. When you spend it with a local business, the profit stays here and adds to our economy. Right now millions of dollars a day are sent out of St. Louis by Wal-Mart, Best Buy and the other chains. That money is lost to our local economy. Studies across the nation confirm that more than three times as much money stays in the local economy when spent at locally owned independent businesses versus national chains.

2-It's eco-friendly. We, like most local businesses, work hard to find local suppliers and recycle as much as possible.

3-We provide good jobs and personal service. Small businesses are the largest employers in America. Local businesses supported raising the minimum wage in Missouri. The big chains fought us every inch of the way, so they could send even more profits out of state. Our employees know that our store only survives if they give you great service.

4-Local businesses give up to 4 times as much to charities. Hey, we live here. Making our city and state better is a big part of our job. We're proud that every month Vintage Vinyl donates dozens of items and gift cards to charity fundraisers all over the St. Louis area.

Shopping locally is an opportunity to contribute to stability in the economy that affects us every day during these tumultuous times.

Enjoy the holidays..We hope to see you soon.

For those of you wondering just what to get ME for my birthday in a week (December 15th!) or for christmas for that matter... I would like a tambourine.

Mary and Marvin

It was kismet that my "hey love" radio station on Pandora led me to this awesomely early R&B sound duet between Mary Wells and Marvin Gaye on the same day I watched this.

I spliced for your convenience, but I strongly recommend watching the whole thing, though. That is, if you're interested in things I'm interested in. If not, enjoy the kismet.

Obama under St. Louis arch.

The person taking this picture must have dug a hole in the stairs, b/c when have you EVER seen the whole arch in a picture! ??! I, too, have laid down and tried to get the whole arch to no avail.

Must be that Bararch Obama magic.

sam & dave

The Menahan St. band record spin dance at Halo after the Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings performance was... nothing short of transcendent.

...and if you look closely at the above photo, you'd probably guess (correctly) that a good deal of that transcendence is owed to Vintage Vinyl, from whence the dudes gleefully returned mid-set with a familiar, santa-claus-on-xmas-eve-full brown paper satchel. Thank heaven the daptone boys don't know about the record exchange. (who am I kidding, they probably do, but just couldn't walk there) Look out bloomington indiana, they're coming for your records ...soon!

I'd also recommend hiding your women, as they are rakish and distant, but most significantly, boys can dance! What to play, how to dance to it. thank you.

So I had some good dances.

Do I need to summarize that it was a good night? it was a salve! an antidote! a remedy to many first-world troubles. It will save the economy. Almost makes up for missing Eli, too.

Adding to the daptone charm (aside from SHARON in general - I, like Annie Z of the RFT, would like to be her when I grow up) was their bongo player Fernando's beverage of choice all evening (including onstage) - SCHLAFLY! He said he always drinks local. Class act.

Also, I got some 45s for my jukebox! SCORE. I am cautiously overjoyed with life.

Fun fact: One of my mom's best friends named her twin boys Sam & Dave.

ok fine

So "Suddenly, Senior (Matt Klapper, Your Emails)" has been going *slightly* viral on the facebook - at least between the singing/dancing/comedian/ridiculous set of "intellectuals" I spent 4 or so years with back in college...and far be it from me to deny this nugget to those not tuned into my facebook news feed (as so many are!).

Alex, Spencer, Megan and I wrote this little reworking of the alan menken classic, Suddenly Seymour, for the performing arts night during out last week at school. This is the result.

It's basically college in a nutshell -- a song and dance nutshell. (the best kind!)


Suddenly, Senior from lori white on Vimeo.

3 things for those of y'all who weren't lucky enough to be UPenn Quakers so you can laugh, too: Shatte is a psych professor everyone was inexplicably in love with (my guess is he was brain ninja), "Bursar" is the student ID card checking account a lot of rich kids parents paid for, and Matt Klapper was our class president -- and therefore sent us a LOT of emails (and they totally provided sweet understanding). For further insight, please refer to the IM conversation (magically saved!) from whence this song sprang.

WHYS

You know I need to tell y'all about my recent visit to the SYMPHONY, but due to some recent upheaval (ever seen Burn Notice?) over here in real life, I'll just leave you to ponder this list, written by the folks at the ideavillage in NOLA.

Why I am here...

…because life is too short and too precious to claw my way through Wall Street. Because the Pyramids were not built treading along in a hamster wheel.

…because I figured a 1500-mile road trip to begin a new life in an unfamiliar place would make for a unique story. I am proud to live somewhere where such a tale has become blasé.

…because New Orleanians open their doors, pour stiff drinks, fill plates high, and demand little of their guests beyond an adventurous tongue.

…because the architecture is the most amazing I’ve seen. Anywhere.

…because the city is in dire need of a brewing co-op and I hope to provide it.

…because I have an eye for what makes a city work, having lived in Boulder, Seattle, and Saratoga Springs, and because New Orleans has ten times the intrinsic charm of these other cities put together.

…because Cajun slang is interesting, southern drawls pacifying, and Yat dialects just downright bizarre.

…because there is real soul here: a tangible and visceral loyalty to a dynamic cultural ethic.

…because there are real minds here: those who heed the calls of intellectual adventure and find deep satisfaction through attacking problems at their roots.

…because a potential roommate warned me recently of the seeming permanence of endemic poverty and government corruption, and of the futility in wasting a swollen heart on a city with real problems. It sounded like a dare, and I never turn down a dare. *

-Jeff Sandman

*sound familiar?

Is it strange that I look to Nola? Is the urgency to innovate and revitalize stronger there? I don't know, but if more people thought about it as much as I think about it...we both might get somewhere. :)

Letterpressing

I am so glad my pal Audra (link to come, she's starting a design blog soon) talked me into taking a letterpress class with her down at the Firecracker press. She really had to pull my leg. And it is so fun! Seriously, it is so fun and the space just has such warmth and life. For real! (also, my mom used to work on similar printing press equipment when she laid out the Tupelo Mississippi Sun News newspaper back in the 70s, so its also totally a family bonding moment)

So here's a preview of my poster project....


Don't you love that red? Props to Jen the teacher for her help mixing it.

I'm really excited about the project, mostly b/c it is beautiful in so many ways aaaand I get to move blocks around, something I think is like way fun, but also it's going to be a part of a larger project I've been working on (with audra...whoa, universe synergy) and I am so excited to finally get going on it. Making this poster project is really inspiring me to move other parts of this idea into real life. The power of doing something creative. Think about it.

You will like it. I will tell you about it soon!

Tip of the hat

To all the Kick Ass Award winners. (and to my wonderful friends who came to keep me company!) I am in good company. And so are you, and so is St. Louis.

To those of you who braved the FBC afterwards, I double salute you.

To 52nd city, I triple salute you (and what do you mean you're going out of business?).

Update: I have video of the national anthem. Awesomely embarrassing.

Connoisseur of Fine Farms

I come from a long line of farmers. Though my family in particular has moved to more urban pursuits (re: me and my California mom --- whose grandparents were also farmers in Indiana long before she was born) - my time hanging out amongst the soybeans and apple trees, showing my grandma the Paula Abdul jazz dances I learned on the oak lined front yard of my father's family farm house, watching the setting sun with my grandfather as it cast a silhouette on the pecan tree that has grown on the family's land for over a century -- is big part of me, it's the small town southern kid that I was for a fair chunk of the beginning of my life.

(to say nothing of the endless supply of kittens that came with that farm, oh my gosh I LOVED that)

Anyway, there's STILL a farm in the historical streetcar suburb of Ferguson and my pal Molly really wants folks to know all about it, so you know what? She decided to do something about it. she decided to have a bad ass party (tomorrow starting at 6)! I'm going, and so should you.

Check out this sassy lady talking about her farm -- when she says she guesses she was "born to be a hoosier"...oh man, that is a magical st. louis moment.



details here

see you there.

BarArch Obama

got it from my new friend and prospective young rehabber accomplice Kelli!

yay america

Margaritas help.

FAME via pumpkin and obama

The video starts right when our pumpkin shows up (also right when OBAMA starts speaking!).



powered by Splicd.com

Playing for Change

I know I've said/heard before that awesome soul music can change the world, but I didn't know how much so until this lil' clip came along.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10242008/watch3.html

it's awesome! watch it.

(grandpa elliot is the coolest)

I think I need to get one of those schools for StL. It's as if this guy read my mind! Been thinking of it for a while now.

2 stories

One ending (I hope).

New York version:


Fly-Over State version:


Haha, the new york version is all black and white and new yorky and mine is of course the random and weird colorful eyeball sign that I love.

(to be fair, the new york tale inspired me to think of my own "hopeful overhear" and the gal who observed the story is a canadian who lives in San Fran, so who can really detect a regional bias, anyway --- but still, you get what I mean.)

Stay positive!

Oh crap I am in trouble.

Don't stress out, guys.

Stevie Wonder's awesomeness is here! I often turn to old black and white motown clips on youtube in times of anxiousness.

(either that, or i watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on loop. Very time consuming when I have bigger fish to fry, so it doesn't happen often.)



also, watching this footage of the Temptations, I think my mom taught me this whole dance when i was 5. I must find other 5 year olds now. And I must teach them to dance like The Temptations. (which now that I think about it, is an AWESOME band name)



So walk on down memory lane and learn from the masters...and then go vote for Obama tomorrow!!! Crap! I couldn't help it! I had to go partisan on ya. I'd love to see a blue Missouri though.

Ok, yeah, now this is negating all the youtubing I did, so I'm going to stop thinking about it. Stevie to the rescue!

(UPDATE: as reported by my kid sister, direct quote from Stevie at the Dem Natn'l Convention, "i love you, you all need to know, that i love you, i love obama, i love you.")

Happy Halloween, y'all!

*wink*



Lest we forget who really personifies folksy charm at it's most awesome.*

(* correct answer: Dolly Parton! Duh.)

What I'm REALLY concerned about

"Okay, people. I have a lot on my mind right now: the election, the economy, how to most effectively encourage my hair to be thick and bouncy, etc etc."

Preach.

Who's the most battlegroundy of them all?

MISSOURI. Thanks for the mention never, PRESS. The gotcha media didn't GET that! Makes my eyes roll. Election stress has been getting to me a bit. It is a silent stressor. It can strike at anytime!


My friends responses?



and



And these responses did NOT come from ONE side of the aisle. It's a new era people! One where those with all variations of political beliefs can send their stressed out friends uplifting and funny internet creations.

God bless America.
Seriously.

Loosen up St. Louis! Cooper Moore is comparing you to swedes.

The cooper-moore show (c/o of The Josh Weinstein) last night at Joe's Cafe (!) was equal parts awesome and overly-grave-seriousness. Though the audience took itself for rather serious intellectual-types (we got compared to BRITISH PEOPLE...and SWEDES! And not for good reasons -- like universal healthcare...oh snap!) and there was nooooo drinking (though excuse me for just a minute while I stand up for the "i drink but it doesn't make me lame, loud, or impolite" faction)...things got slightly lively/hopeful/wonderful towards the end.

Still the literal/figurative sobriety was just not fitting. I get it, audience. You're serious. You're smart. You read. You listen. Your work is done now. Have some (non-neighbor resentment fueling) fun! I believe. Part of what I really liked about prior visits to the place was the people you'd meet (easily). I have faith that exuberance will return.

So, C-M was bebop-tastic and sortof awesomely insane, and to be honest, I got a little he-vaguely-reminds-me-of-my-dad-if-my-dad-were-from-a-crazy-parallel-beatnik-universe vibe there.

Those who were there will remember his lil' story about lightening striking his childhood home and melting fire onto the walls...I, too, have seen lightening inside a farmhouse (it went through the light fixture and into the beans!), though not to such dramatic effect. Me and C-M are kindred spirits (sorta)! The mark of a good storyteller, wouldn't you think?

Anyway, I get excited when folks sing acapella gospel (it's a thing), so I attempted to catch the closing number -- this to some slight dramatic effect.



Fast forward to the end to briefly see me getting pulled into the "action."

(most likely due to a personal vow to always join in to songs at complete and full volume when prompted - thus I am transformed in to "that girl" once again! woo! Jumping up and down! Let's do this! I'm so happy, happy to be alive!)

Proprietor, Bill C., mentioned that he considered making his establishment a church, b/c one) it used to BE a church, and 2) dancing would then be legal (dancing's not legal, you ask? There's a weird cabaret law -- i think, I don't know for sure *note to self to find a link* -- that makes it hard to get a license if you allow dancing. WTF, i know. I don't get it either. At least not enough to get why the law/ordinance still exists).

If dancing is illegal (Footloose, anyone?), I am guilty as charged.

I don't really know HOW it came to be that I was informed that this event was a'happening (such things are possible), but I'm glad I was. It was cool.

How great is this?

Cajuns for Obama!
(I can't decide what I like more: the theme of the video or the fact that they're speaking french)



ht humidhaney

Best dancers in the UNIVERSE

In case anyone thinks I'm being sarcastic, and I don't know HOW you could - I am not. I am dead friggin' serious.

La Nostalgie! c/o jason mraz

This video reminds me of how exited I am that Agnes, head of the family (ok, she shared duties with her awesome husband phillipe) that I stayed with for a bit while living in france -- is coming to town!

I totally hooked her up with a friend (who happens to be married to my former high school history teacher - we're all friends now b/c I am an actual satisfactual Grown Person...haha, ok) who is a french teacher in town, and she's in town to do a lil' exchange! Lyon and St. Louis are sister cities, I'll have you know, and that relationship is the reason I ended up there in the first place (back in the day when i was like 15), and therefore slightly the reason I ended up there in the second place from sept 06-may 07.

As Jason strolls about singing, you can see the the way modern archtecture and the super old cafes and crazy weird place pompidou are absorbed by the people. Modern architecture ain't all bad as long as it served a purpose (even if that purpose is to be gaped at and called ugly -- its bringing people together! Ugly buildings create community?) France. le sigh!

I'm embarassed to admit it, but while i was there I would *occasionally* act slightly blase' and disillusioned (mostly to counteract all those Carrie Bradshaw'esque notions about a chanel store being somehow a microcosm of all french people and their country, wtf, i was proving a point about authentic rick steves'esque travel) about France and Lyon, mostly b/c:
- I lived in a somewhat interesting neighborhood (with AMAZING baguettes at the marche for next to nothing)
- on a giant and unbikable hill
- that was far from the city center (but man I got good at buses)
- and had some slightly kooky (good kooky and bad kooky) students.

...but nearly 2 years removed, as i look for bizzare pastis and Get27 mouthwash-flavored liquor at Randalls and dream of sipping it in my favorite cafe where the wierd old lyonaise dialect-speaking dudes in old-school hats hang out with a black lab after playing boules and I can get all the weird green color drinks I want ... my heart is a'longing for some France!


For anyone who's interested in perusing, I kept a weblog of this and that advnture over here at Fleur de Lori (get it?). :)

pumpkins and brit

Lots of discussions going on in the (St. Louis) White House about the postive cumulative economic aftermat of Britney Spears Comeback + Pumpkin + Barack Obama.





It's giving us alternative energy to use gchat, that's for sure.

OMG?! Britney is BACK!??! (i hope!)

Britney is alternative energy!

I am getting verklempt. Seriously.



(oh my that's a rather risque holdscreen there, youtube
UPDATE: oh good, they fixed it)


The economy could run on her.
Everything is going to be fine!

I told you all she was good with a pumpkin

yes, WE carve this time!

mom knocked this out yesterday ...





Many thanks to the South Side for Obama tshirts for making it easy for us!

UPDATE: we submitted our photos to Yes We Carve (and you should, too).

Slipped right through my fingers

St. Louis - A to Z - Tonight! Eli "Paperboy" Reed vs. the Pink Spiders

OH Lord I am crying a million tears that I missed Eli "Paperboy" Reed!!!! At off broadway !!??!!?!

Listen to the man sing in a laundromat, and perhaps empathize with my sorrow.

(sporting, of course, my second favorite retro sidepart)

Whyyyyyyyyyy. First I miss the Dap Kings at The Duck Room, and now... shame. I am seriously so mad.

A lesson to me that I must be more vigilant in noticing when my top 5 favorite artists go to one of my top 3 music venues. May it be a lesson to you. Don't be like me! It's painful.

Did anyone reading this go? I apologize for the whining.

Guess which one's related to me

hahahahaha

Change Your Pumpkin, Change Your World

Oh my.


Yes We Carve

Number one, what an adorable haircut. Number two, Yes We Carve is genius!

We have been WAITING so impatiently at my house to start our presidential carvings. We're probably going to make it out of this.

I like it b/c he looks happy.

My mother is quite the champ with the pumpkins and has kept it up through the years. You may remember The Beatles pumpkin.



Will post once our barack 'o lantern goes up. :)

Also, if you want one but don't wanna carve it...let me know. We could certainly work somethin' out.

So this is exciting....

... for me at least!

I don't usually talk explicitly about my work (I work as a new media coordinator at Moosylvania Marketing) -- though if you've happened by here once or twice you've probably caught wind that I like to write about new media and it's place in my world...and I'm sure it doesn't take much brain stretching to guess that my world somewhat revolves around St. Louis.

Which is why I'm excited to tell you that the start-up I've been working on for quite a number of months now -- MealChime.com ---



---- got a mention in Joe Bonwich's "Off the Menu" blog!

Here's a quote:

"Rolling out today is something called Mealchime.com, basically a restaurant search site but one with built-in couponing. So say you’re looking for a place to have lunch — you type in your zip code, qualify if desired by the type of food you want, tell it how far you’re willing to drive and add a price range. What comes back is both a list of potential restaurants and a set of freebies, reduced prices and coupons applicable to restaurants in the specified area."

Joe gets it. Hello, you can get 10% off lunch at Revival on mealchime. You can get others deals.... but let's return to Revival. Have you HAD the Derby Pie there? Hello? It is amazing.

Read the rest of Joe's "off the menu" blogpost about MealChime here.

I've been following a pretty fair amount of St. Louis food blogs while working (hungrily) on the site, and his is definitely on my top 5 that aggregate all the food goings on about town (with gut check and sauce mag's gossip page up there, too).

If you're into restaurant ups and downs, or just like to find new places and goad others into taking you (not that I do that, oh no. oh wait. )...or if you just like finding new reasons to back up your thesis that there's a friggin' ton of things going on in st. louis (not that i have a thesis like that...oh wait. I do.)...look no further than those blogs above! If you're trying to figure out a place to eat based on price or type of food ...try mealchime and let me know how it works for ya.

MealChime.com is due to be blogging soon, (we're on twitter, though!) but in the meantime -- if you see anything you think should change, be fixed, whatever on the site -- you know where to find me! In the comments here, on twitter, e-mail (lori.e.white at gmail), wherever! Be brutal.

If you've read this blog like, once, you can imagine just how exciting and fulfilling it is for me to be working on a web project in St. Louis -- and I would love feedback from you, my (5) readers.

:)

Yesssssssss!!!

Could it be? Is it true? I mean, I love st. louis donuts, I will remain true (hello, cheese flip) -- but oh the coffee.
Dunkin' Donuts to open 12 stores in St. Louis - St. Louis Business Journal

Wait, noooooooooooooo!

Well, it's a start. Gotta show some love for starts.

HEARTLAND

Leave it to the Dutch to think outside the box. Thanks to the new blogs over at St. Louis Mag (specifically Stefene's post) - just found out about a little dutch art show all about the heartland...that giant vein around the mississippi. The cats down at boots are involved, bless their heart(land).



HEARTLAND - programme:
"While not an official region, what Mark Twain once called the ‘body of the nation’ encompasses for us the area roughly in the middle of the United States, linked by the symbolic Mississippi River. Ranging from New Orleans in the south, up to Minneapolis in the West and Detroit in the East, this cultural melting pot has brewed much of the country’s social, religious and racial activism. The presence of the Mississippi River has dominated its his- tory being the carrier of different moments of migration, industrialization and struggle."

Don't tell me you don't agree! Seriously, don't tell me.

hope you don't mind

I've been neglecting the original content side of this blog's life for a bit...(I blame my tumbleblog and it's super-simple ways).

I'm ramping up to post everything I would've tumbled and post everything I would've thought or scribbled on a napkin, or IM'd my sister or overdiscussed with my other gchat cronies.

I don't know how exactly, b/c I do love me some tumblin', but it's time.
Hope you're ready.

In other news, I'm crocheting a cheeseburger dress for my pal Audra, and it is going to be amazing.

Man decorates basement with $10 worth of Sharpie

Way to go, man.

10 Creative Advertising Ideas from Students

Oh man! These are cool!

Bye, Paul

I always loved how silly he was.

Christmas lights

I was just thinking how much christmas lights make any street look friendlier.


not even ones this fancy. I wonder - does the electricity have to come from the city? Or could each store put up lights?

I was also thinking about moss graffiti.


And St. Louis Flags.


I felt like I needed to fill you in. It's been a while.

Saturday Night

How's about a little street culture, St. Louis?



at Fort Gondo

positivity

I think it's time to stop thinking of the mistakes others made in the past, or make in the present - as far as our city, infill, knocking down this, burning up that, building this Staduim there, blah blah blah.

We have no control over that. We can protest, track history, complain, cry, take picures, blog. All of that's fine and even good, but in the end - we have no control over some things going on.

But we do have control over other things. So...what do we have control over, and how can we make that better? What's already good, and how can we make THAT even more powerfully great? And I'm not talking about flipping a house.

These are the things I am concerned with.

The Light Project

Have you seen it yet?

hahahaha - Cementland!

Just a little nugget of this past saturday's hijinks at cementland (where we met a sheep).


perfectly normal.


It was a good saturday.

Wisdom

"you can't get to wonderful without passing through alright."
-Bill Withers

Wisdom the book.

I like the video.

I also LOVE that they got Bill Withers!!!! His song, Lean on me, changed the world as much as Ted Kennedy, and don't tell me any different.




hat tip to the blake, inspiring mere hours after returning from NOLA evacuation (impressed)

Boing! Crazy lights and free solar powered ice cream.

There's so much internet on the internet!

I just submitted this about the Light Project (receptoin today 6-9!) to Boing Boing --- will it get submitted?

Who cares! I live here! I get to go, and not just look at it on a computer. Bonus for me.

Saw your article about the death of bohemia in the West Village, and thought you might be interested in it's rebirth in the Saint Louis.

Light-inspired art in a burgeoning art district in North Downtown St. Louis.

It's a collaboration between a lot of artists, art galleries and all things artsy. Many of your readers may be surprised/delighted/shocked to find such cool things going on in the 2nd most dangerous city in the USA. Being from St. Louis, I for one am not surprised, but I am delighted!

For pretty visuals, Check out the lit up buckets in scaffolding "Untitled" by Jason Peters


and the church roof (the church's roof was destroyed when it caught fire in a electrical storm and has been left vacant for years) colorfully and vibrantly reconstructed from donated lamps by Ranier Kehres and Sebastian Hungerer

"The initiative is motivated by a commitment to the arts and an interest in social and urban revitalization, beginning with our own...neighborhood..."

It starts today.

Also, free ice cream made by solar power until October for folks visiting the projects in the afternoon.

cool, huh?

NOLA got a bansky

Originally uploaded by toaminorplace

and I am jealous.

This one looks like its a response to the grafftti painter over guy Dubbed "The Grey Ghost."

I saw not too long ago that the Australian graffitti got taken down by a "Red Ghost." (or operation brightside)

I'm not gonna lie, though - I don't think it did what it could've done with the canvas. Not all that imaginative. I was expecting more. I don't want to be a hater - I know there's better art inside people's brains in this town, and it would've been nice to see that out of the brains and on a wall. Hopefully a different wall, a different day. Soon!
ht humidhaney

STL Magazine has blogs!

Neato, and it's pretty, too.

I am not bored

My sister's at the DNC!!!! Follow her every move if you're cool at twitter.com/meredithtwhite .

So, I've been out and about lately. I went to Chicago in the beginning of August for a wedding of a girl I can't remember not knowing (our mom's are BFFs).


...and I rode a "seg-way" on a lovely tour of downtown.

As I tell everyone who asks -- it was not at all embarassing.
not even a little! I felt cool! Everyone at the music festival (lollapalooza? I forgot which one it was already) was like, high fiving me and really encouraging our whole be-helmetted party. It wasn't surreal at all. (full disclosure, it was somewhat fun)

I went to a look at a house.


Went to a music festival.


found some funny pictures (was then reminded I was going to try to think more visually -- b/c its pretty fun/useful, actually -- especially when you're playing JUMBO NINTENDO - but also for work, i guesssss) .... went to a cool coffee shop,the stone spiral , visited the shopcat at the firecracker press, went rollerskating , where I saw some crazy acrobatics .
I broke (temporarily) my batman rollerskates, but it was worth it.

I went on the moonlight ramble.
My job had some crazy intern activities .

I went on a little adventure across the river with friends, , one being Miss Kelsey, who's started writing for the rft event blog (!), and she's doing an amazing job. :) I saw a kick-ass open mic end its days at one place --(now it's moved a block down the road) - cool.

I saw a hilarious license plate, and found some old pictures from the summer after my junior year at penn () and halloween senior year . So random, and taken on REAL FILM.

I scanned in some kooky/classic old pictures of myself and others! (it needed to be done!)
and my grandma in Tijuanna.
and last but not least, check out the beginning of my brilliant artist-mom (who's busy crafting costumes for the music man at Stages! amazing), and her masterful pumpkin carving hobby.

Using the words "carving" and "hobby" seems to make it less of a big deal that those are the EXACT images of the Beatles there in orange and "pumpkin rind."


My favorite is Paul. There, I've said it! Ask me why, I've given it plenty of thought.


Also in work-news, we're launching the project I've been working on all summer in less than a month.

And the Olympics!

Conclusion? I am not bored. So much more ahead, too!

(sub conclusion -- i need to blog more, this all-in-one digest business is for the birds!)