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!)

That frickin' header

It took me FOREVER to get that header up there to work. For real. ForEVER.

The picture was taken in Hannibal, MO on the Mississippi river, and I like the colors. It occurs to me that I might want to use a picture taken in St. Louis, but at this point, that will just do b/c its cool and its got the river lookin' all pretty in it AND my eyes are crossing from trying to learn CSS by trial and error.

I guess there's no other way to learn it.

West End Word is a lil' grouchy!

This article (Naked bike ride reveals a city 'born to be mild' - West End Word) -- is ridiculous.

"I’m talking about sending a political message with verve and nerve, dressing up or undressing for the occasion, with the sense of theater people have in more spirited cities.

Of course, theatricality comes easily to New Yorkers and San Franciscans. They know the eyes of the world are on them. But St. Louisans feel that the world has turned its back.

Ironically, our city looked great on the bike ride."

Why St. Louisans (namely, grouchy west end word opinion writers)? If you don't respect your city, no one is going to do it for you.

I don't get it.

And for the record, I've been on some bike rides through town before, and they've been pretty great. and pretty. and crazy. Wild, even.

not a shock to me.

Time to go to work

I got up early (for me) today and went to check out stone spiral coffeehouse on Sutton behind the Shop-n-Save in Maplewood.



Adorable! And open 'till 9pm (and opens its doors at 6am, perfect!), so I have a place nearby where I can do post-work work and pre-work whatever -- of which I have plenty to do. One project being this blog, of course. I was reading through the local interest section of the "book collective" (oh pretentious coffeehouse pseudonyms, i really do love them) and there's a section on local interest. Reading through some of the books, it occurs to me (and plenty of others) that st. louis needs to re-find its identity. We used to be a "city of gabriels" as one book was titled (it was about jazz), full of weird history, r&b, street culture and of course beer. It's not all high schools - lord knows how that all started (though I still ask, guilty).

NOLA's really harnessing its need for (re)development (code word for HELP) by forming an identity around it (even though it's taking our bricks, wtf) -- and is becoming a center of social entrepreneurship, aided by the awesome websites of the Canary collective. (all of which is inspiring me to revisit web development, whoa lofty goal)

Not that "center of social entreprenership" is necessarily taken, but I gotta wonder - what could be an identity for St. Louis' that would encompass what's already happening and what needs to happen? The way NOLA seems to be doing?

Oh no, I used the word encompass. Euw.

So, there are more than a few things I'd like to talk about and more than a few projects I'd like to see come together in the next couple months. October, as usual, will be exciting if all goes as planned. I'll keep you posted.

Also, the inter:play interactive festival is coming up in conjunction with play:stl festival -- this could be fun. I hope to see details soon!

Oh man, I love it when what began as a few sentence "i'll just write something" post turns into a journey into my thoughts. Promises of more congealed posts may sound empty, but I make them just the same!

in other news of note, I finally went to a Get Born poetry reading at Duffs not long ago...and it was more amazing than I thought it would be.

My dream? Cafe Soul and Get Born co-show at casa loma (the cafe soul draws a BIG crowd, as does get born). Oh man! that would be so cool.

(i just noticed how i titled this post, "time to go to work" - true on a couple levels looking at it from the end of the post, and about a half hour later. ha.)

Pirated Bricks from St. Louis paving renovatoin on the far south side - New Orleans

MyFox St. Louis | FOX Files: Burning Bricks For New Orleans:

this is crazy.
I've always thought that there's a way for our cities, Nola and St. Louis to grow out of whatever blight we've endured together (or separately), and its just wacky to see this black market brick trade undermining that. It's crazy!

props to Matt at StL Dotage for the heads up.

drawings of the mississippi river valley

drawings of the mississippi river valley
Originally uploaded by lolololori

this picture is funny.

Having to explain where I was from for a year was sortof awesome.

I can draw the US divided by Louisiana Purchased/already owned land in less than 5 seconds.

I miss my extreme moleskine usage of the academic year of 06-07!

Perceptions

"Lori is nothing like her character, " Willmann said. "Guinevere talks about running around naked, controlling men, and she falls in love with multiple guys. Her character does some questionable things in the play, and Lori is nice in real life."



Nothing lets you know how you're perceived like your old high school newspaper! I already knew I was nice though. I have no memory of ever having read this article. 7 years later, it's funny to look at.

Also in: just found out that Colin will be on Broadway (again) soon - only this time, his name's gonna be in the very first lights that go up. He'll play Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice on Broadway. Exciting. As I always say, when Kirkwood people decide to be interesting, they become awesomely interesting. Go Pioneers.

Internet in Real Life

Just started reading this article - interested to see how it ends up.


"For all the wild success of YouTube, Facebook, and other social-networking and content-sharing sites over the past three years, some young dreamers continue to see the web not as a way to get rich (or get laid), but as a working metaphor for how humankind could operate IRL—in real life."

the humid haney rant: Acadiana Tattoo Gets Written Up in the TP

Folks at DirtyCoast being outstanding - again. Can't wait to see what the humidbeings site is like when it launches.

"In its e-newsletter on Thursday, the company offered to pay for 10 people to have its Acadiana Self-Reliance symbol tattooed on their bodies. Within minutes of posting it, 15 people had already volunteered, 'including a reverend,' said Dirty Coast owner Blake Haney."

Foam on cherokee

"Most people were excited. They'd seen work happening on the building and were anxious to find out what is going in there. I was invited into some houses and introduced around. A couple of people went out of their way to get me in contact with some of the others on my list who didn't happen to be around when I showed up. One property owner in particular who doesn't live in the building they own asked me to leave a petition with a neighbor so she could come down and pick it up. She brought it to her husband who, I later found out, is very ill. She mailed it back to me with the signatures and a little note wishing me good luck on my new adventure.

Some of the doors I knocked on were answered by people who obviously weren't expecting a stranger. Doors were answered by women in tears. One woman was nursing a baby. One man was in a towel. All of these people, while they were being inconvenienced, agreed to sign.

All in all it forced me to meet people I otherwise may not have met and I think it'll make my business and hopefully in turn the neighborhood stronger."

Mike of Foam is pounding the pavement in Marine Villa/Dutchtown/Gravois park/Benton Park West (is BPW a neighborhood ? ok, I checked - it is on the "official"map). That's not easy.

HIV immunity exists???

Researchers study HIV immunity - News:
"To gain entry into these cells, most strains of the virus bind to CCR5 receptors. Some people, however, are born with a mutation that causes a non-functional CCR5 receptor. This makes them immune to HIV infection."

wha? !

rallying

I want.





504ever? Yes.

314ever? Does it take a hurricane to rally? Should it?

Remember the ladies

Another lady-themed post. Plans to make lady video games. I like the av club's ideas more than the vid game company's Pretty in Pink: Prom Paradise or whatever.

Video Gamez For Ladiez | The A.V. Club:

"If you're going to condescend to women gamers, Paramount, at least do it all the way. Why not Steel Magnolias: Shelby's Return, in which players battle a zombie Shelby by throwing tears at her lumbering corpse (Tears are earned by gossiping at the beauty shop). Or Not Without My Daughter: Escape From Alfred Molina, in which players must absorb a certain amount of Alfred Molina's yelling, before gaining the speed required to run out of Iran."

Girl Heroes

sidenote: I just figured out how to use the "send to" function on my google toolbar, so now I can quickly update this thing w/o getting overly distracted! Amazing! The tumblr might suffer, but all the better. Tumblr is stupid (though it's a lot prettier than my blog right now, ooo wee I need to spend some time).

So, I've been readin' up on the new batman movie. People have a lot to say about this film, and I'm liking it! So glad that lil' Katie's decided not to reprise her role. I always think Maggie G is a little too deep for her own good, but maybe the awesome husband+baby power combo have brought her back to normal-people world b/c I am lovin' her currently. Way better quotes than "we're so happy together" crap KH was saying about the last movie/tom cruise. (ps what's the deal with christian bale and the assault charges? He was in newsies!)

Maggie Gyllenhaal | The A.V. Club:

"What does it mean to be the woman in this movie, in this big Hollywood action movie?

And is there a way to do it that's cool, that's awesome?

Is there a way to do it that you actually believe that these incredible guys actually like her this much?

Is there a way to do it where she actually also has a point of view about the state of the world, the moral state of the universe, like these guys do?"

Replace the word "movie" up there with "life" and you'll have a pretty good critical viewpoint of a girl in a world that seems to be full of primarily male superheros. Its a pretty old conceit/motif/thingee, but one worth thinking about.

Go Maggie. She's thinkin'!

The AV club review of The Dark Knight, and the new batman movie itself, really touch on what it means to try to do things in a city and what the ups and downs can do to a person. To an extreme, sure - but its easy to lose that perspective with Carrie Bradshaw running around choosing the wrong boyfriend all the time.

Glad that Maggie's attempting to show what impact living in a city has on a real life girl, even though that real life girl is also a comic book girl-character. Not enough quality female perspectives (socialites don't count) when it comes to movin' and shakin' in the city. Any city. Even a fake one.

St. Louis is no Gotham, but do you think it would rank that far above us at #52?
I don't.

I Hate Cilantro - an anti cilantro community

Spending some of the workday tracking opening and closings of restaurants in St. Louis, I found a group of folks who actually hate cilantro!

I Hate Cilantro - an anti cilantro community:

"Warm chips and salsa
What are those green flakes floating
Be very afraid
- CilantroYuk

Why do folks hate cilantro so much? I love it. But I also love their haikus. Torn!

ht GutCheck

ENGAGED!

OMG!

A for real college friend of mine got engaged! I am overjoyed for many reasons.

Southern Missouri Sisters

If any of you were wondering what I was like before St. Louis....



I was AMAZING!

My awesome cousins

BFF Scott and his awesome Kirkwood daughter, Baby Coco

Taken on a saturday afternoon visit with mer, who was just in town this weekend.

Bike tour!

Hiatus over.

Just saw this bike tour thing RFT's got going. Cool!

Coming clean

I'm in a musical.
High Fidelity THE MUSICAL - to be exact.

And I have been blogging it! OMG nerd alert!

& I don't care!

Policemen support the arts!

I liked the policeman I saw yesterday at the 20th ward meeting, he seemed alright.

It's a lil' off topic, but I like the way this video portrays the NOPD.


Get Behind the Badge - Steps from NOPJF on Vimeo.

wise, old words from TS

St. Louis needs to welcome creativity, encourage it and support it. If we try to create and manage creativity, we’ll end up stifling it. In The Dry Salvages, Eliot wrote, “The river is within us.” The strong brown god of creativity is within us as St. Louisans. We shouldn’t make the mistake of attempting to control it. We should simply stay out of the way and let it flow.

Nooooo, not TS Eliot... fellow "Quaker," Tom Schlafly!

Banana Man! of course!

Banana Man! of course!
Originally uploaded by lolololori

Saw it last friday.

Mississippi River Vallely thinkin

Have I blogged this? I just think it's *interesting* how the dots are the same sizes in my 3 fav cities.

Full Moon Prom

This was sooooooo fun. I *had* to switch to Busch by the end of the evening b/c we drank all the PBR.

What a party.

More later. Life has been full of weird and wonderful St. Louis, so tune in soon. :)

42

We've got a high school kid at the office doing an end-of-year shadowing session, and he sent us a survey with a big blank box at the end.
it read:

What does being an educated person mean? What is education? What is a person? What is the meaning of life? (and you can't put 42)

Being an educated person means you knowing there's nothing you can do that hasn't been done, but doing it anyway b/c its important. It also means knowing how to write a good email. Education should make you a better person, it should give your character a foundation to lean upon. It should not be about the bottom line (grades or money). I know that sounds fluffy, but it shouldn't be. You'd be doing yourself a disservice.
A person is defined by how they treat strangers who look or act sortof weird.
The meaning of life...
"There's only one rule that I know of, babies-- God damn it, you've got to be kind."
-Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Aside from talking about leaning on a foundation (mixing metaphors, oops --- part of being an educated person is knowing what mixing metaphors actually is, so I was just being meta...riiiight) -- I think I nailed it.

This is one thing I'd be interested to know your, dear reader(s), thoughts on. I usually don't do the "call for comments" thing, but if you want to answer those questions in the comments, it would be so fun if you did.

Southside Northside

Dudes, I had such a great time at the old north house tour today (including a special appearance by Mike of Crown Candy, who I'm thinking was there for the first time I actually saw a city city when I was 5 - b/c I am a country girl --- which means I was progressive before everyone i.e. 10-20 years ago!) and I'm TOTALLY not sure if I should by on the north or the south side. I mean, old north was just so lovely and community-y. I had such a time chattin' with Peevers (you might know him as Phil Valko) and co. outside the urban studio/cafe, and the neighbors are so into it. I liked it.

I don't know why, but I don't get that vibe from Gravois Park/Dutchtown - where I was looking before. I don't know why. But I like that community stuff- especially if I'm going to be crazy rehabbing. Which i will be.

Just got back from the trailer trash party in Southtown. What a night! it was so fun.

Swing Town

Miss Z is such a great photographer, huh?


Swing Town
Originally uploaded by velo_city

I know what you're thinking, is it 1998 or something? (I'm not dumb, I know people were swing dancing long before then...like, 1996 at least! badum bum)

Kentucky Derby takes me back to my Bootheel youth of listening to Dad go on and on about how he touched Secretariat once and getting super dressed up for church, ... among other things (fried okra and driftwood come to mind).

I remember - I had this great big peach hat and my sister had the same one for one of our Easter outfits that my mom sewed and embroidered with our monograms and everything...I was SO disappointed that Easter wasn't as "dressy" here when I moved! I was truly culture shocked in many ways when I moved (as much as a 2nd grader could be), but man, I think the slobbification north of the mason dixon line hit me hardest, and I've been rebelling ever since. I am a rebel!

I keep on saying I should maybe talk a bit more about my pre-2nd grade non-st. louis life (including my initial paralyzing fear of escalators, another St. Louis first for me), but y'all can just infer what you like, alright?

I owe ya

Again with the being very busy!

Much to relate, pictures and high-heeled adventures to share. I had the most fun ever this weekend! A very lovely St. Louis weekend.

This blog will just have to wait a couple days, though!

I write about beer!

I am so proud.

Just some of the wonders (I mean that in the humblest way possible) can be found here.

Busy week this week with a busy weekend ahead w/ rehearsal, cinco de mayo and the kentucky derby. woo!

(Grocery) list

I just got back from Schnucks.
I was listening to "baby all the time" (a song I downloaded just b/c it was written in the 40's by an alumni of Mask and Wig, an all-male comedy group of which I was quite the fan in college) and it was just making me oh so sentimental. Probably because I've been reading all this Belz poetry stuff. I love it! It's so awesomely sappy but totally not at all. It's what I would write if I were a poet, and I'm not. But oh, if I were! Lucky for me, Mr. Belz has me covered. I am so bummed that he is moving away, and I don't even know the guy.*

In the interest of keeping up with life and stuff, this has been a week of robust kookiness.

List of the week:

• Earth day with Molly, the sportsprint girl and tshirt/sticker co-conspirator
• met the Trailnet guy, who is such a cool guy! You may remember him as "some guy named Phil" who got the gang to go on the *Friendly* Bike Club, that is having a "prom" next month, crazy
  
• Saw Urinetown at WashU
• presented with Britany, my mentee at urban future about "the importance of high school preparation for teens." Brittany rules.
  
• found out someone I knew not-too-but-somewhat-distantly was shot and killed
  

• immediately became SUPER worried that everyone I know&love could get shot at anytime
• I think I may still be a little worried about that still/forever, so whatever
• yuck.
  

• Mayor Swoboda is OK! He can talk and everything! what a blessing.
  
• have been slowly admitting to loved ones that I'm in High Fidelity, the musical

• and that I have a blog about it (nerd alert) but so do a lot of others! (but come see me!)

• Got an internship and am workin' hard at it (it feels so great! challenging and fun work, too. Is this heaven? no, its maplewood!)
• wrote a lot about beer
• listened to mostly Alicia Keys, daptone jukebox and cartalk
• twittered a lot
  
• got QUOTED in the RFT! I almost forgot that. I have buried the lead!
• got intouch with the Foam on Cherokee guy, finally

• beginning to talk about coworking with others is awesome

• couldn't find Snowflake - AGAIN. Very embarrassing loss of direction abilities
• rediscovered that the Vital Voice is sortof an awesome newspaper

• - like a JV rft, but in the best way imaginable. In the way that they can cover things that wouldn't be glitzy enough for the RFT, but that I want to know about! i.e. I found out that Spruill's still exists! Though I will probably never ever go b/c I basically can't.
  

• Found out that Randall's has pastis
• went dancing at Casa Loma...it was super packed and a v. good time. yay swing dancing. I'm comin on 10 years I've been going to that place...whoa.
  
• raspberry hefeweisen! (schlafly brewers have a blog??!)
  
• encouraged one of my best friends to move away and get married (it's insane that it would come to that)
• went to a baseball game and stayed the WHOLE time!
• hi celia! do you guys know celia? she is so cool AND she reads the MVG!
  
• talked a lot about arm-touching and its significance
  
• The Hat Mart appeared in the Kirkwood-Webster times! eerie.
• The feature article in this week's Sauce is awesome (but not online?). I heart this Edwardsville couple. Their quote about how anyone can pick up the equity on their house and move somewhere cool, but that they'd rather try staying an making Edwardsville cool really rang true to me in a lot of ways.
• found the perfect shoe
• had a really good cheeseburger at tiffany's
  
• ugh, can that be it, please?

I understand now why I like to spread out the posts.
I'm sure there's more I'll remember later, and hopefully I'll have the sense to post as it happens/occurs to me instead of in a ridiculous list! To everything there is a season.

Grocery list:
4 ramen 10-packs
2 yogurts
hawaiian bread
swiss cheese
2 boxes of instant oatmeal
(would've been pastis, but no surprise, Schnucks doesn't have it)


*full disclosure, I think I saw someone that looked like the sketch-portrait on his blog get off a bus on South Grand once. Is that weird?, I think it might be. Oh well!

Hectic

Life is an exciting thing.

I've got a lot on my plate as of 2 days ago, and I want to write about a lot of things for you kids (and for me -- seems like this time is one I'll want to remember and tell the grandkids about it, etc...). Gimme some time, and I'll be around. Got some lists to knock out. But y'all know you can find me on twitter/tumblr anyway if you're like, dying to know if I'm drinking a coffee or admiring Rhianna's keen and adventurous sense of fashion!
I know you are!

Crazy internet. Lord, I cannot imagine what it would've been like if my grandma had been able to Twitter Pearl Harbor, etc... I think my brain just exploded.

Converting to corndog mysticism

>Have you written your postcard for Joe's yet?

Just got off the phone with the riverfront times for an article about the place. Crazy blogs! They'll get you into some mixes, apparently.

Ooooh, Joe's closing makes me so grouchy, I'm sure I rambled on and on about how much respect I have for Joe's and how angry I am about its closure for longer than necessary. Bless that reporters heart. I recall griping about the cabaret license that puts tables in the middle of *my* dance floors, too. Ooo, I do know how to digress!

But what better opportunity than to remind you to write your letter about why you like Joe's?

Joe's Cafe c/o Christman Studios
6014 Kingsbury Ave
St. Louis, MO 63112


Can't wait to be interviewed again when the place re-opens, though I DO worry that all the press it may take to get it may open may get it too many visitors who won't be respectful, listen to the music, clean up their trash, and appreciate the neon signitude of it all. That's a better problem than the current situation, I guess, where no one can go, respectful or no.

Here's the code that's apparently causing the trouble.
14.01.060 C.O.L. license.

A "C.O.L. license" shall permit the consumption of intoxicating liquor and nonintoxicating beer between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday and between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 12:00 midnight on Saturday upon a premises, for which a drink license has not been issued, where food, beverages, or entertainment is sold or provided for compensation. It shall not be necessary for the operator of a premises where food, beverages, or entertainment is sold or provided for compensation to procure a C.O.L. license to allow intoxicating liquor or nonintoxicating beer to be consumed upon such premises between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. (Ord. 61289 § 2 (part), 1989.)

Hey! Are you a lawyer who loves live music? Maybe you can find a loophole, huh?

Also, 1989? Seriously?

So ok....I guess all frat parties with a cover are also illegal, too. Oh, and if I have a party on a Thursday where I might make my friends bring their own O'Doull's, but also make them give me a dollar to do a tap dance to "I've been workin' on the Railroad"...that would be illegal, too - between the hours of 10pm and 6am. (it just so happens I already have a choreographed dance to that song, so it's a natural choice) Grrr.

Oh whatever, I'm an outsider kid anyway. What do I know about such grown-up things? In the face of all the crazy bureaucracy/ordinances/whatever, just being hopeful seems like clapping your hands twice if you believe in fairies to bring Tinkerbell back to life.

Still, a little keepin' the faith surely ain't hurting anyone.

UPDATE: here's the article

Newspaper vs. Newspaper

I don't like the looks of this.

So, I went to hear Bob Dufy of StLPlatform.org (and others) speak at WashU's New Media Symposium.

Heard that the St. Louis Post Dispatch recently trademarked "The Platform."
This means that now the *original* platform has to find a new name b/c they didn't think to trademark. Not trademarking - ok, so it was a definite miss-step on the part of stlplatform.org... but does it have to come to this very shady and disappointing conclusion? Some sortof patent office game of capture the flag? Oh geez.

Still, I don't like to look for bad things. I really really really don't! It's just bad vibes. So I go, ok, let's look at the dates, I'm sure they will all line up and it will be all a very funny story!

Let's play calendar:

• December 07 (right after I found out the thing even existed -- through a high school connection, guilty) article on stlplatform.org in St. Louis Magazine.
• Fast forward to March 08 - The Platform(tm) on St. Louis Post dispatch goes live.
  

Ooo, I don't like that 3 month difference there. It makes me go, "hmm."

Now, I can't quite figure out how to work the US Gov't's trademark search, found HERE, to see when exactly the trademark was registered for the St. Louis Post Dispatch. I'd like to know that date!

I learned, quite excitingly at the symposium, that news outlets have been opening up things like files (notably, the JFK files, oooo), etc... to their readers, saying - "We can't find anything! See if you can find something."

I don't think I've disclosed this, but I named my favorite cat, Nancy Drew - so I'm guessing it goes without saying that I love a chance to sleuth!

So hey Scott and Blythe (my two readers -- if you're not one of them, you try, too! and email me) - can you figure out how to search for a trademark's date? I don't want to point fingers, I don't want to scowl at anyone, I just want to know. And if anyone is in the wrong here (I'm no lawyer, so I'm talking about breaking Natural Law here I guess), I just want them to know that we the people, know.

Hrmph.

Ubiquitous!?

This is hilarious. And wonderful.

"In fact, there are some interesting things on that blog, including a cameo by local civic treasure The Ubiquitous Lori White."

And kindof embarassing (since it was a plug for my friend Ryan's writing workshop!) -- but in a good way.
So, I love 52nd city's blog - they're really achieving what they set out to do, b/c it has really brought some great things into my life - and I just can't plug them enough. Thomas Crone et al, I salute you.

Had no idea that just being friendly could be so noteworthy. It's easy to be a civic treasure! Everyone should try.

(Note, I'm still not a big deal. Just the same, let it not be forgotten that I am the #11 resource on "The Bend and Snap" on the ENTIRE INTERNET -- according to the The Google. )

Also, please sign up to Ryan's writing workshop! He is a very lovely and sharp fella and I he'll be in the next issue of 52nd interviewing his grandpa. The issue's theme? Sexy.

Color me intrigued.

On a related note - have you done your part to SAVE JOE'S yet?

A more appropriate about me section

"I'm from St. Louis. I live in St. Louis. I like to dance. That's me on the left. I like to talk to you about the StL, cities, and cool things. I like to dream of a futuristic St. Louis that's kept an eye on its past. Does that make sense? I don't know. This is my blog." is out.
Though it is true.

Time to simplify.

I am St. Louis.

The *Friendly* Bike Club

I know all you cool kids have been riding in this since you got off training wheels, but I just got a chance to participate in this awesomely weird St. Louis full-moon tradition. They're called the FBC, and they are really good at bikes. We rode from turtle park to carondelet park and back. That's a long way for this gal, but it was totally worth it to get dressed up and go. I do love riding bikes in cities.

When my pal Roz came to visit me here in St. Louis, she mentioned how she liked that this town has a lot of fun in which a girl (or guy) can participate. I always thought that there was more to DO in those big coastal cities like, new york?!!?! wink wink. Whatever, to each his own - stl's a do-it-yourself town, and ain't it grand?

So, here's the FBC through my wobbly camera.

I wish I could've gotten more takes of the group in its entirety. There were something like 60+ people riding their bikes down Macklind, it was pretty great. I was definitely at the tail-end of the ride, and had the privilege of explaining what the heck was going on to all the local folk. It was funny - and friendly!

See you next full moon!

Energy Drink Project featured on SlideShare!

Energy Drink Project featured on SlideShare!
Originally uploaded by lolololori

I'm not really sure what it means to be featured on SlideShare, but I have been! (Still investigating as to whether it's a good or a bad thing that 342 people have seen the thing and 16 people have actually downloaded it) It's for a project I've been working on for an internship assignment at an ad agency here in St. Louis. My, my, my, the job market. Don't get me started!

So yeah, I still maintain that I am not a big deal, but I will just take it that I did a good job/people like it. I'm pretty proud of it, actually.

Sidenote: there was a discussion on the twitter led more or less by MissRogue (whose new site looks so great! and who I greatly admire.), about how women often struggle with self-promotion. I will admit, this felt a little awkward. This on top of a meeting I just had with an old high school pal where she reccomended to me the book, "Women Don't Ask". Is this making mountains out of molehills? I don't know about that - I'm slightly on the well-versed side of things as far as feminist theory goes, and I'd say probably not. Maybe I'm just hesitant to put my work out there for all to judge. Who isn't? Who knows! I'm looking to get hired in St. Louis, so I can stay in this town I love. No shame in that!

Speaking of the devil, I've gotta get to work on my resume.

Openness and comments

Hey!
Mr. G over at Stltoday.com is talking about comment moderation. Now, if you're not sortof somewhat into the whole blogging thing, you're probably like, whatever.

Still indulge me - I love comments.
Who doesn't?! To me, its the equivalent of commenting on a magazine cover in the grocery line ("Gah, Aniston's hair is always flat! Is that supposed to be pretty?") & having someone else say, "Hey, you leave Jennifer Aniston alone, Brad Pitt broke her heart!!" And then conversation happens. Usually (with, as always, the exception of crazy folk) these conversations are either hilarious or pleasant, but sometimes it gets life-changingly insightful and/or mean&angry. Same with blog comments.

Reminds me of the Dane Cook Sneeze story.
Dane talks like a boy, so watch out, there's swearing. But it's funny.



Is this life imitating blog, or blog imitating life?! Who cares. It is hilarious.

So far it's just me and my 2 blog-friends (old high school cohorts) who comment on each other's blogs -- occasionally I get a comment from someone outside my teenage schemers and I just get so excited! I actually really like the angry ones. Whatever, I like'em all.

My favorite (and longest -- woo 6 comments or something, half-mine. ) comment stream though was about tshirts. I feel strongly about tshirts, and so do others, apparently. There was some almost-healthy discussion, too. I'm conflicted about anonymous commenters (as you could probably tell by the above tshirt spree, I don't want you to be anonymous b/c I wanna talk to you, not your keyboard, y'know?) . A lot of my non-close-dear-I-know-their-mom-type friend commenters are anonymous, and I like their opinions, and would prob miss out on'em if I made everyone say who they were...or at least what their email address was.

Can you imagine having this grocery store conversation, only someone put a paper bag on their head or ran away immediately after responding to how you were on Team Angelina? It would be silly.

Meh, I'm done being meta.

Red Lipstick Project

I've always wanted to do this, so no time like the present.
(full disclosure: I was inspired by Lauren's fierce red lips in the season premiere of The Hills - the lipstick that broke this camel's back!)

I'm going to wear a red lipstick every day for a month and see what happens. Maybe I'll think a positive thought about the world whenever I put it on, too.
It might change my life.

Could lipstick change a life?
check twitter.com/lolololori - I'll most likely flickr it, too - and we'll see.

ps I'd like to blog a little bit more about my career "journey", but it feels a lil' too overexposed, and it can get sticky. Stinks though, I know that the whole post-grad "chicken/egg" issue that liberal arts smarty-pants encounter could really be beneficial to someone who's maybe a step or two behind me. I know me 2 years ago would've loved that - to read about the nitty gritty. And frankly, me now would just love to see what other folks like me did to get that foot in that proverbial door!

Maybe I'll suck it up sometime and own up to the fact that my being a step or two behind the stuffed might actually be something others could learn from...and maybe that's more beneficial than this old-school smoke screening. Meh. I don't make the rules, malheureusement. "Behind" is a relative term, anyway!

pps I also would dare to say - since I posture some sort of Ricky Florida-esque commentary in this here web log, might as well come full circle here, folks - that this whole career journey thing is particularly symptomatic of what I hate to say may be a disease - "Insularitis" I'd deem it - that St. Louis, my dear St. Louis, is suffering from. Sigh.

Maybe I DO want to be a Lawyer

I mean, seriously, maybe I do.

"In contrast to the disappointment raised by our elected officials, law students from across the country have responded to the call to work for social justice in the Gulf Coast."
the humid haney rant: The Student Hurricane Network (SHN)



That's what the law is there for, right? Are all lawyers bad? I will have to talk to my friends about this. Would definitely turn my dream of being creative director of my own local boutique ad firm on its head, but .... well, I'll look into it.

Oooh, but LSATS are sure hard.

Gah, can't I just do both? Will be looking into how to take action on these fronts.

Complicated life

I'm sure I've posted this before, but I just wanna be this guy today.
I'm gonna try my best tonight at the Full Moon bike ride with the Friendly(ed.) Bike Club. Exciting that it is on a Friday.

Now, I owe this lil' chronicle a little more than a stream of youtube, and though I have gears a turnin' in my noggin...to everything there is a season. So until the world makes a little more sense, or the full moon goes away (or both!) -- enjoy the video.

Get you some a'that!

I saw this Really Awesome country rap (name check's Tim McGraw and the CMAs) video over here, under the headline (title?) "The Obama Effect" -- ?


All due respect, but I think that's giving Obama a liiiitttttle too much credit. But hey, if that is the case, bless him and his unifying ways, and I mean that in all seriousness! I tend to think it was maybe just the effect of some kind, everyday people, not some (extremely, ridiculously, like whoa) well marketed Harvard Law School fella with no voting record's mere presence on CNN giving a misquoted re-reading of "The Little Engine That Could." Sure that engine could climb that mountain, but could he croon? (and by croon, I mean vote in a consistent way b/c he has voted enough to have consistency)

Don't give your credit all to Obama - that's all I'm saying. But I guess Obama (or Will.I.am singing Obama's word) would tell me that I "can" give myself the credit. Well I do, and Barry Obama's got nothing to do with it, thankyouverymuch.

My horoscope said I should try to not be a grouch today...oops! I am feeling grouchy!

Well, if anyone thinks they can whip me up a batch of Obama Kool-aid to drink (I'll especially need it if he wins the nomination, and it will especially have to be made from a nice sugary policy-based powder...I also like watermelon flavor, fyi) -- whip it up!

Gah. I'm sorry! Politics are so obnoxious to me right now.

Good News!

Do-Nuts Drive-In St. Louis, MO on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Flickr has improved my life today.

THE Donut sign on Chippewa is returning!


From agilitynut on flickr -- (it pays to see if anyone's responded to your comments, as I did for the first time today):
"It's some sort of Route 66 grant. But since my post, I've spoken to the sign shop. The guy working on it is very much a preservationist and he assures me that the sign will be back up, one way or another, in June."

Yay! This is good!

Moonvertising

It's not real!



It is kindof brilliant though. It's for Rolling Rock Beer! Those beer advertisers. What do they do all day? Can I do it, too?

What the heck is a schmoopie?

D@mn the Man, Save Joes!

The forces of mediocrity are at it again.

"The Man/City Hall" has closed down Joe's!


Noooooo!

Get out your pens, people!
I'm surprised to have not seen this anywhere else.

Here's the owner's letter/plea.

" Hello everyone,

As you probably already know, Joe's Cafe is currently closed and will
continue to be "on vacation". In order for us to reopen we will need
to obtain a permit for the "consumption of liquor" from both the city
and the state.

Some of you have offered to be of help, so we'd like to ask all of you
to send a few kind words of support ( a postcard is fine) to:

Joe's Cafe c/o Christman Studios
6014 Kingsbury Ave
St. Louis, MO 63112

The sooner the better! Proving to the city that there is a strong
basis of support for Joe's Cafe could go a long way in helping us to
reopen.

Thank you,

Bill Christman
Andrew Pryor
Kevin Christman"

Sigh! In the name of all that is good, please write a letter! (or 100)

UPDATE: If you'd like to offer a few kind words of support to Joe's, but don't feel like dealing with stamps and paper, put your words in the comments below (or email'em to me) and I'll send'em on through.

My day with Roz - a double date with St. Louis

Y'all wish you were riding with us today!

I had so much fun running around town with my college pal, Roz. She's just as cool as way way cooler than I remember (hadn't seen her in 2+ years!)...and she is pretty cool. Can't say enough about this girl. Delaware should be proud to have produced her! I'm also glad her Dad, who went to SLU med school, sent her to me with such enthusiasm for St. Louis! I'm glad in general today, though I am exHAUSTED.

I'll definitely be posting a'plenty later about our trip today, with a few pictures. The order particular of our sightseeing was the most noteworthy for us, also pretty hilarious and pretty perfect. Gosh I miss my Penn friends a LOT sometimes/all the time. You forget what wonderful people you get to say are your friend when they're all so spread out across the frickin' globe. Lucky world. (Roz is going to Uganda soon - and blogging about it - so if you're into that, you know there will be links)

So, we absolutely didn't fit everything in, and barely went to any bars, so I'm hoping to take her out for a congratulatory cocktail after her med school interview is over. Hopefully she will be as impressed with the Jesuit Medical training offered here as she seems to have been by the city proper. We had such fun discussions as Roz got to know St. Louis.

PS I was totally wrong about the "new" Sandrinas... I'll tell myself I was just misled by Grand Opening Weekend Crowds so I don't feel too dumb. Its a win-win situation for me though, I am quite happy to have been wrong! Went there on Thursday - the jukebox was working!!! - can't say enough. Yay!
PPS The Buttery is now a stranger place to visit, and not in a very good way. I've been scared/upset about people the past 2 visits. It's also more crowded, which should be good, but turns out its not. Seems so at least. More on that later.

St. Louis Startups whaaaa?!

Awesome.
http://www.stlouisstartups.com
Yikes, meeting tomorrow at the same time as my Grilled Cheese Club meeting.

Anyway, how cool. Good for these guys, I can't wait to meet'em.