I mad men'd myself!

It was awesome.


and my sister madmen'd herself!




I know, a little random. In other news, I'm feeling the need to switch to tumblr for this blog. I may sleep on it. Many things to update.

I took pictures on the way to work today! It felt kinda great, though I was for sure in a hurry.

On being a sponge

I can't quite get a handle on why I've been rolling my eyes so much lately. There's so much going on in this town, why don't I find that at all energizing?! I'm at least slowly learning new things (and learning of new things to be learned, possibly elsewhere) at work, too. More or less. I don't know. Compartmentalize, Lori. Maybe I need an attitude adjustment.

Ugh, what a terrible voiceover for this movie of my life. Cue record scratch sound.

Anyway, I was talking to my sister last night (during which she recited for me the first 5 chapters of these BRILLIANT Twilight series recaps --ladies, give this link to the man, or just plain friend, in your life who doesn't want to read all 6 billion fursploding sparkly vampire family angsty pages Twilight-- my sister's read all of the books, I got through the first one...though now that I know there is apparently werewolf TYPOGRAPHY, I might have to indulge) -- so anyway, I'm talking to the sister and she's all, you never take pictures anymore, and I'm like i know, its a crazy weird symptom, i have never not liked taking pictures. And she's like I still check your flickr every day in the hopes that it will once again become awesome.

Clunk. It's not just the internet feeds that have lost their pizzazz, either! arg!

I don't know what to do! I try. I will keep trying. There must be some sort of perspective I'm not peering from that's making me extra angsty and also extremely boring. I used to be a total sponge, soaking up my favorite weird parts of whatever with my notepad and camera, using it to fuel my work in business and community organizing and writing and dancing and art appreciating...but now - thud...clunkclunkclunk. I don't even have the energy to fake it till I make it here anymore.

So, confessional over. I will fake it. And I will make it. Altogether now.

I'm beginning a 12 week study-a-go-go for some standardized tests...if you've read this blog (which probably means we're friends), the gradutat work pursuit will feel like a natural progression. I hope I get to teach! I was once pretty great at studying, so we'll see how this pans out. It's nice to have goals! I'm also pretty stoked for the essays both on the test and on the applications (which I actually have to save up for, applying to schools costs hundreds of dollars...wtf) b/c dang.

In other news, I'm going to be learning Spanish - 3 for 1! (would you like to teach me?)- so I can go all Enrique Penelosa (roll call - Van Jones and Majora Carter) on you.

Study with me.

Life in Chicago

Well it's not like I have just been sitting around here, folks! And you know I'm working on some (outside-of-work-work) work projects (that I love!) when I take a study break to write here.

In a vague/vain attempt to fit in here or find a niche, I have:

• joined and then reluctantly un-joined a gospel choir (only b/c of scheduling! I will rejoin in a month, i love being a methodist - don't get creeped out, i could care less if you worship cheddar cheese squares every Sunday, I'm just saying. Methodists. It works for me. I still would kill to start an acapella quartet or duo...y'know in my free time)
• joined a Go-Go dancing group
• took up flamenco
• re-launched guitar lessons
• bangs
  
• lived in Lincoln Park for 3 weeks, Logan square for 5 months, and now will be in Andersonville (IT IS THE CUTEST) until the winds finally blow me out of this town
• been to like all the record stores ever and they're weird (and i haven't found one where they have turntables so you can listen to the records before you buy them WTF)
  
• While i lived in Logan Square, got to know the owner at Rosa's and he is great and a total bad-ass italian conga player
  
• soul night at The Hideout and Dannys = :/ (you really can tell folks who didn't grow up with the music, they dance completely wrong...personal opinion, and I'm allowed it)
• decided where/whats as far as graduate school goes...GRE and GMAT here i come
  
• I saw Rahm Emanuel in a coffee shop
• Met some Dap Kings (who bought ME a drink! hehe!) and one Shay J, and all i have to show for it is a pencil drawing of the Hollywood Bowl. In other words, all i have to show is amazing. All I have to remember is amazing-er.
  

Only thing left on my list here really is to figure out what the deal is with the Numero Group.

And I'm looking forward to Whuffaoke coming to town next Thursday! We will sing.

Chicago on the whole is not singing to me. But I'm trying to focus on listening, b/c maybe it's a song I've never heard, and it has to grow on me. The effort of really owning a city and all it has to offer may be too much to ask from me for this town. I sound so grouchy! I'm keeping an open mind, especially since the weather stays over 55 degrees most days now. That makes it easier. I really have had fun. Just not fun owed to Chicago being Chicago necessarily. Maybe that's a detriment of a Big Town, and neighborhoods that would rather be a part of Chicago than a part of themselves. THEORIES! I got'em.

To be fair to Chicago, I also got to spend some seriously magical QT with some friends of mine who come to town (as my grandma Nannie, who used to live more or less in Englewood for like 1 year in 1939 or something, says - "Oh Chicago ...it's really a better place to visit") ...from varied locales - St. Louis to DC to Brooklyn ....will you be NEXT to spend 7 hours drinking beer and dancing with/for me?

B/c that is **my** regional specialty and it is what we would do if you came to visit.

also, MAJORA CARTER, please recognize

DING DING!

This is amazing.

ben at his own grave

"this is probably pretty trippy for you, Ben"
- H. Alan Scott

My Trip To Philly

well, part of it.

Lori & Scott present: a Ben Franklin History Moment from lori white on Vimeo.

FYI

I saw that y'all were searching for some daptone blogspot situations - and while you can find really great updates on daptonerecords.com , there's also
http://naomisheltonandthegospelqueens.blogspot.com/
and http://sharonjonesandthedapkings.blogspot.com/

You get the format. Now go get some records!

St. Patrick's Day

i spend many many hours just kindof meandering and sometimes things get pretty. (pretty cold, but also pretty)

Taking myself seriously

I'm at the Atlas Cafe (best turkey sandwich i have EVER EATEN EVEReverever) attempting to work, but wanted to touch base briefly.

Still don't quite have internet connection at apartment (working on it).

I was taking a Twitter work hiatus today when I was struck be@benjaminreese's tweet

"Okay, so I was up all night working on concepts and proposals with @heynathan @crushlovely - sorry for being out of the loop. #buriedinwork"

and I'm not gonna lie (and I told him myself) I was JEALOUS.

Jealous in a nice, thought-provoking way, though (thanks, ben - a wake up call of shoulda had a v8 proportions!). Realizing that taking yourself seriously and actually making sh*t happen is not from without. as a wise man once said, the magic is in you.

Which of course means I have to take up my pal on that $1 bet to write a song or write a story (the song one's on ME and I will win this dollar).

Digressing. I *love* St. Louis and my mississippi river valley b/c being there, DOING there always felt so god damn purposeful. (Cementland dances a soft-shoe in my waking dreams) Sure, I live, working for a batch of former i-bankers, in a town that is more or less "complete" to me -- at least in terms of having a working eco-system (and a job market, touche ok? touCHE). I like that, but what I miss is that blank slate St. Louis had. That NOLA has. Memphis is having a startup weekend starting tomorrow. Ah! All I want is to get enough experience and money and whatever that X factor is that no one probably figures out ever except maybe Paul McCartney and return from this exile. arg!

On that note though, I return to my concepts, to my proposals, to blogging about neighborhoods and 2.whatevers, and the interviews! oh the interviews! unwilling to insidiously self-edit and apply ROI to my own frickin' life. To my LIFE! I could go on and I should and I will, but I'm returning briefly to the bread and butter, bringing home the bacon (2 for one last night at Jewel BTW) and frying it up in the pan. (and as my mom suggested, we'll take out that part about how that shows that you're really a man -- or maybe we'll leave it in. Or maybe the judester just made that up. Either ways, it all works, really.)

I can't help but think I may be stealing a little bit of magical inspiration-thunder from my pal Blythe, whose birthday is today and whose blog is private (boo), and who (in a wonderful festschrift-esque letter to me before I left for europe that was well, Pretty Much Amazing) once advised me to be my own doppelganger. I'm trying Blythe! Even in Chicago.

Magic feathers!

I *AM* able to briefly and slightly clandestinely keep my tumblr up to date. Check there for the baby seeds of this blog - follow me, heart me, I'm a pinball wizard and there is no twist. I really love my tumblr and will show it to my sons and daughters when they're 26. If you like this blog-extendo version, you'll like you some Lolololori tumblr. Just FYI!!!

Sister Synergy

Look where Meredith was last night!











We tend to use touring bands as a means of communication. So much better than postcards!

Reculturing

Online citizen journalists are on the front lines of reculturing forgotten cities like StL, Detroit, (Memphis, NoLa...you know I was going there) etc...so much in the same way we all became obsessed with the finer nuances of Never Gonna Give you Up....so can we come to realize that Rock and Roll was born in st. louis. Ike Turner AND Chuck Berry. !

Wherefore and whence cometh? Well, a lot of time on the bus. Also, a friend of mine wanted to have a St. Louis themed party and claimed (though he didn't really mean it, he was just being thought-provoking, I'm sure - bless him for living in Chicago and being a St. Louisan) that St. Louis didn't have commoditizable culture. I disagree, but it's time to think about it a little more, eh? And come up with some good ones, b/c they're there. In a real-life and online world of sharable objects, what does st. louis have to share? Isn't that what the web's about --- crystalizing experience into awesome little sharable  nuggets so we all feel that Vonnegutian solitary-beam-of-light humanity (that was so amazingly portrayed in the NEW STAR TREK-don't -get-me-started-it-was-awesome*)? 

*actually do get me started I could talk about it for hours

There are less interesteing sharable nuggets than rock and roll saw it's genesis because of your city's culture...("Chuck! It's your cousin, Marvin! Marvin Berry!")...and no culture's dead when there's someone with a blog (navel gaze! sorry) to give a crap.  Share that nugget.  Reculture our city, life's just one big theme party anyway.

Instrument Time

Christmas Instrument Time at The White House.

Gotta love that YouTube nostalgia.


I'm home in St. Louis for the weekend, and I've gotta catch the bus back to frosty Chicago "Just wait for the summer, there are SOOO many festivals" Illinois in a couple hours. It's annoying. The White Sisters and company will hopefully be returning to St. Louis for a few nights in June, so stay tuned.

Lovers and Fighters

St. Louisans!



I totally love the way Michael says New Orleans. :)

SaveDaptone.com

SaveDaptone.com

I made it. I did it. It worked. (mostly thanks to facebook...and the kindness of strangers with good taste - some combo!) It was so awesome to see that whole "the internet brings us closer to the better parts of community rather, not further" principle play out so beautifully and for such a good reason. Way to rally, everyone! 

Secret is out! 

Wanna know more? I'll tell ya. Soon.

Climate

I don't like the weather here. 

Lori Confessional, Re: CHICAGO

Some of you will be getting this letter, but in case you did not, here it is! 

Hi! Lori here. 

So ok, Whether you know my favorite cheese and my favorite Beatle (Tomme de Savoie and Paul, respectively), or whether you've just figured out that my hair is brown, I wanted to be clear. I have moved to Chicago. More precisely, I've moved to Chicago because I'm pursing a pretty intriguing career opportunity at a small tech startup just about 6 blocks up the street from Threadless.com. Cool, huh? It's called Perkspot.com. 

Yes. I know these big ol' lumped together emails can seem impersonal, so if I haven't spoken to you in a bit, feel free (actually please do) contact me via phone, email, postcard ... I'd love to tell you, in that long-winded, parenthetical and personal way I have of telling things (case in point : this email), all about how and why I ended up here. (short story: on a plane from NYC and for a job after being laid off in December by Moosylvania Marketing, respectively) 

Worse things have befallen a young lady than a new job in a new town, though at times I really do feel bereft for having to leave St. Louis.  But I'm comforted knowing that helping myself is helping St. Louis (and if you're from St. Louis, or anywhere for that matter, and find yourself needing help - holler! lori.e.white@gmail). But I'm up to some good things here. 

Anyway, I'll be posting updates here on MRVG and pictures of my beloved Flickr, both which, like myself,  may go through a slight existential crisis, but not to worry, you will like it and all the nuggets you've come to know (in both the blog and the Lori) won't be much different. They'll just be wearing more layers in wintertime, b/c frankly, it is way colder here than anywhere I have ever been ever. Seriously, ever. I think my corneas froze once.

That being said,  I welcome your hellos, and most importantly (to me) look forward to your thoughts on my thoughts on the old blog which will be "eloquently" translating the transplant of one Mississippi River Valley Girl to the fertile technology corridors of the Great-Lake(s)-that-pretty-much-look-like-an-ocean. 

Come visit, say hello, scold me for leaving, congratulate me for breaking free, express your indifference, poke me on the facebook, & email me for my address if you care to send any toasted ravioli.

Repping the 314ever,

Lori

And so I'll leave you (for now) with a slideshow of my stl pictures (oh there are plenty, and there will certainly be plenty more...though I'm really going to try to take pictures of Chicago as lovingly as I did of St. Louis...a challenge!)

peace out.

Coffee commute

Man! I would consider taking the midnight train to get to this. 

From the urban studio cafe, whose fuscia and marigold paintjob I miss...

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE URBAN STUDIO CAFE... THIS SATURDAY, MARCH 14!!!

Hello, friends! We know you are anxiously awaiting the grand opening of the Urban Studio Cafe, but in order for this to happen, we need YOUR help! 

We are currently in the finalist round of THE LARGEST SOCIAL ENTERPRISE COMPETITION IN THE WORLD, the S.E.I.C.  If we win, we will receive enough operating capital to open our doors. However, some of the judges are concerned that not enough people would be willing to come to a cafe in Old North St. Louis. 

Hogwash!!

We know that if we build it, you will come, but we must convince these judges. So here's the plan.  We are having a photo shoot on Saturday, March 14 from 10 am to noon. Stop by for a few minutes, get your picture taken and be a part of our ad campaign that says YES! I DO LIVE/VISIT/WORK IN OLD NORTH AND I LOVE COFFEE/TEA/HOT COCOA!!!

Thanks!!! We can't wait to see you on Saturday!!!

(Contact Claire Wolff at claireawolff@gmail.com for any questions)

hi, phil. 

I actually had a great time at the Urban Studio cafe a year ago when I first met four-eyes up there. 

I guess it's appropriate that an internet blip from a fellow KA winner would remind me that I miss writing and oughta get back to it (first step - resolve shared/stolen/broken internet problem at apartment!) even though I live in Chicago, & thus have a radically and ridiculously altered worldview. 

The move has shaken up some loose things, rearranging them in an intriguingly weird, but useful way.  I *think.* We'll see. You can take the girl out of the mississippi river valley, but you can't take the MRV out of the girl! Proverbial.

Daptone Studios Broken Into

Hi. I know I've been pretty MIA lately, lot of stuff going on. I will fill you in, I promise, as things settle. But I am not important now. 

Daptone Records was broken into! 

This is NOT COOL. 

I don't mean to wax poetic here, but Daptone records is more than a record label/studio, it's approximates my favorite kind of community - the kind that does their thing, and to hell with the rest. They're a cultural model ok, so don't get me started. And I'm so flustered, it's making ME inarticulate.   

I know times are tough, and we're all feeling cold, Februaried and depressed,  but out of adversity comes opportunity -- to save Daptone! Charity concerts, whatever -- if you like things and people with SOUL, you know what to do. If there ever was a cause that encapsulated every other cause I stand behind, well there ya go...

Read more below (and set up some RSS feeds on nyc craigslist, ebay, etc... to make sure none of their stuff slips through) 

Sigh. 

"Friends and associates,

As you may have heard through the grapevine by now, Daptone was broken into last night. Unfortunately, there was a lot of equipment (mics, pre-amps, monitors, turntables, guitars, amps, computers, etc.) stolen and damaged. It is going to take us a while to go through everything and take full stock of what was stolen, and we are not supposed to touch anything until the cops come back to collect fingerprints so we can only guess what’s missing from some mic drawers and cabinets.
And, no, we did not have insurance. We had been shopping around with different companies earlier this month but had not signed a check, so nothing was insured. We are working on replacing the gate in front, installing an alarm system, and getting insurance, but it is President’s day so it’s not going as quickly as we would have liked.
Nydia’s computer was stolen (which wasn’t backed up) and the modems/ phone system was ripped out, so we’ll be relatively out of commission for a few days.

I would like to ask for everyone’s help first in keeping an eye out for all of our stuff showing up on ebay/craigslist/local music shops, and secondly (and more realistically) keeping an eye out for good deals on headphones, mics, pre-amps, etc. I could really use a heads up on any kind of studio package for sale or studio equipment to be possibly bought or borrowed as soon as possible. We have a session scheduled for Friday to lay down some music for (I know this sounds
surreal) Rod Stewart, and I’m going to have to get the studio running by then. I know I’m going to need to find headphones, cables, mics, and pre-amps by then. I’m not sure what else yet.

Upon first glance we are definitely missing:
Fender Super Guitar Amp in case
Fender Deluxe Guitar Amp
A whole bunch of headphones and wires
Nydia’s HP laptop computer
One Desktop MacIntosh Computer
One Purple Audio API style lunchbox with
four Purple Audio Biz mic pre-amps
2 Yamaha NS10 monitors
Vintage Harmony Rocket Guitar
One steel string acoustic guitar
Martin Tenor sax in a gig bag
Technics 1200 turntable
Ion USB turntable
Teac Receiver/stereo amp
Sony dual deck CD burner/player
All of our modem/phone system stuff was ripped out and taken.
A whole bunch of condensor and dynamic microphones (I still need to
figure out exactly what’s missing)
The power supply for my Trident console was tossed and the board was
moved (probably not gently) so the status of that is still questionable.
A baldwin organ was tossed and is probably broken.
Lacie External hard drive

Over the next few days, as we sort out the rubble, we are going to
figure out what else we lost.

We are putting in a roll down front gate, alarm system, and finally
getting our insurance happening this week. We are also going to hire
a security guard to watch the house for tonight as the cops and alarm
guy seemed pretty confident that they will be back with a truck now
that they’ve seen what’s in here.

Thanks for keeping eyes open for us. AND PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE
ALONG TO ANYONE YOU THINK MIGHT BE ABLE TO HELP US.

Thankfully, we all still have our health, ambition, tape machines, and
sense of humor in tact. You can slow us down, but you can’t stop
us. Sleep well knowing we here at Daptone will continue to…

Keep putting Soul up,

Gabriel Roth

P.S. On a lighter note, it seems like the burglars did drop a few
items in order to lift Alex’s old safe out of here, which was VERY
heavy, VERY unwieldy, and also VERY EMPTY!"

If you have any info to help, try contacting Daptone.

Magical Missouri

I TOLD the band Missourians liked to dance.

I'm number one.

Guess I'd better keep up the blog if I expect to keep my number one position (much love to Lori White, Inspirtational Speaker, Singer Humorist...I seriously have GOT to catch one of your shows soon.) I've got a little different perspective happening of late, may end up rather interesting.

Plenty going on as I find myself far far from the Mississippi river valley, sigh.
Updates soon as something update-worthy happens!

Until then, there's always twitter.