Mississippi River Valley Girl ~~~ a blog by Lori E. White

Let's get interesting

2009-11-09T23:21:00.009-06:00

Hi guys, it's me.

I've been a little busy and a little harried for the past month or so, but that's not to say I don't like you! I've really been thinking about what I want to do for this blog and how I want to use it to oh, I don't know, help me help myself and help whoever needs help.

Help help help.

I do not want this to be a business only blog, but i like smushing it into things - we all ahve a platform, right?

I have an amazing gig right now at the Majora Carter Group doing new media strategy and development. Words cannot express. I get to do branding work AND potentially small-city online organizing. DREAM. Also, CHALLENGE beyond measure b/c it is so dreamy.

I've been really looking within and without at ways to really set up this business online in a way that makes them seem as amazing as they are in real life! I tell you it is crazy - I've been working with them, and they're actually better offline than they *seem* like online (and they seem pretty typically great anyway, in that TED speaker kind of way). How many times is the opposite true -- i.e. either brands/businesses are LAME IRL but seem so great online...or, they seem great enough offline and online you discover they have a cringe-inducing personality.

MCG is exactly what you'd hope it would be - vulnerable, brazen, constantly learning and changing, vibrant, diverse, empowering, creative, sensitive, practical, real and unpretentious. Also, the curtains are really pretty. But these qualities aren't coming through online as much as I want it to (as much as they really should). Future clients must know! When there can be some real shysters who know how to slap together an ad-hoc branding campaign that makes them "seem" amazing, MCG is amazing and it's work is even more so. So, it will soon have an online presence worthy of the group's pioneering presence in the Main Street environmentalism movement (to coin a phrase)....if I have anything to do with it, and I do!

I've just been looking into how to really do it right. How to do right by MCG and by the communities that have no training in the community tools and organizing and facilitating and commerce-supporting platforms that are present on the interwebs. I think of this and my mind explodes with joy at the possibility of making real the online community and infrastructure - similar to what humidbeings and all those in that galaxy are up to....but everywhere! Not just in San Francisco and New York. In Elizabeth City, North Carolina. In Easton, PA! In Kansas City In ST LOUIS! (ps Alderman French is totally giving us all a head start there guys)!

And it's so overwhelming that I sortof want to sell myself as a mail order bride right now (the glamorous alternative would be to marry a prince who would discourage my pursuit of anything but expert needlepointing and glamorousness). But this is not the answer.

I've turned to friend of a friend (i.e. trust!) Armano, whose advice-storytelling goes down easy, and to Oliver Blanchard, who is absolutely terrifying and social media career existential crisis-inducing, but sortof in the way that the ropes course at 6th grade camp was terrifying...get through it and you're out of the awkward phase, and on to something more comfortable. He keeps it real and I can appreciate. I'm reacquainting with other trusteds.

All this browsing and research has helped me figure out where I'm going with MRVG for now - I want to show that awkward phase in between Social Media rookie to actual director-level quality non-charlatan real deal-type person. Aspirational! Also hard to find. You either get experts yelling at charlatans and telling them not to be so obnoxious...or you get charlatans yelling at everything that they ARE experts. It's a little bit looking glass.

I want to show (maybe you, maybe my grandkids down the line) those "lost" kind of years in between being young and free and being an established elder statesman. I'm fascintated by these years.

I am IN these years.

Its not quite a not-a-girl,-not-yet-a-woman-type scenario, but it's approaching that. I want to become better at social media. I want to do it for brands. I want to do it for CITIES. (even more difficult, i want/have to advocate for cities i no longer live in, nor am I close to them. oh the questions you'll ask that begin with HOW.) I want to have a career. I'm approaching all these personal platformy things.

Anyway, I'm here I'm real, I know some things about things, and I'm trying to learn more. I love using metaphors to tie the room together, but in the interest of your cheese factor-o-meter, let's just say that a river (maybe similar to that big one found in that big valley) runs through everything - and it's where the water gets dirty that things get interesting. So...let's get interesting.

South Bronx

2009-09-15T16:13:00.003-05:00

Briefly checking in from work at The Majora Carter Group - the sun is shining and I'm near an industrialized riverfront! The Bronx and the STL - well there may be ties that bind (at least in my mind). So sure, things have been shaking up since I up and moved to New York (earlier than I thought I would be, but opportunity came knocking), and sure I'm feeling that lovely combination of energized and slightly freaked out...but the general vibe is one of the muses returning, to the Mississippi River Valley Girl and to just life in general.

More later. And this time I mean it.

My Great Aunt removed once or twice-ish was awesome

2009-08-28T23:24:00.005-05:00

So on a whim I just started a little genealogy project on Flickr in honor of visiting the place where I'm pretty sure my grandparents fell in love.

And I found this. (Edna Purviance! I like her makeup, it's daring and bold.)

Hi, so yeah, that is Charlie Chaplin totally adorabling all over someone I'm related to.

This Just In: Greenbriar Estates is NOT South County (also it is on fire)

2009-08-28T22:37:00.004-05:00

St. Louis remains St. Louis

Dispatches from my Mom

"Greenbriar Estates on fire. News says its in South County. The website is overloaded, not with people concerned about the house fire, but with irate calls screaming that, "This is NOT South County! " hysterical yes, but I must admit it is the first thing i thought of too!"

Twitter

2009-08-28T00:56:00.000-05:00

You think twitter might save journalism b/c now no one bothers to blog anymore?

Clap your hands

2009-08-28T00:30:00.004-05:00

Remember how stressed out you got during that scene in Peter Pan (I think) when all the fairies were dying?! And then Pete saunters in and is all "just clap your hands and say you believe in fairies!" and it was all cool again? Who would not want to be that guy!? What a bad ass. Or at least be someone who's a part of starting the chorus of hand clapping and believing in fairies hollerin'. Are you picking up this sophisticated metaphor?

When I think about the state of cities like St. Louis, I get all questiony! Ack! I have so many questions! No one can answer them. Seriously, I cannot find answers. So I will eventually have to answer them myself.

Do I know how?
**especially since I no longer live in St. Louis?**

Nope. But I'll figure something out.

David Letterman and Alicia Keys

2009-08-17T00:24:00.004-05:00

Since I have still not decided upon divorcing my new media marketing/urban planning blog from my self-self blog, indulge me. Consider these windows into the inner-workings of the lori! They're like blog outtakes. AND now I will no longer make excuses for liking the stuff i like and reading the stuff i read and watching the stuff I watch. *

So, these are two couples (one both unlikely, odd and not-actually-a-couple-couple but still) that will make you love everything.

Ed & Ginny!
(obsessed with their sultry georgia wedding WHOA)

and Dave & Alicia
(Were you ever...lonely? hehe dave)

I would love to have a Kathy Griffin esque dinner with these people and ask them many questions about how they are so awesome.

*for more stuff i like, TUMBLR -- it's blowing up like, every day

conviction, table of everybody

2009-08-17T00:08:00.005-05:00

I miss blogging, y'all.

Do you think it would be possible to create a site that effectively gives a city infrastructure where it does not have it? A sortof "if you build (online) it they will come" philosophy? Is Outsite.in already doing this? What of cities, small and large, who don't have Four Square or the locals who even care about exploring, but would like a bus system? Could you integrate some sortof CityApp with an Urban Planning firm on execution? (omg this would combine everything i ever loved ...well only if someone wrote a song about it, too) Could it be scalable to other smaller/less infrastructured cities (memphis, detroit, cincinnati)? And I'm not talking like, autocad model lets look at it an dream. Something alive! Something useful. Pre-reality stuff. Hm. I always look at online communications like a small town (i'm not the first, i believe I got the idea from gonzo mkting - lawd i felt like such a bad-ass reading that book on my marathon french speaking,teaching/self study extravaganza of 06-07...masters degree in school of hard-ish knocks and improrevising) so ...how to extrapolate that out...?

I have been wondering about this. I feel as though it may be my destiny to answer these questions. This of course fits in with my destiny that I've had to somewhat (impro)revise -- improrevise! That's a word made by me, for me -- that involves technology, cities, St. Louis and other fancier-schmancier cities. All of which I am embracing at once, though at times...remotely. (here's looking at you, St. Louis) In the meantime I am moving *back* to Brooklyn (yay!) to return to my fighting quaker (code for UPENN friends!) bretheren. Hey-o!

I feel presumptuous to talk of things like I'm anything but a dreamer, but as the magical and wonderful Ben Zander says, "one of characteristics of a leader that he not doubt for one moment the capacity of the peaople he's leading to realize whatever he's dreaming... imagine if martin luther king* said 'I have a dream! ... of course I'm not sure they'll be up to it!"So I present you with some conviction, take it or leave it. It is genuine. We will see where it leads.

*not implying that I am as cool as MLK, & though such thoughts did not stop beyonce (upgradeU)...they will stop me...i am humbled!

I mad men'd myself!

2009-07-27T23:28:00.005-05:00

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

2009-07-25T17:15:00.002-05:00

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

2009-07-18T12:39:00.008-05:00

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!

2009-07-01T20:37:00.001-05:00

This is amazing.

ben at his own grave

2009-06-16T12:39:00.002-05:00

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

My Trip To Philly

2009-06-13T17:09:00.000-05:00

well, part of it.

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

FYI

2009-06-07T21:42:00.003-05:00

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

2009-06-07T13:21:00.001-05:00

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

Taking myself seriously

2009-05-28T20:51:00.008-05:00

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

2009-05-10T18:58:00.003-05:00

Look where Meredith was last night!

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

Reculturing

2009-05-05T20:17:00.006-05:00

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

2009-05-03T12:50:00.002-05:00

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

2009-04-29T19:44:00.002-05:00

St. Louisans!

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

SaveDaptone.com

2009-04-21T21:24:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-29T20:02:00.001-05:00

I don't like the weather here.

Lori Confessional, Re: CHICAGO

2009-03-19T21:28:00.006-05:00

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

2009-03-11T08:57:00.005-05:00

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.