Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Got the Office Blues? Maybe Co-Working is for You

In Tim Ferris' smash, "Four Hour Workweek", he argues that getting out of the office is the first step to becoming part of the live anywhere, do anything 'new rich'

At the same time, as more people take jobs that don't require them to be in a specific cubical in a specific office, many people are lamenting the lack of opportunities for social interaction that come with working from home.

Enter St. Louis Co-working, a new organization that has taken over the historic Shell building downtown.

St. Louis Co-working provides space for, "web designers, graphic designers, creatives, artists, bloggers, and even attorneys, CPA’s, architects, real estate agents. . . and the underemployed." The space is provided based on monthly or daily rental fees and provides various amenities and the opportunity to work in a more social environment, to help the creative energies flow.

New interesting projects like St. Louis Co-working are popping up all over the country in response to many of the new realities faced by workers in today's economy so it is extremely exciting to have something like this in St. Louis

Rosa Mayer, one of the MOT's involved in helping to open the space gushed about the sense of fun, community and creativity that she has already seen develop in the month that the space has been open.

St. Louis Co-working will be throwing a party on Thursday the 2nd to celebrate being open for a month. You can find out more about the party here.

Stay tuned for more exciting STL developments. Read More......

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

HUUUMMMUUUUS!

St. Louis.... Prepare yourself. Something so immense is about to take place, you probably won't know what hit you.

Ready? Cafe Natasha, The St. Lou Jew's favorite Kebab and Persian food spot is starting a Hummus Happy Hour.

That's right. You can now eat Hummus to your heart's desire.

Cafe Natasha, home of some of the best beef kebab in the city, and to the off-the-menu, and out of this world misa rhosamee eggplant is starting up an all you can eat Hummus Happy Hour, every Tuesday from 4-7.

If you remember our interview with David Lizzo, you'll recall just how important access to Hummus is as one of the main reasons people choose to live where they do.

See you there behind mountains of pillowy pita! Read More......

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Emerging Adulthood: Sense of Possibility

The NYTimes recently published an article looking at Emergent Adulthood, a 'new' developmental period characterized by continued dependence. For many young adults the article hits close to home.
As a result of the economic downturn, the ubiquity of college education, as well as some large cultural attitude shifts, a lot of us young adults aren't rushing into careers or marriage and family life as quickly as many of our grandparents and parents did.

In the Jewish community, this has produced a crisis, as many organizations are built around a now outdated family and life cycle. This is witnessed by the falling numbers of young adult representation in synagogues, Federations, and the collapse of more and more well established Jewish institutions.

While many in the organized Jewish world are kept up late at night worrying about the future of the Jewish people (or at least their beloved institutions), there may yet be a great source for optimism.

One of the pieces of this Emergent Adulthood phenomenon is a 'Sense of Possibility', an entrepreneurial and positive outlook that isn't beset by an acceptance of the harsh reality of life. If we look around us, we find young adults are already solving many of the problems and filling many of the needs they have identified for themselves. The independent Minyan movement is one such indicator of this, as are the number of interesting and innovative start up ventures popping up all around the country.

The challenge, at this point, is the cross generational cultural differences between young adults who are solving their own problems in unorthodox ways, and members of previous generations who are seeking to reinforce or maintain the status quo to which they have grown accustomed.

For many outside of the Gen Y and Millennial cliques, these innovative approaches don't make sense and seem redundant. Also, for someone who has been doing things a certain way, change can seem pretty terrifying.

So how do we come together and leverage the experience and resources amassed by those with a few more years under their belts with the new ideas, approaches, the 'Sense of Possibility' that we as 'Emerging Adults' bring to the table?

The solution lies in not seeing ourselves as pitted against one another but to realize that we are looking to solve the same issues, and have complementary resources that we bring to the table. Seeing this as a balanced yin-yang situation is as (hopefully) easy as not focusing on the two parts, but on the whole which they combine to form.


Read More......

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The Well, a New Group for Women

As part of our efforts to showcase new and exciting things in the Jewish community, we give you 'The Well'.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

The Well: New Women's Group at CRC

Central West End - August 10, 2010

This exciting new group will explore topics such as body image, female rituals, Jewish baking, our connection with nature, celebrating our creativity, moon cycles and the Jewish calendar.

Additionally, this Rosh Hodesh group will be an opportunity for women to learn, discuss and grow together through Jewish teachings and rituals.

Each month on the evening of the new moon we will laugh and learn together while building a network of women who can support each other through different phases of life.

First New Moon: Tuesday, August 10th from 7:30p-9:00pm in the CRC library

Contact:
Elizabeth Tucker
elizabeth [at] alivemag [dot] com Read More......

Monday, August 2, 2010

Interview with Yaniv Rivlin, co-founder of Comtribute

Sometimes an opportunity creates itself to take advantage of some powerful forces and use them for a good cause. In this interview with Yaniv Rivlin, co-founder of Combtribute, you can learn about a fantastic new way to support your favorite non profits. In a shameless plug for Next Dor, you can help out by visiting here

Read More......