Tag Archives: mc kato

May 25, 2011

in order to be a star, i let a label executive touch my stomach

By arlynnpresser

it’s everybody’s dream to be a star and i’ve heard about that whole “casting couch” thing.  but this guy, john hill, f2fb #132, just wanted to touch my stomach.  with his wife watching.  so weird.

john is an independent music label executive, focusing mostly on artist development. he’s worked with some of my facebook friends, such as vince p. (#57), mc kato (#49), carla kosak (#127), richard “mop” furniss (#53) and reggie gholston (#32).  he’s also worked with many grammy winning stars and has an impressive collection of awards for his own book shelves.

john had just come back from a humanitarian mission to haiti and was swamped with work, but he made time for me at the home he shares with his wife christie and their two children.  i had driven four hours from council bluffs and was very ready for my audition.  john said i had to learn to breathe first before i could learn to sing. christie said she’d be happy to tape the whole thing.

john was originally trained in opera which makes him able to spot talent in others–he knows a good voice.  he was polite–he is that unfailingly–but i don’t think i’m getting a recording conract.  it’s because my stomach is, well, i haven’t got abs like john hill.  he tried again to show me how singing works.

john and christie met when john was touring with r. kelly.  john doesn’t want to tour while his children are young.  his greatest joy is being a father and that joy has allowed him to better appreciate his own parents.

“your parents mold who you are, whether they’re there or not,”  john says.  “i grew up in a cosby family.  my dad was a chef, so if you’re hungry get ready!  and my mom works at a drop out recovery center for chicago public schools.  we came out here because my wife’s family is here but we came to enjoy the simple life.”  here’s a poem he wrote for his father.

i had such a wonderful time and i realized that the way schedules work, i would never have gotten a chance to see john and christie–or to try out for that recording contract–without this project!  take a look at your friends list.  is there somebody you haven’t seen in forever?

christie is expecting their third child in october

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February 22, 2011

mc kato concert tuesday night

By arlynnpresser

a few weeks ago, my friend mc kato promised to perform a concert in my home to kick off the face to facebook year of meeting new friends.  then chicago got stuck with the worst snowstorm in years–i had a lot of champagne and appetizers i was forced to consume on my lonesome.  tomorrow kato’s going to give it another try and his new album glissando is going to be premiered. . . .  but if you click below, you can have the same experience.  just make sure you pour yourself a nice drink and settle back in a comfortable chair first. .. . .

http://widget.tunecore.com/swf/tc_run_h_v2.swf?widget_id=55335

i head for new york on thursday and my first stop will be to see richard “mop” furniss at the museum of sex.  i have considered the idea of having an “open” time to meet new facebook friends, say at a coffee shop in times square.  what would you think of that?

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February 19, 2011

olá! meus amigos novos do facebook!

By arlynnpresser

olá! a meus amigos em Brasil! eu tenho quis sempre jogar na praia e ver o teatro da ópera de manaus e talvez pescá-lo para pirhanas e visitar lotes das esmeraldas de Salvatore, de Baía e de compra (se eu tive o dinheiro) dos fazendeiros de meu estado de origem de illinois estão agora em Brasil. minha primeira prioridade é visitar e ser com os amigos que eu tive janeiro em 1 do facebook, 2011.
prossiga por favor com meus viagem e quando eu terminei acima com os três cem e trinta e cinco amigos que eu comecei o ano com, mim partying no sao Paolo! e perdoe por favor meu não muito bom português! amor e abraços!

for my english speaking friends (or brazilians who think my portuguese is truly wretched), i am so excited by the encouragement i’m getting from south america!!

in the meantime, my facebook friend mc kato sent me some music he will be playing at the world tour kick off party on tuesday!

http://widget.tunecore.com/swf/tc_run_h_v2.swf?widget_id=55335“>mc kato’s glissando cd

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February 1, 2011

darn it! friendship, deactivation and the MC KATO concert

By arlynnpresser

every winter, there comes a time when weather prognosticators get their groove on.  and an outpouring of forecasts, each more apocalyptic than the other, scares the bejesus out of chicagoans.  today, the general consensus is that the upcoming snowstorm will be worse than, ahem, the snowstorm of 1967.  the winnetka community house has already announced it will be closed.  ohare airport, out of which i was to fly off to tallahassee, is on full ground stop for tomorrow.  and mc kato has been forced to postpone the concert he was to do at my house.   his dj and the rest of his posse are going to try again later this month.  it will be the “welcome back for a little while” concert for my face to facebook project.  sometimes i am reminded that friendship requires flexibility.  especially in the face of the elements.

i thought this past weekend that a friend had defriended me.  and further, when i tried to email her, i thought i was being blocked.  i felt awful.  a little rejected.  a little concerned about whatever i had done to have her not want to count me as a friend anymore.  then i did something totally retro–i called her.  she said that no, she was still my friend and i wasn’t being blocked but that she had deactivated her account for a while.  the reasons are not for discussion here, but i hadn’t known you can deactivate and then reactivate and then presumably redeactivate again.  i  learned from f2fb #4 winston chang that many people on active duty in the military deactivate their accounts so that if they are, say, held hostage, their captors can’t use information gleaned from their page in order to harm them or their families.

and this is not to say that i haven’t been defriended because i have been by one person since this enterprise got started.

regardless of the weather, i’m fighting my way onto the first flight out of chicago to tallahassee so that i can see my facebook friend justin leiber, who is also my father.

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January 31, 2011

f2fb #28 brings strange consequences

By arlynnpresser

tom evans is a member, as i am, of the winnetka northfield rotary club.  he marks out his office at the caribou coffee every morning along with three other regulars.  he does something related to health benefits and, after he lost his position at northwestern university here in chicago, he took a job at loras college in dubuque.  he spent the weekdays in iowa and then drove home for the weekend–but always managed to be in the “office” on saturday and sunday mornings when i came in for coffee.

you know how you ALWAYS know when one of your friends sells avon or amway or is doing a walkathon for irritable bowel syndrome?  oddly, i didn’t find out that tom is a reliv representative until very recently.  and yet, it is something he’s very passionate about. so there are now three cans of powdered formula that are in my kitchen right now–the “classic”, the “innergize” and the “fiberstore”.  i’m to take a little of each, put it in a glass and stir it up with water.  tom said i could use vodka instead but didn’t recommend it.

theodore kalagaris (the dude who devised the reliv system) was told by his parents to “be ashamed to die before you score a victory for mankind” and he devoted himself to serving others, mostly through medicine.  i wish i were as selfless.  and i wish i weren’t so shameless that when tom described the variety of medical woes that could be fixed with reliv i didn’t really focus until he got to weight loss.  if i am five pounds lighter at the end of the month–well, let’s just say i’m ready for filming the infomercial!!!

in other news, after the face to facebook concert tomorrow night by mc kato (yes, you’re invited! just email me for details if you don’t remember) i swing out of chicago and begin an arduous journey to . . . warm, sunny florida.  nobody said this job was going to be easy!

my father justin is there and my half sister casey is coming down as well.  it’s a little unnerving because it will be the first time i have gone to see him since. .. . ever.

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January 27, 2011

max, a milestone and mc kato

By arlynnpresser

i met with face to facebook friend #25 max henderson today.  i first met max when he and joseph were four years old.  they quickly became best friends.  his father colvin developed mesothelioma when joseph and max were in fifth grade.  on the day that colvin passed, max came over for a playdate with joseph and we planted hostas in the front yard.  i became a rotarian because colvin, seeing what was ahead, asked me to join the club.  i promised him i would never resign.

max and i talked about some serious issues, in part because max is doing a class in comparative religions and he is required to interview a catholic.  i’m not a great catholic, in fact i would rank myself as pretty awful.  but i converted to catholicism because stephen wanted to convert from judaism to catholicism and it was important to me that the family all be the same religion.  joseph, eastman, stephen and i were all baptized in the same mass by father mark.  he later left the priesthood and i’ve often wondered why and what he’s doing now.

max is somebody who makes me pretty relaxed.  i’m glad he’s majoring in psychology because i think he’d be better at it than at being an assassin.

now, a milestone!  i have booked my first airline ticket of my adult life.  i used expedia.  i’m heading for tallahassee, but i’m hoping to see face to facebook friends in palm harbor, huntsville, savannah and atlanta.  i am fifty years old and have never figured out how to buy a plane ticket!

to celebrate that milestone and to kick off the world tour to follow, the rapper mc kato has agreed to give a free, private concert in my home on tuesday.  email me for details.  if you’re reading this, you’re invited!!!

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