Book Club: Eating Locally in Memphis

We read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and now we're ready to change the way we eat. In small ways, but sometimes those are the most significant moves. We've joined CSAs, we've planted tomatoes, we understand more about why it's sometimes good to chose organic and sometimes pointless. We also understand that there are competing goods (right, Katherine?) and that we don't have hours to spend in the grocery store, wrapped up in ethical food dilemmas. So we're going to do the best we can, and maybe freeze some veg, make some cheese, and shoo the birds away from our tomatoes.

Good Reading

Click HERE and focus on the last paragraph for a great summary of why Memphis is a magnificent place to live.

Singing the South

Photo from the Commercial Appeal.

The New Daisy had a great show for Memphians this week, with Carlene Carter (daughter of June, granddaughter of Maybell, stepdaughter of Johnny Cash) and Elvis Costello sharing very different images and sounds of the south.

Carlene said she was playing her first acoustic show in 30 years, and there was a resulting vulnerability about her set. She told some good stories, and generally served as a living tribute to Tennessee and the Delta, sharing heartbreaking memories about her family, her stepdad, and what must certainly be her own sordid past. She ended her set by switching to the piano and singing a tribute to her sister, Rose, which left this listener more ready for a good cry than the rock n roll show that was sure to come.

And it did. Despite lackluster sound, Elvis rocked from the first chord. Elvis loves Stax, and that influence could be felt in many of the songs...and left me wishing that there were 2 or 3 really soulful backup singers. As is wont to happen in Memphis, there were multiple encores and the audience was rewarded with additional musicians coming to the stage for a few songs off the new album (Momofuku) and a spirited if somewhat flawed version of Peace, Love and Understanding. There was one point where it seemed that Elvis holding his guitar close to that of guitarist Jonathan Wilson was more a teaching moment than a jamming moment. But as the incredibly diverse audience flooded into Beale after the show, it was pretty apparent that no one minded being a guinea pig audience.

Spring Cleaning Continues!

Regarding Memphis A.K.A.s, I much prefer "Soulsville" over "Bluff City," don't you?

So, every neighborhood in Soulsville is having spring cleaning celebrations, and Cleaborn/Foote is no exception. Chris and Mer and I went down to the post-cleaning fair, which wasn't very sporting of us, but sometimes you can't do it all. It was an incredibly cool event, with the kids from the Stax Music Academy providing the music, folks from Child Evangelism painting faces, and teens from IPC organizing crafts and sports.

Evergreen Community Clean Up

Overton Park: First Day of Spring

Kaboom Playground Build

Cherry Blossoms on Avalon

Cherry blossoms on Avalon. Isn't that a lovely phrase? Sounds so Utopian.


But we know the truth. Utopia, by definition, must surely be February-free. Memphis ain't. There may be cherry blossoms and daffodils, but we aren't out of the wintry woods. Yet. 

Midtown Running

Midtown Memphis is a fabulous place to run. Cut through Cooper Young for people watching. Cruise Central Gardens and Evergreen in the evenings and peek in people's windows. Wind through Overton Park and enjoy an incredible park not unlike New York's Central Park.

I have great runs all the time, but I recently had a quintessentially great Midtown run. In the space of about twenty minutes:

* I saw an amateur photographer trying to catch the beauty that is the Joe's sign.


[This photo is by Amie Vanderford, and she's no amateur.]

* I saw a man bearing a striking resemblance to Papa Garcia running full speed next to his dog, while the dog jumped short brick columns.


These are the doggie hurdles.

* A crackhead said "Honey, you look just as good as some of those young girls running around out here." [Pardon my assumption about his addictive status, but he made assumptions about my age, so...].

All of this fun, and all you need is a pair of decent shoes. I love a pair of decent shoes. I don't buy new ones nearly as often as is recommended, partly because I would hate to dilute the job of getting new ones. It takes me straight back to childhood, and I always feel as if they do, indeed, allow me to jump higher and run faster. Don't berate me for pulling them off without untying them. I read in dim light too, and so far everything is okay.

One Small Step for Memphis

Friends, we've made a list. A positive list. A list that has nothing to do with barbecue.

Someone has officially deemed us a good place to live, and ranked us among other good places to live. And not just a good place to live, but also a good place to be creative. I'm telling you, kids, the tides are turning. The folks at moviemaker.com know it, and so do we.

The Cove

Our book club needs a name. Or a mascot. Or both. Perusing Piranhas? Skimming Sallies? Reading Rabbits? Discussing Dinos?

Enough. Maybe we're too cool for a name. Because we ARE cool, as proven by our recent excursion to The Cove on Broad. Pizza and drinks were delicious, creative and fun. Hummus was good, too. Music was incredibly aggressive and unpleasant, and I'd wager that I wasn't the only patron that felt that way. The pain of the angry music was almost completely obliterated by something wonderful: one of the waiters walked us to our car. "Without being asked or told," as my elementary school principal would say. It was charming. And sensible, I might add.

Cheers to The Cove. And to the coolest book club this side of the Mississippi.