video in Central Gardens

Just saw a sign like this on Carr in Central Gardens. I'm not 100% sure how I feel about my neighborhood being under video surveillance. On the one hand it might make crimes like the ones that have been happening lately less likely but I've always got a strong aversion to Big Brother intruding into my life.

Fun with Retractions!

Well I've got some cool stuff to write about this underground art/tattoo/graffiti thing I went to at the Brooks last night but first we need to visit the exciting world of retractions!!

I wrote a few days ago about Sweet Bistro in Cooper Young closing it's doors. In that post I had a short little sentence about Dish moving across the street to The Blue Fish restaurant's current location because of I'd heard it might be closing. Well the owner of Blue Fish got in touch with me and has said that his place isn't going anywhere and that their business is doing just fine so I wanted to let folks know that things are going ok at that restaurant and sorry if I caused you some grief with a rumor that I'd heard! Also, since that rumor was false then I guess Dish isn't moving either. So keep going to both places and supporting them if you're in the area.

On top of that, it seems Blue Fish is doing some cool stuff with their specials and I noticed a thing on their website called "Sunset Specials" which are some nice dishes that are offered at decent prices Mon-Friday until 7:00 pm and all night long at the bar. These two dishes sounded especially good...

Black and White Sesame Tuna seared rare, sliced on soba noodles with wakame, soy ginger glaze and wasabi cream

White Cheddar Mac & Cheese with Shrimp and Scallop 2 jumbo shrimp and a sea scallop, seared, served on mac & cheese with white truffle oil

Once again, sorry to the folks at Blue Fish or Dish if anyone had some trouble caused by the post. It's all been edited and what not so hopefully this makes your life easier!

Midtown Stop the Violence Walk-- Today!

I don't normally just copy press releases on here but I think they get the point across better than my summary. So read below and please come out to participate.

WALK AGAINST VIOLENCE IN MIDTOWN
TO TAKE PLACE WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22nd, 5:30p-7:30p

Rick & Pam O'Brien, residents of the Idlewild Neighborhood, have organized a short Walk with
stops at the locations of two recent violent crimes in Midtown. The first crime scene is near the
corner of Harbert and Cox, where Michael Neil Krauss lost his life to an armed robber on April 4th.

The second crime scene is on Cowden Avenue, where assailants in a gold Camry attempted to
murder Percy Clarke who was walking his dog at 8pm on the evening of April 14th.
The short walk will begin at the corner of Harbert and S. Cooper at 5:30p. It will end at Peabody
Park where local officials will address the gathering.

Confirmed to speak are: City Councilman Jim Strickland, Union Station commander, Col Garrett,
County Commissioner Mike Ritz, as well as clergy from neighborhood churches. Other invited
speakers have not confirmed at this time.

Statements will be read from Rep John DeBerry and Sen Beverly Marrero, who represent Midtown Memphis in the State legislature.

This event is supported by the three local neighborhood associations: Cooper-Young, Idlewild and Central Gardens.

Event flyer with map is below.

5:30p - 6:00p: Congregate at Cooper & Harbert and paint signs
Walk to Crime Scene #1 at Harbert & Cox

6:15p - 6:30p: Talks & Remembrances
Walk to Crime Scene #2 at Cowden & Tanglewood


6:45p - 7:00p: Talks & Remembrances
Walk to Peabody Park for Entertainment & Refreshments


Representatives from the City Council, State Representatives,
Police, Clergy and friends & family have been invited to speak.

We are all horrified about the recent violence in our neighborhood.
Please come and show your support for the victims and their families.

This event is supported by your local neighborhood associations:
Central Gardens, Cooper-Young and Idlewild

If you would like to help, or for more info, please call 292-3578

I can't believe the CA just did a story about smoking pot in Overton Park

Front page, dead center, of the online version of the CA this morning. I'm just going to post some excerpts from the article. I find it hilarious, refreshing and unbelievable that our sometimes conservative newspaper just ran this story about publicly smoking pot in the park. In a positive light!

Someone with a hot dog cart could've made a fortune in Overton Park Monday afternoon.

In Memphis, that meant several hundred of them made their annual trek to the Midtown park to do what stoners do.

Namely, smoke weed, play hacky sack, throw the Frisbee, dance badly and say "dude" a lot.

Then get the munchies.

For some, though, it was clearly about the pot, and perhaps the illicit thrill of smoking it out in the open.

Although police circled the park, no uniformed officers could be seen among the faithful.

Sweet Closes

The dessert specialty shop in Cooper Young has closed its doors.

Sweet Bistro is yet another locally owned, independent restaurant to close up shop and another loss to the now more and more vacant looking corner of Cooper and Young. (EDIT: This sentence was removed due to new info about Blue Fish NOT closing) Hopefully Burke's Books can hold it down and remain standing long enough to weather the economic storm.

The owner of Sweet cited the economy as the reason for the closing. Everytime I walked by or saw it at night it was packed though so I wonder if anything else came into play on the decision. A lot of folks get into owning a new business and don't realize all of other costs that come along with it and get in over their head with bad business, management and finance decisions.

So the best of luck to everyone that worked there and hopefully something new will come along to replace it soon!

You can read the entire article about the closing HERE in the Memphis Daily News.