Speaking of blogs we like, here’s a new one: True Grit. It’s written by an expatriate from San Francisco, and it’s only a few months old, but we’re looking forward to years of enjoyment from its take on this crazy place, particularly from an architectural perspective.

Here’s the blog post that kicked it off and it’s followed by the most recent one:

Been in Memphis two weeks now, and finding a little bit of free time (unlike Marina who’s busily preparing for her new job) So just learning my way in Blog territory – and finding some great ones about Memphis, such as http://fearlessvk.blogspot.com/.

So two new territories at the same time: Blogging and Memphis, and hoping this will become a forum for both.

p.s. My cat is obviously struggling with these issues as well. It just squeezed into the office chair I’m sitting in and made me wedge my butt over to the side… not comfortable. By the way, here she is shortly after arrival: an invaluable part of the transition team

Here’s the beginning of yesterday’s post:

Drove down to Helena, Arkansas, yesterday, with m. and a new friend (another SF Bay Area transplant of a few years prior, and an amazing blogger), for the annual blues festival, about 70 miles south of Memphis, just west of the Mississippi river, and not far from the famous Clarksdale, MS (home of the mythical blues ‘Crossroads’).
This was our first trip out to the rural and small town Delta- the deep south. I was extremely curious, having heard about the poverty, the economic decline: mostly due to family cotton farms put out of business by large growers…. Sure, the town was in quite a state of decay, sweetly crumbling and sagging, with honest-to-god ruins. Yet preserved amid these melancholy dregs, life was continuing in a variety of forms and institutions, some apparently preserved in amber, like above: ‘Fonzie’s Blues and Jazz Club’; yet others that were brand new- signs of gentrification even out here, and I imagine in large part supported by tourist dollars, as there doesn’t seem to be any viable industry in sight; other than the people-free, industrial scale cotton fields. Bottom line, this town isn’t quite ready to give up, and life is strugglin’ on.

So what could draw tourists to a place like this? Well, the Blues Fest for one.
For the rest, click here.