Slummin’ in Cabbage Town!

 Ehh,  its nice to visit the haunts of your youth, and last night I got to visit one of my old haunts,

a part of Atlanta known as Cabbage Town,  its a kinda cool little bohemian neighborhood,  past 10 years its gentrified into this hip little enclave, but when I was there is was pretty scuzzy.. the houses are ramshackle little huts, (though vastly improved in the past 10 years since the tornadoes a few years ago came through) 20 years ago you could buy a house here for $5,000.00 (and still feel like you overpaid) 

Now,  the crash pads and unregulated rooming houses are renting for $800-1500 a month,  wowser!

I met a friend who I mentored when he was in highschool,  he graduated with his Master’s in Comparative History whatever the hell that is,  his these was on Dicken’s Tale of Two Cities, and he discussed the importance of sound in the novel.  Pretty esoteric if you ask me.

I bought steaks and beer, and true to my blue collar roots I bought a 6 pack of PBR talls,  threw the steaks on one of the minigrills (holy crap how do you cook 5 t-bones and 5 brats on a grill that is the size of a shoebox?  At the store with my friend (his name is Jesse) as I was buying food for the meal he started putting regular supplies in the basket,  shampoo, deodorant, etc..I laughed ,  he was lamenting his massive student loan debt. .  25 years old,  master degree, no job, no job prospects (I mean not like there are lots of jobs for History majors in comparitive lit.  I didnt want to point out that is was crass when somebody buys your dinner ingredients to not pile on your personal sundries…

Steaks were good,  beer was good,  company was strange,  felt good…I could have stayed all night, instead only drank two beers and headed to the barn…

Its funny,  as I was talking with Jesse,  I said ,  hey dude,  we hardly get together but I turn up at all your milestones,  what to make of that?

I look at my life and the milestones in my life go by one by one,  and seem kinda solo to me…just a constantly revolving cast of people..how bizzarre.

Speaking of bizzarre,  I have fetish for Korean fermented vegetables,  having a large korean population here in ATL,  I am on a quest to find the most obscure… best one yet was a salad made with dried minnows with black sesame seeds and some kind of rice wine vinegrettte.  Ohh another one I really like at this stone bowl place are these fermented pickles/cucumbers,  that have fermented long enough that the interior pickles have secondary fermentation which means when I bite into them they kind of explode with carbon dioxide bubble that kinda burn and tingle the tongue, combine that with the flaming hot pepper mash covering the outside its pretty slick.

Anyways I rolled home with Dido cranked in the truck, windows down,  warm breeze,  all is well with the world!

I have received much sympathy concerning the recent storms here in the South,  but fear not,  for Southerners are at their best during difficult times,  we love our misery, (Go read Faulker, and other southern writers for more on that)  we thrive on disaster,  ever since the civil war,  we have this attitude of disaster being our just rewards for our sinful life and at the same time,  regard it as a purifying test of our faith and values.  (now understand no Southerner would ever say this)  but actions speak…

And as we say "The South will Rise Again" 

From the warmest hippest portion of the deep South, were all the men are mostly men (or incarcerated) the women are twice the men the men are, and all the children are a study in the wonder of humanity!  

-Beauty for Ashes