DATELINE: memphis, tn                                                    

Author: Karl

10am this morning, the alarm clock starts blarring "get em up, get em up, m*thaf*ka throw em up!" Welcome to memphis and the dirty south. Last night was a wild night partying it up on beale st. , which is the downtown strip in memphis just down the street from our hotel. The way a local girl we met at dennys descibed the beale st. scene, "friday nights are like this (she points at a napkin), Saturday nights, like tonight, are like this (she points at the pepper shaker)" I actually enjoyed being the racial minority; its not the first time, after all I did grow up outside 'chocolate city', Washington, DC. Hip-hop culture has always been u huge inspiration to me and something I consider myself pretty knowledgable about, but I've never been immersed in the middle of southern hip hop flava like this before. One of the big differences was the ubiquity of sparkling gold and silver grills on both guys and girls. Ilteris and I had a blast chatting with some cute southern birds about memphis culture. The streets were surprisingly segregated, most white people stuck to specific irish looking bars. I found it more fun to stay on the streets with my beer in hand (which is allowed here) soaking in the vibes and mingling with random people. The night ended around 3am with cops storming through the street on horses a la mardi gras style. Ok, pulling in to sun studios now for a bite with Andy's cousin Phil... more blogging soon.