New Crime Porch

New Years
If you had said, you'll be in Nashville by xmas, I would have thought you were insane. If someone had told me a lot of things, I wouldn't have believed them. But I wouldn't change a single thing about this year. 2010 is coming to a close this week. I was going to write something about all my changes, and how I'm a 'better person', or 'I'm going the right direction', about how "I believe I can do anything', but it's pointless, not because I don't truly own those feelings, but because I'm the only one they really mean anything to. Not to say people can't be or aren't proud of me, but they are proud because of the things I have done since I've taken those truths into my heart.

East Side Crime
In other news I'm continuing on my path of discovering the dangerous side of Nashville, which of course I'm right in the middle of. There have been some rather intense burglaries around this side of town. First starting with fast food joins up on Gallatin, and now they're becoming bolder and robbing restaurants and bars. The last hit they held 40 people at gunpoint demanding wallets and jewelery. A place I visited a couple weeks ago was robbed by these two fellows, just two nights prior. Now with my boy working at a cafe in the neighborhood, you can understand my concern. My interest is peeking clearly. The local news report that the MetroPD is adding extra patrols to the east side neighborhoods and they've got video surveillance perhaps identifying the dudes, so they are 'close to catching' them. It doesn't make me feel any better, and it's definitely the talk of the east side. At the salon the women were nattering about it, people are definitely uneasy.

But is it any more unsafe than LA? Does the small town feel of the east side generate its own fear because everyone knows everything that's going on all the time? My mum's car has been broken into right in front of our house, there were routine helicopter chases at the park just down the road. But in LA these things are one of hundreds any given day, and so they do not always make it on to the evening news. They seemed removed from my daily life there, even though they are happening all around you.

I am in no way saying that this place is safe, it's clearly not your average neighborhood. I think yes, it's more likely something 'bad' could happen to you in East Nashville. It's why property is dirt cheap and I could rent a 3 bedroom newly renovated craftsman style cottage for $700 a month. But like I say, East Nash's neighborhoods are slowly undergoing gentrification. Good god if I were in a geography class right now... PAPER TOPIC: Comparing East Nashville Tennessee to Venice Beach California. But I'm serious, the funkies are still walking their dogs, the hipsters are walking around with their guitars, kids are skate boarding, and I'm sitting on the porch with the cats.

Sitting on the front porch
It's 65 degrees today, thanks to the incoming thunderstorms. The birds are singing, Bjorky is sleeping in the chair next to me, and I'm rocking back and forth like a true southerner. I swear this is a good enough reason by itself to have moved here. This is something I could do all the time, anytime. For some reason a front porch is just more friendly than sitting near mum's Koi pond back home. It's acknowledging the rest of the world, not hiding from it. Maybe that's a little idealistic, but hey I'm happy and I can't help myself.

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Today it was warm enough to sit on the porch with the cats...or maybe I'm just getting used to 30-50 degree weather. Which is the average for TN winters. The snowstorm we had was very peculiar apparently, and so is most of the weather in the world right now. Practicing my porch sitting skills, I thought of a bunch more stuff to write about:

Bird noises. It's like Sydney here, tons of birds everywhere making noise. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like a few hundred years ago before many of the song birds were hunted and wiped out. Then it really would have been a cacophony.

Drivers in TN, did I mention this in my last post? Some of the most terrifying drivers I've ever had to share the road with. I've seen some scary stuff, people driving across major road dividers in mini vans, people going through red lights when there's no opposing traffic, people who think they have enough space pulling out in front of you, people going 10 in a 30 zone, people going 50 in a 20 zone. It's darn awful.

Sports
I've been meaning to write something about Sports. Since it's suddenly become a very big part of my life, unintentionally. Or maybe intentionally, since I was completely responsible for moving to the South, and it's hard to get away with not knowing about some kind of sport living down here. But where to start? I guess I should start with Drew... when I say Drew knows everything there is know about sports, I literally mean...he knows everything. He can tell you crap about the British premiership, for a American southerner that's a little ridiculous. If anyone should be going back to school to get a degree in sports broadcasting it's him, and whaddyaknow! The point is, I can literally ask any question and be guaranteed a clear knowledgeable non-bias answer. Okay well there is bias, but not by team, not by sport, it's really about things that many non-sports people and even some sports fanatics don't think of. I actually have tons of sports related topics, but I figure one each post is tolerable.

NCAA is an unchecked organization who's supposed to be regulating players rights and crap through all levels of sport. However there is no check or balance, they are literally the be all and end all of shit. In charge of major decisions, and many times down right unfair, inconsistent, and literally to ensure the most money is made by someone for someone. Literally the driving force behind sports is money. The people at the top of the NCAA are white, extremely rich old dudes. Isn't that always the way? There is no independent watchdog group that I can find for the NCAA and it's even harder to find any criticism anywhere by anyone. We can just assume that they've all been assassinated. I mean don't you think it's a little bit peculiar that there are checks and balances for almost every major organization in the US, and not for the NCAA?

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I've attempted to write about 500 times the past couple weeks, and finally today is the day.

I've just finished Bryson's a Walk in the Woods, you know about his attempting the Appalachian Trail. It was disappointing, mostly because I have some sort of idealistic notion of what walking 2000 miles is supposed to be like, and Bryson's trek just doesn't fit in. I mean he's witty in his almost obnoxious and extremely condescending way, but past that I really got no sense of the Appalachian Trail. In fact I came away with very negative feelings about the whole thing.

It was just surprisingly easy, driving across the country. Pretty much after Flagstaff the landscape flattens out and it's just boring all the way to Memphis. I mean there are parts of that eastern side of NM that are pretty, but only because it's crazy big sky open desert. Once you get to OK things take a turn for the worst. The roads are awful for one thing...but there is literally nothing there, it's a terrible lonely feeling. Even in OK city I felt completely disengaged by the personality-less buildings. I was astonished to find normal people tucked away in the northwest corner of AR, right after we crossed over the OK/AR border. I am grateful to them for letting us crash there, good people can be found in strange places. The next day, we fucked up and drove through the Ozarks, through 35 mile per hour speed zones to drop back down to 40. Everyone in AR looks the same, the trucks are scary, and although the country side is somewhat appealing I'd never want to vacation here. We got lost on account of trusting your GPS, damn thing! Well technically it's our fault for not reading the manual before using it. When we finally crossed the Mississippi into Memphis I could tell it felt more like Tennessee, in fact there is a Tennessee feel. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but there's some kind of vibe here. I don't know if that vibe is some how influenced by my perceptions, which must clearly have been influenced by Drew.

Overall does it feel like I drove 2000 miles? No. Do I feel like I've made some sort of life altering move yet? No. Do I feel like I actually live in Nashville? No. I think some of these things will come overtime, with getting a job, and a place to live. But honestly all of the places I've lived in I knew I wasn't going to be there all my life. I wonder if there will ever be a place, that I'll feel rooted to? Where I'll be able to say, this is my permanent home.

Interestingly something I've noticed is that Tennessean's (and some others) consistently talk about crime rates, "Oh Memphis is no. 2" and "Our zipcode is second most dangerous" and "I heard burger king got robbed last night". So I've been trying to research actual studies, and statistics. They vary wildly depending on what they factor in (violent crime, traffic fatalities, robberies) then different studies factor in population and space. Isn't geography wonderful! Cities that appear on these 'dangerous' lists end up being ones related to drug trafficking, or poverty...isn't that always the way?

The thing about this East Side of Nashville (which is made up of 10 or so neighborhoods) is that it's one of the oldest neighborhoods, many of the buildings are historic. And up until 10 years ago it was pretty much awful. Urban professionals are attracted to its proximity to downtown, while still maintaining a quaint small community feeling. Property is still cheap as heck houses, and some of the neighborhoods are still 'the hood' and indeed quite dangerous, but there are all sorts of 'alternative' and 'green' shops and bars. I have to say this is exactly why I loved the place when I visited. Many of the houses are Victorian style (including craftsman, queen anne, bungalow, eastlake, and american four square. All of which can be found in NorCal, so it's no wonder I loved it. East Nashville's gentrification is very much like what Venice Beach has been going through the past 20 or so years. Property value here is going to continue to grow and whoever was smart enough to buy a house (Drewfus's mum) is going to probably triple it's value. There are all sorts of city plans in the works for continuing city beautification and Gallatin (a hideously ugly version of Venice's Lincoln Blvd) is going to be revamped, Shelby bottoms is going to be extended, they're even building a 'funland' right across the Cumberland river from LP field (hopefully I'll have moved before that).

I guess when I think about places to live, there are some that just fit magically and you say 'yes I could see myself living here, if I had a push to do it'. Sydney is like that, Austin is like that...and East Nash too. But there are some places that just make you want to move instantaneously, and it depends person to person, but Humboldt and Asheville are both on that list. They pull me right in.

That's about all I've got for right now.

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I certainly miss the routine. Not to say that I'm desperate for a job, but I certainly want to fill my days up with as much as possible, because I know that's when I thrive, and you can only sit and work on finding work for so long before you want to scream. I did go to a yoga class, and I did run some errands, and I have been varying my activities, but it's not the same as going to some place and working. I'll get cabin fever really quick here if I'm not on top of things. With it being 23 degrees outside, I can't necessarily just go walking for hours on end...I'm definitely confined in some ways. But mornings are fabulous. Now if I could just shake this sinus blockage.

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It's snowing in my new home.

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