University shuts out successful restaurant

“ Dixie Kitchen & Bait Shop — the South Side restaurant that future President Barack Obama touted on a 2001 episode of WTTW-Channel 11’s “Check Please!” show — will close its Hyde Park location June 7.

Its lease runs out at the 5225 S. Harper Ave. location June 30.

Owner Carol Andresen said she will offer some of the restaurant's dishes at sister restaurant next door called Calypso Cafe.

Andresen also owns Dixie Kitchen restaurants in Evanston and Lansing.”

I used this blurb in the opening of this post to get out the information not with the President as the selling point. Before there was Dixie’s Kitchen there was a “Chance’s Are” where I remember as a youth throwing peanut shells on the floor and being fooled into thinking that my kitty cocktail was a real drink.

I don’t remember how many years Dixie’s was in business but I remember having business meetings there, I remember having dates there, and taking out of towners there. I think the last time I went we wound up having a conversation with some people at the next table about the food.

The restaurant is closing because the University of Chicago wants to spread out some and is closing Harper’s Court. Harper’s Court is a beautiful section of Hyde Park where at one point in time you could go to the movies, or sit outside and watch the old guys play chest, or hear somebody playing the drums. It was in every sense community and no the businesses are being closed up for purposes unknown.

Sadly I won’t be able to get back to Chicago in time to visit Dixie’s one last time to have some Johnny cakes, shrimp and corn fritters with jalapeno jelly, jambalaya, or fried green tomatoes.

My fat soul died just a little today!

Diva Update

Hey Kyle I am sorry your having a bad week and I know I promised to keep you updated on this but it slipped through the cracks. To anybody in the area for this weekend who loves some good music check it out!

Fiery Singer Gracefully Steps In to Relieve Her Friend Natalie Cole

Washington/Baltimore's Premier Contemporary Jazz & Soul Event just got a little funkier and jazzier with the addition of the one and only Chaka Khan, filling in for a recuperating Natalie Cole who in May had the good fortune to receive a much-needed kidney. Ms. Cole, who will hopefully return for Capital Jazz Fest 2009, shall recuperate while Chaka dazzles the crowd with four decades of hits, a generous helping of her jazzier material, plus songs from her acclaimed double-Grammy-winning latest CD, Funk This.

The 17th annual Capital Jazz Fest - which is nearly sold out – is happening June 5-7, 2009 in the lovely wooded setting of Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. A thrilling line-up of vibrant contemporary jazz and R&B is coming on two big stages where music is certain to materialize. The Pavilion Jazz Stage will be graced by Chaka Khan as well as S.M.V. (bass virtuosos Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten), George Duke, Al Jarreau, Lalah Hathaway, Fourplay, Norman Brown, Roy Ayers, Will Downing, Kirk Whalum, Pieces of a Dream with special guest Phil Perry, Guitars & Saxes (f/ Jeff Lorber, Euge Groove, Jeff Golub and lady saxophone newcomer Jessy J), Regina Belle, Marion Meadows and trumpeter Joey Sommerville.

Meanwhile on The Soul Stage at Symphony Woods (a.k.a. "The Party Stage"), R&B lovers will be treated to a double dose of divas: the 20th anniversary reunion of "The Funky Divas" - all four original members of En Vogue (Terry Ellis, Cindy Heron, Maxine Jones and the returning Dawn Robinson) - as well as the soulful new all-star trio "The Underground Divas" (Maysa of Incognito, N'Dea Davenport of The Brand New Heavies and Caron Wheeler from the original Soul II Soul). Also sprinkling the smooth R&B flavor will be Peabo Bryson, Angie Stone, Rahsaan Patterson, Leela James, Gary Taylor, Raheem DeVaughn, Anthony David & Mike Phillips, singer/saxophonist Pete Belasco, English duo Swing Out Sister, and Atlanta duo Daysahead.

Today's Favorite Photo

Upcoming x-Men 511

Water boarding chickens come home to roost

Since my dip into what I call adult blogging (I consider my previous attempts at blogging practice runs and not really informational) one thing I have discovered especially with my Afro Spear brethren is that everyone has that one thing, that one subject that grinds their ass only the daily basis. The thing they have news alerts for and have become in my opinion experts at.

For Wayne over at Electronic Village that subject is tasers. For those not sure what that is tasers are the non lethal weapons several police departments have been using the last few years which have resulted in quite a few deaths of brown people on the streets of America. Yeah I know I just said non lethal but clearly there are still a few flaws that need to be worked out and thank heavens all these brown folks are walking the streets waiting to be test subjects….but I digress.

Today Wayne posted a blog about a judge who allowed tasering to be used on a suspect who declined to submit to a DNA test. Well actually to be fair he declined to submit to a second DNA test. You see the first sample of DNA which was obtained with his consent got sent to the wrong lab and was improperly handled and tainted and such. So a second sample was required since someone on the side of Law and Order had messed up . Well the suspect, a Mr. Ryan S. Smith, said thanks but no thanks to that swab to nowhere. For which after stern protest and a statement of he would stay locked up before submitting to the test, the police sat the handcuffed Mr. Smith on the floor and tasered him in the shoulder until he had a change of heart.

Yesterday Judge Sara Sheldon Sparrazza ruled that It is legally permissible for police to zap a suspect with a Taser to obtain a DNA sample, as long as it’s not done “maliciously, or to an excessive extent, or with resulting injury”. So the DNA sample obtained through “enhanced interrogation techniques” is legal and admissible in court.

There you have it folks. We are now allowed to legally torture suspects in custody until they give us the answers we want and we don’t even require the “ticking time bomb” scenario that is being sold to enhance interrogate suspected terrorist.

God Bless America!!!!

Full story here.

RIP David Carradine

David Carradine, the star of the 1970s television series “Kung Fu” and the title villain of the “Kill Bill” movies, has died in Thailand, The Associated Press reported. The United States Embassy in Bangkok told The A.P. that Mr. Carradine had been found dead in his hotel suite in Bangkok, where he was working on a movie. He was 72.


NY Times!

The EYES have it

German researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems have embedded a head-mounted microdisplay into a pair of glasses—allowing the user to access and manipulate data with simple eye movements.



I can't wait for this is this not the coolest thing????