Fertile Ground: This is Memphis

There's so much awesomeness happening in Memphis, it's nearly impossible to keep up. In addition to the amazing public art popping up everywhere, creative Memphians are launching really cool projects.

Of note is local photographer Michael Cardwell. He's just started This is Memphis, a photography project which aims to capture a cross section of the city--specifically the faces that make up our city, and the people who work to make this a better place. I was lucky enough to have my picture taken by him last week.

It's a banana. Get it?

Michael has a temporary studio set up in the Emerge Memphis building downtown. If you want to be included, contact him through the website.

Also of note is the Downtown Alive series which brings all sorts of fun to Court Square during lunchtime. Today Live from Memphis hosted an Ink Off.

These two masked artists turned a blank sheet of paper into an awesome work of art in about an hour. The idea was for them to compete, but I think that in the end the two sides kind of game together and formed one spectacular piece.

Best of all, while hanging out and watching the ink fly, I finally got to meet Sam Dunn, creator of our first bicycle food cart! (He made it himself.)

Drag'n Frozen Treats specializes in Lemon and Orange sorbetto. Today Sam only had lemon, but that was totally fine with me. They cost $4 a pop and are YUM. Sam doesn't have a smart phone to tweet his whereabouts but he says he'll be downtown during lunch most days.