Week 4.1 - Deep Ellum's Sweet Endings

Deep Ellum apparently is an area of town where one can find all sort of interesting shops, juke joints, blues bars and eateries.


There are actually 2 parts to my Deep Ellum adventures:

Part I - Nothin' but a lot of hassle (Sunday ~5:00pm)
Just going by what I could see on Main Street, the place was actually pretty dead. There were no one on the street. I parked my car and decided to go on foot for a bit.

I turned the corner, and woah, there were like a good 50 people hanging around a place called Bar Clearview. I kind of felt out of place there - I wasn't in my trendy getup and I had a camera in my hand, which kind of gave me away. Gotta come back another time and be more prepared.

I was just walking towards my car, this guy carrying odd bits of bags with 2 ceremic mugs in boxes walked up to me. Sensing what was about to happen, I stepped back to avoid him.

Apparently this man has been homeless for 17 years and that he was just trying to get money together for a meal and would appreciate what ever money I could give him for a mug. He needed to get around $8 together for a meal. Hmmm.

I didn't want a mug from this guy and who knows if he was really after money for a meal or not. However, I was kind of in a good mood so I gave him 2 dollars towards his meal but I declined on the mug offer. He basically forced it onto me and won't let me leave until I took one of the boxes from him. Oh and then he got thinking (oh yeah he did) and tried to make me a deal on his other mug.

I just kept shaking my head and eventually he gave up but still managed to smile and wave me goodbye thanking me for my original purchase.

So what am I trying to say here? Well there are quite a few people like that on the street here but they are at least non-abusive if they don't get what they want.


Part II - It's a Jungle out there (Friday ~9:00pm to midnight)
Not too happy with my first trip, I went back to Deep Ellum on Friday night again. I noted down locations of the big clubs and reviewed eateries.

Ok, much better. The first sign that things were happening: There were valet guys with orange flags trying to "flag" and lure you into parking at their lot. I could see people on the street, and many cars driving around.



The streets were lined with clubs, pubs, tatoo parlors and cafes. Under the cover of bright neons and street lights, Deep Ellum definitely looked much sexier. I saw girls in clubbing outfits with heels that lit up like christmas lights; 4 policemen running down the street chasing someone (didn't see who); Twenty-somethings hanging out at beer gardens; Bands loading and unloading gear through backdoors of clubs; Different kind of music playing in the air - some blasting out from the rooftop balcony of a club, some muffled and leaking out from behind closed doors (yeah, the club doors are all closed even when it is actually open - not very inviting).

Then suddenly I heard live guitar music. Completely out of place but very nice! It was coming from this corner shop called Sweet Endings. Ah-ha. Dessert AND live music.

I went into the shop. It was part cafe, part gift shop and apparently on this particular Friday night, you could actually stroud your stuff and display your musical talents if you had any. There was a large table of about 6, and then a few people scattered around smaller tables. I firmly planted my butt on a large sofa in the corner after ordering a key lime pie (Texas specialty) and a Latte.


It turned out to be great - these customers actually had TALENT!! Somehow, everyone could play guitar and belt out a few tunes. The people from the big table must belonged to some church choir. One of them was from Peru(his friend introduced him) and he might well have been a professional singer.