The Memphis Botanic Garden is kicking off spring with events that spread Japanese culture.

Upcoming events include a Japanese landscape on May 2-4 where three different workshops will be given followed by a candlelight dinner and tour on May 6.

The Japanese landscape is a workshop that gives gardeners insight on how to maintain a garden.

Featured speakers include Dr. David Slawson, author of Secret Teachings in the Art of Japanese Gardens and John Powell, a garden builder and pruning specialist.

This event will also include a screening and discussion of a new film: Evoking Native Landscape Using Japanese Garden Principles.

Gina Harris, director of education at Memphis Botanic Garden said they partnered with the Japan American Society of Tennessee for their Japanese cultured events.

Trilogy Tattoos and Body Piercings at 530 S. Highland St. helps people in the U District express themselves with graphics and piercings.

Richie Jarvis, the owner of Trilogy, does not do tattoos, but he shows his passion for them. He has several beautifully designed tattoos on his arm.

Trilogy tattoo prices are $50 and up and piercings are $15 and up.

College students get 10 percent off.

Trilogy has been in the U District for 14 years. Trilogy has been voted one of the top three businesses in Memphis for 14 years by the Memphis Flyer.

The Eckles-Madison Family Cemetery is a small cemetery located 50 feet south of Carnes Street, directly across the street from a duplex numbered 3764-3766 Carnes.  The vacant lot is in the middle of the Normal Station neighborhood near the University of Memphis and is heavily overgrown with only a few headstones remaining. 

Jodie Davis, a resident in the Normal Station area, said that the cemetery has been abandoned for quite some time and feels that nobody has any respect for the graves on the land. 

“Kids hang out over here and people let their dogs use the bathroom in the lot,” Davis said.  “I think its disrespect to those that are buried there to have it looking it like that and not keeping it up.” 

The University District is gearing up for the first ever BlueTOM Fest on April 6 at Memorial Field on the University of Memphis campus.

The festival is named after Blue Tom Records, which is the U of M’s student run record label.

The line up will include Star and Micey, Fast Planet, The Chinese Connection Dub Embassy, Lightaho, Alex Inman and Absentease.

Tevin McInnis, a junior at the University of Memphis will be DJ-ing the event.  

“I’m excited to see the musical diversity, and excited to reach out to a different crowd as far a DJ-ing goes,” said McGinnis.

Pastor Paul Eknes-Tucker spent his Valentine’s Day in Cooper Young at the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center for the launch of the Free Condoms Memphis safe sex initiative. Wait. What? The words pastor, condoms and sex in the same sentence? Yes, and that is only the beginning. 

Pastor Paul, as he likes to be called, is the pastor of Holy Trinity Community Church at 685 South Highland. Pastor Paul was at the Free Condoms Memphis launch because his church is on the list of 30 locations across Memphis where free condoms are available through the program. 

In Holy Trinity’s case, the condoms are available through the church’s food pantry program. 

You see, Pastor Paul seems to have realistic ideas about people and sexuality. He says, “The reality is, all of us have sex, all of us. So do we just pretend like we don’t and we don’t know anything about sexuality? Or, do we educate our children so that when they get into situations where they’re going to be sexual, they will at least have the information to protect themselves or they can make good decisions?” 

One student was arrested March 8 in front of the Meeman Journalism Building one day before spring break hit and charged with simple assault for knocking the food out of another student’s hands.

Jason Kirby, 36, bought food at the Tiger Den where Olumide Adedipe, a 20- year-old former university of Memphis student, approached him

The University of Memphis’ Park Avenue Campus is getting a long-awaited facelift with Gov. Bill Haslam’s announcement in January of $45 million of a community health building.

The Community Health Building will be the new home of the Loewenberg School of Nursing, which is now housed in the Billy Mac Jones Building.  It will also serve as the location for the Memphis Speech and Hearing Center and the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, which are both currently combined into one facility.

Director of Development at the University Lendon Ellis said this new building will be more convenient for all, as the current setup is causing a divide.

The Southern Meat Market at 3507 Southern Avenue plans to relocate due to the redevelopment of the Highland Strip.

The owner, Randy Stockard, is moving to a new location on Park Avenue, but he does not know when.  His business is among others like Yum’s Chinese Sub Shop and Whatever’s that are also being forced to move because of development of the property at Highland Street and Southern Avenue.

What makes the Southern Meat Market different is that the butchers cut the meat by hand.  Most grocery stores have their own deli department equipped with a slicer, which is how most people today get their meat.

In October of 2009, the University of Memphis acquired three homes on South Highland Street. University of Memphis Police Services cleaned up the homes in an effort to make them more safe using Crime Prevention through Environmental Design. This slideshow shows photos of how the homes looked before and after Police Services secured them.