There is foliage on my pizza.

There’s also a surprising amount of foliage in the surrounding neighborhood, as opposed to the more common Phoenix landscaping practice of expecting pedestrians to skitter from the skinny shade of one palm tree to the next.

The pizza is at Cave & Ives (official site), of which, more below. The neighborhood is an area called Arcadia Lite, due to its proximity to the darker and heavier… well, no, actually to the wealthier and ritzier Arcadia neighborhood. Both word on the web and architectural evidence suggests that Arcadia Lite is in the midst of a transformation from “middle-class with a side of discount stores” to “ardent gentrification with lashings of hipness.”

As always, the plan is to accompany the tour with selections from Daytrotter, so let’s start with trippy hip-hop troop Shabazz Palaces (official site), because this is exactly the sort of earnest hipster rap that probably has an audience in Arcadia Lite. Read the rest of this entry »