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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
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I tossed this together after Donna and I *finally* got out of the office around 9:30pm last Friday (her Palm Desktop had a meltdown and I was trying in vain to recover portions of her calendar) and got down to downtown Jackson’s interesting new nightspot, Underground 119. (Trivia: the Underground 119 space housed the old Planet Weekly offices for a time.)

Owner Mike McCree was gracious enough to have the kitchen make us some portabello fries and fried green tomatoes (which were very good). Here’s hoping that the tapas-style menu might get even *more* vegetarian options in the future. 😉

Previous Comments

Lovely! What’d you shoot it with, Todd? Looks clean.


Just a basic Flip Mino. It’s not great for sound, but the picture does keep surprising me. We were also lucky to be seated close to the kitchen, which provided a nice key light for our talent. 😉


The Flip line really is a pleasant surprise. The software is good too, and it’s great for pushing video quickly to a stream.


No doubt the Flip is impressive. It makes me think of the line in Back to the Future where Doc calls Marty’s camcorder “a portable TV station” and says, “No wonder your president in an actor…he has to look good on television.” Now that same “portable TV station” is about the size of a jumbo pack of gum and our politicians have to avoid doing stupid stuff on YouTube. 😉

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.