It's MLK Day and the cold streets near Vanderbilt are quiet, but inside Bongo Java coffee is being consumed, brains are bustling and tongues are wagging. Writers are scribbling in notebooks. Students reading Faulkner and pondering passages. Poets peering out the window at the weeping winter sky. Music biz moguls taking the big table and plotting their next move. Buzz abounds concerning The Golden Globe results. Coffee beans grinding. Eggs and bacon frying. Hot oatmeal with brown sugar, fresh strawberries and bananas comes to my table. Surrounded by newspaper discussions, sports results and chat room debates. The click of keyboards in concert. Rock on the radio. Original art on the walls. High hopes and the beginning of a new year. It doesn't seem that the economy has hindered Nashville's coffee addiction or the need for social gathering. Perhaps it's increased our need to gather and be stimulated with fresh thought and ideas. In times like these it is good to live in a city that becomes nicer every year and is a creatively inspired city. Nashville, the Athens of the South. Home.