Stacey Reno writes in with details about a live-auction tonight at Bass Lofts in Little 5 Points that will benefit Decatur’s Phoenix School.  Here’s the summary that appeared in Daily Candy’s “What to do this weekend” a couple days ago…

Alternative Art Auction

• What: Tattoo, makeup, and graffiti artists sell their works (and host snacks and cocktails) to benefit the Phoenix School.
• Why: Take a tenner (or five bucks and as many nonperishable food items) to help the Atlanta Community Food Bank.
• When: Sat., 6:30 p.m.
• Where: Bass Lofts, 1080 Euclid Ave., Little Five Points.

There will also be a lot of great gift items & a raffle for a Wii or flat screen tv. Live auction includes AirTran tickets & vacation spots.There will be beer & wine & food.

As pointed out by EldredgeATL (via Twitter), Daily Candy announced in an internal memo yesterday that it is canceling its city-specific editions in seven of twelve cities…and Atlanta is among them.

From Valleywag…

DailyCandy will now stop publishing city-specific editions in all but five of those 12 cities: New York, London, LA, Chicago and San Francisco. Subscribers in the other cities will now receive an “Everywhere” edition, supplemented with local news and events twice a week.

Hmm…I don’t think my wife is going to be very happy about this.  Not to mention all the local businesses that were regularly written up in the popular local shopping e-newsletter!

Apparently the ever-present “Coming Soon” sign that’s been sitting in front of Avellino’s location on College will soon be coming down.

Carl forwards this morning’s Daily Candy, which talks about Avellino’s as if it will open tomorrow.  Didn’t look like it last night, so I guess they’re just applying the finishing touches at this point.

Traditional Italian cuisine is the name of the game here: pizza, pasta and Peroni on tap.  As a guy with Italians all over his family tree, I make no qualms about my high expectations for any new traditional Italian food joint.   Hopefully Avellino’s will come through for us, and I can move on to my next brick-and-mortar food lust, an Italian bakery.

This morning’s Daily Candy features Leon’s and gives a little inside scoop (with weird punctuation)…

In addition to a master beer selection (duh), there’s a whistle-wetting, seasonal cocktail menu. Yeah, we’ve heard about the appley Whiskey Pie and Belgian Champale. But what’s not on the menu is Carl’s Screwball – inspired by the owners’ fave back-in-the-day Carl’s candy and made with biscotti liqueur – and K. Chocolat’s by-request-only chocolate flights.

Thanks to my wife, Carl and Brooke for forwarding!

Over on CL, Cliff Bostock gives a preview of his upcoming full review of the gastropub.  (Haven’t heard much from DM readers yet…what’s been your impression of Leon’s thus far?)

And probably most importantly for those who have yet to make it over to the corner of Church and Ponce…both the food and drink menus are now online!

Seems like Daily Candy has made a New Year’s resolution to feature more Decatur blogs in 2009.

After posting a New Year’s playlist by the AsianCajuns this past week, today they feature Decatur resident Pam Galenkamp’s blog “Cooking For Monkeys“, which documents the insanely creative school lunches Pam creates for her son (a.k.a “Monkey”) on a regular basis.

Check out all of her edible art here.

Thanks to her husband Dan for forwarding!