Aug 22 - Nashville, TN (Part I)

It occurred to me this morning that I’ve been neglecting my blog posts.  Sure, I’ve been making them, but I’ve been doing them as the last thing I do each night before my brain shuts off completely.  Today I resolved to change that and be a little better about recording thoughts and observations through-out the day.  Non-readers, you can just scroll down to whatever pictures and links I’ve posted.

This morning I checked out of the Drake Inn (Stay where the stars stay!) and said goodbye to the Elvises (Elvi?) painted on my wall.  Although the idea of staying in a historic mid-century motel that has seen its share of film productions is intriguing to this wanderer, the reality is that the stars are long gone and the motel’s shine is a little dimmer with age.  I’m reminded of a similarly “vintage” motel in Winchester; I hope these declining beauties will survive long enough to be restored to a funky-cool glory.

I digress.

The first thing I wanted to do was drive back to the Parthenon in Centennial Park and take better pictures than I got yesterday, as well as work on a sketch or two.  Unfortunately the lighting conditions were too poor for my little point-and-shoot camera to overcome.  I did grab a quick sketch of some of the exterior architecture, though, but for the most part I think this structure will be rendered in cartoon form rather than anything more detailed now.  Inside they had smaller reproductions of some of the statuary on the building, and I learned that what I originally thought were camels (yeah, I know, camels in ancient Greece seemed odd to me, too) were actually horses used to pull the moon chariot of Selene as she descends down beneath the horizon. 

From 200+ feet away these would totally look like camel heads, right?!

After, I drove over to the new home of the Grand Ole’ Opry hoping to get a good view for a city icon sketch.  The building has some interesting qualities, but it resembled (to me) a strange blend of arena, glass-topped mega-mall, and riverboat.  I got my sketch, but the darn building's so large it’s going to be a trick to get it to work as a city icon in a cartoon!  I already have some ideas . . .

Now I’m back downtown to retake some photos and sketch out at least two places: the visitor’s center on the corner of 5^th and Broadway, and Printer’s Alley off Church St.  But more atmosphere for you: as I write this I’m eating lunch at Jack’s BBQ, which is one of the many places recommended for awesome local dining.  They serve up a great dry-rubbed beef brisket and southern sides, but for juicier pulled ‘Q I recommend Puckett’s Grocery up the hill a few blocks. 

And do you know how some places have distinctive smells and sounds to them, like New Orleans is jazz and Cajun spice, or the beach is crashing surf and salt and cooked seafood?  The entire downtown area of Nashville is loaded with “pit” restaurants and live music venues, so the entire area smells like smoky sweet barbeque and beer, and there’s honkytonk or country playing somewhere everywhere you go. . . I think they have it piped in with the crosswalk signals.

My beef is ‘et and my tea is drunk—time to get back to the streets.  I’m across from the Visitor’s Center now and the markers are calling . . .