Nashville, Tennessee

Parthenon in Centennial Park

An impromptu decision to attend the Drake/Future Summer Sixteen tour inspired a long weekend trip to Nashville, Tennessee. New Orleans is to jazz (and New York is to hip hop/Memphis is to blues) as Nashville is to country. I haven’t spent much time in the South and I am not a huge country fan, but the majority of my travel tends to be international and I am always open to exploring more of the US. Here’s how it all played out:

Friday, August 12

After being delayed for 4 hours at Laguardia (following weather cancellations and Delta’s major computer meltdown that caused the airline to ground thousands of flights world-wide earlier in the week), we finally arrived in Nashville. Our hotel was in the heart of Music Row, so we ventured to The ROW, Kitchen & Pub for some BBQ and country tunes. The indoor/outdoor seating focused on a stage where one young lady from Massachusetts sang country tunes. Despite only living in Nashville for one year, her southern drawl was very pronounced. After dinner, we headed to Broadway (the Bourbon/6th Street of Nashville) to view the spectacle that is downtown Nashville.

Saturday, August 13

Our one day to be true tourists in the Music City. First, we visited Centennial Park, which is home to the only full-scale replica of the Parthenon. Built to commemorate Tennessee’s Centennial in 1897 and meant only for a temporary exhibition, Nashville residents pushed to make the structure a permanent part of the city’s landscape. (It was originally built with wood, brick and plaster, but it was later rebuilt with concrete). The site also houses an art museum and the interior features a reproduction of the Athena Parthenos statue.

After the park & the Parthenon, we went to the Johnny Cash Museum, where the same two Johnny Cash songs looped while we walked through a timeline of Cash’s life and musical accomplishments and a trove of costumes and record covers. The museum was small a bit gimmicky, but definitely informative and fun to see.

Tomato Art at East Nashville’s Art and Intervention Gallery

A quick (read: 45 minute) walk lead us into East Nashville (after crossing the pretty rad John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge and passing the Nissan Stadium + a host of tailgaters where the Tennessee Titans had a game that evening). We caught the tail end of the Tomato Festival (an annual “costume friendly” art festival) held in the Five Points area of East Nashville. When it started to downpour, we quickly sought refuge inside the nearest bar, which happened to be the Red Door Saloon. It was a quirky, Chicago dive bar (complete with tons of Pabst and Cubs paraphernalia and many, many skulls/skeletons) that perfeclty suited our needs. (Note: Smoking is still allowed inside Tennessee bars). After a few drinks, we continued our journey to Pepperfire for some hot chicken. Heat options include: Southernfied (no heat), Light Mild (a little heat), Mild (noticeable heat), Medium (significant heat), Hot (painful for most), X Hot!* and XX Hot!* (*these will jump on you and won’t let go!). I went for Medium, which was still really, really intense and Michael opted for XX Hot (and he barely survived). Opting for a ‘low key’ night out, we headed to Rebar, a stone’s throw from our hotel, where we played a few rounds of Skee ball (my favorite) and watched the Olympics on their outdoor dance floor, while packs of people strategically pranced around us.

Cheekwood Gardens

Sunday, August 14

After a successful quest to obtain a print version of the New York Times (to read the amazing feature, Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart), we visited the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art. The Cheek family made their forture with the Maxwell House coffee brand. The Cheeks sold Maxwell House’s parent company, Cheek-Neal Coffee in 1928 to Postum (now General Foods). The Cheeks used the proceeds to purchase 100 acres of land and hired the New York residential and landscape architect, Bryant Fleming, to complete the construction of the limestone mansion and gardens. Cheekwood was completed in 1932. In the 1950s the site was offered as a site for a botanical garden and art museum. It opened to the public in 1960.

Future

In the evening: it’s the Drake/Future Summer Sixteen show at the Bridgestone Arena. A girl two rows in front of us wears her sunglasses and Snapchats videos of herself all night. Drake mentions that tomorrow is his day off and that he’s looking to hang out with a lucky lady tonight–(even if it’s just to chill and get drinks). He says Nashville is like home since his pops is from Memphis. He also gives a nod to Shania Twain who was in the audience. Doors are at 6:30 and the show ends around 11:30.

Notes: Nashville, you were fun, but a little bit too racist for me. Complete lack of ‘diversity’ and too many Trump vibes outside of East Nashville.