Nashvillest

Per Nashville’s typical downtown celebration routine, enough roads are closed this weekend that it’s probably best to avoid driving near downtown. But in case you’re the adventurous type, here are the road closures (and a whole slew of additional parking closures at the link) for the holiday weekend!

FRIDAY

• 5:00pm-11:30pm: 1st Avenue (Demonbreun to Church)
• 5:00pm-11:30pm: Broadway (1st to 2nd)
• Bell Road, Stewarts Ferry to Old Hickory (Nashville Shores)
• N 12th Street, Calvin Ave to Ordway (Block Party)

Fourth of July is one of our favorite times to be in Nashville, and the challenge this year is to pack our days as full as we can with any of the billion events happening this weekend. Also, if you need to stock up on booze for your cookouts/block parties/BYOB-type things, do it today since all liquor stores will be closed tomorrow. Most importantly, have a blast and stay safe out there! And if we’ve left out something fun, let us know in the comments.

FRIDAY

• THIRTH of July Block Party, 6pm, 12th Ave. N., $10. Having racked up a respectable winning streak for “Best Block Party” in the Nashville Scene, the 4th annual Thirth of July party just a few blocks from Five Points is worth checking out. Entertainment includes a few local favorites like the Silver Seas and possibly some burlesque. Potluck and beer are free with admission (though one savvy tipster recommends BYOB since the kegs run out fast), and all proceeds benefit the Adventure Science Center.
• Autovaughn @ Poolapalooza, 7pm, Opryland Hotel, FREE. Part of the Opryland Hotel’s free summer concert series/pool party/all-around good time. Read what we had to say about it here.
• Nashville Shores’ Shores & Stripes. 5pm, Nashville Shores, $20/carload. Nashville Shores is having a Shores & Stripes celebration all day, but after 5pm, admission is just $20 per carload, and includes a couple hours at the water park, a beach concert and a fireworks show.

SATURDAY

• Music City Hot Chicken Festival, 11am-3pm, East Park, FREE. One of our favorite things about summer in Nashville. Lots of chicken, lots of beer, an amateur hot chicken cooking contest with some celebrity (kinda) judges, and free hot chicken samples for the first 500 folks to venture out.
• Farmers’ Market Summer Grill Party, 11am-2pm, Nashville Farmers’ Market, FREE. Come out and support your local farmers and artisans with some live music and grilled veggies (you know, if chicken doesn’t do it for you.)
• Franklin on the Fourth, 11am-9pm, Historic Downtown Franklin, FREE. Franklin’s annual kid-friendly Independence Day celebration with food, crafts, inflatable jumpy things, climbing walls, and the ever-popular kids parade at 4pm.
• Music City July 4th: Let Freedom Sing, 12pm (party), 9:03pm (fireworks), downtown, FREE. This is Nashville’s “official” July 4th shindig, and we’ll warn you that it can get crazy-crowded. Somehow MTA (yes, the actual Metro Transit Authority) is part of the entertainment, along with the Gabe Dixon Band, Wynonna, and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. For the lazies among us, it’ll also be livestreaming on the internet.
• Nashville Choir’s In God We Trust, Bicentennial Mall State Park, 7pm, FREE. If you’re looking for something a little more low-key, grab a picnic dinner and head down to Bicentennial for an evening of entertainment including American Idol finalist Phil Stacey, some bluegrass, and historical reenactments.
• 4th of July Urban Ride with Team Green. 7:30pm, Centennial Park, FREE. Join Lightning 100’s Team Green as they bike from Centennial Park to the Woodland Street Bridge to hang out and watch the fireworks. And one of the best things about biking? No traffic!
• Fourth of July @ Mercy Lounge. 8pm, $5/$8 for dudes, ladies free. Mercy Lounge touts the “Best View of Downtown Fireworks in Nashville!” and a couple of good bands are playing.

SUNDAY

• Rock & Roll Team Trivia, 8pm, Mercy Lounge, FREE. So this happens every Sunday, but this week they’re doubling the stakes with $100, $50, and $20 prizes for winning teams. You’ll get three rounds of questions, two rounds of name-that-tune, and a final round showdown. Free parking and drink specials all night.

Photo by Brent & MariLynn.

Good morning, Nashville. It’s Friday, it’s a long weekend, and your Nashvillest editors are peacing out to spend the day by the pool. We won’t have much for you today, but we’ll be back in full swing on Monday. Have a happy and safe Fourth!

Photo by Grey Street Girl.

• Starting off the long weekend with some happy news, Metro Police Sgt. Mark Chesnut has been upgraded to stable condition after undergoing multiple surgeries for gunshot wounds sustained earlier this week. [WTVF]
• The guns-for-circus-tickets campaign was a success, collecting almost 100 guns this week. [WKRN]
• A camp for troubled kids was kicked off of its land by none other than Brad Paisley, who bought the land a few years ago and told them they wouldn’t need to worry about moving. They were then told to relocate by Paisley’s financial manager because the land was to be used for a bus parking garage. Paisley’s publicist said that it was actually for insurance purposes. Drama! [WSMV]
• Speaking of country music drama, Kid Rock and Kellie Pickler are totally NOT dating and Keith & Nicole are totally NOT pregnant again. Just doing our part to dispel the rumors and help y’all sleep at night. [Country Music Tattle Tale & The Sun]
• The feds have given the TVA permission to dump all of that nasty toxic ash in one of the poorest counties in Alabama, effective immediately, and now everyone is upset. [WTVF]
• We forgot to tell you yesterday that your water bills are going up by $3 to offset the cost of the storm drain makeover. [WSMV]

Photo by rumielf.

If you’ve been reading us for a while, you probably know that we’ve kept a pretty close eye on the aftermath of the TVA’s Kingston ash spill back in December. The spill spread more than 1.1 billion gallons of sludge over nearly 300 acres of land, resulting in health problems, property loss, and massive environmental impact in Roane County. This morning, Twitter friend @shakieranthem brought this set of before-and-after NASA satellite photos to our attention showing the scope of the spill from outer space:

The Thematic Mapper on NASA’s Landsat 5 satellite captured these images of the Kingston Fossil Plant and its surroundings on November 20, 2008, a month before the spill (bottom), and December 22, 2008, immediately after the spill (top). In these false-color images, water appears blue, and sediment-laden water appears light blue. Vegetation appears green, and bare ground and urbanized areas appear pinkish-brown.

In the November image, walls visibly contain two adjacent slurry ponds at the plant—one in the northwest and one in the southeast—but in the December image, the walls of the northwestern slurry pond have given way. In this image, light blue slurry covers the ground to the north and east of the plant. Sediment also clogs the nearby Emory River, evident from the waterway’s relatively light blue color.

Images courtesy of NASA, mashed up by us.

Though we’re going a little crosseyed looking at it, we love the curves in this snapshot of the Bicentennial Mall amphitheater by geeuuvee.

Photo Of The Day will be a recurring feature for Nashvillest as long you keep giving us stuff to post. Don’t worry–we’ll give you props. Just add them to the pool or tag them with “Nashvillest” if you’re feeling lazy.

Good morning, Nashville. We may be seeing calorie information on restaurant menus after all, since Governor Phil vetoed a bill yesterday that would’ve reversed the Metro Board of Health’s decision to require it a few months ago. And why did he veto it? Because our state is looking at a 30% obesity rate and the governor feels that if cities want to try to curb that by letting folks know what they’re eating, then they should be able to do that.

• Cutting the red tape. And actually, Governor Phil has been pretty busy lately. Yesterday, he also joined a few other public figures to break ground on the I-40 overpass near White Bridge that’s been in limbo for nearly four years because we didn’t have the money to finish it. Thanks to some of the stimulus money, the project might actually happen.
• Soft targets. Since Green Hills (or at least the Green Hills Mall parking garage) has recently become a hotbed for violent crime, officials are trying to figure out what’s going on and how to stop it. At least one contributing factor according to security personnel is that “Shoppers in Green Hills are what criminals refer to as a soft target.” Heh.
• Bits & pieces. Metro buses are getting fitted with fancy new GPS systems that should make it easier to tell just how absurdly late your bus is going to be … All Gannett papers, including the Tennessean, took another pretty big cut yesterday … BNA is losing three Southwest flights … The Preds’ Alexander Radulov, who ran off to Russia last year before his contract was up because he liked Russian hockey better, won’t be re-signing with the Preds.

Photo by Chris1051.

• We’re hearing reports from our more hockey-savvy friends that Steve Sullivan just inked a new 2-year deal with the Preds. As you can see from his joyous tweet above, the fans aren’t the only ones excited about it. [The Twitter Tubes]
• An Indiana theme park called Holiday World donated 37,000 pounds of food to Second Harvest Food Bank here in Nashville, which is looking at some pretty sizable cuts from Metro in the near future. [WKRN]
• The preliminary hearing for the two guys accused of shooting Metro Police Sgt. Mark Chesnut last week has been postponed for two weeks to give their legal team more time to prepare. [Tennessean]
• Governor Phil offered up a $20 million incentive for GM to bring their new small car to the Spring Hill plant, which was about 1/10th of what GM originally asked for. Obviously, we didn’t win the bid. [WSMV]
• If you’re one of the 10.7% jobless around here, the Sounds are hiring some more help for the rest of the season. [WSMV]
• Miracles never cease: Tickets finally sold out for the Music City Star’s fireworks express train. [WKRN]

With the weather being as mild as it’s been for the past few days, lots of folks have been using the time to hang out at the Nashville Zoo. Flickr user Scruffy Eagle caught these two zebras “sharin’ a moment” yesterday in the sun.

Photo Of The Day will be a recurring feature for Nashvillest as long you keep giving us stuff to post. Don’t worry–we’ll give you props. Just add them to the pool or tag them with “Nashvillest” if you’re feeling lazy.

We might as well mark this down as a yearly event on our calendars, because the Tennessee-is-fat reports have started rolling in for 2009. You may remember that last year we ranked both 3rd and 6th for fattest state in the nation, and it appears that not much has changed. The Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have ranked us as 4th Fattest State in 2009 in their annual F as in Fat report. Tennessee’s adult obesity is up to 30.2%, rivaled only by Mississippi, West Virginia and Alabama. All hail the Mighty South! Thanks to Jessy for the tip!

In other Mixed Reviews news, The Hermitage Hotel topped Luxury Travel Magazine’s list of Top Ten Historic Hotels for Independence Day (h/t Post Business). Tennessee ranked 6th in teen driving deaths, and Nashville rolled in at 4th place among metropolitan areas in the same report. Nashville ranked 51st in economic performance during the recession (among 100 large metropolitan areas).

Photo by jodigreen.