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Monthly Archives: December, 2011

Bright & Early: Pot, Meet Kettle Edition

Good morning, Nashville. The new coach at University of Tennessee is already in hot water for using some illegal tactics to lure potential recruits to the team including a staged mock press conference and… a fog machine? Creative! The UT athletics department blew the whistle on Coach Kiffin and sent him a letter pointing out that he’d violated the NCAA’s policies. Unfortunately this wasn’t the first time he’s gone rogue either, since the SEC sent him another nasty letter last week for spreading a rumor about Florida’s coach using illegal recruiting tactics.

  • State of the State. We expect to be hearing a lot about Governor Bredesen’s State of the State address over the next couple of days. He delivered the speech last night and if you’re feeling particularly masochistic today (or maybe it’s just what you’re into), here’s the full text.
  • Racial suit against Metro. A former Metro groundskeeper is suing the city after being laid off following his complaints about racism in the workplace. Though they offered him his job back, he would have had to take a lower position and let’s face it–who really wants to work for Metro right now anyway?
  • Bits & pieces. There is a giant job fair today at the fairgrounds for the 50,000 of you who are rocking the unemployment in Nashville … Nashville home sales are the lowest they’ve been in 15 years … The number of salmonella cases in Tennessee is now up to 13 … Pacman became a free agent yesterday after Dallas decided they didn’t want him either.

Photo by Silenus81.

Good morning, Nashville. The new coach at University of Tennessee is already in hot water for using some illegal tactics to lure potential recruits to the team including a staged mock press conference and… a fog machine? Creative! The UT athletics department blew the whistle on Coach Kiffin and sent him a letter pointing out [...]

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Happy Hour: Watch Where You Step!

  • We can’t really imagine what 17 loads of chicken poop must smell like, but apparently it was bad enough to shut down the entire Rhea County school system early today. [WZTV]
  • The guy who barged into a Knoxville church a few months ago and killed two people was sentenced to life in prison. He claimed he did it because he “hated liberals and gays.” [Tennessean]
  • Costs continue to rack up for the TVA since someone told them they need to find ways to not ruin the environment. If they comply with the US District Court’s mandate to clean up coal plants near the NC border, they’ll have to find some way to come up with $1.8 billion. [Tennessean]
  • Speaker of the House Kent Williams, the Republican that everyone started hating when he pulled the proverbial rug from beneath the Tennessee Republicans last month, got kicked out of the Republican Party today. Which brings the House total to 49 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and Kent Williams. [WTVF]

Photo by ArcheiaMuriel.

We can’t really imagine what 17 loads of chicken poop must smell like, but apparently it was bad enough to shut down the entire Rhea County school system early today. [WZTV] The guy who barged into a Knoxville church a few months ago and killed two people was sentenced to life in prison. He claimed [...]

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Fiction Family At The Belcourt On January 30 [Guest Posts]

Guest post by our friend Jon Arnold. Jon has been a guest blogger for Nashvillest in the past, writing about CREMA’s Coffee Classes.
I found out I had tickets to the Fiction Family show about two hours before it started.  I collected my wife and hurried over to the Belcourt, where I found a few co-workers (music business people) standing in line to get in.  We exchanged some pleasantries, discovered I was on the meet-and-greet list, and headed inside.
As the show started I realized I had seen Thad Cockrell once before, for a label showcase my wife’s company had put on.  He’s great, really; a hometown mixture of country — REAL country, mind you — and some deeply complex lyrics about love.  Basically, he’s comprised of a lot of what’s right with music in this town.
He performed a short but respectable set with a competent group of musicians behind him.  The crowd was familiar, polite, but were really there to see Fiction Family; you could start to feel the anticipation in the room growing.  Between sets we stood talking up friends for a while, but quickly quieted down when the theatre lights dimmed.
When Jon Foreman, Sean Watkins, and the rest of the band entered the stage, Foreman smiled and greeted the audience with, “Hello! Tonight we are your Fictional Family!”
It was true: that night, we did not watch Jon Foreman deliver epic rock anthems from the stage, or Sean Watkins perform brooding, heartfelt bluegrass. Instead, we saw smiling, affable musicians just up there having a good time and not worrying about impressing us, the crowd.
Their set was tight, with a musical ability that was nothing short of effortless, and yet it never felt like we were watching a “show.”  It really did feel like we were watching someone play songs with some friends in a living room, especially during the point in the set when Foreman invited the crowd up on the stage.
With people seated all around them, Fiction Family played a well-rounded set of their own material (including a Nickel Creek song and a solo Foreman tune) and a slew of covers.  We heard some Radiohead, Arcade Fire, but the true culmination was Sean’s solo cover of “Pink Triangle”, a song about unrequited lesbian love by Weezer.  Foreman sat on the ground and just chuckled through the whole tune, which Watkins played totally straight-faced.
Fiction Family’s music is light, sure, but the content of the songs can be pretty intense.  Twice, Foreman made light of that fact by asking the crowd to give it up for the topic of the song:
“Let’s hear it for murder!!” …which later gave way to, “Let’s hear it for the darkest day of your life!”
They always carried a little half-smile about everything, despite the fact that this Sean-Jon pair seems really quite world weary and worn. Keep in mind they’re both barely thirty and have been performing music professional nearly half their lives; a project like this must be a welcome relief.
After performing most of their album, they closed their set with their single, “When She’s Near”, a great amalgamation of their distinctly different styles.  Their encore was quality and ended with the album closer, “Look For Me Baby,” a rollicking bluegrass tune played on a banjolin.  And then, just like that, it was over.  The band bowed and left the stage, and everyone on the stage just sort of got up and started walking towards the exit.
My wife and I met up with our friends and walked into the precarious Belcourt basement, where a sweaty and grinning Foreman explained how glad he was to have so much fun on stage. He loved pulling some of the crowd up there with him and felt that it was such a great change of pace.  Watkins was busy getting things ready to leave and never stayed still, similar to how he behaved on stage (I could not get a clear photo of that guy for anything!).
Overall, the show was totally not what I expected: two guys known for their emotionally charged music get up on stage and have a good time for two hours. That being said, it’s obvious the emotion is still there, mostly in the form of the lyrics.  As we left and braved the cold night, the words of their songs is what bounced around in my head. Some of these songs betray their upbeat nature and point to severe emotional strife; I mean, just look at these lines from “War in My Blood”:
My baby’s soft and sweet, somewhere between a flower and a gun
Where my girl is now, someday that’s where I want to be from
But love is a dollar that’s already spent, love is a song that we’ve sung
There’s war in my blood, love ain’t the tune in my lungs
So here’s my consolation:
It takes two to go to war, and only one to fall in love.
Photo (and more here) by Jon Arnold.

Guest post by our friend Jon Arnold. Jon has been a guest blogger for Nashvillest in the past, writing about CREMA’s Coffee Classes. I found out I had tickets to the Fiction Family show about two hours before it started.  I collected my wife and hurried over to the Belcourt, where I found a few [...]

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You Tell Us: What Are Your Valentines Plans?

Consider this your official reminder that Valentine’s Day is this Saturday. What are your plans? Any tips on restaurants that are great for Valentine’s dinners around town (or better yet, places where we can still get a reservation)? It seems like there’s nothing quite as awesome as that one time Sigur Rós played the Ryman on Valentines Day, but is there anything fun we should know about? And if you’ll be spending the evening getting your drink on, well, let us know that too.

Photo by aussiegall.

Consider this your official reminder that Valentine’s Day is this Saturday. What are your plans? Any tips on restaurants that are great for Valentine’s dinners around town (or better yet, places where we can still get a reservation)? It seems like there’s nothing quite as awesome as that one time Sigur Rós played the Ryman [...]

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Bright & Early: Everyone’s A Star Edition

Good morning, Nashville. We feel like it’s safe to say that we left our mark on the Grammy’s last night. Sure, Miley and Taylor were no Stevie Wonder and the Jonas Brothers, but Robert Plant and Alison Krauss walked home with five Grammy’s including Best Album and Best Record. Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney, Sugarland, and Keith & Nicole all made appearances, and even Kid Rock showed up and managed not to embarrass us too much. All in all, it was a pretty decent night for the folks who call Music City home.

  • Free at last. Teenage hooligans all around Metro are rejoicing with the latest budget cut which removes electronic ankle monitors from the juvenile justice system completely. Guess they’ll just have to stick with the good old-fashioned ball ‘n’ chain.
  • Sinking ship. The feds are now freezing $5M in grants to Metro Nashville Public Schools because someone found out that they used their last grant for $1.6M illegally. Par for the course.
  • Bits & pieces. Metro Action Commission is running out of money to bail us all out of our sky-high electric bills … This is what happens when you go to a BBQ joint to interview people about pork barrel spending … The TVA may be lowering rates soon … Gov. Phil is all set to give the State of the State address today.

Photo by Chad Lunn.

Good morning, Nashville. We feel like it’s safe to say that we left our mark on the Grammy’s last night. Sure, Miley and Taylor were no Stevie Wonder and the Jonas Brothers, but Robert Plant and Alison Krauss walked home with five Grammy’s including Best Album and Best Record. Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney, Sugarland, and [...]

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Happy Hour: When Love Strikes

  • Good news for the droves of people flocking to the county clerk to get married on Valentine’s Day! Since it’s on a Saturday this year, everyone was afraid they’d be closed. But fortunately they’ll be keeping their doors open, marrying folks from 9am-3pm in St. Valentine’s Chapel of Love, handing out commemorative Valentine’s Day marriage licenses, and partying it up afterwards. [Post Politics]
  • From the department of “Never Thought THAT Would Happen,” Greer Stadium is finally getting a makeover, which should be done before they throw out the first pitch on April 9th. [WSMV]
  • Metro Police finally arrested the guy who allegedly raped a 20-year old girl on Halloween night in Green Hills. [WKRN]
  • In the name of transparency, the TVA has made available pretty much every document containing everything you could ever want or need to know about the Kingston power plant from the last 10 years. [Tennessean]
  • Tickets go on sale next Friday at 10am for James Taylor at TPAC! [Tennessean]

Photo by natala.

Good news for the droves of people flocking to the county clerk to get married on Valentine’s Day! Since it’s on a Saturday this year, everyone was afraid they’d be closed. But fortunately they’ll be keeping their doors open, marrying folks from 9am-3pm in St. Valentine’s Chapel of Love, handing out commemorative Valentine’s Day marriage [...]

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Nashville Twestival Tickets On Sale Now! [Party Time]

Our Twestival Nashville team has been hard at work this week and we’ve finally secured a location with some free food (until it runs out) and some awesome drink specials (we know that’s why you’re really coming). Geoff Smith at the Big Bang Dueling Piano Bar on Broadway has generously offered up the venue to us from 5pm-8pm on February 12 (and longer, if you want to stay to see the regular show). Raffle prizes will be given throughout the night from a bunch of great local businesses, and several event sponsors will be giving out free swag at the event all night. Please note that the Big Bang is 21+. We’re so sorry to disappoint our underage readers, and promise we didn’t forget about you in planning this.

Though we’re calling it a Tweet-up, every single one of you are invited! We’re one of over 175 cities hosting a Twestival that night and we’ll be livestreaming the event in partnership with LiveEarth. We’d love to pack the place out and show them exactly what kind of a city we are. So come on out, mix and mingle with Nashville’s Twitter and blogging community, and let’s meet our goal of raising $4,000 for Charity:Water!

Please buy your tickets in advance so we know how many people to expect. Click here to purchase tickets. Remember, this may seem like a steep cover charge, but it’s a direct donation to Charity:Water. Your $10 donation provides one person with clean water for TEN YEARS. If you wish to make additional donations, you can go to charitywater.org/twestival and select “Nashville” from the drop-down menu.

Invite your friends – We need word to spread far and beyond what we can do ourselves. Blog about it, tweet about it, Facebook about it…

We can’t wait to see you there!

Our Twestival Nashville team has been hard at work this week and we’ve finally secured a location with some free food (until it runs out) and some awesome drink specials (we know that’s why you’re really coming). Geoff Smith at the Big Bang Dueling Piano Bar on Broadway has generously offered up the venue to [...]

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Bright & Early: You Win Some, You Lose Some Edition

Good morning, Nashville. We have to admint we’re not real surprised to hear the news this morning that those super-ugly condos on the corner of 5th and Main in East Nashville aren’t actually selling like they were supposed to. The sorry state of the economy and housing market and probably the fact that they’re kind of atrocious-looking may have something to do with only seven or eight of the 130 units selling. Consequently, Wachovia has stepped in and taken control because the owners are, oh, about $29 million in the hole.

  • School daze. Metro Police arrested 12 Hunters Lane High School students yesterday and charged two with assaulting an assistant principal and campus supervisor. As Channel 5 astutely observes, “[n]o parent wants to see teens hauled out of their child’s school in handcuffs.” Uh, yeah.
  • Sob stories. Because it’s apparently illegal to let your car heat up in the morning without you in it, Metro Police have been taking advantage of the cold snap to dole out some extra tickets. So if your 6-month old kid has a fever and it’s 17 degrees outside, don’t go heat up your car before you take them to the hospital. Lesson learned.
  • Bits & pieces. The Preds won their third in a row last night and Steve Sullivan didn’t keel over … The Metro Council is considering some small improvements to the city’s water system to the tune of $500 million … The TVA is settling in for the long haul with the ash spill cleanup in Kingston … The parents of the two kidnapped Middle Tennessee kids who turned up 20 years later are hoping to meet them out in California.

Photo by kjamesh89.

Good morning, Nashville. We have to admint we’re not real surprised to hear the news this morning that those super-ugly condos on the corner of 5th and Main in East Nashville aren’t actually selling like they were supposed to. The sorry state of the economy and housing market and probably the fact that they’re kind [...]

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Happy Hour: Case For Clones

  • Please bear with us over the next few days while we continue planning the Nashville Twestival! If we could multiply ourselves and post more often this week, we would. We promise it’ll be worth it, though. :) Stay tuned–Tickets will go on sale tonight as soon as we announce the time and place! [Twestival Nashville]
  • Rough day for Williamson County Schools! Three separate bus collisions this morning, but thankfully no injuries. [Tennessean]
  • Titans defensive end Jevon Kearse wants us all to know that he’s sorry for dragging us through the whole DUI mess. His charges were reduced today, but he’ll still lose his license for a year, have 6 months probation for reckless driving, and keep participating in the NFL’s alcohol education program [WKRN]
  • The Better Business Bureau has our backs with a list of 9 middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky companies we should avoid like the plague. [WSMV]
  • The latest casualty in the peanut product recall? FEMA’s emergency meals. [Tennessean]

Photo by k. edge.

Please bear with us over the next few days while we continue planning the Nashville Twestival! If we could multiply ourselves and post more often this week, we would. We promise it’ll be worth it, though. :) Stay tuned–Tickets will go on sale tonight as soon as we announce the time and place! [Twestival Nashville] [...]

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Bright & Early: Nature’s Fury Edition

Good morning, Nashville. Today marks the one year anniversary of all those crazy tornadoes that swept across the country last year and killed almost 60 people, over half of which were in Tennessee. The Tennessean gives us a little blast from the past with a couple of slideshows, a timeline of the events as they unfolded, a roundup of news stories from a year ago today, and some updates on how those communities are still recovering.

Photo by Michael Hodge.

Good morning, Nashville. Today marks the one year anniversary of all those crazy tornadoes that swept across the country last year and killed almost 60 people, over half of which were in Tennessee. The Tennessean gives us a little blast from the past with a couple of slideshows, a timeline of the events as they [...]

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