Monthly Archives: December, 2011
Bright & Early: Dredging The Day Away Edition
Good morning, Nashville. It was a rough weekend for East Tennessee after some Department of Energy contractors accidentally poisoned 30,000 fish in Oak Ridge. On top of that, news surfaced of floodwaters causing some of the spilled Kingston coal ash to wash back into the Tennessee River and turn it a nasty shade of grey. Kingston residents may finally be getting some much-needed attention from Congress, though; US Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson paid the town a visit yesterday to hear from the folks whose lives have been drastically affected by last December’s disaster. Her thoughts? “This is a bit more serious than we anticipated … I feel like the reports we’ve gotten have been incomplete.” We can’t say we’re surprised.
- How badly do we need jobs? Morgan County commissioner Nick Bishop nixed his own proposal to bring the last of the Gitmo terrorism suspects to a state prison in Petro, Tennessee for the sake of creating jobs. In related news, after six people have escaped from Tennessee’s state prisons this year, officials are thinking that the old barbed wire fence idea might not be enough.
- Our state overfloweth. Apparently the 40,000-person estimate for CMApocalypse was low–We’re now hearing upwards of 52,000 per day, plus the 80,000 people trekking into Tennessee for Bonnaroo. That said, our state is going to be pretty full next weekend.
- Bits & pieces. “Warm, muggy Monday.” Not the words we wanted to hear! … The heirs to the Rocky Top fortune (yes, the song) are all upset because A&E used part of the anthem in a true-crime show … We’re trying not to think about how we’re the only people in Nashville who didn’t see Coldplay last night and this isn’t helping … A 7-year old kid is working around the clock to keep Nashville’s homeless cool this summer … UT football tickets go on sale today!
A year ago on Nashvillest: We learned all about the bell towers on the Bicentennial Mall (one of the coolest things in Nashville), got our first of many morning chuckles from our favorite weatherman Mr. Tim, and got all excited for another installment of the 48-hour Film Festival.
Photo by victorjames615.
Good morning, Nashville. It was a rough weekend for East Tennessee after some Department of Energy contractors accidentally poisoned 30,000 fish in Oak Ridge. On top of that, news surfaced of floodwaters causing some of the spilled Kingston coal ash to wash back into the Tennessee River and turn it a nasty shade of grey. [...]
The Weekendist: Not Quite Fireflies Edition
This weekend in Gatlinburg marks the beginning of a week-long Firefly Light Show in the Great Smoky Mountains. Thousands of fireflies blink in unison, and visitors travel from all over to visit the spectacle. We’re sort of jealous that the fireflies in Nashville don’t seem to be as exciting, but we do have a lot happening this weekend to take your mind off what you’re missing. But if you’ve got the time, don’t let us stop you from hopping in the car and taking a trip down to the good ol’ Smokies!
FRIDAY
- Poolapalooza. Opryland’s Cascades Pool, 6pm, free. This week’s Poolapalooza features a performance by local band Armed Forces, plus the usual sun, fun and booze.
SATURDAY
- 7th Annual Catfish Rodeo & Water Festival. Shelby Park, registration begins at 7am, free. Take the kids out to celebrate Free Fishing Day at Shelby Park, where 2,000 pounds of catfish have been dumped to ensure a good time. Then, swing up the hill to the nature center, where the Water Festival will provide entertainment for the whole family.
- Bags For Africa. Art House Garden Center, 9am, free. The annual used bag sale in East Nashville to benefit our friends at Blood:Water Mission is this weekend, with coffee and live entertainment while you browse the giant
- Snow Patrol Grimey’s Instore. Grimey’s, 2pm, free. Too poor for those pricey Coldplay tickets? Head over to Grimey’s to see opening act Snow Patrol do an instore set before the big show that night.
- Big Band Dance. Centennial Park, 7:30pm, free. The year’s first Big Band Dance is this weekend, and will kick off with an evening of The Moonlighters Big Band and doing the rumba!
- Museums On Us. Cheekwood & the Frist Center, all day, free. Bank of America cardholders can participate in the Museums On Us program, which provides free admission on the first Saturday and Sunday of every month to participating museums around the country. Currently, the only museums participating in Tennessee are the Frist Center and Cheekwood.
- First Saturday Art Crawl. Downtown art galleries, 6pm-9pm, free. First Saturday art-crawlers know the drill by now. Every month on the first Saturday, many downtown galleries open their doors to the public for free, with a complimentary shuttle between galleries. It’s a monthly favorite for many, and if you haven’t gone yet, maybe this is the month!
SUNDAY
- Dragon Music Sunday. Fannie Mae Dees Park, 3pm-5:30pm, free. Dragon Music Sundays are a summer staple at Dragon Park (er, excuse us, Fannie Mae Dees Park). Come out this week to enjoy music from Webb Wilder and hang out with some friends.
This weekend in Gatlinburg marks the beginning of a week-long Firefly Light Show in the Great Smoky Mountains. Thousands of fireflies blink in unison, and visitors travel from all over to visit the spectacle. We’re sort of jealous that the fireflies in Nashville don’t seem to be as exciting, but we do have a lot [...]
This Weekend: 7th Annual Catfish Rodeo And Water Festival
Saddle up your catfish! Or rather, take the kids out to Shelby Park tomorrow for the 7th Annual Catfish Rodeo & Water Festival, which coincides with Tennessee’s Free Fishing Day. Kids ages 5-16 will be allowed to fish in Shelby Park’s Sevier Lake from 8:30am-10:30am, where 2,000 pounds of catfish have helpfully been dumped to ensure that the kiddos will snag a good catch. Bring your own fishing gear, as loaner gear is scarce.
You may remember the Catfish Rodeo from its prior years in Centennial Park, but its new home at Shelby Park allows it to coincide with the Shelby Bottoms Nature Center’s Water Festival, from 10am-2pm. Games, fishing, scavenger hunts, boating and water education activities are all on the agenda for this year.
Photo by Brent and MariLynn.
Saddle up your catfish! Or rather, take the kids out to Shelby Park tomorrow for the 7th Annual Catfish Rodeo & Water Festival, which coincides with Tennessee’s Free Fishing Day. Kids ages 5-16 will be allowed to fish in Shelby Park’s Sevier Lake from 8:30am-10:30am, where 2,000 pounds of catfish have helpfully been dumped to [...]
Bright & Early: Can’t Get No Satisfaction Edition
Good morning, Nashville. By now, we’re all pretty familiar with the Guns in Bars bill saga, which was passed by the state legislature and vetoed by Governor Phil and then passed again over the course of the past two weeks. A similar bill that would allow guns in public parks is also well on its way to becoming the law in Tennessee, but Nashville’s Metro Council–rebels that they are–have already threatened to create a law of their own making it illegal to pack heat in Metro’s parks if the statewide bill should pass. One of the potential sponsors, Councilman at-large Jerry Maynard, went as far as to call the Guns in Parks bill “horrible public policy.” He continues, “The day the governor signs it, that same day I’m filing legislation to outlaw it locally.”
- MNPS backs down. After staring down a nasty lawsuit from the ACLU, Metro Schools have followed in the footsteps of Knox County and unblocked GLBT-themed websites on school computers. Students originally complained that the schools were blocking informative sites like the Human Rights Campaign and Dignity USA while allowing them to access other sites that address “fixing” or changing homosexuality.
- Oops? A 21-year old guy was picked up at a traffic stop in Nashville, determined to be an undocumented immigrant, and then shipped out to Mexico as a part of the 287(g) immigration enforcement program. Problem is, he’s a US citizen and hadn’t been to Mexico since he was 5.
- Bits & pieces. The city of Lebanon are thinking about suing Dell for cutting almost 500 jobs … A couple of dueling protests are slated to happen outside of Planned Parenthood in north Nashville tomorrow … In a rare bout of profundity, the TVA’s chairman declared yesterday that a coal ash spill like the one in Kingston “must never happen again” … TDOT is closing I-40 again this weekend, but just the westbound side.
A year ago on Nashvillest: We showed you how to make the best of CMApocalypse 2008, learned about the dangers of the CMA fest by watching WKRN’s Brad Schmitt get accosted by a staffer and savagely beaten by a small child with some inflatable sticks, and took lots of pictures of green things.
Photo by urbanwoodchuck.
Good morning, Nashville. By now, we’re all pretty familiar with the Guns in Bars bill saga, which was passed by the state legislature and vetoed by Governor Phil and then passed again over the course of the past two weeks. A similar bill that would allow guns in public parks is also well on its [...]
Happy Hour: Skeletons In The Closet
- This should make us all feel better: All of the rain has made some humain bones float into the Cumberland River, and those bones could apparently be 6,000 years old. Who the heck was in Tennessee 6,000 years ago besides the dinosaurs!? [WSMV]
- If you frequent the downtown YMCA, you may notice that it’s closed. It was struck by lightning last night and all the power went out, so it’ll reopen on Saturday morning for all your fitness needs and in the meantime you can visit any of the other locations. [WKRN]
- The Holiday Inn in Brentwood laid off their entire staff, kicked all of their guests out, and shut their doors for good yesterday without any real notice. It’s the same hotel that was successfully sued for $2 million a few months ago for firing some folks because they were gay. [WSMV]
- Metro PD thinks they’ve tracked down at least one of the two suspects in Tuesday’s Green Hills Mall parking garage assault wherein some poor sap got locked in his own trunk. [WKRN]
- The Slammin’ & Jammin’ car show in Lebanon ended up causing the city to fork over almost $20,000 to pay police officers overtime for the security they provided. [WSMV]
Photo by Paul Nicholson.
This should make us all feel better: All of the rain has made some humain bones float into the Cumberland River, and those bones could apparently be 6,000 years old. Who the heck was in Tennessee 6,000 years ago besides the dinosaurs!? [WSMV] If you frequent the downtown YMCA, you may notice that it’s closed. [...]
This Weekend: Snow Patrol To Play Instore At Grimeys
Too poor to snag tickets to the Coldplay show on Saturday at the Sommet Center? Yeah, us too. But us poor folk were pretty excited to hear that Snow Patrol will be playing an instore at Grimey’s on Saturday before they open for Coldplay that night. It’s like, half the show for none of the price, or something! Just one more reason why we love Grimey’s.
Snow Patrol will be playing at 2pm on Saturday, and we strongly suggest that you arrive early (it took us 45 minutes to park on Record Store Day).
Photo by lint01.
Too poor to snag tickets to the Coldplay show on Saturday at the Sommet Center? Yeah, us too. But us poor folk were pretty excited to hear that Snow Patrol will be playing an instore at Grimey’s on Saturday before they open for Coldplay that night. It’s like, half the show for none of the [...]
Raise Up Benefit: Mindy Smith, Landon Pigg, Erin McCarley And More
Benefit shows are a dime a dozen in Nashville, and it gets to the point where we usually just tune them out. Yet tonight’s fundraiser at Rocketown for Ruthie Sayles, a Nashville resident in need of a $100,000 surgery stemming from a preexisting condition, is hard to ignore. Her friends are joining together to put on tonight’s show, and it just so happens that among her friends are Mindy Smith, Landon Pigg, Erin McCarley, Griffin House, Brooke Waggoner and Sixpence None The Richer. These artists have each packed out smaller venues on their own, and tonight is a rare opportunity to see them all on one ticket.
In addition to the show, more of Ruthie’s talented friends will be auctioning off their professional services (no, not like that!) including studio production, photoshoots, video work and music lessons. The concert is from 6pm-10pm at Rocketown, and tickets are $20.
Benefit shows are a dime a dozen in Nashville, and it gets to the point where we usually just tune them out. Yet tonight’s fundraiser at Rocketown for Ruthie Sayles, a Nashville resident in need of a $100,000 surgery stemming from a preexisting condition, is hard to ignore. Her friends are joining together to put [...]
Bright & Early: Busted Edition
Good morning, Nashville. We’ll start off today with a burning question: Which of you folks are among the lucky 5,000 Nashvillians whose parking tickets were found stuffed in clerks’ desks at the Metro courthouse yesterday? Because your editors have collected a number of parking tickets around town over the years, and we’re pretty sure no one has ever stuffed ours into a desk. Either way, the tickets are hiding no more, the clerks in question have been fired, and the 5,000 will soon be receiving letters telling them that they still need to pay up.
- This is Amurrica. On the heels of the whole Guns In Bars bill debacle, the Tennessee Senate just passed another piece of gun legislation that specifies that any gun made completely in Tennessee won’t be subject to those pesky federal regulations.
- We can’t wait. A group of dedicated folks are working out a plan to revitalize Centennial Park. If you love Centennial as much as we do for its hodgepodge of strange and seemingly unrelated statues (Parthenon? Oyster? Monument to transportation? What?), then you’ll be happy to know that the plan includes adding a place for musicians that “will resemble a landmark in England.” Awesome.
- Bits & pieces. Knox County Schools have unblocked GLBT websites after being faced with a lawsuit from the ACLU, claiming that the whole thing was the result of a glitch. Metro doesn’t seem to be budging … Green Hills Mall security officers seem to be calling shenanigans Tuesday’s mugging that took place in the parking garage … Councilman Eric Crafton wants to require that all Metro employees be residents of Davidson County.
A year ago on Nashvillest: We were a little bit horrified when a projector screen came crashing down on the Hannah Montana movie set, failed at explaining the clown in a box with a beer scenario in the Gulch, and were kind of offended when Hotel Preston called us all rednecks.
Photo by Silenus81.
Good morning, Nashville. We’ll start off today with a burning question: Which of you folks are among the lucky 5,000 Nashvillians whose parking tickets were found stuffed in clerks’ desks at the Metro courthouse yesterday? Because your editors have collected a number of parking tickets around town over the years, and we’re pretty sure no [...]
Happy Hour: You Win Some, You Lose Some
- In the excitement of John Rich and CMApocalypse, we almost forgot to mention that the Metro Council approved the land purchase for the new convention center. Bye bye, Rocketown :(. [WKRN]
- The Tennessee House voted to overturn Governor Phil’s veto on the Guns in Bars bill, but not before the bill’s sponsor blamed the media for swaying the governor’s decision by, um, calling it the Guns in Bars bill. [WSMV & WKRN]
- Finally, someone important is acknowledging that the TVA ash spill might end up costing us some money on our utility bills down the road, except rather than blaming the TVA for spilling toxic sludge in the first place, Rep. John Duncan blames the folks who are suing the TVA for destroying their homes and giving them asthma and all that. [Tennessean]
- Also, as it turns out, our state is about $100 million in the hole. [In Session]
Photo by wil onstott.
In the excitement of John Rich and CMApocalypse, we almost forgot to mention that the Metro Council approved the land purchase for the new convention center. Bye bye, Rocketown :(. [WKRN] The Tennessee House voted to overturn Governor Phil’s veto on the Guns in Bars bill, but not before the bill’s sponsor blamed the media [...]
Photo Of The Day: June 3, 2009
Fannie Mae Dees Park, better known as Dragon Park, was one of our first really fun discoveries in Nashville after we moved here. We love the lighting in this film shot by lets take your car (yes, real actual film!) of one of the mosaicked dragon hump that appears to rise out of the ground.
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.
Fannie Mae Dees Park, better known as Dragon Park, was one of our first really fun discoveries in Nashville after we moved here. We love the lighting in this film shot by lets take your car (yes, real actual film!) of one of the mosaicked dragon hump that appears to rise out of the ground. [...]
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