Nashvillest

• Hey! Ron Paul is speaking in Nashville next Saturday! Oh wait, just kidding! It’s just a satellite feed! [Post Politics]
• Today brings us the news of one of the greatest casualties of a bad economy: The halt of the Dollywood expansion plans. [WSMV]
• Our favorite blogging state legislator Rep. Stacey Campfield, just got slapped with a lawsuit for things he posted in his blog about House candidate Roger Byrge. [WSMV]
• Around 84% of Tennessee voters were white, and 2/3 of white voters were Evangelical Christians. Guess we’re not in danger of losing the Bible Belt Buckle title any time soon. [Tennessean]
• Unrelated, there’s a Prop 8 protest going on at the Metro Courthouse this Saturday at 12:30pm. [Out & About]
• The skinheads charged with plotting to assassinate President-Elect Barack Obama want their case to be thrown out because most of the jury members are black. [Tennessean]

Photo by slobug.

Tonight marks the 25th year of Christmas lights at the Opryland Hotel. This year’s A Country Christmas Lighting Ceremony begins at 5:45pm, and will feature several special guests including Louise Mandrell, the Radio City Rockettes, CNN morning news anchor Robin Meade and… The Grinch. Quite a variety! The lights at Opryland are one of our favorite things about Christmas in Nashville. It just wouldn’t be the same without ‘em. 

Photo by rachel.laureene.

We’re not sure why the Parthenon is lit up green at this time of year (is it Christmas already?), but we think it looks pretty eerie. Thanks to macintheus for the submission!

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.

Nashville artist Herb Williams has spent the last four months creating a giant CRAYOLABAMA. In other words, a giant portrait of President-Elect Barack Obama made entirely out of crayons. NBC has a video interview with Herb. He’s pretty hardcore.

Thanks to our Twitter friend @jessyly for posting the link!

Good morning, Nashville. Downtown seems to have recovered from yesterday’s power outage/gas leakage/CMA invasion. We’re getting conflicting stories as to what actually happened, but we’re going to go with the one that names copper theft as the main culprit. According to NES, the pilfered copper would have prevented the outage. A close runner up would be WTVF’s account where “downtown Nashville was supposed to be an electric” and “somehow something pulled the plug on the power.” But we digress.

• No more music pirates. Governor Phil signed a bill into law yesterday holding colleges and universities responsible for cracking down on students who download music illegally on campus, confirming our suspicions that Governor Phil hates college students.
• Calls waiting. The Tennessee unemployment office swears that they really are trying to keep up, but the first half of November has brought 15,000 more people filing for unemployment–compared the 2,000 that applied in the first two weeks of November 2007. They say that you’re better off calling early in the morning or late in the week.
• I O U. And with times as they are, we may be borrowing $59M from the folks in Clarksville who are clearly rolling in the dough.
• Bits & pieces. Tennessee has one of the highest premature birth rates in the country … Gaylord Entertainment’s stock is in a free-fall, having dropped 39% yesterday … We didn’t even realize that Nashville HAD an ancient forest, but apparently it needs saving.

Photo by lizchenery.

We don’t really know what’s going on downtown… But we do know that it can be pretty accurately described as CMAPOCALYPSE! Our favorite endearing term for the CMA Awards rings a little true today as road closures, gas leaks, transformer explosions and massive power outages have plagued downtown Nashville since early this morning. A gas leak was reported around 8:30am near 3rd & Molloy, shutting down four blocks in addition to the preexisting road closures today. Then a power transformer caught on fire at 6th & Demonbreun, and it was all downhill from there. Many businesses downtown have been without power all day, and may continue to be without power until midnight. Fortunately, the CMA Awards got first priority and the show will go on. WKRN has the full story. 

Sixteen artists from Music City Unsigned are banding together tomorrow night for a Nashville Rescue Mission Benefit show at Rocketown. 

It’s a night of thanksgiving, two weeks before we celebrate the holiday with friends and family, to support an amazing organization in our community and help them provide for those who are less fortunate than all of us. 

Participating artists include Matthew Perryman Jones, Leigh Nash (of Sixpence None The Richer), Rachel Proctor, Andy Osenga, Florez, Emily DeLoach, Steve Moakler, Brandon Ingle, Daniel Ellsworth, Alva Leigh, Randall Goodgame, McClain, Darnell Levin, Aron Wright, Chris Milam and Adam Agin. Tickets are only $8 advance/$10 door, and all proceeds go directly to the Nashville Rescue Mission. The show starts at 6pm. 

Good morning, Nashville. You know what day it is, right? It’s CMApocalypse 2008, round 2. We’re heartbroken that we had to miss Miley and Billy Ray downtown for Good Morning America this morning, but we take comfort in knowing that they’ll probably be performing that song somewhere in Nashville at least 4,851 more times before we die. At any rate, you can find a list of the nominees here and watch the entire saga unfold on WKRN at 7pm. Music City TV’s Brad Schmitt will even have some live coverage from the red carpet. And lest you get yourself stuck in some serious traffic this afternoon, we’ve got you covered. Godspeed, commuters.

• Bailouts for all. GM, Ford, and Chrysler may be on the road to bankruptcy and are asking the government for a AIG-esqe bailout. With all the auto plants in Tennessee and the jobs that depend on them, we could be looking at thousands of layoffs.
• Cop under investigation. A Metro police officer who’s been working undercover with the department to bust prostitutes is now under investigation for possibly exposing himself to them.
• Bits & pieces. The Preds defeated San Jose 4-3 in overtime … The economy sucks, but at least the tobacco’s still growing … The Shelbyville Sharpie plant is closing down and laying off around 300 people … Choose your hot dogs carefully.

Photo by mdave.

• We saw this headline and thought we’d be able to tell you how to win kisses from your favorite country star (you DO have a favorite country star… right?) but it looks like it’s just a lame imprint being auctioned off on Ebay. The un-lame part is that the proceeds are going to domestic violence shelters. [WSMV]
• And this beyond-cute story about a first grader who got to bring Tennessee Titans Jevon Kearse to school for show-and-tell today ALMOST makes up for it. [WKRN]
• One councilwoman wants to take away our afterhours booze, though. Not that we’re usually awake at 3am to drink anyway. [Tennessean]
• Metro Council is also taking a look at a push for Green Streets, which would give us a better way to manage and reuse storm water. We can get on board with that. [Tennessean]

Photo by rowelbg.

We loved the lighting in this shot by B. Marshall of a skateboarder teetering precariously on the edge of a trash can outside of City Hall (the real one, not the venue).

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.