Today is the first Saturday I've had in a month, where I didn't have to jet out of bed at an unholy hour and do something. Last Sunday was my first day, period, that I didn't have something pressing to get done, or a place to be besides home. By the end of the day yesterday, I was bone-tired. Today, I'm doing a little bit of catching up, between Times of Rest. and trying to get over a cold.
In the middle of April, my colleague and I traveled to a conference in Nashville, Tennessee. I wasn't sure whether I would like Nashville; this was my first foray into the true South and I wasn't really looking forward to it. That's one of the downers of being an historian -- it's not always easy to let go of what you learn about people and their history.
Almost from the moment I got off the plane, Nashville charmed me. In the airport, not more than a dozen steps from the gate, there was a café with a live bluegrass band energetically playing away. Within a few hours, after we'd deposited our luggage with the hotel, we found ourselves on a tour of the Ryman Auditorium, the "Mother Church of Country Music." If the Ryman is the Mother Church, then Nashville is the Mother Ship. After the tour, we just followed our nose (and the crowd) and wandered over to Broadway right at Church Street.
As you walk down that street, you hear music coming out of every door. We picked a likely honky tonk and found a spot at the bar. I ordered a rum and coke (I haven't ordered a drink in a bar like that for oh, more than twenty years) and my colleague had what she was having, and we just had a good old time singing along and talking with other people around us. Our honky tonk, The Second Fiddle, is just to the right of the purple building in the picture. That churchy-looking structure toward the left of the picture is the Ryman Auditorium.
Our hotel was perched at the top of a hill, and was almost directly across from Tennessee's state capital.
On one morning, I took some time away from the conference and visited the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, because I'd heard about their exhibition on Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and the Nashville Cats. As a whole, the museum is beautiful and should get plenty of accolades for their customer service, but I found their exhibitions a little bit hard to find my way through. I ended up just walking around and looking at neat stuff, although I think I'd have preferred to have gotten one whole, good story out of them.
There is no mistaking the fact that the record business generously supports this institution.
Later, my colleague and I conned the hotel shuttle guy into taking us over to Antique Archaeology. Mike Wolfe has really hit pay dirt with this one. What he does is to make antique hunting in junk piles into a spectacle through his television show, American Pickers, which is watched by millions of people. He then puts some of his finds into a storefront and has someone artfully arrange them, and includes penciled hand-written labels for them. Almost nothing in the store is for sale, but it's not really meant to be an actual business. People visit Antique Archaeology in order to make a physical connection with the virtual experience they have by watching the show. Wolfe's actual money comes from advertisers on the show, and from the $25-30 they charge for the t-shirt that you can buy, which informs observers that you've made the transition from the virtual to the authentic. What a hoot.
And just to make a nice bookend out of this post, here's a shot out of the plane window on the return journey. Once landed, we still had a four-plus hour drive to get back to Smack In The Middle.
The Great Bag is transforming back into the Bag Dilemma. While I was in Nashville, it began to show its weak points. One of the handle grommets pulled out, and I had to spend time sewing it together enough to work for the rest of the weekend (thank goodness for those nifty sewing kits found in hotel bathrooms!). The magnet closure has turned out to be stronger than the surrounding fabrics, and is quickly working its way right off the lining. While I'm not quite back to square one with this, I am considering making another bag, taking these issues into account. I might do a little stash-diving and do it this weekend, if I can find the time.
Although I took knitting along with me, I didn't take more than ten minutes to work on it. In truth, I haven't knitted at all for more than two weeks, I've been so busy and so tired. I hope I can get my mojo back!
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