Nashville Confidential

father knows best (kinda)

One of the great things about my new gig is that I get to travel. I'm thrilled. This mystifies my dad. He said, "If you like business travel, you haven't done it enough."

I was thinking of this today as I waited for the National Rental Car bus at the Memphis International Airport today. I was exhausted, hungry, cold, stressed and with a full bladder ... and it started to rain. It didn't seem very glamorous right about then. I still had a great week, learned a lot, met great folks, saw some cool stuff.

That said, I relish the thought of being in my own bed tonight.

While I was gone my dad stayed in my place, which meant a little vacation for my mom and some completed chores for me upon my return. He loved it and cannot wait to come live here again. In fact, rather than saying, "I told you so" when I explained my business travel predicaments, he said, "Um, when are you leaving town again?"

reasons to celebrate

-- I'm on the road this week, and my travels took me through Memphis, where I saw the Tennessee State Flag. I got a little misty. The weather is divine. I haven't worn a coat in two days. Sigh.

-- Thursday Night Fever is handling music tips / criticism in my absence. Glad to see it.

-- The Long Players ditched "Who's Next" in favor of a Credence album and rescheduled for 5 Feb at Mercy Lounge. So if they ever do perform that album, I might actually get to see it in person.

Yes, these are the kinds of things that brighten my day. But I am sad Paul Giamatti didn't get an Oscar nomination for "Sideways." I think that's just wrong.

tri-star struck

Did Bill Frist play a starring role in the inaugural ceremony coverage? I ask because I did not see any of the festivities, but this weblog has gotten lots of hits today for "Bill Frist's scarf."

It is a very fine scarf, as I wrote two years ago -- I coveted it at Gov. Phil Bredesen's inauguration.

I'd still love to have one, because I do love the Tennessee state flag. If you see that scarf, pick one up for me and I'll pay you back.

i'll be the one with the webb wilder pocket protector

Well, yes, I am excited about the just-announced BloggerCon, because that is just how geeky I am. Museums, NPR, and weblogs: the troika of non-cool and three things to which I am addicted. I like to keep my weblog on the down-low, but I am kind of happy that I passed muster and got a link on the Nashville Scene's new page. Please visit many of the fine folks there. Also please visit Thursday Night Fever, Karmadgeon and Viva La Lesley, my posse of bloggers who somehow escaped mention. [Please note: some of their views may differ from those of the management of Nashville Confidential, which is why you should read their pages.]

So BlogNashville is on the big list of Nashville fun in 2005. I envision it as a fun event in the same vein as, but probably nothing I could ever love as much as, the Southern Festival of Books. Keep checking back at blognashville.org to learn more about the discussions and seminars that will be offered. I hope I'm asked to lead a session about how to write a weblog that consistently finds new and inventive ways to mention / link to Webb Wilder, Will Kimbrough, Frist Center for the Visual Arts and Tin Angel.

don't forget your proof of Iraqi heritage

If you are an Iraqi living in America and wish to vote in the free election, you can do it in Nashville. From the article in yesterday's Tennessean:

Nashville, home of the largest Kurdish population in the country, is one of five polling sites in the United States where Iraqi expatriates can cast a ballot in the election.

I think that is so cool. But you must show that you have Iraqi citizenship or heritage. I saw a piece on the national news where a man had driven from Nebraska to Chicago in order to vote, but left the propert documentation back in the Cornhusker State.

public service announcement

Just thought you should know:

Paul Burch and the WPA Ball Club play a free show at Family Wash Wednesday at 8 p.m.
Webb Wilder and the Nashvegans play an early show at 3rd & Lindsley Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Not that I'm lamenting my inability to attend or anything. I'm just posting this so those of you in Nashville will not miss this great music.

I would have listed Camper van Beethoven at Mercy Lounge on Friday, but the last time I went to see them was such a major disappointment I actually walked out. The first time was pretty great (scroll to the very end of this entry). Make your own call on that one.

Oh! And this one really hurts: Finally (and perhaps at my urging?) The Long Players will perform Who's Next in its entirety on Thursday 27 January at Mercy Lounge. That is a can't-miss, yet I will. Please attend on my behalf, and let me know who sings "Bargain."

way back machine

A lot of people have asked me, "Why do you have a weblog?"

In Nashville, at least, the answer was so my family and friends could read what was going on in my life. Then it really became more of an archive of all the great adventures and memories. It became a journal for me. (Admittedly, a version for public consumption. Some bad things happened, but would you want to read about them? Nope, so I didn't write about them on the log.)

Because it is a record of my time in Nashville, I have made sure that the full log is now on this server. Want to read the very first post? You can now (August 2002). Want to read about my Tucson vacation? You can now (May 2003). Want to know what happened a year ago today? You can now (January 2004).

Don't care a whit? You don't have to read any of them. But all the links are down on the right-hand side of the page ... just in case.

More recent posts are on the way.

as promised

Here are a few entries from December you might have missed. (These links will open in a separate window.)

More to come ... there were two especially great nights in December, but I am not sure how much to write about them. And fear not, I have spared you the truly bathetic writing and put it in my own personal journal. You're welcome.

-- just when you thought it couldn't get any better -- my final dinner at Tin Angel
-- and a big box of irony -- my not-so-latent packrat tendencies are revealed
-- who wants to marry my dad -- an ode to my mother
-- crying in the chapel -- a breakdown that is not of the bluegrass kind

the next chapter

Is this the end of Mapgirl?

Is this the end of the weblog?

No and no. Thanks for asking ... I just don't know how the next phase will take shape. I know it's going to be called "Midwest Confidential" and I have procured that URL. But I have yet to start it.

There is still MORE Nashville Confidential to come as I have a raft of heretofore unpublished posts that will go up later this week. You can think of it as the "director's cut" or the bonus tracks ... I will put up an entry with links to all of them. You can read at your leisure -- or simply ignore them. Most are from the last four months of this year.

Once Midwest Confidential is up and running, I will advise. Should be by mid-month.

In other news, I'm back north and all my stuff arrived today. I have about four weeks of unpacking ahead of me. At least.

today is the new thanksgiving

Happy New Year, everyone!

This Saturday was very much like most Saturdays here: I went for my walk (downtown loop) and cleaned my place. I’ve always thought it was small, then I dusted and mopped every inch of the floors … now I appreciate just how much space I have had.

I love the downtown loop, because it is the same each week, yet ever-changing:

past all the renovations on Church Street
past the Demonbreun statue on the river
along the Cumberland River
past the parking garage they are blasting under the courthouse
along the staircase where homeless people sometimes sleep
under the railroad trestle
along the Riverfront Apartments
past the Stockyard restaurant
along the now-vacant lot that used to have a decaying building on it
through the old Sulphur Dell site
past the “secured building” (I have no idea what it is, but it’s closed to the public, and there’s usually a guard smoking a cigarette outside)
onto Bicentennial Mall, around it once, hoping the carillon will ring
past the Waters of Tennessee (now shut off for the winter)
across the giant map
across James Robertson Parkway
up the giant curving staircase behind the Capitol
pausing on the landing to exult, “Rocky”-style (or maybe just to catch my breath)
taking the next straight staircase up to James K. Polk’s gravesite
around the back of the Capitol, looking down on the mall and out over Germantown
past the separate carillon bell that celebrates all styles of music with etchings on its base
past the State Library and Archives
past the State Supreme Court
past the War Memorial, just glimpsing the back of my favorite statue
past the little café on the corner
and home.