Went to Nashville

In the same way the Midwest has the self-delusion that it has cornered the market on levelheadedness ("My son's the same way! We go to the mall and he wants dese jeans wit' da holes in em, and dey're $50 more, so I sez to him, I sez 'Ya know, Tommy, I could just take da old jeans ya got and cut holes in dem, ya know? Sheesh, dese kids today."), so it is with the south, only their self-delusion is Civility.

That being said, Nashville surprised me in many ways. For starters, it was bustling on the weekend. Maybe this was due to the CMT music fest they had going on, but Broadway (the main drag) was packed with people, and the bars were filled with pretty good live music...reminiscent of Austin during SXSW without the depressing careerist bands oozing desperation for that contract, that handshake, that advance.

It was a good-time party crowd, from what I could tell, devoid of the drunken debauched idiocy of Rush Street, and no panhandlers either...just a bunch of cowboy hats walking up and down Broadway. After the rehearsal dinner (oh yeah--we went because of a wedding), we went to some honky-tonk bar where bands played old country and the whole scene looked like something out of "Smokey and the Bandit."

So, like Austin, L.A., NYC, and even Chicago, you're surrounded by entertainers who clearly are not going to make it in showbiz, but unlike the other places, from what I could tell, people just seemed cool with that. Maybe it's because Nashville isn't that far to go for most aspiring country musicians. It's not like moving to L.A. to make it from some farflung locale like Pennsylvania or Maryland.

Our hotel room had a fantastic view of the highway and airport and mountains. I like hotels. I like that you can make a mess and somebody else cleans it up. Sometimes, self-reliance isn't so swell--especially when you're on a weekend vacation.

The wedding was held on a farm just 20 minutes outside of downtown Nashville. It felt like we were way out in the country. We were way out in the country. That was what was so great about it. To get to this kind of country in Chicago, you need to drive for 60-90 minutes, and yet, there we were, watching the wedding happen next to a creek.

The weather was extremely muggy, especially if you were wearing a suit. My role in the wedding was 2nd String DJ. I like being the DJ. There's such a subtle power involved in it. You can really effect the mood of a party. It was a fun balance of attendees--southerners in every sense of the word mingling with citified hipster writer types. Neither wanted to dance at first--the former would rather chit-chat and the latter would rather be clever--but it was nothing David Allan Coe and Iggy Pop couldn't take care of. I was worried "Lust for Life" would scare people away because of the lyrics, but it didn't. Generally speaking, most people don't care about lyrics. I yelled "Hey! It's that song from the cruiseship commercial!" into the mic and that got everybody dancing in the humidity.

I had 4 glasses of wine over 5 hours, and that was good. I don't quite equate getting drunk with fun the way I used to, and that's fine. I'm even starting to find most drunk people to be really annoying. Except me. I'm perennially charming.

Later on, Sara and I walked away from the party to a patch of grass and stared up at the stars. Stars. What will happen when you can no longer go anywhere at night and see stars? Will this be some kind of yarn to spin for our grandkids?

The husband and wife drove off, all of us tossing birdseed in the air instead of rice as they walked past. Many people left early, and the average age of the dancers lowered and lowered before tapering off at around 28. These were the writers, and now they were alive and dancing. I love weddings. It's like people are just so relieved this happened and the families are so glad all the work, effort and stress is over and done with, they can finally relax and have a good time.

One more thing: Broadway isn't as corny as Beale Street, the latter with its facades lending franchises like Hooters some level of authenticity. In other words, somehow it felt more like a real place instead of theme park where you send your tourists.

So...I was surprised by Nashville. I could never live there, but I would definitely go back.