#and the bike store is closed tomorrow so the absolute earliest i could get it back would be friday

[clementiens]

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[papermoth-bird-blog]

Nashville: Honky-Tonky Town

It’s as if my spirit guides sensed my slight skepticism about leaving New Orleans & smacked me with so many *signs** throughout the day today. I don’t know, could be one of those things that I pick up on things, because I look for them, but whatever the reason I felt very looked over, in a spiritual way. Maybe because it was Sunday? Who knows. 

Firstly- can I say that an odd thing about Nashville is the fact is that instead of those rentable bikes, they have electric scooters everywhere. At first I thought it was so dang odd- but now I kinda think it’s awesome. I wanna try one before I go. Seeing all the people absolutely ripping it up makes me crave having the wind in my feathers. Anyways, one of the brands of these scooters is BIRD. Which, obviously stood out to me. On top of that, the sound-signals for the street crossings are bird sounds! AND the special exhibit at the Country Hall of Fame was “Songbird: Emmy Lou Harris”. Not only is it Emmy Lou Harris- one of my favourites-- but also! Bird! again. Maybe it’s a coincidence, maybe my spirit guides are giving me a big-ol-prodding. 

As Victoria predicted, I did indeed cry at the Country Hall of Fame. I thought I’d at least last until the rotunda building like her, but I pretty much started tearing as I got off the elevator. Sigh, Emmy Lou is actually one of the most amazing souls. Her harmonies, her spirit (her sense of fashion....). I didn’t realize,  but she recorded one of her latter albums in New Orleans- looking through the pictures I found myself doing a double take- because I recognized where she was in the French quarter. 

As for the rest of the Hall, it really did feel like it was a spiritual pilgrimage. (I mean, at least the earlier part... to be honest, I don’t particularly care for country music after 1975). I love the history of music, especially early country & jazz. It has me really inspired to learn all those really early bluegrass tunes to be able to sing along to. When I stood in front of Townes Van Zandt’s picture, a huge lump in my throat cause me to literally choke back tears, which would have been embrassing, but I actually didn’t care at all what anyone thought. I sent a picture of Emmylou’s grammy for the Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack (which we both love). He replied “What the actual heck, I was literally singing that two minutes ago to Arthur & Greg”. I just said “I’m a witch James, why are you surprised”. One thing about country music 1950s onwards, is they really have a wild sense of style- glitter, rhinestones, no shame in peacocking what-so-ever. It’s fun & flamboyant as all hell. I’ll tell you, I’m getting some really great inspiration for my summer wardrobe- it’s looking like a lot of fringe. 

Nashville itself is very different from anywhere I’ve been before. I mean- it’s sprawl is intimidating. There isn’t really a whole lot containing/restricting the city, and so, it does kinda go on forever, without fear of running out of space. That means 1) the streets themselves are sooo wide & 2) things aren’t really that close together. That’s not to say you can’t walk around- you definitely can, it’s just not as compact/convenient as other places. The rolling hills also make for an interesting city-scape, but also makes in hard to landmark when you are trying to gauge which direction you are walking in. I did have a good long stroll around though. I foudn myself in a manner of funny corners of the city, including the state capital mall, which was actually kinda lovely. The landlocked nature of the city is also very evident. The city was founded as Nashborough- a little fort on the Colombus river. Down on the river, they still have some little buildings that pay tribute to the earliest days of the city. The river is definitely a release for the land-locked feeling (Although when I was sitting there writing & drawing a random man came up to me & started taking pictures of me... which made me feel uncomfortable... so I left earlier than I wanted to). 

Nashville is definitely a “good-time town”- a popular spot to come party. I mean the honky-tonks are all at least three floors of lights, music a booze-filled bars. And there is a good chunk of the city filled with them. It was 11am and I had already witnessed a girl puking in a garbage at the side of the road. Another popular thing is the “party bikes”, which is basically like afloat that 10 people pedal to move around the strip on broadway. To round it out tho- there are lots of country apparel stores. I’m talking Olivander-like stores filled with every kind of western boot you can imagine- rhinestones, embroidery, dyed leather, straps, buckles, velvet & fringe. I mean- I got kind of tempted too for all of three seconds- Until I realized I would literally never wear them any place outside of Nashville. That, and the fact that they are ~700 dollars USD. They are fun to dream about, though. 

I’m having a pretty good time. The people are definitely friendly, though maybe not as forward as the people in New Orleans. I did get some good little chit-chats in here & there. There is a lot of room to think here. I do find myself craving time in the distant mountains, though. They are so close, but so far away! I guess they will sit as a reminder of my distant dream to hike the Appalachian trail one day- leaving little flutters in my gut. 

The hostel has been an interesting experience. Here I was worried about rooming with a bunch of young, party-hardies, but that is far from the case here. The people that I’ve met so far here are well over forty & definitely curious creatures. Kay, the woman in my room, is probably in her 50s. From the looks of it, she’s been a long-term tenant here (she has about three boxes of food goods in the kitchen. She also like keeping the door open all the time (I think for socialization??).  I’ve still been running from that cold tho- And she brought me a hot drink first thing in the morning, which was really nice of her. When I got home in the evening, there were two other older gentlemen here. They also seem to be long-term tenants of a kind. They seem friendly enough, but one of them was making very weird noises in the bathroom for 45 minutes. 

Today was the super bowl & it was super palatable here. People were walking around with their jerseys on & there was an extra rowdiness about this sunday. The older folks had it turned on in the other room- but I have to say, I don’t really care terribly if the Saints aren’t in it. So I’m here watching Steel Magnolia’s instead, which is feeling really appropriate & important somehow. I’m looking forward to tomorrow-  a little more wandering & a little date with a new friend. I’m sure it’ll be very nice, despite the rain that is expected.