May 6, 2011

Nashville, Get Ready, 'Cause Here We Come!

WARNING: This post is photo-heavy. Continue past jump, if you dare!

One of the things that had been planned for when our father came out to visit was a trip to Nashville, TN. I've been through Tennessee before, but never to Nashville. It really is like Hollywood with a touch of twang! Or... the Athens of the South, which has a certain ring to it for sure.

Anyway, since neither my father nor I had ever been, Jack took charge as the tour guide of sorts. Our first stop? THE PARTHENON! So very, very cool. It's a reconstruction of the original Parthenon of Athens, Greece. The city of Nashville commissioned the original, which was a wood and plaster affair built in the center of Centennial Park, for the 1897 fair celebrating Nashville's first hundred years. It was later rebuilt, on the original foundation, in concrete. The rebuild started in 1920, with the exterior finished in '25 and the interior in '31.



"First" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.

Here's us, after a couple hours on the road. It's something like 10 in the ante meridian, and really cold, and windy. Or at least, strong-breezy. I think we all had on fleece or flannel pajama pants under our jeans, which works pretty well. Just, ya know, FYI...





"Parthenon I" Nasvhille, TN. December, 2010.




"Parthenon II" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Parthenon III" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.






"Parthenon IV" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.








"Parthenon V" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.






"Parthenon VI" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Parthenon VII" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.



So that's the outside. Pretty cool, I think. Very... Ancient Greek. 

Inside is really cool, as well. It's been set up as a museum. They have all sorts of old photos with cool facts and a full history, all displayed in these cases set into the walls of two hallways, which lead up to the second floor. On the second floor, it's like I always expected the inside of the Parthenon to look. Instead of getting all verbose and over-descriptive, just look for yourselves:




"Athena Parthenos" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.




As you can see, it's a large room, surrounded by huge pillars. Around the outside, between the pillars and the outer wall, they have a set of plinths with castings of the metopes from the original Parthenon in Athens. Then, in the center, is a reconstruction of the Athena Parthenos, done as accurately as experts can figure. It's intense. Just to give some scale to it, the statue of Nike in Athena's right hand is the same size as that guy in the foreground. Nike's 6' (2m) tall, and Athena is a whopping 42' (12m)! She's made of plaster, I believe, and has been gold-leafed. She's so huge, it took roughly 8lbs (3.6kg) of gold leaf to cover her, her serpent, and her shield. Freakin' amazing.

After we had seen the sights there at the Parthenon, we decided to walk around Centennial Park, the area surrounding the Parthenon. Man o man, was it cold! We almost lost our legs. Some winterwind almost took them from us in Nashville. But we went out and achieved anyway! 



"Jack and the Birds" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Untitled" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.




"The Birds Cometh IV" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.



OK, this one needs a bit of explaining. Firstly, Centennial Park was overrun with pigeons. It was mob rule (ochlocracy) for sure. Anyway, at one point, all the pigeons just took off, all at once, and did some laps around the lake. Here you see them on, if I remember right, their final pass. It was a bit odd, this mass of synchronized pigeons flying circles about the lake. Still, one of my favorite images...



"Goodfeathers" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Untitled" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Untitled" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.



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After Centennial Park, we went to grab a bite to eat (at Jack in The Box, as it's the one nearest Louisville, and Jack's got some thing for their food, which I didn't mind), and headed into downtown. We walked by the courthouse, by the capitol, into the business district, up side streets, down main thoroughfairs, in buildings, everywhere. Many photographs were taken, many conversations had, a couple of cups of coffee, and lots and lots and lots of walking. We had a blast, and I hope you enjoy viewing these photos at least half as much as I enjoyed making them.



"Windy" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Untitled" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Walker" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Z" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Untitled" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"It's Bigger on the Inside" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Columns I" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Columns II" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Sparks" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Safety Noose" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Capital Capitol Stairs" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Untitled" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Head" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"War" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Untitled" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Untitled" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Hard Day's Night" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Untitled" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Municipal Abstract" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.





"Untitled II" Nashville, TN. December, 2010.



It was a long day, albeit the most fun I've had in a long time. Legs and bodies tired, we piled back into the car and started the drive home. It was a familiar sight, in the back seat with my dad and brother in the car, driving late at night to some far-off destination. The first road trip we'd taken together in many years, and a happy day for all of us.

Until next time.











(Also, Dude, winterwind is not the preferred nomenclature. Chilled air current, please.)

5 comments:

  1. enjoying all these images and your narrative a lot! Thanks for revisiting your work from those wonderful days. And thanks for the great time I had when I was there with you both.

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  2. I have to make sure there's some sort of record of the shenanigans we get into. Plus, it's a whole lot of fun.

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  3. Although, I am a bit surprised you didn't say anything about the TBL reference...

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  4. Must keep you guessing, you know. Don't want to be predictable, you know. And that wind was way more than 'chilled' p/c or not!

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  5. Yeah... Downright cold and biting, even through a couple layers.

    ReplyDelete