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Nashville - Part 3
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
Searching for a unique American Cultural identity? Our writer finds it within the city limits of Nashville.
Day 3
The first stop this morning was the Parthenon. Not the original, but a surprising recreation done in 1897 for the cities centennial anniversary. If you didn't read earlier because you were reading too fast over the boring parts of my story, Nashville calls itself the "Athens of the South." The amazing thing about this structure is that it is actually a full recreation done exactly to scale of the original Parthenon in Athens, Greece. It includes all of the columns, all of the statues on the outside and a statue of Athena in the building standing over 41 feet tall.
Walking into the main room and seeing Athena standing above you is awe inspiring, like seeing the Lincoln Memorial, but in a way it grabs you more intently as it's much bigger... and more mythical. While you stand there you look left and right and realize that this statue and building were originally created over 2,000 years ago and it's only now that we can see it... on the other side of the globe. You realize that people created this thousands of years ago without modern technology to honor their gods. It makes you feel small. Even now 100 years after the project was started, they're still improving it to constantly match what archeologists learn about the original structure.
I tried to rationalize how the Athena fit in to my Americana theme, but only came up with that as Americans we like things big like the Statue of Liberty. Then I overheard someone say, "Great idea, to increase tourism just build something unique and they will come." Afterall, isn't that what Disney World is all about? What's more American than good old entrepreneurship? That fit. Next stop.
The Tennessee State Museum fit right into my theme in a surprising way. Again, the well-named building does as its name implies hold collections about the state of Tennessee. The thing that keeps it within my Americana theme is that it tells the story of our country from the eyes of Tennessee. It starts with the American Indian and works its way to the Civil War. Of course it focuses quite a bit on Andrew Jackson and the Civil War, but it is interesting to see the effect the state had on our country as a whole.
We were getting a bit hungry so we headed over to the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens for lunch and to see the grounds. I highly recommend going there for lunch, as the views and food are incredible. Being a new homeowner I found the grounds gave me great gardening ideas. The grounds are well designed with lots of land for their hundreds of plants, flowers, and trees.
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Cheekwood Botantical Gardens | |
Cheekwood is not the name of a type of tree that looks like buttocks... okay, it was corny, but a small Asian man on my tour found it quite funny. Of course I don't think he spoke much English. Anyway, Cheekwood is named after the Cheek family who were not just rich, but filthy rich... light dollar bills to smoke your cigar type of rich... you get the idea. They donated all of the land to make their gardens and mansion into an art museum.
The garden and museum grounds are truly breathtaking but inside the museum you find a variety of decorative arts. I admit I'm not into silverware but my wife Margherita is so I explored outside while she explored inside. She told me to write that it was, "a beautifully decorated mansion with incredible collections of silver and porcelain." She was very impressed by how the museum kept its home like appearance. I however liked the gardens outside better than the art museum so you'll have to take her word for it.
From there we went to Fisk University, which took us to the African-American history portion of my Americana theme. Basically the story behind Fisk is that it was the first black university to educate free slaves after the Civil War. It's one of the oldest traditionally black universities in the country and contributes very well to my Americana Theme so I like it. After all the civil rights movement is a unique part of our history as a country.
The Fisk University Carl Van Vechten Gallery had a number of works from Cezanne, Picasso and Renoir. Admittedly, I'm going to brush over those as my favorite had to be the Georgia O'Keeffe piece of a New York skyscraper as opposed to the work she's most famous for, her floral pieces. By the way, it might have helped that Georgia's husband, Alfred Stieglitz, founded the gallery.
It was coming close to dinnertime so we again ran back to the hotel to change and grab a bite to eat. We were both looking forward to seeing Nashville's nightlife. I admit that the first time I thought of Nashville's nightlife I remembered the street that Jack's was on being very quiet during the day. Not that many people were walking around, and those that were were usually tourists or students.
Let me start by saying that the nightlife in Nashville is one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. This is not something to be missed. We started by going to the Wildhorse Saloon where the band, "The Clarke Family Experience" was playing. I think what struck me the most about the Wildhorse Saloon was that the bar had families in it. It might seem odd, but to a New Yorker where bars are for the young and a bar fight can happen at any moment this was a relief. In addition, the streets that were once dead to the world were now jam-packed wall to wall.
Read part 1 | Read part 2 | Read part 4
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