East Nashville Score!

Submitted by Josh on July 20, 2005 - 12:43pm.

East Nashville Shine
Mark fulfilles one of his great American ambitions. Moonshine.
We had a dream. The dream was to find moonshine, in America. And here it is.

At first we weren't sure what the score was with Nashville. On our way into the city center we saw approxomately one million police officers. Seems like a fightin' town. Downtown the music is always free though, and the BBQ is good, and the daughters of the south are present. And we met up with Travis and his friends Mark and Ben and Erica the half-sleeve tatted bartender on her way to North Carolina sent several rounds our way and the good times got to rolling.

I hung back with a couple glasses of water (because in spite of the website name one thing we don't do is drive drunk) and we made our way over the Cumberland river into East Nashville, which except for the 90% humidity feels a lot like Portland. Nashville Mark broke out this jar of rasberry shine, and in spite of the fact that it was his birthday he shared it with us.

Tulsa and Travis
When Tulsa wants a drink, Tulsa get's a drink. That's travis with his Carter Administration t-shirt.
They have a giant white German Shepard named Tulsa. Took the Toe a little getting used to, but Tulsa is the major buddy. He don' give a shit and loves everyone -- except people who come to the door in uniforms, of course. So we got all fired up, saw a little of the hood on foot, got giant glasses of whiskey and t-shirts from Niko, the major man at the Red Door East Saloon, came back, broke out the Texas Thunder Cannon, had a good ol' time.

Now we're feeling the second-day effects of the rasberry shine, copying music switching between great concert DVDs and the Supreme Court hullabaloo, waiting on a pizza.

Location
East Nashville
Nashville, TN
See map: Yahoo! Maps
Mysterious astrologer (not verified) Says:
July 20, 2005 - 5:18pm

Excuse me..Marks birthday is Dec 31st.

I.M. Anonymous (not verified) Says:
July 20, 2005 - 9:39pm

If you're in Central Florida, you may or may not be in for a good time. If with local friends and friendly local strangers, you're in luck. Otherwise, our suburbs to Disney may be relatively unexciting ('tis the unfortunate result of Franchise City).

Good times: take in a show at The Social (Orlando), Will's Pub (Winter Park), Backbooth (Orlando), The Peacock Room, etc. (Orlando). If nothing else, Orlando's got itself a good indie rock scene long and strong (and with cheap shows!).

Second-run movies for $1.00/.75 cents (Winter Park, Orlando respectively). Best, cheap milkshakes in town - the Sonics (ironically a Franchise). Take in the atmosphere of our micro-tourist strip, International Drive, and go for .50 air hockey games/1.00 pool games at Magical Midway (yeah, that's a kid's place), then swing around down the Interstate in the opposite direction of Lockheed Martin to Sonics for some Cream Slushies (milkshake + slushie!).

Need to know more info about where to go: Check out CD Warehouse (Orlando), Park Ave. CDs (Winter Park). Or take a gander at Orlando Weekly for what's up the week you get there.

If headed to the beach, you get your privacy at Daytona if you stay on the main drag and go past all the fancy pants hotels to the free parking spaces (only people in the condos, who rarely come out of their homes, inhabit the sand). Or check out Ponce Inlet, nice place. For natural springs, go to Wekeiva Springs (Longwood) or Blue Springs State Park (somewhere South on I-4).

Museums - Orlando Museum of Art is nice. If in Miami, University of Miami has a super huge collection, free. Morse Museum (big Tiffany/art deco collection) - Winter Park.

Jacksonville is the big city (second in size, congestion to Miami), but only has a small indie strip due to lack of major college towns. Gainesville is really a bust. Miami and Tampa are popular destinations. Redneck experiences - Gatorland. Quasi-redneck experiences - feed the baby alligators at Congo River golf.