mushinnoshin

so here we go;

sorry I haven’t written much here lately. I have no greater excuse than simply not having been in the right frame of mind.

Well. Don’t know when I’ll be back, but I’m here. And it’s Saturday night, after Christmas. It’s been a decent one. Thursday with the dad, brother, and brother’s family, at Granny’s house, which Dad has now inherited. I think I hit a home run with the Fart Machine I gave my nephew. And another, with a most politically incorrect documentary in which the esteemed civil libertarian boundary-pusher Larry C. Flynt chronicles the accomplishments and exploits of an Alaskan pin-up queen gone rogue. We’ll leave the rest to your imagination or google-fu.

Saturday, pizza, party, and presents with the sister and her husband, which rocked. Never doubt the badassedness of four fresh diced jalapeños and a smattering of mushrooms taking a Digiorno to the next level, especially when you wash it down with a steady flow of a brew-kit bitter and a back supply of the same brew-kit’s dark ale. We backed the food with the Mr. Hankey’s Chrismas Classics dvd, and the beer with Weird Al’s videos dvd, which culminated in the main event of Christmas at Ground Zero. Then to the living room for presents, with Koyaanisqatsi muted, just for the visual, and the TSO playing on on the PC/stereo. Good Times. As far as the gift, my & my sister and I have this long running calendar gag, and I won’t bore you with the details but I think I rocked it this year.

So then today I guess is xmas for me. Cleaned up from the party, then spent the day in lazy, beer-sipping play and exploration. I finally opened up the School of Rock dvd that’s been sitting on my coffee table for months. I can’t tell you how much I love the hell out of that movie. It’s stupid, it’s sappy, but goddamn it it rocks and I love it. Of course I’ve seen it too many hundred thousand times on TBS, so I didn’t need to watch it, but watched it with the commentary from Jack Black and the director, then went back and just watched the “one hell of a rock show” chapter. Man, for a stupid movie song, they nailed it. Just enough Yes, Kiss, Bowie, and Floyd all mixed up and dished out over a plate of AC/DC — fuck yeah. And yes, I fucking cry every time when Turkey Sub struts up to the mike and belts out loud and clear how happy she is to be who she is in a glorious declaration. And though I’ve got my issues with the keyboard kid — I would have liked to have seen a little less Rick Wakeman, a little more Ray Manerik with a helping of Jon Lord (that just would have been more rock and roll to me) — I understand better after the commentary that yeah, Wakeman was probably the perfect archetype given the actor/pianist’s true to life classical upbringing and utter unfamiliarity with rock. And even still I did always like the somewhat-Wakemanesque, but almost more Come Sail Away-era-Denis DeYoung sounding portamento-drenched monotimbral solo he does there. My kinda shit, actually.

Had an awesome dinner (yellow saffron rice, with red onions, fresh jalapeños, and mushrooms, well seasoned and sautéed with a Morningstar Veggie Italian Sausage, if you give a damn), then put on Naqoyqatsi, another dvd I’ve owned for a while but been waiting for the right time to watch. Except that I still haven’t watched it, I’ve just been listening as I typed this post. Well, it *is* Glass, it needs at least one listen by itself without the visual.

And it just ended. Guess I should grab another beer and watch it for real this time.

I can’t link directly to it, because of the Tennessean’s god-awful web design, but on this article about the fairgrounds hubub, commenter Jablonski suggests:

Proposal: State Fairgrounds should be converted to a park for the under-parked Neighborhoods of South Nashville. Revenues to compensate for NOT putting the property on tax rolls as HCA’s new HQ, would be paid for in one simple decision: The racetrack should be converted BACK to a horse racing track, as it originally was, and the Iroquois steeplechase moved to this redeveloped land, converted back to a natural state. Finally, betting on horse-racing would be legalized for this facility on this day each year, and television rights to the Steeplechase would be sold, as the oldest and most storied such event in the nation. QED, and you’re welcome to my genius whenever you like.

I’ve never gone to Steeplechase, but just might if they did something like this.

Commenter njmccune nails it on the fairgrounds controversy:

If this place had been maintained properly and attention had been paid to landscaping and maintenance it would be a local icon and would continue to operate.

If it was making lots of money and still looked as bad as it does it would be a local icon and would continue to operate.

But it is neither… it is simply a hodge-podge collection of dilapidated buildings on un-maintained property that is at the heart of the blight in South Nashville. It looks like an old shuttered industrial complex badly in need of demolition.

Nostalgia aside… it is time for this property to become a symbol of the resurgence of South Nashville.

And in the category of Most Ludicrous Argument Ever, oh how I wish I had a link, but the current chair of the Davidson County Libertarian Party argues that we have to keep the fairgrounds open because otherwise property taxes in the area might go up. Think about that for a second. Why might property taxes go up? There’s one and only one reason — because property values might go up.

So, apparently Libertarians today believe that government should maintain ownership of rundown property in order to operate a revenue losing business on said property, because otherwise the neighboring property owners might see their property values increase, and that would be a bad thing. Yay for government intervention to make sure we keep our slums intact! Now that’s good laissez-faire capitalism!

Between that and the frothing comments you see on most articles on the subject, what’s clear is that when conservatives are presented a dilemma whereby their self-proclaimed belief in small government and fiscal responsibility conflict with their underlying and deeply psychological fear of change, you can guess which one wins.

Now, all that said, I’m not super keen on having the property sold off to HCA or other private developers. The land is a public resource, and it would be ideal if the site could be re-purposed in a way that benefits all Nashvillians while becoming a vibrant part of a revitalized South Nashville. BUT, we have to work within the parameters available, and when we can’t even get Metro to upkeep the islands in our central intersection (great thanks are due to the neighborhood volunteers doing what they can on their own to keep them looking presentable), hoping for something like a Centennial Park South is probably a pipe dream. But perhaps if some of the land can be sold in order to finance a Brown’s Creek Park project, or perhaps better yet sold on condition of the owners taking on the maintenance of such a park…

The Nashvillest has the latest scoop on the fairgrounds redevelopment issue. Particularly they point us to the marketing research group contracted to study the issue.

Walked over to Coleman for the Flatrock Festival opening ceremony. Heading back over there shortly, but just wanted to share this great quote from the ceremony (paraphrased from memory) …

I’ve been in the Woodbine community for 36 years, and people always ask me, “Why on earth do you live in Woodbine?” — and now I answer, “Because I can”.
– Brenda Lee

Another cool tidbit, we were told that there at least 48 different ethnicities established in our little neighborhood. I think that’s awesome.

Alright, I’m heading back. Got my phone set up for twitter, so if anything interesting comes up I’ll tweet.

After enjoying the Flatrock Festival this Saturday, you can come back next week for the Música de le Gente / Music of the People Festival:

A festive and FREE celebration of Mexican-American music will be presented by American Roots Music Education and Metro Parks and Recreation on Saturday, May 31, 2008 at the newly renovated Coleman Park Community Center.

Throughout the afternoon there will be lots of live music from local bands, including Ocho Treinta, Son Latino and Danny Salazar y Trova Urbana. At 5:00 pm the internationally renowned group from San Antonio, Texas, Los Texmaniacs, will perform.

Children can participate in crafts such as making paper flowers, cowboy hats, embossed tin boxes, lizard keychains and rhythm instruments. A children’s folklorico group will perform at 3:30 and there will be lots of piñatas, an exhibit of visual art by Latino artists, and plenty of dancing. Food and drink will be available for sale from local vendors.

FREE and open to the public

Date: Saturday, May 31, 2008
Time: 12:00 – 6:30 PM
Location: Coleman Park Community Center
(corner of Nolensville Road and Thompson Lane),
Nashville, TN
Good weather — outside!
Not-so-good weather — in the gym!

via Hispanic Nashville

I’ve been meaning to post about this, so before I forget again —

This Saturday, May 24, 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM at Coleman Park is the Hands Together In Flatrock Music And Arts Festival. From the presser:

In an effort to encourage interaction, greater understanding and tolerance among the older residents and the new immigrant families of Flatrock, members of the Flatrock community have come together to present a one day, family oriented festival. The Hands Together in Flatrock 1st Annual Music and Arts Festival will feature a unique mix of music, arts and cuisine – all of which have been selected with the intent to represent the rich, cultural diversity of the Flatrock community.

(read the full details here)

Should be a good time. Following is a tentative performance schedule that just came across the listserv:

11:00- 11:25    Gospel Choir
11:40-12:05     NSA Bluegrass Band
12:15-1:00      Boomerrang
1:10-1:40       Kurdish Singers/Hussein
1:50-2:20       Austin Cunningham
2:30-3:20       Baba Musa and Nature's Drummer
3:30-4:45       Irene Kelley/Tommy Womack
5:00-5:50       Trova Urbana w/ Danny Salazar
6:00-6:50       Orchid Skye

Also, our most famous Flatrock resident Brenda Lee will serve as Grand Marshall, though she won’t be performing.

You can preview some of the artists on the festival MySpace page.

View Larger Map

PS: In case anyone just falls in love with the neighborhood and just happens to be looking for a house (ahem), there are some good ones… ya know, just sayin’…

More great news for Flatrock:

Coleman Community Center Grand Opening
2:00 p.m., Saturday, May 3

Coleman Park Regional Community Center
384 Thompson Lane
Nashville, TN
Phone: 862-8445

Please join Mayor Karl Dean, Council Lady Anna Page and Metro Parks to celebrate the opening of this new state-of-the-art regional recreation facility.

The $5.5 million facility is an innovative state of the art, community center. Twice the size of previous centers, Coleman will offer a greater diversity of programs and services to meet the growing demands of area residents.

The facility features an indoor pool, a state-of-the art commercial kitchen, gymnasium space, an indoor walking track, computer, music, crafts, fine arts, fitness, and community meeting rooms. Metro Parks’ Master Plan recommends the construction of seven new regional centers.

2 p.m. – Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. – Royal Laotian Classical Dancers
2:30 – 5:00 p.m. – Lafayette Mitchell Painting Demonstration
3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. – Music City Ballroom Kids demonstrate ballroom dancing

State-of-the art Fitness Room open to the public free-of-charge on May 3.

This isn’t so much a fully formed thought as a reminder to myself to fully form one –

From a discussion on the LPTN list: their candidate for House 58 posts a press release basically in favor of letting the racetrack @ the Fairgrounds do whatever the hell it wants, whenever the hell it wants. I of course am of the opposing opinion, and pointed to a group that’s trying to start a dialog about some more productive and universally beneficial use of this public property.

Anyway I think it could help to have ideas on the table about where the track might go; there are people who enjoy auto racing, and they have their right to it. So I’ll throw one out there — what about Union Hill? Work with or merge it with the drag racing track. Don’t make me drag out words like synergy. I get the impression both organizations could use some of that. And gas ain’t* getting cheaper.

* Is that the sort of artificial colloquial pandering our leaders are supposed to drivel out in order to show they aren’t “elitist”?

I feel your pain, Béz.

My part of town is totally on the grid — except for my street, which they decided to skip for some reason. It’s like getting picked last for kickball all over again. But if you could turn down this street here, you’d literally be a stone’s throw away. Well, if it’s a small stone and you’ve got a good arm.

Oh well, at least some people are giving our quaint little barrio some respect.