Nashville 2

 In early August, my wife and I took a long weekend to Nashville.  I wrote the little poem here about it, because I realized that I was in a creative rut.  I've been mulling over the whole thing for over 2 months now, and sorta realized that Holland, in essence, has no culture.

We stayed in a hotel near Midtown Nashville, not far from Vanderbilt and not far from the main drag of Broadway.  The hotel we were in was built in the 70s, but renovated and doubled in size in the 2010s.  We walked to the Exit/In for a show and walked past an entire block of businesses that was burned out, graffitied over, and in general disrepair.  But, they almost all had old gig posters and stickers all over the windows.  The reason I was drawn to the Exit/In was because of the book Outlaw (ISBN 0062038192) and the stories of the venue that Kris Kristofferson, in particular, told.

We walked from our hotel past Vanderbilt University and saw The Parthenon...got to reading the signs and placards around The Parthenon and realized that the structure dated back over 100 years, to the heart of the founding of the city.  I wondered about the thousands of students that attended there, the whole college sports culture, and the profound influence that Vandy has had over millions of people throughout the years.  From there, I got thinking about a huge influence on my own guitar playing, Jim Lill, who attended Belmont University, just a ways south.

We walked from our hotel to the west end of Broadway and saw a couple of cool local bars, punctuated with dilapidated facades of microbreweries, small venues and nightclubs, and "dive" bars.  There was one particular building - a 3-story, red brick building that was evidently some kind of residential building that bore all the earmarks of being built in the early 20th, if not late 19th, centuries.  I got wondering if anyone I'd ever heard of lived there.

We went to the historic Robert's Western World, and to Tootsie's Orchid Lounge where we saw Ms. Alyssa J. Palmer (a fellow NMU alum) on stage.  I was taken by all the trinkets and souvenirs in both venues; Tootsie's in particular has thousands of framed pictures on the walls.

We saw awesome acts like Kibby & The Biscuits, Fort Knox, Alyssa Palmer (hotlinked above), Troy Kemp, Adam Ernst, James Carothers, and countless others on stage at all these historic venues.  We went to Opryland, Third Man Records, and Cooter's Garage.  And, all the while, I was thinking about this blog.

Well, not only about the blog.  I was thinking about the ghosts (as mentioned in the poem up above); not just physical ghosts, but the memories of what used to be. Dozens of celebrity bars used to be locally-owned independent venues.  For every lame cover band that we saw were hundreds of other bands that couldn't catch a break and had to call it quits.  For every shuttered hipstery brewpub, there were hundreds of juke joints throughout the decades.

Holland is wealthy and upscale, though there isn't nearly as much money here as there is in Nashville.  But, there's something about the squeaky clean image of Holland that stands in stark contrast to the grit of even the most polished parts of Nashville.  We demolish - we flatten - all the old buildings that give Downtown Holland any sort of character, in an effort to make everything squeaky clean.

I followed an Instagram account that photographs notable neon signs...and, well, there aren't many in Holland.  I can think of the Vacuum Cleaner Store and the marquees of the Park Theatre and the Knickerbocker Theater as the only 3 notable heritage signs in the Downtown area.  There's so much spit-and-polish balancing the 17th Century architecture around Windmill Island with 21st Century modernism.  But, any hint of culture is erased to make way for rich white people.  High rents drove out Gregordog and Subs N More.  Froggie's closed and got rolled in with Hops At 84 East.  Even Goog's went from quirky burger joint to upscale, bougie burger bar.  Despite being a college town, the Powers That Be in Holland sure seem to ignore all of that.

One goal I had in starting this blog was to showcase stuff like that.  And, I left Nashville feeling incredibly uninspired because I felt so so different walking around there than I ever have in Holland.  Even when I'm forcing myself to see creativity and beauty in my hometown, it's a massive chore.  I'm uninspired these days.  It's hard to write this blog that requires research when I can't see the forest through the trees.  Hell, I enjoy playing guitar and bass, and I had to kick myself in the pants to pick those back up after Nashville.  I hold absolutely NO delusions of making it to Nashville, cutting a record, and making a million bucks, but it sure would be fun to feel something while playing music too.

Oh well.  I'll be here typing as I can.  And, with the rise of AI traffic online, you (dear reader) can rest assured that all the pablum and drivel posted here will be entirely generated by some asshole (that's me!) on a keyboard.