After a few days of being shuttled between my soulless hotel in Nashville and the soulless muliplex theater where the festival films are playing, I was beginning to yearn to see some more exciting parts of town. Enter Carol Tully, Nashville transplant, who graciously showed me some more offbeat sites. On Carol’s advice, I met her at a bar called the Gold Rush, located sort of near Vanderbilt University, where they were playing early Old 97s, people were drinking heavily, and the bartender called me “doll.” My kind of place. We stayed there a bit and then ventured to a film festival party at BB King’s, which is on a downtown strip not unlike the spring break frenzy you see in Myrtle Beach or somewhere equally tacky. At the party, the food consisted of cheese cubes and fried pickles, but there was one highlight – Mr. Patrick Swayze. He and his wife have a film at the festival. Carol insisted I take a picture with him…should make a lovely Christmas card if I crop out his wife. After that party fizzled out, Carol and I got lost and drove around some of Nashville’s finest ghettos (more exciting than the multiplex and mall) and then ended up at some great honkytonk type bar (I forget the name) where the evening’s music was winding down but the local drunks were just heating up. Steve Earle’s son (looking a little bit glassy eyed) was there saying something about how he couldn’t go out after last call because he “had to check on the place where he was going to be sleeping.” Alrighty. After all this, Carol drove me back to the hotel, and who was out front but Ricky – err, Rick – Schroeder! I got her back for the Swayze photo by taking one of her and Rick posed on her car. Despite it being 3 a.m. and being harassed for photo ops by strangers, Rick seemed very cool. He told us to come see his movie – “Black Cloud” – and to vote for it at the festival. He was also saying how he likes to eat grits. So he should fit right in here in Nashville.

Another highlight from this Nashville trip was a quick visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame. It’s a pretty impressive museum (although why in the hell do they have Billy Ray Cyrus’ tank top on display? That’s just WRONG.) There is some cool stuff – Patsy Cline letters, Hank Williams cowboy boots, a selection of “Hee Haw” memorabilia, etc. I watched part of a little film they show about country music on television – great stuff of young Merle Haggard impersonating Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton before she looked like a drag queen, Flatt & Scruggs on “The Beverly Hillbillies” and more. I skipped a film about Faith Hill and Tim McGraw – that’s just a bit too “new country” for me.