Billy Ray Cyrus is Nashville's David Hasselhoff

So making fun of David Hasselhoff never gets old. He's one of those people who just invite the criticism. But for some reason, people in Europe, especially Germany, love David Hasselhoff.

I feel like with the recent fame of Billy Ray Cyrus, piggybacking off of his daughter Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray could be in the same boat as Hasselhoff.

Let's look at a comparison -

Billy Ray Cyrus had a one hit wonder in the 90s, he rocked a power mullet, he has a distinct name that nobody will ever forget and he disappeared for about 15 years while raising his daughter only to realize his ever growing popularity. For all we know, people in Europe (and Germany) might still be rocking out to Achy Breaky Heart.

David Hasselhoff also has a music career, although I know nothing about it, he has a distinct name, he was a star on TV for years but then disappeared for quite a while. Now David Hasselhoff has come back in full force as a judge on various talent shows.

Do people still make fun of both of them? Yes. But they do it in a loving manner of course. I wonder who the next Billy Ray or David Hasselhoff will be?

Be sure to watch Billy Ray Cyrus host Nashville Star on NBC tonight. If they get enough viewers, they'll keep it on air. Maybe we won't even need MTV's Real World to come to Nashville!

St. Louis Cardinals

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of visiting St. Louis, Missouri. I spent close to 6 years in St. Louis going to school and working at an ad agency there. My first stop was to my favorite bar, McGurks. McGurks is located just south of the city in Soulard and it is a great time in the summer because of the huge back patio.

When I walked out there, I noticed a huge group of people hanging out around the back bar watching TV. Turns out, the group was watching the Cardinals, but, they were watching the Cardinals get beat 20-2.

Only in St. Louis would a group of people still rally behind their team during the 8th inning, knowing they were going to get beat so badly.

Although Nashville doesn't have that feeling for baseball, Nashvillians love to listen to live music around town and they love their SEC football. But never before have I seen such passion for the game as I witnessed on Friday night.

Ok. Was I the last person to find out about this? Apparently, professional basketball has come to Nashville. The Nashville Broncs will join the American Basketball Association this fall as an expansion team.

The team is made up mostly of graduates of colleges in Nashville - Lipscomb, Trevecca, Fisk, Austin Peay, Cumberland University and Columbia State, however, there is a summer league which includes open tryouts for the team.

The coach will be familiar to some of you. Former Vandy star and alum, Jan van Breda Kolff. During his time at Vanderbilt, Breda Kolff led the Commodores to a Sweet 16 appearance and was named SEC player of the year in 1974.

It looks like the games will be held at Nashville's Municipal Auditorium, but I could be wrong on that. The team's website is pretty bad.

I'm sure this will be a family friendly atmosphere and give kids the chance to watch live basketball throughout the year, but I would assume that Vanderbilt, Belmont, Lipscomb, Trevecca and Austin Peay all offer more exciting options.

But why the Broncs? Does anyone know?

Marsha Blackburn's Loss - Your Gain

I don't even know what to say about this one. $100,000 was recently found in a couch sold at a yard sale. A few months ago, the couch belonged to U.S. Rep Marsha Blackburn (from Williamson County, TN) before she remodeled her office and gave the couch to a charity.

According to the Nashville Scene, Blackburn, the Republican who represents the 7^th Congressional District, has recently amended years of Federal Election Commission filings and admitted that her office failed to report more than $250,000 in campaign spending and just over $100,000 in donations.

I'm just kind of surprised that the people who sold the couch didn't find it first. They didn't turn over the cushions, ever?

The guys who found the money had their priorities straight. They went to the store and bought a few cases of beer before they invested it in mutual funds.

In a quote from Blackburn, while at a "Guns not Gays" picnic, she said “So that’s where that money went! We’ve just been tearing our hair out about it. Hundred-thousand here, hundred-thousand there—it’s just too easy for money to go astray.”

At least she's being nice and not requesting to have the money back!

Nashville's Official Music Website

Are you tired of wondering where and when to see your favorite band? Are you tired of searching the internet to find the exact music you are looking for? Well look no further Nashville!

www.visitmusiccity.com/music/

This is the Nashville Convention and Visitor Bureau's new music website. What a great idea! The site designed to give visitors an in-depth look at all the genres of music in Music City. It includes a new multi-media player with music and original videos. The site will also include NCVB's first blog on Nashville's music scene.

The best part is that the site gives visitors a live music map to find upcoming performances around the city.

Nashville Pollution

While growing up, I never thought of Nashville as a city that has a lot of pollution. I've visited other cities that actually have a "smog" report on their local newscast every morning to say where pollution is high. Las Vegas, Los Angeles, etc.

Well, with the help from our fine city, Tennessee ranks at the top for having the highest level of global warming emissions per capita. Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga and Memphis all ranked among the top 25 cities for having some of the largest carbon footprints in the country. Nashville ranked number 6 on the list.

"Greenhouse gas pollution is high throughout the South, but Tennessee has the dubious distinction of having more metro areas with a larger carbon footprint than any other state" says Trip Pollard, director of SELC's Land & Community Program. "Southerners are extremely dependent on driving and we use a lot of dirty sources of electricity, so we end up with larger-than-average carbon footprints."

Do they know that Al Gore lives in our state and uses solar energy panels on his house? I guess not.

You can read more about the report here at the Nashville Business Journal's website. Why is this the first time I've heard about this? What is being done by the city government to fix this? How can Nashville rise again (you know, the south rises again) if we have some of the worst pollution in the country?

Cities I Would Like to Visit

For those who don't know me, I've lived all over the U.S. I've lived in 7 states throughout my life, some great states (like Tennessee) and some random states (Utah and Idaho). Because of my travels, I have a passion for seeing new cities and different lifestyles and cultures.

There are 2 cities on my "must visit" list right now. They are Charlotte and Austin.

Charlotte, NC

I keep hearing great things about Charlotte. It is slightly larger than Nashville probably because it has more corporate headquarters there, Bank of America and Wachovia are both headquartered there. It is also the home of NASCAR, which I am a fan of. It has two major league sports teams - the Charlotte Bobcats basketball team and the Carolina Panthers football team. It is still considered a Southern city, but it is also on the East Coast. The international airport in Charlotte is the 11th busiest airport in the world, that's pretty busy! Charlotte also has the Amtrack trains that go through the city... something Nashville does not have. Compared to Nashville, it is slightly cooler in the summer and slightly warmer in the winter, but it does average 4 inches of snow per year. There has been a republican mayor ever year for the past 21 years.

Doesn't this scene in downtown Austin look familiar to anyone from Nashville?

Austin is the Live Music capital of the world, not to be confused with Nashville being the Music City capital of the world, its a very distinct difference. I first found out about Austin a few years ago when Austin was on Real World. The city seemed pretty cool. Austin is even larger than Charlotte and has a very large population of young adults due to the fact that the main campus of the University of Texas is in Austin. MSN recently ranked Austin as the "Greenest City in the US."

I'd still love to go to Boston, NYC and San Francisco (I lived there when I was young but don't remember it).

Where in the U.S. do you want to travel to and why?

One thing Nashville is missing is...

Major League Baseball.

This weekend, after a fun time in Salt Lake City, I decided to extend my layover in Chicago to see a Cubs game. What a great decision! One of my favorite things in life is to go to a daytime baseball game at a sold out stadium. I arrived in Chicago at 11:30am and was at the game by 1:30pm. Luckily I was able to meet up with some friends and family.

The Cubs played Pittsburgh and won 4-3. It was a pretty quick game so since my flight didn't leave until 9:25, we headed out to the bars on Clark street. I took my cousin to some places she had never been to before and it was good to hang out with her.

Nashville has the Nashville Sounds triple A baseball team which is the minor league team for the Milwaukee Brewers. I think they average 2,000 people per game. It can get fun if you decide to go on a Thursday night when they call it thirsty Thursdays and they have cheap beer. There are a bunch of young people there and everyone has a great time... NOT watching baseball.

I'm not trying to bring baseball to Nashville, mainly because I don't think we have the population and business headquarters to support a baseball team. On any given weekday game, I don't think anyone would show up to a game in Nashville. There would not be enough corporate sponsorship.

So when you're in the mood for a great game, take the cheap Southwest flight to Chicago, or make the short drive to St. Louis or Atlanta.

Oh, by the way. It was 55 degrees in Chicago on Saturday. Too cold for the middle of May!

Steeplechase 2K8

If you are from anywhere that does not have horse races once a year, or somewhere other than the south, the Iroquois Steeplechase is a culture shock. For those who went to SEC school football games, you may not have been as shocked. For me, the day started at 8:15 a.m. and we made our way into the infield by about 10 a.m. We were all dressed in our linen and seersucker and the girls had their summer hats on.



Steeplechase is not your typical "race around the oval track" horse race. Some of the races can be up to 3 miles long, with jumps and hurdles. Good Night Shirt, Steeplechase champion from 2007, gave a repeat performance and raced through the finish line first on Saturday.

We had a great tailgating spot. We set out cornhole and washers (a St. Louis favorite) and had some great food and drinks.

Unfortunately, since we were in the infield, and not in the luxury boxes, we didn't see many celebrities. But we did see Dr. Travis Stork. Remember him? He was the bachelor on Bachelor Paris in 2005/2006. Dr. Stork, now a resident of Breckenridge, CO, lived in Nashville during his residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He hung out with our group at Steeplechase for a while, probably because we had cute girls with us. I think one girl was going to get a ride home on his motorcycle!

Dr. Travis Stork talking to the ladies... and some guy.

Overall it was a great day. We all mentioned how we didn't mind paying for the cost of the ticket because all proceeds went to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

What a great event to have on a great Springtime day. It would only be better if MTV's Realworld showed up!

Only in Nashville

Only in Nashville can you go to lunch at Cheeseburger Charley's and be in the way of an Alan Jackson music video shoot. Of course everyone was dressed up in their most country outfits, some of them were laughable, but some looked pretty normal...!

What is your "Only in Nashville" story?

What's up KC what's up?

Jump on it, jump on it, jump on it!

So I was in Kansas City this past weekend. It is your typical mid-western city and I'm pretty sure it is larger than Nashville. It has a pro-football team and baseball team, but luckily, the deal fell through for them to get the Predators. For now, they have a new arena downtown, without a sports team to fill it. Neither the football stadium or baseball stadium is downtown, so they have to do something to draw KC residents and tourists to the heart of the city.

There's a trend in a lot of cities right now to build a restaurant and bar district downtown, in order to attract tourists and people from the suburbs. Many of these are built along side rivers, and they are called City Walk, or Board Walk, or something else. Since KC does not have a river, they built their new Power and Light District next to their arena. The power and light district has a wide variety of restaurants and bars, from fine dining seafood, to bull riding country bars. They have a piano bar, trendy bowling alley, micro brewery and whiskey lounge.

I went to the P&L district on both Friday and Saturday night. They have the area roped off and only people 21 and up are allowed in. This way they can let people walk around outside with drinks.

I think all of KC was there on Saturday night. The district attracts all kinds of visitors, so there's a wide variety of people, but it gets really crowded.

The entire place looked very manufactured though. It did not look natural. I am willing to bet that KC's P&L district will look very outdated with vacant bars in 20 years. It will need a complete makeover.

St. Louis is currently building a Ballpark Village of some sort, around the new Busch Stadium. Great idea, but again, I don't think that the designers are looking into the future.

In the past, Nashville has had one of these manufactured areas, and it did not work. 20 years ago, Metro Center, just north of Nashville, was a new office park with shopping and restaurants. I think I remember going to a comedy and magic show there with my parents. But I only remember going once or twice, and then all of the sudden, it was gone.

Nashville has upgraded its downtown tourist district and it does not look manufactured at all. It looks very natural. No, you can't walk around with drinks, but we don't want it to turn into New Orleans... or do we?

Maybe Sir Mix a-Lot should change his song and include Nashville in it!

Nashville Losing Focus

In order to make way for trendy clothing store Urban Outfitters, one of Nashville's live music venues must close. As reported by the Nashville Business Journal on Tuesday, City Hall Entertainment Space, located in the Gulch, will close in mid-September to make room for retail space.

As most of you know, based on my previous posts, I'm all for bringing nationally recognized clothing stores to Nashville, but way before Nashville became a shopping destination, Nashville was named Music City.

I'm sure Urban Outfitters could find another space, maybe even on the ground floor of one of the new high rise buildings in the Gulch, to open their store.

I vote to keep City Hall open!

No Longer a Rumor!!!

The premier shopping destination, Nordstrom, has signed a letter of intent to open a store in Green Hills in 2010. A new building will be built over a ground level service parking lot on Abbott Martin Road next to a current five-level parking lot near Dillards, according to Scott McClure, a spokesman for the mall.

The three-level, 149,000-square-foot store is scheduled to open in fall 2010. It will be the first store for the luxury specialty retailer in the state.

"We are thrilled to make our debut in Tennessee at this extraordinary location," said Erik Nordstrom, president of stores for Nordstrom. "The Mall at Green Hills is a premier shopping destination and we look forward to serving our customers in Nashville and in surrounding areas."

The Mall at Green Hills has seen an increase in luxury stores including Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Juicy Couture, in addition to many boutique stores throughout the city. This puts Nashville on the shopping map and we can now compete with Atlanta and Charlotte for the best shopping in the Southeast.

Bye Bye Pacman

Pacman Jones keeping Terrell Owens from catching a pass in the end zone during a game at LP Field

Nashville has had to endure the antics of Pacman Jones in the media for the past few years. Nightclub after nightclub, girl after girl, it was not surprising to see Pacman on the 10 p.m. nightly news.

Both the Dallas Cowboys and the Tennessee Titans announced yesterday that Pacman will now be a Cowboy. In return, Tennessee now gets a 4th round draft pick in this Sunday's NFL draft.

I'm very interested to see the team dynamic in Dallas. They have Terrell Owens, former trouble maker until he started getting more playing time and receiving more passes, and now Pacman Jones. Both players are great additions to the football team when they are playing well and not getting in trouble, but the Cowboys franchise could get in a lot of trouble if Pacman starts going to nightclubs and TO gets upset with Quarterback Tony Romo.

I'm sure many of the Titans coaches and players are relieved of the headache caused by Pacman in the past few years, but will the Titans regret sending Pacman on his way? In the end, this should allow the Titans to move on to being a well respected franchise and a team that players want to be a part of. Girls will no longer have to be afraid of getting spit on in Murfreesboro, they will have to go to Dallas for that.

Unfortunately, the Titans and Cowboys do not play each other this year. Could the Dallas Cowboys now be a Superbowl contending team with superstars such as Tony Romo, Terrell Owens and Pacman Jones? I think that there will be too much emotion (i.e. Jessica Simpson, Las Vegas nightclubs, lawyers, etc.) on the shoulders of all 3 players for them to contend for the title.

Karg Boys at Sambuca

Cell phone camera didn't help out too much this time!

Well, it turns out I was old enough to get into Sambuca in the Gulch on Saturday night, although I did go with my 35-year-old friend Scott. The occasion was to see some great old friends play some music.

I was pleasantly surprised with the scene. Usually I feel like it is a little too meathead-ish for me, but this time it was very cool. Not too crowded, no body builders with tattoos, good music, good friends and we could hear ourselves talk. It seems like the perfect place for a dinner date or after dinner dessert or drink. Its great in the summer too because of the rooftop patio.

I don't follow the local music scene too much, but there is one band, The Karg Boys, who I do follow. I have seen The Karg Boys at Bluebird Cafe, 2 Doors Down, 3rd and Lindsley, Sambuca and a few other places. They play a great mix of Country/Rock. This time they didn't let down. They played from 7-12 on Friday and Saturday nights with only a few breaks. Every time they got a break they made sure to talk to everyone in the crowd and make them feel welcome.

Sambuca is located in the up-and-coming Gulch, which will soon turn out to be a very trendy residential and commercial area of the city. If there was one place in Nashville where I think they should host The Real World, it would be in the Gulch. The residential buildings are almost complete, and before they sell out, they could rent some space to MTV. I'm sure they could get a penthouse with a rooftop patio and view of the city. The Gulch is walking distance to Music Row (where they could do one of their service projects) and Demumbreun and Gulch nightlife.

I didn't think I would be saying this, but I will definitely go back!

The Purple Carpet

The Purple Carpet

Tim McGraw getting out of his ride...

Dierks Bentley signing autographs outside the Curb Event Center at Belmont University

The greatest thing about Nashville is taking advantage of what it has to offer. Last night, my roommate and I drove down Belmont Blvd (mentioned many times in my blog) and watched the CMT stars enter the Curb Event Center at Belmont University. After just 20 minutes of standing in the crowd, we saw Miley Cyrus, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Dierks Bentley and many others. Unfortunately, we did not get to see our favorite, Carrie Underwood. But did you see her perform during the award show last night? WOW!

Then, we watched the Nashville Predators defeat the Detroit Red Wings 5-3 in game 3 of the first round of the NHL playoffs.

After the game, we decided to stalk the stars again so we stood outside the Curb Center to watch them walking out, but they used a back door. We went to a few of the honky tonk bars downtown, but it turns out the after party was at John Rich's (of Big and Rich) bar downtown and we weren't invited.

Overall, a great Monday night in the city of Nashville.

And then I found 5 dollars...

Today, I ate lunch at the Cool Springs Galleria food court. It was your typical Thursday afternoon filled with moms with babies. There were not many tables available, and one guy, who was sitting at a table across from me, turned around and seemed really excited for some reason. He started talking with the person behind me about where he goes to church and who he goes to church with (really common here in the Bible belt).

Turns out, the person behind me was Albert Haynesworth, all-pro defensive tackle for the Tennessee Titans. That's about the entire story, but I'll go ahead and give you some background on the famous person sighting of the day. (Big Al, standing at 6 foot 6 and 320 pounds, is standing in front of the Japanese place getting the free piece of teriyaki chicken. Sorry, my phone camera could not zoom anymore!)

Albert Haynesworth became famous in 2006 after stepping on the face of an opposing teams player with metal cleats. He was suspended for 5 games and became well respected for owning up to his mistake in front of the media. (I'm glad he didn't step on my face today)

A little lesser known fact about Big Al is that he owns a travel agency. He and his wife started a internet travel business (haynesworthtravel.com). Customers can purchase airline tickets, hotels, cruises and rental cars on the website.

Congratulations to Williamson County for providing an inviting mall food court for Albert Haynesworth to visit.

Trader Joes Comes to Nashville!

Check this out -

traderjoesnashville.blogspot.com

The question remains, will Nashville allow Trader Joe's to sell its signature 2 Buck Chuck wine in the stores? It just so happens that there are talks going on right now to allow wine to be sold in all grocery stores in Nashville!

You Heard it Here First

The Nashville Chamber of Commerce and Partnership 2020 have successfully bid on the world's largest sporting event. That's right, the Olympic torch will be carried all over the country until it lands right here in Nashville, Tennessee.

A lot of questions are currently left unanswered.

The entertainment will no doubt be American. But will Nashville's music industry rise to the occasion and put on a show never to be forgotten?

Two of world's largest brands are headquartered in and around Nashville. Nissan North America and Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey will be the headlining sponsors, but will the buzz of the Olympics bring even more business to Nashville?

The games and locations will take place throughout the Nashville metropolitan area. All finals competition will take place in LP Field, but the majority of the games will revive the Parthenon and it's front lawn. Centennial Park as we know it will be transformed into the Olympic Village. Will this help the current homeless people surrounding the park find temporary jobs and housing?

Tony Giarratana will continue his downtown rebuilding campaign in order to satisfy the millions of visitors. As for housing for the athletes, Nashville's unique Southern Hospitality will come into play. Residents of Belmont Boulevard will be asked to rent out their houses as a bed and breakfast for the month. Many of these houses are traditionally American with unique southern style, but will this be the perfect situation for housing the world's most incredible athletes?

Again, I am proud of Music City. Let the games begin!

Memphis Most Walkable - Makes Me Sick

Scene from Belmont Boulevard. The 3 mile stretch of sidewalks, bike paths and pedestrian friendly roadway.

Prevention Magazine named Nashville the 7th most walkable city in Tennessee and it didn't even make the top 100 in the United States. Memphis on the other hand, is the most walkable city in Tennessee and is #73 in the United States.

I have a problem with this ranking, as some would assume I would. The ranking is based on pollution levels, number of people who walk for exercise, crime rates and sidewalk availability. I agree that Nashville lacks sidewalks in the residential areas. Moving to Nashville from Detroit many years ago, that is one of the first things my Mom noticed (I know, the little things surprise her).

However, have you been downtown recently? Have you encountered any pollution? Probably not. Have you seen a lot of people walking on sidewalks? Probably. Did you know that you can walk from the residential ares of East Nash, to Germantown, to Downtown, to SoBro, to the Gulch, to Demumbreun and to Vandy (that new 20th and Grand residential building), all using sidewalks?

I have a friend that walked back to my condo at 2:30am from Demumbreun because he didn't have money for a cab, and that is about 2.5 miles... and he used sidewalks!

In case you were wondering, Cambridge, Massachusetts is the #1 most walkable city in the U.S.

All this being said, I think that Nashville is already making progress to increase the walkability of the city, but this should be a wake up call to Mayor Karl Dean.