all summer in a day

RIP Ray Bradbury, 1920-2012.

rambo’s last jam

Rambo Sambo’s last jam as a Nashville Rollergirl. Nashville, TN. June 2, 2012

An emotional send-off for Rambo as she says goodbye to her fans and teammates and heads north to New England.

cowboy

nashville skyline

Nashville Skyline, August 2008.

An old crowd-pleaser shot from the Shelby pedestrian bridge.

athena parthenos

Statue of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon replica. Nashville, TN.

A requisite stop on any tour of Nashville — the parthenon. I showed a michigander-in-SF and a Londoner around the city this weekend. Other notable facets of the tour were Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, Hog Heaven, and uhm.. racism.

the peri

The Peri, Acklen Mausoleum, Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Nashville, TN.

Following the death of her second husband, Adelecia Acklen toured Europe, where she purchased many works of art for the Belmont mansion. Her favorite among them was this statue by Joseph Mozier, The Peri. From “Angels in the Home”, by Lauren Lessing:

Acklen’s largest and most elaborate ideal sculpture was a nude, standing, winged figure by Joseph Mozier, The Peri, which she displayed in Belmont’s grand salon. Near the center of the room, standing eight feet high on its pedestal, the sculpture presided over nearly all of Acklen’s most important social functions. The subject is taken from the Irish poet Thomas Moore’s 1817 poem “Lalla Rookh.” A story within the poem tells of a peri, or fallen angel, who longs to return to heaven. After several failed attempts to reenter paradise, she is at last admitted when she brings the correct gift to the guardian of the celestial gates—the tears of a repentant sinner. Mozier’s sculpture depicts the peri standing in a graceful contrapposto pose, her slightly upturned face transfixed by an expression of joyful reverence. With her open right hand, she presents the sinner’s tears, while her left hand holds a goblet—perhaps a reference to one of her earlier gifts, a cup containing the blood of a patriotic hero who died defending his native land from invaders. Her feathered wings, which extend down past her knees, are folded behind her like a mandorla. Although The Peri—Mozier’s only nude female figure—is both voluptuous and completely unclothed, the sculptor followed nineteenth-century academic conventions by omitting genitalia and body hair. The smoothness and whiteness of the marble lends The Peri a chaste, spiritual air that, as Hiram Powers famously argued, made nudity permissible in ideal sculpture. The truncated spiral column supporting the figure is well suited to Moore’s orientalizing tale of spiritual redemption. It is both a common element of Islamic architecture and a reference to the columns supporting the dome of St. Peter’s basilica in the Vatican—columns that purportedly originated in the Temple of Solomon. Inscribed on the pedestal are the words from Moore’s poem, “Joy! Joy forever. My task is done. The gate is crossed and heaven is won.”

Pictured above is the statue in its current/final resting place: interred alongside Adelicia herself in the Acklen family mausoleum.

pickup

new year’s day

Second Avenue, Nashville, TN. New Year’s Day, 2011

santa

Santa Rampage, December, 2009.

Santa Rampage: your source for people looking contemplative and/or serene while dressed up like Santa Claus.

horse and barn

Horse Farm, Big South Fork, TN. April, 2012.

An uncharacteristically pastoral scene, for me. We went horseback riding while we were spending the weekend in Big South Fork. I am quite pleased with myself in that I didn’t fall off even once!

R2

An R2 unit at the Chattanooga Convention Center. May 12, 2012.

Ah, levitation — the force is strong with this one. I had just about the same reaction, but I managed to take this picture nonetheless.

steeplechase

Steeplechase, Nashville, TN. May, 2009.

“And this also has been one of the dark places of the earth.”

waiting for wingz

Ghot Wingz, Nashville, TN. May 4, 2012.

Members of the Centresource crew wait for assorted spicy chicken products.

scrimmage

Nashville Roller Girls Scrimmage, May 2012.

pinnacle

Pinnacle Building, Nashville, TN. May 7, 2012.

I overheard some people talking smack about the Pinnacle tower the other day. I’m no architecture expert, much less a snob, but I think it’s quite nice. I wish they hadn’t insisted on marring it with the giant “PINNACLE” sign, but what can you do? Even the Ryman auditorium is now the NISSAN ryman auditorium.

berry’s loan

Berry’s Loan, Nashville, TN. May 7, 2012.

It’s odd to see this sign not lit up. It’s been a fixture on 4th avenue north for more than 40 years. After 71 years in business, Berry’s is closing up shop. Its remaining inventory was auctioned off on Saturday night.

I don’t know what it is about that particular spot, but I’ve always found it to be particular photogenic. Nonetheless, I never felt like I got a particularly good photo of it. And, so, I’ve tried to get that Perfect Shot over, and over, and over. And over. Oh well. Quantity is a sufficient substitute for quality, right?

No word yet on who won the sign, which was auctioned off along with everything else on Saturday.

hollywood 27

Regal Hollywood 27, Nashville, TN. May 6th, 2012.

Lots of thundering outside while we were inside watching the Hulk smash and the Avengers avenge.

smoker

Smoker, Nashville, TN. May 3, 2012.

skateboarding

Skateboarding on the Legislative Plaza. Nashville, TN. May, 2010.

Perhaps the most skilled and worthwhile activity that has taken place on legislative plaza in weeks.

flood anniversary

River Plantation (Bellevue), Nashville, TN. May 8, 2010

Today arguably represents the 2-year anniversary of the 2010 Nashville flooding. 13.57 inches of rain fell between the two days on May 1st and 2nd, and water began entering people’s homes and businesses. I thought about posting here one of the more eerie, picturesque photos of downtown Nashville without power and full of water. Pretty pictures, maybe, but those photos don’t really capture the true losses of the flooding. Those businesses quickly hired equipment and people, pumped the water out, cut their losses, and were back in business before too long. The hardest hit and longest affected areas, of course, were the least visible, and there was nothing pretty about it.

The photo above reflects the more painful reality of what countless individuals faced when the waters finally receded. Entire homes gutted and turned inside out, their life’s belongings on display for all to see. Their neighborhoods and streets turned into makeshift dumps.

Bellevue was lucky, relatively, being a more visible and affluent suburb, quickly amassing a veritable army of volunteers to help strip the houses. I didn’t even take a camera with me to Bordeaux, where things were a little more bleak. Many houses stood empty, abandoned, and some had a smattering of volunteers starting to trickle in. I recall the house I helped to demo: An older retired couple owned it, and were insisting that we carefully scrape the 20 year old linoleum off of the plywood subfloor, so they could salvage it. I didn’t have the construction expertise, but mostly didn’t have the heart, to tell him that it would all have to be ripped out. It’s no easy task to tell someone that the home and life they’re desperately trying to save is destroyed.

I won’t moralize too much here about it all, since this blog is about pretty pictures. So, yeah. Tomorrow I’ll post a photo of a flower and some kittens or something. Happy Tuesday!