"Stuck Inside of Mobile, with the Memphis Blues Again." B. Dylan

Dante, when describing the circles of hell, conveniently forgot to mention the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennnessee. It is truly a monstrosity of enormous proportions, a sham world, a corporate dystopia, a perfect place for the shameless schmooze of industry and government. The Department of Energy, or as they affectionately refer to it here, DOE (think Bambi!) wants to do business with people in business who want to do business. I'm thinking this is the kind of business that's driving our beloved country into the embrace of the Smart Bomb, the SUV and the GULAG! Somehow the smiling faces, the fake friendliness, the blind acceptance of mediocrity and tastelessness seems to me to be a symptom of a greater, deeper soul sickness...

Anyway, I was able to explore the real city of Nashville and found out that it is a kind of cool and funky town. I really do love cities. I love the messiness, the funkiness, the diversity... Nashville is about music! Country, Blues, some Soul too. I found a cool little coffee bar where tatoos and long hair were prominent, and as soon as I walked in, I breathed a big sigh of relief. The girl (a sweet little slip of a thing) serving up my latte had a large black tatoo of a cat on her thin white arm. She was about the most beautiful sight I came across all day.

In the evening, (I skipped the DOE sponsored Hoedown), I wandered around in my rental car, chomping on a blueberry bagel, the Who blasting on the CD player, and kind of soaked in the streets of Nashville. It was a welcome and neccesary antidote. I found a cool little guitar shop and played some really fine guitars (a Custom Shop 1960 Les Paul Standard and a Paul Reed Smith) for about an hour. I fell in love with the Les Paul, it really is my destiny to own one...

This is the last day of the show. I'm stuck one more night, I have to pack up the booth and get it back to FedEx. Then maybe a little more wandering/meandering. Maybe there's another guitar shop worth checking out.