Nashville for Free

I’m sad to announce that this week is the last week for Vanderbilt International Lens Series. International Lens has brought dozens of free foreign films to us since last fall, just like it does every year. In my opinion it’s one of the coolest series of free events in Nashville, and without a doubt one of the most prolific, with at least one film being shown per week. Each film is shown at Vanderbilt’s Sarratt Cinema at 7pm.

This Tuesday International Lens is showing Jesus of Montreal. Here’s some info about it:

When attendance at a church’s annual Passion Play flags, a troupe of young actors stages a modern interpretation of Jesus’ teachings. Their version brings the house down, but also brings down the condemnation of the church’s hierarchy, creating a strange parallel between the actors, now persecuted believers, and their play. Winner of the 1989 Cannes Grand Jury Prize and 12 Canadian Genies. In French and Italian with English subtitles. Rated R. 118 minutes.

Then, on Wednesday, International Lens is showing Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony. Here’s the info for that one:

Does song have the power to communicate, motivate, console, unite and, ultimately, beget change? This documentary of black South African freedom music reveals the central role it played in the battle against apartheid. Archival footage, interviews, musical numbers, and reenactments celebrate the resilience of the human spirit throughout this decades-long struggle for civil rights. In Zulu(!) with English subtitles. Rated PG-13. 108 minutes

I hope some of you get out to one of these movies, because it’ll be the last of them until the next fall.

-Emily

As you may know, yesterday was Record Store Day, which meant you could either get a lot of cheap music, or a lot of exclusive music. This year I opted for cheap music.

A few friends and I hit up Grimey’s around 9:40, hoping to beat the lines and get some cool tunes, but by the time we got there the line was already to the end of the block. Alas, I knew that there was no way I’d snag one of the 3 copies of the new Hold Steady record that Grimey’s had. We decided instead to head around back and raid the table of free stuff in the back lot. There were vinyl samplers, CD samplers, empty CD cases, posters, and some really cool things. I got a Freelance Whales 7″, a Roots lighter, a Record Store Day bumper sticker, and a banner for the new Hole album. That’s right, I like Hole. Hole rocks. Don’t deny it.

There were also some good things to be found in the mail crates filled to the brim with CDs and LPs for a dollar. I found a few CDs that struck my fancy, including one by the Silver Jews, one by the Low Anthem, and a Lloyd Cole record. I only ended up buying a Chopin LP box set though, because Chopin is awesome and the disks were in PERFECT condition. I have to say, people who own classical records take amazing care of them. There you have it, there are many gems among a lot of crap in that back lot.

After we’d had our share of Grimey’s we headed over to East Nashville to enjoy the Groove and their celebrations. Since I could actually walk around inside the Groove I was able to pick up one or two limited releases, but I was mostly there to see Emmylou Harris, who was just hanging out in the parking lot trying to get people to adopt adorable animals. I believe that the band that played before her was called Danger and the Steel Cut Oats, and they were great. Emmylou only played two songs, one about her dog, a black lab named Bella. I was pretty bummed, I had expected to hear at least 15 minutes of music, which is probably the most I’ve heard Emmylou play at one time. I wussed out and didn’t talk to her, even though I’ve been dying to tell her that in grade school my teachers would call me Emmylou Harris instead of Emily Harris, which I hated. Yes, I’m that fascinating.

All in all, I’d say that Record Store Day was an all-around success. What about you guys, what sort of awesome finds did you have? Did anyone win one of those go-karts from Third Man Records?

Here are some pics from Record Store Day at Grimey’s, including me being pumped about the Hold banner, behind the cut.

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Monday

Rock’n’Roll Trivia at the Mercy Lounge – 6:30pm
What, you think you know more rock minutia than I do? Well, you’re probably right, but if you really want a challenge then you should hit up this event. It consists of three rounds of questions, two rounds of “name that tune,” and the rock and roll-est of final wagers where you can bet (and possibly lose) it all. The prizes are $50, $25 or $10 to be spent at Mercy Lounge. Plus, everyone gets free parking and beer specials all night. It’s about teams, so grab some friends, yo.

8 off 8th at the Mercy Lounge – 9pm
Road to Bonnaroo! You and some super cool judges will choose which Nashville band will be crowned Kings of the Hipsters and will get to play at this year’s Bonnaroo. Bands playing tonight include AutoVaughn, Deadstring Brothers, Dozen Dimes, Majestico, Mikky Ekko, Nobility, The Effects, and Caitlin Rose.

Naked Without Us Kickoff Party at the Hard Rock Cafe – 8pm, 18+
Join Naked Without Us Fashion & Music Festival for the Kickoff party at Hard Rock Cafe featuring Chancellor Warhol and Nato Caliph. There will be a media conference and the opportunity to pick up All Access Badges. Yazoo will have drink specials, along with a Yazoo/NWU commemorative pint glass. The first 50 people in the door will get a FREE Yazoo pint glass and some free beer. Entertainment is Nato Caliph, Chance feat: Enjoy the Zoo.

PBS Taping: “Empowered Living: Embracing the Goddesses Within” with Beverley Danusis at the Parthenon – 9:30am-noon
There may or may not be tickets left for the one. To find out call (260) 423-3655 or email them at info@aboutwisdom.com. Beverley Danusis is a successful entrepreneur, the founder and CCO of AboutWisdom.com and a captivating public speaker. In this presentation, you will learn how to honor, appreciate and trust your inner goddess wisdom. You will leave the day with a fresh sense of empowerment – knowing you were goddess born! Visit their website to find out more about the presenter.

2010 SGMG Harmony Honors Celebration: 100 Years of Gospel Music at Gaylord Opryland Convention Center – 7pm
The event will be posted by Karen Peck and Kirk Sullivan and will feature Blackwood Brothers Quartet, Oak Ridge Boys, Triumphant Quartet, Nelons, Karen Peck & New River, LeFevre Quartet, Gold City, Tribute Quartet, Kirk Sullivan, Booth Brothers and more.

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Since this Saturday (today) is so insanely packed with awesome things, I’m dedication a whole post to it. I mean, I mostly copy/pasted from the Weekly Highlights post, but who cares?

RECORD STORE DAY at your closest record store – all day long (awwww yeah!)
Click the header for all the crazy details. Today is MY day. Oh yeah, you’ll see me around, you’ll see me ALL around.

The Princeton Review Math Bootcamp at Davis-Kidd Books – 2pm
Thinking about going to business or graduate school? Does the idea of reducing fractions give you heart palpitations? Don’t panic! Join Davis-Kidd & The Princeton Review for a free GMAT & GRE Math Bootcamps (valued at $199!). Get a quick review of the basic math concepts tested on the GRE and GMAT.

TechNet at the Nashville Convention Center – 1pm
TechNet is a special event hosted by the Nashville Technology Council to provide technology job seekers, employers, and high education institutions the opportunity to network together. It is designed to help unemployed technology workers find new jobs, provide a direction to help them further their education, and provide networking opportunities. In addition to an array of exhibitors, this event will feature three breakout sessions: Resume Building Workshop, Building a Business Plan Workshop Entrepreneurs and College Workshop on Advanced Degrees. Nashville Area Convention Center Exhibits will feature technology companies looking for new talent, staffing agencies looking for the perfect person to place and Universities offering higher education options. Attendance at TechNet is absolutely free. Click HERE to register.

Star Party at Adventure Science Center – 8-10pm
Star parties are a great way to become acquainted with the real night sky. Astronomy enthusiasts from all around the area gather under a clear night sky to view the astronomical sights above. It doesn’t matter whether you have a degree in astrophysics or you don’t know which end of a telescope to look in, everyone is welcome. Even if you’re just a beginner, a star party can be a great introduction to the night sky. If you have a telescope or binoculars, bring them along – the more, the merrier!

Nashville Earth Day Festival at Centennial Park – 11am-7pm
Once again Team Green Adventures and the Nashville community embrace the Earth by learning how to better care for it at the ninth annual Nashville Earth Day Festival, a citywide celebration. This year’s festival will feature numerous informational exhibits and enjoyable activities aimed at educating Middle Tennesseans about protecting our environment. The family-friendly booths, hosted by community groups, environmental organizations and government agencies, offering fun and exciting hands-on activities for all ages. Performers include Homemade Water, The Apache Relay, Sara Watkins (of Nickel Creek), and Bela Fleck with Friends. Expect a full blog post to come. Also, you can recycle your old bike so that someone else can enjoy it! Oh yeah, you’ll get a tax deduction if you do.

LGBT Health Fair at OutCentral Cultural Center – 10am-2pm
The Nashville LGBT Community will enjoy free health screenings and information on a variety of topics at the annual Vanderbilt School of Medicine LGBT Health Fair. Screenings will include rapid HIV tests, STI tests, blood pressure and BMI measurements, eye exams, lipid panels, and glucose testing. Additionally, more than 20 community health care representatives will be on hand for the event which is open to the public free of charge. The health fair will be held from 10:00am to 2:00pm at OutCentral Cultural Center, located at 1709 Church St. Representatives from organizations such as Nashville CARES, American Cancer Society, Nashville Metro Health, American Medical Student Association, Shade Tree Clinic Diabetes Education Program, Vanderbilt’s Office of LGBTQI Life, Vanderbilt Dayani Center and more will have booths offering information on everything from diabetes and glaucoma to yoga and stress relief techniques.

Alright, let’s talk about the earth.

It’s pretty fantastic, right? I mean, it supports all kinds of life, us included. It’s super pretty, but can also be really terrifying when it starts to shake.

Earth Day is the day we celebrate the earth (which really should be everyday, right?). Well, Nashville’s Earth Day Festival will be this Saturday at Centennial Park, and there will be some pretty awesome things there.

Earth Day will run from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m and the theme is Strike a Chord, Go Green and aims to continue Karl Deen’s mission to make Nashville the greenest city in the South.

There will be a lot of cool booths including people from Adventure Science Center, Nashville Farmers’ Market, Greenwagon,Kilowatt Ours (screening at 1pm), Lightning 100, Nashville Scene, Nashville Vegan Meetup, the Zoo, Team Green, and Whole Foods. I’m sure they’ll all have some awesome stuff for you, especially Greenwagon!

Food vendors will include Michelangelo’s Pizza, Jersey Mike’s, Mama Do’s and Papa Du’s, Bolton’s Chicken and Fish (mmm hot chicken!), The Wild Cow, Old Hickory Concessions, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Chicken on a Stick, DH&H Snow Cones, Woolson Concessions,Rays Wings and Things

In addition to that there will be live music! Man, Saturday is one incredible day for free live music between Record Store Day and this. At least it’s not as insane as last year when this weekend was Record Store Day, Earth Day, AND Rites of Spring. Anyway, here’s the band schedule:

2:00pm-2:45pm Homemade Water
2:45pm-3:00pm The Love Drums
3:00pm-4:00pm The Apache Relay
4:00pm-4:15pm The Love Drums
4:15pm-5:15pm Sara Watkins (of Nickel Creek)
5:15pm-5:30pm The Spinderellas Hula Hoop Trio / The Love Drums (awwww yeah!)
5:30pm-7pm Bela Fleck Acoustic with Friends

So there you have it, between this and Record Store Day Saturday is going to be awesome and action-packed. Good luck trying to see everything awesome.

Usually this is the part where I give you the link so you can enter a contest to win free Imogen Heap tickets for her show at the Ryman on June 5th. Well guess what. THIS IS THE LINK! That’s right, Nashville for Free has hooked up with AEG Live Promotions to give you the chance to win a beautiful pair of Imogen Heap tickets.

Usually you don’t have to do anything other than give out your email address and phone number to win tickets, but we think that’s lame and that you all could do SO much better. That’s why we’ve decided to actually make this contest fun. Are you ready for the details? Are you freaking ready for the details???? HERE THEY ARE!!

Create something about free stuff. It can be anything, a Nashville for Free theme song, an epic poem, a limerick, a haiku, a painting, a caricature, a group of photographs, a sculpture made of sporks and leather boots, ANYTHING! The only rule is that it has to somehow relate to or be about free things. Email your submission to nashvilleforfree AT gmail DOT com by 8pm on May 1st to be eligible to win. Note: you don’t have to mention N4F to win.

After we get all the submissions Lance, Michelle, whoever else and I will all get together and pick the winner. If you can make us laugh hysterically, cry, or stare in amazement you’ll probably win.

If you win, not only will you get the free tickets, but your creation will be featured HERE! On THIS BLOG! Pretty cool, right?

So that’s about it! There really isn’t a lot to it. If you have any questions just leave them in the comments second here and we’ll get back to you ASAP (because we live online).

Have fun creatin’!

Also, check out the AEG Live promotions facebook group for details on this contest and a bunch of others. They ROCK!

-Emily

I’m pretty sure that I say that every holiday is my favorite holiday, but I’m serious about this one. It’s not exactly a “real” holiday, but it’s way better than Veterans Day, freal.

Record Store Day started in 2008 as a celebration of the independent record stores in the world, as they seem to be turning into an endangered species. It’s held on the 3rd Saturday of every April, which is the 17th this year. This is how it works, your favorite indie bands release special 7″s and whatnot, your favorite record stores bring in awesome bands for in-store performances, and record stores slash the hell out of their prices with epic sales. That’s the deal, record stores bring you awesome stuff and you show up. So many of you showed up to Grimey’s last year that they had their best day ever. That’s right, best day EVER.

Nashville is blessed with some awesome indie records stores who are participating in this year’s Record Store Day. Grimey’s, The Groove, and Third Man Records have all announced big sales and performances. Let me tell you what’s up behind the cut…

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Well hello there. I hope all of you have recovered from our super sweet 8 off 8th prom. Some great bands played, some “great” prizes were given away, there a bunch of free posters (from the Beggars Group), coupons for free pizza at Bosco’s, Lost Highway Sampler CDs, and there was cake. Tasty cake.

Oh yeah, there was a photobooth too, where Alex Crawford took some super sweet “shitty prom portraits” for us. Look at that set! It’s incredibly similar to my actual prom portrait booth.

Some of the incredible prizes given away Monday night included a pineapple, a mesh safety vest, a Pink Floyd clock and flag, a Metallica flag, a box full of random CDs from Lance’s personal collection (seen to the left there), an autographed OCMS CD (autographed by the band, not by us, I promise), a whole cake, a DVD that shows images of fires burning in fireplaces, and a bunch of crap that I can’t remember but was personally happy to see it all go.

In our raffle-mania we also decided to raffle off crowns from prom king and queen! The Queen was none other than Yvonne Smith, the Traveling Vegetarian! Prom King was a fellow by the name of Stephen Turney, who is a friend of ours. You might remember him from my post from August about free tours at United Record Pressing. You’ll see a picture of the lovely random couple in the photo gallery.

Personal highlights from last night for me personally include Natalie Warner’s last show in Nashville before her big move to LA, the Forties playing a Tears for Fears cover, and the cake. How about you guys?

Please enjoy some of my favorite not-too-dirty-or-weird portraits from the photobooth. All the photos can be seen at Alex’s Flickr.

Thanks again for making our first prom AWESOME!

Well hello there. I hope all of you have recovered from our super sweet 8 off 8th prom. Some great bands played, some “great” prizes were given away, there a bunch of free posters (from the Beggars Group), coupons for free pizza at Bosco’s, Lost Highway Sampler CDs, and there was cake. Tasty cake.

Oh yeah, there was a photobooth too, where Alex Crawford took some super sweet “shitty prom portraits” for us. Look at that set! It’s incredibly similar to my actual prom portrait booth.

Some of the incredible prizes given away Monday night included a pineapple, a mesh safety vest, a Pink Floyd clock and flag, a Metallica flag, a box full of random CDs from Lance’s personal collection (seen to the left there), an autographed OCMS CD (autographed by the band, not by us, I promise), a whole cake, a DVD that shows images of fires burning in fireplaces, and a bunch of crap that I can’t remember but was personally happy to see it all go.

In our raffle-mania we also decided to raffle off crowns from prom king and queen! The Queen was none other than Yvonne Smith, the Traveling Vegetarian! Prom King was a fellow by the name of Stephen Turney, who is a friend of ours. You might remember him from my post from August about free tours at United Record Pressing. You’ll see a picture of the lovely random couple in the photo gallery.

Personal highlights from last night for me personally include Natalie Warner’s last show in Nashville before her big move to LA, the Forties playing a Tears for Fears cover, and the cake. How about you guys?

Please enjoy some of my favorite not-too-dirty-or-weird portraits from the photobooth. All the photos can be seen at Alex’s Flickr.

Thanks again for making our first prom AWESOME!

My sister-in-law came to stay with me and Tyler Wednesday through Sunday of last week. She’s not just any sister-in-law. She’s a 15 year old, hyper hyper, girly girl teenager. And i love the crap out of her. She had never really been to Nashville aside from helping her big bro move into Vanderbilt about 3 years ago, so I really wanted to show her everything I could.

Now. Tyler and I are buh-roke. We can’t spend a fortune to take her on a bunch of different tours or anything fancy like that. So I used my keen sense of cheapness and not only showed her a great time, but re-realized what a beautiful city I live in.

I guess what I want to tell you is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money or go anywhere fancy schmancy to have a good time. Sometimes you just have to appreciate what’s in your own backyard.

Friday night we took her to The Frist Center. It was their birthday and everyone got in for free. Score! Incase you missed it, I blogged about that particular event here. Always keep up with The Frist Center. They are constantly having “Free Days.”

Later on, we took her to the majestic Centennial Park. Take your dog and go for a walk (you probably need the exercise.) Or sharpen up your photog skills. Play the coolest game of hide-and-go-seek ever, do whatever–there’s a ton of space there, and it’s free, so use it! There are also free events being held there all time time. I’ve seen free yoga classes, free movies in the park, free symphony concerts, it’s a pretty long list.

Now, since you all probably live in Nashville you may scoff at the typical things to do here, but don’t be embarrassed to bring out your tourist-y side. Walk down broadway, 2nd avenue, church and commerce. Walk around the State Capitol, heck GO into Legislative Plaza! It might not interest a lot of you, but did you know that you can sit in on any committee meeting? If there’s something you’re interested in, go and listen to the legislation being passed (or trying to be passed) about it. Plus, you never know what you will find there. I went earlier this week (it’s part of my “real” job) and as I walked in there were piglets, cows, donkeys, chickens and some other farm animals. People, there was a milking contest outside of Legislative Plaza. And I got to hold a little piggy!

I have lived in Nashville all my life (minus the 5-6 years I was in Bowling Green, but let’s just forget about that…please…) but I still love driving on I-65 and seeing the Nashville skyline. I love those little honky tonks on Broadway and I don’t know how many pictures I have with that Elvis statue on 2nd avenue.

One of the best ways to do stuff for free that would normally cost you money is simply to ask. Is there a new gym or yoga place you want to try out? Don’t be shy, call the manager and say you are looking around and was wondering if you could drop in on a class for free. They will say yes if they want your business, which they do.

There are a ton of things you can do right here in this beautiful city of Nashville every single day. Sometimes you just have to get creative and maybe bat an eyelash or show off your pearly whites. Or, of course, you could always read our blog and follow our twitter for daily updates!