Nashville for Free

Oh just kidding, there's no CD in here

The weather reports earlier in the week threatened rain in the morning, but today turned out to be the perfect day for a Grimey’s Outdoor Sale.

As many of you know, sometimes the weather at these outdoor sales can leave a lot to be desired. I remember a few instances of it being incredibly hot and a few times when it was either rainy or grossly overcast, but I have to say, today was PERFECT. Usually I have to give up on digging after 20 minutes or so because of the heat, but this time I was able to stay strong and found about 15 things I was pumped for. Among my incredible dollar purchases were two Dixie Chicks CDs, Ra Ra Riot, the soundtrack from the TV show Parenthood and a record by Richard Marx. Yeah, that’s right. Richard Marx. That used to be my JAM when I was like, 5 years old.

Don’t judge me.

That only really shitty part about the sale was something that Grimey’s had nothing to do with and couldn’t really control. For the first time since I’ve been going to those sales a large portion of the CDs I was interested in didn’t actually have the CDs inside the cases. Yeah, someone stole them. I took my mom to the sale this year, and it seemed like everything she picked up, including two copies of Sticky Fingers, didn’t have the CDs in them.

Seriously people, stealing is not the way to go about getting free stuff.

As much as I would have liked to have stayed around for some of the bands (especially Davey Ukulele and the Gag Time Gang), I didn’t get the chance to. I’m sure it was a lot of fun though, as Grimey’s always picks cool acts.

So, do tell, did you guys find anything good in the dollar bin? I promise not to judge you.

-Emily

I think I’ve already said it a thousand times, but I was PUMPED about this contest. The National are one of my favorite bands and I loved that I was able to spread the love around. They’re coming to the Ryman on October 3rd and I was able to score a pair of free tickets AND an autographed poster from the awesome folks at 4AD!

As a lot of you know, my contests are always random draws, and I usually give weight to people who send in picture as opposed to those who just left a comment. However, this time I decided t make the contest picture only, then assign extra weight to those who obviously put a LOT of work into the picture, or ones that made me laugh. I’m sorry if there was any confusion about how I was choosing a winner.

I have to say, most of the pictures that were sent it made me laugh. You all are a creative bunch! THAT’S why I make it a random drawing, because I’d be completely unable to pick which picture I thought was best.

So I put all the names in the hat (some multiple times) and the winner was…Daniel Mark! His picture was incredibly creative, which must have helped him out a little in the probability department, but I also have to give a shout out to Ryan Chavez Richmond, because his picture was just incredible. I really wish that I had more prizes to give away. You can see his picture in the gallery below. His is the first one.

Here are most of the pics from the contest, for your viewing pleasure:

We’ll have more picture contests soon, so look out for them! If you can’t wait for another contest we’re running one on the Twitter right now. We’re giving away a pair of FREE TICKETS to see Guster at TPAC’s War Memorial next Friday. To get yourself entered tweet @nashforfree before Thursday and tell me what you love about Guster! I’ll pick a winner at random on Thursday. Good luck!

-Emily

Yes. That’s right. The time has once again come for Grimey’s and the Basement to hold their fall parking lot sale. That means wonderful things for broke folk like us. There will be dollar CDs and Vinyl (cheaper if you buy a ton of stuff), a sale inside the store, and a free concert rocking you all day.

Also, WRVU will be there with petitions to save their broadcast signal, Radio Free Nashville will have a booth, you’ll be able to enjoy the wonders of Yazoo Brew and Mitchell’s Deli, Bluegrass Underground, Next Big Nashville, I can’t even list it all, just know that there’s going to be a lot of stuff going on.

Oh yeah, and there will be contests. You can win prize packs for and tickets to see shows by both Yo Gabba Gabba at TPAC and Kim Richey, a personal hometown hero at the Belcourt.

What was that? You want a schedule? Well here you go then:

10:00–store opens and sale begins!
12:00–djb (DJ set)
1:00–DAVEY UKULELE & GAG TIME GANG (David Mead Kids Project)
1:30–DJ SRC (DJ set)
2:00–MAJESTICO
2:30–Brother Dylan (DJ set)
3:00–CY BARKLEY
3:30–Molly (Karaoke Blackout)
4:00–APACHE RELAY
4:30–D-Funk (DJ set)
5:00–TONY JOE WHITE
5:30–Pimpdaddy Supreme (DJ set)
6:00–SLEEPY KITTY
6:30-8:00–store sale continues

Sounds like a pretty killer way to spend a Saturday. My mom seems to think so, she’s coming down this weekend and we’re going to rock that sale together. Watch out now, we’re going to steal your deals! Hope to see some of you there!

-Emily

Yes. That’s right. The time has once again come for Grimey’s and the Basement to hold their fall parking lot sale. That means wonderful things for broke folk like us. There will be dollar CDs and Vinyl (cheaper if you buy a ton of stuff), a sale inside the store, and a free concert rocking you all day.

Also, WRVU will be there with petitions to save their broadcast signal, Radio Free Nashville will have a booth, you’ll be able to enjoy the wonders of Yazoo Brew and Mitchell’s Deli, Bluegrass Underground, Next Big Nashville, I can’t even list it all, just know that there’s going to be a lot of stuff going on.

Oh yeah, and there will be contests. You can win prize packs for and tickets to see shows by both Yo Gabba Gabba at TPAC and Kim Richey, a personal hometown hero at the Belcourt.

What was that? You want a schedule? Well here you go then:

10:00–store opens and sale begins!
12:00–djb (DJ set)
1:00–DAVEY UKULELE & GAG TIME GANG (David Mead Kids Project)
1:30–DJ SRC (DJ set)
2:00–MAJESTICO
2:30–Brother Dylan (DJ set)
3:00–CY BARKLEY
3:30–Molly (Karaoke Blackout)
4:00–APACHE RELAY
4:30–D-Funk (DJ set)
5:00–TONY JOE WHITE
5:30–Pimpdaddy Supreme (DJ set)
6:00–SLEEPY KITTY
6:30-8:00–store sale continues

Sounds like a pretty killer way to spend a Saturday. My mom seems to think so, she’s coming down this weekend and we’re going to rock that sale together. Watch out now, we’re going to steal your deals! Hope to see some of you there!

-Emily

LIES!

It’s pretty common for me to troll around the internet looking for good deals. It takes me absolutely forever to buy anything because of it. Computers, airline flights, books, I need to be completely sure that I’m making the most efficient use of my money.

Occasional I also turn to sweepstakes. Yeah yeah yeah, I’m one of those people who enters into Travel Channel giveaways, I’m constantly trying to win an iPad by “liking” some random Facebook page, and on Facebook I enter Big Prize Giveaways daily.

I don’t usually pay attention to ads, but every time I enter a BPG there’s an advertisement for something called BidCactus that advertises people getting incredible deals on things like televisions, computer, and things like that. They claim that they sell $100 gift cards for 58 CENTS and Samsung TVs for 90% off list price. They advertise as being penny auctioneers, but in reality that’s not the case at all.

The “pennies” or “cents” are not actual pennies or cents. In fact, they are technically bids you buy and actually cost 75 cents each and come in packs of 30, 50, 100, 250, and 500. So you buy these bids and every time you increase your bid on an item a bid is deducted from your account. Here’s where they get you: you don’t get the points back if you lose the item. If you and one other person were in that bidding war it might have cost you $20 for something you didn’t win. Then, if you won, you have to then pay the auction end price which, for something that goes for 80 “dollars,” could easily make the whole thing not worth it.

Oh, and another thing, if you get into a bidding war with someone and you keep going back and forth in the heat of the moment, time will keep getting added onto the auction. In fact, I’m currently watching this happen live on the website between three individuals. It’s a $100 gift card and it’s past $8. I guess that the person who wins might save a little money, but there will probably be people who spend $50 on bids but didn’t win. As the site becomes more popular I imagine it will be much more difficult to actually find any deals.

In my opinion, spending anything and getting nothing is a waste of money, and the least amount of money you can waste is 30 points for $22.50. That’s not efficient use of money, it’s gambling, and I’m too poor to waste my time with that.

Now, I don’t think that BidCactus is technically a scam because they’ll actually deliver on their products, but it’s still incredibly misleading and makes it way too easy to spend money on nothing.

-Emily

Because the best girls nights out (is that right?) involve not bars with cute drinks, karaoke, and lumberjacks, but department store clothing at discounted prices, catering, and a DJ.

You’ll find all that and more tonight at the Belk at Coolsprings at 5pm. Bring your flasks, ladies. It’s going to be a wild night.

But seriously, things that aren’t usually on sale will be on sale, there will be some pretty decent sounding food, prizes, and a DJ. But there might not be a DJ. I might be making that up. Still, the event doesn’t sound terrible. I’ve never eaten and discount shopped at the same time, so that could be cool. Also, I am all about prizes. Who isn’t?

Have fun ladies, and don’t do anything that the characters on Sex in the City wouldn’t do.

-Emily

Editors note: This blog post was written by Matt Kraatz, a senior at Belmont University and a good friend of N4F.

Yo, so I understand that Food, Inc. is screening tonight for free. Now, admittedly, I’ve only seen the second half and *spoiler alert* corporate greed could care less about quality of output (as long as it’s in volume), or careers in the agricultural sector, or general sustainability. And they definitely don’t care about baby seals *end spoiler alert*. And that’s only the half of it. Basically it’s like Wall Street 2 (lol, unpaid reference). Though I can’t imagine myself being impressed by Shia LaBeouf after that really awkward Tom Hanks impersonation in Indiana Jones…

But seriously, the screening is sponsored by Re/Storing Nashville, which has brought to light critical food accessibility issues right under our noses and are taking great leaps to eliminate “food deserts” from Nashville’s vocabulary. Tonight is an opportunity to get informed, and to get involved, in the root cause of several issues plaguing America (food = health).

You ever see that episode of This American Life where they talk about artificial insemination at hog farms and it turns out that just about every pig is some sort of half-sibling with one another because the controller orders semen out of a catalog? That’s wild stuff, and there’s a good chance you eat that crap. But anyway, check it, Food, Inc. is screening tonight at Bethlehem Centers of Nashville off Charlotte; the lights dim at 5pm.

-Matt

I’m not going to even try to play it cool. I love me some Memphis punk. Jay Reatard, Reigning Sound, those are the bands whose CDs are tearing up my car speakers right now. It’s raw, bluesy, angry, it has a sense for melody and ugh, it makes me feel so good.

That’s exactly why I’m so excited about the Useless Eaters in-store at Grimey’s tonight. If like your music raw  then you’re sure to dig this.

Here’s what Grimey’s has to say about the in-store:

Useless Eaters is not just a cruel philosophy of social Darwinism, it’s also a Memphis-based punky new wave garage band! Recommended to us by one of the Bens from Third Man, we’ve just added them at the last minute to our in-store calendar for a free, all-ages performance this next Tuesday. Fans of the Goner Records aesthetic should really come check this band out as they’re playing here on their way to playing Gonerfest next weekend in Memphis. We’ll have cold PBRs ready to go for those 21+ and together we shall RAWK!

That’s RAWK in all caps and with a W. This is gonna get real. I’ll see you there!

Again, it’s at Grimey’s tonight at 6pm.

-Emily

The Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree is the second longest running radio show in the world. They’ve been airing live recorded shows for over 3000 consecutive weeks! Still, last night was the first time I got around to seeing them because someone I’m a big fan of was hosting the event: Charlie Louvin.

You might not know him by name, but he’s half of the Louvin Brothers, a gospel singing duo from the 50s. They’re known for great songs, fantastic harmonies, and having one of the most awesome album covers ever.

Yesterday was apparently a big day for Charlie and his wife, as they were celebrating their 61st wedding anniversary. How did they celebrate? With a 306lb cake, seen right. It was made from 72 individual cakes and had white, strawberry, and orange flavors. When my roommate and I couldn’t decide what kind we wanted the woman who was serving it up gave us both huge slices of each. We ended up with about 3lbs of cake between the two of us. Our other two roommates were furious that we brought that much sugar into the house (but not really).

As for the Jamboree, it sort of felt like a free version of the Opry. Different people came out and sang songs, some recorded music was played in between, and everyone had a good time. The whole thing went on for almost two hours, and I was under the impression it was only supposed to be an hour long, but hey, it’s Charlie Louvin. I actually couldn’t bring myself to stay for the whole thing, so he beat me.

I’m sad to say that Charlie didn’t actually sing any songs. I had no idea, but apparently he’s currently battling pancreatic cancer right now. I wish him a full and speedy recovery and am impressed that he could give us as much as he did last night. I mean, when I’m 83 I sincerely doubt that I’ll be jamming until midnight ever. That man is a trooper and a living legend.

The Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree is recorded every Saturday night at 10pm in the Texas Troubadour Theater, which is connected to the Ernest Tubb in Opry Mills. It seats about 500, and you apparently don’t have to get there especially early. It airs on WSM the following Saturday at midnight. If you’re a big fan of old country and your pockets aren’t deep enough for the Opry, then I highly recommend it.

-Emily

Monday

Rock’n’Roll Trivia at the Mercy Lounge – 6:30pm, 21+
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: Back to School Spectacular at the Mercy Lounge – 8pm
Yeah, most of us have been back in school for about a month now, but now that the shock has worn off it’s time to rock! This week’s 8 off 8th will feature performances from Sara Kelley, Kiddo, Monsters on TV, Justin Kalk Orchestra, Jayne, Thom Donovan, Lost Pages, and Overzealous.

Visiting Artist Lecture Series: Photographer Arno Rafael Minkkinen at Ausin Peay State University – 7pm
The lecture entitled “Extremities” is being held in conjunction with the exhibition Manifold. Arno Rafael Minkkinen is known for his photography which juxtaposes bodies and landscapes and where he directs scenes in which his body—or a portion of it—appears as an integral part of the landscape, such as an outcropping or rock formation. This event will be held in the Marjorie Trahern Lecture Hall.

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