Nashville for Free

Tomorrow will bring a few things: the lighting of the first candle on the menorah, the first day of the month of December, and the Melrose Billiards White Trash Formal.

Its tagline is “A Fancy Night of Classy Music, Polite Drinking, and Other Activities at Melrose Billiards,” but just in case you believe everything you read, don’t fool yourself, this will not be a high end event.

Instead, it will be a celebration of hipster proportions, with performances from Brandon Jazz & His Armed Forces, Evan P. Donohue, and Nite Nite. Shoot, those are some good tunes.

The event is totally free, starts at 9pm and is 21 and up. So grab your Ray Bans and your glittery flask and party like it’s a Wednesday in December. Yes.

-Emily

Tuesday November 30th will bring the 6th annual Lighting of the Green at Lipscomb University. It’s a concert, it’s a marketplace, it’s an all-around Christmas celebration.

There will be thousands of lights, a 35-foot tall Christmas tree, free holiday cookies and hot chocolate (4:30pm-late), free photos with Santa Claus (3:30-7pm) and a “Merry Marketplace” that will feature over 20 vendors (1pm-8pm). Then, at 5:30 the famous Christmas concert at the Allen Arena mall with Amy Grant, Dave Barnes, and Susan Ashton. Bring your blankets and lawn chairs.

This is also about giving, so please consider bringing some non-perishable food items to donate to Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, who will be there.

Whelp, I guess it’s officially the holiday season.

-Emily

Monday

8 off 8th at the Mercy Lounge – 9pm
This week’s 8 off 8th will feature performances by Eon Burkett, Justin Conn, Kristin Cothron, Blackfoot Gypsies, Cary Ann Hearst, Young Hines, The Grayces, and Hans Condor.

Jimador Tequila presents Battle on 3rd at 3rd and Lindsley – 7pm
A new battle of the bands. The winner is chosen based on audience votes.

The Podunk Sessions at 3rd and Lindsley – 10pm
Free music from Dave Pahanish, Emily West, Marcel, Eric Paslay, Jessica Andrews, Kristen Lee, Bonnie Biship, Rachel Loy, Brad Tursi, and more.

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Uh, yeah, no thanks

I’ve personally never had the experience of going out on Black Friday and braving insane lines for fantastic deals, but oh man, have I been tempted. Big TVs for almost half-off? Computers for $300? If it wasn’t for the fact that I’d have to drag myself out of bed at 3am and stand in line with hundreds of discount-shopping crazed people then I might be tempted to partake.

Actually, maybe not even then. Why should I spend my money getting gifts for people from Target or Wal-Mart when I could get them something nice for a discount, have a wonderful shopping experience, and support a local business at the same time. If that sounds good to you then here are some locally grown Black Friday options for you.

The Green Wagon – opens at 10am
The Green Wagon’s Black Friday (and Saturday and Sunday) deal is pretty spectacular. First of all, everything in the store is 20% off, including locally made jewelry, makeup, greeting cards, wrapping paper, and more. When they say everything they mean everything. There will also be an on-site photobooth, live music from The Flyaways (Sunday 12-3pm) and Orchestrada (Saturday 4-7pm) and a gift bag giveaway that’s valued at $150. Tack on to that free eco-friendly gift wrapping and the fact that two new food trucks, the Grilled Cheeserie and Bang Candy Company will be there. Sounds like the place to be.

Goodbuy Girls – opens at 11am
Goodbuy Girls in East Nashville is also doing it up for Black Friday. Just like Green Wagon, everything in their store will be 20% off. But that’s not all, if you spend $100 or more you get a free pair of beaded earrings.

Grimey’s – opens at 10am
Grimey’s Black Friday celebration isn’t all about getting deals on music. In fact, they haven’t even mentioned a sale on their website. They will, however, have a bunch of new Black Friday special releases, brought to you by the same people who do Record Store Day. The prized record will be Metallica’s long-awaited Live at Grimey’s LP. There will also be a Metallica cover band playing in the Basement at around 4pm.

The Groove
The Groove just re-opened a few days ago after being closed down for a few months, and we couldn’t be happier (I’m sure they couldn’t either).  Their new location is 1103 Calvin Ave in East Nashville, and this Black Friday they’ll have many of the same Record Store Day exclusives as Grimey’s and, according to their newsletter, they’ll be tacking on an extra $5 to every giftcard of $20 or more purchased for the Groove. Also, everything used is %15 off.

CAKE Vintage / KnobStoppers
They say they don’t like the term “Black Friday,” but CV/KS, located at 1707 Broadway is getting in on the sales anyway. They’ll have $25 Knobstobbers (vintage wine stoppers), free gifts with every purchase, free gift wrapping, and more.

Local Honey – opens at 11am
One of 12 South’s favorite designer vintage stores, Local Honey, is also opening its doors for Black Friday. Everything in the store will be 30% off (now that’s what I’m talking about).  There will be clothing, purses, jewelry, scarves, and handmade goods, and all of it’s going to be on sale. Rock.

Whole Foods – open 9am-9pm (regular hours Saturday & Sunday
The Black Friday at Whole Foods is more like a Weekend. The deals will go through Sunday, and some of them are pretty great. Yeah, I know Whole Foods isn’t exactly a local business, but they sure do feel like one.  Here’s the list:

• Coffee & Pastry $.99
• Guacamole $3.99/lb
• Bucket of Wings $5.99
• Wellshire Farms Black Forrest Ham $5.99/lb
• Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon Fillet $9.99/lb
• Enviro–Logs 50% off
• 365 Bar Soaps, new hand sanitizers and foaming hand soaps 25% off
• Melissa & Doug and Kimochis Toys 25% off
• Pearlessence 25% off
• Sigg Water Bottles Buy One Get One Free

Cold Stone Creamery at Brentwood – open 11:30am-6pm
After all that crazy shopping is out of your system you can go to Cold Stone and get some ice cream in your system. They’ll have buy one get one half off on all Love it or larger sized ice cream.

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Happy Thanksgiving! I imagine most of my readers are not online and are instead enjoying the holiday, hopefully with family and good food. I hopefully am as well (I wrote this post in advance), but I wanted to take this moment to share what I’m thankful for with you.

I’m thankful for you guys. I’m thankful for everyone who reads this blog, follows Nashville for Free on Twitter, and “likes” us on Facebook. I’m especially thankful for everyone who ever offers a comment or shares their thoughts and experiences with me.

I’m thankful for my fellow blogging team, Hilary, Matt, and Abbie, and everything they’ve brought to the blog in the last few months. I’m also thankful for our friends at AEG Live and the Beggars Group (4AD) for hooking us up with so many great contests this past year. I’m also thankful that people actually entered those contests (always a worry to me).

But now I’ll stop babbling. I have to get back to Thanksgiving dinner! But not really, since I wrote this blog post Tuesday and only scheduled it to post today, but whatever.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving, and I thank you for helping to make this blog the success that it has become. You rock. All of you. Oh, and don’t forget to check out our Local Black Friday article, I’ve made some additions and corrections to it since it was published.

-Emily (and the N4F crew)

Here’s a quick recap: my friends at AEG Live hooked me up with some Tim & Eric tickets to pass along to one of my faithful readers. I asked you to enter by commenting on the Facebook page or on the blog, and to make things interested I offered to up your chances of winning if you sent me a picture of you in the midst of some holiday shenanigans.

The response was overwhelming. I got a ton of great pictures, so many that if you didn’t send in a pic, the odds weren’t in your favor at all.

It should then come as no surprise that our randomly selected winner, Dan Schlacter, sent in a picture of him having perhaps a little too much fun at a New Year’s party in 2006. Congratulations Dan! Your tickets will be at will call the day of the show.

Didn’t win? That’s okay, you’re not completely out of luck. There are still some tickets available, but apparently not many, so you might want to get on that. Also, to relieve the sadness you might feel from not winning I’ve included a bunch of the pictures from the contest in this post. Enjoy! Let me know which one’s your favorite!

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

-Emily

This week I’m cheating. I haven’t been to this place, but I REALLY want to go. Why? Well, first off they got “Best Happy Hour” in this year’s Nashville Scene 2010 Picks. I have also heard from everyone I’ve talked to that I have to check this place out. Eastland Café is located on the corner of Eastland and Chapel Avenue right next to local Mexican restaurant, Rose Pepper. The menu looks fantastic, but it is not a cheap date at Eastland Café! Entrees are upwards of $20, but we all know that local is better anyway.

I was wondering how Eastland Café got best Happy Hour if the restaurant seems a little more upscale than most others; I quickly realized: $5 appetizers, $5 specialty martinis, and $3 beers! The list of appetizers on the website is extensive, everywhere from pizza, hummus, to spare ribs. You could eat a cheap good meal, drink cheap beers, and still manage to look c-l-a-s-s-y at a Café, one that seems like you’d probably want to make reservations before you show up. Make time in this holiday season to visit this place, I am certainly going to. Don’t forget to make reservations!

THE SCOOP:

MON-THURS: 5:00pm-6:30pm $5 appetizers, $5 martinis, $3 premium beers

FRI-SAT: 5:00pm-6:00pm, $5 appetizers, $5 martinis, $3 premium beers

Today at Grimey’s at 6pm you can see this guy:

He’s apparently a great songwriter and composer who’s gotten compared to Jeff Buckley. Sounds like a winner.

-Emily

Today at Grimey’s at 6pm you can see this guy:

He’s apparently a great songwriter and composer who’s gotten compared to Jeff Buckley. Sounds like a winner.

-Emily

I’m sure that you all have been told by someone, at one point in your life, that if you’re renting instead of buying something, like a house, then you’re just throwing your money away.

Well I hate to tell you, but I’m pretty sure those people were WRONG.

There are some benefits to buying things instead of renting them. Basically that you buy it once and then it’s yours, but sometimes you have to ask yourself, is it worth it to buy that movie you’re only going to watch once? Do you really need to buy that power drill for a few random projects throughout your life? Should you commit to buying that house (what if you lose your job and need to downsize or need to move)?

That’s where renting comes in. Yeah, we’re all familiar with renting houses and apartments. It might not be the American Dream, but as a renter you can move around according to your budget, which you can’t do with a house, and when stuff goes awry your landlord (hopefully) gets it fixed. Sure you can’t always paint the walls and change everything to your liking, but if that’s not incredibly important to you then it’s a great, flexible alternative to buying.

We all know its easy to rent movies. Blockbuster, Redbox, Netflix, does anyone buy movies anymore? A lot of us even use services like Napster and Rhapsody where we basically rent our music. For books you can go to the library, but did you know you can rent books online via sites like Book Free and Book Swim, including textbooks on sites like Chegg?

There’s basically no limit to things you can rent online today. You can rent dresses (and shoes, handbags, and other accessories), children’s toys and travel accessories, pets, and even friends online. There are also less item-specific websites, like Zilok, Rent Instead, and Rentoid, that allow you to search for anything that your heart may desire to rent. Hey, it’s also not a bad way to make a few bucks if you have some interesting stuff laying around.

Ultimately, when it comes to renting vs owning it all depends on whether or not you personally think it’s worth it to own something. I come from the state of mind where I’d rather own something, for the most part, but I can really see the appeal in renting, especially if it’s something you don’t think you’ll get a lot of use out of. If that’s the case then rent away, my dear friends, rent away.

-Emily