Nashville for Free

Some people spend a lot of money on Halloween costumes. I mean really, some people are SERIOUS about it. They go to Performance Studios and have their makeup professionally applied so they can be the most bad-ass-looking zombie in the room, but other people either completely forgot about Halloween until Halloween or are flat broke. And since the theme of this blog is pretty much being flat broke I decided to visit the costumes some of my friends wore this Halloween.

A few years ago I blogged about my $5 gnome costume. I thought that was pretty good, but my friend Stephen taught me what was what and paid a whopping $3 for his costume.

Now, this requires a little back-story to understand. Basically, his friends are in a band called Blown Stag – a caricature of an 80s hard rock band, and he got them a gig on Halloween so they decided that he should be their fake German ridiculous manager named Phoenix Lamburg. However, this is better than vampire or devil because you can literally do whatever the hell you want. We strolled down to the Goodwill Outlet, picked the brightest, most ridiculous clothes we could find, found a random prop, and wrote his fake name on his shirt. Oh, and drew a silver lightning bolt on his crotch.

It was a big hit, and it cost $3 and about 2 minutes of decorating. Even if you don’t know the back story you’ll at least find it hilarious.

But wait! There’s more…

(more…)

The first thing you have to know about Halloween in Nashville is that the biggest, most family-friendly Halloween event in the area is in Franklin. Yes, I’m talking about Pumpkinfest.

The first time I went to Pumpkinfest it was completely by accident. My mom happened to be in town and we thought it would be fun to go to Franklin and we were pretty pleasantly surprised. There were great vendors, tons of people, food, costumes, music, and celebrities.

Pumpkinfest is a huge event for Downtown Franklin. It runs this Saturday from 10am to 9pm and apparently there will be over 75 arts and crafts vendors, a kids’ fun area (on 3rd ave), a stage, a Great Pumpkin (!!!), a Franklin Tomorrow Chili Cook-off, Battle of the BBQ, and a costume contest that only costs $1 to enter. There will also be Cemetery Tours presented by Franklin on Foot, but those cost $15 for adults and $5 for children.

Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for the famous people, but be cool if you see them. There’s so much else to see at Pumpkinfest.

-Emily

Happy impending Halloween! I have some great news for you all. Our wonderful friends at AEG Live has decided to bestow upon us the most excellent of Halloween treats for our readers. Chris Cornell is coming to the War Memorial Auditorium on November 2nd and we have a pair of tickets to give to one of you fabulous people!

As many of you know, Chris Cornell was in a little band called Soundgarden. Let’s just say that my brother was a huge fan so I became a fan. Then Soundgarden was no more but Audioslave came to be. Say what you want about Audioslave, but they rocked, in large part because Chris Cornell rocks. Come on, no one can wail like that guy. I personally couldn’t be more excited to see him live.

But back to the contest! By now you all should know how it works. To be entered once comment (with your REAL name) telling me your favorite Chris Cornell moment. Easy peasy, right?

Well, if you want your name entered into the proverbial hat FIVE extra times then post a picture to our Facebook wall of you in a Halloween costume. Halloween might not have anything specific to do with this concert, but Cornell’s music is pretty damn well suited for the holiday, and well, it’s Halloween weekend.

Get on it, because I’ll be picking a winner by random on October 31st sometime in the early evening.

Good luck, and rock steadily!

-Emily

I’ll be honest with you guys, up until yesterday evening I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do on the Halloween party night. I considered Ra Ra Riot or the Greenhornes, but I didn’t really feel like I could part with double digits of dollars.

So at the suggestion of a friend I decided to hit up The Basement’s Next Annual Halloween Soireefest 2010. I didn’t know much about it except that the first 50 people were going to get in free, costumes would be welcome, and some band called Hard Rock Zombies was going to play.

I ended up arriving at 10pm, a full hour after doors opened, but I was still lucky enough to be one of the first 50 in attendance. I met my friends inside and was told that the first band playing would be We Rock, a Dio cover band. I had my doubts about them but dang, they were a really good cover band. I mean, I typically will enjoy a half-decent cover band, but those guys were legit. That guitarist…holy crap. On top of that I got to watch Grimey himself (in a highway patrolman outfit) get his metal on. He even made the band come back after their last song to fill one of his requests. It was great.

Next up was Davey Ukulele and the Gag Time Gang, a children’s band started by David Mead and Bill Demain. Their outfits were hilarious and the songs were great. They’ve obviously put a lot of love into that project. I remember seeing David Mead play with Matt Ryan and Brian Richey at the Rutledge a year and a half ago and hearing him play some of the songs he played last night. It was great to finally see the finished product.

By the time that set was over it was 12:30 and I was completely exhausted. Hey, I wake up early every day. I felt pretty confident that I wouldn’t be able to make it through Hard Rock Zombies, but I feel like I’d already seen the best part (the costumes). According to my friend, who ended up staying, it was “pretty hard rocking and hilarious,” which is exactly what I expected. I wish I could have stayed out longer, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that late nights don’t sit well with me.

It might not have been the Halloween I thought I would have, with my recycled costume and last minute concert, but in the end it met my two main criteria for a good night: it was cheap/free and I had fun. Success!

How about you guys? What did you do this weekend?

-Emily

I’ll be honest with you guys, up until yesterday evening I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do on the Halloween party night. I considered Ra Ra Riot or the Greenhornes, but I didn’t really feel like I could part with double digits of dollars.

So at the suggestion of a friend I decided to hit up The Basement’s Next Annual Halloween Soireefest 2010. I didn’t know much about it except that the first 50 people were going to get in free, costumes would be welcome, and some band called Hard Rock Zombies was going to play.

I ended up arriving at 10pm, a full hour after doors opened, but I was still lucky enough to be one of the first 50 in attendance. I met my friends inside and was told that the first band playing would be We Rock, a Dio cover band. I had my doubts about them but dang, they were a really good cover band. I mean, I typically will enjoy a half-decent cover band, but those guys were legit. That guitarist…holy crap. On top of that I got to watch Grimey himself (in a highway patrolman outfit) get his metal on. He even made the band come back after their last song to fill one of his requests. It was great.

Next up was Davey Ukulele and the Gag Time Gang, a children’s band started by David Mead and Bill Demain. Their outfits were hilarious and the songs were great. They’ve obviously put a lot of love into that project. I remember seeing David Mead play with Matt Ryan and Brian Richey at the Rutledge a year and a half ago and hearing him play some of the songs he played last night. It was great to finally see the finished product.

By the time that set was over it was 12:30 and I was completely exhausted. Hey, I wake up early every day. I felt pretty confident that I wouldn’t be able to make it through Hard Rock Zombies, but I feel like I’d already seen the best part (the costumes). According to my friend, who ended up staying, it was “pretty hard rocking and hilarious,” which is exactly what I expected. I wish I could have stayed out longer, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that late nights don’t sit well with me.

It might not have been the Halloween I thought I would have, with my recycled costume and last minute concert, but in the end it met my two main criteria for a good night: it was cheap/free and I had fun. Success!

How about you guys? What did you do this weekend?

-Emily

Pumpkins! Pumpkins everywhere!

Everything will be orange in downtown Franklin today from 11am-8pm for its annual Pumpkinfest. There will be vendors, a costume contest, crafts, food, hayrides, chili, storytelling, and tons of other stuff too. Most importantly, there will be a ton of little kids dressed up in adorable costumes, and if that doesn’t make you smile well then that’s just too bad.

Also, last time I went to this festival I saw some famous people, which doesn’t EVER happen to me in Nashville.

The only downsides to this event are that it will be crowded and parking will be ROUGH. Last time I had to park in the grass on some way-off side street. That kind of sucked, but everything else was a lot of fun.

Just so you know, all of the shops and everything will be open during the festival, if that’s your kind of thing.

Have fun and be safe this Halloween.

-Emily

I feel like every time a holiday comes around I’m here blogging about how it’s my favorite holiday. Well, here’s the truth of the matter, Halloween is totally my favorite holiday (this week), and I’m going to be celebrating at least part of the Halloween weekend at Cheekwood.

For the past 11 years Cheekwood has been holding their annual Day of the Dead festival. It’s a celebration of Mexican culture and their version of Halloween. There will be crafts, different activities, food, and tons of different vendors there. There will also be alters for the dead, but I don’t know if that’s exactly a selling point.

But here’s the thing, though Cheekwood members and everyone under the age of 18 gets in free, us poor old fogies have to pay $15, which is totally crap and will honestly probably keep me from going. Come on Cheekwood, no student discounts? No broke blogger discount? $15 is kind of a lot of money to pay to get into an event where you’re expected to buy things like food and art. I hate that kind of crap.

So, if you’re a member of Cheekwood, a parent with lots of kids to entertain, or are a high school student/could pass as a high school student then this event is free for you. If you’re not, well, I don’t know, it’s completely possible that this event is worth $15. Hell, it probably is. Still…I could get 5 Mas Tacos for $15.

-Emily

So you didn’t make it over to Grimey’s on Tuesday to nab your spot at the Mumford and Sons in-store next week, I hear yah. Those 130 tickets sold lightning fast, and you were stuck at work/school/jousting camp/whatever. You promised that hot date an “afternoon of a lifetime” (your words, not mine) and now you can’t deliver! Well, never fear, a totally awesome—half-related—free event is going to save your weekend!

Ra Ra Riot will be gracing Nashville with their presence this Saturday (thank God someone is balancing out the Yin Yang Twins…), and they’re starting off their visit with an in-store at Grimey’s! That’s right, 3pm sharp, put on your sharpest costume—Jersey Shore characters prohibited—and head out to Grimey’s for a surely unforgettable performance.

Quick horror story: last year for Halloween weekend—It was on a Saturday—I dressed up as the trick-or-treating Charlie Brown (clever, I know) and my roommate dressed up as the Mortan Salt girl (he’s a dude, so it was clever AND bold). Friday night we prepared our costumes and showed up at a party, only to find that we were the people dressed up. Needless to say, it was pretty awkward…

Grimey’s website says something about Beer:30, so you can at least hope for a TON of “what time is it?” jokes (by the way, the answer is always “Beer: 30”). And think of it as another venue to showcase your incredibly crafty Halloween costume. You’re sure to have a “riot” (forgive me) with Ra Ra Riot at 3pm this Saturday!

-Matt

Gnomes really CAN save you money!

I know that Halloween was several days ago, but I thought I’d try to get some conversation going on the blog.

I was, like I’m sure many of you were, sort of strapped for cash this Halloween. I decided to put off shopping for costumes until the day of, but the Halloween section at the Target closest to me looked as if it had been pillaged by Vikings (sadly, said Vikings did not leave behind anything that I could use as a Halloween costume).

Luckily I have friends who are extremely creative. They got the idea to dress up as lawn gnomes, and that costume ended up being cheapest of the cheap. We bought men’s long-sleeved tee-shirts and bought $1 Santa hats at Target, totaling $8!  We turned the hats inside out, fastened them to our heads with string like party hats, put brown or black belts around our waists, and wore leggings under those shirts (which ended up going about mid-thigh down, so it wasn’t like wearing leggings as pants as indie kids tend to do). We even ended up running into another guy dressed as a lawn gnome!

So tell me, how did you creative tight-wads save money this Halloween?

@DJ_Spinja: @NashForFree $12 vest plus roomie’s white hair spray= me as Sweeney Todd  http://twitpic.com/ocmeo

LEGIT!

Anyone else?

Creepy as WHOA!

Hello you spooky cheapskates! As you may have figured by now, I’m a big supporter of Vanderbilt’s International Film Series. They pick some pretty interesting movies that you might not have ever had the chance to see before. Well, Halloween will be no different. This time the film is Nosferatu a movie that was filmed in Germany in 1922 as an unauthorized adaptation of Dracula.

This is a classic movie that you’ve probably never seen but have, without a doubt, seen bits of (that is, if you watch The History of Vampires on the History Channel late at night like I’m known to do). Unlike pretty much every vampire in a movie ever, including Blacula (which you can pay to see at the Belcourt at 11pm on Halloween) Nosferatu is freaking hideous, the Elephant Man of vampires. I mean, just look at that picture. The Crypt Keeper is sexier than that dude. I know that people usually like their vampires to be all debonair and crap, like that pretty-boy from Twilight, but I think that this is more nightmare-inducing, and isn’t that what Halloween is all about?

Anyway, the movie is at 7pm in the Sarratt Cinema, which is located on the first floor of the Sarratt Student Center at Vanderbilt University.Also, it’s a silent film, and the original musical score will be performed live by the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra.

P.S.
Bring your costumes. It’s gonna be a paaarrrtay!

-Emily