THE NASHVILLE OPERA - PAGLIACCI

Leoncavallo’s famous play-within-a-play-where the clown who makes others laugh is sobbing inside, because onstage and off, his actress-wife is having a torrid affair with a younger man-is high-testosterone Italian opera at its best! Full of irony and some of the most powerful music ever written, Pagliacci cemented the new, more realistic (read shocking and gritty!) verismo opera into the art form’s canon. Based on the lives of real people, verismo opera was calculated to stir an emotional reaction from audiences, and Pagliacci has been doing just that since 1890!

FEATURING THE NASHVILLE OPERA ORCHESTRA

Sung in Italian with projected English translations.

Two tickets were purchased for $21.50 each - see below:

Nashville Tennessee — The Athens of the South

Nashville is often labeled the "Athens of the South" due to the many colleges and universities in the city and metropolitan area.

The colleges and universities in Nashville include American Baptist College, Aquinas College, The Art Institute of Tennessee – Nashville, Belmont University, Daymar Institute, Fisk University, Free Will Baptist Bible College, International Academy of Design and Technology, Lipscomb University, Meharry Medical College, Nashville School of Law, Nashville State Community College, Strayer University, Tennessee State University, Trevecca Nazarene University, Vanderbilt University, and Watkins College of Art, Design & Film.

In her dissertation ―Athens of the South: College Life in Nashville, A New South City, 1897-1917 author Mary Ellen Pethel writes:

The Progressive Era affected the South in different ways from other regions of the United States. Because Southern society was more entrenched in patriarchy and traditional social strictures, Nashville provides an excellent lens in which to assess the vision of a New South city. Known as ―Athens of the South, Nashville legitimized this title with the emergence of several colleges and universities of regional and national prominence in the 1880s and 1890s. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, Nashville universities solidified their status as reputable institutions, with Vanderbilt and Fisk Universities garnering national prominence.

Higher education and urbanization created a dialectic that produced a new generation and a new monied class of young adults who thought and acted differently.

Old Hickory Lake — Sumner County’s Jewel in the Crown

When icons like Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison chose to make Sumner County their home, undoubtedly a good part of their decision was based on Sumner’s Old Hickory Lake.   These Music Legends both owned homes along the shore of its vast expanse.

With over 22,000 acres of water and 440 miles of shoreline, Old Hickory offers plenty of hiking, fishing, boating, skiing, and other lake activities.

Old Hickory Lake was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beginning January, 1952. The dam was closed and the filling of the lake began June 11, 1954. The lock opened to navigation June 14, 1954 and electrical power began production April 5, 1957.

The total length of Old Hickory Dam is 3,750 feet and the elevation of the reservoir at maximum pool level, which covers an area of 22,500 acres, is 445 feet above sea level.  The backwater length of the reservoir at the top of the gate level is 97.3 miles long. Old Hickory Reservoir at maximum pool has 440 miles of shoreline and contains 467,000 acre feet of water.

Old Hickory Dam is located on the Cumberland River at mile 216.2, and is in Davidson and Sumner Counties, Tennessee, 25.5 miles upriver from Nashville. The counties surrounding Old Hickory Lake include Davidson, Sumner, Wilson, Trousdale, and Smith Counties.

 

Music City Convention Center Slated to Open Early 2013

The Music City Center sits just south of Broadway on a 16-acre site that runs from 5th Avenue to 8th Avenue, west to east, and from Demonbreun Street to Franklin Street, or the future Korean Veterans Boulevard, north to south. It is adjacent to both the Bridgestone Arena and the Country Music Hall of Fame.

The building will be 1.2 million square feet, featuring a 350,000 square foot exhibit hall, a 57,000 grand ballroom and 18,000 square foot junior ballroom, and about 1,800 parking spaces. It also offers 90,000 square feet of meeting room space – approximately 60 meeting rooms - and 32 loading docks that provide ultimate flexibility and ease of loading in and out for convention planners.

Designed by Atlanta-based Thompson, Ventulett, and Stainback Associates and Nashville-based Tuck Hinton Architects and Moody-Nolan Architects, the convention center is on track to be certified Silver Level LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Features key to the building’s LEED status include a 360,000 gallon retention tank. Run-off water stored in the tank will be used to irrigate the four-acre green roof and outside landscaping and to flush the building’s hundreds of toilets.

The convention center has been designed to be Nashville’s next landmark building, marked by an extensive outdoor border of green space adjacent to the Country Music Hall of Fame, suitable for outdoor concerts and events. Both the exterior and interior will feature public art components.

Korean Veterans Boulevard is also slated to be extended along the southern border of the Music City Center, and will feature a broad median marked by plantings of trees and grass, culminating in a roundabout at 8th Avenue.

American Picker’s Antique Archeology now in Nashville

Mike Wolfe from American Pickers on the History Channel has opened his second Antique Archeology Store, this time in Nashville, Tennessee. 

A lifelong picker, Mike’s been picking through junk since he was waist high. Over the years, he's earned a reputation as one of the country’s foremost foragers, traveling coast to coast in search of forgotten American treasures. Where others see dilapidated barns and overgrown yards, Mike sees potential goldmines filled with rare finds and sensational stories.

Antique Archaeology Nashville is Mike's  second  location. Located just a few blocks away from downtown Nashville, you can find them in the old Marathon Automobile car factory dated from the early 1900s.

Open Road Motorcycle Ride Sumner County, Tennessee.

When: A Sunday afternoon in August 2007.
Where: Long Hollow Pike in Sumner County, Tennessee.

"If you don't ride, then you don't know."

Whether you are now a motorcycle enthusiast, or think you might enjoy the pastime, Tennessee is a great place to ride. The roads don’t suffer from the harsh winter damage typical in the northeast, and courtesy is the norm for drivers in the Volunteer State. Add to that, the large number of riders that engender an awareness of motorcycle activity, good riding weather nine months of the year, light traffic conditions on beautiful scenic country roads, and you get the ideal confluence of conditions to enjoy this special brotherhood of the road.

Forbes Best Places for Business and Careers

Nashville, Tennessee ranked number 6 of 200 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S.

Forbes ranking of Best Places for Business and Careers looked at the 200 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S. These range in size from the New York City metro, with to 11.6 million people, to Laredo, Texas, home to 252,000 people.

They considered 12 metrics relating to job growth (past and projected), costs (business and living), income growth, educational attainment and projected economic growth. They also factor in quality of life issues like crime rates, cultural and recreational opportunities and net migration pat-terns. Lastly they included the num-ber of highly ranked colleges in an area per our annual college rankings.

The recession spared few U.S. cities, wiping out 9.4 million jobs between November 2007 and August 2009. Many will never return, and those that do you probably won’t find on the East or West Coast. For the most active areas of job creation (and low-er costs of doing business) you have to go to the heartland, home to 80% of the top 25 regions on their list of Best Places for Business.

In most of these hot hubs you’ll find a strong university or two, providing rich cultural life and the kind of tech-nology transfer that sparks entrepre-neurial activity—giving that educated population lots of reasons to stick around.

The List:
1. Raleigh, North Carolina
2. Des Moines, Iowa
3. Provo, Utah
4. Lexington, Kentucky
5. Fort Collins, Colorado
6. Nashville, Tennessee
7. Austin, Texas
8. San Antonio, Texas
9. Denver, Colorado
10. Dallas, Texas
………………………………..
45. New York City, New York
64. San Diego, California
80. Chicago, Illinois
98. Long Island, New York
114. Los Angeles, California

Snow Smacks Northeast; Power Could Be out for Days.

Millions of people from Maine to Maryland were without power as an unseasonably early nor'easter dumped heavy, wet snow over the weekend on a region more used to gaping at leaves in October than shoveling snow.

The snow was due to stop falling in New England late Sunday, but Halloween will likely come and go before many of the more than 3 million without electricity see it restored, officials warned. Several officials referred to the combination of its early arrival and its ferocity as historic, yet another unwelcome superlative for weather-weary Northeasterners.

"You had this storm, you had Hurricane Irene, you had the flooding last spring and you had the nasty storms last winter," Tom Jacobsen said Sunday while getting coffee at a convenience store in Hamilton Township, N.J.

"I'm starting to think we really ticked off Mother Nature somehow because we've been getting spanked by her for about a year now."

The storm smashed record snowfall totals for October and worsened as it moved north. Communities in western Massachusetts were among the hardest hit. Snowfall totals topped 27 inches in Plainfield, and nearby Windsor had gotten 26 inches by early Sunday. It was blamed for at least three deaths, and states of emergency were declared in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and parts of New York.

What will the winter of 2011-2012 mean for the Northeast? 

Well let's look at the last eight years.

Tennessee Retains its AAA Bond Rating

Moody’s and Fitch reaffirmed their AAA ratings for Tennessee.

The Tennessean Newspaper reports that:

“Two of the agencies that rate government bonds have reaffirmed their AAA ratings for Tennessee…Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Inc. have decided they will leave the state’s rating at the highest level, a senior aide to state Comptroller Justin Wilson said in an email to lawmakers sent Monday [October 3, 2011] afternoon.”

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam lauded the bond rating:

"Tennessee Retains its AAA Bond Rating agencies for maintaining the state’s solid credit ratings, a testament to Tennessee’s leadership and conservative fiscal management."

These ratings allow the state to pay lower interest rates when it borrows money. Tennessee has one of the lowest debt burdens of any state in the country, a fact that is a strong positive in the evaluation process.

The Tennessee Constitution requires the state to balance its budget every year, and any capital project must be funded at 11 percent of its cost in the first year. The governor emphasized these structural decisions in state government are important indicators of stability and prudent management.

While Tennessee enjoys a AAA rating, Moody’s rates other states like Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts at Aa1, New York, Connecticut, Michigan and Nevada are rated Aa2, New Jersey and Arizona are rated Aa3 and Illinois and California are rated A1.

Kiplinger — Best Value Cities of 2011

Best Value Cities 2011: No. 3, Nashville, Tenn.

Booming entertainment, health care and education sectors are music to the ears of its residents.

Nashville is home to the Grand Ole Opry and countless country stars (plus a few rock idols), and it has the highest concentration of record labels, recording studios, and music publishers and distributors in the na-tion. But Music City also means business. The area is making a strong comeback from the recession and is expected to add more than 151,000 jobs by 2019 -- an annual rate that’s higher than the national average.

The majority of the new openings will be in the education and health-services fields, although the city has a slug of workers in manufacturing as well. Top employers include Vanderbilt University (Nashville has 21 four-year and postgraduate institutions), Hospital Corporation of America and Nissan North America.

Even during the recession, new businesses opened and existing ones expanded. And Mayor Karl Dean says Nashville also has one of the nation’s most aggressive open-space plans, calling for the preservation of 22,000 acres of public and private land. And it will be adding 3,000 acres of parkland over the next ten years.

The music industry gives the city a buzz and energy that lures people from across the country. A budding technology industry helps draw bright young minds. "People come to Nashville and just fall in love with it," Dean says.

Nashville’s cost of living is about 10% below the national average; housing costs are 28% less. The city has held the property tax rate steady for the past four years, and Tennessee has no state income tax.

Nashville, of course, oozes music. You can listen to up-and-coming bands play seven days a week at the honky-tonks downtown without paying a cover charge. The Tennessee Performing Arts Center attracts Broadway acts. There are jazz concerts on the lawn of Belle Meade Plantation from June through August. The city has 11,000 acres of public parks, a zoo, two lakes, and 192 miles of trails Plus, Nashville has five professional sports teams and one of the South’s biggest film festivals.

Forbes—The Next Big Boom Towns In The U.S.

Forbes recently took a look at what the next decade has in store for America’s 52- largest cities, and came away with a bright forecast for Nashville.

Forbes, in partnership with the Praxis Strategy Group, projects Nashville to be the No. 3 boom town in the coming decade. No. 1 on the list is Austin, followed by Raleigh, NC, then Nashville, TN.

Forbes’ analysis looked at recent growth and demographic information like family formation and growth in educated migration.
Forbes wrote about Nashville: The country music capital, with its low housing prices and pro-business environment, has experienced rapid growth in educated migrants, where it ranks an impressive fourth in terms of percentage growth.
Two advantages Nashville and other rising Southern cities like No. 8 Charlotte, NC, possess are a mild climate and smaller scale. Even with population growth, they do not suffer the persistent transportation bottle-necks that strangle the older growth hubs. At the same time, these cities are building the infrastructure — roads, cultural institutions and airports — critical to future expansion.

Middle Tennessee also has an abundance of institutions of higher learning--most notably Vanderbilt, Belmont, Lipscomb and Tennessee State universities in Nashville and Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville. Other prominent universities are Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, the University of the South in Sewanee, Cumberland University in Lebanon, and Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, which is the state's second largest institution of higher learning, just behind the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.