July 7th, 2011 - Nashville Tennessee

Nashville again? Yes. You can't do all or even most of Nashville in a day and it would take months to get the full range of flavor the city has to offer. More importantly, Nashville has so many things to do for FREE. North Alabama could learn a ton from the learning and arts opportunities that are readily available in the greater Nashville area for under $10 a person or less.

The main destination of our trip was to the Tennessee State Museum and specifically the Egyptian Relics, Replicas, and Revivals in the changing gallery. Admission to both the Museum and the Egyptian exhibit are free, but the Egyptians wonders are only in town until September 4th.

The museum features many artifacts and items from the early history of Tennessee including its fair share of "jars and bowls" to an armory of Cival War era swords and firearms. I tend to take pictures of what catches my eye as opposed to what has the most historical value, so with that in mind... I thought these were kind of cool.

Here we see a depiction of the Great Bass Drum Massacre of 1815. You see these people? Yeah, they're running away from the bass drummer. As well you should, people of 1815... as well you should.

This a small plaque on a bench made by David Crockett (king of the wild frontier). Crockett's hands touched this wood. There was a sign nearby that asked people to "please" not touch the bench. What kind of a cruel thing is that to do? Why place something of cultural and historical importance within arm's length and then ask people not to touch it? The bench practically begged to be touched.

I totality touched this

See this? This is an actual mummy. This isn't from the traveling Egyptian exhibit and this isn't a replica. This is an honest-to-goodness dead person. I got to see this FOR FREE. Thank you, state of Tennessee and city of Nashville for reminding me how much you rock. This is said to be a 3,600-year-old Egyptian mummy brought to Tennessee in 1860.

Did not touch

There were several hand-crafted quilts and other pieces of art on display.

This is called "Atlas" by Jess Jones of Smithville, Tennessee and is described as "Digitally printed, artist-made paper and vintage map, with signatures, in abaca paper and found papers, with waxed linen." I rather like it. It appeals to my love of maps and old diagrams.

The following are replicas from the visiting Egyptian exhibit. (I did take a picture of some of the actual relics using my zoom, but decided not to post those because I thought that seeing them in person was the better experience. So go see them. Did I mention it's free?)

This guy was at the entrance to the "Revival" section of the Egypt exhibit. I want this in my bedroom. Esther may object. I really should have checked to see if they had miniatures in the gift shop...

I think it looks like a giant Stikfas minotaur. Who wouldn't want that?

PLAYMOBIL!

This next painting freaks me out. Warning: scary baby alert! It's wearing eye-liner and has what appears to be a shaved head, four o'clock shadow and a double chin. I think this is the Antebellum version of those Facebook apps that combine your picture with that of your romantic partner to show what your hypothetical children would look like. I have no idea what that is in its hand- it's semi-transparent hand. I'm also assuming that this is a female child in a dress and not a male child in some dress-like gown.

More up from our day in Nashville in a bit but for the time being you can check out all the pictures from the (FREE!) museum here, including two of our children in the stocks.