On our way home, we discussed our favorite events of the trip. The food was crazy good everywhere we went.
Rose loved her times in the pool.
We all enjoyed the music on the riverboat cruise.
Mr. Flower and I were surprised that our favorite time was sitting quietly in the rooftop bar of our hotel watching the sunset.
After days of rushing around it was nice to slow down and let some time go by without doing a thing.
SLOW
There were spectacular sideshows on the sidewalks of Nashville. No need to enter a bar to see a parade of characters. The tourists made up one part of a two-part drama that ran simultaneously on the same sidewalks. I had to pull over to give the actors my full attention. It was easy to keep the tourist drama troupe separate from the homeless group.
The tourist wore cowboy/girl boots and cowboy/girl hats. Females donned sparkly shorts or skirts and lots bling. The gals outfits displayed little fabric and exposed lots of skin. There were tattoos peeking out from under all garments. The tourist troupe took many selfies and group photos. The homeless were phoneless.
From my perch in the bar window, I could watch the double dramas play out in air-conditioning. The rowdy revelers moved in groups. There was some wobbling and groping going on.The homeless moved solo or staked out a spot and stayed there. They wore what they had, whether it fit or not.
The band on stage, inside played really well, but my attention was held by sights on the steamy sidewalk. I considered the band background music for the silent, outdoor drama.
There was a real life occurring on the corner. A man I named “Kindness” and his docile dog lounging on its bed were setup on the edge of the sidewalk just below my lookout. I call the man Kindness because his large, cardboard sign read SEARCHING FOR HUMAN KINDNESS.
Several blonde women gave Kindness money. One tourist sat beside him and his dog to have his picture taken. Then the tourist got up, shook Kindness’s hand and walked away. Wasn’t that kind of him?
Kindness tried to share his food with his dog but the dog sniffed it reluctantly. I hope the food was not the spoiled spoils from a hot trashcan. Kindness kept putting the food near the dog’s mouth until it ate it.
Kindness and his dog had the perfect spot where the sidewalk widened just before a crosswalk on a busy corner. The metal poles between the street and the sidewalk kept them from being stepped on.
Kindness must be an important fixture of the homeless community. I did not take his photo. I sketched him in my notes. He is a human not a public figure/fixture, so a photo would have been inappropriate. Other homeless humans came by to visit Kindness on his corner.
First came woman I named “Toy” because her sign, written in red marker, read SAVING FOR A SEX TOY. Toy brought Kindness a pair of black shoes to try on. They fit so he kept them on and slipped his white, speckled crocks into his bag.
Later Toy returned with an opened bag of chips and sat beside Kindness. They both ate out of the bag until it was empty. They did not offer the sleeping pit any chips.
A small male I named “Pants” had on loose jeans that required being held up by one hand as he held his sign with the other. Pants came by many times from the same direction. I guess he was circling the same block over and over. He would glance into the trashcans each time he passed.
Pants paused once during his rounds to borrow a marker from Kindness. Pants changed something on his cardboard sign and continued his one-way, circular route. I never saw what his sign said but it was torn from a Capri Sun box.
The band in the Luke Bryan bar was great but the sidewalk parade was where the real action was. Too much and too little right there together.
It’s hard for a band to compete with all that sparkle and suffering.
FLOW
Sometimes reality photobombs your perfect pictures. This is what happened as I was trying to capture all the musicians in this mural of country music legends.
I saw the man in the white shirt enter my frame and lean in a trashcan. I waited. I thought he was barfing up beer at first, but then he moved to the next can and reached in.
I think the city is attempting to keep a balance between tourist traffic and a homeless population.
There were homeless mixed in with the crowds on the sidewalks. Many were carrying bags and folded cardboard signs under their arms. They would come in the souvenier stores to buy drinks and snacks with cash. I observed some homeless drama out the window of the hopping Luke Bryan bar one hot night.
Story will follow.
Once you see them, you can’t not see them.
FLOWER
I have admitted staging photos in previous posts, but I have never been this guilty before. In nature photography it is taboo to augment reality. Man-made subjects do not have such rules.
I took pictures of what I wanted to remember. I am haunted by scenes I cannot forget.
I will share more of this fascinating mural in a later post.
A week in Nashville had many beautiful sights, but there was ugliness everywhere.
I did not photograph the problems of this bustling city, but I have been taking lots of notes.
Nashville has laws to keep the homeless out of sight. No set-ups or sleeping in public spaces.
We were rarely approached by these desperate folks. They held up cardboard signs like in Portland and San Diego. Their voices scribbled with markers.
I sketched some scenes and gave each character a name based on my observations. Yes…there’s a story coming!
The sidewalks were steamy and the smelly trashcans had grates across the tops.
I am sensitive to sounds and it was difficult to find quiet spaces anywhere. I keep Loops earplugs in my purse. I used these numerous times because the noise from bars and traffic was loud.
I need to go through all my notes and sketches and see what rings true about Nashville.
I was last there in 2014. It has changed since then and so have I.
FLOW
floweralley 