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Thank You, East Nashville

Oct 28th, 2010
by Jason Kirk.
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Earlier this week, as I fought off a nasty little respiratory bug I’d caught during my housewarming party a few days before, I was checking out the back-end of this little blog and noticed there was a milestone approaching: we were closing in on 30,000 hits over the lifetime of the site. Given that all the attention we’ve gotten here has been through word-of-mouth and search engine referrals, that struck me as a pretty significant number. The next morning a few hits from Google put us over that mark, and I felt like I should take a moment to thank everyone who has helped this blog get to where it is today.

Thanks for your support!

To my writers Lindsey Boise, Mat Lavigne, Ginger Burden, Aaron Coleman, Bobby Shamwell and Rachel Hall Kirk: Thank you for your contributions, large and small. You’ve each helped to add intelligence and verve to this site through your unique voices, and your counsel has been invaluable since I started this venture. I’m grateful for the work and the time you’ve so generously donated.

To our readers: Without you, all of us here at the blog would be screaming into the void. You’re the reason we’re still publishing today. Neither I nor any of my contributors make any money off this blog. We just like where we live, and we want to share our fondness with a world that is increasingly turning its gaze to this little corner of Music City. Seeing positive comments from our readers, not to mention appreciative emails from the independent artists and business owners who have asked us to write about their endeavors, is more than worth the cost of hosting the East Nashville Blog. Those notes of appreciation make up for the handful of Debbie Downers out there who, in fits of pique, have occasionally taken their personal issues out on us in the last year and a half. Knowing that there are people out there who get what we’re doing, people who enjoy hearing about the East side from a local perspective, gives us the drive to keep taking time out from all the other work we do.

Building something out of nothing is never easy. Thankfully, we enjoy the support of a dynamic community. All of you have helped to defy the laws of probability and keep this site going, and I sincerely hope you’ll be able to continue helping us for a long time to come.

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The ABCs of Rock Release Party At Grimey’s This Saturday

Oct 15th, 2010
by Jason Kirk.
1 comment

Learning the alphabet has earned the Iggy Pop seal of approval!

East Nashvillian Melissa Duke Mooney was working on a unique children’s book, The ABCs of Rock, when she died unexpectedly last year. Her family and friends didn’t let her passing stand in the way of sharing her work with the world, though, and this weekend they’re teaming up with Grimey’s to celebrate the book’s publication by Tricycle Press.

The party will kick off at 3pm at Grimey’s, located at 1604 8th Avenue South in Nashville, with a set of rock classics from The Red Caps, featuring the late author’s husband, Neil Mooney. Given the eclectic lineup of bands in the book (they run the gamut from The Clash to The Go-Go’s to AC/DC to David Bowie), the band has a wide variety of excellent tracks to choose from. The book’s illustrators, Connie Collingsworth and Jim Madison of Print Mafia, will be available to sign books as well. And in the spirit of rock and roll, temporary tattoos and candy cigarettes will be on hand as well as kid-friendly refreshments. The event is free and open to the public.

If you aren’t able to make it out to Grimey’s this weekend, you can still pick up a copy of The ABCs of Rock online at Amazon or in bookstores. To learn more about the life Melissa Duke Mooney lived, check out Maggie Conran’s recap of Mooney’s second-line parade funeral, or Tall Paul’s memorial to her, or the Memories of Melissa Duke Mooney group on Facebook, or Murphy’s memories of her, or this short Nashville Scene feature about Mooney and her project.

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An East Nashville Query (Guest Blog by Author Nick Valentino)

Nov 12th, 2009
by Jason Kirk.
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Editor’s Note: Here at the East Nashville Blog we all consider ourselves patrons of the arts, and even more so when they’re local. So when East Nashville writer Nick Valentino asked if he could write a guest post, we were happy to say yes.

Greetings Fellow East Nashvillians,

My name is Nick Valentino and I want to thank the East Nashville Blog for letting me come here today and guest blog.

The reason for my visit is that I’m on a thirty day blog tour in support of my first published novel, a Steampunk story called Thomas Riley published by Echelon Press. (Today is day eighteen of the tour.)

If you don’t know what the Steampunk genre is, I like to describe it as a Patterson House-styled drink. Chill 1 part Jules Verne, mix with two parts Indiana Jones, add a mixer of H.G. Wells, and for flavor twist in a little Frankenstein. So if you’re into science fiction, alternative history or mad scientists with steam powered inventions, keep reading.

Wanted-poster

Here’s a little more about Thomas Riley:

For more than twenty years West Canvia and Lemuria have been at war. From the safety of his laboratory, weapons designer Thomas Riley has cleverly and proudly empowered the West Canvian forces. But when a risky alchemy experiment goes horribly wrong, Thomas and his wily assistant Cynthia Bassett are thrust onto the front lines of battle and forced into shaky alliances with murderous sky pirates in a deadly race to kidnap the only man who can undo the damage: the mad genius behind Lemuria’s cunning armaments.

As for me, I’ve lived in Nashville my entire life but I’m relatively new to East Nashville. When you make a move like I did, the places you visit regularly change. Instead of going to Fido or Starbucks to write, I don’t know what good places to write in the East are. So, let me know what you think the best places to write in East Nashville are. If you’re not a writer, where do you see people writing? Hm, it would almost be a good category for “Best of Nashville”.

ThomasRileyCoverT5

You can find out more about Nick’s book at http://sirthomasriley.com. Signed copies are available for purchase at http://thomasriley.bigcartel.com/ or http://www.echelonpress.com.

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