Redneck Heaven, Antiquated Ideology, And Neon

After Saturday's full schedule Sunday turned out to be another late start. This really needed to be a mellow day and I find nothing is more relaxing than The Dukes Of Hazard. Cooter's Dukes Of Hazard Museum is basically a shrine to commercialism. Encased in glass are a tons of vintage toys, games, and clothing... all sporting the Duke's logo. Easily the coolest attraction was the General Lee (or at least a faithful replica). The car is bad-ass! Also on display were the Hazard County Garage's tow truck, Boss Hogg's police cruiser, and babe-alicious Daisy's jeep. For ten dollars they'll take a picture of you in all four. I had spent a ton of cash the day before so I took a picture of the General Lee and saved the ten bucks. I have no idea who Cooter is but his autographed CD's are widely available... uhhh... no thanks.



Right next door is the Willie Nelson Museum And General Store. Willie got himself into a bit of trouble with the IRS which seized some of his personal possessions. A museum was created with those items... the proceeds going to satisfy Willie's debt. There are pieces of clothing, record awards, artwork, even his piano. Other artists or their estates have loaned artifacts to help the cause. The most poignant of which was a watch belonging to Patsy Cline. She was wearing it when she died in a plane crash in March of 1963. The watch stopped on impact marking her exact time of death...

In the "general store" there were all manner of goodies available. There were the requisite t-shirts, magnets, CD's etc. Also available was Willie Nelson BBQ sauce, Willie Nelson pickled quail eggs, Willie Nelson cookbooks, and... well you get the idea. There were non Willie tchotchkes aplenty. Quite disturbing were the black mammy figurines. It's important to remember the past... no matter how ugly. We can all learn from it. Black Americana, as it's called, is a popular collectible market. There was something really, really unsettling about these items being placed amongst shot glasses and "What Happens In Nashville Stays In Nashville" t-shirts.



In the evening I headed to downtown Nashville to hear live music. Broadway is a popular tourist destination. There's a ton of bars offering a wide variety of musical choices. The sounds fill the streets. Stop in one place to hear country, move to another for rock, maybe catch a rockabilly band in yet another. The great thing is that you can sample everything. If something is to one's liking, stick around, if not, simply move along. In the end I found Broadway a bit too manufactured and Disney-fied for my taste. Though I did love all the neon... it was everywhere.



I wasn't particularly hungry that night but ended up grabbing a hot dog. How could a card carrying Elvis fan not buy something from a tiny curbside stand call "Houndogs?"