Surviving Nashville

For months my son has been asking to go on a mother/son date to the Melting Pot. The idea of getting to cook his own food on skewers in the middle of the table has been intriguing for quite sometime. My husband is not a fan because if you have ever been there you know how stinking expensive it is….and you have to cook your own food!! We had tickets to see the SpongeBob musical at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) so we made an entire night out of it.

Because we are surviving Nashville as it grows we made sure to leave with plenty of time to find parking before our 4:30 reservation and 7:30 show. Now, if I was smart I could have parked at the library and been done with it but I wanted cheaper! (Quick tip: If you park at the library during the day and go in and get your ticket validated your first hour and a half are free. In after 5pm and it is $15). We drove up and down the block near TPAC and saw a couple of open spots…with signs that said no parking starting the date we were there. We continued down to Commerce and saw a garage that said it was $28 unless we parked after 4. That lot was going to be $15 as well but it was not 4 yet so we continued down to a Premiere lot across from Panera. I checked the rate….$38. So, back in the car and we drove down the block and discovered a few non metered spots in front of a hotel. There was a no parking to the curb sign and we were behind that but on the other end there was a carriages only sign. I don’t believe the carriages run on Tuesdays so I thought we would be fine, and we probably would have been but what if we weren’t (there was a towing incident when we first moved here that still makes me uneasy)? So we drove a little further down Commerce to a meter. We fed enough coins to last until a little after five and headed down to 2nd and the Melting Pot.

Y’all…Nashville is hilly and I always forget that until I am walking (or running, I did a half marathon a few years ago and let’s just say uphill is not my friend). As our altitude decreased I knew our walk back to TPAC was going to take longer than our walk from the car.

Our dinner was spectacular, my date was charming, and we made it in plenty of time for our show with a stop off at the car to drop off an uneaten salad that my thoughtful son got for his sister to pack in her lunch the next day. I went into the SpongeBob Musical not really knowing what to expect. I knew there were songs by Panic! at the Disco, Steven Tyler, and They Might Be Giants. I had no doubt I would love the music. But, I have a confession…I don’t watch SpongeBob and neither do my kids. They get the memes because they are kids and understand that stuff but it has never been on our list of things to watch. Sure, I know who the characters are..I don’t live under a pineapple under the sea. But I don’t know the relationship of the characters to each other or if the characters in the play match up to the show. I will say my favorite act of the play was when Squidward sang “I’m Not a Loser”. When I went back to the playbill I realized the song was by They Might Be Giants, one of my favorite bands from high school. The staging, the lighting, the choreography for this particular song were outstanding. Unfortunately, a lot of people didn’t see it because many people left at intermission. Honestly, what is not to love? A tap dancing, clarinet playing squid performs with a sea anemone chorus line! Check out the Playbill first look below.

If you get a chance to come to Nashville and have the desire to see a show, TPAC is your place. The Tennessee State Museum used to be located in the basement at TPAC but now has its very own building next to the Nashville Farmers Market. Aside from our parking fiasco the evening was fantastic! Please come visit! We need more theater goers to balance out the pedal taverns! 😉 The more that balances out the easier to survive Nashville!

As an aside: The other day I read a book called Surviving Nashville by Stacy Barton. It had several short stories in it that were rather tragic. The writing was lovely and Ms. Barton is a vivid story teller. I initially picked this book up because of the title but there was only one story that referenced Nashville. That was okay though because the stories were compelling.