A Photo Walk - Nashville 07/03
Broadway closed to traffic for the 4th of July.
Saturday, July 3rd, was a real kick to be in downtown Nashville. Each week I feel like I am settling in better and better. First and foremost, it was relatively cool. By that I mean the temperature did not get above 85 F, which is about 30 C. I parked in a different place because my old faithful Public Square parking was charging $20 for event parking. The event was a big Fourth of July celebration, which I do not think actually was going to begin until the next day. I totally did not expect the event preparations. The pandemic has caused me to live in a new normal. I have long since given up the idea that we might come together to celebrate a national holiday.
I parked in Music City Center. It is a building that always has great architectural reflections. I like to take pictures of reflections but have been confounded by my inability to find opportunity on Broadway. I am pretty sure it is my shortcoming and not Broadway’s. On this day, in addition to the architectural reflections, there were also reflections of legs passing by an area that had a low glass partition. I stopped and took a good number of pictures. This is easy photography, folks. No stealth is required. It is a great way for me to start. It was hard to determine if I had gotten what I wanted to get. I now know what I did not want to get. I did not want people to be walking together because the reflections are aggregated into muddled shapes. More leg reflections turned out to be better than less. I think the leg reflections are so unexpected in this photo that the viewer will need all of the information possible to understand what they are looking at.
Three short blocks later, I was on Broadway. It had been closed to traffic in preparation for the big Fourth of July celebration. I never understood why Broadway was not closed to traffic during the pandemic. The honky tonks could have had a huge space for outside dining. Here is the bottom line. I think it should always be closed off to traffic year-round. It was so spacious to be able to walk in the street.
At my daughter’s behest, I have been trying to chat with some of the greeters, sort of a Greeters of Broadway version of the famous NYC Human’s series. This was my second go at talking with this particular greeter from AJ’s. Perhaps not surprisingly I found maybe the only introverted greeter on Broadway. He told me his day job was in IT and greeting was just a way to pass time on the weekend. I was so surprised at how much we shared in common. I asked him if he thought greeting was mostly a man’s job. He did not think so, except those women tended to work during the day and men at night. He generally works at night. I do not to expect to see him very much since I am out only during the day. I was delighted he had a day shift on the 3rd.
My new friend is the greeter on the left.
Then I moved over to talk with one of the women greeting at The Mellow Mushroom, which is next door to AJ’s. She is what I affectionately call, “a good old gal”. She is new to this work, having just retired as a long-haul trucker. She is a natural at greeting because she can effectively encourage people to come in. I am going to be looking for her in the future. It is nice to have someone to stop and talk to for a little bit of time.
My friend, the man whose thing it is to scare people, was out. I do not know how he deals with the heat in his costume. He taught elementary education in California for 30 years. Guess whose classroom was the most fun?
I was feeling so good about meeting and greeting that I took this picture with a rare, for me, ask. I was right proud that I could get the picture with him in a natural position. It has been brought to my attention I should have move a little closer when I took the picture. Baby steps.
The day ended with some success over at the food court on Fifth and Broadway. It has been reasonably hard to find an interesting photo to take inside Assembly Hall, as it is called. It is dark and, in the end, how interesting is a food court? It is a nice place to stop and get a bite to eat. The bands that play there are typically really good and not too loud. I like this transaction at one of the bars.
The grand finale was another reflection opportunity outside of Assembly Hall. It was a good day. A very good day.