Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Coliseum Observations
Monday
October 7, 2002
"One look can say more than 10,000 words"
-Fortune on my dad's fortune cookie at the International Buffet last night
As I type this, I hear Andy Rooney crooning in the background. Normally I'd flip away, but it's 3:38 in the morning and there's not too terribly much else on the air right now. Plus I need to have at least some idea of what's going on in the world when I go back to work tonight.
The quote from my dad's fortune cookie actually should've been for me. There was this cute girl working at the International Buffet who I noticed looking my way a time or two. Walking back from the buffet we caught a glance and it was one of those looks. The girl didn't speak English all that well, but sometimes a look really can say alot.
Met up with my old friend Glenn Brown last night. We went to the J.J. Market & Café, a place that Glenn believed was a former Korean grocery store modified into a hybrid quick market/laid back coffee shop. It's something you have to see to understand. Walking in the door, you'd never know that you have the modern day equivalent of AM/PM in the back. Looks like a typical somewhat dusty convienance store, only you walk to the back and the walkway opens into this somewhat secret coffee shop. Glenn pointed out that the place has a speak-easy feel to it. Only they weren't selling any contraband there (so far as I could tell).
It's always fun to meet up with Glenn. He's one of the most intelligent people I know, and our conversations are usually quite interesting and unusual. One minute we're debating social justice, the next we're lamenting the fall of the Nashville music scene we knew as high schoolers. 328, Exit/In, Lucy's, The Cannery etc. all gone. What happened?
Glenn and I have strikingly different outlooks on many issues, but we have a mutual respect and the ability to accept the other's opinion without having to take an "I'll force my outlook on him" mindset. But with Glenn, sometimes the most fun is his ability to pull references from years back that I'd forgotten. Like AM/PM, I hadn't thought about that place in a long long time. Or a three hour each way trip to Knoxville eight years ago for some pizza (no that wasn't the real reason, but at the time it was the pseudo-excuse).
One topic that came up quite frequently is Nashville, and how the city has changed. While the music venues may have changed and disappeared, there are many great things that have happened here since 1995. The Coliseum, the Nashville Arena, rejuvination of 2nd Avenue, etc. As Glenn mentioned, Nashville is more and more acting like a "real city".
Earlier on Sunday, my dad and I went to the Titans/Redskins game at The Coliseum. It's the first time I'd been there since December 2000 (a brutally cold night where the Titans beat the Cowboys on Monday night football), and the first time since the "Adelphia" corporate sponsorship dropped off. As an aside, it's abhorrant to me how that company managed to collapse. Thanks to (alleged) criminal activity at the top, a company that should still be a force in the world of cable television is now referenced in the same breath with Enron and WorldCom.
Before the game, my dad and I went over to the Merchant Bank tent and talked with some people he knew there. The bank's president commented to him: "Your son is taller than you are". All in good fun, though. They had a nice tailgating setup going on, but my dad and I ate before the game (and I determined that Grape Nuts cereal still tastes terrible). So we had to pass on the food being cooked up. Dad had a water and I had a diet coke. When I was looking for the drinks one of the other guys told me that the coldbeer (one word) was in the cooler in the back. That cracks me up, the way beer isn't beer, it's coldbeer. I'd had plenty of that the night before, so I opted for the caffeine kick.
We took our seats about 45 minutes before the game. I'd worn a long sleeved t-shirt underneath my dad's Jevon Kearse jersey that he let me wear (I brought my old Lorenzo Neal jersey in my suitcase, but better to wear a new one with a guy still actually on the team). But it was far too warm for the long-sleeved shirt. Unfortunately, the sun was blaring down, and I was there with no sunscreen. Bad news.
Unlike my bro Matt, who tans like a champ, I get out in the sun and burn. Not good. Luckily my dad convinced me to wear a hat to the game, so my shaved head didn't get sunburned. But below the hat line my face is a ridiculous shade of pink. It looks silly, especially on the left side where the sun blared down the most. But what can you do?
The Titans mascot, T-Rac, introduced a midget mascot sidekick called "Mini T" before the game. Kind of clever, albeit three years past the pop culture curve. They did this skit before the game where two Washington Redskins fans came out and threw a Redskins flag down on top of the 50 yard line, disrespecting like Terrell Owens in Texas Stadium. So what did the Titans mascot do? Run out and scare them off? No, he turned into some mad scientist in this sequence shown on the Titantron (I love that term, by the way, stolen right from the WWF). It was confusing and went on and on like a bad Saturday Night Live skit. The two Redskins fans basically stood out at the 50 for no real reason and waited. Finally T-Rac and Mini T came out (at the prompting of a guy inexplicably out on the field with a microphone) and started beating up the fans. T-Rac put one of the guys in a boston crab. I was waiting for the figure-four leglock, but alas it wasn't meant to be.
The game itself was good for one half. Steve McNair is a great player. Surrounded by a depleted offensive line, playing without his go-to receiver (Derrick Mason), McNair kept the Titans in it for a half. Kevin Dyson dropped what should've been a TD pass (which in fantasy football land was fitting -- Dyson, a member of the Punishers on the bench this week, almost working to spite the Mafia, who started McNair this week). But in the second half the wheels fell off. Facing a rookie QB in Patrick Ramsey forced into action by Danny Weurfell's shoulder injury, the Titans should've feasted (especially with Stephen Davis on the bench). But inexplicably the Titans didn't blitz, and Ramsey picked the Titans apart. The secondary looked atrocious. Just embarassing blown coverages.
On the bus back to Greer Stadium after the game, fans were openly falling for Jeff Fisher's head. The patience for losing for a head football coach is minimal. I'm just in shock that the Titans managed to beat the Eagles in Week 1. They are not a good team.
Despite the sunburn, and the Titans loss, it was great to get to go to the game with my dad. Being in Tampa and all, it's tough to get a chance to spend much time with my family here in Nashville.
To continue the backward look, Saturday night was a fun time. Saw Donald Wolfe's house near LaVernge, which is a really nice place. Don has it going on there, for sure. We watched the Tennessee/Arkansas instant classic 6 OT thriller. High drama for sure. Josh Tenisci was calling for the game to go to 10 OT's (the record is 7 from last year's Ole Miss/Arkansas game). Exciting and gratifying for the Vols to ultimately get the win. My dim chance of the $60 payoff for the $10 Vegas bet of Tennessee to win it all is still alive.
From there, my bro Matt and I met up with Slick (Richard Karg) downtown at a club called Hurricane's. Nashville's 2nd Avenue has taken a hit with the economy being what it is, but it's still a fun place to be. Hurricane's was packed with a good atmosphere and some fun dance music. But we ended up in the back for awhile, where we heard quite possibly the most horrible karaoke performance of all time. I don't think it's possibly to intentionally sing that poorly. Yikes. Drink prices were ridiculously high, and the bathroom attendant was almost frighteningly aggressive. C'mon man, I'll wash my hands, just give me a little space, ok? Kept finding myself getting distracted by this one girl's cleavage who Slick knew from Memphis. But the highlight of the night was this amazing chick who was slinging her Diaco's (fake tits) around town. Not literally, but she knew exactly what she was doing with that low-cut outfit. I'm talking a complete conversation-stopper, mid-sentence style when she walked by. In a related note, she was there with some guy with a shaved head. And the women in front of us in line getting in asked if I shaved my head because I wanted to... Umm, yeah. We know what's up.
Unfortunately many of the other selections at Hurricane's were of the Bus Station variety. But it was still a fun time.
Can't wait for next weekend. Four day work week, then heading down to Mississippi State. It's always a fun time in Starkville, and I dig those Mississippi chicks the most. Good times.
Only real disappointment from the weekend was not meeting up with Grex and Liz. Way it goes. With less than 72 hours in town, there's only so many hours for this insomniac to make things happen. See you again in December, Nashville.
| 
