AstroLogic*Gal

I’ll be revisiting Gaylord Opryland for a weeklong conference once again this year. Mark that up as One Good Thing and One Eh Thing. They do have a fantastic set up if you’re looking for conference space for a very, very large group. The rooms are large and well kept and there are direct flights with not stoppovers available to Nashville. Very key.

The Eh part is the surreal ambiance of the venue coupled with the gastronomic mediocrity of the eatery menus. Pseudo verandas overlook fulminating arbors that make up the interior. All the foliage is kind of cool in small amounts. After a week there, it got to be a little strange. I got a kick out of the automated monkeys that swing through and the “river” inside the hotel where you can have a “boat” ride. The hotel serves wonderbread with mayo Mall category cuisine. For the largest hotel in a city so important to the music scene, I’d have thought there would be more cosmopolitan choices. The rotating bar in the main area was a little disconcerting after one cocktail. Cute idea but the sensation that everything is spinning around is not something I’d want to experience again.

Again, my primary reason for visiting the first time and revisiting is for business so being at the Gaylord is what it is. Attending that annual conference is a big deal so I’m glad my presentation was accepted. After this year, I’m hoping they choose another venue.

The best thing about the hotel is its proximity to the Grand Old Opry! A must see. I will definitely go again. Thinking about heading back to the Opry got me back into listening to Country Music. Love it. So miss the local country music station.

This is kind of a funny aside about that music station. Preface this with the fact that my Cancer Moon that never lets go of anything and allow me to remember anything sentimental. OK. So it was exactly 4 years ago, May 8, 2002, that this particular country music station suddenly went off the air. It was replaced by Spanish/Latin music. I wept. I still to this day recall the horror I felt when I flipped my car's autoprogrammed radio button to find the music format changed.

Speaking of music. Squirrels like classical. When there is a classical music event here at the park, they hang out and dig it. Today there is a maybe homeless, definitely bedraggled looking person with an amazingly large boom box. Perhaps he is a time traveler and doesn't realize that boom boxes went out in the 80's. Could be that he is a time traveler from much earlier since the cassette tape he is listening to - - erm, that all of us in and beyond the park are now listening to-- is Tom Jones.

Mind you, I like Tom Jones. I am off an age to have actually seen him performing live on various variety shows on our the little black and white TV, right before the Perry Mason Show. Did I mention that I have a good memory for memories? Back to Tom.

Apparently squirrels do not like loud Tom Jones music. Even the bribery of food is not sufficient to hold them. The bedraggled time traveler dj was offering to share whatever he was eating out of the greasy brown bag he had in hand. The three squirrels that had been surrounding him, like alms beggars, uptailed and went out like a shot as soon as he turned on the TJ tunes.

Heh. Music critics.

And I thought the Latin music was bad.