Nashville

Last week we travelled to Nashville, saw Feist, met up with Alex and explored the city:

Overheard a barbershop quartet practicing just around the corner from the Nat'l B-shop Quartet Headquarters (unrelated: this is a great documentary):

Walked over to Jack White's record store/studio, Third Man Records.  Which, known to us now but unbeknownst at the time, is flanked by a methadone clinic and two swingers clubs.

Parking lot of Third Man; the inside is entirely yellow and black.  Read about Jack White's new album, Third Man and its use of color here

Stopped in Hatch Show Print:

Went to Honky Tonk Central and Robert's Western World:

Drinkin' beers on Tuesday

Then to the Ryman to see Feist!

Outside-the-Ryman smooches

Fabulous show. (One of the best shows I've ever seen-- Luke). Afterward we walked around downtown for a bit:

Chicken purse in a window

Cocktail place

The next day we met up with Alex at his cousin's home to explore the city:

But first, a little music.

12 South neighborhood
Las Paletas gourmet popsicles with new friend Emily:

Bon Appetit-endorsed Mas Tacos Por Favor food truck:

Quinoa and sweet potato taco

Mas tacos, por favor!

 MTPF is parked outside of handmade-denim store Imogene and Willie:

Note watchdog

 Katy K's Ranch Dressing westernwear:

Met up with Alex's cousin Sophia and her son Benjamin for a sandwich.  Saw this dapper couple:

They swore the yellow and navy coordination was just an accident.

Benjamin makes a muscle.  Grrr!

East Nashville

I Dream of Weenie semi-permanent food truck

Full service weenery.

Wrapped it up with a show by David Berkley and Garrison Starr at the Rutledge.

After a great two days of music and friends and tacos, this party-of-two winged northward for the next leg of our trip: Chicago!

Mating in Captivity

Just because you're married doesn't mean you're dead.

Tiemin K., mother, on Married Life

Oh.  The book about bonin'.  Well I like the first chapter so far...

Luke H., spouse, on my comment "This book is really great."

     I heard about Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel on NPR's fantastic series Three Books, a short segment in which an expert/author suggests three books on a theme, which I am fortunate to catch during my drive home several days a week.  March 29th's episode featured Love Isn't All You Need: 3 Relationship-Building Books (listen here).  I have never read a relationship or self-help or any book from that genre before, which likely stems from a prejudice that books of that ilk are poorly written psychobabble-laden potboilers.  (Completely unfair but steadfastly, snobbishly held).  However, psychologist and author Harriet Lerner's recommendation of Mating in Captivity sounded so erudite and interesting that I waited for the book from the library but the waiting list was weeks [...drawing mental Venn diagram of NPR listeners and library card holders...] so I bought it.

So worth it, dear readers.

  This is a beautifully written book, no small feat as Perel is not a native English speaker.  Below I have captured a passage from the chapter The Pitfalls of Modern Intimacy (via).  These are not the most lyrical of her paragraphs but I feel they capture what I like most about this book and her approach: frisky and cerebral, playful, reasonable, level-headed, scientific in a way that leaves room for the romantic, inclusive, critical of the egalitarianism (men and women must be equal in every facet of their relationship) so prized in American culture.  It is a book for anyone coupled, single, childless or with children (the chapters on the changes in a couple's relationship post-children are spectacular), or interested in psychology, gender politics and sociology. Any human being, really. [NB: This is not, however, a Cosmo-style sex advice, how-to book for those human beings looking for a more instructive text.]

The subtitle of the book and its crux: reconciling the domestic and the erotic.  How to keep Le Spark alive? 

The longest absence is less perilous to love than the terrible trials of incessant proximity.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

This little book, so well-crafted, invites you and your lovah to outfox the banality, the familiarity and the complacency that hungrily consume the passion that itself was once so consuming.  It's marvelous, and I hope you read it.