The Days Inn Vanderbilt (map) has earned a dubious distinction as one of TripAdvisor’s top 10 dirtiest hotels in the United States. I personally have never darkened the door at this Days Inn, but doing so has never really seemed like a great idea, either. Here are some representative reviews from the site:

It was a pretty bad motel, but it was clean enough (no bugs and i didn’t get sick) and people were nice. good location and cheap. if you want a nice place, you’ll have to pay more…

Don’t make the same mistake we did! This motel is an accident waiting to happen. Do not even think of booking for the rate, last minute, etc. You will regret it. When we asked about the shape of the place we were told that “we should have known what we were getting into when we drove up to the property” and “afterall its in the west end”……all this by the desk clerk! Football fans beware - go somewhere else!

NASTY, RUN DOWN AND NEEDS TO HAVE A WRECKING BALL USED ON IT; NO AIR IN TINY ELEVATOR OR HALLWAY, WORST ROOM I’VE EVER STAYED IN!!!!! I asked for a rollaway, the lady at the desk told me (at 7:10) that I should’ve asked before 7 because there was no one on duty except her and she couldn’t leave the desk. I have a large vehicle that will not fit in a parking garage so I had to park behind the hotel and I was afraid the it would be stolen or vandalized but it wasn’t. That was the only pleasant experience at this hotel…

1) The rooms smell horrible! Very musty like an old abandoned building.
2) Dirty, sticky carpets.
3) Mold. I can’t be absolutely sure but I believe it to be black mold (see photo above). I have pictures to prove this! I just wish that I had found this on our first day instead of our last.
4) Unfriendly, rude staff.
5) Very narrow halls with huge open windows. It would be very easy for someone to fall out of them.
6) CREEPY, not very well lit parking garage.
7) Holes in blankets and towels

I visit TripAdvisor from time to time when planning trips. It tends to attract polarized comments from travelers with either very negative or very positive experiences, but it’s hard to ignore some of the specifics spelled out in the reviews. Considering that there are thousands of hotels across the country, it’s no small feat to land on this list.

While this isn’t the blasphemy in 2008 that it might have been in 1968, it is something of a surprise that Nashville’s Downtown Presbyterian Church will hold a free screening of the classic horror film Night of the Living Dead tonight at 7 p.m.

The church, which is known for its generous support and service on behalf of the city’s homeless population, is featuring the movie as part of its annual Lenten Art Show. This year’s theme is “An Emancipation Conversation,” and before you begin questioning how a 40 year-old horror flick fits into that motif, consider the following commetary from Wikipedia:

Since the release, critics and film historians have seen Night of the Living Dead as a subversive film that critiques 1960s American society, international Cold War politics, and domestic racism. Elliot Stein of The Village Voice saw the film as an ardent critique of American involvement in Vietnam, arguing that it “was not set in Transylvania, but Pennsylvania — this was Middle America at war, and the zombie carnage seemed a grotesque echo of the conflict then raging in Vietnam.” Film historian Sumiko Higashi concurs, arguing that Night of the Living Dead was a horror film about the horrors of the Vietnam era. While she asserts that “there are no Vietnamese in Night of the Living Dead, … they constitute an absent presence whose significance can be understood if narrative is construed.” She points to aspects of the Vietnam War paralleled in the film: grainy black-and-white newsreels, search-and-destroy operations, helicopters, and graphic carnage …

Other prevalent themes included “disillusionment with government and patriarchal nuclear family” and “the flaws inherent in the media, local and federal government agencies, and the entire mechanism of civil defense.” Film historian Linda Badley explains that the film was so horrifying because the monsters were not creatures from Outer Space or some exotic environment, “They’re us.” Romero confessed that the film was designed to reflect the tensions of the time: “It was 1968, man. Everybody had a ‘message’. The anger and attitude and all that’s there is just because it was the Sixties. We lived at the farmhouse, so we were always into raps about the implication and the meaning, so some of that crept in.”

Although it earned harsh criticism for its violent and graphic content at the time, the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 1999 alongside other movies considered “historically, culturally or aesthetically important.”

A free dinner will be served prior to the film at 6 p.m., thankfully so for those with weak stomachs. For more information, call DPC at (615) 254-7584.

According to the Toronto Star, a group of players is urging the NHL to permit advertising on goaltenders’ jerseys to generate additional revenue for the league.

Now a group of influential NHL players that includes New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur, Dallas’s Marty Turco, Detroit’s Dominik Hasek and Edmonton’s Dwayne Roloson want the league’s – and inevitably the Leafs’ – uniforms altered again. In what would be a radical overhaul that might incite hockey traditionalists but surely gratify some of the league’s cash-strapped owners, several NHL goalies have asked the league and its players union to consider starting a so-called Goaltender’s Club. Revenue-generating initiatives for the club could include placing a corporate logo on the jerseys of the league’s 60-odd goalies.

After reading the story, this idea doesn’t bother me as much as I expected it would. It’s common already in Europe, though I’d hate to see the patchwork quilt of logos that jerseys there (and NASCAR uniforms) showcase. One or two small logos might be tolerable, if the advertising really stays limited to goalies, and the league could sure use the money: The Star attributes much of the NHL’s increased revenues to a stronger Canadian dollar and ticket-price hikes.

The article names the Preds, the Atlanta Thrashers and the Phoenix Coyotes as teams that are “hemorrhaging money.” I’d deal with Chris Mason shilling for Dell and Nissan if it meant his jersey still said Nashville (instead of another market) somewhere on it.

If you’re driving down Broadway between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m. today, you may be surprised by what you see: Kurdish residents are planning to protest outside the Estes Kefauver Federal Building in opposition to recent military action by the Turkish government within Northern Iraq. It’s at least the second time that local Kurds have protested action by Turkey since last October.

Here’s a little background on why:

• More than 8,000 Kurds live in Nashville, which many of them have come to call “Little Kurdistan.” (Shhhh. Don’t tell  Metro Council member Eric Crafton.)
• Why Nashville? The answers vary, but here are a few: a similar climate to their native land, affordable housing and consistent job growth and, more recently, because the Nashville Kurdish community is known as one of the most vibrant in the U.S.
• Did you know that Nashville is home to the first Kurdish mosque in North America, the Salahadeen Center? (I didn’t.)
• Nashville is also home to what may the the country’s first Kurdish youth gang, although this represents a tiny fraction of the local Kurdish community (one that the large majority of local Kurds are devastated to see emerge).
• Kurds were outraged when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was executed, because still-pending charges against him for crimes against Kurds, including genocide, were summarily dropped when he was put to death.

For a people without a country of their own, I’m glad that local Kurds at least have a community here to call home. I hope someday those who want to do so are able to return to an autonomous Kurdistan in the Middle East, but until then, I hope our Kurdish neighbors continue to make themselves comfortable right where they are.

HotelChatter.com snapped a lovely photo of West End Summit (above), which is expected to contain an InterContinental Hotel someday, as it exists here in early 2008.

The developer dug a giant hole and…here we are. Local office workers have started calling it the “West End Avenue Pond” since it seems to be in a permanent state of being filled with green brackish water. We’re expecting some kind of mutant superfrogs to start jumping out in the spring and the urban mosquitoes will find a new heaven.

The timing wasn’t too hot, apparently. While Nashville’s hotel business is booming, developers aren’t happy to just build a hotel these days. You’ve got to also have condos going for over half a million apiece and an adjoining office tower to rent out to commercial tenants.

I’m not so sure about the “mutant superfrogs,” but I do hope the originally planned structures do emerge from the giant hole in the ground that now stands in their place. It may take a recovery from the national economy before that happens, though. The WES Web site also features a refreshable camera recording images of the construction site if you’d like to take a closer look. The camera appears to be positioned on developer Alex Palmer’s nearby property that contains Nashville’s Hotel Indigo.

I am pleased, at long last, to report that BobClement.com is officially blank. The wide-open directory of the former campaign Web site that lingered for months is finally history. The directory has been replaced with an empty HTML page, which seems like a fine solution to me.

While we’re on the subject of mayoral candidate Web sites, Karl Dean now has a simple, clean site interface to reflect his new status as Nashville’s mayor.

Steve Huff, a professional journalist and prominent true crime blogger or web sleuth, grew up in Nashville and was forever changed by the murder of Marcia Trimble in 1975. The murder happened 30 years ago this past Monday, and many older Nashvillians consider it a terrible milestone in Nashville’s evolution from a small town to a larger, more dangerous city.

Huff’s childhood friend Meredith Harris, who was also Trimble’s best friend, was interviewed by WSMV-TV’s Demetria Kalodimos recently. Huff’s remembrance of the murder and its aftermath are poignant and powerful:

I lived miles away on another side of town, but I can remember Marcia’s face on my parents’ TV in our living room. Maybe not the night she disappeared, but many, many nights afterwards. I can recall riding the bus to school early in the morning and thinking of Marcia Trimble, and how much she looked like any girl I might meet at school on a given day. I didn’t know what it meant to be haunted then, yet for some reason, the little girl from the Woodmont area, a side of town I barely knew anything about, was beginning to haunt me.

We lived in a small house set well back from the road, and there were no streetlights, only a few yardlamps my father had installed. There was a moment every night, near sunset, when light and shadow were balanced and somehow the world was still visible, but veiled. I’d never feared this time before, I’d never really feared the night that followed. After Marcia Trimble vanished, to be found dead a month later, on Easter Sunday, I began to fear the twilight. The night outside the window changed, even at my home, far from Copeland Drive.

I think it was then that I realized the boogeyman was sometimes real, and he could lurk in the thickets and shadows found in even the safest neighborhoods. At 7 I learned that evil was real, and that we might never know its true face, until it was too late.

I’m relieved for the Trimble family (and for Huff) that Trimble’s murder may have finally been solved. It’s also some measure of justice that, in the wake of Trimble’s death, Huff has dedicated himself to seeking justice for the victims of violent crime.

Bill Horner, publisher of the Sanford (N.C.) Herald, was in town with his family last week to visit Preds forward Martin Gelinas (above right, with Horner’s son Zachary). Horner became a rabid hockey fan when the Hartford Whalers relocated to Raleigh as the Carolina Hurricanes in 1998, and he struck up what has become a longstanding friendship with Gelinas:

My love for the game has been enhanced by friendships I’ve forged with two professional hockey players, Martin Gelinas (formerly of the Hurricanes, now with the Nashville Predators) and Serge Payer (a former teammate of Marty’s in Florida, now with the Minnesota Wild). They’re two of the finest people I’ve ever met and I like to think we’d be friends even if we didn’t share so many hockey-related experiences.

Horner and his family attended the Preds’ game against the Vancouver Canucks last Thursday night and were unfortunately witnesses to a serious injury for Gelinas, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament during the contest.

We had a great trip, the only blemish (and it was a major one) being Marty’s torn ACL injury at the beginning of the second period of Thursday’s game (a 3-2 OT loss to Vancouver). In his 19 years in the league, he’s never had an injury this serious, and it happened with our group and six more of Marty’s friends (from Switzerland and Montreal) all in attendance. We were all pretty devastated, but Marty was a great host despite being on crutches the rest of our time there. We went to practice on Friday (the morning an MRI revealed the extent of the knee injury) and Saturday and spent a wonderful evening with the Gelinas family and the Swiss and Canadian friends, plus did some sight-seeing around Nashville.

I’m sad to see Gelinas, a journeyman player who is also a stand-up guy, suffer such a tough injury, but I’m not surprised to see that he was still a gracious host to his guests. Here’s hoping for a quick recovery, hopefully in time for the playoffs, Marty.

Nashville Predator David Legwand, who was arrested earlier this month for driving under the influence, is the subject of a new “song” about the incident at the Way Offside hockey blog.

He was traveling fast on Eighth Avenue South
When a cop pulled him over, looked him in the mouth
Said, boy you doing 50 in a 35 mile zone.

“Well that may be, occifer my friend
‘cause math ain’t my strong point in the end
though $27 mill for six-years adds up fine.”

“An’ it would do you good to try an’ remember
that’s the deal I struck and signed last December
‘cause I’m a big-time hockey playin’ man.”

Docleslie, the blogger behind Way Offside, published an NHL DUI all-star team last fall prior to Legwand’s arrest. In all seriousness, it’s a shame to see Legwand make such a poor decision at a time when the Preds need all the good news they can get. At least he wasn’t cited last summer or fall.

Toronto hockey journalist James Mirtle weighed in earlier today on The Tennessean’s story about Taco Bell’s Preds promotion:

I’d be planning to head to Nashville for a game this season, but with my passport in transit, that’s not going to happen until next year. I imagine NHL hockey in Tennessee is [a] blast. This story focuses on some of the positive business developments with the franchise since new ownership took over, including the fact there have been a few sellouts and the Taco Bell nights are back.

It’s certainly going to be an uphill climb for David Freeman and company, and this might be the Preds last chance in Nashville, but it’s good to see someone putting in the hard work to try and make the team work.
I appreciated this balanced take on the situation here in Nashville and thought it was worth passing along. Thanks, James.

This is absolutely the right message coming from David Freeman and the other members of the Preds’ new ownership group:

“There’s definitely work to be done, but the doors are open,” Freeman said. “In (10 weeks), we’re thrilled. The reception has been very good. We’re very appreciative that people care about Nashville and what we’re trying to do. We have a great ability to walk in with businesses and say, ‘Is there something that makes sense for both of us here?’ …

All during the summer we had heard whispers — that were more like shouts in our ear — about a suggested change in approach,” Freeman said. “We certainly not only listened to those whispers but agreed with them. The basic mindset or approach we’re taking is it’s not their responsibility to buy something. It’s our responsibility to give them a great product that they want to buy. There’s no sense of entitlement.” …

“The easy part of selling for us is that we feel like we’ve got a great product. The entertainment value down here is fabulous. We’re not a charity case. We bring value to our sponsors, to our advertisers, to the people who use us with their human resources department.”

Thank you, David, for all you and your group have done during the past nine months to save this franchise. Thanks also to the fans and the companies who choose to support the Preds, including Taco Bell, AmSurg, HCA and Community Health Systems.

I never had behind-the-scenes experience with the former ownership group, and I have plenty of thanks for Craig Leipold and all he did to bring hockey to Nashville. That said, it’s interesting to me to hear this complaint emerge about a sense of entitlement from the Preds business side.

It’s long been a criticism of the Titans that the franchise has operated with a similar sense of entitlement, a sense of “you need us more than we need you,” but here’s the unfortunate difference in these scenarios: An NFL team, especially in a football-crazed community, can afford to think like that, but an NHL team, outside of Ontario and Quebec, cannot.

While the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce is set to host a “Cool School” next month to teach businesses how to attract young employees, there’s an interesting conversation taking place on a Wake Forest fan forum at Scout.com about the following question: Would you move to Atlanta, Charlotte or Nashville? There were pros and cons for each city, and it was mentioned at least once that our downtown could be more of a “hotspot,” but here’s a representative quote:

[The] main problem with atlanta is traffic, and it is MUCH worse than in Charlotte or Nashville. Charlotte and Nashville are very much alike - mid-sized cities, lots of young people, most important city in the state, and a large redneck-focused industry in town (NASCAR and music). Charlotte has the banks, which is nice - lots of good jobs there, and it’s very stable. But Nashville has better “out of town guest” appeal.

Nashville is easily holding its own in the discussion. It wasn’t that long ago, say 10 to 15 years, that Nashville would have been a distant third in this inquiry. I don’t see any need to cancel the Cool School, but at least we know we’re doing something right.