The Year in, Well, Everything

About this time every year, the Nashville Scene’s music critics weigh in with lists of their favorite records from the past 12 months. This year we decided to do something different: We invited all our writers to weigh in on the cultural highlights (and lowlights) of 2002, from music to books to DVDs to politics. The 21 lists below represent a cross-section of Scene contributors, each offering his or her own take on how to sum up the year past. Some lists are ranked, some aren’t; some are topical, some are wide-ranging. Many subtly or directly address the fears and anxieties of living in a post-9/11 world on the brink of global conflict. But from Andrew WK to Ann Patchett, from Springsteen to Sunshine State, they all represent an attempt to find some joy or meaning in the year we’ve just lived through, and maybe even some hope for the year to come.

Literary, local and other highlights

——Bruce Dobie

Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett My wife left this book sitting on her nightstand, and without anything to read one night, I picked it up, figuring I ought to give Patchett, a Nashville author, her due. Only a few days later, I staggered out of her gorgeous tale of love, art and human tenderness and maliciousness, and wished it had never gone away. This is a story of beauty, against a backdrop of conflict, in a world that never really existed. Or did it?

The Lion King On a family vacation to New York City this summer, the trip to see The Lion King on Broadway loomed as just another obligatory gesture to the kids. Little did I know that I would be swept up in one of the most richly choreographed and finely scored tales I’d ever seen.

Ground Zero While in New York City, I wanted to see the spot where the planes came crashing into the World Trade Center. What I really wanted was to go there before the politicians erected a monument in place of the hole. Sure enough, the hole said it all. Just vast emptiness and lots of people from all over the world coming to pay homage.

Battle of Nashville Civil War Tour Local investment banker Nathan Bedford Forrest Shoaf conducts a periodic tour of the Battle of Nashville battleground on the anniversary of the battle, Dec. 15-16, 1864. His tour, coursing from the edges of downtown through Green Hills, is fabulous. I haven’t really looked at the city the same since. Any Shoaf-tour graduate will begin viewing Nashville topographically—suddenly, you’re focusing on our city’s numerous hills, from which the Union and Confederate troops tried to claim advantage. It was a helluva battle and spelled the official end of any Southern comeback.

Vanderbilt, 76; UT, 59; Feb. 2 at Memorial Gym This women’s hoops match-up was a thing of beauty. UT came swaggering into the city as a top-five nationally ranked team. But Memorial magic once again took hold, Chantelle Anderson got control down low, and the gym absolutely came unglued. Women’s roundball is the sport now at Vandy. Plus, I hate the Vols.

Bredesen, 51 percent; Van Hilleary, 48 percent The better guy won. Bredesen stuck with a relatively boring campaign plan that called for stressing his management experience and fiscal acumen. In the end, it worked, despite doubters such as yours truly. When his opponent began making lots of ground based on resentment to a state income tax, the Bredesen team never flinched. They just kept on keeping on—and signing lots of checks to carpet-bomb the opposition.

CMA Awards, Nov. 6, Grand Ole Opry House From time to time, all you can say about the CMA Awards show is that it doesn’t have a clue what kind of music it’s showcasing. This year the producers obviously decided, “We still don’t have a clue about what country music is, but we’re gonna play a lot of it anyway.” The results showed the fabulous reach of the genre and the solid musicianship involved, at a time when everyone’s been arguing that we need more banjos to make it authentic. Faith Hill did her diva thing, Dolly rang the rafters with an African American choir, and newcomers Rascal Flatts and Rebecca Lynn Howard showed there’s hope. Indeed, there is.

Mark Schimmenti and his merry band of architects at the Nashville Civic Design Center In downtown Nashville, at this very moment, in a cool-as-hell space, a subversive group of very intelligent architects are plotting out Nashville’s built environment. Their undertaking of the Plan of Nashville promises to bring some sense to this city, which was bombed to hell and back by urban renewal in the 1960s and horrible development decisions ever since. Sometime, if you’ve had enough of the Frist Center and still want some visual stimulation, just walk into the Civic Design Center, located at the corner of Church Street and Seventh Avenue.

Music, movie and other highlights