Transit to the Hinterlands
🏕️ The source of Nashville's greatness · Deepfakes and dupes · Early voting begins · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone.
If you want a prime example of how disconnected Nashville media is from the trajectory of the city, consider that Bitcoin Magazine—whose parent company BTC Media also hosts the Bitcoin Conference—has been based here for going on ten years, and has yet to be profiled by a single outlet.
Putting aside the fact that Bitcoin is the best performing asset of the last decade, the magazine has something of a storied history. Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum, started the magazine in 2011 before it was sold to BTC Media in 2015 who moved the company to Nashville. BTC Media’s selecting Nashville for its headquarters tells me a lot more about the type of person the state attracts than Oracle’s utilizing tax incentives to move their headquarters here.
At this point, it is a well-established cultural institution with growing influence, and not a single journalist or editor in the Nashville area has thought it interesting enough to profile—that is, until Trump announced he would be speaking at this year’s conference in Nashville.
If you want to go to the conference, use this link to get 25% off your ticket.
Onward.
The East Nashville Farmers’ Market jolts the intersection of 5th and Woodland to life on summer Tuesday afternoons. Like any such event in a midsize city, it has its fair share of urbanites conspicuously taking their $40 canvas tote bags out of the trunk of Civics, still bearing weathered Bernie bumper stickers.
But, like its sister event in Richland Park, it’s also a wildly inventive hub of entrepreneurial spirit that differentiates itself from Nashville’s official (and increasingly tourist-oriented) farmers’ market. Deep-cut plants like stridolo and sunchokes peek out from soil balls, ready for easy planting. A produce booth offers fresh strawberry lemonade next to a vendor selling locally made pottery. It’s the kind of artsy enclave the city’s more politically active urbanites see as a sign of the salvation possible if they can just approve a transit plan, a place the community market’s patrons can walk to from their newly renovated duplexes. The only issue is that most of the people who make the whole thing possible live far beyond the city limits.
As Nashville readies itself for yet another transit referendum, Mayor O’Connell befuddled many of his most vocal detractors with the “Choose How You Move Plan,” a proposal that, superficially, is as pragmatic as it is multifaceted. While Megan Barry’s resoundingly rejected 2018 plan would have led Nashville to tie Chicago as the city with the highest sales tax in the U.S., O’Connell suggests a more modest .50 percent sales tax increase that would put Davidson County on par with the 9.75% rates long established in neighboring counties like Rutherford, Williamson, and Wilson.
Although a tax increase is a tax increase, O’Connell’s team has sought to alleviate concerns over the inevitable financial burden on the city’s residents at a time when inflation has ravaged personal finances. According to the plan, 60% of sales tax revenue comes from “visitors,” so those who see their discretionary income further eroding can at least take heart that users of pedal taverns are doing most of the heavy lifting.
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🥸 Deepfakes and Dupes This March, from the historic stage at Robert’s Western World, Governor Lee signed Tennessee's ELVIS act into law, designed to further protect artists from AI deepfakes and impersonations.
Yesterday, Senator Marsha Blackburn took a page from the General Assembly's playbook, adding her name to a bipartisan bill meant to “combat AI deepfakes and put journalists, artists and songwriters back in control of their content.”
At the federal level, the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act (COPIED Act) is taking measures to combat content piracy. “Artificial intelligence has given bad actors the ability to create deepfakes of every individual, including those in the creative community, to imitate their likeness without their consent and profit off of counterfeit content,” said Senator Blackburn in a press release. “The COPIED Act takes an important step to better defend common targets like artists and performers against deepfakes and other inauthentic content.”
The law would establish transparency standards; allow content creators to attach provenance information to their work prohibiting its removal for use; require AI generated content to carry a “watermark” for easy identification; and give artists a right to sue violators. You can read more about it here. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK
🗳️ The early voter gets the…? Early voting for the August 1st primary races opens today. Now through July 27th, Nashvillians can head to the ballot box at one of twelve locations. The outcomes of several partisan primary battles could significantly affect the trajectory of the races in November.
On the Republican primary ballot:
US Senate:
- Marsha Blackburn (incumbent)
- Tres Wittum
US House of Representatives, Tennessee’s 5th District:
- Andy Ogles (incumbent)
- Courtney Johnston
State House of Representatives, District 60:
- Chad Bobo
- Christopher Huff
On the Democratic primary ballot:
United States Senate:
- Marquita Bradshaw
- Lola Denise Brown
- Gloria Johnson
- Civil Miller-Watkins
US House of Representatives, Tennessee’s 6th District :
- Lore Bergman
- Clay Faircloth
- Cyril Focht
State House of Representatives, District 56
- Nick Forster-Benson
- Bob Freeman (incumbent)
State House of Representatives, District 60
- Tyler Brasher
- Shaundelle Brooks
- John W. Parrish
Full sample ballot here.
DEVELOPMENT
- TikTok lands key permits for Music Row office, revealing cost (NBJ)
- Downtown high-rise slated for beer, wine and spirits store (Post)
- West Nashville church property listed for sale (Post)
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide and yearly festival guide.
TONIGHT
🎸 The Wilder Blue @ The Basement East, 8p, $26.71, Info
🪕 The Rick Faris Band @ Station Inn, 9p, $25, Info
🎸 The Sweet Caroline Tour – A Neil Diamond Concert Celebration @ Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 7:30p, $41+, Info
+ Presented without the Nashville Symphony
🎸 Styx & Foreigner @ Ascend Amphitheater, 7p, $59+, Info
🪕 The Dead South @ Ryman Auditorium, 8p, $29.50+, Info
🪕 The Cowpokes @ Acme Feed & Seed, 12p, Free, Info
🍀 Live Irish Music @ McNamara’s Irish Pub, 6p, Free, Info
🎸 Kelley’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info