Parthenon, Dave & Busters and Rambo

Yesterday Bobby and I met up with Tokico (Thomas)

who we play World of Warcraft with. We met at the Parthenon in Nashville, a replica of the Parthenon in Athens.

Downstairs had an art gallery, and upstairs was a replica sculpture of Athena

which, at the real Parthenon is outside. There were also parts of the original replica exterior detail.

The Parthenon Nashville was erected as part of an exhibition and wasn't intended to be permanent, but when it started falling apart, the people liked it so much they re-did it with more permanent materials.

We drove around Nashville randomly for a little bit after that,
then went to a restaurant called J. Alexanders which was very posh. Food was nice too, if a touch expensive. The waiters all looked like Lab technicians in their white jackets.

We drove over to Opry Mall which is beside the Grand Ole Opry and went to Dave & Busters. That was fun. We all pooled our tickets which came to 1500 and got a bunch of glasses with the Dave & Busters logo. Opry Mall is also a 20 screen movie theatre so we went and saw Rambo.
Gruesome! I found (and edited a little bit) this review from here: http://www.cinematical.com/2008/01/25/review-rambo/ which sums it up really well:

"The film opens with Rambo puttering around the swamps of Thailand. A group of missionaries tries to recruit him for protection against pirates on an aid mission to Burma. The missionaries are led by Michael and Sarah - characters who are every bit as exciting as their names. Rambo's not interested, but is eventually worn down by Sarah, for reasons not made entirely clear. (Although the fact that the dude's been living with snakes and pigs for years and Sarah is a foxy lady probably has something to do with it.) So Rambo takes them down river, fights off some decidedly non-Jack Sparrowesque pirates, drops them off at their destination and returns home to Snaketown. But when the missionaries are later kidnapped by Burmese soldiers, their pastor visits Rambo in his tent (a hilariously unlikely scene) and recruits him (again!) to lead a team of mercenaries on a rescue mission.

Rambo's merry band of mercenaries are unfortunately every bit as bland as the missionaries. If you're going to team people up with the stoic Rambo -- they've got to have some personality! No one here leaves an impression, but luckily these dudes spend more time shooting people than talking. And as Stallone depicts them, the Burmese aren't people you could talk with anyhow. They're less civil than the cobras.

The climax of this film is probably the most violent sequence I've seen since the opening of Saving Private Ryan -- a film whose style Stallone tries to emulate through the use of drained colors and excessive shaki-cam. The last half hour of Rambo is just people exploding. Rambo shoots you with a gun, you explode. Rambo hits you with an arrow, you explode. Rambo gives you a wedgie, you explode. And those who don't explode probably wish that they had -- it's certainly better than having your larynx slowly ripped out by a 61-year-old man in a bandana! (Just wait until you see that scene! Yowza!) It's insane carnage, It's hardcore, it's unflinching, it's hard to tell who's killing who, and it doesn't really matter. This is the sort of balls-out action sequence violence junkies will watch and re-watch."

After Rambo let out we drove back to Murfreesboro, dropped off Tok at his Uni apartment and got home at 11pm. All up, very fun. Great to meet Tok, and Happy Birthday for today!

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Over dinner tonight I chatted with Bobby about my plans for the rest of my holiday and I've told him I'm getting my gear sorted and headed for Texas to visit Bendu and Thragg (thats their World of Warcraft names).
I'll be staying at Bendu's in his daughters room. After that I'll be heading out to Santa Fe. More updates as they happen!