Nashvillest: The Hippest News Source in Town

Nashvillest is the go-to news source for many in Nashville.  With a nod to other “ist” sites (ala DCist, LAist and more) Nashvillest is a twice a day updated blog that gives you a cleverly written synopsis of the days events, with links to all news stories mentioned.  Other fun posts are thrown in which highlight an aspect of the city of which the authors are particularly fond.  Overly impressed, I knew we had to meet the force behind this blog.  Elizabeth and I had coffee with them last weekend, at Frothy Monkey on 12th Avenue and now I’m happy to introduce you to Christy Frink and Morgan Levy.

Christy and Morgan

Favorite place to eat out:

Morgan: PM (veggie burger with steak fries and sushi)

Christy: Suzy Wong’s House of Yum (Chicken Katsu Bites and Chai Tea)

Morgan and Christy both hold down full time jobs and then spend an additional combined 50+ hours a week working the unpaid job of Bloggers Extraordinaire.  If you have not read Nashvillest, then you were not one of the 60,000 people reading during The Flood.  Yep – you read that number right.  As in “absolute unique visitors” (a term we bloggers know all too well).  The rains poured down on the weekend, a time when regular news sources are running on a skeleton staff, and Nashvillest suddenly became the first responder news source for our city. Many logged in for the updates that came streaming in almost as quickly as the water did.  The same scenario happened with the Steve McNair shooting: weekend event, limited staff at other news sources and suddenly Nashvillest had tens of thousands logging in for updates.

Favorite place to get ice cream:

Morgan: Pied Piper Creamery (atmosphere is the best)

Christy: Bravo Gelato Green Hills ( the gelato is “seriously like an art”)

Morgan and Christy are not reporters per se.  But, they are quite adept at following the information trail and posting to the blog when needed.  They also have a knack for picking great stories to highlight.  They link to their sources and provide a one stop shop from which you can delve deeper through these links.

Favorite book you’ve read in the past 12 months:

Morgan: The Raw Shark Texts, by Steven Hall

Christy: Less Than Zero, by Bret Easton Ellis

Favorite new TV show:

Both: Modern Family (this led to a 10 minute discussion on how funny this show is)

So, hats off to Nashvillest for keeping us informed during the flood.  Happy two year birthday to Nashvillest as well.  We thank you and we’ll keep on reading…..even more now that we know the force behind the blog!

New place excited to try:

Both: Burger Up (owned by the same Miranda of Frothy Monkey, on 12th Avenue South in the same building as Las Paletas)

Elizabeth and I highly recommend Nashvillest. Just log in after about 10:30AM and back again about 6PM and you can get your daily news wrap up.  We got some great tips from them so you, too, can quickly find the the sources of information they rely on:

• On your way to Franklin or back from Hendersonville and are wondering about traffic?  Log in to the TDOT smartmap website as it’s up to date on accidents.  No need to be surprised with a two hour trip which you were expecting to accomplish in 20 minutes.  This map also shows construction if you are traveling out of town.
• They had many tweets and emails during the floods asking if area businesses were opened.  The way they found out?  They called the actual businesses.  Ahhhhh, so clever.  You, too, could have called the Green Hills Mall.
• They follow Christine Madella on Twitter, voted Best Media Twitter feed by the Scene.  So, at 9:02PM on Wednesday night I looked at her feed and found this out: Miley Cyrus jewelry sold at Walmart found to have high levels of cadmium. Walmart pulled jewelry off shelves. Jewelry made in China  That’s a big oops.
• Speaking of Twitter: they are twitter fanatics, which neither Elizabeth or I are.  Twitter really does have instant access to area news as it truly is the “first responder” of the modern world.  We wonder if that is the difference between married with three kids each and the Nashvillest Girls being in their 20′s…….they have energy and time for twitter.  We don’t.  We are trying though.

Above all, Morgan and Christy just ooze LOVE of Nashville.  That’s why they write and we all get to benefit from it.

© 2010 – 2011, StyleBlueprint. All rights reserved.