I know you’re all out there. A possibility of relocating. A couple of facts-- I’m a godless, bike-riding, northwestern, effete academic. Anything I should be warned about? It’s a college town, right? Is there any music scene in the area that isn’t earnest commercial radio country? Are there small breweries/ homebrewers? Is there decent Mexican food? Japanese? Is it incredibly humid in the summers? Can you tell I know nothing and am working from west coast stereotypes? (I’ve actually done a bit of travel in the south but not enough) De-stereotype the area for me, please. Is the school there (MTSU) laudable/notorious for anything in particular? How does it compare, say, with Bloomington IN?
I’ve been there a few times (Murfreesboro area mainly) but it’s been two years or so. Got a good friend that graduated from MTSU, does a radio show there, works at Vanderbilt, and is a photog. Good indie music scene there - I visited him for concerts. Lots of cool venues for shows. I don’t really know too much, but I dug visiting there. Met a lot of cool people. And I know someone from the boards lives in or near Mboro, remember seeing it as someone’s location.
MTSU has WMOT – the best jazz radio station in the area. You will find the usual college mixture on campus. I don’t know if Professor Gore is still teaching or not.
Back in the late Sixties or early Seventies, MTSU was on Playboy’s list of top ten party school. I think it was MTSC at the time. I was surprised, to say the least.
There is a controversy, I believe, about having the ROTC there named after one of the founders (?) of the KKK – Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Civil War General from these parts. I don’t know if I have all of the details correct, but the notion offends many.
There is a Civil War battlefield in Murfreesboro – the Battle of Stones River was fought there.
I don’t know about the restaurants in the 'Boro, but we have plenty of ethnic restaurants in Nashville including Japanese, Thai, Chinese – you name it. My neighborhood in South Nashville is highly multicultural including MIddle Eastern and Mexican. Most of the restaurants in my neighborhood are Mexican. You may find more variety in the 'Boro.
Frankly, I haven’t found any academic towns to rival Bloomington, Indiana in character and beauty. Those stone buildings in Bloomington amid the spuce and other evergreens are just awesome. Murfreesboro has some beautiful old buildings, but its nature is more diversified. It doesn’t have Bloomington’s charm.
It does have enormously friendly people and you will be right in the middle of the state – able to take cultural advantage of Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Huntsville, and Atlanta.
And you never know who is going to show up at Murfreesboro for a free live concert. My best ever free tickets were probably before you were born, but they were for Dizzy Gillespie right there on campus!
Check to see if you can take some of your course load at Vanderbilt too. Get to know the university area around there.
Oh, about those breweries. When the Nashville area Dopers decided to get together last summer, we met at Blackstone’s on West End in Nashville in the Vanderbilt area. I’m not familiar with Murfreesboro enough to tell you about any breweries there.
If you are ever in HIllsboro Village (near Vandy), eat at the Pancake Pantry. Everybody does. It’s where all the locals eat and have since the early Sixties at least. It tastes best when you’ve waited in line.
Don’t make any assumptions based on our dialects or our interest in the Civil War. But I hope you won’t cut any slack for ignorant bigots when you do find them. Just know that they are not representative.
I hope that you have a wonderful time here!
Humidity sucks in the summer. There’s no place cheap to live off-campus unless you look in the summer (stay away from Throneberry owned places if you can help it). No mass trans. Plenty of Mexican and Chinese places to eat. Straight guys should be in luck as the female to male ratio was pretty high. Gay men have a pretty strong organization there (Larry Craig likes to hang out in the bathrooms at the KUC and Old Fort Park [lots of police stings at the park, though].)
There’s an active local music scene, and it’s not all country, but most of the radio stations you’ll be able to pick up are. One of the music buildings on campus has swasticas on it (and was built after WWII). They’ve removed the plaque honoring Nathan Beford Forrest (founder of the KKK) from the building it was mounted on.
The “International Students Group” (which is open to anyone) is pretty active, and has a lot of diversity. There’s a neat looking Buddhist temple not too far from the campus.
Don’t go too far south of town, unless you want to see places which could be locations in Deliverance (and if you haven’t seen the movie, you might want to watch it).
If you’re planning on living in the 'Boro and commuting to Nashville, learn to love traffic congestion and road construction. When Bonnaroo’s going on, don’t drive over the speedlimit (if you can) if you have out-of-state tags, as you’ll get pulled over and searched (please note that this doesn’t happen during the country music festivals).
Just plain stay the hell away from Tracey City, TN.
Murfreesboro is about 30 miles from Nashville. People don’t really care if you’re not religious, as long as you’re not militantly atheist. Be prepared for co-workers, etc., to be more religious than you’re used to. In the 'boro we have plenty of greenways that include walking and biking paths along the river and by Civil War battlesites and by the dog park. I know next to nothing about the local music scene, but I know there’s a lot more going on than just Country. We had our Summer Doper get-together at a micro-brewery near Vanderbilt. There are plenty around. In the 'boro - I’m not sure. To me it’s not too humid - I was raised in Michigan where the summer humiditiy and the temp would both be in the 90’s, although not for so long a time. Here the humidity is probably normally in the 30-40’s.
StG
I am very familiar with the 'Boro, as it is known locally. Lots of Mexican and Chinese restaurants, plus Arab, Thai, Indian, Japanese and a few others I can’t remember offhand. No micro breweries that I can recall, but it is rapidly turning into yuppie paradise so I’m sure someone has one planned. Shopping is a major sport in the 'Boro.
Bike riders are fairly common, especially near campus but I see them out in the country where I live, too. A bike rider is being sought in connection with a woman’s disappearance and no one especially noticed him, that’s how common they are. Oh, and if by bike you mean motorcycyle, it’s actually Hog Heaven on nice days.
As for being godless, it’s a church town, no doubt, but you won’t be alone in staying home Sunday mornings. You’ll probably be asked where you go to church, though. No Jewish temple that I’ve ever heard of (you have to go to Nashville for that, I think) but as Tuckerfan said, there is a Buddhist temple.
There is mass transit, a fleet of green buses called the Rover. There is also a bus service to Nashville. MTSU also has a bus service that carries people to outlying parking lots into the central areas of campus and back again. Noise has been made about train service into Nashville but no dice so far.
Yes, the humidity is high in the summer. Make sure where you live has air conditioning.
MTSU is still pretty well known as a party school.
The is mass transit.
A local bus system was recently added, & there is a transit bus to Nashville.
There is a local Jazz radio station, but little radio hard rock.
There are a variety of bars & restaurants. No microbews (yet). A cigar bar, off the Square.
Clubs, with live music.
But mostly, Murfreesboro is dull.
The Library is very second rate. Get a Nashville card, & borrow from there.
MTSU’s nickname is “Apathy U.” Everybody goes home for the weekend, & there is relatively little political activity.
Avoid contact with the English Dept. Hissy fits in public, high-profile feuding among the Faculty, & much vanity with little cause is typical of MTSU’s English Dept.
I am an MTSU Alummus.