We don’t always appreciate the beauty we’re surrounded by during these busy days. It’s easy to overlook the strange and wonderful in our own neighborhoods, cities and local countrysides. But the truth is there are strange and compelling scenes all around us if we only have eyes to see them.

Many of us who are in touch online on Facebook and Twitter have already seen this post, but if you haven’t seen this photo essay of East Nashville streetscapes I put together for WPLN, Nashville’s Public Radio station, this is for you…

Gallatin Pike is gritty, but it’s also groovy — and even gorgeous if you know where to look. It’s the main vein of the beating heart of one of the city’s most dynamic communities, the East Nashville and Inglewood neighborhoods. The pike’s used tire shops, fast food chains, vintage boutiques, music venues, bars and markets are as diverse as the neighbors they serve.

The roadside is decorated with hand-painted and vintage signs that speak to its past as well as to the entrepreneurial spirit of the mom-and-pop businesses that call it home. More than its dynamic past or its uncertain future, what catches my attention is the weird beauty of the pike right now, today.

I made the trip up Gallatin Pike — from East Nashville Magnet School to the Madison/Inglewood Market, taking more than 60 photographs.

Here are a 20 of them, and a little bit about why each caught my eye.

Check out all of my photographs and the radio interview I did with WPLN right here.

Stay Awake!

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