Built in 1892, The Ryman Auditorium was designed by architect Hugh Cathcart Thompson and funded by riverboat captain and saloon owner Thomas Ryman. Originally called The Union Gospel Tabernacle, it's original purpose was a multi-function church/tabernacle for the famed revivalist preacher Samuel Porter Jones.

The auditorium was renamed Ryman after his death in 1904. The popular radio show The Grand Ole Opry was broadcast at this location from 1943 to 1974 (until it moved to it's current location at the Opryland USA theme park outside of Nashville).

Johnny Cash first met June Carter here in 1956 during a show when they were both performing (Cash with the Tennessee Two and June with the Carter family).

In 1965, Cash was performing for the Grand Ole Opry when his mic stand broke. Upset, he dragged the stand across the floor lights, causing them to explode (some say he kicked out a few as well).

Cash patched up things, and later filmed The Johnny Cash Show for ABC from 1969 to 1971.

The Ryman Auditorium was placed on National Register for Historic Places in 1971, and was further designated a National Historic Landmark in 2001.

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Built in 1912 and designed by John E.O. Pridmore, the Vic Theatre (or more accurately, the Victoria Theatre) in Chicago was a vaudeville theater and is now a music venue that often doubles as a Brew and View second-run movie house.

In November 2003, Ween taped a live performance here for their May 2004 DVD/CD release Ween: Live in Chicago.

Other performances taped here include Bill Hicks' HBO special One Night Stand in 1991, Jim Gaffigan's Beyond the Pale CD, DVD and TV special in 2006, and Wilco's Kicking Television: Live in Chicago in May 2005.

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Outside of Mrs. Slack's 8th grade typing class, Mickey Melchiondo and Aaron Freeman (both born in 1970) started cracking each other up about an alternate universe where the god Boognish reigned supreme.

After an elaborate transformation, Dean and Gene Ween were birthed in the holy flames of Boognish, and the band, Ween, was created as the great one's mischief-making rock-surrogates on this plane of reality.

That first initial logo of Boognish is still the defining emblem of Ween.

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Doc (Arthel Lane) Watson, bluegrass legend and master of the flatpicking guitar technique, died at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center on May 29, 2012. Doc had fallen earlier in the week, and was undergoing treatment; he was 89 years old.

Doc Watson had lost his vision due to an eye infection before the first grade. He lived in the Deep Gap, North Carolina region, and bought his first guitar from Sears Roebuck with money he made from cutting down chestnut trees (and selling them to a tannery). He lived through the folk revival of the 1960s, and received the National Medal of Arts from U.S. president Bill Clinton in 1987. So in other words, the guy is pretty much a legend.

His refined technique helped usher in the era of guitar as a lead instrument, for better or worse. Doc Watson's Gallagher guitar is on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, TN.

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The Château de Touffou is a castle that has been converted into a mansion that dates back to the 12th century. It passed from the Oger family (1127-1280) to the Montléon family (1280-1519) and eventually to the Chasteigner family (1519-1821).

After the Chasteigner family sold it, it changed hands several times until it was purchased in 1966 by advertising legend (and original Mad Man) David Ogilvy.

Ogilvy founded the advertising firm of Ogilvy and Mather, and is the author of several books: Confessions of an Advertising Man, Ogilvy on Advertising, and Blood, Brains & Beer: The Autobiography of David Ogilvy.

Not bad for a guy who got started selling stoves door-to-door...

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