Archive for October, 2008

Deep South Smack Talk: Florida Hate Week Edition

Posted by A Free Man on Oct 31 2008 | American artists, Florida, Football, Friends, Georgia, Georgia Bulldogs

Well, there have been a lot of strong words and emotions thrown around in these Deep South Smack Talk posts this year. We’ve had Alex call the Dawgs “Pop Warner wanna-be’s” and The Vol Abroad question my parenting skills. This is to be expected when debating the merits of SEC football teams. I don’t think anything has aroused so much passion from Southerners since Sherman torched Atlanta. But, in character for a Gator fan, no one has struck so ruthlessly as Jamie did this week. Taking a cue from the Republican playbook (one that he attests to loathe) he has thrown down the ultimate gauntlet – he has questioned my patriotism, has cast aspersions on my citizenship in the Bulldog Nation. Karl Rove would be proud.

Jamie, exhibiting a way with words surprising for a Florida alum, aptly describes the panorama of fans found in our north Florida high school. He is correct in his statement that the amount of red in the team’s uniform was directly proportional to the amount of red in the fan’s neck. He is also correct that I was not a Georgia Bulldog fan in high school. If the truth be told, and this is shameful, I was a casual Gator fan in high school. But upon graduation, I bolted north for college and have not looked back since.

But what he fails to mention is that high school was two decades ago and I think that Jamie and I are both proud of the fact that we are nothing like the people we were in high school. Hell, we were both Republican supporters in high school and I suspect that he cringes in shame as I do when he recalls working to elect George I in 1988. I’ve evolved since high school, I’ve made the transition from the boy I was in 1989 to the man I am today. But, like the mascot they revere, most Gator fans have sat in evolutionary stasis since the Cretaceous period (thanks for the talking point, Gypsy).

When did I become a fan, Jamie? How many games did I attend? I feel as if I’m under some sort of political inquisition - I did not have sexual relations with that woman. Wait, wrong topic. I became a fan some time after I enrolled in the University of Georgia in 1996 as a “mature” student. I’d urge Jamie, and anyone else inclined to question my loyalty to read this post for more detail about my evolution as a Dawg fan. I didn’t get to take my seat in Sanford Stadium as many times as I would have liked because I worked two jobs while studying at the university full time. I spent virtually every game day serving coffee, beer or checking the IDs of red and black adorned fans. I became a lifelong fan on a June day that I did get to take a seat between the hedges. This time wearing a black gown and a mortar board. On that day the University of Georgia, the finest university in the South (I’m not winking, Gator boy) became my alma mater. As Jamie no doubt knows, that Latin translates to “nourishing mother” and questioning my loyalty to the University of Georgia is equivalent to insulting my own mother.

Damn, I hate Gator fans.

Now that we’ve cleared things up a bit, let’s talk about Saturday. Up until last year, Gator fans liked to throw around a lot of numbers – 15 of 18 was one of their favorites, referring to the number of times that Florida had won the game in the last 18 years. What’s funny is that you don’t hear a lot of numbers coming from Gator fans anymore. I think that even Gator fans, with their simple reptile brains, realize that what happened in the River City last year was a transformative experience. When the Dawgs drove for the first score and the whole team took the field in celebration, the Gators’ death grip on this series slipped. When the scoreboard read Georgia 42, Florida 30 at the end of the game a new day dawned for the Bulldog Nation.

Jamie’s given you a borderline apocalyptic version of what he predicts will happen in Jacksonville. Sounds more like the Book of Revelation than a Saturday in northeast Florida, but I’ve got to give him credit for pretty words. But pretty words aren’t going to do much for his alma mater this weekend. The simple fact is that Urban Meyer and his unevolved reptiles fear their canine tormentors. Tim Tebow, last year’s Heisman Trophy winner and the Florida quarterback, had his worst game of the year against the Dawgs. This is largely because he spent most of it on his back. What do you think is going to be running through Tebow’s head as he faces up against the Georgia defensive line for the first time on Saturday afternoon? A defensive unit that made him their bitch last year?

This game rarely has much to do with the superior football team and I’m not sure which team has more talent this year. It is a game of passion and history and hate. The team that brings the most of those three things typically wins.  Last year’s pounding has made the Gators angry, but it has also filled them with fear. Florida Coach Urban Meyer was so shaken by the game last year that he now speaks only in the third person. When the two teams take the field on Saturday in Jacksonville what we’ll have is a quivering band of nervous little boys, with their reptilian brains playing back their humiliation of 2007. On the other side of field will be a proud and confident legion of men in red and black ready to strike another blow for all that is right in the world.  

It’s time for the big dog to eat, Jamie. Saturday’s menu features one of those Sunshine State specialties – fried gator tail.

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Georgia vs. Florida kicks off Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern (6:00 a.m. Adelaide) in Jacksonville on CBS. Expat fans can watch the game online by using a loophole to get around CBS’ U.S. only regulations. Send me an e-mail if you want to know how.
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Athens, Georgia’s own Vic Chesnutt seems a fit for this post. The legendary songwriter has recently released a new album done in collaboration with fellow Athenians Elf Power. “Dark Developments” (Orange Twin) was recorded over last winter in Chesnutt’s home and the album has the feel of a winter day spent inside in front of a fireplace. Chesnutt and Elf Power are blogger friendly artists, so if you like what you hear, buy the whole album here.

 
icon for podpress  Vic Chesnutt and Elf Power - "And How" [3:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Deep South Smack Talk: My Friend The Enemy

Posted by A Free Man on Oct 30 2008 | Country, Florida, Football, Friends, Georgia, Georgia Bulldogs

In celebration of the imminent humiliation for the state’s flagship university, I’m happy to present an expanded Florida Hate Week edition of Deep South Smack Talk. Speaking for the evil swamp lizards, we have my oldest friend and occasional A Free Man commentor, Jamie. He and I went through high school together and despite his questionable academic pedigree, Jamie’s one of the sharpest folks I know. He’s currently a professor of history in the heart of Mormon country. I’m hoping to convince Jamie to be a periodic guest blogger here at A Free Man, so let’s show him some love. Or, more appropriately, hate. 

Of Chris’ many wanderings and meandering through life, no turn has surprised me more than his (recent) emergence as a fan of the most miserable Georgia Bulldogs.  Allow me to explain.  Chris and I grew up in a wretched little town in North Florida and attended an even more wretched high school, about which Chris has blogged of late.  Academics were of almost no import at said institution, and of the graduating class of over 400 (more than 600 were in our sophomore class), less than 20 (perhaps less than fifteen) went on to a four-year college or university right away.  Only two or three went out of state, one being Chris, but he did not initially go to UGA.  College was simply not expected, and no guidance was given, the counselors more concerned with stemming the massive drop-out rate.  I ended up at the University of Florida because it was close by and I really had no idea that there were other options.  (Now this was a good thing, as in all seriousness, UF is by far the best public university until you hit UNC to the north and UT to the west.  I could whip out all kinds of stats to demonstrate this, but I won’t bore you).  The point is that I did not choose UF (and I will leave it to A Free Man to tell how he ended up at what he, with a wink, calls the finest educational institution in the South), and I certainly did not go there because of UF football, although I was already a fan of sorts, as were about 1/3 of the town.

What I can assure you is that Chris was not a fan of the Dogs in high school, although about 1/3 of the high school population were, the other 1/3 being Florida State U. fans (with a sprinkling of mutant Miami fans thrown in).  In a town and high school with so little connections to higher learning, how did people choose their team?  Well, I did have some relatives that went to UF (and also FSU), but I think it was probably pretty random why one choose to root for UF or FSU.  However, it was not random if you chose to wear the red and the black (in complete ignorance of those colors’ historic and political significance).  You chose UGA to proclaim you were the biggest, dumbest, most profane redneck of them all.   You picked an out-of-state school, much further away, precisely because no one you knew had ever gone to school there, in fact, it had no connection to school what so ever.  You just thought it marked you as a bad ass, and its relation to the Deep South (more so than any Florida school) bore all the unfortunate racial connotations you might expect.  So imagine my surprise years later when my friend started blathering about the glories of going “between the hedges” (which must also be slang for some bizarre sexual practice).

I would be curious to know when Chris actually became a fan of the Dogs and how many games he actually attended, because it did not really seem his style while he was living in the, I admit, most pleasant town of Athens.  I suspect, like myself, he became a true fan years later after having left Athens.  My first year at UF I went to all the games like any other stupid newbie, but a trip to Mexico and the lefty political types I hung around with soon convinced me that football was for the brain-dead, plastic-fantastic mainstream.  I started scalping my tickets after that (I was also desperately poor, so that made it easier).  And while I was more likely to find myself being asked to leave a political rally by a smartly dressed law enforcement agent (I like to imagine it was Secret Service) for yelling to Dan Quayle “Can you spell “cat”?” than attend a football game, I still went to a game or so a year for old time’s sake.  But I was no longer a fan, even the indifferent one I had been in high school.  I became a true fan again only after I had moved away, and as a Florida boy, was freezing my ass off experiencing winter for the first time in Pittsburgh and wondering why people thought I talked funny.  It took a few years, and by then I was way too lefty and, I imagined, hip to publicly admit I cared about football. But I did; it gave me a connection to home, and to my surprise I found myself depressed after a UF loss (next year!) and elated after a victory.  So I should forgive my friend for his apostasy, I suppose, as the heart of the college football fan is a strange and unmapped territory.

Okay, I know this is supposed to be smack talk so forgive the digression above, and let’s get to it.  Umm, let’s see….GEORGIA SUX…no, no, I can do better, just give me a second…

On the first day of the eleventh month of the two thousand and eighth year in the Faulknerian fever swamp of Jacksonville, two forces will meet, one representing good and the other the most foul and pestilential evil.  Our beloved Gators will come for vengeance.  The force of arms shall be our only ornament-our only rest, the fight.  Upon entering the arena, as Urban Meyer brings forth the machine he has constructed of the blood and sinew of mere mortals, he will turn to the assembled Bulldogs, shaking but perhaps still confident in their arrogance, and proclaim: “Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.”

And then we shall see the Evil Creature known as Uga gathering his forces and armies to fight against the wise Urban Meyer and his army. And the Evil Creature will be captured, and with him the False Prophet, Mark Richt, who could do mighty miracles when the Evil Creature is present—miracles that deceive all who have accepted the Evil Creature’s mark [G], and who worship his flea-infested, mange-ridden carcass.  Both of them—the Evil Creature and his False Prophet—will be thrown alive into the Lake of Fire that burns with sulfur [also known as losing by three touchdowns].  And their entire army shall be killed with the sharp sword of Tim Tebow and all the Gators of the heavens will gorge on the flesh of the dog.

And when the battle is complete and the tableau is one of the dogs’ utter ruin, the Gators will leave the field triumphant, the pride of having vanquished a scurrilous foe their only reward, with none of the pathetic parading the dogs embarrassed themselves with last year.  The dogs will lay on the field destroyed, defeated, and in despair, weeping at their own futile efforts and gross inadequacies—the only sound the groans and cries of the beaten dogs and the lamentations of their women.  And they will finally know their place and bow their heads before their betters.

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Well, Jamie’s certainly raised the bar for Deep South Smack Talk - Courtney, Angel you’re going to have to take it up a notch. Your underwhelming apostate is currently constructing his defense of the Georgia Bulldog Nation and, apparently, his place in it. 

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I can’t think of a more appropriate artist to accompany this post than Hank Williams III. The son of Bocephus and the grandson of the godfather of country music, Hank III has a new album, “Damn Right Rebel Proud”, out on Curb Records. It’s a pure, old-school country stomp with a bit of punk ethic thrown in to differentiate it from your Grandaddy’s country music. Hank III is blogger friendly, so if you like what you hear, support him by buying his new album.

 
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Popularity: 57% [?]

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A properly peeved pirate

Posted by A Free Man on Oct 30 2008 | Music, politics

Be forewarned, I’m a little pissed off today. So much so, in fact, that my hatred of the Florida Gators is going to have to sit the bench for a bit.

In the past week or so, the music blogging community has been thrown into a state of confusion and fear by a burst of heavy handed enforcement of the Digital  Millenium Copyright Act by Google, Blogger and Wordpress at the behest of the Big 4 Record Companies. This enforcement has manifested itself as the deletion of a number of posts that contain or contained links to MP3s of artists in their stables. In some cases, these links had already been removed by the author or had been posted with the permission of the artists before they signed with one of the big boys. Google and Blogger have sent threatening e-mails about copyrighted material without stating the material to which they were referring.

As a part-time music blogger, I initially found myself slightly confused - a feeling that has begun to make the transition to anger. It’s not clear to me where I stand legally. Is my blog going to be deleted because I posted a Jimmy Buffett song (putting taste aside). I blog about music and post tracks because I want to share my love of music. I want people to have a chance to hear the music that makes my heart race. Many people wouldn’t pick up the music that I blog about, because many people haven’t heard of the band. I like to think that, now and again, I expose people to a new band that they then come to love themselves. I like to think that, now and again, someone hears a band on my site and then goes and buys music from that band or goes to see them live. Yes, sometimes I post music without explicit permission but I always post a”Buy” link and encourage readers to go out and buy the whole album. I’ve been asked by record labels to take tracks down in the past and have always complied immediately and apologized. I may be a pirate in the eyes of Columbia, but I think that I’m a pretty well behaved pirate. The Captain Jack Sparrow of music piracy maybe.

I post music because I love music. I want people to support the artists that I love. I, and other music bloggers, are an excellent source of free advertising for the record industry. I don’t get anything back for this - except an occasional free record in the mail - I don’t get paid to give artists that I love advertising.

Well, the Big 4 should probably know that there is nobody angrier and more vindictive than a jilted lover. I would love to stand up and say “fuck you” to Columbia and the other record companies. I would love to give them directions to the orifice in which they can jam their DMCA. But. This blog is more than just a music blog - it’s a personal journal, it’s a baby book for Boy Z and it’s a way for me to remember this part of my life that at some point, as old age catches up with me, I will no doubt forget. I can not risk Bluehost deleting individual posts or my entire site because I’ve violated some bullshit American copyright law that they’ve decided to enforce, with the collusion of Google, in a draconian manner. My hosting company is in the U.S., thus (despite being 10,000 miles away) I am subject to American law.

So, the record companies win the battle. All of the MP3s featured on this site over the last year or so have been removed, whether or not I had permission to post them. I can’t remember and it’s not worth the risk. I will not post music on this site anymore unless I have explicit permission, in writing, from the artist and their record company.

However, they haven’t won the war. The record industry has been in decline for more than a decade. This is just the latest hail mary to save a dying industry. Like some of their other misguided enforcement efforts, this one attacks their customer base. I buy a lot of music, a good part of it from major record labels. I will not generally buy a record unless I have seen a review from a source that I trust or have heard a track or two from the album. Increasingly, I rely on fellow bloggers with similar tastes to help me make that decision. Here is a partial list, off the top of my head, of artists whom I’ve purchased records from based on other bloggers reviews:

  • Cat Power
  • Mates of State
  • Sigur Ros
  • Joe Henry
  • Frightened Rabbit
  • Moonbabies
  • Kings of Leon
  • Hem
  • Great Lake Swimmers
  • The National
  • Jamie T.
  • Jason Isbel
  • The Hold Steady
  • Portishead

And many more that don’t come immediately to mind. Well, no more. I will not buy any more music unless it comes from small record labels who have a record of being cooperative with and supportive of music bloggers. That’s unfortunate, as I will likely miss subsequent new releases from some of my favorite acts, but I think it’s time for some populism in music. And there are still used record stores.

That being said, I will still post a song every day. Instead of reaching back into my iTunes library, I will feature the music of new artists who are unsigned or with small record companies who recognize the service that bloggers can provide. If you are a label or artist that would like to work with bloggers to promote your music, please do contact me.

Universal, EMI, Sony, Warner - you’ve bitten the hand that feeds you. Go to hell.

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Super XX Man is the latest musical manifestation of Portland based musician Scott Garred. His new record, “Volume XII: There’ll Be Diamonds”, is a joyful, pop-culture laden, lo-fi gem. Buy the latest Super XX Man LP directly from independent, blogger friendly Tender Loving Empire.

 
icon for podpress  Super XX Man - "What Lies Beneath" [3:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 39% [?]

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Your Florida Hate Week Moments of Zen

Posted by A Free Man on Oct 29 2008 | Florida, Georgia, Georgia Bulldogs, Videos

Popularity: 43% [?]

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In Defense of Dads

Posted by A Free Man on Oct 29 2008 | Australia, Boy Z, Dr. O'C, Family, Photos, fatherhood

I got bogged down in the perfect storm of work obligations last week, resulting in a weekend spent almost exclusively writing lectures, exams and reports. The only thing that kept me from becoming A Bitter Man was that I managed to wrangle myself a day off on Tuesday. A free midweek day with Boy Z is enough incentive to plunge through an Australian spring weekend spent hunched over a computer.

A day with the boy is a joy these days. At 13 months, he’s a ball of energy and exploration. Days with Papa are party days, and I make sure that we get out and about - usually to the beach.  I love my time with Boy Z and consider myself to be the very model of fatherhood.

My day was nearly ruined as I was surfing around to the blogs of people who had commented on my old site. The Anglophile Football Fanatic, apparently a “feisty wee bitch”, had written a post casting aspersions on her husband’s and her own father’s parenting skills. Now, I don’t know her from Eve but as, at the time of writing, she and her son were both still above ground, I think that her post was a bit unfair. Dads get a bad rap for being the distracted and reckless member of the parenting pair. Sure, when I was three years old I fell out of the attic onto the concrete garage floor whilst under my Dad’s supervision, but there’s nothing wrong with me. (Well, I am a bit funny looking and have a penchant for self-destruction, but that’s probably not due to a ten foot drop as a toddler.)

Well, Ms. Limey Lover, A Free Man can be a feisty wee bitch as well and I take umbrage with your thesis. I would consider myself an excellent and responsible parent. In our family, in fact, I would propose (and Dr. O’C no doubt would agree) that I am the better parent.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that Dads in general are the vastly superior parent.

To prove my hypothesis, I have photographic evidence of a day of Daddy care…

I can get Boy Z dressed appropriately for the day…

And make sure that he gets a nutritious meal.

I can teach him to drive…

….to climb….

….to swim…

…and to hunt for food. Basically, all the skills that a man needs to develop.

What have you got, Moms?

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Shel Silverstein’s “The Best of Shel Silverstein: His Words, His Songs, His Friends” is available from Shel Silverstein - The Best of Shel Silverstein His Words His Songs His Friends.

 
icon for podpress  http://www.afreeman.org [3:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 50% [?]

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Florida Hate Week in Photos

Posted by A Free Man on Oct 28 2008 | Florida, Football, Georgia, Georgia Bulldogs, Sports, politics

Mark Richt, you’re our only hope…

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Jimmy Buffett’s “Floridays” is available from Jimmy Buffett - Floridays.

Images:

Obnoxious Gators #1

Bushes in Florida

Obnoxious Gators #2

Thanks Ms. Harris

He Who Must Not Be Named

Celebrate!

The Defeat of He Who Must Not Be Named

Links:

More Gator Haters

 
icon for podpress  Jimmy Buffett - "Floridays" [4:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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What’s that you say, sonny? Elmo? Who now?

Posted by A Free Man on Oct 28 2008 | American artists, Interview, Music

Teaching kids that were born the year I graduated from high school is sometimes a slightly demoralizing experience. I like to consider myself a relatively “cool” guy - down with the kids, so to speak. But nearly every day my students come up with some bit of slang that just mystifies it entirely. Clearly they aren’t as awed in my presence as they should be or they would be speaking in proper English. After all, I am a university lecturer. I  guess the sad fact is, that I’m just getting old. Verging on that stereotypical aging hipster that you generally find in “Modern Poetry” classrooms at liberal arts universities.

I haven’t been doing much of it lately (primarily because it requires more work than posting pictures of Boy Z or vitriol about the Sunshine State), but I do like to feature new music on this site. I tend to be pretty receptive to new music, and a lot of my favorite acts are made up of musicians that aren’t much older than my students. But a lot of times, and I cringe as I say this, I just don’t get it. Like emo, the much maligned musical and fashion trend that “these kids today” are inclined toward. Thing is, I don’t really understand emo, truthfully I don’t even know what it is.

The other day, Andrew at Concrete Circles posted a review of Joie De Vivre – a Rockford, Illinois emo band. Sensing an opportunity, I left a comment for Andrew professing my ignorance regarding the nature of  “emo”. This elicited an e-mail from Patrick Delehanty, Joie De Vivre’s guitarist, who politely (with the tone that one uses with aging aunties) offered to explain it to me. What a lovely young man.

Patrick was kind enough to sit down on A Free Man’s virtual couch to explain the emo movement in music to me and all my fogey readers:

AFM: I hate to put you in the position to be the spokesman for a genre, but what the hell is emo, really?

PD: There are a lot of misconceptions about what emo is. It’s supposed to music that’s emotional, which to us isn’t really a fair description. Honestly, that’s a pretty big umbrella to place over a genre. Almost anything that’s not a Top 40 single could, by this definition, be “Emo”. But we suppose that’s why the term is used so loosely to describe a band.

AFM: What are the roots of the genre? In your music, I hear a lot of the post-grunge bands of the mid-90s (Built to Spill, maybe a bit of early Modest Mouse or Yo La Tengo), but with a lot more dissonance and atonality. Who are the forefathers of emo?

PD: The roots of the genre go back to the mid-eighties. The term emo became synonymous with the whole post-punk movement (most notably the whole Ian MacKaye/Dischord records scene). The genre back then was quite different to the one most recognize now. It was a lot more raw, honest, and socially aware than the poppy cookie cutter stuff we see on MTV with the label. Later on, bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Mineral, The Promise Ring, and Jawbreaker ushered in a more popular (and in our opinion: the best) version of what the genre should be. Now it seems to be taken over by things we always referred to as pop punk which seems a little ridiculous. We should also mention the whole screamo thing here… it’s a real shame that something so lame and fashion based was born from something so honest.

AFM: Another thing I don’t understand is why emo gets slagged off by the music press so much. Is it just aging hipsters like me who don’t get it? Or is there a legitimate beef?

PD: The music industry is very quick to judge all things emo (especially the more traditional style) as being whiny, pretentious, and drony. But, it always seemed more honest and meaningful to us than most “popular” styles of music. Emo music gets shunned by the press because it’s not trendy.

AFM: Do you bristle at the emo label being applied to your band?

PD: Not at all. Most people that like what we do either aren’t too put off by the label or have a firm grasp as to what real emo music was and still is; we’re happy to be influenced by actual emo, and we’re proud to write through it’s great influences.

AFM: OK, enough emo. Let’s find out a little about you guys.. How did Joie De Vivre come to be?

PD: Brandon, Chris, and Steve were in a band for awhile together, which broke apart in September 2007 and wanted to start something a little more traditional, along the lines with their styles. They knew Pat and Zach for awhile from other bands. It really wasn’t a difficult thing. Things fell into place pretty easily.

AFM: You’re a quintet from Rockford, Illinois with one EP under your belt. Where do you go from here?

PD: We’re almost done with our first full length, tentively called “The North End”, we hope to have it done by the end of the year. And hopefully a tour this summer. Things are pretty difficult without a label and it’s hard to keep everything balanced. None of us have degrees and we all have terrible part time jobs so money is always an issue with us. It’s hard to book all your own shows (tours included) and still have a budget for recording and merch. But we’ll see where things go. We’ve been getting a lot a decent press lately and hopefully things will get bigger and better once we finish this record.

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So, there you go gentle readers. Check out a couple of tracks from Joie De Vivre’s latest EP. I’ve got to go and listen to some Dad Rock and work on this ear hair now.

If you like Joie De Vivre’s music, buy their EP, “The Ghost of Kennedy Hill Road” here.

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Images:

Emos

 
icon for podpress  Joie De Vivre - "Sundays" [3:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 
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Ten Things I Hate About You: Florida Hate Week Edition

Posted by A Free Man on Oct 27 2008 | Florida, Football, Georgia Bulldogs, politics

With apologies to William Shakespeare, Kat Stratford and poets everywhere:

  • I hate the way you cannot count and blame you for the last eight years.
  • I hate your endless strip malls. I hate your garish beachfront condos.
  • I hate your big flying roaches and all your violent crime.
  • I hate you so much it makes me sick — It even makes me rhyme.
  • I hate your overpriced theme parks. I hate your tourist traps.
  • I hate your phallic capital and its corrupt political denizens.
  • I hate your Disney franchise. And the money it will cost me as a Dad.
  • But mostly I hate your Florida Gators — Percy, Tebow, Meyer; I hate them most of all.

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Wilco’s “Being There” is available from Against Me!.

 
icon for podpress  Wilco - "Monday" [3:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 59% [?]

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Florida Hate Week

Posted by A Free Man on Oct 27 2008 | Florida

It’s nothing personal. Hell, I spent most of my childhood in the Sunshine State and I’m not much of a hater, really. But there’s another election to screw up around the corner and - more importantly - The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party on Saturday. So, this week - with apologies to my fellow Floridians - A Free Man will be dedicated to a hatred of all things Florida*.

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Buy this and other records from Against Me! from Against Me!.

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*I know I shouldn’t hold the whole state responsible, but John McCain told me that associating with Gators is just as bad as being a Gator.

 
icon for podpress  Against Me! - "Sink, Florida, Sink" [2:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 37% [?]

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Georgia 52, LSU 38

Posted by A Free Man on Oct 26 2008 | Boy Z, Florida, Football, Georgia, Georgia Bulldogs

Wee Z doing his best Knowshon Moreno impression.

Nice shootout win over the defending champs in Death Valley for the ‘Dawgs. Bring on the Gators!

Florida Hate Week begins today.

Go Dawgs! Sic ‘em!

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The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Volume 2″ is available from The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Vol. 2.

 
icon for podpress  The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - "Bayou Jubilee" [3:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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