Jorts! says, "Have a great summer, and Go Gators!"

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Finals week, EVERYONE is completely freaking out.  Tempers flare, anxiety is almost tactile; the library smells of sweat and desperation. It's great to be alive in the Gator Nation!  Haha, just kidding, it's actually really awful because everyone's so stressed out and it rains at completely inconvenient times, usually when you don't have your umbrella with you!  Plus, let's not forget how unbearably hot it gets in Hogtown during the summer months, which pretty much ends in November, weather-wise.

Okay peeples, I have not updated this blog for a long time and there's a reason for that - this is a one of my many side blogs I've created, more as facets of my heart than actual, working, profit-generating endeavors.  But I've decided that Gainesville seriously lacks a local resource for arts, entertainment and news.  Oh, what?  You mean, we already have the Gainesville Sun so why should we replicate it?  Let me ask you this; when is the last time you didn't have a major problem navigating the oh-so-cumbersome Gainesville Sun website?  Or, felt visceral hatred for the Gainesville Sun because of their paywall and the fact that it's really not worth what they charge a month for a digital-only subscription?  Such is the lament - we need a local newspaper, but the one we have is inadequate.

A blog that is Hogtown-centric is not the answer to this, but it is a first-step in making local newspapers like the Gainesville Sun more accountable to its subscribers. The Gainesville Sun (what is it, Hearst?  I can't remember) pretty much has a monopoly on local publications (other than the freebies you find on campus that are more generally related to college life anywhere) and the Independent Alligator has been the only alternative voice.  But, it's inconsistent and, let's face it, "kids today" don't seem to have the same ideological disparities with older adults as they used to.  I'm over 30, and I'm here to tell you kids, trusting anyone over 30 is still as much of a mistake as it was when I was young gadabout in the Gainesville scene.

But that's for another day.  We need way more competition as Gainesville continues to grow and more people see that living here is a great thing.  Why not lay the groundwork for thinking about larger city-wide issues like homelessness and affordable housing now?

I'm throwing this out there into the blogosphere because it's something I've been considering for a long time - we have lots of great resources in the form of blogs in Gainesville.  There is the Ken Eats Gainesville Blog, for instance.  My belief is that, since news magazines like Moon Magazine left town, there has been no unified voice of the arts and entertainment scene in town.  Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, but I sense this disconnect among resources.  We need to change that.