Review: Civilization

(image taken from Civilization’s website).

No, this isn’t Sid Meier’s Civilization that we’re talking about here. Civilization is a quaint little restaurant that is situated almost in the middle of nowhere. I could tell you it’s on NW 2nd Street in Gainesville, but it would take you probably forever to find it (its address is 1511 NW 2nd Street though, if you must know).

Civilization is very unique in that it is the only co-op restaurant in the southeast United States (or so it claims). What does this mean? Basically, the community (or some members of it) own the restaurant and make decisions about it democratically. Investments are also made by the community, thereby removing all influence and dependence of banks. (for more info: http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall09/white_j/index.html)

But enough about co-ops, let’s get down to the restaurant level. Parking is ample, and makes the restaurant seem bigger than it actually is…because, I’ll be honest, it’s not that big. It has very high ceilings, which makes it all the more inviting (unlike the Jones, which seems dark and damp), but the actual square footage seems about the same. You could be waiting some days for a good 20-30 minutes…but we managed to get in with no problem around lunch.

For our office group outing, we went off the lunch menu. The specials board is nice and centered in the dining area, and there was a soup that probably a good third of the table wanted (cream of portabello mushroom).

As nice and centered the specials board was, it wasn’t very much updated. The soup was already sold out (can someone enlighten me how soup sells out by noon? yes, this place is open for breakfast, but it still doesn’t quite make sense to me). And to think I was gonna get a bowl of it.

So, anyway, I “settled” for the flank steak sandwich. This is from their website:

Broiled marinated flank steak topped with caramelized onions,
white cheddar, and habanero mayonnaise on a baguette

Awesomeness, in picture form. (Also, I love my iPhone 4S).

What they should have added was “it’s a chockful of awesomeness”. Seriously, the description doesn’t do it justice…granted, looking back, maybe there was more cheddar and more mayo than habanero, but there was still a bit of spice in the whole sandwich. The steak was cooked wonderfully, and the meshing of the baguette + onions and everything else was just immaculate.

The sandwich also came with “fried potatoes”, to which the smart-aleck might go “uhh yeah french fries, ever heard of them?”. But  no, they were like french fries but with a homefry twist, if you will. Golden/orange-brown fried goodness surrounding fluffy potatoes = whee.

My friends/office workmates had an avocado melt (was deemed alright, but not sensational), pumpkin and garlic soup (two thumbs up), Florida Cobia burritos (great) and an egg salad (a regular ordered this one, so it’s good). I should also take the time to mention that everything made is from local and organic products.

The only turn-off was the price…$10 for a sandwich never seems fair, even if it was 1) flank steak 2) local/organic 3) with a side of (frickin awesome) fried potatoes. Other than the restaurant being situated in Gainesville-nowhere, I can see the price being a turn-off for most students too (definitely recommend coming during lunch rather than dinner). I understand it’s a co-op, so prices need to be a little more reflective of this fact, but still it seems a tad unsettling.

I will say that they have a nice selection of drinks, including Cheerwine for all you Southern folk (although this is not new, Cheerwine is slowly making its way into UF as well).

Also, service was alright…it wasn’t the best (we’d go sometimes 10-15 minutes without servers realizing I was out of water 20 minutes ago), but it wasn’t the worse. They do have a rule where no more than 4 cards can be presented at the table, but the guy was nice enough to handle all of our cards. I wouldn’t call it attentive service, but I’d call it passable. If you’re a stickler who wants to be the center of your server’s attention, however, you will be pissed.

Grade: A-/B+

Pros: Damn good food, need to try more of it.

Cons: Bit expensive for lunch, not very punctual in updating availability of menu, service is flaky.

A BBQ joint (or two), Tex-Mex place, and Sunday drinks all walk into a bar…

And a bad joke results.

No, but seriously, by the time UF students come back to Gainesville, the restaurant landscape will become somewhat different, and every restaurant is going to be affected.

First off, Smokehouse, a new “Gourmet BBQ” place on Main and 2nd, will be formally open to the public by the time we all come back from break. Just looking at this Gainesville Sun article, I can tell why it’s called a gourmet BBQ place (“white cheddar mac with pecarino romano”??? really? I almost expect truffle oil at this point). Entrees range from $8-18.

If cheaper, more down-to-earth BBQ is your calling, David’s BBQ is opening another location on (nearly the extreme) east part of town, right near The Jones Eastside. While it’s still somewhat far out from campus, it is definitely closer compared to their first location (located in the middle of a forested nowhere).

Tijuana Flats on Archer is finally shaping up to open in Late January. While parking around that area is still always atrocious…at least there’s parking available (unlike the Tijuana on University where you basically have to be on campus to eat there in the lunch hour, since parking is either metered or city-sticker only).

To top it all off: The blue laws regarding alcohol and liquor on Sundays are no longer in effect. That means, starting this Sunday, Sunday
Fundays are for real this time; it’s up to you to take advantage of them.

On a blog-related note: to the asswipe who keeps on rating each blog post as one-star lately, just stop. I am genuinely trying to run a respectable blog here and it’s obviously alright if you don’ t like some posts…but I know when someone’s genuinely not happy with a post versus when someone is just putting one star for the heck of it. If you really don’t like the posts, leave a comment.

Med/Vet/Law/Dental Applicants are like Girl Scouts

Allow me to explain.

Why I went iPhone

I know what you’re thinking.

“It’s no frickin’ surprise he went iPhone, he’s an Apple fanboy.”

And yes, you’re right. I am an Apple fanboy. But you also have to consider that I’m really just a geek at heart. I love all electronics as long as they do their job and serve a purpose that I need to have served…another semi-prerequisite is that they have to be affordable, which sometimes excludes Apple products for all I care.

Should we necessarily hate Urban Meyer?

First of all, I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving…I’ll hastily type up a post about the things I’m thankful for tomorrow (and trust me, it’s a list you’ll want to read). Also, yes, my blog is still alive…on life support, but alive. Getting lazy in every aspect of my life, and it’s kicking my ass right now.

Let’s get down to business though (and not to defeat the Huns): Urban Meyer‘s definitely taking the job at Ohio State. No ifs ands or buts around it….I don’t care how many times he denies it, he’s going there. In some immediate sense, I understand his denial because it will, at least somewhat temporarily, keep the press out of his home for a few days while he spends some time with his family.

Which gets my next point: family. One of the main reasons he “decided to leave” was because of his family (which stemmed from his big Kahuna reason being his health). I still believe him, but I don’t like how he made it seem like he was taking an extended period of time to be with his family. We all knew he was going to come back to coaching some day, even if not in Gainesville. But he made it seem like he wanted to settle down for a bit longer to be with his children and his wife. But let’s be real though…if I’m not mistaken, I think both daughters are now in college? When your kids go off to college, we should know better than to think he’s going to “spend time with them” heavily. Yeah, sure, his daughters are involved in collegiate sports (at least one of them is) and yeah, maybe he wanted to go to their games and such. I’m not saying he’s not a loving parent, not at all. But I guarantee you that no matter what, he would do his best to make it out to his daughter’s games even if he was coaching at UF. If he didn’t, well then maybe that “good parent” claim can be more scrutinized. My point is this: whether it was one year or five years later, we’d still be giving him shit about the family excuse.

Where I’m having issue with some people is everyone knocking him by saying he was lying about health issues…especially with him coming back so early. Now I don’t have any inside information about his real health issues…but assuming what we did hear is true, let’s be real: he had some chest pain/minor heart problems that were greatly exacerbated by stress. I faced these similar issues when I was hospitalized senior year of high school with what we’ll call a hypertensive crisis (220/160 blood pressure, if you must know). After being put on medication (still on it to this day), and learning ways to reduce stress (I know that seems impossible, but believe me I’m better this time around), I got back to my normal routine. If anything, we should’ve smelled something funny in the water when he took a travelling ESPN analyst job. I don’t think being a commentator or analyst is THAT much easier than being a head coach…sure there’s much less stress in one sense, but there’s a different kind of stress that exists in the TV world too. But my point is this: health problems can be recovered from with time, medication, and certain management techniques. Don’t knock him because you think he’s lying, knock him because of the way he exited, and the way he had to be sneaky about it. I understand that there’s confidentiality agreements and galore about this stuff…but kind of like how Lebron handled Cleveland, I felt like Urban could’ve handled this situation better.

Don’t portray Urban as necessarily a big fat liar…be thankful for the fact he brought two National Championships to our doorsteps (even if he may have done it with Zook’s recruits). But you can call him a quitter…that’s the more appropriate term, I think.

And at the very least, he’s not going to a school in the SEC. Be thankful for that.

Rambling Rumblings about Student Government, Football, and Food.

It’s been so long since I’ve posted in this thing, and even though I have a midterm coming up, I know you all miss me so damn much…so I’ve decided to calm the masses by posting again. OK, that last line is so much bullshit, but whatever, there’s a good bit to talk about, and all in random order.

• The libraries seem to be a little more packed than usual, even for an exam week. Which leads to my next subject…
• …I don’t care about SG elections anymore. If the opposition doesn’t want to put in a full-fledged effort, then they don’t deserve the 1.5 hours I spend actually looking at platforms and seeing which are more viable. If you really must care, it’s the same old song: extended library hours, some weird new platform issue, yadda yadda yadda. I haven’t seen a “Student Party” person outside Turlington…and anyway they just stick to themselves. I’ve seen Unite people actually go up to people and at least try to carry conversations and shake hands with people. You might not like Unite, but they still at least are trying to make it LOOK like it’s not a monopoly. Here’s a hint: approach some people. Most of them don’t bite, I swear. Heck, if you actually approached some Greek folk, they might actually warm up to you too.
• Speaking of which, what kind of f**king name is “Student Party”? Obviously originality isn’t in what I’ll just generalize as “the opposition”‘s repertoire. Here’s a thought: CHANGING NAMES A MULTITUDE OF TIMES WITHIN A FEW SEMESTERS WON’T GET YOU SHIT. Students, at best, get confused. If I hear one whine come out of any member of the opposition, you’ll hear my lovely response here mainly because you guys didn’t put in ANY effort (not even a dog). (mainly because noone will see it).
• And by the way, you’re not fooling anyone with your logo. While it’s not a direct rip of UF’s current logo for their Facebook page, your logo is obviously as original as your name.
• In fact, I hope Unite wipes you clean. You guys were doing so well two years ago, you just had an immature candidate. Then last year you had a great candidate but the most discombobulated front ever. And now you just plain suck.
• OK enough election talk, I obviously still care about it…only enough to go on such a tirade. SushiCHAO, the next brainchild from the people who made Mochi and Bento, will be coming in October. This restaurant is basically the marriage of the Mochi ounce concept (seen in other yogurt places around the country obviously, but I’d like to think Mochi started it here) + Bento’s great (or mediocre) food. You pay a set amount per ounce of food…and there are take-out windows, and it’s open late. It’ll be the only late-opening Asian place on University, and will go head-to-head against other late-night eateries. I’m excited, to say the least.
• I’m anxious and nervous for the ‘Bama game. Our pass defense still looks anemic, although we have at least done a decent job containing the receivers…but they were against either cupcake teams or not-high-caliber SEC teams. ‘Bama is the obvious first major test…if we can pass them, then I truly think the sky’s the limit.
• With regards to the rest of college football…UCF, I have simply three words for you: you screwed up. You screwed up your only chance to join the Big East in a very convincing fashion by 1) losing to FIU 2) losing to BYU the way you did. I don’t think this means you WON’T get into the Big East…but if you do get in, it’s more of a desperation call from the conference rather than a “we’re impressed by you” call because the Big East, like every other conference minus the SEC seemingly, is hemorrhaging right now. As much as I hate to admit it, USF deserves possibly better.
• That’s really all for now. ::yawn::

9/11

I visited the Observation Deck in the South Tower when I was probably 7…not quite sure of the exact year, but definitely in the late 1990s. I had just returned from a trip to Korea and was excited to go to one of the tallest buildings in the world. I wasn’t really enthralled, however, by the constant popping of my ears paired with the high velocity of the elevator taking us all the way to the top. I never felt entirely safe, but I never felt entirely threatened either. It was just the normal fear of being ridiculously high up in a building, a fear that’s different from being in a plane. After all, I was still only 7.

Fast forward to 6th grade in middle school. My mom was still taking me to school even though we definitely lived at least walking distance to Indian Trails. I got there at my usual time, around 8:55; first bell was usually 9:15 so it falls perfectly in line with me being way too early as usual. When I got there, I went up to the second floor of building 6, just to go to my locker. When I get at the top of the stairwell, however, I run into my good friend Andrew and he tells me that something happened at the World Trade Center…an explosion of sorts, possibly a plane. I remember thinking to myself “oh it’s an accident, I’m sure everything will be fine”.

By the time I entered homeroom, however, I knew things weren’t going to be OK. Another plane had crashed, and you could start to see the worries in teachers’ faces. The morning anchors on all the major networks started to speak in a tone you rarely hear: shock, horror and great anxiety. All of us were glued to the TV; not a single person was doing anything else otherwise.

There they were…these two towers, the towers that, along with other skyscrapers, help symbolize New York, completely damaged and seemingly helpless. The usual questions raced through my mind: how? why? An incredibly scary thought then raced through my mind and stayed constant for the rest of the day: my uncle sometimes had to work at WTC. Was he alright? Would 9/11 be the day that he unluckily entered WTC and possibly not come out?

I don’t remember the exact timing of this next paragraph, but I”m pretty sure it was early in the morning (or before lunch). My math teacher, Ms. Bratton, was already known by this time in school as one of the strictest teachers in all the land (and, in fact, I still consider her one of the strictest teachers I ever had, second only to my AP/IB chem teacher Ms. Brennan). But she did something that, at the time, all of us found extremely controversial: she did not turn on the TV. She did not even make a mention of anything going on. She simply started teaching. Noone dare ask her directly, but it was definitely a focal point of discussion upon leaving the class that day.

A lot of people might be asking, “my God, that’s so anti-American”. And at that time I would’ve agreed with you. Looking back, however, I think she did what she thought was the right thing: to take our minds slightly off the events of that day and to try and maintain some sort of order as much as possible. She was already doing what President Bush, then-mayor Giuliani, and countless others implored us to do a few days after 9/11: resume our normal business and show these radical Islamists that nothing will stand in our way. In retrospect, she should be commended for her patriotism and perseverance.

The day boiled on and my worry increased for my uncle. When my mom picked me up, I asked her immediately about her brother and she told me that he was fine, that he didn’t have to go into work there that day. With that out of the way, actual fear started to creep in. What about an another attack? When would these guys, who I had never seen or heard of before, stop?

Restaurant Review: Sweet Mel’s

(Before you knock this review, I should immediately tend to the fact that this post contains info about drink specials….)I get wary of “haunted parcels” of buildings. Usually the restaurants or businesses that inhabit them show great promise, but something or some quality eventually starts to unravel and show its true colors…well either that or really some string of unfortunate events start to occur to where the revolving door of businesses is in an endless spin for only that one lot.

According to the Gainesville Sun, Sweet Mel’s current location has been inhabited by six restaurants/bars/businesses in the last “several years”. Assuming “several” to mean “seven”, six businesses in seven years = obviously will raise your eyebrows somehow. But while Sweet Mel’s may raise your eyebrows, they’ll also raise your cholesterol and your tastebud excitement.

OK, forgive my last line of lameness, but I’ll cut right to the chase: Sweet Mel’s is that good. The menu is strikingly simple, even simpler than some of the classiest restaurants in town. And yet, while Sweet Mel’s isn’t some upscale fancy-pants restaurant, it still exudes a nice, healthy amount of class in its decor and design. The restaurant’s pretty darn narrow: you only see a ridiculously long bar (we’ll get to drink specials in a bit), and then a small row of tables. You’d think it was just a bar at first, and it kind of is, not going to lie.

The difference, of course, is in the food, and this is what makes you think “well, hey, this might be a restaurant”. The Swamp Restaurant, to me, never really hails as a restaurant. Food’s ridiculously overpriced and at times just plain gross to be honest. But you’ll see at Sweet Mel’s that the people behind the menu know what they’re doing: a smattering of appetizers, a small amount of other foods to keep the non-red meat people happy, and then of course their burgers. Their most famous burger is, well, (I think) Sweet Mel’s. Why? Uhhh funnel cakes as buns. Noone at our table wanted to try it, but there were other burgers our table was more willing to try that weren’t so traditional. Two of my friends decided to get the “rise-and-shine” which was, essentially, a more improved version of Paula Deen’s crazy egg-on-top burger, although no Krispy Kreme buns . But it did have hashbrowns and the buns were actually french toast (no syrup though….which by the way, it begs the question: would you ever eat chicken and waffles?). Another friend of mine got The Guido burger, which was consisting of mozzarella sticks and marinara sauce. I had The Boss…which was a footlong hoagie with 1 lb (previous burgers were 1/2 a pound) of burger meat and then just normal tomato, lettuce, etc. All entrees came with a generous helping of fries. The burgers ranged from $7.99-10.99.

And all of the burgers were amazingly good. Usually, when you’re presented with specialty burgers, you find that the cooks or chefs make the toppings amazing and just make the burger plain for whatever reason, even denying it the right to simple salt and pepper that it deserves. For some reason they like to think that we’ll really forget about the big hunk of meat that’s there and enjoy the egg/hashbrowns/whatever we’re presented with. Little do they realize that we still want that meat flavor between our teeth. Sweet Mel’s did what one’s supposed to do with a burger: make it as juicy as possible, while still allowing all the other flavors to melt in your mouth.

Specialty Items

Sweet Mel’s has a “Wing Bar” from 11-3 every weekday which is essentially an all-you-can-eat buffet of wings for $8.95, a pretty good deal if you ask me (naturally if you couldn’t tell…I’ll be back…possibly). I also asked about drink specials and they said that they’re working on that right now (they JUST got their liquor license some days ago), but they’re working on doing a special called a “bladderbuster”, to which I’ve never heard of before but I’m sure all of my more college-oriented friends have. For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s basically a variation of beat-the-clock except basically you’re trying to subdue your bladder into oblivion. You get a group of your friends, get wristbands, and hey beer’s 1 cent….until one of your friends has the bladder of a [insert animal here with horrible bladder]. Then it goes up to a quarter. Then 50 cents. Then a dollar…and that’s it. (A dollar a beer? Not too shabby). How they’ll enforce it absolutely beats me.

They also have a good smattering of desserts, although this is the only part where I feel like highway robbery was being committed. $5.99 for four fried Oreos which were good but still had the slight feeling they were frozen. The slice of Peanut Butter Pie was deemed delicious by a friend of mine…but still seemed pathetically small for a $4.99 piece of a pie (I could’ve gone to Maude’s and gotten a nice big slice of cake that was twice the size of the pie for $2.99).

Service

The service was exceptional…at first. Our server, Terrence, was amazing and welcoming. Our orders were taken promptly, but it took a little while for food to come out…and it came in two waves, which is actually more of a knock on our chef than Terrence himself. There was literally a good 15 minute delay between when one friend of mine and I got our food vs when everyone else got their food…coordination definitely needs to improve. As the night wore on, however, we saw the wait staff be stretched a little thin, and it took a good 10 minutes for us to get our cards back after giving them to Terrence; we’ll blame this on probably a cash register problem, as our receipt was literally on like an old accountant’s calculator (with cool receipt roll, obviously).

Conclusion

If you want a good unique burger that still tastes like a burger, go to Sweet Mel’s. If you like a more hipster atmosphere that gives you bigger desserts for a better price, and burgers that taste more like the stuff on top rather than the meat inside, go to the Top. Sweet Mel’s has some kinks to work out, but what new restaurant within a month doesn’t? Honestly, if they just hired one more server, the situation would probably be resolved. It’s truly a family-owned business who cares for each of their customers as if they were family; the father of the whole family came out, thanked us for coming, and enlightened us about new specials down the pipeline. That’s the hallmark of an owner and manager who cares about their customers. And as long as they keep to that, this business should do fine.

Sweet Mel’s is located at this address:

1 W University Ave
Gainesville, FL 32601

(352) 240-6644

There are also live bands/a band room area every week. Prices range from about $5-12.

Grade: A-

Pros: A damn good juicy burger, just the way it ought to be. Good variety, but not too much variety. Decor and ambience are welcoming.

Cons: Service needs a little work on timing, although when preparing a large amount of different burgers it’s understandable. Desserts are good but borderline highway robbery in terms of pricing.

Related articles

• Food Fight: Anthony Bourdain and Paula Deen Engage in War of Words (newsfeed.time.com)

The Debt Ceiling and Why You and I Know Nothing About It

If there’s one thing that I truly don’t understand or can barely grasp an understanding of, it’s called the economy. I did enough to get by in my IB Econ class, but I could never major in it: it’s just too much to understand and too much variables to keep track of that aren’t governed necessarily by strictly business matters.

What I do know are the following things:

• I usually try not to be too touchy about politics, but to all of the people saying that the “President should do his job”, I must politely remind you that the Constitution EXPLICITLY states the power to control the budget and to pay off debts is with Congress and not the President. Not just one person or party is to blame, both are to blame because apparently everyone’s lost the art of compromise. Regardless it’s a shame for such a great country like ours.
• Boehner’s theory of simplification of our budget by saying “we shouldn’t spend more than we make” is, unfortunately, a little too simplified. On a microeconomic level, like say you and I’s budgets, it’s essential. If we get mired in debt, it’s big big trouble. On a macroeconomic scale, things are a little different. It’s not to say that debt is great by any means…but sometimes we need a little debt to get things rolling, as long as we can pay for it in the long haul. We used to be able to do that…and now, well, we’ve run into a pretty rough patch. An economist by the name of John Maynard Keynes came up with the original idea of how debt can be “good”, but only in a temporary fashion. I agree that at least the budget should be kept at least in check…but “in check” does not necessarily equate to making sure our (+)’s are greater than our (-)’s.

I’m not trying to say I know everything…I really don’t. But what I do know are those two facts…and the latter thing isn’t really even a fact as much as theory that can be repudiated if you’d like to do so. Regardless, one thing is clear: this isn’t stuff to be kidding around with. A failure to increase the debt ceiling may just mean the days of America as we know it truly may be over.

The Dilemma of Gator Growl

I’m now in my Fourth Year at this great University of Florida…but I never really understood the vast importance of Gator Growl, our annual homecoming mega-event. When I first came in to Gainesville, I was told that it was simply a student-run pep rally and I then assumed that the event was catered to students. After all, seems like a good idea to fit potentially 50,000+ people in the Swamp. As time started going on, I learned very quickly that this “pep rally” was meant to be catering to not just students but to alumni as well. Now it would appear to me that before this wasn’t such a problem, but as recently as maybe 2007/08 this really started to become an issue. What’s the issue exactly? Finding entertainment that caters to EVERYONE.

It’s a hard life for the organizers of Gator Growl…because music and comedy are not nearly as universally tolerant across age groups as they were maybe 30 years ago. Granted, nothing is ever universally tolerant: I’m sure 40-50 year olds hated Elvis when he was popular. But I get the feeling that music and comedy have become increasingly compartmentalized and almost have no broad/connecting appeal. I don’t think I could find any person over the age of 40 who would like Owl City, for instance. If anything, music’s “broad appeal” only stretches “backwards”; in other words, a piece of music meant to appeal to 18+ years old (specifically songs about love and sappy stuff like that) always seep backwards to 14 year olds and 13 year olds even. Comedy is just the same…a 40-year-old may find the first few minutes of a Daniel Tosh standup to be amazing…and then there’ll be that one line that ticks them off and disturbs them for the rest of the night.  It’s not to say that our great alumni don’t have a sense of humor…it’s just not the same.

Let’s face it: we college kids are degenerates. We’re just amoeba who’ll eventually, through four fast years, grow up to be men and women contributing to society. But even at the end of that fourth year, we’re still degenerates. We appreciate crude humor immensely. We party and drink and experiment, and we only learn from the negative consequences of those three actions. So, naturally, our perceptions of ANYTHING will be vastly different from the real world. Comedians and musicians prey on this because the issues that face all college kids, whether they be preps/jocks/geeks/whatever, these issues are fairly universal WITHIN our age group, therefore it’s relatively easy to discern (and therefore profit off) what we like and are amused by. Adults, on the other hand, are a completely different story.

How does all of this philosophy tie into Gator Growl? It seems that it is growing increasingly impossible to satisfy the needs of even 50% of people who go to Gator Growl, and that’s unfortunate. After all, Gator Growl for decades has always been marketed more as a family event for not just UF students, not just UF alumni, but even the city of Gainesville. But times have unfortunately changed, and at the risk of infuriating our great alumni, I feel like that it’s time for Gator Growl to cater to its students and young alumni more so than older alumni.

We seem to have the only problem in the state in regards to homecoming…FSU and UCF have homecomings with music and comedy seemingly catered to students. They still, obviously, hold events for Alumni, but they are much more subdued; these events include dinners and talent shows, if anything. We obviously hold these events too, but for some reason Gator Growl organizers still feel indebted to try and cater to all levels of alumni as much as possible. If that were the case, we’d need to cater to the alumnae who loves Andrea Bocelli, the next alumnae who loves Radiohead, the next alumnae who likes Celine Dion, and so on. It’s just impossible now.

Comedy has a better chance to appeal to the older alumni…but it’s very rare these days to find a comedian who can appeal to all ages. Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert mainly cater to 18-30, Louis CK caters pretty much to all ages, but gets risky around 40+ (in my opinion), and again the list goes on and on.

The Goo Goo Dolls was a great attempt by organizers in terms of their way of thinking…but may have ultimately resulted in the wrong choice. They may’ve thought oh, why not choose a band who had a relatively old start but still somewhat relevant today. Unfortunately, in the world of B.O.B., Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Britney Spears (2.0), etc., Goo Goo Dolls kind of got displaced…but it still has a place in a good number of peoples’ hearts (by peoples’ i mean people my age and at least 5 years back). The problem is, they don’t appeal to people 20 years back. Granted, this is just the first of many announcements…but the fact that organizers are still having troubles trying to come up with a comedian seems like that this whole “appeal” issue is becoming something that is becoming too hard to handle. And while yes it’s always going to be impossible to satisfy EVERYONE, there are still ways in this day and age to satisfy MOSTLY everyone.

I understand the importance of our alumni, not just for donations or whatever, but to the overall contribution they make to this school in terms of school spirit. But the fact is that our alumni will always support us in football games and other athletic and academic endeavors that we take on. It is a nice gesture, to say the least, that we try and put on a great concert for EVERY Gator. But if we want all of us Gators to be in perfect harmony with each other, we’re going to have to be creative in how we appeal to everyone. Two separate nights potentially, one in O-dome and the other in the Swamp? Switch completely to a student concert/comedy show and increase marketing/word of mouth about alumni events so as to not alienate alumni? Immediately after Gator Growl this year, organizers should focus more on resolving this keystone issue rather than simply looking for that panacea (in case you’re lazy to look it up, panacea means a “cure-all”) that never will come to fruition.