So off to a different style blog than yesterday (we don't want to pigeon hole our blog into any cultural stereotype of only talking about the same stuff over and over)
So today I'm going to talk about the fact that the Drive-By Truckers are coming to the UK and are playing in London on Nov. 14th so if anyone is thinking to themselves, "Hey, I got nothing going on that Sunday night I'll just pop across the pond hang with Jordan and watch the Truckers" well you are certainly welcome to come.
The location of our apartment in relation to my classes and the Rhodes House is about a 20-30 minute walk (or 10-15 minute bike ride). However, either way I have been listening to my iPod while I travel and one of the things I have found is that surrounded by this new place and new culture I listen to a lot of Truckers and Black Crowes. I feel like it keeps me connected to my Southern home. I am so proud to love the places where I come from, both Roanoke and Auburn. But from a larger vantage point, I am so proud of being from the Southeast. I think that living in it my whole life I always took for granted the subtle beauties of the culture, the landscape, and the people. Looking somewhat existentially at life in South is something that I am excited to be able to do, and gain other people's perspectives on the place from where I come. I plunged into a conversation with my new friend Richard (New Zealand) about the magnitude of college football in the south, and excitedly described the atmosphere that surrounds the musical culture of Nashville with my friend Charlie from Britain. Most of all I get to enjoy the gloriousness of hot tea with milk while I explain that in the South we drink ice cold SWEET tea with lemon. My observation of the thought processes of the few that I talked to about these things is that there is a mysteriousness to the South that excites people. Everyone knows what they get when they go to New York or DC or LA. But the South is still a mystery, and having that mystery as my birthplace gives me something to be proud of in this melting pot city that is Oxford. --- and this leads me to my next point which I came upon while in the shower....
I started off talking about the Drive-By Truckers and I don't really feel like I need to explain why there music is innately southern, all you have to do is listen to it. But, I do want to let all of our blog readers out there know about my first experience that I really remember with non-conformity. Most of my close friends can attest to the fact that I have a severe dislike for the Steve Miller Band. For any older classic rock fans who idolize the Steve Miller Band I apologize and please don't judge me its just not my favorite. However, this was a hard thing for me to come to. As an adolescent boy growing up in the Roanoke, VA you listened to the John Boy and Billy Big Show on the Rock of Virginia 96.3 WROV, and it was a rare morning that you heard less than 6 Steve Miller Band songs in the course of a few hours. Given, I may have at first liked the band because I thought it gets played on the same station as Zeppelin, Skynyrd, and the Allman Brothers, and as a teenage boy in Virginia these were musical hinges to hang your door on. I felt as though the nation of classic rock was suddenly going to turn on me and disavow me as a member to their exclusive club. I would no longer be able to air guitar the solo to "Freebird" or the drums to "Rock and Roll". However, I really didn't enjoy the music, I think at first as a 13 year old figuring out the thing about the peaches and the tree in "The Joker" I felt real cool but then I turned 14. And honestly "Fly like an Eagle" could we be a little more creative with our imagery (given it what great in Space Jam). But anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know how my life of questioning conformity started... with the Steve Miller Band, so I guess I can't really badger them too much they did some good for me. Anyway, I have to go to class have a great day see YA'LL later. (I don't feel local enough to say "cheers!" yet, how would I feel if some Brit came walking through Auburn saying "See Ya'll later" in their sophisticated accent)
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