San Francisco

[rub-a-dub]

I'm kind of curious to see it too, even though it's gotten pretty bad reviews. 

On Friday, also as part of Noise Pop, they're playing a Wesley Willis documentary at ATA at 7 & 9:15 and on Saturday they're playing 'You Weren't There: A History of Chicago Punk' at ATA at 4 p.m.  Anyone know what ATA is though?

[denkinger]

ATA = Artist's Television Access, a hole-in-the-wall film/visuals collective in a storefront on Valencia St.

If you want a slice of lost (ie, dot-commed out of existence) 80s/90s San Francisco, drop into the ATA. It is occasionally ridiculous with the student arty-farty flicks but it IS where the Icky Boyfriends movie had its debut.

It's also where I watched an art film/video where a girl basically shoved her hand down her throat for almost 30 minutes while calmly narrating themes about self-destruction. If I hadn't been having sex with the girl who took me there I woulda walked out.

[Ayapapaya]

also at ATA tomorrow is the benefit for the "Bus" (in East Bay). I guess the bus got really fucked up after the last storm or something. Traditional Fools is playing with a Go-Go's cover band that's not the Guy-Guy's.

[Dulcinea]

Hey Zack, actually I don't have passes. We didn't work with NP this year. I'd get there a bit early, last year's Roky Erickson movie did fill up!

[Insensitivemonster]

Fremont's not that bad, just dullsville.

 
I'm already dealing with that. 

More takes on Fremont would be greatly appreciated.

head over to Mitch's take thread. He lived there for a while.

Freemont isn't terrible.  The weather is decent, but it's pretty damn far from everything fun. 

If you move there:
 - Car is mandatory if you want to go to any shows.
 - Ability to deal with heavy traffic is mandatory (I think it gets pretty hectic going to and from there)

I worked outside of Freemont for a while. Hated it. Long, expensive BART ride and surrounded by strip malls and more strip malls.

[Patrone]

Couldn't you just commute?  It's not that far of a drive from Oakland.

[dS]

Couldn't you just commute?  It's not that far of a drive from Oakland.

You talking to me?  That's the kind of stuff I'm trying to figure out.  In the midwest a far drive is 5 or 6 hours.  I regularly travel 30-60 minutes for my current job.  I gotta drive at least 20 minutes to do any kind of record shopping.  No big deal.  How much is the BART fare roughly?

Other things that I'm thinking about are that we have a pitbull.  It would be cool if we had the semblance of a yard (to take him out in) but I'm imagining that may be hard to come by in Oakland and impossible in SF but maybe easier in Fremont? 

Melissa has a phone interview on Friday with the company.

[dS]

All this stuff kind of happened today so I haven't looked into much yet.  I'm just trying to get an idea of the place and its liveability.  I'll check Craigslist.  That would be our first experience with tokens.

[Ayapapaya]

All this stuff kind of happened today so I haven't looked into much yet.  I'm just trying to get an idea of the place and its liveability.  I'll check Craigslist.  That would be our first experience with tokens.

Yeah, Craigslist is probably your best bet. Fremont is significantly cheaper than SF and Oakland and you can get a place that accepts dogs. You can find it in Oakland too, but the rental prices in Oakland have gone up 10-15% from a year ago. SF is a VERY hard place to have a dog unless you own the property. Bart from Fremont to Oakland wouldn't be so bad, because unlike the stations in SF, almost all the East Bay stations have parking. You can just park your car at the station and hop on the train so you can avoid the nasty freeway traffic.

[dS]

The stuff I was finding on Craigslist last night seemed to be higher in Fremont and a little lower in Oakland and El Cerrito (which SS told me to check out).  Are there parts of Oakland I should steer clear of?  Or maybe I should ask:  What parts of Oakland should I steer clear of?

[Ayapapaya]

Here's what you will see if you're on craigslist and choose "East Bay" on the query.

I would avoid these areas-
Oakland West (it's not as rough as East Oakland)
Oakland East (not recommended unless you're a seasoned veteran like Andy)
Richmond/ Point / Annex (Richmond is ROUGH -unless you're on top of the hills)

And these are recommended-
Oakland North / Temescal (it's getting gentrified and the rent can be steep and the areas around MLK or Childrens Hospital can be kinda rough)
Emeryville
Albany / El Cerrito
Oakland Lake Merritt / Grand
Oakland Hills / Mills
Oakland Rockridge / Claremont
Berkeley (expensive)
Oakland Downtown
Alameda (there are some nice houses there but it's kind of bizarre in a way that Alameda is like an old small town USA and it's just a tunnel away from downtown Oakland)

And all the other ones you'll see are on the outskirts of the city area.

[Insensitivemonster]

Couldn't you just commute?  It's not that far of a drive from Oakland.

You talking to me?  That's the kind of stuff I'm trying to figure out.  In the midwest a far drive is 5 or 6 hours.  I regularly travel 30-60 minutes for my current job.  I gotta drive at least 20 minutes to do any kind of record shopping.  No big deal.  How much is the BART fare roughly?

Other things that I'm thinking about are that we have a pitbull.  It would be cool if we had the semblance of a yard (to take him out in) but I'm imagining that may be hard to come by in Oakland and impossible in SF but maybe easier in Fremont? 

Melissa has a phone interview on Friday with the company.

You ever see the movie office space? 40 minutes in stop and go traffic feels a hell of a lot worse than a 5 hour drive.

[Insensitivemonster]

Here's what you will see if you're on craigslist and choose "East Bay" on the query.

I would avoid these areas-
Oakland West (it's not as rough as East Oakland)
Oakland East (not recommended unless you're a seasoned veteran like Andy)
Richmond/ Point / Annex (Richmond is ROUGH -unless you're on top of the hills)

And these are recommended-
Oakland North / Temescal (it's getting gentrified and the rent can be steep and the areas around MLK or Childrens Hospital can be kinda rough)
Emeryville
Albany / El Cerrito
Oakland Lake Merritt / Grand
Oakland Hills / Mills
Oakland Rockridge / Claremont
Berkeley (expensive)
Oakland Downtown
Alameda (there are some nice houses there but it's kind of bizarre in a way that Alameda is like an old small town USA and it's just a tunnel away from downtown Oakland)

And all the other ones you'll see are on the outskirts of the city area.

Oakland West has realy big victorian flats for super cheap.
Emeryville is pretty expensive.
Temescal is having one hell of a crime wave.
Rockridge can be pretty pricey.
El Cerrito >  Freemont is one hell of a shitty commute.
Alameda is pretty cool...(and you can get a good deal on apartments)... I assume the tunnel gets pretty clogged during rush hour. No bart on the island.

[dS]

Super-helpful.  Thanks.

[Insensitivemonster]

El Cerrito > Freemont is close to a 1 hour commute on BART.
(bart = no eating/drinking/peeing for 1 hour and it's $4.25 each way.). I don't even want to think about that commute (in a car) during rush hour.

You could look on the Peninsula for places? Burlingame is really nice (really suburban, but really nice). San Mateo?  San Bruno? 

You'd have the option of CalTrain to the city, and I think the drive from San Mateo > Freemont (across the San Mateo bridge) isn't anywhere near as bad as the bay bridge)