ilovefuzz.com

I almost went to college there, horrifyingly decades ago. Liked the town a lot, but I'm guessing I probably would have snuffed it if I had lived there for four years. Just a hunch based on the total fucking lack of direct sunlight the whole time I was there. If you're sensitive to that shit and move there, be proactive about the lightbox and supplements, as mentioned.

louderthangod wrote:The water has got to be super cold I'd imagine. The water in SF is awfully cold and it's coming from your direction.

AxAxSxS wrote:yeah you need a good wetsuit for sure.

Breaux I don't know a whole lot but I can do cold water.

D.o.S. wrote:Guh.

I can work from wherever right now (and for the foreseeable future), so I'm eying different places to potentially move to. This place is on my list, for sure.

Is there any surfable coastline near-ish?

Yes, I have friends who get up fucking early to head out there and come in for a half day of work. Down in Newport, so you'd be looking at 1:45 drive, but it's doable for sure. Wetsuit for sure.

portland rules. i'm not writing a novel about it or anything write now, but the nature access is fucking awesome, the music scenes and gear shops are amazing. it's really cheap for how awesome it is to live here. food and drinks rule. giant shots everywhere and everything is cheap. i don't surf, but i have a bunch of friends that live here and go surfing out on the coast all the time. it's a pretty short drive to some good spots. winter is not that cold, but it's long and gray and rainy and there's no way around it. takes a couple of years to get used to. summer is best summer that there is anywhere. usually takes til june or so to get going but can last to october in a good year. it's hard to get a job, but that just is what it is. you've got to know people to get a job here. keeps people away i guess so that's fine with me. except when i've needed a job and couldn't find one. it's cool though. hit me up with questions.

Beware of cats apparently

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/inde ... _by_p.html

I recently moved to Portland myself. Here's what I've experienced in the last 9 months:

Jobs
It was really, really hard for me to find a job. And then a decent one at that. I've worked at three different places in the nine months since I've lived here. I know the economy supposedly sucks and all that jazz, but I'm not lazy and I'm highly experienced in a trade that has a lot of people retiring in the next 5-10 years, so I kind of figured finding a job in my field would be cake. It wasn't. Be prepared for "working interviews", where basically you go provide 2-8 hours of free labor for a place and based on how you do, you receive a job or you don't. Be prepared to send out tons of applications/emails/phone calls and hear absolutely nothing back. Be prepared to wait. It took 3 months from the moment I applied at my current job until the day I actually started, and they called me and told me to apply for the job in the first place. You may be completely fine though. I know people who had no troubles finding work, but most of the people I know had similar experiences to mine.

People
I've mostly found people to be super friendly out here. Like "here's the shirt off my back, do you need anything else?" kind of friendly. I run into some really, really flakey people too, but it's not the norm. The music/art scene out here seems to be very welcoming and supportive which is nice too. I just started a band, and am excited to meet some more cool people that are into music and gear and such, because even though everyone is generally super nice, I have been kind of lonely.

Weather
Summer here is awesome. It's seriously perfect. Winter - well, I don't think it's too bad, but where I came from, Winter was 9 months of the year and that was tons of snow and negative temperatures every day. Yes, it rains and it's gloomy, but it doesn't really bother me as much as it seems to bother other folks. We got a little snow and ice a few weeks ago, and though I'm used to that as an every day thing from living in Wyoming, it literally shut the city down for a few days. I was driving home from work and people were just abandoning their cars on the side of the interstate and stuff. It was insane. Luckily, that only seems to happen every few years.

Traffic/Public Transportation
I work out in Tigard, which is a suburb West of Portland. For me it's a 20-30 minute drive in the morning and a 30-60 minute drive in the evening. The interstates out here get kind of crazy (I-5 and I-84 especially). If you do have to commute, you might luck out and be able to take the MAX line. It's incredibly handy. Between the light rail and the buses, you can pretty much get anywhere you want in the city/suburbs. I've never really lived in a city with this level of public transportation before, but I find the prices to be totally fair, though I've never looked into a month pass or anything more than a few hours/a day.

Housing
I think housing is affordable out here, depending on where you want to live. I moved from a smaller sized town in Wyoming and only pay an extra $16 a month, which really surprised me (granted I don't live in the heart of downtown either). I found a place relatively quickly, but I've heard places around here go really fast, and you have to really be on top of your search.

Restaurants/Bars
It's ridiculous how many cool restaurants and bars are in this city. I feel like I've been to a ton which all have their own unique identities and still have barely scratched the surface on what's out there. And then there's the food carts on top of all of that. Some of my favorites are Pine State Biscuits, The Country Cat, Sizzle Pie, The Press Club, The Hobnob, and the Grilled Cheese Grille. I know I'm forgetting some too. As far as bars go, Ground Kontrol is always a blast, but I mainly hang out at bars around Montavilla or up on Mississippi where I am most of the time.

Gear Shops
Oh man, it's so great to live in a place with so many cool places to get gear! I'm used to having to drive an hour to hit a Guitar Center, so out here it's like a dream come true. Pro Guitar Shop is awesome, but I think my favorite place is Old Town. Trade Up is cool too, but they have a smaller pedal selection than Pro Guitar and Old Town.

All in all, I really, really enjoy it out here and am glad I made the move. It's been hard in a lot of aspects (being lonely, jobs) but I'm so glad I live here at the end of the day.

That is a lot of words. Thanks for that.

I'd be able to keep my current gig going if I moved out there, and that seems like the biggest hurdle that people've brought up.

Ahmmm.

D.o.S. wrote:That is a lot of words. Thanks for that.

I'd be able to keep my current gig going if I moved out there, and that seems like the biggest hurdle that people've brought up.

Ahmmm.

My roommate was able to do the same thing. Honestly, 90% of my stress out here has been job related. Everything else has been really great and completely worth the 1,100 mile move.

I'm a little concerned nobody has addressed the cat issue.



Brandnewzo, whats your band called? So far all the ILF bands I've been able to see have been incredible. Always down to hear new stuff

We should do a portland ILF meet up at Old Town or something if we can convince them to let us come hang out and drink and fuck with pedals and amps for a few hours after hours one night...

I'd drive to Portland for that!

AxAxSxS wrote:I'm a little concerned nobody has addressed the cat issue.





Brandnewzo, whats your band called? So far all the ILF bands I've been able to see have been incredible. Always down to hear new stuff

Oh yeah, I totally forgot to mention the killer cats we have out here! I was complaining so much about trying to find a job that my every day struggle for survival slipped my mind!

My band is called Wingnut Commander. We have a few demos we recorded the other day up on bandcamp and I think Facebook now. We are also playing a house show this weekend, and totally going in on a keg if anyone wants to hang out and drink free beer!

It's kind of an odd name for a band, but it's got a pretty cool backstory to it. The first time I came and checked out Portland with my roommate, we were downtown and this homeless guy started yelling at us. For whatever reason, we stopped and talked to him, and he told us these really interesting stories for a couple hours. His name was James "Rum" Johnson and he told us this story about how he'd died three times and played cards with Moses and all this other stuff. We were going to go back to the friend's house we were staying at to play some music later that day, and when we mentioned that to James, he asked if he could listen. My friend, who is the singer in the band, said sure and we brought James back to the house and played acoustic guitars and sang for him for an hour or so. We hadn't written any music together or anything, so we just played covers of songs we liked and stuff for him. At one point in time, he started tearing up to this song we played him. When we ran out of songs to play, he told us to make songs up for him. To "sing me a song from your heart, not your brain". We wound up hanging out with James all night and playing a bunch of music for him and listening to his stories. He'd tell us something so crazy and out there, and then he'd tell us something incredibly poetic the next second, but after every story he'd say "Oh, don't listen to me, I'm just the Wingnut Commander". When we started the band, it seemed like such an appropriate name, because in all reality, we kind of became a band that night for James, the original Wingnut Commander. I don't know, it was just a very cool experience, and one that kind of solidified me wanting to move out here.

Hyphen Nation wrote:We should do a portland ILF meet up at Old Town or something if we can convince them to let us come hang out and drink and fuck with pedals and amps for a few hours after hours one night...

Yes! That would be so much fun! I'd even be up for bringing my amp and gear if they just wanted to let us play with the pedals.