"My people" (Pasadena, San Gabriel: university, gated, living)

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Laocoön

So tell me, Prince of Pith, what does pop into your head?

Why post if you're not going to address the question at hand?

Oh I get it, your 21st Century Manual on Laconic Post-literate Semiotics and English Minimalism tells you that you must be flippant, abrupt, aloof, oblique, and -- oops, I'm running out of words, in jeopardy of violating your short attention span, and offending your KISS vocab sensibility.

To respond to your lament simplistically and in language even the most base of posters will understand, "Speak English!" While your vocabulary may denote an education of a certain type and, perhaps, level, it fails to impress. One could do almost as well with a liberal application of words from a thesaurus. I think I can speak for many when I say that it comes across as crassly superior and a somewhat vain attempt to impress.

Skye is quite correct. Such verbiage is more commonly found among those of the "upper crust" in the boardrooms and private clubs back east than on the left coast. Having been raised by native New Yorkers, one of whom was a Westchester County/American Yacht Club/Madison Square Gardens Horse Show snob, I do know whereof I speak.

Also, having had that upbringing, a classical education and a career writing law, I can dazzle with words as well. However, long ago I found it did not stand me in good stead to send others rushing for their dictionary every time I opened my mouth.

Flowery phrases lose their appeal rapidly. Just a few words to the wise!

[Fontucky]

Curmudgeon "speaks" the truth.

There were two Gettysburg Addresses delivered that day back in November of 1863. The first one, by the Hon. Edward Everett, was a 13,600 word behemoth that took over two hours to deliver. The second one consisted of 246 words and took less than three minutes to deliver.

Of course, we all know which one is remembered.

[Snort]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

To respond to your lament simplistically and in language even the most base of posters will understand, "Speak English!" While your vocabulary may denote an education of a certain type and, perhaps, level, it fails to impress. One could do almost as well with a liberal application of words from a thesaurus. I think I can speak for many when I say that it comes across as crassly superior and a somewhat vain attempt to impress.

Skye is quite correct. Such verbiage is more commonly found among those of the "upper crust" in the boardrooms and private clubs back east than on the left coast. Having been raised by native New Yorkers, one of whom was a Westchester County/American Yacht Club/Madison Square Gardens Horse Show snob, I do know whereof I speak.

Also, having had that upbringing, a classical education and a career writing law, I can dazzle with words as well. However, long ago I found it did not stand me in good stead to send others rushing for their dictionary every time I opened my mouth.

Flowery phrases lose their appeal rapidly. Just a few words to the wise!

Hey L-dude! I think he just called you a douchebag!

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Snort

Hey L-dude! I think he just called you a douchebag!

Now THAT'S what I'ma talkin' 'bout!

[8move8away8]

Originally Posted by Laocoön

I have lived in the state of California for a sum total of about five years over the course of my life. Not continuously, though. Two one-year stints in San Diego (a year at UCSD in La Jolla, another year in Mission Beach), two years in San Francisco (residing on the peninsula), and another two years of itinerant tramping and Kerouacian wandering -- from SoCal to NorCal, including sojourns in Los Angeles's Santa Monica and Echo Park neighborhoods, Santa Cruz, and a plethora of surf towns and Big Sur-ish spots.

I am closely examining the prospects of re-entry into California -- permanently this time. And while I know a little about a lot of things about California, the truth is I don't know enough about some of the key matters which one must really know and understand before he launches headlong into a permanent commitment, particularly given the grim economic situation & overall state of the state.

I am looking to you City-Dataphiles for your best recommendations given the info I am about to set forth.


A thumbnail sketch of who I am:

*30-something male, straight, white, college-educated, originally from the state of Alabama, well-travelled, and have lived on both coasts and in the Southeast U.S.
*Married but separated, given up on reconciliation, and okay with it; ready to meet interesting and attractive women for good romps in the sack as well as possible long-term, nonmarital relationships
*Traditional values, but open-minded; apolitical; more of a European sensibility than American -- i.e., enjoy the spirit of community and the pedestrian mode of transportation than most Americans, enjoy the world of ideas more than the material, enjoy the classics more than pop culture
*Adventurous and fun-loving (but not to the extent of paragliding off the Torrey Pines cliffs in La Jolla or surfing with sharks); the outdoors and a temperate climate is an important consideration for me (which, in California might only exclude a handful of places such as the Mojave Desert)
*I am church-going (Presbyterian USA or Episcopal), but not fanatical; and while I am turned off by religious zealots (pew jumpers, snake handlers, even some Baptists), I am equally repelled by overzealous atheists
*I have been employed in a wide range of fields in my life, including writing, performing music, the event planning and management field, coaching sports, and a host of sundry and forgettable business posts


Considerations for my California town, city, or hamlet:

1. My chief consideration is to find what I like to call "my people." I do not think I could classify them according to occupation, hobby, or by any demographic category or conventional scheme. I do imagine that a great many of them would be highly knowledgeable and/or educated in the liberal arts -- whether formally or autodidactically. A great number of them would be artistically-inclined in some way, if not deriving their living from something art-related. They would be oriented toward the here-and-now, the local, and would take things at a medium -- but purposeful -- pace. That is, they would be interested in their local community and local goings-on, and not frenetically driving here and yon as quasi-citizens of several disconnected neighborhoods, and then spending the entirety of their down time couped up, feasting on cable TV news shows and reality shows, laboring over the daily White House briefings while sucking on a pseudo-healthy smoothie, listening to Air America (or Rush Limbaugh) streams over the internet, and getting worked to a twit over things going on out there in Iraq or even Indiana, or of an ideological nature such as gay marriage or _____ (fill in minority group's cause here), or even something as seemingly pertinent to our everyday lives as the health care bill. (If you, the reader, object with this last bit, I shall not argue the point other than to say you obviously aren't the type of here-and-now, in-the-moment, potential member of "my people." And might not get where I'm coming from.)

2. Approaching it from a different standpoint, I imagine that I might home in on a bevy of "my people" if I could somehow locate a patch of all, or any, of the following:

bona fide bohemians;

cluster of bohemians in aesthetic only, but nonetheless earnest about a community-oriented lifestyle, and enjoying nature, the arts, and an organically-centered and organized society -- in the here-and-now;

rastafarians, trustafarians, any kind of -farians -- but not the kind whose raison d'êtra is merely to consume and deal illegal contraband, then don a variegated beanie, and go hold a stringed instrument on a street corner between fixes, and never play a lick of ****;

college students, professors, and townies who comprise a "college town" or neighborhood (Athens, GA, Oxford, Miss., Charlottesville, VA, Columbia, Manhattan-NYC, and Princeton, NJ are a few in the Eastern U.S. which quickly come to mind).

3. No neighborhood is too monolithic, or even elite, for me. I am NOT looking for so-called "diversity"; I am looking for "my people." There might be a place which has "my people" and is diverse, and that is fine. Diversity is just not a prereq for me as it is for so many Californians and especially those seeking something outside the corporate mainstream.

(Aside: Truth be known, the ubiquitous diversity-seeker is usually an ethnic minority or recent immigrant to the States who is simply looking for a comfortable fit given his particular set of language barriers or socio-cultural preferences; he is looking to plug in to a neighborhood comprising people who reflect his basic values and lifestyle. Sometimes it's a gay-centric thing, or a feminist-friendly thing. But they all operate the same. Usually, the stereotypical diversity-seeker is merely looking for a group of people who look like him, sound like him, dress like him, and drive a car like him. This "diversity-seeker" is actually a misnomer; he is no real diversity seeker at all! His is a quest for patterns of consistency, not dynamic patterns of an opposite charge. For sameness and static-ness, not variety. Just like the cookie-cutter whiteboy suburbanites. Birds of a certain stripe looking to flock together. )

I am not hung up on diversity. My thing is quality. Specifically: highly-educated, artistic, adventurous. So, if it so happens "my people" are in Pacific Heights, say -- and that is a pretty monolithic and elite 'hood -- leave it to me to find a way to make entre into it; I might have to rent a broom closet in someone's studio apartment, but I will do whatever it takes to interact with and build community with like-minded souls. But who knows, I might be able to finagle a decent flat in even the most tony 'hood. I might can scrounge up the resources. That is for me to negotiate and deal with, and should not be a basis of your recommendations. So if you are inclined to recommend Pac Heights or Palo Alto, do not let the price points preclude you from doing so. By all means make the best rec, and let me figure out how to make it happen.

4. Crime must be of a normal rating or safer. No war zones. Sketchy is not good either unless there is a large upside.

5. There are no other prerequisite considerations, so Fire Away! I don't give a Russian Red Rat's Ass about many of the usual considerations on this board. I don't need, for instance, access to good public schools for my kids, as I have no kids!. I care nary a whit about parking, as I will likely have no car. I don't care much about square footage in my residence, as I am one person who hasn't many worldly possessions and hasn't often hosted soirées in the past, so why start now?


In closing, is anyone able to comment on the town of Bolinas (just north of San Francisco)? While it is NOT a place I am fixated on -- I am wide ass open at this point, looking at everything from a clean slate, willing to hear all recs and ready to weigh them all out -- I do suspect that Bolinas might be one place that is home to some of "my people."

Thanks in advance for all who take a minute to reply.

Laocoön (this one has no sons)

PLEASE put down the Thesaurus and turn on Jersey Shore! You WON'T regret it, once you find the perfect place we'll all be saying "We gotta Situation!" plus how can we help when California towns are either rich, boring, or ghetto?? settle for one of those.



One more thing: TALK NORMAL!

[Bluesmama]

Laucoon, I'd say that Eugene, Oregon, may be more of a "fit" for you than anywhere in California I can think ~ with the exception of Santa Cruz, maybe Berkeley. It is, however, a college town that, despite it's population, is still a small-town. But it's a very liberal, bohemian community.

On a larger scale, maybe even Seattle would work for you, if you could handle the dreariness.

Is there a reason you have not considered returning to Santa Cruz???

[MonkeyKid]

@ OP
I recommend you do not move here to CA. There is no place that would fulfill the laundry list of requirements you posted.

[drunk on kool aid]

Laocoön: in your aside, you decry "diversity-seekers" as closet conformists ("Birds of a certain stripe looking to flock together") but then say you want to find "your people." You are aiming to "flock together," yes?

The first SoCal places that popped into my mind were Laguna Beach and Ojai, although neither are university towns. Pasadena might meet some of your requirement: arts, intellectuals (Caltech). On the other hand, it's one of the most diverse cities around.

A different approach would be to go where "your peeps" gather, instead of trying to find a city that's comprised of them. So, join a debate club or Toastmasters or the Skeptics Society; take a philosophy course at a junior college or through university extension. This tact would probably give you joy at any decent sized city.

Maybe I missed it, but why are you fixated on California? Boston, MA seems to be your obvious bullseye.

[Laocoön]

Originally Posted by 8move8away8

PLEASE put down the Thesaurus and turn on Jersey Shore! You WON'T regret it, once you find the perfect place we'll all be saying "We gotta Situation!" plus how can we help when California towns are either rich, boring, or ghetto?? settle for one of those.

One more thing: TALK NORMAL!

I am befuddled with this post.

Did you mean for me to turn on Jersey Shore, which is apparently a TV show? (I don't watch TV; I just now googled it and learned that this was some sort of television program.) Or, were you directing me to turn, as in to steer my vehicle, onto Jersey Shore -- perhaps some highway up East? Or, was this directive intended in some other sense? Please clarify.

Also, why will you be shouting "We have a situation!" after I have turned onto Jersey Shore?

N.B. You mean TALK NORMALLY.

[Clarks]

I am befuddled with this post.

No you wasn't, Ya'll got like totally excited 'cause it gave ya an excuse to act erudite like, but ya see ya'll I don't talke like I be typing heah, and neither do you.