specific questions: music scene, green and bugs (Houston, Dallas: home, to live in)

[Sir Punk]

There are a few interesting jobs around dallas. I am just concerned about a few things:

1. how is the music scene? I am a musician, not a pro, but I like to be involved in it. Are there gigs and venues that are fairly accessible to start up bands, are there are a lot of musicians to network with, etc.

2. I've been reading that it can be very brown. I am currently in Minneapolis were trees and green and parks are everywhere. I don't expect DFW to be anywhere close to this but how bad is it, and for how long during the year is so dry?

3. Bugs: how long does the mosquitoes season last? what about flys? I really hate flys even more than mosquitoes.

4. How many months of the year the temperatures are unbearable? By that I mean higher than 90 most of the day? I read somewhere that it can be 90 at 8am. That seems a bit crazy for me. How long does that go on for?

[MaryS80]

There used to be a decent live/local music scene. A lot of venues have went under, and Deep Ellum which was once the epicenter of art and music in Dallas is being sanitized.

There are quite a few parks all over the area, some big, some small. Yes the summers can be dry, downright to the point of being a drought. Roughly May/June-September/October we don't see much rain.

Bugs, yes we have lots of them because the winters are cold enough or long enough to kill anything off. Flys aren't too bad here, mosquito can be bad, ants are the biggest concern here.

July and August are the only unbearably hot months. yes, sometimes it can be in the 80's late at night. quite often it will hover around 100 during the day.

[debtex]

Check out the Dallas Observer to get a read on the music/entertainment scene.

Weather here is the flipside of Mnpls. There you get 5-6 months of cold with 2-3 months of deep freeze, here you get 5-6 months of hot with 2-3 months of baking hot.

Bugs? Many and varied - not so much with the flies, but skeeters and roaches like crazy. On the other hand, we have a very healthy wild bird population!

Deb

[Lakewooder]

It is often said that every musician in town lives or has lived on Oram Street off Lower Greenville in East Dallas. Especially the part between Matilda and Skillman. A lot of them eat breakfast at The Gold Rush on Skillman. Easy to walk a block or so to Skillman or Greenville. Zip is 75206.

BTW there are a lot of shade trees in the area.

[sxrckr]

Originally Posted by Sir Punk

I've been reading that it can be very brown. I am currently in Minneapolis were trees and green and parks are everywhere. I don't expect DFW to be anywhere close to this but how bad is it, and for how long during the year is so dry?

It can get pretty bad.

Most of Texas is in a bad drought right now. Which is highly unusual for very green places like, say, Houston. But not unusual at all for Dallas, which is closer to Oklahoma.

Get used to seeing brown in comparison to places like Minneapolis.

[rdfw]

Originally Posted by sxrckr

Most of Texas is in a bad drought right now. Which is highly unusual for very green places like, say, Houston. But not unusual at all for Dallas, which is closer to Oklahoma.

I don't see what proximity to OK has to do with it, eastern and especially NE OK is much greener than texas.

As for the music scene, there definitely is, although it seems a little less vibrant these days than it used to be, but it's still around for sure.

If Minneapolis didn't have snow cover, it would be brown during the winter, too. But yes, even in the warmer months (the other 10 months of the year here) it will not be *as* green and lush as MN, but not anything close to a desert, it's just more arid.

Fire ants are more of a nuisance than anything else, mnosquitos next and flys aren't a big deal here.

I myself have a low tolerance for heat, I'd love to live in MN or some place like that personally... but here I am anyway (economy is good here). To me, there is no winter here. You get a handful of days per year of actual "cold" weather (30 or below), a couple of days of ice and maybe one day of snow that melts the following day, while the rest of the winter is in the 50s to 60s on and off, with many days of 70s and some 40s. Spring starts in February and goes until mid-March, at which point summer begins quickly and lasts until mid-November when the leaves finally drop.

If you look at the weather statistics - record highs/lows and averages, you'll see that the record highs for each and every single month are no less than 88. AVERAGE temperatures are 90 and above for 4 months June-Sept, so occasional 90+ degree weather can happen pretty much 9 months out of the year. It has never been recorded below 0F here.

By temperature, this area has some of the hottest summers in the US. I hate the weather here to be quite honest. I really hate it. I stay because everything works out here and it's easy to travel to other places for skiiing, etc. But if you think 90 degree weather is unbearable (like I do), you'll hate the weather here too.

[Korel]

Howdy Sir Punk,

1. I can't really comment on the music scene, but I do know you won't find much Prairie Home Companion type venues around here.

2. Brown? Sort of depends. We were in a severe drought where irrigation was discouraged. I use to vacation up in Crow Wing County (Pequote Lakes) every year and I would say that in the Spring we're about as green as ya'll. (sorry, You folks don't cha know, yaaaa you betcha)

3. Bugs? Where this in where you have us beat. I've been outside around and just after dusk in Minnesota, in short sleeves and short pants. Wrong thing to do! The mosquitoes were like out of a Steven King novel. I understand the mosquito is the un-official state bird of Minnesota. I hope you like June Bugs.

4. I see you're gonna be an Indoor Texan. 90 degrees is air-conditioning compared to what you can expect in the middle of August in Dallas. Starting in about late June or early July, the TV weather dude will begin counting 100+ degree days and I remember one year we almost got to 60 days straight. However, my friends from MN told me that they'll take a heat wave long before they have to deal with an 8 foot snow drift. The highest I remember is one day in June 1980 where we hit 113, and the electric went dead! The power and AC was on at the mall and the whole town (Garland) went shopping. Holy Ice Tea Batman!

Welcome to Texas! We have a lot of trans-planted Yankee Texans and they all love it!

[Sir Punk]

Originally Posted by Korel

Howdy Sir Punk,


2. Brown? Sort of depends. We were in a severe drought where irrigation was discouraged. I use to vacation up in Crow Wing County (Pequote Lakes) every year and I would say that in the Spring we're about as green as ya'll. (sorry, You folks don't cha know, yaaaa you betcha)

3. Bugs? Where this in where you have us beat. I've been outside around and just after dusk in Minnesota, in short sleeves and short pants. Wrong thing to do! The mosquitoes were like out of a Steven King novel. I understand the mosquito is the un-official state bird of Minnesota. I hope you like June Bugs.

ahaha. Those were two nice ones . In fact it is the state national bird. Although here in Minneapolis you see them rarely, at least in the area where I live, which is about 5 miles form the lakes. So in the middle of the city none. But yes, I've been up north, and THAT is a nightmare.

I am actually from Italy, so I don't mind heat as far as it is dry. I just can't stand humidity. Back home is like 90% humidity during the day. sucks huh?!