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Looking to relocate to small farm outside Salem to Portland area. Currently in extremely rural NW GA Mts. It's beautiful but the average folks around here are VERY conservative, fairly zenophobic and not well educated. Wld we be jumping from the frying pan to the pot?
We are a progressive minded couple who are classic jazz musicians as well as own a advertising/marketing company. We enjoy participating in our community but ignorance abounds!
Hey folks, where the heck are you? I'm in NE Cobb County ... a CA transplant since 1991 and I definately NEED to get out of the SE USA. Metro Atlanta and most of Georgia is very xenophobic, fundamentalist conservative for the most part. There are pockets of "normalcy", but not many!
I'm considering moving to PDX since my Dad relocated to Eugene near my step-sister. I just need a good change! Best of luck 2 you both!
My husband & I are both native Atlantan's and lived in Roswell for years before deciding to sell and live permanantly on our farm in Summerville. We always loved the farm and didn't love Atl traffic. Commuting to Atl for gigs was no big deal till gas prices got crazy and our ad business is all on the road anyway. We have horses and wld love a smaller farm in a rural area that's a little better educated and not so resistant to people and things that are different. Good luck to you too!
...It's beautiful but the average folks around here are VERY conservative, fairly zenophobic and not well educated....
We are a progressive minded couple who are classic jazz musicians as well as own a advertising/marketing company. We enjoy participating in our community but ignorance abounds!
DH and I live in "rural" Oregon about 30 minutes from downtown Portland. Our immediate neighbors include several members of a fundamentalist congregation who sold everything they owned expecting to get sucked up in the Rapture at 11:59:59, December 31, 1999. They literally believe that people like me (non-fundamentalists) are "demons in human form" sent to corrupt America. There are several other denominations out here of an "end of the world" persuasion. Here, Lutherans are considered liberal.
My county voted "blue collar Clinton Democrat," but that's mostly the union vote. Socially the countryside is quite conservative, working class. It's all about farming and forestry. I'm not seeing Obama signs out here. I do see Ron Paul signs and quite a lot of complaining about taxes. The locals have consistently voted down various police and school funding measures. Some do not have much faith in these traditional cultural institutions. Support for education is minimal if it is not directly tied to job creation. There are very few people outside the cities with college degrees, and there is no serious, rigorous intellectual life at all outside of Portland and a couple of universities. It is not Boston or Paris out here.
DH and I are quite involved in the blues/jazz scene. Most of our gigs are in the city and the near suburbs, such as Tigard. There are some venues out on the coast, down the Willamette Valley, and a few in Bend, but that gets to be a long trip out and back. The music scene is extremely competitive, and does not pay much at all, primarily because there are virtually no barriers to entry.
The musicians' union has little power outside the classical community. And because of the downturn in the economy, several blues/jazz venues have been struggling, and some of them have stopped hiring live musicians. For example, google the "Blue Monk." Every single musician I know is scraping by with no savings and no health insurance. That's why we have to stage fundraisers more or less continually, to help musicians pay for their operations. Curtis Salgado is only one example of this.
As for style, the blues scene is dominated by traditional country, Delta, and Chicago blues. Check out the Cascade Blues Association website for more on this. The jazz scene tends toward New York standards, scat, swing, some fusion, and a little New Orleans style. The ultra-modern experimental stuff just isn't here.
I think people move to Oregon for the outdoor lifestyle and the "slower paced," "laid-back" atmosphere. The down side of that atmosphere, however, is a "laid back" attitude about showing up for work, or leaving work early, especially on Friday afternoon. This applies in city and country. Forget trying to get anything done on the opening week of deer or salmon season. Willamette Week, our local alternative paper, calls this the "slacker culture." People show up here with a guitar, expecting to crash on a friend's sofa, and then pick up enough work to get an apartment. They generally end up working at Starbucks. Sometimes this leads to an "I'm not really a waitress, I'm an actress/artist/web designer" attitude, like you get in L.A. So there's an unstable, uncommitted, transient work force at the entry level.
Both the cities and the countryside have a lot of people trying to get away from the "evils of civilization." But that leaves something of a cultural vacuum, which people attempt to fill with, let us say, experimental lifestyle choices. In Portland and Eugene, the experimentation revolves around neo-hippie and grunge culture. In the country, it's largely born-agains, homeschooling, survivalism, etc. And of course everything is overlaid with a sort of mystical, quasi-religious environmental consciousness, which pervades every aspect of public life.
Sorry to write such a huge essay, but it's hard to describe this place to "outsiders." If you want stunning natural beauty, organic veggies, country blues, Birkenstocks, etc. this is a great place. If you want cutting-edge jazz, world-class art, and heavy philosophical discussion, you won't find it here.
DH and I live in "rural" Oregon about 30 minutes from downtown Portland. Our immediate neighbors include several members of a fundamentalist congregation who sold everything they owned expecting to get sucked up in the Rapture at 11:59:59, December 31, 1999. They literally believe that people like me (non-fundamentalists) are "demons in human form" sent to corrupt America. There are several other denominations out here of an "end of the world" persuasion. Here, Lutherans are considered liberal.
My county voted "blue collar Clinton Democrat," but that's mostly the union vote. Socially the countryside is quite conservative, working class. It's all about farming and forestry. I'm not seeing Obama signs out here. I do see Ron Paul signs and quite a lot of complaining about taxes. The locals have consistently voted down various police and school funding measures. Some do not have much faith in these traditional cultural institutions. Support for education is minimal if it is not directly tied to job creation. There are very few people outside the cities with college degrees, and there is no serious, rigorous intellectual life at all outside of Portland and a couple of universities. It is not Boston or Paris out here.
DH and I are quite involved in the blues/jazz scene. Most of our gigs are in the city and the near suburbs, such as Tigard. There are some venues out on the coast, down the Willamette Valley, and a few in Bend, but that gets to be a long trip out and back. The music scene is extremely competitive, and does not pay much at all, primarily because there are virtually no barriers to entry.
The musicians' union has little power outside the classical community. And because of the downturn in the economy, several blues/jazz venues have been struggling, and some of them have stopped hiring live musicians. For example, google the "Blue Monk." Every single musician I know is scraping by with no savings and no health insurance. That's why we have to stage fundraisers more or less continually, to help musicians pay for their operations. Curtis Salgado is only one example of this.
As for style, the blues scene is dominated by traditional country, Delta, and Chicago blues. Check out the Cascade Blues Association website for more on this. The jazz scene tends toward New York standards, scat, swing, some fusion, and a little New Orleans style. The ultra-modern experimental stuff just isn't here.
I think people move to Oregon for the outdoor lifestyle and the "slower paced," "laid-back" atmosphere. The down side of that atmosphere, however, is a "laid back" attitude about showing up for work, or leaving work early, especially on Friday afternoon. This applies in city and country. Forget trying to get anything done on the opening week of deer or salmon season. Willamette Week, our local alternative paper, calls this the "slacker culture." People show up here with a guitar, expecting to crash on a friend's sofa, and then pick up enough work to get an apartment. They generally end up working at Starbucks. Sometimes this leads to an "I'm not really a waitress, I'm an actress/artist/web designer" attitude, like you get in L.A. So there's an unstable, uncommitted, transient work force at the entry level.
Both the cities and the countryside have a lot of people trying to get away from the "evils of civilization." But that leaves something of a cultural vacuum, which people attempt to fill with, let us say, experimental lifestyle choices. In Portland and Eugene, the experimentation revolves around neo-hippie and grunge culture. In the country, it's largely born-agains, homeschooling, survivalism, etc. And of course everything is overlaid with a sort of mystical, quasi-religious environmental consciousness, which pervades every aspect of public life.
Sorry to write such a huge essay, but it's hard to describe this place to "outsiders." If you want stunning natural beauty, organic veggies, country blues, Birkenstocks, etc. this is a great place. If you want cutting-edge jazz, world-class art, and heavy philosophical discussion, you won't find it here.
Wow! Thanks for the legthy description. Let me describe where we are now. There is litterlly a church on every corner. I'm a election poll worker and we get folks coming in the door to vote saying, "I cain't believe them Democrats are gonna tie us down with a terrorist who don't even believe in God." We also have many folks here who hate Mexicans and believe that they all need to learn to speak English if they're going to come here while using their own language thusly, "We come over to your house last night but you wasn't home."
We are classic, straight up jazz musicians with vocals while Atlanta leans more towards smooth jazz/instrumental. We used to live in the Atlanta area and w/ traffic it still took us about 1-2 hrs to get to a gig in town! We currently drive from 20min to 3 hrs for gigs and fuel prices are killing us. Pay is quite low here as well. What are the resort areas like toward the mts? We've had good luck w/ some of the resorts here.
We've typically been able to rely on our ad/marketing business to pay the bulk of the bills but this economy has made our music quite necessary.
We have horses and love living in the country. Country and bluegrass inundate us here and folks look at us funny when we tell them we play jazz. I'm only hoping for correct subject verb agreement and folks who may be a little more openen minded.
Wow! Thanks for the legthy description. Let me describe where we are now. There is litterlly a church on every corner. I'm a election poll worker and we get folks coming in the door to vote saying, "I cain't believe them Democrats are gonna tie us down with a terrorist who don't even believe in God." We also have many folks here who hate Mexicans and believe that they all need to learn to speak English if they're going to come here while using their own language thusly, "We come over to your house last night but you wasn't home."
Lots of born-again churches, check. Anti-Mexican, check. Poor English "native speakers," check.
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We are classic, straight up jazz musicians with vocals while Atlanta leans more towards smooth jazz/instrumental. We used to live in the Atlanta area and w/ traffic it still took us about 1-2 hrs to get to a gig in town!
It takes about that long to get from Columbia County to the far end of Oregon City, which covers most of the gigs. There is less traffic, but the population is sparse, so you have to go farther out to get any gig at all.
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We currently drive from 20min to 3 hrs for gigs and fuel prices are killing us. Pay is quite low here as well. What are the resort areas like toward the mts? We've had good luck w/ some of the resorts here.
Check. Gas is high, wages low. There are resorts, but there is also lots of competition.
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We've typically been able to rely on our ad/marketing business to pay the bulk of the bills but this economy has made our music quite necessary.
You will probably not be able to rely on music wages for any significant portion of your income. My DH has 25 years of experience, and gets about $25 - $50 dollars per night, if he's lucky, not including gas or other expenses. There are too many amateurs who are willing to play for free, or for a meal. This drives wages down.
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We have horses and love living in the country. Country and bluegrass inundate us here and folks look at us funny when we tell them we play jazz. I'm only hoping for correct subject verb agreement and folks who may be a little more open minded.
Country and bluegrass is basically the norm outside the cities. People are "open-minded," that is, they don't care if you smoke pot-- but they follow the local "party line" pretty much without question. People are committed to their particular orthodoxy, whether right or left, so politics can be inflexible and oppositional. As for grammar-- don't get me started-- it's like Appalachia.
I don't mean to burst your bubble, but you need to understand. Portland is a lot like Austin, and rural Oregon is a lot like Texas. It's an "island" of hippie culture in a sea of cowboys. Except that Austin is a heck of a lot cheaper to live in!
The rural parts of the Willamette Valley are weird and a little backwoodsy. Though I HIGHLY doubt they are as bad as Georgia.
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