The always handy Ask Metafilter twice recommends A2 to questioners seeking a new place to live. The first is a couple into crafts and bluegrass looking for a “Retirement Garden of Eden”; the second requires left-wing politics and lots of sprawl. We think the advice was quite sound.
I LOVE that the second askers want 2-5 acres, but NOT suburban hell. Maybe they just want to be able to drive by it on the way to the Chop House on Friday nights.
posted by Dale on August 12th, 2005 at 1:50 pmI’m wondering how, in the first one, is New Zealand impervious to GLOBAL warming…
posted by FAA on August 12th, 2005 at 2:56 pmMaybe the poster means that New Zealand is impervious to “future” global warming. The hole in the ozone layer is right over New Zealand, and because it’s a relatively unindustrialized country, there is no “protective” haze to shield you from the UV radiation (unlike in neighboring Australia). Being outdoors in New Zealand in the morning and afternoon is like being in Honolulu at high noon in terms of UV exposure. Skin cancer rates for fair-skinned New Zealanders are higher than that for Australia as well.
posted by JCP2 on August 12th, 2005 at 5:01 pmThe “Central Ohio” comment made me laugh up coffee onto my laptop. I would have said “Lubbock, Texas,” but registering takes too long (sigh).
posted by Young Jeezy on August 12th, 2005 at 5:17 pmActually, what about Detroit? I’m sure the City would sell him 2.5 acres of “land,” and it’s interesting and near water. Hmmm…
posted by Young Jeezy on August 12th, 2005 at 5:19 pmI’m so hungover, but I want to tell this story and go to back to bed. Succinct tale.
Pilsen is a Chicago neighborhood with roots in Eastern Europe. It traditionally has an artist bent. The buildings look like condos with ground level storefronts. In back there are courtyards that span multiple units and look like little parks. The neighborhood turned Latino and is now moving through a gentrification phase via young, mostly white artists. A landlord named Podmajersky owns most of the buildings through a stretch of the neighborhood on Halsted.
For the last several years there has been a series of Art Crawls on the second Friday of every month, partly through the instigation of Podmajersky — now in the 3rd generation. Artists open their galleries and hand out wine. Attendees make it interesting for each other. However, Podmajersky wants to control this to the tenants of their first floor galleries — with the exception of the October Crawl. The young artists could give a fuck.
Last year in October I met a really cool, friendly couple who were showing in a second floor space. They were showing a buddy of theirs who has an MBA and does sculpture and painting of hot babes in wood grain. Let’s the couple call Shirley and Phred and the artist Fred. Met a chick named Queenie.
Fast forward to last week. Queenie tells me that Shirley and Phred are showing Fred again. Dude, I’m there.
But when I got there last night [people who know the neighborhood can be interested now] everyone was in a shit mood. Wood grain naked chicks on the walls. Stacks of lithographs of wood grain naked chicks on the tables. Multiple cases of cheap beer. Five-gallon bucket of wine with a spigot at the bottom. (They had been pouring gallons of Carlo Rossi into it.)
Why the shit mood? Two of the third generation Pods [Podmajerskys] had be there to tell them they had to shut it down because they rent a second floor apartment (and their lease is up in a month). Fred is looking like Carlos Mencia meets Frank’n'Furter. His nephew, who looks like T.O. meets Benjamin Bratt is there with his fiancee, who looks like the best of Kate Hudson meets Goldie Hawn. Fred is unloading multiple paintings and lithographs onto his nephew. He gives him a gallon of Carlo Rossi. He puts his arm around his NEPHEW’S fiancee and full-hand grabs her ass cheek. “We’re family.”
So half an hour later I’m on the stairs and Fred tells me to hold up. Fifteen minutes after that I he’s carrying a half-bucket of Carlo Rossi down the stairs with a U of student. I ask him why he had me hold up and he says that Shirley and Phred had to go to sleep. We dump off the wine at his SUV and go around the corner to the atrium reggae party. The lady at the front wants $5 each to get in. He talks her down to three for the all of us. He did bring up that he had a motorboat.
Cutting to the chase … this the inner courtyard that this party was in was amazing. It was a (est.) six lot wide, two lot deep little park. There was an electrically lit veranda, more than sufficient for bands. And trees. And lots of people having a great time.
Fifteen minutes into that a sorority looking chick gets on the veranda with a Linkn Park looking guy. She screams, “This is private property!!!!!! You all have to leave!!!!” Someone asks if she is Podmajerski. She affirms and tries to get that guy’s name. The very good party disperses.
So in Ann Arbor … have landlords started policing house parties to only allow the ones they perceive that raises their sale price?
posted by A Different Jon on August 13th, 2005 at 4:18 pmI love that DULUTH, MN was offered as a suggestion many replies before anyone thought of Ann Arbor!
posted by BackInMN on August 14th, 2005 at 12:11 amLast time I was in Duluth, it was a great place to be. But that was a long time ago. Probably most of what I liked about it is gone by now. In particular, a whole lot of the downtown was demolished to build a freeway through it.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on August 14th, 2005 at 5:20 pm