I know it's ludicrous but I keep thinking there has to be some hidden place where people are paying $200/month in rent and listening to banging underground techno all night. In America.
You want "cheap" you go rural. Which eliminates "arts scene" potential, according to my travels across the USA. American "artists" (not those who create art, but those who live an artistic "lifestyle" and who, in my 20s, were called "artsy people" or "art fags" (no derogatory import in "fag" there, it's a form of The Dozens)).
What's the HIPPEST city in the USA right now?
Portland OR. Every 2d and 3d rate town trying to be more hip and cool is emulating Portland.
Don't make the mistake of going to the one in Maine, unless you like cold temps and oceanic weather patterns.
Yeah see I wonder if there is a such a thing as an "arts scene" made up just of people who do as opposed to people who dress as if. Asking too much perhaps. But I certainly don't need to be somewhere hip. I'm just looking for a balance between a cabin in the woods and Brooklyn.
I would never move to Portland, OR. I like Portland, ME, but I went there in August, and was traveling from DC, so the weather was just what I was looking for at that particular moment. Amusingly enough, I just read someone describe Portland, ME as "Williamsburg North", which means Portland, ME is also Portland East now too.
Check that town in Massachusetts where Thurston Moore lives.
I think maybe the big-ness of NYC can be stifling, so many people and so little a sense of community. I never got into it myself. And there's that issue of the cost... a big issue.
I'd share more ideas in an email but not here -- anyone who loves stalking wild trout knows the inherent value of not publicizing good fishing spots!
That hip development in the Maine-Portland is new-ish; I was there around 1991 and it was still very Maine-like in its tenor. But 20 yrs is a long time in the fast-paced culture of Murikkeh.
If I wanted a big city I'd think about what's going to spring up in Detroit's gutted areas. I guess the money in Detroit wants new condos etc in those spots, but meanwhile it could create some interesting sub- or counter-culture zones.
Over the course of my life I've watched a pattern in every city I've inhabited: run-down areas are slums, then cheap housing for artists etc, then cutting-edge hip, then mainstream hip (like "alternative" music became in the 90s), then ...gentrified.
So I'd look for the early part of that curve.
Same thing happens to cool rural towns too, once enough yupsters "discover" their "quaintness". See, for example, lots of the cool towns in western NJ from Hunterdon Co northward.
Human living trends move very fast nowadays with the Toobz being on nearly every cityslicker's phone or tablet. Swarms of people herd-up and gravitate much faster now. What took 20 years in Boulder CO took only 5-7 years in Missoula. Toobz is the difference I'd see.
10 comments:
Austin, Texas?
salt lake city!!!
(jk, but i love the beat happening vid)
Is it still cheap?
I know it's ludicrous but I keep thinking there has to be some hidden place where people are paying $200/month in rent and listening to banging underground techno all night. In America.
Is Austin still cheap I mean?
SLC I know nothing about. It doesn't seem impossible that there would be some small coterie of rebels there due to the repression.
Yay BH fans!
"Major city" and "cheap" in the same construct?
Nay.
You want "cheap" you go rural. Which eliminates "arts scene" potential, according to my travels across the USA. American "artists" (not those who create art, but those who live an artistic "lifestyle" and who, in my 20s, were called "artsy people" or "art fags" (no derogatory import in "fag" there, it's a form of The Dozens)).
What's the HIPPEST city in the USA right now?
Portland OR. Every 2d and 3d rate town trying to be more hip and cool is emulating Portland.
Don't make the mistake of going to the one in Maine, unless you like cold temps and oceanic weather patterns.
Yeah see I wonder if there is a such a thing as an "arts scene" made up just of people who do as opposed to people who dress as if. Asking too much perhaps. But I certainly don't need to be somewhere hip. I'm just looking for a balance between a cabin in the woods and Brooklyn.
I would never move to Portland, OR. I like Portland, ME, but I went there in August, and was traveling from DC, so the weather was just what I was looking for at that particular moment. Amusingly enough, I just read someone describe Portland, ME as "Williamsburg North", which means Portland, ME is also Portland East now too.
In snark-free mode:
Check that town in Massachusetts where Thurston Moore lives.
I think maybe the big-ness of NYC can be stifling, so many people and so little a sense of community. I never got into it myself. And there's that issue of the cost... a big issue.
I'd share more ideas in an email but not here -- anyone who loves stalking wild trout knows the inherent value of not publicizing good fishing spots!
That hip development in the Maine-Portland is new-ish; I was there around 1991 and it was still very Maine-like in its tenor. But 20 yrs is a long time in the fast-paced culture of Murikkeh.
Northampton?
http://airport-ttt.blogspot.com/2011/08/mvp.html
I hope I am not coming off as ungrateful. I appreciate all of the help and ideas, etc.
We'll see what happens...
I don't sense any ungratefulness!
If I wanted a big city I'd think about what's going to spring up in Detroit's gutted areas. I guess the money in Detroit wants new condos etc in those spots, but meanwhile it could create some interesting sub- or counter-culture zones.
Over the course of my life I've watched a pattern in every city I've inhabited: run-down areas are slums, then cheap housing for artists etc, then cutting-edge hip, then mainstream hip (like "alternative" music became in the 90s), then ...gentrified.
So I'd look for the early part of that curve.
Same thing happens to cool rural towns too, once enough yupsters "discover" their "quaintness". See, for example, lots of the cool towns in western NJ from Hunterdon Co northward.
Human living trends move very fast nowadays with the Toobz being on nearly every cityslicker's phone or tablet. Swarms of people herd-up and gravitate much faster now. What took 20 years in Boulder CO took only 5-7 years in Missoula. Toobz is the difference I'd see.
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