Tell me about Phoenix

spoonietee

Hello Strut,
I post infrequently, lurk daily, and I need some help. A good friend of mine now lives/teaches eighth grade math in Phoenix AZ and as I graduate from university this spring and have neither job prospects (French major-related) nor anything holding me to any particular place, he invited me to go live in the desert with him.
Should I do it? Interests include: live rock and roll, soul 45s, skateboarding, dive bars, weird times, lawsuit telecasters through cranked out tube amps, et cetera. I'm from Michigan so year round summer sounds pretty rad, the cactus league, plus proximity to Mexico as I speak decent Spanish and love their foodstuffs.
Good music scene? Records? Vintage clothing? Cool folks to drink mad brews with? Cool folks to make music with? Sorry to ask for help while I contribute nada but I trust the the Strut to lead me into my destiny.

Thanks!
Timothy

Unrelated post-script.
Here are the RZA and Yoko Ono playing chess:

skel

See, this is how newbie/lurkers should do it.
Quality posting.

vintageinfants

i remember you.

spoonietee

skel: Thanks dude!
vintageinfants: I hope they are fond memories b/w have always dug your username/location.

vintageinfants

i would consider looking into montreal mon ami. if you can handle cold winters [if i recall, you're currently minnesota? michigan?] it's definitely one of the best places in north america to live and eat and drink and play and ........... you get it.

cost of living is at insane lows right now [almost a third of toronto or vancouver] and needless to say, it's more than agreeable with a french education.

unless you're trying to get somewhere warm........ then forget about it altogether. AZ is your destination.

DOR

As someone who spent a couple of years living in Phoenix (Snobsdale). I would say go for it.

Takes a bit of adjusting, but it's great out there. Over 300 days of sun a year. Coldest it gets is the need for a light jacket.

The greatest part for me was every weekend we would want to get up to something, and you were always a 4 hours drive or less away from some good times. Grand Canyon or going snowboarding in Flagstaff in the north. Vegas... Cali, Mexico, etc etc etc...

I use to love hitting up places like Antelope Canyon, Lake Havasu/Lake Powell, Sedona.

Hitting up ghost towns.

If you golf at all. It's like the golf centre of the universe.


Also, since it's a dry heat. No humidity. My allergies pretty much disappeared.


It does get CRAZY hot. When the heat gets 118+ just stay outta the sun and you'll be good.


I really should have bought a place there with shit bottomed out and just rent it til I'm ready to retire.

vintageinfants

spoonietee said:

Here are the RZA and Yoko Ono playing chess:

spoonietee

Are you a bug, Bill Murray?

spoonietee

DOR: Thanks a lot man. All of that sounds rad, especially the fact that there is freshwater around. I grew up in a town bordered by a river and Lake Superior so I'm pretty partial to the aguas/scared that dry desert life might be desolate but it is comforting there are some lakes nearby.

BallzDeep

I've lived here about 10 yrs.
AZ is beautiful.
Very hot in August.
Insane sunsets.
Bark scorpions.
I recommend Scottsdale.
Some records to be found.

Any specific questions feel free to hit me up with a PM.

Hotsauce84

They don't call it Snobsdale for nothing!

My mom is a very fit, very brown woman who's taught various aerobics classes for almost 40 years. A few years ago, she lived on the outskirts of Scottsdale. She went into one of the ritzy gyms to see if they needed any instructors. Without even asking any questions or looking at her resume, the fit, blonde sorority-type gal looked at her and said "I'm sorry, we already have a cleaning staff." THAT'S Scottsdale to me, and to a lot of non-rich/non-hoity toity folks.

(Best believe my mom had complaint letters written and sent out the next day.)

Casteneda

Lived in Tempe, right off Mill Ave. for 2 years, from 2002-2003. Fun place to live in your early/mid-20's. Spent a lot of time at Casey Moore's and going to Long Wong's before it closed. It was a perfect place for an educator to live, because I had 2 months off in the summertime, so I just escaped the 110 degree weather during that time and fled up to Seattle/Portland (my roots). Drank lots of beer while living there and chased the ASU girls...Would agree that it's kind've an uppity place (especially Scottsdale) but made some great, long-lasting friends there.

BallzDeep

Herm said:

They don't call it Snobsdale for nothing!

My mom is a very fit, very brown woman who's taught various aerobics classes for almost 40 years. A few years ago, she lived on the outskirts of Scottsdale. She went into one of the ritzy gyms to see if they needed any instructors. Without even asking any questions or looking at her resume, the fit, blonde sorority-type gal looked at her and said "I'm sorry, we already have a cleaning staff." THAT'S Scottsdale to me, and to a lot of non-rich/non-hoity toity folks.

(Best believe my mom had complaint letters written and sent out the next day.)

Haha wow.

Well I'm certainly non-hoity toity (textbook, actually) but I love Scottsdale.
The good definitely outweighs the bad.

GatorToof

I think they have a Zia's and another record store close to each other.. Also there is a bar with lots of books, I think it is called the Library. Dj's spin there, however; I don't think they play oldies. I would imagine there are oldies, in good condition, due to the number of people who moved there in the 80's.

JectWon

spoonietee said:

Here are the RZA and Yoko Ono playing chess:

I am willing to bet that Yoko Ono absolutely sucks at Chess. I hope he showed her no mercy.




Welcome to the Strut. Sorry I have nothing to offer regarding your upcoming life decisions...

spoonietee

Thanks for the bienvenidos and the suggestions dudes. I'm thinking I'll take a trip out there early May to see if I could potentially dig it. The heat is a very real concern--I'm originally from the upper peninsula of Michigan and our summer heat is barely comparable to their winters, but I imagine it might end up being a welcome change. The other question is the music scene--I spend most of my time in Detroit, where there are a ton of DIY venues and shows plus a few rad places where a good deal of touring bands that I like make sure to stop. Obviously it's tough to get a feel for that doing internet searches and the like, but do any of you have experience with the "underground" rock and roll/soul/good-music-that-the-strut-likes night life?

Examples of bands I've seen recently:











Et cetera.

white_tea

I clicked on this thread thinking it was going to be about the new Phoenix tune, "Entertainment."

phoenixboy

phoenix is fucking terrible. scottsdale is worse. everyday interactions with the most vapid, soulless, ignorant people imaginable are commonplace. a visit before a move is a very good idea.

over the past 10-12 years, things have opened up a bit, and there are now "hip" bars and coffee shops and shit with a lot of smiling, styling and profiling. you can now get craft brews and macchiatos and fernet. people that lived 6 months in portland or brooklyn coming back to urbanize phoenix. it's a complete mess. no one knows what the fuck they are doing.

there are no good record stores in phoenix. there are 2 used record stores, but they are both pretty terrible. while it can be fun to drive around to thrift stores for a couple of days, rest assured that shit becomes a lot less novel when the fruits of a day's labor and $22 in gas are a falconaires LP with a bad dennis coffey version and a moth-eaten pendleton that's 2 sizes too big.

if you are into suburban american creature comforts like strip malls and 114 oz soft drinks, phoenix will suit you fine. ditto if you enjoy the malaise of urban sprawl in a place where humans are meant to die. equatorial heat blazes off the surface of endless sheets of asphalt, people have shotguns mounted to their trucks. lots of racism, as alluded to above.

some rural parts of AZ, especially the southeast of the state, cochise county, are really quite beautiful. and the mexican food in AZ is without question the best in the country. but if you are a person who likes to do things, or be stimulated by his surroundings, i can think of quite a few places that would be preferable to getting stuck in phoenix.

phoenixboy

p.s. 99% of interesting independent bands skip phoenix on their tours, and if they do come through, there will be about 25 people in attendance.

cove

Just come to Montreal and hold off growing up for a couple more years!

Hollafame

Haha...I've spent a fair bit of time in Phoenix visiting family and my parents now spend half the year there. I can pretty much co-sign on everything phoenixboy said above, with the proviso that I'm a golfer and the golf there is amazing.

My favourite game to play in scottsdale is "count the Mercedes".

spoonietee

Whoa damn, lots of things to think about. Thanks everybody.

BallzDeep

Keep in mind phoenixboy is kind of a chode...
but he is right about the music scene here.
If you even call it a scene.

I think Jimmy Eat World is from here if that tells you anything.

Hotsauce84

Tucson > Phoenix

(But yes, I'm biased.)

SIRUS

phoenixboy said:

and the mexican food in AZ is without question the best in the country.

better than texas and cali? i doubt it.

phoenixboy

as you can see, in phoenix you will have to deal with people who use the word "chode"

also, i am not going to get into a regional food debate on the internet but believe it or not i did consider california and texas in my categorical statement - if you have never eaten mexican food at one of AZ's more legit establishments (rito's/carolina's/el nopalito in phx), you should try it sometime.

BallzDeep

Chode lolz. Haven't said that in 20 yrs or so. Felt good!

Brass tacks: Kickin it poolside in February scoping out babes.

However, it sounds like you want some "culture" and a "thriving art scene"...
you won't find that here. So you may want to visit first.

And Carolina's has some of the best four tortillas you will ever eat.
Other than that, their menu is pretty boring.

walter_chron

whoa, it's snowing in Phoenix right now!

this is at christown mall!

Hotsauce84

Yeah, it snowed here in Tucson this morning. It stuck too!! And it was in the mid 70's yesterday. Crazy.

DOR

Thats pretty crazy. In all the years I spent there, I never even felt it got close to being cold enough for snow. Did the snow last long or did it warm up? Was this across the valley?

vintageinfants