That's my question... anyone have an opinion?

I am getting so obsessed over San Francisco
it's not funny, but everyone I know who has lived
there say you start dyin' of boredom. Why?

Falon and I have been there three times now and for all that she dislikes travel, she fantasizes about living there too. Tonight (Xmas night) for entertainment we spent some time reading the apartment ads!

(I mean dreaming of leaving NY is such a pastime,
isn't it...)

We saw Todd and David when we were there (very briefly, they were busy with respective Xmas rushes at theatre & boutique) and they are doing very well! Their boredom-level seemed minimal.

They said the tourist trade is off, and maybe as well there is less of an influx of new folk moving there. That can make a place dull. Silicon Valley is a ghost town, new money died on the vine...

But I don't know, the whole mix sounds to me like space to grow and revel in. Not to mention it is BEAUTIFUL just about everywhere you look.

Falon even took pictures of the spotlessly clean subways, she just couldn't believe it. In SF for a dollar you can ride the clean trains and subways all afternoon long. I took 8 different conveyances on that dollar. Compare that to a possible $2.25 for a one-shot ride our hideous noisy trains.

You come back to NY and it really looks disgustingly neglected. Maybe I am just gettting older, but I no longer find vile rudeness a bracing sort of interchange on the streets of a city.

I dream about SF all the time, the views, the hills, I wager I have had about 40 different apartments there. Last night I had a kind of a loft, and was a drug dealer... Sometimes I think I'd do anything just to live there - work as a hotel dick, drive a cab, keep on bein' a tired old Dominatrix...!

I've watched Vertigo half a dozen times lately just for the views.

Genesis said he thought it was a backwards kind of place culturally. But in my humble opinion, the entire United States, and for that matter most of the 20th century qualifies in the 'backwards' department, not to mention crass commercialism, etc. etc. There is no escaping it, unless you become a shaman indian in the outbacks of Australia.

Since when was NYC cutting edge anymore anyhow?

Best vicious for the New Year...

Terence
aka

S'TAN

[This message was edited by S'tan on 12-26-02 at 03:04 AM.]

s'tan - where do I start? I left my heart there, you know . .

before I start i just have to tell you before I moved to san Francisco - I was completely and utterly drawn there - a totally cosmic, magical force. Its difficult to explain, but there was simply no question that I wouldnt drop out of school and move there.

New Years Eve day 91. I arrived on a bus. What I found was a queer Renaissance - Vegas in Space had just been released - there were cross-gender shows, gorgeous drag, diverse performers/ artists, splashy dominatrixes, hookers making decent wages - ok I was near pennyless, it was the middle of winter, but it felt like Utopia to me -everyone was so open and friendly. but it was also me. destiny put me there, in that moment, in that outfit. I met one of my dearest friends Brigit that very night. It was a celebration of the end of the Reagan/Bush 80s - I know that was the night Justin (Bond) and I first met - hehe so long ago!

SF (like anywhere, really) is truly what you make it. its a small, provincial town (bars stop serving at 2) - but when the sun is shining and the fog has chosen not to come in (rare) - no one will tell you its boring.

Ok It does not have the distractions or necessarily the opportunities of NYC and the weather is terribly fickle AND the "California ennui" will get you if you dont watch it BUT I believe it can be the perfect place for someone who is incredibly focused on what they want - who wants to do whatever that is in an open, beautiful, relatively pressure-free place - full of delightful freaks, fools and wandering souls. Dont be surprised if the city itself doesnt change you - forcing your hand on some evolutionary track hehe - oh but Ive said too much already....;)

From what I hear, a lot of cool people are drifting westward to its shores again and many of the old faces of the place are starting to reappear. I know it isnt as it once was (my rent in 1992 was 210$ a month!), but they were saying that when I moved there - and now those times are all anybody I know there talks about!

I think if you're called, you have to go

Jade

Hi Jade,
Thanks for your reply. I imagine I don't want to be much "changed" by a place. The ancient cannot change anyhow. I would like to feel like there's less pressure in my environment. I would only leave NY if my rent skyrockets, as has happened to so many people lately. I am sick
of scrounging in order to live in a substandard
environment. I would gladly scrounge in SF.

You aren't living in SF anymore, I guess. I do have a mystical attraction to the place, but perhaps in order to maintain that, I should not live there!

I heard about you through Brigit when she was staying with you and dating Johanna. (1997 or so?) Hope you are well.

To discuss San Francisco's ALSO having a no-smoking law in bars - they say it did not affect business much. But they can deal with it because the weather is so fair, you can hang out outside, or as many clubs seem to do, in a tented area annex. This can't fly in NY with our inclement weather.

Anyhow NYC looks so grim this time of year everywhere looks better to me that 'this'.

Salut -

Terence
aka
S'tan

http://www.terencesellers.com
http://www.sternangel.com/levay.html