“You’d like to do it instantaneously, but that’s too slow.”

While a place has yet to be found for a new home in Denver, I’ve reserved the truck and hotels for the trip, and there by committed myself to the journey to Denver leaving San Francisco on August 2nd, and arriving in Denver on the 4th. Upon arrival, if lucky I’ll be moving into a new place, but more likely I’ll be storing my stuff with a good friend, and the search will continue.

Funny bits looking for apartments –

– “1 bedroom studio for rent!” – ummmm, is it a 1 bedroom? or a studio, and your just reminding us that a studio is just one room, and if you feel sad about living in a box, you can call it a 1 bedroom studio, and it sounds more impressive?

– “Cute/Cozy studio for rent!” – used quite a lot in descriptions of places, read “small”, it’s not fuzzy and it doesn’t have big weepy eyes like a puppy, or baby cute. It’s not cozy like a warm blanket. It’s small, like a box that is a studio.

– “$575 studios available!” – yes, I’m calling about the studio you have for rent per your advert on craigslist posted today – ooo, that place is sold, but we have 1 bedrooms you would like so much better for $700! – umm, no, I’m calling about your add, not your bait and switch project I just wasted cell phone minutes on…..

– adds that don’t put the address or even part of town its in, so let me get this straight, and you want me to waste my time calling you to find that out…

But for real the search doesn’t look too bad, there are a lot of places available in my price range, just a matter of sorting out the good and the bad. And on that note, back to work I go.

– By doing just a little every day, you can gradually let the task
completely overwhelm you. –

After about 12 years of living in the San Francisco Bay Area, it’s now finally time to get moving on to Denver, Colorado (or back to Denver, as I used to live in the Boulder/Denver area from about 1st grade till 10th grade, and a summer or too in college).

I first ventured out to the bay area in the hope of a cool place to live and the possibility of finding work in the studio or live sound. After finishing at SUNY Fredonia, my main choices for places to go with a good chance of finding work were New York City, Nashville, and Los Angeles. Not wanting to live in any of these places, and with the recommendation of a friend in Fredonia, I chose to head out to San Francisco. First moving in with a friend of mine in Oakland, then in with some friends of my fathers in Fairfax, and then in with the Family Lopez Circus on Steiner St. in San Francisco. I have met many great friends out here, many fellow Fredionia alumni, and it will be tough to move far away from everyone I’ve come to know and love here, but in this year of many changes, the time has come for yet another and a change of location. I could write gigabytes on all the great people and events that are are my history here in the San Francisco bay area.

Why has it finally come time to move on? Well, I’ve been in this flat since about 1996, a bit more than ten years, and while the rent is cheap, there is a reason, as the rooms are small, and the place is pretty old and beaten up. It’s had Lopez Family Circus in it since 1992 or so, and that will certainly take it’s toll. While the Steiner street flat is rich in lore, it is time to move into a nicer place. While this could be accomplished here in SF, it’s a bit out of my budget. I’ve always lived with roommates since I left home 15+ years ago, and while I have lived with all good people, no crazy hassles or anything throughout the years, I’m now wanting to get a place of my own. Moving to Denver, or somewhere in up-state or Western NY has always been in the back of my mind. I always knew I wasn’t going to stay in SF forever, and always had a dream of moving to one of the two states eventually, with some of the delay in moving from deciding which of the two. Denver always had a bit of a lead over NY state, though with friends and family in both states it was tough to choose. With my fathers recent passing, change seems to encourage more change. I’ve been taking a lot of time off, so that has given me time to think about life in general, and where it’s going and what I want to do with, and with all that is has come time to try out that pesky dream in the back of my head. I’ve been getting work offers for various tours, but nothing that jumped out at me to take, or more so pull me away from moving, so there is a convenient break in my schedule to do a move.

Why Denver? well, most folks reading this blog would already know, but here goes (in no particular order and very spontaneously)
– I used to live there, grew up there, liked it when I was there, simple enough.
– My mom and brother and sister are out there along with friends I grew up with.
– I miss the seasons, not that seasons are completely non-existent in the bay area, but the variance is no where near as large. Sounds a bit odd, but I miss those “marks of time passing” in a much more obvious way. I’m ready to take the bitter cold and snow, along with the burning hot, and all in-between in exchange for the a bit cold to slightly warm and rare extremes of the middle of San Francisco.
– I really like the mountains, the ocean is cool, but the mountains more my thing.
– Yards, I miss yards, and that bit of grass inbetween the sidewalk and the street, with trees in these bits of yard, as compared to cement, and more cement, with the occasional square bit of dirt with a tree coming out of it. I’m not putting San Francisco down, it’s in the top 5 cites in US in my book, but I’m liking something different.
– It is in the middle of the US per se. Since I’ve been doing mostly touring work, and haven’t had or needed a steady house gig, it doesn’t really matter where I live, long as I can get to an airport (though I’ll definitly look into the possibility of working the Fillmore, Ogden, or Gothic, possibly even the Bluebird though there SPL limit due to neighbors complaints is a bit annoying to deal with). And there’s a downside in Denver, the airport, I’m not particularly fond of it. I could easily see the chances of a flight of mine being delayed due to weather or such is probably a bit higher at SFO certain times of the year. And any airport designer that needs to put in some form of transportation in their airport design, to get you to and from your plane, such as buses or trains, needs to go back to airport design school and try again.
– Denver is affordable to me, I may be touring with the stars, but in now way does that mean I’m rollin in the dough, and in my searching, it’s definilty cheaper to rent a one bedroom or studio of decent quality in Denver that in San Francisco.

And speaking of searching for a place to live, that’s numero uno at the moment, as I hope to be in my new home no latter then mid August, so I better get back to working on finding a place!

Nothing endures but change.
— Heraclitus