The center of the folk music scene
here in St. Louis is Music Folk,
a great store, in Webster Groves.
There are sessions every Weds
evening at 7, led by Jerry Maloney,
and we’re often kinda dreadful,
but we are getting better, and you
would be very welcome.
Music Folk has info about other
music related events–they have
a little bulletin listing stuff
you can get when you go there.
Also just off Manchester Ave
there’s Focal Point, which has
an acoustic jam every
Thurs night at 7, 3 dollars
to participate after your
first visit. This is quite good.
Every sort of music is played.
Hope to see you–I’ll be
the geezer wrestling with
the Seery flute and losing.
McGurks in Soulard may have
sessions on the weekends–
worth a visit. Soulard is
an interesting neighborhood,
and there is the indoor farmer’s
market there, which is
fine. Oh, and you’ll
be here for the Tional,
which will be wonderful. Jim
It’s a friendly town with at least 3 Irish pubs and a terrific trad session at one of them every Sunday. (And lots more great non-Irish pubs.) Good cultural scene with major universities all around. If it were closer to the mountains, I would like Raleigh as much as Asheville. It is about halfway between the Blue Ridge mountains and the Outer Banks. Of course, the Outer Banks are fun too, expecially Ocracoke Island.
On 2003-02-25 18:31, chas wrote:
Charlottesville, VA, has some of what you’re looking for. It’s small (city 40k, area probably 100k), has culture, largely associated with the University, a somewhat active folk scene. Good beer and wine, too. The mountains are a half hour from the center of town, and, when you do want a city, DC is 2 hours away.
It took me about two years to warm up to it, largely due to culture shock.
I haven’t spent much time in Raleigh-Durham, but will agree with Redwolf; it seems like it would be a great place to live, although it’s growing apace these days.
I like Durham better than Raleigh…both are nice cities, but Raleigh’s a good bit bigger (and driving on the Beltline is terrifying!). Durham still has vestiges of that little old farming and college town atmosphere. They’re about 20 miles apart, and a lot of people who work in Raleigh live in Durham or Chapel Hill.
Well, the beltways do help route traffic away from the residential streets. As a result, it’s not hard to drive in Raleigh. Even downtown never gets seriously congested. The worst traffic is out on Wade Ave when NC State hosts an athletic event.
[ This Message was edited by: Ridseard on 2003-02-25 19:59 ]
I definitly concur with Paul’s suggestion of Charleston! I would have loved to attend the College of Charleston, but the scholarships offered for state residents attending state schools were too much to pass up.
Loren, what part of Sarasota/Bradenton did you live in or visit? I’d be interested to hear. There are parts of both towns that are pretty crappy (especially Bradenton, I must say), but I think overall they’re not too bad, especially if you know the right places to go (downtown!).
rebl rn–
I have no tickets to any Bristol race. Probably half the folks I know do, but not me. It’s a nightmare, it takes 3 or so hours just to get out of there on race day. It is also v-e-r-y expensive. I use to work for the former owner’s veterinarian and I had him ask for tickets when he was out seeing one of his horses- no luck. The tickets have to either be practically inherited OR you have to go and find a scalper on race day. Actually the last race I went to there was in 1972 or 73- Cale Yarborough won by about 15 laps or something like that.Tickets cost $7.00 and you could just go to a ticket booth in front of the track to get them. OR, you could not buy a ticket and sit up on the bank on the south side of the track for free. Boy, has that place changed! I do like to watch it on TV though.
Asheville is a beautiful place, that’s for sure. Everyone I know from North Carolina loves it there.
DON’T, however, settle in Myrtle Beach. It’s a great place to visit, but staying for more than two weeks will make you naucious. It’s a tourist “town” - a wet coat of paint over run down, poorly designed…what’s the $.25 word … “infrastructure”(?). Live here for awhile and you start to notice it bigtime. Half the people I know here can’t wait to leave. But I will say this, the one’s that WANT to stay love it. It seems you’re hot or cold here. Me = absolute zero frigid.
Hi Yes,Charleston S.C. is a wonderful place to live. Lots of plusses. One big negative…no Irish trad, no Celtic and not much interesting folk music around. Lots of great things going for it though. Beaches, rivers, forests, gardens, plantations, nice weather etc etc etc. Any questions I’d be happy to answer. Fran
We went on our honeymoon there, Charleston. Nice easy pace of life, mega history, great town. The Huge Spoleto Arts Festival is there every year too. Several Atlantans I have known have moved over the years to escape the rat-race here. It’s definitely worth checking out.
Hmm, haven’t been to Charleston for 20 years, so I imagine it’s changed quite a bit. Still, no mountains - hard to mountain bike and rock climb in the flat lands!
I just found out today that there’s the possibility that I can get relocated where I would prefer, if I really stick to my guns, so maybe I’ll shoot for Colorado or California, since Asheville may not have enough business to support me there.
Of course if the woman I love would forgive me for being such a jackass recently, then I’d gladly push for a location near her…but I hold little hope she’ll change her mind, so…
Well, thanks for all the feedback folks, it has been very informative and helpful.
On 2003-02-26 18:23, Loren wrote:
Still, no mountains - hard to mountain bike and rock climb in the flat lands!
My problem exactly. I like to hike, road bike and run. While biking and running are alot easier in the flatlands of Florida, it makes it rather hard to train for races when the best races are run or biked in the mountains. I am way too slow to race competitively, but I enjoy entering and finishing them even if I do finish a whole lot closer to the back of the pack than the front.
I want to get to the mountains for the scenery that I love and the outdoor activities that just don’t exist in the flatlands.
Loren, you might try “www.findyourspot.com”. You answer questions about your preferences in a town & it returns a list of potential places. (As always when using such sites, you have to be careful not to make yourself a target of junk e-mail.) I looked around the Southeast. Found some nice places, but, alas, where we’d like to be& where I can find a job seem never to be the same place.
The big places, i.e. places a corporation is likely to assign you, tend to be suburban wastelands. (I think it was Heinlein who proposed that visitors to our planet may well conclude that we humans are slaves of the dominant species of the planet, the automobiles.)
Good hunting…
Loren,
Go to South Carolina, Hilton Head Island, Sea Pines Resort, South Beach Marina. Go to the Pier, walk up to the kiosk and sit down facing the south with your back to the Salty Dog Cafe. If you are lucky enough to sit in the third seat from the corner you will find that you can live a very nice life there.
John
