OT 21: DFD Giveth and DFD Taketh Away

[Desertbreh]

It’s quite a tourist destination though, restaurants here seem expensive to me but I also haven’t been to NYC or SF since pre COVID. Can confirm Miami prices are bananas.

Miami + Vegas are shockingly expensive. I frankly don't know who can afford that shit.

Some of the restaurants in downtown Palm Springs have adopted pricing that is Like 28 bucks for an average glass of white wine.

[Desertbreh]

It's like guys selling $100 shovels in Skagway during the Klondike gold rush. I will not be raped by opportunists.

[max225]

Miami + Vegas are shockingly expensive. I frankly don't know who can afford that shit.

Some of the restaurants in downtown Palm Springs have adopted pricing that is Like 28 bucks for an average glass of white wine.

that's insane. Any drink that starts above a $2X for me is an absolute

[Valkyrie]

Miami + Vegas are shockingly expensive. I frankly don't know who can afford that shit.

Some of the restaurants in downtown Palm Springs have adopted pricing that is Like 28 bucks for an average glass of white wine.

Yeah, we're definitely not moving there. More than I can afford, pal.

St Pete is expensive enough. We go out like once a month and not to anywhere - you pretty much can't walk out the door for under $100 with 2 people.

I need to set the house up for entertaining and get people to come here instead of paying restaurant/bar prices.

[max225]

Some of the restaurants in downtown Palm Springs have adopted pricing that is Like 28 bucks for an average glass of white wine.

Yeah, we're definitely not moving there. More than I can afford, pal.

St Pete is expensive enough. We go out like once a month and not to anywhere - you pretty much can't walk out the door for under $100 with 2 people.

I need to set the house up for entertaining and get people to come here instead of paying restaurant/bar prices.

One thing I realized with the latter... Sometimes if you go to a restaurant people chip in and you still leave at sub $100 PP.

But at home gets pricy:
1. You have leftovers which tend to get thrown away
2. Drinks are left over and get thrown away
3. Some people don't chip in... especially if you host, you are likely to blow through the restaurant budget
4. Cleaning up after slobs/prepping the house for visitors always takes a lot of time

[Desertbreh]

Yeah, we're definitely not moving there. More than I can afford, pal.

St Pete is expensive enough. We go out like once a month and not to anywhere - you pretty much can't walk out the door for under $100 with 2 people.

I need to set the house up for entertaining and get people to come here instead of paying restaurant/bar prices.

One thing I realized with the latter... Sometimes if you go to a restaurant people chip in and you still leave at sub $100 PP.

But at home gets pricy:
1. You have leftovers which tend to get thrown away
2. Drinks are left over and get thrown away
3. Some people don't chip in... especially if you host, you are likely to blow through the restaurant budget
4. Cleaning up after slobs/prepping the house for visitors always takes a lot of time

We only entertain one couple at a time. Any allure "entertaining" ever had is in the rear view of my lifespan at this point.

[Valkyrie]

Eh I'm cheap and pretty much always do BYOB, so if anything I get free leftover drinks lol...

I don't mind cooking either. Even at 2023 prices, meals are cheaper than restaurants ever were (not counting $5 pizzas).

I also have very few friends and would never expect to have more than a single digit number of people here, so things are manageable.

[wap]

About to start a 4 day weekend.

[Valkyrie]

Oddly I'm working for the next 4 days, got shows friday-monday. Y'all have fun remembering the Alamo. I'm off to set up for the first show now.

[wap]

Oddly I'm working for the next 4 days, got shows friday-monday. Y'all have fun remembering the Alamo. I'm off to set up for the first show now.

Enjoy

[D Griff]

It’s quite a tourist destination though, restaurants here seem expensive to me but I also haven’t been to NYC or SF since pre COVID. Can confirm Miami prices are bananas.

The places a tourist is going to stay in Charleston will not be cheap but I thought as a general rule prices were fair for what it was.

So I actually found things to be less expensive than I was expecting... parking garages downtown were like $5-10 each time we went for probably an average of four hours each time. Restaurants were cheaper than Charlotte for equal quality/style.

Kind of wild as I've been to Charleston many times and recall food being really expensive, I guess it's just gone up way more here than there and the sticker shock has dulled? We did stay in an AirBNB in Mt. Pleasant (the most desirable suburb of Charleston I'd say) and it is a $1 million house - 1,600 sq. ft. I'd say a similar thing in this area would be ~$700K, so real estate is seemingly more if you're in a nice area.

[D Griff]

Yeah, we're definitely not moving there. More than I can afford, pal.

St Pete is expensive enough. We go out like once a month and not to anywhere - you pretty much can't walk out the door for under $100 with 2 people.

I need to set the house up for entertaining and get people to come here instead of paying restaurant/bar prices.

One thing I realized with the latter... Sometimes if you go to a restaurant people chip in and you still leave at sub $100 PP.

But at home gets pricy:
1. You have leftovers which tend to get thrown away
2. Drinks are left over and get thrown away
3. Some people don't chip in... especially if you host, you are likely to blow through the restaurant budget
4. Cleaning up after slobs/prepping the house for visitors always takes a lot of time

I'm in agreement here, we 'entertain' often, like probably 2-3 times a month or more, and it's very expensive when are involved. My wife wants to serve good food and winds up spending like $100 on groceries for a dinner where we have ourselves plus maybe four others, the budget goes up/down depending on scale.

We do eat leftovers and we do tend to do BYOB and wind up with free booze, so there is some silver lining.

[SAWCE]

Ordered a video doorbell for the haus. Went with an Arlo and did their one year security plan. $151 for the doorbell and plan with their Memorial Day sale. Not bad.

[D Griff]

Oddly I'm working for the next 4 days, got shows friday-monday. Y'all have fun remembering the Alamo. I'm off to set up for the first show now.

Pretty awesome that you're booking this many gigs now, hope that they went well.

I have recently kind of wanted to find people to jam with and maybe do a gig once in a while, not that I really have time for it. Where did you find your co-musicians?

[Valkyrie]

Oddly I'm working for the next 4 days, got shows friday-monday. Y'all have fun remembering the Alamo. I'm off to set up for the first show now.

Pretty awesome that you're booking this many gigs now, hope that they went well.

I have recently kind of wanted to find people to jam with and maybe do a gig once in a while, not that I really have time for it. Where did you find your co-musicians?

One got canceled due to storms but otherwise things went OK. I still struggle with anxiety - especially now that my image matters a lot more. Trying to keep hair and makeup decent playing outdoors in FL is no simple task. The playing itself has gotten a lot easier though, now I'm more focused on trying to look better and actually interact with the audience. Basic human socializing is fucking hard.

I got lucky on the networking front. When we first moved down here we were having dinner at a place with a solo guitarist playing and I ordered a super spicy curry which meant drinking several IPA's with it... fast forward a couple of hours and I'm near the end of the show. A table of women were there for a birthday and they wanted the guitarist to play happy birthday, he said he didn't know the song. With liquid courage I got up and said I'll play it - the guy was crazy enough to give me his guitar to play the song, the women were happy, and we started doing a bunch of jamming and shows since then.

He's the outgoing artist who does all of the networking and booking of shows, I just tag along and play guitar. At this point I'm kind of part of the local musicians network on my own though and am getting some invites to do stuff directly. This summer I need to put together some videos and do some real promotion. The little bit I have online is crap so I'm relying on word of mouth which doesn't cut it in the age of Instagram. Need followers and good photos/videos. Oddly, audio recordings are useless. Nobody wants to listen to you play. Video is what sells, preferably video from playing in front of a large audience.

If you're comfortable playing solo and/or improvising, then open mics are where the local musicians tend to hang out here when they don't have paying gigs. There's one somewhere every day of the week.

[max225]

Thanks for sharing. I am always 'd at the different lifestyles and love to learn about them all. Very Cool!

[MexicanYarisTK]

Oddly I'm working for the next 4 days, got shows friday-monday. Y'all have fun remembering the Alamo. I'm off to set up for the first show now.

how did it turnout?

[MexicanYarisTK]

I worked all weekend (off today and partially tomorrow), we had a large entertainment group that is helping out the foo fighters show. So I had to show up earlier on crack of dawn to helo them check in to the room and assisted with pre-check in the day before as company is paying for their stay.

Shockingly we are a little on the lower side of occupancy than expected, last year for this weekend, my shithole was full house the entire weekend and i was in FL at the time

[MexicanYarisTK]

Speaking of fl, i noticed that the subject of st pete and such has brought up. Went there last September + orlando + disney for tits birthday as she grew up in Spring hill aka little north of tampa, so she'd go to disney almost every weekend. I love the maderia beach, kinda reminds me of turkey for the water meaning no waves due to gulf, very chill

[Valkyrie]

Oddly I'm working for the next 4 days, got shows friday-monday. Y'all have fun remembering the Alamo. I'm off to set up for the first show now.

how did it turnout?

Kind of low turnouts because it's a weird time here. Lots of tourists have already left for the season and lots of locals also are out of town for the weekend, plus a lot of folks here are gearing up for Pride starting this Thursday. June is rainbow party month with stuff going on every day all over town. We did have some pretty enthusiastic folks though, especially on Saturday night.

Sunday was actually not a show but an intro/training session for a summer camp I'm going to be teaching at in July. It's a really cool concept, basically "School of Rock" just for girls and with near zero tuition so it's not all rich kids. I'm somewhat terrified but I think that it'll be at least as helpful for me as it is for the students.

https://girlsrockstpete.org/

[SAWCE]

how did it turnout?

Kind of low turnouts because it's a weird time here. Lots of tourists have already left for the season and lots of locals also are out of town for the weekend, plus a lot of folks here are gearing up for Pride starting this Thursday. June is rainbow party month with stuff going on every day all over town. We did have some pretty enthusiastic folks though, especially on Saturday night.

Sunday was actually not a show but an intro/training session for a summer camp I'm going to be teaching at in July. It's a really cool concept, basically "School of Rock" just for girls and with near zero tuition so it's not all rich kids. I'm somewhat terrified but I think that it'll be at least as helpful for me as it is for the students.

https://girlsrockstpete.org/

That’s way cool. What an awesome program. Get to test out your chops as a teacher too, and possibly get some referrals for people looking to continue their lessons beyond the camp.

[golftdibrad1]

how did it turnout?

Kind of low turnouts because it's a weird time here. Lots of tourists have already left for the season and lots of locals also are out of town for the weekend, plus a lot of folks here are gearing up for Pride starting this Thursday. June is rainbow party month with stuff going on every day all over town. We did have some pretty enthusiastic folks though, especially on Saturday night.

Sunday was actually not a show but an intro/training session for a summer camp I'm going to be teaching at in July. It's a really cool concept, basically "School of Rock" just for girls and with near zero tuition so it's not all rich kids. I'm somewhat terrified but I think that it'll be at least as helpful for me as it is for the students.

https://girlsrockstpete.org/

YOU might be trying to do a good thing, but I don't approve of this org exposing kids 8-17 to this fucking shit under the guise of a rock camp

https://www.girlsrockcampalliance.org/points-of-unity

Our work is political. We work to dismantle intersecting systems of oppression and acknowledge that they do not affect us all equally. Our work must be led and built by those most impacted by systemic oppression and colonization.

Gender is fluid, expansive, and cannot be contained within a binary. Trans and gender non-conforming people have always been and always will be an integral part of our movement. Our work must center those who experience marginalization because of their gender identity and expression.

These are ideas for adults not kids. We consider kids becoming adults to be ~17-21 in this country. Reconsider volunteering your time to this bullshit.

[SAWCE]

Kind of low turnouts because it's a weird time here. Lots of tourists have already left for the season and lots of locals also are out of town for the weekend, plus a lot of folks here are gearing up for Pride starting this Thursday. June is rainbow party month with stuff going on every day all over town. We did have some pretty enthusiastic folks though, especially on Saturday night.

Sunday was actually not a show but an intro/training session for a summer camp I'm going to be teaching at in July. It's a really cool concept, basically "School of Rock" just for girls and with near zero tuition so it's not all rich kids. I'm somewhat terrified but I think that it'll be at least as helpful for me as it is for the students.

https://girlsrockstpete.org/

YOU might be trying to do a good thing, but I don't approve of this org exposing kids 8-17 to this fucking shit under the guise of a rock camp

https://www.girlsrockcampalliance.org/points-of-unity

Our work is political. We work to dismantle intersecting systems of oppression and acknowledge that they do not affect us all equally. Our work must be led and built by those most impacted by systemic oppression and colonization.

Gender is fluid, expansive, and cannot be contained within a binary. Trans and gender non-conforming people have always been and always will be an integral part of our movement. Our work must center those who experience marginalization because of their gender identity and expression.

These are ideas for adults not kids. We consider kids becoming adults to be ~17-21 in this country. Reconsider volunteering your time to this bullshit.

I don’t personally understand the non-binary gender stuff, but I don’t see a problem with teaching kids about it. It’s not going make them decide that they are non-binary or trans or anything else. It should just make them more accepting of people who do identify that way as they grow up. More love is always a good thing.

[golftdibrad1]

YOU might be trying to do a good thing, but I don't approve of this org exposing kids 8-17 to this fucking shit under the guise of a rock camp

https://www.girlsrockcampalliance.org/points-of-unity


These are ideas for adults not kids. We consider kids becoming adults to be ~17-21 in this country. Reconsider volunteering your time to this bullshit.

I don’t personally understand the non-binary gender stuff, but I don’t see a problem with teaching kids about it. It’s not going make them decide that they are non-binary or trans or anything else. It should just make them more accepting of people who do identify that way as they grow up. More love is always a good thing.

I disagree, kids are very moldable and shouldn't be introduced to these ideas so young.

We can teach empathy and tolerance of all people to children without discussing gender and sexuality. Gender, sex, birds and bees, etc is a topic for parents to cover when the time is right. It ok start introducing these ideas in HS for the technical aspects IMHO. Orgs like this allow kids to be targeted and groomed, even if MOST of the people working / volunteering likely have pure intentions. Its not worth the risk IMHO, we already teach the kid kindness and empathy.

[SAWCE]

I don’t personally understand the non-binary gender stuff, but I don’t see a problem with teaching kids about it. It’s not going make them decide that they are non-binary or trans or anything else. It should just make them more accepting of people who do identify that way as they grow up. More love is always a good thing.

I disagree, kids are very moldable and shouldn't be introduced to these ideas so young.

We can teach empathy and tolerance of all people to children without discussing gender and sexuality. Gender, sex, birds and bees, etc is a topic for parents to cover when the time is right. It ok start introducing these ideas in HS for the technical aspects IMHO. Orgs like this allow kids to be targeted and groomed, even if MOST of the people working / volunteering likely have pure intentions. Its not worth the risk IMHO, we already teach the kid kindness and empathy.

Fair argument on the potential targeting and parents being the first people who should discuss these things with their children. I forgot the program goes as young as 8, so yeah I wouldn’t expect those kids to have already been talked to about sex by their parents.