— floyd (@fdotsanchez) February 6, 2021
I thought Floydy photoshop it. When I realized it was real it was like “Oh wow, how cool.”
You don’t always see cool stuff like that just come out of nowhere.
In case you didn’t recognize the Downtown Club that was Bart Simpson on that old parking garage at Inyo coming up on Van Ness.
And then it was gone.
Lame, dude.
At least some of us got to enjoy it for a weekend.
Above is a map of all the fault lines in the Central Valley. With the exception of the extreme South Valley, there are no faults on the valley floor.
Yeah? Then how did THIS happen, bro!?
Sure that is a tiny earthquake. Maybeeee somebody around Lemoore or Hanford felt it, if they were really paying attention, but that’s about it.
How does this happen with no fault lines?
Fracking? Is anyone out there fracking around on the Valley Floor? I don’t know. Maybe.
Even science is not all that sure how this can happen, but there is one explanation:
Earthquakes occurring away from tectonic plate boundaries can be triggered by the rise and fall of hot material through the Earth’s mantle
Woah. “Hot material” eh? We talkin’ magma? Magma? Fun to say it isn’t it? MAG-ma. Come on say it with me, “MAGma”.
Yeah so maybe there is some ancient volcano under the valley floor and stuff. Not to alarm anyone or anything.
Since this quake happened almost directly below Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch in Lemoore, I prefer to think it was somebody’s sick drop-in.
Oh since we’re talking about the Surf Ranch, the world famous You Tuber, Casey Neistat, visited the place recently and gave a nice account of what it’s like to get a chance to surf there:
?
Yes. Yes it’s fucking closed. Dammit. That sucks.
Not closed in a “We’ll be back when this is over” kind of way. Nope. It’s gone.
It kinda makes sense. Before everything went South, they weren’t all that busy. A Friday night was about the only time it was kinda lively.
Then the Pandemic hits and that’s that.
I will miss this place. Really solid sushi. End of a Fresno sushi era. Good luck to everyone that worked there.
Somebody needs to get on KFSR and make some noise. A DJ during Evening Eclectic is what I am specifically requesting.
Evening Eclectic used to have actual DJs and shifts and they’d tell you about who was being played.
Now it’s all pretty boring. No DJ (that I have heard in a while) and it’s just some programmed music with no backbone or thru line.
The Jazz-all-day format is fine. I understand it pays the bills and it’s a nice palate cleanse for the head during the day.
I haven’t come for that today.
Organic energy. It’s hard for me to articulate but there is something special that you get from a person in the studio LIVE as you listen. It feels like you’re hanging out with someone.
Radio has lost so much of that. Even most of the DJs that are in the studio on the regular stations are five minutes ahead of everything and are barely given a chance to talk. So when they are speaking it’s slightly delayed and for just a moment.
Or it has already been recorded like a podcast.
One of the few things radio has over podcasts (live energy where you are not exactly sure what will happen), they have mostly dropped – KFSR’s Evening Eclectic included.
Spotify algorithms, podcasts, and music blogs have taken some of the use for the kind of shows KFSR used to have, I guess. Still sucks.
Every semester a new crop of DJs would come through, all with their radio name and own music theme. Some bad, some good, some you hear on Fresno radio today (I can remember hearing 95.7 The Fox’s “Carter” on her KFSR show back in the day).
KFSR does have shows on the weekend to listen to but nothing for new music or current students, it seems.
I don’t know what happened over there. Why are there are no DJs during Evening Eclectic? Just random-ass music plays. It’s worse than an algorithm. It has no information. No guts.
And hey, I am a podcaster. I am not suppose to be begging radio to be better. I am supposed to be taking advantage of its weaknesses. I like to think I do. But it still doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear a healthy college station kicking ass on Fresno’s airwaves.
Be better, KFSR. Save Evening Eclectic. Save college radio in Fresno. Stop being boring.
I don’t know that we do.
Let’s just pull Save Marts off the board. Don’t get me wrong; they are workhorses. I’m thankful for them. It’s where I do the bulk of my shopping. But I am not aware that any of them are “great” stores.
Yes, you can drop the Wincos and Pack-n-Save and anything with “bargin” or “outlet” or “dollar” in the title. They are trash, but can serve a purpose for a neighborhood so I will at least give them props for being in areas where nobody will go.
And no, Costco is not an everyday grocery store. It’s a nightmare.
Vons? Well, I do like Vons and as a former employee, I am partial to them. But fuck them since they completely left the western side of Fresno. (I miss the Blackstone, First & Tulare and Marks & Shaw Vons greatly)
Every city seems to have a Whole Foods, a Trader Joe’s and a Sprouts. I am not going to count those since they are out-of-the-region chains. I haven’t even been to the new Trader Joe’s (wrong side of 41 for me now, bro). Drop them.
We are whittling it down here now.
The Tower Market? No. It serves the neighborhood, props for that, but nah.
The Vallarta on Clinton & 99? Maybe. I have not been in there, I am embarrassed to say. So I cannot accurately give it a call either way. For the sake of finishing this post and using firsthand feedback, I am going to say that it is good but not great.
Unless I am missing something, we are left with The Market at Herndon & West. Is The Market a GREAT grocery store? …
[rubs forehead and thinks]
It’s… you know, it’s… well it’s GOOD. Good but not great. So I guess Fresno does not have a great grocery store. Case closed.
Hit me up on Twitter if you feel otherwise.
Inspiration for this post:
I had not sat down inside or outside a Fresno business for nine months. Until…
Yep. I broke down and went to the new (still improving) beer garden setup at Zack’s Brewing in Downtown Fresno.
I had a couple beers along with some tri-tip.
It’s looking good, the beer is still awesome, food was great and it all felt weird.
I sat outside and away from everyone. Wore a mask except to drink and eat. I felt safe enough.
But I didn’t have to go. I could have stayed home. This is what I have done this whole Pandemic: Getting takeout & delivery. No inside or even parking lot seating, for me.
But I broke, had some beers and got some flack for it on Facebook with a reminder of how things are going out there:
I can’t say disagree with the flack. But I wanted to support a friend’s business and have a Birthday Beer.
Zack’s and Tioga are making things as safe as possible and I was thirsty for an hour of normalcy.
We have all made our Corona choices somewhere. A tasty beverage on a nice Sunday afternoon broke me.
Now I gotta re-focus, a long Winter lies ahead.