Author: The Fresnan

Local nerd. Longtime blogger and podcaster. I love talking local, Star Wars, beer and other junk. Find me on Facebook, Instagram CHEERS!

Hansen’s: One Less Old Fresno Market

The Fresnan
Hansens-Grocery Hansen's: One Less Old Fresno Market

Little isles of the past.

The West Side of Fresno is littered with old little markets that have been there forever. I try to pop into them whenever I can. Just get a soda or something. Make an effort to notice any old, unique traits the market still carries with it.

(I have not done any of that recently, what with the, you know, going around.)

Today I noticed there is one less. Hansen’s Market at Mckinley & Bryan. There used to be a cool overhang there. It appears there was a fire or something. Let me check on that. Hold please.

….. *sounds of Internet searching* ….

Holy crap! I guess I haven’t been there in over a year. They DID have a fire there last April. A fire started by a break-in.

Two dudes used a stolen truck to smash through the front door. The truck got stuck and started a fire. They got away.

That sucks, man. One less portal to Fresno’s past.

A Guide To Finding the NEOWISE Comet In The Fresno Sky From A Dumb Dumb

The Fresnan
how-to-see-comet-NEOWISE A Guide To Finding the NEOWISE Comet In The Fresno Sky From A Dumb Dumb
From Space.com and NASA – How To Find NEOWISE

I know little to nothing about stars and stuff. But I do enjoy them. And pretending I know. And I really like starting at Space.

Thursday night my dumbass managed to find the NEOWISE Comet in the Fresno sky. If you’re like me and too lazy to drive out to the country to get a clean look, you can still give it a try in town.

Here is how:

  • Wait until dusk is giving way to night (9:15 ish?).
  • Look at the Northwest Sky. Like, as if you could see the Taco Bell at Herndon & Marks in the sky. If you live West of Herndon & Marks, look at Taco Bell in the sky then turn around.
  • Find the Big Dipper (it’s literally the only thing outside of the Moon I can ever identify quickly).
  • Point at the “bottom star” of the dipper.
  • Follow your pointer finger down to the tree line.
  • Hopefully, around there, you’ll see a star with a smoggy, dust-like tail.

It definitely helps to at least have some binoculars and an open view of the NW sky.

It’s not out very long. It lasted maybe an hour on Thursday and Friday.

For tips on photographing it and stuff, Space has some.

*If you’re reading this after July 23rd, NEOWISE is pretty much gone. Sorry, brah.

This Old Fresno Der Wienerschnitzel Needs To Be The New Normal

The Fresnan
Blackstone-and-Gettysberg This Old Fresno Der Wienerschnitzel Needs To Be The New Normal
Yep. I shopped a Google Street View pic of Blackstone & Gettysburg Wienerschnitzel because I’m too lazy to go take the picture myself.

The walk-up window style like the old (still going) Der Wienerschnitzel on Blackstone & Gettysburg, needs to be a forever trend in Fresno.

Nobody truly knows when this COVID-19 will end. We need to assume … another year? Two? One month. Fuck, I don’t know. Eating outside is less dangerous, this we know.

Virus or no, Fresno needs more permanent outdoor eating options. Sorry, Fansler, spend the money on a real patio at your restaurants next time. (Ohhhhhhh owwwww, burrrn!)

We should have had walkup windows and patios everywhere the whole damn time, dude.

I don’t know if you have walked around outside much lately, but the sun is out there. Like, a lot. Not much rain to contend with (Suck on that, hard, Portland!). Fresnans are very familiar with sunshine. We are made for outdoor eating.

Do we need lots of canopies and umbrellas and coverings of all kinds? Crap yeah we do.

Block that sun. It needs to be blocked, it’s kind of a jerk sometimes. Put up a mister. Some plants. Whatever.

Fresno, needs more outdoor everything. More walk-up windows would be a start.

Side note: Here is an old picture (I think I found on a Fresno Facebook group) of the above location. I assume it’s the original Der Wienerschnitzel in Fresno. Not much has changed:

Original-Der-Wiernerschnitzel-Fresno This Old Fresno Der Wienerschnitzel Needs To Be The New Normal

Bandgeek: New Fresno Music [Summer 2020 Edition]

The Fresnan
Aire-Especial Bandgeek: New Fresno Music [Summer 2020 Edition]

Aire Espacial. A new song titled Circa. Click it to stream or download it:

Audrey Paris Johnson. She is a local drummer from many Fresno bands, and she has wound up playing drums for an Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (Mars Volta) project. It’s pretty damn cool:

Sahab. I’m not sure if it’s new, I think it is. Either way, I like to watch and listen:

https://twitter.com/iAmSahab/status/1278067363615662080?s=20

Ultra Diamonds. It can’t be bad if it’s from any of these people.

Johnny Q. While the music may be 16 years old, it is newly released and it counts and I love it. Check it out on Spotify.

Enjoy the bite of Fresno music. Hopefully I’ll be able to put together another post like this before the summer ends.

5 Weird Places Fresnans Get Spam/Telemarking Calls From

The Fresnan
Badger 5 Weird Places Fresnans Get Spam/Telemarking Calls From

Why does the 559 get the spam and telemarking calls from such weird-ass places?

Here are the top 5 I have gotten calls from:

  1. Badger, California.

Is this a real place? Do they mean Badger Pass? Is it Badger from Breaking Bad? It’s actually a spot in the woods that is East of Fresno but technically in Tulare County. The only thing there is a place called Seven Circles Retreat. I feel like I don’t want to REALLY know what goes on there so I’m going to leave this one alone. Still like to think it’s Badger though.

2. Loomis, California.

It sounds like a condition, not a place. It’s Northeast of Sacramento by Folsom Prison. Hey, that’s the place Johnny Cash shot a man just to watch him bleed, right? Wait … … no that’s right.

3. Moorpark, California.

Moorpark? More like ummmmm, MOORAFILL park!

4. Parlier, California.

Alright, well, this is not weird. We all know Parlier as the place on the way to Bakersfield where 99 curves a bit, wait no, that’s PIXLEY. I don’t know what goes on there. But I get a lot of random Parlier calls, okay.

5. Miramonte, California.

Isn’t that, like, an Air Force base or some shit? Where they blast rockets off into space and junk? No, that’s Miramar. Oh no, Miramar is the base in San Diego. Vandenberg is the Air Force base where they occasionally scare people with their launches:

Were Those UFOs Over Fresno Saturday?

The Fresnan
A674DC68-B030-41DC-BCA7-5F3E2F79048E Were Those UFOs Over Fresno Saturday?

No, those were not UFOs over Fresno’s evening sky. We now know (thanks to this ABC 30 post) they were Internet Balloons or whatever.

I noticed them last evening (the two bright dots in the top right of my picture above) while staring at stuff. I first thought “Am I seeing something cool finally?”

Then thought “Nope. There is no way YOU, Mikey, are seeing something cool. There must be an explanation.” Last night I figured I was seeing a couple of stars shining through the atmosphere brighter than normal because of …. space reasons.

But now we know they were something called Project Loon (click it to find out more). This was the flight path of one of the balloons:

53339150-0190-4EB5-99C7-ABBC5E2BE7C5 Were Those UFOs Over Fresno Saturday?

I’ll keep looking up. Maybe one day it will be something cooler than a balloon. Here is a video about Loon:

https://youtu.be/MiEZfRh-h-s