Author: The Fresnan

Fresno nerd. Longtime blogger and podcaster. I love talking local, music, beer, the Sierras, eating in Fresno, etc...

Westwood’s Is Open For The Pro-Pandemic Continuation Community

The Fresnan

I heard over the weekend that Westwood’s Spice & Things [close enough] was seating people inside and it was PACKED! Like, security directing traffic in the parking lot, packed.

Then this happened:

We can’t get our dumb ass out of the purple. Why can’t Clovis start their own County and leave us alone!? (I also have heard that many Clovis restaurants don’t care about the Pandemic either)

So I gut-reaction-tweeted and a certain NE Fresno dude quoted it:

Man, I don’t know *exhales* *runs fingers through hair* *exhales again* … I don’t know why I engaged with Fresno’s child. I have spent years walking away and not saying anything. Because why, really? The dude doesn’t get it and loves attention, so why bother with him? But I did:

Maybe it was the half of a 7.5% IPA I was drinking or maybe it was him using my tweet for his own means, but I finally acknowledged the dude. Of course, I had to use a Star Wars reference as a safe space.

Look, man. You do your thing. If you just GOTTA eat INSIDE that restaurant and gather with a bunch of other people, during a Pandemic, all while much of the staff hasn’t been able to get vaccinated yet and are risking their lives and their family’s lives so you can own the Libs or whatever, I can’t stop ya.

I’ll continue getting take-out and tipping as much as I can, maybe eating in a patio someday. It’s really only a couple months more, guys. Westwoods will still be there.

Not Cool, Fresno Bee: The Removal of Sally Forth and Get Fuzzy

The Fresnan
D0EAB8DD-1199-43C4-890B-48C9FAD9A7A0 Not Cool, Fresno Bee: The Removal of Sally Forth and Get Fuzzy
Old Fresno Bee Comics on the left, new on the right.

At risk of sounding like an old man ranting at clouds, I’m hella disappointed about the removal of Sally Forth and Get Fuzzy from the Fresno Bee’s Sunday comics lineup.

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Get Fuzzy

They are two of the most well written & drawn comics today. Both strips are smart, slightly edgy, funny and unique.

It makes me suspicious of the sensibilities of the Bee staff in charge of picking the comics lineup.

A8792913-B83A-4940-96D4-7C839B625CDF Not Cool, Fresno Bee: The Removal of Sally Forth and Get Fuzzy
Sally Forth

You leave in Wizard Of ID and B.C. but pull Fuzzy and Sally? Shame.

I’ll also slightly miss Blondie and Slylock Fox & Comics For Kids. The later produced nice drawing prompts for the youth.

I do like seeing Doonesbury on the front page as a counter to Dilbert, and Peanuts returning to the front too – the Peanuts have kinda come back around again and feel fresh somehow.

New additions Candorville and Mt. Pleasant have potential. So I’ll will follow them, and I’m somehow okay with Garfield returning.

But I can’t get around the thinking that Sally Forth & Get Fuzzy needed to go.

Rating for the new lineup: D+

The Cool As Hell Bart Simpson Fresno Mural Is Already Gone

The Fresnan

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.

C85AABC1-D075-46D4-8A88-888920FAA5A9 The Cool As Hell Bart Simpson Fresno Mural Is Already Gone

And then it was gone.

F193E96B-5404-4D9C-96D9-6AD39C0CBA12 The Cool As Hell Bart Simpson Fresno Mural Is Already Gone

Lame, dude.

At least some of us got to enjoy it for a weekend.

Earthquake Near Fresno Is No Fault Of Our Own

The Fresnan
D8A4F9D5-0FFD-40F9-A769-099041866CDB Earthquake Near Fresno Is No Fault Of Our Own
Fault lines in Central California

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!?

D9F094AB-240D-4697-B585-1E2885969F5A Earthquake Near Fresno Is No Fault Of Our Own
Earthquake outside Lemoore Tuesday night

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:

?

Is Maroo Closed?

The Fresnan
11C95358-63B7-4191-B0BB-C487297B85C8 Is Maroo Closed?
The now FORMER Maroo’s

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.

0790F9DD-0EC5-445C-89CB-0B34F7A23C05 Is Maroo Closed?

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.

I Need KFSR To Do A Damn Thing

The Fresnan
kfsr-studio-1 I Need KFSR To Do A Damn Thing
(KFSR Studio – picture source here)

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.

Program-Schedule-90-7-KFSR I Need KFSR To Do A Damn Thing

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.