May 2016 – WTF Fresno

May 2016

2016-05-07

Art on the Right Side of the Tracks

S A Uncategorized artist, disinterest, downtown, fresno, jaywalking, pedestrian, saturday, valley 1

As I was wondering around Fresno on a Saturday evening looking for [anything] I walked around the deserted downtown area, saw Fulton Mall under construction and ended up running into Chris Sorensen’s Art Studio.

Fresno on May 7th

Most people around Fresno are more interested anything but art and adventure so this is for the one’s who are very un-Fresno-like in their approach to life. If that is you then please continue and post a comment while your at it.

I remember watching channel 53 one late night to find a recorded broadcast of a Fresno City Counsel meeting where they were talking about renovating the downtown area. The renovation was suppose to be kicked off with the building of a baseball stadium. About 10 years after I watched that meeting a stadium was built and ~20 years later downtown is no better off. Some people understood the stadium wouldn’t do much to help the downtown area and some just liked the idea of having sporting events to attend. The downtown area of Fresno has bigger problems then a couple new or refurbished buildings.

Fresno’s downtown area is a ghost town on the weekends primarily because only the government rents buildings/offices down there. Starbucks and other chains aren’t even open on the weekends. Even though there are conventions and theater productions going on most of the time there isn’t any other reason to leave the north side of town. I would like to be able to recommend something downtown but there really isn’t anything to do besides visit 2 or 3 restaurants between all the vacancies and close government offices.

Here are some sites that don’t do a very good job of promoting things to do in Fresno/Clovis. There used to be something called fresnofamous.com but it seems to have been gutted by the Fresno Bee.

A good list that isn’t easy to find on the fresno.gov site is – tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g32414-Activities-Fresno_California.html

Where is left of fresnofamous – fresnobee.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/fresno-famous/

Downtown Fresno – downtownfresno.org

Here is the City’s s#!t job of promoting businesses. You would think businesses don’t pay taxes for doing business in Fresno the way Fresno.gov supports them – fresno.gov/Visitors/ThingsToDo/Default.htm

Interesting list of things to do in Fresno/Clovis in the form of a warning – movoto.com/guide/fresno-ca/moving-to-fresno/

6th down on the second page of a Google search will show you a housing welfare program just before the Fresno Grizzlies website. Will not be providing the welfare link and whoever is responsible for online presence for the Grizzlies should be fired.

If there is any ideas post them or keep of keep the good things around Fresno to yourself, like you usually do. WTF Fresno!

2016-05-03

No Ragrets

C P Uncategorized artist, clovis, fresno, money, piercing, Regret, tattoo, Tower District 0

semicolon If you don’t get the tagline of this blog post, go ahead and move on. If you do – this story’s for you.

Last night I was sitting in a reputable tattoo shop in the Tower District getting some fairly extensive ink done to my back. This was my second in-person appointment, and my fourth contact with the artist. My first appointment involved showing my existing piece, providing ideas as to what I wanted done, and putting down a deposit. The artist had emailed me sketches of ideas, I responded back, and then I committed to the artwork that would be forever on my body. You know, something a rational person would do before any type of permanent body modification.

As I’m laying there mid-tattoo, the phone rings. One of the other artists had stepped out, so the owner (my tattooist) answered the phone. He was close enough to me that I could hear the entire conversation. The girl calling asked how much he would charge for nipple piercings. He quoted a price and explained his procedures in-depth to her. She then told him another shop quoted her $20 less than his price. He again explained his procedures and explained he did them in this particular way to ensure she would get a result she was happy with. He also explained that he used quality jewelry for all his piercings. She then reiterated the cheaper price, as if she thought he might decide to price match the cheaper shop. He told the girl, “Cheaper isn’t always better,” and the call ended shortly thereafter.

I asked him how often something like that occurred. He told me that people in Fresno were mostly interested in getting cheap tattoos and piercings and joked that some guys would only charge $30 bucks and some meth and half the meth was consumed before the tattoo ever got started, which is why so many people in Fresno have crappy tattoos. I told him I sure as hell wouldn’t be shopping around for discounts on having my nipples pierced (if I was ever in the market for that kind of body modification) and the owner laughed. He told me I’d be surprised at what people were willing to do just to save $10 bucks in Fresno. He said he did a lot of repair work from these cheaper jobs and wished people would wise up and go somewhere good the first time around to save everyone the hassle.

Is his story true? Are most Fresnans really so cheap that we’d go someplace “cheaper” but not “better” to get something like our nipples pierced or to put permanent ink into our skin? Are we really so stupid just to save a few bucks? No ragrets, right? WTF, Fresno.