THE FRESNAN

Forest City: Annoying Dudes Won't Leave

Just last week, peeps were rejoicing about the likely departure of Forest City. Thus, Freeing Downtown business owners to once again think about what they can do with their spaces, without the specter of a developer looking over their shoulders. Well, dammit all to development hell, but it looks like F-City isn't going anywhere, no matter how unwelcome they are.

From the Fresno Bee:

Forest City Enterprises announced layoffs in its corporate offices, but those will not have any ramifications in Fresno, where the company is making progress on its proposed South Stadium revitalization project.

Forest City has a $232 million plan to build 700 new homes, as well as stores and commercial buildings, in a six-block zone -- the first phase of the long-range South Stadium redevelopment project that eventually would transform 85 acres south of Chukchansi Park baseball stadium.

A draft environmental impact report for portions of the project should be released for public review in the next few weeks, said senior vice president Susan Smartt.

More attention can be focused on the Fresno project now that Forest City has finished an ambitious mixed-use development called Uptown Oakland that made over four blocks. The team that led that project is now hard at work on the Fresno plan.

Smartt said large-scale projects take time and urged people to be patient. "Oakland took eight years. When you are trying to change an area and revitalize an area, it is very challenging," she said.

Indie Tuesday: Hang With The Kids

Tonight The Starline will be filled with local indie-alt-rock-goodness as The Kid's International bring their buzzworthy sound to Fern Avenue.

Helping The Kids entertain the Tower District will be Hanford's own Done For Good and Fallen Point.

Now, let's take a little music break with some TKI:

Metropolis...

[Editor's note: Devoya, a.k.a Ms. Soulflower, is back with another fine contribution to The Fresnan; A firsthand rundown of the Metropolis craziness at the met.]

There are certain opportunities that are hard to pass up. I’ve been trying (rather unsuccessfully I might add) to say no to things that require I spend a lot of my free time working on. Yeah…I know I’m selfish. BUT….

About a month ago I was walking into Stones and there on the patio were Jason Merle and Dj Bradley chillin with what I can only imagine was the 3^rd or 4^th cocktail of the afternoon in hand.  As I strolled by Bradley stopped me, grabbed my hand and said “You’re playing my party next month at the Met. You have a 5 hour slot from Midnight to 5am.” And that my basically how it all started…

What happened is this:

1 Organizer per floor = 3 Organizers/DJ’s

3 Organizers/DJ’s book A/V Crew= 2 A/V Teams

3 Organizers/DJ’s book other DJ’s to fill slots between Midnight-5am= 14 DJ’s

14 DJ’S promote the hell out of said party and the lines are crazy long and ridiculous before the doors even open.

The day of the event I remember the word RAVE being tossed around on Myspace in regard to the party and immediately thought that might become a problem and sadly it did.

In the 24 hours since Metropolis I’ve heard at least 5 rumors as to why it ended before 5am as originally billed. The thing is I’m less concerned about that and more impressed that it even got that far. Moments like this are all too often just that…moments or dreams, rarely reality. That someone (in this case Bradley) had an idea , ran with it and somehow got 14 (busy) friends to participate for FREE is amazing to say the least. And you wanna know what? I bet all 14 of us (even the ones who didn’t get to play) would all gladly do it again.

Props

To the friends who weren’t able to get in (plus my sincere apologies) but tried.

To the heads that arrived early and chilled late…y’all are lovely.

To the out of town homies who randomly came through.

To the people who liked our “NO REQUEST SIGN”.

To the people who enjoyed the music we shared in The Departure Lounge

Below you’ll find my set-list from the night in question.

Peace~

Ms Soulflower Departure Lounge Set List

Nov 15^th 2008

1. Open Doors- Kira Neris
2. Take My Time- 4Hero
3. Heaven- Mark de Clive Lowe featuring Bembe Segue
4. Saturn- The Politik
5. Flashback- Fat Freddy’s Drop
6. Morena- King Britt Featuring Vikter Duplaix
7. I Miss You (remix)-Bjork
8. Love and War- Outkast
9. The Healer- Erykah Badu
10. Never been in love before- Talib Kweli
11. Get ta stepping- Mos Def & Vinia Mojica
12. Won’t do- JDilla
13. Universal Magnetic- Mos Def
14. Get A Hold- A Tribe Called Quest
15. Doomsday (remix)- MF Doom
16. Mr. Mister- J*Davey
17. Spazz- N.E.R.D
18.  Look what you’re doin to me- Jazzanova featuring Phonte
19. Keepin the faith- De La Soul
20. Girls around the world- Lloyd featuring Lil Wayne
21. La di da di- Doug E Fresh
22. Tonight- DJ Quik
23. Brass Monkey- Beastie Boys
24. Roller Skatin Jam Called Saturday- De La Soul

Late Night Fresno Programing: Bulldog Basketball

Every WAC team, like Fresno State, knows that when ESPN tells you to bend over and take it, you do it. That's why you'll be watching the Bulldog men's basketball team play at 11:00 p.m. tonight against St. Mary's.

Actually, I don't mind the time. I think it's kinda cool to have a live game on at eleven at night. If you're really into late night sports, fellow WAC team Hawaii is playing at 2:00 a.m. I'll take it, ESPN. And I'll for sure be watching how my fellow Seay-r does in the B-Dogs game.

Music Box Fresno: Have a Club You Need Overfilled?

Is there a venue left in Fresno the Patrick Contreras Band can't pack-out? The band's last show at Starline had a line down the block to get in. When is the last time you saw that on Fern?

Tonight, Patrick will take a break from filling local clubs to be on 90.7 KFSR sometime from 6 to 8. He will be helping the Fresno State station raise some money - it's fund drive time. Also, if you haven't finalized your New Years Eve plans yet, Patrick has an idea for you.

MONDAY HANGOVER: Worth the Wait?

Did you enjoy yourself some museum opening action, this weekend? I did Friday night and took a little bit of video (below). But now I kinda wish I was there to take some video Saturday night.

Friday Night's Reopening at The Met from The Fresnan on Vimeo.

Bloggiest Moment of the Week: Fresno Has Its Museum Back

Basically, when most everyone in the blogosphere is talking about something, it's a sure bet that's going to be the bloggiest moment. This week, it seems everyone's posting about the reopening of the Fresno Metropolitan Museum.

BTW, the William Saroyan display was my favorite (pictured right). Hope all the people I saw out there Friday night, keep coming back.

Fresgeek Saturday: Keep Met-ing

It's only like THE coolest thing you could be doing tonight:

Not A Bad Band In The Bunch

It's not all about The Met this weekend. There's also some stellar local indie music to check out tonight:

 

Fresgeek Weekend: Have We Met Somewhere Before?

Fifty-five hours of Dinosaurs, Patrick Contreras, art, singing and dancing, drinking, creaturama movies, podcasting and more, this weekend at the grand reopening of the Fresno Metropolitan Museum.

Downtown has its muse back.

Music Box Fresno: Random Videoness

Because Fresno music is underrated, under promoted and simply awesome, we needed a segment to humbly help promote the Fresno music scene: Music Box Fresno.

So, a few videos related to some of Fresno's more important bands have popped up the past couple days. One by HateFX and one by Flight 409. The Flight video is from a recent appearance by the band on local radio station, Alice 96.7. HateFX's video is another sneak-peak-promo video for their upcoming new album.

Thirdly (hey, spell-check is letting "thirdly" go through so I'm leaving it), Fashawn has a killer new video out and it's getting national pub. Check it out over at The Beehive or at Fresno Fusion.

What You're Doing Tonight: Getting Your Wood - Cocked

The psycho blues punkness that IS LA's Lightnin Woodcock will be at Audie's Olympic tonight. Woodcock (he hhehe he he he), is kicking off his tour and Benny & The Vets will be there to help him.

Good OR Bad: Forest City Having Issues

Is Forest City's trouble a good thing for Downtown Fresno? Meaning, this could be a precursor to them finally leaving Fresno and taking their stagnant-downtown-non-developing-asses with them.

OR

Is the financial trouble of Forest City and the eventual trickle down of the slowing (or pulling of it, since it's been pulled off their website) of their Downtown Fresno project, bad? Bad because Forest City was totally going to come through on their development promises sooner than later.

[Photo: Fresno Bee]

Indie Tuesday: Help Save Some Music, People

Presented by Love, The Captive, this is what's going on at Starline tonight:

The Fresnan Presents: Dorktown Podcast #66

Welcome to what is known as the stain on Fresno's culture rug: Dorktown Podcast. Episode 66 is ready for downloading. It's not safe for work but perfectly fine for babies. What to expect:

• A little too much KISS and rambling open a podcast with.
• Old listeners have grown up and moved on.
• Good Fresno fake ID spots.
• Bells is glad the election is over.
• Downtown Bisla's was the best but The Sky Room is cool.
• The Fay Wray's get more Dorktown play.
• A Bell's HIGH HORSE.
• Fran Florez gets the Dorktown treatment.
• Fonzy Eyyys.

Listen to the podcast by clicking this: DorktownEpisode66.mp3