does your girl share your dreams?

Many have shared your problem, as they make their Thomas Pink kites in the beer garden while wearing Dunhill. Sometimes, we must live a dream that others simply cannot abide.

yeah... my recent ex was like that. i worked to become a pro skater and fashion designer and medical marijuana reviewer, and all she would talk about was buying a house and saving money and our daughter. women can be so damn insensitive.

Most California cities are in air quality criteria pollutant nonattainment zones, traffic is outragreous, and housing prices are insane. In LA, you can't throw a rock out of the window without hitting an aspiring musician on the head and the beaches are often closed because of sewage spills (not to mention that Bush is about to open the coast to oil exploration). The Beach Boy's California is history. Come visit first.

I agree absolutely with the "visit first" recommendation. Stax, however, has the Northern Californian's typically exaggerated view of LA's (and California's) minuses. At least in the coastal areas, air pollution has improved substantially over the past 25 years or so. In inland areas it can be more problematic. Sure, traffic sucks, but in what major city is that not the case? As long as you don't set yourself up with a long daily freeway commute, I'd say it's actually more tolerable here than, say, New York, D.C., San Francisco, and a number of other places. I live ten minutes from work. From my house, I can get to downtown LA, Hollywood, or the beach in less than 30 minutes (in lighter traffic it's more like 10-15 minutes). Maybe I've become jaded, but I don't think that's so terrible. Houses prices definitely are insane, so that's obviously a factor to consider. That's what happens when lots of people want to live in the same place. I'm not sure what "the beaches are often closed" is supposed to mean in terms of actual frequency, but I've never had a beach be closed when I planned to go - and I've lived here, off and on, for about 30 years. Stax is absolutely right that aspiring musicians (and aspiring actors, etc.) are plentiful. Again, I'd assume that's true in NY, SF, Austin, or any other place with a vibrant music "scene". Whether you want to end up in a city with that sort of competition or try to be more of a big fish in a small pond somewhere is obviously a personal choice.

Don't jump to conclusions about my nor-cal bias, lawyerdad. I lived in LA for much longer than I've lived in the bay area, I am there often, and I am fond of the region. As an enviornmental attorney, I am well aware of the state's degredaded coastal areas. Between 2000 and 2003, Orange County beaches, for example, were closed for a total of 493 days. 63% of those closures were due to sewage. I will agree that the number of closures are trending downward, but it is far from ideal, and these figures don't account for "beach warnings," where sewage has not been detected but bacterial standards have been exceeded.

Fair enough. Orange County's a bit out of my usual range, so whatever value my purely anecdotal comments otherwise have doesn't apply there. Just out of curiosity, I assume that when you say "Orange County beaches . . . were closed" you mean to say "at least one beach somewhere in Orange County was closed" as opposed to the beaches generally being closed en masse.
I don't generally disagree with your observation that despite some progress in recent years - much of which currently is being placed at risk - we have miles to go in terms of restoring and protecting the beaches and coastline. My point was just that from a day-to-day experiential point of view, beaches from Palos Verdes to Malibu are still beautiful places and saying that they are "often" closed certainly is not consistent with my experience (except in the sense that ever having to close beaches because of man-made pollution is too often).

yes, I mean that segments of orange county beaches were closed, rather than the county's entire coastline.

I think we are in agreement that things could be better. We are also in agreement that the state has significant coastal resources that are beautiful. It seems to me, however, that Wilson Bro has a romantic notion of California that does not necessarily jibe with reality.

Just saw this. Apparently, them SoCal beaches ain't good for the bod.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060719/...beach_bacteria

I wouldn't swim in the water, that's for sure.

Dream on, my friend, dream on! You are right about the important stuff.

My son just got a nasty staph infection from surfing in water near the San Diego river's outflow. There were any number of days this past winter when we could not surf because of polluted runoff following a "measurable" .5" of rain. I don't really understand this. In Florida, it poured all the time and we could swim whenever we wanted. Polluted runoff in FL is killing the reefs but I guess it lacks the E.Coli of CA.

Nevertheless, it is beautiful here.

Sorry to hear about your son's experience. He might be interested in this organization: http://www.surfrider.org/

I had a dream of moving to a new apartment and not commuting on the Tokyo subways for three hours a day. This week, my dream came true. I have not ridden a single train all week.

Sometimes our dreams are rather modest and attainable.