Nothing to See

[eggwards]

I've been working on a list of cities I would, and would not move to if I had the opportunity. In most cases, it's based on cities that I've travelled to at one time or another. I've never moved out of Texas, so I guess sometime in my life, I should actually consider it. My biggest question tends to be, can I handle snow? I've never been in a place that had significant snowfall...or even snow that lasted more than a day. It scares me.

Places I'd Move to:
Boston
SF Bay Area (Preferably somewhere like Palo Alto or Cupertino, but I doubt I could afford it.)
Chicago
Washington DC
Austin

Maybe:
Montreal (language and snow problems)
San Diego
Madison, WI
Houston (been there, done that)
Honolulu (isolated)

Off the List:
Los Angeles
Baltimore
St. Louis
Kansas City
Memphis
New Orleans
any city in Florida

I'm reserving judgement on cities that I haven't visited, but intrigue me, like Atlanta, Seattle and Toronto. I haven't spent enough time in Philadelphia to know.

Otherwise, in our terrible boredom today, we went out to the Dallas Galleria. That's actually the name of the mall. Houston has had "the Galleria" for almost 45 years, so when they opened up a mall in Dallas some 20 years ago, they had to make sure to let everyone know that this is the Dallas one.

Now over the last couple of weeks, we've visited all the malls in our area except Valley View. Valley View is the old, ghetto mall. I remember when it opened, sometime in the 70's where it was clean and modern, and it was where I got my Sears Toughskins - when we didn't have to order them from the catalog store in East Texas. Now Valley View is the mall that sells Disco Jesus plaques next to the moving waterfall pictures.

The Dallas Galleria has had a Macy's store since it opened. The Houston location added a Macy's in the eighties in an area that you have to know how to get through Saks Fifth Avenue to find. It's a pretty peaceful area. they were both the last stores when Macy's pulled out most of it's stores in Texas in the 90's. I mention this because this was the big weekend when Macy's took off the name Foley's in the southwest, among other names across the country.

The Dallas Galleria has it easy as the Macy's there doesn't have to change a thing. In Houston the Galleria has both a Macy's and a Foley's, and they had already closed the Lord and Taylor, another department store owned by the same company. I'll bet the much older Macy's in the quiet part of the mall will close after the holidays. While the Dallas Galleria store will do fine, I'm going to guess the Valley View store, the one that once was a Sanger-Harris, will close since it's only a few blocks away. Why they build malls a few feet from each other, I'll never know.

The Dallas Galleria is not a mall for us. It's the mall with the fancy stores, like Gucci and Versace (pronounced Ver-sayse but the trendy twink behind us today). There's nothing with a big and tall section. Many stores are just there to impress the travelers that we are some sort of fly-over state shopping oasis. We did notice that the stores got cheaper and trashier as you went higher. this is easily seen as sister stores from the Gap corporation are stacked up at one end of the mall. Banana Republic is on the ground floor, Gap in the center, and Old Navy on the third floor.

On the scary third floor, we found a store that sold a repainted knock-off Batman doll as Superman in the window, the sad "learning toys" store that no child would ever want something from, and Hot Topic.

Chris, remembering xkot's old post about crying in front of Hot Topic asked me if I wanted to reproduce the photo, I said no, because I'd have to cry in front of Torrid instead.

One of the worst things is that the Stroller Bear population is really low at the Galleria. The bearish folks just don't travel there. Really, if you're going to people watch, the better looking crowd in my book is at Stonebriar Center. Even the upscale Shops at Willowbend is better especially as there's the cute bear who manages the pretzel shop there. The Galleria has more pretty people who surprisingly can't pronounce Versace.

We bought nothing, but it did get us out of the house, where we're suffering with a problem with our air conditioning. It also got us to walk - yea exercise! -and waste our time without spending money on some movie that we'll just realize isn't worth the $6 for a matinee showing.

Comments

[theotherqpc.livejournal.com]

Madison, WI RUUUUUUUUUULES!

[garebear.livejournal.com]

And what's wrong with Los Angeles? I mean, other than the traffic and high cost of living? Crime is lower than Detroit, Atlanta, St. Louis and dozens of other major metropolitan cities. There's so much to do and every suburb has a different flavor... Beverly Hills, Simi Valley, Hollywood, Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Bellflower, Long Beach all have significantly different flavors. And unlike all of Texas, we're mostly gay friendly.

[amboy00.livejournal.com]

Everyone wants to either move to Boston or Portland it seems.

[theevilnub.livejournal.com]

If you plan on moving to Boston by May of next year, I know of an apartment that will be for rent.

Mine.

;^)

[peppabear.livejournal.com]

We're seriously looking at moving to the Raleigh Durham area of North Carolina. Any thoughts on this?

[soonercubntx.livejournal.com]

I was going to say I wanted to move to wherever it was that you are amboy, but it turns out you are already in my city! Damn you are cute!!!

[moroccomole.livejournal.com]

1. Los Angeles is totally rad. For reals. If you don't believe me, read djmrswhite's book about how I rescued him from the horrors of Dallas. [g]

2. The queen who said "Ver-sayce" might have just been referencing Showgirls.

Macy's plans

[bendawg.livejournal.com]

They may tweak everything around a bit. Their plan for most malls with "two" Macy*s stores is to separate one into say, mens' wear and furniture (a "home" store) and another into cosmetics, fragrances, womens' apparel, etc. So, that may happen - or since TX has lots of $$$, perhaps y'all will get a home store at the older mall and a Bloomingdale's in one of the current Macy*s spaces.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

He's quite taken, too!

[soonercubntx.livejournal.com]

Well, that's not a surprise! LOL

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

I know that I shouldn't be telling you this, but I've never seen Showgirls. The Horror!

Actually I'm just starting Dave's book, and the first four chapters haven't exactly changed my mind on LA. I take it that he has a Disney-like epiphany about 3/4 of the way through the book and starts loving SoCal?

I need to see if Dave is going to do a book signing here sometime.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

I hear it's the lesbian nirvana.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well although the presteige of living at the Beardello is enourmous, I'm thinking this would be much farther into the future. Still, you can't beat the rent. Terry should have little trouble finding a roomate.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Never been there. I hear it's lovely, but I think I'd like a bigger city than that.

Re: Macy's plans

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was reading some of their plans in the Wall Street Journal on Friday. They closed down the competing store in Stonebriar Center last month, so there's only one Macy's there, but as for the Galleria/Valley View thing, I could see them going more upscale where they have to compete with Nordstroms and Saks, and maybe re-labling it as a Bloomingdales. The odd thing is, Valley View once had a Bloomie's many years ago, and it failed. I guess it didn't help to be next to the Sears.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Portland is one of those cities that seems idyllic, but again, I've never been. Still, there's always the negative of having a Volcano erupt, isn't there?

[amboy00.livejournal.com]

and earthquakes... and hippies.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

How do I explain...obviously it isn't the cost of living as I've included other California cities on my list. Really, I think that it's the attitude...which of course, is one of the big faults of Dallas, too. I'm sure it's coming from the whole "We're self-absorbed Hollywood stars and we can't be bothered" thing.

I'm also not happy about the lack weather, another Dallas feature here during the summer, or when there is weather, suddenly houses are on fire or are colapsing. no wonder they make so many disaster flicks. I'm not all sunny and beachy.

Plus, I want a rapid transit system that works (why Chicago and Boston are high on the list). I love using subways and trains.

Let's just say it's not for me.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Hippies.

[moroccomole.livejournal.com]

He likes L.A. lots more now than he did in the first four chapters of the book, I assure you. And he's doing a signing at Crossroads in October -- check his blog for info.

[theevilnub.livejournal.com]

Actually the "Beardello" isn't what it used to be. Shit, it wasn't even that. Just 4 guys of size who happened to live together. With the exception of one, it wasn't like it was "hot & cold running anonymous cum" all the time (except for Jeff, & that was only the first month or two that he was here before he got a boyfriend).

[theotherqpc.livejournal.com]

it is, indeed, very lesbianic, which is nice for politics, but crappy for sleaze.

[garebear.livejournal.com]

Los Angeles is so spread out, the vapid part is just a small community. For all of the collapsing houses, wild fires, riots, earthquakes and crazy crap, in some parts of the city you'd never know anything was happening. Although I like Houston and Dallas, I don't think I'd survive the heat! I guess I love the ocean breezes, the lack of ice and snow and the wild diversity of people and activities that I never take advantage of in my part of the world.

[teddyb.livejournal.com]

I hope you get a chance to visit Toronto someday, if only to satisfy your curiosity. *grin*

I have to say, I fell in love with this city from my first visit, almost 30 years ago. I moved here from San Francisco 22 years ago to take a job that I thought would be temporary, and I've been here ever since.

Toronto is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in North America, with a population drawn from all over the world. As you pointed out, Montreal has language and associated political issues, but Toronto doesn't. Every language of the world is spoken here, but virtually everyone speaks English, too.

I'd recommend a visit in the summer, when the city is at its best, with green grass in all the urban parks and flowers in all the public areas that make the concrete canyons of the downtown so much more tolerable.

There are sidewalk cafes everywhere, and the transit system makes it easy to explore every part of the city.

If you DO decide to make a trip to Toronto sometime, let me know. I'll suggest some specific things to do during the time you think you might be here, and do what I can to help you plan a trip.

This is really one of the great cities of North America, and I love helping visitors discover its charms.