SF > LA

April 8, 2008 4:18 PM

SF Meetup for woebegone emigrating mefite duo's sousy sendoff? Needs to be April 19th!

contraption and I have the jobs, the house, and the moveout date all set. We're headed to a very mefite-dead expanse of sunny SoCal, where he'll continue to program toys for the superrich and I'll proceed to fall deeper into irrelevance and debt.

So, we know we're gonna miss our imaginary internet friends too much not to have a last w00t. Your presence is desired!

The where and what time is up in the air. A bar with plenty of room for all your beloved bodies?

posted by Ambrosia Voyeur to MetaFilter gatherings at 4:18 PM (85 comments total)

Aw man, I'm going to be in the wrong hemisphere!
posted by aubilenon at 4:21 PM on April 8

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Ok. The 19th works.

(But you still can't leave!)
posted by rtha at 4:24 PM on April 8

Wait wait wait, can't it be the 18th? There's a good chance I'm going to be in Santa Clara for business the end of next week. Pretty please?
posted by backseatpilot at 4:27 PM on April 8

I'll be there! You're going to come back and visit us, right? Right?
posted by gingerbeer at 4:30 PM on April 8

OK!
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 4:45 PM on April 8

oops, should clarify that LA itself is not mefite-dead... We're living in Ventura, hayever.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 5:23 PM on April 8

Grr. I'll be up in SF from 4/25-27 for an interview, so I'll miss this one. :(
posted by the_bone at 7:05 PM on April 8

Just got home & I'm not going back to So Cal for 3 weeks or so, so I'm in. :)
posted by miss lynnster at 8:11 PM on April 8

oops, should clarify that LA itself is not mefite-dead

Indeed! So when can we start planning the welcoming meetup?
posted by spiderskull at 8:12 PM on April 8

Ah man, I'll be out of state.
posted by iamkimiam at 10:07 PM on April 8

I'm in.

I like bars that serve food: The Rite Spot; the place with the french fries and the long tables we went last time; The Liberties; E&O; Eddie Rickenbackers (sp?). Or bars right next to places with food (e.g. Marlenas, Place Pigalle, next to the burger place).

I like bars. And food.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 10:22 PM on April 8

Oh damnation, you two, I like bars and food too and of course I want to see you off, but I'll be away in Milwaukee at a sort-of-wedding and will have to do all the hugs and tears and so on by proxy.

So, per gingerbeer: you're going to come back and visit us, yes, yes.
posted by tangerine at 1:21 AM on April 9

I would like to nominate the Rogue pub (brewpub? what are you kids calling them these days?) because it has delicious food and beer, and also probably has enough space to accommodate even the largest of MeFite hordes. Columbus and Union? The only drawback is a bit of a hike from BART, but my pappy always said that walkin' was good fir ya'.

I also have no objection (in principle) to The Rite Spot.
posted by Doublewhiskeycokenoice at 1:22 AM on April 9

19th, I'll be back in SF from Singapore after almost a year
posted by infini at 7:54 AM on April 9

and can't believe there's a mefi meetup during hte only four days of the year I'm there!!!!
posted by infini at 7:56 AM on April 9

Let's do it!
posted by jasper411 at 9:08 AM on April 9

Oh, as much as I love love love Rogue's beer, the thought of North Beach on a Saturday night is....not attractive to me.

However, if the will of the people is Rogue, then Rogue I will. (And I never suggest places, because I suck at it, so apologies for presenting a problem but no solution.)
posted by rtha at 9:59 AM on April 9

If we're looking for not-so-popular places, there's Lalita and Soluna, both bars with food, and not-so-popular. Near Civic Center BART/MUNI.

But I too will follow the will of the people.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 4:48 PM on April 9

I think Soluna closed and is going to be turned into something else.

(I'm hoping I can make it but I won't know until closer to the day.)
posted by trip and a half at 5:52 PM on April 9

rtha, your point is well taken, I just suggested the first thing that came to mind. What about the Valley Tavern? Never been there on a Sat. but it could be pretty sweet.
posted by Doublewhiskeycokenoice at 7:07 PM on April 9

Menu for place next door to Valley Tavern. You can supposedly order food and it comes but slowly according to Yelp.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 7:30 PM on April 9

Ok, I just booked my travel for the business trip and I'm leaving on the redeye Saturday. So if it's early enough I can make it to this shindig.
posted by backseatpilot at 8:35 AM on April 10

(How do we get this on the sidebar again? We should do that.)
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 9:53 AM on April 10

I'm in! Sad to see y'all heading south.
posted by whir at 11:28 AM on April 10

so, Valley Tavern sound good? 7pm?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 5:58 PM on April 10

Oh phooey. That's the same day and time my brother is having his going away party. And he's also moving to LA! (well, Orange County actually)
posted by junesix at 12:11 AM on April 11

Don't forget to celebrate the first day of the American Revolution. April 19th, yes.

Good luck in LA. It has its moments.
posted by emhutchinson at 2:42 PM on April 11

I shall see the you esteemed ladies and gentlemen there.
posted by Doublewhiskeycokenoice at 2:34 PM on April 12

Rats! It turns out the 19th is the first night of Passover, so I won't be able to make it after all. So sorry - bye you guys! good luck with your move!
posted by jasper411 at 5:40 PM on April 12

I don't think I'll be able to make it, but good luck with your new life in SoCal, and come back to visit us!
posted by Quietgal at 7:58 AM on April 13

Hm, I wonder if I can reschedule something else going on that day...
posted by Pronoiac at 3:26 PM on April 13

So the meetup's at the Valley Tavern on the 19th? That's my bar! Sweet!
posted by The Light Fantastic at 4:53 PM on April 14

I snuck out of Toronto and missed their last meetup - I will try to get up to see all y'all.
posted by GuyZero at 9:44 AM on April 15

wicked. I'll be in town from vancouver that day. See you there.
posted by jeffj at 8:33 PM on April 16

Well, I would've been there but now I'm headed to San Diego to be at my mom's deathbed.

Sucky month for me, this.
posted by miss lynnster at 9:49 PM on April 16

oh no. Really sorry to hear that, miss lynnster.
posted by jeffj at 7:43 AM on April 17

I'm should be there. Any assasination attempts should be made with large caliber firearms. Anything smaller than a 9mm is just going to annoy me.
posted by loquacious at 7:44 AM on April 19

Aw, Lynn, that's so sad to hear. Our thoughts are with you and your family.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 8:38 AM on April 19

Time?
posted by obloquy at 11:39 AM on April 19

7PM, I'm assuming.

I know contraption and Ambrosia Voyeur are en route from SoCal, and I'm pretty sure they can update from the road.
posted by loquacious at 12:12 PM on April 19

Also, brrrrrrr. WTF?
posted by loquacious at 12:13 PM on April 19

10-4 good buddy pulling up to slugtown for apartment cleaning and serious 10-100. You gonna need a ridealong, come on?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:35 PM on April 19

That would be an affirmative. Call me when inbound, eh? Also: Beans!

Totally unrelated: Be advised of heavy winds up here. Chilly tonight.
posted by loquacious at 1:50 PM on April 19

Also: Afterparty options at my place are on the table. Fireplace, couches, music and/or a movie or something, etc.
posted by loquacious at 1:50 PM on April 19

It is seriously cold and windy. We'll have to fight the wind uphill to get there, but we'll persevere! See y'all there!
posted by gingerbeer at 2:07 PM on April 19

Stupid windyness. It's howling out there, I tell you! HOWLING!

I hope this place we're going has grog, or hot toddies, or something like that.

But we just got back from a late brunch at the St. Francis, and whether it was the lateness or the wind, there were no clots of hipsters waiting out front for tables, so we got in right away. Yay us.
posted by rtha at 2:09 PM on April 19

Do contraption and Ambrosia Voyeur have mobile internet with them? Or can we chat going-away prezzies and pranks?
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 3:23 PM on April 19

They have mobile internet usually, yes.
posted by loquacious at 3:32 PM on April 19

All right, well, people with ideas will have to Mefi mail me, then.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 3:40 PM on April 19

(Good thing I didn't spill the beans about the strippers -- I would hate to ruin the surprise.)
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 4:47 PM on April 19

HI. I WILL NOT BE STRIPPING.

At least not until I see the money and/or someone gets me drunk enough.
posted by loquacious at 4:50 PM on April 19

You're getting strippers too? Crap. We'll have to come up with something else.
posted by gingerbeer at 4:50 PM on April 19

Is there any such thing as too many strippers?

Yes, I can give a good home to wayward extra strippers, or extra wayward strippers, either.
posted by loquacious at 5:55 PM on April 19

Uh... HELLO? I will totally help out with getting contraption a very enthusisatic dancer at a very reasonable rate, and you don't even have to worry about contributing to oppressive gender and class structures with this girl, she's proto-pseudo-post-meta-feminist or something.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 6:13 PM on April 19

Who said the stripper was for him?
posted by loquacious at 6:31 PM on April 19

Also, see you all soon!
posted by loquacious at 6:42 PM on April 19

I'll be about 40 to 50 minutes late ...
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 6:53 PM on April 19

The gingerbeer/rtha contingent is en route.
posted by gingerbeer at 6:59 PM on April 19

We're here! Lore, AV, contraption, doublewhiskeycokenoice and beer.
posted by loquacious at 7:17 PM on April 19

Posting nearly drunk, woo!
posted by loquacious at 9:31 PM on April 19

loquacious- give a shoutout to AV, Contraption and RTHA (15931.org represent yo), and yourself, from me.
posted by mrzarquon at 9:40 PM on April 19

I am lazy and enjoying a strange Japanese movie about a girl and her iron griddle. My apologies for being too lazy to drive in from the hinterlands.
posted by GuyZero at 9:42 PM on April 19

08:47 on Sunday, no updates since Saturday at 21:42 ... must have been quite a meetup! Or maybe it's still going on? Anyway, sorry I couldn't make it, and I'm looking forward to the pictures. assuming y'all weren't too smashed to work a camera
posted by Quietgal at 8:47 AM on April 20

I think the problem may be too hung over to work the camera to post this morning, Quietgal. There were photos taken, I know that much.
posted by gingerbeer at 9:41 AM on April 20

*does mumbling, hungover Ozzy Osborne impression*
posted by loquacious at 10:12 AM on April 20

Loquacious...you're awake at 10 am? I am humbled...and hungover.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 12:22 PM on April 20

I should be hungover, but for some reason, the gods have smiled upon me, and I am merely tired. And I didn't even go to the afterparty!

Only took one photo - I was too busy with beer and talking. And I totally want to do the mefi bay area book swap thing.
posted by rtha at 12:29 PM on April 20

Loquacious...you're awake at 10 am? I am humbled...and hungover.

Egotistical response: I told u I wuz hardcore!

Genuine response: Weird dreams, nice day, woke up craving coffee, flea market and more - not necassarily in that order. :) Spent most of the day working on art and music.


It was nice to meet everyone, some again and some for the first time. Nice tavern. Thanks to jeffj and The Light Fantastic and... Tim? (Oh, crap, I forgot your username again, damnit...) for coming and hanging out and drinking even more and more beer afterwards.

Sorry you couldn't stay long, Ambrosia Voyeur and contraption. If I'd my wits about me I would have offered to let you stay in exchange for hijacking me in the morning for moving-out cleanup duty. :)

I shall post my singular (and brightly flashed) meetup pic shortly. Frankly we were almost all too busy sipping beer and flapping our gums for much else.


Also, a note to everyone I've meet in SF thus far - feel free to msg or call me if you want to come visit whenever. So far all I've found all of your visits lovely and positive, and my housemates have always been impressed by the depth/breadth of the conversation. Want to come and make art, listen to music or hang out or something? Hit me up.

I'm trying to open this place up. Want to volunteer? Have some ideas? Arrange some sort of underground/offbeat community event? Seriously, talk to me. I'm honored to have worked my way into the fabric of San Francisco in such a short time. I love this city. :)
posted by loquacious at 6:15 PM on April 20

Picture has been posted. Please to thank you to be observing the notes. Did I get ClaudiaCenter wrong in them? Tim, I'm sorry, what is your username again? I'm mighty embarassed, twice around now. *goes all assburgers and fretting*

Also, I made a few media offerings. jeffj and anyone else should message me with music/art requests and contact info. Soulseek, etc, for high resolution copies of (my) stuff.
posted by loquacious at 6:57 PM on April 20

The car and I are both finally broken down. I was just about to say that it's bittersweet to read loquacious' offer of companionship and cooperation above, because this move has been in the works for six months, and in those six months, I've made a new best friend of him. So, he means it, folks. Jump in.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:04 PM on April 20

Tim's handle is "Whir." I remember this because I spent half the night thinking it was "Worm." Doh!
posted by The Light Fantastic at 10:20 PM on April 20

I would just like to state for the record that my nose usually doesn't look like a carrot.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 10:24 PM on April 20

God damn, I wish I could have been there. Love ya, TLF!
posted by brundlefly at 12:19 AM on April 21

We should join forces, loquacious, because every time I see whir, I think, "Hey! It's whir!" and then I spend five minutes frantically wracking my brain, trying to make it give up whir's Out Here In The World name.
posted by rtha at 5:44 AM on April 21

My ears are burning! I sometimes think I should have chosen a username that doesn't take like two sentences to describe in person, but who expects to actually meet people from a web site? Plus if I changed my handle I couldn't lord over everybody else as a 14ker any more. Anyways, I always enjoy these but I had a fantastic time this time. Big up to loquacious for the afterparty which was excellent per usual. And I'll miss you little scamps, AV and contraption. Don't let them grind you down down there!
posted by whir at 12:36 PM on April 21

(and some of us manage to remember whir's names. of course, some of us may have had a little less to drink.)

I figure I now have to live up to the astute and demure label. Hence the parentheses.
posted by gingerbeer at 2:15 PM on April 21

Looks like I missed another good one. Next time, I'll return
posted by jewishbuddha at 3:21 PM on April 21

So I missed my flight the next morning by sleeping in. I got to LA eventually though, it just meant a couple extra hours of hanging out at the airport, yay.

That was a great meetup, the bar was super fun, as was the afterparty at the fabulous residence of loquacious. Glad to have met you all, hopefully I'll be in town for another one some day!
posted by jeffj at 5:00 PM on April 21

Come on back anytime, jeffj, and we're definitely making it up to Vancouver sometime this year.
posted by gingerbeer at 9:04 PM on April 21

Yeah, we're down for a Vancouver meetup, definitely.

Also, I can forget whir's real-world name without any help from alcohol, thankyouverymuch, oh demure one!

Ambrosia/contraption: you guys finally make it?
posted by rtha at 9:06 PM on April 21

I believe they've been "making it" for a while now, rtha. Scandalous!

Sorry I couldn't join you guys that night - sounds like it was a good one!
posted by ooga_booga at 2:15 PM on April 22

*sigh*

Yeah, we loaded the car fuller than we ever had before, mistakenly thinking there was only a little bit of stuff left to pack in it after we drove down the 26" U-Haul a few days ago, and grumpily pushed up the hill from our front door on a cardboard sled the 200 pound solid block of optical glass which we pilfered off a lab loading dock and now cling to as lawn decor, apparently to our vehicular peril. Scraping the axles on the raised faultline of our driveway meeting the sidewalk as we pulled away from the house, we scoffed at the tiny amber "CHECK ENGINE" light that keeps eternal vigil on the dash, and headed south on our five hour drive at about 9 pm, after our stoned ex-rasta shady mortgage broker Azeri emigre loudfucking-on-hardwood-floors upstairs landlord finally showed up to do the walkthrough. (Farewell, Farid. Fail at landlord.)

Cut to 60 minutes later, and we have to get a tow off the freeway in Salinas, and I'm pounding DELICIOUS chocolate and lamenting swearing off benzos, but I like two trucks and their down-to-earth drivers and nifty touchscreens, and we got to take the car to a shop contraption recalled getting a good recommendation to for work on Biodiesels. Hoofed it to a 7-11 for tallboys, tortilla chips and cheese dip and made way to a cheap motel to watch "Eye of the Beholder" on cable in Salinal high style. That movie is a terrible waste of Ewan. Couldn't believe it was SALINAS of all northern California cities, with the power to stymie our escape. Next morning, we had another adventure involving computer illiterate Budget box truck renters which, if nothing else, cemented one of my admittedly many positive bigotries: Koreans are trustworthy. Remarked to self, in dirty clothes, skin stiff from motel soap, walking all over the place, nervous about keeping phone contact operable, how like being homeless a bad moving experience can leave you. Remarked to self: "You are a fat white lady and a grad student with a iPhone, stfu and moblog this noise."

So, contraption missed his first day of work, but now we're basking in the hazy warmth of the southernmost agricultural area standing before the northward creeping plague of the Angeleno asphalt jungle, and I have the shorts on to prove it. I'll have to make my way back up to Salinas if and when the car is repaired, but there are kittens in a box there, so okay, and I might just go the extra hour to Santa Cruz, because I left without my bird flu freezer stock ration of the Royal Taj's Navattran Korma.

We had a great time at the meetup, everybody, and want to thank you all for your thoughtfulness, generosity and friendship. Please let me know if you're coming through any time! We have better guest amenities than we ever have before just for this!
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 2:22 PM on April 22

Oh, people.

AV & contraption, I'm thinking of you in your yellow house.

You all know I wouldn't have missed this for anything less grave than a trip to Milwaukee.
posted by tangerine at 2:59 PM on April 22

Man. Salinas! At least it wasn't....somewhere worse.

Glad you got there and have shorts to wear. And I am now following you on twitter. [not stalker-ist]

ooga_booga: heh!
posted by rtha at 3:50 PM on April 22

Hey everyone, thanks for all the kindness and conversation. Will be more active on metafilter in the near future, just as soon as I put my computer back together and connect it to the internet somehow. I'm posting this from a bus headed south along the coast from santa barbara, having successfully completed my first day at a new company several orders of magnitude better than the last one in every way.

ClaudiaCenter, rtha and gingerbeer: your gifts made a stressfull night of tow trucks and Salinas motels a whole lot more tolerable, and I don't care what the mechanics thought of the rainbow flag on the dash of the overloaded Volkswagen parked outside their shop Monday morning.

Had an awesome time at the meetup, it was great to see you all! spiderskull, if you're still lurking in this thread: we should meet for lunch sometime.

god damn but this browser sucks.
posted by contraption at 6:01 PM on April 22