What are your favorite and least favorite cities?
Well let's get right down to it.
LEAST FAVORITE: Tijuana, Mexico.
The first and only time I visited was back in 1977.
The Tijuana I visited was a sprawling mountain of garbage with a few streets running through it. It existed to traffic in the very lowest and coarsest type of obscenity, vice, and sleaze, and it stunk like a thousand sewers.
I guess it's supposed to have improved since then. I don't fucking plan on going back to see.
Most Favorite City: Nope, not giving away the name or precise location
It's a little town on the Oregon Coast.
The modest main street was built using 1940's war dollars, lots of brick and a little neon. The residences are neat and the streets very narrow. Nice, tidy, not garish, not touristy.
The place hit an economic low in the 1950's, and then beatniks and hippies came up from California in the 1960s looking for cheap real estate and found this little town preserved in amber.
They brought in head shops, book and record stores, coffee shops, posters and textiles, and kites - huge things! Giant geometric kites that take a gang of people to fly! It became the home of what would become this whole underground community of extreme kite flyers. (That's when you wait for a huge storm, then tie a dude to a kite and fly him way out to sea, or up a mountain, and let the wind mess with him; and other ill- advised shit involving kites and testosterone poisoning.)
There are a few full-sized homes; mostly it's vacation cottages. Very, very old vacation cottages, perfect miniatures of housing styles further inland - little Victorians, little Sears houses, faux log cabins, tiny Ranch styles and Cape Cods, you name it. Can I find a picture of what I mean? Dang ol' dang ol' NO I cannot. So look at this vvv and wish it was in your state/country/on your planet.
It is my little town. MINE. You can go there to visit, but don't bring your party buddies.
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In case you were interested in how we deal with shit in the PNW (like throbbing mountain studs, is how) check out this video. Just skip ahead to 1:19 and let it rip.
Well my land's Lamb Chop, I was saying about doing the same post one day. Now as far as Tijuana, what can I say. From what I've seen in pictures I feel like number one I need to shower, 2, they're always seems to be a bunch of vampire movies filmed there, 3, everything looks dirty and. 4, it looks like an STD capital.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to stick with that second City out of your two choices. As for me I think you saw my least favorite city is Boston. My Philosophy when I'm there feels like lose the attitude tell it to my hand. I think my favorite city so far to date has been Buenos Aires. Six words. Hot men. Delicious food. Phenomenal architecture.
It's been at least I think seven or eight years and my ass still hurts from it. I believe it was from riding bulls.
DeleteI've heard that about Boston too. Tom Wolfe wrote an article about that attitude; it's called The Big Time (the article.) I've also heard that about Buenos Aires! Man it sounds like heaven!
DeleteDepending on the day, Los Angeles can be both my favorite and least favorite city. Other than that, my absolute least favorite is Riyadh, KSA. Most of the time when I'm not in LA, the city I'm in is my favorite. (Jesus, I'm such an easy bitch) xoxo
ReplyDeleteYou may be easy, but you're never cheap. XOO
DeleteFYI: I showed this to the MITM and he went on for 10 FUCKING MINUTES listing his least favorite cities! I think he should do blog about it! xoxo
ReplyDeleteAAAA I wish he would! I'd love to know!!!
DeleteI think my least favorite is Seattle. I lived there for a year in 1979, I had a cool job, a nice apartment, amusing friends and I still came to despise it. Interesting fact: I wound up with more sexually transmitted problems in that year than I did in the next 7 years in New Orleans.
ReplyDeleteNew Orleans in 1982 is my favorite.
I lived in Seattle in 1984-5, on Capitol Hill, in the middle of the Grunge thing. The one thing Seattle had going for it was the Pike Street Market, which had not yet become a tourist hell. Other than that, I found Seattle can be a very cold and unfriendly place. I was not sorry to leave. (I caught a little something there too. GAAAAAAAH disgusting!)
DeleteParis used to be nice (many years ago...today, it seems to have lost a lot of sparkle, but it's years since I was there). I do love New York. And, when I loved in London(The English one) I adored it. When I was in London a few years ago, I was lost, so asked a policeman. He was also lost! But Amsterdam still comes pretty high.
ReplyDeleteI meant "Amsterdam comes high on the list." But the ambiguous translation counts, come to think of it!
ReplyDelete...man, I was resisting the obvious comment but there you go. Amsterdam has never been on my list - the UK and Japan vie for #2 - but I may have to re-think that now. Nice!
DeleteLeast favourite would be anywhere in West London and favourite would be Barcelona.
ReplyDeletePs Redruth in Cornwall is a truly dreadful place and we all love Amsterdam so it doesn't count.