Hey there Ultimate Metal peoples, here's my story:
I'm a 39 year old, single, college educated, childless, male who just spent the last four years cultivating a career opportunity that came up here in Scottsdale, Arizona. That's run its course: I gained a lot of experience & elevated my job title... but the company has hit some serious rough waters of late due to rampant mismanagement, so I've decided to move on to other opportunities... and honestly, outside of my career, I'm not having a great time living here. :-(
Don't get me wrong, the cost of living is really low, the weather is sunny (I don't mind the summer heat at all), it's easy to get around especially if you live near your work, there's good food if you go looking for it, and Arizona is a great state to day trip around... but as a single guy looking for the right lady to move into that stage of life with, and as a passionate (metal) musician, the Phoenix area just sucks pretty hard on both fronts. I mean I haven't had a date in well over two-and-a-half years (pathetic, eh?), and haven't met one person really enthusiastic/interested in doing anything novel on the music front the entire time I've been here. I feel like I just need to take myself somewhere else.
By day, I'm an industrial designer for a living (happily contracting at the moment) with a focus/experience in consumer products, and have done everything from R&D, graphic design, bidding/estimation, sales engineering, technical illustration/drafting, manufacturing management, music production, etc. in the past. I'd obviously like to end up somewhere with a decent job market as career is important to me, but the music and singles scene has got to be there as well. On the music front, I fall in the modern 'progressive' what-have-you kinda angle. I dig all types of heavy music (plus a lot of non-EDM electronic stuff and underground/alt hip hop) but tend towards writing more along the lines of Northlane, Destrage, or Uneven Structure. I dig on hip, gentrified types of environs. I'm a foodie/like to cook, like urban life in general, coffee shops, art galleries, and all that. I figure that stuff goes with music scenes without saying. My other hobbies include following car related stuff (motorsports mainly, F1, WEC, MotoGP), and tech in general. I dig edgy stand up and Adult Swim kinda stuff, and have a fairly progressive social outlook (though am apolitical in general). There you go.
So, I'm aiming to stay in the U.S. What cities am I a shoe-in for? I've got some ideas, but I'd love to hear some suggestions from around the land. My biggest constraint is staying in the sunbelt. I grew up in Upstate New York, and I spent a little over five years in Portland, Oregon. Brutal winters are not my thing, and while the cold was never unbearable, the gray, drizzly nonsense of the Pacific Northwest was the worst. The. Worst. Somewhere like Denver, on the other hand, is fine. My brother and his wife live up there and I've visited for weeks on end seven or eight times now, during the winter to boot. The snow/cold is completely tolerable, IMO, as it's sunshine like 300+ days there. At the moment my inclinations include: Denver, CO; Austin, TX, big Florida metros (Tampa Bay, Miami, Orlando), maybe Atlanta, GA, or San Fransisco, CA (though the cost of living scares the shit out of me). What say you guys out there? Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Feel free to ask any questions.
I'm a 39 year old, single, college educated, childless, male who just spent the last four years cultivating a career opportunity that came up here in Scottsdale, Arizona. That's run its course: I gained a lot of experience & elevated my job title... but the company has hit some serious rough waters of late due to rampant mismanagement, so I've decided to move on to other opportunities... and honestly, outside of my career, I'm not having a great time living here. :-(
Don't get me wrong, the cost of living is really low, the weather is sunny (I don't mind the summer heat at all), it's easy to get around especially if you live near your work, there's good food if you go looking for it, and Arizona is a great state to day trip around... but as a single guy looking for the right lady to move into that stage of life with, and as a passionate (metal) musician, the Phoenix area just sucks pretty hard on both fronts. I mean I haven't had a date in well over two-and-a-half years (pathetic, eh?), and haven't met one person really enthusiastic/interested in doing anything novel on the music front the entire time I've been here. I feel like I just need to take myself somewhere else.
By day, I'm an industrial designer for a living (happily contracting at the moment) with a focus/experience in consumer products, and have done everything from R&D, graphic design, bidding/estimation, sales engineering, technical illustration/drafting, manufacturing management, music production, etc. in the past. I'd obviously like to end up somewhere with a decent job market as career is important to me, but the music and singles scene has got to be there as well. On the music front, I fall in the modern 'progressive' what-have-you kinda angle. I dig all types of heavy music (plus a lot of non-EDM electronic stuff and underground/alt hip hop) but tend towards writing more along the lines of Northlane, Destrage, or Uneven Structure. I dig on hip, gentrified types of environs. I'm a foodie/like to cook, like urban life in general, coffee shops, art galleries, and all that. I figure that stuff goes with music scenes without saying. My other hobbies include following car related stuff (motorsports mainly, F1, WEC, MotoGP), and tech in general. I dig edgy stand up and Adult Swim kinda stuff, and have a fairly progressive social outlook (though am apolitical in general). There you go.
So, I'm aiming to stay in the U.S. What cities am I a shoe-in for? I've got some ideas, but I'd love to hear some suggestions from around the land. My biggest constraint is staying in the sunbelt. I grew up in Upstate New York, and I spent a little over five years in Portland, Oregon. Brutal winters are not my thing, and while the cold was never unbearable, the gray, drizzly nonsense of the Pacific Northwest was the worst. The. Worst. Somewhere like Denver, on the other hand, is fine. My brother and his wife live up there and I've visited for weeks on end seven or eight times now, during the winter to boot. The snow/cold is completely tolerable, IMO, as it's sunshine like 300+ days there. At the moment my inclinations include: Denver, CO; Austin, TX, big Florida metros (Tampa Bay, Miami, Orlando), maybe Atlanta, GA, or San Fransisco, CA (though the cost of living scares the shit out of me). What say you guys out there? Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Feel free to ask any questions.
