Category Archives: Albany

Albany is beautiful, when the light is right, when the water is still, when the wind is soft. It has moments of rage and raw power too – we all do – when the clouds are in a tumult, when the wind is in a riot or the air is dense and heavy with rain. The bane of the Northeast.

As much as I enjoy the sun and warm weather, I know that part of its appeal is the relative scarcity of it (at least that’s how it feels after the spring we had). A year of sun and heat in Florida or California would be stultifying to me – a lifetime of it feels like it would be deadly. My countenance requires change and seasonal shifts. A chance for a completely new wardrobe. All those wonderful coats… all those cozy scarves… all those glorious boots…

And at this time of the year, all that magnificent summer – even if it has to rain a little.

Sometimes the beauty of the familiar can only be revealed through the eyes of the unfamiliar.

We slept in to account for Tyler and Kevin’s jet lag, and Andy and I’s old age. Turns out I slept the latest of us all. Brunch was thankfully not until 12:30, at which point polka-dots of downpours were popping up on the radar. We sidled into Innovo right before the dark sky opened up. I can’t think of a lovelier place in which to pass a quick spring storm than having brunch and a bunch of bottomless mimosas.

We took our time as one downpour subsided and another one began. Then, a spattering of sunlight. The plan was to hit the New York State Museum – a place I’d visited as a kid but haven’t seen in three decades. They informed me that it was the largest state museum in the country – proof that it once again takes a non-native to reveal native truths. (I mentioned that I thought it would be Nevada, given how sprawling Las Vegas was – proof that some things should not be spoken aloud.)

Despite a closed carousel (it was Sunday afternoon) we got a glimpse of the Empire State Plaza. The haunts that I occasionally occupy as part of my job took on a magical quality I couldn’t appreciate when rushing by them on a workday. The sun poked out for the time we were outside – blue sky and puffy clouds reflected in the waters of the plaza. 

From there we made a cocktail stop at Oh Bar, showing Tyler and Kevin where Andy and I first met almost nineteen years ago. An old couple and a new couple sat in the window as the rain started again, just like it had on July 23, 2000. Love was suddenly all around in Albany. 

“You can call me a sinner, or you can call me a saint…”~ Madonna

When a candle shares your name (or misbegotten nickname) you kind of have to buy it. Such was the case when I came upon the ‘St. Al’ candle at the Fort Orange General Store in downtown Albany. I’ve been stalking their Facebook page for months, and as soon as the weather made walking at lunch a thing again I traveled the couple of blocks from my office and popped in. The first thing I saw was this candle. While the name is sweet, the scent is even sweeter – a combination of sandalwood, clay, clove flower, oud and ylang-ylang – which meant that it hit all my favored fragrance notes.

This one has just a hint of smokiness to it, which means it will transition well from spring and summer into fall. Someone had told me about how good these candles were (marketed under the ‘Boy Smells’ label) and the others on display smelled equally as wonderful. (Sadly, there was no discount for guys named Al, but I had to ask.)

The rest of the Fort Orange General Store is just as charming, with a delicious selection of soaps and washes and such, along with room sprays, body lotions, face masks, jewelry, hand towels, sage smudges, and a number of Albany-themed items like cards and penants and t-shirts. Staff is super-friendly and helpful, so if you’re looking for a local place to support, while finding things you just can’t get at Marshall’s or Target or TJ Maxx, head to downtown Albany. There’s magic here too.

{The Fort Orange General Store is located at 412 Broadway, right in downtown Albany.}

Albany Pride is a tricky thing. There’s so much this area has to offer, and so much it doesn’t. I suppose the same could be said for any city anywhere, so I’ll err on the side of praise and promise. No sense in pissing off the city where you live. There are more than enough to critique and condemn. We’ll steer clear of that here, at least for today. I’m feeling charitable.

When the time moves forward and spring is in the air, the city turns onto the road to beautiful again. We will shake the dirt and salt of winter off our shoes (and cars) and start walking at lunch again. The crocus will come up in the warmer and more protected spots and soon enough the grass will be green again. It will be time to paint a scene like this. And so we hold on to our hometown…

Even in downtown Albany there are nooks and pockets of beauty and enchantment, such as this little park across the street from my office building. I pass it when taking a lunch and it usually provides a respite in the day, no matter how stressful it might be going. (That’s another life lesson that deserves further exploration in a future post: always take your lunch.)

As seen here, this park is providing its final flourish of beauty before succumbing to the cold. Winter will offer more subtle stretches of prettiness, but for the most part this will be the last show until the return of spring. There will be flowering trees then, and tulips and daffodils will dot the space. The sky will again be blue, and the sun will offer warmth in addition to light.

[Sigh]

It’s too early to be longing for spring.

It invariably happens, every six months or so, that the Starbucks on Pearl Street (Store #07922) in Albany (the only Starbucks in the downtown Albany area, where my office happens to be) ends up breaking my heart. After avoiding it and settling for Dunkin Donuts or Cider Belly for my mid-day coffee break after their last fiasco, I had given them another go, and there was a different cast of characters operating the caffeine machine so I had hope there would be improvements in the service. Alas, it was not to be.

I don’t take an early lunch, so by the time I get out for coffee it’s around 1:30 or 2 PM – not exactly rush hour. Yet for some reason, with all the socializing and singing and general lollygagging, the time it took to get coffee was stretching into ten to fifteen minutes. I started keeping track as a game to see how long it would take and live-tweeting the whole thing. Sometimes it was good – and I was happy to point out if a drink came in under five minutes (I didn’t have to do it that often). Mostly they were falling between nine and twelve minutes. Still strange, since I don’t usually have such issues at other Starbucks, but hey, this is Pearl Street.

That said, sometimes there’s no excuse for taking fifteen minutes to make a drink. Especially when I see you socializing and laughing and pausing work to finish a story on how short you are and always shave been all your life. I’ve worked in a number of places – retail stores, a restaurant, and all sorts of offices. In every situation I love to see people enjoying their work day. An office that gets along well and shares laughs and genial conversation during working hours is generally one that is putting out quality work. But there’s a balance, and when you start delivering one coffee drink every fifteen minutes, something is wrong.

On this day, I entered and found the usual line of three or four people, and a few more awaiting their drinks. Behind the counter, there were three baristas. One was mopping the floor and making a big production out of it. “Oh, this mop is so heavy! It’s, like, twenty pounds!” One was half-heartedly making drinks, but with the growing line and group of people waiting, she didn’t seem to be moving very quickly. Still, three people in front of me wasn’t bad. So I waited. And waited. And waited. A guy who was also waiting finally approached and asked about his egg sandwich, which they had apparently forgotten about. The woman in front of me also got the wrong order and they had to remake it. Throughout it all, the baristas continued to hold their side conversations instead of simply focusing on banging out some coffee. Fifteen minutes after I got there, my drink was ready.

My comment was, admittedly, a little snarky: “15 minutes later…” I said, with a little laugh.

The barista didn’t find it funny. “Well,” she huffed, “I just had to make a bunch of drinks before you.”

I wasn’t having it either. “I know. Last week it only took 13 minutes to get a coffee.”

She did not go silent. “That’s how it works,” she challenged. “Everyone wants Starbucks.”

Umm, not anymore. See you in another six months for the next Twitter showdown.

Post Script: That Starbucks location has since shut down. There are now zero Starbucks stores in downtown Albany.

The Boo-jolais Wine Celebration takes place in just two days (Friday, October 26, 2018) so if you haven’t ordered your tickets yet get right on it, and then get immediately to work on your costume. While this is typically a big fashion night for me, this year’s Monster costume theme takes some of that pressure off. (There are a lot of ‘monsters’ ripe for imitating in this world…)

They also just released a fabulous list of vendors who will be supplying the night with good things to eat, and some wonderful items on which to bid in the silent auction. As produced by the Alliance for Positive Health, this is always a night on which to see and be seen. Get ready for a monstrously good time…

A month from today – October 26, 2018 – the BOO-jolais Monster Ball will roar into the Albany Capital Center for the annual BOO-jolais Wine Celebration to benefit the Alliance for Positive Health. It’s one of my favorite parties of the year, as much for the cause as for the fabulous collection of attendees it draws, some of whom I’ve known for as long as I’ve known Andy. It’s also one of the best nights to dress up, and this year’s Monster theme gives a whole new slew of sartorial possibilities. A monster can be many things, which gives me some wonderful ideas. (I’m told there may be a prize for the best monster costume, so go all out.) Here’s the official invite:

Calling all werewolves, witches and other frightful creatures of the night to the BOO-jolais Monster Ball. BEWARE! A great time awaits you at the season’s premier Halloween event. Dress as your favorite monster and you just may win a prize. Feed the hungry beast within with a decadent selection of food samplings from local restaurants and caterers, and complimentary wine tastings. Bask in the fun of live entertainment from Grand Central Station, dancing, a silent auction and much more!

This is the week when it happens: the unseen blooming of the linden trees. They are everywhere in downtown Albany, but their blossoms are subtle and go largely unnoticed. It took me several years to figure out that the sweet perfume that carried over the streets at this time of the year actually belonged to these trees, so insignificant were their blooms (which are lime green and similar to a maple tree’s flowers, if you’ve ever noticed those). What does make an impact is their fragrance. It is so sweet as to be almost cloying, but I cannot get enough of it. I even have a bottle of linden shower gel that roughly mimics the scent.

It is one of the fragrances that signals summer to me – more than most colognes even – and it’s the last wave of spring scents to leave such an olfactory impression (after the lilacs and peonies). From this point the next major fragrance producer is the similarly unassuming privet, which brings to mind Provincetown and summer vacations.

For now, the linden trees sprinkle their intoxicating magic over my lunch-time walks and evening strolls, carrying pleasantly on the breeze, reminding all to slow down and breathe in the arrival of summer.

Working in downtown Albany has its perks. There’s always somewhere new to go for lunch. (Sadly, the turnover for food places is lamentably swift.) There’s somewhere pretty to walk. (Try the path leading from City Hall to the Legislative Building or the River Walk.) And if you look hard enough, you can come upon visages like this: a peek of sky, of cobblestone street, of rich brick building.

Beauty’s where you find it.

In my current hometown, there is beauty to be found if one knows where to look, and if one looks hard enough. It’s not always apparent or obvious, which makes it mean a little more. Privately, and perhaps publicly, I’m prone to dismiss this area when it comes to culture and artistic options and simple architectural glamour. And until those harsh 1970’™s lines of the Plaza come into miraculous vogue, I may have truth on my side. However, there are winks and nods to whimsy and beauty here, if only in the egg that watches over this bit of street art.

Our stalwart Jack’s Oyster House has a section of State Street named for it, and it is an institution unto itself. Dinners have been hit-or-miss there for a few years, but when they’re on they’re unbeatable. On the bottom corner of State is this dome-shaped beauty, proof that there are gorgeous buildings here, even if they’re not overly plentiful.

A little further up the street is Wellington’s, which I’ve tried for likely the last time. Their portions are simply too small for a $12 martini such as the one pictured. Perspective clue: those aren’t even queen olives taking up all that space, and the pour is meager at best. They saw me tweet as much, and came right over to me at the bar, but when I explained that the size was dismal compared to just about every other place in downtown Albany, the woman didn’t bother challenging it. What’s to challenge when there’s a photo like that?

So yes, Albany has its drawbacks and limitations, along with its naysayers and critics (guilty and guilty), but it has beauty and charm and champions as well. More than that, it’s become home – and I always take pride in my home. The skies here want to be blue and the sun wants to shine. We just have to help make it happen whenever we can.