" essence of albany "

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fits of momentary nostalgia:

choosing gordo's or zachary's

is it albany or berkeley, this part of solano ave?

neighbors and how it's possible to have them without distinct neighborhoods

do i hate this place or miss it, from 4000+ miles away?

becca's kitchen with beer and jazz; her parents smiling and passive-aggressively arguing over a spread of delicious foods

jamming with dylan even though it was in berkeley and getting sandwiches half-way through or hitting up the thai temple and then the ashby flea market for gold posing as choice junk

the shitty construct that is the new high school, and hating it still, even though i'm well out of high school now and shouldn't care but still do because it's ugly as shit

seeing my house on google earth, and wondering where my car's gone/been

those soccer uniforms of blue and yellow mesh back in the day which were interchangable; orange slices at halftime

playing my guitar even though i suck

my basement makeshift rad super darkroom

the constant groupings of pubescent snots at the seb-leb (7-11)

free movies at the albany twin

zarry's sandwiches with extra pickles

east bay trail behind the train tracks and through the costco entrance to point richmond

friends that understand why we love albany

if you pronounce it "all-bany" or "al-bany," and what that means in terms of location of origin

policeman trading cards

the humid smelly indoor public swimming pool

mary and joe's sporting goods

children center day-care

the village

making plans to go to tilden park for a hike, but ending up drunk at cougar field

not big enough for a BART stop, but not small enough to be considered a boon-dock rural town due to geographic location even when taking into account the square-mile aspect

the border of albany and berkeley at safeway's and how nobody cares except the berkeley half

asian mall and how it's somehow considered richmond (???)

the dive bars and when did they become hip...i.e.-ivy room, hotsy totsy, and club mallard, and why does everyone want to drink on san pablo when they can get a guiness and play chess at THE PUB?

knowing the difference between the old cool albany library and the ugly salmon-pink vomit posing as art deco architecture

dance nights at montero's and world music at ashkenahs

magnificent marin, corny cornell, and how no one really cared about the kids from vista

home, and where the heart is, no matter how fleeting or (inter)national

big up tiny town; the list goes ever on...

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