Category Archives: Albany

This Friday the official party season kicks off with the Boo-jolais Wine Celebration as put on by the Alliance for Positive Health. As I mentioned before, this is one of my favorite parties of the year, and with the encouraged costume dress code, I can’t wait to see what everybody else is wearing. The completely revamped celebration takes place at the Washington Avenue Armory, and it looks to be a spooktacular delight.

Just like the Beaujolais Nouveau Wine Celebration, there will be wine tastings, food samplings from over 20 restaurants & chefs, a photo booth, and a large silent auction. We’re also very excited to announce that we’ll have live drag performances starting at 7 p.m. with Countess Sondra Rox and Grande Duchess Ivanna leading the show. We’re also going to have psychic and tarot card readings to incorporate the Halloween theme…and of course, costumes are encouraged!

The BOO-jolais Wine Celebration


Friday, October 28^th – 6 to 9 PM

Location: Washington Avenue Armory in Albany

{Be sure to check their updates on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or on their Event Page.}

New Time, New Place, Same Fabulousness.

The spooky season just got a lot more stylish, as the Beaujolais Wine Celebration becomes the Boo-jolais Wine Celebration, moving up a few weeks from its usual pre-holiday season time slot. The Alliance for Positive Health is shaking things up for this year’s benefit, starting with a new theme, a new date, and a new venue.

This year the celebration takes place on Friday, October 28 at the Washington Avenue Armory in Albany, NY – a grand atmosphere for the battalion of glamorous costume-clad attendees set to storm the start of Halloween weekend.

As always, this event features lots of fine wine and delicious food, supplied by a stellar assembly of Albany eateries. Perhaps most exciting this time around is the entertainment that will be on gloved hand in the form of several drag performances by two of my favorite local luminaries: Countess Sondra Rox and Grande Duchess Ivanna.

The Beaujolais Celebration is one of the highlights of my party-going year, and though they always do an impeccable job of crafting unforgettable evenings, this one looks to be reinvigorated and rejuvenated by all of the energizing changes. That includes the encouraged dress code: as this falls on the weekend before Halloween, this is a costume party. While they are not required, costumes are definitely appreciated, but if a suit and tie is your comfort zone, feel free to stay true to yourself. This is one of the most accepting and fun parties we attend, no matter what you wear, and it’s going to be extra-special this year.

Get Ready to go Boo!

The BOO-jolais Wine Celebration


Friday, October 28^th – 6 to 9 PM

Location: Washington Avenue Armory in Albany

{Be sure to check their updates on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or on their Event Page.}

Sometimes I rush through the day at work so distractedly that I miss the beauty that downtown Albany often affords. As we head into fall, one of the most gorgeous times of the year in upstate New York, I will endeavor to take notice of all the things that once meant so much to me.

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” ~ Mark Twain

Sometimes downtown Albany can take one by surprise with its beauty.

In this case, it was a wink of enchantment after the Alice in Wonderland GLSEN Gala.

The indigo sky of dusk, the cheery light of street lamps, and the open window of a car driving straight into summer…

“I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night. Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle!”  ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

The season of Pride is once again upon us, and one of the more exciting events (in my fanciful estimation) is the only official formal event of the Albany Pride season – the GLSEN Alice in Wonderland Gala. An evening for supporting the Gay Lesbian & Straight Education Network of the New York Capital Region, this event is always one of sparkle and glamour, arriving on the eve of the actual Pride Celebration & Parade.

I love a party, especially a somewhat formal party where there’s a theme and a reason to get dressed up. This year that theme is the very-fertile ‘Alice in Wonderland’ which poses its own challenges and possibilities. Though Lewis Carroll (the troubling writer of the books) comes with his own set of questionable baggage, the works themselves are collections of imaginative whimsy – and the recent movie versions offer their own wonder and spectacle (and some of the most exquisite costuming I’ve seen of late). To that end, this theme is the perfect opportunity for sartorial excess and over-the-top frills. Mad-hatters and bow-tied, waist-coated bunnies are all welcome, and this Cheshire cat will be grinning ear-to-ear in some splendiferous ensemble that is as ridiculous to create as it will be to wear.

The party is scheduled for 6-8 PM on Friday, June 10, 2016 at the recently-renovated Renaissance Hotel (a world of enchantment itself) in downtown Albany. You may get your tickets at this link, and if you can’t make it perhaps you’d consider donating to such a great cause. Here’s a bit of background on the organization and all that they work to accomplish:

Since 1990, GLSEN has led the way on LGBT issues in K-12 education. Through pioneering research, program development and advocacy, GLSEN has made the case for the urgency and importance of these issues, and identified effective school-based solutions. Today, GLSEN remains at the vanguard of the “Safe Schools Movement,” many thanks to the active partnerships with the largest national organizations in elementary/secondary education, youth development and youth service, civil and human rights. The GLSEN-led National Safe Schools Partnership, for example, now includes more than 90 member organizations, and within the past year, each of GLSEN’s bullying-prevention strategies has been endorsed by a federal agency as a best practice in education or youth development. UNESCO has asked GLSEN to assist with the exchange of knowledge and best practice with NGOs and education ministries worldwide.

GLSEN is now focused on leveraging our access and assets to ensure that K-12 education continues to advance on LGBT issues: becoming fully inclusive of transgender students; addressing the multiple challenges confronting LGBT students of color; adopting GLSEN’s proven model policies and programs on a broader scale; and contributing to an emerging international dialogue on LGBT human rights issues and educational access for all children. To do this, we partner with and engage all education stakeholders, most particularly the students who experience our schools every day and are in the best position to help change them.

Your support helps make GLSEN the most transformational organizations of its kind, addressing important school safety issues that have relevance to every member of today’s school communities.  Together we are creating climates and attitudes of respect that will resonate across generations.

Given his background as a police officer, one who had been called on many a time to rescue bus drivers from difficult situations (fights, disputes, traffic infractions, etc.) my husband Andy knows and notices things that someone largely unconcerned with the laws (me) would ignore. Such as the way in which the CDTA buses in downtown Albany routinely refuse to pull into their bus stops, even if they are free and clear of cars. (The ‘No Parking’ signs and the tickets instantly issued to those cars that are in the way usually ensure that there is no one there.) Yet that doesn’t prevent the buses from stopping in the middle of the street instead of pulling over.

This creates a back-up of traffic, particularly at rush hour times, that goes against the very purpose of having a bus-stop. I don’t know whether it’s the hurry to meet schedule demands (as Andy believes), or laziness in not wanting to have to re-enter traffic, but they repeatedly stop in the middle of the street instead of pulling over to let their passengers on and off. That’s not the point of this rant, however. Something much more illegal went down on this morning of March 31, 2016 at about 7:30 AM.

We were pulling up to the intersection of Broadway and Orange, about to take a left onto Orange, and we had a Green light and a green arrow. Andy was in the middle of making the turn when a CDTA Supervisor’s car, License plate AJ9129, sped through a red light, and almost ran right into my passenger side. Andy came to an abrupt stop so as to avoid the collision, and at the last minute the driver stopped so he wouldn’t hit us. Now, I realize you can turn right on red, however you have to stop first, and you do not have the right of way when the oncoming traffic is turning in front of you because they have a green arrow to go. The driver then gave us a dirty look as if we were to blame for his speeding through a red light and almost hitting us. That’s the part that bothered me most.

Luckily, I got dropped off for work a few feet later and watched as the CDTA Supervisor coasted into the bus lot, after which I wrote down the license plate number in the event that CDTA tried to snow us with not being able to identify which vehicle had almost caused an accident. Seeing as how they’ve never responded to any of my Tweets about such antics, or any of Andy’s videos documenting the bus-stop issue, I’m not holding my breath for a response. I just want to start my own record of what they do, as it will no doubt happen again.

While I’m obviously disgruntled with the dangerous actions of the CDTA supervisor that blew through a red light and almost hit us (hey, I was the passenger who would have gotten the brunt of the smash) I’m more dismayed by the operation of the CDTA. Having lived in Albany for the past sixteen years, and having worked downtown for the last ten, I’ve had the privilege of seeing our city grow and evolve, including the infrastructure and public transport that form the heart of any city. When things like this happen, and more importantly when they go unaddressed, it’s a detriment to everyone.

(PS – This is nothing compared to what I hear from people who actually ride the buses.)

A petunia, pink and true, peeked out from the sidewalk and arrested me in my tracks. I backed up a few steps, stalling my Monday morning stroll from Starbucks to the office, and paused in its pink glory. It seemed to peer up and over the little sidewalk crack where its roots made their home. A hidden anchor that had protected its existence up until now. The early morning sun lit it from behind, throwing a shadow longer than the bloom itself, and illuminating its bright cream throat.

It was not a perfect bloom. How could it be, in such circumstances and harsh surroundings? Slightly tattered, spotted in pale splashes of something, and smaller than its more carefully-cultivated cousins, it would not win any flower show awards. Yet there was magnificence to it. Valiantly blooming in a well-tread spot that could have trampled less-resilient beauties, it held its colorful head as high as it could, and in a sea of concrete it was the one object that caught my attention and admiration. For such a tiny thing, it packed a powerful visual punch, aided by the sun and perhaps its non-descript background.

On a Monday morning, when downtown Albany was under siege by fumes of horse dung and college-kid vomit, made more unbearable by the heat and humidity already in effect before 8 AM, this little petunia was a bright spot of color. Of imperfect beauty and flawed nobility. It shouted “Look at me!” then tugged at the heart.

Hopefully nobody steps or urinates on it.

Some days I just feel like Albany is fucking with me. It’s like someone is playing some big cosmic joke, baiting me with nonsense like this that seems so far removed from what a reasonable person would do to themselves that it can’t possibly be true. When did bad ponytails become de rigueur for downtown Albany? No one will ever mistake us for Downton Abbey if this look continues (ok, and even if it doesn’t.)

These aren’t even bad ponytails, they’re horrendous. Atrocious. Vile. And please note that I’m not judging anything other than the hair these folks have decided to fashion atop their heads in this manner. We have less control over body-type and what will fit on us, but there is never an excuse for hair like this. Why would anyone with a mirror, or mirror-like substance (take out a piece of foil for God’s sake!) do something so ghastly to themselves? I just don’t understand it. I’m all for making your own mark on the world, so I shouldn’t judge. But I am. Because this is a choice, a very poor choice, and it could have been averted.

Now I have to walk around with a pair of scissors and hope no one gets offended when I offer it to them. Like I have nothing better to do on my lunch break. Unbelievable.

It struck me as I finally received some impeccable service at Starbucks that whenever I post about customer service experiences here in this blog, they’re usually complaints. That’s not fair, nor is it an accurate representation of the average service one gets. (Even if what gets reported here did actually happen.) However, in the name of the positivity of the Spice Girls, here is a post of a celebratory nature, one that extols the virtues of a particular Starbucks employee who always makes my day a little brighter.

I’ve gone to the Starbucks on the end of Wolf Road (airport side) a number of times. It’s the closest one to my home (aside from the atrocious pseudo-Starbucks run by the more-atrocious Price Chopper). Yes, there’s a crazy woman who works there and who once asked what size I wanted after I ordered a grande decaf (umm, grande?), but she’s otherwise benign. I keep coming back at the risk of encountering her for the possibility of getting served by her co-worker, a seriously kick-ass barista named Laura.

Laura always perks me up with her effervescent spirit, and she treats each customer as if they’re the most important person in her world. On days when I’m weary of humanity, when I’m less than thrilled with my life – and we all have those days – I am buoyed by her infectious energy and indefatigable spirit. That kind of care isn’t easily faked, and the enthusiasm and passion required to put it over is real and genuine, and always appreciated by this customer. She calls everyone “darling” and it’s not cloying or fake, and she has a knack for patience and friendliness that deserves mention and admiration. I’ll cc the powers-that-be at Starbucks on this one, because sometimes the good things are just as important as the bad. In fact, they’re more important. Thank you, Laura, for reminding me of how decent customer service, and simple human kindness, can make all the difference.

If you know the owner of this blue truck, please inform him that he is a total dick-wad/douche-bag. I had just pulled into the Price Chopper parking lot and was about to start walking towards the entrance when this truck recklessly pulled into the first handicapped spot. Aside from the fact that he almost hit me while I was on foot, he also did not have a handicapped tag hanger in his truck, nor any indication of such on the license plate. Instead, he hopped out of the driver’s seat in a pair of ratty flip lops, and jauntily strode into the store.

I almost said something, but he was sporting an almost-mullet, and I’m scared that anyone with a mullet doesn’t have the sense to deal with people in a reasonable manner. Instead, I watched, figuring maybe he was just in a massive hurry and needed to get something quickly. He grabbed a push cart and began his shopping, at which point I let it go.

As I came out after getting my few items, he was apparently still shopping, so the quick pick-up theory was out the window. I took these pics of his offending (and offensive) dilapidated vehicle, when an older woman hobbled out of her car, which did have a handicapped hanger in it. She saw me taking photos and asked if it was because he didn’t have a hanger. I said yes. She clutched the cart to keep herself upright and said she’d vouch for me if I needed her to. I smiled – I wasn’t filing a report or anything, I told her, I was just going to broadcast it to thousands of people. Public shaming usually goes further than a paltry Price Chopper police report.

“Oh, I don’t know how that Twitter and stuff works, but I’ll vouch for you if you need it,” she repeated. I said it wasn’t necessary, and bade her good day. She pushed her cart past the ugly truck and into the store.