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SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK | 
Going home always felt like I was traveling
through foreign lands | February, 2008 - I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I think I'm the proudest person in the universe to say I'm from
Schenectady, New York. While the proud sheen of the city washed off into a sea of drugs, poverty, racism, and an aging and disappearing population long ago, there always seems to be enough straws in place to think that the city can be alive once again. It was my grandmother's battlecry, whenever there was a new mayor or a new business opening up, she'd always excitedly trumpet the virtues of Schenectady and how its turning around. Oddly
enough, it may just well be happening. |
| While my family is always quick to point out I was only born and lived in Schenectady for three non-consecutive years, I always consider it the only home I've ever known. With my grandparents' house on Eastern Avenue acting as the hub of my entire extended family, Schenectady
always carried a sense of familiarity and sense of home more than any of the other places I've lived in my life.
So every trip back brings back memories of late night meals of boxes of hot dogs slathered in meat sauce, Polish baked goods from the White Eagle Bakery, loads of food and politically tinged conversations during family gatherings, old malls from the seventies with scary men in bad suits at the piano store, Hickory Farms, and inexplicably, my hatred of Hee Haw.
The city actually is turning around a bit, with downtown filling up with some upscale boutiques, bakeries, all centered around the revitalized Proctor Theater, and with housing prices still ridiculously low in the area, Schtd'y may by default be the next big boom in the unholy triangle of the Albany-Troy-Schtd'y Capitol District Triangle.
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producer of some of the best hot dogs in the universe | 
snowbanks |
Amsterdam, the country version of home, kinda like the Western White House |
just another street in Schenectady | 
bricks! |
the neighbors at my Uncle's house were building a gigantic snowman. It was at 16 feet when I was there |
Ah.... Heaven, the tangy meat sauce on those dogs... | 
old structures aplenty |
the drink of choice
for the working class |
when did Stewarts start selling fancy fountain drinks? | 
Perreca's Bakery:
the best Italian bread in the universe |
My Aunt Nicky gave me a grand tour of Lil Italy and the stories of the old neighborhoods never fail to thrill me |
just another random shot | 
I love old architecture |
even Santa needs a break |
Saint Mary's |
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ONGOING AND UPCOMING SHOWS
2008
COMING SOON
Tales of the Really White Vigilante, Volume 2
our intrepid hero battles hipsters,
music festivals and his own demons
NOVEMBER
Solo Show
A show of new work
DECEMBER
Blue Genie Art Bazaar
creative gifts for the Holiday Season
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