The Albion was on 16th Street in the Mission district, on the corner of an alley called, yes, Albion Street. This was when the Mission was a largely Latino, relatively inexpensive, hip (as opposed to "hipster", which is the opposite), and sometimes dangerous part of town. But it was really only risky if you were a jerk to some local vatos or tried to walk home or to your car drunk at 2am closing time, when the predators did come out for easy prey. Otherwise, it was just a cool neighborhood for almost every kind of person with the best food options in town, even if quite dirty in places.
Posts tagged as “essays”
In some circles of this country, citizens understand that 600,000 billion tons of CO2 poured into the atmosphere since 1750 has shifted Earth’s natural greenhouse effect and set in motion changes in climate. Seeing California, and in particular Mendocino County, as breeding grounds of awareness, I presumed I lived in a hotbed of activism.
Since early in High School, I have been involved with a variety of social issues. However, prior to moving to Mendocino County in 1999 those efforts were limited to non-working hours. My first full-time job was as a communications technician for AT&T in the Bay Area. Twelve years, and lots of experience later, I left AT&T as a Manager of State Government Affairs for California to become the second member of a consultancy firm that focused on working in telecommunications reform and regulation on a more national level. During that time I moved to Mendocino County.
What's the connection between a 16th century Pope and the songwriter of “War,” Edwin Starr? Absolutely nothing, of course. As any Baby Boomer can tell you, “Absolutely nothing,” is the lyrical response line to Starr's…
Bruce Bochy, a pleasant slow moving man, is the longtime manager of the San Francisco Giants. A former catcher known for his gruffness rather than the poetry of his speech, Bruce seems much older than…
Brandenburg’s Concerto Number 3 being played by a live orchestra is not the kind of music you would expect to be performed at Burning Man, but then again nothing surprises me there. Instead it delights…
Reports are circulating that former city mayors Mari Rodin and Mary Ann Landis have been contacting potential financial backers in an effort to purchase the Ukiah Daily Journal; they have said they are “willing to…
Recently, there was a reunion of my high school class, a recurrent traditional all-American event I'd always ignored, but for whatever reasons the peer pressure to attend this time came on strong and at the last minute, against my intuition and convictions, I succumbed, bought a plane ticket south, and went. I half-expected frightening reminders of collective aging, puerile nostalgia, embarrassing alcohol-enabled displays of long-repressed urges, ego-fueled career one-upsmanship, excruciating "sharing" of family pictures, and a general outburst of collective regret and confusion.