1. Sheesha Lounge: New-to-the-area hookah bar on Cambridge St.
• They have chess!
  
• Huge big screen that plays everything from live concerts to Planet Earth to hockey games
2. Chuck Taylor's: Low cut.
   
• On more than one occasion, I have been ready to leave my apartment when I thought to myself, "Wait, I'm not leaving Allston...Time for the Chucks." Wearing Chuck Taylors in Allston gives me at least limited access to most places in Allston without feeling out of place. Thus, Fantasy Allston Value.
  
3. Harper's Ferry: A little more grungy than the Paradise...all the more reason to drink.
• Refers to Allston as "Allston Rock City" on its website.
  
• Large hipster crowd tends to congregrate in the area on Fri/Sat nights.

• Fri/Sat, the White Horse gets pretty bizarro-Allston. I think BC runs a shuttle there, and the popped-collars-per-square-block ratio goes through the roof.
  
• Sun-Wed the White Horse runs a $6 special for a lb. of steak tips. Wash that down with a $2.50 draft and call it a meal.

1. Pratt Street: B.U. undergrad hotspot
• A snapshot of the college population of Allston if there could ever be one, Pratt St. is where all the freshman B.U. floozies go with their water bottles concoctions. These water bottles can usually be found in or around, but never in, a nearby trash can.
2. 115                   St.: Site of the basement party.
• In order to keep the site sacred for those who normally attend, the street name has been withheld.
  
• During the concert, a "115! 115! 115!" chant started. I had no clue what that meant until it was explained later on the night - the address! Any group of people who chant their location deserve to be on someobody's Fantasy Allston team.
  
3. Offbeat Accessories: Scarves, Fedora hats, European bags, instrument cases, wool hats tilted to the side, huge sunglasses, etc.
   
• Not only are people's clothing part of what makes Allston unique...what goes with the clothing is probably just as important
• With the second-to-last pick, this could be the sleeper pick of the draft.
4. The New Liquor Store Inside Shaw's:
• Single stop for pasta, water, and Miller High Life provide more time to revel in the village of Allston. What else could you ask for in a Fantasy Allston pick?
  

1. The Linden Superette: The place I get my paper every morning.
   
• Guy behind the counter (during the day) never takes his right hand out of his jacket pocket, creating the illusion of holding a pocket pistol.
• Guy behind the counter (at night) will jokingly try to sell your girlfriend a $16 porn that comes with 2 DVD's. But he isn't joking.
  
• Woman who works afternoons chases the cat around the store with a roll of paper towels when it misbehaves.
• Children of the owners can sometimes be found sleeping on the floor behind the counter.
  
2. The Paradise: Music club on Comm. Ave; threateningly close to B.U.
   
• Great place to see a show. The Brew is coming around 4/18. Be there if you like good live music!
  
• If you're really feeling "Allston" 16 oz. Pabst Blue Ribbons are $3.50 I believe.
  
3. Stickers: Trite ways of expressing ones' self.
   
• Cars, street signs, electrical boxes, telephone poles, traffic lights, midgets...if it's under 6'4" and it's public property, someone in Allston has tagged it with a sticker.
  
• I guess Shepherd Fairey is onto something...
• With the #3 pick, "bumper stickers" could be an early candidate for pick of the draft.
  
4. Marty's Liquors: 
• Well with the recent accusations coming against Blanchard's, Marty's could be well prepared to have a huge Allston fantasy year in 2009. 
• More often than not there's someone hanging around the entrance asking for change. This is usually annoying, but I saw one guy throw his plastic cup at someone for ignoring him when I was there last week. Not your average bums outside Marty's.
• Employees are knowledgable and friendly.
  

So on Monday I dropped by In Your Ear, a music store on Comm. Ave. near my apartment, to pick up some new (and by new I mean used) discs. I looked through the jazz and funk sections for a little bit and came out with three:

• David Byrne, Uh-Oh
• John Coltrane, A Man Called Trane
• Louis Armstrong, Satch Blows the Blues

I don't own too much classic jazz (Byrne wouldn't really qualify as jazz...category of his own. But he's such a fucking nut I had to pick it up for $7.)...but I've always had an itch for brass. 

 My grandfather played the trumpet and I played the sax in elementary school but gave that up to devote more time to pursuing my professional sports career...so much for that:  

In an effort to learn a little bit more about the people I was listening to, I decided to Wikipedia the man called Trane when I got home. Gotta love Wikipedia. I never knew he died when he was 40, possibly from heroin use (everything's possible on Wikipedia, so maybe I shouldn't be that amazed).

But what was even more interesting was that within three clicks of my mouse, I was back in the same Allston Basement I was in last weekend.

Follow:

• Coltrane -->>>
• Jazz -->>>
• Ska -->>>
• The Allstonians

I know...I've never heard of the Allstonians, either. But who cares? It's like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon. Except it's Allston.

• Everyone in the audience - except the people I came with - was wearing one shade of black, white, or gray. I felt like I was in the first ten minutes of the Wizard of Oz.
• Pabst Blue Ribbon. Everywhere. I still don't get understand the obsession with this beer. I brought a couple Sam Adams White Ales and felt so out of place cracking them I briefly thought about keeping them in my pockets and waiting until I got back to apartment to drink them. But like I said, that thought was brief. Very brief.
• Mosh pits....oh yeah. Multiple. I didn't see those coming (and luckily I kept my balance), and I guess I wasn't entirely surprised, but I've seen these guys play about a handful of times and that was the first mosh pit I've seen. I would have taken a picture but I like my camera.
• Mohawk. HUGE ONE. If you put your hands flat and place them together (unless you're Shaq), this guy's mohawk was bigger. Funny thing is he wasn't even at the party...we passed him when were almost back at my apartment after the show. I mentioned it to my buddy in the band - he stayed a little after we left - and he was like, "Yeah, I saw that guy!"

Anyways, I actually took a video, but I am on a rented laptop in the library now and it is still uploading and I have nothing else to say.


Well I do have one more pic, so I will post that...this one was during a cover they play of "Jump Around" - originally made popular by House of Pain. So with that, I will remind everyone that they should always Jump Up, Jump Up, and Get Down....down in the basements of Allston, that is.

When I first moved into Allston last fall, I was happy to see multiple trash cans throughout my neighborhood at various street corners. As with any trash can, it offered me a chance to toss out dead weight I was carrying around before I changed my bills at the corner store and hopped on the T and pretty much stuffed my pockets with crap throughout the day.

It also gave me a reason not to litter, knowing I would pass a trash can at one point during my walk.

However, the irony of these trash cans has recently had me wondering.

These cans, as you can see, are decorated with various phrases and light colors and it's obvious that more work than usual was put into these than the average trash can. A phrase commonly found on these cans is, 'KEEP ALLSTON DECENT.'

Decent. What a word.

Here are the definitions of 'decent' according to Merriam-Webster.com:

1 a: appropriate b: well-formed : handsome

2 a: conforming to standards of propriety, good taste, or morality <decent             behavior> b: modestly clothed

3: free from immodesty or obscenity <decent language>

4: fairly good : adequate  , satisfactory <decent wages>

5: marked by moral integrity, kindness, and goodwill <hard-working and             decent folks> <it's very decent of them to help>

Out of those, I would say the most decent definition of decent that applies to my neighborhood's effort to keep Allston decent would be number 4. And that is arguable.

But I guess that isn't what I find ironic. Any neighborhood full of undergrads can expect a reasonably poor effort out of its residents to keep it in good shape. I just want to know who was in charge of the trash can painting operation that decided on the word 'decent.'

It turns out that they were set up by a group named KEEP ALLSTON DECENT. They haven't updated their site since last Fall, but I will try to get in touch with someone involved with the group in the few weeks. I will propose a name change to the trash cans...howabout these?

KEEP ALLSTON NICE

MAKE ALLSTON BEAUTIFUL

MAKE ALLSTON MORE THAN DECENT

I actually read in the paper today a quote that applies to this situation: "I don't see how anyone can accomplish anything if he doesn't shoot higher than he can hit."

I think it's common knowledge that Allston isn't exactly the nicest part of Boston. But how can people who make trash cans (or the people who order them being made) expect residents to respect the cans themselves if they only promote mediocrity in cleaning up the neighborhood that it attempts to better?

If I set every goal I have to only being decent, according to Webster that means I'm only trying to be "fairly good." Maybe it's just me, but that's a pretty low bar. Why should trash pickup be the same?

After six months of living in Allston, the one word I can most aptly find to describe it would be "confused."

It doesn't seem to want to make its mind up....is it an ethnic area or a college town? Alternative or mainstream? To put it in universal terms, does it like Pabst Blue Ribbon, Magic Hat Roxy Rolle, or Bud Light bottle?

You prefer chain restaurants? Uno's at Harvard and Comm has the same menu as the one you go to back home - and the bartender is an Emerson grad.

Want a club scene where you can drink red bull-vodkas, dance till you sweat through your collared shirt and try to hit on some ladies? Hit up the Kels or Wonderbar. Or both; they're about a 3 minute walk away from one another.

Howabout some ethnic food? Take a walk down Brighton Ave. and it's like sailing on the Beagle with Charles Darwin...everything from Brazilian to Thai to Italian to good old college, take-out, beer food...ending with a staple of the Allston Village - Super 88.

Which bring me back to my original point...exactly how does Allston identify itself?

I would say Lower Allston has its mind pretty much made up. Take the 66 Bus over the Pike onto N. Harvard Ave. and the narrow, windy streets behind Allston Wine & Spirits all look like a hard-nosed, working class neighborhood should. Ask two of my roommates - they lived on Coolidge Rd. last year and each had their cars busted into.

But starting at Packard's Corner and veering left onto Comm. Ave or straight onto Brighton Ave. wields a different result. And I think the reason for Allston's identity crisis stems from this intersection.

For those unfamiliar, coming from Boston it's pretty much the entrance into Allston. B.U. is left behind you, and if you're on the B line, Packard's Corner is the stop right after you take that unexpected, jolting turn to your left that usually results in you having to put your iPod ear bud back into your right ear.

If you're driving, I say 'Good luck.' And if you're not from Boston and you're driving, I say 'Please get the hell out of my way.'

There's a vast, open expanse in the middle of Packard's Corner that, when looked at from an aerial view, slightly resembles the demarcation zone in between North and South Korea. This can throw the average driver for a loop, especially when confronted with the question of, 'Which one is Comm. Ave?'

 The answer is: 'Both streets to the left.' Yes, Comm Ave. splits into two roads at Packard's Corner, making it even more difficult to figure out exactly what the forefathers of Boston were thinking when they planned this God forsaken city.

While it may not exactly scream, 'Welcome to Allston,' Packard's Corner still sits as  a central landmark in Allston. Its ability to bewilder can easily frustrate, but to me it shows that one thing is for certain - while puzzling and arguably "confused," Allston still has "Boston" written all over it. 

I only wish I had started taking pictures of this car earlier. I don't know exactly when it started squatting there. I don't know who it belongs to or who finally took it away. All I know is it sat there for far too long.

I passed this car every morning on my way to pick up the paper or catch the bus on a very busy cut-through road that people use to get to the Mass Pike - Linden St. It avoids the light at the end of Harvard Ave. and is a very busy street.

So when I first saw this car parked about 5 feet off the curb last week (or two weeks ago? I'm not even really sure), I was not surprised to see the back bumper hanging off. I was a little more surprised to see an odd bump on the hood that looked like someone had been tossed onto it by Chuck Norris. But nonetheless I got a kick out of it.

So I passed this car day after day, and finally - last Wednesday - it was gone. Luckily I got these photos of it the day before it got taken, but its presence sparked an idea when I was asked to think of an idea to blog about something.

Who lets their car get totally abused like this for over a week? Who even parks like this anyways? How drunk was this person?

These are questions that I will never be able to answer, but they all point to one central idea in my mind: the people of Allston.

Who are these people? Students pounding $1 drafts, Asians going through my (and everybody else's) recyclables, Alternos wearing tight black jeans and jackets with silver loops. The diversity of this neighborhood is something I have never experienced. I don't exactly come from a diverse background, but either way it's something new to me.

I'm not saying I love it here, I'm not saying I hate it. It's alright. But there are a few things I just don't get.