Monday, June 02, 2008

Music Sweet Music!! and Albany Poker Club Redux

Wow, what an incredible weekend of music at Mountain Jam IV. I was completely blown away by some of the bands I had never seen and by those I've heard or seen many times who brought their craft to a new level. But first I have to organize my thoughts and get ready to recap for Coventry.

I came back to find a comment on my previous blog entry from the "neighbor" of the Albany Poker Club/Italian Social Club. She asked me to remove the link to the post as she was fearful for her family which I did. I only linked it up to illustrate how it must have looked to the other side not to out her as a complaining resident of the area. I have since suggested that any new location be in a non-residential area. A comment on her blog refers to me as "some person she doesn't know or care to know" who had linked to her. Now that will get a good chuckle from the people who know me (family/friends) as well as the poker community be it live or on-line as I am far from being a menace to society. I don't drink or smoke, I pay my taxes and vote, I bake cupcakes and garden . I'm past president of one of the largest running clubs in the country. I guess the running club will soon want to take away my Distinguished Service Award since I'm a person of "questionable character". She has apparently password protected that particular post for only family and friends. Heck, I stumbled upon her blog pretty easily doing a pretty basic key word search as did probably a host of others (including actual paid journalists) . The internet is hardly anonymous if you don't want to be read don't put your journal on-line.

First, all I can say is she has more to fear from her "neighbors" around the corner then from anyone who showed up to play cards who apparently she feels are a bunch of gambling degenerates and lowlifes a stigma that most of us poker players endure. Even my own mother, doesn't get it but when I win a nice tournament score she is the first to say." Good you can buy lunch today". Most of the people who played cards there were everyday people including college kids trying to make some spending money, a retired judge, radio DJ's, members of law enforcement, restaurateurs, current and retired state workers, engineers, lawyers, doctors, hair stylists, computer programmers etc. And without a doubt we all want the bad guys caught too.

As someone who had 25 years in law enforcement said to me.... "I hope the dude with the dew rag and baseball hat cocked on his head and who was sitting out on the hood of one of the residents cars at 3:30 AM in the morning turns out to be a better "neighbor". The guys who I played cards with would walk us ladies out to our cars in the late hours because of some of the more unsavory characters who frequent the street or live near where the club was located. Yes its largely a residential neighborhood on the back side of the club, but North Allen where the club was situated is mixed use: a bunch of bars, a funeral home, other businesses and a lot of houses that are "lower-income" aka slummy heck its the city. I'm a gal from the burbs.

Now, I have three days of WSOP coverage and poker news and blogs to get caught up on as well as figuring out where to start with the synopsis of Mountain Jam IV. Thank goodness I have today off. Starting next week I have every Friday off for most of the summer including the whole week of July 7th thru the 13th for the Main Event.

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