All Over Albany

Summer with Daniel Nester

While AOA is on a little summer stay-cation, we've checked in with some of the crowd to see what they like to do during summers in the Capital Region.

Next on the list, author, professor, blogger and expert in "things inappropriate," Daniel Nester.

About Daniel:

Well, I live in Delmar with my wife, Maisie, and two young daughters, Miriam (about to turn 3) and Beatrice (8 months). I teach writing at The College of Saint Rose. We moved up from the Big Apple almost five years to the day to take the job. My wife edits and produces reality and nonfiction television shows (Flip This House, Biography specials most recently). I am a writer and had a book come out, my fourth,How to Be Inappropriate, late last year. I run a reading series at Saint Rose called Frequency North, which will be great this year, so if you're into the writing and the books and such, I hope AOAers will check that out. I also blog over at We Who Are About To Die and of course my own site . I also Tweet (Twat?) on the Twitters . Other than that, I play bad guitar and like to buy too many books and records.

What are your favorite things to do in the Capital Region during the summer?

I love to go to the Troy Farmer's Market, the relatively new Delmar Farmer's Market, and the lunch trucks on the Plaza, which are awesome. The outdoor Albany Flea beside At The Warehouse is essential. The Wine Bar and Bistro on Lark outside is a treat. I always try to take in a couple of the Alive @ Five gigs, especially the old school 80s rock ones (when I say Eddie, you say Money!), SPAC gigs (I am all about the Rush concert this summer, when they will play Moving Pictures in its entirety). We love to road trip out to Tanglewood, Hudson, Saratoga. The New York State Writer's Institute up in Saratoga has a lot of great readings, and despite Skidmore's clunky website's best efforts to obscure which events are happening when, I always try to make a reading or two.

Do you have a favorite summer food, drink or dessert -- something you have to get before the season is out?

There's the superb white wine at the Wine Bar. The gelato at Crisan Bakery and Edible Art Gallery gives me reason to live and it's super to bring my girls there. Other ice cream stands get me jazzed as well, with our go-to places being Toll Gate and Tastee Freeze. The Washington Tavern is really kid-friendly, so we go there in the late afternoon for an early supper, although it's hard not to think of how our little angels might be walking around with tiaras on their twenty-first birthday in the same drinkery. And can I say I miss the Lark? I will. I miss it.

Do you have a favorite Capital Region summer memory?

The first full summer we lived here, my wife and I went to the Jericho Drive-In. The experience, after being in the city for more than a decade, was just sublime. I felt at home. We go to a drive-in movie once or twice a summer, and I am lobbying my wife to go to more of them and get a babysitter and all that stuff. Drive-ins, to me, are a real underrated treasure in this area. Having come from South Jersey -- where the last one nearest to my hometown closed about 20 years ago, and we're down to one in the entire state -- I think people up here might be spoiled when it comes to drive-ins; I mean, you could go to the small Jericho Drive-In or the arena rock-sized Hollywood Drive-In. Fireflies, frisbee, folding chairs; it's Americana at its best.

If friends come and visit during the summer, where do you take them?

Last Vestige Records, Dove & Hudson Books, Valentine's, Palais Royale, Honest Weight Food Co-op, Capital Wines, Cheesecake Machismo, At The Warehouse, The Muddy Cup, Book House, Albany Diner, Red Square, Spectrum (I wish they would run more documentaries).

Places I want to go to:

Northern Lights to see tribute bands. There's a guitar place in Clifton Park that sells retro gear, like old pedals and effects.

Places I am looking forward to...

The new Helsinki club in Hudson. The new Fresh Market in Latham, so we can approximate a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's experience. Let a man dream, will ya?

What do you like the most about Capital Region summers?

Can I say it? The absence of college students. There I said it.

What do you wish we had here in the summertime?

Outdoor movie screenings like they have in Bryant Park. Someone should start one, maybe have it travel around the area. I have talked to people about starting one on the green area in the middle of the Saint Rose campus, and I think it would be awesome to watch, like, Down By Law at sunset.