10 Treasures of Albuquerque

In trying to be more positive about Albuquerque, I am listing 10 things that are really great about this town.

1. Green chile. OK, this is all over New Mexico. Albuquerque has great stuff but maybe not better than the rest of the state. But most of you outside of New Mexico don't have a local cuisine that even touches New Mexican food. Eat your chile!

2. Ta Lin. Why does Albuquerque have such a spectacular Asian food market? I have no idea but we sure as hell are lucky.

3. The Sandias. New Mexico is beautiful. Albuquerque pretty much isn't. But at least we have some beautiful mountains behind us to go hang out in.

4. Summer. Right now, most of you are sweating profusely. It's about 84 in Albuquerque today and beautiful. Spring may suck here but we have the best weather in the country right now (with the possible exception of Seattle).

5. Flying Star. I don't know how many times I've been in various cities and wanted a total kick ass dessert late at night. Here, I can get that. What a great place.

6. KUNM. People kind of rip on KUNM frequently. I disagree. I think it's a great station. Sure, I don't listen to every show. Not even close. But there is some kind of show for every music fan. How many cities have a community radio station with this kind of coverage. Public radio in general is great here. There is another radio station, KANW, that does most of the NPR stuff that I have only a moderate interest in, like Prairie Home Companion and Car Talk. If I'm in the mood, I can tune in there.

7. Insanity. In this city, you never ever know what is going to happen. Sure, some of it is scary. OK, a lot of it is scary. But at least it's interesting.

8. La Montanita Co-op. Normal apples suck. At La Montanita, I can almost always find varieties of apples I've never heard of. It's actually made me like apples. Plus I can shop with hippies and who doesn't like that.

9. We're not Santa Fe. A special message from me to the city of Santa Fe: Burn in hell you pretentious, turquoise-jeweled, fringe-wearing motherfuckers. The next time you people rip on Albuquerque, remember that you have no soul. Love, Erik

10. The smell of the rain. There's something about rain in the Southwest that brings out the most wonderful smell in the soil. I'd lived in rainy places my whole life and I didn't know that smell until I came to New Mexico. It may not rain much here (except for this summer) but when it does, it is so wonderful.