Winging it in... Boston

I'm leaving this city. Maybe if I go, I can stop looking.

And so this is the last blog entry for Boston. School finishes this week, the packing up is done and I am pretty much ready for vacations, summer and new adventures. The last few days have been bitter sweet ones- fun and games mixed in with a hint of goodbye. So, this weekend has been less about new things and more about my favorite things (and a few necessities).

West Africa is, as people keep telling me, the place to be. It is going to be exciting and full of change and development. It is certainly going to be different and take a bit of time to adjust to. I’m looking forward to new adventures and challenges and wondering slightly how different my blog will be next time I sit down to write it.

I thought to finish off and round up I’d do a few Top Five Favorites:

So to start off I have top five places to visit:

1. Has to be- the thing that has kept me entertained for a whole year- The Freedom Trail and all the various landmarks and stories that go along with it.

2. Public Garden and Boston Common- possibly one of my favorite people watching places ever.

3. Harvard Square- a bit of Cambridge and always busy.

4. Fenway Park- had to make it onto the list, just because love it or loath, curse the traffic on a regular basis it has formed such a part of my life while I have been here.

5. Tough one and I thought about making this list six long- North End or Newbury Street. I love both for different reasons. In the end Newbury Street it is. Again, because I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time (and most of my paycheck) there, but also because I can move the North End into the next category…

Top five places to eat:

1. Has got to be, without any shadow of a doubt, the North End and Mike’s Pastries for desert. You cannot go wrong with Cannoli from Mike’s Pastries.

2. Quincy Market/ Faneuil Hall. Huge choice of food, everything you can possibly imagine in one place and I have never ended up with anything bad there.

3. For it’s fantastic views, location and atmosphere rather more than then food (which is still nice enough) Top of The Hub is always a good bet.

4. If you are in the mood for Brunch, but don’t want to walk far- Church. Food used to be better, but is always a good spot for catching up with friends.

5. Just on the list at Number 5- more for memories than flavor- Tasty Burger!

Top five day trips: (always special because of the people who shared them)

1. Cape Cod- Falmouth and brunch

2. Martha’s Vineyard and beaches

3. Plymouth Plantation/ Rock and brunch

4. Lexington and Concord- walk between the two, visit the houses…

5. Newport- RI. The Summer Cottages have to be seen to be believed.

Top five memories…

I have lots of great ones to choose from, but these make boring reading for everyone else, and I’ve never been much into sharing my important thoughts with others.

So, with Boston done, a fantastic weekend drawing to a close, friends, dinner and a movie on the horizon- all that remains is to ask for thoughts and suggestions on the next blog. Accra-opolis is the current thinking… comments below and better suggestions gratefully accepted.

Winging it in... Boston

Monet's unknown masterpiece, Dogs At Cards.

This week I am back on the art trail, although not necessarily ‘proper” art. It was contemporary art, or probably more accurately contemptible art. It isn’t that I don’t like modern art, just that I sometimes find it hard to reconcile what I perceive as talentless junk with skilled art. At the risk of sounding like a 5^th Grade “What is Art?” debate, I do genuinely believe that to be classified as art- a piece of work has to show some level of talent, or a progression of skills, be able to inspire thought, give a message, and create an emotional response from the viewer.

I’m sure there are plenty of other criteria, and plenty of people would argue with me… (get your own blog J) but I do also feel that there are lots of pieces of modern art that fulfill this criteria. I still may not like them, but I will at least classify them as art. Maybe this is where I need to broaden my horizons slightly, when I think of modern art I am thinking of Mondrian, Kandinsky, Magritte etc; I guess in relation to old masters, these are modern. However, I suppose by definition they are also not contemporary. Something I have in my house to serve (and I quote an 11 year old boy) “a utilitarian purpose” should not be art.

That isn’t to say I totally disagree with the entire collection of the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art). The main exhibit at the minute (and it changes on a regular basis as their personal collection is small) is all about records. Real vinyl records. There are some real works of art in here- a violin handmade by Laurie Anderson, including vinyl tape rather than a bow; which she actually uses to create music… it isn’t personally music I like, but I will happily accept it took real skill and vision to create, talent to play and it evokes emotion in the audience.

However, and I may revert to a list here… there were some totally inexplicable pieces (at least to my mind).

1. A shirt that had merely been taken out of its cellophane wrapper. It hadn’t even been unfolded. It was included because the artist mentioned it had round vinyl buttons. How? There is no forethought in that. It is a shop display! I have probably created more artistic visions in dressing rooms (trust me there can be a lot of emotion when I am trying on clothes!) A pre folded shirt is not art!

2. 9 LPs arranged on a shelf in three rows of three. I will admit they all had a similar theme in the title- all about race in some way- but again, not art. That is just an OCD neat freak displaying their record collection. In fact if my parents still have my records in their loft that is how I would have arranged them, in fact on reflection I probably did. I would have even credited the album cover artist with a thought provoking piece of work, but no- that wasn’t what we were supposed to be looking at… ummmm

3. Whilst on the theory of album covers… and if this had been done on purpose I would be inclined to be impressed, but as it was entirely accidental I think it may just go to show how whimsical and superficial the art world can be (anyone would think I’d fit right in). They have a whole collection of recently discovered album dust jackets. In this case the artist had collected a few records in his youth, removed them from their original sleeves in order to keep the sleeves pristine and replaced them with dust covers that he himself had doodled and drawn on- in typical teenage style. As he had gotten older these had been moved into a storage unit, which he had eventually stopped paying for and the records and hand draw covers thrown out. They were picked up at a yard sale by an art critic for the New York Times (I think) who decided they were wonderful and tracked down the artist. They are now on display in the museum. Now, if these had been drawn in the style of a boy to represent the feeling of the music, or the developing story of a adolescence, the trial of growing up and the “only my music understands me” feeling of teenage angst etc, I could get behind the whole “art” thing. But, they actually were drawn and doodled by someone, who didn’t really care, just wanted to keep the original artwork neat and then forgot about them. So, I’m guessing they didn’t really mean that much in the fist place. They look like children’s drawings, they were drawn by a child and have no real thought in them- I find it very hard to call that art, at least in a global sense, I am sure many proud parents would want to pin them to the refrigerator.

4. Performance art- again some of it I can get behind… theater, ballet, any type of dance in fact, music recitals… but someone putting a raw chicken leg on a record player? Am I missing a greater meaning in life, or is that supposed to symbolize some deep and meaningful concept that I am just too shallow to get? I would argue that it could be conversation starting if nothing else, but quite honestly I thought it was so ridiculous as to not bother. All it prompted I me was WTF pull of stupid face and walking off. I very nearly forgot to mention it here, but luckily I had made a mental note to mention stupid face, as anyone who has been on the end of it will appreciate knowing they are not alone.

Anyway, I think my rant is over for the week, and it really was a rant. I’m sure next week will be much more friendly… well here’s hoping.

Winging it in... DC

Explain "act crazy".

This week it is all about DC! The Nation's Capital! I have done DC! DC- check. I am fairly sure DC has a bit more to offer than I have actually managed to get around in the last 48 hours, but I am also fairly sure I have done all the important bits, and probably some of the less important bits too.

I have to say that on observations of craziness here are high, now don’t get me wrong, Boston has its own share of nut jobs, in fact I think I have my very own who seems to live outside my apartment, spends a good amount of time drunk and the vast majority of that shouting and screaming. However, DC is really in a league of its own. I am quite sure the federal government must be involved somewhere, so I have taken to wearing a colander on my head to avoid and deflect mind control signals J

That isn’t to say DC hasn’t had a few disappointments- I was more than a little upset to discover Onion Station doesn’t actually exist. It was a major dyslexic moment on my part, and actually referred to Union Station, which it turns out is a major landmark and has more than a little history attached to it.

I am not at all sure why the Secret Service insists on driving around with marked cars. They have to be the least secret Secret Service imaginable. But just in case they are monitoring my thoughts and movements (the colander has now been removed) I am being very good and behaving myself impeccably.

This may also be a good time to mention the Spy Museum where you can learn all things spy, and buy all things spy. Including a Killer turkey burger-which was my purchase in the café. Apparently according to their information, Washington DC has the largest number of spies in the world living here. I’m not entirely sure how they can verify that claim, because I’m guessing they didn’t all accurately fill in the last census. That really would make you a pretty rubbish spy.

The “Walk” signals here are also a law unto themselves. They very helpfully give you a countdown on how long you have to make it across the road. Unfortunately that time seems to have a completely inverse relationship to the width of the road. There are some roads that take all of three steps to cross and have a timing limit of 60 seconds, whereas others that are a good six lanes wide seem to need a sprint and a change of clothes, with a whole 24 seconds allocated to them!

As ever, I took a tour bus, which means I have seen EVERYTHING that DC has to offer, museums, the zoo, the Capitol Building, The White House, Treasury, National Mall, Arlington Cemetery (yes, I know in VA), Georgetown including DC Cupcakes, statutes, archives, Union Station, memorials to just about everyone… and in a new fashion after I got a bit stroppy (I know- hard to imagine) from the floor of a tour bus. My main concern here being that someone spilled coffee, as happened yesterday, and I ended up sitting in it. Followed by the fact that I had already sat in something sticky and I might be permanently attached to the floor of the tour bus.

The glorious weather has now turned to clouded skies and the first few rain drops of the weekend, with a storm on the horizon it is time to head back to Boston….