Mass. Culture High and Low

We spent the weekend in Massachusettes, experiencing the heights of culture in music and art as well as the lowest of entertainment--and you know what that means--comics. Friday we drove from Stockport, NY to Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass. and experienced a beautiful Beethoven concerto with soloist Emanuel Ax and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. (Before leaving we had a visit from the animal guy who set the live traps from the woodchucks. We did not have to resort to used kitty litter--see previous post. He had caught the two young ones, but the mother was still at liberty. I asked where the father was. He replied "Oh, he's a runaround" meaning the males gets the females pregnant and leave them to raise the young under people's houses.)

I can still recall a concert with Ax playing a Chopin piece at Avery Fisher many years ago. The delicacy of his playing was beautiful.

The next day was spent in Boston at the Museum of Fine Arts viewing their special show on the rivalry between Titian, Tintorento, and Veronese. Separate admission tickets and everything. I liked the Tintorentos best, particularly the Temptation of St. Anthony.

We had time to look around Boston and Cambridge which I like very much. Boston is so orderly they even name the Alleys. Street signs read Public Alley No. 253, etc. The area around the museum--the Back Bay--is charming in a way that no part of New York is any more. Perhaps the Village was at one point, but I fail to see it. Maybe I'm jaded. Here everyone seems rushed and self-involved. They appeared more at ease in Beantown. But it's probably just my own feelings being projected onto others.

I visited Comicopia on Commonwealth Ave. where they have many indie titles and bought False Witness: The Michele Bachmann Story, a wicked satire of the Minnesota congresswoman who's been making such an ass of herself on cable TV news--she's been spouting conspiracy theories about Obama taking over the economy and making us all into socialist zombies. Cambridge's comic book store is called The Million Year Picnic, which is the title of a Ray Bradbury story. The name is cooler than the store. Not many grabby back issues, but I did find a Jimmy Olsen with Curt Swan art from 1968 and a Marvel reprint special with the Fantastic Four teaming up with Sub Mariner, with whom they are normally at odds.