Back in the Moronic Inferno after a gap of 18 months. The most noticeable change is in the attitude of the media towards Bush. Before it was hard to find a newspaper or TV station with a critical word to say about him - you had to rely on the New York Review of Books or left-wing journals. Now even august right-wing organs like US Today and the main new channels (except of course Fox) are bashing him constantly.
Boston can be heaven with coffee at eleven and a stroll down Newbury Street. This beautiful tree-lined street has more art galleries per square metre than any place on earth I suspect. I called into a number of them and was not overwhelmed by the quality of the art - but liked the opulence and the fine lighting. It was mostly bland, abstract and decorative - it lacked the expressiveness I relish in art. Barbara Krakow's gallery was an exception to this - in addition to a number of Scully's she had some interesting edgy contemporary work.
Went to "Capote" on my last evening. A master-piece of acting, photography, score, and period recreation. But a creepy masterpiece - especially in Philip Seymour Hoffman's vitruouso performance as the poison dwarf.
The madmen they allow on US TV. One of the morning news channels, NBC I think, featured two garish frauds espousing their latest tome about the end of days - the saved will be air-lifted to Heaven and the rest of us sinners will be consumed by fire and pestilence. It's started already, they maintain, citing Hurricane Katrina, the Tsunami, 9/11 etc. In Europe these old fraudsters would be laughed out of court but here on prime-time US TV they are interviewed reverently by the tanned, buffed, bland Kens and Barbies that populate the major channels.
And why are the portions so bloody big. If you order and eat a starter I guarantee you will not eat your main course. Such mindless excess.
And Boston traffic is just as bad as Dublin's.
