Being Pretentious

Boston

Last night the helpful local team of weather forecasters (they call themselves the 'Storm Force' - I kid you not) said it would throw it down all day again today, and they weren't wrong. In a bid to keep dry I headed to the Institute of Contemporary Art and a retrospective of the Ukrainian photographer Boris Mikhailov. Having recently visited I found it interesting to see his photos of Russia and the Ukraine both old and new, but it would have been more interesting had the whole exhibit not been quite so pretentious. Is it really necessary to have long explanatory screeds beside each group of simple photos? I don't think I'd make a museum curator.

The pretentious atmosphere of the ICA is in keeping with Boston generally. For such a famous city it's really very small and although undoubtedly nice you can't help noticing a superior attitude about the place. This extends to a lot of the people too. I'm sure it's a fine place to live if you're an intellectual liberal, but it has nothing whatsoever in common with the rest of America. Even cities as close as New York are a world away from the rarified cultural (and frankly up its own arse) air of Boston. Ironic the area that was so desperate to throw off colonial rule in 1775 should now be so desperate to be European. Massachusetts should really do itself and the rest of the country a favour and secede from the U.S. to rejoin Britain. No wonder its politicians keep on losing elections.