Day 87: Washington Square

IMG_6138

Editing, editing, editing. Finally finished and submitted our paper on Obama’s 2012 Facebook campaign. Such a great feeling of completion whenever a paper is sent off for review. (Even better when it’s accepted.)

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Day 87: Irving’s Toy and Card Shop

IMG_6107

IMG_6108

IMG_6109

IMG_6110

While at Coolidge Corner I came across Irving’s Toy and Card Shop on Harvard Street. It’s been there since 1939 and it’s run by Ethel A. Weiss, a 99-year-old local who leaves “heartfelt messages” and notes on the door for her customers, including some very welcome advice on how to be old and still be happy.

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Day 87: Brookline

IMG_6051

IMG_6059

IMG_6066

IMG_6063

IMG_6088

IMG_6117

IMG_6121

A nice walk around Brookline including a quick stop at the John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site (JFK’s birthplace at 83 Beals Street) and New England Comics.

 

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Day 84: Christmas Eve

IMG_5951

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Day 82: Coffee and curriculum development

IMG_5947

IMG_5949

Yet another great discovery a stone’s throw away from home – Flour Bakery, on the corner of Rutland Street and Washington Street. Excellent food, surrounded by interesting art.

Developing a curriculum design that links student engagement with local community affairs to engagement with global current affairs via multimedia (digital media literacy, social media campaigns and games).

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Day 81: Coffee and notes

IMG_5912

IMG_5907

Today I discovered Jaho Coffee & Tea – an awesome cafe only a couple of blocks away from home. (They also do excellent fresh orange juice).

 

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Parochialism and gentrification

IMG_5496

“One can’t ignore that Boston has been beset by a new class war of late […] It’s a war of gentrification. As the city continues to lose its old-school parochialism and overt immigrant tribalism, it’s also losing a lot of its character. Whether that’s a bad thing or a good thing is up for debate, but what can’t be argued is that it is, in fact, happening. That’s the paradox of the new Boston – what’s lost has, in many cases, been taken; what’s left is what people can’t sell”

[Dennis Lehane, from the introduction to Boston Noir]

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Shovelling snow

IMG_5637

There has been heavy snowfall over the last few days all across New England. I was aware that it is mandatory for each resident/landlord to shovel and clean up the sidewalk in front of their property, but hadn’t realised the practical and cultural implications of that. The sight of residents shovelling throughout the day and in the middle of the night, and of city council employees working around the clock throughout the city, is quite a common one at winter. This is not just a physically demanding and time-consuming activity that requires a lot of energy and planning. It is also an interesting cultural phenomenon that tests the boundaries between public and private space. Shovelling becomes a way of acquiring and projecting social status.

 

 

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Day 77: Snowstorm

IMG_5829

IMG_5830

IMG_5843

IMG_5844

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Day 77: Lunch at The Friendly Toast

IMG_5818

IMG_5824

IMG_5826

IMG_5813

IMG_5820

If you can’t avoid it, then enjoy it. Boston has been under a curtain of snow for the last few hours and people are working around the clock just to keep a few footpaths open. Managed to plough my way through Kendall Square for lunch at the Friendly Toast.

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Day 77: Kendall Square

Kendall Station

Paul Matisse’s Kendall Band

MIT Kendall Band Preservation Society

IMG_5805

IMG_5804

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Day 76: At the Lab

IMG_5755

IMG_5789 - Copy

A day at the Lab, writing up the findings of the Obama/Facebook paper and fighting with “lies, damn lies and statistics”. My compensation: a Nutella milkshake from Boloco – highly recommended!

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Day 75: Snow, coffee, reading

IMG_5635

 

The morning after the night before. Survived the first snowstorm and headed to Render Coffee for hazelnut latte and Sunday newspapers

IMG_5639

IMG_5654

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Day 74: Saturday night

IMG_5630

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Day 73: Downtown, Financial District & Government Center

IMG_5544

IMG_5545

IMG_5554

IMG_5565

IMG_5548

IMG_5537

IMG_5555

IMG_5570

IMG_5577

A walk through downtown Boston, doing part of the Freedom Trail through the Financial District, Government Center and up to the Christmas market at Faneuil Hall, where I found melomakarona and spanakopita at Steve’s! Followed by late lunch at Jacob Wirth (German restaurant in Chinatown), followed by an evening writing session at the Lab.

 

 

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Day 72: North End

IMG_5491

IMG_5499

IMG_5492

Walk and lunch at the North End (Little Italy), followed by coffee & work at the Equal Exchange Cafe, whose combination of contemporary urban/industrial ambience, comfort / tables / wifi / plugs, ethical fairtrade products, great music and awesome coffee easily make it my top recommendation yet for a coffee shop in Boston.

IMG_5501

IMG_5507

IMG_5517

IMG_5528

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Day 71: Colonial Theatre

colonial_theatre

A day of writing and catching up with projects followed by a visit to the Colonial Theatre for ‘I Love Lucy: Live on Stage‘.

Reviews:
The Boston Globe
The Globe & Mail
The Chicago Tribune

As a hardcore lifetime fan of I Love Lucy, I will have to agree with the reviews that this was uncomplicated nostalgic fun but little more. The four main actors do a great job of looking, moving and sounding like Lucy, Ricky, Ethel (my favourite of the four) and Fred – and the songs/variety are good fun, although the show does lack confidence and depth, occasionally falters (e.g. could have done without the planted audience sections) and doesn’t quite capture the vintage aesthetics or wit of the show.

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Days 64-68: Washington, DC

IMG_4877

IMG_4868

IMG_4661

IMG_4923

IMG_4950

IMG_4989

IMG_5188 - Copy

IMG_5292

IMG_5365

IMG_5426

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

December readings

IMG_4334

The Property by Rutu Modan
Rachel Cooke’s review in The Guardian
James Smart’s review in The Guardian
Glen Weldon’s review for NPR Books

 

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Day 63: Faneuil Hall Marketplace

IMG_4311

IMG_4315

IMG_4331

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Day 63: EGL Open House

IMG_4297

 

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Day 63: Newbury St

IMG_4267

IMG_4284

Followed by lunch at the Creperie on Newbury.

IMG_4277

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Day 62: Storyboarding…

IMG_4263

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Day 60: Lowell

IMG_4134

IMG_4144

IMG_4158

IMG_4162

IMG_4165

IMG_4197

IMG_4220

A lovely day at Lowell, MA – the cradle of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, and a city with a rich urban and manufacturing history, as well as one of the three biggest Greek communities in America; followed by a delicious family meal

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Day 60: Two months down, two to go

IMG_4133

“Making the most” of a place is not only what you get to see or whom you meet, but also how that place or experience – the act of listening and observing – changes you; and to what extent those memories and that legacy of being receptive live on when you go back…

Today is the halfway mark of my stay in Boston. In the last two months I’ve managed to see a large part of the city and surrounding areas (although, as can be seen from the map, there’s plenty more to see and I fear that two more months won’t be anywhere near enough). When I first came here the temperature was 25 C and the leaves were still green with an orange hue. Right now the temperature is -4 C and there are no leaves to be seen.

During that period I also gave three guest lectures to undergraduate and graduate students; completed and submitted a collaborative grant application; transcribed four interviews; wrote a book chapter; revised two conference papers; conducted classroom observations in undergraduate and graduate classes; carried out a survey with students; had a successful promotion interview on Skype; met with colleagues in Miami; read 12 journal articles and 2 books; took 3,900 photos; wrote up 42 pages of reflections and fieldwork notes; and watched more than a few hours of C-SPAN.

During these two months I’ve also had the pleasure of reuniting with many friends, including colleagues and former students of the Salzburg Academy (feels like Boston is the centre of the universe as so many people have, even briefly, been here over the last few weeks), as well as sampling Boston’s amazing diners, restaurants and cafés. 

However, perhaps the most rewarding aspects of my stay here have been those that cannot quite be quantified or articulated easily:

  • the pleasure of making new friends and the hospitality and kindness of people who have known me for a few weeks, if not days;
  • the opportunity to finally immerse oneself in the customs, rituals and ways of a country and a people, which – due in some extent to the power and salience of its popular culture that I grew up with, but also perhaps due to an ‘internal compatibility’ with its vision and values – has always felt deeply familiar, inspiring and home-like;
  • the thrill of stepping out of my comfort zone, whether that is in order to start a conversation with a stranger or to walk around an area I have no particular reason to be in;
  • the liberty and simplicity that comes with life in a shared apartment or tiny studio that reminds me of my student days;
  • as well as the appreciation of the daily comforts that we’re so accustomed to and which we don’t even notice unless we lose them;
  • the clarity about the people, places, things and situations that I miss and are important to me (as well as those that are apparently not as important as I thought).

Just before I left Britain back in late September, a colleague of mine encouraged me “to do all the things you’ve always wanted to do but you never get the time or chance to do [due to the constraints of routine or normal work]”. It was a great wish and has stuck with me because I’m only too aware that time flies by and I will soon be going back; I would hate to have regrets about not making the most of my time here. Knowing me, it’s a safe bet I’ll regret not finishing this or that paper, not visiting this or that museum etc. But I guess “making the most” of a place is not only what you get to see or whom you meet, but also how that place or experience – the act of listening and observing – changes you; and to what extent those memories and that legacy of being receptive live on when you go back. Which means I have two more months to hone my listening/observing skills. And, if possible, write a couple more papers.

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Thanksgiving Day

IMG_4101

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Day 58: South Station

IMG_4092

IMG_4095

IMG_4096

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Day 56: Dinner

IMG_4081

IMG_4086

Excellent dinner at The Butcher Shop

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Day 56: Diversity, segregation and engagement

IMG_4072

IMG_4077

Catching up with a backlog of emails, projects and readings, and building up the conceptual framework on the pathways between urban diversity, segregation, engagement and co-existence.

“In the face of greater individualisation, privatism, inequality and ethnic and cultural diversity, there has been a tendency towards privacy, withdrawal, segregation and increasing anxiety about the behaviour and values of others. The spatial and social distances between individuals and groups means that, when others who behave differently are encountered, they are perceived as posing a threat, and distaste for the unfamiliar and less legitimate can lead to hostility”

[Watson, 2006 in Bannister and Kearns, 2013: 2713].

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Days 51-54: Miami Vice

IMG_3311

IMG_3374

IMG_3380

IMG_3435

IMG_3487

IMG_3599

IMG_3721

IMG_3887

IMG_4052

Posted in Boston Diaries | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment