Some places you live and you instantly love them.  Some places, you live and you slowly grow to hate.  Some places, you have such a complicated relationship with them, that it defies description.  And some places you expect to love and it never comes together.  I guess it’s kind of like finding the right guy.  Were said guy to be a major metropolis of course and not a living, breathing being.

When I lived in Copenhagen as a student, the love was pretty much instant.  The air seemed cleaner, the people unbelievably beautiful, it all too good to be true.

I need to put my feelings about Washington DC in a separate sentence away from Copenhagen because they are so intensely different.  I started out liking, if not loving Washington, but slowly over time grew to hate it.  At the time I thought it had nothing.  There was nothing there of any kind of interest to me and it was all so square and old fashioned.  With the perspective of time, I’ve realized that perhaps my experiences there rather than the place itself affected how I felt about it.

Now I come to New York City.  My relationship with that city would make for a very interesting Scandinavian psychological drama starring Max Von Sydow, except our chess match with death would take place some place in Chelsea.  I lived in Manhattan as a child and love the place.  I worked there later on and my opinion of it changed.  But with so many other things in between.  Well, this is neither the time or place for that now.  Let’s just say the next time I visit New York, I’ll explore why exactly Max Von Sydow and I play chess with death.

Which brings me to Boston.  I never in a million years expected to like this place as much I do.  Never ever.  I used to visit and think “decent place to visit, but that’s it.  I need excitement.”  Now I live here and I don’t need excitement.  Sure the green line raises my blood pressure, but otherwise living here has been pretty great.  Attending the Christmas tree lighting in Boston Common today made me realize that no matter what, in Boston, one is among friends, even when a person is alone.  People aren’t aggressive, so going to big public events is fun and takes the edge off.

The tree lighting is a big deal of course and a lot of grandees show up.  Like these guys:

Don’t recognize them?  Don’t worry.  The girl behind me had to phone her mother to find out who they were.  These guys are Jordan Knight, Jonathan Knight and Joey Mcintyre from New Kids on the Block.  I was lucky enough to have gone to junior high school at the beginning of the 1990s and I experienced their popularity first hand and by that I mean when someone, usually a girl, blew past me in this purgatory known as the 7th grade wing of my school, they were usually wearing a t-shirt embossed with the mug of one of these boys.  Their 13 year old selves wouldn’t have been able to believe my luck that I took this photo.  Or that digital SLRs with mammoth lenses even existed, given the fact that was waaaay far away and unbelievable I was not yet a photographer.

Well, anyway, let’s get out of memory lane and move on to other things.  There were other performers.  Now let me explain something.  These were all taken from a mile away from the middle of a crowd.  In other words, my vantage point pretty much sucked, but I made the best of it.  Usually my vantage point sucks and I never explain, letting the work speak for itself.  But since we are about to see 10 consecutive photos of Rockettes, I needed to explain.  See, these ladies, they reach the back seats.  And when their photos are converted to black and white, they start to look like stars of some kind of Parisian revue from the 1920s:

Yes, that is quite a few Rockettes.  Now remember, I was taking these from about a mile away and the Rockettes are meant to reach the back row.  Still, I was pleasantly surprised so many turned out so well.

The night also featured some local talent, singing and dancing.  Siobhan Magnus, the young lady in the next two photos appeared on the American Idol program.  She also, thank god, wore something that was sparkly and photographed very well:

And two very nice acts, singing Christmas songs and about Boston:

And finally for the main event.  Boston Mayor Tom Menino, came to light up the Christmas tree.  He uh, well, he isn’t as prepossessing as the other attendees.  But I got him, somehow, photography smoke and mirrors, he made the blog.  Tom Menino, if you read this blog, you, along with Rufus the Colored Bull Terrier, Victoria Beckham and the Green Line are featured on a blog.  Try to get on with life.  Photos:

Well, that’s it.  Tom came and light up the Christmas tree, to everyone’s great delight.  Then we all retired to our warm homes after a night out in the Boston cold!