Writer’s block

Chicago is my wife, but Boston is my mistress
How Boston’s dominance in American culture influences this Chicagoan

By Paul M. Banks

During a holiday family gathering, my cousin and I came up with a game that involved naming cities with reputations reflecting the personalities of our family members. Boston was mine. At the interactive quiz www.findyourspot.com I verified this choice, no doubt because of my love of fresh seafood, which is widely available and cheap in Beantown.

I love Chicago, my home for most of my life, but if there were one place where I would choose to relocate, Boston would be at the top of the list. The allure is multifaceted. Ironically, however, it wasn’t a visit to Boston, but actually one to Orlando that inspired me to write this essay.

I was astonished how at every theme park, there was much more Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots paraphenalia on display than all other teams combined. Additionally, a ton of New England-themed sports bars/seafood restaurants dot the central Florida landscape, including one in the town founded and owned by Disney itself. I visited Celebration, Fla., Disney’s Stepfordesque vision of Utopia. It reminded me of the Walgreens commercial set in a town called “Perfect,” where the basketball team is undefeated. It figures that the one sports bar in the “perfect” town would support all the Boston teams.

Pop culture dominance
My fascination with “America’s Athens” started a couple years ago when the NFL Draft Webzine I write for (www.nfldraftblitz.com) reassigned me to columns on the nation’s highest-profile team, the New England Patriots. This life-long Bears fan was first introduced to the Pats as the comic foil in Super Bowl XX, the biggest sporting event in Chicago’s history. As I’ve researched and written about the Patriots, I’ve see the current team develop into a juggernaut comparable to the legendary ’85 Bears.

There are many people (mostly inebriated girls, probably with heavy beer goggles) who often tell me that I look like Matt Damon. The 2007 Boston film he starred in, “The Departed,” took home the Oscar for Best Picture. This movie may pass up “Good Will Hunting,” another film of Damon’s set in Boston, as my favorite. Then there is the catchy song from “The Departed” called “I’m shipping up to Boston” by the Dropkick Murphys, also one of the Boston Red Sox’ theme songs.

This, along with the Celtics’ fast start, reminds me of two emerging trends. It seems every week a different Boston athlete is on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Sports dominance by “The Cradle of the Revolution” teams has only one parallel in my lifetime. Around 1993, three bands from Seattle — Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden — were so popular nationally that everyone who wanted to be hip claimed they were from Seattle. Don’t be surprised if 2008 is the year of the Celtic punk genre (Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, The Tossers) like ska (Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reel Big Fish, Save Ferris) was in 1997 or swing music (Squirrel Nut Zippers, Brian Setzer, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies) in ’98.

Also, “Family Guy,” my favorite show and once called “the smartest show on television” by the publisher of this magazine, is also set in New England, as “Cheers,” the funniest sitcom of my generation.

Sporting interests
Like Wrigleyville, the streets surrounding Fenway Park have a plethora of sports bars. The oldest stadium in baseball is just like Wrigley Field, one of a few parks still located in a real city neighborhood. After two World Series titles in four years, the Red Sox bandwagon has grown at a “wicked fast” rate. However, the genuine breed of Red Sox fan is better depicted by the historical ethnography Now I can Die in Peace, written by my media role model, Bill Simmons of ESPN.com. I blogged about my Fenway experience at www.sportsandpopculturebank.com/bostonredsox.html

Boston fans share our passion for the home teams and hatred of the dastardly Indianapolis Colts. This past Halloween, my polarizing costume of Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was one of the most popular outfits I’ve ever had. A shot of me in my costume became my Facebook and MySpace profile pic, and my cyberspace popularity increased dramatically. Every day, a new person with a MySpace profile dedicated to the Pats places a comment (along with very interesting and colorful pictures) on my page.

Higher learning
Boston seems to value education and intelligence more than Chicago. Cambridge, with M.I.T. and Harvard, is nicknamed “The Left Bank of Boston” and attracts many visitors, tourists and locals alike. The University of Chicago and Northwestern, two schools in the same top tier, are located in parts of the city that very few people glamorize, let alone frequent. I’ve dated girls from the U of C who proudly wore t-shirts reading: “University of Chicago: where fun goes to die.” Really. I’ve spoken with people who’ve lived in both cities, and they said that intellectuals are usually treated better in Boston.

Politically blue streak
If you watched the 2004 presidential election on television, you might recall Illinois being the first blue state on the electoral map. With Haymarket Square, Upton Sinclair, the Weather Underground and the Daley Dynasty’s Democratic dominance, Chicago has a political tradition bluer than a smurf. Boston has similar socially progressive values. From the days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to the same sex marriage amendment, they’ve been way ahead of the rest of the country on sociopolitical issues. This state was the first to outlaw slavery in 1783, almost 100 years before the Emancipation Proclamation. It’s also home to America’s ultimate dissidents, our most glorified “left-wing” freedom fighters, the patriots who started the Revolution in 1776.

Overall, home really isn’t about your mailing address, or where your teams play or what region produces your favorite entertainment products. It’s more about the state of mind than the actual state. Home is the place where you can be surrounded by the people who share your interests, values and ideals. Home is Chicago, but sometimes it can feel like Boston.

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