Celtics win; arts lose

The Celtics took NBA championship last night here at Boston. I guess it was a blowout.

I didn't watch it. As a matter of fact, I haven't watched one Celtic's game in a long time. Funny, the last time was over two years ago. I had gotten some tickets somehow and Sue and I went. It was maybe our first date.

It was a pretty day, so we met at my old apartment, took the T in to Boston. There was a David Hockney exhibit at the MFA that we both wanted to see but, the sweet thing that she is, Sue thought I was too broke to afford the museum, so suggested we just walk around Boston. Sue wanted to see where all that literature had been set, so we walked around Charles Street and Beacon Hill, and just talked.

Then we went to the Celtic's game, but not before Sue wanting to go to Hilton's Tent City--a girl of my own heart, I thought! We both pretty much got bored at the same time somewhere in the first half of the game, and then what has become SOP for us, we look into each other's eyes to get a bead on what the other one is thinking. We both knew and we got up and left.

Yesterday I was at the bank and the teller (yes, an actual humanoid and not an ATM) asked me if I was all ready for "the game"?

"There's a game?" I asked. I knew, but didn't care, and the teller actually gave me kind of a snotty roll of her eyes. Let's just keep our minds on the business at hand, namely my bank account, shall we?

I wish I were part of it (well, no, I don't; I really don't.) It's not the 1980's anymore and I'm not standing up on a table in a bar in Montreal writing, "Larry Byrd rules" on the ceiling. But it seems it was the place to see and be seen. Bill Billichick was there with his hot gf, and Steven Tyler, and Joey Kramer, Aerosmith's drummer. I don't think Jack was in the crowd, though.

So, last night, even if I hadn't had something else to do I wouldn't have watched. But instead I was in Cambridge hanging around actors and directors and writers.

The Celtics are champions, the Red Sox are champions, and the Patriots are step-children because they went 16-0 and then lost big in the Super Bowl. They didn''t win everything, they didn't win it all, so they aren't as good. I guess that's the way it goes in our world.



A few years back I was watching a middle school production of Cinderella that was riddled with horribly long scene changes (one lasted well over a minute), fumbled blocking, and missed lighting cues. And the members of the audience--most of whom of course were related to the kids on stage--were so accommodating. And I thought to myself, first of all, most of the people in the audience wouldn't know a technically good show if it fell on their heads. And second, if these sort of miscues and haphazard play were on a football field, basketball court, or baseball field, a lot of these people would be singing a different tune. They'd be a helluva lot more critical.

I'm not saying the arts should take the place of sports. I'm saying the arts should occupy the same place in our minds that sports do. I find it reprehensible that people know the nuances of the fast break, but don't understand the nuances of a well-rehearsed theater ensemble. I think it's absolutely mind-boggling that people don't understand Impressionism, or even what it is if they see it.

A 3-4-5 double play makes my knees go weak. So does a breakaway (in the Tour de France, peeps, not on the parquet floor) or a slant over the middle for a first down. But there are so many other things in this world, and the problem is most people can't absorb the world in its entirety.