Friday, March 12, 2004

THE SETTING

Cambridge, while not heaven on earth, can be intoxicating in its own little way. Part of feeling that way about where you live is feeling that where you live matters, somehow, and plays a role in shaping the world. In Cambridge, especially with Necco having moved to Revere, much of that comes from having Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology down the street. If it’s not enough that Alan Dershowitz lives here, well, this year the Hasty Pudding awards brought Sandra Bullock and Robert Downey Jr. here.

What also helps, and it’s the reason this comes up, is flipping through The New York Times’ Weekend section and noticing that “Spartan,” the new film by David Mamet -- who lives and works in Cambridge -- concerns spy Robert Scott, played by Val Kilmer and that “Late one night, Scott is summoned to Cambridge, Mass.” (There’s more to the plot, of course, but that’s a high point.)

This is, admittedly, no big deal, but only a few pages away, there’s a review of Craig Lucas’ new play, “Small Tragedy,” which is about “two exotic figures of monumental gravity in the midst of a fretful theater company in a rehearsal hall in Cambridge, Mass.”

Following the Radio Free Mike discussion of places worthy for fiction, it’s nice to see some ongoing votes for Cambridge. Even when failing to be the perfect place to live in reality, it can still be worth visiting in fantasy.

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