Grilling Like Deval

Confirmation that I've lived in the Berkshires for the summer: an unplanned siting of Deval Patrick! (His family owns a second home in Richmond, Mass., and spends most weekends here.) Yesterday, as my fiancee and I pulled into the Big Y parking lot in downtown Pittsfield, there was Patrick, walking with a bag of Full Circle's All Hardwood Lump Charcoal in hand and two state policemen nearby. Considering the charcoal was on sale at a 50 percent discount and good enough for our state's governor, we bought it. As we struggled to light it, we wondered if Patrick was vigorously blowing at the flames too so the grill was warm enough for cooking. (That's Patrick, above, looking concerned about his barbecue.)

In these pages I've been very ambivalent about Patrick as a governor, though three months away from Election Day, my opinion is rising. His Republican opponent, Charlie Baker, has opted for an ill-fitting populist route rather than embrace his intelligence. Don't people want their political candidates to be themselves and be smart, and if one candidate is both, all the better?

On the other hand, Patrick gets all the small stuff wrong -- e.g. charging the state for new office drapes and a new Cadillac, skipping town to sign a book deal on the day of an important vote on casinos -- but has successfully oriented the state toward a future where education, public transit, renewable energy and innovation matter deeply. His administration has kept the state's finances above water and Massachusetts' economy is recovering faster than those of other states. He deserves credit (and votes) for these things.

Update: On a related note, Vetiver, the psych-folk band that pals around with Devendra Banhart (I only know of them from Banhart's song "When The Sun Shone On Vetiver") also appears to be vacationing in the Berkshires this summer. Their label Sub Pop lists their next tour dates as this weekend in North Adams, as part of Wilco's festival, and then the following Saturday at the Dream Away Lodge in Becket, Mass. This can only mean that Vetiver is spending the intervening week hiking the same paths and swimming in the sames lakes as me! That Vetiver is booked to play Becket (though the lodge's Web site has no mention of the show) can only be because of all the hipster dancers and interns who work at Jacob's Pillow for the summer, a job that sounds wonderful.