I Know Where The Summer Goes, Part 2

As much as I chide New York and celebrate Boston these days, one of New York's greatest advantages is its abundance of summertime outdoor arts. After reading the Times' calendar of upcoming events, I felt jealous: the Philharmonic across all five boroughs, Beach House at Summer Stage,  Wild Nothing and Grimes on a Hudson River pier, Shakespeare at the Delacorte Theater, and so on, to the point that you could probably find an intriguing performance outdoors three nights a week there, if you wanted to work hard enough. Not so much in Boston, though, where little like this happens.

There are a few reasons. In the end, this is a very large college town, so students and many 20-something leave town for the summer. The Sox ultimately capture everyone's heart in the summer. It doesn't get quite as hot here, so everyone doesn't have to find refuge in a park. (Have you ever walked down a Manhattan avenue on a July weekend? It's unbelievably hot and empty.) And the older cultural set decamps for the Berkshires, where Tanglewood, Jacob's Pillow, the Williamstown Theater Festival and the Barrington Stage Co. et al happen. At least this is to Boston's credit: Its summertime retreat has a wealth of exciting art rather than that of New York -- the Hamptons -- which is about as artificial as it gets.

But even if there are reasons to explain it doesn't make it easy to accept. Above is a photo of M. Ward performing at Summer Stage.