Bullshit R21 You're so clueless, mate. Massachusetts might be the best place to live in the US right now. We have a very, very high quality of life here and people are flocking in droves. Houses cannot stay on the shelves, we can barely keep them in stock.

The Amherst/Northampton/Easthampton/South Hadley/Shelburne Falls/Leverett/Shutesbury area i.e. Western Mass, is a radically wholesome, pleasant, beautiful and fun area to live in.

That's where I live. It's an amazing bubble. There's art, culture, incredible schools, cool, educated people. People who've done the Big City thing and want something cozy, safe and healthy now. There are great community events happening constantly throughout the year: plays, concerts, festivals, art walks, farmers markets, antique markets, Christmas markets, lectures, film screenings, museum talks, it's an embarrassment of riches. It's the Five College Consortium here - Amherst College, Smith, Mount Holyoke, UMASS and Hampshire, so there's five campuses' worth of events plus general happenings in every town, all within a very small radius.

There's a gazillion farms, so you have farm stands and CSAs like crazy, and loads of farm-to-table dining options.

A zillion amazing trails and forests, lakes, mountains and state parks. Sculpture parks. Botanical gardens.

Black Francis of the Pixies and J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. both live here and I see both of them and their kids all the time just walking around. I used to live around the corner from Kim Gordon. Lloyd Cole of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions lives up the road. There's tons of music of every genre happening all the time. Tons of great indie bands and good studios, too.

Scads of filmmakers, artisans, crafts. World-class antiquing at the Brimfield Fair three/four times a year. Old Deerfield and Old Sturbridge Village or magical Salem, MA for ye olde 1700s aesthetics. Extra fun at Halloween and Christmastime - picture postcard magical.

We're drowning in wellness here, whether yoga is your thing or Buddhist meditation groups or acupuncture or massage or cranial sacral, or just plain old talk therapy - western mass teems with therapists and healers galore

The Peace Pagoda - An amazing Buddhist landmark and community. A wonderful place to spend an hour or three.

A little further west is the Berkshires with all of the skiing and zip lining and tubing you could ever dream of.

A bit beyond our bubble? Another bubble: Woodstock, the Hudson Valley and the Catskills. And then there's NYC with all of its riches.

And 90 minutes east of us in Western Mass is Boston, with everything that is constantly happening there in the theater district, Back Bay, North End for the best food and in Cambridge for endless activities, concerts, shopping and events. And then Logan Airport, your gateway to Europe and the rest of the world.

A mere 45 minutes north is Vermont and New Hampshire. New Haven, Connecticut is 1.5 hrs south of me and has the whole Yale scene, which is lively. Tons of good bands come through the music hall there as well. Bradley Airport in Hartford is 50 minutes away.

Cape Cod is its own whole world and deserves its own thread because within that sphere there are a thousand variations of the Cape Cod experience. Marblehead, too, is a cant-miss coastal Mass destination.

Concord is a wonderland. Walden Pond is just outside of Concord. And down the street from that? The Gropius House, built by Walter Gropius, one of the founders of the Bauhaus art school. And near all that? Nathanial Hawthorne's house. The backyard of which was where the "Shot Heard Round The World" was fired.

I could go on and on. There's so much history in Massachusetts, so many olde houses and villages, historical art and architecture and cool stories, it'd make your head explode.

Massachusetts is fucking brilliant.