If you're in the US, move to Brooklyn. I mean it. I've been living here for close to two years and my intellectual capacities have reached what I am confident is their peak. Before I moved here I was living in an obscure, non-coastal city going the way of every other self-willed failure who sacrifices their artistic talents for the weary and nauseatingly comfortable routine of a "long day's work" followed by a few hours of fleeting relief. Then I moved to Brooklyn and honestly I feel like I've been christened into the religion of bohemian authenticity. All of my housemates are pursuing their own form of artistic ambitions, and at least a dozen others I've met in my apartment complex (we often have parties, the music being either live or selected by us all. It's a great way to find out about obscure artists you wouldn't have otherwise heard about. I mean honestly, before I came here and paid my deposit on a small apartment not really knowing what to expect, I was just your average prematurely stoic, boring and apathetic young man, convinced of his latent genius but too meek and timid to assert my talents. Since coming to Brooklyn though I've come to realize that the pursuit of pleasure is worthwhile and is essentially what makes a life worth living. I read, I write, I watch my friends play their music or attend the galleries where their art is being showcased, and every day I wake knowing that I live at the centre of the artistic universe, and that nowhere else on earth is genius and creativity so abundant. Seriously, if you don't live here or at least have ambitions to do so you may as well throw in the towel in terms of aspiring to represent the contemporary zeitgeist.
