I Solemnly Swear...

Three time's the charm. That's the magic number for Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez who will be inaugurated for his third term tonight. Throughout his campaign, Perez touted all the good he's done for the city and asked voters and the city to let him finish what he started. Can he?

The Hartford Courant ran a solid article that highlights some of Perez's accomplishments and plans for the future, but it just begs for more questioning, doesn't it?

"Perez is expected to urge that economic development serve as the tie to bind the city's North End to downtown; to push for ways for Hartford to secure affordable health care for its uninsured; and to pledge to determine the future of the Civic Center, now renamed the XL Center." - from the Courant.

Oh boy. Connecting the North End to downtown? Is this really a good idea? Has anyone taken a trip down the North End lately? The last time we found ourselves down that end of town was during the sleazy days of the nightclub Sanctuary (RIP) looking for, well, never mind. If you were there, you know.

Sure, scoring a big title sponsor is cool and all, but what will it really do for the city? Will it help to attract the hordes of live acts and shows that prefer the venues at the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos? We're optimistic that the "powers-that-be" can turn things around and start making use of the Civic Center again. We'd pay top dollar to have a full on gladiator style show and toss a bunch of those mindless city planners throughout the years who have ruined downtown Hartford in the pit. Feed 'em to the lions!

So, what are your thoughts? Can Perez deliver on his promises, or is it just more political empty talk? We shall see.

Smile Joe, smile...

Ok, we're back.

Go ahead, sue us. We've been away for a while. That's the beauty of running your own blog I suppose. There's no boss to answer to, no reports to fill out and you can post whenever you damn well please to. Sorry for our absence. We're back!

So with the new year comes the resolutions that so many of us never keep. New Year's resolutions just make us feel good, right? Shouldn't we be doing these good things all year long?

So instead of boring you with our promises to lose weight, exercise more and other nonsense, we've come up with our Top 5 resolutions that the city of Hartford should follow. They are:

1. Get moving on Adriaen's Landing
Enough is enough. Wake up and get this moving.

2. Rename the Civic Center
XL Center? Are you kidding? From the subhead of the press release: Northland AEG secures historic partnership, affirming Hartford’s status as the US Insurance Capital. Isn't it exciting to be known as the insurance capital of the US? Dream on baby, we lost that title long ago.

3. Three words: Downtown grocery store.
When, oh when, is this ever going to happen? If you live downtown, you feel our pain. Word is that the Northland group is building their own since they can't find anyone to dare open anything in the new Civic Center shopping spaces.

4. Less parking lots.
Someone ought to make it criminal to raze another landmark and put in another parking lot or garage. I personally salute the big middle finger to LAZ and ProPark. Hasn't the city over the last 30 years destroyed enough of downtown? New city law - all new parking facilities must be built underground. Can I get a second on this motion?

5. Affordable downtown living.
nstitute rent control and get people into downtown that get it. Young people, not the empty nesters. Young people get it and will make the city a fun, lively place to be. Right? And speaking of downtown, there are a number of downtown living projects that are simply on hold because of squabble and other bullsh*t. Get it together, or give it to someone who can.

Welcome to 2008! Now, back to work.

Dirty South, meet Dirty Hartford!

This coming Friday night you can find us at Room 960 where we'll be working that room harder than a big city socialite. Over the past three years, Room 960 has become the premier venue for big name deejays that often play in locales like New York City, Miami, London and beyond. Thanks to the efforts of Boramusic.com, Hartford has been taken to a new level where these jet set jocks actually make Hartford a regular stop on their worldwide tours. Tiesto, Gabriel & Dresden, rocker Tommy Lee and Roger Sanchez are a few of the many who have graced the turntables in our capital city.

This weekend Boramusic.com will host an event with Dirty South, currently one of the world's biggest deejays haling from Australia. Dirty South, pleased to meet you, mate!

What makes the Boramusic.com events so fun is that it attracts the glitterati of Hartford. Expect to see lots of pretty people and serious clubbers from all walks of life, which is a very good thing for this city. As the music thumps throughout your soul, the lights blind you and with the crowd screaming in joy, you'll actually wonder if this is Hartford. People say its the closest thing to European clubbing without having to leave, and trust us, from our past experiences it's as close as you'll come that global clubbing experience at home.

Look around for us. We'll be the ones getting sloppy and hanging out in the VIP area, swilling back the martini du jour and prowling the oh-so sexy crowd that's jacked up (and ready to go!) on the primordial rhythms of house music. Rawrr!!!

The Farm vs. Big Blue

The retail wars are on. Again.

Word on the street is that West Farms Mall is taking the next punch in the battle of the malls. They tried their hardest to stop Blue Back Square from becoming a reality, and as a result, they're now they're facing a potential law suit in the millions. Not to mention the millons of dollars they spent in a public relations effort to stop Blue Back Square from developing. Ouch.

So what now? Well, we've heard that West Farms plans to expand and add a new wing that will feature high end brand names like Tiffany, Louis Vuitton and others in an attempt to regain the crown. Oh, and what New England malling destination would be complete without a Dunkin Donuts.

It should be interesting to see how things play out over the course of this, but the score so far seems to be Blue Back Square 1, West Farms 0.

Do you Java any good scoop?

Repeat after us. TGIF, TGIF, TGIF. The weekend has finally arrived and it's time to blow that Fred Flintstone whistle and yabba-dabba-do yourself out of the daily grind. So with the upcoming weekend, we leave you with something that just got under our skin this morning.

We love Mary. Mary Ellen Fillo that is, but we're re-evaluating our opinion of the gossip queen after reading this morning's Java page. For those of you who simply don't know, Fillo writes the daily Java column in the Hartford Courant. It's supposed to be a dishy page of celebrity gossip and news, kind of like the New York Post's Page Six, with a mix of Connecticut based dirt and international celebrity news. We personally love seeing the birthdays of our favorite celebs.

It's worth noting that on rare occasion Fillo will catch wind of some "real" celebrity coming through Connecticut and write about it. But she never reports on any of the actual events or celebrity sightings. For example, Fall Out Boy cutie Pete Wentz and his girlfriend Ashlee Simpson were at Room 960 this past summer for an event. Did Fillo's celeb-obsessed journalistic nose lead her to this? No. Not even close.

So as we were sipping our coffee this morning we nearly spit our java all over Java page. Fillo writes:

... While Some Facets of Life Lose Luster
George David, chairman and chief executive officer of Connecticut-based
United Technologies Corp., has filed for divorce.

We'll spare you from the entire article that spans a mind numbingly 9 paragraphs detailing the marriage, the lawyers involved and other bullsh*t. Is this really celebrity gossip? Is this the best Fillo can do? Do the people really care about another Connecticut corporate stiff getting a divorce? We think not. People divorce every day, wake up and smell the java. According to a recent statistic, the average divorce rate is 4.95 per 1,000 people in the United States. Is this shocking news in the Connecticut celebrity community that George David is divorcing. Please...

So with that we are offering a grand prize of our unconditional love to anyone who can snap a picture of Fillo out and about the city streets of Hartford past midnight. Email it to hartfordscoop@gmail.com and we'll forever be your friend.

Another death in Hartford...

Ok, we know that the title of this entry may be a bit morbid for some, so you need to listen closely for the sarcasm. Hear it? There it is! Good!

Here's the scoop, and you better brace yourself. 'Tis a sad day here in Hartford, as the mother magazine of all things cool in Hartford has finally succumbed to its ultimate fate - death. Yes, the rumors are true, CT Slant magazine is finally over. Sniffle, sniffle. We can't help but wonder how Hartford will continue to go on without its one true guide to all things hip.

We have to admit, the billboards and talk of a new magazine in town got us a little excited. After years and years of turning to the pages of the Hartford Advocate (yawn), it was finally nice to see someone else emerge on the scene. But ahhh, such trickery! The minds behind the Advocate and Hartford Courant (ala New Mass Media) pulled the wool over our eyes and delivered a piss poor excuse for a magazine with a focus of looking at life in Connecticut with a different slant. Cute.

As we're sure you will agree, there was nothing cool about CT Slant. It focused on a handful of downtown restaurants, nightclubs, far away exotic locales no one will ever visit and other fodder. We nearly pissed our pants when we read in the May 2007 issue that knitting was cool where "hipsters everywhere can be seen knitting on the subway..." Seriously?!?!?

So with the absence of CT Slant, what will take its place? Low and behold, Phoenix rising. There's now a new website that will be run by the same people called Metromix. Looking back we only wish we had got in on the death pool for CT Slant from the start. Anyone willing to take bets on how long this one will last?

So with that said, we bid you a fond adieu CT Slant and leave you with one of our favorite gravestone epitaphs:

She Did It The Hard Way
Bette Davis
RIP

Sunday Night Wanderings in Blue Back Square

Welcome to Monday morning. The weekend is now just a foggy memory and we're doing our best to get through the morning hours here. A bad case of the Mondays and we're already two coffees deep. By the time you're done reading this, we'll be three down.

So this past Sunday we ventured out of Hartford and over to our friends in the West to Blue Back Square. We have to admit, we've really had no real reason to head over and see it "first". We we're just waiting for the right reason to go and that reason was a movie at the new Criterion theater. The threat of snow-ice-rain was imminent but that didn't stop us. Wimps.

Our show was at 7:ish and we got there around 5 with some time to kill. This offered us the perfect opportunity to strut our stuff and stroll through the square to see what all the hype is about. We screeched in off Raymond Road and couldn't find parking. A good sign, but no one was out on the streets... hmmm. After circling around a few times, we decided to park in the garage. With our Sunday's best on, we hit the Square - except there was no one around to show off our couture too.

First stop was the National Jean Company for a look see at the latest in $200 jeans. Yes, there are lots and lots of jeans, trendy shirts and outfits for all the guys and ladies to choose from. We'll definitely be back here for more. After carousing the shop - I the dumber of the two - haven't quite unpacked all of my winter clothing and needed gloves. So we flitted over to REI for some winter gloves. Needless to say there were plenty to choose from, if big-outdoorsy-logo'ed brands are your thing. I dropped $22 on a pair of nice REI gloves that were comfy and would get me through the cold. We looked around drooling at all of the skis and snowboards, but were constantly reminded through store announcements that they were closing in 15 minutes. We get it, it's time to go.

We then popped into Barnes & Noble to pick up our latest monthly run of trash and smut magazines and ended up staying in there until 6:30 or so. Our last stop before the big flick was the Cheescake Factory for a quick cocktial and appetizer. Au contraire, mon frere... the place was packed to the gills! After muscling our way through the crowd at the bar, we couldn't find a single barstool to perch upon. We decided it wasn't worth the hassle and headed on over to our movie to call it a night.

So here's the scoop. Blue Back Square has a lot to offer, but we just couldn't get past the fake feeling it radiated. Yah, yah we know, it's not entirely complete and maybe we're jumping the gun here, but it just felt strange and fabricated. We couldn't quite put our finger on it but the best way to describe it was that it felt like walking around a Hollywood movie set. It certainly didn't feel like the West Hartford Center we know with its unique charm, quaint boutique shops and fabulous independent restaurants. So the question is: Is there room for big corporate chains and mom-and-pop shops in the Center? Time will tell.

Overall, Blue Back Square has got it going on, but we can't help but cringe and wonder why Hartford can't get their act together and make any real progress with Adriaen's Landing. It would be an incredible accomplishment and boost to the city's image if major retailers on par with the ones Blue Back were reeled in could be brought downtown. Downtown needs this. Will it ever happen? What are your thoughts?