Welcome to Frog Hollow
Comments (10) I’ve just purchased a home in the Frog Hollow neighborhood, so here’s a photo tour to acquaint readers with my new surroundings:
Category: self-indulgence
Comments (10) 
Hartford 2010: Resolutions for the New Year
By Kerri Provost, December 30, 2009 8:43 pm
It’s way easier to delegate than to take on every last responsibility, so rather than work on gaining muscle mass or weaning myself off chocolate, I’m creating a list of things I would like to see Hartford work on in the upcoming year. Here they are, in no particular order:
- Make the Riverfront Accessible
After having my heart set on a lovely afternoon bicycle ride along the Connecticut River, my plans were thwarted. Continue reading 'Hartford 2010: Resolutions for the New Year'»
Self-Promotion
By Kerri Provost, December 29, 2009 12:51 pm
If I got paid for publishing Real Hartford, then I’d feel like a big jerk for promoting myself. Luckily, there’s no such conflict. I want to share two pieces of news, and then you all can get back to reading your Top Ten of 2009/Why This Decade Was Teh Suck lists:
A Few Queers on the Prowl just posted some of their favorite sites and Real Hartford made the cut! Please check out the rest of this blog, written by a fellow Hartford resident.
Also, in the nearish future, some of my blog posts will be archived on HartfordInfo.org , a site that I have used often for research.
Alright, go back to reading your countdown lists.
Awesome Things
By Kerri Provost, December 25, 2009 5:38 pm
The kvetching will return briefly. For now, here’s a list of awesome things, inspired by 1000 Awesome Things:
- knowing that even when the country karaoke is closed due to the holidays, there is still something to do because I have friends to hang out with.
- spending hours in coffee shops because I am on vacation and I can spend my time however I like. Continue reading 'Awesome Things'»
Another Perspective
By Kerri Provost, November 3, 2009 8:00 pm
Very little of Hartford can be seen by driving through it on the interstate. There are buildings, cars, billboards, but no context. Driving means finding a parking space, paying to park, worrying about the car, and then sitting in a traffic jam. How much time have I squandered sitting in traffic? It’s depressing to think about.
Living near my workplaces was a major catalyst for me to move to Hartford. I grew up in a rural area where there was no public transportation. There may have been a park and ride located near the highway, but nothing available for intertown travel. As a child, I relied on my parents and friends’ parents for transportation or rode the school bus. When I was able to get a job, I needed a way to get there. There were never any options to consider but private transportation. Later, when I would become a commuter college student, I needed reliable transportation. I was driving between college classes and two or three jobs. As an adult, I relished the thought of a shorter commute. Gone would be the days of 30-60 minute drives. Though I have lived my whole life in New England, I have never enjoyed driving in the snow. Living in a place with public transportation would reduce my snow and ice-induced anxiety.
Since moving from South Green to the West End, I have greatly increased my amount of self-propelled transportation. Being close to friends and favorite restaurants has helped. I began with small outings to a nearby coffee shop, then to the community garden, synagogue, and friends’ houses. In the summer of 2008, when gas prices were straight up offensive, I walked to work for a week out of refusal to pay such high prices. The walk takes me an hour. It was really hot and I was out of shape. Next I began to wander, investigating the neighborhood and those neighborhoods nearby. Park Street, the area of Hartford where retail is not an abysmal joke, is but two blocks away. I was once asked by an acquaintance why I would walk on Park Street if I am not a Latina. Continue reading 'Another Perspective'»
hARTford
By Kerri Provost, September 14, 2009 8:00 pm
In his column yesterday, Tom Condon suggested that City Arts on Pearl might be “paving the way for an arts district.” As I read that, I thought of A Few Queers on the Prowl and their recent discussions on art. Can such a thing as an arts district exist? Can art be contained? Should it be contained? If one area is designated as an arts district, what does that say about artists and art venues located outside of it?
Condon writes that Hartford needs to “grow its arts presence, not watch it shrink,” a point with which I agree when I take it out of context. Does the city need arts for “revitalization”? That implies that revitalization is needed, that we do not have life here. Maybe we are looking for art in all the wrong places. Maybe it’s already here, existing outside the sanctioned definitions of art.
Motivational Message
By Kerri Provost, September 9, 2009 6:42 am
There are plenty of inspiring people in Hartford already who are not celebrities. Instead of coughing up $20 to hear from people in high places, go talk to your neighbors.
Staycation 2009
By Kerri Provost, August 7, 2009 11:09 am
When my friend David told me he’d secured a reservation for a trip to the top of the Travelers’ Tower, I had no choice but to invite myself along. This would bring me downtown in the late morning, and since I had plans to be less than a block from there later in the afternoon, I figured I would just spend the time in between downtown.
At eleven we zoomed to the 21st floor. I did not think about the logistics of this. After having walked 2.5 miles to get downtown, the three flights of stairs did not seem so fun. The view was worth the panting. From the street, the tower does not look like it can hold more than two people. We had six people up there, and there was plenty of room for more. I had no luck locating my apartment.
Self-Promo
I’m finishing up a zine called curio eleison. It’s inspired by curiosity cabinets, which is explained more in the zine. It’s basically a collection of travel narratives, so the focus seems to be elsewhere, but does return to Hartford on occasion. It’s quarter-sized, cut & pasted, 72 pages.
If you’d like a copy, leave a comment or email me with your mailing address. If you make a zine, I’d like to trade.
Apocalyptic Message of the Day
By Kerri Provost, April 27, 2009 5:04 pm
The MDC has announced that we no longer “need” to boil our drinking water in Hartford. This is a relief because it’s really hard to multitask in terms of health-related panic, what with the Swine Flu now dominating the news media. I advise readers to stop eating pork and kissing pigs until this epidemic is under control. When finished worrying about the Swine Flu, check out this list for more things to be paranoid about.
