1. What’s your town’s nickname?

hARTford, so you remember there is ART in Hartford. Connecticut is known as the insurance state because there are a lot of insurance companies in Hartford. Such as the imaginatively named ‘The Hartford’.

2. What’s your nickname for your town?

I don’t have one, isn’t that interesting?

3. Why do you live there?

Well, I moved, but I lived there because I grew up there and I left for college and then just to check out the world.

4. What is your favorite local attraction (monument, park, etc)?

Mark Twain House

There are so many. Bushnell Park is amazing in the spring, you can wander the big rolling hills of grass outside of the state capital, then hangout at the Bushnell Park Carousel. It has a Wurlitzer 153 band organ at the center of the carosel and you can buy popcorn and cotton candy. On Sundays, when I was in high school, Food Not Bombs would happen there. You are also then walking distance from the Wadsworth Atheneum which is a beautiful old stone museum like a church or a castle filled with idiosyncratic rooms of all sorts art. It feels like an old fashioned art museum, with a quirky, personal, killer curator. Styles are next to styles and things seem so close to eachother, although it is very well kept up and modern. The Mark Twain House is a place where both Pete and I worked a few years back and you can see Sam Clemens’ own pool table! The Connecticut Historical Society has all kinds of original source documents on the history of the city, and helpful librarians. While you are thinking about the old Hartford, head to Cedar Hill Cemetary, which is a perfect victorian gothic version of a cemetary, with drooping willows and dogwood where you can hunt around for the graves of Colts and Morgans and even Wallace Stevens. Under the bridge near the old Bradlees parking lot, might be a Cost Saver now, is a red pick up truck where this guy sells the best steamed hotdog I have ever had in my life. I don’t know his name, I call him the hotdog man, and my mom and I used to go there once a week when I was in elementry school. The buns are soft and warm from the hotdog steam , but not damp, the sauerkraut is killer, and he is a charming man. Although some people suggested the hot dog sales was a front for a bookie opperation, no man would take such care with his dogs were it just a front. He’ll put ketchup, mustard and relish on your dog, wrap it in wax paper and grab you a can of sunkist in about 22 seconds. Best.

5. What is your favorite local event/festival?

The Hebron Harvest Fair happens every September in Hebron, CT and was a highschool event for me, and former member of the Magik Markers, Leah. It has rides, bingo, bar-b-qued pork sandwiches, feather trimmed roach clips and animals winning prizes. You can buy yourself a real Lime Rickey or support RHAM Music Boosters by drinking a milkshake made by a real RHAM High School musician, or you can ride a ferris wheel, pick up some leather, or buy a sticker that says “sex instructor” or “screw helmet laws,” or “go hard or go home.”

6. What is the best time of year to be there?

In fall it is good because you can head out to Farmington for Roger’s Apple Orchard. This is a place my dad would bring me every year for apple cider and pie and white chocolate and to look at rabbits. Right by the New Britain reservoir, tucked into the woods. In Autumn no where on earth smells better and has more bees humming around its 25 cent cider dispenser. I am only now getting over my extreme hatred for fall, instilled by my extreme hatred for school, so I can appreciate how beautiful it is there. Spring is the best because people start mowing their lawns and it smells so clean, as well as the general niceness of wintertime changing into Spring. Summer though! No school, may flies, ticks and good times. I love the humid heat of CT in the summer, but it is not for everyone. Going tubing on the Farmington river and getting Italian Ice, either lemon or almond, from Mozzicato’s Bakery on Franklin Avenue are the best things to do in the summer. Winter is for illegal sledding on golf courses.

7. Who is your favorite local celebrity/personality?

Szechuan Tokyo owner Paul Lewis

Brad Field, Dr. Mel, or Hilton Kaderly. These dudes did weather for different stations. I liked them because they would announce snowdays when school would be canceled.

8. Where is the best place to drink and what’s their  specialty or happy hour?

Hmm, this is a hard one for me, as I came to drinking later in life than some people. My drinkin’ friends would go to the Pig’s Eye, but I have been there and it is pretty horrible, although you can see what happened to all those dudes you went to highschool with. Now my personal favorite place is Szechuan Tokyo down the street from my Dad’s house in the Elmwood section of West Hartford. They pour strong, you can walk back to my dad’s house and local folks hang out and argue about stuff with the Bartendress. It is a bar where there is a table with newspapers and an adding calculator and the eyeglasses of the owner next to a pile of receipts, and possbily a Nagel lady on the wall. 80′s chinese resturant white walls glass fixtures vibe, super tiny, set apart from the main fancier resturant. Good for overhearing conversations and having good times. Bad if single and looking for young hot people in the dark, although if on a date, order the Scorpion Bowl, referred to as the deady and infamous “signature cocktail for two.” Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays have “live jazz.” For a late drink and Italian pastry, Mozzicato’s on Franklin Avenue. For a glass of wine and the best clam chowder, Tapas on New Britain Avenue.

9. Who has the best jukebox (and what’s in it)?

I think I have to go back in time. My father used to have a killer party basement in my grandparents house. He had an old wurlitzer jukebox, with all the singles he collected in the 60′s. One time I was playing Count Five, and my dad said, “I had this single in the juke box in your grandparents basement.” This leads me to believe one night of listening to that juke box would have been the best. Unfortunatley, after my dad had a kid he got rid of his drums and records and juke boxes and it is a bummer I will never hear it.

10. What is your favorite place to see live music and what was your favorite show there?

My favorite show I ever went to in Hartford was a show at my grandparents house where Son of Earth and Double Leopards played. In retrospect I made some good friends that night.

11. What is your favorite local band?

I don’t know, because not may bands admit to being from Connecticut. I will say Charles Ives, he copped to it. Also, as an academic transplant, Anthony Braxton. And! Local luminary and bon vivant Paul Flaherty.

12. What is your favorite diner or restaurant and what is their best dish?

My favorite resturant is Kabul House, the Afgan resturant which moved from Franklin Avenue to its current fancy shmancy location in West Hartford Center. Kabul House looks like some kind of middle eastern Olive Garden inside, but the food is amazing. Pumpkin puree, potatoes in a tomato sauce, pierogie like things with a yogurt sauce and lentils, everything on the menu is amazing. My friend Trina was born in Afghanistan and introduced me to this place.

13. What is your favorite record store and what was your best find there?

Growing up, what a time to not have the internet, man! I would have used the shit out of the internet in middle school, and I guarentee I would have been 79% less of a total loser. Everything was so hard to find out about then. Any scrap of cool I could find I latched onto obesessviely and made my entire personality out of, even stuff that wasn’t that cool bt was maybe a third cousin of cool. I was so hungry for anything cool I got HEAVY into D.H. Laurence. So with that being said, just out of High School my friend Nate recommended some jams he thought I would like. The only one I could find was the MC5, Kick Out the Jams at Record Breaker on the Berlin Turnpike. The dudes behind the counter were older and were like, if you’re getting that, you might to check this out and showed me the Nuggets box set. All that pasiley and all those hippie colors turned me off. I was like, no thanks old man, I don’t go in for that fruity woodstock stuff! But those wise old men would have turned me on to some killer shit if I haddn’t been such an uninformed snot nosed wiener. For current stores I will say Trash American style in Danbury, and Brass City Records in Waterbury, which I think only exists online now.

14. What is your favorite local shop?

I used to love West Hartford Used Books. As a teenage customer, it was easily the greatest conduit to an outside world I could have found. There was a rambling stinky basement filled with 2 dollar paperbacks, the basement was as if someone with the greatest taste had been hoarding every type of book since 1922. I used to work there and it was my favorite job I ever had. I would read, alphabetize and all day and the owner Michael had the greatest taste in books. Everything in the store was a gem. He had the National Lampoon’s High School Yearbook, he had a guide to drugs written by some kind of fringe Leary-eque character, explaining in detail the pro’s and con’s of every drug he had ever tried, but set up like a encyclopedia, he had a picture book of all the fish and game caught by Hemingway, a whole book of the story of Michael Wolff, the SLA guy, written by one of his prep school friends, an illusrated book called Little Known Facts About Bundling in the New World. OH! The hours I spent. I never wanted to leave that store. I worked on my birthday, by choice and it was one of my favorite birthdays. Some light vaccumming, a little plastic book covering, and that was that. No bookstore, anywhere ever, has ever matched up to West Hartford Used Books. It now exists online only, as West Hartford Bookshop. Still recommended.

15. What is your favorite local publication (alternative weekly, zine, etc.)?

I was not clued into the coolest shit in Hartford when I lived there, nor am I now, so there is probably some great stuff I am not mentioning. I used to read the Advocate to find out about shows, and the Hartford Courant is the paper most people read in my part of the state. The RiverEast is killer for news about the Regional Andover, Hebron and Marlborough area, as well as some chitchat about Glastonbury and Willamantic.

1. What’s your town’s nickname?

Seattle’s nickname is the Emerald City.

2. What’s your nickname for your town?

I lived in a neighborhood in Seattle called Captiol Hill for a long while, and it was pretty overrun by hipsters. So, I used to call it “hipster central.”

3. Why do you live there?

Seattle is an amazing place. I’ve lived there my whole life, and every time I start to get sick of it and go away for a while (months, years), I always am lusting to come back. The place itself is absolutely gorgeous. It’s nestled on the Puget Sound, and Pike Place Market and Alki beach are some of my favorite spots to go to. There is also an amazingly picturesque park called Carkeek Park that is kind of a little secret, but it’s really incredible. And I love the smell of Evergreen trees as you drive out of the city. The climate is right up my alley too. I’m such a fan of the rainy, dismal, blustery days (which we have a lot of). I am truly happy to call Seattle my home.

4. What is your favorite local attraction (monument, park, etc)?

I really think that Pike Place Market is incredible. I lived within walking distance of that for a long while, and it’s such a fun place to go get some people watching in, and to also get some of the most killer seafood and produce you can imagine. It’s a total tourist spot, but being someone that is born and raised here, I still get excited every time I go there.

5. What is your favorite local event/festival?

We’ve got a festival called Bumbershoot that happens at the end of the summer. It’s three days (I think) of music and arts, and it gets absolutely mental. It is held in the Seattle Center, and you can hardly walk around it is so busy. They get some really incredible bands to play there, and it’s always a lot of fun, if not really overwhelming.

6. What is the best time of year to be there?

Fall, hands down. It is totally and completely cozy here in the fall. It sounds so cliché of Seattle, but it’s so perfect to go get an amazing cup of coffee on a cold, crisp fall day. It’s kind of perfect.

7. Who is your favorite local celebrity/personality?

King 5 meteorologist Jeff Renner. For sure.

8. Where is the best place to drink and what’s their specialty or happy hour?

The Redwood in Capitol Hill. It is amazing. The bar is owned by a fellow named Mat Brooke (who used to play in Carissa’s Weird, and now plays in Grand Archives). It’s got an amazing continuous special of Olympia Beer, and Old Crow Whiskey. Totally cheap, and totally rad. Plus, they give you free peanuts that you can throw all over the place. It is a total Seattle hipster hangout.

9. Who has the best jukebox (and what’s in it)?

That’s tough! I think that award still goes to the Redwood. They’ve got Paul McCartney’s Ram, and some Zombies records, and a whole slew of local records as well. It’s a rad jukebox.

10. What is your favorite place to see live music and what was your favorite show there?

I really think the Showbox in downtown Seattle is where it’s at for live shows. Recently, I saw Spoon there and it totally blew me away. The sound was really quite incredible.

11. What is your favorite local band?

There is a band in Seattle called BOAT. They have my heart completely.

12. What is your favorite diner or restaurant and what is their best dish?

Right now there is a taco truck right near where I work in North Seattle called El Camion. It is totally amazing. I eat there at least 3 times a week, and I always get their veggie burrito. It is cheap, and absolutely delicious.

13. What is your favorite record store and what was your best find there?

Sonic Boom Records in Ballard and Capitol Hill neighborhoods is the best. I’ve found some pretty amazing used vinyl there. My favorite two are the Bee Gee’s 1st and Emitt Rhodes self titled record. I was pretty happy about that.

14. What is your favorite local shop?

I think Sonic Boom Records wins this category as well!

15. What is your favorite local publication (alternative weekly, zine, website or blog)?

I’m partial to the Stranger over the Seattle Weekly. It is a joy to read every week.

What’s your town’s nickname?

There’s several that I’m aware of: “Stumptown”, “Rip City”, “Rose City”, “Little Beirut”
- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/966872/posts

What’s your nickname for your town?

“The Next Seattle”
- http://localcut.wweek.com/2008/02/26/does-seattles-music-scene-have-a-portland-problem/

Why do you live there?

Because there hasn’t been a MTV “Real World” filmed here (yet).
- http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/2008/01/real_world_casting.php

What is your favorite local attraction (monument, park, etc)?

Voodoo Doughnuts, specifically the “Bacon Maple Bar.”
- http://www.baconunwrapped.com/2007/10/maple-bacon-doughnut.html

What is your favorite local event/festival?

Oregon Leather Pride week, duh.
- http://www.oregonleatherpride.org/

What is the best time of year to be there?

August 1-10 (see above).

Who is your favorite local celebrity/personality?

Courtney Taylor-Taylor, duh.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtney_Taylor-Taylor

Where is the best place to drink and what’s their specialty or happy hour?

Bingo night (1st & 3rd Friday each month) at The American Legion on NE Alberta St.
- http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/312261/

Who has the best jukebox (and what’s in it)?

See above; Boston, Skynyrd, Toby Keith.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5UurMXcMnw

What is your favorite place to see live music and what was your favorite show there?

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion & Sleater-Kinney at La Luna (R.I.P.), 1997.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE-ySRotpgU

What is your favorite local band?

The Dandy Warhols, duh.
- http://www.adamscelebs.net/members/singers/ZiaMcCabe.jpg

What is your favorite diner or restaurant and what is their best dish?

Red Robin; The B.L.T.A. Croissant (with side of honey mustard for the “bottomless fries”).
- http://consumerist.com/consumer/complaints/red-robin-spins-bullshit-when-pressed-to-reveal-nutritional-info-229376.php

What is your favorite record store and what was your best find there?

I found a limited edition, hand-printed/assembled LP version of I am the Fun Blame Monster at Ozone Records (R.I.P.) in 2004. Now it’s worth millions. Ozone was the first record store in Portland that let us consign CD’s with them, and then they shut down. Hopefully the two events are unrelated.
- http://localcut.wweek.com/2007/06/23/travel-light-portland-waxes-nostalgic-on-ozone-records-rip/

What is your favorite local shop?

Fat Cobra
- http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fat+Cobra

What is your favorite local publication (alternative weekly, zine, website or blog)?

Exotic Magazine
- http://www.xmag.com/archives/16-02-aug08/

1. What’s your town’s nickname?
Minneapolis has a few nick names—City of Lakes or the Mini Apple are most common. I’m guessing most people know that the “Twin Cities” refers to both Minneapolis and St. Paul, but is often used when talking about one city or the other. Sadly, it also earned the nickname, “Murderapolis” back in the 90’s. As a teenager, I can remember my dad being really disappointed by that nickname.

2. What’s your nickname for your town?
I usually stick with the “Twin Cities” when I’m outta town.  In town…I just call it home.
3. Why do you live there?
My husband, Adrian, LOVES it. Everything is convenient, it’s still family-friendly, there are neighborhood coffee shops, playgrounds, theaters, newsletters and park’n’rec buildings. AND—there are sidewalks!
4. What is your favorite local attraction (monument, park, etc)?
An all-time favorite is the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Center. I have many great memories of events there—-Rock the Gardens, lots of Frisbee-throwing (and retrieving in the spoon’s pond), and my mom’s surprise 60th Birthday picnic!

5. What is your favorite local event/festival?
Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater organizes a May Day parade each year that runs south along Bloomington Ave and finishes just east at Powderhorn Park. The puppets are striking, to say the least. You feel like a part of it just by watching.

6. What is the best time of year to be there?
Anytime other than January and February. They are the tough months. However, you get the seasons here and March has been pretty snowy lately (and not so cold) so all the other 10 months are just about right.

7. Who is your favorite local celebrity/personality?
Prince.

8. Where is the best place to drink and what’s their specialty or happy hour?
A bit old-school, but The Red Dragon has a special place in my heart. The Red Dragon Special is sweet and yummy, but don’t get it if you plan to drive home.
9. Who has the best jukebox (and what’s in it)?
The CC Club. Most anything your heart desires.

10. What is your favorite place to see live music and what was your favorite show there?
First Ave…Matthew Sweet, Girlfriend Tour.  He signed my forehead AND I got in with my ID. Thanks, First Ave, for not kicking me out. I just LOVE Matthew Sweet!!!
11. What is your favorite local band?
Ice Palace.

12. What is your favorite diner or restaurant and what is their best dish?
The Town Talk. The Bloody Mary.

13. What is your favorite record store and what was your best find there?
Electric Fetus. Martin Sexton’s The American.

14. What is your favorite local shop?
Dunn Brothers coffee shop—Lyndale style.
15. What is your favorite local publication (alternative weekly, zine, website or blog)?
The City Pages has to take this one, although I’m rather fond of the Rake Magazine as well.

This lovely songbird from the Kill Rock Stars label has had a good run so far. Getting her start at age 12 and gaining small-town notoriety through impromptu shows at her mother’s laundromat, her career was launched when she met the rest of her band and formed The Get Down Stay Down. Touring with acts such as Laura Viers and Xiu Xiu, it seems they have nowhere to go but up. Their new album, We Brave Bee Stings and All was released in January. Check out this feature to see the appeal of small town livin’.

What’s your town’s nickname?

Falls Church, VA (we like to do real name as nickname).

What’s your nickname for your town?

False Church, VA

What is your favorite local attraction (monument, park, etc)?

My mom’s laundromat in nearby Fairfax. When I’m back in town I go and fold strangers’ laundry.

What is your favorite local event / festival?

Library book sale.

Who is your favorite local celebrity / personality?

My grandmother. She hides from the Church of Latter-Day Saints people and
talks to me while I’m on the phone like I am not on the phone.

What is your favorite place to see live music and what was your favorite show there?

Iota in Arlington– I saw Voices on the Verge when I was in high school.

What is your favorite diner or restaurant and what is their best dish?

Sunflower in Vienna, VA– General Tso’s Chicken Surprise (the surprise is it’s not real chicken. Sorry i ruined it.)

Where is the best place to drink and what’s their specialty or happy hour?

Galaxy Hut– endless pitchers of YuengLing when you play there. Also good oatmeal stout.

What is your favorite record store and what was your best find there?

Cd Cellar– best find was The Pretender’s Isle Of View– live and acoustic.

What is your favorite local shop?

Unique Thrift store– it is huge but uncannily well-organized.

What is your favorite local publication (alternative weekly, zine, website or blog)?

City Paper.

Rising up from the ashes of the band Absinthe Blind came a new beginning for Erin Fein. Emerging from an Illinois farmhouse in a town dubbed “Shampoobanana” comes the band called Headlights – made up of Erin Fein, Brett Sanderson and Tristan Wraight. Since 2004 the band has come out with two EPs and one full length album, as well as an impressive split with The Most Serene Republic. Their next album is scheduled to release this spring. Touring the world over, Headlights have played with acclaimed indie acts such as Mates of State, the Appleseed Cast, Headphones, the Magnolia Electric Co., and much more. Learn more about Headlights’ hometown through the eyes of Erin Fein with this Stomping Grounds exclusive.

What’s your town’s nickname?
We live in Champaign-Urbana, IL. Both towns run into each other…so you get Chambana alot. But…if you live here long enough you also realize that people call it Shampoobanana. Yep.

What’s your nickname for your town?
Hmmmm. How about Midwestern Oasis or Cheap Livin’ or just C.U.?

Why do you live there?
I was born in Champaign. My family and band are here. We can afford to live here plus the music scene is great for a college town. I especially appreciate the people. Everybody is nice and easy going and people drive slow cause there’s really no where to rush to.

Also we have some of the best tap water in the whole U.S. of A. No kidding! Natural aquifers run underneath our town – no filters necessary.

What is your favorite local attraction (monument, park, etc)?
Well… there’s no body of water here and there are no forests either. Mostly fields and fields of corn and soybeans. But… we do have this great park called Meadowbrook Park where there is a huge field of prairie grass – what illinois would look like if it weren’t all farm land today. I saw a fox last time I went on a walk there.

I also really love the Urbana library. It’s a beautiful, old building and reminds me of being a kid.

Then there’s the Curtis Apple Orchard. It’s the cutest place you’ll ever go to… and they have amazing apple doughnuts.

Oh and one more thing – Krannert Art Museum. They bring in the finest of musical and theatrical acts from all over the world. I went to see the ballet Gazelle there a few years ago and it was breathtaking.

What is your favorite local event/festival?
Pygmalion Music Festival. It’s happened for three years now and is an incredible festival for a town of our size. Showcasing great indie bands from all over.

What is the best time of year to be there?
The spring and fall for sure. We have hot and humid summers and dreary, cold winters.

Who is your favorite local celebrity/personality?
Roger Ebert went to the University of Illinois and every year he puts on a film festival called Ebertfest. Hugh Hefner went to the U of I too. Plus Ludacris is from Champaign.

Where is the best place to drink and what’s their specialty or happy hour?
My favorite local bar is the Bling Pig. Incredible woodwork and an amazing selection of beer, although I stick to whiskey and tequila.

What is your favorite place to see live music and what was your favorite show there?
My favorite place is the Canopy Club. It used to be a xxx theatre called the Thunderbird but now they have incredible shows and a crazy rain forest mural all over the walls – which sounds kind of strange, and it is…but you’ll never see anything quite like it. One of my most memorable shows there was Sparklehorse and the Flaming Lips.

What is your favorite local band?
The Beauty Shop.

What is your favorite diner or restaurant and what is their best dish?
Thara Thai. Red Curry. Hands down.

What is your favorite record store and what was your best find there?
Exile on Main Street. Awesome little shop where you can find all sorts of stuff. My latest find was a best of Emmylou Harris record.

What is your favorite local shop?
The Furniture Lounge. A unique thrift store with old furniture, phones, dishes, anything you can think of really and it’s all in great condition and reasonably priced. They also have a great vinyl selection and play good tunes while you shop. The last thing i bought there was a small blue glass whale for $6.

What is your favorite local publication (alternative weekly, zine, website or blog)?
A new blog/website called ‘smile politely’.