Challenge: Urban Landscapes V (Standard Editing*) Collection: Workshop Date: Aug 17, 2016 Galleries: Cityscape, Architecture Date Uploaded: Aug 20, 2016
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Hartford CT, Nearly twelve noon. This is not a crowded area, being a few blocks off downtown near the Connecticut River.
Hartford is a strange town. The home of Poet extraordinaire Wallace Stevens and of course Mark Twain, the city is mostly now a small relatively barren downtown and outlying poverty ridden housing projects and apartments. At the borders that all changes, and gives way to very high end towns, West Hartford, Glastonbury, Simsbury, Avon Farmington, etc- but the downtown has some positive spots and is although it has no colleges(university of Hartford is further out, and Trinity College is not exactly downtown-)essentially and unfortunately cut off from the water.
Otherwise, the State Capitol is a German Style Castle looking building, beautifully situated smack in the middle, surrounded by State buildings all around and across Bushnell Park. There is very little housing, high or low end down town, so at night, the tumble weeds start rolling and hit you after 6pm. During the day, there appears to be a vibrance around the cultural heart of the city, the XL sports and conference center, that used to be a shopping mall as well, and is now making room for a pharmacy school and Uconn Law school and perhaps more. In the latest installment of "bad decisions leading to a fiasco"- the city of Hartford stole a Neighboring City's Double A baseball team, and proceeded to not field a team the next year because the stadium was not ready. It may not be ready for the next year either! Also, my good friend was married at the Hartford Boat House a few years ago and that didn't end well.
So anyway, this shot is looking up a side street, at building that once was, still is, or will be owned by Traveller's Insurance(the red umbrella). It is a bit tilted/distorted, but that lends uneasiness to the scene perhaps.
I liked the people and signs and shapes in the architecture; the name is a reference to the song "Shapes" by the Long Winters. Look them up, listen to "when I pretend to fall." If you like Indie post grad clever heartfelt rock(and who doesn't), you will dig it.
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