Connecticut? Hip?

Tonight at dinner Mick, Steve, and I had a fascinating conversation about hipness. It started with a simple statement I made regarding a recent trip to WPI. I was talking to a few students about my job in Connecticut and I felt the ever so common feeling that I was the only person in the room with even a remote appreciation for this nearly rectangular state.

“Why is that?” asked Mick
“well, I don’t think many people see Connecticut as being very hip.” I replied.
“Hip?! well, what’s hip?”

And thus we started a conversation that spanned the rest of the evening. Here is what we determined.

First, we came up with five characteristics of hip persons.
1. social and intellectual aptitude
2. cultured
3. obscurity
4. individuality
5. passion

These were justified in the following manner. First the fundamentals: social and intellectual aptitude. Without the ability to communicate with reasonable intellect, any characteristics that might be seen as “hip” could just as easily be seen as “insane” or “highly weird.” Culture and obscurity work together. Being cultured and understanding obscure sources of culture are important. Mainstream is unhip, unless appreciated only in irony as was demonstrated in Ben’s graph of Ryan Schenk’s hipness over time. (warning: don’t push irony to the point of genuine appreciation.)

Individuality, or the ability to express oneself without loosing confidence is also key. Otherwise your hipness could easily be surpressed.

Finally, the truly hip should have some sort of passion. It doesn’t have to be a common passion, in fact, the less common the better. If you have the other characteristics and also a huge fascination and appreciation for, say, woodcarving… then that’s pretty hip.

It should also be stated that these characteristics must come with some balance. And any highly negative personality traits are likely to ruin the hipnitude of the person in question.

Once we had established a baseline for hipness we asked the question: Why isn’t Connecticut hip?

The answer came with a single astute statement by Mick.

“Connecticut has been hit by the conformity hammer.”

In Connecticut, passionate individuality and obscure culture take a huge back seat to soccor moms and dads who boast of the best lawn in the neighborhood. Too many people think of their CT towns as part of the Connecticut Golden Coast. Once a prejudice has been established by the loud few, the rest of Connecticut tries to conform and the result is some lame city like Hartford: the filing cabinet of America.

So how do we make Connecticut more hip?

well. I’m not sure. But clearly we can’t let the uptight keep us down. We must hunt down the sweetest, most non-mainstream places in CT and share them with the worthy. I think if we first strengthen the hip elite, we can then challenge the people of Greenwich and Fairfield on a level of creativity and adventure.

I’d love to hear your comments. What do you think Hip is? Do you think the “conformity hammer” could be the reason behind CT’s lameness? Can you think of better ways to break the CT standard?

24 thoughts on “Connecticut? Hip?

  • 10/10/2007 at 8:01 am
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    The most time I spend in Connecticut is in the car, and when in the car in Connecticut I typically hit traffic. Traffic to me is not hip, thus Connecticut to me is not hip. Perhaps if I spent more time there outside of the car, the hipness might increase.

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  • 10/10/2007 at 9:00 am
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    Hartford: the filing cabinet of America. That is hilarious!

    I think another reason that Connecticut lacks hip is that it lacks the people who possess hipness. What demographic is the hippest? Young, single, educated people living in an urban setting with artistic/creative interests. Connecticut is mostly suburbs. Hartford is a decent city, but the main industry is insurance. Not exactly forward thinking.

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  • 10/10/2007 at 9:13 am
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    Connecticut could use more variety in radio stations. For example, the music scene in Boston, or pretty much most other large cities, have a music scene that is worth listening to. Connecticut has maybe a handful of decent radio stations, but no where close to the amount of variety that Boston, or Philly, or NYC have.

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  • 10/10/2007 at 9:18 am
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    So Connecticut needs Philharmonic.

    I admit I’ve never heard of anything even remotely cool about Connecticut, other than the spelling. I associate it with suburbanites who drive SUV’s and have to much money, and try to keep up social status.

    I am willing to change my mind, if you guys can come up with proof of CT hipness.

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  • 10/10/2007 at 9:59 am
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    New Haven is basically the coolest city in Connecticut. It has a decent music venue (Toad’s), destination-worthy pizza, and bike gangs.

    Bike gangs are one of my criteria for a city to be cool.

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  • 10/10/2007 at 10:49 am
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    CT is lame because it wants to be a Massachusetts or a New York but it will inevitably be stuck between the two trying to figure out which one it is. CT is the hermaphrodite of the United States. I’m not sure which state is lamer, CT or Maine. I guess Maine gets points because they supply us with lobsters. As Liz stated the radio stations are extremely lame to the point that I find NPR to be my best choice on the dial now. Where’s my WBCN, WAAF, or WBRU? How can there be no alternative stations? New Haven and Hartford are wannabe cities. New Haven is too small to be considered a cool city to go hang out in and Hartford is so infested with crime that it doesn’t warrant any time spent there. CT lacks any real history like MA or NY have. It’s really just a wasteland in between the two states; a filler state, a no-mans land if you will. The road planning is absolutely terrible (Hey let’s merge a 3 lane highway and a 4 lane highway into one 3 lane highway! there won’t be any congestion issues there!), they shut down both sides of the interstate when there’s an accident on only one side, and sports fans have to constantly bicker with one another over which team is better (I’m talking to you baseball fans). CT has no identity and will forever be labeled as a “poser.”

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  • 10/10/2007 at 12:00 pm
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    I’ve lived in CT, and what makes it un-hip is it’s complete lack of anything to do. I mean, I’d see a show in Groton or New London every now and then, but it lacks culture and a night life… two very hip things.

    CT is a bedroom state for NYC in the south, thus filling it with rich a-hole new yorkers in the south and damn near nothing in the north.

    And Hartford might be the worst city I’ve ever been in, and I grew up in Springfield.

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  • 10/10/2007 at 12:11 pm
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    So far, Connecticut sounds like a more dangerous version of Wisconsin.

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  • 10/10/2007 at 2:30 pm
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    I live in CT. Not only am I amazed at the lack of hipness, but I’m stunned at the amount of rednecks. If you had a Jeff Foxworthy checklist, it would take five minutes of driving through Montville to see them all.

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  • 10/10/2007 at 2:32 pm
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    Wait, I forgot to mention Mohegan Sun. Definitly added hip points.

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  • 10/10/2007 at 3:14 pm
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    Yep, nothing cooler than busloads of old folks and the smell of desperation.

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  • 10/10/2007 at 3:16 pm
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    Wisconsin has Madison, which is one of the coolest cities in the country.

    Connecticut is a lot like Western Mass, only without the Northampton/Amhurst area.

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  • 10/10/2007 at 3:49 pm
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    Regarding traffic, I don’t think ideal city infrastructure is necessary for hipness. Driving through Boston can be pure misery, yet it is still a very hip city.

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  • 10/10/2007 at 6:16 pm
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    Kansas is completely unhip… except for Lawrence, which is is extremely hip. If hipness were topographical, Kansas would look like, well, Kansas, but with Devil’s Tower in Lawrence. (a map of Wisconsin would probably be similar).

    Washington has an east-to-west upward slope of hipness. Eastern WA, with Spokane and all of the farms, is unhip. After crossing the mountains, you hit the flat Seattle suburbs, like Bellevue, which is conformity city, and unhip. Cross Lake Washington, and BAM!, the hip factor hits you in the face as enter Seattle. Seattle also has 97 distinct neighborhoods. The hippest ones would be: Fremont, Ballard, U-District, Belltown, and Capitol Hill.

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  • 10/11/2007 at 8:22 am
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    Madison is so cool! It has two lakes, it is on an isthmus, it has a thriving local art and music scene, and there are bikes everywhere! It is pedestrian friendly, and has the good characteristics of cities ten times its size, and none of the bad.

    Seriously an awesome town.

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  • 10/11/2007 at 10:32 am
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    I think before we even try to make CT more hip, we’ll have to get rid of all the people who live here.
    Also I’d like to point out how totally lame this entire topic is – if you can think of something less hip than talking about why CT isn’t hip – at length – I welcome it.

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  • 10/11/2007 at 10:39 am
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    I’m gonna take the easy jump shot here and suggest the you, Sander, are indeed less hip than CT.

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  • 10/11/2007 at 1:33 pm
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    I’ll be the first one to admit that I complain about CT. But there are things that you are all totally overlooking, namely, its nature. I can name more than a handful of fun places to rock climb, hike, bike, camp, kayak, swim, etc. So granted, if you want to sit on your backside all day, CT isn’t the greatest place (though the shore is decent for doing just that). And who said there isn’t the rich history of MA or NY? It was one of the 13 original colonies, and our constitution is considered one of the originals for the US, so eat it. Also, CT is right up there with CA in our efforts to preserve and protect the environment from exactly the kind of ills caused by jamming millions of people into the bustling metropolises of New York and Boston (Maine is pretty environmental also, by the way, and I’d take Portland/Portsmouth any day).

    1. social and intellectual aptitude – AMC, RMF, Yale – we have good people. And I’ve seen plenty of good bands/shows/commedians in CT, in many venues, including New Haven, Hartford and even TORRINGTON! (pronounced Borrington Pathecticut).
    2. cultured – I’ll admit, this sucks a bit, but I’ll bet most of you haven’t actually been to the Wadsworth, or the New England Air Museum, or the Peabody, etc. It’s out there, but it’s not going to come to you. So if you’re lazy, sure, CT is uncultured.
    3. obscurity – Damn skippy we’re obscure. Don’t judge me based on your pitiful knowledge of Greenwich and Stamford – There’s a heck of a lot more CT than that, which is basically Eastern NY anyway demographically/financially speaking.
    4. individuality – More so than the wanna be metro’s who are trying to be hip like everyone else.
    5. passion – Environmentalism counts, even if the insurance industry tries to kill all passion in a 100 mile radius

    I’m biased because I grew up here, but I also have the benefit of a more than superficial knowledge of the area.

    That’s my two cents.

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  • 10/11/2007 at 1:44 pm
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    Amherst… which is kind of a waste of space. Northampton is amazing though.

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  • 10/11/2007 at 3:23 pm
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    I lived in Hartford from 1994 – 1998. I can attest to the general level of lameness of the state. By the time I graduated from college, though, I did find a few very cool spots. Real Art Ways was awesome (http://www.realartways.org/). West Hartford center has some excellent restaurants and it’s easy to spend a beautiful afternoon walking around there. I agree with Jesse, the Wadsworth is great. And how about Moe’s breakfast? Or Elizabeth Park?

    I think, at least with Hartford, the problem is that even with a lot of colleges, the city has failed to become a “college town” like Cambridge or Amherst.

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  • 10/12/2007 at 9:12 am
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    Environmentalism? I’ve heard, mostly via this website, that CT residents waste a lot of water

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  • 10/12/2007 at 1:54 pm
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    The nature is impressive. I was pleasantly surprised when I moved here at the amount of open space, state forests, and state parks. Hell, the fact that I can affordably live within 3 miles of some awesome mountain biking continues to blow my mind.

    Unfortunately, nature is not hip. It is amazing, beautiful, and worth 100x its weight in gold, but it is not hip. If I can’t picture The Hives hanging out there, it’s not hip.

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