Thursday's Jive at Five

Good evening, it’s Thursday February 23rd ,and this is the Jive at Five, your daily community calendar and run down of night time programming here on 88.1 FM WESU Middletown. I’m J-Cherry producer and host of VOICE of the CITY airing on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Tuesday from 6:30 to 8PM Showcasing live and local music, arts, and culture. Thanks for making WESU your listener supported source for NPR, Pacifica, independent and local public affairs and free-form community radio.

All this month, Bill Revill, Meriden artist and host of  WESU’s Acoustic Blender, is showing over 50 of his seascape, landscape and other types of paintings at the Sandman Gallery, 14 West Main Street, Meriden. For info, call 203-686-0000.

Celebrated author Robert Sullivan will read from his recent works tonight at 8:00 P.M. at Wesleyan University’s Russell House, on High Street, in Middletown. Robert Sullivan is the author of Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants, The Meadowlands: Wilderness Adventures, on the Edge of a City, How Not To Get Rich, and The Thoreau You Don’t Know. Sullivan has written for  The New Yorker, and Vogue, where he is a contributing editor. This event is free and opened to the public. For more information, you can call 860.685.3448.

Tonight at 8, Spoken word/slam poet Javon Johnson merges the sharp criticism of critical race and gender theory with comedy, lyricism and hip-hop rhyme schemes to discuss the power of words, communication and performance in Wesleyan’s Crowell Concert Hall.

Also here in in Middletown at Wesleyan tonight at 7pm you can catch Black history month keynote speaker, Touré, who is a journalist, novelist, and TV host on FUSE. He will be discussing topics from his recent book, Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? This happens at the Daniel Family Commons at 45 Wyllys Ave.

Tonight at Cafe Nine down in New HavenBLUE PLATE RADIO JAZZ SERIES Presents: Steve Clarke Trio • This 3-piece funky groove-jazz-improv instrumental band pushes fusion to new heights and past old boundaries. LATE SHOW: Sam Bigelow • Sam’s sound will appeal immediately to devotees of piano rock, be it Little Richard or Ben Folds. Friday at the Nine, HAPPY HOUR – George Morgio followed HORIZON ARTISTS SHOWCASE: Nick Depuy • Acoustic showcase from one of CT’s rising young stars!   Also on Friday night LUCKY SOULS Presents: Five in the Chamber; w/ Cinnamon Sky • Five In the Chamber formed in summer 2011 after a series of bluegrass festivals and all-night jams. Saturday at Cafe Nine, 4:30-7:30 pm is Afternoon Jazz Jam w/ host the George Baker Experience • bring your ax and play, or sing. PA, amps, drums provided. Saturday night it’s Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez • The BeeHive Queen of Roots Rock and Southern Soul returns to her favorite Elm City hang! Sunday night at Cafe Nine ROXY PERRY’S TRAVELING ROADHOUSE JAM  a.k.a. NEW YORK BLUES QUEEN, will be joined in hosting the high-energy jam by different players every week. Roxy’s band welcomes and serves blues and R&B players primarily, but will also back classic rock, jazz players and others, as well. Musicians, signing up in advance is a good idea: email Roxy at roxyperry1@aol.com. But you can also sign up on the spot starting at 7 pm. Full bands are welcome and can have a featured spot by reserving in advance via email. For more information visit www.cafenine.com

Also down in New Haven at Toads Place tonight, LIVE KAMP ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS FRENCH MONTANA, Friday night,  SHAKEDOWN The Dead & Beyond Fuzzy Bunny & The Dirty Cupcakes Rhythmic Circus, Saturday it’s THE ORIGINAL SATURDAY NIGHT DANCE PARTY, for more information visit www.toadsplace.com

Friday night in East Hampton at the Higher Grounds Coffee House on 70 Main Street is there weekly open mic. Show starts at 8PM. Every Saturday evening you can catch live music at 70 Main Street.

Saturday, two wesleyan students and an art instructor will lead students in a glass cutting workshop where they will learn how to work with glass. Join us as we create Stained Glass from 4:30 to 6:30 in Arbritton 311

Saturday at 8pm, Benin-born jazz guitarist and vocalist Lionel Loueke combines harmonic sophistication, soaring melodies and grounding in West African music to create a warm, intimate sound with his trio in Wesleyan’s Crowell Concert Hall.  There will be a pre-concert talk at 7:15pm.

Saturday at 7 in Fayerweather, room 202 in Wesleyan’s Beckham Hall, you can experience “SPILL” a new play and installation that explores the true human and environmental cost of oil. “SPILL” is based in part on interviews with people from the Gulf Coast of southern Louisiana in the wake of the “Deepwater Horizon” oil spill of April 2010. The performances at Wesleyan are the first public showing of the art installation along with a choral reading of the play. You can learn more online about all of these events at www.wesleyan.edu/cfa  or by calling 860-685-3355

Saturday at 6:30pm, The Buttonwood Tree Arts Space on Main Street Middletown  presents The Riverwood Poetry Series. The event features Ngoma, a performance poet, multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter and paradigm shifter. Every Sunday, Food Not Bombs shares food about 1 pm in front of the Buttonwood. All are welcome.   Sunday at 4 brings the monthly Poetry Potluck series continues at the Buttonwood Tree. This is an opportunity for people who enjoy poetry to get together to share and discuss their favorite works. More online at www.buttonwood.org

The Alturas Duo performs South American and classical in Concert at the Russell Library in Middletown this Saturday at 2 in the Hubbard Room. www.russelllibrary.org

Saturday night herein Middletown, WESU’s own host of  “Voice of the City” J-Cherry and the Strawberries perform original music in a in a double bill with the band “2 Virgins”  at Iguanas Ranas Mexican eatery on Main Street. The show starts at 8pm. More online at http://jcherrypresents.blogspot.com

This week, see Tracy Walter Ferry’s exhibit, “genetically modified organisms” In the Niche at
Middlesex Community College through Mar. 2 in Pegasus Gallery.
For more information please contact: Matthew Weber, Art Curator 860.343.5806

Now here’s some of what’s happening in the world of cinema off the beaten path in central Connecticut:

Through tonight, Real Art Ways in Hartford, presents this year’s animated and live-action Oscar-nominated shorts. Also running through tonight at Real Art Ways, is “Sing Your Song”, which unearths Harry Belafonte’s significant contribution to and his leadership in the civil rights movement in America and to social justice globally. Friday and Saturday you can catch Tomboy, a story of a young French girl who lives as a boy. Friday, night Real Art Ways presents a screening of “Herman and Shelly”:  A tragicomic romance about two quirky, creative and ambitious children who grow up to be quirky, creative and disillusioned adults.   Tickets, trailers and more online at www.realartways.org

Tonight, Cinestudio, the Trinity College Cinema in Hartford is offering a special viewing of The Yacoubian Building. this epic film is a revealing look at life in Egypt before last year’s demands for change in Tahrir Square, Hidden behind the closed doors of a single Cairo art deco apartment building. Friday andSaturday, Cinestudio presents Haywire, a new action packed martial arts flic starring Ewan McGregor and  Antonio Banderas. Sunday Cinestudio begins a run of “Shame”  a compelling and timely examination of the nature of need, how we live our lives and the experiences that shape us.  more Online at www.cinestudio.org

Tonight at 8pm here in Middletown you can catch the film “Resotration” at Wesleyan’s Goldsmith Family Cinema, which has been nominated for 11 Israeli Academy Awards. For more information, contact dkatz01@wesleyan.edu
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Now stay tuned, for tonight’s lineup here on WESU in our new spring 2012 line-up:

5:05-6pm

Homegrown with Rob DeRosa – The best crop of Connecticut-connected music presented for a global audience.

6-6:30pm
Free Speech Radio News From The Pacifica Network – An independently produced half hour daily national and international radio news program focusing on peace and social justice issues in the US and around the world. FSRN is collectively run by its workers and reporter.

6:30-8pm
Total Praise with Minister Latrecia – A diverse and inspirational blend of contemporary Christian gospel music to uplift your spirit! Get your Praise on!

8-9:30pm
Evening Jazz with Bill Denert – Where hearing is the best experience.  A broad range of swing, be-bop, and avant garde as well as a sprinkling of new releases.

9:30-10:30pm
Bridging the Gap with JBrent – Exploring how music has changed forms through the years, and the links that tie together seemingly disparate genres such as blues and rap, or funk and Krautrock.

10:30-11:30pm [alternating – 1st, 3rd, & 5th weeks]
Alphabet Soup with DJ Blaze- An anti-genre, request-based show where we randomly select a letter from the alphabet, and play bands or artists whose names start with that letter.

10:30-11:30pm [alternating – 2nd & 4th weeks]
The Slap-Happy Hour with Rachel Silton – A modern mix of indie pop and singer-songwriter material, with an emphasis on the acoustic and the up-and-coming

11:30pm-1am [alternating – 1st, 3rd, & 5th weeks]
Flight 881 with Captain Q – Not your Grandma’s World Music Show! Strap in your seatbelts, put out that cigarette, and open up that small packet of honey roasted peanuts! Flight 881 every week is going to a new country to check out what music scenes are happening in the country with a focus on contemporary world music, including Bhagra from India, Afro-Beat, and Brazillian funk.

11:30pm-1am [alternating – 2nd & 4th weeks]
Tokyo Sonata with Dangerous Dan – Covering Japanese music, new and old, from a wide variety of genres.

1:00-2:00am
Songs Without Words with Jacob Feder  – An eclectic assortment of instrumental music from all genres and generations.

2:00-3:00am
Undercover with DJ Becca – The best covers take original tracks and transform them into their own creations. Bridging genres, musical styles, and time, Undercover explores the concept of inspiration through imitation. Sometimes they surpass the original, sometimes they miss the mark – it’s your call.

3-4am
Itso-ezee with DJ Otto Nation providing an eclectic mix of new releases from the WESU music library

The BBC World News Service kicks on at 4AM and we begin tomorrow’s broadcast at 5am with Morning Edition from NPR.That’s all for today’s Jive at Five, if you didn’t get a chance to write down some of the information mentioned in our community calendar, the script is published online at www.wesufm.org/jive, and if you know of any events that you’d like to have announced on the Jive, send them to jive@wesufm.org

If you tune in to WESU for information and music that you can’t find elsewhere, then we are counting on you to help support the service you depend on.Please take a moment to make a donation of any size online at www.wesufm.org, every dollar counts and we need to hear from you.

Thanks for listening and stay tuned for Home Grown with Rob Derosa