Good afternoon. It’s Friday, June 29th, and this is the Jive at Five, WESU’s Daily community calendar and run down of night time programming here on 88.1 FM WESU Middletown, your station for NPR, Pacifica, independent and local public affairs by day and the best in free-form community programming week nights and weekends. I’m Stephan Allison, host of River Valley Rhythms heard Thursdays at 4 pm here at WESU. Thanks for tuning in.
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For the latest in local arts and entertainment anytime you’re not hearing it on our Jive, go to arts2GO.org – the City’s website for what’s going on and what’s to do with a highlight on the arts in Middletown. That’s arts2GO.org
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Here’s a rundown of some of what’s happening in our area:
Down in New Haven tonight, at Café Nine, The Figgs and Golden Bloom make for a night of power pop and punk rock. Café Nine’s Saturday afternoon Jazz Jam will be hosted by the Billy Cofrances Quartet this week. Saturday night, Christine Ohlman and Rebel Montez return to the Cafe Nine Stage. More online at www.cafenine.com.
Also happening down in New Haven, on Saturday night, Shakedown plays the Grateful Dead and beyond on the Toad’s main stage. Rhythmic Circus and Carbonated Insight open that show. Emily’s Army plays the Toad’s Lily Pad Stage on Friday night. Saturday, Cosmic Dust Bunnies and special guests perform at Toad’s. Go to www.toadsplace.com.
In Hartford tonight, at Blackeyed Sally’s, you can catch Doug Deming & Dennis Gruenling with the Jeweltones. Saturday night, Rivercity Slim & the Zydeco Hogs return to Black-eyed Sally’s. Visit www.blackeyedsallys.com.
Tonight, Infinity Hall in Norfolk presents Ambrosia. The McLovins jam out Saturday night, and Sunday catch Sha Na Na. More info at www.infinityhall.com.
The International Festival of Arts and Ideas concludes this weekend down in New Haven. Performances this evening kick off at 6pm with the alternative R&B band, DangerZone followed by opportunities to catch National Theatre of Scotland, King Lear, and Circa. The evening wraps up with an 8pm performance of the newest evening-length theater work from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang, love fail. The International festival of Arts and Ideas concludes on Saturday culminating with a performance by an icon of country rock, Roseanne Cash. There are many other events for the whole family starting in the morning through the end of the festival. You can find specific information including show times, venues, and ticket prices online at www.artidea.org
Tonight at The Buttonwood Tree on Main Street here in Middletown, The RJ Ruotolo Group plays a wide mix of pop music and jazz standards from the ’50s to today. Saturday evening, the Andy Buzzi Trio brings a night of jazz to The Buttonwood. Food Not Bombs shares food about 1 pm in front of The Buttonwood Tree every Sunday. All are welcome to the meal and are also invited to help prepare the food at the First Church on Court Street at 11:30 am. More information about all Buttonwood events at www.buttonwood.org or 860.347.4957.
Red Scroll Records presents an evening of live music with The Young, Purling Hiss, Estrogen Highs, and Inclined Plane down in New Haven Saturday night at Intercambio on Chapel St. More info online at www.redscrollrecords.com
Big Sam’s Funky Nation plays at Sully’s Pub in Hartford Saturday night. That’s www.sullyspub.com.
Many CT towns are offering Independence Day fireworks displays this weekend. Here’s a quick list:
Tonight you can catch fireworks in Bridgeport at Seaside Park, in Hamden at Town Center Park, and at Killingly’s Owen Bell Park at 9 p.m. Saturday night Coventry’s fireworks will begin at Sundown, at Patriots Park, as well as in Danbury at Candlewood Lake. You can also catch fiireworks displays on Saturday night in East Haven at Town Beach, in Lakeville at Lime Rock Park, in Norwich, and in Orange.
The City of Middletown and the Middletown Commission on the Arts, present a pre-Independence Day Fireworks Festival on Tuesday, July 3rd, beginning at 6 p.m. on the front lawn of the City Hall Municipal Building at 245 Dekoven Drive. The festival will include activities for children, music for all, select vendors, and fireworks shot high over the Connecticut River. The fireworks will begin at 9:30 p.m. (raindate is Friday, July 6, for the fireworks). The event is free and there is free parking throughout the downtown. Please call the Mayor’s Office for more details: 860-344-3401.
‘Tis the season for farmers’ markets and here’s a few in our area:
The Durham Farmers’ Market is open every Thursday on the Town Green on Main St, from 3 to 6:30 pm, through September. Middletown North End Farmers Market is now open 10 am to 2 pm every Friday and is located at the corner of Liberty and Main Streets. The longstanding Middletown Farmers’ market at the South Green will be open starting next week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 am to 1 pm through October.
Through the end of June, WESU DJ and artist Bill Revill has a number of his seascape paintings showing at Green Well Organic Coffee and Tea, 44 Crown Street, New Haven.
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Here’s a quick rundown of cinema off the beaten path here in central CT this week:
This week, The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook hosts the Connecticut Film Festival. More information at www.thekate.org or 860-388-3286.
Cinestudio, the Trinity College cinema in Hartford, is now showing the 1957 musical comedy classic “Funny Face,” starring Audrey Hepburn, with dancing by Fred Astaire and music/lyrics by the Gershwins. Show schedules and descriptions can be found online at
www.cinestudio.org
On Saturday, Real Art Ways in Hartford continues its run of “First Position,” which follows six young dancers as they prepare for a chance to enter the world of professional ballet. Friday, Real Art Ways begins a run of OC87: The Obsessive Compulsive, Major Depression, Bi-polar, Asperger’s Movie. Tickets, times, and more at www.realartways.org.
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And now let’s take a look at tonight’s programming on WESU.
Right after the Jive At Five from 5:05 to 6:00pm it’s
The Brittle Diameter
w/Josh Sharp –
A varied blend of brand new and time honored independent music, presented in a mixtape aesthetic. Continuity and cohesion are the watchwords here.
From 6:00 to 6:30pm
it’s 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 reporters.
At 6:30, until 8pm we have the Universal Sound Wave with Sistah Tee – Informing listeners about local and global issues with health, nutrition, and stress reduction tips, featuring a wide range of music including African, reggae, gospel, R&B, Latin, and blues.
Next up until 10pm, we take it
From the Otherside with
Rok-A-Dee – The Voice of Hartford, featuring local artists from Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Spotlighting Caribbean R & B, Soca and international music.
From 10 until Midnight, take in
the sounds of Rumba en el Patio
with Michael
- Classic Salsa for the dancers, Afro-Latin Big Band for the discerning ear. Join us as we adventure through the history of Musica Latina!
At Midnight until 1:30am Saturday it’s
N.E. Tempo with
DJ Berk
- Serious turntablism – Dubstep, DnB, techno, ragga jungle, breakbeats mixed live.
At 1:30am we go
In the Master Bedroom, Under the Bed with
Dope Dave
until 3am – Celebrating conscious hip-hop and its offshoots & influences. Acrobatic emcees and down-tempo poets mix it up over varied oceans of sound.
At 3, to 4am it’s the Bassment Beats with DJ Lokash – the Real Hip-Hop is over here.
Then, we bring you
Sing Out!
from 4 to 5am, on a mission to preserve and support the cultural diversity and heritage of all traditional and contemporary folk musics, and to encourage making folk music a part of our everyday lives.
And we bring in the daylight from 5:00 to 6:00am with the
BBC World News
- a daily News roundup from the British Broadcasting Corporation
And staying on the other side of the big pond, from 6:00 to 7:00am it’s
the Celtic Café
– Traditional and contemporary music with a Celtic connection.
And now that the coffee’s hot enjoy Caffe Italia from 7:00 to 8:00am
with Francesco Fiumara
– A weekly roundup of news, music and memories from Italy.
That’s all for today’s Jive At Five, tune in each and every weekday at 4:55 pm to hear about what’s going on in the community and on the air right here at 88.1 FM WESU, a community service of Wesleyan University since 1939.
The Music behind today’s Jive At Five is from Kevin Norton’s Metaphor Quartet, a CD entitled Not Only In That Golden Tree . . . featuring (the late) Wilber Morris, Masahiko Kono, Hitomi Tono’Oka and Kevin Norton, the selection “not drunk, but stunned” and it’s out on clean feed records.
If you didn’t get a chance to write down some information for an event mentioned in our jive at five –we’ve published the script for today’s jive online at jiveat5.blogspot.com
