Good afternoon, it’s Thursday Sept. 6th and this is the Jive at Five – WESU’s Daily community calendar and rundown 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 weeknights and weekends.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 tuning in.
Tonight at the Buttonwood Tree, and every first-Thursday Open Mic with Bob Gotta!
Friday at 8 p.m. at the Buttonwood, two of Connecticut’s finest cellists, Ringrose & Freeman, play songs from Ireland and Scotland, interweaving traditional jigs, reels, hornpipes and haunting slow airs with poetry, history, laughter and song. Food Not Bombs shares food every Sunday at about 1 p.m. in front of The Buttonwood. All are welcome and invited to help prepare food at the First Church on Court Street at 11:30 am. More information about all Buttonwood events at buttonwood.org or 860.347.4957.
All through September, drawings, paintings and sculpture by inmates of Connecticut prisons will be displayed at Russell Library in Middletown. The exhibit is sponsored by Community Partners in Action, which operates on the belief that the arts are an integral tool for inmates to develop valuable life skills while also providing the general public a unique window into an important, but often unseen, part of our community. For more information, call 860-347-2528.
Today and running into December, the Wesleyan Center for the Arts presents “Performance Now,” explaining how performance has come to be integral to the latest developments in contemporary art and culture. For more information, contact the Center for the Arts at Wesleyan.edu/cfa.
On Friday at 8:30 p.m., Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts presents “Bach to School,” a student performance of concertos for two organs, to be performed downstairs in Memorial Chapel on two pipe organs in separate rooms, with the musicians coordinating their performance via their smartphones. The show will also include university organist Ronald Ebrecht’s performance of works by Bach, Mozart and others. Admission is free.
Playing down in New Haven at Café Nine tonight Two-Headed DJ Funky Chicken Party features Dooly-O, playing old-school funk and soul. The Friday happy hour brings uke player Moe Porn, followed by Anonymous Inc., with Crunk Witch, Jesse Dangerously, Adam Warrock, Mikal K. Hill, and indie, folk and hip-hop from Fake Four Record.
Saturday, it’s the Afternoon Jazz Jam with host Gary Grippo and Friends, followed by the comedy series Fistful of Jokes’ Special Summer Showcase Edition. Sunday, it’s the Sunday After Supper Jam, with host Kevin Saint James and the Legendary Café Nine All-Stars. More information can be found at cafenine.com
Over at Toad’s Place tonight, Starlife Presents Beanie Sigel, featuring Run Way Ty, King Dreams, M.A.R., and Gold. Friday, it’s Shakedown, playing The Dead and beyond, and Carbonated Insight. Doors open at 7:30 and the show starts at 8:30. More information can be found online at toadsplace.com.
Up in Hartford, at 8 p.m. at Blackeyed Sally’s, Friday night it’s T. Rubble, bringing a blend of blues and rock to the Blackeyed Sally’s stage. Then Saturday at 9, it’s Rev. Raven & the Chain Smokin’ Altar Boys playing traditional blues.Details can be found at blackeyedsallys.com
Back in Middletown, the Russell Knitters meet from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Russell Library on Saturdays. The Russell Knitters are an enthusiastic group of knitters who are willing to share ideas and expertise. No registration is required. Bring your knitting projects! www.russelllibrary.org
For the latest in Middletown 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 in Middletown.
Now here’s a quick rundown of cinema off the beaten path here in central CT this weekend:
Real Art Ways in Hartford is currently showing ‘Ai Weiwei (pronounced I way way): Never Sorry’ through tonight. This is a gripping documentary following the trials and tribulations of China’s most famous international artist, and one its most outspoken domestic critics. Also running through tonight at Real Art Ways is the film “Elena,” winner of a special jury prize at Cannes and offering a modern twist on the classic noir thriller. Starting Friday and running through next Thursday, it’s “Sleepwalk With Me,” the story of a burgeoning stand-up comedian struggling with the stress of a stalled career, a stale relationship threatening to race out of his control, and the wild spurts of severe sleepwalking he is desperate to ignore. Based on the successful one-man show.
Playing Saturday for a one late-night performance is “The Room,” described as “the best terrible movie ever.” It’s about a happy-go-lucky banker who sees his world fall apart when his friends begin to betray him one-by-one. Tickets, info and times can be found online at realartways.org
Starting tonight at Cinestudio, the Trinity College cinema, and running through Saturday it’s “The Amazing Spider-Man.” Spidey is played by Andrew Garfield, the British actor who played Mark Zuckerberg’s roomie in The Social Network, and who won a Tony nomination for his role in Death of a Salesman on Broadway. As Garfield’s Spider-Man alternates between a moody, arachnid charm and the arrogance of a young man discovering his power, he is more than able to take on the worst that giant lizards and New York punks have to dish out.
Then Sunday at Cinestudio, at 2:30 p.m. and for one showing only, National Theatre Live presents a screening of the play THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME, which compellingly begins, “My name is Christopher John Francis Boone. I know all the countries of the world and the capital cities. And every prime number up to 7507.” The screening celebrates the installation of new equipment allowing Cinestudio to present High Definition presentations directly via satellite.
Sunday evening at 7:30 – and then again on Monday – it’s the acclaimed film “The Deer Hunter,” one of the best films ever made about the Vietnam War and its devastating effects on one blue-collar community. Featuring a very young Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, and the incredible John Cazale, who died shortly after the shoot ended. The film won Academy Awards for Best Film and Best Director. For tickets and times, you can access their website at cinestudio.org.
Now let’s take a look at tonight’s programming on WESU-FM.
Dj blaze is on vacation so a documentary about the folks singer “Sixto Rodriguez” called “Searching for Sugar Man”, will air, telling the inspiring story of this Folk artist from the 70’s who unbeknownst to himself, became a super star in South Africa while he toiled away doing manual labor in Detroit for decades and his return to the stage.
