Thursday's JIVE

Good evening, it’s Thursday May 31st 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. Thanks for making WESU your listener supported source for NPR, Pacifica, independent and local public affairs and free-form community radio. I’m J-Cherry producer and host of VOICE of the CITY airing on Tuesdays from 6:30 to 8PM Showcasing live and local music, arts, and culture. Thanks for tuning in.

Tonight here in Middletown, The Buttonwood Tree presents a singer Songwriter double Bill featuring Double Bill: Chelsea Berry and  Ryan Tennis. Friday night Cece & Ruth and the Birch Creek Band make for a night of Harmony, history & humor: in a program featuring  Celtic & American ballads”. Saturday night Katie Pearlman and Cathy Kreger will perform music from their new CDs at the Buttonwood.  Katie Pearlman’ new “Girls Like Us” is a concept album of songs about women, based on true stories from the book Note to Self, by Andrea Buchanan. On Sunday’s Food not Bombs shares food in front of the Buttonwood Tree at 1pm. All are welcome and invited to partake and help prepare the food at 11:30 am at First Church on Court Street in Middletown. Learn more about buttonwood tree events online at buttonwood.org

Tonight down in New Haven Café Nine The Shoutbacks play ‘outlaw’ string band music at The Nine. Friday night WNHU’s “T in the Afternoon” Presents The Inaugural Underground Music Experience”  at Café Nine, featuring performances by Fifth Nation, Gabriel Brunot, Political Animals, Joey Ruckus, Denise Artista Conquistadora, and WhiteCheddar. Saturday’s Afternoon Jazz Jam at Café Nine will be hosted by the Mike Coppola Trio this week. Saturday Night Manic Productions presents Marissa Nadler; Faces on Film; and Lys Guillorn. Sunday Brings Roxy Perry’s Roadhouse Jam to The Nine. More can be found online at cafenine.com

Tonight you can catch Spark Plug playing the music of Melvin Sparks at Sully’s Pub in Hartford. Friday night Dub Apocalypse takes the Sully’s stage. Saturday Night Sully’s presents Hearts and Thieves

w/ All in Blind . More can be found online at sullyspub.com

Tonight, Toads Place in New Haven presents a local band showcase on the main stage while Justin Ones performs upstairs on the lily pad stage. Victor Wooten performs at Toads Place on Friday Night.  The B. WILLIE SMITH BAND and The Cobalt Rhythm Kings perform at Toads on Saturday night. Sunday there is a fundraising event called “Friends of Freddy B” . More can be found online at toadsplace.com

Weezer plays the Mohegan Sun arena tonight. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band plays a free show at Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den on Friday night at 8pm. For more information, go to mohegansun.com

The Russell Knitters are an enthusiastic group of knitters who are willing to share ideas and expertise.  They invite you to join them this Saturday at 11am at the Russell Library. No registration is required. Check out russelllibrary.org for more details

The Middletown Symphonic Band presents their Annual Spring Concert at South Congregational Church on Pleasant St in Middletown Saturday afternoon at 2pm.

Saturday evening at 7pm, Artists for World Peace present their third International Celebration of Peace, “Dance for Peace” at The Charter Oak Cultural Center, in Hartford.  Dance for Peace will feature dancers and musicians from seven New York, Canadian, and Connecticut dance companies, plus an artisan marketplace and amazing hors d’oeuvres.  Proceeds will buy a corn grinding machine for a community group in Tanzania to feed hundreds of people and provide income to an orphanage center.. Tickets and info online at : ARTISTSFORWORLDPEACE.ORG

Here in Middletown Saturday evening at 8pm, The Mattabasset Canoe club present an evening of traditional and contemporary Irish folk music featuring Mick O’Brien &  Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh at 8pm.

Livingston Taylor performs Saturday at First Congregational Church of Madison. Tickets and info can be found at fccmadison.org/music.-


Friday night at Higher Ground Coffee House on 70 Main Street East Hampton is their weekly open mic starting at 8PM. Saturday evening at Higher Grounds it’s local live music.

Now, here’s what’s happening in the world of Cinema off the beaten path here in Central CT.  


All Week, Real Art Ways in Hartford is showing the New Documentary film “Marley” from Academy Award winning director Kevin Macdonald. “Marley” celebrates the life and work of visionary performer and world icon Bob Marley. 


Friday Night Real Art Ways opens 2 more films: “Keyhole” is the startling new Canadian Film by Guy Maddin offering a surreal fusion of family melodrama, film noir, gangster movie, ghost story and Homer’s Odyssey starring Jason Patric and Isabella Rosselini . 


“Small, Beautifully Moving Parts “also opens on Friday at Real Art Ways. This film follows a pregnant technophile who’s uncertainties about motherhood trigger an impulsive road trip to the source of her anxiety: her long-estranged mother living far away and off-the-grid.  More can be found online at realartways.org

Cinestudio, The Trinity College Cinema in Hartford presents the fully restored 35mm film print of one of the most elusively beautiful movies to be made on celluloid: Terence Davies’ “The Long Day Closes”. More can be found online at cinestudio.org

Now stay tuned.  Here’s what’s playing on WESU tonight as we work our way through week #2 of new Summer program season:

Right after the Jive at Five, stay tuned for  it’s 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!

8-10pm

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.

10-11pm Art Projects with Aaron Berger

11:00 – 12:30 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.

12:30 to 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. Tonight’s jive music was written and recorded by, Edmund James Wood from the album While I Sleep