Mon., Sept. 10 Jive

Good afternoon, it's Monday, Sept. 10th 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.

Today kicks off the new fall schedule!

I'm Maria Johnson, producer and host of a show debuting Tues., Sept. 18, right before the Jive. It’s called Reasonably Catholic: Keeping the Faith, and is scheduled to air every 1^st, 3^rd and (when there is one) 5^th, Tuesday of the month. It will be a thoughtful discussion of progressive issues of faith and action, with interviews, features, book reviews, news and commentary. Please tune in, and feel free to shoot any ideas for topics and guests to mjohnson@wesufm.org.

More about the exciting new WESU Monday lineup at the end of today’s Jive.

First, let’s look at some of the events going on in our community.

The first “Music Monday” of the Fall Semester at Red and Black Café on Broad St
here in Middletown kicks off tonight at 6 pm with the talented singer/songwriter Hannah Fair, a finalist in the 2012 CT Grand Band Slam. She will
perform at the 1st Annual CT Music Awards Show at The Bushnell later this
week.  Music Monday’s are hosted by WESU’s own Rob DeRosa, host of our CT-connected Thursday evening drive-time music program, Homegrown. 
Tonight at the Buttonwood Tree, it’s the "Anything Goes" Open Mic night. Wednesday at the Buttonwood, Evening Oasis returns with traditional belly dancing. All are welcome for this entertaining and empowering evening.

Food Not Bombs shares food beginning about 1 pm Sundays in front of The Buttonwood Tree. Anyone is welcome. Consider yourself invited to help prepare vegetarian food at the First Church on 190 Court Street at 11:30 am.

Information about all Buttonwood events at buttonwood.org.

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 important tool for inmates to develop life skills while also providing  the general public a window into an often-unseen part of our community. For more information, call 860-347-2528.
On Thursday at 7:30 p.m., your own favorite radio station, WESU, brings a lecture by the Internet's Busiest Music Nerd, Anthony Fantano, host of The Needle Drop, to Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts.

On Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., the Center for the Arts presents the Connecticut premier of the interactive piece “Zoom,” harnessing the lively democratized energy of social networking and shattering the wall between the audience and performers.  The dance company integrates audience cell-phone photos and texts into real-time video collages projected into the theater for an engaging and surprising evening of dance. Part of the Breaking Ground Dance Series presented by the Wesleyan Dance Department and the Center for the Arts. Made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Also, running through December, the Wesleyan Center for the Arts presents "Performance Now,” explaining how performance came to be essential to the latest developments in contemporary art and culture. For more information, contact the Center for the Arts at Wesleyan.edu/cfa.

Down at Café Nine in New Haven tonight is the Harris Brothers Band Balkan Jam Session, for anyone interested in playing, listening to, or dancing  to Balkan music. That’s followed by an  Acoustic Open Mic w/ Miss Kriss. Acoustic musicians, poets and comedians welcome.

Tomorrow, at 7:30 at Café Nine, it’s the Kineti-Go Magnetic Shuffleboard Tournament with local game designer Michael Stromberg bringing his latest pub games.Come try your luck and win some prizes. Games start at 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, it’s The Woggles, described as a hip-shaking, windshield-steaming garage-rock fusillade that will change your life. Also playing, The Radiation.

Thursday, it’s the Pete Anderson Band, led by the multi-Platinum, Grammy Award-winning producer/guitarist Pete Anderson,  most widely known as the musical partner to Dwight Yoakam. Pete’s got an all-new blues band, featuring two of the best musicians he has worked with over the years.

Friday, Shellye Valauskas and Dean Falcone come to Café Nine, followed by the Manic Productions presentation of the Modern Merchant Tour kick off , w/ Ports of Spain and Jesse Stanford (of Heirlooms). Modern Merchant is a four-piece psychedelic dream-rock band, half-based out of New Haven and half out of Brooklyn.

Saturday, Café Nine’s Afternoon Jazz Jam is hosted by Tony Dioguardi and Friends, followed by Manic Productions Presents: Perhaps; w/ Wess Meets West and Breakthrough Frequencies, an Indie/post rock showcase.

Sunday, it’s the Sunday-After-Supper Jam, with host Kevin Saint James and the Legendary Cafe Nine All-Stars. 

More information  at cafenine.com

Over at Toad’s Place tonight is A Night of Smooth Jazz with Rohn Lawrence & Friends, with special guest Timmy Maia. Women admitted free.

Wednesday at Toad’s is EDM NIGHT, this week featuring DJ HighLife and DJ Jigga Wompz.

Thursday, it’s Circa Survive, Touche Amore, Balance and Composure and O’Brother.

Friday brings the Battle of the DJs and the EDM Dance Party to Toad’s.

More information can be found online at toadsplace.com.

Up in Hartford, at Blackeyed Sally's, tonight is Jazz Mondays, the best taste of live jazz in Hartford, with regular special appearances by big city jazz names. More at jazzmondays.org.

Tomorrow at Sally’s, it’s Michael Palin's Other Orchestra, an 18-piece band working out new material. Admission is free.

Wednesday, it’s the Blues Jam with Ed Bradley, one of the longest-running open blues jams in New England! Featuring a different host each week, you'll hear some of the best musicians CT has to offer

On Friday, it’s Tas Cru, described as playing with “vivacity and sheer joy.”

Saturday at Sally’s brings Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez to the stage. Christine is a longtime vocalist with the Saturday Night Live band and her latest CD, The Deep End, was honored on five national Top Ten lists. More information at blackeyedsallys.com


This Thursday evening Wallingford Public Library welcomes acclaimed actor and audio book narrator George Guidall at 7:00 p.m. in the Community Room. Guidall has recorded over 900 unabridged novels, including classics like Crime and Punishment, Frankenstein, The Iliad, Don Quixote, and most recently, Les Miserables, along with many popular best sellers.  Guidall will speak about his career and his experience in the world of narration 

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:

Through Thursday, Real Art Ways in Hartford is showing “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.

Also playing through Thursday is Elena, winner of a special jury prize at Canne, the film is described as a subtly stylish exploration of crime, punishment and human nature.

Tickets, info and times can be found online at realartways.org.

Tomorrow, for one showing only, the Science on Screen offering, pairing area scientists with entertaining films, it’s Science is Fiction, described as the “mesmerizing, utterly unclassifiable short science films” which “have to be seen to be believed: delightful, surrealist-influenced dream works that are also serious science.”

Starting Friday at Real Art Ways and running through next Thursday, it’s You've Been Trumped. In this David and Goliath story for the 21st century, a group of proud Scottish homeowners take on celebrity tycoon Donald Trump. At stake is one of Britain's very last stretches of wilderness.

Saturday at Real Art Ways, the Improvisations concert series features improvised music by Mark Dresser on contrabass violin, Stephen Haynes on cornet and Joe Morris on guitar. The aim of this artist-curated series is to create a listening environment that will allow the audience intimate and deep contact with the music and those who make it. Come early and stay late, listen to and speak with the performing artists.

At Cinestudio, the Trinity College cinema,  tonight and tomorrow are your last chances to catch a big-screen viewing of 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.

Wednesday begins screenings of Savages, directed by Oliver Stone. Blissed-out marijuana growers in Southern California meet their brutally professional Mexican drug dealers. Described as “Oliver Stone’s strongest work in years....a stylish, violent, hallucinatory thriller with both a mean streak and a devilish sense of humor.”  Through Saturday.

Sunday begins a run of the film Damsels in Distress, written and directed by Whit Stillman, it’s about well-spoken co-eds who are bored to distraction by their classmates and so go on a mission to improve the music, clothes, dance – and especially the fraternity men – on campus. Through Tuesday.

Tickets and times at cinestudio.org.

Now let’s take a look at tonight’s programming on WESU-FM. Some of these are brand new, so you'll especially want to check them out!

Right after the Jive at Five, stay tuned for Afternoon Jazz with Charles Henry. From classic bop to smooth contemporary sounds, a well-rounded jazz show for true jazz heads.

Then, from 6 to 6:30, it’s Free Speech Radio News, your daily dose of alternative international news and reporting from the Pacifica Network.

From 6:30 to 8 p.m., it’s 75 Percent Folk, with Michael Benson, a serving of contemporary folk and acoustic, etc., music. Filling in for Michael tonight will be Psychedelic Rick, playing a 75-percent Folkish mix of music.

Then from 8 to 9:30 p.m., it’s Anvil Isle, with Nate, a musical monsoon of all kinds of music.Filling in for Nate tonight will be Jack Singer, playing a free-form mix.

From 9:30 to 11 p.m., stay tuned for The Attention Deficit Disk Jockey with Lee, the music of yesterday's future today.

Then, from 11:30pm-12:30am, it’s The Noisy Wheelbarrow with Zach and Peter, merging noise-rock and other noise-based music with poetry and verse, highlighting both seminal and up and coming artists who have blended the spoken word with experimental music.

From 12:30-1:30am, Bazaar Sounds with Mac Taylor, highlights a different country and corresponding underground/experimental music scene every week, selecting international music that’s noisy, pretty, and everything in between.

Then from 1:30-2:30am, it’s Live From The Paris Hotel with The Sparrow, a mercurial mixture of pop music and poetry. A promenade of all dimensions of lyric-centric pop, interspersed with spoken word tracks and poetry readings.

From 2:30-3:30am, it’s Maximum Rock and Roll Radio, a weekly show featuring the best DIY punk, garage rock and hardcore from the astounding, ever-growing Maximum Rocknroll record collection.

And from 3:30-4am, it’s DJ Vegetable Reads Missed Connections. You’ve lost someone. Let’s find them.

 The BBC World News Service kicks on at 4AM and then at 5am it’s 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. Now stay tuned for Afternoon Jazz with Charles Henry.