8-5-13 Jive

Good evening, it's Monday, Aug. 5, 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 week nights and weekends. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Maria Johnson, producer and host of "Reasonably Catholic: Keeping the Faith," which airs every 1st, 3rd, and 5th Tuesday afternoon, from 4 to right before the Jive at Five. Tomorrow, a book panel show with some provocative offerings: the biography of an 11th century Catholic feminist; a Middletown author’s Christian novel imbued with Egyptian mythology, with a vampire, werewolf and fox fairy thrown in for good measure; the complete story behind the Bible; and finally, an answer to the burning question, Why Priests? If you can’t catch the show, check out  www.reasonablycatholic.com for it, as well as for past episodes.

Okay, on with the Jive!:

Here in Middletown, at the Buttonwood Tree, arts and crafts for kids and adults are offered free every weekday through August from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Get happy with arts and crafts all summer long! At 8 tonight, it's the Anything Goes open mic night. Tuesday evening brings  Laughter Yoga, followed by a potluck dinner. Thursday evening at 6:45 brings Writers Out Loud!, a literary prose open mic, to the Buttonwood Tree. Friday, the Taubl Family Singers & SOUND Proof Vocal Ensemble play the Buttonwood at 8 p.m. Saturday, the Barone-Keene Piano and Guitar Duo perform an evening of Italian and central European music. On Sunday, Food Not Bombs shares vegetarian food at about 1 p.m. in front of the Buttonwood. Anyone is welcome. You may help prepare the food at the First Church on 190 Court Street at 11:30 am. Rumpus, which usually plays during Food Not Bombs, will instead be at Middletown’s Music Festival at Middlesex Community College, from 12-8pm. More about the festival later in the Jive. For more about Buttonwood Tree events, go to www.buttonwood.org.

Also in Middletown tonight, at the Mattabesset Canoe Club at Harbor Yard, it’s open mic night;  tomorrow, acoustic solo music is on tap; Wednesday is Irish Session Night; Thursday brings the weekly jazz series to the canoe club; then Friday, it’s Friday Night Blues. For details, go to www.mattabessetcanoeclub.com.

Down in New Haven tonight at Cafe Nine, it’s Get to the Point!, hosted by Chris Arnott. To be among the writers who perform, contact Chris at chris@scribblers.us. Tomorrow at 4, DrinkDeeply presents Kath Bloom; The Mountain Movers; and Jason Prince. Wednesday, it’s Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express, and The Old Ceremony. Thursday brings The Please, Please Me and Brandon Patton to Café Nine. Then Friday at 5, the weekly Wind Down Happy Hour features Tom Hearn, followed at 9 by Eddie Clendening & the Blue Ribbon Boys, and The Barley Hoppers. The Saturday Jazz Jam Session is hosted by Gary Grippo & Friends at 4:30. That’s followed at 8 by a benefit for Dave Lamb of Brown Bird, featuring Joe Fletcher And The Wrong Reasons, Proud Flesh, Elison Jackson, and Amanda Bloom. The Sunday after-Supper-Jam is with the George Baker Band. Go to www.cafenine.com for details.

Also in New Haven tonight, at Toad’s Place, it's A Night of Smooth Jazz with Rohn Lawrence & Friends. Tomorrow brings Ted Nugent, with Laura Wilde. Wednesday at Toad’s is the weekly EDM Night. Then Friday, it’s Explosions in the Sky, with José Oyola & the Astronauts. Saturday is the EDM/DUBSTEP Glow Party. Then Saturday, Gorilla Music presents the New Haven Battle of the Bands. Sunday at Toad’s, Del the Funky Homosapien plays, along with Full Blast Movement and Debo. Go to www.toadsplace.com for details.

Up at Blackeyed Sally's in Hartford, tonight at 8 it’s Jazz Monday. Tomorrow, Michael Palin's Other Orchestra takes the night off; they’ll be back next week. Wednesday’s Blues Jam at 8 is hosted by Brandt Taylor. Thursday brings Southern Hospitality to Sally’s. Then Friday, Jen Lowe performs lovelorn poetic verses and catchy choruses that will remain in your head like fireflies in a mason jar. Saturday, River City Slim & the Zydeco Hogs bring exuberant southwestern Louisiana sounds to the Sally’s stage. Go to www.blackeyedsally’s for details.

Then back in Middletown, tomorrow at 7 p.m., enjoy the Summer Sounds on the South Green/Union Park, this week with the Phil Rosenthal Four. The Middletown Commission on the Arts presents these free Summer Sounds concerts on Tuesday evenings throughout the summer. Bring lawn chairs and blankets. (The rain location is South Congregational Church.) For more information, call the City Arts Office at 860.638.4510

On Wednesday, at the Wadsworth Mansion in Middletown, the weekly Music at the Mansion series closes out the season with  Jeff Pitchell and the Texas Flood. The free concert begins at 6:30. Go to www.wadsworthmansion.com for details and the full schedule.

On Saturday at 6 p.m. there will be Summer Jazz on the Lawn at Middlesex County Historical Society, 151 Main Street, Middletown, featuring Middletown-born Mike Augeri and his Mike Augeri Jazz Project. The performance benefits the historical society.

Also on Saturday evening, beginning at 7 p.m., the Middletown Symphonic Band will perform a free concert  as part of a Riverfront Recapture Concert. That’s at Great River , 301 East River Drive, East Hartford. The rain date is Sunday. For more information about the band and its complete concert schedule, visit www.middletownsymphonicband.org.

On Sunday, WESU's own DJ J Cherry and the Middletown Commission on the Arts present the 2nd annual Middletown Music Festival. It takes place rain or shine from noon to 8 p.m. at Middlesex Community College. This year's lineup features the Michael Cleary Band, The Mighty Soul Drivers, Two Virgins, Super Trance, Gigglejuice, and J-Cherry and the Strawberries. Learn more at www.arts2go.org.

Several farmers' markets in our area are in full swing. Here are two: In Middletown, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. there's a market on the South Green, and another in Middletown's North End at 575 Main Street, on Fridays, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Go to northendfarmersmarket.org. Learn about farmers' markets all over the state by going to ctnofa.org/FarmersMarkets.htm.

 Now here's a rundown of cinema off the beaten track in Central Connecticut:

At Real Art Ways in Hartford, Blackfish continues through Thursday. It’s the story of a performing killer whale that killed several people. The film combines shocking footage and emotional interviews to explore the multi-billion dollar sea-park industry. The 2013 Sundance Shorts continue through Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, Real Board Games are played at RealArtWays. On Thursday at 6 p.m., Neighborhood Studios brings Eye on Video! to RealArtWays. Neighborhood Studios is an nationally recognized education program that provides students with a hands-on arts intensive learning experience. Friday begins a run of the film Crystal Fairy: on a trip through Chile a boorish American expat and three Chilean brothers set off in search of the prized San Pedro cactus and its promise of beachy hallucinations and wind up with more of an adventure than any of them had bargained for. Friday’s late-show screening is of Jaws, keeping swimmers out of oceans since 1975. Then the weekend brings matinee screenings of the New York International Children's Film Festival: Party Mix. Go to www.realartways.org.

At Cinestudio, Trinity College's cinema in Hartford, Kon-Tiki, nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar, continues through Tuesday. Then Wednesday, the digitally restored 1969 classic Hello Dolly opens in glorious 4K ultra-high-definition. Directed by Gene Kelly and starring a young Barbra Streisand, it’s the story of a widowed Yonkers matchmaker who has a way of bringing light into everyone’s lives. You can find show times and info at www.cinestudio.org.

Now let’s take a look at tonight’s programming on WESU.

Right after the Jive at Five stay tuned for a well-rounded jazz show on Charles Henry’s Afternoon Jazz with Charles Henry until 6pm.

Weekdays at 6 Free Speech Radio News From the Pacifica Network offers a daily dose of alternative international news and reporting.

At 6:30 it's 75 Percent Folk, with Michael Benson, a serving of contemporary folk and acoustic music, with side orders of blues, jaz, world, pop, movie soundtracks, readings and occasional live interviews.

At 8pm The Rumpus Room with Lord Lewis offers the best in vintage and contemporary heavy funk, soul, club jazz, reggae, ska, afro and latin dancefloor grooves.

Aargh! with Tom Stoner, plays stoner cosmic doom psychedelia avant garde noise from 9:30-11:30 pm.

Then from 11:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., it's the Explorers' Hour, with Pickup Sticks, a synthesis of science, spoken word and a lot of popular music.

At 1 a.m. it’s Distilled Discographies with Cheshire Cat, distilling down the discography of an artist to an essential 60 minute career retrospective, sampling something from every cataloged release.

From 2 to 3 a.m., it’s Rootsworld Radio with Cliff Furnald, a tour across borders and genres.

That’s followed at 3 by the Graveyard Shift with DJ Otto Nation, an eclectic mix of music from the WESU library.

The BBC kicks on at 4, followed by NPR's Morning Edition at 5.

And 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 wesufm.org/jive.

And if you value WESU as a source for information and entertainment in your life, how about supporting the station with a donation? You can make that donation online at wesufm.org anytime.

Thanks for listening!

Now stay tuned for Afternoon Jazz with Charles Henry.