11-18-13 Jive

Good evening! It’s Monday, Nov. 18th, and this is the Jive at Five - our 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 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 chat with a West Simsbury pastor who leads a group for lapsed Catholics toying with returning to the Church. He adeptly handles such questions as: Do you lecture these people about their issues with the Church? Is your parish in this for the money? And aren’t annulments a racket? The audio of that episode and other shows are archived at www.reasonablycatholic.com.

Now for our rundown of some of what’s happening in our area this week.

Here in Middletown, at the Buttonwood Tree, tonight is the Anything Goes open mic night. Tomorrow at 6 p.m. is laughter yoga with Mimi Claire. Wednesday at 7, the Buttonwood Film Night feature is You Can Heal Your Life, an entertaining and inspirational movie based on the best-selling book of the same name by author and teacher Louise L. Hay. Friday at 8, classical pianist Jacob Smullyan will return to the Buttonwood in a program including one of Beethoven’s earliest masterpieces, the Sonata in E flat Op. 7, and one of Schubert’s last, the c minor Sonata, D958. Also on the program will be works by Webern and Brahms. Saturday morning, it’s Qigong (Chi Kung), Tai Chi and community yoga. And Saturday night at 8, Joe Fonda joins with jazz legend Harvey Sorgen and the “Mexican Guitar Wizard” Omar Tamez for an evening of jazz, blues, Mexican folk music and everything in between. On Sundays, Food Not Bombs serves food outside the Buttonwood at 1 pm, as Rumpus, an invitation to express the rhythm inside you, takes place inside. All are welcome. You are also invited to help prepare the vegetarian meal beforehand at 11 am at First Church Congregational on Court Street. Sunday afternoon at 2:30 John Basinger performs from Book 11 of Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. Books will be provided to follow along with. www.buttonwood.org

Down in New Haven at Toad’s Place, tonight brings A Night of Smooth Jazz with Rohn Lawrence & Friends. Wednesday, it’s the Monster Energy Outbreak Tour’s Night Riot Experience, featuring 3LAU and Tommy Two Times; Carnage will not perform with the tour, after all, so a $5 refund will be granted. On Thursday, Asterisk Concerts brings the Event Horizon Tour to Toad’s, featuring MiMOSA, with Keys ‘n Krates, BOGL, and BIG I.C. On Sunday, the Party with Your Friends Tour features Hoodie Allen, OCD Moosh & Twist, Mod Sun, and D-Why. www.toadsplace.com. 

Also in New Haven, at Café Nine, tonight is the Fistful of Jokes Comedy Series. Tomorrow features the Herships & Hill Fall Tour 2013, with Jane Herships, Carrie Ashley Hill, and Terri Lynn. Wednesday, Drink Deeply presents If Jesus Had Machine Guns, with Pocket Vinyl and Michael Kusek. Thursday, the Café Nine Jazz Series features the Kevin St. James Band. And Friday, the Weekly Wind Down Happy Hour at 5 p.m. features DJ Dave Coon. That’s followed at 9 by Goodnight Blue Moon, Great Elk, and The Naked Stills. Saturday afternoon’s Jazz Jam Session is with the George Baker Band, followed at 9 by the New Haven CD Release Show of The Spampinato Brothers, with special guests The Zambonis. Sunday afternoon’s Bluegrass Jam is with Stacy Phillips. Then at 8, it’s The Original Sunday Night Jam with The Morris Trent Band. www.cafenine.com.

Manic Productions brings several shows to nearby venues, including tonight’s performance by The Deep Dark Woods, with The Backyard Committee, and Them Damn Hamiltons at The Outer Space in Hamden.  Wednesday, Manic Productions brings rock icon Chris Cornell, with Bhi Bhiman, to the Shubert Theater in New Haven. Friday, River City Extension, with Elison Jackson and Johnny Mainstream, play The Space in Hamden.  And Saturday’s Manic Production show is Kevin Devine and The GD Band, with Now Now and Harrison Hudson, also at The Space. www.manicproductions.com

Up in Hartford, at Blackeyed Sally’s, tonight is Jazz Monday, with Jonathan Barber.  Tomorrow, Michael Palin’s Other Orchestra, an 18-piece band, works out new material. Wednesday’s Blues Jam, one of the longest running in New England, is with Tim McDonald. Friday, the Kortchmar/McDonald Band, featuring famed session musician Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar, who worked with such singer-songwriters as David Crosby, Carole King, Graham Nash, Carly Simon and James Taylor to help define the signature sound of the ‘70s, takes the Sally’s stage. Saturday, it’s bluesman Tas Cru at Sally’s. www.blackeyedsallys.com.

Also in Hartford, at Sully’s Pub, tonight is Acoustic Open Mic Night. Tuesday features Pete Scheips. Wednesday is karaoke. Thursday is the Birdcall Trip Hop Showcase. And Friday is the Fat Guy Friday Happy Hour, after which Jen Durkin performs. www.sullyspub.com

Back in Middletown, on Tuesday evening at 7, the Middlesex County Historical Society hosts author Allegra di Bonaventura, who wrote the author of For Adam’s Sake. It's the story of an 18^th-century master/slave relationship, based on an actual diary, and has been described as “A work of astonishing ingenuity, intellectual and emotional depth, and (most of all) brilliant writing.” www.middlesexhistory.org.

Also at the Russell Library, on Thursday at 7 p.m., Randi Oster, a leading speaker on health reform, will talk on The Affordable Health Care Act: What You Need to Know Now. Oster is the Consumer Advocate for Connecticut’s Health Exchange and is certified by the State on the Affordable Care Act and insurance products. She will be answering questions such as: What are the top 10 changes I need to know about? How much will the new insurance cost? What is the penalty if I don’t purchase insurance? Will my Medicare deduction change? To register for the free program, call the Russell Library Information Department at 860-347-2520 or send an email to infodept@russell.lioninc.org .

On Friday, at the new Scatz Restaurant and Jazz Lounge, 139 Main Street Ext., Middletown, Sez Zion performs. Saturday brings Nu Groove to Scatz. www.scatzrestaurantandlounge.com.

Also on Friday at 7 p.m., Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts presents Music from East Asia,  featuring Wesleyan’s East Asian Ensembles presenting a variety of musical styles and repertoires from East Asian cultures. That’s at Crowell Concert Hall, 50 Wyllys Avenue. On Saturday, the Center for the Arts presents  Gamelan—Classical Music of Central Java, featuring an orchestra of bronze gongs, xylophones, drums, strings and voices, at World Music Hall, 40 Wyllys Ave. And Sunday at 3, the World Guitar Ensemble Concert, featuring a variety of world music, comes to World Music Hall. www.wesleyan.edu/cfa.

On Saturday at 7 p.m, then again on Sunday at 4, the Greater Middletown Chorale presents ZIMRIYAH! A Festival of Jewish Choral Music, at Zion Lutheran Church, 183 William Street, Portland. No need to be Jewish to enjoy this eclectic program of gorgeous, whimsical, and mystical melodies drawn from a repertoire that spans several centuries. www.gmchorale.org.

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

At Real Art Ways in Hartford, La Camioneta, continues through Thursday. Every day dozens of decommissioned school buses leave the United States on a southward migration that carries them to Guatemala, where they are repaired, repainted, and resurrected as the brightly-colored camionetas that bring the vast majority of Guatemalans to work each day. Since 2006, nearly 1,000 camioneta drivers and fare-collectors have been murdered for either refusing or being unable to pay the extortion money demanded by local Guatemalan gangs. Also playing through Thursday: Escape from Tomorrow, called a "descent into the grotesque extremes of a Disneyfied society… a daring attempt to literally assail Disney World from the inside out."  Opening Friday and running into next week is Broadway Idiot, which follows Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong from a punk rock concert at Madison Square Garden to the opening of his musical, American Idiot, on Broadway - only ten blocks away, but worlds apart. www.realartways.com.

At Cinestudio, The Trinity College cinema in Hartford, tonight and tomorrow, National Theater Live presents Frankenstein, a bold new production with a twist. Hint: what you see depends on which day you go. On Wednesday, for one showing only, it’s the 1973 East German cult classic The Legend of Paul and Paula, which German Chancelor Angela Merkel lists as her favorite. Thursday through Saturday at Cinestudio, it’s Austenland, a new romantic comedy. Starting Sunday and running through Tuesday, it’s Russian Ark, called an amazing technical tour-de-force: the entire film, shot inside St Petersburg’s Hermitage art gallery, is done in a single take by incredible Steadicam operator Tilman Büttner, (Run Lola Run). Much more than a museum tour, Russian Ark follows an eccentric French Marquise and an art lover who walk through the opulent halls, drifting back in time to see ghosts of the past, from Catherine the Great to Nicholas II. www.cinestudio.org.

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

5:05-6pm

Afternoon Jazz with Charles Henry

From classic bop to smooth contemporary sounds. A well-rounded jazz show for true jazz heads.

6-6:30pm

Feature Story News

Your daily dose of alternative international news and reporting from the Pacifica Network.

6:30-8pm:  Life is a Killer with Johnny Analog

Moving through the blues diaspora from front porch country blues and big city electric blues to jazz, R&B and soul.

8-9:30pm: Rumpus Room with Lord Lewis

The best in vintage and contemporary heavy funk, soul, club jazz, reggae, ska, afro and latin dancefloor grooves. Pure Dynamite Mojo Explosion!

9:30-11pm: The Attention Deficit Disk Jockey with Lee

The music of yesterday’s future, today.

11-12am: Declan MacManus: International Art Thief with DJ Jeffrey and DJ Moe

Each week portrays a different part of Costello's vivifying and varying musical persona.

12-1am: Maelstrom of the Weird with Phil Void

Surveying punk in all its innovation and abrasion – be it first wave, hardcore, post-punk, or noise.

1-2am: Songs Without Words with Jacob Feder

Songs Without Words offers an eclectic assortment of instrumental musics both new and old.

2-3am: Background Appreciation with Clip

A lyric-less hour: experience how much no words can say as "accompaniment" takes center stage. Featuring post-rock, electronica, and everything else.

3-4am: RootsWorld Radio with Cliff Furnald

Introducing you to music from far flung places and sometimes from right in your own backyard. www.RootsWorld.org

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! Stay tuned for Charles Henry.