12-31-13 jive

Good evening! It’s Tuesday, Dec. 31st. The final Day of 2013, and the end of the WESU Winter Pledge Drive. 

Thanks for joining us and special thanks to everyone who has made a pledge of support to help keep our unique brand of community radio alive. Our goal is within site but we still need to from a few more of you to get there. If you have yet to done so, please consider making a year end donation to help WESU enter our 75th year of broadcasting (2014) with some wind in our sail. We promise we will make it worth your while! Donate online at www.wesufm.org/pledge

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

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

Up in Hartford, Blackeyed Sally’s, celebrates New Year’s Eve w/ Mass Conn Fusion! Friday brings the Tom Sanders Band to the Sally’s stage, uniting veteran musicians from some of Southern New England's best blues, rock and r&b bands, including The Hornets, Smokehouse, Chris Tofield & The Bluesbenders and Whiskey River Band, to name just a few. Saturday at Sally’s, it’s the Mighty Soul Drivers, bringing the classic Soul sounds of Memphis, Muscle Shoals and points South to the hills of New England. www.blackeyedsallys.com

Down in New Haven, tonight brings Café Nine’s New Year's Eve Burlesque Extravaganza w/ Dot Mitzvah and the Bombshells of Burlesque. Thursday, Cellular Chaos, The Simple Pleasure, and Jerkagram take the Café Nine stage. Friday’s 5 o’clock happy hour performer is Victor Roland, followed at 9 by Benefit for CT Death Quads -Men's Roller Derby, with Polluter, Oughts, and Wolves At Bay.Saturday’s jazz jam at 4:30 features Mike Coppola and friends; then at 7:30, it’s Big Lazy and Happy Ending. Sunday’s Blues Boot Camp at 8 is with  Greg Sherrod.  www.cafenine.com

Also in New Haven, the Toad’s Place New Year’s Eve Extravaganza features Shakedown, playing music of the Grateful Dead and beyond plus Full Spectrum and Supertrance. Thursday brings a local rock showcase to Toad’s, with Agenda 21, Banana Bread, The Berkshires, Chasing Cooper, Civil Pilots, Cold Pizza, Common Ground, Haris Shah, House Silbor, Pangalactic, Royal Din and Walking Contradiction. Friday’s Hair of the New Year Dog keeps the local music coming with rock and metal, including these bands: 1.21 Gigawatts, Angry Reaction, Benders, Big Ed, Big Moon, Double The Dial, Feed The Pigs, Hollow, Idiot Excuse, Karmic Justice, Killin Cupid, SNAP, Velcro Buddha, and Zombii. Saturday’s Electro Glow Party is with Report to Bass 3. www.toadsplace.com.

 Also in New Haven, on Wednesday, Manic Productions brings BrotherTIger and Norrin to Bar. www.manicproductions.com.

Here are a few more new year’s eve events around the state tonight…

First Night Hartford 2014, a family-friendly, multicultural, alcohol-free New Year's Eve celebration, runs from 2 p.m. to midnight, tonight. More than 40 performances, activities, and exhibits will be at various venues in downtown Hartford, including two fireworks displays at 6 p.m. and midnight in Bushnell Park. Adults and children must purchase a Wristband/button to participate. children ages 2 and under are free. An information booth at the corner of Main and Asylum streets, open from 1:30 to 9 p.m., will provide program guides. Information: www.firstnighthartford.org

Mohegan Sun Arena hosts a night, of twists, tumbles and delights on Dec. 31 with a performance of Cirque Celebration. show starts at 7 p.m. www.Mohegansun.com

For more NYE fun, “Ordinary” in new Haven hosts a New Year's Eve Masquerade Ball at 8 p.m. ordinarynewhaven.com.

Bridge Street Live in Collinsville hosts a New Year's Eve Party with Jeff Pitchell & Texas Flood and The Spampinato Brothers, 7 p.m. $71. http://41bridgestreet.com/

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

Tonight and tomorrow, Real Art Ways in Hartford finishes up its run of the animated children’s tale, "My Neighbor Totoro" a family-oriented feature has a powerful ecological theme. Continuing through  Thursday is the documentary on Noam Chomsky called “Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?”. Opening  Friday is the feature “Go for Sisters”, about a mother’s search for her son who went missing along the Mexican border. Also opening Friday is Bastards, a French thriller about a man’s determination to exact revenge for the violence done to his family. www.realartways.org   

Cinestudio, the Trinity College cinema in Hartford,  reopens on Thursday with Kill Your Darlings, in which Daniel Radcliffe, otherwise known to the world as Harry Potter, transforms himself into the skinny, intellectual, Jewish, and closeted gay college student -1940s-era Alan Ginsberg. Commuting from New Jersey to Columbia University, Ginsberg makes friends with a group of budding rebels who would usher in Beat poetry and bohemia to the conformist 1950s. Ginsberg, along with William Burroughs (Ben Foster), Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan), and Jack Kerouac (Boardwalk Empire’s Jack Huston), challenge their professors during the day, and the rigid parameters of sexual behavior at night. The ensemble cast also includes Kyra Sedgwick, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Elizabeth Moss (lately of Mad Men and Top of the Lake). Opening Sunday at Cinestudio is the Norwegian documentary Liv and Ingmar. In all of the love affairs between directors and their muses, few were so passionate - or resulted in so many great movies - as the one between legendary Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman and Norwegian actress Liv Ullman. This new documentary traces both their stormy relationship and the art they collaborated on: twelve groundbreaking (now) classics including Persona, Cries and Whispers, and Autumn Sonata. Ullman is fearlessly honest in her conversations with director Dheeraj Akolkar, tracing their great love from passion and creativity, to Bergman’s increasing jealousy and possessiveness, and finally, to a friendship that lasted until his death. www.cinestudio.org.

And now let’s take a look at tonight’s programming on WESU, which includes a new addition and also some pinch-hitters because Wesleyan dj's are on their winter break.

Right after the jive at Five stay tuned for some acoustic roots and Americana music with Bill Revill

At 6 we take a break from the music for 30 minutes of news and commentary from The World Socialist News Service

after that at 6:30 Bill Revill is back in the air chair for 90 more minutes of roots and americana on Acoustic Blender.

From 8-9 J-Cherry presents Voice of the City for an hour of live and local arts and entertainment. Tonight's show features a live special New Year's Eve Cherry-Berry-Giggle Jam! 

From 9:00 to 10:30pm DJ Cheshire cat presents a live recording of New Year's Eve performance by the band Spirit, from 1971!

After that we will spend the last few hours of 2013 with our good friend Leith, host of the light fandango which you can hear regularly on Sunday nights.  Leith will provide a thoughtful freefirm mix of tunes sure to help bring in the New Year as we usher out the old.

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 www.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? Today is the final days of our kinder, gentler winter pledge drive. Pledges have been hard to come by this year and it’s been a long haul.  If you haven’t made your pledge of support yet, now’s your chance to end the year right. Go to www.wesufm.org and click on Donate Now. Thanks for listening! Stay tuned for some great acoustic music with our pal, Bill Revill!
Happy New Year!

12-30-13 Jive

Good evening! It’s Monday, Dec. 30th, 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: part one of a year’s-end highlights show, to be continued next week, Jan. 7. Enjoy again or for the first time, an array of thought-provoking commentary on subjects you won’t hear discussed anywhere else: women priests, married priests, gay Catholics, and more – all of it punctuated by excerpts from Pope Francis’ favorite music!  If you can’t hear the show in real time, you can find the audio at www.reasonablycatholic.com. If you enjoy this show’s progressive approach to religion, why not throw a few bucks WESU’s way during these final days of our kinder, gentler winter pledge drive? Mention “Reasonably Catholic” when you do and I’ll send you a cool Catholic book or CD.

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

Up in Hartford, at Blackeyed Sally’s, tonight is Jazz Monday, featuring the Josh Bruneau Quintet. Tomorrow night, Sally’s celebrates New Year’s Eve w/ Mass Conn Fusion! Friday brings the Tom Sanders Band to the Sally’s stage, uniting veteran musicians from some of Southern New England's best blues, rock and r&b bands, including The Hornets, Smokehouse, Chris Tofield & The Bluesbenders and Whiskey River Band, to name just a few. Saturday at Sally’s, it’s the Mighty Soul Drivers, bringing the classic Soul sounds of Memphis, Muscle Shoals and points South to the hills of New England. www.blackeyedsallys.com

Also in Hartford, at Sully’s Pub, tonight is Acoustic Open Mic Night. Tuesday features Pete Scheips. Wednesday is karaoke. And Friday is the Fat Guy Friday Happy Hour, after which it’s Shag Frenzy. Saturday brings Krysus, and Sunday it’s the Electric Open Mic. www.sullyspub.com

Down in New Haven, at Café Nine, tonight, DrinkDeeply presents Sean O’Reilly, the Seth Adam Trio, Jackie Meeker and Rick Masi. Tomorrow is Café Nine’s New Year's Eve Burlesque Extravaganza w/ Dot Mitzvah and the Bombshells of Burlesque. Thursday, Cellular Chaos, The Simple Pleasure, and Jerkagram take the Café Nine stage. Friday’s 5 o’clock happy hour performer is Victor Roland, followed at 9 by Benefit for CT Death Quads -Men's Roller Derby, with Polluter, Oughts, and Wolves At Bay.Saturday’s jazz jam at 4:30 features Mike Coppola and friends; then at 7:30, it’s Big Lazy and Happy Ending. Sunday’s Blues Boot Camp at 8 is with  Greg Sherrod.  www.cafenine.com.

Also in New Haven, at Toad’s Place, tonight is A Night of Smooth Jazz with Rohn Lawrence & Friends. Tomorrow’s New Year’s Eve Extravaganza features Shakedown, playing the Dead and beyond; also, Full Spectrum and Supertrance. Thursday brings a local rock showcase to Toad’s, with Agenda 21, Banana Bread, The Berkshires, Chasing Cooper, Civil Pilots, Cold Pizza, Common Ground, Haris Shah, House Silbor, Pangalactic, Royal Din and Walking Contradiction. Friday’s Hair of the New Year Dog keeps the local music coming with rock and metal, including these bands: 1.21 Gigawatts, Angry Reaction, Benders, Big Ed, Big Moon, Double The Dial, Feed The Pigs, Hollow, Idiot Excuse, Karmic Justice, Killin Cupid, SNAP, Velcro Buddha, and Zombii. Saturday’s Electro Glow Party is with Report to Bass 3. www.toadsplace.com.

 Also in New Haven, on Wednesday, Manic Productions brings BrotherTIger and Norrin to Bar. www.manicproductions.com.

Back here in Middletown, the Buttonwood Tree is closed until 10:30, Saturday, Jan. 4, when there will be an empowerment workshop. www.buttonwood.org

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

Tonight and tomorrow, Real Art Ways in Hartford finishes up its run of the animated children’s tale, "My Neighbor Totoro". The story follows Satsuke and Mei, two young girls who find that their new country home is in a mystical forest inhabited by a menagerie of mystical creatures called Totoros. This family-oriented feature has a powerful ecological theme. Continuing through  Thursday is the documentary on Noam Chomsky called “Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?”. Opening  Friday is the feature Go for Sisters, about a mother’s search for her son who went missing along the Mexican border. Also opening Friday is Bastards, a French thriller about a man’s determination to exact revenge for the violence done to his family.www.realartways.org.

Cinestudio, the Trinity College cinema in Hartford,  reopens on Thursday with Kill Your Darlings, in which Daniel Radcliffe, otherwise known to the world as Harry Potter, transforms himself into the skinny, intellectual, Jewish, and closeted gay college student -1940s-era Alan Ginsberg. Commuting from New Jersey to Columbia University, Ginsberg makes friends with a group of budding rebels who would usher in Beat poetry and bohemia to the conformist 1950s. Ginsberg, along with William Burroughs (Ben Foster), Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan), and Jack Kerouac (Boardwalk Empire’s Jack Huston), challenge their professors during the day, and the rigid parameters of sexual behavior at night. The ensemble cast also includes Kyra Sedgwick, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Elizabeth Moss (lately of Mad Men and Top of the Lake). Opening Sunday at Cinestudio is the Norwegian documentary Liv and Ingmar. In all of the love affairs between directors and their muses, few were so passionate - or resulted in so many great movies - as the one between legendary Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman and Norwegian actress Liv Ullman. This new documentary traces both their stormy relationship and the art they collaborated on: twelve groundbreaking (now) classics including Persona, Cries and Whispers, and Autumn Sonata. Ullman is fearlessly honest in her conversations with director Dheeraj Akolkar, tracing their great love from passion and creativity, to Bergman’s increasing jealousy and possessiveness, and finally, to a friendship that lasted until his death. www.cinestudio.org.

And now let’s take a look at tonight’s programming on WESU, which includes a new addition and also some pinch-hitters because Wesleyan dj's are on their winter break.

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

That's followed by World Socialist Website News.

6:30 to 8:  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!

From 9:30 to 3 a.m., on what we’re calling W – Lee - SU: The Attention Deficit Disk Jockey with Lee plays the music of yesterday’s future, today.

From 3 to 4 a.m., it’s RootsWorld Radio with Cliff Furnald.

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? These are the final days of our kinder, gentler winter pledge drive. If you haven’t made your pledge of support yet, now’s your chance to end the year right. Go to www.wesufm.org and click on Donate Now. Thanks for listening! Stay tuned for Charles Henry.

Friday's Jive 12-27-13

Good evening, it's Friday, December 27^th, 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, your station for NPR, Pacifica, independent and local public affairs by day and the best in free-form community programming week nights and weekends. I'm Stephan Allison, host of River Valley Rhythms heard Thursdays at 4 pm here at WESU. Thanks for tuning in.

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For the latest in local 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 and what’s to do with a highlight on the arts in Middletown. That's arts2GO.org

Now, here’s a rundown of some of what’s scheduled in the community this weekend.

Tonight, here in Middletown, Scatz Restaurant and Jazz Lounge on Main Street Ext.  presents a night of jazz vocals with Ian Woods.  Saturday night Rahsaan Langley takes the Scatz stage. Visit www.scatzrestaurantandlounge.com.

Down in New Haven at Café Nine there’s an early show at 5pm featuring Mark Daniel. Later tonight, Drink Deeply presents: Wess Meets West, Ports of Spain, and The Morning On Fire. Cafe Nine’s Saturday afternoon’s weekly Jazz Jam will be hosted by Billy Cofrances this week. Saturday brings the Second Annual Beehive Holiday Blowout with Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez, and The George Baker Band. Sunday afternoon brings a Bluegrass Jam w/ Stacy Phillips – there's more online at www.cafenine.com.

Blackeyed Sally's in Hartford reopens for business tonight, offering a night of blues with the Cheryl Arena Band and Special Guest Hash Brown. Saturday night, Sally’s presents The Roxy Perry Holiday Show. Go to www.blackeyedsallys.com.

The Guru, Cold Fronts, DRGN King, SHMNS, Furnsss share a bill at The Space, in Hamden tonight. Lord Fowl plays at the Outer Space, tomorrow/Saturday night visit theouterspace.net

At The Buttonwood Tree, things pick back up tomorrow morning with Tai Chi and community yoga.  Saturday night brings The Buttonwood’s (Impromptu) Holiday Party from 7-11 pm. On Sunday, Food Not Bombs serves food outside the Buttonwood at 1 pm, and all are welcome. You are also invited to help prepare the meal beforehand at 11 am at First Church Congregational on Court Street. Go to the website at www.buttonwood.org

Down in New Haven at Toad’s Place Saturday night, horror rockers GWAR bring their nasty stage show to Toads Place with Battlecross and Iron Reagan opening the show. Check out www.toadsplace.com. 

 The Brian McCarthy quintet plays a gig at the Side Door in Old Lyme on Saturday for a night of contemporary jazz, visit thesidedoorjazz.com. 

The JOVAN ALEXANDER TRIO performs "Sunday Afternoon Jazz" at Sweet Harmony Cafe & Bakery on Main St. in Middletown this Sunday from 1:30-3:30pm.Their website is http://www.sweetharmonycafebakery.com

Sunday night Manic Productions presents an evening of alt country and Americana with Stephen Kellogg and Dan Mills at Arch Street Tavern in Hartford. Manic's full schedule is at www.Manicproductions.org   

Now here's a rundown of some cinema that you can catch off the beaten track in Central Connecticut:

This weekend Real Art Ways in Hartford continues their run of the animated children’s tale, "My Neighbor Totoro". The story follows Satsuke and Mei, two young girls who find that their new country home is in a mystical forest inhabited by a menagerie of mystical creatures called Totoros. This family-oriented feature has a powerful ecological theme. Tonight Real Art Ways opens the documentary on Noam Chomsky called “Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?”. Learn more at realartways.org.

Cinestudio, The Trinity College cinema in Hartford, has closed their doors for their annual break and will reopen on January 2nd. Stop in at cinestudio.org for more information.

 _________________________________________________________

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

Right after the Jive At Five from 5:05 to 6:00pm it’s
 Chocolate Cake with DJ Rob. An hour long musical sugar high. Power-pop plus Brit-pop and singer/songwriters from the 60's to today.

Coming in at 6:30 it's a half-hour with the Middletown Youth Radio Project - A weekly radio program featuring the thoughts, voices, creativity and talent of the

kids in the WESU neighborhood.

At 7 until 8:30pm we have the Universal Sound Wave with Sistah Tee - Informing listeners about local and global issues with health, nutrition, and stress reduction tips, featuring a wide range of music including African, reggae, gospel, R&B, Latin, and blues.

Next up until 10pm, we take it
 From the Otherside with 
Rok-A-Dee - The Voice of Hartford, including local artists from Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He also features upcoming artists performing Caribbean R & B, Soca and international music.

From 10 until Midnight, we go 
In the Master Bedroom, Under the Bed with 
Dope Dave - Celebrating conscious hip-hop and its offshoots & influences. Acrobatic emcees and down-tempo poets mix it up over varied oceans of sound.

At Midnight until 2am Saturday we go into OVERDRIVE with Clarence Scott and Shantay Scott - taking the word of God and mixing it with the music of God then shifting it into overdrive! Praising God with the best Urban Contemporary, Hip Hop, and Traditional gospel music on the planet!

At 2 to 2:30am it's Bassment Beats with DJ Lokash - Celebrating its 10th year of bringing you the latest in aboveground & underground hip-hop mixed live.

Then at 2:30 until 3am catch the New World Show from Pacifica - The best in Global Bass mixed live. Baila coño!

The next hour 'til 4am it's Maximum Rock & Roll Radio - A weekly radio show featuring the best international DIY punk, garage rock and hardcore from the astounding, ever-growing Maximum Rock n roll radio record collection.

+Sing Out! Radio Magazine with Tom Druckenmiller comes on at 4 until 5am with a weekly, hour-long “magazine format” program, featuring interviews in addition to “live” and recorded traditional folk musics.

And we bring in the daylight from 5:00 to 6:00am with the 
BBC World News 
- a daily News roundup from the British Broadcasting Corporation

And staying on the other side of the big pond, from 6:00 to 7:00am it’s
 the Celtic Café
 with Pat Laffan and Mark Gallagher presenting traditional and contemporary music with a Celtic connection.

And now that the coffee’s hot enjoy Caffé Italia from 7:00 to 8:00am 
with Francesco Fiumara, the former host of WESU's own WESParla 
 - A weekly roundup of news, music and memories from Italy.

That’s all for today’s Jive At Five, tune in each and every weekday at 4:55 pm to hear about what’s going on in the community and on the air right here at 88.1 FM WESU, a community service of Wesleyan University since 1939.

The Music behind today’s Jive At Five is from Kevin Norton’s Metaphor Quartet, a CD entitled Not Only In That Golden Tree . . . featuring (the late) Wilber Morris, Masahiko Kono, Hitomi Tono’Oka and Kevin Norton, the selection “not drunk, but stunned” and it’s out on clean feed records.

The written form for what you've heard on today’s jive is 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!