Friday, January 30, 2015

Friday's Jive 1-30-15

Good evening, it's Friday, January 30th, 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.
_____________________________________________________________

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.

At Cafe Nine in New Haven, tonight’s weekly Wind-Down Happy Hour at 5 brings The Louds, followed at 9 by Johnny Carlevale & The Rolling Pins, with Sean Coleman and The Quasars, Jeff Deware & The Bop Thrills. Saturday afternoon’s Jazz Jam session is with Billy Cofrances, followed at 9 by Frank Viele, with Steve Broderick and The 100 Watt Suns and The Palindromes. Sunday afternoon, Kath Bloom performs, along with Linda Draper and Bop Tweedie. They’re followed at 8 by the Blues Boot Camp with Greg Sherrod. Details are at www.cafenine.com

In Hartford at Blackeyed Sally’s tonight you'll hear Gong Tuff:, A Tribute To Bob Marley. Saturday brings Hartford Hot Several and the Expandable Brass Band to Sally’s. www.blackeyedsallys.com has more.

Wesleyan’s Center for The Arts, in Middletown, presents the Calefax Reed Quintet, an Amsterdam-based classical chamber music group, in Crowell Concert Hall at 8 p.m. tonight, with a pre-concert talk at 7:15 by Wesleyan Prof. Neely Bruce. Info about all CFA events is at wesleyan.edu/cfa

Toad’s Place in New Haven tonight brings Opus’s B-Day Blizzard Bash 2015, two stages of music of loud music headlined by Jasta. www.toadsplace.com has the complete line-up.

In Hartford, at Infinity Hall, tonight they bring in Bela Fleck with The Knights. Saturday’s performance is Riders on the Storm. Sunday, at 2 it's Ladysmith Black Mombaso. Details at 
www.infinityhall.com

Tonight at The Buttonwood Tree in Middletown the Ricky Alfonso Jazz Duo begins the music at 7. Saturday at 8 you'll hear the Greg Diamond Jazz Trio. Food Not Bombs serves food outside the Buttonwood Tree every Sunday at about 1 p.m. Help prepare the meal at First Church on Court Street at 11:30. Next Monday morning at 10:30 the Hearing Voices Network meets. Visit buttonwood.org.

And at BrewBakers just a few blocks south of The Buttonwood Tree on Main St., you can catch Middletown Music Ambassador Dave Downs crooning away during his monthly 1st Sundays appearance beginning at 10 a.m. Call 860.852.0034.

Also in Middletown, on Sunday at 2 p.m., Adath Israel presents a program by Durham resident Dr. Michael Good, author of The Search for Major Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved Jews. Dr. Good is the son of Holocaust survivors from Vilna, Lithuania. He tells the story of how Karl Plagge, a German army officer, saved his mother and more than 250 other Jews. His book is based on five years of research, using German documents that had been closed for fifty years, and interviews with survivors. Learn more by calling 860-346-4709 or emailing office@adathisraelct.org

Also on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Russell Library, there will be a free concert by award-winning folksinger and songwriter Joe Crookston, playing guitar, banjo and fiddle. Details at 
www.russelllibrary.org

Now here's a rundown of cinema off the beaten track in Central Connecticut:
At Real Art Ways in Hartford starting tonight and running well into February are the always fun Oscar-nominated short films. The full schedule is available at 
realartways.org.

Tonight and Saturday, Trinity College’s Cinestudio continues their run of Interstellar, your only chance in Connecticut to see it on film, in the format specifically recommended by celluloid devotee director Christopher Nolan! Unlike Gravity, Melancholia, and most cosmological movies, Nolan’s Interstellar gets a “thumbs up” from most physicists. And environmental activists are said to like it, too. Sunday The Babadook opens. It’s a terrifying film in which a young widow struggles with her 8-year-old son Samuel's fears and tantrums as best she can. But rational thought goes out the window when they start reading a pop-up book with a monster called the Babadook, whose power to haunt the mind is chillingly real. Visit 
www.cinestudio.org.
_________________________________________________________

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

Right after the Jive At Five from 5:05 to 6pm it’s
 Chocolate Cake with DJ Rob on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Fridays of the month. An hour long musical sugar high. Power-pop plus Brit-pop and singer/songwriters from the 60's to today. Then at 6, following Chocolate Cake it's half an hour with Argus News Radio with campus and Middletown news, from our microphones to your ears. And on the 2nd and 4th Fridays it's Ear-Candy with DJ Sick Nelden where you hear the newest in Indie Rock, through the lens of pop and the absurd straight through to 6:30.

Then from 6:30 to 7pm listen to 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.

Then at 10pm 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 3am Saturday we go into OVERDRIVE with Clarence Scott and Shantay Scott - offering Urban Contemporary, Hip Hop, and Traditional gospel music.

At 3, it's Bassment Beats with DJ LOKASH, celebrating its 10th year of bringing you the latest in aboveground & underground hip-hop mixed live; followed by his New World Show, with the best in Global Bass mixed live til 4. Baila coño!

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 the Anthony Braxton Quartet, 8 Standards (Wesleyan) 2001, featuring Anthony Braxton, Kevin O'Neil, Andy Eulau, and Kevin Norton. The selection is Nuages and it's out on Barking Hoop 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!


Thursday, January 29, 2015

01-29-15 Jive

Good evening, it's Thursday, January 29th, and this is the Jive at Five – our daily community calendar and rundown of night time programming here on WESU 88.1 FM, 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 Ben Michael, thanks for joining us!

Here’s some of what’s going on in our area this week.

At Wesleyan’s Center for The Arts, here in Middletown, tonight brings the opening reception for it’s the CFA’s Picture/Thing Exhibition, a show of ten artists; is at 5 p.m., with a talk by the curators at 5:30, at the Zilkha gallery. 

On Friday, the Center for the Arts presents the Calefax Reed Quintet, an Amsterdam-based classical chamber music group, to Crowell Concert Hall at 8 p.m., with a pre-concert talk at 7:15 by Wesleyan Prof. Neely Bruce. Info about all CFA events is at www.wesleyan.edu/cfa  


At Middlesex Community College, from 6 to 7 p.m. tonight, in the Pegasus Gallery there’s an artist’s reception is planned for Clarissa R. Gerber’s exhibit Figurative Color. Details by contacting curator Matt Weber at mweber@mxcc.edu .

Tonight at Cafe Nine in New Haven., you can catch the Creamery Station with Felicia March. Tomorow/Friday’s early show at 5 features The Louds, followed at 9 by a triple bill featuring Johnny Carlevale & The Rolling Pins, Sean Coleman and The Quasars, and Jeff Deware & The Bop Thrills. Saturday afternoon’s Jazz Jam session is with Billy Cofrances, followed at 9 by Frank Viele, with Steve Broderick and The 100 Watt Suns and The Palindromes. Sunday afternoon, Kath Bloom performs, along with Linda Draper and Bop Tweedie. They’re followed at 8 by the Blues Boot Camp with Greg Sherrod. www.cafenine.com

Toad’s Place in New Haven, brings LOTUS to the stage tonight with opening act Moon Hooch. Friday, at Toad's its the Opus B-Day Blizzard Bash 2015, with two stages of music of loud music headlined by Jasta. www.toadsplace.com has the complete line-up.


Up in Hartford, at Infinity Hall, on tonight you can catch Last Fair Deal with special guest The Meadows Brothers. Tomorrow/Friday brings Bela Fleck with The Knights. Saturday’s performance is by John Reilly and Friends featuring Becky Stark and Tom Brosseau. Sunday, Infinity Gallery Presents Lori Racicot-Burrous. www.infinityhall.com

At Blackeyed Sally’s, in Hartford tomorrow/Friday, you can catch Gong Tuff:, A Tribute To Bob Marley. Saturday brings Hartford Hot Several and the Expandable Brass Band to Sally’s. www.blackeyedsallys.com for more.


.Back here in Middletown at the Buttonwood Tree tomorrow evening,  the Ricky Alfonso Jazz Duo plays at 7. Saturday brings the Greg Diamond Jazz Trio to the Buttonwood at 8. Sunday’s worship service at 10 is with Rev. Ronnie Bantum and at 11 with Pastor Sandra Steele. Food Not Bombs serves food outside the Buttonwood Tree every Sunday at about 1 p.m. Help prepare the meal at First Church on Court Street at 11:30. Next Monday morning at 10:30 the Hearing Voices Network meets.   http://www.buttonwood.org.

In Middletown, on Sunday at 2 p.m., Adath Israel presents a program by Durham resident Dr. Michael Good, author of The Search for Major Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved Jews. Dr. Good is the son of Holocaust survivors from Vilna, Lithuania. He tells the story of how a German army officer, saved his mother and more than 250 other Jews.  More info by calling 860-346-4709 or emailing office@adathisraelct.org .


Also on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Russell Library, there will be a free concert by award-winning folksinger and songwriter Joe Crookston, playing guitar, banjo and fiddle. Details at www.russelllibrary.org .

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

Tonight Real Art Ways in Hartford ends their run of the Italian thriller “Human Capital,”  Also closing tonight is “Point and Shoot,” which won the Best Documentary award at the Tribeca Film Festival.  Starting tomorrow/Friday and running well into February are the always fun Oscar-nominated short films. www.realartways.com.


Trinity College’s Cinestudio, is now showing interstellar, your first and only chance in Connecticut to see it on film, in 70mm, the format specifically recommended by celluloid devotee director Christopher Nolan! Unlike Gravity, Melancholia, and most cosmological movies, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar gets a “thumbs up” from most physicists. And environmental activists are said to like it, too. It plays through the end of January, then The Babadook opens. It’s a terrifying film in which a young widow struggles with her 8-year-old son Samuel's fears and tantrums as best she can. But rational thought goes out the window when they start reading a pop-up book with a monster called the Babadook, whose power to haunt the mind is chillingly real. www.cinestudio.org.

Now here's what's on the air tonight on WESU:

 Now, here’s a look at tonight’s programming on WESU 88.1 
Right after the Jive at Five, stay tuned for :Homegrown with Rob DeRosa  until 6:30 for the best crop of Connecticut-connected music presented for a global audience.

from 6:30-8  Bill Revill presents 90 minutes of folk and Americana as he fills in for Karen Stein. 
          
          
8-9:30pm      
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.
                                               
9:30-10:30pm          
(1,3,5) Radio Obscura with Joe McCarthy and DJ Pete 
It's like looking, but for your ears.  


And from 10:30 pm til 3:30   we've got a mixed bag of fill in DJs and programs as we gear up for the launch of our new program season next Monday. 



RootsWorld Radio with Cliff Furnald
A musical tour across borders and genres

3:30-4am
The Divide and Conquer News Report with C.C.  Arshagra
A Concept radio Arts Skit that was introduced to the public on 'The I Do Not Know Show' also produced, and hosted by C.C. Arshagra. 



The BBC world news kicks on at 4 and we start tomorrow’s broadcast day 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 while I have your attention, WESU could use your help in the current Hartford Reader Poll which is going on now. Ballots are online at CTnow.com and we'd surely appreciate it if you could vote for WESU as the BEST College Radio station and look for and write in your favorite WESU DJs and personalities too!  

Thanx for listening and stay tuned for The Explorer's Hour with DJ Pickup Sticks!

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

01-28-15 Jive

Good evening, it's Wednesday, January 28th, and this is the Jive at Five – our daily community calendar and rundown of night time programming here on WESU 88.1 FM, 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 Ben Michael, hoping that your life is getting back to normal after a Blizzard Colbie laid down a thick later of snow across our region.

Here’s some of what’s going on in our area this week. Be aware that while most venues are back in action some some events may have been cancelled or reschedule due to the storms impact. I’d still recommend checking with any venue before venturing out in the cold!  

Right about now, scheduled to star at 5, you can catch King & Queens of East Rock for an early show at Cafe Nine in New Haven., tonight’s scheduled show by The Density Twins has been rescheduled for April 15. Thursday at Café Nine, it’s Creamery Station with Felicia March. Friday’s Weekly Wind-Down Happy Hour at 5 brings The Louds, followed at 9 by Johnny Carlevale & The Rolling Pins, with Sean Coleman and The Quasars, Jeff Deware & The Bop Thrills. Saturday afternoon’s Jazz Jam session is with Billy Cofrances, followed at 9 by Frank Viele, with Steve Broderick and The 100 Watt Suns and The Palindromes. Sunday afternoon, Kath Bloom performs, along with Linda Draper and Bop Tweedie. They’re followed at 8 by the Blues Boot Camp with Greg Sherrod. www.cafenine.com

Up in Hartford, at Blackeyed Sally’s, tonight's weekly Blues Jam is with Tim McDonald this week. On deck for Friday is Gong Tuff:, A Tribute To Bob Marley. Saturday brings Hartford Hot Several and the Expandable Brass Band to Sally’s. www.blackeyedsallys.com for more.

Tonight, here in townthe Connecticut Poetry Society holds its every-last-Wednesday-of-the-month meeting at 6 p.m at the Russell Library, RSVP to Pamela: pamela.cps@hotmail.com or 860.563.5761. Also tonight, The Middletown Scottish Country Dancers meet at First Church on Court St. 860-347-0278 for details

the Middletown Commission on the Arts meets at 7 p.m. tonight in Room B19 of the Municipal Bldg. at 245 deKoven Drive. www.arts2go.org.

 Manic Productions brings Frontier Ruckus, with The Proud Flesh and Arcay, to Bar in New Haven, tonight for a 9 p.m. show.

At Wesleyan’s Center for The Arts, in Middletown, Thursday brings the opening reception for it’s the CFA’s Picture/Thing Exhibition, a show of ten artists; is at 5 p.m., with a talk by the curators at 5:30, at the Zilkha gallery. 

On Friday, the Center for the Arts presents the Calefax Reed Quintet, an Amsterdam-based classical chamber music group, to Crowell Concert Hall at 8 p.m., with a pre-concert talk at 7:15 by Wesleyan Prof. Neely Bruce. Info about all CFA events is at www.wesleyan.edu/cfa  
.

Toad’s Place in New Haven, brings LOTUS to the stage Thursday with opening act Moon Hooch. Friday, bringgs Opus’s B-Day Blizzard Bash 2015, two stages of music of loud music headlined by Jasta. www.toadsplace.com has the complete line-up.



At Middlesex Community College, from 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday in the Pegasus Gallery there’s an artist’s reception is planned for Clarissa R. Gerber’s exhibit Figurative Color. Details by contacting curator Matt Weber at mweber@mxcc.edu .

Back up in Hartford, at Infinity Hall, on Thursday its Last Fair Deal with special guest The Meadows Brothers. Friday brings Bela Fleck with The Knights. Saturday’s performance is by John Reilly and Friends featuring Becky Stark and Tom Brosseau. Sunday, Infinity Gallery Presents Lori Racicot-Burrous. www.infinityhall.com .

On Friday, At the Buttonwood Tree in Middletown the Ricky Alfonso Jazz Duo plays at 7. Saturday brings the Greg Diamond Jazz Trio to the Buttonwood at 8. Sunday’s worship service at 10 is with Rev. Ronnie Bantum and at 11 with Pastor Sandra Steele. Food Not Bombs serves food outside the Buttonwood Tree every Sunday at about 1 p.m. Help prepare the meal at First Church on Court Street at 11:30. Next Monday morning at 10:30 the Hearing Voices Network meets.   http://www.buttonwood.org.

Back in Middletown, on Sunday at 2 p.m., Adath Israel presents a program by Durham resident Dr. Michael Good, author of The Search for Major Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved Jews. Dr. Good is the son of Holocaust survivors from Vilna, Lithuania. He tells the story of how Karl Plagge, a German army officer, saved his mother and more than 250 other Jews. His book is based on five years of research, using German documents that had been closed for fifty years and interviews with survivors. More info by calling 860-346-4709 or emailing office@adathisraelct.org .


Also on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Russell Library, there will be a free concert by award-winning folksinger and songwriter Joe Crookston, playing guitar, banjo and fiddle. Details at www.russelllibrary.org .

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

Tonight and tomorrow at Real Art Ways in Hartford you can still catch the Italian thriller “Human Capital,”  Also still playing through Thursday is “Point and Shoot,” which won the Best Documentary award at the Tribeca Film Festival.  It follows a timid man with OCD who leaves home and ends up filming the war in Libya until he is captured by Gaddafi’s forces.  Starting Friday and running well into February are the always fun Oscar-nominated short films. www.realartways.com.


Tonight, Trinity College’s Cinestudio, opens their run of Interstellar, your first and only chance in Connecticut to see it on film, in 70mm, the format specifically recommended by celluloid devotee director Christopher Nolan! Unlike Gravity, Melancholia, and most cosmological movies, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar gets a “thumbs up” from most physicists. And environmental activists are said to like it, too. It plays through the end of January, then The Babadook opens. It’s a terrifying film in which a young widow struggles with her 8-year-old son Samuel's fears and tantrums as best she can. But rational thought goes out the window when they start reading a pop-up book with a monster called the Babadook, whose power to haunt the mind is chillingly real. www.cinestudio.org.

Now here's what's on the air tonight on WESU:

Right after the Jive at Five, stay tuned for: The Explorer’s Hour with Pickup Sticks for an exploration into the realm of indie rock and roll.

From 6-6:30, it's Mind Matters with Helen Evrard, M.D. The show provides information and guest interviews on issues concerning mental illness. The focus is exploring holistic therapies and stories of individual achievement. 

At 6:30-8pm it's Fusion Radio with James Fusion. Techno from around the globe mixed live since 1992. It's a vinyl world!

And from 8-9:30pm, it's The Warehouse with Mike NyceThe best of underground house music, mixed live for your listening pleasure.

Starting at 9:30 until 11pm it's NE Tempo with DJ Berk.  Serious turntablism - Dubstep, DnB, techno, ragga jungle, breakbeats mixed live.

And from 11pm til 4am,  we've got a mixed bag of fill in DJs and programs as we gear up for the launch of our new program season next Monday. 

The BBC world news kicks on at 4 and we start tomorrow’s broadcast day 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 while I have your attention, WESU could use your help in the current Hartford Reader Poll which is going on now. Ballots are online at CTnow.com and we'd surely appreciate it if you could vote for WESU as the BEST College Radio station and look for and write in your favorite WESU DJs and personalities too!  

Thanx for listening and stay tuned for The Explorer's Hour with DJ Pickup Sticks!



Tuesday, January 27, 2015

01-27-15 jive

Good evening, it's Tuesday, January 27th, and this is the Jive at Five – our daily community calendar and rundown of night time programming here on WESU 88.1 FM 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 Ben Michael, hoping that Blizzard Colbie didn’t wreak to much havoc in your life.

Now here’s some of what’s going on in our area this week. Be aware that some events will likely be cancelled due to the storm. I’d recommend calling any venue before venturing out in search of live entertainment.  

In New Haven tonight, at Cafe Nine, tonight’s scheduled show is Called Out, with Eric Hartlett and PUS. Wednesday brings the King & Queens of East Rock happy hour at 5. A performance by The Density Twins has been rescheduled for April 15. Thursday at Café Nine, it’s Creamery Station with Felicia March. Friday’s Weekly Wind-Down Happy Hour at 5 brings The Louds, followed at 9 by Johnny Carlevale & The Rolling Pins, with Sean Coleman and The Quasars, Jeff Deware & The Bop Thrills. Saturday afternoon’s Jazz Jam session is with Billy Cofrances, followed at 9 by Frank Viele, with Steve Broderick and The 100 Watt Suns and The Palindromes. Sunday afternoon, Kath Bloom performs, along with Linda Draper and Bop Tweedie. They’re followed at 8 by the Blues Boot Camp with Greg Sherrod. www.cafenine.com

Up in Hartford, at Blackeyed Sally’s, Tuesday nights feature Michael Palin's Other Orchestra, an 18-piece band working out new material. Wednesday’s Blues Jam is with Tim McDonald. On deck for Friday is Gong Tuff: A Tribute To Bob Marley. Saturday brings Hartford Hot Several and the Expandable Brass Band to Sally’s. www.blackeyedsallys.com for more.

At Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts, on tomorrow (Wednesday) you can catch a dance lecture by Dr. Rebecca Rossen, of Wesleyan’s class of 1990, titled "Uneasy Duets: Contemporary American Dances about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," . The lecture will focus on how Jewish choreographers have handled the shifting role of Zionism in American Jewish life. Dr. Rossen is a dance professor at the University of Texas at Austin. The opening reception for it’s the CFA’s Picture/Thing Exhibition, a show of ten artists; is at 5 p.m., with a talk by the curators at 5:30, at the Zilkha gallery. On Friday, the Center for the Arts brings the Calefax Reed Quintet, an Amsterdam-based classical chamber music group, to Crowell Concert Hall at 8 p.m., with a pre-concert talk at 7:15 by Wesleyan Prof. Neely Bruce. Info about all CFA events is at wesleyan.edu/cfa.

On Wednesday, the Middletown Commission on the Arts meets at 7 p.m. in Room B19 of the Municipal Bldg. at 245 deKoven Drive. www.arts2go.org.

Also on Wednesday, at the Russell Library in Middletown, the Connecticut Poetry Society holds its every-last-Wednesday-of-the-month meeting at 6 p.m. RSVP to Pamela: pamela.cps@hotmail.com or 860.563.5761.

The Middletown Scottish Country Dancers meet Wednesday at First Church on Court St.  Partners not necessary.  Call 860-347-0278 for details.

On Wednesday, Manic Productions brings Frontier Ruckus, with The Proud Flesh and Arcay, to Bar in New Haven, starting at 9 p.m.

Toad’s Place in New Haven, brings LOTUS to the stage Thursday with opening act Moon Hooch. Friday, bringgs Opus’s B-Day Blizzard Bash 2015, two stages of music of loud music headlined by Jasta. www.toadsplace.com has the complete line-up.


On Friday, At the Buttonwood Tree in Middletown the Ricky Alfonso Jazz Duo plays at 7. Saturday brings the Greg Diamond Jazz Trio to the Buttonwood at 8. Sunday’s worship service at 10 is with Rev. Ronnie Bantum and at 11 with Pastor Sandra Steele. Food Not Bombs serves food outside the Buttonwood Tree every Sunday at about 1 p.m. Help prepare the meal at First Church on Court Street at 11:30. Next Monday morning at 10:30 the Hearing Voices Network meets.   http://www.buttonwood.org.



At Middlesex Community College, from 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday in the Pegasus Gallery there’s an artist’s reception is planned for Clarissa R. Gerber’s exhibit Figurative Color. Details by contacting curator Matt Weber at mweber@mxcc.edu .

Back up in Hartford, at Infinity Hall, on Thursday its Last Fair Deal with special guest The Meadows Brothers. Friday brings Bela Fleck with The Knights. Saturday’s performance is by John Reilly and Friends featuring Becky Stark and Tom Brosseau. Sunday, Infinity Gallery Presents Lori Racicot-Burrous. www.infinityhall.com.

Back in Middletown, on Sunday at 2 p.m., Adath Israel presents a program by Durham resident Dr. Michael Good, author of The Search for Major Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved Jews. Dr. Good is the son of Holocaust survivors from Vilna, Lithuania. He tells the story of how Karl Plagge, a German army officer, saved his mother and more than 250 other Jews. His book is based on five years of research, using German documents that had been closed for fifty years and interviews with survivors. More info by calling 860-346-4709 or emailing office@adathisraelct.org .

Also on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Russell Library, there will be a free concert by award-winning folksinger and songwriter Joe Crookston, playing guitar, banjo and fiddle. Details at www.russelllibrary.org .

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

Continuing its run At Real Art Ways in Hartford is the Italian thriller “Human Capital,” about unexpected events that occur when two families from different economic backgrounds become entwined.  Also still playing is “Point and Shoot,” which won the Best Documentary award at the Tribeca Film Festival.  It follows a timid man with OCD who leaves home and ends up filming the war in Libya until he is captured by Gaddafi’s forces.  Starting Friday and running well into February are the always fun Oscar-nominated short films. www.realartways.com.

Tonight, Trinity College’s Cinestudio, ends their run of La Jour Se Leve, a 4k restoration of the 1939 masterpiece of French poetic realism. Tomorrow/Wednesday cinestudio begins a run of Interstellar, your first and only chance in Connecticut to see it on film, in 70mm, the format specifically recommended by celluloid devotee director Christopher Nolan! Unlike Gravity, Melancholia, and most cosmological movies, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar gets a “thumbs up” from most physicists. And environmental activists are said to like it, too. It plays through the end of January, then The Babadook opens. It’s a terrifying film in which a young widow struggles with her 8-year-old son Samuel's fears and tantrums as best she can. But rational thought goes out the window when they start reading a pop-up book with a monster called the Babadook, whose power to haunt the mind is chillingly real. www.cinestudio.org.

Now here's what's on the air tonight on WESU:

In light of recent blizzard that hit our region, it is very likely that there will be substitutions and fill-ins tonight as our volunteer broadcasters dig their way out of the snow. That said, here’s what is scheduled.

Right after the jive at Five, Stay tuned for a spotlight on the sound track to oh brother where art thou.

Following that at 6pm stay tuned for an hour spotlight on some powerful protests music from the American folk music tradition.

At 7pm tuned for a radio documentary on the king of western swing, Bob Wills.

From 8-9pm it’s The Voice of the CITY with J-Cherry, for a weekly show featuring area artists and musicians of all genres.

 At 9pm it’s Wonderland with DJ Cheshire Cat a free form music show offering a wide range of music from krautrock to post-rock, grunge to garage, novelty to New Romantic, punk to prog.

At 10:30 we bring you Peter Bochan’s All mixed up a free form music and commentary show from WBAI in NYC.


After that at 12:30 stay tuned for 2 hrs of swamp funk and rock on back down the bayou from Pacifica.


DJ Otto nation rounds things out with a free form mix from until 4am before the BBC word news service kicks on. We begin tomorrow’s broadcast day at 4am 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

Thanks for listening Stay warm and Stay Tuned!


Monday, January 26, 2015

01-26-15 Jive



Good evening, it's Monday, January 26th, and this is the Jive at Five – our daily community calendar and rundown of night time programming here on WESU 88.1 FM 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 Maria Johnson, producer and host of Reasonably Catholic: Keeping the Faith, which airs from 4 to right before the Jive at Five, usually every 1st, 3rd and 5th Tuesday, but which tomorrow is pinch-hitting for Anarchy on Air, which returns Feb. 10. Tomorrow's episode of Reasonably Catholic takes us outside the WESU studios to a place for people who are spiritual but not religious. We’ll go on a tour of New England’s newest meditation center, which, while housed at a Catholic retreat house, dares to color outside the lines.  Can’t listen live? Find the audio at www.wesufm.org and www.reasonablycatholic.com.

Now here’s some of what’s going on in our area this week. Be aware that some events will likely be cancelled due to a blizzard that’s predicted to be of historic proportions. We hope you're listening to this while safely indoors and that if you're driving you're almost home!

At the Buttonwood Tree in Middletown, tonight brings Moments of Gratitude at 7:45, followed by the Anything Goes open mic. On Friday, the Ricky Alfonso Jazz Duo plays at 7. Saturday brings the Greg Diamond Jazz Trio to the Buttonwood at 8. Sunday’s worship service at 10 is with Rev. Ronnie Bantum and at 11 with Pastor Sandra Steele. Food Not Bombs serves food outside the Buttonwood Tree every Sunday at about 1 p.m. Help prepare the meal at First Church on Court Street at 11:30. Next Monday morning at 10:30 the Hearing Voices Network meets.   http://www.buttonwood.org.

In New Haven tonight, at Cafe Nine, Manic Productions is scheduled to present The Besnard Lakes and USA Out of Vietnam. Tomorrow’s (Tuesday’s) show is Called Out, with Eric Hartlett and PUS. Wednesday brings the King & Queens of East Rock happy hour at 5. A performance by The Density Twins has been rescheduled for April 15. Thursday at Café Nine, it’s Creamery Station with Felicia March. Friday’s Weekly Wind-Down Happy Hour at 5 brings The Louds, followed at 9 by Johnny Carlevale & The Rolling Pins, with Sean Coleman and The Quasars, Jeff Deware & The Bop Thrills. Saturday afternoon’s Jazz Jam session is with Billy Cofrances, followed at 9 by Frank Viele, with Steve Broderick and The 100 Watt Suns and The Palindromes. Sunday afternoon, Kath Bloom performs, along with Linda Draper and Bop Tweedie. They’re followed at 8 by the Blues Boot Camp with Greg Sherrod. www.cafenine.com

Also this week in New Haven, at Toad’s Place, tonight's planned performance is a Night of Smooth Jazz with Rohn Lawrence & Friends in Lilly’s Pad. Thursday brings LOTUS to the stage, with Moon Hooch. Friday, it’s Opus’s B-Day Blizzard Bash 2015, two stages of music headlined by Jasta leading a long slate of acts. www.toadsplace.com has the complete line-up.

Up in Hartford, at Blackeyed Sally’s, tonight’s scheduled Jazz Monday performance is by Haneef Nelson. Tomorrow (Tuesday) brings Michael Palin's Other Orchestra, an 18-piece band working out new material. Wednesday’s Blues Jam is with Tim McDonald. On deck for Friday is Gong Tuff: A Tribute To Bob Marley. Saturday brings Hartford Hot Several and the Expandable Brass Band to Sally’s. www.blackeyedsallys.com for more.

You can tour the Wadsworth Mansion every Wednesday at 2 p.m.  Details at http://www.wadsworthmansion.com

The Middletown Scottish Country Dancers meet Wednesday at First Church on Court St.  Partners not necessary.  Call 860-347-0278 for details.

On Wednesday, Manic Productions brings Frontier Ruckus, with The Proud Flesh and Arcay, to Bar in New Haven, starting at 9 p.m.

At Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts, Wednesday's offering is a dance lecture by Dr. Rebecca Rossen, Wesleyan class of '90. Titled "Uneasy Duets: Contemporary American Dances about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," the lecture will focus on how Jewish choreographers have handled the shifting role of Zionism in American Jewish life. Dr. Rossen is a dance professor at the University of Texas at Austin. The snow date is Thursday for another Center for the Arts event, the opening reception for its Picture/Thing Exhibition, a show of ten artists; that’s at 5 p.m., with a talk by the curators at 5:30, at the Zilkha gallery.On Friday, the Center for the Arts brings the Calefax Reed Quintet, an Amsterdam-based classical chamber music group, to Crowell Concert Hall at 8 p.m., with a pre-concert talk at 7:15 by Wesleyan Prof. Neely Bruce. Info about all CFA events is at wesleyan.edu/cfa.

On Wednesday, the Middletown Commission on the Arts meets at 7 p.m. in Room B19 of the Municipal Bldg. at 245 deKoven Drive. www.arts2go.org.

Also on Wednesday, at the Russell Library in Middletown, the Connecticut Poetry Society holds its every-last-Wednesday-of-the-month meeting at 6 p.m. RSVP to Pamela: pamela.cps@hotmail.com or 860.563.5761.

Up the hill at Middlesex Community College, an artist’s reception is planned for Clarissa R. Gerber’s exhibit Figurative Color. That’s from 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday in the Pegasus Gallery. Details by contacting curator Matt Weber at mweber@mxcc.edu.

Back up in Hartford, at Infinity Hall, on Thursday it’s Last Fair Deal with special guest The Meadows Brothers. Friday brings Bela Fleck with The Knights. Saturday’s performance is by John Reilly and Friends featuring Becky Stark and Tom Brosseau. Sunday, Infinity Gallery Presents Lori Racicot-Burrous. www.infinityhall.com.

Back in Middletown, on Sunday at 2 p.m., Adath Israel presents a program by Durham resident Dr. Michael Good, author of The Search for Major Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved Jews. Dr. Good is the son of Holocaust survivors from Vilna, Lithuania. He tells the story of how Karl Plagge, a German army officer, saved his mother and more than 250 other Jews. His book is based on five years of research, using German documents that had been closed for fifty years and interviews with survivors. More info by calling 860-346-4709 or emailing office@adathisraelct.org.

Also on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Russell Library, there will be a free concert by award-winning folksinger and songwriter Joe Crookston, playing guitar, banjo and fiddle. Details at www.russelllibrary.org.

 Now here's a rundown of cinema off the beaten track in Central Connecticut:
At Real Art Ways in Hartford, the run continues of the Italian thriller “Human Capital,” about unexpected events that occur when two families from different economic backgrounds become entwined.  Also still playing is “Point and Shoot,” which won the Best Documentary award at the Tribeca Film Festival.  It follows a timid man with OCD who leaves home and ends up filming the war in Libya until he is captured by Gaddafi’s forces.  Starting Friday and running well into February are the always fun Oscar-nominated short films. www.realartways.com.

At Trinity College’s Cinestudio, the film scheduled for tonight and tomorrow is La Jour Se Leve,  a 4k restoration of the 1939 masterpiece of French poetic realism. Wednesday begins a run of Interstellar,  your first and only chance in Connecticut to see it on film, in 70mm, the format specifically recommended by celluloid devotee director Christopher Nolan! Unlike Gravity, Melancholia, and most cosmological movies, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar gets a “thumbs up” from most physicists. And environmental activists are said to like it, too. It plays through the end of January, then The Babadook opens. It’s a terrifying film in which a young widow struggles with her 8-year-old son Samuel's fears and tantrums as best she can. But rational thought goes out the window when they start reading a pop-up book with a monster called the Babadook, whose power to haunt the mind is chillingly real. www.cinestudio.org.

Now here's what's on the air tonight on WESU:

Right after the Jive at Five, stay tuned for Afternoon Jazz with Charles Henry.

At 6:00 p.m. stay tuned for Radio Curious from Pacifica.

In light of the ensuing blizzard, we’ll see what or “who” the cat drags in to cover tonight’s programming... it is very likely that there will be substitutions and fill-ins tonight and tomorrow on account of the storm. That said, here’s what is scheduled.

At 6:30 it's Michael Benson’s 75 % Folk, a mix of folk, blues, movie soundtracks, and interviews and more.   

At 8:00 p.m. there’s Unfocused Folk with Chip Austin, giving you Americana music from Nashville and around the country including Folk, acoustic Country, and roots-Rock.

From 9:30-midnight The Attention Deficit Disk Jockey with Lee brings you the music of yesterday’s future today.

In all likelihood, (We hope) our volunteer broadcasters will not make it into the station tonight. So here’s the alternate schedule of automated programming.

Following Radio curious from Pacifica at 6:30 catch a rebroadcast the Rumpus Room countdown of 2014’s most funky jams.\

At 9:30 stay tuned for 2 hours of swamp funk and rock and roll from Louisiana with Bill Boelens on  “Back Down the Bayou” on from Louisiana, thanks to the Pacifica network.

That’s followed at 11:30 by a free form music show from Pacifica called “all mixed up” from WBAI in NYC.

At 1:30am, Stay tuned for a radio advice show called, “You got a Problem” from the host of Maximum Rock and Roll Radio.

Maximum Rock and Roll Radio comes your way after that at 3am for a heavy dose of loud much from around the world.

The BBC World News takes over at 4 and we start tomorrow’s broadcast day at 5 a.m. with Morning Edition from NPR.

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

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 Charles Henry.

Oh, and – blizzard be damned, Reasonably Catholic will air tomorrow at 4. See you then! Stay safe and have fun digging out! I’m Maria Johnson.