Friday's Jive 12-22-17

Good evening, it's Friday, December 22nd, 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.

I hope you’ll support community radio at WESU with a donation today, during our annual Fall gone Winter pledge drive.  If you hear your favorite DJ on air asking for your support, why not pick up the phone and make a pledge when they ask for it? I wouldn’t count on someone else doing it for you. The reality is that WESU community pledge drives are only supported by 200-300 listeners and we need to hear from more of you. If you’re not already a supporter of WESU, please step up to the plate and help us continue to provide the service you depend on.

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

Tonight at The Buttonwood Tree in Middletown, it’s crucial roots Reggae Night with Don Minott. You can enjoy a perennial Buttonwood favorite, Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales performed by Peter Loffredo on Saturday. Change It Up, the art exhibit with the work of Kathleen Curran Smits, runs through the month. Details @ buttonwood.org

You can Wrap a Gift on Saturday from noon to 2 pm at the Russell Library in Middletown. Details @ russelllibrary.org

The 4^th Friday Swing and Blues Dance hosted by JC Noble takes place beginning at 7:30pm at Vinnie’s Jump & Jive, Main St., Middletown. Details @ facebook.com/CityArtsOffice

The Mattabesett Canoe Club at Harbor Park, Middletown is hosting a Feliz Navidad Dance Party with Latin and salsa music by DJ Edwin Alvarez. Details @ facebook.com/CityArtsOffice

New Haven’s Café Nine Friday’s 5pm showcase features Snake Hill Blues and holiday tunes from Hot Flash. Later Tony Trischka Presents: "Of A Winters Night" - A Holiday Show. Saturday’s Jazz Jam Session is with the George Baker Band, and the nighttime main event is a Puerto Rico Relief Fund Raiser, featuring Jose Oyola, Energy, Middletown’s own MC El-Vee, and more. Details @ cafenine.com

In Hartford at Black-Eyed Sally’s, tonight they’ve got Jake Kulak on board, with special guest Braiden Sunshine from “The Voice.” It’s XY Eli and friends on Saturday with a Holiday Extravaganza. Details @ blackeyedsallys.com

At Toad’s Place in New Haven, they host the John Valby X-Mas Show tonight, and on Saturday, it’s a Holiday Jazz Spectacular with Rohn Lawrence, Jaye Rowe, and Trever Somerville. Details @ toadsplace.com

The Hartford Jazz Society offers a comprehensive list, chock full of weekly events featuring jazz. Details @ hartfordjazzsociety.com   

Infinity Hall Hartford brings you Mike DelGuidice & Big Shot – An Evening Celebrating the Music of Billy Joel, Saturday evening at 8 pm. Details @ infinityhall.com

Tonight Cherry St. Station in Wallingford hosts a Nightmare B4 Xmas costume party, featuring Crucial Pain, Everybody Hates Me, and more. On Saturday it’s their CT PunX Xmas Xtravaganza with PUS, Savage World, Cry Havoc! and more. Details @ facebook.com/CherryStreetStation

You can enjoy the Holiday Light Fantasia through the season at Goodwin Park in Hartford, celebrating the winter holidays. Santa is there today and Saturday. Details @ holidaylightfantasia.org  

You can skate every day for free at the Winterfest ice rink at Bushnell Park in Hartford near the Pump House. Check the website for free skating lessons from Champions Skating Center instructors. Details @ bushnellpark.org

The Connecticut Historical Society invites you to their ongoing exhibit, Visions/Revisions: The Print Transformed, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Printmaker’s Network of Southern New England. Or check out their exhibit, That’s Weird, of strange objects connected to our state’s material culture, happening every Saturday. Details @ chs.org

And, here's our rundown of cinema, off the beaten track in Central Connecticut:

Hartford’s Real Art Ways continues an afternoon run of The Florida Project, about a family in a budget motel near Disney World and Loving Vincent is heldover for this weekend. Today they open The Departure, about a former punk turned Buddhist priest confronts what makes life worth living. Also opening tonight is Miss Kiet’s Children, a documentary sharing a teacher’s patience and dedication bearing fruit as a growing affectionate community. Details & screening times @ realartways.org

Trinity College’s Cinestudio in Hartford screens the 1946 Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life, all week including a Sunday matinée. Details & screening times @ cinestudio.org 

If you are looking for more information on the arts in Middletown, please visit the City's Facebook page at facebook.com/CityArtsOffice

And now let’s take a look at tonight’s programming on WESU and to be safe, it's best to check the WESU website for the up-to-date schedule.

Right after the Jive At Five from 5:05 to 6:30pm, it'll be Wild Wild Live! with Babe and Beth expounding on that Wesleyan music scene.

And from 6:30-7pm catch 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 Sista Queen T - offering a wide range of music including African, reggae, gospel, R&B, Latin, and blues. Plus health, nutrition, and stress reduction tips.

Next up until 10pm, we take it From the Otherside with Rok-A-Dee where 60% of the show is love songs of different genre and the others Reggae Dancehall, R&B, and new artiste.    
                                                        
Then from 10 to 11:30pm it's Strickly Off the Head where DJ Cocomotion the Music Mixologist provides a live mixshow done on the fly or freestyle, with no pre-planned mixes or blends - R&B, old school, hip hop, rap and house.

Bridging the night to the morning hours, from 11:30pm to 12:30am you’ll have An A and a B with DJ N following the premise that every band has its hits - and a multitude of unknown, hidden gems. Songs played per band (70s-2000s rock) seek to highlight this dichotomy.

From 12:30pm until 3am Saturday we go into serious OVERDRIVE w/Clarence & Shantay Scott - offering the best urban contemporary, hip hop, and traditional gospel music on the planet!

From 3 until 5am you are taken to Wonderland with DJ Cheshire Cat, who has a song in his heart, a chemical imbalance in his head and a musical library at his fingers. From krautrock to post-rock, grunge to garage, novelty to New Romantic, punk to prog, Wonderland has a place for it.

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 Pacifica.

Staying on the other side of the big pond, from 6 to 7am 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, serving up a slice of Italy every Saturday morning. You don't have to speak Italian to taste it: just relax, listen, and enjoy!

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 the title track from Talking Drums' Some Day Catch Some Day Down, re-issued and re-mastered as a cd on the innova label in 2011. The original vinyl was released in 1987.

The written form for what you've heard on today’s Jive is online at wesufm.org/jive

Is WESU as a source for information and entertainment in your life? Support the station with a donation? You can make that donation online at wesufm.org/pledge anytime. Thanks for listening!