Additional Circophony Performances due to Popular Demand!

Back by Popular Demand we are adding two ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES of CIRCOPHONY'S Circus in Wonderland!!


Alice in Wonderland goes to the Circus in this fast-paced, all ages 45 minute show presented by the talented teen performers of Circophony."Circus in Wonderland" will be performed

Friday Feb 21, 2014 at 7:00pm
Saturday Feb 22, 2014 at 2:00pm

at Oddfellows Playhouse
128 Washington Street
Middletown, CT 

Tickets are $10 for adults and $6 for children.

Circophony is a collaboration between Oddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater and ARTFARM. The company, directed by ARTFARM co-founder Dic Wheeler (also the creator and long-time director of the Children's Circus of Middletown), is made up of eight circus performers between the ages of 12 and 17.

"Circus in Wonderland" explores the magical world of Alice in Wonderland through the joy and spectacle of circus. Alice is plunged into a world in which the Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts, White Rabbit and other iconic characters juggle, stilt, unicycle, clown and perform stunning feats of acrobatics.
It's Alice in Wonderland like you've never seen it before! Bring your kids! Bring your parents! This show has something for everyone.For more information about the show, which is available for touring through May, 2014, contact ARTFARM at info@art-farm.org.

Buy your tickets HERE

Art For Haiti on display through this month features many Middletown Artists

Have you ever been in Eli Canon's Tap Room and thought, “Who makes all these funky looking flyers? What is up with this menu – did someone write this by hand or is this an actual font?” Have you ever thought, isn't there some place in Middletown I can go to see sunsets that look like the ones in the movies, the sunsets that people post pictures of on Facebook after returning from a trip to Florida or the Caribbean?” 

The answers to these questions and more might dawn on you at the Art for Haiti exhibit currently on display at Hartford ArtSpace Gallery on Asylum Street. The opening reception was this past Saturday night and the gallery was packed with a Middletown crowd including WESU FM radio station manager Ben Michael at the DJ table, Bum with Broom Fred Carroll, and a fabulous and delicious display by Nora Cupcake Company. The art on display showcases many different media and styles and includes the work of many Middletown residents.

Click here to see details about the artists and exhibit. This web page was created for the opening reception, which already happened, but the art will be on display throughout January. More information about the location is also available at http://www.artspacect.com/

Pictured at right: Middletown artists Pierre Sylvain and David Bauer. David's photography can be seen in the background. On the post to the right of Pierre's face there's a glimpse of a sign written by Phil Ouelette, the owner of Eli Canon's, who lent his distinctive penmanship to all the signs throughout the gallery describing the artwork. In the description he wrote for his own work, Phil noted that he does not consider himself to be an artist. His sculpture-collage-tower is on display so you can decide for yourself. 

Hog River Revival

The Buttonwood Tree is having a very cool art show this month, and the best part will be tonight - come here the story of the river under Hartford, how it got there and why it was created!

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
7-9pm

ART SHOW RUNS JULY 6 – 31

Reception’s Music by Carles Lombardo and The Hog River Revival Band

A collection of works inspired by the first voyages through the subterranean river system under Hartford Connecticut.

On Earth there are few unshakable forces. Water is one of them. Rivers can be channeled but not clotted. As the veins of this planet, they enrich the banks of this Earth with the nutrients that make life possible. The Park River now runs 50ft beneath Hartford, CT in over nine miles of concrete conduits.

Its in man’s nature to explore the unexplored and then make it familiar. This artery of Hartford was explored, buried, and ignored. It was referred to as “Hog River” by the Dutch, and “Little River” by the Native Americans.

Today Park River is hardly referred to at all. It runs below Hartford quietly and unannounced.

Our ultimate goal isn’t to only explore The Hog River, but to revive it. It passes by daily life unbeknown to the world above, but not for long.

These findings are the products of our first four journeys into the heart of Hartford’s subterranean river way.
This body of work is our initial exploration of The Hog River.

Throughout this year, we will continue to breath life back to The Hog River as it has quietly been breathing life into our Capital City. Our mission is not yet complete, this is not the end.

This is The Hog River Revival.

http://thehogriverrevival.com/

http://palbano.com/

Flying the Freak Flag

All of my grown-up friends poked fun at me, saying I must be trying for the Gold Medal in the Mom Olympics, but I have to admit it. I had fun at the ComicCon in Hartford. My four kids and I, plus some of their friends, spent Sunday at the new convention center for the last day of the Con.

For those of us who remember when disco was dead, the notion of a convention devoted to comics brings up memories of superheros on faded newsprint. But the ComicCon is mainly about the explosion of Japanese pop culture among our youth (think video games and cartoons and graphic novels/manga) It's sort of a cross between Halloween and a few thousand people all sharing the same inside jokes. If you were so inclined, you could have spent the whole weekend wandering from workshops on how to build your own plush-toy weapons, to lectures on "Androgyny in Japan", to giant exhibition halls filled with people playing board games, card games, and pushing legions of toy soldiers across the table.

My personal favorite was "CosPlay Chess" (short for Costume Play)which reminded me of going to the Rocky Horror Picture Show in Greenwich Village back in the 1980's. While a pair of chess players sat on the stage, two teams of "pieces" made up of costumed characters acted out the moves, assisted by an MC that seemed to be channeling Alice Cooper.
In this photo, he is asking the audience to vote which piece should die, the Captain from the Bleach series (on the left) or Yugi-Oh. The audience decreed that Yugi-Oh must die. The only cultural reference that came easily for me in this tableau is the presence of Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney Todd. At first I thought that Broadway must be making a comeback, but then I remembered the recent Johnny Depp film.


The real show takes place in the lobby of the convention hall, where people pose for photos in their home-made costumes.

The costumes ranged from the ridiculous to the sublime.


I'd definitely go back next year.