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. 

Theater Master Class Series Announced

 Oddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater announces a Master Class series that will take place beginning in February for middle school, high school students and adults.   Additional Master Classes will also be announced shortly for the spring. 

The series begins with The Art of the Monologue on Saturday February 2 from 11am-2pm, with guest artist Emily Hope Webster.  This class will allow middle and high school students to explore opportunities for storytelling and character development in this classic theatrical device.  The class will cover aspects of the monologue from selection of the piece to analyzing text to performance.  Participants should prepare a classic or contemporary monologue to work with.  The cost of the master class is $50.

 Emily Hope Webster is a thirty-year veteran of the entertinament world, finding her earliest success in front of the camera.  As a child actress her television credits include a five year run on the FOX hit Small Wonder, starring roles in such films as Troop Beverly Hills and Caddie Woodlawn and the Emmy-award winning series Christy.  She also worked on the New York City stage at WPA and with playwright John Guare at Lincoln Center. 

The series will continue with Improv Bootcamp on Saturday February 16 and Sunday February 17 from 12-4pm.  This two day bootcamp is led by Sam Shaw, founder of the San Francisco Improv Festival.  A alumnus of Middletown High School, Wesleyan University, and Oddfellows Playhouse, Sam has a 25+ year career in improvisational theater, performing and leading dozens of comedy troupes. 

In this two day multi-generational improv boot camp, actors will throw the script out the window, set the improve games aside, and teach students how to improvise truthful scenes from their own experiences and to collaborate effectively as an ensemble.  Learn how to say “yes-and”, “play to the top of your intelligence” and most importantly, “play hard!”.   The cost of the workshop is $90, and it will end with a performance for friends and families at 7pm on Sunday February 17, joined by some of central CT and Wesleyan’s finest improv groups. 

Interested students should visit www.oddfellows.org to sign up for the Master Class.  The Master Classes are limited to 20 students.  Call 860-347-6143 to register or to find out more information. 

Popcorn by The Colonel #24: "Who Let the Dogs of War Out?"

Epigraph: "Fruit flies are the nanotechnology of the fear industry." --Bucky Katt

Lesser Tapped as Assistant Majority Leader

Rep. Matt Lesser (D-Middletown) has been appointed Assistant Majority Leader by Democratic leaders, incoming Speaker of the House J. Brendan Sharkey (D-Hamden) and Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz (D-Berlin).

Lesser, 29, was re-elected to his third term in November. This is the first time Rep. Lesser has been tapped to join Democratic leadership.

"I'm gratified by the appointment and look forward to working with our new leadership in the new year," Rep Lesser said.

"As Assistant Majority Leader, Matt will play a key role in moving our legislative agenda forward," said incoming Speaker of the House Sharkey. "Rep. Lesser's experience serving on a broad spectrum of committees makes him a great fit for this leadership position."

Video: Midnight on Main 2013

I wasn't able to attend the 2012 Midnight on Main so I was excited to experience this one.  It was... exhausting.  There were so many different things going on from Court street all the way up north of Rapallo ave.  Looking at the flyer I had to plan out my trip like a plane jetting from one part of the country to another.  After the fireworks (a little weak, lasting 3 mins) I found time to eat something.  I was excited to see the Big Green Pizza Truck and I thought it was amazing pizza.  Overall a fantastic time.   It was cold but you had to stay moving to catch all the activities/events.

http://www.middnight.org/

Summer Jobs in the Arts - Kids Arts Employment Apps Online

The City of Middletown Commission on the Arts is gearing up for Kids Arts 2013 and we have placed the Summer Employment Application online for your convenience. We focus on hiring late high school (16 or older) and college age young adults and we give priority to Middletown youth.

The deadline for submission of an application is March 22, 2013. We look forward to hearing from you. If you have any questions regarding the process, you may call the Arts Office at 860.343.6620, x201.

COULD THIS BE YOU in 2013?

Upcoming Middlesex United Way Events

Learn With Leaders with Dr. Pat Charles, hosted by Middlesex United Way Young Leaders Society

Tuesday, January 22

8-9:30 a.m.

Middletown Public Schools Central Office, 311 Hunting Hill Avenue, Middletown

Dr. Pat Charles, superintendent of Middletown Public Schools, will discuss the characteristics she looks for in successful young leaders, followed by a Q&A session. A light breakfast will be served.

The Middlesex United Way Young Leaders Society celebrates and strengthens the power of young professionals to become leaders in our organizations and bring about positive change in our community. Learn With Leaders events give community-minded young professionals an opportunity to connect and network with local leaders who know the importance of civic engagement. To learn more, visit www.middlesexunitedway.org/YLS.

RSVP at facebook.com/MUWYoungLeadersSociety or by emailing matt.plourde@middlesexunitedway.org. Suggested donation of $5.

 

Women's Networking Breakfast, hosted by the United Way Women’s Initiative

Wednesday, January 23

8-9 a.m.

Water’s Edge Center for Health & Rehabilitation, 111 Church Street, Middletown

Please join us for a light breakfast, hear from a guest speaker, and connect with other women.

At this month’s networking breakfast, we will hear from Kaitlyne McNamara, a champion of disability awareness and self-advocacy and a consumer at MARC: Community Resources. The Women’s Initiative is a group of caring volunteers and professionals, uniting to create opportunities for a better life for women and children in Middlesex County.  Learn more at www.middlesexunitedway.org/WI. 

Suggested donation of $5. All proceeds benefit the work of the Women’s Initiative.  RSVP to United Way at (860) 346-8695 or georgie.leone@middlesexunitedway.org.

Middlesex United Way Annual Meeting

Tuesday, January, 29, 2013
8 a.m. Breakfast; 8:30 a.m. Program

The Riverhouse at Goodspeed Station, Haddam, CT

 

We hope you will join us so we can say 'thank you,' celebrate the year, and honor people and organizations who are doing something BIG for Middlesex County. 

Please join us as we honor:

Wilfredo Nieves , Community Service Award

Joan Youngs, Community Leadership Award

Welles and Lillian Guilmartin, Tocqueville Society Philanthropy Award

Even Start Family Literacy program/Middletown Adult Education, Community Impact Award

Middlesex United Way is a locally based organization dedicated to strengthening lives, helping people, and improving community conditions in the fifteen towns in Middlesex County.

 The cost is $20 per person. Kindly RSVP by January 18 to www.middlesexunitedway.org/annualmeeting

or (860) 346-8695.

Middlesex United Way Women’s Initiative Annual Meeting

Thursday, February 7

5:30 p.m.

The Village at South Farms, 645 Saybrook Rd., Middletown

 

You are cordially invited to the Middlesex United Way Women’s Initiative Annual Meeting.  Catch up on our activities from 2012 in the company of women who want to make a difference in Middlesex County, and enjoy hors d’oeuvres, wine, soft drinks and door prizes. There is no charge.

RSVP by February 1 to Middlesex United Way at (860) 346-8695 or georgie.leone@middlesexunitedway.org.

January 18th - Comedy in Middletown

Join us for an evening of improvised comedy at Oddfellows Playhouse. Come see troupes of actors take to the stage without a script and create scenes based on audience suggestions.

Where: Oddfellows Playhouse, 128 Washington Street  Middletown, CT 06457
When: Friday, January 18th 7:30PM
Who: Hartford's Sea Tea Improv, Middletown's Great Make-Believe Society and East Hampton's The Sticks Improv.
Cost: $10
Refreshments by NoRA Cupcake Company

The show is sponsored by The Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts and Cultural Center and by a grant from the Middletown Commission on the Arts.

Winter Drama Programs - Now Enrolling

Oddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater is pleased to announce that its Winter 2013 Session will begin the week of January 28.  Oddfellows’ programs use theater as a vehicle to build essential life skills, while exploring highly educational and artistic themes and plays.  There are a variety of performance options and technique based classes for students ages 3-18.

Classes for the Little Fellows (ages 3-4) include Around the World and Animal Adventures. Classes are offered on Saturday mornings.  Looking for something to do during the week with your little one?  Participatory classes include Parents & Tots and Arts Explosion on Thursday mornings at 10am. 

First Act (Grades K-1) offers Creative Drama courses themed around children’s books and adventures such as Fractured Fairytales and Jungle Safari.  Story Starters (Grades 2-3) encourage creative expression and promote confidence, self-esteem, and communication.  Once a week classes focus on skill building, while classes that meet twice a week short productions put those skills into action.  Classes include Peter and the Wolf and Create Your Own Story and a mini-production of Grimm Fairytales.  The Kids Company (Grades 4-5) is the stage that students begin to focus more on skills and techniques.  These courses help develop the next set of vocal, physical and emotional skills.  Technique classes include Fundamentals of Acting, Create a Character and Fundamentals of Musical Theater. An original comedic mini-production is also on tap, called More Rubber Chickens.

The Junior Repertory Company (grades 6-8) offers a full production of Alice Threw the Looking Glass, a parody of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style by John Walch.  In this comedy, First-year college student Alice is in serious danger of failing her English course when she follows her composition paper into the trash -- and ends up in a hallucinatory world where the rules of grammar are turned upside-down. If she wants to pass, she'll need to deal with gunslinging run-on sentences, thugs hawking colloquialisms, fearsome Modifier Leeches, and more. 

The Teen Repertory Company (grades 9-12) will be holding auditions on Tuesday January 29 from 7-9pm.

There are also private lessons, stagecraft, directing and playwrighting classes available for middle and high school students.  A full list of program offerings and public performances can be found online at www.oddfellows.org.

Oddfellows programming is made possible through the generous support of the CDBG Scholarship Program, Citizens Bank, the CT Department of Economic and Community Development, the CT Department of Education, Daphne Seybolt Culpeper Memorial Fund, Elizabeth Carse Foundation, the Fund for Greater Hartford, the George A. and Grace L. Long Foundation, the Irving Kohn Foundation, the J. Walton Bissell Foundation, Liberty Bank Foundation, Maximilian E. & Marion O. Hoffman Foundation, Middlesex County Community Foundation, Middlesex United Way, the Middletown Commission on the Arts, Middletown YSB, the National Endowment for the Arts, Pratt & Whitney, Price Chopper Golub Foundation, the Stare Fund, Stop and Shop Foundation, Thomas J. Atkins Foundation, Triple Frog, LLC and WESU (88.1FM).

Video: A discussion on assault weapon violence.

Middletown CT residents, John Kilian, Robert Dutcher, and Darrell Lucas discuss the Newtown tragedy and assault weapon violence.  How do we prevent tragedies of mass killings with assault rifles from happening?  Is the problem the weapon? Is it the people who surround the weapon?  Is it the media and entertainment that influence our society?  The answer may be that all of those factors contribute to the problem.

This is the first video about this subject.  Another is being planned where the guests are strong supporters of gun ownership and the second amendment.

Since this video has been made some ideas we discussed I have altered my opinion on.  An example would be NOT using security guards but a full time police officer to be posted at a school. If that decision is made.

Side note: This is the first video I made with this type of format.  The more I do the better they will get.  Also 22 mins a little too long.  I would rather keep a segment down to 10-15 mins.  Also if you or someone you know have something that you want to talk about publicly then please feel free to contact me.  DarrellLucas@gmail.com

Great Live Music at Klekolo

DJ NEB

It's Tuesday at Klekolo World Coffee on Court Street so that means live music. This week it was a pair of DJs: Jay Dun Jin and NEBula.

DJ Jay Dun Jin

Both DJ sets were fun and lively. Beat boxer MD Outta Order hosted the sets and entertained with his beat boxing vocal skills.

The crowd was there to listen in, chat, play chess and of course, drink some coffee.

Klekolo World Coffee has live music on Tuesday nights. It's a fun way to perk up a weeknight. Next week will feature the jazz music of Kevin O'Neil.

Christopher Polack is Middletown resident and blogger. www.thediversion.com

Great Live Jazz at The Buttonwood Tree in January

(A slightly different version of this post appears on my blog Step Tempest - steptempest.blogspot.com.)

As the New Year begins, The Buttonwood Tree celebrates its 24th Birthday.  The brainchild of poet Susan Allison and her husband Stephan (an arts maven and believer in the power of art),The Buttonwood has played host to concerts from myriad musical styles, plays, poetry readings, belly dancing workshops, yoga workshops and other types of performance art as well as being a gallery for the visual arts and a bookstore.  Plus, it's a gathering place, working with children in the summertime as well as having programs for adults.

For old fogies, such as myself, it's a great place to hear live music. I have seen and heard numerous musicians from around the world playing (literally) in my living room.  For several years after coming to Wesleyan, Professor Anthony Braxton would workshop material in the performance space.  David Chevan and Warren Byrd utilized the space to kickstart the Afro-Semitic Experience and I've watched Noah Baerman grow as a performer and composer in that very room.

So, I am so pleased to see the schedule in January includes a goodly number of jazz concerts.  This Saturday (January 5), tenor saxophonist Russ Nolan (pictured) brings his Organ Trio to The Buttonwood for an 8 p.m. show. Nolan just issued his third CD as a leader, "Tell Me" (Rhinoceruss Music), and will be bringing 2 of the musicians on the disk with him, organist Art Hirahara and drummer Brian Fishler. Inspired by his great love of salsa dancing, the recording has several Latin-influenced tunes (including a splendid version of Stevie Wonder's "Creepin') but, in his liner notes, Nolan writes "..this is anything but a dance record." Yet, it is hard to keep one's feet from tapping on a majority of tracks.  There are also intelligent arrangements of Lennon-McCartney's "Nowhere Man" and Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" (composed by Siedah Garrett and Glen Ballard.) Nolan's warm tenor sound, his enjoyment for playing and the excellent rhythm section will warm those who come see the Trio play.

The following Friday (January 11), drummer/composer George Schuller (he of the ubiquitous chapeaux and constant smile) returns to Middletown with his Trio, this time composed of Frank Kimbrough (piano) and Matt Pavolka (bass).  Mr. Schuller's list of accomplishments since he turned professionally 3 decades is mighty astounding, including gigs with saxophonist Joe Lovano, pianist Myra Melford, bassists Mario Pavone and Joe Fonda, guitarist Michael Musillami and a slew of others as well as producing numerous recordings and leading his own bands. He is a sensitive and adventurous composer and an accomplished percussionist.  Frank Kimbrough leads his own Trio and is, honestly, one of my favorite musicians - he works with the Maria Schneider Orchestra, vocalist Kendra Shank, is an original  member of the Jazz Composers Collective (having just celebrated its 20th anniversary) and teaches at the Juilliard School in New York City.  Matt Pavolka is a busy musician, working with numerous ensembles (including his vocalist wife Akiko's band) and leading his own Horns band.

All told, should be another fine evening of exploratory music - the music starts at 8 p.m.

The very next night (January 12) at 8 p.m., the Dan DeChellis Trio plays an evening of original music.  Mr. DeChellis has just issued his 10th CD as a leader, "The Age of Anxiety", and will be bring bassist Mitch Shelley and drummer Zack Martin with him to Middletown to play those tunes and more. He's a fine improviser and composer, writing songs that, at times, have more structure and depth than one might expect from a Piano trio.  The interplay of the musicians is very important, how they listen to each other, pushing, prodding and moving the music forward.

To find out more, go to www.dandechellis.com.  To find out more about The Buttonwood Tree, its complete January schedule and beyond, go to www.buttonwood.org.