A Recent Autumn Night at The Buttonwood Tree

A pleasant walk down Main Street in Middletown leads to The Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts & Cultural Center, an intimate retreat in the heart of the city. Although the late fall air was cool and crisp, within the cozy confines of the café and art center. Executive Director Anne-Marie (Cannata) McEwen and her group of dedicated volunteers create an atmosphere of familial warmth on this Friday Evening, the Sinan Bakir Trio was performing. The trio is led by jazz guitarist and composer Sinan Bakir and features George Mastrogiannis on the drums and Silvain Castellano on the bass.

Local art help to frame the beautiful exposed bricks of the performance area and provides the patron with a sense of big city space. The trio kicked off the evening around 8 pm and shared two memorable sets with the lively audience. The gentle rhythms of the guitar were highlighted by the casually understated bass play and the occasional raucous snap of the snare. A highlight of the first set was a Bakir original entitled “Circles”, named after the 2012 Tales and Stories release.

During intermission, The Buttonwood Tree serves up piping hot coffee, tea, and hot cocoa and a variety of snacks including a staff favorite, the homemade coconut macaroons. I must say the macaroons are exceptionally delicious. The refreshments are served in a traditional coffeehouse settings and the café is lined with stacks of wonderfully addictive books. Intermission also provides audience members with other, non-culinary and nonliterary options as well.

Many patrons casually strolled the art gallery and commented on the exceptional talents of so many of the local artists who have installed their art at The Buttonwood. One patron commented on Wesleyan student Ray Miao’s canvas entitled “Happy Together”, a painting of a young man in a t-shirt contemplating life on a glorious summer day. The female patron marveled at the composition’s scope and the use of colors when I asked her about the jazz music she exclaimed, “Oh it’s just amazing. We will travel great distances for a Sinan Bakir performance. The fact that he is right here at The Buttonwood is so very special.”

The second half of the performance was highlighted by a gentle ballad and a rendition of “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”. The dreamy electric chords of the Bakir Trio are at times a combination of standard jazz, trippy blues, and East meets West fusion. Whatever you may call it, the performance was terrific and certainly was a warm and wonderful diversion on a fall evening. The Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts & Cultural Center is located on 605 Main Street in Middletown, Connecticut. It is a community-based nonprofit arts organization that serves Central Connecticut with music events, a bookstore, performing arts, and educational programming. For more information about The Buttonwood or to see what events are scheduled please visit buttonwood.org.

By Jeb Albert Heade (11/12/16)

This Weekend at The Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts & Cultural Center

Story City Troupe

November 18 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

$10

Story City is a troupe of storytellers based in the Hartford, CT area and trained by Matt Dicks, one of The Moth’s champion storytellers. Story City Troupe uses The Moth Formula: all are true, personal stories, often funny, sometimes amazing, poignant or ironic and based on a single theme for the evening. The troupe members range in age from their 20’s to their 70’s, proving you can come up with a good story at any age.  You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll identify!
The line up includes:

Carolyn Stearns

Jim Harriman

Mike Isko

Jill Wruble

Sue Huggans

Maire Greene

Aligned with Source: An Interactive Workshop & Meditation

November 19 @ 10:30 am - 12:00 pm 
$5

Life is not always easy and change must come from within. In today’s environment of hardship, ill-health, corruption and inequality it is often difficult to see the Light. The purpose of this workshop is to empower you to see yours.
Be the change you wish to see. All you need is Willingness.
Explore simple concepts of living in awareness that: open you up to the wonders of life; discover who you are; let go of fear and all that keeps you stuck. You create your reality and as co-creator of this world, find out how you can bring to it and you, peace, harmony, health and abundance. Each session ends in a powerful guided meditation.

THIS WEEK”S TOPIC: CHANNELING HIGHER FREQUENCIES
A Journey of the Senses.

Sue Lopes Quartet

November 19 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

$10

The Buttonwood Tree Presents: The Sue Lopes Quartet featuring Jeremy Osterling

The Sue Lopes quartet performs throughout New England with unique interpretations of the Great American Songbook with sultry renditions to captivate an audience.

Sue Lopes on Vocals
Jeremy Osterling on Sax
James Daggs on Bass
Dennis Marolda on Drums
Josh Peters on Piano
 

The Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts & Cultural Center
605 Main Street / PO Box 71, Middletown, CT 06457
www.buttonwood.org / 860.347.4957

Readers Theater Presents The Sunset Limited by Cormac McCarthy at Russell Library

On Thursday, November 17 at 7:00 pm, in the Hubbard Room of Russell Library, Readers' Theater will present The Sunset Limited by Cormac McCarthy. Readers Theater is live drama enacted by local actors, directed by Richard B. Kamins and Anne Cassady.  

This is a dramatic dialogue between a white professor and a black ex-convict who deliver opposing views of life and human nature; competing voices of empirical reasoning and world-wearying experience;  and, on the other hand, hope and the transcendent spirit.

A review by Niall Griffiths states:

"Both men are prisoners, White of logic and Black of felt moral duty and need of Higher Power approval. Both experiences – of mystical hope, and of destructive despair – have been mediated through cultural symbols, which render them less powerful.
This is simplification, of course, and The Sunset Limited cannot be accosted with a demand for ready meaning; nor can atheistic or spiritual epiphanies. Such events, and such books, are too rich for and blessedly resistant to that."

This presentation is funded by The Friends of the Russell Library. 

The Friends of the Russell Library is a non-profit organization composed of citizens who believe that an excellent library is essential to a community, and who work to promote and assist Russell Library. They do this primarily through book sales. Their next book sale is the Holiday Book Sale, which begins Friday, November 18th at 10:00am, and runs through Sunday, November 20, at 4:00pm, in the Activity Room of the library. 

Police To Collect Turkeys Friday and Saturday

The Police Department will be collecting turkeys this weekend at Stop and Shop, East Main Street.

Friday, November 18, 2016
1pm to 6pm

Saturday, November 19, 2016
12pm – 6pm

Stop and Shop- East Main Street

The turkeys will go to 1000 families in our city.

Board of Education Votes to Keep All Elementary Schools Open for 2017-2018

Photo from the Middletown Federation of Teachers

The Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday evening to keep all elementary schools open for the 2017-2018 school year.  The vote, originally expected to take place in December, was scheduled for the November meeting after the Board heard strong reaction from parents at October's meeting after the School Closing committee voted primarily, not to close a school and secondarily, if a school needed to be closed that Macdonough Elementary would be the school that would be closed.

In October, Macdonough parents, teachers and students pleaded with the Board of Education to keep Macdonough open.

Messiah Christmas Performances by Middlesex County group

Alleluia!
Cappella Cantorum
Performs
Handel's MESSIAH,
Christmas Selections

Cappella Cantorum, together with the Old Lyme Congregational Church choir, will present two performances of Handel's MESSIAH, Christmas selections.

The performances will take place on Saturday, December 3, 8 p.m., at St. Paul R.C. Church, 179 Rope Ferry Rd., in Waterford, directed by Simon Holt, music director at Old Lyme Congregational; and on Sunday, December 4, 3 p.m., at John Winthrop Middle School, One Winthrop Rd., in Deep River, with Barry Asch, music director and co-founder of Cappella Cantorum. Tickets are $25 and may be purchased at the door or at the Cappella Cantorum website.

Cappella Cantorum is a nonauditioned, nondenominational Connecticut Valley chorus whose primary purpose is to learn, perform, and enjoy great choral music, while striving for the excellence and enrichment of its singers and audience. Along with Cappella Cantorum Men's Chorus, the group has enlivened the Middlesex County musical landscape and delighted its audiences and performers for almost fifty years.  

Friday At Godfrey: Immigrant Ancestor Research Group

From Beth Mariotti, Executive Director, Godfrey Memorial Library
 --------------
Join us at the Godfrey Memorial Library on November 18 at 9:30 am for a session for those researching Immigrant Ancestors. This is a great opportunity to ask questions and get suggestions from Godfrey staff and group participants. Discover resources at the library, other archives and online databases. Get help doing research as you learn!

Bring your laptop to make the most out of this useful information.

Meetings are free to Godfrey Premium members and take place every 3rd Friday.

No  pre-registration necessary.  134 Newfield Street

Meet Beyoncé... Cat Tales' Cat of the Week!!

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Breed:    DSH

Color:    Brown Tabby

Age:       4 years old

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No Dogs / FIV+

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See our commercial! https://youtu.be/Y1MECIS4mIc

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Middletown Conservation Commission to Hold Autumn Hike on Saturday, November 19

Please join the Middletown Conservation Commission for a hike at the Guida Farm Conservation Area on Saturday, November 19, 2016, with a rain date of Sunday, November 20. The hike will begin at 9:30 am at the intersection of Coleman Road and Round Hill Road. The parking lot is directly across from the T-intersection with Coleman Road.

Hike leaders will be Kim Antol, a biology teacher, and Elisabeth Holder, a retired earth science teacher and a member of the Conservation Commission. The two led an informative walk last spring, discussing the natural history of the area. Some of the spring sightings included frog eggs, a wood frog, an owl pellet, a sputnik-shaped fungus called cedar-apple rust, and several bird species.

The fall hike will highlight seasonal changes that can be seen along the trails. Fall topics will be adaptations of trees to the coming winter, how animals prepare for the cold, the foods available to animals, and uses of different plants by Native Americans. Wild animals and birds may show up for everyone’s enjoyment. Who knows what we might see!

Geologically, the property is notable for its exposed Jurassic conglomerate, a rare ancient rock that looks like concrete. It formed at the same time as the Portland brownstone. When dinosaurs roamed the Connecticut Valley, this location was the site of a major fault. The valley was dropping to the west and swiftly-moving streams drained from the highlands to the east into the valley. These rapidly-moving waters left behind the pebbles that are now encased in the brown conglomerate.

For several hundred years, this land served as a grazing area for cows belonging to a succession of family farms. The most recent family to farm here was that of Alexander and Mary Guida, who immigrated from Poland. They ran a highly-successful farm–Sunshine Dairy–from the late 1920s until around 1990. Today their heirs continue to operate the Guida Dairy business. Evidence of the Guida’s former grazing land can still be seen in old strands of fencing in some places. Turnips, corn, potatoes, and other food crops were also grown in the flatter fields.

Anthony and Joseph Guida sold a substantial number of acres to the City of Middletown in 1991 to be preserved as open space. Subsequent additions of land from the Makuch and the Cassa families completed the approximately 100-acre preserve. The Guida brothers continued to mow the open areas after the dairy closed, and Joe, now in his late 90s, continues to manage the hay fields.

Because some of the fields have reverted to woodland, this site presents many opportunities to see how this process takes place. Certain trees and shrubs appear in the old fields. Other species follow in a fairly predictable pattern. There is also abundant evidence of invasive, non-native species, including Japanese barberry, oriental bittersweet, and multiflora rose.

The hike will be suitable for all ages, from school-aged children on up. Participants should wear sturdy shoes, long pants, warm jackets, and be sure to bring a water bottle.

The Middletown Conservation Commission welcomes input from the public regarding its open space properties. We will use information about people’s experiences to continue our stewardship these properties.

At the beginning and the end of the walk, copies of the updated Middletown Trail Guide will be available for purchase at a cost of $10.

 

VINTAGE PLAYERS PRESENTS “MATCHING WITS” AT ODDFELLOWS PLAYHOUSE

Vintage Players presents “Matching Wits,” an evening of 4 funny, poignant one-act plays, at Oddfellows Playhouse on Saturday, November 19 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, November 20 at 3 pm. The plays feature a company including Patricia Farrell, John Hall, Susan Hall, Linda Kaskel, Brian Kaskel, Jenny Lecce, Gerry Matthews, Jane McMillan, Vijay Pinch, and Peter Sipples. Carolyn Kirsch directs the plays, and surprise guests will provide musical accompaniment. A reception follows the performances.  

These performances benefit the children’s programs at Oddfellows Playhouse and support its current challenge to raise $50,000 via a 2-to-1 match of all donations by two Playhouse alumni. For over 40 years Oddfellows Playhouse has provided young people in the greater Middletown area with innovative theater programs that build their self-confidence and help them gain skills that facilitate success in other parts of their lives.

Oddfellows Playhouse is located at 128 Washington Street, Middletown. Tickets are $25. To obtain tickets, visit the Oddfellows Playhouse website at www.oddfellows.org or call Oddfellows at (860) 347-6143.

Volunteers Wanted For Tax Preparation Support

From Amanda Furlong, Communications Director, Middlesex United Way.
----------------
The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA) is seeking volunteers to assist low-to-moderate income households prepare and file their taxes to ensure they get back the money they have earned.

Through this national program, volunteers are trained and certified by the IRS to ensure that working families and individuals are filing for all of the appropriate tax credits. The program also helps people avoid costly fees associated with tax preparation and rapid refund loans.

The program is looking for volunteers for two VITA sites located in downtown Middletown to provide free basic tax preparation assistance for eligible taxpayers. Tax preparation assistance is offered January 21, 2017- April, 12, 2017 at the offices of Middlesex United Way and the North End Action Team.

Volunteers will receive and complete training certified by the IRS and do not require prior experience. Training will be held from January 3-5 or January 9-12, 2017 in Middletown. Volunteers must attend consecutive evening sessions. You will be trained to let filers know if they qualify for additional tax credits, such as the federal and the state Earned Income Tax Credits and the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit. VITA volunteers must complete a minimum of one 4-hour shift per week during tax season available during the late afternoons and evenings as well as minimal day time hours once a week or on Saturdays; maintain confidentiality of all client information; and interact with the public in a helpful and supportive manner.

In 2016, the two VITA sites in Middletown helped more than 600 Middlesex County residents file their taxes for free and returned $990,000 back to taxpayers. Those who filed with Middletown VITA sites had an average Adjusted Gross Income of just over $20,000 and received an average refund of $1,615, money they have earned. This impacts not only those who filed their taxes, but also their families and the local economy.

For more information about volunteering, contact David Morgan at dmorgan@wesleyan.edu or (860) 346-1522.

VITA is a free program offered by the federal government. Local sites are coordinated by the Middlesex VITA Coalition, a partnership of Middlesex United Way and the North End Action Team. The Middlesex VITA Coalition receives support from the Connecticut Association of Human Services.

"Beware the Future; It Has Fangs." --Cleopatra -- The Colonel Carries On #57

By Issa Hardrain Konefal

“Well, that was unexpected.” --Kevin J. Williamson

“I did not see that coming.” --Jim Geraghty

“What a revoltin’ toin of events this is!” --Curly Howard of The Three Stooges

Polling may be over for political races, apparently because fear has led people to lie to pollsters. Still good for food wrap product preferences and “good taste/less filling” contests, though.