by | Apr 25, 2024 8:54 am | Comments (2)
Allan Appel Photo
Michael Ortiz before diorama evoking Connecticut's Long Island shoreline.
“Absolutely magnificent,” eighth grader Michael Ortiz marveled at a representation of the Connecticut shoreline with its marshes, night herons snagging fish, and dozens of other labeled flora and fauna — all as part of one of the newly reopened state history dioramas at the freshly renovated Yale Peabody Museum.
by | Apr 25, 2024 8:52 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery photo
Sketch Tha Cataclysm at Three Sheets.
“Hello several people, rap professionals, and various cool people,” said Sketch Tha Cataclysm from the Three Sheets stage, as he and fellow New Haven hip hop stalwart Mo Niklz hosted a group of touring artists from Chicago for a night of high-energy indie hip hop.
by | Apr 22, 2024 1:11 pm | Comments (6)
Brian Slattery photo
At the New Haven Composers Spotlight at NXTHVN.
Composer and violinist Alyssa Chetrick was taking a solo as part of her vertiginous piece, sardonically titled “Equilibrium.” If some of the previous passages had offered a sense of calm, Chetrick was now going for chaos, spurring the ensemble around her to join her. Her phrasing pushed the musicians around her to dig deeper into the music she’d written, as if they were looking to break it. Would they?
by | Apr 22, 2024 12:10 pm | Comments (5)
No word yet on the cheesesteaks: Grace-Flood.
You can still read what Nora Grace-Flood is finding out — now from Philadelphia rather than New Haven.
by | Apr 22, 2024 11:13 am | Comments (0)
Amartya De
Sequoia.
The photograph is from northern California, and photographer Amartya De said it was his roommate’s favorite of his pictures at the time because “it shows the landscape.” It was a city, but not really a city; it was a place close to the redwoods. De was there from Calcutta, learning how to become an artist, and learning that the practice of making art and the practice of surviving weren’t all that different.
by | Apr 22, 2024 11:00 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
The Creature descends on Best Video.
The Giant Behemoth and a creature from beneath the sea stood side by side with Betty Boop, Jimmy Stewart, and a New Jersey couple celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary as Best Video Film and Cultural Center hosted a screening of 8‑millimeter films projected and presented by Quinnipiac University’s Women in Films president Julia Schnarr.
Sunday evening saw an intimate gathering of enthusiastic film professors, students, and fans at the Whitney Avenue movie lover’s mecca taking in seven short films, six from Schnarr’s own collection and one belonging to Best Video.
by | Apr 19, 2024 9:04 am | Comments (0)
Dereen Shirnekhi Photo
Sam Carlson in the WNHH FM studio.
Sam Carlson broke a string as he tuned up his Guild D‑50 acoustic guitar to perform live on radio. But no worries — he had a backup Guild M‑20 with him as well.
by | Apr 18, 2024 12:19 pm | Comments (0)
After a day of driving heavy machinery, Joe Ballaro plugged in his bass, and the show began.
by | Apr 12, 2024 9:33 am | Comments (9)
Joy Bush photo
Bethlehem.
It’s the shape of an ancient Middle Eastern cityscape, verandahs and towers, arched doorways and windows like peeping eyes. But it’s not anywhere near the Middle East; it’s on a rock hilltop in Waterbury, and it’s part of Holy Land USA — to some, a roadside attraction, to others, a place of serious pilgrimage, and for Joy Bush, the subject of an almost 40-year-long series of photographs.
Some of those photos are up now at City Gallery in a show called “Ruins of a Holy Land,” running through April 28, with a reception on April 13.
by | Apr 12, 2024 9:13 am | Comments (0)
Charlie Widmer performs on WNHH FM's "Acoustic Thursday @ Studio 51," opening with his new single.
Charlie Widmer didn’t expect people to want to hear “What Do I Need With Love?” Now it’s the first of his songs some people will ever hear.
by | Apr 11, 2024 12:36 pm | Comments (1)
In the backroom lounge of Mediterranea Cafe, among centuries-old hookah pipes and patterned cushions, a fairy rising from the Underworld sang about darkness — and love, too.
by | Apr 11, 2024 9:51 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photo
Marco Benevento.
In front of a packed house that was ready to have fun, two touring acts at Space Ballroom — the New York City-based Ghost Funk Orchestra and the Woodstock, N.Y.-based Marco Benevento — brought humor, relaxation, and armfuls of danceable beats to the Hamden club on Wednesday night.
by | Apr 10, 2024 1:20 pm | Comments (5)
A still from Seven Days in May.
“The astounding story of an astounding military plot to take over the United States! The time is 1970 or 1980 or, possibly, tomorrow!”
Thus reads the tagline to the political thriller Seven Days in May, the first entry in April’s Tuesday night film screening series at Best Video. Last night an engrossed crowd took in the John Frankenheimer-directed and Rod Sterling-penned 1964 classic, based on the novel written by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Barley II and published in 1962.
Continue reading ‘"Seven Days in May" Leads April Film Series At Best Video’
by | Apr 10, 2024 9:19 am | Comments (0)
Asher Joseph photo
Kenneth Joseph on the steel pans.
Music lovers young and old found their seats with the help of the early evening sun, the only source of light in the dark gymnasium of the Q House.
The space would not remain dark for long, however, as the Dixwell Community Management Team’s (DCMT) “Jazz & Contemporary Music Concert” lit up the space with singing, saxophones, and selections from various poets.
Continue reading ‘Saxophone & Steel Pans Sing At Q House Concert’
by | Apr 9, 2024 9:02 am | Comments (0)
A still from La Practica.
On Monday night Yale Film Archive’s Cinemix series offered a selection that exemplified its description of itself as “stand alone screenings of standout films.” La Práctica (The Practice) — the latest from Argentinian writer/director Martín Rejtman — is the story of a yoga instructor’s interactions with students old and new as he maneuvers his way through his ever-changing world. Presented in conjunction with the Latino and Iberian Film festival at Yale (LIFFY), the event included a post-film Q&A with Rejtman, moderated by LIFFY’s founder and executive director Margherita Tortora.
Continue reading ‘"La Práctica" Balances Humor And Humanity’
by | Apr 8, 2024 12:45 pm | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photo
Blick Bassy.
A triple bill at Cafe Nine on Saturday Night headlined by Cameroonian touring artist Blick Bassy featured two younger New Haven acts who tipped their hats to those older than they were, even as they showed everyone in the room that the future of music in the Elm City is in safe hands.
by | Apr 8, 2024 9:06 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery photo
Voices filled the space of Bethesda Lutheran Church on Sunday afternoon, raised in song. But the harmonies weren’t what many may have been used to in a church; they were sharper, more angular, provoking of thought. Nor was the text from the Bible; it was a dispatch from halfway around the world, from the present day.
“We sense something grave is happening around us. We don’t know what the future holds,” the choir sang. “The land we tilled for generations is shrinking; salt water poisons what’s left of our fields. Many people have gone, displacement and death everywhere.”
by | Apr 5, 2024 12:00 pm | Comments (1)
Paul Bass Photo
Johnathan Moore at WNHH FM. Below: Performing.
Johnathan Moore was ready to add a layer of sound. He reached for the Boss RC 600 loop station pedal and … nothing.
Moore said nothing. He made no excuses. He kept the beat going. He pivoted to a new plan — and the music played on.
by | Apr 5, 2024 11:25 am | Comments (1)
Still from Within Our Gates.
As Yale Film Archive launches into the last quarter of its 2024 spring semester programming, it offered something a little different on Thursday evening: silent films that each had a special distinction.
The first, presented in conjunction with the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, was a selection of Solomon Sir Jones Films from 1924 to 1928 that are currently a part of the library’s holdings. The second was a showing of Within Our Gates, a 1920 film written, produced, and directed by Oscar Micheaux; it’s the oldest known surviving film with a Black director. One more bonus: both films on this evening were accompanied by live music, played by pianist Donald Sosin.
by | Apr 5, 2024 9:15 am | Comments (1)
Mistina Hanscomb Photo
Klein.
“Shapes of the Things to Come,” from The Quiver — the new album from In These Trees (a.k.a. New Haven-based musician Binnie Klein) and Australian musician Tartie — begins with a searching guitar, heading somewhere, building atmosphere as it goes.
Bass tones ground it, setting Tartie’s direct, emotive voice free. “Life’s not a road, it’s an alley / We try to fit inside,” Tartie sings. “Every day we set the ground / Stretched end to end / But we can bend / Move with me / Through the new shapes / Of the things to come.” The words are by Klein; the music by Tartie, and The Quiver is the result of years of work, 10,000 miles apart.
by | Apr 4, 2024 4:18 pm | Comments (9)
Laura Glesby Photo
Lunch is self-served.
After a single bite, I realized I had ordered the wrong entree at IKEA. The “veggie balls” were a blank slate: a mush of chickpeas, carrots, peppers, and other veggies I usually enjoy, mashed and blended until they amounted to something almost as thoroughly bland as the cauliflower rice I got on the side.
by | Apr 4, 2024 9:10 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery photo
Chappell Roan on Wednesday at College St.
The jury is still out on whether American culture, or the music industry, can create another superstar, like Michael Jackson or Prince, like Madonna or Bruce Springsteen. Maybe Beyoncé, now 42 years old, and Taylor Swift, 34, are the last of their kind. But if future superstars are still possible, one of its more likely candidates — Chappell Roan — played at College Street Music Hall on Wednesday night to an ecstatic, sold-out crowd that couldn’t get enough.
by | Apr 3, 2024 9:38 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photos
Greco.
Pete Greco had a series of requests for the audience at Cafe Nine on Tuesday night. Did anyone know how to tune a guitar? Did anyone have any tattoos? The questions were all good-natured jokes in the service of serious music, as Greco and his band took the last slot on the inaugural night of First Tuesdays at Cafe Nine, billed as “a songwriter’s showcase featuring live bands, focused on shining a light into New Haven’s tremendously talented songwriting circuit.”
by | Apr 2, 2024 8:45 am | Comments (0)
Susan Hoffman Fishman
The Earth Is Breaking Beautifully.
Susan Hoffman Fishman’s painting seems at first to be an abstract, full of brilliant colors and bold lines. Soon, though, one can see how it’s derived from natural forms — but at what scale? It could be a cross-section of a tree or a landscape viewed from space. It turns out that it’s more the latter.
“As a result of climate change, the extraction of minerals and the damming of the Jordan River, which once provided a source of new water to the Dead Sea, over 8,000 sinkholes have developed along its shores. Seen from above via satellites and drones, the sinkholes are brilliant cobalt blue, lime green, white, yellow ochre and rust red,” the artist writes. “The Earth is Breaking Beautifully emphasizes the contrast between the horrifying destruction around the Dead Sea and the beauty of that destruction.”
Continue reading ‘Artists Open Path To Grappling With Climate Change’
by | Mar 29, 2024 11:07 am | Comments (0)
Paul Bass Photo
MJ Bones in the WNHH FM studio.
“If love is like an ocean,” MJ Bones was singing, “I’m lost at sea.”
Meanwhile, they sounded right at home, right where they belonged: Performing revelatory original songs on the ukulele, in New Haven.
