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.
by | Mar 29, 2024 9:18 am | Comments (5)
artidea.org
Jazz vocalist Samara Joy, an A&I headliner this year.
Shakespeare in circus, choral fusion, climate activism and optimism talks, making your own empanadas: this eclectic mix of events and more is part of this summer’s International Festival of Arts and Ideas, which is returning with a full schedule of programming that covers just about anything an arts and culture lover would have a taste for — and maybe something they have never tasted before.
by | Mar 28, 2024 9:52 am | Comments (0)
Videodome.
Two releases by two of New Haven’s currently active bands — Videodome and Wally — show how bands can reap musical success in two very different ways.
by | Mar 27, 2024 9:59 am | Comments (0)
Mark K. St. Mary
Study #1108.
Mark K. St. Mary’s Study #1108 looks almost like it could be a double exposure, an image of light and shadow laid over a photograph of a hallway. Viewed another way, it can feel almost intrusive, a view from inside a house at night when the lights are off. Should we, the viewers, be there? What is going on?
by | Mar 26, 2024 4:18 pm | Comments (5)
Nora Grace-Flood Photos
Derek Silva and company use iPhones to capture Peabody reopening.
Joanna Romberg shows the crew a fossilized fish.
The reborn Peabody Museum unlocked its doors Tuesday and ushered in a new era of kids ready to roam renovated dinosaur rooms — as the kids unlocked their iPhones.
by | Mar 25, 2024 9:14 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Shandy Lawson.
A chair and a guitar. A table holding an old-fashioned radio. A vase full of purple flowers. A teacup and saucer. Was this a scene from an oft-told tale or real life? At Best Video on Saturday, it was the setting for “Stories: An Evening with Shandy Lawson,” in which the New Haven-based singer-songwriter shared a collection of songs that offered a bit of fiction, a bite of truth, and a tasty twist on each.
Continue reading ‘Shandy Lawson Sings Stories at Best Video’
by | Mar 22, 2024 3:57 pm | Comments (12)
Nora Grace-Flood Photos
Milling your own grain is like grinding coffee to order, according to Frisch, who does both.
Bill Frisch signed up for the city’s DNA of the Entrepreneur program — and found the right recipe to make his business, East Rock Breads, rise to the top.
City officials joined Frisch outside his shop at 942 State Street Friday to cut a formal ribbon for the new shop and publicize the secret ingredient to that shared success: $15,000 in funding from the city’s Leaseholder Improvement Program.
by | Mar 22, 2024 11:08 am | Comments (2)
Madonna.
The Yale University Art Gallery’s show “Munch and Kirchner: Anxiety and Expression” — running now through June 23 on the gallery’s fourth floor at 1111 Chapel St. — begins with a moment at an art gallery over 100 years ago that feels like it could happen today, or any time. In 1912, the text relates, there was a “monumental exhibition of modern art” in Cologne, Germany that “aimed to illustrate how the most cutting-edge groups of the day drew inspiration from the work of a slightly older generation.” That big-tent approach, however, turned out to be fraught.
by | Mar 21, 2024 11:44 am | Comments (1)
Portrait of a Lady — Spilling the Tea; La Artillería De La Reina — Gimme My Flowers Now; Nefertiti of House Nubia — Bamboo Earring Only 1 Pair.
Sandy Clafford’s trio of paintings take over the space near the window of the Institute Library’s upstairs gallery for the show “Look Book” — running now through May 23 in the Chapel Street library, with an opening reception tonight. They make a bold fashion statement, though not one that follows easy rules.
by | Mar 20, 2024 9:27 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Addie and Jacey of the Connecticut Democratic Socialists of America declared themselves “thrilled” to be on Cafe Nine’s stage Tuesday night. The DSA is involved in a number of political efforts, but this night it was focusing on raising funds for a cause: The REACH Fund, which, as its website states, “is a nonprofit organization that provides financial assistance for abortion care in Connecticut.”
by | Mar 19, 2024 10:18 am | Comments (4)
John McDonald Photo
Ball & Socket Arts front view.
When asked to name the cultural hubs of the Northeast, most people would not consider Cheshire, Connecticut a part of that list. A group of enthusiastic artists and supporters of the arts are hoping to change that over the next few years, as Ball & Socket Arts, a complex located on West Main Street right along the Farmington Canal Linear Path, continues its efforts to create a central location aimed at encouraging ongoing creativity and attracting New Haven County residents and beyond to its galleries, performance venue, art education center, and more.
Continue reading ‘Ball & Socket Arts Turns Factory Into Gallery’
by | Mar 18, 2024 12:08 pm | Comments (3)
Bo Sandine with a signature gin and tonic in 116 Crown heaven.
The illuminated bar. The welcoming, gorgeous garden in the back. The carefully crafted cocktails, which were worth the extra time they took. Over its now-ended 17-year run, 116 Crown was a singular sensation.
