Entertainment

Here’s a show from Montreal in 1964. One of the YouTube comments say that it is “a Radio-Canada video of the first night of Ellington’s appearance in the Le Hot Jazz room in Montreal’s Casa Loma, taped Apr. 20 1964.”

So this is what people were doing a few months before I was born.

Sandglass Theater’s New Visions series presents, Leila Ghaznavi with Pantea Productions: Beyond the Light. This new work, a theatrical exploration of dance, aerial acrobatics, light effects, and puppetry, was conceived by Leila Ghaznavi, a 2012 recipient of the Leeway Foundation Art and Change Grant and the 2012 Puffin Grant.  Beyond the Light is an elegant hybridization of dance, puppetry, shadow work, aerial acrobatics, lighting effects, all set to the poetry of Walt Whitman and Emma Lazarus.  Creator Leila Ghaznavi blends these media to create an epic journey of a soul that is torn in two, seeking to reunite itself.

Let’s visit the Estival Jazz Lugano on July 6, 2012 for a show by David Murray’s Big Band, with guest vocalist Macy Gray.

David Murray has been one of my favorite sax players since his days with the World Saxophone Quartet. He always keeps moving and experimenting, releasing albums with out-jazz trios, quartets, octets, and big bands. he works with great musicians, dabbles in musical styles he’s new to such as music of the Grateful Dead, and has embraced a unique approach to world music through his own style. He reminds me Dolphy and Coltrane, but for this era.

Next up in Sandglass Theater’s New Visions Puppetry Series is Adelka Polak and her company Sova Theater with the world premiere of their new piece Branches. Presented at Sandglass Theater on November 15 & 16 at 7:30pm, tickets are $16 general and $13 for students and seniors. To make reservations please call Sandglass Theater at 387-4051.

This weekend we have good tickets for an interesting show. It’s the summer of 1985, in Union City, New Jersey, and someone classified as punk, new wave, classical, and performance artist. It’s the future wife of Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson,

She made this film much the way the Talking Heads released Stop Making Sense. Her music didn’t translate completely to album format, and the visual elements are captured here for listeners and viewers.

As everyone knows, December is when UFAUX’s tend to float over the skies of Brattleboro.

Is it because of some planetary alignment?

Is it because the occupants of the UFAUX’s are interested in the celebrations that happen near Christmas ?

Do they come here near the darkest time of the year so as to avoid all that solar glare on their windshield, when they buzz the cows in stealthy fly bys?

Or, could it be that that this is when we launch the lightships that my wife Cynthia Houghton created, and the best time for lights in the sky is in the time of the year when it gets dark early?

Let’s set the musical time machine for the end of September in 1986 and head to London’s Town& Country Club for a funky few songs with Trouble Funk.

Yes, it is another Trouble Funk show. Our previous look was in a bigger space, whereas this show takes to a hot and sweaty nightclub, which is more their home turf. Big Tony and his bass lead the band through a handful of their most popular songs at the time for this British TV show.

THE MET: LIVE IN HD: PUCCINI’S CLASSIC DRAMA TOSCA STARS PATRICIA RACETTE AND ROBERTO ALAGNA

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9 at 12:55 p.m.* at The Latchis Theatre, 50 Main Street

THE MET: LIVE IN HD, TOSCA by Giacomo Puccini
Host: Renée Fleming

Puccini’s enduring favorite, starring an exceptional trio of singing actors in the leading roles, will be simulcast LIVE from the Met on Saturday, November 9 at 12:55 p.m. ET. Acclaimed American soprano Patricia Racette stars in one of opera’s greatest roles as the ultimate diva, Floria Tosca, in Luc Bondy’s production.

Thanks to your support, Brattleboro’s own has been nominated for Best GLBT Podcast in the 9th Annual Podcast Awards.

In 15 seconds a day for the next 2 weeks, you can help us win.

October 2013 Artist ala Mode presents:

The music of Bada Raga

The Green Mountain Mummers, Windham County’s men’s sword dance troupe, will be performing on Halloween weekend for the 39th consecutive year! On Saturday, October 26 and Sunday, October 27, the group will present its symbolic death-and-resurrection “street theater” rain or shine in seven locations in Windham County, Vermont (see full schedule below).

The group of 12 men (mostly Windham County residents) is the oldest continuing sword dance and mumming troupe in the United States. Founded in 1975 and with only one of the original members still performing, the group has added many younger members over the last several years. However, it still operates in the manner of the traditional English morris and sword dancers from which the dances were originally collected: they meet to practice and perform only once a year. A favorite every year at election season is the group’s mummers play which has been characterized as a “live political cartoon,” drawing on current events and providing social commentary through humor.

Lenelle Moïse in Womb-Words, Thirsting

November 2-3, 7:30pm

$16 General, $13 students and seniors

For reservations email info@sandglasstheater.org or call (802)387-4051

Sandglass Theater’s Voices of Community Series kicks off on Saturday, November 2nd and Sunday, November 3rd, with poet/theater artist Lenelle Moïse and her one-woman show Womb-Words, Thirsting at Sandglass Theater in Putney, VT.

This week’s concert takes us to Los Angeles in 1983 for a performance by Midnight Star.

This show has everything you need to get your funk on. Shiny suits, bright colors, Jheri curls, sunglasses, robot voices, and nightclub floor-fillers. If you listen to the Chocolate City show on WVEW Saturdays, these songs should sound familiar.

They got started at Kentucky State University in 1976, had a few under-the-radar albums, then broke out big with No Parking On The Dance Floor. The music video featured a classic dancing in the streets scene. with both Prince and Michael Jackson impersonators and dancing police, cowgirls, and construction workers. If they are at this LA show, however, they are watching from the audience.

Vermont Premiere of “World Circus” Film 
Saturday, November 2nd @ 7:30pm 

NECCA – New England Center for Circus Arts, 74 Cotton Mill Hill, Brattleboro, VT 
63min Documentary – Suggested donation @ door 

The “World Circus” feature documentary follows five top circus acts from around the world to the Monte Carlo Circus Festival, and with interviews from the founder of the Big Apple Circus, owner of Ringling Bros., and artistic director at Cirque du Soleil, it reveals the behind the scenes life, history, and culture of circus on an international scale. 

Bada Raga will be live on Artist ala Mode. Thursday, October 17th 6 pm -7pm.  Channel 8 Brattleboro Community Television (BCTV).

This weekend’s concert takes us to Atlanta, Georgia in May of 1978 for a club show with a new band you might like called the B-52’s.

This is a grainy black and white video that captures the weirdness and wonderfulness of an early B-52’s performance. I started listening to them around 1980 or so, and was able to see them at a show in Tampa for their Mesopotamia tour.

The show was at a Jai Alai facility, which was a bit weird, but we had traveled almost 3 hours to get there and didn’t care. I was in high school and got to hear Ring My Bell by Anita Ward played loudly over the sound system before the show – a formative experience for a rock lover in learning to like funk.

Ken Burns to appear October 19, 7:30 p.m.

For Immediate Release – Latchis Arts invites the community to a Grand Re-Opening Benefit at the Latchis Theatre in downtown Brattleboro. This event will mark the public’s first glimpse of the renovations that have taken place since the theatre was closed for construction on August 1, 2013.

Ken Burns, long-time friend of the Latchis, will celebrate the re-opening by screening Episode 5 1933-1939 “The Rising Road” of The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.

Green Mountain camp is holding a family contra dance on Saturday October 5th at 6:30 PM at the camp – 565 Green Mountain Camp Road in Dummerston, Vermont. $10 per person or $25 per family with autumn snacks and cider for sale.  Dances are taught so no experience necessary. Old fashion family fun! Call 802-257-1751 for more information.

The Apron Theater Company and the Next Stage Arts Project present Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize winning play Death of a Salesman directed by Carrie Kidd at Next Stage in Putney on October 10,11,12,13, and 17, 18, 19. Evening performances are at 8 pm. The Sunday, October 13th performance is a 2pm matinee.

An attack on the “American Dream” of materialism, Death of a Salesman is a three-act play (two acts and a “requiem”), centering on the main character, Willy Loman, (played by Arthur Pettee.) He dies as he has lived, a failure in the eyes of society. Arthur Miller wrote: “…to me the tragedy of Willy Loman is that he gave his life, or sold it, in order to justify the waste of it.”

On Saturday and Sunday, September 7 and 8 from 10am-4pm, Sandglass Theater announces the return of local favorite, Puppets in Paradise, a two-day extravaganza of performance, food, and community. “Paradise” is the enchanted setting of landscape architects Gordon and Mary Hayward’s gardens. Walk the gardens, take in the colors and smells of lush herbs, flowers, and other beautiful flora as you meet puppets, theater artists and musicians around each corner and behind every bush. The “Puppets” are 10 spectacular and entertaining short performances presented throughout the day among the flora. Food and refreshments add to the delight of a beautiful day.