Hitting The Showers
by | Jul 20, 2020 11:51 am | Comments (0)
Paul Bass Photos
Looking to future in Edgewood Park: Mural outside pavilion (above); mom with 9 new ducklings in the pond.
I believe I need to shower
All signs indicate it
Arts & Culture
Summer Saturdays Sizzle With Live Music
by | Jul 20, 2020 9:17 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Caribbean Vibe Steel Drum Band.
A July in New Haven typically gives people a multitude of choices for where and when to be entertained. With this July being anything but typical — except for the soaring temperatures — the city is offering another way to enjoy many of its dining options, shops, and yes, even live music performances: as part of Summer Saturdays, a coordinated effort involving downtown restaurants and other businesses, performers are paired with locations to allow patrons to take in lunch and a show.
Today’s Ted Take
by | Jul 18, 2020 9:59 pm | Comments (0)
“Runoff Art” Flows Thru West River Corner
by | Jul 17, 2020 11:08 am | Comments (3)
Thomas Breen photos
Sidewalk stormwater art on Chapel Street. Design by fifth-grade artist Nick Ruiz.
Student artists Assata Johnson and Trinity Ford.
A half-dozen high school student artists brightened up a West River corner with painted sunflowers and swirling waves of water as part of an eco-friendly summer work project.
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Art Of Aging Jumps Into The New
by | Jul 17, 2020 10:48 am | Comments (1)
Tom Brooks
Silent Refuge.
It looks like classic New England; it could be in Vermont or New Hampshire. But New Haveners with a keen eye will know it’s from East Rock Park, that the photographer has just stepped off the covered bridge spanning the Mill River at the dam at the Eli Whitney Museum, and is just heading out on the trail that circles the water. The photograph, Silent Refuge by Tom Brooks, won the People’s Choice award in photography in “The Art of Aging,” the annual art exhibit hosted by the Agency on Aging.
In the past, the exhibit has graced the walls of the agency’s offices at Long Wharf. This year, due to the pandemic, the exhibit, featuring dozens of artists, is running virtually — making it, in some ways, that much easier for New Haveners to see these artists show their take on what it is to age creatively.
New Riverfront BBQ Joint Is Smokin’
by | Jul 16, 2020 1:30 pm | Comments (8)
Ko Lyn Cheang Photo
Streeter at work at Streets Boathouse Smokehouse on Front Street.
Smoke billowed out of the barbecue pit as Steve Streeter lifted one of the lids on his massive outdoor smoker.
Tomorrow’s Downtown Comes Into View
by | Jul 16, 2020 12:19 pm | Comments (8)
Approved 101 College design.
Amid praise for a “gutsy” scaling down of new parking, developer Carter Winstanley’s proposed new ten-story bioscience tower at 101 College St. sailed through its site plan review approval.
Buddy Toth Releases Music On A Lark
by | Jul 16, 2020 11:20 am | Comments (0)
“Lapis Lazuli,” the first song from Buddy Toth’s LARK•SPUR, opens with a sunny guitar and a soothing vocal that sounds just like the weather outside.
It picks up momentum with the help of a shaker and a little piano, as vocal and guitar weave around each other, but it never loses its sense of sunny idyll. Why should it change? In the same way that one can spend an entire afternoon under the shade of a tree on a warm summer day, once you’re there, there’s no particular reason to leave.
Best Video Bluegrass Goes The Distance
by | Jul 15, 2020 9:04 am | Comments (0)
Allison Hadley Photo
Chris Wuerth — bluegrass musician and purveyor of fine acoustic music at Best Video Film & Cultural Center in the Before Times under the guise of GuitarTown productions — strummed his guitar as a half-dozen or so musicians assembled around him. Plucking chords that felt as golden as the setting sun’s light on Monday, he grinned lightly as each musician showed up, also smiling. Though this particular session was the seventh time a select few musicians had gotten together to play as safely as they could, the first word to describe the atmosphere was ‘“reunion.”
Next Door Comes Out Singing
by | Jul 14, 2020 10:06 am | Comments (1)
Standing in the corner of the back room at Next Door on Saturday evening, Seth Adam rearranged his mask without dropping a beat. The rhythm he had looped stayed steady behind him, and he turned the pause into something musically dramatic, then kept going, singing, and into a lithe solo.
“That was tough with a mask on,” he said at the end, when the audience gave him its applause. He mused on the possibility of having a mask that would somehow make it easier to perform music while wearing one. “Someone’s going to design one — you know it.”
Fiction Delivers A Virtual Buzz
by | Jul 13, 2020 9:41 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Fiction.
As New Haven businesses slowly reopen and try to accommodate those looking to re-enter the world under less restricted Covid-19 guidelines, some of its more revered traditions, like nightly local live music, are still mostly on hold and searching for alternate ways to return. The Sunday Buzz at Cafe Nine, presented by Cygnus Radio and typically featuring a wide variety of local acts from all genres as well as a tight-knit group of regular patrons, came back the only way it could yesterday, via live stream on social media.
Statue Readied To Honor “Black Governor”
by | Jul 10, 2020 2:42 pm | Comments (4)
Dana King photo
The head and, behind, the body of the new William Lanson statue coming to the Farmington Canal.
Sculptor King working in her Oakland studio.
A seven-foot-tall bronze statue of William “King” Lanson will soon stand along the Farmington Canal — giving a permanent, public, and highly visible form to a Black New Havener who helped build the modern city.
In Texas And Arizona Far Away
by | Jul 10, 2020 10:08 am | Comments (0)
Ted LIttleford
When people die far away
When my mother used to say
Free As Birds Comes Full Circle
by | Jul 10, 2020 10:05 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photo
Burnet.
Given that it was made sometime in the past six weeks or so, S.G. Carlson’s “Your Guess” sounds like an oasis, effortlessly breezy and peaceful. It doesn’t feel like escapism; it feels like solace. Same goes for Alex Burnet’s “Til I Stop Crying,” which speaks both of the ultimate impermanence of things, but their dependability until that time comes, whether it’s tears or the determination to keep going. Xavier Serrano’s chiming, pulsing guitar and bouncing melody balances the sting of his lyrics: “They say life is but a game we play,” he sings, “yet there are no winners at the end of the road.”
Today’s Toons
by | Jul 9, 2020 11:41 am | Comments (0)
Ted Littleford
Musical Intervention Keeps The Door Open
by | Jul 9, 2020 10:35 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photo
Keyshon Harvin stood in front of the microphone in the isolation booth at Musical Intervention, laying down vocals. He was singing a melody, the words and music of which he had created, over a melancholy slow jam. Matt Scully, who was producing the track, gave Harvin a few quick instructions. “You’re going to hear a count of four,” Scully said to Harvin. Then Harvin could start singing.
“He’ll just lock in,” said Musical Intervention founder Adam Christoferson. “He’s a pro.”
Pandemic Permanently Shutters Banh Mi Shop
by | Jul 8, 2020 4:39 pm | Comments (12)
Markeshia Ricks photo
Duc Nguyen shows off Vietnamese street food at his now-closed restaurant.
After four years of serving up lemongrass tofu banh mi and other Vietnamese street food downtown, Duc’s Place has closed for good, the latest commercial casualty of the Covid-19 economic crisis.
Continue reading ‘Pandemic Permanently Shutters Banh Mi Shop’
Puma Simone Hits The Microphone
by | Jul 8, 2020 10:59 am | Comments (0)
Over “Arabesque Cookie” by Duke Ellington, New Haven-based musician and poet Puma Simone intoned the names of Black women who had died at the hands of police. Simone mentioned that they had been going to therapy lately. “What are you feeling right now?” they recalled their therapist asking.
“Anger,” they replied.
It’s Safe To Borrow Real Books Again
by | Jul 7, 2020 11:18 am | Comments (3)
Laura Glesby Photo
Polly Gulliver picks up a pair of Jo Nesbø novels.
For the first time since Covid-19 hit, Polly Gulliver resumed a cherished activity: borrowing a hardcover book from the library.
Deerhoof & Wadada Leo Smith Play Sound Of The Street
by | Jul 7, 2020 9:19 am | Comments (1)
Michael Jackson Photo
Smith.
The full band comes out charging with a monstrous beat, a trumpet line slashing through it all. Then the band takes it all apart. Guitar and trumpet jab at each other, then wail across the room at each other as the band pounds back into the rhythm. It’s ferocious playing for a ferocious time, and it’s the product of an instantly galvanizing pairing of San Francisco-based experimental punks Deerhoof and New Haven-based creative music titan Wadada Leo Smith.
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Fake Four Keeps Fridays Alive
by | Jul 6, 2020 9:39 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
DJ Mo Niklz and Ceschi Ramos.
“Build us a holiday / out of straw and out of sticks / out of claws and out of bricks / out of gauze and spit. / We’re alive, barely alive, but we’re alive! / We’re alive, barely alive, but we’re alive!”
Ceschi Ramos repeatedly sang that last line until it became a scream. It is a line his fans have sung and screamed along with him repeatedly at his live shows, but on Friday evening, as he sang them to the camera with only DJ Mo Niklz behind him, they rang truer than ever
Ramos was the final act of the latest installment of Fake Four Friday, the now weekly Fake Four, Inc. event broadcast on Twitch that has been bringing an ever-changing lineup live streaming from a variety of locations all over the world since May 15.
July 4, 2020
by | Jul 3, 2020 12:46 pm | Comments (5)
Ted Littleford
When the British finally left New York
We declared an Evacuation Day
Covid Kills Craft Beer Bar
by | Jul 3, 2020 10:19 am | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen photos
Beer Collective co-owners Sklar and Davis.
A Court Street craft beer bar has shut off its taps and closed its doors for good — becoming downtown’s latest small-business casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Da Silva Gallery Picks Up The Pieces
by | Jul 3, 2020 10:11 am | Comments (0)
Susan Tabachnick
Blades. Surgical pliers. A length of wire. Who used them, and for what exact purpose, remains unknown. But used they were, and then discarded and collected by artist Susan Tabachnick. She then made them into new art for a show called “Artifacts,” running now until July 12 at Da Silva Gallery on Whalley Avenue in Westville. The gallery, operating under the guidelines for maintaining social distancing, is open by appointment.
A “For Us, By Us” Vision
by | Jul 3, 2020 10:00 am | Comments (5)
IfeMichelle Gardin participating in Thursday evening’s forum.
What could a “village mentality” look like in New Haven?
Less white saviorism from nonprofits and college students swooping in to help, IfeMichelle Gardin posited. More community-generated programs rooted in neighbor-to-neighbor relationships.