Entertainment

The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library will host a fundraising concert on Friday, November 7, 7:30 PM in the Library, with Hungrytown, a Vermont folk-based duo. Hungrytown is the musical and married team of Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson.  They have released two highly acclaimed CDs, Hungrytown (2008) and Any Forgotten Thing (2011), both of which continue to receive much airplay on folk and Americana stations worldwide. 

Rebecca and Ken tour full time; their adventures have taken them throughout the US, Canada, Europe and New Zealand.  Their songs have been performed by many other artists, including Nashville songwriting legend David Olney, and bluegrass veterans the Virginia Ramblers. Hungrytown’s music has also appeared on several television shows, including the Independent Film Channel’s hit series, Portlandia. 

Here’s a concert featuring the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a roots, bluegrass sort of group that has been playing since 2005, growing in popularity, winning awards, and appearing to have a good time doing it.

This is a well-filmed show at Nancy Jazz Pulsations in October of 2012. It’s a french show, which makes for interesting multilingual stage banter between songs from this very American group.

The reason to watch, though, is for the musical performance. It has an old-timey feel to it, and is a perfect laid back accompaniment to your weekend.

Next show, Wednesday, October 8th at 2p.m. in the Library Meeting Room. “Ellen Arden arrives 7 years after being given up for dead in a shipwreck, to find her husband Nick just remarried to Bianca…” With Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. Post-film discussion hosted by Tim Metcalfe and Tom Bedell.

Continuing through November 12th, (on select Wednesdays) the Brattleboro Film Festival and Brooks Memorial Library will present free afternoon screenings of nine Hollywood classic screwball comedies from Tinseltown’s Golden Era. On October 8th at 2 pm, please join us for a hilarious retread of the old “Enoch Arden” legend stars Irene Dunne as Ellen, who returns home to her husband Nick (Cary Grant) and children Tim (Ann Shoemaker) and Chinch (Mary Lou Harrington) after being marooned on a desert island for seven years. 

This isn’t exactly a concert, but it does contain live performances by the Firehouse Five.

Who are the Firehouse Five? It is a dixieland band (comprised chiefly of Disney animators) that was most popular in the 1950’s. They released 13 records, are a lot of fun, and are thus is deserving of another look.

The leader is Ward Kimball, trombone player and animator of characters such as Jimminy Cricket and the Mad Hatter. Harper Goff is on banjo. He did concept drawings for Disney World, and art direction for the original film version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Frank Thomas, on piano, is animator of such characters as Bambi and Thumper on the ice, the dancing penguins in Mary Poppins, and King Louie in Jungle Book.

Ahh, Styx. Make me think of my high school neighbor, Jack. He and I used to have arguments over the best bands. I tended toward Beatles and Stones. He insisted Kiss and Van Halen were the true rulers of rock. We’d each take turns playing songs for each other in an attempt to convince the other.

Jack liked Styx while they were rocking hard with albums such as Cornerstone, Pieces of Eight, and Grand Illusion. He wasn’t so sure about Paradise Theater, their 1981 release. It was a rock opera and a new direction. Still, it was Styx and it eventually won him over.

Please join us for a free Screwball Comedy Film Series at Brooks Library. On Wednesday September 24th at 2 pm, come and see Paramount’s first collaboration between director Mitchell Leisen and screenwriting duo Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder.

The film merges Brackett and Wilder’s early emphasis on repartee and masquerade with ex-costume designer Leisen’s flair for high style and sophistication. Continuing through November 12th, (on select Wednesdays) the Brattleboro Film Festival and Brooks Memorial Library will present FREE afternoon screenings of nine Hollywood classic screwball comedies from Tinseltown’s Golden Era. Brattleboro Film Festival Advisory Board member Tim Metcalfe and journalist Tom Bedell will host post-screening discussions in the library’s Meeting Room covering a wide range of topics related to the screwball comedy era, filmmaking and Hollywood trivia in general.

We’ve featured them before, but why not take another look at the Talking Heads? Here they are performing at Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin Texas on September 15, 1979.

Fear of Music was the 1979 album from the band, their second with Brain Eno and third overall. It was released in August, just prior to this show.

A benefit concert by the Paul Winter Consort will be held at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro, Vermont, on October 25 at 7:30 p.m.

The performance, a fundraiser for the Guilford Community Church’s green-up efforts, will highlight soloists Paul Winter, Eugene Friesen, and Theresa Thomason, three Grammy Award-winning and internationally recognized performers, in addition to Todd Roach on percussion and Jeff Holmes on piano. The Greater Brattleboro Choir of the Community, under the direction of Peter Amidon, will join the Consort on stage to perform several songs, including ones made famous by folksinger Pete Seeger.

Yet again..its time for another experience that you won’t soon forget..this time join us this tuesday the 16th when Vidda Crochetta,co-founder of marijuana will be our guest. The topic? Marijuana.. medical, decriminalization, legalization, etc… and the witty musical stylings of the Stupor Bothers.

Tune in,get turned on and drop out of the rat race! Brattleboro Community Radio-107.7fm and www.wvew.org

1978 was the year that the Blondie took the world by storm. Sure, they had been around for a while and had even released a couple of albums, but it was their third record, Parallel Lines that gave us Heart of Glass, One Way or Another, and Hanging on the Telephone.

A bit of disco, a bit of punk and new wave, a bit of rock and rap, and a lot of Debby Harry made them a unique and lasting staple of radio and dance floors ever since.

This weekend we present the ska-punk-funk-rock of Fishbone, live in Amsterdam at the Melkweg Theatre in 2002.

They first caught my eye with a video for a song called Modern Industry. The group was literally bouncing off walls to a reggae-ska dance number, and shouting out names of radio stations. Very unusual, I thought.

I first saw them live in the 1980’s in Cleveland opening for the Beastie Boys, who were touring to promote a new record called Licensed to Ill. Before the show, Angelo Moore, Fishbone’s singer, wandered the big hall carrying a cane with him as he slowly made his way through the audience. None of us knew who he was, but we all noticed the well-dressed cane-carry gentleman. A while later, he was on stage. Great show.

The Brattleboro Film Festival and Brooks Memorial Library will present free afternoon screenings of nine Hollywood classic screwball comedies from Tinseltown’s Golden Era.

On Wednesday 3 Sept at 2 pm, join us for one of the landmark “screwball” comedies of the 1930s, a film that offers the radiant Carole Lombard in her definitive performance as flighty young heiress Irene Bullock, who on a society scavenger hunt stumbles on an erudite hobo residing in the city dump. 

Let’s check in with Steve Earle, shall we?

Here he is with his guitar in 1991, live at McCabes. Where is McCabes? I do not know. Oceanside? Austin? I suppose it doesn’t matter much.

I’ve never seen Mr. Earle perform, but have heard a few of his albums, all of which seem smart, interesting, and worthy of multiple listens. He’s a good counterpart to Billy Bragg in many ways. They would make quite a pair for a double bill.

Free Monday Morning Movie Brattleboro Senior Center

September Schedule:

Monday Morning Movie “Goes International”

Persepolis – Sept. 8th – 10 am

its time for another experience that you won’t soon forget..this tuesday on “buttahmilk” its galactic historian, Andrew Bartzis.

Andrew Bartzis is a Reiki master and Shaman with the unique ability of being able to access multiple Akashic Records at will. Known as the Galactic Historian, he is able to read and share individual, cultural, global, and galactic histories with those who come to him.

On Thursday, August 28^th, the West Brattleboro Association will present its first free movie night.  “Triplets of Belleville” (appropriate for families) will be shown at dusk outdoors next to the West Brattleboro Fire Station after being rained out on the 21^st. There will be movie shorts beginning at 7:30 followed by the main feature at 8.

At 7 pm bike-powered smoothies from the Bellows Falls Community Bike Project will be for sale. 
There will be music and circus toys.  There will also be ice cream donated by the Chelsea Diner and free
popcorn.  There may also be a Listening Booth!

By informal request, Billy Bragg is our featured performer this weekend. Here he is playing live for a small audience in Austin in 2013 on radio station KEXP during a SXSW.

I chose this one because it was filmed quite nicely, but better performances can be found elsewhere on the internet. Consider this a simple introduction that can lead to further study.

On Thursday, August 21, the West Brattleboro Association will present its first free movie night.  “Triplets of Belleville” (appropriate for families) will be shown at dusk outdoors next to the West Brattleboro Fire Station. There will be movie shorts beginning at 7:30 followed by the main feature at 8.

At 7 pm bike-powered smoothies from the Bellows Falls Community Bike Project will be for sale.  There will be music and circus toys.  There will also be ice cream donated by the Chelsea Diner and free popcorn.

Why The Moody Blues? Well, it seems like they have been coming up in conversation a lot lately.

For all of you who need to have the Blues this weekend.

Escape the rain today and join us for a screwball comedy film that swept the 1934 Academy Awards and is still as breezy and beguiling today as when it debuted 80 years ago. Brattleboro Film Festival Advisory Board member Tim Metcalfe and journalist Tom Bedell will host post-screening discussions in the Brooks Library Meeting Room – covering a wide range of topics related to the screwball comedy era, film-making and Hollywood trivia in general.  For more information call 802-254-5290 or email info@brookslibraryvt.org.