Entertainment

I almost gave you tickets to an old Van Halen show this week, but instead I decided that we needed to have a bit of funky fun with Roger Troutman and Zapp.

Roger is a guitar, bass, and keyboard playing funkster from Dayton, Ohio. He and Zapp (made of many Troutmans) had a string of R&B hits in the 70’s and 80’s with songs like More Bounce to the Ounce, Dancefloor, So Ruff So Tuff, Doo Wa Ditty, and remakes of classics like Heard It Through The Grapevine and Midnight Hour.

Ghostmaker: A Myth for Voices is a new play by GennaRose Nethercott, told in a combination of performance poetry, shadow puppetry, live music, and dialogue. The piece is inspired by Scottish and New England folklore and the myth theories of Joseph Campbell.

When Hero, a seamstress, loses her patchwork memory quilt in a fire, she journeys into the otherworld on a search to bring it back, and with it, save her own endangered memories.

It’s been a rough week with horrific events in the news.

The full moon Friday night May 25, 2013  through  Saturday will be in Sagittarius, the Gambler, in opposition to Sun, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter all in Gemini – the planet of wind and change.

Be prepared for the Gambler to risk everything when it comes to home security (Sun), love (Venus),  political and religious views (Mercury) and the larger picture of life in the long run (Jupiter).

This Saturday, May 25, the East Putney Contra Dance at Pierce’s Hall is bridging the generations, pairing one of the region’s most celebrated and accomplished callers with the youth band that grownups are raving about.

Our caller will be Peter Amidon, who for the past twenty years has dedicated himself to traditional song, dance and storytelling. Renowned for his teaching, Peter is a familiar face at the major northeast U.S. music and dance festivals, at teacher conferences, and at summer folk camps of traditional dance and song. He last appeared at Pierce’s Hall anchoring the packed fundraising dance that helped make the hall’s new roof possible.

This weekend we head to Paris in 1985 for the latin, big band funk of Kid Creole and the Coconuts.

The Kid is August Darnell, leader of this rogue group of musical pirates. With Cab Calloway styling, he leads the castaways through the evening’s performance, frequently resulting in interplay with the Coconuts.

The Coconuts are his background singers and dancers. They tease him and mock him because they know him. They know he’s broke, a scammer, and has a women in every port.

This Wednesday, May 15th at 6 pm is game night at the Brattleboro Food Coop deli.

Who knows what we’ll play? Bring along a favorite you’ve been wanting to play and maybe we’ll play it. Usually Tim and Mike have enough games for everybody, but it never hurts to bring more.

You can look up my review of last month’s get together in Board Game group.

Ready for your weekend concert? Here’s one you are either going to love or hate.

There isn’t much middle ground with Dread Zeppelin. You either enjoy an Elvis impersonator singing Zeppelin songs with a reggae twist, or you do not.

I do. This band cracks me up. To my ear they do excellent, inventive cover songs with the right mix of love and parody. Mixing Heartbreaker with Heartbreak Hotel is genius.

It’s February 1988 and we’ve travelled to Japan with Trouble Funk.

Trouble Funk was a DC Go Go band that was attempting to break out of DC and bring the go go sound – a mixture of funk, jazz, and latin grooves – to a wider audience. They had some success in England and in Japan, but by touring the world they lost touch with their local fans.

I love Trouble Funk. If I had a time machine, I’d go back to see them again. I love the driving percussion and call and response with the audience, the horn section, the meaty keyboards and bass, and touch of rock guitar.

Released in 1976, this concert film was taped over several days in 1973. Aside from the concert footage itself taped at Madison Square Garden in three nights, it features several dream sequences of the band manager (Peter Grant) as a gangster and the band members in their individual fantasy vignettes, It runs just over 2 1/4 hours.

This was the tour in which nearly a quarter-million dollars was stolen from their hotel’s safe deposit box and there’s some footage of that as well. It’s even a good portrait of NYC in the early 1970s. Enjoy.

Scapin directed by Stephen Stearns, April 11-20

About the Play:
Scapin is a Commedia dell’arte style, comic farce written by Moliere, one of the greatest masters of comedy who ever lived. NEYT uses the rave review off-Broadway adaptation created by America’s most famous clowns, Bill Irwin and Mark O’Donnell, who starred in the original production. It is literally laugh-a-second mayhem!

Two clever servants trick two rich and gullible fathers out of their millions and arrange for their sons to marry two mysterious women whom the fathers detest! NEYT graduating seniors Henry Weisel and Alec Silver will be featured as the two servants, Scapin and Sylvester, who get themselves into the wildest and most ridiculous scrapes.

This Friday you have an opportunity to eat good food, drink wine, see a
classic Moliere comedy, and support local youth theater! 

Even if  you can’t attend, it’s worth checking out this promotional video for
NEYT’s spring fund-raising gala. It’s just 90 seconds long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgXW_ep_ba4

Info on the event itself is here:  http://www.neyt.org/index.php/for-link

This is the director’s cut of the film, which was first shot in 1971 and released in 1972. Pink Floyd had already had success with several albums, including “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn”, “Ummagumma” and “Meddle”. Much of the film was shot in the Roman amphitheater in Pompeii, without an audience, and the remaining footage was shot in a Paris television studio. Adrian Maben directed.

In 1974, it was re-edited with new parts- the Floyd working on recording “The Dark Side of the Moon” album at Abbey Road Studios and interviews with the band members were added. The Floyd had broken worldwide with “Dark Side” and they were superstars.

Christine Ohlman will perform on Saturday, April 20, 2013, at 7:30pm, at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill, Putney, VT.

Known as “The Beehive Queen” for her outrageous, mile-high hairdo, Christine is the current, long-time vocalist with the Saturday Night Live Band. Voted #7 on Alternate Roots’ list of top 30 Female Vocalists, this queen of blue-eyed rock n’ soul grew up loving equally the sweetness of a Memphis horn line and the raunch of an electric guitar riff, whether played by Muddy Waters, Keith Richards, or Pop Staples. Teased her blonde hair into a beehive in honor of Ronnie Spector and never looked back, picking up a guitar and forging a career as a songwriter in the process.

Carnival! is coming to town! For four nights only, April 3-6, audiences will thrill to the dazzle and daring of B. F. Schlegel’s Grand Imperial Cirque de Paris at The Grammar School in Putney.

An amusing love story, set in a traveling circus, Carnival! brings us the popular theme song “Love Makes the World Go ‘Round,” and the whimsical, eccentric characters of Lili, an optimistic orphan; Marco, the magnificent magician; his partner the incomparable Rosalie; Paul Berthalet, a lonely, bitter puppeteer; and B.F. Schlegel, the demanding owner and ringmaster of “The Grand Imperial Cirque De Paris.”

Escape to Italy this week with the Vacanza in Italia Film Festival. Last film in the series! Wednesday March 27, 2013 6:30 PM until 9:00 PM.

What causes people to travel to Italy? Is it the food, the pace of life, the sun? Or is it the civilizing influence of all of this. Do they always find what they think they should?

Please join fellow cinephiles at Brooks Memorial Library for a series of films that will make you want to “vacanza in Italia.”

Vacanza in Italia Film Festival: Contact Library for this week’s film title, Wednesday March 20, 20136:30 PM until 9:00 PM

What causes people to travel to Italy? Is it the food, the pace of life, the sun? Or is it the civilizing influence of all of this. Do they always find what they think they should?

Please join fellow cinephiles at Brooks Memorial Library for a series of films that will make you want to “vacanza in Italia.”

Artist ala Mode featured Electric Fence on the March show.

Vacanza in Italia Film Festival – Call Brooks Library for This Week’s Title (802-254-5290)
Wednesday March 13, 2013, 6:30 PM until 9:00 PM

What causes people to travel to Italy? Is it the food, the pace of life, the sun? Or is it the civilizing influence of all of this. Do they always find what they think they should?

Please join fellow cinephiles at Brooks Memorial Library for a series of films that will make you want to “vacanza in Italia.”

The Next Stage Arts Project and The Putney School are delighted to co-present a special live concert event on Sunday, April 28, 2013 at 7:00pm, featuring folk music icons from the film For the Love of the Music; The Club 47 Folk Revival. Featured performers will include: iconic composer David Amram, Erik Lawrence (of The Levon Helm Band), Alana Amram & The Rough Gems, Tim Eriksen & The Trio De Pumpkintown, Diamond Doves, Haley Reardon and more. The concert will take place at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill, in Putney, Vermont.

Next Stage Arts Project announces the launch of a monthly Open Mic/Coffee House series, beginning Sunday, March 17, and continuing on the third Sunday of each month. Musical Local-vores are welcome to this community event to perform, or simply listen and enjoy. Musicians, storytellers, and other local artists who wish to share their art in a fun local venue are welcome. Next Stage is located at 15 Kimball Hill, Putney, VT.

Open Mic performers can sign up at 6:00pm and time slots will be alotted based on the number of performers. The suggested donation for performers and listeners is $5. At 6:30pm the night’s featured local performer will present a short set, playing “for the passing of the hat”.