Make It a Long Weekend: Ian Anderson Solo

Sunday, Oct. 11: Ian Anderson @ Foxwoods

As a solo artist and frontman for Jethro Tull, Anderson has been releasing intelligent, eclectic music for decades, pioneering the rock flute and running the gamut from acoustic folk to alleged heavy metal. Perhaps his most endearing quality, Anderson is an avowed cat man, and has made his affection for felines and other animals apparent in many lyrics, whether as a metaphor for human passions, as in "The Secret Language of Birds" or "Bungle in the Jungle," or as literal subjects, as in "Heavy Horses" or "...And the Mouse Police Never Sleeps."

Night at the Museum

Maybe it's something about the insurance industry, or maybe it's simply a smart business move to extend weekend consumerism, but Thursday nights are for high-brow drinking in Hartford, with first Thursdays at the Wadsworth, second Thursdays at the Connecticut Science Center, and third Thursdays at Real Art Ways.

We attended last night's event at the Science Center, and are a little disappointed to report that we were a little disappointed. The $10 admission price is a reduction from the standard cost of visiting the museum, but if you wanted a drink you were out another $6-9 per, which seems a little steep, and the exhibits are really gaudy looking and kid/moron-friendly, so it's not like some kind of mind-blowing aesthetic or intellectual ride hanging around in the galleries.

On the upside, the rooftop weed garden (weeds, regrettably, not weed-weed) is a lovely place to stand around while the weather is still fine, the rather dull sounding jazz combo had an awfully cute drummer, and we ran into several gays as well as one radical area journalist, which means this scene is at least a little hip. We also enjoyed overfeeding hideous education device Esther the Digester:

And learned some really annoying shit to pull at the bar:

Silk City Flick Fest

Yessirree, a real live film festival in Manchester, CT! It starts tonight with an opening reception and film, and will span the weekend. About 50 films will be shown in multiple venues in Manchester. It's looking like this event is going to be a great success, especially in terms of first-year festivals. Distributors are coming from New York and LA, and there will be several panel discussions on various aspects of filmmaking and acting. The schedule is packed, so choose wisely! Tickets can be purchased at the door.

Muppets Take Manhattan: Avenue Q

Avenue Q @ Shubert Theater, New Haven

Oct. 9-11

I actually think that Sesame Street is quite hip and adorable just the way it is (just look at what happened when Elmo met Ricky!), but I very much enjoyed the obscene kids' show parody, Wundershowzen, and that great episode of The State where they were eating muppet for dinner, so I suppose re-imagining the residents of the street as struggling hipsters is good fun too.

Here's the show's most famous tune, "The Internet is for Porn." Indeed!

Your Biggest Fan

Big Fan @ Real Art Ways, Hartford

Oct. 9-14

Friday, Oct. 9: Q & A with Director Robert Siegel(!!)

Before I realized that Big Fan's director (Robert Siegel) also wrote The Wrestler, I was already drawing mental comparisons between the two. The latter was quite painful to watch though indisputably well acted and provocative. Big Fan promises a similarly gritty portrayal of macho athletes and fan culture, with a plot centering around a schlubby football devotee getting his ass kicked by a favorite player. The film is getting high praise from my favorite people but I'm beginning to question the merit of these arthouse investigations of low culture, and whether we elitist viewers, who would never ourselves attend an indie wrestling event (or a WWE one) or make inarticulate calls to sports talk radio, are just being condescending, watching and appreciating and empathizing with these stories for an hour or two on screen we wouldn't care to dirty our hands with in real life. So, more edgy, emotionally resonant films about attractive, witty bloggers, please, so I can stop struggling with this cognitive dissonance.

Big Fan opens at Real Art Ways this Friday, and may already be playing at an indie theater near you.

Edit: Thanks helpful commenter Abby for the info about Friday night's Q & A with the director!

Mappy Monday!

Zombie attacks in Southern CT
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Thirsty Thursdays: CT Science Center

Thursday, October 8: Liquid Lounge v1.0 @ The CT Science Center

This Thursday evening, check out Hartford's newest monthly after-work party. The CT Science Center will be hosting the "Liquid Lounge" for your boozing and socializing needs... and not just regular boozing and socializing, but the sciencey kind. The event is promising live demonstrations and "science-related drinks". I don't really know what that means, but I know that I want one.

The theme for October will be "The Science of the Harvest". Featured presentations are to include: Pumpkin Carving and Painting, Wine Glass Harmonics, the Science of Wine, an Organic Beer Master, the Chemistry of Stills and more. All the galleries will be open, and the theatre will be showing an old school science film.

The CT Science Center opened last June, and if you haven't visited yet, this is a great opportunity to do so. It's only $10, or $5 for Premier Members (normally $16 for adults). The event is from 5:30-9PM and is 21+, so no screaming children, just stumbling adults.

And let's not forget CSC's event slogan/fart joke: "A solid good time: it’ll be a gas."

If that little gem doesn't entice you, I don't know what will.

Clam Pizza

No, it's not a euphemism.

In scenic Farmington, the truth is stranger than fiction. And in this case, the truth is fucking delicious. Next time you are feeling wheaty, head to Andy's Italian Kitchen on Farmington Ave. (It's in the old Loehmann's plaza, if that means anything to you.) The pizza's formal title is the "Andy Jr." It's a white pizza topped with mozzarella, clams, bacon, garlic and onions. Sound gross? Try it before you judge. Andy will make you a believer.

Uptight Horror Picture Show

Wadsworth Atheneum, if you're reading this, you can make a check for $4 out to CT Scenic. After arguing with the doorperson about their falsely-advertised pricing, we sat down front-and-center for our $9 worth of Rocky Horror... well, horror. We were greeted with a Catholic School-style spiel on what was, and was not, appropriate Wadsworth-style behaviour. We were then threatened with the presence of a security guard and told to "enjoy ourselves".

We were pretty much ready to walk out, until the Come Again Players were introduced. Apparently they are a semi-local (Pioneer Valley) group of shadow actors who perform the full RHPS every Saturday night. They didn't come in costume, but they did sing/dance/yell/screech along with the movie. 

Other than the "professionals", there was little-to-no audience participation, save for one guy in the front row. He yelled out all 96-minutes of offensive jokes, and got up and did the Time Warp. Apparently everyone else still had their daytime-sticks fully inserted in their butt pipes. What a shame. Rocky Horror really deserves a less uptight venue, and a less apathetic audience. But, you do what you gotta do in scenic Hartford.

What Not To Hear: Mohegan Sun Edition

This Weekend @ Mohegan Sun

Like Axl Rose said, it's all a gamble when it's just a game, but you can bet on an ear-bleeding marathon of suck this weekend at Mohegan Sun Casino. How do you like our puns, by the way?

It begins with AI alum Kelly Clarkson, performing this Friday night. We find that a lot of otherwise reasonable people seem to like the karaoke champ, often for such inane nonmusical reasons as "she doesn't dress like a slut" and "she's not super skinny." Well, awesome, they would probably love us too! We'll get that record out asap. In the meantime, we're just not that into middle-of-the-road pop propelled to superstardom by middle aged middle America.

Next up we have KISS (performing Saturday). While we appreciate their frankness on subjects like the pursuit of personal wealth and sexy womens, we suppose we can respectfully agree to disagree with them and their legion of fans on the entertainment value of men in clown suits playing bland repetitive hard rock in front of fire works. If we're going to get down to costumed performers, we prefer a little shock with our rock.

It hardly seems fair to mention wash-ups Warrant in the same breath (post, whatever) as the aforementioned headliners, but while you're avoiding bad music at Mohegan Sun this weekend, you may as well also not see Warrant perform Sunday night. Former pretty boy turned not-at-all pretty Celebrity Fit Club contestant Jani Lane isn't even the band anymore, and what is an 80s hair ensemble without their original frontman?