That Lipgloss Crisis makes us feel like such slackers. Back in August when we were throwing wild parties and opening horrible movies, it looked like the Scenics might be scene makers and not just commentators. But we've reverted back to our armchair role, and look on with utmost admiration at New Haven based artist and scene maker Lipgloss Crisis. Just a few weeks ago we enjoyed her Day of the Dead extravaganza; we've already mentioned her upcoming burlesque gig, and this weekend she's giving us another chance to see our other favorite CT musical act, Baby G (who we expect you'll lust love too after tomorrow night's gig) at the opening for a group photography show featuring work by Nick Thigpen, Dana Astmann and Tim Mannle at Bru Cafe. Thigpen? Astmann? Mannle? Could those last names be any awesomer? No! Their photos are probably awesome as well, and will be on view through January 5.
We've already gone over why you shouldn't just boycott shopping altogether this holiday season (if you want your friends to still like you), but you can shop superior by shopping local and independent. A friend-of-the-blog is behind another great alt-shopping event coming up this weekend, which will feature dozens of vendors of art and craft, along with refreshments and another sexy friend-of-the-blog doing chair massage (she totally massages chairs, it's hot). Best of all, this event is free. Because you shouldn't have to pay to shop. Give all your money to the nice starving artists.
We're always happy to have great CT talent brought to our attention. Our newest music promoting friend-of-the-blog recently turned us on to Bronze Radio Return. These guys have a radio-ready sound and have been up to exciting, high-profile gigs like opening for Obama at his recent Bridgeport appearance, so we're sure they're destined for greatness. They have that right mix of contemporary pop sensibility and classic rock influence - and youth and beauty - that made big names in sensitive masculinity like John Mayer, Rob Thomas and Maroon 5 so universally appealing. Truth be told, the Scenics are personally drawn to somewhat edgier (i.e. more depressing, obviously disturbed) fare, so Bronze Radio Return might get old fast if they get the chance to get overplayed - but we see that as a distinct possibility for a band with such hit-making ability and hope to be changing the station on them soon! Check them out Wednesday night at Mohegan Sun's Wolf Den before you have to start paying for these guys.
This show is a must-see for me. I caught New Haven's Baby G, or Leila Crockett, in her solo incarnation a few years back at an open mic and have been wanting more of her antique blues and devastating originals ever since. I hadn't heard of acclaimed national act Vandaveer until my research a couple of minutes ago, but I'm just as excited about him/them now and looking forward to an evening of low-key music and brutal lyrics to send me home deliciously sad. I'll shut up now and let the songs speak for themselves:
Last weekend we so enjoyed the burlesque show at Cafe Nine, and after Thanksgiving we're looking forward to enjoying burlesque-overs this Friday. But we'll have to travel for it. Like, a whole hour. Some of the featured performers are CT gals we've seen before - Kitty Katastrophe and Lily La Vamp - along with some new-to-us names, Serendipity Galore, Captain Elastico and Miss Bettysioux Tailor. We're sure they're charming and sexy as heck too.
Check out Ms Kitty doing her thing:
Next on our burlesque calendar (yeah, we've got a burlesque calendar now): Friday, December 17, our new friend Lipgloss Crisis presents all our favorite CT burlesque chicas that we totally know (Kitty, Dot, Lily, Nikki, All Systems Go-Go) at our favorite New Haven venue, Cafe Nine for a Holiday Spectacular.
This Friday avoid getting trampled to death at gross corporate monstrosity big box stores, by shopping great events like the Blackout at Redscroll, or the Artisan Bazaar in Torrington. Julia of Brazen Betties tipped me off to this event, and she'll be there with her awesome wares along with other local artists and crafters. Shopping for gifts in as inevitable part of this "holiday season." Even if you're the environmentally responsible, non-materialistic type, I assure you, your friends and loved ones will feel much more special and appreciative when you present them with a unique handcrafted gift and support a talented local in the process than if you try and pull that "I made a charitable donation in your name, here's a piece of paper for you" crap. Fact: every time I wear one of my great purchases from Brazen Betties I get attention and compliments. So go shop the bazaar, and wear something hideous for the "Ugly X-mas Sweater After-Party" at Bogey's.
By now you know what kinds of films the Scenics prefer - the "feel-bad" kind. And we're lucky to have a home venue in Real Art Ways to supply us with a steady stream of such. We particularly prefer bad feelings of the first-world variety - the self-inflicted, existential miseries we can totally identify with. Enter the Void, Gaspar Noé's psychedelic meditation on sleaze (or is it a sleazy meditation on psychedelics?), has bad feelings to spare.
As usual, I went into watching this movie purposefully with as little background as possible - having heard only that director was famous for creating one of the most graphic and disturbing cinematic rape scenes ever in his previous film, Irreversible, which I've totally heard of, but hadn't seen. The Scenics caught the trailer for Enter the Void on a previous RAW outing, so I knew it was a drug movie with some overtones of brother-sister incest in the mix.
And you'll get all this too in the opening scene, which also introduces Noé's conceit of filming from our drugged out protagonist's point of view. This is off-putting at first, but pretty soon it's apparent that Noé has brilliantly and accurately accomplished what many have tried before - this drug-vision, which has so often been executed to ridiculous or distracting effect. The Tokyo inhabited by Noé's cast of lowlife Caucasians is all the more beautiful, menacing, luminous and alien as envisioned through a haze of DMT, LSD and ecstasy. Enough cannot be said about Enter the Void as an achievement in visual effects.
However, such praise cannot be heaped on the story that is told. Because of the film's meandering, hallucinatory quality, there isn't a lot of plot to "spoil," but I'll try and be as vague as possible anyway. An effective device of Noé's is his folding of time on itself, with images of the past - both the idyllic and the horrific - infringing on the present day action - the persistent anxieties of a bad trip. Unfortunately the present day action consists of our brother and sister pair on their separate downward spirals of depravity, but because they've been so sketchily drawn and dumbly portrayed, it isn't clear that either had far to fall or innocence for us to mourn the loss of.
Grotesque and gratuitous portrayals of sex, violence and drug abuse and an utter lack of likable or sympathetic characters will be a turn-off to the average viewer (who doesn't read our blog or go to our theater anyway) and a turn-on for the pervy indie minority who will embrace Enter the Void. Those who hang with it will be rewarded by the film's painfully drawn out, climactic multi-orgy scene with it's bizarre glowing genitals and ultimately, the intra-vaginal/penis-thrust cam. But that is all you will be rewarded with.
After my viewing, I checked out what film critics had to say about Enter the Void, and found that we are all pretty much in agreement - simultaneously bowled over by the cool visuals and put off or disappointed by the everything else. But the cool visuals are non-stop for more than two hours, so for filmmakers and drug film aficionados, it's nevertheless a must-see.
The Scenics are an old-fashioned bunch (old actually), so we're all turned on by the prospect of an actual record store with tangible, physical product. In the past we've been motivated to travel far afield to get our hands on such matter as cds and vinyl. This Friday - and all weekend long - if you must participate in the gross American tradition of frenzied shopping following your day of gluttonous eating, we suggest including Redscroll Records' 4th Annual Blackout at Sunrise Sale in your itinerary. Everything will be marked down for the occasion and they are offering further enticements on Friday like live DJs (DJ Lokash and Anthony from The Needle Drop) and hangout room, homemade muffins in tempting sounding seasonal flavors (Sweet potato! Pumpkin! Etc.!) and coffee. We might be in it for the muffins alone, honestly. The action begins Friday at 6 a.m., which is mental, but whatever lifts up your skirt.
We've developed certain Scenic weekend rituals. Like after a admirable morning of self-denial and physical discipline (breakfast-skipping and Bikram yoga) - not to mention the week-long virtue and industriousness we've exhibited by attending our jobs and generally not killing anyone or breaking stuff - we like to reward ourselves with the indulgence of an exotic meal out. Saturday afternoon, DH and I were both jonesing for pho (a favorite dish around here) and attempted to eat at our current favorite pho joint, West Hartford's Pho Boston. Well, Pho Boston was packed and there were people actually waiting to be seated (this place is often moderately jumping, but we've never seen a wait before). So we decided to try something new (to us) in the same plaza - The Thai Room - previously recommended to me by my frequent blog-tivity partner, SuperLula.
At The Thai Room, I was able to satisfy some of the physical cravings I had hoped to work out over at PhoBo - rich, sweet Asian-style iced coffee and the pleasurable act of eating noodles with chopsticks. The iced coffee was artistic perfection. Observe gorgeous Guiness-esque head and drizzly patterns! We each had a bowl of tom ka gai soup to start. The chicken in this soup left something to be desired in terms of texture and flavor (it was a little dry and bland) but the spicy coconut broth and vegetables were great. I had pad thai (just needed noodles, damn it), which was generously peanutted and came in a portion large enough for two leftover revisits over the course of the weekend. DH had ginger chicken, which was impressively gingered - with substantial, crispy spears of ginger and a zingy broth.
We were pleased with our meal and are excited to add The Thai Room to our restaurant repertoire. And on the even brighter side, we're still looking forward to making up for lost eating with another pho outing - soon!
Our regulars already know and love Sidewalk Dave, but for the newcomers, let's take a moment to recap. This great New Haven band was enterprising enough to contact the Scenics early this year for self-promotional purposes. We would have given them press regardless (was that like our first email ever?!), but we were pleased to be able to put our genuine enthusiasm behind them after checking out their material - great songs and self-produced videos. So when it came time to plan our great Blogaversary celebration, it made perfect sense to invite Sidewalk Dave to play. We had yet to see them live or meet in person, but we promised them donuts, liquor and inadequate pay, and they said yes and showed up at the appointed time and place. We were impressed with their punctuality, as well as their youthful good looks and eccentric wardrobe choices.
By the end of the night our whole party was impressed with their awesome live performance, which we later described as twangy and hard rocking beyond our expectations. Since then we've been lucky enough to see them a few more times here on our home turf, and look forward to more of their monthly gigs at the Half Door. We've gotten to know their recordings and are floored by Dave's religion and alcoholism obsessed lyrics. Because nothing is more appealing to a Scenic than a literate alcoholic perspective (or drug-addled in general, let's be honest - may we suggest some of our favorites - Bukowski, Burroughs, Burroughs, Thompson, Welsh, or on the music side, cause that's what we're talking about - Elliot Smith, Murder City Devils, and our eloquent famous friend Peter Dolving). We should be so fucked up, but we're just miserable about nothing. Join us and drown the pain of being alive this Wednesday!
Friday, November 19: Burlesque-a-Pades Fall 2010 @ Cafe Nine
Cafe Nine is one of CT Scenic's frequently recommended venues, where we go for the great bands and unconventional meat market, and stay for the cramped space, filthy bathrooms and middle-shelf booze selection. This week we're really wishing "they" would get to work and fix those fucking HoFo-NewHa wormholes so that we could make it down and back nightly without all the gas consumption, drunk driving, sleep loss and working hangovers the proper execution of this feat might otherwise entail. Oh well.
Several months ago on one of our more ambitious outings, the Scenics enjoyed Skeletonbreath at Rudy's. This instrumental gypsy spaz punk outfit wowed us with their intensity, musicianship and shirtless sweaty drummer. We'd definitely see them again. Here's a vid from a previous Cafe Nine outing by the band:
Although that burlesque documentary we checked out a few weeks ago was kind of bust, it hasn't diminished our enthusiasm for LIVE BURLESQUE (or actual busts). Friday night at Cafe Nine it's going to be some kind of burlesque extravaganza featuring a bevy of performers and live music by The Clams. Last time we went to Cafe Nine we met one of the performers, Dot Mitzvah, who was awesome and sisterly enough to try and bail Katie Scenic out of a conversation with a predatory drunk. Dot's website tells us that she is a triple threat - burlesque performer, opera singer and acrobat. Holy crap! And she's told us that in her performance she likes to draw upon the root meaning of burlesque, which should be a parody or a joke at heart - the SEXXXY is a bonus! We're basically smitten and would love to see Dot and all the other ladies Friday.
Our friends and regulars already know that third Thursday means Creative Cocktail Hour at Real Art Ways, but we are meeting new people all the time who actually don't already attend this event religiously. Sometimes we meet folks that don't even go to Real Art Ways, ever! Like the squares we work with. Or people who don't live in Greater Hartford. So this post's for them.
So even if you're intimidated by concepts like "independent film" and "art galleries," we know you can all get behind a packed party with live bands, fancy booze and munchies, right? And that's what the Creative Cocktail Hour is. You don't even have to look at the art (but you can).
For the Scenics, this party is our monthly opportunity to show off our fashionable clothes, push our blog, and take adorable pictures of all of you. See you there?
In other Real Art Ways news, we see that this Saturday evening they will be hosting a discussion about the concept of "Alternativity," which will feature "a range of writers, thinkers and doers." Not sure why the Scenics haven't been invited to this panel. Maybe if we cry about it on the internet...
It has recently been brought to our attention that a blog (bloggers) that spends most of its free time and energy pursuing physical perfection at Bikram yoga and frequently recommends entertainment options based on performer "hottness" might be perceived as, well, a little bit shallow. But we'll have you know that we're totally intellectuals. It's just hardly anyone ever emails us anything but sexy trash.
Wait, what's this in our inbox? Evidence of brain activity at UConn, Torrington. This Monday (aka tomorrow), author Roxana Robinson will give an interview/discussion and book signing. Alright, now we're embarrassed. We haven't read her. We only read classics and drug lit. Robinson is the author of Sweetwater, Cost and This is My Daughter. Maybe you can tell us. The event is free and will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the Francis W. Hogan Lecture Hall.
And Wednesday evening, also 6:30 p.m. at the same venue, you can catch a documentary about the Amistad incident (CT historical link!), The Amistad Revolt: All we want is make us free, including a discussion with the film's producer/director, CT filmmaker Karyl K. Evans.
Well, that was exhausting. While you're at it in Torrington, be sure and check out our favorite superficial destinations, Brazen Betties and the Rocket food truck.
Having worked at camps for kids sick and well (including the cancer camp, Rising Sun), this Scenic can attest to the value of the experience and organizations like Hole in the Wall. And while we're being unusually wholesome and generous around here, this Adventure will cap off a day of family-friendly events at the museum, which might be totally worth checking out if you've never been or, say, have a "family." Are multiple partners "family"? Is two "multiple"?
Sunday, November 14: Passion for Drag Finale @ Up or On the Rocks, Hartford
OK, the "drag" puns are getting pretty lame, but what do you want from us? We've already mentioned the ongoing drag show competition at Up or On the Rocks' gay Sunday nights a couple of times, so we're sure you already know the score. But just wanted to make a quick note that tomorrow is the grand finale. Glasscock? Sounds dangerous!
Friends-of-the-blog keep recommending local band Heirlooms, and tonight we've got a chance to check them out. Our quickie first impression is that these guys fit in with the mellow folk and roots influenced constellation of CT bands we've been pushing lately, and we appreciate the old-timey aesthetic they're going for with their pictures. We love new and young stuff that looks/sounds old!
We also keep meaning to check out the coffee shop venue, La Paloma Sabanera, which also hosts semimonthly indie movie nights by the Capitol Cinema Collective, so this could be a killing two birds with one stone kind of evening (we totally hate birds).
Saturday, November 13: Kids of CT Breakdance Tournament @ Hartford City Ballet, Hartford
Hey, just because the Scenics don't want any spawn of their own (aspiring partners take note) doesn't mean we can't appreciate the adorableness of other peoples' spawn twirling around on their heads and shit. Our friend Johnny B is doing it again, putting on a break dance tourney for kids. John and his grownup breakin' friends have been one of the highlights of a lot of events we've made it out to recently - creative cocktail hours and more. If there's a floor and a DJ, they'll just show up and throw down, and watching them is really great for folks like us who would need a pretty solid foundation of drugs (haha, just kidding) to work up the nerve to dance ourselves. It's five dollars to watch or participate in this event, with the winner taking home money. So get your talented kiddos out and introduce them to the concept of your 12% agent fee.
Not long ago a friend-of-the-blog mentioned that a friend of hers has this spectacularly talented boyfriend that we should check out. His music, that is. Check out his music. Well, we couldn't help looking too, and we're nearly as impressed with his wingtip shoes, skinny ties and swagger (DH is totally mancrushing) as we are with his playful (e.g. kazoo-heavy) take on the blues. We've been generally encouraged lately to see some younger, original artists playing at old Black-eyed Sally's, and we're especially excited about this one.
Check out Rudy busking around NYC in his video for "Lonely When You're Here." There's no way this guy isn't going to be awesome live.
Thursday, November 11: Liquid Lounge @ The CT Science Center, Hartford
(K & J driving recklessly at the last Liquid Lounge)
In a previous post we compared our keep-crawling-back-again relationship with the Science Center's Liquid Lounge party to those emotionally abusive "romantic" trysts we can't seem to get enough of IRL... And because this party is slightly more expensive for drinking, parking and admission and slightly (or, more accurately, entirely) less free munchy providing than some other parties we regularly attend, we'll continue to piss and whine about them (at least until they start providing us free or discounted press access to everything). But Liquid Lounge's popularity, flashy digs and geographic desirability overcome our reservations every time. We're that easy. See you there?
Take ourselves up on our own recommendation, 2/3 Team Scenic attended Hartford International Film Festival's screening of Leslie Zemeckis' Behind the Burly Q at Hartford's historic Art Cinema (the porn theater!). We quite enjoy contemporary burlesque we've seen in CT and naked bodies in general, but we were pretty disappointed in this film, which uses recent interview footage of burlesque performers recounting their glory days interspersed with photos and some snatches (HA!) of archival film footage to tell a history of burlesque through the eyes of the performers. While there were some interesting details about the impoverished backgrounds the dancers escaped by becoming performers, and Alan Alda was charming as usual recalling his father's career as a burlesque comedian, overall the film just didn't cohere and jumped erratically between speakers and time periods and subjects with no grander purpose. The women look gorgeous in their old pictures, but as speakers in the present they just aren't very compelling - and less bawdy and fun than you'd expect. The film could have benefited from the inclusion of some scholarly or technical perspective or a comparison with the current burlesque trend. Instead it's just kind of a mess of random remarks and memories.
Actually, we've seen a much more coherent documentary, Pretty Things, which aired on HBO a few years back, in which filmmaker Liz Goldwyn inserted herself and her contemporary, academic perspective into the story quite a bit, but similarly explored early burlesque through interviews with very old ladies. By making it a personal story and lingering on her subjects with a longer attention span for their stories and characters, Goldwyn made a much more lasting impression. However, Behind the Burly Q may be prove to be the final word on the subject, since as the credits role you learn that many of the interviewees have died since filming.
In spite of our disappointment with the film itself, our night out was not wasted. We got a big kick out of actually going to the porn theater and exploring its own historic charm. The place is run down, and the requisite jokes about hygiene were made, but admired the old-timey architecture and decor and wondered out loud about the venue's potential for other kinds of indie events - a future Scenic party perhaps? We were fascinated by classic posters and old porn film canisters lying around at the front and back of the theater. Those have potential too! What a treasure trove of porn history!
Robin Banks Variety Show @ York Street Cafe, New Haven
We've mentioned all these events before, but our service to you is to keep reminding you of great things to do around Hartford and the wider CT world. There's probably a ton of open mics of variable quality going on at bars throughout the state, but that doesn't really interest us. Our top picks for this Sunday are all queer to some degree, so apologies to our many homophobic Nazi meathead friends and readers... including the once monthly estro-fest at Tisane (first Sunday of the month, bitches) and the weekly drag competition at Up Or On The Rocks. And for our New Haven base, we recommend the Robin Banks Variety Show at the York Street Cafe, which is not a "gay night" per se but is definitely hosted by a dude in a dress and outrageous makeup - and is sure to be our newest favorite thing as soon as we manage to make it down. Maybe some New Haven hotties can let us "crash" sometime for an after-party, because driving home is hard! By the by, we can find no evidence of these events on the venues' sites, which is distressing, but our independent research confirms that they are happening. Good thing we're doing our job!
Do we have readers in towns in CT besides Hartford and New Haven? Wait, what other towns? Tell us about your favorite Sunday night activities that aren't horrible open mic nights or just plain "drinking." Or "watching HBO." We already know about that.
Friday, November 5: Matt & Kim @ Toad's Place, New Haven
(M & K)
An indie connoisseur recently put the question to me: Which couple/duo band is more insufferable - Mates of State or Matt & Kim. I picked Mates of State, since I've actually weathered their abusive live act and singled them out here before, but Matt & Kim were not familiar to me (my indie cred failure showing). Well, I've given them a listen, and true enough, I don't like them either. In fact, I really can't tolerate any of these smug-fuck happy couple musical acts and seriously, they can all just go get a room. And lock the god damn door. Maybe this is all about me and my inability to sustain relationships of ANY kind - other than imaginary polyamory with the other Scenics, of course - but I'm not giving them, or any of their precious twee self-congratulatory ilk a pass. Except the White Stripes, whose romantic aspect was so dead by the time they made it they presented themselves as brother and sister. Now that's endearing!
Seriously though, you'd want to punch either of these bands just looking at them, wouldn't you?
(Mates)
Here, watch Kim stroke her neck and bare her teeth adoringly while Matt babbles effeminately for four minutes about NOTHING:
See how a worthwhile artistic couple does it, Matt and Kim. Watch as Yoko also just kind of sits there, probably tearing up her cuticles, while John spouts off intellectually defending his (great) song title, "Woman is the Nigger of the World." Damn.
We're excited about "Art Bares All" because this group show and live art experience is all about naked bodies, and who doesn't like naked bodies? Well, repressed hypocrites, that's who. But we know better. Underneath our clothes, we've all got a naked body of our own, and thanks to years of therapy - and literally months of yoga - we've learned to embrace them.
Middletown's North End Artists Cooperative is putting on this show, which will involve works by 30 area artists and will feature live body painting and other kits-off phenomena, earning this event an 18+ designation, which means every body there is basically legal for embracing.
Sunday Nights: The Robin Banks Variety Show @ York Street Cafe, New Haven
Just days ago we were pleased to meet Robin Banks and encouraging you to check out the drag performer's costume party and contest in New Haven... Now we're psyched to see that Robin Banks is hosting fun and really cheap beer-fueled excitement every Sunday night at the York Street Cafe. Robin is of course a riot in his own right, but tells us that these nights are intended to share the spotlight with a cornucopia of local talent, interspersing flashes of Banks-y brilliance with interludes of karaoke, music and dance. Which is pretty much what our blog is all about (substituting Scenic brilliance), so we applaud this effort and intend to attend asap.
Proud flesh and pizza? Hmmm... that actually sounds pretty disgusting, if we were really referring to that overgrowth of granular tissue that can be an undesirable consequence of wound healing. But we're not. The Proud Flesh is a CT band that plays a tasty brand of roots/Americana, very much in the vein of some of the other area bands we've been mentioning lately, like Elison Jackson and Sidewalk Dave. And yes, it turns out these guys are all personally (or personnel-ly) connected.
The opening track of The Proud Flesh's Tiny Picture Frames, "Lord don't let me," gives a full-on hoedown first impression, but the next several tracks are much more stripped down, melancholic and haunting (just the way we like it), bringing to mind national acts we enjoy, like Murder by Death and Bright Eyes, or The Snake The Cross The Crown, who most of you have never heard of, but should have. Check outTiny Picture Frames at bandcamp... and if you don't dig the busy first song, skip ahead to the glorious gloom and doom of "Gold Leaf and Bone" or "Three Sheets," because wallowing in it is more your thing (it's totally our thing).
This Friday - date night? - you have an opportunity to check out this great band AND eat some of the fanciest, most delicious pizza (and salads, and beers, etc.) in all of CT at Litchfield's Bohemian Pizza, which we've blogged about previously. Revisit our memorable meal, complete with food porn pictures.
We've already mentioned the Open Studio kick-off party happening at ArtSpace this Thursday. But this Thursday is first Thursday, so it's also Wadsworth party time again. We've attended the last couple of these events, and while they aren't quite the Bacchanalian orgies that Real Art Ways' monthly cocktail "hours" have become, the Atheneum is a beautiful setting for a party and their collection is of course amazing. And since we're always talking about all the great celebrities in CT, it's worth nothing that this week's Art After Hours will feature CT radio/newspaper personality Colin McEnroe, who will be "narrating a evening of scene and live song from the Great American Songbook." Is that a real book, or just a figure of speech?
Go there for the free Hookers, stay for the... pricier hookers? Thursday night is such a party night in Hartford! Productivity at Connecticut businesses on Friday must be terrible!
We admit to having been barely aware that The Cult were even together and performing, but Ian Astbury is a hot hot man with a great voice and this band was cool, no matter what silly (frilly) crap they wore. But hey, they've got short hair now and have obviously toned that shit down. Assuming they still "have it" where it counts, this should be a killer show. Reacquaint yourself with "Love Removal Machine" and just try and resist.
Open Studio weekend(s) is pretty epic in proportion, and we won't even attempt to describe all the participating artists and performers and venues, when you can explore all those details for yourself on this pretty good website...
Suffice to say, we're most interested in the associated parties for schmooze/photo ops. Like the opening reception at ArtSpace, which is going on Thursday evening from 6-8 p.m. Just look what happened to Katie Scenic last time she attended an art reception at that venue!
Haha, just kidding - Katie Scenic is an artist, and that was just some performance art.
This is a perfect opportunity to explore places in Hartford you never knew existed, like the Hartford Artisans Weaving Center, where the elderly/visually impaired learn to weave.
During the second weekend, our fav-o venue Real Art Ways will be hosting the Connecticut Cinematic Celebration - yet another indie film showcase in Hartford!
We're looking forward to checking in with friends-of-the-blog throughout the event, including our many peeps at ArtSpace and the nu-artspace, Billings Forge. We look forward to living in one of these communities someday ourselves, because blogging is art. We'll be pleased to open our doors to the public for some participatory bloggery.
While this weekend's Hartford International Film Fest doesn't look to be the Scenic party vehicle that last month's Silk City fest was, we are still excited about this indie event in Hartford and looking forward to checking out some of the films. We're into chicks, man, so the most appealing in the lineup for us are a pair of documentaries about women.
Behind the Burly Q is a documentary about burlesque, and we're totally into CT burlesque, so this exploration of the history of the art of the tease sounds enticing. Behind the Burly Q is playing Saturday, 10:30 p.m. at Art Cinema. Whoah! Isn't that a porn theater? Whatever, we're hip to that and nothing phases us. Congratulations on the awesome venue choice, Capital Cinema Collective. We may want to put down some plastic before we take a seat though.
Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo seems interesting too. Convicts and horsies - a few of our favorite things. Oklahoma prison sounds like a good time. And we are suckers for those women's prison movies. This one is playing Saturday afternoon, 1 p.m. at the Mark Twain House.
It has come to our attention - repeatedly, regrettably - that many of our readers aren't really following the blog and don't check daily or read every post, in spite of our efforts to remind you via mirroring all of our blog activity on Facebook, not to mention making ourselves available to many of you for "friendship." In fact, it is often our closest friends and colleagues who fail as followers. Are they ashamed of us? Why? Our amazing blog makes them feel inadequate about their successful careers and meaningful romantic relationships? This failure becomes clear when we have live-action conversations about the awesome things we've been up to, or when they FB comment on some fun photos we've just posted with sentiments like "Oh, I would have gone to that if I had known it was going on" or "I love that foreign band you saw live last night, loved them for years, hope they get another American tour some day in this difficult economy for musicians." Of course there would be no cause for such laments if they just glanced at the blog every day or subscribed to it or simply clicked through from our Facebook profile.
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