Kate Hartman 2016-03-21 19:41:17
COLORBLENDS HOUSE & SPRING GARDEN
APRIL THROUGH MID-MAY 893 CLINTON AVE. | BRIDGEPORT
1-888-847-8637, colorblendsspringgarden.com
IN BLOOM
Spring has sprung in Bridgeport. More than 25,000 tulips, daffdils and other spring bulb flowers will bloom at the Colorblends House & Spring Garden in April and beyond. Now in its second year, this expertly designed, half-acre garden is both a spring destination and an educational experience for gardeners across the state. Colorblends, a nationally known flower bulb firm that moved to East Bridgeport in 2005, created the show garden to give people an idea of what they can do with their own gardens. The space is planned by Dutch garden designer Jacqueline van der Kloet and features many signature Colorblends bloom-combinations like the brilliant orange and purple tulip blend named “Stop the Car,” which is exactly what you should do when you’re in the neighborhood. Admission is free, as is entrance into the Colorblends House, a spring-yellow 1903 Colonial Revival mansion on the property.
NEW OLD FASHIONED
Originally formed at Indiana University, this 10-piece male a cappella group has acquired a huge fan base (more than 20 million views on YouTube, plus TV appearances and chart-topping albums) with their mesmerizing melodies and intricate arrangements. Straight No Chaser takes popular songs like Stand By Me, Wonderwall and Uptown Girl and completely reimagines them with only their voices. Their New Old Fashioned Tour will come to the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts at UConn-Storrs on April 2. jorgensen.uconn.
ME TALK PRETTY
For one night only! The sardonic humorist David Sedaris — author of bestsellers Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim — will offer up several new readings plus a Q&A session and book signing at the Palace Theatre in Stamford on April 7. Book lovers will not want to miss this Evening with David Sedaris presented by WSHU. palacestamford.org
WILD ANIMALS
Dive into the colorful world of animals in the Bruce Museum’s exhibit Wild Reading: Animals in Children’s Book Art, which takes a closer look at the depiction of animals in some of our favorite and classic works. Contemporary and historic illustrations, along with taxidermy examples from the museum’s natural history collection, will be on display in Greenwich from March 26 through July 3. brucemuseum.org
WORLD PREMIERE
From 2014 MacArthur Fellowship Recipient Samuel D. Hunter comes Lewiston, a story of family struggle in the vast American landscape. Alice and Connor sell cheap fireworks at their roadside stand while all around them developers swallow up land for profit. Enter Marnie, Alice’s long-lost granddaughter who proposes buying their land to save the family legacy. Deep secrets, uncertain pasts and hopeful futures come to the forefront in this play, which will have its world premiere at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven on April 6. The show, directed by Eric Ting, will run through May 1. longwharf.org
A LITTLE BIT OF MAGIC
Anything can happen when you have a big imagination, a group of friends and a little bit of magic. Based on the beloved novel by Roald Dahl, Matilda the Musical tells the story of one incredible little girl who dares to take a stand and defeat the unbearable Miss Trunchbull. Connecticut audiences will get to see the magic for themselves at The Bushnell in Hartford from April 26 to May 1. Bring the whole family. This show is fun for all ages! bushnell.org
STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE
Tony Bennett has been setting the musical bar for more than 60 years. His array of standards like “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” and “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” have shaped the American music landscape and garnered awards, including 18 Grammys and the prestigious Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. And Mr. Bennett is not slowing down. He continues to record groundbreaking music, including his recent release with Lady Gaga, Cheek to Cheek, and tour the country. On April 1 he will make a stop at the Mohegan Sun Resort Casino. mohegansun.com
front row
Best known for her roles in Sleepless in Seattle, Jingle All the Way, Runaway Bride and many television appearances (and for being married to Tom Hanks), actress and producer Rita Wilson has long been a force in the entertainment business. But she says music has always been one of her first passions. In 2012, she took the plunge and released a collection of ’60s and ’70s classics, titled AM/FM, to positive reviews. In early March, she released her second self-titled album, which features all-original music written by Wilson, and she embarked on a 20-city tour (her first!), which will bring her to the Ridgefield Playhouse on April 27.
Music has always been important in your life?
That’s true. I can’t say it was my first love in that I was able to play the guitar and I was writing music, but with performing, when I was a kid my mom and dad would say, ‘Get up and sing!’ I’d sing “Ode to Billie Joe” [by country singer Bobbie Gentry]. I think I was responding to the storytelling in that song. I connected to what the songwriter was saying and what was being communicated, and obviously that applies to not just the lyrics but the music and how that makes you feel. Music can make you jump up and down or be in a puddle of tears. I responded to that.
Did you always want to write your own songs?
I never dreamed that I would be able to write a song, and it was always something I wished I could do. I worked as a ticket taker at the Universal Amphitheatre [now the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles] and I saw every major singer/songwriter I loved [including] Joni Mitchell, Carole King and James Taylor. I never would have believed that I could write a song that would put me in the same category as any of those people.
How did you decide to try it?
Kara DioGuardi and I both played Roxie Hart in Chicago … We became phone pals for a bit and when she came to LA for a visit, [a friend] put us together. During that time we were talking about music and I said to her, ‘I can’t believe how lucky you are to be a songwriter. That’s extraordinary.’ She told me I could write a song. She asked, ‘Do you have something you want to say?’ I told her my idea for the song Grateful, and she said she would write that song with me. She brought in Jason Reeves and we wrote two songs together and I guess that gave me the confidence to reach out to Kristian Bush from the band Sugarland. My managers put me in touch with great writers in Nashville and I started collecting a bunch of songs. I didn’t know what I was writing for. I was just writing songs, but then I realized I was writing into a theme and that became, I guess, I’m writing an album!
RITA WILSON APRIL 27 | 7:30 P.M. RIDGEFIELD PLAYHOUSE 203-438-5795, ridgefieldplayhouse.org
Are you excited for the tour?
I love performing live in a theater and singing. I love the connection with the audience. You can feel it. You can feel what they’re digging. You bring them with you and they bring you with them. This is the first time I’m crossing America on wheels. I’m looking forward to seeing America and connecting with fans.
What do you hope the audience takes away from your performance?
I want people to come and have a great time. The songs I wrote are my experiences, but I don’t think they’re unique to me. I think everyone has had an experience like in my song “Crying, Crying” where you’re putting your best face forward, or like in “Girls Night In” where you’re just having a great time and cutting loose. I want people to know [they should] do what they love and don’t be afraid to try new things and don’t worry about what people will say. Do what you love.
Exhibit
PINTOS, ‘BURNING RAT’ AND SCALDING COFFEE …
Welcome to the Tort Museum
BY ERIK OFGANG
As Lilly Gray drove on a California freeway in 1972, her Ford Pinto stalled when it entered a merge lane and was rear-ended by another car traveling at about 30 mph.
It should have been a fender bender. Instead, the Pinto’s fuel tank ruptured, releasing gasoline vapors that ignited. The car exploded in a ball of fire.
Gray died, and her passenger, 13-year-old Richard Grimshaw, suffered disfiguring burns. In an ensuing court case brought by Grimshaw and Gray’s family against Ford, internal Ford documents revealed the company had secretly crash-tested the Pinto more than 40 times before it went on the market. Its fuel tank ruptured in every test performed at speeds over 25 mph. Eventually these lawsuits and bad publicity led to a recall of the model.
The story of the Pinto and the lawsuit is among the cases celebrated at the American Museum of Tort Law in Winsted, which opened last September and will reopen in April after shutting down for the winter season. The museum was conceived and founded by Ralph Nader, a Winsted native. The museum’s name can evoke images of paint drying or algebra homework, but it is a surprisingly dynamic, fascinating and, yes, even fun destination.
A tort is any wrongful act that can result in a civil lawsuit, and tort law is basically personal-injury law. At the museum, Nader and co. are so earnest and passionate in their efforts to elevate personal injury lawyers from the punchlines of jokes to the knights in shining suits of the legal profession, it’s hard not to get caught up.
“I grew up revering the rule of law and equating lawyers with justice,” Nader says. He adds that although there are more than 35,000 museums in the United States, until his, none were dedicated to the law because “museum designers hadn’t figured out how to take something as abstract as the law and communicate it.”
To solve this problem, designers at the American Museum of Tort Law went for a comic book-inspired “POW!” motif that bristles with dynamics. The space is bright and open with eye-catching artifacts and art that illustrate important moments in tort law. Visitors will meet the “burning rat,” a grotesquely comic accident with great importance; revisit the infamous McDonald’s hot coffee case, presented here as an example of a big corporation endangering customers for profit (McDonald’s, we learn, kept its coffee that hot for a competitive advantage over rivals and received more than 700 burn complaints); and tour an exhibit of dangerous toys, some so clearly unsafe as to be reminiscent of Dan Akroyd’s famous Saturday Night Live dangerous toys parody (Bag O’ Glass, anyone?).
“I call it proof that my parents were trying to kill me,” says the museum’s director, Richard L. Newman, of the toy exhibit. Newman is a former personal-injury lawyer, who is often on hand at the museum interacting with guests.
Much of the museum is also dedicated to Nader’s consumer protection-work. The place’s centerpiece is a bright red Chevrolet Corvair, of which Nader publicized the dangers in his 1965 book, Unsafe at Any Speed. General Motors allegedly tried to discredit Nader’s claims by sending prostitutes to seduce him, an incident tastefully depicted in comic cartoon on a wall next to the Corvair.
It’s work that Nader, who is in his early 80s, has been dedicated to for a long time. “I didn’t like bullies, even as a little boy,” says Nader. When he grew up he says he realized there were a lot of bullies and “one of them was General Motors.”
The idea of lawyers being the slingshots for all the Davids trying to stand up to the Goliath corporations is a theme that runs through the museum. “The goal is to bring the law to the people,” Nader says. “The law that protects them, that’s what tort law is.”
860-379-0505, tortmuseum.org
Film
Hartford Jewish Film Festival
10 DAYS FILLED WITH 22 INTERNATIONAL FILMS, FOOD & FUN
Lights, camera, action! For the 20th year, the Mandell Jewish Community Center in Hartford will present the best of Jewish film in a festival beginning March 31 and running through April 10. Twenty-two international first-run films from eight countries will play in seven venues over 10 days in Hartford and West Hartford.
Opening night of this Rock ’n’ Reelthemed festival will feature Israel’s ambassador of song, David Broza, who will speak and sing following the screening of his new film East Jerusalem, West Jerusalem at The Mandell JCC, a new venue this year. The film tracks Broza’s eightday recording session in the studio of the Palestinian band Sabreen. Numerous award-winning American, Palestinian and Israeli musicians were along for the ride on this “soul-stirring rockumentary.”
“Our theme of Rock ‘n’ Reel brings together the best in music and film for our 20th year,” says festival Director Harriet J. Dobin. “‘Israel’s Bruce Springsteen,’ David Broza, is one of the world’s top recording artists and he’s now a filmmaker, too. His new film, East Jerusalem, West Jerusalem, appeals directly to our film and music lovers who also are so passionate about building bridges of peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”
Another music-themed film, Rock in the Red Zone, about the young, battle-scarred musicians of Sderot, Israel, will play at the Mandell JCC on April 9.
Other films include Imber’s Left Hand by Middletown native Jill Hoy about her late husband, Jon Imber, an artist who suffered from ALS. Hoy will follow the screening with a talk at The Emanuel Synagogue in West Hartford on April 5. Also, a fun adult stoner comedy titled Dough, which stars Game of Thrones actor Jonathan Pryce, will be shown on April 3 at Spotlight Theatres and on April 10 at Bow Tie Cinemas Palace 17.
This year the festival has also invited celebrity chef Michael Solomonov of the Zahav restaurant group in Philadelphia and New York to join the fun. Recipes from his new cookbook Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking will be served à la carte before the screening of his film In Search of Israeli Cuisine is shown at the Mandell JCC on April 4.
A month-long art exhibition titled Side by Side will also run in the Mandell JCC’s Chase Family Gallery throughout the festival.
“Rockers, foodies and art lovers will be able to satisfy all of their cravings at our 2016 Mandell JCC Hartford Jewish Film Festival,” says Dobin. “Twenty-two films in 10 days, that’s a lot of popcorn and people! There’s a film for everyone and we can’t wait to share them all with our Connecticut fans!”
| KATE HARTMAN |
860-233-6316, hjff.org
Music
‘The Queen of African Music’
GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING SINGER HIGHLIGHTS HERITAGE, HUMANITY IN HER MUSIC
BY MARYELLEN FILLO
You may not immediately recognize the name, but the moment she starts to sing you will likely recognize the distinctive voice and music of three-time Grammy Award-winner Angelique Kidjo. A well-known activist, philanthropist, UNICEF ambassador, actor and author, Kidjo will be the featured guest at this year’s Hartford Region YWCA In The Company of Women luncheon April 7 at the Connecticut Convention Center. Considered a trailblazer for African music and often referred to as “The Undisputed Queen of African Music,” Kidjo took 2016 Grammy honors in the Best World Music category for her song “Sings.” A married mother of one, Kidjo has been named as one of “The 40 Most Powerful Celebrities in Africa” and one of the “100 Most Inspiring Women in the World.” The 55-year-old, who now lives in New York City, is on the road but took time to share some of her thoughts with Connecticut Magazine as she prepares to share her music, her story and her opinions with the women of Hartford.
You have been called the powerful, influential and inspiring. You have won three Grammys and have received honorary degrees from prestigious schools like Berklee and Yale. You have performed for world leaders. When you look in the mirror, what do you see?
I can’t stand still! I feel so lucky to be able to live my passion of being a singer, and this passion has not diminished through the years. I have discovered so much new music that I’m trying to embrace.
Congratulations on your third Grammy! Does it get old? How did you feel that moment you realized you won and what was extra special about that award-winning album?
It never gets old. The jury is composed of my fellow musicians and producers. To think that they listen to my music and like it makes me very happy! This Philharmonic project was unique because I don’t think that has ever been done. Classical music and African music seem so different, but in fact, they share a lot of rhythm and texture in common. I hope the result, like my new version of Malaika, sounds natural and organic.
Your music is so much deeper than mere lyrics and a tune that entertains. Tell me about the parts of your music, the inspiration, the soul, the reason you sing what you do and what you want to tell the world.
My main inspiration is traditional music from Benin. The traditional musicians are often social commentators but they know that they have to create uplifting music to carry their message. This is what I am trying to achieve. Don’t make people feel guilty, just make them dance!
Are there elements of your music that reflect your heritage?
I think so. The shapes of the melodies and the complexity of the rhythm are typically Beninese. People don’t realize it because Beninese music is not as famous as Malian music, for instance, but if you listen to it, you will be surprised by its power and energy.
Why do you think your music is so popular with the mainstream?
I am trying to build a musical bridge between cultures. People from different backgrounds can embrace certain elements of my music and it may be a door that allows them to enter my musical world.
Each time you perform a song, who are you trying to reach?
I love the stage. I feel the stage is my true home. So every time I’m singing for an audience, I truly enjoy the connection with the people. I’m trying to reach these people who came to see me. I’m trying to make them feel good. When I see a big smile on their face when they leave the concert hall, I know I have done my job.
What projects are you working on now?
I am trying to find time to write a new album between concerts all over the world. I’m just back from Africa and on my way to Australia so I need to make a big break and hide somewhere!
At 51, what have you not done that you still want to?
There is so much that I want to explore. I have so many ideas for albums, paying tribute to some of my favorite musicians, collaborate with musicians from all over the world. I am only missing time to realize all my ideas!
Who would you like to do a future album with?
I am working on a project with Philip Glass. I have performed it a few times, and I’m hoping I could release it in an album.
Which musicians are favorites of yours and why?
Of course there are so many. I’m just going to list the ones who influenced me the most as a child. James Brown: I told my Mom, when I grow up I want to be James Brown. She told me that would not be possible but I’ve tried very hard. Also there is Bella Bellow, a singer from Togo, and Miriam Makeba and Aretha Franklin. All these three were my role models. I still listen to them a lot.
Among the world leaders you have performed for was Nelson Mandela. Tell me about that experience.
Nelson Mandela had such charisma. I had a chance to meet him a couple of times and every time you felt special next to him. He looked very humble and made you feel important when in fact, it should have been the exact opposite. I visited his jail cell with him, Beyonce and Peter Gabriel. This is an experience I will never forget!
You are also involved in more causes than can possibly be listed here. Why have you made giving back such a priority as an activist and humanitarian? Why and when was the first time you helped others? And why do you still do so much?
As a kid, I had access to a great education thanks to the obstination of my parents who sent all of their 10 kids to school. Also, UNICEF provided me with vaccinations … I just wish that all the young people in Africa could have the same chance as I did. The continent is my main source of inspiration, so I’m trying my best to support the movement to improve it.
So much, they say, is wrong with this world, politically, economically, socially and beyond. What’s your take on this world of ours?
I’m not going to be able to answer this question in a couple of sentences. My main belief is we should embrace each other’s cultures much more. But world politics tend to push in the opposite direction. Divide to conquer, they say. Unfortunately, politicians don’t realize the long-term harm that those rhetorics create in people’s psyche.
Friends who not only admire your music but your “outside” as well have asked me to find out your exercise and beauty routine.
I try to exercise every day a little bit. Which can be hard when you are travelling a lot. And I’m also very careful at what I eat. I have a passion for cooking, so every time I have the opportunity, I will cook very healthy food with great ingredients. The sad reality is that healthy food is more expensive than junk food, which creates another form of social inequality.
You will be the special guest at this year’s Hartford YWCA In the Company of Women luncheon. Will you be singing, and what will your message be?
I think there will be some singing for sure, and you have to join if you want to hear my message! I want to share my story and show how beautiful and rich African culture is.
What is something most people don’t know about you?
As I mentioned before, few people know about my passion for cooking. I am getting so impatient staying in a music studio for a long time, but I can stay in my kitchen for hours and hours. I wrote some recipes in my memoir, Spirit Rising, because I want the world to know how good African food is. People have no idea.
YWCA Hartford Region: 860-525-1163, ywcahartford.org
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