2017-08-22 17:14:01
THE SHORT LIST I DEE SNIDER I JOHN WATERS
COLLEGE FOOTBALL I STARGAZING I BACKSTAGE
BY MICHAEL LEE-MURPHY SEPTEMBER 2017
POP GO THE ’90s
Just because every generation says of pop music, “They don’t make ’em like they used to,” doesn’t make the statement any less true. On Sept. 2, re-live the hits of the ’90s at the I Love the 90s Tour at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville. For those who fondly remember their Walkman, the lineup is staggering: TLC (below), Naughty by Nature, Mark McGrath (right), Blackstreet, Biz Markie and C&C Music Factory will all be there. The show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $50-$90. If you get there early, you can check out the New England Food Truck Festival, which costs $5 and starts at noon.
I LOVE THE 90s TOUR
SEPT. 2, 8 P.M. | MOHEGAN SUN, UNCASVILLE
The Short List
HOPS FOR HOPE
Craft beer and its associated festivals are nearly ubiquitous now, representing a genuine boom industry. There are many festivals to choose from. If you’re a craft beer fan, it shouldn’t be hard to choose to attend Hops for Hope Brewfest on Sept. 2 at Falcon Field in New Britain. It’s a benefit for the Smith-Magenis Syndrome Research Foundation, which is dedicated to research of the developmental disorder affecting multiple organ systems. The event runs from 2-5 p.m., and tickets are $55 for general admission, and $15 for designated drivers.
FOLK HERO
On Sept. 16, Arlo Guthrie, the bard of the Berkshires, comes down the road from Washington, Massachusetts, to play the Warner Theatre in Torrington. Guthrie is still one of the most famous names in folk music, and concert-goers can be assured of hearing some of his beloved classics. Tickets are $35-$65.
JUSTICE IS SERVED
Supreme Court justices are some of the most important people in our republic. Constitutionally, at least, the nine justices of the Supreme Court are just as powerful as the president and the Congress. They are unelected and don’t often speak in public. On Sept. 28 at 8 p.m., however, U.S. Justice Stephen Breyer will appear at the Connecticut Forum, in a discussion moderated by CBS This Morning co-anchor Norah O’Donnell. Tickets start at $25.
BEAUTY ON WHEELS
For generations, car enthusiasts have watched as all manner of engineers try to create machines that hit on three distinct specifications: power, speed and beauty. In the small intersection of that three-way Venn diagram is the sports car, and from Sept. 1-4 Connecticut residents can travel up to Lakeville’s Lime Rock Park for the 35th annual Historic Festival, a long weekend of exhibits, including the Sunday in the Park Concours d’Elegance and Gathering of the Marques Sept. 3, and racing, featuring cars dating back to before World War I. Tickets are $50-$55. horrornewsnetwork.net/ct-horror
THE HORROR!
Horror fans are still reeling from the death of George Romero, one of the genre’s most defining characters. The filmmaker’s appearance at last year’s CT HorrorFest was a coup. At this year’s iteration at the Danbury Ice Pavilion on Sept. 16, one of his most famous lead actors — Ken Foree, who starred in the 1978 classic Dawn of the Dead — will be on hand, along with horror cult legend Sid Haig. Tickets are $25 at the door, cash only. The event runs from 11 a.m.-8 p.m.
horrornewsnetwork.net/ct-horror
See September 2017 calendar listings at connecticutmag.com/calendar
Front Row
In addition to having written “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” one of the greatest rock ’n’ roll anthems of the ’80s, Dee Snider was a beloved fixture on Connecticut’s airwaves in the early 2000s as a morning radio host on Radio 104. Observant drivers will still see DEE bumper stickers on cars across the state. After retiring his band Twisted Sister last year, he has embarked on a tour to promote his new solo album, We Are the Ones. He stops at the Ridgefield Playhouse on Sept. 22.
Do you have fond memories of your morning show in Hartford?
The fondest! Three great years in Hartford and then we simulcast out to Richmond for about a year. It was an awesome experience. When you spend that kind of quality time with people, four hours every morning yakking and talking, people really get to know you. The minute that somebody comes up to you and says “I’m a peep from Connecticut,” it’s an instant bond, because I know they really know me. They don’t know me from a movie or an album cover or a video, an appearance on a TV show or a reality show. They know me from that quality time you get to spend talking about your life and sharing life experiences. For three whole years, that’s a long time. ... People come up to me all the time from Connecticut, and go, “Man, that was the greatest. We miss it so much.” It’s so flattering. It was so long ago now, and there’s still fond memories. There’s still the euro stickers rolling around on cars.
So you’re on tour for your new solo album We Are The Ones.
Yeah, Twisted retired in November of last year, and in November of last year I released my first solo album. The intention was not for me to disappear, the intention was to put an exclamation point on the incredible career of Twisted Sister, and I certainly love my former bandmates, my friends, my brothers. After 40 years on and off with the band, I wanted to do some new things. I also wanted to stop headbanging. I can barely turn my head as it is. We Are the Ones rocks. But there’s a lot of things on there I could never do with Twisted Sister. I could never have covered “Head Like a Hole” by Nine Inch Nails. I could never have done an unplugged version of “We’re Not Gonna Take It” with Twisted Sister.
Your most recent music video was filmed at, and very supporting of, the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline in North Dakota. How did you come to that struggle?
It’s so strange how things happen. There’s a restaurant we go to regularly. I was with my daughter. Her name is Cheyenne, which is an Indian name. The bus boy came up — I see him all the time, they called him Pony. So Pony goes to Cheyenne and starts speaking in his native tongue. I said, “Are you a Native American?’ and he said, “Yes, I just said a poem.” So we started talking and he said, “I don’t know if you’re aware, but there’s things going on at Standing Rock.” And I had heard little bits and pieces. And he said, “If you could just tweet about it or something, that would be awesome.” So he made me aware of it. And I looked into it and I said “tweet about it?!” I need to do more than a tweet. I spoke with my son, Cody, who is an up-and-coming director. I got a whole crew of guys who are ready to do this for nothing. We tried to capture [the scene in Standing Rock], but it was a warzone. What erupted there was a warzone. It went on for hours and hours. My son was getting teargassed and hosed. And finally the camera guy, literally looking through his lens, the guy turned a gun on him, and fired a rubber bullet and hit him. [The protesters] have had some victories, but it’s an ongoing fight, especially with Trump in the White House. It’s a very different tone out there. There’s a lot of blanket support for corporate America, and they get carte blanche now.
A lot of people will also remember the stand you took against Tipper Gore’s Parents Music Resource Center in the 1980s. Do you think it’s gotten easier or harder to take stands like that?
You realize what your purpose is at different points in your life. In my 20s, my purpose was to be the voice of the unvoiced, the youth of the world who were frustrated and angry, and give them a song to sing. Now at this point in my life, I find myself in the same position, except I have a song, a really lethal song. I could sing it for any cause. When I’m out on the road at these concerts and these festivals, and I dedicate it to the fight against terrorism, against the people that would take our simple pleasures, of listening to music, and that is being targeted a lot. [They’re] not going after military installations, not going after enemies, but going after regular people. I sing that song and the place just erupts. I’ll sing it for Criss Angel’s fight against children’s cancer, and suddenly it becomes the song for that fight. I’m ready to fight whatever. I’ve got my eye on bullying next.
A few years ago, you joined an elite coterie: people who have been fired by Donald Trump.
When you’re doing reality TV, and I was pretty steeped in that world for a while … I was roasted a couple of years ago, and Zakk Wylde got up and said, “Dee, you’re surrounded by friends and family, this isn’t a roast. It’s an intervention. You gotta stop doing all these reality shows.” I laughed so hard. If you’re on that reality TV show thing, making it to Celebrity Apprentice was like the ultimate reality show to be on. Then I was on All-Star Celebrity Apprentice, and I was fired on that. For attention, for re-branding yourself, it was a great thing. On the Trump front, I got along great with the whole Trump family. They were lovely people. We enjoyed their company and became friendly with them. As with most people when you go out for drinks, you don’t talk about politics, sports or religion. And we never did. It turns out we’re not quite as like-minded as I thought. So it’s a whole different ballgame now. It’s not reality TV, it’s f---ing reality. And it’s a little scary what’s going on right now. | MICHAEL LEE-MURPHY |
Sports
FROM YALE BOWL TO THE RENT, CATCH COLLEGE FOOTBALL ACTION AT OUR HISTORIC, BEAUTIFUL VENUES
Ready For Some Football?
BY MICHAEL LEE-MURPHY
There are a number of places that claim to be the birthplace of the game of football. This being Connecticut Magazine, we are going to go ahead and say the invention of the modern game was in New Haven, when New Britain native, Yale player and “father of American football” Walter Camp put order on a disorderly version of the game played up until that point. His intervention produced many of the rules we think of as central to the game today: the downs system, the snap, the line of scrimmage, and 11 players on each side.
It’s September, which means football season is here. And there’s still a humble, scrappy version of the game played on college campuses across the state. Most of the players will never play in the NFL, but their games are imbued with local character and tradition. Here’s our list of places to watch.
PRATT & WHITNEY STADIUM AT RENTSCHLER FIELD
UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT HUSKIES
EAST HARTFORD
Home of UConn, Connecticut’s only Division I football school, “the Rent” holds a special place in the hearts of many. It’s been a difficult few seasons for the Huskies, but the return of head coach Randy Edsall after a seven-year self-imposed exile has Husky fans hoping for brighter tomorrows. UConn has produced numerous NFLplayers, and hopes to do so in the future. Opened in 2003, the Rent is the state’s most modern football facility, sporting club seats and private suites, among other amenities. More than 40,000 can fit in the stadium, although that ballooned to nearly 43,000 when UConn hosted Michigan in 2013.
Home opener: Holy Cross, Aug. 31 at 7:30 p.m.
860-486-6411, uconnhuskies.com/football
ANDRUS FIELD
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY CARDINALS
MIDDLETOWN
Located right in the heart of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Andrus Field touts itself as the oldest continuously used football field in America. Games have been played on the field since the early 1880s, when Wesleyan played against the Ivies on a regular basis. Today its main rival is the Trinity Bantams. In more recent times, Andrus Field has been home to football royalty: Five-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick played center and tight end on the field in the early 1970s.
Home opener: Tufts, Sept. 23 at 6 p.m.
860-685-2690, athletics.wesleyan.edu/sports/fball
RALPH F. DELLACAMERA STADIUM
UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAVEN CHARGERS
WEST HAVEN
DellaCamera Stadium has one of the most unique fields in the state: the Chargers are one of only a handful of teams across the country to play on a non-green field. The blue-and-gold gridiron at the UNH campus in West Haven is a must-see for any true football fan in the state. Like a good cross-town rivalry? The Chargers are just across the West River from Southern Connecticut State University.
Home opener: LIU Post, Sept. 9 at 1 p.m.
203-932-7357, newhavenchargers.com/index.aspx?path=football
WESTSIDE ATHLETIC COMPLEX
WESTERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY COLONIALS |DANBURY
The Colonials play at the Westside Athletic Complex (the WAC! Great name), and are in Division III of the NCAA. The roster is truly a showcase of homegrown talent, as the vast majority of the players are from Connecticut. A look at the hometowns and high schools of the players reveals what is likely the most Nutmegger-heavy roster in the state.
Home opener: Plymouth St., Sept. 16 at 4 p.m.
203-837-9015, wcsuathletics.com/sports/fball
ARUTE FIELD
CENTRAL CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY BLUE DEVILS NEW BRITAIN
Two of CCSU’s games will be available this year on ESPN3 (at Youngstown St. on Sept. 16 and at Sacred Heart on Sept. 30). The Blue Devils are also squaring off against some big teams this season, kicking off the schedule at Syracuse on Sept. 1, and hosting the Ivy League’s Penn for their homecoming game on Oct. 7.
Home opener: Fordham, Sept. 9 at Noon
860-832-2583, ccsubluedevils.com/sports/fball
JESS DOW FIELD
SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY OWLS NEW HAVEN
Want to catch some football in New Haven but don’t want to deal with the Yale crowds? In the town-gown divide that has shaped New Haven for centuries, the Bulldogs are gown, and the Owls are town. The Owls’ roster is replete with kids from the Greater New Haven area. Southern hosts cross-town rival UNH on Sept. 29 at its Westville campus.
Home opener: Gannon University, Sept. 2 at noon
203-392-6028, southernctowls.com/index.aspx?path=football
JESSEE/MILLER FIELD
TRINITY BANTAMS HARTFORD
Trinity College is gorgeous. Beautiful buildings dot the campus, located in the Frog Hollow neighborhood of Hartford. The football field sits right at the middle. In the lush oasis of the campus, you would almost forget you were in Connecticut’s capital city, and not some small country town in the Litchfield Hills or the Berkshires. The Bantams host rival Wesleyan on Nov. 11.
Home opener: Colby, Sept. 16 at 1 p.m.
860-297-2000, bantamsports.com/sports/fball
YALE BOWL
YALE UNIVERSITY BULLDOGS |NEW HAVEN
If you’re a college football fan, you know what a bowl game is. “Bowl” is derived from Yale Bowl, the crown jewel of Connecticut’s stadiums. When it was built in 1914, Yale Bowl was the biggest stadium in the world, for a team which played in the most important football league there was, the Ivy League. (Remember, there was no NFLin 1914.) It was the AT&T Stadium — the Dallas Cowboys’ monstrous new home — of its day. With a capacity over 60,000, it remains our state’s largest venue. While it has seen better days (we think it criminal that there aren’t more non-Yale events held there), it is still a remarkable historical experience to see a game there. The season’s big event arrives Nov. 18 when the Bulldogs welcome bitter rival Harvard at 12:30 p.m.
Home opener: Cornell, Sept. 23 at 1 p.m.
203-432-1400, yalebulldogs.com/sports/m-footbl
Camp
Summer Camp, for Adults Only
‘KING OF CAMP’ JOHN WATERS HOSTS GROWN-UPS WEEKEND IN KENT
BY MARYELLEN FILLO
Kent’s Club Getaway is known for its summer programs full of camping opportunities for both youths and adults. But the camp is getting extra edgy as summer wanes when it hosts an adults-only weekend program featuring iconic director and screenwriter John Waters.
The 71-year-old, best known for his transgressive cult films including Pink Flamingos and Polyester, and his 1988 mainstream hit Hairspray, will perform a one-man show during the Waters-themed session that runs from Sept. 22-24. Sadly, it was sold out earlier this summer. (But there’s a waiting list!)
“It was an idea conceived by me and my partner,” explains Toffer Christensen, one of the event promoters. “We had always wanted to do a special small event at Club Getaway and initially we were looking at music concepts with bands.
“I do a lot of events with John every year, and one day it dawned on me that Camp John Waters would be an even better idea than any band. John is the ‘King of Camp.’ ”
The weekend will not only feature Waters’ show, but also screenings of his movies and movie themed-events including “Bloody Mary Bingo,” “Hairspray Karaoke” a costume contest and a dance party.
Nicknamed “The Pope of Trash” and “Prince of Puke,” Waters, also an author, actor, stand-up comedian and journalist, has crafted a career defined by pushing the boundaries in his movies, films that often poked at the radicalism and discontent of the world, and are considered to be both artistic spectacle and political statement.
His pedigree has sustained over decades, and once the word was out, it took just hours for the camp session to sell out.
“Our website crashed because so many people were all trying to get information and register at the same time,” says Camp Getaway owner and self-proclaimed Waters’ superfan David Schreiber.
“I was a little reluctant about the idea when John’s people first approached me about the special camp session because it was an idea that was a little out of the comfort zone,” says Schreiber, whose camp will also be hosting a far more tame Gilmore Girls-themed fan fest Oct. 20-22, based on the popular 2000s dramedy. “I was very surprised at how quickly it sold out,” Schreiber says of the Waters session. “But it is definitely a great concept and I would do it again.”
About 400 people have paid the $499 fee for the weekend, which will also include traditional Camp Getaway adult offerings including burlesque lessons, a scotch and cigar session, zip lines, archery, water skiing and other more traditional camp activities. Waters will also do readings from his books and host a question-and-answer session. Plans to decorate the camp in a “Waters” theme include an oversize inflatable head of the famed filmmaker.
Crazy kitsch aside, both Schreiber and Christensen agree that hand-in-hand with a weekend of way-offbeat films and amenities is the end-of-summer camping experience itself, especially for adults.
“You get to relive your childhood camp memories, but with an amazing twist,” Christensen says. “If you are a fan of John and his works, this could be the best summer camp do-over ever,” he says. “It is the perfect storm of all the things his fans love: Hairspray Karaoke, s’mores by the campfire, Bloody Mary Bingo and John Waters, all in one weekend. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that.”
For more information about the John Waters adults-only camp and its waiting list, go to clubgetaway.com or call 860-927-3664.
Experience
Starry Eyes
GAZE INTO THE HEAVENS WITH THE WESTPORT ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY’S MASSIVE TELESCOPE | BY MICHAEL LEE-MURPHY
For most of the history of the human species, up until relatively recently, we understood our place in the world, and indeed in everything that exists, by looking to the stars. For centuries humans navigated the globe via the night sky. Ancient geometries allowed the European explorers to traverse the world, establishing trade routes. Before that, ancient civilizations incorporated astrology into their religious traditions. For billions of people and for centuries, the stars were divine and the nighttime sky was holy. In the nighttime of the techno-societies of the modern era, we mostly look down to the false light of television and smartphone screens.
Not so for the stargazers of the Westport Astronomical Society. Just yards from the Merritt Parkway in Westport, tucked amid some of the most expensive homes on the planet, sits an old military installation that’s been reclaimed for a wonderful set of relentlessly curious enthusiasts, geeks and nerds (all terms used with love). Formerly a site for the radar associated with the Nike missile-defense system during the Cold War, the collection of old, no-frills buildings is now the home base of the astronomical society’s observatory, which has the largest telescope in Connecticut accessible to the public.
On Wednesday nights with clear skies, the Westport Astronomy Society opens its doors and its telescopes to the public. As it gets darker, cars fill up the dusty parking lot to get ready for the show. The show, of course, is the one that unfolds above our heads every night of our lives, if we would only have the patience and time to stop and look.
The society’s president, Dan Wright, still remembers the first time he saw Saturn through a telescope when growing up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. “It just sunk in. I mean, I sucked in every one of those photons … I think that they changed me, so I’ve been chasing photons like that ever since,” he says.
On a recent summer night when (in addition to the light pollution of Fairfield County) the light of the stars competes with that of fireflies, both Saturn and Jupiter are putting on a show. There are two telescopes available for stargazing. Both use a simple, centuries-old technology — the Newtonian telescope — in which two mirrors of varying size reflect light into an eyepiece. The 12½-inch telescope (the devices are defined by the size of the mirror) is located in the dome of the observatory, and on this night is trained on Jupiter.
The observatory dome alerts the visitor to the scrappy, grassroots nature of the astronomy taking place here. As a holdover from the years in the late 1960s and early ’70s when the observatory was abandoned and mostly used for partying by the youth of Westport, there are two bullet holes in the dome. Perhaps in order to better commune with the stars, someone has also helpfully scrawled BOWIE across the inside of the dome. One suspects the late “Starman” would be pleased.
To look through a Newtonian telescope, and to see Jupiter, with its atmospheric swirls and Giant Red Spot and the four Galilean moons, is to produce shivers. This is only the first of the night’s revelations. The 25-inch Newtonian on the grass outside is pointed at Saturn, the undisputed star of the show. Children and adults alike are lined to look through the eyepiece of the massive, 14-foot-tall telescope. Upon climbing a small staircase to look at the planet, they descend with a look of wonder.
Like Wright, Paul Chunov is a Saturn guy. It was as a youngster in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he first looked at the planet with its rings and got hooked on astronomy. Chunov, like all the other society astronomers, approaches the task of stargazing with a mixture of wonder, obsession (the name of the 25-inch telescope, by the way) and reverence. Looking at the rings of Saturn, clear as if they were right in front of you, it becomes obvious why the celestial bodies were once worshipped so widely. “It’s very humbling,” Chunov says. He descends the stairs from the telescope with a smile across his face. With half-sincere, half-joking relief, he affirms Saturn’s existence. “It’s still there,” Chunov says.
Igor Sikorsky, who founded the aircraft manufacturer just up the Merritt Parkway from the astronomical society and where Chunov is retired from after a career in flight control, was himself a keen astronomer and admirer of the stars. “The astronomical heaven includes another most important and concrete reality, namely the unknown and unimaginable carrier of gravitation. It is the mysterious agent which transformed the primeval chaos into an orderly, majestic universe,” he said in a 1949 lecture called The Evolution of the Soul.
Wright, too, takes the long view. “This is all something that, even though when you look into space, it’s huge and massive, we’re all part of it. We’re standing on a rock zipping around all of it. And I love that because it really does make me feel connected to it,” he says.
The Westport Astronomical Society meets every Wednesday from 8-10 p.m. at 182 Bayberry Lane in Westport. There are lectures on the third Tuesday of every month. If the recent solar eclipse has you looking skyward, you can join members of the society at the 80th annual Connecticut Star Party in Goshen from Sept. 22-24. was-ct.org
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