JimSullivanINK.com - a guide to Boston Arts & Events...with attitude http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM 2010-03-19T22:27:25+01:00 text/html http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM Jim Sullivan http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM/content/view/1728/48/ Tues. March 23 Clea Simon - a former colleague of mine at the Globe - celebrates the publication of Grey Matters, her ninth book and her sixth mytery with a feline as a main character, at Brookline Booksmith Tuesday March 23. Clea, like me, is a cat person. I've had a gray Maine coon tiger in my life since I was 12. I'm on cat No. 4, now. (First one died from kitty leukemia, second from renal cancer, third from a heart attack, at 7, fourth ... still scratchin' and clawin'.) My wife and I have ... several others, too. Hey, they're warm and furry and friendly and there's no college education money to worry about. Now, Clea wrote a book on the Felne Mystique and then moved her interest into novelist's mode. We asked her what's up with her kitty here, a ghost cat. Why a ghost cat?, e-mailed back, rhetorically. Why not? Although the idea may seem a bit bizarre, any pet lover who has ever lost a pet knows the feeling: our beloved companion is still around somewhere, just out of sight. Maybe it’s because they are domestic animals, part of our households, but the house just seems too empty without them. We hear the clicking of their claws on our floors, sense the touch of their fur… just out of reach. text/html http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM Jim Sullivan http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM/content/view/1727/43/ Mon. March 22 Dennis Hopper is in the middle of a divorce from wife No. 5 and battling prostate cancer. He was a heavy cocaine user and drinker for some years. We remember an appearance on Letterman (in the '90s) where he discusssed his recovery. Letterman asked him about an eight-ball a day, case of beer plus whiskey regimen and why he stopped? It stopped working, was Hopper's response. Now, recovery's a whole lot different and more difficult for most folks, maybe Hopper, too. But we liked the simplicity of it. It worked (or convinced him it did) until it didn't. And he stopped. Which brings us to the latest benefit for Right Turn, the Arlington-based outpatient substance abuse recovery program helmed by former Del Fuegos drummer Woody Giessmann. Woody's been down the twisted path, emerged with counseling degrees, this organization and a sincere desire to help Boston rockers and artists banish their demons. (He's gone on tour and helped some big-name guys too.) On Monday March 22, Right Turn goes out to dinner at Jasper White's from 6:30-9:30 and would like you to come along, plunk down $100 (Yes, it's a benefit) and enjoy the seafood, the comedy of Tony V and the blues-rock of James Montgomery and Woody's band text/html http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM Jim Sullivan http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM/content/view/1716/48/ Sun. April 18 Duncan Wilder Johnson (in photo) has made quite a bit of noise in Boston, both with his now destroyed metal band, Destrut-a-Thon and his spoken word act. It's the latter persona that Johnson - and others - will embody, beginning Sunday April 18 at 3 p.m. at O'Brien's. Johnson says, 'The Spoken Word Hangover' is a once a month series celebrating the oral tradition that's been past on generation after generation since the Vikings scorched the earth. Storytellers, poets, comedians, and performance artists will grace the stage in Allston Rock City's den of destruction, O'Brien's. A tradition going back to the Vikings (not the Minesota football team)? Let's put in the context of today's best-known punk-metal-spoken word artist Henry Rollins. How does is compare to Henry? Well, says Johnson, although I am obviously a fan of his and I am in a band and I do spoken word like Henry, I've been trying to distance myself from that for one main reason: I don't do what he does. Henry's work lately is for the most part, conversational, politcal, and editorial. (JSInk note: Henry does run on at the mouth. Even if you're with him he taxes your endurance level and prompts inner cries like Editor! ) My work lately is more pre-scripted and refined as I perform them. They tend to not be politcal, but more social comentary while critiquing myself and hopefully getting a few laughs. Pieces like 'That Girl Can Take A Shit In My Car Anytime ' - JSInk: Sounds like a weepy moment - and 'Jungblood Just Wanted To get Drunk' are more slice-of-life bits. I've also been working on a new release titled 'The Worst of Duncan Wilder Johnson,' where I'll re-release some old stuff for digital download with some brand new stuff. When I had the idea to do this [series], I listened back to my old stuff and thought, 'This is good, but this other track could be better.' So, I'm re-performing some old pieces with my older/wiser/better performer self and exploring the differences, while also recording brand new stuff. text/html http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM Jim Sullivan http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM/content/view/1726/38/ Fri. March 26 - Sat. April 25 Recently, Jeff Robinson wrote and staged a one-man music/performance show about the late, great and troubled saxman Charlie Parker. Now, Lanie Robertson has something similar up and is running about the life and times of the late, great troubled singer, Billie Holliday, aka Lady Day. as played by Jacqui Parker (in photo). The Lyric Stage Company is presenting this month-long run of the off-Broadway hit at Emerson's Bar Grill (in the YWCA buidling) Friday March 26 - Saturday April 25. Lady Day is directed by Spiro Veloudos. The New York Times calls Lady Day, the “most sensible attempt to capture the elusive mystique of the great Billie Holiday.” The conceit of the show is it's done during one of Holliday's final performances as she intertwines songs such as “God Bless the Child” and “Strange Fruit” with stories of her life as she wrestles with her past and addiction to heroin. It becomes clear that music is a force that helped her to survive. (Unitl, of course, she, like, Parker didn't.) Most night time shows are at 8. There are weekend matinees at 3. You'll want to check the website below for specific times. Tickets range from $29 to $54. 140 Clarendon St., Boston, 617-585-5678 www.lyricstage.com. text/html http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM Jim Sullivan http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM/content/view/1725/38/ Sat. March 28 If you mention Husker Du, the pioneering post-punk band of the ‘80s, most fans immediately think of Bob Mould. He was its singer-guitarist and he’s had quite a visible career since the band’s 1987 breakup. Less so, Grant Hart. He was the Minneapolis-based Husker Du’s drummer-singer and shared the songwriting with Mould. Hart has made five studio solo CDs or EPs and two CDs with the band Nova Mob. But there was a decade-long gap between releases, which ended late last year with a terrific psychedelic-garage-pop disc, “Hot Wax.” Hart comes to the Arts at the Armory Café in Somerville Saturday March 28 at 8. It’s a solo show, just voice and guitar. We spoke with Hart before his last area appearance at the Middle East Up for a Boston Herald story. Excerpts from our chat here: That was a long stretch between discs. People wondered where you were. Hart: I’ve played Cambridge at least once every 18 months. But I started sneaking things into my life that I sacrificed very early on. It was the idea of having a hobby that fed the other side of my brain. When you live off your creativity, every day you wake up with a blank canvass. To balance it out, I took on some projects where there was one specific way something had to be put together in order for it to operate. Much of my time has been spent with automotive restoration. I wanted to be able to let my hands do the work, instead of my mind and a dictating machine. text/html http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM Jim Sullivan http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM/content/view/1708/38/ Sat. March 20 Jazz-rock fusion has a negative connotation in a lot of people's minds because they invariably think each genre is compromised, not enhanced. They have a point. The Boston quintet Esthema makes a very good counter-argument. (It's not exactly jazz-rock fusion, either.) After listening to their second disc, The Hereness and Nowness of Things, I'd agree with Gerald Van Waes of Phyyche Music, who says, the band creates a new new form of chamber folk (rock) music with a total world music fundament. Violinist Onur Dilisen was raised in Turkey and graduated from the Boston Conservatory; oud and bouzouki player Tery Lemanis is a Berklee grad; drummer Bruno Esrubilsky hails from Rio and is currently at Berklee; bassist Ignacio Long was born in Argentina and is another Berklee grad; guitarist Andy Milas has been performing traditional and contemporary Greek music for two decades and has written and arranged for various prog-rock, metal, jazz and new age projects. So, you might expect this seamless blend of Eastern and Western music, a sinuous, flowing work that snakes its way through the brain and hits a variety of pleasure receptors. They're playing at Ryles in Inman Square Saturday March 20 at 9. Tix: $10.212 Hampshire St., Cambridge, 617-876-9330 www.esthema.com text/html http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM Jim Sullivan http://www.JIMSULLIVANINK.COM/content/view/1723/38/ Sat. May 8 We saw English singer-songwriter-guitarist Findlay Brown along with maybe 50 other folks at T.T. the Bear’s Place earlier this year. On his just-released second album, “Love Will Find You,” Brown’s moving songs were enveloped by multiple vocal harmonies, orchestral arrangements and rock beats. On that disc, he’s the modern-day Roy Orbison, aided and abetted by ex-London Suede guitarist Bernard Butler. The 30-year-old Brown a recent transplant to Brooklyn, NY, played a 50-minute, solo-acoustic set. At T.T.’s, There, Brown came across as a modern-day Nick Drake – not a bad thing at all – while still evoking Orbison. That came through in the resplendent vocal range and in the melancholic tone of the songs. And, like the late great Roy, Brown sported a tall, black pompadour. He – like Orbison devotee Chris Isaak - is a wounded romantic. He sings songs for the lonely. He can be dejected, but not unsparingly desolate, scarred but not stranded. If he’s been battered, there’s still fight in him. “I hope you like love songs,” Brown said, almost disingenuously, beginning his set.