I t’s a cool week, and not just because it’s supposed to rain a bunch. Starting with a breaking-up band offering a final farewell and ending with a fellow who spends his time making sure things remain intact, the result’s always either fun or enlightenment, or both.
Monday, June 15
It’s rare for a band to finish, rather than open, a career with a self-titled album, but there’s very little that’s orthodox about Pattern Is Movement. A great example of how delightfully weird the duo can be is the latest album’s fifth track, “Suckling,” where aching vocals, funny synth licks and cavernous drums walk a neat line between creative id and artistic ego. Calling it quits after 13 years, the duo comes to Cafe Nine (250 State St, New Haven; 203-789-8281) tonight for what is ostensibly its final New Haven performance ever. Opening the 8:30 bill is the New Haven-based noise rock duo Rivener, leading into fellow local act Wess Meets West, whose post-rock music tends to be big, loud and laced with positive energy. $10.
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Tuesday, June 16
Following a win and a tie so far in group play, the U.S. team has already secured a spot in the second round of the 2015 Women’s World Cup. But its positioning in that round would be a lot stronger with a decisive win against Nigeria tonight. With the kickoff at 8 p.m., New Haven’s “World Cup Village,” a.k.a. Pitkin Plaza, should have the game showing on outdoor screens, offering easy access to food and drink from The Trinity Bar next door. Free to watch.
Today and tomorrow at 8 p.m. inside the University Theatre (222 York St, New Haven), the Ragamala Dance Company performs Song of the Jasmine, a relatively young work that melds “bharatanatyam—a classical dance from south India—with a musical soundscape that brings together jazz and Carnatic music.” For the dance, that means precise hand and neck movements and ornate costuming. For the music, it means warm south Asian sounds ranging over quarter-step scales, with smooth saxophonic tones somehow fitting right in. For the audience, it all adds up to something unique and beautiful. Part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, a ticket costs $45 in advance, or $50 on the day of the show.
Wednesday, June 17
Epic British Isle scenery and an extraordinary man who once painted it are primary subjects of Mr. Turner (2014), a scripted biopic about “Britain’s greatest artist” as per the movie’s trailer. The mister in the title is Joseph Mallord William Turner, a painter of note but also controversy in his day, now deemed a pivotal figure of the Romantic movement. Coinciding with The Critique of Reason—the current Yale Center for British Art/Yale University Art Gallery exhibit that includes several of Turner’s works—the Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall St, New Haven) is hosting free screenings of the film tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30, each followed by a Q&A with the film’s writer and director Mike Leigh.
Thursday, June 18
After a sort of break following a dizzying start in May, College Street Music Hall (238 College St, New Haven; 877-987-6487) comes back with a vengeance this week. Yesterday’s show was co-headlined by bluesy rockers Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Jonny Lang (7:30 p.m.; $40-65). Tonight the stage is shared by pop punk-tinged ska acts Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake (7:30 p.m.; $25). Saturday it’s eclectic multi-instrumentalist and Phish founding member Mike Gordon in the spotlight (8 p.m.; $25).
Friday, June 19
Via a “Not Your Typical Book Sale” event, the Institute Library (847 Chapel St, 2nd Fl, New Haven; 203-562-4045) is shedding some “gently used (and gently priced!) hardcover and paperback mysteries, histories, biographies and rarities” it no longer has space for on the shelves. Sale hours are 1 to 5 p.m. yesterday, today and tomorrow, overlapping in part with an open house reception for nearby English Building Markets (839 Chapel St, New Haven; 203-772-1728) yesterday from 4 to 6. That occasion promises “snacks, drinks and summertime vintage finds.”
Saturday, June 20
Today through Monday, Silk Road Art Gallery (83 Audubon St, New Haven; 203-772-8928) hosts a flash exhibit of lush brush works by Wu Jianfeng, who paints “in a style that conveys peace, elegance and… imagination,” and who’s going to be on hand to “introduce his work and answer questions.” The show, titled Visualizing Virtue, gets a free opening reception today at 4 p.m., when visitors can enjoy refreshments and a takeaway gift: a “xuan (rice) paper fan adorned with Mr. Wu’s bird-and-flower art.”
Sunday, June 21 – Father’s Day
The New Haven Museum is putting on a very dad-friendly event today at the Pardee-Morris House (325 Lighthouse Rd, New Haven). Joe DeRisi, managing partner of Urban Miners—which salvages furniture, doors, flooring, cabinetry, cast-iron moldings and even whole work sheds from properties set for demolition or renovation—is speaking about “the importance of “preserving historic buildings, why many are destroyed and how others can be saved.” Free.
Written by Dan Mims. Photograph courtesy of Silk Road Art Gallery. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.
