WESU Middletown

02/13/2025

"Space is the Place" (1974) is an Afrofuturist sci-fi movie directed by John Coney, written by Sun Ra and Joshua Smith, and filmed in Oakland, California. Sun Ra is a complex individual. There is much to dissect regarding him, his music, and his philosophies.

Herman Poole Blount (Le Sony'r Ra), known as Sun Ra, was a free-form jazz musician that began his career in the 1930s. He was an innovative composer and introduced the jazz community with his eccentric piano style of play. Claiming to be an alien from Saturn on a mission to preach peace, Sun Ra developed a mythical persona and an idiosyncratic ideology that made him a pioneer of Afrofuturism. He illustrated these ideologies through his music which he led an enormous orchestra (known as The Arkestra) by a composer.

Sun Ra was teaching at Berkely during the conceiving of this movie. The movie is an excellent vehicle for his philosophies at the time. He wanted to improve the conditions of black people and save them through music. However, Ra was very unorthodox, and his music was psychedelic, so it wasn't well received by black mainstream audiences, which is understandable because his style isn't for everyone. Just like his movie "Space is the Place."

You'll often ask yourself, "What the hell is happening here?" But you start to see what he is trying to accomplish throughout the movie. Yet, he presents his ideologies so abstractly that it could lead to bewilderment. The soundtrack to "Space is the Place" is the film itself. Like the movie, it's abstract free-form jazz. Interpreting the instruments and rhythm takes patience, but putting it all together is worthwhile.

I recommend this movie because of its uniqueness and rarity in black cinema. Sci-fi films are the most underrepresented genre of black films. It's unfortunate because the existing ones are examples of our possibilities in creating sci-fi movies, especially when including Afrocentric philosophies.

Director: John Coney
Writers: Joshua Smith, Sun Ra

Starring Sun Ra, Christopher Brooks, Raymond Johnson, Barbara Deloney, Erika Leder, La Shaa Stallings, Sinthia Ayala, Clarence Brewer, June Tyson, Tiny Parker, Sam Bankhead, John Gilmore, Marshall Allen

Storyline
Sun Ra, the space-age prophet, lands his spaceship in Oakland, having been presumed lost in space for a few years. While returning, he attempts to rescue the Black race from the Earth and take them to a planet free of oppression.

https://www.daarac.ngo
https://www.daaracarchive.org/.../space-is-place-1974.html

Available on Blu-ray and streaming services.

02/11/2025

6-8pm TONIGHT.

02/07/2025

The Original Betty Boop, Esther Jones aka BabyEsther.Esther Jones, known by her stage name,"Baby Esther,''''
was a African American singer and entertainer of the
late 1920s. She performed regularly at the The Cotton
Club in Harlem. Helen Kane saw her act in 1928 and

appropriated Jones'''' ''''baby'''' singing style for a recording
of"I Wanna Be Loved By You."Jones'''' style went on to
become the inspiration for the voice of Betty Boop.

02/07/2025

Dom Flemons will be at The Kate in Old Saybrook, CT on Thursday, February 13, 2025 - 7:30 pm

02/04/2025

Tonight, starting at 6pm, 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐄𝐥𝐦 - 𝐜𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐭 will be live in Studio A on Acoustic Blender - WESU FM, Middletown CT 𝟖𝟖.𝟏 𝐅𝐌 & 𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐈𝐧 𝐑𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐨 & 𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐰𝐰.𝐰𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐟𝐦.𝐨𝐫𝐠.. Tune in and give a listen.

02/04/2025

Tune in to Wonderland with DJ Cheshire Cat on WESU Middletown, 88.1 FM at 4:00 PM for two hours of stoner metal with selections from Spectral Sorcery, Black Sky Giant, Kyuss, Ancestors, and more. This much sludgy goodness needs no further comment!

Tune in to Wonderland at 4:00 PM for two hours of stoner metal with selections from Spectral Sorcery, Black Sky Giant, Kyuss, Ancestors, and more. This much sludgy goodness needs no further comment!

02/04/2025

Look at this great scoreboard,
next to our Recreation building.

Thank you members of the common council who approved the installation of the
Quentin Q. Williams scoreboard, adjacent to our Recreation Center by Beman Middle School, funded through the 21st-Century Parks BOND.
It’s a beautiful sight.
Dedication will be in the spring.

02/03/2025

Join Lord Lewis the Velvet Knight for a FRESH edition of the legendary Rumpus Room radio show that airs TONIGHT (2/3/25) from 8-9:30 pm (ET) on WESU 88.1 FM. Tune in over the air, stream it live at www.wesufm.org or use the free TuneIn radio app on your phone.

DJ Lord Lewis Link Tree:
www.linktr.ee/lordlewis

01/30/2025

Biquette, the goat who loved underground concerts. Does this story make any sense? No. And yet, it happened. We’re in Mauriac, France, where there’s a farm with a concert area mainly used for punk, grindcore, and various extreme subgenres of metal and punk underground music.

Easily recognizable in photos, every time there was a concert, she wouldn’t hesitate to escape and position herself in the front row, joining the mosh pit. The goat became a true legend in the scene. Despite changes in the farm’s management and the concert venue, she always stayed loyal. For ten years, she attended every live performance.

For those who thought this was terrible treatment for a goat, the organizers responded that she was never forced and was free to come and go as she pleased. Perhaps her death could be attributed to the less-than-healthy diet she followed, consuming whatever came her way, including hard liquor, drugs, junk food, and more. But one thing is certain: she lived ten years as a true rockstar.

However, Biquette wasn’t born there. Before her life of rebellion, she belonged to farmers who used her for milk production. According to them, she didn’t produce enough to justify the cost of keeping her, so she was sent off to be slaughtered. However, she managed to escape death and ended up among the punks.

the grindcore goat 🏴

01/28/2025

𝐓𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭, 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐭 𝟔𝐩𝐦.

01/28/2025

It's the last Tuesday of January, and time for the Last Tuesday Treat on Wonderland with DJ Cheshire Cat on WESU Middletown, 88.1 FM! At 4:00 PM, we'll have a Distilled Discography show featuring Placebo. Over 120 minutes, I'll fit in as much of Placebo's music from as many of their releases as I can. So spin your radio dial all the way to WESU Middletown, 88.1 FM for Placebo's hit singles, b-sides, deep cuts, and live recordings!