Moonlight is at its brightest. Let’s celebrate that by giving it some attention during this lunation. Copernicus, a magnificent, isolated crater with terraced walls, is regarded by many as the Moon’s most handsome feature. It’s now at its best.
Sunday, December 15: The isolation and examination of Robert Hunter’s contribution to the Grateful Dead is long overdue, as is his appreciation as a prolific and seminal rock poet.
Saturday, November 30: The Children’s Maritime Parade will wend its way down Broadway: giant puppets, grumpus heads, star lanterns, fish, flags, boat models, stiltwalkers, long rippling banners representing the River itself, Rip Van Winkle and of course Sinterklaas. The traditional Dutch antecedent of Santa Claus will make his voyage from Kingston (representing Spain) to Rhinebeck (representing Holland) on the Hudson River’s only solar-powered boat.
Friday-Sunday, Nov. 29-Dec. 1: The annual three-day marketplace of local, handmade and vintage goods returns for its seventh year over Thanksgiving weekend in Basilica Hudson’s reclaimed waterfront factory.
Saturday, Nov. 30: Fronted by the charismatic Jamaican-born singer and songwriter Nee Nee Rushie, the seven-piece New York band the Big Takeover plays original music that is rooted in and reverent toward the genres and rhythms of Jamaican pop: reggae, rocksteady, ska.
Vassar professor Debra Elmegreen is president-elect of the International Astronomical Union – the largest organization of professional astronomers in the world – and will begin her three-year term as president in 2021. Like Maria Mitchell more than 150 years ago, Elmegreen was recently elected into membership of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Saturday, Nov. 30: This world premiere features “history in the making” (Boston Globe) vocalist Shenel Johns, Thelonious Monk Institute Jazz Saxophone Competition finalist Godwin Louis, renowned bassist Russell Hall (Wynton Marsalis, Jon Batiste and Stay Human), CJF fan favorite pianist Mathis Picard (Mwenso and the Shakes, Bria Skonberg) and drummer Savannah Harris.
Friday, Nov. 29: Always a critical favorite for whom the personal and the topical, the satiric and the authentic are meaningless distinctions, Loudon Wainwright III probably draws a higher percentage of songwriters to his club shows than anyone else on the road today. They want to see how it is done.
Monday, Dec. 2: Scratch a hipster and you will typically find a Buddhist. When he is not engaged in pure sound-for-sound’s-sake stuff, Thurston Moore still makes great rock records with long, exploded forms, ecstatic/erotic and unsentimental seeker themes and the creamy, saturated guitar tones – some of the most material guitar sounds ever recorded – for which is justly famous and for which reason the ProCo RAT distortion pedal is still flying off the shelves.
Unlike their former cozy spot on Partition Street, this incarnation of Olsen & Company is spacious enough to invite in a crowd of shoppers and eaters.