Cemeteries in Granby

Cemeteries in Granby, CT

June 14th 2010

Baptist Cemetery

In the back, there is an auto cemetery.

Cooley Cemetery

Lee Cemetery

(only accessible on foot)

Two sisters, age 5 and 2 years,
died within the same week.

"GOD is just, Supreme his power, Mortals be silent & adore."

West Granby Cemetery

January 8, 2011

Old Wintonbury Cemetery, Bloomfield

Old Wintonbury Cemetery

Bloomfield, CT

7.12.11

Death great proprietor of all.
Tis thine to tread out empire.
And to quench the stars.

Daily Fuzz 7.23.11

Molly

Molly, adopted May 28, 2011

Adopt Local!

Wye Oak 7.15 & 16, 2011

Southern New England was lucky enough to host two live performances by Wye Oak last weekend: one at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT on Friday, July 15th, and one the following night at the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA. It’s not the first time this Baltimore duo, consisting of Jenn Wasner (guitar and vocals) and Andy Stack (drums, keyboard and vocals), has graced us with their presence. Both Manic Productions, who booked the Hartford gig, and the IHEG, responsible for the Iron Horse show, have welcomed Wye Oak before.

I first caught this duo when they played at Cafe Nine in 2009. At that time, they were playing songs from 2008’s If Children as well as a few from their upcoming release, The Knot, which dropped in July 2009. They returned again in 2010, both at the Daniel Street Club in Milford, CT and the Iron Horse.

In March 2011, Wye Oak presented us with Civilian, a beautifully crafted record whose sound wraps us in its melancholy, nostalgic embrace. Songs like “The Altar”, “Holy Holy”, and “Civilian” are why we love Wye Oak. The record closes with “Doubt,” a solo piece by Wasner, and she ended both shows with this song last weekend.

Though not obvious during last weekend’s performances, Wasner admitted to the audience that she’s been struggling with medical issues which affect her voice. Needing to rest her vocal chords for Sunday night’s live performance on the Jimmy Fallon Show (they played "Holy Holy"), she was not able to greet fans after last weekend’s shows. Stack graciously took over this duty, chatting with the audience after both performances. (Thank you, Andy and Jenn, for singing my vinyl!)

Wye Oak has been touring extensively, and will continue to do so for the rest of the year. They opened for the Decemberists this past winter, and will play with bands such as The National, Okkervil River, and Explosions in the Sky this fall. Then, they're off to Europe in November. It seems that the Oaks’ popularity will only continue to grow.

Marissa Nadler, a local folk singer, opened for Wye Oak at the Wadsworth. Her cool, crystal clear voice hums like a lullaby. She just released a brand new record, Box of Cedar, in June. Check out her bandcamp page.

Wielding an autoharp, Apollo Sunshine’s Sam Cohen took the stage Saturday with his solo side project, the Yellowbirds. Performing as a duo this night, the Yellowbirds are an act to follow. Reminiscent of 60’s folk-rock, the they released The Color this past February. They’ve already been plugged by Pitchfork and Daytrotter and have a couple of sold out shows with Josh Ritter this week.

Nepaug Cemetery

J. Henry Merrill is buried next to his four children who all died within the same week.

Clarence, age 14, died on Jan. 2nd, 1876.
He was the first of the four children to die that week.


Lillied, age 5, died on Jan. 3rd, 1876.

Next came Mary, age 3, on January 6th, 1876.


And last, Marian, age 10, on January 11, 1876.

Nepaug Cemetery
New Hartford, CT
11.12.10

South Cemetery, Amherst

all anyone can hope for

South Cemetery
Amherst, MA
6.18.2010

Old Hadley Cemetery

Old Hadley Cemetery
Hadley, MA
10.14.2007

North Cemetery, Amherst

North Cemetery Amherst, MA 3.28.2009

West Cemetery, Amherst

"Helen's Mother"

West Cemetery
Amherst, MA
3.28.2009

Granary Burying Ground

Granary Burying Ground Boston, MA 11.13.2009

South Hadley Cemetery

South Hadley, MA
modern stone with Robert Frost poem
5.28.2008

Mount Auburn Cemetery

Mount Auburn Cemetery
Boston, MA
May 2010

East Hartland Cemetery

East Hartland, CT Cemetery (circa 1752)
9.25.09

Daily Fuzz 7.22.11

It's important that one's blog contains photos of cute animals. Here's your daily dose of fuzz.

Bark in the Park; Springfield, MA (2010)

Adopt Local!

Yellow Kitchens

I wanted to post this photo because Brenda's kitchen is the same color as my blog, so I need to show my appreciation for mustard yellow. I spent a week taking care of her little fur babies a couple years back, and I'm pretty sure I want to have a mustard yellow kitchen one day. I definitely don't want a brown shag rug, though. Have you ever stepped in dog diarrhea with bare feet at 3AM when it's embedded in a brown shag rug? I hope not!

 

NHM picks Ovlov as band of the month

New Haven Music chose Ovlov (and Farewood) as their bands of the month for July 2011. There are a lot of great bands in CT, and it's nice to see these guys promoted. As a Volvo driver, I'm ashamed to say I haven't seen Ovlov live. I also can't say "Ovlov live" three times fast. (You totally just tried it.) I'm pretty sure this will happen sometime soon, and perhaps I can finally snag a sticker for my vehicle. Thankfully, Ovlov has a bandcamp (as opposted to a myspace, which always crashes my computer) and they've kindly distributed their new e.p. to the masses. Check it out, and keep the Ovlovers on your radar.

The Silver Bullet at approx. 300,000 miles.

ovlovolvovlovolvovlovolvovlovolvovlovolvovlovolvo.

Update 7.22.11
Thank you, Derrik, for donating your sticker to the beautification of The Silver Bullet.

New Tim Kasher song!

Paste Magazine has posted a track from Tim Kasher's upcoming e.p. entitled The Jessica. Check it:

Corn Bread Muffins

These corn bread muffins take just a few minutes to make and are great with brunch! These were made from the recipe in Robin Robertson's 1,000 Vegan Recipes. I like to eat them with a side of tempeh and vegetable stir fry.

No-Bake Black Bottom Peanut Butter Silk Pie

If you've been reading this recipe section, it'll come as no surprise that I LOVE anything with peanut butter and chocolate. This pie is adapted from a recipe in the Post Punk Kitchen's Vegan With a Vengeance. Any references to "ICM" are towards one of the book's authors, Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

1 Chocolate Cookie Pie Crust (there's a recipe for this but I just buy one pre-made)

For chocolate pie bottom:
- 4oz chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup nondairy milk

For Filling:
- 12oz extra-firm silken tofu (like Mori-Nu...if you get anything other than extra-firm silken you will fail.)
- 3/4 cup peanut butter
- 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2/3 cup nondairy milk
- 1 1/4 cups boiling water
- 3 Tbs agar

Crust:
Melt chocolate in a makeshift double boiler (I use a glass measuring cup, stick it in the boiling water and stir). When chocolate has melted, stir in milk until smooth. Pour MOST of the mixture into the pie crust to coat the bottom. Save some to drizzle onto the finished pie later. Pop the chocolate-coated pie crust into the fridge to harden while you prepare the filling.

Filling:
Combine tofu, pb, sugar and vanilla in a blender. Blend until smooth. Boil the agar in 1 1/4 cups boiling water, stirring constantly until dissolved. This takes about 10 minutes.

When the agar is all dissolved, pour the liquid into a glass measuring cup. You want 1 cup of liquids total, so 1 cup minus the amount of agar you have equals the amount of milk you want to add to the blender. So, if you find yourself with 1/3 cup agar, add 2/3 cup milk to your blender and blend. If you have half a cup of agar, add half a cup of milk to the blender and blend. If you have more than half a cup of agar, you should dump it back into the sauce pan and continue cooking because you're not done.

Once you've added the appropriate amount of milk to your blender and blended it up, then add the hot agar mixture and blend again. This is your soon-to-be-gelatinous pie filling! Pour it into your pie crust. Then drizzle the leftover chocolate (you should've saved some from the batch for the pie bottom) on top and run a butter knife through it to make pretty designs.

Refrigerate covered and when it has firmed up, eat!!! ICM suggests it be chilled for at least 3 hrs but I've definitely eaten it in half that time.

Piece out!

Brownies

These brownies are amazing. The recipe can be found in Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, written by the Post Punk Kitchen's Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. Omnivores and vegans alike devour them.

Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

This cheesecake was made with a recipe from Lois Dieterly's Sinfully Vegan. There are many cheesecake recipes in this book, but I'm happy with this one! Here's a few photos before and after frosting.

Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream

This recipe is from The Vegan Scoop by Wheeler Del Torro, owner of Wheeler's Frozen Desserts.

3 Ripe Bananas
2 cups of soy milk (or other non-dairy milk)
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

|1| Peel bananas. Puree in a food processor with milk until smooth.
|2| Transfer liquid to a medium-size saucepan. Add brown sugar and peanut butter and cook over low heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and ad vanilla. Combine.
|3| Refrigerate 2-3 hours. Freeze according to your ice cream maker instructions.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Quick, easy and delicious! I can't remember where I got this recipe, but it's likely from the Post Punk Kitchen.

1 cup Earth Balance, softened (vegan butter)

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 tbs maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips (vegan...i like the Whole Foods brand and Tropical Source)

Oven: 350*F

|1| cream together butter, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla

|2| combine dry ingredients in separate bowl (except chips)

|3| mix dry into wet

|4| fold in chocolate chips

|5| cook 10-15 mins until golden

YUM!

Wye Oak live at the Iron Horse 7.16.11

See Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner play "Doubt" live at the Iron Horse on July 16, 2011.

Links

Local Venues:
The Acoustic Cafe 2926 Fairfield Ave., Bridgeport, CT
Amity Teen Center 10 Selden Street, Woodbridge, CT 
Anna Liffey's 17 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT
The Arch Street Tavern 85 Arch St., Hartford, CT
BAR 254 Crown St., New Haven, CT
Bare Bones 156 School St., Bristol, CT
The Basement 21 Center St., Northampton, MA 
Black Eyed Sally's 350 Asylum Street, Hartford, CT
Billy O's 1782 Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike, Milldale, CT 
Bridge Street 41 Bridge Street, Collinsville, CT 

Cafe Nine 250 State St., New Haven, CT
Calvin Theatre 19 King St., Northampton, MA

Charter Oak Cultural Center: Indie Night at The Oak 21 Charter Oak Ave., Hartford, CT
Cherry Street Station 491 N. Cherry St. Ext., Wallingford, CT 
The Corner Pocket Cafe 501 Boston Post Road, Orange, CT 
Country Tavern Cafe 704 Long Hill Road, Guilford, CT
The Elevens 140 Pleasant St., Northampton, MA
El n Gee 86 Golden St., New London, CT 
Elm Bar 372 Elm Street, New Haven, CT
Fairfield Theatre Company 70 Sanford St., Fairfield, CT 
Fiddler's Green 280 Shippan Avenue, Stamford, CT

The Flywheel 43 Main St., Easthampton, MA
Freight Street Gallery 170 Freight St., Waterbury, CT
The Handsome Woman 271 Ash St., Willimantic, CT 
The Green Line Cafe 1585 Meriden Road, Wolcott, CT 

Heirloom Arts 155 Main St., Danbury, CT
Infinity Hall 20 Greenwoods Road, Norfolk, CT
Iron Horse 20 Center St., Northampton, MA 
Karma 48 Main St., Northampton, MA
Lasalle's Market 104 Main Street, Collinsville, CT
Lyric Hall 827 Whalley Ave., New Haven, CT 
The Madison Arts Barn 8 Campus Dr., Madison, CT
The Montague Bookmill 440 Greenfield Rd., Montague, MA
Mountain Park Route 5, Holyoke, MA 
The Oakdale 95 South Turnpike Rd., Wallingford, CT 
The Oasis Pub 16 Bank St., New London, CT
The Outer Space 295 Treadwell St., Hamden, CT 

The Pearl Street Nightclub 10 Pearl St., Northampton, MA
People's Art Collective 212 College St., New Haven, CT
Popeye's Garage Broadway, New Haven, CT 
The Red Door 675 Main St., Watertown, CT
Redscroll Records 24 N. Colony Rd., Wallingford, CT
The Room 3 Production Dr., Brookfield, CT 
The Shubert Theater 247 College Street, New Haven CT
Stella Blues 204 Crown St., New Haven, CT 
The Space 295 Treadwell St., Hamden, CT 
Studio 59 59 Barber Street, Torrington, CT
Sully's Pub 2071 Park Street, Hartford, CT
Toad's Place 300 York St., New Haven, CT
Up Or On The Rocks 50 Union Place, Hartford, CT 

The Wadsworth Atheneum 600 Main St., Hartford, CT 
Two Boots 281 Fairfield Ave., Bridgeport, CT
Waterfront All Ages Shows 920 Main St., Holyoke, MA
The Webster Theatre 31 Webster St., Hartford, CT
The Whitney House Whitney St., Hartford, CT 
Zen Bar 317 Farmington Avenue, Plainville, CT
 

Local Music Promotion:
The Arc Agency CT-based booking and promotions 
CT Indie CT music blog
The CT Sound Local music message board
The Indie Spiritualist Local music blog 
Killer Tours NJ-based music promotion  
GEG Presents Fairfield, CT concert promoter
Lewis and His Blog CT-based music commentary

Manic Productions New Haven based booking and promotions
Mass Concerts New England booking
The Needle Drop CT-based video and text blog 
New Haven Music Supporting local New Haven music 
TownofNewHaven.org Local events in New Haven

 

Local Record Shops:
Cutler's 25-27 Broadway, New Haven, CT
Gerosa Records 246 Federal Rd., Brookfield, CT 
In The Moment (vinyl only) 143 Main St., Brattleboro, VT 
Integrity 'n Music 506 Silas Dean Highway, Wethersfield, CT

Redscroll Records 24 N. Colony Rd., Wallingford, CT
Replay Records 2586 Whitney Ave., Hamden, CT
The Telegraph 19 Golden St., New London, CT 
Tumbleweeds 325 Main St., Niantic, CT
Turn it Up! 5 Pleasant St., Northampton, MA (also in Montague, MA; Brattleboro, VT; and Keene, NH)

Willimantic Records 744 Main St., Willimantic, CT

Trials & Tribulations at Karma 7.2.11

Check out the Trials & Tribulations playing "Sunshine" at Karma July 2, 2011.

Heirloom Arts 6.28.11

Check out Midi & The Modern Dance, Duck Little Brother, Duck and Girlfriends at Heirloom Arts June 28, 2011.

Midi and the Modern Dance:

Duck Little Brother, Duck:


Girlfriends:

The Files & Fires at BAR 6.22.11

Check out The Files and Fires at BAR June 22, 2011.

You Blew It! at The Handsome Woman 6.15.11

Check out You Blew It! at The Handsome Woman on June 15, 2011.

Titus Andronicus at Toad's Place 6.4.11

Check out Titus Andronicus at Toad's Place June 4, 2011.

Fugue at Redscroll Records 5.6.2011

Check out Fugue at Redscroll Records May 6, 2011.

The Files & Fires at Redscroll Records 5.6.2011

Check out The Files and Fires at Redscroll Records on May 6, 2011.

The Gay Blades at The Space 2.3.2011

Wow, I really dug The Gay Blades this evening. They were spectacular. The opening bands were actually all good as well. It's typically par for the course to endure a couple of crappy bands at any given show, but this one honestly had no duds.

Those Mockingbirds were reminiscent of a 90s rock’n’roll band and the lead singer had the locks to make it so. They played vigorously despite the small audience of about twenty. Their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain was killer.  

Vuvuzela’s instrumentation consisted of an upright bass, electric harp, keyboards and drums. It was an interesting mix and they were really together.  Their sound is rather eerie and I was left feeling as if I had just witnessed the soundtrack to a Tim Burton film.

Despite the absence of their two drummers, Slam Donahue kicked it with only a bass and lead guitar. With a drum machine, dance beats and high-pitched vocals, they sound a lot like MGMT.

The Gay Blades ended the night with a bang. Their stage presence is something to be witnessed. The keyboardist used his entire body to tackle his instrument and left no doubt that a piano is, indeed, a percussive instrument. He also occasionally wielded a tambourine and megaphone and often threw things at the drummer (including his sweatshirt, tambourine, and water from his mouth). I’m almost at a loss for how to describe the antics of the lead singer. Commenting directly to some, muttering lyrically, and contorting his body into unusual poses, he held the audience in the palm of his hand. The band also forced the group into awkward, silent pauses before once again unleashing its fury of sound. 

If they ever come our way again, you should kill yourself if you miss them.

Well, it’s 1AM and I have work in the morning. I hope this post was relatively coherent. Too bad you all missed the show. Next time!

|k|