Halloween is like Christmas for adults. As we entertain children with the likes of Santa Claus and Rudolph, kids have us duped in October, getting paid in cold, hard candy for another game of dress-up while we follow suit all costumed and buzzed. It’s the one night of the year when we truly tap the roots of our youth, and it’s the young’uns who show us how. Here’s what’s going on for us “adults” on Halloween.
Cousin Larry’s stage has a stellar Halloween weekend in store. Creepdust and Joe Roberto and Poverty Hash will rock on Halloween night with Joe and the Hash playing two sets chock full of new music.
“We have a ton of new material in store that no one has ever heard,” says drummer Tim Brennan. “Right now our focus is primarily on polishing the new material for what will be two separate sets on Halloween with possible guest appearances. We are looking forward to a festive evening with good friends.”
Larry’s would like, if they may, to take you on a strange journey on Saturday, November 1. Sarianna and the Swell will be performing music straight from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, so make sure you wear fishnets under your costume. Swell comrades Willpilot and The Way Up will be sharing the bill.
Larry’s bar menu will have a few pooky additions: favorite Rogue Dead Guy Ale will accompany Hobgoblin, an award-winning extra strong ale from Wynchwood Brewery, the United Kingdom’s number-one producer of organic beers.
The City Alehouse has Six7 and other local favorites on the books with six playing original music as well as covers, including songs by Nirvana and Alice in Chains. Costumes and prizes can also be found here, though chances are Six7 has already won; he has been known to cover himself in paint for any old occasion.
“It will be the hottest spot in Danbury,” Six says, and he will obviously dress for the part.
98.Q will be hosting the Halloween festivities at iCON and Tuxedo Junction, and Tuscano will feature candle-lit drink specials. If you’re an ambitious Halloweener, the lamp lit brick alleyway between Main and Ives is the perfect locale for a well-put-together Ichabod Crane costume; you and a friend can gallop the night through between the three venues.
Horizon is gearing up for quite the Halloween gala with a week’s worth of festivities. The official Horizon costume ball will take place on Saturday the 25th and will be hosted by a big-name modeling group (think Tyra Banks). The club will be decorated to the nines as a haunted house, and a hip-hop artist from G-Unit’s crew is scheduled to perform on Halloween night.
The Heirloom Arts Theatre will be this year’s home for those with a classic Halloween heart. Owner Jay LaPierre has booked a panoply of bands for Devil’s Night (Thursday the 30th) in what he refers to as a “crazy experimental freakout”. Dynamite Club, Kid Ginseng, Open Star Clusters, Bahh Black Box and Bagger Vance will precede Montreal’s AIDS Wolf, a quartet comprised of two guitarists, a vocalist and a drummer who have been compared to “a piece of broken glass jutting out of a bowl of chocolate pudding” by the Alternative Press.
AIDS Wolf is known for their nine principles, each ranging from music as daily ritual to welcoming inspiration from socks. One of their tenets: “To elicit a reaction--positive or negative--is a valueless proposition and a noble pursuit in its own right.”
The Devil’s Night performances will serve as preparation for Friday’s Halloween horror movie marathon followed by the “Zombie Stomp” dance party that evening, complete with costume contests and ticket giveaways. The Heirloom has a snazzy new webpage, Heirloomarts.org, so stay tuned for details. Halloween is the cheese of holidays; it gets better with age. If you feel like venturing off the old Main Street, have an Irish Halloween at Molly Darcy’s on Mill Plain Road complete with costume party and plenty of drink specials. Hot Shots Grille in Newtown will be throwing not one, not two, but three Halloween parties, each with their own slew of drink specials and music. Treat yourself to dollar drafts, two-dollar shots and six-dollar pitchers on Tuesday the 28th or throw down $10 on Thursday the 30th for free drinks until 11 p.m. Both nights will feature a live DJ and a live band (to be announced) will play Friday the 31st. Cash prizes will be awarded for costumes each night.
Halloween is the cheese of holidays; it gets better with age. This year we have been granted a weekend ‘Ween and there’s almost too many places to be, so prepare yourself for the banshee of bar crawls. Photo: Dan Bishop
The Connecticut Film Festival (CTFF) picked up some momentum last month, as state lawmakers announced the approval of $50,000 in the form of a matching grant which will go towards this year’s festival. The state funds come in addition to—and contingent upon—the allocation of $65,000 in public funds which the City of Danbury’s Common Council has agreed to put towards the event. The independent film-industry showcase will culminate in Danbury next summer from June 2 to June 7.
The funding was announced at a press conference September 15 by state Rep. Jason Bartlett, D-Bethel, and House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford. Local officials were also present, including Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, Western Connecticut State University President James Schmotter, and Danbury CityCenter manager Andrea Gartner.
Schmotter spoke about the pending completion of the University’s new fine arts center, which has received over $90 million in state funding. Schmotter voiced his desire to gear new curriculum towards training for job opportunities which would arise as a result of the Film Festival and other such collaborations.
Gartner was jubilant, “I truly believe we are galvanizing energy to bring back our downtown,” she stated.
Festival director Tom Carruthers spoke about the festival’s role in helping the state further its goal of becoming the major destination for film production on the east coast. He also said that a major focus of the this year’s event would be the production of music and digital media.
Perhaps fittingly, the press conference was held inside the lobby of the long-dormant Palace Theater on Main Street. The Palace has been showing its own signs of life lately. The most recent of those came in the form of an announcement last month by property owner Joe DaSilva that a portion of the venue will soon be available for rental. According to a recent article in the News-Times, DaSilva plans to rent the lobby as a facility in which to hold corporate and private events. The lobby has a capacity of over 400 people, a fraction of the entire theater’s capacity were it restored to a level of functionality. Ironically, the CTFF recently became the first such group to make use of the facility in decades, having held a portion of this year’s festivities there.
Somebody Cut the Cheese Please?
Last Tuesday night, I went shopping at the local supermarket. I ordered a pound of cheese and watched as the cute deli worker sliced it for me “extra thin.” As soon as she handed me my cheese, I realized I had become completely hypnotized by staring at the circulating blade of the slicing machine for just a few minutes. So far, I’ve been unable to reverse the process and I remain convinced that my entire lower body is actually that of the caterpillar from Alice and Wonderland.
I’ve always preferred to visit the supermarket late at night, saying hello to the deli-workers, and mingling with the guys slashing boxes with their box-cutters. Some people think 10 p.m. is an odd time to be buying food for a family, never mind having your cheese sliced, and I can genuinely understand this opinion. Yet, I still struggle with the basic answer to one simple question asked by most of the general public: “How could I ever choose food shopping over watching Family Guy?” I thought being a parent was going to be easier...It’s a lot like learning how to ski down the side of a mountain. Somebody hands you the skis and the poles and your job is to “get to the bottom of it all” and survive. I remember Tuesday nights used to be the night I spent partying like a rock star. Those were the days when we partied on Tuesday night just because it was a Tuesday. I can remember being out playing pool and closing bars ‘til 4 a.m. Nowadays, Tuesday nights are exciting for me if I can just get my cheese sliced. Ever since I became hypnotized last Tuesday, I’ve managed to grow a small pair of antennae and a small series of furry stripes is rapidly developing across my lower back.
My wife’s body even appears to be more caterpillar-like. She seems to be developing a furry back and antennae, as well. She also keeps mentioning to me that our kids shouldn’t watch “adult cartoons” like Family Guy or South Park. My four-year old enjoys both shows, and throws tantrums when I’m ordered to turn off the television. Understandably, my wife feels some of the shows’ language, such as “you suck” and “go to hell,” should not absorbed by the sponge brain of a small child, and I really can’t blame her. Somehow, my two year old has already learned how to tell Mommy to “stick it” and answered back to me one day with the comment, “Up yours.”
Occasionally, my four year old will pronounce the extremely vulgar, two-word term for “maternal copulation, ” as perfectly as if it was the same name of his favorite ice cream. I “once” made the mistake of inadvertently blurting out “MF” in the car just as I was narrowly avoiding a head-on collision. My son happened to suck up the new vulgar vocabulary word faster than a Dyson sucks up dirt.
Ironically, it was my own parents who tried bribing me with a penny a day when I was four years old just so I would stop swearing. My mother dreaded the embarrassment whenever I would say the same “MF” word in public places and draw the unwanted attention towards a mother who couldn’t control her son.
I thought being a parent was going to be easier, but nobody can tell you how to do it and nobody really knows how to do it until it’s time. It’s a lot like learning how to ski down the side of a mountain. Somebody hands you the skis and the poles and your job is to “get to the bottom of it all” and survive.
The first two years of parenthood I was still able to sneak out with “the guys” once or twice a week. On a few occasions, I was able to go out on a Tuesday night just because it was a Tuesday night. Next Tuesday, I’m thinking about bringing my own kids to the deli counter so they can stare at the machine and become hypnotized. Perhaps then I can start changing their minds with some key suggestions.
It’s not easy being a parent. You’d think by now there’d be at least one standard manual given to parents after the birth of a child but there isn’t. For instance, a book of life’s little lessons such as: What to do when your child says, “Daddy I washed your phone for you,” or “Mom, I washed your big ring in the toilet and it fell down.” If the cable boxes are all capable of controlling our minds with clever and creative cartoons then that leaves little choice but to hypnotize our own children before they turn into mud-slinging butterflies. Be sure to cut the cheese before the supermarket closes. The metamorphosis is soon to be complete.
Ghostbusting Vs. Mythbusting
by Chris Garafola
Well, let me start this article off with a bit of a retraction from last’s month edition. Remember when I mentioned that the Historical Society in Easton ignored my calls? I would like to apologize for that statement. Unfortunately, I just happened to write the article before they called me back. In truth, an archeologist responded to my inquiry regarding that mysterious cemetery in the woods off Route 58. Although I forgot to get his name, I would like to thank that mysterious fellow for shedding a little light on last month’s mystery. Here’s the story.
The cemetery that I had so scientifically named the 58-yard is actually the Wheeler-Baldwin Cemetery. This is where some of the residents of the nearby community are buried. The community or village that existed in that area was known as Little Egypt. Now, the interesting thing about this area is that it was mostly a black community. Still, there were white residents as well and they seemed to have intermarried. In fact, they seemed to have done everything together, making this an early lesson in racial equality. Yes, they were even buried together. The Wheeler-Baldwin cemetery is mixed with the remains of both white and black residents of Little Egypt, making it a very early-integrated graveyard. This makes it very important, historically speaking, and I regret having gone trampling around the area. Relax folks; those headstones were broken when I got there.
So, it seems I was wrong about this cemetery and any type of conspiracy I may have insinuated. Still, that guy who gave me the cold shoulder on his doorstep was DEFINITELY hiding something. Maybe he farted. Anyway, this little lesson brings up a great point. Separating fact from fiction can be a very important part of ghostbusting. For every single ghost we bust, there are countless myths that must be busted as well. How can we trust information we receive regarding haunted places? Are all these tips credible? Sometimes they can be misleading or downright lies.
I’m sure you’re all familiar with that sneaky little devil we like to call the internet. While there certainly is a great deal of good solid info available to anyone and everyone online, there is an equal amount of trash. Sometimes it is pretty easy to separate the truth from the rest of the garbage. Don’t be gullible. The two-headed baby that came out sneering and shaking its hips in full Elvis impersonation garb was not real. Those pornographic pictures of Amelia Earhart and the little green men were not real. While these cases were dead giveaways, sometimes it’s not so easy to tell what is real and what isn’t. Once in a while the Internet will feed you something that looks like a solid lead, but only leads you astray. Yes, that would be the little devil in there doing its job.
So, getting back on topic here: have you ever done some research on supposed haunted places online? You’ll definitely get a ton of results. Sure, they may be interesting places to visit, however they’re not always actually haunted. Some websites allow users to submit their own haunted sites to the list, proudly advertising them as genuinely haunted without any evidence to back it up. Years ago, I put this to the test. I wrote up a bit of a fake account regarding Bethel High School being filled with ghosts. While it was a convincing story (hey, I’m a writer), it was completely fabricated. I waited anxiously to see what kind of screening process the site would put me through to authenticate this information. To my surprise, the entry was almost immediately posted up on their website. Soon after that, many of the high school students started to approach me, asking if I had known how haunted our school was. I didn’t have the heart to tell them. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story, right?
Sometimes a story about a haunted place is so damn good that you’ll believe it no matter what. The fact is, you just want to believe it so bad that you’ll ignore any evidence of the contrary. Take me, for example. A couple months ago, I provided a list of some of the most interesting haunted places in the area, asking you guys to dare me which ones I should visit. If you missed it, check out “Make Me Your Guinea Pig” on HatCityEntertainment.com. In September, I set out in search of the House of the Faceless People. This place supposedly sits on a desolate back road somewhere on the border of Monroe. Now, I never thought that Monroe was that big of a town. Maybe I was wrong, because I didn’t find anything that resembled the picture from the story I read about this weird place. Maybe the road was just too desolate and hidden for me to find while cruising around in my trusty Ecto-1. Or maybe this place doesn’t even exist! Sadly, that’s a valid concern.
You know, I used to be a very trusting person. Unfortunately, years of experience in the real world tend to change that. You realize that some people just get a kick out of pulling your strings. With so many fabricated ghost stories out there, who is to say what is real and what isn’t? This makes a ghostbuster’s job that much harder. As if we don’t have enough problems already trying to convince people that ghosts exist in the first place. On top of that, we have to contend with these fictional stories that give us false hope and end up making us look like fools. I already look like a fool, so I don’t mind very much.
Be safe and happy hunting.
Chris the Ghostbuster can be reached at
The Puck Drops Here
by Scott D. Lewis
A chill is in the air, and Danbury hockey fans are gearing up for a new season with a new team to watch at the Danbury Ice Arena. Hockey is back, and this time, it could be here to stay. At least that is the hope of General Manger Brendan Tedstone of the Danbury Mad Hatters and the entire Eastern Professional Hockey League. The EPHL chose Danbury to be the flagship franchise to start up the new league.
Citing the success of the Danbury Trashers, EPHL Commissioner Jim Riggs felt the strong fan base, the size of the arena and the support of the community were ideal. The location was a key factor as well. The League, is made up of five teams, with Danbury being the central point. The other teams are located in New Hampshire, New York and New Jersey. There could be more teams added next season.
“Ideally, we would have had six teams,” majority team owner Tim Kolpien commented. “Despite best efforts by building managers, potential owners, and others, we reached the point where we have ninety days of selling with the schedule before the season begins. We had to move the timeline for a few potential teams back to 2009-10.”
“Our goal is to see each team deliver an exciting product on the ice for families and sponsors,” Kolpien continued. “The EPHL offers tremendous value for fans and sponsors in our five markets and for our regional sponsors. Our focus is on stability. We’re very excited about the five teams that will play in our inaugural season as well as those that may be in a position to join us for our second season.”
Since the announcement to bring hockey back to Danbury in March, the team has been taking shape. First, there was the “name the team” contest that drew over 1,000 entries. Mad Hatters was the winning name.
“It was a difficult decision,” said Kolpien. “There were many outstanding suggestions. In the end, we wanted to pay tribute to Danbury’s heritage while at the same time finding a name that would lend itself well to the product we are creating.” The name will suggest the image of the aggressive style of play that Danbury fans will soon become familiar with.
Then, they had to hire a coach. Former Trasher and fan favorite Dave MacIsaac was given the job. This will be his first professional head coaching position. Management feels MacIsaac is the right guy for the job of building a winning team from the ground up.
“We have exactly the same philosophy about how to win games and what kind of team we want,” Brendan Tedstone said. “As soon I was offered the GM job, Dave’s name popped into my head.”
MacIsaac has enjoyed a 15-year professional career. The Massachusetts native was a standout at the University of Maine, where he won a national championship. This past season, the 36-year old bruising defenseman played in Italy and Quebec.
“I knew it was time for me to give up my playing career,” MacIsaac said. “Danbury is a great place for me to start the next step in my hockey life. I loved Danbury when I was there and I’m excited to start my coaching career there.”
After getting the coach, the front office has been busy filling out the roster. First they signed two Junior Canadian players, Calvin Fiddler and Joseph Cook. Fiddler is a goal-scorer, while Cook is a hard-hitter.
Then they brought in three professionals, two more hard-hitters and a speed skater. Mykul Haun is a forward with good assist numbers who doesn’t mind mixing it up. Mike Utzig is a big, strong defenseman. Brett Riley can play both wings.
“Brett’s a wiry little guy that zips all over the ice. He has a knack for the net, and is a guy who gets as many assists as he does goals,” Tedstone said.
The Hatters signed Danbury resident and AA veteran, Eric Linkowski. Linkwoski is a points-producing defenseman who was named a Division III, second team All-American in his senior year at the University of Connecticut.
Another local player, Chris Seifert of Fairfield was signed, as well as Drew Madeiros of Massachusetts. Seifert is a forward and Madeiros is a right-handed center.
After looking locally, the front office then went overseas to sign top Ukraine prospect, forward Igor Karlov.
“There is no doubt that he’ll be a star in this league. We’re already getting questions from NHL teams about him,” Tedstone said.
After the initial signing period, the Hatters then held their first annual pro hockey camp at the Danbury Ice Arena, where over 40 players were invited to show off their skills. Twelve players from the competition made the cut and were invited to training camp that begins on October 22nd.
The EPHL regular season begins on Saturday November 1 when the Rome Copper City Chiefs visit the Danbury Mad Hatters. Tickets for all Hatters home games are now on sale at the Danbury Ice Arena box office. The Hatters will be playing 25 home games, 50 in all. The season concludes on Sunday, March 22. The five teams will play in one division with the top four teams advancing to the EPHL playoffs, which will conclude by April 15, 2009.
EPHL Commissioner Jim Riggs noted the strength of the five teams on the schedule. “Each of our team’s home arenas are great facilities for a league at this level. A highlight of the EPHL schedule is that 84 percent of our league games will be played either on weekends or on holiday dates.”
As the new league builds, and competitive hockey is played out on the ice, hopefully the raucous atmosphere that could be found at Danbury Trasher games will come back to life as Danbury hockey fans prove they are indeed Mad Hatters.
For more information about the team, the schedule and tickets, visit
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