Saint Bernadette

Okay if you haven’t yet seen Jackson for the once a month Downtown Comedy Show he puts on at the Metric Bar & Grill you better get your butt in gear so you can tell your friends, lovers and grandchildren too that you know this guy before he busted out to the big, big time.

Featuring comedians from HBO, Comedy Central, Showtime and more!!! Hosted by comedian Jackson!! Its all at Metric Bar and Grill 39 Cannon St. (downtown) Bridgeport, CT Showtime 930pm!! Ten dollars at the door and worth every sheckel.

Order food while you’re there cause The Metric can cook up a storm but be warned you might laugh so hard you could spit up your chicken wings and look like the fool.

Oh yeah and Jackson’s got a brand spanking new OPEN MIKE night every Thursday at Metric. Comics, poets hip hop artists and more. Give him a holler on Facebook and keep up to date. His posts are part Martin Luther King, part Richard Pryor with a dash of lord knows what which equals 100% Jackson.

Check out New Jackson City on YouTube. We can’t post it here because, well it’s a newspaper blog and the you know what is just a bit too real.

Okay so if you already decided to come to Acoustic Cafe and see us perform don’t read this. We don’t want you to feel torn up about the abundance of things to do in yes, here in BRIDGEPORT.

Okay so here’s the deal. In conjunction with exhibit ART/BPT:2010 City Lights Galley will present a screening of short films and video projections all about Bridgeport. Good and bad, memories and dreams and hopes and fears.

Discussion to follow featuring Bridgeport mavens Michael Daly of the Connecticut Post, Brad Durrell of the Bridgeport News and Lenny Grimaldi of ONLY in BRIDGEPORT fame. Chili dinner for both meat lovers and vegetarians starts at 5:30 and the screening begins at 6:30. Suggestion donation of $10. RSVP REQUESTED.

Whether or not you’ve given up anything for Lent, whether or not you’re not Catholic, whether or not you worship anywhere get your adoration for great music on down to Acoustic Cafe this Sunday March 7 and join us at 5 PM for Musical Mass at Acoustic Cafe.

The price is right folks, a recession beating value deal of F-R-E-E! Yep no charge though don’t forget to tip your bartenders and buy some CDs of your favorite musicians.

Joining us on the bill is the great Joe Roberto and Poverty Hash, Israel Nash Gripka
The Fieros and a super special secret guest that you won’t want to miss. No it’s not Michele Obama but almost as cool.

Just a couple warnings:

1) This isn’t approved by the Archdiocese of Bridgeport
2) This is going to be far more fun than what you normally do on Sunday night
3) We’re heading on a 3 week tour leading us to Austin, Texas for two showcases at the South By Southwest Festival so you come see us now so you can tell you friends you knew Saint Bernadette before we get big and famous.
4) Way more fun than the Oscars even without the statuettes.
5) We love you all so get ready to feel it.

Grab your favorite rosary beads or not. Sunday March 7 5 pm at Acoustic Cafe for FREE. Don’t miss it.

Okay this post might get the least advance notice award but between the 9 to 5 and getting ready for our three week tour accept my apologies and hopes that at least of few of you will catch this and head on over to Cafe Nine in New Haven to see Lauren Ambrose and the Leisure Class. The show starts at 9 pm.

Which means you better hurry up and get there or become a fan on Facebook and catch her next show.

You might know here as the actress from Six Feet Under but don’t let that fool you. Ambrose and her band are top notch swinging a variety of Pop standards and other tunes that will make you wonder why some folks get double doses of talent.

Okay well maybe we’re overselling this show. After all we don’t know how badly seasonal adjustment disorder is affecting your mood, but either way turn off the Olympics and get on over to 51 Crescent Avenue in Bridgeport this Saturday for a show curated by The Gallery at Black Rock .

Saturday 3 to 8pm pm. Directions Get directions to the show here..

The opening of their INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH ART SHOW will be a bigger blast than bobsled racing on the boob tube will ever be. And in case you think we’re being snooty, we do like bobsled racing. As the title suggests the show presents a variety of work in which artists respond to the industrial landscape.

If your friends in Brooklyn think Connecticut is nothing more than Martha Stewart and The Mohegan Sun get them on Metro North and take them too.

Okay so we’re all ready for the first crocus to start blooming but in the meantime don’t hibernate. This Saturday at 9 p.m. come see the Philiadelphia based Zelawoza play at The Acoustic Cafe as part of their tour promoting their new album Elephants on a Mousehunt.

In case you’re wondering about the band’s name it’s the Polish town where Frederick Chopin was born. In case you’re wondering about the music it’s a creative force that will leave you feeling inspired. Part punk rock, part art rock and something all its own.

Better yet local favorite Darian Cunning opens the show.

Saturday 9 pm at Acoustic Cafe for five meager bucks. Don’t miss it.

Being an artist who works for little money and sporadic attention news of the suicide of celebrated bad boy fashion designer Alexander McQueen left me humbled at the randomness of life, the unfairness of celebrity, happiness and what it takes to create a self-made life as an artist or just an everyday Jane.

It would seem like someone who had such acclaim should be happy. Especially when that someone did it his own way, without the agreement of the establishment and who rose to great prominence in spite of them. After all don’t money and success especially when doing something you love always lead to happiness?

Of course, as proven time and time again the answer is an obvious NO.

Yet we are lucky to be surrounded by so many inspired creators who need to do their work, be it music, writing, dance, photography whatever the hell it is that turns them on, without so much attention. The need to create is what drives them.

So like our friend Bridgeport comedian Jackson noted, in of all places his Facebook page, we are both the slave and our master.

Poor people are often happy. Rich folks often miserable. Same for the famous and the unknown, too.

Well the first two I am sure you already know about but after several drives by Beardsley Park smelling what was either a skunk or some of the finest green smoke ever to appear in Connecticut we read in the New Haven Register that February is that oh so special time of year when skunks mate and their oh so aromatic smell is a sign of love gone wrong.

But the really interesting part is that if the female isn’t interested in her male suitor she just lets go and douses him with a big old spray of skunk juice leaving the male to ponder his heartbreak all alone in the cold.

So if you’re shy around someone you want to get it on with, GO FOR the LOVE. And if she or he tells you NFW console yourself with the knowledge that if love stinks at least you won’t.