The Emmy-winning PBS series Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? has been off the air for nearly two decades And where in the world has the man who co-wrote the show’s theme song, Sean Altman, been in the time since?
Performing at the White House Hanukah Party twice, chatting with NPR’s Terry Gross, sharing stages with Billy Joel and appearing on Jon Stewart’s and Jay Leno’s shows, to name a choice few engagements.
On Saturday, Dec. 27, Altman brings his Jewmongous Unkosher Comedy Songfest to Brattleboro’s Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery for a special, one-night-only affair.
“I felt an increasingly urgent longing to be more connected to my Jewish lineage,” Altman says. “But how? Synagogues intimidated me and I’d long forgotten how to read Hebrew… and by ‘read’ I mean sound out words with no comprehension whatsoever. Then it hit me. The only things I know how to do — period — are sing, write songs, and crack wise. In lieu of shul, then, I started writing naughty ditties that both celebrate and lovingly skewer the trials and tribulations of the tribe.”
In the aftermath of that revelation, Altman started penning hilarious holiday send-ups, including a tribute to John Lennon’s 1966 declaration that the Beatles were “bigger than Jesus,” the Passover story “They Tried to Kill Us (We Survived, Let’s Eat),” “Christian Baby Blood,” and the ska-inflected “What the Hell is Simchas Torah?”
Tix for Jewmongous are $20 in advance, $25 day of show and available at brownpapertickets.com and at In The Moment Records on Main Street in Brattleboro.
In other news, Shelburne Falls’ Jeffrey Foucault has organized a benefit for the Franklin Land Trust on Saturday, Dec. 27. The hometown show will take place at Memorial Hall (shelburnefallmemorialhall.org) and feature special guests Kris Delmhorst, Rusty Belle, and Abe Loomis.
A native of the Midwest, Foucault says that fishing the local rivers helped him stave off homesickness. When he heard about a proposal that, if implemented, would greatly impact these fertile fishing grounds and watersheds, he says he felt compelled to pipe up.
“The Franklin Land Trust is one of many local outfits coming together to try and fight off the proposed Kinder-Morgan pipeline to carry fracked gas from the Marcellus shale field to Massachusetts,” he explains. “The proposed pipeline puts near-term private profit ahead of long-term public interests.Even if a pipeline is necessary, this is the wrong path and the wrong method.”
Tickets for Foucault’s Franklin Land Trust Benefit are $20 in advance, $25 at the door and available at World Eye Books in Greenfield, Boswell’s Books in Shelburne Falls or online at parlorroommusic.com.
F AT chance: FAT frontman Peter Newland checked in to report that as of press time, only 150 of the 700 seats available for his band’s Winter Music Jam at the MassMutual Center Ballroom in Springfield Dec. 20, were still up for grabs.
“Palmer Paving, MassMutual and Jam4Springfield are presenting my original band to benefit Wounded Warriors that evening,” Newland notes.
Others on the bill include bluesman Jeff Pitchell and the Bay State’s own Curtis Mayflower Band.
Tickets are $50 per person and include a prime rib dinner with appetizers. They are available at freshtix.com.•
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, P.O. box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 394-4262 or email garycarra@aol.com.
