The 2016 remake of ‘Ghostbusters’ screens for free at Middletown Library as part of a program that also features a Sunday afternoon “one-man musical” performance by veteran recording artist Danny Rongo, below.Â
From junior chess to “dress for mess;” from writers’ workshops to Pokemon swaps, the folks at the Middletown Township Public Library have built a schedule of wintertime events, clubs and activities that form a welcome mat for all ages and all corners of the Greater Red Bank Green.
It’s an ongoing slate of programming that continues through the coming weekend with a tale of true-life adventure, a “one man musical,” and a movie matinee — all free of charge.
*****
A resident of Marlboro, a veteran mountain climber and a mom, Sudha Pamidimukkala stakes a claim to being the first person of Indian descent to solo-climb the tallest peak in North America (Alaska’s 20,308-foot Denali), as well as the only Indian woman to take on the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere (Argentina’s Aconcagua, at 22,841 feet) by herself.
On Saturday, she’ll be setting up base camp in the library’s Community Room for a 2 p.m. slideshow presentation during which she’ll “share her passion for the outdoors” as she “tells her inspiring story and shares her experiences in these beautiful place as well as the hardships that she had to face.”
********
A self-described “singer/ songwriter, bassist, activist, ordained minister” whose long career has included stints as a member of a fondly recalled Jersey cover band (The Passions) and a major label recording artist (during which time he shared stages with the likes of Cyndi Lauper and Billy Idol), Danny Rongo survived the 1980s to enter an even busier phase of his professional life.
Between hosting internet radio shows and remaining on call as a session ace/ sideman (for John Eddie, Goldenseal and others) to issuing numerous self-released albums and EPs, Rongo maintains a have-guitar-will-travel lifestyle that brings him to MTPL on the afternoon of Sunday. It’s there that he’ll be performing a set drawn from one of his most ambitious recent projects: The Phone Call, an intimately scaled musical song cycle that serves as “the backdrop for a conversation I have with a friend in need who is trying to come to terms with his spirituality and the concept of oneness.”
The 2 p.m. performance also holds the possibility of spotlighting additional material from the artist’s considerable catalog of releases, most recent being the album entitled one bass one voice Simply ONESONG.
********
Middletown Library continues its long-running series of free Movie Monday screening events with another recent release that, mere months ago, lit up the multiplex (and, for a seemingly lightweight comedy, generated a slime-wave of social media trolling and all-around ill will). Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones are the all-female team of ectoplasmic exterminators (with Chris “Thor” Hemsworth their hunky receptionist) in Ghostbusters, unspooling at 2:30 p.m. on the Community Room screen.
A best-kept-secret way to catch up with many a missed Hollywood product (as well as that elusive art-house item), Movie Mondays continues on January 30 with Rooney Mara as a photographer who develops a relationship with an older woman (Cate Blanchett) in director Todd Haynes’ 2015 feature Carol — a tale of illicit love from a story by Patricia Highsmith, the author behind The Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train.
