Watts releases solo album after 31 years
Posted on April 14, 2014 by dkelly in Album Reviews, Arts & Culture
Ben Watt, an accomplished writer, DJ, BBC radio personality, and musician, gives a peak songwriting performance on Hendra. Hendra begins with its self-titled track. Acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, background strings and a reverberated picked electric guitar part create a dim and somber feeling. Lyrics go, “I wish I’d studied harder now, made something of myself […]
Local electronic band deviates from the norm with their latest album
Posted on April 07, 2014 by dkelly in Arts & Culture
S/T, released by Contrapposto, is some of the strangest electronic music to come out of Portland. But something new is going on with this album. Made up of only two members, Jacob Pitcher and Mirabai Iwanko are able to make an enormous amount of sound. Ambient synthesizers, pounding drum machines, and smooth vocals make electronica […]
USM students zip their lips for the National Day of Silence
Posted on April 07, 2014 by matthewdonovan in Arts & Culture
Students at USM and across the world will join in a vow of silence on Wednesday to show their support for the LGBTQA community. Thousands of schools participate in this international event to show their support of gays and transgenders who are facing or have faced adversity. The Queer Straight Alliance leads the effort, but […]
Roman decadence thrives in The Great Beauty.
Posted on April 07, 2014 by martinconte in Arts & Culture
Whether he is walking down a cobble stoned street, dancing to pulsating electronic music on a rooftop into the morning, or staring up at the ceiling, imagining it as a cool expanse of ocean. Jep Gambardella, played by Tony Servillo, is a ghost of a former era, a notion of ‘coolness’ that was born in […]
Heroes and misfits and jazz
Posted on April 07, 2014 by dkelly in Arts & Culture
Heroes + Misfits, released by up-and-coming jazz pianist Kris Bowers, exemplifies the emerging trend of fusing hip-hop grooves with jazz proficiency. Winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition and a Juilliard School graduate, there is no question of Bowers’s ability. Splitting his time between a Fender Rhodes and an acoustic piano, Somewhat of an […]
Sign of the rhymes: Poetry serves as a medium for change
Posted on April 07, 2014 by Francis Flisiuk in Arts & Culture
Poetry reading has evolved from coffeehouses and dusty leather bound books into packed bars, snapping fingers and vocal performance pieces with powerful messages. No longer is poetry culture limited by cliche love stories, strict organization and clever rhymes. Poetry in today’s age, specifically slam poetry, has developed into an artistic medium that facilitates personal development […]
Arts & Culture Recommends: USM Theatre presents The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Posted on March 10, 2014 by USM Free Press in Arts & Culture, Recommends
By: Matthew Donovan The USM Theatre department is letting the audience decide “whodunit” with the premiere of the Tony Award-winning murder mystery musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The Mystery of Edwin Drood is shaping to be a musical that narrows the distance between audience and player interaction, where the ending of the story is […]
Ceramist Shawn O’Connor shares historical method
Posted on March 10, 2014 by masonfriedman in Arts & Culture
Last week USM hosted a special guest, alumnus and ceramist Shawn O’Connor. O’Connor teamed up with the USM Art Department to finish a project with students, the construction and lighting of a one time use paper kiln. The paper kiln was lit Thursday with Brandon Lutterman a professor of ceramics and several USM students in […]
Campbell brothers shoot for big screens
Posted on March 10, 2014 by Francis Flisiuk in Arts & Culture
Siblings Thomas and Peter Campbell, emerging filmmakers and theatre and music majors at USM, are ready to see their work on national and international screens, after winning several awards, including “Best Film,” during Portland’s 48 Hour Film Project last year . The brothers made their winning eight-minute film as part of the 48 Hour Film […]
100 years of culinary history displayed at the Maine Historical Society
Posted on March 03, 2014 by Sam Hill in Arts & Culture
To celebrate Maine Restaurant Week, the Maine Historical Society Museum has put together a collection of culinary history. From Chop Suey to Washington Pie, Maine Menus features a collection of menus from 1882 to 1949, all with a special link to the state of Maine.The exhibit has been curated by MHS archivist Nancy Noble, who […]
