It was another rainy afternoon on Congress Street in Portland. From behind a large first-floor window, an eight foot tall model of Bigfoot watched the traffic roll by from behind a plastic shrub, trying to make sense of his new home – the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland’s Parkside neighborhood.
Category: Arts & Culture
The Leftovers World Tour Part 2
My sister sent me a text this morning that read “You hanging with the golden girls?” I could see why – we were in West Palm Beach, Florida, a retirement town. It’s the last place you’d expect to find a punk show. We all half expected to roll up on a town of all senior citizens, complete with wheelchair ramps on every storefront.
Of course, that wasn’t the case. Even on the beach, which was our first stop, there were plenty of young people out and about. As I reported in my last dispatch, the water was anything but refreshing. The floating trash and jellyfish warning signs didn’t help anything. But the beach was still a nice stop before the show. As far as the show was concerned, we didn’t know what to expect. Would it be full of oldtimers hobbling around the mosh pit?
Reality TV: fact or fiction
Reality shows all claim to present ordinary people in unscripted situations. But how real are they really? Does it matter?
To begin with, unscripted television is not that novel an idea.
Game shows have been around since before the United States entered the Second World War. But the current “reality show” idiom in which contestants are eliminated by their peers instead of by a system appeared nine years ago when “Survivor” contestants began getting “voted off the island.”
Much of what makes these shows exciting is that nobody knows what’s going to happen. It’s riveting to watch people double-cross each other as they compete in the wide variety of competitions throughout the season. If it were orchestrated, it’d lack suspense and just be boring. That’s what’s so upsetting about the longstanding allegations that “Survivor” may actually stage some of its events and possibly even, gasp, not take place in the wilderness that they portray. If the drama of the show was created by an off-screen writer, then the appeal is written off as well.
We got the beat!
Yamato – The Drummers of Japan provided the people of Portland with a unique opportunity to feel the beat of authentic Japanese culture at their show in Merrill Auditorium last Tuesday, Nov. 10.
The group performed an intense combination of masterful drumming and synchronized dance. They swung the drums – which were almost as big as they were – around the stage and gracefully performed marshal arts moves without ever missing a beat. Throughout the entire show, the performers had massive smiles strewn across their faces, encouraging each other and radiating positive energy out into the audience.
The Men Who Stare At Goats
I never thought I could be disappointed in a movie featuring George Clooney. “The Men Who Stare At Goats” has proven otherwise. It presents the dullest, most random series of disjointed events imaginable. It’s as boring as watching two people cross an endless desert. Scratch that: the film is actually about two guys walking across a desert.
The film follows and is narrated by Bob Wilton( Ewan Mcgregor), a reporter looking for a story amid the disasters of the Iraq War. He thinks he hit a gold mine when he meets Lyn Cassady ( George Clooney), a former member of a paranormal battalion from the Vietnam War. What ensues is a great plotless heap that leads the viewer into their own boring, endless desert of annoyance.
Weekly karaoke event puts amatuers center stage at Empire
If you have ever been to a normal karaoke night at a bar, you know what it generally entails: awkward, drunk people singing off key to pre-recorded versions of the pop songs you hear everywhere. But a new Wednesday night concert series at Empire Dine and Dance in Portland offers a new contribution to this tired type of entertainment: highly skilled, live musicians.
Pizza & Beer: Legally married in Maine
Pizza and beer go together like ocean and sand, pumpkin and pie, bamboo and?zen! You get the “pitcher.” There are a few spots downtown that?showcase this comforting combination perfectly in a way that only Portland?can, but two places specifically come to mind: Joe’s Slice Bar on Fore?Street and Portland Pie Company on York Street.
Gorham Art Fair draws record crowds
Dozens of local artists displayed paintings, jewelry, handmade bags and even carved wooden pickle forks at the third annual Gorham Art Fair on Sunday. The event was held in the Shaw Gym in the back of the municipal center on South St. and lasted all day, running from 9a.
Review: “Tea and Sympathy” an emotional rollercoaster
“Tea and Sympathy,” the Theatre Department’s latest production, opened in Russell Hall in Gorham last Thursday.
Originally written as a loose autobiography of the playwright Robert Anderson, the play presents the story of Tom, a student in a boy’s school in the 1950s who is suspected of being a homosexual.
Now Playing: Where The Wild Things Are
??Care to take a trip down memory lane? The celebrated children’s story by Maurice Sendak has finally overcome its “unfilmable” reputation and landed on the big screen. Now don’t lie to yourself, you know you are dying to see it!
??????For those who need a slight refresher on “Where the Wild Things Are,” the story follows a disobedient child named Max.
Poem of the Week
In every backyard battlefield,
hordes of half-grown children play,
plaid cowboy shirts tucked into blue denim,
fringe flying, cheeks blazing.
Shoot ’em up, they scream,
each hand waving a silver pistol,
whirling a limp lasso; stolen clothesline tied to the hip.
Mihku Anderson:
Mihku Paul Anderson, a Creative Writing student in USM’s Stonecoast MFA Program, is a proud member of the Maliseet, one of the five groups that comprise the Wabanaki Confederacy. Raised near Penobscot Indian Island Reservation, her indigenous identity flows into everything she does.
Boondock Buzz
The low budget crime thriller “Boondock Saints” is a staple of many college students’ DVD collections. Although nobody seemed to notice it in the theaters when it came out in 1999, it’s attained an almost cult-like following, grossing over $40 million in DVD sales.
The new “Lost”
“FlashForward,” a new Thursday night primetime sci-fi drama on ABC, might just be television’s most captivating mind-bender since “Lost” first aired in fall 2004.
The show’s premise is bizarre. Everyone in the world blacks out for two minutes and 17 seconds and sees visions of their lives six months into the future.
Blame it on a simple twist of fate
A pair of psychic fortune tellers used tarot cards to predict the futures of around thirty students in the Brooks Student Center in Gorham last Thursday. The Gorham Events Board organized the event as part of their weekly Thirsty Thursday series.
The GEB decided to bring the fortune tellers in a last minute change of plans when the scheduled main event, a mind reader, was unable to come.
The bitter truth about two local coffee shops
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m picky about my coffee. I like to taste coffee. Sometimes I add soymilk, and sometimes I drink it straight up black. No matter how I order it, this particular beverage is a big part of my day.
Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts have their own rivalery story, and I’m not about to dive into that controversy.
The lighter side of Chekhov
A production of two of Anton Chekhov’s one-act plays, “The Bear” and “The Proposal,” opened last Thursday to a packed audience in Russell Hall in Gorham.
As the audience took their seats, old-fashioned balalaika music serenaded them off to nineteenth century Russia, setting the mood perfectly.
The evolution of Jakob Battick
Jakob Battick has a half-groomed beard and wavy brown hair that hangs below his ears. He is very tall and very intelligent. He loves playing the guitar and spending time with his family. He doesn’t like playing Frisbee. He is my friend.
We met in the fall of 2007 when we lived on the same floor of Robie-Andrews Hall.
USM bands rock Space Gallery
This past Tuesday, two USM connected bands, Marie Stella and the Rattlesnakes, opened for the New Jersey based punk band Screaming Females at Space Gallery in Portland.
Marie Stella kicked off the show with a new song titled “Lonely is Better,” which showed off USM alumna Sydney Bourke’s sweet soprano vocals, powerful bass-playing abilities and growing songwriting talent.
The delicious delights of “Julie & Julia”
Prepare to get hungry; this charming film will capture both your heart and your taste buds. Filled with witty humor and clips of delicious meals, “Julie & Julia” is the year’s best chick flick by far.
The film follows two different true stories. The first belongs to Julie Powell (Amy Adams).
Let’s get ready to Rumba!
Six Afro-Cuban jazz musicians from around the world will be coming to USM for five days of live performances and workshops starting next Thursday. The musicians are part of a group called Un Mondo, which translates as “One World,” in an event hosted by the School of Music and the Cultural Affairs Committee.
A singing comes across the sky
It’s a First Friday Artwalk in Portland, and a busy crowd of tourists and students are exploring the chic galleries along Congress St. As they approach the intersection with High St., they feel the warmth of a soulful voice and an acoustic guitar wafting through the air.
Salt Institute presents prison poetry
A large crowd packed into the gallery of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies on Congress St. last Thursday for the opening of an exhibit of poetry by women incarcerated in the Maine state correctional system. The poems are the result of a year of creative writing workshops conducted by Family Crisis Services, a Maine-based non-profit that works with victims of domestic violence.
Sun shines brightly on USM band concert
Saturday came very close to being a perfect day for the USM student concert band performance on the front steps of Corthell Hall in Gorham. You could smell the good, cheap barbecue all the way from Upton-Hastings. The crowd was comprised mostly of local families with small children, but there were a handful of student enjoying the sunshine as well.