Category: Arts & Culture

Burlesque performances are traditionally humorous theatrical productions, a form of musical and theater parody in which a play or other piece is adapted in an often risqué and sexual manner. Rarely are true Burlesue performances seen anymore. But on March 12 the Portland community will have the chance to see an updated Burlesque show put on by our very own USM community.

USM’s menu got some local flavor peppered into the mix on Tuesday when WMPG held their 14th annual Cajun Cookin’ Challenge.

The familiar strains of New Orleans jazz, and dangling strands of beads brought out the “Fat Tuesday” atmosphere, and the spicy dishes warmed up a student body in the thick of a Maine winter.

Portland’s post-punk quartet Huak has an incredibly agitated sound-it is loud, fast and heated. The songs take turn after turn, stop, go, stop, go and explode. They seem to be powered by some sort of schizophrenic engine over which they have no control.

Jake Lowry and Joel Glidden’s guitars are jagged, crunchy and often panned to the left and right like a pair of armed guards.

Taryn Yudaken

Staff Writer

Rarely do you hear the word ‘vagina’ spoken multiple times within a two-hour period, unless of course your profession happens to be gynecology. It is also rare for the subject of an entire performance to be about vaginas, unless of course you are talking about “The Vagina Monologues.

The majority of audience members usually know who is going to win before the big night goes down. However, it is always exciting when the academy decides to shake it up and shock movie buffs and critics alike.

“Slumdog Millionaire” managed to snag the Best Picture and Director Categories; this was expected if you had watched the build up before the Oscars filled with other award shows.

Sudoku & crossword puzzle answers for 3/2.

The opening reception was crowded with old friends, students and colleagues. As Portland’s Channel Six attempted to get a few words with Juris Ubans, aglow in suit and tie and standing taller than the camera man, he kept interrupting the interview, surprised as another familiar face brushed by,

“Oh Hello!” Juris belted, ignoring the camera and energetically shaking hands with a former student who had returned to USM for the art show, a retrospective exhibit of the work and history of Juris over his long career.

Travis Grant, a costume designer and theater major at USM, has created many of the wardrobes seen on the Russell Theater stage. It was Grant’s ten designs for last spring’s play, “Last Easter,” that got the attention of a Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) respondent.

A bowl of hearty chili spiked with sweat inducing spices is a welcome dish in the midst of any chilly month; especially one with a Superbowl in it. As a first time chili maker, I took an opportunity to send a container to my son at UMO (for critique and, hopefully, enjoyment).

Award winning costume designer, Travis Grant took the time to answer some questions with The Free Press’s Kathleen Wilber

Free Press: What is your major and concentration?

Travis Grant: I am a fourth year Theater major originally from Waldoboro, ME.

FP: How did you get into costume design?

TG: I started by assisting a volunteer costume designer in high school, which in turn led to outside work with community theater, and eventually branched out into semi-professional and professional work.

Sometimes enjoying your favorite pint in the comfort of home isn’t enough. Sometimes it’s just plain better to belly-up to the bar and enjoy a fresh ale. But, if you’re a craft-beer nut like me, it can be tough to find a place that couples the right atmosphere with a robust selection of beers at a decent price.

The Portland Museum of Art’s current photography exhibit, Backstage Pass: Rock & Roll Photography, is a reasonably comprehensive glance at the pop musicians of the second half of the twentieth century as cultural icons.

The featured photographs do not show musicians at work.

April showers bring May movies? Not really.but “Terminator Salvation” does come to the silver screen. I am not personally a huge Sci-fi fan or James Cameron fan, but seeing how the latter is missing from this endless saga, it does seem promising. Having the most sought after man in Hollywood right now, Christian Bale, play a post-Judgment Day John Connor doesn’t seem to hurt either.

On the night of Saturday, Jan 31, the Gorham campus was graced by the beautiful folk music of USM resident Jakob Battick with his friends (Mark Dennis, Milo Moyer-Battick, Jesse Meuner, Wade Linebaugh, Ryan Higgins) and Biddeford-based duo South China in the Hastings Formal Lounge.

It was 1968 and he saw something in the window of a California record store that as a fan, he was thrilled about; a copy of The Who on Tour.

Griel Marcus paid the $1.99 and rushed home to discover that that album was not a live album at all but a studio recording with a misleading title.

Joshua Loring, singer and guitarist for the rock group Brenda, pledges a strong allegiance to the veiled music culture of Portland-or, rather, to its unveiling. He is Portland’s adamant champion, its believer, and most recently, its spokesperson.

With a grant of $7,500 from the Maine Arts Commission, Loring, a resident artist at the Space Gallery, is creating a multi-platform audio-visual project to document the art and lives of a thriving yet largely hidden treasure trove of Portland musicians.

As a growing artist, Fletcher Keene takes in all that he can in hopes of portraying his truely unique and interesting artistic vision.

Keene was recently interviewed for The Free Press by Kathleen Wilber.

ajor and concentration?

Fletcher Keene: Technically I’m an English major, but I’m switching it to art as soon as I can get through my art history requirements.

There is something about the onset of winter and the desire for a morning bowl of oatmeal: the real deal kind, not the quick-cooking variety or the multi-flavored sugary rip-offs in little brown packets that barely serve a finicky kid. The oatmeal I thrive on is plain old rolled oats that are tossed into twice as much boiling water and left to plump up and play nicely with surrounding oats.

After last week’s foray with stouts, my taste-buds needed a reawakening. To me that means one thing: hops – and lots of them. That’s why this week I’ve chosen an array of beers all of which are centered more on their use of hops than on their delicate use of specialty grains.

Carlin vs. Rock

The Golden Raspberry Awards, aka the Razzies, were created in 1980 with the sole purpose of balancing out the Academy Awards. However, you never want to receive or become nominated for this anti-prestigious statue. It dishonors, (or honors, depending on personal taste) the worst acting, screenwriting, songwriting, directing, and most importantly filmmaking that the industry produces every year.

This year brought cinema-goers some of the most unique and entertaining movies since, well, perhaps last year depending on who you talk to. But with this great time also came great losses to the entertainment world. A great deal of these were shocking, emotional, unexpected, and also reminded us that life is only temporary, as depressing and obvious as that sounds.

Bon Iver

For Emma, Forever Ago

After breakups with his band and girlfriend and a bout with a liver ailment, Justin Vernon sojourned in a tiny cabin in northern Wisconsin during the winter and created this minimalist masterpiece. Catharsis at its core, Vernon’s falsetto and mellow guitar strums portray the fragility of beauty with a sound too delicate for words.

504 Congress Street has been home to a lot of business in the past two decades, and unfortunately for a string of entrepreneurs, it hasn’t been any one of them for very long.

Rob Evon is the latest to take an active interest in this prime piece of downtown real estate, smack in the middle of Portland’s arts district, just around the corner from Monument Square.