Category: Arts & Culture

With a list of prestigious awards and a performance resume with people such as Natalie Cole, Joe Williams, and Tony Bennett, USM is hosting a very special faculty recital. The very talented trumpeter, Trent Austin, will be performing in Gorham’s Corthell Hall on Friday, November 14th at 8:00.

It seems like almost a yearly tradition now. Tour the States in the spring and summer, and once it starts to get cold.go where it could only be colder: Canada. This year, I will make that annual trip with the band I call my own, The Leftovers, on the weekend of November 13th-16th and it…

Jocelyn Lee’s photography exhibit, “Last Light,” documents the death of her mother, whom she calls a collaborator in the work. The Italian-born photographer also holds a degree in philosophy from Yale, a 2001 Guggenheim Fellowship, has taught at MECA, and now teaches at Princeton.

The “Recipes from Home” program created by Keith Brady, USM’s Director of Dining Services, and promoted by Janet Etzel, USM’s Coordinator of Early Student Involvement and Family Relations, was recently featured in the Portland Press Herald by feature writer Meredith Goad.

eprechaun. He doesn’t seem like a normal leprechaun. On first glance, one can immediately tell he’s not right – he must have some internal emotional problems. He protects a bowl of cereal from children for starters, and he’s not even good at it. He is in fact terrible.

Usually Mark Whalberg can do no wrong in selecting movie roles that showcase his acting skills and tough-guy persona (look to The Departed or We Own the Night). Max Payne proves there is a first time for everything. Max Payne is based off the ultra-violent and hip videogame of the same name; and the creators…

Not too many people look to Maine for film-making opportunities, but that may all change if Cape Elizabeth resident Eric Matheson’s big idea can come to life. Matheson wants to transform South Portland’s former National Guard Armory into a fully equipped sound stage for independent and major film studios.

“We get to have fun and get credit for it. It’s part of our curriculum. But don’t tell anybody!” Dr. Peter Martin, the conductor of the USM wind ensemble, stands poised on the podium, baton in hand, awaiting and expecting the pristine first notes of the work.

Thirty years ago, the man who calls himself Cat Dancer was a young, self-described introvert enthralled with computers and math, walking quietly through his family’s five acres of woods in North Monmouth, Maine. He rode his bike through the town’s empty streets past the smoky, brick expanse of Tex-Tech Industries-the world’s leading producer of tennis…

You may not have heard, but there is a musical theatre major at USM, and it is producing spectacular work. The community was privy to this work over the weekend as fourteen student vocalists took to the Corthell Concert Hall stage. They transformed it into the mind of Gordon Schwinn–and a restaurant, a sidewalk, an…

Just last week I heard on the radio that during Whole Foods Fall Madness Sale whole chickens were going for .99/lb. accompanied by .39/lb. butternut squash (sale ends November 4th, but the store is open until 10 p.m.). I heard value either way, as you can get a lot of mileage out of a chicken.

August 30th, 2004 was the day I turned 18. Everyone and their mothers asked me if I was going to vote in the upcoming election. I told them, “No. One vote can’t change anything.” I was kidding when I said this and had every intention in the world to vote, but whether I voted or…

Not even the previos album, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? could have prepared us for the newly released trashy-pop funk-fest better known as Skeletal Lamping. Beyond Of Montreal’s usual tendency to evolve their genre, album-to-album, leadman Kevin Barnes pushes the envelope with hypersexuality, hyperactivity, and a very short attention span.

The Canadian collective Broken Social Scene put on a fantastic and unique show this week in our backyard. While some bands might get lost in the number of members, (more than 10!) Broken Social Scene does it right with eclectic compositions and an amazing stage presence.

This week I had the pleasure of talking with the guitarist of the popular college rock band O.A.R. (Of A Revolution). The band recently released their sixth studio album, “All Sides,” in July and it debuted at #13 on the Billboard charts. If that’s not an eye opener, then consider them playing sold-out shows at…

Without a doubt our culture is fascinated by addictions. Choke focuses on a few unpleasant addictions but connects the viewer to the movie in an addictive way. The film illustrates that everyone has at least one habitual flaw. It has been adapted from Chuck Palahniuk’s, (“Fight Club”) book of the same name and remains surprisingly…

For better or for worse, the cheap-chic chain Forever 21 has moved to South Portland, opening up shop in one of the largest spaces of the Maine Mall, nestled en route between Portland and Gorham campuses. Rumored to be a chain of child-labor-supporting, bible-thumping, sellers of clothes-that-tear-after-two-wears, Forever 21 is looking to their target market…

For the Art Student Union, a student group dedicated to helping people gain knowledge of the visual arts, it was important that their art show, ‘D-I-Y,’ selected student works, be more critical and cutting-edge than in years past. I walked though the piles of submissions from USM students in Kidder Lounge the evening after they’d…

In the last few weeks, renovations of the most secret kind have been brewing underground at The Station on St. John Street. The management and booking of the club has fallen into the hands of Jason Legassie, manager of Legacy Maine, a record label and booking agency.

You know the types of foodstuffs that tend to accumulate in cupboards that you never seem to eat, want, or need, and are not really sure how they got there? Things like cans of salmon, chopped clams, artichoke hearts, stewed tomatoes, or boxes of jello, pudding, tapioca, bouillon cubes, or those varieties of soup that…

“I don’t sweat, I rain.” Famous lines from the not-so-famous 1995 film, Angus. For men like me everywhere, this is our mantra. We sweat as if we were stuck in the Sahara Desert being dutch ovened by Roseanne Barr. It’s out of our grasp, we just can’t help it.

When I mention the words “Hot Suppa,” I’m disappointed when people don’t know what I’m referring to, I am talking about the one and only Hot Suppa, an eatery I’ve come to appreciate, located on Congress street a little ways up from Longfellow Square. Perhaps the reason no one knows what I’m talking about is…

I slunk into the Theater at Russell Hall at 7:31, just in time to take stock of the opening tableau: country music, a large man in a Stetson and overalls. When the first character opened his mouth, affecting a Southwestern accent, it became apparent: I was watching a play about poor white people.

Tim Hoffman is a Portland comedian. He joins 4 other comics for a comedy show on October 23rd at USM. The Free Press chatted with Tim to learn about his connection to comedy and how it works as a Portlander. Free Press: Tim, what’s your story? Tim Hoffman: Well, most of my jokes are influenced…