Category: Arts & Culture

Last week, Ryland Cook spent ten days in St. Louis as an intern for USM art professor Micheal Shaugnessy. Shaugnessy was the artist chosen as the inaugural solo show at a gallery and artist workspace called The Craft Alliance. Cook, a recent USM grad kept a day-by-day journal for the Free Press to chart the daily progress of building and installing the sculpture show.

The first time I ever made dough it was a goopy sticky mess that ended up baking up like a brick. The anticipated soul satisfying experience eluded me that time, yet I was drawn to the process, due in part to the unique flour bin, under the counter like a secret compartment, in the pantry of our apartment.

In this day and age, it is becoming more and more difficult to find artists and bands that have an inherent sense of honesty in their music.

For a while now, Pete Kilpatrick has been at it solo, and along with a revolving-door team of Portland’s finest, he has been delivering the honesty I speak of.

The professor scowled at his student, “You’re going to have to make the decision-how important is this class to you? You’ll be missing class for a family gathering? How big is your family? ”

This is what I overheard my professor asking a student who said he might not be at the next class.

It’s an unusually busy Monday night upstairs at the Old Port’s RiRa. The room buzzes with eager conversation and happy-hour gaiety, as a crowd of well-dressed young professionals mingles near the bar, undaunted by the full workweek ahead.

At first, it can be hard to tell what type of event you’ve stumbled across.

Some folks are religious about the seasonal elements of music, for example, spring is the only appropriate time to listen to Pavement’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. This topic is subjective and personal, but sometimes it becomes universal. The same way smells transport you to specific times, music can do this.

Jeremy Edwards gets a buzz from seeing how people dress, behave, and walk down the street-from country to country. The English designer lives and teaches in Paris, France, after spending his life living and working across Europe.

This semester, his work as a designer has brought him to a new country for observation, the United States.

I want to tell you something about my life. I live approximately thirty yards from the glorious watering hole known as Binga’s Wingas. This has had both good and bad effects on my life. Good in that I’ve been able to watch most of the sports I like while enjoying a cheap, refreshing, watery pibbers (read: PBR) while stuffing my face with some of the best comfort food known to mankind.

“GUTS! D-d-d-d-do you have em? Guts! And let’s go to Moe with the official score.”

Remember “Guts”? Nickelodeon’s old game show that started off as a friendly competition between children from America, then turned into “Global Guts” which was a ruthless, drag out, my country-is-better-than-yours fight to the death?

Of course you do.

Having never drank a barley wine before, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I picked up a six pack of Old Foghorn. I knew that Anchor’s other offerings, like their Steam beer and their Porter, were delightful, so I figured this might be worth a taste.

Monday September 22

Step Aerobics-

Stepping, toning, and stretching….all choreographed to music. $10 for semester for current USM students/ Offered Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 6:15-7:15 a.m. Multi-Purpose Room, Sullivan Complex, Portland Campus/For more information or non-student pricing, check out our website at http://usm.

For the past ten days, art professor Micheal Shaugnessy has been knees deep in hay, and getting St. Louis into the hay as well. His sculpture stands as the inagural exhibition of St. Louis’ Craft Alliance, an anticipated new gallery and artist space. He has worked from sun-up until past sundown since the day he arrived, building his signature structures, and completely covering them in hay.

Staff Writer

Ask Eben Metivier what he’s doing with his life these days and he has a stock answer ready to go.

“I would say I’m saving the world – 500 people at a time.”

Metivier is the Operations Director of Kaleidoscope, the agency presenting Kindle, a Northern New England Bioneers Conference.

Free Press: Who is Loki? What do you play?

J.T: I’m J.T. (Jon Taylor) and I am the lead singer. On guitar is Jonathan Boyer. Seth McClellen plays bass, and Adam Nichols smacks the drums.

FP: So just how long have you been a band?

J.T.: We started at the end of ’99, so 8 years, going on 9.

With the weather feeling more and more like Autumn these days, I wanted to pick up a beer that reflected those feelings this week. Now granted, technically this Maple Oat Ale from the good folks at Peak Organic is a Spring time release, but it just seems like it should be a Fall offering with it’s packaging and subtle hints of maple.

Jeff Hodenberg

Contributing Writer

How does one decide on where to eat sushi in a town that has an abundance of sushi restaurants? I would say that it depends on what you want from your experience. For a relaxed evening and inexpensive sushi I would recommend you try Sapporo, on Commerical Street.

Get ready to kick out the literary jams on Thursday, Sept. 25, at the SPACE, with a “Words and Images” celebration. Sponsored by USM’s yearly literary and art journal and the English Students’ Association, this is just one of four events to take place at or around USM, running from Monday, Sept.

Alec Sabina filled up his glass of water behind the counter before sitting down across from me in the last booth of Hot Suppa, greeting a regular perched at a stool, “What’s up, Big Donna?”

The Congress Street restaurant has become a local staple for breakfast and lunch since Alec, 25, bought the place with his brother almost three years ago, before graduating from USM.

On Sunday, September 21, the USM School of Music will host the Portland Chamber Orchestra’s performance of “Eight Seasons.” This musical showcase features Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” and Argentine tango composer Astor Piazzola’s “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires”.

I stepped into the theater expecting to be bombarded by nonstop nudity and threesomes, but was pleasantly surprised. Perhaps I should have expected more from Woody Allen. His films are typically rooted in dialogue, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona is no exception.

When I grabbed this six-pack at Hannaford, I was unaware that it was a Coors product. It wasn’t until I got home and was looking at the Blue Moon website that I figured it out. Having not tried a bottle yet, I became a bit more hesitant than I originally was; Coors is one of those beers I will just not drink.

“When I was young, I thought that art was something for rich people.” With this quote, begins the 2007 documentary Beautiful Losers. It’s just made its way to a small screening at Portland’s own SPACE Gallery (you guessed it!) The documentary takes a look at a group of likeminded do-it-yourself artists, creating meaningful art at a time when it was difficult to be seen or heard.

Have you ever noticed that insane hippo-dragon hybrid that dons every box of Hannaford’s generic cereal? You know, the one with the rainbow striped shirt, white overalls, green scales, purple horns and a baseball cap? This maniac blatantly gets away with distributing other mascots’ cereal for almost half the price.

Richard Abrams teaches Bob Dylan. But not in the department you’d expect – Abrams is an English professor. And Dylan: his poet. His class, one of the many “topics in literature” courses numbered ENG 150, is always popular. We decided to sit down with Abrams and ask about why he loves – and teaches – the classic folk/rock/blues/country artist.

FP: When were you first turned on to Dylan?

Abrams: I was in college at McGill in Montreal; about ’65 I think. I asked a friend of mine, “so what is this with Bob Dylan?” and he said, “he’s a new folk singer who swallows his words.” I thought that was a pretty good description of Dylan, even now.

I grew up with folk singers, some of whom went on to become semi-famous. When I was in high school I just loved radio. It took a while for the penny to drop with Dylan. I liked him but I don’t think I was absolutely sold on him.