April 7
There will be a book-signing at USM with Suzanne Strempek Shea, winner of the New England Book Award for Fiction in 2000. Shea taught in the Stonecoast MFA program, and has written five novels. Check out her latest, “Sundays in America – A yearlong road trip in search of Christian faith,” which was written after visiting churches all over the US.
Two under-the-radar, new-release DVDs engage in head-to-head combat. You don’t have the time or money to go to the theater. Here’s some help sorting through that daunting wall at the front of your friendly, local video store.
The Amateurs
Raygun Productions
Starring Jeff Bridges, Tim Blake Nelson, Glenne Headly
Andy Sargentee, a struggling divorcee and parent, comes to the conclusion that the only way to finally do something with his life is to get his entire small town to produce hardcore pornography.
After high school, most of my friends – scratch that, all of my friends – went off to college. I started a band.
Didn’t turn out to be much of a long-term commitment; we broke up after a highly tumultuous year of only a handful of concerts, a couple of demos and one radio session to show for it.
There is a buzz in the musically-inclined city of Portland, and it is one of pain. The city is hurting for a medium-sized music venue. Hurting badly.
The State Theatre formerly served as the provider of quality entertainment to Portland. It wasn’t as big as the Civic Center, but bigger than any club or bar.
I’m not a big fan of Shipyard to begin with, so I grabbed this six-pack with a bit of hesitation and low-expectations.
Shipyard puts out a Brewer’s Choice each year – a limited edition recipe from their in-house brew team. Typically, limited editions of anything tend to be a little better than their established counterparts, so I hoped this ale might be an improvement on some of Shipyard’s more bland offerings (Prelude and their IPA come to mind).
Archetypes are tricky. To employ them in a work of fiction is to walk the razor-thin line that separates revelation from cliché.
Musical comedy, however, is a genre renowned for its schmaltzy, self-conscious glibness: it prefers to leap off the tightrope altogether, to waltz and wallow on the cliché side.
Witness “City of Angels,” the 1989 musical now playing now at USM. It’s one of the most self-referential farces you’ll ever have the pleasure of witnessing; it’s simultaneously a fawning love letter and a jeering missive, aimed squarely at both Hollywood and the creative process in general.
“City of Angels” seems like a musical romp to the audience, but it is a difficult text to navigate for its cast and crew.
The first task is in evoking a bygone era.
“The biggest challenge was getting the actors to embody that expressive, 1940s theatrical style,” said the show’s director, USM theater faculty member Wil Kilroy.
In the program for “City of Angels,” director Wil Kilroy says it best: “I’ve wanted to bring the show to USM, knowing what a challenge it would be. Our cast and crew have dedicated themselves and their creativity to making the story come alive for you.”
The production is clearly a labor of love.
March 17
If you’re feeling especially brave and/or crazy this St. Patrick’s Day, and would like to take a 5:30 a.m. swim to wake yourself up, head down to the East End Beach in Portland for the St. Paddy’s Day Plunge. All proceeds will benefit the Children’s Burn Unit and Portland Firefighters.
An excited and slightly damp crowd came out to see a rock show in Gorham’s Brooks Student Center last week. Organized by sophomore Jeff Beam, the show featured his own band and local acts The Leftovers and Dominic and the Lucid.
The first band to take the stage was Dominic and the Lucid.
Vogue and Bazaar may be breathing hopes of spring fashion to style-enthusiasts across the country, but for the still snow-covered USM, sundresses and high-waist shorts may be some time coming.
For the fashion-forward who may be fashion-depressed as they wait out the winter and don their ‘warm puffy coat’ for the 234th day in a row, a quick fix has crossed into main-stream social circles.
He’s published. He’s accomplished internationally. He has appeared on Oprah, and besides serving as an adjunct professor, he heads up projects that aim at uniting Southern Maine’s immigrant community and the university. His community outreach has spanned the last 20 years.
WMGP is not exactly a college radio station. It sits on one edge of campus – the first of the white houses as you drive past the garage – but bumper stickers, t-shirts, banners and DJs all proudly proclaim it as southern Maine’s community radio.
If you were tuned in last Tuesday morning, you might have heard DJ Deirdre Nice cue up Jeff Tweady’s rendition of “Simple Twist of Fate,” but you didn’t see her sit back in her chair and gaze out toward the parking garage at the gray, rainy day.
March 10
Come tango at the North Star Cafe with Tango Mucha Labia, and show off your moves. The lesson starts at 7, and the dancing at 8. $5/ 225 Congress St., Portland/ 699-2994
March 11
Want to be an actor? Come audition for student films at the USM media studies production facility.
Leaning against the wall in one corner of the Gorham art gallery are six paintings, all in various stages of completion. There’s also a record player and a comfortable old yellow chair speckled with paint.
Empty coffee cups, album covers, and paintbrushes are strewn about the drop cloth surrounding an easel, and stale tortilla chips crunch underfoot.
Once in a while, when I’m hyping a great new band or a generally unheard of musician to a friend, they’ll ask (to paraphrase): “Tyler, how do you find out about all this music I’ve never heard of?”
I used to get this question more often, when I was more active in seeking out strange or unknown artists.
Belgian beers are generally regarded with high esteem by drinkers and critics alike. After finding a niche for this style of brewing in Maine, Allagash has carved out its own prestige in the beer community, and their Dubbel Ale holds up this tradition.
Coming in at seven percent alcohol by volume and sporting a very dark pour, it’s certainly nothing to scoff at.
When it was announced this summer that the Rustic Overtones were getting back together, the future of As Fast As was immediately thrown into doubt. Surely, AFA frontman and Rustic keyboardist Spencer Albee couldn’t pull double-duty with two of Portland’s biggest bands.
Though Planeside is from New York City, the Portland music community has openly accepted them as an honorary “local band.”
Vocalist/guitarist Dave Harris, bassist Ken Hirasaki, and drummer Craig Sala has been performing in Maine longer than most local bands have lasted, and they continue to stay fresh, attract large crowds, and put on some of the most energetic live sets this side of New England.
Vibrant performers, energetic drumming, handmade crafts, exotic foods, and a passionate speaker were housed in the Woodbury Campus center last week for the “Main Event” of the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs.
The day featured a guest speaker from Dartmouth University, Peter James Morgan, who, along with his extensive research about Native Americans in the abolitionist movement, spoke about the history of African American and Native American heritage in New England.
If USM women’s vaginas could dress up and talk, they would wear diamonds and stilettos and say things like “wrong hole!” and “slower!”
The questions that spawned these responses were asked to those who attended the annual production of The Vagina Monologues, sponsored by the Women’s Resource Center and the Student Senate.
March 3
Naked Shakespeare will be presented at The Wine Bar, the hip café in downtown Portland by Acorn Productions. If you missed the recent Naked Macbeth event at USM, you must see what the fuss about being naked is all about. Free donation/ 8pm/ The Wine Bar/ 38 Wharf St.
The Bravery headlined at The Station last Saturday, foreshadowing the March release of The Sun and The Moon Complete, an addition to their 2007 The Sun and The Moon. The show also featured Headstart, Cult Maze, Your Vegas and Switches.
We arrived to The Station late and unfortunately missed the first three bands, but were just in time to catch London’s own Switches.
It’s a little-known fact that one of Maine’s greatest musical resources is also one of USM’s greatest resources. His name is Adam Ayan. Grammy-award winning Adam Ayan. That’s right.
Adam Ayan is a world-renowned sound engineer. And he teaches his passion to USM students as an adjunct music faculty member.
Three USM students walk into a bar – a photographer, a sculptor, and a painter.
From here, things get increasingly comical, because they’re meeting with John Bisbee, currently exhibiting his intense welded structures – made up entirely of nails – at the Portland Museum of Art.