Category: Arts & Culture

On Russell Hall’s main stage, there is a Greek palace of sorts, complete with pillars and multiple levels, done in pastel pinks, blues and purples, the curves and strategically centered door a clear metaphor for the female form. An effeminate man with a flowing white beard approaches the audience, introducing himself as Aristophanes, then proceeds to remind us of standard audience protocol-no cell phones, flash photography, note the emergency exits-before cautioning that the following is not a play for the timid.

A piano plays in the cold March night, while the clear, distant resonance of a soprano carries all the way from Russell Hall to Corthell’s neighboring parking lot. Inside the theatre, one set of double doors leads into a room that generally serves as a workshop for set construction; tonight, however, there is the rhythmic shuffle-thump of rehearsing dancers.

The Portland Museum of Art is featuring a selection of Photographer Margaret Bourke-White. The photographs are on display at the Portland Art Museum until March 20. Admission to the museum is free every Friday from 5 to 9 P.M.

Much of Bourke-White’s work revolves around discovering the beauty and art in industrial structures and factories that were built primarily for function and not form.

In a recent competition in Rhode Island, USM’s Theater Department won the Costume and Set Design categories. Corey Anderson, Kate Law and Jerome Wills received the awards. Another student, David Branch, came in third out of over 200 fellow actors in the Irene Ryan Acting Competition.

Valentine’s Day is here. In an attempt to get in the spirit of that hallowed Hallmark holiday, I’ve been doing some research on works of art inspired by the 14th of February. Googling until my fingers nearly bled, my findings were surprisingly slim. There were movies, most notably “Valentine,” “My Bloody Valentine” and two mysterious flicks entitled “My Funny Valentine” (2000) and “Funny Valentine” (2002), neither of which were carried by any of the local video stores.

When most people think of Mardi Gras, they imagine Bourbon Street: Copious amounts of alcohol, wild music and all the debauchery that results from such a volatile mixture. This past Tuesday, WMPG hosted its 10th annual Fat Tuesday (the English translation of Mardi Gras) celebration in the Woodbury Campus Center.

Holy cow, where did Punkys go?

Punkys is undeniably one of the top eateries among USM students. Usually it’s worth the trip to their Forest Avenue location, despite the relative convenience of the Aramark cafeteria in the Woodbury Student Center. But as of last Tuesday, Punkys has served its last customer there, where it opened 10 years ago and will not re-open.

In a couple days prepare to smell something surprising on campus, something rare in Maine: C’est bon Cajun cooking! And where does one find good gumbo on campus? Only at WMPG’s 10th Annual Fat Tuesday Celebration and Cajun Cooking Challenge, cosponsored by Aramark and the Portland Events Board.

“Honey, look what Apple is coming out with.” My fianc? Matt turned his laptop screen toward me.

“Hmm?” I slowly shifted my Vogue-focused gaze to the image on the screen.

“You know the iPod? Well this is an even smaller version called the Shuffle and they’ll be selling it for only like $100-$140 depending on how much memory you get.

rling and suede encased feet in the store’s mirror. I hadn’t meant to try them on. I had in fact entered the store in search of my yearly winter boot: black, leather and with a thin heel, the heel and toe shape differing slightly depending on the season. Perhaps not a practical shoe choice for Maine’s snowy winters, but it had worked just fine for the last three years and I didn’t see any reason to change now.

The first time I went to Geno’s–the basement bar next to Margarita’s, on Brown Street in Portland–it was about a year ago and the place was packed. I’d been around poets before, of course, but I’d never been around this breed of poets. Mad poets. Poets with wild hair and wilder eyes, poets with rhythm, poets with wit, poets with questionable hygiene, poets whose words were inspired by voices the rest of us didn’t hear.

An exhibit of baskets from around the world, both utilitarian and art objects, will be on display in USM’s Art Gallery on the Gorham campus from Thursday, January 27, through Saturday, March 12. The exhibit is curated by basket artist, educator, and curator Carol Grant Hart of Salisbury, Conn.

This year, USM has not one but count ’em, two shows traveling to the Kennedy Center American College Theater Regional Festival. “The Laramie Project” and “November/December” have been chosen as two out of only six productions to compete in the Region 1 division of the annual festival, which includes colleges from throughout the New England states.

The Department of English is hiring a new poet. To that end, they are bringing to campus two candidates within the next two weeks.

The first was be Brian Henry, editor of “Verse”, author (most recently) of “Astronaut”, and former Director of Creative Writing at the University of Georgia.

It’s Thursday night, about six hours after my deadline for this article. In an overheated classroom in Bailey Hall on the Gorham campus, I’m watching a group of actors find ways to externalize their psyches on cue. This means that at any given moment, said actors may be making like airplanes, elephants, or horny old men.

An exhibit of baskets from around the world, both utilitarian and art objects, will be on display in USM’s Art Gallery on the Gorham campus from Thursday, January 27, through Saturday, March 12. The exhibit is curated by basket artist, educator, and curator Carol Grant Hart of Salisbury, Connecticut and Art Gallery Director Carolyn Eyler.

I am a reformed junkie. A spa junkie, that is. The term “spa junkie” refers to the women and sometimes men who are nearly addicted to spas and will frequent them as much as humanly (or monetarily) possible. And I, admittedly, was one of them.

I received my first professional massage at age 9 because of a back problem.

Each semester, USM students write an original play as part of a playwriting course taught by Professor Walter Stump and one of those plays is chosen for production the following semester. This time out, that play is “November/December,” written by theatre major Chris Gyngell.

I am the worst kind of writer. I am the kind of writer who calls himself a writer, but never makes time to write.

When Susie Bock thought about all the advantages of adopting the Edith C. Rice Children’s Literature Collection, she could never have foreseen it’s current use.

Rebecca Goodale, an art teacher and bookmaker at USM has come up with the idea of having her students draw inspiration from the illustrated children’s books, some of which are ancient.

They can dance if they want to, if they don’t, nobody in Gorham will. On Thursday the 18th in the Portland computer lab there was dancing o-plenty as four unidentified men strolled right on in with a boom box and did a shirtless boogie to the unt-unt-unt of techno.

For as long as there have been folks making movies, there have been folks filming other folks getting it on. And since the American household was invaded by the VCR in the 1980’s, the porn industry, once a purveyor of poorly shot, plot-less fare intended for stag parties and “specialty” movie-house release has evolved into a billion dollar concern.

In an orange barn in the woods, in a part of Portland where most of us never go, Jeff Barnum uses an Iris printer to create archival reproductions of contemporary artworks.

USM has a variety of illustrious speakers coming here every week. Here is a sample of some of them.