Category: Arts & Culture

So it’s the end of the year and most students are hustling to finish their final projects. The fate of most final projects is most likely the bottom of a cardboard box if you’re a packrat; the garbage can if you’re happy to feed the trash monster; or, for a few students, your professor’s archives to be presented to future pupils.

Spanking new food critic Joe Reynold is out on the prowl for copious amounts of food. His search brings him to Bull Feeney’s

“So Long, Astoria” is the major label debut for former indie rockers The Ataris. Having several independent releases under their belts with sales in the hundreds of thousands, Columbia Records has given The Ataris a shot. This move will most likely pay off big for Columbia and give The Ataris much more fame, notoriety, and airtime.

Sometimes films slip through the grasp of the faithful moviegoer. While it is preferable to see a film on a big screen as it is intended, it is impossible to see everything that hits the theaters, especially those films that fail to find an audience in their first week and are hurried out of town to make room for the next one.

The staff at “Words & Images,” USM’s literary magazine began their year with a vision, a vision of expansion. They had hopes of expanding their circulation from Maine to nationwide.

Punky’s, a name drawn from co-owner Joe Estes’s childhood, is just minutes from campus. Estes, who described himself as a moody and mouthy youth, said, “I went from ‘the punk’ to affectionately being called ‘Punky’ by my parents.”

Filled with contrived plot devices, “Bringing Down the House” dangles on the edge of typical Hollywood high concept failure and is rescued only by the strength of its stars and supporting cast. The melodramatic moments sporadically jerk the film away from its amusing premise and execution

Take a walk down any of the streets in the Old Port and one is bound to find a flyer on a telephone pole or wall that bears the name Rocktopus. One look in Casco Bay Weekly or The Phoenix and one is sure to see when and where to go to one of their shows. Their name is all over town, but it was not until now that Rocktopus put their efforts into a studio, and released a compact disc of original music. Their debut album “Something Fierce” will be officially available April 12, kicked off with a release party at the State Theater.

Ok–so its opening night and the lead in the musical falls off a roof! What happens now? Wil Kilroy book director of the upcoming “Cabaret” has dealt with this exact scenario. His solution? Take the stage himself. Kilroy, on more than one occasion has swooped in and saved the day–even when it required playing the role of the stepmother in “Cinderella.”

When I moved here from Oregon, I inquired one day if there were any good sandwich shops around serving healthy fresh ingredients. I was told about the West End Grocery at 133 Spring Street. “Their sandwiches kick ass,” the unidentified student told me. So I walked to Spring Street and fell instantly in love with the place.

Michael Caine has made some real crap movies over his long career. Who hasn’t tried to forget his terrible performances in “Jaws: The Revenge” or Steven Seagal’s directing debut, “On Deadly Ground”? But for all of his poor choices, he has made some truly excellent pictures (“Hannah and Her Sisters,” “The Cider House Rules”), and has picked up two Best Supporting Actor Oscars along the way.

Award winning Scottish poet, novelist and playwright Jackie Kay opened up Women’s History Month this past week lecturing at several classes and speaking about Bessie Smith, a favorite blues singer, in her keynote address for Women’s History Month.

Jabe Beyer fronts the band that bears his name, whose influences are as diverse as country, bluegrass, punk, and good old-fashioned rock and roll. The great thing about rock music is that it is possible to blend together several styles of music, mix it up, and serve it in a unique way. In order for a band to pull this off, there must be a high level of talent present. Jabe’s third release, “Drama City,” is a good example of making this formula work.

Last Tuesday, WMPG hosted an all-day Mardi Gras party in the Woodbury Campus Center. The sounds of Zydeco, Cajun, Jazz, and Funk music filled the room throughout the day, as more than 500 people danced and dined New Orleans style. The eighth annual Fat Tuesday celebration included a Gumbo and Jambalaya contest hosting entries from the Bayou Kitchen, Uncle Billy’s, Beal Street Bar BQ, Bleacher’s, and the Bake House Caf?.

Timothy Garrett, senior music performance major, is a so-called late bloomer. Not until he was into his teens did he begin studying the cello. Eight years later, those closest to Garrett’s playing assert he is a talented individual who has made tremendous strides in his musical endeavors. “It’s been a game of catch-up the whole way,” said Garrett.

Rejection–an unpleasant word typically surrounded by a negative feeling. Rejection–an opportunity for growth. Nobody is free from dealing with rejection, and much of the musical community at USM is faced with it right now.

On one side of life, there’s a littered freeway, where police cars barrel through the crowded lanes, and an endless flow of stop and go traffic contributes to the grayness floating above the city. On the opposing side all of nature is in unison and a calm blanket cloaks the earth. How does one create a mental bridge from the chaos to the calm? The individuals participating in the women-centered chants, held Wednesdays at 1:15 p.m. in the basement of the Honors Building, use song as a bridge to serenity.

Soup. That’s all we wanted. It’s 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Elise and I are hungry but crippled by foul flu-like symptoms, the source of which she claims to have contracted from me. I sense hostility when she instant-messages me.

“Cyclorama” (Sanctuary Records), the latest release from veteran rock group Styx, features a revamped line-up and a classic rock formula that is sure to please. Those established “classic rock” fans will be excited to see the group still has plenty to offer musically. With a mixture of new faces and old, Styx has returned with a clear goal to rock like they used to. With a dwindling market for aging ’70s rock acts, it is great to see bands still capable of making music that rocks without worrying about radio play.

It would be easy to dismiss the new comedy “Old School” as just another raunchy, thick-headed “Animal House” wannabe, but the idea behind it (whether it is intentional or not) gives it some respectability. However, the film never pretends (or aspires) to be anything beyond what it is, which is an enjoyable and funny, albeit an ultimately uneven, good time at the theater. Serious moviegoers may want to skip this film, but those seeking escapist fun could do a lot worse than this movie.

How can we keep ourselves healthy? Yoga instructor Amanda Curtis Kezal might suggest taking a few deep breaths and easing yourself into frog position. Frog is just one of the many yoga postures that focuses on deep breathing and awareness of the body and mind. Curtis Kezal,who teaches the only one credit yoga course offered at USM, is a certified Kripalu Yoga instructor.

My friend and I feel adventurous. The sports bar scene just doesn’t do the trick for two secure young women looking for something new to do. Neither of us has time for an escapade to a foreign land for dinner. The cure to our exotic itch is Indian cuisine at Tandoor on 88 Exchange St.

“The Recruit” is a non-event movie that offers nothing new to the spy genre. The filmmakers may think they have a clever plot on their hands, but it is nothing but a re-read of “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold,” “Three Days of the Condor” and the recent “Spy Game” molded together to form movie mush. A major theme of this film is deception, but it can’t even deceive us into believing this is a good movie.

In the early 90s the world was introduced to a band that fed into young people’s desire to wear homemade clothes, eat burritos, sell jewelry, hacky sack, and most importantly, do a lot of drugs and dance wildly around to music that seemed to have no end. The band that brought us to this crazy state: Phish.