PORTLAND

Coolzey | The Honey

Public School Records (2010)
Coolzey is not the next big thing. Or even the next medium thing.

By CHRIS FARAONE | January 13, 2010

RJ's Electrical Connections (2010)
RJD2 has fallen prey to self-doubt — having decided, it would seem, that sample-based music lacks authenticity, he's embarked on an ill-advised attempt to become a "performer."

By MICHAEL PATRICK BRADY | January 13, 2010

Spoon | Transference

Merge (2010)
Any year now, Spoon will release an album consisting of one 35-minute unfailing groove anchored by bass and peppered with erratic guitar-chord grunts and Britt Daniel's wordless exclamations ("Awright!") — an idealized endgame that distills the band's reductive technique to its purest state.

By ZETH LUNDY | January 13, 2010

Bob Blank | The Blank Generation: Blank Tapes NYC 1975 - 1985

Strut (2010)
These days, Bob Blank spends his time in his Connecticut studio, producing profitable music for ads and ringtones for the likes of Susan Boyle.

By GUSTAVO TURNER | January 13, 2010

Tooth in revolt

Hoopleville
"Oh ... that is so cute!"

By DAVID KISH | January 13, 2010

Diamon Flip-Flops

Letters to the Portland Editor, January 15, 2010
If Al Diamon wants to break down the political and other mistakes of the 21st century, he could include a few of his own.

By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | January 13, 2010

Instead of cuts: guts

Raise taxes on the rich? Only one candidate says ‘yes’?
Let’s assume, reader, that you’re concerned about economic and social justice. For those in real need — people who are poor, sick, old, mentally ill, addicted, disabled — you want decent care. You’re concerned, too, about proper funding of schools, community colleges, and university campuses.

By LANCE TAPLEY | January 06, 2010

Food on stage

Locavores + thespians = understanding
Maine is home to a nationally renowned locavore culinary scene, the oldest organic farming association in the nation (MOFGA), and a plenitude of farms that has increased by nearly 1000 in the past five years — and yet economic pressure to develop acreage remains.

By MEGAN GRUMBLING | January 06, 2010

Creating a legend

How Little Round Top made Chamberlain a hero
The soldiers of the 20th Maine Regiment marched quickly into the night, moving west from Hanover toward Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 1, 1863.

By DONALD G. FULTON | January 06, 2010

Hot + steamy

Finding soups to fight winter's chill
"My kingdom for a plate of soup!" a hungry and possibly freezing Anton Chekov wrote in 1890, aboard a Russian steamer crossing the world's oldest lake.

By DEIRDRE FULTON | January 06, 2010

Cut it out

Collage-making is about the details
"Collage: Piecing it Together" at the Portland Museum of Art is a somewhat rambling look at a process that came into use in the beginning of the 20th century as a cubist process bringing images, colors, and shapes together that were previously used elsewhere.

By KEN GREENLEAF | January 06, 2010

Let's get Russian

A live album for a dead rock singer from Kino Proby
The quick back-story on Kino Proby: Three Mainers take a liking to the Russian band Kino, and its legendary lead singer Viktor Tsoi, who died in a car wreck in 1990 after becoming maybe the single most famous Russian rock star.

By SAM PFEIFLE | January 06, 2010