PORTLAND

Slam Dunk Season
How the Red Claws took Portland by storm - BY DEIRDRE FULTON

Behind the scenes at Portland’s new movie-making facility

Special Features
If local moviemakers can’t depend on better financial incentives to foster the film industry in Maine — and they can’t, in this budget climate — they can at least focus on creating the infrastructure to support future endeavors.

By DEIRDRE FULTON | February 04, 2010

Anti-solitary campaign expands

Stopping Supermax Torture
As the February 17 State House public hearing approaches on the bill to restrict solitary confinement at the Maine State Prison, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), which sparked national debate about Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, has announced its support.

By LANCE TAPLEY | February 03, 2010

J.D. Salinger: 1919 - 2010

In Memoriam
J.D. Salinger was 91 when he died in his New Hampshire home on January 27, 45 years after he published his last known story, "Hapworth 16, 1924," in the New Yorker .

By STEVE VINEBERG | February 05, 2010

Nickelodeon to screen local flicks

Show Your Work
Eddy Bolz, a projectionist at the Nickelodeon Cinemas, wants local filmmakers to send him their feature-length movies for possible showing on the big screen.

By JEFF INGLIS | February 03, 2010

Prince Rama of Ayodhya + Theodore Treehouse

Music Seen
At SPACE Gallery, February 1

By BRIDGET M. BURNS | February 03, 2010

The brunch quandary

In Portland, there's always one more place you haven't tried
There seems to be an endless number of places to try in Portland. So many, in fact, that I keep discovering well-established restaurants that I didn't even know served brunch. One of those places was Vignola.

By LEISCHEN STELTER | February 03, 2010

Spose, radio star

Apparently, smoking it all can be beneficial
Who knew? The era of the radio hit isn't completely over. Maybe five times recently, someone's asked, "Dude, have you heard that Spose song?"

By SAM PFEIFLE | February 03, 2010

Dilly Dilly dalliance comes to an end

Sibilance
Dilly Dilly may not be done with music, but she is apparently done with Portland.

By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | February 03, 2010

Operators are standing by

Blah Blah Tourism
Here's the ugly truth about Republican 2nd District congressional candidate Jason Levesque.

By AL DIAMON | February 03, 2010

Ask a Black Woman: Harry Reid edition

Diverse City
Just in time for Black History Month, another installment of "Ask a Black Woman," thanks to JT in Portland who in early January asked me: What's your take on the Harry Reid thing?

By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY | February 03, 2010

Little surprise

American painters cross the pond
At the tag end of a dispiriting day of gallery visiting I happened into the Bowdoin College Museum to see their collection of Warhol Polaroids matched with a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting. That's a sure recipe for ongoing gloom, but it was on my way, so I stopped.

By KEN GREENLEAF | February 03, 2010

Campy send-up

Irma Vep mocks show biz
The Mystery of Irma Vep . Portland Stage Company's excellent, giddy production, directed by Christopher Grabowski, stars Tom Ford (who portrayed some dozens of characters in PSC's superlative I Am My Own Wife ) and Steven Strafford.

By MEGAN GRUMBLING | February 03, 2010

Ordinary people

Pontine's latest Jewett adaptation
Born and raised in South Berwick, the writer Sarah Orne Jewett spent her life noticing the lives of ordinary Maine people. Her esteemed 1896 The Country of the Pointed Firs is a series of wise, gentle sketches of the aging folks of several small maritime villages.

By MEGAN GRUMBLING | February 03, 2010

Review: Patti Smith's Just Kids

The small prophecies of Patti Smith
How do you get to be the Godmother of Punk? Pure dumb luck, for starters.

By CARRIE BATTAN | February 08, 2010

The Soft Pack | The Soft Pack

Kemado (2010)
This Los Angeles foursome first emerged in 2008 as the Muslims, a name they elected to change after they grew disgusted with and exhausted by all the ignorant — and often racist — bullshit that came out of people's mouths during shows/interviews/conversations.

By MIKAEL WOOD | February 03, 2010