PORTLAND

Recalling genocide

Artist Statements
Painter Stephen Koharian has international relations on his mind when he’s in his studio.

By JEFF INGLIS | November 04, 2009

Heartfelt Thanks

Letters to the Portland Editor, November 6, 2009
I just finished reading the piece Ken Greenleaf wrote about my dear friend of blessed memory, Bob Solotaire.

By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | November 04, 2009

Look for activist postcards on First Friday and beyond

AIDS Art Action
Approximately 1300 people in Maine live with HIV/AIDS, according to the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.

By DEIRDRE FULTON | November 04, 2009

Suspect speaks; victim’s family begins $1-million-plus lawsuit

Prison Homicide
The widow of Sheldon Weinstein, the Maine State Prison inmate who died in April several days after allegedly being beaten by inmates, has taken the first step toward filing a wrongful-death lawsuit against prison guards, Department of Corrections “policy-making personnel,” and prison medical-care providers.

By LANCE TAPLEY | November 04, 2009

Conservation in Copenhagen

Going Green
In about a month, representatives from almost 200 nations will converge on Copenhagen, Denmark, for what could be the most meaningful meeting on climate change, ever.

By DEIRDRE FULTON | November 04, 2009

Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats

Bleating hearts tame Goats
Here’s a subject that really could have used a Stanley Kubrick or a John Frankenheimer or a Robert Altman. But are there any great cinematic satirists left, auteurs with the knack for black comedy and cold-blooded irony?

By PETER KEOUGH | November 06, 2009

Review: Borderlands

Gold rush
It’s tempting, and easy, to describe Borderlands solely via comparisons to other games.

By MITCH KRPATA | November 09, 2009

Lighthouse Retrofit Plan

Hoopleville
Your Casino Here

By DAVID KISH | November 04, 2009

Spot on

Good Theater’s top-notch Frost/Nixon
After Watergate and an opened China, Nixon’s next most recognized legacy is probably the warning to make sure you know your medium: His infamously sweaty, maladroit television appearance in the Kennedy-Nixon debate was widely perceived to have cost him that year’s presidency.

By MEGAN GRUMBLING | November 04, 2009

Triple shot

Visiting three new Portland cafés
As a sign of difficult economic times, a turnover in cafés is a noisy indicator but a significant one.

By BRIAN DUFF | November 04, 2009

Days of the New

The orchestral stylings of Rustic Overtones 2.0
When drummer Tony McNaboe delivered the burned copy of Rustic Overtones’ new full-length album, he tucked it inside the packaging of the re-released and re-mastered Long Division.

By SAM PFEIFLE | November 05, 2009

Behind the walls

Museum L-A synthesizes history and art
Museum L-A is sequestered in the far end of the Bates Mill Complex in downtown Lewiston, with a bold red and yellow awning announcing its presence and trumping its otherwise unassuming facade, which might otherwise be lost in the sea of industrial brick and concrete.

By ANNIE LARMON | November 04, 2009

Review: Michael Jackson's This Is It

Is this it?
The Star Wars –style titles that begin Kenny Ortega’s hastily assembled Michael Jackson tribute documentary explain that the film has been whittled down from 100 hours of behind-the-scenes video shot between last April and June during rehearsals for the King of Pop’s planned 50-date “This Is It” London concert series.

By BRETT MICHEL | November 12, 2009

Ye + Haru Bangs + Batshelter

Music Seen
Who was the least idiosyncratic band at Bubba’s last Thursday? Maybe the (not breaking up, but going on academic hiatus) duo Haru Bangs, who were the only act in plainclothes, but who also unfurled dynamic, punishingly loud fits of drum and effects-mauled guitar which will either strike you as utterly alienating or as novel, dizzying bits of well-composed chaos?

By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | November 04, 2009

Review: Disney's A Christmas Carol

State-of-the-art technology allows actors to reach new heights of hamminess
Charles Dickens made a mint with readings of A Christmas Carol , but a century and a half of technological progress has not been kind to the property.

By PETER KEOUGH | November 09, 2009

Julian Casablancas | Phrazes for the Young

RCA (2009)
Someday, a great rock film will be made. The opening shot is of a wasted rock star, bejeweled and clad in the finest leather, with white panthers circling the living room of his Parthenon-esque manse as he hits PLAY on a comically large reel-to-reel.

By DANIEL BROCKMAN | November 09, 2009