Portland Phoenix - thePhoenix.com

Loud at Heart

CHRISTOPHER GRAY — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:20:13 GMT

A centuries-old singing tradition inspires twentysomething hipsters to praise the Lord
Shape note singing requires that you forget most of what you know about reading music. It's different, but much simpler.

SACRED SPACE: Singers form a "hollow square."

I arrive at my first shape note singing session — held in Waterville's oldest public building, the white and gleaming First Baptist Church — at 2 pm. Once the last stragglers arrive, about thirty of us are seated in metal folding chairs in the building's lobby. The bulk of the crowd is middle-aged or older, but there are two clean-cut teenage boys and a few twenty- or thirtysomethings. Our chairs are arranged in a square: alto singers face tenors; trebles face bass singers. A few regulars scramble to find enough songbooks to pass out to those of us newcomers gathered here.

About two-thirds of us have never attended this shape note group — one of four formal groups in Maine — before; probably a handful have never been to one at all. I've heard and read plenty about shape note singing — how simple it is to learn, how unorthodox its tones and harmonies are, how communal and infectious these gatherings are — but I'm curious about why this devout, centuries-old tradition is gaining traction among young people in the Northeast.

Shape note singing requires that you forget most of what you know about reading music. It's different, but much simpler. Shape note departs from the structure of traditional solfège scales (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti); the seven notes remain, but you're only singing four corresponding syllables: fa, sol, la, and (sometimes) mi. (As the scale ascends, these syllables repeat in perfect fourths, so singing them at different pitches remains both harmonically appropriate and tuneful.) On the sheet music, each note is represented by a shape: triangle, circle, square, and diamond, respectively. At shape note singings — which are usually called Sacred Harp singings, after the main text of the shape note style — the first run-through of each song is done by singing those four syllables at the corresponding pitches on the page. Immediately after the run-through, participants replace their fas and las with the song's lyrics.

The regulars in Waterville seem surprised by the robust attendance, but I suspect many of the newcomers came for the same reasons I did. Sacred Harp singing — a style as devout and old-timey as it is jarring and unusual — is in the midst of a grassroots renaissance, particularly in the Northeast, where the tradition died off sometime after the Civil War as churches deferred to more scientific and classically beautiful choral music. (It persisted in the deep South, where the groups are largest today.)

Squidmaze

DAVID KISH — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:54:43 GMT

Toontime

John the Pilgrim

DAVID KISH — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:49:46 GMT

Hoopleville

Kicking the bottle

BRIDGET HUBER — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:17:11 GMT

Water supply
As several Maine towns battle the plans of Poland Spring to expand water-pumping operations across the state, a group of water-rights activists will bring the issue to Portland this Saturday.

As several Maine towns battle the plans of Poland Spring (and its parent company Nestle Waters North America) to expand water-pumping operations across the state, a group of water-rights activists will bring the issue to Portland this Saturday with a screening of the award-winning documentary FLOW: For Love of Water, a panel discussion, and a workshop aimed at convincing restaurant owners to take bottled water off their menus.

Nestle's foes cite a litany of reasons to kick the bottle. The long-term impacts of water extraction on aquifers and other bodies of water are not yet known. Bottled water is also vastly more expensive and less stringently regulated than tap water. And then there is waste: According to Food and Water Watch, a Washington DC-based consumer non-profit advocating for clean water and safe food, 1.5 million tons of plastic are made into water bottles each year, using 47 million gallons of oil.

Nestle spokeswoman Jane Lazgin says water is a healthy alternative to sugary or high-calorie bottled drinks, and notes that her company is taking steps to reduce its environmental impact — she highlights the "Eco-Shape" half-liter bottle, introduced in 2007, which uses 30 percent less plastic than its predecessor and is fully recyclable.

But for activist Mary Taylor, the true heart of the matter is corporate control of a essential resource. "It's water for life, not water for profit," she says. Taylor lives in Shapleigh, where Nestle angered many residents by sinking test wells at a state-owned wildlife management area two years ago without public comment. When the company approached Shapleigh's selectmen earlier this year about pumping water from town land, residents petitioned for and passed a six-month moratorium on testing and large-scale pumping, allowing the town to enact an ordinance to spell out the terms of how, when, and if water can be pumped or tested.

Earlier this month, Wells voters followed suit; Denmark residents are gathering signatures to pass their own moratorium. A group of Fryeburg residents has been fighting a Nestle tanker-truck loading center for more than three years. And a group of Rangeley residents has boycotted Nestle water after the Maine Supreme Court's July ruling upholding a 2006 Land Use Regulation Commission decision that lets Nestle develop a pumping station in nearby Dallas Plantation. Local residents say the pumping has caused changes in Rangeley's water table and the company's trucks are straining their roads.

A print apart

KEN GREENLEAF — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:24:47 GMT

Anna Hepler 'flattens' sculptures into woodcuts
Anna Hepler's major works are sculptural installations made from wires and joints that are held together in tension, creating mighty metallic clouds that fill big spaces and change with the light.

WOODCUT WONDER A print by Anna Hepler.

Anna Hepler's major works are sculptural installations made from wires and joints that are held together in tension, creating mighty metallic clouds that fill big spaces and change with the light. She employs a great many suspended elements fastened together in all directions, changing as the viewer moves around them.

For her show at Icon Contemporary Art in Brunswick she has undertaken to represent her ideas in two dimensions — in the flat, as it were. This is a pretty difficult task. The wires in her big pieces radiate all over the place. A literal translation from the installations would risk visual chaos.

Hepler has chosen to make large woodcut prints that have the virtue of being obviously prints. There are enough irregularities and other clear indications of process to give the viewer a sense of the physical history of these images. They look made, not drawn. There was something bigger, heavier, and mechanical back where these came from — something sculptural.

In one larger piece black lines swirl around in curves, nearly describing a stretched spheroid. Toward the left the lines coalesce into dark shapes that are simply that, dark shapes, but that also suggest that wires have bundled together they way they do when you are trying to coil them up and they're resisting. The lighter parts between the lines show traces of how this piece was made.

When Hepler pressed the paper onto the carved wood to print the lines, parts of the wood grain between them got recorded as well. These "mistakes" are, I think, central to the overall effect of these pieces. We are reminded there was a big piece of wood involved here, and some physical effort. Image-making meets engineering, or even carpentry.

As a general rule an artist's process is irrelevant to a thorough understanding of their work. We don't really learn much about the process that Hepler used for these works, nor do we need to. What matters here is the little bit that says these works are a step removed from simple drawing. As drawings, these works would be indistinguishable from many other works like them that have gone before. As prints, they imply that there is a larger body of effort that exists, or existed, somewhere else.

We sing, we dance, we steal things

AL DIAMON — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:33:01 GMT

Politics and other mistakes
Last week, I profiled the Democrats running for governor of Maine in 2010. Thousands were taken ill.

Last week, I profiled the Democrats running for governor of Maine in 2010. Thousands were taken ill.

Don't put away the barf bags yet. I missed one.

ADAM COTE ran a surprisingly strong campaign for Congress this year, even though he extolled moderate positions in a who-can-out-liberal-whom primary. The Portland lawyer has never held elected office and lacks a platform for staying in the public eye. Which could be why I forgot him.

MAJOR DRAWBACK Cote was, until recently, a John McCain Republican. Is Sarah Palin available for fundraisers?

Speaking of Republicans, here comes their clown-mobile.

The first GOP candidate out the door is state senator PETER MILLS of Cornville. Mills, a lawyer, may be the smartest guy in the Legislature. (Yeah, well ...) As an unsuccessful 2006 gubernatorial candidate, he exhibited a coma-inducing campaign style, but his moderate stands on fiscal and social issues give him appeal beyond the Republican Party.

MAJOR DRAWBACK They also reduce his appeal in the GOP. It'll take some fancy footwork for him to survive a primary.

KEVIN RAYE of Perry is the new Senate minority leader, a position that probably won't improve his electability, since minority leaders tend to come off as either too partisan or too wimpy. Raye, the owner of a mustard company, ran a credible campaign for the 2nd Congressional District in 2002 and was a key staffer for US Senator Olympia Snowe, but he's unknown in southern Maine.

MAJOR DRAWBACK Like Mills, Raye is a moderate. If they both run, the GOP nomination goes to a right-winger.

Such as House Minority Leader JOSHUA TARDY of Newport. Tardy, an attorney, has political skills (his father was a Democratic legislator) and an engaging campaign style. He can play to conservatives in the primary, but in the general election, he'll have trouble getting in tune with 1st District liberals.

MAJOR DRAWBACK In the last two elections, Tardy led House Republicans to major defeats. The GOP may not let him blow another campaign.

RICK BENNETT of Oxford is a former Senate president and the guy who lost to current governor John Baldacci in the 1994 2nd District race. Not as moderate as Mills nor as conservative as Tardy, he's positioned to be the compromise candidate. He showed political courage this fall in opposing the casino referendum, even though it was popular in his hometown.

MAJOR DRAWBACK Bennett works for Cape Elizabeth millionaire Robert Monks, who's taken to endorsing Democrats.

DANA DOW of Waldoboro has served two terms in the state Senate, but didn't run for re-election this year so he could concentrate on his gubernatorial bid. He owns a furniture store. Other than that, I'm drawing a blank.

Planning a promenade

DEIRDRE FULTON — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:10:01 GMT

Going green
Presumably, most people who enjoy the to-be-built Bayside Promenade will experience it differently than I did last Saturday.

Presumably, most people who enjoy the to-be-built Bayside Promenade will experience it differently than I did last Saturday. Rather than picking their way around trash, alongside looming scrap heaps and hazardous razor wire, they'll make their way down a manicured walking/biking path that connects the Eastern Promenade with Deering Oaks Park. (And I'd wager that many more people will utilize the trail during the warmer months, without cold November winds whipping against their faces, but that's a different story.)

But seeing the proposed promenade the way I did, when Portland Trails, a non-profit organization working to create an urban trails network in and around the city, took about 30 people on a walking tour of the route, was a rare chance to see the project in all its "before" shambles; once the trail moves into its "after" phase, the contrast will be that much more striking.

Public officials, interested neighbors, and a few journalists who gathered in the parking lot at the corner of Elm and Somerset streets on Saturday afternoon were led eastward along the unused railroad tracks that the $5 million rails-to-trails path will follow. Portland Trails representatives provided running narrative and explanations. We learned that the large scrap yard near Whole Foods will move to Riverside Street next year, and that once it does, the city will use grant money (hopefully) to clean up those brownfields. We were assured that railroad relics, such as the switches that line the tracks, will somehow be incorporated into the trail design. We squeezed into a more narrow formation as the path tapered after Franklin Arterial, and spread out again once we hit the grassy section that goes under Tukey's Bridge near Munjoy Hill. We were told that the preliminary "ribbon of trails" — the skeleton of the project — will be completed by the end of 2009, with the possible exception of the section near the new United Way/Maine Health building (which has yet to break ground).

Those in charge have their work cut out for them. I don't know what the Eastern Prom looked like before it became the Eastern Prom, but as it exists right now, the Bayside trail is scary. It snakes between buildings and along empty parking lots — not necessarily somewhere I'd want to run, walk, or bike alone. In addition to proper lighting and signs, the designers should consider opening up the path as much as possible, so that it's visible from nearby streets.

Luxurious loneliness

BRIAN DUFF — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:46:22 GMT

Thanksgiving's is just like home after the holiday
There are the moments when the solitary life is unbearable, but Thanksgiving is not one of them. No matter how distant you have grown from family or friends, you find a home to arrive at with a dish in hand.

DIG IN: Relish a turkey drumstick better than homemade.

There are the moments when the solitary life is unbearable, but Thanksgiving is not one of them. No matter how distant you have grown from family or friends, you find a home to arrive at with a dish in hand. And hanging around the messy kitchen and overcrowded dinner table surrounded by familiar and pleasant aromas is so nice that you briefly but earnestly believe that you will spend more time with people. You won't. And it is the days after Thanksgiving, once you have finished off the meager Tupperware of leftovers you were sent home with, that really hurt. Your fridge looks the same. You will not smell or taste such companionship for another year.

Unless you go to Thanksgiving's in Westbrook — a family-run restaurant that offers a turkey-centric menu year round. What Thanksgiving's gets perfectly right is not the holiday meal itself, but its unspeakably pleasant casual-meaty aftermath — the leftover meal. The dining room looks a bit like a big kitchen, and the place has a do-it-yourself vibe. You order at the counter, pour your own water, and grab your realistically silver plastic cutlery. The turkey spins slowly on a big rotisserie, and if you turn your head you could imagine you had shoved a whole bird in your microwave for reheating. When your order is up the cook calls you over to the line to grab your plates like he were Mel to your Flo.

If there is something is to ruin the illusion it's that the turkey is better than what would come out of your microwave. The rotisserie manages to get the dark and light meat evenly moist. The skin is crisp and golden without getting an over-done crackle. The dark meat in particular is rich and terrific. They don't doctor things up with spices in an effort to stand apart from home-made. The bird is just like what you roast yourself if the roasting goes very well.

The classic meal comes with a good lumpy mashed potato and a pretty dry stuffing under a house-made gravy that was wisely not made too thick with flour. You can choose from seasonal vegetables, and the sweet acorn squash was made sweeter by a streak of caramelized brown sugar. There was also a spicy wet coleslaw, and a mix of carrot and parsnip that added a touch of sweet to the earthy bitter. The cranberry sauce was sharp and gelatinous, with no berries to chew on.

Dracula Zombie USA Yankee Ingenuity + Feel It Robot

CHAD CHAMBERLAIN — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:03:09 GMT

Music seen November 20, at SPACE Gallery
The best way to warm up as the cold sets in is to have a dance party. Whether SPACE's Halloween costume ball or the spontaneous Obama victory celebration in Monument Square, it seems the colder it gets, the more Portlanders want to shimmy.

Murky and bright

SAM PFEIFLE — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:12:29 GMT

Tarpigh return: Where did they go?
It's notable that Tarpigh won't play their own CD-release show this Saturday. That would be the normal thing to do. And Tarpigh have never given Portland anything normal or predictable.

The boy with no name

SAM PFEIFLE — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:09:39 GMT

Travis Kline creates More Time
With a tidy five-song EP, More Time , Travis Kline is the newest entrant in Portland's burgeoning alt-country renaissance.

Pingree returns from a Congressional crash course

DEIRDRE FULTON — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:30:04 GMT

Dispatch from DC
Newly elected Democratic House Representative Chellie Pingree split her time between the mundane and the meaningful during her freshman-legislator orientation in Washington DC last week.

Movies are moving, hot dogs are hopping, Binga's is burning

DEIRDRE FULTON — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:07:24 GMT

Venue watch
Even as the temperatures drop and we head into hibernation mode for winter, Portland's drinking, dining, nightlife, and shopping scenes continue to evolve. Here's a round-up of comings and goings.

Even as the temperatures drop and we head into hibernation mode for winter, Portland's drinking, dining, nightlife, and shopping scenes continue to evolve. Here's a round-up of comings and goings:

The independent movie house MOVIES ON EXCHANGE is leaving its 32-year, name-affording home on lower Exchange Street and moving to the PORTLAND MUSEUM OF ART, where it will be known as the Movies at the Museum. In some ways, this is a return for co-owner and film professor Steve Halpert, who showed movies at the museum during the 1970s, and who's owned the theater with his wife Judy since 1980. PMA's director of education, Dana Baldwin, says the Halperts will work closely with the museum to carry forward the Movies' mission to bring high-quality alternative, foreign, and classic films to Portland. The partnership will also afford the PMA a chance to expand its audience, and the scope of its exhibits, thereby making "the museum an even more exciting, bustling place," she said. For example, during this winter's "Backstage Pass: Rock & Roll Photography" exhibit, the Movies at the Museum plans to screen rock-related films. Visit portlandmuseum.org/events/movies for more info.

Since moving a few doors down Free Street, ARABICA has doubled its business, insiders say.

A very nice gentleman at the corporate headquarters of PAPAYA KING in New York City confirmed that James Estabrook, who previously operated a Papaya King cart in Deering Oaks Park, will open a franchise at 5 Dana Street, where Big Mama's Diner used to be. Estabrook, reached via e-mail, says he hopes to open his doors by mid-December, with no major changes inside the space. Papaya King hot dogs, incidentally, are "tastier than filet mignon," according to the parent company's Web site.

PORT CITY MUSIC HALL at 504 Congress Street (the old Keystone Theatre/upstairs of the Stadium), plans to have its first major event on New Year's Eve (with performers TBA). The developers are currently hiring staff. Earlier this month, they submitted their "non-conforming signage" application to the city, which would allow them to remove the huge "The Stadium" lettering from above the door; they hope to replace it with a 1940s-style marquee.

Don't get comfy

MEGAN GRUMBLING — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:08:06 GMT

The Pain and the Itch is no cozy reunion
If you expect your own Thanksgiving to also include a helping of familial anxiety, rest assured that you have nothing on the relatives gathered in Bruce Norris's very black comedy, The Pain and the Itch .

HOLD STILL It's family time.

This week, many of us will sit down to turkey, stuffing, and a variety of mashed root vegetables. If you expect your own Thanksgiving to also include a helping of familial anxiety, rest assured that you have nothing on the relatives gathered in Bruce Norris's very black comedy, The Pain and the Itch. In Norris's virulent, scathing satire of the liberal American privileged class, holiday conversation touches on pedophilia, abuse-envy, and gang rape — as well as the merits of golf, Bill Moyers, and "distressed" home furnishings. The Pain, which premiered at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre in 2005, receives a terrifically taut and edgy production by Rolling Die Productions, under the excellent direction of Todd Hunter. Highly recommended, though not for the faint-of-heart, it's quite a shake-up of the holiday on which normally, in one character's definition, "we all eat of the same bird, which then makes us feel sleepy."

But few are dozing off in this tasteful, expensively furnished, and comically tense household (the attractive set — dark wood and leather, muted wine and slate blue, oriental rugs — is the design of Aaron Hutto). For the day of thanks, precariously married Clay (Andrew Fling), Kelly (Whitney Smith last weekend; Joi Smith November 28-30) and their mute, strange young daughter Kayla (Alana Thyng), host and do battle with Clay's more-tolerant-than-thou mother Carol (Carol Davenport), his obscene brother/rival Cash (Matthew Schofield), and Cash's young, purple-leopard-print-clad Russian girlfriend, Kalina (Elizabeth Krane).

As the big meal approaches, Kalina chases around a screeching Kayla, who compulsively scratches herself and steals knives off the table. Cash talks bathroom talk, skewers his family's white/rich guilt, and repeats rumors about the maid. Carol gushes over NPR and her tolerance for porn. And Kelly viciously snipes at the emasculated Clay, who is too wussy to do anything about the mysterious creature that's apparently gotten into their house. Throughout all this, family members periodically sit down and converse with a Arab stranger named Mr. Hadid (Chris Walters), who, with increasing bewilderment, observes the holiday's downward spiral.

Portland scene report: November 28, 2008

PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:18:05 GMT

Sibilance
The results of the WePushButtons Awards came in just a tad too late to get them in the last paper, so here's a quick recap of who took home what last Saturday at SPACE Gallery.

The results of the WEPUSHBUTTONS AWARDS came in just a tad too late to get them in the last paper, so here's a quick recap of who took home what last Saturday at SPACE Gallery. DILLY DILLY certainly had a nice night. She grabbed the Best Artist award and teamed with SONTIAGO to take the Best Live Act category. But does she actually push any buttons making her music? SPOSE is more of a traditional underground hip-hopper, and his night wasn't too bad either. He scored Best New Artist, Best Hip-Hop Act, and his debut album, Preposterously Dank, was elected Best Album of the year. He was so popular, he took second in the Live Act category as a write-in. No one else took home more than one award, but other notable winners include BRZOWSKI as Best MC, and the WHITE HEART as best venue, though that's not altogether surprising, considering WePushButtons hosts a night or two there each month.

Be on the lookout for the first release from ISOBELL, Map Room Sessions. Recorded with RON HARRITY (who played some drums, too), it's a down-tempo indie affair, fronted by HANNAH TARKINSON, with BEKAH HAYES on keys and backing vocals and CHRIS MCKNEALLY on guitar. It's kind of a cross between Letters to Cleo and Low. The album is due sometime in early December. No release show scheduled yet.

SUMNER MCKANE, part of DON CAMPBELL's band and a notable singer/songwriter in his own right, has released his second full-length disc, What a Great Place to Be, an ode to Maine in song. It has already been the Pick of the Month for October on NPR's Echoes program, and the Sumner McKane Group (JOSH ROBBINS on bass, the ROCKET on drums) recorded a performance as part of the "Echoes Living Room Concert Series." The first set, recorded at McKane's studio on Wiscasset, will be broadcast on NPR December 24, the second set will run July 4, 2009. Are those good slots, because they're high-profile, or lousy because who listens to NPR on Christmas Eve and the Fourth of July? We're not sure.

While it may not be a good thing that we're already hearing McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas Time" on the radio, it's definitely time to hear new holiday music from the SEA CAPTAINS, a project featuring ADAM FLAHERTY and long-time drummer TOM ASH, fronted by TIM COLLINS, with MARTY MORRISSEY on bass and ZACHARY WHITE on lead guitar. Their EP, Crust and Slush!, should be ready for Thanksgiving and contains three original holiday tunes. Pick one up at the Brick House in Dover on November 28, or wait for the WCYY "Home For the Holidays" show at the Big Easy, December 19.

Review: Australia

PETER KEOUGH — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:41:29 GMT

Baz Luhrmann's Oz and ends
Baz Luhrmann's incontinent Australia

VIDEO: The trailer for Australia

Australia | Directed by Baz Luhrmann | Written by Baz Luhrmann, Stuart Beattie, Ronald Harwood, and Richard Flanagan | with Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Brandon Walters, Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson, David Gulpilil, David Ngoombujarra, and Lillian Crombie | Twentieth Century Fox | 165 minutes

If the cows had just gotten on the boat, I'd have been satisfied. But that wasn't enough for Baz Luhrmann. He has at least another hour to go in his motley epic Australia, and we hadn't even made it to World War II yet. I guess Baz must have said to himself, the movie's named after a continent, there's got to be more to it than that. So bring on contrived plot complications and the Japanese Imperial Navy.

A pity, because had he showed some restraint, he might have made his best movie yet. Of course, if he'd showed some restraint, he wouldn't be Baz Luhrmann. At its best, Australia is an epic farce, like The Sundowners with CGI effects and the goofy tone of Luhrmann's own Strictly Ballroom. Or a cross between Red River and The Wizard of Oz.

Which is kind of what you'd expect from a screenwriting combination that includes Stuart Beattie (Pirates of the Caribbean), Ronald Harwood (The Pianist), and Aussie novelist Richard Flanagan. Just don't take this film too seriously and it's a rollicking good time. Give it a little thought and the result is the endless catastrophe that is the last third.

The part I enjoyed starts out with the most engaging and animated performance from Nicole Kidman since To Die For (1995). Her Lady Sarah Ashley struts about in her jodhpurs with Kate Hepburn authority, plucky and proper and a bit absurd. Brewing war clouds be damned (it's 1939), she's heading Down Under to retrieve her dawdling husband from his cattle ranch, Faraway Downs. Once there she finds Lord Ashley with a spear in his back, the ranch near ruin, and ruthless cattle baron King Carney (Bryan Brown) ready to buy it all up wholesale. Her only recourse is to drive a herd of cattle across the wastelands to the western port of Darwin. Alone.

Unless that mad dingo, "The Drover" (Hugh Jackman), will help her out. At home only on the Outback mingling with Aboriginals, the Drover despises the hoity-toity lady, and the feeling is mutual — though her expression when he pulls off his shirt suggests what direction this relationship will take. They come to an agreement and put together a misfit squad of riders that includes a lovable drunk (Jack Thompson), a matronly Aboriginal woman (Lillian Crombie), Drover's sidekick (David Ngoombujarra), and Nullah (the adorable Brandon Walters), a magical, mixed-race waif who does double duty as a voiceover narrator.

Wander lust

RYAN STEWART — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:10:33 GMT

It's okay to look in Fallout 3
Several games have attempted to re-create an entire major city to serve as the environment. Fallout 3 destroys one.

VIDEO: The trailer for Fallout 3

Fallout 3 | For the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC | Rated T for Teen | Developed by Bethesda Game Studios | Published by Zenimax

Several games have attempted to re-create an entire major city to serve as the environment. Fallout 3 destroys one — Washington — and deposits you in the midst of the wreckage. You'll find the Reflecting Pool on the Mall filled with radioactive water, the Jefferson Memorial crawling with zombies and mutants, and the Washington Monument reduced to its skeleton. That last one in particular makes the game all the more unnerving and unsettling.

You play as an individual who was born and raised in a bomb shelter. You're compelled to leave the security of that shelter when your father (voice of Liam Neeson) escapes without warning or explanation and the shelter's cult leader orders your execution. You set off after dad, only to discover that what lies beyond the vault's walls is a ruined wasteland, the result of a nuclear disaster. You find more than a few villages in addition to the DC metro area populated by survivors and settlers. Your pop has visited a few of these places, and the locals will tell you where he's going. But that information doesn't come free — you have to embark on a series of quests to increasingly remote locations in the wasteland. You'll do something for one settler, who will then tell you to go to another town, where you'll meet another person with a different task for you, and so forth. It makes sense in context: you're armed and intrepid, so of course people want you to run errands for them while they stay safe. There's a moral aspect to Fallout 3 as well: you earn karma for helping people and lose it for robbing them, lying to them, or attacking them without provocation.

For combat, Fallout 3 implements the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (VATS), which lets you zero in on a specific area of a foe's anatomy. You can target a mutant's arm and render him unable to use his firearm, or his legs, so he can't escape. Or go straight for the head shot, which will dispose of him faster, even though you're more likely to miss. Or go for the torso, which is easier to hit but less damaging. It does take some time to adjust to VATS, since it will stop each encounter cold to bring up the targeting interface, and after you've used it to attack, the interface does not pop back up even if your quarry is still alive, so you're vulnerable to attack if you're not quick on the draw. Once you've gotten used to it, though, you'll find it's effective.

The Big Hurt: Weezy unplugged

DAVID THORPE — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:35:07 GMT

Plus Auerbach unbound and Glitter undeterred
Our dream of a post-racial America moved one space closer to "king me" on the checkerboard of terrible metaphors this week

Our dream of a post-racial America moved one space closer to "king me" on the checkerboard of terrible metaphors this week: LIL WAYNE hyped himself up as the first hip-hop artist ever to perform at the Country Music Association Awards (which is pretty impressive, since, y'know, rappers have been trying to get on the Country Music Awards forever). Exciting, yeah? But when Weezy took the stage with KID ROCK to perform "All Summer Long," a funny thing happened: he forgot to rap. He just bounced around, "playing" a guitar (inaudibly, of course — anyone who's seen the notorious YouTube clips of him abusing a hapless ax at concerts will know that no producer in his or her right mind would let him plug in an instrument on national television).

In case you're wondering what the deal is, check out this flabbergasting quote from MTV: "A source close to the situation told MTV News on Thursday that Wayne didn't rap in order to keep things fresh — that the duo did not want to copy what they had done at the VMAs [where Wayne had rapped along with Kid] and figured Weezy playing guitar was a fly new take on their collaboration." Cool, I think I'll show up to my job tomorrow in a bathrobe and make fake type-type motions on the keyboard all day, because that's a fly new take on work.

Of course, being naturally sympathetic toward Lil Wayne and instinctively hostile toward country music, I'm guessing the producers nixed the rap element in order to prevent a surging cracker riot. Aside from Wayne's brief appearance, the ceremony was largely unimpeded by non-crackerdom; the "Best New Artist" award even went to a band called "Lady Antebellum." Classy!

Side note: interesting that Wayne's people would put out a press release calling him the first hip-hop artist to perform on the show. What about COWBOY TROY? Have we forgotten about Cowboy Troy? Where the fuck is the love for Cowboy Troy?

"We're trying to fill the void," proclaims the lead tit from GOOD CHARLOTTE in an MTV interview. "Like, I think there's a need for a new Blink-182 album, and they're not working on an album. I'm a huge Blink-182 fan, but I think in general there's a void there for music like that, and in this moment, we're making a record that kind of answers to that void." How could any self-respecting music journalist let that kind of outrage pass unchallenged? Isn't that kind of shit grounds for a flying tackle and a citizen's arrest? Furthermore, why is anyone even holding a microphone up to the mouth of this person when journalistic resources could be more usefully spent holding a beer stein up to the urethra of a horse?

Fabulous flicks

JEFF INGLIS — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:31:31 GMT

Our third short-film festival crowns all new winners
A new crop of local entrants, including a professional filmmaker, won awards at the third annual Portland Phoenix Maine Short Film Festival, which turned out to be the most competitive ever ... and the most fun!

A still from Lady Lamb the Beekeeper's Antique Shop music video

A new crop of local entrants, including a professional filmmaker, won awards at the third annual Portland Phoenix Maine Short Film Festival, which turned out to be the most competitive ever ... and the most fun!

The awards ceremony and screening at One Longfellow Square this past Thursday were packed, but if you missed them — or if you just want to relive the experience — we've highlighted the winners below. Some of these directors have work showing on television (on Portland Community Television, and even the History Channel); keep your eyes peeled for the others to make their appearances any day now. For the moment, check out the films online at thePhoenix.com/Portland/video, and get shooting!

We got everything

SAM PFEIFLE — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:13:24 GMT

Frank Hopkins discovers the American Dream
Hopkins vented with Doomsday . Here he as produced something more measured, and, in the end, more long-lasting.

SECOND FROM LEFT Frank Hopkins and Line of Force.

When David Foster Wallace killed himself in September, there were many mentions of Infinite Jest, his brilliant second novel, but his nonfiction was truly spectacular. Do yourself a favor and google his 2005 address to the graduates of Kenyon College. In it, he tried to define thought and intelligence and education and freedom and many of the abstract concepts that we come to define in different ways as we age.

His definition of freedom rang in my ears as I listened to Frank Hopkins’s new American Dream, his third full-length album (this time the credit on the cover goes to Hopkins and his band, Line of Force) and a continuation of his building legacy as Portland’s conscience. Wallace told those wide-eyed college grads to gird themselves against the drudgery of everyday existence, the days squandered in grocery-store lines and nights spent cleaning up their children’s puke. While there might be the inclination to try to rise above this drudgery and rebel against it, Wallace counsels: “The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.”

Well, the Us-era Peter Gabriel spark Hopkins delivers on “American Dream” is pretty damn sexy, but his sentiment is equally selfless and open-minded. “We all forget sometimes,” he sings, “All that’s in our pockets/Yeah we got everything.” Not only does he echo Modest Mouse’s “We’ve Got Everything” in more than lyrics, but he builds from an initial funky foundation into a Widespread Panic jam that crescendos into an organ solo and then moves into a finishing suite that features Kenya Hall on backing vocals and a cultivation of those most precious of resources: “love and truth.”

While 2007’s Make Love ’Til Doomsday was truly an angry and bitter album, this new work (actually a collection of older material) is more philosophical and is equal to Wallace’s counsel. Hopkins might be the best we’ve got in Portland for “attention and awareness and discipline.” Yes, the jazzy dub of “Erasure” references the war in Iraq, and you can feel Hopkins’s anger as a slow burn, but when the fat-bottomed horns arrive (John Maclain, Eric Ambrose, Lucas Desmond, Joe Parra), you might be willing to heed Hopkins’s advice: “Don’t Erase/Keep on feeling your love.” Keep on sacrificing.