Dead Monkeys are to split up again. Well, not quite. That actually happened a while back. But Ogre, this year's Best Heavy Music-Metal Act, are splitting up, after 10 years as a band, including tons of international trips and lots of local fans. Here's the full note from Ross Markonish:

After much band deliberation and discussion, OGRE has decided that our 10^th Anniversary show (September 12 at Geno's in Portland) is going to be our final US gig and, essentially, the end of the band.

In June we reminded you that Maine governor John Baldacci, while a Congressman, lived for four years in a Capitol Hill church run by "the Family," a secretive, conservative Christian movement. At that, time, three Republican politicians embroiled in sex scandals were revealed to be Family members as well.

The group wants to build a worldwide movement of strong leaders - mostly men - who are very closely linked to each other in what some have called a "spiritual offensive."

Scott Fish at the "Stand for Marriage Maine" campaign, which is working to overturn same-sex marriage - and has gone so far as to claim they have the signatures needed to put it on the ballot, but without anything formal like submitting signatures to actual public or official scrutiny - today has admitted a new problem with the opposition: they're focusing on their message, while Stand for Marriage Maine are left to react to their opponents.

The last time Maine music was connected to American Idol was when Taylor Hicks sang Ray LaMontagne's "Trouble" in 2006.

The last time As Fast As got big national exposure was when their song "Florida Sunshine" appeared on CSI: Miami - also in 2006.

And now these trends have combined, with Nick Whitten (who didn't make the final 24 that included Hicks, who ultimately won AI's fifth season) playing AFA's"Florida Sunshine" at a county fair in South Carolina. Take a gander:

Thanks - er, sort of - to the bizarre, not-quite-in-touch-with-Americans positions of our US senators, Maine has become a key battleground state for healthcare reform. Of course, a key element is that Senator Olympia Snowe is on the Senate Finance Committee, which is delaying deliberating extensively about various options.

Well, it looks like all those predictions have come true: We let people of differing races marry (which was objected to in a satirical note to us earlier this year), and now same-sex couples have had their right to marry recognized as well. What has the slippery slope brought us now? Computer-animated robots talking about how they will vote in November!

Love it.

Also: Danny Ainge's son is going to coach the minor league basketball team here in Portland.

And, keep your eyes peeled for more about local alt-transport projects/proposals in an upcoming issue of the Phoenix.

Additionally, we got a review copy of reader fave Richard Russo's latest offering, That Old Cape Magic (Knopf)

Despite the bizarre attempt of the Australian police to blame the victim - and his own participating in covering himself with gasoline - here's another item to add to the list of Situations In Which Portland Police Should Not Use Tasers:

-When the person you are considering Tasering is covered in gasoline.

Let's hope they include that in their training.

Working to raise money to send himself and his fellow Portland Poetry Slam Team members to the national slam championships, Sam Teitel is presently well into his 25 hours of words.

Earlier this evening, as he began his effort, in which he is reading and speaking for 25 hours straight (mostly in Monument Square, but then moving up to the North Star Music Cafe in the early evening for the usual weekly Port Veritas weekly slam/spoken-word event), we caught up with him and donated $10 to the cause.

Here's a press release announcing Maine's latest economic development effort: portraying our state as a cheap place to put call centers, without having to go offshore. Thank heavens for our state officials' hard work painting us as people who will sit in cubes and read scripts about stuff we don't understand for cheap money.

Senator Olympia Snowe, whom I said a couple of weeks ago appeared to be failing to understand the point of healthcare reform, is showing a small sign she might be starting to get it.

A Friday story in the Bangor Daily News has her supporting what she calls a "safety net plan," a public option that would compete with private insurance from the very beginning (without any sort of delay allowing the private companies to again prove they won't fix the problem themselves).

A few minutes before our final matinee on Sunday, the cast of Chicago (which was presented by the Legacy Theater Company at Thornton Academy the last two weekends) was told that the hallway between the green room and the stage was being briefly closed off. In short order, we found out the reason why: George H. W. and Barbara Bush (along with their daughter Dorothy) were in the audience, and they'd been escorted in by secret service through the back door.

Thanks to Hulu, Netflix, and all sorts of other services, you can now get the TV you want online. And here's another example. Starting today, we Mainers will be offered TV ads demanding healthcare reform. Funded by the Democratic National Committee, the ad suggests we call our senators. (Good idea - neither Snowe nor Collins is showing evidence of actually understanding what we want when we ask for healthcare reform