PORTLAND

Tasting excellence at Miyake
Flavor frenzy - BY BRIAN DUFF

Getting ready for the Maine Comics Arts Festival

Bringing the page to life
If Superman had to give a State of the Comics address, it would be a pretty somber affair.

By: JOSH CHRISTIE | May 16, 2012

The secret world of USM’s Blade Society

Anything but ‘mundane’
It's a Tuesday night at the University of Southern Maine gym and Rob Tupper is leading a small group of fencing students through an exercise that looks like a cross between a line dance and an army drill.

By: DEIRDRE FULTON | May 16, 2012

Amy Allen travels to Neptune

Shooting for the stars
There were a couple directions Amy Allen could have taken to follow up her 2010 pop-lovely debut EP, Honey, released just as she headed off to the big city for college.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | May 16, 2012

Printmaking continues to matter

Paper, ink, and pressure
Essential to printmaking, and non-digital photography, is the frustrating, annoying time lapse between the creation of the matrix and the final image.

By: BRITTA KONAU | May 16, 2012

Positive change, at last

Balls, Pucks & Monster Trucks
Even when the Sanford School Committee gets it right, its members manage to be wrong.

By: RICK WORMWOOD | May 16, 2012

A cautionary tale from 18th-century France

Honoring the masses
Though there's no hard evidence that Marie Antoinette actually uttered "Let them eat cake," she remains a larger-than-life symbol of ruling-class decadence and a culture of gaping wealth disparity.

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | May 16, 2012

Foam Castles emerge with a Bonanza

Into the spotlight
If summer is the stuff of memories, then the music of Foam Castles has a way of helping to make them.

By: NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | May 16, 2012

Whipped into shape

Wax Tablet
We feel pretty amped about Supercharged , the debut EP by the hardcore rock and roll band WHIP HANDS .

By: PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | May 16, 2012

Reviving the electric car

Transport Revolution
Electric cars — ones that are completely rechargeable and use no gasoline — are now available in Maine, in addition to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and traditional hybrids, both of which boast higher fuel-efficiency than conventional cars.

By: DEIRDRE FULTON | May 16, 2012

Grad students get the knife

Student Loan Cuts
On July 1 graduate and professional students will no longer be eligible for federally subsidized Stafford loans.

By: MELISSA NELSON | May 16, 2012

Never mind the bollocks

Politics + Other Mistakes
In the wake of its chaotic state convention, the Maine Republican Party has cleverly positioned itself to appeal to a whole new segment of the public: Anarchists.

By: AL DIAMON | May 16, 2012

Review: The Dictator

Surprisingly sweet
Though his PR campaign might suggest otherwise, Sacha Baron Cohen has actually made (with director Larry Charles) a sweet movie, not unlike Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator , if less sentimental.

By: PETER KEOUGH | May 16, 2012

Review: God Bless America

Bobcat Goldthwait tackles vapid celebrity culture
The latest dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait tackles both vapid celebrity culture ( i.e. , Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, and American Idol ) and the indignity of being an office drone.

By: TOM MEEK | May 17, 2012

Review: Battleship

Why not?
Hasbro's Transformers have made a mint; why not make a movie out of Battleship ?

By: ANN LEWINSON | May 18, 2012

Review: Trials Evolution

On the right track
Trials Evolution is a game about launching dirt bikes off sweet jumps, gunning for record-breaking times, and occasionally doing backflips. It's like a modern-day Excitebike .

By: MITCH KRPATA | May 15, 2012

Zambri | House of Baasa

Kanine Records
For those of us of a certain age who remember when school dances had a strict four-fast-songs-then-one-slow-one policy, the memory of bouncing around to "Let's Hear It for the Boy" with the anticipation of "One More Night" or "Take My Breath Away" still makes our palms sweat with hormonal anxiety.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 15, 2012

The Figgs | The Day Gravity Stopped

Stomper (2012)
These days Mike Gent, Pete Donnelly, and Pete Hayes are involved in enough extracurricular activities (Graham Parker, NRBQ, countless side/session-men gigs) that you could hardly blame them if they closed their two decades-plus Figgs chapter.

By: ZETH LUNDY | May 15, 2012

The Cult | Choice Of Weapon

Cooking Vinyl
Second acts are hard enough to deliver successfully in the pantheon of hard rock, so it's surprising then that the Cult, now well into their third go-round, still give their audience exactly what they crave.

By: MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER | May 15, 2012