PORTLAND

A new documentary explores immigrant youth and their place in Maine and America
The weight of the world - BY DEIRDRE FULTON

Sunset Hearts steal your pain

Ask and they won’t say
You know a band are doing something right when five-minute songs finish up and you're pissed.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | May 23, 2012

Marveling at MECA’s annual MFA Thesis show

Star students
At the 2012 MFA Thesis show at the ICA, the idea of a common thread is gratefully, dizzyingly absent.

By: NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | May 23, 2012

Review: The Color Wheel

Alex Ross Perry’s bracing comedy
By my (admittedly jaded) count, there are two shocking moments in Alex Ross Perry's startlingly original comedy, The Color Wheel .

By: CHRISTOPHER GRAY | May 23, 2012

The potential of TEDxDirigo

Spreading Ideas
There were several impressive, stick-in-your-mind talks at the TEDxDirigo: Engage conference, held last Saturday at the University of Southern Maine.

By: DEIRDRE FULTON | May 23, 2012

Lawmakers mostly stand up against environmental assault

‘Holding the line’
Republican state Senator Thomas Saviello, at one point widely considered a foe of Maine's environment, may have just saved it. At the least, he was a leader in saving a good part of it.

By: LANCE TAPLEY | May 23, 2012

Wit at the Players’ Ring honors life and death

For whom the bell tolls
An array of disciplines have taken on the puzzle of life and death.

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | May 23, 2012

Casco Bay’s restaurants, bars, + markets

Island hopping
The islands of Casco Bay may seem remote (especially in the winter), but some are as close as a 20-minute ferry ride. As summer approaches, take a break from Portland's busy foodie scene and treat yourself to the tastes of the islands — after a breezy, salty boat ride across the ocean.

By: AMY ANDERSON | May 23, 2012

Anna Lombard’s first post-Gypsy release

Can you Digg it?
It's not exactly Stevie Nicks releasing her first solo album post-Fleetwood, but it's hard not to listen to Anna Lombard's first release with her new post-Gypsy Tailwind band, Anna and the Diggs, without comparing and contrasting.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | May 23, 2012

Lemonade: it’s not just a lark anymore

Starting Young
If you remember when a lemonade stand involved a folding table, pitcher, lemons, and a parent who was tired of hearing "I'm bored!" you'll find those lazy summer days are over.

By: | May 23, 2012

A browner shade of pale

Diverse City
Here in the least racially diverse US state, there isn't much danger of whites becoming a minority anytime soon, given that 94.3 percent of the population is non-Hispanic white.

By: SHAY STEWART-BOULEY | May 23, 2012

Got no plans

Politics + Other Mistakes
Welcome to the Channel 9 News Noodle. I'm Kootie McDoof.

By: AL DIAMON | May 23, 2012

Blood on the tracks

Wax Tablet
Although there's a lot of noise on the Americana circuit these days, one very clear signal is a new split LP by BIG BLOOD and MICAH BLUE SMALDONE , two of the state's most arresting practitioners of progressive contemporary folk.

By: PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | May 23, 2012

Review: Men In Black 3

Infinite possiblities
Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg), a fifth dimensional alien, can see the infinite possibilities each moment possesses and the infinite contingencies that caused it to happen.

By: PETER KEOUGH | May 24, 2012

Grass Widow | Internal Logic

HLR Records
There is stuff not to like about Internal Logic: a pair of instrumental interludes probably don't need to be there, and the drums aren't as gleefully chaotic as they were on 2010's Past Time.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | May 22, 2012

Scissor Sisters | Magic Hour

Casablanca (2012)
"Twist and shout/Boobies hangin' all out," sings Scissor Sister Ana Matronic on the futuristic sci-fi funk of "Keep Your Shoes On," her robo-tastic chirp swallowed in a maze of mind-numbing video-game synth runs and digital blips.

By: RYAN REED | May 22, 2012

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros | Here

Community Music (2012)
Maybe I'm feeling the ghost of Levon Helm, but it's hard to find many flaws in this new disc from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | May 22, 2012