Missouri

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Review: Elemental's hit-and-miss 'Go.Go Plays'

Finding the funny
Elemental Theatre Collective's "Go.Go Plays" have been an imaginative grab bag of one-acts since 2007, and the fifth annual event is no exception.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | February 08, 2011

The David Wax Museum and Tierney Sutton bridge tradition with the here and now

Border crossings
"Is that the jawbone of an ass?", I ask Suz Slezak in the lobby of the Paradise, giving the question my best Biblical inflection. She'd been playing the strange percussion instrument with her band the David Wax Museum in their opening set for the Carolina Chocolate Drops. "Yes!" she says brightly. "You can get them on eBay!
By JON GARELICK | February 01, 2011

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin | Let It Sway

Polyvinyl (2010)
At the apex of earnest indie pop, the period during which their first two full-lengths were recorded, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin were a mild, dime-a-dozen act.
By CARRIE BATTAN | August 10, 2010

Crossword: ''All the right angles''

They've got the market cornered.
They've got the market cornered.
By MATT JONES | June 09, 2010

'Tea' is for terrorism

When even the most ‘legitimate’ voices of the right validate dangerously unhinged anti-government rhetoric — DUCK!
A year ago, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) produced a memo outlining the growing threat posed to this country from right-wing extremists. It compared the situation to that of the early 1990s — which culminated in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | April 12, 2010

Extremist Fail

Letters to the Portland Editor, April 2, 2010
A political story could literally not contain more irony than the story of the USA PATRIOT Act and its effect on the modern extremist right-wing movement.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | March 31, 2010

Alex Chilton, 1950 - 2010

In memoriam
When Alex Chilton had a fatal heart attack while mowing his lawn last week, he was, statistically speaking, just a 59-year-old New Orleans resident, nothing more than an edit on some census forms. What Chilton represented, however, was a true American iconoclastic hero.
By JEFF BREEZE | March 24, 2010

Rocky Mountain low

A little frayed, the Sundance brand endures
Ever since Steven Soderbergh put what was a grade-Z resort town on the film-business map with sex, lies, and videotape in 1989, the Indies and foreigners essentially hijacked the Oscars.
By HARLAN JACOBSON | February 10, 2010

Fast and loose

Robert Altman's movie life
You're a cocky film-school grad with a drawer full of socko screenplays and Hollywood ambitions. But it's all California dreamin', as you're shivering in New England, cutting public-service announcements and digitizing educational videos, your only brush with the studios those Netflix rentals.
By GERALD PEARY | December 09, 2009

Fall guys

As summer winds down, sports crime picks back up
No shortage of sports-crime activity this week — in fact, it's been an extremely busy time, so much so that it's worth a bullet-point to get to some of the developments in brief.
By MATT TAIBBI | September 02, 2009

Various artists | Spiritual Jazz: Esoteric, Modal, and Deep Jazz from the Underground, 1968-1977

Jazzman (2009)
Apple-pie Mormon missionaries the Millers travel through Iran to spread the gospel of Joseph Smith among Muslims and Zoroastrians, and their kid discovers the glorious sound of the santur.
By GUSTAVO TURNER | April 21, 2009

Letters to the Portland Editor: March 13, 2009

Report on True/False Film Fest was so true
We are two Maine natives, who attended the True/False Film Festival in Missouri, couldn't agree more with Christopher Gray's account of the festival and the festival experience.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | March 11, 2009

Greater than fiction

Mainers find ideas and connections at a Missouri film festival
The True/False Film Festival, which just wrapped up its sixth year in Columbia, Missouri, presents an encouraging object lesson in how to establish a destination film festival in an unlikely location.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | March 04, 2009

Truth, not falsity

Keep your eyes peeled for these docos
Here are some of the documentaries you can expect to see in Maine this year.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | March 12, 2009

Shattered Plax

Sports blotter: Burress edition
Sports blotter: Burress edition
By MATT TAIBBI | December 10, 2008

Surprising

Sports blotter: "Absolutely fell out of my chair" edition
You do a thing often enough, you tend to get good at that thing.
By MATT TAIBBI | December 03, 2008

Bad idea jeans

Sports blotter: "You’re looking at some years, son" edition
Sports blotter: "You’re looking at some years, son" edition
By MATT TAIBBI | November 25, 2008

Magnum farce

Sports blotter: "CSI: Binghamton" edition
Sports blotter: "CSI: Binghamton" edition
By MATT TAIBBI | November 19, 2008

Songs unsung

Jon Whitney’s top five underrated releases of 2008
Jon Whitney’s top five underrated releases of 2008
By SUSANNA BOLLE | November 18, 2008

He choked big time

Sports blotter: "Ugly incident" edition
Sports blotter: "Ugly incident" edition
By MATT TAIBBI | November 12, 2008

Obama redraws the map

But the electoral shifts may not last
Barack Obama has made history. The next question is whether his victory has sparked a lasting electoral realignment.
By STEVEN STARK | November 07, 2008

Quiet before the storm

Sports blotter: "Good call, coach" edition
There have been a lot of mysteries surrounding the Patriots in the Bill Belichick years, not surprising given the intense effort the team puts into maintaining airtight clubhouse and organizational secrecy in general.
By MATT TAIBBI | November 05, 2008

BBs and b-balls

Sports blotter: "Inducing panic" edition
A few years ago, it looked like college athletes shooting strangers with BB guns was going to be the boutique sports offense of the 21st century.
By MATT TAIBBI | October 29, 2008

Dear Mr. President . . .

Redefining ‘Road Trip’
Since March 1, Massachusetts school teacher B.J. Hill has been walking across the country in near Kerouacian fashion — though, unlike Sal Paradise, Hill has a greater mission than apple pie and Mexican trollops.
By SARA FAITH ALTERMAN | October 30, 2008

Night of the living dead

What if the election doesn’t end on Election Day?
It’s almost over. This is welcome news.
By ADAM REILLY | November 03, 2008

Cursed Aztecs

Sports blotter: "Late-night shopping" edition
San Diego State Aztecs basketball coach Steve Fisher lectures his players during the season about how to behave off the court, getting pretty specific about what he doesn’t want to see.
By MATT TAIBBI | October 29, 2008

Good fellows

Brian Blade and company help blaze jazz’s newest path
The jazz tide is shifting once again.
By JON GARELICK | October 20, 2008

Hello, Larry

Sports blotter: "End of an era" edition
Absolutely nothing is funny about the Lawrence Phillips case, so let’s not even go there — there isn’t a single laugh to be found in this past week’s news that the onetime Next Jim Brown was sentenced to 10 years in Cali.
By MATT TAIBBI | October 16, 2008

More bad news for the Mets

Sports blotter: "Very bad times" edition
Look, it just isn’t seemly for us non–New Yorkers to laugh too much about the continued suckdom of the New York Mets, specifically their bullpen.
By MATT TAIBBI | October 09, 2008

Husker don't

Sports blotter: "Next Lawrence Phillips" edition
Details right now are still sketchy, but Thunder Collins, a former University of Nebraska running back who was once considered a sure-fire NFL star, has been charged with murder.
By MATT TAIBBI | October 02, 2008