AUGUSTA – It was supposed to be a surprise, but some of the senior softball all-stars gathered at Cony Park on Thursday evening seemed to know exactly who was going to be named Miss Maine Softball. Sam St. Hilaire of Leavitt was standing near some… Read More
“Keely and Du,” Jane Martin’s 1993 drama about personal choice and religious fervor, tells a relentlessly argumentative story. The two sides are represented by Keely, a working-class woman who gets pregnant after her former husband rapes her, and Du, a nurse whose biblical beliefs cause her to behave… Read More
BANGOR – The Hermon High School Hawks had scored 32 runs on 42 hits in three Eastern Maine Class B playoff wins. But they met their match Saturday as crafty Cape Elizabeth junior lefty Nick Freed tossed a four-hit gem at Mansfield Stadium to lead… Read More
BELFAST – Paula Vogel couldn’t take the time for a European trip with her brother Carl in the late 1980s. Nearly two years later, he died from AIDS. At the time of his invitation, she had no idea he was sick. We all know what… Read More
The climax of many a courtroom drama comes when the jury foreman announces the verdict. Now a new series on Fox takes viewers inside the deliberations that lead to that verdict. “The Jury” debuts with two episodes at 9 and 10 tonight. googletag.cmd.push(function () {… Read More
“BARBARA BUSH; Matriarch of a Dynasty,” by Pamela Kilian, Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Griffin, New York, 2003, paperback, 237 pages, $14.95. Daughter. Prankster. Wife. Mother. Grandmother. First lady. America’s grandmother. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var… Read More
“THE DARK TOWER VI: SONG OF SUSANNAH,” by Stephen King, Donald M. Grant/Scribner, New York, 2004, hardcover, 432 pages, $30. Stephen King has returned again to his “Dark Tower” series, which is set in an alternate world – which, based on this new sixth book,… Read More
FOOD THAT ROCKS, by Margie Lapanja and Cindy Coverdale, Conari Press, York, ME; 2004, 304 pages, $24.95. “Food That Rocks,” at first sight, is a fun idea. Who doesn’t want to know what their favorite musicians are throwing together in their fabulous kitchens. OK, you… Read More
SEARSPORT – Infield defense has been a strength of the Searsport High baseball team this spring. But when second baseman Ryan Shute misplayed a double-play grounder during the third inning of an Eastern C playoff game against Central of Corinth on Wednesday, the Vikings were… Read More
Carnes helps Dexter rally by GSA Pitcher earns victory, also provides two-run single in fifth inning
DEXTER -Errors in the field have plagued the Dexter softball team all season. Tuesday afternoon’s Eastern Maine Class C prelim game against George Stevens wasn’t a clean one for the Tigers, but Sarah Carnes’ effort helped overcome Dexter’s miscues. Carnes hit a two-run single to… Read More
In an era of quick-hit technology, John Griesemer’s second novel, “Signal & Noise,” an international best seller, is a slow read. And that’s not such a bad thing. In fact, it’s downright Victorian. The book, which is set in the mid-19th century, draws on the… Read More
Last weekend’s fourth annual Paddle Smart from the Start Safety Symposium at the YMCA in Bangor was another success by all measures. Attendance was around 250, speakers and demonstrations were well accepted (at least that’s what the feedback forms indicated), and recognition from officials was abundant. The people… Read More
ORONO – Brewer High School senior Chris Fox described what the Phi Mu Delta Relay Carnival is all about in four simple words: “It’s a fun meet.” While teams were waiting for results to be compiled, they put the University of Maine’s Morse Field to… Read More
OUT OF THE DEEP I CRY, by Julia Spencer-Fleming, 2004, Thomas Dunne Books, New York, 308 pages, hardcover, $23.95. Julia Spencer-Fleming has hit her stride. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var… Read More
HIGH SCHOOL Aroostook County Championship googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length; i++) { if (isMobileDevice()) { if (slot_sizes[i][0] googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes… Read More
HIGH SCHOOL At Brewer googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length; i++) { if (isMobileDevice()) { if (slot_sizes[i][0] googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes =… Read More
“Vive le surrealisme!” That’s how Timothy Baum, an authority on the surrealists, ends his exuberant essay in the catalog for the exhibition “The Invisible Revealed: Surrealist Drawings from the Drukier Collection” currently at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (through June 6). Alan Clark, whose… Read More
HIGH SCHOOL Eastern Maine I singles qualifying tournament googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length; i++) { if (isMobileDevice()) { if (slot_sizes[i][0] googletag.cmd.push(function () { //… Read More
Great art should not just ornament our lives. Ideally, it should have an impact on our lives, act as a catalyst and create change. And while it may seem an exaggeration, I believe that Sunday’s concert by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra was life changing. Let… Read More
Take a group of disparate people and put them in a foreign location without all the tools of modern society. The goal: to have them create a thriving community. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner… Read More
A decade-long effort to upgrade the track and field facilities at Skowhegan Area High School comes to a climax at 3 p.m. Friday with the dedication of the school’s new track. Constructed last summer at a cost of more than $400,000, the new facility features… Read More
MALLETS AFORETHOUGHT, by Sarah Graves, Bantam, New York, 2004, hardcover, 352 pages, $21.95. Only Sarah Graves could come up with a locked-room mystery that involved house renovations. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false;… Read More
MILLINOCKET – Steve Whitney’s two-out single in the seventh tied it and Dylan Hanscom’s two-out base hit in the eighth won it for the Mattanawcook Academy Lynx of Lincoln in a 7-6 baseball win over Stearns Thursday. Hanscom had two singles and two RBIs, Dustin… Read More
Sheri Lynch knows her parents had a difficult time raising children. The problems were many: poverty, a bad marriage, too many offspring. “And in my family, we like to add crystal methamphetamine, drug addiction, violence and abandonment,” said the only girl in an Irish-Italian Catholic… Read More
Robinson Ballet’s Spring Dance Concert annually showcases the talented young dancers that the company has nurtured from gawky preteens through gangly adolescence to graceful adulthood. This year’s show gives more than 20 of the area’s best dancers the opportunity to shine on stage. While their… Read More
It wasn’t until late in their cabaret show Saturday at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono that Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway sang segments of “Bosom Buddies” (from the musical “Mame”), “Together” (“Gypsy”) and “The Stepsister’s Lament” (“Cinderella”). One suspects the DNA-indebted duo decided the… Read More
BELFAST – It was the language of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” and “Alice Through the Looking Glass” that captured the imaginations and tickled the funny bones of children and adults last weekend at the Belfast Maskers’ waterfront theater. Director Aynne Ames cast of more… Read More
If a housebound woman invites a vigorous young actor to her home for an acting lesson, you have to think something is amiss when she pulls out not one, but two guns as props. For some, that would be the first step toward the closest exit. But for… Read More
BANGOR – Carolyn McAvoy drove in two runs with a pair of hits as Husson College beat the University of Maine-Farmington 4-3 to salvage a split of Thursday’s doubleheader. UMF won the opener 11-7. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var… Read More
JAMIE’S KITCHEN: A COOKING COURSE FOR EVERYONE, by Jamie Oliver, Hyperion Books, New York, 2003, $39.95. It seems like Jamie Oliver is barely off the bookshelves these days. There’s another book by Jamie linked to another television show starring Jamie. It’s little wonder that in… Read More
Less is not necessarily more. Sometimes more is simply more, as Sunday’s concert by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, accompanied by more than 120 singers, proved. Appearing before a full house at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono, the combined voices of the University of Maine Oratorio… Read More
IF I WERE WRITING THIS, by Robert Creeley, New Directions Books, 2003, 104 pages, hardcover, $21.95. For five decades, Robert Creeley has sounded a poetic voice of as much intelligence and common sense as any American poet. His intensely honest revelations about the qualities of… Read More
BALANCE OF TRADE, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Meisha Merlin Publishing, Decatur, Ga., 2004, hardcover, 464 pages, $25. Winslow authors Lee and Miller have returned with the latest installment in their intelligent space adventure series, set in their well-realized Liaden Universe. googletag.cmd.push(function () {… Read More
The drawings of Theophil Groell of Stonington, who died in early March, hark back to the old masters. In line, contour and tone, Groell consistently manifested the classical ideal: Through close attention comes beauty. Through the month of April, the John Edwards Wine Cellar Art… Read More
The Friday evening audience at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Bangor came to hear featured pianist Eleonor Bindman, but they got much more than that. Calling the April 2 concert a “quintessential Arcady event,” Dean Stein, Arcady Music Society executive director, said he was pleased… Read More
THE SAME GREAT STRUGGLE: The History of the Vickery Family of Unity, Maine, 1634-1997, by Andrea Constantine Hawkes, 2003, Tilbury House Publishers, 306 pages, $30 (hardcover), $15 (softcover). When I was a struggling freelance writer back in the ’70s, I used to pick the brain… Read More
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts on Deer Isle is best known as one of the finest craft education centers on the East Coast. Whether a student, teacher, administrator or visitor, Haystack imparts a powerful creative energy at the end of the winding lane that leads to one of… Read More
There are certain things you expect in a landscape: Land, sky, horizon. Marguerite Robichaux’s paintings of the view near her home in Eustis have all the elements. She just tweaks them a little. First off, they’re vertical. And her finished works – in oil thinned… Read More
BANGOR – It was yet another loss for the New York Nationals, but it was a big win for all the fans who showed up to watch the Harlem Globetrotters at the Bangor Auditorium Tuesday night. America’s ambassadors of goodwill hit the Auditorium hardwood and… Read More
The cast of “Blue Orphan” slipped onstage and into their cocoons. Encased in their gauze houses, they told tales of their previous manifestations and the rare blue Brazilian butterflies they longed to emulate. They waited for the cataclysmic event that would set off that transformation some of them… Read More
The Fes Festival of World Sacred Music started 10 years ago in Fez, Morocco, after the Persian Gulf War as a way to repair cultural bomb craters among Muslims, Christians and Jews. Typically, the festival is held once a year in a medieval palace in the city of… Read More
Dr. Judith Sulzberger has a simple message in her first novel: “Be careful what you wish for.” In “Younger” (Apple Tree Productions, $24.95), Sulzberger, a Lubec summer resident, takes readers inside the world of genetics research. It’s a place that Sulzberger knows well, as she… Read More
If you didn’t know better, you might think Ballet Jorgen Canada, the Toronto-based company, sneaked in and out of town last weekend on a secret mission. Only a few hundred people at the Maine Center for the Arts attended the troupe’s stellar dance program on Friday, and that’s… Read More
Shakespeare was clearly a prophet when it came to foreseeing the TV landscape. All those years ago, ol’ Bill wrote, in “King Henry VI, Part II,” “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes =… Read More
Mark Torres, producing artistic director at Penobscot Theatre, has had his eye on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Art” for several years. In 2000, he tried to mount the show but could not get the rights. Now he – and regional theaters all over the country – have access… Read More
WOLF KAHN’S AMERICA: AN ARTIST’S TRAVELS, by Wolf Kahn, introduction by John Updike, Harry N. Abrams Inc., New York, 168 pages, hardbound. $45. “Wolf Kahn is a painter who loves paint.” That’s how Alan Gussow described the German-born, Hans Hofmann-trained artist in his classic book… Read More
If your definition of ballet has anything to do with a dance style that emphasizes restraint, you would be seriously questioning the word after an evening with Les Ballets Africains, the high-octane national touring company of the Republic of Guinea. Currently touring with its 50th anniversary jubilee, Les… Read More
“Meditations,” work by MaJo Keleshian, Lydia Cassatt, Deborah Jellison and Larry Corbett, through March 26 at the Department of Art Galleries, Carnegie Hall, University of Maine, Orono. We think of meditation as a solitary activity – legs crossed, eyes closed, silent, still. googletag.cmd.push(function () {… Read More
It seems like TV has been touched by the divine lately. First came a high school girl shanghaied to run missions for God on “Joan of Arcadia.” Next was the morgue assistant who gets sent back in time to aid the recently dead in “Tru… Read More
The Belfast Maskers has kicked off its season with a rollicking medley of just about every play and sonnet the Bard ever put down on paper in “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged).” The histories are recounted in a Big Ten bowl game, Othello… Read More
Let’s be frank about why reality TV works for executives in that industry. No costs for talent or writers. Just rough out a scenario, and turn loose some money-grubbing real folk. It’s kinda like improv, only without the talent to pull it off successfully. googletag.cmd.push(function… Read More
SUBJECT MATTER: POEMS, by Baron Wormser; Sarabande Books, Louisville, Ky., 2003; 72 pages, paperback, $12.95. Somewhere in between deep personal seriousness and detached postmodern meaninglessness floats the poetic world of Maine’s poet laureate, Baron Wormser. His sixth collection, “Subject Matter,” contains the microscopic linguistic refinement… Read More
When the German pianist and conductor Bruno Walter first heard Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major, he “marveled at the singular courage” of the composer. Walter went on to become Mahler’s assistant, and the symphony, sometimes called the “Titan,” eventually took its place as one of… Read More
FORT KENT – Philip Jandreau of St. Francis had one of the best seats in the house Friday morning for the pursuit race of the Biathlon World Cup at the 10th Mountain Division Lodge. Jandreau, 44, a paraplegic, couldn’t see the action from the spectators… Read More
NEW WAYS TO APPLIQUE, edited by Jeanne Stauffer and Sandra L. Hatch, House of White Birches, 2003, hardcover, $24.95, 176 pages. From the very first page, which features a photograph of Sue Harvey’s Lollipop Flowers quilt, “New Ways to Applique” draws the erstwhile seeker of… Read More
FORT KENT – The U.S. consul general in Quebec City was married Thursday with a tent full of Biathlon World Cup spectators as witnesses. Susan Keogh, 60, of Quebec City was married to Robert J. Delaney, 50, a Canadian also from Quebec City, by Maine… Read More
As envisioned by Stephen King, Kingdom Hospital, setting of the series of the same name, is more than a little like the Eagles’ Hotel California. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. As if there weren’t enough to be… Read More
In a personification of the old cliche “The show must go on,” Mandy Patinkin gamely mined his repertoire Saturday night at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono. The Broadway veteran was suffering from an unspecified respiratory ailment, something to which he readily admitted:… Read More
Maine Bound is a column featuring new books written by Maine authors, set in the Pine Tree State or that have other local ties. NEVER ALONE-UNTIL ADMIRAL HALSEY LEFT … WITH EVERYONE ELSE, by Harrison E. Lemont, Dorrance Publishing Co. Inc.; Pittsburgh, Pa., 2003; 94… Read More
ORONO – After sliding in sleet and snow and hitting a guardrail on my way to attend a Sunday afternoon performance of the Raphael Trio in Orono, this reviewer hereby announces that she would drive on black ice through an all-out blizzard just to hear this ensemble play… Read More
Napkins aren’t funny. Neither are sticks, paper cups, popcorn or toilet paper for that matter. Put any of them in the hands of a charming mime named Avner the Eccentric and they’re downright hilarious. Just ask any of the 90 people who filled the Wayside… Read More
BLUE HILL – The Pacifica Quartet and Canadian pianist Jane Coop warmed up the audience at the Blue Hill Congregational Church on Sunday with a romantic program of Chopin preludes, a Dvorak quartet and a giant of the literature, the Brahms F Minor Piano Quintet, Opus 34. This… Read More
LEWISTON – Records fell, streaks continued, upsets occurred, and new champions were crowned at the State Class B indoor track and field championship meet Monday. First, the records: Old Town sophomore Cassie Hintz smashed Laura Duffy’s 18-year-old mark in the two-mile run by better than… Read More
One of the best Essential books on Lincoln under one cover He believed in God, but wasn’t much of a Christian. And to ease the stress of his agonizing years in the White House, he laughed out loud at a good barnyard joke. googletag.cmd.push(function ()… Read More
BASEBALL’s FIRST INDIAN LOUIS SOCKALEXIS: PENOBSCOT LEGEND, CLEVELAND INDIAN, by Ed Rice, Tide-mark Press, Windsor, Conn., 2003; 176 pages, hardcover, $24.95. In the winter (or spring) a young (or old) man’s fancy turns to baseball. A great cabin fever antidote is a good book on… Read More
YES & NO, by Linda Tatelbaum; About Time Press, Appleton, Maine, 2004; 240 pages, paperback, $14.95. Linda Tatelbaum’s new novel, “Yes & No,” is the story of an American graduate student living in Paris during the winter of 1969-70. Naomi Weiss’ professors at Cornell University… Read More
Skowhegan, the runner-up in last year’s state meet, will be the favorite this year when the Indians host the state gymnastics championships Saturday at 1 p.m. Skowhegan had an average score of 152.142 points in six meets during the regular season, almost 5.5 points better… Read More
Penobscot Theatre Company bites off a big piece of American theatrical history with its staging of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” While director Mark Torres and his cast manage to chew through the flesh and nibble at the bone of Edward Albee’s three-act masterpiece, they do not get… Read More
Maine Bound is a column featuring new books written by Maine authors, set in the Pine Tree State or that have other local ties. CAPITAL CRIMES, by Stuart Woods, Putnam, New York, 2003, hardcover, 288 pages, $25.95. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes… Read More
The Mount Desert Island boys swim team will be among the favorites to be the second team other than Bangor to win a Penobscot Valley Conference title when boys from the PVC schools compete in Friday night’s meet. The swimming competition kicks off at 6… Read More
ARTISAN BAKING ACROSS AMERICA: THE BREADS, THE BAKERS, THE BEST RECIPES, by Maggie Glezer, photography by Ben Fink, Artisan, New York, 2003, $40. It seems that in the last few years, many food lovers have decided that the best thing since sliced bread is unsliced… Read More
ROCKPORT – Chris Remsen is nearly as polished in jewelry design as he is in collecting wrestling gold. The 145-pound Camden Hills High senior, who will seek his fourth consecutive Class B wrestling championship at the state meet to be held at the Bangor Auditorium… Read More
KNUCKLEBOOM LOADERS LOAD LOGS – A TRIP TO THE SAWMILL, by Joyce Slayton Mitchell, photos by Steven Borns, The Overlook Press, Woodstock and New York, N.Y., 2003, hardcover, $15.95. If your child can get past the klutzy title, maybe this book is for your budding… Read More
When a work by Dmitri Shostakovich shows up on a concert program, the temptation is to feel dread. It’s long. It’s difficult. It’s weird. But when the Bangor Symphony Orchestra performed Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in D minor Sunday at the Maine Center for the… Read More
OWLS HEAD, by Rosamond Purcell, The Quantuck Lane Press, New York, 2003, 240 pages, $25. In the summer of 1991, while teaching a class at the Maine Photographic Workshops in Rockport, Boston-based photographer Rosamond Purcell took her students on a field trip along the coast,… Read More
Guys and Dolls” is one of those big American musicals that keeps coming back. It opened on Broadway in 1950 and won five Tony Awards. It went to London a few years later, transformed into a film in 1955 and then began the endurance test of revivals. In… Read More
Men’s Hockey MAINE vs. BOSTON UNIVERSITY googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length; i++) { if (isMobileDevice()) { if (slot_sizes[i][0] googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot… Read More
Guess what? Crochet is not just for lacy doilies, pillowslip edgings and afghans. It’s for socks. The authors of “Crocheted Socks” have done good things in their book – their sock designs are so lively I want to make several pairs to wear with my… Read More
COLLEGE Buddy Leavitt googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length; i++) { if (isMobileDevice()) { if (slot_sizes[i][0] googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]];… Read More
THE MAINE POETS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF VERSE, edited by Wesley McNair; Down East Books, Camden, Maine, 2003; 260 pages, hardcover; $25. “The Maine Poets,” Wesley McNair informs us in his introduction, reveals “an ongoing tradition” of Maine poetry by collecting together verse of Maine’s poets… Read More
HIGH SCHOOL At Aloupis Pool, Bangor googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length; i++) { if (isMobileDevice()) { if (slot_sizes[i][0]… Read More
Maine’s farmhouses are so spruced up these days, with canning jars sitting like trophies atop polished granite counters, that it’s hard to imagine what used to go on in the kitchen, the baking biscuits before dawn and long days of canning over blazing wood stoves even on the… Read More
Are aliens kidnapping the snowmobilers from the hills around Stratton? You might think so if you labored through “River of Fear” (Morningstar Communications, 2003) by Rod Davis. Davis, who owns land in the Stratton area and loves to snowmobile, tells us that a “circle of… Read More
SIMPLE CROCHET, by Erika Knight, Clarkson Potter Publishers, New York, 2003, 129 pages, paperback, $19.95. Erika Knight has a simple idea – create a series of books that present knitting and crochet patterns in a way that is easy and accessible. Her third book, “Simple… Read More
CELEBRITY SCARVES, by Abra Edelman, introduction by Isaac Mizrahi, Sixth&Spring Books, 2003, hardcover, $24.95. “Celebrity Scarves” lets you knit with the stars – 25 of them. Some you’ll recognize easily, some you may not, but what they all have in common – besides gorgeous faces… Read More
MAINE’S COVERED BRIDGES, by Joseph D. Conwill, Images of America series, Arcadia Publishing, Dover, N.H., 2003, 128 pages, $19.99. Do you know why bridges were covered? googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for… Read More
My Journey, by Rabbi Harry Sky With jolly bearded men perched on housetops, lights shimmering across the snow and advertisements promoting holiday shopping at every turn, this season can be a time of dilemma, if not downright confusion, for those who do not celebrate Christmas. Read More
The Manhattan Transfer, that four-part harmony wonder group, gave a glittering concert to a sold-out crowd Saturday at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono, launching the countdown to Christmas with music so merry and bright that audience members are likely still to be humming today. In… Read More
“Andrew Wyeth: Watercolors, Temperas and Drawings,” through May 21, 2004, Hadlock and Wyeth Study Center Galleries at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Main Street, Rockland, 596-6457. Andrew Wyeth’s work is a delicate balance of permanence and impermanence, the passage of time and the immediacy of the… Read More
THE FIRST FEUD: BETWEEN THE MOUNTAIN AND THE SEA, A FABLE, by Lynn Plourde; pictures by Jim Sollers; Down East Books, Camden, Maine, 2003; $15.95, hardcover. With the publication of “The First Feud: Between the Mountain and the Sea,” Lynn Plourde joins the ranks of… Read More
What is Christmas without “The Nutcracker”? In the last 20 years, I’ve had only one December holiday bereft of Tchaikovsky’s ballet, and it was a bleak omission, indeed. In the midst of the bustle and brawn of this holiday, it’s not such a bad idea to give yourself… Read More
BANGOR – Andrei Bossov’s adaptation of “The Nutcracker” this weekend was just right – sweet, spicy and altogether charming. The cast of more than 50 performers from the Bossov Ballet Theatre in Pittsfield did a gallant job of keeping the large production together on the… Read More
Network executives aren’t giving any gifts to the producers of new TV shows when they launch them in the midst of the holiday season, when many are too busy to even watch anything except evergreens such as “Frosty the Snowman” or “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”… Read More
Many children’s books get described as sweet. But a new volume written by an East Blue Hill author truly qualifies for that label. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i =… Read More
IN PERIL, by Skip Strong and Twain Braden, The Lyons Press, 2003, 272 pages, hardcover, $22.95. “Steve, how far from the shoal?” I yell into the chartroom. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false;… Read More
The sounds of Christmas have invaded every mall, office, store and tree lot by now. This is the only holiday season to which performers in the Western world devote an entire CD. Most of these Christmas CDs recycle old standards and sprinkle in one or… Read More
Editor’s Note: Bangor native Amanda Dumond works as a reporter at the Aroostook Republican and News in Caribou. She reviewed the following new Thanksgiving-related children’s books in light of the coming holiday. THIS FIRST THANKSGIVING DAY: A COUNTING STORY, by Laura Krauss Melmed, illustrated by… Read More
Yamato, the decade-old Japanese drum troupe, on Friday gave a joyful, thoughtful and sometimes comic performance at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono. The group’s boisterous beat swept over the audience like crashing surf – the kind that knocks waders’ feet out from… Read More
Shows close every day on Broadway. But one musical had nine lives. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats,” based on “Old googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length;… Read More
Dysfunctional doesn’t begin to describe the family at the center of “Escape from Happiness” and calling Canadian playwright George F. Walker’s play a dark comedy is like labeling Stephen King’s work “a little bit gothic.” As presented by the University of Maine’s School of Performing… Read More