Arts and Entertainment
Monday, August 9th, 2010, 4:55 pm
KahBang On: Red Riding Trilogy comes to River City
As the first weekend of the KahBang festival came to an end, all of the focus shifted to the Bangor Opera House, where last night the first film in the critically-acclaimed “Red Riding Trilogy” was shown. The films were added …
Sunday, August 8th, 2010, 3:57 pmKahBang On: Getting up close with filmmakers
If day one of KahBang showed how much the festival has grown over last year’s version, day two showed how diverse programming and scheduling can both help and hinder an event. Saturday was a busy day for the film portion of …
Saturday, August 7th, 2010, 2:51 pmKahBang On: Kick-off with Hey Marseilles, Bella Ruse and Autopirate
After ten months of preparation, year two of the KahBang! Festival kicked off last night in downtown Bangor. The three different events showcased the efforts of the festival planners to make this year’s KahBang a completely different beast than the …
Thursday, August 5th, 2010, 11:32 amOpen Air Shakespeare Transforms Deering Oaks
Nestled under the oaks in the ravine by the footbridge audiences gather every Thursday through Saturday night to travel to Illyria from the comfort of their lawn chairs and picnic blankets in one of Portland’s largest parks. The Fenix Theatre …
Monday, August 2nd, 2010, 1:02 pm‘Lost Skeleton’ ushers in cult films at Geno’s
An actor, a witch, and a werewolf walk into a bar. That’s not the beginning of a joke, it’s the first sight I saw at “The Lost Skeleton Returns Again” at Geno’s last Monday. I don’t know why I didn’t …
Friday, July 30th, 2010, 6:34 pmSpose teams with Maine filmmakers on new music videos
Emerging Maine hip-hop artist Spose has several new music videos in the works and is calling on Maine talent to get the job done. The rapper from Wells is working with music documentarians [dog] and [pony] to produce two new …
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010, 3:47 pmMaking Nice Friends with a young independent record label
In a city where all-ages concerts have fallen out of frequency, making it as a young band in Portland can be a tough endeavor. There’s this strange age gap where some musicians are too old to get help from youth …
Friday, July 23rd, 2010, 3:44 pmHadlock Love, or an Ode to the Sea Dogs
It started like any other baseball game would on a beautiful summer afternoon. The crowd hurriedly piled into their seats with various drinks and snacks, the national anthem was sung, and “play ball” was shouted by a local youngster. While …
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010, 10:06 amSweet (local) music on the Maine Radio Project
The people behind the fledgling (or soon to be fledgling) Maine Radio Project are sure hoping radio has a future as a medium. Or, at least radio done right. Because in a world where music fans can discover new bands …
Monday, July 19th, 2010, 2:13 pmPortland Slow Riders bike at their own pace
In other cities when bicycles take to the street en masse they are cursed, honked at and crashed into. In Portland they are cheered, waved at and photographed. What is the Portland Slow Riders group doing right? Several friends had …
About the editor
Justin Ellis is editor of The Signal, the Observer’s arts and entertainment blog. He has previously worked as a staff writer for the Portland Press Herald. He can be reached on Twitter @JustinNXT and by e-mail at justin@maineobserver.net.