The storm is projected to stay far from the spill zone, but Alex’s outer edges are stalling skimming efforts.

As the calendar turns to July, the pace and intensity of Maine’s many music festivals turns up a notch. Grabbing the most media attention is this weekend’s inaugural Nateva Festival in Oxford, which will be headlined by Further, the latest incarnation of the surviving members of the Grateful Dead. Promoters have been describing Nateva as […]

Greater Portland Auditions, Calls for Art  Books, Authors  Wednesday 6/30 Dyke Hendrickson, author of “Franco-Americans of Maine,” 7 p.m., Longfellow Books, Monument Square, Portland, 772-4045, longfellowbooks.com. Saturday 7/3 Ed Shankman and Dave O’Neill, author and illustrator, “I Met a Moose in Maine One Day,” and “Champ and Me by the Maple Tree,” 11 a.m. – […]

Sometimes you want to be in the mountains and at the shore at the same time. If you do not have the time to drive up to the Camden Hills or Acadia National Park, then 40-acre Higgins Mountain Preserve in Georgetown is a fun alternative. A half-mile loop trail traverses quickly up through a mixed […]

Summer music festivals and seasonal concert series have been part of Maine’s cultural landscape for many years; there are now about two dozen. The first festivals of the 2010 season open within the week. One of the newest is produced by the Portland Conservatory of Music. PCM’s seventh annual International Piano Festival opens this Friday […]

Greater Portland Auditions, Calls for Art  Wednesday 6/23 North Atlantic Figure Skating Club Auditions, 2010-2011 Nor’Easters Synchronized Skating Teams, 6:10-7:10 p.m. youth and adults, Family Ice Center, 20 Hat Trick Drive, Falmouth, Deb, 781-5058. Saturday 6/26 Auditions for Portland Youth Dance, formerly UpBeat Feet, for ages 9-18 trained in jazz, contemporary, and hip hop styles, […]

PORTLAND — People lucky enough to live in Maine know that summer is the time to see top-notch musicians in our backyards. Nowhere is that more evident than the annual Bowdoin Summer Music Festival in Brunswick. The festival kicks off on at 4 p.m. on June 26 with the Ying Quartet performing at Studzinski Recital […]

Last week I attended season-opening productions at all three of the region’s professional summer stock companies – and I was magically transported into Maine’s arts and entertainment summer. At Ogunquit Playhouse, “The Drowsy Chaperone” uses the show-within-a-show device to melodically transport theatergoers back to the 1920s. Maine State Music Theatre opened “Always… Patsy Cline,” a musical […]

Greater Portland Auditions, Calls for Art  Thursday 6/17 Annual Southern Maine Combined Theater Auditions, 6-9 p.m. June 17; 6-8:30 p.m. June 21, all experience levels welcome, with 14+ greater Portland producers, talent agents, Acorn Studio Theater, Dana Warp Mill, 90 Bridge St., Westbrook, hosted by Acorn Productions, audition details at 854-0065 or acorn-productions.org. North Atlantic […]

Greater Portland Auditions, Calls for Art  Thursday 6/17 Annual Southern Maine Combined Theater Auditions, 6-9 p.m. June 17; 6-8:30 p.m. June 21, all experience levels welcome, with 14+ greater Portland producers, talent agents, Acorn Studio Theater, Dana Warp Mill, 90 Bridge St., Westbrook, hosted by Acorn Productions, audition details at 854-0065 or acorn-productions.org. Books, Authors  […]