Kate Christensen grabs our attention on the first page of her fierce, big-hearted memoir with a scene that readers won’t easily forget: A young family is eating breakfast when the husband erupts in a fit of rage and pummels his wife, their two small children looking on. Not only does the author witness this event […]

Since it opened in 2006, the Courthouse Gallery in Ellsworth has occupied an 1838 building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The gallery has now expanded into its companion building, the old registry. A show of paintings by Colin Page hangs in the main gallery. I reviewed his recent show at Greenhut Galleries […]

“Despicable Me 2” is a gag-filled delight from start to finish. It’s got more laughs in its first five minutes — from its larynx-bending voice actors, its loopy, goofy design and its milling, mewling Minions — than “Monsters University” managed over its entire length. And if much of the message, the warmth and the “changed […]

Grassroots environmental groups celebrate at the annual Toxics Action Center party.

Author, editor, activist and historian Andrew Carroll will discuss his new book, “Here Is Where: Discovering America’s Great Forgotten History,” detailing unmarked historic sites across America where extraordinary moments occurred.  WHEN: Noon Wednesday WHERE: Portland Public Library’s Rines Auditorium, 5 Monument Square HOW MUCH: Free INFO: 871-1700; portlandlibrary.com  

The Bowdoin International Music Festival (continuing through Aug. 3) is an embarrassment of riches — so many concerts, so little time, and at the height of the Maine regional festival season too. And then one begins to regret what one hasn’t seen and heard. Maybe there should be a complete, searchable archive of each BIMF. […]