The marquee at the Movies on Exchange Street is lit back up, with a new nonprofit group taking over to bring movies on film to Portland again. The Kinonik movie series opened this past First Friday with “The Third Man,” Graham Greene’s story of World War II intrigue set in Vienna and starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton and Trevor Howard. The name of the film series comes from the old Kino Kabaret, an innovative filmmaking lab that was founded in Canada.

The recent showing had been delayed by local licensing requirements, and after a few technical difficulties on the night, a packed house enjoyed the flickering film set to Anton Karas’s haunting zither strains.

Peter Bass, of Portland, said he was there 40 years ago when the film was last shown in town, and he was amped to be there for its return.

“It’s like a religion,” he said of the 16-millimeter cinematic experience. “Steve Halpert (the former director of The Movies on Exchange Street) was a great curator with great taste. Back then it was the only option to see movies other than blockbusters.”

The films for the new series are on loan from Juris Ubans, who used to teach film at the University of Southern Maine.

“The young guys are interested to return to celluloid,” he said. “It’s a striking difference (from digital). As it moves through the projector — a series of still images — the movement excites the eye. Digitation puts the eye to sleep. They’re physiological reactions.”

He likened the renewed interest in film to music lovers who yearn for the old days of albums, and is pleased to have a venue for some of his collection, numbering about 400 films, including shorts.

“One of my students, Andy Graham, had the idea to kick this off. He got connected with Peter (Weed) and Skylar (Kelly). This is a good beginning. If it’s a go and successful, I’ll make them accessible. Real film is more like a museum experience. These films are works of art.”

The project was aided in part by SPACE Gallery’s Kindle Fund. Jon Courtney, a film programmer at SPACE, and the Portland Museum of Art have also assisted.

Kelly’s company, Low Motion, operates the theater, and he plans to show additional films on other nights this summer, including “The Blues and the Abstract Truth.” Kelly studied film at Hampshire College in Amherst, Ma. under the tutelage of Ubans. He won the 48-hour film festival in Bangor in 2008, competing against fellow Kinonik board member Nick Loukes. Kelly moved to Portland in 2011, in time to catch a film festival here, and realized immediately the need to bring old films back to town.

Weed is vice-president and treasurer of the board. A Portland-based writer and editor, his work appears in MovieMaker magazine. “We want to introduce the value of a cinematic experience to a new generation of filmgoers,” he said. “We also want to generate thoughtful dialogue about cinema and to establish an appropriate home for film education resources, including Ubans’s films and books.”

With most young moviegoers brought up on big-screen, digitized popular films, the Kinonik crew hopes to introduce many of them to the art of film and to create a shared theater experience like that of the past. The films are shown on the old Bell & Howell projector from the Movies on Exchange that sat in storage for a spell at the Portland Museum of Art.

Renovations to the theater were necessary as the old site had been gutted and the seats removed. “Basically, it was a big oblong box,” Weed said. “We used grant money to refurbish the projector, build a projection booth, and put up a screen.”

The Maine College of Art loaned 88 seats, almost all of which were occupied for the first film. Organizers hope to have as much success with upcoming showings, and are banking on their prime location.

“This place has a cultural resonance with the community,” Weed said. “The Movies were beloved.”

Upcoming Kinonik films on Exchange Street: (Dates may be added.) | Aug. 5 – “Open City” | Sept. 2 – “The Great Dictator” | Oct. 7 – “La Grande Illusion” | Nov. 4 – “Citizen Kane”

Kinonik board members: Nick Loukes | Andy Graham | Jenny Anastasoff | Skylar Kelly | Juris Ubans | Sara Lemieux | Peter Weed

For more than 20 years now, local Deadheads have been able to get their jamfix of great cover music performed by talented musicians. That streak stays intact with a formation of a group from several members of former bands that honor the Grateful Dead, refusing to fade away even though Jerry Garcia is long gone and the four other original members reunited last year for one “last” show.

The Maine Dead Project plays weekly on Wednesdays at the Portland House of Music & Events, and they have been able to draw upon a loyal fan base that packs every house as long as the band promises “a miracle every day.”

The band’s roots are Tim Sullivan (guitar and vocals), Justin Maxwell (keyboard) and Joshua M. Robbins (bass), who teamed up with three horns and formed The Shakes in 2011. To the mix they added Doug Emery on guitar and vocals, as well as Christopher Sweet and Ryan Benoit on drums.

Last summer, the band got a residency at Slab Sicilian Streetfood to hold a Dead night, and the group has turned that outdoor gig into a midweek mainstay at PHOME.

Sullivan sings most of the Garcia tunes and has picked his way in the past with Band Beyond Description, Sweet Maxwell Sullivan and the Rolling Blackouts. He also performs with Maxwell as Hallowell Does the Last Waltz, a tribute band to The Band.

Emery sings more of the Bob Weir songs and has played with Lazy Lightning and had eponymous jam bands and jazz trios, like BBD and the Pam Baker Blues Band.

“People have commented that Doug brings something different,” Maxwell said recently, sipping a cold beer on PHOME’s patio. “A high energy and belligerence.”

Pulling from more than 120 Dead tunes, The Maine Dead Project looks to go long, and the songs they cover only crop up every four to five shows.

“One of the goals is to bring a large catalog to the table, throw some surprises in, and play the more challenging material,” said Maxwell, who started with Ukiah and has played with The Coming Grass, Cindy Bullens, and Girls, Guns & Glory.

The band gets nostalgic for great shows gone by and will sometimes cover Grateful Dead concerts in their entirety, recreating such epics as the closing of the Winterland Arena’s famous New Year Eve’s show on Dec. 31, 1978 (a five-hour-long party that included breakfast) and the show from the Paladium in New York City (29 April 1977), a 24-song spree that included a 21-minute “Franklin’s Tower” and a 14-minute “Sugaree.”

One of the most electric and peripatetic performers in the Maine Dead Project is Robbins, who roams and struts onstage, eyes uplifted but closed in a trancelike state. He’s also played with Eric Bettencourt and Kenya Hall, but is such an engaging stage presence he could play in a one-man band and still fetch a loyal following.

“I’m new to this,” Robbins says of the jamband experience. “I’m not a huge Dead fan, but I like what I’m doing. I have to learn these deep cuts — not the stuff on ‘BLM.”

This master of the low notes was an art major before switching his curriculum to music. Maxwell is another artistic member who has created film scores and done audio editing for short films. Sweet adds Micromassé, Model Airplane and the Pete Kilpatrick Band to his résumé. Benoit has provided beats for Smoked Salmon and Fules Gold.

Although they have many collective years in the business, the Maine Dead Project still practices a lot, especially fine-tuning for big events like an August cruise around Casco Bay. The band loves running into the regulars, and is edified when they spot new faces in the crowd.

“Since last summer, I’ve seen a lot more young people,” Sullivan says, “And a lot of people who aren’t necessarily Deadheads.” Maxwell confirms the sentiment with an eye to the more pragmatic side of music making: “The basic message is you don’t have to be a Deadhead to pay us money.”

The Maine Dead Project | Wednesdays, 9 p.m. to close | At Portland House of Music & Events, 25 Temple St., Portland, and Saturday, Aug. 6 on a Casablanca Cruise, 18 Custom House Wharf, Portland | For more information, contact Tim Sullivan at sullywestg@yahoo.com, info@themainedeadproject.com, or visit http://www.themainedeadproject.com.

The original Indian settlers of what would become our state named a short stretch of the Atlantic Ocean’s coastline Ogunquit, which means “beautiful place by the sea.” The Ogunquit Museum of American Art, founded by Charles Strater in 1952, continues to be a repository of beautiful exhibits, housed at a stunning location in Narrow Cove.

The museum has been in the news lately for an impressive exhibit of Jamie Wyeth paintings from his private collection, and while that may be the main draw, there are four other shows that should also command attention. These more hidden gems include Portland contemporary artist Tom Butler’s first solo show and an exhibit of the work of Bernard Karfiol, who studied at the Academie Julian in Paris at 15 years old before settling in Ogunquit, which he said “has a character quite different from inland country. One never feels closed in.”

Butler’s exhibit is called “The Hidden.” For the past six years, he has collected Victorian cabinet cards and painted their surfaces with “personal symbols of concealment such as hair, masks and geometric abstractions.”

In addition to works from the museum’s permanent collection of artists who have lived, worked and studied nearby, the OMAA also has an impressive showing of art by their founder. Strater was a member of the Lost Generation and was friends with Ezra Pound, James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway, with whom he boxed. A famous painting of the bullish author, used on several book covers, is on display, as well as another one that Hemingway preferred showing Papa after sparring with the artist.

These types of pleasurable discoveries are around every corner of the museum, inside its walls or on walks through the garden paths.

Andres Azucena Verzosa, interim executive director and curator, may be better known to Portlanders as Andy Verzosa, founder of the First Friday Art Walk and former owner of Aucocisco Galleries. To folks from down here, he’s fast becoming a familiar face as he’s puts his stamp on the exhibits and events at OMAA.

He’s bringing his myriad experiences together, having sold and written about art, while serving on various boards like the Maine College of Art, the Maine Historical Society, and the Tides Institute and Museum in Eastport.

The venerable museum is in its 63rd season. Verzosa has been interim director at OMAA for four months now, but his imprint can be felt at every turn. The first talk in the Totally Tuesday series had 10 attendees; last week’s discussion of Nazi-era Provenance and Restitution saw more than 70 visitors. The next talk (on July 26) features Libby Bischof, Susan Danly, and Earle Shettleworth Jr. speaking about their new book “Maine Photographs: From Historic Documents to Works of Art.” If the trend is any indication, they may need to hold the lecture outdoors.

Verzosa’s challenges now are quite different from those he faced in the Portland art scene, where he would usher in gallery visitors and sell works of art, but some of the vibes remain.

“I’m not worried about selling paintings, but I’m still looking at the bottom line,” he said last week. “Nobody's footing the bill but the members.”

He hails the southern museum as a different visitor experience, with its shoreline location and visitor gardens.

“We’re off the beaten track,” he said, noting that their idyllic location is a reward for making the trek. There is a mix of visitors, some new and some returning for years, the older set as well as school bus tours. The younger crowd can enjoy “Storytelling by the Sea” on Wednesday mornings at 9.

Portland has been well noted for its art scene, but Verzosa thinks, like all things, a shift is occurring. Although the OMAA is an oasis, a respite from the bustle of pavement life, it’s not as far away as one might imagine.

“I’d love to see more people from Portland come down,” Verzosa says. “It’s only 45 minutes and you get to see art presented in a different way.”

He loves his new job, and finds the daily tasks made so much more enjoyable because of the docents and volunteers there, “ambassadors who greet you when you arrive.”

In the next few months, the museum will select a permanent executive director. Verzosa knows that won’t be him, as he had to agree to such terms when he took the interim position. And while he seems so engaged in his work and perhaps a bit reluctant to let go of the reins, he’s already wondering what lies in store for himself.

“I haven’t started looking yet,” he said, “but I am starting to get curious. Things seem to find me. I’d love to stay in art, culture, and heritage. I’d love to do nonprofit work.”

For the moment, he’s basking in the present experience at this beautiful place by the sea.

The Ogunquit Museum of American Art | 543 Shore Road, Ogunquit | Season runs through Oct. 31 | Open daily from 10:00am to 5:00pm | For a current listing of all OMAA programs and events, visit www.ogunquitmuseum.org.

While most of his classmates were applying to college or frittering away their summer days, Gabe Letourneau was turning his love for gaming into a profitable enterprise. Two years ago, Letourneau opened HUD Gaming Lounge in Biddeford, and last month, he made the move to Congress Street, Portland, to offer something distinctly different to the Arts District.

One of only 40 or so such bastions in the United States, gaming lounges are all the rage in Asia. Letourneau expects that the Far East adulation will arrive soon at these shores.

“I was kind of a nerd in high school,” says Letourneau, aged 20. “I played stream games, a lot of Counter-Strike and League of Legends.”

His first incarnation was hosting LAN parties at his house. Friends would bring their laptops over, but it was hard to get the Internet strength and electrical power to handle their meetings, so he decided to make a space for gamers to come every day. His intention in opening the gaming lounge was to provide a place for people like him who loved gaming but needed a more social setting to share their affinity.

“People can come in and be part of an in-person community that's focused on gaming,” he says. “Gamers get to talk about their experiences face-to-face whereas previously they would type it to their virtual friends.”

PC gaming is one option for visitors. All of HUD’s computers are custom built, top of the line. People can play Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competitive matches (where ranking matters) and not fear losing a game or rank because of a disconnection. They use GWI’s commercial guaranteed service and have three projectors that create a seamless 340” display.

Consoles like the Xbox One, PS4, and the Wii U are another draw for gamers. The big pull now, though, is the attraction for customers looking to get virtual with their reality.

At the start, the first two uses for virtual reality (VR) were for simulation and training (e.g., a pilot). The third use, not surprisingly, was for porn. The next employment of VR was for education (e.g., a doctor learning to operate). Then came gaming, which is more affordable now ($5,000 down to $3,000 for the VR hardware, the computer, games and licensing fees).

“When gamers come in here, they feel at home. We’re bringing the Internet to real life. A lot of people like that,” he says. “We’re getting gamers to come together, instead of being alone at the house.”

Someone may come into the gaming lounge with little experience, but that won’t deter Letourneau and his staff from trying to find a fit for them. 

“An older woman came in, looking for something for her kids and grandkids, but she didn’t know where to begin. She liked knitting, puzzles and fantasy books, so we made the natural connection to fantasy games,” he said.

Other night clubs seem to be catching to the idea of appealing to gaming culture. The national chain Buffalo Wild Wings now offers a chance for customers on Friday nights to watch live streams (like those on Twitch.tv) of major Esports tournaments where salaried gamers make up to $100,000 a year pitting their skills against each other.

“Esports is one of the largest spectator sports in the world,” Letourneau says, “perhaps even more than soccer, more than the NBA and NHL championships combined. We provide a place to watch them with friends, like at a bar.”

HUD gaming lounge does not serve alcohol, which allows them to be open as late as 4 a.m. They do permit folks to bring in their own food, drink and even vaporizers. They offer quick, classic concessions for gamers like Mt. Dew and Doritos.

The gaming lounge has attracted some regulars already and makes newcomers feel immediately welcome. They note that gamers often find themselves playing next to someone who is playing the same game. The two team up and then cue up to find another team to play against.

“One guy came in who was not very popular in high school and was able to make a ton of friends,” Letourneau said. “In here, we don’t see cliques. A timid, lonely person comes in and ends up finding others with the same interests.”

He told a vignette about a gamer with a muscle disorder who came in with his mother. She thought he would keep to himself. Five minutes after his mom left, he asked the counter attendant to play Counter-Strike. “And the guy was better!”

HUD gaming lounge is trying to build the best gaming experience and make it accessible to as many people as possible. It’s better than the home experience because you don’t need to worry about bandwidth and it allows gamers to get more social.

“It’s cool. People pass each other on the street and never expect that the other person is a gamer. They see each other in here and become friends,” Letourneau said. “I enjoy that the most.”

HUD Gaming Lounge hours and fees:

Open Mon- Thur: 2 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Fri and Sat: Noon to 4 a.m.

Sundays: Noon to 2 a.m.

Pricing for gaming:

$6/hr

$15/ 3 hrs

$20/ 5 hrs

$24/ 8 hrs

 VR

$20/ hr

Maya Lahyani, a mezzo-soprano who sings the role of Carmen, and Dona D. Vaughn, artistic director at PORTopera for 22 years, previewed the famous Bizet work that combines Spanish flair and iconic themes. Lahyani, an Israeli opera singer, is a 2010 grand finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the recipient of an Adler Fellowship at San Francisco Opera. Vaughn is artistic director of opera programs at Manhattan School of Music, and has led the PORTopera summer festival since its inception.

Vaughn is bringing back Carmen, a lusty tale of a passionate and beautiful woman who is often at the center of attention. She directed it here first in 1994 and then again 11 years later. The interview was conducted by Tim Gillis in the rehearsal halls of Merrill Auditorium, where the cast was getting in tune for two performances of the popular opera on July 27 and 29.

TG: Maya, have you been to Maine before? Been involved with this opera before?

ML: It’s my first time in Portland. I’ve been so excited for months. I’m an explorer in life and onstage so I love coming to a new wonderful place. I’m singing it (the role of Carmen) for the first time, but I have performed many parts on the show on many occasions. When I arrived and we were putting everything together, people refused to believe it was my first time. I know exactly who she is to me. Everyone has a clear idea who they want to see when they see Carmen: a sexy femme fatale, a man-eating creature. I think she’s very human, very charismatic. She doesn’t need to be pretty but is the center of attention, impossible to ignore. I don’t think she’s a villain. She doesn’t mean to hurt anyone, but she’s an uncompromising creature, lives in the moment, and doesn’t look back.

TG: Georges Bizet died heartbroken shortly after, right? Not knowing it would be one of the most popular operas ever.

ML: Carmen was almost the first feminist on stage. She had, what was considered in that time, manly behavior. If you didn’t belong to your husband, you belonged to your family. She didn’t. She always does what she wants, never lies, and wants to be free.

DV: She doesn’t respect weakness; she recoils from it.

TG: What are some changes you’ve made to this production?

DV: There are some distinctions. Eleven years ago and 22 years ago, those were very traditional. We’ve changed the time period for this one, brought it up to the last century, which affects costumes, set design, props. We had to find a period bicycle, had to find a period cart. But the themes remain the same and are just as relevant.

ML: Like the violence aspect, of a relationship that turns ugly and violent. The arc of Carmen herself, and José – he’s trying to redeem himself and then instead ends up killing her. She says love is like a rebellious bird, here one moment, there the next. She is, in all opera, one of the most honest characters. She repeats many times that she never lies. She will say things manipulatively to get things. Physically she will do things to get her way, but she never promises a man they’ll be together forever.

DV: She says I have to be free. Kill me now if I can’t be free.

TG: How do your bring new life into such a familiar, older work?

DV: I’m able to keep it fresh because it’s my passion, the fist in my back that pushes me forward. Even if I’m supposedly on vacation, I’ll go to see an opera and see the possibilities, what can happen, and see the possibilities that are not explored.

ML: Because it’s such a well-known opera, we do have to work to keep it fresh. You can fall into the clichés, the predictable, because the story’s not going to change. It can be difficult to find the authenticity.

DV: Very often people arrive with preconceived ideas, especially about the characters. It’s been wonderful working with Maya. She has an intrinsic knowledge of who this person is. She can move from traditional to contemporary. Her character is in place, and she knows what the relationship is.

ML: With Carmen, more than other character I play or portray, she has to be the most honest. There’s nothing worse than somebody trying to be something they’re not on stage. We’re all trying to be someone we’re not, but the more organic I make it, the more similar our personalities, the more I can also explore the sides where she’s different from me. When you watch it, I’m hopeful you believe everything that happens.

TG: Dona, you studied dance under Martha Graham. What was that like?

DV: She was unkind. She said the most unkind thing to me I’ve ever had anyone say. “Miss Vaughn,” she said. “Why do you continue to disrupt this class by taking it?” She would pound her cane. (Her feet were deformed by arthritis.) But I never gave up. She had something of a begrudged respect for me because I didn’t give up. I was not the best dancer in the class, but I loved her technique, her isolation exercises, and the way she used the body that was very different from any other dancing I had studied (jazz, ballet, and tap).

TG: You were also, at one time, associate producer of All My Children – quite a range of experiences, I would guess.

DV: That was not my first taste of soap opera. I was on Guiding Light, playing a brain surgeon. I thought I might be interested in the other side of television and they needed an assistant producer. I learned very quickly it was not something I wanted to do. With a soap opera, you have to live, sleep, eat that soap opera. You have to know everything about these characters who aren’t real. My husband, Ron Raines, played Alan Spaulding on Guiding Light for 15 years. People would stop him on the bus and say they hated him.

TG: What’s your impression of the Portland opera community?

DV: Portland is not a large city yet it supports an inordinate number of art organizations, from the symphony to the ballet to Portland Stage to PORTopera – all are prestigious and recognized nationally. PORTopera is more renowned nationally than locally, but they have grown each season. After 35 years in existence, people are still surprised to learn we have an opera company. We’ve been reviewed by Opera News, the Boston Globe, gotten a lot of recognition, yet somehow we have difficulty letting people know we’re here.

The four leads we have this year all sing at the Met. Stephen Lord, the conductor, has conducted all over the world and was named by Opera News as one of the 25 most important conductors in the world. The production management team works all over the country. But there’s an attraction to Merrill. I call it the jewel of Portland.

ML: I was in shock that a city the size of Portland has such an incredible theater. So many bigger cities don’t have that.

DV – The acoustics are perfect. You can hear a pin drop. Singers can sing upstage and still be heard. I’ve never had singers come here with PORTopera and not be amazed with the theater.

TG: What would you want you audience to take away from this production?

ML: People are intimidated by the opera. In the digital age, everything is being digested in short spasms. To watch opera, it combines all of the arts together – dancing, singing, music, set design, costumes — with no dividers, no barriers between the performer and the listener. I open my mouth and produce a sound and nothing is interrupted. It’s something so unique and moving. In an age when connections are less and less — we don’t talk, we text.

DV: You experience all the feelings of the human condition through the art forms. What can be better than that?

Carmen by Bizet | PORTopera | Wednesday, July 27 and Friday, July 29, at 7:30pm | Merrill Auditorium, Portland | https://tickets.porttix.com/public/show_events_list.asp

The Ossipee Valley Music Festival gets into swing Thursday, July 28 in Hiram. The four-day music jamboree features more than 20 bands from local lore to national renown, including the Ghost of Paul Revere, Mandolin Orange, Sarah Jarosz, The California Honeydrops and the John Jorgenson Gypsy Jazz Quintet.

I was able to catch up with three of the acts and ask them about what brings them to Maine, life on the road, and balancing live shows with studio work.

Practitioners of “holler-folk,” a term they created to describe their distinct music, the Ghost of Paul Revere has come along way from their upbringing along the banks of the Saco River.

“When we started out, we invented our own genre,” says Griffin Sherry, lead guitar. “We didn’t know how to describe our sound. It’s a mix of bluegrass and folk, harmonies of field songs, and old school hollers – all with roots in the American folk tradition.”

Built around three-part harmonies, the band has risen steadily from local heroes to a national status that draws fans from remote corners of the country.

Childhood friends Max Davis (banjo), Sean McCarthy (bass), Matt Young (harmonica and mandolin), and Sherry each bring unique sounds, but their songs only come together when all four are working on them. Young is the only member from away, moving from New Jersey to attend the College of the Atlantic, but he’d vacationed in Maine each summer with his family The college experience solidified the vibe he had found here.

All four band members sing; Davis and Sherry write the lyrics. They have shared the stage with Brown Bird, Spirit Family Reunion, and the Mama Bear, and have sold out Port City Music Hall, Stone Mountain Arts Center, and the Strand Theater several times. Winners of Best In Maine at the 2014 New England Music Awards, the Ghost was an official showcase artist at Folk Alliance International 2015 and made their Newport Folk Festival debut in 2015.

They’d won a contest to get into Newport and also landed a couple of days in a studio.

“We had a few live tracks we didn’t know what to do with,” Davis recalled. “When we started assembling them, it didn’t feel like they had a cohesive element. We were traveling so much, it seemed like a good way to bring these songs together.” The collective result is their fourth album, Field Notes Vol. 1.

The Newport appearance was “mind blowing, to be a peer of the artists there, spending time with them and trying not to freak out,” Sherry says, “with Roger Waters and Jim James (from My Morning Jacket) walking around and eating the same hummus as we were.” That starstruck showing made a lasting impression, but the band longs to return to more intimate festivals like Ossipee, where there is seemingly no separation between them and the bigger stars.

“Griffin and I were just looking back over the website for Ossipee,” Davis said. “We didn’t realize they had changed it from bluegrass to a (more general) festival, similar to Newport, which went from folk to encompass all music.”

Davis prefers the live shows, but is starting to enjoy the studio experience. “A lot of people say we’re a live band, since the first couple albums were live cuts in the studio,” he says. “Now we’re taking more risks on stage, having played some bigger venues.”

“We’re more comfortable with the instruments,” Sherry adds, “and getting to know each other’s sound so much better.”

Mandolin Orange, comprised of North Carolinians Emily Frantz and Andrew Marlin, have been busy. Most of their time is spent on tour, with days off in the studio where they’ve cranked out three highly-acclaimed albums - Quiet Little Room, Haste Make/Hard Hearted Stranger, and This Side of Jordan over the past few years They hit the Ossipee Valley Music Festival hot off the heels of their new work, Such Jubilee. Mandolin Orange has played with Rosanne Cash, Chatham County Line, and the Steep Canyon Rangers. They played in Portland last year.

One of their most influential experiences was opening for the Man in Black’s eldest daughter. “We met her four years ago in Charlotte,” Frantz said. “She had heard some of our early records and asked us to join her. We did a Carter family tune together.”

Although they seem to be always on the road, playing more than 200 times a year, the duo says travel is much easier now, roving around with a smaller outfit and honing their craft.

In one of their best covers, Mandolin Orange puts a new twist on Bob Dylan’s “Boots of Spanish Leather.” In the original, Dylan sings both male and female parts of the dialogue about a sailor heading off to sea, wondering what he can bring back to his love. In the updated version, Frantz and Marlin switch the gender roles and provide a more contemporary view of the domestic arrangement, a sort of seahorse.

Their strongest songs, though, are of their own making. “Andrew is the main songwriter,” says Frantz, guitarist. “My involvement is more the arrangement, figuring out how we want it to sound. He usually creates the melody and lyrics simultaneously, although sometimes the melody and chords come first.” Marlin, who plays mandolin and guitar, calls his creative process “spitballing,” throwing out nonsense phrases until there’s enough to work with.

“We mostly play shows,” Frantz says. “In a lot of ways, it’s what we enjoy doing. This new album, the way we recorded it, is informed by that. We want it to feel live, like people sitting around playing music together, not just the layers of the studio.”

Sarah Jarosz, one of the headliners of the Ossipee Valley Music Festival, has played here before. Even though her busy tour schedule means she often croons in a new town each night, she says she can’t wait to get back into Maine this Friday. She’ll play six times in the eight nights before she arrives, and looks forward to the brief respite the great outdoors can offer.

Jarosz was nominated for a Grammy for Best Folk Album (2013’s Build Me Up From Bones) and Best American Roots Song for its title track. Her first album, Song Up In Her Head, featured an instrumental called “Mansinneedof” that also received a Grammy nomination. She grew up going to a lot of festivals and is fond of the culture. “It’s how I fell in love with a lot of the music I still listen to. It’s how I started playing,” she said. “You get to watch your heroes and your friends play, too.”

Jarosz also covets the controlled environment of a smaller venue, where fans are focused on the listening. A music festival is a different animal, where “it’s about the music, but it’s also about everything else.”

She has a new album out called Undercurrent and says the new music is the main source for her seemingly unlimited energy, as well as getting to play with different people along the way. In Maine, she’ll be joined by Jedd Hughes (acoustic and electric guitar) and Jeff Picker (upright bass). Jarosz has been writing with Hughes since her last record. “He’s a collaborator I’m very fond of, and I’m glad to have him on the road with me.”

This new album is her first one with all original songs. Her previous live coverwork includes a surprising version of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.”

“Covers are an interesting thing,” she says. “There are those songs that feel like the original is the way it should always be played. Not all songs necessarily lend themselves to another person’s interpretation. When it does, it’s a special thing. I try to think of a way to make it fresh and original, in the tradition of oral music – playing a tune and making it your own. I’ve always loved playing other people’s songs.”

She craves both musical experiences – playing live and recording – but draws a distinction. “It’s special to be able to take time in studio and figure out all the ways of playing and recording songs, but it’s not a direct connection with the people hearing it.”

Response so far to her fourth album has been gratifying, she says. “The tour’s been great, a lot of shows sold out. It’s cool for a record that just came out last month that people know the songs and are singing along.”

For more about the Ossipee Valley Music Festival, visit http://ossipeevalley.com.

Bikers Against Child Abuse (B.A.C.A.) International is a 501c3 nonprofit group of volunteer bikers, men and women, that supports child-abuse victims by involving them with an established, united organization, appearing with them in court and offering 24/7 on-call help. B.A.C.A. has charters across the world, in countries like Spain, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States, to name a few. Now there’s a temporary charter in Maine working toward full chapter status.

How it began

What started with a tragic event has been turned into a worthy cause. Three years ago, Ervin Osborne, an auto instructor at the Portland Arts & Technology High School, was riding his motorcycle, out enjoying the freedom that only a bike can bring. Suddenly, the day was forever changed, for him and his loved ones, when he was involved in a fatal accident.

After Osborne’s death, a mutual friend telephoned “Bubba” and told him about this organization that sounded a lot like something he and Ervin would have gotten involved in. “He used to be my best friend,” said Bubba, president. “That was the start of B.A.C.A. Maine three years ago.”

Word spread and a bigger band of bikers started to coalesce. Blackheart, eventual vice president, saw a Facebook post, got in touch with the international charter and put them in touch with Bubba. Bonzai, who became their public relations manager, saw the bikers in Westbrook at a Halloween event, heard there was a temporary charter forming here in Maine, and got involved.

“We’re not a motorcycle club; we’re an organization,” says Bubba of their local affiliation which started with five members and has ballooned to 60 bikers (of various levels of involvement) per monthly meeting. B.A.C.A. Maine is close to becoming a permanent chapter, which involves specific training required by the international organization. “It’s about showing up, having the time to do it, and having a big heart. It takes a lot. We volunteer our time and even donate our own money at times.”

What it takes

B.A.C.A. International has several training regiments that need to be done in person, as well as a review in detail of several policy and procedure documents and international bi-laws, so all the bikers have the same information and are reading from the same page. “It’s not going online and knocking out a few courses,” Bonzai said. “It’s about learning how to ride together, how to interact with the child, and how to interact with the motorcycle community.”

Full membership in B.A.C.A. Maine starts with a required FBI background check. Those with any history of domestic or child abuse of any form are not permitted to join. Cleared supporters that want to become full members need to have a sponsor, complete all required training — most of which cannot be done until the individual is cleared — and wait a period of no less than one year from the time the background check comes back clear before their sponsor can recommend them for a patch. During this one-year time period, the sponsor observes the supporter’s behavior, answers any questions that may come up, and rides with them whenever possible to ensure that they are going to be able to ride safely in a pack formation. A cleared supporter is required to join the full-patched members on all level one rides as necessary. (Only members and cleared supporters can be around a B.A.C.A. child.) After a year of training, this sponsor is the one who will judge if the rider is ready or not to become a full-patched member with a back patch, the last piece in the B.A.C.A. puzzle.

The riders get road names, usually selecting them for themselves. The unfortunate ones (like Roadkill) get one given to them. They use their road names in court and in the press. “We don’t want the perp to know who we are. We’re helping children who’ve been abused. We don’t ask the particulars. We prefer not to know,” Bubba said. A child liaison (who goes by Twinkle) knows all the stories and the documented reports of child abuse, whether physical, sexual, or mental. “If a child’s living in fear, that’s when we come into play — as long as the legal guardian gives the okay.”

How it works

Members are assigned to a child as a “primary,” based on where the member lives in proximity to the child's home — whoever is the closest and would be able to respond to the child's needs the quickest (unless the child doesn’t feel comfortable with that member, e.g. a member’s beard, cologne, or perfume triggers a reaction or bad memory from the child). There are always two members that are assigned to a child. “We always work in pairs for the safety of the child and our safety as well,” Bonzai said.

When B.A.C.A. members accompany kids to court, they are met with open arms by all, from the judges to the sheriffs to the clerks. “They often let us wear our vests in,” Bonzai said. “It’s good when we can wear our cuts. Not all courts and judges will allow that. It really helps empower that hero – that’s what we call the kids.” And the best-case scenario: the child wins the court case and is not living in fear anymore.

B.A.C.A. associates with everyone and affiliates with no one. They work to avoid unnecessary turf issues so they reach out to other motorcycle organizations to gain their support and help them understand our mission. “It’s important that we keep positive relations with the entire motorcycle community. Some motorcycle clubs can be territorial,” Bonzai said. “We don’t want to interfere with them. Out of respect for their community, we make sure they’re aware of our mission.”

What comes next

One of B.A.C.A. Maine’s big tasks is to raise money for their cause, and one of their biggest supporters from the beginning has been Big Moose Harley-Davidson in Portland.

Keith Liberty, sales manager and events coordinator at the Riverside Street shop, heard about the guys from B.A.C.A. Maine appearing in court with some kids. “I found about the group being nearby and wanted to help,” he said. “We had been accepting money for a different charity each month. When I realized how important they were, we started to try to raise money for them year round. We try to do one event a month to support them. Some months it’s four.”

Their biggest annual fundraiser is a donation-only ride around the Sebago Lake area, coming up on Aug. 13. After the Saturday ride, there’s an afternoon pig roast at Big Moose, with hamburgers, hotdogs and sausages. There will also be raffles, face painting, racecars and special guest appearances.

And the effect on the kids?

“The word we use most is ‘empowerment,’” Bubba said. “When we come into their world, it’s a total switch from being scared. They were living in fear, and now they’re able to move on in their lives.”

The kids get jackets and pick their own road names. B.A.C.A. Maine gets patches made for them with their road name on the front and the phrase “I will not live in fear” on the back.

“You see that light switch go on when you patch ‘em in and give them their vests. It can be very emotional,” Blackheart said. “We patch ‘em in and they get that feeling. We tell them we’re big brothers and sisters. We build a wall of leather around them, and no one is getting through.”

Eric Krasno just jammed with Phil Lesh, original member of The Grateful Dead. Now he’s bringing his musical acumen to Portland to showcase his first solo album, Blood from a Stone.

“I’ve been playing with him on and off for last two years. His band varies, but I was lucky to have been with them a couple of times, sometimes with Chris Robinson, sometimes with Warren Haynes,” Krasno said from his Brooklyn home last week. “It’s fun. He likes to mix it up, take Grateful Dead songs and put a different spin on them.”

The guitarist Krasno has been penning lyrics with local legend Dave Gutter for the past two years. His new album was created when the two of them got together in the Port City to write some more and jam for a bit. Ryan Zoidis, from Rustic Overtones and Lettuce, joined them on sax. Some of the guys from London Souls came by to provide some percussion. Several other Portland musicians, including a string quartet, jumped into the arrangement. What resulted for the background artist was a move into the limelight.

“Right off the bat, we started rolling on all these tunes,” said Krasno, who provided instrumental ideas to Gutter’s words. “The next thing you know, what we thought was a writing session became the recording.”

He was excited to record in Portland again and pleasantly pleased with the community support. “It was a discovery for me,” he said. “I love Portland but didn’t know how much great music or how many great artists there are.”

The original plan was to get together and have different singers featured on different songs. Once they got underway, however, Gutter told him he should go out front and sing, be his own artist. It took a little while for the concept to settle, “but when I got in the booth and started singing, it took on a new life.”

Krasno will play at the Portland House of Music & Events on Friday, Aug. 19. He’s set to perform with Alex Chakour (bass), Eric Kalb (drums), DeShawn Alexander (keyboards), Danny Mayer (guitar), and Mary Corso (backing vocals).

The new record features appearances with Derek Trucks and Soulive, in addition to several of the Portland minstrels. Previously, Krasno worked with Gutter to write songs for Tedeschi Trucks Band, and on Aaron Neville’s forthcoming album.

“I collaborated with Dave at my mother’s house in Vermont,” he said. “We went to the woods for a couple of days and wrote the Neville album. We’re still constantly working on stuff, via satellite, but we work better when we’re together.”

Krasno’s surprise move from songwriter to lead singer led him to title the new album Blood from a Stone. It’s a joking self-reference, one he says many reviewers have missed. At first, it was a separate single, but he liked the name so much he made it the title.

Krasno had lived in Portland for a short while in the mid to late '90s. He noted how much it has changed since then, how it had become “culturally more rich. There’s amazing food at places like Eventide (Oyster Co.) and Duckfat. I know some foodies there, and there’s great coffee and beer. From the music to the food, it’s just beautiful in the summer.”

He’s previously worked with such diverse talents as Norah Jones, Talib Kweli, Justin Timberlake, and 50 Cent. In more recent years, he’s written for and toured with Tedeschi Trucks, playing bass in their band.

“I had a lot more connection with them (than the other big name musicians), and the project won a couple of Grammys,” he said. “And of course, the Neville record coming out has been a dream gig.” On it, he worked with Gutter, imagining Neville’s life through at least 50 poems he had sent them.

“The cool thing for me was laying down music and melodies, like painting a picture. We created the sketch and Aaron would add the color. He was very involved in the process, something he had not done on his records in a very long time,” Krasno said. “The excitement level between all of us was high.”

Gutter’s long been a lyrical inspiration for him, opening up word channels he hadn’t known before. “Once he opens it up, it just flows. Sometimes in the songwriting process, that’s all you need. He helped me learn how to write bumper sticker lines and then fit them in like a puzzle,” he said. “Dave doesn’t stop until we get it right. We push each other in that way. I’ve never had a cowriter as excited about it as I was. We’re good for each other. We’ll forget to eat, sleep, or do anything else. It’s like a marathon.”

One of the best things about the new album, he says, is that the band is taking on its own identity while working through the songs. “There are two guitars and a lot of lush vocals. It’s nice to be able to hone in harmonies with the band, do these interweaving guitar things.”

Krasno has been involved in music for a long time, but says it’s thrilling to have a new gig. “I’m so inspired, going back into my roots and cherry picking, with (Carlos) Santana-like guitar and vocals, Crosby, Stills and Nash harmonies, and hip-hop references. It’s exciting to be able to throw all these things into this melting pot and hear something brand new come out of it.”

Playing live has given him additional insights, by churning away and working on the music. “Every night there’s a moment when something brand new happens,” he said. “It’s what we work for, to allow that spontaneity to happen within the songs.”

At the Portland concert, Armies (Gutter’s new incarnation with Anna Lombard) will open up, and Krasno expects he’ll be able to get them to join him for some songs during the main act. He wants to get to Maine early and have several practice sessions with the local musicians who helped him get here. Musically, it’s the way life should be.

Eric Krasno Band CD release | Friday, Aug. 19 at 8:00pm | Portland House of Music and Events, 25 Temple St. | $15-$18

When you get your morning coffee, you might not realize that Starbuck’s is named for the first mate in Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. Starbuck is the voice of sanity when confronted by Captain Ahab’s madness. Getting your coffee anywhere else, advertisers suggest, would be crazy.

Forgotten for nearly a century after his death, Melville lived his later years working on the New York docks and was listed in The New York Times obituary section in minor detail. But, at one time, he was considered America’s first literary sex symbol, a perception solidified with his first works, Typee and Omoo, which recount his adventures in the Polynesian Islands, cavorting with the cannibals and frolicking with the native ladies naked in the waters. He said he felt like a “happy dog.”

But Moby-Dick cost him his happiness, readership and renown, and it wasn’t until after World War I that the public was ready again for this violent tale of the slaughter of the whaling industry.

A new book by Michael Sheldon makes an audacious claim: that Melville’s lengthy tome was inspired by a secret love life with his married Berkshire neighbor, Sarah Morewood. Melville was also married, living a domestic life with children of his own. Sheldon persuasively argues that Melville quite probably fathered two children with Morewood. It’s a thoroughly researched theory, and by the conclusion of Melville in Love, you’ll agree with the author that the later writings were more inspired by a tumultuous secret romance than by The Bible, Shakespeare and Dante.

The novel about Ahab’s maniacal quest for Moby-Dick, the white whale, is too tough for most high-schoolers and has also fallen out of fashion with many college professors, but Sheldon’s informed and easy prose revitalizes the book by connecting places and dates when the lovers were together, and apart from their spouses. To this he fuses the romantic epistles that have been hiding in plain sight for decades.

Sheldon, who has written biographies on George Orwell, Mark Twain and Winston Churchill, discovered in the Melville-Morewood letters a kinship that went beyond societal norms. “Melville’s letters really alerted me that something was going on,” he said recently. “He calls her his goddess. If you were married and you were calling a woman such names, your wife would have been suspicious. What first stopped me cold was ‘Why didn’t scholars think these letters were out of the ordinary?’ These are passionate letters. Why wasn’t this known about?”

Sheldon was a group biographer of Friends of Thomas about writers in post-WWI London, including T.S. Eliot, who were associated with a magazine called Horizon. (Cyril Connolly had penned a book called Enemies of Thomas.) Sheldon was the fifth biographer of Graham Greene and writes occasionally for the online magazine Zocalo. But none of his delving into lives of the greats has come close to his more recent findings.

“Melville was pretty much forgotten for 100 years. When people come back to him, he was so cold it was almost like an old murder case,” he said. When scholars first discovered these letters in the 1950s, they thought they were innocent feelings between a lady and her friend. “Back then, you didn’t flirt with your neighbor's wife, or he would have shot you. It was no game back then. And some of these hardcore Melville enthusiasts today don’t want to admit that these were love letters. They think everyone wrote like this, but I can’t find another example of it. You would have been taking your life in your hands.”

Melville’s relative anonymity and then his subsequent reascendance led previous researchers to follow traditional means of collecting evidence. Sheldon struck out on a new path, pouring through Morewood’s letters to Melville in the basement of Arrowhead, his home in Pittsfield, Ma., which is now a house museum. “I found the largest collection of Morewood letters there. Her oil portrait hangs in the house. The walls are lined with boxes from the Berkshire County Historical Society.”

“That’s the biggest factor,” Sheldon says of the revelation he found in the letters. “So little is known about Sarah Morewood. Scholars have minimized her impact, and I can’t think of any reason except thinking she was just some society lady. But she was wild for her times. She rode sidesaddle on galloping colts. In the days before her death, she went on 85-mile trip in horse and buggy, all over the countryside. She was poet, adored by a lot of famous men. When she died, the newspapers said she was a ‘representative woman.’ (Ralph Waldo) Emerson had written about representative men, like Shakespeare.”

Morewood’s English husband had been pretty much absent. The man she was spending the most time with was Melville, taking long walks and horse rides for many miles. They spent one night on Mount Greylock, the highest natural point in Massachusetts and part of the Appalachian Trail, a gorgeous place with a sublime vista of undeveloped land. Morewood writes to Melville that, after that occasion, she kept looking back like Lot’s wife.

“No lady in the 1860s would say that about herself,” Sheldon said. “You might as well say you were looking back on a city destroyed by God. It would have meant a lot to people in those days; Sodom and Gomorrah were the two most wicked cities in The Bible.”

Sheldon made another discovery. In his reading of other biographies, he was surprised to find the lingering perception that Melville had a sexual relationship with Nathaniel Hawthorne.

“If anything, Hawthorne was homophobic. He criticized a Shaker community for their openness and wrote that the community should be wiped out,” Sheldon said, wishing he’d made more in his book of that false view. “Melville probably had some sort of relationship with men, with all his years at sea, but there is no documentation of any kind of a romance with Hawthorne.”

The Melville and Morewood families became officially connected much later on, when Herman’s daughter married Sarah’s son. That public ceremony may have hidden a private fear, and Melville explored the theme of incest in Pierre, the first work he wrote after Moby-Dick. In it, he moved from an adulterous relationship to an incestuous one.

“The readers of Pierre could handle adultery but not incest,” Sheldon said. “For Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter it was okay, but not in (Edgar Allan) Poe's ‘Fall of the House of Usher.’ Although he only hinted at in Pierre, people thought Melville had gone crazy. Who would put incest into a mainstream novel?”

Sheldon says reader reactions to his book are strangely divided along gender. “Women seem to love it. They get it. A man in a love affair like this could behave the way he did. Men don’t want to admit that their tough Melville was affected by a woman. The fundamental problem is that many men still refuse to take women seriously. They can say they do, but their actions suggest something else.”

One thing readers of Melville can agree on is that Captain Ahab is an attractive devil in many ways. He’s angry with God for not being a better God.

“Moby-Dick is really an outrageous book. Melville scholars want him to be revolutionary in his literature but conventional in his personal life,” Sheldon said. “That’s my point in the book: Melville was revolutionary in both his writing and his life.”

A few years ago, when Jaw Gems played Tuesday nights at Local 188, the crowd was so packed into the Congress Street restaurant that patrons couldn’t really dance so much as groove in the spot they were standing. Luckily for them, the popular band designs their music more for the mind than an external exhibition. They’ve left that weekly gig and returned to the studio to produce their second album, Heatweaver.

The electronic beat-makers of pulsating rhythms now bring their ensemble to the Portland House of Music and Events on Friday, Aug. 26, moving to the bigger venue with the hope of drawing their loyal following, as well as new fans looking for a unique sound.

Jaw Gems is composed of Hussan Muhammad and Tyler Quist, both on keyboard and samplers; D.J. Moore plays drums, and Andrew Scherzer is on electric bass. Each of them plays in at least two different bands, but this is their main project and focal point for playing live.

“I’m a classical pianist,” Muhammad said in an interview last week. “It’s an important part of every day, and it’s important to me to be able to play it.”

This Friday, they’ll be introducing songs from the new CD, a year and half-long endeavor of making beats and finishing the others’ individual ideas.

“It’s a creative process. One of us bring a beat, the other three say, ‘Cool – we have a place where we can take that.’ We all start in an individual place and then refine it collectively,” said Muhammad, from Cincinnati, Ohio, where he met Blakhi in middle school. The best-selling beatmaker influenced his move from classical to hip-hop instrumentals. (Blakhi will be one of the opening acts Friday night, along with Altered Gee, a duo on keys and drum/beat, and Condor, a Boston-based synth-rock band.)

Muhammad moved to Maine two years ago to study English at Bowdoin College. There he met Scherzer, a DJ at the college radio station, WBOR. They connected with Quist and Moore at the University of Maine at Augusta and moved their act to Portland.

“Because we were all listening to instrumental hip-hop like J Dilla, people pointed us out to each other,” Muhammad said. He delights in writing, one time even sharing a journal trade with a stranger for reading on board a long flight, but there are no lyrics to a Jaw Gems’ song. Now live, the band is focused on the challenge of entertaining a large crowd without vocals.

“Without words, people have more of an ability to feel whatever it makes them feel. Lyrics sometimes, because they’re very direct, they make you feel only that. Purely instrumental music lets you flow inside the music more,” he said. “It’s not just background music. You can be focused on an instrumental show and very deep inside your own mind. We’ve always just tried to play grooves that feel good to us, captivate us. When we’re lucky, that translates to the audience too and provides sounds that make your head nod.”

The drummer Moore provides the backbone of the music. “If you just listen to him in a room, it will be more than enough,” says Muhammad. “We decorate that with two keyboardists and a bass player, and try to create something that feels good to people, and feels good to us.”

Moore says that “making music is how we chill, and the album naturally unfolded once we were all committed to being in the same place together for some time.”

The band name came from the grill that several hip-hoppers sport, lighting up their smiles with faux gold dentures. “We had been playing a lot of hip-hop covers and wanted a fun name with bright imagery,” Quist said. “It started to ring after a while.”

At the performance, Jaw Gems will be playing a lot of pieces from their new release so people who haven’t heard them before will get a good sense of what the album sounds like, a densely layered work — headphone music — and the band admits that much of the new music recordings, finely tweaked in the studio, will be tested when they bring them out live.

“It’s exciting to find a different way to play a song. People who have the album can listen to that, but to play it differently live is something I think about all the time,” Muhammad said. “We can only play so many keyboards at once. In the studio, you can layer an unlimited amount of sounds. You can’t have that many keyboards live, so it’s a process of finding how to reimagine and rework the songs in a compelling way, given what you have at your disposal – two hands and two feet.”

Jaw Gems has played at the Brooklyn Bowl and the Boston Fuzztival, held at the Middle East. They will also be doing a round with Lettuce on Sept. 21 in Providence at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, and have upcoming gigs at The Tralf Music Hall in Buffalo and the Sinclair in Cambridge.

But the real challenge is to perform in Portland, for their followers and new listeners. According to Muhammad, the band has few frets about the local show. “We worry more about the creative process. We hope people enjoy it and then listen to it again and again. The most important thing now, though, is to stay inspired and play good music for people, have fun on the stage.”

Jaw Gems at Portland House of Music and Events | Friday, Aug. 26 at 8:30pm | Along with Blakhi, Altered Gee, and Condor | http://www.portlandhouseofmusic.com/events/

Benjamin Rybeck was born in Portland and grew up in Falmouth. He went to the University of Southern Maine before moving to Arizona at age 23. It took that move away from his hometown to be able to use the Port City as inspiration for his first novel, The Sadness.

“When I was in high school, as soon as I was able to drive, I would go as often as I could to Portland,” he said. Especially moved by what were his three favorite places to research and work – Casco Bay Books, The Movies on Exchange Street, and Videoport – Rybeck has a major character echo the author’s own lament about their closings.

“All of these places were my haunts, especially Videoport and Movies on Exchange. I have loved movies for so long, reading books came late and secondary to me. All of these places closed while I was writing the book, so the process became elegiac in a way I did not intend. Their closings were my own sadness, in a way.”

Rybeck did not work continuously on the novel since he left town in 2006, but the germ of a book came 10 years ago. The Sadness is about Kelly Enright, traveling from Arizona to Portland, where she grew up, on a quest to find her long-gone father and perhaps avail herself of some of his reputed money. It opens with her twin brother, Max, a struggling filmmaker and his search for Evelyn, the onetime solo star of his unmade movie. Evelyn has gone missing, and Max puts up fliers and tries to find her, retrace her last known late-night Old Port sojourns.

“The Evelyn character arose from both real-life events in Portland and a fictional person who came from the creation of book,” said Rybeck, who knew a lot of people who knew her, but never did himself. “When I started writing the book, there was a girl who had gone missing in Portland and beyond the natural sadness, there was also an element where I felt like my life had passed her by.”

By the novel’s conclusion, Kelly has realized her quest to find their father is mismotivated and pointless. It takes a deus ex machina, for her to see that the journey she has to go on is to essentially forgive her mother, or at least understand her. She’s holding on to this image of her father and understands she can use him if she finds him. In doing so, she ignores her mother’s late-life wish, that Kelly take care of her brother, a reclusive loser with rising anger issues.

“Through a chain of events, Kelly realizes she’s just as fucked up as Max and had been pursing this selfish thing, alienating her brother and mother in the process. The change only comes Kelly finds herself where her mother died,” he said.

Rybeck uses a multi-genre point-of-view, incorporating multiple character angles, footnoted interviews (some real, some mock), diary entries and letters from deceased characters – a process he calls metatext.

“The book is about ghosts, that’s the first thing on Kelly’s mind when she drives in to Portland. There are three major characters who are missing. They cast a massive shadow of everything. As a writer try to create them to be as deeply felt as the characters who are there.” For example, Rybeck uses Evelyn’s journals to a get a sense of her. The current version of metatext serves two purposes – to get Max’s voice into the book early and also to produce soundtrack elements, something you can’t do in a novel but can do in a film.

The book was researched in Portland (“hauntingly”), and Rybeck drew upon native friends, like the Portland poet Michael Macklin, a custodian and poetry guru of the students at Waynflete, and Rick Russo. He also emulated the work of writers of international renown like Jonathan Lethem and David Foster Wallace, each of whom has also employed multi-genre works to comparative success. “I’m a huge fan of Lethem, an influence on the book and me as a writer. In every book, he tries to do something new. And Wallace and Rick Russo, both writers I love, went to the University of Arizona,” said Rybeck who got his post-grad degree there. “I hope my writing is some sort of middle ground between them.”

For more about The Sadness, stop in Longfellow Books or visit http://www.longfellowbooks.com/book/9781939419705

When Mayo Street Arts began its International Heritage Music Series four years ago, they set a high standard for performance value, attendance and community enthusiasm.

Kabile, the Bulgarian husband and wife team of Nikolay and Donka Kolev, played traditional songs and instrumentals and romped in the historic Danish church, drawing the packed house from their seats to join them in dance.

In September, the duo returns to Mayo Street with their new incarnation, Bulgarika, which includes Vassil Bebelekov and Dragi Dragnev, instrumental specialists in the Bulgarian bagpipe, shepherds flute, large drum and keyboards. The Kolevs are award-winning performers from folk music conservatories in Bulgaria.

“The series started because of Kabile,” says Blainor McGough, Mayo Street executive director and founder with her husband, Brian Arlet. “They were one of the first international concerts, so we made the decision to bring them back. People still talk about that show, which went from a concert with people packed in the benches to this swirling mass of dancing. They started on the stage, as big part of the Bulgarian tradition, and then walked down into the room. People were dancing around them in circles.”

Matthew Schreiber, a musician and friend who now lives in New Orleans, had recommended the group; and McGough said the show was a turning point for the East Bayside performance venue, exhibit space, and community center. “There was a range of people from the neighborhood — kids, grown-ups and a pocket of people who are into Balkan dance.” The latter group, associated with Downeast Friends of the Folk Arts (DEFFA), craves the music of Bulgaria, known for hauntingly expressive melodies, fascinating irregular rhythms and fiery dance tempos. And the Kolevs were inspired by the night, as well.

“We like to be among the people. That’s a better connection,” Donka said, who specializes in Bulgarian folk music and dance from Trace, the region of southern Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, and part of Turkey. “The most popular dance and easiest to learn is the Pravo Horo. It’s in 2/4 time. What is different in Bulgarian music is the rhythm. For example, a 7/8 dance called Ruchenitsa, a 9/8 dance called Daichovo Horo.”

Professional musicians in Bulgaria, the Kolevs moved to the United States in 1995, and found an immediate audience. “We were surprised but felt good they were interested,” she said.

Donka sings. Nikolay plays the traditional Bulgarian instrument the gadulka. She started in music at age 5. He started at age 10. Their paths converged when they attended a special folk school with a musical specialty, to learn about Bulgarian folk and traditions. They fell in love, were married and moved to the U.S. They began performing across the country in 1996 and are now on their 13th nationwide tour.

The Bulgarika concert is part of the International Heritage Music Series. “Based on the idea that music is inherent to strengthening community in cultures around the world, the series celebrates regional music and dance traditions," according to a grant report. “Performances will showcase leading artists in Arabic folk music, French and El Salvadorian violin music, Scandinavian choir music and more.” Mayo Street Arts receives funding from the Davis Family Foundation and the Brooks’ Family Foundation, which support local and international music.

Each year, the series offers eight to 12 international concerts from Sept. to May, with the summer months devoted more to children’s programs and puppet shows. Musicians have hailed from such places as Scandinavia, Burundi, Turkey, Romanian and Brazil.

“International music reflects the neighborhood here, and the population we have been working with,” McGough said, and she expects a big crowd again for Bulgaria Redux.

International Heritage Music Series: Bulgarika | Sunday, Sept. 18 | Mayo Street Arts, 10 Mayo St., Portland | 7:30-8:15pm concert; 8:15-8:30pm intermission; 8:30pm dancing | For more info, visit mayostreetarts.org

Students in Jean Davis’s ninth grade Gorham High School English class were assigned a research paper on a topic of their own choosing. It just had to be something they were interested in.

“I chose teaching music to blind and deaf children,” recalls Kate Beever, founder of Maine Music & Health, when reflecting on her occupational roots. “We interviewed people for the paper, and I discovered that music therapy was a whole field in healthcare.”

She’s pursued that healthy interest ever since, studying music at the University of Southern Maine and working for Frank Glazer, who was a pianist of international renown and longtime Bates College artist-in-residence. After college, Beever moved to New York City and received her master’s degree in Music Psychotherapy from N.Y.U. She returned to Maine to open MM&H, working with clients of all ages with health issues like cancer, autism, cerebral palsy, depression and dementia. Still motivated by that childlike desire to share the fruits of her first research paper, Beever sought to enlarge the audience.

She created a conference to bring like-minded health-through-art advocates together, to share vignettes, best practices, and integration ideas. The aim of the Creative Health Conference, now in its third year, “is to spread the word about arts therapy, educate the public, and help medical professionals incorporate the arts into healthcare,” she said. Speakers this year include Carla Tanguay, from Modulation Therapy in Bar Harbor, who will discuss music therapy for people in hospice care, as well as dance therapist Dr. Maryam Mermey, of Morning Glory Arts Therapy in Manchester, who will present a workshop on working with people in a spiritual dimension. Jamie Sylvestei of ArtVan gives a talk on mobile arts therapy in under-resourced and urban neighborhoods.

“Music therapy has been around since World War II,” Beever said. “They started using music therapy with returning soldiers who had PTSD, and then started discovering the correlation between music and the brain. It’s an effective way to work with people's emotions.”

Arts therapists work with people with brain injuries, trauma, developmental disabilities, even at-risk teenagers at correctional facilities. “There’s a huge range of where these therapies work,” she said. “It’s complimentary (or integrative) health; you wouldn’t stop going to your doctor or taking medications. But arts therapy speeds up the recovery process.”

A 15-year-old girl we will call Alicia offers a good example. Alicia was living in a shelter. She’d just found out she was pregnant, but she didn’t want to work with a social worker. She had a lot of boundary issues, and did not trust people who said they would help her. “Even working with me, one-on-one for the first three sessions, she was basically silent,” said Beever, who then tried to guess — based on Alicia’s age and where she was brought up and furthermore, what music she might like.

“The stuff I played for her (hip-hop) was way off,” Beever laughs. “She suggested Aerosmith and the Rolling Stones. I printed off lyrics to 'Dream On' and 'Gimme Shelter' and we listened to them. We rewrote some of the lyrics to capture her own dreams.”

The transformation was not immediate, but Alicia’s progress was. “I had a guitar and keyboard and taught some of the basic chords of the songs. She started on keyboard but then really took to the guitar. That’s when I noticed her first smiling. When she started playing the instruments and learning some notes, she completely changed. She started showing up on time. She walked straighter. And she started greeting everyone in the office.” One more reminder of the benefits of an all-encompassing healthcare approach.

Success stories like this one will be shared at the Creative Health Conference, Saturday, Oct. 15 at the USM Lewiston Campus, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Attendees get continuing education credits. For more information and to register for the conference, visit mainemusicandhealth.com/catconference.

Portland artist Mei Selvage has been invited to participate in an Intercontinental Biennial of Indigenous and Millennial Arts exhibition in Piura, Peru. The Chinese native will travel there from Oct.10 to 20.

She met Jorge Ivan Cevallos, the founder and director of the exhibit, while attending a First Friday event at the Portland Public Library last year. Bruce Brown, curator emeritus at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, had encouraged her to attend the exhibit opening. Cevallos, also known as Crazy Horse, was with the exhibit as it traveled from Toronto, Canada, and Jessheim, Norway, before stopping in the Port City. It showed in Chicago this year.

“I am collaborating with Jorge on an art installation related to inter-connection,” she said of the work, entitled Five Elements, five works on 12-inch x 12-inch canvases in acrylic that depict space, earth, wind, fire and air. “In addition, I plan to interview some indigenous artists when I am in Peru. They are doing some really amazing artwork, but they’re little known to the English-speaking world. I would like to help them and be a cultural bridge.”

Inty Ñan, or Path of the Sun, as the conference and exhibit is known this year, is co-sponsored by The Indigenous School of the Arts Community of Learning and Foundation in Ecuador and the Cossio Del Pomar Arts Association in Peru. The philosophy behind it is rooted in the belief that the “vast traditions of the millenarian (or thousand year) cultures make up one of the most valuable living heritages of humanity,” according to the call for submissions. “Despite being of inestimable social value, it is one of the riches most rapidly disappearing, due to such factors as general extinction and failure to create new talent, disloyal appropriation, imposition of foreign uses and customs, and intolerance and alienation.”

In creating the biennial, Cevallos wanted art to be inspired by the millenarian culture, and came up with the idea of a combined exhibit and arts performance, which began conservatively in 2004 with a pilot project on a small scale, meant to set up n Native America Musical Opera, named Ayahuashca, by the Canadian-Ecuadorian musician and composer David West.

“We could have started at once on the international biennial, but considering its implications, we decided to give it a try first,” said Cevallos. “We officially invited artists in 2006, with the first edición, that took place in Quito, Ecuador.” The biennial exhibit, now in its sixth incarnation, is “like a festival, with art exhibitions, cooking displays, workshops, performance artists, craft food, and a medicine fair,” said Selvage, who hopes with Cevallos that the traveling gallery will return to Maine in the future, but that is uncertain.

“We are looking for a partner and sponsorship to go back to Portland. We would love to, and also we know that the Portland community will appreciate our visit,” Cevallos said. “We would like to do it in the summer of 2018, but it is still just a dream.”

American artists Scott Hill-Oneida, a painter, and Roy Kady, a Navajo weaver with join Selvage in Peru. The Portland-based painter was born in Sichuan, China. She moved to Missoula, Mont., in 1997, to attend the state university there where she studied business administration, graduated, and was hired by IBM. She moved to Portland in 2010. Currently working as a research director at Gartner, Selvage is the inventor of more than 30 patents.

Selvage and Cevallos are working on a collaboration project. Her paintings provide the inspiration for his poetry. The title of their installation is “Thread by Thread, We Connect,” which comes from a Chinese phase. The concept is about the “interconnectedness” for indigence people all over the world.

“Even though we don't often see and feel these connections, they exist nevertheless. It is also a Buddhist concept,” Selvage said. “As far as the art work goes, I made a Chinese accordion book including my ink painting. The covers are traditional Chinese fabric, and I add a strip of Peru fabric, which you gave to me. The top circle uses Peru fabric, too. I still need to stitch a mudra using red threads to match with the threads connecting the top and the bottom part.”

Selvage’s work encourages Cevallos to invite more artists like her who are incorporating their native culture and heritage into their creations.

“We have not yet had the chance to expand the invitation to many more Native American artists, due to the lack of money to make sure that their work will go all the way to South America,” Cevallos said. “As we all know, the United States has an enormous diversity of Native Nations, full of talent in all the fields of the arts. We wish at some point to find the sponsorship to make this happen. Meanwhile we hope to keep visiting this beautiful country with the Travelling Gallery.”

When the Korean War ended in 1953, Bob Mathews returned home and began working for Joe Botto, founder of Botto’s Bakery.

Mathews managed the store until 1983 when he bought it from Botto, keeping the name with the aim of maintaining the neighborhood knowledge of its fresh bread.

“When my grandfather retired in 2000, he was still here all the time,” says Jessica Mathews. That year, Bob transferred ownership to his sons, Steve and Bob, Jessica’s father. She joined full-time last year after a major occupational shift.

Jessica, who expanded the pastry side of the business last May, had been a social worker for seven years, working in Massachusetts. “I was super burned out and decided to go to culinary school,” she says of Le Cordon Bleu in Boston, which closed last year. “I had always cooked and baked, but I never dared risk opening my own business. I always swore I would never work at the bakery, but I needed a change, and the idea that I could do this as a living, something I did as a hobby – well, I have to love what I do.”

Her father and uncle also love their work, as can be evinced by their long hours at the bakery, baking late into the night and covering shifts when workers call out. And their dedication has paid off. They number their wholesale accounts around 300, including buyers from Kennebunk to Lewiston and out into the Sebago Lakes region.

Now they are pushing to get the word out about the retail side of the business, making sure local customers know what other baked offerings they have.

“A lot of people know we do bread. They come in and say, ‘I didn’t know you made pastries,’” Jessica said. Their Washington Avenue location sees a lot of foot traffic from the neighborhood and the morning commute. The storefront business, with a quaint design and a couple of tables and chairs, has tripled since they expanded and upgraded their equipment in 2002, she added. They now bake everything in-house, switching from offering a few frozen items.

“Since Jessica joined, we’ve expanded everything,” Bob says. “She got us on social media, and the response has been a really great way to reach people who never knew we were here. It used to be if you thought Botto’s, you thought bread.”

Steve and Bob start the day at 4 p.m. and work through the night, finishing up around 6 a.m. “There are not too many bakers left who work our schedule,” Steve said.

When they arrive, they collect orders, print out the recipes, and start the mixing process. Although they make similar products each night, the orders vary in volume.

They have had the same storefront since 1960, when the grandfather would meet up with friends who stopped by after church. “Sundays were always busy,” Steve remembers. “Churchgoers from St. Pius, St. Peter’s, and the Cathedral would come by and get Italian bread for their Sunday dinner.”

One thing that has changed over the years is now customers are far more interested in artisan bread. They see competition in this area from the area’s several micro bakeries like Standard, Scratch and Rosemont Deli.

“Over the last 20 years, it has changed like night to day. Back then, we didn’t slice one thing,” Bob says. “Italian rolls, hot dog rolls – that used to be 90 percent of the business. Now we make loaves of wheat, marble rye, sourdough.”

This new taste for healthier foods has necessitated the change, but the bakers don’t sweat the adaptation.

“Portland has such a youthful scene right now,” Jessica says. “It’s great because we're not located in the Old Port. In East Deering, this is it in terms of scratch-made bakeries.”

They make the cannoli fresh to order, using straight butter, not margarine or shortening.

“It’s more expensive, but it just tastes better,” Jessica said. Next month, they are going to start making cannoli shells.

That commitment to taste has a long history with the Mathews’ family, a third generation business that’s rare these days.

“At one point Steve, Bob, my grandfather, and I were all working here,” Jessica said. Bob's wife's, MaryBeth, handles all the account. In the summertime, there are as many as nine Mathews on the payroll. The tradition seems here to stay. With area food businesses closing, they have picked up a lot of accounts.

“And Portland is such a foodie city,” Jessica says. “So we always have that.”

We wandered into the Farmers’ Market on Monument Square last Wednesday, tasked with finding a day's worth of meals from the produce here and at the Deering Oaks Saturday market. My friend was going to help with the grocery lists, shopping and cooking, so everything seemed in good stead. Breakfast for me usually consists of coffee and cigarettes so the notion of eating well for at least 24 hours was a fresh idea.

Dick Piper, of Piper Ranch in Buckfield, was setting up shop. A retired construction worker, Piper started farming 17 years ago. He and his wife, Lynn, have been selling at the market for the last six years. She has a commercial kitchen called Lynn's Good to Go.

“She's the boss,” he said, referring to his wife but implying my friend as well, I could tell.

I told him about the assignment and asked for suggestions on the main meat. The Pipers raise cows, pigs, chickens and quail, born on their farm. They sell quail and quail eggs to Boda restaurant in Portland. They buy the chickens in Maine and have them shipped when they’re a day old.

“I go to the post office and pick up a hundred of them,” Piper says. I imagine that scene and decide to go postal, choosing chicken and asking him for a recommendation. He suggested half chickens, “The Martha Stewart Special.”

A customer named Kati Christoffel was browsing the nearby stands for that night's dinner, entertaining guests from out of town. Originally from Albany, N.Y., she moved to Portland last December from northern Maine, and has been hitting the farmer's markets regularly since then. She doesn’t buy all of her groceries on visits here, but could easily see making a meal of it.

Ryan and Meg Mitchell run South Paw Farm, located in Freedom. They have been selling at the Portland markets for seven years. From them, I bought red potatoes, leeks, garlic, onions, summer crisp lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers, several of the main ingredients for lunch and a few sides for dinner.

Josh Berry, executive chef, and Matt Duley, assistant chef, of the Union Restaurant at the Press Hotel, were shopping for the end-of-season rush. They say the nearby farmer's market is a weekly necessity, to stock up on the freshest ingredients for their new restaurant. Berry is a Maine native, and worked in Switzerland and Italy before coming home.

The market has a constant connection between youth and experience, bringing together modern sensibilities on healthy cuisine and age-old experience of drawing out the earth’s best bounty. Eddie Peterson is a fourth generation farmer with Beckwith's Farm, started by his grandfather. They've been selling at the Farmer's Market since 1978. Customer Susan Walsh, from Melrose, Mass. is vacationing on Peaks Island. She was perusing the vegetables at Beckwith’s stand and gave us some ideas for a novel salad, a spring mix with fresh berries perhaps, or a Caprese.

Cashed out, we looked to refrigerate and reorganize at Saturday’s market.

Deering Oaks was a typical swirl of farmstands and sellers, shoppers with strollers, dogs straining at the leash. There was one inexplicable sight: a woman with a tie-died shirt and a red Make America Great Again baseball hat.

David Koubek has worked the Good Shepherd’s Farm in Bremen for five years and has brought his produce to the Deering Oaks Farmer's Market for the past two. From him, we bought freshly milled bread called “Harvest Basket,” made with potato, caramelized onion and garlic. We got fresh eggs from the stand run by Tourmaline Hill Farm in Greenwood, between Norway and Bethel.

We were looking in vain for mozzarella for our lunch idea when we stumbled upon a cool source for distinctive food and flavors at the Fresh Start Farm stand, run by farmers whose lives provide quick and simple rejoinders to the baseball hat.

Cultivating Community, the Portland-based food co-op and education program since 2001, is partners with Fresh Start Farms stands, selling vegetables from local, shared gardens of the immigrant and refugee farm collective. From them, I bought a bag of fresh garlic, tiny potatoes and collared greens.

Rebeka Tombe, originally from Sudan, has lived in Portland for 16 years. She and her husband, John Yanga, have worked their farm for eight years. Christine Pompeo, of South Sudan, has farmed for five years, and lived in Portland for 10. “I started with a little garden, for my family only,” she said, “And then I thought, ‘This is a good business.’ All of my family are farmers.”

Products of the Produce:

Breakfast: eggs over medium on braised collard greens, thinly sliced on a biscuit (inspired by Bayou Kitchen), and roasted tiny potatoes

Lunch: tomato, mozzarella (we got at the grocery store) and basil with olive oil on Harvest Basket bread – a Caprese sandwich

Dinner: Roasted Chicken (New York Times recipe) in a big roasting pan. Roast chicken and potatoes after they’ve been marinated with olive oil, sriracha, and cumin. Halfway through, we added leeks tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon zest. After roasting to a crisp, golden brown, we drizzled yogurt with grated garlic over hot chicken, potatoes, and leeks. Topped off with arugula and fresh dill. Finally, a drizzle of whisked lemon juice and olive oil over greens, completing the perfect one-pan meal.

Bon appétit!

Recipients of the Greater Portland Landmarks 2016 Preservation Awards were scheduled to be honored Wednesday, Sept. 28 at the Maine Irish Heritage Center, one of 12 organizations and people being recognized.

“They have a true faith, to believe it would be possible,” Hilary Basset, executive director of GPL since 2000, said of the heritage center. “The people there are so committed, so enthusiastic, so hardworking. They have a true passion and belief and have accomplished extraordinary things. They are a good example of how people take an idea and run with it.”

MIHC, formerly St. Dominic’s Church, along with Meetinghouse Lofts in South Portland, the Clifford Residences, and the Press Hotel, are noted for their adaptive reuse projects.

“Construction began on St. Dominic’s Church in 1888 and was completed in 1893. For over one hundred years, the church was an important fixture in Portland’s Irish community. By the end of World War II, St. Dominic’s congregation had more than 4,000 members,” according to the MIHC website. “The Catholic Diocese closed the church in 1998, despite community protests and efforts to keep it open. The city of Portland acquired the church complex and later sold the buildings separately. In 2003, the Maine Irish Heritage Center purchased and began operating out of the church.”

Since then, a volunteer force at MIHC has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to heat the sanctuary, and expand the Joseph E. Brennan archives and the John Ford Center. They recently received a grant from the Irish government to hire an executive director, but that sole paid position is buffeted by a small crew of dedicated workers freely giving of their own time and talents.

Basset, who previously helped raise $1.3 million for the Portland Observatory restoration, said GPL has been giving the awards for more than 25 years to locals engaged in preserving some of the city’s iconic landmarks.

Other winners this year include the Danish Village Arch relocation effort in Scarborough.

“The arch is all that’s left of a Danish village from 1929, an area of tourist cottages reenacting a real village. The rest of the complex was demolished, but the arch was saved by the town of Scarborough,” Basset said. “It’s a story that wouldn’t have an opportunity to be told without the arch still being there.”

Also in line to receive kudos are Frank and Sharon Reilly, praised for their work with the Friends of Lincoln Park, repairing pathways, implementing a program of events, and installing a contemporary sculpture, a metal piece by artist Judith Hoffman in partnership with TEMPOArt from Portland. It’s the first commission with a temporary installation in the city, a metal work with a rust-colored patina, sculpted in the form of houses, stacked like blocks, called “the American Dream.”

Two reuses of schools will be honored – the Roosevelt School in South Portland was converted into 19 condo units and the Nathan Clifford School has been transformed into 22 apartments.

The awards also recognize smaller projects, like the cast iron work on Mechanics’ Hall done by StandFast Works Forge in Parsonsfield and the repaired balconies above the CVS building across Congress Street.

Diane Davison is being honored twice, as an individual and for her work with the Friends of the Eastern Promenade. Davison, who moved to Munjoy Hill nearly 25 years ago, began getting involved right away. She initiated April Stools Day and Community Cleanup, removing dog waste as well as litter from local parks and neighborhoods. Six years ago, she helped resurrect the summer concert series on the prom, bringing music back to the bandstand.

“We’ve had a fabulous response,” Davison said of the concerts. “This year’s average was 700 people per show. There were eight concerts, every Thursday in July and August, with local musicians like Primo Cubano, the Maine Academy of Modern Music, and Blues Prophets. We try to have a variety of genre to make everybody happy.”

In 2009, the Friends of Eastern Promenade improved the park’s trail network, linking the Fort Allen Trail to the Eastern Prom trail below it. In 2010, on the other end of the park, they worked on the Loring Memorial Trail, “which takes folks from the top of the park to the Back Cove Trail, connects with the Bayside Trail and the Eastern Prom Trail, creating a complete loop on the Eastern Prom,” Davison said.

More recently, they completed work on Fort Allen, just in time to celebrate the 2014 bicentennial. “It’s a premier location in the city, with duck boats, horse-drawn carriages, weddings, and trolleys,” she said, adding that she was aware of the restoration award, “but the personal award blew me away.”

Next up, the group will be working on the Jacob Cousins Memorial Restoration Project, on the border of Fort Allen Park. It’s a tribute to Corporal Cousins, of the US Army (C328th infantry) killed in action at Meuse-Argonne, France, in 1918. He was the first soldier of Jewish faith from Portland to die in battle during WWI. “We’ll be giving it a more dignified setting,” she said. “You now have to stand on the road to see the monument.”

Davison is the chair of the Portland Parks Commission, an advisory board to Portland City Council and staff, for all things related to parks and open spaces.

“From the big open historic parks to the pocket parks, these places are really on the radar these days,” she said. “This is the reason people want to live here, for the park experience in an urban setting.”

All Award Recipients

PRESERVATION LEADERS:

■ Diane Davison, Friends of Eastern Promenade

■ Sharon & Frank Reilly, Friends of Lincoln Park

■ John Turk, Architect and Preservation Advocate

RESTORATION PROJECTS:

■ Fort Allen Park, Portland

■ Danish Village Arch Relocation, Scarborough

■ Iron Details at Mechanics Hall & W.T. Grant Block, Portland

REHABILITATION PROJECTS:

■ Merrill Memorial Library, Yarmouth

■ George S. Hunt Block, 66o Congress, Portland

ADAPTIVE REUSE PROJECTS:

■ Meeting House Lofts, South Portland

■ Maine Irish Heritage Center, Portland

■ Nathan Clifford Residences, Portland

■ Press Hotel, Portland

Waking Windows takes over Congress Street this Saturday, Oct. 1. The all-day audio arts festival hits nine venues with music, comedy and a lit crawl, and runs from noon to the waking hours.

The literary (pub) crawl was curated by Nat Baldwin, a writer and bassist for Dirty Projectors. Wife and husband scribes Noy Holland and Sam Michel will read from their works, as will Portland’s poet laureate Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, multi-genre writer Megan Grumbling, and several others. Annie Russell hosts the comedy stop that features Gary Petersen and W. Will Green, as well as “Cringe! A Night of Hilarious Humiliation” with audience participation. The musical lineup offers an eclectic mix of about 50 bands.

“I think it’s a special thing for Portland,” says Peter McLaughlin, music programmer at SPACE Gallery. “Portland has had an absence of this kind of event, a music and arts festival that encompasses several venues. It’s taking over a downtown area to create an urban festival. We’re able to have a lot of up-and-coming local bands, a perfect fit for the city.”

High note

Born in Israel and based in New York City, headliner Yonatan Gat will shred on guitar at Geno’s Rock Club. He played there in 1997 with Monotonix, an “Israeli garage trio.” Last year he teamed up with Brazilian bassist Sergio Sayeg and drummer Gal Lazer to play at SPACE. They are fresh from the release of their latest record, Director, which blends Brazilian psychedelic punk, maniacal Afrobeat rhythm, and American free-form jazz. The music is born of their geographic roots, and borne up by their live shows, performed in the middle of the audience instead of on a stage. They alone are worth the price of the festival pass.

“We set up on the floor,” Gat said from New York City this week. “We do that because our show is improvised. By setting up on the floor, we can have a more direct communication that doesn’t happen in an obvious way — more of a subconscious way. We ask the audience what song we should play next.”

Music is a communicated experience, and being in the crowd is more of an experience. He feels the only excurse to play on stage is if the space makes it absolutely necessary.

“Even when we play bigger venues, we still set up in the middle to achieve a direct line to the people, to create an atmosphere,” he said. “It’s like a game of ping pong, between the performer and the audience.”

The comparative power of playing live, in and amongst the people, fuels his belief that part of the music industry is drastically changing, perhaps dying.

“Music is losing its meaning. It’s being pushed towards a free commodity. Recorded music is losing its entire value. People are talking about not buying music anymore,” Gat said. “But live music stays strong. A big concert or a smaller one, part of being on the floor is to be able to feed off that feeling.”

Their concerts are completely improvised. “Five minutes before a show, we look at each and decide how we are going to start. But we don’t know what song we’ll play next. Sometimes a song is 100 percent composition. We compose in front of the audience. Really just the song that suits the moment.”

The creation is a flexible show where every night is completely evolving for the band, and an onstage experience for the audience, part of the composition.

“That’s why we like a place like SPACE or Geno’s,” he said. “Good music is a self-discovery journey. One of most important reasons we are in this world is to know ourselves. I don’t look at music as a pre-conceived and conceptual art project. It’s a lifelong project of getting to know yourself."

Also of note:

“Mal Devisa is to me one of the most exciting acts playing the festival,” says McLaughlin. “She has an absolutely incredible voice, spine-chilling. She can silence any room. She’s played SPACE twice and truly melted hearts each time. Some of the most momentous applauses I've heard in the room. She opened up a sold-out show for What Cheer Brigade here in August, and the crowd demanded an encore. Wouldn’t let her leave the stage. ... For the opener! That never happens. You’ll be hearing a lot about her and she won’t be playing rooms as small as SPACE for long. I’d put good money on it.”

Details:

Waking Windows audio arts festival | Saturday, Oct. 1 (noon-1:00am) | Kick-off party at SPACE Gallery on Friday, Sept. 30

Musical acts: Vetiver, JEFF The Brotherhood, Death Vessel, The Luyas, The Huntress and Holder of Hands, Rough Francis, Pile, Mal Devisa, Micah Blue Smaldone, Nat Baldwin, and Yonatan Gat.

Venues: SPACE Gallery, Empire, Geno’s Rock Club, Blue, Tandem Coffee & Bakery, Congress Square Park, One Longfellow Square, & The Jewel Box.

SPACE, Tandem, One Longfellow, and Congress Square Park are open to all ages. Geno's, Empire, Blue, and The Jewel Box are 21+.

Tickets: $25 Day Pass to access all venues. Individual venues have varying ticket prices.  Visit www.WakingWindows.com for details. Friday night kick-off party is $5 or free with a festival pass.

A musical prodigy takes the stage at the second annual Django By The Sea festival in Kittery and Portsmouth on Oct. 6-9.

Henry Acker, a 12-year-old guitarist from Massachusetts, will be strutting his stuff with Mes Amies at the Thursday night kick-off party in New Hampshire. Jason Anick, founder of the festival, discovered him at the jam sessions during the inaugural event and invited him to play along this time ‘round.

“I first met Henry last year,” Anick said. “He’s an incredible musician. His dad said he started tuning in when he was around 9 years old, when his father was listening to Django Reinhardt. He could hear it and play it back on guitar. Now he already has a lot of the basic elements of a great musician – technique, tone, repertoire, improvisation – things that people usually develop in their 20s. We’re excited to have him at the festival. A lot of people will be blown away.”

Although only playing guitar for three and a half years, Acker has achieved this early success by practicing every day with his father and inspiration, Victor Acker. His instructor is Frank Vignola, part of Les Paul’s later quartet. Father and son met the maestro at a concert at the Regatta Bar in Cambridge when Henry was just beginning to play. “Vignola announced that he was about to play “Nuages,” a Django song,” Victor recalled this week. “I gave Henry a high five, which Vignola saw and invited him to come up and join him. The audience went wild; they thought he was a plant.”

Henry Acker has since strummed with Bucky Pizzarelli and Julien Lage, and considers Stochelo Rosenberg, Bireli Lagrene, and Olli Soikkeli other major influences. Soikkeli is from Rhythm Future Quartet, Anick’s band that will feature at the festival along with John Jorgenson, a multiple Grammy-winner.

A seventh-grader at Duxbury Middle School, Henry plays in the jazz band. His classmates are yet to fully appreciate his guitar talents, Victor said. “It’s kind of an odd genre for seventh-graders.”

Henry first played live at an open mic at the Catbird Café in Weymouth, Mass. “He had been playing for a while, had learned some tunes, so we thought we’d see how he’d do live. The whole room erupted.” Since then, Henry has played at Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City, and will be picking strings in Seattle and Colorado next year.

Music takes up much of his time, but Henry also loves to spend time at the beach, go fishing, and unwind with “a little bit of gaming,” his dad said. “He leads a pretty normal life.” Henry just learned “Ornithology,” a tune by Charlie Parker. He plans to videotape it and send it to Vignola, who is in Cuba right now.

Gypsy Jazz is a unique blend of Eastern European melodies, Parisian Musette, Spanish Flamenco and American Swing that was created and perfected by guitarist Django Reinhardt, violinist Stephane Grappelli and their fellow Gypsy musicians in the cafés of Paris during the 1930s and 1940s. Today, Gypsy Jazz is one of the most distinctive and widely enjoyed jazz hybrids on the music scene, spawning popular Django Festivals around the globe, including Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, and now Kittery.

Anick was pleased with last year’s two-day festival, and is expanding the lineup and locations this time, with a kick-off party Thursday night at the Book & bar in Portsmouth, where Acker will perform. Next come three days of concerts and workshops at the Kittery Dance Hall, as well as Djam sessions at the nearby Buoy Art Gallery (attached to Black Birch restaurant).  

“We are hoping for nice weather,” Anick said. “We want people playing outside, and to have gypsy jazz surround the area.”

Django By The Sea | Thursday through Sunday, Oct. 6-9 | Kittery Foreside | Tickets for Friday’s and Saturday’s performances at The Dance Hall are $25 in advance/$30 at the door for a single night. Sunday’s Dance Party is $15 in advance/$20 at the door. You can also purchase a 2-night pass for $40 or a 3-night pass for $55. A limited number of $100 VIP passes are available, which include brunch with the artists on Sunday and a donation to The Dance Hall (a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization). For tickets, visit TheDanceHallKittery.org or DjangoByTheSea.com | Django By The Sea is sponsored in part by Bavarian Autosport, Kennebunk Savings Bank, York Hospital, Davis Family Foundation, People’s United Bank and White Heron Tea & Coffee Community.