LONDON — Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has had a double mastectomy to reduce her chances of getting breast cancer and says she hopes her story will inspire other women fighting the life-threatening disease. Jolie wrote in the New York Times on Tuesday the operation has made it easier for her to reassure her six children that she would not die young from cancer, like her own mother did at 56. “We often speak of ‘Mommy’s mommy’, and I find myself trying to explain the illness that took her away from us. They have asked if the same could happen to me,” wrote Jolie, 37. “I have always told them not to worry, but the truth is I carry a ‘faulty’ gene.” The Oscar-winning actress said her doctors had estimated she had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer. “Once I knew this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much as I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy,” she said. (read more at Bangor Daily News)
May 14 2013 | Posted in
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AUBURN — Are you new to “Nunsense”? Or do you eagerly claim a seat at every new production of this perennially popular musical laugh-fest? Either way, Community Little Theatre’s current staging of the show is sure to delight with its outstanding comedy and songs. A talented five-woman cast delivers all of the outrageous convent antics with skill and mile-a-minute enthusiasm. Nancy Durgin as Sister Mary Regina, the Mother Superior at Mount St. Helens convent, sets a high standard in that demanding role. From her solo rendition of “Turn Up the Spotlight” to her side-splitting slap-stick turn in the show’s hilarious under-the-influence routine, Durgin anchors another memorable presentation of “Nunsense.” The other four nuns bring forth a variety of entertaining characters, all ably performed under the direction of Jon Carr. As Sister Mary Hubert, Nakesha (Kay) Myrick does an excellent job with a sort of Abbott-and-Costello relationship with the Mother Superior. Their duet on “Just a Coupl’a Sisters” is lots of fun, and Myrick leads the cast in a rousing rendition of “Holier Than Thou” that showcases her spectacular vocal gifts. (read more at Lewiston Sun Journal)
James McCartney, the son of former Beatle Paul McCartney and the late Linda Eastman McCartney, will be perform [sic] in an 8 p.m. show at 1 Longfellow Square in Portland May 16 as part of a 27-state U.S. tour. McCartney is fresh off the release of his two digital-only EPs, “Available Light” and “Close At Hand,” as well as his first physical release, “The Complete EP Collection,” a special two-disc package that includes the debut EPs in their entirety along with five bonus tracks. Now, McCartney is set to release his first full-length album, “Me,” May 21. “For my first album I wanted to make a record that would be intimate, deeply personal, and honest,” McCartney said. “An album that would say, ‘This is who I am… both musically and personally. This is me.’” (read more at Wiscasset Newspaper)
For a youngster, playing the trombone is a challenge. The “slide” is often longer than the young musician’s arms, and keeping control can be difficult when extending it out. Sometimes it gets away, and drastic measures are needed to stop it. “Once in a while you have to use your foot,” remembers Don Brooks of Bethel, who learned to play in the 1930s. For his great-grandson, Christian Brown, it’s a more recent memory. “I’ve used my foot before in a concert,” said Christian, now a Telstar High School freshmen. “It almost went off the end and I had to catch it.” Don and Christian are separated by two generations, but sharing their devotion to the brass instrument has created a unique bond across the years. Don was in grammar school in Bethel when he started taking private trombone lessons. The instrument, he said, “just appealed to me. I enjoyed it from the start. They had a band and an orchestra in the old grammar school, and I played in them.” It was the beginning of a lifelong commitment to playing in musical groups – both informal and organized. (read more at Bethel Citizen)
Beloved public radio program “ A Prairie Home Companion” last visited Bangor in 2008, and five years later it will roll into town once again. Garrison Keillor and company will offer a special non-broadcast performance at Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion on Saturday, July 27. Tickets for the performance are $27.75 to $57.75, and are available online at waterfrontconcerts.com, at all Tickermaster outlets, by calling 1-800-745-3000 and locally at Mark’s Music in Brewer. (read more at Bangor Daily News)
LEWISTON — The Lewiston Auburn Film Festival concluded four days of independent films Sunday with showings in five venues. The Community Little Theatre opened its doors Sunday at 10 a.m. to a viewing of “Admissions,” a film about the afterlife and the implications of hate’s effect on the human condition. The film by Harry Kakatsakis, centers on an Israeli couple and a Palestinian man, the new arrivals in the “Admissions” room intended to precede judgement. Upon learning their lives have been cut short by the Palestinian suicide bomber sitting beside them, they all have to cope with the injuries inflicted by both sides in the conflict. The Admissions clerk doodles upon a pad while trying to gently prod the three toward a sense of resolution before time is up and they must enter either the Heaven or Hell door. In the end, the Palestinian is the last to enter the Heaven door behind the Israelis and stops to ask the clerk if all people go to Heaven. The clerk responds that the Hell door is just a prop and that the nature of humans is to love. (read more at Lewiston Sun Journal)
BANGOR — Three bands that had major hits in the 1990s and have enjoyed continued popularity are set to perform at Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion on the Bangor Waterfront. The Barenaked Ladies, Ben Folds Five and Guster will join the growing roster of Waterfront Concerts already slated for this season on Sunday, July 21. Tickets will go on sale on Friday, March 22. The Barenaked Ladies performed on the Waterfront stage last summer and they continue their yearly “Last Summer on Earth Tour” with another stop in Bangor. BNL was formed in Toronto in the late ’80s, and over the course of 25 years has scored five Top 10 hits, including “One Week” and “If I Had a Million Dollars,” and has sold more than 15 million albums. Their last album, “Stop Us If You’ve Heard This One Before,” a compilation of rare and live tracks, was released last May. They also are known for having written and performed the theme song to the CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory.” The band has played in Maine more than 10 times over the past two decades. (read more at Lewiston Sun Journal)
JACKMAN — A California-based television group wanting to highlight America’s small towns landed on Jackman after a recent road trip through Maine. “Everywhere we went, people said you need to go to Jackman,” said Jodi Flynn, the executive vice president for Cineflix Productions in Beverly Hills, Calif. “We were really struck by the passion people have for the town. They just seemed to love it, and it was a different life than most of America.” The television production company, which produces shows for networks including A&E, Discovery and the National Geographic Channel, knew it wanted to create a show based on “Northern Exposure,” Flynn said. “Northern Exposure,” which ran from 1990 to 1995, was a CBS series about a New York doctor who is sent to practice in a fictional Alaskan town. “We’re just getting going on it, but the idea was to explore life in great small towns in America. Maine certainly seemed like a place not represented on television,” Flynn said. (read more at Morning Sentinel)
LOS ANGELES — Actress Bonnie Franklin, best known for her starring role as a single, working mother on the hit CBS comedy “One Day at a Time,” in an era when U.S. television was redefining families in pop culture, died on Friday at age 69. She died at her Los Angeles home of complications from pancreatic cancer, surrounded by relatives and friends, according to a statement issued by the CBS network on behalf of her family. Franklin, a petite redhead, had acted on Broadway before being cast as the harried divorcee Ann Romano in “One Day at a Time,” which debuted in December 1975 and ran for nine seasons on CBS. It co-starred Valerie Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips as her two head-strong daughters. (read more at Bangor Daily News)
LEWISTON — Legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan is scheduled to appear at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in April, according to a new tour schedule posted on his website. The performance is scheduled for Wednesday, April 10, but no tickets are yet available online. A representative of the Colisee has said details on ticket pricing and availability will be released Monday. According to bobdylan.com, the 11-time Grammy Award-winning artist will appear at the Colisee with the Los Angeles-based folk rock quartet Dawes — made up of brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith, Wylie Gelber and Tay Strathairn — as part of Dylan’s U.S. Spring Tour. (read more at Lewiston Sun Journal)
LONDON — Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has had a double mastectomy to reduce her chances of getting breast cancer and says she hopes her story will inspire other women fighting the life-threatening disease. Jolie wrote in the New York Times on Tuesday the operation has made it easier for her to reassure her six children that she would not die young from cancer, like her own mother did at 56. “We often speak of ‘Mommy’s mommy’, and I find myself trying to explain the illness that took her away from us. They have asked if the same could happen to me,” wrote Jolie, 37. “I have always told them not to worry, but the truth is I carry a ‘faulty’ gene.” The Oscar-winning actress said her doctors had estimated she had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer. “Once I knew this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much as I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy,” she said. (read more at Bangor Daily News)
