From Feb. 15 through March 8, the Lord Hall Art Gallery hosted their annual faculty art show to highlight the current works and projects of several professors from the University of Maine.

The show was an opportunity for students and community members to see what their instructors and peers have been working on, as well as create a space for those who teach to be recognized. The mixed media work of nine professors including: Connie Albertson, Giles Timms, Andy Mauery, Wayne Hall, Susan Camp, Robert Pollien, Samantha Jones, Kris Engman and Matt Smolinsky filled the gallery.

One artist featured was Professor Matt Smolinsky. His work included digital photographs taken over the past several years through which he depicts a unique relationship and perspective on the local Orono/Bangor surrounding community.

“They are a combination of things that could be on my walk … or I’m driving somewhere locally, Bangor to Orono, Old Town, in my daily life, and I see something. Usually, it’s something I’ve seen a bunch of times and I’m like ‘Oh I need to make a mental note to stop and photograph this place’,” Smolinsky said.

Smolinsky has been photographing mainly public, candid subjects for most of his career, which include work captured in Boston and Michigan, and over several years spent in South Korea teaching English. During his time in Korea, he had the opportunity to photograph a different culture in a dense urban area. Taking pictures of people in public can often elicit confrontational responses. In Korea, Smolinsky said that they were very open and accepting of both photography and Americans.

“I didn’t ever really feel threatened … Culturally it was an ideal place for someone like me to be,” Smolinsky said.

Smolinsky’s current work is a continuation of this candid public style, but the work featured in the exhibit involved no human subjects. Instead, his photos focus on houses, buildings and found objects on the street. Despite his shift in subject, Smolinsky found the process to be very similar.

“It’s public, it’s candid. I’m not staging it. I’m not manipulating the scene in any way other than my presence. It’s found,” Smolinsky said.

He quoted another photographer, Maine-based Cig Harvey, to describe his process saying, “There are finders and makers. People who find things in the world and photograph and people who create things in front of the camera. And I’m a finder, for sure.”

The things he has been inspired by lately have been houses which carry a special significance for him.

“For the most part it’s these houses that are lived in … and [with the winters] in Maine everything gets really beaten up physically and it’s impossible to keep things in a pristine state. And I found that really interesting,” Smolinsky said. “The places I photograph are pretty much where I live, it’s what I relate to in a lot of ways. I live in a house that’s in a lot of ways crumbling but I do my best to keep it up. There are cracks in all the walls and ceilings on the inside and there’s ugliness on the outside but it keeps me sheltered and its where I have most of my experiences so it’s an important thing to me. There’s character and spirit in there and there’s memories … one of the houses in my work could be and is my own house.”

The end of this exhibit welcomes another. The Lord Hall Art gallery is now preparing for the upcoming student art exhibition, which will open in April.

On Wednesday, Feb. 6, the University of Maine hosted its annual Career Fair in the New Balance Student Recreation Center. The event welcomed over 150 companies from all over New England and was met by a large student turnout. There, students searched for jobs and networked with a wide variety of employers.

The students in attendance dressed in formal clothing, brought resumes and discussed job descriptions and qualifications with eager employers. Some of the organizations in attendance included the MaineDOT, the Jackson Laboratory, AAA and the USDA Wildlife Services.

The Career Center described the event on their website stating that, “recruiters represent a variety of industries and are hiring for full-time, part-time, summer, and internship positions. Many of these opportunities are for all students regardless of your major and your year in school.” The many opportunities were met with interest from students in attendance seizing the chance to discuss their future with local businesses.

“I was looking for an internship for this summer, but I was also just interested in seeing what job opportunities were available for a journalism major,” Annabelle Osborne, a third-year journalism student said.

Many students find the thought of an impending post-college future stressful, but Osborne felt the UMaine system was of great assistance when determining her path.

“I absolutely feel like going to UMaine has helped me figure out what I wanted to do after college. I have changed my major five times, and it wasn’t until I was midway done with my sophomore year before I found what I’m truly passionate about,” Osborne said.

The Career Center is a great resource for students, and in preparation of the Career Fair offered extended office hours for students looking to touch up a resume, research the organizations attending or ask other questions. They offered many beneficial handouts at the fair, including an alphabetical list of companies attending, tips on effectively using the UMaine Career Fair, how to get the most out of the Career Fair and professional dress 101.

If you are interested in taking advantage of the resources and opportunities provided by the Career Center, call their office at (207) 581-1359 to make an appointment or visit their office on the third floor of the Memorial Union.

Noah Loveless, WMEB Staff
Rating 4.5

Noah Lennox, or Panda Bear as most fans of indie music know him, has made some of the biggest splashes in 21st century music. Whether it’s through his work as a founding member of the genre-bending experimental pop group Animal Collective, or through his own psychedelic and fun solo projects, Lennox has consistently been ushering music into the weirdest and most unpredictable directions. “Buoys” is his sixth solo album. It mimics a more consistent sound than his other albums, showing that Panda Bear has not stopped discovering his unique and complex sound. The album’s consistency does not dull its brilliance.

On “Buoys,” Panda Bear stays in top form, wasting no melody or quirky sample, and continues to distort pop music to the point that it becomes a strange, unrecognizable but ultimately exciting experience.

The first song, “Dolphin” was the first single to be released in preparation for the full project. The song also set the tone for the sounds and instrumentation that occur throughout the rest of the album. One of the reoccurring instruments is oddly enough an acoustic guitar. On several tracks, including “Dolphin,” one of the central sounds is this repetitive strumming of a guitar. However, it is what he fills the space around the guitar with that makes things get noticeably alternative. For instance, there is a consistent sample of a water drop sound that works as a percussive element.

This blending of acoustic and electronic is found throughout the release. Later in the album, the song “I Know I Don’t Know” begins with this rhythmic guitar strumming but very quickly is layered over with fluttering drum machine noises and whistling synth sounds. Tracks like this are also good examples of Lennox’s knack for finding a good hook. The melody flows up and down, and his voice is as sweet and mellow as ever.

Animal Collective’s last project, “Tangerine Reef,” was created with an obvious connection to the ocean, including a surreal film of the ocean to accompany the project. This type of aquatic influence is felt in many ways on “Buoys.” The song “Crescendo” has many sounds that mimic nature including water drops, echoes of a forest and even bird sounds. The way that all the intricate sounds flow together and merge is a truly interesting experience to listen to.

On this project Noah Lennox continues his stride; he keeps things interesting and never really gives the listener a total chance to settle. One is treated to bubbling noises and effects that change and morph so quickly that unless one is listening intently, the sounds can seem like chaos. This project warrants repeated listens but one shouldn’t find relistening difficult; each time around one can notice the more hidden details, the crunches, pops and sizzles that disappear and reappear below the surface.

On Friday, Feb. 1, the University of Maine hosted a screening of feminist filmmaker and women’s rights activist Maxine Trump’s new documentary “To Kid or Not to Kid.” After the screening, a Q&A panel of community feminist activists discussed the many challenges faced by women today. The discussion focused on the stigma faced by women who choose not to have children. The film, “To Kid or Not to Kid,” reflected these issues through personal experiences related to child rearing and choosing not to have children, including the filmmaker’s own personal account.

“I never dreamt of having kids. When I was younger I never wanted anything to tie me down,” Trump says at the beginning of the film.

The movie highlights how quickly the conversation shifts from women wanting the freedom to chose not to have children, to the innumerable societal pressures and hurdles women face. Countless headlines and TV interviews flash depicting the harsh backlash women who don’t want children face. Many articles featured stated that women weren’t actual women until they reproduced, the majority of which were written by men.

Trump’s experience was also woven into the narrative stories of several other women and her husband, all bringing in different perspectives on the topic of childbirth.

The documentary told the story of one woman’s decision to undergo surgery to become sterile. She described the difficulty surrounding this choice and the isolation she felt, saying most of the process involved men discussing what was right for her body behind her back. She and Trump were left wondering why doctors so frequently tell them they should want kids, implying that their opinion is invalid and unnatural. Many women who were criticized for choosing to not have children discussed facing similar stigma and opposition.

The panel following the film featured Trump, Andrea Irwin, a representative from the Mabel-Wadsworth Center, Amy Blackstone, a sociology professor at UMaine and researcher on women’s rights and childfree living and Jessica Wade, the woman behind “The Childfree Choice,” an online community for people to discuss the decision to not have children.

The audience voiced the opinion that men are often treated with respect when discussing reproductive issues. Members voicing this opinion claimed that when men choose to become sterile, they do not face comments from doctors such as “you’ll change your mind,” nor are they subjected to “invasive and unnecessary” inquiry as described by Wade, as much as women do. However, the crowd discussed their hope as the phenomenon of people today who are “golden girling it,” or choosing to live with friends to avoid the perceived loneliness of aging without children, increases.

Trump is currently about to embark on a tour across the U.S. to show “To Kid or Not to Kid”. Updates on the film’s release and any other of her projects can be found at https://www.tokidornottokid.com.

On Friday and Saturday, Dec. 7 and 8, the University of Maine’s School of Performing Arts hosted an opera event over the course of two days as the culmination of an opera workshop course. The performances featured a cast of eight students in a total of six scenes with each student participating in two or three of the scenes.

The operas performed included scenes from a variety of time periods and cultures, featuring works by Menotti, Bizet, Poulenc, Rossini and Bernstein. The night provided both emotional and humorous moments, sometimes in the same scenes.

The show opened with the performance of Act 1, Scene 2 of “Il barbiere di Siviglia” by Gioachino Rossini. While not in English, the emotion and motives of the characters Rosina (Dannin Scher) and Figaro (Drew Brooks) were clearly conveyed through the talent of the vocalists. Despite being just one scene from an entire opera, the audience could still see a narrative arc and share the joy of the characters by the end.

Other scenes were less joyous, such as the fourth scene, which was from Act 3 of “Carmen” by Georges Bizet.

“[‘Carmen’] follows the title character in her life as a gypsy after she commits an act of violence and escapes arrest,” performer Brooke Pietri said.

Dannin Scher took the stage again for this scene, playing the role of Carmen. She gave a powerful and emotional vocal display as the three characters played with tarot cards. Though this scene was not in English, the heart-wrenching feelings of Carmen could not be misinterpreted.

Perhaps the most intricate scene performed was “The Consul,” written by Gian Carlo Menotti. The events in the opera follow several people in what is essentially a WWII-era consulate as they try to obtain visas to leave the country. The performance featured the most stage items as well as the entire eight student cast. Rogan Winch gave an especially humorous and theatrical performance as the Magician, fit with classic magic tricks and a hypnotism of the other cast members, who attempted to dazzle the consulate’s secretary into obtaining a visa without any work papers. The climax of the play came with Dana Douglass’ performance of the character Magda who, after desperately pleading with the secretary, ends up throwing papers all over the stage pleading to see the consulate.

After the last piece was performed, which was from Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide” to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth, the performers were met with a standing ovation from the audience.

For upcoming events put on by the School of Performing Arts check out their website http://www.umaine.edu/spa or their Facebook page.

Rating:  4 Stars

Rose Droll, aka Ellen Bert from San Francisco, released an album in 2017 called “This Bee Wants a Cigarette,” a noteworthy fact. Lately, I have been finding better album titles in my music searches. It is easy to undermine the importance of a good album title as it can really have an effect on the album. Sure, it won’t make the album any better, but it might make you giggle or even sigh wistfully.

Droll’s newest album is called “Your Dog.” Full of many weird instrumental combinations from glockenspiel to cello to guitar, this album is quirky and compelling. Bert wrote and recorded every sound herself, with only minor assistance from others.

Listening to a record put together entirely by one person makes the album feel more intimate in a way, especially since you’re getting the artist unfiltered by any competing ideas. That may be why the lyrics on the record are so personal and unique. The CD case opens up to reveal four panels filled with the tiny font lyrics. With the amount of lyrics the album contains, Bert is able to express many interesting ideas.

The first song, “Outside Looking In,” is a mellow track with a drumline stumbling along under the entirety of the song. On top of the drumline, there are many intricate sounds throughout the track, requiring multiple listens to catch all of the delicate details. The track has a pleasantly unique sound, resembling a more upbeat, catchier version of artist Mount Eerie’s music.

The second track, “Hush,” begins to mix up the sound of the album. The song features similar, lush-yet-light arrangements, but Bert showcases her verbal abilities by dropping an interesting lyrical flow over the mellow indie sound. There is almost a lounge-singer vibe, but a really witty one with some hip hop inspired talent.

“Riddle,” the sixth track on the album, may be the strongest of the group. The upbeat sound is infectious and catchy. It’s interesting how Bert is able to push the album into new sounds while still maintaining its consistency. The song is just under two minutes and has enough switches of sound to keep a listener on their toes. By this point in the album, that has become a trend.

The album has a melancholic sound in plenty of songs however, there is wry humor, making it relatable to the modern young person. There is self-deprecation and a consistent mistrust of uncomplicated happiness. Rose Droll uses these emotions effectively giving her listeners a place to relate emotionally and maybe do some crying, but with the coolest soundtrack.

On Friday, Nov. 16, the University of Maine Feminist Collective hosted their annual Out of Silence event in the Minsky Recital Hall. The event centered on abortion, featuring stage performances on the topic as well as a collection of photographs depicting empowering stories of women who had gone through the abortion process.

The event was hosted by Miranda Snyder, a second-year secondary education student, and Meghan Frisard, a fourth-year studying zoology and women’s, gender and sexuality student, as well as other members from the Feminist Collective.

“I believe that Out of Silence works in a very unique way to advocate people’s stories,” Snyder said. “The 1-in-3 campaign has embraced ‘activism’ — activism in various art forms. Seeing a scene played out in front of you that brings up the various hurdles encountered in expressing reproductive justice allows reflection into your own experiences and other’s.”

The Feminist Collective hosts many events throughout the year, all with the goal of educating students and community members on women’s rights issues. The Feminist Collective runs events on campus that cover reproductive rights, abortion access, sexual assault advocacy, healthcare access, women’s history, body positivity, sexual health and other issues relating to gender or sexual identity and equality, according to their website.

The theatre performances were the central piece to the production and featured Feminist Collective members acting out scenes of many of the experiences related to abortion. These included how younger couples could react, how friends can be there to help, how parents could interact with pregnant children and potential situations.

All of the short scenes further informed the deep and complex effects abortion can have on people and also how supportive people can be even in difficult or unlikely circumstances. Several of the scenes were two-character dialogues but there were also monologues which added another dimension to the way people can communicate their abortion experience with the audience.

“I am very pleased with what the end result was,” said Snyder. “We pulled together a great group of dedicated, excited individuals who were committed to share these vital stories. Through directing, I learned more about myself as a professional communicator and director onstage, and how I can message my activism with my passion for theatre.”

The UMaine Feminist Collective has been a prominent group on campus; the group had been around for many years under the name the “Student Women’s Association” and changed their name in 2017. The Out of Silence event has been a recurring feature of their program alongside such events as the annual Slut Walk, Beautiful Week and Vagina Monologues.

“I am very pleased with what the end result was,” said Snyder. “We pulled together a great group of dedicated, excited individuals who were committed to share these vital stories. Through directing, I learned more about myself as a professional communicator and director onstage, and how I can message my activism with my passion for theatre.”

With all the positive results of events like Out of Silence, Snyder has a hopeful look on the future of the organization.

“I believe that the Feminist Collective’s future possibilities are endless,” said Snyder. “In the future, I would love to collaborate with more groups across campus and with more local activist groups to sponsor speak-outs and informational nights that would invite a wide audience.”

If you would like to keep up to date with all the UMaine Feminist Collective events check out their facebook page at University of Maine Feminist Collective.

Rating: 4.5 stars

“Render Another Ugly Method” is the second proper LP from the indie group Mothers. Their first album was the kind of pleasant mix of sad introspective indie that any listener couldn’t help but enjoy and relate to. That sense of meditating and thoughtful lyricism and melancholy, dreary-but-hopeful-just-when-you-need-it instrumentation is used nicely here on the follow-up. But while their debut functioned as an album that is a nice place to cozy up once in a while when one feels inclined, their sophomore album is a much larger and heavier work.

This second album doesn’t so much offer the listener a place to go when feeling a certain way, but instead commands the listener to enter the space and allow their emotions to be under their grasp through intense scenes that are displayed to almost surreal or abstract songs depicting their inner thoughts, all working together to provide a meaningful and unique space that gives a listener a wide array of experiences.

What is interesting are the many directions that Mothers is able to go musically on this album and still sound so coherent. The first track, “Beauty Routine” gives a slight impression that the group is picking up where their first album left off: folky, mellow, light guitar use, sporadic percussion. But it does not take long for a fuller and more engrossing song to take over. There are more electric guitar sounds, so there is more capability with noise and more variation with effects.

The lyrics are similarly thoughtful and poetic, though here they seem much more philosophical in a sense. The first stanza of lines flow in one line following the next without much feel for a verse or a chorus, giving a wonderful lulling drone that allows the listener to enter this atmosphere gently. The last minute of the song picks up in tension, letting the listener know that there is going to be more to the album than just a passive space.

There seem to be, in a way, two different sounds to this album, the first is the plodding slow and droning sound of the opening track, which is a contrast to the more fast and anxious sound on tracks like “Western Medicine” or “Circle Once,” which both come in the middle of the album. Tracks like these two have a more math-rock feel to them that features more unusual time signatures as well as a sort of stumbling feeling to the groove. This contrast in sounds is a plus because it gives the more anxious lines of the droning tracks a more applied demonstration as we begin not to simply hear about these small moments of dread or struggles with identity, but the music begins to mimic the tone of the lyrics.

“Render Another Ugly Method” is a rather encompassing and, in many ways, successful album from Mothers. There are many wonderful parts to this album and the progression rarely feels uneventful or repetitive. Here the group finds themselves moving from a small space of more private emotions on their first album to more of a depiction of these private spaces that resonate on larger-scale emotions. There aren’t many places to hide as a listener, and one will sympathize with every feeling of alienation and share in every promising moment when things improve, if only for a moment.

“Mother of My Children” is the debut album from Katherine Paul, also known as Black Belt Eagle Scout. The album, coming out of the Pacific Northwest, features plenty of the grungy, flannel-wearing sound you might expect but with plenty of nuance and detail.

The album is said to have been recorded during a difficult period in Paul’s life and the emotions and trouble she experienced are on display. In her debut, Black Belt Eagle Scout offers a new, fresh take on distortion-heavy indie rock through the experience of deep emotions and willingness to expand far beyond the steady formulas of the genre.

The album being about loss becomes apparent quite early in the album. What is interesting is how she expresses this emotion across different songs and even in different parts of one song.

The first song on the album, “Soft Stud,” is a strong opener featuring a more alt-rock, distorted sound. A steady, plodding, muddy guitar strums the same chords repeatedly, creating an anxious feeling of dread. The lyrics of the song come in short repeated phrases directed at something in which the artist is lacking, saying, “I know you’re taken, need you want you, I know you’re taken.”

Paul’s guitar work shows her talent for crafting moving and powerful riffs that make the song emotional. The outro solo in which she plays just a couple rough, anxious notes is an epic and intense way for the song to finish.

A good contrast to the opening song “Soft Stud” is found in track three titled “Keyboard” which is a sparse, atmospheric, ballad-like song further emphasizing her heart-wrenching longing. The instrumentation is subtle with use of a drum machine and a keyboard as the title implies. She repeats haunting lines like “You know it surrounds you in the day, but it finds you in the night, finds you in the night.”

This nursery-rhyme-like repetition carries the theme of loss, pain and sorrow that runs heavily throughout this album. It is interesting how she utilizes such different sounds and genres to do so. In a review of the album on Pitchfork, they note that part of her sadness came from the passing of her mentor, Geneviève Castrée, and one can see the connection between their work. Castrée had a similar style of lo-fi indie folk which can be heard on many tracks on “Mother of My Children.” Track five, “Yard,” starts as a folk ballad before ending with drums and further instrumentation which gives the song a louder, heavier ending.

If this album were to be described with one word a good choice would be “loss.” She was clear that the making of this album was inspired by personal losses. This album offers much more than someone singing sad songs. That’s been done a million times already. She brings something new to the table, crafting uniquely emotional music.

Possibly the biggest highlight of this album is how developed and interesting Black Belt Eagle Scout is on her first release. With the release of “Mother of My Children,” Paul showcases her remarkable talent for expressive songwriting and leaves the listener eager to see what she will release next.

People like to comment on how trends repeat in the music industry. One trend is the re-emergence of artists that have a distinctly ‘80s sound in their music. Whether that be synths or dance grooves, many bands have found the music of the Talking Heads or Television to be fertile grounds for influence. This impact is noticeable in “More Disco Songs About Love” the new album from indie rock band De Lux.

A major feature of this album is its infectious grooves. As if the flu was on the dance floor, there are countless reasons to dance with this album.Initial rising sounds of percussion on the first track, “875 Dollars,” lead into a transitional clap. Then a deep synth groove kicks in, by which point you’ve probably begun dancing. But one cannot simply dance away their responsibilities. The lyrics of this track reflect how much fun one can have while still having real world worries. Lead singer Sean Guerin sings, “‘Cause all I want is a party / But they’re not that kind of party you’re thinking of / And all I want are a couple close friends / That can come together and help pay the rent”.

These lines reflect the very trouble of trying to have fun while not being able to get away from our responsibilities.

The dance and post-punk influence does not really dip throughout the album, maintaining an upbeat, fast-paced sound to the end. Another track of note is track seven, “Music Snob,” which sounds as wonderfully ‘80s as  the rest of the tracks. The percussion sounds are reminiscent of “Sound of Silver”-era LCD Soundsystem as well. The lyrics describe what the title implies, a music snob, whose girlfriend humorously struggles with his music tastes, saying: “How do I know what you like/ When you seem to like just about everything?” It’s a funny and relatable track for anyone who knows music, or is possibly a pretentious music listener.

Later tracks like track nine, “Stratosphere Girl,” showcase one of the exciting features of the album with Mark Stewart of the acclaimed post-punk group of the ‘80s, The Pop Group. The inclusion of features by famed artists demonstrates the connection of De Lux to their influences seemingly declaring who they look up to in their very songs. Though the feature is exciting, the song is a somewhat low point on the album, lacking the particular dance fun of the rest of the album. Instead, the song allows more for Stewart to speak-sing over an uninteresting groove compared to the rest of the album.

With this description, it can seem obvious that the members of De Lux have been active and impressionable listeners to the music that has come before them. That is both good and bad at the same time. Using a successful template offers the sureness of enjoyable music seen in most of the album. On the other hand, one could say that they don’t do as much to separate themselves from these artists, sounding less like their own distinct act. This rings somewhat true but shouldn’t be noticed too much. This album is a quite fun experience even if it sounds like something you may have heard before.