PORTLAND

Review: Invictus

Clint shows team spirit
Poetry, muses Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) in a reflective moment in Invictus , consists only of words, yet it can inspire perseverance and greatness beyond our own expectations of ourselves. Sport, similarly, consists of oversized, overpaid athletes pounding one another in simulated combat, but it's also a form of poetry.

By PETER KEOUGH | December 09, 2009

The Rolling Stones | Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert

ABKCO (2009)
This live 1969 Madison Square Garden set was released at the band's peak, following Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed , preceding Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street , and recorded a week before the disaster at Altamont.

By JON GARELICK | December 09, 2009

The Doors | Live in New York

Rhino (2009)
In 1970, Doors producer Paul Rothchild assembled a tight “live set” out of a bunch of different concert recordings from the band’s 1969/early-1970 shows and Elektra released it as the Absolutely Live LP.

By GUSTAVO TURNER | December 09, 2009

Miles Davis | The Complete Columbia Album Collection

Columbia/Legacy (2009)
Given the consensus that the CD era is drawing to a close, labels have begun to look increasingly toward the well-heeled — those who not only still buy their music on something they can hold but aren't averse to buying it in supersized, extravagant configurations they can show off and savor.

By JEFF TAMARKIN | December 09, 2009

Review: Everybody's Fine

It's . . . fine, we guess
You'll be forgiven if you mistake Robert De Niro's face for Robert Young's next to Kate Beckinsale's, Drew Barrymore's, and Sam Rockwell's on the poster for Kirk ( Waking Ned Devine ) Jones's remake of Stanno tutti bene .

By BRETT MICHEL | December 09, 2009

Review: The Princess and the Frog

Disney becomes slightly enlightened?
Fans of traditional animation will be relieved to learn that 2004's Home on the Range was not the final nail in Disney's 2-D toon coffin.

By SHAULA CLARK | December 09, 2009

Review: Brothers

Maguire, Gyllenhaal go deer hunting
Operation Enduring Freedom seems to have replaced Vietnam as Hollywood's go-to military quagmire from which to dredge gut-wrenching meditations on the psychological carnage of war.

By SHAULA CLARK | December 09, 2009

Review: Armored

Flat-footed Tarantino-esque hodgepodge misfires
In view of its credentials, Armored should be a lay-up.

By TOM MEEK | December 09, 2009

Review: New Super Mario Bros. Wii

OId news: nothing super about it
The staggering commercial success the folks at Nintendo have achieved in recent years has made it easy to overlook their more unfortunate habits.

By MITCH KRPATA | December 09, 2009

A mysterious new inmate death

Prison Scandal Watch
Despite a scandal earlier this year over a prisoner death, state corrections officials won’t allow the Phoenix to interview a Maine State Prison inmate who has claimed in letters that prison staff abused an ailing prisoner, Victor Valdez, before Valdez died in late November.

By LANCE TAPLEY | December 10, 2009

Super friends

Move over, Clark Kent. All over New England, mild-mannered citizens are suiting up and doing their part to play the hero.
THWAK! I swing with my right fist, trying to connect with my opponent's face. In a smooth motion, he deflects my punch with his forearm, which is protected with a black and metallic-plastic arm gauntlet. I swing with my left fist, and am again knocked away effortlessly. I can see my reflection in his sunglasses, framed in white.

By TEA KRULOS | December 11, 2009

Big Star | Keep an Eye on the Sky

Rhino (2009)
Like most Big Star fans, author Robert Gordon overheats a little in the biographical essay that accompanies this handsome four-disc box set.

By MIKAEL WOOD | December 09, 2009

Elvis Presley | Elvis 75: Good Rockin' Tonight

RCA/Legacy (2009)
There's a plethora of Elvis Presley albums on the market, most of them compilations and box sets, each focusing on certain hits, eras, and/or styles.

By ZETH LUNDY | December 08, 2009

Tech Support

Stereo equipment is so passé. This year's unnecessarily awesome gadgets will stir coffee and turn T-shirts into guitars.
"Lo! Men have become the tools of their tools." So wrote Henry David Thoreau, a long time ago, in Walden .

By MIKE MILIARD | December 08, 2009

Updike does death, R. Crumb does God, Vanity Fair does Proust

Gift books to savor
Trying to reach as broad a range of tastes and pocketbooks as possible, we this year scavenged everything from the front pages of the Onion to R. Crumb's genesis, to valedictory Updike. Stuff to read, stuff to look at, glossy pages and matte. Remember: be careful not to nick the pages or spill eggnog on them before you wrap. Happy holidays!

By PHOENIX STAFF | December 08, 2009

Same old song

Reissued and remastered CDs give classic releases a fresh face
Most music fans can probably be forgiven, at this point, for being doubting Thomases at the alleged demise of the major-label music industry.

By DANIEL BROCKMAN | December 08, 2009

Photos: Phish at Cumberland County Civic Center

Phish, live at the Cumberland County Civic Center on November 29, 2009
Live at Phish's 2009 Fall Tour stop in Portland

By SCOTT HOLT | December 07, 2009

Parting the (green and) Red Sea

Hoopleville
Ho-ho-holy Moses

By DAVID KISH | December 09, 2009

Airman punk

Running a band and writing music in Afghanistan
Perhaps the clearest sign that Afghanistan is not your father's war comes in the person of Airman First Class Peter Bourgeois, who, while deployed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, has been busy managing the career of his former band, Jodi Explodi.

By SAM PFEIFLE | December 02, 2009

Ghost stories

For all of the excitement that surrounded Wilco on the Maine State Pier or Sufjan Stevens at Port City Music Hall or the various sold-out Ray LaMontagne shows of the past year, there is no question that last Sunday's Phish show at the Cumberland County Civic Center was the biggest thing to hit our fair city in a very long time.

By SAM PFEIFLE | December 07, 2009