Portland's Mayor does the Electric Slide

It's not every day that you walk through Lobsterman's Park and see the city's mayor leading a group of women in the Electric Slide. You especially don't expect to see such fancy footwork when it's absolutely freezing outside. But this is exactly what was going on at noon today.

Mayor Duson, who's wearing the brown shirt, and a crew of volunteers braved the weather (and the possibility of public humiliation) in order to help the Community Television Network (channels 2 & 4) raise money. The video of today's event, along with videos of the rest of the council members doing their own dance moves (no word yet on where or when these routines will go down), will be aired April 2 on CTN at 7 pm.

I wasn't the only one there with a camera. Suzi Piker posted a video on the Portland Press Herald site, Press Herald photographer John Ewing will likely have images in tomorrow's paper and Channel 8 should have video for this evening's newscast.

This all goes to show that you never know what you'll come across when you head out onto the streets of Portland.

Spring blooms in Post Office Park

March can be a rough month filled with thoughts of summer dashed by three feet of snow. For anyone who's thinking that spring will never come, I offer you these snapshots of the forsythia witch hazel that bloomed this weekend in Post Office Park. It gives me hope that warmer weather is just around the corner. In fact, the season officially changes this Friday. Should you want to celebrate in true Mainer style, then make a plan to head out of the city this weekend when Maple Syrup Sunday comes to a sugar shack near you.

UPDATE: Turns out my plant ID skills need some fine-tuning. This lovely yellow bedecked plant is not forsythia, as I previously reported, but witch hazel. Thank you to all the sharp-eyed horticulturists out there!

More window art on Free Street

After discovering Randy Regier's out-of-this-world window exhibition on Congress Street, I set out to see the other two pieces of this sidewalk show. I found them on Free Street near Cross Jewelers' back entrance and across the street from the Dogfish Bar & Grille.

In two previously vacant windows, artists Andy Rosen and Lydia Badger have created works with the feel of old-school museum dioramas. Each is part of SPACE Gallery's Windowkammers public art show. Since opening in 2002, SPACE has offered a wonderful community service to the pedestrians of Portland in the form of its always eye-catching and thought-provoking window displays in its Congress Street storefront. The Windowkammers project seeks to spread this visual love around town.

Rosen presents a piece titled "Dear, Old Master." It features a man stuck inside a log. The man's two dogs remain close by, with one, for some unexplained reason, wearing his master's boots.

Here's a closer view of Rosen's work.

Lydia Badger's piece "In an Instant" is a classic, albeit a bit whimsical, wildlife diorama, with a lovely array of cute and cuddly creatures.

Here's a closer view of Badger's work.

This street-side exhibition is a wonderful addition to Portland's downtown, and I hope it's an artistic tradition we'll see more of.

Forget Groundhogs, Portland's got robins

In spite of the current snow shower, I'm convinced warm weather is right around the corner. How do I know? I snapped this photo of spring's harbinger about an hour ago in Bayside.

And here's a whole group of them in a tree. According to my "National Audubon Society Field Guide to New England," robins shouldn't make an appearance here in Maine until March. But bird expert Derek Lovitch writes on Maine Outdoor Journal that seeing flocks of robins in winter is no big deal these days. (Thanks climate change!) Whatever the explanation, I'm taking these rosy robins as a sign that we Portlanders will enjoy an early spring.

A girl can dream, right?

Art House in Bakery & a Spacecraft on Congress

Movement is afoot in Portland's gallery scene. The Jameson Gallery has spun off its framing business and Drew Wilen and Graham Wood from the Jameson frame shop have turned it into Art House Picture Frames. Jameson owner Michael Rancourt has moved his gallery to the Bayside space most recently occupied by 3 Fish, and Art House has set up shop in the very cool Bakery Building on Pleasant Street.

I stopped by yesterday and chatted with Drew, who's shown here in front of just some of the frame samples they've moved over from Jameson's Commercial Street space.

All the Jameson frame choices are still available, and Drew and Graham have added locally-made, eco-friendly frames. Frames like these shown here are being crafted from salvaged material and non-toxic finishes in the back room.

The gallery hosts an opening during the upcoming First Friday Art Walk (Feb. 6, 5-8 pm), with a show of small works by Brita Holmquist, Lisa Dombek, Larinda Meade, Tanya Fletcher, Caren-Marie Michel, Suzanne DeLesseps and Andrew Abbott. Here are some of the works waiting to be hung.

You can find the shop at 61 Pleasant St.

Another neat gallery to check out this upcoming First Friday is Constellation Gallery. The new space shows the work of David A. Marshall, Nathan Broaddus and Matthew Isgro. With limited hours right now, the gallery is doing its part to support public art with a window installation that is part of the Windowkammers project sponsored by SPACE Gallery.

I checked out the installation before 10 am this morning when the light made it virtually impossible to take a picture of this fabulous piece called "Now Your Spacecraft Will Be Your Peace" by Randy Regier. Should you be passing by 511 Congress St., take a detour up into the plaza (right next to Thai Chef Buffet) and have a look for yourself.

Posh new digs for Head Games & The Landing

The Head Games Salon for Hair & Body recently moved into an expansive space, which includes the brand new Landing Center for Healing Arts. Salon owner Alanna Peterkin kindly offered to show me around the renovated salon, which features lots of planet-friendly materials, such as cork floors and low-VOC paint.

When you first walk into the space at 116 Free Street, you see these salon stations (note the hanging hair dryers) and the curved bar. At the bar, stylists not only mix up hair color, but also cocktails for customers.

To the right of this area is a lovely white couch, where Peterkin (center) and her team of first-rate stylists agreed to gather for a photo.

Tucked into the well-lit area at the front of the shop, there's a make-up station featuring the all-natural Young Blood line. The salon also offers its own line of hair care products called Use Me, which I wrote about last September for Switch.

Peterkin's good friend Deanna Talarico (left) is the force behind The Landing, which offers daily classes in things like yoga, spinnng, Zumba, pilates, KettleBall, Latin Dance and Tai Chi. She's standing here with instructor Valerie Davis who offers LifeBreath classes. The drop-in rate for classes is $15 per hour, and you also can buy packages, such as the 10 Hour Package for $120, which allows you to attend any classes you want and includes a one month membership to the Heat Suite.

Speaking of that Heat Suite, the basement level of the buildings offers a number of massage therapy rooms, showers, a regular hot air sauna and this infrared sauna, which uses infrared radiation to instantly and directly heat your body. Come spring, Peterkin plans to add lockers and a storage area for bikes. She'll then sell passes to bike commuters allowing them to use the showers and changing rooms.

Need a cut or a color? Call them up at 773-8393.

Car sharing comes to Portland

Portland's brand-new U Cars have rolled into town. Two of these sleek PT Cruisers can be found parked on Elm Street (next to the library and across from the METRO station) and another two can be found on Commercial Street, near the ferry terminal. U-Haul runs U Car Share, which is one of a growing number of car sharing programs operating throughout the country.

The concept behind these programs is simple. Rather than going to the expense of owning and operating a car that sits idle for days or weeks at a time, city dwellers can instead subscribe to a car sharing program and just pay to use it when they need it. Reserving a car is easy, and it's all done online.

Normally the sign-up fee for U Car is $50, but if you go to the U Car website, click on Portland, ME and register using the code MAINESWITCH2009, the fee will be waived.

After that the costs are straightforward. You pay $9.50 an hour, up to a maximum of $66 for the full day. You don't even have to pay for the gas. Everyone benefits from this program (whether you sign up or not) because it means fewer cars on the road and cuts the city's need for parking.

The U Cars have designated on-street parking spots that the city has made available free of charge for one year. After that, U Car will pay for the spots.

After the ice storm

Broken tree limbs littered the streets of Portland today, after last night's ice storm. Because I took a vaca day, I had the luxury of sleeping in while others were trying to de-ice and navigate the slick streets. Instead I waited until the sun peeked out around 1:30 to head out and try to do some errands. Normally, I would walk, but because the roads were in better shape than the sidewalks, I chipped my car out of a block of ice and drove.

A number of the stop lights along Cumberland Avenue were dead, and stop signs took their place.

Classes were canceled for the day at Portland High.

Longfellow Square sparkled with a covering of ice.

This poor tree outside Urban Hardware was snapped in half.

The birches in front of the Portland Museum of Art were bent and a little broken.

And even though the power was working fine at my house (just two blocks away), Whole Foods had locked its door citing a lack of electric juice.

Skyline is a changing in East End

If you've driven or walked down India or Fore streets lately, you've likely seen the massive new Ocean Gateway parking garage. It's nestled next to long time neighborhood landmark Micucci Grocery and is in the spot where the Breakaway Tavern used to sit. In the distance, you can see a slice of the slanting roof of the actual Ocean Gateway ferry terminal.

On the back of the garage there is a mural painted by Elizabeth Morrill Burke of Peerless Painting of Falmouth. According to The Bollard, the mural was created as a way to make an ugly wall meet the city's design standards. The image is based on historical photos of the Eastern Prom, which may explain why it's rendered in grayscale. Or maybe they were just trying to save money on paint.

Should you come down Middle Street, you can't help but notice another new building rising behind the garage.

Rumor has it that this new building at the corner of Fore and Hancock streets will become a Residence Inn by Marriott.

Hopefully, we can expect more construction in this area soon. Across Middle Street from the garage is the spot where the Village Cafe used to be. It was knocked down in June to make way for the Bay House condos. The website says people will begin moving in next fall. However, when I did a story about the condos for Switch a little over a year ago, I was told construction was going to start at the beginning of this year for a fall 2009 opening. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens to this now vacant lot.

Foxy new sidewalks

Portland tends to be a very walkable place, with its quaint brick sidewalks and compact downtown. However, there are a number of exceptions to Portland's walker-friendly vibe, places where you suddenly find yourself without a sidewalk and faced with three choices: Retreat, walk on the road or travel along a dirt "goat path." One of these sidewalk-free zones used to be Fox Street, adjacent to the notoriously pedestrian UN-friendly Franklin Arterial and across from the Whole Foods.

But here's what I spotted yesterday when I was cruising through the area: Sidewalk construction underway on Fox Street!

This is just one of the many sidewalk additions/extensions that the Public Works crews have undertaken this year. The sidewalk added to the west side of Franklin was a particularly sweet victory for local pedestrian advocates. Here's hoping we'll see many more projects like this in the near future.