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All Roads lead to Belfast once again! Music festival returns after two-year hiatus
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BELFAST – A beloved keystone of Maine’s musical landscape is back.
The All Roads Music Festival is making its return to Belfast, bringing together scores of Maine musicians in celebration of the state’s vibrant music scene. The festival takes place over two days – May 20 and 21 – and features some of the very best that Maine has to offer. Unfolding across four different venues, All Roads promises to be a great time for any music lover. Tickets and more information can be obtained at the festival’s website at www.allroadsmusicfest.org.
The previous All Roads – the fifth in all – took place back in 2019. The circumstances of the pandemic meant that both the 2020 and 2021 incarnations of the festival were cancelled. Now, we’re just days away from the return here in 2022.
And as per usual, it’s a hell of a bill.
There are bands and artists familiar to anyone with even a passing knowledge of Maine’s current scene. We’re talking Lady Lamb, The Mallett Brothers Band, Dave Gutter, Sarah Shook & the Disarmers – talented, inventive musicians bringing their immense gifts together as part of the full-on sonic celebration that is All Roads.
There will be music from across all genres – whatever you like, you’re almost certainly going to be able to find it on one festival stage or another. In addition, All Roads is playing host to the always-wildly-successful Maine Songwriters Circle, where a group of talented songwriters get together and share a little of their collected collective wisdom.
Now, this isn’t to say that EVERY act is from Maine – there are some outliers here and there – but the reality is that even those that are “from away” are very much in keeping with the spirit of camaraderie that marks this event. It’s a spirit that is even more apparent in the can-do attitude of getting back to business after two years.
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Coming soon to a theater near you! 22 movies for summer 2022
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That’s right – it’s that time again!
Now, you might well be thinking “A summer movie preview? But it’s only the beginning of May!” And that’s totally understandable because, well … it’s only the beginning of May.
However, there’s no disputing that the theatrical release calendar has shifted significantly in recent years. We’ve been seeing more traditional “summer” movies get their release in May (and there are a bunch of those this year) and fewer in the mid-to-late August release dates. This means that we have a lot more May movies to talk about (but we will get to a handful of August offerings as well).
What this means is that summer movie previews have become very much an early May phenomenon – one which I am wholeheartedly embracing.
As for why this specific week, it’s simple – there’s an MCU movie hitting that first weekend, and honestly, Marvel’s late spring/early summer entry has become the de facto start of blockbuster season. Just one more way in which Kevin Feige and company have essentially taken command of the industry writ large.
So here we are – 22 movies for the summer of 2022. Now, it should be noted that there are plenty of eagerly anticipated offerings coming to us by way of the various streaming services as well. However, while many of those films match the studio movies in scope, ambition and cost, I’ll be focusing on theatrical releases here (though when there is a day-and-date streaming release as well, I will be sure to note it).
And with that – let’s go to the movies!
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Stretch your puzzle muscles! A.J. Jacobs talks his new book “The Puzzler”
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For many of us, puzzles are a part of our daily lives.
Every day, millions of people dedicate time and energy to solving puzzles. Whether we’re talking about word-based puzzles like crosswords and cryptics or mechanical puzzles like Rubik’s Cubes and Japanese puzzle boxes, there are people out there devoting their leisure to finding solutions. Chess problems and riddles and jigsaw puzzles – the list goes on and on. If you’re so inclined, there’s a type of puzzle out there for just about everyone.
And A.J. Jacobs decided to try just as many as he could.
Those attempts have resulted in a new book, titled “The Puzzler: One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life” (Crown, $28) and currently available wherever books are sold. It’s an effort to delve into not just his own deep, lifelong connection to puzzles, but also to the world in which puzzlers operate; he runs the gamut of genres, all to explore just what it is that attracts us to puzzles and the value that that attraction can add to other aspects of our lives.
It's the latest work of participatory nonfiction from Jacobs, who has previously penned such books as “The Year of Living Biblically” and “Thanks a Thousand.” He spent years traveling the world, engaging with elite puzzlers – makers and solvers alike – to help bring to light the low-key obsession that so many people share, the ongoing quest for that “aha” moment that is in many ways unique to puzzling.
(You can find our full review of "The Puzzler" here.)
Jacobs was kind enough to carve out some time from his busy schedule to join me over Zoom for a freewheeling conversation about the book, about puzzles and about why so many people are enamored with a hobby built upon the struggles inherent to our participation in it.
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