Gifts for the entire year: Subscriptions to arts organizations are good for the community and for you

Published in the Portland Phoenix

Some gifts you open and are all excited about, but then you find, a few weeks or months later, that you have forgotten you even got it — and you've never used it. So here are some places that will sell you gifts of experiences that can last all year long.

SEASON TICKETS

A small number of non-theater organizations offer you the opportunity to buy tickets to all their events for a year, all at once! (See the theatrical ones next.)

BANGOR SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | Year-round performances of classical and contemporary music | Subscriptions start at seven shows for $80 | 207.942.5555 | bangorsymphony.org

BAY CHAMBER CONCERTS | Producing a wide range of events at the Rockport Opera House | Discounts vary based on the number of shows ticketed | 207.236.2823 | baychamberconcerts.org

PORTLAND CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL | Summertime classical performances at USM's Abromson center | subscriptions start at four shows for $100 | 800.320.0257 | pcmf.org

PORTLAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | Performing live classical and contemporary music year-round | classical subscriptions start at five shows for $85; PSO Pops start at four shows for $80 | 207.773.6128 | portlandsymphony.org

WE DIDN'T FORGET THEATER!

Most theater companies also sell season tickets. We've listed as many as we could find, but if your favorite theater company isn't listed, give them a call and ask.

ARUNDEL BARN PLAYHOUSE | Starting at five shows for $125 | 207.985.5552 | arundelbarnplayhouse.com

CITY THEATER | Starting at four shows for $62 | 207.282.0849 | citytheater.org

GOOD THEATER | Starting at four shows for $55 | 207.885.5883 | goodtheater.com

LYRIC MUSIC THEATER | Starting at five shows for $84 | 207.799.1421 | lyricmusictheater.com

MAD HORSE | Starting at four shows for $60 | 207.730.2389 | madhorse.com

MAINE STATE MUSIC THEATER | Starting at four shows for $122 | 207.725.8769 | msmt.org

OGUNQUIT PLAYHOUSE | Starting at five shows for $237 | 207.646.5511 | ogunquitplayhouse.org

PENOBSCOT THEATRE COMPANY | Starting at three shows for $75 | 207.942.3333 | penobscottheatre.org

PONTINE | Five shows for $90 | 603.436.6660 | pontine.org

PORTLAND PLAYERS | Mid-season mini-subscription three shows for $50; or five shows for $80 | 207.799.7337 | portlandplayers.org

PORTLAND STAGE COMPANY | Starting at five shows for $129 | 207.774.0465 | portlandstage.com

PUBLIC THEATRE | Four shows for $72 | 207.782.3200 | thepublictheatre.org

THEATER AT MONMOUTH | Four shows for $90 | 207.933.9999 | theateratmonmouth.org

MEMBERSHIPS THAT BRING TICKET DISCOUNTS

Though they don't sell outright season tickets, you can join these non-profit organizations as a member and get free or reduced-price admission to events and exhibits throughout the year.

ONE LONGFELLOW SQUARE | Individual membership starts at $75 | 207.761.1757 | onelongfellowsquare.com

MUSIC HALL | Friend starts at $50 | 603.433.3100 | themusichall.org

MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY | Individual support starts at $40 | 207.774.1822 | mainehistory.org

PORTLAND MUSEUM OF ART | Individual membership starts at $50 | 207.775.6148 | portlandmuseum.org

SPACE GALLERY | Individual support starts at $40 | 207.828.5600 | space538.org

SEE YOUR NAME IN PRINT

There are plenty of other arts and culture institutions that could use your support, and (if you give enough) will thank you for it in their programs and publicity materials. If you're up for getting your name "out there," check in here, or with your favorite organization.

ACORN PRODUCTIONS | Highlighting theater arts through performances, workshops, and classes | accepting donations in all amounts | 207.854.0065 | acorn-productions.org

AIRE | Contemporary and classic Irish-American theater productions | accepting donations in all amounts | 207.799.5327 | airetheater.com

CHORAL ART SOCIETY | Singing the wonders of the human voice | Aficionado starts at $1 | 207.828.0043 | choralart.org

DEERTREES THEATRE | Serving theater and music performances in the lakes region | accepting donations in all amounts | 207.583.6747 | deertreestheatre.org

FRIENDS OF THE KOTZSCHMAR ORGAN | concerts and other events (such as scored silent films) featuring the group's namesake instrument at Merrill Auditorium | Piston starts at $1 | 207.553.4363 | foko.org

GASLIGHT THEATER | Memberships start at $15 | 207.626.3698 | gaslighttheater.org

L/A ARTS | Producing all manner of performances in Lewiston and Auburn | accepting donations in all amounts | 207.782.7228 | laarts.org

MAINE STATE BALLET | Based in Falmouth, the MSB puts on full-length ballets and shorter dance performances, as well as offering classes in ballet and other dance forms | Dancer's Circle starts at $25 | 207.781.7672 | mainestateballet.org

PLAYERS' RING | Local theater in a historic building in Portsmouth | Memberships start at $35 | 603.436.8123 | playersring.org

PORTLAND BALLET COMPANY | Performing full-length classical and contemporary ballets, and teaching ballet to all ages | Apprentice starts at $50 | 207.772.9671 | portlandballet.org

PORTLAND OVATIONS | Bringing all sorts of events — dance, classical and world music, Broadway shows, and more — to the Forest City | Friend starts at $40 | 207.773.3150 | portlandovations.org

PORTLAND STRING QUARTET | Plays and teaches about stringed classical music throughout Maine | Friend starts at $1 | 207.761.1522 | larksociety.org

PORTOPERA | Producing opera and vocal performances year-round | accepting donations in all amounts | 207.879.7678 | portopera.org

SEACOAST REPERTORY THEATRE | Contemporary and musical theater in Portsmouth | Intern starts at $35 | 603.433.4472 | seacoastrep.org

THEATER PROJECT | Maine's only all-pay-what-you-can theater | Stagehand starts at $1 | 207.729.8584 | theaterproject.com

Break down the shakedown: Give the gift of telling debt it’s busted

Published in the Portland Phoenix

While you're out spending your hard-earned dollars on gifts for yourself and others at holiday and year-end sales, remember that money has to come from somewhere. Unless, of course, you're a Wall Street investment executive, or a banker. They get to invent money out of thin air. How come? Occupy Wall Street activists explain, in a new book about extracting yourself from America's drain-circling debt problem:

"We gave the banks the power to create money because they promised to use it to help us live healthier and more prosperous lives — not to turn us into frightened peons. They broke that promise. We are under no moral obligation to keep our promises to liars and thieves. In fact, we are morally obligated to find a way to stop this system rather than continuing to perpetuate it," writes the book's anonymous author collective.

As you might expect, the book, The Debt Resistors' Operations Manual, is free and openly downloadable as a PDF at strikedebt.org. Part manifesto, part history, and part step-by-step action plan, it's an easy read that stays away from overly technical language, preferring to stay high-level and comprehensible to most people who have dealt with the modern American financial system.

Observing that 76 percent of Americans are debtors (and one in seven is being pursued by debt collectors), a rhetorically strong introduction puts the lie to the idea that our debt crisis is the fault of irresponsible individuals who deserve moral chiding and no sympathy or help. If you weren't already upset by the chant that "Banks got bailed out; we got sold out," give page 2 a read.

So in this season of giving, the DROM is a reminder not to forget to save — yourself, from the vagaries of our economy. It's also a plea for collective action: "help beat the system that wants you to fail."

Make no mistake: Wall Street literally banks on the struggles of regular Americans. Can't afford education? No problem — you can borrow money, guaranteed by the government, with fees paying private companies to process the payments. Get sick or injured? No problem — medical-debt collectors will pack your bags and send you on a guilt trip as far away as they can, with no return until you pony up. What about living costs, or food? How about mortgage bundling, a credit card, a debit card, or — better yet (for them) — a prepaid charge card?

Worse than all that is how it snowballs into a credit score, which can affect not only your ability to get a loan, but even to find a rental apartment, or even a job. (How sick is that? Being short of money can prevent you from earning anything.)

SPECIFIC DETAILS

In sections divided by type of debt (credit cards, medical, student, housing, payday loans, and so on), the authors provide deep (but brief) histories of how each market got the way it is (you'll see a business-government collusion theme develop), followed by details of the current practices that make these industries so repellent. (Example: credit-card companies are now robo-signing documents claiming to own debt with no actual legal proof, just like mortgage lenders did.)

The writing manages emotion well, never becoming truly overwhelming, and always offering hope for a better world. Just when you're mad enough to want to act come the specific steps for rectifying almost any situation.

For example, there are solid suggestions about how to avoid having to use the usurious payday lenders without subjecting yourself to the full power of Big Finance.

Many of these ideas subvert the existing systems — like detailing a multi-month, multi-step letter-writing campaign to dispute validity of reports to credit-monitoring agencies, and even forcing debt collectors to prove they are empowered to seek repayment from you. It might be a pain to write and mail various letters, but you'll help keep the US Postal Service operating, and the dollars you'll need to spend will likely be far less than you owe. (Don't miss the super-clever way out of doctor and hospital bills, involving an overlap between collection laws requiring itemization of debts and medical-privacy laws barring disclosure of medical treatments to third parties.)

DISRUPTING THE SYSTEM

But rather than deciding it's enough to simply take advantage of the byzantine "consumer protection" regulations, the DROM also explores the sort of options that few official sources will tell you about — like how to escape payday-loan hell (it involves borrowing lots and then leaving the country) and mortgage resistance. (Occupy's unsurprising, but surprisingly effective basic rule: Don't leave; see a variant in the sidebar.)

The DROM also highlights the potential power of collective action. (Student debt in the US totals more than $1 trillion, and 41 percent of the college class of 2008 is already in default on their loans. Think of the power of the people!)

A goodly amount of the book is devoted to exploring how to play defense if you're already in a bad situation. But there is quite a lot there about playing offense too. The basic idea is a call for systemic reforms to align the US with other industrialized countries, many of which have far less wealth than we do — such as supporting universal health care and instituting free higher education.

A revolutionary book whose time has truly come, the DROM is worth much more than the time you’ll spend downloading it. It might even save the US economy, since nobody else will.

ONE THAT GOT AWAY:Here's an idea the DROM folks could use

We're no lawyers, but for people who can't afford their mortgage payments, rather than walking away, rather than trying to negotiate with a nameless, faceless bank — what if they just stayed? Pay the utilities, keep the lawn mowed, and even do some light maintenance. Stop paying the mortgage and just wait for the bank to come foreclose. There's the trick: Banks actually don't want to foreclose — it means taking a valuable asset off the books (the mortgage) and turning it into a lower-valued asset (the property at its actual worth) plus a liability (taxes and upkeep).

If the bank ever came knocking, the response is easy — and is increasingly attractive, even to policymakers: make the bank produce in court the actual paper documents signed at the mortgage closing. Not a scan, not a photocopy, but the actual page. (Some states, including Maine, have considered requiring production of this document before a foreclosure can continue.) After all, who's to say that a person knocking on your door with a photocopy of your mortgage owns anything other than just that — a photocopy of your mortgage? That can't be enough to prove you actually owe them actual money. So stand there in court and tell the judge that as soon as the bank proves it actually owns your house, you'll pay. But not until then. And wait for the banks to sort out the paperwork.

You'll live rent-free for years — or even own your home free and clear. Don't forget to pay the property taxes, though — the town can take your home if you get too far behind on them.

Money Talks: After the campaign: paying off debt

Published in the Portland Phoenix and Out In Maine

The final days before the November 6 vote on same-sex marriage saw a crazy amount of spending from political-action committees on both sides of the question, which has led both PACs to seek post-election contributions to pay off lingering debt.

In reports filed with the Maine Ethics Commission on October 26, both PACs — Protect Marriage Maine (opposed to marriage equality) and Mainers United for Marriage (in favor) — laid out their pre-election financial positions. At that time, PMM had $535,012.97 in ready cash and $96,006.75 in outstanding debt; MUM had $99,756.50 in cash, and unpaid debts of $139,827.62.

As far as yearly totals, MUM was by far the big spender, with 2012 outlays of $4,214,648.07 million by October 26, compared with total spending of $843,353.35 by PMM as of that date.

Both groups spent even more in the final days, with PMM buying so much advertising that the group ran through all its ready cash and more — ending with roughly $80,000 in unpaid debt, according to group treasurer Penelope Morrell.

While MUM went into the immediate election period with a net $40,000 deficit, MUM spokesman David Farmer says he does not know exactly how much his group needs to raise now. He estimated "it's in the tens of thousands," and not more than $100,000.

How well the groups do in their fundraising now that the battle is over will first become apparent on December 18, which is the next deadline for PAC reports.

If they don't raise the money by then, Matt Marett, who handles PAC registration for the Maine Ethics Commission, says the groups can simply remain active as PACs, and "collect contributions and continue to spend money for whatever they do in the future." They do have to continue reporting according to the commission's schedule, until whenever they decide to terminate operations, Marett says. (A PAC can dissolve itself with debts still on the books; "that's between them and their creditors," Marett says.)

Either group — or both — could also decide to continue to exist, and even change the registration paperwork on file with the commission to allow them to raise and spend money in the future to back candidates or other causes, or even become a standing lobbying organization seeking to influence legislators.

And WHAT HAPPENS IF A PAC DOES END UP WITH A SURPLUS after an election? "There really are not restrictions" on how the money could be spent, Marett says. It could be given to candidates, other PACs, charities, or to organizations that supported them (such as the Christian Civic League in PMM's case, or EqualityMaine in MUM's case).

They could even spend it on a party to thank supporters, or for travel to hear an issue-related speaker, he says, though in response to a hypothetical question about using surplus money at a casino, Marett allows "we may raise a red flag about that."

Eat before it gets cold: A new book about Antarctic cuisine satisfies foodies and historians alike

Published in the Portland Phoenix

As you nurse your post-Thanksgiving food coma back to normality, spare a thought for the men and women in Antarctica this holiday season. They're warm, well-fed, and happy (if really far from family) — but it wasn't always this way.

Maine author Jason Anthony explains in Hoosh(named for a half-fat, half-meat staple of Heroic Age expeditions) that "Antarctic culinary history is a mere century of stories of isolated, insulated people eating either prepackaged expedition food or butchered sealife." He describes "Antarctica's sad state of culinary affairs" as a set of circumstances where "Cold, isolation, and a lack of worldly alternatives have conspired to make Antarctica's captive inhabitants desperate for generally lousy food."

That wry sense of humor pervades the book, based in part on his eight summers in Antarctica. It begins with the mystical appearance of several loaves of fresh sourdough bread (a delicacy, I can attest from my own time on the Ice, that is of incalculable value) as Anthony prepares for a deep field expedition, with him and one other person (as it happened, a direct descendant of an early Antarctic expeditioner) slated to spend 90 to 100 days alone on a glacier, clearing and maintaining an emergency landing strip in case of bad weather at the main US base, McMurdo Station.

Beyond his own experience, Anthony's knowledge and research is deep, detailing the role of food in historic expeditions both well known (see sidebar) and not, including Japanese and Scottish efforts that have rarely been noticed. He also reviews the mid-20th-century adventures of Byrd, Ellsworth, Ronne, and others. Viewing each expedition through the lens of food offers great insight into the people who were really the most important members of those groups: not the leaders whose names we know well, but the cooks, about whom the public knows next to nothing.

Important for its food writing, Anthony's book is mainly significant because it is just the third volume detailing the modern, corporate, dystopic American Antarctic experience — after Jim Mastro's 2002 Antarctica and Nicholas Johnson's 2005 Big Dead Place. (Disclosure: I was on the Ice at the same time as both Anthony and Johnson, though I didn't know them well.)

And indeed where Anthony's voice truly comes into its own is in writing about modernity, with the spirited air of one who has eaten well in these hard places. He clearly appreciates the effort and expense required — while also marveling at the obscenity and ridiculousness of choosing to serve scallops in a tent.

He adds anecdotal flavors from others: chef-bloggers Sally Ayotte and Michèle Gentille as well as modern Ice legends like Mastro, Karen Joyce, and Jules Uberuaga. They tell of a midwinter air-drop pizza delivery from New Zealand, the fate of fuel-contaminated hot-chocolate mix accidentally diverted from its path to the trash, and the Food Room in McMurdo — where the bland, mass-produced base food stands aside for the wonder of field-camp rations (not just scallops, but halibut steaks, and chile rellenos, and much more).

It's a comprehensive account; Anthony reports a great deal of information the US government prefers remain not widely published — including what happens to the foodafter it is consumed, highlighting the decades-long trash-disposal methods and non-treatment of sewage at McMurdo. He rightly observes that many of these practices have been rectified, but when you learn about how blasting for a new building spawned a major remediation project (at a location promptly named Sausage Point), the full picture of human impact on an allegedly pristine continent becomes apparent.

And yes, you'll also find out what roast penguin tastes like. But that's in the history books. In Hoosh the best things are the tastes (and fuel-tinged smells) you'll find of life in Antarctica today. Touching a particular nerve for me is an accurate description of the otherworldly texture and flavor of Antarctic toothfish, Dissostichus mawsoni, served by the McMurdo chefs on special occasions. The men and women on the Ice enjoyed it at Thanksgiving, and are already looking forward to it for Christmas.

HOOSH: ROAST PENGUIN, SCURVY DAY, AND OTHER STORIES OF ANTARCTIC CUISINE | by Jason C. Anthony | University of Nebraska Press | 186 pages | $26.95 | Anthony reads from HOOSH and speaks November 29 @ 7 pm | Longfellow Books, One Monument Way, Portland | Free | 207.772.4045

Tastes of history: The role of food in legendary polar tales

Among the joys of Jason Anthony's work for those who have know a bit of Antarctic history is his seasoning of the book with tasty nuggets of detail about stories we've all heard and think we know well. Here are a few morsels to whet your appetite:

• WE KNOW The Winter Journey from Cape Evans to Cape Crozier (1911) was the "Worst Journey in the World," as described in the famous book of that title by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. WE LEARN It was also a food experiment, in which each of the three men had a diet primarily of protein, fat, or carbohydrates — which deepened their suffering, because what was needed was a balance of the three.

• WE KNOW Six men, attached to Robert Scott's expedition trying to win the race to the South Pole, were sent to explore the coast of Victoria Land; conditions prevented them from returning to the base and they were forced to winter (1912) in an cramped ice cave where they slept, ate, defecated, and breathed air contaminated by the smoke of their only fuel: seal blubber. WE LEARN All six men were so hungry that even in their sleep they dreamed of huge feasts spread before them. Five of the men always woke up before they were able to taste even a bit. They were extremely jealous of George Murray Levick, the only one of the group who was able to eat his fill — though only in his dreams.

• WE KNOW Douglas Mawson was the lone survivor of a three-man overland journey to map King George V Land (1912-13); after a crevasse took most of their supplies and team member Belgrave Ninnis, Mawson and Xavier Mertz continued, until Mertz died of poisoning from eating dog livers as part of their survival rations. WE LEARN After Mertz's death, Mawson fell in a crevasse and was preparing to die, when he decided that he had spent so much energy safeguarding what little food remained (barely enough to stave off starvation) that he could not die and thereby allow it to go uneaten. He pulled himself out of the crevasse and made it back to safety.

• WE KNOW After losing lost their ship Endurance to the ice, Ernest Shackleton and his men made an over-ice and open-boat journey (1915-16), finding solid ground at Elephant Island. WE LEARN One recipe book made it to Elephant Island, and "from it each night one — only one — recipe was read aloud, like a passage from the Bible."

• WE KNOW Shackleton and five men took an open lifeboat across the stormy South Atlantic Ocean, traveling 800 miles from Elephant Island to South Georgia, navigating by sextant (1916). WE LEARN They cooked in the bottom of the boat; two men braced their backs against the hull, and held the cooker between their feet, with one man tasked with lifting the pot off the flame whenever the boat hit a big wave.

• WE KNOW Shackleton and two of those five men traversed unmapped mountain territory to cross South Georgia to find a whaling station and safety (1916). WE LEARN When they arrived, they were fed "cake, bread, scones, jam, and coffee."

• WE KNOW Commander Richard E. Byrd and three other men make the first flight to the South Pole, but barely clear a key mountain pass because their Ford TriMotor is too heavy (1929). They have to throw cargo out of the plane to gain altitude. WE LEARN Byrd, worried about the potential for a crash, had brought two 125-pound bags of emergency rations. That was the cargo pitched overboard.

• WE KNOW Byrd, alone at a weather station in the Antarctic interior for five months, got carbon monoxide poisoning from his heater and stove, and went quite mad (1934). WE LEARN He had trouble cooking pancakes and was able, by radio connection, to seek advice from the chef at New York City's Waldorf Hotel. (The advice was "butter the pan," which Byrd was already doing.)

Getting Results: Who won? We did

Published in the Portland Phoenix

We did it. The progressive, thinking, socially minded, involved people — people like you, the readers of the Portland Phoenix — won the election. For years, we've been talking about marriage equality, about preventing religious ideologues from getting between women and their doctors (and pharmacists), about the fact that we are our brothers' and sisters' keepers, that we are all on this Earth together, that "I've got mine" is a terrible philosophy dividing and destroying us rather than freeing us to some self-powered higher achievement.

We knew, when we heard the speeches, that Obama was right — nobody who built a business in this country did so without the help of roads and schools and firefighters and police officers. (Not to mention the government-insured bank accounts that let all of us stash our earnings safely.)

We agreed with Massachusetts US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren when she declared during her campaign, "You built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."

We knew it was wrong for Governor Paul LePage and his fellow Republicans in the Legislature to cut off state-subsidized health-care coverage for thousands of young poor Mainers.

We knew Mitt Romney's claim that the government shouldn't pick "winners and losers" in the business world was misguided because he failed to mention the federal tax policies that picked him and his investor-class ilk to become incredible winners, at the expense of all us workaday losers out here.

We know climate change is happening — and we've already taken our own action to slow its progress. We know it is wrong to throw out immigrants who are trying to help us make this country better. We know handing senior citizens coupons toward private health insurance isn't a way to guarantee a human right.

So while conservative pundits, misogynists, homophobes, racists, and corporate raiders lick their wounds and re-evaluate how they got everything so wrong, we — the Portland Phoenix and our readers — can take heart. After years of being made to think we were the minority, the underclass, the un-privileged, those who lack support, we can now take comfort in the fact that the people of Maine, and the American public at large, have our backs.

On November 7, we woke up in our world. Even Bill O'Reilly admitted on Fox News on election night, "It's not a traditional America anymore." He was referring to demographic change, but his statement has a much wider truth: "Traditional America" isn't what a lot of people thought it was.

Joel Benenson, Obama's chief pollster in 2008 and 2012, wrote a post-election piece in the New York Times, describing the "set of values that define an America that the majority of us wish to live in: A nation that makes the investments we need to strengthen and grow the middle class. A nation with a fair tax system, and affordable and excellent education for all its citizens. A nation that believes that we're most prosperous when we recognize that we are all in it together."

We knew it — and we've been saying it — all along.