The Bollard Bulletin for June 25, 2025
Columbian psych-funk, secret swingers, and your chance to help redesign Franklin Street
Highlights
The Columbian psychedelic-funk band Balthvs (pronounced “ball-thus”) weaves soft sonic tapestries with patterns from musical styles across the globe (and possibly from other globes). Local groove group Damn B opens at Oxbow Blending & Bottling (49 Washington Ave., Portland) at 8:30 p.m. Tix: $27 (21+).
The Ragtime Destroyers are on a secret mission this summer, popping up in public parks to play hot swing music that gets everyone in the vicinity — humans, ducks, squirrels, butterflies — dancing in public. They’ll be at Mill Creek Park in South Portland this evening at 6 p.m. Get inside intel on future swing strikes here.
Legendary boxer “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler, like basically every Black boxer before him (and since), had to fight both opponents and a racist boxing-world hierarchy to get his due. Boston-based author Dave Wedge discusses his eye-opening book about Hagler’s rise, Blood & Hate, at Longfellow Books (1 Monument Way, Portland) at 6 p.m. Free.
The plot of Allen Sunshine, in which a record-industry exec retreats to a remote lake and composes music, brought Rogers Parker’s recent Bollard story about Max Schubel, of the avant-garde label Opus One, to mind. In director Harley Chamandy’s sweet film, the composer forms an unexpected friendship with two boys who remind him what life’s supposed to be about. It screens at SPACE (538 Congress St., Portland) at 7 p.m., followed by an in-person Q&A session with Chamandy. Tix: $10.
The City of Portland is hosting two community design workshops during which you can help redesign Franklin Street (formerly Franklin Arterial) into a byway that’s safe for all travelers and encouraging of affordable new residential and retail development. (Or you could show up to argue it should be a six-lane expressway; it’s a free-ish country, after all.) The first takes place today at the Portland Public Library’s Rines Auditorium (5 Monument Sq.) from 4:30-6:30 p.m., and the second at the same time and place tomorrow. Here’s what they’ve got for plans so far.