The Bollard Bulletin: June 26, 2024
Remembering Geoffrey Rice, plus today's arts & entertainment listings
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED
On one hand, it’s been entertaining this week to read the Portland Press Herald’s blow-by-blow coverage of the trial in which infamous Portland slumlord Geoffrey Rice is trying to evict former Portland mayor Ethan Strimling for opening a window in his apartment and being dickish about rent hikes. On the other, it’s depressing to see, once again, how clueless the city’s daily paper is about who Rice is: a heartless bastard who’s allowed major properties he owns all over town to fall to ruin while fucking over residential and commercial tenants for decades.
Then it struck me: Shit! I never reposted the expose I wrote about Rice during the couple-three years this publication was called Mainer and had a different (now defunct) website. So yeah, the daily paper’s reporters and editors have a stunning lack of curiosity about the history and context here, but I’m not helping if I don’t make our past reporting readily available online. So here it is again, now on The Bollard’s website: “Slumlord Millionaire: The shocking greed of Portland property heir Geoffrey Rice.”
And in other recent news you can’t use, the Herald mistakenly reported yesterday that Portland City Councilor Anna Trevorrow represents the western end of the peninsula (she reps the East Side), failed to note that Councilor Victoria Pelletier (who does rep the West Side) has already announced she’s not running again, either, and that she’s endorsed Wes Pelletier (no relation, but he’s a neighbor of Ethan’s quoted in our “Slumlord” story) for her Council seat.
Trevorrow cited “major changes” in her “personal life” as the reason she’s leaving politics. A reporter or editor who knew she’s been shacked up for decades with State Sen. Ben Chipman in a home they’ve shared on Cumberland Avenue might see a connection to Chipman’s surprise announcement two weeks ago that he’s leaving politics, too. But nah. It’s all just a mystery to Maine’s largest media company. Here’s a link to a That’s My Dump! reunion story we published in 2017 that reports on properties owned by Chipman and Trevorrow, as well as Rice.
MUSIC
Andy’s Old Port Pub
Custom House Gang (roots, Americana)
7:30 p.m., no cover (all ages)
Aura
Felly (rap)
8 p.m., $23 (18+)
Blue Portland Maine
Jazz Sesh (open jam, 9 p.m.)
donations encouraged (21+)
Brunswick Town Mall
The Blues Buzzards (classic rock and pop)
6 p.m., free (all ages)
Greenwood Garden (Peaks Island; space538.org)
Hour, Florry (instrumental rock)
6 p.m., $12-$15 (all ages)
Henry’s Public House
Marc Chillemi (Latin brass)
7:30 p.m., no cover (all ages)
Lenny’s Pub
Terry Swett & Milltown Road
6:30 p.m., no cover (all ages)
Mill Creek Park Gazebo (50 Hinckley Dr., South Portland)
Blue Steel Express (blues)
6 p.m., no cover (all ages)
The Porthole
MEGS
6 p.m., no cover (all ages)
Portland House of Music
Bearly Dead (Grateful Dead covers)
8 p.m., $12 (21+)
Portland Lobster Co.
Bonnie and The Cats
6:30 p.m., no cover (all ages)
RiRa
Jim Brady (Irish music)
7 p.m., no cover (all ages)
Thompson’s Point
Goose (jam rock)
6:30 p.m., $59.95-$70 (all ages)
Willows
Seth Holbrook & Co. (pop and rock favorites)
6 p.m., no cover (all ages)
THIS IS OUR CLUB GUIDE IF YA NEED IT
PERFORMING ARTS
Improv Wednesdays, featuring tomfoolery by two competing troupes, at Empire Comedy Club (575 Congress St., Portland) at 7 p.m. Tix: $15 (21+). empirecomedyme.com.
The PortFringe Festival of unconventional performance art and other works continues with shows at two Bayside drinkin’ spots; full schedule and tix at portfringe.com.
Booked, a bi-weekly comedy open mic, at Empire Comedy Club (575 Congress St., Portland) at 8:30 p.m. No cover (21+). empirecomedyme.com.
HAPPENINGS
Paul Doiron launches his new Mike Bowditch Maine Warden mystery, Pitch Dark, at Longfellow Books (1 Monument Square, Portland), at 6 p.m. Free. 772-4045. longfellowbooks.com.