Some times I wonder if this city loves locally made T-shirts as much as its local bands. The latest example? Local Ink.

Never, ever forget that holiday weekends have two benefits: You get an extra day off, and the weekend comes a lot sooner.

A classic hip-hop battle, a Portland music jumble and the rise and fall (and rise?) of America with Alyssa Milano and a skinny guy in a rented star-spangled hat? It's all possible this weekend.

Time to suit up people. Today is REPEAL DAY and that means it's time to celebrate in a way our teetotaling ancestors only wish they could have. Even if that means having your usual post-work, unwind PBR, at least take a second to savor it. Remember, that cocktail you overpaid for is a right, not a privilege.

Hello, NXT readers. Justin is relaxing on a private island without Internet access (at least that's what he told me), so I'll be your host today. My name is Mary Phillips-Sandy. I recently returned to Portland after a few years in New York City; these days I live, write and drink too much coffee in the East End. I'm also the proprietor of a website called Ruined Music.

Peter Eiermann and Sally Struever from Port City Studios get things started off this week by looking at how young business owners can retake Portland.

The next generation of small businesses can be found in some of the City's smallest storefronts. Take a walk around Portland, keep your eyes peeled, and you might stumble on a few of Portland's youngest and most creative entrepreneurs and artists busily building their future here in Maine.

They live among us.
They may even look like us.
But when no one is looking, they gather together in the dark corners and subject each other to unspeakable horrors.

They are the tattooed.

Every once in a while we like to get a little serious here at the NXT Desk (I know, I know, it is hard to believe.).

Today we're going to have a talk about homelessness.

Didn't see that one coming did you?

Portland has no shortage of self-love, even though we sometimes may feel like we get no respect from outside Vacationland.

If you've ever supported a local business, band or artist tonight is shaping up to be a big ol' fashioned love fest with the Indie Biz Awards and the release party for the newest album in the "Greetings from Area Code 207" series.

And lucky for all of you both of these shindigs will be taking place within a Portland city block of each other.

Spring is in bloom (in theory) and with the turning of the seasons comes an annual tradition...award season.

Local business, local artists and local musicians are all coming into focus this month and it's time to celebrate some of the things that make it pretty great to live and work in this community.

The best part is - you get to decide.

When was the last time you went to the theater? When was the last time you wanted to go see a play, musical or opera?

There are a lot of entertainment options these days, some that don't even require you to leave your home.

But if it came down to seeing something at Cinemagic versus going over to the Portland Stage Company for their latest show, where would you go?

Consequences have actions, even the ones we don’t think about. If you take the “butterfly effect” as fact and apply it outside of science and bad Aston Kutcher films, almost anything we do must have some unintended aftermath, right?

- The Tenacious D, "Rock Your Socks Off"

We here at NXT firmly believe in the adoption of advanced technologies and using them to our own nefarious ends. We're very much like a Bond villian in that regard. Let's hope we never get hold of that weather controlling device they have at the Gulf of Maine Institute, or Bowdoin's time machine.

And with that completely odd non-sequitur, readers, commentheads and innocent bystanders alike, behold, we have made a Podcast.

Enough with the Halo 3 news already, we get it.

Yes, we're moving on, gentle reader, to matters with significantly less galactic implications.

We're thinking local.

I spent a good portion of this morning trying to figure out how many blogs I was going to post today, a task made more difficult thanks to cold medication (thanks a lot fall, your creepy seesaw weather patterns are making me ill.).

In the end, I went for quality (in theory) over quantity. This is a long one, we got Halo 3, local music and youth radio on tap.

This one has to be quick friends. The demands of Lady Journalism are...demanding. Also, I am a little under the weather. Perhaps all this mustache growing is draining me.

If so, the only cure is red meat, cheap beer and a viewing of "Smokey and the Bandit" followed by "Over The Top."

In most people's lives a moment will come along where you realize who your good friends are and why your life is better off with them in it.

For most of us this time comes when you need help moving or getting over a vicious break-up.

When you come across a good local story about something you’re into, it’s hard not to get a little excited. When I first heard about Small Victory Studios my first reaction was "how sweet is that, a local company that does original T-shirts!"