This Week's Haul, April 16: What is a diverging diamond, anyway?
And: Is the band Geese a 'psy-op'?
Good morning from eastern Maine, where this week, I watched in delight as a pair of robins built a nest in the giant rhododendron (more of a tree, really) directly outside our kitchen window. This is not a particularly rare development, of course, but it’s very exciting to me. My bar for joy is quite low in these times. I will report back on eggs and babies as they (hopefully) arrive.
One big win for Maine against the tech billionaires, even if they still are succeeding in infiltrating our towns and cities. I certainly did not think the Bangor Drive-In was ever coming back - RIP, double features - but I also did not foresee it turning into an Amazon warehouse. At least it’s in Hermon and not Bangor!
The Maine Legislature also passed a new 2 percent surtax on people making more than $1,000,000 per year. Can they also do something about vacation homes in Maine that are unoccupied for 10 months out of the year? Mamdani’s hoping to do something similar in NYC!
The expanded International Cryptozoology Museum will open in its extremely cool new Bangor digs next month, and host a grand opening party the weekend of July 11-12!
Anybody running the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race this weekend? Or hosting a watch party if you’re lucky enough to live streamside? I’d love to see your photos or hear your stories! If I get some good ones I’ll share it next week.
Non-Maine-related music critic corner: Was I deceived? Am I gullible? Do I have bad taste? The internet is claiming the huge, sudden success (for a rock band in 2025, anyway) of the band Geese and its frontman Cameron Winters is an elaborate public relations psy-op designed to manipulate white hipsters like me into raving about them. I loved “Getting Killed”! I listened to it constantly for weeks last fall/winter! I feel like this “psy-op” is actually just… marketing? I’ve seen lots of bands be touted as the Next Big Thing only to have it all collapse almost immediately. I don’t feel like that’s what’s happening here? I’m glad a really good band broke through amid the sea of solo artist pop stars. Why is that bad? This tastes like Haterade to me.
In one of the last times Maine granite was used for a prominent, historically significant public monument, 60 years ago this week the granite quarried from Stonington’s Crotch Island began making its way to Arlington National Cemetery to be used as part of President John F. Kennedy’s memorial gravesite. At the turn of the 20th century, Maine was the number one granite producer in the country, and there were more than 100 granite quarries statewide. Today, there are less than ten in operation.
Music & Dance
April 16: Fury of Five, Brick by Brick, Forked Tongue, Stab and Half Step, 7 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
April 17: Experimental guitarist Tim Mellinnod, 5:30 p.m., Fogtown Brewing, Ellsworth
April 17: Coelacanth, Earthwyrm, Hobo Wizard and Brady’s Grownup Time, 7 p.m., Hey Sailor, Searsport
April 17: The Driver Era and Almost Monday, 7 p.m., Cross Insurance Center, Bangor
April 17: Wild Cranberries Collective presents Morning Dove, the Knife Kickers and the Gerry Manderers, 7:30 p.m., Red Rabbit Bazaar, Bangor
April 18: Folk duo 40 Thieves, 5:30 p.m., Fogtown Brewing, Ellsworth
April 18: Alt-country band Rebecca Porter and the Rhinestone Roses, 7 p.m., Hey Sailor, Searsport
April 21: UMaine Symphonic and Concert Band, 7:30 p.m., Collins Center for the Arts, University of Maine, Orono
April 22: Reason, Slackjaw, In the Kingdom of Nightmares and Militia, 7 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
Theatre & Comedy
April 17-18: New Surry Theatre presents “The Shark is Broken,” new play about the making of “Jaws,” 7 p.m., Blue Hill Town Hall, Blue Hill
April 18: Penobscot Theatre Scripts in the Spotlight presents staged reading of “Bakersfield Mist,” 7 p.m., The Stage Door, Bangor
Art, Books, Film & Culture
April 16: 24th annual Poets/Speak, readings feat. 16 Maine poets, 4:30 p.m., Bangor Public Library, Bangor
April 16: “Conservation, Climate and Our Community,” talk by Coastal Mountain Land Trust’s Jack Shaida, 6:30 p.m., Belfast Free Library, Belfast
April 16: Leonard Lecture Series presents Josias Figueirido in conversation with ZAM Executive Director and Curator George Kinghorn, 5:30 p.m., Zillman Art Museum, Bangor
April 18: World Circus Day open house with Curio Cavalcade, Eye Candy Studio, Bangor
April 18: “Restoring America’s Perfect Tree: Bringing Back the American Chestnut to Our Eastern Forest,” 1 p.m., Page Farm & Home Museum, University of Maine, Orono
April 18: Saturday Matinee screening of “Watership Down”, 2:30 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill
April 18: The Maine Women’s Lobby presents a screening of “Thelma & Louise,” panel discussion to follow, 2 p.m., Colonial Theatre, Belfast
April 20: “No More Wasted Food by 2030? Maine’s K-12 Schools Are Proving It’s Possible,” talk by William Brenneman, 3 p.m., Norman Smith Hall, University of Maine, Orono
April 20: “Marx’s Theory of Labor,” talk by Yale University Prof. Michael Denning, 5 p.m., Bangor Room, Memorial Union, University of Maine, Orono
April 20: Talk by artist Melissa Wilkinson, 6 p.m., Lord Hall, University of Maine, Orono
April 21: State of the Planet lecture series with marine biologist Jessie Muhlin, noon, Dyke Center, Husson University, Bangor
April 22: “Maine is Weird,” talk by birder Bob Duchesne, 6 p.m., Bangor Public Library, Bangor
April 22: Derry-Free Horror Book Club reads “Wolf Worm” by T. Kingfisher, 7:30 p.m., Bookspace, Bangor
April 22: Red Rabbit Film Club screens “Night Moves,” 7 p.m., Red Rabbi Bazaar, Bangor
Fairs, Festivals, Markets, Outdoors & Misc.
April 18: 59th annual Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race, launches at 8 a.m. in Kenduskeag Village and ends in downtown Bangor
April 18: Lost and Found Vintage Market, Maine’s largest vintage market, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Cross Insurance Center, Bangor
April 18: Maine Audubon Natural Communities Visit explores willow trees in Maine, 3 p.m., Essex Woods, Bangor
Work is finally beginning on the revamp of the Interstate 95 Hogan Road exit! This long-awaited project will result in Maine’s (and northern New England’s) first-ever diverging diamond interchange. What is that!? Former Bangor city councilor and Person Who Is Very Enthusiastic About Public Infrastructure Gretchen Schaefer explains!
Here’s the thing - you can leave elected office, but what you learn while serving never leaves you. In my first term on the Bangor City Council, I learned about the magic of a diverging diamond interchange (DDI) when it was proposed for the Hogan Road I-95 interchange. Yes: magic!
If you’ve lived in Bangor for any amount of time, you’ve dealt with that Hogan Road bridge. You’ve probably seen someone pull too far ahead to make that left turn from the northbound off-ramp to head over to the shopping areas, or you’ve watched drivers ignore the yield sign as you get on the on-ramp to head back south as cars are turning left in front of you with the same intentions. And it’s a rite of passage to feel really bad for whomever decided to play IRL Frogger when they try to walk across the bridge, which has absolutely no shoulder, let alone a sidewalk. Some will decide the raised median is their best bet, but getting to it is its own risk.
That interchange is the site of not one, but THREE high-crash locations, many which involve injuries - according to the Maine Crash Public Query Map, there have been 25 accidents there already in 2026. A diverging diamond would increase safety by 50%, and decrease congestion.
The biggest complaint I hear about DDIs is something like “I’ll get confused” or “I won’t understand it.” A DDI just makes sense as you go through it, like a roundabout, another traffic intersection that improves safety and efficiency. You instinctively know not to stop and put on a blinker to turn left at a roundabout, the asphalt guides you through it. As a parent who has recently spent 140+ hours supervising newly permitted drivers, trust that I am much more comfortable with them using a roundabout than I am with them using Bangor’s Union & 14th intersection.
The nearest open DDI is in Providence RI, but there are many around the world. I am thrilled that Bangor will be home to Maine’s first DDI, and for naysayers, I promise you it will make that section of road a much more efficient, safe and sensible path of travel than we’re used to. - Gretchen Schaefer
One way to get these houses that are empty more than half the year would be to change the way electric service is billed. Now your kilowatt rate includes the costs of maintaining the lines and poles etc and such things as the amount added into your bill to pay for these out of state swindles that are added into the kilowatt rate and the cost of the 100% backup we have to maintain for times when the wind does blow and the sun doesn't shine, if we charged for service, then empty houses would pay more of the basic cost of the power being available but not used. So the cost per kilowatt would go down and the basic rate per meter would go down for people and business here all the time and the cost of owning that spare house on the ocean or lake would go up quite a lot. And that seems more fair. So who would oppose it, People who don't vote here.
Tech Billionaires are evil, of course, but more people will be employed in the Amazon warehouse than at the drive-in. Amazon says (in TV ads) that they are good employers. The jobs they bring here will replace some of the jobs lost as stores close because of Amazon. Now that Banks are no longer local and retail is less and less local, Bangor loses its character in many ways.