This Week's Haul, April 30: How to shoot a screw through your hand
And: Join me in Bangor on a Jane's Walk on Saturday!
Good morning from eastern Maine, where it’s shameless self promotion time: I’ll be leading one of this year’s Jane’s Walks in downtown Bangor this weekend! Jane’s Walks, in case you don’t already know, are walking tours organized in towns and cities nationwide in honor of the legacy of Jane Jacobs, the famed thinker and urbanist who helped us reimagine how modern cities function, and how they can work for all people - not just developers and the wealthy and powerful.
I’ll be leading a Jane’s Walk at 10 a.m. this Saturday, starting from the new Downtown Bangor Welcome Center at 33 State St. We’ll explore the area along Exchange Street and the Kenduskeag Stream, aka ground zero for the Urban Renewal project in Bangor in the 1960s and 70s, and how much it’s changed over the decades. I’d love to see some The Other Maine readers there - let me know if you’re coming! You can find more information about all this year’s walks in Bangor and throughout Maine at janeswalkme.org.
The years-long saga of the estate of famed pop artist and longtime Vinalhaven resident Robert Indiana reached something of a conclusion last week, as a jury awarded a whopping $100 million in damages to the Morgan Art Foundation, which alleged that bad actions by publisher Michael McKenzie damaged Indiana’s reputation in the art world after his death in 2018. Read the New York Times story for the full background, but the TL;DR is that McKenzie, alongside Indiana’s former caretaker, abused the artist’s trust in order to make a quick buck off commercial versions of his iconic artworks, including the famous “LOVE” sculpture. It’s a pretty ugly story!
Here’s a nice one, though: check out this piece from our pals at The Maine Playweek about a new local film, “Saving Black Bear,” shot at Black Bear Cinemas in Orono last month. The premise: When their beloved local movie theater faces closure, a group of employees hatch a desperate plan to save it. Doesn’t sound too far off from what happened in real life with Black Bear Cinemas, which was purchased in 2023 by two local guys after the old owners prepared to close the former Spotlight Cinemas.
A judge will decide who the 1893 wreck of the schooner Delhi belongs to. I really feel like this whole story deserves its own sea shanty, or perhaps a story-song in the vein of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” Who wants to help me write the lyrics?
I love this story about a free seedling library that a Bangor resident created in her own front yard. Why, I just might pop on by and grab one of these seedlings for my own garden, by golly!
Imagine being told by your town that it’s too expensive for them to repair the tiny bridge to your neighborhood, and that they might just, y’know. Not do it. Or that you each have to cough up $160,000 to pay for it, so you can have things like fuel and lumber and appliances delivered since the current bridge can’t carry those things. That’s happening in Hampden right now, a town with home values that are nearly 25 percent higher than in other surrounding communities.
Here’s what the leaders of Maine’s Semiquincentennial Commission put in the time capsule featuring artifacts from all 50 states to be buried this year and opened in another 250 years, on America’s 500th birthday. These are the kinds of celebrations I’m enjoying around the 250th - more of this, less of the Trump administration trying to rewrite history, please.
Happy birthday to my legendary father in law, Steve Robbins, who turns 80 on May 5, aka Cinco de Steve-o. Actor, comedian, musician, ad man, marketing whiz, loving dad and granddad and all-around excellent fellow. Here he is in a 1965 BDN profile of the band he was in, The Jesters, which were one of the most popular bands in Maine at the time. Love ya, Steve!
Though a court case the year prior had all but settled the matter, in 1976, the federal government finally officially granted both the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes federal recognition. The Maliseet would receive recognition in 1980, and the Mi’kmaq in 1991. Today, none of them actually get to enjoy the full array of rights, benefits and funding afforded to them by federal recognition due to the arrangements laid out in the Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement Act of 1980, with the state of Maine still treating the Wabanaki tribes as citizens of Maine, and not as sovereign nations.
Music & Dance
May 1: Belfast Flying Shoes monthly dance, feat. Thunderwing and caller Annie Kidwell, 6 p.m., First Church in Belfast, Belfast
May 2-3: 33rd annual Pan New England Steel Band Festival, 7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Bangor Waterfront, Bangor
May 2: Foggy Notion Music Festival, feat. boy.scout, Glassfishis, Lolabelle, Love Sunshine Rainbows, Morgan the Fairy, ochrence, Robert Samantha and The Wayside, 3-10 p.m., Fogtown Brewing Company, Ellsworth
May 2: Filth, Resistor, Monochromatic Black, Inferious and Floor 13, 7 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
May 2: Electric Luau night of EDM and hip hop, 5 p.m.-3 a.m., 263 Levenseller Road,
May 2: Sara Trunzo, Skip Bailey and Skip Gallant, 7 p.m., The Underground Lounge, Belfast
May 2: Smoked Salmon, 7 p.m., Marshall Wharf Brewing Company, Belfast
May 2: Unabomber, Horse Funeral, Vanity Crisis and Gash Pile, 7 p.m., Red Rabbit Bazaar, Bangor
May 5: Time Travel to Tin Pan Alley concert and presentation, 7 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill
Theatre & Comedy
May 1-3: Winterport Open Stage presents A.R. Gurney’s “The Dining Room,” nightly at Wagner Middle School, Winterport
May 1: Spring Dance Showcase, 7:30 p.m., Collins Center for the Arts, University of Maine, Orono
April 30-May 3: Penobscot Theatre Company presents “The Garbologists,” new play, nightly at Bangor Opera House, Bangor
May 1: Frank Santos, the R-rated hypnotist comedian, 8 p.m., Hollywood Casino, Bangor
May 1-2: New Surry Theatre presents “The Shark is Broken,” new play about the making of “Jaws,” 7 p.m., Blue Hill Town Hall, Blue Hill
Art, Books, Film & Culture
May 1: Voices of Frenchman Bay series presents Seawood Social food tasting and film screening, 4 p.m., Heart of Ellsworth, 16 State St., Ellsworth
May 2: Books in Bloom: A Spring Literary Trail, 2 p.m. multi-town literary adventure along the coast beginning at Anodyne Books, Searsport
May 2: Downtown Bangor Jane’s Walks, starting at 10 a.m. in downtown Bangor; for more information visit downtownbangor.com or janeswalkme.org.
May 2: New England REEL Recovery Film Festival, 10 a.m., Gracie Theatre, Husson University, Bangor
May 2: Book launch for Jack Cashman’s new novel, “The State of the Union,” 1 p.m., Bookspace, Bangor
May 2: Book launch for “Atlas of Kinship: Stories of Connection between Seabirds, People and Place” by Alice Hotopp, 2 p.m., Anodyne Bookstore, Searsport
May 2-3: “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” screenings, Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor
May 5: “Dismantling Democracy: 53 Days in Nazi Germany,” talk by Tam Hyunh and Erica Nadelhaft, 6 p.m., Bangor Public Library, Bangor
May 6: Hoppily Ever After Romance Book Club reads “Toe to Toe” by Fallon Ballard, 7:30 p.m., Bookspace, Bangor
May 6: “Cooking for Crowds,” how to make large amounts of food for community events safely and efficiently, 10 a.m., UMaine Cooperative Extension, Bangor; register here
May 6: Blue Hill Peninsula Stories: “Back to the Land,” 6:30 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill
Fairs, Festivals, Markets, Outdoors & Misc.
May 2: Maine Hobby Fest, day-long expo for cards, action figures, collectibles and more, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Brewer Auditorium, Brewer
May 2-3: Maniac Manor’s Slasher-style haunted house, all day Saturday and Sunday, Maniac Manor, Bangor Mall, Bangor
I got to go to the emergency room TWICE in the past week! Relax, it wasn’t for me, though it was for two people I love very very much. The first person shall remain nameless in the interest of privacy, though he is fine and home and it’s all good. The second was my husband, Zach, who on Sunday afternoon shot a sheet metal screw through his hand while using an impact driver to put up a flagpole on our front porch so we can fly the United Federation of Planets flag I got him for Christmas last year. Don’t ask how, exactly, that happened, only know that you shouldn’t use power tools with shooting or slicing or otherwise potentially dangerous capabilities if you are angry, annoyed and distracted by other things. Zach told me to write that specifically.
I am proud of the fact that we quite calmly (many many utterances of FUCK not withstanding) got in the car, drove to EMMC, got registered at the ER and then were seen almost frighteningly quickly by a doctor. Both ER visits this week were surprisingly speedy, in fact. Two seasons of “The Pitt” have prepared me to wait hours to see a doctor even if you have, I don’t know, a golf club through your chest or ebola or something. The x-rays showed he didn’t break any bones, and the doc removed the screw from Zach’s hand with a screwdriver and it didn’t even bleed that much, and I had gone to the cafeteria to get water so I missed it (boooo). A follow-up with a hand surgeon a few days later revealed there was no nerve or tendon damage, which was the big thing we were worried about; just a big ol’ puncture wound, and damaged pride. Zach, to his credit, still went to work the next day and did everything one-handed. Zach told me to write that specifically, though I would have mentioned how much of a devoted, hard worker he is anyway.
The moral of this story is: don’t work angry or tired, and don’t shoot sheet metal screws through your hand. If you do decide to shoot a screw (or nail, or other similar object; your choice) through your hand, do it the way Zach did it and miss all the important things.
