Good morning to everyone in Maine (physically or spiritually), where I currently am not located. As this post arrives in your inboxes I am on a plane somewhere above North America, returning to our fair state from a Top Secret Mission. All will be revealed in due time.
This is a very good article about an Ellsworth-based science educator working to help people who have been swindled by quacks and religious con artists into thinking vaccines are bad for you.
Pro: Yay, so many people want to participate in democracy and local governance by running for Bangor City Council! Largest candidate pool in more than four decades! Con: The amount of cringey AI campaign materials and half-baked opinions about “the homeless” observed during my surface-level look at everyone’s social media presence. At least there aren’t any Nazis running this year!
In keeping with my promise to pass along the latest animal news in Maine - hey, you’re the one subscribing to this Substack! - here is a story about a pop-up cow spa at an organic dairy farm in the town of Sidney. You’re welcome.
Here’s a shoutout to the band Milk Street, a good old-fashioned indie rock band formed in Bangor a few years back, though its members now live in both Maine and New Hampshire. The band’s new album, “Good Grief,” comes out next month, and our pals at the ARME Group were nice enough to share a copy with me. It’s fantastic. I’m particularly impressed by the second single and title song from the album, which is out today with an incredible music video to accompany it, shot at a house party in Orono and directed by the very talented Lia O’Toole and Milk Street mastermind Jonah Wakefield. Listen! Now!
I have very fond memories of the day the headline came across our feeds in the BDN newsroom: a strange, horrible-smelling wild animal had been found dead in the woods in western Maine, and nobody seemed to know what kind of animal it was. Dog? Bear? Dogbear? A new, heretofore unknown to science mammal? Werewolf? The Beast of Turner, Maine, as it was quickly dubbed by journalists, was a true mystery that captivated Mainers for the better part of two weeks in August 2006, which it blows my mind to say was 20 years ago this month. Cryptozoologists like our friend Loren Coleman were thrilled to have a potential cryptid on their hands. Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife scientists took the remains of the animal in for study, and while people speculated on what it could actually be, DNA tests were done. On Aug. 27, it was revealed: the Beast of Turner, Maine was a dog. A Chow Chow mix, they thought. Not a werewolf. Womp womp. It was fun while it lasted!
Music & Dance
Aug. 27: Belfast Summer Nights presents Noah Fishman and friends, 5:30 p.m., Steamboat Landing Park, Belfast
Aug. 27, Aug. 30: “Broadway Comes to Stonington,” musical revue, 7 p.m. Thursday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Stonington Opera House, Stonington
Aug. 28: John Gallagher and Friends jazz ensemble, 6 p.m. Surry Arts Barn, Surrey
Aug. 28: The Mallett Brothers Band, 8 p.m, Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor
Aug. 29: Scott Stetson Memorial Show feat. The Burial Curse, Chaos Machine, Thy Enemy, In the Kingdom of Nightmares, more, 6 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
Aug. 29: Brad Paisley, 7 p.m., Maine Savings Amphitheater, Bangor
Aug. 29: Needlepoint Sanctuary and the BARN fundraiser with Fake Smile, Rope Trial, Bite the Bullet and Empire in Decline, 7 p.m., UU Church, Bangor
Aug. 30: Melissa Etheridge, 7 p.m., Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor
Aug. 30, WERU-FM presents Katherine Perkins, 5 p.m., Fogtown Brewing, Ellsworth
Aug. 31: Pitbull and Lil Jon, 7 p.m., Maine Savings Amphitheater, Bangor
Sept. 1: Dri, Candy Striper Death Orgy, Militia, 7 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
Theatre & Comedy
Aug. 27-30: Acadia Repertory Theatre presents “The Butler Did It,” daily, ART theater building, Somesville
Aug. 28: High Stakes House of Comedy presents Running With Scissors improv, 8 p.m., Hollywood Casino, Bangor
Arts, Books, Film & Culture
Aug. 27: “Downeast Hardcore: Stories From the Kave,” documentary screening, 7 p.m., Alamo Theatre, Bucksport
Aug. 27: Talk on Abraham Lincoln with author Jan Cigliano Hartman and editor Deanne Urmy, 5 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill
Aug. 27: Maine Outdoor Film Festival, 7 p.m., Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park, Winter Harbor
Aug. 30: “Protect Ancient Forests,” talk by Alyssa and Michael O’Brien, 4 p.m., The Good Life Center, Brooksville
Sept. 1: Book talk and signing with Melissa Sweet for new children’s adaptation of E.B. White’s “The Duck Can’t Sleep,” 1 p.m., Left Bank Books, Belfast
Fairs, Festivals, Markets, Outdoors & Misc.
Aug 28: Full Moon Paddle, guided paddle, 7 p.m, Gate 3, Hirundo Wildlife Refuge, Old Town
Aug. 29: Wading Bird Walk with Bob and Sandy Duchesne, 9 a.m., Jordan River Preserve, Trenton
Sept. 3-7: The Blue Hill Fair, classic country fair, daily, Blue Hill Fairgrounds, Blue Hill
Someone on the internet said that despite all her talent, success, wealth and beauty, the thing everyone is truly mourning about Dolly Parton is what a good person she was. Someone also said that regardless of whether you have any of your own personal spiritual or religious beliefs, Dolly is with Jesus (and Carl) now, and is eternal. All of that is true. Here is my very tiny and inconsequential Dolly Parton story.
A dear friend of ours used to work for Waterfront Concerts, and when Dolly played in Bangor in 2016, she was kind enough to not only set tickets aside for Zach and I, but also get us on the list for a meet and greet with her before the show. We lined up with the other fans and immediately clocked the incredibly burly and incredibly polite security retinue she had guarding her. Dolly is like a president or a pope; more important, really. She must be protected at all costs.
The line turned a corner, and there she was: dripping in rainbow rhinestones, as petite and blonde as you could imagine, pure and unfiltered and real. When it was finally our turn, we stepped up next to her and she immediately exclaimed “Are y’all musicians? Y’all look like musicians!” We said something about Zach being a pretty good bassist and guitarist but that I was mediocre at best, and she said that the way we dressed made us look cool. Everyone: Dolly Parton said we looked cool. She smelled incredible; like flowers and fresh-baked cookies. Her smile is warm and genuine, crafted lovingly by the finest plastic surgeons in the world to enhance what was already there. She radiates the light of the love of humanity. We stood next to her for perhaps 60 seconds, at most, and then shuffled off with the rest of us mere mortals to watch her sing and charm and entertain, as she had for decades, for millions. We, like everyone, were lucky to live in her time.