This Week's Haul, Dec. 18: City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
And: A brief holiday break
Good morning from eastern Maine, where this week it’s been a pretty significant bummer, hasn’t it? It’s hard to be jolly when awful things are constantly happening. I am always thinking about how to escape from the pit of despair. I’m hoping cookie baking and a cocktail or three this weekend will help.
Goodbye, Maine shrimp fishery. I don’t see any way that it’ll ever come back.
Congrats, however, to the University of Maine Graduate Student Workers for finally reaching a tentative contract agreement with the University of Maine System that helps these indispensable workers maintain a basic standard of living!
I can only imagine how annoying and occasionally dangerous it is to have a mile-long freight train blocking the only road out of town for up to 30 minutes every day - but there’s something kind of romantic and old-fashioned about it, isn’t there?
This is an incredibly stupid take. Chickadees are amazing little birds. They live in Maine year-round. They are friendly, social and curious. They are seemingly immune to cold, despite being so itty bitty. They are adorable. Miss me with this chickadee slander, WBLM.
This PPH opinion piece from the great Richard Russo about the heartrendingly vital work Maine Needs really, as they say, got me in the feels. Maine Needs is an incredible organization, and I wish we had something similar up here in the northern half of the state.
Christmas week is, not unsurprisingly, not a particular thrilling week in Maine news. That said, I did come across some candy recipes from Brownie Schrumpf - the BDN’s longtime food columnist, who shared her homespun recipes with readers for more than 40 years. Divinity fudge is such an old Maine recipe - although our family recipe for peanut butter fudge is quite different from Brownie’s.
Music & Dance
Dec. 19: Travis Lloyd and Quantum, 7 p.m., Hey Sailor, Searsport
Dec. 19: Spencer Albee’s Speed of Sound, 7 p.m., Underground Lounge, Court Street, Belfast
Dec. 19: Subsonic Vibes, feat. DJs BonkerTonk, Joe Pro and Jephirsun Danger, 9 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
Dec. 20: Crustmas Fest 3, feat. Mindless Creation, Horse Funeral, Unabomber, Tim Donaghy, Face the Bullet, Wormhole, Shinbreaker, Floor 19 and Gastric Fasciitis, doors at noon, $20 benefits Bangor Area Homeless Shelter, Eastern Maine Snowmobilers, 263 Levenseller Road, Holden
Dec. 20: Chris Ross, 6 p.m., Hey Sailor, Searsport
Dec. 20: The Burial Curse, Militia and Worm Hole, 8 pm., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
Dec. 20: Concert and Scandinavian dance with Kongero, Swedish acapella group, concert at 7 p.m., dance at 9, The Bay School, Blue Hill
Dec. 20-21: The Bangor Symphony Orchestra and Robinson Ballet present “The Nutcracker,” Collins Center for the Arts, University of Maine, Orono
Dec. 21: Bagaduce Chorale Holiday Concert, 3 p.m., Bucksport Performing Arts Center, Bucksport
Theatre & Comedy
Dec. 18: Comedian Jim Norton with guests, 7 p.m., Morgan Hill Event Center, Hermon
Dec. 19-28: The Grand Players present “Annie,” Fridays-Sundays, Grand Theatre, Ellsworth
Dec. 19: Comedy night feat. Pat Bolduc and Matt Misci, 8 p.m., Hollywood Casino, Bangor
Dec. 20: Bangor-Orono Readers Theatre presents “A Christmas Carol,” 2 p.m., Bangor Public Library
Dec. 4-28: Penobscot Theatre Company presents “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” Wednesdays-Sundays daily, Bangor Opera House, Bangor
Dec. 4-21: Improv Acadia presents “Another Kick In Your Dickens,” holiday improv comedy show, Thursdays-Sundays, Bangor Opera House, Bangor; limited tickets available at the door
Dec. 21: Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers present “The Grinch,” 4 p.m., Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor
Arts, Books, Film and & Culture
Dec. 18: Red Rabbit Film Club screening of “Black Christmas,” 8 p.m., Red Rabbit Bazaar, Bangor
Dec. 18: Author talk with William Gerencer on his book “Working Waterfront,” 7 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library
Dec. 20: Winter Solstice Celebration, feat. family friendly crafts and storytelling and guided stargazing, 3 p.m., Fields Pond Audubon Center, Holden
Dec. 20: Winter Solstice Celebration, feat. bonfire, food and guided stargazing, 6 p.m., Hirundo Wildlife Refuge, Old Town
Fairs, Festivals, Markets, Outdoors & Misc.
Dec. 20: Winter Solstice Community Party, 2 p.m., Jesup Memorial Library, Bar Harbor
Dec. 20: Merry Makers Market, local artisan market, noon-5 p.m., Cross Insurance Center, Bangor
Dec. 20: Night Market feat. local artists and artisans, 5-8 p.m., Chimera Coffee, Bangor
A few business items to get out of the way. The Other Maine will be taking a tiny holiday break in the next week or so. You can expect the usual Tuesday post on the 23rd, but there will be no post on Christmas Day, which is a Thursday. Then, the following week, The Weekly Haul will be posted on Tuesday, December 30, and will have a slightly extended calendar, given the break! There won’t be a post on New Year’s Day. Your regularly scheduled The Other Maine posts will resume on Tuesday, January 6.
I’m taking some much-needed time off in the last two weeks of the year. 2025 has been quite a hustle for me, and while I wouldn’t have it any other way, I do need to recharge the creative batteries. Thank you, as always, for reading, sharing and supporting me. I am so grateful to each and every one of you!
The density of these weekly roundups is what keeps regional journalism alive when everything else seems to be consolidating into national feeds. What caught my attention is how the event calendar shows a surprising amount of theatrical activity for a region many would dismiss as culturally underserved. Penobscot Theatre's Cinderella running alongside Improv Acadia doing Dickens parodies tells me there's actualy a real demand for live performance that goes beyond the obvious holiday show circuit. I've been tracking how smaller metro areas maintain arts infrastructure and eastern Maine seems to punch above its weight here,probably bc people are willing to drive 30+ minutes for quality productions. Totally gets overlooked in conversations abt where live theatre still thrives.
It would be worthwhile to look at how antisemitic things were around here until the 1970's. Jews could not be long to PVCC country club or join some fraternities at UMaine. The post about Brownie reminded me of that and how upset I was that so many years after WWII such things were going on. It would be interesting to look at that story. Now we are facing that scourge again.