This Week's Haul, Jan. 8: Happy birthday to this dog
And: Wasps are our friends!
Good morning from eastern Maine, where I’m back after a nearly two-week break from Substackin’, rested and raring to go. What did I do? I got a bunch of research and writing done. I made enchiladas (twice). I watched the “Stranger Things” finale on New Year’s Eve, and then consumed lots of annoying hot takes about whether that show is a non-serious romp through pop culture, or symptomatic of Art Being Dead (I don’t know! Probably the former?!). I sat through multiple Winner Wunnerlands as snow kept frigging falling and the cold kept being brutal, which severely curtailed (eliminated, really) my desire to go outside. I read this entertaining book from the people behind this entertaining YouTube channel. My partner Zach finished building a beautiful bookcase and we came closer to turning our dining room into an office-lounge-conversation room, since we do very little dining and very much talking and working in there. I slept so much. Like, 8-10 hours each night, sometimes more. Incredible.
I am unsurprised that the data keeps showing that Maine is one of the least religious states in the country. If you group together the nothing in particulars, agnostics and atheists in that Pew Center research, that’s roughly 40 percent of Mainers that aren’t going to church or practicing any faith at all. Add in the people that say they are “something else” and other stragglers, and it’s getting closer to 50 percent. This comforts me, as a non-religious person.
One of the coolest and most innovative people working in modern opera grew up doing musical theater in Maine. I didn’t know that!
This look at the history of the Maine Gay Task Force - a 1970s precursor to many of today’s statewide LGBTQ+ organizations in Maine, long before you could even utter the word ‘homosexual’ without getting in trouble - is well worth a read! From Maine Substack The Maine Enby.
Fictional idyllic Maine town alert: the new Fox TV series “Best Medicine” (a remake of the British series “Doc Martin”) premiered this week. I haven’t watched yet, but I’ll give it a try after another episode airs so I can do a compare/contrast with other fictional idyllic Maine towns like Cabot Cove, Crabapple Cove, etc, as well as look out for bad Maine accents.
A personal note about this delightful opinion piece that ran in the BDN on Dec. 30. The genesis of this essay came from Prof. Rob Glover’s honors class at UMaine, where I was a guest speaker in the fall, talking about writing persuasively for different audiences. Madison spoke so enthusiastically and with such knowledge about her love of wasps – and pollinators in general! - that we all agreed in the class that she should put her thoughts down. I’m so glad she did!
You pretty much have to have been a kid or teen between the ages of 10 and 17 between the years 1994 and 1997 living in New England to fully understand why the Co-Ed Naked T-Shirt craze was such a controversial and hilarious-to-dumb-teenagers thing in middle and high schools back then. It was a crude and incredibly popular clothing line that had shirts that said things like “Co-Ed Naked Hockey: Two Minutes in the Box Is Never Enough.” Teachers and principals hated them, which means that students loved them. It was enough of an issue that the BDN devoted an entire story to the fad! Can you imagine? Actually, I can. I feel like teachers and parents and kids themselves today are even harder and more strict than we ever were 30 years ago.
Music & Dance
Jan. 9: Smoke & Mojo, 6 p.m., Marshall Wharf Brewing, Belfast
Jan. 9: Whitney Walker and The Gerrymanderers, 7 p.m., Hey Sailor, Searsport
Jan. 9: Sanctum Obscura goth industrial night, 8 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
Jan. 10: The Met Live in HD broadcasts Bellini’s “I Puritani,” 1 p.m., Collins Center for the Arts, University of Maine, Orono
Jan. 10: Sorcha Cribben-Merrill Trio, 7 p.m. Underground Lounge, Court Street, Belfast
Jan. 14: Bagaduce Music House Concert Series presents The Gawler Family, 7:30 p.m., 49 South St., Blue Hill
Theatre & Comedy
Jan. 9-18: True North Theatre presents “Tinkerbell,” retelling of “Peter Pan,” Fridays-Sunday, Pavilion Theatre, University of Maine, Orono
Jan. 10-11: Comedian Bob Marley, 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday and 4:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday, Grand Theatre, Ellsworth
Arts, Books, Film & Culture
Jan. 7-17: Community Jigsaw Puzzle Challenge; try to help put together a 42,000 piece jigsaw puzzle during library hours, Lecture Hall, Bangor Public Library, Bangor
Jan. 8: Screening of documentary “Hilma af Klint,” followed by group art project, 6 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill
Jan. 8: Book talk by author Celeste Donohue on her book “Hollywood Factotum,” 6:30 p.m., Jesup Memorial Library, Bar Harbor
Jan. 9: Red Rabbit Film Club screening of “A Woman Under the Influence,” 7 p.m., Red Rabbit Bazaar, Bangor
Jan. 10: Seed sowing workshop, 10 a.m., Fields Pond Audubon Center, Holden
Jan. 10: Book reception for “Take a Hike” by Richard Keen, 3 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill
Jan. 11: Kvass-making workshop and community potluck, 1-4 p.m., MOFGA headquarters, Unity; register at mofga.org
Jan. 13: 3D Printing Workshop for Beginners, 6-8 p.m., Bangor Makerspace, 34 Freedom Parkway St. 2, Hermon
Jan. 13: Premiere screening of local short film “Rammr,” 6:30 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
Jan. 14: Talk by author Jeff Pennington on his book “You Teach the Machines: AI On Your Terms,” 6 p.m., Jesup Memorial Library, Bar Harbor
Jan. 14: Screening of documentary “76 Days Adrift” with film subject Steve Callahan, 7 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill
I want to know what the word is for when you talk about fun things or interesting things or happy things, and yet you must simultaneously acknowledge the fact that you are existing in a socio-political reality that is incredibly violent and terrifying. The world keeps turning, ideas keep appearing, art is always made, people continue to be fascinating and beautiful. AND, the Trump Administration invades other countries and sanctions the murder of protestors and destroys families and grasps at money and power like an actual Bond villain and actively tries to remake our country into something crueler, dumber, worse in almost every way. What is that? What is the word for that? What is the word for the contextual asterisk that has to be placed every time you talk about something good? People always say the German language has these complicated, descriptive words for very specific things. What is the word for the situation we - and, I’m sure, Germans in another era - find ourselves in? Please tell me so I can use it 157 times a day.
I’ve come across the term “alloyed pleasure” recently, and that seems to fit the idea of joy despite The Terrors.