This Week's Haul, June 11: Store bought is fine
And: Would you like to fly in my beautiful balloon?
Good morning from eastern Maine, where last weekend, I walked down to the Maine Savings Amphitheater on the Bangor Waterfront and shook my ass to rapper-producer Big Boi’s set (alongside Sleepy Brown!) on Saturday, as the special guest on the bill alongside Kid Cudi and others. It was, essentially, an Outkast greatest hits set minus Andre 3000. Outkast was one of the soundtracks to my college years. Big Boi said he’d never been to Maine. Nice of him to visit me down the street from my house. It was a very good weekend.
I am irresistibly drawn to the horse race of electoral politics, and utterly disgusted by it simultaneously. How many hot takes is too many hot takes? How much money can one set on fire via the purchasing of ad time and/or space? Why is someone from Beverly Hills writing a letter to the Los Angeles Times about Graham Platner? Sometimes it’s nicer when they forget Maine exists.
Nevertheless: it is very heartening to see how much statewide voter participation there was in the primaries on Tuesday. What’s your bet on how many weeks it will take until candidates for governor and CD2 emerge via ranked-choice voting?
I am fascinated by this obituary that was published in the BDN on Tuesday. Who ran this? Who paid for it? Why did it run 137 years after this Irish immigrant’s death in the town of Macwahoc?
A little ray of positivity, though: invasive browntail moth caterpillars are dying, according to Maine Forest Service scientists. As someone who one summer was the victim of browntail moth rash all over my arms and chest that pretty much ruined my life for several days, I will be glad to see every one of them die.
Congrats to Bangor resident and University of Maine English professor Hollie Adams on the publication of her short story collection, “Dear Humans”! It’s lovely and funny and whipsmart. She’s wonderful. Buy it at The Briar Patch in downtown Bangor or wherever books are sold.
And, I’m thrilled by the idea of a Netflix adaptation of Ron Currie’s wonderful Waterville-set book, “The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne.” Here’s hoping the series is greenlit and it’s filmed here in Maine!
Check out these crazy bastards that flew in a hydrogen balloon from Presque Isle to Luxembourg last week. In an open basket, too! I wrote about Maine’s weirdly long history with trans-Atlantic balloon flights a while back. I have never been in a hot air balloon. It looks fun. Maybe not enough fun to fly across an ocean in, though.
I was genuinely stumped by this headline in the BDN 75 years ago this week, about a Greenville woman who apparently had a small nuclear explosion directed toward her head in an attempt to shrink a brain tumor, the first-ever attempt at that type of radiation therapy (if you can call it that). I could not find any other information on this Pearle Bartlett Jamieson or this particular bit of atomic age/medical history - that “slow neutrons were catapulted into [her] brain” at Brookhaven Laboratory in New York. Was this a defining moment in radiation therapy and medical history? Or a mistake scientists would rather not talk about, like the radium cures of the early 20th century?
Music & Dance
June 11: Monthly sea chantey singalong, 4 p.m., Penobscot Marine Museum, Searsport
June 11: Psycho-Frame, Mortar and Satiate, 7 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
June 11: Alan Cook and Cheryl Oliver with 1 Country, 6 p.m., Black Moon Public House, Ellsworth
June 11: Gailesh, Darwin and the Finches, And Then Some, 7:30 p.m., Red Rabbit Bazaar, Bangor
June 12: Stillwater Bluegrass Ensemble, 6 p.m., Fogtown Brewing, Ellsworth
June 12: Jake and John Hart piano guitar duo, 7 p.m., Surry Arts Barn, Surry
June 12: Lumos Experiences presents A Classical Queen vs. Elton John Tribute, 7 p.m., East Orrington Congregational Church, Orrington
June 12: Hamell on Trial, Will Bradford and Plague Dad, 7 p.m., Hey Sailor, Searsport
June 13: Surry Contradance, 6 p.m., Surry School, Surry
June 13: Calypso Soldiers, 7 p.m., Marshall Wharf Brewing Company, Belfast
June 13: Hymn For Her, 6 p.m., Fogtown Brewing, Ellsworth
June 13: Floydian Trip: Echoes Through Time, Pink Floyd tribute band, 7 p.m., Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor
June 13: Laus, Street Trash, Horse Funeral and Trixie, 7 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
June 13: GONZO Radio dance party at Dream Charm Bar, 8 p.m., Bangor
June 14: Tom DiMenna presents Story Songs of the 70s, 7 p.m., Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor
June 16: Mumford & Sons with Dylan Gossett, 6 p.m., Maine Savings Amphitheater, Bangor
Theatre & Comedy
June 11-14: Penobscot Theatre Company presents “The Fantasticks,” daily at the Bangor Opera House, Bangor
June 12-14: Belfast Maskers present the Maine Playwrights One Act Play Festival, nightly at Basil Burwell Community Theatre, Belfast
June 12-14: True North Theatre presents “Dancing at Lughnasa,” nightly at the Cyrus Pavilion Theatre, University of Maine, Orono
June 13: Pride After Dark: A Neon Drag and Variety Show, 8 p.m., Eye Candy Studio, Bangor
June 16: Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers present “The Legend of the Banana Kid,” 6 p.m., Stonington Opera House, Stonington
Arts, Books, Film & Culture
June 11: Talk by Rylan Hynes on their new book “Grafting,” 7 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill
June 11: “The Last Navigator: A Young Man, An Ancient Mariner and the Secret of the Sea,” presentation by Steve Thomas, 6 p.m., Bangor Public Library
June 12: Author talk by Jane Goodrich on her book “The Seraph,” 4 p.m., Friend Memorial Public Library, Brooklin
June 14: Screening of Akira Kurosawa’s “Throne of Blood,” 6:30 p.m., Colonial Theatre, Belfast
June 16: Talk by Peter Cowin, the “Bee Whisperer,” 11 a.m., Old Town Public Library, Old Town
June 16: Reading and signing with Caitlin Shetterly for her new book, “The Gulf of Lions,” 7 p.m., Left Bank Books, Belfast
June 17: “Point Of View In Fiction Writing,” workshop with Anna Story, 1 p.m., Bangor Public Library, Bangor
June 17: Red Rabbit Film Club screens “But I’m A Cheerleader,” 7 p.m., Red Rabbit Bazaar, Bangor
Fairs, Festivals, Markets, Outdoors & Misc.
June 13: Pride Month Paddle, 10 a.m., Hirundo Wildlife Refuge, Old Town
June 13: Big Jim Sardine Statue celebration feat. live music and open campus, 2 p.m., Penobscot Marine Museum, Searsport
June 13: Masked Mania Lucha Libre Mexicana wrestling, 7 p.m., Cross Insurance Center, Bangor
June 14: Maine Audubon Paddle Series at Sedgeunkedunk Fishway, 10 a.m., Orrington
A few weeks back I asked for your favorite camp recipes - your go-to dishes and drinks you make for long days along the shore and lazy afternoon barbecues. I’d still love to have them, if you’ve got them!
I received one from my friend Abby Rice, who said her favorite camp contribution is a combination of her wife’s homemade lavender syrup, a bottle of Collective Arts Brewing’s lavender gin, and Newman’s Own Lemonade. As Abby said: “Store bought? Mostly. But I went through four batches at a friend’s camp last summer and had zero left over for most of my garden parties. It’s a hit.” As the Barefoot Contessa said, “Store bought is fine.”
Speaking of store bought is fine, I’ll piggy back on that and say that my husband and I were turned onto the wonders of the Spaghett a few summers back by our friend and my former BDN colleague Matt. You take a bottle of ice-old Miller High Life, you have a sip or two of it, and then you top the bottle up with Aperol and shove a lemon slice in. I don’t know why, but it’s a magical combination - the beer, mixed with the bittersweetness of Aperol, and the slight lift of lemon. Perfect accompaniment to getting tanned or sunburned on the dock, or a post-lawn mowing reward.
Wow, I love that 137-year-old obit. I am quite curious about who submitted it and why now? Also: I'll pass on the balloon ride but I'll catch you upta camp.