This Week's Haul, June 18: Widow's Bay is the next Bar Harbor
And: What did I say about garbage fires?
Good morning from eastern Maine, where this week, I discovered that I’m mildly psychic, apparently, since the Orrington trash plant caught on fire on Tuesday night not two weeks after I brought up the last garbage fire there on this here Substack. It was a very smelly and possibly carcinogenic Wednesday morning in Bangor! At least this time it only took 17 hours to put out, instead of 10 days. Is that place cursed? I think it’s cursed.
RIP to the Unity College campus in Unity. It was a big part of Waldo County culture for a long time. It’s gonna be a fancy summer camp now, apparently. Hopefully anybody other than rich kids get to use it.
Yes, I can think of no better way to spend half a billion dollars than on the most annoying and distasteful television ads that literally everybody - everybody! - hates. Surely there is no other thing that money could be spent on, right? God, this timeline is the worst.
This very long and very thorough Boston Globe piece about the ongoing injustice of the denial of tribal sovereignty to the Wabanaki people in Maine - and the advent of tribe-managed online casino gambling, which will begin in Maine next month - is very much worth reading.
See, what you do is, you take something that some assholes want to try to hurt you with, and you reclaim it as a symbol of resistance and resilience. That’s why the organizers of Bangor Pride have t-shirts, stickers and other items up for sale as a fundraiser that feature a rainbow design (created by Monique Bouchard) inspired by the burnout marks left on the Pride crosswalk a few weeks ago.
FYI: Portland Pride is this weekend! I know lots of folks from the upper half of the state make the trip down for it, so I’d like to shout out a couple cool events around town, like comic (and The Other Maine subscriber!) Kate Sisk’s two-night stand June 19-20 at Empire Comedy Club alongside fellow trans and queer comics, and the Equality Community Center’s annual Saturday night dance and drag bash at the State Theatre, featuring RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Myki Meeks!
My essay on Maine beauty standards seemed to hit a nerve! Hello, new subscribers and followers! If you liked that one, here are a few other stories I’ve written recently that you might enjoy, like this one about the utterly unique bagels you can get in Bangor, or this one about riding the Concord Bus up the Maine coast, or this fiction piece about an outsider artist who is out of this world. They’re behind the paywall, but a (very inexpensive!) paid subscription gets you access! Click the link below!
The Kennebec River is famous for its jumping Atlantic sturgeon and shortnose sturgeon, which each summer can be seen leaping their massive, prehistoric-looking bodies out of the water alongside the waterfront in towns like Gardiner, Hallowell and Augusta. Less known, however, is that they’re also found in the Penobscot River - in smaller numbers, yes, but sturgeon can be seen along the waterfront in Bangor, Brewer, Winterport and Bucksport. That’s quite an improvement from 50 years ago, when both species of sturgeon were all but extinct in the Penobscot due to pollution and overfishing. 20 years ago, in June 2006, the first sturgeon were spotted in the Penobscot River in decades - numbers that have only improved in the subsequent years, though shortnose sturgeon remained endangered. Have you ever seen a leaping sturgeon in any Maine rivers? I never have and, like spotting otters in the wild, it remains a bucket list wildlife encounter for me.
Music & Dance
June 18: The Star Family Singers, Emily Irving and Darcy Withers, 7:30 p.m., Red Rabbit Bazaar, Bangor
June 19: The Harborside Trio presents “Songs of the Sea, Sailors and Sirens,” 7 p.m., Surry Arts Barn, Surry
June 19: Church of the Morning After, roots music ensemble, 6:30 p.m., 16 Thurlows Road, Stonington
June 19: Mr. Greyy, Vanity Crisis and Arc Eden, 8 p.m., Eye Candy Studio, Bangor
June 20: Jelly Roll and Kashus Culpepper, 7 p.m., Maine Savings Amphitheater, Bangor
June 20: Alex Creamer and Frank Fuehan, songwriters, 6 p.m., Marshall Wharf Brewing Company, Belfast
June 20: GoldenOak, 6:30 p.m., Barncastle Hotel & Restaurant, Blue Hill
June 20: Takoda Dionne, 6 p.m., Fogtown Brewing Company, Ellsworth
June 20: Bad Move, Last Embrace, Guillotine and Dying Mind, 7 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
June 21: “Spectrum: The Human Journey,” summer concert from vocal ensemble Divisi, 2 p.m., St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bangor
June 21: Chris Ross, 4 p.m., Fogtown Brewing Company, Old Town
June 23: Bangor Band, 6:30 p.m., outside at Bangor Public Library, Bangor
June 23: Lord Huron, 7 p.m., Maine Savings Amphitheater, Bangor
June 24: The Newell Family Band, 5:30 p.m., Alamo Theatre, Bucksport
Theatre & Comedy
June 17-21: Penobscot Theatre Company presents “The Fantasticks,” daily at the Bangor Opera House, Bangor
June 18-24: Opera House Arts presents “Outside Mullingar,” nightly at the Stonington Opera House, Stonington
June 19: Comedian Bob Marley, 7:30 p.m., Morgan Hill Event Center, Hermon
June 23: Hilby, the Skinny German Juggle Boy, 6 p.m., Stonington Opera House, Stonington
June 24-28: Midcoast Shakespeare Studio presents “(Lady) Macbeth,” a retelling of the original, nightly at Belfast City Park, Belfast
Arts, Books, Film & Culture
June 18: Talk by Margie Patlak on her book “Insect Safari: Exploring the Wondrous World of Everyday Bugs,” 7 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill
June 18 and 23: Bangor Historical Society walking tours, including Best of Bangor, 6 p.m. June 18, and the Great Fire of 1911, 6 p.m. June 23; all start from Thomas Hill House, Bangor
June 19: Bangor Parks and Recreation free movie night screens “How To Train Your Dragon,” 6:30 p.m., Maine Savings Amphitheater, Bangor
June 18-21: “True Grit,” Coen Brothers film, daily at the Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor
June 20: “Anthrotypes: Explore the Dark Room in Your Garden,” nature printmaking workshop, 1 p.m., Fields Pond Audubon Center, Holden
June 22: Belfast Historical Society presents “Bits of Belfast History” by ephemera collector Steve Fuller, 7 p.m., Belfast Free Library, Belfast
June 22: “Diverse Manifestations: Queer Art Around the World,” art talk with Christopher Brumfield, 6:30 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill
June 23: Crafternoon session, “Create Bee Hotels,” 4 p.m., Old Town Public Library, Old Town
June 23: Torchlight Media summer film showcase, 5:15 p.m., Colonial Theatre, Belfast
June 24: Derry-Free Horror Book Club reads “She Waits Where Shadows Gather” by Michelle Tang, 7:30 p.m., Bookspace, Bangor
Fairs, Festivals, Markets, Outdoors & Misc.
June 20: Punk Rock Flea Market, 12-5 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
June 20: Open history day at Leonard’s Mills, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Leonard’s Mills, Bradley
June 20: Downtown Bangor Summer Solstice Garden Party, 5-7 p.m., Norumbega Parkway, Bangor
June 20: Bass Park After Dark, artisan market and food truck festival, 4-9 p.m., Bass Park, Bangor
June 21: Outside with Pride nature walk, 12-2 p.m., Walden-Parke Preserve, Bangor
June 21: Friends of Sears Island Summer Solstice by the Sea, 12-3 p.m., Sears Island, Searsport
I’ve brought it up in The Weekly Haul before, but after the season one finale this week, I must once again urge you to watch “Widow’s Bay” on Apple TV+. It is, in my opinion, the best show on television at the moment, and one of the finest-ever entries into one of the most difficult-to-pull-off genres: horror comedy.
The most basic description of the premise - a cursed island off the coast of New England, and the townsfolk trying to save it - does not do it justice. Matthew Rhys, as Tom, the increasingly desperate mayor (Lord Protector, if you will) of the island, turns in a predictably note-perfect performance; I think he’s one of the best actors working today and I have a huge crush on him (sorry, Keri Russell). But the many, many supporting and guest actors are the true stars of the show, from Stephen Root’s crotchety sailor Wyck, to Dale Dickey’s chainsmoking town clerk Rosemary - and the revelation of the brilliant Kate O’Flynn as Patricia, who is simultaneously the show’s final girl and comedic relief. And so many wonderful cameos and tiny details! The disturbing board games at the definitely haunted inn, like “Teeth: The Game”? Hilarious. Chris Fleming (who also put out the best stand up special of the year) as the local drug dealer? Perfection.
Is “Widow’s Bay” set in Maine or Massachusetts? The show never says. It could easily be either - what small town in this neck of the woods doesn’t have an ancient evil that demands periodic human sacrifice living in its catacombs? - but regardless, it’s peak New England horror. The scenes of small town governance and the discord between the locals and the tourists would be enough, even without the immortal colonial Plus, it scratches so many itches for so many different types of fans. “Lost.” “Twin Peaks.” “Northern Exposure.” “Parks and Recreation” (which show creator Katie Dippold worked on). “Yellowjackets.” Movies like “Jaws,” “The Witch” and “Halloween.” And, of course, a heavy dollop of Stephen King, who has always had mordant humor laced in among the frights. It is incredibly hard to be both genuinely scary and genuinely funny, and “Widow’s Bay” manages to pull it off beautifully.