This Week's Haul, May 7: It's not nice to fool Mother Nature
And: More griping about how dumb AI is
Good morning from eastern Maine, where this week, I encourage you to watch “Widow’s Bay” on Apple TV+. It’s set on an island off the coast of a deliberately mashed up version of maybe Maine, maybe Massachusetts. It’s got Matthew Rhys, Stephen Root, Jeff Hiller and many other incredible character actors. It’s like “Twin Peaks” meets Stephen King meets “Parks & Recreation,” if you can believe it. Anybody who is familiar with the tension between working waterfront communities and the tourism industry will recognize it. It’s genuinely scary in a few places, and also genuinely funny. Highly recommended!
Unless you’ve been living under a large, soundproof rock that PACs and Super PACs have somehow not been able to infiltrate with the most annoying political ads I have ever seen, Janet Mills has dropped out of the U.S. Senate race, leaving Graham Platner as the presumptive Democratic nominee. This happened exactly one week ago, but it feels like it’s been a month already. How far away is November?
The Other Maine reader Sian Evans (an extremely talented filmmaker and cool person) shared this article detailing some semi-forgotten history around Bangor’s Chinese immigrant community in the early 20th century. As I noted in my article earlier this week about the Urban Renewal era in Bangor, there was a tight-knit Chinese community in that era, with restaurant and laundry businesses clustered in the area that would end up being demolished in the 1960s and 70s. There’s a Chinese Americans of Maine collection at the Maine Historical Society that’s super interesting!
I would not be opposed to doing what this Deer Isle guy does when I’m retired: picking up returnables and trash from the side of the road. You’re literally leaving money on the floor!
That said: the Deer Isle trashpicker better be careful he doesn’t get attacked by an “aggressive” peacock wandering the roads of the island.
Good on ya, Newburgh residents, for rejecting a cringeworthy new town logo made with generative AI. Every time I see a local business or organization or municipality or anybody, really, using AI for anything, I can’t lie: it makes me think a little bit less of them. I get that it’s easy. It’s also ugly and stupid and lame. I’m not saying YOU, the person using AI for whatever, is ugly and stupid and lame! I’m saying AI ITSELF is ugly and stupid and lame.
This is neither a for nor against statement about the pending plan to build a new facility for Penobscot County Jail in Hampden. It is, however, pretty wild that this story published 20 years ago about how the jail was literally crumbling and had inhumane living conditions for inmates could be published again today with almost no words changed. The current building is nearly 160 years old, making it by far the oldest functioning jail facility in Maine and one of the oldest in New England. Regardless of how best to confront the twin crises of massive overcrowding and unsafe conditions and of the sheer number of people coming in and out of the jail that instead need substance use disorder and mental health support and treatment, this building is not fit for its current use. What’s the solution? I certainly do not know. I just know that this specific facility is bad for everyone that has to be inside it. And if someday it finally ceases to be a jail, I don’t know if there’s enough sage to be burned or an exorcist strong enough to purge it of the decades of human misery haunting its hallways.
Music & Dance
May 8: Echoes of Elvis: The Concert Experience, 7 p.m., The Grand Theatre, Ellsworth
May 8: Bangor Celtic Crossroads presents Fodhla, 7 p.m., Next Generation Theatre, Brewer
May 8: Lumos Experiences presents a Vivaldi and Mozart concert by candlelight, 7 p.m., Belfast United Methodist Church, Belfast
May 8: Empty Your Pockets, Tony V, Joey Thyer and Bill Pierce, 3 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
May 9: Album release show for The Hot Suppers, 7 p.m., Colonial Theatre, Belfast
May 9: Penobscot Bay Orchestra spring concert feat. Brahms, Sibelius and more, 4 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Church, Belfast
May 9: NecroticGoreBeast, Carrion Vael, Atoll and Pariah, 7 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
May 13: Bagaduce Music presents songwriter Mia Bertelli, 7 p.m., 49 South St., Blue Hill
Theatre & Comedy
May 7: Magician Bill Blagg, 7 p.m., Collins Center for the Arts, University of Maine, Orono
May 7-10: Penobscot Theatre Company presents “The Garbologists,” new play, nightly at Bangor Opera House, Bangor
May 8-9: Reach Performing Arts Center and Opera House Arts presents Maine play “On Island,” Stonington Opera House, Stonington
May 8-10: The Slightly Off Center Players present “The Sound of Music,” Center Theatre, Dover-Foxcroft
May 8-10: Bangor Community Theatre presents “On Golden Pond,” Columbia Street Baptist Church, Bangor
May 8-10: Winterport Open Stage presents A.R. Gurney’s “The Dining Room,” nightly at Wagner Middle School, Winterport
May 9: Brown Hall Community Arts presents Queen City Improv, 7 p.m., Elm Street Congregational Church, Bucksport
May 9-10: Bangor Ballet presents “The Wizard of Oz,” Peakes Auditorium, Bangor High School
Art, Books, Film & Culture
May 7: Meet the BDN City Desk, 10 a.m., Bangor Public Library, Bangor
May 7: Bangor Beautiful presents a screening of “Defending the Dark: Preserving the Night Sky in Maine,” in honor of Dark Sky Week, 6 p.m., Bangor Public Library, Bangor
May 8: Wabanaki REACH presents a screening of “Remaining Native,” 1:30 p.m., Black Bear Cinemas, Orono
May 9: Saturday Matinee screening of Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” 2:30 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill
May 9: Ranked Choice Voting info session, 12:30 p.m., Ellsworth Public Library, Ellsworth
May 9: Book launch for “Well Heeled” by Marjorie Arnett, 5 p.m., Anodyne Books, Searsport
May 10-14: Screening of “Canoe Dig It?” Maine-made mockumentary, Center Theatre, Dover-Foxcroft
May 12: Night at the Museum event feat. live history actors, presentations, more, 4-7 p.m., Cole Land Transportation Museum, Bangor
Fairs, Festivals, Markets, Outdoors & Misc.
May 9: World Migratory Bird Day Celebration, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Fields Pond Audubon Center, Holden
May 9-10: Maniac Manor’s Slasher-style haunted house, all day Saturday and Sunday, Maniac Manor, Bangor Mall, Bangor
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was quite delighted to see a robin make a nest in the giant rhododendron bush right outside our kitchen window, giving us a prime viewing platform to watch such an iconic spring ritual unfold. For weeks now, I’ve checked on Mama Bird on a near hourly basis during the day as she finished her nest and began sitting in it, puffed up and snuggled in like a lid fits a pot.
After the first week, I had to see if there were eggs in the nest, since we couldn’t see them from the angle of our window. Of course there were: four perfectly blue soon to be birdies. I was quite proud of the photo I snapped, with the sunlight streaming just so between the leaves, giving the eggs a particularly vivid shade of blue. Mama Bird sat, undaunted, through several heavy rainstorms and some rather chilly nights, diligently incubating her babies. I’m a total sap when it comes to animals. I felt, essentially, that I was co-parenting.
Yesterday, I noticed Mama Bird was spending less time in the nest - maybe she was out getting worms for her freshly hatched babies! Were they so small I couldn’t see from the window again? This morning I tiptoed around to the back of the house, held my phone directly above the nest and snapped a bunch of photos. When I looked at the screen, I was devastated. There was nothing there. The nest was completely empty.
I suppose the most likely explanation is a predator got them - a squirrel? A crow? The internet isn’t particularly revealing. Bird and/or nature experts: what do you think? Whatever you say won’t make me feel any better. Mother Nature cares not one whit for my parasocial relationship with this bird and her family-not-to-be. We’re never in control, really; we can only surrender ourselves to the rhythms of nature, the strange mix of chaos and order, and try to do our best at protecting the nest.
I know the sad feeling. I am a sucker for fur/feathers. I think Facebook should have parental controls for parents of critters. We have seven cats and I have a minor meltdown whenever FB posts anything of a sad nature about cats, dogs, mice...you know what I mean.