This Week's Haul, Oct. 16: Mainely No More Mainelys

And: Taylor Swift goes otter crazy!

Good morning from eastern Maine, where this week, I was so screwed up by the day off for Indigenous People’s Day on Monday that it genuinely did not occur to me it that Tuesday was Tuesday, not Monday, until roughly dinnertime - hours after my self-imposed deadline of 2 p.m. for the Tuesday Substack post. So it went up on Wednesday. OOPS!

• Screenprinting company Liberty Graphics in (where else) Liberty is so cool, so even despite my ambivalence about Taylor Swift, the fact that she wore one of their delightful t-shirts in her movie about her new album makes me really happy. I hope Liberty sells a ton of otter shirts and makes a bunch of money both for themselves and for marine life!

• Speaking of Taylor Swift, Charli XCX wore a Max’s Kansas City shirt on “Saturday Night Live” last weekend, which was a very cool rock venue in New York City in the 60s and 70s, NOT a reference to a football team. Oh, and Role Model - who grew up in Cape Elizabeth, apparently - was so boring I fast-forwarded through both his sets after listening to 30 seconds of it. Who likes this music? Yeesh.

• No offense meant at all to my many friends, family members and readers who are in an older demographic, but for those folks who are well past typical retirement age, please consider not running for elected office and allowing the next generation to finally take the reins. It’s just a thought. Maybe let other people try something else for a change. I think it would be good. I know I wouldn’t want to have a full-time job in my 80s. Would you?

• I was really hoping Maine might get away with not having some energy-sucking, water-guzzling, waste of resources AI data center, but, here we are. I always want good things to happen for parts of Maine that don’t have a lot of economic opportunities, but not this. Anything but this.

It is really easy to feel hopeless in the face of the fact that unidentified goons under the guise of immigration enforcement are kidnapping people off the streets and detaining them simply because they are immigrants and/or aren’t white (racial profiling is legal now, apparently). And it’s really easy to feel hopeless as the federal government attempts to dehumanize and punish trans people, some of the most vulnerable people in this country. There is one concrete thing you can do to help these folks in Maine, however: donate to the Maine Solidarity Fund, which supports bail and legal representation for immigrants who have been unlawfully detained, and provides support for their families. It also assists trans folks who are denied gender-affirming care because of federal policies. It is a way you can directly help people who are being hurt by the Trump Administration’s policies. If we all do one small thing, we make a big difference.

It’s nostalgia week for The Other Maine, apparently! 30 years ago this week 97X, the first alternative rock radio station in eastern Maine, hit the airwaves. It was only on air for I think two years, max, but wow, was it a big deal for people in their teens and 20s in the mid-90s. I was in the thick of middle school, and suddenly being able to listen to bands like PJ Harvey, Bjork, the Butthole Surfers, Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead all night long was deeply important to me at the time. Unless you were lucky enough to live within the broadcast radius of WMEB at UMaine, you simply were not going to hear this stuff on the radio. You had to stay up late to catch it on “120 Minutes” on MTV. But, like all cool things, it didn’t last. I remember my freshman year of high school turning on the radio and hearing it play Neil Diamond instead of Nine Inch Nails, and realizing the format had changed, and literally nearly crying.

Music & Dance

Oct. 16: Songwriter Lyle de Vitry, 6:30 p.m., Jesup Memorial Library, Bar Harbor

Oct. 17: Bad Daddy, blues band, 6 p.m., Fogtown Brewing, Ellsworth

Oct. 17: Songwriter Just Willie, 6 p.m., Marshall Wharf Brewing, Belfast

Oct. 17: Keep Flying, When Particles Collide, Black Vinegar, Brady’s Grown up Time, 7 p.m., Old Town Theatre, Old Town

Oct. 18: Iona Fyfe, Scottish folksinger, 7 p.m., Next Generation Theatre, Brewer

Oct. 18-19: Music Harbor, two-day music festival featuring more than 20 bands and artists at 11 venues across Bar Harbor; click here for full schedule

Oct. 18: Metal show featuring Faceless Enemy, Maggotphillia and Gore Fetish, 7 p.m., 431 Odlin Road, Bangor

Oct. 19: Symphonic Band and Jazz Ensemble concert, 2 p.m., Collins Center for the Arts, Orono

Oct. 21: Fiddler’s Jam, 5 p.m., Marshall Wharf Brewing Belfast

Theatre & Comedy

Oct. 16: National Theatre Live HD screening of “Inter Alia,” 7 p.m., Collins Center for the Arts, Orono

Oct. 16-Nov. 2: Penobscot Theatre presents “The Turn of the Screw,” Wednesdays-Sunday at the Bangor Opera House, Bangor

Oct. 17: Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers present “The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow,” 6 p.m., Stonington Opera House

Oct. 17-19: UMaine School of Performing Arts presents “The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs,” Hauck Auditorium, University of Maine, Orono

Oct. 17-19: The Grand Players present “Grease!,” at the Grand Theatre, Ellsworth

Oct. 17-19: Some Theatre Company presents “The Addams Family Musical,” Fridays-Sunday at their theater space at the Bangor Mall

Oct. 22: Comedian Ian Fidance, 7 p.m., the Ballroom at the Cross Insurance Center, Bangor

Arts, Books, Film & Culture

Oct. 16-19: Belfast Poetry Festival, four days of poetry in venues across town, incl. workshops, readings, and the Haiku Death Match on Saturday evening at the Colonial Theatre; belfastpoetryfestival.com

Oct. 16-18: 30th anniversary screening of “Casper” (shot in Maine!), nightly at the Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor

Oct. 17: Night of Noir, celebrating mystery authors, featuring - Moe Claire, Matthew Cost, Mo Drammeh, Gillian French, Robert Kelley, Sharon Kitchens, Cory Magee, Maureen Milliken, Kristen Seavy, Rebecca Turkewitz and Katie York, 6:30 p.m., Bookspace, Bangor

Oct. 18: Bangor Historical Society’s Great Bangor Artober Art History Hunt, 10 a.m., starting at Thomas A. Hill House in Bangor

Oct. 18: Screening of F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror,” 2:30 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library

Oct. 18: Children’s book author Melody Rose Paul, member of the M’ikmaq First Nations, reading and chat, 11 a.m., Ellsworth Public Library

Oct. 18: “History in Focus: The Brady Gang Shooting,” Bangor Historical Society fundraiser presentation, 6 p.m., Thomas A. Hill House, Bangor

Oct. 18: Horror Film Club screening of “Frankenstein” (1931), 8 p.m., Red Rabbit Bazaar, Bangor

Oct. 18: 50th anniversary screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” 9 p.m., Alamo Theatre, Bucksport

Oct. 20: “Why Return Land to Indigenous Nations Without Restriction? Discussions on Wáhsehtəkʷ and Wabanaki-Land Trust Partnerships,” 3 p.m., Norman Smith Hall and on Zoom, University of Maine, Orono

Oct. 20: “Our Immigrant Neighbors: Dangers, Resources and Rights in Maine Today,” 6:30 p.m., Belfast Free Library

Oct. 21: Stephen King Lecture Series presents New York Times journalist Ken Belson, “Investigating the NFL: Big Money and its Human Toll,” 5:30 p.m., Neville Hall, University of Maine

Fairs, Festivals, Markets, Outdoors & Misc.

Through Nov.1: Maineiac Manor Haunted House, weekends through Halloween, with limited no-scare days, Bangor Mall, Bangor; visit maineiacmanor.com to buy tickets.

Oct. 18: Witch Walk and Goblin Market; wear your witch costumes and stay for the shopping; 1-4 p.m., Bangor Waterfront

Oct. 18: Maine Audubon and Bangor Beautiful new mural celebration, 2-4 p.m., 89 State St. Bangor

Oct. 18: Ghostport, annual Halloween festival, 10 a.m.-9 p.m., throughout downtown Bucksport

Oct. 18: Maine Entertainment Wrestling presents “Hocus Pocus,” pro wrestling event, 5:30 p.m., Brewer Auditorium, Brewer

Oct. 19: Leaf peeping paddle, 8 a.m., Hirundo Wildlife Refuge, Alton; meet at Gate 3

Oct. 19: UCP of Maine’s 23rd Annual Pumpkins in the Park, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Anah Shrine, 1404 Broadway, Bangor

Oct. 19: Great Maine Apply Day; vendors, workshops, activities and tasty apple treats, 12-4 p.m., MOFGA’s Common Ground Education Center, Unity

A new Mexican place opened in downtown Bangor this week! It’s called Mainely Tacos, and it grew out of a taco truck out of the same name. It only has to be pretty good for me to want to eat there. It’s no surprise that Maine doesn’t have a ton of great Mexican/Central American food. The best I’ve had in eastern Maine thus far is Vazquez Mexican Takeout in Milbridge, of all places, which is run by actual Guatemalans, makes its own tortillas, and has horchata on the menu. Anyway, if this new place makes a decent burrito, I’ll definitely order from there.

However, please, can we have a moratorium on any more businesses in the state of Maine calling themselves “Mainely”? I think this should be an emergency bill put before the state legislature next year. No more Mainely Tacos, Mainely Fudge, Mainely Hot Tubs, Mainely Botox, Mainely Meatballs, Mainely Manure, Mainely Shear Beauty, Mainely Ticks n’ Fleas n’ Parasites, Mainely Those Little Rubber Things At The Bottoms of Chair Legs, Mainely Multi Level Marketing Schemes, Mainely Another Weed Store!?, Mainely Quail Eggs n’ More, Mainely Background Music For When You’re Waiting On the Phone for A Customer Service Representative, Mainely Plainly Ungainly Trains, Mainely Oh God Mom’s All Bent Out Of Shape About It, Mainely Stores Called Mainely, and so on. ENOUGH!