Good morning from eastern Maine, where this week, I was so delighted to watch Jamie Calandro, the music director at Ellsworth High School, compete on “Jeopardy!” Two Mainers from this neck of the woods in quick succession? I’m telling you - there’s something in the water in these parts that makes people smart.
The great Sandra Caron - one of the finest professors to ever teach at UMaine and a real gem of a human - drops the straight truth on Paul LePage in this BDN opinion piece.
I have extremely mixed-to-very-negative feelings about Victoria’s Secret as a brand, but I do feel I should mention that this ridiculously beautiful woman who spent part of her teen and adult years in Maine was chosen as the newest Victoria’s Secret “angel” as part of a reality series on YouTube. Solange Oman was born in Cameroon but lived in Auburn for years, going to schools and working for local nonprofits.
A New Hampshire-based dive team announced this week that in July it discovered the shipwreck of the SS Cornwallis, a World War II-era Canadian ship that was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Mount Desert Rock in the Gulf of Maine. That’s some “Hunt for Red October” stuff right there!
John Hodgman delivers bone-dry Maine wit in the grand tradition of E.B. White and Marshall Dodge, as evidenced by this delightful piece on The Daily Show earlier this week. Have you read “Vacationland”? You must.
130 years ago this week, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra played its first-ever concert. Abbie N. Garland, a piano teacher in Bangor, led the charge to form the city’s first professional orchestra, recruiting conductor Horace Pullen and 16 local musicians for its first show. On Nov. 2, 1896, the BSO performed a program that included Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, at the auditorium at Bangor City Hall - which at that time was located at the corner of Main and Hammond Streets in downtown. For its first few decades, the orchestra performed there and at what was then known as Society Hall, on the upper floors of 193 Exchange St. - later known as the Bangor Arts Exchange between 2017 and 2024. At 130 years, the BSO is one of the oldest continually operating orchestras in the country. Amazingly, Bangor is also home to one of the oldest continually operating community bands in the country, with the 167-year-old Bangor Band. Don’t let anybody tell you Bangor doesn’t support the arts!
Music & Dance
Oct. 29: Septic Flesh, Dying Mind and Wormhole, 7 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
Oct. 30: Halloween techno contradance with caller Alice Slater, 7 p.m., Arbutus Grange, Surry
Oct. 30: School of Performing Arts presents Flute Night, 7:30 p.m., Minsky Recital Hall, University of Maine, Orono
Oct. 30: Damn, Girls! country and western band, 7 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill
Oct. 30: Mania: The Abba Tribute, 8 p.m., Collins Center for the Arts, University of Maine, Orono
Oct. 30: Ophiuchus, Thousand Mile Fall, LNTRNS, Hailing Tides, Monument Hill and Wormhole, 7 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
Oct. 31: Trillium String Quartet and violinist Phillip Elssner, 2 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Church, Belfast
Oct. 31: Halloween dance party and costume contest, 7 p.m., Marshall Wharf Brewing, Belfast
Oct. 31: Halloween party with River Bottom Funk, 6 p.m., Fogtown Brewing, Ellsworth
Oct. 31: Helloween show feat. Moral Injury, Dusty Buckets, Bandit Queen of Sorrows, Gashpile, Blightweald, Horse Funeral and more, 6 p.m., 69 Burnt Hall Road, Bass Harbor
Theater & Comedy
Oct. 29: Live reading of “The Night of the Living Dead” screenplay, 8:30 p.m., The Stage Door, Bangor
Oct. 29-Nov 1: Penobscot Theatre Company presents “Broomstick,” scary play for adults, nightly, Bangor Opera House, Bangor
Oct. 29-31: The Grand Players present “Terror Theater,” immersive theatrical haunted house experience, nightly, Grand Theatre, Ellsworth
Arts, Books, Film & Culture
Oct. 29: Camden International Film Festival presents “Jaripeo,” documentary, 7 p.m., Colonial Theatre, Belfast
Oct. 29: “Supernatural: Stories of the Season,” storytelling event with Maine authors Agnes Bushell and Robert Diamante, 7 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill
Oct. 29: Red Rabbit Film Club screens “Rosemary’s Baby,” 7 p.m., Red Rabbit Bazaar, Bangor
Oct. 29-30: Haunted history tours of the Bangor Opera House with Ben Layman, 8:45 p.m., Bangor Opera House, Bangor
Oct. 30: “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” original, 7:30 p.m., Colonial Theatre, Belfast
Oct. 31: “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” 12:30 p.m., Colonial Theatre, Belfast
Nov. 2: “River Restoration and Science Communication in Downeast Maine,” talk by Alice Hotopp, 3 p.m., Delano Auditorium, Maine Maritime Academy, Castine
Nov. 2: Nature journalist working with Karen Zimmerman, 5:30 p.m., Ellsworth Public Library, Ellsworth
Nov. 3: “Fantastic Fungi,” documentary screening, 5 p.m., Ellsworth Public Library, Ellsworth
Nov. 4: “Avoiding AI,” tech workshop, 2 p.m., Bangor Public Library, Bangor
Nov. 4: Charlie Chaplin double feature with live accompaniment by Jay Brown, 6 p.m., Colonial Theatre, Belfast
Fairs, Festivals, Markets, Outdoors & Misc.
Oct. 31: Halloween day paddle, 10 a.m., Hirundo Wildlife Refuge, Old Town
Oct. 31: DoryWoman rowing presents Community Halloween rowing event, bring your own craft, 4 p.m., Armistice Footbridge, Belfast
There will be no Tuesday post next week, as I have other important business to attend to that day. Thursday’s post will run as scheduled! Please vote, if you haven’t already. The future of our society depends on it. In the meantime: share your Halloween costume photos, if you’ve got them. I’ll share mine next week!