CAMDEN — Robbie Trowbridge, a sixth-grader at Cape Elizabeth Middle School, came up to Camden with his mother, Nina, for the Mini Maker Faire, held at the Camden Public Library Amphitheatre on Sept. 10, 2016.

Although officially part of the Maker Faire, he didn’t have a booth or a project to display. Instead, his project was to interview both the Makers and the participants, and edit the audio recordings using audio editing software to tell people’s stories.

Q: What made you want to come all the way up to the Camden Mini Maker Faire?

A: I thought it would be cool to make an audio recording or what everyone else was doing.

Q: What gave you the idea to be the reporter on the scene?

A: I went to a camp last summer at The Telling Room, where we went out on the streets of Portland and we would ask people all sorts of different questions and create Vox Pops and then edit the audio. So, I wanted to make one for the Faire.

Q: What’s a Vox Pop?

A: A Vox Pop is a collection of audio of a bunch of people asking other people the same question. The interviewer records and and then puts together all the different answers. [Note: Vox Pop is short for vox populi}

Q: Give us an idea of some of the questions and answers you asked people at the Faire.

A: I went up to some Makers who I thought were doing really cool things, like one woman who glued all of these playing cards together in a circle and it looked like the cards were going through each other. I also interviewed some people just going to the Faire, some kids, some adults. A bunch of people said that Makers were going to change the world with new ideas and technology. Like, because of Makers, the world will be easier for people.

Q: Reporter to reporter, let me ask you this: was it tough to go up to strangers and ask questions?

A: Before I did the camp last summer, it was really tough to go up and just talk to people. I’d look around for about 20 minutes before I would talk to someone because I was really nervous. But, now I go up and do it pretty easily I think.

Q: What kind of equipment did you use to create a Vox Pop?

A: I had a little digital recorder. I used Hindenburg editing software to design and put together the Vox Pop.

Q: We’d love to hear a little of your audio project.

A: Sure. Here’s a few minutes. [Note we converted Robbie’s .mp3 audio file into a YouTube video, which is attached to this story.]

For more photos from this year’s Mini Maker Faire visit: Camden Public Library’s Facebook

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

I wrote a number on the back of a cocktail napkin last night that I’m looking at right now, and which says “Let’s get you out of those wet clothes and into a dry martini.” Perfect sentiment for this weekend with a beautiful day Friday and possible showers late Saturday and Sunday. So who cares? It still feels like summer, right?

Great Maine Outdoor Weekend

Friday, Sept. 16, to Sunday, Sept. 18 — statewide

In three days, 100-plus events are scheduled all around Maine to celebrate the outdoors, from moonlight paddles to spectacular hikes. Locally, we’ve got a few special things going on.  Here are more suggestions as well as a map

Mic Mac Mayhem Musical Festival

Friday, Sept. 16 and Saturday, Sept. 17 — Union

Happening rain or shine, this low-key campground music festival features the bands Jonesville, Midlife Crisis, the Midnight Riders, $2 Pistol and the Dyer Neck Gang over the course of the weekend. Campers are $20 pp or $30 couple for the whole weekend. Non-campers are $10 pp per night. There will fire pits raffles, food available and more. BYOB. FMI: Mic Mac Campground

Feedback Music Festival

Saturday, Sept. 17 — Belfast

For the third year, Waterfall Arts is hosting a lineup of rock ‘n’ roll decadence with four bands featuring Quantum, Ace Tones, Bad Island and Million Brazilians. These may not be bands everyone has heard of, but they bring that small, authentic vibe to Belfast that makes the town a magnet for music hounds everywhere. The show goes from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. and is $5 at the door. FMI: Music lineup

Open Winery Day

Saturday, Sept. 17—Midcoast

Tomorrow, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., wineries across Maine will be opening their doors to share their craft of wine making. Some will over special events, tastings, music, and more. Cellardoor Winery will have food and wine pairings. Savage Oakes Vineyard and Winery will be hosting a grape picking, crushing and pressing demos and a pig roast. Sweetgrass Farm Winery & Distillery will have Bloody Mary tastings and raw oysters, demos, blueberry and Sangria tastings. Younity Winery & Vineyards will have tours, tastings, Creamery samples and a concert.Breakwater Vineyards will have pizza and wine pairings with Fiore oils. Winterport Winery will have tastings and food samplings. FMI: Open Winery Day

Killer Road Trip: Insane Inflatable 5K Race

Saturday, Sept. 17 — Scarborough

Even if you don’t participate this is one heckuva spectator sport. Get “pumped up” for a course filled with the world’s largest and most extreme inflatable obstacles ever produced such as The Mad House, Crash Course and Big Balls. Here’s your chance to be a kid at heart, and insane by choice! It takes place at Scarborough Downs at 8:30 a.m. FMI:  Portland Race

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKPORT—Three years ago this September, folks may remember the Cowpocalypse in Rockport Village when a herd of Belted Galloway cattle, “Belties,” from Aldermere Farm, busted out of fence post in their paddock and decided to take a stroll down Union Street into Rockport.

Rockport author Paige Pendleton is just about to release a new children’s book about that event on September 17 to coincide with Maine Day in Portland.

“On a beautiful September day, about 30 cows — all female — began trotting down into Rockport Village by Graffam Seafood,” said Pendleton. “No one at the farm realized it at first and they meandered around. Of course it got everyone excited. They walked right through the Graffam Seafood picnic area and milled around. And what was really funny was that when they were done exploring, they just turned around and went back on their own. It was like they were bored and just felt like going on an adventure.”

Though people tried to herd them back, the ladies were having none of that. “I think people tried to get them to go back but that wouldn’t have influenced them one way or another,” said Pendleton. “Belties have very unique personalities. They’re smart, adventurous and curious.”

The White Belt Society, the title if her new book, is a play on the words The Red Hat Society. 

“They were on a girl’s day out,” said Pendleton.

The picture book is illustrated by award-winning illustrator Thomas Block and published by North Country Press. Pendleton didn’t know if there was such thing as a “Beltie genre” of books out there, but if so, this would be in that category.

In honor of Maine Day at the Big E, Pendleton and Block will be releasing The White Belt Society for a book-signing on the front lawn the State of Maine Building on States Avenue at Eastern States Exposition, The Big E, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

For more information about the book visit: paigewpendleton.com and for more information about the event visit: http://www.thebige.com/

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN — Now that it’s September, “kitten season” is supposed to be over. At least that’s what P.A.W.S. Animal Adoption Center thought. The staff had all been working long hours this first week of September, trying to process a slew of new rescue animals that came into the shelter when they received a visit from a gentleman who discovered a large cat colony living in an old barn he was about to dismantle in Liberty.

Most feral barn cat colonies are self-sufficient, except these animals were in dire straits.

“He recovered and brought in two nursing mothers and 18 kittens varying in age from 3 weeks to 12 weeks, all of which had acute upper respiratory infections,” said P.A.W.S. Executive Director Shelly Butler. “Their eyes were matted shut; they had ear mites and the majority of them would have died if he hadn’t discovered them.”

“When they have upper respiratory issues like that, they can’t nurse; they can’t breathe and they can’t get nutrition they need,” said Butler. With the staff and volunteers pushed to the limit, the kittens were bottle fed every two hours for 24 hours until they regained their strength.

In the last month, P.A.W.S. has taken in 36 kittens and seven young mothers, several which were already pregnant when brought in.

The two biggest issues this week are getting the fleas and ticks off the mothers and kittens, and the upper respiratory infections under control.

“If we can’t get the fleas off them, quickly enough, they risk becoming anemic,” said Butler.

With upper respiratory infection being so contagious, the mothers and kittens had to all be separated to get healthy and are now recuperating in various staff rooms, including the staff bathrooms, while they regain their strength.

In the women’s restroom, for example, a small 1-year-old calico mother came out from beneath the bathroom stall to greet us. She had arrived with a litter of four severely ill kittens. Three have since died, as their upper respiratory infections were so acute. Even with medical care and bottle feeding, their bodies were so weak, they couldn’t get the nutrients they needed to survive. Only one kitten, Cliff, remains with his mother, Olive, in quarantine. His eyes are still so glued shut by the mucus, that he lay there listlessly on a blanket by the toilet, one eye shut and the other trying to open to see who was calling to him.

P.A.W.S. in-house veterinarian, Dr. Jodie James, has been treating them.

“They’re all on medications now and I expect them all to do well,” she said. “It’s still a little early to tell, but the best thing is, we’ve got them all in different rooms so they’re not shut up in a cage. That quality of life is very important in their healing process.”

A large unexpected influx of cats and kittens such as this equates to a nearly $10,000-expense for P.A.W.S.

“This pushes our resources absolutely to the limit,” said Butler, explaining that with 36 cats, immediate care translates to roughly $200 per cat. “And that’s just to get them healthy, and ready for the adoption floor, such as flea and tick medication, and medicine to clear up the upper respiratory infection, vaccinations, and spayed/neutered. This doesn’t include their food, the additional staff time, and the strain on shelter supplies to keep everyone clean, safe and fed for the next few weeks until they can be adopted.”

While the staff is working to find additional foster homes for the recovering kittens, Butler is seeking help from the community.

“We absolutely need financial assistance with medical expenses to get them the care they need,” she said. “Flea and tick medicine alone is close to $20 a dose. On top of that we need special kitten food and formula and more kitty litter to change out.”

Those interested in fostering the kittens would need to go through an application process. For those who’d like to donate toward their medical expenses, visit: pawsadoption.worldsecuresystems.com/donate

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com 

CAMDEN—In preparation for the fourth annual Mini Maker Faire, Charley Lind has been like a kid again, constructing handcrafted slingshots out of wood with his three boys, 17, 14 and 11.

This will be Lind’s fifth time at a Maker Fair around the state of Maine. “In the past I presented a variety of projects: 3-D printed items; foam airplanes, using a design I created; and giant bubbles—we’re talking six to 15-feet across!—using my own bubble recipe formula and huge handmade bubble wands. Each time is different, but I try to steal the show the best I can,” he said with a laugh.

Makers like Lind all over the Midcoast are part of a contemporary subculture that love to create physical objects in their spare time such as electronics or robotics, as well as metalworking, woodworking and arts. Most makers learn new skills or about new projects from websites and YouTube, which is what inspired Lind on this latest slingshot design.

“My boys are fascinated by certain other makers’ and inventors’ YouTube videos, such as those created by kipkay, Grant Thompson -‘The King of Random,’ and Joerg Sprave of The Slingshot Channel,” he said. “They watch videos of these guys making incredible stuff out of household items. Unlike Myth Busters, which suggests ‘Don’t try this at home,’ these makers are saying ‘Try this at home.’”

The experience is more than just a hobby said Lind. “Watching these YouTube maker videos with my boys has been a new way to connect with them.  Actually building some of the contraptions has inspired them to become makers, too.”

Lind’s slingshots will be in a special area designated for practice and demonstration in the Camden Amphitheatre. “The organizers have put some special thought into this and the projectiles will be marshmallows. That’s the safest ammo I can imagine,” he said. "The slingshot the participants can use is sort of like an overpowered Angry Bird version. I will have other slingshots on display that are the typical letter-Y shape. I’ll also demonstrate the larger, more dangerous slingshot.” See his Facebook video demonstration.

The Midcoast Mini Maker Faire takes place on Saturday, September 10, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the Camden Amphitheatre and in and around the Camden Public Library. Makers range from tech enthusiasts to crafters to homesteaders to scientists to garage tinkerers all ages and backgrounds. The public can expect to make a water piano, learn to code, build underwater marine sensors and virtual reality headsets, and meet a replica of R2-D2 from Star Wars. With more than 20 makers presenting, people will be able to witness mandala stones, animation, yarn, tatted lace, tintype photos, found object sculptures, drone photography, and even homemade slime. This annual event is a collaboration between the Camden Public Library, Midcoast Magnet, and the Steel House. Admission is by suggested donation of $2/person and $5/family. For more information visit midcoastmakerfaire.com.

Photos courtesy Charley Lind

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST—A female rock climber falls 250 feet to the ground, broken, but alive. A BASE jumper has to overcome his deepest fear before every single jump. A woman comes to terms after being stranded in the ocean.

These are just some of the narratives in Waterfall Art’s upcoming Maine Outdoor Film Festival, currently traveling around the state and which comes to Belfast on September 10.

MOFF began very simply when in 2002, a couple of outdoor enthusiasts in The Forks decided to put together a print publication called No Umbrella covering tales of carnage, river accomplishments, outdoor sports photography, humor and more.

In 2012, Maine business-owners (and raft guides) Nick Callanan, Nick Bowie and Joe Christopher talked about reviving the spirit of the old river rag, and how to create a Maine institution where film and the outdoor lifestyle converged; a film festival celebrating Maine’s broad array of beautiful places, recreational opportunities and creative people.

Twenty-six short films have made the 2016 list as MOFF travels all around the state this fall. Each screening is carefully curated and for Belfast, Callahan is leaning more toward conservation/nature films with a sprinkling of adventure. One film he hinks will resonate very well with this audience is Moosehead’s Wicked Good Plan, a half-hour documentary about how Plum Creek’s Moosehead Lake development has impacted Greenville. “It’s fascinating, just the way different people in Greenville came together to just consider the land use in their area. It’s not heavy handed; it depicts both sides from Plum Creek representatives to business owners. Plum Creek can build any time, but because of the economic climate they haven’t yet. And this film brings everybody up to speed.”

On the adventure side, he thinks “Endurance Ultra marathon” will also be very interesting the the crowd. The nine-minute film depicts ultra marathon runner Matt Williamson, who shares personal insights from his dedication to endurance and how he has overcome challenges in becoming an international athlete.

“I’m really happy with the selection we have in Belfast,” said Callahan. “Waterfall arts is just such a cool venue. They’re bringing a lot of good things to the area.”

Meg Fournier, Waterfall Arts program committee member said, “We’ll be outside of the building on the lawn with a big screen and a full sound system. People should bring their lawn chairs and they’re welcome to bring a picnic dinner. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

To see a full list of the MOFF selections click here.

Suggested donation is $10 and will benefit the program’s Teens to Trails.

In light of several area bar/music venues that are being forced to shut down live music due to ASCAP licensing fees, this weekend’s post is all about the music and the musicians in Maine just trying to make a living. Keep rockin’ in the Free World.

The Wicked Woods

Friday, September 2—Rockland

Rock City Café invites The Wicked Woods, up from Portland to play. Their influences range from from Classical to Classic Rock and Jazz, to Metal and Pop. Every song is different yet played with the same clarity and precision that is their signature sound. The show starts at 7 p.m.

Free Concert with James McMurty

Saturday, September 3—Union

Savage Oakes Vineyard and Winery is hitting on all sixes with their summer concert series and they’re not done yet. James McMurtry, who is currently touring this summer is landing at the Vineyard and playing a free concert at 2 pm. An American rock and folk-rock/Americana singer, songwriter, guitarist, bandleader, and occasional actor, the guy is multi-talented. One of the Monkees (Michael Nesmith) has this to say about him: “James McMurtry is a true Americana poet—actually he is a poet regardless of genre.” Bring your chairs and blankets.

The Tune Squad at Theshers Brewing Co.

Saturday, September 3—Searsmont

If you haven’t ventured out yet to see Midcoast’s latest brewery and tasting room in Searsmont, now’s your chance. The Tune Squad will be at Thresher's Brewery this Saturday for a night filled with Blues, Brews & BBQ! Thresher's Brewery will be serving up the best craft brews around & The Grinning Dog will be parked alongside cooking up some of their delicious BBQ!  Goes from 6-9 p.m.

Creatives/Maker Meetup

Saturday, September 3—Rockland

Welcome to the second Maker Meetup for Midcoast makers. What is a Maker? Here’s a definition. Basically, it’s a gathering for highly creative types. They invite you to meet some of the Makers who will present at this year’s Midcoast Mini Maker Faire, where you can talk informally about your own ideas. The event takes place at The Steel House in Rockland from 5pm-7pm. Light snacks and soft drinks will be provided. BYOB.

Killer Road Trip: Boothbay Harbor Fest’s Tasting Passport

Friday, September 2 to Sunday, September 4—Boothbay

For only $15, and beginning with a kickoff party at 4 pm, you can spend an entire weekend with your tasting passport and duck into 10 Boothbay locations and get a taste of a signature dish, listen to original music and enjoy the atmosphere. In addition, check out the Spirit of the Maine Cocktail Competition on opening night, a fun competition shows off the talents and creativity of our local Mixologists, and offers Cocktail Enthusiasts some delicious adult entertainment!  For tickets and schedule visit: boothbayharborfest.com/#!a-taste-of-local-flavor/cldl

 Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST — Life for a Maine farm boy was a lot of work growing up in the 1950s and 1960s—but it wasn’t something you complained about. “Those were hard days,” said Belfast native Mitch Littlefield. “It was very physical work, hard on their bodies, but it was also a very strong close knit society.” Littlefield, whose family owned and operated three working farms during his childhood, raised chickens growing up. Feeling as though the stories he grew up with may be lost, he wrote a series of short stories of life in Belfast in his book, Memories of Shucking Peas.

Just last week, he and his friend, another Belfast native, Frank Coombs, did a presentation sponsored by the Belfast Historical Society to a packed room of more than 120 people at the Belfast Free Library titled Growing Up in Belfast During the 1950s and '60s: Chickens, Sardines, Drive-In Movies and Bowling.

“I think people love to hear those stories; it reminds them of their own pleasant memories of those days for those who grew up in the Belfast area,” said Littlefield. “But, also there was a big cross section of people [who came for the presentation] who moved to Belfast in the last 25-30 years and I think they wanted to feel that connection and understand what life was like in the town they live in and now call home.”

In one of Littlefield’s short stories titled The Chicken Capital of The World he paints a picture of  a working class town that may not have been pretty, but it was self-sufficient.

While Belfast itself had a blue collar populace; the town boasted several factories—shoe, pants, sash and blind, and a sardine processing plant, the chicken industry offered employment for not only the factory workers, but the entire county and beyond. . . Most every farmer within 50 miles of the Belfast processing plants got in on the action. Raising chickens for the poultry plants offered the farmer an additional income stream which quickly became a main component of farming in Maine during the 20th century. So, during those (chicken) salad days, Belfast became the chicken capital of the world and processed, on average, 250,000 chickens a day.

“When I left high school, I wanted to get off the farm, so I went to work in the factories, actually both of them. But I worked in Penobscot Poultry the longest,” he said.

Littlefield’s father, who also worked for another division of Penobscot Frozen Foods, inadvertently pioneered the practice of “pre-packaged” chickens at a time when grocery stores were coming to the realization that consumers would buy more if they could serve themselves.

My dad worked for Ted Starrett at Penobscott Frozen Foods for some time, and in fact, helped develop what we now know as packaged pre-cut chicken. By identifying the precise places to cut the chicken's legs and wings in the joints that make the legs and wings on a chicken work, they discovered the chickens could be packaged as a whole cut up chicken, yet be uniform and presentable to the buying public.

In those days people would just buy the whole bird and cut it up themselves or ask the butcher to,” he explained. “It was quite a change at the time.”

Another highlight of being in the Chicken Capital of the world for Littlefield as a kid was the annual Broiler Festival.

The festival itself was held at the Belfast City Park....There were tents set up to host speakers who addressed political and social concerns, and these tents also offered local musical artists a chance to perform. There were boxing matches, and arm wrestling, and hot-rod shows. The smell of hot dogs, pizza, sausage and onions, dough boys, cotton candy, and greasy French fries wafted through the warm July nights, while our eyes were gleefully assaulted by the flashing neon lights and our eardrums joyfully brutalized by the blaring music of the seemingly hundreds of over-sized speakers scattered throughout the midway. This carnival would start on Monday, and run through Saturday when the festival ended with the BBQ.

“It was the biggest event of the summer. Just a typical country fair with pie-eating contests and your typical 4-H exhibits, but as a farm boy, all those bright lights, the neon and the barkers, the crowd, the great food and the music blaring—these were just things you didn’t see every day on the farm,” he said.

Littlefield recounts more stories of Belfast in his book, including having 200 hundred acres to access in playing childhood games, being a wet nurse for a sheep, working for a sardine processing plant and raking blueberries on summer vacation. You can find his book on Amazon.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

THOMASTON — After three years of fundraising and planning, and more than a year since they broke ground, the new Pope Memorial Humane Society of Knox County animal shelter building unveiled its brand new 10,000-square-foot building in a grand opening Aug. 20. 

If the move has been a little bit stressful for the humans, it has been absolutely therapeutic for the animals. Executive Director Tracy Sala said, “It was very easy to bring in all of the animals. They all seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when we moved them in. They all seem much more relaxed. There is so much more room for them now.”

For 26 years, the shelter operated out of building on Buttermilk Lane in Thomaston, constructing additional support buildings as the animal population grew. Conditions were cramped for both staff and animals, and the time finally came to build a bigger, more functional animal shelter right next door.

The new facility, named after its most prominent benefactor, Lyman Pope, exemplifies all of the strategic planning the staff gathered in what did and didn’t work in other animal shelters as they researched how to make a healthier environment for staff and visitors.

The main lobby of the building, with a retail area next to the front desk, offers a glimpse into two distinct wings for cats and dogs. A special room in the lobby with a “Pet of the Day” plaque next to the door allows an animal to be showcased and have its own room for a day while visitors can interact with them.

Both wings of the building were designed with special considerations for both dogs and cats and their differing needs. For example, in the cat wing, 20 “cat condos” with glass enclosed fronts and open ventilated cages in the back give cats more breathing room, more vertical space to climb (which they love) and a better feeling of security and safety. If someone wants to touch and interact with a certain animal, the shelter staff have meet-and-greet rooms for both cats and dogs, so that there are no distractions from other people or animals.

Three additional private rooms, called free roaming rooms, give cats a bigger place and more freedom to run and play on their own. The very last private room in the cat wing, a.k.a. “the corner office,” has a window-filled sun-room attached to it that will be used all year-long to give outdoor cats a feeling of being outside.

Beyond cats and dogs, there is also a small animals room. “We’ve always had hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs rats, ferrets, chickens and rabbits,” said Sala. “Either it’s a new baby, not enough time or new landlords that get these animals sent to us. Before they were housed near the cats, which was really hard for certain animals. Now, they have a special room where they don’t feel any distress.”

The shelter also provides a feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV+) room for cats. Two shy cats, Tiggar and Cyrus, currently occupy that room now. “They have feline AIDS but are non-symptomatic,” said Sala. “They can live a long, normal life indoors. They can’t transmit it to dogs or humans, but it’s best if they are the only cat in the house. It may take a little longer to adopt these special needs cats, but we always do. They are just as sweet, just as deserving.”

The dog wing houses 28 spacious kennels on three sides of the building, all of which open to a grassy outdoor fenced-in area. More than 100 volunteers help with the shelter’s on-site and off-site activities, and each dog gets walked by a volunteer or has outdoor play at least twice a day. Tucked away beyond the public view, there is a dog isolation kennel for dogs that are not ready to be adopted by the public yet.

On the staff side, there are now administrative offices, a room for volunteers, special food preparation/dog grooming rooms and exam rooms. There’s an after-hours animal control room, accessible to the outside where animal control officers can bring in strays at any hour. They’ve also built a spacious multi-purpose conference room, which will be used for staff meetings, volunteer orientations, fundraisers, special events, even birthday parties.

While all of the rooms have their own practicality, some are for the more emotional side of the job. Take for example, their private intake room, for families who have to give up a pet. Giving up a pet, for whatever reason, is very difficult. Having to give up a pet in public adds to the stress,” said Sala. "We're happy we can now provide some privacy to a family to say goodbye without being in the center of a busy lobby.”

There is also a special quiet nursery room for cats who’ve just given birth. At the time of our tour, the staff had put together a mother cat, who’d just had an emergency caesarean section in which none of the kittens lived, with a grey kitten who’d lost its mother. In the cage, the two have bonded and are inseparable.

“We’ll use this room for pregnant cats and abandoned litters,” said Sala. “Oftentimes a mother who has just given birth will nurse an abandoned litter that comes in.”

Other efficient design features ensure that all of the flooring is constructed of fully washable epoxy and all of the cat furniture can be hosed off. The dog wing is equipped with hoses on the hall walls so that it is easy to keep the building immaculately clean. On the grounds, they even constructed a fenced-in covered pavilion for volunteers to walk and play with dogs, even in inclement weather.

One of the shelter’s old buildings next door will still be used half for storage, while the other half will house barn cats waiting to be placed.  The "Cobb House," built in 2012 for an influx of cats, will be the animal infirmary, totally segregated from healthy animals.  The old main shelter building, having had thousands of animals pass through its doors over the last 25 years, will be razed.

Check out our virtual tour through the building in the accompanying gallery. All photos by Kay Stephens

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

WALDOBORO — Who says art has to be so serious?

Sculpture artist Jay Sawyer, well known for his sculpture garden now known as Studio J Bone in Warren, only needed one letter in the alphabet — e — to trigger his sense of humor. Forging the lowercase version out of iron, he created what he called Iron e. As Alanis Morrisette would say, isn’t it ironic?

“All of the feedback I got from that one piece was to keep going and create the entire alphabet,” he said. “I was actually resistant at first.”

But he kept going with it and it took three years to create all 26 letters (plus multiple incarnations of certain letters). “I imagine the phonic of the letter and then picture it uppercase or lowercase, then I work a fair share of puns into the piece,” he said.

Take his F-bomb. It’s constructed of a coated ball of steel. From the top emerges a length of pipe on which he welded two additional pieces to form an “f.” From the mouth of the pipe emerges the “wick” of the bomb, which is actually a piece of cable from a guard rail.

Sawyer said art doesn’t always have to evoke a heavy feeling, as long as it evoke some kind of feeling.

“This is a new direction for me,” he said. “There’s a lot of color in these pieces. When I stand next to the F Bomb, it puts a smile on my face.”

“I’ve got a kids’ version of the alphabet I can show and an adult’s,” he says with a grin. “It’s enough to keep you interested, for sure.”

That’s evident in his bluer pieces, like the Screw U (welded entirely of screws) and the G spot (self-explanatory).

With each piece, he feels a personal connection, but none more so than the J Walking sculpture, a welded J with playful legs. Sawyer has positioned the piece on train tracks, on a stone wall, and smack in the middle of the road

“Even other people have commented this piece is more of a self-portrait,” he said. “Whatever he’s doing he’s strutting it.”

Sawyer is hoping to turn his letters into a commercial franchise with a book, cards, t-shirts and mugs.

With more than 40 pieces created, he’s going to be debuting the letters at the University of Maine at Farmington at the Emery Community Arts Center on Aug. 29. The show has a reception planned for Sept. 9,  from 5 to 7 p.m., and they plan to have an opening reception and concert on Sept. 9, from 5-7 p.m., with a concert to follow on the side lawn at 8 p.m. The show will hang for two months.

Let’s hope the public finds the iron “e” in all of it.

For more information visit: studiojbone.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Make summer last! That’s the cry you’re hearing all over the Midcoast this weekend. On both Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 27-28, you’ll have to choose between two great bands/events. It’s a hard life, I know. Oh, and a new taproom for Orono Brewing Co. is worth a road trip.

Tuba Skinny at Unity College

Saturday, Aug. 27—Unity

Unity College, which has a great rep for bringing fresh, eclectic mixes of music, films and art to Maine is hosting Tuba Skinny, a loose collection of street musicians dedicated to bringing the traditional New Orleans sound to audiences around the world. Drawing on a wide range of musical influences—from spirituals to Depression-era blues, from ragtime to traditional jazz—their sound evokes the rich musical heritage of their New Orleans home. The band has gained a loyal following through their distinctive sound, their commitment to reviving long-lost songs and their barnstorming live. Tickets are $15. More info can be found here: Unity College and Tuba Skinny

Go back to the Jazz Age with the Barnstormers Ball

Saturday, Aug. 27—Owls Head

Speaking of barnstorming, the Owls Head Transportation Museum is throwing its third annual Barnstormers Ball, transforming into a 1920s inspired party venue, taking design cues from the famous — and daring — barnstormers who defined an era of aviation. See our recent story here. The party starts at 6 p.m. Tickets for the gala are $100 per person, and a limited number will be offered; reserved tables are available in advance. FMI: owlshead.org/events/detail/barnstormers-ball 

Free Outdoor Concert with the What Cheer? Brigade

Sunday, Aug. 28—Belfast

When the quirky Waterfall Arts and music-champions Free Range Music Series team up, you know it's going to be good. The two organizations are celebrating Waterfall Arts’ first decade in Belfast with a free outdoor concert. The What Cheer? Brigade is an award-winning, 20-piece original brass band from Providence, R.I., with Bollywood, Balkan, New Orleans, samba and hip‐hop influences played with the intensity of metal. The band has shared the stage with artists like Blondie, Man Man, Okkervil River, and Wolf Parade and has performed at many festivals around the world. Additional activities will include an appearance by Belfast's own Random Beats Street Band and more. The event is free and open to the public. Gates will open at 3:30 p.m., music starts at 4 p.m. The concert will take place outdoors. If there is rain, an alternative venue will be announced. Visit www.waterfallarts.org or call 207-338-2222 for more information.

Steel Band and Barbecue

Sunday, Aug. 28—Thomaston

Knox Museum is hosting a big blowout with a chicken and ribs barbecue and music by Steelin' Thunder steel drum band from 3 to 6 p.m. on the big stage in front of Montpelier, the big white house at the turn off Route 1 to St. George in Thomaston. Steelin' Thunder, from Rockland, will perform some rousing selections with a Caribbean flair ideal for dancing or just good ole lazy August afternoon listening. Tickets are $18 and $15 at the door the day of the event. Admission includes food; drinks will be available by donation; and children under age 12 are admitted for free. Pro-tip: try to carpool as parking space will be limited, and bring blankets and chairs.

Killer Road Trip: Orono Brewing Co. opens new taproom

Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 28 29—Bangor

Orono Brewing Co., a fixture in Orono for two years now, just had a grand opening this week with a new taproom in Bangor at 26 State Street. This would be an ideal weekend to check out the new renovated space and tasting room. The tap room opens at noon both Saturday and Sunday. If you go, have one for me!

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN — The last time we spoke with Camden Hills Regional High School student Nat Lawson for our Rad Kids series, the 16-year-old was perfecting a mentalism show (essentially mind reading for entertainment) titled Perceptions, which he went on to perform nearly 30 times around New England.

Now 17, a year later, he has graduated from high school and has retired the very successful and lucrative show. What would be a head scratcher to many, Lawson’s just not interested in the fame or the money. He’s interested in bettering his talents.

“I saw a TED talk about a blind man who taught himself to see using echolocation,” Lawson said. “And then I came across a principle in mentalism called Contact Mind Reading where you read the person’s mind by touching the person’s hand.”

Interested in testing this principle on his own, Lawson proposed to his parents that he spend nine days this summer completely in the dark, blindfolded. It’s not something any mentalist has ever done before.

“They weren’t as surprised as you might think,” he said, joking. “I haven’t been normal for about 10 years now.”

In June, Lawson’s father helped him build a dark room in the basement out of plywood, sealing off all of the windows. “The idea for this room was that I could have a place to take my blindfold off and wash my face before putting another blindfold on,” he said.

Lawson constructed three types of elaborately layered blindfolds, one to sleep in, one to shower in and one to walk around in. He started his experiment on the Q Morning Show in the recording studio of hit radio station 97.9 in Portland. Two videographers, Alex Forcillo and Ben Resek, accompanied him, filming his experiment for a documentary they called BLIND.

The walking around part, was perhaps the hardest. He didn’t use a cane, but instead, relied on his film crew to verbally guide him. The few times he went out to dinner with his family, he found it to complicated to explain to the servers, so just told them he’d gotten out of eye surgery. Testing out his theory, Lawson ventured onto the street in the first few days and began trying out his mentalism routine on strangers.

As someone who has interacted with the public as a performer since he was 14, Lawson didn’t care if what people thought he was doing was strange.

“I have had a lot of experience making a fool of myself on stage, on the street in front of people and that’s how I learn,” he said. “I would be at 10 percent of where I am in mentalism now if I were afraid to make a mistake.”

While he was very adept at visually “reading” a person on the street, a blindfold put him back to square one. “The first time I ever did street magic transitioning into mentalism, I was petrified, but I got over it,” he said. “I learned through trial and error to pinpoint the ‘right’ person to approach and the ones who would just shut me down.”

But, with the blindfold on, it was impossible to detect who would be receptive to his act on the street.

“I had to go back to the shotgun technique, approaching everyone to get a few people who had time for me,” he explained. “I had to start all of my methods from scratch.”

Another side effect of keeping his eyes shielded for so long were the hallucinations. “In the last two days of the experiment I began seeing shapes and colors vividly,” Lawson said. “It’s called Charles Bonnet syndrome, in which blind people experience visual hallucinations.”

He had to work through the distractions of these hallucinations while performing mentalism on the street, another obstacle that he said he overcame.

In his street performance/experimentation, he would hold the person’s hand and ask them to think certain things. Reading infinitesimal motor response in the way the person’s hand responded, he could discern what they were thinking. He called that micro contact reading, a completely original method of mindreading he invented himself. He could also lay a finger against a person’s neck and ask them questions, ascertaining the answerer’s truthfulness by detecting the carotid pulse.

“I become a human polygraph machine,” Lawson said.

After nine days, he took off the blindfold back in the studio of the radio show, where blurriness dominated his field of vision for hours. All in all, he found it to be an extremely useful experiment.

“I messed up the first 12 performances on the street, but it got consistently better, so that by the end I was asking questions and getting nearly 98 percent of the guesses right,” he said. “Since then, I’m happy to say none of the progress has gone away. Because I did it when I was 16 and my brain was still developing, I think I was able to make permanent neural pathways.”

In a matter of weeks Lawson is taking a gap year to Argentina through the Camden and West Bay Rotary clubs. There, he will immerse himself into speaking only Spanish and going back to high school for the year. That alone, is amazing. What kid wants to go back to high school? But, it gets better.

While there, he plans to develop an entirely brand new show based on his last experiment in both Spanish and English.

“Mentalism isn’t well known outside of English speaking countries, so it’s going to be another challenge for me to try to learn the correct words in Spanish that most closely resemble what mentalism is and then try to translate that for the audience,” said Lawson.

I have a mentalism prediction of my own. I see Nat Lawson working a big stadium show in about 10 years. Do you?

Related story: Meet 16-year-old mentalist Nat Lawson, who ‘manipulates minds for entertainment’

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

OWLS HEAD — Mobsters and moonshiners still get most of the attention when it comes to the 1920s, but there was another type of rogue warrior who managed to stay on the good side of the law while fascinating the public. Back then, stunt pilots known as “barnstormers” or “wingwalkers” were a fabulous novelty, elevated to nearly celebrity status. In the 1920s, barnstorming became one of the most popular forms of entertainment.

According to the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission:

“On any given day, a pilot, or team of pilots, would fly over a small rural town and attract the attention of the local inhabitants. The pilot or team of aviators would then land at a local farm (hence the name "barnstorming") and negotiate with the farmer for the use of one of his fields as a temporary runway from which to stage an air show and offer airplane rides to customers. After obtaining a base of operation, the pilot or group of aviators would fly back over the town, or ‘buzz’ the village, and drop handbills offering airplane rides for a small fee, usually from one to five dollars. The advertisements would also tout the daring feats of aerial daredevilry that would be offered. Crowds would then follow the airplane, or pack of planes, to the field and purchase tickets for joy rides. The locals, most of whom had never seen an airplane up close, were thrilled with the experience. For many rural towns, the appearance of a barnstormer or an aerial troop on the horizon was akin to declaring a national holiday; almost everything in the town would shut down at the spur of the moment so that people could purchase plane rides and watch the show.”

Ormer Leslie "Lock" Locklear was one such American daredevil stunt pilot and famous barnstormer. Much to the horror and fascination of those watching in the fields below, he perfected the Dance of Death, in which two pilots, in two aircraft, switch places in midair.

Capitalizing on that excitement, the Owls Head Transportation Museum is throwing its third annual Barnstormer’s Ball on Saturday, Aug. 27, transforming into a 1920s inspired party venue, taking design cues from the famous — and daring — barnstormers who defined an era of aviation.

Niki Janczura, event organizer for the Museum, said: “We currently have an interactive exhibition called Women Who Dare: Pioneering Women of Transportation that we’ll highlight during the event.” Harriet Quimby, the first woman to get a pilot’s license is included in that exhibit. Though she wasn’t a barnstormer, in 1912, she was the first woman to cross the English Channel flying a Bleriot monoplane.

People are invited to dress up in 1920s evening wear or vintage aviation-inspired garb. Swan’s Way Catering and Fox on the Run Food Truck will be providing the food and expect signature speakeasy cocktails that were popular during that era.

“We are going to a have a terrific dance band, the Carmine Terraciano Band and the Swing and Sway Dance Company will be performing some classic 1920s dances for the guests,” said Janczura. In addition to a photo booth and live auction, Charlie Chaplin will also be making an appearance.

The party starts at 6 p.m. Tickets for the gala are $100 per person, and a limited number will be offered; reserved tables are available in advance. FMI: owlshead.org/events/detail/barnstormers-ball

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

WALDOBORO — Monhegan resident Matt “Captain Mattie” Thomson has been providing the boat-to-plate experience for the public well before it ever became a trend. For the last 24 years that he’s lived on Monhegan, he has captained at various times both a groundfish boat and a lobster boat. At the end of the fishing trip when everyone else would go home, Thomson would fillet up some haddock or hake he’d just caught and then sell it through a little trailer by his house.

“It was originally an exercise in selling our own fish,” he said. “The original menu was fish tacos and fish and chips and that was it.”

With a guy he’d hired to run the trailer on the island, Thomson operated that side business roughly a decade. Then, some life changes began to make him consider moving off island.

“I have a seven-year-old kid and I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be out here when he has to go to high school,” he said. “We were originally thinking about bringing the food truck out to Monhegan, but it’s too big to come out here. Then, we thought we might be able to expand the business a little bit on the mainland.”

A jack of all trades, Thomson has had chef training on a number of vessels.

“I’m used to cooking and I like to cook,” he said.  Justin Barker, another chef Thomson met when they were both working on a research vessel out of Boothbay, is the day-to-day operations of the new food truck, Hot Fat which sits on Route One in Waldoboro next to the Delanos Seafood Market.

While Thomson provides the lobsters, they’ve worked out a symbiotic relationship with Delanos to supply the fresh fish on the menu.

Thomson said they’re still working out the kinks in the truck itself. “It’s like buying an old boat,” he said. “We’ve replumbed it and rewired it. We’ve done everything that you do if you buy a new boat and still, you have to work some things out.”

Mainland customers seem to have different tastes than island customers he’s observed. “It’s so different wherever you go,” he said. “Out here on Monhegan, fish tacos and sweet potato fries were what everybody wanted, but in Waldoboro they want cheeseburgers and hot dogs.”

Barker added, “With my fish tacos, it’s all fresh greens from Beth’s Farm Market and handmade sauces,” he said, noting that fish and chips are still their signature dish.

Thomson said will likely shut the truck down in October like most of the other food trucks do, but once they get some traction, they might move it around more during the seasons.

Follow Hot Fat’s daily updates on Twitter: twitter.com/hotfatfish1

To see all of the food trucks that operate in the area visit our guide: Gourmet Food Trucks In The Midcoast

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Winding down in August we’ve got a beautiful weekend for boat lovers, crazy cat ladies and gents, danceaholics and demo derby fiends. And with summer waning, enjoy it while you can!

Belfast Harbor Fest Launch Party

Friday, August 19—Belfast

It’s going to be a stellar night to get thee up to the Steamboat Landing on the Belfast harbor for the 7th Annual Belfast Harbor Fest for their Friday night Launch Party. Gates open at 6 p.m. with the bands starting at 7 p.m. and going to midnight. The featured bands include Frogpipe, Unorganized Hancock, The Sun Parade and Bronze Radio Return. Vendors serve up a variety of local food and drink! No cover charge.

Free Concert on Megunticook Lake

Friday, August 19—Camden

You can get your boat fix Friday night in Belfast or you can jump into a vessel in Camden for a free concert on Megunticook Lake. Brought to you by Bay Chamber Concerts, the Slavic Soul Party out of Brooklyn is playing 6 to 7:30 p.m. This nine-piece band is touted as “NYC’s official #1 brass band for BalkanSoul GypsyFunk.” For more info on where exactly it is, see our recent story.

Dance at Waterfall Arts’ Fallout Shelter

Saturday, August 20—Belfast

Two WERU DJs, Jim Bahoosh and Greg Rossel  are spinning the discs of World Beat, Funk and Soul at Waterfall Arts in the cool fallout shelter at Waterfall Arts. Dance from 7 p.m. until they roll up the streets. They'll have a cash bar for donations and some sweet and savory snacks to purchase.  FMI: thorndikemill.org.

Last Internet Cat Video Festival and Fair

Saturday, August 20—Rockland

“I laughed; I cried; I meowed. It became a part of me.” The Farnsworth’s Cat Festival and Fair is back for its final year! Starting at 6 p.m. they’ll have food vendors, live music by Clint Hartzel and Andre Lascoutx and cat-themed activities. Starting at sunset (a tad before 8 p.m.) they’ll show a reel of 85 Internet cat videos on a 40-foot screen overlooking Rockland Harbor for a running time of 70 minutes. The event will be held in Rockland Harbor Park, free to the public. Bring chairs or blankets. FMI: Cat Video Festival

Union Fair Kicks Off With Demo Derby

Saturday, Aug. 20 — Union

The Demolition Derby is one of the most fun events at the Union Fair, which kicks off Saturday. Watch them crash everyhing from mini vans, to small trucks, to four-cylinder cars. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing a smile on a little (or big) kid’s face when the first big "crash" occurs, dirt starts flying all over the ring and smoke billows from under the hoods of vehicles. Insider’s tip: get there early/ Admission: Early Bird/$8 or General Admission $12. Starts at 7 p.m. FMI: Demo Derby

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Since the mid-1980s, Maine has seen the growth of more than 80 breweries and now, it’s getting its own Maine Distillery Trail.

With a dozen spirit makers joining forces all around the state, The Maine Distiller’s Guild announced last week that their Maine Distillery Trail is up and running. Consisting of a digital map and a punch card, the Trail encourages enthusiasts of craft spirits to visit the locations of all of Maine Distiller’s Guild members for tastings and educational tours.

From The Liquid Riot Bottling Company in Portland’s first Brewery/Distillery/Resto-Bar to the Northern Maine Distilling Co. in Brewer (no that’s not a pun) you can try everything from to small batch Fernat-Braca aged in Maine blueberry wine barrels to award-winning vodka. 

In the four years since Penobscot Bay Pilot has launched, we’ve covered our share of local distillers. From Cheap Dates offering free whiskey tastings at Sweetgrass Farms in Union to Tree Spirits’ Absinthe Making a Roaring Comeback in Maine, we’ve covered some of the distillers on the Maine Distillery Trail and even a few that weren’t such as What it’s like to sip a $150 glass of pre-Prohibition whiskey from the now defunct Billy’s tavern in Thomaston.

Maine's small distilleries combine to create more than 50 different products, ranging from popular whiskies and vodka to more obscure herbal spirits such as aforementioned absinthe and fernet.Visit to see the Maine Distillery Trail map and links to Maine’s craft spirit producers.

To see more about each of the members of the Distillery Trail visit: www.mainedistillersguild.org

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—Bay Chamber Concerts has decided to invite you all to a concert. Only hitch is, you’ve got to row, sail, motor or paddleboard across Megunticook Lake to get there.

They’re bringing Slavic Soul Party out of Brooklyn for the event on August 19 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. This nine-piece band is touted as “NYC’s official #1 brass band for BalkanSoul GypsyFunk. SSP! has created an acoustic mash-up of Balkan and Gypsy sounds with North American music, weaving the gospel, techno, funk, dub, jazz, and Latin influences of New York’s neighborhoods seamlessly into a Balkan brass setting.”

As one of the hardest working bands in New York, SSP! plays nearly 100 times a year in North America, Europe, Africa and beyond.

Here’s how All Things Considered describes them, “Madcap rhythms, hyperactive horns, a sense of the absurd and just a hint of abstract jazz.”

Here at Cheap Dates Headquarters, we like anything that is fun and free. Thanks go to Lucinda Ziesing of Camden, who approached Bay Chamber Concerts three years ago and asked if they could put on a special concert for those who live on the lake and for the public who can get there by boat. And double thanks to her as she proceeded to raise all of the money so the concert could be free.

Better bring a party boat for the band. Boats can leave from their own docks or from the boat launch on Route 52. You may also rent a boat at Maine Sport Outfitters; rentals must be arranged by noon by calling the Outdoor Programs Department at 236-8797 for pickup at the Bog Bridge on Route 105. Renters are asked to make arrangements for return of the watercraft at pick up time.

See this map to the right for exact location.

For more information visit www.baychamberconcerts.org call 236-2823.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND — Travis, a Labrador mix, was only a year old, sitting in a high-kill shelter in rural North Carolina, when K-9 Lifesavers, an all-volunteer private nonprofit dog rescue group in Virginia scooped him up and saved his life. By the time owners Chris and Carolyn Groobey, from Annapolis, Md., adopted him, “He went from a dog that thrashed around like a drowning man to one who is a fierce, fast swimmer,” said Carolyn. “Then, he taught himself the art of Frisbee. He will catch one anytime, anywhere, from anyone.”

Every year the Groobeys make a a visit to Maine and last year, they bought a boat and embarked on a cruise around the world. Over the last nine months, Travis helped pilot Toccata more than 6,000 nautical miles, visited seven countries and transited the Panama Canal.  Last week, the Groobeys brought Travis and his Labrador mix brother, Charlie (also rescued by K-9 Lifesavers) to the Maine, Boats, Homes and Harbors Show to compete in its World Championship Boatyard Dog Trials.

Like all of the other dogs competing, Travis had to navigate a series of obstacles such as running over and around lobster traps and getting in and out of the dinghy. But in the freestyle portion of the competition, Travis’ love of Frisbee really shone.

“We just thought, this is perfect, we’ll just put him on a paddleboard to catch the Frisbee,” said Carolyn. “We’ve been working all summer on his act.”

At one point, brother Charlie also joined Travis on the paddleboard while Travis continued to catch the Frisbee

In a fitting turn of events, Travis raised $1,255 to go back to the organization that saved his and Charlie’s life — K-9 Lifesavers Dog Rescue.

To learn more about the Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors annual show visit:maineboats.com/boatshow

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—The last time we met Cecile Bizet, 16, she was standing behind the gelato case of Gelato Rose, an artisanal shop she co-owns with her mother Annie Higbee in downtown Rockland. (See our original story here)

Like pretty much everyone her age, she’s on social media, but not just for fun. She runs a YouTube channel with more than 3,500 subscribers and stays active on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. She uses the platforms to keep a steady flow of content, offering her perspectives on fashion, travel and creative lifestyle.

She is now turning the camera around for a new video series called WE ARE HUMAN. The project explores the common thread that connects us all and is executed through a series of cinematic interviews. As a teenager growing up in one of the most divisive periods in history, Cecile observes that many kids are trying to discover what sets them apart and makes them unique, using social media to deliver the message. However, her main question is "What makes us all the same?"

Sitting on a bench in Rockland's Buoy Park an hour before she is set to open the gelato shop, she told me where this idea came from.

“For the last three years, I’ve been attending Playlist Live, a YouTube convention in Orlando, Florida,” she said. “It’s an awesome opportunity to meet other YouTube content creators. This past year, I realized after meeting a couple of people, that I had started to form these judgments about them. For some, it seemed that the only reason they were attending the event was to gain more popularity on their social media platforms. This had a huge emotional effect on me because I couldn't understand how some people could be so inauthentic. In my head was scolding myself, saying ‘You shouldn’t judge them. They’re probably great people; you just haven’t gotten to know them.’”

The realization that every person has something more to show than just their outer persona inspired Cecile to start her project. The questions she was planning to ask each person evoked more than just casual conversation. She wanted people to feel comfortable and share their raw inner dialogue.

Finding time around her school schedule, Cecile conducted her first season of We Are Human, starting with her inner circle. The 5-7 minute format aims to show the real person behind the persona we all curate and cultivate on social media and sometimes throughout our daily lives.  

“I’m open to interviewing as many people as possible across all ages, sexual preferences, and race,” she said. “I want to get their story out there so that others may realize they’re not alone.”

The power of film and turning it into a documentary-style format occurred for her when she was a middle school student at Riley School in Rockport.

“We had an unbelievable film teacher, Morgan Kirkham, who taught me how to compose, edit and produce an interview,” she said. “When I was 12, I did a video interview of Glenna Plaisted, the founder of Riley School. She was the most amazing woman. I learned how to listen and how to make people feel comfortable, as well as the power that documentary style film can have. A year after I did that interview, Glenna passed away and that video is the only documentation we have of her in her last years.”

Stay tuned as Penobscot Bay Pilot will be publishing Cecile’s We Are Human series with her commentary behind the videos.

Hail To The Rad Kids is a feature that highlights teens with artistic or musical talent.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST — Lydia Schofield, 11, (pen name Jo Jo Thoreau) has been in the publishing game long enough so that standing up in front of 250 people on a book tour to read from her latest picture book and answer audience questions no longer makes her nervous.

The Thorndike middle schooler, about to enter sixth grade this fall, has published two books with Little Hands Press, a Maine publishing imprint company started by her mother, Tiffany Schofield. Her latest book, Buckaroo Bobbie Sue, just won a Spur Award with Western Writers of America and she is the youngest author to have done so.

Asked how she felt going up to collect her award she gave a big smile. “I thought it was amazing,” she said.

Her career started at the age of nine, when she first wrote a rhyming picture book called Bendy Wendy, about a girl who hurts her back during gymnastics and strives to get her mojo back. At her very first book signing/reading, Jo Jo and Tiffany bought a box of props to act out parts of the book.

“When I did a hand stand in front of the audience, I fell over and hurt my back,” said Jo Jo, laughing.

As they say life imitates art. They forgot to bring an ice pack (which appears in the book), but luckily the school staff had one on hand.

It took about a year to master the writing process for her first book and half the time to write the second book.

In Buckaroo Bobbie Sue, once again Jo Jo applied the adage: “write what you know” as she’s an active 4-H member and loves working with horses. “It’s about a girl who lives on a horse ranch and she wants to help her father train the horses on the farm, but she’s told she’s too young,” said Jo Jo. “But when Diamond Ray, a horse comes into her life, she forms a strong bond with him. When one day something happens to one of the crew members, she has to ride this horse into town. The challenge she has to overcome is to prove that she’s not just a little girl who can’t help out.”

“They learn that she’s strong-willed and that she doesn’t give up,” said Jo Jo.

This fortitude goes beyond her writing. At book signings, she is self-assured and talks about the process of getting published, which her mother said fascinates many adults in the audience.

Her mother Tiffany, has been a strong influence on Jo Jo’s career, as she herself works at Thorndike Press. With Tiffany’s help, Lydia took did the hard work every new author has to take: writing query letters, submitting manuscripts publishers, revising her book, over and over and over.

“I think my journey in life was to prepare me so that I could help her on hers,” said Tiffany. “I never set out to work in publishing, it just turned out that way and I certainly didn’t realize I’d have a young author. Now, I get it.”

Jo Jo has more ideas as she goes forward. Interested in dystopian novels such as The Fifth Wave, Divergent, and The Hunger Games, she aims to write a full length novel for her next book. Later this month, she’ll be meeting an award-winning adult crime writing author, Al Lamanda, who would like to collaborate with her on a future full-length novel.

“It’s like the female version of Indiana Jones,” said Jo Jo.

For now, she’s content to speak to schools and libraries and share what she’s learned on her young journey. She signs her books “Dream!”

To find Jo Jo’s books, illustrated by Kristina Zack Young, visit: Little Hands Press

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

 Some unsettled weather coming in this weekend makes us feel spoiled as we’ve had sunny weekends all summer; but just make the best of it with a community party hosted by the Co-op, great stuff coming out of the Maine Boats Homes and Harbors show, a hilarious play and a fab Beatles tribute show.

A Day In The Life: Beatles Tribute Show

Friday, August 12 and Saturday, August 13—Camden

The smash-hit multimedia performance A Day In The Life: A Beatles Experience is returning to the Camden Opera House this summer and taking their show on the road! With an all-new cast, never-before-performed songs as well as all your favorite Beatles hits, this music and multimedia double feature is unlike any show you’ve ever seen in Midcoast Maine. See our recent story here. To purchase tickets visit: Camden Opera House.

Lordy, Lordy, Belfast Co-op turns 40

August 13—Belfast

The Co-op is hosting a free community event at Steamboat Landing in Belfast  from noon to 4 p.m.  This event will host live music, local food trucks, a photo booth and games for adults and children alike.

The headliner band is Ghost of Paul Revere, who use a masterful combination of melody and energy, somewhere between folk and foot-stomping bluegrass, that has already given Ghost shows legendary status.  Also performing will be the all-female alt-folk band, Sugarbush. The trio of local Waldo county homesteaders and Moms are sure to get toes tapping. The opening band will be Hollow Horse, whose members including one of Belfast Co-op’s staff and plays haunting folk music from the future as well as the past.

Latin-Flavored Boogat Plays Warehouse Dance Party

Saturday, August 13—Rockland

Just like last weekend’s Lobster Festival, the Maine Boats Homes and Harbor Show is offering a pretty sweet deal. All-day admission and a special dance party in one price just for Saturday. MBH&H is teaming up with Center for Maine Contemporary Art to bring Boogat, a contemporary five-piece Latin-flavored band to Maine at the vintage warehouse on Winter Street. Their music has been described as an “edgy blend of hip-hop, cumbia, reggaeton and other styles, seamlessly blending a variety of programmed and live instrumentation to accompany Boogat’s forceful rapping.” The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25, available online at maineboats.com/boatshow. Advance online purchase includes free Saturday admission to the MBH&H Show.

Killer Road Trip; Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Saturday, August 13 and Sunday, August 14—Ogunquit

Get your glitter on and take the ride of your life with the hilarious and heartwarming Tony-Award winning Broadway musical, based on the Oscar winning film, that follows the fabulous journey of three performers who hop on board a battered old bus and take their show to the Australian Outback. Amidst the non-stop dazzling array of over 500 imaginative and outrageous costumes, 200 headdresses and the non-stop hit parade of dance numbers and hits from the ‘70s and ‘80s, this triumphant trio finds love, friendship and more than they ever hoped for along the way.  The Saturday and Sunday matinees are at 3 p.m. and 2 p.m. and are the cheaper tickets. To buy tickets visit: Oqunquit Playhouse

MBH&H Boatyard Dog Trials

Sunday August 14—Rockland

Get ready to laugh. This wacky event actually encourages cheating as long as the owner and dog get completely soaked. The goal is for each dog to complete three events within the 8-minute time limit: 1. The “Dockside Obstacle Course” — Dog and handler negotiate a maze of lobster traps, piles of rope, buoys, and other funky dockside paraphernalia. 2. The “Dinghy Hop” — Dog and handler scramble in and out of a very unstable dinghy that’s tethered to a float. 3. The “Freestyle” segment — Each dog (and their person) shows off his or her special talents. The official trials will begin at 10:30 a.m. on the waterfront. Admission to the trials is included in the price of a show ticket ($12/ticket, kids under 12 free). FMI: maineboats.com/boatshow It’s not just awesome. It’s pawsome.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Start the weekend early with the best “staycation” things to do at the Lobster Festival, along with food, antiques and ballgames.

Steins & Vines

Thursday, August 4—Rockland

The much anticipated Steins & Vines tasting event was a big hit last year at the Lobster Festival. This year, it will be held on the Festival Grounds in the North Entertainment Tent with two tasting sessions available. Tasting I is from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Tasting II is from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. With all Maine-made brews, wines and spirits it will be limited to only 200 tickets per tasting session. Tickets are $25 and the price includes full admission to the festival grounds as well. Participants will receive 10 tickets to pick their tastings, as well as a commemorative tasting glass. Event tickets are available to purchase via Brown Paper Tickets at brownpapertickets.com or at mainelobsterfestival.com.

Smash Mouth at Lobster Festival

Saturday, August 6—Rockland

This is a great deal. For $10, you will get admission into the Lobster Festival and the chance to see a national headlining band, Smash Mouth with special guest Kris Rogers and The Dirty Gems. Smash Mouth hit recently with "I'm a Believer" from the movie Shrek, but their hits "Then The Morning Comes" and "Can't Get enough of you Baby" solidified the band's double-platinum status The show starts at 7:30 pm. Tickets can be bought at the gate first come-first serve, but you can get them beforehand online here:

2nd Annual Flavor Fare

Saturday, August 6—Rockport

The Local Flavor Fare showcases  a taste of the Midcoast’s best food, drink, music and artistry and will include four music acts, wine and beer tastings, a pig roast, local artists and artisan foods at the Rockport Marketplace (State of Maine Cheese) on Route 1 in Rockport. Miners Creek, a family bluegrass band will headline the show followed by Belfast based duo Velocipede, honky-tonk country singer David Scott Norton and family folk band Playin’ Possom. Maine Street Meats will be offering their famous pork sandwiches. Local food producers will have their cheeses, jellies, mustards and more available. Jewelry makers, local artists and print makers will be on hand and the bands will be available to sell autographed CDs, t-shirts and more. FMI: call State of Maine Cheese Co. 800-762-8895.

Maine Antiques Festival with Food & Libations

Saturday, August 6—Union

Held at the Union Fairgrounds  just off route 17, this year’s Festival will have a variety of antiques and vintage collectibles—everything from 18th century furnishings to mid 20th century vintage collectibles from dealers from as far away as California and Canada. Food trucks will be on the grounds offering a tasty assortment from lobster to falafels and many other options. Also this year the Maine Craft Beverage will be offering beer and wine from local Maine breweries and vineyards. Roaming minstrels help to provide the festive atmosphere appropriate for the whole family. Tickets: $10 to $25. FMI: MaineAntiquesFestival.com

Killer Road Trip: Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Saturday, August 6—Portland

Summer isn’t summer without at least one drive in movie, one fireworks display and one ball game. What’s great about this opportunity to see the Sea Dogs play in Portland is that you do not have to drive! The St. George Town Office is offering a round trip bus leaving the American Legion Hall in Thomaston at 3:20 p.m. for a 6 p.m. game. $27 covers the ride and the ticket. Call for more info: 372-6363 or 701-9754

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN — In a soft opening event Wednesday night, several dozen people got a chance to check out the renovations the Sea Dog Brewing Co. has made over the spring and summer in anticipation for their grand opening Friday, Aug. 5. The three separate buildings have been built out to resemble a cohesive classic Sea Dog color scheme of exposed beams, wooden booths and tables and splashy wall art. The space now includes two bars, (one downstairs, and one split bar upstairs where the Crow’s Nest of Cappy’s Chowder House used to be), a new deck that can seat 100 patrons, and multiple dining spaces that can accommodate 300 people. They’ve also brought back the mug club, which was a highly successful marketing feature of the original Sea Dog bar.

Longtime patrons of Cappy’s Chowder House and the original Sea Dog Brewing Co. found some familiar faces behind the bar as well. ‘Big John’ Collins, who, at 6’6”  always had trouble smacking the top of his head against the ceiling bar rack at Cappy’s remarked, “There’s tons of room under this bar.”

Bartender Matt Speno said: “I think it’s a new chapter for Camden having the Sea Dog back after many years after it left. I can remember going to the original Sea Dog and now to have this kind of quality decor, quality food and being family friendly, is exciting. The place was designed to celebrate fun. And the way we’re looking at it as the founding staff, we’re seeing a lot of locals who were founding guests of the original bar.”

“People in the community have a certain expectation about this place, not only because Sea Dog was once here but also because they’ve changed everything that used to be in the Cappy’s space,” said Michelle Hoak. “People are looking for us to step up our game and we’re up to the task.”

The Sea Dog Brewing Co. was founded in Camden in 1993 in the Knox Mill, where Smokestack Grill is now, but closed its doors in 2002. Cappy’s Chowder House was a fixture in Camden for 37 years until it closed its doors for good in 2016.

General Manager Jesse Hardie said they will be open at Friday at 11 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. Depending on what the new staff can accommodate, they may only partially open some rooms and the bar.

For more information visit their new Facebook page.

Related story: http://www.penbaypilot.com/article/rumors-are-true-sea-dog-brewing-co-returns-camden/66429

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

We’re just tipping the corner of peak summer here in the Midcoast and it’s a work-hard play-hard kind of weekend with pop up concerts, dances, a festival and outdoor sports— so hold on for the thrill ride.

Ghost of Paul Revere at Union Winery

Friday, July 29

Savage Oakes Vineyard and Winery is hosting Ghost of Paul Revere—Maine's holler-folk band at 7:30 p.m. With a sound built around powerful three-part harmonies, energetic performances, and a non-traditional way of interpreting traditional American music somewhere between folk and foot-stomping bluegrass this is a great night to get your holler and wine on.  Savage Oakes Vineyard and Winery is located at 175 Barrett Hill Road in Union, one third mile off Route 17. Tickets are $15 and can be bought at the door.

Firefighters’ Ball at the Samo

Friday, July 29—Rockland

I’m not going to rehash the same tired pun of firefighters being hot (yes I am), but this is one hot event to celebrate the men and women who volunteer so much for our communities. And the band Creatures of Habit is on fire! (I’ll show myself out.) This year, the party kicks off on the Pen Bay Patio with happy hour and grub at 6 p.m. with cash bar and light fare in the Knox County Ballroom at 7:15 and dancing starting at 8 p.m. Tickets are $50 (note: the Brown Paper ticketing service is closed) so you can get them at the Rockport Town office until 5 p.m. or at the door of the Samoset. What a great way to celebrate the end of the political conventions, and all that hot air.

Beyond The Sea Book Festival

Saturday, July 30—Lincolnville

At Beyond The Sea the other day, I found a fantastic Maine book called Distilled In Maine, by Kate McCarty with a forward by a Portland bartender. This is not the kind of book that gets coverage far and wide, which is why I heartily recommend popping into the 2016 Beyond The Sea Book Festival at Lincolnville Beach. In past years it has been a three-day event, but now is compressed into one day with more than 36 authors on hand to talk about their books from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. See our latest story about it here.

Cider Hill’s Locavore Festival

Saturday, July 30—Waldoboro

The fourth annual Locavore Music Festival will take place once again at Cider Hill Farm, showcasing Maine-based musicians starting at 2p.m. going to 9:30 p.m.. This year’s headliner is Muddy Ruckus, an Americana-rock duo from Portland, Maine, winners of the 2016 NEMA "Best in State", headline this year. The jam-packed guest lineup includes Trisha Mason Music, Max Garcia Conover, Hours North, Marshall Marquis and Tomorrow Morning!Crafters and artisans will be displaying their stuff and local food vendors will be serving up the yums.  Tickets are $15 at the gate (cash only) with children under 14 free. FMI: Cider Hill

Try An Outdoor Sport for Free at the Snow Bowl

Sunday, July 31—Camden

The Camden snow Bowl is pairing up with outdoor organizations to teach people how to mountain bike, paddleboad, kayak, canoe and golf for free in their annual Community Outdoor Day and Concert. Guided mountain bike rides with New England Mountain Bike Association (NEMBA)  will go from 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Guided trail runs with Trail Runners of Midcoast Maine  will go from 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Golf with The First Tee of Maine  from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Then kick back with blankets picnics and portable chairs for their 2 p.m. concert with a 55-piece band from Bangor.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKPORT — Her father dying of brain cancer was heartbreaking enough for then 16-year-old Michaela, but she had no idea how much tougher life was to become. She and her mother became homeless shortly after. “Two weeks later, my mother and I had no place to go,” she said. “We had to live out of our car, which was horrible, really uncomfortable.” She was worried about their safety as well. “Somebody could break into the car.”

“After that I couch surfed at different people’s homes.” She said that even though it seemed like a temporary solution, anxiety was always ever present. “You don’t know if there will be any food for you and you hate to even ask if you can take a shower,” she said. “I know about 10 kids in Rockland right now who are homeless and couch surfing.”

This is what the Knox County Homeless Coalition in Rockland defines as “invisible” homelessness. More than 400 adults and families living in Knox County alone are homeless, with few viable support options.

“The hidden nature of rural homelessness is why it’s so hard to believe this huge problem is right here in our backyard,” said Stephanie J. Primm executive director of Hospitality House, the Coalition’s family shelter on Old County Road in Rockport.

Eventually, Michaela and her mother found a spot at Rockport’s Hospitality House. “Being homeless is scary,” she said. “You don’t know where you’re going to lay your head at night. You don’t know if you’re going to eat that night or even the next day. Being at the Hospitality House, I knew where I was going to sleep and I knew I was going to have food. It taught me a lot.”

She’s working toward getting her diploma, so she can get a job. “I’m very focused on that right now and getting As,” she said. “When I grow up I really want to have a good life. I want to have kids. I want to have a nice house. I don’t want to worry about where my kids are going to have to sleep in the future.”

In the two years since her father died, she has continued to persevere, even through more heartbreak as she’s had close friends pass away as well. “The reason I keep going is because I know those who’ve passed won’t want me to give up,” she said.

Michaela is one of photographer Patrisha McLean’s subjects in an exhibition of photographs and paintings on display for an art opening reception at 86 Pascal Avenue in Rockport tonight, July 27, from 5 to 7 p.m. McLean has been photographing and interviewing clients of the Hospitality House since they re-opened in 2014. McLean’s friend, Susan Williams, the artist whose dreamlike landscape oils are half of the opening, is the inspiration behind the event.

“I had work that I was giving away to my friends and the only thing I asked was that they made a donation to the Hospitality House,” Wiliams said.

Though Michaela is now living in Camden with a family member, Primm said they would welcome her back any time. Through The McKinney-Vento Act, a federal law dictates that Michaela can remain at her original school to ensure educational stability. 

“In so many cases, it’s the only stable thing in their life,” said Primm. To get her to and from school, a bus picks her up and drops her off, or  the Hospitality House assists with personal rides and taxis.

Michaela was the only teenager at the Hospitality House, which currently has 11 kids under the age of 12 living there. Though their maximum capacity is 22 people, their current caseload extends well beyond the house’s walls, with 270 people in the Midcoast under some sort of care and support. They often utilize campgrounds in the summer, and hotel rooms in cases where women and children need to leave dangerous and abusive situations and individuals. Since starting in February 2014, the Hospitality House has served 1,294 people, with children accounting for nearly half of those numbers.

A portion of sales from the art opening will benefit the Knox County Homeless Coalition/Hospitality House. To find out more about the myriad ways the Hospitality House helps the seemingly invisible homeless in the Midcoast click here. Donations and volunteers help provide a support system to families, and more information can be accessed here.

Related stories:

• The homeless abound in the Midcoast, 'they just hide quite well'
• Destiny
• Local artists to benefit Knox County Homeless Coalition, Hospitality House

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

With three cranking bands on Saturday night and two outdoor events on Sunday, this weekend has all the bases covered as we round the corner to the highest point of summer. Live it up!

David Raitt at Three Tides

Saturday, July 23—Belfast

David Raitt (Bonnie’s brother) and his band are playing their signature brand of bluesy rock on the Three Tides Beer Garden stage. They rocked the house last summer, and you can bet they'll do it again. Grab your best gal or guy, your favorite stompin' shoes and have yourself a dang ol' time! Starts at 9 p.m No cover.

Hello Newman at The Myrtle

Saturday, July 23—Rockland

Everybody’s favorite ‘90s alternative cover band, Hello Newman, is up from Portland this weekend to the Myrtle Tavern and will have the joint jumping. They also play rock, ska, rap and swing and it’s a very friendly vibe (especially now that everybody has a place to park after the Blues Festival.) The show starts at 9:30 p.m.

Tanner Olin Smith and the Weirders at Rock City Café

Saturday, July 23—Rockland

Tanner Olin Smith and the Weirders (formerly known as Laminated Cat) are a folk/experimental group from Portland. Used to performing on the street and in more intimate settings, this guy and his group have an offbeat sense of humor that comes straight through in their music. They perform from 7 to 9 p.m.

Island Clean Up (with Bonus Lobster Feed!)

Sunday, July 24—Tenants Harbor

Check this out — For a couple of hours of volunteer clean up, you’ll be transported out to some beautiful Maine islands and then treated to a big old lobster feed afterward. The Tenants Harbor Fisherman’s Co-op is looking for volunteers to participate in this one-day island cleanup. High Island, which was just purchased by Maine Coast Heritage Trust, with support from the Town of St. George and Land for Maine's Future Program, will be among the islands slated for cleaning. Whitehead Island, home to the iconic Whitehead Light Station, is also on the list. Fishermen from the Co-op will transport volunteers from the Co-op’s wharf at 8:30 a.m. and will come back at 1 p.m. The Co-op will donate lobsters for a lobster feed for volunteers following the cleanup, to be held at Luke's at Tenants Harbor. Best to call first to make sure there’s room: Merritt Carey 207-828-4882.

Killer Road Trip: Open Farm Day

Sunday, July 24—statewide

Everybody’s always talking about “where your food comes from.” Well here it is: your chance to see where it grows and lives before it lands on the plate of your favorite Maine restaurant or farmers market. More than 80 Maine farms will open to the public and host demonstrations, displays, farm-raised products for sale, and animals and crops to experience. Activities may include barn and field tours, milking, hay rides, petting zoos, self-guided nature trails, beekeeping demos, beautiful scenery, cookouts, samples for tasting, refreshments and more. Click for List of the participating farms and details. (.pdf)

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

TENANTS HARBOR — Normally the opening of a rustic lobster shack doesn't warrant the same kind of buzz as a shiny new Midcoast restaurant, but Luke's at Tenants Harbor, which opened for its first season this summer there, has more to it than meets the eye.

For instance, it's operated by two guys in their early 30s — and it's not just one shack. This is the 19th Luke's shack they've opened nationally.

Native Mainer Luke Holden, its chief executive officer and founder, along with his business partner and president, Ben Conniff, have transformed the empty restaurant on Miller's Wharf into a cozy lobster shack with an adjoining bar.

The locals, let's just say, are very happy. Since Cod End closed there, the building has been sitting empty for two years. Now, there is an easygoing place to gather, where the seafood is affordable and excellently prepared (likely caught by their friends and neighbors). The small bar serves Maine-made microbrews, such as a Lobsterman's Choice Ale made by Shipyard Brewing Co., as well as local wines and good cocktails with Maine distilled liquors, such as Bimini gin.

It all started when Holden, who grew up lobstering with his father in Cape Elizabeth, decided to take a different path in his 20s and set out to be an investment banker in New York City. One hot summer day, he was feeling homesick for a good old-fashioned Maine lobster roll, but couldn't find one. Everything he saw cost at least $30, and either was slathered with too much mayonnaise and celery or else made too precious by chef's artistic interpretation.

"It wasn't fresh, it wasn't authentic and because I couldn't find that there, that became a business plan to get a lobster shack off the ground," he said.

Capitalizing on his investment banking background, he paired up with Conniff, a food writer, opening their first Luke's Lobster in 2009 in NYC's East Village.

Their primary operation is based in Brooklyn with shacks in New York, Washington D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Maryland, Chicago and New Jersey. Over the last seven years, they've grown to include a staff of 350 on the restaurant side and another 125 in their seafood processing plant.

The national press has taken notice. Luke's Lobster has been named "Best Lobster Roll" in multiple publications and food lists and has been covered by Good Morning America, Today, Eater, Forbes Magazine, NY Daily News and Wall Street Journal, to name a few.

But this Tenants Harbor shack, just opened in June, is near and dear to Holden.

"Anywhere in Maine I consider home," he said. "This is the most exceptional view we have from all of our shacks."

"You didn't have to convince me to leave the subways of New York and come up here for a few days," added Conniff.

Luke's Lobster has four core values: Taste, traceability, sustainability and community. And they've been ahead of the curve on these values since day one when it comes to preserving the Maine fisheries and supporting Maine fisherman.

"We've really been proud of being able to bring this sustainable product to New York City and tell people the real story of where their lobster comes from," said Conniff.

More than any of their shacks, this Tenants Harbor shack is unique in its business model. Holden sits on the board of the brand new Tenants Harbor Fisherman's Co-op with more than 15 members who supply all of their catch to his company. In return, he ensures that 50 percent of the restaurant's profits go back to that Co-op.

In addition to running all of the shacks, Holden and his partners, including his brother, Bryan, opened a processing plant in Saco in 2013 called Cape Seafood to ensure none of the catch would be wasted, thus employing lobstermen well beyond the tourist season.

"Staying local is important. It is the heart of what we're doing here," said Holden.

No matter how well a food business is run, its success always comes down to the ingredients and how they are prepared. You won't find a lobster roll smothered in mayonnaise here.

Holden and Conniff make it the way Mainers have been preparing lobster rolls for generations: on a New England split-top bun grilled with a light swipe of mayo, a drizzle of lemon butter, and a dash of Luke's secret seasoning, so that the freshness can come through on its own.

"People are always told to ask where your food comes from," said Conniff. “The way we see it is you shouldn't have to ask; it should be right up front."

To that end, they have a sign outside the main seating area near the ordering window that displays where everything they make is from, from lobster rolls to blueberries, even the butter and herbs comes from a Maine farm or fisherman.

While Holden and Conniff have to go back to their respective offices in Saco and Brooklyn the rest of the summer, they've left the locals with a lobster shack to be proud of.

Luke's at Tenants Harbor is open Memorial Day to Labor Day. They have a happy hour from 3-5 p.m. To learn more visit their Facebook page.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

SEARSMONT—Woodworker and boatbuilder Joel Cox likes to roam his 14-acre property for the perfect fallen tree. As an artist who crafts chunks of deadwood into sturdy tables with an industrial touch, he knows what to scout for. One tree however, aimed to get the better of him in 2009.

“I told my wife I was going to prune up a few trees and I saw this big pine that had a bad spot in it,” he said. “I thought it would make some nice tables, so I went to chop it down. When I cut it down, it got caught in an oak tree and when I cut the hinge some more it slipped off of the stump. It threw me back about 15-20 feet right up against another tree.”

The tree was easily several tons. Pinned, he tried to reach for his phone in his back pocket but couldn’t see the numbers to punch in 911.

“I’ve seen the movie on this,” he said, wryly. “I know how this works. You call 911. But I couldn’t even see the phone to dial. So, I put the phone back in my pocket, and by this time my face was bleeding pretty good. I just gave a big yank and dislocated my shoulder and pulled myself out.”

Ten stitches to his face later and with a mending shoulder, Cox decided that big old tree needed to be put to better use.

The table he made out of it which should probably be named “Nearly Killed Me” sits on the second floor of Beyond The Sea bookstore in Lincolnville, where most of his pieces are on display.

The roundish chunk of varnished pine with a split is anchored by a boat stay and a shaft strut, which functions as its legs.

As a boatbuilder and steel fabricator for the last 25 years, he creates custom end tables and harvest tables with an interesting hybrid of marine hardware, finding odd bits of pipe or boat rigging and re-imagining it as an extension of his tables.

Smack in the center of a harvest table which sits on the second floor of Beyond The Sea has built-in davit, which is a device on the side of a boat which pulls up a dinghy. And in the corner sits a floating wooden bar with a foot rail called a “Billy Bar” named after his late friend Billy (who apparently really wanted it). Even though he can churn out the same kind of end table over and over, the Billy Bar is one of a kind.

“I think you can also pick one up at Walmart,” he joked. 

Cox doesn’t “do” the Internet and you won’t find his woodcarving business River Root online. To see his unique tables visit Beyond The Sea bookstore or feel free to call Cox at 207-975-7722.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—This Thursday, July 21, photographer and film artist Jason Elon Goodman is throwing a big party at the Lincoln Street Center stage in Rockland. This particular event feels more like a pop-up party than a traditional venue because it will bring Midcoast artists and makers together with international talents for one night. With five acts planned (and surprise guests) the night will feature Roots Americana, New Acoustic, Circus Arts 2D & 3D Arts. In addition FOG Bar and Café will be providing beer and cocktails and food trucks will provide pizza and other snacks and nonalcohlic drinks.

Goodman  has traveled the word and settled in Rockland two years ago. He feels the time is right to bring his vision known as the Salt Stage ( www.saltstage.com) featuring intimate filmic portraiture of artists, musicians, writers, thinkers, makers and more to a 3D level—off the screen and onto the stage.

“I wanted to do something that would emphasize the creativity around here,” he said. “So I took the idea of extending an archive of portraits into film and then extending that onto a live stage. Basically, opening a portal in Rockland and letting it all come through.”

Goodman spent eight weeks organizing this event, which draws hybrid of performers across multiple quirky genres and from all over the world, including Haas Kowert & Tice (New Acoustic), Grant Gordy & Joe Walsh (Blue Grass/New Acoustic) Muddy Ruckus (Punk/Folk Americana) Droplet Dance (Cyr Wheel & Fiddle) and Ekaterina Sknarina (Contortion & Burlesque and former Miss Coney Island).

“My mom worked at Big Apple Circus when I was a kid,” Goodman said, “so I’ve always enjoyed the circus arts and thought it would add quite a visual element to the show.”

These featured artists have also graced the stages of The Grand Old Opry, Fillmore West, Telluride BlueGrass Festival, State Theater Portland, FreshGrass festival at MASS MoCA and much more on tour with various acts this summer.

Goodman said film will be integral to the acts even though, “We’re working with a 100-year-old theater so our stage crew will have their work cut out for them.”

He deliberately made the ticket prices low $15 so that it was affordable and accessible to Maine’s creative community.

“What I’m hoping to do is use this one show to activate a community of artists,” he said. He envisions using the first Salt Stage Live as a launching pad for a larger two-week festival annually, “where we’d have performances out in barns on an island, as well as all around town,” he said.

The show starts at 7 p.m. Already, 150 tickets have been purchased in advance and the theater can hold 300. Advance tickets only, FMI and tickets: saltstage.com.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND — In 1986, photographer Joyce Tenneson was just reaching a pinnacle of her career in New York City with more than 20 shows under her belt and several published books when the Poloroid corporation specifically sought her out to offer her a grant. Poloroid, known best for its instant film and cameras, wanted her to shoot subjects of her choice with their five-foot-tall, 235 pound camera.

“It was basically a refrigerator on wheels,” she said. “Two guys had to move it around. Once I shot the photo, they would get down on their knees and pull the print from the camera.”

The print would then have to be sliced off with a box cutter. 

“Every time I used it, I had to give them one of my best images, which they kept for their collection,” she said.

If you don’t know or care what Pokemon Go is, this weekend is for you. The following events already require you to look up from your phone and find....the kind of fun you can’t get from a virtual world. Enjoy the festivities.

North Atlantic Blues Festival

Saturday July 16 and Sunday, July 17—Rockland

Now into its third decade, the North Atlantic Blues Festival just made USA Today for ‘a must-see festival in Maine.’ This is an all-ages show that is great for couples, families and anyone interested in having a good time, while enjoying the best blues music with Blues Hall of Fame Artist John Hammond (with Bruce Katz) and teen blues sensation Quinn Sullivan (who started his career at age 7! See accompanying video.) Food and drinks will be available. In addition to the festival there will be a free club crawl. Tickets: At the gate $40.00/day or $75.00/weekend pass. FMI: North Atlantic Blues Festival

Heat Wave! Three Tides Dance Party

Saturday, July 16—Belfast

I don’t know exactly what a “dance curator is” (and can only hope it’s this) but Three Tides is throwing their annual dance party bash to coincide with the Celtic Celebration’s fireworks. Watch the fireworks from the deck or Beer Garden, wish the owner, David a Happy Birthday, then jump into a dance off with 3 DJs— Ian Hammond & Matty T from Portland, and Captain Mo, from NYC. Starts at 9 p.m. until close. 21 and over. FMI: Heat Wave

Third Annual Rails, Tails & Ales

Saturday, July 16—Boothbay

Imagine Sturbridge Village with beer! Visitors will enjoy great craft beer from 10 Maine breweries serving more than 25 types of beer from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets: $35 for 10 four-ounce tastings (with driver’s license or passport). Admission $12 adults/$10 seniors/$5 kids. FMI: Railway Village

60th Anniversary Showing of Peyton Place

Saturday, July 16—Rockland

Shot on location in Midcoast Maine in 1957 and now brought back to vibrant life in 35mm restoration on the eve of its 60th anniversary, Peyton Place is gong to be showing at the Strand Theatre at 1:30 p.m. followed by a special film by local Willard Carroll called On Location in Peyton Place: a new short revisiting the film’s locations today. Check out the story behind that short film here. Tickets are $10 and the doors open at 12:45 p.m.

David Mallet at Savage Oakes Winery

Sunday, July 17—Union

Maine musician David Mallet will be doing a special free performance at the winery. His songs have been recorded by more than 150 artists, including Pete Seeger, Alison Krauss, John Denver, Emmylou Harris, and even the Muppets, and his "Garden Song" has become an American folk classic. (Personally I think performing with the Muppets should be the pinnacle of anyone’s career.) Bring your lawn chairs and sunscreen, but don’t bring your own wine or food. Strict licensing agreements prohibit that. The event starts at 2 p.m. Savage Oakes Vineyard and Winery is located at 175 Barrett Hill Road in Union, one third mile off Route 17. FMI: call 785-2828.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

SEARSMONT—It’s a little difficult to find at first, but Threshers Brewing Co. has the perfect off-the-beaten path location for friends and families to get together, listen to some music and drink some beer.

Friends and co-owners Ethan Evangelos and Scott Bendtson shared the hobby of home brewing for several years before the conversation inevitably turned to a career change. As carpenters, they saw the potential of building a microbrewery out of a section of old sawmill that’s tucked down the road near the Fraternity Village General Store. It used to be a building owned by Sprowl Brothers and had sat empty for more than a decade. “When we rented it, it used to be this big, open greasy, bay filled with huge trucks,” said Bendtson. They built a tasting room with ample space for a band, along with a separate area for an office, grain storage and brew equipment.

“We both have young daughters and we like going out to have some beers, but we don’t really like bars,” said Bendtson. “We just felt like there needed to be a place around here that catered to families and was a nice place to relax. I want people to come in, bring their kids and feel comfortable here.”

The tasting room is rustic and has the casual feel of a home bar room. Evangelos built the tap backsplash out a double burled piece of wood. And a an old-fashioned thresher, the symbol of their logo, hangs upon the wall, along with other farm equipment as decoration.

They spent about a year crafting four signature brews in small batches for maximum flavor with their own personal tastes ranging more toward the Belgian style of brewing.  They will unveil three of those beers at the soft opening with one more they are working on for the grand opening. Their Pale Ale is an American pale ale that’s less bitter than a traditional IPA. Their Citra IPA, will be a more bitter beer balanced with a citrisy/grapefruity hop profile. Their Firefly is a wheat ale.

The duo is excited to see how the public will react to a new place to socialize in tiny Searsmont. “It’s about community here,” said Bendtson. “If people are looking for things to do or an open mic, we’ll do that.”

To find it, locate the Fraternity Village General Store off Route 131. To the right of that will be a road flanked by two red barns. Drive down that road until you see the big green warehouse.

The soft opening is Saturday, July 9 at 5 p.m. with acoustic music and the grand opening is planned for August 6. Stay tuned to their Facebook page for more details.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND — It’s about time that Curator, the new men’s consignment shop in downtown Rockland, has opened on 383 Main St. Now, the ladies can sit, staring at their phones, bored out of their minds, waiting for their men to finish shopping already!

That scenario is actually pretty unlikely given the cool, Urban Outfitter-like vibe that Curator’s co-owners, Emily Seymour and Benjamin Dorr, have created. They’ve been open since May 24 and business has been going gangbusters. Inside the former Thorndike Creamery space, industrial pipe racks hold high-quality shirts, pants and jackets on wooden hangers from more than 140 consignors they work with. An ornate 1850s mirror salvaged from a Harlem brownstone on the left side of the store is flanked on both sides by hats on shelves, men’s bags and and a whole area dedicated to footwear. Two dressing rooms take up the space behind the counter where the Thorndike Creamery’s kitchen used to be. A library ladder perched atop an old workbench holds belts and other men’s accessories.

“Everybody’s been coming in and saying we’ve needed this for a long time,” said Dorr, who added that his own experience trying to buy good, on-trend clothing in the Midcoast has been a challenge. For many years the only place to get new clothes was Reny’s Department store, J.C. Penney, T.J. Maxx, and used items at Salvation Army and Goodwill—but it’s long been understood that to get the good stuff, you either have to travel to the malls or the hip thrift shops in Bangor and Portland.

“If you go to Goodwill and Salvation Army, you have to wade through so much stuff there to find good, quality clothes,” said Dorr. “We wanted to eliminate the search and just provide the best of the best stuff out there.”

About 95 percent of their inventory consists of slightly worn, but contemporary menswear. About five percent is vintage, the kind of kooky stuff you might find such as a Star Trek:The Next Generation satin jacket or a fugly plaid 1970s shirt only a guy with a great sense of humor could truly pull off.

“We wanted things that were really wearable, stuff you can wear to work and out to dinner,” said Seymour. “So we went with high-quality classic clothes we know men wear around here.”

Given that the couple is in their 30s, one would think that this was just a young man’s store. But in fact, men and women of all ages have been coming in to shop.

“When we first opened we had one gentleman in here probably the age of 85 buying a pair of shoes, while a 17-year-old boy was buying a hat at the same time,” said Seymour. “And we’re here to give them personal service. For example, we had some teens in here for their formal and they were trying on giant baggy suits that made them look like David Byrne of the Talking Heads. We weren’t going to let them go out looking like that and helped them find the right suits for their sizes.”

It’s not just men who shop there. In fact, Seymour estimates that 10 percent of their clientele are women, shopping for 501 Levis boyfriend jeans or men’s shirts that they want to wear themselves.

Much like an old bookstore or record store, Curator has a “Staff Picks” rack, just for people who want to speed shop and see what is the best and quirkiest pieces they have at the moment.

“If you only have five minutes to shop, this is the rack you want to go through,” said Seymour.

Dorr said that while Curator may be fully stocked, they are also actively looking for walk-in consignment items.

The store, although not a gallery, participated in the First Friday art walk of the season with a DJ and an aluminum tub full of beer and wine. It will continue to be open First Fridays throughout the art walk season, and Dorr and Seymour are still considering alternate uses for the space. It could be a hip venue for a small art or music event; as new owners they are open to the possibility.

“We just want people to come in and have an experience that they remember,” said Dorr.

Keep posted to their future events at Curator

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

We’ve got three new venues or grand openings happening this weekend and with rain on the horizon, it’s a good thing most of them are indoors or under a giant tent. Cheers to all the thriving businesses in all of the remote corners of Maine—let’s go out and support them!

Lip Sync Battle

Friday, July 8—Rockland

Rock Harbor Brewery is hosting a lip sync battle with a mega prize going to the winner: two tickets to see the Hall & Oates concert in Bangor on July 14. If you say “I can’t go for that,” then all I have to say is, “Say it isn’t so.” Starts at 8 p.m.

New Open Mic at St. George River Café

Friday, July 8—Warren

And now for something completely different. The recently opened St. George River Café is now getting their entertainment off the ground. Meteora, a trio that plays an eclectic array of original songs and folk ballads, as well as traditional songs, will be headlining a new open mic. It is open to other musicians however. Signup for open mic is at 6:30 p.m.; at 7 p.m., performers can share two songs each.  Acoustic instruments are preferred. Musicians who are interested in performing as the featured performers are asked first to come play for the open mic. Suggested donation for the evenings is $6. Kat Logan is organizing the open mic and scheduling the featured performers; for more information about this, call her at 226-7446.

Arts In the Park

Saturday, July 9 and Sunday, July 10—Belfast

Like art? Food trucks? Beer? Live music? This one’s for you. Featuring more than 100 fine artists and artisans, this weekend arts festival is located in downtown Belfast, along the waterfront in Heritage Park. Here’s a list of the musicians and when they’ll be playing over the weekend. Free and open to the public.

New Brewery Opening in Searsmont

Saturday, July 9—Searsmont

What’s Maine up to now, 70 breweries? Another little ole brewery is popping up in Searsmont this weekend called Threshers Brewing Co., started by two carpenters looking for a career change. Their soft opening starts at 5 p.m. with pints, tasters and growlers available to take home. Colin Nelson will be performing the music. FMI: Threshers Brewing Co.

Killer Road Trip: Grand Opening Pub In The Port

Saturday, July 9—Winterport

Everybody has been waiting to see what would take the place of 4 Points BBQ in Winterport and now you will. Pub in the Port is the name of the new restaurant and blues house, and they are having their grand opening at 6 p.m. with a pig roast on the patio. The Eric Green Party will be playing, with very special guest Tommy O'Connell. FMI: Pub In The Port

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—This past weekend marked the grand opening of Gelato Rose, an artisan gelato shop and Ice Blossoms, an old-fashioned shaved ice shop on 497 Main Street. While it’s common to see teenagers working summer jobs behind the counter, these teens aren’t just saving money toward college or a car. These kids have a stake in the making each business successful because when they grow up, they will inherit it. Cecile Bizet, 15, co-owns the business with her mother Annie Higbee, and is not only working 15 hours a day on the retail side, but she is also instrumental in helping her mom create new flavors and market them on her Instagram account.

“When my mom went to Mexico, she found this great little gelato shop and ended up going there every day,” she said. “When she came back she asked me if I wanted to go into business with her and start one here and I said yes. Obviously. Why not?”

They spent several months working on their business plan, but they needed downtown space. It just so happened that Robert Arena, the owner of the building they were interested in, also had the idea to create a shaved ice business for his grandson Dylan Whitamore, 15 and his sister, Adrianna, 12.

“My mom and my grandfather started this business for my sister and me with the hope to pass it down,” said Dylan.

“They’re doing very well,” said the teens’ mother, Jessica Arena. “I’m very proud of them.”

After converting a small jewelry shop into an efficient space with an industrial cooler filled with 12 gelato flavors on one side for Gelato Rose and shelves of shaved ice syrups on the other side for Ice Blossoms, the teens are happy to work together and welcome folks in with samples of anything they desire. “We prize ourselves on offering unlimited samples and we’ve had people come in and ask to try every flavor,” said Bizet.

“We make it all ourselves with fresh, local ingredients. We love going to the farmer’s markets and finding new flavors, like our strawberry rhubarb gelato that comes from a couple who jars rhubarb from Whitefield, Maine. Other flavors such as blueberry sorbetto, Maine maple and lemon basil are all come from Maine as well.”

One of their most interesting flavors is rose. “We’re hoping to integrate some rosa rugosa from the beaches into our next batch,” she said. “The real difference between gelato and ice cream is that gelato is more dense and you can use whole milk instead of heavy cream and more natural flavors and less sugar, so it’s less fattening,” said Bizet, who also makes origami paper cone holders for that extra homemade creative touch.

As for shaved ice, the most requested flavor is Tiger’s Blood, a fruit punch with a hint of coconut. Jessica Arena said the concept of shaved ice is really popular in the south, but not something northeners see very much. They import their flavors from a company in New Orleans. “We’ll also have a couple of sample flavors to try every day,” said Dylan Whitamore, “but if anyone wants to just try a flavor they see that’s not out, we’ll do that for them.”

The next time you’re on Main Street, try a sample and congratulate the kids on their new business!

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKPORT — They say timing is everything. For Patrick Duffy, an executive chef and Jessica Duffy, a seasoned server and restaurant manager, the time seemed right to open their first restaurant together once they learned that Shepherd’s Pie in Rockport was closing for good this past May.

“We’d thought about opening a restaurant before, so when this space became available, we literally had days to decide,” said Jessica.

It so happened that the pair had moved from Boston in 2011 to run Shepherd’s Pie before it closed so they had an inside track.

“We always visited this particular raw bar in Boston, so we thought it was a great idea to have one here,” said Patrick.

Jessica, a a Maine native added, “Since, we moved back, we realized there was a niche to be filled with a raw bar.”

It’s not just their first restaurant together, it’s their first time working together.

Asked what their working style is they both turned to each other and said “We’ll find out.”

18 Central will also feature grilled seafood and steaks and a daily selection of raw and chilled seafood from Maine and away with specialty Mignonettes and sauces.

Entrees will range from scallops and pork belly and Berkshire pork steak to fried chicken and heirloom grits.

Jessica and Patrick met in college at UMass Amherst in the 1990s. After going their separate ways for a bit with Patrick getting his formal training at NECI, they eventually reconnected and settled in Boston. While Jessica parlayed her bartending and serving skills into positions as an event coordinator and manager of a number of Massachusetts restaurants, Patrick worked his way up from fry cook to executive chef in Northampton, Martha’s Vineyard and Boston.

They moved back to raise a family. Their Children are three years old and 19 months old.

“This is our third baby,” Patrick joked, patting the raw bar.

Beyond putting in a new raw bar, which will be glass encased, they have been doing renovations since May, including constructing a new harbor-view patio with additional seating for 24 people, removing sheet rock to reveal weathered brickwork and adding several doors, including a front entrance with oversized double doors.

“We also added more pendant lighting over the bar because people were always saying it was too dark in here,” said Jessica.

The Duffys are still renovating and getting the front of the house operations up to speed but plan to open for the weekend of July 7. Stay tuned to their progress and for the official opening announcement on their Facebook page.

Penobscot Bay Pilot caught up with artist Jack McKenney of the eponymously named gallery in the heart of Camden. Tucked down in the alleyway at 4 Public Landing bordering the new Sea Dog Brewery, Jack could be found working in his snug glass-enclosed gallery on a new piece — a waterscape of deep, dramatic blues, which is somewhat of a departure from his other abstract works.

Born and raised in New England, he and his partner left New York City three years ago and settled down in Camden where he currently lives and paints. Last fall, he had a showing at Unity College in a series called “The Littoral Zone,” an interpretation of the first layer of the ocean.

What was your former career before becoming a painter?

I worked for a company that bought brands in the fashion industry where we rebranded the business and took it to a new level and audience, such as Halston and Bill Blass. And you'll probably remember Ellen Tracy, an '80s — we did a little bit with that one. I used a lot of color when working for that company and it translated to painting for myself.

What brought you from NYC to this area?

I grew up on the coast of New Hampshire so I’ve always been connected to the ocean. When we were trying to figure out where to land, we’d visited the Midcoast several times and we really wanted to be part of this community. We didn’t know anyone, but we knew this place has a lot going on, culturally.

What kind of light do you get in this little studio and how does that inspire your work?

I work year-round so in the wintertime, I’ll be sitting down to work with a cup of coffee and the light slants very low across the sky, but by the end of the day, I still have light that wraps around the entire studio. Right now, I have a series of abstracts inspired by the seasons called Harbor Docks. I think my strengths lie in the boldness of color. It all depends on the time of year, but what I take away from the ocean, the harbor, the docks and the boats, is what you see on the canvas.

What’s your process?

First, I always draw out an image on paper. With the drawing, I see exactly where I’m going but, when I mix my own colors, I’ll then start to create, working on oil on linen. I’ll add in layer after layer and it takes on this whole story. It can take about three weeks to a month before a piece is done. I know a lot of painters who say that the piece is never finished, but there’s a certain point when it’s finished for me.

With all of the hustle and bustle on Main Street, it’s easy to miss Jack McKenney’s little studio off the beaten path in the alleyway. But regardless of the season, when you’ll walk in, the crowds will fall away and you’ll see all of the colors that make the studio a serene place to spend a few minutes. Check out his work at: jack-mckenney.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Hey three-day weekend— I see you coming up. There are so many fun and competing things to do this weekend, I don’t know where to start. Okay, I already did start, so that was a ridiculous sentence. Make the most of your three days!

Free Gelato Samples & Art Walk

Friday, July 1—Rockland

Float-a-palooza

Saturday, July 2—St. George

The third annual St. George River Tubing and Float-a-palooza is happening again this year. Starting at 9:15 a.m. in Warren Village more than 200 people will float, raft and paddle down to the Slipway in Thomaston. It is 6.2 miles and usually takes about four to six hours.  Flotation devices are a must. The marine patrol will be out! That goes for all ages! Bring sunscreen, food, drinks, oars, etc. Contact Ann Daggett 691-0043.For any questions. And looks like The St. George River Café is having their grand opening that Saturday. They will be open the morning of the tubing flotilla, offering breakfast specials and grab bag lunches for the tubing event!

Reggae Dance Party on Vinalhaven

Saturday, July 2—Vinalhaven

How cool is this? The Sandbar presents live music by the world reggae band CatchaVibe at 9 p.m. The best way to get there is either take the ferry (the last one is at 4:30 p.m. so you’d have to have a place to stay.) Or here are some captains who may be available to bring you to the island: John Morin, Equinox Island Transit (Rockland), (207) 691-1637or Foy Brown, J.O. Brown & Son (North Haven), (207) 867-4621. Or call Penobscot Island Air (207) 596-7500. They fly from Knox County Regional Airport (RKD) in small, single-engine aircraft. Tickets are $10 per person and $15 per couple.

Tomorrow Morning at Trackside

Saturday, July 2—Rockland

If you’re looking for a good dance band, check out these guys. Known as one of the premier bands in Maine and founded by Adam Babcock of Thorndike, these guys play high energy Pop/ Rock/ Top 40/ Dance/ Reggae/ Hip hop.  They’re playing at Trackside Station in Rockland at 9 p.m. and bonus—there’s no cover!

The Pampered Cats and Fireworks

Monday, July 4 —Thomaston and Camden

Before the fireworks, there MUST be dancing. The Pampered Cats are going to take the street in Thomaston for a four-hour-long dance party. They cover a mix of danceable funk and soul—think Sly and the Family Stone, Bill Withers, Prince, etc. They will be performing from 12:30 to 4 p.m. then at 9:00 p.m. you can catch fireworks in Camden or at at 9:15 p.m. in Thomaston. Click here to find other fireworks displays around Maine.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

LINCOLNVILLE—Just because two of the chefs in the 2016 Cellardoor Smackdown culinary competition work together and are engaged didn’t mean they were going to make it easy for one another. It just so happens in this “very special battle of the betrothed,” Shelby Stevens of Natalie's at the Camden Harbour Inn, edged out her fiancé, taking first place with her Blackberry Tarragon Parfait.

“Summer is about berries and fruit and also I wanted to create something refreshing and bold,” said Stevens. “I was going to pair the parfait with vanilla ice cream at first, but then I just thought, well that’s so vanilla. So, I thought I’d go for it with a tarragon ice cream instead. I’m a savory cook, not a pastry chef. When I was an intern years ago, we did a cod dish with tarragon oil and blackberry oil, so really, that’s where this dish was inspired from.”

All five chefs, a combination of professionals and amateurs, worked tirelessly at their own color-coded stations in the nearly two-and-a-half hour event while emcee and chef/owner of Café Miranda, Kerry Alterio, and a roving camera crew mingled throughout the crowd, egging them on and trying to get them to proclaim their favorites after each bite.

Because, of course, there is always a little “smack talk” in the Smackdown.

Set up all around the perimeters of the tent were multiple stations where guests could try a decadent array of food and Cellardoor wines, Oxbow beers and a variety of bubbly and spirituous pairings, all provided by Trillium Caterers. Pemaquid Oyster Company kept the shucked oysters coming with elegant stemless glasses of white and blush champagne choices alongside them on ice. Elsewhere, lucky diners could sample, and sample again: Lobster Rolls & Chardonnay, Delice d"Argental on Brazen Baking Crackers, Asian BBQ Pork Spare Ribs, Arancini with Tomato-Caper Relish, Maitake Mushrooms Crostini with Smoke Tomato Butter, Lamb Chop Lollipops with Salsa Verde, Tiny Corndogs with Malt Vinegar Tartar Sauce and Oxbow FPA, Spiced Chicken Tostadas with Del Maguey Mezcal Margaritas, Soft Pretzels and Grain Mustard with Oxbow Bowie and Maple-Glazed Pork Belly Skewers with Bulleit Bourbon.

Meanwhile, just below the stage, Chris Long, also of Natalie's at Camden Harbour Inn, made a Pork Steamed Bun with Guajillo Hammock Relish, Mary Totochaud of Everyday Pottery made Fiery Stuffed Bacon and Cheddar Gougers, and Judy Bernier of Podzook made Cheesy Fiery Spinach Toast. Guests had the opportunity to taste mini versions of their recipes and vote on a People's Choice winner—and that was Soone Hitt with her Korean Bul Ko Ki taco, each clipped tightly shut at the top with the tiniest wood clothespin ever seen.

The celebrity judges included Michael Salmon of the Hartstone Inn and Hideaway, Lani Stiles of Megunticook Market, Phillip Crispo of The Norumbega Inn and Norm Herbert of Bintliff's Ogunquit Restaurant.

Reach Kay Stephens at news@penbaypilot.com
Reach Editorial Director Holly S. Edwards at hollyedwards@penbaypilot.com and 207-706-6655
Reach 5iveLeaf Photography at fiveleafphotography.com and 207-358-0229

ROCKLAND—This past weekend, the public finally got to see the new Center for Maine Contemporary Art’s (CMCA) new glass-enclosed 11,500 square feet building on 21 Winter Street. Since 1952, CMCA has been a fixture in the Midcoast’s arts community, but the time had come to make some major changes.

“Though our old location in Rockport had a great deal of charm, we felt it no longer served our mission,” said CMCA Director Suzette McAvoy. “It had a number of structural issues including uneven floors, which couldn’t support large scale sculptures and installations. And in terms of technology, it wasn’t set up to handle a lot of media. So that, along with the lack of parking and foot traffic, led us to consider a new home. This was a step our board had been looking to make for almost 20 years.”

In April 2013, the property became available.

“We said, ‘this is it,’” said McAvoy. “We have to make the move now because it’s in the heart of the art district and we’re never going to get a location as great as this one.”

After more than a year, the project was completed in June, 2016. Within walking distance of the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Wyeth Center, the Strand Theatre and dozens of art galleries in the vicinity, the new CMCA building is the latest addition cementing Rockland as a year-round arts district. Walking down Winter Street one can see the iconic roofline resembling the slanted “A” in CMCA’s logo.

Upon first impression, the most noticeable feature of the building is its large exterior courtyard with a 24-foot-tall steel sculpture by world-renowned artist and Ogunquit resident Jonathan Borofsky. The sculpture is part of the artist’s Human Structures series. 

“It’s a piece that represents our human connection to the natural world in that it’s positioned right out here in a public space and also our connection to the virtual world,” said McAvoy. 

This is the first time Borofsky has shown his work in the CMCA space, which has allowed him to have a piece outside, as well as numerous pieces inside in the main gallery.

“This courtyard allows us to showcase a sculpture like this in a way that was completely impossible in our former space,” she said.

Designed by architect Toshiko Mori, the connection between outside and inside is evident once through the doorway. Everything is whitewashed, the steel structural beams line up with the windows so that they almost disappear. Natural light washes through the courtyard and into the entry way with saw tooth skylights pulling the light down into the two-story main gallery. 

“The idea was to turn the idea of a traditional museum inside out,” said McAvoy. “When you think of the Philadelphia Metropolitan Museum, this very formal, temple of art kind of thing, it was designed to take the mystery out of it.”

Mori who lives part time on North Haven, was the museum’s first choice to design the new building.  “The way the daylight comes through the Rockland harbor so crisp and clear, I wanted that to come through in this building,” she said. “You can’t see that kind of quality on the Internet; you have to come here and see it for yourself.” Echoing McAvoy, she said she wanted the exterior spaces and interior spaces to be seamless so that people in the courtyard could look inside viewing art in public spaces.

The building contains three exhibition galleries (one of which will double as a lecture hall/performance space), a gift shop, an ArtLab classroom.

Borofsky’s installations are one of three exhibitions debuting for the opening. Artist Alex Katz showcases the small-scale oil paintings in the second gallery and Rollin Leonard’s exhibition “Vernal Pool” features artwork and video installations in the Art Hall.

The aim of the project was to make people say “Wow” when they walked in. And on a beautiful sunny day with all of the dramatic elements of glass, light, space and thoughtful artwork coming together, you can’t help but utter that word.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com 

ROCKLAND— On Chris Gamage’s work table sits a wooden box, centered by a miniaturized fire ring. Around the fire ring several aluminum figures are sitting or reclining. The piece represents Chris and his friends at a Portland campground the night of a friend’s bachelor party years ago. After he flips a switch, the fire ring actually flames up from an gas burner inside the box. Another piece on his work table depicts small aluminum figures perched on various elevations of granite blocks. Any Mainer would recognize this sculpture as a childhood swimming hole where kids are about to jump.

“My friends and I spent a large portion of our childhood jumping off Atwood’s Quarry,” he said. So much of his artwork is personal, 3-D manifestations from his memories.

Gamage started his career while in college in Fort Lauderdale for graphic design.

“I was right on the verge of switching over to computer design when I realized I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life on a computer,” he said.

Changing tracks, he took a year off and began studying sculpture and fine art at the University of Maine. While there, his sculpture teacher took the class on cast iron conference in New Jersey, which would inspire the course of his life.

“It was amazing, he said. “After we came back, we ended up making a foundry and that is what I realized I wanted to do.”

Gamage said that once he gets an “image” of something artistic, the thought process won’t leave him alone, sometimes for years.

“The only way I can get rid of it is to make it,” he said.

His most recent piece came about through his job as a metal worker at Rockport Marine. He was working on a lathe, making dolphin strikers, which are the two arms that come off the front of the boat connected by a wire. As he tapered them down with a lathe, he was watching spirals of bronze sheer off. To someone else, the bronze turnings might have just looked like the byproduct or waste material; to others it might have looked like the tangled brown spirals of a ruined cassette tape. To Gamage, they looked like beautifully spun leaves on a tree.

Once more, it was an image that he couldn’t get out of his head. So, he collected all of the turnings and brought them to his workshop, where he constructed the rest of the tree and surrounding bucket out of mild steel welded together.

 In the back of the work shed on his property in Rockland is a homemade foundry he constructed himself out of a steel drum. When the foundry gets going, it can heat up to 2,000 degrees.

“When the furnace is running and the metal is molten, there’s just a certain look of it, the smell of it, I just love,” he said.

Asked what is smells like, he joked, “Nowadays, it just smells like work.”

He always has his eye out for unsalvageable bronze pieces, such as an old keel bolt that no longer works.  His sculptures have a dual role, not that he ever consciously intended to recycle metals that might have otherwise ended up in a waste treatment facility. “When I take some of the discarded bronze scraps away, I always try to give something back to the boatyard, whether it’s getting the crew bagels, or something else,” he said. It’s a win-win, as discarded metals don’t end up in the landfill and once melted down, become re-imagined as art.

On top of his full-time job, Gamage runs his side business Bog Bronze, doing metalsmithing for boat owners and other customers, but his artwork is what motivates him to fire up the foundry on a weeknight of a weekend. “I hope to keep the artwork and the foundry business take off so I can work from home. That’s always been the plan for the future, he said.”

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST — Before the Belfast Co-op made plans to celebrate its 40th anniversary this week, they turned to another Belfast business, Marshall Wharf Brewing Co., to collaborate on a commemorative brew.

Belfast Co-op’s Zafra Whitcomb, a home brew enthusiast whom Penobscot Bay Pilot covered back in 2013 in our story “Looks like we have a ‘Winnah!’” was the one to develop the recipe for the red wheat ale, calling it Principle 9.

Whitcomb and Kate Harris, the Co-op’s former education and outreach director, had gotten the idea from a conference in Wisconsin, where the local co-op had done a collaboration beer with the local brewery.

“We came back from that and said, ‘We’ve got to do that too,’” said Whitcomb. “So, we talked to David Carlson, Marshall Wharf’s owner and he was open to the idea.”

Working with Jared Maruhnic, the head brewer for Marshall Wharf, Whitcomb said it took two years from the initial idea to the first pour. 

“I came up with the recipe, but he was the master of the process,” he said. “When we decided we wanted to release it in June, we talked to local producers and explored the idea of doing a 100-percent Maine beer.” That was before realizing that the availability of those ingredients was going to be limited.

Making a 100-percent Maine beer is not as easy as it sounds. The two malt houses, Blue Ox and Maine Malting, in the state are still developing a process to produce colored malts, such as caramel or roasted malts — but they’re not there yet.  So, in making Principle 9, if he chose to use malted wheat exclusively from a Maine malt house, the beer would have no color, and Whitcomb wanted that deep warm red.

“It’s close,” he said. “It’s made 85 percent from Maine malt and 50% of that malt is MOFGA-certified organic. The other 15 percent is amber rye and roasted barley. We had to go to Valley Malt in Massachusetts, which is still regional.” Valley Malt has been around a lot longer and already had an established track record for producing colored malts.

On a sunny evening, right after the longest day of the year, a number of people had lined up at Marshall Wharf Brewing Co’s outdoor bar to get a first taste of the new brew.

Asked why he chose a red ale over everything else?

“I just like a pretty beer,” he smiled.

With Marshall Wharf brews typically in the higher alcohol by volume range, Whitcomb also wanted to create a lower alcohol beer at 5 percent, which is on par with a common production beer.

The one-off red ale is now pouring on tap and available in cans as well.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Things are humming this weekend, I mean humm-ing with exciting food and drink events, ska legend the Toasters making their first Midcoast appearance, CMCA’s grand opening and events for people who would rather have a beer than dessert (or vice versa).

Cellardoor Smackdown

Saturday, June 25—Lincolnville

Back again for another year, Cellardoor Winery is hosting Smackdown 2016, an over-the-top afternoon of food and wine pairings, with Trillium Caterers. Taste the recipes that the judges have created, sip on Cellardoor wine and other libations, watch the competitors duke it out in the kitchen. Reservations are required. noon-3 p.m. $75 ticket. Visit: mainewine.com/smackdown2016

The Toasters live in Rockland

Saturday, June 25—Rockland

How did the Lincoln Street Center get the legendary ‘90s ska band from New York City to come up here? Answer: Natty B. Nathaniel Bernier, a longtime fixture in the Midcoast music scene, is celebrating his birthday in a big way. Since 1981, the Toasters have been in the forefront of the second and third wave of ska music starting their long career in NYC. Uncommonly seen in Maine, we welcome them to Rockland for the first time ever! Presented by his company Bantam Property Management and Megalith Records, this all ages, chem-free show has no pre-order and is first-come first serve. Kids under 12 who sing Natty B. any song get in for free. (If unable to sing, drooling is acceptable.) Opening the show will be some gentlemen very familiar in the music scene: DJ Soul Stew (James York), DJ Jr. Jive (Matthew Maloney) and DJ Southpaw (Mark Kelly.) No alcohol, drugs, weapons or bad attitudes please! $12 recommended donation for tickets at the door. The DJs start at 7:30 p.m. and the Toasters will take the stage at roughly 9:15 p.m.

CMCA’s grand opening on Winter Street

Sunday, June 26—Rockland

On the press tour, I was able to get a sneak peek into the brand new 11,500-square-foot glass-enclosed gallery at 21 Winter Street and it looks like Sunday is going to have bright sunny skies so the public can get a true sense of what world-renowned architect Toshiko Mori created to bring the outside in and how the natural light plays into her design. (I absolutely love that she designed it to not be fussy or elitist, but accessible to all). It’s a beautiful building, but the work they chose to exhibit across the generations with artists Jonathan Borofsky, Alex Katz and Rollin Leonard is just as stunning. The ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony goes from 1 to 2 p.m. After that, from 2 to 5p.m., the public can get a glimpse of the galleries and exhibitions.

Windjammer Days Festival in Boothbay

Sunday, June 26—Boothbay

it’s officially summertime now in Boothbay with their Windjammer Days Festival and between the Blessing of the Fleet, the Reggae Cruise, yacht races and art and crafts shows, it will be a great day for everyone to get out on the waterfront and check out the windjammer fleet. No entry fee. Check the schedule of what’s happening.

Killer Road Trip: Strawberry Festival or Craft Brew Fest: Take Your Pick

Saturday, June 25—Portland and South Berwick

For the sweet tooth, the Strawberry Festival is the best place to be in South Berwick with free entertainment, games, trolley rides, food vendors and uncounted plates of strawberry shortcake. FMI: Strawberry Festival For beer lovers,the annual Craft Brew Races in Portland are a celebration of local craft brewing in Portland. The first part of the event consists of a timed 5K road race (walk, run or crawl) followed by a local three-hour craft beer festival. Festival only passes are also available. FMI: Craft Brew Races.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN — Sometimes you need to get away to reinvent your life. That’s what one woman did after moving from Islesboro to Camden last year. Megan Murphy, a baker, decided to turn her rickety 1940s one-car garage on Limerock Street into a little bakery.

“When I got over here, I needed to work out what I really loved to do with what would work in Camden,” she said. “The reality of rent downtown versus what I could commit to as a single mom wasn’t feasible, so this made the most amount of sense.”

Murphy is the mother of four children, three of whom are adults, and her youngest is 7-year-old Rosalie Joy, the namesake of her bakery. She’d been baking for more than 15 years, working for small bakeries in Portsmouth, N.H., as well as on Islesboro and Chebeague islands. Trying to work regular baker’s hours without childcare wasn’t an option, so she took one look at the paint-flecked interior with the electric garage door and decided it needed to be transformed. Within two weeks, she’d found French doors at the ReStore in Rockport, and a $50 jewelry case at a thrift store. She turned that into a baker’s case. After some painting and refinishing, the whitewashed shabby chic garage emerged as Rosalie’s Joy Bakery last month.

However, as a micro-business in a zoned neighborhood, the hours need to remain limited. She’s only open one day a week —every Saturday morning starting at 8:30 am until to around 2 p.m.

“This is a mixed commercial neighborhood and if I were to be open more than one day a week, I’d have to get approval from my neighbors,” she said. “But as most of my customers are my neighbors, that might not be so hard.”

But right now, one day works out perfectly as she’s not ready to commit to more than that this summer.

Working out of her state inspected and licensed home kitchen to do special order baking, Murphy will be pulling all-nighters every Friday into early Saturday morning.

“My whole motto has always been fresh, fresh, fresh,” she said. “I do all my baking the night before and just push through all night. At 8:30 a.m., I’ll open the doors to the garage. But it’s worth it; because everything I put out there will be as good as I personally know how to make it. I know what it’s like to be spending the calories on a cinnamon roll. And if it’s sub par, it’s not worth it.”

On Saturdays, Rosalie’s Joy will primarily offer breakfast items and desserts.

“On the top row of the top rack of the baker’s case you’re likely to find cinnamon rolls, blueberry lemon cinnamon rolls with lemon curd baked in and pecan honey sticky buns,” she said. “We’ll have bacon cheddar scallion scones and fruit scones. On the counter, we’ll have a sour cream coffee cake, which you can buy by the slice.”

But what’s coffee cake without coffee? Murphy has paired with local coffee purveyors Coffee On The Porch, and you will find a fresh carafe on a side console in the morning.

She will also offer custom layer cakes, cookies, brownies and bars, which Rosalie Joy helps her mother with. “Not only does she help me in the kitchen, she’s a great box builder for cakes,” Murphy said.

Look for the white Cape with the pink door at 36 Limerock St. in Camden.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

We’ve finally busted out of the rainy cold temps and Maine is shining this entire weekend with multiple kick off parties for the summer, comedy, and great ideas for Dad!

Camden Harbor Kick off Party

Friday, June 17—Camden

Camden Harbor is pulling out all of the stops with a harbor party 6-11 p.m. with a DJ Terry Frank spinning tunes down by the wharf. Harbor Dogs Chef Jesse will be supplying pulled pork, chicken, ribs, vegan baked beans, and cole slaw free with donations. All proceeds go to the Hospitality House. 

Comedian Juston McKinney’s “How to Train Your Dad”

Friday, June 17—Camden

JustOn (you’d better not spell that with an “i”) McKinney is taking the stage at the Camden Opera House for a Father’s Day special with jokes and stories about his own dad and being a dad in New England. Having been numerous times on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and the Blue Collar Comedy Next Generation Tour with Bill Engval, Juston’s act “How To Train Your Dad” is the perfect Father’s Day present. Tickets are $17 and the show starts at 7:30 p.m. FMI: Juston McKinney

Summer Solstice & Dock Party

Saturday June 18—Rockland

The traditional Summer Solstice Street Party is going to rock Main Street, complete with music, food, fun and games (as well as a flash mob!) from 4 to 7 p.m. After that, toddle on down to the first-ever Summer Solstice After Hours Dock Party at Journey's End Marina at the end of Tillson Avenue, featuring a cash-only bar, music and dancing from 6 to 10:30 p.m. The street party is family-friendly, while the dock party is strictly for adults, 21 and over, with ID. Both events are free to the public and no cover charge.

Free admission to Maine’s state parks for Mainahs

Sunday, June 19—statewide

If you possess a Maine identification, today is your lucky day. From 9 a.m. – closing, all residents will be allowed free day-use entrance to Maine State Parks and Historic Sites. No rain date will be available. The open admission does not apply to Acadia National Park, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway (AWW), Baxter State Park, the Maine Wildlife Park, Peacock Beach, Scarborough Beach, Swan Island, Penobscot River Corridor (PRC), or the Penobscot Narrows Observatory in Prospect, though admission to Fort Knox State Historic Site will be free that day. (If you’re scratching your head and wondering, okay, what does have open admission? click here.)

Roll up to Bangor for Rock of Ages

Sunday, June 19—Bangor

This play has been getting some buzz over how funny it is. Rock of Ages will take you back to the times of big bands with big egos playing big guitar solos and sporting even bigger hair! This Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical features the unforgettable hits of the 1980s, including songs from Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Steve Perry, and Poison, and more. Here’s the latest review in The Maine Edge. Check out the 3 p.m. matinee. Tickets are $35 and can be bought here.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

TENANTS HARBOR — Think all you need is a pair of good boots to get in a quick hike after work this summer? Think again.

Author Peter Kick has some advice and it’s going to sound a lot like the Boy Scout motto, “Be prepared.”

“The one deceptive thing about hiking is that you don’t need any equipment and that is what always makes people the most susceptible to the elements,” Kick said. “So often people think they’ll just hike up in a T-shirt and shorts, and right back down from a 2,000 foot climb to my campsite or car in no time.”

But when something goes wrong, it goes very wrong when nightfall hits.

For Kick’s latest book, Desperate Steps: Life, Death, and Choices Made in the Mountains of the Northeast, he combed through the accident reports of 20 back country misadventures and misfortunes of New England’s biggest mountains to find the common thread of what went wrong and how those disasters might be averted in the future.  

Kick, who lives part of the year in Maine, is a New York State licensed guide, and author of several hiking and cycling guides. His previous books include AMC Catskill Mountain Guide, AMC's Best Day Hikes in the Catskills & Hudson Valley, and Discover the Adirondacks.

Six of the stories in his latest book focus on Baxter State Park and the Appalachian Trail, including the most recent tragic case of thru-hiker Geraldine Largay, whose remains were found Oct.1 4, 2015, after a two-year search. According to a journal she kept while hiking and then while lost off the trail, she survived for nearly four weeks after she was reported missing. According to officials who investigated her disappearance and the subsequent location of her body, the campsite she set up after losing her way in the densely wooded remote area was just a 10-minute walk to a dirt trail that turns into a road. Searchers with K9s also came to within 100 yards of her at one during their effort to find and rescue her in the days after her husband reported her missing on the AT. She died from a lack of food and environmental exposure, according to published reports.

Like so many who have analyzed Largay’s case, Kick said he is still baffled about her inability to find her way out of the woods.

“I’ve spoken to the private search groups, the volunteers, the mercenary searchers and the Maine Warden Service, and they all had different ideas as to what happened,” he said. “This was a 66-year-old woman, who lost her hiking partner in the middle of the journey. Early on in her disappearance, Todd Remaley, chief ranger of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, said the most likely thing that happened was the simplest explanation, that she wandered off the trail and got so lost she couldn’t find her way back. And to me that’s the part I can’t figure out. But not everybody has a good sense of direction and she was probably too frightened to try and find the trail again.”

He cited the Appalachian Mountain Club “Ten Essentials” list for the items that every outdoor enthusiast should bring on a backcountry excursion.

“What it really boils down to is, ask yourself any time you go out into the wilderness, if something happened, could you respond effectively to an emergency and spend a night in the field safely?" he said.

 A map and compass tops this list. In Largay’s case, several media outlets reported that she had left behind a GPS device at a hotel, a piece of equipment that many people surmised would have ensured her survival if she’d had it with her.

“I don’t think she knew how to use it,” he said. “And, it’s not one of those necessary ‘Ten Essentials.’ I think a compass is more reliable because you don’t have to rely on batteries. You don’t need to know how to take a bearing or to triangulate; all you have to know is the four cardinal directions and to know where the trail is. But, you can’t walk endlessly on a compass bearing and come out alive. You have to know where the nearest waypoint is.”

He cited another case in Maine where the person might have benefited from knowing and using the 10 Essentials. That’s the story of Mike Hayes, an ultralight hiker, who got caught out for three days and nights on Mt. Katahdin and had to be rescued by helicopter. He didn’t have enough food, clothing or even an adequate topographical map. But, he was lucky, despite the odds and lack of preparation, because he was one of the few to make it out alive. And he was very contrite and said, “I really blew it,” said Kick.

After studying dozens of accident reports from all over New England, Kick said he concluded, “Very few people go into the wilderness prepared to spend the night. Having enough outerwear, enough water and food and a fire starter is the difference between hypothermia and possibly dying and just enduring an uncomfortable night. But, the one thing that gets people into the most trouble is the lack of light, like a headlamp.”

Kick knows this firsthand. “One time, I came down the Hunt Trail on Katahdin with three headlamps and I actually ran out of light by the time I got back my campsite about 11 p.m. I hadn’t changed the batteries and I thought, ‘Oh well, I’ll just be back down in no time. so that just goes to show that it’s easy to be complacent.”

To learn more about Kick’s book visit: Desperate Steps

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

As the local story goes, in 1847, 16-year-old Hanson Crockett Gregory, a boy from Clam Cove, Maine, (now part of Rockport) was working aboard a ship when he got mighty sick of the way frycakes failed to cook thoroughly in the middle. According to a interview published in the Washington Post in 1916, Gregory, who was by then a retired 85-year-old sea captain said: “Now in them days we used to cut the doughnuts into diamond shapes, and also into long strips, bent in half, and then twisted. I don’t think we called them doughnuts then — they was just ‘fried cakes’ and ‘twisters.’

“Well, sir, they used to fry all right around the edges, but when you had the edges done the insides was all raw dough. And the twisters used to sop up all the grease just where they bent, and they were tough on the digestion.”

The Maine way has always been “Waste Not, Want Not” and Gregory found an innovative solution to those inedible frycake centers.

In the article, he continued: “Well, I says to myself, ‘Why wouldn’t a space inside solve the difficulty?’ I thought at first I’d take one of the strips and roll it around, then I got an inspiration, a great inspiration. I took the cover off the ship’s tin pepper box, and — I cut into the middle of that doughnut the first hole ever seen by mortal eyes!”

Thus, Gregory became in a roundabout way, the inventor of the donut hole. He took his invention home to his parents in Camden and showed his mother, who then promptly made a batch and took it to friends in Rockland. 

“Everybody was delighted and they never made doughnuts any other way except the way I showed my mother,” recalled Gregory.

His invention, however, would not go uncontested and according several culinary historians and food writers, many others tried to lay claim to the hole. But throughout history, Gregory’s story of invention has been popularized and perhaps enjoyed the most.

To commemorate Maine’s contribution to the donut hole, an art and public history show, “Hole History: Origins of American-Style Donut” is running through to June 25 (National Donut Day) at two locations: Asymmetrick Arts on 405 Main Street and Win Wilder Hall 328 Main Street in Rockland.

Alexis Iammarino, a Rockland artist, is behind this w(hole) hing. Curating the works of authors, artists, and historians regionally and from all over the country, the two-venue show features a mix of paintings, photographs, written passages, video pieces, and old newspaper accounts of everyone’s favorite deep-fried pastry.

“I’ve reached out to culinary historians who’ve devoted to years of study around the donut hole and who’ve investigated the origins of Gregory’s invention story,” said Iammarino.

Collaborating with local artists Jared Cowan and Josh Cardoso, the event brings out some left-of-center pieces. “The donut-hole is a rabbit-hole leading to awesome and unexpected creative diversity,” said Cardoso. “Putting a void in the center is endlessly generative."

“Sometimes when you do a themed event, the submissions might be somewhat of a stretch to relate to the theme, but artists have been making the donut the subject of their work for decades so, between that and the local creativity we’re bringing to it, this is something that’s fun and engaging for everyone,” said Cowan.

Submissions in the show will feature artists/writers from Maine, New York, California, Oregon, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, South Dakota, Kentucky, Kansas, Canada and Ireland. The opening reception held at both galleries on June 3 will feature images and narratives relating equally to authenticity, tall tales, and toroid geometry: anything and everything relating to the iconic American pastry. It would also not be complete without donuts made from local bakers whose insides you can bet will be thoroughly cooked. As Gregory might say if he were still around: “Them’s mighty good eatin’.”

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

This is the best time of year when summer hasn’t fully kicked in and you’re not cursing at the out-of-state plates in front of you yet. This weekend hear some great music, stories and comedy or take that road trip to the summer festivals.

Richard Salloom, storyteller, singer

Friday, June 10—Rockland

Grammy-nominated singer songwriter and storyteller Richard Salloom will be at Trackside Station during dinner from 6 to 9 p.m. Roger Salloom has been called "America's best unknown songwriter." He was in the center of the 1960s San Francisco psychedelic scene, playing the Fillmore with Santana, Van Morrison, BB King and Procol Harum. He’s performed with The Band, Steve Forbert, Doc Watson and John Prine, to name a few. Expect some great stories and music that’s a cross between blues, roots, Americana, country and soul.

Midcoast Kings and Queens of Comedy

Friday, June 10—Rockland

Comedian Earl David Reed opens the stage in a night of a comedy standoff between four other comedians for the title of Queen or King of Midcoast Comedy at the Strand Theatre. With 15 years of stand up comedy under his belt, Reed has performed at more than 100 comedy clubs and colleges, and is a favorite in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. The contestants are: Dawn Hartill, Jared Horning, Kristin Tripp and Heather Ellsworth. They’ll each have 5-10 minutes of stage time. The winner will be chosen by audience vote. May the best comedian win! The show starts at 7:30 pm and tickets are $20.

Chicky Stolz with The Charlie Nobles

Saturday, June 11—Rockland

Join Chicky, Noah, Tom, Jed, and probably JR as they coast their way through swampy blues and some boozy Americana. This annual event never disappoints at FOG Bar and Café at 8 p.m. Take a listen here. No cover.

Killer Road Trip: Kennebunkport Summer Festival

Friday, June 10 to Sunday, June 12—Kennebunkport

Of all the weekend events offered during this annual food, wine and art party, I recommend the Grand Tasting Party on Saturday from noon to 4 pm. “Under a beautiful white tent along the Kennebunk River, check out the more than 25 chefs and wineries offering samples. You will not leave this event hungry.” Tickets are $65. My other recommendation is the Brews and Tunes party, also on Saturday, from 1 to 4 p.m. Hosted at The Green at the Captain Lord Mansion for an afternoon of–you guessed it: beer and live music. There will be food trucks, vendors, and a lot of fun. Check out the Fogcutters band here. Tickets are $15 advance/$20 at the door.

Killer Road Trip: Summer Kickoff Weekend

Saturday, June 11 to Sunday, June 12—Portland

Kick off summer in Maine at the 43rd annual Old Port Festival. This family-friendly event is an outdoor celebration of art, live music and amazing food in the heart of downtown Portland. Three great events take place in one weekend starting with Walk the Working Waterfront, Saturday, June 11 (11 a.m.-3 p.m.), Shop for a Cause Day,  Saturday, June 11 (All day) and the Old Port Festival, Sunday, June 12 (11 a.m.-5 p.m.) Bonus: METRO: Greater Portland Transit District is offering FREE rides all day (all routes) on Sunday, June 12. Hop on a bus and don't fret about driving and parking.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com