BELFAST—They’re probably the most fragile, impractical canvas to ever work on, but Ukranian artist Lesia Sochor can render tiny worlds on an egg, just by using three tools.

Sochor learned the ancient art form of the “Pysanka,” a Ukrainian decorated egg from her mother.  Using a process known as wax-resist, lines of melted beeswax are drawn onto the egg with a tool called a “Kistka.” The traditional Kistka was a wooden dowel with a copper funnel attached. There are now many other types of Kistkas to choose from, but they all operate under the same principal: heat the tip in the flame of the candle, dip in beeswax and draw the design on the egg.

“Every time you draw a wax pattern on a white egg and then dip it into say a purple dye, whatever you’ve drawn on the egg in wax will not turn that color,” she said. “The way you get all of the colors is you keep dipping the egg in different colors. The wax stays on the egg until the very end. When you remove the wax, all of the designs are fully revealed.”

It’s a very meditative process, said Sochor. One can outline the egg in geometric patterns, but she freehand draws objects such as ornate birds on her eggs. “Even if you’re not an artist, simply by sectioning and diving the egg, you can make a beautiful pattern,” she said.

The egg and designs upon it were said to bring good fortune to each household. “It’s an ancient Ukranian ritual to welcome spring,” Sochor explained. “Traditionally people believed the egg was a powerful talisman and that every part of the egg had meaning, like a trinity. The yolk was considered the sun, the whites were the moon and the shell was a universe. When Christianity came into Ukraine, the symbolic nature-filled designs were modified to include the resurrection of Christ. “Traditionally you saw symbols of the sun, moon, wheat, animals and nature and earth on the eggs,” she said.

Once eggs were done, they “protected” the people of the house. They were thought to protect people from illness, and safeguard the house from lightning. 

Though Sochor now blows out the yolks and whites with an egg blower before she begins, decorating the intact egg was how she learned the process. “I have an egg that my mother did that I’ve saved all these years,” she said. “It’s about 55 years-old. If the egg has no crack in it and it’s a good, farm fresh egg, what happens is the yolk dries out and it sounds like a little marble in there.”

Watch the accompanying video to see how the process is done.

Sochor is giving a free workshop on Ukranian egg dying Saturday, March 26 at the Marsh River Co-op in Brooks from  3-5 p.m. Recommended ages 8 and up. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Free event, materials provided. Call 722-4020 for more info.

ROCKLAND—Something wicked this way comes. Wicked cool that is.

On Friday, April 1, the Farnsworth Art Museum's [Collective] membership group will host its fifth annual BASH. This year's BASH will feature a band flying in from Nairobi, Kenya who call themselves humbly  “Just a Band: "Africa's nerdiest hip-hop art collective." Just a Band is known for Gorillaz-like immersive performances, creative sampling, video and wit.

Every Collective BASH has been off the charts, the coolest thing to hit Rockland. This one will be no exception. The Farnsworth’s Special Events Manager Annie Brown said it has taken almost a year to plan this extravaganza. “Last year’s BASH we ramped it up and brought in live music for the first time, and I’ve been focusing on choosing performers that we normally wouldn’t get here. She’d been listening to Just A Band for years, which has a house/funk/disco sound that combines jazz, hip-hop, disco and electronica, and reached out to them to come play in Rockland. “It was somewhat difficult to communicate with them since they’re based in Nairobi, but they really are incredible.”

Just like a three-ring circus, the spotlight will also shift over to other performances throughout the evening including Haus Paradigm, a dance group that brings a unique flair to belly dancing in their own unique approach, The Band of Weirdos—an odd group of performing carnival creatures, and Simple Circus out of Portland.

“The Band of Weirdos is led by dancer Hanna DeHoff, sort of coming out of the Jeerleader tradition (the alternative cheerleaders for the Rock Coast Roller derby team),” said Brown. “They’ll be a roving side show through the crowds. And Simple Circus is a group based in Portland, led by Warren-native Amity Stoddard, who does pop-up circus events.

As always, the Collective’s unique group of community artists, come together to envision art installations that fit the theme. (If you ever saw their Dorothy’s House from The Collective’s third Wizard of Oz-themed bash, you’ll have an idea of what to expect.) The Farnsworth’s Wyeth Center, on the corner of Union Street and Grace Street in Rocklandwill be transformed through installations created by many local artists, including MidCoLab, Margaret Rizzio, Annie Bailey, Orlando Johnson, Alexis Iammarino, Scott Sell, Chris Gamage, Jared Cowan, Alexandra Gillian Martin, Owen Cartwright and multiple Youth Arts Participants.

What else you can expect? A dance floor, carnival-game art installations and two cash bars manned by Rollie’s Pub and Grill with a side of hot dogs and popcorn thrown in. Sorry kids, the BASH is 21+. Doors open at 8 p.m. with the band starting at 9 p.m. Participants are encouraged to dress up in theme or just “come as you are.” More than 300 people attended last year.  Tickets to this sure-to-be-sold out event are Free for [Collective] members and $20 for nonmembers. For more information or to purchase a ticket, please visit www.thecollectivebash.com.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN — It was a book that hit close to home for many Camden residents. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of Grace Metalious’ novel Peyton Place. Steeped in controversy, this story, set in New England, was the best-selling novel up to that time. The movie adaptation, released the following year and nominated for nine Academy Awards, was shot extensively in the Midcoast area.

And now that the film is getting a new look, writer, director and producer Willard Carroll is excited to be involved.

“The movie is currently being restored, digitally, by 20th Century Fox  and the Motion Picture Academy, and they’re actually doing a new 35-millimeter print when they re-show it in theaters, which is quite unusual,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to premiere that print this summer. There’s going to be a lot of interest in film festivals around it and we want to bring it to Maine first. The Blu ray will come out next year and I’ve been invited to do the audio commentary on that.”

In addition, Blu ray asked if Carroll would host a class discussing the novel’s transition to film. “I love talking about it, so I said sure,” he said.

Carroll said the film was the reason he and his partner moved to Maine after living in Los Angeles for 30 years.

“About 10 years ago, Camden was hosting the 50th anniversary of the movie being shot here and that was the first time I’d ever come to Maine,” he said. “I was here for about five minutes and decided I wanted to move here.”

In his spare time, Carroll went around to find all of the locations in the Midcoast where Peyton Place was originally shot and decided to make a short film titled On Location in Peyton Place. With the help of Camden historian Barbara Dyer, who’d already done extensive research on where the movie was shot, Carroll said, “She had about 99 percent of the locations already documented and I went out and found the remaining 1 percent of locations that hadn’t been found.”

All in all, for his film he shot 42 locations that appeared in the original film. “We shot it in early autumn so all of the fall colors were out,” he said. Carroll’s short film will also be part of the Blu ray edition being released this year.

On Tuesday, April 5, Carroll will host the first of a two-night class at Camden Hills Regional High School in Rockport. The first class will be a screening of Peyton Place with some introductory remarks and discussion.

“Assuming there are still people who haven’t seen the movie, I don’t want to give away spoilers,” he said.

The second night, on Tuesday, April 12, will feature a discussion of the considerable page-to-screen adaptation challenges presented by an “unfilmable” book and conclude with an overview of the Maine locations used in the movie. “The second class is more a dissection of the movie,” he said.

“When the book was first published in 1956, it was an instant success, but it was a very daring novel,” Carroll said. “The reason it was so controversial is because it was written by a woman and it was a very sexually explicit book. And the reason it was considered unfilmable was because of the censorship rules at the time. Still, it ended up for about a 10-year period to be the biggest selling novel of all time. The movie is a heavily sanitized version of the book, but it’s still an adult-oriented film. After faltering at the box office initially, the film became the second highest grossing film of 1957.”

Peyton Place’s other resounding theme revolves around the secrets that lie under the surface of a picture postcard town such as Camden.

“At the time, other books written by women about career women were all set in big cities, which had a different moral compass than small town America did,” said Carroll. “Peyton Place investigated this idealized notion of small town life and undercut the myths. The significance of the book is that it ripped the veil off aspects of society that were known, but rarely acknowledged, particularly in popular entertainment."

Asked if anything has changed since 1956 when it comes to small town life Carroll said, “The book is also about huge economic divisions and how that impacted the society. That has not changed and that will never change. It’s sort of a universal theme.”

The course, run by Five Town CSD, is $25, which covers both nights. More details can be found here.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

UNION — The name started as a joke, something Gary Harriman’s friend and business partner, Kevin Davis, came up with. “As we assembled different pieces of wood together to make something new, Kevin said, ‘Well I don’t know about this Frankenstein Furniture’ and I said, ‘That’s a perfect name for it.’”

Harriman’s garage in Union isn’t a creepy old laboratory, but it is filled with bits and pieces and odd parts. Dismantled barn boards and stacks of old wooden bed posts, moldings and distressed boards stand up against the walls.

As a micro-business, it’s not feasible to buy new wood to make the furniture. Harriman prefers to find raw materials that would otherwise go into a landfill, so all of the wood he uses in his furniture is recycled and reclaimed. He finds lumber from yard sales, dismantled barns, antique and junkyard stores, like Elmer’s Barn and Liberty Tool — and sometimes, he just sees cast offs on the side of the road and picks them up.

“I use a lot of bed posts and frames to make legs of tables,” he said. “A lot of discarded furniture is made of solid maple or cherry. I’ll cut the whole thing up and use all of the parts of it.”

Harriman said he’s self taught. “My dad taught me a lot about refinishing furniture,” he said. “So, I just expanded from that. I had an antique shop called Union Antique Traders and was just doing furniture building on the side, so I got to understand how many people want furniture that’s old and distressed, but still fits into their modern lifestyle.”

All winter, he spends his time in his garage, envisioning creative ways to cobble together various pieces. “I just love being out here,” he said. “When I had the antique shop, I’d stand around all day in January, February waiting for people to come in. I’d rather be doing something with my time and just come out here and work on new pieces.”

In a way, his garage is a miniaturized version of Elmer’s Barn in Cooper’s Mills, with an area dedicated to pieces of hardware and other odds and ends. “I never throw anything out,” he said. “Every little scrap should be used, whether a piece of leftover wood gets chopped down to be glue blocks or whether I need something in this junk pile as a decorative item.”

Frankenstein Furniture has really taken off and now he does woodworking full time and the antique shop on the side. He recently made an entryway bench for a mudroom out of an early 1900s door. But he’s really known for making 7- to 8-foot-long harvest tables out of various pieces of recycled wood. He recently did 30 tables for a Kennebunkport restaurant. As the old Depression era expression goes: “Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do, or Do Without!”

You can find more Frankenstein Furniture in booth #12 at Rockland Antique Marketplace, where Harriman’s work is displayed or visit: his Facebook page.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—Local choreographer-director Kea Tesseyman and her Kinetic Energy Alive dance Company have been working for months on their fourth major show "Grit & Grace: Just Be You!" to be held at the Camden Opera House on Friday and Saturday, April 1 and 2, at 7 p.m.

The show promises to be heart-pounding, featuring 26 dancers who all come from Tesseyman’s classes, both professional and amateur, whose ages range from six to 60.

“It’s going encompass every style,” she said. “We’re really showing through every dance the joy and the fun that each individual dancer has.”

Performing to "Puttin' on the Ritz" — Irving Berlin's timeless show tune, redone by Herb Alpert — they'll step out with jazz-funk and jazz-contemporary, followed by a wide variety of styles including hip-hop, contemporary, and old-school funk. The evening continues with dynamic and thought-provoking duets, solos, and group dances, all flowing from one into the next. Highlights include 1970s breakdancing, modern and contemporary duets, and polished Broadway-show dancing modernized to fit today's music.

All of Tesseyman’s past shows have had some kind of them around personal empowerment and the freedom to be oneself. While the past three shows featured Power Performances, with film and dance intertwined, this show is strictly dancing. While certain contemporary pieces have the edge of a deeper story, the audience will find the dancers celebrating their joy, breakthroughs and transformations on stage.

"We were all talking about what it takes to get through the day sometimes, to be able to celebrate who we are," she said. "It takes grit to get through the hard stuff, but you also have to be graceful in the face of something that's really challenging you too — which is just as hard to do."

For many of her dancers whose first time it will be on stage, the second part of this show’s title is just for them. "The 'Just Be You' part is getting everybody to believe in themselves and celebrate their strength, courage and sheer joy of dancing.” Tickets are $15 in advance ($17 at the door) and may be purchased on-line at KineticEnergyAlive.com and CamdenOperaHouse.com/calendar.

Tickets are also available for sale at Zoot Coffee and HAV II, both in Camden, as well as at the Camden Town Office (open weekdays, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.). On Saturday evening April 2, the Boynton-McKay Food Co., located a block from the Opera House, is offering a special fundraiser dinner-and-show; proceeds will be earmarked for a dance scholarship. The price of $45 includes admission to the show plus a four-course, pre-show meal at the restaurant. Those interested in the dinner are urged to call Boynton-McKay at 236-2465 or Kea Tesseyman at 975-4450 as soon as possible to secure one of the limited remaining reservations.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Spring still hasn’t made up its mind, but if we do get another monster storm, it looks like it’s on the tail end of the weekend, so here are some things you can venture out to see — plus the hair of the dog with a killer road trip to Portland.

Where To Invade Next

Friday, March 18 through Sunday, March 20 — Rockland

Academy Award-winning director Michael Moore is back with Where To Invade Next, a provocative and hilarious comedy in which Moore will stop at nothing to figure out how to actually make America great again. Where To Invade Next is an expansive, hilarious and subversive comedy in which the Academy Award®-winning director confronts the most pressing issues facing America today and finds solutions in the most unlikely places. Playing at the Strand Theatre. $8.50/Adults, $7.50/Under 12, Seniors. Showtimes differ for each night so click here.

Malt & Monotype

Friday, March 18 — Belfast

Waterfall Arts is hosting another Art Night meets Bar Scene social. Like the Draft ‘n Draw event, this event features art and spirits. This time will be featuring printmaking and malt liquor. Join with some friends for a fun event where you can create your own monoprints while enjoying good drink and good company. The artists leading the event are Jeff Jelenfy and April White. The event goes from 7 to 10 p.m. and costs $10 at the door. 21+ FMI: Malt & Monotype

Funny songwriters at Camden Opera House

Saturday, March 19 — Camden

Two veteran performers and "two of the funniest entertainers on today's music scene" (Boston Globe) will bring their unique brand of smart, friendly, hilarious musical folk comedy to the Camden Opera House stage. Christine Lavin emerged from the NYC singer/songwriter scene in the late 1980s, quickly establishing herself as an entertaining tour de force. Quick on her feet, witty, insightful and engaging, she remains one of the most popular and respected performers in the genre. Her musical partner, Don White, has been described as: "Mark Twain meets Woody Guthrie...Woody Guthrie meets George Carlin....Don leads his audience in a lively well-timed dance of wit and folksy wisdom." Tickets are general admission and $17 in advance and $20 the night of the show. Buy online  or for no fee walk next door to at the Camden Town Office Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

More St. Paddying

Friday, March 18 and Saturday, March 19 — Hope

Hatchet Mountain Publick House isn’t done with the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, so if you couldn’t get in to get a seat on Thursday, they’ll be ripping it up for two more nights. Music by Rovin’ Mick O’Flynn, McGinty’s Goats, Pinchy’s Pipes and guests. And of course, you can get your corned beef dinner and Guinness stew, along with all of the Irish beer and whiskey you want. Music starts about 6 p.m.

Killer Road Trip: Get haired up in Portland

Friday, March 18 and Saturday, March 19 — Portland

Two weirdo events celebrating men’s facial hair are happening this weekend. Might as well get a hotel and stay over cause it starts Friday with the annual Stache Pag, which is “Part Talent Show, Part Costume Contest, Part Facial Hair Competition” as mustachioed men (and facial hair-clad women) strut their stuff on the catwalk while the host announces names and a few observations. Each contestant gets 10 seconds and some funky music to work with at the Portland House of Music. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 the day of. FMI: Stache Pag  And if that’s not enough facial hair for you, from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday is The Bearded Brewfest, (run by the same people who host the Stache Pag) featuring beers from more than 30 breweries at the University of Southern Maine. Click here for the range of ticket prices and more info.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Josh Gerritsen, a professional photographer and director of a new Midcoast-based movie, Island Zero, is excited to be working in Maine on his first movie. That his mother, best-selling thriller novelist Tess Gerritsen, is involved is no coincidence — she wrote the screenplay.

“Two summers ago, I was weeding the garden with my mom and out of the blue she said, ‘We should make a horror movie together,’” said Josh Gerritsen.

You know, the typical things a mom and son chat about.

“And I didn’t know that at the time but she’d grown up watching horror films,” continued Gerritsen. “ It just never came up in conversation. I’ve loved horror movies since I was a kid. Zombies are the most fun, but aliens are the most scary. I think of the movie Alien as a reference film for Island Zero because it was so beautifully done with such unlikely heroes. Just these blue collar workers who happen to be just doing their jobs set in the future.”

Island Zero is set 40 miles off the coast, on the isolated (and fictionally named) Tucker Island. “For some unknown reason, the power cuts out, the ferry stops running and people start to die in these gruesome and mysterious ways,” said Gerritsen. “The townspeople have to get together to figure out who or what is killing everybody.  The people who go for help never come back. No one on the island can reach anyone on a radio and they are trapped.”

It’s an ensemble film with five main characters. Laila Robins, from the Showtime show “Homeland” is the most well known of the cast.

And although Tess Gerritsen wrote the script, this is not her first screenplay. In 1993, she co-wrote the story and screenplay for Adrift, which aired on CBS as Movie of the Week. 

Josh Gerritson also has a background in documentary filmmaking, but this is his first foray into feature films. “I’m drawn to the slow building tension, not the monsters that just leap out at you, but something that builds to terrifying,” he said.

He moved back to Maine three years ago after living in New York City. Having grown up in Maine, he, like so many people, felt the draw to move back. “After high school, I said what most kids say, ‘I’m getting out of here; it’s boring. But, after spending time in New York, I realized there is kind a magic here. For the Midcoast area, there’s so much culture flowing in. You can be in Maine and all of the culture is surrounding you.’”

Mariah Klapatch, a Camden native and longtime friend of the Gerritsens, is producing the film, which has a self-financed budget of up to $300,000.

“Mariah’s a third generation Mainer,” said Gerritsen. “We knew it was going to be a financial risk, but we wanted to make something that reflected Maine. The tax incentive is less than in Massachusetts, and even though we could have shot there, that’s less important than shooting in the state that we love.”

The film, not surprisingly, has already gotten built-in community support. The majority of the cast and crew are also from Maine. “If we were an LA cast and crew that just flew in and asked the locals can we shoot at your diner? Can we shoot at your inn? It would be challenging,” Gerritsen said.

At the time of our interview, Gerritsen and the crew had only been shooting for a week in the Midcoast. Their locations included a doctor’s office, Camden Harbor, Rockport Harbor and the Swan House, a Camden inn, as well as at a house near Megunticook Market. We met the night before the crew was supposed to spend three consecutive 12-hour days shooting on Islesboro.

“Most of the Islesboro shoot will be at Durkee’s General store, a combined diner and general store,” said Gerritsen. “When you see these scenes, this is when the citizens of the island start to become really concerned, you’ll see this shift in behavior.”

The shoot is only supposed to last 18 days, until the end of March, and finished sometime in September. For Gerritsen, it’s been nothing but a good experience so far.  “It honestly couldn’t have gone better,” he said. “Our crew is amazing and our cast is just nailing their performances.”

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND — When most of us are winding down for the evening, Atlantic Baking Co.’s head bread baker, Lynn Butman, is just getting to work. Arriving at 8 p.m., she works until 3 a.m. making breads and gets ready to leave just as the morning shift comes in to make the croissants and pastries.

Butman did a lot of baking with her grandmother when she was young, and that is when she learned how to make traditional Irish soda bread.

“It’s really simple,” she said. Irish baking over the centuries, according to The History of Soda Bread, didn’t rely on much yeast.

“Back then, the quality of wheat that certain Irish regions could grow yielded a softer wheat, which is the main structure of the bread,” said Butman. “So, the simplicity of the soda bread was that the texture and the way it was baked didn’t require a lot of gluten. It would have a soft, crumbly interior with a hard crust.”

Soda bread was simply made of wheat flour, buttermilk, bicarbonate of soda (or baking soda) and salt. “People often think that the Irish originated this kind of bread, but actually, it goes back centuries to Native American cultures,” said Butman. “They found bicarbonate in pot ash, which is the dying embers of wood fires, and they used that as a leavening agent in their bread. Ireland was the first country to adapt that baking process when baking soda was sold commercially in the 1800s.”

Buttermilk, one of the four ingredients, is a form of “soured milk.” Buttermilk was plentiful in Ireland, “because they didn’t have a good strong wheat source, the buttermilk would activate the ingredients,” said Butman.

In England, people got their bread mostly from bakeries, but according to The Kitchen Project, the Irish felt baking was the housewife’s job. Most families lived in rural, isolated farmhouses, where most kitchens had only open hearths, not ovens. The lady of the house would prepare it in a Dutch oven-type of a pot, called a bastible, which hung over the fire on a crane. The heat from below, along with a few coals on top of the indented lid would produce a roundish cake-like loaf. Or else, she might prepare it on a bakestone, on an iron plate resting on the fire’s embers.

The Irish would use the bread as a staple and make it every three or four days and serve it with supper. Soda bread could be eaten at breakfast as well as with dinner to sop up the gravy of hearty Irish food, such as Irish stew and Colcannon. Later, soda bread would be made with caraway seeds for flavor, or with raisins, which was called “Spotted Dog” for its appearance.

Butman said Atlantic Baking Co. will have plenty of loaves of Irish soda bread available on St. Patrick’s Day, along with corn breads and miche, another version of a rustic sourdough bread.

Click to see Irish soda bread recipes.

“A correspondent of the Newry Telegraph, in giving the below recipe for making "soda bread," stated that ‘There is no bread to be had equal to it for invigorating the body, promoting digestion, strengthening the stomach and improving the state of the bowels.’ It continues: “He says, 'put a pound and a half of good wheaten meal into a large bowl, mix with it two teaspoonfuls of finely-powdered salt, then take a large teaspoonful of super-carbonate of soda, dissolve it in half a teacupful of cold water, and add it to the meal; rub up all intimately together, then pour into the bowl as much very sour buttermilk as will make the whole into soft dough (it should be as soft as could possibly be handled, and the softer the better,) form it into a cake of about an inch thickness, and put it into a flat Dutch oven or frying-pan, with some metallic cover, such as an oven-lid or griddle, apply a moderate heat underneath for twenty minutes, then lay some clear live coals upon the lid, and keep it so for half an hour longer (the under heat being allowed to fall off gradually for the last fifteen minutes,) taking off the cover occasionally to see that it does not burn.' This, he concludes, when somewhat cooled and moderately buttered, is as wholesome food as ever entered man's stomach. Wm. Clacker, Esq., of Gosford, has ordered a sample of the bread to be prepared, and a quantity of the meal to be kept for sale at the Markethill Temperance Soup and Coffee Rooms." — Oldest reference to Irish soda bread recipe, published in November 1836 Farmer's Magazine (London).” (Courtesy sodabreadinfo.com)

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

It’s the holiest Irish day of the year and there area few local options where you can get authentic Irish food, music, and of course, the sweet nectar. Remember to have a taxi on speed dial on your phone.

Belfast

Rollie’s Bar and Grill

For lunch and dinner, they are serving all-you-can-eat corned beef and fixings. Traditional Irish beers like Guinness and Killians will be on tap and there will be prize giveaways throughout the day. Stop by in the afternoon and Rob Benton will be playing live from 2:30-4:30 p.m.

Darby’s Restaurant

The Irish culinary addicts will get their fix with Darby’s corned beef dinner, beef and Guinness pot pie, bangers and mashed, and lamb stew. Darby's will also be offering music, green beer and drink specials.

Vinolio

Vinolio is hosting a St. Paddy’s Day wine tasting featuring a terrific Vermouth cocktail along with many other wines to sampleas well as some wonderful appetizers to sample as well from 5-7 p.m.

Lincolnville

The Whale’s Tooth Pub

Pop on into the coziest pub on the ocean. The Whale’s Tooth Pub is throwing their annual St. Paddy’s Day party with live music of “The Irish Twins” McPhil and McBlake starting at 5:30 p.m. Expect corned beef and cabbage and classic Irish beverages.

Camden

The Drouthy Bear

They will have Irish food specials all week and lots of Irish beer (Guinness IPA and stout) on tap. Irish happy Hour is 4-6 p.m. Nick Apollonio will be playing the fiddle and singing his large repertoire of Irish music throughout the evening.

Rockland

Rock Harbor Brewery

Come in early and get a set for the band Rock Body Electric will take the stage at 8:30 p.m.with drink specials (including something called an Irish trash can special!), free giveaways and a grand prize giveaway for the best St. Paddy’s Day costume.

Rock City Café

Ladies of the Lake, a group of four veteran musicians who have performed in Maine and New England for the past 20 years, will be playing Irish and New England traditional music on the fiddle, flute, tin whistle, button accordion, uilleann pipes, guitar and voice. Whether playing a plaintive air, a rollicking Irish reel or singing an ancient ballad, their repertoire harkins back to the time of our ancestors.The show starts at 7 p.m.

Myrtle Street Tavern

Two Dollar Pistol  will be playing 9 p.m. to 1a.m. Funk, dance, & a rock n' roll riot all night long! Giveaways galore, shenanigans, Irish cocktails and brews on special all day. (Says their Facebook post: “The only bar in town run by an actual mean old Irish Catholic woman...& her lovely daughter”)

Hope

Hatchet Mountain Publick House

Hatchet Mountain’s annual kickin’ St. Paddy's Day Celebration takes place over three nights this year, starting on Thursday. Beginning at 4 p.m., each day, they’ll offer Irish fare and music featuring the return of Rovin Mick O'Flynn, McGinty's Goats, Pinchy, plus other special guests. Note: Get there early-seats fill up quickly!

Trackside Station

Trackside will host Jonesville, a live band from 6-9 p.m.

Thomaston

Thomaston Café

Join them this St Patrick's Day! Open 11 a.m.-8 p.m. All the traditional Irish menu items available including: Corned Beef and Cabbage, Guiness Lamb Stew and Irish Soda Bread. Beer and Drink specials available all day!

Thomaston American Legion Hall

A St. Patrick’s Day boiled dinner will be held  from 5-7 p.m. behind the business block. $8 per adult; free for kids 5 and under. Free to veterans with proof of service. FMI: 691-5800

Waldoboro

Narrows Tavern

Starting at 8 p.m., the St. Huckleberry Trio will spend an evening playing fiddle, sax and guitar. The trio will showcase both their originals and a mix of fiddle tunes! Definitely a night to be at the Tavern!

Brunswick

Byrnes Irish Pub

Here’s a way to keep St. Paddy’s Day celebrations going—approximately a month ago, Byrnes Irish Pub suffered a boatload of water damage and had to be shut down for clean up. According to an article by the Bangor Daily News, they’ve been hustling to fix the water damage and be open for St. Paddy’s Day weekend. Their grand re-opening is set for Saturday, March 12 at noon. Stay on top of their announcements via Facebook.

Stay tuned as more listings are added!

If you’re a bar or restaurant doing something special, please contact Kay Stephens at news@penbaypilot.com

After St. Paddy’s Day, you might need a rest, so get that power nap in because we’ve got comedy, two bars to frequent and some fresh new music out of Belfast’s Free Range Music Series.

Cider tasting at Rollie’s

Friday, March 11—Belfast

Downeast Cider is making a special stop in Belfast at Rollies’ Bar and Grille to give the locals an exclusive tasting.The cider house will be sampling their Downeast Original and Downeast Maple Cider. There will be specials and giveaways. The event  goes from 6-8 p.m.

Comedian “Krazy” Jake Hodgdon

Friday, March 11—Belfast

After Rollie’s skip on over to see Fast-rising comedian and Animal Planet star “Krazy” Jake Hodgdon performs at Belfast Area High School. The doors open at 6:30 pm and the show starts at 7 p.m. Voted “Best Maine Comedian” check out this PG-rated show that benefits Project Graduation. Tickets: $15 advance, $20 at door.

Free Range Music Series

Saturday, March 12—Belfast

Waterfall Arts is hosting the Free Range Music series with two bands from Portland and Waldo county. Influenced by ‘90s sound, Fur mixes gentle pretty parts and walls of fuzz with romanticized sentiments of the every day. Earth Person will also be playing. Earth Person is a genre bending musical project creating sounds that flow and weave between folk, psychedelia, pop, and sample based beat making. Earth Person will be joined by Quelle (Justin B) of Belfast. The show starts at 7 p.m.$8 in advance; $10 at the door; $6 for students , $5 for kids 12 and under. To buy tickets and listen to each band’s sound click here.

Sketch Comedy Troupe at Unity College

Saturday, March 12—Unity

I wonder if the band Just Teachers knows there is a comedy troupe called Teacher’s Lounge Mafia, because somebody’s about to get schooled! (I’ll show myself out.) This sketch comedy troupe has been plating since 2008 and has been called: “Inspired. With a wonderful balance between obscure political references and the occasional cuss, TLM has a direct line to my funny bone.” The show starts at 7 p.m. and tickets are $15 at the door. FMI: Unity College

Killer Road Trip: Byrnes Irish Pub in Brunswick

Saturday, March 12-Brunswick

Here’s a way to keep St. Paddy’s Day celebrations going—approximately a month ago, Byrnes Irish Pub suffered a boatload of water damage and had to be shut down for clean up. According to an article by the Bangor Daily News, they’ve been hustling to fix the water damage and be open for St. Paddy’s Day weekend. Their grand re-opening is set for Saturday at noon. Stay on top of their announcements via Facebook.

Correction: the name of the business in this story was misspelled and should have been listed as Three Tides.

Last week I put out a question on social media, “Does anybody know a good cocktail that tastes like a Girl Scout cookie?” Seth Whited, the bar manager for Three Tides in Belfast answered the call and decided to whip up a cocktail from scratch that doesn’t appear on the menu.

The result is the  Three Tides Thin Mint and it just so happens this is national Girl Scout week! At the first sip, I said, “Mmm, the mint is strong with this one.”

It’s a cool, creamy, sweet cocktail and what totally nails it is the chocolate cookie rim.

“I just mixed some organic mint extract with chocolate sauce on one plate and crushed up some Oreo cookie on another,” Whited said. “You don’t even need the actual Thin Mint cookie to give it the same taste.”

“It’s probably fewer calories than downing an entire sleeve of Thin Mint cookies,” I said.

“Probably not by much,” he answered.

Whited wanted to make a cocktail that wasn’t too fussy and had readily available ingredients on hand.

“I had a notion at first that I wanted to make a grown up version of the Thin Mint,” he said. “There are chocolate flavored vodkas out there and some other ingredients that are pretty pricey and not so easy to come by. I also didn’t want to make the drink too green or else it would look like a Grasshopper. So, I played around with a bunch of flavors and then we decided to add our new Marshall Wharf Happy Dog coffee porter.”

The coffee porter is the surprising twist as it actually cuts the sweetness and gives the cocktail its depth. The Baltic style porter is brewed with Blackstrap Molasses, so while you’re getting just a hint of the bitter finish under the creamy layers, you’re also getting a double dose of the chocolate taste with a 9.10 percent abv.

This is definitely an adult Girl Scout drink. You don’t want to give it to Troop 29 —unless Troop 29 is 21 and older.

Whited said if he had everything handy he could probably make it for customers who requested it. However, the beauty of this “What’s In That Cocktail?” series is that we give you the ingredients and the video to show you how to make it yourself.

You’ll need:

• 1 ½ oz. Choco-lat liqueur
• 1 oz. White Crème de menthe
• 1 oz. vodka
• ½ oz. Baileys Irish Creme
• 1 oz. Happy Dog coffee porter

Coat the rim of a martini glass with the chocolate mint syrup first then rim with the cookie crumble. Set aside. Add ice to the shaker and all of the above ingredients. Shake, then strain into martini glass.

Enjoy and check out our gallery of other custom cocktails (with video) in our series Iconic craft cocktails of the Midcoast.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—It’s the age old question: is it better to go with an over-the-top decorated cardboard sled or a stripped down flat racer with zero wind resistance?

With ideal slick conditions on the specially made snow track at the Camden Snow Bowl on Sunday, March 6, 40 teams showed up to show their mettle.

The flat, toboggan-like sleds seemed to whip down the hill the fastest, but it was the elaborate, box-shaped cardboard racers that provided the most entertainment, with many being ejected on the ride down and the crowd encouraging the participants to get back on the horse, so to speak. As with the Star Wars Sliders, the kids wiped out and the crowd cheered them to keep on going. “May the Force Be With You!” some guy yelled.

A lot of debris was left on the snow track from the wipe outs, but some cardboard racers came with their own surprises.  As a racer in the shape of an ice cream truck spun its way down, the kids threw ice cream sandwiches out for the crowd.

We asked the winners for the last two years in a row, the Crazy Cruz’n Cuz’ns– Eban Davis, 6,  Cade Davis, 8, Abraham Rhode Jr. 7, and Kailey-Anne Rhode, 9 what their secret was. “Determination,” said Kayleigh-Anne.

One of the more elaborate racers was a giant tugboat called Twin Tug built by Thomas Leeper, Karissa Beverage, and their children, Emma Leeper, 4, and Zoe Leeper, 4.  Putting safety first, it came equipped with its own PFDs. “It took two late nights to make,” said Leeper, “even though we had no idea what we were doing. But hey, we made it down, we’re all good.”

Team Super was a space ship piloted by two NASA engineers, Ethan Lantz, 5 Rockport, Kara Croce, 6.  “It took just two days to make the rocket ship,” said Ethan. Then correcting himself, he said, “No, it took some of night and a little some of the day. We put fake buttons on our suits.”

“I think the kids did an excellent job,” said Ethan’s father Benjamin Lantz. “We paid them well,” he joked.

Wyatt Heal, 8, drove a cool snowmobile called W.J.H Racing down the hill with mailing tubes for the sled, independent steering and even a flashlight built into the steering column. “It took about four weeks to make,” said his father Toby. Wyatt had a bit of a hard time navigating it all the way down the hill, falling off a few times and gleefully abandoning it before the finish line, but he rode it like a champ. “ I just wanted to do some tricks,” he said.

The Camden Snow Bowl team rode an A-Frame replica of The Snow Bowl down, spinning nicely all the way down. “I’m not sure we actually crossed the finish line” joked Jonathan Laurence. (Our video provies otherwise.)

The Thin Mints, both girl scouts from Troop 23 were Olive Walker, 7 and Haley Orne, 7. Olive was the pilot. Haley was the Thin Mint. Though they took a tumble (that’s the way the cookie crumbles) they hopped right back in their Girl Scout cookie Box and finished the run. Asked if they’d do it again, the answer was slightly hesitant. “Maybe.”

Here are the results:

Fastest:

1^st – Magic Cardboard Ride – Maeve Littlefield (age 10) and Dan Littlefield (age 48) from Belfast with a time of 7.53.

2^nd – Ice Train – Devon Smith (age 12) and Mike Smith (age 50) from Appleton with a time of 7.67

3^rd – Lean Mean Duct Tape Machine – Rieder James (age 25) from Rockport with a time of 7.87.

Most in a Box:  5 – The Insane Bolts – Jasper Hackett (age 8) from Rockport, Avery Hackett (age 10) Rockport, Keagan Urey (age 5) Rockport, Finn Urey (age 11) Rockport and Charlie Moss (age 11) Camden.

Most Creative  box was the Lee family – Davis, Oliver, Kate and Henrietta from Newburyport Massachusetts and Jonathan Laurence from Camden; that built a replica of the Camden Snow Bowl A-frame lodge complete with the ship’s wheel hanging light. 

Best Costume – Star Wars Sliders – Lily Stowe (age 10) Rockland, Hannah Stowe (age 6) Rockland, Ronin Allyn (age 7) Rockland and Claire Caveney (age 11) Rockland. 

 Prizes were provided by Uncle Willy’s Candy Shoppe  in Camden, Flat Bread Pizza in Rockport and the Camden Snow Bowl.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST—Belfast artist Joanne Parent is known for her airy sunset and seascape oil painting, but a trip last year to the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast may have her conjuring darker landscapes.

The Fall River, Mass B & B, 50 miles south of Boston, was purchased by a friend of Parent’s, Donald Woods, and his partner Lee-Ann Wilber, who took ownership of the property in 2004.

As the story of the infamous house goes, a wealthy banker Andrew and his wife, Abby (Lizzie’s stepmother), were found murdered August 4, 1892. The weapon was a hatchet, which would have killed both of them on the first blow, but Andrew had been hacked 11 times while sleeping on the downstairs sofa. His wife suffered 19 blows in an upstairs bedroom. Lizzy, Andrew’s youngest daughter, stood trial, but she was acquitted, and lived out the rest of her life in Fall River.

“Last year, Donald invited my sister and I to go down to visit and stay in one of the rooms, and I ended up staying in the room of Andrew Borden,” said Parent. “The house is super creepy, so I took tons of photographs as we walked around. I was getting a weird vibe, like something was just wrong.”

According to Martha McGinn, the previous owner who inherited the house, the room where Lizzie's stepmother Abby Borden was found murdered is the “most requested room” of the bedrooms at the bed and breakfast.

“At about 2 p.m. I was so creeped out to actually go into Abby’s room, so I just reached my arm around the door frame and snapped a bunch of photos,” said Parent.

The photos she took reveal a oval wooden mirror in the corner of a floral wallpapered bedroom. About a month later, when looking back on the photos she’d uploaded to her iPhoto library on her Mac laptop, something caught her eye in two of the mirror shots in Abby’s bedroom.

“You can clearly see the outline of something, like the form of a woman wearing a hood,” she said. “I showed them to my sister and her husband. I was like ‘Oh My God,’ look at this.”

There is also a black bar in the photos that seemed to appear later after the photos were taken. A phone interview with Wilber confirmed that the black bar is actually a vent in the ceiling. However, when Parent posted a photo of the mirror on her Facebook page the day before our interview, there was no black vent in the photos.

Twenty-four hours later in the midst of the interview, they just suddenly appeared in her iPhoto library and on the posted Facebook photo. Thinking it was some technical glitch that tampered with them, we showed the photos to Aaron Sarnacki, owner of Archangel Computers, who said the photos weren’t corrupted and there was no way an image can just appear in a photo.

Further he confirmed there are no linkages to Facebook from an iPhoto account that could change a photo once it was posted. Once the black bars appeared, Parent asked the 40 or so people who commented on the photo the day before on her Facebook account if they could now see the black bar in the Facebook photo and if they’d seen it there the day before. Many commented it had not been in the photo the day before.

“It’s an old, old mirror. People think they see stuff in it all of the time,” said Wilbur. “Depending on how you’re standing, you won’t see any anomalies in the mirror unless you take the picture from an angle. We’ve had plenty of pictures that were taken several years ago that can’t be explained, however, by a gentlemen by the name of Glenn Teza, a psychic and spiritual healing teacher from New Jersey. His photos show a mist figure and were taken with Instant Poloroid film and there is absolutely no way to mess with that film.”

Teza’s photos were featured when Zak Bagans, a paranormal investigator on the show Ghost Adventures, investigated the Lizzie Borden house. According to  information revealed in his show, Lizzie’s father and stepmother were not the only ones murdered in this house. Lizzie’s great uncle Lawdwick Borden also had a second wife, Eliza Darling Borden. Eliza drowned two of her three children and then took her own life by slitting her own throat with a straight razor after dropping the children in the cellar cistern.

Are there apparitions in the mirror, or is it a trick of the camera angle?

No matter what the public’s interpretation of the events in this story are, Parent know what she saw. “I’ve been invited back to the house to paint the rooms, but I’m not sure I want to go now,” she said, smiling.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

 It’s all about the food this weekend, then dancing it off.

Spin Jam, Bring Your Hoop

Friday, March 4—Rockland

Right about now, (I see you Maine Restaurant Week) everybody’s feeling the old pudge creeping up on the scale. A 30-minute spin of the hula hoop can burn off up to 250 calories and Rockland School of Ballet is offering an easy, stress-free spin jam for like minded hoopers and newbies who want to get their hoop on. They’ll gather indoors every other Friday though the colder months. Suggested donation to cover space rental: $5-10. Goes from 7:45 p.m. to 9:45 pm

Maine Fishermen’s Forum

Friday through Sunday March 4-6—Rockland

Years ago, I stumbled across this hidden gem of a three-day event at the Samoset Resort when I was writing my first book and now I just love to go back every year for the fun of it. There is no cost to attend and the people watching (or having a beer in the bar with fishermen) is the best part of it. In addition, there are family programs, a Trade Show, a Seafood Reception highlighting Maine's seafood, a Banquet/Dance on the last night, as well as a benefit auction to raise money for kids from seafood families.
It’s a slice of life you don’t often get to see and it gives you a real appreciation for the people who work insanely hard to bring the most quality seafood to this area. Goes all day both days from 9 a.m. to evening. FMI: Maine’s Fishermen’s Forum

It’s Shannon’s Birthday. You’re invited!

Saturday, March 5— Northport

Every year Shannon Thompson has invited everybody to her birthday party. Even if you were the last one picked for Dodgeball —you’d still be invited. That’s because she turns her birthday into an annual fundraiser and this year for her sixth annual Birthday Benefit, she’s holding a dance party at the Blue Goose in Northport to benefit LifeFlight. Th ever-popular holler folk band Ghost of Paul Revere will be playing.  Cafe Miranda will be serving dinner and and the beer is courtesy of Andrews Ale, of Lincolnville. The warm-up party starts at 5:30 p.m. and tickets (advance only; limited to 150) are $50 including the meal, beer, and show. The show with cash bar starts at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Info and tickets: birthdaybenefit.org or 207-975-2992. See Penobscot Bay Pilot’s recent story on Shannon here.

Allison Ames at Bowen’s Tavern

Saturday, March 5— Belfast

Here’s a little under-the-radar music happening. The Allison Ames band is playing Bowen’s Tavern starting at 8 p.m. $5 cover with $3.50 well drinks and $1 nachos—you can’t beat that. Drawing on years of experience and striking a balance between old and new, The Allison Ames Band is capable of doing practically any type of music from Elvis to Sugarland or from Creedence to K.C and the Sunshine Band. Infused with tight three-part harmonies, tasteful instrumental breaks and solid rhythms and beats, Take a listen to her band on Reverbnation.

Killer Road Trip: Maine Restaurant Week

March 1-14—statewide

Five local restaurants are participating in Maine Restaurant Week, but this gives you an excuse to hop in the car and go try something new for a fraction of its usual price. Portland has got the most restaurants participating, which is ideal for all the culinary addicts out there. (Side note: the word “foodie” has been banned). Lunches are typically around $15 and dinners can range from $25 to $55 per person. You can even find the vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options. Check them out here.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Chances are if you were playing a game of Family Feud and the question was: “What do you expect to see on the walls of the waiting room at a car dealership?” the winning answer might be “car posters” if it’s the year 2016 and “girlie calendar” if the year was 1978.

Atlantic Motorcar in Wiscasset, however, has elevated the waiting room to a new level. Since 2003, owner Bruce Howes has offered free wall space of his business to Midcoast aspiring and established artists to hang work and sell it without any charge of a commission.

“It’s a way to give back to the community,” he said. “I’m a patron of the arts and it creates a very nice atmosphere in the waiting room and in the hallways.” Howes invites artists to submit work year-round for consideration and while he wouldn’t go so far to say he curates certain pieces, he definitely has a discerning eye about what he feels his customers want to see.

“We try to find artwork that appeals to our demographic of customers, which tend to be 60 percent women, generally in the 30-70 age range,” he said. “So I’ve had artists submit sculptures, traditional paintings, interpretive and contemporary work. What people tend to value are watercolors and oil paintings, charcoal drawing and photography.”

While the coast of Maine and all of its familiar subjects, such as boats, waterscapes, and lighthouses tend to be the mainstay, Howes enjoys showcasing certain contemporary works.

“I’m open to more than just watercolors,” he said. “I’ve had people come in with pieces that are very different from that. I had one person who submitted a kaleidoscope 3-D paintings. We had another gentleman who did these high-resolution aerial photographs and printed them on these aluminum plates. The clarity was just phenomenal and people loved those.”

Artists have nearly 2,000 square feet of wall space available to them. 

“The walls throughout the building are this peanut shell color, a historical Benjamin Moore color and it works really well with a lot of different artwork,” he said. “It’s like coming into a coffee shop, like a Starbucks.”

Howes prefers to showcase up to three artists quarterly and each artist can provide up to approximately 10 art pieces.

“Or if I pick an artist with a large body of work, then that person will have 30 or so pieces up,” he said.

Each work has an artist’s statement next to it. They also cross-promote the artists on their Facebook page. They even collect payment on the pieces for the artist as another courtesy.

“I try to give everybody a chance,” he said.

Artists can expect a high traffic area with an appreciative clientèle. Interested parties should email: art@atlanticmotorcar.com, or call Bruce at 207-882-9970.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Chances are if you were playing a game of Family Feud and the question was: “What do you expect to see on the walls of the waiting room at a car dealership?” the winning answer might be “car posters” if it’s the year 2016 and “girlie calendar” if the year was 1978.

Atlantic Motorcar in Wiscasset, however, has elevated the waiting room to a new level. Since 2003, owner Bruce Howes has offered free wall space of his business to Midcoast aspiring and established artists to hang work and sell it without any charge of a commission.

“It’s a way to give back to the community,” he said. “I’m a patron of the arts and it creates a very nice atmosphere in the waiting room and in the hallways.” Howes invites artists to submit work year-round for consideration and while he wouldn’t go so far to say he curates certain pieces, he definitely has a discerning eye about what he feels his customers want to see.

“We try to find artwork that appeals to our demographic of customers, which tend to be 60 percent women, generally in the 30-70 age range,” he said. “So I’ve had artists submit sculptures, traditional paintings, interpretive and contemporary work. What people tend to value are watercolors and oil paintings, charcoal drawing and photography.”

While the coast of Maine and all of its familiar subjects, such as boats, waterscapes, and lighthouses tend to be the mainstay, Howes enjoys showcasing certain contemporary works.

“I’m open to more than just watercolors,” he said. “I’ve had people come in with pieces that are very different from that. I had one person who submitted a kaleidoscope 3-D paintings. We had another gentleman who did these high-resolution aerial photographs and printed them on these aluminum plates. The clarity was just phenomenal and people loved those.”

Artists have nearly 2,000 square feet of wall space available to them. 

“The walls throughout the building are this peanut shell color, a historical Benjamin Moore color and it works really well with a lot of different artwork,” he said. “It’s like coming into a coffee shop, like a Starbucks.”

Howes prefers to showcase up to three artists quarterly and each artist can provide up to approximately 10 art pieces.

“Or if I pick an artist with a large body of work, then that person will have 30 or so pieces up,” he said.

Each work has an artist’s statement next to it. They also cross-promote the artists on their Facebook page. They even collect payment on the pieces for the artist as another courtesy.

“I try to give everybody a chance,” he said.

Artists can expect a high traffic area with an appreciative clientèle. Interested parties should email: art@atlanticmotorcar.com, or call Bruce at 207-882-9970.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN — Imagine sitting at Cappy’s downstairs bar on a regular evening, nothing special, just a night you happened to pop in for a pint, when John Travolta walks in. First, you’re thinking, this can’t be real. There’s a look of concern on his face as he approaches you. “Hey, does anybody here happen to know where a veterinarian is?”

You’re now thinking, “OK, he just came from his house on Islesboro and one of his animals is sick.”

You try to give him some helpful suggestions of vets in the area, as does everyone sitting around at the bar.

Travolta’s straight face now breaks into a grin.

“Good, because these puppies are sick,” he says, flexing his biceps and giving each arm a kiss.

True story. Ann Flagg Campbell, a bartender who worked at Cappy’s Chowder House in 2014-2015 recalls: “It was hilarious, the funniest thing ever. Everybody loved it because it made him so real, down-to-earth and personable. He was the friendliest guy. He’d talk to anybody.”

Travolta was one of a few celebrities who stopped by Cappy’s Chowder House in its 37-year run. Former bartender Duncan Lockie (who made a mean margarita) had another funny story.

“Some years ago, John Travolta came in with Cal Ripken and friend on a quiet, chilly December afternoon with their own bottle of fancy red wine. They sat down at Table 2 and asked very politely whether it was OK to ‘bring their own’ and could they have some of our ‘great Happy Hour popcorn.’ Of course they could! They didn't order anything else and their bill, quite naturally, came to zero. They stayed for about an hour and after they left, there on the table was a $30 cash tip.”

Flagg Campbell said: “I’ve been in the restaurant industry for 25 years and that was, by far, the tightest knit group of people I’ve ever worked with. It was really a family there. In our off time, we’d go to one another’s birthday parties. If someone got sick, we’d all get together and bring them food or visit them at the hospital. ”

It was clear how much Cappy’s staff enjoyed their customers.

We covered Cappy’s when “Big John” Collins, one of Cappy’s veteran bartenders returned after 13-year-hiatus.

We also highlighted bartender Flagg Campbell’s killer Bloody Mary. 

Server Kimberly Lockie said: “I worked at Cappy's for six years. I must say there's nothing better than bringing a kid a Giggle Meal for the first time. Sometimes the big kids enjoyed a fun straw in their margarita or a mermaid in their martini. It was a very rewarding job at times.”

Graphic designer Maggi Blue recalls her fleeting days as a server.

“When I worked there in college, I remember being often hyped up on espresso that Big John would make me (I was underage, so this was my vice while working). While working stupid busy weekend days/nights, I would get the question (a la tourist speak) ‘Where is Bangor’ to which I would respond ‘Bang-er, I didn't even know her.’ One never quite knew if the table of tourists would find that funny. It was always a gamble.”

Our own editor Lynda Clancy remembers it as the only job she’s ever held in which she got fired.  “I was 17 the summer of 1977, living with my boyfriend at the campground and needed a job,” she said. “I got the breakfast shift. It was the old Cappy’s with the breakfast bar. One morning, all the fishermen and workmen were coming in and in my little apron, I filled the giant coffee maker with water and poured it through. Nothing was happening, so I poured through another. It went all over, everywhere. The floors, counters, everywhere. I was fired the next day.”

Just like Cheers, the fictional neighborhood bar in Boston, Cappy’s was the type of corner bar that drew its Norms and Cliffs. One such beloved customer who passed away in 2012 was Terry Voisine, a regular, who could always be found with a “low brow beer and a highbrow book” in front of him. “He came in all the time and was always reading at the bar,” said Campbell Flagg. “Whenever we did our own personal fundraising efforts to help one of our staff or customers, Terry was always the first one to give or offer help.”

Customer Rai Burnham had a memory that forever changed her view of her mother.

“When my mother and her partner visited me two years ago, I took them to Cappy's on their first night in town. My mother, who never eats dessert, decided to splurge and have the giant brownie sundae. None of us were prepared for the epic enormousness of what she had ordered. My mom is 5'1'. she had to stand up to eat it.”

We’re going to miss the free popcorn and hot wings, the Crow’s Nest and Deck Munchies, Girls’ Nights and after work gatherings, but mostly we’re going to miss the people who worked there and saw us as their “regulars.” Goodbye Cappy’s. We’re sorry to see you go.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—This is one of those performances that has to be seen to be believed. After their last visit in 2007 to a standing room only audience, Japan’s Yamato Taiko Drummers are returning to Camden, Tuesday, March 8.

“Their last visit here was incredible,” said Bay Chamber Concerts Executive Director Monica Kelly. “It was just stunning.”

In 2007, Bay Chambers Concerts was able to entice them to perform in Maine while they were on a New England tour in Boston and they made a special stop up to Camden for an abbreviated show.

“We first did a matinee show in the morning for a number of students,” said Kelly. “And when the kids came home after school, they were like ‘Oh My God, you should see what we saw today.’ That night, with barely any publicity, it ended up being this insane, sold-out show where people were getting mad in line because they couldn’t get in.”

Yamato Taiko Drummers are from the Mara Prefecture in Japan. A group of dozens of players start their performance by hitting a Japanese taiko drum made from a large 400 year-­old tree. Their live performances are so full of intensity that the British media has called their sound "The music of the body."

With 20 members, Yamato exhibits great originality and innovation through the traditional Japanese musical instrument, the Wadaiko (Japanese drum). The group formed in 1993 and has played more than 3,000 performances in 53 countries to over 6 million viewers.

“It’s a very acrobatic show, lots of jumping around with gigantic drums,” said Kelly. “The Wadaiko is about seven or eight feet wide surrounded by all of these smaller percussive drums. They’ve had to change out members over the years because it’s so physically demanding.”

Currently the Yamato Taiko Drummers on a grueling U.S./Canada tour with Maine being the farthest of their New England shows, followed by Burlington, Vt., and Boston.

Additionally, the Bay Chamber’s Concerts Community Engagement Program will offer two student matinees to Maine students at no charge. An exclusive show for Camden Hills Regional High School students is scheduled for 10 a.m., Tuesday, March 8, and a second free matinee open to high school students around the state will be offered on Wednesday, March 9, at 10 a.m. in the Strom Auditorium. The programs have enabled thousands of students to experience the excitement of live performances over the years.

For more information on the matinee or to register your school, please contact Monica Kelly, monica@baychamberconcerts.org.

BELFAST—There’s a lot going on underneath the surface of Belfast artist Isaac Wright. He is both edgy and shy, and not used to talking about himself. As we sit together in the corner of Traci’s Diner in Belfast after a lunch rush, he chews on a rubber band the way most people chew gum.

He is one of very few outsider artists living in the Midcoast, although he wouldn’t even think to call himself one. Outside art was a term coined in the 1970s to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture. Growing up in Maine in the foster system, Wright gravitated to vivid, surreal styles of street art, flash art, psychedelic folk art and tattoo art. Wright pops the rubber band out of his mouth to talk about the murals he was commissioned to paint, which cover every inch of wall space.

“The balloons painted on the wall were there forever and I just sort of brain-bubbled the rest of it,” he said. One wall depicts a bucolic, small, rolling hills Maine township, but with Wright’s own zany spin. There are floating ketchup and mustard bottles, flying coffees and a Dali-esque melting overeasy egg atop a hot air balloon.

Given the gritty, fringe style of Wright’s darker artwork (some of which is explicit), this mural is surprisingly whimsical, the sort of place where H.R. Pufnstuf would feel right at home.

“Well, I was going with the fact that this is a family place,” he said. “They weren’t going to have a lot of tolerance for me doing a bunch of darker stuff in here. No skulls!”

He also designed the cover of the menu for Traci’s Diner in a large scale stencil format, which is another art form he specializes in.

It’s not always all skulls and dark drawings—there’s a very sweet side to Wright. In the “About” section on his website, he could have uploaded any photo of himself, but instead, he’s got an image of him hugging his mother, who happens to be an artist herself. He posts one of her own psychedelic drawings from 1978 on his website.

“It’s supposed to be a mushroom trip and she wasn’t even on mushrooms when she did it,” he said, proud of her.

“She likes my work now, but there was a period of time where I couldn’t show her anything,” he said, laughing. “Or it would offend her.”

Wright admits that although his work has matured over the years, he hasn’t quite found a solid career path with it yet. “In Maine, it’s really difficult,” he said. He used to be a tattoo artist, but that didn’t pan out.

“It’s hard to find someone I can work with. It’s a budding ego thing,” he said. “I’m a little frustrated. I’m still trying to build what I do and want to see more come out of it.”

For while he broke out of the small town and lived in Austin, Texas. However, he found himself getting out of control down there and felt Maine’s slower pace kept him out of trouble, so he moved back.

“Besides all of that, in the cities, they already have an established subculture of skateboard artists and a variety of tattoo artists,” he said. “Maine doesn’t have a lot of that. There’s a small pool of genuine artists who do that kind of street art and I want to feed that pool in Maine.”

Though he could go anywhere, he feels an attachment to the town of Belfast, where he’s lived for the last seven years. “I could go to Portland, but it’s expensive to live there and I have a big dog who is a pretty important part of my life,” he said. “Belfast is a great town for a dog. The city, not so much.”

Occasionally he does civic work for the town, such as a poster or a spray paint mural. He likes to give back to the place that sustains him.

While he creates art for its own sake, he also does commission work on signs and banners. In 2004, Black Bear Microbrew in Orono hired him to design their beer labels. Additionally, Mainely Brews in Waterville also had him do their graphics. Then from 2008 to 2013 Flash Tattoo magazine regularly had a page or two in the flash art pages featuring his work.

“I have a hard time doing one style all of the time,” he said. “I like to mix it up.”

To see more of his unique style visit: dramica.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN — It was one of Maine’s original brew pubs in the 1990s, and now it’s come full circle. Sea Dog Brewing Company is coming back to Camden.

Matt Orne, the owner of Cappy’s Chowder House, which has been a Camden mainstay for the last 37 years, said on Friday, Feb. 26 that the restaurant will close Sunday, Feb. 28, and reopen June 15 as the Camden Sea Dog. Orne, who still owns the property, will lease the business to Sea Dog Brewery.

“There are going to be a lot of improvements, and it is going to be good,” said Orne.

The Sea Dog was initially launched by Peter Camplin Sr. in 1993 in the old Knox Woolen Mill where The Smokestack Grill is now located. Back then, it was a 240-seat brewpub with an onsite small kegging brewery. Its most prominent features were a horseshoe bar reminiscent of “Cheers,” and old mill machinery, such as cogs and shafts, hanging from the ceiling, as well as a back deck overlooking the dramatic waterfall of the Knox Mill Pond.  Original patrons of the Sea Dog remember packed happy hours on the deck with waterfall spray in their beers and having to yell over the torrent of water.

In March 1995, Sea Dog opened a 540-seat restaurant and brewery on the banks of the historic Penobscot River in downtown Bangor. In February 2000 Sea Dog opened in South Portland, at the original location where the Saltwater Grill is now located,and in September 2000, a fourth Sea Dog was opened in Topsham.

According to Camplin, in an email Saturday, Feb. 27, the company was sold in May 2001 to a Florida restaurant group. But that fall the Florida company was unsuccessful, filed for bankruptcy protection and soon closed the doors. In December 2002, a bankruptcy judge approved the sale of Sea Dog to Shipyard Brewing Company’s Fred Forsley and Alan Pygsley, who Camplin called his “good friends.”

In a Bangor Daily News article in 2002, Forsley said: “I know firsthand how much those restaurants are valued by the local communities. The Sea Dog restaurants are an important piece of the Sea Dog brand.”

However, the Camden location was never revived, much to the disappointment of locals, who’d made it their neighborhood hangout for 14 years. Under new ownership, the Sea Dogs in Bangor, South Portland and Topsham have remained, and in 2013 Sea Dog expanded operations in Florida with a brewpub in Orlando. In 2014, another Sea Dog was opened in Florida, in Clearwater, while also expanding to North Conway, N.H.

Penobscot Bay Pilot will update more details of the transition as they develop.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—On March 5, The Steel House will be hosting a Art & Feminism Edit-a-Thon from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. On a global scale, the Art and Feminism annual event is a movement to improve coverage of women and the arts on Wikipedia and to encourage female editorship.

Why is this so important? “Wikipedia is a collectively edited and produced source of international information,” said Maeve O’Regan, the event’s organizer. “I think the numbers are around 132,000 with millions of registered, non-active users with less than 13 percent of those editors identifying as female.”

The Art and Feminism website states that there is a lack of representation on Wikipedia on feminist art and gender expression and that’s why this international event was created to change that.

The main organizer of the Art and Feminism event is happening in New York City on March 5 with satellite “Edit-a-Thons” taking place all over the world at the same time. 

Last year, more than 1,500 participants at more than 75 events around the world participated in the second annual Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, resulting in the creation of nearly 400 new pages and significant improvements to 500 articles on Wikipedia.

O’Regan, a Maine native who lived in New York City before moving to Midcoast, thought Maine would be a great place to host one of these Edit–A-Thons.

“This is an opportunity to shed some light on the disparity of females editing the Wikipedia content, but it’s also a great opportunity for people to get together in a social setting and meet one another,” she said.

Artists, scholars, curators, librarians, and Wikipedians are all encouraged to come. Asked who she thought might be attracted to this event, she said: “This is an enclave for artists and of course, many artists are women. But, men are encouraged to come as well as people who identify of a different gender.”

One thing the event is not geared for is anyone who wants to edit their own Wikipedia page. Wikipedia guidelines forbid you from editing pages that represent a conflict of interest. Conflict of interest editing involves contributing to Wikipedia to promote your own interests, including your business or financial interests, or those of your external relationships, such as with family, friends or employers. Instead, you can suggest on the talk page changes that could be made to the article.

Bring your laptop, power cord, and ideas for entries that need updating or creation. Childcare requires advance registration by March 2; email art.edit.maine@gmail.com to let them know first names and number of children requiring care, their ages, and what time you plan on attending

For more information about the Steel House node event visit: rocklandsteelhouse.com/experience

For more information about the national Art & Feminism event, visit: art.plusfeminism.org

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

This weekend we’ve got some silly stuff on tap, starting with the most secret adult snow ball fight ever followed by Irish and funk-rock music and probably one of the best named musicals I’ve ever heard.

Adult Snowball Fight!

Saturday, Feb 27 —Camden

I’m not sure why this event is so super secret. This is all you get when you are looking for this snow ball fight between town leaders happening at 3 p.m. allegedly at the Rockport-Camden arch on Union Street.  They’re calling it a “Special Board Meeting.” Perhaps because of the complete lack of snow, both teams might be gearing up for the snowball fight celebrating the Rockport Quasquwhatever by storing prepacked balls in their freezers. Then, they’re really going to need the blood drive after this fight. Anyway, if you’re up for seeing grown people lose it on one another with snowballs, pop on by.

Get down to fix it up at Simonton Corner

Saturday, Feb. 27— Rockport

Simonton Corner Community Hall just to be that funky little hole in the wall for bands in the 1990s around here and has recently enjoyed a revival thanks to Necessary Music Productions and The Midnight Riders, a Old Soul, Funk & Blues, Rock ‘N Roll band that prefers the dark and musty corners to a slick stage. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. and all donated profits will go to renovating the hall for future bands. Good deal.

The hottest Irish acoustic group on the planet

Friday, Feb. 26 — Camden

Because I'm Irish I'm a sucker for the Celtic sound. The world-renowned Lúnasa is coming to the Camden Opera House to play with special guest Tim O'Brien. Since coming together in 1996, Lúnasa has performed over 1800 concerts and achieved a worldwide reputation as a different kind of Irish traditional music band. The all-instrumental quintet is noted for double bass and guitar-driven rhythms, original compositions mixed with material from Celtic regions. Reserved seating tickets available AT CAMDENOPERAHOUSE.COM, $22, $25 and $28 or by calling 207-470-7066 or at box office beginning at 6 p.m. Afterwards, the concert's sponsor Camden Harbour Inn, will be throwing one of their special meet and greets with the band at Natalie's Restaurant. The bar will be open serving their bar food menu..

Yellow Brick Road: A Tribute to Elton John

Saturday, Feb. 27 — Rockport

Unity College is putting out an Elton John tribute with wild costumes and sets. The event sets out to recreate every detail of an actual Elton John concert.  Given that he just slammed Janet Jackson for her lip syncing in which he said in part (warning NSFW) “It’s f****** lip-synced! Hello! That’s not a show! I’d rather go and see a drag queen.”—that show better have live singers or Elton will be coming hard for them! The show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 at the door and can be purchased ahead of time here.

Killer Road Trip: “Urinetown” The Musical at UMO

Sunday, Feb. 28 — Orono

Normally I like musicals about as much as pulling a glass shard out of my foot, but this title warms my heart. A winner of three Tony Awards, three Outer Critic’s Circle Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, and two Obie Awards, Urinetown is a hilarious musical satire of the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, municipal politics and musical theatre itself! Hilariously funny and touchingly honest, Urinetown provides a fresh perspective of one of America’s greatest art forms. The matinee show goes from 2-4 p.m. Tickets: $15 or free with student MaineCard. Buy Tickets.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND— It’s one of the Midcoast’s best kept secrets: The food at Mid-Coast School of Technology is delicious. And you can’t beat a $5 lunch.

On Feb. 23, the school’s hospitality program kicked off its annual World Café, where for the next eight weeks, nearly 50 students will perfect and execute a themed menu for the public at the school, 1 South Main Street. Each weekly menu offers full breakfasts and lunches for an average of $5, Tuesday through Friday. 

“We usually offer two appetizers, a soup and salad, and three to four entrees,” said chef Joshua Gamage, the school’s culinary arts instructor.

On opening day, the humble restaurant (which is actually a classroom) was packed with regulars who know to go in via the side door (not through the school’s main doors.) Each table in the dining area has a modest paper table setting with a vase of fresh flowers and a comment card. The starting week is always U.S.A. themed and for lunch, the fried cheeseburger balls topped with pickles ($3) and the cowboy burger with homemade barbecue sauce and crispy haystack onions ($5) were the biggest hit.

Cristen Rasmussen, 17, was the student chef behind the most popular items ordered. “I was just thinking about doing a fun little cheeseburger slider for an appetizer and it popped into my head,” she said. “It feels really good that people are ordering my food.”

Her mother, who was a World Café regular, got Rasmussen interested in the hospitality program and this is her first year.

“I think I want to work as a chef when I get out of this program,” she said.

Classes are split up into morning and afternoon shifts. Gamage teaches culinary arts while his co-instructor, chef Carol Pelletier, teaches front of the house skills, as well as baking/pastry and nutrition. Each student gets to work every facet of the restaurant business, from the preparation to serving etiquette.

My server was 18-year-old Liz Freyer, who had never taken orders before. As this was her first year in the program, she asked me hesitantly several times to confirm the order. She said she’s more comfortable in the kitchen.

“Next week for Mexican Week, I get to make a dessert of churros,” she said. “It’s fried dough with cinnamon and brown sugar. I’ll also make sopapilla, which are also deep fried triangles. When you take a bite, it tastes just like fried dough at the fair. We’ll serve that with cinnamon ice cream.”

For next week’s Mexican menu, Gamage and the students reviewed all of the Mexican restaurant offerings in the area.

“We look at menus from the chain restaurant all the way to a local restaurant and we might see 10 different ideas and how to put them all together,” he said. “Leading up to World Café week, we do a lot of experimentation and if it’s good enough, it will go on the menu.”

Just like an executive chef or expediter in a restaurant, Gamage makes sure that every dish that goes out is up to the program’s highest standards. It’s called “Working the pass.” He said when it’s showtime, he is behind the line helping the student chefs prioritize the tickets.

“When the orders started coming, it can get very scary for them, really quickly. I’m there to basically show them how to time everything out. Sometimes, it’s like a little deer in the headlights and they’re wondering is this going to be OK. But, we design a very simple menu so the kids don’t get too overwhelmed.”

The skills training they are getting is invaluable.

“When kids have the experience of live cooking for customers, they are getting almost a college level of instruction, because there’s just no way any simulation could teach you the mental aerobics of timing out tickets or interacting as servers,” he said. “It’s a nice, safe way to learn these skills.”

Every year Gamage has successfully placed almost every one of his students as staff with local restaurants. “I have relationships with most of the restaurants,” he said. “I usually just determine where the student lives and if he or she has transportation, then match the student personality wise and skill wise with restaurants that would be the best fit.”

By 1 p.m. the Cafe promptly shut down as the students needed to tally the receipts, clean up the kitchen, reset the dining areas and catch the bus back to their other schools or back home.

To view the full menu for the World Café’s current week click here. Or stay posted to their Facebook page for each week’s menus.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

THOMASTON — The art of decorating wood with burn marks, also known as pyrography, is something 22-year-old Zach Spofford has been playing around with since he was 14.

He’s gotten good at it. When he’s not working part time at the Flagship Theater, he’s usually working on fan art that appeals to him, particularly people from pop culture. Recently, he did a detailed woodburn of the Grammy winner Taylor Swift. 

“I usually just trace the outline of a face onto the wood and then freehand the gradients and the shade, so it looks more realistic,” he said.

Satisfied with the piece, he uploaded it to his Facebook page in mid-February. His friend, who follows Swift on Tumblr, reposted the image. To the friend’s surprise, (and Spofford’s) Swift wrote back via a private message on Tumblr and said: "He's amazing for doing that, and so talented. I'm so impressed."

Spofford said Swift indicated she was interested in commissioning him to do a woodburn of herself and one of her famous squad friends.

“Yeah, that would be a really big deal,” he said.

He seems fairly unfazed that an international star found his work good enough to praise him. Right now, his focus is on a giant piece he’s excited about — the original 1977 Star Wars poster.

He points out the shading on the p piece.

“As you can see, it’s really a lot of detail,” he said, noting that it took a lot of intricate work to get the shading on R2D2 correctly. “Yeah, that was crazy.”

He uses an electric kit with a stylus, burning gradients in some places and allowing negative space to fill out the rest of the image. 

“It’s a lot like comic book drawing,” he said, of his process.

Asked how he puts together a piece, he said: “I’ll go online and try to find a photo of something that I really like. Then, I buy the wood. I used to use pine, but it’s too soft and full of knots, so now I just use birch. What I do to save money for the printing of it, I’ll tape a piece of carbon paper to the wood and transfers the image to the wood, so I have the basic outline. What most people don’t know is that you can’t erase anything. You have to be really focused. You just have to not mess up.”

However, even after investing all that time and energy into pieces, mistakes do happen.

“Oh it happens all of the time,” he said, “I just gotta hide it.”

He’s actually making a small living on commissions, but still maintains his day job for the insurance.

“It’s tough to be an artist,” he admitted.

Maybe one piece for Taylor Swift might change all of that.

To see more of Spofford’s work on Facebook visit: Pyroglyphica

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

THOMASTON—The long-haired tuxedo cat was stumbling, falling down on the sidewalk when a gentleman found him this past week. He was filthy, emaciated, suffering from a respiratory illness and covered in fleas. The cat was near death, its rib bones protruding from his matted coat. He couldn’t stand up on his own, his front paws buckling.

“We’ve all got our fingers crossed with this one,” said Theresa Gargan, Pope Memorial Humane Society of Knox County’s shelter manager. “He’s just been out all winter starving. He’s an older cat on top of that.”

The shelter immediately put him in a warm environment and got him to take fluids and wet cat food. As soon as he’s a little more stabilized, they’ll treat him with medication to clear up the respiratory illness. “He’s been eating and handling the food well,” said Gargan. “But he’s still in critical condition. I think we’re looking at at least a month before he’s better and adoptable.” As Saint tries to eat, he seems to have trouble swallowing. He’s still too weak to step into the litter box, his front paws, still buckling, so they have to regularly change out the towels under him.

Gargan said they named him “Saint” as he has had the patience of a saint while administering care to him. One touch to his face and his misery seems to recede for a moment and he closes his eyes and responds to the nuzzle. “He’s affectionate for sure,” said Gargan. “He is neutered, so he was somebody’s pet at one time. We don’t know if he escaped or was pushed out, but he’s been barely surviving all winter on his own. At his age, he shouldn’t be outside at all.”

Ever since Saint’s photo was posted on the shelter’s Facebook page, the shelter has gotten a lot of response from the public. “People are sending good wishes, which is awesome,” she said. “And people have asked if they can donate anything to his care. As always, we can use wet cat food. The paté kind, that’s all he can ingest at this point.”

Penobscot Bay Pilot keep you posted on Saint’s progress.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

This weekend has full plate of music for every taste. You like holler folk? Psychobilly? Steel drums? Down home blues? Midcoast’s got it...as well as a new Maine movie that has got everyone talking.

Rock City’s Luau

Saturday, Feb. 20 — Rockland

In their final fundraising push for a new roaster, Rock City Café is transforming their coffee shop into a tropical paradise for a night. Expect live music from Steelin' Thunder, delicious food cooked by guest chef Max Miller of The Landings, tropical cocktails (with tiny umbrellas!) and grass skirts. February seems confused this year, let's confuse it further. Bring a Hawaiian shirt and wear shorts. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., suggested donation of $10, just like last time. Eat, drink and dance!

Murder Weapon at the Myrt

Saturday, Feb. 20 — Rockland

These homegrown Thomaston musicians are back with their unique blend of punk/rockabilly/psychobilly at The Myrtle Street Tavern. The show starts at 9 p.m. Click to hear them on Reverbnation.

Free Range Music series at Waterfall Arts

Saturday, Feb. 20 — Belfast

Edith & Bennett (Edith Gawler and Bennett Konesni) are musicians and worksong scholars who together play music rooted in old-time fiddle, banjo, Swedish dance tunes, and farmer's ballads and hollers. Sugarbush (whom we profile in our forthcoming spring issue of The Wave) are a rollicking soulful trio of musical mamas from Waldo County, bringing a variety of genres into their unique Americana Folk mix. The show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $8 in advance/$10 at the door. (Kids 12 and under are half price; under five are free.) Click to buy tickets.

The Old Blues Kats at Hatchet Mountain Publick House

Saturday, Feb. 20 — Hope

The Old Blues Kats return to Hope’s only Irish pub for an evening of booze, blues and BBQ. Seating is limited so act quickly to secure your table. The show starts at 8 p.m. Suggested donation is $10/person.

Killer Road Trip: Tumbledown, the Maine movie

Friday, Feb 19 through Sunday, Feb 21 — Portland

This a comedic love story set in a small town in Maine is getting some serious buzz lately. In this movie by Portland filmmakers Sean Mewshaw and Desi Van Til, pop-culture scholar Andrew (Jason Sudeikis) comes to Maine to interview Hannah (Rebecca Hall), the protective widow of an acclaimed singer. When the unlikely pair strike a deal to co-write a biography, Andrew finds himself clashing with a cast of locals, including Hannah’s hunky suitor (Joe Manganiello) and her loving, but defensive parents (Blythe Danner, Richard Masur). When Hannah and Andrew's stormy partnership blossoms into an unexpected connection, they face the possibility that the next chapter in their lives may involve each other. Click for show times.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND — Sure, you can sit around watching the Oscars in your super comfy Dollar Store flannel P.J. bottoms, but when someone sticks a microphone in your face and asks “Who are you wearing?,” the fashion world is not going to be impressed when you say Paul Bunyan.

Instead, grab a pal or a date, and work that red carpet like the rent is due at Strand Theatre on Sunday, Feb. 28. There will be paparazzi, so be sure to give FACE and HIGH GLAMOUR as you stroll in.

“Actually a handful of people dress up, the rest of the audience usually just comes in regular clothes,” admitted Strand Theatre Marketing and Community Relations Manager Jana Herbener.

Presented live from the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, Calif., the 88th annual Academy Awards ceremony starts at 7:30 p.m. when the doors will open for the red carpet previews. The hour before the show, which starts at 8:30 p.m., is always like Fashion Police and with champagne specials up in the balcony bar, it’s always fun to play the Oscar Night drinking game. (Three shots if JLaw stumbles in her dress again.)

“We have a contest where you can guess all of the Oscar winners of the night,” said Herbener. “We’ll provide ballots and you just have to submit your predictions before the ceremony starts at 8:30 p.m. Anyone who guesses correctly will be put into a drawing where you can possibly win a 10-movie pass card ($75 value).”

For a full list of 2016 Oscar nominees, click here.

Besides being able to see every smile and every sequin in all their brilliant glory on the theater’s high definition digital projection system, the event is free to the public.

See you there!

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Through the years, starting when she was 6, Rita Swidrowski would capture on the pages of her sketchbook what to some might seem like banal moments - like the color of someone’s backpack. But for her, they were a way to capture moments in time. “I have this core memory of sitting on a bench on the boardwalk by the ocean with crayons, and I drew the beach and the people and it left a real impression,” she said.

She was an art teacher throughout the 1980s and 1990s, then worked in libraries in children’s programming in the 2000s.

“Art has always been part of my professional and personal life,” she said. “I’ve always had a private journal, but somewhere along the way, the sketchbook and the journal melded.”

She began to get inspiration from other sketchbook journal artists, such as the author of Sarah Midda’s South of France.

Around 2001, when she lived in Portland, she started restudying the French language. Her French teacher, Valérie Guillet, of The Language Exchange, got a glimpse of her sketchbook and said, “You’ve got to go to France.” So she went on immersion trips to Provence.

“Traveling with my French teacher, we weren’t allowed to use English, so journaling with my sketchbook became a way to practice French,” she said.

For 10 years she went back to France to sketch. Hence, many of her sketchbook drawings are captioned in French.

Swidrowski works in black pen and colored pencils, or watercolor. “I don’t like pencil,” she said. “I like the commitment of a pen.” While she sketches the “big” overarching scenery details like waterscapes and architecture, she also zeroes in on the innocuous little moments — things that wouldn’t necessarily stand out to the casual observer. In one sketch she did at an L.L. Bean concert this past summer, she portrays what looks like an ovoid-shaped husband and wife, whose clothing even somewhat matches. Her friend provided the caption. “J calls them salt and pepper shakers.”

"For me, the ordinary becomes extraordinary and memorable when I draw and write," she said.

Sometimes people she’ll never meet end up as character sketches in her notebooks. Flipping through the pages, she remembers these people who’ve wandered through her life — many of whom never even know they were sketched. Sometimes she overhears their conversations and includes snippets of what they said in captions beside the drawings. It’s a lot like being a photojournalist on a micro level, except the “photos” are her own interpretation.

For example, one day she observed a group of young people in the Belfast Commons playing a game of Ultimate Frisbee. To the everyday passerby, it was just a game, nothing noteworthy. But, as she overheard the young people conversing, she began to scribble down their words next to their sketches.

“What they were talking about had such local color, but then my comments were all about how they were all cooperating together, as opposed to other sports where other players just fight each other,” she said.

 Swidrowski often draws in public spaces such as libraries, parks, beaches and concerts. She is often approached by strangers while sketching to ask what she’s drawing and if they can take her photo. With societal norms, it’s hard to imagine a stranger coming up to someone writing in her journal to ask “What are you writing?” But for some reason, with artists, people feel it’s okay to approach.

“Sometimes, I have these great encounters with people who are enthusiastic in sketching,” she said. “And there are times, I just close my notebook and wait until they pass. But, they’re just doing what I’m doing. They’re curious and instead of sketching me, they are interviewing me and taking my picture. And it becomes a little moment for them that they’ll remember in their journeys as well.”

Swidrowski currently has a show hanging at the Belfast Free Library, with two filled workshops starting Tuesday, Feb. 16. To go through all of her private journals and choose what allows the public into her private world took a lot of time for her.

“I mostly picked most of the sketches of Maine and Quebec City,” she said. “In the past, I might have felt more vulnerable about releasing these illustrations, but I’m more confident and centered than in my youth and I enjoy sharing the joy they bring me.  I also think we’re in a society that is getting to be a lot less private. My generation has been much more private, but I think in a way, this show is moving me with the times.”

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

This weekend is all about the jam. Whether you go Irish, roots rock or funkadelic, here are some great suggestions for your Valentine’s (or anti-Valentine’s) Day weekend, plus for the outdoor lovers, a couple of Killer Road Trips to get out there and play in the snow!

Irish Music Jam and Black & Tans

Friday, Feb. 12 — Rockland

It’s a little more than a month away for St. Paddy’s Day, but Rock City Cafe is getting the jump on it Friday with local musicians doing an informal evening of traditional Irish tunes and a few songs. Their vast repertoire of Irish music is known far and wide, and musicians come together to play the tunes they know in common. Rock City will also be offering specials on Irish Coffee, Dublin Mudslides and their version of a Black & Tan. Show goes from 7 to 10 p.m.

Anti-Valentine’s Day Dance

Saturday, Feb. 13 — Rockland

3Crow Restaurant and Bar is going to do their best version of Grumpy Cat meets George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic with an Anti-Valentine’s Day dance. Not sure what the dress code is (all black on the outside because you’re all black and withered on the inside?), but, DJ Janimal will be spinning and there will be drink specials. The dance starts at 10 p.m. and goes to 1 a.m. No cover.

Cheap Dates: Tubing & Chocolate

Saturday, Feb. 13 to Sunday, Feb. 14 — South China

I’ve put together a few creative ideas (that are literally off the beaten path) for people who want to celebrate their friendship or relationship in a non-traditional way with tubing at South China’s GO Tubing Lanes. (Note: Go at night, it’s better). Check out my latest column: Cheap Dates: Valentine’s Day in China

Killer Road Trip: Winter Fest

Sunday, February 14—Damariscotta

Bitter cold won’t stop the die-hards from sledding, skating, sipping free hot chocolate, watching a sled dog demonstration and eating hot dogs for $1. There will be a warming hut open and a campfire with marshmallow roasting. There will also be snowshoes to borrow at no cost on Sunday! The event goes from noon to 3 p.m. FMI: Winter Fest

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

SOUTH CHINA — A couple of years ago, when the Camden Snow Bowl’s snow tube hill closed, there were a lot of sad faces in the Midcoast. But, a little gem has cropped up on the snowy hills of South China that will turn the sads into glads again. GO Tubing began in 2013, started by Kevin Gower, who runs several snow tube lanes on his property.

With a website and Facebook presence, they’re drawing people from all over Maine. “I grew up next door to this hill and we used to slide down the hills all the time,” he said.

Lazy people are really going to love this place because it offers a tube lift, which pulls you up a little alley all the way up the hill, so you don’t have to trudge up with your tube every time. (Although you can burn 200-300 calories per half hour if you choose to walk up).

“We try to give people a two-and-a-half-hour session, which is plenty of time,” said Gower. At $18 per session, people actually have to book a certain time online (it’s not a show-up-and-go kind of place). He has 115 tubes and says it gets very busy on the weekends.

Given that school vacation is going to explode with chitlins all over the hill starting Monday, Feb. 15, Gower suggests that the best times for Valentine’s Day couples would be on the weekend at 9 a.m. (when it’s the least busy) or at 6 p.m. (when the trails get even slicker after the sun goes down). Even if you’re not a couple, this Cheap Date is perfect for happy singles who prefer bombing down a hill as opposed to getting bombed on anti-Valentine’s Day.

The temperatures on Sunday are predicted to be breezy and frigid, with a high of 15 degrees Fahrenheit, so after all of those tubing hijinks, you’re due for a cozy warm up.

The Green Bean Coffee Shop is about 10 minutes away from the GO Tubing trails in South China and according to owner Nancy Rodrigue, they’ll be open Saturday (unfortunately not Sunday) until 3 p.m. and will be offering heart shaped donuts, cookies, brownies and hot chocolate. Click for directions.

However, nothin’s finah than The China Dine-ah, another local favorite down the road apiece, open on Sunday. Imagine having a hot chocolate or sharing their signature cream puff, a dessert for two split and filled with creamy vanilla pudding and topped with hot fudge or filled with your choice of ice cream and topped with hot fudge, whipped cream and a cherry. Click here for directions

Better get humping up that hill each time if you go the cream puff route. Have a majestic Valentine’s Day.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Behind the Slides, our ongoing feature, is where we meet up with an artist who presented at a PechaKucha event and find out the deeper story beneath the images they chose to portray.

Ariel Hall is a multi-disciplinary artist working mainly in performance and installation. She is currently working on projects for the opening of the new Center for Maine Contemporary Art, co-curating TEDxDirigo events and keeping furiously busy in her studio.

Note: The slides appear in the right column. Click on the photos to match them with the actual slide notes (in italics). Beneath the slide notes will be the deeper story.

Moebius Strip

This is a moebius strip—a long and somewhat tangled one that I made of paper. If you imagine walking along the strip, you would return to your starting point having traversed the entire length on both "sides" but without ever crossing an edge. You're on the outside, then suddenly you're on the inside, but then the inside becomes the outside again, but actually the outside IS the inside. This torsion of inside and outside is much like a body's reflexive surfaces, where the boundaries between interiority and exteriority, oneself and the world, are in constant reciprocity with one another.

Moebius strips are a guiding motif in my work. My work has always been predicated on the body, exploring the relationship between subject and object, and moebius strips are the perfect physical manifestation of this relationship—form, analogy, and metaphor, entwined.

Planes of Contact

I'm interested in planes of contact—permeable membranes, like skin, that simultaneously contain and demarcate, and allow for connection and flow. Bodies are our means and our medium in the world, and the very substance of us as subjects. So we are both object and subject, enfolded.

I've done a number of collaborations with local photographer Ralph Hassenpflug. We work easily, fluidly together, drawn to similar materials and processes. This photo came from a long series of portraits we made using materials of various transparencies to wrap or occlude or layer over me. This is a lot about exploring emotional states of selfhood.

Corporeality

For me, corporeality is the most accessible framework for understanding the complexities of being a subject. This view of subjectivity assumes that bodily knowing is knowing—that a body has its own functional intelligence not lesser than the mind's. It's almost like I'm making maps of myself for myself, using my body as the primary thinking tool to better understand what it means to be a subject among subjects.

I love working with latex. As a material, it is endlessly interesting to me. I love that it becomes like a second skin that I can stretch, pull, tear, fold, layer over me. It does wonderful things with light, and it's so resilient.

Containers

I'm particularly drawn to making and using various containers—jars and sacks and womb-like things that contain just like a body contains. In some ways, bodies are just vibrant containers for visceral mass—assemblages of many multiple containers brought together, smushed together, and held more or less in place by our skin. I'm compelled by materials and forms that reference a body or evoke bodiless.

These containers are very visceral to me. I made them by melting down plastic bottles into wilted forms. They are like little bodies, little clear bodies that reveal their fluid insides. But they're also just simple vases.

Anthropophagic Slobber

Part of what I loved about performing this piece, called Anthropophagic Slobber, by Lygia Clark, was that it so explicitly plays with the relationships between interior, exterior, and surface. By drawing thread out of one's mouth onto the skin of another, what's internal is literally made external, and a second skin of accumulated thread forms.

For the past two years I have performed other artists' work at the Museum of Modern Art. This is one of those pieces. I actually wrote about this particular piece in my graduate thesis. I've been working with this same group of performers on a number of different shows, and we have developed this incredible intimacy which makes doing a piece like this one much easier than if it were with strangers.

Yoko Ono’s Bag

Sometimes a simple device, like Yoko Ono's black cloth bag for Bag Piece, is the most profoundly effective. Getting inside the bag and spending hours in it, every day, for four months, changes you. From inside, a whole world is available to you. You can see out to the people looking at you, but they can't see in beyond the bag's opacity.

This is another piece I did at MoMA. I loved the freedom that it allowed—you're simultaneously very much on display and totally hidden from view. It allows you to really be yourself, which was partly Yoko's intention with the piece. This photo is taken from inside the bag, looking out to my reflection in a mirror across the way. I love the reflexive thing that happens here where you can see yourself looking at yourself but you can't actually see yourself—all you see is your form. Again, I think of that flip between inside and outside, self and other.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND — Known for the “Best Breakfast in New England” (deemed by Yankee magazine), Home Kitchen Café owners James Hatch and Susan Schiro are expanding their restaurant’s popular brand this April into the former Brown Bag location on Main Street.

Hatch and Schiro, who’d just expanded the business a year before, transforming the former hair salon adjacent to the restaurant at 19 North Main St. into an ice cream parlor and bakery, had no plans on moving until they learned the Brown Bag was going out of business.

“The Cone Home shop where it sits right now is far enough off the road to have little visibility,” said Hatch. “Initially, when we were considering [the Brown Bag space], we came to the conclusion that a Main Street location was a brilliant and obvious place as a Home Kitchen ice cream and dessert destination. They had all of the equipment for sale, but not the building, so we made an offer on all of what was inside.”

As patrons of the old Brown Bag know, the building is divided into three sections. On the left was the seating area, which, according to Hatch, will now be the new Cone Home ice cream parlor. The right side was previously a bakery and will remain so. 

“We will be able to make all of our own breads for the restaurant, as well as bread, rolls and buns for sale, along with more dessert items and homemade cones for the ice cream shop,” Hatch said.

The middle area (the former ordering area) will now be a sub/burrito shop.

“We’ll make to-order homemade subs, that North End Boston Italian style with cappicola, Mortadella, Provolone — a variety of 15-20 subs,” he said. “From here to Portland, there are no homemade sub shops, which I think will add to the food map of Rockland.”

Hatch anticipates opening the bakery in early April, with the other two sides of the business opening shortly after.

“The colors of the interior will be the same as the restaurant,” he said. “Everybody’s going to know this is the same Home Kitchen experience in a different location.”

As for the bakery/ice cream space they currently own adjacent to the Home Kitchen Cafe, Hatch envisions a waiting lounge with a built-in bar for restaurant patrons. “I always thought that was something we needed,” he said. “It’s not ideal to have people waiting inside, where the space is so small, and sometimes, they have to sit there up to an hour, so we want to build a place for people who are waiting for a table to have a cocktail or a coffee or tea.”

The new expansion not only keeps the Main Street space locally owned, but it’s boosting the economy as well.

“We’re creating seven or eight new jobs and hopefully keeping the scene vibrant,” he said.

Related Story:

• Rockland Planning Board considers Home Kitchen Cafe expansion

  Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

The fate of the Toboggan National Championships hangs in the balance as I write this, so we’re going to bring you five things that are not toboggan-related this weekend. Either way, you’re going to have fun!

Banff Mountain Film Festival Tour

Friday, Feb. 5 and Saturday, Feb. 6 — Rockport

Over the course of two nights, the film fest, (which is shown in more than 60 countries) comes to the Camden Hills High School Strom Auditorium in Rockport. Expect a high emotion, high intensity set of short films. Jeff Boggs, who runs the festival every year said “Films I’m looking forward to seeing are Reel Rock:10: Line Across the Sky  (Best Film – Climbing, Alex Honnold has been in several films over the years..talented athlete, likable character.) Builder, Important Places (Best Short Mountain Film), Eclipse (Best Film – Mountain Sports), and Climbing Ice: The Iceland Trifecta (Strong female climber. Women play a larger role in the films this year.). Many times, the films I like the most during each program aren't the ones I was expecting to enjoy the most.” See PenBay Pilot’s story on breakout films here. Tickets are for one night’s show are $12 for adults/$5 for students. To see the line up for both nights visit: Banff Film Festival 2016

The Mallet Brothers at Unity College

Friday, Feb. 5 — Unity

The band that’s taking over the land is back. Over the last six years, The Mallett Brothers Band has proven to be an underground powerhouse, constantly touring and building a diehard fanbase across the nation, while still calling the state of Maine their home. With songs that can range from alt country, to americana, honkytonk,  jam or roots rock, theirs is a musical melting pot that's influenced equally by folk and singer/songwriter influences as it is  by harder rock, twang and psychedelic sounds. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased here.

Sassquatch sighting at The Speakeasy

Saturday, Feb. 6 — Rockland

With songs fresh off their new album "Cryptomusicology", this fusion band, whose name started as a joke, will do some awesome covers, and some brand new tunes that will have you clearing a dance floor. The show goes from 8 to 11 p.m. Tickets are $5 at the door. Catch their sound on Bandcamp: Sassquatch

West Bay Rotary Chili Challenge

Saturday, Feb. 6 — Camden

Winterfest’s theme this year is Mardi Gras, and area restaurants, chefs and individuals will be vying in friendly ‘Cajun Competition’ for bragging rights to making the best chili in the Mid-Coast.  Look forward to the culinary creations from the Waterfront Restaurant, Waterworks Restaurant & Pub, Quarry Hill, Camden Hills Regional High School, Thorndike Creamery and numerous others! Plus, there will be hot and cold beverages, dessert and entertainment from Camden Hills Regional High School musicians. Held at 1st Congregational Church at 55 Elm Street in Camden. There is a donation of $10 (at the door) for adults and $7 for kids 12 and under. The event starts at 4 p.m. “until the pots are empty!”

Killer Road Trip: Speakeasy in Seal Cove

Saturday, Feb. 6 — Seal Cove

The Roaring Twenties comes to the Seal Cove Auto Museum with their Brass Club Speakeasy! There will be 12-piece swing band, a specialty cocktail created just for this event, Prohibition-era beers, blackjack tables, and even a performance by a belly dancer. It's sure to be the cat's pajamas! $40, $25 for members (includes drinks) FMI: sealcoveautomuseum.org

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKPORT — Every year, for the past 16 years, Maine Sport Outfitters has brought a collection of the best short films of the Banff Mountain Film Festival to the Strom Auditorium at Camden Hills Regional High School. For lovers of extreme outdoor sports and daring filmmaking, this is a treat to have in Camden as the festival is shown in 40 countries across the globe.

This year’s lineup includes 20 new films spread over two nights, ranging from shorts to longer features and from outdoor superhuman feats to heart-tugging documentaries.

On Friday, breakout films are sure to include:

55 Hours in Mexico (9-minute short)

Fly to Veracruz on a Friday, rent a car, climb the third-highest peak in North America, ski down and return to your desk Monday. How hard could it be?

And another one that will squeeze your heart is:

Denali (8-minute short)

There’s no easy way to say goodbye to a friend, especially when they’ve supported you through your darkest times. This is about a guy who takes his dog on one last trip.

 And on Saturday, films of note include:

The Last Dragons (10-minute short)

An intimate glimpse at North America's Eastern Hellbender, an ancient salamander that lives as much in myth as in reality.... and in many waters, myths are all that remain of these sentinel stream-dwellers.

And another one sure to chill you to the bone is:

Climbing Ice: The Iceland Trifecta (17-minute short)

Join award-winning photographer Tim Kemple and ice climbers Klemen Premrl and Rahel Schelb for an expedition to Iceland’s Vatnajökull Glacier to discover new ways to push the boundaries of climbing ice.

Tickets are for one night’s show are $12 for adults/$5 for students. To see the line up for both nights visit: Banff Film Festival 2016

Orono author Robert Klose happens to be a professor at two Maine universities and knows a little about the inner workings of academia. An author of three non-fiction books and a children’s book, Long Live Grover Cleveland is his first novel, which just won the 2015 USA Book News Award in the humor category.

The book, which takes place in the 1980s, follows Marcus Cleveland, a used car salesman in New Jersey who has never been to college.  His relative, Cyrus Cleveland—a direct descendant of President Grover Cleveland—founded Grover Cleveland College (a fictional college in the northern woods of Maine) and on his deathbed, he wills it to Marcus. Facing the impending calamity with cheer, an incorrigibly sunny attitude, and ample naivete, Marcus is totally unprepared for the stew of discontented faculty, internecine rivalries and unforeseen events that threaten to upend his every effort to rescue the school from the threat of extinction.

What inspired you to write this?

I really believe in writing about what one knows and I’ve been teaching for 30 years, so I know the ‘academy’ as they call it. The culture of higher education is a bottomless pit of inspiration. And the most pointed responses I’ve gotten from readers are from those who actually teach and work in education. Certainly a lot of the events of the book are exaggerated reflections of what goes on in a college or a university.

Would it be safe to say this is a satire? And if so, what authors influenced you?

It’s certainly a satire. Richard Russo, is one, H.L. Mencken, a great journalist, and Mark Twain, those come to mind.

What’s the gist of it, in your own words?

The central irony of the book is that the school was founded during Vietnam by a raging leftist, pacifist who was a strong supporter of Richard Nixon, because as long as Nixon kept the war going, students kept pouring into his college with their college deferments. When the war ends, the students no longer need the school so they flee it in droves. And Cyrus, the founder, basically has a stroke. So, the only way to save it is to will it to a descendant. The only one he knows is Marcus, his nephew, a used car salesman, in his 40s. Marcus, who has never even been to college, gives it his best shot to save it from extinction. Marcus is nothing like his uncle, he’s apolitical and highly asexual as well, until he meets a woman at the school, who herself, has given up on love.

How long did it take you to write this novel?

With edits, just about a year.

Did you have an agent?

No, I didn’t. For my first book, I went through about 68 publishers before I found one. The second book, I went to about 15 publishers. The third, about 10. Basically, as I established a track record, it got a little easier and I only went to about seven or eight publishers before Medallion Publishing, out of Aurora, Ill., took it on.

Klose will be doing a book reading at Belfast Public Library on Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 6:30 p.m. Books will be available for sale and signing. to find a copy of Klose’s book online visit: Long Live Grover Cleveland

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKPORT—With more than 50 women on the waiting list, Union Hall in Rockport was jam-packed Thursday night with 180 women from the Midcoast who gathered to meet, talk and celebrate being female entrepreneurs and business women. SparkME, organized by event planner Jamilah Gregory, was a through-the-roof success and everything she’d promised. The glittery black and gold decor set the backdrop for fabulous hors d'oeuvres, wine and craft beer donated by a number of restaurants, wineries and caterers.

The event didn’t feel like a staid networking event; it felt like a giant, but intimate cocktail party, with women dressed to the nines. For two hours, women mingled and posed for fun photos with props set up by Gingersnap Rentals. The mood was so exuberant that it was hard to hear some of the speakers over the chatter.

The point of the event wasn’t just to celebrate, it was to walk away inspired. Marilyn J. Geroux, District Director of the U.S. Small Business Administration, kicked off the welcoming address by announcing how many loans they’d given female business owners last year. As the evening progressed, other successful female entrepreneurs spoke to the crowd from the balcony, including Kate McAleer from Bixby & Co. chocolates, who spoke of the challenges of being a female in a male-dominated chocolatier industry; Ronna Lugosch, owner of Peapod Jewelry who showed up in a giant peapod suit, talking about the importance of memorable branding; and Shannon Kinney, founder of Dream Local Digital, who spoke about balancing motherhood with business and doing our best to inspire the women who will follow in our footsteps.

To that end, the event doubled as a fundraiser for New Hope For Women.

“It’s a good possibility that many of the ladies who come to this event have been affected by domestic violence in some way,” said Gregory. “I’m hoping that the event will be a spark for many of these women who just need to keep going, keep pushing through this year.”

Stay tuned as Penobscot Bay Pilot will add a gallery of the night’s photos, coming soon.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST — As we wrote in a recent article, it’s always tough for a fairly new restaurant in the Midcoast to thrive during the winter, but Jenifer Oakes, one of three co-owners of Nautilus Seafood & Grill, credits two factors for their winter survival: a new location and loyal customers.

Though it’s only been a little more than a month since they moved from the east side of Belfast, across the bridge the spans the Passagassawakeag River, and took over the former Weathervane Seafood Restaurant space, a scenic downtown waterfront spot on Main Street, Oakes has seen a huge spike in business.

“Since we moved, we’ve probably seen a 50 percent increase in sales,” she said. “We’re doing lunch now too, and the dinners have been a lot busier. Everyone’s making more money; everyone’s happier.”

The east side of Belfast has always been quiet due to the drive-through traffic.

“We opened in 2012 over there and we’d stay open in the winters, but the east side in the winter is deadly,” she said. “We really had to cut back our schedule in the winter and suffered through. It was not profitable. We’d make a bunch of money in the summer and sink it all back in during the slow winters. And now that we’re over here, we haven’t had to do that.”

Unlike Camden and Rockland, where restaurant turnover seems to happen every season, it’s fairly rare for this kind of space to open up in Belfast.

“Darby’s has been here for 30 years, Dockside for the same and Rollie’s has been here forever,” said Oakes.

Weathervane Seafood Restaurant, a family chain seafood restaurant, started in 1969 as a take-out stand, before expanding to multiple locations in Maine. It closed its Belfast operations at the end of the season in 2014 and never re-opened.

Oakes said her customers aren’t deterred by the new location, which for some means a drive across the bridge. “If anything, we’re seeing the same people more often, which is great,” she said.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Midcoast has its serious groove on this weekend. With the Camden Winterfest kicking off this weekend, there’s actually more going on than I can cover in this column. Belfast is leading the charge on the most fun activities, but there’s also the cultural feast of Pecha Kucha and the literal feast of Pies on Parade with a Downton Abbey tribute! Yum.

Pecha Kucha Night

Friday, Jan. 29 — Rockport

PK, as we affectionately call it, is always an eye opener to some of the most interesting people in our community and what they’re doing. This month’s presenters are: Ken Foster, an artist we’ve covered, Ariel Hall, performance artist, Audrey Lovering, One Community, Peter Neill, director of the World Ocean Observatory, Bill Mook, oyster cultivator, Alissa Morris, creator of Urban Exodus, Lisa Pohlmann, executive director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine and Lee Schneller Sligh, professional gardener. The emcee is Arielle Greenberg Bywater. The event is held at the Rockport Opera House. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; $5 at the door.

A New Vaudeville Review

Saturday, Jan. 30 — Belfast

A little bit of singing, comedy, dance, poetry—that’s how communities in Maine used to entertain one another in the winter in the early 20th century and Belfast’s Midcoast Actors are still doing it the old-school way with their new Vaudeville Review. The show features Jenny Tibbetts, Sigrid Coffin, Erik Perkins, Seth Whited and Ando Anderson. Belfast Poet Laureate Toussaint St. Negritude will read his poetry, the Rugged will be performing rock music, and Phil Clement, Ezra Rugg and Jeff Densmore will frame the frenzy with flourish musicale. Buy tickets in advance at Left Bank Books on Church Street in Belfast or at the door the night of the performance.  The show starts at 7 p.m. at Troy Howard Middle School. Cost $12. FMI: belfastcreativecoalition.org.

‘70s Night with Draft and Draw

Saturday, Jan. 30 — Belfast

This is kind of kooky. Waterfall Arts is offering a fun night to everyday people and artists to come in and draw or paint a costumed model. This episode of figure-drawing and drinks features a 70s theme brought to life by performance artist Bridget Matros as her notorious alter-ego, Starr. Draft and Draw is similar to typical figure drawing sessions in that the model takes short poses followed by longer ones. Unlike typical figure drawing sessions, chit-chat, moving about and laughing are all acceptable. It’s a life drawing event that many find entertaining and relaxing. DJ LaPelle will be spinning ‘70s tunes, making smooooth choices for the ride... Easels, drawing benches and inspiration are provided; bring your own drawing or painting materials (no turpentine please). Cost: $10 at the door; beer and wine are available by donation. The event is from 7 to 9 p.m.

Snowed In! Dance Party

Saturday, Jan. 30 — Belfast

After Draft and Draw or the Vaudeville show, head on over to Three Tides and Marshall Wharf for their 8th annual Snowed In! winter dance party. The night features DJs Ian Hammond, Jason Keith and Matty.t, with some fresh out of the fire house music so you can shake what your mama gave you.  Starts at 9 p.m. and goes til close. No cover.

Celebrate National Pie Day with a Pie Tour

Sunday, Jan. 31 — Rockland

This is like a pub crawl for savory and sweet pies, and you can feel good while you’re feasting your way through Rockland, eating pie! Proceeds from this event benefit the Area Interfaith Outreach Food Pantry, and ver the past nine years, more than $100,000 has been donated from this event to help provide food for Midcoast families. This year, 23 bakers and chefs are about to open their doors for folks to sample the pie parade, from shepherd’s pie, pizza pie and seafood pie to every fruit and sweet pie you can think of. The Island Institute invites Downton Abbey fans to come in and have a cup of tea, finger sandwiches and teacakes served by staff in 1920s attire. The suggested donation for the tea event is $5. Pies on Parade runs from 1 to 4 p.m. and tickets are $30 for adults/$15 ages 10 and under. Call to reserve: 596-6611. FMI: historicinnsofrockland.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Seaweed, for Karen Cooper, a lobsterman on North Haven, was never anything special. Like a roadside weed, it was everywhere. The brown, rubbery-looking vegetation only had one purpose — to provide cover for lobsters, crab, sea urchins and fish.Then, something happened that changed the way she saw seaweed.

“More than five years ago, my best friend got breast cancer,” she said. “And one of things she did is to go on a raw macrobiotic diet. She was eating seaweed salad one day and I was like ‘Oh my God, what the heck is that?’ It was like green spaghetti.”

Cooper had grown up on an island surrounded by sugar kelp and rockweed, but it sure didn’t look like this salad.

“There’s so many different varieties of seaweed,” she said. “So, I tried this seaweed salad and I realized it was quite delicious. And it’s obviously good for you.That’s why my friend was eating it to try and heal herself.”

That got Cooper’s wheels turning.

“I’d do anything for her, she was my best friend,” she said. “So, I looked it up online and found out who was already growing seaweed in Maine.”

Wild kelp harvesting along the estuaries and inlets of Maine’s “coastal highway” is nothing new. Asian and Native American civilizations have done it for centuries and several Maine businesses have been selling sea vegetables for decades. But, as Cooper would soon discover, the nation’s first commercial kelp farm called Ocean Approved started in Maine in 2009 in Casco Bay. Founded by Tollef Olson and Paul Dobbins, this farm has revolutionized how people are using and eating kelp, positioning Maine as a leader in the seaweed industry — and inspiring others up and down the coast to apply for their aquaculture lease, so they too, can harvest, process and sell it.

Cooper reached out to Dobbins, who sent her a “big, huge 300-page” manual on how to get started.

“I just about died,” she said. “But, last year, I sat in on a couple of seaweed talks at Maine Fishermen’s Forum. And they were showing us how to set up an aquaculture business around sugar kelp, all these things I thought I couldn’t do.”

Turns out Cooper was looking for help at the exact time that the Island Institute, in Rockland, was advertising for its new Aquaculture Business Development Program. And in Maine’s seaweed industry, it became six degrees of separation to connect everyone.

Susie Arnold, a  marine scientist at the Island Institute, had been focusing on ocean acidification for the last three years.

“Maine is at a particular risk for ocean acidification for a variety of environmental and socio-economic reasons,” she said.

As a result, they ordered a study commission on what to do about it. One of the recommendations was to research if seaweed can play a role in remediating ocean acidification.

“Basically, marine plants like kelp photosynthesize like land plants, taking CO₂ out of the environment and into their tissue,” Arnold said. “The theory is that when harvested, by taking that plant out of the water, you’re taking out the CO₂, restoring the Ph balance in the water. And, you get the double benefit of harvesting the edible seaweed as a nutritious sea vegetable.”

This winter, Arnold teamed up with Nichole Price, from Bigelow Laboratories and Ocean Sciences, to deploy sophisticated instrumentation inside and just upstream of Ocean Approved’s kelp farm and test if the growing kelp was improving the water chemistry.  Dobbins seeded the lines with almost microscopic kelp in early November. By January, the kelp was 14 inches long. By May or June, Arnold predicts, the kelp will be 14 or 15 feet long when it is harvested.

“Four days ago, we went out and collected the first set of data,” said Arnold. “What we've seen already is lower carbon dioxide inside Dobbins’ kelp farm waters than upstream at the control site.”

She’s excited that the theory is working, but is careful not to project too much at this point.

“This is preliminary and will have more data as the winter goes on,” she said. “But if this works, and we are able to demonstrate that kelp farming can remediate ocean acidification in the localized areas, it means promising things for shellfish aquaculture.”

Already, the Department of Marine Resources is working with a number of applications to develop more kelp farms that are co-located with and mussel and oyster farms.

Cooper didn’t realize it at the time, but over the last few years, kelp farming has become a hot topic for consumers and restaurants. She just stumbled into at the right time. The Island Institute is working with her on getting a state license to farm kelp and and helping her put together a business plan. Seeding the lines in the fall and harvesting kelp in the spring dovetails perfectly with her down time in the winter, providing her with a secondary sustainable job before lobstering starts again in the summer. A win for Cooper, a win for the ocean, a win for nutrition and for Maine’s economy. What’s not to like?

And to think this has been right under Cooper’s nose her entire life.

ROCKLAND — Even with Rockland’s robust restaurant scene, the winter months can be a “make or break” time for a new restaurant’s survival.

Comida Restaurant co-owners Tom Sigler and Lisa Laurita-Spanglet announced Jan. 24 through their Facebook page that they were closing their 421 Main St. location.

“With heavy hearts we have to announce that Saturday was Comida's last night open. We have come to the unfortunate place where we simply cannot keep going. A heartfelt thank you to all who supported us over the last three years. It has been a pleasure serving this Midcoast community. Here's to the next adventure!”

As Penobscot Bay Pilot wrote in an article in the fall, Sigler and Laurita-Spanglet were trying to find an innovative solution to running lunch service without stretching their resources and staff too thin and paired up with ‘Wich Please food truck owner and chef Malcolm Bedell to operate during the day hours, while Comida took over the night shift. For a while, that solution was working with the two restaurants combining resources for a weekly “India Night” themed dinner.

An email message from Laurita-Spanglet mentioned the Comida space will now be available with all the equipment and fixtures for sale as a package to a new tenant. It’s unclear what Bedell’s plans are for the rest of the winter. Their customers have been offering condolences on their Facebook page with one customer, Jason McClure, echoing the others’ sentiments: “Total bummer. Though I only visited a couple times, I appreciated the diversity you brought to Rockland. I can only imagine the challenges that come with operating a tapas menu in such a small town. Best of luck.”

Here’s hoping other restaurants and food trucks will replicate their unique model of collaboration elsewhere.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

No need to make that frantic bread and milk run, because it looks like that Mid-Atlantic storm is going to just miss us this weekend, giving us a sunny Friday-Sunday for the outdoor events like the Glacier Ice Bar and Rangeley’s Snodeo. We’ve got some quirky indoor entertainment happening as well. Check it out!

Last weekend for the Ice Bar

Friday, Jan. 22 & Saturday, Jan. 23—Rockport

If you didn’t want to brave the mob scene the first weekend, this is the more chill (yeah, I said it) weekend to experience the pirate-themed Glacier Ice Bar at the Samoset Resort. 20,000 pounds of crystal-clear glacier ice have been transformed into a fantasy land. Cold luge drinks in musket ice shot glasses and hot pit fires with faux polar bear coverings are some of its best features. Plus, they have an ice rink outside and you can bring your own skates. If you don’t go this weekend, next weekend is your last chance before they dismantle it. Starts at 5 p.m.; no charge to get in. See our gallery from last weekend.

Teen Mentalist Opens His Own Show “Perceptions”

Friday, Jan. 22—Rockport

If you haven’t seen our latest story on 16-year-old Nat Lawson, give it a quick read. Because he’s a quick study and after 25 professional shows, he is performing for the first time at The Rockport Opera House. at 7 p.m. The audience can expect mind reading, hypnotic influence and other inexplicable feats of the mind, live. All proceeds will be donated to Midcoast Interact's Service Trip to Safe Passage, Guatemala. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Show starts at 7:00 p.m. $10.00 at the door.

The Collective Hosts Trivia Night

Saturday, Jan. 23—Rockland

Fog Bar and Café is teaming up with the cultural warriors of the Farnsworth Art Museum’s Collective and hosting a special trivia night, focusing on pop culture and art history. Free. Save your seat or register your team of six with kfinlay@FarnsworthMuseum.org.

Killer Road Trip: ‘Snodeo’ at Rangeley Lakes

Friday, Jan. 22 & Saturday, Jan. 23—Rangeley

Not just for snowmobile lovers, this annual event draws a lot of people for their outdoor fun, demo rides, races, marshmallow roasts, snowmobile parade with Monty the Moose and fireworks! Free to attend. FMI: Snodeo

Open Roller and In-Line Skate Sundays

Sunday, Jan. 23—Northport

Point Lookout Fitness Center in Northport has teamed up with the Rock Coast Rollers to offer an exciting and fat-busting from 1-3 p.m. It’s non contact and both roller skates and in-line skates (with protective gear) are allowed. The cost is$10 per session or you can pre-pay how many Sundays you want. RCR will have a limited amount of gear to lend out. FMI: rockcoastrollers.training@gmail.com

 Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Though he'd never met me before, Nat Lawson knew who I was the moment I walked through the door of the school cafeteria. Coincidence? Maybe not.

Nat is a professional mentalist, something people often confuse with a magician. According to the dictionary, a mentalist is someone who reads minds for entertainment, a psychic and a fortune tell. It is a person who believes that “the mind and its functions are a legitimate area of psychological research.” Nat doesn't use mind games and he doesn't use tricks, but instead, combines intuition, psychology and hypnosis to draw information from people in his audience, and manipulate their minds.

At 16, he is a senior at Camden Hills Regional High School. Because of a late summer birthday, he skipped fourth-grade and entered middle school at nearly two years younger than most of his peers. At 6-feet-tall, he has an easy smile and exudes the confidence of an older student. I soon realized that the last few years he has spent mastering a stage presence probably has a lot to do with it.

At age 8, his parents gave him a book on magic. But Nat didn't have the typical top hat and cape. Instead, he used household items like salt shakers to improve his skills and amaze people.

At 10, he found a book on mentalism and began the first steps in training his mind and intuition.

"Over the next two years I gradually switched my focus from sleight of hand to psychology, and from misdirection to hypnotic influence," Nat said. "By 14, I was focused solely on mentalism."

While he was still learning, his family moved from the Midcoast to Austin, Texas, for one year. While in Austin, Nat began to busk on the streets in his free time, honing his mentalism skills on audiences of strangers. One passerby happened to be the executive event planner for Mary Kay Cosmetics. She enjoyed his performance so much that she asked him to perform in front of the top 250 saleswomen for Mary Kay Cosmetics in Austin that following month.

"I couldn't believe how many pink Cadillacs were in the parking lot," he said. "My dad drove me there and just sat in the car and read while I performed."

It was the first time he performed mentalism professionally in front of a large crowd.

"Were you scared out of your mind?" I asked.

"No, I absolutely loved it," he said. "I've never had an aversion to performing in public."

The performance went without a hitch. Vicki Jo Auth, national sales director at Mary Kay Cosmetics, gave a glowing testimonial: "Everyone loved Nat's performance. He is so entertaining and everyone wondered...How did he do that? He is a true professional and I know he loves what he does, because it shows as he works the room."

For the past two-and-a-half years, Nat has performed more than 25 professional shows, performed in five countries, 11 states and 18 cities, which is a mind-blowing accomplishment for a 16-year-old. When he's not in school, he also manages a small web design company called TriColor Designs.

In his show, he "chooses" an audience member by throwing out a paper airplane. Whomever catches it becomes part of the show. None of it is scripted and there are no audience "plants." Because of the nature of mentalism, not everything goes the way he expects—something he chalks up to a learning curve.

"In one show this past summer, I brought this big burly man onto my stage, whom I later found out was a lieutenant in the Army." Nat said. "I could immediately tell he didn't want to be up there and this was going to be difficult. I asked him to write down a particular time on a piece of paper. But I said, 'Don't make it an easy one like 7:00 or 12:30. Make it specific like 9:27 or 3:04.' Once he wrote it down, I looked at him and I just knew. I said, 'I get the impression that you did the one thing I just asked you not to do. You wrote down 7:00.' And sure enough, he held up the paper sheepishly and it was 7:00."

Nat has big plans for an already big future ahead of him. He's applied to several universities and colleges, intending to study psychology as a way to augment his innate skills.

"You probably have an advantage when doing interviews, don't you?" I asked.

"I am aware of quite a lot, but I try not to show it," he said with a smile.

Nat will be performing his first full-length, one-man show called Perceptions at the Rockport Opera House on Friday, Jan. 22 at 7 p.m. The audience can expect mind reading, hypnotic influence and other inexplicable feats of the mind, live. All proceeds will be donated to Midcoast Interact's Service Trip to Safe Passage, Guatemala.

Hail To The Rad Kids is an ongoing feature highlighting teens with artistic or musical talent. 

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND — “It’s almost like you’ve got to smoke a pack of cigarettes and drink a ton of whiskey before heading to jail,” said Sarah Waterman, 34, after a cold swim in Rockland Harbor on Jan. 17. Waterman, who heads to Hawaii today to train on a women’s outrigger and paddling team, is not a fan of the heat. Loves Hawaii, but not the humidity.

“That’s the best analogy I can come up with before diving in,” she said. “It’s the cold I crave. I needed to suck up the cold of the ocean one last time before I headed out.”

Waterman grew up in Maine and is most definitely an outdoor girl. Most of her part-time jobs in-between traveling involve lobstering, landscaping, gardening or anything that involves hands-on work.

At 10:30 a.m., she walked down to the docks, by Archer’s On The Pier, followed by some friends who had emergency blankets, hot cocoa and warm socks and mittens when she got out. She timed out how long a swim in 35 degree Fahrenheit water would take before hypothermia set in. She just did this swim last month—albeit when it was 10 degrees warmer.

“You sure you don’t want me to get you my wet suit?” said one of her friends.

“Naw, even if you do, I’m just gonna jump in anyway,” said Waterman. “That’s just how I do it. If you put too many restrictions on me, I’m just going to do it while you’re running back to get the suit.”

She swims in the ocean every year around this time. Her mother died of cancer 10 years ago this month. There’s a social tendency to link brave feats like this to memorials or fundraisers, but Waterman didn’t need it for her mother. This is a personal thing.

In water this cold, it generally takes about 10 minutes before a person begins to succumb to hypothermia. There’s also the possibility of cold shock response, which is the body’s response to sudden cold water immersion. For those not habituated to cold water, diving in may trigger an elevated heart rate and stress, which could lead to a heart attack. Waterman fully knew the risks of potentially cramping up without a safety boat nearby. She said every time she does this, her heart hammers a bit and she chants a small mantra in her head to quell the fears. It’s a little prayer to the ocean asking it to keep her safe.

Shedding her Muck boots down to a sleeveless neoprene shirt and leggings, she dove in, while her friends raced back to their cars to meet her over at the Public Landing in Rockland. Other friends were posted at the Public Landing with a life ring.

“When I dove in, I could immediately feel the cold right up in my armpits,” she said. The swim took her no more than three minutes. When she walked out on the beach in bare feet and climbed up the rocky embankment, she was grinning ear to ear.

“I needed to get as much cold in me as I could,” she said. “But I’ll definitely take a hot coffee and whiskey now.”

View the gallery to see the swim. All photos by Kay Stephens.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

How do we know we’re deep into winter now? Because it’s ice bar season. And the Samoset isn’t the only one with an ice bar this weekend. With the major winter “stahm” ratcheting down to possibly rain, there’s no reason to stay inside. See what else we’ve got in store.

GLACIER Ice Bar and Lounge

Friday through Sunday, January 15 -17 — Rockland

Even with the name change from FROST to GLACIER at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, this is still "the hottest coolest bar and lounge" to hit the Midcoast.There is no cost to get in and each year Chef Tim Pierce adds some new twist to the concept. Because of its popularity, it will get super crowded later in the night, so hit it early to get luge shots and themed drinks. Wear mittens!

“Narratives” Pop-up Art Show At Three Tides

Friday, January 16 — Belfast

Speaking of cool, Three Tides is hosting a pop up series curated by artist Kenny Cole called "Narratives.” It engages locally  sourced small works with globally sourced art, that addresses the ongoing narrative of our times. The show features five artists: Kenny Cole (Maine), Jennifer Beinhacker (US), Matt Lock (US), Niklas Nenzén (SWE) and Alice Sfintesco (FR). Goes from 4 to 6 p.m.

Killer Road Trip: Spire & Ice Bar 

Friday, January 15 to Saturday, January, 16 — Gorham

If you’ve done the Glacier Bar every year and feel like a change of scenery, this second annual ice bar is held at the Spire 29 on the Square (29 School Street). There will be ice luge, specialty drinks and dancing. $10 admission. Goes from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Two Dollar Pistol Rocks Out

Saturday, January 16 — Rockland

Head on over to beautiful RockVegas for a rock ‘n roll show by local favorite Two Dollar Pistol at Trackside Station, starting at 9:30 p.m. They play covers from 1960 to 2014. No cover.

Chili & Chowder at Trackside

Sunday, January 17 — Rockland

This fundraiser for the Rockland Professional Firefighters Local 1584 brings out the fierce competition from chefs to civilians when it comes to the best chili and chowder you’ve ever tasted. Get in line early. Tickets are $10 sold at the door and the event starts at 2 p.m. Read our story: Cheap Dates: All kinds of homemade chili and chowder for $10

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

With a winter storm predicted for this weekend, it’s a perfect time to take a trip down Memory Lane. Ever wonder how people in the Midcoast dealt with honking piles of snow clogging the dirt roads of Main Street without snow plows?

We spoke to members of the Rockland Historical Society to find out several ways they did it.

“On the main streets, they used a bunch of people with shovels, who were mainly just citizens who made a couple of bucks for the day,” said Ben Perry. “They’d just all work together to shovel the snow into sleighs pulled by horses or they’d pile it up on sidewalks. It didn’t remove all of the snow for people to use the sidewalks, but just enough to clear the streets. Then they’d lead the horses down to the harbor and they’d dump the snow in the water.”

Andrew Carpenter added: “I can tell you from the research I've done that it was common for men of all walks of life (from bankers to lime kiln tenders) to come together to help clear Main Street. Small bands would often play music for the men and stores would provide warm drinks and food.”

Sometimes they’d rig up a large shovel system to a team of horses and let the animals to the work, as seen in the middle photo of horses clearing snow on Tillson Avenue c.1920. Thomas Shapiro’s junk store at 55 Tillson Avenue can be seen in the background with the Coca-Cola sign.

When it was time to bring out the big guns, they used a wooden snow roller.

According to Maine Memory Network: “A snow roller was an over-sized wooden barrel that would be filled with water in the winter so it could freeze to provide the weight to pack down the snow. These were pulled by a double team of horses consisting of four. Instead of plowing the snow to the side of the road, the weight of these huge, heavy wooden rollers compacted the snow into a hard surface that horses, buggies, and wagons could travel on.”

Going on information his friend’s father told him 20 years ago, Richard Kahn said: “The first time you could use a car in the winter was around 1929. It was something like that, but before that the rollers would pack down the snow hard to a smooth surface so that sleighs could travel over the snow.”

The more you know...

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Maine has been all over the news this past week in response to Governor LePage’s comment that out-of-state drug dealers named "D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty" have come here to sell drugs and "impregnate a young, white girl before they leave."

The comments made national and international headlines before, predictably, the the backlash began.

First, the unfunny: A GQ correspondent named Drew Magary (who describes himself as “Author, Blogger, International bon vivant”) penned a satirical piece on January 8 titled “Maine: Do We Need It?”  Even though he spent only four years at a college in Maine, he felt qualified to jump on LePage’s disparaging comments as a platform to eviscerate the entire state’s population by concluding, “Maine is a terrifying wasteland with little to offer us in the way of economic or intellectual resources.”

Oddly, that didn’t go over well with real Mainers.

On January 9, blogger Shannon Thurston responded with a sarcastic rebuttal titled. “Maine: Why We Need It: A Response to a Privileged White Boy.” Then, on January 11, another Huffington Post blogger and Maine native Crystal Ponti, doubled down in a piece she titled: “In Response to GQ's 'Maine: Do We Really Need It?'”

Just goes to show that the “hicks from the sticks” stereotype of Mainers is still very much alive and well with the urban hipsters.

Now the funny: On January 9, someone nicknamed “Smoothie” on Twitter (aka @ManiacNewsGuy) started an account and tweeted: “White dudes from Maine are coming into the Bronx selling coffee brandy and making our black girls fat. Call the National Guard!”

In less than a week, the new Twitter account has maybe posted 30 tweets, but has amassed nearly 800 followers (and counting.) The salty tweets kept coming. Here are some of the best, all posted on January 10.

 “Holy crap. The lobster is so cheap here. Heading back to NYC with three live 1-pounders and a white woman.”

“Me and Shifty stayed at a lovely B&B in Camden. Shifty bought another f****** antique teapot.”

“Had haddock at DiMillos Floating Restaurant. More like floating nursing home. LePage, you need babies. Me and Shifty are here to assist.”

Even the power outage in Maine this past week got some play (along with a zing to Magary’s article):

“Hey, LePage, power's down again in your f****** Third World state. How do I know which girls are the white ones in the dark?”

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com  

Jamilah Gregory knows how to throw a party. Having recently returned to Maine with her husband and child, she launched her event planning business, JBG Events, and decided to put together a special event called SparkME for female entrepreneurs in the Midcoast area on Jan. 28. More than just a networking event, this is a celebration for any woman who could benefit from a "spark" of New Year's inspiration and innovation.

We asked her a few questions about the upcoming event.

What’s your Maine connection?

I’m originally from Concord, N.H., and my husband grew up in Damariscotta. We met in Maine while I was attending Bowdoin, where I did a lot of event planning. After a few years moving around for his education in Boston, we’ve finally come back to Maine.

Is this the first event you’ve ever thrown for female entrepreneurs?

Yes, this is the first event I’ve done in this regard. I’ve done many other events for different purposes. It was originally conceived as a Christmas event, but I realized that would have been in a totally hectic season, so I moved this to the end of January and made it a New Year’s toast. I have worked with some of the networking groups in the area. I’m a member of Maine Women’s Network and they have endorsed this event. I will have several resource tables that will support female entrepreneurs, such as Small Business Administration, New Ventures Maine, C.E.I. and Maine Women’s Network.

With the new year, we all have these resolutions. How do you envision this party will spark women to be inspired and motivated once they leave?

I’m hoping that those who’ve already registered, such as new young entrepreneurs like Kate McAleer from Bixby & Co. to the experienced entrepreneurs like Ronna Lugosh from PeaPod Jewelry will all connect with one another. Each female entrepreneur who goes into business has a unique gift, whether it’s the product that she sells or the service she provides to the community. I’m hoping by the time they leave, women will reflect on the ways they are a gift to our community. Rhonda Nordstrom, for example, is a sponsor, and I’m so inspired by people like her who contribute to their communities, using all of her friends and resources to give back in unique ways.

This isn’t just a party, it’s a fundraiser...and it’s all connected, correct?

Yes, I chose New Hope for Women as the recipient because I knew female entrepreneurs could really rally around this good work for women in the area. It’s a good possibility that many of the ladies who come to this event have been affected by domestic violence in some way. I’m hoping that the event will be a spark for many of these women who just need to keep going, keep pushing through this year.

According to a a statistic cited in an article from Business News Daily, one of the biggest challenges for female entrepreneurs is the lack of support from other female business leaders. How will your event address that?

I think that statistic is so appalling because women need to help each other. This event is all about women encouraging one another in the pursuit of strengthening their businesses that serve our community. It’s vitally important, especially in rural Maine, to have a network that supports female entrepreneurs and gives you more opportunities to refer people. That’s what a community needs to do to thrive—to have collaboration, not competition. I think SparkMe is definitely going to achieve that goal with 125 women all representing a variety of skills and professions, whose purpose being there is to encourage one another.

Looking through your website, it looks as though you have a real flair for throwing a party, not just some networking event in a giant conference room. What’s in store for the night?

SparkME is all about creating a spark in the new year. So, the decorating theme is gong to be sparkles everywhere, black and gold, really inspiring and will feel like a holiday and celebration of women. We’re really excited to offer a heavy spread of complimentary appetizers from various restaurants and catering companies as well as  wine from Cellardoor Winery, Oxbow beer from Newcastle, and sparkling wine to fit in with the New Year’s theme and to provide a toast. We’ll have over 30 door prizes that represent everything from chocolate, coffee, wine to flowers, massage and pre-counseling sessions.

According to Gregory, tickets are nearly sold out. The event takes place Thursday, Jan. 28 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Union Hall in Rockport. Tickets are $15 per person and can be purchased at EventBrite.com. Pre-Registration is required for this event. More info can be found on Spark ME’s Facebook page.

Who’d have thought that coloring books geared toward adults would be the hottest thing this winter? The New York Post recently ran a piece on the trend, reporting that more than 2,000 adult coloring book titles have been created since 2013 and the genre’s two biggest bestsellers, Secret Garden and Enchanted Forest, have sold a combined 13.5 million copies in 50 countries. This isn’t the kid stuff of oversized, child-like cartoonish outlines of turtles and mermaids. These are books with sophisticated line art awaiting colored pencils to bring elaborate fantastic worlds to life.

Locally, two libraries are recognizing the trend. The Thomaston Public Library hosted two adult coloring book sessions in December, touted as a way to de-stress after the Christmas chaos.

Children’s Librarian Joanna Hynd said, “My co-workers, Diane and Alex and I had noticed this new fad and wanted to jump on the bandwagon. I didn't realize how much fun we were going to have with it. I've been enjoying one of the coloring books in particular, called Illuminating the Stars. All of the images in the book are of silent-movie actors and actresses. I like that I am bringing color to these faces that were only captured in black and white on film and in photographs.”

Ian Grima, a 24-year-old restaurant employee, was one of the participants for two weeks in a row. He took a precious night off work to attend because the idea really attracted him.

“I was probably the youngest one there,” he said of the six participants, who ranged in age from 30-60, in the last session. “But, I like to sketch in my free time, and I thought this was a great way to just hang out with people I’ve never met, draw and zone out for a while. It was really relaxing.”

Grima worked on a piece for about an hour depicting intricate underwater scenes. He said no one worked on the same page out of the book.

“Although, it would be cool to see how two different people used color in the same illustration,” he said. “One of the things I really liked about this was how we were just able to sit and chat while coming up with our own interpretation of the drawing with colored pencils or crayons. It would be great to see certain bars doing this for the winter months, not just karaoke and trivia. It takes up no space at all and is a low-pressure activity for people who’d rather just chill and draw.”

Diane Giese, the head librarian at the Thomaston Public Library, said the turnout from both evening sessions reflected a wide variety of colorists.

“One neighbor brought and supervised her children, so even though it was an evening for adults, the adorable towheads were participating,” Giese said. “Then we had a bona fide artist who came with his wife and several neighbors. He brought his own tools and was clearly very good.  We also had several older folks come and a couple with a challenged daughter.  What a great broadstroke the evening was.”

The chill factor of this art form is what also drew Rockland Public Librarian Jessie Blanchard to set up coloring sessions for adults this winter. The library plans to offer a free session January 16 at 10 a.m. and again on February 20 at 10 a.m. “I believe adult coloring has become so popular because it's gives us permission to do something creative and relaxed without any expectations,” she said. “The act of coloring is the reward.  It includes the gentle social aspect of a quilting club or a golf game without actually requiring any skill.”

People can donate their finished page to the library or take them home.

For more information visit: Adult Coloring Session

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com