HOPE—The last time we checked in with teen singer songwriters Clio Berta and Chloe Isis was two years ago. In a “Hail To The Rad Kids” series, they performed that cup slamming song “You’re Gonna Miss Me” that became instantly popular months later on the radio. (See our original story on these two here.)

Two years later, they’re still writing songs and singing together. This summer, however, they decided to teach kids 8-11 their process. Through Sweet Tree Arts, the girls took three days off from their busy work schedules to run a workshop called Mix Media Madness.

“We wanted an excuse to hang out together, but also, we wanted to do something for kids that we both like to do,” said Clio.

The workshop was informally conceived and intuitively executed. Basically, the girls introduced to the 11 students the way they like to creatively imagine songs and teach their own process. From July 20-22, they would play songs for the kids and ask them to “draw” what they heard as well as encourage them to create lyrics from their own poetry.

“We went over the anatomy of what goes into a song,” said Chloe. “We had them listen to music and then we had them work out the standard format of a song.”

“We just broke it down to verse, chorus, verse, chorus verse— which is the base of a song,” said Clio.

“We had to introduce the terms.” added Chloe. “What is a verse and a chorus and how do you identify which one is which?”

The girls used a variety of teaching tools because, as they observed, some kids went blank when asked to create poetry or lyrics. They needed other ways to draw from inspiration. For instance, they had the kids draw and cut out shapes after listening to a song, which Chloe and Clio then turned the art pieces into cyanotypes — a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print.

“Rather than teaching them a certain way to write music, we just showed them how we personally go about it and it opened up ways to experiment with,” said Chloe.

Some of the drawings show the kids’ innate understanding of the structure, starting with their auditory perception. One drawing reads “Drums, Peano, her voys, Floot, huming, gutur.” (Assuming spelling will be the next skill to master with lyrics, this is pretty great!)

Now that the workshop is over, Chloe is back at her gardening job and Clio is back splitting her time between the Montessori School summer camp and Jo Ellen Designs. The duo still finds time to singing together and recently performed in a recording session, where they had to learn Greek in order to sing the lyrics.

Never a dull moment, these two.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

It’s pretty hard to click those heels three times without those shoes.

This summer marks the 10-year anniversary of the theft of the pair of ruby red slippers made famous in “The Wizard of Oz” from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. The shoes, encased in a Plexiglass box, were about 15 feet from a window when someone smashed the window and the Plexiglass on Aug. 28, 2005 and ran away with them.

Rumors have abounded for years that it might have been a gang of kids who stole the shoes and stashed them away somewhere. In the last decade, divers have searched a local mine pit to no avail and authorities searched a collector’s mansion in California. This summer, an anonymous “Oz” fan from Arizona put up a $1 million dollar reward for the return of the shoes and the identity of the culprit. So far, no one has come forth.

John Fricke, a renowned “Oz” historian and expert, who is the author of The Wonderful World of Oz: An Illustrated History of an American Classic published by Down East Books, has been pondering this theft for years. He has no idea who this anonymous donor could be.

"If this person had been in Los Angeles, or New York, or a couple of other locals, I might be able to venture a guess." he said. “But, Arizona?  I know there are a lot of entrepreneurial businesses there and perhaps one super fan has stashed away a lot of money over the years!” he joked. “But then, it’s impossible for to find anyone who doesn’t have a potent memory of that movie. You could never tabulate all the fans — or their purchasing power.”

Fricke, who celebrated the launch of his book with a speaking engagement at the Camden Public Library in 2013, thinks it will take more than money to bring those shoes back to its rightful owner.

“I would think there would have to be legal amnesty for whomever took them,” he said. "Additionally, the insurance company has long since paid out close to $1 million to the collector who owned the shoes in the first place."

Fricke provides more insight on the shoes, which most news outlets are reporting were one of four pairs from the original movie set. Actually, according to Fricke, there were at least six pairs.

“The first pair, which have never turned up, were worn by Judy Garland in the first two weeks of filming,” he said.  They had to stop production and recast the Tin Man, and change Judy’s hair and dress. We’ve seen stills of those shoes, but they were very plain, no bows. Those pair have never turned up.”

The transition period between the first two weeks of filming and when they redid Garland's hair, make-up, and wardrobe, produced a second pair.

“These had curled up tips, like an exaggerated Arabian shoe, very gaudy and ornamental,” said Fricke. “Judy Garland never actually wore these in the film either, but they can be seen in stills. Those, Debbie Reynolds owned for a long time, before she auctioned them back in 2011 for something over a half million dollars.”

The next four pairs actually appeared in the movie. One, resides in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. The second pair belongs to the Academy of Motion Pictures of Arts and Sciences and will end up in a museum it eventually construct. The third pair is in the hands of a private collector.

“Supposedly,” added Fricke. “He won’t let anybody see them.”

Which brings us to the missing fourth pair, which were owned by collector Michael Shaw when they were stolen.

If indeed, the slippers were stolen by a bunch of teens, Fricke said: “I don’t know if we’ll ever find them. If kids took them on a dare, then didn’t realize the import of what they’d done and got rid of them or they have been hiding them ever since–there are just as many theories as there are people talking about it.”

“What it boils down to is how magical those shoes are and what a hold they have on the imaginations on virtually everyone over the age of three.”

For more information about the theft and its various leads visit: facebook.com/judygarlandmuseum

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Anybody know where this was or have any memories of this moment in time?

We only had one comment on last week’s Throwback Thursday photo: “LOBSTAHH!” Yep, that pretty much sums it up. That photo taken from Rockland Maine, History’s Facebook page was taken by Angela Foster of The Lobster Festival: “Found this picture while scanning old photographs. The developed date says June 1984. So probably was taken in 1983.”

This week’s photo courtesy Belfast Historical Society and Museum's Page.

Send your Throwback Thursday photos to news@penbaypilot.com

Like dandelions, they’re sprouting up everywhere.  I’m talking about the latest restaurant happy hour offerings (check out our updated Guide to Midcoast’s Happy Hours) such as Whitehall’s new Summer Social Happy Hour menu and the 12 rotating taps in Cappy’s Chowder House’s new Tap Room (formerly The Crow’s Nest).

You also might have noticed a new blue food truck in the area. The Zack Shack just opened in mid-July located on the Rockland/Thomaston line near the Dunkin Donuts. Family owned, with 21-year-old Zack working with his parents and sisters, they offer local seafood and burgers (and the most affordable lobster roll I’ve ever seen). Check out our updated Gourmet Food Trucks in the Midcoast guide to see what else is new.

Lastly, the word is out there that two new pop up dinners worth paying attention to. Point Lookout Resort and Conference Center’s farm-to-table dinners are using the resort’s farm produce at its peak and the Chef's menu is amazing. Check out the rest of their summer fall dinners here.

Not to be outdone, Chef Kerry Alterio from Café Miranda  has a new portable wood-fired oven on wheels he’s calling FAB (Food and Beverage) in an experimental Rockland pop-up art and food dinner he’s doing on July 28 called “Fire and Wine.”

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND — Life is stranger than fiction and local author Neal Parker, who published The Lobsterman and The UFO in 2007 will probably see a boost in book sales after we covered Rockland lobsterman’s strange encounter with a triangle of mysterious lights on July 14. 

Ty Pendleton, 23, lives close to the Rockland ferry terminal. He was just getting home from work when he spotted a formation of lights in the sky moving in an easterly direction. “It might have been 9:00, 9:15. I was walking up to my doorstep when those bright lights caught my attention. So, I took out my phone really quick, but it only had about five percent battery life so I captured a photo and about 20 seconds of video. As I’m recording it I’m thinking, wow this is not an airplane, it’s got no sound. I can see right through it. It’s not like a stealth bomber. I even called local airport at Owls Head and Bangor asked if they had any record of anything flying in that formation and they said they didn’t.”

His sister posted the video to her YouTube account, which went viral. Soon after, Portland news station WCSH6 interviewed Pendleton and reposted the video, before someone uploaded the video to Reddit.

“From there it’s exploded,” he said. “I’ve been getting all sorts of messages left and right from people on my Facebook account,” he said. “I was up to 1 in the morning answering people’s messages. Some ask what I really think it is or tell me what they think it is.”

Asked what he now thinks it is, Pendleton takes a laconic view of the situation.

“I honestly don’t know, because I don’t even pay attention to that kind of stuff,” he said. “That’s why they call it an unidentified flying object. My sister and brother in law are kind of into it though and they found an article of a man in Orrington who had a sighting exactly what I saw, only he didn’t have a camera to record it at the time, so he drew a picture.”

According to Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), the Orrington sighting was a month prior in June and was reposted on Strange Maine, a Maine blog that covers mysterious phenomena.

UFO enthusiasts call this particular formation a “Black Triangle” U.F.O. configuration. Other commenters to the story have suggested it’s a a triple satellite formation used by the Navy.

As of yet, he’s only gotten messages from UFO enthusiasts, but has not heard from anyone in the government or military.

“A couple of UFO fan pages have shared my video as well. It’s everywhere.”

Pendleton added that now that the initial interest of this video has passed, he would prefer to maintain his privacy and not have to answer more Facebook queries.

Critics of the sighting have posted on Facebook that they think it’s a trick of the camera capturing streetlights.

To that, Pendleton answered: “As you can see in my video, those three lights were moving in an east direction. There’s one light yes, a fourth tiny light moving around and that was a reflection from my camera, but the other three lights in the video, are clearly separate.”

Scott Mitchell, the director of UMaine’s Astronomy Center, said in the WCSH6 article that he believed the lights were a weather phenomenon to which Pendleton responded: “I totally disagree with that. He didn’t have a simple explanation for it either.

“I don’t think it’s alien related, but I don’t know what it was.It was definitely a flying object, but it’s a mystery,” said Pendleton

Pendleton said he thinks it’s strange that he is the only person in Rockland who saw the lights and recorded them. He thought more people would have seen it as well.

“I always like to look up at the sky,” he said. “I think I’ll be looking up a lot more from now on.”

However, before he leaves the house, he’ll be making sure his phone is fully charged.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST—It took almost a year to get each quadrant of Waterfall Arts’ meticulously assembled Living Wall together. The plants are the palette mounted vertically on a large frame. The resulting “live art” is now part of the aesthetic, hanging outside Waterfall Arts’ building for all to see.

“This was a way to get kids connected with the environment and art, as well as provide us with a beautiful art piece on the side of our building,” said Karin Otto, Waterfall Arts’ program coordinator. 

This is their third year growing and assembling the Living Wall. Through a recent grant from The Maine Community Foundation, Otto worked with horticulture students from Waldo County Technical Center on the community project to teach the juniors and seniors vertical landscaping and environmental art.

The students learned how to use plants in new ways, fostering creative problem solving. 

“Often this kind of environmental art is used in urban spaces, where there isn’t much vegetation or space to grow it and the vertical garden is used to cool down the heat index of an area and is also used as an air filter system,” said Otto. “This is also an excellent way to grow herbs and vegetables in a limited area.”

To get the look of the Living Wall, first the students, led by Patrice Janssen from WCTC, studied the best type of plants that could thrive in a vertical environment. First they studied what constitutes “environmental art” and embarked on some smaller art sculptures using natural materials.

To make the Living Wall, they used cuttings from the previous year’s wall and grew the rest from seeds they ordered and cultivated in WCTC’s greenhouse.

“Through trial and error, we learned over the past two years that herbs and other plants didn’t fare so well, so we looked towards succulents in this year’s piece.” said Otto. Some of those plants included hens and chicks, sedum and Irish moss. “We grew the plants over the winter and when the time came to put it all together each cell had a letter and a number, so it was like putting a giant jigsaw puzzle together.”

To irrigate the sculpture so it wouldn’t dry out, the students rigged up a leaker hose in the back of the frame, which is hidden from view.

“The kids were so excited to finally put the wall up,” said Otto. “They’re really proud of how well it turned out.” The wall will be on display till October. View the video from last year to see how the whole project was constructed. 

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND — According to news station WSCH6, Rockland resident Ty Pendleton took a video of three horizontally-moving lights outside his home on July 14 at 9 p.m. 

He can be heard saying “What the frig is that?” — something we probably all would have said. (But I really liked the emphasis on the way he said “frig”).

For anyone who’s an X Files fan, of course this is the classic “Black Triangle” U.F.O. configuration.

There’s even a Facebook community for this.

Or maybe it was just a stealth military plane. (Cough). Sure it was.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Given that we’ve got some iffy 50% (maybe) showers happening Saturday, I’ve picked some good indoor stuff. From comedy to reggae to “What’s The Buzz” and crazy Celts throwing things, this is going to be your weekend to enjoy the height of summer.

Jesus Christ Superstar

Friday, July 17 and Saturday, July 18 — Rockland

Who here remembers the 1973 film adaptation of the musical play? For some reason, that album took ahold of me and my friends in college, a bunch of non-religious freaks, precisely because the music was so incredible. Ever hear Sinead O'Connor perform “I Don't Know How To Love Him? If not, click here. Stunning. Anyway, back to the play that Oceanside Summer Theatre is putting on at Oceanside High School in Rockland. If you loved this album and movie, you’ll totally dig this show. Tickets at door: $8/$6 students and seniors.

Bob Does The Strand

Saturday, July 18 — Rockland

“Went on a whale watch. Shouldn't they call it a ‘whale search?’ ‘Watch’ makes it sound like you're actually looking at whales.” That’s the latest from comedian Bob Marley’s Facebook page. He is wicked funny and nails Mainerisms down pat. Check him out at The Strand. He’s doing two shows a 7 and 9 p.m. Tickets are $24. FMI: 594-0070.

Reggae-Salsa Dance Party & Music Fest

Saturday, July 18 — Damariscotta

Even though it might be raining, The Damariscotta River Association (DRA) is keeping things hot by throwing down a big ole reggae dance party at Round Top Farm headlined by Stream Reggae with Primo Cubano opening along with local singer-songwriter Heather Hardy. A local pub will be offering a la carte meals, snacks and drinks. Tickets are $25 with a discount of $5 for tickets purchased up until the day of the show. Get them at the Maine Coast Bookshop or www.midcoastmusicfest.com or call 563-1393 for more info.

Killer Road Trip: Bangor Drive-In

Friday, July 17 and Saturday, July 18 — Bangor

Thanks to a tip from the BDN, I found out that Bangor has a drive-in where you can watch movies. How cool is that? That is the ultimate summer ritual, right? They offer two shows for the kiddies on Screen 1 (Minions & Jurassic World) and two shows for the adults (Ted 2 and The Gallows) Gates open at 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights and the first shows start at dusk (approximately 8:45 p.m.) FMI: facebook.com/BangorDriveIn

Celtic Highland Games

Sunday, July 19 — Belfast

Celtic people are crazy and I mean that in a good way. One of the highlight of this weekend’s Maine Celtic Celebration is the traditional Highland Heavy Games, in which hearty lads and lassies in kilts strain themselves to the point of hospitalization, all for the noble athletic cause. Each game or competition tests the strength and coordination of each competitor to their maximum capability. Look for: Scottish Hammer Throw, The Caber Toss, An Open Stone Put, Heavy Weight Throw, and The Weight Over the Bar See what these are here. The events go all day. FMI: Maine Celtic Celebration

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

There’s only one event that could inspire the giant sculpture this young lady is sitting on. (Easy one). Can you guess what it is and the date of the photo?

No one responded to last week’s Throwback Thursday photo of the old Samoset menu. Boo! Come on, doesn’t anybody have any memories of Fried Mush or Broiled Pig’s Feet?

This week’s photo courtesy Angela Foster via Rockland, Maine History Facebook Page

Send your Throwback Thursday photos to news@penbaypilot.com

The literary world has been abuzz this week with the July 14 release of Harper Lee’s surprise follow up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960.

Go Set a Watchman takes place 20 years after To Kill a Mockingbird, in which Atticus Finch’s daughter, Scout, is 26 years old, grappling with her life living in New York and goes back to visit her father. Two major controversies have led up to the release of this sequel. One, Lee has chosen to portray Atticus as a bigot and a racist. Two, there has been speculation that the 89-year-old Lee, who lives after a stroke confined to an assisted living home, was manipulated  by her attorney and the publisher, HarperCollins, into consenting to allowing this book published.

Whatever people are saying about it, local booksellers have been dealing with the flurry of orders — and opinions.

Lacy Simons, the owner of hello hello bookstore in Rockland, said that people have been coming into the store for months asking for it. Despite ordering the book a month ago, due to the limited size of her order, the book will arrive July 16, two days later than the release date. As to the controversies, she said, “My impression without having read it is that I am a little wary that this book was released without a lot of work on the manuscript and I’m a little skeptical about its quality, given the situation under which it was published. From reviewers I trust, I’ve heard that it reads messy and also, people have been really emotional about Atticus being pro-segregation. It’s not like this would be a completely unrealistic [part of his nature] but it’s just we get really disappointed in fictional characters when they let us down like that. I do really like the idea of seeing Scout as an adult and her struggles and the most interesting piece for me would be her trying to figure out what her role is and where she belongs as a woman in the 1950s.”

Elaine Knight, co-owner of Owl & Turtle Bookshop in Camden, said, “The customers are very anxious to get their hands on it.” Like Simons, she placed her order well over a month ago, but she too will not receive the books until a day after the release date, July 15.

“There has been a lot of anticipation regarding this book, but of course, the media has had a lot of controversy around it, which makes people even more curious,” said Knight.

Left Bank Books in Belfast received their order of several dozen copies on July 14. With approximately 30 pre-orders, they had nearly 20 people come in and buy it.

Nancy Hauswald, Left Bank Book’s publicist said, “It’s been fascinating. Mostly it boils down to people are in two camps. They either can’t wait to read the book or they absolutely refuse to read it and it’s clearly because of what they’ve heard, because of Atticus. What is so interesting is how passionate people are about this fictional character. I’ve never heard conversations among strangers in a bookshop like I have around this book. A typical conversation would be ‘I can’t wait to read it’ and someone else saying to them ‘I can’t possibly picture Atticus as a racist and I don’t want to destroy that image.’ And then the other person would say ‘But Scout has to deal with that. She goes home to deal with that and so must we.’ Another customer said something also very interesting. She said ‘But that's the very power of great literature. It should be disturbing. It should shake us up and make us think.’”

Whatever people think about these controversies, book lovers are seeing a revival in literature this week—an art form that often gets too little attention in today’s hyperdigitalization.

“To have these conversations about civil rights and equality in a bookstore—that’s what bookstores are all about,” said Hauswald.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND — A new genre-bending film is coming to the Strand Theater in downtown Rockland Thursday, July 16. HELL TOWN is a satirical send up of a soap opera/slasher comedy—and even though it’s about teens, it’s definitely for the adults. (Warning: the trailer contains strong language).

Here’s how the synopsis describes it: "HELL TOWN follows the melodramatic antics of high-school seniors clashing over love, sex and betrayal. In the middle of all the one-sided infatuations, backstabbing bitchiness, bottled-up sexuality, sibling rivalry and general small-town angst, the "Letter Jacket Killer" is murdering students in a variety of sadistic ways. As the body count rises and the blood pools closer to home, it becomes clear that one of our main characters is the killer...but who? Everyone, from the Prom Queen and Shirtless Jock to the Nosey Geek and Super Bitch, is a suspect."

Daniel Stephens, director of photography for fiction films, commercials, documentaries and music videos, is based in Rockland. He shot HELL TOWN in Kansas this past year.

“The idea came from directors Steve Balderson and Elizabeth Spear, who grew up watching the TV show, Dynasty,” he said. “They were big fans of these prime-time soap operas and wanted HELL TOWN to have that same lighting, that same ‘80s look and feel. Then we began thinking, today in the modern world what we do is we binge watch all of these old show now that they’re all on Netflix and Amazon.  For the film, wouldn’t it be interesting, if instead of coming in at the beginning of this TV show concept we came in somewhere in the middle? The premise of the movie is that this is actually a TV show that’s gone through a few seasons, but the first and most of the second seasons were lost in a fire. So, you get to watch the remaining three ‘episodes’ of this TV show, which is in fact, the entire movie.”

“It was incredibly fun to make this film,” said Stephens, who admitted he’s never really explored the horror genre before and researched by binge-watching classic horror films, including a lot of Hitchcock. “I really wanted to elevate the look of this film within the slasher genre,” he said.

The film, while technically a ‘slasher genre’ of a horror movie, might put off some who can’t watch gratuitous gore. But, as the audience is in on the joke, fans of black humor and cheesy 1980s TV programs will appreciate the light-hearted perspective. “For example, the blood is really red,” said Stephens. “It’s not trying to be deliberately scary. For me, it’s fascinating for these actors to be delivering this over-the-top performance, but yet fully believing what their characters are saying, and when it’s done right, the audience buys into the melodrama.”

The film starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $8.50 adults and $7.50 seniors. Daniel Stephens and director Elizabeth will be in the audience for the screening for a Q & A with the audience.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST — With nearly 80 percent of American kids owning smart phones these days, you’d think that taking a photo of oneself as an art experiment would be as mundane as flipping through TV channels. But, recently a group of sixth and seventh graders in Bridge, Waterfall Art’s free after-school art program, were serious about the self-portraits they took. The portraits now hang at in the Corridor gallery of Waterfall Arts.

Bridge is a club where young artists explore materials and support each others’ self expression, while getting connected to the local art scene. It started three years ago as a way to bridge the gap for Troy Howard students, who go without art class during sixth grade. 

As you enter the "Bridge: Young Artists Connecting" art show, the self-portrait photos lined across the wall are moody and pensive, with only one kid’s exuberant  expression standing out from the rest. Bridget Matros, BRIDGE’s art coordinator, set up the camera and snapped the photos.

“To have a still portrait taken can be really uncomfortable,” she said. “In some cases, I would just look away while I set up the shot.”

You have to wonder what’s behind those expressions.

“These kids are really tight, very close and very outgoing,” said Matros. “After we looked at a series of black and white photos together, I told them this was an opportunity for them to express a side of themselves that people don’t normally see. Each chose his or her own pose, expression, gaze and lighting. Afterwards, I was surprised to see these moody dark, brooding expressions. They really did go for expressing themselves rather than the glamour shots. If we had done this assignment in school, it wouldn’t have been as real and comfortable. You would have seen way more goofball poses. But these kids have built up trust and respect to 'be who they really are' here, without judgment."

Matros worked with 11 kids during this past school year. The Bridge group was initially only supposed to be for sixth graders, but the inaugural group didn’t want to leave, so with some additional funding, the "Original Posse" are enjoying their second year. In the summer, every Wednesday, they and other young artists are encouraged to drop in from 3 to 5 p.m. for the day’s featured activity or to simply relax and experiment using a variety of materials.

With the help of a private sponsor, they work on a variety of ways to get the kids to Bridge club by bus, car and even by taxi.

“This is a big deal for working families,” she said. That’s why a lot of kids can’t do anything after school, because they wouldn’t have a ride home. So, we took care of that.”

Waterfall Arts is seeking sponsorship and donations to keep this much-appreciated program going for another year. 

To see more of what BRIDGE kids do with art visit: facebook.com/WATERFALLBRIDGE The photographs in the Corridor Gallery will be up until July 17.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

WARREN—The party that floats on! The 2nd annual St. George Tubing Flotilla, a random group of several hundred Midcoasters with floatation devices, got a spectacular 90-degree day on the St. George River on Sunday, July 12. After a long nearly six hour trip down the river from the Warren boat landing, floaters celebrated ending at The Slipway in Thomaston. Floaters managed to raise nearly $1,000 towards necessities for two local families as well.

Check out the gallery of fun photos courtesy Ann Betts Daggett!

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

The weather’s playing peek-a-boo with us this weekend, but it’s going to pan out and stay on the sunny side. The Blues Fest will be taking over Rockland this weekend and there’s plenty of free or low cover music for locals as well.

The Blues Fest Local Acts & Club Crawl

Friday, July 10-Saturday, July 11— Downtown, Rockland

Maybe you have tickets to The North Atlantic Blues Festival; maybe you don’t. Doesn’t matter. Come Friday night, the town will galvanize with a lineup of blues acts all over Rockland. This is not a NABF event, so no wristbands are needed! However, some venues might charge a slight cover.  Then, on Saturday night, Main Street will shut down. People 21 and over wearing their wristband from the festival will be allowed admission to the many participating clubs and restaurants featuring many of the top regional blues performers for the official Club Crawl. For a list of who’s playing both nights visit: Blues Fest Acts

Winery’s Free Summer Concert

Friday, July 10 — Union

Canadian folk rockers Jubilee Riots (formerly known as Enter The Haggis) will be kicking off Savage Oakes Vineyard and Winery’s free summer concert series at 6 p.m. with a performance. Café Miranda will be bringing their wood fired brick oven and serving up their signature gourmet pizza beginning at 5 p.m. Savage Oakes wine and local beer will also be available. The show is open to the public and for all ages. Seating is limited, so bring a lawn chair or blanket. FMI: Summer Concert.

Chill Zone At Zoot

 Saturday, July 11— Camden

 This one is short but sweet. If you’re cruising through Camden, DJ Quantam will play an ambient electronic DJ set at Zoot Coffee, 3-5 p.m., 31 Elm St., Camden.

St. George Tubing Flotilla

Sunday, July 12 — Warren

Last year was a blast. Bring your biggest floaty and hang with a group of like minded river rats. The instructions are to drive two cars; one to Warren village and one near The Slipway in Thomaston. Car pool if possible as there will be too many vehicles parked.) Plan to be there by 8:45, which is high tide with slack water for about 15 minutes and then tide will start going out. There will be two boats to move everyone along the dead water, which is about two miles, so it doesn't take as long as it did last year. Expect to float 3.5 hours. The flotilla will be ending as usual at The Slipway Restaurant, which some drink specials and some great food! Bring cash as they will be overloaded with credit card transactions. Other things to bring: life jackets (Everyone is required to have one. Adults don't have to wear them, but children do); sunscreen, food, water and, uh, other beverages. Note: Marine Patrol will be out, so all alcoholic beverages must be kept under wraps or in an unmarked cup. Basically, unless you’re doing something stupid, they will look the other way. See our story about it in The Wave. For more instructions, visit: St. George Tubing Flotilla on Facebook

Killer Road Trip: Moxie Fest

Friday, July 10-Sunday, July 12— Lisbon

Maybe you just love that dirt-and-battery acid flavor of Maine’s most iconic soda, or maybe you just like the goofy idea of a festival built around it, but Lisbon’s annual Moxie Fest is kicking up this weekend with parades, dance parties, Moxie tastings and Moxie ice cream and even a chug-n-challenge (ugh.) Fanatics of the drink will be in Moxie heaven. To see the entire weekend’s schedule, click here: Schedule.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

WARREN — Last summer, a loosely organized floating community block party convened on the St. George River and a tradition was born. Some folks opted for the simple inner tube, jerry-rigged with a floating cooler roped behind them. Some took kayaks, rubber rafts, giant industrial pools and more than a few of Sam’s Club green monster party rafts with room for eight. This year’s St. George Tubing Flotilla will be July 12. High tide is at 8:45 a.m., so everyone should plan to be ready to go by then.

Just like last year, tubers will start from Warren Village. A few tweaks to the course might be needed as it is a long 6.2 miles from Warren Village to the destination of the Thomaston landing, at the Slipway restaurant! 

Organizers are trying to get a couple of people with boats this year to pull everyone down about a mile or so as the Warren side is the lazy part of the river.  Last year, the spectators loved seeing everyone come in. This year, organizers would like to take donations — not a fee — for a couple of families in the area that really need the community’s help. What a great way to kick off midsummer and blues fest weekend!

To find out more details, visit: St. George Tubing Flotilla or check out Five Things Not To Miss This Weekend.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Take a look at this menu from 1916. Obviously we know where it’s from, but take a good look. Do you still eat any of the items listed on this menu? If so, please share.

Last week’s Throwback Thursday photo was The Colonial Theatre in Belfast. ”The photo was taken on the day the new sign went up, which is why the sign company truck is parked in front. The old sign, featuring the movie Ramona, is sitting on the sidewalk. Date is unknown. The movie listed on the sign, ‘Ramona’ was made in 1936, but was most likely not shown that year.” - Therese Bagnardi, Colonial Theatre owner, 2012

This week’s photo courtesy Rockland Historical Society.

Send your Throwback Thursday photos to news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—After more than a year and a half of renovations to 435 Main Street, the highly anticipated opening of Main Street Markets has opened July 9.

Along with Good Tern Co-op and Terra Optima Farm Market, this latest specialty grocery store cements Rockland’s foodie reputation with its selection of natural, local and organic foods, skincare and provisions.

The interior of the first floor is rustic with exposed original ceiling rafters and brick walls and new archways that mimic the building’s original brickwork. "In giving thought to the highest, best use of the building, it was clear from the start that Rockland's emerging food scene as well as the permanent community needed a one-­stop source for high quality, organic, locally produced food." said co-founder Rick Rockwell. Along with his daughter co-founder, Jennifer Rockwell, they have been working with a local crew to renovate the entire building, while restoring its historical beauty, literally brick by brick.

For now the Rockwells have concentrated renovating the main floor at street level. The focal part of the market is The Garden Café, serving breakfast and lunch featuring local yogurt and ingredients, toast, smoothies and juices, and create-­your-­own chopped salads and wraps. “Everything we will offer will be all-natural and organic,” said Jennifer. “Something people we will be offering that’s a little different are Smoothie Bowls. It’s like a breakfast soup, or a thicker version of a smoothie you can actually eat with a spoon.” (The Super Green Bowl, for example, contains spinach, pineapple, banana, almond milk with granola, almonds and seeds.)

The market also offers organic and healthy dry goods as well as coolers of fresh, locally sourced produce. In the back nook, there is also a selection of local Maine beer and ciders, as well as a diverse selection of wines. To accommodate the influx of summer business, the market will employ more than 25 people.

“In a few months, we will be developing the basement and move all of the beer, cider and wines down there, along with a cheese specialty shop,” said Jennifer Rockwell.

Eventually, the rest of the top floors of the building will be converted to apartments. And there’s one more surprise in store for locals. In a few weeks, the Rockwells are in the process of completing renovations on a space next to the market, calling it The Pop Up Store, which will serve as a temporary short-term rental space for artisans to sell their wares. “It will give small businesses a chance to sell things like pies, records, paintings, whatever the case may be,” she said.

The market will be open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

For more information follow Main Street Markets on Facebook.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—Ten years ago, negative Trip Advisor reviews were stating about Rockland: “There’s nothing to do here.”

Cut to the present, when Rockland has been named “Best Small Town for Food” in The Huffington Post, as well as on CNN as one of “America’s Coolest Small Towns.” Numerous articles have lauded its revived downtown scene, particularly focusing on Rockland’s food and culture.

Pamela Laskey, the director of Maine Foodie Tours which operates in Portland, Kennebunkport, and Bar Harbor, decided to open a new branch in Rockland this summer.

"Rockland lays claim to the creation of the lobster roll, the first ‘coffee break’ and and the hole in the donut,” said Laskey. “There is a lot of culinary history to share that is truly fun and it’s very exciting to showcase their talents with our new tours in town." 

“It’s more than just tastings,” added Robin McIntosh, the Rockland tour manager. “It’s talking with chefs and food producers about the farm-to-table and ocean-to-table process, locally produced beer and locally grown grapes for wine.” 

On June 13, Maine Foodie Tours launched Rockland’s first walking tour taking eight people all around to a number of downtown establishments for a walk-talk-and-taste. At Terra Optima, the owner, Cheryl Denz, came in from her morning farm chores to make up a special batch of savory popovers with sausage made from pigs she’d raised. At The Landings, tour guests listened to chef Max Miller talk about some great local stories around lobstering industry while sampling a lobster bisque that took 24 hours to prepare.

“He’s really into sustainable fisheries and all that goes into it and he’s got his own stories about growing up in the restaurant business,” said McIntosh.

Beer lovers got to try a flight from Rock Harbor Brewing Company while owner Dan Pease showed them the brewing equipment on site. They sampled his locally brewed beers  while trying  handmade french fires and ketchup to go with it. For wines, they got to sample Breakwater Vineyards varietals at their Main Street location paired with Bixby Bar chocolates, also manufactured downtown.

Every tour and tastings will be different, but will last somewhere between two and a half to three hours. The tour is designed to be small from 2-14 people who will walk 1.7 miles with an interactive guide, enjoying tastes at six to seven various locations.

“Just enough to burn off everything you’ve tasted,” joked McIntosh.

In this first season for Rockland, Laskey is offering the daily culinary walking tour, and there is much room for growth.  In other towns, Maine Foodie Tours offers educational tours by boat, cooking classes, and happy hour tours — something Rockland might see in the future.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Big Al’s Fireworks Outlet better be stocked up, because the Fourth of July falls on a Saturday night this year (and the weather looks good) so everybody is going to be looking for something to do. We have combed every cool event going on we could find to bring you a comprehensive rundown of July 4-themed events. We’ve color-coded these events for Adults and Kids to make finding them easier.

July 4, 2015

Belfast

· Adults and Kids: Say “Happy Birthday America!” An outside celebration takes place outside between Rollie's & County Copy. Free song-and-dance cavalcade by Cold Comfort Theater and Belfast Parks & Rec. Bring seats or blankets. Starts at 12 p.m.

· Adults Bowen's Tavern, 181 Waterville Road, hosts solo jazz and blues guitarist B. Douglas from L.A. Show goes from 3-6 p.m. FMI: 338-2242.

Camden

 · Adults and Kids: Camden Harbor Park & Amphitheatre hosts a free music-by-the-sea concert with Miners Creek Bluegrass Band, Casco Bay Wind Symphony, Reina del Cid, David Dodson and the Lowdown. The event, hosted by Camden Rotary Club, goes from 2 to 9 p.m., with fireworks following. FMI: 230-7200.

Despite the slight possibility of a shower, all of the concerts will take place outdoors:

2–3:15 p.m. — Miners Creek Bluegrass Band
3:30–4:45 p.m. — Casco Bay Wind Symphony
5–6:15 p.m. — Reina del Cid
7:45 –9 p.m. — David Dodson and the Lowdown, featuring John and Rachel Nicholas.

Bring blankets and chairs if you like. (Some seating provided during the afternoon concerts, but not during the evening concert.)

Tori and Colby Arau will perform from 1 to 2 p.m. in front of The Smiling Cow. These two singer-songwriters are Rockport natives who appreciate every aspect of music and hope to voice their emotions through song. Colby will be a junior at Camden Hills Regional High School, and Tori will be attending Gordon College in the fall.

Alex Wilder from Rockport will entertain in front of Cappy's Restaurant sometime between 1 and 5 p.m. Known for his many musical performances while attending Camden Hills Regional High School, Alex played the role of John Lennon in A Day In The Life: A Beatles Experience, a big hit at the Camden Opera House four years ago.

Aidan Kaczynski will sing on the wharf near Peter Ott's from 3:30 to 5 p.m. This talented local musician, who has won two national singing competitions, has been heard on local radio and television.

Rockland

·  Adults: The Speakeasy hosts The Bill Barnes Trio, throwing down a mix of standards and blues. Starts right after the fireworks at 8:30 p.m. $3 cover.

·  Adults: Rock Harbor Pub and Brewery has Group Therapy plays a lot of popular covers. The music starts at 8:30 p.m.

Thomaston

· Adults and Kids: Thoamston is always the big crowd pleaser every year with parades, firecracker races, barbeques and more, topped by fireworks. Penobscot Bay Pilot has the full schedule: click here.

North Haven

· Adults and Kids: This is going to be an all-day affair starting with a Color Run at 9:30 a.m.; Games at the Field at 10:30 a.m.; A Mussell Bake at Big Beach at 12 p.m. and a 1970s Throwback Dance at Mullins Head with a D.J. starting at 8 p.m. Bring your own everything.

Since all the fireworks are hogging the attention this weekend, we bring you a column on the most interesting things happening this weekend that have nothing to do with July 4!

Schooner Races

Friday, July 3 — Rockland

Pack a picnic or a collapsible chair, you’re not going to want to miss the dramatic schooner races as they come sailing from Islesboro into Rockland in anywhere from 2-4 p.m. Position yourself at the Rockland Breakwater for the best views. Read my story about it last year. The dramatic ending to the race was pucker factor 10. Click for schedule.

Rockland Art Walk & Cig Harvey show

Friday, July 3 — Rockland

Everybody loves the art walk. It’s one of the coolest summertime things Rockland and Belfast do. So, this Friday, Dowling Walsh gallery will be hosting a photography exhibit from artist, Cig Harvey, who captures the art of people watching through her lens. The reception goes from 5 to 8 p.m. For more info on the rest of the galleries participating and reception openings visit: artwalkmaine.org/rockland-first-friday-artwalk

Comedy-music variety show

Friday, July 3 — Thomaston

I thought I’d show this little under-the-radar event some love. Watts Hall is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a free Community Variety Show  6:30 p.m. at Watts Hall, Main Street/Route 1.The acts include a taste of high school comedy, local bluegrass musicians, ballerinas, a church chorus and a patriotic sing-along. There will be several surprises and some local celebrities including Coach Sam Pendleton and Sean "Flying Fingers" Fleming on the piano. FMI: call 354-6796.

Killer Road Trip: L.L. Bean’s Free Summer Outdoor Concerts

Saturday, July 4 — Freeport

If you go down to Freeport, bring your lawn chairs because L.L. Bean is offering a free outdoor concert by The Mavericks at Discovery Park at 7:30 p.m. This award-winning group offers a distinctly Latin spin on country music, with a hint of rockabilly thrown in – come out and hear songs from their newest album. Okay there will be fireworks after the shows, but shhh, you didn’t hear that from me. 

Killer Road Trip: Wilderness Art Walk

Sunday, July 5 — Hawk Ridge Farm, Pownell

Every year artist June LaCombe puts on a sculpture show at her Hawk Ridge Farm in Pownal displaying work of more than 50 New England artists. This year, calling it,"Poetics of Place," visitors will be able to wander around and view artworks in her country home and surrounding meadows, historic gardens and a woodland trail. The exhibition is open 2 to 4 p.m. Sundays, and by appointment, through July 26. For details, including directions, call 688-4468 or visit junelacombesculpture.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND — “The people whose first instinct is to smile when you make eye contact with them are some of the Earth’s greatest treasures.”

Today is the grand reopening of The Oyster Bar at the Pearl (formerly The Pearl), the iconic waterfront restaurant in Rockland and when I walked in this morning, co-owner Linda Novak was in a frenzy to get the restaurant organized by 3 p.m. when they open.

“Hi,” she greeted me with a big smile, even though she didn’t know who I was at first.

That’s when you know a restaurant has a great chance at being successful, when the owner makes you feel valued from the moment you enter the door.

Linda and her partner, Adam Marcus, moved to Maine three years ago from New Orleans. Taking a walk this past spring along the waterfront, they happened to find out from the harbormaster that The Pearl was up for sale and on a whim, she thought about the possibility of opening their own restaurant.

“I was completely taken with it,” she said. “My whole life I’ve worked in the restaurant business, so I opened my big mouth and said, ‘hey, maybe we could take it over.’”

Even though she and Adam were simultaneously renovating their entire house this winter, they undertook the challenge of reopening The Pearl. In about a month, they’ve updated the interior with a nautical theme and some of Linda’s own photographs along seating with crisp white and red directors chairs with blue umbrellas.

“Very all-American Fourth of July,” she said.

Gone are the TVs, which detracted from the stunning harbor views. Instead the ceiling crossbeams have been coated in blackboard paint so customers can see all of the daily specials. They also had the wood-fired oven that sits at the end of the bar upgraded.

The menu is all of Linda’s creation.

“It’s a New Orleans-influenced menu, but it’s not a Cajun menu,” she said. “For example, we’ll have smoked haddock and a scallop and haddock terrine. We’ll be doing po’ boys, such as a barbeque shrimp po’ boy, which is not what you think it is. When you think of BBQ, you think of Memphis sauces, but this is very traditional New Orleans dish, but it doesn’t go anywhere near a barbeque. It’s a combination of olive oil butter, garlic, rosemary and other seasonings.”

They designed the menu to be casual enough to eat at the bar and big enough to be shared by friends, such as their muffaletta sandwich — a entire loaf of bread filled with smoked ham, salami, mortadella, provolone and mozzarella.

“We’re really trying to bring the southern hospitality vibe to a Maine setting,” she said. “In New Orleans, every neighborhood has its own joint, and it’s like the community center. You strike up a conversation with someone at the bar and I think Maine people have that same vibe. This bar is set up for that kind of interaction. You’re not staring at the wall, so we’re really hoping to bring that neighborhood bar feel to the restaurant.”

Meanwhile while Adam remains the “Barbeque Maestro.” At the entrance of the pier, he shows me a BBQ smoker. “I went to college in Texas and fell in love with BBQ then,” he said. “So, I knew I needed to have one. No charcoal will ever be used. It’s all wood fired and the smoke will go out underneath the meat and I can regulate how much smoke with a damper.”

Adam doesn’t use sauces; he uses dry rubs and smokes his ribs for about six hours.

“We’ll serve them with special sauces if the customer wants it, but it’s mean to be savored the way it is when it comes out.”

Oyster fans will also not be disappointed. They source from Pemaquid Oyster Company and Mill Cove.

“We’ll have Pemaquids and Damariscotta Wilds and rotate a section of others each day with oyster specials,” he said.

They’re also open for Happy Hour starting at 3 p.m. each day with a dollar off beers, wines and cocktails.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST—For the last two years, Michael Hurley and Therese Bagnardi, owners of The Colonial Theatre, have been discussing their next career change, and in mid-June, they announced the colorful, eclectic theater was up for sale to the right owner.

Since the announcement was released, Hurley said “all kinds of people” are interested in taking over the theater, but he and Bagnardi are taking their time culling through the prospects.

Married couple Hurley and Bagnardi bought the theater in 1995. They said in a press release: “We have been blessed to have a 20-year-run at caring for the 103-year-old theater and we've loved almost every minute. When we took over the theater, the lobby was filled with a video tape rental shop;there was no Internet; kids used pay phones to get a ride home; real 35 mm film rolled through the projectors; the rest rooms looked like a place not to linger, and there was two tired screens.”

We asked Hurley to give us a Top 10 list of the theater’s best moments:

1. In 1912, The Colonial Theatre opened same day the Titanic set sail.

2. In 1924, The Colonial burned to the ground and eventually was rebuilt.

3. In 1995, The Colonial is taken over by Therese Bagnardi and Mike Hurley.

4. That same year starts the first of 20 years offering the Free Family Holiday Matinee Film Series with more than 100,000 free movies for kids and families made possible by local underwriters.

5. One year later, Hurley and Bagnardi did major construction, reviving and unveiling the grand "front of the house" which featured a new balcony and surround sound. They had to creatively trench under the theater to build out a third theater named "Dreamland."

6. In, 1996, Perry's Nut House elephants invaded the theater. (Back story: the elephants in the lobby and the life-size elephant "Hawthorne" trumpeting from the roof came from dismantled pieces when Perry’s Nut House on Route 1 originally closed.)

7. In 2006, the yearly incredible holiday decorations go up.

8. In 1997, New Years by the Bay took over the grand stage and has done so since, every New Year’s Eve.

9. In 2010, the Free Range Music Festival rocked the Colonial. (Now called the All Roads Music Festival, it still continues.)

10. In 2012, all theaters across the nation, including the Colonial, had to covert to digital cinema in order to show films.

“If I was selling a convenience store, all the local media wouldn’t have called me up,” said Hurley. “There’s a real aspect of glamour that goes with this business. It’s more fun than a lot of businesses. I go to this theater convention where you’ll meet 30 Hollywood A-list stars in three or four days and I can tell you if I hadn’t gotten into the movie theater business, I wouldn’t have met my hero Mohammed Ali.” (He was promoting the film Ali with Will Smith)

After 103 years, The Colonial  is still going strong. It is a cultural institution in downtown Belfast and on the National Register of Historic Places.Hurley stated 2015 will be the theater’s best grossing year in history.

“What we’re in the business of is creating illusion,” he said. “When people come to our movie theater, they are enthralled with the illusions on screen and this is something that anyone who works in the movie theater business will always enjoy.”

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

The building in this photo has been in the news this week and isn’t hard to guess where. For a switch, tell us: what was the memorable movie you ever saw at this location? (More details on this photo coming next week.)

Last week’s Throwback Thursday photo revealed a few familiar faces from the past. It was a photo submitted by Mitch Carlson (from You Knew You Grew Up in Camden-Rockport Facebook page of The Coffee Shop in Camden, owned by his parents.

This week’s photo courtesy Penobscot Marine Museum (www.penobscotmarinemuseum.com)

Send us your Throwback Thursday photos to news@penbaypilot.com

LINCOLNVILLE — In the last few years, Cellardoor Winery has made a name for itself not just as a winery, but also as a party planner that pulls out all the stops. On the weekend of June 26-28, the winery installed a massive tent on the vineyard’s grounds, hosting two back-to-back extravaganzas. Even though buckets of rain came down Sunday  afternoon, that didn’t stop Cellardoor’s staff from flipping the entire interior of the tent to create their biggest food-wine pairing event ever, called Smackdown, capped off by a recipe contest and and a cook-off.

It was a kid-in-the-candy store type of afternoon and not for the obsessive worriers about carbs and fats. An all-inclusive ticket got the guest inside where stations were set up all alongside the edges of the tent. The feast began with the eyes as a giant metal sculpture of the world tilted on its access in one corner along with a replica of the St. Louis arch.

Center stage, “The Bubble Bar” reigned supreme as Jeff "Smokey" McKeen, one of the stars of celebrity chef Mario Batali's new cookbook, America Farm to Table, shucked fresh oysters from his co-owned company, Pemaquid Oyster Company while staff kept elegant stemless glasses of two different types of champagne alongside them on ice.

On the left side of the tent, staff poured Cellardoor white wine while Trillium Caterers staff kept serving elaborate small bites, such as Gorgonzola tartlets and seared scallops in a beurre blanc sauce with edible flowers. On the right side of the tent, red wine and beer lovers reveled in more decadent pairings, such as shots of Bulleit bourbon with seared pork belly skewers or shots of Gritty McDuff’s Pilsner with tiny tempura-battered corn dog skewers. Then there was Gritty’s Black Fly Stout with sirloin chili. Cellardoor reds with Jambalaya and lamb shanks. Mini lobster rolls. Crab rangoon. Tiny shots of margaritas accompanied chicken quesadillas.

The food just kept coming!

In the back of the tent, a stage had been set up for the judges of Cellardoor’s first Smackdown recipe contest, while just below the stage, each of the finalists had his or her own cooking station, cranking out batch after batch for the guests to sample. Seven of the finalists had created their own signature dish.

After the judges had a chance to taste and comment upon everything during the four-hour period, the winner was declared: Sarah Malikowski, of Hampden, won with her Cellardoor Smackdown Lamb Burger.

Dana Moos, The Smackdown People's Choice Award winner, wowed the crowd with her Creamy Bacon, Poblano and Corn Chowder with Maine Lobster.

Other finalists and their creations included Tegan Guilfoyle (Serendipity Fig Compote and Gorgonzola Tartlets); Bob Talbot (Ultra Chocolatey Cupcakes with Fiery Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting and Candied Bacon); Robyn Tarantino (Moroccan Chicken); Kristy Townsend (Fig 'Specks') and Mali Welch (Blackberry-yaki Chicken Kabobs).

The event could only be described as over the top as guests enjoyed all that Maine’s most creative culinary minds could create.

To quote Cellardoor directly: “Savor your summer.”

To see a gallery of the event from 5ive Leaf Photography, click here.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

The big thing this weekend is about stuffing your face. Maine Fare is the place to be along with Cellardoor Winery’s Smack Down. Don’t forget the Chowda Challenge and Portland’s Noshbow Fest as well.

Maine Fare and Belfast Art Walk

Friday, June 26-Saturday June 27 — Belfast

Start with the uber enhanced Belfast art walk on Friday night and sample local veggies, cheeses, chocolate and more, while you explore Belfast's downtown galleries. Each participating gallery will feature a "taste" from local farmers and food producers. Saturday is the real festival. Highlights: Check out Primo’s Melissa Kelly’s chef demo at 10:00 a.m.($5 a ticket) and Francine Bistro and Shepherd’s Pie’s Brian Hill’s demo at 11:00 ($5 a ticket). Check out the Seafood Throwdown at 12:30 p.m. In this Iron Chef-like event, two chefs will engage in a culinary battle of skill and creativity with one mystery fish. Remember our recent story on the Maine forager frank Giglio? He’ll be leading a class at 1:30 on how to make mead. General admission is free, although some tastings and classes do require extra tickets. What a great place for all the farmers, fishermen, and foodies to celebrate in one place!

Make A Change

Friday, June 26-Saturday June 27 — Camden

Power Performance is back this weekend and dancer and chereographer Kea Tesseyman will lead a whole new troupe into thrilling territory with all new short personal documentaries from people in the Midcoast combined with a dance number following each story that will give you goosebumps. (For you old schoolers, look for numbers including songs from Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Salt ‘N’ Peppa, Prince, Madonna, Blackstreet,and The Bangles)I’ve seen a couple of them and this event truly delivers. High on emotion and raw dance moves, this show gives the sense that every life (no matter how seemingly stuck or broken) has a chance to break out. Each show starts at 7 p.m.Tickets can be bought at HAV II, Zoot Coffee in Camden or The Grasshopper Shop in Rockland.

Cellar Door Winery’s Smack Down

Sunday, June 28 — Lincolnville

Get ready for Cellardoor Winery’s Smack Down! This is their biggest food and wine pairing extravaganza and cook-off ever. Join them at the Lincolnville vineyard for the pairings, featuring an incredible menu of gourmet bites, and stay for the cook-off, complete with creative, competition-worthy recipes submitted by locals, prepared by the fabulously talented Trillium Caterers, and scored by a lineup of awesome guest judges. Come see what to eat with your favorite summer white, sample a Fig ‘Speck’, or drink champagne at the Bubble Bar, while eating local oysters. Goes from 12-4 p.m. This is one event NOT to be missed. Tickets are $50 per person but are limited! They can be purchased exclusively on BrownPaperTickets.com.

Chowda Challenge

Saturday June 27 — Rockland

The Maine Lighthouse Museum, on 1 Park Dr., Rockland, will host its inaugural Chowda Challenge, with various local eating establishments and some amateurs offering up their finest chowda for everyone to taste. The registration fee is $25 and for $10, visitors will be able to sample their creations and vote for their favorite. The event starts at 12 p.m.

Killer Road Trip: Noshbow Street Fest

Sunday, June 28 — Portland

if lighthouses just aren’t your thing, let’s get you something a little more alternative. Nosh Kitchen Bar and Oxbow Brewing Co's Annual Street Festival is gearing up for Sunday. Nosh serves up some tasty food, while Oxbow keeps the taps flowing featuring skateboarding, music and art. Som of the bands lined tup to play included Paranoid Social Club, The Pub Crawlers and The Mallet Brothers.FMI: Noshbow Street Fest

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Obviously there’s a whole lotta coffee in this photo, but where is it and when?

 Wow, last week’s Throwback Thursday photo had some great comments as well as photographic updates on Facebook. Check them out here. It was Fuller's Market at the corner of Pacific and Crescent Streets, circa 1920.

This week’s photo courtesy Mitch Carlson. The page on which it was taken will be revealed next week.

Send your Throwback Thursday photos to news@penbaypilot.com

The year was 1894. In Washington, a U.S. Congressman was cheating on his wife with a woman 30 years younger than him. Not that that’s really news today, but back then, the mistress, Madeline Pollard, who’d had it with the Congressman after being strung along in their 10-year relationship, decided enough was enough and sued him for failure to make good on his promise of marriage.

Congressman William Breckinridge of Kentucky was a five-term Democratic Congressman with aspirations to higher office — and this little wrinkle in his personal life was enough to wreck his chances of re-election, so he hired a spy to find out the dirt on Miss Pollard. Turns out the spy was a secretary, a young girl from Wiscasset named Jane Tucker.

What happened next is a true story of intrigue layered in scandal, a topic that fascinates Elizabeth De Wolfe, professor of history at the University of New England.

De Wolfe, whose husband owns a rare books store in Alfred, happened to be at a rare books and antique show when she stumbled across what’s called a salesman’s sample (basically like Amazon’s Look Inside feature) of a book called Pollard Vs. Breckinridge.

“I was thinking as I was reading, ‘Who is this girl who would sue a U.S. Congressman?’ ” she said. “I went home and did some research and the more I looked into it, I knew this would be a good story.”

De Wolfe began to find the pieces of the story through a vast amount of research. After trying to find the rare book all over the U.S., she discovered there were only three copies in the U.S. Two were vastly expensive. The third, she found out ironically, was located at her husband’s book store.

“After that, I knew it was a sign,” she said. “I had to write this book.”

Jane (alias: Jennie) Tucker, a stenographer from Wiscasset, never set out to be a spy.

”She’d had it with Wiscasset,” said De Wolfe. “She was a very driven, entrepreneurial young woman who was bored living with her parents, bored with a small town. So, she goes to Boston and then New York City to become basically a temp. That was a brand new profession for women. She gets sent to the Astor Hotel, a very posh hotel to work for a Kentucky businessman as an office manager. The economy goes sour again and loses her job and has to come back to Maine. But the businessman never forgot her and six months later, she gets a telegram that says ‘I have a job for you. And if you do it, you’ll be set for life, financially.’”

Her assignment was to spy on Pollard. So, Tucker assumed the first of her many aliases, renaming herself as Agnes Parker, and went down to Washington D.C., where Pollard was now living, at a home for “fallen women.” Parker convinced the nun she was too was “a fallen woman” and got herself into the home, where her plan to make fast friends with Pollard.

“At this point Pollard really needed a friend,” said De Wolfe. “Her Washington crowd dropped her like a hot potato.”

Tucker/Parker then gleaned vital information from Pollard, which she then passed on to Breckinridge’s camp, which had the potential to swing the case.

”Make her mad on the stand,” was Tucker/Parker’s suggestion. “Her real true self will come out when you do.”

However, Breckinridge’s legal team failed to take that sage advice at their peril. At this point in the story, no one actually wins.

“As far as I can tell, the Congressman was wiped out financially by the trial and never paid his bill to Tucker/Parker,” said De Wolfe.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned goes the old expression. You would have thought by this time Breckinridge might have figured that out.

“For all of their differences, the Mistress and the Girl Spy had a lot in common,” said De Wolfe. “They both wanted independence where they had control over their own future. Neither of them wanted to to be married with a house full of kids. Neither one of them wanted to spend their lives in some rural, backwoods town. They were both ‘The New Woman’ of the 1890s.”

To find out what happened to the Congressman, the Mistress and the Girl Spy from Maine, De Wolfe is giving a talk about the trial, titled The Congressman, the Mistress and the Girl Spy Thursday, June 25. Her book on the topic is still in progress.The talk starts at 7 p.m. in the Nickels-Sortwell House Barn, 121 Main Street in Wiscasset. The barn entrance is on Federal Street. Admission is $5 for members of Historic New England, $10 for non-members. Pre-registration is recommended. To reserve a place, call 882-7169 or visit www.HistoricNewEngland.org. To see more of De Wolfe’s research visit: www.elizabethdewolfe.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN — The first thing you need to know about J. E. Moores’ latest self-published book, Snotgrass, is yes, that is his mother and her foot-and-a-half-high Marge Simpson bouffant on the cover. The second thing, despite the cartoons on the cover, is this is not a children’s book. Far from it.

Snotgrass is actually a memoir about five generations of Moores’ colorful family, particularly the tall tales his grandfather, Grampy Flanders, told him growing up in a farmhouse in Washington, Maine, in the 1960s. The title character Snotgrass is a swamp monster that Grampy invented to convey a moral lesson to Moores, which we later learn, arose from a disturbing childhood incident Grampy witnessed as a boy.

“I always say the best part of anyone’s life are the secrets,” said Moores. “So, I put everything in here that I thought was juicy stuff.”

Moores, in many ways, is a character who belongs in a book himself. He lives in Camden with his wife, Hazel, and their 10-year-old daughter, Malaya, who happens to accompany him on his book tours and author interviews. A big kid himself, he builds and collects toys, draws cartoons and has written 15 books ranging from stories to toy construction. He doesn’t own a cell phone, have a license or drive.

“And I don’t own anything I can’t carry,” he said. “Because once you do, it owns you.”

Toys for Moores are the perfect vehicle to tell stories.

“I had all of the Planet of the Apes toys as a kid,” he said. “I also loved the obscure Chinasaurs. They were packaged as dinosaurs, but they were made up monsters. I’ve always loved theater and designed a lot of props. Just making stuff is what I love to do, but it usually has to have a narrative.  Any toy I collect or make and turn into a book or a video, it’s got to have a back story and lore.”

The made-up monsters in Moores’ memoir happen to be Swamp Boggers, Philly Lou Birds, Side Hill Gougers and a Yupapotamus — all part of Grampy’s sense of humor as he explains facets of life to Moores as a kid on long drives through the backwoods of Maine. (Incidentally, a few of these monsters appear on the cover crawling all over Moores’ mother.)

After Moores graduated from art school in Maryland, he pursued an artist’s path by keeping the bills paid with jobs, such as video editing and computer work.

For almost 20 years, he and his wife, a professional blogger, have owned and operated several dot.com stores. 

“Anything I knew about 10 percent about, I set up with a domain name and basically pursued which one made the most money,” he said.

The set-up he has now allows him to work two hours a day stocking and shipping items on the jobby job stuff, leaving the rest of his time free to pursue creative activities.

“Yes, I’ve worked very hard to do very little,” he added.

Snotgrass is written simply from a childlike perspective about the family stories he has heard all of his life, even though many are often tragic. He’d been working on compiling these stories for several decades, trying to find a way to make characters out of real people.

“My mom always had that bouffant even though we lived in a little farmhouse the middle of nowhere and she was always dressed like she was going to some royal ball. She was a really tough lady— always doing everything herself, even out changing her own transmission, all dressed up in this garb. And she was famous for it. She’d be gardening or driving her lawn mower and people would be like ‘I’ve never seen your mom’s hair out of place.’”

In person, Moores’ best kid-like quality is his sense of humor in the face of a serious situation. Deeper into the book, it’s revealed that one of the biggest family secrets he kept was the identity of his biological father, who abandoned him. To know this about Moores and to witness his cockeyed optimism, makes him even more of a compelling real-life character.

“The book gets really intense,” he said. “It’s funny, but I use humor to set you up for heartbreak.”

“The best part of these stories is that my grandfather would add to the stories his dad told him and I’ve passed them down to my daughter. All the toys I’ve built or collected were used in play with Malaya and were a way to continue the stories with her. They were just a way to see what would connect with her.”

Moores has already done two small book readings in Camden and Washington, but will be spending the next few months teaching arts and crafts at Malaya’s summer camp up north. To learn more about Moores visit: jemoores.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND — As a kid, Maine native Kevin Cyr would go camping with his parents and older brothers every summer in a 1977 fiberglass pop-up Apache. Living in Madawaska, the northern most town in Maine, the family would often spend two weeks, just over the Canadian border at a French campground. Starting when Cyr was about eight years old, those were some fond memories.

“I went to bed early, so I usually got an entire wing of the pop-out to myself,” he said.

Cyr, who graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, had always gravitated toward drawing and painting old vehicles.

“I liked drawing working vehicles and I think that mostly stemmed from growing up in a blue-collar paper mill town,” he said.  Later, as a bike messenger in Boston, Cyr would often pass those junked cars by the side of the road.

“When I’d go back the next day, they were usually gone, towed away,” he said. “That was also around when the SUV craze started taking off and I wanted to find a way to preserve these cool, old vehicles that were going by the wayside in favor of these modern vehicles.”

For the last 15 years or so, he has painted a series of them. Then, on a work trip to Beijing, he noticed rickshaws, the three-wheeled cargo bikes.

“Because I was a bike messenger, I was really enthralled with them and began doing tons of drawings of them as well. One day, I was goofing off and I drew a camper on the back of one of them.”

That confluence of ideas fit Cyr's utilitarian perspective of self-sufficiency on the road and afterwards spurred him to create a show titled Home in the Weeds, examining the idea of shelter as a safe haven for a future worst-case scenario, as well as more optimistic notions of home and self-preservation.

The show included the "Little Tag Along," a small camper towed by a bicycle as well as other shelters and installations. After an exhibition in San Francisco, he had the 445-pound Little Tag Along trucked to Maine for the Center for Maine Contemporary Art's first Rockland pop-up show, which opened on June 5 on Lime Street. Sharing the show with another artist Sean O'Brien, Cyr's show was all about self-preservation, adventure, mobility, habitats and housing.

Little Tag Along was the CMCA show’s prominent piece. Deliberately hand-painted in those ugly brown burnt orange stripes of the 1970s-era campers, it seems to be resting by the side of the road next to a vintage 1970s Raleigh bike. As Cyr and his wife watched his 14-month-old son crawl inside the tiny unit, many people poked their heads inside to see what was in it. All of the essential survival tools you’d expect from a kid who grew up in the 1980s to have: Lantern, an old cooking grill hidden beneath the bench, pocket knife, vintage fan and a clunky radio-TV unit.

Today, every private campground in Maine seems to have tent sites that come with WiFi.  So, where was the iPad and mp3 players and all of the devices modern day campers in this exhibit? Exactly.

“Can you actually sleep in there?” was the main question people asked Cyr.  In fact, he built the bench and side table panels to dovetail into a flat bed that could fit his height exactly, 5’ 8”. Yet, he has only used it as an exhibit; he has not yet slept in it himself.

“It was really built to be an exhibit, not so much as a functional piece,” he explained.

Wandering through this exhibit, his other drawings and paintings of old camping vans RVs are worth checking out, including the camper he paintings on a rickshaw. In all of them, we imagine ourselves in them, speeding away from our everyday lives loaded up with only the necessary items for survival. This is a fun exhibit for anyone who has ever gone camping, but makes a larger statement that the latest tech gadget rolling off the shelves is not necessarily better than its predecessor. 

“I have a lot of old iPods that don’t work anymore,” he said, “but my old cassette player — it still works.”

The show runs until July 5. For more information visit: cmcanow.org/calendar or http://www.kevincyr.net

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Saturday is when all the action is happening this weekend and luckily we're looking at an amazingly perfect 70-degree day. Thanks Mother Nature! Kick off the longest weekend of the summer with some of these local events.

Killer Road Trip: Wine On The Waterfront

Friday, June 19 — Bangor waterfront

Bangor's first Wine on the Waterfront event kicks off Friday night. Enjoy samples of wine from up to 20 locally crafted Maine vintners while strolling along the beautiful Waterfront Pavilion. Along with samples of wine being poured into your own signature Wine on the Waterfront sample glass, entertainment and Maine artisan foods will be provided. Goes from 5 to 8 p.m. General Admission tickets $45: click here.

T’ pirates Be Comin’!

Saturday, June 20 — Damariscotta

Did you know there’s an English to Pirate translator? Yes, right here. Every year there’s a Damariscotta River Pirate Rendezvous and these professionally trained pirates take it very seriously when it comes to taking over and pillaging a town. The Rendezvous starts at 10 a.m., with pirate action during the event spread throughout the in-town areas of Damariscotta and Newcastle. At high noon, the pirates are expected to sail up-river and attack the Twin Villages. There will be the roar and rattle of cannon and small arms fire as the village defenders attempt to repel the pirates. For more information about the schedule, click here.

Music/Dance Parties of Rockland Summer Solstice Celebration

Saturday, June 20 — Rockland

Each year it gets bigger and better. At 4 p.m., Main Street is cordoned off and the people take to the streets. We’re going to see a sunny 70 degree day for the Rockland Summer Solstice Celebration and having been to a few of these, the best parts (for adults anyway) are the people watching, the Swing and Sway flash mob dance, the music (jazz, blues, rock and originals) all around pockets of Main Street followed by a live band at Rock Harbor Pub & Brewery at 9 p.m. (good luck keeping the noise down for that) as well as a beach-themed dance party at Trackside Station at 9 p.m. No cover. FMI: click here.

More Summer Solsticing at Knox Museum

Saturday, June 20 — Thomaston

Anything that’s got a Wife-Carrying Race is going to make it into my column, just so you know. Another great solstice event happening Saturday is Knox Museum’s 3rd annual Midsummer at The Museum. You can expect traditional paper bag luminary making – with all materials provided; lawn games; a pig roast; the aforementioned Wife-Carrying Race; nibbles and drinks from the cash bar; a buffet supper; a bonfire and fireworks! Tickets $15 for adults, $12 for museum members, and can be purchased until 3 p.m. on the day of the event online at knoxmuseum.org. Tickets purchased at the door, as available, will be $18 for adults, $15 for members. Admission is free for children 12 and under. FMI: click here.

Thrash it out with Wylde Lyfe and Jim Dandy

Saturday, June 20 — Belfast

In a departure from the warm and fuzzy solstice celebrations, here’s a little gig happening Saturday night. Wylde Lyfe takes the stage making some seriously rad tunes — blending punk, surf, and other groovy, funktastic sounds into a web of gnarly noise. They’ll be performing with Belfast hooligans Jim Dandy — who will smell up the place right good with their vicious psych-punk attack. This rocking show will debut the new music series at Waterfall Arts called Live @ the Fallout Shelter. Starts at 7 pm. The event is chem-free and admission is $5 at the door. FMI: click here.

 Does anybody know where this old store was and what store is now sitting at this location?

 Out of several guesses, only one person got the actual date and situation of last week’s Throwback Thursday photo correct. That was Dave Kenney, who said, “Top of Turnpike Hill, Rt. 52. Climber fell around ‘77 or ‘78.”

This week’s photo courtesy Terry Economy via Rockland, Maine History Facebook page.

Send us your Throwback Thursday photos to news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND — After raising four children and becoming a grandmother to nine children, empty nester JoAnna Galkowski from Rockland hadn’t given a thought to her appearance in a very long time. “I was just tired,” she said. “When I looked in the mirror I felt even more tired.”

Her 15-year-old granddaughter, Hana, snapped a surreptitious photo of Galkowski one morning over breakfast. Little did she know what Hana had in mind.

Hana sent in a heartfelt essay about her grandmother, along with her photo, to Skin Klinic’s Makeover Contest. Nearly 140 women around the state entered the contest with photos and essays attached, which the entire staff of Skin Klinic read and they decided as a team, the makeover package should go to Galkowski.

The essay read in part:

“I know that you guys are probably getting plenty of those heart-wrenching stories about why their friend or family member should win this makeover, but I just want to say that I love my grandmother more then I could ever express. She's a very hard working woman, and is always helping other people, and trying to make everyone happy, except her. I think that she's a very beautiful person in and out, but she's aging. I think that she should win this makeover because it would revive her. I want her to just have a day to herself and not have to worry about anything. She should also win because she's the most loving, caring person. In my short life, she has shown me so much wisdom and given me a lot strength. She has done so much for me, and now it’s time for me to do something for her. After having four kids, she forgot how to do stuff for herself once in a while. She has always been a very stylish woman, but it’s not the 90s anymore. Show her how to show off her amazing complexion, and curves.”

“I was driving home from work and got the phone call that I’d been the one to win the contest,” Galkowski said. “I didn’t know what to think. I was very excited, but I wasn’t sure what was involved. You read stuff about celebrities getting these kinds of services, but I was also a little afraid, wondering, what was I getting into?”

This is the first time we have ever done a contest like this,” said Susan Kelly, a registered nurse, aesthetician and owner of Skin Klinic & Day Spa in Rockland. “We have women call us all the time to do a variety of services, but we wanted to put together the whole package for one candidate. We also wanted someone who was deserving.”

The package was around $6,000 worth of services. “It takes some trust for someone to turn herself over to us and allow us to determine what she needs,” said Kelly. “Especially since she hadn’t even heard of most of the procedures we had in mind for her.” In this day and age, more and more people are leaning toward less invasive treatments that can give dramatic results.

Galkowski started off with a photofacial, which is a  light-based skin resurfacing treatment used to treat brown spots, broken capillaries and to boost collagen. “It wasn’t too painful, but it did feel like a snap each time it touched my face,” she said. 

Right away, she noticed brown spots that had been on her face for years had disappeared. “Those spots had always bugged me for the longest time,” she admitted.

Next, she had a series of dermal fillers to plump out the hollows under her eyes, the contours of her face, which had lost volume due to the aging process, and to smooth out the marionette lines by her mouth. When the fillers had settled in her face, the staff then used Botox, a drug to cosmetically remove wrinkles on her forehead and the frown lines above her eyes.

“I never really looked into Botox before, because honestly, I didn’t really know it was available in Maine,” Galkowski said. Next, the staff applied dramatic eyelash extensions to her eyes, which will last about a month. Getting to the end of her makeover, Galkowski had her hair professionally cut, colored and styled with highlights. Finally, the staff applied a professional makeup application to Galkowski.

The entire makeover process took three months, just in time for summer.

“It doesn’t usually take that long, but we wanted do procedures in stages, so that her skin had time to adjust to each phase,” said Kelly.

The difference between her before-and-after photos shows a woman who looks years younger, fresher and in her words, “no longer tired.” 

After so many years of being a mother and grandmother, putting all of her energy into others, Galkowski said she never realized how little she gave to herself. She said that the services she received have changed the way she views investing in herself.

“I feel a lot of gratitude,” Galkowski said. “They made me feel like I have a new lease on life.”

“I think it’s given me a lot more confidence,” she said. “When we look good, we feel good. It’s really changed my whole outlook. I just have a little more bounce in my step.”

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

 We’ve got four under-the-radar outdoor events in the Midcoast this week and one bing, bang, boom one coming out of Portland!

Open Studio Tour & Grill Out at MidCoLab

Friday, June 12 — Thomaston

if you don’t know what MidCoLab is, now you will. It stands for Midcoast Collaborative, a collective of various young entrepreneurs who share workshop and office space to make furniture, sculpture, paintings, metalwork, etc. Whenever you see any installations for The Collective bashes, (The Farnsworth Art Museum’s baby), many of these artists are usually involved. The open house starts from noon to 4:00 p.m. The public is invited to drop in and see what the makers and artists are currently working on. At 4:00 p.m., it’s happy hour with drinks and grillables along with an informal reception going to 8:00 p.m. the MidCoLab is at 12 Shepard Drive in the Shepard Auto Plaza adjacent to Flagship Theaters. For more info visit: https://www.facebook.com/midcolab

Pocket Cruiser/Small Boat Party at Camden Public Landing

Friday, June 12 and Saturday, June 13 — Camden Public Landing

Well this ought to be interesting for the landlubbers. Check out the public landing Friday afternoon and evening. A number of "pocket cruisers" e.g., smaller boats, generally under 28 feet will convene at the public landing for a pah-tay! Check in and a “beer fest” takes place Friday afternoon and evening. Saturday activities will include a boat parade at 2 p.m.; a galley contest, with prizes awarded for cleanest, dirtiest, smallest and most creative bottle opener; kids' dinghy races for dinghies under nine feet; dinghy races for 18 and older; awards; island caretaker’s storytelling; barbecue potluck; and a dance with music by DJ Terry Frank.

Jazz & Blues at Cellar Door Winery

Saturday, June 13 — Lincolnville

While you’re getting a free sip of Cellar Door’s latest wines, B. Douglas, jazz and blues guitarist from L.A., will be performing at The Cellar Door Winery, 367 Youngstown Road. FMI: 763-4478.

Outdoor Concert With Just Teachers

Sunday, June 14 — Camden Public Amphitheatre

Everybody’s favorite band lately, Just Teachers, will be playing a free outdoor concert at noon in the Camden Amphitheatre. The show benefits Barbara Bush Children's Hospital on behalf of two local students in BBCH care. Bring a picnic. If it rains (and so far Sunday is looking sunny), the show will move to Camden Hills Regional High School.

Killer Road Trip: 42nd Annual Old Port Festival

Sunday, June 14 — Downtown Portland

Celebrate the kickoff of summer with more than 30 bands on six stages, including the Mamm Slamm winners. The festival will be taking over the streets of Portland for a massive downtown party with a parade of dancers and drummers, a rock climbing wall, a ton of stuff for kids, and great local food. Free entry. Click for schedule.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

It’s pretty clear from the photo where this is, but does anybody remember this incident? Or have any stories about the rock climbing cliff?

By the way, we got so many responses to last week’s Throwback Thursday photo, which was indeed, Indian Basket Tent in Lincolnville Beach, but from now on, we will ask folks to comment directly to the story in the comment box below rather than email us the answer. That way everyone will see it. Thanks to all who wrote to us: Jeff Lord, Molly Stone, Lori Traikos, Kevin Widdecomb, Shirley Remsen. Patsy Lannon, Suzanne Weiss, Ann Pattison and Diane O’Brien, who had this to say:

“That photo was taken at Lincolnville Beach, probably in the 1940s.....it's the Indian Basket Tent, owned by Penobscots Leo and Florence Shay of Lincolnville Beach and Old Town. Florence made baskets, sitting in front of the tent in the photo. The family, including their children, lived in a tent behind the sales tent. In the 1960s their grandson, Bob Anderson, bought the business and ran it for many years with his wife, Jackie. They sold baskets and souvenirs, moccasins and other items. Today, Bob has a museum of Indian basketry, as well as baskets for sale north of Ducktrap on Route 1.”

Send your Throwback Thursday photos to news@penbaypilot.com

This is our first real summer weekend of the season with temps hitting the 70s and continuing to rise at night with some sizzling music and art. And don’t forget Friday is Rockland’s first art walk of the season!

Pop Up CMCA exhibit/reception on “Nomadic Nature”

Friday, June 5 — Rockland

Given that Center for Maine Contemporary Art is going through its own transition between Rockport and Rockland, it’s only fitting that their first pop-up event in their interim space in the Bicknell Building, 11 Lime St., will be featuring two artists with a nomadic theme. The exhibitions Kevin Cyr: Becoming Nomads and Sean O’Brien: Everywhere Forever will be on display starting with an opening reception from 5 to 8 p.m. The shows will then run Wednesdays to Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays 1 to 5 p.m. through July 5.

Dance Party at The Speakeasy

Friday, June 5 — Rockland

Summer—it’s on! Kicking off the weekend, The Speakeasy and Necessary Music Productions host a bombastic dance party, starting at 9 p.m. with local DJs Mark Kelly and Owen Cartwright. Afterwards, join the dance party featuring Dave Gutter of Rustic Overtones and Paranoid Social Club along with vocalist Anna Lombard. Admission is $5; 21+. The party goes until midnight.

FOG Bar hosts Chicky Stoltz

Saturday, June 6 — Rockland

Chicky Stoltz is a local favorite and will be doing a special performance at FOG Bar and Cafe. He’s a one-man band. Part gutter and part vaulted ceiling. With him will be Tom Whitehead and Noah Barnes. Show starts at 8 p.m.

Rockland artists open their homes and studios to public

Saturday, June 6 to Sunday, June 7 — Rockland

You already know Rockland’s art scene is a happening thing...now you can visit some of the artists’ homes and studios to meet the people and see the larger picture behind their art. Rockland’s South End Studio Weekend will incorporate 3D, digital prints, mixed media, jewelry, pottery and more. Click here to see the participating artists. The weekend’s hours are from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Killer Road Trip: L.L. Bean Paddlesports Weekend

Friday, June 5 to Sunday, June 7 — Freeport

Before the summer visitors swarm, it’s going to be a fabulous sunny weekend to be outside. This annual event is all about fun on the water for everyone from beginners to more experienced paddlers, with free paddling clinics and on-water boat demos with kayaks, canoes and stand-up paddleboards. FMI: LL Bean Paddlesports Weekend

 Anybody recognize what this tent represented and where it used to sit?

Last week’s Throwback Thursday photo was, indeed, a drug store, before it became what it is today: Rock Harbor Brewing Co. One reader Patricia Bolce mused: “The far right one was Perry's Market when I was a kid in the ‘40s. I remember using my wagon to take bacon fat there to help the war effort. Across Limerock Street, on the right was known as The Corner Drug Store then.”

Note: We’re getting a lot of comments sent to us by email, but we’d rather have you post your comments below or on Facebook under the story so everyone can see them.

 This week’s photo courtesy Penobscot Marine Museum.

Send your Throwback Thursday photos to news@penbaypilot.com

Throughout our long, cold winter, our short, cold spring, and our rainy, cold introduction to summer, it’s all too easy to reach for the same old sloppy sweatshirt and leggings or jeans.

That’s the pattern 31-year-old Angela Wheaton had gotten herself into. Recently, a new mom of a two-and-a-half-month-old girl, she felt she was starting to lose her identity and her propensity to throw on the same old wardrobe didn’t help.

“I’m a simple dresser, polo shirts, T-shirts, jeans, sneakers,” she said. “No bright colors or patterns.”

She hired Rockland style advisor James Barger, whose business is called CHANGE, isn’t it time? 

Barger, who moved to Maine from Boston in 2013, decided he needed to leave the desk job and go back to what always used to make him happy as a teenager — working in retail and helping people find their “shine.”

With an associate’s degree in business management, he began to think about how his talents and skills could mesh. After working with friends to help them find their best color and style, he started his business six months ago.  Wheaton became his first client.

 “I don’t have huge self-confidence when it comes to what I’m wearing,” she said. Working multiple part-time jobs, she also had trouble finding a look that could go from work casual to everyday living without having to change multiple times in a day. “I just need someone to show me what looks good so I can feel good,” she added.

With every start of a new season, change is always on people’s minds, but when it comes to color and clothing, particularly in Maine, people can be victims of their own comfort zone choices. The problem, according to Barger, is that the wrong color and style can skew your self-image. It actually distorts the lens in which others view your appearance. What you might think is a good color on you could be adding years to your face, accentuating prominent lines and wrinkles, leeching out your natural inner glow and clashing with your hairstyle and color.

Case in point: As Barger worked with Wheaton, he held multiple color boards under her chin while she viewed herself in the mirror. Almost imperceptibly, her face changed entirely with each color board. For example, golds and yellows brought a natural glow and youthfulness to her face, whereas silver and purple seemed to drain her face of color, hollow her eyes and make her look tired.

He goes through a certain “color elimination” process to pinpoint what will work best with Wheaton, a petite, brown-eyed blonde. Starting with a one-on-one consultation, detailed questionnaire and her measurements, then moving on to color boards and color fans (similar to a Pantone paint fans), he determines that her natural coloring works best with a spring palette. In styling, we all fall into one of four color seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter.

With a spring palette, Wheaton had to trust that he’d nudge her out of her comfort zone without blasting her into a style realm that didn’t feel anything like her. For the purposes of this article, Barger did a pre-shopping trip for Wheaton at T.J. Maxx and by the time she arrived, had chosen about 15 blouses and tops for her to choose from, along with several pairs of pants.

Barger had about a 90 percent success rate in his clothing choices and Wheaton tried on almost everything. She was surprised to find that most of the various colors and patterns he picked worked for her and how well they fit.

Part of Barger’s job is to determine what works best with each body shape, minimizing his client’s shortcomings and highlighting his or her best features.

“It’s my duty to be up front and honest about what works and what doesn’t,” said Barger. “I always preface our initial meeting by asking ‘do you really want me to help you look good or do you just want to be flattered?’ ”

After their consultation, Wheaton, discovered she has an inverted triangle body shape, with broad shoulders, a long torso and short legs.

“The thing is, I already know what I like and don’t like about my own body,” said Wheaton. “And I was a little nervous to have someone echo that back to me, but James was really good at making me feel at ease. Take this yellow striped top with gold zippers,” she said, holding it up. “I’ve never gravitated to gold or yellow before.”

When she put it on, the ruched sides of the top fit her like a glove, aligning her entire body in proportion.

When someone is wearing the right color and cut for their face and body type, Barger says, the attention is drawn immediately to one’s face—as it should be.

“If someone is noticing your outfit first, before their eyes drift up to meet your eyes, your clothing choices are actually detracting from your best look,” he said.

In Midcoast Maine, clothing choices for all sizes and ages of women can be limited; for men even more so.

“Living up here, it’s all about layering,” he said. “One minute it’s freezing cold; the next, it’s blazing hot. But, it still can be fashionable and functional.”

Barger tries to shop locally when possible, but also utilizes a host of online stores to work with each client and contracts out what he calls his “glam squad” of hairstylists and makeup artists to complete each client’s look, if requested.

“After the first time I wore something James picked out for me, I went home to my husband, who, doesn’t usually say much about my appearance,” Wheaton said. “But, I could see his face light right up.”

“Watching her blossom and come into who she is, that’s what makes me the most happy,” said Barger.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

This weekend is all about the action happening on Saturday: From proms to storytelling, jump, jive and swing to rum riots.

Las Vegas-themed "Mom Prom" & Girls Night Out

Saturday, May 30 — Belfast Boat House

Why should teens get all the fun of prom photos, fancy dresses and dancing the night away? DJ Ryan Albert will be spinning a lively mix of danceable numbers. Women are encouraged to bring their female family members and friends to this annual spring event. Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be available, including a cash bar through Rollie's Bar and Grill. A "Step and Repeat" backdrop will be set up for red carpet "prom photos" for each lady attending the event, compliments of Jessica Michael Photography. And there will be a crowning of the Mom Prom Queen. Mid-Coast Mom Prom is being hosted this year by Broadreach Family and Community Services from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. at the Boathouse in Belfast. Attendees must be 21 or older. Tickets for this year's Las Vegas-themed event, which can be purchased online at www.broadreachmaine.org, are $30 and cover the cost of the prom and non-alcoholic refreshments.

Stories We Share: A Celebration of Arts, Culture and Community

Saturday, May 30 — Camden Opera House

This is the first of what will likely be a powerful tradition in the Midcoast. This storytelling event and arts celebration is a special opportunity for LGBT youth and adults to share their stories and art with the community. 2013 Presidential Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco, the first Latino and openly gay man to hold such an honor, brings his powerful storytelling and poetry to the event, and will stand alongside local LGBTQ youth and adult artists in this celebration of the experiences. Starts at 5:30 p.m., hosted by OUT as I Want to Be, with young LGBTQ poets, reception, silent auction. Admission by donation.

Three Button Deluxe at The Speakeasy

Saturday, May 30 — The Speakeasy, Rockland

This is not a stand-and-hold-your-beer-just-watching type of band. Three Button Deluxe brings the vintage heat. Bring your dancin' shoes and the outfit you'll sweat in the least. Expect rhythm 'n blues, jump jive, swing and rockabilly. $3 cover. Show starts at 8:30 p.m.

Right Amount of Wrong at Bowen’s Tavern

Saturday, May 30 — Bowen's Tavern, Belfast

Join the party with Right Amount of Wrong. They will be rockin' out at Bowen's Tavern with some of the best rock music ever: Bon Jovi, 38 Special, Halestorm, Fleetwood Mac, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alice in Chains, Godsmack, Pat Benatar, Doobie Brothers and much more. From 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Killer Road Trip: History of the Cocktail for Maine Rum Riot Week

Saturday, May 30 — TBA, Portland

Mainers do not like hypocrisy, but they do like their libations.  On June 2, 1855, during Maine's prohibition, Neal Dow, the mayor of Portland, hid rum inside city hall. When residents of the city found out about this secret cache of spirits they stormed city hall, rioting. Join the Maine Rum Riot movement this Saturday with a class on the History of the Cocktail. Enjoy four cocktails, from different eras, and snacks during this educational and enlightening seminar. In this two-hour class you'll learn about the history of the cocktail and cocktail books from two experts in the field: Don Lindgren, owner of Rabelais, one of the premier cookbook shops in the world, and John Myers, bartender at The Portland Hunt + Alpine Club. They will take you through the history of the cocktail as it pertains to cocktail books and cocktail ephemera. Tickets: $20 and can be purchased here.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

UNION — This was supposed to be an exciting summer for Katheryn "Kathi" Langelier. She'd just moved to a new house and farm in Union, ready to start a new phase of her life and ongoing business, Herbal Revolution Farm & Apothecary. An herbalist for more than 20 years, Langelier has foraged for herbs on the Maine coast, fields and forests. She also organically raises herbs in her garden for her micro one-woman business, making small batches at a time. When she first started, she would hand-label her extracts and tinctures and peddle them at farmer's markets, and later, sell them online through Etsy.

Her business has grown since 2009 with an expansion of her product line and a new website. Everything had been going fairly well except for one irritating snag. Since the 1990s, she'd been using the term "fire cider" for one of her products. According to herbalists, fire cider is a term as generic as the word salsa. For more than 30 years, fire cider has come to mean any herbal remedy that is spicy, vinegar-based and generally includes hot peppers, horseradish, onion, garlic and vinegar.

"I use a blend of vegetables and herbs that are combined with raw organic cider vinegar along with horseradish, onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric and habenero pepper," she said. When Langelier decided to formally brand and label her Herbal Revolution Fire Cider No. 9 in 2012, she did not even consider taking out a trademark on the name because it had been in general use by other herbalists.

However, in March, 2014, multiple business owners were told by Etsy that their online shop would be shut down if they didn't change the name of any products using the term "fire cider."

Langelier learned that Massachusetts-based herbal company Shire City Herbals had trademarked the term in 2014 and was putting legal pressure on small businesses around the country to cease using that term.

"I was angry," she said. "I thought it was unjust and deceitful. Fire Cider is a well-known tonic the herbal community created by Rosemary Gladstar in the '70s, but I didn't have the financial resources to fight them, so I changed the label to ‘Fire Tonic No. 9.’" However, in marketing her product, she would often hashtag it on social media as #firecider to provide instant context into what the product actually was.

The other two farmers, Nicole Telkes of Austin, Texas, and Mary Blue of Providence, R.I., were also told to change their product name, but they refused.

Word soon got out among herbalists around the country that this was rapidly becoming a David vs. Goliath trademark situation, very similar to the legal wrangling between the Vermont farmer who fought to keep his "Eat More Kale" t-shirts and branding against the objections of corporate food chain Chick-fil-A, which argued the slogan was confusingly similar to their "Eat More Chikin" slogan. (The Vermont farmer won to keep his trademark.) Soon after, a national grassroots petition began to urge the U.S. Trademark Office to cancel the trademark on the term "fire cider," claiming it had been used by multiple businesses since the 1970s.

More than 10,000 people have signed a Change.org petition against the trademark and 120 herbal teachers, stores,and manufacturers have come out in opposition to the trademark, with their logos displayed on the website www.freefirecider.com. There is also an active boycott of Shire City Herbal's fire cider product.

Langelier signed the Change.org petition, but she did not participate in a larger boycott. "I had my own business to attend to," she said. "I didn't have time for that. Besides, I thought it would be a conflict of interest to boycott a product that I myself, was selling."

In response to that petition and boycott, Shire City Herbal filed a civil lawsuit against Langelier and the two above-mentioned farmers in April 2014 seeking damages of $100,000 for lost business due to the defendants' alleged activities.

Langelier, who complied with Shire City Herbal's name change, thinks this lawsuit is because some businesses stopped working with Shire City Herbal, once they learned about the trademark issue and sought out Langelier's product instead.

"I never contacted any of Shire City Herbal's contacts. They sought me out," she said. "A lot of herbalists and small businesses work hard and from the heart. And I think that's what separates small businesses from large businesses."

Telkes, Blue and Langelier are represented by attorneys from the Augusta law firm Verrill Dana in both the trademark petition and the new civil lawsuit.

"Words that are the name of a product itself (like "Fire Cider" or "Bloody Mary") are not trademarks, so others are free to use them to describe or identify their goods," said the defendants' lawyer, Rita Heimes­. "There are mechanisms in place for the public to help the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office correct an error like this when it allows a generic term to be registered. It's unfortunate that the registrants took the more aggressive step of suing Mary, Nicole and Kathi in federal court just because they are standing up for everyone else. We are honored to work with them to free "Fire Cider" so farmers and others can continue to use it as they always have."

Langelier offered the following advice for small business owners who are thinking about branding unique products: "As small businesses, we do our best to try to make sure no one else has a similar name and to create something as unique as possible." She recommends making a paper, photo and electronic trail of any branding term an entrepreneur comes up with as supportive evidence the moment they put the product on the market in case a similar legal situation as hers should arise.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

This one is so easy, isn’t it? What’s the building on the right today?

That last Throwback Thursday photo brought back great summer memories didn’t it? Several of our readers got it right: it was 1981 Broiler Festival held in City Park in Belfast.

This week’s photo courtesy Rockland, Maine History.

Send us your Throwback Thursday photos and stories at news@penbaypilot.com

THORNDIKE — When most of us go out for a walk on a mild spring day in Midcoast Maine, we only see the obvious: blooming apple trees, greening trees and flowers poking up. When Chef Frank Giglio goes out, he’s looking for what’s going to end up on his plate later that day.

Giglio, the featured chef in Dr. Alejandro Junger’s best-selling cookbook, Clean Eats, and a resident of Thorndike, where he runs Three Lily Farm, is all about foraging for wild edibles as a way to supplement one’s diet.

“There’s a lot of variety in Maine that people can be looking for,” he said.

In a talk co-sponsored by the Belfast Co-op, on May 28 at the Belfast Free Library, he’s going to show people what they can harvest year round, sometimes in their own back yards. “I’ll give people a four-season tour of wild, acceptable foods that can be found in Maine, not only on the land, but also in the water,” he said.

“It’ll be sort of a cooking class/talk,” he said, but because it’s a library, the cooking part will be very much on a small scale.”

Three wild edible foods he is picking now and people can be foraging for themselves are: nettles, spruce tips and ramps.

“This morning, I just harvested a bunch of spruce tips and am making a spruce tip mead, a honey wine” he said. “And I’ll also do a honey infusion with spruce tips and a vinegar extraction with natural organic apple cider vinegar from Sewall’s Orchard.”

Little known fact: spruce tips are very high in vitamin C — as much as an orange.

He’s also been collecting wild leeks, also known as ramps. “If all you had was a storage of garlic and onions in the cellar and that was gone,” he said, referring to another era, “right now, people would be looking for these leafy greens and a substitute for garlic.”

Chock full of vitamins and minerals, stinging nettles are a third spring favorite of Giglio. These innocuous plants can be found in woodlands, thickets, along rivers and along partially shaded trails. Giglio makes nettle butter out of them, as well as nettle gnocci and even a supplement to meatballs.

Giglio, who grew up in Connecticut, went to culinary school, then worked in restaurants all over the country before ending up in Maine with his wife, Camille, in 2012. Prior to living in Maine, he made the choice to be a vegan, but wasn’t getting all of the nutrients he needed from that particular diet and decided to do a one-month food challenge.

“That was my first introduction to foraging as a way of life,” he said. “The key is to get the maximum amount of nutrition from a plant source at its peak.”

Through his farm and website, he and his wife run online courses on foraging and fermenting, as well as cooking courses and one-off events. The farm’s name, Three Lily Farm, refers to the fact that his last name translates to “lily.” Along with his wife and their toddler son, Wilder, that makes three lilies. The website also serves as an educational resource on recipes, gardening, homesteading and off-grid living.

For those who are interested in learning how to forage in Maine on their own, Giglio highly recommends a newly released book by Arthur Haines, a botanist he’s worked with for several years, who wrote Ancestral Plants. This is very much on the same par as a tree or flower identification book for foragers.

“This is probably the greatest New England based guide for wild foods,” said Giglio.

The May 28 talk begins at 6:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Recent University of Maine at Augusta graduate and Rockland native Sierra Meservey is a weaver of ideas, of materials. It’s the process of making art that fascinates her, often leading her down a rabbit hole to an entirely different outcome.

Take for instance, her final thesis, an installation piece for her senior exhibition currently up at UMA. Made of yarn, thread and latex, it hangs like some kind of thready, strandy thick forest — almost what human tissue would look like on a nano scale.

“I’d been working on this since the beginning of the school year,” she said. “At one point, I was thinking about doing an installation of hair I had collected from numerous salons in my area. But, the hair added up slowly and my love/compulsive desire to knit came about as it always does in November. While knitting, I had thought about knitting and its significance to me and to my concept of nesting and netting. And one day — it clicked — I was able to find my nesting and netting concept in the plush contraptions I was creating.”

It took her five days to install the piece, working 10-12 hours day. “I respond strongly to installation pieces, because I feel as though installation pieces are works of art that the viewer can be a part of,” she said.

You could say her process is very bird-like in her compulsion to hoard materials before creating. A few years ago, another artwork she created got some attention. It was a newspaper dress made in a 3-D design class at the University College at Rockland, where she spent her first three years. Her instructor pushed her out of her comfort zone as an artist and encouraged her to make my pieces larger than life.

“We were only allowed to use three materials to create this project and the materials that my instructor chose for us to work with were duct tape, newspaper and cardboard,” she said. “I didn't use any cardboard in my project, even though I had spent the entire semester hoarding as much cardboard as possible from work.  I used regular duct tape and newspaper to make the dress.” She said the dress took about 30  hours to construct.

Meservey plans on being an artist full time, eventually.

“Right now, I’m branching off of the installation piece at UMA and I’m thinking about other possible installations — ones involving helium,” she said. This summer, she’ll be back working at Dowling Walsh Gallery for the fourth year as well as assisting  and modeling for photographer, Cig Harvey. She has lots of plans, including working with more artists and art installations, traveling and building her portfolio for graduate school. She has her sights set on New York.

And of course, weaving new ideas.

“I’m currently interested in adding encaustic and/or wax to my pieces,” she said. “I’m attracted to the visceral quality that those medias provide.”

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

It’s never been easy trying to make a go of it being an indie, emerging or mid-career artist, filmmaker or musician in Maine. If it were, everyone would drop their “jobby-job” to do it full time. Since 2014, however, a new nonprofit in Bangor, called Launchpad, has been giving these type of artists a leg up, serving as a support and incubator for artists throughout Maine.

On May 16 organizers hosted their largest event to date: The first-ever All Roads Music Festival, in Belfast, was a monumental success, which has propelled Launchpad out of the underground. Even though they’ve been in existence for more than a year, many people around the state are just beginning to find out about them now.

Launchpad was started by a young entrepreneur, Meg Shorette, who is the organization’s executive director and has always worked in nonprofits, and volunteered for the KAHBANG Music and Art Festival for years.

“I had always really enjoyed seeking out emerging artists to fill the other stages, film and art festival components of KAHBANG that weren't focused on the headlining acts,” said Shorette.

The KAHBANG Festival, despite its powerful beginnings, tried unsuccessfully to move its operations to Portland last year. Right now, it’s currently inactive.

“It was heartbreaking to see something that was built with such young, upstart spirit struggle in its last year,” she said. “Say what you want about the event—it had heart and I have never worked with another group of people so passionate about making it happen. I will always be grateful for the years it gave me to meet and talk with artists, musicians and filmmakers on an indie level. I learned what they want and need from events and organizations to launch them to the next levels of their careers.”

Along with a nonprofit board, Launchpad is now emerging as one of the coolest organizations in Maine supporting and spearheading artist-led events.

Here’s how Launchpad works. They currently support a slate of initiatives and programs to strengthen the existing Maine artistic landscape. These include its flagship project, the Launchpad Arts Incubator, the HelpArt initiative and the Central Gallery.

The Incubator is the professional side, helping artists hone their business and networking skills. It provides a physical, collaborative space for artists who are chosen through an application process to spend a residency, develop arts education, work on community-based arts projects, as well as have access to exhibitions, performances and talks.The HelpArt initiative is the funding side. HelpArt is a crowdfunding initiative designed to help artists raise the funding necessary to develop, produce or complete projects. The main vehicle is through the online portal: helpart.org.

The Central Gallery is where all of the prep work and training comes together. The gallery, located on Central Street in Bangor, used to be the KahBang gallery, run by Shorette before that festival moved its headquarters to Portland. Now, it is the place where contemporary, emerging and unconventional art, artists and ideas come together.  Each year, the space presents 12 visual arts exhibitions as well as hosts various events and programs.

Beyond that, Launchpad has a slew of other programs, labs, workshops and classes. Their events favor the quirky, silly, innovative vibe, such as Tipsy Art on May 26 (two hours of painting and wine) and an upcoming Dance-A-Thon on May 30 (a prolonged dancing event to raise money for artists). To see more details on these upcoming events visit: Launchpad on Facebook

“I truly believe that creative careers of all kinds start one audience at a time,” said Shorette. “Launchpad aims to be the catalyst in as many artists' lives as possible and if we can keep creating opportunities for artists to be seen, we're doing our job. The artists, musicians and filmmakers we work with should outgrow us in time as they keep progressing but we hope they'll always remain a part of this community we're starting to build.

It’s tremendously exciting to see a young successful arts nonprofit that “gets” the creative class in Maine. For more information on Launchpad’s programs visit: wearelaunchpad.org

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—A nervous lone duck waddled away from a kayak in the stretch of Megunticook River by the Riverhouse foot bridge. Perhaps he knew something was up. Minutes later, members of West Bay Rotary and volunteers standing all along the foot bridge released 2,500 of his rubber brethren into the river, kicking off the 2015 Duck Derby.

It was a beautiful sunny day with hundreds of blue, yellow and pink ducks dotting the river. All week, volunteers had set up nearly 300 floating “noodles” as barriers to guide the ducks to the finish line. This year’s course had been rerouted, starting at the foot bridge with groups of observers at various locations all over Camden as the ducks took about 25 minutes to cruise under the buildings, come out in the stretch behind Camden Deli and spill over the waterfalls. As always, a few ducks went rogue and took both sides of the falls, coursing out into the harbor where a team of volunteers scooped them up with nets. This year, a number of kids served as Duck Patrol at the foot of the waterfalls scooping up errant ducks with small fishing nets.

The first lucky duck to cross the finish line belonged to a ticket purchased by Steven Dailey, who won seven nights at the Vanderbilt Beach Resort in Naples, Fl. The 2nd prize winner was Mary Sargent, who won jewelry donated by Etienne Perret. The third prize winner was Noel Cox who won a lobster dinner for four donated by Lisa Dresser and Sandy Cox. The 4th prize winner was D. (Dennis) Sidik who won dinner for two at The Hartstone Inn.

Unlike last year where the ducks got somewhat confused as to where they were supposed to go, this year went off without a hitch. “We really had wind and the tide on our side this year,” said Rotarian Peter Berke. “We sold out of all of our tickets, which is a record. We had a great crowd and it wouldn’t have happened without all of our volunteers. We even had a bunch of kids who wanted to help collect the wayward ducks by the waterfalls, so we handed out some fishing nets and they went right to work.”

The sale of each ticket benefits a number of charities West Bay Rotary supports such as food pantries and The Hospitality House. For more pictures and updates, visit the West Bay Rotary’s Facebook page.

All photos by Kay Stephens

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

We're looking at a gorgeous spring weekend with lots of outdoor options — so many we had to add one more to this week’s lineup. So, what are you doing still reading this? Get out there!

Belfast’s Art Walk Kicks Off The Season

Friday, May 22 — Camden Harbor

Belfast's 2015 Fourth Friday Art Walk season has begun! More than 15 downtown galleries participate from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. More than just art and wine, expect to see local performers along the walk from jazz clarinet, traditional fiddle, mask artists, contemporary dance, even a mime or two. Because your night isn’t complete until you’ve seena mime or two.

Jazz Infusion In The Afternoon

Saturday, May 23 — Bowen’s Tavern, Belfast

For a real low-key, as-local-as-it-gets experience, B. Douglas, a solo jazz and blues guitarist from Los Angeles will be making a pit stop at Bowen’s Tavern on his summer tour from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Knock back a pint while getting some jazz infusion with your steel slide guitar blues. B. Douglas has performed all over the United States and Europe. He has recorded 10 CDs in his career. Take a listen: www.reverbnation.com/bdouglas

Run For Your Life — On Ragged Mountain, Where You Will Get Run Ragged

Saturday, May 23 — Camden Snow Bowl, Camden

 Lace it up, grab a power bar, and tackle obstacle courses up and down the mountain. The third annual Run For Your Life is fun and will test your mettle. All for a good purpose: To raise awareness of the need for more first responders in all communities. 8 a.m. registration for those who didn’t register online already.

Rubber Duckie, You Might Be The One

Saturday, May 23 — Camden Harbor

It’s one of those wacky (quacky?) springtime events Camden in known for—the annual West Bay Rotary Duck Derby, when 2,500 yellow, pink and blue rubber ducks take the plunge over the waterfall behind the Camden Deli and race to the finish line by the docks. Each duck is worth a $5 ticket and the lucky winner who swims to the finish line could win the grand prize, a trip for seven nights at a beach resort in Florida. This is one of those, fun, silly spectator sports that gives rise to too many badly crafted puns. FMI: Duck Derby

Cappy’s Shipyard Party and Live Music

Sunday, May 24 — Camden

Too bad they’re not doing this right after the Duck Derby, because this would be a great two-fer in Camden. Cappy’s Chowder House will be doing their annual Memorial Day Shipyard party from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Captain’s Lounge. They’ll have free munchies, drink special and Shipyard giveaways on deck. Music by Jeff and Art starts at 6:30 p.m.

Killer Road Trip: White Water Raft and Brew Getaway

Sunday, May 24 — Northern Outdoors, The Forks

This rain is going to clear out and leave us with a beautiful spring weekend. Northern Outdoors will be the place to kick off your bucket list this summer. Their Memorial Day Springfest Raft 'n Brews trip is happening this weekend. Raft the Dead River, then return to The Forks Resort Center for a BBQ cookout, and get $3 pints all day Sunday and live entertainment Sunday night. FMI and pricing: Northern Outdoors

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Ah, summer. It’s right around the corner. Can anyone remember what the name of this fair was in Belfast and guess at the year this photo was taken? What was your favorite ride as a kid?

Well, this has never happened before, but I misplaced the answer to last week’s Throwback Thursday photo, which I posted courtesy of Rockland Historical Society. So, if anyone has a definitive answer, please email me so I can update this story!

This week’s photo courtesy of Belfast Historical Society and Museum

Send your Throwback Thursday photos to news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND — Just after we published Welcome back to Rockland, Snow Birds, a few more foodie tidbits came streaming in.

‘Wich Please, Midcoast’s newest food truck, just held their soft opening yesterday, May 19. Grilled cheese lovers just about lost their minds. Find out more about ‘Wich Please hours and menu items, along with the other fabulous food trucks that have come back this season in our updated Gourmet Food Trucks in the Midcoast guide.

John Conte, the cult favorite chef of the now defunct Conte’s Restaurant, has popped up again, this time in Spruce Head. Bill Gloede, owner of Spruce Head Pizza, has joined Italian forces with Conte, who was featured on the Maine episode of Anthony Bourdain's show, No Reservations. Along with gourmet pizza, Conte will be preparing “the freshest” fish and seafood in his unique Italian style, with the menu changing daily (just like in the old Conte's, you come in, peruse the daily blackboard specials, and place your order). Memorial Day will start their fourth season. For more information visit: Spruce Head Pizza

A new takeout shack is set to open Memorial Day in Port Clyde. Mike Mastronardi, the former chef at The Gothic in Belfast, is launching his own venture, Yardbird Canteen at 686 Port Clyde Road, which will offer haddock, clams, shrimp, etc. as well as a small barbecue menu. For more information visit: Yard Bird Canteen.

Not coming back: The scuttlebutt from the Midcoast Maine Food Forum is that Duo’s, the third food truck that would have been in Buoy Park, is not coming back this year. The same has been said for celebrity chef Michelle Ragussis, who has moved on to Provincetown. There’s been no word as of yet whether owner Jimmy Fanning has any plans to reopen this summer.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com