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

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

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

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

ROCKLAND — If you were a Gen X latch key kid in the ‘70s, you probably woke up on a weekday morning, did your free range rounds around the neighborhood without anyone notifying the police, and then came in and made your own breakfast (sugar cereal or chocolate chip cookies in an Easy Bake Oven).  Likely, Sesame Street was on and a giant primrose yellow bird was talking directly to you through the TV set.

Big Bird was an 8-foot-tall puppet character played by actor Caroll Spinney, the subject of the new documentary, I Am Big Bird, is set to show at the Camden Opera House on Wednesday, May 20.

Since 1969, Spinney has played the character of Big Bird, as well as Oscar The Grouch, on one of the longest running children’s educational television shows in history. Created as a full body Muppet by Jim Henson and Kermit Love, Big Bird lived in a large nest behind the 123 Sesame Street brownstone and had a teddy bear named Radar. (Fun Fact: the teddy bear was named after the M*A*S*H character Radar O’Reilly, who always slept with a teddy bear).

Now, 81, Spinney says he has no intention of giving up his beloved character after a 45-year run. It’s interesting, because, in the beginning, when Jim Henson asked Spinney to play Big Bird, he’s quoted in the film’s trailer as saying, “I’m not good enough to be a Muppeteer. I had a terrible storm in my head about how unhappy I was.” According to the film’s press release, “I Am Big Bird features incredible footage of Spinney's earliest collaborations with Jim Henson as it traces Caroll's journey from bullied child to celebrated performer. This loving portrait peels away the instances that inspired his creation of Big Bird and as the yellow feathers give way to grey hair, it is the man, not the puppet, who will steal your heart.”

This has all the great hallmarks of a Cheap Date. The tickets are only $10 each and if the trailer is any indication, whatever your age, this documentary will give you a case of the feel goods. Thanks to Camden International Film Festival Selects, this family-friendly documentary will be screening for one night, Wednesday May 20, at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased on the day of the show at the Camden Opera House box office. FMI: iambigbird.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST—When the grassroots-organized Free Range Music Festival hit the skids a few years ago, it wasn’t just the musicians who felt the pain; the community lost a vibrant cultural event. Enter Launchpad, a Maine arts non-profit serving young, up-and-coming Maine artists to save the day.

Without a lot of fanfare, Belfast’s Creative Coalition director Kimberly Callas reached out to Launchpad, started by Executive Director Meg Shorette to sponsor a day showcasing young musicians. As a result, an ambitious day-long music event in Belfast Saturday, May 16 called All Roads Music Festival seeks to be the pinnacle celebration of local and indie music talent from both Maine and regionally in partnership with the Belfast Creative Coalition annually.

“It’s a little bit different from the Free Range Music Festival in that we’re really looking to focus on emerging and up-and-coming musicians,” said Shorette. “Most of the artists are from Maine and what we’re doing is not just performances, but we’re offering more opportunities for musicians to hone their skills with panels and a songwriters circle.”

Shorette said the songwriters circle is modeled on an event she’d previously seen at music festivals in which a number of established musicians will get up on stage, play an original and a cover and then deconstruct their process for the audience, including the lyrics.

There will be about 20 bands including locally grown creative talent such as Lady Lamb, Spose, The Mallett Brothers Band, Spencer Albee, Tall Horse, Whale Oil and more. See the full lineup here.

Shorette, who has always worked in nonprofits, and volunteered in KahBang Music and Art festival for years, started Launchpad in 2014 as a way to support and spearhead artist-led events. “This music festival in Belfast is the biggest undertaking we’ve done so far this year,” she said. “I think younger and underexposed musicians are often overshadowed by more experienced musicians at most festivals, so this is a chance for them to really show their stuff.”

Tickets for the one day event are on sale now. A $25 VIP Passes (Admission to all festival performances and events on Saturday, May 16 including the Festival Wrap Party at 3 Tides & Marshall Wharf Brewing Company + an invitation to the Festival Opening Party on the evening of Friday, May 15) and $20 Festival Passes (Admission to all festival performances, artist lead panels and a Song Writers Circle on Saturday, May 16th. Does not include the Festival Opening or Closing Party). A limited quantity of tickets for individual performances will be available for purchase (depending on availability) at the venue box office in advance of each show. Tickets are $7 for adults, children under 5 are free. All venues are general admission.

Note: At this time VIP passes are sold out. Here’s how to get tickets.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Slide into summer—that’s what this weekend is going to feel like. Wheeeeeee. The foodies and music lovers are going to go crazy-go-nuts over this one.

220s at The Speakeasy

Friday, May 15 — Rockland

The 220s have really made a name for themselves in Maine and this spring and summer they are booked every weekend. The group has developed a cult following for unforgettable live shows full of tasty improvisational jams, and fine-tuned musicianship, while making sure no two performances are alike. So catch this this progressive rock trio as soon as you can. Give them a listen: The 220s. 8:30-11:30 p.m., $3 cover.

Belfast’s Monster Music Festival

Saturday, May 16 — Belfast

Did you even know that the inaugural All Roads Music Festival is happening this Saturday? Neither did we! It’s been very under the radar. Anywho, the day promises a celebration of local and indie music talent  with 20 bands and 13-plus events all over Belfast. Presented by Launchpad, a nonprofit arts incubator in partnership with Belfast Creative Coalition. Tickets: $7, younger than 5, free at door. Festival Pass ($20 advance/$25 door) admits to all festival performances and events except Festival Opening and Wrap Party. Check out their participating artists. And for more info on tickets click: All Roads Music Festival

After-Party at Three Tides

Saturday, May 16 — Three Tides, Belfast

After the festival this will be the place to be in Belfast. Three Tides is having a Festival Wrap after-party, starting at 10:30 p.m. Dominic and the Lucid will be playing. Note: this is not open only to $25 VIP Pass-holders, which are sold out. Anyone can get in, if there is room!

Uptown Funk DJ Dance Party

Saturday, May 16 — High Mountain Hall, Camden

If you don’t make it to the Three Tides after-party, then slide south because this party is going to be right up your alley.  DJ Quantum will spin some fresh and funky tunes from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. They’ll also have appetizers, cash bar and a silent auction on hand. The $25 ticket price goes to help keep Teen Center programs alive and well. Tickets: PenBayYMCA.net

Killer Road Trip: Taste of Bar Harbor

Thursday, May 14 — Sunday, May 17

From Dessert Night to a Pub Tour to their most prestigious event, Chef’s Table (in which each chef will prepare and serve a special five-course private dinner for each table, highlighting their particular cuisine and pairing it with fine wines) this is a jam-packed weekend for foodies.  And it’s supposed to be gorgeous this weekend. For $20.15 (no, that’s not a typo), you can also get special menus and tastings all over Bar Harbor that weekend too. Honestly Rockland, we should be doing our own version of this! Check out their schedule.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

We’re ready for spring, even if it’s taking it’s sweet time shuffling up the coast. Here’s what happened over the fall and winter and all of the new businesses and changes that took place in Rockland— what's open, what's closed, what's new and what's happening.

New restaurants

‘Wich Please

Back in the fall, we covered their monster Kickstarter campaign that made the dreams come true for one local couple. Local food blogger Malcolm Bedell and his wife, Jillian, set up a $25,000 goal to start a food truck that could serve incredible sandwiches and they surpassed their goal, earning nearly $30,000 in the process. Food trucks are just starting to make a splash in the Midcoast and now Rockland will be lucky to be home to the ‘Wich Please food truck. See our original story here. They plan to open May 15 in Rockland’s Buoy Park (which happens to be home to several top-notch food trucks!) Get in line.

Hong Kong Island

A new Chinese food establishment opened over the winter in the old Jade Restaurant on Route One across from Color Thyme Rentals. Even though the dining area seems like a doctor’s waiting room, the reviews of its food on the Midcoast Maine Food Forum Facebook page have been very positive.

The Chowder House Is Now Eclipse

The Chowder House, which is located above The Speakeasy changed their name over the winter, so not to be confused with Cappy’s Chowder House i Camden. The menu and ownership is still the same however.

Home Kitchen Cafe’s “Cone Home”

Last year owners James Hatch and Susan Schiro filed an application to renovate the one and a half story house next to their restaurant into a bakery and ice cream parlor. It just opened in May 1 and is hilariously titled “Cone Home” (after E.T. perhaps?). Serving Round Top ice cream, they will make their own hot fudge and caramel sauce, ice cream and cookie sandwiches while also offering lactose and gluten free options. (Oh why did you have to open when bathing suit season is just around the corner grrr.)

Comida

We first covered this fusion Latin restaurant when they first opened in Camden in 2013. In mid-April, Comida relocated to 421 Main Street in Rockland in order to double their capacity. In the move, they also redesigned the menu, moving away from Latin flavors and concentrating more on Spanish food. See our latest Penobscot Bay Pilot story here.

Himalayan

At 1 Park Street, near the curve on Route 1 heading south toward Thomaston, Kristina is gearing up to open her new restaurant this coming week. The restaurant will feature Indian, Asian and Himalayan cuisine. We are looking forward to it and will feature in an upcoming article.

And those that closed

Sadly for locals, the following restaurants have shut their doors for good: L & H Burgers, Conte’s Restaurant (amid some legal drama), Roselyn Seafood (new home to the Himalayan Restaurant), Lobsterman’s Restaurant and Water Dog Tavern in Thomaston.  The old Conte's space now has a sign for the Wiggin's Meat Market.

We also lost an iconic independent bookstore, The Reading Corner, has been a fixture on Maine Street since 1975.  Huge changes in the publishing industry in the last 10 years have worked against local, independent bookstores and Warren Bodine, the owner, reluctantly felt it was time to pack up. The store closed over the winter. The Knox County Democratic Committee set up shop in the space temporarily for the elections, but the space is still for sale.

Pen Bay YMCA satellite facility opens

Those who wondered what would become of the old Amalfi Restaurant space at 12 Water Street in Rockland will be pleased to learn that Penobscot Bay YMCA has transformed the space into a new fitness facility with brand new equipment. There are four childcare rooms and a fitness area that includes a weight room and fitness equipment room, a fitness studio, some smaller office for personnel and two locker rooms with showers. The fitness side has a workout room for aerobics or yoga, a weight room and the work out equipment faces large windows that look out over the ocean. The daycare facility is for everyone and not for use by those using the fitness center exclusively. Read more of the story on Penobscot Bay Pilot here.

What’s Up With Main Street Markets?

It’s been a year since Maine Street Markets at 435 Main Street said they would be open following a substantial renovation in the downtown district. See our original story about them here. Developer Rick Rockwell and his daughter Jennifer have grand plans for the building, making it a consignment space for locally produced food, beer and wine. The cafe will offer local products, juice and smoothie bar, create-your-own chopped salads and healthy, energizing breakfasts. They will carry local craft beers, local spirits, and wines, along with a variety of prepared foods, and also offer home and harbor delivery.  Given that they have been working nonstop, it’s heartening to know that on their Facebook page, they’re starting to interview for positions. No word yet on an opening day, but this will be one more jewel in Rockland’s crown when it does.

New hotels under construction

Rockland is hustling and bustling. It’s already transformed into a hip foodie town with a flourishing art scene (look for Rockport-based Center for Contemporary Art to move here next summer!). Along with the Lobster Festival, the Blues Festival and other big volume events, the decision has been made to add two new hotels to the downtown area. The Rockland Planning Board approved a still yet unnamed five-story 26-room boutique hotel at 250 Main Street, right next to Rock Coast Roasters and construction has been going on all winter with plans to open in the fall. The hotel project, developed, Cabot Lyman, of Cushing, drew community concerns about its height and fit with the neighborhood, while others voiced the need to have more rooms available as Rockland continues to reinvent itself. See original story details here.

As for the the proposal to build a new hotel on the Rockland waterfront at 12 Ocean Street, no new work has been done yet on the $6.5 million project as the owners Stuart and Marianne Smith are currently focused on the Camden hotel project currently being renovated. Catch up on the story at Penobscot Bay Pilot here.

If we've missed any new businesses that would be interesting to folks coming back to Maine, shoot us an email with the subject line "Add to Rockland story" and we'll add it into the list!

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN-ROCKPORT — Dear Snow Birds, when you come back to the Midcoast, you may notice the hollow, traumatized look in the eyes of the locals, who just got through winter about five minutes ago, so please be extra nice to us in this delicate transition.

Here’s our annual listing all of the new businesses and changes that occurred over the winter in Camden-Lincolnville-Rockport— what's open, what's closed, what's new and what's happening.

Pig + Poet — The Whitehall Inn

“Um, so which one’s the pig?” —Edna St. Vincent Millay. Over the winter, The Whitehall Inn has undergone extensive renovations in preparation for a summer season under new owners, Lark Hotels. As part of their transformation, they are renaming the 113-year-old inn as simply ‘Whitehall’ and introducing a new restaurant called Pig + Poet. The word is (according to the press release) the “vibe and menu will be crafted by nationally acclaimed chef Sam Talbot, focusing on Maine's farmland, fisheries and game, the restaurant will feature a raw bar, signature roast pork dishes, Sam's fresh take on lobster rolls, chowder and blueberry-sweet corn cobbler just to name few items. A charcuterie bar will offer sausages and cheese selections.” Their opening night was Friday, May 15. Stay tuned to their Facebook page.

Read more about the Whitehall changes:Under new ownership, Camden’s Whitehall Inn gets major decor facelift

At Camden's Whitehall Inn, new chef to oversee Pig + Poet restaurant

Drouthy Bear

From the Pig + Poet, we go to the thirsty bear, at least that’s what “drouthy” means in Scotland. Andrew and Shannon Stewart, former owners of Hope General Store are hard at work right now renovating The Good House at 50 Elm Street into an affordable community-minded Scottish pub, complete with traditional Scottish fare such as fish and chips and savory steak pies. The 35-seat pub will also offer craft brews along with 20 to 30 types of Scotch, representing different regions of Scotland. It’s great to see a renovation that’s benefiting the locals. See our Penobscot Bay Pilot article on them here. They plan to open in the summer.

And departing...

It’s never fun to learn that a restaurant is closing, because everyone knows how hard it is to keep a year-round business thriving and sustaining through the long winter months. Sad to see go is Seabright Pizza, a minimalist gourmet pizza place tucked in the alley by Camden Wharf. Also leaving is Valentina Coastal Maine Kitchen (what locals remember as the old Zaddik’s restaurant), which served locally sourced seasonal small plates as well as Comida Restaurant from the Camden location (stay tuned to the Rockland story about Comida’s new location in Rockland).

Bay View Street gets makeover with new hotel, storefront

Over the winter, Camden residents Stuart and Marianne Smith, along with their son, Tyler, have been renovating the historic building of 16 Bay View Street into a 22-room hotel. Locals and tourists who remember the old Peter Ott’s Restaurant at ground level and Camden’s only theater upstairs, Bay View Street Cinema as well as the iconic basement bar, Gilbert’s Publick House will see the 12,000 square foot space transformed throughout the summer with plans to open the hotel in September. Additionally, the elder and younger Smith have also purchased and are renovating 2 Bay View Street, the oddly shaped white building near the corner of Route 1 and across from Camden National Bank and Cappy’s Chowder House. That is a project that will also result in lodging quarters, though weekly and longer. The storefront there will be retail space for Swans Island, makers of blankets and other woven products. Read more of the story here.

High-end rehab center Borden Cottage opens

In March, McLean Hospital opened Borden Cottage, the alcohol and drug rehabilitation center at Fox Hill Estate opened its doors to eight clients who could pay $60,000 a month for four to five weeks of treatment. The Maine Department of Health and Human Services has issued McLean Borden Cottage a one-year provisional license to operate a behavioral health facility at the Borden Cottage on Bay View Street in Camden.The move has been controversial from the start, but McLean and Fox Hill have consistently repeated that the McLean — and Harvard Medical School — presence in the Midcoast will elevate awareness and treatment modalities. Read more of the story here.

Knox Mill changing hands? Plans yet to be revealed

Matt Orne, owner of the Knox Mill announced said in late April that is under contract with an unnamed buyer. Hearing “chatter” about its possible conversion to residences, the Camden Select Board proposed changing the parcel’s zoning retroactively, which has met with some controversy. See our latest story about it here. 

Other businesses that opened/changed owners

The Owl and Turtle Bookshop, which enjoyed a robust return to the literary scene in Camden under owners Ricky and Selena Sheaves last year went quietly up for sale over the winter. Native Mainers Rick and Elaine Knight took over the iconic bookshop in January, keeping the original staff and vowing to offer more local author talks — a move that has been integrated seamlessly. Since then, author Suzanne Massie has given a talk during the week of the Camden Conference, as well as poet Dave Morrison, food author Nancy Harmon Jenkins and local historian Barbara Dyer. See our original story on Owl & Turtle Bookshop here.

Camden Clothesline at 96 Washington Street just missed our list last year. Run by Jamie Weymouth, who returned to his Maine roots to resurrect a family business, opened last summer. They offer a sitting area, with complimentary wi-fi, and cable television.

On the Water Real Estate opened in Rockport, specializing in waterfront and waterfront village property sales along the coast Maine, as well as interior lakes, rivers and ponds.

Megunticook Family Medicine opened over the winter, accepting new patients and offering Direct Primary Care, a new concept that provides the patient with primary medical care without insurance or government involvement. The physician sets a fixed monthly fee and the patient pays this directly to the physician.

In other health news, Penobscot Bay Health Care opened the Sussman House, providing care for people whose symptoms are not well managed at home and are in need of hospice care as they near the end of their life. In addition to caring for terminally ill patients, Sussman House staff also provides support and hospitality for families who are grieving and want to be with their loved ones during their final days.

If we've missed any new businesses that would be interesting to folks coming back to Maine, shoot us an email with the subject line "Add to Camden story" and we'll add it into the list!

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

 Can you guess what this building was then (and the year) and what stands in its place now?

 Only one person ventured a guess for last week’s Throwback Thursday photo. And he was right! It was a 1966 photo of a machine that made sardine cans for Port Clyde Packing. Reader Walter Kale wrote: “This was at Samco Canning Co. If you look at the picture, there is a round enclosure where a rolled spool of flat metal was attached to stamp out cans.”

This week’s photo courtesy Rockland Historical Society.

Send your Throwback Thursday photos to news@penbaypilot.com

On April 25, when a devastating earthquake struck Nepal, Meghan Vigeant (whom we recently covered in a PechaKucha story) put all of her work as a personal historian on hold to concentrate on the survivors.

“I have friends over there,” she said. “I just spent four days making phone calls and emailing restaurant owners to see if we could do something. It was the only thing keeping me sane.” 

The earthquake also triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing at least 19 and has decimated large parts of the country.

“The impact of this earthquake will be felt for decades,” she said. “The relief work won’t be done in a few months. The numbers keep climbing, but when I checked yesterday, nearly 8,400 people have been counted dead, 17,000 have been injured and millions have been displaced from their homes. Entire villages flattened. I live in Hope. Can you imagine our entire town overrun by a disaster? Nepal’s so remote, it’s so hard to comprehend.”

Vigeant was in Nepal in 2012 documenting a story about inter-caste marriage. She checked on her friends and they are all right. One of her friends is the head of a photography nonprofit in Nepal that has galvanized to help the locals.

“Her organization has been the hub for an independent group of 200-plus volunteers, who are offering highly organized relief work, bringing medical aid, supplies and food to remote villages that still haven’t been reached by the government. It’s been pretty inspiring watching them via Facebook.” To see their efforts, visit: Nepal Photo Project on Facebook.

Along with a couple of volunteers and advisors, Vigeant was able to secure 19 area restaurants to donate 10 percent of their sales for one day each from May 17 to 22 to help fund earthquake relief and rebuilding efforts in Nepal.

“I’m really pleased at how many restaurants stepped up for this,” she said.

Calling the event Eat For Nepal, a certain percent of proceeds from each restaurant will be earmarked for the Nepal Youth Foundation an organization with a 25-year history in Nepal that has launched a major relief effort to provide immediate help for those most in need as well as long-term rebuilding.

“I chose them because they have done amazing things for children, along the lines of getting them education and keeping them out of the hands of sex traffickers,” said Vigeant. “They are setting up transitional shelters, helping people who’ve just been released from the hospital and supplying them with food, clothes and other things like psychological counseling as they move into their next stage. I’m confident the dollars raised will help long-term efforts. This group will be in Nepal for a long time.”

To kick off Eat for Nepal week, Vigeant will do a a slide presentation at the Camden Public Library called "Nepal, Before and After the Earthquake," featuring her photos as well as other photographers. The slide talk will be on Sunday afternoon, May 17, at 2 p.m.

Eat for Nepal schedule and restaurant hours

SUNDAY, MAY 17

Pizza Permare, Northport (11:30 a.m. – 7 p.m.)

MONDAY, MAY 18

Delvino’s Grill & Pasta House, Belfast (11 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.)

3 Crow Restaurant & Bar, Rockland (5 p.m. – 11 p.m.)

Clan MacLaren, Rockland (10:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.)

TUESDAY, MAY 19

Archer’s on the Pier, Rockland (11 a.m. – 9 p.m.)

Boynton McKay, Camden (7 a.m. – 3 p.m.)

Fresh, Camden (5 – 8:30 p.m.)

Nautilus Seafood & Grill, Belfast (4pm – 9pm)

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20

Comida, Rockland (5pm – 9 p.m.)

La Vida Mexican Restaurant, Belfast (11:30 a.m. – 9 p.m.)

Long Grain, Camden (11:30 – 9pm)

Fog Bar & Café, Rockland (4pm – 10 p.m.)

40 Paper Italian Bistro & Bar, Camden (4 p.m.- 11 p.m.)

Whale’s Tooth Pub, Lincolnville Beach (4 p.m. -10 p.m.)

THURSDAY, MAY 21

In Good Company, Rockland (4:30 p.m. to close)

Rock City Café, Rockland (7 a.m. – 7 p.m.)

Rustica Italian Restaurant, Rockland (5pm – 9 p.m.)

FRIDAY, MAY 22

Home Kitchen Café, Rockland (7 a.m. – 3 p.m.)

Zoot Coffee, Camden (7 a.m. – 5 p.m.)

 Vigeant urges people who care to donate directly to earmark their donation with Midcoast Maine Loves Nepal. Find them at facebook.com/midcoastmainelovesnepal

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

In one week we went straight from winter into summer, yes indeedly. Can you feel it? Everybody is starting to get social again, so here are a few things to top off your weekend.

Rayr Wine Tasting

Thursday, May 7 — Rockport

I can never say this wine shop’s name without curling up my fingers like a cat and making that sassy meow sound. (Never mind—I’ll show myself out). Anyway, Rayr always puts on a classy affair with their wine tastings. Goes from 4 to 6 p.m.

Coastal Chaos - Derby Girlz Weekend

Friday, May 8 to Sunday, May 10 — Rockport

The Rock Coast Rollers are competing all weekend long against in their Coastal Chaos Roller Derby Tournament with six teams all around New England in 11 games. Proceeds benefit New Hope for Women. All events take place at the Midcoast Rec Center. Three-day pass $35, one-day pass $5. Under 12 free. Get your tickets at coastalchaos.brownpapertickets.com

“Blue-eyed Soul singer” Stesha Cano at Rock City Café

Saturday, May 9 — Rockland

If you’re not in the mood for a whole lotta craziness, this might be the perfect pick for you this weekend. Singer-songwriter Stesha Cano has been described as "the voice of blue-eyed soul" as her music is genre-bending, jazzy, soulful and bluesy. Inspired by nature, love, loss and life, Stesha tells it like it is with her music. She is unafraid to open her heart and her soul to the listener and give an intimate portrayal of love's agony and ecstasy. No cover. Show goes from 7 to 9 p.m.

Killer Road Trip: Pig & Beer On The Pier

Saturday, May 9 — Portland

I like to pick daytime events for the killer road trip ideas so you can go and be back home in a day and this one looks fun. Portland’s rugby team are not delicate enchanted crystal flowers and neither are their events. From 1 to 5 p.m. at the Maine state pier on Commercial Street, they’re sponsoring a barbecue, beer and musical act The Pubcrawlers, a high-energy, "throw-your-fist-in-the-air-and-sing-along" mix of traditional Celtic drinking tunes and modern punk rock. Tickets: $22 in advance (includes one pint of beer) $15 for designated drivers. Purchase tickets at: prfc.bpt.me

Mother’s Day Wine & Chocolate Tasting

Sunday, May 10 — Union

You’re the reason your mother drinks. You knew that, right? So here’s a great way to thank her with a Wine and Chocolate Extravaganza on Mother’s Day. Savage Oakes Vineyard and Winery is teaming up with Sweetgrass Farm Winery & Distillery and both wineries will be offering tastings all day from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. This year they host three Maine food producers, Bixby Bars, Stone Fox Creamery and Goated Carmel, all pairing their products with Sweetgrass’ latest Mother’s Day wine releases. FMI: Savage Oakes and Sweetgrass Winery

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

What is it? (Maybe the lettering on the box will give a clue.)

Last week’s Throwback Thursday photo was a bit of a stumper but it was The Smith and Whittier Block, 60 and 64 Main Street was built in 1822 by Captain David Whittier and Captain Joseph Smith. The tallest building is where Rollie’s Bar and Grill is housed today.

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

Send your Throwback Thursday photos to news@penbaypilot.com

BANGOR — Any Star Wars fans out there? For International Star Wars Day, apparently, this is the droid you’re looking for.

We discovered Paul J. Bussiere, an Orrington resident, at last week’s Bangor Comic and Toy Conference. He displayed his R2-D2 at the event to the delight of many little (and grown up) kids who wanted to touch it and pose with it.

It took five years to build this 200-pound aluminum R2-D2 unit himself, from blueprints he got from a builder’s club.

“Essentially it was like a big jigsaw puzzle,” he said. “I had to collect a lot of parts and pieces and fit them all together. But, I was on my own when it came to the lighting and electronics.”

Made almost entirely of aluminum, the goal was to build an autonomous, PC-powered robot that will "act" like the R2-D2 we all know from the movies.

Bussiere is a self-described “computer geek,” robot builder, licensed private pilot and huge sci-fi movie fan. He also believes strongly in "paying it forward.” He has built two all-aluminum R2-D2s and since 2011, has done pediatric visits and numerous charity visits with fan-favorite droid character. 

When Bussiere was in his early 20s, his 6-year-old godson, Jake, passed away from brain cancer. “When I saw all the suffering he was going through, I also saw so many people going out of their way to make this little boy happy,” he said. These experiences led him to build the iconic droid as a way to bring happiness to kids who were suffering.

He has brought C-3PO’s best friend to the Pediatric Division of Eastern Maine Medical Center, the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland and the Kids' Corner-Community Early Care and Learning Facility in Bar Harbor.

”I built this R2-D2 with the idea in mind that he would entertain kids,” said Bussiere. “I had to make sure the paint could withstand disinfectant. I also had to make sure the radio controls wouldn’t interfere with the hospital’s equipment. There was a lot of homework involved.” 

Not surpisingly, it has been a huge hit with kids in hospitals - some of whom have never even seen the original Star Wars trilogy. “It’s the last thing they expect coming through the door," he said.

The challenges of moving the droid around the state for charity work have ranged from wear and tear on the unit while on the road to having no help to unload it. (It weighs 400 pounds). He has also volunteered a lot of time into personal appearances and needs to now scale back. For those reasons, Bussiere now has to be selective in which events he chooses to bring his R2-D2 to.

On his blog, he recalled one of the most significant moments traveling with his droid. Last year, he’d been invited to bring it to the Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s tribute to John Williams, the composer of all of the Star Wars movies. "One moment that really, really stands out to me is this....a father and his blind, adolescent son was there,” wrote Bussiere. “The father was describing R2-D2 to the son, so I drove R2 toward them. The father kept motioning for R2 to come closer, so I did. The father put his son's hands on R2 and the boy's face just exploded in a huge smile. He gently touched the sides of the dome, the eye, the holographic projector....it was awesome. A lot of people saw this and commented to me about how wonderful it was. I completely agree. I cherish moments like that and it makes all the time and effort to build R2 so worth while.”

Here’s the Bangor PechaKucha back story of how the unit was built.

Click on Bussiere’s blog to see the adventures of taking R2-D2 all around New England.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Almost as if on cue, when May 1 comes around this weekend, no more of this drizzly 40-degree balderdash. Sunny in the 60s people! That means the long slow wall slide of winter is over and it’s time to play!

Rockland’s first Art Walk of The Season Kicks Off

Friday, May 1— Downtown, Rockland

The "1st Friday" Art Walk of the year starts in downtown Rockland to kick off the season. Yaaaas! Grab a buddy, stroll through the downtown galleries to see what all of the artists who have been holed up this winter have been making. Do a little window shopping, and enjoy dinner at one of Rockland’s  restaurants. To see a list of artist receptions happening that evening visit: www.artsinrockland.org

Cinco de May(hem) at FOG

Saturday, May 2 — FOG Bar, Rockland

FOG Bar in Rockland is just as sick of this nonexistent spring as you, so, they’re pre-gaming Cinco de Mayo with the band that’s everywhere—Just Teachers. Come shake it off like a Polaroid picture and dance starting at 9 p.m. until the fire alarm goes off again (Too hot...hot damn...) Everything is a costume event these days in Midcoast, so dress like your favorite rebel or maker of mayhem and you may win a prize! Suggestions: Joan Jett, Robin Hood, Pablo Picasso, Han Solo, Einstein, Ozzy Osbourne...you get the idea.

Swamp Rockers The Rugged Perform at Three Tides

Saturday, May 2 — Three Tides, Belfast

It’s not often that Three Tides in Belfast throws a musical event, but when they do, it’s always good. They’re hosting The Rugged, a trio of good friends from Jackson, Maine. The Rugged’s first album, (recorded by local engineer Edward Goguen), blends swamp rock rhythm with atmospheric guitar and introspective lyrics. No cover and the show goes from 9-11 p.m. Give them a listen on Reverbnation.

Killer Road Trip: Take A Spin Around The May Pole

Saturday, May 2 — Downtown locations, Kennebunk

It’s going to be beautiful Saturday and the 17th Kennebunk May Day Festival will be a great place to land. Beyond the twirl of the May Pole, the festivities start at 8:00 a.m with a pancake breakfast, craft market, book sale, Faerie Festival and continue all day with parades, food trucks, free wagon rides, outdoor music, a farmer’s market and so on. In the afternoon, they’ll be putting on another outdoor concert and a pig roast. See the entire schedule here. No cover. Great for a Cheap Date or fun for the whole fam.

Atmospheric singer Gintarė Takes The Stage At Riley School

Sunday, May 3 — Riley School, Rockport

Gintare, who lives in Maine, was raised in Lithuania where she received classical music training.  The late Gus Dudgeon, great British producer  who extensively worked with Gintarė in 1993-97, said her work "has all the quality of a diamond — it is timeless while being undeniably contemporary, polished by the surreal dream like beauty of her vocal performances, enhanced by in depth intelligence of her luminous poetry." A singer-songwriter and recording artist, she creates music that blends her voice, piano and ambient electronic sound. The school grounds will be open for picnicking at 5 p.m.; the concert will start at 6:00 p.m., and a reception for the artist will follow.Reserved seat tickets, $15, are available at Owl and Turtle Bookshop or by calling the school in advance at 596-6405. Donations will be accepted at the door. For more information, go to www.gintare.com or www.rileyschool.org.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Check out this old timey photo of downtown Belfast. Now, see the tallest building in the center? What business is at that location today?

Lots of people enjoyed last week’s Throwback Thursday photo featuring Jordan’s Market in a vintage July 31, 1972 photo located in the Crockett Building at 745 Main Street for many years. The Crockett Building was destroyed by fire in 1994. Reader “My NameIs Taken” recalls: “How I miss Jordan's Market. The DeNapoli's made the best pizza. I remember "Gramps" always in there helping out Tony and Anita. I remember Tony buying a fresh caught tuna back in the early 1980's. It was in the back of a pickup. He had his knives out and was cutting the fish into manageable pieces. I never had seen a fish so large in my life.”

This week’s photo courtesy Belfast Historical Society

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BANGOR — The biggest complaint you hear from West Coast comic conferences (known as comic cons) is that the nerds and the comic-, game- and movie-obsessed have been pushed out of the very cultural phenomenon they created by the mainstream late-comers who only “pretend” to be a nerd for a day.

Good thing it takes about 20 years for California trends to hit Maine because the inaugural three-day Bangor Comic and Toy Conference held April 24-26 at Cross Insurance Center, brought the authentic fans of comic, horror, videogame, animation, cosplay and sci-fi movie genres out in droves.

Organizers estimated around 3,000 people had come to the Con that weekend, with the heaviest traffic on Saturday.

Fans of Star Wars got to see and hear the low wheeze of Darth Vader walking around the stadium, often flanked by his Storm Troopers, while R2-D2 bleeped and whirred in a corner booth. Many fans of Star Wars cosplay showed up as their favorite characters. One of the biggest highlights of the Con was the appearance of Billy Dee Williams, who played Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.  The standing room-only panel on Saturday allowed fans to ask Williams questions about his various movie characters. By the second question, a young lady standing in line asked simply, “Can I have a hug?” Williams graciously complied, prompting a roomful of “awwwws.”

Who are you gonna call text?

Other popular cosplay characters in Bangor on Saturday paid tribute to the 1980s movies, Ghostbusters, which will soon see not one, but two separate reboots in 2015. Ghostbuster fan Ramone Juanso Jr., from Auburn, carried a fully detailed “Proton Pack” and “Neutro Wand” gun that he built himself.

Asked about the forthcoming Ghostbusters 3  and the all-female cast of another Ghostbusters movie he said, “I think the reboots are going to be pretty cool. It’s been a long time since 1984’s movie and it’s good to keep the franchise alive. I know I’m going to keep it going until the day I die.”

Also invited to the Con was Ernie Hudson, who played Winston Zeddemore from the original Ghostbusters, to do a meet-and-greet with fans while he stood next to the iconic Ghostbuster car, The Ecto-1. In addition to the big screen names, fringe characters such as Deep Roy, Teeny Weeny in The Neverending Story, Oompa Loompas from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, four of the Power Rangers and Gigi Edgely from Jim Henson's Creature Shop were also crowd pleasers.

Organizer Chris MacMillan wasn’t sure how big of a hit it would be to put together the Bangor Comic and Toy Con, but if he had any doubts that enthusiasts of this still-underground event (in Maine at least) would show, he had no reason to be disappointed. The Cross Center was saturated with people of all ages just truly bringing a happy, inclusive vibe to the event. Not everybody dressed up, but not everybody needed to. It was fun just to peruse all of the booths, talk to comic creators (including Midcoast’s own Atom O’Chang from O’Chang Comics ) enthusiasts and sellers. Horror writers dominated the middle tables of the event, while artists, gamers (selling old school Atari consoles!), super heroes and purveyors of action figures lined the wall in booths at the Con.

On Friday and Saturday night, the event went to midnight with all kinds of evening fun for the adults including gaming events, live bands, a burlesque show, cosplay contests, Drink & Draw and even an after party at The Sea Dog.

If there’s one thing a Maine Con can attest to, it’s keeping it real, where nerding out for three days amongst the joyful community of people who truly live and love this stuff is what it was all about.

Check out more faces and places in our Bangor Comic and Toy Con gallery.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKPORT — It’s a quiet weekday afternoon. There’s no one is in Center for Maine Contemporary Art, not even a receptionist. It’s silent except for a mechanical churning sound in the back area of the first floor, which I’ll get to in a second. In a way, it’s better to get the full impression of the latest art installments from the Resisting Entropy III show currently on display at CMCA in Rockport on a day like this, rather than on the busy opening night.

To walk around and be able to take in each piece without distraction allows me to try to figure out why each artist chose to incorporate certain discarded items into the piece. Some of the generated artwork is serious; but true to form, some of it is completely absurd and tongue in cheek. That’s the look they were going for.

The 2015 "Resisting Entropy III" artists who participated in this 24-hour art-making event at CMCA included David Allen, Alan Clark, Jared Cowan, Bethany Engstrom, Andy Hamm, Alexis Iammarino, Siglinde Langholz, Eric Leppanen, Cristin Millet, Trelawney O’Brien, Jennifer Wilkey, and Andrew White.

They started at around noon on Friday, confronted with a sizable heap of discarded and junked materials, and, over the next 24 hours, transformed the pile into unique and unpredictable artworks. By Saturday at noon, they were exhausted, but done. The opening reception was April 11.

Whether it’s an abstract box sculpture hanging from the ceiling, or a styrofoam head floating in a tub of glitter or an actual reproduction of a messy workbench (complete with a nearly empty bottle of whiskey and photos of the artist’s kids tacked into the corner), each piece was a spur of the moment decision and begs the viewer to come a little closer. That’s it. A little closer. Now really take a look. Do you get it now?

See our gallery below as well as the short video of the dynamic bicycle installment (the source of the mechanical churning).

Note: the following gallery only includes artworks from the first floor, but the second floor also contains the rest of the Resisting Entropy show. All artworks are for sale. Inquire at CMCA for more information. The show runs today and tomorrow and comes down Sunday, April 26, so see it while you can!

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Sense an uptick in energy this weekend? That's because we've got a strong line up of music, stories, art, wine and a great reason to get out of Dodge.

Soul/Funk/Blues and author Carolyn Chute!

Friday, April 24 — Camden Opera House, Camden

This is exciting a music and author collaboration. Peter Neils and The Midnight Riders are a new group of talented Midcoast musicians that play an invigorating mix of Soul Funk Blues/Rock and Americana that will get you up and dancing to melodies you know by heart and grooves that you may not have heard for decades.

Special guest is Maine author Carolyn Chute, best known for her novel The Beans of Egypt, Maine. Carolyn will read in between musical acts from her latest book Treat us Like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves. Her work centers on marginalized people of poverty and the hardship of life in rural Maine. Cost: $10; free younger than 13. Doors open 7 p.m. Tickets at Camden Town Office, weekdays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; by calling 470-7066; or online at camdenoperahouse.com

Belfast Co-op Art and Wine Tasting Reception

Friday, April 24 — Belfast Co-op, Belfast

In these last days of April, we’re forcing spring to get off that old couch, change out of its sweat pants give ups and make an appearance for God’s sake! There’s no better way to do it, than flouncing over to the Belfast Co-op Café, where there will be a free wine tasting of highlighted seasonal wines and the opening for "Une Production de Produits,” an exhibit of works in pen-and-ink and acrylics by Dan Kirchoff. For inspiration Kirchoff  actually went around the Co-op, looked at its produce and said, “Hmm, these will make a nice portrait.” The event is free and goes from 7 to 9 p.m. FMI: Art Opening

Colby College a Cappella Group Kills It

Saturday, April 25 — Watts Hall, Thomaston

The Meglomaniacs sings their lungs off! “The Megs” as they are known are Colby College’s oldest co-ed a cappella group and they will perform at Watts Hall in Thomaston from 7:00-8:30 p.m. Cost: $9; $5 students; $25 family of four or more. FMI: 354-6571. Refreshments at intermission and during post-performance meet and greet.

True Stories and Lively Tales

Saturday, April 25 — Waterfall Arts, Belfast

We’ve been on a Midcoast storytelling kick for the last few months and “The Fallout Shelter,” a group of Midcoast Maine raconteurs, will assemble to regale the audience with lively tales from their own lives. Hosted by The Midcoast Actors Studio, currently slated are: John Ford Sr., Aynne Ames, Andy O’Brien, Charlie Dufour, Jennifer Tibbetts, Kristen Burkholder, and G.W. Martin. The stories will not be screened beforehand so please be advised that some of the language may be a bit colorful, and material may not be suitable for children or the weak of heart. You can handle it. Suggested donation of $10. FMI: midcoastactors.org

Killer Road Trip: Bangor Comic and Toy Convention

Friday, April 24-Sunday, April 26 — Cross Insurance Center, Bangor

The little kid in you doesn’t want to do spring cleaning this weekend or scrub the spider webs from the window screens. The little kid in you want to go to the 2015 Bangor Comic & Toy Con! Enjoy three different days filled with exciting events, guests and exhibitors, comics, pop culture, gaming, horror, sci fi, cosplay, art, animation, writers, music, collectibles, Q&A panels, workshops & more! Bonus for Star Wars Nerds! Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian) will be at the Bangor Comic Con Saturday and Sunday! See full lineup here: Click for Schedule

The single day price is $25 (really $30 through Ticketmaster) –and includes all gaming, panels and access to the con floor, single day. FMI: bangorcomictoycon.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

UNION — Last summer, single mother and empty nester Shel McAfee took a look around her house at all the stuff that she and her kids had accumulated over the years and realized it had to go.

“They were wonderful things, but I didn’t need them anymore,” she said. Suddenly, an inspired thought came to her: Why not give it all away for free?

McAfee, who suffers from numerous ailments and illnesses, is disabled, so she enlisted the help of some friends to put everything in her driveway for one day. 

“I didn’t have the physical ability to bring four tires to the dump,” she said. “So, I advertised it so that people could come and take it all away. The only catch was, if you only needed two tires, you had to take all four. It was so much fun to let people take anything they wanted. People said to me, ‘Gosh, my grandmother had plates like these or my daughter would love this.’”

By the end of that day, neighbors and strangers had completely cleared out her driveway, leading her to a revelation. There were many people in Maine who struggle, just like her, and being able to give away a much-needed item to someone who deeply appreciated it became her new calling.

McAfee doesn’t have a website, nor does she operate a formal operation with a name. She simply collects inventory every day and stores it in her basement, then posts a photo and description of the items on the Facebook page, All Free Midcoast. Anyone who wants the items only has to mention it in a comment, or personal message McAfee.

“And if I don’t have it, chances are I can find it,” she said.

In less than a year, her free donations have spread word of mouth, all over Maine. 

“I’m open 24-7, 365 days a year to anyone who wants anything,” she said. “You message me at 2 a.m. because of an emergency, I’ll put the coffee on — come on over. For people who truly need the help, it makes their lives a lot easier.”

She recalls several times families have called her in the middle of the night after a house fire to ask if she could provide them with clothes, as well as victims of domestic abuse who had to get out during an emergency and didn’t even have a toothbrush. McAfee now works with organizations such as the Red Cross, Midcoast Mental Health, Maine Department of Health and Human Services and Waldo County Area Families Helping Families to find and give away specific things for their clients.

Additionally, she makes re-purposed gift baskets and emergency kits for people in crisis who find themselves temporarily homeless.

Her basement is a revolving inventory of furniture, dishware, pots and pans, adult and children’s clothing, toys and books. For McAfee, who used to be a professional auditor and can no longer work, her informal program serves a very real personal need: human contact. Not one day has gone by since her driveway giveaway that someone hasn’t dropped something off as inventory or come by to pick something up. Her favorite thing to do is to help women look through some of the clothing items in her basement and let her play fashion consultant.

“I know women’s body types and I tell them, ‘Trust me.’ Then, they’ll put what I’ve chosen on, look in the mirror and sometimes cry, because they look so good,” said McAfee.

Some people might find her open house policy unnerving, particularly for a single woman living alone, but not once has McAfee had any reservations about inviting strangers to her home to take what they need.

“I don’t require an application. I don’t need identification. I don’t even need to know what your story is, if you need it honey, it’s yours,” she said. Her only sticking point is to treat her and her children with respect. She said she has had absolutely no problems with anyone who has ever come to her home, which is a testament to the strength of Maine’s small town communities.

McAfee prefers electronic contact through the Facebook page when arranging for a pickup, rather than speaking over the phone, due to memory issues. She also has a dire need for volunteers to help her.

“I don’t ask for money, but I need people’s time,” she said. “I just can’t physically move everything by myself.”

Anyone who wants to donate items or browse items for pick up can go to All Free Midcoast.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Don’t you love these old back-in-the-day photos from the 1970s? Who knows what this building was and what was Jordan’s Market? Do you know what happened to it?

Many of you were quite correct in guessing that last week’s Throwback Thursday photo was indeed, Doug and Ray's Garage at the corner of High and Race streets. And gas was only $1.15 when this photo was taken. Our own Lynda Clancy remembers: “That's just how it looked when I used to fill up the old Oldsmobile I bought from Mikey Eugley, 1988. A little rear-wheel sliding on the snow-greased road back down to the Beach every day. And those guys pumped the gas for us!”  Last week’s photo was courtesy of Belfast Historical Society and Museum.

This week’s photo courtesy Rockland Historical Society

Send your Throwback Thursday photos to news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—Those who showed up at P.A.W.S. Animal Adoption Center’s Kitten Shower this past Saturday might have been surprised to see how few kittens were actually in the cages. Fewer than six fluff balls were available for the steady stream of visitors to cuddle.

“These are seven-week-old kittens who have been fostered and have one more week before they can be adopted,” said Amie Hutchinson, Executive Director at P.A.W.S. “More are coming, believe me.”

Due to the number of cats whose owners never got them spayed or neutered (including feral and abandoned litters) kitten season is actually one long season, typically starting in spring, peaking in early summer, and ending in fall. Area animal shelters, including P.A.W.S. find themselves flooded with steady influx of homeless litters at this time of year, putting a strain on what few supplies they have for the older cats.

As visitors streamed through during the afternoon, the shelter provided brownies, cookies and other treats, and in return, visitors filled up their office with donated kitten chow, paper towels, boxes of Clorox Wipes, treats, kitten formula and baby bottles, litter, towels and bedding.

Wendy Schneider, of Rockland, was beyond excited to see the two gray long-haired kittens, Grayson and Izzy, that she’d adopted together. Waiting for them to turn one more week older before she could take them home, she was happy to share the kittens with other families and children coming to see them.

P.A.W.S only has three active foster families at the moment with about a dozen volunteers and they’re hoping to find more families who’d be willing to take in the soon-to-be-coming spring litters for about eight weeks.

“We like to give the families everything they’ll need from litter to bedding and even formula for babies who’ve weened too early,” said Hutchinson.

Candy Hutchinson, of Rockport, was also on hand to talk about what it’s like to be a foster mother to kittens. Hutchinson, who is actually prohibited from owning pets in her apartment, got a special allowance from her landlord to foster.

“I’ve done this for other shelters too and have done it for about 15 years,” she said. “It’s just so satisfying to take these helpless creatures and socialize them to be ready for adoption.”

Hutchinson said the biggest fear for prospective foster families is that they’ll get too attached to the animals and wind up keeping too many of them. And while that does sometimes happen, she said, “You let them go because the next batch is coming.”

She added that fostering is ideal for families that want to “test drive” whether a pet is a good addition in their home.

Volunteer Gordi Guist, of Camden, has been volunteering for this organization for 17 years and said he comes in weekly to get his kitty fix.

”How could you not love them?” he said. He started the Penobscot Pet Pantry six years ago, which distributes donated pet items once a month to needy families at the new P.A.W.S. building on John Street. “We distribute a ton of food a month,” he said. “The people who use this service are very grateful.”

For more information on P.A.W.S. Animal Adoption Center visit: pawsadoption.org

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Last month we previewed the Colonial Theatre’s first storytelling event: Salted Tales: Stories from the Sea held on March 23. (View the story here.) There were many things going on that weekend, so if you missed it, today is your chance to hear the stories on the radio. Part 1 airs today on WERU 89.9 FM and 99.9 Bangor at 10 a.m. Part 2 will air May 15. Check www.weru.org for more information.

This weekend has a little mix of everything; outdoor fun, dress up pretend singing, urban comedy, PechaKucha and more. Time to bloom, people.

Eat More (and a little more) Cheese

Friday, April 17 — Eat More Cheese, Belfast

Updated: Their Facebook post is slightly confusing and if you walk in, they can provide samples of cheese and a bit of prosecco upon request, but their main “tasting” of cheeses with wines is actually happening Tuesday, April 21 at 5 p.m.

If your idea of a completely fab afternoon is sampling imported cheeses and sipping on wine as someone hands you a chocolate cupcake — get in line behind me. Belfast’s Eat More Cheese is celebrating their third anniversary by serving their customers some lovely eats and treats. Moonbat City Baking Co. is whipping up some special treats, using cheese from their shop. There will be Gruyère and chive biscuits, as well as chocolate cupcakes with mascarpone and cream cheese frosting. They’ll also be passing out samples of some of their favorite wines, including a nice bubbly. After all, what party would be complete without some fizz? The festivities will begin at noon and continue until 5 p.m.

PechaKucha Night

Friday, April 17 — Lincoln Street Center, Rockland

Ever wanted to know what it’s like to get hip-checked on roller skates? “Mad Madam Mim,” aka Manette Pottle, a derby girl with Rock Coast Rollers, will be one of eight dynamic presenters lighting up the stage at Lincoln Street Center for the April PechaKucha Night. This is always a good time, a mind opener and a fascinating look at how certain artists, craftspeople and general movers and shakers in our community spend their creative time. Also presenting that night will be Kate McAleer, owner of Bixby Bars (who just won 2015 Young Entrepreneur of the Year — way to go lady!); Johannah Blackman, an organic farmer, Teresa Carey, sailor, writer, ocean advocate; Kevin Strong, founder of Dunk the Junk; Karen Talbot, artist; Geoffrey Warner, furniture maker; and Sandy Weisman, artist and owner of 26 Split Rock Cove. The emcee of the night will be Island Institute jokester and storyteller Scott Sell. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Presentations begin at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 at the door.

Ballad Of Milli Vanilli Lip-Sync Contest 

Saturday, April 18 — Trackside Station, Rockland

You know you do it. You’re sitting in your car and a song from the 1970s comes on and you’re belting out the lyrics at the top of your lungs until you roll to a stop and see that guy from the gym beside you, laughing, because he caught you. Well, the Rock Coast Rollers derby girls have your back for their third annual Ballad of Milli Vanilli Contest (named after the infamous 1980s musical duo who got caught lip-synching their entire album). This is not karaoke (actual singing), but rather lip-syncing (pretend singing) as party goers fake-sing their hearts out to cheesy songs for the crowd’s entertainment — complete with over-the-top costumes. See our article about it last year. Cost: $8; plus $5 per song to complete. Sign up at signupgenius.com. There will be prizes for Most Daring, Best Costume, Best Choreography, Best Solo and Best Group; as well as audience voting with cash for Crowd Favorite. Show starts at 8 p.m. at Trackside Station.

The “Urban Don Rickles” Comes To Rockland

Saturday, April 18 — The Strand Theatre, Rockland

When the real Don Rickles likes your comedy chops, you know you’ve made it. Comedian Earl David Reed takes the stage at the Strand Theatre Saturday night and the audience better be ready. A standup comedian for 15 years, he has performed at more than 100 comedy clubs and colleges, and is a favorite in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. His TV credits include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, HBO, Showtime, FOX's Comic Strip Live, A&E's Comedy on the Road and NBC's Friday Night Videos. Tickets are $20 (for 18 and over) and the show starts at 7:30 p.m. FMI: Earl David Reed

Killer Road Trip: Acadia Free Day

Saturday/Sunday, April 18/19 — Acadia National Park

Perhaps you haven’t heard the not-so-great news, but on May 1, Acadia National Park will raise their entrance fees to $25 per vehicle even if you only wanted to do a day trip. (There are no single-day fee structures; this fee is valid for seven days). However, for the weekend of April 18 and 19, the park is waiving the fee to commemorate the first weekend of National Park Week. See more info about it in The Wave’s “Road Trip: Five escapades to take this spring.”

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

The enormously popular Humans of New York Facebook page tells stories of thousands of people (all anonymous) from all over the world — with just a photo and a caption. With more than 12 million fans of the page, each day we are treated to a glimpse into someone’s life. Today, a woman was quoted about her fond memories of a Maine summer camp so long ago.

In this brief Q&A with the photographer, Brandon Stanton, she said: “Back in the 1930s, I used to go to summer camp in Maine. Those were the happiest days of my life. There was a great freedom. I rode horseback, walked in the woods, went swimming, made new friends.”

He then asked, “What was your happiest moment at camp?”

“One time I won a tennis match and got 50 points for my team. The whole camp was divided into two teams: Green and Tan. And we competed all summer long to see which team could get the most points. And 50 points was a really big deal! To give some perspective — you’d only get 10 points for riding on the gunnel of a canoe.”

This little vignette made us want to ask our readers: What are some of your fondest memories of summer camp in Maine?

Contact us below or post your answer on our Facebook page; we may contact you for to be included in our upcoming summer issue of The Wave.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com