“Even though incidents of terror are on the downward trend here, our digital proximity to them makes us all the more intimate with them. And while they aren’t bomb blasts or planes flying into buildings, the phenomenon of people walking into public places and shooting everyone around is its own form of terrorism and can make one come to nihilistic conclusions about the human race. Poverty still ravages millions of families in the country, and crimes of greed destroy thousands of lives. We still drop bombs on communities, and those on the receiving end of that violence—exactly as we do—think, ‘Who did this? Let’s get them. Let’s bring them to justice.’ And they take the law into their own hands as no court system exists that is not biased in our favor. They organize and they put us in their cross hairs. And so we need to take care of our communities, both local and human. We need to say no to war, and demand that our country stop speaking violently on our behalf. We need to organize and mobilize against these concerted forms of hostility and misrepresentation. We have a lot of work to do.”

— Ask Alex: Dealing with post-disaster anxiety, Bangor Daily News. April 18, 2013.

2:42 pm  •  18 April 2013  •  3 notes

Associated Press, September 1, 1998 

11:24 am  •  16 April 2013  •  1 note

7:15 pm  •  15 April 2013  •  8 notes

maineobviously:

“A 12-foot, 200-pound scaly green robot described by its creator as ‘hideous and horrible’ came close to causing panic in [Rangely] Wednesday.”

— Scaly Green Monster Causes Report Panic, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, August 30, 1960

I tried to find some more information about this story, and saw that Strange Maine looked into the situation a couple of months ago. Neat stuff.

Part man, part lizard, part robot.

11:25 am  •  15 April 2013  •  2 notes

“[The farmer] told how a few days before he was driving a yoke of oxen which drew a two-wheeled cart. He said that when they were passing along a piece of road that skirted a lake, the witch, making herself invisible, pulled the linch-pin out of one of the axels and away went the wheel… He was greatly offended when the attorney informed him that witchcraft wasn’t recognized in law in these days.”

— Maine Witchcraft a Troublesome Thing, The Clinton Morning Age, August 25, 1901. (via maineobviously)

11:56 am  •  14 April 2013  •  3 notes

“After living alone in her slab shanty on hedgehog island for a longer time than most of the residents of this village can remember, old Becky Murch, the witch, as she was called, has moved away, taking her cats and her hens along… While she did not claim to be a witch she asserted the possession of supernatural powers.”

—

The Outre Side of Freakish Human Nature: Maine’s Witch, The Lewiston Sun. February 4, 1889.

I am pretty sure Murch was just an independent cat lady. She sounds pretty badass, actually. Murch also “caught fish, dug clams and cultivated a small garden on the island.” The article goes on to claim that “If she wished that a farmer might have the rheumatism until it twisted him out of shape, he received the full order inside of a year.” When they put the law on her, she allegedly turned her wrath to animals she was unable to get her hands on for her farm.

(via maineobviously)

11:55 am  •  14 April 2013  •  4 notes

Happy Birthday, old friend.

11:48 pm  •  13 April 2013

“So, if you’re reading this looking for a list of bands to check out, well, I’m not going to give them to you. Go see another night of Beatles covers, the Beatles were great right? Probably the greatest. Go see the band that’s street team will pat you on the back the hardest for Supporting Local Music. Go see whatever band is offering up a unique blend of rock, country, blues, funk, and much much more this year. Go see some band re-purposing jam band guitar strokes in the name of rock or punk or ‘indie’. Go see whatever shit those Rustic guys are doing these days. But definitely stay away from the internet. Your time is valuable and there’s no need expending all that effort to listen to the vast sea of music that bands have made easily accessible and freely available to literally anyone. I mean c’mon, you could be watching Netflix or something.”

— Mike “Brass Cankles” Cunanne on local music, Bangor Daily News. April 12, 2013

I reached to a number of friends who I think have some idea about what’s what in local music and asked them to name a band readers should pay attention to. Mike “Brass Cankles” Cunanne (who I interviewed back in September) offered the following direct, curmudgeonly take, the contrarian’s contrarian essence of which does not disappoint.

8:59 am  •  12 April 2013  •  5 notes

maineobviously:

“The North Pond Hermit” by [my Bangor Daily News colleague] Troy Bennett

Super sweet.

9:23 pm  •  11 April 2013  •  17 notes

I had no idea they’d touch on the anti-capitalism.

How nice.

(Still, I am unsure of how the nomination process operated, but I do wish some women would have been nominated.)

7:56 pm  •  11 April 2013  •  2 notes