So Wild Blueberry Festival is upon us, and the whole entire town of Machias seems to have transformed into a whole different place! It is awesome. There are welcomed practical differences....like the makeup of the town looks and speaks differently, but there is also an air of celebration, positivity, and excitement in the air! Yesterday driving around after work and running to things helped me realize...there truly are going to be 15,000 people extra in this town this weekend (to give you perspective, this town only has about 3,000 to begin with....)
Anyway, without further ado, I'd like to offer some snippets from the musical last night "Randy of Blueberry". The musicals historical are always written by a local person and are based off of other musicals or common music that people understand, and tell a story of life in Machias or Washington County, or Downeast in general. With things being so rough to begin with historically economically in Washington County, the last year has been particularly hard here...and it shows at every turn. This is a poor town, and a poor county. The musical this year was based around a large blueberry processing factory (owned by descendants of Jeremiah O'Brien himself) owing back taxes to the town. Think Andy Griffith....this was the basis of the musical. However, that is not where it ends! It was really well crafted, because there were tons of current events in it, including Sarah Palin "becoming available" to be the new mayor of Blueberry! HA!
Enjoy the clips!
This is the infamous Gene Nichols, who I finally got to meet the other day (subsequently, I have already been invited to ukelele club so I can learn how to play!!!)
It is helpful to turn up the sound as much as you can, as this one has great Sarah Palin dialogue:
YMCA!
The general theme of living in Downeast Maine:
Getting serious, Rent style:
The BEST part of the musical!
Dad, this one is for you!!!
All the church sings along (we got programs with the words and it was in this weeks paper so people could learn the words):
More Blueberry fun to come!!!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
On getting known and getting involved...
Well, its been almost a week since my last post. Ya know, I read somewhere that you should post good material every 4-6 days to keep your readers interested and keep them focused (and passing your blog link on to others). So, I hope you're interested.
Who knows....I had a dream the other night that I wrote a book about my first year living in Maine and it was pretty popular :-)
So, big news first. I made it on the UMM webpage today...which is both really neat and really humbling at the same time. I've never been the subject of a true "press release" although back in my fishing career days, I spent a good deal of time being in the local papers and such. This goes on the website, it goes in both of the local newspapers, and might even get picked up by the Bangor Daily News (because there is a new admission director starting as well!). WOW. Anonymity in Machias is gone! But, its really different now....now that I am in the paper because of a career I've established for myself, and a community I've joined.
Speaking of the community I joined, I've also started attending the Center (Centre) Street Congregational Church here in town, which is the local United Church of Christ, which I was kinda sorted raised in. It is a really nice church, and has a FANTASTIC history. Like the kind of history that....drum roll please.....has one of the last surviving bells that Paul Revere made. Pretty fantastic if you ask me. It is 39" across in diameter, and I would imagine gives a good ring. This coming weekend is Blueberry Festival, and the Sunday service (which is said to be the largest church service in Machias all year for any church...larger than the holidays) begins with ringing of the bell. I can't wait. As bad as this sounds (I might already be going to hell, so...) I might try to record it on my phone so you all can hear how awesome I am sure it is going to sound.
Anyway, so I've gotten involved in the church. I am not doing it as a "I found God and he's in Machias, Maine" (although there is a funny story about hell I will tell in a minute*...) thing, but rather as a way to meet some people outside of work and get a community established for myself so I can get involved in the town activities. The nice thing is that there are already a bunch of people that go to this church that I know...including my supervisor! Who's husband is on the board! There's also a number of folks from my CSA (community supported agriculture) group that go there, as well as a good amount of university folk. There isn't a Unitarian Universalist in town (nearest one is in Eastport, which is about 45min away), so I think thus church really serves itself as the "university type liberal church"...which is great by me. Generally speaking, the UCC tends to be right below the UU folks in terms of "wild, leftist liberal propaganda" which is right up my philosophical agenda alley, so sign me up! Seriously, though, it is a nice time. Right away both weeks folks come up to introduce themselves to me, I've spent time in the coffee fellowship afterwards (they serve shade-grown, fair-trade coffee which is really great that they are environmentally conscientious), and its been noted by several folks that they are really open to LGBT community members being involved.
Now involvement means a lot of things to a lot of different people, but I figured this coming weekend is Blueberry Fest so I ought to take that opportunity to get involved and meet some folks. So what better to do that volunteer to drive one of the shuttle vans around town bringing folks to and from the parking sight (the grocery store, on one end of town) to the downtown where all the action is! Right now my plans are to attend the BBQ, I have my ticket for the musical, I am going to see some folk art that someone from the church wants me to check out...and of course there is the pie eating contest, the bake off, and the parade!!! And last but certainly not least...the Blackfly Ball! There is also the town precense of the Beehive Collective. These folks have gotten a variety of explanations to me by a variety of different folks around town....ranging from hundreds of hippie people descended on Machias and partying and protesting all over town all weekend to a group of mosaic art activists. So, we shall see!
Now, I don't want you all to get too excited about B fest....I will post more this weekend after I recover from my blueberry overdose (is there such a thing? NEVER!).
In other news, I have a few words and phrases to update you about from the downeast coast of Maine:
1) "Jesum": My friends over at Urban Dictionary tell me that this is a New England nice way of saying "Jesus!". Which is followed or interchanged with...
2) 'Jesum Crow": You guessed it....Jesus Christ. The funny thing is that in old German, Jesus is Jesum....
3) Downcoast. This is a word that is used by folks around here to basically mean going anywhere south or west of here. Because Machias/Downeast Maine is SO far out east from the rest of the state (and nation, to be honest) there isn't anything really as "north" and "south" as the rest of us know...it is more east and west...but it is confusing because you are going up and down. So, the downeasters say "downcoast". Which basically means going to civilization.
4) This is a classic phrase I heard the other day at work. Perhaps not a downeaster phrase, but fantastic nonetheless. "Talk a cat off of a fish truck." Yeah, that's right.
In other news, I have also gotten involved in a few longer term groups that I am really excited about: 1) An NFL pool at the university for faculty and staff! There's even a trophy that goes with it. So, I will need to get reading up on my teams and get playing. Stephanie, perhaps this is finally the time that I enter that fantasy football competition. 2) A team that is getting put together to ride the MS 150 next July/August....so in less than one year I will finally be doing what I should've done three years ago....doing 150 miles on my bike in three days. This fits in really well with my Couch to 5K program that I am doing....which means next summer whilst I am traveling around on my two months off of work....I will also be traveling with my running shoes and maybe even my bike! And hopefully that traveling finds me a few pounds lighter, leaner, and meaner than now!
*You thought I forgot about the hell story, huh? Not so! As I was getting a tour of one of the res halls from one of the RD's today, she showed me the area of her hall that is known as hell because it is a really weird multi-case stairway that leads to nowhere but the underside of the building...and a forest. So, I jokingly come back upstairs and told my supervisor "I found HELL, and it's in Machias, Maine!"
Whew, so it's been a busy couple of days, eh?
Who knows....I had a dream the other night that I wrote a book about my first year living in Maine and it was pretty popular :-)
So, big news first. I made it on the UMM webpage today...which is both really neat and really humbling at the same time. I've never been the subject of a true "press release" although back in my fishing career days, I spent a good deal of time being in the local papers and such. This goes on the website, it goes in both of the local newspapers, and might even get picked up by the Bangor Daily News (because there is a new admission director starting as well!). WOW. Anonymity in Machias is gone! But, its really different now....now that I am in the paper because of a career I've established for myself, and a community I've joined.
Speaking of the community I joined, I've also started attending the Center (Centre) Street Congregational Church here in town, which is the local United Church of Christ, which I was kinda sorted raised in. It is a really nice church, and has a FANTASTIC history. Like the kind of history that....drum roll please.....has one of the last surviving bells that Paul Revere made. Pretty fantastic if you ask me. It is 39" across in diameter, and I would imagine gives a good ring. This coming weekend is Blueberry Festival, and the Sunday service (which is said to be the largest church service in Machias all year for any church...larger than the holidays) begins with ringing of the bell. I can't wait. As bad as this sounds (I might already be going to hell, so...) I might try to record it on my phone so you all can hear how awesome I am sure it is going to sound.
Anyway, so I've gotten involved in the church. I am not doing it as a "I found God and he's in Machias, Maine" (although there is a funny story about hell I will tell in a minute*...) thing, but rather as a way to meet some people outside of work and get a community established for myself so I can get involved in the town activities. The nice thing is that there are already a bunch of people that go to this church that I know...including my supervisor! Who's husband is on the board! There's also a number of folks from my CSA (community supported agriculture) group that go there, as well as a good amount of university folk. There isn't a Unitarian Universalist in town (nearest one is in Eastport, which is about 45min away), so I think thus church really serves itself as the "university type liberal church"...which is great by me. Generally speaking, the UCC tends to be right below the UU folks in terms of "wild, leftist liberal propaganda" which is right up my philosophical agenda alley, so sign me up! Seriously, though, it is a nice time. Right away both weeks folks come up to introduce themselves to me, I've spent time in the coffee fellowship afterwards (they serve shade-grown, fair-trade coffee which is really great that they are environmentally conscientious), and its been noted by several folks that they are really open to LGBT community members being involved.
Now involvement means a lot of things to a lot of different people, but I figured this coming weekend is Blueberry Fest so I ought to take that opportunity to get involved and meet some folks. So what better to do that volunteer to drive one of the shuttle vans around town bringing folks to and from the parking sight (the grocery store, on one end of town) to the downtown where all the action is! Right now my plans are to attend the BBQ, I have my ticket for the musical, I am going to see some folk art that someone from the church wants me to check out...and of course there is the pie eating contest, the bake off, and the parade!!! And last but certainly not least...the Blackfly Ball! There is also the town precense of the Beehive Collective. These folks have gotten a variety of explanations to me by a variety of different folks around town....ranging from hundreds of hippie people descended on Machias and partying and protesting all over town all weekend to a group of mosaic art activists. So, we shall see!
Now, I don't want you all to get too excited about B fest....I will post more this weekend after I recover from my blueberry overdose (is there such a thing? NEVER!).
In other news, I have a few words and phrases to update you about from the downeast coast of Maine:
1) "Jesum": My friends over at Urban Dictionary tell me that this is a New England nice way of saying "Jesus!". Which is followed or interchanged with...
2) 'Jesum Crow": You guessed it....Jesus Christ. The funny thing is that in old German, Jesus is Jesum....
3) Downcoast. This is a word that is used by folks around here to basically mean going anywhere south or west of here. Because Machias/Downeast Maine is SO far out east from the rest of the state (and nation, to be honest) there isn't anything really as "north" and "south" as the rest of us know...it is more east and west...but it is confusing because you are going up and down. So, the downeasters say "downcoast". Which basically means going to civilization.
4) This is a classic phrase I heard the other day at work. Perhaps not a downeaster phrase, but fantastic nonetheless. "Talk a cat off of a fish truck." Yeah, that's right.
In other news, I have also gotten involved in a few longer term groups that I am really excited about: 1) An NFL pool at the university for faculty and staff! There's even a trophy that goes with it. So, I will need to get reading up on my teams and get playing. Stephanie, perhaps this is finally the time that I enter that fantasy football competition. 2) A team that is getting put together to ride the MS 150 next July/August....so in less than one year I will finally be doing what I should've done three years ago....doing 150 miles on my bike in three days. This fits in really well with my Couch to 5K program that I am doing....which means next summer whilst I am traveling around on my two months off of work....I will also be traveling with my running shoes and maybe even my bike! And hopefully that traveling finds me a few pounds lighter, leaner, and meaner than now!
*You thought I forgot about the hell story, huh? Not so! As I was getting a tour of one of the res halls from one of the RD's today, she showed me the area of her hall that is known as hell because it is a really weird multi-case stairway that leads to nowhere but the underside of the building...and a forest. So, I jokingly come back upstairs and told my supervisor "I found HELL, and it's in Machias, Maine!"
Whew, so it's been a busy couple of days, eh?
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