UMaine ghost hunters

UMaine in Orono has its own on-campus paranormal investigation club, the UMPIC, (or possibly PRIUM: Paranormal Research and Investigation of the University of Maine, depending on where you look online). The Maine Campus online newspaper has been reporting on the recent rallying of the group, which was founded in 2005 (according to an earlier Maine Campus article, also included below).

Who you gonna call? UMaine Paranormal Investigation Club
By Rhiannon Sawtelle
Posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010, 4:01 am

Tales of Ma Estabrooke wandering the halls of her dormitory, the spooky noises in Colvin Hall and the housemother watching over the Beta House remind the University of Maine community there is a rich history of supposed paranormal activities on campus.

The UMaine Paranormal Investigation Club is ready to confirm or disprove these legends. With a resurgent presence on campus, the group is working on building their base of members to expand their ghost-hunting endeavors.

“We’re still working on trying to get it up,” said Denise Bickford, a second-year English student and president of the group.

The group has been on campus for at least six years, but has declined in membership over the past few years. When Bickford joined in the fall of 2008, she began to pick up the slack of the dissipating group.

The club made strides last semester when it became an official student group, recognized by Student Government.

“That was really exciting,” said Amie Dick, a second-year social work student and vice-president of the club. “We just got back on our feet.”

The numbers are growing, with a solid base of 10 members and five or six more new recruits who grew interested after a presentation from Mike Marino, a member of the Bangor Ghost Hunters.

Marino spoke to the group during their usual meeting time Monday from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Senior Skulls room. He spoke about his experiences in the group, how to investigate and the equipment used in the process.

“It was really informative. … It was interesting to hear from someone on the case,” Bickford said.

With growing interest in the group, the club is escalating their efforts to investigate the paranormal.

“We’re trying to expand to all paranormal stuff,” Bickford said.

This year, they plan to investigate hauntings around campus, take a tour of a cemetery in Lewiston and visit a cryptozoology museum. According to Bickford, this is a great improvement over last year when the group only went on one investigation in Estabrooke Hall.

The members’ interests lie in all things paranormal, and they takes different steps depending on what they are investigating. When they investigate supposed hauntings, they bring camcorders and still-frame cameras, hoping to capture ghost sightings.

During the cemetery visit, they will use their own observations and electrical readings that denote the presence of spirits. There has been a lot of reported activity around a mausoleum in the cemetery.

“A lot of people have felt a presence there. … It’s intuitive,” Dick said.

“It depends on what you’re looking for in a haunting,” Bickford said. “It’s not a science; you can’t really prove anything.”

Bickford and Dick note that a real ghost-hunting experience isn’t like those portrayed on popular television shows like “Ghost Hunters” and “Paranormal State.”

“You’re not going to find something most of the time,” Bickford said. “You have to go over what you think is real and what isn’t.”

“I think it’s good to go into an investigation with an open mind,” Dick said.

Both women believe there is paranormal activity alive and well in the world but admit that skeptics are good to have around to balance an investigation.

“I don’t consider myself a skeptic … but there are things that can be written off,” Bickford said.

They explained the importance of critically examining evidence and understanding there won’t be activity every investigation.

An interest in the unknown is what drew Bickford and Dick to the club; they joined through word of mouth. While Dick is still waiting for a paranormal experience, Bickford recently experienced a sighting this summer. The incident confirmed her suspicion there were things we can’t explain in the world.

Bickford’s family lives in an old house in Winterport, and her mother has always heard unidentifiable voices and music. Bickford had never before experienced a haunting but woke up one night this summer to see a figure of a man in her room.

“It’s nothing I should be scared of. … it freaks you out if you don’t know what’s going on, though,” Bickford said.

As for Dick, she is still waiting for an experience to confirm her beliefs.

“I wish,” she said.

[Source]

an earlier article, also from The Maine Campus online newspaper, mentions a Ma Balentine spirit instead of a Ma Estabrooke spirit, but you get the idea.

Paranormal Club tackles supernatural on campus
By Michael Hartwell
Posted on Monday, April 4th, 2005, 12:00 am

Toby Paradis has been intimately familiar with cemeteries for over two years. He’s not a grave robber or in mourning. No, the third-year theater major goes to graveyards because he has a passion for the supernatural. A little while ago, he figured out a way to find other students with similar interests: He started a club.

Last semester, Student Council gave the University of Maine Paranormal Investigation Club the greenlight. Right now there are 10 dedicated members and a host of drifters and frequenters. Since only a few months have passed since its formation, UMPIC is still a trial club. This means it will take a few months before Student Council starts giving them any funding.

UMPIC covers a lot of ground in the world of the unexplained. “We focus on ghosts and spirits,” Paradis said, but is quick to point out that nothing mysterious is off-limits. Secretary Michelle Shandorf said “We don’t do aliens and stuff, but we’ve been asked about it a lot, so maybe we will someday.”

A typical one-hour meeting can have discussions that cover topics as diverse as poltergeists, telekinesis, Chupacabra, rains of frogs and Pamola, the storm god who watches over Mount Katahdin.

UMPIC members don’t just talk about the supernatural, they go out and look for it. In late January, they investigated Balentine hall in hopes of finding Ma Balentine, the long-dead house mother who allegedly still makes her curfew rounds. Unfortunatly, their search didn’t yield any evidence of hauntings. Vice President Caiti Joly wasn’t discouraged. “Just because we don’t find anything doesn’t mean there’s nothing there, we could have missed it,” she said.

Veterans of the Balentine expedition point out that the residential director wouldn’t let them into the locked fourth floor due to a series of potential hazards. UMPIC members think that recent construction may have driven Ma Balentine up to the restricted, untouched floor.

UMPIC prides themselves on their fair investigations. “We don’t make conclusions around opinions or beliefs. We’re scientific. We stay focused and we stay skeptical,” Shandorf said.

Investigations involve members exploring areas that are reported to have paranormal activities. They bring any equipment they have, cameras and tape recorders for now, and try to find evidence. The investigations are open to anyone, even scaredy-cats.

“We don’t go anywhere alone, we use the buddy system,” Paradis said. There are two reasons for this rule. One reason is to make sure no one gets protecting investigators from becoming uncomfortable or frightened. The other incentive is so they can rely on any evidence they collect.

“If you were recording and alone, you could cough into the tape recorder and forget about it, and then when we listen to the tape, we wouldn’t know where that sound came from,” said Joly.

The Maine’s Paranormal Research Association, the group responsible for the Halloween night investigations on campus in 2003, are making plans to visit UMPIC in the near future and give them some investigation pointers.

According to UMPIC, most of the buildings on campus have had reports of unexplained phenomena. One of the explanations the group suggests is that the Hilltop area is built over Indian burial grounds. Well-known spectors include the suicide ghost of Stodder, Ma Balentine and the various spirits of Estabrooke.

UMPIC member Dave Sawyer is looking forward to the upcoming investigation of Estabrooke hall on April 9. The Estabrooke resident director plans to accompany the group and grant them access to all of the locked rooms. “From what I’ve read, classic hauntings happen around places people don’t frequent,” Sawyer said.

Sawyer reports that he has already seen a few paranormal activities in Estabrooke.

“I was in the basement and I saw what appeared to be a ball of light dance around and melt into a door. What did I actually see? I can’t be sure. I still don’t believe my own eyes. That’s something I’m embarrassed about; I don’t tell my friends about it,” Sawyer said.

Other phenomena from Estabrooke include exploding light bulbs and a locked, unoccupied dorm room that placed a series of 911 calls.

UMPIC feels their investigations will really take off when they receive their funding. The club plans to spend it on an electromagnetic field meter, cameras, thermometers and transportation costs. Instead of sitting on their hands and waiting like good little children, UMPIC is making plans to earn money by selling pizza cards for $10. Each card is good for 20 buy-one-get-one-free pizza opportunities. The store to redeem them has not yet been selected yet.

UMPIC encourages potential new members and curious parties to stop by their meetings Thursday nights at 8 p.m. in the Senior Skulls room on the third floor of the Memorial Union. Unfortunately, there are no telepaths in UMPIC at this point. Until then, all questions can be directed to Toby Paradis or Michelle Shandorf via FirstClass.

[Source]

PRIUM has a Facebook page here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2201466794

and a presumably defunct/non-functional website here:
http://umaine.edu/umpic/home.htm

Upcoming historic talks

Local cemetery-revivalist group Spirits Alive is once again sponsoring a short series of free winter lecture series with local author-historians. These events will be held at the Maine Historical Society (see http://www.mainehistory.org for more info about the MHS), and are made possible with funding support from the Maine Humanities Council. Of the series, one was held in January (my apologies for neglecting to post it in time), and the other two are upcoming, one in February and one in March. Read on for more info!

WHAT: "Privateering on Casco Bay"
WHEN: Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 10:00am
WHERE: Maine Historical Society, 489 Congress Street, Portland, ME
COST: Free and open to the public.

DESCRIPTION:
James L. Nelson, author of George Washington's Secret Navy, brings America's historical connection with the sea to life through fiction and nonfiction. His writing covers a wide range of America's maritime heritage, from piracy in Colonial Virginia to the naval action of the Civil War. Mr. Nelson will talk about privateers -- armed private ships licensed to attack enemy shipping -- in New England.

For more information on the book: http://www.jameslnelson.com/george_washington%27s_secret_navy.htm

For more information on James L. Nelson: http://www.jameslnelson.com/biography.htm

WHAT: "The Historical Development of Munjoy Hill"
WHEN: Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 10:00am
WHERE:Maine Historical Society, 489 Congress Street, Portland, ME
COST: Free and open to the public.

Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., Director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, will present a slide lecture on the history of Munjoy Hill. Born in Portland, Mr. Shettleworth has been researching, speaking, and writing about Maine history since he was a teenager. He has been on the commission since 1971 and director since 1976.

For more information on the Maine Historic Preservation Commission:
http://www.state.me.us/mhpc/

About the Maine Humanities Council:
The Maine Humanities Council is a private nonprofit organization, Maine's affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It promotes strong communities and informed citizens by providing Mainers with opportunities to explore the power and pleasure of ideas. For more information, visit their Web site at www.mainehumanities.org.

About Spirits Alive
Spirits Alive is a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of Portland's historic Eastern Cemetery through a range of activities including promotion and education. Founded in 2007, the group carries out an active program of seasonal tours of the cemetery, a winter lecture series, and is conducting a stone-by-stone inventory of the nearly 4,000 grave markers still existing in the 340-year-old cemetery. http://www.spiritsalive.org

The vote is on!!!

Okay, we made it into the running! Now it's time to vote. I trust you folks to have your own say on the matter, and here's the link to the blog category (or just click on the button below):
Vote for the best Portland blog!

Of course, you can start at the beginning and vote for all sorts of categories here:
Portland Phoenix's Best of Portland voting

An important note: To actually register your vote, after you've made your selections, you must click on the "SKIP TO FINISH" or "FINISHED" button to enter your name, etc. The vote is not logged in until this part of the process is completed.

Have fun!!!

For you to decide!

To those of you who feel so inclined -- it is once again time for the Portland Phoenix to collect nominations for their annual Best of Portland vote.

I would be very honored if any of you would like to nominate me for Best Blog. And even if not, it's a great chance to vote on your other favorites as well!

You can add your nominations here!!! (or just click on the big red button below)



The Blog category is located under the "City Life" category on the linked page. There are a bunch of other fun categories too!

I will mention that there is a friendly rivalry afoot between myself and the Action Chad blog, and they are nefarious and wiley opponents. Good heavens. It could be an interesting election if we both get nominated!

Others of you who are fans of monthly Bingo, featuring The Fuge and Country Rhodes, may be interested in making sure they get into the running for the Portland Comedian category!

Water pulls a vanishing act

Thanks to T. Woodrich for spotting this bizarre story for us! He heard it mentioned on the radio and scared up a Bangor Daily News article about it.

Despite all the honest Yankees out there, there are still some Mainers who will stop at nothing to steal what they want, from dragging ATMs out of storefronts with their pickup trucks to siphoning gas out of cars in the dark of the night. But this is a new one on me... read on!

Stonington firm searching for missing water
By Rich Hewitt
BDN Staff

STONINGTON, Maine — The Stonington Water Co. has a mystery on its hands.

Large amounts of water have been disappearing regularly from the system since October, and officials don’t know how or why. It does not appear to be a leak, according to water company Superintendent Roger Stone, and the missing water is not running into the town sewer system.

There’s concern that someone may be drawing water from the system either deliberately or by accident.

Either way, the problem is getting worse.

“It’s bizarre,” Stone said Thursday.

Since October, approximately 1.2 million gallons of water has simply disappeared from the water company tanks. It always happens on Wednesday, Stone said.
[...]
The problem appears to be getting worse. Stone calculates that about 200,000 gallons was missing in October; it increased to about 400,000 gallons in November; and to more than 600,000 gallons in December.
[...]
Stone has discounted a leak, although he continues to check the water lines regularly. A leak doesn’t start and stop once a week, he said.
[...]
Stone said they have searched for chlorine residue in areas where the water may have been dumped, but so far they have turned up no clues as to where the water is going, Stone said.

“There’s absolutely no sign of it,” he said.
[...]
Stone has concluded that some individual or individuals are behind the water loss.

“Somebody’s doing it,” Stone said. “What we don’t know [is] if it’s malicious or not.”

The mystery is a costly one for the water company. About 75 percent of the water that has passed through the system in the past several months has not been paid for, Stone said.
[...]
While he continues to search for the source of the water losses, Stone is urging Stonington residents to contact him if they go anywhere where they hear the sound of continuous running water, or if they notice anything else out of the ordinary. They can contact Stone at the town office at 367-2351.

Read full article here: [Source]

Cryptografitti?

sasn grafitti
Originally uploaded by misfitgirl.

Seen across the street from the newly installed International Cryptozoology Museum at 661 Congress Street.

Photo (c)2010 by Michelle Souliere

Breaking News- Fire at Zinnia's!

We got a call (thanks McNallica!) that the old Zinnia's building at 660 Congress Street near Longfellow Square in Portland, across the street from my bookshop, The Green Hand, and next to my husband's shop, The Fun Box Monster Emporium, was on fire. There was smoke blowing through the block onto Deering Street as we arrived just before 10:00.

Firemen were breaking out the top story windows as we arrived on the scene. An early eyewitness report mentioned an overheard conversation between a few people talking on the stoop of the building shortly before the fire, the topic of their conversation being about breaking into various buildings. More news as warranted.

UPDATE:
Photos now online here, on my Flickr site. A few included below.

Herbie the tree to be gone...

I met Herbie this June, and my only regret is that I didn't have my picture taken with him properly (well, I did, but it didn't come out well). Anyone who wants to visit him before he meets his demise should be sure to go this week!!! Herbie stands, gargantuan, at the corner of East Main Street and Yankee Drive.

240-Year-Old Yarmouth Elm Tree To Be Chopped Down
Tree Will Be Cut Down Jan. 18
POSTED: 8:13 am EST January 8, 2010

YARMOUTH, Maine -- A 101-year-old man who has spent the last half-century caring for New England's oldest and tallest American elm tree said he's made his peace with the tree's impending demise.

The 110-foot-tall tree is nicknamed Herbie. It has stood sentinel in Yarmouth since before the American Revolution.

It also has survived 14 bouts of Dutch elm disease -- but the latest round has proven fatal.

Former town tree warden Frank Knight calls Herbie an "old friend." He said the tree was so big and beautiful he couldn't bear to chop it down in the 1950s.

Over the years, he nursed Herbie with insecticides and fungicide injections to battle the dreaded disease. But Knight said nothing is forever.

The tree is estimated to be 240 years old. Its exact age will be known once it's cut down Jan. 18.

[Source]

Fort Knox ready for prime time!

Exciting news from our friends at Fort Knox! Read on...

Ghost Hunter TV Program Coming to Fort Knox

The Friends of Fort Knox received an interesting email recently from the producer of the SyFy Channel's hit series, Ghost Hunters. According to the email, the producer was searching the Internet and came upon reports of paranormal activity occurring at the State Historic Site.

Over the past several years, local paranormal investigating groups have approached
the Friends of Fort Knox to enlist their help facilitating night time research. Some of these paranormal research groups such as Bangor Ghost Hunters, Central Maine Paranormal and Maine Supernatural, have posted their investigation result on the Internet. Recently, a new paranormal investigation group, the Bangor Ghost Trackers, were featured on a local TV news program describing their belief that Fort Knox is indeed haunted.

The Friends notified the Maine Department of Conservation’s Bureau of Parks and Lands (BPL) about being contacted by the Ghost Hunter TV program. The Bureau of Parks and Lands manages Fort Knox on behalf of the people of Maine and is being asked to approve the shoot. The Friends informed BPL that they would be willing to head up this project by providing staff supervision, facilitate a meeting between the TV show producers and individuals who have reported “experiences” at the Fort and assist the film crew with logistics.

Friends of Fort Knox executive director, Leon Seymour said that "The Friends are very excited about the possibility of the Ghost Hunters traveling to Maine to investigate and film at Fort Knox. The Friends believe that featuring Fort Knox on a TV show watched by millions will swell Fort Knox and Penobscot Narrows Observatory attendance and have a positive impact for local businesses from increased tourism."

Though the Friends of Fort Knox have never taken a position on whether the Fort is haunted, they say that they are often asked by visitors if the historic site is indeed occupied by spirits. The Friends of Fort Knox are a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring Fort Knox and enhancing its educational, cultural and economic value for the people of Maine. The Friends' latest restoration effort is focused on extensive masonry repair throughout the Fort.

Individuals who wish to be considered for an interview relating what they believe to have been a "paranormal experience at the Fort, may contact the Friends at FOFK1@aol.com or by telephone at 207-469-6553.

Let's hope the folks at the Bureau see fit to approve the adventure! I for one would love to see an investigation of the Fort. It's such a fantastic location to begin with, and the stories coming out of the Fort have been so interesting.

One of the most recent took place during work on Fright at the Fort 2008. The Bangor Daily News reports:

Worker ‘creeped-out’ by ‘Fright’ at Fort Knox
By Rich Hewitt, BDN Staff

PROSPECT, Maine — When the Cowardly Lion stood in the Haunted Forest wringing his tail saying, “I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks,” he had good reason.

He was surrounded by trees with faces, flying monkeys, a wicked witch and, yes, spooks.

Now, Teddy Cooke, 19, of Verona Island has a good reason to say the same thing.

Cooke, who works as a tower and gate attendant at Fort Knox Historic Site and the Penobscot Narrows Observation Tower, didn’t have to deal with the Wicked Witch of the West, but he did have a close encounter of some kind last Saturday night inside the fort.

“It creeped me out,” he said.

It happened Saturday night as Cooke was closing up the fort after the annual Fright at the Fort event. He wasn’t one of the ghouls, trolls or ogres stationed in the fort to spook the nighttime visitors. Cooke was part of the tech crew, in charge of the fog, the lights and the scary audio for the event.

The fort was dark except for the “Fright” effects.

“My job was to lock up, shut down all the electrical stuff, the fog machine and the strobe lights,” he said. “I was going to the upper level of the officers’ quarters when I saw it — it was the back of a leg moving at the end of the hall.”

At that point, he said, he thought there was a straggler from the Fright event, and he called out to say the fort was closed and to follow him out. There was no response.

From the hall, a set of stairs leads up to a long corridor known as “Two Step Alley.” Cooke walked up the steps and as his eyes reached the level of the floor, he saw the dark shape of someone walking down the alley.

“About halfway down, I could see the figure of a person,” he said. “There was a red floodlight at the other end and it clearly blocked out the light.”

He called out again, but there was no reaction.

Cooke said the figure looked like a “solid shadow.” He saw no face or details, but could tell it was walking, not gliding. It did not react or turn when he called. And it made no sound that he heard.

Although he said he felt a little jittery, he didn’t feel any emotion or any presence from the figure.

He reached for his flashlight and the figure was gone.

“I looked down for just a second and when I looked up again, there was nothing there all the way to the end of the alley,” he said. “At this point, I’m still thinking it’s a person. There are pillars all the way down the alley, and I thought they may have ducked behind there. I thought maybe someone was going to jump out and scare me.”

Cautiously, he checked each pillar all the way down.

No one was there.

“There’s no way anyone could have gotten down the alley in that time,” he said. “Up until I got out I thought it was a person. I don’t know what it was. I got out of the fort as quickly as I could.”

Cooke admits to being a fan of the “Ghost Hunter” television show, but said he wanted proof before he’d believe in ghosts. He says he has it now.

“I considered myself a skeptic until something happened so that I would know,” he said. “This was kind of that ‘it’ that happened.”

Some might discount Cooke’s account as imagination, but he’s not the first to have a supernatural experience in the fort. According to Leon Seymour, executive director of the Friends of Fort Knox, there have been reports for years from visitors and fort staff of unusual happenings.

“I’ve heard hundreds of stories,” he said. “People having their hat taken off, people being pushed.”

The fort is a likely spot for spirits, according to Sky Taylor, a Bangor radio announcer and co-founder of the Down East Paranormal Society.

The granite and the fort’s proximity to the water all help to store and conduct spirit energy, Taylor said.

Taylor and her husband have had unexplained encounters in the fort before, one of them in the same area where Cooke saw his spirit on Saturday. Several years ago, she brought in a psychic, who confirmed there were spirits dwelling in the fort.

Although no one actually died inside the fort, Taylor said, the spirits could be soldiers who had strong ties to the fort. One might be Sgt. Leopold Hegyi, who spent 13 years at Fort Knox and died in a house across the road from the fort where he lived.

Taylor produced a special radio broadcast about the spirits at the fort and included the story from a former guide at the fort during the 1980s. The guide reported that on one of her tours, a soldier showed up at the edge of the group. She assumed it was one of the Civil War re-enactors who hold encampments at the fort.

She learned later that none was at the fort that day.

“A little later, she saw a photo and said [the soldier] looked just like Sgt. Hegyi,” Taylor said. “If anyone had ties to this place, it was Sgt. Hegyi.

Although Hegyi’s widow, who lived in New York, collected his belongings after the sergeant died, she did not claim his remains. He is buried in a cemetery a short distance from the fort down Route 1 in Stockton Springs, Taylor said.

Cooke is not sure what he saw, but he’s convinced he saw something. He’s a little “uneasy” about going back in for this weekend’s version of Fright at the Fort, and admits that anytime he comes back into the fort, he’ll recall this incident.

“I’m not sure I’d want it to happen again,” he said. “But I’d be excited if it did.”

See BDN article for photos: [Source]

Photo (c)2009 by Michelle Souliere.

A different type of chill

Photo of SMCC's Hillside dorm from PRI-ME.org website.

While the cold has settled into the state in earnest, I'd like to throw some spooky chills into the mix as well.

I was talking to a friend of mine who has worked in SMCC's resident inn, and finds it a pretty creepy place to work through late nights at. But online, I found references to SMCC Hillside dorm as a home for haunts, which was new to me. I can't vouch for any of this information, but would definitely be interested in hearing from anyone who has experienced any of the Hillside phenomena mentioned here:

Southern Maine Technical College, South Portland: A Funeral Home

The Hillside Dorm has a long and strange history. This specific branch is now housing for students but at certain points in its career it has been not only a funeral home, but a brothel, and a nursing home. All this history makes it difficult to predict exactly what is haunting the halls of this college. There is a man who wanders the floors of the attic. There is also repeats of a creature up there who moves to and fro. Many times maintenance has tried to catch it, but as of yet it has eluded all traps. Strange dusty footprints have been reported around the traps. There is also an older lady and a young boy who are said to torment some of the students by messing with their blankets and windows at night. There is also a young woman in a nightgown who walks up and down the staircase in the evening hours. The validity of this sighting is that not only has she been seen by individuals, but also groups.

[Source

In searching for a photo of the dorm online, I found that Paranormal Researchers and Investigators of Maine (PRI-ME) has done a training session for paranormal investigations at the site. You can read about their investigation here -- lots of photos too!

Pine Tree State Mutant Turtles

The Trusty Plinko Stick blog has a funny little post up that involves a few of my Maine favorites:

The now-defunct but much-loved Moonshadow Comics of Portland

The Maine-born weirdness that is the world of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Back in the day, Bill of the Plinko Stick used to get his comics via mailorder from Moonshadow in Portland.

Sure, I got my issues of Captain America, Marvel Age, and some of the other books I considered essential, but the rest were odd. I should have been reading the first issue of the Howard the Duck movie adaptation, but instead I had this dumb book a lady with clocks on her boobs, a grey, Peter Porker-looking barbarian, and four ninja turtles.
[Source]

For more info on Maine-born Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Turtles, you can dig around online, or check the Wiki on him here. There is conflicting information on his birthplace, with Wikipedia stating Springvale, and the TMNT25.com site claiming Portland. At any rate, there's no doubt he's a Mainer!

Maine's mystery penny

Mental Floss Magazine's blog has an interesting post about 8 top Out-Of-Place Artifacts, which includes in the #1 spot Maine's own weird penny, a.k.a. The Goddard Penny. To quote the site:

The Maine Penny. So an archaeologist finds a silver coin while digging in Maine. No big deal, right? It is when the archaeological site was an old Native American settlement and the coin is found to be a piece of Norse currency dating from 1065-1080 AD. Although more than 30,000 pieces were recovered from the site, they were all Native American save for the coin.

There’s no evidence that the Vikings ever had a settlement there, however, and no evidence that they even came that far south in the interest of trade. The only Norse settlement ever found in North America is in Newfoundland. The strongest theory thus far suggests that Native Americans acquired it through their trades and travels. There’s no doubt that the coin itself is authentic, but how it ended up at the site is still in question – was it planted or did it really end up in Maine by honest means?

Click here to see a photo of the penny, and read about the other OOPArts: [Source]

More info on the penny can be found on the Wikipedia page devoted to its discussion (click here to ponder the penny further).

Forget the register, gimme the ATM!

The Bangor Daily News reported on yet another odd Maine crime earlier this week.

Maine man charged with stealing ATM from store
11/30/09
Associated Press

SCARBOROUGH, Maine — A Maine man accused of taking a cash machine from a convenience store and driving off with it in the back of a pickup truck faces charges including aggravated assault.

Scarborough police who arrived at the convenience store late Sunday found the front door had been ripped off, and soon spotted the pickup with the ATM in the back. Police say the truck backed into a police cruiser and then sped off.
[...]

Please click here for full story: [Source]

You don't think he could have found a more subtle way of getting into the store?

Greetings and tardy salutations

Hello all! Just an update on why I've been silent on the blog front...

On November 6th, I finally secured my city permits to open The Green Hand, my used bookshop at 661 Congress Street, with three hours to spare before the Grand Opening was scheduled to start! Phew. There was a ribbon-cutting ceremony (click here for photos) during the First Friday Artwalk that evening, with Representative Herb Adams presiding. Loren Coleman's International Cryptozoology Museum opened at the same time in the rear portion of my shopfront, and it's been great working with him in this venture so far!

In the 3+ weeks since them, I've been trying to groom my store's selection, processing books as quickly as I can, and putting out tempting stocking stuffers for connoisseurs of the ridiculous and delightful (anti-werewolf Silver Bullet Mints, anyone?). Hence my silence here!

I've missed working on the blog dreadfully, and this post should mark a return to regular posting again. In addition, the long-overdue October issue of the Strange Maine Gazette is in the works, and should be showing its face soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

Thanks, everyone, for your patience and understanding, and I hope you'll enjoy the progress of the blog, and maybe even stop by the shop sometime to say hello!

Sunday: No opening of The Green Hand

Hello everyone --
Due to bureaucratic delays, we are unable to open The Green Hand Bookshop as planned on Sunday. Please bear with us, those of you who hoped to come along, and we will open as soon as possible.

I'll be at the shop working regardless, so if any of you do show up, you are certainly welcome to pop in and get a sneak preview of the grounds! :)

Many thanks again for all your support, and we'll see you soon. We are still planning to have our gala ribbon-cutting next Friday at 6:00!

Regards,
Michelle

Happy Halloween !

A photo for the season, from the Archives !
This was taken by a Portland Press-Herald photographer in 1939.

The long arms of the law were strong enough to bag 'dem bones!

Did "IT" freak you out? Tell us!

Christoper Gray over at the Portland Phoenix is writing an article about how the movie/miniseries version of Stephen King's "It" warped him as a youngster, and he would like to hear how it affected you as well! Read on...

Basically I’m looking for anecdotes of nightmares, enduring trauma, or even just fond memories of the miniseries of Stephen King’s It. (Aired in 1990, cult classic on VHS!) If anyone wants to get in touch with their thoughts (or any further questions), they can come to cgray@phx.com.

Christopher has kindly given us a list of some "It" elements with which to stir our subconscious cauldrons:

Chinese food

Beethoven’s Fur Elise

“You’ll all float too!”

Blood, drains, showerheads

Sewer

Spiders

Paper boats

Clowns

He's hoping to hear from people by end of Friday, though he might be able to sneak in some comments that come through Saturday/Sunday as well. So get typing! :) Send your responses to his email at cgray@phx.com !

More food for remembering:

EVENT: Live Halloween Radio Horror!

Well, in the midst of getting ready for the opening of my bookstore, The Green Hand, it has also been brought to my attention that this is that most wonderful time of the year -- the Halloween season! With this comes a veritable flood of delectable events to tempt you with. One of these comes with my highest recommendation -- the live on-air performance of spooky stories by FinalRune Productions!

Fred Greenhalgh writes, "As you can imagine, I've been furiously trying to prepare for the Halloween show, collecting a ghastly array of sound effects gear from squishy balls to honking horns and boiling mounds of spaghetti to simulate the sound of gnawing on brains. It's going to be a ghoulishly awesome night!"

By gum and by golly, you better believe it! The past Halloween productions by FinalRune have been well worth the listen, but this year brings a new crop of tales including one by our friend, Lewiston horror writer and crime reporter Mark LaFlamme, and a host of other dainties with which to shiver your pretty little spines.

This Halloween, FinalRune Productions teams up with WMPG and members from the Mad Horse Theater Company for a live spooktravanganza at the University of Southern Maine, benefiting the WMPG PowerUp! campaign.

This event is rare in that it will be performed live, in front of an audience, as it is being broadcast on October, 31, 2009 from 7:00 to 9:00PM. (Buy tickets to the event here: www.finalrune.com/live-halloween-show-2009)

The 2-hr live radio event will feature original work from writers Fred Greenhalgh, Mark LaFlamme, Kevin Anderson, and Roger Gregg.

Stories Include:

The Ghost Behind the Black Door by Roger Gregg
A couple from the city moves to a mansion in the countryside only to find that things are not all as they expect... a spoof on the classic horror meme.

Leaving You is Hell by Fred Greenhalgh
A dark retelling of the myth of Orpheus inspired by the classic jazz tune "St James Infirmary." A man in New Orleans is doomed to keep falling in love with the same woman and seducing her to her death.

Bone Lake by Mark LaFlamme
The ice fishing is going well on Bone Lake, until a man comes from the winter's night looking for a very strange catch.

Third Shift by Kevin Anderson
A company will sell you very efficient workers at a bargain price. Just don't send the living to check out their work.

You can also tune in from anywhere around the world. The show will be broadcast locally on 90.9/104.1 FM in Greater Portland, Maine, and streamed online -- just click here to listen along: www.wmpg.org.

There's also a Facebook Event page for this show.

And if you REALLY can't make it out, you'll be able to hear it podcast on Radio Drama Revival.

Can't wait until then?? Whet your appetite with some precursors... of doom! ... by visiting the Radio Drama Revival website for podcasts of more October treats.

October 22 – “Sorry, Wrong Number” by FinalRune Productions
FinalRune Productions and The Mad Horse Theater Company team up for their second collaboration tale, a production of the radio classic by Lucille Fletcher. A woman overhears two men plotting a murder over the telephone, and very quickly her whole world starts to unravel.

October 29 – “Listening in the Dark” by the Icebox Radio Theater
Three tales from Northern Minnesota to chill you to the bone. A writer’s notes from a haunted house turn against. A man gets haunted in his fishing shack. Santa Claus may not be who you thought he was. Jeff Adams shows off his incredible skill in the darker arts in this haunting hour-long special.

What is PowerUp? WMPG's PowerUP! Campaign seeks to raise $250,000 to upgrade the signal strength of the station's main transmitter and move it to a better location.

EVENT: Documenting New England Ruination

If you are as big a fan of books like Abandoned New England as I am, you'll be sure to show up for this upcoming Maine Historical Society event!

-------------------------------------

WHAT:The Maine Historical Society invites you to... Ruin: Photographs of a Vanishing America by Brian Vanden Brink, Photographer
WHEN:Tuesday, October 20, 12:00-1:00pm
WHERE: Maine Historical Society, 489 Congress Street, Portland, ME
COST: Free and open to the public.
FMI: For more information call (207)774-1822, or e-mail info@mainehistory.org, or visit www.mainehistory.org

Join the photographer to explore his newly published collection of images. Vanden Brink's photographs capture the gradual demise of churches, mills, bridges, grain elevators, storefronts, and other iconic American structures that were built - and ultimately abandoned. His collection considers the value and significance of these sites, past and present, and grants permanence to places that may soon vanish forever.

Vanden Brink is an award-winning architectural photographer whose work regularly appears in Down East Magazine, the New York Times Magazine, Architectural Digest, Coastal Living, and New England Home Magazine, among many other publications. This is his third book.

Call for actors: American Werewolf in Freeport!

Will Stewart of Running Over Productions has the following announcement to make:

Fall means it's time for apple crisp, hot cider, romping through the fallen leaves, and...

...being eaten by a werewolf and joining a horde of walking undead!!!

This Halloween, Freeport Community Players and Gaslight Theater are presenting the WORLD PREMIER of the stage version of John Landis' AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, and they need extras to play non-speaking roles as zombies as well as a few other roles. The shows are October 30 and 31 at 8pm in at the Freeport Performing Arts Center in Freeport, Maine.

If interested in taking part in this production, or for further details, please contact Tim Ryan at 415-6251 or timryan65@roadrunner.com

This is the first time ever that this script is being performed live on stage, and it's going to be a blast!!

For more information about the production, either to attend it or to see what's going on with it so far, check out the American Werewolf production's Facebook page!

Haunting Attack in Lewiston Cemetery

Photo of Riverside Cemetery by Dan Bernard, used by permission of the artist.

This article originally appeared in the October 2008 issue of the Strange Maine Gazette.

-----------------------
It’s not uncommon for me to collect new and interesting stories from friends and strangers as I make my rounds with fresh issues of the Gazette. Earlier this year, Matt told me of his terrifying experience in one of his hometown’s cemeteries. He was deadly serious when he told me this story, which is one of the reasons why, come Halloween time, it came to mind again. He was kind enough to take the time to sit down and record his account for me.

About a year ago (Saturday, October 20th, 2007, I believe), my brother Mike, his now ex-fiance, and I decided to take a walk in the Riverside cemetery near my old apartment in Lewiston. It was a crisp Autumn afternoon, sunny with a slight nip in the air -- nice walking weather.

We entered the cemetery at the Summer Street entrance and took the first right, down past the winter storage sheds, then took a left along the edge of the hill, toward the river. We stopped at a nice, quiet plot with a small stone bench. I picked up an empty 24-pack of Natural Ice beer that some bozo had no doubt dumped the night before, and put it in the trash.

After a minute or two, we continued on our way and turned right along the side of the river. A leashless dog came running toward us, followed a moment later by its owner. The owner caught up to her dog just as it started to squat down and relieve itself in front of someone’s tombstone.

As soon as the owner was out of earshot, I commented to Mike and Nikki about how disrespectful it was to let one’s dog defecate on a burial plot, and not even have the decency to clean it up. They agreed. This led me to mention the kicked-in stained glass windows on the doors to the Libby Mausoleum.

Neither Mike nor Nikki had ever seen the Mausoleum, so I decided to lead them up to the secluded glen where it lies. Almost immediately after we got there, I started to get the feeling that we weren’t welcome.

There was a tension building in the air, and I felt like someone was glaring at me. Nikki was picking up on it too, and decided to attempt to communicate with the presence. I started to get really cold, and told Mike and Nikki that I was getting some really bad vibes off the place. When Nikki lit up a cigarette, I felt a shift come over the air, like it had become charged, and I felt my stomach bottom out.

I had turned around and was actually walking away from the crypt when I heard Nikki yelp, followed by a loud cracking noise. I turned just in time to see Nikki running towards me as the top half of a birch tree snapped off and came crashing down where we had been standing. As the shock of what had just happened started to sink in, I became acutely aware that the presence I had felt at the mausoleum was now bearing down on the three of us.

I started to run as hard as I could, occasionally looking over my shoulder to see if Mike and Nikki were okay. I never actually saw anything tangible, but still got the sense that, whoever or whatever it was, was not very far behind me until I had passed the winter storage shed.

The chill I felt while at the crypt lingered with me for the next day or so. I couldn’t stay warm. Nikki also could not keep warm, and she claimed that she could still feel the presence lingering about her for a few hours after the encounter.

Ironically, when I went online to see if I could come up with any imagery of the Libby Mausoleum, the only thing I found was a photo on Flickr.com by an acquaintance of mine, which was accompanied by the tale of an injury she incurred while trying to take a photo of the mausoleum. Uncanny, you say to yourself, as did I.

She pulled something in her leg while climbing the short slope to the tomb’s entryway, and the self-timer on the camera snapped its shot as she grabbed at her leg in pain. She comments, “I heard, did not feel, heard, a huge crack and then snap. For a fraction of a second I though my calf had cramped up. Then the pain came!”

So is the Libby Mausoleum cursed? It seems more likely that perhaps it harbors a jealous and protective guardian spirit that is sick of vandals and even the most innocent gawkers intruding upon the peace of the mausoleum’s location.

The disrespect shown to Riverside Cemetery’s “guests” (as their website refers to the buried dead, see http://riverside.marshallsonline.org) is not uncommon in Maine’s graveyards, but to those who find solace in these quiet places, and to those like myself who use them as a source in field research, this behavior is effectively destroying connections with our history. Riverside’s caretakers have openly announced a $500 reward for information leading to the apprehension of the culprits of the latest wave of Riverside Cemetery vandalism.

EVENT: Strange Maine artshow opens Friday!

WHAT: The Art of Strange Maine exhibition @ Sanctuary Tattoo
WHEN: Opening Reception: Friday, October 2nd, 6:00-9:00pm
WHERE: Sanctuary, 31 Forest Avenue, Portland, ME 04101
FMI: (207)828-8866, chris[at]sanctuarytattoo.com or sanctuarytattoo.com

Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11-7
Show runs October 2nd – November 4th, 2009

Sanctuary Tattoo is pleased to present THE ART OF STRANGE MAINE from October 2ND to November 4TH, a group show curated by Michelle Souliere, editor of the Strange Maine Gazette, with a special focus on the work of eleven artists: Tom Brown, Michael Connor, Jay Cornell, Brendan Evans, Morbideus Goodell, Jason Gorcoff, Frank Navarro, Zac Perkins, and Dave Stelmok. A small selection of other artists will also be participating. Work ranges from pen and ink drawings, to oil paintings, to carvings made from found wood, and beyond.

The theme of this show is the unique strangeness of Maine in all its forms.

What is Strange Maine?
Weirdos. Unmapped roads. Whispering rocks. Deadening fog. Ghost pirates. Lonely islands. THINGS in the WOODS. Home of Stephen King & Glenn Chadbourne. A place where the four seasons really know how to live. Maine: the way life should be! Strange Maine is made up of Maine's unique strangeness, people who love it, people who have experienced it, & people who are intrigued by it. History, mysteries, legends, cryptozoology, & more.

What inspires Strange Maine?
It is the MYSTERY of Maine that sends a reanimating frisson through our veins and lights our eyes to see in the dim ruins again. Mystery – the perfume of “strange.” Mystery is, by its very nature, that which cannot be fully understood. We need this. We need mystery in our lives. Mystery is our elixir. The job of these artists has been to draw this elixir out and present it in a visual form for viewers to explore on their own.

FURTHER ARTIST INFORMATION and IMAGES:

--Tom Brown: Copper Age Comics, New England Gothic comic
-- Michael Connor: Coelacanth zine
-- Jay Cornell: recently seen in “The Funnies” show at Whitney Art Works
-- Brendan Evans: http://www.kraag.org/strange/
-- Morbideus Goodell: http://morbideusgallery.tripod.com/
http://www.postmortem-prod.com/
-- Jason Gorcoff http://jgorcoff.blogspot.com/
-- Frank Navarro found wood sculpture
-- Zac Perkins http://www.zacperkins.com/

Not Your Normal Fort

With copies of the late spring Gazette issue hot off the press, I made my way north to historic Fort Knox and the fair town of Bucksport, Maine. I had been hearing about the Paranormal and Psychic Faire for the last couple of years, and while I was interested, I had yet to get up the steam to transport me hither. That was until Leon Seymour, of Friends of Fort Knox, dropped an e-mail in my inbox inviting me to climb on board.

After repeated, unsuccessful rearrangements of my transportation and lodging plans, my friend Sue finally came through in a pinch and drove me up through the spooky fog of an early July 4th morning to the land of Prospect, on the shores of the Penobscot River. The misty atmosphere created an eerie, awesome feel to the scene as we drove past the unmistakable Penobscot Narrows Bridge and the so-called Bigfoot footprint in the cliff which overlooks it (this interesting formation was exposed during blasting for the new roadway).

PHOTO : The Penobscot Narrows Bridge dwarfs its predecessor, the Waldo-Hancock bridge. Completed in 1931, it was the first long-span suspension bridge ever erected in Maine. It will remain in place until a thorough dismantling is possible.

On arriving, we made a quick tour to the top of the fort and then down one of its seemingly endless stone battery staircases, damp with condensation. Already the fort was beginning to work its spell on me.

Sadly, Sue had to head back to town, but it was time for me to get down to business anyways. I found myself set up with a table in the fort’s visitor center, where I joined a terrific assortment of other Maine folks who, like me, are all blessed with an innate curiosity and need-to-know about things on the fringe. Next to me were ufologists Cindy Proulx and Chris Gardner, and further up the row was friend and fellow Portlander, Loren Coleman, as well as another friend, Maine supernatural history author, Emeric Spooner. Facing us were the fine folks of the Bangor Ghost Hunters Association, and Gordon Barton, former President of the American Dowsing Society.

My biggest problem became the agonizing choice between whether to staff my table or to take this rare opportunity to hear some of these folks speak. I wound up divvying up my time between the Strange Maine Gazette table and the guest speaker presentations, and managed to watch each of the presenters once over the course of the weekend.
PHOTO : Loren Coleman displays the latest addition to his museum collection of cryptozoological items -- a pop culture representation of a Bigfoot-type creature given away in a furniture store promotion in the South during the 1990s.

It rained off and on all day Saturday, driving Loren Coleman’s audience in and out of the visitor center from minute to minute. But in spite of the iffy weather, a steady stream of folks arrived, either to drink in the fort’s history, or to or to feed their need to find out about the future and other uncertain things. While select speakers entertained the small crowd at the visitor center, down in the dark quarters of the fort, psychics sat for readings with a steady line of those who came in search of comfort, answers, or a sense of mystery to add to their lives.

Expecting a cold but interesting evening spent trying to sleep on the concrete floor of the visitor center in my sleeping bag, I was surprised and pleased to find myself put up for the evening very comfortably in the home of Carol (Bittersweet Gifts, Bucksport) and Don Metthe (Friends of the Fort, Bucksport Director). Thanks to these two kind folks, I spent a very pleasant evening, and Carol treated me to a short tour of the town the next morning, before getting back to business.

Sunday, July 5th, dawned bright and sunny, and the day was great from start to finish. Starting out with my first visit ever to the site of Colonel Buck’s tomb, replete with the alleged stain of the witch’s boot on its face, and ending with a lively drive back down U.S. Route 1 to the outdoor flea markets of Searsport with Loren Coleman before heading inland, it couldn’t have gone better.

In between talking to folks from all over (hi Nomar!) at my table, and signing some new folks up for subscriptions (thanks everyone!), I managed to steal a break so I could wander around the fort a little more.

Imagine my surprise when I realized how huge it really was, and how many hundreds of feet of tunnels and stairways wind through the levels of its pentagonal shape. All I can say is, “WOW!” The scale of Fort Knox is phenomenal, especially when compared with some of Maine’s other historic fort site, such as Fort Edgecomb.

Building started on the fort in 1844, and the last troops left its grounds in 1898, leaving the fort under the watchful eye of the official “Keeper of the Fort.” Today, the Friends of Fort Knox have collectively taken on this role, as well as the restoration of the fort and the important task of making the fort and its history available to the public.

PHOTO : Fort Knox is made up in a large part by spectacular, endless tunnels, crafted from brick and granite, and constructed in a surprisingly graceful series of arched and angled pathways.

More visitor information about the fort is available online at:
http://fortknox.maineguide.com

If you are interested in helping out the FOFK, simply write to Friends of Fort Knox, P.O. Box 456, Bucksport, ME 04416, or call (207)469-6553, or e-mail FOFK1[at]aol.com for more information.

All photos (c)2009 by Michelle Souliere.

What's happening? Books!!

Posting has been a little slow here on the blog, and as usual I have an explanation. I know, you're thinking to yourself, "What now?" The answer is -- more madness! Here's an interview I did with David Carkhuff of the Portland Daily Sun last week that should serve to fill you in on the latest and greatest.

The Green Hand reaches toward mystery
New book shop promises eerie, atmospheric reads from Strange Maine blog founder
Story and Photo by David Carkhuff, Staff writer

On her path from award-winning blogger to fledgling book shop owner, Michelle Souliere is about a month away from unveiling The Green Hand on Congress Street.

The bookstore promises to be a nod to classic horror, mystery and other subjects that have formed the grist for her award-winning Strange Maine blog. At the same time, the shop, slated to open at 661 Congress Street near Longfellow Square, won't confine itself to strictly strange and eerie topics.

"The selection is definitely going to be slanted by my taste, but I'm going to have a wide selection. My hope is anyone who walks in will find something they're interested in," Souliere said in an interview Tuesday.

The Green Hand, however, is bound to appeal to customers of the International Cryptozoology Museum, mystery-animal researcher Loren Coleman's new feature attraction which is scheduled to open, also on Nov. 1, in the rear portion of the 661 Congress Street site.

For almost four years, Souliere said, she has generated the Strange Maine blog, and subsequently the Strange Maine Gazette, a print version of her intriguing look at mysterious and offbeat subjects.

Her husband, Tristan Gallagher, owns We Hate T-Shirts screen printing and The Fun Box Monster Emporium, which is located across the street from the new book shop at 656B Congress Street. He has run his store almost a year and at the current address since last spring. A loss of employment at University of Southern Maine for Souliere was a catalyst for pursuing her dream.

"For years I've wanted to open a book shop," Souliere said. "I've always had this little stash of books that would become part of my eventual stock. It was only this summer that I started seriously considering it. I was working at USM, and was in the process of being laid off because of different cutbacks and rearrangements, and I started interviewing for jobs, and I realized that these weren't jobs that I wanted particularly, they didn't necessarily get me any further with what I wanted to do with my life. Tristan said, 'Well, why are you waiting to open a book shop? Why don't you do it now?'"

It turned out to be a fateful conversation. Souliere knew Coleman — "We've been off and on corresponding for a few years now" — and figured a pairing of an atmospheric bookstore and a museum of exhibits featuring Bigfoot and other mysterious creatures would make a great fit in the Arts District.

An artist and illustrator, Souliere expected to "concoct a wonderful space that people are excited to visit."

"It's going to be kind of a hybrid, I want to create an atmosphere in here that's different than the other book shops in town. I would like to complement them," she said. "There's no way I can compete with their selections, especially Yes Books and Cunningham Books, they have been at this for years and have walls and walls of wonderful materials. So I thought I would try to bring something else into it, I've always been a fan of hybrid turn of the century Victorian gas lamps and a certain amount of art deco and a little bit of Asia motif. It's going to get a little more colorful in here."

The Green Hand captures a variety of images and motifs — organic growth, based on the concept of the green thumb; and also the traditional "old pulp magazine cover art of the green hand reaching out for the victim" and the science fiction idea of an alien hand.

"It's just an image that has come to me over and over again, it seems to evoke a lot of things for people. It's a wonderful, universal and mysterious symbol of what I'm trying to do here," she said.

Souliere anticipates offering a mix of used and new books in about 2,500 square feet of space, with additional space in back for the museum.

Her favorites are "weird fiction," horror and mystery stories by the likes of H.P. Lovecraft and M.R. James. Souliere said the blog and gazette will continue, possibly with more opportunity for research as she tends the book shop.

Souliere said the Arts District appears to be on the cusp of a revival, with several developments promising a rejuvenation of the Congress Street corridor.

Across the street at 660 Congress St., near her husband's store, Souliere is keping an eye on the old Zinnia's antique shop, where a developer is unveiling plans to create gallery space and four to six studios in a three-story building. Down the block from Souliere's shop is an ongoing renovation and reconstruction of the old USM dormitories, creating what promises to be residential and retail space.

"It seems like this area could really start to jump up and take the city by surprise," Souliere said.

[Source]

Please also check out Carkhuff's companion article about the public opening of Loren Coleman's International Cryptozoology Museum!

Review: Weird Horror Tales by Michael Vance

Reviewed by Michelle Souliere

Weird Horror Tales, despite its generalized title, collects 13 tales very specifically centered around the fictitious town of “Light’s End” in Maine. While varying in their historic timeframe and even at times in their style, they are all crafted in the weird tales tradition. A great find for fans of this field of fiction!

Unlike many writers who claim to be inspired by Lovecraft, Vance is not afraid to produce stories using an efficient and sparse storytelling technique, which suffers nothing from omission, and lends itself to the very Lovecraftian theme of cosmic horror that rears its indescribable head throughout. The reader is more likely to encounter a poetry-like flow of Bradburyesque proportion than the purple prose of Lovecraft’s fantasy pieces, especially in such stories as “Wishful Thinking.”

His characters are normal, desperate, deranged, owners of strange agendas, people who want basic and harmless lives, and people who want to cause harm to enrich their lives. The settings are reflective of the strange arrangement of the townspeople’s history and continued existence. They live in the shadow of “the Great Secret Hidden Openly.” The length and breadth of the human betrayal taking place in Light’s End is brought into sharp focus when the reader is reminded of the simple, honest need for a good life, even as communicated via the otherworldly narrative in the award-nominated* story “The Lighter Side.”

Humor, the likes of which fans of Tales from the Crypt will appreciate, creeps in from time to time. There is something rottenly appealing in the idea of the faux lighthouse restaurant in “Knock-Off,” with ever-popular tourist-attracting features such as the “irritating moaning of ‘the alien dead, giddy with hunger’, that incessantly gibbered from hidden speakers in the floor,” décor inscribed with “symbols and mermaids with needle teeth,” and “wallpaper that illogically seemed to creep across the wall.”

The wonderful thing about independent publication, and the use of short stories, is the freedom that both give an author to pursue a variety of storytelling techniques, while the collected format allows a common ground for tales to form from. In more ways than one, this collection reminds me of Bradbury. Vance seems to feel a similar need to tie together the ingredients of tragedy and transcendence, and a brave daring to try new storytelling techniques and voices pulled from the fringe of the genre. I can only imagine what will happen if he finds a really keen editor with the ability to help him shape this series into the crescendo it could become (this is the first of 3 planned volumes).

"Weird Horror Tales” really winds up working as the title for this collection, and Vance’s years of writing experience show in his Jack-of-all-trades approach to fantastic fiction. Take a solid, squirming bedrock of horror, throw in some satellites of sci-fi, a generous helping of Twilight Zone plot twists, lace it with the eldritch horror of H. P. Lovecraft’s favorite poisons, and you have yourself a hefty volume of entertaining and engaging stories which will surprise you with its variety, and reward you with each re-reading.

While I may not be completely sold on Maine as the setting for this series, I understand the effort given to make these stories come alive in a Maine that Vance has never seen, and I more than understand his love for the weird tale, and the honor given Maine by choosing it as the place for these stories, outside of their Midwestern author’s experience of his home state of Oklahoma. Maine is an “other” place. These stories certainly are alive in their other place, a place with a unique kind of strangeness that I think Lovecraft would have been well pleased to see spawned from his legacy.

I would really like Michael Vance to visit Maine as he completes work on the next collection in the planned trilogy of Light’s End anthologies. But then again – maybe if he came here he’d be too charmed to write more Maine-based horror! Perhaps we should simply invite him to come during February to prevent such a tragedy.

Those of you who are interested in my critique of the Maine-related elements of the book can read on. Those of you who are happy to read the collection as a weird tales feast can feel free to skip this final part.

-- -- --

In preface to this section, let me just say that I realize how difficult it is for an author to research a location he is unfamiliar with. Vance says he does “a lot of research to get my setting right.” This is obvious in his use of a wide range of specific details used in his world building, both in his attempts to reference Maine, and in his use of the Oklahoma town he grew up in to form the structural matrix of the concocted Maine town of Light’s End.

Perhaps in his copious note-taking, certain cultural elements have been misattributed to Maine when they really belong to other New England locales. Perhaps all of New England seems like a single collection of places to folks from the Midwest. At any rate, there are too many small moments when questions arise, speaking as a Maine reader, when Vance includes specific place-related details in the tales. Plus the feel is just a bit off.

It was always the little things that cocked my eyebrow, like a Providence, RI, reporter and radio commentator showing up to interview a Maine senator during a fishing trip in his hometown locale, away from his usual Washington, D.C., setting, instead of the much-more-likely Boston press, or the fact that Vance set the stories in Maine to honor Lovecraft, who, (although a professed fan of the state), had little to do with Maine beyond a few sightseeing trips and the use of its wily and weird backwoods as way-stations in a couple of his stories. Lovecraft is much more thoroughly identified with Rhode Island, where his final resting place is marked with a stone that bears the legend, “I am Providence.” Heck, I wish Lovecraft was Maine’s. At any rate, Light’s End is Maine’s now!

* “The Lighter Side” was nominated for the Speculative Literature Foundation’s Fountain Award for Best Short Story in 2004.

Weird Horror Tales is now available at Barnes and Noble, amazon.com, and any bookstore with interesting weird fiction book selections.

EVENT: Maine horror film premiere SUNDAY!

Filmmakers Shawn French and Sue Stevens lead the way into no-holds-barred terror in the latest Maine horror film to hit the big screen. A short Q&A session with the cast and crew will follow Sunday's screening, as an extra treat to premiere attendees.

There's a great article about the movie in today's Portland Press Herald (click here to read).

WHAT: "The Wrong House" makes its premiere in its homestate!
WHEN: Sunday, September 20, 2009, at 6:30pm
WHERE: Cinemagic Theater, Westbrook, Maine
COST: A mere $5 to help support local film arts!
FMI: thewronghouse[at]gmail.com

The story: An isolated house in the woods looks like an easy mark to a group of friends camping in the Maine wilderness. The thieves haul away several ounces of pot and hallucinogenic mushrooms in the heist. But when the homeowners track them down, the thieves learn too late that there are some people you just shouldn't mess with... and that they picked The Wrong House.

The story was inspired by a rash of area burglaries around the home of husband/wife producers Shawn French and Sue Stevens (who play serial killers in the film). They initially started working on the script to vent frustration, but once the story fell into place, they knew they had to shoot this movie.

"The Wrong House" was written by Shawn French of Wisdumb Productions and co-directed by French and Andy Davis of Emptyhouse Film.

"We were incredibly fortunate to find a group of actors who were up for anything we threw at them," said French. "From waterboarding to very physical fight scenes, we put this cast through the ringer. Everyone walked away bruised."

"The Wrong House" is a hardcore flick with horror effects created by artist Eric Anderson (recent winner of the Portland 48 Hour Film Festival award for Best Makeup) of the Portland-based FX group The Shoggoth Assembly. It features an original score by composer Timothy Butcher of Washington and music by local artists The Motengata Band, Damien Zygote and Stream Reggae.

View trailer online here.

Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door, or in advance at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/79348

Sword Swallowing in Maine

In a random way I happened upon a great website, the Sword Swallower's Hall of Fame. The page lists a wide range of sources and information about historic and current sword swallowers, and lists their purpose to exist as "the Internet's most comprehensive list of sword swallowers past and present." Looks good to me!

Among the sword swallowers listed is a certain Professor A.J. Pierce, a.k.a Albert J. Pierce, a Victorian-era sword swallower who appears to have lived in New York City, though he comes to our attention because of a show that occurred in 1905 on Harlow Street in Bangor, Maine:

Professor A.J. Pierce, Albert J. Pierce
Performed 1905, Died May 30, 1909?
Bangor, Maine / New York, NY (USA)

Professor A.J. Pierce was the star sword swallower of a show run for several days out of a vacant storefront on Harlow Street in Bangor Maine in 1905. "He runs swords and small saws and scissors and bayonets down his throat until it seems that it must slash his vitals; but he gets through all right and smiles at the frightened spectators."

"He chews and swallows glass, eats hot pitch and rosin and sealing wax, swallows tacks and does other stunts that cause the observer to wonder what his insides are composed of. ... He finished his stunt by swallowing about 16 inches of a snake," wrote a reporter for the Bangor Daily News on Nov. 11, 1905.

Pierce performed with two other colleagues who performed similar feats of daring. LaCrosse, the Human Stone Crusher, let people break stones on his stomach with a sledgehammer, while Madame LaMonte, the Hindoo rope juggler, freed herself after being bound in 50 feet of hemp. The show took place in East Market Square (near where City Hall is today) in what the reporter referred to facetiously as "the tenderloin," a reference to urban neighborhoods known for vice and graft.

The show was operated by Professor H.H. Perkins, a scholar of bizarre amusements like his partner Professor Pierce. An article in the New York Times dated May 30, 1909 states, "Albert J. Pierce of No. 2076 Lexington Avenue, a sword swallower, is in Harlem Hospital in serious condition. While doing his usual stunt in a Fourteenth-street show last night, the sword got too deep and cut the lining of his stomach. Dr. Cassini of the hospital says he is suffering from a gastric hemmorhage." Seeking photos and more information.

[Source, with link to 1909 article]

The Sword Swallower's Hall of Fame is seeking further information about this sword swallower, including photos, which you can e-mail to them via research[at]swordswallow.com. If you have any info for them, or would like to share any other info about performers in Maine history, please feel free to post a comment or contact us!

Harlan's First Day at School

This portrait is one I found at a flea market earlier this summer. As everyone goes back to school this week, there is a certain funny poignancy about the tragic expression on the face of young Harlan, setting off on his first voyage into the land of the classroom back in 1905. While wardrobes have changed, the facial expressions on some kids' faces sure hasn't!