Brunswick Bigfoot (Smallfooted Variety)

The BFRO (Bigfoot Research Organization) site has a particularly enjoyable post on a mystery simian seen in Maine during the seventies. I remember the first time I read this, I had to giggle, especially when one of the young witnesses says, "I fell right down in front of him and all he did was look at me. I would have known if it were a hippie or something. But it had a regular monkey face. You have seen a monkey before, haven't you?"

Darn hippies.

At any rate, the sighting report is actually a list of consecutive sightings of the creature, all near the Brunswick/Durham area in Maine, during the summer of 1973. Most of the sightings centered around the Jones Cemetery. Witnesses include a variety of people, ranging from age 10 up well into the adult register.

The repetitive nature of the sightings provoked a full scale days-long manhunt, including helicopter scans, and resulted in a cast of a 5-inch or so footprint, which Androscoggin Deputy Sheriff Footman commented on thusly: "Whatever made it weighs 300 or 350 pounds and I can't tell you much more. It's definitely not a bear track. I don't know what's going on here and I'd rather not express an opinion."

Thanks to Nicole Duennebier for reminding me about this fantastic report, and to Loren Coleman for originally posting it on the site back in 1998.

Illustration by yours truly.

Chadbourne: Maine Is the Transylvania of America

Monday's Lewiston Sun Journal had an interview with artist Glenn Chadbourne about his murals in Lewiston (here's one) and collaborations with Stephen King.

Has horror always been your thing?
Horror has been my thing since I was a carpet crawler. I've grown up on a steady diet of EC comics (reads like "Tales from the Crypt") and the old Warren magazines (reads like "Vampirella.") It probably makes me a sick bird.

I'm curious how much Maine has influenced your art.
Again, these stories are like old friends - you know, the horror stuff. I don't know if anybody's ever coined this phrase, but, because we do have Steve, I have always sort of considered Maine (as) ... the Transylvania of America.

Do you notice any theme among your fans; you must have a lot of teenage boys as fans?
You know, you'd think so. You would stereotype (his fans) as young sort of gorehound boys who like to go to the splatter movies. Not so, not so. I get a lot of women my age, housewives. I've had people on their walkers in their 80s come up to me. It's a guilty pleasure to a lot of people. There's a certain level of horror snobbery in my mind in the literary world. A lot of people won't admit to truly liking this stuff. Believe me, they do. [Source]

"Grisly Discovery" in Lyman

What would I do without the New England Anomaly? Especially now that I'm not in front of a computer all day, things like this escape me. But they do not escape the keen eye of the deadly duo of Cranky Yankee and Amos Quito!

Man Accidentally Digs Up 1812 Soldier's Body
Family To Rebury Remains
POSTED: 11:38 am EST January 29, 2007

LYMAN, Maine -- A man who was digging with a backhoe on his property in southern Maine unearthed a War of 1812 soldier's family plot.

"Somehow or another I wound up with a body. It was quite a shock," said Roland Nadeau, who made the grisly discovery last summer.

Nadeau's wife, Pauline, said the family had owned the York County property for 10 years. They had heard rumors that a soldier's grave was in the area, but no one knew exactly where it was or what war he had fought in.

Nadeau's backhoe found the site when it pulled up what turned out to be a man's leg bone.

The Nadeaus notified the local police, who in turn called Maine State Police and the Medical Examiner's Office.

They excavated the rest of the body and found an oval medallion in mint condition, about 3 by 6 inches, inscribed with the name Charles Kimball and his birth date. A few days later, another body turned up, along with part of a casket and some lead lining.

The Medical Examiner's Office returned and removed the additional remains, covered the area with a tarp and some soil and told Nadeau to stop digging.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press.
[Source]

The rest of the story can be found here.

An Ignominious Burial in Brunswick

From the History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine:

Some time, probably between 1752 and 1770, one Ann Conner committed suicide by hanging herself from a pine-tree. The magistrate ordered (old Roman law) that she be buried where four roads met, and a stake be driven through her body. It was done on the Harpswell road a little way south of the college. It is said that, although it was in force at that time, this was probably the only instance when the law was put into execution in this country. [Source]

In legal terms, this was called an "ignominious burial." Later in the same book, we learn of a possible motive for Ann's rash action:

[1764.] This year an individual who desired baptism for his two children was obliged to make a public confession of his criminal intimacy with Ann Conner, who subsequently committed suicide. [Source]

New Hampshire "Death Car" Sold

Well, okay, every now and then our neighbors over in New Hampshire get weird too. Thanks as usual to Cranky Yankee over at the New England Anomaly's mailing list for catching this juicy tidbit:

Infamous Nashua Death Car sold for $165,000
January 26, 2007
The Telegraph, http://www.nashuatelegraph.com

NASHUA, N.H. --A 1959 Cadillac known in Nashua (New Hampshire) as the Death Car was a big draw at an auto auction this month.

The car, which experts say is the lowest-mileage '59 Cadillac in the world, sold for 165 thousand dollars at last week's Barrett-Jackson Auction Companys car auction in Scottsdale, Arizona. The winning bidder was a collector from Newport Beach, California.

The blue and white Caddy made news in 1959 when it was found in a parking lot, with the murdered body of its owner, Maurice Gagnon, inside. The car was parked in a police impound garage for nearly 15 years before being released to Gagnon's family.

The family sold it to John Pfanstiehl of Florida a decade later, and he sold it last week. He had kept the Caddy in an
environmentally controlled garage in Florida.

Pfanstiehl said people were fascinated by the car's history, and also because of its low mileage -- 22 hundred 24 miles.

There is an interesting entry about the car at 1959cadillac.com, with extensive information and photos from newspapers at the time of the murder trial, as well as a photo of the car in its restored state.

Brain Harvesting Okay in Maine

I didn't stop to read what this article was about, but I did like the headline. This could open the way for Maine to become the brain harvesting capital of the world!

Green Burial Getting Closer

It's been almost a year since my original post on the potential placement of a "green" burial ground here in Maine. I thought I'd e-mail Ernie Marriner, of the Funeral Consumer Alliance, who was one of the people working on the project, and find out what progress, if any, had been made towards it.

The news is good, and progress is being made, slowly but surely. The current step is working with the Orrington Planning Board to hold a "Pre-Application Conference" for the project at their January 2007 meeting. According to Mr. Marriner, if that goes well, the next step is to submit a formal application for Site Plan Approval in February or March.

Myriad other tasks must also be gotten under way, from completion of soil testing, to surveying, to navigation and execution of a complex pile of legal documents. In closing, Mr. Marriner stated, "An optimistic opening date for the cemetery is July, 2007." Sounds pretty exciting, all 'round. As one of the greenest states around, Maine could sure use a green burial ground for itself.

The Deadly Mist...

Thanks to the New England Anomaly's mailing list for the tipoff about the lastest film to emerge from the crucible of Stephen King's short fiction. This time it's The Mist, found in the book Skeleton Crew . The film is being put together in partnership with Darkwood Productions. Sounds very exciting, all except the part about them NOT FILMING IN MAINE.

Horror movie based on King story to be made in Shreveport
January 18, 2007

SHREVEPORT, La. --A horror movie based on a Stephen King short story will begin shooting in Shreveport late next month.

"The Mist" will be directed by Frank Darabont for Dimension Films, a motion picture unit of The Weinstein Co.

The plans for the movie were confirmed by a company spokesman and are noted on King's Web site.

Kings novella is about a town in Maine that gets enveloped by a supernatural mist. Mysterious creatures of the mist begin attacking humans. A small group of people get trapped in a supermarket and fight to defend themselves and their sanity.

[Source]

Darabont himself was so excited that he released a statement, which was allegedly set to run in Variety magazine. It gives us a little history of the collaboration, which has apparently been in the works for a couple of decades now.

Doing THE MIST is a delight for me on a number of levels. For starters, I've always loved horror as a genre. Not so much the slasher thing, that got tired very quickly in my view, but from my earliest recollection I grew up loving movies that sought to scare the crap out of me, starting with the classic Universal monsters. Well, of course, that love of the genre is what led me to Stephen King's works in the first place, isn't it? So it's time to repay that debt and try to scare the crap out of an audience myself. With Steve's great story, and a little luck, I'm hoping to do just that.

Another reason is, it's a project Stephen King and I have been talking about doing for almost twenty years now, since I first got to know and become friends with the man. In fact, it almost was my first directing project many years ago, but I went classy and did THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION instead. But THE MIST never went away; it's been lurking out there calling my name for a long, long time...and it's time to answer the call; it's time to get down and dirty and make a nasty little character-driven gut-punch horror movie. [...] In a very real sense, I have to thank Danny Boyle, a man I've never met, but whose example in making 28 DAYS LATER really encouraged me. I saw that film, loved it, and thought: Well, why the hell not? Why not go make your scary little movie, shoot it fast, have some fun?
[...]
I can always go back to being the elegant guy later.
[Source]

For more on the story of the production, you may want to also check out an excerpt from a 2004 Fangoria article written when Darabont was typing away at the script.

I wish they would re-release the textbased videogame version of The Mist for Mac...

Hiram Haunted Road Legend

I was in the Strange Maine store the other day, interviewing Brendan Evans, the owner, for Angioplasty Media's upcoming re-launch, when a very pleasant older man came up to the counter. He was very happy to have found yet another classic horror film on Brendan's shelves, and proceeded to tell us a rural legend from his younger days.

He told us about a road that runs between Hiram and Cornish, Maine, that is partially unpaved, near the old Durgintown area. He swore that the locals from either town avoid that road when they are alone late at night. He claimed it ran through a bog, and that strange things would happen on the road from time to time, including the sensation that something was holding down the back of your car as you drove along in the dark, and that you were not alone.

Two of his younger coworkers had taken him up on his stories and had driven down the road very late one night (or early in the morning, as I believe it was after midnight). They thought they saw something in the bog coming out at them, and took off without a second look, terrified.

Heck, sounds good to me!!!

Anyone else out there with any information about this location?

Legally Adopting Your Lover

Girl loves girl. Girl adopts girl legally. What?!

The Lewiston Sun Journal reported last week on perhaps the strangest case of adoption since Woody Allen's ill-fated romance with his adopted daughter. However, the reasoning behind this episode is more practical, and deals with an issue that all too many people are struggling with these days: how do you establish financial security for your non-traditional partner? Click here to read the full article.

Adult adoption raises complex issues

Monday, January 15, 2007
PORTLAND (AP) - A legal case in which the daughter of an IBM executive who built the company into a computer giant adopted her same-sex partner to ensure her financial security is playing out in a complex legal dispute that is taking place in Maine courtrooms.

Olive F. Watson legally adopted her longtime partner, Patricia A. Spado, in 1991 in probate court in Rockland. Watson is the daughter of the late Thomas J. Watson Jr., who was the CEO of IBM from 1956 to 1971.

At stake is a multimillion-dollar trust fund, the Maine Sunday Telegram reported. At the same time, the case raises questions about whether same-sex couples can use Maine's adoption laws to establish legal rights, including inheritance, denied them because they can't marry.

The relationship between Spado and Watson ended in 1992, and their adoption resurfaced in Maine in 2005 when a lawyer for the Watson family trust filed a motion to annul the adoption. A judge granted the motion on a technicality.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court last week overturned the ruling and sent the case back to Probate Judge Carol Emery with instructions to judge the case on its merits.

The dispute is scheduled for a pretrial conference in Knox County Probate Court on Feb. 7. Another dispute is pending in a court in Connecticut, where Thomas Watson died in 1993.

Adult adoption is legal but rare in Maine. It sometimes occurs when an adult child wants to take the name and formalize a bond with a stepparent who raised him, or to create a path for inheritance between unrelated people.

That was apparently the case when Olive Watson legally adopted Spado 16 years ago. At the time, they were in their 40s and had been together for 14 years.
{snip}
[Source]

Plane Crashes That Never Happened

Peter Noddin wrote in the June 2000 Dirigo Flyer about several "phantom plane crashes" in Maine. In each case eyewitnesses swore that they had seen a plane in distress, but in each case they were proven wrong.

Take the case where 12 people in the Dexter/Dover-Foxcroft area saw a B-17 bomber go down in 1942.

One witness actually saw it fly into one of the ridges, but saw no fire or smoke.

Sheriff's Deputies and State Police responded to the telephone reports of the crash. Local men hiked into the woods to search the area. Dow field rolled a “crash wagon” and detachment of men as well as an aircraft to search the area.

By 4 PM the search was called off. No sign of a crash could be found. No New England base was missing a bomber. At least one witness remained firm in his belief that the plane had crashed and would be found. While a Bangor Daily News reporter phoned in his story that evening, the witness repeatedly cut in on the rural party line to “correct” the assertion that it had only been a crash scare. [Source]

Monsters Make Friends

Loren Coleman noticed an interesting Strange Maine moment on the Lewiston Sun Journal's homepage. Click here to read the full post on Coleman's Cryptomundo website.

The Sun Journal has posted a list (figured logically this time by the number of viewings on their webpage) of their
Top Ten Stories of 2006...
#1 Mysterious beast
#2 Flying object spooks man
#3 Why are sex words our worst swearwords?
#4 Nude teens test Vt. limits
#5 "Like horns of a devil"
#6 Infant left inside car; 2 charged
#7 'Sorry... my baby needs diapers'
#8 City man slain; son charged
#9 Verdict: It's a dog
#10 Car crash kills teen

Please notice, as Coleman points out on his site, that three of the articles listed are about the Mystery Beast of Turner, Maine, and two of the others are also by reporter Mark LaFlamme, who Chris Dunham posted about here just last week. Seems like LaFlamme is just a Strange Maine sort of guy!

Since we're having a LaFlamme lovefest, please let me add that I am very happy to now own my own copy of his book, "The Pink Room," which I picked up at Borders in South Portland (an autographed copy, no less). Portland's public library didn't have a copy back when I first heard about it last year, so to read it I had to get a copy via interlibrary loan. I liked it so much I'm adding it to my permanent library! Creepy and well-written, with dialogue that works naturally with the characters. I hate to compare LaFlamme with Stephen King, because no doubt everyone and their brother does, both of them being from Maine. However, it must be said: Like Stephen King, Mark LaFlamme is a devoted student of the human condition. It shows in his writing.

Honest. Gripping. Intriguing.

And did I mention CREEPY? Good stuff.

Photo: Mark LaFlamme scares himself with the help of a Haunted Forest (VT) actress. More photos on Flickr! WARNING: Graphic content.

Zombies...Coming This Way!!

Day 6 - Those horrible creatures are still outside. They seem to have an uncanny ability to slip out of sight and attack when you least expect it. While their brains appear not to function, they have come up with a clever plan to commit their carnage.
First, a few of the least threatening mill around a table with some hot steamy coffee, while one of them feigns friendliness to the unsuspecting humans. Can't you just hear her saying, "Hey neighbor....care for some freshly made coffee? Sure is cold out today, brrr."


Then when your guard is down due to your craving for a warm beverage, the zombie horde springs - like they do- from around the corner, and clomps terrifyingly towards you. You, who is torn between drinking your coffee like a fool, or escaping the blood thirsty undead.


Unfortunately in the time it takes to think, "hot coffee, or torn apart limb by limb by zombies death...gadzooks!", it's too late. Here a teenager has been swept into the raging zombie cauldron of death, never to be seen again. Oh the horror.....

If anyone was in Biddeford on Saturday, they might have seen many strange looking creatures walking the streets. Or perhaps they are so nonchalant, that they wouldn't even notice someone covered in blood standing in front of them, such as our coffee drinking zombie who reported no reaction from the person taking her toll on the highway,and the clerks and customers in her local convenience store.

Filmmakers Andy Davis and Olin Smith held an open casting call for zombies, which yielded over one hundred zombie hopefuls. People did their best to appear undead, from having elaborate makeup to simple dark smudges around the eyes. Some even showed up with no makeup whatsoever.

I was the official zombie photo- grapher for the day, which meant I got to see every single zombie. My job was to get a head shot of each one. Thankfully I'm not insane and I used my camera, not a rifle. I enjoyed taking everyone's photos, especially the ones who went all out to do their best zombie pose.

After having their photo taken, the zombies were interviewed by Andy and Olin. After a short interview, they were asked to do their best zombie impression, which involved walking towards the camera and making zombie sounds. Some of the sounds coming out of that room were scary, and one was a shrill noise that would put the fear of god into dogs.

The day ended with Andy filming all the zombies that were still outside. Twice they stumbled down the road towards the camera (first slow and then fast). Then they milled around aimlessly, like zombies do, with Andy in their midst.

I can't remember the last time I had this much fun. Let's face it, how many times am I going to get asked to take photos of zombies? A big thank you to Andy for asking me to do this. I had a fantastic time. It was unbelievably cool and I would love to do it again.

For more info on the zombie film, "2", head over to Emptyhouse Film. Also keep checking back for updates on the film as we hear them, plus I will be putting a link to my zombie photos once they are online.

Mark LaFlamme, Strange Maine Reporter

For stories of real and imagined strangeness in Maine, check out Sun Journal columnist Mark LaFlamme's website—especially the Strange News section.

I work the crime beat, for the most part, and there is plenty of strangeness in that world. There are the unsolved murders that still haunt me. There are the heinous crimes that leave all but the killer perplexed. But then there are stories from outside the limits of my beat -- stories of weird creatures prowling the woods; about ghosts in a welfare apartment filled with religious icons; about inexplicable objects that blaze across the sky leaving only a contrail of mystery.

It will take me some time to fish out many of these stories from the archives of my memory. I will post them here as they come to me. In the meantime, here's hoping for new weirdness. Here's hoping that truth remains stranger than fiction.

Join the Zombie Horde - SATURDAY!

Hello future zombies!

Emptyhouse Films' zombie casting will be held on
Saturday, January 13th at 9:00 AM
at 24 Pearl Street, in Biddeford, Maine.

A MAPQUEST from your location can be found at www.mapquest.com or other online mapping service. When you arrive, please find on street parking or park across from MULLIGANS restaurant. The casting will be held at Riverdam Millyard. You'll see signs saying ZOMBIE CASTING.

Emptyhouse Films would like to thank their sponsor for this event. Steven at Riverdam Millyard has really made this possible for them. Please visit Riverdam Millyard at www.riverdammillyard.com.

On hand during casting will be the band that is doing the soundtrack of the film, COVERED IN BEES. You can check out COVERED IN BEES on MySpace or at www.coveredinbees.net. Also on hand will be our writer Al Lamanda, the cast of TWO, Molly Roberts and Jim Roberts and it's producer and cinematographer Olin Smith.

Emptyhouse is requesting that everyone coming to the casting should come made-up as zombies. They know that not everyone has the makeup or the experience, but try your best! Please bring zombie spirit with you!

Also, if you are under 18 years of age, please make sure to have a parent or guardian with you. Everyone will be required to sign press releases upon entering the casting. They will be filming this event for the "behind the scenes" portion of the dvd release. They will also be taking a still picture of you. They will pick their favorite zombies for a few online voting competitions as well.

When you come this Saturday, you'll see a line. Please wait in this line, as they have to register everyone. This may take awhile, so please be patient and have fun while you wait by getting to know your fellow undead legions!

Emptyhouse Films has had a blast reading all of your letters and comments and says, "You guys sound like a very excited bunch of undead creatures! We are looking forward to meeting you all at the event this Saturday."

Please feel free to bring anyone else who may be interested.

If you are coming, please send an RSVP email to jessica.davis718[at]gmail.com and tell her how many people you have
coming. This will allow Emptyhouse to send you an e-mail in case of any changes, such as a snow date.

Thanks and hope to see you there! Strange Maine correspondent Chris Wallace will be covering the event, since I'm stuck at work all day.

For those of you who haven't heard about this film yet, here is the lowdown:
Andy Davis' story is being turned into a script co-written with author Al Lamanda. Olin Smith and John Lane (Lobsteroids) will be producing. Davis will also be directing and it looks pretty good for some great special effects by Robert Dipitriantonio. Ross Kearny will be helping out with makeup. Here's the official press release and synopsis:

Zombies to roam the Maine Countryside!
A new film from Motion Media/Emptyhousefilm.

A new feature length film is in the works from the creators of "Mud" and "I'm Sorry". Motion Media and Emptyhouse Film announced that their latest project titled "2" will be shooting in and around southern Maine, starting this month.

The film will be co-produced by Olin Smith (Mud, I'm Sorry) and John Lane who is currently in the pre-production on "The Novice" starring Chuck Norris. "It's very exciting, last year we completed two feature films right here in Maine and we just keep building, adding new creative forces each time," said Producer Olin Smith.

"2" is a zombie survivalist film co written by published author Al Lamanda (Dunstan Falls) and Andy Davis (Mud). "This is a film I have always wanted to make. I grew up on zombie films and think that our story will make a nice addition to zombie film lore. We came up with some very interesting ideas and I can't wait to see the final outcome," said writer/director Andy Davis.

"2" tells the story of two survivors of a biological attack that has turned the world upside down and how they deal with their situation. "2" stars C. James Roberts (Mr.Barrington) and Molly Roberts (The Dark). "I am very impressed with the talents of both James and Molly. We're all looking forward to seeing them carry out the story," said Co-Producer John Lane.

Soundtrack music is being created by the Portland based band "Covered in Bees." The band has been featured on Troma Films' upcoming release Poultrygeist's soundtrack. A music video will be shot for the release of "2". The band can be found on the web at www.coveredinbees.net and on MySpace, where samples of some of their songs are available.

Shooting is scheduled to begin in January. A website for "2" has been set up at www.emptyhousefilm.com and will feature interactive flash based games as well as interactive media in the coming months. "2" will utilize many Southern Maine locations, shooting in Freeport, Biddeford, and Porter. In addition to using Maine locations, "2" will require many Maine residents to portray the living dead.

More information on "2" can be found at www.emptyhousefilm.com.

Photo of Covered In Bees by Michelle Souliere, (c)2005.

Presentation of...?

I was pointed to a recently produced online video that looks like it is supposed to be shown to prospective Portland business investors. It has a very strange feel to it. What do you think?

Click here to check it out.

The company behind this particular vision of Portland, Maine, is Groff Video. They have a long and varied client list, including everyone from uber-local standards such as L.L. Bean, the Opportunity Farm for Boys, and Shipyard Brewery, all the way to the big boys in the national arena, like Nickelodeon, Toon Disney, and International Championship Wrestling.

The odd thing about the video is that the feel I got for Portland as they portrayed it somehow managed to make it look like any other prosperous city. It didn't show the personality of the Portland I know, which is diverse and creative. It looked appealing, just not that interesting. I'd be curious to see what you all think...

A Sea Serpent Sermon?

On Channel 6 (WCSH-NBC) here in Portland, they air segments from the First Radio Parish Church each morning which used to drive me up a wall. They call them Daily Devotions. Now, lately, the Reverend has gotten more interesting. His television persona has gotten noticeably more wound up and animated (see wacky photo from his website, shown here, for an example). Also, I've noticed that sometimes his choice of story used to illustrate his point are quite... surprising.

Loren Coleman caught one that I totally missed, in which Rev. Peter B. Panagore talks about, of all things, a sea serpent sighting. Click here to read the summary and transcription of the on air segment.

MaineToday.com's Colleen Stone, who runs the "From Away" blog on their site, was moved by one episode of Daily Devotions to describe the Reverend's modus operandi for these segments as follows:

Panagore tells some sort of story and you often have no idea where it's going and then, at the end, it all makes sense. Like, "Of course, don't steal! Be nice to people! The beach was a metaphor for our journey through life!"

Click here to read the original post in its entirety.

Panagore's mulitmedia endeavours are not limited to television. He also has available a CD called "When I Died It Was Beautiful."

Strange Maine Patents

Google's new Patent Search makes it easy to find weird inventions that sprang from the brains of Mainers.

Charles Burt of Belfast would not have been a member of Greenpeace. He patented his Exploding Harpoon in 1851 in an effort to keep the whale population under control.

Henry D. Sprague of Portland's 1866 Improvement in Coffins involved mounting a mirror inside so that mourners wouldn't have to lean over the body to get a good look.

I'm glad that Arvid Ek's design for a Water Closet never caught on. It would have required that the user crouch over the toilet "and thereby increase the expulsive forces of the colon."

Josie Baldwin of Tremont invented a Chest Bandage for "effectively and continuously extracting superfluous milk from the breasts of a pregnant woman." The model doesn't seem to be enjoying it.

And, speaking of milking, no fewer than six patents for cow-tail holders were issued between 1890 and 1936. Apparently Maine milkers were especially prone to getting swatted by errant cow tails.

You Have the Right to a Headbutt -- NOT!

The Lewiston Sun Journal reported today on a case that has been pending since last August, in which a Portland Police officer was accused of head-butting a photographer who also happens to be homeless.

Cong Van Nguyen pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and agreed to pay a $1,000 fine. In return, prosecutors dropped an assault charge that probably would have ended his career as a police officer had he been convicted.

The charge stemmed from a complaint filed in August 2005 by Peter Coltart, who claimed that Nguyen angrily confronted him and then head-butted him in the mouth when he walked in front of the officer's cruiser on Congress Street. Coltart was not seriously hurt. Nguyen has been on leave without pay since he was indicted last February. He now faces possible discipline from his department and the trustees of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, who oversee police certification.
...
Coltart could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but a prosecutor said he had been informed about the plea agreement and approved of it.

Nathaniel Kuritz, who witnessed the confrontation, said he's concerned about the possibility of Nguyen returning to the force. He said he saw Nguyen jump up to hit the taller Coltart with his head.

"I don't think that there should be second chances given to officers who are supposed to protect people and then do things like this," Kuritz said. "Hopefully he's learned his lesson."

Nguyen, a refugee from Vietnam when he came to Portland in 1975 at age 5, was the first Asian officer on the department when he was hired in 1997.
[Source]

Back in August, Coltart's own account of the event, along with that of eyewitnesses', was published on a police misconduct monitoring site.

08/18/2005 - PORTLAND, Maine -- Under state law, the penalty for jaywalking these days is a fine no less than $25 and no more than $500. Unless, of course, you're Peter Coltart.

He got head-butted.

Hard to believe, but according to Coltart and three eyewitnesses, it's true: After he walked in front of a police cruiser on Congress Street in downtown Portland last week, Coltart found himself face-to-face with an irate police officer, Cong Van Nguyen. And by the time their not-so-private tete-a-tete ended, witnesses say, the significantly shorter Nguyen was on his tiptoes driving his upper forehead into Coltart's face.

"I really don't want a whole lot," Coltart, 27, said this week. "But I definitely think the officer needs to be somehow reprimanded for this. Someone has to explain to him how to respond to a situation in the proper way."
...
While Police Chief Michael Chitwood said Tuesday that Nguyen denies head-butting Coltart in broad daylight outside Paul's Food Center on Aug. 1, three witnesses with no connection to either man say that's exactly what happened.

"Oh, yeah, I definitely saw it," recalled Sayre English, who works for a nearby advertising agency and saw the whole thing from the sidewalk on Congress Street. "As soon as it happened, I was like 'Oh my God! That cop just head-butted that guy!' "

According to the written complaint he filed with the Portland Police Department, here is Coltart's version of what happened:

Coltart, a freelance photographer who also happens to be homeless, was crossing against a green light at Congress Street and Forest Avenue on Aug. 1 when he passed in front of a police cruiser, forcing the driver to slow down. Moments later, as Coltart walked on the sidewalk, Nguyen pulled up alongside him in the cruiser, got out and hollered, "Hey (expletive)!"

"Excuse me?" replied Coltart.

"Hey (expletive)," the officer repeated. "Learn how to cross the (expletive) road."

Coltart asked if Nguyen could at least "be a little more civil." Several times, he said, Nguyen replied, "What are you going to do about it?" and at one point shoved Coltart in the chest.

"I'll admit I was a little angry," Coltart wrote in his statement. "And I said, 'Why don't you stop harassing me and get the hell out of here? I haven't done anything. Stop pushing me.' "

Finally, Coltart said, Nguyen turned and began walking back toward his cruiser. Still angry, Coltart yelled, "Good. Get outta here and leave me alone."

At that point, he said, Nguyen "turned around, marched back up to me . . . and head-butted me directly in my face."

"I lifted my hand to my face to make sure there was no blood, that my nose had not been broken or that my teeth had been knocked out," Coltart said. Despite the pain, he said, there was no serious damage.

Coltart said Nguyen then told him, "I'll see you down at the headquarters," got back in his cruiser and drove away. Coltart immediately got out his notebook and started asking bystanders for their names and telephone numbers.

From there, he made a beeline for Portland police headquarters. At first, he said, he was told that he could not file a formal complaint because "I was trying to provoke the officer." But later last week, police finally took his statement.

Chitwood, who will leave Portland on Friday for his new job as police chief in Upper Darby Township, Pa., said the matter is under investigation by the department's internal affairs unit. But he added that "preliminary" information from Nguyen, who was not available for an interview Tuesday, suggests that Coltart was looking for a confrontation with the officer.

"(Nguyen) is a very small officer," Chitwood said. "At one point, the guy (Coltart) is standing over him saying 'What are you going to do about it?' and (Nguyen) pushes him back. That's it."

And the head-butting?

"Nguyen claims he never head-butted anybody," Chitwood replied.

Which brings us back to English, who was walking to Paul's Food Center with Nathaniel Kuritz, a co-worker at Garrand & Co., when they saw the top of Nguyen's head meet the bottom of Coltart's face.

Is there any chance they were mistaken?

"None," English replied. "None at all."

Echoed Kuritz, "We saw the officer jump in the air and head-butt (Coltart) and we're like, 'Wow! What's going on?' I've never seen that done before -- and (Nguyen) had to actually jump to get (Coltart's) head."

Also watching was Leonard Weiss, who lives in an apartment building on Congress Square. Upon hearing Nguyen's and Coltart's raised voices, Weiss said, he turned to look just in time to see the officer push Coltart in the chest.

"The next thing I know, the kid and (Nguyen) get real close and the officer butts him with his head," Weiss said. "I said, 'What the heck? Right there in broad daylight.' "

Coltart, for the record, has a criminal trespass charge pending against him in Lewiston, stemming from his alleged crossing of a police line during Laura Bush's visit there last year. He has had a handful of other encounters with Portland police in recent weeks -- he said most involved them asking him for identification and none have led to any charges against him.

Coltart said he's fallen on hard times since he graduated from the University of Maine at Farmington in 2000 with a bachelor's degree in sociology. He now spends his nights at the Milestone Foundation shelter on India Street and his days walking around downtown Portland, working on a photography project about life in the city.

Coltart insists that he's not trying to follow in the footsteps of plaintiffs whose $672,000 in settlements with the city prompted the two-year Justice Department investigation that ended last summer. (A follow-up letter last month from the feds praised the city for its "progress" in training officers about the use of force.) At the moment, he said, he has no plans to sue anybody.

So why take his complaint public?

"Because if you're homeless in Portland and you walk around with a knapsack on your back, you do get treated differently," Coltart said. "I think people need to know that."
[Source]

This is not Coltart's first run-in with police aggression. Back in 2003, he was, in fact, carrying a press card from the Lewiston Sun Journal itself (interesting!) when he attended the February 15th anti-war rally in New York City, after which he was quoted in a Village Voice article as follows:

The police definitely used "rough tactics," said Peter Coltart, a 24-year-old photographer who traveled from Maine to New York to cover the rally. Coltart, who carries a press pass from the Lewiston Sun Journal, spent several hours in the packed blocks of the East Fifties, watching police push the demonstrators around. "Sometimes when I put a camera up, they'd be more careful," he said, "but other times if I tried to take a picture, they would either put their hand up or tell me to move along."

Coltart claimed that one officer knocked him down three times and another picked him up off the street and threw him. The first incident occurred at an intersection where protesters were densely packed on the sidewalk, facing a line of cops on foot and on horseback. The police were pushing people back so buses and cranes could come through. "I was standing there taking photographs," he recalled. "Me and the cop were facing each other and the cop said, 'You've gotta move.' " The next thing he remembers is, "I got knocked down by a police officer. I was on the ground, got up, and got knocked down again. I was knocked down three times and trampled on by other protesters."

Later, Coltart arrived on a side street where protesters had begun a mass sit-down. Police were telling people to get up and arresting them if they did not. "I saw this guy lying down getting arrested," Coltart recalled. "I ran out toward the street, got on my stomach in front of the guy, and popped off two frames. Then all of a sudden, I was floating. A big cop reached down—he must have weighed over 200 pounds. I weigh 150. He grabbed my jacket with one hand and picked me up. I kept shooting. He threw me back into the crowd. I don't think I landed on my feet."
[Source

Happy 2007!

Greeting from the future! Here we are in 2007. It's ridiculously warm for January. That's pretty strange. What else is new?

Well, the Strange Maine Gazette's 7th issue is out on the streets, and I'll be mailing my out-of-town copies shortly (thanks to all those hardy souls who distribute it for me). So far, copies have been dropped off at Strange Maine the store, the Maine Historical Society's library lobby, Coffee By Design on Congress Street in Portland (across from Geno's), and more copies will be making their way into the city by chance over the next week or so.

In a cooperative effort, the Gazette will also be teaming up with the Portland Banner. Back issues of the Banner, heretofore unavailable, will soon be accessible in an archive hosted on one of my other websites, Bad Cakes/Bad Influences. We're still settling the format, and whatnot, but this is a resource we're excited to make available for Banner fans, and Portland's reading public in general.

WELCOME TO 2007, EVERYONE!!!

Happy Holidays and Hiatus!

Hi all, sorry it's been so silent over here of late! Things have been busy and crazy. To give you all an update on what's going on, I am wrapping up a 15-year tenure at my office job (an exhausting and mind-boggling process). From here, I'll be moving on to working on my illustration and artwork in my studio plus working part-time at the Portland Public Library. It's official!

My last day at my old job is January 1st. After that, I'm a free (possibly starving a little) bird. This should give me a lot more time to pursue the Strange Maine ideal, which for me includes being able to take field trips (with lots of photos, of course), interview Strange Maine personages, and have time to devote to research and investigation in general, which up to this point has been rather fly-by-night at best.

This is a big leap. Hopefully you will eventually start seeing an upswing in the quality and an increase in the quantity of original articles here on the site and in the Gazette, and a more frequent occurrence of original artwork to accompany it.

One of the things I've asked family and friends for as a Christmas wish item is gift certificates to Sanctuary Tattoo so that my guy Wil Scherer can apply his talents to my shoulders in the form of a Strange Maine tattoo which I will be sitting down at the drawing board to flesh out shortly. Updates here as work progresses. Yow! Or should that be "Ow!"? At any rate, this will be an interesting new dimension to the embodiment of Strange Maine in my life.

In case I am still behind on posting 'til the New Year, I would like to take this moment to say a huge THANK YOU! to all of my readers, and to my fellow contributors, Chris Dunham and Chris Wallace, plus all those folks who e-mail and/or give me story tips in person. I couldn't be doing this without all you guys chiming in here. This whole thing is for YOU!!!

Happy Holidays, everyone, and Happy New Year!
Here's to 2007!!!

Photo: Michelle Souliere & Chris Wallace at the old Geno's, a Strange Maine hotspot if there ever was one!

So You Want to Be a Bigfoot?

Slated to go up in early March, it's Running Over Productions' latest and greatest idea for keeping Portlanders entertained. Join up with the unbeatable tagteam that produced such exciting and dramatic plays as the fantastic feat of stagecraft that was Wharf Rats, and other prior productions which we all loved including The Zombie, the Creature Double Feature of Maniac and The Brain That Wouldn't Die, and their riveting adaptation of Roger Corman's Bucket of Blood.

The Bigfoot Chronicles -- AUDITIONS!
WHEN: Monday and Tuesday, December 11th and 12th, 7:00-10:00pm
WHERE: The Presumpscot Grange Hall, 1844 Forest Ave, Portland, Maine
AND THEN WHAT: Rehearsals will be held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 6:45-10:00pm, starting January 9th.

FMI: Visit Running Over Productions' official website
Visit Running Over Productions' MySpace page

Please forward this information to anyone and everyone who might be interested!!!

Strange Maine Music Show

WHEN: Friday, December 8th at 8:00pm
WHERE: Strange Maine, the store, 578 Congress Street
WHO: Godbois, with A.M. Frank and Jake from the Union
WHAT: All sorts of electronic and acoustic brouhaha music, live, for FREE!
HUH?: Call (207)771-9997 for more information

Come explore a niche of Maine music that few get to hear, in the intimate setting of Strange Maine, the store.

For a sample of a past show by different artists in this unique venue, please check out this YouTube video!

...and pick up a copy of the December issue of the Strange Maine Gazette while you're there.

Krakow We're Not, But...

Someone over at Frommer's travel guide really had a good time in Portland, because they just named Portland among the top world travel destinations. Yes, I said WORLD! And I'm not talking a piddly ranking like 200-and-something... we hit #12, right behind Zurich, Switzerland. Weird...

The votes are in! Portland, Maine was voted one of the twelve surprising, thriving and emerging travel destinations by the editors at Frommer's Travel Guides and Frommers.com. The editors scoured the globe and polled a stable of authors and experts to identify the top spots. Portland is listed at number twelve among the top travel destinations not to be missed in 2007.

To view the complete article visit Frommers.com

Frommer's top destinations are:

1) Krakow, Poland
2) Tokyo, Japan
3) Minneapolis, Minnesota
4) Panama
5) Asheville, North Carolina
6) Ethiopia
7) Portland, Oregon
8) Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Island
9) Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
10) Glen Canyon, Utah
11) Zurich, Switzerland
12) Portland, Maine

Photo (c)2006 by Michelle Souliere.

Hunters Run Amuck!

Watch out! Get out your kevlar vest and old trench helmet, because if you're living near the woods, apparently you're fair game even in your own home. The Lewiston Sun Journal reported Tuesday that a woman in Wilton, Maine, found her apartment being shot through by local hunters.

Bullet rips through apartment wall
By Maggie Gill-Austern , Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 21, 2006

WILTON - After a stray bullet landed in a local woman's kitchen Monday, police warned hunters to be more careful where they're shooting.

Just before 10:30 Monday morning, a Village View apartments resident heard four gunshots and noticed that one of the shots had gone through her apartment wall, according to a news release issued by police.

When officer Ed Leahy arrived on the scene, he found that the bullet had ripped through her kitchen wall, gone through the room and an interior wall, and then struck a baseboard heater in a hallway.

"Had the lady been in her kitchen, in the path of the bullet, she would have been killed," Leahy wrote in the release.

All indications are that the bullet was fired from woods behind the Village View complex, not far behind the buildings.

Another witness heard shots and when she looked out her window, saw three deer run by, followed by two young-looking men, the release stated.

Police ask that anyone who might know who was hunting in the woods Monday in the Village View or Burgess Hill area call investigating game Warden Reggie Hammond or the Wilton Police Department.
[Source]

Illustration from Thomas Thorpe's The Hive of the Bee Hunter as found online here at Documenting the American South.

A Cautionary Tale of Stranger Danger

All across this great land, from California to the Maine, school children of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, were treated to film strips which were meant to keep them on the moral path to good citizenship. The stories were designed not only to scare the hell out of them, but to keep them safe from strangers, drugs, alochol, juvenile delinquents, cars, and those kids that didn't have proper posture. Some of you will also remember the horrific drivers ed films that were shown during high school drivers education class. [Good god, he's backing up on the freeway! screeeech.... crash!] These cautionary films continued to be shown until they either became too tattered to play, or were made obsolete by vhs tape.

On October 16th, one of this genre's best known filmmakers, Sid Davis, died at the age of ninety years in Los Angeles. Sid produced films which warned of the danger that waited around every corner, waiting to strike the child who was careless or didn't follow the rules of polite society. Sid was also John Wayne's stand in from 1941 to 1952.

After a local case in which a young girl was abducted and murdered by a stranger, Sid became concerned about his own daughter who was the same age as the murdered girl. He didn't think she was paying attention to his warnings about strangers. He approached John Wayne for a loan of $1000 and funded his first film, The Dangerous Stranger.

Sid sold this cautionary tale, of what can happen when a child talks to a stranger, to the schools as well as the police. He made enough money from this film to continue a career which spanned decades and reportedly produced over 180 of these classroom social guidance and safety films. Sid addressed serious topics such as drug use, teenage delinquents, drivers education, social behavior, and morality. Unfortunately many of these films no longer exist.The filmstrips were run over and over until they fell apart or could no longer be spliced together. Others were thrown away when there was no longer a use for them.

One which remains intact and can be viewed online -see the link at the bottom of this post- is Live and Learn. In this film, children are warned to think before they act. Otherwise they'll be like the kids in this film who "ended up in an ambulence."

Here we have pictures of an accident waiting to happen and the aftermath of another. The little girl is Sid's daughter Jill, who in the film runs with scissors and impales herself. The little mummy child is the boy who was playing with matches, and used a can of gasoline to get the fire really going.

In Sid's films, you could pay dearly for your carelessness. Along with the impalement and horrible burns, children in this film manage to: fall out of a canoe; break a leg jumping off a roof; lose an eye in a bb gun accident; get hit by a car; fall off a cliff; and end up face down in a pool after being jumped on after a dive. The kid who falls from the cliff only breaks his wrist, which is not terrible considering how far he fell. But there is no sympathy for this careless rule breaker as the narrator intones threateningly, "The boy learned what fences were for the hard way."

Some of Sid's other productions were the fantastically titled:
1. The Bottle and the Throttle
2. Boys Beware
3. The Terrible Truth
4. Why Take Chances
5. What Made Sammy Speed?
6. VD
7. Say No to Strangers
8. ABC's of Walking Wisely
9. Gossip

The heavy handed scripts are often amusing due to ridiculous statements by the narrator, which hopefully made more sense when they films were first released. One of my favorites comes from the film titled Gossip, in which the narrator tells us that "Gossips toss words around as carelessly as parrots." No matter how you look at it, that sentence is a doozy. Plus I had no idea that gossips tossed parrots around at all, let alone carelessly tossed them.

Here's a link to the Sid Davis Production, Live and Learn.

Or if you'd like to peruse nearly 2000 films of this genre to download or view via streaming video.
Prelinger Archives - "It's goal remains to collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven't been collected elsewhere. Included are films produced by and for many hundreds of important US corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions."

Thanks be to Maine

Maine Impact asked a number of folks including myself to contribute short monologues to their Thanksgiving podcast about what we are thankful for. The podcast should be online on Thursday, November 23rd, for Thanksgiving Day. Here's a transcript of mine. Thanks, everyone.

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

I am thankful for the State of Maine.

I am thankful I live in a state where I can see the bare bones of the earth, and the bare souls of the people who live here.

I am thankful to live in a state that is met by the sea, veined by rivers and streams, and strung with the precious blue of lakes. I am grateful for the wind-whispering traffic that moves through the pines, the squirrel highways among the oaks, and the quiet treading of feet both big and small on soft pine needle trails.

I am thankful for the wash and thunder of the waves, the smell of trees and water together with earth and stone, the creel of gulls glowing white in the night overhead, maple syrup on early morning pancakes, chowder eaten on the docks, corn eaten from the cob, potatoes by the bushel, and fields of pumpkins glowing in the late autumn sun.

I am thankful to live in a state that embraces the pockets of humanity, history, and nature that attract me so. I am grateful that I will explore Maine for my entire lifetime and never find myself wanting for new discoveries around each turn I take.

I am thankful that Maine is a place that encourages writers to write, artists to create, craftspeople to make, teachers to tell, and storytellers to spin tales to anyone who will listen.

I am thankful that I live in a state that people yearn to call their home, that adopted Mainers pine for while away, and which has taught me that this is a land which has a heart that beats strong and deep within it that draws us onward even when we’ve settled here.

I am thankful to live in a state where there are paths rarely tread upon by humans, and where there are also well traveled roads lined with family and friends, and folks I have yet to meet.

I am thankful for all the people of Maine, for the land and creatures of Maine, and for the spectral grace of “what is Maine” that haunts me night and day.

Disturbing Use of Dog

The Lewiston Sun Journal reported this morning on a disturbing incident in which a young dog was abandoned and then killed on the roadside in Poland, Maine.

Police seek owner of dog killed in Poland
Wednesday, November 22, 2006

POLAND - Police are searching for the owner of a young yellow Labrador retriever that was thrown out of a van on Empire Road on Tuesday night and later struck by a car and killed.

Androscoggin County Deputy Tom Slivinski said witnesses reported seeing a man get out of a white van that had pulled into a driveway near the accident scene, throw the dog out and then take off west on Empire Road.

A short time afterward, about 6 p.m., a motorist driving on Hackett Mills Road near Empire Road reported hitting a light-colored dog, which matched the description of the one thrown from the van, he said.

"We have some info to follow up on," the deputy said. "We'd like to find the owner."

He described the animal as being 2 to 3 years old, well cared for, with a faded salmon-colored collar and no tags.

One question Slivinski is looking at, he said, "Is it a domestic violence issue" where the man takes the woman's dog as retaliation?

Anyone with information is asked to call Slivinski at the Sheriff's Department, 784-7361, ext. 264.

[Source]

I hope they get the person they're looking for.

The Gentle Wind dropped

Late last week Jim Bergin and Judy Garvey were finally able to draw a breath of relief. The married couple from Blue Hill, Maine, were informed that the Gentle Wind Project had finally dropped its defamation lawsuit against them (the first of which was begun back in 2003) for their attempts to inform the public of the activities of the organization, which many feel to be cultish and fraudulent.

The tale has been a strange one since the start. After finding out about the group's "miraculous" healing hockey pucks in February of 2006, we posted about the Gentle Wind Project and their high-priced products, glorified hockey pucks from heaven. Click here to read that first post. We again mentioned the group in July 2006 when it came to our attention that the Maine Attorney General had filed suit against the Gentle Wind Project. Click here to read the second article.

Since February, and indeed since this debacle began, the Gentle Wind Project's website has changed its tone substantially. In fact, the current page has none of the original product content it displayed earlier this year, now being pared down to what amounts to a mission statement and some contact information for an address in Nevada (far, far away from their original base in Kittery, Maine, from which they have been ferretted out), paired with photos of peaceful landscapes. It's a far cry from the days when the exorbitantly priced "Advanced Instruments" were plainly advertised on their pages.

Now, finally, we have good news, for which I am sure that Jim and Judy are also thankful. The group has settled with the Maine Attorney General, and dropped their case against Bergin and Garvey. Let us hope that fewer folks fall victim to their "healing" cult now, and that it fades away into dust. If you are interested in reading more in depth information about the Garvey/Bergin case, please visit their website, www.windofchanges.org.

A Haunting in the Northern Maine Woods

A Haunting in the Northern Maine Woods has video of purported paranormal events. [heavy sarcasm on] I don't see how this could possibly be faked. [heavy sarcasm off]

Have you seen any of the new so-called true story horror movies that have come to the theaters in the last few years? Or perhaps you may have watched ghost hunting shows on t.v. that go to different places to investigate hauntings and then tell the results of their findings? Well we are not saying that they are not true, just the fact that the evidence is not there to support their claims.

Well this is where our haunting is different from all the rest, WE ACTUALLY HAVE REAL VIDEO OF OBJECTS BEING MOVED BY AN UN-SEEN FORCE!

We believe this is evidence that before now has never been captured by anyone, anywhere! If it has, then I say to all these producers and story writers, prove it!

Miskatonic Acid Test is ALIVE!

Call upon the Elder Gods and give thanks, for the trailer of Maine's own Dark Lord Rob's upcoming trip-heavy masterpiece, The Miskatonic Acid Test, is now online.

It's HP Lovecraft a-go-go in "The Miskatonic Acid Test", the first feature from American Entropy Productions. It's 1969, and cosmic horror infects a psychedelic rock "happening" in witch-haunted Arkham, Mass. It's a zonked out brew of poetry, philosophy, cosmic horror, and 60's-style acid rock; probably the first horror movie that's more heavily influenced by the Monkees' "Head" than by George Romero... This is the official trailer.

View the trailer here!

If you dig the tunes, please pop over to Dark Lord Rob's YouTube page to see footage of various initiates of the Arkham Sound roster, including such bands as The Barrow Wights, The Conqueror Wyrms, The Plasma Miasma, and the Gyre Falcons.

In 1969 a group of students at Miskatonic University in witch-haunted Arkham, Massachusetts decided to emulate the West Coast and put on their own sort of "happening", where "music and atmosphere could combine to create an alteration of consciousness," with the clandestine help of a little LSD. Or maybe a lot. However, it is said that one should be very careful when experimenting with the nether regions of consciousness, particularly when one's psychedelic event is occuring under the watchful eye of a philosophy professor who specializes in the study of Evil, and most particularly when that selfsame professor has access to the darker realms of the Miskatonic University library, where reside ancient tomes that should never be read under any circumstances, especially not aloud, and especially not in front of a crowd, and most especially not in front of a crowd that is under the effects of mind-altering drugs...

Filmed in the summer of 2005 in Middleboro, Massachusetts, The Miskatonic Acid Test is one of the most ambitious motion pictures ever attempted on a shoestring budget. Inspired by the work of early twentieth-century pulp horror author H.P. Lovecraft and told in the style of a 1960's documentary, the movie's concept is described by its writer/director, Dark Lord Rob as "sort of like Monterey Pop, only at the end monsters attack everybody."

The movie, currently being edited for anticipated 2007 festival dates, features a talented young cast headed by Boston actors Erika Dyer and Sam Cohan. With a witty, literate script featuring over two dozen speaking parts, a small herd of extras, a faux coterie of psychedelic rock bands (performing vintage-styled original compositions created especially for the movie), light shows, and special effects, the movie strives to achieve much more than the average indie horror feature.

One of the most interesting and ambitious features of the movie is its creation of "The Arkham Sound", positing a unique musical identity for the various rock groups playing in the fictional town of Arkham in the late 60's. Over a dozen "bands" were created for the movie, four of which appear in the movie as stage acts and the rest of which lend atmosphere as their various regional "hits" are played over a portable radio during early scenes. The songs, created by Dark Lord Rob (a critically acclaimed songwriter from the first garage/psychedelic revival, ex-The Not Quite) and Jim Terry, a Portland-based musician/engineer, are top-flight recreations of the era and are now available as a triple-CD set.

Writer/Director/Actor Dark Lord Rob, formerly lead singer and bass player with The Not Quite is the founder of American Entropy Productions, overseeing a wildly ambitious slate of zany projects. The Miskatonic Acid Test, starring Erika Dyer, Sam Cohan, Jonathan Silver, Shawn French, Emily Griffin, and Chris Lobdell, was produced by Jasmine Koushki. Director of Photography: Eric Angra. Written and Directed by Dark Lord Rob.

Dark Lord Rob can be contacted in various ways, but the easiest and least diabolical method is to e-mail him at darklordrob[at]americanentropy.com.

Police Scanner Tidbits

In the August 3, 2006, issue of the Windham Independent, the Police Scanner mentions a few interesting items.

July 28, 12:07pm -- Steven D. Sanborn, 36, or Portland and Gloria J. Santamore, 65, of Biddeford were arrested at Wal-Mart for attempting to steal a cart full of lobsters. Officer Ray Williams made the arrest.

Apparently they were hungry. How did they think they were going to sneak out with a CART FULL of lobsters?!

July 27, 7:52pm -- Someone on Falmouth Road reported hearing gunshots. Officers Paul Cox and Wayne Cote investigated but heard nothing.

Yes, but did they SEE anything?

Strange Lights in Skowhegan

Readers who followed the story out of Industry, Maine, last week about strange lights witnessed by a former naval intelligence tech will be further interested in some October happenings I just dug up elsewhere. A person who spends a lot of time at their camp in Skowhegan reported on ufoinfo.com about weird events they experienced this October. Click here to read the full account.

Hello,
I would like to report something that's really strange, but am not sure it's a UFO.

I have a hunting camp located on an old abandoned county road. It's rather isolated being 2.5 miles in the woods from a small village, and there is no power supply.

On Wednesday evening (October 11th), while looking out the front window of my camp towards the end of a field, I saw what I thought were headlights coming up over a small hill, on the main road . Suddenly they made a 90 degree right turn, (where there is no road), and shined in the direction of the woods for a very brief time, and then they went out. Then, in the same direction, a very bright area appeared approx. 100 ft. from the main road. It was a huge glow which lit up the the whole tree-line (which was emanating from the ground upwards) just behind the big tall firs. It also lit up all the other surrounding woods. At first, I thought it might be a helicopter, but I didn't hear a helicopter sound. And, the light wasn't a single beam coming down from the sky, it was emanating from the ground upwards, and lighting up the whole surrounding area.

Then, the brilliant glow that lit up the whole area started moving around my camp. First it would be beside the camp at a distance of approx. 50 yds., then it would move around to the back, where it appeared to be a little closer. Then it would move back to it's original position at the distant end of the field, down into a small valley.

At this point I became concerned. While it was moving , I could see beams of light shining from it onto the face of the trees, and in through my camp windows. As it moved closer to the camp, I became very frightened and wanted to leave, but it was dark, and I didn't dare to go outside long enough to get into my Jeep. I then found a "safe bunkbed" where the lights were partially blocked by the inside structure of the camp, and curled up in my sleeping bag like " a scared rabbit" for quite a while, until the lights made their way back down towards the end of the field , where they were the farthest from the camp.

I then got up enough courage to look out one of the front windows with binoculars to see what/where the lights were coming from. But, every time I did this, my view was always obscured by the trees/woods, or a small hill above the valley at the end of the field. When it was in that valley I could see the entire outline of the big tall fir trees, the adjacent woods, and the entire field, but I still could not see the source of the brilliant light. (In retrospect, I think that "whatever it was", always kept itself surrounded by the firs/hardwoods, --a buffer zone-- so that it couldn't be seen).

Then it would leave the valley and make it's way back up to my camp, always skirting the backside of the firs and hardwoods, until it got around to the back of it . Then it would start heading back towards the field via the same route. I don't know how close "whatever it was" got to the camp because every time it started getting closer, I slid down further into my sleeping bag, closed my eyes, and prayed. This continued throughout the night, until morning.

Man, if I was out alone in the woods and subjected to this kind of thing, I think I'd be a "scared rabbit" too. Be sure to read the rest of the post, as daytime run-ins with bizarre noises occurs to our witness. The site also has a number of other reports from Maine over a range of dates, including both recent and historic ones.

Ever Feel Like A Comic Book Character?

Loren Coleman has found his way into the inky pages of the comic book industry a few times. Great coverage with color artwork examples on his page here.

The Maine Mutant in 1906?

Guest post by Loren Coleman:

from the
Lewiston Sun Journal
Looking Back
Monday, November 13, 2006

[November 13, 1906 - 100 Years Ago]

The hunters over Kenduskeag way are on the trail of a strange animal which has been haunting the woods and pastures in that vicinity for some months past. This animal, according to stories of those who have seen it, seems to be a hybrid of some sort, perhaps a cross between a bear and a bobcat. Only a week ago the animal was seen in a pasture near the road at Worcester's siding. The animal was apparently hunting for field mice and paid little attention to the people in the carriage driving along the road.
[Source]

Bizarre Sports Team Unearthed

Recent delvings into the strongholds of a local book and record collector unearthed one of the strangest Portland Press Herald news clippings I've ever seen. Just take a look and see for yourself -- be sure to read the caption.

Not That Kind of Hoe

The Portland Press Herald reported in their Maine/New England dispatches for the 11/4/06 issue of the paper published the following item, detailing creative use of a tool for a break in.

Man charged with using backhoe in house break-in
FREEPORT, Maine

A man broke into a home Thursday evening by using the owner's backhoe to break open a bulkhead to gain entrance, said Lt. Susan Nourse of the Freeport Police Department. The homeowner arrived home about 5:30pm to find the man in the house, Nourse said. The homeowner called police and the man waited quietly and did not resist when Sgt. Nathaniel Goodman and Officer Gino Biachini arrived and arrested him, she said.

Nourse said James P. Ruane, 52, was charged with burglary, criminal mischief and theft by unauthorized taking -- for using the backhoe without permission.

Ruane's last known address was in Saco, but "he's better described as transient," she said.

She declined to identify the victim, but said the incident took place on a street off Route 1, near the Brunswick line. The damage done to the bulkhead and home was estimated at $1,300, Nourse said.

Now THAT'S breaking and entering.

Mystery Aircraft in Western Maine

As noted by Loren Coleman on the Strange Maine group page, the Lewiston Sun Journal has posted a remarkable story from a man in the western Maine town of Industry. Please keep in mind that a UFO is precisely what the acronym stands for: an unidentified flying object.

In the Sun Journal article comments, Mark LaFlamme replies to a commenters post about an incident in Green, Maine, 2 years ago, in which residents were startled by what later turned out to be a fly boy who was buzzing his father's house while piloting a craft into Brunswick Naval Air Station.

Lewiston Sun Journal - Lewiston, ME, USA
Flying object spooks man
By Maggie Gill-Austern , Staff Writer
Saturday, November 11, 2006

INDUSTRY - Former naval intelligence crypto-tech Brad Luker is a down-to-earth kind of guy. At 40, he's a father and a husband, works as a power plant operator, and walks the straight and narrow. He doesn't believe in Bigfoot, aliens or the Loch Ness monster.

So when he saw strange bright lights in the sky above him Tuesday night, he assumed it was a helicopter, or maybe a small plane. Only when he opened the door to his truck, expecting to hear the whir of chopper blades above him, did he start to wonder what the craft could be.

"It was really bizarre," he said. "I've never seen anything like it. I do a lot of camping, and I've seen all the basic stuff (in the sky)," he said. Most strange things in the sky are high up in the air, he said. "This was way, way down here."

It was so low to the ground, and so brightly lit, at first he thought there must be something going on at the Industry town hall. "I thought 'wow, that's kinda neat,'" Luker said. As he got closer, though, Luker realized the lights were coming from something about 300 feet above him. That was when he pulled over, and opened his door. It sounded like a quiet jet engine. Luker was mystified, and a little nervous.

A woman driving in an SUV behind him saw it, too, Luker said. He never got her name, and wishes now that he had. She said she thought it looked like an aircraft trying to land on the road, Luker said.

"I know the Navy has some real funky special top-secret aircraft out there," he said. "That's the only thing I could think that it could be."

Then it stopped - right above his head, for a few seconds. "That's when it really freaked me out," he said. He'd have thought it was a spaceship, he said, except he doesn't believe in spaceships.

It could be a UFO, Leland Bechtel, former director of Maine's chapter of the Mutual UFO Network (or MUFON), said Thursday. "There has been a lot of activity there in the past," Bechtel said. He did an investigation in Farmington a few years ago, he said. Three college students - all very respectable - saw something somewhat similar to what Luker saw. "This thing came directly over them, and stopped, with a powerful floodlight right down on them."

Police said it might be a helicopter, Bechtel said. But most people can tell when they're seeing a helicopter, and when they're not. Could what Luker saw be a UFO? "It certainly has earmarks of being an unidentified flying object," Bechtel said. "And we don't know what they are. We don't know where they come from."
Bechtel, like Luker, is a well-respected man. He taught psychology at Bates College in Lewiston for years and only became involved in the world of UFOs by accident, after he began hearing stories of sighting by people he considered sane, and credible.

"I've investigated scores of reported sightings in Maine," he said, "by some of the finest, most respectable people that I've met, and they're not kidding, and they're not deluded." He's not sure what they are, nor convinced they're from outer space. "I'm open to all possibilities," he said. "I think it just stands to reason that some of the sightings have been experimental aircraft of our own government. But there are plenty of others that do not appear, to me, to be anything that we have developed."

"I started very skeptical. I'm not skeptical anymore," Bechtel said. "I just have questions, rather than answers. But I do feel certain there is reality there that needs to be investigated."

Luker, too, has no answers. "I talked to the police and (the dispatcher) said even if the military was flying some special mission, they wouldn't tell us anyway. I felt kinda foolish." Calls to Brunswick Naval Air Station were not returned Friday. Dispatchers in Franklin, Androscoggin, Oxford, Somerset and Kennebec counties said they received no calls about strange objects in the sky Tuesday night.

"I assumed if I saw it, a couple other people might see it," Luker said. "As I drove away I was thinking hey, maybe they gave me some sort of special intelligence," he joked. "I told my wife I wished they gave me the Powerball numbers." He laughed.

In the end, Luker said, he thinks it was probably a military plane. "But I don't know why they would fly it that low, and I don't know why they would be out in Industry, Maine," he said. "It really doesn't make sense. But that's the only thing I can think of, because I really don't believe in spaceships, or anything like that."

[Source]

Clowning Around At Election Time

Among the articles I clipped earlier this year was this great shot from the Windham Independent back in their August 3rd issue, page 15. At the time I could hardly believe it. AJ the clown (Bill Wilson of Windham, Maine), who in 2002 ran as a write-in candidate for governor of Maine, is running again this year. So do not delay! Cast your vote today -- IT'S VOTING DAY!!! And in Portland, at least, the polls opened at 7:00am.

According to the Windham Independent, AJ is running his campaign as before, "to raise awareness for Shriners and have some fun with the political process." They add, "No need to worry about dirty campaigning from AJ, but perhaps gubernatorial candidates should keep an eye out for flying pies." If only!

I saw some full-color photo signs put up for AJ and his running mate, Pretty the clown, near the Brighton/Deering Ave. intersection here in Portland, and wish I had gotten a photo of them before the vehement weather of the last couple of weeks had its way with them (they had disappeared as of last week). Anyone who has one that wants to send it my way after the election is done today, please send it to Michelle Souliere, P.O. Box 8203, Portland, ME 04104. Seriously.

Photo by Tony Bessey.

Lifesized Plywood Sheriff Brigade Running Rampant

Ted Blais has found an interesting way to attract attention to his candidacy for Sheriff. He’s fashioned 80 plywood sheriff silhouettes which are moved each morning to a new high traffic location.




photos from Blais for Sheriff website

Press Herald article on the eye catching signage

President of Story Land, dead at 50

Stoney Morrell, president of New Hampshire's Story Land, has died of cancer. Stoney's parents, Ruth and Bob Morrell, opened Story Land in 1954 in Glen, NH, two years before Stoney was born. Stoney spent much of his youth at Story Land, an idyllic place for a child. As an adult, he tried his hand at ranching before returning to the family theme park in the early 1980s. Stoney believed in providing a family friendly, traditional theme park, instead of succumbing to the usual fancy neon lights or rides with a big scare factor.

Story Land was a favorite of mine when I was a kid. I particularly enjoyed the antique cars. Not being anywhere near an age to drive, I remember trying to get around the entire track without touching the rail that kept the cars from veering off into the grass and maiming someone. I don't think I ever made it.

Stoney's obituary

A tribute to Stoney

The Morrell family and Story Land history