Publishing

The machine out back printing the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel newspapers.


Here is a news-themed music video I produced back in 2003, that I finally published to YouTube. One of my good friends M.E. Sprengelmeyer, a writer for the Rocky Mountain News did this solo performance of the song "Authorities Said" which he used to play with his band News Hole years back at the Ventura County Star.

032808, Augusta Maine

It's nearly April in Maine. You can tell because the snow is warmer.


In the Future (or maybe now?) the computers you work with will be just as important as the people. Here are some of the computers that my computer works with from the sports section.

Chizzle Wizzle

Betty and Glenn Adams (writers for the Kennebec Journal and AP respectively) invited me to the 117th Chizzle Wizzle, at Cony High School. Chizzle Wizzle is the undisputed oldest continuous high school production in the United States.


The performances at Chizzle Wizzle were very impressive. I wasn't expecting such an entertaining event.


I had never been to a Chizzle Wizzle before, unlike those for whom this is a yearly event of life. But I was thinking, "this might be the best Chizzle Wizzle ever, dude." And after the show it seemed that was the consensus from everyone.

To Belfast Maine

Partly sunny


Lobster trap


America's Oldest Shoe Store


Architect Larason Guthrie stands by a wall installation of an organically influenced house that he built in Thorndike Maine. He was part of a group show at Aarhus Gallery in Belfast Maine. My friend Donna gave me a ride out to Belfast Maine to see the Architectura show which I had a few photo collages/montages in.
Belfast is a nice little town -now. They say it was smelly and tattered not many years ago.

Vaughn Woods

My neighbor Donna took me to the Vaughn Woods in Hallowell Maine. It's kind of cool there. Snowy.

Pictures from Spring

A Water Street bridal shop.


A Water Street cell phone shop.


Snow piles calving into Court Street puddles.


Busy corner.


The ingenuity of snow stiles makes it simple to get over fences.


Direction.

Missing Things

Missing sign from a used car lot.


Missing shopping cart in the far corner of a parking lot.


Missing keyboardist of the Rustic Overtones.

Easter & Maine Maple Sunday

Two of the most popular holidays in the world fell on the same day this year, Easter Sunday and Maine Maple Sunday.


Maine is still so frozen that the sugar shacks aren't producing and syrup yet. Sux.

Dust & Scratches, f22

One of my neighbors checks out a book on my coffee table, table, table, table.

Maine Deception

A strip mall parking lot in Maine.


Dollar General Ming. Bling.

It's Springtime in Maine!

What's the difference between Winter and Spring in Maine?
Not much.

The Day

The neighbor.


The Spring Cleaning.
I knew it before it was even news. The company I work for, Blethen Maine Newspapers, is putting our group of newspapers up for sale; The Portland (Maine) Press Herald, The Kennebec Journal, and The Morning Sentinel. It appears that my job as a copy editor at the Kennebec Journal could be in danger.
I saw it rolling up the East Coast the past month. First The New York Times layoff, then the ripple, The Boston Globe layoffs a couple weeks ago. The Portland (Maine) Press Herald had their layoffs just last week, they are our parent paper. (I better learn how to ride this wave.)
Some how I feel in the middle of something news-like (that is not piles of snow) again for the first, or one of the first times since I left DC. Too bad it is such an unfortunate phenomena, as a lot of news is. I feel more fearful for the future of employees who have been there for nearly 30 years, than I do for myself.
In fact, the journalist known as the American copy editor or americanis journa janitoriuos (from early Latin for library janitor), is a dying breed and appears is in the process of being outsourced to India, like Hollywood and eventually everything else will soon be.
At least photography and writing seem to have a pretty stable future.
Don't they?

Cell Phone Unlocking

My friend Razeek is trying to get a cell phone repair business going. He rents a shop down on Water Street in Augusta Maine. I'm jealous of his well-spoken English, French, and Arabic.

Will it Ever Stop Snowing in Maine?

I haven't seen the ground beneath the snow for 4 months, and it's still snowing.


My tea tells me things I never learned in school.

Windrows

Windrows of ... wind.

Online Launchpad

I watched the shuttle launch live in my living room when I got home from work last night. My friend Kevin watched it live from the launchpad, as he did last month too.

Maine Prisoner

A silhouette from a cell in the Kennebec County Jail.

Surprising Letter

I got an envelope in the mail from Oregon yesterday. I didn't recognize the sender. But I was surprised to receive this letter along with a color print and stamped, self-addressed return envelope;

Dear Mr. Corcoran:

Some years ago a photo was published in Harper's Magazine (and I later learned in other prominent places) that struck me as iconic of the conflict in which the United States is engaged. It was your photo of the hooded prisoners being led to prison in Afghanistan.
This photo has been transformed into a 3' x 5' painting which I will send to you (at no cost to you) as I believe you should own it. It was painted by a local Ashland artist, Phyllis Buck. With the current Oscar award to "Taxi to the Dark Side," the painting of your photo may be helpful in your photographic career.
Please reply if you are interested or not in receiving this painting. If not, I will offer it to a worthy organization such as The Center for Constitutional Rights. I'm enclosing a self-addressed envelope for your convenience.
Again, I believe your photograph sears the American soul and must remain imprinted in our memory.

Sincerely ...

I imagine some photographers get letters like this often. Not me. I hope I have the opportunity to take other photos that people might regard in a similar historic respect.
And when posting this entry I noticed that the painter Phyllis Buck's Webmaster (I suspect) titled the image "Abu_Grahib.jpg". Which shows how the idea of the image of prisoners has transformed from the time I had taken the photo on Dec. 19, 2001 to the time the Abu Ghraib prison torture photos surfaced in late April 2004 to today. But most disturbing is how the war in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq have become the same thing in too many, or any, minds.

Death of a Snowman

Edited for clarity:
Willy Snowman, I was the only one at his funeral.

Super Tuesday Super Diet

It's diet season. You've tried other diets, the Hollywood Diet, the Chicken Fat Diet, the famed Cucumber-Scented Water Diet. Now try the most effective diet of all, my new and revolutionary Post-It Note Diet.
During your next lunch hour place a note with your favorite low-fat food in the center of a paper plate. Concentrate. Repeat. Watch the weight slip away. (For larger appetites use marker.)


Super.

Augusta gif

Still thinking. About Spring. And about how, compared to the range of temperatures in the universe, our habitat in the troposphere captures such a narrow range of temperatures; most of them lying just above the freezing point of water. Being surrounded by so much snow-water also has me thinking about how the state of our water mirrors the state of our environment.
I imagine humanity as an infant staring at his own reflection in the water. A colorful film of oil across the surface.

Ron Paul Snowman

In case you're wondering who is getting the snow vote.

Snow, Still Coming

Marty smokes a cigarette with Chris who waits for a ride after work on Leap Year Day night. The snow starts again.


Still snowing.