Snow in Maine

Welcoming the snow cautiously.


My neighbor's dog loves the snow.


Augusta Maine snow.


I went to Java Joe's and introduced myself to Roger Katz, Augusta Maine's mayor, who was also in Java Joe's. When I left Java Joe's the small yellow car of Rev. Perry caught my eye. Perry went to Howard University in DC. He also took classes at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh (I have a degree in Visual Communications from AIP). Perry asked me why I was in Augusta Maine b/c it is a place where people retire.


Hallowell Maine snow.


I went to Harlow Gallery in Hallowell Maine Sunday night for a life drawing session. One of my prints sold at their 8x10 sale. And another one is in the window there.


Renys is a local chain where I went to buy some Muck Boots.


Cars sleeping in the parking lot.

Chess in Augusta Maine

At Panera Bread, a coffee/sandwich place by the Wal-Mart in Augusta Maine, Barry & Norm play chess. They said they often meet at Barnes & Noble in Augusta Maine on Tuesdays around 5 p.m. and welcome challengers.

Although I think he was talking about music and not chess, here's a poem of Robert Creeley's:

A Piece
One, and
one, two
three.

Portland Maine, and Me the Disaster

A bike at Lithgow Library. Foreshadowing my future mode of transit.


In the evening in Augusta Maine I head down I-295 to Portland Maine.



Things Posted in Portland Maine.


I went to a bar called Points 5.
This restaurant & lounge
w/ holiday windows
lights & bows, no
wreathes & pine trims
out tavern-like
windows onto a
world that has
a picture-perfect
New England setting
that will soon be
pummeled with a
picture-perfect amount
of snow
Small City Streets
w/
Small City Street
lights that seem
to allow 2 or 3
cars to stop &
start with no
real rhyme or
reason
We, I have been set,
cast.
A character in
this world.



I went to SPACE Gallery to see a show. A show of local bands, hardcore. They make me think:
1.)
2.)
3.) ... *
*additional note:
-Retard your distributor.


The heavy metal sound
took the form of a smell
the metallic burning
of the soundboard.


The State on Congress Street Portland Maine.


Randy of Topsham Maine gave me directions back to I-295 north. He also told me a couple good stories about his travels to Boston, 'the big city.' Randy said it's not for him. The city. He said he's used to getting along without the niceties of a city.
Randy told me about a doorman from a fancy Boston hotel who saved him. Pulled him out of traffic when a crosswalk signal suddenly changed. And how once when he was going through a revolving door with a duffel bag, the bag got stuck in the door. A man tried to help Randy by pulling on his bag. Randy thought the guy was trying to rob him and 'decked' him in the forehead.
Randy said he could probably never move away from Maine. He's from here.
Randy's stories gave me perspective. I am as awkward here in Maine as Randy is in the city.

Augusta and Portland Maine, 113007

Shells I got near Acadia National Park are on my, now frequently-frozen, dashboard. Chlorides coat my windshield.


Glare of the low northern sun off I-95 (and my steering wheel) was wicked bright headed south to Portland Maine.


Truckin' through Maine. In Maine diesel fuel is around 50 cents more than gasoline, a gallon.


When I was way younger I thought it would be fun to be a trucker.


Maine golf carts migrating south for the winter.


The Portland Maine Greyhound Station: 16 hrs. from Union Station Washington DC; 18 hrs. to Augusta Maine. $100 to $120. About a third the price in gas it would take someone to make the 13-hour drive


La Bodega Latina on Congress Street in Portland Maine. I see a Puerto Rican flag above the bodega. I think Portland Maine would be perfectly suitable for Peruvians more so than Puerto Ricans. Peru has a similar climate. And I think Peruvians are used to smaller populations and a slower way of life. Although I am slowly realizing Maine has a lot happening. They're just super mellow, and I'm just working those hours.
Plus, maybe they would open up a Peruvian rotisserie chicken place.


SPACE Portland Maine: 12.7.2007 [ Fri ] First Friday: Free For All
SPACE Gallery opens it's doors inviting anyone and everyone to exhibit their work in a salon-style survey show. FREE FOR ALL is both a curatorial experiment and a democratic effort to organize and present work through an open call process with no submission fee. 5:00-9:00pm, free, All ages


I went down to Portland Maine this morning to submit a picture in SPACE Gallery's FREE FOR ALL exhibit. It is a picture of a woman staring through a construction fence to the White House. And I used to think of the picture as part of a triptych: as part of a display of three photos. I thought it was also representative of Communism and Democracy with the colors and, among other symbolism, a red jacket and black beret, the fence, the White House, the inability to reach the White House, etc.
However, it was also a picture of Kaye Adams, a friend I graduated with. She died before I moved to Maine. Now I think of it as a memorial to Kaye.


Strange Maine: I stopped by Strange Maine and bought a book of Edgar Allen Poe poetry. And I saw a gutted apartment lodge uptown (Bayside?), where I went to get a sandwich.


I found one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in Maine. Up the hill, I'm told it isn't actually Bayside but past Bayside, (more beautiful than San Francisco) city living on the craggy coast. Amazing. Amazing.

I hope Maine winter attacks like a polar bear.
Resting peacefully, warm guts on the ground.
Blood becoming part of the soil.
Dark earth, green grass beneath the white snow.
Ahh, it's December.


... And the Blaine House, back before work in Augusta Maine.

112907, Augusta Maine

Wicked Slick roads had bus drivers pulled over. Had cars running into buses. Had me thinking the ground was wicked alive, trying to take me down.


Birds on the Old Post Office Building in Augusta Maine.


Speak Backwards
sometimes I like to
words
emphasis is placed
upon
"Is it still the
season for shooting
turkeys?"
shooting, is it
still the season
for turkey


My neighbor Derek is a mechanic. He fixed my truck at his garage on the outskirts of Augusta Maine


I have a few photos hanging in this fund-raising 8x10 art sale at Harlow Gallery in Hallowell Maine.

Augusta Maine Diptyches, 112807

Chemtrails(?) Oh.


Wicked clouds (or Sylphs?), wicked puddle.


Unpleasant things along the Rail Trail. Necessary unpleasant things. The waste water treatment plant smells. The oil depot in the woods.


Two discs I found in the lawn in front of the State Capitol yesterday. I kept the golf disc.


In Augusta Maine there are telephone pole shadows, and the earth's shadow.

Augusta Maine Diptyches, 112707

I love my pet: A paper horse.


Kennebec County Jail and the Maine Arts Commission. The Arts Commission is under investigation for giving $4,000 to lobbyists. Big deal, I see tax payer money spent in worse ways than lobbying for art. And those worse ways are considered LEGAL!


A parking light in a shopping plaza in Augusta Maine.


Building a new shopping plaza in Augusta Maine.

112607, Augusta Maine

Walked down to the Augusta Maine Arsenal. It will soon be developed by a company from N.C., using the existing structures - redevelopment, the good kind.


After walking down to the Augusta Maine Arsenal my friend Ben drove back to Portland Maine to catch a flight back to DC.

102507b, Maine

Went to Hallowell Maine to get some food at the Liberal Cup.


Saw Joe, a photographer at the Kennebec Journal, at the Liberal Cup. Played cricket (darts).

102507, Maine

Artwalking, always done with your hands behind your back. Artwalking at Colby College Museum of Art.


A landfill outside of Bangor Maine you can see from I-95. Paul Bunyon, of Bangor Maine.


A dance school above the Greyhound Station in Bangor Maine, and a view looking south in Bangor Maine.

102407, Maine

My neighbor Derek helped me get my truck home.


Showed my friend Ben from DC, what little I know of Camden / Mount Megunticook Maine.


Exodus: From the wilderness into Portland Maine, the city.


Exodus: Also.