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.

Sightseeing Augusta Maine

My friend Ben came up from DC and we walked down to Father Curren Bridge and the old paper mill before I went to work. Betty, a reporter I work with said that she heard we walked down to the bridge on the police scanner. This town is small. People hear you think here. In Augusta Maine here.


Old Mill Park is a pretty cool place to walk to in Augusta Maine. It might be radioactive though.


Went to the Kennebec Market, a place you see in the police log in the Kennebec Journal newspaper pretty frequently. (And a great old style display of pipes.)



Then I walked to work and was inspired by Augusta Maine. There was a full, or close-to-full moon.


No Conspiracy: Satellites are sending messages to people in my neighborhood, I know it.


The moon followed me to work, I know it.


CMP: Central Maine Power.


Hollywood Hills Maine and an interpretive moon cycle.


Black Friday is so big in Augusta Maine because the strip malls are some of the most beautiful in the country.


Truckload of money, a Dead River oil tanker cha-chinging down Western Avenue. And Western Avenue Gas Station, I mean Fire Station.

Thanksgiving Day Events, Augusta Maine

The first people I saw on my way to work today were Ryan and Jake, (of Gardiner Maine) out doing some Thanksgiving Day exercises. Feast pre-gaming, waist-line maintaining, robotic-leg training with Ryan's parents' (who live in Augusta Maine) jumping-stilt-things. Rumpelstiltskins. Metal leggings.


The Healthy Segway: These things are like the healthy Segway. (I wonder what happens to a person if one of those metal pieces snaps?)


Hungry Man: I was frickin' hungry today. Nothing was open on my way to work because it was Thanksgiving. (Jerks!) I ate some chips and pretzels from the machine after I contemplated fasting for the day.
Fasting like much of the world is doing unwillingly. Trust me, I really am a thankful bastard. And chances are if you are using a computer to read this message, you should be too. Even if you're homeless in a library in Phoenix. It's warm and you got books, right?
But, I guess not so thankful as to fast today. I finally broke down and went to the Irving gas station next door and grabbed a microwave turkey dinner. It was good. And only $3.49. I bought a Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream bar too ($2.49).


Drove to work but ended up walking home. The transmission, or hopefully clutch, on my truck went out. Luckily it wasn't far from my apartment. Luckily once I got up the hill. Luckily after I just got done filling up the tank. ... ?
I began pushing my truck home. Felt silly and tired pushing my truck home in the middle of the night. Realized I looked silly and tired pushing my truck home in the middle of the night. With the help of a passer-by I was able to get my truck into a vacant lot a couple blocks from my house. I hate owning a vehicle that isn't a pair of jumping-stilt-things.