In the Blood

For the context of this video, read Bob Keyes's feature on Maine musician/filmmaker Sumner McKane's "In the Blood."

- John C.L. Morgan

Westbrook Printing Press Driving Force for Maine Poetry

PPH:

Alice Persons tied a pretty purple bow around the book of poetry and dropped it
in the mail. She assumed the chapbook would end up among a stack of others that
Garrison Keillor receives and never reads. Lo and behold, not only did Keillor
pay attention to the book, he read one of the poems as part of his syndicated
radio and online program, "The Writers Almanac." Ever since, Keillor has
returned again and again to the poems published by Persons and her tiny
Westbrook-based Moon Pie Press. In recent years, he's read 24 poems published by
Moon Pie on his radio show, and included four Moon Pie poems in his third
published anthology, "Good Poems, American Places," which came out last week.

- John C.L. Morgan

On "Re:turn"

PPH:

[Artist Aaron] Stephan's project required nine months of hard labor. He grew a
tree in the atrium of the Westbrook Middle School. It's a gorgeous, leafless,
canopied representation of a tree from an old-growth forest. Stephan used lumber
reclaimed from the bowels of Moosehead Lake to make his tree, which measures
about 25 feet high and 16 feet wide, branch to branch.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Creator of Middle School's Public Art Among Maine's 'Most Exciting Artists' (July 26, 2010)

Toronto Paper Sings Praises for 'Hardscrabble Sisters'

Globe and Mail:

Many of Jensen's strengths are evident in Gone, the stunning opener to The
Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay, a novel in stories. Thanks to [author
Beverly Jensen's] background in theatre, the dialogue--raw, witty--sings
rather than reads.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Another Sparkling Review for 'Hardscrabble Sisters' (August 2, 2010)

Rudy Vallee's "Maine Stein Song"

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: A Look at Efforts to Secure a Rudy Vallee Commemorative Stamp (June 1, 2009)

Buckfield Art

FMI.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Buckfield or Bust (May 26, 2009)

Wyeth

Producers of a film on the Wyeths are lobbying Maine's state government for enough financial perks to allow them to film some of the $7 million production along the Maine coast.

More information about the family can be found at the Farnsworth Museum's Wyeth Center in Rockland. In the meantime, I recommend Edgar Allen Beem's April 2009 essay on Andrew Wyeth's legacy, which captures the ambivalence toward Wyeth's work, much like the video embedded above.

- John C.L. Morgan

Weekend Forecast

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Longfellow in Everyday Life (March 10, 2010)

How Maine Influenced Teddy Roosevelt

MPBN:

It was at a small settlement called Island Falls in Aroostook County that Teddy
Roosevelt first encountered William Wingate Sewall, the legendary upcountry
woodsman who was to have a profound influence on the young Roosevelt. The
relationship between these two men of very different backgrounds is chronicled
in "Becoming Teddy Roosevelt: How a Maine Guide Inspired America's 26th
President," published by Down East Books. The author, Andrew Vietze, is himself
a registered Maine guide, as well as an award-winning writer. Vietze says it's
surprising that so little has been written about Bill Sewall until now.

Vietze's book can be seen here.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Good Salary. Little Work. Soft Snap! (April 7, 2008)
Related: Wanted: Skilled Mainers (February 26, 2008)

Stephen King Praises Beverly Jensen's Forthcoming Book

Via Jay Silverman, Jensen's widower:

Every now and then--maybe two or three times in a decade--a book comes along
that's so good you want to buttonhole strangers on the street, show it to them,
and say: "Read this! It will fill you up and make you glad you're alive!" The
late Beverly Jensen's The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay is exactly that
kind of book. It roars from hilarity to horror to heartbreak, sometimes in the
space of ten or twenty pages, then back again to hilarity. It's profane, loving,
hardnosed, and completely beautiful.

In other Beverly Jensen news, her short story "Wake" (the short story that appeared in the edition of The Best American Short Stories that King edited) has been translated into Uzbek.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Beverly Jensen's Web Site is Up, Book to Be Published June 28 (January 21, 2010)

Beverly Jensen's Web Site is Up, Book to be Published June 28

Beverly Jensen, the late Westbrook native whose novel The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay will be published posthumously in late June by Viking Press, is now the focus of a Web site.

Besides featuring a thorough biography of Jensen and an assortment of content highlighting the book, the Web site also has audio of Jensen reading rough drafts of her stories aloud in 1999.

Jensen, a 1971 graduate of Westbrook High, passed away from cancer in 2003, at the age of forty-nine.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: The Sportswriter: Seven Questions for Edward Rielly (December 10, 2009)
Related: Tentative Date Set for Jensen Book (October 14, 2009)
Related: Finding 'Finding Beverly' (January 5, 2009)
Related: Viking Press to Publish Beverly Jensen's Work (December 15, 2008)
Related: Beverly Jensen Redux (January 5, 2008)
Related: Wet Wool, Warm Whiskey, and a Cold Church (January 2, 2008)

Smile

Portland-based Over a Cardboard Sea.

- John C.L. Morgan

Football: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture

The Sportswriter: Seven Questions for Edward Rielly

(Editor's Note: Edward Rielly, a St. Joseph's College professor of English and a Westbrook resident, recently authored the book Football: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Below are his answers to the seven questions I e-mailed to him.)

1. Besides this book, you've also written Baseball: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. What intrigues you about using sports as an allegory for American pop culture?

Both my earlier Baseball: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture and the recent Football: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture explore many ways in which that particular sport and American culture intersect, each affecting the other. With both sports (but not necessarily with all sports), there is such a historically strong interest in the game that we see a great many dimensions of our society represented in it.

I discuss in the football book such matters as race relations, the role of women, gun violence, disabilities, concussions, politicians, labor-management relations, the media, retirement issues, suicide, and many other topics. All of these are significant within football but also extremely important within our broader culture.

In some ways football, like baseball, is emblematic of American society. At times, football may be ahead of the curve, for example, integrating before large geographical segments of our country did; at other times, as in taking head injuries seriously, it has lagged behind. I am happy to see that football finally is catching up in this health area.

2. What are some of the most common roles baseball and football have played in reflecting or changing American pop culture?

Both sports have played huge roles in integrating our society and helping people to accept a multicultural nation. I think that they also emphasize the increasing globalization of the United States and the rest of the world. That is especially true in baseball with so many players coming from Latin American countries, but we also are seeing more players from Japan. The trend will continue. In football, as the NFL continues to play games abroad, as in the recent Patriots game in England, we probably will see more players coming here from other countries. Of course, the impact of these sports is widespread.

I mentioned a lot of connections earlier, but we also see these games yielding some outstanding films and literature. If we do not think that football has a big impact on us, we should remember the Super Bowl. Who would be so foolish as to schedule a meeting or other event when the Super Bowl is being played?

3. What are some of the biggest differences between the two sports in the roles they've played in pop culture?

Baseball achieved great popularity in the nineteenth century and to a great extent has retained that popularity. College football went through a golden age of popularity in the 1920s, but professional football did not reach something close to parity with other major sports until television became a major player in the late 1950s. The championship game between the New York Giants and Baltimore Colts, with Johnny Unitas leading the Colts to a dramatic overtime victory, is often credited with being the turning point for professional football. In my book, I call that contest football's greatest game--a subjective judgment, but one shared by many people.

It is hard today to believe that until then professional football was no better than the fifth favorite sport, behind baseball, boxing, horse racing, and college football. So football, especially professional football, has lagged behind baseball historically in popularity, thus limiting its impact on American society.

When General Douglas MacArthur chose a sport as a way to encourage the Japanese after World War II to accept American democratic principles, he picked baseball, not football. Of course, baseball had been popular in Japan before the war, and MacArthur was a former baseball player. Perhaps if General Eisenhower, a football star at Army, had been choosing, he might have selected football.

When the Japanese wanted to insult American soldiers, they hurled derogatory comments about Babe Ruth across the lines. Conversely, when U.S. troops came upon someone they thought might be a Nazi infiltrator, they would quiz him on baseball facts. The assumption was that any true American knew about baseball.

4. Baseball is, of course, frequently described as America's past time. Do you think that continues to be true, or do you think football as overtaken baseball's claim as America's past time?

Continuing what I just said, I would add that because of the longer and steadier relationship between baseball and the United States, and the perception that baseball is a quintessentially democratic pastime (something almost everyone at some level can play), baseball still deserves the title of America's National Pastime. The number of people following the sport today, in my opinion, is not the deciding factor regarding that title.

5. Which entry in the book is the most meaningful to you?

That is a really hard question to answer. I will take the liberty of answering it a little differently. As a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, I included a few more entries dealing with the Fighting Irish than perhaps someone else would have chosen. I will opt for the Notre Dame entries collectively as my personal favorites.

6. As a soccer fanatic I can't help but ask: How long before I can pick up a copy of a book in which you explore the relationship between soccer and American pop culture?

My grandchildren love soccer, and my son coaches it. However, when I was growing up in Wisconsin, no one around there played soccer. I am sure that a great many people now do, but soccer was not a part of my childhood. I never connected to it the same way that I did to baseball and football. Of course, soccer does not have the same long tradition within the United States as they enjoy. All of this is to say that although soccer may deserve a similar volume, it is unlikely to come from me.

7. Is there anything you'd like to add?

Any writer is likely to add the hope that people will actually read his or her book. My Football: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture can be purchased at Border's, ordered through amazon.com or directly from the University of Nebraska Press, or, in fact, requested through any bookstore.

Of course, I'm biased in this matter, but I think that it's a good read. It is the type of book that a person can move through a bit at a time, reading an entry here, another there, whatever topics seem especially interesting. If anyone has a question or wants to contact me, I can be reached at erielly2@earthlink.net.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: On Location: 19 Monroe Avenue (September 9, 2008)

Nightmare Scenario

In these National Geographic videos, Portland is the victim of a dirty bomb attack:





MPBN has information on the making of this show, and the PPH published an op-ed last Friday about how the federal government would respond to such an occurence.

The one-hour show was made by the Maine-based Lone Wolf Documentary Group.

Have a nice day.

- John C.L. Morgan

The Way We Get By

MPBN is airing this 90-minute documentary tonight at 9p. FMI.

- John C.L. Morgan

Weekend Reading

Check out Lawrence Sargent Hall's "The Ledge," an award-winning short story about a Maine fisherman's Christmas Day duck-hunting trip with his son and nephew.

I challenge you to read it (or better yet, listen to it) without getting choked up.

- John C.L. Morgan

Homer in the White House

Art critic James Gardner on the Obamas' selection of Winslow Homer's painting Sunset as one of the pieces of art adorning the White House's walls (slide 5 of 9):

This is more like it. We elect our presidents to
hang Winslow Homers on the walls of the White House! This 19th century painter
is thought to embody the rugged, outdoorsy nature of the American character, the
ethos of the frontier. Though reared in the art of Europe, Homer's style and
content are essentially American. The present work is surely one of his better
paintings, very daring indeed in its flirtations with abstraction. It could
almost be a Franz Kline. The Obamas have chosen well.

Homer lived on Prouts Neck in Scarborough from 1883 until his death in 1910, and the Portland Museum of Art bought the artist's studio in 2006.

- John C.L. Morgan

On the Second Maine

TIME magazine recently profiled the Second Maine Militia, of which the novelist Carolyn Chute and her husband is heavily involved:

The purpose of the annual meeting, the same as
it has been since the militia started in 1995, was to bring together the
politics of left and right over speeches, food, live music, and, of course,
live ammo. The attendees were a wildly diverse group: young activists
and anarchists in black, old beat-up Maine woodsman with beards to their bellies,
retired white-haired college professors, Second Amendment zealots,
conservatives, libertarians, Marxists. But they all shared the belief that the
U.S. government has lost its moral authority, that both political parties had
"degenerated," as one attendee put it, "into whores for wealth and arbiters of
empire."

- John C.L. Morgan

(Update: The Portland Phoenix's Rick Wormwood also wrote about the Second Maine Militia's annual meeting.)

Related: Longfellow in Everyday Life (March 10, 2009)
Related: How Real Maine Men Sleep (February 5, 2009)
Related: Quote of the Day: Heidi Julavits (October 13, 2008)
Related: Putting Maine Literature on the Map (September 3, 2008)
Related: Good Salary. Little Work. Soft Snap! (April 7, 2008)

Quote, Unquote: Edwin Arlington Robinson

"Two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we take; the larger kind we feel for what we give."

- Edwin Arlington Robinson, a Mainer who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1922, 1925, and 1928. Three collections of his poems--Children of the Night, The Man Against the Sky, and The Three Taverns--are available for free at Project Gutenberg.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Did You Know? (August 6, 2008)
Related: Good Salary. Little Work. Soft Snap! (April 7, 2008)