Lee blew down
all
the wild apples
to ferment
for crows
and deer
to turn tipsy
Author: Jnana Hodson
In downsizing to a remote fishing village in Downeast Maine, this eclectic writer feels everything's coming together.
Never mind the turkey
goose
in the cranberry
bog
neck
tall above the green
water
A SMALL PARTY, MAYBE WE’RE HOSTING, and we have a small animal, bunny or kitten? but something’s wrong with it, like it bites people, yet we set it on the floor and it zips wildly through the crowd, a beeline to the wall, which it hits or bounces from, and zips back again before people are fully aware of what’s happening.
Everyone’s amazed by its speed.
FILLING IN FOR A FRIEND AS A WAITER. When I get my first paycheck, I’m so overwhelmed listening to the pitches of my coworkers to quit my job as a journalist, I buy a luxury foreign car. Etc. Real money.
Chinese restaurant
in a former strip-mall
pet store
not sure I’d really
want to eat there
next to the Post Office
If you’re an author, here’s what you’re up against
Let’s begin with the competition. Readers are a minority in today’s society. If you want to tell your story or deliver the data in readable terms, it’s a shrinking audience, one further diced by increasing alternatives.
Let’s start with the first question. Do you read books? If not, nobody’s interested in yours. Period. Forget all the movies and so on of fame and wealth.
Google Books concluded that 129,864,880 books have been published since the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press in 1440 up to 2010. But, thanks to self-publishing and ebooks, there’s been an explosion since.
It’s enough to make the writing life feel futile.
Here’s how they’re grown
Cranberries are often grown in enclosures like this, which are then flooded. The berries then float for harvest.
One bed stands above the other.
This is Mingo’s in Calais, not the only one in eastern Maine.
Does every act of creation begin with demolition?
Or at least making a mess?
The observation here originates with an artist’s amazement at the mess at the beginning of the book of Genesis in the Bible. As panelist on the Bill Moyers’ PBS series, he picked up on the matter of chaos at the outset. Not the blank canvas but rather all the surrounding disarray, probably including thinking.
More recently, I’ve been seeing that in our own home renovation project. For a while, there was a lot less of our house than when we began. How quickly the Dumpster got filled and another delivered!
Cranberries!
Not everybody loves them, but they are a Thanksgiving tradition, jellied or stewed or otherwise.
Here’s some background.
- They’re one of the few fruits native to America.
- They don’t grow in water but the berries do float, which is how many of them are harvested, starting with a machine called an eggbeater.
- They also bounce.
- Only five percent are sold fresh. And eating one raw will be unpleasantly tart.
- Americans consume 400 million pounds of cranberries a year – roughly a pound and a half per person – a fifth of that during Thanksgiving week. How do you measure up?
- A gallon of juice requires 4,400 berries. Did we mention it’s a great antioxidant and high in Vitamin C?
- The “Sex in the City” TV series in the 1990s boosted the popularity of the Cosmopolitan cocktail, which features cranberry juice and vodka. Well, there’s a classic version with gin instead. Cosmos are typically served in martini glasses, after all.
- I’m quite fond of Craisins, the dried berry version that goes nicely in green salads and yoghurt, at the top of my list.
- Seven out of every ten cranberries sold in the world today come from Ocean Spray, a farmer-owned cooperative with more than 700 grower-families.
- Wisconsin is the leading producer in the U.S., followed by Massachusetts. A few are even grown here in Downeast Maine.
WWJD in practice?
Quakers advise living in simplicity, but it can be complicated.
For example, how do we feel about heated car seats?
Especially if the car already came equipped with them?
And, for extra points, was purchased used?
As another example, how about eating fresh scallops in season? Sure, they’re expensive but also so heavenly. Cooked at home, a dinner can be priced out around the cost of a meal at McDonald’s these days and will likely be healthier. The morsels are also so simple to cook, if you’re paying attention.
If you’ve worked through the Money Talks exercises on my Chicken Farmer blog, you know I’m a believer in simple luxuries, things my frugal wife labels as Quality of Life improvements. These can be as simple as a great cup of coffee savored in the morning, rather than a full pot gulped habitually. Or a fine sweater purchased at a yard sale that still gets compliments a dozen years later.
Looking closely also points to many conflicts we see as First World problems, things that upset spoiled Americans and Europeans and the rich in other realms but are utterly beyond the reach of most of the world’s people. You know, even having a car.
Those could prompt a Tendrils here at the Red Barn, but I’m passing for now. I mean, some folks are upset having to eat leftovers while the majority of the global populace is going hungry.
My most recent round with this arose over the funeral arrangements for someone who was not exactly in our family but still being handled by one of us rather than one of hers. As I was saying about complications?
Without getting into the details, I can say that hers, shaped by family and friends’ expectations, easily cost many times more than a Quaker burial would have – and the memorial service itself would have been free and far more personable.
When I go, I definitely want any earthly wealth to go to my family and worthy endeavors than being poured into the ground. OK?
Now, back to those car seats. How do we feel about air-conditioning in the car?
Turkeys in the wild
Here’s how they look much of the rest of the year around here. And there are a lot of them who surprisingly disappear this time of the year.
Kinisi 184
Barbarian
Barbers
As for a film society’s choices
The Eastport Arts Center was a major factor in my decision to relocate here. Quoddy Voices is one of its constituent groups.
Another was the Northern Lights film society, which only recently resurfaced but greatly diminished after the Covid hiatus.
I’ve found its offerings invigorating and sometimes disturbing. The deep discussions that follow the showings are especially valued, even for the recent Carnival of Souls and Night of the Living Dead horror vein.
What was perplexing was that the society was essentially two people, one a veteran of its 47-year history, give or take a few seasons.
They were asking those of us who kept coming each week for our input regarding possible selections from the two vendors available to us. Learning of the licensing hurdles for presenting movies even at a nonprofit arts venue was daunting. I’ll spare you the details.
I will, though, share my response to the possibilities and the situation we’re facing.
~*~
As I wrote:
Seems to me our thinking about the film society comes down to building a larger audience. That, in turn, adds considerations of “branding” – the image the public has – as well as the types of films we air and even our geographic range of appeal.
What do we show this week that will bring people back for our next film? That is, what’s our continuity or identity? What has them awaiting the next round? Are we an “art” films circle, an awards-driven following, a sensual experience sharing group? Do our screenings enhance or compete with other arts ventures in the region?
If we’re limiting ourselves to two showings a month, let me suggest making those the second and third Sunday evenings of the month. I’m feeling there might be a “bounce” in favor of that second showing, perhaps even with some common thread for the month. Let me also push for 6 pm so more viewers from throughout Washington County can readily attend. (Note, too, the problems of getting anyone out on a Sunday night, plus the competition with the winter Sunday afternoon series at the arts center and Stage East matinees.)
My thinking is that we might get some synergy and energy that way, especially in getting the word out. The Tides comes out on the second Friday (we might have occasions when the showing falls a week before that).
Orchestras and live theater companies have long relied on season subscribers but have been finding, even a few decades before Covid, that the model was eroding. Festival programming – a cluster – has been one alternative that’s created excitement and ticket sales. I’m seeing that as something that might work with the second/third Sundays model, perhaps even giving us the option of adding a fourth Sunday for a suitable extension.
That said, we are also shaped by the collections of our two distributors.
At the first, I’m steering clear of the traditional art films for now – the Italian, French, German, Japanese, etc.
Instead, I’d look at the USA (not Hollywood, for the most part, which is the global conglomerate movie center) and three Canadian films, many of them documentaries, and at the Latin films – Mexico, Cuba, Spain, Portugal, Brazil. Viridiana stands out on that front. Washington County has a large and largely overlooked Hispanic population.
Cluster options here: Orson Welles, Robert Downey Sr., Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, silents The Freshmen, The Kid Brother, The Most Dangerous Game, and King of Kings (if we can keep a straight face), Norman Mailer, John Huston (Under the Volcano and Wise Blood).
Among the docudramas etc.: A Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking), Burroughs: the Movie, Don’t Look Back (Dylan), For All Mankind (astronauts), Gimme Shelter, God’s Country (Louis Malle), Jimi Plays Monterey or Monterey Pop, Louie Bluie, Multiple Maniacs (John Waters), Eating Raoul (Warhol).
Titles that catch my attention: The Baron of Arizona, The Beales of Grey Gardens, Border Radio, Buena Vista Social Club, Cameraperson, Carnival of Souls, Chop Shop, Clean Shaven, Desert Hearts, Detour (possibly anchoring an international film noir survey), Dillinger Is Dead (OK, it’s Italian but still), possibly with I Shot Jesse James, Drylongso, The Honeymoon Killers, Push Cart Man, Paris Texas (yeah, it’s French), A Poem Is a Naked Person, Poto and Cabengo, Routine Pleasures, Smooth Talker, Slacker, Sweet Sweetback’s Badass Song, Symbiopsychotaxism, Twin Peaks, Thank You and Good Night, and The Watermelon Woman.
Looking way ahead, sometime it might be fun to do a festival based on Japanese Godzilla fixation.
And then, at the other: For the most part, these offerings strike me as highly commercial creations most people stream at home. Still, American audiences look for star-power rather than directors, so this might provide some extra punch for attendance. That said, some offerings to consider: Barbie, Oppenheimer, Gran Turismo, Joy Ride, Insidious, Tar, Asteroid City, Dear Evan Hansen, The Little Mermaid (with ArtsWalk), The Outfit, Samaritan, The Black Phone, and Cruella (if it’s not too Disney).
~*~
Well, we’ve had a second meeting and set a course for the next year, one that seems to be generating a buzz. We’re focusing on one boffo film a month, with both a matinee and evening showing, and tying the offerings into other events happening in town, when possible.
The first one is indeed Barbie on the Thanksgiving weekend.
Jnana's Red Barn 