About Friggin' Time!

My dad popped me a message the other day, with the good news:

Tomorrow, after seven years and 197 locations, Apple is finally opening an Apple Store in Maine!

The Maine Mall gets the goods; anyone with time should swing by the opening (starts at 9:30) and try and score me a free T-shirt.

Wish I were there!

Shipwreck Photos

Nice collection of beautiful photographs featuring wrecked ships; reminded me of the D.T. Sheridan, the iron tug that sits to this day on the southern coast of Monhegan Island, Maine. I lived on Monhegan for about five months after graduating from Wesleyan, and visited the wreck several times. I have some Flickr pictures here, for those interested.

The Apple Store: Moving North

Looks like Apple is finally opening up a retail store in Maine:

The maker of the MacBook laptop, the iPod and the iPhone has quietly made moves to open an Apple Store at the Maine Mall, according to job listings on Apple.com.

As the article points out, the closest shop has been in Salem, New Hampshire. Not good enough.

For contrast (and an unfair comparison), I can think of seven Apple Store within a 20 mile radius of my apartment in West Hollywood. And yes, that matters, when you want to test-drive a product before buying it – something I recommend on all over-$1000 purchases.

But now, at last, I can move back home...

More on "The Ruins"

A while back I posted about Bowdoinham-boy Carter Smith and his new film The Ruins; the movie opens today and is getting solid reviews.

Massawyrm from Ain't It Cool News says:

Newcomer director Carter Smith really does his job here. He manages to choose all the right angles to keep the same characters in the confines of the same 30 or so feet interesting at all times. He tempers just the right amount of blood and sound work with off screen injuries and death to keep it both brutal but never over the top. And he never gets gratuitous with anything. Everything is in just the right amount to feel natural.

Capone, from the same website, has this to say:

First-time feature director Carter Smith does not spare us the blood and guts, but he doesn't go overboard with it either, especially when the young med student is forced to perform emergency surgery a couple of times in the group's time atop the temple... The Ruins is great, freak-out-worthy material that will have you questioning every little bump under your skin and itch you can't quite reach. Oh, I need to see this again very soon.

Even Ain't It Cool News' founder, Harry Knowles, seems to love it, in his rambling, horribly-written way.

In addition to the billboards I see everywhere, I checked my e-mail to find the marketing for this film is going full force: Amazon.com had sent me the following notice:

I can't say this is my kind of movie – intense gore-fest horror films aren't at the top of my list. But I'll be out there showing my support, and if any of you want to join me, let me know.

Dreamworks is going full-steam on this one; if the reviews were bad, I'd say they were trying to bum-rush the opening weekend, but with the solid reviews everyone seems to be giving, it looks to me like the studio believes in this one.

Not bad for a kid from Bowdoinham!

Carter Smith Makes A Movie

Carter Smith, the son of a (great) Bowdoinham Elementary School teacher, just had his new film The Ruins looked at on CHUD; his first feature film, Bugcrush, was shot in my high school, and it looks like he's doing very well.

Take a look at the IMDB page for The Ruins; that's Grant Major of The Lord of the Rings doing production design, Darius Khondji of Delicatessen, La cité des enfants perdus, and Se7en who's shooting it, and Dreamworks that's financing/distributing it. Plus, some guy named Ben Stiller is producing.

Congratulations, Carter!

Dumbass

It's hard to believe anyone can take this seriously; every few years, Northern Maine starts talking about secession, but that makes a lot more sense, and also has the merit of having become almost traditional. When the loggers and farmers say their interests are different from those of the tourism/vacation industry, I get it, even though I disagree. But when the mayor of a town that relies on tourism starts complaining about supporting our northern friends, that's just plain stupid.

"The state of Maine needs South Portland more than South Portland needs the state of Maine," Soule said in his inaugural address to about 35 people in the council chambers.

If your inaugural address is to 35 people, maybe you should settle down a bit.

CHOW Profiles My Gaffer!

That's my Dad!

[c/o Yowell]

Patriots Complete Perfect Season

Damn, this millennium has been wicked good to New England sports fans!

That's My Hometown!

From the New York Times, on smelting in Bowdoinham(!):

Rarely are you distracted from the drinking and the talking by the actual need to catch fish,” he said. “It’s an occasion for high sociability — and it’s not like there are so many of them in Maine — masked cleverly as a kind of sport.

Truer words have never been spoken; this is exactly why people up here love smelting.

News From the Homefront

My home state of Maine made the top of the news cycle today, even all the way out here in Los Angeles.

Turns out Portland is making waves by allowing middle school medical clinics to offer prescription birth control.

The usual debate of "sex is horrifying and this encourages it" versus "kids are having it, let's treat the reality" is playing out on a municipal (and, I guess, national) level. Big surprise there.

pro·gres·sive (adj.): Promoting or favoring progress toward better conditions or new policies, ideas, or methods.

Because with 17 (!) pregnancies in three schools over four years (!), clearly everything is working fine.


[Note: Follow the link and look at the picture of the "horrified" woman. This is what we're fighting here, people!]