Down East Blogs
The Wit & Wisdom of Maine
Maine Nature
George's Outdoor News
George Smith of Mount Vernon is a writer, TV show host, political and public policy consultant, hunter, angler, and avid birder who happens to be most proud of his three children and two grandsons.
Birding - The Time is Now!
When God was designing a warbler, He tried a lot of different color schemes, and apparently had trouble choosing one. So Him being God, he used them all!
Consider the Wilson’s Warbler: bright yellow face and belly, greenish top, black cap and eye. Or the Northern Parula: blue head and wings with striking white wing bars, yellow throat, black and rusty chest bands. Wow!
Maine Media
Media Mutt
Al Diamon
Beem Attacks Non-Profit News Operation
Off the Beem: The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting has annoyed a liberal journalist by producing what he calls “So What?” stories.
Maine Humor
Just Ask Ida
Ida LeClair is the brainchild of humorist Susan Poulin.
Mission Impossible
Saturday was my birthday. I had a ten dollars off coupon from Victorian’s Secret, so that’s where I went to buy a new bra.
They say you should get measured for a bra every year, especially if your weight has changed. I’ve been on the WW since January, and have pretty much hit my goal, so I was due.
Maine Life
Salt Stories
The Salt Stories blog features the work of students at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, a 15-week educational program training aspiring writers, radio producers, and photographers in the art of nonfiction storytelling. We believe everyone has a story to tell, and we work with our students to use journalistic skills and ethics to produce powerful and objective work. Each semester we are proud to send a group of documentarians and nonfiction storytellers out into the world hoping that they continue to shape our ever-changing media landscape.
I Like It Here
A day in the life of Brendon Shea. No matter where he goes, he always comes home to Biddeford, ME. Produced by Masumi Hayashi-Smith and Luke Streckfuss from the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies.
Maine Life
Maine: The Week in Review
Maine, the way life was last week.
Tips On Feeding Maine’s Vermin
Apparently, there’s no living creature so repulsive that some kind-hearted soul won’t feed it.
Except, possibly, Newt Gingrich.
In Rockland, a woman has been putting out food each day for the seagulls. She told the Bangor Daily News she buys fourteen or fifteen crates of bread each week for her avian friends, who would otherwise have to fend for themselves on a diet of dead things and trash.
Maine Food
The Golden Dish
John Golden has written about food and dining for Gourmet Magazine, Cuisine Magazine, the New York Times, New York Post, and, most recently, wrote the blog Food for Thought on the Portland Press Herald’s MaineToday.com. He was also the NY editor of Cuisine Magazine and Publisher/editor Great Foods Magazine. In his highly opinionated blog, John reports on his experiences dining out all over Maine and on his visits to the many farmers’ markets throughout the state.
The Next Chapter In the Vignola-Cinque Terre Story
On a recent Friday night the scene at Vignola was impressively frenetic: a packed room of diners illuminating an otherwise dreary rainy evening. I walked in to have dinner at the bar, which had only one seat left, a crammed space that wasn’t too appealing. The hostess suggested that I go to the bar in the next dining room where it would be quieter and more composed.
Maine Politics
The Tipping Point
Mike Tipping writes about the politics of the Pine Tree State, covering Maine like black flies in June. Mike lives in Westbrook, Maine, works for the Maine People's Alliance, and blogs daily at www.mainepolitics.net
Dirty Tricks at the Maine GOP Convention
Controversy continues from the Maine GOP Convention which occurred last weekend, including questions about whether the results – a massive delegate victory for Ron Paul – will be challenged by the Romney campaign.
Maine Food
Notes from a Maine Kitchen
Kathy Gunst is a cookbook author and the award-winning resident chef for WBUR's Here and Now (heard on over sixty public radio stations). Her newest book, Notes from a Maine Kitchen, will be published by Down East in September 2011.
May I Take a Nap Now, Please?
It’s getting dark. Really dark. Yesterday I looked outside and it was nearly black. I looked at the clock: 3:48 in the afternoon. The term “afternoon” implies that we are only mid-way through the day. But according to the scene outside my kitchen window, it is night.
We are close to the shortest day of the year and my inner clock is fighting hard to stay awake all day and remain on schedule. I am ready for dinner at 5 p.m. and bed at 8 p.m. Early bird special, anyone?
Maine Fiction
Island Wars
Sex, drugs, and lobster fishing — it’s all happening this summer on Grand Seal Island! This fictitious blog by author Michael Evans chronicles the daily exploits of Donovan Graham, a recent college graduate whose first assignment is to cover the escalating border dispute playing out between the United States and Canada on an island off the Mainecoast. Add your own comments to those submitted by Donovan’s spurious online observers, and don’t worry if you miss a few entries — Down East will publish them all in book form this fall, at the end of the series.
Goodbye
The Village is holding the Summer’s Death bash tonight.
They do it every year — at least, when they remember to. It’s a big affair that involves the importation of boatloads of booze, trunkloads of pot, and baggieloads of other things. Mitch told me about it, although it took work to decipher his Venice Beach dialect into understandable English. (You start by subtracting the word “dude” from every third position in each sentence.)
Maine Life
LiveWork Portland
LiveWork Portland's PortlandNow blog covers the creative economy in Portland, Maine—from art, design, fashion and food, to film, music, science and technology. Our goal is to increase the visibility of Portland's many creative communities and connect what is going on here with cultural developments in other parts of the country. Beyond the blog, LiveWork Portland is also an informative resource for creative practitioners and entrepreneurs who are interested in relocating to Portland.
Picnic Music and Arts Festical in Portland
When Noah DeFilippis left Maine for San Francisco at the age of 17, he sought a sense of the urbane. In his return to Portland a few years ago, DeFilippis found that cosmopolitanism nestled improbably amongst Maine’s famous Pick-and-Paws and flea markets. DeFilippis and his wife, Amy Teh, started “Pinecone + Chickadee,” a business named for Maine’s state tree and bird in a tip-of-the-cap to Vacationland.
Maine Media
Coffee With That
A blog by Maine novelist Richard Grant. Art, life, gardening, kid-raising, culture, community, music, political intrigue, pointed commentary, and links to all that is cool in Maine.
SOS, Down East!
One of the livelier points of the drive along coastal U.S. 1, at least until a couple years back, was an old farm in the town of Warren that appeared to be the forward operations post for a platoon of Marines. Actually there was only one guy in there, with three generations of his family, but he made a pretty good show of it.
Maine Life
Down East Blog
A blog for Down East news, thoughts, and guests.
From Maine with Love — A Meal to Remember
On February 9th, two Maine chefs romanced a crowd at the James Beard House in New York City. Chef Michael Salmon of Camden’s Hartstone Inn and Geoffroy Deconinck of Natalie’s at the Camden Harbour Inn cooked up an incredible feast featuring Maine’s spectacular seafood, from oysters and lobster to scallops and crab.
Maine Life
Sea Glass & Scrap Iron
Eva Murray writes of all-things Matinicus, including wrenches, whoopie pies, and wayward reporters in search of quaint Maine.
Peace, War, and Political Cartoons on Matinicus Island
A former island teacher who has fallen in love with Matinicus (as people occasionally do) returned for a visit last week and was amazed at how much there was to...attend. The little community was buzzing with the goofy summer socializing we enjoy — perhaps a sophisticated tete-a-tete hanging around the grill at the Farmer’s Market (sorry, no farmers this year, but wicked good sausages).
Maine Food
The Maine Mouth is the place where you can get the word of mouth advice that will lead you to the good eats—and all that is related to it—from York to Fort Kent.
Sandwiches and Sticky Pudding for Saints
This Sunday the New Orleans Saints will be on TV screens across Maine, but there’s only one place to go to sample some authentic New Orleans grub. Po’ Boys and Pickles (1124 Forest Avenue, 207-518-9735), which opened in Portland this past December, is a low-key southern sandwich shop that is cheap enough, good enough, and trendy enough to become a local favorite.
