Concert Band Concert

What a lineup of fun music for a Sunday afternoon. I was blown away by the trumpeter, especially on his chilling rendition of taps played from off stage at the beginning of the patriotic medley at the end. I came to see Daniel in his last performance with the community band and was delighted to see Nicole (whom I think I had seen in the band before) and Christopher (whom I had no idea played trombone).

7/4/2011 Town Band concert program

6/25/2011 Kingfield Pops

At The Kingfield Pops. This is David Mallett performing. His song "Garden Song" (Inch by inch, row by row...) has been recorded by over 100 different artists.

After a day of arts and crafts and mini concerts (we didn't go to that part of the day), there were a series of performances on the main stage, all building up to the main event: The Bangor Symphony. They mostly play short, familiar, patriotic, and/or fun songs so that the children will enjoy themselves and associate good times with great music. It works for the grown ups, too.

No burn ban here! Great fireworks top off a great evening of fun.

Kingfield Artwalk

http://www.kingfieldusa.com/



Last night at the movie, Stephanie asked me if I wanted to join her and Margaret. I didn't really understand what the adventure was that I was being invited to, but I knew if I went with Margaret and Stephanie, whatever the event was, I would thoroughly enjoy it. So I accepted. I didn't even know what time or where, I just knew it was going to be on Friday.

Stephanie picked me up at school around 4:00, we headed to Margaret's and from there we walked to Sugarwood Gallery in Farmington for a little art gallery opening night. A local art teacher had the works of her students on display (many of which were also for sale). They will stay on display at the gallery for a month until the first Friday of March at which there will be a new display. Apparently, this has been going on for quite a while and I just never knew it. There were some beautiful pieces of art, lively conversation, light refreshments, and a lot of fun.

Then we walked back to Margaret's, got in the car (after helping push the car over the last hump in the snow-covered driveway), and headed to Kingfield. Tonight was their Artwalk. A travel site's article about this event states, "Unlike most Art Walks, which run during the warmer months, leave it to Kingfield, in the shadow of Sugarloaf Mountain, to schedule its new first Friday of the month Art Walks from December through March."

We ran into Joe and Doris, who both work at UMF, and about a million friends of Margaret's. We went to 3 galleries and an exhibit in the offices of a local real estate agent. The art was wonderful and the amount of people quite surprising. We started at a gallery that has a barn for one gallery and a small room for a second gallery. This was so weird to me, though I started to recollect that I've heard of it, but the barn was really really cold inside. It was colder inside the barn than it was outside in the elements. Each gallery had some kind of refreshments to offer and we met the gallery owners and even some of the artists. It was all so personal and so much fun.

The gallery in the old schoolhouse had beautiful nature photography. The gallery is owned by the Orcutts--the couple that takes the photos--so it's gallery, studio, and living quarters all rolled into one. Their photos were all of winter in Maine. They were spectacular. They had some of the Wire Bridge that I love so much. I've never been to the Wire Bridge in winter but now I'm inspired to do so. The Orcutts created these cool candle holders made out of ice. They were a beautiful way to welcome us to the gallery. As the 3 of us stood admiring them, we started talking about The Ice Hotel in Quebec City. hmmmm sounds like a road trip to me!!

We didn't go to one of the galleries or the Ski Museum or the antique shop. That means we'll have to go back, right? :-) But by now, we were hungry, so we went to Longfellow's, which I had heard of and has been recommended to me many times, but I had never been. I ordered the special-of-the-day pork loin and it was delicious. (This photo doesn't do it justice....bad lighting and not-so-hot photography skills.)

Spontaneity

Some people in Maine think I'm not very spontaneous. Friends in Texas would tell you otherwise. I'm glad to prove the Maine folks wrong but that comment also made me stop to analyze and determine that I think my spontaneity has declined since coming here. Partly because of fewer opportunities for spontaneity and partly because I get to engrossed in my job during the long semester that I only practice the art of spontaneity pretty much during winter vacation and summer vacation.

Time to seek out more opportunities for spontaneity!! It will help a lot that I'm hanging out now with spontaneous people. Thanks, Stephanie, for the call at 5:20 to see if I wanted to go see The King's Speech at 6:50. I did and I went and I loved it!!

I really need to go to the movies more often. The Narrow Gauge Cinema is minutes from my apartment and has great seats, great sound, and incredibly reasonable prices. $6 for a prime time viewing of a first-run feature film. You can't beat it. Oh wait, you can: If you buy a 10 pack of tickets, they're only $5.50 a ticket. And even better, you can buy a 10 pack of combination tickets for $70 which means I paid $7 for a movie ticket, a small root beer, and a small bag of buttered popcorn. And actually, I paid less than that because I bought my 10 pack during the Early Bird Sale which means I got 10% off of that.

Come any time and I'll spontaneously offer you a chance to go to the movies with me on the cheap.