realitytimes.com: Photoblog

A Bee Shines in Portland

2009-06-24T18:54:00.009-04:00

Zzzzzz goes springtime into early summer. A floating bee works away in full bloom.

Amazing Tale of Man & Koala in Australia

2009-02-11T01:16:00.003-05:00

There is hope for harmony on earth, and this instance on February 9, 2009, in Australia where a koala willingly accepts the assistance of a firefighter during a forest blaze is an amazing and touching example of man and nature at peace.

I hope this makes all of us become more compassionate and aware that all forms of life on this planet are dependent upon one another in so many ways not often displayed as overtly as this particular incident. We are all creatures of varying levels, forms of life that emanate from the one source, and science today has shown that the DNA blueprint of all earthly creatures is more alike than it is diverse, and that we all share the common oneness of life at this wavelength of existence.

Change Rings Loud At Bioneers Conference

2008-12-22T21:32:00.007-05:00

PORTLAND, Maine - Sunday, October 19, 2008 - Native American elder and teacher, gkidedanamoogk, of the Wampanoag tribe, speaks at the University of Southern Maine's Hannaford Hall during the state's first Bioneers Conference hosted by Kindle Maine and the Northern New England Bioneers. Speaking of great changes to come as we witness the breakdown of societal and economic systems, his lecture concluded the three-day conference with a message of hope that people from all backgrounds can heal together along with the native tribes. "Either with you, or without you, we will heal," he proclaimed.

He recounted an incredible story about his lakeside visit earlier in the morning on Sebago Lake, and of the mist rising off the water with wisps appearing as spirits on the surface. He offered a prayer of thanks to the lake, for all it has done to support the life of the people in the region, for all the abuse and pollution it has endured and healed from. And an eagle appeared in response to his expression of gratitude.

A Pumpkin Patch of Light Shines for Sunshine

2008-10-20T19:37:00.009-04:00

Short of the world record but tall on hope, Camp Sunshine's Maine Pumpkin festival produced an impressive number of lit jack-o'-lanterns - over 23,000 - in a "brilliant" effort to raise funds and awareness of the vacation camp for families of critically ill children on the shores of Sebago Lake in Casco.

Local Vigil: Universal Effect

2008-09-30T11:45:00.012-04:00

An unarmed security guard is shot and killed in a hospital parking lot in Portland, giving the local community a close-up glimpse of the violence going on all around the world on a daily basis. But the people attending a community vigil for James Angelo shined a brighter beam and example of how peace can prevail, and the overwhelming positive effect of the support they provided will reach further and remain long after the sadness of the moment dissipates.

Happy Trails have no tar on them

2008-07-02T14:47:00.006-04:00

John Andrews, Eastern Trail Alliance president, masters the July 1 ceremony in Old Orchard Beach.

A new trail section was dedicated yesterday linking Scarborough and Old Orchard Beach, yet another section of the East Coast Greenway that aims to connect Calais, Maine, to Key West, Florida, with an alternative off-road bike/pedestrian throughway.

Nice to see that this new section is tarmac-free and has been designed as a hard-packed dirt path about the width of a large SUV (not that there will be any allowed on there!). This new section runs through the woods along the straightaway that consists of Portland Avenue and Milliken Mills Road, connecting at Old Blue Point Road to an existing Eastern Trail section that traverses Scarborough Marsh, jumps back to the road for a bit, and then continues into South Portland behind the Fickett Fields off Highland Avenue to Broadway, where the route ties together with the SP bike path and goes all the way to Spring Point. Another along-the-road section brings you across the Casco Bay Bridge to the "trail" head (it's mostly tar) at the end of Commercial Street in Portland, which is now partially a new road and cruise ship facility along the Eastern Promenade.

This section has for decades been used by snowmobilers and dirt bikers and was known for its muddy conditions, rarely ever drying up over the hot summer months. Lots of landfill must have been added to the soggy area and it will be interesting what Mother nature has to say about the new trail construction over time.

This is a spectacular route and just an awesome way to get to Old Orchard Beach from Portland by bicycle. You will experience by cutting across the marshes of Scarborough and taking the off-road way, that the route is a lot shorter and faster than you would probably have imagined. I've made the trip in not much more than 30 minutes at a very good pace, by mountain bike, and I highly recommend you try this out as an alternative to driving to OOB for your annual Pier Fries and Bill's Pizza slices. Bring your shorts and towel for the beach: parking the bike in the front row, beach-side, is a nice amenity and will make you glad you didn't drive...

Will Portland's New Train Station Look Like This?

2008-06-11T22:11:00.003-04:00

The Spirit of '76 Is Alive and Well

2008-04-30T23:30:00.007-04:00

The character Howard Beale in the movie "Network" (1976) was upset then; imagine how he feels about living in the year 2008.

Simple ways to save gas, reduce pollution.

2008-04-30T11:13:00.001-04:00

Trouble sleeping? You're not alone. Here's why:

2008-04-23T12:25:00.017-04:00

"Holes In Heaven? HAARP and Advances in Tesla Technology"

This video itself is at least 10 years old, so think about the technologies that have been created since, and imagine how much more advanced things have become that we don't know about yet!

"America the Mind-Controlled" - with video!

2008-04-21T10:00:00.018-04:00

The title of this post was the original song title for "America the Beautiful" until 1953 when it was changed by Congressional decree. *No, not really!

But what's in the video that follows - only Part 1 of 4 - is so true and shocking that the least I could do was start with a (very) little wry humor, and as well give you an easy out to dismiss the information and keep your mind illusion intact lest your psyche melt down on the sidewalk as the Smiths close in to cart you away screaming to some sort of asylum/FEMA prison/extraterrestrial incarceration facility.

What's no joke, is that it is true, you most likely are brainwashed. Our entire "American Society" has been subjected to it (and then some), and doesn't even realize it! It's a kind of "collective psychosis" - which took hold as we went from "citizen to consumer" into the stock market era. And if you don't play the game, if you don't live the lie, or God forbid you get angered at the hypocrisy and exploitation - then, you're the one labeled with the problem. Otherwise, the majority couldn't deal with the truth about themselves that consumerism masterfully masquerades as a reality unto itself. Therefore, if you're the only one looking at the truth about society's mind glue, you're considered the one who is "irrational" or at best marginalized or ignored. This is the proverbial "LaLa Land" within which the majority operates, while fear of well-being creates make-busy as an art form for ignoring the evildoings of "the man behind the curtain" in Oz-speak. Therefore allowing the machine to run...

The truth: get used to it, because there's soon gonna' be so much more of it coming around that it will be avoidable no longer, so you either face it, or disgrace it, don't even try erase it. And now's your time to choose. The "Face It or Disgrace It Truth Tour" starts June 14th. Tickets are still available as the mp3/CD is scheduled for May 1 release.

Capitalists, employing techniques derived from the Nazi movement in Germany in the 1930's, took control of the U.S. national psyche through advertising, media and movies following the principles of Sigmund Freud, which were adopted and applied by his nephew, Edward Bernays, who's "credited" with being "The Father of Public Relations" - a field that was previously named "propaganda" by the Nazis and also the Department of Propaganda by a wartime US government which employed Bernays through the 30's and sent him to Paris as their official propagandist for WWII. After the war, US corporations employed him to control the masses to sell products through appealing to irrational human urges through advertising and "PR". Basically following the blueprint of Freudian psychologists, society became completely controlled through its Capitalist lifestyle of consumerism and materialism - the monetization of your time on Earth.

Ironically, this Freudian mind view deemed the individual practically "stupid" or at least incompetent and therefore worthy of being taken advantage of and necessary to control, while a man who held a competing view at the time which viewed people as bright and talented and able to self-determine was literally thrown out of the world psychological community, his research books, papers and equipment burned or confiscated, and its author forced into an insane asylum by Sigmund's daughter, Anna Freud...

His name was Wilhelm Reich. Today there is the Wilhelm Reich Museum in Rangeley, Maine, where he conducted his eccentric research on the human energy system and its potential, among other things. He believed the opposite of the Freudian view, that true democracy was achievable, that people were basically good, and born that way to an overwhelming majority, or better, and that Freud's view actually created a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy by making people into the demons and then pointing the finger at them. What's wrong with this picture?

Now that we appear to have so many facts potentially pointing to 911 as an inside job that not even the Pope being used to invoke some sort of holier-than-thou image onto the grounds of this grand facade can hide, any reasonable, unwashed mind must at least be open to ponder other histories, even that perhaps the Holocaust has been victimized also as form of propagandist, or public relations if you prefer, "mind bait" to fuel the Freudian psycho-babble and give people a "valid" excuse to be afraid and agree with its hypothesis. This is not to say, and I would think it unreasonable to suggest that the Holocaust didn't happen, but what I think some people mean by that is something different, not so literal like an IBM tattoo. It's sort of the Jewish version of the Catholic crucifix, which represents a form of capital punishment and is held over parishioners' heads like a subconscious threat and used to make people obey. The underlying message is "fear and control" - which you can see eloquently presented in this BBC video right here:

America's Image: Backstabbers with a Smile

2008-04-03T14:51:00.009-04:00

Not one bit proud to be what it has become to mean to be American. Whether it's in your own neighborhood or at the corporate level, people seem more concerned with disrupting your happiness than with dealing with their own lives. And they'll sell you out in a heartbeat if they can find something on you that in their warped minds makes them somehow "ahead" or whatever you call it that results in being competitive in snow shoveling, dog walking, management position or profit sharing percentage. And no, if you ever stepped out from your protectionist border bubble you 'd see it's not this way everywhere else - even if it is that way somewhere else. In this small world of Remote-Control Mind Patrol where people automatically, almost frantically rush to do whatever the other guy is doing, which, however annoying, is better than nothing I guess, for filling in the emptiness of spirit, connection, compassion, even original thought.

Whether someone sees what you are doing "on paper," "on film," "on tape," - or NOT - you're choosing to do it, you're doing it, and nothing in this universe goes unpaid for. This is a universal law which doesn't necessarily show its face at the level of "court of law". Intent is the key factor, and whether or not your actions can be traced like a prostitute reservation on a politician's Paypal account, your intent determines your remiss. Intentionally causing distress in someone's life no matter if it crosses some line of legality, is rotten - in the workplace, on the highways, or in your own neighborhood. And it's at a shameful all-time high in this nation and almost brought to the level of praise-able!

That's warped, that's how far gone this society is and why it's even quicker to point to someone else as being the dysfunction, because an honest dysfunction blows their cover of lies and hidden truths about themselves. This has become a society of collective denial psychosis, and if you don't join the lie, you're the one who is ganged up on as having the problem, when if you aren't outraged by the state of our world at present then you're on too many prescription mind glue pills. If your answer is not change a thing and go on spreading your false goodness while over-breeding in an already cramped world and local community, then it looks like you're getting just what you deserve... Truth and true compassion will prevail.

The govt. does control the weather

2008-03-25T11:57:00.008-04:00

When you piss on something long enough, it turns yellow.
© John Alphonse forever

How many times have I experienced small-minded Portlanders actually get angry and defensive at the thought of government intervention in weather events? I mean, actually pissed off because I've suggested the idea into the open air that once was our society, when we had one. Like I was the devil for bespeaking such inaccurate untruth when it has been documented fact since at least 1986! Do you think the Bush crew doesn't do the same thing? Do you think they're gonna' tell you? Do you notice the wonderful weather we have here most every time the Bushes are on vay-cay in K-bunk? Wake up out of your front-page tabloid or Pressed Harold stupor, people! You're not getting the truth, haven't been for quite a while now... So stop spreading what you think is true just because you see it in the sellout media who are just another business, and not a contributing societal member any more. Stop being a pawn of negativity and move your own piece.

Sadder still walking through Lincoln Park on an Easter Sunday, a stone's throw from the beloved Cathedral of Sexually-Abusive Holier-Than-Thou's: a cold, human-less remnant of a park, in a remnant of a city, in a remnant of what it was like to be a culture, a society and nation with some sense of aesthetic and pride above some dollar sign - not just an American, but a respectable human being foremost. You wonder why things are the way they are now? Just look at your "I'm so wonderful" selves of denial and stop trying to look like the "poor me" innocents while you stab people in the back behind their backs and with a smile to their faces.

The park was pigeon-less, and my illegally spread bread crumbs were met by no less than 70 or 80 seagulls and zero pigeons. Sick that a society would create such a situation as a city and then label the pigeons as dirty, disgusting undeserving leeches on our "great" system. Gee it's kind of like employers treat employees, isn't it? Or how you look down at the welfare recipient sliding their MaineCare card in line at Hannaford? You call yourselves such "nice" people when you have chosen to be judgmental rather than compassionate?

The seagulls of capitalism have devoured any sense of the common man, and apparently common pigeon, repackaged it as undesirable, lesser, undeserving, and then made it the focus of scorn, hatred and judgment.

Just as I was leaving there was a sign of hope, which there will always be until this sign becomes a billboard and then an entire sky: circled around by a gull or two was one approaching pigeon perched on a street light, joined by a second pigeon thereafter as I crossed the street.

One pigeon, two pigeons. Hope springs eternal, and hail to the goddess Esther, after whom the Easter holiday was named in the first place before the Catholics hijacked, manipulated and redefined it. Monkey see, monkey do... No, scratch that, sorry... that's actually an insult to monkeys.

Red Barn, White Snow, Blue Sky

2008-03-04T14:49:00.008-05:00

God Bless Symmetrica
© 2008 John Alphonse

Tech stocks still rule, Super Bowl still sucks

2008-02-25T20:00:00.021-05:00

Like the poster says (at top, right): DEFying convention; DEFining a new generation.

When you own the Big Mouth, of course you're going to hype yourself when you're rotten and losing it. That's a big pile of crap about such great ratings for the Super Bowl in my opinion.

Not that there isn't a massive 'network effect' that takes place in society, don't get me wrong there about the power of the medium: quite possibly, CBS's new Terminator-based television series has already prompted its share of school gun violence by the looks of the timing of events. Well, at the least it sure didn't help any! But, if you want to claim such success hosting a football game, why don't you pursue the same notoriety on the next absurdly-insane school shooting gallery scene? The resemblances are uncanny, don't you think?

Or, gee, can we please have another cop violence show to watch as there's not nearly enough crime going on outside the entertainment industry that I really crave more! Prime-Time Crime and Prison Overload: any correlation? Just wondering.

How can a visually astute bunch of professionals not know the effects of feeding images (called "impression management" in photographic and psychological arts) of gun-barrel views to anyone's mind, let alone just a bunch of stressed-out people looking to kick back and relax? When guns are going off for real in this world with such frequency, you can' t just sit back and take no responsibility for joining the promo and treating them like waving around a toothbrush. Even if you're not responsible for all the blame.

And related in parallel, stock prices we are seeing are about as realistic as the talent of a record-company pop star. It's all fantasy. It's all mind-play. It's all deception by those who had been controlling our lives for all too long and are in the midst of, uncontrollably, losing this control. Maybe if you're living in a bygone era, why would you value the future anyway? You'd more likely devalue it and hype your dwindling resources.

What will happen when people begin to actually realize consciously that they don't need even half of what they think they do, when they realize they're in a self-created, situational sandbox with imaginary walls? Drop the fear, the walls disappear...

You'll be getting the gentle tap on the shoulder soon, all those who sold us out, as what has crept up behind you (without your wanting to acknowledge it, lest you be able to go on raking us over the coals) is about to level the field for the good of humanity and beyond. This is last call, it's starting to look like, and last chance to turn around and do something good, or else nice knowing you... (well, honestly, it really wasn't that nice). With or without you, a better world awaits us around the corner.

Think With Your Heart

2008-02-05T13:05:00.000-05:00

heart thinker
© John Alphonse

Recent research in biology points to findings that our thoughts actually originate in the heart organ, and that the brain is actually a go-between, or filter, for our thoughts. But like any go-between it is confronted with the potential to alter the transaction with its own bias or intention, oftentimes favoring stimulation/gratification over appropriate non-participation, omission or compassion. The heart knows the right answers, but the brain steps in, and in its process of translating the heart's intent, is in a position to possibly alter the body's response to the situation. So I think it's a a good idea that we think with our hearts, and trust in those feelings as true thoughts, unaltered by the chemicals of the brain. By doing this, I believe the level of good in the world will increase immediately, as a result of the contentment brought about by us making better decisions.

http://thenewmedicine.org/timeline/egyptian_physicians

Especially now, with so many toxins in the air, food and water chain - and apparently from the commercials every other person (or three of five) on some sort of mind/mood-stabilizing prescribed pill company potion, whether they want to be or not based on that water stream aspect - brain chemistry is not such a pure science, or substance. Granted, the heart's purity on a meatspace level is itself a relative condition in our environment, but the signal it receives at its source renders all natural impedance insignificant, in an electrical sense.

Compassion has no regrets. Think about thinking compassionately. Think about having no regrets!

Google, Yahoo, etc: Put Your Mouth Where Your Money Is

2008-02-04T22:14:00.000-05:00

bellringer

Educate from within if you are going to concede to censorship from without. If companies are willing to overlook human rights violations in dealing with corporations and governments alike, for a determined "greater good" in a competitive market, then wouldn't the logical end result of this concession be some sort of contribution to a greater exposure of and education on these censored subjects outside the borders of jurisdiction of these "gag agreements"? Isn't anything short of this practically "aiding and abetting" injustice, or misinformation at least? Voluntarily, would it strike these influential companies to apply some sort of adaptation of the "pollution credits" technique in helping to clear the waters of a Great Diked Truth (Great Wall pun initially unintended) being disseminated ultimately through American business channels? We can call them "Information Pollution Credits" measured in man-hours of lecture algorithmically spun over number of attendees/web viewers/water-cooler mentions.

For starters, maybe companies making censorship concessions for business could create an awareness among their own with some in-house lectures on these subjects censored from certain foreign affiliated sites. Why not educate the truth about Falun Gong and the Dalai Llama directly to employees of an influential corporation wielding an influential medium so as to counteract these concessions on freedom of information elsewhere? The exponential effect outside China would seem to produce more clear water than murk at that point, numbers-wise. The censorship would eventually become moot by default, displacing the negative by multiplying the positive...

It's due time that for-profit business put its mouth where its money is, meaning that, if profiting from an institution of suppression, have the integrity to advocate for justice on behalf of those who aren't in a position to do so, and use the limelight and the power of money not to favor one cause or idea over another, but to contribute to leveling the playing field with equal access to information for all.

Is doing nothing a better idea? How long can an entity turn a profit and turn its back, and still be an entity?

Super Bowl "Super Wait" is what killed old media

2008-02-03T16:56:00.000-05:00

Super Bowl Blur: Two weeks wait, three hours of hype, half asleep by kickoff.

Why will NASDAQ rule in the coming years? Tech knows that time waits for no one, and it waits even less as every year passes.

Meanwhile, Old Man Media still runs a governor on the Super Bowl show and milks it dry come game time. Old money jumped head first onto the web finally - but somehow forgot to take off its lead shoes. How are you going to fly in the web culture by expecting your Edzel to keep up with a Porsche? And how does one adopt a new tack on the web yet allow the mother ship to stay its course? It doesn't make sense, abandoning a steerable ship that is headed toward an iceberg but not there yet. But thanks!

Nobody likes waiting two weeks to play the Super Bowl. Not the fans, not the players, not the coaches, not the ticket sellers probably. Who does? Are you out spending money all week on chips and six packs and new cars and televisions because you're warming up for some distant game day in FEBRUARY? Are you looking for media updates daily? Are you wondering what players are doing to keep from going out of their minds waiting 14 days to finish the championship?

Who in this day and age really cares about the game half as much two weeks after the conference championships? Does the NFL even believe they have any fans under 30? Or have they already cashed out and conceded that the league disbands in a decade as more and more of its audience loses its sight and hearing?

Two weeks for the Super Bowl? I can't wait for this blog post to upload and you want me to keep my interest for 14 days about the most lopsided, advertising-orchestrated event in all of sports? I started drinking already around two, and by kickoff I'll be starving and busy stuffing my face to pay much attention to the t.v. Then, probably about halftime, I'll be ready to take a nap. Forget Tivo, I'll check out the highlights on YouTube sometime next week if I think of it after yet another week passes...

Trail: Dangerous Redefinition of Reality

2008-01-19T08:46:00.000-05:00

You Call This Trail? No wonder nature has gone down the tubes...

Look no further than how warped today's society has redefined everyday words and you will understand easily how we have created this mess we are now calling our home planet.

The photo caption reads:

"Rail enthusiasts walk along the 3/4 mile Ricker Farm Trail during a dedication ceremony in Lisbon on Wednesday. Work on the trail began one year ago and the trail head is located at the Lisbon Community School. The Ricker Farm Trail begins where the Papermill Trail ends, for a combined length of one and a half miles. Ricker Farm has been in the Ricker Family since 1860. Members of the family attended the ceremony with 96-year-old Alice Ricker cutting the ribbon. Plans are already in the works to continue the trail on both ends, said Justin Liudvinaitis, chair of Lisbon Trails."

As someone who has worked closely on"trail" issues for mountain biking access, I have seen first hand how this definition of trail has been redefined for the benefit of real estate developers and opportunists of all walks to suck up federal money for preserving nature and churn it into business for sand & gravel companies and their associated mafias of legal thievery. It has become a big joke, and the grant takers are truly rotten wolves with big capitalist sheep smiles on their faces as they rip down your favorite nature spot and pave a "trail" through it, all to get access to and permission to develop these areas in the first place. Add a trail, and all of a sudden you are eligible for federal funding for your go-nowhere cul-de-sac disconnected development of future disconnected Americans who haven't a clue growing up in some fantasy land isolated in a section of woods.

I wonder if they will someday name a development (oops, almost used the Olde American English 'neighborhood') after Ms. Ricker? Alice Ricker Way. I wonder if she really thought it would turn out that way? Developers really have a peculiar sense of humor... especially around the dinner table when they're serving glazed old lady.

Nobody seems to notice, or to care about, or to be able to stop, this outright fraud of man and nature enabled by a semantic metamorphosis, and popularized by hippie-do-gooders operating from the back pocket of Joe Steamshovel.

Can't you see what they are doing to our world, to our lives, re-defining the meaning of what was once a secluded dirt shortcut through a wooded area? Have you not seen the condos stacked three-deep in the woods behind everybody's back yards? No, those weren't always there.

This is worse than a dude in a suit who at least makes no pretenses about wanting to eat you for dinner. Are we headed for a pre-corrupted, out-of-the-box future government of Ecocrats, Republi-Greens and Hipsterpendents? Or are we already there?

Think higher, Portland!

2008-01-13T13:06:00.000-05:00

A Ritz Carlton erects into the fog in City Center, White Plains.

White Plains, NY - They have a Wal-Mart here, right in the city center - with the parking ABOVE the building! Now that's intelligent land uses that corrupt little Peetown could take a lead from.

Sure go ahead and shit on Wal-Mart, while Cabela's in Scarborough and others strip down our oxygen-producing, CO2-reducing evergreens, and maples, and birches and spruce... Particle pollution reports in mid-winter? People are in such denial about their surroundings: because they choose to continue to exploit for their own greed, or under the excuse of "Igottaffedmyfamily!" Cop outs, all of you. No excuses. Whatsoever.

Developers must love it because they can get away with mao-wing down lumber to sell, while installing inexpensive tarmac to accommodate their customers. This is because it's cheaper to build than a parking garage above a store, that's for sure. But who's letting businesses get away with this? At whose expense quality-of-life-wise? You got it! Our city planners in Greater Peetown are selling us all up the river, and urinating on our heads as we float by! And, LAUGHING all the way to the bank, I suspect. Wonder where all that cost-cutting savings goes?

These companies ought to be paying for the cost of creating environmentally-sound development, not our children's lungs, in a state with one of the highest rates of asthma and lowest air qualities in the nation.

Solutions are all around us, but our population for the most part is blind, and does anybody take a look around past the Kittery toll booth? Don't let the travesty called Massachusetts get in your way of looking further into this country and elsewhere (not that it's all any better, just parts). And don't rely on your elected and appointed officials to do the right thing. You see the results of this thus far, right?

It's all about money, isn't it? Why is not the Maine Mall multi-level like any other intelligent mall development in an era of "sprawl"? And we accept this? Why is Target not on Level 2? Circuit City? Who benefits from this land misuse?

Oooooo! Big Bad Wal-Mart: actually helping our environment with sensible land use in White Plains. Hey, no uglier than the parking behemoth going up about six feet from the road and a step away from the "new" waterfront at Fore & India streets.

City Council sold out Portland decades ago when perhaps its connections to personal business interests in a cow pasture in SoPo were chosen over Riverside or elsewhere to build the Maine Mall (thanks so much J. Donald MacWilliams and crew wherever you are - or was he the only dissenting voice on this? Can anyone refresh me on this one?). What a door-opener for more of the same, and look at the crappy environment we live in. It's pathetic. Travel to a real city with some level of grace and class and you tell me. Or do you even notice it any more? "Well, compared to where I come from, and I lived in Bauuultimore..." Ugh.

Years ago I spoke to a particular city councilor about building a network of walkways a la Minneapolis to encourage commerce in a frozen economy, this was poo-pooed (pun intended and you know who you are) as "unfeasible". Yet, when Owen Wells or Maine Med wants to put a walkway over a street, gee all of a sudden it's soooo do-able! Hmmm.... I smell skunkie!

Take back your city and state people, because the Massholes and then some are arriving in droves and they don't seem to care much for trees and such, as they continue to breed like rats and run around exclaiming "Oh, that's cheap!" at supermarkets and real estate offices. Ya, cheap to THEIR bank accounts, and incomes that don't exist in this governor-less state. They used to just stay for a few weeks in summer, piss and boat around Sebago, dump their trash in the woods, laugh at us with condescension, and go home. Now they're here year-round! And then they wonder why nobody likes them. From the looks of it down here in New York, they don't like them either.

Truly, shame on all those who have sold out and continue to sell out our once-beautiful city and region while making in excess of 100-grand a year while all our young people struggle for rent money! Portland is a shanty town if you look around the nation and world at real cities and towns. Portland is a joke, people! And all you newcomers' love affair will soon end when the realities of the tax schemers begin to sink in, and your stocks continue to sink down. You've been had, folks. Sucked in with the appearance of a cutesy-town, living in a La-La Land while young men and women die in the Middle East protecting your right to rape the environment and billow blackness into baby lungs. And while elderly and lower-income residents are strained like spaghetti and forced out of their homes by tax and food rates among others. Sick. Sick. Sick.

More Urban Snowboarding: Benji Greenfield: Nose Press to Fakie

2007-12-17T18:05:00.001-05:00

Nice rail slide, but what was that girl doing down in the snow anyway?

Teaser Tour of the New East End Waterfront

2007-12-13T16:58:00.001-05:00

Starting here in Boothby Square and swooping down to Commercial Street in the Old Port area, we head east toward Munjoy Hill for a teaser tour of the old blending with the newness in progress on the Eastern Waterfront.

Swim with Wyland's whales along Maine State Pier and then continue into the construction of the new cruise ship terminal and surrounds.

Congress Street East End Rite-Aid

2007-12-13T11:34:00.001-05:00

Quick! You're in Portland, Maine. You just finished up a 10-hour day sanding "shuh-eat-rock". Where can you find the cheapest cold beer in town? And at the same time grab some new dust masks, tape, face wipes, GOJO, safety glasses, duct tape and maybe some spackling? There you are: the Congress Street East Rite-Aid! (Not that there's anything wrong with the other on the West End of Cong-o...)

...and don't forget to pick up the ADD meds at the pharmacy out back while your there! Hope you called in the 'script. You spaced it, didn't you!

Presumpscot River rapids lovin' life

2007-12-11T22:16:00.001-05:00

After the removal of Smelt Hill Dam, the native history-rich Presumpscot regains a piece of its lost youth marking the first stage in its ability to once again accommodate spawning Atlantic salmon struggling to reach Sebago Lake another 25 miles upstream along which several other atrocities of nature await them - though these will be eventually removed themselves, by man or nature, whoever comes first...

Lincolnville Chestnut Grove "on borrowed time"

2007-12-10T21:19:00.001-05:00

Welles Thurber concedes that blight will overcome the 20-year-old grove. The trees' descendants may move on, yet they themselves may never live to maturity. This seems to be a standard modern-day phenomenon according to people like
Charles Little, author of "The Dying of the Trees"