Brian Bielanski to perform at St. George Café in July

/0 Comments/in , /by

Bryan Bielanski

Bryan Bielanski, singer-songwriter, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, is touring the United States in 2022 to promote his new music release and will perform on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, in Warren, at Saint George River Cafe.

Imagine Nirvana and the Beatles had a kid together who became an acoustic rock singer-songwriter: that’s Bryan Bielanski! Although he is inspired by some of the rock greats like Tom Petty and REM, he has a distinct musical style and lyrics that make you think deep thoughts and feel like you’re really alive! This critically acclaimed globetrotting singer-songwriter has been touring the US and the world for the last 10 years.

During that time, Bryan Bielanski has performed in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Austria, Belgium, California, Canada, China, Colorado, Connec­ticut, Costa Rica, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Italy, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Luxembourg, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mexico, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Netherlands, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Poland, Russia, South Carolina, South Dakota, Switzerland, Tennessee, Texas, Thailand, United Kingdom, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Bryan Bielanski is full of fun energy and catchy songs and he is ready to entertain you!

Press

“Bryan’s Super Happy Fun Time II is a catchy, bouncy, musical journey for the senses.” – Teresa Robinson (New Mexico Entertainment Magazine, Albuquerque, New Mexico)

“Road warrior Bryan Bielanski takes happy songs, positive vibes from city to city.” Kyle Peveto (Baton Rouge Advocate daily periodical, Baton Rouge, Louisiana)

“On his website, Bielanski describes his music as : ‘If The Beatles and Nirvana had a kid together.’ That’s a pretty bold statement, but by the end of the 73-plus minutes (Bryan’s Super Happy Fun Time I run time), the listener has been given ample proof that the description is actually very accurate.” – Johnny Vinyl (Go! Eastern Oregon Magazine, La Grande, Oregon)

“Bryan has so much passion in his music. The songs sound really great” Scott Litt – Producer (REM, Nirvana)

“Catchy… the vocal melodies and guitar solos are sweetly delivered with an honest sense of urgency.” Gordon Lamb (Flagpole Magazine, Athens, Georgia)

“…intelligent and musically coherent power pop with soul.” Woody Mitchell (Charlotte Observer daily periodical, Charlotte, North Carolina)

“East Coast singer-songwriter packs more hooks than a tackle box!” Erika Boling (Metrospirit Magazine, Augusta, Georgia)

25th annual Maine International Film Festival to honor actor Debra Winger

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Debra Winger

Star of An Officer and a Gentleman will appear at Waterville festival in July

The Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) will present its annual Mid-Life Achievement Award to actor Debra Winger at a special ceremony held at the Waterville Opera House, on Friday, July 15, following a special 35mm screening of A Dangerous Woman, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. Best known as an Academy Award nominee for her work in An Officer and a Gentleman, Terms of Endearment, and Shadowlands, Winger has had a stellar acting career, working in a wide variety of genres with directors including Bernardo Bertolucci, Jonathan Demme, James L. Brooks, Bob Rafelson, and James Bridges.

“We’re tremendously excited to have Debra join us at the festival this year, and to have the chance to showcase the wide diversity of films that she’s given great performances in,” said MIFF programming director Ken Eisen.

Winger played Diana Prince’s younger sister in the television series Wonder Woman before appearing opposite John Travolta in her first major film, Urban Cowboy, for which she earned BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. Winger continued to rise to stardom throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, winning a National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for Terms of Endearment and a second BAFTA nomination for Shadowlands. Other accolades followed, including National Society of Film Critics Award nominations for Everybody Wins and The Sheltering Sky and a Golden Globe nomination for A Dangerous Woman, co-starring 2016 MIFF Mid-Life Achievement Award honoree Gabriel Byrne. After an acting hiatus in the late 1990s, Winger returned to acting, giving acclaimed performances in Dawn Anna, Rachel Getting Married, Law & Order, and The Ranch.

The Mid-Life Achievement Award presentation will be followed by a party in Winger’s honor at Front & Main, 9 Main Street, Waterville. Admission to the party will be limited to ticket purchasers of the screening and festival pass holders. Winger will be in Waterville for several days of the Festival for screenings of Mike’s Murder, The Lovers, and The Sheltering Sky.

“As we celebrate an incredible MIFF milestone this year – our 25th anniversary – we could not have asked for a more influential and adored special guest than Debra, whose groundbreaking career has made such an impact on American cinema,” said Maine Film Center Executive Director Mike Perreault.

Festival passes are now on sale at MIFF.org. The complete MIFF program was announced on June 10, when tickets were made available for purchase online.

Augusta group to host June 15 fundraiser showing of Martha Ballard film

/0 Comments/in , /by

The Mayor’s Committee for Martha Ballard, a city group planning a memorial celebrating the famed early American midwife and diarist, is organizing a June 15 presentation of the 1997 documentary film A Midwife’s Tale. The 89-minute movie, which first appeared on PBS in 1998 as part of the American Experience film series, is based on Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812.

Ballard, a native of Oxford, Massachusetts, moved with her family to the Augusta area at the start of the American Revolution. Her 37-year diary records not only many of the births, illnesses, deaths, and illnesses in which she was involved as a caregiver, but also blunt, insightful observations about the customs, conflicts, and living conditions of her time.

To honor Ballard’s achievements, The Mayor’s Committee for Martha Ballard is planning the design and construction of a permanent monument to her. The film presentation is part of an effort to raise money for and community awareness of that project. The event is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. with a social hour featuring hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar at Le Club Calumet, at 334 West River Road, in Augusta; followed by a 7 p.m. live interview with sisters Glee and Ruth Ballard, of Sidney, and their cousin, recently retired Army National Guard Brig. Gen. Diane Dunn, of Newburgh, all direct descendants of Martha Ballard; and a silent auction. The showing of the film will conclude the event.

The committee’s members are Chairman Larry Fleury; the Ballard sisters; Earl Kingsbury, Augusta’s director of community services; Courtney Allen and Heather Pouliot, Augusta City Council members; Stephen Arbour, local historian; Rachel Merriam, of Hallowell; and Secretary Jamie Logan and Joseph Owen, representing the Kennebec Historical Society.

Tickets for the film showing event cost $30 each and are available online at the mayor’s committee’s website, www.marthaballard.com, or by arrangement with Fleury, who can be called at (207) 242-0540.

Lois Eastman – Ukrainian Folk Art at Gibbs Library

/0 Comments/in , /by

Gibbs Library in Washington, ME. (photo from: librarything.com)

WASHINGTON, ME — The Gibbs Library will present works of Ukrainian folk art by Lois Eastman, including a display of the process and materials used in creating psyankyi eggs. The exhibit will run through June

Lois Eastman’s interest in art began in childhood. She began making pysanky when she was five years old. Growing up in a household that included her grandparents, she was surrounded by family members engaged in a variety of art forms and Old World traditions. Although her childhood was spent in New Hampshire, she later moved to Newport, Rhode Island, where she established a photography studio. Lois later moved to Maine and enjoyed a 20-year career as a high school art teacher. She now resides in Rockland where she continues to create art.

“I was introduced to making Ukrainian Easter Eggs (pysanky) by my grandmother, who was from the ‘old country’, a small village in the Carpathian Mountains. She told stories about her life there and how she met my grandfather at a village dance in the valley between two mountains.

“Every year before Easter, my mother, aunts, various cousins and I would gather at my grandmother’s kitchen table to make pysanky. We were taught the “pin-drop-pull” technique, which meant to stick a common pin over a candle, dip the hot tip into a cake of beeswax, then drop the tip onto the egg and pull a teardrop shape. A series of teardrops created designs all over the surface of the egg. We could change the color of designs by dipping the eggs into colored dyes, lined up along the shelves in my grandmother’s pantry.

There was a large collection of eggs that had been made over the years. The Ukrainian belief is that as long as pysanky are made, good will overcome evil.

This exhibit can be seen at the Gibbs Library, 40 Old Union Road, Washington. For library hours check the website https://www.gibbslibrary.org/ or call: (207)845-2663.

Memorial Day Festivities 2022

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Memorial Day Festivities

South China Memorial Day Ceremony

Mon., May 30, 11 a.m.
Veterans Memorial Park
American Legion Post 179
Ceremony only, NO PARADE

China Village

China Village Memorial Day ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. Meet at the Causeway Rd. FMI: Contact Mary Lockhart at 968-2717.

Town of Fairfield Memorial Day parade canceled

The Fairfield Memorial Day parade has been canceled due to the lack of participants and bands. The graveside tributes and luncheon will take place as scheduled, hosted by Fairfield VFW Post #6924, 246 Main St., Fairfield, 207-453-2565.

Madison Memorial day

Please join the members of The Tardiff-Belanger American Legion Post #39 and American Legion Auxiliary Unit #39, Madison, in honoring Our Fallen Heroes on Memorial Day, May 30, at the Memorial Day Ceremonies with guest speaker Brad Farrin, State Senator. Starting at 9 a.m., at Starks Town Office, 9:30 a.m., at the Veterans Monument, at Anson Town Office, followed by scattering of flowers off the bridge; 10 a.m. at the Veterans Monument, at the Madison Library; 10:30 a.m., at the US/Canadian Monument, at Forest Hills Cemetery, on Park Street ,and at 11 a.m., at the Joseph Quirion Veteran Monument, in the center of East Madison.

Taste of Waterville: Save the Date

/0 Comments/in , /by

Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce’s 30th annual Taste of Waterville is planned for Wednesday, August 3, from noon to 11 a.m., at the Head of Falls, off Front St., in downtown Waterville.

This year’s format will feature cultural foods, vendor booths and demonstrations focused on the ethnic diversity of the area. Taste of Waterville will be an adult-focused day-long event with a variety of ethnic food options, entertainment, live music, beer/wine gardens and an expanded brew sampling. There will be a cornhole tournament this year to add to the excitement. Timelines for entertainment and activities are currently under development.

Applications are now being accepted for restaurant, bite booth, food truck and food-related vendor participants. Taste of Waterville encourages participation from both Mid-Maine Chamber members and non-members throughout the region. To reserve a spot for this year’s event, please contact Cindy@midmainechamber.com.

For more information as it is determined, visit www.tasteofwaterville.com.

EVENTS: Wreath laying ceremony in Vassalboro

/0 Comments/in , , /by

photo: www.wreathsacrossamerica.org

American Legion Post #126, in Vassalboro invites the community to join them as they lay wreaths at the various veteran monuments in Vassalboro on Monday, May 30, 2022

The wreath laying ceremonies will begin at 9 a.m., on Main St., North Vassalboro, at Main St. Veteran Monument. From there they will proceed to the bridge on Oak Grove Road to lay flowers in honor of those lost at sea. Next they will gather at the flagpole and monument at the North Vassalboro Cemetery, on Cemetery St. From there they will go to the Recreation Field in East Vassalboro. Their final stop will be in East Vassalboro at the Civil War Monument, at Monument Park.

Local Farms Day at ACB

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Come one and all to the first annual Local Farms Day at the Albert Church Brown Memorial Library at 37 Main St. in China Village. Attendees will view displays of goods of area farmers and producers with items also for sale. This family friendly event will be held on Saturday, May 14, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Displays will be indoors and out. There will be door prizes and giveaways. Children will enjoy some activities including a story and craft time at 11 a.m. We will also be accepting seed donations to build up our Seed Sharing Library.

EVENTS: Open house to be held at Nathaniel Hawthorne home

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Hawthorne House

Kicking-off with a celebratory open house on Saturday, May 7, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.—to which the public is cordially invited—the boyhood home of the legendary author of The Scarlet Letter, in Raymond (40 Hawthorne Road) will be transformed into a cozy, inviting events center available for everything from meetings to receptions to small weddings to crafts fairs to birthday parties and more, from May through September each year.

The free open house on May 7 will feature refreshments, hors d’oeuvres , and live music from popular singer-guitarist Gary Wittner from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. The occasion will mark the successful completion of Phase 1 of The Hawthorne Community Association’s three-year-long effort to raise $75,000 to make urgent structural repairs to the building affectionately referred to as “the Hawthorne House.” Those funds enabled essential repair of the building’s foundation and other critical elements of its structure, as well as an attractive makeover of the interior into a cozy, welcoming meeting place. Phase 2 of the fundraising campaign will seek to raise an additional $30,000 to cover the costs of a new roof and new siding and painting.

Event rentals at the Hawthorne House will help fund Phase 2 of the fundraising campaign. Rates are $25 per hour for nonprofits and Hawthorne Community Association members, and $50 per hour for nonmembers (minimum of two hours).

To donate to Phase 2 of the effort to fully repair Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Boyhood Home, please consider a much-appreciated check payable to “Hawthorne Community Association” / PO Box 185 / South Casco, ME 04077. PayPal donations may be made online at: https://www.hawthorneassoc.com.

For more information, please contact Abel Bates at (207) 318-7131 or jbates4@maine.rr.com.

Over 3,000 Easter eggs found in Vassalboro

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Picture is of Easter Festival volunteers Ray Breton, Alicia Reynolds, Samantha Lessard and special guest, The Easter Bunny. (photo by Goodbrain Photography)

On Saturday, April 16, over 150 children attended and participated in Easter crafts, egg hunt and photos with the Easter Bunny. Children enjoyed finding Golden Eggs and exchanging for a toy. Over 3,000 candy filled Easter Eggs were found.