\u201cI\u2019m not looking to revolutionize L.L. Bean,\u201d says designer Alex Carleton, 41, \u201cbut it\u2019s interesting to consider how it can evolve. We\u2019re reshaping and reforming classics like The Blue Rock Sweater, The Bean Boot, The Norwegian, The Field Coat\u2026I love the challenge; it\u2019s highly personal. This job was made for me.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n So is life in Maine. After working in Manhattan for Ralph Lauren and Abercrombie & Fitch, Carleton moved here twelve years ago. Beyond pumping up his trend-setting Rogues Gallery line, he also serves as creative director of L.L. Bean\u2019s new youth-centric Signature Series. <\/span><\/p>\n Not that Manhattan doesn\u2019t come calling. According to GQ<\/em>, after signing him to design their \u201cbeautifully beaten-down,\u201d snuggly-yet-still-iconoclastic T-shirt line, J. Crew \u201csent its fit blocks up to Portland just to make sure\u201d Carleton approved of the garments\u2019 edgy dimensions. <\/span><\/p>\n Now that\u2019s more like it, Yankees fans!<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI moved here because it felt like the New England I was familiar with as a kid. In New York, I spent most of my time getting out<\/em> of the city,\u201d he says. Not that everybody \u2018gets\u2019 his \u2018woodsy\u2019 presence up here. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPeople [who call or text me] think I\u2019m constantly out hiking, sailing, or camping. You actually have to work harder here than anywhere else. I can\u2019t just hop in a cab to JFK if I\u2019m going to Paris or need to meet a fabric vendor in Mid-town. Living here means I need to worry about firewood, snow tires, storm windows, and my dog getting quilled by porcupines. I wouldn\u2019t trade it for anything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He even gets amusement from the parade of urban fashion denizens rubbing up against his outdoorsy world here. \u201cI once hosted a certain editor from the Vogue<\/em> family at my [oceanfront] home [on Smugglers Cove Road] in Cape Elizabeth. There was a minor \u2018footwear challenge\u2019 when we went to take my dog out for a run in the woods. On another work-related winter visit, my heater died, pipes froze, and I ended up conducting a production meeting with folks from overseas huddled in front of the fireplace, sipping Earl Grey tea to keep our hands warm.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Not that his fellow New Englanders have let him off the hook: \u201cThe hunting jackets look more appropriate for hunting down a good bottle of prosecco in Back Bay than tracking moose,\u201d wrote the Boston Globe<\/em> while covering the release party for the new line. \u201cOh, look over there, it\u2019s Anderson Cooper.\u201d [For our eyewitness coverage, visit Online Extras at portlandmagazine.com.]<\/span><\/p>\n Ever the tastemaker, Carlton is thoughtful on Portland\u2019s animadversions about itself: \u201cPortland is ironically a much easier sell to people who are from away from here than people who are here. Especially in Europe and Asia, there\u2019s a lot of romance around the idea of what Maine represents and what it is. People think when you live in Maine you\u2019re enveloped in Christina\u2019s World<\/em>. You\u2019re living this idyllic lifestyle where you fell trees and build log cabins and sail on wooden boats and eat blueberry pancakes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Maple syrup aside, you can find this affable neighbor enjoying lobster at Street and Company, sitting at the bar at Fore Street, and chowing down on his favorite burger at Caiola\u2019s. \u201cIt\u2019s basically my Cheers<\/em>\u2013everyone knows my name.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While 16-year-old Arianna Lawson calls Scarborough home, the devoted young ballerina is poised to put Portland on the international ballet map this month by becoming the first-ever Portland Ballet School veteran to study at the renowned Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Russia. After dancing at a Bolshoi-affiliated, intensive, six-week program in New York City this past summer, she was surprised and delighted to receive a letter from the Russian American Foundation stating that due to her \u201cconsiderable talent, dedication, and strong training\u201d she was being offered a spot at the academy in Moscow, which will cost her family approximately $18,000 for one year (at press time, they still had $10,000 to raise and were accepting donations).<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really excited,\u201d Lawson says, elegant even in warm-up clothes as she prepares for a session at Portland Ballet. \u201cThis is a rare opportunity, and I think it will be cool to go to a foreign country and learn the culture and the language and meet Russian kids\u2013which will be hard and kind of difficult, but I\u2019m already starting to learn some Russian.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Lawson\u2013who leaves for Moscow November 1\u2013has been training for about twenty hours a week at Portland Ballet in addition to her traditional schoolwork. Studying dance at the Bolshoi Academy will mean leaving all other educational studies behind.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re strictly ballet and it\u2019s, like, seven hours a day,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s so much demand, and not to have that much academics is kind of tough, so it will definitely be different.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Bolshoi Academy is strictly classical <\/em>ballet, and the stringently controlled Russian style is widely considered the most physically, emotionally, and mentally challenging form of ballet in the world. The emphasis is on simple, clean, and contained strength and line rather than creative expression. After a year dancing in Moscow, Lawson will be told whether the academy has chosen her to stay on for the full three years necessary to graduate. Whether she makes it or not, for Lawson, there is no \u201cnext best\u201d concerning what she wants to do with her life. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cJust dance,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPainting is a marathon,\u201d according to former Maine College of Art student Ahmed Alsoudani, and these days the race to snatch one of the artist\u2019s paintings\u2013which sell for a minimum of $70,000 each\u2013is nearly as feverish as his work ethic. <\/span><\/p>\n Alsoudani, 36, was raised in Baghdad and forced as a teenager to flee Iraq for Kurdistan and then Syria after defacing a mural that featured an image of then-dictator Saddam Hussein. Thanks in part to his tumultuous experience as an Iraqi youth, Alsoudani has kept an impressively level head throughout his rise to immense success in the art world.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019d agree that I\u2019m an \u2018international star,\u2019\u201d says Alsoudani, who lives in SoHo and spends almost all his time working in his Chelsea studio, where a steady stream of jazz, classical, and Bob Dylan plays. Recalling his days in Portland, Alsoudani muses, \u201cI loved the people there and had very encouraging professors, who I am still friends with to this day. I really feel that all these small things I know about painting came\u2026specifically from [Sean Foley and Gail Stein]. Elizabeth Jabar taught me almost everything about printmaking. It was a very good environment to focus myself and learn.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy biggest compliment [came from\u00a0 Yale] painting department head, Peter Haley, who said, \u2018You are a painter, and your viewers are painters.\u2019 I think that\u2019s because I pay attention to every detail\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Alsoudani\u2019s paintings\u2013on canvas and paper in oil, pastel, acrylic, and charcoal\u2013have been compared to Picasso\u2019s and Goya\u2019s (both artists serve as inspirations) for their vivid depictions of the horrors of war and its aftermath, often juxtaposing swirling, earthy backgrounds with depictions of suffering quasi-human characters who bring to mind the Iraqis tortured at Abu Ghraib. Since the day in August 2001 when Alsoudani\u2013who spoke almost no English\u2013walked into MECA and humbly uttered the words \u201cI want to be a painter,\u201d he has graduated with an MFA from Yale, lived for a time in posh Berlin, and subsequently exhibited his work in far-flung locales including London and Dubai. Recently, Alsoudani has been included on Forbes <\/em>magazine\u2019s prestigious \u201cWatch List.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n But Alsoudani sees little difference between who he was as a quiet undergrad at MECA and the walking success story he is today. \u201cI still feel Maine is home for me, and I am excited to be going back [to Portland this month] as a visiting artist [at MECA]. I\u2019m looking forward to visiting my favorite places, like Arabica Coffee Shop and Coffee By Design.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Alsoudani talks softy and humbly and dresses fashionably. He leaves much of his work untitled and attributes that to his love of poetry and dismissal of artists who try to pilot viewers\u2019 attentions. When asked if people \u2018get\u2019 his art, he believes they do. \u201cI had a waiting list\u2026when the economy went bad, so people were [careful about buying] art [even while his reputation skyrocketed]\u2026so if they didn\u2019t like it, they wouldn\u2019t risk buying someone they hadn\u2019t heard of before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Alsoudani was not interested in politics as a teenager, but the situation in Iraq\u2013magnified by September 11, 2001, shortly after he began at MECA\u2013inspires most of his art.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy work is not directly influenced by the environment I am in day-to-day,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0 more of a reflection, or exploration, of a psychological state of conflict, or war. What is important for a painter is stability and the ability to focus on the work, and Maine was very good for that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n “Mom missed the ferry, so she had to catch a lobster boat. She\u2019ll be here soon. In the meantime, I\u2019ve got to go to the dump,\u201d says the sneaker-and-T-shirt-clad Speaker of the Maine House Hannah Pingree, 34, referring to her U.S. Representative (D-ME) mother, Chellie Pingree. It\u2019s an hour before our scheduled interview at Nebo Lodge, a bed and breakfast owned by the Pingrees, on North Haven Island. <\/span><\/p>\n Lobster boats? Dumps? Sneakers? Never mind that Chellie Pingree, 55, has a wealthy fianc\u00e9 atop a billion-dollar hedge fund who owns a 2007 Dassault Falcon 2000EX private jet. Here, it\u2019s all about a dusty pick-up truck parked in front of a modest inn on a quaint island undulating with wind-thrashed sea grass. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was born and grew up in Minneapolis,\u201d Chellie says, \u201cand I\u2019ve been on the island since 1971 after meeting my ex-husband, a boat-builder. For twelve years I was an organic vegetable and dairy farmer. Slowly, I got to know people and took the job as tax assessor, since no one else wanted to do it.\u201d So how did she go from a tax assessor for a small island with no stoplights to a legislator on bustling Capitol Hill?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was on the local school and planning boards, and it was through town meetings that I learned how to be in politics,\u201d Chellie says. \u201cIt\u2019s about local issues. That was my real training. People had to work together to get things done.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n With her politician daughter (Hannah has been named \u201cThe Next Nancy Pelosi\u201d by Marie Claire<\/em> magazine and included as one of Time<\/em> magazine\u2019s \u201c40 Under 40\u201d in American politics), her dedication to social causes like health care reform and gay civil rights, the family\u2019s (small) \u2018compound\u2019 on Hyannis-esque North Haven Island, and a glint of gossipy scandal, could this be the beginning of a legacy? Maybe it\u2019s a stretch to compare Maine\u2019s First District Congressional delegate and her family with Massachusetts\u2019s famed first family in politics. However, the Pingrees\u2019 shared philosophical belief in Kennedy-cohort Thomas \u2018Tip\u2019 O\u2019Neill\u2019s famed words, \u201cAll politics is local,\u201d and JFK\u2019s evocation of \u201cAll politics is personal,\u201d that makes the call to duty for this budding Maine dynasty most like the Kennedys\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI have confidence that not all politics have to be divisive or full of disagreements. In D.C., I think more about common sense and the people I represent back home. There\u2019s not a big ideological divide [in Maine],\u201d says Chellie. \u201cI can have an argument with someone here and then end up sharing a seat with them on the ferry. You have to live with people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s this pragmatic attitude and role as a \u2018bridge-builder\u2019 that endears her to her voting constituents (Chellie owns a home on North Haven, which is at the northernmost tip of the First District), and it\u2019s that same attitude that has helped Hannah reach her high post at a young age (she was 24 when elected to the Maine House). \u201cIt\u2019s less about the big issues and more about managing personalities,\u201d Hannah says. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to get to know people, and then put your own ego aside. I learned that from my mom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Hannah also shares her mother\u2019s tenacity and work ethic, which helped her overcome speculations of nepotism. \u201cDuring my first month [in the House], I did get \u2018she\u2019s just here because of her mother\u2013she\u2019s so young; is she really qualified?\u2019 I had to work extra hard to prove myself.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n The work has paid off. Adds Chellie, \u201cThe best compliment I ever got was when Dick Mailhot, a Maine House legislator, said, \u2018I\u2019ve forgotten she\u2019s your daughter.\u2019 And Governor Baldacci is always saying, \u2018That Hannah\u2013she doesn\u2019t back down.\u2019 But that\u2019s part of being from here\u2013there\u2019s a great aura about Maine in D.C. We\u2019re considered a strong, thick-skinned state.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n And that thick-skin has been a godsend in light of recent accusations of hypocrisy over Chellie\u2019s private jet excursions with fianc\u00e9 S. Donald Sussman, after her 2006 condemnation of jet-setting Congressional colleagues. (U.S. Rep Barney Frank (D-MA) has acknowledged his 2009 trip to the Virgin Islands he and his partner took with Chellie and Sussman on Sussman\u2019s jet.) The couples are said to be friends.) How does she counter the insistence, particularly from conservatives, that, in spite of her protestations, she is a member of the \u2018limousine liberals\u2019 or \u2018gauche caviar\u2019?<\/span><\/p>\n Chellie remains unruffled and resolute. \u201cIt\u2019s fair enough to scrutinize people in politics, but to say I am out of touch\u2026I was a single mom, I\u2019ve been a housecleaner, waitress, organic farmer\u2013I am a small business owner. Nothing has changed who I am.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Whoever she is, she manages to come out on top. Win or lose in the November 2 election, she will\u2013if history is any indication\u2013bounce back stronger (after losing a seat in the U.S. Senate to Susan Collins in 2002, she became the National President and CEO of Common Cause, a non-partisan citizen activist group with almost 300,000 members). <\/span><\/p>\n This strength is magnified by the fire in her belly. Many considered her a \u2018profile in courage\u2019 in June when she balked at increasing the number of American troops in Afghanistan. She was one of only three Democrats to speak out on the issue, straight to the face of General Petraeus. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPeople in Maine are very opinionated, but tolerant. We\u2019re kind of libertarian in a way. We protect each other. Whoever you are is okay, as long as they know you and trust you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n And you travel by \u2018bug-tug.\u2019 Who needs a yacht?<\/span><\/p>\n For the record, while iTunes may list Portlander Emilia Dahlin\u2019s music as \u201cfolk,\u201d the beautiful and talented local favorite is not just another young Northeastern woman who grew up listening to the Indigo Girls and then morphed into a carbon copy of Ani DiFranco. Well, at least not anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere was a period when I listened to Ani DiFranco a lot,\u201d says Dahlin, 30, \u201cand that came out in my music. [Then] I began listening to more jazz and started finding my own sound. Soon as I did that, I got the opportunity to open for Ani DiFranco.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n On Dahlin\u2019s latest release, Rattle Them Bones<\/em>, she not only sings and plays guitar but also contributes piano, accordion, and glockenspiel. Rattle Them Bones<\/em> juxtaposes sweet alt-folk with eclectic, jazz-infused experimentation to create a multi-faceted, original sound. Calling her music \u201cacoustic roots with a vintage jazz twist,\u201d she\u2019s amazed herself at her transformation from folkie to iconoclast.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPart of it was that conscious \u2018I need to branch out; I need to expand my edges a little bit.\u2019 Andrew Bird has been an influence and introduced me to gypsy jazz. Heritage Radio in Yarmouth also got my wheels turning and helped me drop [career-driven anxieties about whether or not something beautiful is marketable. It helped me totally reinvent my sound.] I\u2019ve found that once I let go of those inhibitions, it\u2019s done me well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n From the romp of \u201cEvangeline,\u201d an alternative sea shanty, and the Tom Waits-esque title track\u2019s \u201cbackground of twisted, naked trees\u201d to the accordion-heavy French noir of the mellifluous instrumental \u201cLa Fin,\u201d Rattle Them Bones<\/em> reveals why Dahlin has essentially cornered the market on local music awards recently. <\/span><\/p>\n Back from a hejira with her husband across the world that found her collaborating with\u2013and finding inspiration in\u2013socially conscious musicians in Brazil, she lights up when talking about her experience performing in S\u00e3o Paolo with a nine-piece samba band.<\/span><\/p>\n Which goes to the strength of her storytelling, which recalls the Be Good Tanyas and the more literary eras of Bob Dylan but is also grounded in Dahlin\u2019s love for jazz songstresses such as Ella Fitzgerald and the singer-songwriter\u2019s background as a film studies major at the SALT Institute in Portland.<\/span><\/p>\n Although Dahlin is open to offers from small labels, she\u2019s not yet affiliated with a record company. \u201cI\u2019ve always produced my albums myself. Acadia Recording (Marc and Gina Bartholomew) are amazing. They\u2019ve mastered two of my discs as well as hand screen-printed the packaging for Rattle Them Bones<\/em>\u2026. Working and investing locally is important to me because I know my money is supporting the local economy and fellow artists.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve lived in Portland for over ten years. The overlap between musicians and visual artists and performing artists is really strong. In New York or Nashville, there\u2019s huge competition, but here it\u2019s a tight-knit community of diverse musicians\u2013neighbors, coworkers, and co-creators.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut I can\u2019t say there\u2019s a Portland \u2018sound.\u2019 There\u2019s too much variety. I\u2019m inspired by Sontiago for her savvy and writing, as well as Vanessa Torres. My long-term collaborator Adam Frederick has prompted me to grow. Royal Hammer moves me to shake my booty, an important characteristic of music. I\u2019m excited to get to know the new Portland music scene that has emerged since I\u2019ve been gone the last year.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRight now [I live] in Back Cove for the first time, in a sweet little vintage camper. I\u2019ve lived on India, Monument, Winter, Brackett, Clark, and Waterville streets; owned a house on East Cove Street; and lived on my sailboat. It\u2019s been fun tasting different areas within the city.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c[Other tastes I look forward to reconnecting with include] Rosemont Market, Local Sprouts, Flatbread, Dorolena Farm, Aurora Provisions, El Camino, Green Elephant, Fore Street, Micucci\u2019s \u2018Sicilian slabs,\u2019 and all our great bakeries. My deep love of and interest in the way we cultivate, create, and consume is a huge reason why I love Maine and Portland so much.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Aruna Kenyi<\/em><\/strong> is part of a growing community of Sudanese refugees in Portland. At 17, he began to write the painful experiences that would become his book,<\/em> Between Two <\/em>Rivers, published by The Telling Room in 2010 and excerpted below<\/em>:<\/span><\/p>\n My grandmother told stories. So do I. Listen.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n I come from a village in the district of Kajo Keji in Southern Sudan. The village was Kansuk, and it was between two rivers, the Lorijo and the Manikilokui.<\/span><\/p>\n Kansuk was a good place. Nobody cried from hunger because there was plenty of food to eat. You could eat with your family, at a neighbor\u2019s house with your friend, or you could just pick a mango from the tree. I only knew happiness and the safety of my family, my grandparents and cousins, and my village.<\/span><\/p>\n Of course at that time we did not know that the Arab militia would come. <\/span><\/p>\n [When the militia arrived in Southern Sudan, five-year-old Kenyi was separated from his family for the first of many times. His parents stayed behind in Kansuk. He was sent to Mundari while his oldest brother, Yugo, was sent to another village.]<\/span><\/p>\n For months while living in Mudari, I heard the sounds of war\u2013bombs, guns and screaming. I asked my aunt why people were fighting and killing each other.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt is a big world, Kenyi, and you are still a kid and do not understand now, but you will understand when you grow up,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n But I wonder even now why people kill each other while God commands us not to kill. <\/span><\/p>\n Later, my father arrived in Mundari. He said Kansuk was burning already, and that even so, most people stayed. They said they would rather die in their own village than try and flee. My dad said the ones who stayed were attached to a car. The soldiers would drive the car and drag the people behind it until they were dead. Then they would cut the ropes and leave the bodies on the road\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n During this time, I remember crying a lot when I was alone. Crying for the things I had seen. Crying for what I had lost. Crying for Kansuk. Crying for the people who were no longer with us. I kept imagining they had been captured by the militia and maybe were dead.<\/span><\/p>\n I was just a kid. I couldn\u2019t help it. I could think of nothing else.<\/span><\/p>\n [For the next several years, Kenyi moved from village to village, fleeing the devastation of the war.\u00a0 He was frequently separated from his family. One by one, family members found each other again and were all eventually reunited at a UN refugee camp in Bamuro.]<\/span><\/p>\n Generally, life at the refugee camp was okay, but the Sudan People\u2019s Liberation Army became desperate for new soldiers. That is why one day, they came into the camp and started taking all the older boys and men.<\/span><\/p>\n They took Yugo and my father. <\/span><\/p>\n That was the last time I saw him. \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n \u2026Eventually, we got a letter from Yugo. He had escaped to a refugee camp in Uganda and asked us to join him there.<\/span><\/p>\n We did not have enough money for all of us to go. <\/span><\/p>\n My two older brothers and I left behind my mother, grandparents, sisters, and younger brother. I have not seen them since. <\/span><\/p>\n When we got to the Ugandan camp, I was nine. I remember a checker board of dirt streets. In each block, there were homemade houses, and next to the houses were gardens. The houses were filled with people from all over. These homes were simple. There was no electricity. No light bulbs. No refrigerators. This was Kyangwali.<\/span><\/p>\n After three years of living in Kyangwali,\u00a0 applications for moving to different countries like Australia, America and Canada were brought to the camp. <\/span><\/p>\n In 2003, two years after starting the application process, we were still waiting for our flight. We were patient. No matter how long we were going to wait, we were going to go to America.<\/span><\/p>\n At 14, Aruna Kenyi, now 21, boarded a flight to the U.S. He has since graduated from Portland High School and now attends the University of Maine at Farmington, where he majors in Community Health Education. After college, Kenyi hopes to teach high school in Maine and eventually return as an educator to his home village of Kansuk.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Just as Black Entertainment Television (BET) dares to challenge redneck clich\u00e9s by running a reality show about NASCAR drivers, Katie Hagar\u2013a 24-year-old Damariscotta native\u2013defies the auto-racing stereotype that says good \u2018ol Southern boys rule the tracks.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cGrowing up in Maine, I was a true and passionate athlete,\u201d Hagar tells us the morning after racing in North Carolina\u2019s 34th annual Bobby Isaac Memorial 150. \u201cI wasn\u2019t worried if others thought that it was odd or not. The car doesn\u2019t know your gender, and that\u2019s all that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n Hagar, who resides in Mooresville, North Carolina, doesn\u2019t let the hard-edged, male-dominated world of car racing faze her (\u201cThey don\u2019t dare make [sexist comments] to my face\u2026\u201d) and has been racking up top-five finishes since going pro a few years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cThe happiest 30 seconds of my life behind the wheel happened when I was racing in California in the NASCAR Drive for Diversity program at Stockton 99 Speedway, breaking the track record my fourth time ever being at that track.\u201d<\/p>\n Energetic and sprightly, with a flashy smile and long blonde hair, Hagar is a perfect fit for Changing Lanes, BET\u2019s new NASCAR \u201cone-hour competition docu-series\u201d which highlights minority and female drivers\u2013the latter comprising a gender which now represents nearly half of all NASCAR fans. <\/span><\/p>\n As a woman striving for success in auto racing, Hagar says the legendary female drag racer Shirley Muldowney\u2019s \u201cstrategic way of thinking\u201d is a big inspiration. Hagar also stresses that Damariscotta\u2013\u201calways home to me\u201d\u2013continues to positively shape her as a person.<\/p>\n \u201cMaine is the one place I go to if I need to get away,\u201d she says. \u201cAll my family is there, and it\u2019s true when they say \u2018home is where the heart is.\u2019 When I come home, it\u2019s to re-ground myself, whether I\u2019m just relaxing, picking out horse stalls, eating seafood, or visiting local beaches. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAfter being away from home, I notice that it\u2019s the small things I miss the most: how pure and fresh the air smells, how clean the waters are, how quiet and relaxing it is fishing and hearing the loons and owls at night, the privilege of having your privacy. Those are the things that made me me<\/em>, and every day I am thankful for that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Not that she ducks the adrenaline rush of her present circumstances: \u201cI don\u2019t dream of crashing. I dream of winning.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Though he may not be able to see, Jim Miekka is known for a different kind of sight.<\/span><\/p>\n An inventor, mathematician, and former\u00a0 school teacher, Boston-born Miekka, 50, has garnered attention for his wizardry in indicating downturns in the stock market. If that weren\u2019t enough, he\u2019s also the creator of an artificial vision device. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI do lots of experiments,\u201d he says. \u201cI love research.\u201d<\/p>\n Miekka, who winters in Florida and summers at his two-bedroom house in \u201cSurrey by the Sea,\u201d says he was lured here by a friend on the promise of great spaces, solitude, and quiet.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI like elbow room,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve got two miles of trails on my [80-acre] property and my target range.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It was an experiment he conducted as a high-school teacher in California almost 25 years ago\u2013working on a chemical compound for use in mining\u2013that took Miekka\u2019s eyesight. An explosion and complications from the resulting surgery rendered him blind.<\/span><\/p>\n Though he loved teaching, Miekka decided to start a new path. A stock market observer and mathematician, he began working on a formula to predict market crashes. Named for the infamous hydrogen zeppelin which met its fate in a fiery explosion, the Hindenburg Omen computes data on stock levels over a year\u2019s time to predict combustible economic markets. The title is appropriate: the Omen has predicted every NYSE crash since 1985. <\/span><\/p>\n While some in the world of finance have questioned the theory\u2019s reliability, presumably few of them have been Mainers. According to Miekka, Mainers\u2013known for our pessimism\u2013\u201cexpress more interest in the Hindenburg Omen than in my more positive indicators, so it must be part of that psyche.\u201d Regardless, Miekka says the value of the Omen is that it serves as a warning.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like a funnel cloud,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you see a funnel cloud you might get a tornado. But without a funnel cloud, you can\u2019t get a tornado.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Miekka admits he\u2019s done well in the market and publishes a stock market newsletter called Sudberry Bull & Bear Report<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n When he\u2019s not toying with economics or enjoying time with his girlfriend of seven years, Miekka is working on his target-shooting skills with the help of artificial vision technology.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFor a person who\u2019s blind, what more would you want than to see?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As a teacher, he taught his students how the eye detects images and translates what they are to the brain. Using photocells similar to those found in a camera, Miekka\u2019s device detects light and dark and gives a corresponding sound for each. By interpreting the sounds, Miekka can \u201csee\u201d targets, including bowling pins and clay pigeons, from over 100 yards out.<\/span><\/p>\n Miekka thinks this technology can be put to other uses, maybe allowing a blind person to drive a vehicle.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf you can point a gun and make a bullet go where you want it to, you can drive a car and point it where you want to go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Oz<\/strong><\/p>\n Interview by Colin Sargent<\/span><\/p>\n How often do you and your wife, Lisa, come up here to visit your in-laws, and what\u2019s on your \u201cmust-do\u201d list while in Cumberland Foreside? <\/strong><\/p>\n We visit them several times during the summer and generally spend the winter holidays with them in Maine. We love: Street and Company\u2019s clams and mussels in the saucepan; the shopping and lemonade stands in Freeport; lobsters from the town landing in Falmouth Foreside; golf at Portland Country Club; and Lucinda’s [Day] Spa massages.<\/span><\/p>\n Do you hope to bring HealthCorps here?<\/strong><\/p>\n I absolutely would love to begin a HealthCorps program in Maine. We must instill fitness, nutrition, and self-esteem in our youth to win in the obesity crisis. In order to begin a HealthCorps program, it requires more than just a financial commitment\u2013it requires political willpower and cooperation and motivation at the school district and management level. These things take time to cultivate. If we begin a program in Maine, I\u2019ll personally come to kick it off! <\/span><\/p>\n How did you both come to know Dr. Christiane Northrup?<\/strong><\/p>\n I was introduced to her work by my parents-in-law two decades ago and have been a huge fan for years. We met in Maine and have remained friends since. She understands so clearly the passion women have for self-healing and has offered wonderful guidance on how to crystallize that message. My main contribution to the endeavor is to offer a little testosterone so women can be more assertive on issues they understand on a visceral level to be true. <\/span><\/p>\n What fitness\/diet regimen do you practice up here? <\/strong><\/p>\n Each morning I do [my] seven-minute workout. I also do vigorous exercise daily (since I\u2019ve got more time while on vacation) and enjoy four-mile runs, basketball with friends, and tennis with relatives. [My in-laws\u2019] house [a large Tudor home on Route 88 in Cumberland Foreside] is on the water, so we engage in water sports (with wet suits!). The human body\u2019s built for movement, so you must have it do what it\u2019s designed to do. I encourage people to do a very short routine each morning. The positive effects on your health are without measure! <\/span><\/p>\n What are three ways we can love Maine in a healthier way?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n![\"adam\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/alex.jpg\" "\\"alex\\"")
Alex Carleton
\n“Game Changer”<\/strong>
\nBy Adam Perry<\/p>\n![\"arianna\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/arianna.jpg\" "\\"arianna\\"")
Arianna Lawson
\n“From Russia With Love”<\/strong>
\nBy Adam Perry<\/p>\n![\"ahmed-ahmed-mukhtar\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/ahmed-ahmed-mukhtar.jpg\" "\\"ahmed-ahmed-mukhtar\\"")
Ahmed Alsoudani
\n“War Paint”<\/strong>
\nBy Adam Perry<\/p>\n![\"chellie\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/chellie.jpg\" "\\"chellie\\"")
Chellie & Hannah Pingree
\n“Hyannisport North”<\/strong>
\nBy Karen E. Hofreiter<\/p>\n![\"emilia\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/emilia.jpg\" "\\"emilia\\"")
Emilia Dahlin
\n“Beat of Her Own”<\/strong>
\nBy Adam Perry<\/p>\n![\"aruna\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/aruna.jpg\" "\\"aruna\\"")
Aruna Kenyi
\n“Stunning Tale of a ‘Lost Boy'”<\/strong>
\nBy Aruna Kenyi<\/p>\n![\"katie\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/katie.jpg\" "\\"katie\\"")
Katie Hagar
\nNeed for Speed<\/strong>
\nBy Adam Perry<\/p>\n![\"jim\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/jim.jpg\" "\\"jim\\"")
Jim Miekka
\n“Leave It to a Mainer to Come Up with the Hindenburg Omen”<\/strong>
\nBy Justin Ellis<\/p>\nOprah\u2019s super doctor, Mehmet Oz, believes time spent relaxing here, on the Foreside, is the best medicine.<\/span><\/h3>\n