{"id":8292,"date":"2013-07-19T09:28:55","date_gmt":"2013-07-19T16:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=8292"},"modified":"2013-07-19T09:28:55","modified_gmt":"2013-07-19T16:28:55","slug":"rainy-day-weird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/rainy-day-weird\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainy-Day Weird"},"content":{"rendered":"

July\/August 2013 | view story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

From Staff & Wire Reports<\/p>\n

“Into each life some rain must fall,\u201d as Portlander Henry Wadsworth Longfellow observed. So when the clouds come out, take the party indoors.<\/h3>\n

\"quirky\"<\/a>Tired of the usual suspects? If you\u2019re touring Maine and dare to look for something a little different, we recommend these museums\u2013a feast of the unexpected.<\/p>\n

Strange Maine<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is more than a used-record store, even though that\u2019s what it is,\u201d says Strange Maine owner Brendan Evans. \u201cIt\u2019s a cross between a museum and an art installation. We\u2019re not trying to preserve or teach anything. It\u2019s just an aesthetic experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

A museum of the retail persuasion, this 10-year-old Congress Street shop sells what they call \u201cantiquated media,\u201d which translates to extinct VHS, VCR, cassettes, tapes, vinyl LPs, and game systems like Atari and Nintendo, along with a good selection of used DVDs and books. Old toys serve as decor. Leave your preconceptions at the door. Strange Maine was named for an out-of-print 1986 anthology of short horror fiction of the same name; there are a couple of copies on display in the store. The website calls the store \u201ca performance venue interested in promoting the unusual, the beautiful, marginalized, amazing, ignored, experimental, overlooked, etc., etc\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hold shows\u2013avant garde musical acts, sound-collage artists, noise artists, sound poets,\u201d says illustrator Michael Connor, who works at Strange Maine when he\u2019s not\u00a0 producing issues of his comic book series Coelacanthus.<\/em> Copies are for sale at the desk. 578 Congress St, Portland; daily 11am-7pm; 771-9997, kraag.org\/strange<\/a><\/p>\n

The African Center for the Sacred Arts at the Museum of African Culture<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oscar Mokeme has run this Portland museum of Sub-Saharan African art and culture\u2013paintings, masks, bronze, and ivory pieces\u2013for 16 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve tried to connect the collection to the African diaspora here in Maine, in a contemporary fashion.\u201d For this reason, there are pieces from Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, and Congo, among others. There is a room full of spectacular carved and decorated figures, most from Oba, Nigeria. Mokeme calls them masks although most are entire figures. A python skin at least 15 feet long, pressed flat and varnished to a high gloss, descends from the ceiling to the floor. \u201cThe python connects heaven and earth. It\u2019s a symbol of motherhood, birth, regeneration, and protection of the village.\u201d And you were thinking serpent in the garden of Eden. On the floor is a stitched, checkerboard floor mat of goat and cow hide. Framed illustrations by Maine artists Ashley Bryan, Rohan Henry, and Daniel Minter are on exhibit. There are two large\u00a0 murals by Cornelius Aringu,\u201dthe African Picasso.\u201d Art is a \u201csacred and healing medium,\u201d says Mokeme.<\/p>\n

13 Brown St., Portland; Tues.-Fri. 10:30am-4pm; Sat 12-4pm; Admission: $5; 871-7188, museumafricanculture.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Castle Tucker<\/strong><\/p>\n

When this 1807 Wiscasset house overlooking the Sheepscot River became the home of Mollie and Richard Tucker and their five children in 1858, it was on its way to becoming Castle Tucker. Initially prosperous, the Tuckers refurbished extensively to their Victorian tastes. Castle Tucker documents the life of a successful family that later struggled economically. Because of the family\u2019s financial decline, the house remains largely unchanged from its 19th-century Victorian style.<\/p>\n

2 Lee St., Wiscasset; June 1-Oct.15: Wed.-Sun. 11\u20135pm; \u2028historicnewengland.org<\/a><\/p>\n

International Cryptozoology Museum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Loren Coleman\u2019s artifact-packed, 10-year-old Portland museum may be the world\u2019s epicenter of cryptozoology, which he defines as the study of hidden or unknown animals, as yet unverified by science, such as Yeti, Bigfoot, and sea serpents.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember, although many tried, no white Westerner had ever seen, documented, or captured a Chinese giant panda bear until Ruth Harkness brought one back to New York in 1936. Before that, there were only accounts of sightings,\u201d says Coleman. \u201cRuth tried something different\u2013unlike the men, when she got to China she asked directions.\u201d He points to a glass case containing a photo and a stylish Barbie-sized Ruth Harkness statuette with a panda cub at her feet.<\/p>\n

The museum contains many such wacky dioramas of the real and not-yet-real, plus assorted taxidermied animals and taxidermy-esque crypto-creatures, including a towering furry fellow in the center of the store. Coleman\u2019s been collecting for 50 years, and his TV appearances on shows like Monster Quest<\/em> and CBS Sunday Morning<\/em> have resulted in donated items coming in from all over. There are plaster casts of Bigfoot prints, a casting of a 3-million-year-old Gigantopithecus skull, and a hideous mounted monstrosity in a glass case that turns out to be nothing more than a hairless raccoon.<\/p>\n

Coleman has written 10 books on his subject, including a collaboration with Mark Bessire of art and text titled Cryptozoology, Out of Time Place Scale. Yes, that Mark Bessire, director of the Portland Museum of Art. \u201cHe\u2019s a closet cryptozoologist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The museum is a trip.Why would you want to miss it?<\/p>\n

11 Avon St., Portland; Sun. 11-3:30pm; Mon. 12-4pm; Wed.-Sat. 11am-4pm; Adults $7,Kids $5; cryptozoologymuseum.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Deer Isle-Stonington <\/strong>Historical Society<\/strong><\/p>\n

Located in the 1830 home of the daughter of a soldier in the American Revolution, the Historical Society exhibits artifacts, Native American arrowheads, fossils, ship models, fishing gear, and historical books and photographs. It is an extensive archive of the history\u2013native, colonized, nautical, commercial, and genealogical\u2013of one Maine island.<\/p>\n

416 Sunset Rd, Deer Isle; Mid-Jun. to mid-Sept: Wed., Fri., Sat. 1-4pm; 348-6400, dis-historicalsociety.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Fawcett\u2019s Art and Antique Toys<\/strong><\/p>\n

John Fawcett opened up shop on Rt. 1 in Waldoboro in 1996. He collects \u201coriginal art relating to toys\u201d and \u201cvery rare comic strip art\u201d from artists like Charles Schulz\u2013what he calls \u201cthe kind of thing people\u2019s parents and grandparents would remember.\u201d In other words, retro stuff rather than kid stuff. Here you\u2019ll find many little Betty Boop dolls, Gene Autry\u2019s shirt, a full-sized Yoda, and an army of little bygone cereal box figurines. Of his collection, Fawcett says, \u201cThey\u2019re all my favorites or they wouldn\u2019t be in here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Route 1, Waldoboro; Memorial Day to Columbus Day; Mon., Thurs., Fri., 10am-4pm; Sat. & Sun., 12-4pm; home.gwi.net\/~fawcetoy\/moremuseum.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

Montpelier: The General Henry Knox Museum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Henry Knox was born into poverty in 1750 in Boston; with hustle and wit he became a bookseller who caught the eye of General George Washington in 1776. Knox served as his Secretary of War; upon retirement in 1795, he and his wife Lucy retreated to Maine and built the 19-room mansion Montpelier. Knox\u2019s golden years were spent dabbling in gentleman-merchant enterprises until he died in 1806, allegedly from choking on a chicken bone. The family fortunes had begun to dissipate; land was sold, the family scattered, possessions were dispersed, and the mansion was razed in 1871.<\/p>\n

That would have been that if not for the Henry Knox chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in the 1920s. They enlisted the resources of Henry Thatcher Fowler, Knox\u2019s great-great-grandson, and publishing magnate Cyrus Curtis. In 1929, construction of a Montpelier replica began near the original site. Fowler donated Knox family antiques. Visit August 10 and catch Knoxfest, a history celebration with a film about Knox jazzed up with a live steel band and a chicken barbecue and ice cream social.<\/p>\n

Route 1, Thomaston; May 25-Oct. 14: Thurs. & Fri. 10am-4pm; Adults $10, Kids $4, Under 5 Free; knoxmuseum.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Neal Dow Memorial House<\/strong><\/p>\n

The former mayor of Portland and 1880 presidential candidate Neal Dow (1804-1897) was the \u201cfather of prohibition\u201d who helped craft it into law in 1851. Interestingly, though, Dow himself authorized the shipment and stockpiling of a large supply of \u201cmedicinal\u201d alcohol for use by \u201cdoctors.\u201d Discovery of this fact triggered Portland\u2019s rum riot of 1855. Prohibition was repealed in 1856. So was Dow a hypocrite, or a closet tippler? \u201cI think personally he\u00a0 never touched a drop,\u201d says Dow museum docent David Perkins.
\nDow served in the Civil War; his 1829 federal-style Congress St. mansion was a link on the Underground Railroad. After the war, Dow and his wife Maria lived there with their five children. Dow\u2019s son Fred inherited the mansion and his father\u2019s temperance mission. Fred willed the house, as the Neal Dow Memorial, to the Women\u2019s Christian Temperance Union, and upon his death in 1971, the WCTU took over the building.<\/p>\n

Now on the National Register of Historic\u00a0 Places, the frivolity-free Dow home provides insight into the life and times of a very sober Victorian-era scholar. Oil and photographic portraits of Dow abound; the man was positively shaggy with muttonchop whiskers. A ceramic death mask sits in a glass case in his library among his\u00a0 extensive book collection.<\/p>\n

714 Congress St., Portland; July & Aug: Mon-Thurs., 10am-4pm; Admission: $5; 773-7773, trolleymuseum.org<\/a><\/p>\n

L.C. Bates Museum<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1860, when George Hinckley was six, he was given three rocks. \u201cHe claimed that these were the start of Maine\u2019s natural history museum,\u201d says curator Deborah Staber. Hinckley founded the Good Will-Hinckley Orphanage for boys in 1889 in a town now called Hinckley, halfway between Fairfield and Skowhegan. In 1911, he opened the Bates museum on the same campus to house his collection of rocks, minerals, fossils, Native American artifacts, and many donated items.<\/p>\n

The orphanage is no more; today, Good Will-Hinckley is a charter school offering an education aimed at a future in farming, forestry, and clean energy, taught hands-on at the riverfront campus of woodland and organic gardens. The museum is autonomous.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a sort of museum of a museum, because it\u2019s so old,\u201d says Staber. \u201cWe have 32 dioramas of Maine landscapes and animals, including many birds and a caribou. There\u2019s a mounted blue marlin donated by Ernest Hemingway. We have Maine artists exhibited every summer, and this summer\u2019s theme is \u2018The Gift of the Glacier.\u2019 We have a glacier-scratched rock right outside the museum.\u201d Staber says visitors often tour the museum, have a picnic outside, and then walk the campus trails. She acknowledges that the museum is not heated in winter. \u201cWe\u2019re the coolest museum in central Maine.\u201d<\/p>\n

16 Prescott Dr., Hinckley; Apr.-mid.-Nov: Wed.-Sat.10am-4:30pm; Sun. 1-4:30pm; Adults $3, Kids up to 17 $1; 238-4000, gwh.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Wilhelm Reich\u00a0 Museum<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 160-acre Rangeley farm called Orgonon was the home, observatory, and research laboratory of Dr. Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957), who came here in 1942. Born in Austria and a lapsed colleague of Sigmund Freud, Reich came to America in the 1930s to teach at New York\u2019s New School. His research focused on harnessing the energy he believed was inherent and available in animals and objects. His \u201corgone accumulator\u201c boxes supposedly stored energy to treat \u201cneurosis\u201d and terminal disease. Experiments were on mice; later, he built a human-sized accumulator.<\/p>\n

An article published in 1947 in The New Republic<\/em> by writer Mildred Brady alleged, with distortion and innuendo, that Reich\u2019s orgone energy was being used for \u201corgastic\u201d sexual purposes. This led to the FDA banning Reich\u2019s equipment and a lawsuit resulting in a judgment ordering Reich to destroy his equipment. He refused, his appeals failed, and he was sentenced to two years in federal prison. Reich wrote a will before his incarceration to establish the trust that maintains his Rangeley farm as the museum it is today. He died of heart failure in prison. The controversy that dogged him in life ironically contributed to his enduring legacy as an early icon of the sexual revolution.<\/p>\n

The museum showcases Reich\u2019s research and scholarship, holds conferences, maintains the property and bookstore, and \u201cadministers the Reich archive.\u201d Two cottages are available for rental on the grounds.<\/p>\n

19 Orgonon Circle, Dodge Pond Rd., Rangeley; Jul. & Aug: \u2028Wed.-Sun., 1-5pm; Sept: Sat. only, 1-5pm; Adults $6; \u2028864-3443, wilhelmreichtrust.org<\/a><\/p>\n

The Umbrella Cover Museum<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Umbrella Cover Museum on Peaks Island is the brainchild of Nancy 3. Hoffmanm who began collecting 20 years ago because she was fascinated by the stories that accompanied each cover. Whether a donor claims a cover is from the Sahara desert or was the only umbrella cover design allowed in Cold War-era Czechoslovakia, each has a story. Last summer, Hoffman achieved the Guinness World Record for the most umbrella covers, at 730. So what\u2019s next? \u201cI\u2019d like to take the exhibit to England and then to other parts of the world. The British deserve to see the umbrella cover museum.\u201d<\/p>\n

62-B Island Ave., Peaks Island; Jun. 25-Labor Day: Tues.-Sat. 10am-1pm & 2-5pm; Sun.10-12; Donations accepted; \u2028939-0302, umbrellacovermuseum.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Thompson Ice House Museum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Calling itself a \u201cworking museum dedicated to traditional ice-harvesting methods,\u201d this modest, focused museum is named for Herbert Thompson (1905-1991) of South Bristol. It claims to be the only ice house on the National Register of Historic Places still in use.<\/p>\n

In the pre-electrified 19th century, Maine\u2019s harvested ice was big business; ice was shipped to the West Indies and even to China. As electricity diminished demand, harvested ice dwindled to just crushed ice for local fishermen. These days, the annual President\u2019s Day weekend ice harvest in February is the Thompson Ice House\u2019s tribute to a tradition begun in 1826.<\/p>\n

Rte. 129, South Bristol; Jul. & Aug: Wed., Fri., Sat., 1-4pm; \u2028Donations accepted; 644-8808, thompsonicehouse.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Seashore Trolley Museum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before you reach the beach in the Kennebunks, check out the Seashore Trolley Museum. With more than 250 vehicles including subway cars and buses, the museum has trolleys from New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Germany, Hungary, and England. One was used in the 1981 cop thriller Nighthawks<\/em>, starring a young Sylvester Stallone, and another in Spike Lee\u2019s 1992 biopic Malcolm X<\/em>. \u201cThis past March, an Emerson College student filmed for her senior project here.\u00a0 That a college senior would find our site relevant in 2013 is impressive,\u201d says executive director Sally Bates.<\/p>\n

195 Log Cabin Rd., Kennebunkport; Memorial Day-Columbus Day: 7days, 10am-5pm; Adults $10, Kids $7.50, under 5 free; 967-2800, trolleymuseum.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July\/August 2013
\n“Into each life some rain must fall,\u201d as Portlander Henry Wadsworth Longfellow observed. So when the clouds come out, take the party indoors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8296,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[66],"class_list":["post-8292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-julyaugust-2013"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8292"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8530,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8292\/revisions\/8530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}