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My Favorite Things Maine
I don't know this state very well, so I fear that this list is not, in fact, my favorite things from Maine. It is what I think are my favorite things from Maine:
1. Writer: The first five volumes of The Dark Tower are amazing plus I love The Stand and Misery and The Dead Zone. He's not as good as Melville or Faulkner but few other American writers beat him.
2. Painter of seascapes: He's not from Maine, but surely he counts because he painted there. Try this one, or this one.
3. Painter: Marsden Hartley, this one is atypical. There is also Andrew Wyeth, do you know the old saying "As usual, the truth lies somewhere in between"?
4. Poets: There is Longfellow, E.A. Robinson, and Edna St. Vincent-Millay, none of whom I much relate to but nonetheless I am impressed in the aggregate.
5. Best writer about spiders and swans: Duh.
6. Movie director: John Ford, with Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance as the classics.
7. Composer: Walter Piston is the only one I can think of, try this disc.
8. Beautiful woman: Liv Tyler. Wasn't she beautiful? But when? I can't find any picture on Google to prove it...
The bottom line: For an isolated, underpopulated state, this is a pretty awesome line-up. But hey, it's cold up here!
Posted by Tyler Cowen on October 11, 2007 at 06:12 AM in The Arts | Permalink
Comments
Which version of "The Stand" do you prefer, the original, or unedited version? I'm going to guess at the original.
Posted by: Barry Cotter at Oct 11, 2007 7:10:10 AM
Try doing your image search for "Arwen" instead of "Liv Tyler".
Posted by: Andromeda at Oct 11, 2007 7:38:54 AM
On the subject of Maine, anyone else nostalgic for the goofy old LL Bean catalog, with its homely models and sturdy clothes that "give a neat, trim appearance," as the text was wont to say? There is a very funny parody called Items From Our Catalog, I think by Gingold, that included the Penobscot Paper Clip and a shearling-lined yarmulke.
Posted by: Dan at Oct 11, 2007 8:24:56 AM
Tyler, the proper way to say it is, "it's wicked cold up heaaah!"
Posted by: John at Oct 11, 2007 8:45:03 AM
Lobster, dummy.
Posted by: josh at Oct 11, 2007 9:01:43 AM
"St. Vincent" is her middle name, not a hyphenated portion of her last name; it's the hospital she was born in.
Posted by: Anderson at Oct 11, 2007 9:29:42 AM
There's this writer named E.B. White you might want to check out...
Posted by: JDL at Oct 11, 2007 9:38:29 AM
Sounds of waters and rocks
Posted by: Yan Li at Oct 11, 2007 9:59:55 AM
Wild Blueberry pie while visiting Acadia National Park, don't remember the restaurant.
Posted by: ron at Oct 11, 2007 10:08:51 AM
Wild Blueberry pie while visiting Acadia National Park, don't remember the restaurant.
Posted by: ron at Oct 11, 2007 10:09:01 AM
Lobster rolls. One needs to do a study to determine why they are cheaper as you move away from the coast.
Posted by: Pitt at Oct 11, 2007 10:30:26 AM
Liv Tyler photos at http://imdb.com/gallery/granitz/6437/Events/6437/LivTyler_Dimit_14747211_400.jpg?path=pgallery&path_key=Tyler,%20Liv
Posted by: Dave Barnes at Oct 11, 2007 10:45:02 AM
maine = sailing
Posted by: ttt at Oct 11, 2007 10:51:19 AM
Ron may be thinking of the pie or maybe the turnovers (or maybe just the surroundings) at this place, which is indeed great:
http://www.acadiamagic.com/jordan-pond.html
I have to say that I'm with Pitt on the lobster rolls, though.
Liv Tyler is still jarringly beautiful, as you'll discover should you one day find yourself sitting near her in a restaurant. She becomes a big distraction.
Posted by: John Lilly at Oct 11, 2007 11:17:52 AM
It is lovely up here and I've always liked brick architecture. If you don't already know the town try a weekend trip.
I tried to walk into "J's Oysters" at 11 a.m. (I was hungry, no real breakfast) and a surly waitress growled at me: "We don't open until 11:30!" I replied politely: "The sign says you open at 11." (I didn't mention that, also, people were in there drinking.) Even more irritated, she bellowed: "That sign is *thirty years old*!"
Posted by: Tyler Cowen at Oct 11, 2007 12:39:05 PM
The end of book five is so bad that I lost all interest in finding out how it ended, and am surprised you'd cite book five as good over all. Hearts in Atlantis was good (not the movie which I hear is a disaster).
Posted by: washerdreyer at Oct 11, 2007 1:08:38 PM
What about Civil War Hero:
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
Posted by: WillG at Oct 11, 2007 1:28:35 PM
Methinks Cowen was pulling our e-legs when he claimed he could find no Liv Tyler images.
Also, she lived in Maine for less than one year as a child, so I think Cowen was just stretching it a bit due to some long term infatuation with Ms. Tyler (Not that there is anything wrong with that!).
Posted by: Yancey Ward at Oct 11, 2007 3:11:54 PM
Favorite Maine country singer: Dick Curless
Posted by: Nic at Oct 11, 2007 5:27:41 PM
You have to walk around downtown Portland. Portland--with a pop of no more than 65,000 people--must be one of the densest small cities in the country. You'll fall in love with it. If it weren't so homogenous, it would be the perfect place.
Posted by: dave at Oct 11, 2007 5:51:03 PM
author/militia member: Carolyn Chute
Posted by: David 9002 at Oct 11, 2007 7:54:53 PM
Tyler, like Will G, I will point to a single man who altered history, changed lives, and is a hero in the old, true sense of the word. Professor, officer, hero, warrior, hero again, governor, lucid multilingual writer, president of Bowdoin College, founder of a school for the blind, and father of five...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Lawrence_Chamberlain
Posted by: The other Eric at Oct 11, 2007 8:19:33 PM
Um, Tyler, let me fix that for you:
"He's not as good as Melville or Faulkner and virtually all other American writers beat him."
Posted by: dzot at Oct 11, 2007 9:44:06 PM
Carnivorous mosquitoes in the woods in the summer.
Posted by: Dead horse at Oct 11, 2007 10:18:03 PM
Sarah Orne Jewett is a luminous writer who set most of her stories in Maine and lived there. Penelope Fitzgerald and Marilynne Robinson are her aesthetic descendants.
Posted by: mari at Oct 12, 2007 2:32:39 AM
