Tonight is the 20th annual lowering of a sardine from the roof of an art museum in Eastport, Maine’s easternmost city. (Lubec is the easternmost town.) A lot of people don’t know this, but the now-famous sardine lowering tradition was invented by me and first built in the sculptural form by my sweet wife, Sweetgrass and manifested as an annual event by my “bro,” the conceptual artist known as “Bang-Bangs” during a five-year stint of living and working on the watery U.S.-Canadian border.

Now, for the first time, I will publicly acknowledge that, during the early aughts, with the help of a cheap wig and some antique safety glasses, I had a secret life as “Bang-Bangs,” the star of a dozen short films documenting his misadventures on a small island-city on the border with Canada.

As you can see in the five-minute documentary ABOVE, the whole sordid New Year’s Eve affair was due to a work argument between the museum director and the museum janitor over the demolition of an interior bank vault (don’t ask), Sweetgrass and Bang-Bangs were only involved for the first two years of the event. And thanks to our archival footage, we can show how the world’s largest sardine grew to an enormous size, before being shrunk to the current minnow-size.

A brief history: In 2005, Eastport civic leaders asked if the art museum (where I labored as janitor and exhibit constructor) would consider lowering an illuminated ball, a la Times Square, from the museum roof at midnight on New Year’s. I thought the idea was foolish and derivative. I counter-offered with a giant sardine — in honor of the city’s history as the one-time fish canning capital of the world. Also, due to our proximity to the Canadian border, I suggested we lower a giant (cardboard) illuminated Maple Leaf at midnight Atlantic time.

And everybody loved the idea.

(Except the museum director, I would posit, because due to the success of the event, it became a tradition and, understandably, a pain in the ass for him to pull off every year since 2005. The event doesn’t make money for the museum. And due to the hit-or-miss January weather on a island in Passamaquoddy Bay, the annual planning is fraught with stress if a storm is forecasted.)

Anyways, the first year fish was a six footer.

The following year, Sweetgrass built a 24-foot sardine, using 1x3 strapping as giant fishbones and silver fabric woven into a chicken wire armature to simulate the scales of a giant herring. Gotta say, she certainly outdid her original creation. Boston Globe must have thought so too, since Sally was the subject of a front page photo.

However, despite a wondrous and well attended sardine lowering, the bossman never spoke to me again.

The following year, he commissioned another artist to build a new fish. The museum claims this version is eight-feet long, but that’s probably an exaggeration. Below is the notably smaller current fish with its creator.

In retrospect, I find it amusing that the sardine shindig is still a thing. And equally funny is how Eastport and the smaller sardine were part of Anderson Cooper’s “New Year’s Live” broadcast in 2012 when co-host Kathy Griffin dropped to her knees, in front of Cooper’s crotch, in a sexually suggestive manner… much to the disgust of Eastport’s civic leaders who demanded — and did NOT receive — an apology from Griffin.

The real legacy of the event, though, is giving the young folk on that sleepy little island something to do in the middle of the winter. I know many teenagers love the excuse to stay out late with their pals, cruising and getting into trouble in what is otherwise, a very anti-teen community run by a bunch of old biddies, fuddy-duddies and rich folk from away, who retire to the island city in hope of finding their downeast version of Mayberry.

Sadly, Bang-Bangs’ Youtube channel (which started in 2005, the first year of the company’s existence) was hijacked by some scammer several years ago. However, thanks to the Crash Report’s multi-media capabilities, I'm thinking of adding a Cinema section next to the Podcast and re-screening Bang-Bang’s cinematographic catalogue.

If you appreciate my storytelling and journalism that goes places other media won’t, please consider becoming a paid subsciber for six bucks monthly or sixty dollar per annum.

Things are getting weird out there. in these days leading to the 2024 election, in Maine and across the country, hard right extremists are trying to destroy democracy. In this episode, we discuss strategies on how to fight the fash, starting with a conversation with author Mira Ptacin about the philosophical concept of “the paradox of tolerance” and how we should not tolerate intolerance. Then we speak to antifascist researcher Kate Ross about her work exposing chuds who try to hide behind masks and fake name.  And we talk to investigative journalist Claire Goforth about her NAZI-LAND series for The Daily Dot, during which she travels to Maine, Idaho, Virginia before returning back to her Jacksonville stomping grounds to report on chud efforts to set up communities based upon hate.  

You can read "No Hugs for Chuds, Part One" via The Crash Report on substack here which goes into great detail on the newly identified second-in-command of the Blood Tribe, a 23-year-old pagan, hitler-worshoping incel with an appetite for fisticuffs who goes by the name Nate Higgers.

Mira's website: miramptacin.com

Kate's twitter: https://twitter.com/kate_ross_/

Claire's series on the chuds. https://www.dailydot.com/naziland/

CONTENT WARNING: In this episode of Disinfomaniacs, Crash and Andy discuss Maine millionaire and wannabe gov Eliot Cutler and his arrest and jail sentence for possessing child sex abuse material. Then Crash explains how a flawed assessment protocol was used in court to mitigate Cutler’s punishment. Also, they look at the treatment center for rich folk with “problematic sexual behavior” where Cutler was “treated” and assessed with the same flawed test. And Crash reveals the Harvard “prank” on Natalie Wood that gained Cutler his first taste of fame and admittance to the Harvard Lampoon. To watch a short film of the Natalie Wood- Cutler incident and to read THE PRE-  OBITUARY OF ELIOT CUTLER sign up for The Crash Report, a new substack newsletter about Maine politics, far-right extremism, chuds, Christian-Nationalism, bad priests, drunk Coasties and homesteading at thecrashreport.substack.com. 

Crash takes a deep dive on why the fishy tale by GOP leader of the Maine House of Representatives of a rogue wave, angels and God is scientifically impossible. Also, Crash discusses the sternman's serious injuries due to Billy Bob Faulkingham acting like a fool while taking pics of breaking waves for social media. And how the media, his fellow politicians and his MAGA base swallowed Faulkingham's sea story, hook, line and sinker. Soundbites from WABI, WMTW, WGME, Newscenter 6 and clips from interview on WVOM-FM.

CW: This episode deals with allegations of sexual abuse, as well as domestic violence, grooming and discusses of heroin addiction. Listener be warned. You'll hear Justin Whynot, the vice-chair of the local Moms for Liberty chapter (and candidate for school board) tell the RSU 14 (Windham and Raymond, Maine) school board on 11/1/2023 that he'd been falsely accused of bad things by his daughter's maternal grandmother and that the allegations were being used against him as a political attack. We speak to the mother making the allegations that, about 20 years ago, the Moms for Liberty-endorsed candidate (then 20) had physically abused and introduced her then-14 year old daughter to sex, drugs and pregnancy, which all contributed to her now 36-year-old daughter's existence as a person with a drug addiction living on the streets of Portland, Maine.

In this episode we cover Hammer-the-chud-cult leader's recent decision about his land in Springfield, Maine and Shawn McB (the creepy dude from Trans-Panic in Maine, Parts 1 and 2) and his run for town council in Hampden Maine. But most importantly, we discuss the Lewiston Massacre, the mass shooting in Maine's second largest city last week. Andy O'Brien explains what was happening on the ground  in L/A and Nathan Bernard reports on the on-line coverage and instant disinfo surrounding the tragedy. 

CW: Lots of bad language and anti-LGBTQ rantings by a lunatic. NSFW or for kids.  In this episode, we show a real life example of the trickle down impact of the hateful rhetoric being spewed by right-wing media influencers. Crash interviews a gun-toting Trump-loving homeowner in western Maine with the odd hobby of painting graphic and disturbing violent threats on the exterior of his ranch house for all the neighborhood kids to read.

In this episode, we tell the saga of Boneface, a Florida con-artist who duped Hammer (the neo-nazi setting up a compound in Maine) into believing he was an Ukrainian Freedom Fighter who fought and killed Russians alongside Azov Brigade. Thing is, Boneface was lying. Also, we cover how the right-wing media, including Alex Jones and Roger Stone, fell for, and amplified, Hammer's Sept. 2 Florida march and Boneface's tall tales.

Part 2 of our on-going series provides a close look at the folks and groups promoting transphobia Down East. Shawn McBreairty's lawyer, for instance, who has argued that laws regarding 'child sexual abuse content' be loosened. Or the convicted child sex offender who served as "Director of Advocacy" for the local anti-trans group “Parents Rights Maine" and has trouble telling the truth. And the tough-talking ex-cop who views himself as authority on all things, especially young adult literature and middle school curriculum.  This episode explains how haters share and spew the vile anti-trans talking points that have become part of the Maine GOP platform.

School board meetings in Maine are getting pretty crazy. Long gone are the days when debate and discussion were focused on budgets, discipline policies and Maine school funding formula. Lately, thanks to the talking points furnished by far-right bigots and influencers like Maine's Shawn McBreairty and Larry Lockman, school boards and individual educators are being targeted by the followers of these chuds and have turned the public comment portions of board meetings into readings of the dirty bits of books they don't like. In Part 1 of our series "Trans-Panic in Maine," Andy O'Brien explains how we got here and who is responsible, namely McBrearity and Lockman and their useful idiots. CONTENT WARNING: This episode includes elderly chuds reading salacious material , so it's NSFW and not for the ears of children.  HERE'S A LINK TO MOONCAT'S TWITTER. https://twitter.com/HeemanFragbard