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Diners of Maine: A1

I renewed my interest in photography after taking classes over three summers at the Maine Media Workshop. Artists Frank Lavalle, Christine Collins and Jan Rosenbaum encouraged, guided, and prodded. Then last winter I told myself, "Enough learning - time for doing!"  Get out there and just shoot.

To focus, I pursued a theme: Maine Diners.  I considered almost a dozen and settled on three within an hour of our summer home in Wiscasset.

The first one, the A1 Diner in Gardiner, is an authentic gem of the golden days of diners.  It's been featured on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Mike Giberson, son of a previous owner, has co-owned and run the operation for more than 15 years. He arrives at 5am each day. 

The menu is traditional diner comfort food, to which contemporary offerings such as a curried chicken wrap, grilled pesto chicken and roast beef/red onion w blue cheese.  Patrons start lining up at 7 a.m. most mornings and Mike has a killer Sunday brunch.

The diner was built  by the Worcester Lunch Car Co. of Worcester, Massachusetts, of the major diner manufactuers of the era and retains its original character.  The A1 opened for business in 1948 and has not been renovated, modernized, or 'improved'.

• A1 Diner photo gallery

Cuba - Frozen in the '50s

HAVANA, Cuba -- This Caribbean island is a country in amber. Fidel's forces may have wrested power from the dictator Batista in the '50sbut much of the island looks the same today. 

The gorgeous, yet deteriorating, Spanish-influenced architecture is home to government workers, residents, state-owned restaurants and hotels.  You walk the streets and hear music from the bars (many sounding like the Buena Vista Social Club).  Children play in the streets. The best GM cars of the '50s ply the roads, albeit with a lot of belching smoke and homemade parts. 

But while it looks the same, it's not the same.  The communists took away private property and put people to work. Now they earn an average of $18 a month.  Despite free housing in deteriorating buildings, free medical care, free education (What do you do with a Master's degree?), and subsistence food rations from the state, life is tough.

Early in January, I joined a tour to Cuba, led by world class photojournalist Peter Turnley.  We traveled under an educational/cultural expedition license. The intent was that we would meet Cubans, and experience their culture, and their country. 

For me, and I suspect and the other half dozen fantastic photographers on the trip, the primary attraction was to be able to take photos of this dramatic, colorful, vibrant, sensuous place. 

But for all of us, the focus of the memories of the trip are the warm and welcoming - and incredibly positive - people we met.

Here's a gallery of some of what we saw.

Fab '50s/'60s on four wheels

     The Owl's Head Transportation Museum's Fabulous '50s/'60s Show drew hundreds of memories on wheels. A '57 Chevy, a '56 Thunderbird, a '62 Olds Starfire, the usual suspects.  One highlight was a Jaguar XKE, originally introduced at the New York Auto Show in 1961.  I was there, too.  Who knew that a few years later, I'd own an XK :) 

     Blasts from the Past: Classic hood ornaments and logos from Owls Head are here.

     

Diners of Maine: Miss Portland

Miss Portland Diner is an old diner being given new life by a former New York magazine executive.  Tom Manning bought the then-abandoned diner car on Portland's xzxzxzxsized, and moved it four blocks to land where he could expand and provide parking.  

The result is an "everything old is new again" diner.  The Miss Portland diner car was manufactured by the same company which did the A1, so the contrast between traditional/old and modernized/old is interesting.

Read more about Manning's adventure.

Diners of Maine: Moody's

P.B. Moody went into business in 1927.  He started with three cabins, figuring that the new US Route 1 was likely to have some traffic from vacationers who might need a place to stay.

Seven years later, he bought additional land, built more cabins, and figured all those sleepy people might want something to eat.  So was born Moody's Diner, a landmark in the midcoast of Maine. 

Moody's has always been a family affair.  Even today, as many as half the 70 employees are related.
 

The formula is still the same.  Comfort food, reasonable prices, and pleasant people behind the counter, at the tables, and back in the kitchen.
 

Ask anyone about Moody's and they remember the pie. Terri, the pie maker, whips up 39 different kinds each week - in addition to all those donuts, too.

• Moody's Web site is here.
• Moody's Diner Photo Gallery

More Venice: Walking in the rain

During our ten days in Venice, we had rain.  

St. Mark's Square and its immediate area flooded, water six to eight inches deep. It's the lowest part of Venice, and it is the first area to flood. Sure it was inconvenient but, heck, if you were there, you'd feel you missed something if it wasn't wet and they didn't put up those walkways.

• Venice gallery #2

Venice

You call this a vacation? 

Six days in Venice in late October, a style called "Street Photography."  Which means maybe as many as 100 images an hour. Trying to shoot on the shoulders of greats like Robert Frank. Or Henri Cartier Bresson, who said, "You press the button ... and you say to yourself 'One of these will be a good one'." In search of "the decisive moment." 

The catalyst for the trip was a week-long class taught by Peter Turnley, who 60 Minutes showed is one of the best photojournalists in the world.  His images have been on the covers of Newsweek magazine more than 40 times. He has authored four books, and does work for international media such as Paris Match, Stern and National Geographic.

Shadowing Turnley for a few hours was the best instruction.  His strategy is easily described: "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."  It is not easily copied. He weaves through crowds and and buzzes around people.  He's looking for a moment, a glance, a smile, an embrace, or a subtle smile.

The week introduced me to a new style of photography ... as well as the streets, canals, alleys, markets, bridges, Cambios, and people of Venice.  Imagine visiting one of the most mysterious and interesting cities and never once venturing into a museum, a 13th century palace, or even taking a gondola ride.  This was not touring. This was learning.

• Venice gallery #1