Nabokov once said that to call a story true was an insult to both truth and art. He was discussing the genesis of literature beginning with the boy who cried wolf, i.e. the difference between the wolf in the tall grass and the wolf in the tall tale, and that between the two is the art of literature. In the words of this late Cornell professor, “every great writer is a great deceiver.”
“Eric Left Riverton” Preview Hits 100K in a single hour
In a surprising development, the low-resolution trailer for "Eric Left Riverton" reached more than 100,000 unique visitors in the space of a single hour. Originally…
Riverton Officially Adopts Grand Acknowledgments for all Public Spaces
As of midnight tonight, the Town of Riverton, Maine will officially adopt the Grand Acknowledgment for all public lands, services, and schools as well as…
The True Origins of Riverton • Wetlands and Land Disputes
This is a story about a different type of wildlife. This is a story afraid to go on. In full transparency, I am no historian, I am…
Maine’s Danger • The Precipice Trail
As reported last week, longtime Riverton resident and one-time public personality Arthur "Artie" Aloysius Faraday, 37, was found dead at the bottom of Precipice Trail,…
Shimmering Vagrants Found in Maine
Our world is full, bursting at the seams. The difference between a vagrant and a migrant is that a migrant moves regularly between seasonal habitats. A vagrant…
Metamodernist Reflections • New England Art and Music
This is a cropped image of the homepage of a website called "johncmenihan.com." This side features the works of painter and illustrator, John C. Menihan. The site was created his son, Tom Menihan and several other family members to honor the spirit and substance of John Menihan's work in documenting and paying homage to the life of everyday people over many decades. The site summarizes John C. Menihan's work in the following passage: "John C. Menihan (1908–1992) chronicled six decades of American life—city skylines, sacred rituals, rural landscapes, and working people—through a wide-ranging and consistent body of work. Though represented in major collections, much of his work has remained out of public view. This site presents a curated selection as…
Here Comes a Regular • A review of “Boarded Windows”
Riverton Arts Review Nabokov once said that to call a story true was…
Metamodernist Reflections • New England Art and Music
This is a cropped image of the homepage of a website called "johncmenihan.com."…
Tribute to Jennifer T. Gardner • A Major Inspiration for “Eric Left Riverton”
Jennifer T. Gardner (December 1, 1974 - May 19, 2017) offered spiritual, moral,…
U.S. Senate Education Caucus Riles Riverton
The town of Riverton has been riled in recent days due to the…
Land Disputes • As Old as the Hills
Over the past several years, I've been following the land dispute between the…
After Two Decades, “Eric Left Riverton” Finally Arrives
Launched in 1999 and completed in 2005, the ambitious studio project Eric Left Riverton spent…
“Eric Left Riverton” Preview Hits 100K in a single hour
In a surprising development, the low-resolution trailer for "Eric Left Riverton" reached more…
Eleventh Hour Shine • The story of a rock album, loss, and resilience
The picture on the left was taken during the process of writing the…
Citizens of Riverton • Tribute to our Town’s Official Best Friend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y91H4G6UnfE This is first sequence of the project now known as "Eric Left…
Riverton Officially Adopts Grand Acknowledgments for all Public Spaces
As of midnight tonight, the Town of Riverton, Maine will officially adopt the…
Shimmering Vagrants Found in Maine
Our world is full, bursting at the seams. The difference between a vagrant and a migrant…
Local Man Found Dead on Precipice Trail
The body of Arthur "Artie" Faraday, 37, was discovered dead on the dangerous Precipice Trail…
Maine’s Danger • The Precipice Trail
As reported last week, longtime Riverton resident and one-time public personality Arthur "Artie" Aloysius Faraday,…
Metamodernist Reflections • New England Art and Music
PART I • The Metamodernist Barfly Because someone pilfered my weekend edition of the Riverton Tribune from my porch last month, I had no choice but to read the digital version online to catch up on the weekly news. I felt irritated because, to a man of my age, one […]
Tribute to Jennifer T. Gardner • A Major Inspiration for “Eric Left Riverton”
Reflections on Jenny by Steven J. Lawrence This tribute is a brief series of reflections from three friends of Jennifer T. Gardner. All of us who were close to her knew her simply as “Jenny.” My own reflection is brief because I want the video below to be my reflection. […]
U.S. Senate Education Caucus Riles Riverton
The town of Riverton has been riled in recent days due to the establishment of the United States Senate Education Caucus. Even in the midst of a school year at the beginning stages of implementing a three-year district-wide phonics program, education professionals across Riverton and its surrounding communities are expressing […]
Land Disputes • As Old as the Hills
Over the past several years, I’ve been following the land dispute between the Rathburgers and the Bobbertons. Like many residents of Riverton and parts of Northern, Central, and Eastern Maine, this dispute has taken up too many of my weekends for far too long, not to mention, a good too […]
Eleventh Hour Shine • The story of a rock album, loss, and resilience
The series originally set out to explore the experience of making a record while trying to work responsibly as the chief steward of the process and eventually grew into a deeper inquiry into the personal resilience that was required of me during this process when some serious life challenges arose. The questions and ideas span several arenas: the practice of making music together, the work of personal growth, and the effort to build healthy community in classrooms, projects, and workplaces.
“Eric Left Riverton” Preview Hits 100K in a single hour
In a surprising development, the low-resolution trailer for “Eric Left Riverton” reached more than 100,000 unique visitors in the space of a single hour. Originally conceived as “Riverton Stories” which set out to cover the work of Riverton Historical Society Archivist Eric Berns, the project has evolved into a melancholy […]
Citizens of Riverton • Tribute to our Town’s Official Best Friend
In the years that followed his recovery, he hit the ground running, fixing cassette tapes, conserving aged government and personal documents, splicing 8mm, super 8mm, and 16mm film reels—both mint condition and banged up black and white, Kodachrome and Ektachrome, no less!—Bernes, now 81, was able to cobble together one of the largest collections of archival materials in the history of New England conservation.
Eric Left Riverton • an Unfinished Symphony about a Small New England Town
Another sequence from the “Eric Left Riverton” project has been published on a YouTube. Director/Producer Daniel Tripp acknowledges that the “Eric Left Riverton” project was originally set to be a full-length single-viewing documentary film.
The True Origins of Riverton • Wetlands and Land Disputes
This is a story about a different type of wildlife. This is a story afraid to go on. In full transparency, I am no historian, I am a retired geologist who is about to break his own vow never, ever, to write about geology again. In light of recent events with […]