Letter From The Editor

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-LETTER FROM THE EDITOR-

Exciting Old Port

Iwas surprised by something the other day. Iwas on the telephone, talking to a woman from Connecticut, and she said animatedly, "Oh, you're from Portland? That's ranked the most liveable city in the Northeast by some magazine, isn't it?"

Yes, I thought to myself on the other end of the line. New England Monthlywas some magazine. But had she been here lately? Has anybody been anywhere lately? "And that's where the beautiful Old Port District is, isn't it?You're so lucky!" "Yes!" She made it sound like some cool enclave, like one giant familiar luncheon spot in "Northern Exposure," an Intimate society where everyone knows each other and you're all staying there for cultural reasons together.

Was this Unfrozen Cave Woman Tourist, or had she stumbled upon the precise reasons why I moved back to Portland 10 years ago?

Back then the world was snowshoeing up here. Woodstove smoke was not considered toxic; it hadn't even hurt Boulder yet.You could get the greatest haddock chowder in the world at places like Seamen's Club, The Bag,and Gary Lawless of Gulf of Maine Books was still holding his annual night bonfire poetry readings' in South Harpswell.

People were fixing up the old Victorian buildings of the Old Port on shoestring budgets. Everyone was talented and undercapitalized. There wa,sa lot of fun and no such thing as a business plan.

And this woman still thinks that's what's going on in Portland!

It is.

I think we're headed for a summer of rediscovery here in the Old Port. The big money is gone, and the ideas and color and originality are creeping back in.

Gritty McDuff's; the $2 Nickelodeon Theatre (which is doing such a great job); Fresh Market Pasta (now able to afford a front do"oron ~xchange Street), Granny Killam's ... If the Old Port keeps up the good work, we'll have totally recaptured the spirit of our city!

But aren't the people here crazy?

Yeah," laughs our new editorial intern, Peter Davenport. "They're really great, though." ,A ,..

C

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MICHAEL WATERMAN

"Waterman's paintings are nor for the faint-hearted and shallow-minded ...sometimes disturbing. always challenging, with continuously new interpretations even after years of daily exposure Like all important pictures, they are more the sum of their parts and reward the perceptive viewer with insights into what it means to be human." Represented by: _ !iI.WIU