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Hit the road with ‘Nomadland’
It’s always intriguing to watch a movie that blurs the lines between fiction and truth. Now, I’m not talking about “based on” or “inspired by” films – though one could argue that they partake in their own line blurring – but rather films that fold together the real and the fictional. Films that evoke that cinema verité vibe without being true documentaries.
That sort of vague and vaguely-explained categorization – it’s tough to articulate, but you know it when you see it – precisely and perfectly encapsulates Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland.” The film – written, directed, edited and produced by Zhao – is adapted from Jessica Bruder’s 2017 nonfiction book “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century.”
It’s a story about the road-roaming lifestyle adopted by an increasing number of people – older, middle-class folks – who have been forced out of their homes and into a nomadic lifestyle by the unfortunate realities of late-stage capitalism. The companies for whom they spent years working are gone, their homes and savings destroyed by the mortgage and banking crises. To survive, they move into vans and RVs and follow seasonal work – Amazon distribution centers and campgrounds and national parks and the like – gradually becoming part of the ever-growing subculture.
It also – aside from a pair of incredible actors (Frances McDormand and David Strathairn) at its center – is populated almost wholly by people playing lightly fictionalized versions of themselves, actual livers of the nomadic lifestyle.
That bringing together of the fictional and the factual is what pushes Zhao’s film into the realm of greatness, an intimate epic of the American west as experienced by those who have been left behind by one or more of this country’s 21st century economic collapses and rebirths. It is quiet and expansive all at once, a film enamored of the broad openness of the landscape while gently acknowledging how easy it is for individual lives to get lost in the vastness that is America.
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How a Florida father of six built an amusement park in his backyard
When the pandemic shut down basketball courts, gymnasiums and playgrounds in his state, a Florida father of six decided he would create fun for his kids by building an amusement park, including a 310-foot-long rollercoaster, in his backyard.
“My son is a basketball player, and when they shut down the courts here, we put in a full regulation NBA court,” said Scott Friga, a contractor in North Fort Myers, during an interview with The Maine Edge.
“The next week, they started shutting down gyms, so we built one right here,” Friga continued, adding “the toughest part was finding all of the gym equipment, but we did it.”
The next request came from Friga’s daughter.
“She said ‘Dad, I want a rollercoaster.’ I said ‘Great idea, let’s do it.’”
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Masks, social distancing and speed: Snowmobiles enjoy boom
PORTLAND (AP) — The thrill of hurtling along a remote trail, coupled with Americans’ ongoing desire to get outside during the pandemic, is creating the biggest boom in more than two decades for the snowmobiling industry.
From Maine to Montana, it’s becoming difficult to find a new snowmobile for sale. And the rental fleets are booked up.
“We’ve had some good years and some bad years, but we’ve never had anything quite like this one,” said Dave Jones at Jackman Powersports, who expects to sell about 450 snowmobiles this year.
Nearly a third of sales were to new riders, Jones said, and he would sell more snowmobiles if he could get more from manufacturers.
The U.S. represents the world’s biggest market for snowmobiles and Canada isn’t far behind, with an economic impact of more than $35 billion, according to the Michigan-based International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association.
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Long road to normalcy: Virtual village connects marathoners
BOSTON (AP) — Organizers of the Boston Marathon — postponed indefinitely because of the coronavirus pandemic — have launched a virtual Athletes’ Village to reproduce at least some of the camaraderie of the real thing.
The Boston Athletic Association says it’s an attempt to keep runners connected as the group works out a date for the 125th running of the planet’s most storied footrace. Last April’s race was canceled and tentatively rescheduled to sometime this autumn, but because of a surge in COVID-19 cases in hard-hit Massachusetts, officials still can’t say when in-person racing for the masses can safely resume.
The virtual village, launched Jan. 5, is a far cry from the bucket-list magic and mystique of the real Athletes’ Village in a schoolyard near the start line in Hopkinton. There, in what’s traditionally been a rite of spring, tens of thousands of runners from around the globe gather giddily beneath tents to hydrate, stretch, meditate, bond and chat before pounding the pavement to Boston.
But the BAA hopes participants will use the village as a digital hub to share training tips, seek out coaching, compete against one another in monthly challenges — and just generally party like Boston Marathoners have done since 1897.
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Outdoor hockey traditions under shadow of climate change
KINGMAN, Alberta (AP) — Larry Asp grew up playing shinny outside in this tiny rural town he calls home again after 40 years away. Since returning, he also holds the keys to the outdoor “Rink of Dreams” that gives the 90 local residents the chance to skate outside during the keen Canadian winters.
Out here on the prairie an hour’s drive southeast of Edmonton, the ice in the former “Lutefisk Capital of Alberta” doesn’t seem to freeze as long as it used to, not like when Asp was a kid. He unlocked the doors to the rink, which in late September was simply dirt after a summer of hosting barrel racing and other equestrian events, and gazed into the wind-swept distance.
“We’re kind of at the mercy of the elements,” said Asp, a retired member of the Kingman Recreation Association board. “In the springtime because of the (rink’s) white boards and the sun, it starts melting back from the boards pretty quickly. You’d be really lucky if you got four months out of it.”
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