Dylan Thomas
The birds of the winged trees flying my name Above the farms and the white horses I rose in rainy autumn And walked abroad in a shower of all my days. – Dylan Thomas
July 1, 2011
Youth Leadership Summit Yields Sustainable Projects
Students wrapped up their weeklong summit with the Martha’s Vineyard Youth Leadership Initiative last Friday, but that is not the end of their work. Many of their projects have staying power befitting the title of the gathering, the Youth Leadership Summit for Sustainable Development.
Mr. Whiting’s “Other Stuff:” You Haven’t Seen It Before
This sunny Saturday in West Tisbury, Allen Whiting is out at his easel, working at his latest landscape and simultaneously working at his answers to questions about his art.
His approach to both tasks is similar: He goes at it enthusiastically for awhile, then pauses to reconsider things, then goes back and adds…
Swimmer Dies After Rescue at Norton Point
A Watertown man died of apparent cardiac arrest after he and a swimming companion were rescued by Edgartown emergency responders at Norton Point on Saturday afternoon.
Island Community Chorus
Island Community Chorus
After a day at sea, or at least on the beach, what better way to ring in the Fourth on the Vineyard than a rousing session of sea chanties? On July 3 starting at 8 p.m. the Island Community Chorus will begin their summer concert with a round of chanties…
Breathe Into Island Time With Yoga Meditation Class
Summer stress driving you crazy? Admit it, vacationing isn’t always the mellow ride you envisioned. Trying to pack 365 days of fun into one weekend can even make you think better about coworkers and cubicles left behind.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Gazette Chronicle: Hot Air
Hot Air
From Gazette editions of July, 1936:
The giant dirigible Hindenburg soared over the Vineyard in the early hours of Wednesday morning. It was exactly ten minutes past two when Mr. and Mrs. Johnson Whiting of West Tisbury were aroused from their slumber by the roaring of the great engines.…
Old Sculpin Art Gallery Baits Hook with Fish Print
To make a gyotaku fish print an artist also needs to be a man of the sea. Not old mind you, but definitely experienced in the both the art of surfcasting as well as the brush. Steve London is such a man.
First Mr. London catches the fish. Then he inks the fish…
Forest Fire Management Includes Controlled Burns
State foresters and Nature Conservancy fire ecology experts will draft a fire management plan for Manuel Correllus State Forest on Martha’s Vineyard, to guide ongoing fire work, thanks to recent funding from the U.S. Forest Service.
The $374,000 also will cover the partnership to restore 925 acres in Massachusetts with prescribed fire over…
More Signage Aimed At Stalling Dirt Bikes
By TATIANA SCHLOSSBERG
In a move aimed at curbing the unlawful use of the Greenlands by dirt bikers, the West Tisbury conservation commission voted Tuesday night to put up five new warning signs at entrances to the preserved area.
The vote comes in response to several complaints received by the environmental…
Milestones
Milestones
On the weekend of May 13 to 15, the Rotary Club of Martha’s Vineyard hosted approximately 200 active Rotarians at the annual district 7950 conference held at the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown.
Chilmark
JANE N. SLATER
508-645-3378
(slaterjn@comcast.net)
Something jump started summer in Chilmark. After several rollicking thunderstorms, the weather took a right turn and the beach crowds appeared. There are a remarkable number of vacationers here already.
I must comment on how beautiful the dogwood trees were this month.…
Professionalism at the Helm, Matthew Stackpole Honored
Matthew Stackpole has ridden the crest of so many successful Island endeavors for so long, it should be no surprise that on Saturday, July 9, he will receive a coveted Island award. Mr. Stackpole is the recipient of the second Walter Cronkite Award; he will be honored at the 20th annual Seafood Buffet and Auction,…
Like Christmas, Only Warmer: Chilmark Softball Opening Day
Sixteen-month-old Tanner Weiss wants his daddy. The toddler is on the sidelines of Flanders Field, pouting and stretching out his arms toward third base, where Larry Weiss is holding down the fort for Sig’s Sluggers.
YMCA Name and Mission Grow Larger
For its first birthday, the Island’s newest community center got a new name: The Swartz Family YMCA is what the sign reads above the door to the 35,000-square foot building housing a pool, fitness center, cafe and gathering place for thousands of Islanders.
Donors Jim and Susan Swartz, who have given $3 million…
Landscape Artistry
Landscape Artistry
Camp Be-Someone-Else
Camp Be-Someone-Else
Be the star you know you are. The curtain is about to go up for summer theatre arts camp for ages 9 to 14 at the Vineyard Playhouse. Camp begins on Tuesday, July 5 and afterwards runs Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through August 26.
…
Silly Shakespeare Is Brain Candy
Silly Shakespeare Is Brain Candy
Where can you watch trained professionals and not-even-potty-trained extras take the stage together? The Fabulists’ theatre for kids, that’s where.
Free Pancakes
Free Pancakes
It’s a freedom festival of the most floury kind. Pancakes for free and someone else is making them. What more could a harried vacationer ask for?
The breakfast party is being thrown on Monday, July 4 by Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in honor of our…
C.B. Stark Jewelers at 45, Still Charming
C.B. Stark Jewelers is a place that’s so well known you probably take it for granted. If you’ve ever needed a new charm, or cuff links or had to have the battery changed in your wristwatch, chances are you went to C.B. Stark, which has stores on Main street in Vineyard Haven and North Water…
Accidental Artist? Absolutely Not. Chris Pendergast Makes His Way
Most painters cannot tell you at precisely what moment, or how, they knew they wanted to become an artist. Usually they attempt to articulate some ineffable urge that has been with them for as long as they can remember, or perhaps an epiphany triggered by their first contact with an inspiring masterpiece or art teacher.…
Mr. Whiting’s “Other Stuff:” You Haven’t Seen It Before
This sunny Saturday in West Tisbury, Allen Whiting is out at his easel, working at his latest landscape and simultaneously working at his answers to questions about his art.
His approach to both tasks is similar: He goes at it enthusiastically for awhile, then pauses to reconsider things, then goes back and adds…
Shaw Cramer Artists Bring Island Home
It’s summertime and Martha’s Vineyard looks like one big landscape oil painting. Simply perfect and bursting with both subtle shades and vibrant colors. Shame the Island is too big to pop in the trunk of the car and take home to remember such perfection all winter long. We have tried, but no go, even with…
Vineyard Love Story, Scrapbook In Form of Home Port Cookbook
Home Port Cookbook: Beloved Recipes from Martha’s Vineyard. By Will Holtham with A. D. Minnick, Photography by Mike Buytas, Illustrations by Susan Tobey White, Lyons Press, $19.95
Mystical Glitches, Timeless Art: Rose Abrahamson’s Latest Look
Three years ago, Rose Abrahamson told a Vineyard Gazette reporter her art show then at the Shaw Cramer Gallery was her last. Now this summer, at 89 years of age, she is saying this show at the same gallery will be her last.
As talented and respected as she is, whenever Mrs. Abrahamson…
Food Issues Are Central Focus As Sesame Street Films Island Family
Cue the music, can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?
For more than 40 years the popular children’s television show has played a central role in the life of preschoolers, teaching many important life lessons — how to spell the word cookie, how to count to 10.
Now…
Street Eats: Tasty Trucks Take to the Island
Have truck, will travel — or better yet, follow your nose.
That’s the idea behind the growing food truck obsession across the country — in a culture where people are constantly on the go, so is our food.
The Vineyard is the latest place to pick up on the trend. While…
What All Lives in the Yellow Stuff We’ve Seen? Mystery Algae
On Thursday morning all was right with the Lagoon Pond. The water was clear, blue-green crystal, by all appearances the very picture of estuarine health. Just a day before, the water was clouded by an unsightly yellowish-brown fog from the head to the mouth of the Lagoon. It was an explosion of prorocentrum, an algae,…
Summer Series Speaks to More Diverse Crowd
A quick glance at the program for this year’s Hebrew Center Summer Institute speaker series is enough to show that change has happened at the institute.
It is suddenly more diverse in both subject matter and guests.
Chalk it up to the new chairman of the summer institute committee, Geraldine Alpert,…
Island Fourth of July Festivities Promise Double Scoop of All the Traditions
There are always the telltale signs this time of year: tourists crowding sun-drenched streets, flags flying proudly above every doorway and red, white, and blue everywhere you look. The Fourth of July is nearly here, and with it comes the official start of summer on the Vineyard.
Our Trail of Trash: Following 25 Tons To a Burning End
The sun was shining brightly at 7 a.m. at the Steamship Authority last week, and in the air was the smell of trash. Trucks were lined up waiting to fill the first freight boat to the mainland, including one tractor trailer carrying 20 to 30 tons of Island garbage. It was headed for Rochester,…
Lobster Hatchery Rehab Is Approved
An overhaul of the shuttered state lobster hatchery in Oak Bluffs has been approved by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and the commonwealth will now invest a significant sum of money to rehabilitate the facility for use by the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, Cape and Islands Rep. Timothy Madden announced yesterday.
Mr.…
Two Towns Ink Solar Contract
The towns of Edgartown and Tisbury this week signed agreements with the Cape and Vineyard Energy Cooperative estimated to save them a collective $9.4 million in electricity costs over the next 20 years.
And the energy will not only be cheap, but clean. The cooperative will build large solar arrays at three different…
Oak Bluffs Faces Cash Crisis, Fresh Complaints Over Bid Law Violations
The mounting problems in Oak Bluffs escalated this week as selectmen described a crisis in their accounting department and the news surfaced of fresh complaints about possible violations to state bidding laws on town contracts.
Victoria Dryfoos Weds Craig Arnold in Makonikey
Victoria Dryfoos and Craig Arnold were married on Saturday, May 21 at the home of Dorothea Arnold of Makonikey. The bridegroom’s brother, Derek Arnold, performed the ceremony on the scenic bluff overlooking Vineyard Sound.
In attendance for the bride were Shari Geistfeld, Marie Larsen and Lynn Ditchfield. The groomsmen, sons of Craig and…
Maritime Academy
Maritime Academy
Cadet 1st Class James Bishop of Edgartown graduated from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy on Saturday, June 18 with a degree in marine safety and environmental protection.
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Cadet 1st Class Michael Gately of West Tisbury graduated from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy on Saturday, June 18 with a degree in…
Dr. Yvonne Hines-Bruce Weds Carl Joseph McCarthy
Dr. Yvonne Hines-Bruce of Providence, R.I., and Vineyard Haven and Carl Joseph McCarthy of Worcester, formerly of Jamaica, W.I., were married on Feb. 12 at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts in Worcester.
The ceremony was performed by the Hon. Mel Greenberg.
Dr. Hines-Bruce is medical director of Hines Dermatology…
Dean’s List
Dean’s List
Kendall Tyler Chaves, of West Tisbury, has been named to the dean’s list for the fall semester at Babson College.
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Andrew McHugh of Edgartown has been named to the Tufts University dean’s list for the Spring 2011 semester.
Terms of Engagement Are Tender, Tricky
Remember that old Dylan song, “Somethin’ is happenin’, but you don’t know what it is, do you Mr. Jones?” In the opening first scene of the two-person play, coming2terms, at the Vineyard Playhouse, we’re all Mr. Joneses as we try to figure out what a particular attractive couple is up to. They’re coming across with…
Amish Path to Forgiveness Is About Not Asking Why
The Amish Project is a play that faces big questions head on, including how do you forgive the murder of five innocent little girls?
The play is based on the tragic events of Oct. 2, 2006 when a gunman entered a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and shot 10 young girls,…
Hollywood’s Close Encounters of the Island Kind
By PETER BRANNEN
For Jaws production designer Joe Alves, frights were in short supply on set during the early summer of 1974.
“My concern was the audiences might laugh at the shark,” he said in a telephone conversation from his Hollywood home on Tuesday.
Songs from the Heart of the Vineyard
Few people embody the statement “still waters run deep” more than Island singer-songwriter Willy Mason, equal parts thoughtful and lighthearted as he considers his musical roots and his career.
He is half done with his next album, which should be released around January. In August and September, he will be playing festivals in…
Ugandan Children’s Choir to Wrap Tour With Singing, Dancing Concert of Hope
Drumbeats will echo out across the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs on Saturday evening, and anyone drawn by them towards the open-air Tabernacle will see flashes of color in constant motion and hear the voices of the Watoto Children’s Choir, a singing group from Uganda.
Uganda is currently home to more than a…
Someday Girl We’re Gonna Get to That Place
Jeanie Mathis has never been to Martha’s Vineyard or any part of the East Coast. She lives in Reevesville, Illinois, population 50. Yet she knows about the Island because she reads every issue of the Gazette . . . twice. “I read it at the shop [a hair salon in her home] and then I…
We the People
We the People
Our country celebrates its two hundred and thirty-fifth birthday on Monday and the national holiday will be marked by colorful parades, fireworks displays and picnics from sea to shining sea, including here on the Vineyard where Islanders of every stripe will pause to commemorate the founding of this great nation.…
Cease and Desist Ordered On Cottage Street Project
The Edgartown historic district commission has ordered a cease and desist on construction of a large fence being built on a North Water street home.
The order was issued to Edgartown contractor John Nugent on Wednesday to halt activity on a new granite and wood fence and granite curbing at 93 North Water…
Who You Gonna Call? Fence Viewers
West Tisbury town administrator Jen Rand picked up her phone last week and heard the words no one has heard in at least three decades.
Music Policy Snags on Sand Bar, Oak Bluffs Harbor Unplugged
It’s been an on-again, off-again summer for amplified music on the Oak Bluffs harbor and this weekend the bars on the water will go quiet after selectmen voted to reverse their music policy on Tuesday. Again.
Warning Bells Ring as Emergency Services Building Still Founders
Tisbury selectmen have given the latest site superintendent of the town’s new emergency service building two weeks to show he can rescue the trouble-plagued project or follow his two predecessors out the door.
The board’s decision, taken reluctantly on Tuesday night, was taken despite advice from the town’s project supervisor, recommended against the…
Chronicles of Jabberwocky Always Inspiring
The morning after fellow campers and I arrived at Camp Jabberwocky, we went with our fun-loving counselors to music class in the camp’s studio. We sang Rocket Man by Elton John. I must admit our singing was very rusty, but as the month progresses it will vastly improve.
Rocket Man will be one…
Slamming It Down Streetball Style
Slamming It Down Streetball Style
The gameball is for kids at the annual streetball classic held in Niantic Park in Oak Bluffs on Saturday, July 2. But that doesn’t mean the stands won’t be packed with basketball fans of all ages and, even more importantly, skills.
Dr. J. has attended. More…
Spoken Wordsmith Helps Raise the Roof
Renowned storyteller Susan Klein will tell a selection of her beloved Island-based stories at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School’s Performing Arts Center on Saturday, July 9 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. as a benefit for Habitat for Humanity of Martha’s Vineyard.
Sharks in Tune
Sharks in Tune
This weekend it’s not just about baseball for the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks. Then again, every Sharks game brings with it far more than mere sport. Between innings trivia contests, frozen shirt races (you have to see it to believe it), bouncy house, great food, access to friendly players and a…
Parade and Fireworks
Parade and Fireworks
Get your boom-boom on this July 4 in Edgartown. The annual fireworks display begins at sundown by the Edgartown harbor.
Oratorical Fireworks, Words Of Frederick Douglass Ignite
“Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too, great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of…
Revealing News Behind the News
Carole Simpson became a broadcast news reporter to make a difference.
In her work — she was the first black woman to work in the Washington, D.C., bureau for NBC and later moved to ABC as a weekend anchor — Ms. Simpson sought to use the power of her position not just to…
Hills Alive With Sound of Hip-Hop? Yard Dancers Not Trapped by Past
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens….Whether you sang the song in high school chorus, learned Do Re Mi from Julie Andrews or were introduced to the musical via a Gwen Stefani remix, the Sound of Music is fixed in the collective memory.
Battlefield Lines Are Gray and Blue
The horror of the Civil War was the graphic and powerful subject of the 1989 Academy Award-winning film Glory, screened at the Katharine Cornell Theatre on Monday night. The event kicked off the Civil War Film Series, jointly sponsored by the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society and the Martha’s Vineyard Museum to commemorate the country’s most…
The Lovely Practice of Being Present
“Never put anyone out of your heart,” the late Hindu holy man Neem Karoli Baba told his disciples, among them writer, lecturer, and holy man in his own right, Ram Dass, and his friend, regular travel buddy, writer and photographer, Rameshwar Das. These two men share many affinities, among them a decades-long passion for Eastern…
Dancefloor Fireworks Just as Hot
Dancefloor Fireworks Just as Hot
“There have to be music festivals and someone has to do [organize] it. And I guess it has to be me.”
So says Rob Myers, also known as Deejay Jellybone Rivers, talking about his compulsion to provide the rest of us couch potatoes with a reason to…
Reading Is Fundamental
Reading Is Fundamental
The Martha’s Vineyard Library Association kicks off its summer reading series for kids with a big bash on Saturday, July 2 at the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury. And because the library association understands that although reading is serious business and best cultivated when kids are young (electronics free vacation…
Edgartown Fire Museum Is Smoking Hot
The Edgartown Fire Department is celebrating its 175th anniversary, and so, not for the first time, firefighters from Edgartown will have a prominent place in the Fourth of July parade planned for Monday.
It was the Edgartown fire department that hosted the first Fourth of July celebration in town, in 1844. The party…
Jumping Off Corporate Ladder, Landing at Edgartown Marine
It reads like an old feel-good, hometown story. A local boy grows up on the Vineyard, watching his father and mother work hard. The father works for the Steamship Authority and then later runs an ice cream stand. His mother works at the local grocery store. The youth goes off to college, enters the corporate…
Harthaven Centennial Honors Founders
One hundred years ago, the community of Harthaven in Oak Bluffs was established when William H. Hart purchased the first parcel of land bordering Farm Pond. On Saturday, about 300 people joined to celebrate that event at the home of Walt and Mary Lee Gifford which was built by Jim Hart, one of the founder’s…
Dreams Come and Go Like the Wind
As Magic Carpet neared Cape Pogue, a thick fog crossed over the bow. All of a sudden, the boat was in the center of a circle of mist, though somehow the sun made brilliant that oceanic cloud.
Edgartown
KATHIE CASE
508-627-5349
(kathleencase@comcast.net)
Summer is here. The weather has been great, the summer kids are here looking for jobs, the traffic is increasing and the sirens go by at least once a day. But the best thing is your summer friends are here and the sound of the…
Dean’s List
Dean’s List
The following Island students have been named to the dean’s list for the spring 2011 semester at the University of Vermont:
Anna D. Hayes of Edgartown, a first-year animal sciences major.
Dylan J. McCarthy of Edgartown, a first-year English major.
Olivia E. Gross of Vineyard…
East Chop
RICK HERRICK
508-693-8065
(herricklr@verizon.net)
There’s a well-respected tradition among East Choppers to rag on Oak Bluffs politics. “Taxation without representation,” is a common refrain. “All those folks know how to do is spend money,” is another. “Things are a mess, as usual.”
Chappy
BRAD WOODGER
508-627-4216
(ibwsgolf@aol.com)
My nephew Andy is visiting. Though it may be too late by the time this column hits the newsstands, I’d like to offer his companionship to any family with teenagers. He’s a delightful young man. But what teenager gets up at 6:30 a.m.? That’s Brad…
Please Adopt Us
Please Adopt Us
Vineyard Haven
NANCY GARDELLA
508-693-3308
(vhavenvgazette@y ahoo.com)
Welcome Nonna! John Doyle of White Plains and West Tisbury very kindly drove my mom, Iole Gardella, to the Island yesterday, on his birthday, no less. Amber Willoughby wasted no time getting over to visit with Nonna. Meanwhile, Paul and Marge Hows said goodbye…
Alyssa Lodge
Alyssa Lodge
Alyssa H. Lodge, daughter of Peter and Jennifer Lodge of Oak Bluffs and Wiscasset, Me., was graduated from Tabor Academy in Marion on Saturday, June 4, 2011. She will be attending Boston University in September.
Temperatures
Temperature: Precip.
Day Max. Min. Inches.
Fº Fº
June 24 68 59 .85
June 25 69 60 .02
June 26 73 59 .02
June 27 75 61 .00
June 28 82 62 .00
June 29 79 65 .03
June 30 78 59 Trace
…
Sliver Moon Fireworks
A thin crescent moon will hug the southwestern sky on the evening of Monday, July 4. If the weather cooperates, viewers will not only have a great view of a manmade spectacle, but will see the earth’s nearest neighbor before it slips below the horizon.
Corrections
Corrections
A profile of the actress Diana Muldaur in the Tuesday Gazette incorrectly named the group that was filming Ms. Muldaur. It is the Archive of American Television Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation.
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A story in the Friday Gazette about Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard’s 30th anniversary reported incorrectly…
Self-help
Alcoholics Anonymous
Information: 508-627-7084.
All meetings are nonsmoking.
Sunday, 6:45 a.m., open discussion meeting, First Baptist Church, William street, Vineyard Haven.
Sunday, 10 a.m., open discussion, State Beach, first bridge, Oak Bluffs, (weather permitting).
Sunday, 11 a.m., open discussion meeting at the Council on Aging…
Scent Therapy
It is easy to spice up your life.
A simple walk through a wetland or along a stream or marsh may just do the trick. Breathe deeply and enjoy the fragrant, spicy scent of swamp azalea. Blooming swamp azaleas provide an awakening for your nose, but not a taste for your tongue.
Osprey Poles
Gus Ben David, Dick Jennings and Rob Bierregaard and a crew of volunteers have been erecting osprey poles for many a year. The reason they do so is to ensure pairs of ospreys have a safe site to raise their young. Gus asks that anyone who finds a pair of the Vineyard’s favorite fish hawks…
Positivity In the Face of Pests
How is it possible for weeds to grow waist high with no pest damage when the favored crop is bug-eaten and pathetic? It is becoming difficult to maintain a positive outlook.
