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
August 16, 2011
First Family Returns to Vineyard for Summer Vacation
President Obama arrived on the Vineyard early Thursday evening to begin a 10-day vacation with his family, marking his third consecutive August visit to the Island during his Presidency. Like the last two years, the arrival was low-key and closed to the public. Traveling with the President were White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan and…
News Update: Thursday, August 18 – Lambert’s Cove Beach Reopens
Lambert’s Cove Beach is open, West Tisbury town administrator Jen Rand reports, after clean tests on yesterday’s water samples. Seth’s Pond remains closed.
The Summer White House: Coverage of the Presidential Visit to the Vineyard
The First Family returns to the Vineyard today. Please send your photos, sightings and stories about the presidential visit to news@mvgazette.com and we’ll include them in our Summer White House coverage.
President Obama, the First Lady and their two daughters are scheduled to arrive Thursday afternoon. They will be staying at Blue Heron Farm in…
Founder of Thrift Shop Art Show Is Genuine Island Masterpiece
“What do you think of this, Olga?” asked a woman, holding out a black and white photograph. Olga Hirshhorn sat in a canvas director’s chair with her name written on the back in a small corner of the Community Services Thrift Shop during the Chicken Alley Art Show on Sunday. Mrs. Hirshhorn, well steeped in…
Journey Home from the Fair Lasts a Lifetime
I have mixed feelings about going to the Agricultural Fair. This has nothing to do with the fair itself, which at 150-years-old has aged exceptionally well, maintaining its links to the past without a hint of mustiness. It is very much a thing of the present and this weekend I will bring my children to…
The Ag Fair: Better Every Year for 150
The smell of hay and cotton candy, the lowing of cows, the dusty August air blowing through barn doors, ruffling your hair. The scratching of a horse against a stall, the whirring of the Ferris wheel.
Thousands of stitches hanging over the barn beams, the pride of dropping off an entry, no matter…
Sowing Seeds of Tradition at the Fair
Editor’s Note: The following story was published in the Gazette in August 1961 on the occasion of the fair centennial.
BY JOSEPH CHASE ALLEN
Letting the Kid Drive the Review
Each week the folks at Cinema Circus show a series of short films on Wednesday evenings at the Chilmark Community Center. The films begin at 6 p.m. but at 5 p.m. the circus — complete with jugglers, face painters, stilt walkers, food and music — gets underway.
Bring in da Noise Creator Brings Civil Rights to Next Generation
As playwright, theatre and film director George C. Wolfe tells it, the event which first motivated him toward the arts was the same one that led him to his latest ambitious project, presenting the history of the American civil rights movement.
That moment, which set him on his course toward the arts, the…
Those in Need Fly Free, Fundraiser Aims to Help Keep Angels Aloft
Angel Flight Northeast is one of the unsung heroes of Island life: a group of pilots who offer free transport to people needing access to medical care. The organization is now in its 15th year, having served Martha’s Vineyard since 1997. As of June 4 (the last time statistics were tallied), Angel Flight NE had…
Fleet-Footed Find Lobster at Finish Line
Wearing a bright orange top and neon green running shoes, David Melly was easy to spot along Middle Road on Saturday morning. Then again, it wouldn’t have been difficult to find Mr. Melly at nearly any point during the 2011 Chilmark Road Race, as the 18-year old from Newton blew away the field. His winning…
Sheriff’s Meadow Sues Island Couple
A title dispute between the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation and two Vineyard residents, both sides believing they own the same piece of property in Chilmark, moved into the Massachusetts Land Court this month after the foundation sued the two year-round residents who had begun to clear the land and build on it.
Scott Brown’s View Across the Aisle
On a blustery, damp Monday morning at the Grange Hall, U.S. Senator Scott Brown lamented the similarly dreary state of affairs in Washington, D.C.
“I too have been disgusted by the government’s complete lack of accountability to its citizens,” he said at yesterday’s appearance in West Tisbury as part of his three week…
Tuesday Chronicle: No Double Muscling
From Gazette editions of August, 1986:
It is so special this time, there will be color postcards, a Vineyard Clydesdale, the calzones, the Mexican egg rolls, and one more thing — there will be the head of the state Department of Agriculture, full of ideas, honors and praise for the Vineyard farmers.
She’s the Fairest of Them All: Manager Eleanor Neubert
The ribbons were very important at the time, Eleanor Neubert recalled. She would show her 4-H calf (later, her 4-H cow), her rabbits and her hens, and she’d plant vegetables in her plot of the family garden so she could enter those in the fair, too. One year she competed in a horse show but…
Menemsha Pumpout Seeing Little Use
The Menemsha boat pumpout facility is barely working this summer. In front of the Menemsha harbor master’s shack, right next door to Menemsha Texaco, it has for most of the summer sat idle.
Edgartown harbor and Vineyard Haven harbor master departments have pumped more than 20,000 gallons in each of their towns. The…
Paying Homage to Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dread Follows Fondly
Tuesday, August 9, was the 16th anniversary of the death of Jerry Garcia, the lead singer of the Grateful Dead. In honor of the late songwriter and musician, the Grateful Dread, a band of Island musicians who play Grateful Dead songs with a reggae flair, and play every Tuesday night at Nectar’s, decided to pay…
Elisha Smith’s 88 Fairs, Give or Take
Elisha R. Smith, 88, can remember going to the fair with his grandfather, George Smith, who was really his uncle. “But I always called him grandfather,” Mr. Smith said, seated in the shade of his Oak Bluffs farm on Saturday. The senior statesman among Island farmers, Mr. Smith has many fond memories of fair days,…
Big Oil, Big Problems, Gulf Spill Talk Digs Deep
Author Bill Sargent will discuss his new book, The Well from Hell: The BP Oil Spill and the Endurance of Big Oil, at the Chilmark Public Library on Wednesday, August 17, at 5:30 p.m.
The Saucy, Latin Side of Chappaquiddick
Fiesta time! The Latin musical ensemble Sol y Canto brings their pan-Latin, bilingual, joyful and very interactive concert to Chappaquiddick on Wednesday, August 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Chappaquiddick Community Center. Adults and kids alike are welcome.
Puerto Rican/Argentine singer Rosi Amador, New Mexican guitarist/composer Brian Amador, and their 15-year-old twin daughters,…
Illumination Night Rocks Gently
Illumination Night Rocks Gently
It’s August and some of the heaviest hitters have come aboard. There’s the Agricultural Fair, the Oak Bluffs Fireworks, some guy from Washington, D.C. is rumored to be heading our way, and a host of other big name panels, readings and discussions are all in full bloom.
Whaler Begets Fine Artist, Ovid Ward Follows Muse
Ovid Osborn Ward, a well-known Vineyard artist, will be displaying new large work and some of his abstract pieces at an artist’s reception on Thursday, August 18 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Folk Duo Strike Solid Chord For Both Music and Peace
Charlie King has played with Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, John McCutheon and a host of other folk music greats. Pete Seeger even nominated him for the Sacco-Vanzetti Social Justice Award, which he received in November of 1999. Since 1976, Mr. King has released dozens of albums, including three collaborations with Bright Morning Star.
Walking the Walk, Eating the Walk at Polly Hill
Locavores and garden history enthusiasts, take note: John Forti, the curator of historic gardens at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, N.H., is on-Island this week to offer two programs on the plants, people and history in New England.
On Tuesday, August 16 his talk Heirloom and Native Plants: A Living History, will look…
Charles Ogletree Forum And Film Trace Race Issues
In addition to hosting a forum taking place at the Performing Arts Center at the regional high school on Wednesday, August 17, at 1 p.m. entitled Heard It through the Grapevine: Race and the Media in the 21st Century, Professor Charles Ogletree will, on Thursday, August 18, be accompanying the screening of the film The…
New Work at Old Sculpin
New Work at Old Sculpin
Beginning Friday, August 20, and running through August 26, the Old Sculpin Gallery in Edgartown (next to the Chappy Ferry) will be highlighting work by the late Libby Walbridge, new glass sculpture by Ian Whitt, and the continuing exhibitions of Anne D. Grandin, Gail Rodney, and the small…
