Fresh produce, flowers, lemonade, egg rolls, coffee and Kevin Keady on guitar with some haybales to sit back and enjoy the show with — it can only mean one thing. The West Tisbury Farmers’ Market is back in business. The only thing left to say summer is here is a dip in the ocean. Come on already, ride the waves.
From the Vineyard Gazette editions of June, 1979: Hot Tin Roof, a combined dance hall, restaurant, and stage for live performances at the Dukes County Airport, opens Thursday evening with the 24th Street Band, a rhythm and blues group from New York city. The steel building has been designed and erected in 67 days with two bars, a dance floor, a separate banquette seating area for dining and a deck overlooking the dancers and stage, George Brush, the manager and one of three principal owners said.
We aren’t planning anything,” says John McCauley, Deer Tick’s founder, frontman and principle songwriter, regarding the band’s Monday night show at Flatbread in Edgartown. “But everything is possible.” He laughs, clearly aware that his last trip to Martha’s Vineyard was filled with plenty of mayhem and misadventure, including missed planes and going missing.
There is a lot more to cheer about on the waterfront this spring when it comes to recreational fishing than a year ago. The fish are here and the list of species is long.
Atlantic mackerel showed up in April. This is a fish we call precious today, although decades ago it was a common spring fish.
Friday, May 31: Clear cloudless morning. The hottest day of spring. Unusually and unexpected warm morning. Temperature in the high 70s by 9 a.m. Temperature rises with the sun to 85 degrees. Hazy August skies. In late afternoon fog creeps in across an open field in West Tisbury. Damp. Fog horn sounds late at night.
Despite the meek promise of a cold spring, summer is really coming. While I have barely gotten around to swapping out my winter closet with summer clothes, my mind has been on other signs of the changing seasons lately. Like delicious spring greens, fresh herbs, asparagus pushing up through the spring earth, sweet peas on their way and strawberries calling my name. I’m an Island girl after all, and a farm girl too, so nothing sends spring into summer more than fresh vegetables and fruits at my fingertips.
Dancehall reggae legend Barrington Levy performs tonight, June 7, at Dreamland in Oak Bluffs.
Mr. Levy’s particular style is a blend of old and new coming out of the transition occurring in reggae music as he began his rise to fame in the late 1970s. More traditional roots reggae featured mellower rhythms and a fiercely activist message. Listeners now wanted faster beats and a more dance-oriented style of music, which coincided with major developments in digital music technology. Enter Mr. Levy with his traditional roots rhythms and a harder dancehall edge.
To help with the Vineyard Playhouse capital campaign, Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson will perform Love Letters on Tuesday, July 2 at the regional high school’s Performing Arts Center. After the show, winners of last year’s Possible Dreams bid will get to meet Ms. Steenburgen and Mr. Danson. The list of regrets at not having raised that auction paddle last summer is now very long.
If trees could talk what story would they tell? Tom Clark, curator at Polly Hill Arboretum, knows better than most.
On Tuesday, June 11, he will lead a walking tour and share stories about the trees of the arboretum. Meet at 10 a.m. at the arboretum, 809 State Road in West Tisbury, for an hour-long trek. Cost is $5 or free for Polly Hill members.
Sometimes puppets are just a fun diversion and a creative way to tell a story. Next Saturday, June 15, puppets will also help disabled children in Zambia.