Animation has come a long way from Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willy, the black and white prototype that later became the world’s most famous mouse. The immense popularity of television shows like the Simpsons has demonstrated that cartoons aren’t just for kids any more, while advances in computer generated graphics have introduced a stunning new standard for big screen visuals. The nominees for the Animated Short Films category at the 2009 Oscar awards represent the very best work the world has to offer, in an industry that is fast approaching a golden age.

In this year-long serialized novel, set on the Vineyard in real time, a native Islander (“Call me Becca”) returns home after two decades to help her eccentric Uncle Abe keep his landscaping business, Pequot, afloat. Abe has a paranoid hatred of Richard Moby, the CEO of an off-Island wholesale nursery, Broadway. Convinced that Moby wants to destroy Abe personally, and all Island-based landscaping/nursery businesses generally, Abe is obsessed with “taking down” Moby.

By LYNNE IRONS

You probably know the Island is under attack by invaders. They are not very conspicuous until one learns to look for them closely. For the most part, they are plants and are thus just seen as part of the background for most of us.

The Vineyard boys’ high school hockey team will advance to the next round in the state tournament following a solid 5-1 win Monday night against Whitman-Hanson at the Gallo Ice Arena in Bourne.

The seventh-seeded Vineyarders scored two goals in the first period against the tenth-seeded Panthers and never looked back. The Vineyarders first got on the board seven minutes into the game when Nick Billingham redirected a rebound from Darren Gazaille and fired the puck past Panthers’ goalie Brandon Lynch.

Zeb: Schooner Life, a documentary produced by Detrick Lawrence Productions of Edgartown, has won the Best of Show Award from the California-based Accolade competition. The award was given for a documentary which features an exceptional story line.

The film explores the life and times of Captain Zeb Tilton, who kept alive a way of life, moving freight under sail, long after others had consigned it to the dustbin of history.

Improvised Success

For the second time the Impers, the Island’s teen professional improvisational troupe, has been selected as an apprentice team for the Chicago Improv Festival. In April the troupe will travel to Chicago to receive hours of professional coaching, see the best improv in the world and perform their own show. Next week the troupe will launch a six-week fund-raising campaign. For more information go to the Web site troubledshores.com or e-mail info@troubledshores.com.

Two high school students from the Berkshires are here for three days to talk up organic student-run farming. Sophomore Sam Levine, 15, and senior Sarah Steadman, 18, are sharing their story of how they were able to start a farm in a school soccer field next to their high school and bring thousands of pounds of produce to their school cafeteria. Today they continue their tour of Island farms and meet with students at the regional high school to share their farming stories.

In a debate highlighting the growing complexity of affordable housing management, Chilmark selectmen are split over whether affordable housing recipients should be able to pass on their homes to their heirs.

The question arose after a Chilmark couple which won the right to buy a two-acre lot at High Meadows development was misled on the issue due to an administrative error on the part of the town.

Receives Culinary Degree

Brittany Andelin-Baker of Vineyard Haven earned her bachelor’s degree in culinary arts management from The Culinary Institute of America on Nov. 7, 2008. Brittany is a 2005 graduate of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.