Tonight’s full moon resides in the zodiacal constellation Sagittarius and has a companion. The bright planet Jupiter is nearby. The two are a handsome pair and shine together through the night in the southern sky. For those venturing to South Beach, the two celestial objects will hang together, making the water sparkle underneath.

This past fall, three American women went camping with the Qashqai nomads in the mountains of southwestern Iran. They came back from their travels with amazing stories and, perhaps more impressive still, with the hand-woven Qashqai rugs known as Gabbehs.

Now these Gabbeh rugs, made by small collectives of nomadic women, are the focus of a two-week trunk show at the Mansion House in Vineyard Haven.

Thomas Bena, founder of the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, stood in front of a mostly full house at the Chilmark community center last Wednesday night, and shared an anecdote.

“I can remember one night a few years ago when a man approached me on his way out the door. He told me that he appreciated what we were doing here, but that the film we had just shown was repetitive and just generally not very good. I thanked him for his thoughts and was watching him leave when someone else came up to me and said ‘Do you know who that guy was?’”

People packed into the Chilmark Public Library last week — finding spots on the floor, standing in the back, even watching from the windows — to see Alan Dershowitz explain why torture should be allowed through a warrant.

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, or so the song goes. And Mr. Dershowitz, a longtime Chilmark summer resident famous for his controversial career as a lawyer and a professor at Harvard Law School, knows how to lay on the sugar.

Time does not heal all wounds, at least for the Gulf Coast, which is why, three years after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, Finding Our Folk, the New Orleans Hot 8 Brass Band, and the KatrinaRitaVille Express Trailer are coming to the Vineyard this weekend, under the leadership of Derrick Evans.

“You are not my enemy/ my grandmother my grandfather.

I built walls between us./ Rubble made sound

sand scattered plastic bags all around

rifles and checkpoints/bright lights into your eyes...”

Alison Shaw Gallery Fine are photography of Alison Shaw. Open Wednesday through Sunday from 2 to 6 p.m., or by appointment at 88 Dukes County avenue, Oak Bluffs, tel. 508-696-7429 or online alisonshaw.com.

Current exhibit: Yellow, continues through July 25.

Abode Gallery and Shop Paintings, photography and sculpture. Open by appointment at 224 Oak Lane, West Tisbury, tel. 914-830-9288 or online at vineyardabode.com.

Oak Bluffs police last Friday charged a Needham man with boating under the influence of alcohol after he reportedly ran his boat aground along Seaview avenue near Sengekontacket Pond. Andrew Tappe, 47, was charged with boating while under the influence of alcohol, negligent operation of a boat and operating an unregistered boat.

Corrections

Contrary to an article in Tuesday’s edition, Rob Goldfarb, development director of the Farm Institute in Katama, is older than his brother, Matthew, executive director of the institute. The Gazette regrets the error.

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A photo caption in Tuesday’s edition misidentified a singer performing at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown for a benefit titled Still the Hunger. The singer was Lia Kahler. The Gazette regrets the error.

NANCY GARDELLA

508-693-3308

(vhavenvgazette@yahoo.com)