Young in Years, Old in Talent

Check out sibling rivalry at its most harmonic when Liz and Yvonne Kane take the stage on Wednesday, July 27 at 7 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven.

The Kane sisters both play the fiddle and they play it extraordinarily well. They cut their chops with their grandfather, Jimmy Mullen, a local fiddle player from Letterfrack, Ireland. For the American equivalent, think of it as being schooled by his majesty Robert Johnson down at the crossroads.

It’s arguably the loveliest event in the summer season. For 14 years now, Vineyard House, the only substance abuse safe haven on the Island, holds a fundraiser consisting of “designer” waters to sip and sumptuous food to eat provided by Tea Lane Caterers. The venue is always breathtaking, but this one may be the topper — the Allen Farm in Chilmark, where sweeping views over sheep-shorn fields give over to the sparkling expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

The tall ship Eagle, the flagship of the United States and the United States Coast Guard, will be sailing down Vineyard Sound on Wednesday afternoon, if weather cooperates. The 295-foot barque is en route from Boston to New Bedford. The ship has not been seen in these waters for many years. Her home port is New London, Conn.

The ship is observing its 75th year. She has been to Europe and back as part of her summer training cruise, which began in May. The ship spent last weekend in Boston.

African American Festival

The seventh annual African American Cultural Festival takes place on July 28 and 29 at Hartford Park in Oak Bluffs, with daily activities from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

On Thursday at 6 p.m., broadcast news journalist Carol Simpson reads from her new book. From 9:30 to midnight there will be a teen dance party.

On Friday at 6 p.m. Jessica Harris discusses her book.

The festival is free.

WATER’S FINE

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

So I hear the waters that I have gone swimming in every summer since I was an infant (Truman was president) are deemed “maybe polluted.” Ho hum. Not the first in a long line of indignities visited upon what I revere as the Galilee of bathing beaches. Here is a timeline of sorts:

Bright Waters, Shining Tides: > Reflections on a Lifetime of Fishing, paintings and essays by Kib Bramhall, Vineyard Stories, Edgartown, 2011. 96 pages. Hardcover, $29.95.

I know of three painters who are also enviably good writers, all of them Vineyard men by birth or choice.

From Gazette summer editions:

It’s one of those odd things that the northeast wind which, most of the year, produces three days — at least — of rain and wind, usually raw and bleak, can produce in late summer and early fall the beautiful phenomenon known as a dry northeaster. A northwest day is pretty fine, but the clear northeast day is finest of all, for its air makes the heart lilt and sing.

Helping Habitat

Habitat for Humanity of Martha’s Vineyard is in urgent need of volunteers to help build its house in West Tisbury this weekend.

Work will be needed, Friday, July 29, and Saturday, July 30, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The directions are as follows: Take Old County Road to Great Plains Road. Go 2/10th of a mile to Bailey Park Road and turn left. Go to the end of the road to the site.

Improv Show for Kids

Nightmares were never so much fun. During the past two weeks the campers at Imp have been learning the ways of improv — the fast action, quick reflexes of theatrical art Yoda would be proud of. But who’s to say, once the mind is unleashed to improvise at will, how the subconscious will be affected.

On Friday, July 29, you are about to find out as the campers present The Dreams and Nightmares Show at the Edgartown School.