Ray Ellis, the haberdasher, out-earned Ray Ellis, the artist, when his necktie fetched $150,000 for the Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust at the annual Taste of the Vineyard auction on Saturday night.

Longtime summer visitor Scott Earl, who last year bid $225,000 to take home a Ray Ellis oil painting, bought the artist’s tie right off his neck right after winning the bidding for three watercolors by Mr. Ellis. Mr. Earl spent $90,000 on the three paintings, bidding against summer resident Pat Morgan for the prize as he has for the past two years.

Freshly potted plants, new shrubs and flowers adorn the Martha’s Vineyard Airport, thanks to Girl Scout troop 80802, whose community project came to an end this weekend. The girls have been out there at least once a week since mid-April, assisting in weeding, gardening and planting new flowers in front of the terminal, the playground and the waiting area at Gate Three.

Art by Kids Speaks to Kids and More

This Thursday, June 23 at 7 p.m. IMP for Kids, the YMCA dance program and Joanne Cassidy’s vocal students are coming together to present an evening of entertainment and importance entitled Assertions: Kids Speak Out Through the Arts.

One could argue that all art is important, but this performance lends itself to a category all its own.

The Ritz in Oak Bluffs is a dimly lit joint, hot and smelling of beer and smoke, even though people have to go outside to inhale. There’s live music tonight and the bar is packed. On the floor, a DJ gets people dancing before the headlining band, Dukes County Love Affair, goes on.

Jamie Greene, the drummer of DCLA, sits towards the edge of the room prior to playing, watching the crowd.

Mike Parker, the singer, gets six Rolling Rocks from the bar, one for each band member. He cracks them all and carries them to the dance floor. Then they begin.

Escape Via Siberia

At the beginning of WWII, as Germany invaded western Poland, many Poles fled east to escape the Nazi occupation. Before long they became victims of a secret treaty to divide Poland and found themselves under Soviet occupation. In 1940 many of them, including 200,000 Jews, were deported to labor camps throughout Russia.

Summer Solstice Party

Can it be the longest day of the year is already upon is? Well, to take the sting out of the idea that the days will now be getting shorter, Featherstone Center for the Arts is throwing a summer solstice celebration from 5 to 9 p.m. tonight, June 21.

The event is hosted by William Waterway and Ellie Bates and is, in their words, “a heliospheric rendering of our solar system.”

Ah, but of course.

Models Wanted

You are too sexy for your skin, you know it, and now it’s time to let everyone else know it too.

Fashion Week is headed our way later this summer but the fancy finery doesn’t walk down the catwalk by itself. It takes a body, man or woman five foot six or taller, sixteen years old or more, to sell it.

Are you challenging me to a walk-off..Boo-lander?

Oak Bluffs Library Open

The Oak Bluffs Library is open again after an unpleasant sewage backup forced it to close last week.

Library director Danguole Budris notified the board of health and the highway department last Tuesday when sewage began spilling into the library staff room.

The problem was corrected, but the library remained closed until Saturday while town workers removed soiled carpeting and attacked the cleanup using bleach.

Ms. Budris said it was the third such backup since May.

The Polly Hill Arboretum is kicking off their summer lecture season with a celebration of the newly renovated Far Barn. Over the winter the barn underwent a structural transformation, upgrading the lighting and implementing a new sound system.

Meeting Continued