Men: Casting Call

Island Theatre Workshop has an urgent casting call for two men, needed immediately for May/June production of I Sent a Letter to My Love.

First, a man with stage experience who can play as a 30 to 40-year-old, sings baritone or tenor and has comic timing.

Second, a man who can play between 22 to 30 years old, sings tenor or baritone and is larger than life.

Please call 508-627-2456 or 508-627-3166 and leave a message.

This tree will give you shakes and shingles.

Building materials aside, many of us agree that the Eastern red cedar is a terrific tree.

Arthur Barlowe and Phillip Amadus, who arrived at Roanoke Island in 1564, noticed these beautiful trees, effusing that they were “the tallest and reddest cedars in the world.” After so many days at sea, idola-tree can be tolerated.

Birds that come to bird feeders change over the seasons. Sure, that sounds obvious, but this point was driven home by recent observations at my feeder. There were six to eight American goldfinches that were regulars at my thistle feeder from October through January, but I have not seen them in the past month or so. Also, three tufted titmice and two red-breasted nuthatches used to be present daily, gorging on sunflower seed, but now are only here about once per week. This reduced number of birds is consistent with my need to fill the bird feeder about half as frequently as before.

Prudy Burt sent me this little poem. She said it came on a mug that Heidi Schmidt brought her from England.

Let the wealthy and great

Roll in splendour and state

I envy them not. I declare it

I eat my own lamb

My own chicken and ham

I shear my own fleece and I wear it

I have lawns I have bowers

I have fruits I have flowers

The lark is my morning alarmer

So jolly boys now

Sail Martha’s Vineyard, the Island’s community sailing program, will offer beginner through advanced sailing lessons to Island children again this summer at the Sailing Camp Park on Barnes Road in Oak Bluffs.

Looking out on a grey Aquinnah woodland, the sprawling front room of singer Lexie Roth’s family house, with its vintage guitar and miniature car collections, has been converted into a live studio for a loose collective of musicians wintering on the Island.

This Monday afternoon it is dotted with microphone stands, a drum kit which sits obtrusively in the sitting area, and a group of twenty-something musicians — Willy Mason, Colin Ruel, Sofi Thanhauser and Miss Roth — who are preparing to record.

After the polling irregularities in Florida in the 2000 Presidential election, which saw George W. Bush come to office, David Earnhart did nothing. But when it was repeated in 2004, he could not let it pass again.

“A lot of people were angry in 2004,” Mr. Earnhart said this week from his office in Nashville. “But where most everybody else moved on, I didn’t.”

Tie on Your Green Sneakers

For St. Patrick’s Day Race

The 10th running of the Ocean View St. Patrick’s Day 5K Road Race to benefit the Martha’s Vineyard Boys’ and Girls’ Club will be held tomorrow, Saturday, March 15 at 9:30 a.m.

Runners and walkers may register at the Ocean View Restaurant & Tavern today, Friday, March 15, from 7 to 9 p.m., or Saturday from 8:30 to 9 a.m. The entry fee is $20.

A movie featuring the Coastal Picket Patrol and its generally unknown yet strategic role in protecting the U.S. Coast during World War II will be shown on Wednesday, March 19, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Chilmark Public Library.

During the initial involvement of the United States in World War II, the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard Reserve were short-staffed and short on vessels to protect the shipping channels along the Eastern seaboard. German U-boats and submarines were threatening American Merchant Marine vessels in the Atlantic Ocean just off U.S. soil.

Feeling despair about the future of the republic in the hands of Xboxers and the “whatever” generation?

Feel better. Get to the West Tisbury library and listen to some new literary voices. These mostly twenty-something award-winning poets and novelists think and write with clarity and understanding about our relationships with the world and with each other.