Martha’s Vineyard, no stranger to TV and film stars, is now becoming a star in her own right. Earlier this summer, the Vineyard took center stage in “Jumping the Broom,” a comedy starring Angela Basset as a member of a wealthy African-American family who called the Vineyard home. Now comes the Island’s next starring role: “Stick Fly,” a soon-to-be-debuted play produced by singer Alicia Keys. According to the Los Angeles Times’ music blog, Pop & Hiss: “Stick Fly” focuses on an affluent African American family that has gathered for a weekend at its Martha's Vineyard home and stars Dulé Hill, …
Yesterday we published an article about the recent release of the MCAS scores for Island school children. Today we ask you what you think. What do you think of the MCAS? Do you feel it is a helpful assesment of what our children are learning? Or do you think it is an ill-suited method for categorizing learning? How do your children feel about the tests? Do the tests cause anxiety? Or do your kids look forward to test weeks because they get snacks in the middle of the day? How do you feel about where Island kids and schools stand - per the MCAS results? Should we be doing more to push our kids…
This column usually features tough issues facing Islanders with a call for suggestions, advice and comments. However, today we decided to make our topic a little less serious. In honor of the first annual Martha’s Vineyard Fashion week, we have a different type of question for you. One look at a room full of Islanders, and you can tell that - though we may show up to Cronigs in our pajamas sometimes - we still care about fashion. In fact, the lack of mainstream chain store clothing stores on the Island means that we rarely look like a Gap advertisement. Tonight at the End Summer in Style …
She came. We saw her. She (mercifully) didn’t conquer. That much is certain. But opinions about Irene’s force and effect seem to vacillate wildly, depending on the person speaking and his or her location during the storm. In my neck of the very literal words, I lost a handful of trees, way more than a handful of small branches and power for 15 hours. Others down the road fared far better. But compared with last year’s storm-that-wasn’t, a gentle man by the name of Earl, Irene seemed to pack at least a bit of a punch. Of course, Bob she was not. If you use that storm as your yardstick, Irene …
For the past two years, the Martha's Vineyard Museum has awarded medals to leaders in the community in recognition of their outstanding commitment to preserving the history, arts, and culture of Martha’s Vineyard. This week, the Museum announced the winners for 2011: Marian Halperin, Francine Kelly and S. Bailey Norton Jr. Marian Halperin began her association with the Martha’s Vineyard Museum in 1973, and since then has been an intregral part of preserving the Island's history, including transcribing the letters of Charles Macreading Vincent, a young man from Edgartown who fought in Civil …
Given the rumored vacation plans of the Obamas returning to Martha's Vineyard for another summer, it looks likely that Martha's Vineyard will soon be the subject of mass media attention . . . again. The Island is no stranger to the news; it first found its way into the modern media spotlight with the notorious 1969 Chappaquiddick incident involving Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne in 1969. Since then, Martha's Vineyard has often been depicted in the news as the location where the nation's affluent spend their summers, where celebrities buy another house to add to their list and where the …
Last Saturday at around 9 p.m., Patricia Guarch was struck by a car on Upper Main Street in Edgartown while on the way to get ice cream with friends. Guarch, 22, is here from Coral Gables, Florida as a part of the Vineyard Arts Project, a performing arts residency program with studios located close to where the accident took place. After being rushed to Martha's Vineyard Hospital, she was transported by MedFlight to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where she was listed in critical condition. The driver of the car has been identified as Dr. Robert Franklin, 85, who is a part-…
It's almost official. The Obamas are said to be hitting the Island for a third year in a row this coming August. They're planning to stay for a week to 10 days in the same spot as they have stayed for the past two summers: Blue Heron Farm in Chilmark. However, if you're hoping for a handshake or a photograph, you might be out of luck. For those of you who remember the Clintons' summer visits, the Obamas keep it pretty close to home in comparison. You might see a motorcade or two, a blocked-off street now and again, an occasional Coast Guard helicopter passing overhead and well, that's about …
With the Fourth of July in our sights, folks across the Island are planning for good times. There are fantastic art shows, amazing concerts, not to mention parades and family barbecues. But with all this planning for good times, there is some other planning that must be done. How do we plan to keep ourselves and our kids safe? Every holiday can be used as an excuse to overdo it, but Independence Day, with its fireworks and traditions of large consumptions of alcohol, means even more chances for dangerous accidents. Keeping the alcohol out of our teenagers' hands seems to be a no-brainer, but …
There is a tradition on this Island of lamenting the days gone past. Every generation longs for the way things "used to be here." On an island so resistant to change—and one that has, compared with the rest of the country, done a good job of preserving its heritage and traditions—this tradition is as preserved as the rest. Last Thursday, the Island lost another of its icons. Daniel (Danny) Bryant of Chilmark, an Island fisherman, birder, award-winning deer and duck hunter, house painter, lobsterman, husband and father—just to get started. Bryant died June 9 at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, …
All it takes is one afternoon on a private beach to ruin public beaches for you for the rest of your life. Not having to fight for towel space with chain-smoking teenagers makes the fact that there's no life guard on duty menial. Never mind the glorious privacy. The Island has some of the world's most lovely, pristine shorelines—and much of it is private or town owned, meaning that if you're lucky enough to own a $500K beach lot, or live in a town with its own beach, you're really, really lucky. There are Massachusetts state laws that say that private property extends only to the mean low …
They're baaccckkk! After this weekend, there's no getting around it. Summer isn't coming, it's here. No matter how much it may have felt like March only a week ago, it's now undeniably June. Being a newly washed a shore wash-ashore, I thought I'd be more empathetic. Not too long ago I was among the throngs who rush to the Island the moment it is even remotely possible. I remember how I used to count the days to Memorial Day, starting right around Labor Day—living my life off-Island for nine months of the year, but only really feeling at home and happy those other three months I was on-Island…
Brazilians have been a part of the Martha's Vineyard community for decades and the conversation around whether or not companies should hire un-documented, and even documented, Brazillians has ensued since. Recent events like the speedy approval of Elio Silva's new grocery store and apartment complex in the current Island Furniture location and the formation of the Associação Brasileira em Martha's Vineyard, or ABRAMAVIN, have brought this decades-old conversation to the forefront again. The conversation here is really no different than it is in other parts of the country where there are large…
The Oak Bluffs Roundabout at the intersection between Edgartown-Vineyard Haven and Barnes Roads has recently moved from a concept to planning stage. After six years, it looks like it will soon become a daily reality in many of our lives. Approved by the Oak Bluffs Selectman in 2006 and funded as a part of the 2012 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), the intersection will soon be turned from the Island's only four-way stop with lights, commonly known as the "blinker," to the Island's only roundabout. Are you in favor of it? Is the $1 million price tag too high? Maybe you prefer the four-…
As the middle of May nears, you can almost hear the boxes getting packed as the the "Vineyard Shuffle" begins. All across the Island those with winter rentals are pulling up the storage bins from the basement, filling them with their worldly belongings and heading out to whatever summer living options they've lined up this year. For some it's moving in with friends or family, others head to campgrounds or boats, others leave the Island altogether. The difference in price between a winter rental and a year round rental is substantial enough that many Islanders find it to be their only option…
Today we announced that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) would not seek to lease to developers some 1,600 square miles located southwest of Nantucket. This action reduces the proposed wind-farms area by more than half of its original plan, and it brings the wind farm debate back to the forefront. As with most things Island-related, people here are very passionate about how they feel about offshore wind power. For some Islanders, the change in the size of the area intended for development has not changed their views on BOEMRE's wind farms project. For …
