Part I: Island Children Running Rampant by James Grieder Nantucket has been described as a great place to raise your children, but not a great place to grow up. The arrival of the internet and high-speed ferries has blurred the distinction—now that we have good pizza and can get more […]
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NFF Teen View Shows Films by Island Youth
The Nantucket Film Festival is back for its 28th consecutive year, jam-packed with various films for all ages and genres.
From the Dreamland Theatre to Siasconset, the island will be teeming with award-winning documentaries, internationally acclaimed films, family-friendly fun, and opportunities to hear from some of your favorite screenwriters and actors. The Festival runs from June 21 to 26, and the island will indeed be buzzing with exciting festival events.
National Champion
You know that you’re operating at less than genius level if you manage to bury your truck in the beach sand. And if you do this while out in the middle of nowhere, in a place with zero cell phone reception, your IQ score is even lower. Finally, if you manage to achieve all of this when it’s three o’clock in the morning, you can be pretty certain that you’ve won the golden dunce cap. That was exactly where your friend Stevie was in early June about four years ago, covered in beach sand and mosquito bites, praying for someone to come driving by to rescue me from my self-inflicted predicament. And it was in this situation where I first met Noah Karberg.
A Solstice Pause
Director of June 21 marked the 2023 summer solstice, and it has me thinking about what the solstice means. Technically, it is when the sun is at its azimuth, the longest day of the year for us. The particular dates are targeted as the boundary between our seasons because of a series of factors based upon the relationship between the earth and the sun. I am an ecologist, not an astrophysicist (though one of my best friends is!), but I do know the seasons change based on more than just the calendar and light levels. However, there is a lot to think about when we consider solstice.
Bearing Witness
A young man with a famous last name died recently on island. Sudden deaths have become unfortunate and common in the last few years, not just on Nantucket, but throughout the country. Every death is as unique as a fingerprint. The reasons are opaque: the results caustic. We hear of the death and we pause, then we ask ourselves why and what could we have done? Every answer we find is wrong.
The First Cross-Dressing Performer on Nantucket
“Hello possums!” was how Dame Edna Everage greeted her throngs of admirers for more than 60 years. Barry Humphries, an Australian-born comedian, actor, author, and satirist, who created the character of Dame Edna, passed away in April of this year. Humphries’ one-man shows alternated between satirical monologues and musical numbers, interspersed with improvised moments and audience participation. Dame Edna never performed in the Great Hall of the Nantucket Atheneum, but another cross-dressing performer did so nearly 100 years before Humphries created his iconic character. A man named Marshall S. Pike performed there on multiple occasions in the 1850s, and his career as a musician and performer led him from Nantucket to the bloody battlefields and hellish prisons of the American Civil War before he found his way home again.
Bid on Beautiful Blooms to Benefit Fairwinds
Nantucket is known for beautiful gardens and window boxes and for its philanthropy. On Thursday, June 22, a charity auction offer many chances to combine both when Blooming Bids for Fairwinds is held at Bartlett’s Farm. Now in it’s 23rd year this annual event auctions artfully one-of-a-kind decorated designer garden planters and window boxes created and donated by our island’s top landscapers, nurseries, florists, and gardeners to benefit Nantucket’s counseling center.
Fishing with Dad
There are certainly some interesting sights to be seen on Nantucket beaches these days. Now hold on just a minute…I’m not commenting on the new law that allows everyone to run around topless. It’s still a bit chilly for that anyway, don’t you think? No, the interesting sight that I saw is good, G-rated and beautiful (um, not that the other won’t be, perhaps). Just let me explain before I dig this hole any deeper.
The Call of Order
Too many years ago, I saw the Beethoven frieze when it reappeared in Vienna. The painting is a remarkable work; Gustav Klimt depicted each of four movements of the Beethoven’s Ninth symphony along the top of four walls, climaxing with a chorus of angels singing the “Ode to Joy” atop the final wall. Young as I was, I understood that I was in front of something that I did not understand. The work ascends beyond beautiful to an awful sublime, especially if Beethoven’s work still shakes in your bones. We spent an hour there, and moved on.
