Can you imagine how happy Ted Farrow would have been to see his original artwork of Tashtego, the Gay Head Indian harpooner (from Moby-Dick) adorni

I wanted to let you know that all cars at the State Beach in Edgartown and Oak Bluffs that have tires on the sand, not completely on the pavement,

Word that Howard Wall had died came as no surprise. He had fought ocular melanoma and a host of attendant horrors for seven long years, and his recent prognosis was grim. But as a shock, yes. A rabbit-punch to the heart, followed hard by sorrow and loss.

Every region of the Vineyard, and for an Island of a hundred square miles in area, there are a surprising number and a variety of regions, enclaves, realms, provinces and natural districts, is a repository of its own variety of summer experience. In sum they would make a patchwork of history as uncontrived and as interesting as an old time patchwork quilt. Some of these summer experiences were broadly public, some sequestered and private, and many of them are already forgotten.

This weekend will mark the final five performances of the world premiere of The Whaleship Essex at the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse on Church street in Vineyard Haven. These performances will represent a number of remarkable things, and not just for the playwright Joe Forbrich, myself and this wonderful cast made up of a mix of theatre professionals from New York and across New England as well as a few usual suspects from the Vineyard Playhouse of the past.

Flip through the events calendar. Throw a dart at any day, Wednesday, perhaps.

In the morning at the Yard in Chilmark, Jason Samuels Smith, perhaps the best tap dancer in the world right now, was giving an instruction in his art form. Later that night he performed with the Owen (Fiidla) Brown Quartet. Via his feet and the quartet’s music, the group took the audience to Africa, the horrors of the Middle Passage and the arrival as slaves in America.