Martha's Vineyard Holly Nadler

A Room of Their Own, Vineyard Retreats Helps Writers Develop

Holly Nadler | Thursday, May 9 2013 - 2:21pm

They come from all over the country, staying for one or two weeks or up to a full month. They explore Edgartown from their home base at the former Point Way Inn. Some of them work in their rooms, others find a nesting spot in one of the many elegant downstairs parlors. For dinner they might bring home scallops from the Net Result, ingredients for a pasta Siciliana, and share the meal pot-luck style in the formal dining room, which is two stories high and lit up like a stage set.

Noepe Center for Literary Arts

Sand in My Shoes: Down to the Sea in Shifts, Quite Happily

Holly Nadler

It all started when I ran into Inner Vision Ocean Swimming instructor and visionary Bob MacLean, in Reliable Market. Bob’s got just about the best guru-ship going because he focuses all his energy on getting folks to jump in the water and splash around. He also teaches about the breath and endurance and how to improve your stroke, and a bunch of philosophical stuff — but the jump and splash is the basic protocol.

A daily jump and splash will save you from all your demons, and more people saved from their demons will save the world.

Sand in My Shoes: Young Cord Bailey Had a Yard, EE-I-EE-I-O

Holly Nadler

Why did the chicken cross the road?

We can finally put paid to this old joke because the answer, after visiting 17-year-old Cord Bailey’s 11 chickens and single rooster on State Road in Vineyard Haven, is that none of his chickens has ever crossed the busy road, nor even set claw on the sidewalk.

“They know their own boundaries,” said Cord, although the band of fowls also takes a proprietary interest in the lush, shaded lawn next door. “The neighbors don’t mind,” he added, “In fact, they like the chickens!”

Sand in My Shoes: The Soothing Sounds of Oak Bluffs at 2 a.m.

Holly Nadler

Oh what fresh hell is this?

Those were Dorothy Parker’s words, and who knows to what original hell she referred? Her wry brand of anguish has entered the lexicon of familiar quotations; we can invoke it for any horror, from a splash of red wine on a white shirt to a six-car pileup on the San Bernardino Freeway.

Island Theatre Workshop Opens With Mistaken Identity Tale

Holly Nadler

The story is admittedly odd, but the musical I Sent a Letter to My Love (lyrics and music by Melissa Manchester and Jeffrey Sweet) now running at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, has been stylishly packaged by Island Theatre Workshop. The storyline was adapted from a novel of the same name by Bernice Rubens, so perhaps the oddness may be laid at the feet of the author.

New Faces Grace Museum Exhibits: Island Portraits

Holly Nadler

Last fall, Nancy Cole the education director of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum visited the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. When she returned she and the assistant curator of the museum, Anna Carringer, came up with an idea for a new exhibit.

“We thought it would be fun to try out a portrait competition with Island artists and Island subjects,” Ms. Carringer remembered.

Colleague Bonnie Stacey added, “We had no idea we’d get such a great response!”

Pro-Shark Concert: Music With a Bite

Holly Nadler

The battle lines have been drawn.

For some years now the town of Oak Bluffs has hosted an annual Monster Shark Tournament during a weekend in July. The event is well attended by both fishermen and spectators. But it is also protested regularly.