Mahon About Town Nantucket Blog

11th Annual Boston Pops with Natalie Cole, to benefit Nantucket Cottage Hospital, gets going at 7 p.m. Saturday night at Jetties, with conductor Keith Lockhart and host Tim Russert, sponsored by Nantucket Island Resorts Jill and Steve Karp. Ticket information and availability at 508-825-8181. Always a spectacle, the annual town beach party.

Best Bets for Music (Check calendar for all listings)

• Nantucket School of Music student Junyi Fitzgibbon is quite simply a child prodigy on piano. Here’s a fairly rare chance to see her perform Monday from 12:15 pm - 12:45 pm at the Methodist Church, performing solo works of Liszt and Scarlatti. Junyi also appears later in the week with “Young Pianists on Nantucket”, Junyi Wang Fitzgibbon, Samantha Reis, and Martina Ivanova, Thursday, 12:00 pm - 12:30 pm at the Unitarian Church.
• Spookie Daly Pride at the Box tonight, Saturday. Not touring anymore, this wacky eclectic group comes together only to play at the Box. Each time could be their last.
• Livingston Taylor plays the Methodist Church Thursday night at 8:00 pm to benefit the Two Centre Street Preservation Project.
• I’ve written about Jamaican singer Nicole Miller before, and her synergy with singer/songwriter Jeff Ross. They’ll be playing together on Thurday and Sunday nights for the next few weeks at the Starlight from 9:30 to 1.

The first Nantucket Farmers and Artisans Market, sponsored by Sustainable Nantucket, opens today, Saturday, from 9 to noon at the Nantucket New School, 15 Nobadeer Farm Road, and will run for 9 Saturdays. The market, completely run by local vendors, will feature locally grown vegetables, berries, herbs, plants and cut flowers, eggs, baked goods and locally, hand-crafted pottery, jewelry, crafts and more. The market’s mission is to provide fresh, native produce directly from local growers to residents, to promote local cottage industry and to educate the community about the personal benefits of healthy eating and the economic benefits of supporting local entrepreneurs.

The Nantucket Arts Council Shakespeare by the Sea Festival kicks off on Saturday night with Seaside Shakespeare Company’s Twelfth Night, featuring a cast of on and off-island actors including Susan Burns, Ciaran Byrne, Tom Butler, Laurel Devaney, Christy Kickham, Chas Libretto, Len Germinara, Susan Lucier, Susan McGinnis, Adam Skogen, Amy Stiller, and AT Wilce, with original music by Kim D. Sherman, played by Robert Behrman and Armen Ghazarian. Saturday (11th) at the Unitarian Church at 5 p.m.; Saturday at 5 p.m. at Children’s Beach; Sunday and Monday at Children’s Beach at 6 p.m.

Films shown this week as a part of the Festival are: Richard III, 8:00 pm Monday, Nantucket Whaling Museum, and “Henry V” with Kenneth Branagh, released in 1989: Tuesday 8:00 pm Whaling Museum.

Marjorie Garber, the author of “Shakespeare After All”, speaks at the Coffin School on Wednesday night at 7:30 pm. Book signing to follow. Mick Hales, author of “Shakespeare in the Garden”, appears Thursday night at 6:00 pm at the Coffin School, with a book signing to follow.

Fashion shows are more frequent with higher energy this season. Sunday night I expect the best yet. It’s at the Box, with live southern rock by the Christopher Robin Band, and it’s called Live Music Couture, presented by Cisco Brewers, Triple Eight Vodka, and Nantucket Vineyard. Models will wear clothes from the Lauren Di Nardo Collection, Cheryl Fudge and Current Vintage. Admission is $20 at the door, $15 at Cisco Brewery, the proceeds to benefit Sustainable Nantucket. It all gets going at 9.

Authors and Speakers

Suzy Welch will moderate a Q&A session with Jack Welch on the topics of Winning and Leadership today at the High School Auditorium, Wednesday night at 8:00 pm.

You don’t often see Corey Sandler, but he does live here. Corey writes books. Lots of books. Look him up on Amazon. 164 entries there, some duplicates I’m sure, but it’s got to be 100 books under various categories: Business & Investing (29), Entertainment (19), History (6), Computers & Internet (70), Home & Garden (8), Professional & Technical (47), Science Fiction & Fantasy (7), Sports (13), Travel (49). I joined WNAN radio’s host of “The Point”, Mindy Todd, (9;30 am weekdays on 91.1) when she interviewed Corey about his new book ‘Henry Hudson; Dreams and Obsession. The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer’ back in the middle of May. Here’s a podcast of that interview.

Corey calls Henry Hudson the “least known of the great explorers who went to the ends of the known world, though he profited nothing.” He describes Hudson’s trip to the North Pole when he tried to find a way from Europe to Asia, thinking it would not be frozen in summer, with no navigational cues (compasses are not accuarte that close to the magnetic pole, and there are no stars in 24 hour daylight. And in a later quest to reach the Bering Straight by sailing up the (now named) Hudson River, sailed just south of Nantucket on August 6, 1609.

Corey is speaking Monday night at 8 pm at the Atheneum, cosponsored by Nantucket Bookworks and the Atheneum. Pictured are Corey, Corey showing Mindy photos from the trip, and the interview.