Children’s House Benefit 3

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Click here for more photos of this event and photos of other recent events. For older photos, please go to the Mahon About Town Photo Pages.

Comin Up on Nantucket Beginning 2/15/08

NIGHTLIFE
The Un-Valentine Cabaret: A cross between cabaret of 1930’s Berlin, an oddball talent show, and a community party in deep winter, presented by Seaside Shakespeare Company. Chicken Box, Saturday the 16th. Doors open at 6 pm for cocktails and complimentary hors d’oeuvres. Performance at 7.

Beat the Winter Blues Party: Cash prizes for the belly flop contest and bikini contest. DJ Bri Guy. Rose & Crown. Saturday the 16th.

Also at the Rose & Crown, it’s Poker Night on Monday’s, Trivia Quiz Night every Tuesday (at 7 pm), karaoke on Thursday (9pm), and DJ Bri Guy Friday and Saturday nights, except for this week’s special events listed above.

CONCERTS
Aiofe Clancy: Traditional Irish songs, ballads and contemporary folk. Great Hall. Saturday the 16th at 7. Chuck Colley and Erik Wendelken open for Aiofe.

THEATER AND POETRY

Nantucket Theatrical Productions and the Theatre Workshop of Nantucket present “Cupid’s Nightmare”, four short plays from the Short Play Festival. February 16, 22, 23 at 7 p.m., upstairs at the Methodist Church on Centre St. Admission is $10.

Poetry Reading: Spoken Word Nantucket. Open mic for poetry and music. Featured poet – Nicole Terez. Free. Umass Boston Field Station. Sunday the 17th at 2.

SPEAKERS
Nat Philbrick: “Quakerism on Nantucket” in the 18th and 19th centuries. Thursday the 21st at noon. Whaling Museum.

FILM
Winged Migration: Author and local bird expert Ken Blackshaw will introduce the film answer questions. Great Hall, Sunday the 18th at 3.

See the Arts & Social Calendar for more details on all events listed above.

For a more comprehensive listing of ALL Nantucket events, pick up the Nantucket Independent for my Community Calendar, or click here.

Nantucket Events

Nantucket will be host to the first ever and hopefully first annual Nantucket Comedy Festival, which will run from Wednesday, July 30 through Saturday, August 2. More details to follow as I get them.

At the 7th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards yesterday, Thursday, February 7th, Nathaniel Philbrick received the nonfiction award for 2007 for “Mayflower”. The awards are presented annually to books from the previous calendar year that were published by Massachusetts authors or that convey important Massachusetts themes.

Coming Up on Nantucket Week of 2/7/08

The Sea Gam: Stories of the Sea with Maurice Gibbs, originally scheduled for this Friday night, has been postponed.

COMMUNITY HEALTH
Dr. Maria Trozzi, director of the Good Grief Program at Boston Medical Center and co-author of ‘Talking with Children About Loss’, will address parents and other adults from the community on Tuesday, February 12, at 6 p.m. in the High School auditorium. Dr. Trozzi has appeared as an expert on family resilience and loss on CBS’s The Early Show, Good Morning America and Larry King Live. An assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine, she is the director of the Good Grief Program at Boston Medical Center. The program, now in its 20th year, provides national training, crisis consultation, and direct services to children, parents, educators, and health professionals. The program’s mission is to help adults help children who are “facing life’s speed bumps.” For more information, contact Dr. Robert Pellicone at (508) 228-7285.

BENEFITS
Second Annual Valentines Dance, sponsored by The Nantucket Historical Association, is Friday (8th) from 7 to 10:00 pm, with music by the Nantucket School of Music Jazz Band playing jazz and salsa. Salsa dance instruction will be offered, as well as complimentary beverages and snacks. Whaling Museum Gosnell Hall. Tickets available at the door.

The Children’s House 25th Anniversary Dinner/Auction, celebrating 25 years of the Children’s House, includes live auction packages with trips to St. Barths, Stowe, and Vieques; Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics tickets and more. Catered by EJ Harvey. Saturday the 9th from 6 to 10 pm. Contact Tracy Halik at 325-7955 or tracyor1@aol.com for tickets.

The Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament this Sunday the 10th benefits the Nantucket Boys and Girls Club. Registration at noon, play begins at 1 pm at Faregrounds.

The Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum is throwing a Valentines Day Party from 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm on Thursday the 14th.

The Queen of Hearts Ball benefits the Nantucket Lighthouse School. Silent auction, dancing to the Shingles. Come as you are or dig out your prom dress, ugly tux shirt, cupid outfit, or your best love get up. A king and queen will be crowned. Prizes for best two costumes. 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm at the Box, Thursday the 14th.

ONE BOOK, ONE ISLAND EVENTS
Dr. Robert Kennedy of the Maria Mitchell Association and Dr. Sarah Oktay of the University of Massachusetts Field Station present “The Marlin, the Mako, and Man” and “Sailing a River in the Ocean: Charting Santiago’s Deep Blue Journey”. Free. Thursday (7th), 1:30 pm at the Whaling Museum.

‘The Old Man and the Sea’ In Words and Music closes out this years One Book, One Island with musical performances by Molly Glazer, Robert Behrman, Armen Ghazaryan, Susan McGinnis (a Shakespeare sonnet set to music), and Joshua Mencer. Also readings from ‘The Old Man and the Sea’, Walt Whitman, and Jose Marti, performed by members of the community: Ted Anderson, David Kopko, Chris Lohman, Bill MacEachern, Donald Noyes, Richard Ross, Pete Sawyer, Craig Spery, and Jim Sutherland. Poems by Dick Burns and Frank Cunningham. Free. Organized and presented by Len Germinara. Atheneum, Sunday the 10th beginning at 3.

SPEAKERS
Retired educator and Nantucket resident Chris Lohmann will discuss Melville’s Benito Cereno: The Unspeakable Story of Slavery. Free; bring your lunch. Whaling Museum, Thursday the 14th at noon.

MUSIC
The High School Chorus and Band presents a concert Thursday (7th) at 7:30 pm at the High School Auditorium.

The Nantucket High School present “Music Man” at the High School. Friday and Saturday nights (8th and 9th) at 7:30, and Sunday at 2.

NIGHTLIFE
At the Rose & Crown, it’s Poker Night on Monday’s, Trivia Quiz Night every Tuesday (at 7 pm), karaoke on Thursday (9pm), and DJ Bri Guy Friday and Saturday nights.

FILM AND VIDEO
Rock of Changes: Race, Faith, and Freedom on Nantucket will be shown by the Nantucket Historical Association at 12 noon, Thursday the 7th at the Whaling Museum. The film presents the history of school desegregation on Nantucket, and the efforts of the black community to bring it about through legislation. Free; bring your lunch.

La Vie En Rose stars Marion Cotillard in the life of Edith Piaf. Saturday night in the Great Hall at 7.

Tapping Maple Ridge explores the unexpected parallels between wind energy and maple syrup production, as part of the Sense of Place II: A Film Series About Community, Sustainability, & the Environment. Wednesday, February the 13th, 7:00 pm in the Great Hall.
Free Admission

THEATER
Phyllis Perelman hosts Armchair Theatre, and Grace Noyes directs A. R. Gurney’s ‘Ancestral Voices’. Bring a beverage, main dish, salad, or dessert to share; coffee provided. Potluck at 6; reading at 7. It’s at Sherburne Commons, 21 South Shore Road.

Nantucket Theatrical Productions and the Theatre Workshop of Nantucket present “Cupid’s Nightmare”, four short plays from the Short Play Festival. February 14, 15, 16, 22, 23 at 7 p.m., upstairs at the Methodist Church on Centre St. Admission is $10.

See the Arts & Social Calendar for more details on all events listed above.

For a more comprehensive listing of ALL Nantucket events, pick up the Nantucket Independent for my Community Calendar, or click here.

Nantucket Restaurant News

The Atlantic Cafe has reopened after a short hiatus: Tues – Sun from 11:30 – midnight with a new menu and look. Thursday is till Prime Rib Night.

Even Keel is reopening on Valentine’s Day for their winter season schedule -seven days and five nights, closed Sunday and Monday nights. Look for a new menu from their new chef Bruce Yancy.

Here are the restaurants doing something different for Valentines Day. Thank you to David Sharpe of Nantucket Visitor Services for compiling this information:
A.K. Diamonds: $35 fixed price dinner
Centre Street Bistro: special menu
Fifty-Six Union: same menue but two seatings: between 6 and 7, then between 8 and 9.
Kitty Murtaugh’s: fixed price menu
Queequeg’s: romantic apps ad entrees
SeaGrille: romantic specials
Tutto Sfoglia: Valentine’s cookies and desserts

Received this note from Tracy Root today:
Karen and I got married in Megans Bay, St. Thomas on December 31st, just the two of us on the beach, passing up an offer from Jimmy Buffett to get married on his yacht or plane by himself personnaly. Karen is working at Mangrove Cafe, and I’m am working at Prestons Steak House, which has the finest meats I have ever served. Very small, quaint, and limited to 50 dinners or so a night. Cioppino’s will open around May 6th ish.

If you get to Naples this winter, look them up.

Mobil Travel Guide 50th Annual Star Awards are out. The Wauwinet has won 4 stars, the same also awarded to the Charlotte Inn in Edgartown, as well as the Taj Boston, The Ritz-Carlton, Boston Common, and XV Beacon, all in Boston. Some of the highlights of the review:

“Sense of New England and its history is all around, including sprawling silver-shingled cottages and inn, and sea gulls overhead. Inn’s restaurant, Toppers, prepares creative New England cuisine. Perfect spot for the outdoorsy set, with biking, kayaking, sailing, beachcombing, and more. Romance abounds, with massages by the sea and wonderful water views.”

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Here’s a list of restaurants open for next week. Click anywhere on the list below to download a printable pdf version. Thank you to Nantucket Visitor Services, especially David Sharpe, for providing the most current weekly restaurant list. For last minute guest room availability, call Visitor Services at 228-0925.

Yack

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“Transsiberian” at Sundance (Nantucket Connection)

Will Conroy, now a summer visitor but previously a resident, has co-written a film called “Transsiberian” with Brad Anderson, which recently played at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was shot in Lithuania on a $15 million budget. Brad, a frequest visitor to the Nantucket Film Festival, also directed the film starring Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Kate Mara, Eduardo Noriega, Thomas Kretschmann, and Ben Kingsley.

Will wrote me from his home in Arizona to tell me about it, and that “he’s still hoping the movie will show at this year’s Nantucket Film Festival”, ending with “I miss Nantucket terribly”.

USA Today said of “Transsiberian”:
“The film is a marital drama meets police thriller and has what every good train ride should: lust, murder, Russian cops, a lot of vodka. And then some: a bag full of heroin, windows nailed shut, a tough female Russian conductor, a train wreck with lives hanging in the balance.”

“Cast members Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer and Eduardo Noriega were on hand at the sold-out Eccles auditorium at the Park City High School. Harrelson and Mortimer play a Midwestern couple traveling back from a religious mission in China, struggling to keep their marriage together at the point when a mysterious Spaniard (Noriega) and his 20-year-old girlfriend (Kate Mara) climb aboard.”

Read the full review here.

From Variety:
“The long sidelined subgenre centered on mysterious doings aboard exotic trains is put back on the tracks in “Transsiberian,” an engagingly up-to-date melodrama steeped in local color and steered by a treacherous sense of morality. Stalwart indie helmer Brad Anderson spreads his wings considerably here by moving further into action and genre territory than he ever has before with a film that will likely achieve more theatrical traction internationally than in the U.S. but looks promising everywhere at tube and home viewing destinations down the line.”

Read the full review here.

Sundance post party pictures here. On hand were Woody Harrelson, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Kata Mara, Perez Hilton, Jason Patric, and Paris Hilton and her sister Nicky.

Here’s the trailer

Nantucket January Temperatures

How warm was it in January? Here are Nantucket’s highs and lows (bars), and normal highs and lows (lines).

in Search of the Giant Squid: Nantucket

In Search of Giant Squid, an exhibition by the National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in partnership with the Discovery Channel, with support from the Egan Maritime Foundation and Novation Media, opened on Friday, February 1 in the Peter Foulger Gallery. The exhibition runs through April 20, now open Fridays and Saturdays from 11 am to 4 pm; Sundays, noon to 4 pm. Here are some photos from the opening, provided by the Nantucket Historical Association.

Pictured, in order, are:
Sandra Eubanks, Rick & Ursula McMorrow
Jascin Leonardo Finger and friend
Squid Peek
Jerry Daub
Fran Karttunen, friend, and Allen Reinhard
Marina Sutro with her daughter and grandson, Sabrina & Ben Elwell
Valerie Norton with daughter-in-law Mai Lin and her children
Miki Lovett and Susan Bennett Witte
Jim Lentowski and Molly Anderson
Children with squid objects
Michael Wodynski, Bernie & Carol Coffin, Ken Blackshaw
Patty Frost, Cynthia Blackshaw, Peggi Godwin

Brass Lantern Inn: Nantucket

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