Monday, June 29, 2009

Silver screen

A movie theater opened at the end of my street. It's a minute-and-a-half walk from my doorstep. This is one of the coolest things that's ever happened to me. I love going to the movies, so much that I'll go even if it's something I only mildly care about.



Pro: I can see movies under two minutes away from me. I'll never be late, I'll never miss the trailers, which are a crucial part of the experience for me.

Con: $7 matinees, $9 regular showings.

Pro: The theaters here get pretty solid movies.

Con: I'm often forced to go by myself, like tonight, when I saw (and enjoyed) "Away We Go."

Pro: Michael Mann's "Public Enemies" with Christian Bale and Johnny Depp premieres Wednesday and it will be playing for three showings at what I'm now referring to as my theater. Yahoo!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

USA vs Brazil: Perfect football match for Martha's Vineyard


I'm in Seasons pub on Circuit Avenue watching the final of the Confederations Cup, US vs Brazil in South Africa. It's 2-0 US at the moment -- the entire bar is going crazy after every goal. I'm not sure how many Brazilians are here -- we'll find out if they score a goal -- but I know the island is a Brazilian hotbed and this is a big match, not only as a World Cup barometer, but for bragging rights on the island.

UPDATE: We may have a few more Brazilians in the house than I suspected, based on the reaction of that just-missed kick by Brazil in stoppage time in the first half. Yikes.

UPDATE: Nope, no Brazilians here. Absolute silence after that goal less than a minute into the second half. Oh, wait, one woman's started clapping and cheering. My bad.

UPDATE: Texted Brazilian amigo on the Vineyard, Marcio, and said, "You're goin down, Brazil." Reply: "Wait till the game is over."

UPDATE: Marcio is talking more crap. Tied 2-2. I have to be at work soon...ahh!

UPDATE: Ugh. 3-2 on a header. Maybe I won't have any problems getting to work early.

UDPATE: Oof. Nice comeback, Brazil. Heartbreaker for the US.

Friday, June 26, 2009

The Vineyard's most endearing chef-writer-illustrator?

At The Book Den East, we have an "island" -- like an offset kitchen bar kinda deal -- of Martha's Vineyard books and island writers. Today I found a charming Vineyard gem, Susan Branch, by way of donation.


Branch hand-writes, illustrates and watercolors entire cookbooks. The books are filled with quotes by people like Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, E.B. White and Branch's crush, Mark Twain. They're also generously filled with endearing watercolors and cursive script that reads like a long lost friend's most carefully penned letter. These books are a knockout; a pleasure just to flip through even as a picture book -- the kind that, like a Pixar movie, is simple enough in its beauty for kiddies but profound and detailed enough to hold adults rapt. There's a sense of genuineness in Branch's books that's scarcely found; even the copyright page is fully handwritten in her lilting pen.



The quotes are prolific and Branch is as apt to whimsically transform a single letter into a sunflower as she is to paint the entire spread of a meal she's tantalizingly described in that signature script. But she also muses on Vineyard life, offers advice on how to draw or how to sun-dry tomatoes, and provides an old-fashioned picnic menu.


Anyone who loves cooking will be bowled over with these books. Anyone who loves New England and books that sweep you off your feet will enjoy and likely be inspired to whip up something in the kitchen. I flipped through every page of four volumes -- even her Christmas book -- and was enlightened throughout. Find her books here, here and at the Book Den East.


Note: Love that wonky formatting! Happens every time I import a blog I write in MS Word. Blah. Don't forget, mouse over photos for captions.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Rock lobster

There was a nine-pound lobster on special at the restaurant I reviewed last night, Oyster Bar Grill. Wow. You can bet all nine pounds it's included in my article for next week's newspaper.


I'm sad to say that in many ways, Martha's Vineyard is out-lobstering Maine -- the hotspot for some of the world's best lobster. I had to move to the Vineyard to learn about lobster macaroni and cheese, lobster scrambled eggs, and lobster ice cream. I haven't tried any of the three, but I think the first two will be ingenious, the third may be dubious. Also planning to boil some critters up in the kitchen with some of the other This Week interns soon.

Handwrote a blog yesterday but no time to post as my bike is loopy and I'll be walking to both jobs today. New entry late tonight or early tomorrow.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Island life from another writer's eyes

Before I get to the point, I have to share that the bartender I bar-backed for last night said Jake Gyllenhaall used to bus tables for him in Edgartown before he went all Donnie Darko and got famous. The bartender, Greg, an islander born and raised, said JG was "a good kid." Greg was also was acquainted with Maggie Gyllenhaal, who was as unattractive in real life as onscreen.

Okay. The point. Um...um....oh, yeah. Another intern at This Week on MV, James Sanford, has been blogging profusely since he trekked from Michigan to the island for the summer. He is a former film writer from Michigan's Kalamazoo Gazette and had a column/blog called At The Movies. He's interviewed Stephen Spielberg, Leo DiCaprio, Chris Walken and, most recently, McG, director of "Terminator: Salvation" and a Kalamazoo native. Wow. [That last link is James's' McG profile]

James blogs at http://jamesislandlife.blogspot.com much more regularly and often longer than me, but the real clincher is that if you browse his blog, you'll be getting a totally different perspective from a guy who has a car, more money to spend, an insane passion for dining out -- he's tried a ton of lobster dishes already -- and an earnest approach to exploring the Vineyard. He also got a jumpstart on me with just-for-blog reporting with this awesome article about a Bulgarian bartender flippin' bottles around. Read him, follow him, enjoy. Just don't completely defect to his blog and forget to check back here.

Quick snapshot of my bookstore, the Book Den East, as I head in for a day of book organizing, selling and reading. I'll acquaint you with my store more thoroughly in a future post.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Back on-island

What a fantastic trip to Maine, and what a fantastic waste of time public transportation is. It takes over nine hours to get from Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts to Orono, Maine. A walk or bus ride to the ferry, a ferry trip, a bus ride to Boston, an exhausting bus ride to Maine. I will be twisting any arms I can to get a ride to Maine next time, when I'm in an independent film called "The Kings," which'll play in the Maine International Film Festival on July 18. Spent my entire summer last year acting and helping out the director -- I can't wait for the payoff. Check out the trailer below.



So the entire visit to Maine was wonderful -- I tend to feel closer to home than ever when I'm farthest away, and it's gratifying to have a taste of what you miss so much, especially after five weeks. And to have a taste of multiple cookouts. Yum. And to be able to see some house cats again. Meow.

With Mary on the Two-Cent Bridge in Waterville. Finally got to show m'lady m'stompin' grounds of olde.


Now I'm back on the island, ready to find some new freelance, keep rocking at the newspaper, and start making plans for the fall -- and for visitors this summer. It's a sticky situation working so many jobs and trying to have guests, but if you want to visit, we can work it out.

Photobucket
I know the graph is super small. Click it for a deeper understanding of the complexity of this issue.

Went out with four of the other This Week on Martha's Vineyard interns last night. Bad: All draft beers at Danny Quinn's Irish Pub are $6 -- except Guinness, y'know, the traditional Irish pint? That one's $7. Good: Danny Quinn busted out Irish tunes all night. Below is a vid of him playing somewhere else and looking considerably different and more like a chubby, Irish John Denvery than he currently does, but you can see his solid chops and his Irish cadence.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

An article to tide you over while I'm off-island

Leaving the island tonight to go to the mainland (Maineland? Anyone?) for the weekend. Boston tonight and home in Maine until Sunday. Here is one of my new articles for This Week on Martha's Vineyard. It's a restaurant profile. This issue will hit Vineyard streets tomorrow (Thursday). For next week, I've written an article about where to get ice cream on the island. Weee/yum!


Will update soon about newspapering on MV. I'm aware the font sizes and formatting in this post are loopy. No more time to try to fix them -- I to catch a ferry in 20 minutes to get off this rock for the first time in a month! Have a nice rest of the week.


Wining and dining with your toes in the sand
Oak Bluffs restaurant offers great seafood and one-of-a-kind harbor atmosphere
By Zach Dionne - 6/18/09


The harborside entrance to Sand Bar & Grille, the only on-island establishment with a sand floor.


Sand Bar & Grille is like being at the beach with a personal bar, chef and waitstaff at your service. It’s not only that it’s the one spot you can legally drink with your feet in the sand – the restaurant is the sole on-island establishment using grains of the beach as the dining room floor – but also the laid-back vibe and location. Sand Bar sits on Oak Bluffs Harbor, one of only a small handful of restaurants boasting such status. Dual surfboards hang coolly above the harbor-side entrance.

It’s the type of joint you can spend 30 minutes grabbing a quick Corona – or one of the other 10 draft brews or 10 bottled beers – or three hours with friends, indulging in several courses and soaking in the daily live music.


Appetizers like burger-sized snow crab cakes with Cajun aioli sauce and house-smoked salmon with crisp, herbed bread are delightful, well-presented and leave room for the main course – or for one appetizer truly worth a derivation from an evening of seafood: warm spinach and artichoke dip with an all-star addition of fresh, sweet red peppers, served in a soft bread bowl.


Sand Bar diversifies its menu by offering more than 75 selections of sushi in addition to seafood, prime steak and lobster, burgers and sandwiches. The restaurant has doubled for several years as a respectable sushi destination; Sand Bar’s new sushi chef has crafted delicious creations at his own off-island restaurant for 20 years.


Entrees of pan-seared scallops and grilled swordfish prove what gregarious and resourceful server Alex indicates; the fare is locally caught, never raised in hatcheries, and, most importantly, the chefs know exactly what to do with the finest seafood. The menu offers several methods of preparation for each fresh special and chef-inspired entree.


The scallops are tender and tasty; not surprisingly one of chef Dan Kelleher’s favorites.


“I like it just pan-seared with a nice medium cook on it so it’s still a little fleshy in the middle, with that flavor,” says Kelleher, a chef alongside manager-slash-chef Pete Bradford, a Vineyard native and culinary veteran.


The swordfish is also delicious and expertly prepared – fresh, juicy, hot; an explosion of rich taste in every bite. Smashed potatoes and a bright vegetable medley serve as perfect compliments, occasionally garnering their own attention away from the sensational swordfish.


“You can actually mix and match a little bit. If you want a pan-sear and you want the herb butter on it instead of the soy glaze, we can do that. I think it’s a little more customer friendly that telling them, ‘This is how it is and this is how it’s gonna be,’” Kelleher says.


An island-style bar juts out into the sandy patio, an area replete with guests whiling away sunny afternoons with ambient live acts like local strummer Mike Benjamin. The sandy outdoor seating – the largest portion of the seating area, which also includes an indoor bar and tables – is Kelleher’s favorite aspect of Sand Bar. “You’re out on the harbor. It’s a good atmosphere,” he says.


Indeed, Sand Bar has character. In a tourist Mecca where restaurants are a dime a dozen, it’s almost magic to dine at an unforgettable spot overlooking a serene harbor, your toes in the sand.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Internationality Pt. 2

When I came back from Wales, I changed my residence on Myspace (it was still cool then) to Citizen of the World. I'd had my first taste of internationality -- meeting dozens of friends from around the world, talking about differences in our cultures from the big (politics) to the small (what noise a rooster makes in German, French, Spanish, Italian) and saying goodnight to flatmates in three or four different languages. It was incredible, and I learned what an astonishing amount you can discover about the world and about your own culture from conversation alone.

When I moved into my apartment in Oak Bluffs, I knew there were five Bulgarians and 11 total roommates. I was hoping we might be able to have a watered-down duplicate of the experience I had in Wales, but no dice. Everyone ended up staying in their own rooms and doing their own things. It's rare to see anyone else in this house, even if I cook a meal and spend an hour and a half in the kitchen. A few of my Bulgarian roommates are pleasant and we smile and wave when we pass each other in the street, but they're here to make money, not friends. They've told me.

But all hope for internationality was not lost. Martha's Vineyard is a huge hotbed of Brazilians -- some summer workers and many year-round residents. The restaurant where I work, Mediterranean, is no exception -- at least five Brazilians work there, meaning their mother tongue is Portuguese, meaning I get to use some of my kinda-similar-but-not-that-similar Español with them. On Sunday morning last weekend, I had most of a conversation with one of the dishwashers in Spanish, peppering the rest with Portuguese from her and English from me. (Favorite parts: Her asking if I had a girlfriend -- "Tienes una amorada? Tienes una novia?" and learning she has a son my age in Brazil).

One of the only real friends I've made thus far is Marcio, also de Brasil, from Rio de Janiero. He'd been living in Orlando for the last seven years working for Disney. He's a surfer and tennis fiend. He has some great stories to tell. I like Brazilians if they dream to go to Portugal, since it is to Brazil what France is to Quebec or England is to America (sort of). Marcio wants to. Danubia, a server at Med, does not. [That link is a cool story about her in the Vineyard Gazette]

There's a crowd of five or so Serbians my age who work at Mediterranean. Haven't learned too much about them yet although they're wicked nice. Drago's eyes absolutely lit up when I told him I like football/soccer and he said, "Soccer is my life," and told me how he's played his entire life, semi-professionally most recently. The Red Sox are always playing on our bar's TV, so a few of these Serbian gents have afforded me my first opportunities to explain baseball from point A to point Z. Thanks, Oggy and Zell.

Mediterranean's secret weapon is Gilbert (pronounced Jill-bear) from beautiful Nice, France (I saw the city last March and was enamored beyond belief). He has the authentic French half-mustache, with the top half carefully shaved, and sees serving and restauranting in general as an art. If you dine at Mediterranean, I'm going to stringently suggest you request Gilbert. He's lived in America since the '60s, first moving to New York, and talking with him about The Beatles and New York in the '60s is out of this world. He saw the Rolling Stones on 14th Street right after "Satisfaction" dropped and the show began with an hour of nonstop screaming from excited girls -- screaming so loud he couldn't hear anything but the band's bass. He also saw The Doors before they had an album out. He can be a little snooty about some things, but he calls the Canadian variants of French "a treasure." He said he felt at home the first time he visited Quebec. This Frenchman also reminded me how cool it feels to walk or ride your bike with a piece of long grass jutting from your mouth like a cowboy.

I work with Ben, from Israel, where military service is requisite. I said something like, "Yikes...not like it's exactly a peaceful place to serve." He replied matter-of-factly, "Yeah. I had friends get killed." Yowch...

Our floor manager is Mike from Toronto. I went a whole shift without noticing his Canadian accent, and now I pick it up in every sentence. It's awesome. He chimed in on a Beatles conversation Gilbert and I were having, adding that Montreal seems to still be in Beatlemania -- it's all he hears on the radio the entire time he visits the city. Mike also says cheers for thanks, something I sorely miss from living in the UK.

Piret, the woman who trained me at the bookstore, is from Estonia. She and the owner, Ivo, run a resort in Estonia. They're going there for the summer. They invited another Estonian to be the caretaker of their home for the summer and to work in the bookshop. The day Piret and Ivo trained Anna, with Anna's miniature Estonian son prancing around the shop, it felt like I worked in a used bookstore in Estonia. The four of them spoke the language the entire day.

These are some little tastes and stories of internationality from everyday life here. I'll spin some of these threads out more in later entries, especially the Brazilianness of Martha's Vineyard, but even just at the tip of the iceberg, it's an eye-opening blast to be around so many cultures again.

Obrigado [Portuguese for thanks] for reading.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Reggae Vineyard?

Chalk my tally of in-the-works blogs to two -- both of which will hopefully surface by the week's end. Here's a quick blurb for the day: I'm putting together a brief article about all the venues for live music on the island. So far, three or four have weekly reggae nights. What did I say about the ooh-yeah-we-be-jammin' attitude here?! Called it.

Speaking of Jamaica, mon, I'm either in a spell or this is flat-out becoming the summer of Red Stripe. I've always enjoyed this tasty Jamaican lager that sort of reminds me of a brown ale. It's on hand at most bars and I've fallen back in love after a few transcendental sips last Saturday after a grueling night at work. Also found them for $2 down Circuit Avenue at Island House the other night -- which is a steal here.

Yum.

While we're jammin' about reggae, if you've never heard The Fugees' cover of "No Woman, No Cry," spin it.

Back soon with a post about my internship and the newspaper folks.

EDIT: Moments after I posted this, I saw this sign on my street:


Monday, June 8, 2009

Monday meandering

Rather than give you the substantial blog I've been writing in my head for more than a week, I've got some frenetic Monday morning musings for you. And the more I wait on that bigger blog, the more experiences enrich the final product. So no worries, mate.

I love living on Circuit Avenue. I woke up at 10 this morning for my first day off after a 12-day stretch without a free day (also worked 70 hours in seven days last week -- and people following me on Twitter and Facebook, I promise this is the last time I'll spout this stupid fact). Before eating breakfast or doing anything morning-ly, I tossed on some gym shorts, an old T-shirt and some flip-flops and sauntered down to the bank and the post office.

Leaving my house, I remembered I've wanted to note on here that we don't lock our front door. Ever. And we live on a very hopping street. Um? Not sure if this is the norm around here -- probably not since no one in our 12-person house is an actual islander, but it feels like it goes hand-in-hand with the let's-be-casual-we're-livin'-on-an-island-ooh-yeah-we-jammin' attitude. Oh well, I'm not freaking out about it -- just hoping you've forgotten where I live and you don't have the ambition to hunt back through this blog and find out and come rob whatever riches you can discover in our house's common areas; i.e. the kitchen and weird living room.

Stepping onto Circuit Ave., I saw a guy that looked nothing like John Krasinski but nonetheless made me think of John Krasinski walking down my street. If someone did one of those little charts of a brain for me, there would certainly be a small piece of the pie dedicated to celebrity sightings, a field I am severely unversed in. Anyway, I pictured it being John Krasinski (Jim of "The Office" if you've stubbornly refused the above-offered link) and imagined my reaction being a casual, gun-shaped finger point, the gesture saying without words and with ultimate slickness, "Ayyy, you're John Krasinski!" and continuing my walk down the street, smilin' and whistlin'.

Hopefully I can keep my cool to this degree when I actually do see some stars here. If I see some stars? No, when. Stay optimistic.

The bank where I opened a savings account (your bank is probably not on this island -- accept it) is directly next door to the post office. Makes for a nice one-two, bing-bang-boom experience. The post office was actually a great experience this morning. There's usually a brief wait to check your mail (I have general delivery -- the post office doesn't deliver to my house) and up ahead in the line, the postal employees congratulated some old fella on his birthday. I was thinking, wow, that's local service. Pretty cool they knew his birthday.

I got to the window, slapped my MaineCard down on the counter after a nice "Hi, how ahh ya?" from the lady and asked her for general delivery for Zach Dionne. The woman started rifling through some cubbies and a guy deeper in the mail room goes, "Is that Zach?" I said yeah, and he held up a package he'd just found for me, saying, "Hi Zach, how ya doin? Good timing!"

If you don't get how cool that is, never mind. I love New England.

Going to play tennis with Marcio de Brasil. First time on an island court!

Friday, June 5, 2009

On Tourism

Another weekend is here, which in normal life means it's time to say, "Wow, that week cruised by." But on Martha's Vineyard, in the tourist mania of Oak Bluffs, Friday is the day to remember people are flocking here like seagulls to an errant Pringle on the beach.

It's strange being from Maine -- Vacationland, "The Way Life Should Be," "Worth a Visit, Worth a Lifetime" -- and having barely given a thought to tourism any summer of my life. It's obviously because I'm not from the coast and don't spend much time there, but places like Bar Harbor are on the same page as Martha's Vineyard in the summer; tons of tourists, tons of foreigners coming to make money, and general, abundant insanity.

It's funny that I acknowledge the tourism in oblique ways without remembering what's actually going on. "Cool, it's Friday, the restaurant should be pretty busy tonight" or, "Hey, it's pretty congested on my street. Walking down the sidewalk, past all these shops, is annoyingly unpleasant today." Not just because it's a weekend, but because it's one of the few days in the week in this pre-summer period when tons of people are unloading from the ferries and kickin' it with some island living for a few days.

I'm sure as the summer wears on into late June and further, weekends might take a backseat as tourists teem 24/7, but right now, it's an interesting shift from Friday to Sunday.

Tourism as a whole fascinates me. A waitress I work with is vacationing at Old Orchard Beach for the weekend, and while part of me is excited she's going to my state and to a beach I've been to tons of times, it's also unfathomable to me that she'd leave this island, surrounded by magnificent beaches, to go to Maine for something only mildly different. Ditto for people who go to Maine specifically to camp. I appreciate it and love Maine's outdoors, but isn't there allure for people to do this stuff in their own neck of the woods? My guess is it's the human, more specifically American, need to always be on the go, to be somewhere you're not, even if it's the same. I love traveling as much as anything, so I promise I'm not being cynical -- just trying to sort out the whole tourism thing. I'll be back with more of a diagnosis later this summer, when I've really stared the phenomenon in the face.

A sign on the island. You have to be blunt with tourists.




Thursday, June 4, 2009

Downshift

Hey gang,

It's time for a slight downshift in my bloggery. While I want to update every day, the summer isn't even close to fully started and I'm getting into the swing of two jobs and freelance writing on top of that -- while trying to cultivate a social life here and stay sane. Today is my ninth straight day working out of at least 12, not including the insane interviewing and writing I've been pulling together for Martha's Vineyard Wedding magazine. While I thrive on stress and this blog is still one of my summer's highest priorities, I don't want it to become a burden where I'm contriving daily entries. There will still me multiple weekly, worthwhile posts, including the feature I was reporting for today.

So I'm taking from fifth gear back to third or fourth.

Happy Thursday. Treat yourself to seeing Pixar's "Up" -- I saw it last night and was unsurprisingly delighted by Pixar again. Terrific movie in the charming movie theater in Vineyard Haven. I'm prepping to freelance a feature on the cinema scene on Martha's Vineyard very soon and shop it to whoever will take it -- or I'll just post it here.

I know your eyes are starving for a visual, so here's what $2,200 will buy you for four months in Martha's Vineyard:

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Cool column about MV in the Globe

A UMass professor and author wrote a guest column Monday in the Boston Globe under the guise of advice for the Obamas if they are truly vacationing here later this summer, in the tradition of the Clintons in years past. What it really served as was a nicely nuanced piece from a writer who is clearly intimately familiar with the Vineyard -- leagues moreso than my been-here-two-and-a-half-weeks self. I'm very grateful to the kind old fella who dropped this article off at the bookstore for my boss but recommended I read it first. I won't post the whole text below, but here are some bits I liked:

"Like all islands, Martha's Vineyard is a head case, mysterious, a unique coinage, cut off, stuck-up, a loner, a bit of a drama queen. Newcomers often experience the island as snobby, and not just in the obvious terms of how much property you own and its value. The island sometimes feels like a club for which there are secret rules that no one appears all that eager to share."

A few genius grafs about island's etymology include:

"The names play games with your head, teasing fake definitions from the sounds themselves. Edgartown could be a scary theme park based on stories by Poe. . . Oak Bluffs a strategy in poker . . . Tisbury a quaint way to describe the inside of a pie."

Although none of my jobs are listed, I can relate:

"Memories of having held certain summer jobs are a badge, whether the work was backbreaking, such as picking any of their 10 different kinds of lettuce at Morning Glory Farms, especially if you biked to work in the predawn hours, or mundane, such as bagging at Stop & Shop, or high-toned, such as being a hostess at Atria in Edgartown, or classic, such as scooping ice cream at Mad Martha's."

Check it out if you like what you see. Great way to get a better sense of this island I'm calling home for another three months.