Who says CNN is the official source for verifying Obama's visit?

It's clearly the chalkboard at Sharky's:


A few other photos from today:

Relaxing bike ride to East Chop in the afternoon. Can't help but wish my Vineyard experience allowed me to live in a country spot like this.

For you, Mary :)

Heading to New York on Wednesday morning for the big dance at GQ on Thursday!

Shark attack

It's Shark Week, and not on Discovery Channel. Real life, baby. The annual Monster Shark Tournament is this weekend and I didn't even know about it was in my backyard until tonight. I knew the tournament was happening, but never thought I could see a shark, so was disinterested. I stopped by Mediterranean tonight and learned from Marcio that fisherman were pulling out huge maneaters for everyone to see all day.

Took a stroll through along the harbor this evening; didn't see any sharks like my friend Marcio did earlier, but did see a ton of boats and activity. Nice atmosphere. Photos below. I'll go back tomorrow and try to see some actual beasts.

Oak Bluffs Harbor, packed even more than usual.

Looks like someone landed a hand.

Wonderful.

Lot of rods.

Also, as far as I can tell, the Sunday New York Times will feature Martha's Vineyard for its "36 Hours" travel story this week. The article has been online for a couple days -- check it out here. Some bizarre observations ("Martha's Vineyard is like a miniature Ireland" and "The island isn't known for night life," followed by a faulty recommendation for a "cool spot" when there are much better watering holes within a minute's walk), but also some dead-on recommendations like seeing the island from a boat (did it this week) and Back Door Donuts (on my street, a late-night donut cult while they're baked fresh, I indulge frequently). The story also convinced me to get over to West Tisbury some morning to check out the farmer's market. You win, New York Times.

Back from the dead

That's me, hopefully. This week, after a cripplingly short visit to Maine for "The Kings," I've been paralyzed with lack of motivation, lack of a social life in Martha's Vineyard, stress for the future, and a champion's penchant for napping (i.e. totally wasting my time). Some combination of these factors and others have led to a sour grapes between the Vineyard and I, so I'm hashing some of this out to enlighten you who might be wondering where the exciting travelogues and entries of discovery, self- and island-, have been.

I'm going to New York from Wednesday to Friday of next week. The only full day, Thursday, will serve the purpose of an interview at GQ for a full-time, unpaid fall internship. I'll also start scoping out Brooklyn apartments, even the cheapest of which may take a 90% bite of my meager summer savings. So be it -- an internship at a magazine as solid as GQ is an investment I'm prepared to go through hell (financial, personal, sleepwise) for. When you know there's one thing you can do (write) and you have a destination in mind (have since I was at least 15, reading a videogame magazine cover to cover every month on my bed), you don't have much of a choice but to go for it. Plus, being in New York will not be any kind of hell for me -- I've been wanting to try life there since I first visited at the young age of however old, and being with a few timeless friends from Maine will make all the difference after this lonely island summer, no matter how many hours I'm putting in or how few I'm sleeping. I have a dream, to be a self-respecting writer doing what I was born to do, and when I arrive, the view will be sweet.

I'm ready to be done with Martha's Vineyard. Something about living in a hotbed of summery people enjoying their leisure time and drinking on their boats while I scrape together money for rent, food, and Silas Marner-like saving to move to the apocalyptically expensive New York has not boded well with my system. See also: Swindler's Vineyard, the taste of which never faded from my mouth but rather worsened with the more people I met. See also: Not meeting anyone I'll leave this island considering more than an amiable co-worker, a far cry from the lifelong friends I made abroad and even in a short last year at college. A bonus "see also" would be increasing bitterness over not seeing any celebrities while my friends ring them up at general stores, pass them on the streets and wait on them in restaurants. (Steve Carell! Come on!)

On the up side, I'm focusing on what I need to do to knock 'em dead at GQ and working up the motivation to look at other internships and jobs, trying to write a novel (one handwritten legal pad complete, moving on to the next with gusto), finalizing a new piece of short fiction, continuing to write for my internship, the wedding magazine, and the Morning Sentinel. I also vow to make some fun, blog- and photo-worthy excursions like a trip to Aquinnah on a nice day or deep into Chilmark and West Tisbury on my bike. Maybe I'll see Obama, who'll be holing up in a Chilmark farm, according to the Vineyard Gazette. Lucky him -- the more he can enjoy himself and avoid the ruckus in Oak Bluffs, the better.

Last thing: Switched from my UMaine e-mail to zachdionne@gmail.com. I'll still receive your e-mails if you send 'em to my old address. Just filling you in. Thanks for reading.

Unrelated photo to leave you smiling or mildly amused: Cool rabbit who camps outside my bookstore.

Obama definitely visiting

After my harrowing account of island life, our president has decided to come to Martha's Vineyard and see for himself. CNN.com verified it Saturday. Thanks to James for enlightening me that the news is official. An interesting Politico story also reads:

"An article about the Vineyard in New York Magazine reported: 'In the past, Obama has spent time playing golf with Vernon Jordan, swimming off South Beach, playing basketball ... reading and watching the ferries, and taking the girls for ice cream on Circuit Avenue.'"

Ice cream on my street? Alright!

Just because the news is official doesn't mean rumors can't continue a'flyin'. I've heard Obama will be staying with Spike Lee, only a little over a mile from my restaurant, Mediterranean (probably not true), that secret service agents have been in Mediterranean to scout out its safety as a dining location (almost definitely true), and that Michelle Obama and the gals will be here August 15, with the main man showing up two days later. They're supposed to be vacationing here for a couple weeks, and it'll definitely be a media blitz. Can't wait for the circus.

PS - This justifies the Boston Globe column where the author wrote vacation advice to the Obamas.

'The Kings' and I

How this entry relates to a Martha's Vineyard blog:

"Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to."
-John Ed Pearce

Before I go any further with blogging tomfoolery, let this story I wrote for the Morning Sentinel in Waterville, Maine sum up and hopefully pique your interest.

And/or perhaps the trailer?


"The Kings," the independent movie I acted in and lent other various talents to for the entirety of last summer, is premiering this Saturday in Maine as part of the Maine International Film Festival. It's been an exciting run -- the showing was originally slated for a 150-seat theater Railroad Square Cinema, but the demand for tickets bumped it up to the 940-seat Waterville Opera House. I promise I'm in it a lot more than the trailer depicts. Hope to see you at the premiere!

"The Kings"
Saturday, July 18, 9:15 p.m.
Waterville Opera House,
Waterville, Maine
Advance tickets
Facebook event page
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Vineyard theater tales

It's a given that the New York Times gives their fluffy material front and center coverage online late at night. It's usually the type of stuff I'm most interested in reading and writing. I was stunned to see a Vineyard-centric article on there last night though, a piece by Patrick Healy about the Vineyard Playhouse. Check it out here. Pretty neat -- one of the other This Week on MV interns, James, has been helping out with this theater. Wonder if he knows the Times was at his show this weekend.

Best bits pertaining specifically to MV:

“A lot of theaters set up shop in a community but don’t really involve or reflect the community,” [artistic director MJ Bruder Munafo] said. “Integrating the community into the playhouse has been an essential goal of mine.”

“There’s something special when your audience is not an anonymous crowd but instead your dentist, your kid’s soccer coach, the guy who built your house, other artists in the community,” [year-round Vineyard resident Jon Lipsky] said. “People talk about having a wonderful theater community in Boston, but that word is misused. A community is people who are different from one another and who come together, as we have at the playhouse — not a theater clique or a theater gang.”

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This is a double dose of theater writing, but I wrote a feature for the community programs page this week about an improv summer camp on the island. Check it out below. Story will first appear in This Week on Martha's Vineyard on July 16. Thanks to Mary for coming with me on the first day of her visit and spending two hours with these campers.

Summer camp onstage
Non-profit acting collective hosts sixth season of improvisational theater program
By Zach Dionne

A small, pony-tailed girl and a shaggy-haired boy twice her height are equally uninhibited during an improvisational theater game in the center of the Edgartown School’s gym.

“Make it bigger. Take it up a notch,” says Donna Swift, the director of IMP Theater Camp. The tall boy and the small girl are among a dozen others on the makeshift stage that is center court, walking in and out of the limelight in character, saying lines and mimicking each other. Another dozen children sit, watching. The ages range from six to 16.

“Very good job everyone. You just learned how to create characters,” says Swift, a 1990 theater arts graduate of Emerson College. The campers break for a snack.

In its sixth year, IMP Camp is a branch of the adult comedy improv troupe WIMP, a not-for-profit organization on Martha’s Vineyard. The summer program offers three one-week sessions and a pair of two-week sessions through August 21. IMP camp’s mission is to build confidence and theater skills with improv games and focused theater workshops. The philosophy is “no mistakes, only gifts.”

“They can’t mess up,” says staff member Ed Cisek, a 20-year-old Vineyarder studying theater in Chicago. He emphasizes the campers’ ability to take risks with improvisation and the way this lesson extends to taking chances in daily life. “We try to create a no-stress environment and really let them find their creative voice,” he says.

After the mid-morning break, the campers are divided into three age groups: 6 through 8, 9 through 12, and 12 through 16. In the youngest group, a blond girl climbs onto the gym stage and says, “Look, I’m a movie star!” They begin a game called “Interview,” creating characters, taking the spotlight and speaking about themselves. One young boy goes up and boldly creates a history: “My name is Phil, I’m from New Jersey and I work at Stop & Shop.” For these children, there’s a fine line between playing imaginary games at recess and practicing improvisational theater.

Another youngster is unsure who his character should be for this game. “Well then you make it up,” a staff member encourages. “We’re doing improv right now. It’s your own choice – no matter what you do, you’re not wrong.”

Cisek contends what the kids practice at IMP Camp is “not that far from going out in the back yard and playing house.”

“There is no difference except you have to point your toes toward the audience and be loud,” Swift adds.

Cisek says IMP Camp simply puts a little more structure to the fun. “Theater in general is sometimes easier for kids. It makes more sense to them; they don’t have the insecurities that you get in high school and beyond. They really have no problem being silly and committed and loud,” he says.

Cisek loves the progression he sees in campers, whether it’s across the summer or in a single day. Seeing an 8-year-old flawlessly perform a Shakespearian monologue is a favorite memory of Cisek’s.

In one Shakespearian performance at IMP Camp, Othello was 16 years old, his bride, Desdemona, was 6. “I like mixing the ages because they have a lot to offer each other,” Swift says. She treats the campers as actors rather than children, eliminating age as a restriction for talent or casting.

Some actors have attended the camp every summer for six years. This year, the first session has a large amount of new faces. “It’s mostly islanders, but we get a good amount of summer people,” Cisek says.

The program strives for a breadth of choices, offering campers full- and half-day options and themed sessions including Trust, Ensemble, Commitment and Inspiration. Experienced campers can become ‘IMPterns’ – they pay half the tuition and begin teaching and directing, with eventual opportunities to advance to junior and full staff positions.

Each week closes with the campers going to State Beach for the last half of the day and performing for each other. At the end of the two-week sessions, the campers perform a production of their choosing. “For a lot of kids, it’s their first show. They get to pick what they want to do,” Cisek says. Choices in the past have ranged from Shakespeare to camper-spun stories to technical theater. But even with options, Cisek says, “Improv is the through line to our whole philosophy with the shows here.”

Swift had borne witness to more dull and mechanical children’s theater than she cared to remember when she formed IMP Camp. “[Those kids] didn’t know what to bring to a role. Whereas if you say, ‘You’re making up the dialogue, you’re making up the character,’ they commit to it. It’s a lot more lively on stage. They have a lot more fun. It’s a little bit messier but you have to learn how to guide the mess,” Swift says.

In the middle age group on this second day of camp, the budding actors are taking turns reading a script in a neutral tone, then adding a motivation for the second time around. A girl named Penelope reads as if she has to pee while a boy named James reads like he wants to marry Penelope. Their peers crack up.

The oldest age group is playing a game called “Freeze,” where one actor enters the frozen fray and dictates what the scene must immediately morph into. Ironically, these teenagers play a kindergarten class impeccably. In ensuing scenarios, they employ accents, eccentric walks, defined characters and clever, impromptu gags.

Close to noon, all three age groups convene and create short plots together, culminating in performances of rapid-fire scenes integrating actors of all ages.

“Don’t try to be funny,” Swift tells the campers before they begin brainstorming. “Funny will happen. Go for truth. Make it honest. Make it a believable time, place, relationship. That’s your assignment.”

For more information on IMP Camp, visit troubledshores.com/Summer_Camp.html or e-mail info@troubledshores.com.

Jumper and Couldn't Stand the Weather

On the Fourth of July (ancient history, but that's how this blog rolls sometimes), I didn't have to work until 5 p.m. I made sure I took advantage of the day by getting some sun (it had just showed up the day before after a month hiatus) and doing something out of my usual routine.

I jumped off a bridge.

State Beach, a long strip of beach bordering the isolated causeway between Oak Bluffs and Martha's Vineyard, has two bridges -- the first and second bridge. I'm not sure if those should be capitalized, but I'd wager that Vineyarders would say yes. The second bridge is long and sits above an isolated bit of ocean, lined with rocks on both sides. It's not much more than a ten-foot jump, but it's a blast. On any given warm day, the bridge is packed with kids and adults alike tossing themselves into the ocean. And as with any jump-off-able structure, there was a gaggle of small children who initially wanted to jump and found themselves weeping and sobbing to be let down. There was an equally large quotient of parents and friends in the water, beckoning fiercely for these scaredy cats to jump. Click here for a panoramic of the whole scene.




I jumped twice -- my first time swimming after seven weeks on the Vineyard -- and took a handful of photos and videos. Happy to have taken part in what seems to be a Vineyard tradition.



Don't forget to scroll over photos for captions, and check out a video I took of the jumpers below.



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Even ancienter (ancienter? ancienter.) history is a video I took of the absurd weather on July 2. Check it out. Below the video is a set of before and after photos proving the old maxim, "If you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes." I don't know where that saying originated -- New England, some think -- but it absolutely holds for this island.

Returning soon

Got a few good entries in store for you soon. I've had company this week, a rarity I like to savor with as little work as possible. Be back around Friday!

Hi from Mary and I at night two of fine dining.

Tourism strikes

With incredibly temperamental weather (and maybe a bad economy to blame?), tourism has been pretty dead on the Vineyard so far. As of July 3, that became a hazy memory. The weather was sunny, hot and beachy. People were unloading from boats and buses like locusts into the streets, Mediterranean was three times as packed as it's ever been, and my street promptly metamorphosed from Circuit to Circus Avenue.

Best moments of the touristy day:

Man getting off the boat stops me: "Do you know where John Belushi's grave is?" No, sir, I don't. Enjoy your day.

Man on the bus to tourists on the bus: "We had shaahks here, but we ain't evah had no Great White shahhks." ("Jaws" was filmed here.)

Hostess at Mediterranean: "Is that Meg Ryan in the Moroccan Room?" No, it's not. At all.

After asking the guy taking the cover charge for the New York City DJ at Mediterranean if we'd gotten any famous people yet: "Not yet man. I heard there's some big ones on the island though." Like who? "Like Oprah." Oh. Hopefully they come out tonight, since I'm closing the outside bar as a bar-back. Must...celebrate...Fourth of July...before work at 5 p.m.!

Circus Avenue at 1 a.m.

Have a fun Fourth of July, everyone. I hope the weather is nice for you and the fireworks are big and purty and you're with family and friends and a grill.

Flowery feature

Just finished my story on "The Kings" -- the Morning Sentinel was nice enough to let me do a first-person account of the filming. They're always great to work with. Also finished a cover letter to GQ in hopes of a possible internship in New York in the fall (also waiting to hear back from Entertainment Weekly). After this post I'll be working on some fiction and going to review a restaurant at 5. Pretty writerly day, eh?

Below is one of three articles I wrote for Martha's Vineyard Wedding magazine. It's the one I'm proudest of, the most readable and interesting, a feature on a Vineyard florist. This one goes out to Claire, the floweriest, plantiest person I know.

Flower girl on the Vineyard

By Zach Dionne

For Martha’s Vineyard Wedding magazine, July 2009

As a young girl, Louise Sweet didn’t like florists. At all.

“I never thought of becoming one. In those days, everything was very stiff and manufactured looking – nothing I would ever do with a flower,” says the woman behind Flowers on the Vineyard. It would end up being her own passion for flora, rather than the dull scenes in flower shop windows, from which her signature style and successful business would blossom in the years to come. “Growing up in Pennsylvania, I loved nature and flowers. I used to pick flowers and make things all the time.”

Then Louise Sweet came to Martha’s Vineyard for a summer in the early 1970s and ended up marooning herself on the island, learning to call it home.

“I started selling flowers out of buckets. We wouldn’t arrange them, we would just put flowers out for sale,” Ms. Sweet says. “It became my life. I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Her business began on Beach Road in Vineyard Haven, dubbed Tellurian, Greek for “of, pertaining to, or inhabiting the earth.” The establishment evolved from a general flower store, selling by the stem, to its current multifaceted presence as Flowers on the Vineyard.

The drive to Ms. Sweet’s business and home winds down bumpy dirt roads, scenic rock walls and serene, bucolic estates. She speaks fondly of her formative days as a Vineyard flower seller, when large shipments would come on the ferry and boatloads – literally – of flowers would be unloaded on the dock.

Ms. Sweet’s home and headquarters for Flowers on the Vineyard is situated cozily atop a hill in West Tisbury, surrounded by gardens, a chunk of the house hidden in greenery and flowers. No vista around the property is without eye-catching landscaping – even the noisy, metal compressor box to her flower cooler’s compressor is adorned with attractive vegetation.

“This is my workshop, my studio,” Ms. Sweet says of a formerly unfinished basement, the third space she has designed and developed for her work. It’s also her favorite.

Inside, a wall of timeless-looking stoneware vases makes a right angle to shelves of distressed silver vessels. A chalkboard is littered with marker-written reminders, a sunflower postcard and magnetic letters, one batch spelling “crazy.” A weather-worn wooden flower cart Ms. Sweet has toted around the island through the years sits just outside the door. But no aspect is more noticeable than the immediately striking, fresh, well … flowery, fragrance.

“We have our own aromatherapy here,” Ms. Sweet says, laughing and dealing casually with a bride for the upcoming weekend. They interact like old friends. “I’m glad I found you,” the bride says, here to pick up her flowers – dazzling Massachusetts-grown peonies Ms. Sweet fawns over amorously.

“It’s not just about the flowers, it’s what you present them in and what that feeling evokes. There are subtle nuances,” Ms. Sweet says. She utilizes her time-amassed collection of vases, free of charge to clients, to “complete and put the little twist on the overall look.”

Different sections of Martha’s Vineyard call for diverse decorative approaches; silver or glass containers suit Edgartown, up-island “just begs” for stoneware and vintage pieces, Ms. Sweet says.

“It is truly a unique and beautiful place to be,” she says of the Vineyard, unsurprised at its destination wedding status. She calls weddings a central part of her business. “I love to work with each bride. Each job is a custom piece. I’ve never done the same wedding twice. I just sit down with them and get a really good sense of what it is they are trying to convey.”

From each meeting, a detailed proposal arises, full of options, suggestions and price ranges. “We fine-tune it until we get the budget the client is comfortable with. I’ve never done any proposal only once; they evolve and grow with time. It’s a collaboration,” she says.

Ms. Sweet assures that Flowers on the Vineyard doesn’t necessarily mean an armada of floral elegance. “I’m also happy to do just the bride and groom standing on the beach with one boutonniere and one bouquet,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be a huge production.”

Speculating that she may have passed the 1,000 mark without knowing it, Ms. Sweet has worked with hundreds of events and weddings in her career – including her own. After a divorce and her two sons moving to college, Ms. Sweet married her high school sweetheart, James. She orchestrated the flowers for her remarriage – white tulips for a winter wedding in her hometown, near Philadelphia.

Flowers on the Vineyard goes beyond flora to offer staging and styling services for homes and events. Ms. Sweet’s repertoire includes various décor for weddings; she can supply antiques, pillows, tabletop items, any type of bric-a-brac to tie together an event, to paint the blank canvas of a wedding. “You create this entire physical space from nothing. We have a million ideas and we love to share them,” Ms. Sweet says. But flowers are the mainstay. “Everything started with the flowers. All the other pieces followed.”

In a long chat about Ms. Sweet’s business and her history, the conversation continually returns to flowers. She is irrefutably in love with her work.

“Our style is very unique. It’s not something you’re going to see in corporate U.S.A. at all. It’s a look I’ve developed over the years and really strived for. It’s seasonal, indigenous, and within that there’s so much flexibility for people’s individual tastes,” she says.

Ms. Sweet meets with clients and works on proposals year-round, occasionally working on winter weddings. She spends part of the colder months in California. She loves traveling, but flowers remain in the back of her mind no matter where she roams. “I love to get new ideas. I always bring them back here with what works here.”

She rattles off her favorite flowers instinctively: tulips, peonies, hydrangeas – “They drive me wild. I have to have them.” She quickly revises her favorites to include lilacs, and there’s a sense she could continue adding until the entire phylum of flowers comprised the list. Her favorite weddings aren’t as easy to cite. “I give each wedding, really, my full attention. So a favorite is really hard to say.”

Ms. Sweet is happy to report “almost nil” negative feedback; she cherishes baskets of handwritten thank-you notes. She’s worked with clients from all over the world – Italy, New Zealand, China, Switzerland, London come to mind.

“I’ve gotten to work with incredible people on the island – if you heard about a dignitary visiting here, I got to meet them and I got to do flowers for them. It’s another bonus to the business,” Ms. Sweet says. She prefers to go on the strength of her work and reputation than to namedrop celebrity clientele. A breeze through her shop, however, reveals two framed letters of appreciation from Bill Clinton and Martha Stewart nestled in bunches of flowers on a preparation table.

Working with weddings, it becomes easy to get jaded to the importance of the day – but it’s also easy to step back and remember how momentous the journey is for each couple. “You really come into their lives a little bit,” Ms. Sweet says.