The White House, the American Civil Liberties Union, that "idiot" the British Prime Minister, the United Nations, the FBI, CIA, State Department, New York Times, Washington Post, National Public Radio, CNN, and the Internal Revenue Service.

It's not often you hear them - and a lot of other governments and organizations as well - lumped together as part of the same problem.

When Island blues guitarist and singer Maynard Silva, 56, developed cancer two years ago, his son Milo, 20, returned from college to care for him, and then, as he recovered, to sing with him when Maynard couldn't.

Interviews by Mike Seccombe

Maynard: "He had to take care of me while I was sick. And it was a tough thing for an 18 year-old kid to be dealing with a guy who was in the kind of shape I was at the time.

The Navigator restaurant in Edgartown will not open for business this summer due to unforeseen complications in transforming the building into an exclusive private club.

The signs of impending summer are all around. Azaleas are out, the oaks are coming into leaf and Tom Major is readying himself for Entrain's Memorial Weekend gig.

It's been 14 summers now since Mr. Major decided to put together a band based on the simple idea of "tons of drums," and to put his New York-based career as a freelance musician on hold for one summer while he tried it out.

About a week ago, Trudy Russell was sitting at her Olivetti Lettera 25 typewriter with her morning cup of coffee when the phone rang. The woman on the other line introduced herself as M.J. Munafo and told Mrs. Russell that her play, Closure, had been selected for the Vineyard Playhouse spring festival, Island Interludes.

Mrs. Russell had no idea what she was talking about.

Earlier this year, singer and songwriter Taylor Brown returned to his childhood home in Pennsylvania. Since graduating from Vassar College last spring, Mr. Brown has, for the most part, been living out of a suitcase. He has spent time on the Vineyard, a place he describes as his rock, performing with Maynard Silva and at Offshore Ale. He has tried out Providence, taking the stage at open mike nights throughout the city.