“It’s not enough to be a songbird, this world will work you to the bone,” sings musician Dan Waters on Sergeant Sparrow magazine’s new compilation CD. The latest edition of the magazine, just out with the disc included, has taken up the plight of artists working in today’s business-minded creative milieu.

Sergeant Sparrow magazine and its eponymous record label were designed to create space for artists, musicians and writers to show their work regardless whether they have been shown, signed or published professionally.

Swimming to Martha’s Vineyard

Spalding Gray was a brilliant monologist. He walked onstage, sat down at an empty desk, except for a glass of water, and proceeded to mesmerize the audience. He did not need props, a backdrop, nor bells and whistles of any kind. His subject was his own life, weaving autobiography with an emotional terrain of depth and complexity.

This week the play 5 Mojo Secrets began its run at the Vineyard Playhouse. The play tells the story of a successful African American couple as they try to sort out what happened to their once happy marriage. It is a subject every married couple, even the happiest, can relate to. After all, how do two separate individuals retain their own identity and aspirations while also becoming that one unit known as husband and wife? It is a challenge that many decide is just too great.

The featured artist this week, August 25 through 31, at Dragonfly Gallery in Oak Bluffs is Karen Tusinski.

Ms. Tusinski’s work focuses on the many ways one can look at a single item. For example, the depiction of an ordinary table or flower arrangement, examined from several angles, then comes together as a single image while still retaining the multiple perspectives. She does this does this by illuminating the shapes and colors that represent each of these angles.