for the ARTS record
Get your kids' funny bone in shape Children with a well-used and savvy sense of humor are joys forever, aren't they? Mark Carapezza's improv and commercials classes for young Nantucketers can help your little comics exercise their funny bones and get so accustomed to performing that every flat, low surface will be a stage.

Frequent Nantucket Theatre Workshop performer who played the lead in the TWN's highest grossing show of all time, Carapezza runs the hour-long classes at the Boys & Girls Club, the Nantucket Lighthouse School (where he worked as an arts instructor) and the Community Network for Children. The improv classes focus on - you guessed it - improvisational comedy games, while the commercials classes teach kids to look at commercial marketing with a critical eye and then make their own ads.

The most dedicated students from these classes will assist Carapezza in a future show for the Theatre Workshop. "The classes have been great so far," Carapezza said. "Sometimes parents show up at the end of the improv classes, and the kids who want to get up onstage have been performing for them." The Boys & Girls Club classes are currently full and wait-listed, but there are openings for the Lighthouse School classes and the Community School classes.

For more information, please call Mark Carapezza at (508) 596-4443. Poke around John Adams' books There is something very sweet about Nantucketers venturing off island together in the winter just to explore and have little adventures - and Nina Hellman has been hosting opportunities for islanders to do just that with her Explorations series for the Nantucket Historical Association. Her trips have included boat charters, museum walks and historic site visits. For her upcoming trip to Boston, she will bring approximately 20 people to the Boston Public Library and JFK Library and Museum on Feb. 13.

At the Boston Public Library, Nantucketers will have a private tour of the "John Adams Unbound" special collection. This collection is comprised of more than 3,800 books from Adams' personal library. The Boston Public library has had the books in its possession since 1894, and this marks their first public exhibition. Part-time island resident and art historian Susan O'Brien will also discuss (from an intimate first-hand perspective) the library's restoration of the John Singer Sargent murals.

After a lunch at the library's restaurant, Novel, a chartered bus will take the group to the Kennedy Library and Museum to view "Handmade and Heartfelt: A special exhibit of handmade gifts presented to President and Mrs. Kennedy from Americans and citizens around the world during his presidency." The gifts include a peach pit carved with the president's likeness and a sequin and postage stamp portrait of JFK.

When: Tuesday, Feb. 13; Pickup in Hyannis,

9 a.m.; Return to Hyannis, 6:30 p.m.

Where: Participants must make own reservations

to and from either the Hyannis airport or the

boat terminals. Cost: $125 (NHA nonmembers); $90 (members) For more information or to register,

call 228-1894, ext. 0.

Cisco + Whiskey = a Ciskey called "Notch" Nantucket Spirits got big cheers two weeks ago when the Wall Street Journal (Jan. 13) included them in a story on American brewers who are manning up to brew single-malt whiskey. Nantucket Spirits' label is called "Notch" for "Not Scotch," and it is currently in dunnage. (Scotch is whiskey made in Scotland and of national standard. All other kinds of whiskey are just whiskey, the same way Champagne is only made in Champagne and everything else is technically sparkling wine.) After financing their single malt with wine futures and distilling it in 2000, Nantucket Spirits may make Notch available to the public sometime this year. Cheers, Nantucket Spirits! We'd clink your glass, but ours seems to be a little bit

empty . . . . I