After graduating from Whittier College in the 1960s, Guy Webster decided to join the army reserves for a six-month stint rather than go to Viet Nam. For the first three months he purchased, shipped and decorated Christmas trees. For the second half he taught photography, even though he had never even held a camera before that moment.

“I had never taken a photograph in my life,” remembered Mr. Webster. It wasn’t until his last month in the reserves that he shot his first roll of film. That was all it took to get him hooked.

The Hebrew Center in Vineyard Haven is about to rock. True, the center has been rocking intellectually, spiritually and culturally all summer long with their varied programming, but next weekend they will literally rock. The lineup includes Joshua Nelson and his Kosher Gospel Singers with special guest, Lisa Gutkin.

The Vineyard is set to get a new radio station and the town of Tisbury to get an integrated information system following a couple of last-minute approvals this week.

On Tuesday, selectmen Tristan Israel and Denys Wortman (Thomas Pachico was absent) approved an easement at the department of public works site for a 70-foot pole which will be used by the station for its broadcasts and by public works to communicate with other town departments and the Tisbury school.

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Perched in the second row of a community hall at five o’clock in the afternoon, a plate of reconstituted Thanksgiving food balanced in one hand, and a decent glass of red in the other — it was an unusual way to take in a festival of modern music. No poorly maintained toilet facilities, no vomit, no overweight rave casualties passed out at your feet. Nevertheless, it was how Martha’s Vineyard’s musical elite saw fit to present themselves on Sunday.

Caroling is all about alcohol, traditionally. “This time of year is about being with friends singing carols, and being in a pub drinking good beer,” Peter R. Boak, director of the Island Community Chorus, told his audience at a performance in the Edgartown Old Whaling Church this Sunday, making a misleading distinction.

The Island Community Chorus will open the holiday season with a festive concert program, presented twice this weekend at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown.

At 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, and again at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 2, the chorus will sing under the baton of its artistic director Peter Boak, with accompanist Garrett Brown at the piano.

For this holiday concert, the chorus is bringing back a popular favorite it hasn’t performed for several years, singing selections from G.F. Handel’s Messiah.

It’s Girls Night Out at Outerland next Thursday night, Nov. 29, when the New England male revue show Men in Motion comes to Martha’s Vineyard. In a bid to warm up the approaching winter, Outerland is importing professional male dancers for a fun evening that begins with dinner and drinks at the club’s bistro from 5 to 9 p.m. Show time is 8 p.m. and tickets are $12 at the door for ages 18 and over.

Free concerts are scheduled for Nov. 27 and 29 at the Performing Arts Center at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.

A regional high school instrumental concert featuring the concert band and the string orchestra is set for the center at 7 p.m. Nov. 27. Selections will include Greek Folk Song Suite, a contemporary selection by Cesarini, Chant and Jubilo, a dramatic piece for symphonic band, and Corelli’s Concerto Grosso, a classic example of Baroque orchestra repertoire.

Miracles at Christmas returns this year with traditional carols and drama to add warmth to the Christmas season — but with a change of location to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Edgartown. This Island Theatre Workshop production takes you back to a traditional Christmas, combining medieval carols and St. Nicholas plays.