87 days a week

BY MIKE MILIARD

June 7-August 31

Kick your summah off with some cultcha. The DeCordova Annual Exhibition, featuring the works of 11 artists from four New England states, starts today and runs all summer long. A gamut of modern works -- in painting, sculpture, photography, installation art, painted digital montage, and more -- will be on view, the brainchildren of fledgling and established artists like John Bisbee, Hannah Barrett, Lars-Erik Fisk, Steve Hollinger, and Laura McPhee. There will be an opening reception on June 13 from 6 to 9 p.m., and throughout the summer, on Saturdays at 3 p.m., the DeCordova will offer informal gallery presentations, a chance to meet the artists and discuss their chefs d'oeuvre with them in person.

DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, (781) 259-8355; www.decordova.org.

June 7

Sort of a wee baby brother to the New Hampshire Highland Games, which herald the beginning of autumn, the Southern New Hampshire Scottish Games & Celtic Music Festival in Greenfield offers an early-summer chance to try on one's kilt over the winter bulge, and to strut one's stuff while watching (or competing in) piping and drumming, Highland dance, and athletics presentations. (Start the weight training now.) The Celtic-music festival, featuring performers like the Glengarry Bhoys and Kip Ferguson, is central to the fun, and culminates in a ceilidh under the stars once night falls. Whether you're a Campbell or a Galbreath, a Farquharson or a MacKenzie (or a Finkelstein or a Ciccone), a bonnie sunny day of jigs and reels, sheepdogs and Highland cows (and especially Nutfield Ale) will be had by all.

Oak Park, Greenfield, New Hampshire, (603) 924-6050; www.snhscotcelt.org.

June 13-15

Not to be outdone by its Celtic compeers, Boston's Irish Cultural Center has put together a festival of its own, which happens to be the largest of its kind in the East. The 13th annual Irish Festival at Stonehill will be a rowdy donnybrook of 30,000 spectators and nigh on 500 performers. A few: Cork-expats-cum-Davis-Square-denizens Rubyhorse, Pogues-loving pogo-ing pop-punkers the Prodigals, Derek Warfield from legendary trad group the Wolfe Tones, and Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. Other attractions include Irish step dancing (of course), Irish cuisine (not as bad as you've heard), and all other manner of Irish stuff.

Stonehill College, Routes 128 and 138, North Easton, (781) 821-8291; www.irishculture.org/festival.

June 14 and 15

Belfast's barrel-chested bard Van Morrison is not performing at the Irish Festival, but he will be in town, at the FleetBoston Pavilion, for two nights during the festivities. Who knows? Maybe he'll swing down to Easton for some colcannon. He's also brought his pal, the equally rotund Solomon Burke (a/k/a the King of Rock and Soul) to help him out. Burke recently belted out Van the Man's "Only a Dream" on his album Don't Give Up on Me (Fat Possum), and Van's a fan from way back, so don't be surprised to see these two sonorous soul legends share a stage for a song or two.

FleetBoston Pavilion, 290 Northern Avenue, Boston, (617) 931-2000.

June 18-22

Modern ballet maven Twyla Tharp brings her inimitable artistry to Jacob's Pillow for a five-day residency in the majestic Berkshires. The riveting power of her choreography, flitting freely among avant-garde, classical, and popular idioms, is matched only by the insuperable precision, flexibility, strength, and stamina of the dancers in her company.

Jacob's Pillow, 358 George Carter Road, Becket, (413) 243-0745; www.jacobspillow.org.

June 19-22

Now in its eighth year, the Nantucket Film Festival still makes good on its promise to highlight the work of the screenwriter. The festival's schedule had yet to be finalized at press time, but past entries like Next Stop Wonderland, Girlfight, and 24 Hour Party People suggest it'll be robust as always. And a coterie of complementary panel discussions, staged script readings, and a screenplay competition will further flesh out the organizers' commitment to celebrating screenwriting in local, national, and international film. Plus -- need we mention? -- it's on Nantucket.

Nantucket Film Festival, (508) 325-6274; www.nantucketfilmfestival.org.

June 26-July 6

As if you needed another reason to head north of the border during the few months when it's actually warm enough to enjoy Montreal's myriad attractions, the Montreal International Jazz Festival serves up yet another enticement. As it celebrates its 24th year, the fest offers a full slate of nearly 2000 musicians; not just jazzbos, but soul crooners, blues wailers, techno tinkerers, and pop people. Chief among them this year: Herbie Hancock, Bobby McFerrin, Wayne Shorter, Don Byron, Elvis Costello, Wilco, and Medeski Martin and Wood.

Montreal International Jazz Festival, (888) 515-0515, or (800) 361-4595 for tickets; www.montrealjazzfest.com.

July 1

"It's better to burn out than it is to rust," Neil Young sang in 1979. Nearly a quarter-century on, at 57 years of age, he's thankfully done neither. See for yourself when he takes the stage at the Tweeter Center. Young just finished a string of solo-acoustic European dates, but here he'll be flanked by his long-time band of grizzled road warriors, Crazy Horse, so expect the volume of those outsize amps shredded into ragged glory to be cranked up to 11. Lucinda Williams, perhaps the ballsiest babe in all of rock and roll, opens.

Tweeter Center, junction of Routes 140 and 495 South, Mansfield, (617) 931-2000.

July 4

Everyone does the Esplanade. The Boston Pops and fireworks over the Charles are all well and good, but how's about something new this year? Head away from the crowds and into the wilds of New England to see how other citizens of this great land of ours show their true red, white, and blue. In Portland, Maine, it's sky-high whiz-bang by the sea, as multitudes congregate on the city's Eastern Promenade to gaze at the painted sky. In Middlebury, Connecticut, the fireworks are in 3- D! All you need are the viewing glasses to make it seem like the flaming tendrils are falling not into Lake Quassapaug but right ... on ... you. Down by Mystic Seaport, relive the Centennial, with a daylong 1870s Fourth of July, boasting a kids' parade featuring lanky Uncle Sam, characters decked out in their vintage best, and the tradition of "antiques and horribles."

Portland, Maine, (207) 874-8793; Middlebury, Connecticut, (203) 758-2913; Mystic Seaport, (860) 572-5315.

July 11-13

What is Moxie? Like the man said, if you have to ask, you'll never know. But we'll tell you anyway. Moxie's a dark and pungent beverage, concocted from the gentian root, that some have called the Guinness of soft drinks. It's an apt comparison, since the pitch-dark stuff is indeed an acquired taste. Many can't stand its medicinal tang, but just as many can't get enough of the stuff. You'll find them, united under the banner of the New England Moxie Congress (we kid you not), at the annual Moxie Festival in Lisbon Falls, Maine. Music, parades, antique paraphernalia (invented in 1876, the "nerve tonic" outsold Coca-Cola until the 1920s), and, of course, effervescent floods of the drink itself. It's all a celebration not just of the liquid, but of the personality traits -- pluck, spirit, vigor -- to which this soda pop lent its name.

Moxie Festival headquarters, 16-A Main Street, Lisbon Falls, Maine, (207) 783-2249; www.moxiefestival.com.

July 11-14

Few theaters allow outside beverages these days, but you might want to sneak some Moxie into the cool dark of the stately Waterville Opera House for this year's installment of the Maine International Film Festival. The program has yet to be squared away, but the previous five festivals (usually showing more than 80 movies over 10 days) have screened everything from 1915's Der Golem and Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) to a sneak preview of In the Bedroom before its wide release in 2001. And with an advisory panel composed of masterful directors like Jonathan Demme, Terence Mallick, and David Gordon Green, it's really a can't-miss proposition.

Waterville Opera House, 93 Main Street, Waterville, Maine, (207) 861-8138; www.miff.org.

July 18-20

Do you like clams? Lots of 'em? Do you like eating mountains of mollusks -- and fried dough and pizza and cotton candy and heavily salted French fries -- and then almost losing yer lunch on the tilt-a-whirl? The Yarmouth Clam Festival, now in its 38th year, is the golden opportunity for just that sort of summer fun. But this writer, love the YCF though he may, will always associate it with a missed opportunity -- specifically the time when, as a puny nine-year-old, he ran almost a mile alongside a briskly moving parade float trying to get the autograph of one Mr. Ted Williams, but was edged out by gaggles of bigger kids the whole way. But this writer is over that by now.

Yarmouth Clam Festival, town center, Yarmouth, Maine, (207) 846-3984; www.clamfestival.com.

July 25

It's baaaaack. After a half-decade hiatus, Perry Farrell's alterna-nation extravaganza Lollapalooza returns tanned, rested, tattooed, pierced, and ready to rock the Tweeter Center in Mansfield. Farrell's on-again, off-again band, Jane's Addiction, which played the first installment way back in 1991, will headline, helped out by Audioslave, Incubus, Queens of the Stone Age, Jurassic 5, the Donnas, Cold, the Distillers, and more.

Tweeter Center, junction of Routes 140 and 495 South, Mansfield, (617) 931-2000; www.lollapalooza.com.

July 26-August 3

If the Nantucket Film Festival didn't whet your appetite for cinema-by-the-sea, check out the Woods Hole Film Festival in Falmouth, a yearly celebration of the best of local film. One of its real values is its daily workshops. Where else can aspiring auteurs learn the finer points of animation from Bill Plympton (Plymptoons) and get tips on documentary filmmaking from Southern Comfort director Kate Davis? The slated films are no slouches either. They include Newton native Fran Solomita's When Stand Up Stood Out, a documentary look at the days when Boston was a bastion of stand-up comedy, and The Blues, a concatenation of the seven-part miniseries, helmed by Martin Scorsese, that will air on PBS this fall. Speaking of the blues, later this summer be sure to check out the Reel Blues Festival held August 31 at the Cape Cod Melody Tent. Co-sponsored by WHFF and the New England Blues Society, it features Dr. John, Delbert McClinton, and, of course, more movies.

Woods Hole Film Festival and Reel Blues Festival, (508) 495-FILM; www.woodsholefilmfestival.com.

July 30-August 3

If you're gonna fill your gob with lobster, you might as well do it in Maine. And what better place and time than the Maine Lobster Festival in Rockland? Now in it's 56th summer, the fest hopes to best the nearly 12 tons of crawling crustaceans served up to 100,000 ravenous bib-wearers last season. With breathtaking views of island-dotted Penobscot Bay, live music from a 10K race to stoke your appetite, and, of course, the arrival of King Neptune and the coronation of the Sea Goddess, this year's Lobster Festival promises to be one of the summer's Maine events.

Harbor Park, Rockland, Maine, (800) LOB-CLAW; www.mainelobsterfestival.com.

July 31 and August 1

A beach book, this ain't. But at the Melville Marathon in Mystic, Connecticut, enthusiasts from the world over will gather for 24 straight hours (noon to noon) to celebrate Herman Melville's 184th birthday by orating the entirety of Moby-Dick, his mammoth account of the original obsessive-compulsive's hubristic pursuit. They'll do it, naturally, on the Charles W. Morgan, the last surviving wooden whaling vessel.

75 Greenmanville Avenue, Mystic, Connecticut, (860) 572-5315.

August 1-17

Tucked into the verdant fold of the Green Mountains, the Vermont Festival of the Arts is an enormous omnibus celebration of the arts communities of the Mad River Valley, whose breathtaking locale is almost as big a selling point as its myriad attractions. Just a taste of what to expect at the two-week-plus extravaganza: the Summerstage music festival at Sugarbush, the Mad River Film Festival, the New England Shakespeare Festival, all manner of visual arts (both to see and to do), a focus on culinary arts (cheese-making workshops, "The Art of the Barbeque"), theater (amateur and professional), and music (classical, jazz, and pop, from local and national performers).

Mad River Valley, Vermont, (800) 517-4247; www.vermontartfest.com.

August 1 and 2

On the banks of sparkling Lake Winnipesaukee, this year's second annual Great Waters Folk Festival offers top-tier talent like Arlo Guthrie, Natalie MacMaster, John Gorka, Bill Morrissey, Richard Shindell, Lucy Kaplansky, and David Francey in an airy outdoor setting. The evening performances are the main draw, of course, but folks love the afternoon concerts and workshops with the artists, too.

Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, (603) 569-7710; www.greatwaters.org.

August 2 and 3

It's a rare band indeed that can compel hordes of fans from all 50 states to make the long, long trek to an abandoned Air Force base in Maine's furthest northeast reaches. That's a seven-hour drive from Boston alone; imagine coming from California! But Vermont's phinest phun purveyors, Phish, did just that in 1997 and 1998. Both events came off, ahem, swimmingly. Now, after the band's yearlong hiatus, they're back together and ready to do it again. The Phish "It" Festival promises two days of noodle dancing, grilled-cheese eating, knitting, and maybe even some pot smoking (but you didn't hear that from us).

Loring Commerce Center, Limestone, Maine, (617) 931-2000; www.phish.com.

August 8-10

Jazz old and jazz new co-exist happily at the 49th installation of George Wein's (by now middle-aged) baby, the JVC Jazz Festival in Newport. Dave Brubeck, who's been tickling the ivories since 1949, will be there; so will the Bad Plus, the new NYC piano/bass/drums trio who've got all sorts of tongues wagging at the moment with their pop-inflected jazz swing (including covers of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Blondie's "Heart of Glass"). Other bankable names on tap this year: George Benson, k.d. lang, Cassandra Wilson, India.Arie, Eddie Palmieri, and the Terrence Blanchard Sextet.

Fort Adams State Park, Newport, Rhode Island, (866) 468-7619; www.festivalproductions.net/press/jvc-newportlineup.htm.

August 8-10

But saxophones aren't everyone's bag. Some people follow a different muse. A small one, from Hawaii. So on the very same weekend as the Newport Jazz Fest, hundreds will descend on another part of Lil' Rhody for the Ukulele Expo 2003. Put on by the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum, the event boasts workshops galore, open-mike performances, and strumming from the best of the best: the Mai Tai Serenaders, the Rumble Pups, the Bag End Boys, and the Ukes of Hazard. And let's not forget the unveiling of the largest playable uke in history -- 20 feet tall!

UHOFM, 15 Concord Avenue, Cranston, Rhode Island, (401) 461-1668; ukulele.org.

August 14 and 15

Sometimes it's easy to forget he sings, too. Yes, Ozzy Osbourne, our favorite doddering TV-dad-named-Ozzy since, well, Ozzie Nelson, is leaving his opulent manse for a summer on the road with his Ozzfest extravaganza. He says every year it'll be his last one, but every year there it is again. The rumbling freak show rolls into the Tweeter Center in Mansfield for two nights of metallic mayhem from Korn, Marilyn Manson, Disturbed, Chevelle, and of course, the Prince of Fucking Darkness himself. Sharooooon!

Tweeter Center, junction of Routes 140 and 495 South, Mansfield, (617) 931-2000; www.ozzfest.com.

August 15-17

Besides the usual panoply of top-tier artists -- including, but by no means limited to, Ani DiFranco, Joan Armatrading, Aimee Mann, John Prine, Angélique Kidjo, Nickel Creek, Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, Guy Clark, and Joe Ely -- at this year's Apple and Eve Newport Folk Festival at Fort Adams State Park, organizers are also offering a Folk Music Talent Search that'll allow amateur singer-songwriters the chance to get noticed. Still another draw is the opening-night performance of "Ribbon of Highway, Endless Skyway," in which Ellis Paul, Slaid Cleaves, and others pay tribute to Woody Guthrie, without whom folk music as we know it would hardly exist.

Fort Adams State Park, Newport, Rhode Island, (866) 468-7619; www.newportfolk.com.

August 21

His appearance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival was one of the seminal moments of rock and roll, and last year he returned to the fest for the first time since that electrical shocker. Bob Dylan won't be at Newport this year, but he is playing tonight at Meadowbrook Farm in New Hampshire's White Mountains. Everything that can be said about the guy has already been said, so we'll just say, "Go see him."

Meadowbrook Musical Arts Center, 72 Meadowbrook Lane, Gilford, New Hampshire, (603) 293-4700; www.meadowbrookfarm.net/concerts.

August 24

Celebrating the 65th anniversary of Tanglewood's Koussevitzky Music Shed, today the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Conlon, brings it back to basics with an idyllic afternoon of Bach and Beethoven. The BSO, in tandem with soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, tenor Vinson Cole, bass James Morris, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, perform Bach's Ein 'feste Burg ist unser Gott from his Cantata No. 80, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 -- which, of course, could fairly be called the most influential piece of classical music ever written. Maybe that's why National Public Radio will be broadcasting the concert nationwide.

Tanglewood, 297 West Street, Lenox, (888) 266-1200; www.bso.org.

August 30

It's doo-wop down by the seaside tonight as the South Shore Music Circus hosts a triple bill of the Platters, the Drifters, and the Coasters. Sure, several different (sometimes competing) versions of the Coasters have toured the oldies circuit. And, yes, it took a court ruling in the '90s to settle fractious battles between countless Drifters line-ups (at one point, different claimants were given rights to the name in different parts of the country). And it's true there are an estimated 125 (!) versions of the "Original Platters" on tour today. But the songs -- from "Yakety Yak" and "Poison Ivy" (the Coasters) to "This Magic Moment" and "Under the Boardwalk" (the Drifters) to "Only You" and "The Great Pretender" (the Platters) -- remain the same. Just close your eyes and listen.

South Shore Music Circus, Sohier Street, Cohasset, (617) 931-2787; www.musiccircus.com.

August 29-31

Why not get away from the crowded beaches and spend Labor Day weekend way out West? At the Tanglewood Jazz Festival in Lenox, there'll be seven different performances over three days, day and night, outside and in. Among them: Gato Barbieri, the Michel Camilo Trio, and Jonathan Pascual on Friday; Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz (special guest, Norah Jones) and Shirley Horn with Kenny Barron & Canta Brasil on Saturday; and two tributes to the Modern Jazz Quintet on Saturday. And what would a jazz festival be without Wynton Marsalis? He closes out the fest -- and, sniff, the summer -- with his Septet (vocals courtesy of Natalie Cole) on Sunday evening.

Tanglewood, 297 West Street, Lenox, (888) 266-1200; www.bso.org.

Mike Miliard can be reached at mmiliard@phx.com.