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The talented and prolific Taylor family, including James and Livingston, has roots in Massachusetts, but the singing siblings spent their formative years in North Carolina. In his mind, James may be going to Carolina, but he and the rest of his family returned to our fair state. Many of them have homes on Martha's Vineyard. While she may not be as popular as her famous brothers, Kate Taylor brings the same kind of folk and easygoing rock style to her music as well as a dash of soul and gospel. She will be performing this Friday, August 3, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. for a free outdoor concert at Devereux Beach in Marblehead. (Donations to support the Devereux Beach Fund will be gladly accepted.) If you can't make the North Shore show, Kate Taylor will be performing on Wednesday, August 15 at The Old Whaling Church in Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard.

Photo: katetaylor.com

Sure, I'm the Massachusetts Blogger for boston.com's Explore New England, but I lead something of a double life. When I'm not traveling up and down the state looking for the best places to go and things to do, I'm an intrepid daredevil riding up and down roller coasters seeking the best thrills. Among my earliest memories, I remember sitting for hours on the sand at Revere Beach watching the rickety Cyclone roller coaster (sadly gone, along with the rest of Revere's seaside amusements) go through its paces--and I've been mesmerized by the thrill machines ever since. Today, I get to ride and write about coasters, as well as theme parks, water parks, and other amusement industry fun as the Theme Parks Guide at About.com. My two lives intersected when the boston.com folks asked me to put together a feature naming my top 10 picks for the best roller coasters. My number-one choice may surprise you; the best coaster on the planet (Earth and Krypton) is right here in Massachusetts.

Superman: Ride of Steel, a 221-foot, 77-mph, "hypercoaster" at Six Flags New England in Agawam takes my top spot. And the best wood coaster, IMHO, is in Connecticut. You can see my top-10 coaster picks (including an honorable mention for a Massachusetts coaster that many folks probably thought was long gone) plus take virtual rides on a couple of great point-of-view coaster videos at boston.com's Best Roller Coasters feature. I'll be on New England Cable News tomorrow (Wednesday, July 25) at around 12:30 p.m. to discuss my top coaster picks.

Photo: ©Arthur Levine, 2006.

Massachusetts is home to dozens of film festivals. Two upcoming events will present works by and about people of color. The Roxbury Film Festival, scheduled for August 1 to 5, will showcase local filmmakers with a slate of features, shorts, animation, and other productions as well as a series of panels and acting workshops. Venues for the ninth annual festival will include the Museum of Fine Arts, Northeastern University, and the Massachusetts College of Art. From August 8 to 11, the fifth annual Martha's Vineyard African-American Film Festival will be held in Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven on the serene island. In addition to presenting films featuring the works of both established and emerging filmmakers, the event will offer an art expo, actor workshops, panel discussions, directors' chats, and Q&A sessions. Special guests, including Jeffrey Wright (Broken Flowers, Angels in America) and multi-talented Ben Vereen, have attended the event in past years. Who knows who may show up on the island this time?

Photo: Roxbury Film Festival

If "folk festival" conjures images of waiflike women and wisecracking guys strumming guitars and wheezing into harmonicas, you haven't been to the Lowell Folk Festival. With a lineup that includes Cajun swing, South Indian veena, Brazilian ox-dance, and Cape Verdean funana performers, perhaps "world music" would be a more apt description of the event. But, hey, regardless of the style of music or the culture of the artists, they are all folks, right? Celebrating its 20th season this year, the three-day Lowell event is the largest free folk festival in the nation. In addition to the diverse array of performers that will be stationed on six stages throughout the city (and yes, there are bound to be at least a few harmonica-wheezing troubadours), the festival will also feature a tempting variety of food representing Lowell's multi-ethnic population. Among the many food booths will be Laotian, Portuguese, Jamaican, Polish, and African American favorites. But wait, there's more. Other folks participating in the festival will be artisans, dancers, and storytellers.

Lowell Folk Festival
July 27-29, 2007
At multiple stages throughout downtown Lowell
Free admission

Photo: Lowell Folk Festival

Most of the state's fairs take place during harvest season in the fall, but a few fill the summer air with the peculiar aroma medley of sizzling sausages and fresh popcorn from the food stands, axle grease from the spinning rides, and flowers and animal dung from the exhibit halls. Ah, the pungent circle of life. You can give your nose a workout this weekend when the Barnstable County Fair kicks off on Cape Cod in Falmouth. In addition to the melange of horse shows, a beekeepers display, chainsaw carving, a petting zoo, and other fair favorites, there will be a demolition derby, fireworks, and performances by Starship, Bucky Covington of "American Idol" fame, and The Oak Ridge Boys. So giddy up and oom poppa oom poppa mow mow over to the fairgrounds.

Barnstable County Fair
July 20-28
Rt. 151, East Falmouth

Photo: Barnstable County Fair

Have you ever had the urge to break into song, at Ethel Merman-level, along with the characters of your favorite movie musicals? Decorum, the fear of a chorus of shooshes, probable ejection from the theater, and the risk of eternal shame may have prevented you from theater warbling. However, if you join the folks at Mass MoCA for Sing Along Fiddler on the Roof, scheduled for Saturday, August 4, you can cast all sense of etiquette and pride aside and biddy-biddy-bum to your heart's content. The classic, if mawkish, 1971 film, adapted from the hit Broadway play, features Topol (whatever became of him?) as Tevye the singing milkman, Isaac Stern providing the actual violin accompaniment, and maestro John Williams conducting the wonderful music. Among the songs you'll be able to desecrate are "Tradition," "Matchmaker," and "Sunrise, Sunset." The audience's mangling of "If I Were a Rich Man" should be worth the price of admission (a mere $10) alone.

Sing Along Fiddler on the Roof
Saturday, August 4, 2007, 8:30 pm
Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA
Courtyard C (Weather permitting, you'll be able to sing along outside, like a...like a...Fiddler on the Roof!) or Hunter Center
$10. Tickets available online.
413-MoCA111

Photo: Mass MoCA

Let's say you're an environmentally sensitive kinda person, and you're in tune with Massachusetts' new Green Visitors Program that I wrote about in my last entry. You're at the Boston Common and you want to get to a hot restaurant in South Boston. Or Symphony Hall. Or Signing Beach in Manchester-by-the-Sea. Web sites that offer directions, such as MapQuest or Google Maps, could give you the information you need to get you there, but they are generally geared towards driving directions and assume you'll be traveling by car. Since you're a carbon-neutral guy or gal, however, you want to take public transportation, right? Should you take the T? If so, what color line should you take? And do you head inbound or outbound? The answers to these questions can be found at the PublicRoutes Web site.

As with the well-known map sites, PublicRoutes.com users enter their starting and destination points, and the site determines the best route. In default mode, the results might include a combination of walking, subway, bus, or commuter train directions. Users can tailor the results and ask for, say, walking-only directions or subway-only directions. Each step along the way includes clearly stated instructions and approximate times. (Of course, it doesn't account for late trains and other aggravations.) The site can be a bit wacky. When I entered "Public Garden" in Boston, it asked me whether I meant Garden Street in Worcester. And the results aren't always accurate. To get from the Boston Common to Singing Beach, PublicRoutes.com correctly directed me to North Station and told me to board a Rockport-bound commuter train. But the directions advised me to get off at the Gloucester station and either walk for an hour or take a cab to the beach--rather than disembarking at the Manchester-by-the-Sea station and walking about a half of a mile to the beach. The site did work well most of the time, however, and it does take the mystery out of the Boston area's often-confusing public transportation systems.

Photo: MBTA

A few days ago, I wrote about the exhibit that Toyota is bringing to the area to hype its hybrid cars. But what about ditching the car altogether and taking a unique form of public transportation? Boston Harbor Cruises has been offering ferry service between Provincetown and Boston for many years. More recently, passengers have also been able to travel between Boston and Quincy or Salem aboard high-speed ferries. The ferry lines have always touted the benefits of plying the high seas, such as bypassing clogged highways and enjoying the ocean breezes. Recently, they've added one more benefit: It's the green thing to do. Whether it's a day trip or part of an extended vacation, the ferries give locals and out-of-towners a way to explore Cape Cod, the North Shore, or historic Quincy without having to resort to an automobile. The Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau peddles the ferries as part of its new "Green Visitors Program" (sounds like the organization is throwing out the welcome mat for Martians and relatives of Kermit the Frog), which also includes information about walking tours, trolley services, the T, rail transportation, ecotourism initiatives, bike tours, and other earth-friendly ways to access the state's treasures.

• Cape Cod Fast Ferry
  90-minute high-speed catamaran service between Boston and Provincetown.

• Salem Ferry
  45-minute high-speed catamaran service between Boston and the North Shore city.

• The T Harbor Express
  40-minute high-speed catamaran service between Boston or Logan Airport and Quincy or Hull.

• BostonUSA Green Visitors Program

Photo: ©Arthur Levine. Licensed to boston.com.

A few days ago, I posted a guide to holiday fireworks on Cape Cod. But, the rest of the Bay State will be getting into the patriotic spirit as well, and, based on the requests that have been coming into my mailbag, folks want to know where else they will be able to view fireworks this week. Here's a selected list of pyrotechnic displays throughout Massachusetts:

BOSTON
Of course the king of kabooms in the state (and one of the biggest 4th of July celebrations in the nation for that matter) will be the annual Boston Pops on the Esplanade extravaganza. The fun kicks off on Wednesday, July 4, at 8:00 p.m. at the Hatch Memorial Shell on the Charles River Esplanade with the Pops and special guest performer John Mellencamp (who will undoubtedly sing his little ditty, "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A."). If you want a decent view of the show, plan to arrive very early and spend the day securing your precious piece of turf. Or, you could watch the festivities at home on WBZ TV-4 starting at 8 p.m., which will segue into the national broadcast on CBS at 9 p.m.

But, no matter how wide your screen may be or how surrounded you are by your fancy sound system, there's nothing like seeing and hearing fireworks live. Here are some of the other places in the state to view fireworks:

NORTH OF BOSTON

• Danvers
  Tuesday, July 3, 9 p.m. at Plains Park
  
• Gloucester
  Tuesday, July 3, at 10 p.m. over Gloucester Harbor
  
• Haverhill
  Tuesday, July 3, 9 p.m. at Riverside Park
  
• Lynn and Nahant
  Tuesday, July 3, at dusk over Lynn and Nahant Beaches
  
• Methuen
  Tuesday, July 3, 9 p.m. at Nicholson Field
  
• North Reading
  Tuesday, July 3, 8:30 p.m. at Ipswich River Park
  
• Amesbury
  Wednesday, July 4 at 9:00 p.m. at Woodsoms Farm
  
• Andover
  Wednesday, July 4 at 9:00 p.m. at the high school soccer field
  
• Ipswich
  Wednesday, July 4 at 8:30 p.m. at The Crane Estate
  
• Marblehead
  Wednesday, July 4 at 9:00 p.m. over Marblehead Harbor
  
• Salem
  Wednesday, July 4 at 9:15 p.m. launched from Derby Wharf

ELSEWHERE IN THE STATE

• Westfield
  Tuesday, July 3, 9 p.m. at Stanley Park
  
• Worcester
  Tuesday, July 3, 9 p.m. at Tornadoes Ball Park at Fitton Field
  
• Brockton
  Wednesday, July 4 at 10:30 p.m. at Brockton Fairgrounds
  
• Newton
  Wednesday, July 4 at 1:00 p.m. at Albermarle Field
  
• Plymouth
  Wednesday, July 4 at 9:00 p.m. over Plymouth Cove

Photo: boston.com