Art Beat 2015 is happening this weekend starting on Friday the 17th, 6:00-10:00 p.m. and again on Saturday the 18th, 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in Davis Square. This year’s festival theme is Loops. Line up and content is looping in, check it out. Art Beat is one of the area’s largest and most innovative arts festivals, with over a dozen bands, dance troupes, 75 craft vendors, food and loop-themed activities. Let’s celebrate all things that loop, encircle, repeat and play back in endless cycles. Various artists and community members explore how looping – the repetition of a pattern, sound or idea – informs a work of art or a concept. “Loops” evoke many things: music that repeats a riff throughout an entire song or performance, dance in which movement suggests circles, looping film shorts, and cylindrical visual works of art. They will be celebrating circles and all things loops in the Davis Square block repeatedly throughout the festival as well as theatrical performances in which scenes are repeated in Groundhog Day-esque fashion. It’s time to abandon linear thinking! It’s time to loop back.

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A Somerville institution and a great man,  Dennis “Danny”  Kallis passed away last Sunday from a heart attack. We extend our condolences to his wife Denise, as well as his entire family and friends. Danny was a great guy. He operated Dapper Dan’s Restaurant at the Assembly Square Mall back in the 80’s, and was recently part of the Armory on Highland. A well respected businessman here in the city, he will be missed. Look on our website this week for time and place arrangements. Calling hours Thursday, July 16, from 4-8 pm.

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Rumors are flying over the sudden removal of the Director of Veterans Services, Christian Kulikoski. Apparently, from what we hear, he ticked off the administration and was against the move to place the department within the Health & Human Services Department. We heard from several sources he was told that because he objected the move he would be out of a job by Labor Day. We guess he really ticked them off because he was gone by July 4th. We also heard that his sudden removal was not related to his job, so as you can see the grapevine here in the city is heating up. We also agree with the Board of Aldermen who passed a resolution to move the department out from under the Health & Human Services Department. We think that veterans deserve to have their own agency – as written into Massachusetts general law – where veterans can go and talk about their situations confidentially. So far the mayor’s office isn’t backing down and isn’t moving the department.

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Save the date, Saturday, October 17, as the SHS Scholarship Foundation will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary at the Holiday Inn. For updates go to their Facebook page.

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Happy Birthdays this week to some of our Villen friends and just friends of The Times: Joe Vanessa, who is the owner at Modelo Butcher Market as well as Panifcadora Modelo and New Color Painting. Joe is a busy guy. We hope he has a great birthday. A great lady, Charlotte Pye celebrates this week. We hope she also has a great day. Ali Koty-Fernandes is celebrating this week as well and we wish her a happy birthday. A local favorite of ours who we’ve known for a long time, Rick Spinosa, of the well-known local Somerville family. Happy birthday, Rick. We know you will enjoy it, we just know it! Happy birthday to Steven Soares, another local guy. We wish him the very best as well.

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Our condolences to the family of Louise T. Rossetti who passed away last week. She was a long time Somerville resident, from a wonderful family. We extend our sincere sympathy to her family.

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There’s a new web site in town. Check it out at www.somervillema.com. The Somerville Times on the site.

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The only primary this year here in Somerville will be in Ward 6 for the vacant alderman seat. The primary is set for Thursday, September 17. That’s right, Thursday and not Tuesday. The four candidates running for the vacant seat met at City Hall this week to establish their positions on the ballot. Position number one is Elizabeth Weinbloom, position number two is Charles Chisholm, position number three David W.S. Lieberman and last position is Lance Davis.

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Check out Style Café located on Middlesex Avenue across from Assembly Square. What a nice place. The pastry is great, and they have a full menu for breakfast and lunch. Check them out at www.stylecafeonline.com.

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The City’s Historic Preservation Commission and Historic Somerville are looking for additional volunteers to open the City’s oldest burial ground, the 1804 Milk Row Cemetery, to the public one Sunday afternoon per month from 1-4 p.m., and ideally one weekday evening for two hours from June through November. The volunteers would be part of a Docent Program started three years ago to help guide interested visitors around the cemetery and answer questions about the site and those buried there. Volunteers, known as “docents,” will be trained by a member of Historic Somerville to serve as a guide, highlighting the history of the site, and offering an informational hand-out. Two docents are scheduled at each opening of the cemetery and are expected to be 18 years old or older, unless accompanied by a guardian. They are encouraged, but not required, to wear period appropriate clothing, supplied by Historic Somerville if needed. If interested, please submit your contact information to admin@historicsomerville.org along with a brief biography and a statement of why you would like to become a docent. If possible, please include your dates of availability for Sunday afternoons or a weeknight from June through November of this year. For further information, please contact Brandon Wilson via bwilson@somervillema.gov, or 617-625-6600, ext. 2532.

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Several weeks ago it was reported that the House and Senate here in Massachusetts passed a bill regarding newspapers posting their legal ads online. We’re glad they did because The Somerville Times has not only published all its legal ads online, but we have a dedicated place on our web site that has all the legal ads (run at no extra cost to anyone). We have a dedicated page for legal ads and have them posted there for a month. Also, if you check the sidebar on the right of our Web pages we also have a link for downloading PDF versions of our paper going back years.