Providence

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The Providence Postcard Project: Love letters to a city

Missives
The Big Blue Bug is here.
By PHILIP EIL | February 01, 2012

Fête and Dusk are stepping it up

Class acts
While Providence clubs and live venues seem to come and go "in this economy" (RIP Club Hell and the 201), two band- and fan-friendly venues are stepping up as viable outlets focused on delivering a wide array of artists and musical styles, from heavy metal to sultry singer/songwriters.
By CHRIS CONTI | January 26, 2012

What's next for Occupy Providence?

After the park, a search for phase II
It was only a week ago that members of Occupy Providence huddled in a pedestrian tunnel on a rainy afternoon and voted 36 to 11 to leave Burnside Park, if and when the city opens a daytime shelter for the homeless.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | December 28, 2011

Brian Chippendale and Jungil Hong’s dazzling new work

A sense of wonder
Brian Chippendale and Jungil Hong were at the center of the gang of artists who pioneered the rascally psychedelic art that boiled out of Providence's screenprinting/postering/comic book/puppet show/wrestlemania/noise rock underground in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
By GREG COOK | November 29, 2011

Photos: Providence celebrates 375th Birthday in style

Providence Performing Arts Center | November 22, 2011
Providence celebrated its 375th birthday at The Providence Performing Arts Center, November 22, 2011.
By RICHARD MCCAFFREY | November 23, 2011

In Providence, Pokémon perseveres

Games
Pokémon — the video-game, trading-card, and anime franchise — may have reached its high water mark in the late 1990s. But at the Rhode Island Convention Center in downtown Providence this past weekend, the 20th Century geekery lived.
By STEPHEN BEALE | November 16, 2011

Deer Tick, Jeffrey Osborne, and the RISA gang serenade Provy

Divine party
Mayor Taveras sure knows how to party. The capital city's Department of Arts, Culture & Tourism has co-sponsored more than 200 events over the past six months commemorating the 375th anniversary of Roger Williams arriving here and setting up shop in Providence.
By CHRIS CONTI | November 15, 2011

ESH & Dox and Meta P get busy

Rhody rhyme time
Don't sleep — the Rhode Island hip-hop scene is flourishing, arguably more than ever.
By CHRIS CONTI | November 02, 2011

On the rebound

Months after his political career seemed doomed, Congressman David Cicilline has made a slow, steady comeback. Will it hold?
Nine months ago, first-term Congressman David Cicilline's Washington career seemed over before it had begun.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | November 02, 2011

Review: 15 Point Road

Dishes both inherited and original
How is it that seafood at a restaurant located on the water's edge is more appetizing than at one located inland, even a few blocks up the street? I don't recall ever salivating because a steakhouse was next to a cow pasture.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | October 25, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Photos: Deer Tick at The Met

Deer Tick performs live at The Met on October 12 & 13, 2011.
Deer Tick performs live at The Met on October 12 & 13, 2011.
By RICHARD MCCAFFREY | October 19, 2011

The ugly side of Providence’s 375th birthday

Histories
I do not envy the person assigned with reducing 375 years of Providence history to four words.
By PHILIP EIL | October 12, 2011

Looking back on An American Family

Action Speaks!
Action Speaks!, the panel discussion series at Providence art space AS220, continues its fall series with a look back at An American Family , a documentary that chronicled the lives of the Loud family of Santa Barbara, California.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | October 12, 2011

Eugenides ponders the ruins of Providence

Letters
Born in Michigan, educated at Brown and Stanford, and now teaching at Princeton, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jeffrey Eugenides opens his just-published third novel, The Marriage Plot , with daylight rising over the smokestacks of the old Narragansett Electric plant in downtown Providence.
By MAGGIE LANGE | October 05, 2011

Big, bold, and compelling, murals are having their moment in Providence

The city as canvas
Some weeks back, painter Agustin Patino drove me down Broad Street in South Providence in his wife's Jeep.
By GREG COOK | October 05, 2011

Back in the saddle again

Phillipe returns! Plus, road rage and the hell of war
Phillipe, who gave up his decades-long co-authorship of this column several months back, made a shocking and unannounced return last week ...
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | August 11, 2011

Photos: Grand opening for Lola's Tequila Bar & Cantina

Lola's Tequila Bar & Cantina | July 28, 2011
Lola's Tequila Bar & Cantina celebrates their grand opening on July 28, 2011.
By RICHARD MCCAFFREY | July 29, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

General Assembly turns a cold shoulder on the homeless

Economics Dept.
Rhode Island's itty-bittyness is, of course, a handicap from time to time. But it is also a source of opportunity.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 22, 2011

The Big Think

Providence designer Seth Goldenberg convenes the best and brightest to tackle the "Epic Challenges" of our time. But who appointed them?
TED, PopTech, and other 21st-century innovation conferences — nerds giving speeches to rich guys — have done something rather remarkable: they've turned the public intellectual into popular entertainer.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 01, 2011

Kristi Martel, Meta P, and more!

Wild weekend
So Late it Hurts is the title of the forthcoming disc from THE 'MERICANS; last call to catch Chris Daltry & Co. kick out some brand-new jams at Firehouse 13 (401.270.1801) on THURSDAY (the 28th) with Baltimore's Lower Dens and the Manderson Project in tow.
By PROVIDENCE PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | April 27, 2011

Photos: The Providence Phoenix Annual Best Awards Show

The Best Awards | The Met | April 20, 2011
The Providence Phoenix gives out the Best Awards at the Met on April 20, 2011. Check out the winners here .
By PHOENIX STAFF | April 25, 2011

Photos: The Stable's 1 Year Anniversary Party

The Stable's Anniversary Party | April 14, 2011
The Stable celebrates their 1 Year Anniversary on April 14, 2011.
By CAROLYN BUBEL | April 19, 2011

Ferraro, a photo, and a legacy

Tribute
Geraldine Ferraro's photograph stands proudly in a silver frame, inscribed to my daughter with the words, "You are my hero."
By MARY ANN SORRENTINO | March 30, 2011

At a downtown bar: Fluffernutters and pickle juice

Nightclubbing
For a city driven, in many ways, by its youthful artist-entrepreneurial class, there is surprisingly little in the way of hipster night spots.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | December 01, 2010

Review: 'Networks 2009-2010' at the Newport Art Museum

A 'community of makers'
In art communities like Providence, local institutions often ignore their town's history. Which can convey the message that little art made here ever mattered. And the corollary: Little made here ever will matter. Which is, of course, silly in the town of Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, Shepard Fairey, Kara Walker, Fort Thunder, and Dirt Palace.
By GREG COOK | November 24, 2010

Not-so-United States

Divisive radicals vs. the moronization of America; postcard from Florida
The BeloJo had a story on Sunday that gave a rating of absolutely true to Senator Weldon Shitehouse's contention that "current US law permits companies that close down American factories and offices and move those jobs overseas to take a tax deduction for the costs associated with moving the jobs to China or India or wherever." Wow!
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | November 24, 2010

The tyranny of nice

Assessing public art in Rhode Island
Over the past several weeks, Mikyoung Kim's new $480,000 public art installation Horizon Garden has taken shape at southwest corner of Providence's Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence.
By GREG COOK | November 02, 2010