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PHILIP EIL

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In Killer Show, Rhode Island gets its Perry Mason moment

The Station Fire
We already know the story. On an icy night in 2003, a half-forgotten band in a half-forgotten club in a half-forgotten town ignited fireworks to kick off its set of 1980s nostalgia rock.

By: PHILIP EIL | October 10, 2012

Going once, going twice . . . mayor for sale

Auction House
The bidding for Mayor Angel Taveras starts at $500.

By: PHILIP EIL | October 03, 2012

Pronk! returns, with a new tune

Horn Section
If you're walking in Fox Point October 8 and you hear hundreds of horns blasting, don't be alarmed.

By: PHILIP EIL | October 03, 2012

They call the state Rogue’s Island. Here’s why!

Local color
Time flies when you're in college. So before you disappear, here's a cheat sheet of Rhode Island tales that you probably didn't hear on your campus tour.

By: PHILIP EIL | September 26, 2012

Nico Muhly, wunderkind, comes home

High Note
It would be nearly impossible to summarize everything Nico Muhly has accomplished since graduating high school in Providence in 1999 — though, certainly, plenty have tried.

By: PHILIP EIL | September 26, 2012

Where to find the real Rhode Island

Hit the road
It was the first semester of my freshman year and I had passed out in a bathroom in my friend's dorm.

By: PHILIP EIL | September 26, 2012

Preppies and mozzarella sticks: polo comes to URI

Sport
It's a beautiful day for polo at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston. The sky is clear. The sun is bright. The grass is green and fragrant.

By: PHILIP EIL | September 19, 2012

‘Uncle Jimmy’ and Miss USA do Cranston

Pageantry
"We've had a few people pass out. We've had a few people jump off the front of the stage because the lights are so bright . . . We've had a few wardrobe malfunctions," Jim Donovan says.

By: PHILIP EIL | September 13, 2012

RISD carves up history’s silent witnesses

Wood Shop
Dale Broholm was touring the Civil War battlefields at Gettysburg a few years ago when his friend, a former historian with the National Parks Service, described a landscape project that involved clearing trees.

By: PHILIP EIL | September 05, 2012

Patrick Conley’s fiery turn as historian laureate

Man About Town
Patrick Conley stands in a hallway lined with framed New York Times and Providence Journal articles about his campaign to lure high-end businesses to Providence's industrial waterfront.

By: PHILIP EIL | August 29, 2012

StumpChair takes to the streets

Arts and Crafts
StumpChair — the street-art superhero who whimsically glues the tops of wooden chairs to tree stumps — won't tell me his real name.

By: PHILIP EIL | August 22, 2012

The local cagefighting scene takes off

Combat
"You cannot eye poke. You cannot gouge. You cannot strike to the groin. You cannot knee to the head of a downed opponent."

By: PHILIP EIL | August 08, 2012

Images of a highway departed

Picture Show.
There's a lot of talk these days about the 40-acre footprint in the center of Providence left by the old Route 195.

By: PHILIP EIL | August 01, 2012

Fiction for the digital age

Letters
Matthew Derby and Max Winter will have some explaining to do before their reading at the Dirt Palace August 9.

By: PHILIP EIL | August 01, 2012

Summer Sizzle comes to Foster

Steeds
"They come wearing "My Barn, My Rules" T-shirts and cowboy boots.

By: PHILIP EIL | July 25, 2012

At Providence Provision, lentil soup and clever ideas

Edibles
"How many of you like plants?" Kate Venturini shouts. "Fruits and berries?"

By: PHILIP EIL | July 18, 2012

With soda under siege, Yacht Club

Confections
If soda were a person, it would need a publicist. Those sweet, sugary bubbles — once the image of wholesome Americana — have lately been blamed for rotting teeth, obesity, even teenage aggression.

By: PHILIP EIL | June 20, 2012

Mothers News tackles cheesecake and Left-Handers Day

This Just In
"No offense, but you guys are no competition," Jacob Berendes tells me.

By: PHILIP EIL | June 06, 2012

In DeSilva’s mystery Cliff Walk, fact and fiction blur

True Crime
There is a moment in Bruce DeSilva's new book, Cliff Walk , when the novel's hero — a wisecracking, coffee-swilling investigative reporter named Liam Mulligan — flops on his mattress to read a book by former Tampa Tribune reporter Ace Atkins. "Crime novels were his parachute out of the newspaper business," Mulligan says. "If only I had that kind of talent."

By: PHILIP EIL | May 30, 2012

A spoon-bending mentalist takes on the Gaspee affair

History Dept.
Plaques and parades are nice, but the real story of the HMS Gaspee — the British customs schooner looted and burned off the coast of Rhode Island in the run-up to the Revolutionary War — is not rated "G."

By: PHILIP EIL | May 23, 2012

OBEY THE GIANT debuts

Film Dept.
A black Lincoln Town Car drives through the darkened streets of Providence.

By: PHILIP EIL | May 16, 2012

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