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Phoenix critic wins grant

Cook gets to eat
It was announced earlier this week that Phoenix contributing writer Greg Cook's art blog, the New England Journal of Aesthetic Research, has been awarded a $30,000 endowment from the Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program, which rewards "commitment to the craft of writing and the advancement of critical discourse on contemporary visual art."

By MIKE MILIARD | December 02, 2009

Unmaking a bad federal law

Justice for Some
It's been a depressing stretch for supporters of marriage equality.

By ADAM REILLY | November 24, 2009

IBEW pressures Stop & Shop

Power Play Dept.
Folks driving past suburban Stop & Shop locations this week might wonder why laborers are suddenly concerned about food safety.

By CHRIS FARAONE | November 24, 2009

Glenn Beck's unhinged Sweater saga

Knit Twit Dept.
Hello, America. A special Glenn Beck Program tonight: I'm speaking to you from somewhere in the North Pole, and let me tell you [adopts cartoonish yokel voice with rubbery exaggerated shiver] it is coooooooold up here.

By MIKE MILIARD | November 24, 2009

We're killing the oceans

Is it too late to save the seas that sustain us?
I meet world-renowned undersea photojournalist Brian Skerry at Legal Seafoods, across from the New England Aquarium, where he's the explorer in residence. He orders a chicken Caesar salad.

By MIKE MILIARD | November 18, 2009

Critical Mass

Over the years, UMass Amherst has proven to be a reliable hotbed for political hypocrisy and squelching of free speech
If free speech is what gives value to the campus "marketplace of ideas," UMass Amherst would long ago have gone bankrupt.

By KYLE SMEALLIE AND HARVEY SILVERGLATE | November 18, 2009

Missing Persons singer Dale Bozzio jailed

Swinging a Dead Cat Dept.
Missing Persons singer Dale Bozzio is sitting in an Ossipee, New Hampshire, jail after dropping her appeal of a March animal-cruelty conviction.

By ASHLEY RIGAZIO | November 18, 2009

Kennedy, Catholic Church, and Politics of Compromise

Reform Dept.
US Representative Patrick Kennedy's confrontation with Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin over abortion and health-care reform has soaked up quite a bit of ink.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | November 18, 2009

Has Obama peaked? Yes, he has

Yes, he made history. Unfortunately, it’s all downhill from there.
To listen to some pundits, Barack Obama's public image began taking a serious beating when the off-year election returns came in a week ago. Or maybe it was the undeserved Nobel Prize, his approach to the war in Afghanistan, or when he revved up his pursuit of national health-care reform.

By STEVEN STARK | November 12, 2009

Has Obama peaked? No, he hasn't

Obama’s days of greatest power and popularity lie before him. But be warned: he might not do what you want with it.
Barack Obama's popularity should not be judged by the day-to-day, media-driven vagaries of politics — nor by the wishful thinking of his opponents.

By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 12, 2009

Dudley no longer square

House Party
Virtually desolate Dudley Square needed dining alternatives to deep-fried heart attacks, so in 2005, organizers with Haley House — the 43-year-old South End–based charity foundation — opened the Corner Shop Bakery Café.

By CHRIS FARAONE | November 11, 2009

Yes Men take aim at Coca-Cola

Drinking It All In Dept.
An odd press conference took place last week in Post Office Square as a man claiming to be an executive at a soft-drink giant touted “a new era for Coca-Cola,” in which its Dasani bottled water will be labeled “Deception.”

By ASHLEY RIGAZIO | November 04, 2009

Inside the term-paper machine

The black market of term papers exposed
It’s never been easier for college students to hire someone else to write their term papers for them.

By COLMAN HERMAN | November 04, 2009

Event puts the 'dates' in 'candidates'

Kiss and Sell Dept.
In their quest to land one of Boston’s four at-large City Council seats, the eight remaining candidates have shaken more hands and kissed more behinds than anyone probably should in swine-flu season.

By CHRIS FARAONE | October 28, 2009

Knight of night life

Taking on Boston’s biggest bully
The most feared man in Boston isn’t a crazy-eyed killer or a brutal street thug — he’s an elected official. Evidence? When was the last time you heard a disgruntled Boston businessperson publicly criticize Mayor Tom Menino?

By CHRIS FARAONE | October 26, 2009

Free speech again quashed at Harvard

RSVPeeved Dept.
It should come as no surprise to readers of “Freedom Watch” that yet another instance of political, intellectual, and academic censorship has sprung up at Harvard, the self-touted pinnacle of higher education.

By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | October 21, 2009

The Brother Thomas Fellows

Good news for a change
“Art is something seen about something unseen,” is one way Brother Thomas Bezanson described his calling.

By JEFFREY GANTZ | October 21, 2009

Bozzio's a somewhat missing person on the west coast

Cat Crazy Dept.
As she awaits a retrial on animal-cruelty charges in New Hampshire, Missing Persons frontwoman Dale Bozzio’s troubles continue in Southern California, where she faces eviction from her San Fernando Valley home over $4400 in missing rent payments.

By ASHLEY RIGAZIO | October 21, 2009

The politics of baseball in Boston

It's the Red Sox, stupid
You don’t need a fancy political-science degree to predict voter turnout in Boston city elections. All you need is a Red Sox postseason schedule (when applicable).

By CHRIS FARAONE | October 14, 2009

No alternative

Authentic Journalism Dept.
“I got very tired of being called an ‘alternative journalist’ for so many years,” says former Phoenix reporter Al Giordano. “Alternative to what?"

By MIKE MILIARD | October 14, 2009