News

Easy Ed strikes again

More propaganda from Achorn. Plus, legislative musings and more.
It’s always easy for Ed. That’s “Easy Ed” Achorn, the Other Paper’s deputy editorial pages editor who is the equivalent of a right-wing P&J.

By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | November 11, 2009

A neighborhood theater is reborn

The Arts
It took quite a while, and north of $10 million, but last month the long-closed Park Cinema in Cranston opened as the ambitiously named Rhode Island Center for Performing Arts.

By BILL RODRIGUEZ | November 11, 2009

Phattening Providence lyrics

Beats and Rhymes
The flyers appeared on coffee shop message boards and street corners. "We Phatten Rhymes," they read, and "Brown/RISD Rappers: Get Your Lyrics Doped."

By ABIGAIL CROCKER | November 11, 2009

Make-believe Main Street

Lifestyle centers create public squares in private places. Can a nation undone by sprawl be saved by the Mall?
WaterFire, bocce, oh my!

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | November 10, 2009

A turbine grows in Warwick

Windy City
If all goes well, Shalom Housing in Warwick, a division of Jewish Seniors Agency, will be the home of a 100-kilowatt wind turbine, part of new federal “green” stimulus award of up to $1.5 million from the US Housing and Urban Development to retrofit the 30-year-old, 100-unit low-cost senior housing project.

By RICHARD ASINOF | November 04, 2009

Black and gay in Rhode Island

Getting Out
It’s hard to imagine a tangle of identities more marginalized than that of the black gay man in Rhode Island.

By ELLEN CUSHING | November 05, 2009

Newspapering the hard way

As the ProJo Turns
Tom Heslin, executive editor of the Providence Journal , does not say much in public about the broadsheet. And little surprise. The ProJo , which demands transparency elsewhere, has issued a long string of “no comments” about its own affairs.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | November 04, 2009

Paging Dilbert

Fonting around at the Urinal. Plus, celebrity karaoke, and more.
What’s black and white and re(a)d all over? Certainly not the Providence Urinal, whose circulation has been falling faster than a 1000-pound safe pushed out of a sky-scraper window.

By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | November 04, 2009

Noir comes to Providence

In Cold Blood
Former Providence Journal reporter Mark Arsenault’s new novel, Loot the Moon , is the second in a series focused on obituary writer, inveterate gambler, and investigator Billy Povich.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | October 28, 2009

Judging the Judge

Committee Doubting Thompson. Plus, The Bish, Rush, and more.
After reading Sunday’s front page BeloJo story, “Support for R.I. Judge not unanimous,” your superior correspondents have to suspect that everything — absolutely everything — is thoroughly politicized.

By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | October 28, 2009

Pints And Blood On A Saturday Night

The undead
The Reverend Al Zombie, organizer of the Providence Zombie Pub Crawl, climbed on the bar at Fatty McGee’s as the event kicked off Saturday night to offer a disclaimer.

By ABIGAIL CROCKER | October 28, 2009

Art for money's sake

Marketing dept.
This weekend, hundreds of arts marketing gurus and administrators from across the nation will descend upon the Creative Capital, aka Providence, for a four-day (October 30-November 2) national gath-ering entitled “CollaborACTION!”

By RICHARD ASINOF | October 28, 2009

Kennedy vs. the Catholic Church

Opinion Dept.
Last week, Congressman Patrick Kennedy took the Catholic Church to task for opposing health reform that fails to include an explicit ban on federal funding for abortion. And he was right to do it.

By MARY ANN SORRENTINO | October 30, 2009

Can the Rhode Island tea party brew a revolution?

The movement strives to be a coherent force for change. But is it just blowing steam?
The Rhode Island Tea Party, local wing of the national uprising against all things Obama, has some reason for hope.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | October 21, 2009

Affordable housing in a wealthy redoubt

At Home
Barrington, not exactly known for its welcome mat to working poor families, now has its first affordable housing project in living memory.

By RICHARD ASINOF | October 21, 2009

Can we fix our broken suburbs?

Action Speaks!
Action Speaks!, the panel discussion series at Providence art space AS220, wraps up its fall run with a look at the American adventure in suburbia.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | October 21, 2009

The ubiquitous Scott Duhamel

He’s everywhere! Plus, a new jewel in Cvanston, BeloJo notes, and more.
Saturday morning breakfast as Casa Diablo over the years has changed considerably.

By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | October 26, 2009

Hell on wheels

Providence roller derby — fast action, big fun, and grrrl power on skates
There are rules. No hands, no feet, no heads. No tripping, no hitting from the back — just thighs, hips, upper arms and torso, from the side or front.

By MARION DAVIS | October 14, 2009

Co-dependent? The US and China

Action Speaks!
Action Speaks!, the panel discussion series at Providence art space AS220, continues its fall run with a conversation about the increasingly dependent relationship between the United States and China.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | October 14, 2009

Rhode Island’s pride is showing

Finally, some good ‘news!’ Plus, Brown slips, the Patriots slide, and more
There was much to-do and flexing of cultural muscles and civic pride as Our Little Towne placed in the top 10 in many prestigious categories in Travel & Leisure magazine’s 2009 survey of “America’s Favorite Cities.”

By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | October 16, 2009