Just in time for Valentine's Day, the Projo reports that a "ten-foot phallic snow sculpture" in South Kingstown has been getting some of the neighbors hot and bothered. The police came multiple times – though we think they might have been faking those last couple – to the home off Middlebridge Road where the sculpture was erected, but decided that they weren't at liberty to touch the owner's private... property. Though the person responsible claims the sculpture will last for days, we think that just leaving it exposed like that will lead to softening and significant shrinkage. Anway, here's a photo... you know you want to look:
By now you may have heard that Winter Storm Nemo is bearing down on New England and preparing to drop anywhere from 1-265 inches (give or take) of powder in the Northeast, and possibly anything from a few flurries to a catastrophic blizzard of biblical proportions around the region, including New York, New Jersey, DC, Miami, Atlanta, Albuquerque, the US Virgin Islands, Belize, Hawaii (the island of Oahu only), New South Wales, Isengard and The Shire. Here is the latest Storm Tracker XL5000 DopplerMaster Radar Luxury Edition III satellite photo of Nemo's approach:
Always concerned for the wellbeing of our readers, we've compiled a list of the following snow preparedness tips so you can be ready for The Wrath of Nemo:
-Stock up on milk and bread.
-While you're at the market, might as well pick up other food that you might need to eat an actual meal instead of subsisting off milk and bread like a Dickensian street urchin.
-Hold up the entire damn line at Stop & Shop like there's no one else waiting while you look for that expired coupon for milk and/or bread.
-Act like it has never snowed before. Ever.
-Call a parent, grandparent or older relative so they can remind you how this is nothing compared to the Blizzard of '78.
-Start live-Tweeting the storm now so that your hash tag wins. #snowedin #statingtheobvious #didImentionitssnowing? #catchinguponHomeland
-Post a Facebook update encouraging everyone to stay safe and warm. Seriously. Do it now. Do you want your friends to die a horrible, freezing, snowbound death? You've got to warn them!
-Gather the supplies you'll need if there's an extended power outage: candles, flashlights, warm blankets, non-perishable food, booze, satellite phone, animal pelts, whale blubber, a trashcan to throw through the front window of whatever store you're planning to loot.
-In the event of both a parking ban and a power outage, set your car on fire to stay warm and avoid costly parking … More
Half Way Tree Authentic Jamaican Cuisine has opened at 44 Hospital Street in the Jewelry District, providing full service lunch and dinner as well as takeout. The menu includes all the Jamaican and Caribbean classics you’d expect. They offer authentic jerk chicken wings and spicy meat patties, plus small and large plates of oxtail, curry goat, red snapper and jerk chicken accompanied by rice and peas, fried plantains and vegetables. On Friday and Saturday they’ll have a special of ackee fruit and saltfish, another classic Jamaican dish. More
Don’t fall into a winter biking slump! Providence Bicycle offers free indoor training classes each Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 7:00pm throughout February at its Branch Avenue location. If you don’t want to haul your bike back and forth, the shop will even store and set up your bike and trainer each session for free. If you don’t have a bike trainer, you can rent one for $5.00 per class. 725 Branch Avenue. 331-6610, providencebicycle.com
Hoping to become a better, less injured runner? Sign up for the next RUNstrong class series, a collaboration between Rhode Runner and Foundation Performance Sports Medicine. Class meets every Tuesday at 6pm from February 5 - March 12. RUNstrong is a 55-minute circuit style strengthening class that will utilize only your body, a foam roller, and an elastic band. Sign up for one class or for the whole series. Rhode Runner, 657 North Main Street. 831-6346, rhoderunner.net More
The Olive Tap, Providence’s second olive oil joint, is now open in Wayland Square. They offer a wide array of extra virgin olive oil, infused olive oils, a variety of balsamic and red wine vinegars alongside pieces to bread to sop it all up. And in addition to the dipping treats, they also feature artwork for sale, a broad menu of spices, culinary sauces, marinades, tapenades and jams. Check them out on Facebook as “The Olive Tap Providence.”
Wickenden Street boasts a new fusion of art festival and farmers’ market at Small Circle. It is a community marketplace of 100% locally made products featuring over 100 artisans and their mix of photography, jewelry, blown glass, textiles and woodworking. Small Circle was founded on both environmentally friendly and socially conscious principles while simultaneously stimulating the local economy.
Follow The Rhode Island Library Report, an online public journalism project, as it explores the role libraries play in our current lives and how they will fit into our future. This completely volunteer based project covers the range of services our libraries provide through economic hardships and technical challenges as we move forward in these digitizing times. Read about those who work so hard to keep our libraries alive and those who are benefited from this resource. More
I just returned from a trip to New York City, an experience that is always equal parts invigorating and overwhelming. On the one hand, it’s great to be in a city where there is always something happening. On the other hand, being in a city where everything is always happening can discourage as easily as it excites.
As much as we like to fancy ourselves a cosmopolitan place that can hold its own with any city – and to a large extent that’s true; Providence is quite good at punching above its weight class – a few days in New York can be a harsh reminder that in many ways, size matters. When we speak of size, the important measurement is population, not land area. North Dakota’s largest city, Fargo, boasts more than twice the land area of Providence, but can only muster about 60% of our population. Where would you rather live?
Even in comparison to cities that are bigger on both counts, Providence holds its own. Jacksonville, Florida has a population more than four-and-a-half times the size of ours, and its roughly 875 square miles dwarf our 20. But you don’t see the birthplace of Lynyrd Skynyrd ranking among Travel + Leisure magazine’s “America’s Favorite Cities,” a survey in which the Renaissance City routinely comes out ahead of much larger competition.
A visit to New York, however, can be humbling even for our city’s biggest booster. Obviously, sizing up our little corner of New England against the country’s largest city is hardly a fair comparison, but it can make the limitations of a small population painfully obvious. While Providence may have all the bases covered when it comes to the joys of urban living, we’ll never match the depth and breadth of a big city. Sure, I can get Vietnamese food delivered to my house, but in Manhatan I could have Vietnamese food delivered by 30 different places, several of which would deliver until 4am and bring pot. The sheer scope of the place … More
Providence Media, the leader in local lifestyle and the publisher of your favorite (right?) local magazine(s), is looking for an Internet Ninja to join our team. (No, that won’t be the actual job title.) This person will be responsible for managing our total online presence, including four websites corresponding to each of our magazines (you can name them all, right?) and various social media presences, including Facebook and Twitter.
What you would be doing…
-Posting all content from our magazines to the web.
-Creating original, web-only content.
-Managing social media for all four publications on Facebook and Twitter.
-Expanding our social media presence into new platforms.
-Selling and managing web advertising.
-Creating newsletters and e-blasts.
-Devising and executing an overall online presence with an eye toward both the editorial and the marketing/PR sides of things.
-Spending a lot of time on the Internet.
-Staying up on the latest trends and developments in online media; determining which ones are worthwhile and which ones are little better than cat memes.
-Learning lots of industry jargon and buzzwords, then trying not to confuse us with them.
What you should know/be able to do…
-Construct a halfway decent sentence.
-GET PEOPLE’S ATTENTION!!! in a more effective and less obnoxious manner than that.
-Distract our audience from getting actual work done through strategic deployment of status updates, tweets, blog posts and other Internet ephemera.
-Care about the communities and cultures of Rhode Island. Get interested in them, develop relationships with them and spotlight the most interesting parts.
-SEO. What is it? How do you do it? We’re not entirely sure either, but if you don’t already know it we’re going to send you to a class to learn it.
-Sell advertising. (Duh.)
-Graphic design, photography, Photoshop, HTML, etc. – those kinds of skills … More
it is often said – usually by salespeople – that everything is sales. No matter your profession, no matter your role, it all comes down to sales – not in the literal sense of an actual transaction of goods or services for money, but in the sense of getting people to buy into you, your ideas, your mission. There’s something to that line of thinking, but I prefer to go one step further and say that everything is storytelling. Whether you’re a salesperson trying to close a deal, a doctor prescribing treatment, a marketing professional devising a PR campaign, a politician pushing for legislation, or even just a job seeker trying to nail an interview, you’re telling someone a story. Your success hinges on getting your audience interested and invested in your story, and that requires an effective, engaging and coherent narrative.
I talk about Providence with a lot of people – and typically even more in the several weeks I spend putting together our annual 10 to Watch list. We talk about the city, what’s happening in it, what assets it has, what it lacks, what it can and should be, etc. One common theme that emerges in so many of those conversations is storytelling: Providence has a story, but what is it, and are we telling it effectively?
These are important questions to ask, because a good story can have a profound impact on a place. We need look no further than our city’s own ‘90s Renaissance to prove this point. People remain divided on Buddy Cianci – whether he was good or bad for the city; how much credit, if any, he deserves for its revival; and so on. I won’t claim to have the definitive answers to those questions, but I know this much is true: no one was better at telling Providence’s story than Buddy, and that is both the reason why our city was perceived as having a Renaissance and why he was perceived as the driving force behind it. The guy tells a good story. That got people … More
I opened and closed the ebony curtain to the phone-booth sized private realm and turned the little black switch to the left for Adlai Stevenson in 1956: my first ballot, cast in the basement of my elementary school on Summit Avenue. Alas, my candidate lost the election to General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Twice, in fact. I liked Adlai for his grace in disappointment, his fine diction, his solitary, almost lonely demeanor.
By the time that youthful Bostonian John F. Kennedy ran in the race to the White House, I was already teaching, and also writing copy for an advertising agency in downtown Providence. I had to produce editorials praising the chic of Madam Jackie with her pillbox hats and reasonable low-heel pumps. By then, we walked not uphill to grammar school but downhill to the Armory of Mounted Commands, from whence parades of veterans on horseback used to march past our house on Armistice Day celebrations or Memorial Day events.
That wasn’t so bad. A short stroll, a brief wait, the familiar vague perfume of hay. I, even in time, adjusted to the change from just around the corner of my boyhood dwelling to the fire station on Rochambeau Avenue, the northeast border of the Summit neighborhood. At least they boasted glass cases of memorabilia about the elegant crimson glitter of the proud traditions of engines, once horse-drawn and then very fancy carriages fit for the regal presidencies of our first, earliest, heads of state. I could make my choices – often eccentric, never pre-determined by party loyalties or simple inertia, sometimes sympathy votes for the underdog. Mostly, I like to preserve the environment as best I can, to safeguard the civil rights of the trees, birds and beasts so dear to childhood, but politically a rare issue. Hence, my support for Al Gore.
But this year, 2012, I simply could not find anywhere to do my civic duty! I drove past the church on Hope at Savoy. Nobody there. I tried the Jewish Community Center. Nope. Ah, my … More
In other Federal Hill news, the former gas station at the corner of Broadway and Courtland may just be reborn. cluck! (399 Broadway) will be a retail shop for urban farmers and gardeners. Whether you’re growing vegetables in a community garden plot, raising chickens or bees in your backyard, canning your own produce or making cheese, cluck! will be able to provide you with the products, materials, expertise and service you need. Owner Drake Patten promises the property will go from “an abandoned gas station to an oasis of green. Asphalt will be replaced with trees, raised beds and unusual planters growing vegetables and herbs.” There’s just one little snag: she needs a zoning variance to open the property for retail use, instead of strictly residential or office use as it is currently zoned. There has been some resistance from at least one local property owner, but Patten has been doing her due diligence, keeping the neighbors informed (as at a December 5 open house) and rallying supporters. If all goes according to plan, cluck! will be open for business on March 15. More
Who: Jessica Ricci
What: Designer, Jessica Ricci Jewelry
When: 3:30pm, Monday, November 12
Where: Her studio at Hope Artiste Village in Pawtucket
Why: We have so much in common it’s sort of frightening
I first met Jess Ricci in April at TEDx Providence; we bonded over a shared love of innovative ideas and cute lap dogs. (Jess calls her Cavapoo the love of her life.) After doing some research I discovered a few other passions we share: traveling and writing. In fact, she built her wildly successful jewelry brand around the two.
After graduating with a master’s in journalism from NYU, she worked and lived in Manhattan. Seeking adventure, she moved to Italy to teach English and gain some creative inspiration. (Did I mention that I too used to be a teacher?) It was there in Rome that Jess discovered her passion for jewelry making.
I enter Jess’s studio to find her answering emails, a pup curled up on her lap. She greets me with a smile; Aggie greets me with a lick. The bright and airy studio inside Hope Artiste Village functions as both workspace and storefront. While Jess sometimes utilizes interns, her only full-time employee has fur.
“Aggie comes here every day with me,” Jess says as she stands up from her chair. She lovingly pets the tiny hypoallergenic pooch that’s now nestled in the crook of her elbow while I browse her meticulous display cases. I notice there’s nothing I wouldn’t myself wear. Everything is so chic, so global. There’s a reason for that.
While in Italy, Jess was mesmerized by found objects such as coins and keys. “Back then I had no real jewelry making experience except for stringing beads. I thought it would be amazing if I could figure out a way to turn the antiques into jewelry.” It wasn’t an easy task, but the results of her work are impressive.
Pieces from Jess’s collection have been featured in magazines including InStyle, O, Real … More
We’ve done it again. After months of campaigning and a tumultuous political climate in which many voters claimed to be undecided, fed up and unhappy with the direction things are going, we did what reliable Rhode Island voters can always be counted on to do: reward the incumbents and strengthen the Democratic monopoly of our state offices. The next General Assembly will convene with Democrats holding 69 of 75 House seats and 32 of 38 Senate seats. Speaker Fox, tarnished by his role in the 38 Studios fiasco, retained his seat and his speakership. Congressman Cicilline has been faulted for both mismanaging city finances and misleading the public about them, yet was handily rewarded with a second term.
Of course, the Democrats aren’t entirely to blame. Their only real opposition comes from a Republican Party seemingly incapable of producing a slate of candidates worthy of election to a student council, let alone state office, and remains trapped between the rock and hard place of an increasingly extreme and intractable national party agenda and a local electorate that’s not buying what they’re selling. The fact that they could not produce a victory for a well-respected former State Police superintendent of unquestioned integrity over a weak incumbent who fought a damaging primary battle says all we need to know about their prospects – simply put, they took their best shot and came up short. We often talk of a need for a third party, but at this point we’d do well just to have a second party.
If there is one state in this country that should be capable of fielding a viable third party, it is the smallest one, with a reputation for independence and contrarianism. There is evidence of this already – admittedly small flickers of hope, but hope nonetheless. Whatever people may think of Governor Chafee, it is significant that we elected someone without party affiliation to our highest state office. On the East Side, a grassroots independent with no … More
Now that the votes have been cast and counted, and the president has handily won a second term, the long and convoluted process of dissecting this election will begin. The data wonks will begin combing through demographics and vote tallies searching for hard numbers to chart Obama’s path to victory. The pundits will either fume or gloat, depending on their party affiliation, but either way will bloviate and prognosticate and offer post-mortems. The Obama team will give itself a well-deserved pat on the back for reassembling (most of) its 2008 coalition and once again running a formidable ground game. And, of course, the Republican Party is likely to assemble quickly and noisily into a circular firing squad.
There will be many attempts by various right-wing factions to explain Romney’s loss. The more pragmatic among them will mix undeniable truths (Obama’s undoubtedly superior get-out-the-vote machine, the failure of Republicans to court a wider swath of the growing Latino population) with unanswerable questions (Should so-called “Moderate Mitt” have emerged sooner? Did having Romney sidelined during Sandy drain his momentum?). The more rabidly ideological base will find any which way to spin this into a reaffirmation of their impenetrable world views, rattling off arguments ranging from tin-eared and out-of-touch (they lost because Romney was never a true conservative) to downright insane (Obama was manipulating the jobs numbers; the Democrats control the weather and unleashed Superstorm Sandy to turn the election).
And while the Republicans have their firing squad, the Democrats will have their circle jerk. Liberal strategists, pundits and supporters will weave the admittedly numerous strands of good news into a warm, fuzzy security blanket to keep out the cold, hard facts of a divided country that just barely skewed left this time. They will claim a mandate, a decisive refutation of the conservative agenda, despite a slim … More
Can't get to the polls this election year? Not to worry because Zipcar has the affordable solution for you and your fellow car-less concerned citizens. On November 6, if you are a Zipcar member and book a reservation from 5am-9pm you can enjoy a 50% discount on the hourly rate. With over 50 vehicles and 20 lots throughout the Greater Providence area, including downtown spots like Brown and RISD, there's no excuse not to get out to the polls.
Zipcar has emphasized their belief that "everyone should vote" by teaming up with Rock the Vote, an organization at the collision of pop-culture and politics that inspires young people to vote. You can join the movement by registering to vote at Zipcar's Facebook page. Visit their regional office at 65 Eddy Street in Providence, find them on the web, or call 401-234-1480 for more info. More
Halloween at the president’s house is a bright spot! RISD students, President Maeda and Board Chair Michael Spalter carved pumpkins and passed out candy to President John Maeda's East Side neighbors. Boo! Happy Halloween. More
A funny thing happened in Providence on Columbus Day. The fifth annual PRONK! Providence Honk Fest kicked off in India Point Park. It’s a daylong gathering of street and marching bands, a truly grassroots event that came to Providence after the original Honk Fest was founded in Boston. What struck me as funny was its simplicity: you just show up.
Granted, a substantial effort goes into organizing this thing – people volunteer their time, money is raised to cover transportation for bands from all over the county, visiting musicians are housed in guest rooms and on couches of local participants, organizations like the Providence Tourism Council and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts pitch in – but the experience for the end user, the person attending the festival, is refreshingly simple and low impact: you just show up. There’s no ticket to buy, no list to be on, no cover charge to pay. And when you do arrive, there are no food vendors charging pumped-up prices for mediocre food, no bar where you need to show ID or buy drink tickets, no merch vendors hawking t-shirts or posters. There are no lines to wait in, no rules to follow (other than the everyday rules of a civil society, of course), nothing to do except enjoy the music and have a good time. It sounds simple, but how many examples of that kind of streamlined, low impact fun can you bring to mind?
Another great example of this simplicity is Project Night Vision, something that I’ll call an after after school program. It’s an intramural sports and activity program for children and teens in underserved communities – basically, it’s a way to keep kids off the street who might not otherwise have somewhere to go and something to do. Again, a tremendous amount of (unpaid) time and effort on the part of dedicated volunteers led by founder Kobi Dennis goes into making Project Night Vision happen. But again, the beauty is the low bar to entry and thelow impact … More
Who: Cousins Amanda and Jesse Corey
What: Photographer and make-up artist, respectively
When: 5pm, Saturday, October 20
Where: Core Creations, 1320 Cranston Street, Cranston
Why: I wanted the Coreys to make me gory
This is what I first saw upon arriving at Jesse and Amanda Corey’s Cranston studio on Saturday, October 20. My beautiful friend Ellen was looking a gory mess in preparation of the 2012 Providence Zombie Pub Crawl, which was later that night. We took one look at each other and burst into hysterical laughter. Clearly, my decision to sign us both up for a horror makeover was the right one.
Jesse seemed super excited at the opportunity to gore us up, and encouraged our input as to shaping the “look” we wanted. We both told her, “Just do whatever you want.” Apparently that was Jesse’s green light to rocket us to hideous town. Ellen’s pre-made mold consisted of an eyeball that was hanging from its eyesocket, her face appearing to melt into itself. Awesome.
I soon discovered that I would be strutting my stuff around town with a circular saw protruding from my chest. “It’s a real blade,” Jesse said with a proud smile. “My boyfriend sanded the edges down, though, so you won’t injure anybody.” Um, he what?! Jesse held the mold up against my body, this way and that, searching for the perfect spot on which to affix it.
I had planned ahead and ordered a post-apocalyptic vest fashioned from bicycle tire inner tubes that exposed both my stomach and my chest, per my "slut-it-up-it’s-Halloween" tendencies. Jesse looked me up and down; her smile grew larger. “Your outfit is perfect!” With that, it was decided that the mold would be most noticeable nestled just above my cleavage. Lovely.
I was surprised at how quickly the time passed as I sat in Jesse’s chair being poked, prodded, dusted with liquid latex and dabbed with gobs of fake blood. She … More
Give a coat, get a coffee – it's that simple!
The 5th Annual Coats for Coffee drive to benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs of Providence kicks off this Monday at all Seven Stars Bakery locations. Bring a gently used kids or adult coat to either Providence (820 Hope St. or 342 Broadway) or Rumford (20 Newman Ave.) Seven Stars between October 22-November 4 and you'll receive a free small coffee. To help kickstart things, on the first day only they will also throw in a free baked good. All coats will be cleaned by Courtesy Cleaners before donation. You can also drop your coats directly at one of their locations and receive a voucher for your free coffee. Over the past four years Coats for Coffee has donated hundreds of badly needed coats to children and families in need during the chilly winter months. Help us reach this year's goal of over 500 coats this year and you're guaranteed to feel warm all over. More
Shoppers on Thayer Street were surprised this week to learn that Tedeschi Food Shop, a fixture on the street for years, has lost their lease and will be closing at the end of October according to a sign posted on their door. Inventory is not being reordered in anticipation of the approaching closing. An official comment is expected from the store shortly to confirm the store’s departure and final dates of operation.
The real estate broker involved in putting the deal together, Peter Scotti and Associates, was unwilling to confirm the specifics of the transaction until the actual closing, which is anticipated “before the end of the year.” He did say the building will likely be part of a future development project, that it sold for a “big number” and that despite rumors to the contrary, Gilbane is not the purchaser. Bob Gilbane has proposed a large four-story apartment building that will encompass the adjoining block bounded by Thayer, Euclid, Brook and Meeting Streets to the north of Tedeschi.
We’ll share details with you as they become available. More