Rhode Island Feeds

Curt Schilling, 38 Studios, and the February 7th unveiling of the new single-player, role-playing video game ‘Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning’ got a sizable write-up yesterday in the Sunday New York Times — “Take this Mitt, and Pass me the Broadsword.” This may not be the paper of record for the target demographic, but it’s publicity nonetheless.

The funding controversy is mentioned, as is the size of Schilling’s own investment.

Should 38 Studios fail, Rhode Island taxpayers must repay any outstanding debt. (For his part Mr. Schilling, according to The Boston Globe and a Harvard Business School case study, invested $20 million of his own.)

I don’t remember knowing that exact figure — comforting to know he’s got that much skin in the game.

(Review in progress at IGN)

The Bell Gallery and the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Brown University present Optical Noise: American & British Prints/Films from the 1960s-1970s through Tuesday, February 21st.

The works featured in Optical Noise are drawn almost entirely from the Bell Gallery collection. The collection is particularly strong in works on paper, including British and American examples made as part of the print revival of the 1960s and 1970s. A selection of these prints and two related films, which have been lent to this exhibition, are the subject of Optical Noise.

The exhibition features the work of 19 artists, whose pieces are representative of several art movements from the 1960s and 1970s including pop art and photorealism. The objective of this exhibition is neither to challenge nor to replace such well-worn labels, which remain useful for various purposes, but to draw attention to what is shared by these works, specifically what might be called “optical noise.”

Seen here: Andy Warhol, Jacqueline Kennedy II, (1965), screenprint 24 x 30 inches

Free, seven days, through February 21, lobby, Bell Gallery, List Art Center, 64 College Street

Old Testament? New Testament? It must be hard putting fannies in the pews on Super Bowl Sunday.

Prediction — Patriots by a point. Look for Edelman to be a key playmaker.  And look for this post to disappear immediately if my pick turns into some cruelly ironic joke. I just like Edelman.

[Additional comment: No need to dwell on this. BC]

Like Queen Elizabeth, the Crazy Horse revue will be celebrating 60 years of business this year. The similarity ends there. The new documentary “Crazy Horse” directed by Frederick Wiseman is playing now through Thursday at the Cable Car Cinema. Described in the New York Times as,

. . . a behind-the-scenes look at a famous Paris erotic revue (and at quite a few behinds). . . the film takes us into the costume shop and the dressing rooms, where the nakedness of the performers is a matter of fact rather than display. We watch auditions, hearing the physiques of aspiring dancers discussed with unsparing candor, and witness rehearsals where the attention to detail is almost comical. We also greet the customers one evening: a lot of tourists, a lot of couples, a hum of unembarrassed anticipation.

Running time: 2 hours 14 minutes. This film is not rated.

Through Thursday, February 9, Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main Street, 272.3970

The Bell Gallery will host a special performance Saturday by artist Zimoun in the List Art Center. The performance will be followed by a reception, and all are welcome to attend. Zimoun creates what he calls sound architectures, sculptures and installations, often using little cotton balls, dc-motors, and cardboard boxes (as in this earlier piece pictured here). Do yourself a favor and spend just a few seconds listening to the aural results at his website, it comes right up.

Zimoun has a different piece in the ‘Nostalgia Machines’ exhibit (up at Bell Gallery since November) comprising 216 prepared dc-motors and 1.0mm filler wire, which creates a whirring rattle.

The press release does not make at all clear exactly what this performance will involve. But hey, it’s free. So just go and be surprised.

Free Zimoun performance, 8pm, Saturday, February 4, List Art Center, Room 120, 64 College Street

Friday — @the Spot Underground, Route 44, the Agents @AS220, White Load, Hoax, Rampant Decay, Vile Reign @the Salon, Diana Joy, Meager Sunlight, Kolour Kult @Firehouse 13, the Dangerous Summer, Weatherbox, Ten-Second Epic @the Met, Transit, Sleep City, Cassela, Look North

Saturday — @Local 121, Atlantic Thrills, Movers and Shakers @the Spot Underground, Spiritual Rez, the Macrotones @Fête, Tallahassee, Darlingside, Gill Moss @AS220, Vygr, Alkahest, Elder, Songs @the Met, Last One Out, Cosmic Factory, Eight Page, Evil Animals @Firehouse 13, Sirsy, the Can’t Nots

(Photo of Sirsy)

Mayor Taveras calls for urgent action.

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras addressed the residents of Providence, lawmakers and members of the press during a media conference in his office earlier today on the difficult fiscal situation Providence faces. During his remarks, Mayor Taveras warned that without additional sacrifice from the City’s large tax-exempt institutions and retirees, Providence will be pushed closer to the brink.

Mayor Taveras urged Providence residents, business leaders and policy makers to call on the City’s tax-exempts and retirees to share in the City’s sacrifice. He directed residents to visit SavingProvidence.com to join the administration’s efforts to weather the current fiscal crisis.

“As a city, we no longer have the ability to sustain these benefits. It must stop now,” Mayor Taveras said.

Go here to watch video of the press conference and for the text of the Mayor’s statement.  The Mayor announced plans to host a town hall meeting with Providence retirees on Saturday, March 3rd.

What cheer?

On January 7, math teacher Sherry Arnold left her house in the small town of Sidney, Montana to go for an early morning run.  She never made it back home.  Two men have been arrested for her murder, but her body still has not been found.  In her honor, her cousin, Beth Risdon has created a virtual run for Sherry to take place 9am MST (6am EST) on Saturday, February 11th.  It’s free, you don’t have to register, you don’t even have to run, just do something– because you can.

To print off your race BIB, go to Beth’s website.  Pin it to your shirt on February 11th and join the people all over the world who celebrate Sherry’s life and the lives of others who are taken from us too soon.

Toots Zynsky has created one of her unique glass sculptural vessels especially for the annual Gamm Theatre fundraiser. Zynsky is known for her signature “filet-de-verre” technique, shaping fused and thermoformed color glass threads. ‘Soliloquio’ will be on display, along with photos of her other work, at the BankRI Gallery on Pitman Street through February 29th.

Zynsky came to Providence in 1969 to attend the Rhode Island School of Design. At that time, the glass department was in its infancy and Dale Chihuly, now one of the most acclaimed artists in the world, was just a guy with a love of glass and an idea. Zynsky happened upon the glass shop and was instantly enthralled. She experimented with blowing, slumping, casting, and sandblasting glass. In 1971, she, Chihuly and several other artists founded the Pilchuck Glass School on the west coast. Zynsky received a BFA from RISD in 1973. After years abroad she is back living in Rhode Island with a studio in Providence.

‘Soliloquio’ will be auctioned at the Gamm Theatre’s annual fundraiser, the Snow Ball to be held on February 18, 6pm at 65 Blackstone Avenue in Pawtucket. To purchase tickets, call 401.723.4266 ext. 16.

Soliloquio, through February 29, BankRI Pitman Street Gallery, 137 Pitman Street, open seven days

Consider this an open letter to the Providence Journal.

The people of Rhode Island need your newspaper. A lot is at stake here. Imagine what would go on in this state, and in the cities and towns, if the paper were to fold. With all due respect to the great investigative reporting done at the local television stations, the Providence Journal has always been relied upon to take on the long-ranging, in-depth investigations that have ferreted out the entrenched corruption and criminal enterprises that continually plague our state, cities and towns.

We know that with subscriptions dwindling, newspapers have to make money from their online content, but why not just adopt the New York Times paywall model, which charges when a reader crosses a certain threshold of article views? Felix Salmon has written an illuminating piece on this subject for Reuters. Turns out that a somewhat porous paywall system is working just fine for the Times and several other papers as well.  (”How the NYT paywall is working” 8.12.11. I also found another recent Reuters piece very helpful in understanding this issue — “The year of the newspaper paywall” by Clay Shirky, 1.6.12.)

But the current online ProJo set-up, a bifurcated mishmash of mini-reports and hidden content, is confusing and frustrating. Nobody can find anything or link to anything. Just yesterday I sent a link to friends of a video-feature taped on Monday night and posted hours later — and it was wonderful — but the video was swapped out in under 12 hours and has evaporated completely. No archive, nothing. So the link didn’t even connect to the video, it connected to the video space. This just isn’t how people would ever use this.

(Continued after jump.)

Furthermore, bloggers  — and yes, we have some ownership of this problem, but here we are — can no longer send traffic to your site by linking to the articles and opinion pieces. You have disappeared from Google searches completely — whatever the opposite of ’search engine optimization’ is, you’ve got it. Here at the Dose we find ourselves linking to the Providence Business News and even the Boston Globe for local news. Your numbers in this regard must be plummeting.

So I urge you — publishers, editors, and owners — bite the bullet and scrap this model. And please figure this out soon; the thought of Rhode Island without a newspaper is too terrifying to even contemplate.

February is extreme poetry month with the 17th annual Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading this Sunday, Feb 5th at 1pm.
He was brilliant, and really hot.

From the Mayor’s Office,

The City is accepting grant applications for the Dexter Donation Charitable Fund through Friday, February 24, at 4:30pm. The fund, established in 1824 in the will of philanthropist Ebenezer Knight Dexter, provides grants to nonprofit organizations that provide food, clothing, shelter, health care and other services to the citizens of Providence.

Nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations that serve Providence residents are eligible to apply. Faith-based organizations may submit applications for any non-sectarian programs they administer. Proposals will be considered for new or expanded programs, administrative and personnel expenses, the purchase of equipment, costs related to construction, renovation and other capital improvements.

Go here for instructions for submitting a proposal.

The Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies at Brown University announces the third annual Writing is Live: a Festival of New Plays in Progress, a presentation of new works featuring six plays by writers in Brown’s graduate and undergraduate theater programs. Performance writing may take forms complete and incomplete, narrative and imagistic, compact or durational. The festival stresses and plays with the idea of the Live, allowing the development and evolution of new work in conversation with the writer, directors, actors, designers, and audience.

The plays are acted and directed by students in the Brown/Trinity M.F.A. program, Brown University’s undergraduate programs and the community at large. Tickets for all of the festival’s performances are free and available on a first-come, first-served basis at the door half an hour before the curtain. Festival runs February 3rd though February 13th at various locations, go here.

Starts Friday at the Leeds Theatre with Liquorland, written and directed by Laura Colella.

Occupy Providence still draws a crowd in Burnside Park. General Assembly conducted business, passing frat boys swore at us, resolutions were passed and we will meet again on Saturday at Knight Memorial Library. This is not the end, this is the next step.
Mic Check–We’re Still Here

. . . while Rome burns. I am shocked, shocked to discover that the recent President’s video question contest was merely a cynical ploy by Google and YouTube to increase traffic to their sites. Apparently Google pulled the top vote-getting question (posted below) regarding marijuana legalization. Here is a portion of a LEAP statement posted last night,

Today YouTube ignored a question advocating marijuana legalization from a retired LAPD deputy chief of police that won twice as many votes as any other video question in the White House’s “Your Interview with the President” competition on the Google-owned site. They did, however, find the time to get the president on record about late night snacking, singing and dancing, celebrating wedding anniversaries and playing tennis.

The reaction from retired LAPD Chief Stephen Downing, the LEAP board member who posted the question, was reported at Reuters,

“It’s worse than silly that YouTube and Google would waste the time of the president and of the American people discussing things like midnight snacks and playing tennis when there is a much more pressing question on the minds of the people who took the time to participate in voting on submissions. A majority of Americans now support legalizing marijuana to de-fund cartels and gangs, lower incarceration and arrest rates and save scarce public resources, all while generating new much-needed tax revenue. The time to discuss this issue is now. We’re tired of this serious public policy crisis being pushed aside or laughed off.”

Anybody on Google Plus should be leaving today, right now. Why would anyone want to be a part of something this lame? Weddings? Tennis? It’s embarrassing.

A free workshop will be held in the greenhouse of Hope Artiste Village during the Wednesday Wintertime Farmers Market.

Seed Starting will be taught by Laura Brown-Lavoie, Tess Brown-Lavoie and Fay Strongin of Sidewalk Ends Farm. This workshop will help people get a head start on preparing their favorite vegetables and herbs as well as accommodate for those who have limited growing space. The lesson will also provide information on growing sprouts and building your own indoor grow box to start seeds inside. Southside Community Land Trust will be offering free seed packets (lettuce, summer squash, etc.) at this workshop.

Preregistration for the workshop can be done over the phone by calling 401.273.9419, ext. 29, emailing SCLT at amber@southsideclt.org or go to Plant Providence.

Free, 5:30pm to 6:30pm, Wednesday, February 1, Hope Artiste Village, 1005 Main Street, Pawtucket

A question advocating marijuana legalization from a retired LAPD deputy chief of police won twice as many votes as any other video question in the White House’s “Your Interview with the President” competition on YouTube this weekend. President Obama is slated to answer some of the top-voted questions on Monday. The marijuana question was submitted by Stephen Downing, a board member for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). LEAP, of which I am a member, comprises current and former members of the law enforcement and criminal justice communities who are speaking out on the failures of our existing drug policies. Those policies have failed, and continue to fail, to effectively address the problems of drug abuse, especially the problems of juvenile drug use, the problems of addiction, and the problems of crime caused by the existence of a criminal black market in drugs.

For more on the Gallup poll cited by Chief Downing, go here — Record-high 50% of Americans Favor Legalizing Marijuana Use. (Graph after the jump.)

We will report on the President’s response.

Sunday night at AS220, another episode of The Coincidental Hour — “The Future is not as good as it used to be.” The creators of The Coincidental Hour describe it as,

. . . a night of eclectically curated eccentricity, an untraditional cabaret harkening back to the days when this kind of cabaret never occurred because it hadn’t happened until now, and a feast/feat of daredevilish crossings of artistic humanity from in and out of town. Master of ceremonies Ric Royer will be your guide through striking and uncanny occurrences of fun noise, weird films, “performance”, different comedy, word shows, and something to dance to.

Ric Royer has been blessed with theatrical gifts not easily described. But he has in the past demonstrated a very pleasing singing voice while serving up his demented songs of ennui.  He looks the part as well — dissipated, louche, like he’s been up all night. And while that was extremely entertaining, the program on Sunday may yield different rewards altogether. It’s hard to know what he’s describing, but you won’t be bored.

In this episode, Ric gets moody and believes that the good times are dead, but his friends Talibam!, Boxcutter, Diego Perez, Idiot Magnet, the Sarah Reiter Oracle and a cool movie all come over to the Coincidental Hour to try and show him that the good times are in our aheads, not just in our behinds! …but will it work? Laissez les bons temps rouler!

$6, 9pm, Sunday, January 29, AS220, 115 Empire Street

If you haven’t checked out ‘Building Blocks: Contemporary Works from the Collection’ at the Museum of Art, Saturday would be the perfect day. Admission to the RISD Museum on the last Saturday of every month is free.

There’s a lot to like in this exhibit, for instance the 2006 Brian Chippendale installation Home on the Run. Every square inch of this piece is minutely dotted and speckled with paint and pasted with decals, ephemera, and bits of posters — inside and out. He then added a few paintings for visual interest. (How did he know when it was done? Was there some moment in time when he decided that anything more would just be. . . too much?) A SpongeBob lamp suffuses the space in a cozy glow.

Building Blocks runs through Sunday, March 25. Remember, January 28th is a free Saturday, admission is free.

(Photos courtesy of the Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design. The picture at right, taken out the front door, shows Six Towers by Sol LeWitt across the room. Exterior shot after the jump.)

RISD Museum, 224 Benefit Street or 20 North Main Street (hours and admission)

Let’s talk cold patch. No, it is not a Coldplay tribute band (ew, I just threw up a little), cold patch is a type of asphalt that can be applied straight from the container without heating and does not require heavy rolling. It is a quick fix to get us through the winter until the street can get properly repaired. But how to report the potholes?

Turns out there’s an app for that. Jef Nickerson over at Greater City: Providence went on a walkabout yesterday with Mayor Taveras and his press secretary David Ortiz for a demonstration of the City’s new ProvConnex iPhone app (an Android app is in development). From Jef,

The app allows residents (and visitors I suppose if they like) to report a myriad of issues from unshoveled sidewalks, to potholes, to broken street lights and trash strewn lots, and more.

This seems like a great idea, and judging from my experience just taking the above picture, people sure want somebody to report to.

Go to GCP for Jef’s full report and links to the free download. Best of all, Jef has given the app a test drive and has posted a slideshow complete with screenshots, sort of a tutorial really. (Jef has been kind enough to include the phone number as well as a link to the website for reporting these problems for the iLuddites.)