Articles by M
1130 articles found.
Week in Video Giants
Stuck in the Tape Deck If the mediocre 2013 Arnold Schwarzenegger action flick The Last Stand had been released in 2004, …
Caught in Rhode Island
An investigation into how court fees and fines trap low-income Rhode Islanders in poverty
When Roberto Torres appeared in District Court on February 14, 2019, and plead no contest to a reckless driving charge, he …
Keep Your Tongue in its Cage
Protest art and revolution in Kuwait, Sudan, and Egypt
On February 25th, the Kuwaiti government abruptly announced that it would be cancelling a performance by Mashrou’ Leila, a five-member Lebanese …
As Seen From Above
Digital archaeology in Afghanistan
In a dusty, treeless valley south of Kabul, Afghanistan, the ancient walls of Mes Aynak almost blend into the surrounding earth. …
Against Forgetting
Enforced Disappearances, Visual Archives of Loss, and Collective Mourning in Kashmir
Mughal Mase sits at an APDP demonstration, holding a photo of her son. Photo taken as part of a series by …
From The Editors
We received the following letter last week, which felt urgent enough to share: “A fortnight ago a handsome plaque or pennant …
A Friday For Our Future
An interview with the organizers of the Rhode Island Youth Climate Strike
At 11AM on Friday, March 15, hundreds of thousands of students around the world walked out of their classrooms. From London …
Waterlog
On swamps, deserts, and sites of old selves
In Southern Appalachia, the forests have been burying themselves for millennia. The trees collapse where the forest floor puddles: thick floods …
Rendering Deep Time
“Consider the Earth’s history as the old measure of the English yard, the distance from the king’s nose to the tip …
Sealing the Deal
Competing narratives of conservation in the Narragansett Bay
It was not ideal weather for seal watching. The wind coming off of Rome Point was strong and unflagging, pressing against …
Rhode Island is Famous for You
Crimetown, and the problem of Providence's mob narrative
My Italian-American father tells one of our family’s best stories. I heard it again recently after I asked him, mostly in …
From the Editors
There are rotting bunches of kale in our fridges; our floors are still sticky with the residue of melted snow trekked …
Week in Archaic Institutions
Awake, Arise, Or Be Forever Fall’n Wednesday’s vernal equinox heralded the arrival of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, but most of …
Two Stories
Duck Chainsaw Lost Nevada has a red sky but it’s never violent to anyone who’s born there, only the ones that …
Exit Interview with My Grandmother
On 76th between Columbus and Amsterdam, a ninety-two year old woman is reading Sally Rooney
My grandmother serves me small lunches she likes to call gourmet. Ham, whole wheat, mustard, assorted cookies my mother brings my …
Dogs Affixed
Pet taxidermy, cloning, and mourning
At a business meeting, a woman walks my mom into an office and introduces her dog, Chelsea, a black-haired Chihuahua with …
The Individual Uniform
Sartorial representation from the fig leaf to the turtleneck
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable …
Intestines, and How We Were Never Born
I’m five years old, waiting alone in my mom's office at the Zen Buddhist practice center she helps run. I don’t …
There's Still Something in the Water
The Public Health Crisis of Providence's Lead Pipes
The Providence Water headquarters in Lower South Providence is wedged between Mashapaug Pond—contaminated, still, from toxic waste emitted by the old …
From The Editors
‘Twas a brisk March morning. Our collective innards grumbled, as we approached the refectory’s gates. A newsboy, clad in dungarees and …
Building a Bigger Table
A look at Cohen v. Brown and legal battles over Title IX, in athletics and beyond
content warning: sexual assault Lifetime civil rights attorney Lynette Labinger is sharp and confident, sitting across from me in an ornately-decorated …
Survivors Have Said "Me Too"
Now what should their perpetrators say?
content warning: sexual assault “Hey, I have a really serious question for you that hasn’t been addressed ever,” reads the text …
Among the Iguanas
On life and the pursuit of death in Guantánamo Bay
content warning: descriptions of death and torture In Taíno, an indigenous language of the Caribbean islands, Guantánamo means “land between the …
Week in Upgrades
Robots Hit the Rhodes Years from now, in the throes of the Artificial Intelligence Takeover we all know is coming, when …
Captioning Fascism
Memes, misinformation, and political fatigue in Bolsonaro's Brazil
“Don’t worry, everybody, everything will get better after the 2014 World Cup.” This tweet has been immortalized in reaction GIFs, YouTube …
A Lawyer on Broad Street
Providence lawyer José Batista takes on police oversight
The mile-long boulevard of Broadway, in Providence, is a den of lawyers. Over 15 private law offices occupy the hodgepodge of …
"To Hell with the Stadium"
Can building trades and the left find common ground?
At a July 19 Providence City Council hearing, local progressive activists and local construction unions clashed. Chants and shouts from the …
Scenic Depictions of Slavic Life
Building a language of irony in Latvian counter-culture
“The Slav Squat is not just about squatting down—no, no. It is about technique. About showing your Slav levels,” explains YouTube …
Week in Jam
LOST IN TRANSLATION, ONCE AGAIN Ariana Grande, America’s sweetheart as of late, continued our country’s long-standing tradition of getting a tattoo …
#Blocked
Rhode Island politicians keep their constituents in the dark
Rhode Island politicians often struggle to keep their reputations clean, so maybe it isn’t surprising that when officials take to Twitter, …
Overdue Justice
Establishing adequate reparations for the victims from the U.S. Public Health Service S.T.D. inoculation experiments in Guatemala
content warning: torture, gore, sexual abuse The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments were an infamous and unethical series of clinical studies conducted on …
Beyond Screens
In conversation with Khiara Bridges and Virginia Eubanks
content warning: maternal death "I’m literally dying,” Lashonda Hazard posted on Facebook early last month. The otherwise-healthy, pregnant 27-year-old had visited …
Tourist Trap
Geosure tries to build a safer world—but for whom?
I open Geosure and the map populates with nearby scores. There’s a lot of green, implying “low risk.” One of the …
Week in (Mis)communication
LMS for Salvation Pope Francis wants you to know he’s not a regular pope, he’s a cool pope. With the recent …
How Libraries Adapt
American public libraries and the aura of collective interface
In its 2018 and 2019 budget proposals, the Trump administration attempted to cut government funding for the Institute for Museum and …
Striking a Deal
LA teachers push for a more equitable public school system
Standing on the front steps of LA City Hall, Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), shouted into …
What I Learned At Home
The Snakes The garden snakes in New England are harmless. The first one I saw was dead and on our driveway. …
All In
Rhode Island legalizes sports betting
Ronny first came to what is now Twin Rivers Casino in Lincoln, RI—then a race track called Lincoln Downs—when he was …
State of Affairs
Protests build momentum in Sudan and France
Media outlets largely focus on specific moments in time, framing events as singular instances while often ignoring their historical and political …
Dirty Funding
Warren B. Kanders at the Whitney Museum and Brown University
On December 9, 2018, Hyperallergic, an online arts magazine, posted an image of four members of the Fire Department of New …
Week in Digital Drama
"Facebook gains nothing from this meme" If you haven’t deactivated your social media accounts out of fear of breaches in privacy, …
Genetically Pleasing
He Jiankui, CRISPR, and the politics of the human genome
At the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, held in Hong Kong on November 27-29, 2018, the room is buzzing …
Best Rhode Island Tweets of 2018
An Indy Listicle
We never thought the day would come either. At the Indy, we pride ourselves on maintaining the kind of long-form, Leftist, …
Crisis of confidence
Individual accountability and collective reconciliation
This article is the fifth installment of a month-long series, “Through the Muck,” tackling climate change in Rhode Island. Climate change …
Simulated Bodies
How virtual physicalities are changing the landscape of medical education
Medicine is intimate. Beginning from our very first breath, most likely taken inside a hospital room under the watchful eye of …
A (RI)sing tide
How coastal managers and local leaders are grappling with sea level rise in the Ocean State
This article is the fourth installment of a month-long series, “Through the Muck,” tackling climate change in Rhode Island. On a …
Talking Heads
Sinclair and rising conservative influence in RI media
Last March, Frank Coletta and Alison Bologna, anchors at WJAR, the NBC affiliate station in Rhode Island, gave a speech on …
Week in Sad Food
1-800-BUTTERBALL “Alexa, how do I cook a perfect turkey?” This year, for the first time ever, you may have heard this …
Glass House, Shattered
A walkthrough of Philip Johnson’s famed residence
We visited Philip Johnson’s Glass House on a chilly Friday morning in autumn. After multiple failed attempts to reserve a visit …
Safety First — But Wait, There’s More
Juggling multiple interests in the improvements to Kennedy Plaza
Although plans to improve the downtown area have been a topic of conversation in Providence over the past decade, the City …
My Finest Jacket
Reimagining the placenta’s place in our birth narrative
Though addressing the experience of all placenta-bearing folks, I refer to mothers in this piece using she/her pronouns for the sake …
Muckrakers
Forty years ago, student journalists uncovered records of police brutality in Providence
content warning: graphic descriptions of police brutality In 1980, Steve Kohn returned to the offices of the Providence Human Relations Commission, …
Four More
OnceChildhood Dismissing worries quickly—like a professional palm reader, you never and always talk to me about bees, their outlines wasted on …
Four Poems
Harmony in Red I cut my foot at the museum, Walked around afraid Trailing blood I looked at the wall between …
Week in Double Deals
Flushing the Swamp Never in the history of electoral politics has the accusation “My opponent is full of shit” been used …
Tough Love
I came around to Angela Merkel. Now she´s on her way out.
Germany’s historically early exit from the World Cup this year wasn’t the summer’s only national tragedy. Almost immediately following the Nationalelf’s …
No Vacancy
Worrisome real estate trends and the fate of Providence's abandoned properties
The collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market in 2007 sent Rhode Island’s home prices plummeting and forced thousands of families from …
From the Editors
Although we’ve had our differences, I’ve come to appreciate the spells of nostalgia induced by the changing of seasons. A Los …
LEARNING FACES
The uncanny horror of deepfake videos
“Will ‘Deepfakes’ Disrupt the Midterm Election?” reads a recent headline from Wired. Two weeks ago, the New York Times published an …
WHY AM I LONELY FOR LONESOME LOVE?
Emotion and spectacle in Mitski’s Be the Cowboy
I remember a particular moment from my first night on Brown's campus this September when my entire body was enveloped by …
Three Poems
here we collide Worry me at the tail edge of torn seams, Locked into conversation with the neighbors again About the …
The Children Who Leave and the Burden They Carry
Professor, activist, and journalist Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj on her commitment to justice and fighting for Indigenous communities in Guatemala
content warning: state violence, racism “They leave because they want to break the curse that steals their dreams the moment they …
Week in Puppets
DANCE LIKE NOBODY'S WATCHING “This is interpretive dance—also known as Mooch Moves—for my time in the White House.” Last Monday, the …
Data Democracy
Big Data and the pitfalls of targeted campaigning
At a typical phone banking meeting, volunteers cluster around a table or two. They all go to the website that hosts …
Beyond the Candidates
An independent midterms rundown
Here we thread together national stories, revealed not through House or Senate races, but through ballot measures and referendums, speaking to …
Through the Muck
Introducing an Indy series on climate change in RI
We have no idea how to think about climate. Over-dramatized headlines responding to last month’s United Nations IPCC report yell at …
Items I Lost or Else Forgot While Moving Through
Mourning and melancholia in their transit
“Think of a word, any word. Let’s try coconut.” My old friend whose parents named her after a citrus gives me …
Walking on Eggshells
Tlatelolco, UNAM, and Mexico's resurgent student movement
content warning: state violence, gore, gender violence I am WhatsApping my friend Carolina on a Wednesday night in early October in …
My Professor told me that since the Beginning of Time Humanity has been concerned about Daisy
This Poem Has Been Written Before on october 2018 in the united states of america
Don’t sing love songs, you’ll wake my mother She’s sleeping here right by my side And in her right hand a …
Week in Stunts
ACCIDENTAL ALTERCATIONS In a dramatic reveal last Wednesday, Rhode Island’s very own Joe Trillo acknowledged that yes, okay, he may have …
War Of Performance
Spectatorship and combat in Fortnite: Battle Royale
This summer, in Kazan, Russia, France’s veteran striker Antoine Griezmann stepped up to the penalty spot to score the first goal …
Fight to Table
A Pittsburgh international eatery and its politics
Dawn Weleski is a Pittsburgher. She talks fast and with a purpose, was “raised on pierogis and pulaski noodles,” and has …
Yankees Go Home
US approaches to the Venezuelan crisis
“America stands with every person living under a brutal regime,” claimed President Trump in his proclamation declaring National Hispanic Heritage Month …
Hotsauce, Honey, and Jam
It’s the Saturday night championship game for the Providence Roller Derby League, and excitement is running high. “Hips Don’t Lie” by …
We Don't Live in That Kind of World
Revisiting Thelma and Louise in the second “Year of the Woman”
content warning: sexual violence Last week, we hosted a dozen women at our house for a screening of Thelma and Louise. …
The Burden of Proof
Dr. Ford, #MeToo, and what we ask from survivors
content warning: sexual assault There were moments in Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s questioning last week when I had to close my …
Critically Making a Campus
RISD’s Prov-Wash gets a new look, but for whom?
“Have you been? It’s very space-agey,” I overheard in my first week back in Providence. 20 Washington Place, better known to …
Week In Running
Uptown Rats, Not So Whitebread World Billy Joel pointed out that the differences between the girls of the Upper East Side …
Communicating Through Taste and Text
Cake fixes everything (I hope)
Prompted by a request from her parents, Rachel Gelmis received an optional drug test from her Alabama high school. As reported …
Do You Even Rift?
Hellnoser Forums Rifter discussion and community news. We can deal with demons, but don’t be a dick. --- Quick Guides for …
The Urban Landscape Re-imagined in Wood
A humble building material soars to new heights
It is a rare and special occasion when a truly novel building material is made widely available for commercial use. The …
Baked
Because bread is fundamental
There is a dichotomy surrounding bread, and this is especially true in the United States. Cultures all across the globe consume …
The Wizard Behind the Wall
Rhode Island Democrats' turbulent year
Last week’s Democratic primaries in Rhode Island capped a year defined by party dysfunction and statehouse discord. The state party followed …
David in the Forest
I used to have eggs and toast for breakfast. That was great because I’d go to bed each night thinking about …
Vocalizing Whiteness
Reversing Minstrelsy in Sorry To Bother You and BlacKkKlansman
Within a week of Spike Lee’s autobiographical drama BlacKkKlansman being released, Boots Riley, director of absurdist dark comedy Sorry to Bother …
Urban Birding
Do e-scooters herald an electrified micro-mobility revolution?
On March 27, 2018, Travis VanderZanden, founder and CEO of Bird Rides Inc., released an open letter to the CEOs of …
The House on Keene Steet
College Hill reads the zoning code
Along College Hill’s Keene Street, identical teal blue signs placed in nearly every yard point to a street united. Unlike other …
When Yes Means No
On the violence waged despite of, and through, consent
Four years ago, institutions of higher education across the country began switching out “No Means No” for a “Yes Means Yes” …
Private Eyes
Cambridge Analytica and the new frontier of internet privacy
This past month, Cambridge Analytica has made its way into our consciousness and, for those of us unfortunate enough to be …
The Human Gaze
Photography, objectivity, and the National Geographic Twins
This April, National Geographic published an issue dedicated entirely to the subject of race. On the cover was a photograph of …
Missing the Mark
The reality of the gun control debate in Rhode Island
On April 10, hundreds of people packed the galleries of the RI State House. As the House Judiciary Committee voted to …
Means to a Beginning
The stakes of academic freedom in the context of the Palestine/Israel conflict
On Thursday, March 8, the Brown Middle East Studies department hosted a panel discussion titled “Permission to Speak: Boycott and Politics …
Week in Unrequited Love
Say No to Marriage According to relationship guru magazine, Cosmopolitan, one in four women will turn down a marriage proposal in …
The Shame of the Cities
Renderings, reality TV, and obsessive urbanism
There’s an image of the proposed Providence streetcar that keeps me up at night. It depicts the corner of Empire and …
The Women Who Remember
On matriarchs and memory
content warning: sexual violence Someday your memory will leave the inside of my eyelids and I promise you will not exist …
Priced Out
DARE's fight for rent stabilization
Federal Hill couple Butch and Madonna Trottier, aged 78 and 76 years old respectively, spent three months of the past year …
Week in Hot Takes
With Flying Colors When Nick Burchill arrived at Victoria’s Fairmont Empress hotel in April, 2001, he was carrying a suitcase full …
From the Editors
One of the unfortunate, burgeoning traditions of the Trump administration seems to dictate that April is the month we rediscover the …
Walks
My slanted strides put pressure forward Air in the space where we fog (our windows) collapsing downhill Letter paper folds over …
In the Mind of the Mall
Consumer mazes, online and off
I got lost trying to go see what it’s like to get lost in an American mall—the hallmark of teen movies, …
Night of the Four Moons
Crumb, Lorca, and Harmony with Space
Every US president since the 1970s has announced some new plan to send humans back into space. Besides ‘inspiring millions,’ those …
Week in Facebook
Analog Apology Much to the surprise of everyone, Mark Zuckerberg apologized to humanity last week for the harm he has caused …
A Threatening Isolation
An evolution of attitudes toward bacteria in research and medicine
Alone in an agar dish, an E. coli bacterium lives just as it would in the bowels of a dog or …
Set in Stone
Examining the stakes of transnational monuments
In 2016, the National Park Service, the National Capital Planning Commission, and the Van Alen Institute launched “Memorials for the Future,” …
Who is Deemed Worthy
How America has delegitimized Black youth activism
On February 20, nearly a week after the Parkland High School shooting, 100 students from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School …
"Hold Fort for Love Forever"
Björk’s Utopia, and ours
It’s November 2017, and I’m shuffling through wintry New England weather, the chill biting through my half-zipped parka. I am aware …
Love is an Empty Theme Park
Notes on this season of The Bachelor
For the past few months, my friends and I watched The Bachelor almost every week. We said we were doing this …
Summer After Moonlight
On why we are glad Call Me By Your Name didn’t win Best Picture
Queer films represent a break from mainstream cinema, which is usually intent on depicting heterosexual romance. In the past few years, …
Week in Growing Industries
Reasons to Lyft After a long Saturday night and a few too many tequila shots, sometimes the only thing the uninhibited …
Breaking Time
An interview with novelist Max Winter
Max Winter does not know why he was fired from the Brown Bookstore two weeks after Exes, his novel, was bought …
Bodies of the Water
The Bogotá River and Tequendama Falls
Pollution Two great floods are burned into my memories of those days. Memory, for a child immigrant, often feels like a …
Imagining the Black Cowboy
Recovering an alternative history of the West
On a Wednesday afternoon, I’m sitting in the conference style classroom of my workshop in front of a dark wood table …
Selling Small
(Mis)Adventures in branding the Ocean State
In March 2016, Rhode Island made an ill-fated foray into the wild world of state-branding. Lawmakers put $5 million into the …
Without Report
Tension following allegations in Rhode Island schools
content warning: sexual and racial violence in schools. In July 2016 the Rhode Island General Assembly made a change to the …
Our Collective Resistance
AMOR's rapid response to state violence
Lincoln, Rhode Island resident Lilian Calderon never returned home on January 17. While attending a routine check-in meeting with Immigration and …
Week in Unwanted Commodities
Repent, Reuse, Recycle “For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” This is the Genesis verse heard around the …
Carnivore
Sometimes I lie on the bed and my body lists towards your softer side and I pretend that it is your …
Blender
Bio/digital computation and flucuations of form
I. Forest The peat bogs and flooded fens of Northern Rhode Island are rich entanglements, marshy lands where matter collides with …
In the Meantime
Providence public school students circumvent a doomed architecture
When Alice Rayner was a senior in high school, they wrote a blog post for “the Purple Pages,” a Tumblr account …
Five Ring Activism
NOlympics LA and global resistance to the Olympic Games
In 1932, while millions of unemployed Americans waited in breadlines, Los Angeles hosted the Olympics for the first time. Leading up …
Untitled Poem About Nazbol
*** yekaterina volkova: singer, actress, former lover of eduard limonov back in his day he dedicated many poems to her they …
The Veil and What It Holds
Beyond a cultural relativist perspective
Rising nationalist sentiments in Western countries have put religious freedom under attack. With President Trump placing a ban on the entry …
Bread, Slowly, Painstakingly
I’ve started talking about bread like some people talk about finding a particularly inspiring spinning instructor. Nobody talks about finding religion, …
A Future You Can Believe In
China and the advent of the Social Credit System
Every internet user leaves crumbs of data behind—clicks, scrolls, advertisement views, website visits, location check-ins—a mountain of information, compounding every day. …
No LNG in PVD
Utility justice in South Providence and Washington Park
Monica Huertas is a community activist and mother of four. She lives in Lower South Providence, and the health of her …
FTE
This past weekend, a flyer mounting racist and xenophobic attacks against city residents appeared in mailboxes and doorways across the East …
Week in Civil Disobedience
#CHRISTIESTILLHATESTRANSPORTATIONLAWSGATE Four years after #Bridgegate flooded Twitter, Chris Christie’s name is once again under fire over a gate scandal. Then, it …
From Molding to Demolding
Musings on casting, the Internet, and the things in between
The below diagram is a non-comprehensive illustration of a casting procedure. Casting commences by wrapping a blanket of material around a …
The Railroad Lie
Trains and nostalgia
In a May 1867 letter to the San Francisco Alta California, Mark Twain wrote: “A railroad is like a lie—you have …
Civil Death
RI statute removes civil rights from incarcerated people with life sentences
In his cell at the Rhode Island Department of Corrections, Richard Paiva has slept without winter clothing and in unsanitary living …
Greener on the Other Side
Climate justice activists hold California Governor accountable at world summit
The group members, huddling together in the German winter, have banners strewn across their shoulders. Unfurled only moments ago, their messages …
Week in Post-Apocalypse
A Fizzling Housing Market Like a specter haunting Middle America, the remnants of Cold War industry are making for a strange …
The Trials of Odysseus and Me but Mostly Me
Perhaps it was the milk of the moon I drank tonight. Rivers poured vehemently. Poseidon. The sea was not as cold …
Vinegar, not Jam
A magical, maximalist artist
“The Two of Swords! This card is something to fear. It means stability, equilibrium. Of course! I’m fucking terrified of stability,” …
Embody
I spend the first week of May writing about bodies. I sit at library desks for two hours at a time …
Vision Machines
Apocalypse & virtual deterrence in Southland Tales
content warning: suicide The world never quite ends in Southland Tales. When a nuclear detonation interrupts an idyllic suburban afternoon in …
A Constructed Divide
Puerto Rican migrants and the future of a people
There are few things more difficult to talk about, even fewer to be hopeful about, than the future of my island. …
PrEP Failure
Drugs and stigma in the ‘post-AIDS’ era
content warning: homophobia, racism In February of this year, several media outlets picked up a story about a gay man in …
Eat Up
Thoughts on the body horror of Raw
content warning: gore, eating disorder Before it hit the US, Julia Ducournau’s debut film Raw generated early buzz for its allegedly …
Edges and Borders
New luxury student housing on Canal Street
Rhode Island is building. New residential projects are popping up all over the state, but the bulk of development is concentrated …
Week in Royalty
Purple Reign This week’s saddening use of zeugma ([zoog-ma] noun: a figure of speech in which a word applies to two …
FTE
She told me: you remind me of my daughter. She told me: clean a wool coat with ice cold water. She …
No Clashes
One genealogy of state violence
content warning: sexual violence, suicide “To my daughter I will say, when men come, set yourself on fire.” –Warsan Shire, Teaching …
Breaking Bonds
Countering legislative violence against women in the Middle East and North Africa
content warning: abuse, rape, suicide Last April, on Beirut’s seaside promenade, wedding dresses billowed in the wind. The dresses were torn, …
The Lights Coming Down
An oral history of Aurora
If you live in Providence, it is likely that you have attended an event at Aurora at some point during its …
Spaghetti Masala
Learning (from) recipes
I’m planning to make a batch of dal this weekend. The fall weather in Providence makes me want to stir something …
After Warhol
Expanding curating practices at the RISD Museum
In contemporary depictions of museum, galleries are often conceived of as very sterile spaces. Manicured white walls like those at New …
Mt. Hope is Pokanoket
TheIndependentreceived this joint statement by Students and Alumni for Po Metacom Camp (SAPMC) and the Providence chapter of the Progressive Student …
Unidos por Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican efforts in Rhode Island after Hurricane Maria
Belen Florez’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing last Tuesday. Nearly every five minutes, the screen of the cordless phone of JP Foley …
Week in Bittersweet Bites
A Star Dies in “Holy Wood” Hugh Hefner is dead. He died of chronic old age on September 27 at the …
Synthetic Lovers
Love Dolls in companionship and subjugation
The supple texture of its simulated flesh yields to my fingers of flesh and blood. Gaze fixated upon something in the …
Mi Puerto Rico
The Cuban writer and revolutionary José Martí coined the term= “patria es humanidad”––homeland is humanity. After Hurricane María hit my island, …
Solarpunk
On the aesthetics of optimism
In 1984, William Gibson published his seminal cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer. The novel was a transformative event, and not only because it …
Week in Bad Progress
Chronicles of Nambia It was a busy week of making peace, making deals, and making enemies. With a flourish of a …
The Naked Dead
How the Haitian zombie was stripped of its meaning
content warning: slavery, racial violence, sexual violence “Your grandmother has always operated by her own logic.” This is how my father …
Defending DACA
What you need to know: On September 5, 2017, President Trump announced his decision to phase out Deferred Action for Childhood …
Week in Lifestyle Improvement
Aw Shucks Since when has keeping up with the internet age meant automating oyster consumption? I don’t know. But apparently it …
Poems from the Series Postcards for Mira
“It’s 8:54 a.m. in Brooklyn it’s the 26th of July and it’s probably 8:54 in Manhattan but I’m in Brooklyn” -Ted …
Hard Coding
DNA, digital storage, and the matter of memory
The world is beset by a global hunger for memory. SD memory cards, solid state drives, CD-ROMs, reels of magnetic tape—these …
An Artist's Contract
Visions toward a more just art economy
On May 17th, New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s piece Untitled was bought at auction for $110.5 million. The painting, sold at …
Blood Burden
Pursuing justice for all menstruating bodies
content warning: sexual assault, incarceration, anti-trans violence The tampon tax will not die. In 2015, when President Obama was asked by …
Week in the Munchies
KIDDIE MEAL It was 7PM, supper had come and gone, and our hero’s tummy had the rumblies, the phantom taste—his favorite …
Unusual Suspects
New characters in skincare
In the opening monologue of the 2000 film American Psycho, investment banker Patrick Bateman explains his morning skincare routine, which includes …
Beneath the Surface
Imagining a future for the unclaimed dead on Hart Island
content warning: state violence On March 31, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio backed a ten year plan to close …
At The Presiding Moment
US media’s coverage of Trump’s strike in Syria
In the wake of last Thursday’s supposedly retributive airstrike against the Syrian Army and Bashar al-Assad, the Trump administration’s actions were …
Week in Intractability
GETTIN’ EDEN The setting: a former World War II training ground in rural Scotland. The objective: to create a new society …
Farm to Bargaining Table
The farmworker fight against exploitation by fast food
“Wendy’s, escucha la voz del pueblo porque nosotros somos el pueblo y nosotros demandamos justicia,” farmworker Lupe Gonzalo announced to a …
Politics Down Under
Renegotiating Australian-Chinese Partnerships
On Tuesday, March 28, after weeks of warming relations with The People’s Republic of China, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull abruptly …
Week in High School
LET GRANDMA GO TO PROM Prom is an eternal category, cutting across boundaries of time and space. Prom has no age. …
thunderstorms mock me and so does the concrete
(for 3 days i have known but expected nothing) i watched every minute bring itself in fractions i waited 15, (but …
A Survey on Breaking Bonds
Causeries on science and environment
Colored Collars I saw a sign from the Farm Equipment Association of Minnesota and South Dakota while browsing a gardening thread …
White Wall
A call to action
On the corner of Benefit and College Streets, it would be easy to glance over the Radeke Façade, which looks like …
Las Niñas de Guatemala
State crime, femicide, and a blaze at a children’s home
Quiero, a la sombra de un ala, contar este cuento en flor: la niña de Guatemala, la que se murió de …
Term
I. October After the eviction, we returned to the old house once more to collect the dishes we had left in …
Word of Mouth
Pauline was always calling her boss in the middle of biology class. “Okay, okay,” she would say, and I imagined her …
Sunken Places
The embodied horror of Get Out
content warning: anti-Blackness, misogynoir “I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be …
Week in Clothing Betrayal
NO GUARDIAN ANGELS The trials of master illusionist Criss Angel have been manifold. He once spent 24 hours inside a phone …
Quarters
(Excerpt from “On Currency”)
Oftentimes, people tell women not to wander off. When we are small, they mean to stay in the yard, and now …
All Fun and Games
Embodiment, empathy, and combat in e-sports
Upton, New York, 1958. Engineer physicist William Higinbotham repurposes one of Brookhaven Laboratory’s military computers, giving birth to the first video …
Week in Animal Disasters
NUCLEAR MELTDOWN IS (NOT) A BOAR It’s safe to say that the weather has been wrong these days on planet Earth. …
Keeping the Fire With Us and the Resistance in Us
Reflections on the #NoDAPL movement
In response to the proposed construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in April 1, 2016, owned by Energy Transfer Partners, L.P., …
In Defense of My Dead Clown
And why it is hidden (with permission) in an unopened box in a janitor's closet somewhere on campus
content warning: racism, death, gore I will tell my story as truthfully as possible. I can in no way justify my …
Glass Coffins
Body Worlds in the twilight of storytelling
“Love-hate for the body colors the whole of modern culture. The body is scorned and rejected as something inferior, enslaved, and …
Impatience
Negotiating time in the clinic
In February 2015, seven months before his death, the late neurologist and author Oliver Sacks published an essay in the New …
Something More Than Money
A community against Achievement First expansion
In the courtyard that joins Classical and Central High Schools off Westminster Street, Classical student and Providence Student Union activist Jayleen …
Week in X-Files
THE DA VINCI POD At a time when it looks like so many fundamental American institutions are at risk, perhaps we …
Sex and Its Discontents
The Indy weighs in...
What’s your advice for when you feel too disgusted by your own body to have sex with someone even though you …
Said and Saying
A conversation with poet Ariana Reines
When I reach Ariana Reines on the phone, the first thing she asks me is where I’m calling from. It’s a …
Growing Up
Vertical Farming from top to bottom
The farms of tomorrow will be food-factories built in skyscrapers. Plants will be grown, layer upon layer, with assembly-line efficiency. Sensors …
Crossing the Border
Germany's open door begins to close
“Wir schaffen das,” insisted Chancellor Angela Merkel in late August of 2015 when she announced Germany’s open door policy to welcome …
Week in Superlikes
FIRST DATE IN A DUNKIN’ DONUTS America loves an underdog. The New England Patriots are not an underdog. But Providence, RI …
Skeletons in the Water
The health of Earth's oceans
Earth’s oceans are much like human bodies. In the quest to maintain homeostasis, our bodies and oceans strive to resolve any …
Marching Toward Inclusivity
Can we have a Women’s March for everyone?
“We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us,” reads the Mission Statement for …
Week in Interpretive Resistance
PUNCH A NAZI, TAZE A COP? There may be many occasions in the coming four years where it seems fitting to …
Know Your Earth
The Necessity of Earth Science Literacy: Two Perspectives
In the weeks following the election, a few subjects have generated more interest than others, such as a purported Muslim registry …
El Comandante Has Died
Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban Revolution, died last Friday. His brother, Raúl Castro, currently the head of the Cuban government, …
Boxed In
Ending Solitary Confinement in Rhode Island
Content warning: mental illness and suicide “It’s like being buried alive,” stated an inmate incarcerated in a solitary unit at Rhode …
Week in Apologies
PUN-DER ROAD Bruce’s steed had never failed him before. Springsteen trusted the motorcycle, built for him piece by piece by his …
Microbe Culture
A conversation with Sandor Katz
Using some of Sandor Katz’ fermentation recipes, I’ve cooked up Sweet Potato Fly, Ginger Bug, and Rice Beer. Hailing from rural …
Holding Ground
Defending a home in Palestine
When asked what her family will do if the army demolishes the village, Soraya, 16, hesitates: “We’ll go to Yatta,” she …
Corrupted Installation
Protecting privacy under the 45th president
When Donald J. Trump assumes the presidency on January 20, he will be stepping into an office whose powers have swelled …
The Good Death
Reframing the burden of medical death in America
cw: racial violence and erasure The Order of the Good Death was formed in Los Angeles in January 2011, by the …
How We Are Feeling This Week
How I Feel I like to think that I came here because I wanted to and not because my country expelled …
Houseworks
Exploring the limits of the home
Mall-House In 2003, artist and RISD graduate Michael Townsend devised a plan to create a luxury apartment in a 750-square-foot space …
International Art Spam
Specimen: The Artist’s Museum begins with the impulse to collect and connect, bringing together large-scale installations, photography, film, and videos that …
An Abbreviated Timeline of Voting in Rhode Island
After a year that’s felt a little like an episode of Survivor, featuring older contestants and more liberal use of spray …
Protectors, Protestors, and Privilege
On law enforcement disparities between Standing Rock and Oregon
On October 27, the arrival of military tanks abruptly interrupted the prayers of water protectors at the Sacred Stone Camp in …
Week in Election Prep
DUMB-SHINE STATE If there is anything we’ve learned to expect from a presidential election year, it is that Florida will inevitably …
Simple Properties
A favorite bookstore has been marked “Permanently closed.” The taco place on the corner has a new photo. The geo-locational marker …
The Grass Isn't Greener
Fertilized, chemically manipulated, frequently mowed, regularly watered and generally adored, the lawn and its upkeep are sites and sources of both …
Week In Alt-Right
@JESUS An effective way to schematize nascent changes in conservatism in the United States, namely what one might call the transition …
Putting the Cart Before the Horse
Colombia's would-be peace deal
On September 26, media attention shifted to the city of Cartagena on Colombia’s Atlantic coast. There, 15 heads of state, along …
Playing Around
Olneyville’s Manton Avenue Project transports students to the stage
Two sister birds stand on the stage of AS220’s blackbox theater. The elder sister, Redy Red, tells her younger sister, Flicky …
Week in Creeps
FRIGHT NIGHT Children of the night and survivors of the early aughts emo phase, take heart. Instead of sitting on your …
Cakes and Ale
I was sitting in the bathroom of downtown Providence’s Parkside Rotisserie & Bar, hyperventilating and fighting back tears. My waiter had …
City Limits
Burial and play in Copenhagen’s mourning grounds
A pickup soccer match ends abruptly after a hastened, “oopf!” as the juggled ball bounces upon a flattened headstone. Wrapped tightly …
Zona Privada
Private Police Violence in Perú’s Northern Highlands
In the face of nearly ubiquitous state violence, campesinxs (rural farmers) in Perú are questioning the presence of hired police. “Están …
Week in Extreme Sports
LIZARD LIPS First the Jesus Christ lizard runs on water, now this? The lizards are taking over y’all. In the most …
The Horchata Man
My papa lived to bring happiness with his horchata. Everyday he made barrels of it to serve to his family and …
Changing Our Skies
Atmospheric geoengineering and the future
Pollution sunsets, with their exquisite range of reds, may soon be intentionally created. As humans continue to influence the climate of …
Against the Pipeline, the Standing Rock Struggle
An interview with Jennifer Weston
The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is a 1,100-mile pipeline under construction by Energy Transfer Partners, slated to carry a half million …
Breath(e)
A conversation with Ronald Lewis of the Low Mountaintop Collective
Ronald Kevin Lewis is a theater artist, dancer, poet-performer, and child of god whose group, The Low Mountaintop Collective, is performing …
Food Desk
Notes on Providence Eateries
In Ferno (S Water St.) This hot spot burns. Providence and Italiano go together like an apple and knowledge. That people …
Close Listening
Privacy, Security, and an Open Records Requet
During an immobilizing snowstorm in 2014, residents of Johnston, Rhode Island could watch through their foggy windows as military-grade Humvees drove …
Williams Street
winter Since L started noticing the house shaking in the mornings and at night, like the floor is trying to unshudder …
Super Prospects?
The future of 111 Westminster, PayPal, and RI subsidies
A steel frame—tethered 50 feet underground—and granite base form the foundation for Providence’s iconic historical tower: the Industrial Trust Building, commonly …
Week in the Singularity
FREEZE FRAME For those of you who still get your news from alt weeklies, you may not have heard the iPhone …
A Tough Pill to Swallow
Big Pharma and the brand name bubble
At the end of August, the pharmaceutical company Mylan made headlines for raising the cost of the EpiPen to over $300. …
To Those Weaving Miracles from Duct Tape, Spinning Gold from Broken Records, Conjuring Love
A Graduation Speech
I wrote this in May, four days before my graduation from Brown University, and delivered it at the Africana Studies Department …
Lore
I. At one time or another, I guess I’ve been in love with all my friends. This is what Judith Butler …
Week in Bad Public Relations
DOUBLE DOUBLE TWITTER TROUBLE When considering whether or not to take a day off of school or work, most of us …
Duterte's Shabu Nightmare
Drugs and Death in the Philippines
At a dinner celebrating his victory, President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, elected in May, had this to say about drug …
Advice
How do I prepare for the real world? M: I recommend that you buy organic shampoo. We’re beginning to find that …
Thoughts on the Two
“It’s important to have shitty relationships in high school” my friends often say, in order to learn from them, learn how …
Cognates
Romantic forays into comparative linguistics
Español Spanish is my mother tongue (la lengua de mi madre). She tried to teach me when I was young with …
Week in Strange Bedfellows
Rights at Risk Controversy is swirling around the recent election by the Russian parliament of Tatyana Moskalkova to the position of …
Decriminalize Driving
Bill H-7610 and the Fight for Undocumented Rights
On March 25, the Rhode Island State House rattled. The halls, lined with portraits of the state’s sternest founding fathers, echoed …
Week in American Exceptionalism
Rock the Vote In what is perhaps the most unexpected political power couple to emerge in 2016, failed Republican and Democratic …
Late Lunch
On the third and fourth floors of an old revival building in the southern tip of Bombay lives an institution so …
The Milk Myth
Mapping Dairy, Forging Intolerance
As a child, I vividly remember avoiding a bowl of fermenting mare’s milk at the foot of our kitchen pantry. So …
Pain Killers
Opioid Use and Overuse in Rhode Island
“We have a public health crisis that cannot be resolved by the criminal justice system.” July 9, 2015: Dr. Peter Karczmar, …
Disintegration
There was a tree, and from its bare branches hung bells, wine glasses,chandelier crystals, whistles, and lanterns. The hunched tree, with …
Spaces We Might Not Have Inhabited
Fragments on Ambient Media
“This which yields or fills / All space, the ambient air wide interfus’d” –John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667) The term ‘ambient …
Week in Campaigning
Getting Colder Rhode Island kicked off its new tourism campaign last week only to face immediate international ridicule, accusations of financial …
On Being Lost
Field Notes from an Exploration of the Rhode Island Craigslist’s Lost and Found Page Somebody found a tool bag in Cranston, …
Berta Cáceres, Presente
Indigenous Resistance and Repression in Honduras
On the morning of March 5, the streets of the small Honduran town of La Esperanza woke up to the sounds …
Journalism From The Margins
Requiem for Al Jazeera America
Al Jazeera America has bitten the dust. On February 26, 2016, with all operations slated to close by April 30, 2016, …
Week in Modern Warfare
Protocols and Transgressions On the night of March 1st two Israeli Defense Force troops found themselves in the Palestinian refugee camp …
The Lab
A Story of Compression
The glass wool flies towards the vacuum in the back of the fume hood in futility—a constant regular nuisance caused by …
The Right to Power
Fighting For Utility Justice In Rhode Island
“I want to make sure that National Grid will pay for my funeral please. Make sure that they will pay for …
Week in Rebranding
Black is the Meanest Color Stand before his Cloud Gate in Chicago and watch your reflection twist across its curved surface, …
Who Cares?
Medicine and Colonial Modernity
In the mid-1800s, when cholera was killing people by the thousands in South Asia, British historian and member of the Indian …
Cannon Cloth
Thoughts on T-Shirt Guns
Walk into any Goodwill and you can find an anthology of cotton t-shirts that span a certain American experience. There’s Megan’s …
Week in Overreactions
Precious Memes The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, thought it would simply be another case of swiftly repressed political satire. …
Humble Abodes
In Conversation with Charles Simonds
In his 1976 fictive ethnographyThree Peoples, New York-based sculptor Charles Simonds imagined the building practices of three civilizations governed by different …
Mindful Bodies
Bringing Mindfulness to PVD Schools
Find your mindful body. Find an anchor for your breath. Close your eyes. These are the instructions that Shannon Smith, a …
Bear With Me
Salvation, Sobriety, and Salmon in the Alaskan Bush
Tick, tick, tick went the wristwatch found by Willy Fulton. This is not a story about Willy Fulton, or the wristwatch, …
Providence College Protests
A Local Struggle Against Systemic Racism
At 8:30am on Tuesday, February 16, a group of student activists, predominantly students of color, gathered in room 218 of Harkins …
Machine Guns to Olive Branches
Colombia Imagines Peace Once Again
Last week, Colombia and the United States celebrated the fifteen year anniversary of Plan Colombia. This program, often heralded as the …
Is it the Canvas or the Painter?
Poetry's Machine Age
This anatomy Of extraordinary names Where did it come from? The poem is not what you think. This haiku was crafted …
Something's in the Water
Lead Poisoning in Rhode Island
Several men huddled around a fire hydrant late on a recent winter night. They were workers with Providence Water, a state-regulated …
Fly Pirates
The Global Politics of M.I.A, Soccer, and Jerseys
Those who are familiar with the singer/musician M.I.A., born Mathangi Arulpragasam, know that she presents a certain air of unfuckable-with-ness. This …
Ascent
Watching Scientific Interests Grow Over Time
Yellow petals surprise the curious amidst the sea of Kentucky Blue. My family doesn’t quite understand why I stare out of …
Documentary Analysis
The PDF, the STL, and the Future of Documentation
In an early effort to digitize their libraries’ vast archive of texts and documents, the archivists and librarians of MIT began …
$HORT-¢HANGED
The Language of the Financial Crisis
Vocabulary Short When someone “shorts” a security, they are betting that it will fall in value at some point after the …
Whose Buddy?
Remembering Providence's Infamous Mayor
A corrupt Machiavellian bully, a benevolent populist, a talk radio personality, a marinara-sauce entrepreneur, a meme—rarely does a local politician acquire …
Dear Indy...
I am in a friendship that has become really frustrating and unfulfilling. I really just can’t do it anymore. How do …
Thrown Under the Bus
RIPTA Revokes No-Fare Passes
“RIPTA helps seniors get out and be more active, a good way to feel better about life.” Thus begins a video …
Last Month in Oregon
White Terrorism and Colonial Dispossession
On Tuesday, January 26th, FBI and Oregon State Police officers finally arrested armed militants, including brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy, who …
Week in Deliveries
Come, Gone Turlock residents are wondering if the tennis elbow was worth it. Turlock sits smack in the middle of the …
Black Boxes and Black Mirrors
A black box is a unit, a unified system, or a discrete object which takes inputs and produces outputs but whose …
Predator and Prey
On the Brief Life and Instant Death of Internet Hunting
In early 2005, Internet entrepreneur John Lockwood hooked a .30/06 rifle up to an improvised electronic rig and wired the contraption …
Empire, Limited
Writing in Transience
Amtrak’s Empire Builder train departs from Chicago Union Station, arcing northwest along the border with Canada and passing through Milwaukee, St. …
Week in Companions
Dogs Good Almost every week, there is a new Dog Study. These reports, compiled by some of the finest researchers in …
If These Walls Could Talk
Devin Costa Exposes the Lonely
Loneliness was there before he wrote it. In the vacant buildings, the downtown parking lots, the abandoned streets. It was there …
Inside / Outside
I. Digest, verb from the verb digerere, from di‘apart’ + gerere ‘carry’; noun from digestus ‘divided.’ II. The process of digestion …
Week in Bureaucracy
Cable Cabals In the early 1950s, as the Cold War began to chill, the US laid thousands of miles of cable …
About a Rock
If you grew up on the island, you called it The Rock. To use it in a sentence: “I can’t wait …
The Other Earth
Young Thug and the New Affects of Afrofuturism
In a video posted online this September, French journalist Mouloud Achour (from Clique TV) and rapper Young Thug are sitting on …
Aim for the Stars
Yelp Reviewers Take On Providence
Yelp is the democratic scream. Rate the restaurant, the local record store, the dental hygienist. People love your advice—from Yelp, we …
Trace, Body, and Care
Into the Performance Archive with Joan Jonas
May was something of an event for American performance art. On the occasion of the 56th edition of the Venice Biennale, …
Off Target Ethics
Drone Warfare and Its Legitimation
On October 15, news outlet The Intercept released four classified documents that detail the Obama administration’s use of unmanned aerial vehicles …
Points of View
An Interview with Chang-rae Lee
It’s hard to believe that Chang-rae Lee fell into writing by accident and as a second career. He possesses a unique …
Forgotten Worlds
Neglect and Fragility at the Ends of the Earth
Drifting Seaward Somewhere out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is a giant floating garbage patch. But garbage continent might …
Just Say No to Bad Art
On Protest and Renoir
Over the course of these past months, protesters have gathered outside of various cultural institutions including the Boston Museum of Fine …
A Galaxy Closer to Home
Star Wars' Next Chapter
On October 19, the official trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens debuted during halftime of ESPN’s Monday Night …
"Quel Monde!"
On Literary Rivalries
The Spanish Baroque poet Francisco de Quevedo clanked rapiers with lyric poet Luis de Góngora on the page, sparring over the …
Severed
(Dis)embodied Art
In 2007, Shannon Whisnant, from rural North Carolina, buys a storage locker at auction. Inside the locker, he finds a smoker …
Grey Area
In Conversation with David Rohde
Twice-captured and twice the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, David Rohde has had a treacherous yet accomplished career in journalism. Starting …
Studs, Spikes, and Sprinklers
Hostile Architecture and its Woes
Public spaces aren’t always so. In his 1990 book City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, Marxist urban theorist …
Industrial Nostalgia
Images from the Providence City Archives
The Hadley Co., Watch Bracelet Factory Ceco Manufacturing Co., Radio Tube Manufacturing Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Co. Gorham Manufacturing Co., Silver …
Week in Necromancy
On Zombies and Vampire Capitalism Politically interested visitors to the Highgate Cemetery in North London will spy some great names on …
From the Editors
In an ideal world, a publication might be able to publish all the perspectives on a given issue and give them …
Notes on Discontinuity
There is a grid; it gathers itself from beyond the picture-frame, and focuses to a point in the distant horizon. From …
Three Deserts
Notes on Cinematic Desolation
I. For me, the desert has always been a fascinating thought-image within the Western imaginary, even if it’s exceedingly ambiguous or …
The Edible Complex
Paths to the Ultimate Mushroom
Under the brush, a golden-red cap glints. Trembling, I push back the undergrowth and gasp. I then gingerly pull out the …
Week in Preservation
Off the Books Where be dead skin cells, piled up, and caked upon the pages, secret treasures await: an archivist’s reading …
L, Another Day
closing in on the parking lot outside where the form is fixed the grass is not allowed rackety red carts …
Pastoral Fixation
The Rituals and Space of Religion and Superstition
They are honest and well-meaning Christians of unhealthy constitutions, and melancholy tempers, who are so miserably harrass'd; who above all things …
Tired of Art
Robert Smithson,A Heap of Language, 1966 (Wikimedia Commons) In response to the 1970s energy crisis, citizens around the US began collecting …
The Perils of Liminality
Considering the Stampede at Mecca
On September 26, a deadly stampede occurred during the annual Hajj pilgrimage when two waves of Muslim pilgrims collided on streets …
Stepping Up to the Plate
Rhode Island Seeks a New Image
In October of last year Governor Lincoln Chafee unveiled his design for a new Rhode Island license plate. The simple proposal …
Why 2015 Might Actually Shake the Status Quo
The Changing Politics of Development and Climate Change
On September 21, 2014, over 400,000 people marched in the streets of New York City to demand action on climate change. …
Week in Transposition
Bud, Not Buddy For anyone who grew up in the era of the 1978 book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, …
Going Soft
Weight in Theory and Practice
It might be my Catholic upbringing, but I’m often at least a little wary of things I enjoy. A sin, after …
Blood Jet
Notes on Plasma
I. Plasma is replaced every 48 hours. In World War II, dried plasma, like dust, was dropped into Britain, far from …
Postcolonial Sounds
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! [a man screams; pulsing kuduro drums begin falling from a digitized Iberian Sky, they reverberate against AHHH! …
Mr. Bergoglio Goes to Washington
Pope Francis I and the Course of Catholicism in American Politics
Pope Francis I arrived in Washington, DC on Tuesday, September 22. He was invited to speak at a joint session of …
Week in Extraordinary Measures
Look Ma, No Hands You’re done with One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. If we’re being real, you were …
The Philosopher's Wife
The American psychologist Harry Harlow designed an apparatus called the Pit of Despair, a steely, isolated trough designed to produce, in …
Transitions
In Conversation with Phyllis Randolph Frye
The College Hill Independent: You work at the intersection of law and social justice, and have used this position to advocate …
Barely Legal
The Volatile Chemistry of Synthetic Drugs
When the video starts, the woman is already on the ground. She is lying on her stomach next to the open …
Ashes and Digressions
Ruminations on Death
Margaret Wise Brown, a children’s book author who generally shunned the company of children, is buried where she once lived—on a …
Make Me a Lemon Tree
Death Goes Green, All Are Welcome
Katrina Spade wants death in good company. In 2013, Spade, then an architecture student at UMass Amherst, began to think about …
Walking to Not Forget
The Changing Place of HIV/AIDS Activism in Rhode Island
Blocks away from the State House, Usher’s “Yeah” reverberates through the empty streets. The day is grey and wet, but I …
Just Business
Trump, The Apprentice, and the Labor of Reality TV
As a helicopter emblazoned with the Trump logo veers over a rendering of the New York City skyline, the O’Jays sing …
Week in Phantasms
Ladies’ Night There are those who would argue that the ’80s were a day-glo cultural vacuum best left unremembered. But it …
Digging in the Grounds
Gender and Tradition in Cairo's Coffee Shops
Visit any neighborhood in Cairo, especially ones in its older districts, and you will find countless traditional coffeehouses (called ahawi; singular: …
"Too Much World"
On Hito Steyerl
At Artists Space in Tribeca, the disembodied voice of Bruce Lee booms from Hito Steyerl’s video Liquidity, Inc., amid the distant …
Raw Footage
In Conversation With Elinor Carucci
There is a closeness to Elinor Carucci’s work. The proximity of her camera to her subject matter results in intimate images, …
Not Your Mother's Tongue
Language Troubles in Rhode Island's Schools
“I’m from Guatemala,” Leandro tells me the moment I enter Ms. Lopez’s fifth grade classroom at William D’Abate Elementary School in …
Week in Review
The Artist Formally Known as Roach It is an unseasonably hot fall evening. Sweat drips down your back as you approach …
Strange Absences
A Conversation with Junot Díaz
On the phone, Junot Díaz speaks more slowly than I thought he would. His books talk fast—Yunior, the Dominican-American semi-autobiographical narrator …
From the Editors V.30 N.10
The Indy is about to go on summer hiatus and when it returns to newsstands in September we will no longer …
About a Film About A Book
Review of "End of the Tour"
I’m a person writing an article about a movie (The End ofthe Tour) about a person (David Lipsky) writing an article …
I Suppose
I got tired of waiting, so I microwaved my bag of lentils and gave it to her. Did you hear, she …
Week in Farewells
Jack Bruce is dead. Kurt Cobain is dead. Cream and Nirvana are gone while SUM41 is going strong. There is no …
THE DEPARTMENT
Funding Athletics at Brown
On March 7, the Brown men’s basketball team concluded its 2014–15 season with a road loss to Harvard, the eventual Ivy …
A review of Dope
The frame freezes: a grey Gameboy rotates as it falls, darkred blood splattered across the square screen. Early on inthe newly …
INFECTIOUS
A Conversation with James Hoff
Over the past decade, the New York-based conceptual artist James Hoff has distributed his work as paintings, LPs, cufflinks, used hard …
Taha Husayn
Traces of a Visionary
1. For some, to see means to know. Our eyes isolate, violate, pay no regard to the problem of hallucination and …
A POND AND THE PEOPLE
Mashapaug Pond, even as the largest freshwater pool in Providence,is easy to miss. It’s tucked behind the grey concrete facades and …
A Genocide by Any Other Name
The Armenian Genocide 100 Years On
Kim Kardashian’s Instagram has long been lauded as the master class in selfie taking. Scrolling through the feed, you see a …
Week in Puns
Asset Management Fee Structure for Municipal Pensions “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Your hands can’t hit what your …
Magic, Magyck, Magick
“Bring a small, empty tin-can and a pencil to beat it with,” read the flyer. “It will make an ominous and …
Traversing Magazine Tear-Outs
Archival Work Performed by: Emma Moore Location: the Picture Collection, RISD Fleet Library second floor, 4 November 2014. The Subject Index …
Advice
What do I do if I met some people over spring break who I am in love with and will probably …
Stuffed to the Gills
An amateur dissection of taxidermy
Prepare the form In Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, the protagonist pulls up to an empty motel and has an unsettling dinner with its …
How to Slice an Apple
After a slew of new appointments to the Providence School Board (PSB) by newly elected Mayor Jorge Elorza, the expansion of …
VOICES ON THE GROUND
A Conversation with Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman is perhaps better at asking questions than anyone else in the media. Goodman is founder and primary host of …
Week in Sponsorship
Whopper of a Wedding Wedding announcement photos are surely the pinnacle of elegance. Typically set in some idyllic pastoral scene, or …
Power Players
Negotiating the Future of the Middle East
Since the Iranian revolution, 1,672 Iranians have died in plane crashes. Iran has one of the most dismal aviation safety records …
Culture Shock
A Short Timeline of Controversial Art
To simply be offensive in one’s artistic practice is to engage in a hollow act of provocation. It is to be, …
In Which Contact Occurs
Samuel R. Delany’s 1975 science-fiction opus Dhalgren takes place in and on the outskirts of Bellona, a mysterious city in the …
The Thirst Ahead
One day in late February, the taps that carry water to São Paolo’s 20 million residents suddenly went dry. The effects …
Week in Fools
Abandon hope, all ye who read! The scribes have played a ruse; These penmen hath concocted fibs Yet dare to call …
Laboring for Democracy
On the Minimum Wage in Rhode Island
Rhode Island has an NRA problem. And it has nothing to do with guns. Last June, the Rhode Island legislature passed …
SPOKES IN THE WHEEL
A Conversation with DARE's Fred Ordoñez
Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE) is a grassroots community organizing force based on the southside of Providence. Through door-knocking, …
Tanks in the Backyard
Police Militarization in Providence
In 2006 Glenn Reynolds wrote about the threat of police militarization in Popular Mechanics: “Soldiers and police are supposed to be …
On India's Daughter
The average news-reader is all too familiar with the atrocity that the documentary India’s Daughter is centered on: the gang rape …
Week in Education
Easy as ABC Substitute teachers have an almost mythic allure. They alone offer high school students the prospect of a brief …
Dirty Dancing
Editors' Note: To make the image larger 'control-click' on it and select 'view image.' …
WHY NOT FOOTBALL?
An Afternoon with the Connecticut Wreckers
For Connecticut Wreckers owner and head coach Gary Peloso, women’s tackle football was never a likely landing place. “My wife saw …
Fanciful Skateboarding in Fancy Times
“We use chaos as a gateway to the unknown creating a new path. Nothing that can be measured by skill or …
Week in Roads
No Beef Let me paint you a quick portrait of modern India. In my neighborhood there’s a housing colony that has …
From the Editors V.30 N.5
The Indy wants to be your friend. Quickly, double-check your email, fold your laundry, and update a few items on your …
Paranoia at the Picture Show
Conspiracy and Crisis in Inherent Vice
At the center of Inherent Vice, the latest feature film from Paul Thomas Anderson, lies the impenetrable Golden Fang. At turns …
AN EGALITARIAN TUMOR
Talking with Umberto Crenca
In downtown Providence, at the intersection of Washington and Empire Streets, stands AS220, a popular bar, restaurant, and performance space. AS220 …
From the Editors V.30 N.4
The PawSox’s new ownership group wants to relocate the team to Providence and—my regrets to Pawtucket—a baseball stadium would be good …
Week In Exegesis
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish Picture it: you’re swimming through the Gulf of Mexico. Surrounded by a school …
Vandalism at the Islamic School of Rhode Island
At 1:11pm on a glacial Friday, February 20th, about sixty people gathered in the back half of a small gymnasium, a …
Letter To My Unborn Child
We are in the midst of a disturbing trend: the intentional, no-consequence murders of Black bodies by law enforcement. The path …
Courting the Couture
In honor of New York Fashion Week and the NBA All-Star Game’s alignment in New York City, the Indy takes a …
WEEK IN CIVILIZATION
No Uglies On a warm autumn day in 1963, President John F. Kennedy sat calmly beside his wife, Jackie, in the …
BROKEN SPOKE
With the image of New York and Boston before it, Providence is designing a bike share. Providence’s bike share will be …
Neon Architecture
the aesthetics and business of videogames
Pastel squares crumble beneath your feet. You poise your fingers, held equidistant from weapon schematics and a twitch key. Usually a …
Excerpts: Notes from Cairo
12/23 Still on the plane. I wonder how much of Egypt will simply (or not so simply, I suppose) be the …
for Sally Ride
NASA engineers asked Ride, “Is 100 [tampons] the right number?” She would be in space for a week. –American Prospect, June …
Pre-reflections on Go Set a Watchman
Stop the presses. Rocking the literary world, Harper Lee, celebrated novelist of To Kill a Mockingbird announced on Tuesday, that she …
Clipped Wings
Watching the Atlanta Hawks play is like watching chaos. On offense, no one stops moving. The court is a constant whirlwind …
Bacteria[s] R Us
Last week, a new study delivered confirmation of something that many of us had suspected for decades: the New York City …
Advice
My mom got a cat now that I'm at college. I don't want her to be lonely, but I can't help …
Syrizian Greece: Democracy 2.0?
Last week, on a warm evening in Athens, Alexis Tsipras stepped on stage to announce his party’s victory, declaring through a …
The 'New' Providence
Thoughts on the Past and Present of the What Cheer? City
“We are no longer the industrial city we used to be; but that’s alright. We have to build the New Providence, …
Black Girls Don't Cry
The following article contains mentions of self-harm, depression, and suicide. I’m sitting in the living room, picking at the polish on …
Goodell's Six Flags Misadventure
Believe it or not, Deflategate—or whatever contrived name you want to attach to public outrage at under-inflation of footballs by the …
Mundane Reasons
Emailing with Lydia Davis
Lydia Davis lives in a converted schoolhouse in upstate New York. When I think of her, I think of her perched …
Week In Abandonment
Leave Your Troubles in the Snow A rosy-cheeked toddler breathes mist out from under a tightly pulled down cap. He wiggles …
On Camera
Surveilling Protest
December 5, 2014 – “Heads up. It’s supposed to pour. So the protest may not last as long as you think.” …
Tastes Like Chicken
Sizing Up Alternative Meats
Although we live in a culture replete with red paint on fur coats, images of warehouses crammed with livestock, and non-stop …
Artificial Giants
India's Troubling Memorial Plans
I was once given directions, drawn on a paper napkin, to a longstanding Bombay secret. It took me eight months before …
From the Editors V.30 N.1
The ground freezes in winter and makes it hard to bury dead dogs and I think a new war will hit …
After Whitman
Homosexual and gay poets talk back to Whitman
“What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman,” sighs Allen Ginsberg at the beginning of his 1955 poem “A Supermarket …
Providential
When Massachusetts exiled him for his radical religious beliefs in 1636, Roger Williams trekked south through an icy New England winter, …
Week in Flesh
MISSING BRAINS!! PLEASE READ!! Missing: 200 human brains. Where: The University of Texas, Austin, TX. When: Sometime between the year 1987, …
Notes on Connection
Technology—and more relevantly, those who make/use it—very much wants to work within a language of disruption. Tech has always defined breaks …
Black and Blues
Police brutality in Providence
On Thursday September 10, at around 9:30 PM, John Prince heard someone “hollering” outside his house on the Southside of Providence. …
Genetic Poetics
Christian Bök gets experimental
“The word is now a virus” —William S. Burroughs Something deeply radical is pulsating under poet Christian Bök’s seemingly normal exterior, …
Iron and Fields
A journey to the inside of the earth
The earth can seem impenetrable, unexplainable, whether you are flipping through the pages of an earth science textbook or staring up …
Three Velvet Boyhoods
To have been delighted by a jumpsuit. An unusual circumstance in which to find oneself, granted, and perhaps even an uncomfortable …
Cyborgs in the Club
Arca and the digital boundary
On November 1, Venezuelan electronic musician Arca released his debut album Xen, named for Arca’s alter ego, a genderless—though feminine—figure whom …
Facing Eviction
Last month, I biked down to Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE) at 340 Lockwood Street for a public forum …
Their Thayer
The faces of Thayer Street
It’s impossible to miss the changes on Thayer Street. Thedeep black of smooth asphalt bears the bright white stainof a new …
Bigger Than You Can Imagine
Paranoia and privacy law
Big Data. Admittedly, it’s a great phrase, encapsulating every bigger-better progress narrative in a tight trisyllabic punch. As a term, it …
Week in Pageantry
Quite a bit of news, these waning days, gets lost to the humdrum. Print budgets have been slashed, newsrooms downsized, correspondents …
Running Down the Clock
Sports, time zones, and globalization
All major sports, at their core, are structured by time. Time structure differentiates an NBA game from pickup, performance from practice. …
Intimate Strangers
Growing up on Internet forums
This is the most famous post in the history of Internet forums. On July 14 2004, a user registered as “lonely” …
Minor
'prä-blm purse-laden arm grabs rough pulls back sharply fear rush of regret and a fast retreat questions of bruises he spits …
Black Yankee: Past and Present in Rhode Island
Every time I talked with a family member or neighbor about my impending matriculation at Brown that summer, now nearly three …
Indy Metro Endorses Jorge Elorza
We’re not going to sensationalize the importance of this election. No matter what happens Rhode Island House Leadership will remain firmly …
The Kingdom of God Is Within You: A Closet Drama in Two Acts
Thomas Engler replied, “Okay. The church was very Southern, very charismatic, sort of scorched-Earth. Weekly services in the high school auditorium. …
The Celluloid Cage
Animal liberation at the movies
There’s a moment in 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes that made me shiver. A human repeats the famous …
A Streetcar Named Providence
This September, after two rejected applications for federal funding, the City of Providence was approved for a $13 million federal Transportation …
E-Readers
Ben Lerner, Tao Lin, Karl Ove Knausgaard, and the net-inflected novel
In 1997, computer scientist Michael Lesk published a paper on the size of the Internet, estimating it to be roughly two …
The Supreme Court's Non-Decision Decision
On Monday, October 6, the first day of its new term, the United States Supreme Court declined to review seven decisions …
Through the Doors
A day inside Planned Parenthood
The front door to the Providence Planned Parenthood, where I’m a volunteer, is not locked. Outside, there’s a security agent and …
Towards a Greener Future
The environmental impact of cannabis cultivation
A pair of sultry eyes sunken into a frighteningly unblemished face appeared on the screen. Beneath a wisp of smoke ascending …
Learning the Language
That has been all. Should I throw in my hand? I am giving myself one last chance to penetrate the Within …
Corporate Parents
The Providence Journal and the death of independent media
It’s spitting in downtown Providence—there’s a damp glisten to the pavement as I pull up Fountain Street on my bike. I …
Week in Returns
WHAT THE FUCK IS A BARRISTER? A British lawyer, basically. One of them, Amal Ramzi Alamuddin—also an activist and author—recently married …
When Pigs Fly
The Unlikely Victory of Smithfield Workers
It took three campaigns and over 14 years for workers at the largest hog slaughterhouse in the world to form a …
March in September
Considering New York’s record setting climate rally
By the light of dawn on Sunday, policemen could be seen erecting temporary fences along the streets of Manhattan. Visitors from …
Miniature Food Bloom
The backlash has been brewing for years. Disappearing are the 16 oz. porterhouses bathed in gravy served with a mound of …
Dope Beats
Groovy advocacy and marijuana regulation at the cannabis caucus
“Oh you mean the thing with the moon bounce?” said every friend I tried to convince to come with me to …
Like a Whisper
Rhode Island's quiet depopulation
In late July I saw James Diossa, the 20-something mayor of Central Falls, shaking hands with supporters of state representative candidate …
Major League Literature
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach (2011) Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding is about baseball in the way Good …
A History of Violence
The Australian shark cull and the plight of apex predators “As long as Homo sapiens has been sapient... alpha predators have …
Ghosts in the Machine
The sounds of the digital archive
How can a body connect with the Internet? Think of how each sense wouldconceive of the Internet. It’s harder than you …
Gaybors on Fire
Queer sights, sounds, and spaces in the Creative Capital
On the morning of August 1, 2013, dozens of same-sex couples said “I do” across the state of Rhode Island. Since …
Week in Songbirds
KILLING IN THE NAME OF To a culture accustomed to choosing its favorite restaurants by their Yelp reviews—crowd-sourced, grade-inflated, irredeemably unsophisticated …
Ten More Years
Gang Sentence Enhancement Legislation in Rhode Island
Picture Atwells Avenue. A few minutes shy of 5 AM. The surveillance camera shows a young man sporting a baseball cap …
Primary Analysis
Editor's Note: The arrows for Governor Statewide and Governor Within Providence are accidentally switched. The Indy regrets the error. …
This Last Week
CLIPPED It’s the 10th Anniversary of Mean Girls this week, and people are making a big deal about it. There are …
In The Name of Science
monkey testing at Brown
Around 38 monkeys live in research laboratories at Brown University. It is difficult to know for certain how many—the researchers won’t …
Young and Younger
the creative practices of tech’s next generation
In his newest film, A Mind Forever Voyaging Through Strange Seas of Thought Alone, Mike Mills interviews the eight to twelve-year-old …
Paul Di Filippo’s Providence 2034
emails from the future!
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Week in Horticulture
Have you had your head in the ground all week? Or, um, up in the clouds? Indy News is here to …
Web Exclusive: Interview with Fred Turner
Editor’s Note: This unexcerpted interview accompanies “Young and Younger: the creative practices of tech’s next generation” from Issue 9. Fred Turner, …
Start Up Your Week
Late April means one thing: startup season. As DisruptNY, the East Coast’s most prestigious startup showcase, approaches, the excitement is palpable. …
Grit, Grime & Graft
An interview with crime writer Bruce DeSilva
Bruce deSilva now lives in New Jersey, but he’s definitely Rhode Island’s crime writer-laureate. His three novels—Rogue Island, Cliff Walk, and …
Bad Girls Good Women
Providence Roller Derby
It’s a Monday night, and I’m at the Ocean Club, an indoor roller rink in Narragansett, Rhode Island. The sign outside …
Kya Item
body politics in Bollywood
The set is doused in red light. Men are spread out across the floor, lounging on cushions, downing drinks, waiting for …
Like a Man in the Desert
a woman drinking Jodorowski’s Dune
I will present you with some facts about the documentary film Jodorowsky’s Dune: Jodorowsky’s Dune, a 2013 documentary film directed by …
The Week in Suspension
PULLING THE TRIGGER There was a time, not long ago, when Arnold Schwarzenegger served as the governor of California. A state …
Diorama
Emilio (or James or Tony) sits on the copper sand staring wistfully (or longingly) out across the sea (and/or ocean.) He …
You Swan, Go On
Sun Kil Moon and the artist as death-prophet
Bob Dylan’s “Highlands” plays over the stereo. About ten minutes into the song, I become distracted and check my computer quickly. …
Venezuela: Revolution from Above
On March 6, the anniversary of Hugo Chávez’s death, a few hundred of the former Venezuelan president’s most loyal followers flocked …
How New Became New Again
technology and origin myth
At the beginning of the world, Camel did not want to work. Every time Horse or Dog or Ox would ask …
Talk of the Town
Exhibition, redesigned
If you let your eyes linger for a moment, you’ll notice that there is something a little off about the images …
Counting Votes
Prison-based Gerrymandering in Cranston, RI
Cranston’s Ward 6 has either 10,209 or 13,300 constituents, depending on how you’re counting heads. About 10,000 of its residents live …
Holding Notes
Thinking through St. Vincent and Holly Herndon
“Entombed in a shrine / Of zeroes and ones / You know” –St. Vincent, “Huey Newton” Placing two artists on a …
The Week in Secrecy
SMOOTH OPERATOR Some time ago, on a lonely Tuesday night, I walked into my local pub. It’s a place of solace, …
Web Exclusive: Interview with Holly Herndon
Editor’s note: This unexcerpted interview accompanies “Holding Notes: thinking through St. Vincent and Holly Herndon” from Issue 5. The biographical information …
A Week of Confusion
Asking “what’s happening?” is often a mindless exercise in small talk. It doesn’t demand an answer. But this time, when you …
Cyril's Palace
The summer I lived with Cyril, we had the most beautiful apartment. The building was near the river, on Palace Street, …
Ostentation Funk
Rolezhinos and the politics of consumption in suburban brazil
Evandro Farias de Almeida is an unlikely hero. The 20-year-old, who lives in the working-class outskirts of São Paulo, boasts more …
Falling Through the Cracks
Food insecurity in Rhode Island
Erin, a food safety manager at the Mathewson St. Church meal site, was homeless for two years in the ‘90s. She …
A Bee in My Bonnet
Pastor Dan Ivins, “the sign guy” of First Baptist Church
When I walked into Pastor Dan Ivins’s office at the First Baptist Church, the first thing I noticed was the orange. …
All In a Day
a partial collage of date-based protest
Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of the death of Aaron Swartz, the programmer and Internet activist whose crusade for “Guerilla Open …
Week in Passion
CYBERSEXY Some grievances of digifuckers: laptop heat on bare stomach skin, distorted speaker vocals, implied volume constraints, and frozen pixels. Always …
Six Feet Underwater
Biological immortality in three easy steps
16th Century explorer Juan Ponce de Leon searched for the Fountain of Youth in the place where, today, people go to …
Presence
It felt like I was giving out. I was smoking again: first just a cigarette after dinner, then, one after lunch …
Digital Boom
the coming Internet land grab
America has forged many frontiers. British colonists initially considered their fledgling communities in New England to be nestled in frontier land. …
What Is Providence?
A List
Lists are everywhere. Bullet point number two of a New Yorker list about lists calls lists the “signature form of our …
City and State
A Conversation with Ted Nesi
The following is an extended version of an interview that appeared in print on February 7, 2014. It has been edited …
Week in Stockpiles
Stuff your cheeks and fill up your pockets. More is always better, right? A BONE TO PICK “I kind of regret …
Unresolved
an astrological opposition
When replicated in dozens of directions and multiple dimensions in the natal chart, highly charged poles approximate a circulatory system. The …
The Art of Deduction
In the last week of 2013, a federal judge ruled on Klinger v. Conan Doyle Estate, relocating Sherlock Holmes and his …
The Best Laid Plans...
Already this year in Rhode Island: the unemployment rate rose to the highest in the nation, the temperature oscillated between extremes, …
Week in Delivery
This holiday season was tough. Surely, no one at UPS wished for the harsh snowstorms that prevented the timely arrival of …
We Are All In This Together
Dissecting the Trans-Pacific Partnership
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a free trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim nations (Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, the US, …
Booty Over Brains
Lily Allen's New Video Gets it Twisted
Last month, Lily Allen emerged from a preemptive retirement to box with the entertainment industry in the best way she knew …
Courtside Couture
A Conversation with James Goldstein
James Goldstein condenses every popular conception about Los Angeles into one human body: He lives in a glass house atop the …
The Cold Pool
We met at the Westin in Palo Alto on the weekend of our elder siblings’ graduation from Stanford. I don’t swim …
For Play
A scene from 1973’s The Mack: Pretty Tony and Goldie are embroiled in a high-stakes game of dice. China Doll emerges. …
The Week to Survive
WHAT IS CYBER MONDAY? TELL ME MomBigShopper12 12.1.13: Who else likes to order DVDs, electronic accessories, and brand-name sneakers on Cyber …
Week Down Under
You can read this as fast as you want, but you're still not going to catch up. It's already tomorrow in …
The Actualities
local film in the 20th century
The projector flicks on and the image on the screen comes into focus. The screen is filled with men, wearing bowler …
A Very Kanye Thanksgiving
Kourtney Kardashian was alternating between chugging from an imaginary bottle and flapping her wings frantically as her teammates shouted wrong answers. …
Dactyloscopies
Then you must move the magnifying glass up and down to catch light by the tail of its last consonant, you …
Action is Now
A History of Brown Student Activism
Students cycle through Brown in roughly four years. During their time here, student activists are cycled through study committees, working groups, …
Offensive Lines
Jonathan Martin, Richie Incognito & Black Masculinity in American Sports
ON OCTOBER 28, JONATHAN MARTIN left the Miami Dolphins. Martin, 24 years old and in his second NFL season, briefly checked …
The Week To Be Determined
FRUIT FUTURES IT'S WELL KNOWN THAT THE BlackBerry and the iPad stand at opposite ends of the Tech-Cool sliding scale. The …
The Mindreaders
Providence from the Mind's Eye
MOTHER MYSTIC’S APOTHECARY SHOP SOMEWHERE, NESTLED AMONG PUBS and pizzerias, the wise Susan Asselin was waiting for me. I had scheduled …
Nothing Was the Same
on Drake and the white boy imaginary
IN THE SUMMER OF 2003 I WAS unanimously considered the best rapper at Camp Walt Whitman in Piermont, New Hampshire. Looking …
Week in Fantasy
If you think you’re dreaming this, you can wake up now. And there’s no need to go back to sleep—because this …
See You On The Other Side
Arcade Fire and The Virtual Window
“Trapped in a prison / In a prism of light”– Reflektor, “Reflektor” “The window opens onto a three-dimensional world beyond: it …
Still Spying
EDWARD SNOWDEN IS A RELATIVELY FREE MAN. Four months into his year-long Russian asylum, he has managed to fly under the …
Xiomara's Way
ON JUNE 28, 2007 SOLDIERS stormed into the bedroom of the presidential residence in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and forced Manuel Zelaya to …
Space Law
an interview with Jason Juren
Jason Juren, a recent graduate of the University of Houston Law Center, wants to be a space lawyer. Specifically, a lawyer …
Week In Pests
Careful—they’re in the floorboards and behind the walls and there are billions of them. Just turn on the shower: the head …
Back to the Wall
Banksy's October in New York
Graffiti has served as the humble origins for many well-known artists. American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, famed for a prolific neo-expressionist career, …
Inventory
October 11, 2013
Inventory. Taking stock. It’s a check-list, cross it off. Go to Venice, take a drive, come, and back again. We bring …
Perils of Lampedusa
North African Immigration to Europe
BROWN WOODEN CASKETS FILL the loading bay. There are 194 in total. They are split into three parallel lines, with a …
Apis Providentia
Beekeeping Geography in Greater Providence
DR. JANE DENNISON'S HONEYBEES WAKE up around 10:30 AM in late September. They won’t fly if it’s too cold and, lately, …
Affordable Care Act
OCTOBER 1 HAS COME LIKE THE PROPHESIED YEAR 2000 in old Technicolor cartoons, the age of Obamacare is no longer in …
Cold Water
Shipping in the Arctic
THE EARLIEST SATELLITE PHOTOGRAPHS OF the Arctic in summer date to 1978. From above, the ice extends to the rim of …
Cover to Cover
Hipgnosis & the fate of album art
AN INFLATED PIG FLIES OVER a disused power station; two men shake hands, one with a burning arm; a fleet of …
Mating
A few weeks ago, as we were dragging our fingers through the water and dangling our feet off the dock, a …
Soft Skulls, Cold Hearts
The Evolution of Head Protection in the NHL
THE PUCK IS DROPPED at the faceoff and won back to Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen. He fires a low slap …
Week in Last Stands
Taking a stand may be hard on your knees, but it means you can back up what you believe in, at …
Aacha Maa Al Aayle
Finding Middle Eastern Food in Providence
I BIKE PAST AS220, go around the cathedral, cross the overpass, take a left against the traffic ofa one-way street, pull …
Westgate
On Saturday September 21, fifteen attackers laid siege on Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. At press time, the official casualty …
The Revolution Will Not Be Standardized
The Fight for Education in RI
ON A SATURDAY MORNING LAST MARCH, 50 people sat down with their No. 2 pencils and began to fill in the …
No Days Off
Medicine, Fitness, and the Modern Athlete
ON AN OVERCAST DAY in Mexico City in October 1968, Jim Hines ran 100 meters in 9.95 seconds. Hines walked away …
Deep Sea
WHEN I FIRST HEARD THAT the deep ocean contained most of the earth’s habitable space, I didn’t really believe it because …
Wild R.I.
Around the edges of its grimy glamour, Providence boasts over 100 city parks and public green spaces; it’s easy to find …
When I Went to Freak Fest
THE KIDS ARE BACK AT School or down by the river, hiding in the bushes and along the stone walls under …
Sweet, Sweet Sorrow
IN FRANCE, THE GUILLOTINE was unpopular at first. The slick blade didn’t give spectators enough time to see much of anything. …
All The Way
It’s an august afternoon, sometime in the 1960s. Robert Schenkkan and his older brother are standing in the hot gravel driveway …
All Apologies
The video footage is grainy and tough to make out, and seems like it may have been shot on a cell …
While You Were Out
Summer in the Ocean State
Like migratory birds that move with the seasons, many of our readers left Providence for the summer. We know you were …
WEEK IN REVIEW
PEARLS OF WISDOM Oyster. Oyster. Oyster. Oyster. Say it ten more times. Sounds kind of gross now, right? Like most words, …
On the Fat Athlete
“There are two different shapes, one for fitness, one for throwing the ball.” – Hyun-Jin Ryu, SP, Los Angeles Dodgers Some …
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Impulse Control
Can Brain Scans Predict Criminal Behavior?
[start hero] [end hero] The first popular scientific explanations of criminal behavior were published by Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso in the …
Your Future in Media
[start hero] [end hero] …
In the Dark
Art in the East Side Railroad Tunnel
[start hero] [end hero] “Do you know why this closed in the first place?” someone asks me on a Friday night …
Lara and the Real Girl
Crofting the Female Body
[start hero] [end hero] A russian henchman pins Lara Croft against the plyboard of a shantytown hut, pawing his hands down …
An American Giant
Startup, Meet Nostalgia
[start hero] [end hero] American Giant began with an epiphany. “People are tired of products made far away from home—they are …
Music in Your Feet
The Appalachian Mountain Dance
[start hero] [end hero] When the cattle are loaded up and the auctioneer retires, the livestock hall in Ripley, West Virginia …
Pleasure Reading
Open Sesame, Read a Fucking Book
Today, we decided we would stop. We took off our shoes, we did not go to work, we forgot about our …
Week in Little Things
Parks &Historical Recreation Here lies Mills End Park. A cup of soil, two feet in diameter, sitting between opposing lanes of …
Knives Down
Like any city worthy of the title, Providence has a long and troubled history with knives. Precision instruments among humanity’s earliest …
This History Is Not Yet Ancient
the preliminary self-archiving of the Jewish city of Cochin
Yarmulkes are a sight unseen among the saffron hills and tea plantations of India. But when I visited Cochin, an Indian …
Moral Fiber
Even though Ralph Waldo Emerson once called him “the prophet of bran bread and pumpkins,” Sylvester Grahamwas a serious man. A …
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Forever on the Edge
“The last time i played a show, the audience was pornographic with cameras,” Ian MacKaye says, scowling out over the crowd …
(Some) Figures of the Animal at Home
Their names were the names of heroines from the stories my mother told me in bed. She read to me every …
When We Wander Onscreen As Ourselves
Chris Gethard is a mainstay at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York. His anti-talk show, The Chris Gethard Show, …
Painting the Corners
I went to my first baseball game at age five. My dad’s friend, who had taken it upon himself to make …
Growing Ca$h
if you could design your own money, what would you put on it? Michael Giroux found inspiration from nature when designing …
Week on the Border
BUTTERFLY KISS(INGER) They have no visas and don’t pay customs. This winter there were some 60 million of them: Monarch butterflies, …
Pepperoni Cowboy
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From Water
“And have you seen the water that you drink? Is it you who brought it down from the clouds, or is …
Self-Aware Game
Look, You're Inside the Machine
Eminent game designer Tim Schafer recently asked himself a question: “Are games art?” His response: “Oh man, who cares.” But as …
Sun Falls Down
Russian Asteroids from the Ground Up
“I looked up at the sky and suddenly the sky lit up with a bright light and something that looked like …
Alberta's Black Gold
Tar Sands Prospects in Canada
There are places in Alberta, Canada, where dredged-up mud spans the horizon as far as the eye can see. Puddles of …
Remnants
Preserving National Bodies
Hugo Chavez is dead. Cancer took him, finally, after months away from his country, after surgeries in Cuba, after the obligatory …
From Water
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Pepperoni Cowboy
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Hands on Rawhide
A Conversation with Sarah Bliss
When you see Sarah Bliss in line at the post office, you probably can’t guess what she’s thinking. Sarah Bliss has …
Up In the Air
[start large] [end large] “I'm not quite sure I believe the final shot, though” Roger Ebert said of Love and Basketball’s …
Ballad on the Divergence Theorem
A Story of Love and Integrals
The divergence theorem is employed in many branches of science. It states that the integral taken over a closed surface of …
Cairo 52
In between Cairo's high-rise hotels and dusty highways, riverboats lie anchored along the Nile, pumping Egyptian pop songs and multi-colored lights. …
Ambiguous Direction
The Acquittal of Momčilo Perišić
MOMCILO PERISIC IS FREE. On February 28, the Appeals Court of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), in …
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What Happens When I Freeze Up
Robert Merritt Visits a Hypnotist
First off, I love my job. Writing the Indy’s ‘Around the Town’ column is a sheer delight. For example, I got …
French Connection, RI
Adulte Terrible Like any attempt to periodize an artistic movement in its contemporary, the phrase “New French Extremity” is only about …
On Sacred Ground
Memorializing the Station Fire
Two days after the ten-year anniversary of the Station Nightclub Fire, the ground where the club stood is smooth. A circle …
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Toffee
There were three things: the first was standing in the ocean up to his shoulders and the water was warm and …
Hog Wild
Imbolc, or the Festival of the Lactating Sheep This day, Imbolc,¹ splits the year between winter solstice and spring equinox. On …
Not for the Faint of Heart
A Federal Hill Poultry Tradition
“To you, it smells poopy, but to me, it smells like money.” Chris Morris is the owner of Antonelli Poultry Inc, …
Week In Review
The Year Is Wet Behind The Ears Ancient Infants George Church is bearded and stocky, but he is no Neanderthal. The …
Pitchfork Advance
Spanning Streaming’s Single/Album Divide
“Physical is best. Touch it. Smell it right after opening the shrink-wrap. Take it off the shelf to show to your …
Over Achievement
Charter Academy Opens Its Doors
“This almost didn’t happen,” Ellie Wyatt, a retired public school teacher and member of the Rhode Island Coalition to Defend Public …
The Bloom
Red Tide is the common name for algal blooms, which occur when certain algae rapidly accumulate and form dense patches near …
Present Time
A Conversation with CAConrad
With painted fingernails and a large crystal hanging around his neck, he made a strong impression. A native of rural Pennsylvania, …
Brain Freeze!
1. Like all good recipes, this one starts with a quest: find clean snow. Suggestions: backyards, rooftops, the inner layers of …
Hidden Threads
Dressing The German Far Right
IN GERMANY, FAR-RIGHT EXTREMISTS can now buy branded clothing on professionally designed websites. The market for neo-Nazi sportswear is booming. Thor …
The Problem With Portraits
Last month, the British National Gallery opened an hour early so that Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge (Kate Middleton) …
Boxed Out
Revisiting Employment After Felony Convictions
On many job applications, below availability and above the signature line, stands a question that may appear innocuous at first glance: …
Week In The Woods
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Etc. Trees these days just seem to be everywhere. Casuarina and Nyssa; Robina and Salix—no matter …
x
[start hero] [end hero] …
The Bloom
[start hero][end hero] …
Massage Therapy
[start hero] [end hero] …
Say No To Cops
Police Tensions Flare in the West End's Cambodian Community
As its name suggests, the main thing that holds the West End together is geography. South of Federal Hill and west …
Gun Control
[start hero] [end hero] …
Week in Review
Writfully Raunchy A group of literary types gathered in London’s In And Out Club this past Tuesday night. There was hype, …
The Openings
The galleries in Chelsea are white. Their floors are usually polished concrete. Galleries are modern. Their job is to highlight the …
The House on Broadview Terrace
A few days after hurricane sandy made her way, clumsily, morbidly, along the Atlantic Coast, a friend emailed my father a …
Inventory
Suxist In the wake of two well-publicized condemnations of art journalism—art market writer Sarah Thornton’s list of “Why Writing in the …
Once a House is Built
Once a house is built, the idea is that it’s finished.Most houses get lived in for a while and then just …
I'm Dead
Political Poisonings Through the Ages
Yasser Arafat vomited during a meeting in Ramallah. His spokesman said he was coming down with the “flu,” but it soon …
Week in Review
San Fran Sans Clothes If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear...clothes. San Francisco has long been a city …
Debate Politics
Why you don't see the Green Party on TV
On Thursday, November 1, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped a surprise, last-minute endorsement of President Obama. The expression of support …
Week in Review
Price TagsThey say that some things can’t be bought, but soon they might not be able to say that about permanent …
Interviewing My Hero
Tim Preseley
I met Tim Presley in New York a few years ago while I was pretending to be a reporter. It was …
Flowers For Alderaan
One Fan's Free Trip to Rhode Island Comic-Con
Forty or 50 kids shuffle around in the middle of a cement-floored exhibition hall with a three story ceiling. Some have …
Future Histories
Modernism & Preservation in Providence
Providence is a film set. Its two-dimensional skyline reads like a greatest-hits list of the last century’s architectural design principles—the 1913 …
Proper Names
The exalted cyclops of Rhode Island
In Smithfield, RI, Domin Avenue, a small cul-de-sac backing up onto Georgiaville Pond, sparked a historical bonfire this August when it …
Big R
Cicilline Hangs On
On Tuesday, David Cicilline staved off Republican Brendan Doherty to win re-election to Rhode Island’s 1st district Congressional seat. Rhode Island’s …
The Commissioner and I
Bidding Adieu to the Father of Modern Basketball
Last Tuesday afternoon my best friend called, which was exciting because he only calls if he forgets to tell to me …
Hallowed Whisperings
A while ago, I went to the Met with a boy my age, and also his mother. We were walking around …
Payasos Azules
The distance from the village to Colomba is “twenty minutes by pickup.” Described that way, always. As if there weren’t any …
I'll Believe It When I See It
A photographic ghost story
In 1869, the spirit photographer William H. Mumler was brought to court in New York City. Perhaps best known for his …
Walmart Has Sprung a Leak
Belated upheaval in the world's largest retail chain
Walmart does not take union action lightly. It does a lot to warp its two-million-plus employees’ perception of their rights from …
Week in Review
Winged Woes Earlier this year, London’s Tate Modern hosted contemporary artist Damien Hirst’s first major retrospective on British soil. Frequently cited …
The Myth
"Well, this is awkward,” she thinks to herself, squatting beside the brick wall. Her urine rolls down the sloping concrete in …
Inconvenient Truths
The struggle for justice and memory in Brazil’s Truth Commission
As the credits rolled last week on The Day That Lasted 21 Years, a film about Brazil’s 21-year military dictatorship screened …
Notes On Transubstantiation
For the tiny children, it’s a tiny snack or a deprivation thereof. For the older children, it’s a proud act of …
Course Catalogue
ENGN1210-S01 Biomechanics Foundations. Diffusion and convection. Material properties of bone and muscle. Cardiac mechanics. Circulation: steady and unsteady flow, compliant tubes. …
Houses
IRA M. GOFF House, 62 John StreetI like the Goff House because it’s almost not one. It’s small and red and …
Show Me the Green
Third party politics
A small gathering stood outside of Local 121, a restaurant in downtown Providence, on the evening of October 11. “Are you …
Week in Review
Diamond in the RoughA new source for diamonds may be hard even for De Beers to tap into—it’s a nearby diamond-rich …
Sentenced: Books on the Inside
The second floor of a small brown house right off Broadway in Providence houses two rooms stuffed with bookshelves and boxes, …
Divorcing Mrs. Jesus
In 2010, a private antiquities collector approached Dr. Karen L. King at the Harvard Divinity School and asked her to investigate …
Week in Review
Mitt RomñeyOn the evening of September 29th, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney appeared on the Spanish-language channel Univision to discuss the …
Bleak House: Tenants Stand Their Ground
Roline Burgison hasn’t paid rent on her South Providence home in almost a year. She, like many other Providence renters, was …
Hapless in Seattle
This past Monday, immediately following the Seattle Seahawks’ victory over the Green Bay Packers, ESPN.com ran a reader poll: “what did …
EGO
I.He had these smudgy blue eyes that startled me. I always thought they would be dark brown, but up close they …
Old and News
Winging ItThis week the louvre in Paris opened a 30,000-square-foot Islamic Art wing, intended to showcase their collection of over 18,000 …
Marriage to a 'T'
Owen still remembers being five years old and thinking that everyone was like Mr. Potato Head, his favorite toy. “I thought …
Hemingway’s Twitter
She arranged sloppily enough to suggest that she might have a trace of apathy in her personality, carefully curating the mountain …
You Don't Get Pussy Riot
Chloe sevigny reading an activist’s letters to a crowd of people who describe themselves as “secretaries by day, arts activists by …
Party City
I sat with my mother in an unusually deserted Outback Steakhouse in Tampa, Florida on the final Monday of August. This …
Trading Races
This summer, two transactions made history in their respective sports. In the MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired first baseman Adrian …
Week in Review
taps, teats & tabloids
Arid Cups On September 22, over 6.5 million people are expected to descend on Munich, Germany to attend Oktoberfest, a 16-day …
Week in Review
In Defense By Wednesday morning, a quiet had finally settled outside the Chicago Public Schools headquarters on 125 South Clark St. …
Inventory
tunes, tools, teenagers
ROOKIE YEARBOOK ONE Rookie Yearbook One proves there’s a teenage girl in all of us waiting to wear a paper crown …
Game Camera
observing art through nature
About a week ago I opened the freezer door to take out a pizza and found my copy of Keith Richard’s …
PEER-REVIEWED RAP
Friction in Fur Coats
“People have an idea of what scientists are like, and how scientists are supposed to act, and how scientists are supposed …
That In Your Ear?
David Bellos on translation
In 1595, as spiritual leader of the Jesuit mission to China, Matteo Ricci guided his subordinates to shed their robes and …
Parasites in the Pew
Something Rotten in the State of Nature
Many scientists have been wary about using evolution to study human nature. But not Randy Thornhill. Author of The Evolutionary Biology …
Nerf War
urban taggers v. the law
Martyn Yang of Canberra, Australia says his blog, UrbanTaggers, as “dedicated to all things to do with toy blasters, be it …
Week in Review
Ghost of Gaddafi Somewhere outside Misrata, the body of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi lies buried in an unmarked grave. But 197 days …
Mojave
I. The road to Mojave is long and thin, fading into a horizon. An old, tattered van rattles to the shoulder …
Boy's Club
resurrecting Portuguese tradition on Trenton street
The procession started around 7:30, a half-hour behind schedule. A young blonde girl walked in first, carrying a silver crown on …
Fact and Truth
the ethics of representation from James Agee to John D’Agata
In the wake of the February publication of his book The Lifespan of a Fact, John D’Agata has been arguing that …
Paradise Sinking
sea change in the Maldives
The Maldives is best known as an island paradise, a fact that belies the turbulent environmental and political changes that are …
"So What Does It All Mean?"
Gossip Girl At Its apotheosis
Diana: Well, I didn’t intend for things to get as serious as they did with Nate. And then I thought… if …
OUT OF THE CLOSET, INTO THE QUAD
the origins of Brown’s gay liberation movement
When Jack Marcus moved to Providence for grad school in 1967, two years before Stonewall, he wasn’t out yet, but he …
Legislation Wars
the paper battle over Rhode Island reproductive rights
On Wednesday April 11, the Rhode Island House Judiciary Committee considered nine separate abortion-related bills. Although committee hearings were officially scheduled …
Notes on Hip Hop
What is a spell? It’s the transmission of a certain vibration. Energy flowing through the spellcaster causes subtle cataclysms that realign …
Week in Review
KICK IN THE ARSENICThe state legislature of Maryland acted last week to ban the use of arsenic-laced feed in poultry production. …
Nonprofits Say No
With 600 signatures, a ten-foot protest banner, and demands for $4 million, three dozen Brown University students marched into the university’s …
Psychedelic (Part II)
I COULD QUIT WHENEVER I WANT Looks like one good trip really could change your life: according to a meta-analysis published …
MARCH-ING MADNESS
In the first half of the first game of March Madness this year, Kansas State’s freshman point guard Angel Rodriguez stepped …
Haute Cuisine
In the 1960s, men were men, the scotch was strong, and airplane food was gourmet. Grilled filet mignon with buttered green …
Bored St. George
What to make of Georges Bataille? In 1930, André Breton said that he was “psychasthenic,” that he had a “conscience deficit,” …
The Bias Business
On February 29, Rush Limbaugh, conservative media’s most famously outspoken commentator, called Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” (among …
Animal Locomotion
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="576" caption="Woman walking down stairs"][/caption]Today is early photographer Eadweard Muybridge's 182nd birthday, and Google has a doodle in …
So, this is a thing on the Internet
Artist James C. Ewart is cataloging all the nipples at the Met. (Previously, re: nudity and the Met). …
EUROPEAN DISUNION: The Strained Relations of Continental Europe
Often snapped by cameras in variousstages of awkward embraces,determined handshakes, or intensediscussions, Angela Merkel and NicolasSarkozy are often collectively referred toby …
Partire Per Morire
[start hero] [end hero] On April 7th, Father Charles Zanoni will have been a priest for fifty years. The son of …
Computers Building Buildings
In November 2011, Michael Hansmeyer’s exhibit “Subdivided Columns – A New Order” at the Gwangju Design Biennale made quite the splash. …
Barack Obama Loathes the Free Press
Jeremy Scahill published an excellent article on Monday contextualizing the imprisonment of Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye. Shaye had previously revealed …
HOME ENTERTAINMENT
THE ONE IN BETHESDA IS BETTERSince the summer of 2010, DC residents have suffered the indignity of DC Cupcakes, a TLC …
EAST OF EASTSIDE
If you ask the right person in Providence today, they will tell you: in the fifties there were grape vines in …
Week In Review
Grade GrubbingOn February 24, the New York City Education Department released “value-added” rankings of 18,000 public school teachers to the public, …
Cash Rules Everything
Three perspectives on the rise of casinos in RI
Betting Wars: Gambling taxes, Narragansetts, and the politics of casinos in Rhode Island On Tuesday, March 6, the Rhode Island House …
Window Pane
When we were driving they caught us. When I was doing nothing but looking straight through the glass and watching the …
Lines of conflict
Redistricting in limbo after no vote
(for full map: http://council.providenceri.com/Redistricting) The scene was reminiscent of the Wisconsin State Capitol last year. But the controversy surrounded boundaries, not …
What We're Reading
Friday! Pick up this week's issue for a news quiz, French Film Festival reviews (everybody’s been loving Les derniers jours du …
Rush Limbaugh Tries to Export Painkiller Addiction to College Students
This morning, the infamous talk show host offered to donate as much aspirin as it takes to rid the women of …
American Life League Video Makes Planned Parenthood Seem More Fun than it Is
In celebration of National Condom Week, the American Life League recently released this shocking report which roundly condemns Planned Parenthood for …
Week in Review
There is a Lot I Don’t Understand About You Hamza Kashgari, a 23-year old columnist for Saudi Arabia’s Al Bilad newspaper, …
Civility and its Discontents
Gabrielle Giffords and the aftermath of the Tucson shooting
On January 25, 2012—a year and several weeks after she was shot in the head outside of a grocery store in …
When Do Their Sentences End?
Reentering RIPTA
On November 17 of last year, WPRIChannel 12 “Target 12 Investigator” Tim White reported that Rhode Island Public Transport Authority (RIPTA) …
Our Heavenly Father
Spiritual crisis at Cranston West
Jessica Ahlquist, the 16-year-old girl who won a federal lawsuit against Cranston High School West to remove a prayer banner from …
Musty Beginnings
Finding the Beauty in the Damp and Dark
Basements are sites of dank carpets and unrecognizable storage boxes. Once-prized possessions dwell in limbo: damaged too much to fully enjoy, …
Life, the Universe, and Everything
The end of the world at the end of the Internet
At the end of the Internet, there is LUElinks. Don’t try to find it. It doesn’t exist. But if you somehow …
Rick Santorum's Sweater Vest Could Be Yours
That's right. For the the small price of $100 or more, you too could own a piece of the charm that …
Manning the Unmanned
Taking a closer look at drone warfare
The ten people driving out of the small Pakistani town of Miramshah on January 23 probably heard a distant buzz before …
Catwoman Impersonator Pepper-Sprays Ozzy Osbourne Impersonator for Impersonating Ozzy Osbourne
In one of the most impressive displays of workplace intoxication since Rick Perry dropped out of the presidential race, Catwoman maced Ozzy …
Totally Fracked: Gasland Director Arrested at House Science Committee
Josh Fox, director of the 2010 Oscar nominated documentary Gasland, was arrested today while gathering footage for his sequel, Gasland 2: …
Perry Bible Fellow: A Conversation with Nicholas Gurewitch
Growing up, I often dreamed I would be the kind of high-minded intellectual badass who carries around a dog-eared copy of …
A Pint Sized Perspective
As someone who is reaching adulthood, it is easy to lose sight of the lives of those younger than yourself. To …
Living Eleven: Stories From Inside the 11th House on 11th Street
One block north of 10th Streetand one block south of 12th Street, just before Providence ends and Pawtucket begins, is 11th …
Marathons and Our Bodies
Facts and Musings to Consider Before Deciding to Run a Marathon
The idea that there are health benefits to pushing our bodies past their limits is pure myth. Our bodies, organic gifts, …
A Central Falls Steward
Bodega life during bankruptcy in Central Falls
When Hurricane Irene touched down in Central Falls, RI, last summer, it snapped sunflower stalks and made sand whirls of street …
Week in Review: 2 December 2011
I'm At the Pizza Hut CIA spy networks in both Iran and Lebanon have recently been compromised despite their employment of …
The Return of the Two Headed Boy
“How strange it is to be anything at all,” Jeff Mangum mused on the closing line of In the Aeroplane Over …
Over the River
For the past twenty-something years, installation artists Christo, and his late wife, Jeanne-Claude have been wrapping and draping the world in …
Diva Wear on the Cheap
Imagine a leopard print silk skirt with a lagoon at sunset stamped across the crotch. Pair with tropical beachscape bomber jacket …
Whitewashed Wale
On illustrating Moby Dick
I am absolutely bizarrely obsessed with Moby-Dick and with this art,” says Matt Kish. From August 5, 2009 to January 29, …
Tales of Pokémastery
Cards and critters
Newsflash: Charizard is dead. I had no idea. This was my first mistake when I tried to enter the Pokémon Autumn …
WEEK IN REVIEW 17 November 2011
Fight back app Although today’s most popular smart phone app provides users with an arsenal of angry birds to battle apple-stealing …
Rapping the Revolution in Palestine
On 1970, over a steady drumbeat and the slow stream of a saxophone, the late Gil Scott-Heron said six immortal words …
Stogie Fever
Heap some tobacco onto a brown leaf, roll it up, stuff it nice and thick. Cut off its tip, poke a …
What Will The Museum of the Future Look Like?
The definition of museum:The 20th century museum of fine art was at once a museum, a generator of exhibitions and art-related …
Social Improvement Through Hip Hop
On November 5, PROOV will bring the fundamental elements of hip-hop culture to life in Brown University’s Alumnae Hall. Live DJs …
Occupy Keeps Occupying
On Thursday, October 27 at 2 pm, Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare and Police Detective Theodore Michael calmly entered the Occupy …
Organized Labor Rally in Support of Occupy Providence
There has been a fair amount of ambivalence and ambiguity about organized labor’s relationship to the Occupy movements across the country. …
Tunisia's Triumph
One Tunisian street vendor self-immolated in December, and thousands responded in revolution; one dictator was disposed of in January, and millions …
Aftermath of a Revolution
Although Libya was formally declared its liberation on October 23, three days after the death of former leader Moammar Gaddafi, the …
WEEK IN REVIEW 3 November 2011
Security ViolatedAccording to its website, the Transportation Security Administration’s primary role in the airline industry is to “electronically screen millions of …
WEEK IN REVIEW 27 October 2011
BROOKLYN BUS SEGREGATION Bus segregation is back, and in Williamsburg of all places. Last week The New York World, a Columbia Journalism …
Regarding the Guard
At its core, McDonagh’s The Guard is hardly more than a romp on the old cops ‘n’ robbers jaunt. Brendan Gleeson …
How to be a Lesbian in Ten Days or Less
At 8PM on Friday September 30, the doors of Artist Exchange’s Black Box Theater in Cranston closed, sequestering a tightly-packed, 27-person …
Castle for the People
Henry Degaitas still remembers gym class in the Providence Armory. Every day he and the other kids of Bishop McVinney, a …
(Stop) Watching Jon Stewart
People should probably stop watching Jon Stewart. The Daily Show on Comedy Central has been self-described on numerous occasions as “throwing …
Frankly, Somewhat Pro-Pun
There are four kinds of people in this world. There are those who do not yet know Frank Lesser. Then there …
WEEK IN REVIEW 06 October 2011
Utahns Strip Down to Break StereotypesIf you were to associate underwear with Utah in any way, it would probably be a …
Pure Black Metal
On a stage lined with impaled sheep heads and daubed with animal blood, Norwegian band Gorgoroth played their now-infamous Krakow “Black …
An American Casualty
Bugles didn’t burst with taps when Samir Khan died in Yemen last month, yet another American casualty of the War on …
Danny Brown and Das Racist
Danny Brown entered the stage at The Met sporting a Mishka varsity jacket, skinny jeans, Jordans, and an emo combover. This, …
Thighs and Thunder
Sometimes when he was lonely and tired and depressed his gigantic thighs would talk to him, whisper sweet nothings into his …
REM IMAX
In the final scene of Inception, we are faced with the question, “Is this real life, or is it all a …
Hey Providence, What is That?
Few give this lonely edifice more than a passing glance as they zip by on I-195. It stands against the shore …
(Un)Secure Communities
On January 5, 2011 Governor Lincoln Chafee (I) passed an executive order terminating previous governor Donald Carcieri’s (R) Illegal Immigration Control …
A History of The Indy Pt. 1
This week at Midnight Hour convenes a new series uncovering the history of the Independent through interviews with staff, alumni and …
Wangian WUNDERKIND
Alexander Wang Brings Haute Couture Down to EarthAlexander Wang, fashion’s reigning prince of cool, is having a moment. Merging neo-grunge style …
I May Be Paranoid, But No Android
*A couple of dots on a grid that intersects in the familiar quadrants of sector “highsociety.” The wind caused the leaves …
Brick-o-lage
A Conversation with a Lego ArtistTo be deemed a master Lego builder, you must first make a sphere out of the …
Hey Providence, What is that?
Born on the Fourth of July, or thereaboutsAt the corner of Wickendon and Governor Streets in Fox Point, right in front …
We’re Not Blocking Traffic: We Are Traffic
Reclaiming the Road for CyclistsCritical Mass—part social gathering, part collective action—is difficult to define, even amongst participants. There is no formal …
Defining “Personhood”
Fighting Roe v. Wade in MississippiThe American Constitution outlines the rights and responsibilities of “persons” without ever defining who exactly constitutes …
Week In Review: Pirate Party Parade
Pirate PartyIn case you missed it, September 19th was International Talk Like a Pirate Day, celebrated on social media sites around …
Encounters With Autism: Sizing Up the Treatment of ASD
As autism awareness grows, our society must address issues in healthcare, publically-funded special education, and general social accommodation for people with …
RIPTA Delays Decision on Service Cuts
In June, the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) proposed cutting the state’s bus service by 10 percent(reduced to sevenin more …
Reclaiming Rhode Island
North Kingstown’s two-hour tea party
On Wednesday, September 7, over 200 people gathered in North Kingstown’s Wilson Park, enduring the day’s drizzle to welcome the Tea …
Alligator Rescued from the Woonasquatucket
Imagine a teenage girl goes on vacation with her family to some subtropical Floridian tourist trap, bringing home, as a keepsake, …
Fallen Water
reflections on the 9/11 memorial competition
Although it was not sent in the mail, on April 28, 2003, you received an invitation. “On behalf of all New …
Econ Department Squelches Free Market Innovation
Last Friday, the Brown University Department of Economics dealt a crushing blow to private industry in the form of a joint …
From Houston to Outer Space: Tributes to 9/11
Even as New York City and Washington D.C. ramp up security in anticipation of new threats , most tributes honoring the …
Joe Scarborough Mistakes Milquetoast Democrats for Tea Party: Releases Pandering Country Single
In a bold move, Joe Scarborough kicked off the opening ceremonies for the 9/11 10th-anniversary memorial yesterday with the surprise release …
Soured Serendipity for 22,000 Visa Winners
One spin of luck made Ellen a shoo-in for citizenship, she believed. But her serendipity, seemingly issued by the American government, …
Open Source Academia
On April 4, 2001, a project spearheaded by the then-president of M.I.T., Charles Vest, was announced in the New York Times …
30 Years in the Game with Bob the Barber
Barbers haven’t always just cut hair: during the Middle Ages, so-called barber surgeons performed bloodletting procedures on plague-ridden and disease-stricken folk …
Liberia Comes to America
West African eats in Cranston
Board the number 11 bus at Kennedy Plaza, ride it south down Broad Street, and you’ll get a sense of the …
Do the Right Thing
Republican presidential candidates
What to consider as the race begins: Wendy Schiller, US Politics expert and Professor at Brown, on the GOP The GOP …
A New Discovery Zone
The Rhode Island Museum of Science and Art
The Rhode Island Museum of Art and Science (RIMOSA) is a nonprofit that calls itself a ‘wall-less’ museum. For now, the …
9/11: There's an App for That
The first official memorial to the 9/11 tragedy was built in light, twin beams serving as an intangible but indelible memory …
Week in Review
4/20 Update Detroit is a decrepit city—its former industry in dark shambles, its slums rife with poverty. But don’t worry! Gubernatorial …
Reconsidering Real Feel
In 1936, when Europe was deeply invested in improving industry, urbanization was rampant, and a dehumanizing division of labor was being …
Al Jazeera
the Arab world and popular opinion in flux
Al Jazeera is Arabic for ‘The Island’—a reference to the Arabian Peninsula, which is broken up into Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, …
Week in Review
Someone Sticks Up for Immigrants, Finally “I think things are going to go crazy on this,” Utah Republican state Rep. Stephen …
Providence Bites
"digestible" news from around town
Fewer Kids—and they're not Alright Despite a crippling recession that left Rhode Island with one of the highest unemployment rates in …
Week in Review
Facebook Squahes "Third Palestinian Intifada" After receiving numerous complaints and appeals, including a request from the Anti-Defamation League—a US-based Jewish advocacy …
A Sense of Where You Are
poems about place
Pampa 1. There is nothing other than the pyramid of tires that seeks amnesty from the flatbed-truck-baggers lurching by, outside city …
Hypocrisy at the Home Show
The hidden turmoil of housing in rhode island
From March 31 to April 3, thousands of Southern New Englanders flocked to the annual Home Show sponsored by the Rhode …
Rhode Island Pirates for Life
Ten years ago, Casey Dorman left the world of high fashion to pursue life on the high seas, giving the heave-ho …
Providence Bites
Nowhere to Hide For Nude Survivor Move over Wesley Snipes: there is a new king of celebrity tax evasion, and he …
Sleep No More: A Review
Late last Saturday night, I was in New York City searching frantically for 530 West 27th Street, the site of Sleep …
Week in Review
Operation Odyssey Dawn-s Saturday, March 19 marked the beginning of Operation Odyssey Dawn—an assault led by American forces on the Qaddafi …
High Profile
overhauling Rhode Island’s education system in the public eye
Deborah Gist describes her entry into education administration as almost accidental. Originally trained as an elementary school teacher, she was teaching …
Week in Review
In Putin’s Russia, Alcohol Drinks You! Russia’s parliament is currently grappling with a question that could force us all to re-examine …
The Gay Elephant in the Room
conservatives snub GOProud at conference
Every winter since 1973, Washington D.C. has braced itself against a ragtag mob of Joe Six-Packs and corporate bigwigs; aunts and …
Slash, Cut, and Burn
rewriting immigration–and the constitution–in Arizona
Almost one year has passed since Arizona sent the nation into an uproar over its controversial anti-immigration law. The most radical …
Burning Boats
the Edgewood Yacht Club recovers from fire
From the windswept parking lot, it is impossible to ignore the charred skeleton of a landmark that blots out a school …
Billboard Hits Remastered
The hamburger is ten feet tall—or it will be, once Johan Bjurman finishes with it. “The meat’s gonna be the hard …
Care
There was a larva on the table from our mud pie or from the pounds and pounds of potatoes mom had …
Deep Breaths
why you should stress about how much you stress
Let’s say you were to drop by any college campus, corporate office, or Providence Teachers’ Union meeting, pick an individual at …
Speaking Through Supreme Court Silence
Hope High students challenge RI Dept. of Ed.
On a February afternoon, an eerie afterschool lull occupies Providence’s Hope High School. It feels like graduation has come four months …
The French Film Festival
Between Thursday, February 24, and Sunday, March 6, The French Film Festival took over the Cable Car Cinema on South Main …
Zen and Now
meditations on the Providence Zen Center and the Brown Contemplative Studies Initiative
In Providence, two influential and disparate iterations of Zen in the West stand within thirty minutes of one another: the Providence …
Blood on Our Hands?
cellphones, conflict materials, and the best hope for the DRC
Next time your phone vibrates across the table, consider the secret provenance of your unassuming cell phone. Consider its capacitors, its …
Bad Mamas/Supermamas
A man is shot, collapses, and dies. He mumbles “Mildred” and falls to the floor of an obscenely well-furnished living room. …
The Oak Tree Massacre: Sports Rivalries Then and Now
On the evening of January 27, a man’s gruff voice came over the AM radio to football fans across the state …
Veteran PTSD: The Tension Between De-Stigmatization and Mis-Diagnosis
In 2003, after 15 years of non-combat duty for the Rhode Island National Guard, Vinnie Scirocco was giddy about his deployment …
"Saving Women" Is Not a Justification for Occupation
On Tuesday, March 1, Oliver Rosenbloom B’13 wrote an opinions column for the Brown Daily Herald discussing Brown students’ perception of …
Week in Review: 3/3/11
THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE FOR A RACIST BILLBOARDLast Wednesday, Texas-based anti-abortion group Life Always erected a racially charged billboard on the …
The Art of Vegan Mimickry: The Quest for Alfredo
I’ve been exposed to a lot of atypical foods during my 21 years; I’ve eaten raw conch, chocolate-covered ant clusters, Rocky …
Overhauling the Art Experience: Timeless Works through New-age Google Eyes
Google’s Art Project took the art world and digital world by storm when it premiered on February 1. The project features …
Chants and Murmurs
UNITED THEY STANDOn Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of Rhode Island workers filled the Providence Statehouse in a rally against a proposed bill …
Temple As Symbol: Cambodia and Thailand Clash to Divert Attention from Internal Issues
A Hindu temple to Shiva—Preah Vihear to Cambodians and Khao Phra Viharn to Thais—overlooks a valley in the Dangrek mountain range …
The Best-Laid Schemas of Mice and Men
“‘Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good …
Devilbolical
Characters:JUDY – Young and starved for company.BRY – Same.Night. The back porch of a country house, in the deep country, the …
Sex, Lies, and Survey Results
There is a seemingly ceaseless stream of studies that reduce each gender to a vaguely irritating stereotype. The men fear commitment, …
Love Stories Throughout History
LILITH AND ADAM: AN ARGUMENTThe legend of Lilith, Adam’s wife before Eve, found its first mention in Sumerian times. Lilith appears …
The Next Big Thing
Forty million dollars in donor funds and 38,815 square feet later, the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts officially celebrated its …
A New Dawn for Sudan
Sudan is no stranger to struggle. For most of its post-colonial history, the largest nation in Africa has been at war …
WEEK IN REVIEW 2/17/11
SHRUNKEN HEADSAccording to University of Wisconsin anthropologist John Hawks, the human brain has been shrinking. Nope, it’s not from all that …
WEEK IN REVIEW 2/24/11
SO LONG MR. PRESIDENT?The Arab world was dealt yet another shock on Sunday, when Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan, announced his …
No Choice: Chafee Pushes Back Against Charters in Rhode Island
Angus Davis is a handsome local boy who skipped college and became a Silicon Valley prodigy when he was 18. That …
The Dirt on the White Coat
The American Biology Teacher Journal conducts an experiment called the “Draw a Scientist Test,” in which elementary school students are asked …
The Revolution Will Not Be (Truthfully) Televised
The uprising in Egypt has taken the international media by storm. Since protests broke out on the streets of Cairo on …
While You Were Out: Life in Providence in the Past Month
THERE WAS SOME SNOWSome time in mid-January, the word “snowpocalypse” stopped being ironic. Birds had fallen from the sky only weeks …
Week in Review 2/10/11
STOP AND EAT THE WAFFLESIn response to recent government stalemates, Belgians are insisting that their politicians don’t get any until they …
The Moby Dick Marathon: A Podcast
The most wonderful thing about New Bedford's annual Moby Dick Marathon is that it is open to any and all conceptions …
The Death of Headlines. Maybe.
Web Exclusive: January 10th, 2011A fellow I know who works in online publishing (posting?) thinks that if journalism wants to stay …
Citizen’s United Has Minimal Effect in Rhode Island: A Debrief on the Decision and why it Didn’t Matter in Lil’ Rhody
Originally Published as Web Exclusive: December 20thIn the rush to anoint corporate interests the crown prince of the 2010 midterm elections, …
Work of Art: The Next Great Artist
For a genre of mainstream entertainment, reality television is certainly large, and contains multitudes. In the last decade and a half, …
The Science Behind Everything
HEAD OVER TENTACLESI recently saw a nature documentary that showed an octopus wrapping its tentacles lovingly around a diver. It would …
We're Striking: Listen to Us!
Crowds swarmed the cities of France this fall and chants echoed across the streets: “Fight, fight, fight!” With revolutionary fervor, millions …
Week in Review 11/18/10
THE TODAY SHOW[DOWN]Former President George W. Bush reentered the public sphere on November 8 with an exclusive, seemingly endless interview with …
The Indy Gives Thanks
The importance of eating chopped liverEvery Thanksgiving, my grandmother makes chopped liver. It’s smooth, a little sweet, vaguely metallic—because of the …
Obama Ruins Indian Holiday
America is feeling unusually sensitive these days. At the tail end of an election season defined so much by national mood …
Week in Review 11/11/10
obamania in Bollywood, FDA scare tactics, and cross-dressing kindergarteners
Obama Goes to India On the heels of an election season defined by national mood and presidential inability to connect, Obama’s …
Digesting the October Leak
army reports from the war in Iraq
On October 22, 391,831 classified Iraq War logs were made public on the internet. The logs are written primarily by low-ranking …
Cwning Noobs
my special night at Toledo
As someone who frequently needs an easy, budget-friendly way to shovel cheese, meat, and grease into my mouth late at night, …
Reckless Abandon
abandoned homes, squatting, and direct revolutionary action
On certain blocks of the south and west sides of Providence, burnt and dilapidated abandoned homes are as common as inhabited …
Rahmmed Down Your Throat
Rahm Emanuel runs for mayor
A Mayor Daley has ruled Chicago since 1955, except for a memorable twelve year interruption, resulting mostly in chaos. When the …
An Interview With Bill Rankin
Bill Rankin is the founder and key contributor to radicalcartography.net, an online archive of uncommon maps. He is a doctoral candidate …
Unnatural Disaster
"We are here at the request of the Government of Pakistan to help them respond to the worst natural disaster in …
Gloves Off
To grow up a boxer in Rhode Island is to know your enemy so well that he ceases to be your …
Sailors And Steamrollers
Trace the origins of modern basketball, and you’ll come across a rural road in Hillsdale, Wyoming. There is no landmark or …
Week in Review 10/28/10
Kicks Just Keep Getting Harder to Find Even among East Coast colleges filled with bored elites, Georgetown University is one of …
Why You Should Vote Chafee
Lincoln Chafee B’75 was eleven when he went to the 1964 Republican National Convention, with his father, then the immensely popular …
Lope
(with an object)1. (Of four-legged animals) to move or run with a regular bounding movement.2. To cause (a horse) to canter …
Geophysics
This semester they start asking us about the thickness of glaciers. There is an earthquake in the Caribbean. Then an earthquake …
LET'S START A FAMILY BAND
BROTHERS OR USThere’s a dog barking somewherein the novel you’re readingimagine an ice sculpture of the Titanic being thrown at a …
It's Still Good to Be Independent
In the front room of Books on the Square, a dozen toddlers and infants sit in rapt attention as Chris Byrnes …
Chemical Drift
It started with tomatoes. When I arrived at Buckhorn Gardens in early July, the other interns on the three-acre vegetable farm …
Report From The Capitol : Notes from the One America Working Together Rally
This past Saturday, the Independent traveled down to Washington, DC to attend the One America Working Together march at the Washington …
Copycat Arizona Immigration Bill Gains Support in RI
This January, Rhode Island will consider legislation similar to the controversial SB-1070 law Arizona passed this April. The Tea Partiers and …
LeHamlet
Of the many nicknames endowed to LeBron James, “The King” best reflects his Shakespearean hubris and the irony of his narrative; …
Week in Review 10/7/10
YOGIS FOR CHRIST!Next time you consider changing into spandex and easing into child’s pose, wrap your mind around this: yoga is …
Depleted Waters
Update 5/18/11: 2010 preliminary results on catch-share program in New England. Over the past decade, Rhode Island's fishing industry has experienced …
The Food Supply Chain
Greg Asbed B’85, co-coordinator of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) Campaign for Fair Food, says that CIW is about to …
Week in Review 9/30/10
Healing Bad CarmaRemember that time you lost your temper because you left your car on Thayer Street for just five minutes …
Place Trace
When Roger Williams crossed the Seekonk River away from Plymouth Colony and out of the reach of Massachusetts extradition orders, he …
Missing the Mark
Students at The New School for Social Research in New York City occupied the cafeteria of the student center in December …
Back From The War
My older brother returned from his yearlong tour in Iraq in the middle of a cold April night last year. I …
Porcine Party
For early English settlers in New England, livestock was more than just a source of food. Roger Williams, founder of Rhode …
And Then There Were Millions
Over the last ten years a digital coup d’etat has overthrown media marketplace conventions. No longer do we have to meddle …
Elegy for Rich
[To the tune of LFO’s “Summer Girls”]I think it’s sad when former boy band members die…Do you remember LFO, and that …
In Public
We have not always shopped in grocery stores. We have not always pushed shopping carts down fluorescent-lit aisles, past shelves and …
The World's Manliest Sport
The year was 2009. On a cold weekend in May, they arrived by ship, by plane, and by car to the …
Week In Review 9/23
Condoms for ConvictsLast week, the San Francisco County Jail’s San Bruno unit installed 16 condom dispensers for its 750 residents. The …
BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS
With her best love-you-no-matter-what face on, my mother told me, “girls love a guy who can cook.” This display of motherly …
Hurrican Season
The hurricane started out as a Category 5 and hit land as a Category 3. It swept up the coast, leaving …
Wide Open Races: Four Dems on the Campaign Trail
President Obama's disapproval ratings are nearing 50 percent, and nationally, Republicans are polling anywhere from 5-14 percent better than Democrats. Whiz-kid …
SOCIALIST FOR SENATE
Dan La Botz, a long-time family friend, recently decided to join the Ohio US Senate race. He got more than the …
IN PLEASANT COMPANY
By the time I was old enough to read, the American Girl Company had found its way into schools and homes …
SNAPPY HEADLINE
It is opening night at Cook & Brown Public House. The tables are mostly full but there is space in the …
Force of Habit
On June 22, 2010, Americans will no longer be able to get free samples of cigarettes, procure promotional gear with tobacco …
Cocktails on the Rocks
For HIV-positive individuals, morning coffee comes with a daily drug cocktail. Some take a combination of tenofovir, emtricitabine, and efavirenz; others …
Cross-country Grandma
The land of strip-malls and stoplight highways lost a state gem this week when New Hampshire native, campaign finance reformer and …
POSt TRAUMATIc single player
A picture freezes a moment; a song traces emotion in soundwaves; a movie combines the two and adds movement, the subtleties …
have your cake and feel good, too
When the Indian spice trade picked up in the 16th century in Europe, black pepper was said to be literally worth …
Supersize Me One More Time
Is 24 ounces simply not cutting it? No need to worry. Meet the Trenta.Pulling a Business 101 oldie-but-goodie, Starbucks Corp. is …
DON'T BUY THE FARM
On January 21, on a cold morning in Copake, New York, Dean Pierson rose before dawn. Just as he did every …
Beerified RI
It’s a curious union. In December, a sugary children’s drink from the 1920s and a beverage old enough to feature in …
Six! More! Years!
On Selection Sunday, March 14, bubbles will burst across the college basketball scene as unworthy teams fail to qualify and unworthy …
Hey Now, So Cow
February 19, AS220: A crowd of twenty stood silent. Gangly and guileless, So Cow fumbled about the stage as they set …
Going Home To A Stack Of Books
Imagine Donald Barthelme sending messages in a bottle to Gertrude Stein.” This is how the LA Times described Stanley Crawford’s The …
Conventional Kink
Valentine’s Day at the Westin Hotel: a gigantic leather and fetish expo, no photography, interviews, or journalists allowed. The convention gave …
Cry Havoc!
Battle BatsJanuary 12, 1942: Just one month prior, the attack on Pearl Harbor had flung the US into a war in …
From Alfalfa To Ivy
Sitting in a booth with five Deep Springs transfers is equivalent to huddling with a quarter of the school’s entire student …
Sphere Of Influence
Last week, 32 Latin American and Caribbean leaders met in the resort town of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, to forge a …
Cry Havoc!
Battle BatsJanuary 12, 1942: Just one month prior, the attack on Pearl Harbor had flung the U.S. into a war in …
Jazzy Vegan Jambalya
Seeing the Saints triumph in the Super Bowl reminded me of my own visit to the Big Easy, back in 2004, …
Brief Interviews with Olympic Men
Indy: You’re in the Olympics, man! What was your “Wow I’m in the Olympics” moment?Travers: It’s a great honour to be …
For The Record
It is rare to find a Renaissance man/woman in this day and age. Back when people were still chucking buckets of …
Word-Up or Get Out
At Brown, it begins like an AA meeting. We “check in.” It’s a way to talk about your day, your life, …
Speed-Date Your Candidate
Democratic Candidates The Front Runner: Frank Caprio, General TreasurerThe son of a judge with a court show on the local ABC …
Last Of The Kennedys
Our government hasn’t been without a Kennedy serving in national office for more than 60 years. Ever since John F. Kennedy …
Novocaine For Lil Wayne
On February 9, Lil Wayne faced a Manhattan court. Previously scheduled to enter the slammer, he instead drove away with his …
Chief Chinchilla
Another woman took center stage in world politics when Costa Ricans elected their first female president on February 7. President Elect …
From The Editors
Speaking of Venn diagrams (cf. the X Page), overlay Page 8’s pseudo-apocalyptics and page 9’s dreamy sketches of Yellowstone, and you’ll …
Trojans
This week in not kidding: David Sills, a 13-year old from Bear, Delaware, has committed to play quarterback for University of …
mind the cap
That life-affirming, cathartic New Orleans Super Bowl victory you watched (or may have heard about) might be the last until 2012. …
Frozen For The Future
In the past century, our food’s biodiversity has fallen off a cliff, a drop that could lead to disaster. Luckily, the …
Romance is boring
Romantic love, the guest we hope to welcome in on Valentine’s Day, is appealing in concept. Ostensibly, love is hard to …
Souffle foreplay: how to make her come over
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. For the souffle to rise, the oven has to be completely heated when the cake …
Object of Affection
So many things the Eiffel Tower stands for, so many versions of love for so many kinds of lovers. What good …
Chat Roulette
Chatroulette.com is a website that instantly connects you with a random stranger on video chat. It showcases the freakish and the …
JIZZ IN THE LIBRARY
December 11th, 2009: “Today, I just read every BrownFML, finishing at 5:30 in the morning. I have an Orgo exam at …
No More Dragons
In 2004 Captain Bruce Muraski of Wisconsin’s Waupun Correctional Institution received a worrisome letter from ananonymous inmate. As the prison’s Disruptive …
JIZZ IN THE LIBRARY
December 11th, 2009: “Today, I just read every BrownFML, finishing at 5:30 in the morning. I have an Orgo exam at …
The Parable of the Tiger and the Undertaker
Challenger CM Punk is wearing nothing but a yellow Speedo and wrist tape marked with the letter X. His greasy brown …
Sight To Be Seen
It wasn’t for the sex that I agreed to go on the sex tour. It’s not really the sort of thing …
IS THERE A DOCTOR ON SET?
The little boy’s nosebleed wouldn’t stop. He needed brain surgery as soon as possible to prevent a cluster of blood vessels …
TWELVE MILLION STRONG
In 2000, we had Elián. The Aughts’ Great Immigration Debate—played out in the media, on the political stump, and around kitchen …
Apocalypse Always
It would be nice to blame someone for these massive panics, these big bait-and-switch games about the impending end of the …
Minor Celebrity
Last week, Michele and Tareq Salahi left their Virginia home dressed to the nines and successfully evaded security to attend an …
The Decade's Wars
New decades, like presidential inaugurations, have a certain hopeful flavor, a hint of fresh things to come. But new decades, like …
Utopia
Ralph Nader is America’s leading consumer advocate and favorite third party candidate. After three unsuccessful bids for the presidency in the …
Oh me, oh maya
The trailer of Sony Pictures’ latest disaster movie, 2012, posits what might be the most outrageous human rights dilemma of all …
Kentucky dreamin'
In a recent bout of homesickness I pulled up the Wikipedia article on US Interstate Highway 64. I wondered if maybe …
Four photographers, one little state
Focus on Four,” now showing at the Newport Art Museum, features the work of four photographers with superficially little in common. …
A Letter to Eileen
Excerpted from a 1962 collection of short stories by the Sudanese author Al-Tayyib Salih (1929-2009), this story concerns a character who …
WORCESTER’S VICTIM SOUL
On a summer day in 1987, three-year-old Audrey Santo fell into her family’s backyard swimming pool and suffered massive hypoxia. Unconscious …
DIGITAL LOCKDOWN
Welcome to the world of tomorrow, where all yourmedia dreams come true. Allow me to catchyou up: Americans left behind rosy …
THE OCEAN VS OUTER SPACE
POSITION: OCEAN > SPACEBadass. That’s the ocean. Everything aboutit—its direct beauty, its intense and originalperfume, its physical and spiritual powerto move, …
PUT THAT IN YOUR PRESCRIPTION PIPE
A new amendment to Rhode Island law has clarifiedhow qualified citizens will obtain medical marijuanawithin the next year. Despite Governor Donald …
From the Editors
The significance of Wednesday’s Veterans Day remainsprofound. Americans still fight and die abroad, and thosewho return bear the physical and emotional …
Digital Lockdown
Hulu, Murdoch, and the monetization of free TV
Welcome to the world of tomorrow, where all your media dreams come true. Allow me to catch you up: Americans left …
The Ocean vs. Outer Space
Badass. That’s the ocean. Everything about it—its direct beauty, its intense and original perfume, its physical and spiritual power to move, …
PUT THAT IN YOUR PRESCRIPTION PIPE
A new amendment to Rhode Island law has clarified how qualified citizens will obtain medical marijuana within the next year. Despite …
Red herring veto
In an effort to help the Ocean State stay true to its name, Governor Carcieri vetoed legislation last week to impose …
System Errors
American democracy is still a work in progress. Granted, if the be-britched framers of the Constitution had had it their way, …
Indoors To Underground: The Criminalization of Indoor Prostitution in Rhode Island
On Tuesday, Governor Don Carcieri confirmed a bill to criminalize indoor prostitution in the Ocean State after both chambers of the …
Paranoid Times
Under the aegis of the Providence Conspiracy League, Issue 1 of PARANOIA was Xeroxed on a $500 budget at Kinko’s in …
THE LITERARY LION, THE WITCHES, THEIR WARDROBE
Since it was published in 1984, John Updike’s Witches of Eastwick—an outlandish fantasy/satire about provincial life in a fictional Rhode Island …
Planting PVD
Providence embraces urban gardening
As far as cities go, Providence is hardly your typical"asphalt jungle."A growing presence of leafy greensand tomato vines has found its …
Vote for ____ in 2012
the perpetual presidential campaign in US politics
Much to my surprise, I agree with something TomFriedman wrote in his weekly New York Times column from September 29 (“Where …
Hard Times at Twin River
greyhounds and the future of Rhode Island gambling
Until August 8, Twin River greyhound racetrack andcasino in Lincoln,Rhode Island was riding the tailend of a tradition brought to the …
Week In Review 10/22/09
Rhode Island's rankings and French Vogue's rank styling
Rank There are all sorts of lists: to-do lists, wish lists, guest lists, hit-lists, pro andconlists. Lists can be funny (McSweeney’s), …
An Excerpt From Eldritch
a play
Everyone is a wizard, except for Father Levit, who is a priest.Wizards wear beautiful capes. They hold lengths of wood. Gabriel …
Yo, Beaver!
amphibious architecture in New York
September 29, 2009, 10:50:00 PM. I received this SMS text: Jose hr b4 u ask yes still single.not a single female …
Advertising In Review
Maeda x Lexus collaboration reviewed
RISD President John Maeda is in the news.Well, kind of. Maeda’s latest commissionedillustration, an advertisement for the newLexus HS 250 hybrid …
Objections
Things, historically speaking, go badly when only one person is allowedto have an opinion.It’s how dictators happen, and Hugo Chavez’s variety …
Chalk It Up To Experience
how to win votes and fill asphalt at the Providence Street Arts Festival
Remember when you were a kid and you couldspend hours sprawled on the sidewalk outliningflowers and dogs, drawing big-headed stick figures …
Raising Costs, Raising Fists
the fight for healthcare and workers' rights in Prov city
Last Thursday, more than 200 Brown Dining Service (BDS) workers,Providence union members, and students gathered before the steps of University Hall …
Re-Coup-Erating
the US's awkward legacy in Latin America complicates its inaction regarding the Honduran coup
On Friday, South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint (R) returned from a “fact-finding” mission to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. In a press release,DeMint stated …
Shades of Green
in green building, the hot new thing is to renew the old
Green—it used to mean cold, hard cash. Now, it’s a relatively meaningless buzzword for building something with an ecological conscience. In …
From the Editors 10/8/09
This mid-October, in between staving off deadly microbes (that handsanitizer seems too good to be true), debating whether Columbus is Friend …
Stop Breathing My Air
a brief history of the quarantine
Quarantines confine healthy people who may have been exposed to acommunicabledisease. The first known quarantines appear in the Old Testament, which …
ARTS*bar
A scary America Roman Polanski's apprehension on Saturday at the Zürich airport hasFrench cultural and politicalspheres in a considerable uproar. As …
Sea Change
New England groundfishermen face new management plan
Tom Osmers is a Martha’s Vineyard fisherman—wiry, with close greyhair under a baseball cap, a good beard, a narrow nose in …
Third Base Gets Short-Stopped
new research links HPV to throat cancer
An STD that goes straight for the throat: the human papillomavirus (HPV)is found to be responsible for 60 percent of throat …
From the Editors
antidisestablishmentarianism
Had political columnist, linguist, and brain donor William Safire lived in the United Kingdom in an earlier time, he may well …
Fruit Cup
FRUIT CUP Grasshoppers leapfrog While watermelon juice drips Off pretty pink chins. Grapes ripe to raisins On the porch. You like …
Physiology
PHYSIOLOGY (The stubble on your chin is radio static) TINY ANTENNAE IN MY EYELASHES: What is the frequency of white noise? …
Poems
The Archaeologist He excavates my collarbone, the thin skinned recesses, plumbing my body’s sunken architecture. // St. Augustine in my breast …
Not Just Jazz Hands
Cabaret at the Trinity Rep
When I told people I was seeing Cabaret on Saturday, there were a few snickers and a few raised eyebrows. One …
40 Barren Years
still no birth control pill for men
In the 1950s a young woman at the drive-in with her beau would have been understandably anxious about the expiration date …
Let Them Prove It
documenting human rights abuses in Russia
On a frigid Moscow morning in 1977, physicist Yuri Orlovwatched as the KGB men drove up to his apartment andexited their …
Rhode Island Recap
Proverbial pawnshop The city of Providence has, in essence, gone to the proverbial pawnshop.Items for bidding at the Renaissance City’s Urban …
From the Editors
Consider the following: last Saturday, aBrown student went to a certain Thayer Streetnightclub and ordered a round of tequila shotsand a …
Space Jam
the 21st century’s latest trash problem is in orbit
"The first concussion cut the rocket up the side with a giant can opener. Themen were thrown into space like a …
Lamination
I’m in Atlanta and when I’m in Atlanta there’s always that feeling when you step out of the air-conditioning and all …
Stealing Zeitgeist
see Tao Lin write, see Tao Lin steal, see Tao Lin capture a present fearlessly with deadpan humor
A book containing gambling, pornography, the University of Florida, a bus straight out of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, vegan yuppies, …
RISD, Without Hope
the mysterious resignation of a museum director
The Rhode Island School of Design Museum reopened after summerholiday this month with a new director. The previous director, HopeAlswang, announced …
The Artifice of the Internship
are you (non) experienced?
Coffee cups and copy machines. Nervous smiles at stern superiors.Straining one’s ears to hear snippets of debates as meeting room doors …
I Had the Time of my Life
Patrick Swayze, grinder of hips and heartthrob extraordinaire, died Monday after a prolonged battle with pancreatic cancer. Swayze was born in …
I-Way or the Highway
In Providence, the streets are the cities’ largest public space. It’s not parks or the famed waterfront—it’s the streets. The day …
Megafauna and the Impending Biomass Crash
Full disclosure: I was really into dinosaurs when I was a kid. And I don't meanall that Land Before Time Petrie …
Roz Raskin
Following the critical success of 2006's The Ecotones, her debut solo album, Roz Raskin is at the helm of her own …
Writing the War: The Story of Lyn Crost B'38
I am interested in the goddamn sad science of war.--Ernest HemingwayAnzio, Italy 30 May 1945: The war is over. Lyn Crost …
Sex, Lies and Red Tape
YAROSLAVL, RUSSIA At the "Achieving Your Dreams" club, Anya Alexandrova is fruitlessly trying to hold the attention of the 15-year-olds in …
THESES PIECES
To celebrate the completion of senior theses, the Indy has decided to publish excerpts from this year's Literary Arts and Creative …
SIX MILES CLOSER TO HEAVEN
IThe plane itself mocks your faith in scientific principles--not the least of which is gravity. Air travel assumes you, rational person, …
WEEK IN REVIEW
PENNSYLVANIA "EMERGENCY" TARNISHES, AUGMENTS GOOD FRIDAY CELEBRATIONSAt 2 AM this past Friday, a Philadelphia cable broadcast of Good Friday ceremonies at …
RELIGION IN REVIEW
As a musical guest on Saturday Night Live in October 1992, Irish songwriter-activist Sin√©ad O'Connor tore a photo of Pope John …
REBIRTH
After the countless rows of three-storied, neutral-colored, slat-board houses that make up Providence's West Side, the vibrant intensity of the Wat …
Curtains for Coney
Once the world's biggest playground, the waterfront amusement district declines. From hey-day turn-of-the-century attractions like theatrical re-creations of tenement fires, Coney …
THE GREEN SUITS HIM
No one expected this. On a windy Sunday chockfull of storylines, from Kenny Perry's bid to become the oldest major champion …
PLANET OF THE APES
Travis was 14 and, by all accounts, an all-American guy. He loved baseball and steak. He'd appeared in a commercial for …
END-GAME PAINTING
Dana Schutz's missing pictures at Zach Feuer.
Supposedly, the most accurate depiction of a nuclear explosion Hollywood has ever produced is found in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). …
SOUL SISTER #1: INTERVIEW WITH SHARON JONES, FORCE OF NATURE
Few ladies bring the soul today like Sharon Jones. Frontwoman of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings--an old-school funk band whose sound …
Holding Out
Balmore and Rosy Rivas do not know what to do. Two weeks ago, the owners of a large cattle farm in …
Andrew Zimbalist
Andrew Zimbalist, the Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College, loves sports, and writes about them extensively--but not in …
NEED TO KNEAD: I'M IN THE DOUGH AND THE DOUGH'S IN ME!
Let's begin with a thought experiment: You are Jesus. You have 5,000 mouths to feed and few resources--a couple dead fish …
FISH TALES: INTERVIEW WITH NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES MANAGEMENT COUNCIL INDUSTRY MEMBER, RODNEY AVILA
This is the first time I have met Rodney Avila. I meet him at his house, a split level just outside …
CONFUSED NEWS
San Salvador, March 15The gorilla problem was supposed to be solved. Since the peace accords of the late '80s and early …
WEEK IN REVIEW
Holla Back (or, I just want Beepers back.) Last week, Google introduced a new service that will change the way we …
THE MODERN UNDERGRADUATE
It is rare for a child in the United States to support his or her family financially. Among older children--those who …
Abortion in Providence
AN UPDATE FROM THE FRONT: INTERVIEWS WITH A LOCAL LEADER OF THE CATHOLIC PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT AND PRO-CHOICE ADVOCATE MARY ANN SORRENTINO
For any young woman riding there by taxi, the drive to Problem Pregnancy of Providence at 400 Atwells St. can be …
SHALL WE (BIG) DANCE?
Sixty-five teams.Single elimination.Last team standing wins. This is the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. The sweat, the sneakers, the stars, the upsets …
WEEK IN REVIEW
IT'S A FISH! IT'S A WHALE! NO, IT'S A de ROTHSCHILD!When a project pitch involves a phrase along the lines of …
In a Jif: Easy and Delicious Do-It-Yourself Nut Butters
There are certain foods that only seem to exist within the realm of plastic packaging and brand names. We get them …
ATOMIC IMAGINATION
There is something about its translation to cinematic spectacle that inspires nausea for reasons other than the gore and pancake-flat lines. …
AN EXCERPT FROM A SCREENPLAY
FADE IN:INT. AUSTIN'S BEDROOM - DAYAUSTIN FAGER, late 20s, lies passed out on top of his covers, wearing only tighty-whities.OLGA, a …
THE FAMISHED: A PLAY
The kitchen of an office. A nice office, where serious businessmen wear serious clothes and talk numbers. The lighting is mildly …
HOLIDAY OF THE WEEK: OR INDY FINDS A ROLE MODEL
March 9, Baron Bliss DayOn March 9, 1926, Baron Bliss passed away so blissfully in Belize that he decided to bequeath …
EXPLORE PROVIDENCE'S REGAL REPTILES: GOING BACK TO THE BASICS
Have you ever wanted to see snakes unhinge their jaws to tear open and swallow defrosted infant mice four times the …
NBC JOUSTS WITH JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY
As if we needed more proof that television news is produced in a spirit of sensationalism and incompetence. In December, NBC …
PLAYING THE MUSIC AT YOUR FUNERAL: AN EPITAPH FOR THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
Last Sunday morning, construction crews stopped traffic in downtown Denver to remove the words Rocky Mountain News from the fa√ßade of …
WITHER, GLOSSY MEDIA: ARTFORUM'S NEW MODESTY
With the American economy reeling from the global financial crisis and conspicuous consumption floundering in its wake, now may be the …
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?
Brown, like many other universities, plans to increase the number of surveillance cameras it employs across campus. This is hardly a …
LESSONS FROM THE LARP
This is how one world ends and another begins. The trunk opens. You take your boots, your leather cuirass and your …
I NEVER FORGET A FACE
A female voice greets you by name, and you know you should feel happy that this girl, from six paces of …
THE BIBLIO FILES: THE FUTURE OF PROVIDENCE'S NEIGHBORHOOD LIBRARIES
The fate of Providence's neighborhood libraries will be decided in less than a week. Currently, the Central Library in Downcity and …
"IN THIS I WON'T PARTICIPATE"
For this week's Opinions page, I asked two writers, one involved with pro-Israeli efforts and another involved with pro-Palestinian efforts, to …
HELLFIRE AND BRIMSTONE: DOIN' IT LIKE THE VICTORIANS ON VALENTINE'S DAY, 2009
Everyone looks better in black and white, even porn stars. Despite the current in your face potential for colorful love, ranging …
THIS WEEK IN WEIRD SCIENCE
Vampire traps12:17 PM, T-minus seven hours and forty-three minutes to third-date pickup hour, strolling down a mall walkway somewhere between Abercrombie …
FROM THOUGHT TO ACTION
In Julian Schnabel's 2007 film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Jean-Dominique Bauby, a man unable to move any part of …
LITTLE RHODY'S BIG SCREEN BREAK: THE ACADEMY RECOGNIZES RHODE ISLAND FOR THE 2009 OSCARS
If states received Academy Awards for Most Nominated, the Ocean State might take home a gilded statuette in 2009. The committee …
PROVIDENCE IS DROOLING: AN INTERVIEW WITH SUSAN RUSSO, FOOD BLOGGA
Providence native Susan Russo is a food writer based in San Diego. She posted her first story on her food blog …
A GOOD WORKOUT IS HARD TO FIND
You can call him Coach. Countless others do, and while Greg Glassman hasn't coached a sports team in the traditional sense, …
HOW DO YOU SUE YASSER ARAFAT? TAKING INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM TO COURT IN THE UNITED STATES
Throughout the 22-day war in Gaza, legal definitions like "distinction" and "proportionality" entered the media's coverage of Israel's actions. The 24-hour …
WEEK IN REVIEW
YES WE CAN? YES SIR!This past Wednesday, commuters throughout six major metropolitan centers, most notably New York City, Los Angeles and …
Missing in Action
What is happening to all of the DIY venues in Providence? While there are still shows happening almost every night, compared …
UNDOING THE ONGOING BASTARDIZATION OF TRIPLE CANDIE: "WHAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH TRIPLE CANDIE?" LECTURE AT THE MIT CENTER FOR ADVANCED VISUAL STUDY
Just as Rhode Island is neither road nor island, Triple Candie is an art space that neither shows art nor (since …
PROVIDENCE'S TUNNEL OF LOVE: IT'S NOT THE TROLLEY TUNNEL
Every few years, a piece emerges in the Independent, BSR, or the Providence Journal with the message "Did you know there …
POEMAS
When Toya was little she liked the taste of metal, especially cast iron, which is what her mother cooked in. Mom …
ON THE ISSUES: A CLOSER LOOK AT LESSER-KNOWN BALLOT MEASURES PASSED NOVEMBER 4
$2.5 MILLION FOR OPEN SPACE BONDSDespite an ailing state economy, Rhode Island voters followed an electoral tradition of supporting land conservation …
ALONE IN VICTORY: THE SYMBOLIC POWER OF RHODE ISLAND'S WWII HOLIDAY
The way we name official holidays is political; little is ever just a matter of words. When November 11 changed from …
TRUE TO YOUR WORDS
Two weeks ago, researchers in London found experimental proof for the proverbial "fine line" between love and hate. The emotions activate …
PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA
"And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios …
RETHINKING SCHOOL LUNCH: WHOLE FOODS OPENS A FOOD BANK AT HOPE HIGH SCHOOL
A new food bank at Hope High School on the East Side of Providence will make it easier for hungry students …
REMEMBERING EDITH VARGAS: AN AS220 BENEFIT SHOW HONORS THE LIFE OF A PROVIDENCE GIRL
AS220 // 11.08.08 // $5 coverMahi Mahi // midnight Triangle Forest // 11 pm The Viennagram // 10 pmA Troop of …
FOR THE RECORD
DEERHOOFOffend MaggieKill Rock Stars (2008)Deerhoof has a knack for pissing people off. Maybe it's Satomi Matsuzaki's dazed, toddler-ish vocals that do …
CONCERNING E-DEHUMANIZATION: THE DIALECT OF INSTANT MESSAGING, AND WHY IT'S NOT THE END OF CLOSENESS AS WE KNOW IT
Friend request accepted," reads a Dentyne gum ad on the wall of a Boston subway car. The huge letters are watermarked …
NUDISTS: FICTION
I don't mean this meanly.They always had the important talks--race, finance-- when she was sleeping, which meant she always fucked up. …
YOU'RE A MORON: UNPACKING THE INDECISION STIGMA THIS ELECTION SEASON
T he Daily Show With Jon Stewart can offer sophisticated commentary on American elections, even while using words like "douchenoggles." Sure, …
ECONOMIES OF SCALES: MARINE ENVIRONMENT WON'T BENEFIT BY PUTTING LOCAL FISHERMEN OUT OF BUSINESS
All along the docks at the fishing port of Point Judith, at the very tip of southern Rhode Island, big draggers …
THE ART OF WAR: A HOLOCAUST RESTITUTION CASE, UP FOR DEBATE AGAIN IN PROVIDENCE
In Girl from Sabiner Mountains, a painting by Franz Winterhalter, a peasant woman rests languidly by a tree. Sunlight flickers through …
THE PAPER CUT STINGS: HOW LONG TILL THE PROJO'S NO MORE?
The Providence Journal's building on Fountain Street stretches for three blocks of prime downtown real estate. The newsroom is located in …
ONWARD, CHRISTIAN VOTERS: THE POLITICS OF FAITH AT LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
When students at Liberty University checked their email on September 22, an exhortation to make history beckoned among the usual Facebook …
QUOTH CTHULHU, "NEVERMORE"
The gravestones splay like zombie fingers getting their first breath of undead air, half-sunk and faded. These gray slabs for Rhode …
BEAR MARKET, BARE WALLS
In such pressing economic times as these, buying art is one of the last things on anyone's agenda. Such expensive non-necessities …
FOR THE RECORD
MARNIE STERN This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It …
THE THINGS YOU HATE WILL LIVE FOREVER: FICTION
Not one but two bees live between the outer and inner window of my bedroom, subsisting on their built-up, built-in pollen …
WEIGHTS LUXEMBOURG FERRIS WHEELS STAYING UP ALL NIGHT: A SCREENLAY
[1]Location: On Lochman Lane, a hill on supposedly private property, overlooking downtown LA. Midday, sunny. Two young guys sit in the …
ON THE BRINK AND OFF AGAIN: THE TUMULTUOUS PATH TOWARD A NEW BOLIVIA
El Porvenir means 'the future.' It's also the forward-looking name of a Bolivian town where, on September 11, a group of …
PRETTY VACANT
What would punk rock have been without a whiny bleached-blonde hanger-on and the spiky-haired eighty-pound object of her affection? Yes, we …
ONE MORE NIGHT: NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST
When Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist came out two weeks ago, it seemed like it would be the flagship film for …
KNOWIN' THE WAY THE WIND BLOWS: DESPITE NEW TECHNOLOGIES RI WIND FARM OPPOSTION PERSISTS
It is the largest state-sponsored project in Rhode Island's history, and it's being proposed during extremely tight financial times. As Katie …
GET OUT OF JAIL CARD: CARCIERI'S LATEST MOVE AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Throughout history, escape tales from penitentiary systems have cropped up in books and films alike: The Count of Monte Cristo, Escape …
HATRED AT YOUR DOORSTEP: HOW THE DISTRIBUTION OF AN ISLAMOPHOBIC DVD MAY HAVE PROMPTED AN ATTACK ON AN OHIO MOSQUE
It was Friday September 26, at about 9:40 pm, and the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, Ohio had come together to …
THE ART OF GOING UNNOTICED: TUNE IN, FADE OUT-NO TABLETS REQUIRED
Throughout history, people have been fascinated by the idea of the Invisible Man. In movies, novels and comic books, invisibility has …
WE NEED TO TALK...AN ECONOMIC INTERVENTION: A MAD LIB
_______ (Salutation) Economy,Throughout history, we humans have labored to create a more ____ (prestigious sounding adjective, e.g. prestigious) union. Unfortunately, to …
I'M NOT LATE. I'M ON STOPPAGE TIME: LIFE LESSONS LEARNED ON THE SOCCER FIELD
Throughout history, the fall solstice has signaled athletic bliss. Ah, autumn. All leaves and cider and groundskeepers chalking out the perimeters …
CRISIS AT THE GATES: HOW BROWN DEALS WITH ECONOMIC TURMOIL, PAST AND PRESENT, AND WHAT THAT MEANS FOR PVD
During last Friday's presidential debate, Senator Barack Obama pronounced that Americans currently face "the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression." …
HOUSE OF (CREDIT) CARDS: THE NEXT FINANCIAL MELTDOWN?
If the credit card industry is ignored in the current sub-prime crisis and bailout package, there's "a new financial meltdown" looming …
IF YOU CAN MAKE IT THERE, YOU'LL MAKE IT ANYWHERE?: A JOURNEY THUS FAR WITH TIFFANY "NEW YORK" POLLARD AND A VH1 REALITY TELEVISION DYNASTY
Tiffany "New York" Pollard is a woman of little talent. Her appearance is something akin to that of a streetwalker; her …
MAXINE: FICTION
Maxine is writing again. She's holed up in the treehouse. Every morning we leave her food in the bucket and though …
GONNA BUY ME SOME PURITY: HOW TWEEN-POP COMMODIFIED CHASTITY
There was a time when MTV was about sex and rebellion, when the hottest accessories worn to the Video Music Awards …
A PERFECTLY SWEET WIFE: ONE WOMAN'S ESCAPE FROM UTAH'S POLYGAMOUS KINGSTON CLAN
I was a sophomore in high school when I first heard about polygamy and polygamous cults in America. A CNN article …
RUSSIA'S SUMMER OF (MARITAL) LOVE: REVIVING RUSSIAN IDENTITY, ONE WEDDING AT A TIME
Their faces smiled from bus stops, from escalators, from sidewalks, a vision of Russian purity alongside the leggy glitz of Sex …
VALERY GISCARD D'ESTAING
Just who might be Valery Giscard d'Estaing?You might be. You've got the same facial hair, the same lines running down your …
WEEK IN REVIEW
GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK?By now, the so-called death of local print media seems an old story; if once there was …
WEEK IN REVIEW
Popemobile cum party busPlanning a birthday party is tough, and after 81 years you kind of run out of ideas. Chuck-E-Cheese …
KENYA'S POST-ELECTION STORM: A FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT
In the village in Western Province, Kenya where I lived and taught English for four months, everyone had a method for …
SEASONS OF GIVING: PUTTING GOOD FOOD ON RHODE ISLAND TABLES
Bob Jaffe is like beef jerky: long, narrow, unknown age, skin like dry leather. Yet he's playing Bobby, a seven-year-old boy …
WEEK IN SCIENCE: THE POWER IS YOURS!
This week, a lot went down in the world. At times, it seemed our planet was in peril. Gaia, the spirit …
Be Strong
On Earning a Coach's Respect
The first time I ever saw Coach Taylor, he was sitting on a set of old wooden gym bleachers, his elbows …
Excerpts From Dog Heroes
a treatise on the future of Latin America as seen through an immobile man and his thirty Belgian Malinois shepherds
Close to the city airport there lives a man who, apart from being an immobile man--that is to say, a man …
The World's Most Function Mystery Box
a minority report on the state of laptop design
In the curios shoppe of my retired personal electronics, commingling in a drawer among exhausted AA batteries and grimy Tamagotchis, are …
Why Are You Doing This To Me
some things that happened on sunday at the rock
Sunday morning I eat breakfast at Meeting Street with a friend who is visiting from out of town. On the way …
Over Six Billion Served
is globalization putting an end to good food?
Rich people don't eat Wonder Bread. They also avoid white eggs (brown are more natural) and tap water (tastier if from …
The Clothes Off Our Backs
hey hey, ho ho, irresponsible licensing has got to go
Every year, Brown spends thousands of dollars on speaking fees for lecturers on topics from human sexuality (Dr. Ruth) to spoken …
Week In Review
No Lie: My Lai The Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal that leaked in 2004, the murder of 24 Iraqi civilians in …
Out Of The Depths He Cries For You
The issue of Barack Obama's religious heritage continues to reappear in the most unexpected places, arising less like the mythical phoenix …
Look At Us
turning the spotlight onto celebrity look-alikes
Bill Hair's answering machine picks up after six rings. The tinny voice on the other end sounds vaguely familiar. "Hi," it …
Did Not / Did Too
ideological extremism and Japan's problem with history
Japan was given an unexpected shock this past week after a public suicide that left the press hungry for details. On …
In Blind Pursuit of the Invisible
what happened to the war on terror
Nine days after the fall of the World Trade Center, President Bush declared war on global terrorism. It has been more …
Week in Women
It's been a strange week for the ladies, at least if a glance at newspaper or internet headlines is any indication. …
Post-It
notes inspired by the sounds outside my centrally located window
But first, a brief synopsis of my history with fluorescent cube stacks of Post-It Notes: When I was nine years old …
On Cold Sores
The lip begins to throb in the morning. The warning sensations of a cold sore are itching, burning and increased sensitivity, …
An Island of a Man
Fidel fades into the red
Fidel Castro's resignation on February 20 came less as a shock than as one of the most calculated anticlimaxes in history. …
What Would Jesus Download
godtube wants you to watch it's videos—and find eternal salvation
As red letters scribble his words across a black screen, an anxious young male voice who calls himself Josh rhetorically addresses …
Check Out My Sweet Archaeopteryx
thinking of inking in a time of cultural polarity
"The tat is of a sea urchin egg, two cell embryo, blastula, gastrula, prism stage and pluteus larval stage. Or, as …
Manifest Destiny in Khartoum
did buckleyism beget Omar Al-Bashir
In 1969, a young Noam Chomsky sat down with William Buckley on the PBS show Firing Line to debate the motives …
The Cartography of Memory
mapping personal history on the streets of Providence
I have only general impressions, now, of the first time I saw Providence: the stark outline of the Bank of America …
French Film Festival
Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge, or The Flight of the Red Balloon, is Taiwanese director Hou …
Step Inside the Wonderdome
the church, supersized
Megachurch. The word used to fill me with a peculiar mix of awe and dread, like 'Death Star' or 'tidal wave.' …
Citizen Science
whose fault is it that nobody understands science writing
The public's knowledge of science relies for the most part on scientists, who are as well known for their eloquence as …
The Ethics of Genetics
No one knows how to save Cameroon's rainforest. Since 2001, Joseph Matta, the Cameroonian Minister of Forestry, has been trying to …
Prism Power
Sue Carcieri can't take the refracted heat
A yellow fist, outlined boldly in black, punches through the logo of the Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM). The fist is …
Week In Review
Mitt Romney Flip-Flops, Talk Radio Flips Out "Unless America changes course, we could become the France of the 21st century," Mitt …
Food Stamps
making good food affordable with Farm Fresh RI
It is an overcast Saturday. The streets are quiet, and the sky is heavy with the promise of snow. Peer through …
Zoorotica
watching animals screw at the zoo
On Valentine's Day in the heart of New York's Central Park, "Jungle Love" ceases to be merely a mating call for …
Bright White Lines
Cocaine's cultural politics
The question of soul singer Amy Winehouse's life expectancy detains us. Her husband estimates "three months," but the videographic evidence suggests …
In Need of New Blood
When it comes to donor discrimination, blame the feds
Staring up into the dusty rafters of Brown's Sayles Hall, I lie on my back and feel the blood drain out …
A Spoonful of Scripture
Candy shopping in Jerusalem
Is there a direct relationship between piety and sugar consumption? I was in Jerusalem and I never saw so much candy. …
From Serbia with Love
On Kanvassing, Kafanas, and Kosovo
At a stoplight on the bustling commercial boulevard of Knez Mihailova in downtown Belgrade, a group of Serbian Democratic Party (SDP) …
Novel Idea
The rise of Japan's story-by-cellphone
When Americans see a teenager tapping out text on her cellphone, they assume she's chatting with friends or sealing a date …
Birth Control Uncoverage
One doodle that can be undid, homeskillet
From teenage whoopsidaisies to one night stands gone unglamorously wrong, unintended pregnancies were big in the world of movies this year. …
Here to Stay: Will Rhode Island Stay Polyglot?
"It's all about race," insisted Gladys Gould at a rally titled "Unite for Fairness" on Saturday, January 20 in Pawtucket. "The …
Week In Review
PARKING WARS! "By day we tow, we boot, we write tickets / By night we pop softballs 'cause you know we …
I am a Vagina, Hear Me Roar
Eve Ensler is worried about vaginas. After over 200 interviews with women of all ages, races, creeds, and backgrounds, Ensler compiled …