Providence Phoenix - thePhoenix.com

Same as he ever was

MICHAEL ATCHISON — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:54:36 GMT

David Byrne on working with Brian Eno, the new music industry, and his time in Providence
Thirty-four years after forming the legendary band Talking Heads with fellow Rhode Island School of Design students Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, David Byrne returns to the area to perform “The Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno.”

"Vital Overtones: Five essential Byrne-Eno collaborations," by Michael Atchison

Thirty-four years after forming the legendary band Talking Heads with fellow Rhode Island School of Design students Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, David Byrne returns to the area to perform "The Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno." Inspired by the duo's 2008 release Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, the concert also features music from four previous landmark collaborations, including three Talking Heads albums produced by Eno between 1978 and 1980, and 1981's My Life In the Bush of Ghosts, an aural collage of found sounds, stacked rhythms, and samples that blurred the line between popular and experimental music.

In 1986, Time magazine put Byrne on the cover and dubbed him "Rock's Renaissance Man." The tag still sticks. In addition to the tour and the collaboration with Eno, Byrne released his score for the second season of the HBO series Big Love, and his whimsically-designed bike racks (shaped like dogs, dollar signs, and high-heeled pumps) have sprung up all over New York City. The Phoenix recently talked with Byrne by phone.

YOU COLLABORATED ON FOUR ALBUMS WITH BRIAN ENO BETWEEN 1978 AND 1981, BUT THEN YOU DIDN'T WORK TOGETHER FOR MORE THAN 25 YEARS. DID YOU FIND IT HARD TO GET BACK INTO SYNC WITH ONE ANOTHER?
It was very easy. I think that the time and the distance between us — the fact that we worked transatlantic — I think all of that helped, too. We both have lots of projects going simultaneously, so the fact that we could still keep our other projects while working on this, and keep our own schedules, made it really easy for us. Whether we were still in sync? We kind of put our toes in the water slowly at first. When we were working on the Bush of Ghosts re-release [in 2005], we had a lot more social contact, coordinating the website and that sort of thing. We found that that went pretty smoothly. So that was a good start.

YOU MENTIONED WORKING TRANSATLANTICALLY. FOR THE MOST PART HE WAS IN THE UK WORKING UP TRACKS THAT HE WOULD SEND TO YOU, AND YOU WOULD DO YOUR OWN THING ON TOP OF THEM IN NEW YORK.
Yes, although, to be honest, he didn't work on the tracks that much. These were mostly tracks that he already had, and he just wasn't happy with how he had tried to finish them, or he hadn't even tried to finish them.

T's

BILL RODRIGUEZ — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:11:59 GMT

The definitive family breakfast restaurant
How in the world can a restaurant that serves only breakfast and lunch — the least expensive two-thirds of the business — stay in business?

How in the world can a restaurant that serves only breakfast and lunch — the least expensive two-thirds of the business — stay in business? I always shake my head over that one. Well, T's has done so, and so successfully that the original Cranston place cloned off an East Greenwich location last April.

And quite successfully, it appears. Arriving about 9:45, we had a 10-minute wait. The place seats 130, but when I looked up half an hour later, more than two-dozen brunch-deprived customers filled the large waiting area and spilled into the dining room as well as into the cold outside.

A positive impression had preceded this visit: my dining partner brought home a corned beef Reuben. Seeded rye wasn't offered, but the marbled rye was fresh, the sauerkraut well-drained, and the lean meat thickly piled.

The accompanying French fries were greaseless and good too. And the chicken soup was definitive, full of those tiny pasta beads and chunks of white meat. Checking out the lunch menu now, I saw that sandwiches top out at $8.29 and include oven-roasted turkey and marinated grilled chicken.

Lunch isn't served on Sundays, when we arrived, just brunch till 3. That was just as well, because the breakfast menu I pored over had much more interesting choices. Signature items featured from the grill include something they call "Ooey Gooey French Toast" ($7.99), made from glazed cinnamon coffee buns.

There is also the "T's Rose Window Waffle" ($7.99), from a 1905 recipe, the waffle topped with an odd fruit alliance of strawberries, blueberries, and peaches, with yogurt and crunchy granola on that. (Crunchy granola a century ago? Who knew?) The serving of fruit and yogurt at the next table displayed large pieces of fresh cantaloupe, honeydew, and pineapple, with a strawberry like a cherry on top.

There was a separate printed list of specials, which change every few months. In addition to the pumpkin pancakes and caramel apple-stuffed French toast, there was a jam-packed breakfast sandwich ($7.99) that caught my eye.

It boasted of containing plenty of Canadian bacon, and that was no lie, although the pile of it was grilled top and bottom, rather than the individual slices. Sweet onions, tomatoes, and lots of mushroom slices pumped up the scrambled eggs so well that I didn't even mind forgetting to substitute the American cheese. The kitchen-baked focaccia was tasty and not too dense. The accompanying home fries were brown little marvels, lightly seasoned and deep-fryer crisp.

Downsizing the Mob

IAN DONNIS — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:10:18 GMT

State Police superintendent Brendan Doherty discusses the fade of OC in RI
The arrest of 17 people last week as part of "Operation Mobbed Up" — as well as the subsequent discovery in East Providence of human remains thought to be those of Joseph "Joe Onions" Scanlon — put front and center the bygone days of the Rhode Island Mob.

TOP COP: Doherty and other members of the state police maintain a close eye on the remnants
of La Cosa Nostra inn Rhode Island.

The arrest of 17 people last week as part of "Operation Mobbed Up" — as well as the subsequent discovery in East Providence of human remains thought to be those of Joseph "Joe Onions" Scanlon — put front and center the bygone days of the Rhode Island Mob.

In its heyday, the operation run by Raymond L.S. Patriarca from an Atwells Avenue storefront controlled organized crime in all of New England. Yet by the time when Brendan Doherty joined the Rhode Island State Police in the mid-'80s, the once-fearsome strength of Italian-American gangsters was already in decline, thanks to RICO prosecutions, Mob turncoats, and law enforcement wiretaps, among other things.

As the superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police, a post he moved into last year, Doherty seems more concerned these days about the prevalence of youth crime in Providence and the Ocean State's other cities.

As it stands, the Rhode Island branch of La Cosa Nostra is down to eight or nine reputed "made" members, about a third of the size of the membership during the heyday of the Patriarca family, and some of them are more or less retired, Doherty says. While the colonel maintains hopes of completely stamping out organizing crime in the state, doing away with juvenile violence will remain far more complicated.

The following interview was condensed from Doherty's November 23 appearance on WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers (in which questions were also asked by host Tim White and my co-panelist, Arlene Violet), and from a separate interview with the superintendent.

WHAT LED YOU TO PURSUE A CAREER IN LAW ENFORCEMENT?
My grandfather was a detective in Taunton, Massachusetts. His name was Jack Flynn. I was just enamored by the stories he would tell. He never pushed me toward law enforcement, my parents never did. As a matter of fact, my father was a dentist and wanted me to become a dentist like he, his brother, his uncle, and the rest of the family.

I saw a Rhode Island state trooper once when I was in college. I was at Rhode Island College, and I saw atrooper, and I just thought he was so squared away looking, so sharp, and just had command presence. And when I met a trooper, the trooper I met with was so professional and comported himself with so much dignity and integrity, I thought this is a career that I might be interested in. I looked into it a little bit, and I applied. I was young — I was 20 years old when I applied. As a matter of fact, in my class, Steven Pare — who ended up as a colonel as well — we were the youngest two in our academy.

Straight outta Arctic

CHRIS CONTI — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:15:28 GMT

The Noise Campaign rock the vote
The West Warwick-based quintet the Noise Campaign have rocked plenty of local dive bars and club stages across Rhode Island in recent months, and this spry crew of 20- and 21-year-olds will begin recording their full-length debut at Strangeways Recording in February.

TURNING IT AROUND: The Noise Campaign.

The West Warwick-based quintet the Noise Campaign have rocked plenty of local dive bars and club stages across Rhode Island in recent months, and this spry crew of 20- and 21-year-olds will begin recording their full-length debut at Strangeways Recording in February. Earlier this year, a demo titled "One Trick Pony" that was posted on their website (myspace.com/thenoise campaign) caught my ear. Lead singer Jared Aguiar's seismic vocal register keeps pace with the solid rhythm work of bassist Devin Kapko and drummer Mike Murdock, who is an absolute beast behind the kit both live and in studio. He'll take his talents to the Berklee School of Music in Boston come January, but will remain with the band. Dual guitarists Chris Roch and Mike Poulin round out the five-piece.

" 'One Trick Pony' was the first song we recorded as a band," Aguiar said earlier this week. "We don't go for a particular sound because we each bring something different to the table musically, but that's the way we like it."

Kapko, Murdock, and Poulin started a band during their sophomore year at West Warwick High called RightSideDown, and Exeter resident Aguiar lent some vocals. Chariho native Roch joined in mid-2007 and the Noise Campaign was born, but it wasn't until February '08 that the band had its full lineup set when Aguiar came back and took the role of lead singer.

Whether it's the slow burn of their live show opener "Hot Lunch Cold Feet" or their latest uploaded track, an alt-poppy number titled "Red Light Treasure Hunt," TNC are looking to add some variety to the standard indie-rock sect.

"What makes us different from other Rhode Island alt-rock bands is the fact that we do have a unique sound that I don't think you'll hear around here," Poulin said, "because we just write the music that we feel instead of falling into a certain genre." Another early triumph is "Idle Hands Do the Devil's Work" — upon hearing the hook, my indie-fossil friend inquired, "Is this Braid?"

The Noise Campaign continue to write away while preparing to record with Mike Poorman, who most recently lent a guiding hand to the Coming Weak's 2007 EP debut, Consider This.

"From what I've heard it's already quite a large leap forward in sound," said Jeff Langmaid, bassist from the Coming Weak. "I think that recording with Mike as well as their reputation for a great live show will help solidify their place in the Rhode Island music scene and beyond."

Review: Australia

PETER KEOUGH — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:41:29 GMT

Baz Luhrmann's Oz and ends
Baz Luhrmann's incontinent Australia

VIDEO: The trailer for Australia

Australia | Directed by Baz Luhrmann | Written by Baz Luhrmann, Stuart Beattie, Ronald Harwood, and Richard Flanagan | with Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Brandon Walters, Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson, David Gulpilil, David Ngoombujarra, and Lillian Crombie | Twentieth Century Fox | 165 minutes

If the cows had just gotten on the boat, I'd have been satisfied. But that wasn't enough for Baz Luhrmann. He has at least another hour to go in his motley epic Australia, and we hadn't even made it to World War II yet. I guess Baz must have said to himself, the movie's named after a continent, there's got to be more to it than that. So bring on contrived plot complications and the Japanese Imperial Navy.

A pity, because had he showed some restraint, he might have made his best movie yet. Of course, if he'd showed some restraint, he wouldn't be Baz Luhrmann. At its best, Australia is an epic farce, like The Sundowners with CGI effects and the goofy tone of Luhrmann's own Strictly Ballroom. Or a cross between Red River and The Wizard of Oz.

Which is kind of what you'd expect from a screenwriting combination that includes Stuart Beattie (Pirates of the Caribbean), Ronald Harwood (The Pianist), and Aussie novelist Richard Flanagan. Just don't take this film too seriously and it's a rollicking good time. Give it a little thought and the result is the endless catastrophe that is the last third.

The part I enjoyed starts out with the most engaging and animated performance from Nicole Kidman since To Die For (1995). Her Lady Sarah Ashley struts about in her jodhpurs with Kate Hepburn authority, plucky and proper and a bit absurd. Brewing war clouds be damned (it's 1939), she's heading Down Under to retrieve her dawdling husband from his cattle ranch, Faraway Downs. Once there she finds Lord Ashley with a spear in his back, the ranch near ruin, and ruthless cattle baron King Carney (Bryan Brown) ready to buy it all up wholesale. Her only recourse is to drive a herd of cattle across the wastelands to the western port of Darwin. Alone.

Unless that mad dingo, "The Drover" (Hugh Jackman), will help her out. At home only on the Outback mingling with Aboriginals, the Drover despises the hoity-toity lady, and the feeling is mutual — though her expression when he pulls off his shirt suggests what direction this relationship will take. They come to an agreement and put together a misfit squad of riders that includes a lovable drunk (Jack Thompson), a matronly Aboriginal woman (Lillian Crombie), Drover's sidekick (David Ngoombujarra), and Nullah (the adorable Brandon Walters), a magical, mixed-race waif who does double duty as a voiceover narrator.

Triumph of the will

BILL RODRIGUEZ — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:37:32 GMT

2nd Story's stirring Miracle Worker
It's easy enough— unavoidable, actually — to admire and be amazed by the accomplishments of Helen Keller, but it took the account by playwright William Gibson for the remarkable work of her teacher, Annie Sullivan, to be so widely appreciated.

REACHING OUT: Thompson as Keller.

It's easy enough— unavoidable, actually — to admire and be amazed by the accomplishments of Helen Keller, but it took the account by playwright William Gibson for the remarkable work of her teacher, Annie Sullivan, to be so widely appreciated. The current 2nd Story Theatre production of The Miracle Worker (through December 14) manages as powerful and affecting a job with the play as we will ever see.

This is a brisk and skillfully told tale to work from, for the most part. We are plunged into the emotional plight of the Keller family in the first seconds, as Annie's mother, Kate (Erin Olsen), suddenly discovers that her infant, just having recovered from a deathly illness, cannot see or hear her. The drawn-out scream of her name blends into the sight of an older Helen (Amy Thompson) across the stage, isolated in a spotlight, disheveled and groping the air.

Helen is virtually feral. Not wanting to add to her misery, her genteel mother and lovingly hapless father, former Confederate officer Capt. Arthur Keller (Eric Behr), simply stand back and watch. The wild child does what she wants, snatching food off their plates instead of eating at her own place, throwing violent tantrums at any objection. Only her half-brother James (Jonathan Jacobs) keeps calling, futilely, for some discipline.

Into the maelstrom steps Annie Sullivan (Joanne Fayan). She has spent most of her life at the Perkins Institution for the Blind — operations have restored most of her vision — and her very first job has sent her to the Keller household as a governess and teacher.

The central scene is the drawn-out battle to teach Helen table manners. The rest of the family is sent out of the dining room, and away from their dinner, as Annie repeatedly forces Helen back into her seat. Helen's hand keeps being pulled away from her plate, and spoons arc over her shoulder like a succession of sheep being counted. By the end, not only is the child eating, but she also is folding her napkin, to the astonishment of her parents. Annie's concern that she discipline Helen without breaking her spirit is relieved. But Helen now flees at her touch, a bit of a problem when you're trying to spell words into someone's hand. Needless to say, Annie solves that with desperate ingenuity.

Live through this

GREG COOK — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:29:30 GMT

Printmakers consider sustainability
Sustainable living has, of course, long been a concern, but worries about global warming have pushed it to the forefront. And increasingly made it the subject of art.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE: Stern's Sustainable.

Sustainable living has, of course, long been a concern, but worries about global warming have pushed it to the forefront. And increasingly made it the subject of art.

For "Sustainable: Visions for a Living Planet," at AS220's Main Gallery (115 Empire St, Providence, through November 30), show organizer Meredith Stern, program director at AS220 and a member of the Just Seeds Visual Resistance Artists' Cooperative, wanted to see what sparks flashed when she rubbed the political bent of the Just Seeds printmakers against the Providence printmaking explosion experience (or whatever you like to call it). It's a nice pairing. Providence has created an international reputation as a center for awesome psychedelic rock concert posters over the past 15 years. But the fight over local real estate development (see in particular the razing of Fort Thunder in 2002) helped politicize the artwork.

Stern put out an open call this summer for an unjuried show. As you might expect, the prints here by some three dozen artists — mostly Rhode Islanders, but also a handful of Just Seeds folks — are a hit or miss community art hootenanny.

Some of the best stuff is Stern's own work, including the show's poster, a linocut-woodcut combo showing a clunky cute winged cat and bird holding up a feathery flowery banner inviting artists to participate. Stern also contributes Begin Again, a linocut showing a woman braiding strands into a flowing banner under the slogan "Weave radical transformation." Grow Together is a black-and-white print of two women digging in a field. I love the rugged, buzzing, scratchy style of her relief prints.

A SIMPLE MESSAGE: A detail of Fino-Radin’s
untitled work.

Caroline Paquita's color screen print We Will Not Hibernate. We Will Create New Traditions shows a cute critter couple embracing in a woodland cabin or tent. Ben Fino-Radin contributes an untitled piece featuring just blue letters on wood-grain contact paper that say "Nothing is sacred/Everything is holy." The messages throughout the show are mostly simple and earnest — protect family farms, save energy. But Mike Taylor and Mickey Colette's screenprint Collaboration Is Sustainable is a smart-alecky number. Three little manic cartoon figures say (in cartoon bubbles) "Righteous," "Wrongus," and "Where's my pant?" as they prance atop pink bubble letters proclaiming "Eat Some Shit."

Colette also contributes a loose, punky, cartoony screenprint in which red hands reach down from the sky toward a giant blue cat and gold dragon. These creatures are confronted by a blue ogre-man saying, "Hff." It crackles with energy — but who knows what it's about.

It's not OK with us

PHILLIPE AND JORGE — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:42:07 GMT

Those arrogant US auto execs need a major comeuppance
The utter arrogance of the CEOs of the Big Three auto companies was on full display last week when it was pointed out that they came to Washington with their hats in hand for a bailout by flying in on their individual corporate jets.

The utter arrogance of the CEOs of the Big Three auto companies was on full display last week when it was pointed out that they came to Washington with their hats in hand for a bailout by flying in on their individual corporate jets.

This was not lost on the members of the House Financial Services Committee, before whom they appeared, who rightly tore them new arseholes for their self-indulgence. As US Representative Gary L. Ackerman (D-N.Y.) said: "It's almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high-hat and tuxedo. . . . I mean, couldn't you all have downgraded to first or jet-pooled or something to get here?"

Actually, Phillipe + Jorge would have gone to more extreme lengths, such as having them all beaten to within an inch of their lives with a tailpipe in front of a full house of laid-off auto workers at the Pontiac Silverdome. But there seems to be some Congressional law that P+J have yet to unearth that does not permit a CEO — even one of a company that he or she has run into the ground — from being fired without a golden parachute.

This despite a jaw-dropping display of cluelessness in the face of total incompetence in the exchange between US Representative Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) and Richard Wagoner when Roskam asked if they would work for a dollar a year, as Chrysler's Robert Nardelli has supposedly said he would do (in which case he would still be overpaid): "I don't have a position on that today," said Wagoner, who in 2007 made $15.7 million. "I understand the intent, but I think where we are is okay," replied Ford's Alan Mulally, who is taking down $21.7 million annually. "I'm asking about you," Roskam responded. "I think I'm okay where I am," Mulally said.

P+J, and we are sure many others, think you would be OK where you are — only if it was in a burlap sack full of concrete at the bottom of Lake Michigan.

The number one thing that Congress should be asking for from any company to which taxpayers' dollars are given to bail them out should be for the immediate firing of their CEOs, and a restriction on the salaries and bonuses of any top-level executives and managers to no more than $200,000 per year, and even have all of those earnings justified by annual performance.

Can't get by on that, boys? There's the door. Don't let it hit you in the ass on the way out. And happy job hunting, with those resumes.

Buy Nothing Day: A good cause for tough times

IAN DONNIS — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:07:43 GMT

Consumerism
During the 11 previous years in which Buy Nothing Day has been staged in Rhode Island, there have been economic downturns and times when the national economy was humming.

Expert: Expanding wind power could unhinge insects

STEVEN STYCOS — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:58:45 GMT

Unintended Consequences
Last spring, a red tail hawk was hit and killed by Rhode Island's one functioning wind turbine at Portsmouth Abbey School. Brother Joseph Byron says the bird was the first animal fatality he has seen since the 241-foot-high structure started producing 660 kilowatts in March 2006.

Last spring, a red tail hawk was hit and killed by Rhode Island's one functioning wind turbine at Portsmouth Abbey School. Brother Joseph Byron says the bird was the first animal fatality he has seen since the 241-foot-high structure started producing 660 kilowatts in March 2006.

An internationally known bat researcher, however, says tens of thousands of bats are killed annually by wind turbines in the US. Unless researchers are monitoring a site, says Boston University professor Thomas Kunz, bat fatalities often go undetected, because their bodies are lost in the brush or eaten by scavengers.

In a November 19 lecture sponsored by the Rhode Island National History Survey, Kunz, director of BU's Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology, labeled wind energy "brown," not green. He also warned that high numbers of bat fatalities may cause populations of insects to increase dramatically.

Concerns about the environmental hazards of wind power have been muted as Rhode Island promotes wind power as a major way to meet its legally mandated goal of producing 16 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

Rhode Island environmental groups have pushed for wind power to reduce burning fossil fuels, which produce carbon dioxide, one of the principal causes of global warming. Noting that global warming may be a greater risk to animals than wind turbines, Eugenia Marks, senior director of policy for the Audubon Society of Rhode Island, says, "There are risks and benefits to any course we take. What we need to do is increase the benefits and decrease the risks." But Kunz says not enough is known about the dangers of wind turbines, especially to bats.

Kunz reports that wind turbines currently produce 21,000 megawatts of electricity nationally, with another 8000 megawatts planned. "Whether the fauna can withstand that development is certainly not clear," he says. Solar, nuclear, and underwater generation are better ways, he argues, to meet rising energy demands and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Bats appear to be attracted to wind turbines, Kunz says, but since they fly at 25 to 30 mph they cannot always avoid turbine blades whose tips may move at 125 mph. Pregnant bats, carrying babies that comprise 25 percent of their body weight, have an especially difficult time maneuvering around turbines' rotating blades. Many bats also die when their lungs explode due to rapid air pressure changes caused by whooshing turbine blades.

Sometime Sinner

DR. LOVEMONKEY — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:58:10 GMT

Ask Dr. Lovemonkey
Obviously his notion that it's okay to be sexually active, but not to "live in sin," is ridiculous.

SOMETIME SINNER
Dear Dr. Lovemonkey,
I'm a 27-year-old heterosexual woman with a fiancee. We have been together for 11 months. Here's my story. We very much love each other. He is a Christian, but to me, his religious beliefs do not add up. He is not opposed to having sex on a regular basis (and we do) but recently, to save money, I made the decision to move to my sister's two-bedroom apartment. I told my fiancee that I would like him to move in with me. He wouldn't do it because "my religion tells me that it's wrong to 'live in sin.' " The fact that he won't move in is doing some damage to our ability to save money and plan for the future. We are both focused on a life together. But I'm having a problem with what I consider his ludicrous stance on the "living together" element. What do you think?
A Bit Irritated

Dear A Bit,
Obviously his notion that it's okay to be sexually active, but not to "live in sin," is ridiculous. By the way, if you are a believer, then we are all "living in sin," in the true meaning of the phrase. To cut through all the silliness, it is most likely that your fiancee is not moving in with you because he cannot confront his more devout parents with the fact that you're living together. He obviously hasn't shared with them the knowledge that you've been boning up a storm for some time. Don't be too harsh on the guy, but you can laugh in his face when he talks about a concept of "living in sin" which means that you can't share the rent, but are free to make the beast with two backs without the benefit of marriage.

NOT A FUN GUN
Dear Dr. Lovemonkey,
I'd like some advice on how do deal with a certain kind of "love" situation. Basically, my next door neighbor loves guns. He's got a lot of them, and he shoots them off. Because we live in a rural area, it is not illegal to shoot off firearms. I am not anti-gun, actually own a few, and am an active hunter. But my neighbor is out in the yard four or five days a week, dressed in camouflage and rolling around shooting guns like he's some sort of elite commando. He has young children and shoots the guns not far from where they play. Believe me, it is dangerous. I approached him about the danger to his kids, and he just shrugged me off. I told him I think that I need to consult with the police about what is and isn't legal in terms of firearms being used in such close proximity to children. Some of the bullets have landed in my yard. Since tensions have heightened, my neighbor has taken to training a video camera on me whenever I'm out in the yard. Do you think I'm over the top in my concerns?
Scared

Vital overtones

MICHAEL ATCHISON — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:42:29 GMT

Five essential Byrne-Eno collaborations

Give thanks to those who fight for civil liberties

MARY ANN SORRENTINO — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:12:04 GMT

A quarter-century ago, Dan Donnelly, a friend and fellow plaintiff in an unsuccessful challenge of a religious holiday display on public property in Pawtucket, wondered who could possibly lead the local chapter of the ACLU in constitutionally challenged Rhode Island.
Rights + Reasons

Wander lust

RYAN STEWART — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:10:33 GMT

It's okay to look in Fallout 3
Several games have attempted to re-create an entire major city to serve as the environment. Fallout 3 destroys one.

VIDEO: The trailer for Fallout 3

Fallout 3 | For the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC | Rated T for Teen | Developed by Bethesda Game Studios | Published by Zenimax

Several games have attempted to re-create an entire major city to serve as the environment. Fallout 3 destroys one — Washington — and deposits you in the midst of the wreckage. You'll find the Reflecting Pool on the Mall filled with radioactive water, the Jefferson Memorial crawling with zombies and mutants, and the Washington Monument reduced to its skeleton. That last one in particular makes the game all the more unnerving and unsettling.

You play as an individual who was born and raised in a bomb shelter. You're compelled to leave the security of that shelter when your father (voice of Liam Neeson) escapes without warning or explanation and the shelter's cult leader orders your execution. You set off after dad, only to discover that what lies beyond the vault's walls is a ruined wasteland, the result of a nuclear disaster. You find more than a few villages in addition to the DC metro area populated by survivors and settlers. Your pop has visited a few of these places, and the locals will tell you where he's going. But that information doesn't come free — you have to embark on a series of quests to increasingly remote locations in the wasteland. You'll do something for one settler, who will then tell you to go to another town, where you'll meet another person with a different task for you, and so forth. It makes sense in context: you're armed and intrepid, so of course people want you to run errands for them while they stay safe. There's a moral aspect to Fallout 3 as well: you earn karma for helping people and lose it for robbing them, lying to them, or attacking them without provocation.

For combat, Fallout 3 implements the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (VATS), which lets you zero in on a specific area of a foe's anatomy. You can target a mutant's arm and render him unable to use his firearm, or his legs, so he can't escape. Or go straight for the head shot, which will dispose of him faster, even though you're more likely to miss. Or go for the torso, which is easier to hit but less damaging. It does take some time to adjust to VATS, since it will stop each encounter cold to bring up the targeting interface, and after you've used it to attack, the interface does not pop back up even if your quarry is still alive, so you're vulnerable to attack if you're not quick on the draw. Once you've gotten used to it, though, you'll find it's effective.

The Big Hurt: Weezy unplugged

DAVID THORPE — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:35:07 GMT

Plus Auerbach unbound and Glitter undeterred
Our dream of a post-racial America moved one space closer to "king me" on the checkerboard of terrible metaphors this week

Our dream of a post-racial America moved one space closer to "king me" on the checkerboard of terrible metaphors this week: LIL WAYNE hyped himself up as the first hip-hop artist ever to perform at the Country Music Association Awards (which is pretty impressive, since, y'know, rappers have been trying to get on the Country Music Awards forever). Exciting, yeah? But when Weezy took the stage with KID ROCK to perform "All Summer Long," a funny thing happened: he forgot to rap. He just bounced around, "playing" a guitar (inaudibly, of course — anyone who's seen the notorious YouTube clips of him abusing a hapless ax at concerts will know that no producer in his or her right mind would let him plug in an instrument on national television).

In case you're wondering what the deal is, check out this flabbergasting quote from MTV: "A source close to the situation told MTV News on Thursday that Wayne didn't rap in order to keep things fresh — that the duo did not want to copy what they had done at the VMAs [where Wayne had rapped along with Kid] and figured Weezy playing guitar was a fly new take on their collaboration." Cool, I think I'll show up to my job tomorrow in a bathrobe and make fake type-type motions on the keyboard all day, because that's a fly new take on work.

Of course, being naturally sympathetic toward Lil Wayne and instinctively hostile toward country music, I'm guessing the producers nixed the rap element in order to prevent a surging cracker riot. Aside from Wayne's brief appearance, the ceremony was largely unimpeded by non-crackerdom; the "Best New Artist" award even went to a band called "Lady Antebellum." Classy!

Side note: interesting that Wayne's people would put out a press release calling him the first hip-hop artist to perform on the show. What about COWBOY TROY? Have we forgotten about Cowboy Troy? Where the fuck is the love for Cowboy Troy?

"We're trying to fill the void," proclaims the lead tit from GOOD CHARLOTTE in an MTV interview. "Like, I think there's a need for a new Blink-182 album, and they're not working on an album. I'm a huge Blink-182 fan, but I think in general there's a void there for music like that, and in this moment, we're making a record that kind of answers to that void." How could any self-respecting music journalist let that kind of outrage pass unchallenged? Isn't that kind of shit grounds for a flying tackle and a citizen's arrest? Furthermore, why is anyone even holding a microphone up to the mouth of this person when journalistic resources could be more usefully spent holding a beer stein up to the urethra of a horse?

Down and out at Thanksgiving

IAN DONNIS — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:43:27 GMT

Social needs are rising across Rhode Island, and things will get worse before they get better
In a time of widespread layoffs, decimated retirement accounts, and uncertainty about the fallout of the ongoing fiscal crisis, downsized requests for help are a sign of the times.

In a time of widespread layoffs, decimated retirement accounts, and uncertainty about the fallout of the ongoing fiscal crisis, downsized requests for help are a sign of the times.

In a possible harbinger of similar efforts by other social agencies, Westerly Area Rest Meals (WARM) recently launched "A Dollar Makes a Difference!," a campaign in which it is seeking donations of $1 a week, from October 1 through March, 1 to help Westerly's most needy residents keep warm this winter.

"People do not have the same resources that they had six months ago," notes Leah Eagen-Stoddard, WARM's development associate. Seeking such small donations doesn't make people "think whether they're going to have to dip into their family's budget. It almost takes the decision away, it's so nominal . . . It does reflect the environment we're in now, because people are thinking a lot more carefully about where their money goes."

Many people have responded, Eagen-Stoddard says, either with checks for $22, by rounding the amount up to $25, by sending a few dollar bills, or just one. The effort — 21-year-old WARM's first heating assistance fund — has raised $7052 since October 1.

At the other end of the spectrum, from November 24 through January 3, the Capital Grille in Providence will offer a "$1000 charity martini" — it comes adorned with jewelry — to benefit the hunger-relief organization Share Our Strength (strength.org).

Across Rhode Island, nonprofits, community groups, and others are responding in various ways, from Trinity Rep staging a free December 1 performance of A Christmas Carol to the annual post-Thanksgiving Buy Nothing Day coat exchange (greens.org/ri/bnd) staged on the State House lawn and at additional locations.

The not-very-surprising constant, social agencies and advocates tell the Phoenix, is a significantly heightened level of social need as Rhode Island heads into the 2008 holiday season.

"There are people who are seeking support from us who in the past have been supporters," says WARM's Eagen-Stoddard. "Our soup kitchen numbers are going up."

The economy in Rhode Island — which recently eclipsed Michigan as the nation's unemployment-percentage leader — was already stalling before the national fiscal crisis emerged in September.

The state's ongoing financial woes (highlighted by the discovery of a $357 million deficit in the current budget), which will cause additional cuts to social programs, meaning that less assistance will be available at a time of growing need. To top it all off, no one expects the overall economic situation to improve anytime soon.

Unchecked power and secrecy — not gays — are the church’s problem

MARY ANN SORRENTINO — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:05:35 GMT

Vatican Myopia
Presenting more evidence that it just doesn't get it, the Vatican recently issued new so-called, "psychological screening guidelines" to weed out priest candidates with "psychopathic disorders," but only those related to sexual misconduct — specifically homosexuality.

Presenting more evidence that it just doesn't get it, the Vatican recently issued new so-called, "psychological screening guidelines" to weed out priest candidates with "psychopathic disorders," but only those related to sexual misconduct — specifically homosexuality.

This announcement ironically came on the heels of an Associated Press report about another massive sex abuse settlement. This time, the Catholic Diocese of Pueblo, Colorado, will fork over $4 million to settle claims by 23 men who accuse a religious brother at a Catholic high school of having sexually abused them.

Such settlements are now so routine they get only page five mentions, often below the fold, in major newspapers. The Vatican has good reason to be concerned: if only it were concerned about the real problem!

The new guidelines hope that "detecting defects earlier would help avoid many tragic experiences." They go on to specify they will now target would-be priests with, "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" while allowing to go forward those with a "transitory problem" (those who have overcome "it" for three years).

If this sounds like a page from the book of "a little bit pregnant," it is.

The idea that gayness might be measured in degrees — manageable to deep-rooted — is absurd. It's telling that monitoring heterosexual perversion is not mentioned. The premise that priests who sexually abuse children are routinely gay in their orientation, when experts consistently say that pedophiles are just as likely to be heterosexual as homosexual, shows Rome's myopia.

The Vatican's latest treatise on homosexuality also echoes the evangelical Christian belief that gay men and lesbian woman can be "changed" through prayer. Married senators in airport men's rooms and married preachers having gay trysts prove that no amount of prayers, novenas, or hymns can change the leopard's spots. (They may prove leopards ought to be leopards, however, and not chameleons.)

The Vatican guidelines also insist that priests must have a "positive and stable sense of one's masculine identity."

Has the pope seen Brokeback Mountain? Those guys were rodeo riders, hunters, and boozers. It doesn't get much more "macho" than that. Still, after herding livestock all day, and surviving the elements in a tent, they'd put out the campfire and make love under the moon. Were they not "real men?"

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) commented on the guidelines appropriately. It called for a necessary shift in the Vatican's centuries-old "unchanged culture of secrecy and unchecked power in the hierarchy," saying that this is what allows dangerous priests to exist without scrutiny in parishes.

Bingo.

Mister Sister picks up where Miko left off

AMY LITTLEFIELD — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:02:43 GMT

Sex In The City
When Miko Exoticwear on Wickenden Street closed its doors for good this summer, Providence lost a local landmark.

Heslin's rise: A change of the guard, but to what effect?

IAN DONNIS — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:44:55 GMT

As The ProJo Turns
Thomas E. Heslin, the Providence Journal's new executive editor — like his storied predecessor — bridges two distinctly different journalistic eras.

A self-help guide for the uninsured

MARION DAVIS — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:38:01 GMT

Where to turn if you need health-care and don't have coverage
For the vast majority of Rhode Islanders — the insured — health-care is something you get when you need it. Feeling sick? Call the doctor. Slip and fall? Go to the emergency room or an urgent-care center. Need surgery? It's not fun, but it's covered.

We live in parallel universes.

For the vast majority of Rhode Islanders — the insured — health-care is something you get when you need it. Feeling sick? Call the doctor. Slip and fall? Go to the emergency room or an urgent-care center. Need surgery? It's not fun, but it's covered.

But for more than 100,000 uninsured Ocean Staters, seeing a doctor can cost $150 or more, an ER visit can easily top $1000, and a hospitalization can lead to bankruptcy.

And now unemployment is swelling the ranks of the uninsured: a record 50,200 Rhode Islanders collected unemployment in September, and the state's unemployment rate has risen to 8.8 percent. Simultaneously, the state has cut RIte Care, its Medicaid program for families, to help close a major deficit, leaving thousands of poor children and families without coverage.

"Over half of the adults who are coming in now as new patients don't have insurance," says Merrill Thomas, CEO of the Providence Community Health Centers, which serve more than 35,000 mostly low- and middle-income people. "It's a bad spiral downward."

So if you're uninsured and need health-care, what do you do? Here are some options.

COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS
Much as Thomas and his statewide counterparts worry about the growing wave of uninsured patients, they are there to help everyone who needs them — it's their mission.

Community health centers provide comprehensive primary care to anyone who comes in, and offer a charge based on one's income: a $20 minimum if you meet federal poverty guidelines, or gradually more, up to fees comparable to a doctor's office, if you're fairly well-off. "The poverty guidelines aren't as stringent," Thomas says. "If you're a student and you're making $10,000 a year, you're going to qualify."

The centers also help patients get specialty care, medications, and, if needed, hospital care, and connect them with programs for which they might be eligible, from RIte Care (which remains a great safety net for pregnant women and children) to drug assistance programs.

Rhode Island has 12 community health centers, some with multiple locations — from Woonsocket, to Coventry, to Block Island — with a concentration in urban areas. Each has a different range of services and fee scales; to find one near you, visit rihca.org.

THE RHODE ISLAND FREE CLINIC
Can't afford to pay anything for health-care? The Rhode Island Free Clinic, in Providence, is there for you. Just be warned, though, it may be hard to get in — because the clinic can only care for about 1000 of the estimated 35,000 people eligible for its services.