News

Chi Chi and Ant-knee face off; Doherty’s not a diva; great vengeance

Midget wrestling
Your superior correspondents, after a few belts of Pernod and grapefruit to get us in the mood, tuned in to the Democratic Congressional primary debate on the big screen in Casa Diablo's Boom Boom Room this week.

By: PHILLIPE AND JORGE | August 29, 2012

How does Doherty measure up?

Can Rhode Island's GOP hopeful win over voters like golden boy Scott Brown?
After Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown pulled off his stunning victory in the January 2010 special election to fill Senator Ted Kennedy's seat, every political reporter and strategist in New England was eager to anoint the next truck-driving, populist star of the GOP.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | August 22, 2012

Gemmapalooza and RI’s strange relationship with the truth

Talking Politics
In the run-up to Congressional candidate Anthony Gemma's highly anticipated press conference this week, unveiling allegations of voter fraud by incumbent Congressman David Cicilline, the chattering class — this observer included — was pretty much unanimous: Gemma had to deliver the goods or he was finished.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | August 22, 2012

StumpChair takes to the streets

Arts and Crafts
StumpChair — the street-art superhero who whimsically glues the tops of wooden chairs to tree stumps — won't tell me his real name.

By: PHILIP EIL | August 22, 2012

Next week’s Republican convention offers Mitt Romney a chance to get the voting public to like him — but he might as well not bother

Love me not
Heading into his party's nominating convention, Mitt Romney faces a problem similar to one that confronted Bill Clinton in the summer of 1992: a lot of people don't like him.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | August 22, 2012

Officials arm themselves for onslaught of democracy

Batten down the hatches
With the Republican and Democratic national conventions approaching, federal, state, and local officials are working tirelessly to ensure that Tampa and Charlotte welcome all visitors to their cities with rose petals and open arms. Just kidding – they're actually spending tens of millions of dollars on combat training, armor, bloodhounds, and sophisticated weaponry.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | August 22, 2012

DePetro gets served; Akin, the legitimate idiot; Brenda returns

Disgraceland
Your superior correspondents have always found it interesting that whenever a none-too-complimentary news story appears about local talk radio host John DePetro, he claims complete innocence.

By: PHILLIPE AND JORGE | August 22, 2012

Tea, tin men, and Tomasi’s tome

Letters
Libertarians have been labeled many things, but compassionate isn't one of them.

By: STEPHEN BEALE | August 15, 2012

Ryan channels Rand; farewell, Johnny Pesky; Tom don’t know Jack

The race is on!
So, what to make of Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate?

By: PHILLIPE AND JORGE | August 15, 2012

Will the Senate kill gay marriage — again?

Yes, it seems — unless this fall’s elections shake up the chamber
When same-sex marriage legislation died in the General Assembly last summer without so much as a vote, attention focused on openly gay Speaker of the House Gordon Fox. Had he done enough? Had he pulled the plug too soon? Had he failed the gay and lesbian community?

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | August 08, 2012

The local cagefighting scene takes off

Combat
"You cannot eye poke. You cannot gouge. You cannot strike to the groin. You cannot knee to the head of a downed opponent."

By: PHILIP EIL | August 08, 2012

The pols’ kids are all right; pack your bags, Bobby V.; vidal’s rich legacy

Teen frenzy
Phillipe and Jorge can tell you that we were angels as 'utes, never giving our parents the least bit of trouble amidst the exploding hormones.

By: PHILLIPE AND JORGE | August 08, 2012

Images of a highway departed

Picture Show.
There's a lot of talk these days about the 40-acre footprint in the center of Providence left by the old Route 195.

By: PHILIP EIL | August 01, 2012

In Breakfast with Curtis, art mirrors life

Film Dept.
On a sultry afternoon a visitor parks her old Volvo on a leafy street of lumbering Victorian houses.

By: CHRISTINA BEVILACQUA | August 01, 2012

Fiction for the digital age

Letters
Matthew Derby and Max Winter will have some explaining to do before their reading at the Dirt Palace August 9.

By: PHILIP EIL | August 01, 2012

Olympic fever; Mittpicking; farewell, Johnny Connell

The Sporting Life
The 72-inch widescreen TV has been on 24/7 in the Boom Boom Room as Phillipe and Jorge — clad in togas, with laurel crowns on our heads, and faux medals made from the tops of yogurt containers around our necks — have paid rapt attention to the London Olympics, with occasional naps when the USA basketball team games are shown.

By: PHILLIPE AND JORGE | August 01, 2012

Poetic disobedience at AS220

Art Dept.
"We, the artists & intellectuals, famous & unknown. We, mud people, snake people, tar people. We, bohemians walking on millennial thin ice; our bodies pierced, tattooed, martyred, scarred; our skin covered with hieroglyphs & flaming questions."

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | July 25, 2012

Summer Sizzle comes to Foster

Steeds
"They come wearing "My Barn, My Rules" T-shirts and cowboy boots.

By: PHILIP EIL | July 25, 2012

Joe must go; winds of change; the king of fuh

Brown hall of shame
Brown University has already taken its disgraced alumnus Joe Paterno's name off an award doled out every year to the school's outstanding male freshman athlete. But there is still a question about whether Coach Paterno should be ejected from the Brown Athletic Hall of Fame.

By: PHILLIPE AND JORGE | July 25, 2012

At Providence Provision, lentil soup and clever ideas

Edibles
"How many of you like plants?" Kate Venturini shouts. "Fruits and berries?"

By: PHILIP EIL | July 18, 2012

Let’s make campaign finance reform sexy

Going Big
Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse was out on the hustings this week promoting his DISCLOSE Act, which would require the sort of independent political groups playing an outsize role in the presidential election to report on who is bankrolling their operations.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | July 18, 2012