5 January 07 (Issue #21)
Dear Dunkin’ Donuts, You know how every single hack stand up comic has a bit about how ridiculously overpriced Starbucks is? Oh, sure you do. It’s usually sandwiched in between the bit about how men and women use remote controls differently (“So true!”), and how white people can’t dance (“Oh…
The Agenda
5 January 07 (Issue #21)
The Swedish Invasion Ika Johannesson and Vejde Gustafsson have been doing Sex since 2002. Awarded Cultural Magazine of the Year in 2005, Sex is an extended interview magazine that focuses on world-wide culture-makers of art, music, movies, and literature: a hot and heavy, verbal back and forth journal printed on…
27 June 07 (Issue #21)
We do what we can with what we have. We have worked ourselves though a phase known as “periodical puberty” – which is a classifiable transition period specific to publications noted in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Media Disorders (DSM-IV). The Art Director has hair under her arms, Modus began…
Art
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
reviewed by Jolly Coughs Secret Passage (Load Records) The closest band to compare Coughs to would have to be a Swans / Butthole Surfers choice blend — mustardy relish on top of an atomic crashing corndog bomb of discontent. This six-piece wrecking crew fronted by Anya is an atomic…
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
October 31, 2006Dear Mayor Cicilline,Thank you for recognizing Firehouse 13 as vital to Providence’s creative economy in The Providence Journal’s article “The Politics of Art” (Van Siclen 10/22/06). This article only begins to touch on the complexity of issues that artists and art organizations are experiencing in this city.…
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
Mayor Meets MatchLetters appear, at first glance, to have become less relevant these days. Technological devices take care of the stamp, envelope, and messy handwriting with a few clicks of a mouse. Yet, letters require the time, thought, and effort that few emails or phone calls can boast. With that…
27 December 06 (Issue #21)
by Matt ObertThis is an interview with Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins of The Internet.Peter: From The Internet. Not “of the.” Do you want us to say our names?Sure, why don’t you start out by introducing yourselves?Peter: I’m Peter Gabriel.Phil: And I’m Phil Collins.Peter: Aaron Shoon couldn’t be here.Phil: He…
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
Heartbreak Hits a Positive Note by Matt ObertThere’s a new sign outside the Strand Theater; we called Rich Lupo for the scoop.Here at Agenda World HQ, we were very excited recently to hear that the lease on the Strand building had changed hands.What happened is Mike Kent was getting his…
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
An interactive art project is waiting at the Dirt Palace in Olneyville Square for a little food. Please Feed the Monster is a collaborative sculpture that can change daily depending on what people “feed” it. But what do you “feed” to a monster?“The Monster is a sculpture that asks people…
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
Ten Years Later by Ika JohannessonThe Bible of Punk turns ten. Time to talk about Please Kill Me again, one of the best books on music ever written. The Agenda sent their Swede down to New York to hang out.It’s Halloween and I’m spending it with three punk rock veterans:…
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
Mad Peck’s Poster Art By Alden StetzerPosters have been a topic of conversation in the current arts dialogue in Providence. In 2006, they ranged from activist images, at eye-level on phone-poles or being stripped from Downtown public spaces, to the current RISD museum retrospective “Wunderground” — from sliding-scale art sales…
16 December 06 (Issue #21)
“Girls Gone Wild” with Tattoos by Eve Wartenberg Condon So I trucked on over to the Middle East in Cambridge to see the Suicide Girls on Wednesday night. I had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that pierced, tattooed girls with electrical tape over their…
Community
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
Viennagram at Snookersby Dan VerrierWell, it’s happened. For once, somebody isn’t just lamenting the city’s dead music scene, but actually doing something about it. Singer, songwriter, and emcee extraordinaire Dan White, with the help of the good people at Snookers, is arranging the rebirth of the performance space formerly known…
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
To My Community,I worked at Tazza Café for a little more than two years; it was one of the best work experiences of my life. The management and staff were some of the finest people with whom I have ever had the privilege of working. When I had problems, whether…
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
After the November 13 meeting of the Design Review committee, The Agenda followed up with further questions to get a better understanding of the public comment. Friedrich St. Florian and Friedrich St. Florian, who issued public comment at the meeting, spoke with us about their perspectives. Karen Jessup provided her…
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
All of Downtown is in a protected National Historic District. Should buildings like the Police and Fire Building be protected?My background is real estate development, which is what I have done for the past 25 years, so I am going to make a real big picture to start out. I…
2 June 07 (Issue #21)
Compiled by Ted Rao Got a story to share? Send your memories, stories, and anecdotes to i_remember_randy@agendanation.net!Of all my years spent both around and on the stage of the Living Room, my biggest regret is that I never got to try Ma Hien’s cooking, unlike countless other musicians, both…
11 April 07 (Issue #21)
The Fogarty Building was designed by Castellucci, Galli, & Planka, an architecture firm that has been in Rhode Island for 54 years. The building’s first floor stands almost six feet above street level, and truly, it does look like a structure made out of elbows. “I have made fun of…
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
All of Downtown is in a protected National Historic District. Should buildings like the Fogarty be protected?I am not so concerned about the replacement of buildings that do not give a sense of community, or address the street, or provide what I think is a positive direction for urban development.…
Culture
17 February 08 (Issue #21)
My partner and I have been interested in anal sex. We tried it once, but it was very painful. Any advice?– Dirty PennyAnal sex should not be painful, but if you go at it without taking the proper steps that’s often what happens. The anal area is loaded with thousands…
11 April 07 (Issue #21)
—Campus Connection, October 2006Lee Berman, Man About Town:Not wearing helmets is one way to thin out the gene pool—of Brown students. Leo Dash, Dash Delivery:From the look of the way this article is put together, it’s clearly someone saying something without thinking about it. That’s what a lot of these…
14 December 06 (Issue #21)
The Design Review Committee (DRC) met on November 13 to address two requests for demolition permits by the Procaccianti Group: one for the Fogarty Building (111 Fountain Street) and one for the Old Police and Fire Building in LaSalle Square. Though neither project hinges on the other, both are in…
24 April 07 (Issue #21)
by Ed “Digger” Dement The Dream:In a big field of tall grass framed by mountains on the horizon there existed a theater with the setting sun commanding the playhouse lights that opening night. Three large canvases framed the stage, the hat of a hexagon. They were twenty feet high painted…
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
An Ecology of JournalismQuestions for Grantham Prize/Metcalf Institute from Frank Mullin and Ashley Mercado at The Agenda. November 15, 2006.Answered by Sunshine Menezes, Ph.D.; Executive Director of the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting, based at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography.Can you talk about the importance of the…
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
They Are Not Us, They Are Them by Douglas Rushkoff (excerpted with permission from Disinfo.Con DVD, available February 2007)There are two kinds of people in this world: people who believe there are two kinds of people and people who don’t believe there are two kinds of people.I used to be…
Local
17 February 08 (Issue #21)
Cop Hits Girl! What a Jerk!“Riding a bicycle is seen as an act of protest in the United States, whereas anywhere else in the world—it is seen as a viable form of transportation.” – Overheard Official Police ReportLocation of accident: Empire St. at Washington St.Vehicle #1 was stopped westbound at…
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
All of Downtown is in a protected National Historic District. Should buildings like the Fogarty be protected?I am very much aware of the fact that all of Downtown is protected. One of the assets of Providence is that we have old buildings that have not been taken down, and we…
27 January 07 (Issue #21)
The Agenda's team of highly-paid web geniuses is hard at work figuring out how to translate our large, detailed center spread to our website design. In the meantime, you can download the print layout of “Lay of the Land,” Jack Madden's new column about geographical awareness.
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
The Design Review Committee (DRC) met on November 13 to address two requests for demolition permits by the Procaccianti Group: one for the Fogarty Building (111 Fountain Street) and one for the Old Police and Fire Building in LaSalle Square. Though neither project hinges on the other, both are in…
17 February 08 (Issue #21)
The Emperor's New Clothes: Journal building's envisioned signage. Photos| Frank MullinThe ProJo buried their pompously titled “Editorial mysteries” at the bottom of the page in the middle of the last section (Page 80 of 84) of the least-read daily edition, of Saturday 11 November. The article—which the Phoenix had to…
Politics
16 December 06 (Issue #21)
by Riana Good As an admitted unsure seeker, I belong to a minority.In a country where more people believe in angels than in evolution, embracing religion is difficult for me. On the one hand, the politically progressive, activist community in which I participate tends to shun most things religious.…
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
National dialogue indicates we are at the brink of a new population migration. People are moving back into the cities, investors are seeking to capitalize on property values, and those that have been living and working in urban centers are watching the growth and development augment the city’s landscape, for…
3 October 07 (Issue #21)
Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You
The Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Evironment has spearheaded an effort to increase the relevance, importance, and acknowledgment of environmental reporting in the news.
Funded by the Grantham Foundation, the award is the largest journalism prize in North America. The Prize…
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
To the Downcity Review Commission:Thank you for the opportunity to make this statement. My name is Karen Jessup, and I have lived in Providence since 1970. I have taught preservation planning and urban revitalization in undergraduate and graduate programs in the US and the UK. I am also Chair of…
28 December 06 (Issue #21)
Bottoms Up for Top Down News CoveragePublic Insight Journalism (PIJ) uses an approach to newsgathering that draws on the knowledge of community members to assist reporters and editors in strengthening their ability to cover complex, newsworthy subject matter. “Public Insight Journalism is the best opportunity that we see to reverse…
10 January 07 (Issue #21)
Post-Election AutopsyArmed with plenty of correction fluid (available in tall shiny red cans for $2 and up at fine dives everywhere), Agenda editors reveled as Democratic asses kicked GOP butt, sending the pachyderms packing. Team Blue gained six Governorships, 29 House seats, and six Senate seats across the nation. While…
16 December 06 (Issue #21)
How the neo-con agenda threatens Habeas Corpus and your constitutional rightsby W.A. Dymoke“We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.” – Edward R. MurrowMost people are likely unaware that one our most important rights was effectively rescinded this October. To grasp this, one must understand not only the…
