Rhody Craft 100 - And the Password for Saturday, November 21st is......

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Rhody Craft 100
Open every Saturday 10-3 during November, December and January

Click here for more information.

Larry's Larry's Larry's @ The 201 - Friday, November 20th, 2009

Before Local 121, AS220, The Firehouse, AfroSonic, LoveLife, Paint-it-Pink, IndieDance-Party, and the 'Filthy Rich' in Olneyville making their "Noise Music", there was a legendary music scene in Rhode Island. It was known by three words:

Larry's Larry's Larry's

Well the legend has returned! Larry has decided to retire from his day job, and return to the nightlife once again.....

After an around the world trip filled with cocktails, women, gold chains, and chest hair, Larry has returned to Rhode Island with 4 DJ's who are legends in their own right:

Disco Khan
Kaiser Disco
Grand Master Gaddafi
Love Death Disco

On Friday, November 20 the legend returns to The 201! Meet Larry, his Solid Gold Dancers, and Larry's world famous DJ's bringing you the classics of yesterday & tomorrow!

Click Here to reserve your place in Larry's entourage on Facebook!

Race, Class, and...Zombies?

To be honest, I don’t care much for zombies or vampires. I’ve managed to avoid anything remotely related to Twilight like H1N1. If a conversation turns to the age-old question, “Who’d win in a fight: A zombie, a vampire, or a pirate?” I’ll politely excuse myself.

But, as a wanna-be, pseudo intellectual with a blog at my fingertips, I’ll readily admit that pop culture does not exist in a vacuum. Zombies, vampires, jackalopes, chupacabras—their stories influence the way we view the world, and also reflect the state of our collective consciousness.

In an op-ed contribution to the New York Times entitled “Why Vampires Never Die,” Guillermo del Toro writes, “Monsters, like angels, are invoked by our individual and collective needs.” According to del Toro, vampires represent our collective longing for youth and limitless possibility—a sort of primal lust. But vampires, like all mythical creatures, are slippery and malleable. Today, he writes, we are bombarded by information and daily leaps of scientific innovation. Yet despite this, or perhaps because of this, we are especially vulnerable to our fears, nightmares, the unseen.

He writes: “The current vampire pandemic serves to remind us that we have no true jurisdiction over our bodies, our climate or our very souls. Monsters will always provide the possibility of mystery in our mundane “reality show” lives, hinting at a larger spiritual world; for if there are demons in our midst, there surely must be angels lurking nearby as well.”

So, what about zombies? It seems that that zombies and vampires are always engaged in a vicious turf battle for monster stardom. Zombies aren’t as sexy as vampires. They’re smelly, rotting, lumbering beasts. Munching on brains simply isn’t as sensual as sucking blood from a tender neck.

But according to a Time magazine article from earlier this year, zombies are making a comeback. Vampires may have stolen the stage, but zombies are slated for a host of upcoming books, feature films and video games. As Lev Grossman tells us, zombies may not be as classy as vampires, but on some level they resonate with us. From social networking (old acquaintances resurrected through Facebook) to environmental concerns (zombies are recycled monsters), Grossman argues that zombies are the monsters of today’s day and age.

But perhaps most important, he writes, George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (perhaps the foundational zombie flick) was designed as a commentary on the Vietnam War. See the connection? **coughcoughAfghanistancoughcoughIraq ** ahem…

When you stop and think about it, zombies in pop culture have almost always tapped in to our concerns about the world around us. Over the summer, a friend and I decided that it was time for us to close the gaps in our knowledge of classic zombie movies. We started with Romero’s 1978 Dawn of the Dead…a movie that I now know could serve as a primer on late ‘70s anxieties over issues of race and class.

Remember the controversy surrounding the release of Resident Evil 5 last year? Capcom’s game was bombarded by criticism because the storyline had a white protagonist killing black zombies in an African village. Whoops.

But, Dawn of the Dead beat Resident Evil to the uncomfortable zombie race punch. Romero’s films have often been described as “frustrating”—what is he trying to say, exactly?

DOTD opens with a SWAT raid on an urban housing project. Depending on what you focus on, Romero’s politics are wildly different. Is the opening sequence a glimpse of racist white cops leaving poor blacks to die in the ghetto? Or are we seeing a team of white cops killing violent, bloodthirsty black zombies? We could be watching a commentary on race relations, police corruption, or urban decay.

DOTD quickly transitions into a Marxist commentary on class and consumerism. Our protagonists find shelter in an abandoned shopping mall, where they barricade themselves from a hoard of shop-happy zombies. The hilarious scenes of greenfaced zombies staggering through the shopping center, ogling pearl necklaces, isn’t all that far removed from what you might see over at Providence Place Mall. When everything else (namely, the superego and the ego) is stripped away, Romero seems to be telling us, all that remains is the id—and it REALLY wants to go shopping. When our outer layers of makeup, clothing, and polite behavior are peeled back, we’re nothing more than zombies ourselves…but instead of brains, we’re driven by a underlying desire for commodities and conspicuous consumption.

Hot damn, George Romero.

So I ask you, dear readers: What’s the best recession-era monster for us? Vampires—who appeal to us with escapist fantasies of castles, old money, satin, and sex, or zombies—who connect with our yearnings to go out and pursue our basest, most greedy nneds despite tight financial times?

Adopt a Doctor Winter Art Auction

Save the Date!
{ Generosity: The Art of Caring }

Thursday, December 10, 2009
5:30pm -7:00pm
Round Top Center at Beneficent Congregational Church
300 Weybosset St., Providence, RI

For more information, contact info@adoptadoctor.org

Acme Sponsored Screenings at E & O

Beginning this month on Wednesday nights at the E & O Tap, 289 Knight St. on the west side, Acme Video will be sponsoring Double Feature screenings presented by Liz Lemon! Films will range from the highest of brow to the lowest of trash. Coming up in December, various films of Nicolas Cage will be the focus to coincide with the release of the new Werner Herzog film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans! Check out the Acme blog and Facebook page for info on what films will be showing that week.

Area C on Live Block 11.19.09

Hey all, this is Tim T. from Live Block, the live music show on BSR. The kind people at IndieArts have given us radio people permission to notify ya'll about upcoming happenings of interest, so here goes.

This Thursday, Nov. 19, Area C will be playing music/spinning records/talking on-air from 9 to 10pm. Area C is local composer, media artist and architect Erik Carlson, who, judging by his website, is one of the coolest people I don't know. He played on the show in May '04, and I thought it was high time to bring him back.

If I haven't yet convinced you to tune in to 88.1FM or listen online, check this:

"If it's true that all of our earthly radio communications are even now rippling their way across the galaxies in ever-expanding circles, the music of Area C lets us imagine these sonic ripples at the extreme limit of their journey out, in the moment where their original substance and meaning begins to fray, break, and fold back in on itself under the strain of a glowingly resonant outbound force."

Whoa. Can't wait.

Rhody Craft 100 - And the Password for Saturday, November 14th is......

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Rhody Craft 100
Open every Saturday 10-3 during November, December and January

Click here for more information.

A Benefit for St. Jude's Hospital - Wednesday, November 25th

A Benefit for St. Jude's Hospital

Screening of " The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" with a live soundtrack performed by members of:

The Viennagram
California Smile
& more soon tba

8pm/$7
Click here for more information.

Left to Chance Gallery Exhibition @ Firehouse 13 - November 19th to November 28th

Left to Chance Gallery Exhibition

Exhibiting artists who have employed methods of unpredictable outcome to generate works of
art, "Left to Chance" will call into question the critical relationship between chance and choice through a theoretical, mathematical, and art historical lens.

Exhibiting works by:
Clement Valla
Cody Trepte
Daniel Howe
Andrew Venell
Christopher Green
Matthew Holroyd
Bobby Dowler
Gordon Stevenson

Opening Reception on the last Gallery Night of 2009 : Thursday, November 19th
6pm-12am
with live music

Click here for more information.

Benefit for the RI Food Bank @ Local 121 - Wednesday, November 25th

The Speakeasy Music Series at Local 121 Presents:
Benefit for the RI Food Bank with
Otis Read & The Lucky Band

7pm/Suggested $10 donation
Click here for more information.

Superchief Trio @ Local 121 - Friday, November 20th

The Speakeasy Music Series at Local 121 Presents:
The Superchief Trio

9pm/$7
Click here for more information.

Songwriters in the Round @ Local 121 - Wednesday, November 18th

The Speakeasy Music Series at Local 121 Presents:
Songwriters in the Round

8pm/$6
Click here for more information.

The Hive O'Clock @ Blaze Resturant - Tuesday, November 17th

What Time is it?
It's Hive O'Clock at Blaze Resturant

Hive O'Clock Happy Hour Workshop
Shake off the workday, have a bit, and make something cool. Sara Kudra will lead a Sonobe Origami workshop. Come make magical star ornaments, decoration, or even earrings!

5:30-7pm
$10 covers the workshop, all materials and appetizers.
Click here for more information.

AfroSonic meets Tjovi Ginen this Friday Nov. 13th at the Black Rep, Don't Miss!

The Providence Black Repertory Company continues it’s Sound Session’10 Year Long Genre Defying Live Music Series with a musical Mash-Up of Haitian roots and AfroBeats featuring Tjovi Ginen and Afrosonic, Friday November 13, at the Black Rep.

Providence, RI- November 7, 2009 – The Black Rep is pleased to announce it will be hosting Haitian roots greats Tjovi Ginen in a once in a lifetime musical event with house group Afrosonic on Friday, November 13.

Tjovi Ginen, which roughly means “children or spirit of Africa”, invokes their message of freedom through a blend of African, Latin and Haitian voodoo rhythms. Their lyrics lace each track with Reggae, Ska and Jamaican dub poetry which unfold stories of struggle, triumph, pain, power and love. As a mainstay in the Boston music scene, Tjovi Ginen became the primary example of how Haitian roots music has no boundaries, embracing all colors, nations and creeds. Music lovers everywhere have found Tjovi Ginen’s vibrancy contagious; playing with such enthusiasm and ferocity they embody the joy in the message and the struggle.

AfroSonic Collective Djs Mikedelick and Nick de Paris on the 1's and 2's with the Afrosonic Drummers, and Tjovi Ginen on the main stage.

Doors open at 9pm, show at 10pm. This show is an 18+ event.

Tickets to the show are $5.00 in advance, $10.00/ at the door, and may be purchased at ArtTixRI.com. For more info call (401) 351-0353 or email josh@blackrep.org.