Live Whirled- Solstice Whirled with the Daltons

Live Whirled/Solstice -Whirled with The Daltons ,the 2nd concert of Live/Whirled's 4th season, presents tales and songs of the winter season that have been beloved through the ages, Maggie Smith-Dalton & Jim Dalton are, according to concert reviews, engaging, delightful, intelligent, humorous, talented, versatile, enthusiastic, personable, and joyful.


The Live/Whirled Series always features an interactive “Act 2,” that combines audience and performers in spontaneous music-making. For Solstice-Whirled, the audience will join in the celebration to sing some traditional carols of the season, led by the Daltons. Audience members are invited to bring along an acoustic instrument to join in for the 2nd set, where the concert’s featured artists fuse their styles to create unplanned musical magic.



Live/Whirled 2009-10 The Interactive Music SeriesSunday,December 6, 5:00 PM Perishable Theatre 95 Empire StDowntown Providence Tickets $10 / $8 students & seniors ArtTix @ http://www.arttixri.com/,Call 401-621-6123 or at the door.

BSR's Show of the Month: The Sparkle

November may be almost over, but you can enjoy this month's Featured Programming year-round at bsrlive.com. Take a listen to The Sparkle for biweekly radio theatre hosted by Walker Mettling:

What constitutes an interesting story? The Sparkle's method of storytelling changes every episode. In "Stick Your Phone Out the Window," people are asked via-telephone to describe the environments outside their windows and then are prompted to tell true stories and sing songs on the spot. The result is a diverse collection of stories from different perspectives. In the subsequent episode,"Attica and the Ant King," Walker's solo narration is scored by local musician Geoff Mullen. The droning music and quiet vocals bring listeners into a completely different, totally creepy realm. "Is That my Dead Dog Hanging Out Your Truck" features another spooky story, this time performed by the West Minster Radio Club and recorded live in Olneyville. Listen to The Sparkle every other Wednesday for an eclectic approach to radio theater.

Confrontation, by Jim Fuess

Interrobang Magazine releases its second issue on Dec. 3, at Ada Books (717 Westminster St., Providence). The reading, drinking and general merriment begins at 8 p.m. (free of charge!). In anticipation, we're releasing a piece a day (or so) from the new volume until then.

AFROSONIC JUMP! - this friday 11/27 at the Blk Rep

Come work off that turkey dinner tonight! Nov 27th at the black rep
An evening of Heavywieght afro beats and deep rooted musik!
w/ djs: Dubln, Mike Delick, and Blackdove along with
electrifying live percussion by Sidy Maiga & The AfroSonic Drummers!
free food provided by Hudson street!!!!!

WHAT CHEER? 10th ANNIVERSARY PARTY & HOLIDAY SALE - Saturday & Sunday, December 5th-6th

WHAT CHEER?

10th ANNIVERSARY PARTY & HOLIDAY SALE

SATURDAY 5th DECEMBER - SUNDAY 6th DECEMBER 2009

NOON-6PM EACH DAY


25% Off Everything In The Store!

Food, Drinks, Holiday Hi-Jinx, Music, Merriment & Mayhem
plus Original Drawings, Prints & Paintings by Jennifer Daltry


CELEBRATING 10 YEARS IN BUSINESS IN WAYLAND SQUARE!


What Cheer Antiques + Vintage
Wayland Square
7 South Angell Street
Providence, Rhode Island
02906

401.861.4244

following the Weekend of our party we'll be open
EVERY DAY from 11-7PM through CHRISTMAS EVE
(hours xmas eve subject to change)

Feed Cat, by J. Patrick Brown

Interrobang Magazine releases its second issue on Dec. 3, at Ada Books (717 Westminster St., Providence). The reading, drinking and general merriment begins at 8 p.m. (free of charge!). In anticipation, we're releasing a piece a day from the new volume until then.

Feed Cat

J. Patrick Brown

A friend of mine once confessed

that he had spent each summer

landscaping

and thinking of death

specifically, his death –

which grew closer

and closer

with every lazy turn

of a rented lawnmower.

Apparently –

the condition is catching

as I find myself

in my idle moments

reminding myself

that I will not be.

However –

while death was,

for my friend,

a lens

in which his every action was reflected

(this is me, mowing the lawn,

dying)

for me

is a box on my to-do list

as yet unchecked.

Get milk.

Cease to be.

Feed cat.

Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence Holiday Party @ Firehouse 13 - Tuesday, December 8th

The Institute for Study and Practice of Nonviolence's focus and passion is to work to address the issues of violence against youth and families in Rhode Island and stopping the perpetual cycle
of violence. The Institute carries out is work through five core programs, Juvenile Reentry, Nonviolence Training, Streetworkers, Victims Support, and Youth Programs.

6-8pm
Click here for more information.

Joe's Backyard Band "Kick Up A Breeze" CD Release Party @ Firehouse 13 - Saturday, December 5th

Joe's Backyard Band plays a mix of original and familiar music for all ages. It's a rootsy
dance party where "Mystery Train" meets "All Around The Kitchen" and Bob Marley meets
Bob Dylan. Dancing sneakers required.

3pm-5pm/$5 per adult- kids free
Click here for more information.

The USM @ Firehouse 13 - Thursday, December 5th

The USM with

Tony Jones and the Cretin 3
Johnny Clotheshanger and the Anti-Babies
Reason to Fight

8pm/$5
Click here for more information.

Rhody Craft 100 - And the Password for Saturday, November 28th is...

Click on the image to enlarge.

Rhody Craft 100 is a collection of local artists and crafters creating a unique shopping opportunity in a big old mill in Pawtucket, RI. All of the fine products are 100% original, 100% handmade, 100% local & 100% delightful.

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

Click here for more information.

Interrobang <3's IndieArts

Interrobang Magazine!? We're a bi-annual arts and literature journal that operates out of the West End. Fiction, poetry, essays, interviews, photographs, painting, music -- we do it all, with a focus on spotlighting emerging talent. We have a new issue coming out in a little over a week , and in anticipation of that, we're going to leak bits and pieces of its contents to the readers of this blog. We hope you'll enjoy them as much as we do.

Though we publish work from all over, we'd like to have a greater presence in this city we love and call home. As such, we owe a hearty thanks to IndieArts RI for inviting us into their little club. The entirety of issue one is available for free online, where you're welcome to purchase its dead tree iteration, or even make a donation if you're so inclined. Mostly, we just want you to see what we're all about.

Interrobang Magazine is releasing its second issue on Dec. 3, at Ada Books, 8 p.m. Viands and libations are complementary; the magazine is $5.

Erin McKeown @ Local 121 - Sunday, December 13th

The Speakeasy Music Series at Local 121 Presents:
Erin McKeown with opener Gregory Douglass

8pm/$10
Click here for more information.

Ryan Fitzsimmons @ Local 121 - Wednesay, December 9th

The Speakeasy Music Series at Local 121 Presents:
Ryan Fitzsimmons with opener Sarah Blacker

8pm/$8
Click here for more information.

Kink Ador @ Local 121 - Friday, December 4th

The Speakeasy Music Series at Local 121 Presents:
Kink Ador with opener Brad Huff

9pm/$5
Click here for more information.

Paul Geremia @ Local 121- Wednesday, December 2nd

The Speakeasy Music Series at Local 121 Presents:
Paul Geremia with opener Chris Monti

8pm/$10
Click here for more information.

Psychic Alchemist @ Firehouse 13 - Friday, December 4th

Come watch Psychic Alchemist, a 10 minute 16mm short film, plus other film works
in progress by Robert Houllahan.

Doors 8pm/Free admission
Click here for more information.

Puppets & Accordia: Corpus Callosum's Dax Tran-Caffee @ Firehouse 13 - Thursday, December 3rd

Puppets & Accordia: Corpus Callosum's Dax Tran-Caffee
A short puppet show, alongside original songs performed with accordions and wine glasses.

8pm/$5
Click here for more information.

41 Degrees N / 71 Degrees W Gallery Exhibition at Firehouse 13 - December 1st to December 23rd

Art Recreation Center Presents 41 Degrees N/ 71 Degrees W
Gallery Exhibition at Firehouse 13
A celebration of Providence art and artists
On exhibit: December 1st to December 23rd

Featuring:
John J. McGurk
Tom West
Darrell Perkins
Tony Roberts
Keri King
Nicolas Bauta
Joan Wyand
Michael Rinaldi
Will Machin
Adj Marshall

Holiday Art Sale: Thursday, December 10th - 3 to 7pm
Wine and cheese tasting to follow - 7 to 10pm

Gallery Opening Reception: Friday, December 11th - 9pm t0 1am
With live music from
Brownbird and friends
Tom Thumb and
Death Vessel

Curated by Anna Shea.


Click here for more information.

Big Tall Buildings @ Firehouse 13 - Saturday, November 28th

Big Tall Buildings with

The Devil and a Penny
The Messiahs
How to be an Explorer and
Lights Over Atlantic

Doors 8pm/Show 9pm/ $7
Click here for more information.

Eclectic Grooves with Tim O'Keefe @ Nara Lounge - Monday, November 23rd

Come down this Monday night to Nara Lounge for Lounge, Downtempo, Arabic, & Bollywood beats by Tim O'Keefe.

Cocktails, Hookahs, & Beats!

This Monday, November 23rd
9:30pm - 1:00 am
Free

" Sex Confident" - The Moustache Calendar for 2010

"Sex Confident" The Mustache Calendar of 2010

"It's classy. It's sexy. It's confident. Well conceived, well designed, and well made-
you would be remiss to even think of another calendar for yourself, your friends,
or your family. Just imagine images of sex-confident men gracing the walls of your home and office. The Caveman, Casanova, Mr Introspective, The Professional, the Boxer, the Dad, the Lumberjack...And the list goes on. There is someone for everyone inside the covers of "Sex Confident".

The calendar features the mustaches (and work) of students and
alumni of the Rhode Island School of Design.

Click here to see the faces of the "Sex Confident"
and to purchase your Mustache Calendar.

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

Click on the image to enlarge.

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......

Click on the image to enlarge.

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.

Vagina Dentata: Marketing Anti-Social Cat Style

Click to enlarge.
I finally posted some updates to my blog, come visit me, I'm dying of loneliness with much weeping and gnashing of teeth. Come on, be my friend, tell me your bank account number and password, etc etc.

On a side note do any of you know good (or not-so-good, I'm willing to take anything at this point) Korean food places around Providence? I know of Solomon's Market and Sun and Moon, but I'd like to expand. I'm dying. Tell me. Tell me. Be a friend. It's a Happy Neighborhood.

Thank you, and have a wonderful life, folks.

Short Short Story Film Festival @ Cable Car Cinema - Saturday, November 28th

MergingArts Productions Presents:
The Third Annual Short Short Film Festival

The festival features two sets of nineteen films, the first being what the organizers call the “Heartstrings Program,” showing at 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm, consisting of films of a sentimental nature – tragic, comic, romantic, or a mix of the three. The second program is the “Headtrip Program,” which screens at 3:00 pm and 9:00 pm, and presents more off-center films, with black comedies and horror well represented, along with many films that don’t pigeonhole easily – experimental in flavor, but still having a story.

5pm: Reception with Phil Goldman and his Live Bait short storytelling series with DJ Madame B, mixing soundscapes with stories.

The event is open to the public. Tickets on sale morning of festival, Saturday November 28th
For more information and for the festival schedule, click here.

Vagina Dentata: Sleeping Beauty Redux

Click here to enlarge.


Come find more enchanting tales of innocent everlasting love at Love in the Time of VD.

Indie-Dance Party with Gregor Mittersinker & Tim O'Keefe @ Local 121 - Saturday, November 7th

Come and check out Gregor Mittersinker & Tim O'Keefe mix a variety of Indie-Dance, Blog House, and home-grown remixes at Indie-Dance Party.

Every First Saturday of the Month at Local 121.
Free

Click Here to download Gregor's Indie-Dance Fall Mix

Tracklisting:

1 – Ghost Town – Prodigy
2 – Turbo Love – Bag Raiders
3 – Tic Toc – Busy Signal
4 – Happy House – Juan Mac Lean
5 – Colorful – Kyle Watson
6 – Fort Knox – Goldfish
7 – Make it Happen – Playgroup
8 – Forever More – Moloko
9 – Only One – Chris Lake
10 – Rej – Ame
11 – Paris – Friendly Fires

Amadeus @ The Round Top Center, Beneficent Church - November 5th to November 22nd

What do JWU and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have in common? The Amadeus Project, of course. This unusual collaboration began over a year ago, thanks to Big Table Productions, a non-profit organization that was born on JWU's Providence Campus. Big Table Productions is a group of Rhode Island's education and business leaders, students, and theatre artists who have been working together to create the Amadeus Proejct, an ongoing curriculum initiative inspired by Peter Shaffer's Tony Award winning play Amadeus.

The play is filled with humor and intrigue and mystery and beautiful language that lifts the soul. Incredible ideas and conflict perfectly describing man's eternal struggle between aspiration and mediocrity.

Amadeus
November 5th - November 22nd
Thursday- Saturday 7pm, Sundays 3pm
$12 students/ $20 general admission

Click here for more information.

Michelle Lewis CD Release Party @ Firehouse 13 - Saturday, November 21st

Michelle Lewis CD Release Party
The new EP "Broken" available now

Sponsored by Narragansett Brewery
A free 'Gansett for the first 50 guests to the show

with Blaze Vestibule and more music tba

9pm/$7
Click here for more information.

WHO DEM & Mary Brierly @ Local 121 - Friday, November 13th

The Speakeasy Music Series at Local 121 Presents:
WHO DEM & Mary Brierly

9pm
Click here for more information.

I'm angry at economics

Come the weekend, that little cabal of shops on Westminster that has provided Providence with its one genteel refuge will lose two of its number. Now, putting aside the debate on whether we want "genteel" or "gritty" in Divine Providence, it's a shame that two more local businesses will be consigned to history - WNWN and Bowl and Board.

I also can't say that I've been a regular patron, maybe picking up one or two things over the course of three years in Providence. But losing two more shops along Providence's only remaining "nice" stretch of downtown is a terrible blow for all.

In the grand scheme of cities, we rank somewhere around the poorly-managed, dying-on-its-feet category. We are however "historic" and "pretty" - if those words can get a liberal reinterpretation added into the OED. Along with a few other pockets of the city, Westminster's little strip may be added to those areas considered "nice". But as we lose two more shops, I wonder how long more the strip can survive. Over the last few years, we've seen shops come and go - Craftland, for example, used to be an Obama headquarters, costume stores when the need arose (yay! halloween!), and a RISD art project in the past. It may be that stuff simply does not last in Providence. But why is that? We're fairly large; surely there must be a population out there to support shopping.

Could it be that rent is too high? Possibly; given the low traffic downtown experiences for people looking for a pleasant shopping experience. Could it be that the neighborhood is too dodgy? Well, Providence is rather dodgy; either live it or move elsewhere. But so, what can we do?

Ah-ha. Rent. Now, if your tenants are being forced to go bankrupt because they can't afford to pay rent, drop your rent. I can't imagine there being a lot of takers in this economy - in fact, in Providence, period. There are vacant storefronts all over the city, granting one minimal rent will ensure that you, as landlord, will get *something* over nothing.

Now, I understand marginal returns and other nonesuch economics, and I understand that the recovery might be right around the corner but let's not delude ourselves. By having one more vacant store, you'll be bringing down the value of the surrounding neighborhood too. A prospective business owner will want to move in to a neighborhood of proven returns. Shoppers will want an aggregation of the cute and edgy. What both these groups do not want is empty, barren, failed reminders of why Rhode Island has the highest unemployment in New England.

Let rents fall. You won't be getting anymore if you raise it. Let the stores come in. And once Westminster seems like a nice place again (without having to host some festival or something), exploit those renters all you want.