Every year a bill is introduced at the RI General Assembly to legalize recreational use of cannabis, regulating and taxing it similarly to alcohol. The state legalized medical marijuana in 2006 and decriminalized possession of small quantities for personal use in 2013, but that was the last major change in the law. More than two […]
“Behind Every Door is a Story,” Doors Open Rhode Island write on their website. Their mission is to acquaint Providence city dwellers and workers with the hidden-in-plain-sight places they may walk or drive past every day without realizing what is inside. On Saturday, Sep 23, they will hold a citywide free festival featuring many sites […]
Trinity Rep invites the theater community to its annual season kick-off party to be held this year on Sunday, Sep 10, from Noon – 7pm. The event is open to the public with free admission. In a significant change from prior years, most of the event will take place outdoors on Adrian Hall Way immediately […]
(Originally published December 23, 2008; this is re-published here as a sidebar to my review of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht performed by Burbage Theatre: motifri.com/galileo-burbage-2017 ) Pope Benedict XVI in a speech Sunday praised Galileo as a man of faith whose legacy could help bridge the gap between religion and science. Pope John Paul II […]
If you want furniture, small appliances, a television set or a computer, but you have bad credit or no credit, then it might seem tempting to shop at a “rent-to-own” store: You get the goods immediately, make a small payment weekly or monthly, and after a specified number of payments you acquire full ownership. You’re […]
WARNING: Looking directly at the sun can PERMANENTLY DAMAGE your eyes up to and including total blindness, so special protection is needed. Ordinary sunglasses are not sufficient. Even severe eye damage may not be noticeable until a day or two later, like sunburn to the retina. The solar eclipse on Monday, August 21, 2017, visible […]
After 21 years, the Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) “Flickers” had its first unpleasant encounter with the new political climate: Director Kaveh Mazaheri of the 20-minute short Retouch and its filmmaking team are unable to come to screenings in the United States due to visa restrictions against people from Iran. It isn’t a political […]
Perhaps the most serious madcap farce ever written, playwright Dario Fo made continuing revisions to his 1970 Accidental Death of an Anarchist to keep up with current events in the real case that inspired it. Italy from the late 1960s to the early 1980s was approaching internal civil war with both the far-right and the […]
Nostalgically showcasing the worst excesses of organized crime when Mafia Don Raymond L.S. Patriarca controlled New England, Last Good Heist rehashes the bad old days of mobbed-up PVD, lately frequent fodder for true crime. The 1975 Bonded Vault Heist, the subject of this book, has the entirety of Episode 4 of the podcast “Crimetown” devoted […]
From the moment evil Knight Commander Fernán Gómez (Fred Sullivan, Jr.) appears on stage eager to grab the women of the town by the pussy, there is no mistaking the contemporary relevance of this play by Spanish Renaissance master Lope de Vega. Grounded in a real historical incident that took place in 1476, Commander Gómez […]