As someone who looks awkward regardless of their outfit, I never followed fashion. I liked the various punk rock looks (spiky fashion punks, Fred Perry/well-dressed Oi), but I’ve pretty much been wearing a band T-shirt and khaki pants since high school. Andy Ryan (Raggedy Andy) took a different path and embraced the fashion aspects of […]
The summer season is approaching its end. For corporate America, this might be the slowest season of the year. But for farms and other companies that thrive in the summer, busy is merely an understatement. Rhode Island is not known as the Ocean State just for its shoreline. Seafood has, and will always be, one […]
Today I smelled the change in the air, that slight crispness we all recognize. The transition from summer to fall is my favorite seasonal shift. Electricity surges through our spaces. My niece FaceTimed to show me her new pink backpack full of carefully chosen school supplies, two new teeth barely breaking through the gaps in […]
Apple Picking 1. Barden Family Orchard (pumpkins) 56 Elmdale Road, North Scituate 401-934-1413 2. Old Stone Orchard 33 Colebrook Road, Little Compton 401-635-2663 3. Jaswell’s Farm (cider donuts) 50 Swan Road, Smithfield 401-231-9043 4. Leach Farm and Orchard (pumpkins) 147 Austin Avenue, Greenville 401-862-5156 5. Narrow Lane Orchard 213 Narrow Lane, North Kingstown 401-294-3584 6. […]
Where the heck am I? How did I get here? What am I going to do around here, and how do I make new friends? For people new to Rhode Island, these might be very reasonable questions. New England has a reputation for being a tough area to make new friends in, with so many […]
Ants in the City column celebrates one year with Motif. “Stick to ants” he cried, hiding behind a zoom chat rather than showing up to say it to me in person at an invited seminar I gave at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City earlier this year. After a year of […]
I spent nearly every day of the past three months scouring Rhode Island’s radio stations for the elusive “Song of the Summer”, even as an endless parade of national media critics declared the search futile. “The Song of the Summer is Dead,” pronounced a WIRED headline in August; I recall hearing an NPR segment that […]
Folks, it is finally here! The season that many anticipate with excitement has finally arrived. September rolls in, and before you know it, October arrives with that cooler weather and the most beloved (and most debated) fall seasonal drinks. As the summer heat fades and cravings shift, pumpkin spice makes its grand return. Here are […]
And I to clasp her waist wandered all the earth, with wars and mountains, with sands and thorns. – Pablo Neruda Providence, Rhode Island greeted Alexis with grayness on a rain-soaked Tuesday in fall. He arrived via Peter Pan bus from New York, and disembarked at Kennedy Plaza. He had waited twenty years for this […]
September will be a time of unleashing our inner sun, merging the solar illumination of once-hidden aspects of our being with our outward-facing selves. This will be a portal of layered opportunity and legacy, a time stamp in 2025 where our internal gates and labyrinths suddenly align to create a clear path forward. Walls dissolve […]