Processed with VSCO with 6 preset When Steve DelMonico (vocals/guitar) approached John Faraone (drums) with an impossibly unique band name, there was no way of knowing that 10 years later they’d be sitting at Nolan’s with...
Photo: Dave Rezendes. John Faraone: a man of many bands, many instruments, and one poetic voice. While John wouldn’t call himself a poet, I certainly believe that his lyrics are simply stanzas waiting to be printed....
Photo by James Brooks. Okee dokee folks… I have referenced the Jethro Tull song, “Too Old to Rock & Roll, Too Young to Die,” A few times in my 22 years of writing for Motif, and...
(Photo credit: Keith J.G. McCurdy, from the cover art of Vudu Sister’s Adynata; photograph of the art installation LO SGUARDO - Humanitas - Physis by sculptor Igor Mitoraj at the Neopolis Archaeological Park of Siracusa...
Mount Pleasant. Elmhurst. The Valley Arts District. These are all neighborhoods whose offerings I thought I knew well, having worked in and around Providence over the last few years. But you can certainly miss a...
Buddy Mott. Once upon a time, if you wanted a tattoo, one of the things you could do was traipse to Newport from any of the four corners of the world and get yourself a tattoo...
The actual declaration of Independence was first proclaimed to the people of Newport from this building in July 1776. (Photo by Maureen O'Gorman) It doesn't take long for a person new to Rhode Island to find...
The RI Department of Transportation (RIDOT) announced a major initiative to repair potholes caused by a harsh winter. A new Pothole Service Requests Dashboard site on the web – https://www.dot.ri.gov/travel/potholes.php – allows the public to...
The tattoo artist who goes by Mish, of Fall River, MA, created this month’s cover. “I got the nickname when I was younger, and it just kinda stuck,” she says. Also, it stirs a little...
On the “Weekend Update” satirical news segment on Saturday Night Live. anchor Colin Jost displayed a snapshot of an unhinged rant laced with profanity in the form of a Donald Trump post to Truth Social,...
Wednesday, May 276 - 10pmMyrtle, East Providence Join us for the 4th annual Motif Spoken Awards! We are excited to be returning to Myrtle to celebrate RI’s spoken word community. Want to see your favorite Rhode Island...
VOTE HERE! "May your tattoo ink never run dry," as the ancient Portlandian blessing goes, has rarely been more applicable. Motif is proud to partner again with Narragansett Brewery to bring you the RI Tattoo Awards,...
By Lillian MK Photography By Olivia Lunger By Izzy Cooke ...
The Music Awards went off without a hitch this year, and over the course of the evening more than 400 local music lovers dropped by to dance, listen, and cheer on fellow musicians. We'll have...
It’s often said (well, I definitely say this), that some of the deepest conversations and connected moments can happen while one is sitting in a car. This is certainly true for the duo, band, sisterhood...
Image: Olivia Lunger. Local Civil War re-enactor Bill Sherman was having trouble recruiting young people into the hobby, so he hit on a novel idea that is perfectly suited to Gen Z. He immediately telephoned his...
The Continental Congress, befooled. April Fool’s Day originated among the French a few years into the Revolutionary War. Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin had been pleading with them for any sort of assistance. The brand...
If you have been a craft beer lover over this past decade, you may remember when the first Rhode Island Brewery Passport was released. It was changed to an app in 2020. Six years later,...
After attending Chalumeau’s release party for their album BLUE at The Met in Pawtucket last August, I wrote that if you ever got the chance to see them perform live, you should jump on it....
On February 28, after 20 years of being a community staple for first dates, Super Tuesday regulars, and movie fanatics alike, CWTheaters (previously called CinemaWorld) was forced to shut its doors for good. The decline...
Last year, I had a blast and a half working on a fun commercial shoot. I landed the gig because the fella producing, Josh Kirk, asked around to find an actor to portray the client’s...
Photo: Jenn Lombari. @jennlombariphotography ssa lin has been making a local splash like a rockin’ rainstorm after a record-setting blizzard, since releasing her first single, “tallboys,” at the end of 2025. The feedback has been good,...
Here are some hot new local tracks to finish melting the ice. The Hopeless Romantics – “Quiet Kind” The third and final single from The Hopeless Romantics’ upcoming debut album, “Quiet Kind” is also a reworked...
Okee dokee folks… PLEASE stop using AI. The more it knows, the more it grows. We are feeding a beast that will someday destroy us. AI is not your friend, though it may pretend to...
Graphic by Olivia Lunger. ...
Hey idiot, why are you and your friends getting high indoors? Don't you know? We have a planet, a whole, big planet filled with trees, rivers, and critters. The outside world doesn't have to start...
Medical marijuana was legalized in Rhode Island in January 2006, and by May 2022 even recreational sales became legal through state-licensed dispensaries and authorized retailers. Yet it still isn’t safe for medical users to come out of the closet....
Cover artist Elliott Italiano of Jamestown is a self-made glass artist. As a young adult, Italiano's interests centered on fashion, inspiring thoughts of pursuing a degree in luxury marketing and design. He relates to his past...
MAD Magazine cover, Feb 2016: Donald Trump and Alfred E. Neuman We fought a military war; our opponents fought a political one. We sought physical attrition; our opponents aimed for our psychological exhaustion. In the process...
Cover artist Mina Miki of Providence calls her baby blanket her longest friend. “His name is Blankie, but now he looks less like a blanket and more like a piece of tangled silk,” she says....
I work on Smith St. This means that at least a few times a week, I witness something on my way to or from work that could happen only in Rhode Island. We live in the smallest state in the union with one of the most diverse populations per capita in the entire country. Last […]
If you’ve seen The Big NAZO Intergalactic Creature Band, you’re not likely to forget it. Ever. The giant, spongiform aliens, spacemen and … more aliens look like nothing else on this planet. They thrive on playing with the audience as they’re playing for the audience. They sound great – but it’s the sight of […]
Lili is a 13-year-old who’s being shuttled from her mother to her father and whose best friend is her dog Hagen. Unfortunately her father doesn’t want the dog; their apartment complex has strict rules about pets, and Hungary in general seems to have some strange dog-related laws such as having to pay a fine for […]
The Rhode Island Foundation officially announced the two recipients of their annual Innovation Fellowship Grant at a reception on Wednesday night (April 15) in the gallery at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium. John Haley and the husband and wife team of Deniel Kamil and Emily Steffian will receive $300,000 over three years to fund a project […]
2015 has been a unique year so far for album releases. A lot of acts from the independent underground have been putting out quality material over the past few months, which makes the halfway point of the 2010s pretty enjoyable. Another act that deserves to be put in this exclusive group are psychedelic power pop phenoms […]
In Unfriended, six friends are terrorized via the internet on the one year anniversary of former friend Laura’s suicide due to cyber bullying after an embarrassing video is posted online. That may sound overly simplistic, but the film’s simple premise works and to explain any more of the story would give away plot points and twists. […]
I tend to review movies that are screening in some theatrical capacity, but want to occasionally talk about a movie that missed us theatrically and is on DVD and Blu Ray. This time it’s Digging Up The Marrow, a recent movie from Massachusetts-born filmmaker Adam Green, which features other locals as well. The basic set-up […]
Playwright Lenny Schwartz continues to make a name for himself authoring and directing his unique brand of plays for Daydream Theatre. Schwartz’s work is offbeat, yet sentimental and, especially in the last few years, biographical. We’ve seen explorations of Buster Keaton, Lucille Ball and Charles Schulz, but Daydream’s latest offering (and the first new production […]
What do you think would be the advantages of being the first state in New England to legalize? First, there’s historical pride in being a leader on important social issues like this. In 50 years, I think we will look back on marijuana prohibition the same way we look back on alcohol prohibition now. We’ll […]
