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....
Rhode Island licenses doctors and dentists, nurses, midwives, athletic trainers and dieticians for the medical community. They also license acupuncturists and their assistants, chiropractors, massage therapists and interpreters for the deaf. They do not license naturopathic physicians. To find out why, I went to the Department of Health, which issues all licensing permits for RI. A supervisor said […]
Health. Detox. Cleansing. No more Booze. No more processed okra. No more white stuff of any kind (humans excluded because they’re everywhere). We’ve all done it. Claimed New Year’s resolutions with such fervor those staunch proclamations might as well be set in stone on Mt. Sinai. You know the particularly difficult resolutions — completely nixing […]
The Cable Car Cinema in Providence was among a phalanx of independent theaters that screened The Interview after all of the major chains abandoned it, fearful of controversy and terrorist threats generally assumed to emanate from North Korea, where some were unhappy to see their dictator Kim Jong-Un portrayed as an assassinated buffoon. The first two […]
Recently I read an article where Boston Beer Company founder Jim Koch received rather a nasty shock when out at a beer bar. Apparently, while the establishment carried a vast array of craft beer that would send a beer nerd like myself into fanboy palpitations, none of the Boston Beers made their exclusive list. He […]
Tune In & Tune Up, the health awareness initiative of the RI Music Hall of Fame, has changed a lot in the last year. Conceived as a way to raise awareness in the music community of health issues, especially preventative care, it ended up focusing a lot of effort on helping musicians navigate the strange landscape that shaped efforts […]
No motion picture could live up to its hype after the unprecedented rollercoaster ride The Interview has had. Still, The Interview is a much better film than many of the reviews would have you believe. To be clear, the film is no contender to be a cinematic classic, but it also is a lot more […]
It’s story time once again as Rhode Island Black Storytellers puts on their 17th annual family festival, Funda Fest. FUNDA, meaning to teach and to learn in Zulu and KiSwahili, is a Rhode Island tradition showcasing favorite local storytellers, such as Ramona Bass Kolobe, Raffini and Len Cabral, and importing award-winning talent from across the country. The […]
The intersection between the goth and EDM scenes is nothing new, and does not seem to be going away. From the onset of rave culture and tours, which really began in the UK, the artists and DJs who were involved had the tenacity, energy and rebellious attitudes that are also characteristic of the modern goth […]
I soon found myself apologizing for being “presumptuous” as I attempted to extract further details. It was unclear why I had been summoned for this interview in the first place. “How would you describe ______?” Surely this was some kind of pre-holiday farce and I was not in on it. What am I doing here? More […]
The hardcore punk scene hit Providence hard in 2014 and continues to defy the norm in 2015. New punk band Angel Du$t (members from Trapped Under Ice) recently tore up The Black Box at As220 and kicked off what will be a killer year for the Providence scene. The Funky Jungle and Riotous Outburst Records […]
