PROVIDENCE

Big Star | Keep an Eye on the Sky

Rhino (2009)
Like most Big Star fans, author Robert Gordon overheats a little in the biographical essay that accompanies this handsome four-disc box set.

By MIKAEL WOOD | December 09, 2009

The Carols of Christmas

The song’s the thing in The Gift of the Magi
One can't just break out into Christmas carols, even in this warm and fuzzy season.

By BILL RODRIGUEZ | December 08, 2009

Updike does death, R. Crumb does God, Vanity Fair does Proust

Gift books to savor
Trying to reach as broad a range of tastes and pocketbooks as possible, we this year scavenged everything from the front pages of the Onion to R. Crumb's genesis, to valedictory Updike. Stuff to read, stuff to look at, glossy pages and matte. Remember: be careful not to nick the pages or spill eggnog on them before you wrap. Happy holidays!

By PHOENIX STAFF | December 08, 2009

Tech Support

Stereo equipment is so passé. This year's unnecessarily awesome gadgets will stir coffee and turn T-shirts into guitars.
"Lo! Men have become the tools of their tools." So wrote Henry David Thoreau, a long time ago, in Walden .

By MIKE MILIARD | December 08, 2009

Same old song

Reissued and remastered CDs give classic releases a fresh face
Most music fans can probably be forgiven, at this point, for being doubting Thomases at the alleged demise of the major-label music industry.

By DANIEL BROCKMAN | December 08, 2009

Parting the (green and) Red Sea

Hoopleville
Ho-ho-holy Moses

By DAVID KISH | December 09, 2009

Erection Results

Dr. Lovemonkey answers your questions
When the pain and disappointment of my divorce finally started to fade, I started to go out with various women ...

By DR. LOVEMONKEY | December 08, 2009

News worth paying for?

The ProJo considers charging for access to its Web site
The Providence Journal , offering a rare window onto its own affairs, recently reported that the newspaper could start charging for access to large swaths of projo.com as early as the first quarter of next year.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | December 02, 2009

King of the world

At sea with URi’s Ballard. Plus, pilin’ on Palin, and hanging with Mike and Lucia.
There was a very nice star turn on the November 29 edition of 60 Minutes by URI's Bob Ballard, although the university got scant mention.

By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | December 02, 2009

Christmas present

Trinity Rep’s Carol delivers the gift of joy
Christmases come and Christmases go, as psychedelic wrapping paper gives way to orderly Republican stripes, as sweet little Jimmy grows into gruff Uncle James.

By BILL RODRIGUEZ | December 02, 2009

An Obama confidant on the surge in Afghanistan

War Dept.
Twenty-four hours before President Barack Obama announced a 30,000-troop escalation of the Afghan War, one of his key foreign policy advisors provided a view of the president’s thinking at Brown University.

By STEVEN STYCOS | December 02, 2009

Being Scrooge

Timothy Crowe on Dickens’s ‘life-changing message’
Over the 33 years that Trinity Rep has been staging A Christmas Carol , many actors playing Ebenezer Scrooge have growled and grumped, cantankered, and curmugeoned around the stage.

By BILL RODRIGUEZ | December 02, 2009

Phoenix critic wins grant

Cook gets to eat
It was announced earlier this week that Phoenix contributing writer Greg Cook's art blog, the New England Journal of Aesthetic Research, has been awarded a $30,000 endowment from the Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program, which rewards "commitment to the craft of writing and the advancement of critical discourse on contemporary visual art."

By MIKE MILIARD | December 02, 2009

Questioning the Legality of Straight Marriage

One for the Annuls Dept.
When it comes to supporting gay rights, two straight Boston University grads are putting their marriage where their mouths are.

By DEIRDRE FULTON | December 04, 2009

High tide

Thrashing surf-rock from Cliffs & Bangers
Newport’s Cliffs & Bangers bring their lightning-rod brand of surf-rock to the 201 this weekend behind their spring ’09 release Short Tracks No Brakes , and the downtown crowd better be prepared for some hair-flailing headbanging.

By CHRIS CONTI | December 02, 2009

Top Uses for the Local Daily

Hoopleville
The lifecycle of Ye Olde Fishwrap

By DAVID KISH | December 02, 2009

Kelley’s Deli

Breakfast and lunch with an Irish accent
Kelley's Deli has a new home: after 14 years in downtown Westerly, the space was getting tight (lines out the door in the summer), the customers' hike to the restrooms in the historic multi-use building was circuitous (to the say the least), and regulars had been begging for years for Sunday hours.

By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | December 02, 2009