Narragansett Councilman Christopher Wilkens recently inquired for the record whether naming rights could be sought for a new North Pavilion planned for the town beach. Expect more of the same as towns get desperate for cash after discovering that there aren’t any more pennies left in the taxpayer’s piggy banks. So why not sell off the sidewalks, the parking lots and the manhole covers to the highest bidder? By the next decade we’ll all be walking advertisements. (Some advice from my financial guru: The thighbone may be connected to the hipbone, but you’ll make more from the naming rights if you sell them separately.)
The council tabled the suggestion for another time, but the Pier’s willingness to consider going all NASCAR on us is a sign of the times. Maybe the town can entice the Narragansett Brewing Co. to sponsor the new pavilion. Not a bad idea if they’re willing to install taps. The Pier Imports Pavilion also has a certain ring, although my memories of that store are strangely dominated by a profusion of wicker.
Colleague Liz Boardman freelances as a naming rights columnist for Venues Today magazine. She passed along a couple of items recently:
Item 1: In January, the Irving City Council in Texas designated Kraft Macaroni & Cheese as the official sponsor for the demolition of Texas Stadium. Kraft foods got the naming rights for the implosion while the city received $75,000 in cold cash along with another $75,000 worth of Kraft products to be donated to local charities. That’s $150,000 in value for slapping the Kraft name onto the act of blowing up a football field. (Colleague Laura Kelly points out that the logo on the box of Kraft’s mac ’n’ cheese reads “The Cheesiest,” which seems a suitable epitaph for the whole idea of naming rights.)
Which begs the question, where was this kind of thinking in Rhode Island when we detonated the old Jamestown Bridge? Surely the Jiffy Pop Popcorn Pop-in-a-Pan/Jamestown Bridge Photo-Op-Drop Pop-in-a-Span could have netted a few Benjamins for the state’s barren coffers.
Item 2: Also in January, Comfort Dental, America’s largest dental franchise, won the rights for the next three years to change the name of the Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre in Denver to the Comfort Dental Amphitheatre. (Aside from Liz: “When do you suppose they’ll put on ‘Little Shop of Horrors?’”)
Of course, there is something unseemly about equating urban demolition with over-microwaving processed comfort food. And while Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre conjures up images of Irish musicians and Greek choruses, the best that can be said for Comfort Dental is that it promises a brighter, whiter stage and entertainment that is minty-fresh and cavity-free.
Closer to home, Great Woods lost some of its Thoreauvian New England soul once it became Tweeter (and now Comcast) Center. The Dunkin’ Donuts Center sounds more like a halfway house for people addicted to munchkins and crullers than a venue for concerts, minor league hockey and college basketball.
Still, if businesses are willing to shell out the dough and reduce the burden on taxpayers, why not put up all the state’s properties, holidays and administrative functions up for naming auction? Companies wouldn’t even have to change slogans.
Obey your thirst. (Formerly the Scituate Reservoir. Now the Sprite Reservoir.)
You’re in good hands. (Formerly the R.I. State House. Now the Allstate Insurance State House.)
So easy a caveman can do it.(The Governor’s State of the State address, now sponsored by GEICO.)
What Rhode Island institution should be re-branded if the price is right?
Monday, March 15, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Last Call
The past is never very far away in Providence, even in the eclectic jumble of buildings that make up what locals call Downcity, an area south of a former saltwater cove and west of the confluence of the Moshassuck and Woonasquatucket rivers. Here, the air is thick with ghosts and damp with the sweat of laborers who made this a place of grandeur in the 18th and 19th centuries. At night, a lingering scent of tidal backwash and greasy food being served at a parked silver trolley known as Haven Brothers – considered the first American diner – is carried on breezes that gather in strength and curl around city blocks and foot bridges, cutting sharply to the spine.
This part of Providence offers a mix of charm and grit, streets of broken cobblestones and windows displaying FOR LEASE signs and a tight-knit culture of restaurants, pubs and artists making bold and innovative music, theater and visual art. In some ways the fact that Providence has endured so many cycles of neglect has been its salvation – and its inspiration.
Among the many successful projects to find a home in Providence recently is the latest initiative from The Museum On Site folks, whose Westminster Stories will remain up through Friday in the empty storefront at 191 Washington St. As one of the Providence Art Windows during this winter round, the exhibition is the centerpiece of a project that has collected “facts, memories and stories about two blocks of a single street in downtown Providence.” Andrew Losowsky and Lyra Monteiro of The Museum On Site are dedicated to “helping people understand their worlds through site-specific, free public experiences that share ideas and information in accessible and stimulating ways.” The group’s window and website are wonderful ways to make history off-the-wall and relevant to people today. The stories create a loose and engaging timeline of Providence’s former vitality, while reminding us even amid the vacuum and vacuity of so much modern development that there is still depth, heart and resonance in the places and spaces around us.
The Museum On Site first gained attention at another public art event in Providence, when it spotlighted Rhode Island’s role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade during a WaterFire display in the fall of 2008. Titled “A Thousand Ships,” the observance featured torchbearers who read aloud the names of slaves sold on ships that departed from Rhode Island, along with the burning of ceremonial paper chains. In a grand, symbolic gesture, a thousand WaterFire attendants simultaneously poured water from bottles into the river. The mass libation represented the estimated 1,000 slave ships that traveled from Rhode Island to Africa.
The group’s mission statement emphasizes projects that stimulate viewers in non-conventional ways and engage people directly, emotionally and intellectually through the forums of theater, museums, scholarship, art, advertising, public ritual and interactive media. Like many of Providence’s artists and arts organizations, The Museum On Site obsessively documents its work, providing an archival record that is helpful to historians, preservationists and storytellers, while actively encouraging further discussion and exploration.
So check out the window this week if you can. Another round of artists will be installed for the next iteration of Providence Art Windows the day after St. Patrick’s Day.
This week’s question: If you had an empty window to design, what part of Rhode Island would you like to put into it?
This part of Providence offers a mix of charm and grit, streets of broken cobblestones and windows displaying FOR LEASE signs and a tight-knit culture of restaurants, pubs and artists making bold and innovative music, theater and visual art. In some ways the fact that Providence has endured so many cycles of neglect has been its salvation – and its inspiration.
Among the many successful projects to find a home in Providence recently is the latest initiative from The Museum On Site folks, whose Westminster Stories will remain up through Friday in the empty storefront at 191 Washington St. As one of the Providence Art Windows during this winter round, the exhibition is the centerpiece of a project that has collected “facts, memories and stories about two blocks of a single street in downtown Providence.” Andrew Losowsky and Lyra Monteiro of The Museum On Site are dedicated to “helping people understand their worlds through site-specific, free public experiences that share ideas and information in accessible and stimulating ways.” The group’s window and website are wonderful ways to make history off-the-wall and relevant to people today. The stories create a loose and engaging timeline of Providence’s former vitality, while reminding us even amid the vacuum and vacuity of so much modern development that there is still depth, heart and resonance in the places and spaces around us.
The Museum On Site first gained attention at another public art event in Providence, when it spotlighted Rhode Island’s role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade during a WaterFire display in the fall of 2008. Titled “A Thousand Ships,” the observance featured torchbearers who read aloud the names of slaves sold on ships that departed from Rhode Island, along with the burning of ceremonial paper chains. In a grand, symbolic gesture, a thousand WaterFire attendants simultaneously poured water from bottles into the river. The mass libation represented the estimated 1,000 slave ships that traveled from Rhode Island to Africa.
The group’s mission statement emphasizes projects that stimulate viewers in non-conventional ways and engage people directly, emotionally and intellectually through the forums of theater, museums, scholarship, art, advertising, public ritual and interactive media. Like many of Providence’s artists and arts organizations, The Museum On Site obsessively documents its work, providing an archival record that is helpful to historians, preservationists and storytellers, while actively encouraging further discussion and exploration.
So check out the window this week if you can. Another round of artists will be installed for the next iteration of Providence Art Windows the day after St. Patrick’s Day.
This week’s question: If you had an empty window to design, what part of Rhode Island would you like to put into it?
Monday, March 1, 2010
Rocky Redux
If there is a Rhode Island wing in Heaven, it will include room for Rocky Point. The Warwick Neck location that generations of Rhode Islanders enjoyed in various guises for more than 150 years is best remembered as an amusement park, and its nostalgic hold on the local population can’t be surpassed, not even by the Blizzard of ’78. Rhode Islanders have paid tribute to the park in a myriad of ways, from film documentaries to comic books to incorporating its old lights and signage into a theatrical production of “The Fantasticks,” as Trinity Rep did a while back.
The midway is gone, and along with it the Musik Express, the Palladium and the World’s Largest Shore Dinner Hall. The Cyclone went to Prince Edward Island. The Corkscrew settled in Washington State. And the beloved Flume, the famed log roll that carried you leisurely out of the park's confines and offered stunning views of Narragansett Bay before its thrilling splash down, is now a revamped ride in the Philippines.
But even though the rides and chowders, rock concerts and carnie games are a distant memory, a group of Rhode Islanders wants to save the spot and make it a place once again where all residents of the Ocean State can gather. The Rocky Point Foundation is composed of a group of citizen volunteers with a mission to “preserve and protect the natural and historic heritage and environment of the land formerly occupied by the Rocky Point Amusement Park on the west shore of Narragansett Bay.”
In the words of the foundation:
Established last year, the foundation is working to make sure that Rocky Point remains a place of public access in the form of a park with hiking trails and picnic sites. Ever since the amusement park closed in 1995, Rocky Point and its scenic shoreline has been off-limits to visitors – except for two days, one in 1998 and another last year, when Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian opened the property for public driving and walking. Thousands of Rhode Islanders took the mayor up on his offer.
David Bettencourt’s entertaining documentary “You Must Be This Tall” captures the Rocky Point vibe nicely, and conveys the near-universal love Rhode Islanders had for the place. (Some of his most interesting stories didn’t even make the film. Bettencourt told me that on the sweltering August day in 1892 when Lizzie Borden may have murdered her father and stepmother with a hatchet, the entire Fall River Police Department was enjoying its annual outing at Rocky Point. He said that a number of Lizzie Borden historians – and you’d be surprised at how many people out there walking around among us consider themselves Lizzie Borden historians – are convinced that she knew the police were out of town that day.)
I remember loving the view from the Ferris wheel. Seeing Boston in concert. Watching out for Electric Boy in the saltwater pool. Hearing too much Donna Summer and “Fly Like an Eagle.” Getting thrown off the Dodge ‘Em cars for not dodging ‘em enough. Always tasting that distinctive Rocky Point grease from one too many clam cakes the next day.
What’s your favorite Rocky Point memory?
The midway is gone, and along with it the Musik Express, the Palladium and the World’s Largest Shore Dinner Hall. The Cyclone went to Prince Edward Island. The Corkscrew settled in Washington State. And the beloved Flume, the famed log roll that carried you leisurely out of the park's confines and offered stunning views of Narragansett Bay before its thrilling splash down, is now a revamped ride in the Philippines.
But even though the rides and chowders, rock concerts and carnie games are a distant memory, a group of Rhode Islanders wants to save the spot and make it a place once again where all residents of the Ocean State can gather. The Rocky Point Foundation is composed of a group of citizen volunteers with a mission to “preserve and protect the natural and historic heritage and environment of the land formerly occupied by the Rocky Point Amusement Park on the west shore of Narragansett Bay.”
In the words of the foundation:
Rocky Point Amusement Park on Warwick Neck evokes warm memories for many Rhode Islanders. For 150 years, Rhode Islanders traveled by ferry, horse-drawn carriage, trolley and automobile to experience one of New England’s preeminent recreational attractions. Rocky Point is the location from which the first telephone call was made by a President of the United States, and Babe Ruth hit a home run from the Rocky Point ball field into Narragansett Bay [blogger’s note: although he only got credit for a ground-rule triple, since the bay was considered out of play].
Established last year, the foundation is working to make sure that Rocky Point remains a place of public access in the form of a park with hiking trails and picnic sites. Ever since the amusement park closed in 1995, Rocky Point and its scenic shoreline has been off-limits to visitors – except for two days, one in 1998 and another last year, when Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian opened the property for public driving and walking. Thousands of Rhode Islanders took the mayor up on his offer.
David Bettencourt’s entertaining documentary “You Must Be This Tall” captures the Rocky Point vibe nicely, and conveys the near-universal love Rhode Islanders had for the place. (Some of his most interesting stories didn’t even make the film. Bettencourt told me that on the sweltering August day in 1892 when Lizzie Borden may have murdered her father and stepmother with a hatchet, the entire Fall River Police Department was enjoying its annual outing at Rocky Point. He said that a number of Lizzie Borden historians – and you’d be surprised at how many people out there walking around among us consider themselves Lizzie Borden historians – are convinced that she knew the police were out of town that day.)
I remember loving the view from the Ferris wheel. Seeing Boston in concert. Watching out for Electric Boy in the saltwater pool. Hearing too much Donna Summer and “Fly Like an Eagle.” Getting thrown off the Dodge ‘Em cars for not dodging ‘em enough. Always tasting that distinctive Rocky Point grease from one too many clam cakes the next day.
What’s your favorite Rocky Point memory?
Monday, February 22, 2010
Take Two
Apparently ABC likes the look of Rhode Island. A year after filming scenes incorporated into episodes of the abysmal and quickly canceled “Eastwick,” the network is returning next month to try again. This time ABC TV will start filming a pilot for a new procedural drama called “Body of Evidence.” If the show sounds familiar (you may have just felt a cold shudder of dread), that’s because Madonna made a cheesy-bad* movie by the same name, a 1993 thriller also starring Willem Dafoe notable for its ridiculous plot, awful acting and determination to show as much of Madonna as possible and still pull an R rating.
According to the press release, this “Body of Evidence” centers on “a brilliant and tenacious female medical examiner, Megan Hunt. Her background as a neurosurgeon gives her a unique and refreshing crime-solving perspective, one that often puts her at odds with just about everyone who crosses her path.” A trade publication called it “a female postmortem ‘House.’”
So the dead bodies keep piling up on television. Viewers can’t get enough of them. Pretty soon we’ll be tuning into “Cadaver Idol,” “Dancing with the Stiffs” and “Survivor (Not).” Luckily for the producers, March in Rhode Island can look like a morgue, so the setting might match the body count.
The folks at the R.I. Film & TV Office are happy with the news, especially on the heels of Governor Carcieri’s proposal to eliminate the state’s motion picture tax credit in the next budget. While it’s difficult to assess precisely whether all that lost income tax has been worth luring the likes of Wesley Snipes and Richard Gere to Little Rhody, it’s clear that other states, including our northeast neighbor, are pulling out all the stops to bring Hollywood east. Last spring Rhode Island lawmakers were campaigning to build a movie empire in Hopkinton. Now it’s move over RHODYWOOD, make way for MASSAWOOD. Ah, well. That’s show biz.
What would be a good name for a forensics-based show set in Rhode Island?
*As opposed to cheesy-good, like the old “Batman” TV show or most wine-tasting parties.
According to the press release, this “Body of Evidence” centers on “a brilliant and tenacious female medical examiner, Megan Hunt. Her background as a neurosurgeon gives her a unique and refreshing crime-solving perspective, one that often puts her at odds with just about everyone who crosses her path.” A trade publication called it “a female postmortem ‘House.’”
So the dead bodies keep piling up on television. Viewers can’t get enough of them. Pretty soon we’ll be tuning into “Cadaver Idol,” “Dancing with the Stiffs” and “Survivor (Not).” Luckily for the producers, March in Rhode Island can look like a morgue, so the setting might match the body count.
The folks at the R.I. Film & TV Office are happy with the news, especially on the heels of Governor Carcieri’s proposal to eliminate the state’s motion picture tax credit in the next budget. While it’s difficult to assess precisely whether all that lost income tax has been worth luring the likes of Wesley Snipes and Richard Gere to Little Rhody, it’s clear that other states, including our northeast neighbor, are pulling out all the stops to bring Hollywood east. Last spring Rhode Island lawmakers were campaigning to build a movie empire in Hopkinton. Now it’s move over RHODYWOOD, make way for MASSAWOOD. Ah, well. That’s show biz.
What would be a good name for a forensics-based show set in Rhode Island?
*As opposed to cheesy-good, like the old “Batman” TV show or most wine-tasting parties.
Monday, February 15, 2010
America's Cup Runneth Over
Lost in the weekend blitz of Winter Olympics, Valentine’s Day, President’s Day and the Chinese New Year – cheers to all you kindred Tigers out there – was the news yesterday that America took the America’s Cup back. There was a time, a generation or so ago, when any news of the America’s Cup was everyday bubbler conversation in Rhode Island. The way Texans talk rodeo, Rhode Islanders spoke sailing.
Local reporters covered the regattas, the parties, the intrigue and the celebrity sightings in Newport with a verve normally reserved for shenanigans at the State House. It was Newport’s claim to fame on the global sports scene, the site of the Cup defense from 1930 to 1983, when Australia finally broke through and defeated the Yanks from the New York Yacht Club in a thrilling seven-race finale. I say thrilling. There were many who equated the thrill of watching sailing with the thrill of watching Astroturf grow. But most Rhode Islanders have a thing for boats, even if they only keep one in their driveway. Wind and wave, line and sail run in the blood here. There’s a yacht on the back of the state’s commemorative quarter. Fort Adams in Newport hosts the Museum of Yachting and the Herreschoff Museum in Bristol features the America’s Cup Hall of Fame. So even though the America’s Cup was always a kind of oceanic bowling for billionaires, many Rhode Islanders felt a kinship because they sailed the same waters, understood Narragansett Bay’s hazards and vagaries, and probably even knew someone on the crew of one of the yachts. Someone who grew up in our coves learning on sunfish and sailing through our winters with the frostbiters.
Like all international sporting competitions, the America’s Cup has always been politicized and stigmatized by more off-the-water drama than on. There have been scandals, charges of cheating, bad sportsmanship, countless legal battles over the interpretation of the Deed of Gift and many memories of a drunken Ted Turner stumbling through the streets of Newport after winning with Courageous. Even the latest America’s Cup was a disputed affair, marred by court challenges, culminating in a rare, best-of-three, head-to-head duel because the sides couldn’t agree on the rules for a traditional regatta involving multiple teams.
Among the oddities of the Cup is that since 2003 it has been held in Switzerland, a land-locked country. The Swiss staged their races in Valencia, Spain before BMW Oracle boss Larry Ellison representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco won it back for America yesterday. You’d think that San Francisco would be the frontrunner to hold the next Cup race, but so far Ellison seems open to the idea of defending in Newport in a 2013 regatta, marking the 30-year anniversary of America’s first loss. San Diego’s also in the mix, but even though Newport long ago got over losing the Cup, there are still a few old salts around who would like to see it come back, if only to see the New Zealand sailors perform the haka again.
What is your favorite America’s Cup memory?
Local reporters covered the regattas, the parties, the intrigue and the celebrity sightings in Newport with a verve normally reserved for shenanigans at the State House. It was Newport’s claim to fame on the global sports scene, the site of the Cup defense from 1930 to 1983, when Australia finally broke through and defeated the Yanks from the New York Yacht Club in a thrilling seven-race finale. I say thrilling. There were many who equated the thrill of watching sailing with the thrill of watching Astroturf grow. But most Rhode Islanders have a thing for boats, even if they only keep one in their driveway. Wind and wave, line and sail run in the blood here. There’s a yacht on the back of the state’s commemorative quarter. Fort Adams in Newport hosts the Museum of Yachting and the Herreschoff Museum in Bristol features the America’s Cup Hall of Fame. So even though the America’s Cup was always a kind of oceanic bowling for billionaires, many Rhode Islanders felt a kinship because they sailed the same waters, understood Narragansett Bay’s hazards and vagaries, and probably even knew someone on the crew of one of the yachts. Someone who grew up in our coves learning on sunfish and sailing through our winters with the frostbiters.
Like all international sporting competitions, the America’s Cup has always been politicized and stigmatized by more off-the-water drama than on. There have been scandals, charges of cheating, bad sportsmanship, countless legal battles over the interpretation of the Deed of Gift and many memories of a drunken Ted Turner stumbling through the streets of Newport after winning with Courageous. Even the latest America’s Cup was a disputed affair, marred by court challenges, culminating in a rare, best-of-three, head-to-head duel because the sides couldn’t agree on the rules for a traditional regatta involving multiple teams.
Among the oddities of the Cup is that since 2003 it has been held in Switzerland, a land-locked country. The Swiss staged their races in Valencia, Spain before BMW Oracle boss Larry Ellison representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco won it back for America yesterday. You’d think that San Francisco would be the frontrunner to hold the next Cup race, but so far Ellison seems open to the idea of defending in Newport in a 2013 regatta, marking the 30-year anniversary of America’s first loss. San Diego’s also in the mix, but even though Newport long ago got over losing the Cup, there are still a few old salts around who would like to see it come back, if only to see the New Zealand sailors perform the haka again.
What is your favorite America’s Cup memory?
Monday, February 8, 2010
Our Funny Valentines
The week leading up to Valentine’s Day can be fraught with peril. So here’s some advice: If you see a barbershop quartet getting out of Mini Cooper in the parking lot, hide. ‘Tis the season for “singing valentines,” when barbershop quartets from the Providence Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society fan out across southern New England like guerilla Cupids, spreading love in four-part harmony wherever they’re told to go.
Days of Wine
Of course, if you’re more into cliché than humiliation, Rhode Island has several ways to woo that special someone. For wine, why not buy a bottle from one of the Ocean State’s three vineyards – Newport Vineyards in Middletown, Sakonnet Vineyards in Little Compton or Greenvale Vineyards in Portsmouth? Joel Stein of Time magazine didn’t much care for the wine in Rhode Island when he tried a bottle of vidal blanc from Sakonnet Vineyards in 2008. He gave it a “good” rating but otherwise qualified that by saying the wine “isn’t too bad,” is “sticky-sweet” and noted that he’s “had better vidal blancs, from New York and Canada.” He followed that up with: “I don’t think vidal blanc is such a great varietal to begin with.” Never answered the obvious question: Then why did you pick that one to drink? It’s not like it’s our only varietal. And by the way, what kind of person uses the word varietal? Here in Rhode Island, we like our wines like our chowders – white, red or clear. No varietals. Just colors. And labels. Labels are very important to the quality of a wine. After all, Stein could have tried In the Buff Chardonnay from Newport, notable for its portrait of a nude woman on the bottle, based on the famed French painting “La Verite.” Greenvale has a classy-looking, leisurely 2007 Skipping Stone white on offer, while Sakonnet turns out its popular Rhode Island Red, with a label created by a team of graduate students from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Mostly Stein was upset because he said the state’s name was too hard to find on the bottle, appearing below the words “Southeastern New England.” He didn’t know southeastern New England was a thing. It is. As distinct from northern New England as Wales is from Scotland. One place is known for clam shacks, quahogs, flat land, sandy beaches and casinos, the other is mostly lobster pounds, moose, mountains, rocky shore and bean suppers.
And Roses
For roses or favored flowers, how about getting tickets for the R.I. Spring Flower & Garden Show, one of the few remaining spring flower shows in the country? This year the indoor gardens will be on display at the Convention Center in Providence from Feb. 18 to 21. As always, look for the Exeter-based R.I. Wild Plant Society’s exhibition, designed by Judy Ireland. Those folks spend a year planning for the next one, digging out earth and shrubs and loose timber from former Sen. Chafee’s place on Route 102 and storing some of the detritus in their own houses over winter. It’s the Rhode Island equivalent of those New Orleans krewes working on Mardi Gras floats, masks and costumes. (Speaking of which. Congrats to the Saints!)
And Chocolate
For chocolate, there’s only one real choice: Sweenor’s Chocolates. The company began when Walter Sweenor started making sweets in his basement kitchen in Cranston to make a little extra money during World War II. Sweenor’s Open Fire Candies launched as a shop in Garden City in 1955. Rhode Island’s largest chocolate manufacturer is still there, along with satellite shops in Wakefield and Charlestown. They make all of the traditional chocolates, along with distinctive chocolate crosses ($1.39 per) and a “Best of RI” set that includes a large chocolate lobster with two chocolate quahogs ($3.25).
Rhody Valentine
In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, Half Shell would like to send a cyber-valentine to the Providence Awesome Foundation, a group of Rhode Island philanthropists committed to awarding $1000 every month for the next couple of years to an individual or business that comes up with the “most awesome idea” bringing joy, excitement, spontaneity and innovation into the state. Like many things in Rhode Island – including Legal Seafood, the Red Sox and the Bruins – the first Awesome Foundation started in Boston. But Providence business leaders quickly formed their own chapter and have already awarded two “awesome grants” to Rhode Islanders. The first went to Otto D’Ambrosio, a Pawtucket guitar-maker who is building a guitar as big as a stand-up bass, which he will bring to state parks and playgrounds for children to play. Last month’s prize went to Stephanie Burbridge, a Providence hair stylist, who pitched the idea of hosting a Rhode Island version of the popular Picture Discovery Channel’s quiz show “Cash Cab.” Burbridge plans to drive around the city for a day in a taxi, giving fares a chance to answer questions about Rhode Island and Providence for cash prizes. As we’ve said before, “awesome” is the second most awesome word in Rhode Island, just after “wicked,” but this is even a more awesome use of awesome than normal.
To whom or where would you send a Rhody valentine?
Days of Wine
Of course, if you’re more into cliché than humiliation, Rhode Island has several ways to woo that special someone. For wine, why not buy a bottle from one of the Ocean State’s three vineyards – Newport Vineyards in Middletown, Sakonnet Vineyards in Little Compton or Greenvale Vineyards in Portsmouth? Joel Stein of Time magazine didn’t much care for the wine in Rhode Island when he tried a bottle of vidal blanc from Sakonnet Vineyards in 2008. He gave it a “good” rating but otherwise qualified that by saying the wine “isn’t too bad,” is “sticky-sweet” and noted that he’s “had better vidal blancs, from New York and Canada.” He followed that up with: “I don’t think vidal blanc is such a great varietal to begin with.” Never answered the obvious question: Then why did you pick that one to drink? It’s not like it’s our only varietal. And by the way, what kind of person uses the word varietal? Here in Rhode Island, we like our wines like our chowders – white, red or clear. No varietals. Just colors. And labels. Labels are very important to the quality of a wine. After all, Stein could have tried In the Buff Chardonnay from Newport, notable for its portrait of a nude woman on the bottle, based on the famed French painting “La Verite.” Greenvale has a classy-looking, leisurely 2007 Skipping Stone white on offer, while Sakonnet turns out its popular Rhode Island Red, with a label created by a team of graduate students from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Mostly Stein was upset because he said the state’s name was too hard to find on the bottle, appearing below the words “Southeastern New England.” He didn’t know southeastern New England was a thing. It is. As distinct from northern New England as Wales is from Scotland. One place is known for clam shacks, quahogs, flat land, sandy beaches and casinos, the other is mostly lobster pounds, moose, mountains, rocky shore and bean suppers.
And Roses
For roses or favored flowers, how about getting tickets for the R.I. Spring Flower & Garden Show, one of the few remaining spring flower shows in the country? This year the indoor gardens will be on display at the Convention Center in Providence from Feb. 18 to 21. As always, look for the Exeter-based R.I. Wild Plant Society’s exhibition, designed by Judy Ireland. Those folks spend a year planning for the next one, digging out earth and shrubs and loose timber from former Sen. Chafee’s place on Route 102 and storing some of the detritus in their own houses over winter. It’s the Rhode Island equivalent of those New Orleans krewes working on Mardi Gras floats, masks and costumes. (Speaking of which. Congrats to the Saints!)
And Chocolate
For chocolate, there’s only one real choice: Sweenor’s Chocolates. The company began when Walter Sweenor started making sweets in his basement kitchen in Cranston to make a little extra money during World War II. Sweenor’s Open Fire Candies launched as a shop in Garden City in 1955. Rhode Island’s largest chocolate manufacturer is still there, along with satellite shops in Wakefield and Charlestown. They make all of the traditional chocolates, along with distinctive chocolate crosses ($1.39 per) and a “Best of RI” set that includes a large chocolate lobster with two chocolate quahogs ($3.25).
Rhody Valentine
In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, Half Shell would like to send a cyber-valentine to the Providence Awesome Foundation, a group of Rhode Island philanthropists committed to awarding $1000 every month for the next couple of years to an individual or business that comes up with the “most awesome idea” bringing joy, excitement, spontaneity and innovation into the state. Like many things in Rhode Island – including Legal Seafood, the Red Sox and the Bruins – the first Awesome Foundation started in Boston. But Providence business leaders quickly formed their own chapter and have already awarded two “awesome grants” to Rhode Islanders. The first went to Otto D’Ambrosio, a Pawtucket guitar-maker who is building a guitar as big as a stand-up bass, which he will bring to state parks and playgrounds for children to play. Last month’s prize went to Stephanie Burbridge, a Providence hair stylist, who pitched the idea of hosting a Rhode Island version of the popular Picture Discovery Channel’s quiz show “Cash Cab.” Burbridge plans to drive around the city for a day in a taxi, giving fares a chance to answer questions about Rhode Island and Providence for cash prizes. As we’ve said before, “awesome” is the second most awesome word in Rhode Island, just after “wicked,” but this is even a more awesome use of awesome than normal.
To whom or where would you send a Rhody valentine?
Monday, February 1, 2010
Rhody Universe: Union Jacked
A recent letter to the editor by North Kingstown’s Gary Padula in the ProJo pointed out that if you want to buy Rhode Island Coffee, you have to go across the pond. While Rhode Islanders and coffee go together like Rhode Islanders and lottery tickets or Rhode Islanders and pothole survival or any number of cultural oddities that distinguish us from the Other 49, it turns out that, when it comes to java, we don’t own our own naming rights.
Rhode Island Coffee isn’t exactly the Starbucks of the British Isles. There are five coffee roasting shops by that name in England. So if you’re ever in Altrincham, Warrington, Stockport, Bolton or Burnley, you can try a cup and let us know what you think. Most amusing is the company’s mission statement or “Ethos”:
Wow. As a native Rhode Islander, I hardly recognize my homeland in that paragraph. But they’ve sold me on the coffee. Still, if flying to England is a bit out of the budget for this year, and you’re tired of the Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, Tim Horton’s, Sip-N-Dip crawl, there are a couple of Rhody coffee roasters dedicated to the art of blackening the bean, including New Harvest Coffee Roasters in Pawtucket and Ocean Coffee Roasters in Newport.
Also, coffeehouses can be found in nearly every community. A few of my favorites: The Coffee Depot in Warren (my local hang); The Beehive Café in Bristol (best food); Java Madness overlooking Salt Pond in Wakefield (best outdoor atmosphere); Main Street Coffee in East Greenwich; Felicia’s on Post Road, also in East Greenwich; Jitters Café in North Kingstown; Sophie’s on the South County Trail in Exeter; Stone Soup Coffeehouse in Pawtucket (best live music); Seven Stars Bakery on Hope Street and The Coffee Exchange on Wickenden Street, both in Providence.
What’s your favorite Rhode Island coffee hang?
Seekonked Again
Just a stone’s throw away from my hometown of Barrington lies the strange land of Seekonk, Mass., where hidden treasures like the Caratunk Wildlife Refuge share space with the ravages of Route 6 left behind by the Sprawl Monster. One man’s wasteland is another man’s profit center, so the strip is where folks go whenever they have the urge to shop at the big box stores and eat at the chains. It’s where I often stop for gas on my way to South County – which is how I found myself one day last autumn pumping unleaded next to the Wienermobile. The relatively cheaper gas prices at the Seekonk Hess Station are the reason I go, even though it means enduring one of the worst (and loudest) outdoor speaker music situations in New England. I’m not sure what satellite Hess tunes into, but if anyone has a spare cosmic death ray lying around the house, I’d pay big bucks to blast that orbiting jukebox into premature space junk. There have been times when I’ve only filled the tank up with a few Washingtons, just enough to make it to Wakefield, because I couldn’t listen to the song any longer.
While on the subject of Seekonk, the Caratunk refuge is worth the trip – although anyone afflicted by poison ivy should avoid it, since the place is infested. And does anyone else remember the Hitchockian scene last winter, when at dusk the skies over the Seekonk strip darkened in clouds of starlings, performing their distinctive sky dances before the birds settled, one by one, on utility wires stretching as far as the eye could see? For a few weeks around the winter holidays, starlings swooped in noisy and acrobatic flourishes, squeezing wing-to-wing on the overhead lines above the asphalt-and-concrete wonderland now tattered and wearing “Everything Must Go” signs. What happened to all those birds this year? Is the economy that bad? Has anyone checked inside the boarded-up Circuit City lately?
Rhode Island Coffee isn’t exactly the Starbucks of the British Isles. There are five coffee roasting shops by that name in England. So if you’re ever in Altrincham, Warrington, Stockport, Bolton or Burnley, you can try a cup and let us know what you think. Most amusing is the company’s mission statement or “Ethos”:
Have you ever been to Rhode Island? If not, you’re missing a treat. Think of the famous Newport Folk Festival, a coastline dotted with lighthouses and fisherman’s piers, endless forests and beautiful wild scenery. It’s the antithesis of the big city. Friendly, welcoming people, hearty natural food, a place of enjoyment and relaxation – just what Rhode Island Coffee is all about. When you visit one of our stores, however long or short your visit, we want you to feel welcome, to relax, and enjoy yourself…think of the early morning mists swirling around the sands of Narragansett Bay, at the heart of Rhode Island.
Wow. As a native Rhode Islander, I hardly recognize my homeland in that paragraph. But they’ve sold me on the coffee. Still, if flying to England is a bit out of the budget for this year, and you’re tired of the Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, Tim Horton’s, Sip-N-Dip crawl, there are a couple of Rhody coffee roasters dedicated to the art of blackening the bean, including New Harvest Coffee Roasters in Pawtucket and Ocean Coffee Roasters in Newport.
Also, coffeehouses can be found in nearly every community. A few of my favorites: The Coffee Depot in Warren (my local hang); The Beehive Café in Bristol (best food); Java Madness overlooking Salt Pond in Wakefield (best outdoor atmosphere); Main Street Coffee in East Greenwich; Felicia’s on Post Road, also in East Greenwich; Jitters Café in North Kingstown; Sophie’s on the South County Trail in Exeter; Stone Soup Coffeehouse in Pawtucket (best live music); Seven Stars Bakery on Hope Street and The Coffee Exchange on Wickenden Street, both in Providence.
What’s your favorite Rhode Island coffee hang?
Seekonked Again
Just a stone’s throw away from my hometown of Barrington lies the strange land of Seekonk, Mass., where hidden treasures like the Caratunk Wildlife Refuge share space with the ravages of Route 6 left behind by the Sprawl Monster. One man’s wasteland is another man’s profit center, so the strip is where folks go whenever they have the urge to shop at the big box stores and eat at the chains. It’s where I often stop for gas on my way to South County – which is how I found myself one day last autumn pumping unleaded next to the Wienermobile. The relatively cheaper gas prices at the Seekonk Hess Station are the reason I go, even though it means enduring one of the worst (and loudest) outdoor speaker music situations in New England. I’m not sure what satellite Hess tunes into, but if anyone has a spare cosmic death ray lying around the house, I’d pay big bucks to blast that orbiting jukebox into premature space junk. There have been times when I’ve only filled the tank up with a few Washingtons, just enough to make it to Wakefield, because I couldn’t listen to the song any longer.
While on the subject of Seekonk, the Caratunk refuge is worth the trip – although anyone afflicted by poison ivy should avoid it, since the place is infested. And does anyone else remember the Hitchockian scene last winter, when at dusk the skies over the Seekonk strip darkened in clouds of starlings, performing their distinctive sky dances before the birds settled, one by one, on utility wires stretching as far as the eye could see? For a few weeks around the winter holidays, starlings swooped in noisy and acrobatic flourishes, squeezing wing-to-wing on the overhead lines above the asphalt-and-concrete wonderland now tattered and wearing “Everything Must Go” signs. What happened to all those birds this year? Is the economy that bad? Has anyone checked inside the boarded-up Circuit City lately?
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