May 2010
December 2009
- Sweet P Rebel Headquarters
June 2009
- Comment The power of wind power.
December 2008
- Sweet P 37 Hours in Providence.
Josh Wood, Art Director
2008 is still fresh as a baby. We’re still taking stock of the past year. We’re still making silent pacts. Shopping carts will be temporarily devoid of Fritos, dusty treadmills will be reborn, and cigs will be extinguished for a month or two. As we make space in the tabloids for new tales of the Sweet P, here’s a sampling of the most compelling, strange and note-worthy local stories that broke over the last dozen months.
Decatur Lounge RIP.
In March, Providence lost an old friend. DL laughed, DL cried, DL shared stories of glory from the kickball field. DL took your money but gave you a home. DL loved Roller Derby, Narragansett Beer and the What Cheer Brigade. DL watched The Caveman and the Idiots Cowboy Up and break an 86 year-old curse. DL was loud but never an asshole. DL fought and ultimately lost a fight to a small but vocal gang of city residents. DL died. We loved DL and know that there will never be another.
Check this out.
The Return of Buddy
In May, the six-time Mayor of Providence, and two-time convicted felon, Buddy Cianci returned home following his five-year stint in a federal prison. He was serving a sentence as the result of Operation Plunder Dome, an FBI investigation into corruption at city hall.
In certain circles, stories that Buddy single-handedly spearheaded the revitalization of the Sweet P have been elevated to legendary proportions. And while he didn’t move the rivers or spur the city’s revival by himself, his unabashed enthusiasm for the city when it was still considered the “Armpit of New England,” can’t be denied. For better or for worse, Buddy is one of the most indelibly colorful characters in Sweet P’s history. Cianci returned without his toupee, in a move that might be meant to signal the dawning of a new, more honest and trustworthy Buddy.
Check this out.
Home Sweet Mall
One winter at the turning of the millennium, six of us went to see a movie about Mars, starring Val Kilmer, at the Providence Place Mall. Post-film we decided to avoid the throngs by leaving the theater via the exits flanking the large screen. On the other side of the theater wall we discovered a second, unseen Providence Place Mall. The bizarro mall. It was a vacuous labyrinth of unfinished passageways and stairwells, eventually leading to a loading dock and a parking garage ramp eight floors below. In September, the news broke that the cavernous space had been colonized. Michael Townsend and seven other artists had constructed a makeshift apartment in the bowels of the Providence Place, hauling in two tons of materials including cinder blocks, lamps, chairs, dining table, a waffle iron, a TV and Playstation and hutch filled with china. They had been living there for four years. Ironically, at once point the illicit apartment inside the mall had been burglarized.
Check this out.
Townsend is re-creating his mall apartment in a gallery at 70 Eddy Street in downtown Providence.
Check this out.
Oscar the Death Cat
Toonsis, Fritz, Tom, Sylvester, and even Bill had their dark moments. But of all of pop culture’s cats, Oscar, the seemingly innocuous nursing home pet, is by far the darkest. The Rhode Island feline made news back in July for his uncanny ability to seek out the dying. Nursing home residents who get a nocturnal visit from this cat end up dead the next morning. Once the cat has chosen a room to bunk in, he’s impossible to remove. Check this out.
