It’s quite hard to say at first what to make of this song/video, but as an avid Dylan listener, I’ll try to expound.  First thought is that this puts to rest any doubt that Dylan’s main artistic purpose in life these days is to be as unpredictable and odd as possible.  But for a person who for some time now I’ve assumed to be loveless, cynical, and fairly contemptuous of his fame, this video also exhibits Dylan’s weird sense of humor and appreciation for the absurd.

I mean, the guy is wearing a ridiculous wig (either that or he’s been conking his Jew-curls straight) under a series of hats the whole video, including a Santa hat, which takes place at a raucous X-mas house party, possibly in the 1950’s.  And the entire song is just drums, accordion, and Dylan and a chorus singing children’s lyrics about Santa, at one point with the singing of the names of Santa’s reindeers with the names of the Presidents since Eisenhower interspersed (curiously, he ends at Clinton).

Then of course there’s the matter of what it means that Dylan–the once-proclaimed spokesperson for a generation who made a career out of criticizing American society, including its consumer culture, and who is also Jewish–has just put out an entire Christmas album.  But I guess that’s exactly the point: it doesn’t mean anything.  Anybody who tries to read any meaning into this song or video would be a fool.  Even Dylan can have some fun, especially if it’s at the expense of making his hardcore fans ask, WTF?

What antiques restorer Maryalice Huggins knew when she stumbled across the mirror at a country auction in Rhode Island was this: She was besotted. Rococo and huge (more than eight feet tall), the mirror was one of the most unusual objects she had ever seen.

Local hook? The mirror was passed down through the Brown family. This is the stuff they’re unloading! The Brown ‘attic’ must be something to behold.

2pm, Saturday, Books on the Square, 471 Angell Street

. . . we have just completed the final draft of a Cultural Landscape Report for the site. The Cultural Landscape Report includes a comprehensive site history, from Native American presence through the urban renewal period of the 60’s that created the park right up to the park as we know it today. The report also includes an evaluation and analysis of the site and treatment recommendations.

I met with the awesome Ms. Gonsalves who sent me home with a hard copy of the report and I’m getting totally lost in the old maps and pictures. (You can download a pdf and get contact info by going to the RWNM website.) More importantly, she wants to use this comprehensive report as a jumping off point for increasing public awareness of this significant park, and getting some public input as to future stewardship of the site. To that end there is a public meeting scheduled where some topics might include,

Should we expand our visitor facilities? Should there be a memorial commissioned to recognize Roger Williams and his beliefs or is the memorial landscape representative of him and his ideas simply by its designation as a National Memorial? Should we consider redesigning the landscape to better reflect its original planned intent/design? How can we enhance the landscape to increase visibility? What kinds of partnerships/programs should we develop in an effort to create more awareness of the site and its significance? These are just a few of the questions that we are looking for your input on.

And in general you should stop by, walk around and check this place out. (If you are stuck for gift ideas, there is a cool little giftshop/bookstore on North Main Street just south of Smith Street. Tons of local history and there is a badass Roger Williams patch you could sew on your biker jacket. . . good stocking stuffer.)

Public meeting, Wednesday, December 9, 4:30pm to 6:30pm, Old State House, 150 Benefit Street

*okay, last stupid pun on ’seitan’ I promise

11am to 2:30pm, Saturday, Hope Artiste Village, 1005 Main Street, Pawtucket

Earlier this year, Mayor Cicilline unveiled plans designed to make Providence a “creative capital” for the 21st century. Granted, it has been focused on the arts, but all the uproar about the City’s new recycling program and the contentious City Council meeting last night make it pretty clear that the city needs to get much more creative all around, and much more effective at communicating, when designing and delivering new programs that entail any type of behavior change.

Community-focused social marketing is one of the most effective ways to bring about positive change, and there are many examples to pull from around the world on recycling, waste reduction, energy efficiency, pollution prevention, transportation, and a host of other health and sustainability challenges that our city faces.

While part of the challenge of the No Bin/No Barrel program was having essentially no budget, if more of us creative capital denizens get plugged into what is going on in City Hall, we can make a difference ourselves in how our city runs. Incentivizing behavior is a reward in itself, and Mott echos Pecha Kucha facilitator and social media maven Stephanie Gershon’s suggestion at a recent sustainability forum, that the recycling program should have had more carrots. Some of the school engagement ideas were part of the plan, but just didn’t make it past the cutting room floor as staff figured out the best way to implement the program with their limited resources.

In cases such as these, would the city benefit from a permanent citizens’ commission on creative communications that attempts to bridge some of the politics between the City Council and the Mayor’s office and provide creative and positive approaches to city issues that we could all play a more active role in solving.

The opening has been delayed due to the morning rain, but it should be in good shape by Saturday morning. Between 11am and 2pm 50% of proceeds benefit Skate for Joy, a non-profit that provides skating lessons for inner city youth. Rink closes at 10pm. Rent skates for $4.

$6 adults (specials/season passes),11am, Saturday, Bank of America City Center, Kennedy Plaza

For a sense of why we hate them so:

But if you wanna see a fish that really flies:

In the interest of moving the words ‘Seacrest’, ‘Clarkson’ and ‘Lite’ at least a little further down the page, and because I have not put up a video in while, I give you the Upper Crust who performed at Jerky’s recently and brought down the house.  I love these guys.

Is anybody listening to the radio this afternoon?  I ask because something kind of nuts just happened on 92 PRO-FM.

Maybe, I don’t know, half an hour ago, just as I was finishing my drive-time singalong with Kelly Clarkson’s “Already Gone”*, the DJ (I think David Jones) came on with a station ID and a plug for the Jones and Heather morning show on Lite 105.  Which is a different station.

Then, abruptly, things went back to normal, sort of, with PRO-FM’s ever-irritating Jessica coming on as though nothing had happened.  Except something clearly had, because the Lady GaGa track in the background then cut off abruptly and all of a sudden there was an oddly-timed Ryan Seacrest ad for whatever dude of New Moon is going to be on American Top 40 this week.

I know things are tough for parent company Citadel these days, but you think they’d be able to at least maintain the illusion that different stations are programmed and operated by different people.

(*It’s a really good song.  Shut up.)

Hosts David Higgins and Nicole LeDuc welcome you to Blood from a Turnip, November style. Enjoy the late night puppet salon that has lasted longer than some marriages.

$5, 10pm, Friday, Perishable Theatre, 95 Empire Street

Saturday — @Firehouse 13, Michelle Lewis (cd release), Blaze Vestibule, Corinne Wahlberg, Lily Kendall @Lupo’s, M-80, Big D and the Kids Table, the Rudeness, Blue Light district @the Blackstone, Steve Smith and the Nakeds @Jerky’s, Ballyhoo, Innocent Uprising, the Stress @AS220, Worth the Weight, Shryne, Indiana Handshake, Ocean Born Muse

Sunday — @URI Edwards Auditorium, Asher Roth, @AS220, Thursday Night Anthem, People of Color, Silent Way, Six Star General @Jerky’s, Passafire, Ila Mawana, Have Nots

Before Local 121, AS220, The Firehouse, AfroSonic, LoveLife, Paint-it-Pink, IndieDance-Party, and the ‘Filthy Rich’ in Olneyville making their “Noise Music”, there was a legendary music scene in Rhode Island. It was known by three words:

Larry’s Larry’s Larry’s…

First in a series: I call this ‘Stephen and Chris install a new lamppost in Wayland Square’.

There is no question that Roger Williams National Memorial is a well taken care of, beautifully manicured, urban greenspace in the center of the vibrant city of Providence. Ask most users of the park, however, who manages the site and what its significance is and only a few will be able to answer “National Park Service and the first settlement in America based on freedom of religion and liberty of conscience”. With your help, we have an opportunity to develop a guiding document for the site that outlines strategies to increase visibility and awareness for this landscape and celebrates the basic freedoms outlined in our country’s constitution.

The final draft of the Cultural Landscape Report can be found on our park website at
http://www.nps.gov/rowi/parkmgmt/publicinvolvement.htm

We also have a limited number of hard copies of the draft report available at the park visitor center located at 282 North Main Street.

We welcome your written comments either by email to me or by mail the address below by December 11, 2009. We are also holding a public meeting Wednesday, December 9, 2009, 4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. at the Old State House (entrance on 150 Benefit Street) to allow you the opportunity to share your comments and ideas with park staff, the project team, and other interested parties. Please join us!

This is your opportunity to help us think boldly and broadly about the landscape and its interpretation. Please take some time to read through the report and send us your thoughts or, better yet, come out on December 9th to share them with everyone. We welcome and appreciate all of your ideas! Thanks, Jen Gonsalves, Site Manager

Recently reunited trio Scarce have been playing here and there for the last year-and-a-half or so, and tomorrow night they’re going to be at Jerky’s.  As part of the wave of Boston-area alternative bands to get major record deals in the mid-nineties, things looked really promising for Scarce until fate intervened; shortly before the release of their album Deadsexy, singer Chick Graning suffered an amnesia-inducing brain hemorrhage that caused him to forget all the words and guitar parts to all of his songs.

The group waited for him to recover, then re-recorded the album, but that time the fickle people at A&M had lost interest and the band broke up shortly after.  It’s really unfortunate, because Deadsexy is one of the best albums of that era.

Scarce w/Backwash
Thursday
Doors at 8
$10