PROVIDENCE

Review: Whiteout

CSI: Antarctica?
The title of this thriller from Dominic Sena ( Swordfish ) is supposed to describe a brutal Antarctic storm, but what's more likely to come to mind is the goop the film's phalanx of writers used to blot out boos-boos while revising the script.

By TOM MEEK | September 16, 2009

Face off

Doubt explores the quicksand of certainty
If you were an ordinary Catholic boy in parochial school, giving nuns as hard a time as you were getting, you probably ended up with the usual stories of ruler-rapped knuckles. If you grew up to be talented playwright John Patrick Shanley, you ended up writing Doubt: A Parable , a fascinating exploration of the quicksand of certainty.

By BILL RODRIGUEZ | September 15, 2009

Moose lodge blitz

Hoopleville
Now, let's go to western Maine

By DAVID KISH | September 16, 2009

Phoenix at X

Hoopleville
Tin Anniversary

By DAVID KISH | September 16, 2009

Lightning dolt

Did Shawne Merriman take his shot at love?
Outstanding story out of San Diego last week, where terrifyingly stone-headed Chargers linebacker Shawne "Lights Out" Merriman was detained by police after similarly dumb-as-crap semi-famous bisexual reality-show skank Tila Tequila accused him of choking and restraining her in his apartment after an argument.

By MATT TAIBBI | September 16, 2009

Off the record?

Ten albums to get . . . while we still have albums
Pity the album. After a half-century of embarrassingly public body issues, our essential rock unit has not entered the new millennium looking very healthy. EPs are way more in vogue, MP3s have intangibility on their side, and 12-inches just sound impressive.

By MICHAEL BRODEUR | September 14, 2009

Diane Sawyer and the new voice of authority

Anchors away
The sight of Barack Obama in the White House has, rather quickly, taken on the air of the ordinary.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | September 09, 2009

Hacking into pie

Circuitry
John Duksta's latest bit of high-tech wizardry — a machine that would aid in the creation of circuit boards — fell a bit short.

By ABIGAIL CROCKER | September 09, 2009

The plots thicken

9/11 Truthers, Tea Parties, Birthers — conspiracy is in the air. No wonder Hollywood is embracing paranoia.
Eight years after the destruction of the World Trade Center — the result of one of the most devastatingly successful conspiracies in history — Americans still take comfort in paranoia.

By PETER KEOUGH | September 11, 2009

Merchants of death

Wall Street's latest bad idea. Plus, where the health debate will likely go.
Wall Street has found a new way to make a buck: buy up the life-insurance policies of the sick and the aged at a fraction of their cost, bundle them into bonds that will be sold to investors, and profit from them when the policy holders die sooner rather than later.

By EDITORIAL | September 09, 2009

Wall Street's death wish

Investing in mortality; plus, getting it right, and wireless, in West Virginia
If you read the front page of the September 6 New York Times , P+J hope you are either dumbfounded, appalled, frightened, or so pissed off that you went and got the Uzi from the attic and looked for the Amtrak schedule for the Northeast Corridor trains running to New York City and Washington, DC. At least it shows you are paying attention.

By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | September 09, 2009

Bear Arms

Hoopleville
Animal morgue

By DAVID KISH | September 09, 2009

Review: Polvo | In Prism

Merge (2009)
All a-bubble over my first listen to In Prism , I took to the Internet, where I learned that the album "is required listening for any bands still using guitars."

By MICHAEL BRODEUR | September 09, 2009

Embracing humanness

Stevie Jay's Life is a work in progress
Don't go listen to Stevie Jay if you want demure talk about sex, less than X-rated language about relationships, or polite, unemotional monologues about anything else he cares to tell you about.

By BILL RODRIGUEZ | September 08, 2009

Game Review: The Beatles: Rock Band

Don't meet the Beatles — be them
Can we agree that the music-game market is saturated? To stand out in this crowd, you'd need something special. You'd need the Beatles.

By MITCH KRPATA | September 09, 2009

Review: Gamer

It's a bit tough to swallow
This film from Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor features two fictional games: Society and Slayers , and both involve the mind control of volunteers by gamers who pay to play.

By MADDY MYERS | September 09, 2009

Review: California Smile | Roof Came Off House

California Smile's magnificent controlled chaos
"There isn't any presupposed concept to our music," says California Smile keyboardist/piano man Victor Mansella while promoting the band's upcoming sophomore release Roof Came Off House (Limbus Infantus). "The music is intended to take the listener on his or her own adventure."

By CHRIS CONTI | September 08, 2009

The Big Hurt: Don't look back in anger

The best of times with the worst of bands
"You don't know what you've got till it's gone," Janet Jackson once famously sampled, and how true it is. Only now that Noel Gallagher has left in a firestorm of brotherly acrimony can I truly take stock of my feelings toward Oasis.

By DAVID THORPE | September 08, 2009

Better all the time

Get these Beatles reissues into your life
In 2006, Apple/EMI released the Beatles-soundtracked Cirque du Soleil companion piece Love , which mashed together songs from the band's repertoire in stunning remastered sound.

By ZETH LUNDY | September 08, 2009

Allegorical expressions

Lydia Stein's “Love Songs, Hobos & Other Spirits”
Horses break loose from carnival carousels and run free, a horse-headed naked woman cuddles a rabbit as blue birds circle, and an escaped carousel horse visits the grave of a flower in Providence artist Lydia Stein's exhibit "Love Songs, Hobos & Other Spirits" at AS220's Project Space.

By GREG COOK | September 09, 2009